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littleoneamanda · 2 months ago

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GF: Fiddleford Hadron Mcgucket

Alright, I think I'll just continue drawing in the original style. It's actually pretty fun xD The only difference is colored lines and maybe background. Hope you like it!

And here we go again to my thoughts on the book of bill, thisisnotawebsitedotcom and my thoughts on Fiddleford as a character. Or in this one is more like a summary of what information we have about him. Welcome to my second essay on 2D characters xD (SPOILERS)

Oh boy, where do I begin with this one? xD

Fiddleford, probably (imo) one of the most tragic character in this show. Going from once a brilliant inventor to a deranged hillbilly living at the dump. His life ruined by trauma, his fear of bad memories, and by his own invention.

College

Fidds is the first Mcgucket in the family to go to college. His first day starts off pretty rocky. The school's mascot "THE BMU B-", shoved him into a locker, got his mustache caught in a pencil sharperner (???) and getting laughed out by a whole class for trying to prove the universe was a giant hologram. While sitting in his room in tears, his room mate barge in the room. Confidently declared that his theory was plausible and was ready to not sleep until they have proved it accurate. Not only did they cracked it, but Fidds did something else that he thought was impossible: He made a friend, Stanford Pines.

This is pretty much (currently) the information we have about them in college. I really wish there were more. It seems both of them became friends very fast. Both being nerdy and outcasts for different things. Ford with his sixth finger and Fidds coming from a hog farm ( I relate so hard with Fidds on the farm background you have no idea I love it) However, while Ford is more of a socially awkward introvert, Fidds seems to be a little bit more extroverted.

After college

Fiddleford moved to Palo Alto, California. Around this time he met his wife Emma-May and they had their son Tate. He starts up his own computer buisness "Fiddleford Computermajigs". It's unclear how the relationship between Fidds and his wife were, but the fact that he doesn't seem to hesitate to leave them behind to help an old college friend he haven't talked to in 6 years is a little weird. Six years is how long Ford had been in Gravity Falls before he contacted Fidds. (Source: Journal 3). Sure, if the whole project was a positive thing, it could be have been their big break in science and fame. But Fiddleford had a life in California. He had a family, but how good was the marriage? Maybe Fidds didn't get any other friends after college. So when Ford called for help, he didn't seem to hesitate to say yes and join him.

"Success! He has agreed to join me! With his assistance, I am confident we can complete the machine. He has already made several suggestions over the phone that I intend to incorporate into my revised designs."

-Stanford, Journal 3

Gravity Falls, Fiddleford is now Stanfords assistant/partner.

Some things Fiddleford brought with him: A vase/pot when he chews tobacco, a photo of his family, the banjo, floppy disks , two laptops which one of them is special designed for Fords extra finger. The other one is Fidds which has Fords name as password. And a Cubic's Cube that Ford scrambles when Fidds is not looking. Fidds solves it without a problem tho.

When seeing the blueprints for the portal for the first time, he asked Ford if he had any help with these plans because of complex they are. Ford describes Fidds as a suspicious man (pretty ironic knowing how Ford will become later).

During his time in Gravity falls we learn early that Fidds seems to have some trouble handeling his anxiety. Especially after some of the things they encountered. His knee starts bouncing when he's agitated or he starts pulling out his hair. Being Fords assistant turned out to be adventurous and scary at the same time. Reading Journal 3 you kinda wonder why he even stayed for so long with Ford. There was times he really got traumatized. It is now where the we get into the speculations and the hints of Fidds having a bit of stronger feelings for Ford than just a friend.

The gifts. Already in Journal 3, he gives Ford a special designed laptop with extra keys for his extra finger. He buys a pumpkin at the fair because it reminded him of Ford.

"He pulled it out of a barrel of "reject gourds" because he said it reminded him of me! (Suppose I did inherit my dad's nose.)

-Stanford, Journal 3

From the thisisnotawebsitedotcom, if you type in Oroborous, you will get two pages of when Fidds gave Ford an axolotl that Ford named it Frilliam.

"F said it's frills reminded him of my sideburns and he thought it could keep me company the next time he's out."

-Stanford, thisisnotawebsitedotcom, Code: Oroborous

I'm still pretty traumatized after Frilliam...that damn dorito asshole demon. Also...Ford drew a heart over the "i" in friend instead of the dot??

In the TBOB, Fiddleford gives Stanford a snow globe that HE MADE. And not only that! He gives Ford knitted a pair of six-fingered gloves that HE has KNITTED.

Fiddleford flies back home to visit his family for the holidays, but the reunion have not been exactly happy. Fidds and his wife had got in a massive fight when she realized he'd forgotten to buy her a Christmas Present...man. Look. I mean...I honestly do not know what to say to that. My guy gave gifts that he had made to his bestfriend that he might have some certain feelings for and just happen to forget he had a wife...that's normal right? xD

Let's talk a little bit about Ford cause I forgot to mention some other things as well. In journal 3, Ford talks in a certain way. It's more sterile and stiff. Keeping distance from emotions pretty much. Especially before the 30 years on the other side of the portal. In TBOB+ the pages from the website, these pages are more personal. Which is a whole new view of Ford that we didn't see before. This time we get to see what Fidds and Ford did when they weren't focused on the project. When they had a winter break from it. When Fidds tells Ford he's leaving to visit his family, you can kinda read between the lines that Ford seems very sad about that. His fear of being alone again. On that page, there are some blue stains which some believe are tears... :(

"Sixer was a lot better at science than he was at making friends, and he tended to rip out journal pages that had anything to do with his issues with others..."

-Bill, TBOB

After the massive fight between Fidds and his wife, he decides to return to Gravity Falls as soon as possible. When he reurns, he sees Ford being in trouble and saves him from the Krampus by hitting him with his banjo. They embraced. Fidds explains why he's back and Ford asks him if there is anything he could do to cheer him up. But Fidds feel pretty defeated by everything that has happen.

That night, Ford calls Fidds to come down to the lab for a portal update.

"I'll admit that it wasn't the most efficient use of our electricity, but the smile on his face proved I'd made the right choice."

-Stanford, TBOB

Ford later tells that it was time to drink nog until they didn't remember what a Krampus was. And they spent the rest of the night building snowmen and reminiscing about old times.

This is wholesome asf. Also, Ford said himself he's not really a drinker, but after that kareoke drunk thing, I wonder if he kinda wanted have a similar experience? Perhaps a stretch, but interesting in my opinion.

But all good things comes to an end. In Fiddlefords case, in a very tragic way. After some traumatic encounters (especially after the Gremloblin), he invents the memory gun. He uses the gun multiple times on himself during his time with Ford. He have even used it on Ford at one point when Ford tries to talk him out of ever using it.

The night before the testing of the portal, Fiddleford expresses his concerns to Ford about the portal. He tries to talk him into publish his research as a thesis instead of the portal. Ford who has been ver manipulated at this point to believe Fiddleford has ill intentions, refused. And the next day...the portal incident that makes Fidds mental state go so south. Seeing the Nightmare realm and predicting apocalyptic catastrophe that was about to be the consequences of the portal.

Now here is a interesting thing about the portal scene (this could be a stretch once again). Something i did notice while rewatching s2. When Ford tells the story about the portal, it seems pretty cut and clear of what happen. Fidds get dragged into the portal, traumatized, warns Ford, stands up and leaves. And Ford calls Stan. Which makes it look like everything happened in a very short time period. But when Ford talks about the portal incident again with Dipper, Ford has different clothes, sitting down and have Fidds in his lap. Now this could just be a mistake or something they choose for more dramatic effect. But seeing the difference how Ford talks in Journal 3 and TBOB, it is a interesting choice for that scene. Like, when he has the white shirt and black tie, there is a more serious tone and stiffnes. When he has his blue shirt and brown sweater vest he is more personal. In TBOB, it takes like around 2 days before he finally decides to contact Stan. He decides to do that after he found the 5 failed knitted prototypes for the perfect 6-fingered gloves and the ripped photo. When he realized he had lost Fiddleford.

Fiddleford's mental health keept getting worse. After quitting the project, he found himself still very haunted by everything he has seen. He started to use the memory gun even more and created an organization, The Blind Eye Society. Hoping this would help other people in the town to forget bad memories. Ford found this out and suspected Fidds to be behind it. Unfortunaly, Fidds started to use it as soon as he had seen something scary. The more he used it, the more he started to lose his mind and forgetting words. 618 days. It took around 1 year, 8 months, 1 week and 6 days. That is not really a long time. He used it so frequently, and knowing he had some trouble handling his anxiety from the start…this hurts. His body aged so fast during this time as well. And he's suppose to be around the same age as Ford, around or in his 30s.

Fiddleford before the portal: a very smart, brilliant inventor, sensitive and a very kind person.

After the portal: An old deranged hillbilly who lived at the dump with no memory of his past, but still haunted by what he saw in the portal.

He does starts to regain his memories in S2: Society of the Blind Eye. Finding out after 30 years who he really was.

"After all these years I finally know who I am. Maybe I messed up in the past, but now that I've seen what happened, I can begin to put myself together again."

-Fiddleford, S2, "Society of the Blind Eye"

When Ford and Fidds reunite in Weirdmaggedon, he forgives Ford for everything that led up to this. After Weirdmaggedon, Ford visits Fiddleford. Fidds was overjoyed to see Ford and they spent hours talking. Ford is feeling guilty for the things leading to Fidds causing losing his memories, but Fidds dismisses his attempts to apologize.

"Not only is this man's mind superior to mine, but he has one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen."

"Before I left, Fiddleford insisted that I listen to him play the banjo. I could have sworn that as he joyfully played, i could see the age lift off his face, and see the the Fiddleford who had been my friend so many years ago."

-Stanford. Journal 3

I swear a tear dropped from my eye while writing this quote. And I have an idea for a drawing for just that one.

And that's where I wanna leave this. A happy ending after all :)

I'm very sorry again if there are any grammar errors in this one. I have to go back and forth on the sources a lot here. The show, books, website and the wiki just to try understand the timeline and if there were any details missed. I did not intend for this one to be as long (maybe even longer) about Stanford. But I kinda wanted to put Fiddlefords story together and give some of my thoughts on it as well. Fiddlefords story is so sad in so many ways. He and Ford, Best friends and room mates in college. Both of them having no other friends than each other. He sacrifices a lot when he leaves his family to help Ford in Gravity Falls, Returns to Ford when the family reunion goes south. The fact that he could have done anything else, but he decides to go back to Ford. Maybe because he felt he didn't feel welcome there anymore and only has Ford left. Tate is probably the one I mostly feel sorry for in this situation. His father coming home for the Holidays and then leaves again to not come back. Fidds trying and wanting to help Ford, but get his concerns about a real danger ignored. Then Fidds trauma and fear of remembering bad things takes over so much he invents a memory gun that becomes his addiction. Ruined by his own invention.

