#they send eo my asks but i never wasted my time on them i should post all the asks on jm i got 😴

[taehyungfirst]

terrorizing tumblr since 2023 🤭

[manggojooz]

Foolish Love, Fake Love (Part 10)

pairing: idol!Jungkook x bodyguard!reader

word count: ~2,590

genre: idol!au; angst; romance; drama; enemies to lovers sort of thing

warnings: some references to stalkerish behaviour

previous part: Prologue | Part 1 | Part 2 |  Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |  Part 6  | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 

summary: If all you can give me is a fake love, then I will be the fool to pretend that it is all true.

Taglist: @a-hopelessly-imaginative-girl @dollwithluv @sweetcheeksdna @yeontanie21 @peachygiraffe14 @jeontaes-world  @forvever-ddaeng @namjoonsslutakakoreanmanswhore @apurpledheart @ggukkieeee​ @witchxlove

You frowned at the smiley boy who awkwardly stood outside your door.  

“Uhh, you gonna let me in... or we gonna stand here all night?” Jungkook asked.

“Let... let you in? But why-” you were still only half-awake.  

Jungkook shoved his way past you in one swift move and you stumbled against the door slightly. Catching your balance again you quickly followed him into the apartment.  

“What are you doing here?” you asked as you trailed him into your own kitchen.  

“Ow, it’s so heavy, I can’t stand carrying it another minute sorry,” he lamented as he dumps the bags of groceries on the tabletop with a thump. “What’s this?” he asked as he peeked inside the bag that contained the chicken soup.

“Soup, I think...” you answered weakly.  

“You ordered it?” he asked.  

“No... I don’t know, some guy just came to deliver it...”

“Mmm okay,” he hummed mindlessly but melodically as he took the package away from the dining table and chucked it to the side of the counter. “Let’s see...” he murmured to himself as he took his handphone from his back pocket.  

“What are you doing here?” you asked again.  

He does not make eye contact with you but stares intently at his phone screen, “I heard you injured your shoulder from last night... I didn’t know and I thought...” he stops suddenly. He side-eyes you for a moment and notices that you were surveying him with that same frown. “Hmm,” he clears his throat rather forcefully, “I just wanted to say I'm sorry, I was overreacting because-”

“Because you thought Yeonjoo was hurt...” you completed his sentence.  

“I didn’t know you hurt yourself while protecting her, to be fair it wasn’t really visible you know...” he voice faded as he sounded a little relieved now that the topic has been broached.  

“It’s our job to get injured so that the people we protect won’t be. You don’t have to be sorry for that,” you replied matter-of-factly.  

“I know I know... but I shouldn’t have jumped to a conclusion and accuse you or shout at you” he still avoided looking at you as he muttered this.  

Sometimes apologies are like this – it does not necessarily make you feel better more so than it makes the other person feel better.  

“So... why are you here at this time?” you questioned a third time.

“Ah... Yuri is at another schedule with some of the hyungs and since I am free tonight so I thought I should come and make sure you ate dinner... at least...” he was still half-mumbling.

“You are here to make me dinner?” you asked incredulously.  

“Eo...” he answered affirmatively.  

---

Jungkook buying sacks of groceries just to make you dinner was the most unimaginable thing even just a day ago, but it was happening right this moment. You were too tired to quarrel with the idea and he had insisted that you get back to resting until everything was ready.  

You could hear a lot of tinkering, “ahh”, “ooh” and the occasional swearing from the kitchen even in your half-awake state. You had no idea how long this lasted but at some point you were awakened by a knock on your room door.  

“Dinner’s ready... are you awake?” his voice was soft but his tone was the usual.  

You pulled yourself out of bed and headed out to the dining table, marginally more alert than you were before.  

The spread that lay before your eyes was a wonder – a bowl of plain rice, some kind of stew that looked like it had a mix of unrecognisable ingredients in it and some kimchi.  

“Do I start with the soup or...” you wondered cautiously.  

“It doesn’t look that appetising but I promise you that it tastes fine and this is beef bone stew with abalone and what’s that thing...” he wasted no time trying to promote his masterpiece.  

You raised an eyebrow at him.  

“It’s some traditional herb... I’m sure it’s good for health” he continued.

He looked at you expectantly as you took a tiny sip of the stew with caution. It tasted... barely edible.  

“How is it? How is it?” he asked like a child who was asking for affirmation from his parents.  

“It’s nice...” you answered soullessly, “are you not having any yourself?”  

“Nope, it’s all for you” he answered very certainly and you weren’t really sure if this was all part of the bigger picture.

Be that as it may, you recalled how Yoongi felt bad for you at the hospital and did not want another one of them thinking that girls are too weak to do this job.  

“About last night... I just need to say it again, you don’t have to feel bad that I was injured and I can understand why you were worked up so you didn’t have to do this, but thanks anyway” you said while looking him straight in the eyes, maybe the drowsiness helps with boosting confidence.  

He sighed unintentionally. “Like I said earlier, I know I don’t have to feel bad about it but I was wrong to yell at you and I just feel bad because I assume that Yeonjoo was hurt while you were fine and... and... I guess she just looked really shaken and you looked fine so I thought...”  

“It’s ok, I get it. It’s just that we usually try our best not to show it even if we are hurt” you explained.

“If you don’t show it how do people know that you are hurt... what's the point of hiding it?” Jungkook mumbles endlessly as he walked back into the kitchen. He picked up the ladle still in the pot of stew, and you were about to continue the conversation but he took a sip of his own masterpiece.

“Bleh... oh my gosh... what’s this? This taste horrible! You should have told me honestly that it tasted bad... wow...” he shouted with his tongue half-hanging out.

“As you know, it’s not my forte to show how I feel” you replied sarcastically.

“Ugh I just wanted to make you something nice... what the heck is this even... you know what, this isn’t counted. I'll buy you something nice, what do you want to eat?” he lamented.

You were never a fan of bland soups and porridges anyway.

“Hmm... steak, buy me a nice a steak” you requested.

“You can eat that now? Or do you mean when you are better?” his eyes were round with curiousness.  

“It’s my rule that when the body is not feeling well, the mouth needs to eat even better than usual” you explained quite nonchalantly while taking another bite of the weirdly-seasoned stew. It seems like you were starting to get used to the taste of it.

“Ohhh, alright then. There is this place I know that’s really hard to get a spot at, I will use some connections and get you some really awesome steak. How about tomorrow, since it’s a rare that we don’t have any schedules... I mean if you are feeling better tomorrow...”  

You nodded somewhat eagerly as you continued taking another mouthful of the mysterious stew.

“Wow, you still gonna drink that?” his eyes were very round and large, clearly depicting his amazement by your ability to stomach his stew. “I’ll send you the time and address tomorrow.”  

---

The next day and an hour before seven.  

“Where are you going?” Yuri was shocked to see you all dressed up.

“I... uh... I’m going for dinner” you stammered. You were going to meet Jungkook at the restaurant at 7pm and the restaurant unfortunately has a casual formal dress code requirement.

“You are going for dinner? With who? Did you take your medicine?” Yuri nagged like a mother sometimes.

You thought for a long moment whether to reveal the truth but you decided to avoid it in prevention of any questioning that might ensure, “Wow, you are so naggy sometimes you know. I’m just meeting someone I know and yes ma’am I took my medicine, except that one painkiller that makes me really drowsy, I'll take that at night when I'm back alright?”  

Yuri throws a towel at you for calling her naggy and told you to hurry and get out of her sight.  

---

Thirty minutes to seven.  

Jungkook suddenly gets a call from Kijin; something must be up with Yeonjoo for him to be calling Jungkook out of the blue.  

“Hyung, what’s up? It's rare that you are calling me directly” Jungkook answered the call.  

“Jungkook-ah... I really didn’t want to bother you but could you come over... she wouldn’t come out or talk to anyone since last night.”  

---

Ten minutes to seven  

Jungkook stares at his watch, just as he took out his phone to type a message to you Kijin opens the door at Yeonjoo’s apartment and he rushes in.  

The door to Yeonjoo’s bedroom was shut tight. On the way here he was on the phone with Kijin the whole time and he explained hwo Yeonjoo had been receiving letters and calls from her longtime stalker.  

“Is that... from that bastard?” Jungkook looked warily at a paper box placed in one corner of the living room.

“Ya... I’m handing it over to the police later... it’s pretty gross inside I don’t think you should go near it” Kijin warned.  

“Why is he back? I thought he went quiet for a while...” Jungkook asked with a deep unhappiness.  

“Not sure, I think he’s been sending Yeonjoo some messages but she won’t speak to me now” Kijin answered with matching concern.  

Jungkook headed straight for Yeonjoo’s room. He carefully knocks on the door; there was no answer.  

“It’s me... are you inside? Can you open the door?”  

He was met with an eerie silence.

“Hyung... should we just go in?” Jungkook whispered to Kijin, his face fraught with worry.

“I think we have little choice now...” Kijing handed over a key to Jungkook.

The door creaked open slowly. Jungkook peered into the room that was pitch black. A narrow ray of light shone into the room from the opened door and he finally sees the silhouette of Yeonjoo crouched on the floor near the foot of the bedframe.  

He ran over anxiously, “Are you alright? Why didn’t you answer us?”  

Her hands scrunched the blanket that she had pulled over her legs. She was staring soullessly ahead but slowly turned to look at Jungkook.  

“He’s back. I'm scared” she uttered.  

“I know, Kijin hyung is reporting it to the police now” Jungkook whispers back.

“I’m tired, but I don’t dare to close my eyes” she whimpers.

“I’m here... I'll be here” Jungkook sat down next to her and she couldn’t help but lean against him.  

---

Five minutes past seven.

You stood at the sidewalk leading to the elegantly-furnished entrance of the restaurant. Unintentionally you looked around whenever you heard any sound of someone walking by. You had messaged Jungkook to ask if he was reaching but there was no reply.  

You did not even know whose name the reservation was under so you felt better waiting for him to outside. Time went by as you counted the number of times a car turned in but it wasn’t his car.  

The night grew colder as the time went by.  Eventually, you took a look at your watch.  

Ten minutes to 8pm – you decided to give Jungkook a call. The call went unanswered and you were not that surprised but now you became slightly worried.  

You made another call, this time to Sejoon.  

“Eo.. Y/N...” Sejoon picked up the call and sounded out of breath.

“Hi Sejoon, are you ok?” you asked out of concern.

“Yah yah I’m fine, just ran out to grab some thing for Yoongi and Hobi who are having a schedule now... do you need something?” Sejoon asked you back.  

“Uh... actually I am wondering if you know where Jungkook is now...” you started slowly, not sure how much to reveal about your plans with Jungkook.

“Jungkook? He’s not with you? I thought he told me he would be having dinner with you today,” answered Sejoon.

So, it is not much of a secret then. “Ah yes, he’s supposed to meet me for dinner but it’s almost past an hour and he’s not here, I tried calling him but couldn’t get him either,” you explained.

“What? Ok, he does tend to be late... but not this late... are you still waiting there?” Sejoon exuded his usual friendliness.  

“Yah, I’m kinda still waiting,” you replied.

“What? I'll try reaching him after I put down these things for Yoongi and Hobi? Let me know if he suddenly shows up,” Sejoon instructed helpfully before you hung up.  

---

Fifteen minutes past eight

Two police officers sat in Yeonjoo’s living room collecting as much information as they could from Yeonjoo and Kijin while Jungkook watched them from kitchen. It took him a whole ten minutes to coax Yeonjoo into speaking with the police after they arrived.  

Now that he had mostly done his part, he was letting go of the tension he had built up over the past hour and suddenly his stomach let out a low growl.  

He thought to himself that he could have been having some fancy steak now. “Right... would be nice to have some steak now... oh shit!” he suddenly jolted up and looked all over for his phone.  

---

Your phone suddenly pinged – a message came in.

“Hey Y/N, I’m so sorry, there was an emergency, I didn’t check my phone until now... you aren’t still waiting right? I hope you already ordered something... don’t wait for me,” the message read.

The cocktail of feelings left a bittersweet aftertaste. You were still trying to decipher what exactly it was. Was it worry? Was it annoyance? Was it disappointment?  

Then your phone rings. It was Sejoon.

“Hello? Y/N? Have you left yet?” Sejoon shouted through the noisy background noises on his end.

“Hey Sejoon, umm, yeah I got a text from Jungkook so I’m leaving now...” you muttered, trying to mask that bittersweet aftertaste  

“Oh he texted you? Great, did you already grab dinner? Do you need me to come down and settle the bill for you?” Sejoon enquired on 80% volume.  

“Uh no no don’t worry about me, I’m gonna go grab dinner when I get home...” you quickly cut in, “... but do you know what happened to him? He just said there’s an emergency... is he ok?”  

“Jungkook? Oh he’s at Yeonjoo’s place apparently. Kijin hyung messaged me just a while ago to give me the heads up,” Sejoon explained as you hear someone calling out his name on the other end, “I gotta go! You can text me if you need anything!”  

You hardly ever needed anything from anyone. You hardly believed that you deserved to need anything from anyone. And today was no different.  

Did he need to do this for you? No.  

Did you need him to keep his promise? No.  

Yet you stared down at the pavement clearly tasting bitterness this time. Of all the reasons, why did it have to be Yeonjoo?  

One of the staff at the restaurant must have observed you standing outside their door for the longest time.  

“Hi Miss, uhh... it’s rather cold out here... are you waiting for someone? Do you want to come in?” he offered kindly.  

there was a melancholic pause. “I was waiting for someone...” you replied with a wistful smile, “but not anymore, thank you.”  

[darkestwolfx]

Bolt from the Blue - Re-Review #42

“Isn’t that something else?”

Yes, because when has a giant, blue laser in the sky transmitting solar energy down to Earth ever been a good idea in the world of Thunderbirds Are Go? Oh no, nobody panic, this is a completely innocent piece of machinery.

Look at Parker getting all technical.

“Mr Kinnear!”

This poor man just can’t catch a break can he? He finally came to his senses and left behind the waste of space that is Fischler - honestly I wouldn’t have stayed working for that man as long as this guy did - only to end up with what seems like his sister?

And after all this, he ends up saying;

“This still beats working at Fischler Industries!”

That, can only tell us what an absolutely terrible employer Fischler was. Considering we don’t see him again I’m wondering if the GDF finally did something about him...

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. We have some... safety overrides to make sure nothing could possibly go wrong.”

And you were saying? Honestly, this show has jinxes everywhere.

Did Miss Edmunds remind anyone else of another familiar face that makes your skin crawl? I’ll leave you a hint.

So, I love this episode. It might partially be because there’s a panda in it - and yes, I work with pandas - but there are other reasons too and I’m sure we’ll get to them.

Firstly let us address the plane struck by ‘lightning’.

“The plane’s gilding but losing altitude. There are four in need of evacuation. Two pilots, one child.”

“That’s only three. Who’s the fourth?”

“Brains, you want to tell them?”

“It’s transporting a rare giant panda in the cargo bay.”

“Ok, four to save, one’s a panda.”

Scott - honestly the way he says that line gets me every time!

“Gordon can go with Virgil and help with the evacuation.”

“Yes! I’ve always wanted to see a giant panda up close!”

“That’s not likely to happen.”

“You’re crushing my dreams, Brains!”

“But it’s in a sealed, environmentally controlled container-”

“La la la la la - I can’t hear you!”

Honestly, weren’t Gordon and EOS made for each other? They could encourage each other to be like children forever.

And so now we’ve got to another of those reasons I mentioned - it’s Gordon’s facial expressions (throughout the whole episode). So, this is officially the world’s most disappointed face.

“They appear to be highly charged plasma bolts.”

Hoorah for that... Just what we need. Well, we’ve never had a rescue like it, that’s for sure.

“Can’t you see I’m in the middle of a pre-sentation?”

“Perhaps you should see what he wants.”

“Oh I’m sure it can wait. The safety commission will shut us down without your approval. So I want to make sure you approve.”

Yeah... definitely a relation to Fischler.

Brains, John already got what they were without you.

"A solar collector.”

Shall we send Thunderbird Three to investigate?”

“We may not have to. Lady Penelope’s already on board.”

“John, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Not sure it’s a pleasure to nearly be torn apart by plasma bolts, but hey.

“Hang on Captain, we’ll get you out of there.”

I think this is a speak too soon moment.

“We’re about to go critical.”

“Does that mean ka-bloom then?”

“ka-bloom”, I love that, it’s very Parker.

“Surely you have a way to reset something like this?”

“I’m a sales director, not an engineer! Did I mention we have three delightful colours to chose from?”

No you didn’t until now, and please don’t mention it again. I think the colour of the episode is set at blue anyway.

This episode really does get off to a dramatic run.

“Thunderbird One’s been hit!”

“Same here! We’re all going down!”

“No one panic! That bolt must have overloaded our circuit breakers. We’ll try rebooting.”

I love how Scott is completely in control here. I mean, it’s believable considering that TOS always made him out to be a honoured pilot. We saw him save Anderbad City with some pretty good flying to in ‘Fight or Flight’. Also, as the eldest we would expect him to have more experience and considering he’s taking over as leader from their dad, you would have expected him to have a pretty level head. This is a complete change however to his reactions in ‘Up from the Depths’ and a little in ‘Heavy Metal’ where he was reliant on others to help him fix his own ship and flight pattern. Either we’re meant to see that he learnt from these events, or that these are anomalies in the writing process.

“Gordon, flip the switch.”

“No problem, just like when your hairdryer blows a fuse at Tracy Island.”

“What? What do you mean my hairdryer!”

Another nice little TOS reference here - in ‘Operation Crash Dive’, Gordon saves Fireflash by treating it like fixing a fuse before he later fixes the TV on Tracy Island, claiming the same.

“Gordon has flight control. Try to keep us in the air!”

“Relax, if more plasma bolts hit, I’ll use your hairdryer trick again.”

“One time. One time that happened!”

Admittance is still admittance, Virgil. I love how Gordon can get things out of people by just being persistently annoying.

Just taking some air, ey, Virgil? Big brother to the rescue. I sense Scott likes doing that.

“Scott... little help!”

“I’m jetting down now. Try not to move.”

“Ready, step!”

“Got it! Thanks for the boost.”

“Any time.”

In fairness, I think this scene is a little piece of genius and it’s another scene that contributes towards my love of this episode. So, here come the reasons;

1. I think it would take an awful lot for Virgil to ask for help, even from his brothers. Even in ‘Skyhook’ and ‘Earthbreaker’ when Thunderbird Two was going down, he didn’t ask for help. He accepted it yes, but he didn’t actually ask for anyone to come and save him.

2. So, accidentally, Virgil ended up in danger of either falling into the ocean, or worse, being hit my a plasma beam. As a result of that, Scott’s comes to his rescue. Now this, puts Scott in danger too, because if either of them took a direct hit there would be bad things. But this isn’t even thought about or discussed, which totally fits in character (especially for these two). The level of reaction here is what matters, and the danger they throw themselves into for each other will be thought about later.

3. The worry and relief. You can tell they have shared worries about this and the dialogue projects this so, so well. In those five lines is everything we need to know about their emotional states.

4. It’s not often these boys have to rescue each other, but when they do (like with Alan&John in ‘EOS’, the instant response seems to be to cover up the fear; “Thanks Alan, I was really sweating there at the end.” “I noticed.” And this dialogue is doing the same thing. The clock is ticking, the situation is precarious and yet what we get is the use of simple words as part of a conversation meaning something completely different. The power of words is transformative, and whenever they can be used with double meanings, they carry so much more strength. People in real life often never say things as they mean. It’s like with death - we don’t often use the word in conversation, we’ll refer to it as something else, and this is exactly what the Tracy boys do - they face danger head on, and they skirt around the less nice possibilities, whilst knowing what they are potentially confronting the whole time, just without saying it. Because we all know once things are said, they are hard to take back.

5. Childlike brotherhood. The nature of this scenes very much takes me back to imagining a younger Scott and Virgil helping each other out with the simplest of things like learning to ride a bike. There’s a very clear, well-built, brotherly relationship shown in this scene, and that comes across so well, in the dialogue that could refer to nearly any other situation, than hanging for your life from a doomed plane only miles above the ocean with plasma bolts trying to hit you.

So, who was the mastermind behind this excellent scene? Elly Brewer is mainly known for writing episodes for the Tracy Beaker series’, which is a completely different kettle of fish to something like Thunderbirds Are Go. She wrote ‘Lost Kingdom’ which was another fantastic episode, and this is (unfortunately) the only other script she wrote for this series. I think this is an absolute shame as her handle on the brother’s was perfect, and her use of dialogue was perfectly balanced out to disguise/contain other feelings whilst commenting on the action. A someone who also has ambitions to be a writer, she is a real example of how to write character interaction. I believed every inch of this script - not only for this scene, but for every scene and every character - and okay, the acting brought it to life, but a good script often allows for good acting, so they come as a pair most of the time.

I’ve already mentioned above my feelings regarding Scott in this episode (who is portrayed again, as a really strong pilot, just like how Dan Berlinka wrote him in ‘Fight or Flight’.) I’m not trying to slate or show anyone up here, but I feel like compared to Ben Townsend, Brewer and Berlinka had a much better handle on the character of Scott Tracy. Don’t mistake me here, Townsend has written some amazing scripts for Thunderbirds Are Go - ‘Heavy Metal’, ‘Up from the Depths’, ‘Brains Vs. Brawn’ (and more I won’t list them all) - but interestingly two of the above I’ve mentioned, are also the two episodes where I felt the discrepancies with Scott’s skills as a pilot creeping in. I love both episodes for their content and some perfect moments, but it definitely feels like Townsend is uncomfortable or at conflict writing for Scott (in places, because he did give us some amazing moments like Scott&Ned, but I think there are definitely points where I question his decisions, especially against strong episodes like this and ‘Fight or Flight’ which put Scott very much in the driving seat). ‘Inferno’ -which I think is one of the best scripts written for this series, with it’s realism and excellent interactions - is also one of Townsend’s works for this series and (apart from maybe ‘Up from the Depths’) is what I consider to be his best work. It is interesting that Scott does not appear here though.

Remember that this is all only my opinion, and as always, I’m more than happy for you to disagree with me. That’s the whole point of discussions, and please feel free to discuss it (I will reply, although it might be at some point later in the week). Dropping it to my ask box may be easier than in the comments if you do with to have a full length discussion.

“Virgil, we’re almost at the water!”

“Release the plane and pull out. Repeat, pull out!”

Some of that quick thinking made towards an awesome rescue. I mean, the plane went down, but really who cares about that? There was nothing in it, and a plane can be rebuilt.

“Sorry Brains.”

“For what?”

“It’s time for you to go.”

Lady Penelope has way better aim than I do!

“Careful Parker, the walls are burning up!”

“You don’t ‘ave to tell me twice. hOh boy, hit’s ‘ot hin ‘ere. Blast! Missed.”

“Go on, Parker! I’ve got you!”

“Much hobliged, M’Lady.”

Parker is just a grade one badass. Look at him go! And Parker and Lady Penelope are an absolute perfect duo. Their teamwork is always spot on and their relationship is brilliantly explored in scenes like this. Lady Penelope has always been a considerate character, but high society (in the past at least) have always been assumed to have had a lack of care for those below them (I’m sure there were those who did, but history just records the majority). Lady Penelope has such care for Parker - probably as much as he has for her - and scenes like this are perfect for showing exactly what makes their partnership work. It’s very give and take, even when it seemed like Parker is just driving her around. She’s always got his back and it was lovely to have another scene showing that off.

Still think it’s “a perfect take your daughter to work day”? They definitely picked a day!

