#the onboarding process takes a while tho

[tariah23]

Whaaa my other job got back to me (the temp ageny)!!! Some 3rd shifts but it’s fine. I miss working with the agency since we get paid weekly and it’s 20 and hr for easy work 😭!!! Yippie!!!

[phoward89]

Jealous!Coryo x Reader, Odair!Ancestor x Reader.

Series Masterlist

WARNING ⚠️ Coriolanus Snow is a warning in and of itself. That man is a walking blood red flag waving heavily in the wind! engagement (not reader), smut, infidelity, love triangle, manipulation, stalking?, gaslighting, fluff, Head Gamemaker!Coryo, District 4 Cruise Ship Heir!Odair OC. Dark!Coriolanus, Jealous!Coriolanus, Dom!Coriolanus

This chapter has quite a few flashbacks in it since Coryo's going to be reflecting on his relationship with the reader. It's also a really long chapter.

Chapter 5:

When you suddenly quit your job, your boss was shocked. They had no idea that you’re seeking employment elsewhere or are currently unhappy being a part of the Odair Luxury Cruises marketing family. They even pleaded with you to stay; offered to talk to their superior to see if you could be given a raise.

You turned them down.

They can't get you the same amount of money that Coriolanus can. Plus, you don't need to worry about an office romance ruining your ability to work.

You know that Odysseus assumes that you're listening to him; taking a few personal health days, even tho you're not. You wonder if he'll find out that you quit your job at his father's company or if VPs don't find out that kind of information.

“You almost done with that application, darling?” Coriolanus asked as the two of you sat in his home office. He's lounging on his leather office sofa, clad in a low rise pair of sweatpants and a tight tank, with a coffee cup dangling in his hand. His icy blue eyes are glued to you as you sit at his mahogany desk, filling out your official application for your new job.

You already had the job, but you needed to submit an application so that he could approve it and get your onboarding process started.

“Almost, Coriolanus.” You answered while scrolling thru dates to find your birthday.

“You called me Coryo all night and now we're back to this Coriolanus shit? Even after I gave you a job that I view as a very detrimental one?” He asked incredulously while sipping on his coffee. His brows were knit, in fact he was angry with the desk for blocking the view of your legs. You're wearing one of his shirts, which falls mid-thigh on you due to his height, and in his opinion it showed off your legs perfectly.

“Last night was a fluke. A one time thing for old time's sake.” You told your ex while finishing up the application and hitting send. “Besides, you've got Livia to fuck now.” You rolled the chair slightly away from the desk and stood up. “Oh, you can go approve the application now.”

“I'm not fucking Livia.” Coriolanus was quick to tell you while placing his coffee mug on the coffee table. “And I'm not moving her in with me, so stop trying to push me onto her as a way to avoid things between us.” He added, getting up from the sofa.

“There’s nothing between us, Coriolanus.” You tell him, crossing the room to the sofa.

“That's bullshit and you know it, darling.” Coriolanus spat, striding over and meeting you halfway between the leather sofa and his desk. Taking your upper arms in his large hands, he told you with such conviction, “We have so much between us. So many years and fondness between us that it's foolish of you to act like we're mere ships passing in the night when we're so much more than that.”

Patting him in the middle of the chest, you stated, “That charm of yours paired with your elegant words should give you a leg up on your opponents.” But with his silver tongue why was he at the bottom of the race? That irked you. So much so, that you told him, “I'll just have to go shift thru polls and surveys to see what the exact problem is; why you're so low ranking.”

Coriolanus' baby blues searched your eyes studiously, as if he was trying to find the solution to a riddle. Slightly shaking his head, causing his unkempt platinum curls to rustle around, he asked, moreso to himself then to you, “Why're you acting like this towards me? I thought that you love me?”

“Acting like what, Coriolanus? Like your assistant, your PR liaison, your campaign manager?” You sarcastically asked, only to sassily inform him of the simple fact that: “I’m getting a headstart on my job, Head Gamemaker Snow.” Looking over his shoulder instead of in his overwhelming beautiful baby blue eyes, you mustered up every ounce of dishonesty that you could dig out of your sweet soul and told the self preserving lie of, “Loved you, as in the past, Coriolanus. I've moved on and discovered that you're not the type of man to love or deserve it; that I just confused care and a long-term friendship as something more.”

Coriolanus tilted his head, brow raised, as he tightly smiled to mask his disappointment in your dishonesty. “My darling rose, I thought we’d never lie to each other.” His baritone was like a sharp drawn bow string, ready to snap.

The curly haired platinum blonde's call out on your lie shook you to your core. How the hell does he know you're lying? Is he that pompous, conceited, self-centered, and arrogant, or was he truly in tune with your thoughts and feelings?

Deciding that you needed to get away from the imposing golden angelic devil of a man before you cracked, you excused yourself with, “I'll let you get on with reviewing my application and beginning the hiring process. I need to get home and relax.”

“I’ll call both the salon and spa you're a regular at; let them know to expect you later today and to just send me the bill.” Coriolanus told you as you made your way to the door of his office.

Looking over your shoulder, you thanked him with, “Thank you, Coriolanus. I’ll pay you back when I can.”

“No need.” Coriolanus waved his hand dismissively. With a thin lipped smile, he gestured towards the door and told you, “Just go relax and get dolled up to be my right-hand girl.”

You nodded, a silent show of understanding, before opening the study door and walking out of the room; leaving the regal blonde all alone to process your application.

Coriolanus Snow was not a man that was easily impressed, but your resume impressed him. It truly did. He knew that you'd be the perfect fit for running his campaign, being his PR spokesperson, and his assistant. But seeing your academic and career achievements in black and white just proved he was right.

And his benefactor Strabo Plinth told Coriolanus to either keep you holed up in a nice, but remote part of the luxury district (District 1) in one of the Capitol owned and operated spa/lodges as his mistress; he could visit from time to time, or to just toss you to the curb. Mr. Plinth felt that you had no value to Coriolanus' politician ambitions, unlike Livia Cardew, since you couldn't offer him anything *cough* money and status *cough*.

But despite Strabo Plinth's advice, Coriolanus didn't do either. Instead, after shoving his way into your life again after missing out on a month of it, he made you the most powerful person in his Senate campaign. He didn't even bother looking at the list of potential political advisors and campaign managers that Strabo had sent him.

No.

He chose you because he trusts you; knows that you'll help him win because you understand how important winning the Senate seat is to him. You've known each other since the days you were huddled together in the basement, waiting for the bombs to pass, as small children. You grew up alongside him as his best friend, his first crush- and daresay his first love?

You know that Coriolanus’ dream ever since you were little was to become the President of Panem. So, he knows that you'll do everything possible in your power to help him achieve that goal. First step is helping him become Senator Snow.

Coriolanus can't help, but to have memories of the two of you dancing around his head. Memories that make his engagement to Livia Cardew taste like bitter ash in his mouth.

You & Coriolanus age 7:

The war was still raging on. It's in its second year and things are getting worse instead of better. Capitol City, Panem, was under siege. It's a war zone with crumbling buildings due to bombs, the stench of death due to a variety of reasons, sickness and disease, and hunger.

Widespread hunger due to the Capitol being cut off from any and all supply chains.

But, despite this, all the school age children were still being shuffled off to the Academy (where the elite went) or charter schools to learn. Even tho the country’s at war and the District Rebels are trying to starve out the Capitol the children must still be properly educated.

Capitolite children are the future of Panem; President Ravenstill believes that they must be highly educated. Or at least that's the advice that's he's given by the Head of the War Department, one Dr. Volumnia Gaul.

One morning you're heading to school with your best friend, Coryo, and his cousin, Tigress. They're both blondes, but Coryo's 7 like you while Tigris is 10 or maybe 11- you forgot. But all 3 of you attend the Academy. Your older brother, Rein, attends the Academy too. In fact he's walking with Tigris behind you and Coryo, keeping an eye out on you two.

Coryo's holding your hand as the two of you navigate the rubble on the sidewalks. Sometimes it's so bad that you're forced to walk in the middle of the street. But streets aren't busy with traffic and cars like before the war- no, now cars are sitting idle because there's no more fuel to power them due to shortages from the siege.

Everything seems like a normal morning, or at least as normal as one can be while in the middle of a warzone, when suddenly the loud sound of sirens went off.

An air raid warning.

Bomber hovercrafts have been spotted; they are headed straight towards the Capitol.

Quickly, everyone ran to the nearest bomb shelter, being basements in buildings throughout the city. Your little ragtag group was no different.

Coryo held your hand tightly while running towards the building a few other people were going into. Rein and Tigris are quick on your tail. Coryo's long legs made him speedy and if his hand wasn't holding yours with a death grip then you'd be left behind.

But he'll never do that to you. No, he'll never leave you. That little boy with the light golden curls loves you; you're his best friend and he's determined to keep you safe. Which is why he's running and dragging you along to the nearest basement bomb shelter to ride out the incoming air raid that'll start any minute now.

Looking up into the sky, you cry, “Coryo, look the bombs are coming!”, as the bomber hovercrafts are in sight.

“Run, Y/N, the shelter’s up ahead!” Coryo screams back at you while making a mad dash to the shelter.

“Go into the shelter, now!” Your brother, Rein, orders in a loud shout. He and Tigris are right behind you and Coryo.

Coryo pushes open a side door to a building and runs downstairs, never letting go of your hand. Rein quickly pushes Tigris forward, thru the door before entering himself. And while your bestfriend leads you into the basement, where other Capitolites are hunkered down, the ground begins to shake and loud booms echo into the air.

It's the bombs.

You, Coryo, Tigris, and Rein made it inside of the shelter just in time.

But the force of the bombing makes walking down the basement stairs hard. Coryo never lets go of your hand, no even when you reach the basement. In fact, he sits huddled with you against the wall.

“We’re safe, Y/N. I got us here; I'll always keep you safe too because you're my best friend.” The boy with the light blonde curls and crystal clear blue eyes tells you while holding onto you for dear life.

Tigris is sitting next to Coryo while Rein's next to you. But your brother's not paying you and mind. No, instead he's talking to some girl next to him. Maybe he knows her from school?

But Coryo's hugging you close, determined to keep you safe and make you feel less afraid despite the fact that he too is scared of the bombs; of the unknown this war's bringing about.

You & Coriolanus Age 13:

The war’s been over for 5 years now, but the Capitol's still a heap of rubble. Sadly, the Districts are in worse shape. That's saying a lot about how destructive the war has been.

But buildings crumbling down and crops burning up wasn't the only damage left by the war. Your family was left damaged by the death of your father, Colonel Javanis Halvir, 5 years ago. He died in the woods right outside of 12, killed by rebels. Your dad died alongside his comrade, General Crassus Snow- Coriolanus’ father.

So, you both lost your father's; the main breadwinners of your families. While Coriolanus was orphaned and left with his Grandma’am and cousin, you had your mother and older brother. But, honestly, your families had similar dynamics.

If it wasn't for the neighbor, Pluribus Bell, then both the Snow and the Halvir families would've starved to death. The former nightclub owner was a part of the black market; would often help both Coryo's and your family with acquiring much needed items or a case of lima beans.

Currently, you're sitting with Coryo in his Grandma’am's rooftop garden on a late Saturday afternoon in May.

During the war Grandma'am Snow started growing cabbages to feed her family; she shared them with yours because your father, Colonel Javanis Halvir, was serving under her son, General Crassus Snow, in District 12 where her son was the Commander. Even now, 5 years after the war, cabbages are still being grown and shared by the Snows. Something that you're grateful for even if you're tired of eating cabbage a thousand ways.

According to Coryo his Grandma'am always had the garden. Ever since he could remember, she's been growing roses on the rooftop. He even shared with her that his mom used to spend a lot of time in the garden with him, singing to him and tending to the Grandma’am's roses.

You envy your best friend for having small memories of his mother. You wish that you could remember your dad, but no matter how hard you try, you can't. Everything comes in little bits and pieces, just broken fragments.

Anyways…

Grandma'am Snow grows roses in every color imaginable. The flowers are truly beautiful. Breathtakingly so.

Coryo is as much of a botanist as Grandma'am. You told him as much after he explained everything he knew about pruning, planting, and caring for the delicate flowers.

“When I become President I'm going to create such beautiful rose gardens that the gardens of the Presidential Palace will be the envy of everyone in Panem let alone the Capitol.” The blonde boy, whose platinum curls fell around his head like a messy halo, smiles as he daydreams of the future.

“Are you going to tend the gardens? As President wouldn't you be too busy to prune roses?” You ask, curious to what Coryo's answer would be.

Your best friend always has the ‘perfect’ answer for everything. His words are always so charming; sounding so right.

“Well, then I'll just have to teach you how to care for the roses. As my First Lady you'll be able to tend to the gardens when I'm too busy to do so.”

He's been telling you for the last 4 years that he's going to make you his First Lady. You know it's impossible; that a best friend can't become First Lady. The First Lady's always married to the President. But after arguing over it a few times, you just ignore him when he talks about you being his First Lady; helping him in the Presidential Palace.

“So would I be your gardener or the First Lady, Coryo? Considering I’d be tending to every rose garden on the Presidential Palace grounds.”

Knocking his shoulder into yours, Coryo give you a lopsided grin. “We'll hire gardeners; you'll be my First Lady. Botany will be our hobby outside of politics.”

“If you say so.” You lightly laugh, shaking your head.

“I know so.” Your best friend firmly states. Rising and holding his hand out for you to take, so he can pull you up off the stone bench you're sitting on, Coryo says, “Come on, you can help me with Grandma'am’s roses.”

You and Coriolanus Age 18 (a month before the games):

It’s dark in Coryo's bedroom, the only light being from the moon. It softly shines thru the window, but it's not bright enough to illuminate the room. No, the room’s too big for that.

But you're used to the darkness of Coryo's room. You spent a few nights a week with him; been doing so ever since the two of you started messing around 3 years ago. At first you tried to sneak back downstairs to your own apartment, on the 8th floor, but the platinum blonde with the soft halo of curls and bright blue eyes would always stop you- he always insisted that you just stay with him.

After a few times of trying and failing to leave, you decided to just stop your feeble, useless attempts to leave. To just stay the night with Coryo, snuggled with him in bed.

You're literally laying on top of Coryo, since his bed’s a twin that barely fits him, and his arms are wrapped around you. You're resting your head on his chest, absentmindedly tracing shapes on his it with your index finger.

“When I win the Plinth Prize next month I'll make sure that you have every luxury you deserve, darling.” Coryo promised, ghosting his fingertips up and down your spine.

“No, Coryo.” You shook your head. His family needed the money, not you. “You need to use that money to pay for University and to fix up your penthouse; you can't use it on me.”

“I'm going to do those things, but I’m also going to take care of you too. I promised to do so when we were children and I've never broken my word.”

“You also promised to protect me. Make me your First Lady too.” You dryly remind him of long ago childish promises. Promises that you don't expect him to keep.

But secretly you hope he keeps the promises he made because within these last 3 years you've been messing around with Coryo you've started to develop deep feelings for him. Feelings you hope he reciprocates, but are to afraid to ask about.

“I'll always protect you, darling.” He assured you. “And you're going to be my First Lady. Just you wait and see.”

“There's only one way for me to become your First Lady…” You mutter under your breath.

“Trust me, everything's going to work out.” He sweetly says while tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. Softly stroking your cheek with his knuckles, he declares with such vigor and confidence, “In a few short weeks I'll win the Plinth Prize, we'll be able to attend the best damn University in Panem and then we'll become President Snow and the First Lady Y/N.”

You and Coriolanus 18 almost 19 (Day Coryo returns to the Capitol from District 12)

You knew that Coryo had left PK Base D-12 because your brother, Rein, told you when he called the other day. He said that ‘Snow’s been accepted to some Elite Officer's program, so he's gone. Also, your friend Plinth died- hanged as a traitor.’ before asking you about how you're doing. You told Rein that you're fine. You didn't tell him how you're trying to find a job in order to pay the portion of the University tuition fee that's due before the semester starts.

Your older brother’s a peacekeeper, an officer in District 12, and has a girlfriend. You can't let.him know about the struggles you and your mother are going thru. Not when he's found someone; is considering starting a life with them too. You know full well that your brother will send his entire paycheck, even take out a Capitol United Bank loan to cover your University expenses if you tell him the truth. And you can't have that.

You wonder what base Coryo was transferred to for his Elite Officer's training. You also wonder what branch he'll be picking to serve in: Air Force or Navy. You know that you can't send him a letter until you get one first, but that doesn't stop you from beginning to write to him.

You and Coryo exchange countless letters. And he tells you that he misses the Capitol, his family, and most of all you in every single one. A part of you melts at his words, but another part of you can't help, but feel that maybe he's just saying what you want to hear. You're not stupid, you're almost positive that he must've used what little money he had to bribe his way into service in District 12 because that's where she is.

His songbird; his victor.

Lucy Gray Baird.

You knew when you saw Coryo stand up and lurch forward at the Reaping Ceremony in Heavensbee Hall once the beautiful girl with big soulful brown eyes, soft raven waves, and a rainbow dress full of frills, that your best friend and sometimes lover was a goner. That he was enchanted by her, that he was going to fall in love with her.

And that instantly broke your heart. You love him and it hurt knowing that your Coryo was no longer yours, but would end up belonging to somebody else.

Someone more beautiful than you.

And when you heard Lucy Gray Baird sing, well, you couldn't fault him for falling in love with her. No, not when you knew singing was something that soothed his soul; reminded him of his mother.

You never sang around him and he never asked you too. You took music as an elective, but he didn't, so he didn't know that you could carry a tune. He never asked; you never told.

And you'll be keeping that a secret until you die now. No need to ever let him know that you like music, can sing decently.

No, not when he's enchanted by a songbird. Not when he's falling for her after just seeing her sing on tv.

You can't help, but wonder if Coryo took his songbird to wherever he was transferred too for his Elite Officer's training. You know for a fact that officers are allowed to have women. They can live with a girlfriend, fiance, or wife. It's a reward for their values service to the Capitol.

Just the thought of Coryo living with Lucy Gray breaks your heart. If he's with her, he won't have any time to write you, will he?