Now, I'm someone who has NEVER done shipping art or not really expressing any thoughts about it. I'm pretty careful with that honestly and I have been with Ford and Fidds as well. But this time feel so different from the other times of speculations of what happend between them. It feels like it's right there. Especially with Fiddleford reading TBOB what he did for Stanford. Or maybe I'm just another person hoping a little bit too much xD It's just...the possibility of them having some kind of stronger feelings is there. Again, Especially when it's from Fiddleford. Stanford is kinda bit harder to read when it comes to his feelings. Kinda what I said before, he talks in two different tones. Probably depends on who he trusts to talk to.

Alright, That's all folks! I promise I won't do a essay like this for the other drawings xD But I just needed it to get out of my system. And I haven't really seen a post like this that sums up the information we have atm. So I wanted to contribute xD

Thanks for reading!

Next up is actually going to be a GF video🍃

#gravity falls #fiddleford mcgucket #the book of bill #gf fanart #digitalart #fanart #digitalartist #2dart #artists on tumblr #young fiddleford

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taekooktimeline · 1 year ago

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November 3, 2023 -

Jk goes live! I do think it’s plausible someone was in his apartment during his live, and off camera. I’ll break down why I believe that in this piece. But I do want to disclaim this as speculative, so I’ll leave timestamps and you can decide if someone is there and if so, who you think it is.

Right at the start of his live, Jk abruptly glances off camera on his right. While I don’t hear any noises at this time, I found his abrupt glance interesting to note, since he was just facing the camera and telling listeners he’s back with his solo debut album “Golden.” Though there could be times he’s just instinctively glancing, or looking at the screen as he shares his tracks from “Golden,” it does seem like he periodically glances towards someone off camera throughout his live (or sometimes he glances at the monitor but then gazes at something / someone else). Some instances are noted below (not all encompassing):

1:43

left and right at 2:15-2:17

2:55

3:20

4:49

Prolonged glance 6:03-6:08

7:49-7:51

9:41, it seems as if he glances as the monitor then slightly shifts his gaze to something else, before looking back at the monitor

13:20-13:24

13:45-13:55, briefly at 13:59

39:30

You get the idea! And again, sometimes he may be looking at the monitor, but it does seem like at times he’s glancing at something or someone else.

Timestamp 1:43, 2:55, 4:49 (side note - I want that earring😭)

Tae spams the chat!

Jk reads his fourth comment out loud and tells Tae and Jimin not to come, before he cracks up and smiles, saying he hasn’t cleaned his house.

Timestamp 44:58

He then tells them to come with a bright smile -

Timestamp 45:18

Snippet of the exchange - https://x.com/jeonmygoogie/status/1720452425994183160?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

During Jk’s live, Tae and Jimin go live for 7-8 seconds, outside Jk’s apartment. The translation:

🐥 dont do this aha

🐯 im going okay?

🐥 ah i said turn it off

🐯 we’re going okay??

CT: miiniyoongs

https://x.com/tishia_thv30/status/1720432709435273426?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg https://x.com/miiniyoongs/status/1720431172449173902?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg Raw - https://weverse.io/bts/live/0-129065538

There’s a distinct knocking sound that causes Jk to glance over, and then what sounds like footsteps at 49:18 as someone responds to the knock -

Timestamp 48:58

Jk wraps it up by laughing and saying he needs to go, as he doesn’t know what chaos Tae and Jimin will bring, that the two went out “right now” and drank.

Timestamp 50:18

A very random side note - I got this mug solely because Jk has it 😆

Theory as to some sounds heard as Jk went live (decide as you like) - https://x.com/loveis_taekook/status/1720679236565094892?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

Some have raised the speculation that Tae may have been present in Jk's apartment at the time Jimin knocked on the door. The assumption here is that Tae was the one who could be heard walking off-camera to answer the door. Throughout his livestream, Jk periodically glances in the direction of something or someone, and there is an audible sound of footsteps off-camera shortly after the knock. However, Jk informs his viewers that both Tae and Jimin were out having a drink. Given that BTS sometimes need to omit or modify information for privacy considerations, it remains unclear whether Tae briefly appeared on the livestream to greet Jimin, or if there's another explanation for the observed noises and glances in Jk's livestream. You are welcome to draw your own conclusions.

Raw - https://weverse.io/bts/live/0-128993548

#taekooktimeline #taekook #2023 #lives #suspicious souds

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moonsunpenguin · 10 months ago

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DFF Theory (after after ep6)

I've only started watching the show Monday and basically binged all 6 episodes in one day. And since then my brain can't stop thinking of theories, so I'll just dump them here and maybe revisit them after ep7. This will contain spoilers (at least until episode 6).

I've read on here that the show is reminiscent of 90s slasher movies and I would agree with that. As it starts with how most 90s to early 2000s slasher films start: teenagers/early 20s going into a secluded area to have fun, drink, and do stuff, only to find themselves hunted by a mystery killer.

I was never a big fan of slasher films but I do love puzzles and DFF poses a good one!

At the beginning we are told of a sacrifice-offering cult that may or may not reside in the woods where they're going. With this, they're already planting the seed that there might be some supernatural stuff going on in the area and added to the show's eerie vibe. It also gave the audience a plausible reason on why some characters (Tee and Top) were scared of a "curse". Why Tan, Phee and White are sure the things happening aren't supernatural in nature seems to hint that they are either skeptics or they know something the others don't.

The way Uncle Dang was taken out though, it boggled me at first until the latest ep where it showed he was also there when they first filmed at the cabin. It made me think maybe he was also present when those awful boys did whatever it was that they did. But given that it was relatively painlesslear compared to Por's days of agony, I'd say his involvement is probably very minimal. Maybe just like Fluke he just turned a blind eye?

The way the "masked man" was slowly taking the original friend group out one by one, feels like they want them to suffer but not by their hands. Like, they want the og boys to unknowingly be the cause of their own demise. With how Por ran unto a tree branch by himself and how Top took it out when he went cuckoo. Fluke was also suffering, the stress of taking care of Por and knowing he may not be able to save him accompanied by his fear of being a suspect in an investigation diminishing his chances of becoming a doctor. It's a feat that he can still think clearly. Even though we do see him almost crack a few times already.

It feels as if whoever's behind the "masked man" wants the og boys to lose their minds and they are slowly succeeding.

The last of the og boys that seems to not be close to losing his mind is Jin. It gives off that idea that maybe he's somewhat safe because he wasn't as bad to Non as the others. But, after learning that Phee is Non's lover (ex-fwb?), it raises the question: why would he get close to Jin? When he knows Jin is part of the group that were awful to Non? My theory for this is that, Jin did something worse than the other 4 did. He made Non think that he can be trusted and betrayal from someone you put your faith in to hurts a lot more than from others you consider enemies. And I think it's what Phee is doing, he's gaining Jin's trust so he can make him feel whatever he did to Non.

Also, I feel like Tan and White are in on the whole scheme and one of them is New.

I'm excited for Saturday so I can revisit these theories and maybe make some more after the episode

#dff the series #dff spoilers #dead friend forever #dff theory

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ignifilis · 1 year ago

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We Didn't Start the Fire

Oddly, the mages notice that Reason magic has been on the fritz lately. Even the most experienced sages find it difficult to control their magic, never mind the practicing novices that keep burning themselves and injuring others. A late-night attempt to study for a Reason exam quickly gets out of hand and sends a classroom up in flames. The Knights of Seiros and other members of the monastery’s facilities must rush in quickly in order to contain the fire and save lives. [Grants Reason +1]

stater for: @amiterum

Small, inconsequential things happen first. A Fire spell that takes a second longer to spark into flames. Thunder magic that seems to land a hair or two off its intended target, but then again, it's always been unwieldy on the best of days. These are explained away with hand waves and everyone has off days.

It's the more powerful spells that begin alerting everyone. A Blizzard spell turns into hail and cracks half the Training Hall's windows. One hopeful test-taker tries casting Excalibur and instead summons a tornado that takes hours to die out.

Azelle attempts casting his own spells, frowning when he can't even get a spark to light a candle. Warnings go up from various Reason professors, advising both faculty and students to avoid unnecessary magic until this issue can be solved. Tests are postponed or changed to focus solely on theory rather than application.

He spends his evenings buried in the library, cross referencing every book he can find on anything pertaining to wayward magic. Theories range from plausible--olds gods (or dragons, or both, as the case may be) awakening once more--to the utterly fantastical--the world's supply of magic is drying up.

The late nights begin to blur together. He's gently kicked out by another librarian, with strict orders to get some sleep. At first he pays no mind to the faint scent of smoke on the breeze. It's cold, after all, and students are known to set up impromptu fires around campus.

Then he notices the rushing Knights, their shouts of fire! and evacuate! Azelle breaks into a run as well, adrenaline washing away any previous sleepiness.

"What happened?" He asks the girl he finds himself running beside.

#thread: we didn't start the fire #support: priscilla #reward point: reason #i am so sorry for the title i tried thinking of others but this wouldn't leave my head #ilyyyyyyy

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unitedstatesofworld · 4 months ago

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The Shocking Tale of the Travis and Taylor Break Up: What Really Happened

It was the split heard 'round the world. The Travis and Taylor break up left fans reeling, tabloids buzzing, and social media in a frenzy. But what exactly went down between these two beloved stars? The speculations, and the truths behind the Travis and Taylor break up. Buckle up, folks, because this story's got more twists and turns than a rollercoaster!

The Beginning of the End

Love in the Spotlight

Travis and Taylor's love story seemed like a fairytale. They met at a glamorous awards show, sparks flew, and the rest was history. With every red carpet appearance, every adorable Instagram post, and every PDA-filled outing, fans couldn't get enough of them. They were the epitome of #CoupleGoals, and their chemistry was undeniable.

Signs of Trouble

However, as with any relationship under the intense glare of the spotlight, cracks begin to show. Insiders whispered about their frequent arguments, differing priorities, and the pressures of their respective careers. While fans hoped these were just rumors, those close to the couple knew better.

The Break Up Bombshell

The Announcement

When the news of Travis and Taylor breaking up hit the internet, it felt like an earthquake. Fans were in disbelief, hashtags started trending, and everyone wanted to know the same thing: Why did Travis and Taylor break up?

The Fallout

The aftermath of the announcement was nothing short of chaotic. Friends and family were caught in the crossfire, media outlets scrambled for exclusives, and fans took to social media to share their heartbreak. Both Travis and Taylor released statements asking for privacy, but the public's curiosity was insatiable.

Speculations and Rumors

Of course, with any high-profile breakup, the rumor mill went into overdrive. Some claimed that Travis was too focused on his career, while others whispered about Taylor's alleged trust issues. There were even wild theories about third parties and secret scandals. But amidst all the noise, what was the real reason behind the Travis and Taylor break up?

Digging Deeper

Career Conflicts

One of the most plausible reasons for the Travis and Taylor break up was their conflicting schedules. With both stars at the peak of their careers, finding time for each other became increasingly difficult. Long periods apart, constant travel, and the demands of their professions put immense strain on their relationship.