“Woah, I’m in Thunderbird Two!”

“The panda’s doing just fine. I heard him munching on bamboo.”

“Aww!”

Look at that thinking face of love and affection.

“Thank you for saving him.”

“You’re welcome. We love having satisfied customers.”

“Yeah, furry or otherwise.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Oh...”

“Thank you.”

“Can I go see Mr Panda now?”

“I think he’ll like you.”

“Really?!”

And this is the world’s happiest face! Gordon has achieved his dream. Having seen pandas myself, I can completely understand why it was a dream of his. Also, the Gordon and Virgil interaction (in this whole episode, but especially here where words aren’t even needed) is just absolute perfection!

And now to tie up some loose ends;

“I may lose my job over this, but I am not gonna lose my life!”

I think you might have lost that anyway. I mean, I think the GDF are gonna be putting her on trial for this.

“Oh now, isn’t that sweet! I didn’t expect a welcome back committee!”

“She realises that we’re arresting her, doesn’t she?”

“I don’t know.”

Don’t worry mate, I don’t think any of us would really know how to deal with her. She’s positively crazy.

See what I did there? Her annoying talking has rubbed off on me!

[baenxietydad]

If I Only Could, I’d Make A Deal With God // bdrptask

Task: Character Wound Word count: 1981

Wounding event: His wife’s murder

False beliefs: I should have died instead, I can’t protect the ones I love, I should have done more to stop it, the world is evil, I’m useless, I don’t deserve to be alive

TW: violence, suicidal ideation, off-screen previous suicide attempt , the immediate aftermath of a suicide attempt, Marlin never actually grieving properly, intense self-loathing, some not-so-great things to say to a suicidal person from one of his brothers (from a place of love but not the best words) 

Lie: I don’t deserve to be alive

Crack!

“너 미쳤어 (neo michyeoss-eo)?” The question of whether or not Mu-yeol was crazy followed the sting of his youngest brother’s hand against his cheek. Bae Jun-ha held a crumpled suicide note in his other hand as he stood across from his brother, seething. “What the fuck, hyung?”

The younger brother threw the note to the ground and crossed the remaining distance between them to grip his brother’s shirt by the collar.

“You want to die so bad? Fine. Try this again and I’ll save you- again - and then kill you myself for being selfish enough to do this to Nam-min.” Jun-ha hissed, shaking him until he released him with a push to the forest floor.

Mu-yeol didn’t get up. He didn’t deserve to.

“You’re so goddamn lucky Su-mi found your suicide note before eomma or abeoji did. What if our mother saw this, eo? Eo? What if I was at the Hollow clinic and she couldn’t find me in time? Were you just going to make your son an orphan because you feel sorry for yourself? Did you not think of him? Or of us? Or your wife?” As the questions flew from Jun-ha’s mouth, the venom gave way to desperation as he choked on his own tears.

“You must not have thought of her at all.” A beat. “So-yeon would never agree with what you just did.”

For the first time since his only healing-talent family member thwarted his near-successful attempt to end his own life, Mu-yeol looked up at his brother with watery eyes and shook his head. Don’t talk about her like you somehow know what a dead woman would say was what he wanted to say, but his mouth wouldn’t open. All he could do was cry without making a sound and pointedly not meet Jun-ha’s eye.

He was right of course, Jun-ha. He was selfish. He was stupid. He was worthless (Jun-ha didn’t have to say that one, it was true, he knew it was true). Why did he have to save him? 

“I should have known- I should have been a better shoulder to lean on.”

Mu-yeol shook his head again. You’ve done more than enough these past couple months. You all have. I wouldn’t have been able to take care of my son at all the second and third weeks if you all weren’t there.

There was so much to say but his tongue was paralyzed in his mouth.

“I should have known something was up when you suddenly started getting out of bed and walking around the house with that stupid, eerily content smile.” Jun-ha’s voice cracked and he clapped a hand over his mouth.

No, no, don’t cry for me, Mu-yeol wanted to say. I’m not worth it.

“Hyung, your son. He needs you.”

Mu-yeol let out a choked sob, the first sound he’d made since Jun-ha caught him mid-suicide, and shook his head furiously. “No, he doesn’t. He needs somebody better than me. I don’t - I shouldn’t be here. It should be her. She was worth so much more to the world than me.”

“You can’t bring her back to life by killing yourself, hyung.” Jun-ha said slowly, quietly. “And So-yeon- So-yeon would be heartbroken to see you now. She loved you. She’d want you to do your best for Nam-min.”

“The best thing for Nam-min. Would be anybody but me.”

“That’s not true. No, close your stupid mouth, it’s not true. You’re Nam-min’s favorite fairy in the world; he cried for you all day your first day back at the clinic. Remember how he ran through the whole house- Appaaaaaa! That little boy adores you, you’re all he’s got.”

“He’s a toddler, he loves me because he doesn’t know any better.”

“You bastard.” Jun-ha hissed. “Exactly. He is a baby who won’t understand why his father isn’t coming to get him ready for bedtime anymore, or why when he calls ‘appa’ nobody answers, or why his father isn’t coming to lay down with him at naptime, or why the kimchi tastes different because it’s halmoni’s and not appa’s, or why-”

“Stop!” 

Mu-yeol tucked his head between his knees as a broken sob tore through him so loudly that he wouldn’t have been surprised if the entire Hollow heard it even if they were a ways out from Hollow territory. He hugged his legs, his lungs finally ached from the water they’d taken on before Jun-ha pulled him from the river at risk of drowning himself, and he stared hard at the ground because that was all he deserved to see. He was as low as dirt. No, worse. Dirt was at least useful for giving nutrition to plants and growing food. He wasn’t even as good as a worm feasting on carrion.

Not even a worm would have done what he’d done.

He didn’t deserve his selfless younger brother, or his baby boy, or to be alive, but Jun-ha was right. Coming to a self-conclusion now would be worse than carrying on wasting the space that should be So-yeon’s. He should at least raise Nam-min well. It was the least he could do for taking up oxygen on this planet.

“Hyung.” Jun-ha said, gently shaking his shoulder. “Let’s go home and see Nam-min, okay? He should be home from playing with the other pixie kids soon.”

“N-not- not yet. I need to st-stop- stop crying first.”

“Take your time, hyung.” The younger brother said, crouching down onto the forest floor as well, wrapping his arms around his brother and holding him tight as if he didn’t trust him not to bolt for the river again if he let his guard down. “Take your time, then we’ll go see Nam-min.”

Lie: I should have done more to stop it

Mu-yeol tried hard not to blame Su-mi. It wasn’t her fault her big mouth was terminal. He almost wished she would have blabbed sooner about his suicide attempt, then maybe he wouldn’t have got comfortable and thought he was in the clear. No, she had to actually try to keep a secret for once, but fessed up to Won-shik who immediately told his wife, who told one of her friends, who told one of her friends, who told her mother, who told...his mother-in-law.

And when Mu-yeol unwittingly asked her and her husband to take Nam-min for a few days so he could think about job-hunting in human Daegu, he was answered with a scoff and a threat that - no, a promise that - if she took Nam-min, she would not return him. She had a litany of accusations against him, some of them true.

Unfit father, disappointment, poor match for my daughter from the start, blah blah, he’d heard it before. He knew. Nam-min probably would have been better with his in-laws, in hindsight. They had money. They would have sent him to school from day one. He could have lived in Korea with them and still learned English in school. Nam-min never would have had to see or think about his poor excuse of a father again.

But the second she reached for Nam-min, to take him from his arms, Mu-yeol yanked him back and hid him against his chest. My baby, my baby, was all his brain would say on repeat. Nam-min was his, So-yeon tried diligently for years to have their son because she wanted to raise a child with him and not with her mother. Nam-min was born for the two of them but with So-yeon gone, it was just him, and that baby was hishishishishis. Nobody loved Nam-min more, even if he was trash with wings.

So he fled Korea with only his middle brother’s phone number, to send him important items once he settled abroad with Nam-min.

It was lonely in Swynlake, and had yet to stop being lonely, but at least Nam-min was surely his here. Nobody knew how much of a disaster he was, they only knew the after and not the before. Nobody knew of that time he was at his lowest - and that he still...didn’t plan on having a natural death, just, not until Nam-min was grown and didn’t need a father anymore.

Sometimes, it wasn’t that bad. Like when Nam-min would climb all over him yelling ‘Appa! Appa, appa, appa, guess what? I love you!’ or when he’d pester him to pleeeeeeease let him help make the kimchi. When Nam-min was curled up to his chest for naps, or running around chasing baby mice, things were good.

When other fast-flying pixies made fun of his wing, however, things were not good.

‘Appaaaaaaa, they called me ugly.’

‘Appaaaaaaa, I’m not a real fast-flying fairy!’

‘Appaaaaaaa, I want to have normal wings like you.’

So-yeon would know what to say. It should be her here. Her, the fast-flying fairy, to raise their fast-flying fairy son and talk to him about how wonderful his lucky wing was and how great a kid he was, and how those other pixies are bullies and we don’t listen to bullies because they’re always wrong.

She should be here, and he should have been better at healing. If he was better, then she’d be alive and they would be in Korea where they belonged, and Nam-min would have never had to rely on just his shell of a father.

(Not true. She was bleeding too much from too many wounds, she’d been kicked in the head and had bleeding in her brain, she was dying faster than Mu-yeol could have healed her. He took away her pain, held and kissed her, and made her feel loved and safe even as she died from being murdered. So-yeon would say that made her husband a hero in that story. Her husband would never hear her side of the story though, because dead women don’t conveniently reach out to stop their living spouses from hating themselves. It doesn’t work like that.)

He wanted to go home so badly, every day of his life he ached for Korea, but he was too afraid. So-yeon’s parents didn’t know where he lived now. They couldn’t take his little boy away if they didn’t know where to find him. If he could just suffer and endure, and tolerate the loneliness, and learn not to stumble with his English, it would be worth it. If he had to ignore everything else that made him happy in order to have the biggest source of his joy in his arms, then that was okay.

It was the least he could do, for So-yeon, to be the one to raise their son like she would want. She’d want him with his father, she’d want her boys together. Since he couldn’t save her, he should at least do right by her. Even if at night, after he’d finally coaxed Nam-min into smiling again after being bullied, he curled up under his blankets and wept quietly into his hands because he didn’t know what to say to make his son feel better about his wing.

Executing fast-flying tricks perfectly wasn’t everything, and So-yeon would and did say as much. Learning how to be a good citizen of Earth was the most important thing, she’d say. And he could and did say those words too, but they meant nothing coming from a healing talent fairy.

He needed So-yeon. They both did.

[eurydice-khthonios]

Despite it all, Asra always watched. He always did.

Their old friends would pile into Asra’s apartment and sit on the couch in the living room, turn the T.V. on and wait for the livestream to start. They’d watch as the camera panned over the water, whether it was grey and choppy or motion picture perfect waves and a sparkling blue. They listened intently for her name, hands grasping hands. Despite it all they supported her. Asra especially.

They could’ve gone to see it in person, too, of course. But they would never have of done that.

Asra wasn’t ready. But he had to see this. This was the big moment she’d been dreaming of for years, he had to at least see it if he couldn’t be there for her.

They sit packed together like sardines. Blankets thrown over laps and bowls of snacks on the armchairs or on the floor. They lean in towards the screen, watching as she paddles finally towards a wave she thinks is big enough. Watch as the new drone system for filming the competitions takes the viewers all in closer, to get a better look at her as she stands up on the board to ride the wave. The wave curling over her before she rides ahead of it, cutting through the water like a god of the ocean.

The drone moves in, and this is the closest Asra has seen of her face in a long time. Her eyes are still striking and he goes quiet while she’s on screen. She never used to wear her earrings out in the water. But she also used to wear the earrings he gave her. He didn’t recognise those.

The drone seems to stagger in the air, swooping dangerously close to her. Scarcely missing her head. He worries for a moment if it will get caught in her hair, if it’ll hurt her. She looks at the drone, frustration clear in her face. Asra lurches forward as it staggers and swoops again, tumbling through the air and she swats it away before it can collide with her. Just before it hits the water it catches her slipping from the board, the wave crashing over her. Before the line cuts, they see the board go up and collide with the side of her face. The world stops in its tracks for Asra when he sees the board fly up. He knows how bad that injury could potentially turn out, he’s gone with her to hospitals to visit friends who’d been injured out in the water. He’s gone to one or two funerals with her where someone had died due to a surfing accident. Every time he’s prayed that nothing like that ever happened to her. When was the last time he prayed for that?

The water crashes around her and the screen cuts back to the cameras on the shore, the livestream cuts as lifesavers rush out on their own boards towards where she’d been.

“Wait-- Why’d the stream cut? Why’d they cut it?” Asra sounds panicked even to his own ears, he tries to switch the channel to a different take but they all seem to have cut the stream. A few news channels were covering the event, but the sight of them makes Asra’s stomach twist. Like all they could carry is bad news.

“Asra? Asra, she’s going to be fine. There’s no way she got hurt, she’s a professional,” Someone tries to tell him, he can’t tell who. Too focused on the news casters in front of him on the screen.

“-- An ambulance is on the way to recover the surfer Eosphorus Dogmatiko after the new drone live stream system caused her to fall off her board--”

“Oh no,” Someone else says, and almost immediately Asra gets off the couch. He grabs his keys off the table-- six years and he still hadn’t managed to take her spare inhaler off of the keychain-- by the door and is running for the parking lot before anyone can stop him. Julian stands up to go after him, Nadia catches his arm to stop him.

His heart is racing inside of his chest as he books it down the stairs and towards the underground parking lot. How bad could that injury be? He’s seen her with bruises before, with cuts and aches from fighting or accidents. He’s seen her friends with deep cuts from their boards when things go wrong and he’s terrified of the same thing happening to her.

They’d both been clear that they wouldn’t be in each other’s lives again. That they couldn’t, even if they wanted to. There was too much travelling, too much dedication to other more important things.

His hands shook as he tried to get his key into the ignition, missing the mark a few times before he got it in and started the engine.

They hadn’t been angry when they had broken up. By then they’d just been resigned to the fact their lives pulled them away from each other more than it pushed them together. They’d gotten over the anger individually where the other couldn’t see. Maybe that is where they went wrong.

He didn’t want to think on it now.  

The car started up and as he began to reverse out of his park the radio turned on. Already tuned over to one of the local stations. His grip on the steering wheel going tight when he hears Eos’ name again on the lips of someone who could never be as worried as he was about this.

‘The professional surfer appears to have of sustained injuries after a drone died during her heat. There are reports of injuries to the head, back, and legs from the board and impact against the seabed-’

“Shut up,” an angry mutter comes from him as he jerks the volume all the way down.

He didn’t even know where she would be. At the beach still? By the sounds of it they should be taking her to a hospital. What if there was water in her lungs? Or permanent damage to her spine?

What if she died?

When he first met Eos, she seemed like the kind of person who was always out of death’s reach. Out in the water or fresh out of it she exuded confidence as deep as the ocean she loved. They’d been younger when they’d met, still in high school and she wasn’t given the opportunity to surf professionally yet.

They’d barely noticed each other in school before they’d met at the beach. She’d come out of the water, illuminated gold under the sun and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She’d noticed the staring, laughed at his embarrassment and didn’t go back into the water. Too distracted with conversation, too invested in meeting him.

They’d been inseparable. For a time.

His chest tightened at the memory. Shaking himself out of it and jerking the steering wheel as he almost missed his turn off the main road. He had to stop thinking. He can feel the impact of his tears on his shirt. He hadn’t even realised he’d started crying.

She’s on the other side of the country and he’s wasting time being nostalgic. He needs to get on a plane, he needs to be there now. His phone starts ringing in his pocket but he’s busy, he pulls into the airport’s car park and runs. Not caring what happens to his car. Someone could take it, destroy it, but it wouldn’t matter as long as he reached Eos before it was too late.

His phone keeps ringing. It’s Julian. He runs into the airport, he just needs a last minute ticket. There was always one, always one. He just needs to get onto the plane. The world around him is muted and time doesn’t move right. The phone keeps ringing. It’s Nadia. Then Muriel. He hurries for a desk, any desk. Asks for tickets he’ll pay anything to get on a plane. There’s one in an hour, he has to hurry. It’ll take just over three hours to get there. He has to hurry. The phone keeps ringing until he turns it off and boards his last minute flight.

He doesn’t remember the last time he was this worried, or if he’s ever been this worried at all. It sends pains through his heart and his shoulders start to shake when they’re in the air. His face buried in his hands to hide it away from anyone nearby. Contorting as he tried to hold back all of his tears and his need to scream at the entire situation.

Asra shouldn’t go to her. They weren’t together, they didn’t talk. Surely she had friends who should go see her instead, even her brother might go see her. Eos wouldn’t want to see an ex-boyfriend. There were people who were bothered, and she bothered with.

They’d spent years together before they parted ways, he couldn’t just ignore it. He couldn’t ignore the fact she is hurt, and certainly couldn’t ignore the voice in the back of his head that kept telling him she’d probably already died or gone into a coma she wouldn’t wake up from.

“She’s not dead,” He mutters to himself, hands moving to the back of his head and gripping his hair. “This is Eos, nothing can kill her.” She’d always seemed invincible out in the water. It was her element.

He’d held her as she clutched him and cried, but not once did it seem like she could hold that same weakness when she was out in the water. No one could look at her and guess that she’d been unable to sleep for fear of her constant nightmares and that she could only sleep when she heard his voice on the phone.

He wondered how she dealt with her nightmares now. She’d always wanted to go surfing at night, maybe that’s what she did.

“Hey, are you alright?” A voice startles him out of his thought cycle, whites of his eyes tinged red when he looks up to see a concerned face. His vision is blurry, he can’t tell who it is that’s speaking to him but he talks before his brain can have the chance to tell him to shut up.

“My wi-” Not his wife, he never proposed, why didn’t he? “Girl-” They’re not together anymore and he can’t keep forgetting that. “I…” He takes a deep breath and it shudders through him. He swallows, trying to clear the saliva from his mouth. “Someone dear to me was in an accident today, I- I’m flying to see her.”

The stranger offers a hushed collection of condolences before awkwardly ignoring him. Maybe he prefers it that way. Being left alone would be preferable to spilling the beans on how he was running after an ex he’d left so long ago. That she probably wouldn’t even want him there. Want him at all. Even after all his time, that thought broke his heart.

The last time they’d spoken to each other had been by chance. A coincidence that they ran into each other. They barely said hello before Eos brushed passed him. He’d wanted to reach out, to take her hand. Asra just wanted to know how she was, if she’d been okay because she looked too thin. She was too far when realised he just wanted to hear more of her voice. So he let her leave. He took it as a sign, to move on.

Yet, here he was on a plane heading right for her as soon as she was in trouble.

It seems he hadn’t moved on after all. Always ready to jump right back into the fire for her. If he were to be honest with himself, there was no place he’d rather be if he was just allowed to see her.

He didn’t need anything in return.

It’s three and a half hours of waiting. Of being unable to check for news and of chastising himself for doing this on a whim. ‘She wouldn’t want me there,’ he thinks to himself as the plane begins to land, ‘She’s moved on.’

He doesn’t even know what hospital she’s in. The plane lands and the world is a blur as he rushes out the front, turning his phone back on so he could call a cab or see if there was any news on where she’d been taken. He had plenty of missed calls and texts to open. But all he wanted was to figure out where Eos was.

A news article told him eventually, and it was all he could do to keep himself patient and wait for a taxi as opposed to running there on foot.

Despite it all, he’s a little excited to see Eos again. Perhaps he thinks it’ll be a fairytale reunion, he’ll be there for her in a dark hour and they’ll remember why they loved each other in the first place. Perhaps he will have flashbacks of every time she’s laughed, of her ‘I love you’s, and the way her eyes would light up when she found something she thought he’d like. And she would have her own flashbacks. Of her favourite moments with him, of how he had made her feel. Maybe he just wanted this to be a catalyst to fall in love again. A purely selfish desire.

“Why am I doing this?” He whispers to himself in the back of the taxi. After all these years how can he still love her this much? After knowing that their lives, their schedules, their goals were forcing them apart. How could he keep loving her when for all he knew she had not done the same?

This might not change a thing between them, this might make her think worse of him. He’ll risk that to make sure she’s okay, that she knows she’s loved. For all he knows her family could be with her, in truth he knows how unlikely that is. Her brother, should they be on good terms this month, was probably off doing his own thing. And Eos would rather die than let her parents into the same hospital room as she was. If she’s conscious enough to stop them.

If she’s alive.

The thought stabs through his stomach, slicing at his insides. This was Eos, she had to be alive. She could face down a shark and survive. She could face down a pack of sharks and come out with bruises at worst. That’s what he always thought. Even she wasn’t indestructible it seemed.

He pays the taxi and hurries towards the hospital’s reception. He needs to find out where she is, what room she is in and what is happening to her. His palms getting sweaty as he walks up to the desk. What could he say? That he was an ex-boyfriend who flew across the entire country just to make sure someone he hadn’t spoken to in years was alright? If they were in their right minds they’d call the police.

That leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

He’ll have to make something up. A concerned friend, a family friend. Something reasonable.

He puts his hands on the edge of the desk, palms against the side and fingers bent on top of it.

“I’m looking for Eosphorus Dogmatiko’s room, I was told she’d be here?” As he says it, he worries that she isn’t that an online article was just guessing at where she would be. Or that she’s told them of him for some reason so that they wouldn’t let him in.

“Your name and identification?” The receptionist holds out a hand, the other tapping on the computer in front of them. He can only hope it’s the pull up the room number.

“Oh- Asra, I’m her bo-” He pauses, and pretends that it’s so he can dig through his pocket for his driver’s license. He just can’t help himself, can he. He can’t let go. But he’s already committed to saying it. “Boyfriend, sorry, here.” He holds the card out.

“Hm,” The receptionist looks it over and hands it back to him, he holds his breath while he waits. Hoping to pass their inspection. “She’s on the third level, two-eight-five, wing A.”

He books it for the elevator before his mild lie can even have the chance to be called into question. The elevator doesn’t move fast enough. He needs to see her now. She has a room, she can’t be dead and the receptionist hadn’t said she was on death’s door either.

“Please, please, please, please,” He murmurs and taps his fingers impatiently against the wall of the elevator. “Come on, move faster.” He needs her alive and within his sight like he needs air right now. He feels guilty every time he thinks it, but it’s true. She’s still too important. She’s always been too important. He’s been told that.

The elevator opens and he’s out in less than a second, halfway down the hallway looking for signs to indicate where he should go.

When he finds her room, his breath is taken away as he stands in the doorway. Her back is facing away. But he could recognise the black to purple hair anywhere, also the number was on the door which helped tremendously. She’s sitting awkwardly, and he can see through the back of the hospital gown the stitches along her back. They looked bad, just barely centimeters away from where her spine would be. Her ribs showing more than he was used to.

He steps into the room and he sees she’s holding a mirror, sees the slight shake in her shoulders. He can’t see her face. He knows she’s crying.

“Eos?” His voice is soft as he steps closer. He doesn’t know what to say, he didn’t think of it on the way here. Yet, seeing her alive and moving lifted a terrible weight off of his heart. She was alive.

She turns partially towards him, mirror clutched to her chest now. As though she can hide whatever she was looking at. He almost expected her to get angry. He knew she had a temper sometimes. The way her brother and her argued over the smallest of things showed that. When she was angry she had a mouth that could make a sailor blush. He loved it.

She isn’t angry. Nowhere near it. She sees him and he sees her face start to scrunch up into her crying face which she always claimed she hated. He steps closer and she reaches her hand out for him.