No.

Probably not.

Your mother's out on a ‘date’ tonight, so you're home alone. You're sitting on the sofa, writing to Coryo when a loud knock sounds at your door. Curiously, you rise and go over to the door. And when you answer it, you find yourself standing right in front of Coryo.

He's in his dress uniform, just staring at you as if he blinks you'll disappear. Before you can even ask him how it's possible that he's standing in your doorway, he places his hands on either side of your face and hungrily kisses you. Taking your breath away.

You wrap your arms around his neck, kissing him back. The kiss is all teeth clashing and frantic lips smashing together. You're both desperate for the other.

When he pulls away, letting you two catch your breaths, he presses his forehead against yours- causing his grey uniform hat to tip up a bit- and reveals in a near whisper, “I've missed you so much, my darling rose.”

Your heart was beating wildly against your ribcage upon hearing his admission. It made you happy to hear that he misses you. That as soon as he saw you, he had to kiss you.

And all you could say back was, “I missed you too.”

Peering into the apartment behind you, he asked, “You alone?”

“Yes.” You nod.

“Then let's show each other how much we missed one another, shall we?” Coryo suggested, only to sling you over his shoulder and walk inside of your apartment.

After slamming the door shut with his boot, he ran to your room, causing you to giggle and playfully smack his ass. He just chuckled and gave your ass a sharp smack before tossing you on your bed and descending on you like a touch starved man.

Your kisses were heated and sloppy. Clothes were quickly shed and flung all over the room as the two of you kissed and touched each other feverishly on your sorry excuse for a bed.

And then the platinum blonde, whose curls were replaced with a close shaved buzzcut, left a trail of open mouth kisses from your jaw, down your neck, to the valley on your breast, all the way down your stomach before stopping at the apex of your thighs. His icy eyes were smoldering with lust as the pushed your thighs open. He kissed the inside of one and then the other before bringing his face down into your cunt. His nose nuzzled your clit as he licked stripe after stripe along your wet slit. A man thirsty with an unquenchable need for your pussy sweet nectar, Cory messily lapped up your cunt.

Your whines and mewls spurred him on, but he knew that he wouldn't last long (due to a lack of sex since, believe it or not, Lucy Gray was a bit of a tease when it came to fucking him) and he needed to feel your pussy clenching his cock, cumming around him before he loses himself and cums. So, before you can cum, he lifts his head up.

“I need to be inside your cunt, baby. I need to feel you cum around me.” He told you, spreading his precum around his large cock and giving it a few pumps before lining it up at your dripping wet hole.

“I need you inside me too, Coryo. It's been too long.” You tell him, holding onto his shoulders to brace yourself as he slides into you.

It's a big stretch with a slight burn, since you haven't been fucked all summer, but the slight pain passes and you feel nothing, but the pleasure of being full to the hilt as Coryo bottoms out.

“Fuck, babygirl, your cunt's so tight; feels so good around my cock.” Coryo groans, resting his head against yours as he gives you a moment to adjust to his 8 inches that's buried so deep inside of you that the outline of his cock is seen in your lower stomach.

“Please, Coryo. Move, fuck me.” You beg, your voice a high pitched whine, as you tilts your hips upwards towards his in an attempt to get him moving.

Coryo lifted his head up and leaned back on his haunches, only to pull his cock nearly all the way out only to quickly slam it back inside of your neglected, hungry, drooling pussy. He repeated his actions over and over again until you're a babbling, cockdrunk mess.

And him, well, he's pussydrunk and talking dirty. Oh God, he's saying the most absolute filthy things and it's going straight to your core. Making your eyelashes flutter and your eyes roll into the back of your head.

“I'm gonna fuck this cunt til you're begging mercy, til you pass out tonight from being over fucked.”

The sounds of skin slappy skin loudly and lewdly echoed throughout your bedroom.

“Fuck…I forgot how tight and perfect your pussy feels ‘round my cock.” Coryo groans, his head thrown back in pleasure as he pounds your pussy. “Your cunt's my cunt. I own this cunt, it's mine.” He told you with a possessive edge in his baritone. “Say it. Say your cunt’s mine. Mine!” He loudly orders, gritting his teeth as he feels you begin to clench around his cock.

Your head's spinning and your feeling the damn of pleasure beginning to burst as you babble out in a whine, “My cunt's yours, Coryo. All yours.”

His dogtags are jiggling against the hollow of your neck with every fast thrust your best friend makes. You're about to cum and don't even think as you grab the dogtags and yank on them, pulling Coryo flush against you. His mouth his mere inches against yours as you cry out, “I'm gonna cum, Coryo.”

“Cum right now, for me. Cum right now like my good girl, my good little slut.” Coryo demanded as he began to slam into your cunt even harder.

You don't know if it's his words or his fast movements, but suddenly your cumming and he's swallowing up your moans with eager, desperate kisses.

And when you're down riding out the wave of your orgasm, Coryo pulls his lips from his and tells you in a deep, lustful tone, “I’m gonna fuck you full of my babies. I'm gonna cum so hard in you; knock you up and baby trap you with me, darling.” A smirk crosses his face as he cum heavy balls smacked hard against your pussy. “You want that, huh? For me to knock ya up, tie your slutty ass to me forever.” His lips nibbled under your jawline as he declared, “You're gonna look so beautiful full and round of my child.”

“Yea.” You simply say. You honestly couldn't say anything else. Your brain’s been fucked to mush right now.

Coryo buries his neck into the crook of your neck as he slams hard and harder into you. His fingers are digging into your hips with a bruising; possessive force. And it only took a few more moments before his thrusts grew ragged and sloppy. One, two, three more thrusts and he was moaning your name like a prayer while shooting thick, hot ropes of cum deep inside of your cunt.

A cunt that he claimed was his.

He collapsed on top of you, panting wildly as he deeply inhaled your scent. Oh, how Coryo missed the way you smelled. It was always pleasant, like spring flowers.

And, honestly, you missed the way that he smelled. Even being thousands of miles away in 12 did nothing to dapper his scent of roses. You concluded that it must be his cologne.

Coryo felt the need to cockwarm you after being away from the warmth of your pussy for so long and you let him. He rested his head against your chest and you just scratch his scalp with your nails. You're both content.

“Y/N, baby.” Coryo said, as a way to gain your undivided attention.

“Yea, Coryo.” You reply, letting him know that you're listening.

“I was supposed to go to District 2 for an Elite Officer's training program, but instead I was sent here, to the Capitol, to have a meeting with Dr. Gaul. She said that my brilliant mind and talents would be a waste in the Peacekeepers, so she arranged for me to be honorably discharged by President Ravenstill. She also told me that Strabo Plinth's going to pay for my University tuition as a thank you for being best friend with Sejanus.” Was the lengthy explanation to his return that Coryo gave you.

An explanation that was a bit much to digest. But you digested it, nevertheless.

“That's good, Coryo. I'm happy for you.” You say, feeling both happy and sad at the same time. Oh, yes, you're happy that Coryo's getting the chance to follow his dreams, but sad because you're not sure that you can follow yours. That you'll be attending University soon with him.

“I'm meeting with Strabo tomorrow; I'll tell him to pay for your tuition too.”

WHAT?! HES WHAT!? WHAT THE HELL?!...

“Coryo, you don't have to do that. I'll figure something out.” You told him, letting him know that you didn't need him trying to get one of the richest men in the city to pity you.

“Of course I have to do it, darling. I promised to take care of you and to pay your tuition; I intend to keep that promise.”

“You also promised to make me your First Lady.” You mumble under your breath.

Playfulling nibbling your neck, the platinum blonde told you, “I heard that, baby.” Lifting his head, he locked his icy blues eyes onto yours and swore in a firm, unmoving tone, “And you'll be my First Lady. I promise, Y/N.”

You & Coriolanus Age 20:

Something happened during his time away in 12 that changed Coryo. He's always been a stoic, studious man, but now there was something different about him. Your best friend seemed colder now. As if he locked a piece of his soul up in a chest, just like Davey Jones has his heart locked up in a chest.

Dead Man's Chest.

Other than the night you spent when he first came home, Coryo never showed you affection anymore. Yes, he touched you and held you, etc, but there didn't seem to be much warmth in his actions. There wasn't any love in it. Or at least to you it didn't feel like there was any love and affection behind his touches.

But, he does walk you to your various classes at the University and drags you to lunch with the group of ‘it’ kids. The heirs to Panem's riches, the people that he needs to run elbows with to get ahead in life.

You know how to act around rich kids. You've been playing chameleon for so many years now around these snotty assholes that you know what to and what not to say. What silverware to use, how to daintily sip on your water glass, and how to cut your food into small pieces to take small, precise bites to make you look like a proper Capitolite young lady.

One afternoon Coryo wasn't waiting for you outside of your class, so you figured that he wasn't showing and decided to head towards the courtyard. Hey, if he's not here then you might as well just go sit in the early spring sun that's begun to melt the snow.

Coryo's the only reason you eat lunch in the mess hall. If you don't have to be around Festus Creed, Persephone Price, Livia Cardew, Clemensia Dovecote, and Hilarious Heavensbee, then you're not going to be around them. Well, you have nothing against Clemmie or Hilarious, it's the first three jackasses that you can't stand.

And the fact that Coryo's ‘beat friends’ with Festus now makes your skin crawl. Only God knows what those two are getting up to when they're hanging out. Probably getting shit faced at the club and fucking high priced hookers in excluse VIP rooms or something.

But it's not like you have a say so in the matter. You and Coryo are- well, you hook up and he keeps you hanging on to false hopes that he's going to make you his permanent girl; make the two of you public and exclusive.

You should really wash your hands of him and move on. Perhaps listen to your mother and take up one of the offers of marriage you've been approached with by some rich men. Your mother was very upset that you turned down General Prometheus Byzantine when he came by for dinner last night with a marriage brokerage proposal.

General Byzantine said that his friend, Mr. Strabo Plinth, had told him that you're a lovely and intelligent girl who's of age. That despite being raised in the Capitol, you were born in District 12 in PK Base D-12’s Hospital; that you're half-Capitolite and half-District, but would make him a lovely wife. Especially when he's needed on PK Base D-2 to inspect how the current Commander's doing their job. Plus, he also said how he wanted a young wife that would be able to keep up with his young son, who was nearly 5.

You turned him down in 2.5 seconds flat. General Byzantine swore up and down that I'd be sorry for turning him down. That Strabo would hear about your refusal; that one day he'd have you.

Your mother was so distraught that you threw away such a great opportunity all because you have some sentimental feeling for the Snow boy. Your mother hates Coryo, so you're not surprised she blames him for you turning down the general.

Honestly, maybe she's right. Maybe you won't let yourself fancy the idea of settling down with anyone because you're holding out for him. Waiting for him to keep a silly promise he made to you.

You're in an alcove, almost to the courtyard, whenever the sound of running paired with a shout of, “Y/N, wait!”, loudly echoes in the air. Stopping and turning around, you see Coryo rushing towards you. “I'm sorry I wasn't there to get you, darling. My professor went over his lecture time; I was stuck listening to him answer questions asked by the most idiotic pupils I've ever had the displeasure of sharing a class with.” The platinum blonde, who now wears his curls styled in a slick back hairdo, explained as he reached your side.

“That's okay.” You smile, but it doesn't quite reach your eyes. “I figured you got tied up and decided to just go sit in the courtyard.”

“I know, that's why I ran all the way here to find you.”

“What? You knew I'd be in the courtyard and not the mess hall?” You asked in disbelief.

“I know you like the back of my hand” He nonchalantly shrugs. Taking your hand in his, he suggests, “Why don't we go sit in the courtyard and while we're basking in the sun on this fine spring day you can tell me all about the dress my cousin's making you for the upcoming Spring Ball.”

“Okay.” You nod, only to hold Coryo's hand and let him lead you to the courtyard. All the while gushing about the dress.

The dress that Tigris helped you come up with is light pink with white roses embroidered all over it with a sweetheart neckline and an A-line skirt. Tigris says that she'll get you white shoes and a white clutch to pair with it.

Upon hearing you tell him the color/pattern of the dress, Coryo feels a sense of pride. He also feels an obsessive sense of possession over you as well.

Giving you a huge, Cheshire cat like grin , the platinum blonde tells you, “I can't wait to see you in it, my darling rose.” His icy eyes twinkle slightly as he adds in, “I'll be sure to wear white and provide us with white roses.”

“You don't have to give me roses, Coryo. Not every girl wears a corsage to balls and galas nowadays you know.”

“Yea, I know, but those girls aren't you. They're not mine, so I'll keep providing you with roses and you'll keep wearing them.”

You and Coryo Age 22:

“Are you excited for graduation, darling.?” Coryo asks as your walking down the Capitol streets, heading back to the Corso after eating dinner at a nearby, but expensive, restaurant. Coryo took you out to celebrate passing your exams. To celebrate that he's the top of the class and that you're his right hand girl in the second spot.

He had told you that Snow lands on top with the winter rose standing tall in the snow. The little joke was silly, but it was a metaphor for how he was always number one and how you were always right by his side as number 2.

“Yes.” You nod, smiling wide. “I'm so excited to get that diploma in my hand and just, I dunno, get started living my life.”

“I understand how you feel, Y/N.” Coryo told you, running his thumb over your knuckles as he holds your hand. “I can't wait to take my place as the Head Gamemaker.”

“Didn't you get offered the position because Dr. Gaul got eaten by her electric eels after falling into their tank?”

“Yes, but she was already implementing all of my ideas; I was working as an Assistant Gamemaker too.” He explained, causing you to just nod and let out a hmm. “Do you want to be an Assistant Gamemaker? I could get you a position and-” Coryo began, only for you to cut him off.

You never heard what he wanted to tell you since you cut him off with your own news of, “I applied for a marketing job at Odair's Luxury Cruises; I got the job so I'll be working there.”

Coryo's eyes narrowed slightly and turned colder than ice. “I see.” He curly said, his nose turned up a bit, as his thumb stopped tracing your knuckles.

Well, if you didn't want to be by his side professionally then so be it. You can work for some cruise line that specializes in island cruises off of 4.

But he'll still have you in his bed. He's not giving up fucking you. Hell no, Coryo's going to fuck you until the day you die.

Fine, you don't need his help with a job, but you'll always need his help to cum. And he knows for a fact that he's ruined you, that you struggle to cum on your own fingers because of how good he fucks you- with his fingers, tongue, and cock.

Something in a store window caught your eye. It was a ring. It was a diamond ring in the shape of a snowflake. You didn't tell Coryo about it, fearing that he'd think you're trying to make him settle down and commit to you.

Coryo saw you eying up the diamond ring in the store window. He found the fact that your eyes locked longingly onto the diamond ring shaped like a snowflake to be endearing. It also gave his already inflated ego a boost.

The next day the platinum blonde went to the store and bought the ring. He had the intention of giving it to you on graduation night, he honestly did, but then Strabo Plinth invited him and his family out to celebrate. And he couldn't say no to the man that made him his heir.

Coriolanus asked you to join them for dinner, but you declined. Said that you were expecting a call from your brother, since he couldn't get leave for your graduation. You told him to go and have a nice time; that you'd see him later.

Ma Plinth gave you a motherly hug full of warmth and told you that she'd be by the next day for tea. You smiled and jokingly told her that she better bring her famous biscochitos. Ma said that she would and told you to make some Earl Grey.

But your goodbyes with Strabo Plinth seemed more tight and rigid than usual. The curt congratulations and the curt thank you, goodbye you two exchanges irked him. And when Coriolanus brought it up to Strabo, well his benefactor just brushed it off by telling him that you must either be tired or that your manners aren't as polished as they seem.

Coryo never knew the real reason behind the curt and cold, but polite interaction between you and Mr. Plinth.

One day, when Coriolanus Snow's running for Senate at age 24 he'll find out and he won't be happy about it either.

Oh, and Coriolanus still has that ring. After not giving it to you after graduation he placed it in his desk drawer. He told himself that he just had to wait until the perfect moment to give it to you.

But the perfect moment never came. Time marched on and before he knew it, he's running for Senate, engaged to a woman he hates, and his being left by the woman he loves cares deeply for.

Coriolanus blinks his eyes, much like a cat does, and runs a hand over his face as soon as his last memory fades. “Fuck…” He lowly mutters out in a mix between a sigh and a groan while hitting the accept hire button option on his computer while viewing your application.

Leaning back in his chair, he runs his hands thru his hair before holding his head in shame. How could he fucking forget his promise to you. He never-

NEVER

EVER-

broke a promise to you, until now. How is he supposed to make you his Fist Lady when he's engaged to Livia and you're insisting that you don't love him anymore?

You're supposed to be by his side; be his First Lady. Livia Cardew, the cattybitch from hell, isn't First Lady material. She's not supposed to be in the Presidential Palace with him. Hell, she'll ruin the place and try to overrun it with her audacious ideas and style.

Coriolanus knows that he can't let her become his First Lady, not when he promised you that position. Hell, he promised to make you his First Lady ever since he was like 8 years old. And he kept promising you that ever since. 

Fuck, when he he stop promising that? Uh, as far as he knows the answer is never.

Goddamnit, no wonder you're so pissed at him about his engagement to Livia. But why didn't you just tell him that he's breaking his promise to make you his First Lady by being engaged to her? It's all the two of you ever dreamed about when growing up poor and destitute; desperately wanting to claw your way out of poverty. Why wouldn't you tell him that he's shattering your dreams of becoming his First Lady by getting into an arrangement with somebody else?

Damnit, he shouldn't have listened to Strabo when he told Coriolanus that a marriage alliance between him and Livia Cardew would provide him with endless money for his campaign; would provide him with a stake in one of the largest banks in the country. He should've listened to his gut and told old man Plinth no. Actually, he should've told Mr. Plinth to shut up and go to hell whenever he suggested that Coriolanus send you to some luxury Capitol run and operated spa lodge in a remote section of District 1 to be kept as his mistress.

Hell…

Now he needs to find a way out of his engagement to fulfill his promise to you. He just has to make you his First Lady. He never breaks his promises to you and never lies to you. You mean too much to him to do so.