Personal Differences

Another factor that couldn't be ignored was their differing personalities and priorities. While Taylor loved the limelight and embraced her celebrity status, Travis often craved more privacy and a quieter life. These fundamental differences slowly but surely drove a wedge between them.

The Final Straw

So, what was the final straw that led to the Travis and Taylor break up? According to sources close to the couple, it was a culmination of small issues that snowballed over time. Miscommunications, unmet expectations, and the relentless pressure of maintaining a perfect public image ultimately took their toll.

The Aftermath

Life After the Split

Post-breakup, both Travis and Taylor have been focusing on their individual lives and careers. Taylor threw herself into her music, channeling her emotions into powerful new songs that fans quickly dubbed "breakup anthems." Travis, on the other hand, immersed himself in his projects, finding solace in his work and close friends.

Public Reactions

The public's reaction to the Travis and Taylor break up was a mix of shock, sadness, and speculation. Fans created endless memes, tributes, and theories, while the media dissected every detail of their split. Despite the drama, both stars received overwhelming support from their loyal fanbases.

FAQs

Why did Travis and Taylor break up?

There isn't a single answer to why Travis and Taylor broke up. It was a combination of career conflicts, personal differences, and the pressures of maintaining a high-profile relationship.

Are Travis and Taylor still friends?

While they have asked for privacy and haven't shared much publicly, sources indicate that they are on amicable terms and have mutual respect for each other.

Will they ever get back together?

As of now, there are no signs pointing to a reconciliation. Both Travis and Taylor are focused on their individual paths and seem to be moving forward with their lives.

How have they addressed the breakup?

Both stars released statements asking for privacy and thanking their fans for their support. They've since kept a relatively low profile regarding the breakup specifics.

Conclusion

The Travis and Taylor break up was a shock to fans worldwide, but it serves as a reminder that even the most picture-perfect relationships have their struggles. As they navigate their lives post-split, it's clear that both Travis and Taylor are determined to grow and thrive individually. While fans may never know every detail of their breakup, the lessons learned from their story resonate: love is complex, and sometimes, the best path forward is apart.

So, whether you're team Travis, team Taylor, or just a curious observer, one thing's for sure – this break up has given us all a lot to think about and maybe even a bit of inspiration for our own lives. After all, when life gives you lemons, sometimes the best thing to do is make some really great lemonade!

#TRAVIS KELCE AND TAYLOR SWIFT #TRAVIS AND TAYLOR BREAKUP #TAYLOR BREAKUP

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ravens-spells · 1 year ago

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Gone

The Vanishing Point

The evidence wasn’t adding up. She and her team couldn’t find a lead, on Bruce Wayne’s disappearance. It was as though he’d vanished off the face of this planet. Raven entertained the idea that he had in fact vanished, but there was no evidence to suggest it-- not that she could see. With the long hours and little sleep, the 150 cases she was working on were taking a toll. Each of her agents were pushing themselves to the limits with the workload; and the numbers were only growing.

Rachel’s eyes scanned over the evidence on a recent string of artifact trades that had come into town and vanished. It was no coincidence, it was a message to her. If Greed had escaped her prison within the reality stone, It was only a matter of time before Trigon followed suit. She had to seal him away before that crack in reality grew.

Her mind spiraled, trying to figure out how and why Loki had used that stone. He knew well what their power was capable of, yet he cut the Aether from her head anyway. Why now, how had Loki done it? She had to find him and Loki before it was too late.

She couldn’t hide this case, it was given to her team. They had no idea what laid on the other side. It was a suicide mission.

Rachel put the file in her briefcase along with the others. She couldn’t become the vigilante Raven again, she swore an oath but she knew someone who could.

She picked her phone up and texted Wanda, before she hit send a knock rapped at her door. “Come in.” She put her phone away and straightened in her seat. “What can I do for you?” Rachel sensed Dr. Spencer Reid’s worry.

“Garcia and I did a geological profile on Bruce Wayne’s travel records over the last five years. The first few attempts didn’t come back with anything cause they were business trips. However, I looked into Gotham PD’s archives and this is what I found.” He placed the paper map with different colored inks charting out a pattern.

Shit. Rachel’s breath hitched, her heartbeat rising.

“When he goes over seas for these trips, they’re also around the times crime rates are higher in those locations.” Spencer continued enthusiastically. Rachel was cut off before she could speak, “this is where it gets interesting.” He pointed to a red line from Gotham leading out into the sea. “This was the trip he made before he vanishing.”

“What are you saying?” Rachel wasn’t about to drop her theory until hearing his first. Vanished off the planet was becoming strangely more plausible.

Spencer sat down and marked out a triangulation, “he’s made several trips following this path in the last year, but touches down in Berlin eight hours later than the time it takes to get there on that route. I think there’s something out there.”

“Really?” She raised her eyebrow, “his jet could’ve gone down.”

“Garcia looked into that but there’s no reports of an aircraft down.” Spencer countered, “We’ve checked into hijackings and called neighboring country embassies, they haven’t heard anything.”

Rachel bit the inside of her cheek and looked down at the map. Dammit Bruce, what the hell happened? They were getting too close to his secret, no amount of mental manipulation seemed to stop Spencer’s genius intellect from finding these patterns. “Thank you Spencer, I’ll look into it and let you know.”

He started to leave but stopped and turned around to look at her worriedly, “are you okay?”

She looked up at him again and nodded, “I’m fine, why do you ask?”

Spencer sat back down and scanned her face. “You’ve been withdrawn and seem upset about something.” He couldn’t put his finger on it. Rachel was more reserved with her emotions than Hotch had been. She was meticulous and controlled in ways that the team weren’t used to.

She shook her head, lying about the racing thoughts. “It’s nothing, just a lot of cases on my mind.”

He stood up and started to leave, “If something’s bothering you, we’re here for you.”

Rachel nodded and smiled, “thank you Spencer.” The smile didn’t reach her tired eyes. Spencer wouldn’t stop until he figured out what happened to Bruce. All it would take is for him to learn Bruce Wayne’s secret, then her own cover would be at stake. If they learned who she was-- what she was-- her whole world would cave in on her. All those years working and devoting her life to the FBI would go up in flames. She stopped him once he reached the door. “Spencer,” Rachel looked back at him with a concerned expression. He was clever, too clever. She had to ensure he either stopped looking, or join her in her silence.

She scribbled down an address and said sternly, “I have a lead on the missing artifact case, can you check it out for me?” It was a lie, a boldface lie. Her team were family and the last thing she wanted was for any of them to get hurt. His nod of confirmation relieved her some. Now she just needed to intercept him before he got there. There was only one way to keep this little family of hers safe.

Once he was gone, Rachel Roth locked her office door and had all calls and messages halted. She sat in her chair and astral projected to the location. Her soul self materialized into the form of Raven, a long retired vigilante. She mentally cursed, this was a high risk

The warehouse held exports and unique trinkets but nothing supernatural, yet. She needed to misdirect him. She closed her eyes and channeled every shadow and crevice of darkness toward her. Raven’s heart raced and she twisted the shadows and morphed the warehouse into her own nightmare.

Monsters and crooks processed the “goods,” a simple but realistic design that would peel back the veil of the underworld in a way that the BAU had never experienced. Upstairs an office overlooked the workers. Raven flew there and twisted the remaining darkness into a vision of Greed.

This construct took most of her strength. She created a lifelike image of her brother Greed and giving it a sense of “life” and power. While its strength was limited, it was still fueled by demonic power. Raven broke the silence, giving her illusion a simple instruction. “Show him what are family truly is. Do not kill him.” She wasn’t about to leave Spencer defenseless, but, the message needed to be clear that their unit was crossing into dangerous waters.

Hearing his car pull up, Raven vanished into the shadows, and circled the warehouse to follow Spencer in toe, ensuring he didn’t get in over head.

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i-dont-know-how-this-site-works · 2 years ago

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Oh baby, this post thread is getting absolutely humongous.

Did you see the Kiner brothers' twitter post? The one with Wrecker fishing? I have a feeling we are going to see a bit more of Pabu and I am STOKED- I love Mamma Mia and this greek vibe is awesome (irl Greece is cool too though, I recommend going there if you have the opportunity). And I am in the same camp as you! I really want to see the inside of the archium. I remember in the episode with the giant laser mech monster thing they referenced something to the Jedi and the entire episode I was like "ancient Jedi??????". Kind of bummed out we didn't get to see ancient lightsabers or other old Jedi memorabilia, but maybe the archium has something to scratch that itch, who knows!

As for the temple theory, I didn't really think about that, but maaaaybe???? But knowing that the empire likes to set up camp on Jedi temple sites and the plausibility of Pabu being on Scarff which gets turned into an imperial base later on, maybe you are right. Although personally, I didn't get the temple vibe from the archium.

Yeah! The clone dream team! But then, if they show up in force (teehee), it would be harder for the empire to get hold of Omega, so I don't think we will see a big team-up in the next three episodes (but maybe we will get Wolffe's story in the 3rd season?).

Really? I think the job of a voice actor is really cool! Would love to give it a try, but I have a truly horrid voice haha I wish you luck on your VA journey!

Sweet jesus, I watched the clone wars for the first time 2 years ago and I've only rewatched some arcs 3 or 4 times, how do you do this?! Now I feel like I am talking to a TBB expert! And I thought I was obsessed with the show!

That's kind of a bummer if the s2 finale turns out to be the same length as s1 :( although that's still 50 minutes if tbb content, better than half of that!

Well, Rebels had 4 seasons, so tbb having 4 seasons too would make sense. It would also make sense to have a bit more than that and end tbb the moment that rebels start, so we have an unbroken timeline from TCW -> TBB -> Rebels. (But seeing them get old like Rex did would hurt as hell, especially since Omega doesn't age like a typical clone, so she would be a young adult by that point, while her entire family consists of old geezers who complain about backaches and kids messing up their lawns)

Oh yeah, so far so good, but I really want to see more of this transition, so maybe tbb teams up with delta squad against Storms, or maybe we see some kind of rivalry between the new recruits and the experienced clones in the Imp. army, maybe we could also get the general public's opinion of clone vs stormtrooper. I know we kind of saw that already with Cross's episodes and old man Rex episodes from Rebels, but I really want that clone-storm relationship to be even more in-depth.

As for the somehow Palpatine returned I think it was really just a fuck-up on the Disney Star Wars side. Johnson killed of Snoke in ep.8, who was shaping out to be the big bad of the sequel trilogy, but since he was now gone, they had to scramble to pull something out of their asses. And since, well, the somehow part was never properly explained in the movie and the audiences were furious about this line (and 4 years after this movie's release people are still making fun of it), Disney realised they have to do what TCW did for the prequel trilogy and fill in the blanks ad hoc.