He says nothing and keeps his arms low beneath her injuries when he sits down on the bed beside her and hugs her. Keeping her face mostly turned out of his sight. Her fingers clutch at his shirt in a way so familiar it hurts. She’s smaller than he remembers. Or seems that way in this hospital room.

“Asra,” her voice is small, as small as she seems and as small as she feels. There is hurt in her voice, disappointment, heartbreak all aimed at herself. But relief too. Relief in saying his name and holding him. This day was supposed to be her day, the day she got to perform at her utmost best in front of her father and show she never needed him to do any of this. Instead, a new way to film the events had ruined that.

“I’m here, habibti,” He murmurs into her ear through her hair. “I’m here, I’m here.” She shudders and shivers against him. He pulls back from her, and he can feel her unwillingness to let go so he won’t see her. His hand moves up to her chin, holding it gently between his thumb and finger. “Show me, let me see.”

“You don’t want to,” Her own hand moves up to cover half of her face, fingers spread over her eye socket. When she touches her wound, she hisses. Almost retracting her hand before letting it float just above her skin. “You don’t want to see it.”

He lets go of her chin to take hold of her wrist, not pulling or pushing her hand away but just holding it. There’s something she doesn’t want him to see. Obviously, no points for guessing that. Eos has shown him she can be vain when it comes to her own appearance, but scars could heal. How bad was it?

“Eos, please,” He hates seeing her like this. She used to project an energy that made her seem bigger than life, louder than anything. But she’s too small now. The light dimmed. He understands. She spent years working up to this moment, and now she was injured and faced with someone she’d left behind and been left behind by. He shouldn’t have come, but no one else was here.

She looks about ready to cry again, but she takes a deep breath and steels herself. Her hand lowers and she tilts her face towards him.

The original injury, from her board, cut across the left side of her face. The skin discoloured in reds, blues, and purples, the bruising already beginning. Along with some swelling around the wound. The worst part might be the way it cut across her eye. Just barely sparing her from blindness or losing the eye completely. It cuts down her jaw, her neck, her collar bone. It would scar, with the amount of flesh that’d been cut out by the impact. A permanent reminder of today.

“It’s awful isn’t it?” Her voice cuts through his shock with acrid bitterness. Not aimed at him, he knew when it was after more than a few incidents of him purposely eating her food she was saving. “Just what I always wanted, isn’t it?”

“Habibti,” He cups her uninjured cheek in his hand and before he can think about it he kisses her forehead. His heart skipping when he realises what he did. “I-”

“Six years,” She interrupts, pulling back from him and wrapping her arms around herself. Knees coming up to curl slightly, but by the expression on her face the wounds on her legs and back protest that action. “Six years and this is how you get to see me, bruised and bloodied and a fucking failure.”

“Eos, that’s not-”

“Don’t even start, Asra, how many months did we spend apart when we were together for me to even start on my way to get to here, along with those six fucking years without seeing you at fucking all just to end up wiping out?” He sees her fingers tighten and clench. Gripping at herself, nails digging in. He brings his arms around her shoulders and neck, pulling her against him.

Yes, there had been months of barely seeing her and having her main focus be her surfing career. And he’d hated those months. He didn’t need all of her attention, just some of it.

“I fucked it all up. I wasted too much time on this fucking cunt competition shit. I lost my friends, I lost all my other opportunities, I lost you,” She takes a deep breath and her arms unwind from herself. Hands instead just gently pinching the hemline of his shirt. “I lost you and now you’re here or I’ve got a real bad concussion. I have nothing to show for everything I lost. Nothing but some dumbshit scar.” She huffs, shaking her head slightly. “I don’t even know why you’re here, or how you’re here. You’ve got better things to do, Asra.”

He runs his hands through her hair, carefully detangling it before he responds.

“I was watching the livestream of the competition,” He’d been waiting for it the entire week, oddly nervous, excited, and hesitant all at the same time. “I saw what happened and I just- I knew I had to make sure you were alright.” She pulls back from him, and as he speaks he plays with her hair. Unable to not be familiar enough to touch her like this. “I just… Christ, Eos, I thought you might be dead. I got on a plane and flew here, I knew I just couldn’t live with myself if I stayed away after seeing what I did.”

Her expression falls as he talks. Moves on from bitter and anger at herself. For the first time in a very long time, he sees in her eyes the exact look she gave him every time he said he loved her.

“I’m alive,” She says and closes her eyes. When she smiles, he sees the beginning of the light she had start to come back. “You were watching me.”

“I always watch you.”

Six years, and it was too easy to fall back into simple small touches. Her hand rests on his thigh, fingers just creeping on the inside of his leg and he brushes hair away from her face, twisting it around his finger. He should stop touching her, he shouldn’t be so close or even be here at all.

“I always watch you,” He says again, voice soft. “Every single time.”

He doesn’t know who leans forward first, but the kiss they share is soft and chaste. He can taste her blood when he licks his lips after they pull away, but it’s the least of his concerns. They don’t know what to say to each other after that, they just wait in silence.

It’d been six years since they’d last seen each other, both of them knew exactly why it hadn’t worked out the last time they were together. But they still have feelings for each other. Six years and not a sign of life from either one, and they still loved each other.

He walks her out of the hospital when she’s discharged. They don’t hold hands, but her little finger links with his and right now it’s the closest they should get for a while.

“They’re probably worried about you, y’know,” She says finally as they wait for a taxi to arrive. He doesn’t say anything. He knows he should’ve told someone, Muriel or Nadia, that he was going on a spontaneous trip across the country. And judging by the texts and calls he’d gotten they were worried, or pissed, probably both. “You should tell them where you are.”

“I know,” He rubs the back of his neck with his free hand, guilt building in his stomach. “I’ll get you home first.”

They stand there until the taxi comes. Not daring to say a word more. Afraid that if they do, they’ll commit to something they realistically can’t. Asra doesn’t want to tear Eos away from her surfing. Eos doesn’t want to pin him down when he’d rather be somewhere else. Just like last time.

They keep quiet until they’re at her apartment door, she reaches to open it but she hesitates. Hand shaking slightly.

“Am I going to see you again after this?” She asks, keeping her face bowed and body towards the door.

“What?”

“I- Asra, am I going to see you again after you go? You came here to make sure I didn’t die, and I’m fine. I- I don’t want to think that- I don’t want to think that I’ll have you again just to not see you again when you go back home.” He reaches out, hesitating before he wraps his arms around her waist. Avoiding touching her back but hugging her all the same. When they’d broken up, despite his resignation to it, he was devastated. He wanted to take it all back, but she’d seemed just as sure about it as he thought he’d been. He’d wanted a second chance, and didn’t get one for six years.

Now he got one, but only because she’d gotten hurt. What if she hadn’t? Would he have just watched it like any other competition, looking on from the sidelines and never taking the leap to see her? Or, what if he had taken the chance to go see her, would it have been like this?

He could take another chance right now. To solidify it all, to show that he could put the effort in again. He could let her know right now that he was going to show her that he loved her again. The idea of it frightens him as much as it titillates him.

He retracts an arm and puts his hand on her shoulder before spinning her around. He hasn’t had the chance to kiss her properly in six years, and the one at the hospital hadn’t been enough. Their teeth clash when he kisses her and he shivers when he feels her tongue against his. She’s crying again, he can taste the saltiness of her tears. Her nails dig into his shoulders to keep him close.

He doesn’t know if this will last like he wants it to. But he wants to try loving her again, he wants to do it properly this time.

And she does too.

[rufousnmacska]

Child of Peace Epilogue 5 - Legacy

fanfic master list with all previous chapters

full story on ao3

This is it people, the final chapter of “manorian adventures post eos”. I actually wrote this part a while ago, before ToD and before half of my story was even planned out. This chapter was a special request from @itach-i so she’s been waiting a long time to finally read it! Honestly this wouldn’t have gone very far without her and @propshophannah feeding my manorian obsession, helping with story ideas, and beta reading. So, THANK YOU trash-mates!! Ok... here we go.

(Apologies if the formatting is bad on mobile. As usual, there is a keep reading break but who knows if/when it shows up.)

Easing her way out from under the covers, Manon prayed she’d make it in time. And without waking anyone up. The dog at the foot of the bed raised her head in annoyance, but the other one curled tightly against Dorian’s legs didn’t move. Good dogs, she thought, narrowing her eyes at them. For once.

As soon as her feet hit the floor she rushed to the bathing chamber, holding a hand over her mouth. Reaching the privy just in time, she hunched over, vomiting up everything she’d eaten for dinner. The nausea had been getting worse since it first made an appearance a couple of days ago. Through sheer force of will, avoiding most food, and a deep hatred of being sick, she’d staved it off. Until now. The few bites of roasted lamb she’d tried at dinner had been a mistake.

The thought of the greasy meat set off another round of vomiting.

Closing the lid, Manon rested her head on it and took a few deep, steadying breaths. Trying to think about anything besides her roiling stomach, she went over a list of things she needed to work on that day. Abraxos needed some attention paid to his iron nails and tail spikes. There were several changes to the laws in the Wastes that needed her signature. Asterin was making plans for the birth of her second witchling.

Manon froze. Witchling. She’d been so busy lately that she hadn’t noticed if she was late. Her bleeding was often irregular, and as witches only had it two or three times a year anyway, it was easy to lose track. That didn’t even take into account the distractions of running a kingdom. Counting backwards in her head, she realized she should have had it four weeks ago. Her stomach churned. Oh gods…

Lifting the lid, she threw up again.

Dorian woke to a chorus of low pitched whimpers. Rolling over, he saw Manon’s side of the bed was empty and both dogs sitting at the closed door to the bathing room. The sound of Manon throwing up brought him fully awake and he hurried from bed. Nudging the dogs out of the way, he opened the door to find her sitting on the floor, head in her hands.

“Manon?” He knelt down next to her, his voice deep with worry. He knew she hadn’t been feeling well, but this seemed rather serious.

She shook her head, then tried to vomit again, but there was nothing left. Loose strands of hair stuck to her sweaty face and she looked ashen. He chilled the air and made a slight breeze to cool her.

“Manon?” Still no reply. “I’m sending for a healer.” Chaol and Yrene were away, but she’d brought in many gifted healers to work in the castle.

He stood and she grabbed his hand, pulling him back down next to her. “No, Dorian. It’s ok.”

“It’s obviously not ok,” he growled. But she refused to let go of him. “Let me at least get you some water.”

Manon agreed and released his arm. After years together, he’d never seen her like this. Injured, yes. Many times in fact. Though, thankfully, not often since the end of the war. He returned with the water and watched her carefully drink. As he pulled her hair back and continued to cool her down, he realized he’d never seen her sick with an illness.

“Better?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding weakly. She shifted to lean against the tub, resting the back of her head on the rim.

“Do you want to go back to bed or stay here?” She still looked pale, and a little shaky.

“Maybe the couch,” she replied in a hoarse voice.

Dorian picked her up and carried her into their sitting room. The fact that she didn’t protest worried him. Usually, regardless of the injury, she would have insisted on walking by herself.

She was shivering a bit now, so he switched off his ice magic and moved the couch closer to the fire. He sat, then gently lay her down, pulling her legs to rest on his lap. The dogs jumped up and nestled against her. She rested a hand on the closest one and closed her eyes. He watched her for a while, then realized he hadn’t sent for a healer. Thinking she was asleep, he slowly lifted her legs and stood.

“I don’t want a healer,” she said, eyes still closed. “Not right now. I’ll see one in the morning.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked, sensing something was off.

Manon opened her eyes and he saw the tears gathering, about to spill over. “I’m late, Dorian.”

It took him a few moments to process what she meant. “You’re… “ His eyes widened with understanding. “You think you’re pregnant?”

She nodded as her tears finally began to run down her cheeks.

Dorian didn’t know how to respond. Manon was clearly upset about the possibility, and that knowledge brought a sharp pang in his chest, swift to come and swift to disappear. He turned to stare at the fire, letting the news sink in. 

They’d talked of having children of course. How could they not with the growing pressure to produce an heir. But with the joining of their kingdoms and the never-ending rebuilding from the war, they’d kept putting it off.

His emotions whorled inside him, too many to settle on a single feeling, a single reaction. His worry prompted him to say, “And you don’t want to be.”

She sniffed and dried her eyes. “I don’t know. It’s just...” she trailed off. “We were going to wait. With your magic making you long-lived, I just thought we had time to decide. And plan.”

He felt his own confusion double, finally understanding that some of it was coming from her. All their barriers were gone and he felt everything through their connection. Her sadness, fear, insecurity... Even small, hidden sparks of hope and joy. There was something else hiding within her storm of emotions, but he couldn’t hold on to it.

Dorian leaned over and kissed her, brushing her hair around her ear. “I know, Witchling. I’m honestly not quite sure what to think myself. No one can ever really plan for this, regardless of how hard they might try. You need some sleep. We’ll see a healer in the morning and go from there.”

She nodded, though he knew neither of them would get any rest. She knew it too, but they sat together watching the fire crackle, each trying to figure out how they felt about having a child.

Manon eventually shut her eyes, hopeful that pretending to sleep would bring it about, but the turmoil in her mind and body kept her from it. At the first mention of heirs several years ago, she had simply blocked it from her thoughts. She spoke all the requisite pleasantries when forced to by nosy nobles and councilors. But inside, she never let herself dwell on the possibility of having a witchling. The moment she did, she knew the matron’s voice would threaten to take over. So Manon continued pushing it away, pushing it into some distant, unknown future.

And now, it appeared that future had arrived.

Giving up the attempt to get rest, she sat up and pulled Dorian’s arm around her shoulders, leaning into his chest. He was awake, and not surprised that she was too. “I’m afraid, Dorian. There is no way I will be a good mother. Not with my upbringing.”

She sensed his spike of anger at the veiled mention of the matron. His hatred of her rivaled Asterin’s, which was no small thing. And although the evil had been destroyed long ago, her influence on Manon was still felt by both of them. Some memories had faded with time, only for others to resurface. New ones sometimes appeared as if out of thin air.

Yrene had helped her understand how that could happen, how she could have forgotten some of the things the matron had said and done to her. She’d explained that it was possible for people to force bad memories into hiding, until a time when the mind was better able to deal with them.

The healer had also given Manon a book to read. A passage from it had been running through her head ever since she’d made the connection between her bleeding and nausea. It claimed that abuse could become a cycle, passed from one generation to another.

“In what ways do you think you’d be a bad mother?” Dorian asked, pulling her back from her darkening thoughts. “I strongly disagree of course. But I admit that I’m biased,” he continued with a smile.

This was something she so loved about him. She knew he would think she was wrong, being too hard on herself.

“You are biased. Incredibly so,” she said with a quick smile.

He never dismissed her feelings though, especially the negative ones. Instead, he would get her to talk through them. And often, it forced her to sort them out logically and come to the realization that she was, in fact, probably being too hard on herself.

But this… This wasn’t a case of her feeling badly about how she’d settled a land dispute, or regretting losing her temper with a guard. This involved a child. Their child. Yes, she was the Queen, and the lives of their subjects depended on her and Dorian. But this felt so different. This was more. This was taking a clean slate and molding it into a totally new person.

She laughed dryly and shook her head. “There’s just no way.”

“You said that. Now tell me why,” he demanded.

Manon sat up and glared at him, her patience suddenly wearing thin. “Because I never wanted a witchling. Ever. Because if I’d had one, she would have been taken from me or used as leverage or turned into a monster herself. So I never let myself even consider it. Because I have no idea what a mother even does, how one should act. Because I don’t think I can handle the pressure. And if I can’t, will I resort to the shit I do know about raising a witchling? Will I become the matron?! And what about the bad days when I can barely get out of bed? When the darkness takes over. How can I put a child through that? What if she has that problem herself? I couldn’t bear seeing her suffer. Especially from something that came from me.”

She felt the tears drip off her face, not knowing when they’d started again. Dorian wiped them off with his shirt sleeve and kissed her forehead.

"Manon, I... I didn’t realize you felt all of that,” he said quietly. Then, with a rough laugh, he added, “I guess I didn’t have the best role model for being a father.”

This made her feel worse. She’d thought only of herself.

That’s not unusual. Yourself is all you ever think about. If it weren’t for that bond, he’d have left you a long time ago.

Manon squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists at the unwelcome intrusion of old, hateful thoughts.

Listen to me Manon. Dorian’s voice slid into her head through their bond. Not to it. It lies. I don’t. I love you.

She felt him rest his head against hers, then focused on the words as he repeated them.

A while later, when she felt more steady, she opened her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. “And forgive me. I didn’t consider your past.” 

She saw his face cloud over with some memory, there and gone in an instant. He rarely had flashes into bad memories anymore, having learned tricks to overcome the words or things that might bring them crashing to the forefront. His nightmares had also dissipated. But they still happened. Their infrequency was almost worse in a way as they never knew when one would hit. He could go months without one, then the next night, he’d moan and thrash around until she managed to wake him. He’d usually spend the remainder of the night at his desk rather than try to go back to sleep.

Waving away her apology, he said, “I’m not sure that I’d make a good father, so I guess we’re in the same boat.”

After a long silence, Dorian said, “Maybe even people who had good parents feel this way though. They may have a head start of course.” Manon huffed in agreement. “But I imagine they still have the same anxieties. Wisdom doesn’t get passed down automatically from our parents. It comes with experience.”

“Which we have none of,” she interjected.

“Yes, but we know plenty of people who do.” Dorian rested his head atop hers. “Perhaps Aven could come and live here for a while? Anielle isn’t that far for her. She could return to the Maze whenever she wanted. Although she may have to fight a few other witches for babysitting duties...”

Manon smiled. Anielle is close to the Wastes, she thought.

Its proximity was one of several reasons they’d set up court here. Rifthold had been leveled during the war, so Chaol offered them his large keep and lands on the western edge of the White Fangs as a temporary seat for the throne. Not long after, Dorian had decided to demolish the castle in Rifthold, declaring it too costly to repair. Privately, he’d told Manon that he had no desire to return to it and relive past memories. He ordered the rubble be repurposed for houses and shops, and they’d lived here since, the town quickly on its way to becoming a full fledged city.

Aven, the Thirteen and Annabee, friends both human and witch... She’d gained so much support over the last few years, much of it coming from the man holding her now. Manon took a deep breath and released it, so grateful for Dorian, and feeling a little more at ease with whatever life-changing news came their way tomorrow.

They’d fallen asleep on the couch and Dorian was now paying the price for it. The dogs’ whining woke him up and he stood and stretched, groaning at his sore back.

Manon stirred, asking drowsily, “What time is it?”

“Early. Your dogs need to go out.”

“They are your dogs, Princeling. Especially when they need to be taken out,” she grumbled, pulling a blanket up over her shoulders.

Shortly after the dogs had arrived as a wedding gift from Aelin, he’d shocked everyone, including himself, by getting into the habit of waking up early and taking them for a walk. He’d come to enjoy the time to think through his plans for the day. And it had done wonders for the dogs’ energy levels.

Manon exaggerated her dislike for them – he often caught her fussing over them as if they were Abraxos. He had to admit they were hellions, which made sense that it was Aelin who’d chosen them. Abraxos seemed to enjoy getting them riled up around Manon, making himself look a little better in comparison. But Dorian had seen the wyvern nuzzling the dogs too. Just like his rider. Still trying to disguise their warm hearts behind a cool exterior.

He pulled on a jacket and sat to put his shoes on, the dogs running around excitedly. “I’ll stop and send a healer up on my way back. How do you feel this morning?”

“Not too bad,” she said, sitting up slowly. “I’m hungry, but afraid to eat anything. I still feel a little shaky.”

He kissed her cheek. “I’ll be back soon.”

Dorian took a shorter route this morning and stopped in the healing rooms. Luckily, the midwife was on duty, so he didn’t have to ask for her personally. Gossip was inevitable, regardless of how trustworthy the castle staff were. But he was glad to avoid not calling attention to what was going on.

By the time he returned, Manon had bathed and was sitting at her desk. It was a sight he still hadn’t gotten used to, even after several years of ruling. She’d taken to this type of leadership quickly, just as he’d known she would. It usually took her a bit longer than him to get sick of the mindless paperwork, but she absolutely hated the meetings. All that bickering and debating... He didn’t particularly care for them either, but he preferred that to sitting at a desk and signing papers.

“The midwife is on her way. I’ll get cleaned up.”

Manon smiled, absently petting the dog now sitting in her lap. Dorian rushed to bathe and get dressed. He didn’t want to miss the healer. He also didn’t want to risk letting his mind wander too much. He wanted children with Manon, bad timing or not. But he wouldn’t push her into something she didn’t want or wasn’t ready for. And despite that desire, he still had his own doubts.

He hadn’t been trying to distract her by bringing up his father last night. Although he hadn’t suffered the same way Manon had, he certainly had nothing to draw upon when it came to good parenting.

Except, that wasn’t exactly true. They had more than just Aven to reply upon. Chaol and Yrene were wonderful parents. As were Asterin and Gavriel, Catrin and Alastair, Fallon and Annabee. They had support and good advice all around them. The thought sent a warm jolt through him, boosting his confidence.

When he returned to their bedroom, Manon was sitting on the bed, her back to him. Dorian looked around for the midwife. “Did I miss her? I tried to hurry.” She didn’t answer. He rushed around to where she sat. “Manon? Was she here? What happened?” She didn’t answer, just stared at the wall. Hesitantly, he asked, “Are you pregnant?”

She shook her head, her golden eyes bright with tears. “Oh Witchling. I’m sorry,” he whispered, sitting next to her and pulling her into his arms. They sat like that for a long time. He hadn’t noticed his own tears until she pushed away to say something and brushed them from his face. He tried to smile, but it was too hard.

“How quickly we both became attached,” she said softly. “It’s just a stomach illness. Several people in the castle have had it this past week.”

“What about your bleeding? Is something wrong?”

Manon sighed. “No. Just stress she thinks. I’ve never been regular. I just thought…”

“The combination of that with being sick,” he finished, nodding.

“I asked Tilda to wait. There was more I wanted to talk to her about.”

“Let’s go.” He took her hand and pulled her up.

Tilda was in the sitting room, tossing a small ball for the dogs. As Manon and Dorian entered, the older woman stood and bowed. She smiled apologetically at Dorian, who thanked her for coming up so quickly.

Manon sat down and said, “This was a bit of a surprise for us. So I wanted to talk to you about…” She trailed off, unsure of how to phrase her question.

“Prevention?” Tilda asked.

“No,” Manon said. Dorian turned to look at her, confusion on his face. “I’d like to know if there’s a way to determine how easily I could get pregnant. Assuming that I can,” she finally said. “I’m not sure if that’s possible. I’ve always had problems with my bleeding.” She touched the scar that crossed her stomach. “And I’ve had some injuries.”

Tilda nodded. “The exam I just did showed no signs of an internal problem, Your Majesty. There are many other reasons a woman may have trouble conceiving however.” She looked to Dorian. “As well as reasons a man may have troubles.

“The Torre Cesme has some techniques for testing a woman’s blood. They are not definitive though. Merely ways to indicate the presence or absence of some things that may impact a woman’s ability to conceive.”

Manon frowned, realizing what was wrong about Tilda’s words. “You keep saying ‘woman’. I am a witch.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the healer said, her face full of kindness. “While the Torre Cesme is advanced, and accepting of all, I’m afraid their instruction did not include much about witches. There wasn’t much cause for it. Crochans are gifted healers themselves, and the Ironteeth,” she dipped her head, “rarely visited the continent.”