Then, a brilliant idea pops into the platinum blonde's cunning mind. If the Cardew family's disgraced then he'll be able to call off the engagement without looking like the bad guy. And the only way to disgrace a banking family is to frame them for bank fraud.

Specifically embezzlement.

***** TAGLIST*****

Tags: @kuroosbby001 @purriteen @poppyflower-22 @meetmeatyourworst @whipwhoops @bxtchopolis @readingthingsonhere @savagenctzen @ryswritingrecord @erikasurfer @tulips2715 @universal-s1ut @thesmutconnoisseur @squidscottjeans @sudek4l @wearemadeofstardust0 @mashiromochi @gracieroxzy @belcalis9503 @shari-berri @aoi-targaryen @whiteoakoak @spear-bearing-bi-witch @gisellesprettylies @loverandqueenofdragons @qoopeeya @mfnqueen1 @permanentlyexhaustedpigeon88 @v-love @swiftieblyth @joyfulyouthlover @harvey-malfoy @tian-monique @chxrrybomb22 @marvel-hiddles-stark @xjinnix @devils-blackrose @zombicupcake3 @dcylight-fciry @jacesvelaryons @tempt-ress

[kuzann]

The Wayward Heart Outlines & Notes

I thought it would be neat to give everyone a look into my writing process! Behind every bit of writing I post is a TON of notes as I basically talk to myself about how the fic is gonna go. Hope y'all find it interesting! ^__^

As you can see there were a lot of changes between outline 1 and what I posted in the end. As well as stuff that didn't make it in due to wordcount limitations. That's my bad for not judging the amount of words this would need accurately tho heh... ^^;

The fic can be found here on Tumblr or on Ao3!

Outline 1

Basic premise is that Vlad is trying to avoid being forcibly paired off with a powerful ghost so he has to pretend that he’s engaged to and dating Jack Fenton. Hilarity ensues. Includes an instance of the One Bed scenario with the added caveat of it being 100% mandatory that they share the bed.

Maddie thinks it’s hilarious when she finds out.

Vlad has fun afoul of a ghost called the Matchmaker who is tired of his fooling around and wants him to settle down already and stop being such a menace to the Ghost Zone. She is going to pair him off with a ghost he’s never met and has heard bad things about, and Vlad is extremely unhappy about this especially when she springs it on him out of nowhere while he’s recovering from a big Ghost Zone scheme that went badly.

Since Vlad is still too weak to fight Matchmaker off and won’t be strong enough to do so for a while yet, he has to think fast and while going over romantic options in his head(he’s wondering if Jack will go along with Vlad fake-dating Maddie for a few days) the Matchmaker suddenly says “Jack Fenton?” and convinces him that he mumbled the name aloud and Vlad has to think fast when she presses him on it. Vlad is forced to tell Matchmaker that he is in fact in love with Jack Fenton but human world culture stuff is getting in the way.

Matchmaker listens with polite interest, then tells Vlad to bring this Jack Fenton over so she can measure their compatibility as partners, adding that human cultural politics aren’t much of a concern to her so it would be fine as long as they make a good match. She waits at his mansion and Vlad hightails it over to FentonWorks to try to get things sorted out; he’s hoping to get Maddie to come along too because he’s convinced that he’ll match better with her than with Jack and that Matchmaker will reveal this.

Vlad gets to FentonWorks and begs Jack and Maddie for help. Jack is onboard with saving his buddy and Maddie is surprisingly open to the ruse, saying that this is a good opportunity to help the two see eye to eye, and that it could be a nice humbling experience for Vlad. Maddie’s views on the matter don’t make Vlad happy but he’s glad for the help regardless. Another reason to keep the other match from being made is the fact that this ghost will gain a great deal of power through Vlad and the last thing anyone wants is a maniacal ghost to get access to Vlad’s resources.

Danny thinks the whole situation is pretty funny but does warn Vlad that if he ruins his parents’ marriage he might have to actually kill him. For once Vlad is not fixating on that and promises Danny that he has no intention of ruining things between Jack and Maddie. Right now he is completely focused on saving his own skin.

They go back over to Vlad’s mansion where Matchmaker is still waiting. They don’t simply blast her because she’s used her powers to take Vlad’s actual heart from him to make sure he follows through and they don’t know if he’ll survive if they beat her to the point that her powers stop working.

Matchmaker performs the assessment and finds that Jack and Vlad are indeed compatible. Maddie asks that she and Jack be assessed as well out of curiosity, and it is found that she and Jack are even more compatible; a further curiosity test between Vlad and Maddie shows little compatibility between the two which makes Vlad pretty sad. (The test takes the souls of the two parties into account, and it is notable that because souls are changeable, so is the compatibility. It also uses some arcane technique to determine how much the match would benefit both parties.)

With the compatibility confirmed Vlad thinks he’s in the clear and can just tell Matchmaker that he’ll date Jack to make her go away(and then not follow through at all), only for Matchmaker to ask that he prove it because she’s wary of him trying to trick her. So she assigns them trials in the form of things that lovey-dovey couples do together, like cooking, sharing a bed, and going on picnics.

After the first trial(cooking, where Jack sets the non-flammable parts of the stove on fire somehow and is banned from using it again) Vlad is starting to have a crisis of goals because he’s starting to realize that he doesn’t hate Jack as much as he thought he did and oh yeah that’s one of the reasons he was keeping contact with Jack as minimal as possible. Especially after the night of sharing the same bed results in the best sleep Vlad has had in a long time.

Actually Vlad’s hatred still remains throughout, he just gets ever more conflicted about it, especially once the two get a chance to actually talk about what happened after the accident twenty years ago. Jack apologizes and admits he was too much of a coward to properly face how he’d hurt Vlad back then, which is why he backed off when Vlad told him to kick rocks directly after the accident happened(in Vlad’s defense he just got like kinda irradiated so he had every right to be really angry) and when the hospital staff rebuffed him a few times, but he wants to help and support Vlad now and promises he won’t let him down again. Admittedly this is the type of apology Vlad has wanted to hear for years—that acknowledgement of the harm that was done is actually pretty important—but Vlad is far from being ready to actually put faith in Jack as a friend at the moment.

With a lot of effort and acting from Vlad(and a surprising amount of actual fondness that causes a lot of inner turmoil for him) they make it through the trials and convince Matchmaker that they are, indeed, a good couple. But before Vlad gets the chance to breathe a sigh of relief, Matchmaker declares that since they’re such a good couple it’s only natural that she have them ghost-marry right now, and only afterward can Vlad have his heart back.

(Note that Vlad’s heart being taken is a contractual affair, so Matchmaker can’t go back on the terms of him getting it back. Actually he gets it back after the trials are over, but since he doesn’t want to draw her ire or be married off to aforementioned tyrant ghost he goes along with the ghost-marriage to Jack.)

Vlad is justifying the marriage to himself by it being a Ghost Zone marriage that the human world will not acknowledge as valid and Maddie will not acknowledge as valid either, and that it’ll keep any further ghostly suitors off his back in the future(and that part of him kinda likes the idea now that he and Jack have actually talked to each other about what happened back in college and some old romantic feelings toward Jack have been revived but he’ll never admit that to himself). Jack is sincerely trying to be there for his friend and keep him safe(and does have romantic feelings too but feels he has to keep them under wraps for his marriage’s sake), though he doesn’t really see a ghost marriage as valid and won’t be actively adhering to it. Maddie has complete faith in her husband’s love for her, doesn’t view the marriage as valid at all, and also she thinks it’s really funny to see Vlad squirm and hopes this will be a humbling experience for him.

They’re about to make their vows when someone says “I object”, and it’s not who you’d expect. The one who objects is Matchmaker who directly calls Vlad out for only going through with this for his own protection, adding that she was sure he wouldn’t be able to take this anymore during the trials because she already knew about his hatred for Jack.

There’s also the matter of certain secrets he’s been keeping from his to-be partner and only gives Vlad enough time to look at her in horror before forcing him into ghost form, revealing his secret identity to Jack and Maddie. Vlad fearfully backs away from Jack, saying “I can explain”, only for Jack to clasp him by the shoulders and say “No need to explain, V-man. We know this is just a trick!”

Jack and Maddie pull their weapons on Matchmaker because why wouldn’t they think she was trying to trick them under these circumstances, so the ghost resorts to incapacitating and kidnapping Vlad instead so she can force him to marry the tyrannical ghost mentioned earlier who had in fact already paid her to hand Vlad over to him as a partner. Vlad is locked in a room made of both Ghost Zone and human world material, which prevents him from phasing out of it in either form. He asks Matchmaker how long she’s been planning this and she tells him that it’s been in the works for a while since she and her associates are sick of his antics in the Ghost Zone and that his recently-failed endeavor was part of the plan so he would be weak enough to control. Having that tyrannical ghost turn his attention on the human world instead of the Ghost Zone will also be a bonus.

Vlad tells Matchmaker that he’ll escape because he’s gotten out of worse situations. Matchmaker says “not this time” and leaves him to mope in his room while she makes preparations. Vlad examines every inch of his prison and finds no immediate means of escape, and has to sit down and try to come up with a way to get out of this.

Before long an explosion rocks the room and there are sounds of a commotion outside and then Jack bursts through the door. Vlad is flabbergasted because he honestly didn’t expect that Jack would come to save him, and so quickly too. Jack tells Vlad that he’ll never abandon him again and leads Vlad down to the main room of the building they’re in. It’s kind of like a dream for Vlad and he’s letting himself get swept up in it until reality comes crashing back in via Matchmaker starting to reveal his crimes to Jack, and under a truth compulsion no less so Vlad can’t lie when Jack asks him to confirm what she’s saying.

Matchmaker accuses Vlad of wanting to murder Jack and take his wife and when Jack asks Vlad if this is true Vlad admits that yes, that used to be true... In a sense. Jack asks why Vlad didn’t just hire a human hitman in the last twenty years and Vlad is forced to admit to himself and Jack that maybe deep down he didn’t actually want Jack dead. It would’ve been quite easy to utilize his human world resources to dispose of Jack, and yet he never did...

Any further admissions are cut off by the other suitor stepping in, having just defeated Phantom and stating that if Jack wants to marry Vlad then they can have a duel over it to prove who is stronger and more worthy. 

This actually gets Vlad pretty scared—to his own surprise—since he’s heard of how powerful this ghost is and there’s a not insignificant chance that this will be a fight Jack does not walk away from. Vlad tells Jack to back down since he doesn’t want him to die, but Jack brushes him off and says he’ll be fine, adding that he promised Vlad that he wouldn’t let him down again, to which Vlad says he’ll forgive it in this case since he doesn’t want Jack to die.

All the while the enemy ghost has been boasting about how powerful he is and how neither of them stand a chance against him, so Vlad uses that against him and successfully baits him into fighting both of them at once, the reasoning for fighting Vlad being meant to prove that the ghost is actually stronger and capable of controlling him. The ghost accepts with all the bravado of someone who fully expects to win, and Vlad shifts to ghost form...

Jack and Vlad share a look, and Vlad says “later?” to which Jack says “later” with a nod and the fight begins.

Vlad is still pretty weak powers-wise at the moment and the fight is pretty hard on him but they’re able to win and even find out that this ghost actually isn’t as all-powerful as he’s been making himself out to be, since his power is based more on resources stolen from others rather than his own remarkability. He even called a bunch of his minions in to help him when he started losing.

This gets Vlad fantastically mad since he was scared of this guy for nothing and proceeds to brutalize him and his loyal minions while Jack cheers him on. Once Vlad has calmed down he flops down on the floor in exhaustion and Jack lays down next to him. Jack says something goofy that gets a laugh out of Vlad and the two have a lighthearted chat.

The rest of Jack’s family walk in on the two just chilling and then they all go home. The ghostly officiator and Matchmaker are there, and in the end Vlad decides to ghost-marry Jack just to no one can spring this crap on him again, not realizing that this will actually have consequences later because he thinks it won’t apply to him or Jack due to their human qualities.

After this are the closing conversations between Vlad and Jack, Vlad and Maddie, and Vlad and Danny. Vlad has to come clean to Jack about his half-ghost status and at least some of the schemes he’s done, he has a decent conversation with Maddie where he promises not to come between her and Jack and adds that he has some stuff to figure out and Maddie mentions that he’s still on thin ice but she feels a little better about Vlad now that he’s on better terms with Jack, and he has a conversation with Danny where he apologizes for what he’s done to Danny and promises he’s not trying to destroy his parents’ marriage anymore.

Outline 1 Notes

Overall

Alright let’s rethink a few things...

I don’t think Matchmaker’s betrayal quite works. Some of the motivations aren’t properly there and it’s sort of unnecessarily malevolent, and forcibly outing Vlad does feel a bit too cruel. Vlad should give Jack that secret himself as a sign of trust and the start of a new phase in their relationship. The big bad would-be suitor can still show up to interrupt the wedding because he heard about the match and felt entitled to Vlad’s hand in marriage.

In fact Matchmaker’s plan all along was to get Vlad to actually talk to his former friend, clear the air, and maybe calm the hell down with the troublemaking as a result. Getting them to actually marry would be a bonus that would make it so ghosts having an issue with one can complain to the other and potentially get some respite, or at least get the troublemaker sidetracked long enough to fix things. And again hopefully get Vlad to calm down. Matchmaker also pushed for the marriage because she thought it would be funny.

Since Matchmaker doesn’t out Vlad in this rendition, him revealing his secret to Jack is more meaningful. When they’re about to duel the suitor Vlad looks at Jack and says “please don’t hurt me”, then he shifts to ghost form. Jack is shocked but he doesn’t hurt Vlad and simply asks “talk later?” to which Vlad agrees “talk later”.

Important that Jack has gotten Vlad to trust him enough to let him know about his secret(for the sake of keeping Jack from being killed). It’s a very meaningful bit of progress for Vlad.

Talking to the Fentons(Beginning)

Danny makes a “what if Vlad just never had a heart” joke when Vlad reveals the fact that Matchmaker took his actual heart and Jack tells him to knock it off and even Maddie doesn’t laugh since she knows that Vlad used to be a better person.

Jack and Maddie of course find this a bit difficult to believe, especially when they check his pulse at his wrist and find it normal. But then he tells them to listen for his heart and they can’t hear it. They’re admittedly very curious about how the ghost was able to do this without killing Vlad outright but there are more important things to attend to right now.

Timeline

This whole thing starts when one of Vlad’s schemes directly impacts Matchmaker and she decides to take a crack at fixing things permanently. She does her research, discovering the one-sided bad blood between Vlad and Jack, sneakily runs a compatibility test and finds that they’re compatible, then concocts her plan to shove them together until they talk about their issues and also take Plasmius down a peg.

Matchmaker kicks things off with a boobytrapped artifact, then spreads rumors about it that she knows will get Vlad’s attention. In fact maybe it’s this artifact that takes Vlad’s heart to begin with when he touches it and since he was caught red handed trying to steal it he has to appease her to get it back. She tells him that if he wants it back then he’ll have to play her game and put some serious thought and effort into finding a partner who will fulfill him enough that he stops these foolish pursuits of his.

The main goal is to get Vlad and Jack on better terms with each other and the ghost-marriage isn’t even necessarily part of that, but Matchmaker pushes for it anyway because she thinks it would be funny and she wants to see if Vlad would actually go that far.

If the artifact did the heart-steal then the “contract” for it was left in plain view, Vlad just didn’t read it because he assumed that he knew everything he needed to know and didn’t need to read any stupid warning. His arrogance bites him in the butt. Again. It’s nothing new with him.

The fulfillment condition of this contract is that Matchmaker succeeds in getting Vlad a worthwhile partner—which will have to be either Jack or that tyrant ghost. Only then will his heart be returned to him. She can also null the contract early and give it back if he’s placated her enough.

Danny’s Pranks

Should Danny try to sabotage the trials? He wouldn’t want his dad to actually be paired up with Vlad but on the other hand he doesn’t want a potentially worse threat getting its hands on Vlad’s resources.

Even if Danny isn’t trying to sabotage things he could still swing by just to annoy Vlad since Vlad can’t do anything to stop him with Jack constantly being around him. Heck Danny might use this as an opportunity to just do an absolute prank spree on Vlad—and unintentionally push Vlad and his dad closer together as a result. The pranking kinda bites Danny in the butt with that being the case.

Picnic Trial & Apology Notes

Near the end of the picnic trial Danny turns invisible and hip-checks Vlad into the duck pond. The resident swan pair hiss at Vlad and give him a few slaps with their wings, and they have to head home after that since Vlad is covered in pond muck and needs to shower and change his clothes. Jack is as helpful as he can be throughout, driving Vlad home in out of his coat before he’s shooed away so Vlad can clean himself up.

Perhaps Vlad falling in the duck pond gets Jack to bring up Vlad’s apparent bad luck, including the college accident in that tally… And that sets Vlad off a bit, as he calls Jack out for using such passive language about something he directly caused and asks if Jack is ever going to take responsibility for the years of pain he caused Vlad. It doesn’t last long as Vlad catches sight of Matchmaker lurking in the background and remembers why this is all happening, and he forces himself to calm down and drop the matter.

Luckily it was enough to get through to Jack that he can’t keep dodging responsibility like this if he really wants Vlad to at least be his friend. The ride back to Vlad’s mansion is very quiet since Jack has a lot of thinking to do and Vlad doesn’t feel like talking.

This helps lead into Jack’s apology and promise that night when they share a bed. Actually multiple conversations throughout the day’s trials should lead to Jack’s apology, but the picnic one is the tipping point for him. Jack becomes more and more aware of how Vlad is trying to keep himself at arm’s length despite the show they have to put on for Matchmaker and can’t hide behind his delusions about everything being fine between them anymore.

Key points to Jack’s apology Vlad are that he takes full responsibility for the accident(because yeah, it’s 100% his fault three times over for: not making sure the area was clear before turning the proto-portal on, not checking his math while tuning it, and not putting the correct filtration substance into it cause he was too busy looking at Maddie), take responsibility for and explain why he ditched Vlad afterward(Jack was too cowardly to properly face what he’d done and was afraid of the consequences, and he’d even been trying to make excuses and deflect blame right after the accident happened which got Vlad even more angry than he already was and caused him to lash out verbally at Jack), properly and completely apologize, and promise to do better in the future. Vlad still doesn’t trust him of course, but it does reduce the hatred he feels for Jack and does help him feel a bit better just in general and about their relationship. This also helps the two understand where the other is coming from better.