And well, TBB has been really entertaining and I am saying this as someone who doesn't give two flying fucks about the sequels- aside from cloning, which in itself is still an interesting topic, tbb has so many other plotlines and just, stuff, that make it so appealing to me! So if it manages to make TRoS better somehow- great! If it doesn't, no big deal for me.

I am personally more of a crack fic/fluff/humourous fanfic person, but this show has awoken an angsty beast in me and I have so many angsty tbb wips cooking up in my notes! Mwhahaha!

Yup, see ya on Reddit in a moment @arlothia , I just have to roll my shoulders out from this Tumblr writing session!

Tell me what you think because I realised this shit as I was falling asleep and I now I can't go unless I get it out there:

Does the colour scheme of the background sort of look like the colour scheme of the houses and buildings on Pabu?

So, theory: Cid didn't sound...normal? the last time she contacted the guys and it's actually because the empire has gotten hold of her to try to bait the bad batch into coming into contact with her again. Well, that didn't work, so Cid suggests contacting Echo alone and tells him about Cross needing help (she knows the group has split) and that checks the "Cid is going to betray them" checkbox. Echo and Rex fall for it, contact the rest of the batch because they are going to need as much help as they can get in infiltrating Tantiss, and head to Pabu to rendezvous. That's where we get the long awaited Echo and Omega reunion. The group head to Tantiss, get Crosshair out, but in the process Omega is captured. They are forced to leave her to save injured/drugged/traumatised/comatose Cross and themselves. We open season 3 on Omega being experimented on or being mistreated to get Nala Se to cooperate.

#the bad bad spoilers #the bad batch #speculations #tbb season 2 #tbb crosshair #tbb echo #tbb tech #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #tbb omega #clone trooper rex #you are becoming my pen pal @arlothia

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twstgabrielle · 2 years ago

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Reading Guidelines and Warnings: The 2012 boys will be addressed by their full names unless they're talking to one another or about each other. The Rise boys will be addressed by their nicknames. Also they're be spoilers for both shows as well as possible language and mentioned major character death. If any of this makes you uncomfortable I highly encourage y'all to check out my other works.

It'd been a few days since the meeting within the dojo. A few days of the two groups of turtles silently grieving over their lost loved ones and spending time with their own set of brothers. The two groups of teenagers didn't really say much over those few days, instead wanting to focus on trying to heal somewhat so they could focus on their mission to getting the younger set of brothers back home to their reality. Once they'd managed to pick themselves up somewhat they'd finally started taking the first steps towards making their mission become a reality. Which led to the current situation now, that being Donnie and Donatello slaving over their theories and ideas within Donatello's lab. Donnie was sitting at a makeshift workspace that his older counterpart had made for him, staring down at his notes and calculations with a somewhat annoyed look. There wasn't much for Donnie to go on given that he had no real clue as to how he and his brothers came here. So the soft shell was was trying to think of different possibilities for how they were sent to this alternate dimension. Unfortunately anything that could be plausible wasn't making any sense scientifically speaking. And Donnie wasn't the only one struggling with this.

No his older counterpart Donatello seemed to be struggling just as much. The tall turtle genius was leaning over his desk, his tongue peeking out of his mouth as he moved his pencil across the papers in front of him. Surrounding him were crumpled up balls of theories and ideas that just didn't make any sense whatsoever. Donnie peeked up to watch his doppelganger, noting the way his shoulders were tense as he scribbled all over his papers, not seeming to be aware of his surroundings. It was honestly impressive how focused Donatello could get, and his work ethic proved that he was a hard worker, what with his all of his inventions and blueprints scattered all over the somewhat dimly lit lab. Donnie continued to watch him, his dark brown eyes zoned in on the taller turtle as he observed him quietly. The soft shell had been watching so closely in fact that he nearly jumped out of his shell at Donatello's sudden loud snarl.

"UGH I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT-!"

Donatello snapped grabbing the tails of his purple mask as he forced himself to sit up. Donnie couldn't help but feel sympathetic, completely understanding what the older turtle was feeling. They'd been going at this for a few hours now and neither of them could think of anything that could give them a lead in trying to get Donnie and his brothers back home. The soft shell forced himself to sit up in his seat as well, stretching his arms and earning a few cracks in return for the movement. Turning his computer chair towards Donatello the younger turtle spoke up.

"We're in the same boat my friend. I can't figure this out either which is beyond frustrating."

Donnie said making Donatello turn to look at him. Reddish brown eyes filled with exhaustion and annoyance at himself met his dark brown ones and Donnie couldn't help but mentally flinch at the look.

'Guess it's time to take a break, if we keep this up we'll both be completely useless in the long run.'

The purple genius thought, despite not wanting to take a breather. However he knew logically that if he and Donatello didn't at least step back from this to cool off their mounting frustrations they'd never be able to figure it out. Just as Donnie had come to this conclusion Donatello seemingly did so as well.

"Let's just take a minute to get ourselves together mentally. Wouldn't want to make things more difficult for us in the long run."

Donatello stated in a gruff manner obviously just as displeased with this as Donnie. The soft shell gave a hum of agreement before standing up to get the blood flowing within his legs. Donatello just watched his younger counterpart, obviously not ready to move from his seat yet before going back to his notes, while Donnie decided to snoop around somewhat. Taking in Donatello's lab Donnie noticed several things that were vastly different from his own lab back home. The lightning was one thing, instead of the familiar glowing of red buttons and eyes and neon purple lights, there instead was a rather dim kind of lighting. While not bad it gave the lab a somewhat gloomy look not that Donnie would ever say it out loud. Glancing around some more Donnie noticed all the blueprints of future inventions that Donatello had yet to start and all the equipment that laid scattered around on tables and counters. Tools as well as lab beakers filled with all sorts of different chemicals sat neatly in their holders, awaiting the moment of being needed. As Donnie snooped around his eyes caught sight of one set of blueprints that were buried beneath newer ones. Curious the soft shell moved them aside and saw the outlining guide to what looked like a robot of some kind.

The design was that of a shorter turtle, and clunky like, yet despite it the blueprints were filled with various notes and markings on the turtle shaped robot. As Donnie read over the little notes and other details on the older blueprints his dark brown hues finally caught sight of the name of the little robot.

"Metalhead....?"

Donnie muttered intrigued as he took a closer look. The soft shell noted how detailed the plans for Metalhead were and how much care was put into them. Donatello obviously cared a lot about this particular invention from the way everything was filled with incredible details and little notes.

"I see you found the blueprints for Metalhead."

Donatello's voice sounding incredibly close made Donnie about jump out of his skin. Snapping his head around to see the older turtle Donnie was about to snap at him for spooking him like that when he paused seeing the face of the taller turtle. Donatello's gaze was solely focused on his old blueprints, a look of bittersweetness in his reddish brown eyes as he reached out to grab them from Donnie.

"Who is Metalhead if you don't mind me asking."

Donnie asked curiousity getting the best of him. Donatello was quiet for a moment before he answered his younger doppelganger's question.

"Metalhead was a robot that I'd created back when I was about fifteen years old. He was the future of the ways of the ninja, and he was one of my most complex inventions besides the Shellraiser."

Donatello explained a small gapped tooth smile on his face as he recalled the little robot turtle. However the smile faded as he continued.

"During one of our missions Metalhead was completely wrecked by a renegade mutant. I couldn't get to him in time to try and save him from further damage......all I got was his head."

Donatello said his voice soft and full of a grief that only an inventor could feel. Donnie felt his throat tighten slightly as he thought about how devastating it was to lose something like Metalhead. He knew it all too well.

"I had a little robot companion that I'd built. He was one of my greatest inventions, his name was Shelldon. I....I put my all into making him, so much so that he was like a son to me. I....I'd ended up losing him during the attack on our lair by the Shredder."

Donnie explained feeling Donatello's gaze on him. Donnie shimmied a bit underneath the gaze feeling all too exposed suddenly and he wanted nothing more than for the floor to swallow him whole.

"I guess that no matter the universe we'll always lose our robot companions huh?"

Donatello spoke up trying to somewhat ease the atmosphere. Donnie couldn't help but quirk a humorless smile at his older counterpart.

"Yeah......I guess so."

Donnie replied. The two geniuses dropped the subject of their inventions of robots not wanting to dwell too much on it. The two inventors instead moved on to much more lighter topics, talking about their newest creations and what their plans were. They talked about little things and stories of adventures that they'd experienced the once gloomy atmosphere disappearing. Donnie had no idea how long they just talked but he knew that this conversation was by far one of the best he's ever had. Donatello was incredibly smart and could keep up with Donnie easily whenever he started to get really technical on certain things. It was nice to have a partner of science and knowledge to have a conversation with. Donnie was now listening to Donatello talk about the alien species that he'd met in space, and how their technology was vast and extremely complex compared to their own.

"Honestly even I had a hard time figuring some of it out and I was the one most familiar with it! The Triceratons were one of the worst when it came to their technology. I'd never felt so frustrated in all my life, not since I'd first started off with-"

Donatello suddenly stopped making Donnie give him a confused look. Donnie quirked an eyebrow getting a bit concerned by the sudden silence.

"Don-"

He'd began to say before he was startled by Donatello practically sprinting back to his desk, quickly making his way to his computer. Donnie followed him, feeling completely lost all of a sudden. Stepping up next to Donatello he'd went to ask what was going on when his question was answered.

"Haha-! Yes I got something-! I can't believe I didn't think of them before I should have known it would involve them somehow-!"

Donatello said sounding a bit annoyed with his lack of foresight and downright pleased with what he managed to figure out.

"Uh not to rain on your parade Don but what in the laws of physics are you going on about?"

Donnie asked taking Donatello's attention. The taller turtle seemed to realize that he'd left Donnie in the dark somewhat and going red with embarrassment he began to explain.

"Ah right sorry! Well to answer your question my genius friend, I think I've found a possible lead on how to get you and your brothers back home. I was thinking maybe the Kraang would be a good starting point seeing as their whole thing is interdimensional traveling! They're practically known for their dimension hoping, so I was thinking that if we can gather information on their latest activities and their portable dimensions, we could possibly have a lead on getting you all home!"

Donatello said his expression bright and beaming for the first time in a few days. Donnie's own excitement started to spark, a large grin coming onto his face as he got what his counterpart was saying.

"Don, you are without a doubt the best version of me I have ever met, like oh mi gosh I love you and your big brain oh so much right now!"

Donnie said absolutely proud to have Donatello as his alternate self. There was a reason why he was always known as the smartest turtle amongst his brothers and seeing that his older counterpart was living up to the title made Donnie downright prideful. Donatello just seemed a bit startled by Donnie's words however the taller turtle preened at the praise.

"I'm the only version of you that you've ever met Donnie, but I'm glad to know that I'm your favorite one."

Donatello said a bit cheekily making Donnie smirk at the tone. The two purple turtles were practically vibrating with excitement, finally having a lead to work with to see if it could give them answers. As the two turtles began their plans to try and figure out what they could learn Donnie decided to drop the bombshell.