Manon didn’t know what she’d expected. She knew how rare witchlings were, even with the curse of the Wastes broken. And she knew they fell outside the bounds of any kind of magic witches had.

Tilda turned to Dorian. “The work you both are doing with Terrasen and Eyllwe to build branches for teaching and healing throughout Erilea will only add to our knowledge. I’m sorry I don’t have better news. A Crochan healer may offer more help. Ancient knowledge that I haven’t been exposed to,” she added hopefully.

“I will check with my grandmother. But I know of no ways to help a witch conceive.”

The midwife stood and approached Manon. “Now that I know of your intentions, I can send a list of foods to the kitchens. They would only help in the early days and weeks of pregnancy, but it is a good idea to start now. I would also recommend reducing your hours spent at work. To try and lessen stress.” Tilda smiled at them both. “I know that’s easier said than done. But it is my job to recommend it.”

“We appreciate your advice, Tilda,” Dorian said, standing to escort her to the door.

Before she left though, the midwife turned and said, “Your Majesty?”

Manon raised her head, not noticing she’d slumped in her chair. “Please, call me Manon.”

The woman blushed but gave a slight bow. “Forgive my forwardness, but… I have no reason to believe you won’t be blessed with many childr- I mean witchlings. But if… If it should happen that you aren’t… You have other options.”

Manon looked from Tilda to Dorian, confused. He shrugged a shoulder. “What do you mean Tilda?”

“I was adopted. When I was very young. Taken in by an older couple from an orphanage in Antica. They are why I was able to attend school, attend the Torre Cesme. Without them… I don’t know what would have become of me.”

Manon stood and walked to the midwife. Taking her hand, she said, “Thank you Tilda.”

Tilda smiled, bowed deeply to both of them, and left.

Manon turned to find Dorian watching her, his arms crossed and a smile spreading across his face. “What?” she asked.

He laughed, dropping his head and shaking it back and forth. “You never cease to amaze me, Witchling.”

She tilted her head. “What?!”

His eyes met hers and she felt a jolt of emotion. Reaching for her, he said, “We can wait. There is time.”

Manon let herself be pulled into his arms. Let him run his hands through her loose hair. Let him kiss her. Let him hold her. And she loved every second of it. She hadn’t lost any of the fears and doubts that had plagued her last night. But this morning, learning she was not pregnant…

She’d been surprised by the disappointment that had washed over her. And the punch of sadness that had followed, when she’d wondered if it was even possible for her to have a witchling. She knew the doubts would persist. Probably forever. Life was full of them. All they could do was meet them head on. Learn from their mistakes. Keep their options open. Together.

Dorian hugged her tighter as she shared all of this through their bond. Over the years, they’d learned how to control the connection. They were both able to block their thoughts and feelings from the other, and that had become the default for them. It had been a choice. They respected each other’s privacy.

But the control required to block had enabled them to channel everything back and forth – thoughts, words, images, feelings, desires – over longer distances and with more precision. Manon could travel to the Wastes and still communicate directly with Dorian. He could visit the rebuilding effort in Rifthold and tell her about his day. Now, in each other’s arms, there was no distance between them. And really, the bond ensured there was never any distance between them.

“I know we have time,” she finally said. “But as you said, we’ve been avoiding it. There’s no harm in talking about it. Or starting to make plans even if they will likely change. I’m still afraid of how my problems might affect her.” She felt a tug on the bond and rolled her eyes. “Or him.”

“We should be careful not to let worry outweigh happiness. I don’t know what the right answer is. All of it is a risk. We just need to decide how much risk we can live with.”

She nodded, considering it.

“And Gods help us, she could end up like me. Charming, irresistible, the raw magic of a goddess… Umm, actually, I think I would prefer if our witchling was nothing like that,” he said, his brow furrowing as the realities of his joke hit him.

Manon snorted. “And if he favors you, Your Charmingness? Oh High King of Flirting and Magic Hands,” she said with a smirk.

His mouth opened but he didn’t say anything right away, thinking about all of the implications. “No. He can’t take after me either. Girl or boy.” He shook his head. “Too much trouble. He or she will favor their lovely mother.”

Clicking her jaw, she snapped her iron teeth into place. “Sure about that, Great Dimpled One?”

“We are in trouble aren’t we,” he said with a grin.

Manon retracted her teeth and brushed a finger along his dimpled cheek. “Yes we are, Princeling.”

Several years later...

Dorian ran up the stairs, damning that ceremony for the new healing center in Rifthold that had run late. Abraxos had flown faster than Dorian had ever seen him fly, and he was grateful for it. He’d communicated with Manon the whole time and was pretty sure he wasn’t too late. He burst into the sitting room and found Chaol, Gavriel, Sorrel and the other members of the Thirteen who were currently stationed at the castle.

“Manon,” he said, panicky and out of breath.

Sorrel grinned. “She’s doing great. You didn’t miss anything.”

He looked around the room. “The children?”

“Fallon and Annabee have them all. They’re playing outside with the dogs, out of everyone’s way,” Ghislaine answered, pushing him towards the door to the inner rooms.

He heard a scream and took off for the door himself. Yrene, Tilda, Aven, Asterin, and several apprentices were gathered around Manon. She was standing, clutching her large belly and breathing through the pain as Aven held her hand.

“I’m here,” he said breathlessly.

Aven raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Princeling. We can see that.” The little, old witch had taken to calling him that whenever she was feeling cheeky, or frustrated with him, claiming the nickname suited him. It made no difference how often he politely asked her to stop, or tried to explain that he preferred only Manon called him that.

“Nice of you to join us, Highness,” Asterin said with a wink.

Dorian took Aven’s spot beside Manon, chilling the air to cool her down. “Hello Witchling,” he whispered in her ear then kissed her cheek. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Hello Princeling,” she said, leaning into him. “Don’t let them rattle you. I knew you would get here.”

She seemed so calm and collected, even as another contraction hit, forcing a muffled scream. But she breathed through it, exactly as Tilda had shown them a few weeks ago.

Aven plopped down in a chair, looking almost as exhausted as Manon. She caught Dorian watching her and said, “Just because I’m old and wise doesn’t mean I know anything about this.”

“But you had a son,” he countered.

She waved a hand. “Yes but I had others telling me what to do. And besides, that was a long time ago.”

Dorian glanced sideways at Manon.

She's not handling the stress of seeing me in pain very well. I was actually thinking of sending her out. Not exactly a good sign is it?

He hadn’t been there long but this was the first flash of worry he’d seen on her face. I'll handle it. We have enough people in here anyway I think. Unless you’d like me to invite Chaol in?

Manon threw her head back and laughed. When the next contraction hit, Yrene motioned to the apprentices and said, “It might be time to push.”

Dorian helped her to the bed and Tilda lifted her gown to check her progress. Manon winced and, catching Dorian’s eye, nudged her head towards Aven.

With his best smile, Dorian said, “Aven, would you mind finding the kids? I’m sure they’ll all want to see the baby. It looks like she’ll be here soon.”

Manon’s grandmother looked between them and sighed. She stood and walked towards Dorian. “I’m sorry I snapped at you, Dorian.” She turned to Manon. “I was the same way when Annabee had Rhiannon. I told both of you that I would be useless in here and you both insisted.”

“It’s ok, Aven,” Dorian said. “I don’t want anything to happen to her either.”

She smiled and patted his cheek.

As he walked her to the door, he became serious and said,“You must know how much it means to her that you’re here?”

“I do know. Because it means so much to me that she’s here.” She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Call me when she’s all done and smiling again.”

Aven left and Dorian returned to Manon, who was back to standing. Tilda had readied her supplies and motioned for her apprentices to step back. She looked from Dorian to Manon and said, “Ok, Manon. With the next contraction, I want you to push.”

Grandmother led Will and Sophie towards their parent’s bedroom. Practically everyone they knew was in the sitting rooms, laughing and smiling and hugging. The twins could barely contain their own excitement, pulling their grandmother’s hands towards the door. They were getting a new brother or sister today. Will was hoping for a brother but Sophie didn’t care. She only hoped the witchling had beautiful, white hair like Momma.

Grandmother dropped their hands and opened the door. She bent down to them and said, “Off you go!”

Will took off running. Sophie didn’t want to get left behind so she ran too. When they reached the bed, they jumped up onto it, crawling into Poppa’s lap.

“This is Vesta,” Momma said. “Your baby sister.”

Will and Sophie both tried the name. “Vesta,” they whispered together.

Poppa bent down and said to Vesta, “This is Sophie and Will, your big sister and big brother.”

Sophie didn’t think Vesta heard what he said since she was sleeping in Momma’s arms, but she liked the way they were introduced. She reached over and tugged on the edge of the blanket, frowning when she saw Vesta didn’t have white hair. Will didn’t seem to mind that she wasn’t a boy witchling. He just stared at her with big eyes and touched her tiny fingers.

Poppa poked her belly. “What’s the matter ladybug?”

She wasn’t sure if she should tell them. She was happy to have a new sister; happy that she could teach her how to cut out cookies with Will, and how to play with Brax and the pups. And how to read. Well, after she learned herself. “I wanted her to have hair like Momma’s.” she finally said.

Poppa smiled. “You know, I hoped she might get Momma’s hair too. But I’m afraid Vesta is stuck with mine.” He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “She has Momma’s pretty eyes though.”

“She does? Can I see?”

“Me too,” Will said. “I wanna see.”

Momma laughed. “The second she’s awake you can both see.”

“How long til then?” Will asked.

“Well,” Poppa said, “Let’s all watch and see.” He leaned back on the bed next to Momma and pulled her and Will up to rest against him. He tickled them but stopped when Momma gave him a look to keep quiet. Sophie and Will giggled as Poppa smiled and kissed her.

Will leaned over them to check. “Is Vesta awake yet?”

Sophie sat up and looked around. “Where are the pups? Did they meet Vesta yet? What about Brax?”

“And the aunties and Uncle Chaol and Uncle Gavriel?” Will asked.

“Shhh, lay back witchlings. She’s still asleep. Brax and your aunties and uncles will meet her soon. You were at the top of the list. We’ll let the pups meet her when she’s a little bigger,” Poppa said.

Sophie and Will fell back against Poppa, not taking their eyes off Vesta. Momma reached over and tugged on their ears. That was her special way of saying she loved them. Will laughed because he was ticklish there. At the sound, Vesta began to squirm.

The moment Vesta’s eyes fluttered open, Poppa lifted her and Will up and they crawled over to get a better look.

“Ooo,” Will said. “They are like Momma’s.”

Sophie let out a quiet gasp, too busy looking at her sister’s eyes to say anything. They were the same gold as Momma’s, but they seemed brighter somehow, like they were lit from within.

Poppa leaned over them. “Do her eyes make up for my hair, ladybug?”

"Yes, but I think she will be beautiful because of both,” Sophie said, smiling up at Momma and then at Will. He was still staring, but broke away at Sophie’s attention. He gave her a nod and she turned back to Poppa.

“Can you...” She hesitated, double checking that Vesta was still awake. Momma had moved the little bundle so their sister was watching them. “Will you tell her our story, Poppa?”

“We want it to be the first one she hears,” Will explained.

“I think that sounds like a perfect idea,” Momma said, smiling at Poppa.

He agreed and pulled them back to his side of the bed. Sophie and Will snuggled in close, their eyes never leaving little Vesta.

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, brave Crochan witch named Allia. She lived far in the south of Erilea, and when she heard about the new witch queen, and how the Wastes had been reborn, she decided to return to her people. She was pregnant and wanted her witchlings to be born in the Wastes, so she hurried north.”

Poppa went on about all the dangers Mother would have faced. He liked to change them with each telling, and she and Will each had their favorites. But every version always brought Mother to the Ferian Gap, not too far from where they lived now in Anielle. Once she reached the Gap, the tale never changed.

“It just so happened that Momma and I were going to visit Grandmother Aven and decided to take the long way.”

“Brax!” Will burst out.

“Exactly!” Poppa said. “We took to the air and flew to the Gap. When we got there, we saw a storm gathering in the pass and chose to wait a day or two. But your Mother had already started through, not knowing that bad weather was coming behind her. When the snow and ice caught up to her, making flight impossible, she found a nice, warm cave to hide in. Once she settled in to wait out the storm, that’s when you two decided to make an appearance.”

He poked each of them in their bellies and they laughed. Poppa always tried to make them laugh then because the next part of the story was sad. 

“The moment the skies cleared, Momma and Brax and I started on our way. As we flew high overhead, Abraxos started pulling on the reins, insisting that we land. He growled and fought and refused to go where we wanted him to go. Since he never acted like that before, we knew it must be important and let him take over. He took us down into a craggy mountain pass, now full of snow, and landed right in front of a little cave. That’s when we heard what he’d been hearing.”

“Will’s crying,” Sophie said, earning a halfhearted kick from her brother.

“You were both crying,” Poppa said, giving her a serious look. “And for good reason. When we climbed inside, we found two little witchlings, all bundled up to stay warm. And next to them was their mother, who’d wrapped them up in all the extra clothing she’d had, and shielded them from the storm. Her broom was sitting nearby, too damaged to fly.” Poppa described how strong and brave Mother was and how she’d sacrificed herself to keep them safe.

Momma reached over and ran her hand over each of their cheeks. Sometimes Sophie didn’t cry when they heard this part. But today, with her sister so new and small next to her, she felt especially sad. And at the same time, happy. She looked over at Will and saw there was a streak of wetness down his cheek too. He bit his bottom lip and looked at her. They smiled at the same time, trying to make the other feel better. It always worked. Knowing Will understood how she felt always made it a little easier to get through this part of the story.

Vesta watched and made soft, little noises as Poppa continued. He told about how Momma winnowed them to Grandmother Aven while he and Brax brought their Mother a couple of days later. He told about the ceremony they’d had to send Mother into the Darkness, where she now waited to see them someday. He told about how they’d found a note stuffed inside their blankets, describing parts of mother’s journey, why she was returning, how she had no other family and wanted to be with her clan again.

He said he wondered if maybe she prayed to the Three-Faced Goddess for help, and Brax was sent in answer. Something inside both Will and Sophie told them this was true.

“The note had two very, extremely, super important things in it. Can either of you guess?” Poppa asked.

“Our names!” they shouted together. Vesta twitched in Momma’s arms, her dazzling eyes popping open at the noise. She must have fallen asleep while they listened to the story.

Will reached over and patted the bundle. “Sorry Vesta.” Then he turned to her and made a loud shushing noise. Sophie stuck her tongue out at him. She thought she might get in trouble for it, but Momma and Poppa were laughing.

“And so,” Poppa said, “since your mother didn’t have any family for you to go to, and since Brax wouldn’t let you out of his sight, and since we loved you both very much, you came back to Anielle to live with us.”

“Happily ever after!” Sophie and Will sang.

She heard Vesta coo again and looked up just in time to see Momma and Poppa smile at each other. Poppa took Momma’s hand and kissed it.

“Happily ever after,” Momma said.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING!!

[kit-astrophy]

Now featuring the FINAL design!

The Story; Part 4. Aranea!

Previously:

Meet the Bros - Designs for Gladio, Ignis, Prompto and Noctis.

The story; Part 1 [by @moonraccoon-exe] - featuring the tale of how Gladio found Ignis and helped him on his road to recovery.

The story; Part 2 - featuring Gladio meeting Noct and Prom, Ignis dealing with shedding and a trotting Gladio!

The Story; Part 3 - Ardyn! Bringing you his design, and the angst.

This AU just keeps me rambling. Two more characters to come, BOTH in part 5 of this story, so keep your eyes peeled! <3 I’m so glad people are finding some enjoyment in this AU and as always, feel free to talk to me about it!

Buy me a Ko-Fi?

This situation is not good. Prompto is frantic, Ignis is terribly wounded and Noctis still hasn’t woken up either. Gladio isn’t sure how he’s stayed calm up until his point.

Like all the other creatures who had now lost their home to the raging inferno, courtesy of Ardyn, they’ve had to seek out a new home near the beaches. There’s a small, unoccupied cave they had to make home. 

They have no supplies, and no access to the village they usually went to when they needed anything. There was another nearby but right now, they weren’t sure if they should take any risks. After all, Noctis was their best thief.

Ignis’ burns have made a mess of his body, and all they have been able to do is try to keep him off of them... which was pretty hard with how much of him was covered in them. It would be a miracle if he survived at this point.

Gladio has only one idea. And really, it’s insane. But there were many legends of a creature blessed with healing abilities beyond all imagination... the problem was, they were so rare that it was difficult to find them. 

However... there was one creature who just might know where to find this blessed being. 

Rumor had it that the Arachne known as Aranea, was the best place to go for any information.

There was just one small... tiny... terrible problem. Information from Aranea was never free. And if she didn’t like you? You weren’t going to leave alive.

Prompto was dead set against it, but Gladio knew exactly where to find her and their options were extremely limited. It had to be done.

Her cave wasn’t hard to find. Further around the beach were a complex system of caves built into the cliffs. Gladio approached with caution and wondered for a moment if she would even listen to him. 

Poor dude almost jumped right out of his hooves when she dropped down from over his head.

Aranea was a beautiful creature, if you could look past the eight legs and murderous intent. She stalked right up to him, circling Gladio to take him all in.

“And just what could a bulking centaur like yourself, want with me, hm?”

Gladio tried to stand tall; he didn’t want her to know how intimidating she actually was. But he explained to her what he wanted.

“Oh? My, that is a bold request... however it just so happens that I do know where to find what you seek.... for a price” 

It was a risk Gladio was willing to take. Whatever she wanted, he would fight for. He would run to the ends of Eos if he had to.

Cakes, were not exactly what he had in mind.

“Darlin’, there are just some things a girl like me can’t get for herself. Of course, I could always ask for something else. Some werewolf blood, or perhaps some pixie wings-”

“The cakes are fine! That’s... fine... I’ll figure it out”

How the hell was a Centaur supposed to get cakes for a blood thirsty Arachne? 

“I told you it was a bad idea!” Prompto squeaked. “It’s not like we can just walk up to someone and buy a cake, that’s crazy! We’d be killed the second we stepped into the village!”

Prompto shook his head, slapping his hands over his ears. “This is it, we’re screwed!”

... Except that Prompto looks awfully human when his ears are hidden.

Oh no...

Oh yes.

Gladio carefully rearranged Prompto’s hair to better cover the tips of his ears, meticulously ruffling at it to make sure they’d stay hidden while Prompto whined and complained. 

“Now remember. You go in, pick out someone’s wallet, grab as many cakes as you can afford and carry, and head straight for Aranea’s cave, okay?”

“NOT OKAY! I’M NOT GOING IN THERE. I HATE SPIDERS!”

“Prom, you are going. Think of Iggy. Think of Noct”

“Okay... okay... I can try... I... Gladio.... what’s a ‘wallet’?”

( ￣ー￣ )

For an Elf, Prompto isn’t all that bright sometimes. But Gladio does his best to explain and sends him on his way. There’s a village they’ve never been to before not far from Aranea’s hideout. 

It’s a tense time for Prompto, constantly patting his hair down and glancing around at all the people nervously. One slip up and he was a dead Elf.

However, Prompto was a really good pickpocket. 

And it turns out that cakes weren’t all that expensive.

So he got six of them. It was pretty hard to stack that many boxes in his arms and he made a nervous comment about “girlfriends, amiright?” to the teller before making a very hasty retreat.

That was the easy part.

Prompto was absolutely terrified of large bugs and you didn’t find one much bigger than Aranea.

He approached with near-silent footsteps, careful to avoid walking into any cobwebs and shaking the entire time.

Especially when she appeared out of nowhere right behind him. He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t dropped all the cakes.

“And what are you doing here, Shortcake?”

“CAKES! Gladio said you like cakes and I got you cakes because we need help and cakes are good so if you could eat these cakes and not me and maybe just tell me where we find this magical thing and I can be on my merry way and not die please oh god don’t eat me”

She likes him. She likes him a lot. 

She took the cakes and tucked them away out of sight, returning once again behind the trembling Elf just for fun. The squeak he made when three of her legs curled around him was more than a little amusing.

“Alright... I’ll tell you what you want to know” She said, human fingers petting through his hair while he tried desperately not to scream or cry.

He practically threw himself at Gladio in a sobbing mess when he got back. “Oh god she touched me!”

Gladio carefully brushed the lingering webs out of Prompto’s hair before he could realize they were there.

“You did good, Prom. You did really good”

And now, Gladio knew where he had to go. Even with the day drawing into evening, there was no time to waste.

[bgn846]

Satum Novum Chapter 2: Distraction FFXV Gladnis

<Previous Chapter 1

The sound of seagulls woke Ignis, he was warm, and finally felt rested.  A second later his brain kicked into gear, figuring out what hearing birds really meant, he was near the shore.  They had arrived in Altissia.

In what Ignis would later classify as a stupid move, he attempted to bolt out of bed.  A number of things happened as a result.  Gravity was a greater force than he’d remembered, and his sweatpants weren’t as snug as they should have been.   The advisor was not allowed to suffer alone, as Gladio had been reading in his hammock.  The dark haired man had witnessed him waking, and was thankfully ready to catch Ignis, preventing him from falling to the floor on wobbly legs.  

The feeling of a strong tattooed arm around his waist, made Ignis’ breath catch.  Gladio was silent as he held him upright, his hold never loosening.  Ignis quickly grasped his pants, effectively keeping them from slinking down his hips.  After a minute the shake in his limbs had gone and Ignis focused on standing up straight.

“I know you’re in a hurry, but you gotta give your body time to adjust.  You’ve been without proper food and rest for over two days.   That has an effect.” Gladio chided.    

“I do realize that, but I have to deal with more pressing matters than my health.”

“Sure, but you keeling over prematurely isn’t gonna help the prince.”  

Ignis sighed.  “What do you suggest I do?” He lamented.

“Move a little slower until you get your strength back.  Accept some help.”  Gladio offered.

That statement made Ignis think.  This man had saved his life, surely there had to be a way to repay him? “How shall I repay you for your kindness?  I do owe you my life.”

“You don’t owe me anything; just don’t throw away what you almost lost.”

Ignis was silent, Gladio was correct, he couldn’t waste this opportunity.  He needed to be smart about his next move.  “Did my clothing make it?” He queried hopefully.

Gladio nodded and finally released him.   Ignis watched as the tall man strode across the cabin, and retrieved a stack of clothes.   “They are clean; I’ll be up on the bridge when you’re ready to go.”  He announced handing off the bundle to Ignis.

The advisor found he was staring as Gladio turned and left the cabin.  He wished they’d met under different circumstances, Ignis was intrigued by Gladio.  However, now was not the right time to be exploring new friendships.  He needed to find Noct.  Thankfully his legs had decided to work properly, and after a few minutes he had freshened up and was ready to go.

Fifteen minutes later found Ignis in the middle of a rather odd discussion.  Gladio and Prompto were both arguing, about letting him go alone.  It appeared that the blond felt he would need their help, and wanted to tag along.  Gladio on the other hand didn’t want to interfere.  Ignis was slightly disheartened by Gladio’s opinion.   Despite the fact, that he knew full well, he would decline the help.   Ignis didn’t want to get either of them involved, unless it was utterly necessary.  

Finally, the only way Prompto would let the matter go, was if Ignis promised to check in with them later.  Phone numbers were exchanged and Ignis was finally able to say goodbye.

Walking down the ramp at the dock felt odd, almost sad even.  The advisor worked to push his feelings aside, he had work to do.  He needed to find a secure line of communication to contact the king, and see if Drautos had made any demands.

--

“Why didn’t you want to go?!” Prompto huffed.  “Someone tried to kill him and you let him go off on his own.  That’s not fair Gladio.”