Perhaps each trial(that the audience witnesses anyway) addresses a pain point between Jack and Vlad, and then that comes to a head in the bed scene where Jack apologizes. Matchmaker could’ve mapped out the main issues between the two and then planned out the trials accordingly.

Then when the ghost wedding rolls around and Vlad is taken away, Jack makes a step toward proving that he’s reliable by immediately going to save Vlad. He also exercises forgiveness for how Vlad attacked him in ghost form before when Vlad reveals his secret identity to him. The fact that Jack doesn’t attack Vlad after learning his secret also proves that Vlad can start to put trust in him again.

Another important point to prove to Vlad is that Jack doesn’t care about his money and status, he sincerely wants Vlad to be part of his life again like he was back in college. Vlad has thought that Jack was being fake in his friendship attempts when actually he was just being really inept.

All throughout the trials Vlad is feeling his grudge start to waver simply from having to spend time around Jack with no ulterior motive and he hates himself for being weak every time he notices. Part of the grudge is Vlad feeling that Jack should suffer at least some consequences for the harm he did to him and thus it takes energy to maintain when he has nothing to focus on but Jack. Vlad is at once trying to save his skin by making the couple thing look convincing while also being constantly reminded that Jack is very likely to hurt him out of carelessness again and then not even own up to or try to fix it.

Future

Once Vlad and Jack are on better terms it’s time for Vlad to fret over having to tell Jack about how he’s been a menace to his family and worry over how Jack will react to that. The bulk will have to be left to a sequel fic though cause there’s already a lot going on in this one and I have only a month to write it and only 20k words to accomplish that in.

Vs Reginald & Jack Proving Himself

Does the situation Jack saves Vlad from at the end fit the hang ups that were between them and sufficiently prove that Jack is serious about his promise? Cause we’ve seen that jack is ready to help Vlad out of a bind at the drop of a hat—just not the ones he’s immediately responsible for. In the case of having to finally cure Vlad’s ecto-acne Jack had already put sufficient excuses and distance between himself and the event so that he didn’t feel guilty about it.

Jack could even bring up curing Vlad’s ecto-acne as a reason that Vlad shouldn’t be mad anymore, only for Vlad to point out that Jack could’ve reached out at any point in those twenty years to check if it was gone and try to cure it but no, it took Danny’s friends getting involved for Jack to finally try to do that. And in the end Jack didn’t even cure it, Danny did by figuring out the substance that mucked up the filtrator; Danny is willing to go the distance for his friends, Vlad can only wish he could say the same of Jack.

Also in any case, finally stepping up to fix something he broke doesn’t magic away the twenty years of pain and loneliness that Vlad had to endure. Especially since Jack couldn’t even bring himself to say as simple a phrase as “I’m sorry” for the longest time.

But back to the question of the scenario that Jack has to save Vlad from. It would be more relevant to Vlad and Jack’s conflict if it did come about as a result of Jack’s carelessness, and whereas before Jack ghosted Vlad this time he immediately comes running to fix things and apologize. This would show that while Jack is still his usual bumbling self, he’s now ready and committed to fixing the things he breaks and being more accountable for the harm he causes, which will be a good thing for everyone in his life, not just Vlad.

But how would Jack’s carelessness result in the fake suitor crashing the wedding and kidnapping Vlad? As it is now, that situation is squarely Matchmaker’s fault. Could it be that Mitze(the Matchmaker) decided to test Jack specifically by having him hold onto the artifact that currently contains Vlad’s heart for a bit? And then Jack was careless and left it in a place where the fake suitor found and stole it, thus granting him the leverage he needed to force Vlad to do what he wants(because the false suitor can just crush the artifact to destroy Vlad’s heart and instantly kill him).

When Vlad sees that the artifact—and his heart—has been stolen he is absolutely devastated and he looks at Jack and says “I can’t believe I trusted you” before going over to the suitor as ordered under threat of instant death. Vlad had earlier agreed to letting Jack take care of the artifact because he at least trusted Jack with it more than Mitzi, only to have that trust betrayed when Jack screwed up the assignment. He is also expecting for a repeat of twenty years ago where Jack is nowhere to be found and Vlad has to rescue himself.

Mitzi the Matchmaker

Mitzi the Matchmaker looks like your busybody aunt from the 20’s: big-brimmed hat, long but fairly simple dress, fancy shoes, a fur wrap(that is itself an ermine ghost that is basically her familiar), and a cigarette in one of those long holder things. Her clothes are dusty rose, her skin gray, and her eyes teal or green.

Though she isn’t outright malevolent she is rather self-important, which is why she thought herself capable of pulling off such an ambitious scheme as this. And she almost does pull it off without a hitch so she’s mostly on the money with that self-assessment. Mostly she just wants things in the Ghost Zone to be as harmonious as possible, which can’t exactly happen with Vlad running amok as often as he does.

Final Showdown Notes & Does Maddie Find Out

Rather than run away like last time Jack is ready and raring to go after Vlad as soon as the suitor ghost has left. His family has to restrain him and get him to calm down and make an actual plan before he dives in.

Mitzi had attempted to get close and conclude the contract spell while the suitor ghost was crashing the wedding, but he caught on to what she was doing and threatened to kill Vlad then and there unless she backed off. The rescue plan involves getting her close enough to the artifact that she can return Vlad’s heart to him, which requires a substantial distraction that Jack will provide by challenging the false suitor to a duel for Vlad’s hand in marriage(which the false suitor will accept cause they appeal to his arrogance and he wants to rub his win in Jack’s face and put him in his place).

Jack’s team is able to successfully get Mitzi close enough to conclude the contract so sneakily that the false suitor doesn’t realize the heart has been returned when he takes up and crushes the artifact just to spite Jack and Vlad when he loses. Both Vlad and the false suitor are shocked that this did nothing, and then Jack’s crew of helpers emerges from their hiding places and reveal how they pulled off their little scheme.

With this being the case it’s possible that Maddie also witnessed Vlad transforming into his ghost form so he’ll have some explaining to do with her over that later as well. Or maybe she wasn’t in the immediate area when the duel happened—she could’ve been obliterating the false suitor’s minions in a different room—so the reveal could be limited to just Jack. In the second case Jack and Vlad would have to make plans for telling Maddie about Vlad’s secret identity lest she find out on her own and things go to hell in a handbasket as a result.

I think it’ll depend on total word count by that point since I can’t exceed 20k words. If it’s getting too long then Maddie has to be told later, if not then she finds out too and then the three have a closing conversation about it once everything has calmed down.

When asked why he never told the two about his ghost powers Vlad asks why he would tell them after they ditched him for twenty years and given the fact that they hate ghosts and love to experiment on them. They don’t really have a defense for that since admittedly the way they act toward ghosts would give any hybrid reason to mistrust them.

Reginald, “Future King of the Ghost Zone”

What does this false suitor look like and what’s his name?

He’s a sort of “old money” brat full of entitlement and overestimation of his own abilities because his stockpile of resources and external power mean that he rarely faces any adversity and typically gets what he wants with very little—if any—effort. His dire reputation thrives on the fog of rumor and the correct details being lost over the course of word of mouth transition, which means that most ghosts are too intimidated to do anything against him, resulting in more easy wins that further boost his overestimation of himself and his fearsome reputation.

It’s a very rude awakening when he gets thrashed by a human ghost hunter and a ghost hybrid who is basically working with only a fraction of his usual power. His reputation and good fortune take a massive hit and Vlad and Jack gain a reputation of their own.

Maybe his name is something like Reginald, harkening back to times of royalty and playing to his own views of self-importance. And what should his title be? The Terrible? The Regal? Actually it should fit with the typical Ghost Zone titles like Master of All Electrical Technology, Master of Time, the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunter… It needs to be something that suits his arrogance and thus isn’t necessarily true… Maybe he claims to be Pariah Dark’s successor? That’s definitely an arrogant enough assumption on his part, and maybe he decides that he needs to conquer both human and ghost worlds to prove it, thus why he’s determined to acquire Vlad when he learns more about him.

Reginald, Future King of All Ghosts? Or Prince of the Ghost Zone? Might need more work but it’s good enough for now.

He lives in a distant enough area of the Ghost Zone that he wasn’t affected by Pariah’s awakening in Reign Storm and had been making plans to present himself to PD only to discover that PD had already been shoved back into the Coffin of Forever Sleep. Heck he could’ve been making plans to assassinate PD too since PD would stand in the way of his own ascension to the throne and his time ended long ago anyway. He did take notes from PD’s brief return though, namely the whole wanting to conquer both human and ghost worlds thing. Vlad’s human world resources would make half of that goal easier. Also cause he heard that he was considered as a match for Vlad and how dare no one tell him about it until it was almost too late to do anything about it.

The main source of Reginald’s power is a special necklace with gems that contain captive ghosts. Break these and Reginald’s power weakens, leaving him at average strength for a ghost once all are destroyed. Vlad notices the necklace glowing whenever Reginald is using a unique ability and tells Jack to target it with him. Actually the gems only need to bind a piece of a ghost, and upon breaking that piece is returned to its true owner.

Any wannabe tyrant is not without his sycophants of course. And since he’s imitating PD he’d require that they make themselves look like skeleton warriors. They’re not very strong individually but what they lack in power they make up for in sheer numbers.

Similar to Skulker, Reginald hides his true face behind a more frightening mask. This mask takes some design elements from PD, though minus the eyepatch. His entire regal suit of armor is enhanced with technology to give himself as much of an edge as possible.

To be clear Reginald is not any weaker than your typical ghost, nor any more special. He still thinks himself superior to them regardless and thinks he should be the one to rule them(even if he was superior that still wouldn’t give him license to rule over anyone, tbh). If he is below average in anything it is not due to lacking natural ability but to gross excess making him lazy through lack of genuine effort. Big difference between having enough and having things in gross excess.

Needless to say, their run-in with Reginald does cause a bit of self-reflection in Vlad cause no way does he want to be as pathetic as that guy.

Jack’s Perspective

I need to think more in-depth about where Jack is coming from. He does care about Vlad and wants good things for him, but he’s ultimately selfish in that he has until now refused to acknowledge how he hurt Vlad and has not not tried to fix that, yet feels entitled to being around Vlad anyway. He’s also selfish in that he hasn’t really thought about what Vlad wants(an apology) and what would actually be good for him(the apology).

Jack is all for saving his friend whenever it’s from something he didn’t just cause, but when it’s something he did his fear of catching consequences gets in the way. Or maybe he thinks that he shouldn’t suffer consequences. He’s dumped consequences on his family in canon before(landing Danny in detention when he used the Fenton Peeler on Mr. Lancer and then immediately dipped) so what, does he think he’s above that? No, probably just that he doesn’t like consequences and tries to avoid being stuck with them. Maybe he was disproportionately punished for screw-ups as a child and that caused him to be so avoidant about these things.

Jack is still as careless as he used to be, maybe it’s a flaw that he either refuses to acknowledge or has given up on trying to fix. He also runs away from taking responsibility for his actions most of the time, relying on the people in his life forgiving him time and again rather than leaving. In the present situation it’ll be a bit harder for Jack to run away from what he did to Vlad, he’ll have to face how severely he hurt him.

Acknowledging how he hurts the people around him is painful for Jack, and it’s not just Vlad he’s hurt(though Vlad was definitely the person who was hurt the most by Jack). Change is hard, and though Jack can talk a big game about wanting to change he fears that he won’t be able to. If he can’t be more careful he can at least stick around and clean up the messes he makes, which he does after this.

Despair for the Future

All the while Vlad is kind of starting to despair over the fact that he will be forced to just bury what happened and wait for Jack to hurt him again, dreading the eventuality all the while. Jack starts to see this and is really distressed by it—since Vlad is letting big cracks in his armor show, Jack can’t continue to ignore how his presence hurts him. It all helps lead into their proper chat later on in bed.

Once Jack has at last taken responsibility and apologized, Vlad’s despair starts to ease a little and he’s a bit more relaxed around Jack, and is even a little hopeful about their future. This hope is, of course, temporarily dashed when Jack allows Vlad’s heart to fall into Reginald’s hands.

Cooking Trial

The cooking trial requires that Jack and Vlad prepare a nice meal for the family as a team. No having one person cook the whole thing while the other does nothing. Vlad is super stressed and tries to figure out something for Jack to make that isn’t too difficult.

This results in Jack goofing up and setting the stove on fire, putting them both back to square one when it comes to the meal. Vlad is not taking this well(he really wants to impress Maddie and it’s embarrassing to not get a meal out to hungry guests on time) and Jack does his best to calm him down and keep their guests satisfied until the actual meal is rolled out. He comes up with the idea of making a cheese board and Vlad starts putting it together only for Jack to stop him and say that he should be the one to do it.

Vlad hesitates for a moment, then tells Jack that he better not set the cheese board on fire too and returns his attention to the main meal. Jack successfully assembles the cheese board and shows it to Vlad, who’s impressed to find that Jack picked a really good combination of flavors and asks how he knew these would pair so well and Jack looks at him blankly for a few moments before replying with “the smell”. This reminds Vlad of how intuitive Jack has always been and he tells him good job and Jack takes the cheese board out to the guests along with crackers and bread and drinks.

When Jack returns he asks Vlad what he can do to help and Vlad asks him to work on preparing ingredients for him to use, which works out alright. They find out that Jack does best when helping someone cook, rather than making a dish on his own as he’d been trying to do originally.

Throughout the kitchen chaos Maddie has been a bit worried about how things will go since Jack is not allowed to cook for good reason. She’s not even remotely surprised when she catches the smell of Jack setting the stove on fire. She asks Jack if he’s done helping when he brings the cheese board out but to her surprise he says he’s still going to help and goes straight back into the kitchen.

Together Jack and Vlad are able to put a good meal on the table. Jack is in high spirits while Vlad is pretty exhausted from all the stress.

But what part of Jack and Vlad’s relationship does this highlight or question? It displays pretty prominently that Vlad’s strength is planning while Jack’s strength is improvisation. If they were a couple and iron things out their strengths would compliment each other. Vlad didn’t think of this when delegating tasks and also didn’t take into account the fact that Jack isn’t the best at following directions and would try to take a shortcut or “improve” a particular step(this resulted in the stove catching fire).

This trial also seems to highlight that Vlad needs to learn flexibility and to stop being so uncompromising(that Jack would be able to help teach him this on top of showing up weak points), as well as being better at meeting people where they’re at and taking their unique skill set into account rather than expecting them to magically conform to his expectations. This has been a roadblock for him when it comes to his relationships, especially with Danny and Dani, and Vlad refuses to even meet someone halfway(though to be frank, it’s still on Jack to apologize for their friendship to get off the ground again). So it would benefit Vlad and everyone else in his life if he learned to compromise and see where someone else is coming from better.

So it looks like this trial highlights how Jack could help Vlad improve as a person if he let him back into his life, and this helps Jack realize that he actually can help out in the kitchen, just not as the sole person cooking the meal. They’d both help each other improve if it happened on the right terms.

Unmasked Misery

A large part of Jack being unable to continue lying to himself about being friends with Vlad is that Vlad is plainly becoming more and more miserable around Jack, even though he’s doing his best to act otherwise. The times when Vlad’s mask slips and he shows how unhappy Jack makes him are impossible for Jack to ignore, and that helps to get him thinking about how he can fix things with Vlad or at least make it less painful for Vlad to be around him.

Changing Stance on Eccentricities

Important to note that Vlad found a lot of Jack’s quirks to be more endearing back before the accident. It’s amazing what fondness will allow us to excuse. He can recover a bit of that fondness—and thus find Jack easier to be around—after Jack makes his apology and after Jack proves that he won’t be running away from responsibility anymore.

Trials Notes(Plus Movie, Nature Hike, Museum)

What other couple things should the trials include?

We have the picnic scenario, the meal prep scenario, and the sharing the same bed scenario, what other couples things should they have to do? The picnic draws Jack’s unwillingness to take responsibility for what he did to Vlad into focus. Meal prep shows how Vlad and Jack can make each other stronger by shoring up each other’s weaknesses. The bed is where things come to a head and Jack makes his apology.

Watching a movie together? No development around that immediately jumps to mind... But if they try to connect over a movie like Back to the Future that came out while they were separated it could highlight how much time they lost because neither was willing to restart communication(this is kind of more Jack’s fault than Vlad’s, since Jack was the one who hurt Vlad and needs to apologize to start fixing things). It would be a bittersweet activity for the two.

Nature hike could be a fun one. But how would it relate to their relationship and how it could improve? Or some regret that the two unknowingly share? Neither of them are opposed to doing outdoorsy things since Jack likes fishing and Vlad is implied to have done hunting(plus one of his mansions being in the wilderness), it could be something for them to connect over. Though it’s also pretty likely that Vlad will try to rush through the hike either to get it over with as soon as possible, to keep Jack out of breath enough that he doesn’t have any left to talk to him, or both. If Vlad rushes the hike he’s absolutely going to regret it later since it’ll make his pre-existing tiredness worse. The hike can be an early off-screen trial that Mitzi almost failed them on because they weren’t acting like a couple. After the warning from Mitzi Vlad is careful not to pull something like that again and is really worn out afterward so he regrets having done that.

A museum visit would be up Vlad’s alley but Jack probably wouldn’t like it so much. If Vlad is smart and trying to do better at the trial he’ll take Jack to the exhibits he might have more interest in, like the dinosaur halls since most people think dinosaurs are neat. Jack will probably have a great time and then wonder aloud if dinosaur ghosts are a thing, to which Vlad replies that none have been seen but it’s a possibility that they’re in some distant part of the Ghost Zone and simply haven’t been found yet. And that would get Jack pretty excited and he’d ask if they could go looking for them together sometime. Maybe this one happens after the sharing a bed scenario, once the two are on better terms.