"By the way my ingenious friend, what exactly is a Kraang?"

~~~~~

Leo wasn't used to being in such an emotional rollercoaster in such a short span of time. For the past few days, he'd been filled with nothing but the familiar aching grief of being reminded of his grandmother's death and the death of his father in this strange alternate reality. Filled with thoughts and guilt and other nasty things that Leo never really liked to think about. If the red eared slider was completely honest he'd never go near anything emotional with a hundred foot pole, so suddenly being thrust into a hurricane of emotional turmoil was not a very fun time. And if Leo was known for anything it was having a fun time. Which was why he'd decided that now was the perfect opportunity to mess with some people in the lair to help get everyone's minds off of the heavy things that had been weighing them down.

And what better way to do so than with a few pranks?

So being the somewhat clever turtle he was, Leo had began his solo mission to help bring up the mood within the lair. He'd made sure to any unfortunate soul who was within his path. So far he'd gotten his older brother Raph, his little brother Mikey, his brother's older counterpart Michelangelo and he'd just got Raphael who more or less was downright fuming at the prank. Leo could practically see the water that had been in the water balloon steaming on top of the older red clad turtle's head. The sounds of confused and irritated swears and mutterings filled the lair as Raphael somewhat stomped away to go to his room to try and cool down. Leo snickered a bit coming from his hiding place as he tucked his one katana away, its mystical powers receding from the blade.

"Ain't nothing like using my badass mystic ninja skills to help everyone cool down."

Leo said a mischievous smile on his face. It wasn't often that the blue clad turtle did this kind of thing, but he had deemed the situation to bring a few harmless pranks into it. Showing his brothers some fun was what he was known for best. Leo was the face man, the jokester of his brothers. He made it his personal mission to live up to those titles, especially when his brothers needed cheering up. And since he was stuck in this world with his brothers, Leo had taken it upon himself to also extend his methods of cheering those around him up with their older counterparts. So far Raphael was the only one who seemed more irritated than everyone else so Leo made a mental note to keep the pranking to a minimum around the short and angry turtle. Michelangelo on the other hand when he'd been met with Leo's prank, had been downright thrilled and had even cracked a laugh at it. Much like his own little brother Michelangelo was rather easy going and seemed to thrive on things such as this. And hearing Michelangelo laugh was a major win in Leo's books.

"Okay so I've hit Raph, Mikey, Ralph and Miguel. I could try to go for Dee next but......"

Leo mused quietly thinking about his younger twin. Donnie if he remembered correctly was currently hiding out in this lair's lab with Donatello. The slider couldn't help but shiver slightly as he recalled the last time he'd played a prank on Donnie when he'd been in his lab. His twin had been less than pleased and he may of had Shelldon yank Leo up by his shell like a small kitten and toss him out of said lab, swearing up and down the whole time at him. The last thing he wanted was to set Donnie completely off like that again and God only knows how Donatello would react if Leo so much as even thought of pranking them while they were in the lab.

'So no Donald or Don then, I'll have to get them later. So that leaves.....'

Leo felt his heart jump at the thought of Leonardo, remembering the embarrassing moment of having himself be read like an open book by his older self. Leo had never wanted to bury himself in the ground so fast as soon as he'd realized what had happened. Thankfully Leonardo didn't rat him out to his brothers however the whole experience had left him feeling a bit shaken still.

'But if I keep avoiding him it's just gonna get worse.'

A voice in his head said sounding annoyingly enough like Dr. Feelings who Mikey used to be a somewhat therapist for his brothers. Leo couldn't help but mentally groan already knowing that his little mental Dr. Feelings was right even though he absolutely hated to admit it.

'Come on Hamato you literally fought mutated fish, literally a death match in a Big Mama's fighting ring, and the Shredder. You can face yourself and be a grown up about this. Don't be a wimp.'

He scolded himself mentally pulling himself together. After pulling himself together Leo felt a bit more confident in himself and with a small smirk began to make his way towards the one place where he knew his older self was hanging out.

The dojo.

Leo quickly and quietly made his way towards the sliding doors, being careful not to make any sounds. Using all of his ninja stealth skills, the red eared slider quietly pulled out his katana, watching the familiar bright blue mystic energy come to life at his fingertips. With a silent swing a bright blue portal opened up, revealing the inside of the dojo. There sitting at the foot of the tree's roots was Leonardo. The older turtle was sitting cross legged on the tatsumi mats, his eyes closed and his entire body completely still. A tranquil air hung around him, his breathing soft and slow and calm. It was clear that Leonardo was meditating, and by the looks of it he was incredibly deep into it.

'Perfect.'

Leo thought grabbing a water balloon and going to take aim. He'd have to be quick about this, if he wanted to get the older blue clad turtle. Leo took his aim, his light blue eyes focused on his target, getting ready to throw it.

'Three.....two.......one-!'

Leo counted backwards mentally, once he hit one he moved, however not in the way he imagined it.

In fact what happened next rather quick.

The red eared slider didn't even process it before Leonardo had suddenly moved out of the way his eyes closed still before his hand shot out towards Leo, going straight through the portal and grabbing Leo's wrist. Leo barely had a chance to blink before he was yanked right through his portal and thrown right over Leonardo's body, his body flipped over as his shell hit the tatsumi matted floors hard. The younger turtle let out a whoosh of air, his entire body practically jostled all the way down to his bones. Wide eyed in a stunned silence Leo could only wheeze a bit as he tried to get air back into his lungs. Leonardo meanwhile had finally opened his eyes, and was now looking at his younger counterpart in a mortified way.

"Leo-!? Oh shit I'm so sorry are you alright?!"

Leonardo asked his tone cracking slightly at his rushed out words as he dropped down to his knees to help Leo sit up. Leo meanwhile just tried to get his bearings, sucking in a sharp deep breath as Leonardo gently helped him up into a sitting position. After a few moments of collecting himself Leo finally spoke in a winded voice.

"Damn dude. Remind me to not do that again, you do not mess around when you throw people holy-"

Leo wheezed a bit stunned by just how strong Leonardo actually was when he put his all into it. The younger turtle knew that if he'd been human that the older turtle could have very well have broken his spine with the force he used behind the throw. Leonardo seemed to go red in a mortified way, embarrassed beyond belief.

"I'm honestly really sorry Leo, I didn't mean to throw you so hard, if I'd known it was you-"

Leonardo began to ramble while Leo finally recovered, his stunned shock now changed into a beaming star struck look. Turning to his older self Leo interrupted him.

"Holy hell Lee, that was seriously one of the most badass things I'd ever seen in my life! You didn't even hesitate and you were meditating yet you still took me out! How did you do that?!"

Leo asked his light blue eyes sparkling with boyish glee and excitement at having seen something so cool. Leonardo froze in his ramblings his dark blue eyes widening in surprise at seeing such a look on the younger turtle's face. He'd been expecting anger or something along those lines but not this.

"I....what-?"

Leonardo scrambled out his tone full of baffled confusion.

"The thing-! How did you do that?? Like dude it's not easy to get the drop on me like that, nor is it easy to sense my presence while I'm in stealth mode with my portals! Yet you completely took me by surprise all while meditating and oh mi gosh you've got to tell me how you managed to do it!"

The slider said practically demanding to have an answer in his star struck amazement. Leonardo just blinked confused and dazed by the excitement his younger doppelganger showed. Clearing out his throat somewhat to help his vocal chords out Leonardo finally answered Leo's questions.

"Ah well I didn't really know that you were there. One minute I was just meditating and then I felt the spiritual plain change and I just.....reacted on instinct."

Leonardo said sounding a bit awkward. Meanwhile Leo was taken all of this in eagerly wanting to know more.

"The spiritual plain? Like as in a sixth sense mystic kind of deal? Do you have mystic powers here?"

Leo asked earning a confused head tilt.

"Mystic powers?"

Leonardo asked confused. Leo nodded and pulled out his katana, swinging it in a small circle. The blade once again glowed a bright blue, its magic pulsing in the blade as it made a tiny portal. Leonardo's eyes went wide with shock.

"What in the-?"

He began to question and Leo was quick to answer.

"This is mystic powers. Me and my brothers each have one of a unique kind. Raph's sais is strength based and he can use it to make himself stronger. Mikey's nunchucks have the ability to shot out flames and to hold mystical beings in place. Donnie's bo staff can turn into anything that he's ever made bo staff wise via technology. And my twin katanas have the ability to open and close portals at a whim. Though judging by your reaction I'm guessing that this kind of thing doesn't exist here."

Leo said curious. Leonardo just slowly shook his head.

"No we don't have stuff like this here. However.....we do have spiritual and healing abilities here. Or rather healing and spiritual mantras. Only a selection of people can use these abilities and a lot of them are masters in some way. Out of me and my brothers though......I'm the one most spiritual sensitive and able to use the mantras easily. Though I'm not a master in these things. Not like....like Master Splinter was."

Leonardo explained getting curious himself. Leo on the other hand was amazed by this. This alternate version of himself was apparently extremely talented in this kind of thing. Though he was rather humble about it and seemed to not see the raw talent of being able to sense Leo of all people and get the drop on him. The red eared slider felt a sudden determination hit him and with a click of his katana being placed in its sheath, Leo grabbed Leonardo's hands tightly and stared straight into his dark blue eyes seriously.

"Can you teach me?"

The younger turtle asked earning a wide eyed look from the older one.

"Teach you?"

The older turtle repeated earning a fierce nod in response.

"Yes teach me. I want to learn how to do that move that you did because Lee that was seriously the coolest thing I've ever seen in my sixteen years of life and I'll literally die if I don't learn such a awesome skill."

Leo said sounding dead serious. Leonardo just stared at his younger counterpart looking entirely unsure about everything. However Leo gave him the best puppy dog eyes he could ever give, practically pleading with his older self to teach him. It was a good bit of uncertain silence before the blue clad leader let out a resigned sigh.

"I can try, but I don't know if it'll work or not."

The leader said earning a practically glowing smile from the red eared slider.

"Oh me gosh thank you-! You're now my favorite turtle in the world!"

Leo said bouncing a bit while Leonardo watched in slight weary amusement.

"Yeah, no problem. Come on let's get up off the ground and I'll check you over to make sure I didn't hurt you by accident."

Leonardo said getting up and offering a hand to help Leo up. With a bright grin Leo grabbed ahold of his doppelganger's hand and let himself be hoisted up onto his feet. Once standing the two blue turtles made their way out of the dojo.

~~~~~

Donatello stared at his computer checking off all the data he'd collected from his hours of research. Donnie was at his desk as well, writing everything they came across down onto their charts that they'd made to keep their data together. After explaining exactly what the Kraang were to Donnie, the two had begun their quest in searching for anything that was odd or not exactly normal. So far Donatello had managed to find reports from the local research facility, courtesy of Donnie's hacker skills, and had learned that they'd been tracking odd spikes of energy surges for the past two or three weeks. The facility couldn't figure out exactly where they'd been coming from but they'd been happening a bit more frequently.