“Kid, He works for the crown and I don’t want to get involved okay.   He wanted to go by himself anyway, so no matter what you said would have changed his mind.”

“Still, it sucks!  I wanted to help and you ruined it.”

Gladio scoffed.  “I didn’t ruin anything Prompto.  Ignis didn’t want us to come, get over it.”

“What happens if he gets hurt or killed, won’t you feel bad?” The blond tried.

“Prompto, I’m done with this discussion.  I gotta go get more supplies for when we leave again.  Try not to worry.” Gladio offered as he left the bridge.  Telling his younger companion to calm down wasn’t helping his own nerves.  Admittedly Gladio was worried for what awaited Ignis in Altissia.  If he was dealing with traitors there was no telling how deep it went.

--

Noct’s timing was terrible.  He had managed to get the air vent loose in his cabin, and was currently stuck in the duct work.  Stupid action movies, they always had people crawling in air ducts.  Real life was different; the spaces were small and didn’t fit a body at all!    He barely heard the door to his room click open as his head and shoulders were wedged in the wall.

Lazarus’ hearty laugh was what actually caught his attention.  Before he could kick out, two hands had roughly grabbed his waist and pulled him from the vent.  The glaive then slapped him roughly in the head after he was freed.

“Good one highness.  Too bad Drautos has the remote to your collar; otherwise I woulda shocked your arse.”

Noct huffed and held the back of head where Lazarus had smacked him. “I never did anything to wrong you, why can’t you let me go.”

“Doesn’t matter, your kind is what’s wrong with the Eos these days.   Too much power for your own good.  Now get up or I’ll make you.”

“I thought you said Drautos had the remote, so make me.” Noct retorted angrily.

“Fucking punk.” Lazarus spit out as he roughly grabbed Noct by his shirt.  “Get up.”

Before Noct could put up a fight, the glaive had pulled him up and pinned him against the wall.   The next thing he felt were his hands being secured behind his back.  “Hey!  Don’t do that!  What if I fall overboard or you push me. I won’t be able to swim.”

“Not my problem, now get moving.”

Noct was nervous again, he had no idea what they were planning.  If Ignis truly was dead then no one knew what had really happened.  The thought of his best friend not having survived made him start to panic. Unable to stop his body from shaking he focused on breathing.  Lazarus shoved him upstairs to where Drautos was waiting.

The captain of the guard looked over and smirked.  “Welcome to your new home highness, I do hope you like the great outdoors.” Drautos offered as he craned his neck towards dry land.

“Where the hell are we?” Noct asked bewildered.

“It doesn’t matter to you.  The message I’m aiming to send is for your father alone.  We are going onshore and if you so much as look at me wrong I’m going to hurt you.  Is that understood?” Drautos asked.

Normally Noct would have had a flippant response for that kind of statement, but he was afraid.  “Does-does that mean you don’t intend to harm me?” He asked weakly.

“If you do what you’re told, then the chances of your survival increase greatly.”

Noct stayed silent and concentrated on not falling in the water as they boarded the dingy.  Having his hands bound behind him was bad for balance, and he nearly went over the edge once.  He felt Drautos’ large hand grip his jacket and pull him back.  If the captain was willing to save him then maybe he wasn’t going to kill him.

The boat ride was short and no one said anything as Lazarus steered towards shore.  Once the craft was beached, Drautos grabbed him and pointed in the direction to walk.

The rocky outcropping they all headed towards, seemed familiar to Noct but he couldn’t place it.  The view almost looked as if it came from some old engraving in the archives.  Where were they?  A small opening came into view and Drautos shoved him towards the chamber beyond.

It was a tomb or an ancient chapel, Noct wasn’t sure, but he was immediately worried when he saw chains hanging from the ceiling.

“String him up.” Drautos ordered once they’d all entered the small space.

Noct worked hard to stay silent; he didn’t want to piss Drautos off.   He was shaking again as his body dealt with a new adrenaline rush.   This wasn’t going to be comfortable.

Lazarus untied him and pushed Noct over to a chain.  The glaive secured his left wrist above his head with the chain, and then tugged him across the small space to secure his right wrist in a similar manner. However, the spacing was wrong and he couldn’t reach the other side.

“Captain, it won’t reach. I gotta hold him up while you secure his other wrist.” Lazarus announced.

Noct didn’t want that to happen, that would hurt a lot.  One could suffer permanent damage from being suspended like that.  He watched as Drautos stomped over, from where he’d been messing around with a radio. The prince was worried; he didn’t know what the captain’s views on torture were.  This was surely some form of it.  Opting to stay silent Noct waited to see what Drautos would say.

He stopped a few feet away and stared at the prince.  Noct managed to maintain eye contact as Drautos glared at him. Knowing the terrified look he had sprawled on his features was plain as day, Noct focused on breathing.

“Help me.” Lazarus tried again. “I’ll hold him or you can.  I can’t reach the other chain; his fucking arms are too short.”

“That’s too much work, there are empty supply boxes near the entrance, have him stand on one of those.” Drautos ordered.

Lazarus looked like he was about to complain but Drautos flashed the glaive an angry look.  Lazarus opened his mouth to speak but shut it a second later.  Noct could feel his knees going rubbery; the intensity of the situation was taking its toll.

It only took a minute for Lazarus to come back with a wooden crate.   He threw it on the floor and ordered Noct up.  He didn’t fight back for fear of having the platform taken away.  Feeling truly helpless once his right wrist was secure, Noct stared at the floor.  He wasn’t comfortable but he knew it was better than hanging from the chains.

The sound of an imitation shutter clicking caused him to look up.  “What did you just do?” He asked worriedly.

“Collecting proof highness, nothing you need to concern yourself with.”  Drautos answered as he pocketed his phone.  

“What happens next?” Noct asked as he pulled slightly on the chains, they were tight.

“Now you wait, highness.” Drautos offered.

“What are we waiting for?”

“No, you alone are waiting.  We are leaving.   Hopefully your rescue party arrives before you die.”

“No one knows where I am, how is that even fair?!” Noct yelled in a panic.

“I’m merely testing the mettle of the crown, let’s see if they can crack the case of the missing prince.”

“Please!  Don’t leave me here alone!”

The captain smirked and shook his head.  “You don’t have a say in the matter.  Try not to cry, you’ll need to retain as much water as you can.   Lazarus, grab the radio we’re leaving.” Drautos finished.

Noct didn’t have a chance to add anything more, as the two older men briskly turned and left.  Now he was really scared, he was alone and had no idea how anyone would find him.

--

“Now for the setup.” Drautos announced once they were back on the boat.  “Pegasus to Sol, come in.” He barked into the handset of the encrypted radio.

After a minute the radio crackled to life. “Sol here, report your status.” A voice answered.

“Code dark azul.” Drautos replied.

The line went silent again, and another few minutes passed.  This time, the voice that came back was recognizable, it was Clarus.   “Status?”

“The prince has been kidnapped.”    

“Repeat that!” Clarus urged.

“Prince Noctis has been kidnapped. We are in pursuit.”

“How?” Clarus asked worriedly.

“We were ambushed by fucking pirates, they outnumbered us and were able to take the prince.”

“Where is your location?  We will send reinforcements.”

“Unknown, the attack destroyed our navigation system.   As I stated we are in pursuit but we are losing ground.”

“Casualties?” Clarus asked gravely.

“One, unfortunately Scientia didn’t make it.”

The line stayed silent for a moment, Clarus finally came back noticeably distraught.  “Was there any other identifiable information on the attackers? Did you see any markings indicating were they were from?”

“None, it appeared they were a standalone operation.  Have you received any information on your end? Any ransom requests?”

“Silent on our end. Do you know where your closest port is?” Clarus pondered.  “We can meet you there to regroup and plan a rescue.”

“We were nearest to Altissia before the attack.  We won’t be able to follow the attackers much longer.  Once I lose sight I’ll figure out where we are and work on going to Altissia.” Drautos lied.

“Men will be enroute shortly.  Keep me posted with updates.”

The radio went silent.  Drautos turned off the device, and steered the boat towards Altissia.  “Once we get close enough to pick up internet again, I’ll send and untraceable ransom request, with the pictures I took earlier.”

‘Think they’ll find him in time?” Lazarus asked.

“They should, otherwise he’ll turn into another forgotten Lucis Caelum, lost to the realms of time.”

“Remind me to never get on your bad side.”

Drautos merely smirked at the younger man.   The captain had to be careful how he played things from now on.  He’d put something in motion that wasn’t easily stopped.

--

Ignis couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being followed.  He’d only gotten a few blocks from the dock and was in search of a safe house nearby.  The only way to ensure the information he was about to deliver wasn’t traced, was to use a secure line.

Deciding to turn left suddenly into a small alleyway, Ignis waited to see if anyone would pass by. No one came, but he heard the scuff of a boot from behind.  Spinning around revealed a problem.

“Scientia!  Hot damn, you made it out alive!”  Tredd Furia exclaimed. “We all figured you were a dead man, getting lost at sea like that.”

Ignis was thinking fast.  He needed to determine whether or not this glaive had turned or not.  He’d obviously been in communication with Drautos, or maybe not.  He had no way to tell where his information came from.  “The report you were given was mistaken.” He offered.

“Huh – well that’s good.  Where ya headed?”

“Top secret business I’m afraid, I must be on my way.” Ignis replied coolly.

“Right, no worries.” Tredd smiled.  “See ya around then.” He waved noncommittally and walked away in the opposite direction.

Ignis waited until he was out of sight, around the corner, and went to return to his original path.   Then a noise caught his attention.   The faint crackling of what sounded like magic and a soft grunt.  He’d heard Noct make that noise when he warped.

Turning around quickly, he saw Tredd warping directly at him with a dagger in his hand.  Ignis was barely able to throw his body out of the way, as the glaive attacked.  He’d trained with Noct before so he had some practice in dealing with an opponent that could warp.    Tredd clearly had intent to kill, so that was a tougher issue to handle.

The advisor called his daggers from the armiger, except nothing appeared.  He was still defenseless, and Tredd wasn’t stopping to ask him about his lack of weaponry.  The full implication of what this meant finally hit Ignis.  Noct’s magic was gone.  That would only happen if he was dead.

Ignis tried to clear his head to focus on the fight at hand, but he was ill prepared, and stuck on the idea that his prince could be dead.   Noctis had given Ignis access to his magic years ago, and the removal of such a connection meant Noct was surely dead.

Tredd went to attack a second time and Ignis did the only thing he could, run.  When your opponent could warp this made things tricky.  The advisor felt as though he was playing a child’s game, as he dove left and right trying to avoid the glaive.   Things were looking grim as he continued to evade Tredd’s blade.

The man came at him once again and Ignis tried to dodge the attack.   He didn’t make it, and he felt the tip of the glaives dagger connect with his side.  It was painful, the cut was deep, and he knew without proper treatment he might bleed out.    Clutching his side Ignis staggered sideways working to stay upright.

As it stood though, he was going to get taken down by a six damned traitor.  What a way to go, he’d wasted his second chance brilliantly.   Tredd sneered and crouched down for a third attack.  However, he didn’t make it.  The man was about to spring forward when an empty beer bottle connected with his head.

The shock of it caused the man to stumble sideways, but he didn’t go down.  “What the hell!” Tredd yelled as he turned towards the other end of the street, about fifteen meters away.

No one was there.

Then a whoosh of air passed Ignis and Gladio appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, tackling Tredd to the ground.  The glaive went down hard, and Gladio easily got him in a choke hold.  The following minutes were a blur of blue flashes, as Tredd warped to get away from Gladio’s grip.   Since they were touching Gladio went along the man each time he warped.

The first warp seemed to disorient Gladio and he lost his grip briefly.  Tredd took this opportunity to try and stand.  However, Gladio quickly came back to his senses and spun them around, slamming Tredd into a nearby wall.  A terrible metallic scrapping noise erupted, causing Ignis to look around for the source.   The two men had hit the release mechanism for an escape ladder, attached to the back of the building, and it had moved slightly.

Tredd continued to warp them around the small alleyway.  Gladio appeared to have gotten over the initial shock of being thrown around via magic.  Ignis watched as the larger man tightened his hold.  

The advisor knew that consecutive warps were exhausting, and at some point Tredd would have no choice but to stop.  Finally, the frantic moving ceased, and the pair was left writhing on the ground under the fire escape.

The sound of footsteps pounding tore Ignis’ attention away from the fight and he saw Prompto running over.

“Prompto you came too?” Ignis rasped as he winced holding his side.

“Yeah, of course.” He sputtered as he stared at Gladio and Tredd on the ground.

Gladio maintained his grip, even when Tredd began tapping furiously on his arm.  The traitor passed out a minute later.

“How?” Ignis asked weakly.

“Later, we need to get back to the boat and get that treated.” Gladio huffed as he shoved Tredd aside, and rolled over to stand.  “You’re bleeding pretty bad we need to get moving.” Gladio urged in between heavy breaths.

“You both followed me?”

“Not exactly, I went out by myself to follow you, and blondie went out to follow me.  The difference being, he sucks at following people.   So we teamed up to save time.” Gladio offered as Prompto walked over.

“Hey, I did really good hitting that guy in the head.  That was a long throw.”  Prompto exclaimed but he was suddenly distracted when he saw the blood on Ignis’ shirt.  “Shit, Ignis you need help.”

“I fear it may not matter.” The advisor sighed.  “Noct’s dead.”

“Whoa you don’t know that for sure!” Gladio replied as he bent over to look at the open wound in Ignis’ side.  “You’re bleeding a lot we need to put pressure on it.”

Ignis watched speechlessly as Gladio took off his t-shirt and rolled it up.  Momentarily distracted by the wall of muscle, and giant tattoo in front of his face, Ignis wavered in place.  He realized a second later that two arms were being threaded around his waist.  Gladio was tying the shirt around his body to put pressure on the wound.

“Come on we don’t have much time, we need to go.” Gladio insisted as he took Ignis’ left arm and slung it over his shoulder.  

Suddenly the fire escape mechanism squealed to life, and the ladder came crashing to the ground.  Prompto yelped and Ignis could feel Gladio suck in a breath.  The ladder had landed squarely on Tredd’s head.

“Is he dead?” Prompto whispered as he stood frozen in place.

“Kiddo I urge you to look away and keep walking.” Gladio suggested seriously.  “We need to go now.”

“But – he’s been hit in the head – should we do something.” The blond tried again.

“It was an accident.” Ignis added with a strained voice.  “We can’t help him.”  The advisor watched as Prompto struggled with his conscious.  The younger man seemed to come to terms with the situation, a few seconds later, and bolted from his spot running out into the street.

Gladio followed and Ignis started to protest when they turned away from the safe house.  He knew there were potions there, and he still needed to call the king.  Though it didn’t matter, Noct was gone.   Whimpering out loud at the thought, he tried to pull away.

“NO, we can’t go that way, the boat is the other direction.”

“The safe house.” Ignis lamented as he pointed with his free hand.

“The safe house isn’t safe anymore, if loser glaive is hanging around to kill you.”  The taller man cut in.

Unable to put up any resistance, Ignis let Gladio drag him back to the boat.  Maybe he could throw himself overboard later, no one would notice.  He’d failed his prince.

The walk back was a blur, his side throbbed in pain, and he couldn’t stop thinking about Noct.  Turning sideways to get back up the gang plank, Ignis asked helplessly.  “What are you doing?”

“Saving you again.” Gladio retorted as he went straight to the common area.

Ignis was deposited on the table in the room, and Gladio forced him to lie down.   The feeling of lightheadedness was steadily taking over Ignis senses.   He’d lost a lot of blood and was feeling the effects.   The table wasn’t big enough to hold his entire body, so his legs hung off the edge past his knees.

“Prompto go get that box I tell you to never touch.” Gladio ordered a moment later.

All the advisor heard was a quiet yelp, and the sound of boots shuffling away.  “Don’t bother with me.”  He whispered.

“Will you shut it, you still gotta catch the bad guy who set this up!”

That factoid registered with Ignis and he snapped his eyes open again.  When had he closed them?  Astrals he was tired.  Maybe not getting enough rest before he took off to save Noct was a bad idea.   Prompto finally returned clutching a wooden box like his life depended on it.

“Bring it here kiddo, I need something out of it.”

Ignis watched as Gladio opened the box and removed a potion.  “How did you get that?” He asked in awe.

“My dad gave me a bunch over the years.  He was always worried about me and my sister getting hurt.  So I keep some on board in case of near death situations.  Like this one.” He announced dryly.   The dark haired man didn’t wait for a response, as he took Ignis’ hand and helped him break the potion bottle.

The throbbing pain in Ignis’ side ebbed and died out.  He still felt exhausted, but gaining relief from the pain was a welcome change. Closing his eyes once more Ignis tried to calm his breathing.  However, the feeling of fumbling fingers near his stomach caused him to flinch.

“Sorry.” Gladio mumbled.  “I gotta check the wound to see if you need another potion.”  He worked the knot in the t-shirt loose, and tugged it away.

Ignis chose to keep his eyes shut as Gladio worked.  He could feel calloused, warm hands, pulling his dress shirt up and away from the now closed wound.   The sound of the water running in the sink came next, and a warm rag was soon cleaning his side.    

Gladio’s deep voice broke the silence.  “Hand me another one Prom.”

Ignis heard the cap to the potion bottle come loose.  He felt the effects immediately, as Gladio poured the contents over his now healing wound.  

“Thanks buddy, you can put the box back now.” Gladio said quietly. “Now it’s your turn.  Time to get rid of that blood soaked shirt.”

Barely registering that he was being spoken to, Ignis pried his eyes open again.  “I still need to call the king.”  He uttered weakly.

“Your phone works, why can’t you just make a call?” Gladio asked.

“I don’t know how deep the plot goes, and if my phone is tapped then it won’t help us catch the bad guys.”

“Ah, gotcha.  Do you happen to remember any of the codes for the encrypted radio channels?  I’ve got an older radio around here we could try.”

This bit of information got Ignis’attention right away, and he tried to sit up.  A sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, and he threw out his hands to try and grab the table.  Gladio’s arm was around his shoulders a second later guiding him up.

“You really suck at taking it easy don’t ya.” He chided.

Sighing heavily Ignis slumped into Gladio’s shoulder. “I – I’m not myself right now, I do apologize.”

“I didn’t mean anything bad by it; now let’s get you cleaned up before we try our radio experiment.  I’m assuming you remember some of the codes since you got all animated there for a second.”

Moving to the bench instead of the table top was an improvement.   Gladio helped remove his ruined shirt, and found a blanket to wrap around Ignis’ lean frame.  Prompto came back into the room, and stood smiling, waiting for instructions.

“Wanna sit with Ignis while I clean the table?” Gladio asked.

The blond hopped over and plopped down next to the advisor.  “What’s the plan? What did I miss?”

“We will be trying to reach out to the citadel via radio.”  Ignis replied around a yawn.  He still couldn’t shake the feeling of sadness that gripped him.  Was it really true, was Noct gone?

Gladio finished cleaning the table and left to retrieve the radio.   Prompto took this brief break to speak again.  “I’m sure your friend is alright, there must be another reason why you can’t communicate with him right now.”

“Hmmm.” Ignis hummed.   “I do wonder how that glaive knew I was here.”  He pondered aloud.

“We have a good crew of men that work with us, but they all saw you getting plucked out of the sea, in the middle of nowhere.  I’m sure that’s a difficult thing to stay quiet about.”  Prompto added.  “It doesn’t take long for news to spread unfortunately.”

“Oh.  Are they coming back aboard?”

“No, we won’t need another full crew like that for another month or so.  It’s just Gladdy and me for now.  And you of course.” The blond corrected.

Gladio came back in the room before Ignis could craft another question.  “Ok lets’ give this a try.  Code please?” He asked, as he sat down on the other side of Ignis.

“Shit.” Ignis swore suddenly.

“What?!” Gladio asked.

“This won’t work, the person who betrayed the crown is high enough up in the ranks to have access to all of these codes.  Damn, why didn’t I think of that sooner.”  he lamented.

“Be happy you didn’t make it to the safe house, I’m sure your big boss would have had access to that line as well.”

Sighing through his nose Ignis nodded.  “Why must I be thwarted at every turn!”  

“Wait, if the bad guy can hear what you say on those encrypted lines, does that mean he’s using them too?” Prompto asked suddenly.

Ignis perked up again.  “Oh, that is a good point.  Perhaps we could listen in.”

Gladio reached over to a nearby shelf and grabbed a pen and paper.   “Write down as many of those encrypted codes as you can, we’ll go through them and see what we can hear.”

Ignis paused.  “You do know we will be breaking several laws doing this.”

“It’s a matter of life or death so I think that makes up for it.” Gladio offered.

Ignis hoped he wasn’t doing the wrong thing as he wrote down the codes.  The idea of Gladiolus Amicitia being a bad guy was a hard pill to swallow.  He had to go with his gut and trust Clarus’ only son.   Prompto was a mystery but Gladio seemed to think he was on the up and up.  They were his last avenue of help so what choice did Ignis have?   “Here you go.” He said quietly sliding the paper into the middle of the table a few moments later.

“Have at it blondie.” Gladio announced looking at the younger man.  “He’s the tech guru not me.” Gladio admitted.

“Um – what names should I listen for?” Prompto asked meekly as he set up the radio.

“Mine, Noctis, and perhaps Titus.” Ignis answered.

“Ok I’ll cycle through the channels and see what we pick up.” The blond began fiddling with the radio and after a minute he had the first channel live. They listened but nothing came through but crackling.   “Guess I’ll try the others.”

After fifteen minutes Prompto had gone through all the codes and but no one was transmitting anything.  Ignis was still huddled in the blanket from earlier.  He was warm, but he felt like he was about to pass out.    Leaning forward on the table, Ignis rested his head while he listened to the radio static.

Unaware of how much time had passed in this manner Ignis’ body involuntarily jerked to stay awake. “What’s happened?” He asked groggily.

“Nothing yet, we’ve been listening for over an hour.” Prompto offered.

Gladio sighed from beside him.  “You should go lie down Ignis, I’ll stay and listen, but you need to rest.”

“No – I’ve got to be here in case something comes through and you two don’t understand it.”

“We’ll take good notes I promise, but you need to sleep.”

“Hmmm.” Ignis really was exhausted, but he desperately wanted information about Drautos.  He had to find that traitor and make him pay.  The advisor wanted to believe like Gladio, that Noct was still alive, but it was so improbable.  His magic was gone.  He was about to add more when the radio crackled to life.

“ading to altissia – caught fish.”  A broken voice announced.

“I thought you said these were private channels?” Prompto asked in confusion.  “Why are they talking about fishing.”

Gladio held his hand up for them all to wait.  “These people, the traitors to the crown have the same problem as us.  We are all using the same lines of communication.  It might be code.”

“Which encrypted code did you use to get this channel?” Ignis asked quickly.

Prompto showed him and Ignis instantly knew this wasn’t a mistake.   “Keep listening, please.”  It was one of Drautos’ encoded lines.  He’d seen this encryption code by mistake ages ago.  He’d been in between meetings at the citadel, when a glaive had come up and hand delivered a file folder.

Ignis had opened the folder and realized it had been delivered to the wrong person.  It had actually been meant for Drautos, the captain of the guard. The glaive had come running back a few minutes later, requesting the folder, citing their mistake.

The only piece of information Ignis had remembered, when he looked in the folder was a single encryption code.  The advisor didn’t recall it being one of the regular codes, so he’d committed it to memory.  He’d planned to check it later but he never had the time.  Instead he’d written it down and filed it away.  However, now given the current situation this could be the break he needed.