Trial Order

So the trials could be, in rough order:

Nature Hike

Meal Prep

Picnic

One Bed

Museum

Movie

Six trials in all isn’t bad, and they don’t all have to be covered in their entirety to get the necessary character moments in place. Mitzi actually had a lot of trials planned and was prepared to keep throwing them at Vlad until things were resolved.

The trials can be split among several days since they do need several hours each and Vlad and Jack need time apart to process things. Maybe day one could be nature hike and meal prep, day two is picnic(they do have to put the picnic together themselves) and then at the end of day two is the sharing a bed trial, and day three is the museum trip and movie which prove they’ve made a big step toward fixing things so that’s when Mitzi calls an end to the trials... And then tells them that it’s time to get married for a laugh and to see if they’d actually do it, which they do because Vlad never wants this crap happening to him again and he doesn’t view it as valid anyway.

Wedding Size

The wedding is put together a bit hastily since Vlad just wants to get things over with, so it’s small and has only the most important guests invited. Mitzi takes the opportunity to show her gal pals a good time by inviting them, but unfortunately they tend to gossip a lot and that’s how word got around to Reginald.

Stealing the Heart

As for how Reginald gets ahold of Vlad’s heart… Jack got swept up in wedding prep and was worried he might drop the artifact or something to that effect if he kept carrying it around with him, so he hid it in the lab for safekeeping. Which while he had good intentions that was a terrible place to hide it because Reginald just stepped through the perpetually-open ghost portal and found it pretty quickly.

Chat Between Danny & Vlad

Danny pulls Vlad aside for a little chat once Mitzi has let them go for the day and asks what’s going on because he knows Vlad isn’t telling the whole story to his parents. Vlad does tell him the truth, if only to get Danny out of his hair sooner. Danny asks if he should try to take Mitzi down and why Vlad is so scared since getting his heart crushed wouldn’t completely kill a creature like him right?

Vlad tells him to leave it cause best case scenario is that he becomes full ghost and worst case scenario is that his entire being gets obliterated because the artifact took a significant portion of his powers along with his heart. Danny asks why Vlad was willing to tick off such a powerful ghost and what he was planning to do with the artifact if he got his hands on it.

This part Vlad isn’t willing to tell him and Danny threatens to beat the answer out of him, only to relent when Vlad comments that a tactic like that is straight out of his own playbook. Instead Danny warns Vlad that if he tries to use this whole fiasco to ruin his parents’ marriage he’ll find a way to make Vlad regret it. Vlad assures Danny that this isn’t what he’s after and he just wants to put this whole mess behind him as soon as possible and forget it ever happened.

Danny prods Vlad a bit over him hating his dad but Vlad gives no answers other than a line about Jack betraying him, and Danny decides he’s had enough of interacting with Vlad for the day and leaves. Because Vlad was rude about Danny’s dad, Danny decides that he’s gonna prank Vlad while he can’t do anything about it, especially since an opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day.

Jazz’s Deductions

Jazz figures out what Mitzi is actually about before anyone else and talks to her about it. While she appreciates what Mitzi is trying to do she’s worried that things might spin out of control if they take a wrong turn.

An Open Heart

A side-effect of the artifact is that it makes the person it’s used on more emotionally open and honest. It can also make them more closed off depending on how the outer rings are spun.

In Vlad’s case Mitzi has tuned the artifact to keep Vlad more open so that his pride won’t get in the way of letting Jack know how much he hurt him(and because Vlad believes that would be showing weakness and he’s very afraid of appearing weak due to trauma reasons and because he doesn’t trust or respect Jack). Vlad notices this after a day or so and confronts Mitzi over it, and Mitzi pretends that she can’t control it but tells him that a little emotional honesty can go a long way in improving a relationship. It’s a hint that Mitzi is in fact aware that the relationship between Vlad and Jack isn’t great but it flies over Vlad’s head because he’s too focused on other things.

Important to note that the artifact will not force Vlad to love Jack, just make the emotional communication on Vlad’s end more open. Jack still has to do the work of apologizing and moving the relationship in the right direction, and he has to get over his own emotional roadblocks himself.

Vlad is much more likely to tell Jack when he’s hurting him in this state. Annoyance and anger are easier for Jack to chalk up to some other reason than a direct statement of “you hurt me” from the person he’s presently dealing with. That’s something Jack can’t run away from as easily and Vlad is going to be telling him that more and more directly as time goes on.

Dance Trial

The dance trial, where Jack and Vlad have to do a waltz, would show how miserably out of sync the two are. It would be a good follow-up to the hike cause they were so out of sync in that one. They must waltz together for an entire musical piece.

Vlad is the only one of the pair who knows how to waltz, so he’s the one who should lead. Jack is a bit freaked out by the fact that they failed the first trial and once he goes a few rounds of following he gets a bit too into it and ends up stepping on Vlad’s feet. A lot.

After a few more rounds but before the song ends Vlad hits his limit and starts telling Jack to stop, but the end of the song is drawing near and Jack isn’t listening because he’s trying to get them to the finish line. At last Vlad yells “You’re hurting me!” and that finally gets Jack to pay attention to him—and notice that he’s currently standing on both of Vlad’s feet.

Jack steps back and releases Vlad, who limps off to the nearest chair and sits down. Vlad is upset that he showed weakness by telling Jack that he hurt him but he knows that he has to keep trying or else they’ll fail the trial. Jack comes over and apologizes for stepping on Vlad’s feet and hurting him like that, then asks if they can try again and promises to be more careful this time.

They try again and this time Jack is actually paying attention to Vlad and avoids stepping on his feet. The waltz is a clumsy one because they’re both tired, but they make it to the end and Jack is even paying enough attention to notice Vlad’s knees about to buckle and he sweeps him into a dip to make it look natural just as the song ends. Jack has the sudden(but not unexpected) desire to kiss Vlad during the dip but he resists and gets them upright again, holding onto Vlad to make sure he doesn’t fall.

Mitzi gives them a round of applause and says they pass. Vlad is super relieved and tells Jack that he can let go now—and he falls to the floor when Jack does that.

An important part of this trial is that Jack starts to realize that he needs to get better at listening to Vlad(and the other people in his life) and not just assume what’s best or what he wants.

Actually scratch the apology part too, that’s still something Jack has to work through. Maybe he thinks it’s unnecessary in this case cause he knows how to fix things, which for this situation would be to pay attention to Vlad and not step on his feet again.

Should this be from Jack’s PoV or Vlad’s? There are merits to both, but I feel like we need a bit more behind Vlad’s dislike for Jack? And Jack can always get time to digest things later...

But a big piece of this story is Jack realizing he has to apologize and try to be a better friend to Vlad. So Jack could start realizing things during the trial and then Vlad could do some reflection afterward.

Yeah, let’s do Jack’s PoV for this trial, to demonstrate directly that he hasn’t been paying as much attention to Vlad as he should’ve been. Show Jack actively not listening to Vlad and stomping over him until Vlad very directly tells Jack that he’s hurting him, which finally gets Jack to pay more attention.

Wedding Rearrangement

Now that I’ve mostly written the fic and gotten past the 14k point I think some bits would be better if I rearranged them.

The Fentons devise a plan to get Vlad’s heart away from Mitzi by proposing a trial where Jack takes care of the artifact for a while. It would be a very large bit of proof that Vlad trusts Jack now, at least to a degree. They figure that it’s worth a shot so they can carefully run some tests to see if they can reverse the artifact’s effects themselves.

Actually no, have Mitzi propose it as a trial and put Vlad on the spot. Vlad has a lot of indecision as he weighs the danger of letting Jack watch the artifact vs letting Mitzi keep it. Since Jack is set on being more careful Vlad decides to give him the chance to prove himself despite his anxieties over it.

Things actually go alright for a little while. Jack is actually very anxious over the heart and keeping it safe, constantly worrying over accidentally harming it as long as it’s on his person. With that being the case, Jack decides to hide it somewhere instead, not realizing that Reginald’s spies have already moved in and one was able to see him hide it.

(The Fentons don’t meddle with the artifact despite having full access to it because if they mess it up that would likely kill Vlad. Jack even immediately sides with Vlad on the matter when Maddie brings it up.)

Vlad was really taking a chance by putting his life in Jack’s hands. No, more like he decided to give Jack a chance by allowing him to do this. It’s an enormous show of faith—not the smartest move, but still. Vlad is showing that he’s willing to believe that Jack can change. Which makes it all the more devastating when Reginald is able to steal the artifact.

This time the two are just hanging out when Reginald barges in and orders Vlad to marry him. When Vlad tells him to get lost Reginald repeats the order with an “or else” attached and shows that he has the artifact.

Vlad is stunned for a moment(Jack is too), and then he gives Jack a look of utter betrayal and says “I can’t believe I trusted you”. With no other option Vlad walks over to Reginald and is taken away to the ghost’s lair.

Jack is devastated over having failed Vlad but his moping doesn’t last long. He’s ready to go charging after Vlad and has to be stopped by the rest of his family since he could get himself and Vlad killed that way.

Mitzi shows up and they accuse her of being in cahoots with Reginald, which she denies; in reality he was never supposed to get directly involved and was only used as a threat to get Vlad to play along, since her real goal was to get Vlad reconnected enough with Jack that he wouldn’t have the time or desire to be such a menace to the Ghost Zone anymore. In fact she dreads what Reginald might be able to accomplish by marrying Vlad and offers to help with the rescue plan.

Meanwhile Reginald is rushing through wedding prep as he intends to marry and dispose of Vlad as quickly as possible so he can take all of Vlad’s assets for himself. Vlad is desperately trying to figure a way out of this but Reginald is able to keep him contained long enough to start the wedding ceremony.

Vlad is despairing as he stands on the dias and is forced to start giving his vows, only for chaos to erupt as the Fentons leap out of their hiding places and crash the wedding. During the mayhem Jack is able to get his hands on the artifact but Reginald refuses to let go. After some back and forth Reginald asks if Jack knows who he’s trying to save and messes with a dial on top of the artifact.

This forces Vlad into ghost form with a sudden painful surge of power and Jack stares at him, dumbfounded. At last he asks Vlad why he attacked him before and Vlad replies that he did it because he was angry and stupid and selfish and he thought that getting back at Jack would make him feel better, but it never did. He’s about to make his own apology when Maddie interrupts by shooting at him. Vlad yelps and starts running while Reginald panics and orders his minions to protect Vlad cause he can’t let him die before he gets all his stuff in the marriage.

Maddie drives Vlad into a frantic chase around the room, picking off every single one of Reginald’s allies as she does so and leaving Vlad surprisingly unscathed. At last Vlad has nowhere left to flee to and Maddie asks if he has any last words, to which Vlad says “I wish I’d just talked to Jack to begin with” and braces himself for the end. Reginald jumps in to stop her and Maddie shoots him down.

Now that all hostile ghosts have been defeated Maddie straightens and thanks Vlad for being exactly the kind of distraction she needed to decimate the enemy forces.

(Also Jack was chasing Maddie around the room begging her not to kill Vlad throughout her pursuit, meanwhile the kids were basically eating popcorn while they watched cause they knew that if Maddie wanted to shoot Vlad, she wouldn’t be missing.)

Vlad sits up and returns to human form just in time to get tackle-hugged by Jack and both of them are pretty freaked out about Maddie’s attack. Jack is almost crying and saying he’s so glad Maddie didn’t kill Vlad and Vlad is touched and amazed that Jack still cares about him that much even after finding out his secret. Vlad looks up at Maddie and asks if she was planning to attack him all along and Maddie replies that it was spur of the moment since their original planned distraction got derailed(Jack was gonna challenge Reginald to a duel as cover for Mitzi) but the anger was 100% real and the are going to have a talk later.

Reginald snatches the artifact up and declares that if he can’t have Vlad no one can and he crushes the artifact. To the surprise of half of those still conscious this does nothing to Vlad. It turns out that Mitzi used Maddie’s distraction to get close enough to the artifact to return Vlad’s heart. With Reginald’s bargaining chip removed the adults give him one last beatdown to teach him a lesson then take the kids and go on their way.

Don’t forget that Vlad accidentally said Jack’s name at the end of his vows, which means his end of the marriage contract is primed for Jack to wander into the other end and seal it for both of them. Jack will probably get confused when the officiator asks him if he accepts Vlad’s promise/vows and say yes.

They’re both shocked when the officiator declares them married and congratulates them before wandering off to get on with his day. They immediately wonder if divorce is an option but doing so would require tons of hoops to jump through since there are humans involved. Maddie thinks the whole situation is hilarious and doesn’t see a ghost-marriage as something that threatens her own marriage anyway, so they decide to leave things as they are for now.

Giving Heart

It’ll be important to show everyone’s reactions to Vlad giving Jack his heart to protect. Danny even tells Vlad that this isn’t a good idea as Vlad takes the artifact in his hands and prepares to pass it to Jack. Maddie questions if this is a good idea too, as much as she loves Jack she’s still going to be realistic about what he’s like.

Vlad ignores them, his voice breaking somewhat as he puts the artifact in Jack’s hands and says “Jack, I’m going to let you take care of this for a while. Please don’t let me down.”

Outline 2

We start with Vlad in front of FentonWorks. Jack lets him in and he tells them about his heart being stolen and that he and Jack will have to pretend to be a couple.

They visit with Mitzi who does the assessment and finds that Jack and Vlad have decent compatibility, Jack and Maddie have great compatibility, and Vlad and Maddie have NO compatibility. Mitzi breaks the news that Vlad will have to prove that he and Jack are a couple in order to get his heart back.

Danny pulls Vlad aside for a little chat once Mitzi has let them go for the day and asks what’s going on because he knows Vlad isn’t telling the whole story to his parents. Vlad does tell him the truth, if only to get Danny out of his hair sooner. Danny asks if he should try to take Mitzi down.

Vlad tells him to leave it cause best case scenario is that he becomes full ghost and worst case scenario is that his entire being gets obliterated because the artifact took a significant portion of his powers along with his heart. Danny asks why Vlad was willing to tick off such a powerful ghost and what he was planning to do with the artifact if he got his hands on it.

This part Vlad isn’t willing to tell him and Danny guesses it had something to do with his mom. Danny warns Vlad that if he tries to use this whole fiasco to ruin his parents’ marriage he’ll find a way to make Vlad regret it. Vlad assures Danny that this isn’t what he’s after and he just wants to put this whole mess behind him as soon as possible and forget it ever happened.

Danny prods Vlad a bit over him hating his dad but Vlad gives no answers other than a line about Jack betraying him, and Danny decides he’s had enough of interacting with Vlad for the day and leaves. Because Vlad was rude about Danny’s dad, Danny decides that he’s gonna prank Vlad while he can’t do anything about it, especially since an opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day.

Jack and Maddie have a chat about Vlad and what’s going on. Maddie says a bit more on her low opinion of Vlad but doesn’t get into it too much, while Jack still has faith in him. Jack also double-checks that Maddie is okay with this, which she is because she knows Vlad can’t replace her and she thinks this’ll take him down a peg and maybe get him to appreciate Jack more.

The next day arrives, and the nature hike trial begins. Vlad sets a relentless pace that keeps Jack behind him and unable to talk to him. This results in Mitzi nearly failing the two of them then and there because they weren’t acting like a couple. Vlad walks away from the trial exhausted, demoralized, and a bit scared.

The dance trial is Mitzi’s attempt to get Vlad and Jack to be more in sync with each other. They have to waltz for an entire musical piece, and since Vlad’s the only one who knows how to waltz he’ll be leading and trying to teach Jack how to do it. Jack is a bit freaked out by the fact that they failed the first trial and once he goes a few rounds of following he gets a bit too into it and ends up stepping on Vlad’s feet. A lot.

After a few more rounds but before the song ends Vlad hits his limit and starts telling Jack to stop, but the end of the song is drawing near and Jack isn’t listening because he’s trying to get them to the finish line. At last Vlad yells “You’re hurting me!” and that finally gets Jack to pay attention to him—and notice that he’s currently standing on both of Vlad’s feet.

Jack steps back and releases Vlad, who limps off to the nearest chair and sits down. Vlad is upset that he showed weakness by telling Jack that he hurt him but he knows that he has to keep trying or else they’ll fail the trial. Jack comes over and asks if they can try again and promises to be more careful this time.

They try again and this time Jack is actually paying attention to Vlad and avoids stepping on his feet. The waltz is a clumsy one because they’re both tired, but they make it to the end and Jack is even paying enough attention to notice Vlad’s knees about to buckle and he sweeps him into a dip to make it look natural just as the song ends. Jack has the sudden(but not unexpected) desire to kiss Vlad during the dip but he resists and gets them upright again, holding onto Vlad to make sure he doesn’t fall.

Mitzi gives them a round of applause and says they pass. Vlad is super relieved and tells Jack that he can let go now—and he falls to the floor when Jack does that.

Reflection time. Jack and Vlad are thinking over the day in their respective homes, and Maddie may chime in for Jack.

The cooking trial requires that Jack and Vlad prepare a nice meal for the family as a team. No having one person cook the whole thing while the other does nothing. Vlad is super stressed and tries to figure out something for Jack to make that isn’t too difficult.

The scene opens with the stove being on fire. Vlad calmly puts a fire blanket over the mess and facepalms when Jack says “whoops”. Given that this puts them back at square one for the meal, Vlad’s stress levels are hitting their peak and he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to hold it together long enough to get through this. Jack does his best to calm him down and keep their guests satisfied until the actual meal is rolled out. He comes up with the idea of making a cheese board and Vlad starts putting it together only for Jack to stop him and say that he should be the one to do it.

Vlad hesitates for a moment, then tells Jack that he better not set the cheese board on fire too and returns his attention to the main meal. Jack successfully assembles the cheese board and shows it to Vlad, who’s impressed to find that Jack picked a really good combination of flavors and asks how he knew these would pair so well and Jack looks at him blankly for a few moments before replying with “the smell”. This reminds Vlad of how intuitive Jack has always been and he tells him good job and Jack takes the cheese board out to the guests along with crackers and bread and drinks.

When Jack returns he asks Vlad what he can do to help and Vlad asks him to work on preparing ingredients for him to use, which works out alright. They find out that Jack does best when helping someone cook, rather than making a dish on his own as he’d been trying to do originally.