Especially during this week, or more specifically a few days before Donnie and his brothers appeared within the lair.

That alone rose red flags for Donatello. The older turtle stared at the computer screen and the graphs that contained the information that was under extreme coding and protection servicers until Donnie had hacked their systems. Reports from the research facility and local new broadcasting stations all pointed to the same energy surges that had been occurring in New York City. And Donatello had a feeling that the Kraang had something to do with it.

"So what are we going to do now? Cause all this information we've found and all the reports we've read are all weirdly suspicious."

Donnie piped up his mouth somewhat pressed into a tense expression. Donatello gave a small sigh, rubbing his eyes and thinking.

"I think that we'll definitely need to check out the Kraang database and see what they're up to. And in order to do that we're going to need to locate them first. The Kraang aren't easy to find and if they're up to something and it's big they're gonna difficult to locate. I'll need to talk to Leo about this and see what he thinks about all this."

Donatello said already making a mental layout for his possible future mission.

"If that's the case then I'll need to alert my brothers about this and see what they think about this."

Donnie replied already getting up from his chair and gathering their notes to show to his brothers to explain what was going on. Glancing up at Donatello, Donnie gave him a small look.

"Are you coming?"

Donnie asked his tone slightly impatient at wanting to get this show on the road. Donatello blinked away from the computer and nodded quickly getting up from his desk and grabbing a few things of his own. As he gathered his materials to go and discuss this with Leonardo the sudden ringing of his tphone sounded out throughout the lab startling the two geniuses. Donatello shimmying his work over into one arm quickly reached for the phone attached to his hip and pulled it up answering it as he made his way to Donnie giving him a look to let him know to follow him. The soft shell gave a swift nod not speaking since Donatello was on the phone.

"Hello?"

Donatello answered, his phone pressed up to his cheek as he and Donnie made their way towards the living room to go and gather their brothers. Donnie listened quietly as Donatello seemed to brighten up immediately at whoever was on the other end of the phone. The older turtle was talking rather quickly and softly, seemingly letting whoever it was that called in on what was going on. As Donnie set the stuff down he heard Donatello speak.

"Oh-! You really don't have to trouble yourself......okay okay I get it, so I guess I'll see you in a bit..? Alright, see you soon, be safe."

Donatello said ending the call. Donnie gave him a small narrowed eyed look, somewhat suspicious.

"So who's stopping by?"

Donnie asked not bothering to act like he wasn't eavesdropping. Donatello blinked and snapped his reddish brown gaze onto the younger turtle suddenly looking incredibly bashful.

"It was a friend of ours. She wants to join in on our talk and help us out."

Donatello said his voice small and mumbled. Donnie quirked an eyebrow, unimpressed by the vague answer but he decided to drop it. They had more important things to worry about at the moment.

"You got everything Don?"

Donnie asked earning a nod of confirmation from the older purple turtle.

"Yep, all we need is our brothers and then we'll be good to go."

Donatello replied earning a hum of acknowledgement. Donatello watched as his younger counterpart put everything down and got up to leave the living room.

"I'll go get them and bring them in. You keep everything together Don."

Donnie said before leaving the older turtle behind, his bright purple battle shell being all that Donatello saw before his doppelganger disappeared from view. Donatello took a deep breath, fiddling with his bandages on his wrists a bit as he waited for Donnie and their brothers to come back and join him.

*What's this? Some actual plot?? Yes my friends it most certainly is! Now we're getting on a roll my lovely peeps and I'm personally super excited to see how my little project plays out. This chapter is a bit longer because I wanted to get the plot somewhat going and because the next chapter might take a lot more time to complete seeing as how my fingers are sore from typing on my phone for so long and because I don't want to give myself burnout because that'd lowkey suck. Anyways if any y'all read this I hope you enjoyed it!!!*

#my writing #ooc probably sorry #anyways enjoy i guess #i tried my best y'all sorry if this sucks dhdhdhdhgj #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #tmnt #rottmnt #tmnt/rottmnt crossover #tmnt 2012 rottmnt crossover #rottmnt tmnt 2012 crossover #tmnt leo #rottmnt leo #tmnt raph #rottmnt raph #tmnt donnie #rottmnt donnie #tmnt mikey #rottmnt mikey #tmnt splinter #rottmnt splinter #tmnt metalhead #rottmnt shelldon #this took me literally a few days to get completed omfg my fingers hurt so I'm gonna go take a break byeee #a universal collision #aka the chapter where The Donnies and Leos bond with their counterparts somewhat wooooo next part will be Raphs and Mikeys moment #I seriously tried to make a plot somewhat with this I'm hoping that this works out fingers crossed #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2018

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spry-the-artist · 2 years ago

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I think it's about time I make a post about the Bendy is Henry theory going around. It’s been a thing since the beginning of the franchise, and it only multiplied with this trailer.

And while I do enjoy it immensely, do I believe it? And if I do, what are the specifics?

Well, I want it to be true. But I do see some issues with it. Mainly that we already know that Bendy’s voice actress is female (so either whoever Bendy is, is a girl or this is because young boys tend to be voiced by women) and he’s playing with that train in the trailer. Plus, Lauren (Malice’s voice actress) refers to him as “Baby Benders”. If Henry was Bendy, then it’d be different, right?

Well, here’s why it's not impossible. The biggest thing is that the ink has been known to change the people it consumes, especially when it turned them into a specific character. And this could possibly explain all of that.

The train? Like I said, the ink changes you and when you're turned into a toon, it changes you to be like that character.

The voice? Susie Campbell is voiced by a different actresses than Malice despite being the same person, so presumably, the ink can change your voice.

And finally, Lauren calling him Baby Benders? This one’s a bit harder to explain but 1. I don’t think she can say much about the game 2. If this theory is true, Bendy will still be acting like Bendy for a majority of the game, and 3. We still treat Buddy Lewek like a cute little toon (even those of us who think Buddy and Boris in the games are the same) despite his situation being extremely terrifying.

So do I believe in the theory? It’s definitely possible. I’m quite sure they wouldn't scrap Henry in this game and right now we have to work with the character we have to associate him with. And the only other one we can is... The Ink Demon? Now granted, I’ll make a post about that theory since it's good as well, but I think you understand my point. So unless Henry is a spoiler character, we just have to work with what we have.

Also for crying out loud, Henry’s name is literally 2 letters of from Bendy’s! (/en/y). That was definitely a pun on the Meatly’s part, but maybe the team took it further. Who knows!

Now that we’ve gotten whether or not the theory could be plausible or not out of the way, now let’s talk about how things could go down. This is all speculation of an already speculative theory so I’ll go through a couple options.

First off; our most likely being that we don’t know that Bendy is Henry for most of the game. And neither does Bendy (or well, Henry). Like I stated above, they could be going with the « ink changes people » route.

Here’s how this specific theory would likely go down if this is the case:

Bendy is cute. He acts like a child.

Things are off, especially in certain areas. Memories start sparking bit by bit.

Catalyst event like explicit mention of Henry.

Now, for our second less likely option; It’s a Buddy Lewek situation (if I remember correctly) where Henry’s forced to act like Bendy by a version of Bendy inside his head. Or Bendy has more control. Either way, it’s a situation where Henry is stuck with a Bendy in his head.

This one isn’t as straight forward so I’m assuming it would show cracks of Henry breaking through and it increases before finally Henry gains full control. This would either be bad or good depending on how the game portrays Henry.

Third and last option; Joey’s pulling the strings and making sure Henry is ‘personally’ responsible for another person being stuck down here. Probably either because Joey is a Salty Bitch ™ or Henry somehow messed up the loops (and Joey’s a Salty Bitch ™ about it, like : You want to do something different? Well, I’ll have you do something different!)

How it’d go:

Bendy is either unhelpful or downright messes Audrey up sometimes

Audrey takes it as him being an innocent child

Henry slowly regains control and tries to help

Henry regains full control and explains everything

Joey decides to completely take over and big climax happens

Joey is finally defeated and either Henry regains control or is turned back to whatever the hell he was during the loops. Maybe even human.

So, these are my theories and thoughts. Hopefully you enjoyed this long post.

#batim #batim bendy #batdr #batdr theory #henry stein #henry batim #batim henry #long post #but hey that’s just a theory #a game theory #thanks for reading

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courtofwingsandruin · 4 years ago

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Does anyone else ever think how we know that originally, Lucien and Nesta were supposed to end up together, not Cassian and Nesta? And how that means that this bond between Lucien and Elain probably was a very sudden idea SJM had when writing ACOMAF out?

She decided to change it because this relationship wouldn’t work. I’m not gonna lie that this is slightly perplexing to me. Lucien, especially ACOTAR-era Lucien, probably could’ve gotten along with Nesta quite well. I know SJM knows her characters better than us, but I just can’t see why they wouldn’t work, y’know?

And now, with the whole 3 brothers/3 sisters thing...I’m wondering if that’s part of the reason why. If SJM realized she wanted Lucien to have some connection to one of the three (a mating bond, rather than a romantic relationship), but doesn’t get with them. Because in the end, she had these two Bat Bois sitting right here who would work with them just as well, if not better, than Lucien could with either of them—and it would give her a future story to tell with the three brothers/three sisters and Koschei storyline.

I feel this can be reinforced by the fact that SJM has been planning Elain’s specifically but also Nesta’s story since ACOMAF. She made a lot of decisions while writing ACOMAF and began preparing things for the future books she wanted to write. Choosing not to have Nesta and Lucien get together, instead the tension between Cassian and Nesta the moment they meet. The way Elain and Azriel seem to click and focus on each other the moment they meet, too (if you reread that first meeting I promise you’ll see it. Elain specifically looks to Azriel, not her newly-fae sister, not the High Lord, not the much louder Illyrian right next to Az—not even Nesta. She looks to Azriel every single time when she was unsure, and he’s constantly reassuring her that she’s good to speak up and try). I don’t think that was a coincidence.

Not to mention that if she was planning for Elain and Lucien to be together, she would’ve most definitely given them at least one romantic coded moment together. The closest thing I’ve seen is when Lucien is leaving once and Elain nearly steps down the stairs to say something to him but he’s already gone. And honestly, I blame that completely on the bond. We know they can feel each other’s emotions, Rhys and Feyre can feel each other’s even with their mental shields up (or are supposed to be able to at least)—and we see that Lucien had “longing and sadness” in his eyes just before he disappeared there, which was when Elain almost stepped down. Then Lucien had winnowed away, and she walked away without any other care (likely because the farther away he was the less strong the pull of the mating bond, so she couldn’t feel him as strongly then). This is chapter 34 of ACOWAR. This is the only scene we see that seems like it has slight potential of Elucien in canon.