The radio came back to life again.  “Did you throw it back?” The unknown voice asked.

“Nope – strung it up.”  The first person replied.  The voice sounded familiar, Ignis wasn’t sure if it was Drautos talking or maybe Lazarus. The radio channel was too crackly to tell for sure.

The radio voice laughed suddenly.  “Did it put up a fight?”

“Of course, though it wasn’t strong enough to win against me.  Fitting that it’ll die where it all started.”

“ETA?” The voice asked.

“Few hours.”

Then the radio went silent.  The conversation was over.

“Oh man I’m so confused right now.” Prompto wailed.  “Please tell me why this dude’s creepy fishing conversation was important?”

“Well I think that confirms the prince is alive.” Gladio announced relieved.  

Ignis barely registered the talk going on around him.  He was hung up on the last sentence, ‘fitting that it’ll die where it all started’.   What did that mean?   There was a clue in there about Noct’s location and he had to figure it out, fast.

>Next Chapter 3

[ank-fan]

The name Iason means Healer do you think there is a meaning behind it or was just a random pick from Rieko Yoshihara?

Thank you so much for the question Anon. I love ranting speculatively about this kind of questions!

I do think there are several reasons why Yoshihara-sensei chose the name “Iason”, still I’m pretty sure that they have little to do with literal, physical healing. Iason is definitely more apt at, and keen on, breaking people rather than healing them.  It should also be noted that the name Ιάσων, if derived from the verb ἰάομαι, could also mean (figuratively): to remedy, repair, make whole (or redeem if we take into account Biblical usage). Which is, in my opinion, much more significant to the role Iason ends up playing in the novels.There also is another meaning of ἰάομαι that is: strong, powerful. Thus Iason could be named so because he is objectively very powerful, but this is a very immediate interpretation, that leaves very little room for speculation.  

Truth to be told the mythical Ιάσων (whom I will refer to as Jason for clarity) has not much to do with the medical act of healing either, his main “healing power” is about bringing the golden fleece back to Greece and thus grant a proper “burial” to Phrixus and break the curse plaguing Pelias and the city of Iolcus rather than any medical healing. Of course: the golden fleece has incredible healing abilities, but in my opinion, that is not the crux of the myth. The myth is about a purification rite, thus Jason can be perceived as a shaman of sorts leading the rite and, in that optic, his figure was used as a symbol by alchemists, but I will say more about that later in this rant. 

A good way to begin this analysis is by listing the more immediate parallels between the mythical Jason and Iason. 

Both Iason and Jason are blond, beautiful and the leader of a group of exceptional individuals at the top of their society which they manage to control and lead up to a certain point

Both are exceptional individuals destined for greatness, and both want power for themselves.

Both can be incredibly charming (Iason is deviously so, and Jason, seduction of Medea aside, manages to talk Aeëtes down from his paroxysm of ire and convince the king to grant him the possibility to try and earn the golden fleece, albeit through impossible feats only thanks to his polite conersation) 

Both spend some time in disguise (Jason is recognised by Pelias only because he is “the man with one sandal”, and in the novels we see that Iason, when outside of Eos or Riki’s apartment in Apatia, almost always changes the colour of his hair and wears a visor not to be recognised). 

Depending on the version of the myth you take into consideration both can be seen as deeply emotionally immature and struggling to form and handle interpersonal relationship because they never were part of a familial unit (Jason is smuggled away as an infant by his mother to be saved from death and raised by Chiron, while Iason is an artificial being who was taught to look down on humanity). 

Both manipulate people, and both can be ruthless (Jason, among other things, leaves Heracles behind despite his companions’ protests and abandons Medea, while Iason is pretty much the definition of ruthless).

The might and value of both characters is symbolised by a golden fleece (Iason’s hair and Chrysomallus’ skin). 

Both die ignored by their society (Tanagura in the novels is very careful about not saying a single word about the destruction of Dana Bahn and Raoul makes sure to keep Iason’s name out of the whole mess) and in a way that is as pathetic as it is dramatic (Jason is crushed as an old man by the mast of his rotting ship Argo as he is trying to relieve old lost glories, and Iason looses his legs and dies in a rotting old ruin by the action of someone who he saw as infinitely below himself). 

Both have the favour of a god-like being that they later loose through their actions (Jupiter for Iason and Hera for Jason, here we start to see an interesting pattern).

And, most importantly, the fate of both is defined by one act of kindness and several horrific ones (even though Jason is usually framed by the narrative as an accomplice in them rather than the main perpetrator).

In the last two similarities, in my opinion, we see a beautiful subversion of the myth and the reason why Jason’s and Iason’s two “acts of healing” are so dramatically different and similar at the same time.Because I do think that both characters are linked to one “healing”, still the object of each healing, its methods, and the reasons behind it are very different. In my opinion is pretty apparent that Yoshihara-sensei took at least some inspiration from the Greco-Roman world while writing Ai no Kusabi. From the title of one novel (Petere, a Latin verb that means “to ask”) to the name of Lambda 300 (Jupiter, like the latin name of Zeus),Apatia, Eos, Kirie, and Tanagura itself (that might be inspired by the old Tanagra), to the whole issue with slavery, oligarchy, and the treatment of strangers. So it makes sense that she would choose the name of the deuteragonist from Greco-Roman tradition too, and with good reasons. 

Jason’s one act of kindness, that wins him the favours of Hera, is to help an old lady cross one stream by carrying her. That is how he looses one sandal before entering the usurper’s court and is recognised. Still, unbeknownst to Jason, the old lady is not an old lady at all, but the goddess Hera in disguise who, impressed by the youth’s act of piety that reflects the values she embodies (respect for the family and traditions), decides to favour him from that moment onward, granting him a place in society through her influence.On the other hand Iason’s one act of kindness proves to be his undoing. By choosing to save Guy and sacrifice himself to save Riki Iason is abandoning everything that grants him power and life. He is knowingly leaving behind all the values and precepts he followed for his whole existence. By that action Iason is loosing the last dreg of Jupiter’s favour he still held by rejecting its dictated laws to follow his (new and still very shaky) “ethics”. In that moment he explicitly acknowledges not only Riki’s importance to him, but Riki’s dignity and pride, going as far as endangering himself to protect them. That action, though, is depriving the system and Jupiter of an important instrument, thus it becomes a senseless waste of resources for it, and (if we leave behind all of our ethics and judge that act of kindness purely from Jupiter’s point of view) Iason’s actions in Dana Bahn are actually detrimental for the order and stability of his society. Which could lead to another interesting addendum about how Amoi’s code of morals is twisted to the point that good becomes evil and evil becomes good, but that is a whole other issue that here I do not have space to explore properly. 

Here lies the first subversion. Jason’s act of kindness starts his story, it is the first clue we are given of his value, in a way that act saves his life and allows him to pursue his destiny as a hero since it is Hera herself that puts in his mind the idea to suggest Pelias to send him on the quest for the golden fleece.Meanwhile Iason’s act of kindness is the one that closes his story, that leads him to his death and that would, if known, irreparably damage his reputation in the eyes of his society. Iason’s act of kindness makes him loose the “golden fleece”.Thus, while Jason’s act of kindness is what makes him, Iason’s act of kindness is the one that breaks him. Not just that, but while Jason helps the old lady without thinking too much about it, because that course of action is the one that he was raised to perceive as “right, Iason is quite clearly torn about what to do, his act of kindness would have costed him much even if he had not died as a consequence of it. I think the old anime is much better than the books in showing that. Iason sees Riki’s plea to save Guy as the ultimate proof that he has failed in the one thing that (for worse or worse, there isn’t much better in Amoi if we do not consider Norris’ love for his geezer XD) he truly cared for. There is nothing spontaneous in Iason’s actions there. 

This is no serene evil cyborg acting spontaneously. He is hurting.Not to mention: this is the most emotional vulnerability we see Iason show in front of anyone ever, let alone Riki whom he purposefully tries to keep guessing about the “true value” he sees in him for fear of loosing control. So, while Jason is torn about his evil deeds and acts kindly without thinking, for Iason the opposite is true.

Jason ends up redeeming a kingdom that he shall never rule because of his evil deeds, he gains the fleece but immediately looses his rights to glory because of the way he escapes Pelias’plan to kill him. In contrast Iason rules a kingdom from the beginning (albeit under Jupiter) precisely because of his evil deeds while his redemption, his act of healing, is private, personal. That has also to do with the fact Amoi is an unescapable dystopia though.Both Iason’s and Jason’s stories are a diminuendo, two downward spirals, but, while Jason is able to redeem his people but not himself, Iason is only able to redeem himself in the end, damaging his society, and his one good action is a suffered one, something he has to force himself to do. 

Which leads us directly to what Iason hasn’t to force himself to do, namely: being a horrible person (GlaDOS wasn’t even testing for that! XD).Iason, from the beginning of the novels almost all through them, has no qualms about using and abusing people, which is why Katze is so surprised by the way Riki has managed to change him into someone able to see the reason why Judd Kuger might still love his son despite the fact that Manon is only a nuisance. Here lies the second subversion. In all the versions of Jason’s myth I know of Jason is always shown to have several qualms about Medea’s ruthless plans. Jason is not vicious by nature, Iason, even at his best, is a sadist. 

Both Jason and Iason are controlled by forces higher than them that they cannot escape or defy (it is very telling how Iason has to make a whole convoluted plan just to be able to leave for Dana Bahn without alerting his peers and Jupiter), but while Iason is the one moving the pieces on the chessboard, Jason is much more dependant on others. To use a chess metaphor: Jason is the king, Iason is  the queen. Jason might be the semi-shamanic guide that leads his peers toward the golden fleece, still most of the heroic acts and plans along the way are made by others. Jason depends on Medea for getting the fleece, escaping Colchis, and surviving Pelias. Jason depends on Orpheus (hi there Orphe Zavi), on Heracles, on all his companions to be frank, for most of his adventures. The one moment Jason is truly alone and desperate is when he dies, having lost all those that might have loved him.On the other hand Iason is incredibly self reliant, he has pawns and a grand total of one friend, but he plays his cards close to the chest; he is very good at working with and in a group, still his plans are his own, he relies on his own strength even when he should not do so. Even when his fellow Blondies have lost respect for him and would gladly trod on his carcass he can still force them to grant him permission to move Riki to Apatia. During his life Iason is almost a monad, despite the wealth of people that would gladly offer him company, still, in the moment when he dies, he is not alone. Iason dies during a deep bonding moment, I think as happy as he ever was, and with the one person he, in his scary twisted and dangerously obsessive way, loved, by his side. Not just that, but Riki comes back of his own accord when he could have walked away free, proving that there was something more than hate and fear that he felt towards Iason.Jason dies desperate trying to relive old glories and leave in search of something, what he doesn’t know himself, while Iason dies happy after having left all of his glory behind (along with a couple of legs), but having gained the one thing he truly wanted. Which could be interpreted as creepy total control, but I do not think it was for several reasons, authorial intent first and foremost. 

Another element worth mentioning, in my opinion, is the rite of purification that allows the hero back into society. Jason and Medea go through one right after having escaped the Colchis. In most version of the myth the Argonauts leave in secret since Aeëtes, the king that held the golden fleece and father to Medea, went back on his word once Jason overcame the impossible proves he had set (thanks to Medea) and threatened to kill all the Argonauts. So Jason and Medea stole the fleece and, in the most common version of the myth, Medea also kidnapped her young half-brother. This way, when Aeëtes pursued them, she cut the boy to pieces and threw the pieces overboard, forcing her father to stop and recover the remains of his son in order to give him a proper burial. This act saved the mission, yet was so horribly inconceivable for the Greek sensibilities to force both Jason and Medea to seek purification in Circe’s domain. Circe, Medea’s aunt, purified them allowing the couple to travel back in Greece and re-join the “civilised society”. Still, ultimately, despite Jason’s and Medea’s efforts, they were unable to do so. Partially because of the fact that they committed another awful crime to enter the city of Iolcus, convincing the daughters of Pelias to cut their father to pieces in the hope of rejuvenating him. Thus, what should have been Jason’s triumph turns into him relinquishing all rights on the crown or the fleece and escaping like a disgraced exile with his wife. 

This, in my opinion, can be compared with Iason’s attempt at re-normalising the situation after Riki’s year and a half of freedom. Iason tries quite desperately to make Riki fit in his old life, in the Amoian system, going as far as submitting to almost all of Orphe’s rules , but there he ultimately fails, because not only Riki is not a person, or a pet, that can live in Eos, but also because Riki’s presence and influence has changed him to the point of making him unfit for his society. He cannot accept to show Riki, he fights against the house arrest Orphe decrees, he actually cares about Riki’s mental wellbeing (up to a certain point and in his twisted way that doesn’t stop him from abusing Riki, but he does). Besides, soon enough, Riki becomes involved in another crime in Eos, like Jason and Medea did in Corinth. So Iason’s attempt at “cleaning his name” in the eyes of his society fails as much as Jason’s and Medea’s does. 

This leads us to two interesting observations.

The first is wether we can read the Jason/Iason parallelism in the light of Seneca’s interpretation of the mythical Jason.Seneca wrote a tragedy about Jason and Medea called “Medea” in which he explored the classical theme of “civilised hero is dragged down by a barbarian woman” under the light of Stoicism. The tragedy is set, like all of the tragedies by the same name, after the exile of Medea and Jason from Iolcus, when they are living in Corinth. There the king offers his daughter in marriage to Jason and the hero, for reasons that vary from tragedy to tragedy, accepts the offer, abandoning his wife Medea to yet another exile and planning to separate her from their two children. As a result Medea, chooses to make him pay and sends his soon to be new wife a dress that burns her alive before killing the children she had with Jason and fleeing Corinth. In Seneca’s tragedy Jason becomes the mouthpiece of stoicism and is a positive character (which is why I much prefer Eurypides’ Medea, where he is a fool). He is forced into the new marriage by political reasons and acts as he does because the wise man endures stoically the hardships that life throws in his path, choosing based on intellect rather than passions, while his wife is the villain, choosing to destroy everything when life denies her what she wants rather than trying to make the best out of it. So there is this dichotomy of passions and rationality.This theme of passions versus reason is present in the Ai no Kusabi novels too, still there the role of Iason is similar yet completely different. Like Seneca’s Jason Iason is a creature of cold rationality at first, faced with a being of irrational passions. Both this Jason and Iason’s attempt at controlling that irrationality ultimately fails, yet they fail in completely different ways. Seneca’s Jason is not conflicted as Iason is. He knows his path, but doesn’t allow himself to suffer too much because of its cruelty, while Iason’s development is exactly about starting to feel something. His path is the exact opposite of the stoic hero’s one, he must learn how to feel, how to let go of the odd, twisted, form of stoicism that his nature and environment imposes upon him. Both Seneca’s Jason and Iason must overcome their nature, but in opposite directions. Jason’s act of healing is to overcome passions and his suffering, while Iason’s act of healing is about accepting, acknowledging that he has a human side able to suffer. 

This ties back into the elephant in the room that constitutes the second interesting observation. 

Jason’s myth is heavily dpendant on Medea. Is there a Medea in Ank? and, if there is one, who is our dystopian Medea? The most immediate answer would be to say that Medea is Riki. After all both are strangers in a strange place, both are despised for what they are, considered barbarian, savages, both are ruthless and cruel, both are determined, both follow their feelings far more than any logic, both bring forth the demise of Jason/Iason. Still I think that is a false parallelism. Riki is not Medea. Medea is powerful, divine, far more ruthless than Riki ever was, her power is even superior to Jason’s and while she and Riki might fill somehow similar narrative roles, their characters are completely different. Medea is far more divine than Jason, Riki is incredibly human in his virtues and flaws. Riki is not stupid, not by a long shot, still his impulsiveness and ignorance end up thwarting his plans, even the best laid ones, while Medea’s might and knowledge is so great that even her suicidal plan ends with her leaving in triumph on the sun’s chariot. Her very name derives from μῆδος, that means “cunning”. Riki is smart, but he has no chance of being cunning, not faced with a “monster of cunning” like Iason.My pet theory is that Iason is both Jason and Medea. Let’s analyse the possibility: Jason, in his interpretation as the “civilised hero”, the stoic, the “guide”, is Iason’s at the beginning, the dominant side of his personality, what he was moulded into being. All of his actions are carefully planned, he is more than able to use and then throw people away to fit a “greater good”, his master plan. Jason can be, in some interpretations of the myth, seen as some kind of fool manipulated by greater forces and, in some ways Iason is too and, at the beginning, is actually clueless about it, since he is so “indoctrinated” by the system as he can be. To the point that he cannot see how the system could harm him too, since he never felt any desire to go against it in a significant way. Even as he does, to keep Katze alive, he is still operating inside of a strict amoian logic. Keeping Katze alive is a means to an end. Curiosity indeed plays a part, but Iason’s ultimate goal is to benefit his own, and thus Jupiter’s power. 

Now let’s analyse Jason’s evil act, the one that looses him Hera’s favour. That act is abandoning Medea, breaking his family to save himself and his legacy in the “civilised” world. This is the complete opposite of what Iason does in the end of AnK. Iason there chooses his obsession for Riki over his own good, over what is socially acceptable. This way Iason makes Medea’s choice rather than Iason’s. To save Jason, to have him succeed, Medea betrays her family and country, so does Iason.Not just that, but Iason’s obsessive, possessive, twisted, brand of love for Riki very closely resembles what Medea feels for Jason. To have him she is willing to use all of her powers, to defy the most sacred laws and, when he wants to abandon her she is willing to destroy him, even if it hurts her in the deepest most intimate way (the killing of her own children). Still there we see a fundamental difference. By the end of book 6, after the one and only time Iason is forced to show Riki at a Bacchanalia, Iason has a very similar, horribly immature, reaction. He takes his frustration with the situation out on Riki, hurting him in quite an awful way. The abusive mechanism is the same “since I have sacrificed so much for you, if I cannot have you as I want, I’d rather destroy you”. Still Iason, unlike Medea, does not go through with it. Which doesn’t make his actions any less horrible, mind you, but shows a fundamental difference and highlights what, in my opinion, is Iason’s private “act of healing” that only comes as he dies: managing to make his Medea and his Jason coexist. Iason’s redemption is to accept his nature as part-human and act accordingly, granting the object of his twisted brand of “love” a choice, to recognise that a feeling, when not mutual, cannot be enforced and, through this, reconcile his rational and his instinctive side. And, this way, reconciling his rational and his irrational sides. 

Now, as promised at the beginning, I will explore a bit the “alchemical” symbolic interpretations of Jason.In Rome there is a famous landmark, the “Porta Alchemica”, (alchemical door), which references Jason in two of its incisions and in both cases the meaning given to him and his name was not the one of “healer”, but the one of “the discoverer”. This is aligned with the theories and interpretations of the myth that see the Argonauts voyage as a mythical recounting of the first commercial travels of Greek merchants towards unknown riches and knowledges. The golden fleece there is a symbol of redemption and knowledge rather than healing per se. Its gold is the alchemic gold, the philosopher’s stone able to turn “vile metals” into gold, heal every ailment, and grant eternal life. What I like about Ai no Kusabi is how that search is turned on its head. Iason starts the story by having a high-tech version of the philosopher’s stone/golden fleece. He is immortal, eternally young, has incredible power, he knows more than any other being, yet precisely because of that he is blind to everything he does not understand, he is prejudiced to think that everything “below” himself is unworthy. He frequently refers to Riki as a “gem in the rough”, but ultimately, his path leads him to the conclusion that the “rough” is exactly what makes Riki so appealing to him. He never ceases to want to dominate Riki, that is his nature, still he doesn’t want to “break him” anymore. Only by loosing his “golden fleece” Iason is able to recognise what he ultimately is and wants, and thanks to this realisation, redeem himself and gain one thing of true value.Iason, at the beginning, doesn’t truly care for anything because his own golden fleece blinds him. Both Riki and Iason loose the people they were before meeting each other and, through the books, search for a new identity, a rebirth (another theme that appears again and again in Jason’s and Medea’s tale). Pelias being tricked into thinking he can be rejuvenated, reborn, and then killed by Medea could be accosted to Kirie’s fate. A false rebirth that only means death. In fact Kirie’s name itself means “Lord”, like Pelias is the lord of Iolcus. 

The most meaningful inscription, in the optic of the reconciliation of Jason’s and Medea’s figures, is the one where it was written “Passing by opening the door of the villa, Iason obtained the rich fleece of Medea”. In that context one could argue that Iason’s travel “through the door” symbolises a form of acceptance of Medea’s rules and values, and that true knowledge and redemption from human limitations can only be achieved when rationality and passion are both taken into account and given their own space in a human’s life. In that inscription the treasure, the fleece is Medea’s.

In conclusion: yes, I do think the meaning of Ιάσων is important to the plot of Ai no Kusabi, and I also think that there are several interesting parallelisms that could be made between the characters of the myth in some of its interpretations and Iason.Still I also think that the meaning of “healer”, should not be taken literally, but interpreted in the context to signify a sort of “spiritual healing”, a conciliation between opposite positions and pulls. As I said in previous posts I think that Elites, Blondies in particular, can be seen as “failed projects” since they are supposed to serve as a bridge between men and machine, yet they are taught to look down on mankind rather than try to understand the humanity in them and “embrace it”. This way they are made ultimately ineffective at presenting the human position before Jupiter and Iason’s only “healing” act comes at the end of the novels and is about accepting his “human” side and acting upon it not for evil but, once in his life, for good. Thus “healing” that flaw of his whole specie. Besides, in such an optic, death, rather than the eternal life granted by the fleece, becomes the one way to freedom from Amoi’s society, the great equaliser. 

Are many of these speculations of mine pretty wild? Absolutely. After all the cultural context Yoshihara-sensei lives in is very different from the one I am speaking from, and there are issues of Japanese society explored in the books that I only tangentially know and which can be appreciated and spoken of far better by people who are part of, or know well, Japanese society.Still I think that Yoshihara-sensei did a kind of “syncretic effort”, to present a far-future culture that stemmed from many different roots (the Vila of slavic folklore are mentioned and subtly likened to the Elites, the reliefs on Midas’ gates are described as very similar to Indian reliefs, an angel is the symbol of the Guardians, one of Riki’s nicknames is Vajira and so on), thus I think that some of the observations I made might have indeed occurred to her while choosing the name for Iason. 

Thank you so much for the question again, and sorry for this humongous rant. I hope it could interest you, Anon! 

[ahnsael]

This was a long week. Just finished day 5 (hooray, it’s my Friday!) but it felt more like 7 or 8.

And we had a new manager with us last night, who I was supposed to train (he’s been a manager for this company, but many of our casinos use different systems and have different rules, so he has a lot to learn).

I told him at one point, “okay, let’s get [swing shift bartender] out of bar” and instead of coming with me, he just stood there while I went to the bar alone.

Literally an hour and 50 minutes into the shift, he comes into the office (where I’m talking to another manager who has worked with this guy before and was filling me in) and says, “I have to leave. I ripped my pants just below the fly.”

Now I did glance, and didn’t see anything, but I wasn’t going to closely inspect the guy’s crotch. So I said “do what you need to do, man.” I was thinking he was going to go home and change pants, and then come back, and had already mentally decided not to dock him for it, because -- hey, stuff happens.

Last time I ripped pants at work I was at Disneyland, working the popcorn cart at Central Plaza (a VERY visible location), and Costuming hadn’t had my size that day and had given me one size too small (it was that or four sizes too big, and I didn’t want to be sagging my pants and showing my skivvies). They split ALL THE WAY up my backside, though.