Throughout the kitchen chaos Maddie has been a bit worried about how things will go since Jack is not allowed to cook for good reason. She’s not even remotely surprised when she catches the smell of Jack setting the stove on fire. She asks Jack if he’s done helping when he brings the cheese board out but to her surprise he says he’s still going to help and goes straight back into the kitchen.

Together Jack and Vlad are able to put a good meal on the table. Jack is in high spirits while Vlad is pretty exhausted from all the stress.

The picnic starts out alright, they even make light conversation, though Vlad is still distant. They keep chatting as they go look out over the pond together, and then something causes Vlad to fall in. Jack helps Vlad back out, commenting that for such a fortunate guy he still has the worst luck and includes the proto-portal accident in that tally.

Doing that sets Vlad off. He tears into Jack for using such passive language about an event he directly caused and asks if he will ever take responsibility for how much he hurt Vlad for years and how ridiculous it is that Jack thought he could just run away from what he’d done. Vlad is ready to say more but then he spots Mitzi lurking in the background and cuts himself off, not wanting to throw off their ruse. He drops the matter and tells Jack to forget it, then asks that they go home since he’s covered in muck.

It’s a very awkward and silent ride back in the GAV since neither of them want to talk much.

Jack gets time for self-reflection, and he realizes that Vlad is just miserable around him and that his inability to take responsibility for the problems he causes and apologizing is putting a wall between them.

Vlad confronts Mitzi about the weird stuff going on with his emotions. Mitzi pretends that she can’t control it but tells him that a little emotional honesty can go a long way in improving a relationship. It’s a hint that Mitzi is in fact aware that the relationship between Vlad and Jack isn’t great but it flies over Vlad’s head because he’s too focused on other things.

Mitzi’s pet returns and tells her about the developments with Jack, so she decides it’s the perfect time to have the sharing a bed trial happen.

Jack apologizes during the bed trial and promises he’ll do better by Vlad in the future.

Museum time. Jack and Vlad just go there and enjoy it. Vlad is more willing to accommodate Jack, and Jack has slowed himself down to match Vlad’s pace more. The resentment Vlad has felt for years is background noise now.

Mitzi proposes the trial of letting Jack watch over the artifact for 48 hours, after which she will give Vlad’s heart back to him. Vlad has a lot of indecision as he weighs the danger of letting Jack watch the artifact vs letting Mitzi keep it. Since Jack is set on being more careful Vlad decides to give him the chance to prove himself despite his anxieties over it.

Things actually go alright for a little while. Jack is actually very anxious over the heart and keeping it safe, constantly worrying over accidentally harming it as long as it’s on his person. With that being the case, Jack decides to hide it somewhere instead, not realizing that Reginald’s spies have already moved in and one was able to see him hide it.

(The Fentons don’t meddle with the artifact despite having full access to it because if they mess it up that would likely kill Vlad. Jack even immediately sides with Vlad on the matter when Maddie brings it up.)

Vlad was really taking a chance by putting his life in Jack’s hands. No, more like he decided to give Jack a chance by allowing him to do this. It’s an enormous show of faith—not the smartest move, but still. Vlad is showing that he’s willing to believe that Jack can change. Which makes it all the more devastating when Reginald is able to steal the artifact.

This time the two are just hanging out when Reginald barges in and orders Vlad to marry him. When Vlad tells him to get lost Reginald repeats the order with an “or else” attached and shows that he has the artifact.

Vlad is stunned for a moment(Jack is too), and then he gives Jack a look of utter betrayal and says “I can’t believe I trusted you”. With no other option Vlad walks over to Reginald and is taken away to the ghost’s lair.

Jack is devastated over having failed Vlad but his moping doesn’t last long. He’s ready to go charging after Vlad and has to be stopped by the rest of his family since he could get himself and Vlad killed that way.

Mitzi shows up and they accuse her of being in cahoots with Reginald, which she denies; in reality he was never supposed to get directly involved and was only used as a threat to get Vlad to play along, since her real goal was to get Vlad reconnected enough with Jack that he wouldn’t have the time or desire to be such a menace to the Ghost Zone anymore. In fact she dreads what Reginald might be able to accomplish by marrying Vlad and offers to help with the rescue plan.

Meanwhile Reginald is rushing through wedding prep as he intends to marry and dispose of Vlad as quickly as possible so he can take all of Vlad’s assets for himself. Vlad is desperately trying to figure a way out of this but Reginald is able to keep him contained long enough to start the wedding ceremony.

Vlad is despairing as he stands on the dias and is forced to start giving his vows, only for chaos to erupt as the Fentons leap out of their hiding places and crash the wedding. During the mayhem Jack is able to get his hands on the artifact but Reginald refuses to let go. After some back and forth Reginald asks if Jack knows who he’s trying to save and messes with a dial on top of the artifact.

This forces Vlad into ghost form with a sudden painful surge of power and Jack stares at him, dumbfounded. At last he asks Vlad why he attacked him before and Vlad replies that he did it because he was angry and stupid and selfish and he thought that getting back at Jack would make him feel better, but it never did. He’s about to make his own apology when Maddie interrupts by shooting at him. Vlad yelps and starts running while Reginald panics and orders his minions to protect Vlad cause he can’t let him die before he gets all his stuff in the marriage.

Maddie drives Vlad into a frantic chase around the room, picking off every single one of Reginald’s allies as she does so and leaving Vlad surprisingly unscathed. At last Vlad has nowhere left to flee to and Maddie asks if he has any last words, to which Vlad says “I wish I’d just talked to Jack to begin with” and braces himself for the end. Reginald jumps in to stop her and Maddie shoots him down.

Now that all hostile ghosts have been defeated Maddie straightens and thanks Vlad for being exactly the kind of distraction she needed to decimate the enemy forces.

(Also Jack was chasing Maddie around the room begging her not to kill Vlad throughout her pursuit, meanwhile the kids were basically eating popcorn while they watched cause they knew that if Maddie wanted to shoot Vlad, she wouldn’t be missing.)

Vlad sits up and returns to human form just in time to get tackle-hugged by Jack and both of them are pretty freaked out about Maddie’s attack. Jack is almost crying and saying he’s so glad Maddie didn’t kill Vlad and Vlad is touched and amazed that Jack still cares about him that much even after finding out his secret. Vlad looks up at Maddie and asks if she was planning to attack him all along and Maddie replies that it was spur of the moment since their original planned distraction got derailed(Jack was gonna challenge Reginald to a duel as cover for Mitzi) but the anger was 100% real and the are going to have a talk later.

Reginald snatches the artifact up and declares that if he can’t have Vlad no one can and he crushes the artifact. To the surprise of half of those still conscious this does nothing to Vlad. It turns out that Mitzi used Maddie’s distraction to get close enough to the artifact to return Vlad’s heart.

Don’t forget that Vlad accidentally said Jack’s name at the end of his vows, which means his end of the marriage contract is primed for Jack to wander into the other end and seal it for both of them. Jack will probably get confused when the officiator asks him if he accepts Vlad’s promise/vows and say yes.

They’re both shocked when the officiator declares them married and congratulates them before wandering off to get on with his day. They immediately wonder if divorce is an option but doing so would require tons of hoops to jump through since there are humans involved. Maddie thinks the whole situation is hilarious and doesn’t see a ghost-marriage as something that threatens her own marriage anyway, so they decide to leave things as they are for now.

[holykillercake]

A Day In The Sun

pairing: MARCO x fem!Reader

word count: 3.3k

summary: You left the Moby Dick to go on a solo mission, from which you would never return. Two years later, when hope seemed to have drained out, a loud rubber boy appears, leading the way back to your family.

highlight: ¨I guess he´s not coming, so... tell Marco I will always love him.¨

warnings: angst, MARINEFORD spoilers 

notes: This was an anon request for a ¨ [as angsty as possible] Marco with a fem!S/O who left the Moby Dick a year or two before and then they ran into each other by accident somewhere¨. I really hope you like it!♡  I feel like I chose an easy path with Marineford, so maybe I´ll try this one more time with a non-canon plot. The angst, tho, the angst! 

𝕷𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖘, 𝖗𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊!

          ��                                                       ☩

You watched the guard check the chains for the fourth time with an amused grin on your face. He pulled it, hit it, and almost wet his pants with the effort. 

The funnier part was that he did all of that while trying to stay as far from you as possible. 

¨So, am I getting company?¨ no answer, just a glance and a drop of sweat falling down his temple ¨Will you tell me who´s my guy?¨ he ignored you again and left.

A few minutes later, you heard the lame sound of chains echoing throughout the cold walls. You had a minute to process the silent and compliant steps before the rest of the prisoners started to yell wildly. 

You observed the shadow of your new cellmate projected onto the filthy floor. Then his dirty feet when he walked by you, giving yourself the trouble to look up only when he took a seat while the guards locked him. 

You let out a disdained scoff and waited for ¨privacy¨ to talk to him. He, on the other hand, never bothered to look up. 

¨I would offer you something to eat, but as you can see, my hands are tied.¨ you shook the chains, hoping that the distasteful joke would make the man lift his head.

But he showed no reaction to your words. Instead, he remained leaned forward with his head down.

 You snorted heavily.

¨You know, I was kind of hoping to be the only Whitebeard pirate around here.¨

 That was more than enough to make him face you. His narrowed eyes watched you for a moment, trying to recollect your features in his memory. 

¨Oh, come on. Did I really change that much?¨

¨Y/N!¨ he shouted and tried to fight the strains.

¨How are you doing, Flame boy?¨

                                                           ☩

The heart beating inside of your chest felt like it was going to jump out of your mouth at any moment. Although you were sweating, all of the ice around you made you wish you had more clothes.

 How could you be cold and sweating at the same time?

Everyone had their eyes on you. Well, not only you. But the entire troupe that fell from the sky altogether with a marine warship, the weirdest circus freaks brought directly from Impel Down. Your home for the last two years. 

As soon as Luffy stepped on the ice field and started to attack marines in order to reach Ace, the real beginning of the battle began to seethe in Marineford. 

You joined your fugitives comrades and jumped out the ship, but differently than the straw hat boy, you ran to the opposite side. Dodging every marine in your way to get to the Moby Dick. 

Whitebeard looked at you like a proud father and let out his legendary ´Gurarara´ laugh while the Commanders stared at you as if you were a ghost.

Not that you didn´t actually look like one. Even for them, who always considered you to be one of the prettiest women they have ever seen, you looked a little bit mistreated.

Your hair was dirty and messy, your always radiant skin was dry, and the bags under your eyes were deeper and darker. 

If it wasn´t for the look in your eyes, they wouldn´t have recognized you. 

The spark and shine remained stoic. The will to live and to fight remained standing strong, even though the rest of you seemed to be brumbling apart.

Marco stood on Pops' right side, still showing the same anger in his eyes as when you said that you were leaving the Whitebeard Pirates. But you couldn´t focus on that. You were too busy trying not to get killed to care about his attitude.

And more importantly, you were so happy. 

Every night for two years, you prayed for the chance to see them again, to brew saké among your family, and laugh in their companies. It was so close you could feel it in your fingertips. 

¨Daughter, you don´t look healthy.¨ Whitebeard said when you reached the ship.

¨I guess feeding me wasn´t on the top of their list of priorities, Pops.¨ you laughed.

¨And I suppose you met the troublemaker over there.¨

¨We were cellmates, can you believe it?¨ Marco peeped into your conversation, trying to look like he didn´t care ¨He was updating me on the current Whitebeard Pirate´s activities. Said you got yourself some pretty cute nurses.¨ 

You elbowed him slightly in the leg, and the Emperor gave his staccato laugh you missed so much.

¨Daughter,¨ he spoke more serious ¨I know it´s a lot to ask of you right now... but we need to get that boy outta here. You´re in?¨ 

¨Have you forgotten who I am, Pops?¨ He smirked, already knowing your answer ¨ Of course, I´m in.¨

You looked each commander in the eyes, in a silent agreement that when this madness was over, you would answer all their questions. When they looked back at you, nothing had changed. For them, you were still the same Y/N from years ago. 

                                                             ☩

¨I can´t believe Pops wants to keep that brat.¨

¨We should have him thrown off of the ship.¨

¨You should cook him for dinner, Thatch!¨

You couldn´t hold the smile bending on your lips when you heard the Division Commanders talking about the rookie Pops had brought onboard.

The kid had been trying to kill him for a while now. Even Jinbe had to step in and engaged in a 5-day battle with the young pirate. That, for some reason, got Whitebeard´s interest. 

You felt a warm hand embrace yours and turned to see the First Division Commander take his seat on your side. You smiled when he leaned over and gave you a habitual kiss, the kind you share when you wake up in the morning or when you meet up in the halls.

But your heart ached behind your smile. Because, although it was something usual for him, something that he would do thousands of times for the rest of his life, for you, it could be the last.

You were about the destroy everything you two had and break his heart. 

But you were out of options. You knew that, and so did Whitebeard. 

When the first part of the meeting ended, and Pops had explained his motives to want to keep the hot-headed boy, someone questioned him about the second topic they needed to discuss. The one he kept as a secret even from Marco. 

Your heart pounded faster, and your face heated. Whitebeard frowned and gestured something, giving you the word. The weight of the sixteen commanders staring at you made you shrug and hold Marco´s hand tighter. 

¨Y/N?¨ he called you with a tone of concern in his voice. 

You just avoided making eye contact with him. You couldn´t face him.

¨I, uh...¨ you raised your head and stuffed your chest. You had to be cold. ¨I-I am going on a solo mission... and I am not coming back.¨ 

The room went totally silent for a few seconds before they began to bombard you with questions and inquires, to which you could not respond. Marco, on the other hand, remained speechless, waiting for you to tell him that it was a joke.

¨I, uh...¨ someone interrupted you ¨I am leaving tomorro-¨ another Commander cut you ¨... tomorrow morni-¨

The blast of Whitebeard´s cleaving blade hitting the floor made all of you shut. 

¨The decision was made!¨ his thunderous voice cracked the wooden walls ¨And blessed.¨

Marco shot up, his chair met the floor in a loud thud. ¨Pops, you approved this?!¨

¨Son...¨ the First Division Commander scowled and started to walk out of the room. 

You reached him and held his hand to stop him. He turned, staring at you furiously.

¨Marco...¨

¨Why, yoi?!¨ 

You shook your head, not being able to tell him what he wanted to know. Tears began to fill your eyes when he pulled his hand from your grip and left the room. 

A single tear made its way down your cheek and you quickly wiped it. You couldn't turn back on your decision. Even if that made the love of your life hate you. 

¨Y/N...¨ Thatch touched your arm softly ¨Are you in trouble?¨

You attempted to give him your best warm smile.

¨When am I not in trouble, Thatchy?¨

The next day when you were saying goodbye to your family, everyone was there, even the Fire-Fist boy.

 Everyone but the person you needed the most to be there. 

Every Commander hugged you tight, saying that if you ever decided to come back, your chair among them would be waiting. 

You tried to hold your tears in the beginning, but that became an impossible task. 

Pops held you close to his chest and suffered with you, for he knew the sacrifice you were about to make. And even a man like him couldn´t avoid it. 

His voice roared through the four Blues when he declared, loud and clear, that you were his daughter and would be forever a Whitebeard pirate. 

¨I love you guys. I love you, Pops.¨ you looked around, searching for your boyfriend ¨I guess he´s not coming, so... tell Marco I will always love him.¨ 

When you stood alone on the seashore, you waited. You waited until the Moby Dick disappeared on the horizon. You waited for Marco to have a change of heart and fly over to you, saying that he loved you and he would miss you.

But he never did.

                                                             ☩

What happened was that you were a little rusted.

You got tired faster and weren´t as agile as before. So you preferred to keep yourself out of the line of fire, where you would disturb more than help. Your job was to back up the Division Commanders and make sure they would keep a clean path for Ace´s brother. 

You wanted to be thrilled with the adrenaline of a battlefield, but you were scared. Every time Whitebeard stopped and put his hand on his chest, you feared. 

That was the reason why you turned yourself in in the past, the reason why you didn´t ask him to fight for you.

He saved as much energy as possible for this war, but you knew he had started to die the minute he disconnected himself from the life support. 

¨What are you up to, old man?¨ you mumbled to yourself.

Before you could do or think anything else, a sharp scream took your attention. Kizaru hit Marco with laser beams, and you noticed another Marine Officer approaching him with sea stone cuffs. 

You grabbed a gun and ran towards them. Even rusted, you were incredibly fast. With an impulse, you jumped and grabbed Marco by the collar, shooting the marine with Haki-imbued bullets. 

But again, too late.

Perhaps years ago, you would have been able to prevent this from happening, but at that moment, all you could do was get him out of Kizaru's sight, causing his laser to hit you in the thigh. 

You turned in the air, changing your position so that he fell on you when you landed. In that battle, his life was worth more than yours, and it was your duty to offer support to the Commanders - your Commander, especially. His body had already gone through a lot of stress, and the sea stone handcuffs prevented him from using his powers.

You tried to muffle the scream when you hit the floor. 

¨You ok?¨ you asked.

With so much of a glimpse he put himself to his feet, ignoring you and the blood he spilled before running back to the mess. 

From that moment on, the situation got really bad, really quick. You went berserk, killing the marines like a freaking calamity. Your thigh was gushing blood, deep gashes covered your body, and your heart was torn apart. 

Because despite all of your effort and sacrifice, the mission failed.

You didn´t see what had happened, but the person you were supposed to rescue, Ace, the Second Division Commander, was dead on the floor. And his brother was having a breakdown.

Ace had a peaceful smile on his face, and you thought that it would have been nice to get to know him better.  From the days you shared a cell, you understood why Pops wanted to keep him. He was a pretty nice guy, after all. 

                                                            ☩

¨And how did you end up here?¨ Ace asked you.

¨Remember the solo mission thing?¨ he nodded, and you gave him a ´ta-dah face. 

Suddenly, he got pale.

¨This... This is where you´ve been for the past two years? Why?¨

You hummed, pondering over your words.