However, we have many, many scenes to support Elain and Azriel. Their friendship started in ACOMAF, was seen throughout ACOWAR, throughout ACOFAS, and even though we don’t see them even in the same room together but three or so times in ACOSF, there is some kind of tension between them every time (Azriel’s clear protectiveness of Elain when his shadows gathered in the corners to strike, the clear liking of each other when Elain looked away from Azriel’s smile, Nesta noticing a charged look going between them). As well as the many scenes where Azriel and usually Cassian discuss Elain and Azriel’s protectiveness comes back up. As a disclaimer, I don’t like that Azriel is also supporting not allowing Elain to go on these missions and try to prove herself. But every single other couple in the books is protective of each other. Cassian didn’t want Nesta to even let go of his hand to get the harp. Rhys had multiple occasions where he was angry and protective over Feyre doing something dangerous—when instead of going to the townhouse she fought in the streets of Velaris, when she went to find the Suriel during the war. Saying “oh but they’re mates” ignores the fact that it’s said most all males are possessive and protective like this in their world, regardless if it’s a mating bond or family or love. And it also ignores the very plausible theory of Azriel being Elain’s second and/or true mate. I won’t get into that right now though.

And then, of course, the bonus chapter proved that Elain and Azriel’s feeling definitely are not just platonic, and they both have a lot going on behind the scenes. I won’t get into the chapter much because I have plenty of other posts on my blog where I or someone else dissected and discussed it. But they definitely have both romantic and sexual interest in each other.

I truly, truly don’t see why SJM would set that up over the course of three novels and one novella to suddenly not put them together. Especially knowing that she’s said she doesn’t like couples that were built up over long periods of time (4 books is a very long time) and then don’t end up together. I don’t think she introduced Gwyn to be a romantic interest—I do think she included Gwyn in his extra chapter to confuse us and cause panic and chaos, sure, SJM is like that, remember when we first met Emerie? And then Emerie turned out to have no connection to Cassian other than him being her mentor/trainer and she being Nesta’s friend? I don’t think Gwyn will have any actual potential as a romantic partner. This also parallels Cassian and Nesta’s story—with them both mentioning another girl pre-getting together and (likely) nothing actually comes of it. She does parallel things a lot, and I don’t think she did this on accident.

To round this out, I’d like to bring us back to Lucien and Nesta. If she originally had them together, I think there can definitely be an implication there that she had considered them working some. And Cassian and ACOTAR-era Lucien are similar, as well as...well, Nesta and Vassa. The firebird and the silver flames. A human Queen and the Queen of Queens. Vassa has shown a great backbone, will openly bicker with people (we hear about her and Jurian fighting a lot), she’s just this woman who seems like she could be similar enough to Nesta to warrant the idea that Nesta/Lucien could’ve possibly worked if Nesta was a little more like Vassa or Lucien was a little more like Cassian.

I also want to clarify that I’m not against the Elain and Lucien ship, nor am I against Gwyn and Azriel. I actually ship Elain and Lucien—just not as much as I ship Elain and Azriel, because I’m 99.9% certain that Elriel will be endgame (always leave room for error). And once the next book is out and this whole mess has cleared up, I could definitely get behind Gwyn and Azriel as a non-canon sorta-crack ship. I read about pairings that completely disregard canon all the time (Feycien is hardcore slept on). But I can’t find myself supporting Gwyn and Azriel right now, not while this ship war is happening, because I feel right now is the time to actually look at canon and focus on what’s obviously there—not what, to me, is more of just a fun little ship that could work in theory and fanfics and that’s about it.

And that’s all. End rant. I’m so sorry if you actually read all this. This stuff has been on loop in my head for days and I had to word vomit again.

#acotar #acosf #a court of silver flames #elain archeron #a court of thorns and roses #azriel #elriel #acomaf #acowar #pro elriel #i’m not tagging this as anti anything bc i’m not anti any of the ships #the other ships are cute! i like it theory! not seeing it in canon #vassa x lucien #it’s not really about them but i am supporting it some in this?#and it seems like the only safe ship other than elriel to mention?#i don’t want to make anyone mad by tagging this wrong

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pollylynn · 3 years ago

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Title: Disavowal WC: 1000 Episode: The Human Factor (5 x 23)

Conspiracy theories are entirely his territory. This has not been in question even once over the last five years. It’s in question now. She should see the warning signs that something is not right with the world when he is not the engine that drives every conspiracy theory about what should be Dale Tanner’s murder case.

Oh, he seems to be. At the scene—the maddening scene that smacks of every anxiety dream trope under the sun—he is cracking jokes about Men in Black to her, to the MIBs in question, to anyone who will listen. He’s amused by Guerrero shutting her down by Agents J and K driving off with her on their metaphorical running board, with their crime scene being hauled away on flatbed. He’s amused and tells her that at least they have each other. If he’d noticed the man at the scene watching her intention, he’d probably be amused by that, too. But he doesn’t notice the man. She alone notices him—is unnerved by him—and all is not right with the world.

She’s annoyed that he’s amused. Or, really, she’s annoyed at the way the back of her neck is prickling over all this, and that’s on top of how overtly furious she is at her investigation being stomped on by the fed—a fury that only grows when she learns about her victim’s work, and she can’t help drawing parallels to her own mother’s commitment to the truth and serving the forgotten. She’s annoyed at circumstance, she’s annoyed that he’s amused. And then she’s annoyed that he’s not amused.

He’s subdued during their elevator conversation on their way out to Fort Drummond, and she’s the one who has to try to joke him out of it. She dangles the Military–Industrial Complex in front of him, but he doesn’t take the bait. This is not the arrangement. This is not how these things go. He’s more himself at Fort Drummond. He’s as astonished as she is furious about the meeting with Fortis and Hooper, and it makes him haughty. It makes him usefully irritating. But it’s back to neck prickling on the way back to the precinct when he does pitch Military–Industrial Complex, but the story he spins is it’s plausible. The idea is far too plausible for her taste or for his.

He recovers once the case takes its next turn. There’s one final suggestion—a suggestion that is also gloom-producing in its plausibility—that the man who turns out to be Jared Stack is a government assassin. He starts to build back to himself as he feeds off the absurd Mission: Impossible vibes that he’s not at all wrong in picking up on, as he calls Stack out for his improbable Bad Guys Stole Our Drone and Killed a Thorn in Our Collective Backsides With It scenario. And once they have confirmation that the drone was hacked, he is off and running with his Rise of the Machines theory. But her neck is still prickling, because she’s still stuck on Stack.

Oh, she's not stuck on Stack in at all the right ways. He plays her left and right. It’s embarrassing. It’s humiliating when she thinks about the evidence seized, her time wasted, and all of this features far too many moves from the playbook of one Sophia Turner for her to not want to seize a drone of her own and blow something up.

But even as she coughs up Warburg for Stack—and hopes like hell that Castle doesn’t remember that he totally called the fact that Stack had quite transparently fed them the name Warburg for his own nefarious purposes—even as she tries to keep her face an absolute blank when Stack produces Omar Dixon and then has the audacity to swing his professional dick about it, she is not stuck on Stack in at all the right ways.

She knows it. She knows it’s distracting her from the case. It’s making her more than a little mean to Castle, to Ryan, even when their enthusiasm for the grand government conspiracy keeps turning out to be annoyingly close to right. She tells him that he wasn’t right, he was exactly wrong about Warburg. She plays the prank that ends with him smashing his toys. She’s disappointed in herself for it. She’s annoyed with herself, because she cannot figure out what it is about Stack that has her underdeveloped conspiracy theory centers firing.

And the reveal, when it comes, is strange. Stack is strange and deeply off-putting, even now—especially now—when he is apparently trying to pay her a compliment. He’s overly familiar and unaware that he is not pulling off the swagger, not when she’s well aware that he was unable to draw out a college student or make any headway in finding Warburg, a man who’d been in recent contact with a person he’d been surveilling. He reminds her of nothing so much as a spoiled son who’s been handed daddy’s used car lot to manage.

And still, the reveal is strange. She neither needs nor wants Stack’s flattery. She neither needs nor wants his third degree about where her career his going. His used car salesman pitch is inept, but what he’s offering is not unappealing when her ego’s been bruised, her efforts to get justice for her victim have been hemmed in at every turn, when she feels powerless and the back of her neck is still prickling. It’s not unappealing.

There’s a version of the ending that has nothing to do with conspiracy theories. There’s a version of the ending where she presses her back to the door of the loft, holds out her hand for her generous pour of zinfandel, and tells him—tells Castle—the strangest thing just happened.

But that’s not the version that transpires. She says nothing. He, eventually, asks. And she lies. She’s part of the conspiracy.

And this is not the arrangement.

A/N: Your humble author’s hatred for Stack as written and portrayed might seem to have morphousness. This is only an illusion.

images via kissthemgoodbye

#Castle #Caskett #Castle: Season 5 #Castle: The Human Factor #Kate Beckett #Richard Castle #Kevin Ryan #Sophia Turner #Fic #Fanfic #Fanfiction #Fan Fic #Fan Fiction #Writing #Tell Me More

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minart-was-taken · 4 years ago

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Sort of continuation of this, but it also does stand on it’s own!

Title: A small problem Characters: Ravio, Wind, Minish and Legend Includes threats of violence “Tags:” First meetings - No-one is sure what they’re doing but that’s ok - Zelda shows up!

Enjoy!

Ravio was speechless, a little scared, but most powerfully: mesmerized. Two kids, clearly younger than him and both with bright blond locks that rivaled the sun, were engaged in combat.

Although fists were flying, neither had landed a single hit. When the older one, who he had dubbed Mr. Sailor, threw a hit, the younger one, Mr. Small, would live up to his nickname and shrink to a very small size.

He’d then unshrink, throw a hit himself, and miss as the other pulled quite the leap to get away.

Ravio was simply waiting for one of them to land a hit, and for the situation to escalate badly, as he was too afraid to intervene.

Another crack followed then, they were starting to give Ravio a headache.

From it appeared a pink haired boy, tallest of the people present. He blinked in surprise, glancing around.

His appearance seemed to distract the coat wearing boy, who ended up getting decked in the face and fell over shouting “SHIT!” very loudly.

“Oh my.” Signed the newest arrival, looking at the situation before him with wide eyes. “Am I interrupting something?”

“I’m glad you are.” Ravio responded, walking over to the seemingly sane one, although staying from stabbing range just in case. “I’ve been trying to get these two to stop fighting for ages!”

“No you haven’t!” Grumbled the kid slowly getting himself back from the ground, while the smaller one stood smugly nearby.

“Do I look like someone who could stop a fist fight with force?” Ravio pointed out. “Neither of you listened to reason, so I simply was waiting for an opening.”

“An opening for what?”

He hadn’t had a proper plan. “Why would I tell that? You might fight again and I don’t want you to know what to expect.” However they did not have to know about that.

“Why were they fighting?” the pink one asked.

“He started it.” Coat boy complained.

“Ah. Uhm.” Ravio scratched the back of his head: “From what I could tell, I was simply talking to Mr. Sailor here, then the small one appeared from the bushes and kicked him in the back of the knee.”

“But why?”