But, surrounded by literally thousands of people at parade time, I took one of my cleaning towels, folded it in half, and then tucked it into the back of my pants so that the loose end was covering the tear. I still felt...shall we say an “unfamiliar breeze?” but I kept on keeping on and working the cart, knowing that the towel was preventing the public from seeing my underwear.

But this guy...he says “I’ll either repair these, or I’ll buy a new pair tomorrow, and I’ll be back tomorrow night.”

And after he left (with the keys that aren’t supposed to leave the building -- I had to call and make him come back to turn them in), I looked at his time sheet and he had written “EO,” (Early Out) “Pants Ripped.”

But this was also right after he asked about tips (where the other manager, another guy we’ve been borrowing from another casino but also a guy WHO HAS HIS HEAD SCREWED ON STRAIGHT and with whom I really enjoyed working with for the first time last night (we’d spoken several times, but this was our first shift together), accurately told the newbie that he’d be lucky to take home $1, if that.

And neither of us actually saw the supposed rip in the pants.

So I wrote up an incident report and emailed it to my boss with an explanation of the situation, and this morning the other manager and I met with him when he came in...and Human Resources is getting a phone call today to find out why the hell they sent us this guy. Was this just another casino pawning off their problem child onto us? I know we’re desperate for another manager or two, but...NOT this guy. I’d heard stories before working with him, and even after less than two hours with him, I can see they’re all true.

Fortunately, next week the other graveyard manager is back, and I’m supposed to move to swing shift. And while we’re still short a manager or two (even with the addition of this useless waste of space who doesn’t seem to think that “actually doing your job” is part of his job description), we’ll be better off if we can either ship this guy back to the casino he came from, or get him out of the company entirely. Because I don’t even see a scenario where this guy would shine.

But hey, at least the other new guy (again, not new to the company but new to me, even though he’s worked at my casino before -- but comes with a MUCH better pedigree according to those who had worked with him before) had a really fun night (at least after the loser left). We got our stuff done, we joked around with each other and the staff, we had an impromptu dance party, I waved a lighter as one of our guests sang along to a song that was playing...once the other dude left we had fun.

Before that, my hands were literally shaking from frustration when I counted money or signed paperwork or did anything else. I was stressed while loser new guy was there. Once he sent himself home, my night got 100% better.

And, to be fair, I was LOOKING for a reason to send this guy home. He had been in the casino for at LEAST five hours before his shift, gambling. He ordered a drink for someone who was NOT gambling -- and when he was told “she has to be gambling to get a free drink; otherwise she has to pay” he literally responded with “Do you know who I am? I’m a manager here.”

When I told my boss about that this morning, he was literally aghast over it. “I’m the property manager, and even I never play that card.”

And I told the manager who I relieved last night, who relayed this info to me, that if New Guy pulled that kind of attitude with me, I would have zero problems with telling him to go home. I had the 1s (the keys that the manager in charge carries -- if there are multiple managers, the person with the 1s has the final say -- and the accountability for what happens on shift), so if I sent him home and he refuse, all it would take is a phone call to my boss who I know would 100% back me up (and can I just say, it’s really nice knowing that you’ve got a boss who has your back).

But since he sent himself home over a (possibly) made-up reason, I didn’t have to do that.

So...one, we’re not counting on that guy being there tonight. And two, even if he is, we’re not thinking we’re gonna keep him long. Worst-case scenario, we use him only when absolutely necessary, like if both of our graveyard guys are out of town or we have another need to fill where we’re desperate enough to use someone who refuses to even LEARN our systems.

And...I know our company is slow to fire people. But while I don’t know how much they put up with at other casinos (and it sounds like more than WE will put up with at OURS), and I know this company likes to give second/third chances (and I’m not against that -- that’s the philosophy that got them to hire me after six years of unemployment, and it’s worked out well for both of us -- I mostly really enjoy what I do, and the company just gave me a raise for doing it as well as I do), I can’t wait to see how this plays out. The guy may have gotten several chances before this (he told me about one write-up he got for physically intervening in a situation instead of calling law enforcement like he was supposed to do -- and says he’d do it again, and while I understand his reasoning, he should have at least called the cops first because the situation escalated after he intervened -- and still ended up with the call to law enforcement that he should have called in the first place).

If things stay as they are on my next two nights off, I have two more shifts with this guy later this week before I move to swing shift. And my willingness to send him home if he cops attitude remains. When I was training, I think it was my third night that I carried the 1 keys and was officially in charge (with a longer-tenured manager there to help me). But I don’t think I’m giving this new guy the 1s on any shift we work together.

Fortunately, our policy says to show up 15 minutes early so you can (a) go over any pressing issues with the outgoing manager and (b) relieve them of their keys and be ready when the shift change actually hits, to assign keys and get the people from the shift before you off on time (they’re off ½ an hour after I officially start).

This guy was scheduled at 11:00, and walked in the door at EXACTLY 11:00. Even for non-management, policy is that you are “ready to work, keys in hand” at your start time, and this guy was not there. The other (good) manager we had last night was there something like 35 minutes early, from what he tells me. I was 20 minutes early, because I like to have time to put my car key and my phone away (I can’t carry my phone at work) and then get the down-;ow on what’s been going on while I was away.

[propshophannah]

7 part Anon ask on Manorian

[1/7] “I feel like we can’t judge Manorian’s relationship based on EoS. Like they are both so broken right now, their sex scene was about their body’s needing a release, but we know that they do have hidden feelings for one another. TOG6 is where we are going to”

[2/7] “Them interacting with each other. We will get the deep stuff then. And then people can choose if they still are anti-Manorian. I love them together, and I love that we are seeing a character who is showing her vulnerability in a realistic way. She slept with a man she is just”

I respectfully disagree. Dorian was 100% depressed in the beginning of EoS. And Manon certainly had her moment to be depressed when she was on the ship, but she snapped out of it.

EoS, chapter 44. Kindle page 423. “Manon Blackbeak awoke. … She blinked as she sat up, her wound now a dull ache–and found her head clear of whatever that haze has been.”

Maas doesn’t waste words. The first thing she told us, after we left Manon in Ch. 43 sleeping, is that Manon awoke. Then we get this nice image of her sitting up (meaning she’s becoming aware), the ache in her belly is “dull” (meaning her emotional pain has subsided), and her head clear “that haze” (her depression/self-loathing).

Manon is not depressed any more. She is not human enough, and I’d argue too Crochan, to be able to be continually depressed. Those emotions don’t last in predators like her because the survival instinct kicks in and overrides it.

Moving on.

Their sex scene was 100% NOT about a either of their body’s need for release. Subtext and actions are important to understanding Maas’s writing and character development. I’ve posted so much on this, so I’ll be brief:

Dorian spent the whole book unable to stay away from Manon and unable to stop thinking about her. Manon did the same thing. The attraction between them is described the same way as Aelin and Rowan’s mating bond.

Their feelings aren’t hidden, they just haven’t expressed “love” out loud. They show it.

They show it when Dorian and his magic can’t control themselves when people threaten Manon.

They show it when the air between them goes taut.

They show it when Dorian kills the bloodhound because he knows the Bloodhound is lying and he sees how it’s affecting Manon. Manon who has just come out of her depression a few days before. He allows his mask of control to slip and Manon sees that his “sapphire eyes are utterly merciless” (EoS kindle pg. 441).

They sense when the other is looking at them, and what the other is thinking. Mate bond, yo.

Dorian shows it when he gets Manon released from the chains.

Dorian shows it when he tells Manon, “I wouldn’t harm you,” with his magic hands (EoS kindle pg. 455). Which is 100% him picking up on all the clues of her sexual assault, btw.

Dorian shows it when he confesses to her in that same scene that he has no interest in human women. “…the words struck some deep, aching wound in him” (EoS kindle pg. 456).

Later in the marshes he tells Manon about Sorscha, and Manon validates his feelings and he feels relieved (EoS kindle pg. 509).

Manon understands and vow to kill Dorian before he can be taken to Erawan. (EoS kindle pg. 519)

In the marshes, Manon recognizes how tense Dorian is and asks him what’s up when no one else does or cares (EoS pg 549)

THE LIST GOES ON BUT I’LL STOP NOW.

So what did we learn? Feelings between Manorian = NOT hidden.

Now on to that sex scene.

There is a shit ton of stuff going on in this scene. But I’m gonna hit a few things that are important. They’re mates. Okay. All the evidence that was suggested for Rowaelin being mates, is there for Manon and Dorian. Sure, I’ll listen to an argument that it’s a witch version of a mating bond, that’s fair. Because it’s not canon so anything is possible. But because they’re mates they can’t stay away from one another and their bodies are satisfied with just having sex one time.

I 100% think that Dorian went into her room telling himself that his attraction to Manon is just physical. I think he HONESTLY thought that could have sex and get her out of his system–but that did NOT happen.

And when it didn’t, Dorian knew that the things he’s been secretly thinking about the whole book, are true. Because all EoS, Dorian was in his head putting together the pieces of the puzzle and I think he knows that Manon is his mate, or that fate/the gods want them to be together. Because he realized during the sex, that he could have NEVER felt for Sorcha the way he feels for Manon.

Dorian is described as “trembling with restraint” (EoS kindle pg. 574). Three reasons: he is holding himself back from jumping her bones, he’s already picked up on her sexual assault and doesn’t want to move to fast–he’s being considerate, AND he likely knows that most men are rough with her/take too much/try to take too much–AND GODS-DAMNIT DORIAN HAVILLIARD WANTS TO TAKE HIS TIME AND SHOW HER WHAT A REAL LOVER CAN MAKE HER FEEL.

And DORIAN is the kind of guy who is smart enough to pick up on how Manon has a need to always be in control. She can’t be vulnerable.  So what does he do? He eases her tensions and he allows her to be in control.

And then he picks up on that “tight part in her chest,” and he eases it by telling her that he knows the Bloodhound was lying and that Asterin might not be dead. AND IT WORKS. He makes her comfortable that way.

Then when she lets him take her shirt off and look at her bare from the waist up, she notes that his gaze turns icy when he sees her scar. And what does he do? He confesses that he would cross the line from killing to protect to killing for pleasure if he ever met the Matron.

I DON’T THINK I NEED TO TELL YOU HOW HUGE THAT IS FOR MANON. FOR SOMEONE WHO IS NOT HONOR OR DUTY BOUND TO HER, TO MAKE A VOW TO PROTECT HER BY CROSSING A MORAL LINE THEY HOLD. NOR SHOULD I HAVE TO EXPLAIN WHY SOMEONE LIKE DORIAN, VOWING TO DEFEND HER AGAINST HER ABUSER IS A BIG FUCKING MOMENT. It honestly breaks my heart, this scene. Because Dorian ALSO could not save Sorscha. So him vowing to protect Manon in this way is HUGE. HUUUUGGGGEEE. That there is enough left of him to be able to say that he would again risk failure to try and protect another woman he loves. He really reeeaaaally put himself out there in a vulnerable spot when he said that. And Manon rewards him, by allowing herself to be equally vulnerable with him.

Then they smooch–and let me tell you, MANON THINKS DORIAN TASTES LIKE HOME AKA THE WASTES AKA THE WITCH KINGDOM SHE’D NEVER BEEN TO. Same way Rowan smells and tastes like home to Aelin.

THEN: Dorian confesses that he wanted her from the moment they met (*cough* mates *cough*), and Manon says, “Yes” and her hands are trembling.

SIDE NOTE: At some point in this ask you claim that Manon is just starting to like Dorian. Nope. This attraction started the moment they met. Manon has a thing for chained things and a special (Crochan) ability to see the person within/someone’s essence. She liked Dorian from the moment they met. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, AND she asked Asterin what it meant to love shortly after. NOT to mention she went back to the king after the Temis temple scene (where she watched Aelin and Rowan–when aelin first knew they were mates–fuss over hurt Rowan. Manon should/could have been assessing her own injuries, but she didn’t. She chose to watch their shows of love.) and she asked AGAIN for the king to send Dorian to her in Morath. Then we get that scene with Asterin and her witchling. And a few scenes where Manon starts describing blue things as “sapphire” and moments where she CAN’T LOOK AT ASTRERIN because they’re talking about Adarlan and she knows that if she looks at Asterin, her second is gonna give her a look that says, “I know this is about the prince you met in the forest. You can’t fool me bitch. I know you better than you know yourself.”

They the sex happens AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HER FUCKING LIFE, MANON CROCHAN IS ABLE TO JUST BE. To just exist. The selfishly enjoy a moment without worrying who or what she is or promised to be. All that exists is him and her and their bodies and she wants more. She wants to feel this way, like she belongs to someone in this way, that someone selfishly belongs to her in this selfish way. And when she says “Dorian gave it to her. To them both,” we know that he felt the exact same way. Because they’re forever doing the mindmeld thing. She is aware of what he is thinking and feeling, same as he is of her.

Not to mention, that is Manon’s Crochan gift–the ability to see inside someone and know who they are. To see their essence. I’d argue she did it very VERY obviously in the marshes, but she’s been doing it the whole series with “chained things.” And now that we know she is Rhiannon’s heir and that Rhiannon channeled Mala’s “essence” to forge the Lock, it should be HELLA obvious.

Then when it’s over, they’re both shaking “with… whatever he’d done to her,” (EoS kindle pg. 576).

And then Dorian says “that was supposed to take the edge off” and it DIDN’T (EoS kindle pg. 574). Meaning: Dorian’s like “well, shit. I have nothing to feel guilty about when I think of Sorscha, because I would have left her the moment I met Manon.” And be know this because two things happen:

On his way out the door, Dorian’s depression is gone/the Old Dorian is BACK IN ACTION because that’s when his mind starts to work how it used to and he is able to solve the riddle for the witch-mirror.

Dorian tells Manon they’re not done, which she knows. She just objects to the “order” in his voice.

[3/7] “Starting to care for, let her be. Her walls are finally coming down. Nobody bitches about Aelin when she dies things, but they always seem to do so with Manon. WHY MANON? Bc she is actually a really well written character who has her guard up. Who isn’t giving herself”

I’ve never bitched about Manon, but I sure as heck bitch about Aelin. LOL. Have you been to my blog?

[4/7] “Manon realizes that sex didn’t make her feel better emotionally, therefore in ToG6 she will actually begin to know Dorian. And not the smooth talking dorian, but the real vulnerable and hurt dorian! Bc even dorian has a mask. And that is the one he showed Manon in EoS.”

Please. Show me where Manon indicated that sex with Dorian didn’t make her feel better. Because last I checked, they were both able to pick up their royal mantles and agreeing that the thing between them (mating bond!) is not over.

[5/7] “manorian is actually being very beautifully set up. I mean… he didn’t forcefully bite her LIKE SOMEONE WE KNOW 🙄”

I agree. Manorian was the plan from Day One, and Maas has done a stellar job piecing them together. It annoys me when people don’t see it. But alas, sometimes I realize that people didn’t read the same book as me.

And LOL. People get salty about that Rowan bite, but I thought it was necessary to get Aelin to stop acting like she wasn’t a Fae Queen.

[6/7] “Not sure if you got the last bit of my Manorian rant but….I’m done now lol”

But are you?

[7/7] “Wait!!! One more thing… Which is actually my Favorite part of their whole sex scene!!!! the part were Dorian moves a strand of hair from Manon’s face!!!! that was such a sweet and loving gesture. Plus I didn’t take their sex scene as something that was hot and heavy, more like it started out hot and heavy and then when they actually came together it actually turned more sweet. Like sarah could of had them say dirty things to each other or make ridiculous noises but she didn’t, and I think that is because she wanted both of them to have a bit more of a connection. I’m sorry if I’m not making any sense. I’m typing this to fast lol. Also, the fact that we get so few details to how they actually had sex makes it open for interpretation. Like was it fast? Slow? who knows”

YAS! Him still unable to STOP touching her gives me LIFE!!! And when he put his hands on her waist to ride Abraxos at the end LIKE COME ON! WE ALL KNOW SHE MADE HIM LAUGH BY REFERENCING THIS SCENE AND HOW SHE SAID THE NEXT TIME HE TOUCHED HER IT WOULD BE HER DECISION. 

And you’re 100% right. The sex was hot and heavy, but it was also … dare I say love making??? it was gods-damned beautiful! And the whole scene was WAY to short! I needed/wanted pages. And ALLLL the details!

[phoenix--dxwn]

Silly Antics

HEADCANON: SILLY ANTICS

Request: Chocobros reacting to the other chocobros doing silly antics? Doesn't have to have reader but its up to you if your prefer writing with reader. Happy writing!

A/N: I’m so sorry if this isn’t what you were really looking for but i honestly had so much fun writing this omg so I really hope you guys enjoy! It’s taken me like three hours to write lmao rip to meeeeee

credit to all rightful owners of pictures/gifs.

NOCTIS: OKAY SO NOCTIS RIGHT? I feel as though Noct would have various reactions to whoever is doing something stupid or silly. So I’m just gonna write down some scenarios for each of the chocobros and his reactions. This is how it’ll go for the others too!

Reacting to Ignis: ALRIGHT SO THIS MOTHERFUCKER RIGHT HE ALWAYS SEEMS PRETTY CALM AND COLLECTED AND COOL BUT HE’S GOTTA BREAK THAT AT SOME POINT RIGHT??? So this is how I imagine a hypothetical scene would go:

Ignis would have a shit ton of Ebony because we all know Iggy. He loves his goddamn Ebony. Alright so he’d probably have like… I don’t know… Let’s just say about 5-8 cups of it. So at this point everyone would start noticing how Iggy is getting a little jittery and shit and Noct would be like…

“You okay, Specs?” like Noct would be a worried little shit at first and then Ignis would go batshit crazy on him.

“OF COURSE I’M OKAY NOCT WHY WOULDN’T I BE?” and Iggy would just start speaking really fast and loud and his reserved nature has now been compromised. So let’s just say at camp, or if they were back in Lucis and this whole war never happened (HAHAHHAHAHAHAH I WISH THAT WAS THE CASE THEN MY HEART WOULDN’T BE SO FUCKING BROKEN) Ignis would be going nuts with the cooking. He’d be making a mess of things, ingredients would be everywhere and a whole lot of “THAT’S IT! I’VE COME UP WITH A NEW RECIPE!” would be shouted for all of Eos to hear.

Okay so back to Noct’s reaction. Seeing as Iggy is too busy cooking and baking new things or whatever, Noct would enlist the help of Prompto. As Prompto is the one with the camera, Noct would immediately come to the idea of filming Ignis as he was doing his little shenanigans.

After everything that has been said and done, I think ultimately, Noctis would use this as some sort of leverage??? Like he would use it as blackmail if he had an S/O or something and he’d be like, “Don’t you dare sneak any more vegetables in my meals or I will send this to (Y/N)” and Ignis would have this internal conflict on whether or not he should keep sneaking veggies in Noct’s food or if he wants the love of his life to see how silly he is when he has wayyyy too much Ebony to drink!

Reacting to Gladio: alright so Gladio… the muscles of the group… he must have A LOT of confidence if he’s wearing nothing but a button-up shirt that’s you know… unbuttoned….

ALRIGHT LET’S GOOOOOO! So here’s the situation: Behind the scenes, Gladio literally pumps himself up in the mirror to help his confidence. Or you know… he’ll give himself pep talks at the gym even though people can hear him. So let’s just say one day when Noctis goes to hit up the gym or the bathroom or something, he hears this low voice that he recognizes as Gladio’s. And what he hears makes him want to eavesdrop a little more.

*Gladio, flexing his arms* “Oh yeah, look at the size of those arms. You’re doing real well with keeping yourself in shape.”

Noctis would then have to cover his mouth because he doesn’t want to blow his cover.

“Look at those abs though… you can count each of them… they’re all distinguished baby… I wonder if women ever look at them and swoon…”

This statement causes Noct to have to bite his knuckle right because… well… I mean that’s what I would do.

Then Noctis would hear a something that sounded like a kiss. Noctis would wonder if someone might be in the room with Gladio, but with the statements he’s made so far, Noctis thinks it would be unlikely.

“With these guns, there’s no way anyone could get to the Prince. I am an Amicitia. I am the King’s shield. With my body, it’s undeniable.” (I mean come on… this man deserves more love. HE’S HOT AF??? AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT THINKS SO?)

Reacting to Prompto: so well… there could be soooo many things that Prompto could be doing that’s silly. I mean… come on. It’s hard to choose just one?? But whatever. He’s a skirt-chaser… I guess we can start with that.

OKIE DOKIE HERE’S WHAT’S GOING ON this boy….. He loves his women. He doesn’t really care what shape or size they are or what color of skin they are. He can appreciate all women equally. (I’m sure men too!) Alright so we all know he’s smitten with both Cindy and Aranea. So could there possibly be a “cat fight” that’ll happen??? Well… in Prompto’s head… it does happen.

Noctis will be up late in one of the caravan’s when he hears a familiar voice… most likely dreaming…. Talking in his sleep. He knows that it’s not right to listen in but he can’t help it. Prompto’s his best friend. He can’t pass up an opportunity like this.

“Ladies, ladies, it’s alright. No need to fight. There’s plenty of me to go around.” Sure, Prompto might be sleeping but that doesn’t mean he can’t do gestures too, right??? So yeah. Imagine that line how you will.

Noctis would open the door slowly and get back to his bed, laying down listening in on his buddy.

“Cindy, Aranea… there’s no need to worry. Honestly. I can be shared.”

Noctis is now trying to imagine what they might be saying in his dream based on his reactions. So he takes his phone out and begins to record Prompto, deciding to show it to him in the morning… maybe have Gladio and Ignis help role-play this out or something, right? So let’s just say Gladio would be Aranea and Iggy would be Cindy.

This is how the morning would go. Noctis has scripted it all, and has woken the two up early to make sure Prompto isn’t aware of what’s happening. The minute Prompto walks out of the caravan/tent/room, they would all start the scene.

Gladio, using a higher pitched voice would say something like this: “Prompto! Tell Cindy you’re mine.”

Ignis, trying to imitate Cindy’s southern drawl: “Aw hell no! I’ve known Prompto longer than you have! He’s mine! Ain’t that right sweetie?”

After a short scene like that, Prompto would be blushing and would ask Noct about it. To which he would answer with the recording.

IGNIS: okay so this beautiful motherfucker tends to have this whole ideal of like… I’m tired of this shit type attitude with whoever is doing silly things. So here’s how this would go:

Reacting to Noctis:

Alright so we all know that Noctis hates his vegetables. Now, I wouldn’t call this a silly antic but definitely something I could see this boy doing. So at camp, Ignis decides to make this like… very nutritious meal that will boost HP and stamina and all these other attributes. But that means having a lot of nutrient rich foods, which normally means… vegetables. Possibly some beans. Who knows??? This man can cook anything.

Anways, as soon as dinner has been served, Noctis will take one look at it and go, “Yech. There’s way too many vegetables, Iggy.”

Ignis would immediately look at him with dagger-like eyes and respond with something like, “Do I have to feed it to you?”

Noctis of course, would deny it and poke at his food a lot before even taking a bite of it. As soon as Ignis looks away, he gives his food to the Chocobo. The chocobo would eat it happily but Ignis would know.

He would facepalm it really hard and keep shaking his head.

He would think to himself, “I put so much time and effort into coming up with that recipe. That boy is so ungrateful. I cannot believe. This is just… disheartening. How is this boy going to gain any muscle?”

The rest of the night would be filled with tension all because Noctis decided to not eat his vegetables.