¨I know things about the World Government that I shouldn´t. And when they found out, I got an ultimatum... I could turn myself in, or they would have thrown a buster call on us.¨

¨Y-You sacrificed yourself? But you know Pops could have handled it, right? We all could have handled it.¨

You smiled at him, deciding not to tell him the ugly truth. 

The World Government knew about your knowledge regarding the Ancient Weapons and the National Treasure of Marie Geoise for a long time, but they waited to get to you. They waited until they had the perfect chance, and Whitebeard´s illness was just it. 

At the beginning of his illness, he didn´t have the proper medication and life support devices, so he was vulnerable. Still stronger than all of you together but too vulnerable to deal with the Admirals and the CP-Zero.

When you took Whitebeard´s hand and accepted to be his daughter, you swore your loyalty to him, you vowed to protect your family even if it cost your life.

¨Yeah, I guess this one is on me.¨

After listening to everything he had told you, you knew Whitebeard would use the public execution to rescue him. He would not let anyone take another child of his. 

That was the reason why you couldn´t tell Ace about your father´s state - not that he didn´t know, but he could be oblivious. And he would be crushed with guilt if anything happened to your old man. 

¨Hum, but tell me, kid. Any chance the phoenix had already forgiven me?¨

You saw your answer in his awkward look. 

¨He didn´t know about this as well, right?¨ Ace opened and closed his mouth a couple of times ¨He thought you had bailed on us when Pops needed you the most and... he still likes you, Y/N. He´s just hurt.¨

¨Yeah... okay...¨ you whispered.

¨If you´re right... and Pops comes to rescue me, I´ll let everyone know you´re here. And we´ll come to rescue you.¨

Your nose burned with the feeling of crying. Even with his powers restrained by the sea stone cuffs, he was so warm. 

¨Well... I could use another day in the sun.¨ and you sobbed. 

                                                             ☩

But there was no sun. 

There was no sun, and your father, together with Ace and thousands of your allies, were gone. 

And the dream of brewing saké with your family, you did reach it, but couldn´t hold it.

When he opened a crater on the ground, separating him from his crew, you stood beside him, begging him to reconsider 

¨Pops, don´t do this...¨ you whined, choking on your own tears ¨I-I just came back...¨

He looked at you in the eyes and wiped your tears.

¨My daughter...  I´m sorry I failed you.¨ You shook your head and held his huge hand ¨I know you´ll take care of the boys. Your room and your seat remain untouched.¨

You couldn´t say anything else before he threw you on the other side. 

Now the Red Hair Pirates were collecting Whitebeard and Ace´s bodies to assist with the funeral. Jozu scooped you in his amrs and carried you back to the ship as you cried. He walked you to your old room and put you in the bed, leaving without a word. 

Inside of your cabin, you raged, not wanting to accept the fate of things. You punched the walls until your knuckles bled, you cried until your throat hurt and wished to go back in time, when you were in your dirty cell, and Whitebeard was still alive. 

When do you think people die?

When they are shot through the heart by the bullet of a pistol?

When they are ravaged by an incurable disease?

No. It’s when… they are forgotten.

When the sun began to fall, you got up from the cold woodboard and reached the door, making your way to the deck. 

The Commanders and the rest of the crew were scattered around, mourning their losses. The family was falling apart, and this time Pops wasn´t there to glue the pieces back together.

I know you´ll take care of the boys.

His words echoed in your head. 

You watched the hundreds of men injured, bleeding through their wounds and passing out unattended. Where was the man in charge? 

A sudden anger consumed you, and you rushed to his room, kicking the door open. 

¨What the fuck do you think you´re doing?!¨ he didn´t answer, nor did he move. 

Marco looked miserable, sitting on the mattress, leaning forward with both hands on his head. 

You had a lot of emotions going on in your head.

You were happy because you got to hear Whitebeard call you daughter one last time, but you didn´t know how to live in a world where he didn´t. 

You were happy to be with your family again, but it killed you to see them crumbled like that. 

¨Not now.¨ he spoke when you approached with calmer steps. His voice was hushed and broken. 

¨Marco, you have to-¨

¨Get out, yoi.¨

¨No. You are the one getting out and help-¨

¨GET THE HELL OUT, Y/N!¨ he roared.

¨NO!¨ you roared back and pulled him by his collar, facing his teary and red eyes. ¨YOU TURNED YOUR BACK TO ME ONCE, BUT I WON´T LET YOU DO THE SAME TO THEM!¨

You let go of him and shed heavy tears.

¨You have thirteen Commanders and hundreds of men out there who need you. So suck it and step in.¨ you said with gritted teeth. 

¨They can handle themselves, yoi.¨ he grumbled.

You scowled

¨Is this how far your loyalty goes?¨ he clenched his fists ¨Pops offered you a seat on his side, and you took it! NOW USE IT!¨

¨SHUT UP! YOU DON´T KNOW THE THINGS WE´VE BEEN THROUGH, Y/N!¨ he marched towards you, stopping a few inches from you and yelling in your face ¨You have no idea the things we´ve lost, the things I have lost!¨

¨I do know!¨ you pushed his chest ¨I have always known, but you didn´t! You didn´t because you´re Marco, the Phoenix! And you´re great! Great rare, mythical Devil Fruit. Great First Division Commander. YOU. ARE. GREAT.¨ you sobbed, helpless ¨But being great didn´t make you confident, it made you spoiled. It made you forget what loss feels like. And now you lost. We lost.¨

He let himself fall on the mattress again, head down, tears dropping on his ragged pants. 

¨So you don´t get to drown yourself in commiseration, Marco. You don´t get to sit here, feeling sorry for yourself.¨ your voice came out weak ¨They need you. I... need you.¨

You watched him for a couple of minutes but seeing that he wouldn´t move, you sighed, ready to leave the room and do his job. 

¨I hated you, yoi.¨ Marco said before you could leave..

¨I know.¨ you whispered and leaned against the door. 

More tears fell. 

Two years in Impel Down were not enough to break you, but that... that was a difficult hit to take. 

¨All these years, I hated you every single day.¨ 

¨I know.¨ 

¨Even when I thought you were dead, I hated you.¨

¨I know.¨

¨And when Pops told me what you did for him... I hated myself.¨ 

The both of you broke down. 

¨I know, Marco.¨

You turned slowly and walked to him, sitting by his side, laying your head on his shoulder. 

His shaky hands held yours, and you weakened, feeling the touch you missed so much.

¨I can´t do this, Y/N.¨

¨Yes, you can.¨ you touched his face gently, so he would look at you ¨We can.¨

You slipped to the floor, holding each other in your arms, hoping that the tears would wash away the pain, the guilt, and regret. 

[vaguely-concerned]

Temeraire let’s read: Crucible of Gold AHOY!

- lol I’m glad hammond is back, he is phenomenally funny. I do love me a bureaucrat character who won’t let trifling things like dignity, morality, politeness or common sense get in the way of their job 

- it is a CRIME that Tharkay had to leave before he got to see Laurence all sun-bronzed and casually dressed and golden haired and relaxed, I wish to petition the universe itself on his behalf to correct this injustice 

- hahaha shen li is the best; a buddhist dragon would be the greatest party pooper among her own kind 

shen li, serenely: attachment to material things can only bring suffering

literally every other dragon, dripping bling from every available surface: um actually

- . . . without the clinging stink of murder and treachery which seemed to have by slow octopoid measures attached itself to his life. laurence I understand where you’re coming from on this but you have served colonial britain since you were like twelve. this has been an extremely slow process of waking up to smelling dem roses (fatherhood changes your perspective on your life situation I guess)

- awwwwww laurence finally studying some more chinese while temeraire helps him... no no this is just rain on my face yes I know I’m indoors it’s just me and lady allendale sitting here with our arms around each other crying about our boy reading poetry of his own freeish will

- oooh I really like how novik writes the way hammond talks -- it can be hard to write a character who constantly breaks up their own dialogue and interrupts themselves and continually couches their words without it being hard to read and annoying, but she really nails communicating that he’s a) completely graceless and with no dignity but also undeniably intelligent, b) definitely a Diplomat but not a total weasel, if only by a hair, c) hilarious

- pour one out for laurence’s civilian beard with me guys, gone too soon and dearly missed (and again tharkay didn’t even get to see it! this continues to be the greatest tragedy of these books let’s hope he grows it out again later when they’re all settled down.) 

- . . . These were distinguished from the others mainly for their having had less time in their careers to demonstrate a lack of initiative or skill, so he could have some small hope of uncovering some previously hidden talent. OH MY GOD LAURENCE the straight up savagery 

- DAD!LAURENCE!!! DAD!LAURENCE!!!!!!! (aaah it’s so interesting that when he gets a bit more stern you can definitely see sides of his father peeking out, but he deeply remains his mother’s son -- he’s acting from a place of affection, feeling of responsibility and concern for their futures, not the weird controlling shit lord allendale routinely pulls)

roland is such a teenager at this point oh my god. also laurence’s whole speech to demane about respecting her boundaries and agency... *chef kiss emoji* and ALSO demane is so sympathetic in this still because who HASN’T wanted to dangle some asshole over a cliff for being a creep to your friend/crush... they’re all good and perfect and I love them actually

- ...I’ve managed to put it out of my mind in the last few books but with the allegiance going down like that I keep remembering there were so many actual children onboard and now I feel ill

being an adult and realizing the full fuckedupedness of these things sucks haha

- 1) the description of seeing the ship sinking from underwater is hauntingly beautiful and 2) as I have said many a time before, thank god for demane

- see this is the other side of the coin of these books making you care so deeply about the characters; I know that no important characters die in this book but I am still so fucking stressed out by all of this D:D:D:

- well well well if gong su’s ludicrous competency wasn’t suspicious before it certainly is now, I guess china trains its spies well in the culinary arts haha

- I mean uh. what a way to symbolically and literally sever laurence from his former life and former self, I guess. you’d be hard pressed to do so more explosively at least

 - something extremely bad happened to granby, we can tick that off the list

- I feel like the prose and writing in general is super improved in this one? it feels sharp and purposeful in a way the last few haven’t quite been

- He hoped Riley would be mourned; Riley deserved to be mourned ahfksahsdajklhsajkfhaslkjfhsakjdfhdaslkfhakj pain :(:(:( I’m so sorry laurence and I didn’t even like the guy. I can’t believe that the first thing this madman does after trying to secure their survival as best he could is writing letters -- on dragonback!!! hands stiff from cold so he can only work in five minute increments!!! -- to make sure riley’s memory isn’t blackened how can he be like this

- emily roland is so smart and capable and amazing my heart is blooming with pride

- iridescent feathered dragons... holy shit this is awesome

temeraire has a little feather envy tho and also maila casually eavesdropping so he can chat up (literally) hot babes... I know they’re prisoners of war and everything but this is all pure unadulterated gold

- oh temeraire darling no have no fear hammond has no self respect whatsoever, that will not be what stops him

- I can’t believe laurence is actually taking time to tie himself in knots over not following perfect procedure around his officers’ future career options while they’re FUCKING MAROONED with a bunch of asshole sailors fkdfhsjdh

- GET YOUR DIRTY FUCJING HANDS OFF DEMANE OR I’LL CHOP THEM OFF FOR YOU YOU SWINE

sipho is like eleven and a nerd and ready to run at all these grown men armed just with a branch PAIN

- granby’s unending exasperation at laurence not knowing all the stuff that seems self-evident to him having grown up with dragons fksjdhfskajd

- aw laurence finally having a little dad talk with roland ;____; and demane has proposed to her repeatedly and she would agree in a moment under other circumstances ;________________; and it never even occurred to me that that’s why she was so upset about him taking on his own dragon but of course that would fuck everything up if that’s what she was planning OH NO ;_________________________________________________;

laurence confirmed for boytoy & hideously embarrassed about it flasdfsdkjhfksd 

“But I don’t want someone I want, if I can’t be sure of seeing him one week in the year” crack crack goes the sound of my heart breaking

I hope they find a way to solve this eventually :(

- really interesting what a clear view emily has of roland and laurence’s relationship tho, considering he’s basically her father figure -- like there’s clear affection, physical attraction and camaraderie there but it never feels particularly romantic & they both have other shit to do. (and laurence knows it too on some level, considering his main emotion when she refuses his proposal is relief lol. it really shows off this central conflict he has where like... he has a very clear idea of who he feels he should be and managed to convince himself he was for a long time, and what that man wants and needs (namely very little, emotionally) and is loyal to. aaaand then there’s the person he actually is, who’s been fighting his way to the surface since temeraire showed up in the very first book and sort of woke him up by giving him something he actually loves and values with all of himself and can’t compromise on. proper gentleman/navy!laurence feels like he has to do what society deems decent and marry roland to be a good person, actual!laurence seems to know that what they already have isn’t wrong or immoral in any way as long as they’re both happy with it. ugh I love him and I hope his last remaining character development includes realizing that who he really is is not only acceptable but actually a better man than that imagined perfect self ever could be and how many people love him for who he is already A N Y W A Y onwards)

- the incan dragons continue to be dope as hell

it’s super interesting how they’ve grown to value people -- and not just one special person, like british dragons, but whole groups of people -- over gold and jewels. like the tendency is there in dragons from other cultures; temeraire loves The Bling but would still easily prioritize laurence and his crew over it. presumably some of it is cultural and some of it must stem from the sheer trauma of losing so many people within a few centuries, which is basically living memory for a dragon (which makes it equal parts sympathetic/heartwarming and juuuuust on the edge of being too creepy and possessive haha).

- jeez this book is doing a good job at showing what a haunting fucking sight it must be to enter a land where like. 90% of the people are dead in plague and their cities stand abandoned

- fhasdklhfaskljfhs hammond going full diplomat on the dragons squabbling... he truly is something

and laurence apologizing to demane because he was out of line and he is a fellow captain now T_____T lord allendale could never

- haven’t had a lot to say for a while because I’m just so entranced with the world building and stuff haha, I find the irl history of this area super interesting as well

- ambassador iskierka........ what a time to be alive

poor poor poor granby hahahaha

- if these books were named harry potter style this one would be ‘william laurence and that time he tried to put off wearing his ceremonial robes for as long as humanly possible’

- granby being good at drawing but having atrocious handwriting is such a good little character detail, novik is just so expert at nonchalantly plopping them in 

- temeraire is being haunted by a green-eyed monster the size of a continent huh lol fair play to maila tho, he’s given it his sleazy all right from the start

I can’t believe gong su invented dragon ice cream solely so temeraire could eat it out of a tub over this... the real mvp

- awwww granby <3 I’m glad there’s some actual canonical queer rep in this series as well (as for the technically not stated straight(heh) out in canon... listen my friends if you can come up with any kind of heterosexual explanation for normally extremely sensible tenzing tharkay gazing at his friend and thinking shit like ‘in the fading light he was a statue gilded by sunlight’ and ‘it was a pang not unmixed with pleasure to look on him, as ever’, you are free to try to come at me with it but I won’t believe you lol. also laurence has the most potent disaster bisexual energy of any man in modern media even if he hasn’t quite caught on to it himself) 

tbh I know it’s mostly in desperation but they should come up with some new kind of medal to give granby for having this particular Talk with william laurence, one of the most awkward men to ever walk this earth... braver than any us marine etc.

- temeraire and iskierka in this scene STRONGLY evoke dirtbag teens sneaking off to make out in the backseat of a car or something god bless

- ...I guess you can’t fault the empress for siding with the dude already crashing like a natural catastrophe over his own home continent and who is eyeing the other six like a starving eagle would a pack of mice. all the europeans suck but I guess it’s sort of her best bet to ally herself with the biggest bully on the playground, especially since forces in her own court would be hard pressed to do anything about the situation. respect sister & congratulations granby lol

- hahahahahahaha leave it to hammond to be forcibly adopted by a dragon 

poor churki tho she’s a grownass adult and she only has one weird coke-addled diplomat and three basically adolescent dragons to work with here

- GRANBY SETTING SOME BOUNDARIES FINALLY I’m so proud of him ;__; this book really does have a lot to say about dragon/human relations huh

- LETHABO!!!!!!!!!!! man i’m so happy she’s doing well, she fucking deserves it and she’s doing good work

- laurence has evolved to his ultimate form of give-no-fucks-do-some-good laurence and hammond was not prepared lol 

“You forget yourself, Captain Laurence,” Hammond said . . . 

“I forget nothing,” Laurence answered . . . 

im crying b/c he literally has forgotten before but remembers himself at the end of victory of eagles b/c of tharkay and and aaaaaaaaaaaaaugh here he is refusing to do the dirty work he’s handed once more 

- lily and maximus! this is not a drill it’s the good good kids back at it again. also temeraire’s phenomenally misplaced sense of superiority re: his reaction to kulingile growing bigger than any of them fkshdfksahdfkj

- berkely <3

- poor harcourt :( ah well she’ll survive it tho he wasn’t that important it’s not like she lost her dragon lol (I honestly can’t feel that bad about riley considering y’know how he was not only chill with but actively for the institution of slavery)

- YOOOOOOO GONG SU! and temeraire is so happy they’re going back to china aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I love this (laurence’s stammering outrage at this reveal is also highly entertaining “he STAYED in my father’s HOUSE!!!!!!!”)

- man that entire last battle scene was so cool in the context of the rest of the series; the sheer effort and ingenuity that went into avoiding a bigger battle and slyly aiding the only worthy cause in the situation (the tswana and freeing the slaves) is so satisfying, especially after VoE

- holy shit I really enjoyed this one! It had a good balance of travelling/character moments and giving us time with the culture and characters of the Inca and their dragons, as well as driving the overall plot forward splendidly! I also feel like we got some more meat to the laurence POV (in hindsight it feels like it was mostly temeraire POV in tongues of serpents, which is fine but I do love our golden boy and his slow burn character development too)

on to blood of tyrants! I don’t know anything about this one except a) amnesia and b) some Very Important Lines I’ve already picked up along the way, I’m not sure I’m prepared (as a trope amnesia can be pretty hit or miss for me, so it’ll be interesting at least!)

[princettegil]

I'm doing it! Haunted Pages will be a zine made by and for all of us Halloween obsessed creepers out there! But we can't make it without you!