Reacting to Prompto:

ALRIGHT GUYS TBH I THINK THAT IF ANYONE WOULD MAKE IGGY GET IN THAT WHOLE I’M DONE WITH THIS SHIT MOOD IT WOULD BE PROMPTO. So in all honesty, I think the Chocobros would be riding in the Regalia, going on a very scenic route. This would cause Prompto to ask Noct every like five minutes if they can take a photo. Noctis, being his best friend would say yes. And this makes Specs unhappy. It’s wasting gas, and it’s going to take at least ten times as long to get to the final destination.

So Ignis would be driving, and at one of the photo ops, before he gets out Ignis would literally just start banging his head on the wheel because he’s just so daMN FRUSTRATED LIKE GET THIS GUY A DRINK!

As they’re walking to the destination, Prompto would look over at Noctis and ask, “What’s wrong with Ignis?”

Noctis would shrug but Prompto in his head, knew what could possibly be wrong with him.

That being said, with every photo taken that day, Prompto made an effort to make sure that he covered Ignis in every shot.

By the end of the day when everyone was looking at the photos, Ignis would be fuming and would shoot a nasty glare at Prompto, causing him to run. Ignis would chase him around the whole town or rest area and would not stop until he got Prompto.

Prompto would keep pushing Iggy’s buttons by saying he didn’t know what the big deal was and with every laugh, it fueled Ignis even more.

Reacting to Gladio:

Ignis, again being the snarky bastard, would say, “There will be no guarantees.”

Here’s the deal. I honestly think that Iggy would catch Gladio watching a dramatic soap opera or something. GUYS CAN LOVE DRAMAS TOO YOU KNOW. So Ignis would look at him suspiciously, not knowing this little fun fact about him. He did a pretty damn good job keeping it a secret from everyone.

Ignis started analyzing it, realizing that having Iris as a little sister must have prompted him to start watching these shows as a time passer type of thing.

Gladio would be too engulfed in his show to notice that Ignis was even there. As the show progresses, the sadder it got. This caused Gladio to start sniffling and tearing up, making Ignis want to take some sort of initiative to make sure that Ignis had leverage on him.

Ignis would walk over and seem “concerned” for him. He knew the minute he tapped him on the shoulder he would put his phone away to make it seem like there is no evidence of him watching a drama.

“Gladio, are you alright?” he would ask, but not in a concerned tone. No, Ignis can be a little snarky bastard. He’d say it with a smirk on his face. (HIS DAMN SMIRK THOUGH? AM I THE ONLY ONE SWOONING RIGHT NOW????)

Gladio, like predicted, threw his phone down and wiped his eyes, looking at Ignis.

“I’m fine. There was just something in my eye.”

Ignis would raise an eyebrow and respond with something like…. “Are you sure about that…? I’m pretty sure I saw you watching Iris’ favorite show…”

Gladio would go super duper red and look away from him, causing Ignis to lean back on the couch or chair.

“You tell anyone and I will kill you.”

PROMPTO: with this one right here I think he would definitely be either the one to encourage the silly antics to continue, document the whole entire thing, or even just like… join in on the fun. Honestly though I think Prompto would be the one to do the silly antics, not reacting to them. Sooooo let’s see how I decide to write this LMAO

Reacting to Noctis:

So you know how he always asks Noctis what kind of pictures he wants to see more of? Well, Prompto would come up with this brilliant idea to make a montage of every time he KO’d and give it to him as a wedding present or something.

Prompto would purposely not help him out of danger or anything. Instead, he would ask Ignis and Gladio to wait a few seconds before helping him so he could get a picture of him.

Every once in awhile, Prompto would ensure that he got a few embarrassing photos of Noctis. THE PRINCE IS A HUMAN BEING HE CAN HAVE EMBARRASSING MOMENTS TOO LIKE MAYBE PICKING HIS NOSE OR SNEEZING REALLY AWFULLY OR CHOKING ON FOOD OR SOMETHING YOU FEEL?

Alright so to get payback on Gladio for leaving the group briefly, he enlists the help of Prompto to have a glass of water ready for to dip Gladio’s fingers in. You know, the ol’ I peed myself trick? Yeah, that’s what Noctis wanted to do. But instead, Prompto decided to take things into his own hands.

The night before it was supposed to happen, Prompto decided to do that trick to Noctis. And of course, Prompto being the king of this sort of stuff, it worked. And Prompto had it all on camera.

Noctis would be super embarrassed and ashamed and Prompto would feel bad about it, but not bad enough to erase the pictures.

Reacting to Ignis:

OKAY SO IN MY PERSONAL OPINION I SEE IGNIS AS A GUY WHO LIKES TO SING IN HIS SPARE TIME. So here’s little Prompto, who we all know loves to sing. Whether it be the victory fanfare, or the chocobo theme, the guy loves to sing. In public. Very loudly. So as the Chocobros are on a journey, Prompto discovers this hidden talent that Ignis has.

While Ignis is filling up on gas or something, he begins to hum along. A song that Prompto is familiar with. Of course, Prompto had to hear him as they were all walking out from the store in order to get more potions and stuff.

Back in the Regalia, Prompto would play the song and see if Ignis would react. Ignis begins to tap his hand on the steering wheel and Prompto knew he was making progress.

After they get to their next destination, Ignis decides to take a shower. Prompto smiles to himself because he knows he got the tune stuck in his head. Prompto being Prompto, listens in.

He is not disappointed. Ignis begins to sing the song and of course, Prompto recorded it. When he steps out of the shower Prompto begins to sing it and gives Ignis a big grin.

Ignis narrows his eyes but begins to sing with him. Noctis and Gladio come back from fishing and see the two of them singing their hearts out, and they all decided to join in. (IMAGINE THIS LIKE WITH THE EYE OF THE TIGER OR BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY WITH A BUNCH OF UR PEEPS RIGHT? LIKE THAT’S HOW THIS SCENE IS GOING RN.)

Reacting to Gladio:

Gladio I’ve noticed, seems like he’s more of a ladies’ man than Prompto is??? Like I feel like with Sonia and stuff and even possibly Cindy??? So here Gladio is, being the attractive motherfucker he is, he’s talking to Cindy. One of the woman that Prompto loves.

Being the jealous guy that he is, says, “That son of a bitch!”

So he decides that he wants to sabotage Gladio every time he talks to a lady. If he can’t get himself a lady, Gladio can’t either.

As time progresses, every time Gladio is caught with a woman, Prompto will walk over there and ruin the moment somehow. It could be like a “We’ve gotta go! Prince’s orders!” to just like an embarrassing story that he would just randomly tell the person.

Gladio would get upset. He would look at Prompto and be like “Why the hell did you do that?”

Prompto would fold his arms and look away from him, mumbling quietly, “Because I’m jealous.”

Gladio would of course ask him to repeat it, but Prompto denies it.

One day as they make a pitstop in Hammerhead, Gladio is seen talking to Cindy. Prompto gets all worked up and decides to run over there, to which Cindy replies, “Hey cutie!”

Prompto looks over at Gladio and asks, “What did you say to her?”

Gladio just smirks and looks over at him with a cheeky grin. “I’m being your wingman. You can thank me later.”

GLADIO: I think Gladio would honestly be the one to make fun of all of them. Like he’s the big brother of the whole group, ya feel???

Reacting to Noctis:

Alright alright alright! Sooooooooo we’re almost finished here. Oh boy. So as they’re training and stuff, Noctis is trying to lift weights and stuff and Gladio would look at him and in his head be like, “Weak. I could lift ten times that weight.”

So Gladio would walk over there and try to help push Noctis to do more, but Noctis doesn’t.

Gladio would shake his head and show him up, lifting much more than Noct.

Noctis would fold his arms and glare at Gladio.

“Show off.” he would scoff.

Gladio would smirk and say, “Oh come on, Noct. You always say you have muscle. Now’s the time to show it.”

Noctis accepts the challenge and tries to lift even more than before. Ignis is freaking out in the corner while Prompto is cheering him on.

Gladio watches, making sure to help if things get too bad. He stands by, but is impressed by Noctis’ strength. After he successfully lifts that weight, Noct looks at Gladio and glares.

“I hate you. I’m all gross and sticky and now I’m tired.” Noctis would complain.

“Yeah yeah, that was pretty good. For you.” Gladio would chuckle.

Reacting to Ignis:

Okay so for this I imagine Gladio helping Ignis shop for ingredients and shit. In my head it plays out a little bit like this:

“Here’s that Lucian tomato you wanted, Iggy.”

“Thank you, Gladio… wait… this one is too ripe. Would you grab another?”

Gladio would look at him in disbelief. To Gladio, a tomato is a tomato. He didn’t really care if something was too ripe or not ripe enough.

So Gladio would do as he’s told, grumbling to himself.

“What the hell is too ripe? What the hell isn’t too ripe? Damn, Iggy. This is why I didn’t want to come shopping with you in the first place.”

Gladio would come back to Ignis with new tomatoes, and luckily they were up to his expectations. However, everything else he grabbed for Ignis was not.

Gladio got so frustrated that he ended up having a sort of break down.

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY THAT! I DON’T SPEAK CHEF. YOU GOTTA DUMB IT DOWN FOR ME IGGY. I DON’T GO OUT PICKING VEGETABLES AS OFTEN AS YOU DO. I CAN’T DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN RIPE AND NOT RIPE. I KNOW A GOOD PIECE OF MEAT WHEN I SEE ONE THOUGH.”

Ignis would just look at him and tell him to quiet down. “This is why you are here. You are learning. Just like Noctis and Prompto had to learn. Now calm down, the people will start looking at you.”

Gladio’s eye would twitch the entire rest of the grocery store.

Reacting to Prompto:

Here’s how things would go with Prompto. Gladio would be talking with Cindy or someone, and Prompto would IMMEDIATELY get jealous. So jealous to the point that he would go to Gladio for help when talking to her.

AND IT’S PROMPTO. HE’S A LADIES’ MAN. HE SHOULDN’T NEED HELP BUT HE’S GETTING DESPERATE.

So Gladio would raise his eyebrow and decided to have some fun with this. “I’ll do it at a price.”

“Okay what price? You name it.”

Gladio had to think about it for a while, but he came up with the perfect idea.

“No talking about Cindy or Aranea or anyone else for a month. We’ve got other priorities. Either that or I take away your camera for a month. Your choice.”

Prompto would go into distress and would even wonder if this was all worth it. No talking about two amazing women for a month or not taking pictures for a month? That’s absolutely absurd!!! So he decides to go with the whole no talking about them for a month. He could still think about them, right?

Gladio’s advice to him: “Don’t try so hard. Just talk to them like you would talk to another person. A friend.”

Prompto’s jaw drops to the ground. THAT WAS ALL THE FUCKING ADVICE HE WOULD GIVE???

“Go give it a try before you give me that look.”

So Prompto does and to his surprise, it works. He scores a date with Cindy and he couldn’t believe it.

Gladio sighs to himself, thinking, “Not even a goddamn thank you.”

[adrisalomonm]

THE ENCHANTMENT OF THE WITCHCRAFT II SEASON. TWELVE CASES FOR ROME VERSAILLES. FIRST CASE: MY DEAR FRIEND: ORIGINAL HISTORY AND REGISTERED BY: ADRIANA SALOMON. It was a cold night or at least it was in the spell of the sorceress, the dogs of the mansion were very excited but Rome and the other inhabitants of the mansion were listening, Rome was very happy because she had a dream that had her very pleased ... She looked at the University where she studied with her friends and suddenly in the garden of the campus she sees Odily her beloved friend sitting on a nice tablecloth with other friends sharing a picnic afternoon, Rome calls her: - Odily - She turns and smiles but the passage of time had not affected Odily, since she even dressed as Rome saw her last time, Rome embraces her and they embrace long and felt, as they separate. Odily starts to cry and speaks very low looking sideways: - Rome you must help me - Rome looks at her and confronts her with the look: - What's happening to you? Are not you okay? - She denies with her head and Roma looks at her picnic companions who turn into demons. Rome takes her hand and says: - Let's go Odily! - She was going to escape and Rome begins a struggle with the demons and they do not release her, she very annoyed starts reprimanding them and Odily goes with them for a huge hole. Rome wanted to wake up but could not until a demon shouted in his ear and she got up very upset screaming the name of her friend, the dogs began to howl even more loudly. Rome puts on an overcoat and with a hand lamp goes down the stairs and goes through the room of the relics, that's what they called it and sees that the mirror flickers, approaches and leaves a demon dressed as a woman Worse! In a ridiculous way too much. Rome makes a gesture of disgust because it also smelled bad: - What do you want…? Why did you scream at me? - The demon writhed and said in Latin: - Bianca me amicum tibi affinitate mihi deprehendantur hinc cruciabuntur (Is that your aunt Bianca trapped me tormented your friend and sent me here) Rome looked at the mirror: - I thank you for speaking my language- The demon swallowed thick. Roma asks him: - Why do you torment Odily? - Roma approached the lamp and she covers her eyes: - No, please, do not ...! I did not want to, I'm condemned too ...! But there are things about Odily that you do not know. "Roma approached and pulled the light closer: - Speaks! If you do not want me to use anything other than this light! - The demon stepped back and said in Latin: - A Odily ... Errant ambulate ad eos virum: tibi affinitate conjungitur familiam suam ... et obtinuit me oportet ire ad invented ubi tu vivunt, et of ipsa ad causaam mortis suae (To Odily they used it to wander ... A man, his family ... And your aunt caught me, you must go to where he lives and find out the true cause of his death) Rome looked at her and it was going to slip in the mirror and she holds it: - Anything else…! You're not going to leave until I get my job! - Say some words and throw it in the mirror, she got trapped in hi and went to her room ... In the morning Sepia with Beaumont approaching Rome who took tea: - Who is that in the mirror? - Rome greets them and smiles a smile: - Remember my friend Odily? - Sepia is pensive and Beaumont says: - A nice young lady from your University ... Too bad she never paid attention to me ...! He had his relationship- Rome nods and Sepia smiles: - Of course a waste that never graduated and how painful his accident ... In passing in the night of witches - Rome says: - Sepia please find out. What happened? Beaumont seeks journalistic information about Odily's accident - Augusta enters and brings them breakfast: - Do you think it was not an accident? - Rome points to the mirror room: - That's why it came here, it's sent from Aunt Bianca - Everyone looked at each other. - Do you plan to go to Odily's hometown? Manchester? - Roma looked at Beaumont: - If necessary, but I also want you to find out about Fabián, I want to know what happened with that slob. - They finished breakfast and Sepia went to the mirror room to see that anima, Rome went to another room and Beaumont got into the laptop. - Sepia to see that soul in the mirror said in Latin: - Vos can nostris linguis loquuntur? (Can you speak in our language?) - The anima nodded and Sepia got in the mirror with her: - Show me! What happened to Odily ...? - The anima points to another direction and Sepia sees a door - Can you take me there? - The anima nodded and they approached the door when opening it Sepia felt that they were retreating And much! A strong wind dragged them, Sepia arrives at the house of Odily where his parents called him severely attention. Odily with a haughty face said to his father: - But ... What did you want me to do ...? He is the man who I love and they do not understand it. Why do they impose themselves? We want to live together! I did not graduate as an Archaeologist because of his whims! - His parents looked at each other: - Okay, Odily, but you will not enjoy our fortune, I will send you a pension because I know that this jerk will not give you the life you are used to. - The father got up and said: - No! Not a pension, I will give you a money and both of you will see what they will do with it, I have a half-functioning factory, you can both work there, but a monthly payment can not- She wants to live with him, she loves him ... We'll see how strong that love is! - Odily excitedly told them: - You will not regret it! - He hugged them and left, his mother said to her husband: - What will we do with Odily's insurance? - He answered very categorically: - We will make him believe that we suspend him and if something happens, we will charge him. I do not mind losing that company, but that unfortunate money from us will have no more! - They kept talking and went to another time, and Odily lived with him and they were in a celebration of the company, she was hugging Fabian and kissing him they started to be prosperous very soon and they were in a New Year's celebration when Odily sees a message on Fabian's cell phone and read it: - "You left me waiting, it's time for you to decide I can not take it anymore" - She read it and he approached A little nervous, she decided not to say anything and hugged him: - Something wrong? - No my love…! To celebrate has been said! - She celebrated with him as never, but Sepia wanted to know the crucial hours of his death and went there ... Rome was in another room and took a milky white liquid and began to breathe slowly and got with his aunt Bianca, this is the view he hugs her: - Aunt ... Thanks for giving me answers about Odily ...! -Bianca sat with her in a kind of clear: - Aunt I have the replica of the crucifix - Bianca nodded: - I still have time to return ... - Sighs and closes the eyes - You know? I like it here I see much more! - Both smile. Rome looks at her: - What happened to Odily? - Bianca takes her hands: - You must go to where Fabian is, he must give you the answers - Rome looks at her curiously: - Do you think he had to do with Odily's death? _ Bianca remains pensive: - I could not enter but the devil sent me to send you the place where Odily was- Rome wrinkles her brow: - Who knows if Fabián collaborates ... - Bianca smiles mischievously: - You know how to do it ... I know that He did not love you, I remember Odily's happiness ... She loved you very much - Rome nodded and felt her eyes watering: - I felt so much not seeing her anymore and not going to her funeral - They kept silent for a moment. - They gave you some boxes ask the box of the winds and take you where you should go .- Send sepia to go to the site - Bianca nodded - I'm going back - Rome takes something out of pocket, was a bag of bronze velvet: - I thought you should have it - Bianca touched it but I did not take it out, she shook her head: - Not yet Rome ...! It's not the time ...! - Rome hug her aunt and return to the other room ... Sepia It's just the day that Odily is going to die, she was wearing Halloween for that night because it was the party of the employees of the prosperous company, and Suddenly, he hears Fabián talking on a cell phone: - Understand you must give me time! ... It is not easy for me to separate myself from her .... You've waited a lot but he has given you everything you've wanted ... Please Paula there is no need ... - Odily is surprised and comes to meet him impulsively: - Paula? - She dismissed Paula from the company because she knew about the romance with her husband and that almost caused the breakup, she did not like Paula had a strange way of looking and acting and Fabián I swear that that was over. What an adventure! But other people, including her mother, told her that it was not over because they were walking hand in hand through various discreet parts of the town. Odily, enraged, she shouted at Fabian: - You walk with that slut, Fabián, you promised me that it was over! - Fabián all insane did not hang up the cell phone and Paula a beautiful young woman of attractive dark-skinned and penetrating dark-haired physique laughed to hear the discussion between both.- Odily my love I have nothing with her I am talking to a partner! - Odily takes the phone and begins to insult Paula who does not articulate a single word, but he hears everything and then hangs up because Fabián snatches the cell phone and asks him to hang up. Paula was with her mother who said: - I think it's time to act my daughter, you can not stay with that insult - She nodded and left with her mother ... Odily I take all the clothes out of the room was very upset and yelled Then he calmed down and took a pill. I was not going to stop going to the party because of the disgust with Fabián! I try to calm down and not call her mother, but she was lying in bed Fabian left and she presumed she went to see Paula. She was going to follow him, it should be more! He finished fixing his Halloween costume looked in the mirror and took the keys to his motorcycle so Fabián not the I would perceive and I could take it with my hands in the dough ... I had endured many humiliations because of that woman, mockery embarrassments and grievances But it was not going to be so easy and he was not going to give up the company or what It cost her parents and her that she did everything for him! He left to never return ... Fabian approached Paula's house and was surprised to see the door between open call her: -Pauly my love ...! - There was no answer, he was surprised to see the house strangely silent and heard some murmurs - The flame and Nothing! He continues to hear the murmurs when he enters a room he sees Paula half naked and her mother praying, he looks at her questioning: - Can you tell me what are you doing? -Paula looked at her mother and she murmured a few words, Fabian could not move: - Paula looked at him strangely: - I am taking the reins of this relationship my love, help you to be happy ... Odily will not be an obstacle. He could not move and little could talk: - What are you going to do Paula? - She and her mother repeated strange and very ugly words, he felt that something ugly ran through the room and could not stop only told Paula no, not to continue and she smiled possessed ... Odily comes to Paula's house and plays , his mother comes out and says, without letting her talk: - Good thing he's here! It's time to know all the truth! - Odily enters and the mother points to a room and sees Fabián in bed with Paula kissing her with a lot of passion, she shouts at him and he looks at her indifferently and Paula laughed: - He love me, I am younger and more beautiful, I can give you children you are no longer important to him! - Odily called him desperate and he did not hear her, she threw some objects that were on the table and Paula bothers and gets up: - Now get out of here from my house and our lives! Is it clear? - Odily indignant to see the indifference of her husband left setting the bike, Paula appears the silhouette of a man and says: - Go and ends with that - He obeys and leaves - Actually Fabian was in a dream from which he could not wake up. Odily came out like a beast full of rage and tears and turned on his motorcycle and left at full speed. He only remembered the things that he lived with Fabián, the warning of his parents, his study companions, he did not have only friends, and he left everything for him! She cried, which made the road a bit blurry, she wiped her eyes and could not see by the helmet protector but the bike accelerated more, she knew the way, suddenly she heard a voice that whispered something and she was distracted, when she account a car was injured and when he wanted to brake violently colliding against the dismissed by air, she skirted the vehicle falling head first on the pavement, nor could the helmet protect her, exploding her brain and blinding her life forever ... - Serpia opens the eyes and the demon was afraid of her and asks: - What will you do with me? - Sepia prayed in Hebrew and this is caught between the mirror again, left it and went to look for Rome. Rome was talking with Beaumont and Sepia sat down and served a rich snack .- I hear you sister ... - Sepia sigh: - You must rescue your friend this captive of a demon that a certain Paula call - Rome looked at Beaumont and this outline a smile: - I tell you that until the last thing you know Fabian is turned into a hermit and does not leave his mansion - I showed him the image and the photo of Paula a young brunette who looked very good and stayed young, Rome thinks that I had seen it and I told everyone, Beaumont smiling a smile: - If it is the "Cardashan of Manchester" - Sepia ate a cake and drank tea: - She is a very bad woman and does not mind doing anything ... - Rome He looks at them and says to Beaumont: - I think we should take a look at Manchester - Beaumont looks at Sepia and she says: - Do you think Beaumont wants to go if he is almost moved with Dilcia? - Roma smiles and this blushes: - Well you see brother, if we will not go - Beaumont looked at his loj: - In fact I'll see me with her - Both smile and he leaves, Sepia looks at the clock and Roma says: - Do you also have a date? - Sepia smiles: - Well no ...! Only if we go to Manchester to find Fabian we must arrange everything to leave early: - You're right, sister, I invite you to go out and we chat - Both smiled and left ... They arrived relatively early and Rome was already sleeping when Odily told her: -Rome please help me ... I can not get out of here, I have no idea of ​​time and space ... I want to go home ...! - Odily was desperate and spoke very low, so they would not listen to her - Roma approached her: - Odily tell me what happened when you died? - Odily looked at the sides: - Rome liberate me ...! He is coming! If you release me, I could go home ... - They felt footsteps and Odily asked Rome to leave - She hid and listened to footsteps of someone very heavy or at least it seemed, she tried to see and got that Odily was down head to that figure very  that report was a demon and tortured her in such a way that she did not know whether to cover her ears or grab her head and scream a lot, Rome was also stunned by such noise ... She did not know what to do and she kept screaming and with more force, demon did not see her, she managed to escape and got up all dazed ... When returning to her room there was an old woman who was crying and said: - I am already dead but I can not get my daughter please ... - I was very disoriented and her clothes looked worn- Where is my Odily? - Roma approached and said: - Do not worry - The woman was having trouble looking at Rome, she took his hands and said: -You will soon be back Together, I promise you ...