Here's what we're looking for:

•ART! Both digital and traditional are allowed! And feel free to draw whatever you please (minus too much nudity or sexual content. But hey, Elvira is fine!) Landscape, realistic, anime style, paintings, caricatures, costume designs - as long as the main theme is Halloween, you're good! •PHOTOGRAPHY! Got some haunting pics of your haunted decor? Pumpkins at sunset? You and you're beau looking spookerific? Send em in! • POEMS & SHORT STORIES! Give us that autumn shiver with your word porn! (No actual porn tho, sorry lol.) • PROP & CRAFT TUTORIALS! Are you good at making scary things? Wanna share your 'how you did it?' Send em in! •RECIPES! Know how to make a scary good meal or ghoulish snack? Let us know how!

REQUIREMENTS FOR EACH PIECE: •Art - At least 300 dpi, 5.5"x8.5." No sexual content but some lightly suggestive nudity is fine (ask if you're unsure.) Gore is fine. If your piece is traditional, please scan it in 300 dpi. If it is a painting and will not fit a scanning bed, please take the highest quality picture of it that you can, also preferably at 300 dpi. (Ask if you need help with this and Google is being a butt lol.) •Photography - 300 dpi. •Stories - Min. 100 word drabble, Max of 1500 words (contact me if you need a bit of leeway with that though and I can see what I can do.) •Props & Crafts - Please include clear images as attachments as well as notes as to which image(s) go with which steps and an image of the finished piece. •Recipes - A finished image of the dish is preferred though not necessary.

Where to send questions/submissions: You can send any questions you have either to me here on Tumblr or to my email at: gilcaudill28@gmail.com

That email is also where you will be sending your submissions once finished. Please be sure to mention that zine in your subject line.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Submissions begin JULY 20th and end SEPTEMBER 20th!

Submissions may close sooner if we receive too many. But in most cases, I'll likely just lengthen the zine itself to fit everyone in. If your project will take a while to complete, please email or message me so that I make sure to save you a spot! The sooner you let me know you're onboard the better! I'm not doing an application process with this as I want it to be able to fit as many people as possible. But letting me know to hold your spot is the best way to make sure you're in!

Zine will be published online as a FREE PDF during the FIRST WEEK OF OCTOBER!

The zine will be free this year since this is my first time overseeing a zine and to see how well it's received. If things go well this year, I may host one next year, printed, for a minimal fee.

[jbaquerot]

When Giants linebacker Devon Kennard wakes up each morning, he checks his phone to see what the day might hold. He’ll have text messages and emails, of course, but what Kennard really cares about are his sleep stats: Did he hit his eight-hour target? How good is his recovery score? And, most importantly, how hard can he push his body today? If knowledge is power, NFL players may have just shifted the balance between them and the league over control of their own bodies. On April 24, the NFL Players Association announced a five-year partnership with WHOOP, a wearable device company that can track the health and performance data of the league’s athletes.

Players will be given a WHOOP Strap 2.0 device that can be worn on their wrist, forearm or bicep. It’s designed to monitor the strain they put on their bodies and how well they recover between games or workouts. For now, the league is unlikely to permit players to use it during games (more on that later). According to the NFLPA and WHOOP, the players—not the league—will control the data and have the opportunity to sell it to third parties. The theory behind using WHOOP is that the information should help players avoid overtraining, reduce injury, perform at their best, and even enjoy healthier lives after retirement.

“I’ve always had an avid interest when it comes to sports analytics,” says Chargers offensive tackle Russell Okung, who serves as an athlete advisor to the OneTeam Collective, the NFLPA’s startup accelerator (WHOOP is the first company in the Collective’s portfolio). Okung has suffered from multiple soft tissue injuries in his career, and has tried using different devices to understand why. “[WHOOP] was the next step for me,” he says.

GREG BISHOP: The NFL Optimism Season

But with power comes responsibility. “If applied judiciously, responsibly, and ethically, biometric data technologies in professional sport have the potential to reduce injuries, improve performance, and extend athletes’ careers,” bioethicists Katrina Karkazis and Jennifer Fishman wrote in an article published in the January issue of The American Journal of Bioethics. “However, these same biometric data come with the risk of compromising players’ privacy and autonomy, as well as the confidentiality of their data. Moreover, they also have the potential to disadvantage players in contract negotiations and to harm, and even cut short athletic careers.”

Outside of sports, more and more people are wearing some kind of fitness tracking device. Companies are issuing them as part of corporate wellness programs. Data from them is being used to help diagnose diseases and even solve crimes. “The forces of Big Data are reshaping all of the major institutions in our society,” say the authors of a 2016 report by the Center for Digital Democracy on wearable devices, “disrupting the structures and operations of government, commerce, health, financial markets, education, and the workplace.”

The NFLPA-WHOOP partnership might only be a sports case study with a small sample population of 1,700 football players, but its ethical, legal, and medical consequences may reach far beyond the field of play.

WHOOP is the cool kid in the world of wearable devices; even its name grabs attention. It is a discretely distinctive wristband, black on the outside and bright red, blue, or green on the inside. The band won a Red Dot Design Award in 2016. Unlike some bulky competitors, it has no screen or buttons, and it can be charged while you wear it—you never need to take it off. The heart rate, motion, skin conductivity, and ambient temperature data it records are transmitted via Bluetooth to a user’s mobile device, and from there to the cloud. Those metrics are condensed into three scores, assessing strain from exercise, recovery and sleep, that can monitored in an app.

The device first gained mainstream attraction for its use among NBA players. In spring 2016, then-Cavaliers point guard Matthew Dellavedova started wearing it in games. More than a dozen games later, once the NBA had worked out what the band was, the league banned its use in games. But Clippers center DeAndre Jordan reportedly skirted that ban this past season, wearing WHOOP on his wrist beneath a black sweatband in a February game against the Knicks.

WHOOP remains barred by the NBA during games, but the new collective bargaining agreement, which goes into effect on July 1, may open the door to both it and other technologies. Under the terms of the new CBA, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association will form a joint committee “to review and approve wearable devices for use by players.” The CBA, however, stresses that using any devices will be voluntary, and that the data cannot be used in contract negotiations.

Meanwhile, baseball has formally embraced WHOOP. Last season, 230 minor leaguers were tracked using the wearable from June through November. WHOOP found a correlation between recovery and fastball velocity for pitchers, and ball exit speed and recovery for hitters. In early March, MLB approved the use of WHOOP during big-league games this season. According to WHOOP, players such as Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright and Yankees centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury are using the device.

In essence, the NFLPA partnership with WHOOP puts football at the forefront of the wearables debate. All players from the 2017 NFL draft have been set up with a WHOOP band, and the company is now in the process of getting all active players onboard before the season begins.

“This [deal] demystifies wearables as not necessarily a Big Brother approach, but as a way to really educate the players as well as show that there is really value in using wearables to optimize performance [and] minimize the risk of injury,” says Isaiah Kacyvenski, a former NFL linebacker and a co-founder of the Sports Innovation Lab, a market research firm. Kacyvenski serves on both the OneTeam Collective’s executive and athlete advisory boards.

However, the partnership between the NFLPA and WHOOP does not include the NFL league office or any of the 32 teams. Without NFL approval, WHOOP is not supposed to be used in games—and depending on team rules, players might not be able to use it in training either. But that might not stop some players. Last season, Chargers safety Darrell Stuckey wrapped thick white tape around his wrists and forearms. Under the tape on his right wrist was a rectangular bulge. Just like in the NBA, NFL players may be willing to flout uniform rules to wear WHOOP.

NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy declined to comment about the NFLPA deal; team insiders were similarly reluctant to talk. The reason: the NFL has had a deal in place since 2014 with Zebra Technologies, which uses radio-frequency identification tags to track the players’ location, speed and acceleration during games. The NFL, not the NFLPA, controls these data sets. While the WHOOP and Zebra databases are not identical, there would be overlap between them that could lead to conflict between the NFL and NFLPA.

In October 2015, the NFLPA filed a grievance against the NFL over reports that teams had been using sensors to monitor players’ sleeping habits. In a memo to players written at the time, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith explained that “because the use of such technology occurs outside of games and practice, we believe such use violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement.” As a result, teams need to seek approval from the NFLPA before using sleep trackers. WHOOP’s founder and CEO, Will Ahmed sees that as a powerful opportunity for his company. Perhaps the simplest way for teams to access that type of data will be to go through the NFLPA’s Official Recovery Wearable: WHOOP.

The most intriguing part of the partnership between the NFLPA and WHOOP is the announcement that players will have the opportunity to sell their data. “We want to incentivize players to not only opt in, but to opt in and participate,” explains Ahmad Nassar, president of NFL Players, Inc., the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFLPA. “Because that’s the only way it’s going to be valuable.” The NFLPA has become an investor in WHOOP, meaning that players have a stake in the company’s success, including the sale of each $500 band. According to Ahmed, the company will also share a percentage of revenue from the sale of player data.

Athletes may now face a conflict of self-interest. “The players are actually going to receive revenue from the value of their data,” Ahmed says. “So as the data gets more invasive, it also potentially gets more lucrative.” Sharing data publicly might generate immediate income, but once a team knows how well an athlete recovers, that might have consequences the next time his contract is up for negotiation.

“Analytics is sort of like an arms race,” Nassar says. “It’s certainly, in the wrong hands, capable of being misused, or being used against athletes. The beauty of the deal that we have with WHOOP is that it’s not in the wrong hands. It is in the athletes’ hands directly.”

JENNY VRENTAS: In their never-ending quest to find a winning edge, NFL teams are turning their players on to the most accessible and natural performance-enhancer: a good night’s sleep

However, legal and medical experts unaffiliated with the league, the players, or the company express concern. “Why would anybody in their right mind sell information to a third party about what they’re doing outside of their sports environment?” asks Art Caplan, director of NYU’s Division of Medical Ethics. “Selling my privacy is not a good deal.”

As a former player, Kacyvenski disagrees. “In the end, this is a job,” he says. “As a football player, I always thought as my body as a business. The ability to create more value for the job you do, that’s not crazy.”

Exactly how the data-selling process will work, and where that data might appear, is still being worked out. Sean Sansiveri, vice president of business and legal affairs at the NFLPA, says that for players it will be structured similar to the way merchandise is sold. Ahmed says he is currently negotiating with interested buyers, though he would not say who those parties might be. Likely candidates include media, video games, fantasy football and betting organizations, and even the NFL itself.

Okung is excited about incorporating player data into TV broadcasts. “We’re playing the Broncos in our first Monday night game,” he says. “Imagine having a key matchup and knowing what their recovery scores look like.”

The teams might be less enthusiastic. While they would, of course, want access to as much biometric information as they can get, they wouldn’t want other teams acquiring those same statistics. Although Zebra Technologies has been tracking NFL players since 2014, teams haven’t been given access to their opponents’ data. If, from WHOOP data, an opponent knew that one of your defensive players didn’t get enough sleep the night before a game, perhaps they might consider him a weak point worth targeting. Last year, Stuckey wore WHOOP when San Diego traveled to Houston on Nov. 27. According to the device, Stuckey got 5 hours and 16 minutes of sleep the night before. His WHOOP recovery score pre-game was 52%. The Chargers handed the Texans their only home defeat of the season that day. Houston quarterback Brock Osweiler threw three interceptions in his team’s 21-13 defeat, but had Houston coach Bill O’Brien been given inside information on San Diego’s defense, perhaps the Texans could have found a route to victory.

Digitizing data makes it a formidable resource, easily stored, shared, and analyzed. But Big Data is also much easier to steal in large quantity than paper records, and it can be mined and processed by powerful algorithms to discover unexpected, and often unwanted, insights.

“These are high-value individuals and privacy is and will be a concern,” Sansiveri says.

In April 2016, a laptop was stolen from the car of a Washington trainer. On its hard drive were 13 years of password protected, but unencrypted, healthcare records for thousands of NFL players. The league, which asserted that there was no evidence the data had been accessed by the thief, ultimately avoided sanction by the Department of Health and Human Services for the breach. Last summer, the Russian hacking group Fancy Bear broke into the World Anti-Doping Agency’s computers, stealing and then publishing confidential medical data on at least 29 athletes. WADA believes the attack was in retaliation for investigations into Russia’s state-sponsored doping program, and that employees were duped into handing over login information by phishing emails that appeared to come from friends or colleagues.

Russell credits the fact that WHOOP has 27 privacy levels that allow him to determine exactly who sees what data as a key reason he is comfortable using the device. Kennard, a NFLPA player representative, is unconcerned even if information does leak out. “This isn’t data that’s some huge secret to me,” he says. “I wouldn’t want anyone to get access that I didn’t approve, but at the same time it’s not some top secret data.”

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But even adequately protected data raises ambiguous privacy concerns. > “My prediction is once the players start to understand some of the issues, they may drop the agreement and revisit it later,” Caplan says. Big Data allows powerful conclusions to be drawn from the most benign-seeming information.

In WHOOP’s privacy policy, the company stresses that data shared with third parties will be anonymized to protect the user. However, “due to its identifying qualities, [athlete biometric data] inherently identifies the athlete who contributed it,” lawyer Kristy Gale wrote last year in a two-part series published in Arizona State’s Sports & Entertainment Law Journal. Writing in the UCLA Law Review, law professor Paul Ohm stated, in 2010, that “data can be either useful or perfectly anonymous, but never both.” And like most of us, athletes leave all sorts of personal clues scattered around online that could be used to re-identify health or performance data. Private data can also be subpoenaed and dragged into the public setting of a courtroom. In April, computer network administrator Richard Dabate was charged with murdering his wife, Connie, in part because her Fitbit data appears to contradict his story. Dabate had told police that an intruder had broken into their home in Ellington, Conn., in December 2015, tied him up and shot his wife. Activity data from Connie’s Fitbit allegedly shows that she was walking around the house at the time Dabate claimed they were being held captive. (Dabate has been charged with murder, tampering physical evidence and making a false statement; he is currently free on $1 million bond awaiting trial.)

There were 26 arrests of NFL players reported last year; 17 so far in 2017. If NFL players extensively begin wearing WHOOP, the data collected may end up being a part of future criminal trials. For instance, it has accelerometers and heartbeat sensors. If a player said he was at home watching TV, but he was clearly running around, that would affect his alibi.

Then there is the question of what WHOOP’s data actually means. Is it medical in nature, or just health-related?

Accurately evaluating WHOOP’s medical relevance is not easy. The algorithms that WHOOP uses to determine strain, recovery, and sleep are proprietary and therefore not public. The company is currently working with a third party to validate the band’s function; WHOOP documents some of its own small case studies online, but there are no peer-reviewed scientific journal articles that perform research on its data and methodology.

Most wearable device companies stress that their products are not medical, allowing them to sidestep some of the protections that exist for medical technology. The distinction between medical technology and wellness products, however, is hazy. The former is used to treat illness (like a continuous glucose monitor for diabetics), the latter to promote health (a pedometer to track 10,000 steps)—effectively two sides of the same idea. A 2016 report by the Center for Digital Democracy warns that government regulation of health-related wearable devices is patchy. A guidance document issued by the FDA, in July, states it “does not intend to examine low risk general wellness products to determine whether they are devices.” Which means that while those products aren’t currently classified as medical devices, they could be re-classified at some point.

“WHOOP today is not entrusted at diagnosing medical conditions,” says the company’s chief technology officer, John Capodilupo, “[but] it’s not that the data can’t do that, it’s that we’re not doing that.” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute and one of the leading voices on digital medicine, is doubtful of the medical relevance of WHOOP. “All of the metrics,” he says, “just really scratch the surface—none of them would be considered medical. They’re very pseudo-health.”

There is, however, evidence that WHOOP-like devices are medically relevant. In 2016, health data from wearables alerted Stanford genetics professor Michael Snyder to the fact that he had contracted Lyme disease (he was using seven different devices). Snyder noticed changes to his heart rate and blood oxygen levels, and sought antibiotics even before tests confirmed the diagnosis. “Here’s what is clear,” says Travis McDonough, founder and CEO of Kinduct, “performance data and medical data are connected by an insoluble meshwork that’s impossible to de-tangle.” (Kinduct is an athlete data management platform used by a range of pro sports teams across the Big Four leagues including the Vikings, Warriors, Red Sox and Sharks.)

Okung has been using WHOOP for the past four months, Kennard for about two. Both use it to track sleep, which UCSF sleep specialist Cheri Mah has demonstrated can be linked to better athletic performance. According to the National Institutes of Health, sleep is important for both mental and physical health. Kennard and Okung say they have generally performed better in training when their sleep and recovery scores have been higher.

“In theory, assessing performance could detect the presence of an impairment,” write Roberts and her co-authors, “even if the technique being used it not considered medical. For example, having a player wear a monitor while sleeping could detect signs of previously undiagnosed sleep apnea.”

And what will happen when a player who regularly wears WHOOP suffers a concussion? Although the device can’t currently be used in games, and thus won’t detect the actual moment of the concussion, it may well track sleep disturbances that hint of the injury. If a player doesn’t report a concussion, and a team doesn’t detect it, do the NFLPA and WHOOP now have a legal responsibility if the data makes them suspect it? And if a player decides to intentionally hide a concussion, will he simply just take off the band to avoid leaving clues?

What is playing out right now in pro sports may well foreshadow the future for the rest of us. “What we’re doing in terms of the wearable space and empowering these players as patients, as people, as employees, will translate into other industries,” Sansiveri says. According to Sansiveri, WHOOP won’t be the only wearable device worn by NFL players or partnered with the NFLPA.

By 2012, half of all companies with at least 50 employees had workplace wellness programs, according to a RAND Corporation study, and half of those that didn’t planned to introduce one. Wearables are increasingly part of those programs. In September 2015, Target bought 335,000 Fitbit devices for its staff as a way to spur fitness initiatives and reduce healthcare costs. Barclays offered to subsidize Fitbits for 75,000 staff members a month later.

Perhaps the biggest concern about wearables is that in the absence of comprehensive regulation and conclusive science, consumers may be putting too much faith in the abilities of wearable device companies to handle and analyze their data. “Until that grey area is closed,” Sansiveri says, “I think the most important piece is that the individual . . . is the owner and controls this information.”