“I’m not quite sure.” Ravio confessed.

The stranger tilted his head, confused, before turning to look at the small smug one. “Could you tell us now?”

The very small one scoffed, but signaled for them to follow.

They were in the yard of a small house, and near the window was a little patch of what looked more like weeds than anything else. The kid pointed at one of the weeds that had been very slightly stood upon.

The pink haired one understood, his fist meeting his palm in understanding. “It’s not nice to trample on other people’s plants, Mr. Sailor.”

Coat boy crossed his arms. “I didn’t do it on purpose. I just appeared right there! I would’ve moved if I knew I was standing on a plant.”

“It’s just a big misunderstanding then.” The pink one nodded, kneeling down to be the smallest one’s height. “Next time try to tell him to move before kicking him, okay?”

Mr. Small looked unimpressed, but nodded.

Ravio was just confused as to why anyone would care about such an useless patch of plants. The only valuable thing lost here was a possible alliance between the two small ones.

Kids, oh so dumb. Ravio smiled to himself.

“When you said you appeared-” the Pink one spoke again, standing up and turning to the sailor. “Was it like how I did?”

Mr. Sailor nodded. “Yeah. One moment I was just hammering some nails and suddenly I’m here. Being kicked in the back of my knee. By the smallest bokoblin I’ve ever seen.”

The small one raised a fist, but the pink one grabbed it mid air, and held it still. The small one seemed shocked that someone could- Or more likely- Would try and stop him.

“Oh sorry, I meant rat.” Said the sailor, sticking his tongue out.

“Please stop antagonizing the small child with a sword.” Ravio said in a hushed voice.

The small one was too entranced by having been stopped to care, simply staring at the pink one with wide eyes.

“Huh. What a strange situation.” The pink one continued, ignoring the general chaos. “Well, I suppose if we’re all in it, we should get to know one another. My name is Link. Spelt L-I-N-K”

The smallest one pointed at himself, all the while Mr. Sailor gasped: “Wait- That’s my name too.”

Ravio felt himself tense up a bit, what he had been suspecting was indeed going on, wasn’t it?

The house that looked eerily like the one Link lived in, then there was the clear fact he was in Hyrule, and that there were people who looked eerily like Link but weren’t him…

Oh great goddess of lorule, take him back home please. This is not ideal.

“Hm…” The pink one pondered. “This seems like it’d mean something significant.”

You think? Ravio raised a brow, before shaking off the questioning look to smile politely like a good salesman. “Link isn’t the most common name, so I have to agree.”

He walked closer to the pink one, mostly certain he wouldn’t stab him. With a hand on his back, he continued. “The only Link I know of is the legendary hero of hyrule! It’d be ridiculous for him to be here, though, wouldn’t it?”

“I am he.” Mr. Sailor said.

The tall one blinked at that. “But.. So am I?”

The smallest one dug through his pockets, and pulled out a small note, handing it to Ravio.

Ravio read it out loud to everyone: “Link is the hero of Hyrule, and is allowed to do what he sees fit in order to keep the country safe. Signed, Princess Zelda.”

“...We can’t all be heroes of Hyrule.” Mr. Sailor complained. “And I know for one that I’m not lying, so.”

“There isn’t just one, though.” Ravio spoke up. “Legends speak of a hero in green who appeared centuries ago, perhaps he too had someone before him, and there was someone after.”

“Centuries, though.” Mr. Sailor pointed out, “Do I look a hundred years old to you?”

The smallest one nodded, but Ravio shook his head.

“I’ve heard of stranger things than time travel, in these lands.” Ravio stated.

“I suppose it is a plausible theory.” The pink one pondered, hand on chin. “I know I’m not lying either.”

“And the small one has a letter from the princess.”

“It could be forged.” The sailor pointed out.

Ravio wanted to point out he could tell a forgery from the real thing pretty easily, and had seen enough of Hilda’s writing to know how the royal family conducts it’s deeds. However, that’d make him seem kind of suspicious. “We could go and find out?” Ravio decided to ask instead.

“How?”

“This is clearly the small one’s home, if these are his plants. So this is his Hyrule.” Ravio explained. “Let’s go to the castle, and if the kid is allowed in, it means it’s not forged.”

“I suppose that’s a fair plan.” The pink replied. “And since neither of us are apparently lying, if the letter is real, then- Er, what’s your name?”

“I’m Ravio.” He responded, “The greatest merchant around.”

“Okay- It’s nice to meet you.” The pink one smiled. “Then if all of us are Link like we claim, Ravio’s theory was right.”

“Or some form of it.” Ravio specified.

The pink one nodded. “Very well, little one, could you take us to the castle?”

The smallest one pouted, but began leading the way.

“Holy fuck!” The sailor gasped, looking at the castle once it appeared in the horizon, standing tall yet- A little smaller than Ravio had expected.

The smallest one grinned smugly, walking at a pace more akin to jogging to stay in front of the taller people.

“It’s quite small.” The pink one commented.

“I do agree.” Ravio nodded. “The one I’ve seen is certainly larger.”

“It looks funny.” The pink one smiled, maybe even a little smug.

Ravio took note of it, but did not comment on it.

“So.” The pink one continued. “Your name is Ravio?”

“Like I said, yes.” He nodded. “Are you interested in my wares? I don’t have much on me due to the sudden departure but-”

“Not Link.” He stopped Ravio. “Yet you look a tad like us.”

Ravio blinked, breathing hitched. He missed his hood, but he had been in lorule- He doesn’t need that in Lorule! In Lorule he’s one of a kind!

“I suppose destiny can have a bit of a slip up here and there?” Ravio suggested. Sorry Link, he’d have to steal your identity for a bit here. “I assure you, however, just because I cannot wield a blade does not make me completely useless.”

The pink one simply kept smiling. “Very well, then.”

He hadn’t bought it, had he? Ravio yelled internally, but tried to keep the relaxed facade up.

The castle town was very cute, the sailor looking around with wide eyes, looking like he was taking many internal notes.

What caught Ravio’s eye however, happened a bit later. The smallest showed the letter to a guard by the castle gates, the guard simply sighed, said: “Follow me,” and started walking further into the castle grounds.

“That’s a lot to process.” The pink one spoke again. Ravio had to agree.

They were led to a room to wait- A waiting room, you could say- For the princess to get ready for guests. It matched all the Hyrule castles Ravio had seen, that being one. Stone brick all about, a polished but a little cold interior, with the triforce ever present in all decor.

There were paintings present as well. They seemed to capture the curiosity of all visitors, much to the delight of the smallest one’s ego.

Ravio focused at first on one depicting the princess, she looked similar to the Zelda of the Hyrule he knew, but clearly another person entirely.

He then chose to take a look at the others in their impromptu party, and found the pink one standing under a portrait of what was likely another hero of courage, this one standing tall with a flowing white cape, and a small red bird on his shoulder.

The sight awakened a memory in Ravio, and he found himself suddenly plunged into a mystery.

There was a mural in his Link’s hyrule castle, one depicting the hero prior to him. Zelda had joked to him and Hilda about how she had read the hero actually had pink hair, but the artists took creative liberties and made it dark blond instead.

This couldn’t be the man who sealed Ganon away, was it? Certainly there had been more than one pink haired Link.

Then again, they seemed to be in a situation which included traveling through space and time. Guess that might as well be a detail.

A guard soon showed up, expressing that the princess was ready.

They headed to the throne room. It was bold, large and voices echoed within it. The large windows made it feel slightly less like a scary space, but it did still make him grow a bit uneasy.

In Front of the aforementioned throne, stood the princess, with a bright but curious smile.

“Link, I didn’t know you had made friends!”

The small one tried to hide in his cape, but was unsuccessful.

“It’s very nice to meet you all.” Zelda smiled brightly, as the boys bowed. Ravio hadn’t been sure if that was to be expected, but the smallest one did have a blade and seemed to be satisfied with them bowing, so perhaps it was a good choice.

The pink one took charge soon after, explaining the predicament they found themselves in. Or at least, theorized they did.

“Oh my.” Zelda gasped. “The hero’s spirit will reincarnate this much?! That’s quite saddening.”

“Has the legend of the hero not existed for long here?” The pink one asked.

“We only know of one before Link here.” Zelda explained. “The hero who arrived from the skies to seal away the great evil, so that humanity could return to the lands below.” She said, clearly quoting something.

“...I guess the seal didn’t last.” Zelda added sadly.

The small one rushed over to her, and offered his hand to her. She took hold of it, and smiled with thankfulness in her eyes at the kid.

“Well, if any of you are like Link here, Hyrule is in good hands.” She smiled again. “I wish I could help more though. I’m not sure at all what could be going on, or what to do about it.”

“Do you have time travel items, or something? Getting home would be nice.” The sailor asked.

“I can ask for research on the topic to be conducted.” Zelda nodded. “Until then, you may stay at the castle, if you’d like.”

“Thank you very much, your highness.” The pink- Okay, he needed a nickname, Ravio decided. Whether he was the legendary hero or not, calling him Mr. Legend should help butter the guy up for possible sales, anyway.

With that, they were led to a guest room. Ravio was both deeply glad they hadn’t been paired up, as every pairing seemed like a bad idea, but was also absolutely terrified of sharing a room with three swordsmen he barely knew. They were also given instructions on how to get to both the castle library and the town’s library. Information which Ravio decided to make use of the next day.

It was fine really, and the beds were very comfortable! It seemed the spirit of the hero made them all sleepy as hell, as well. So getting stabbed seemed unlikely. However one thing still kept Ravio up that night.

“Bunnies, dark hair…” Mr. Legend had signed to him, when it was just the two of them, the sun having started to settle for the night “It reminds me of a place.”

“Oh, heh. A place, huh?” Ravio chuckled nervously. He didn’t like being put on the spot without a plan.

“It was a dreadful place.” Mr. Legend stated. “I hope you’re not related to it in some way.”

“I sure hope so too?” Ravio stumbled to find the words:“It sounds much worse than Hyrule. Love this place, the grass is very green. Smells great.”

“I hope so too.” Mr. Legend smiled, a strange dead look in his eyes. “I don’t want to take another life.”

Then he just started talking about how he liked apples.

So, it would’ve been stranger if Ravio wasn’t having trouble sleeping!

Oh, goddesses above, help him.

#The Legend of Zelda #Loz #Ravio #Legend #Minish #Wind #Minish Cap #Zelda #Linkverse

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internalsealpanic · 3 years ago

Text

The Mechanics of Living part 2

Summary: You trick Tim into going to a closed-off sector. Things go well. a/n: I will be doing a director’s cut for this is anyone is interested (by anyone I mean @glorified-red) Warnings: very slight body horror and gore

Main Masterlist

Tim Drake Masterlist

It was easiest to just tell Tim all the facts rather than rely on the goodwill you've built in 3 years to persuade him.

There's a reason sector 4-D was cordoned off last year. For some unknown reason, a section that had been little more than a concrete wasteland started teeming with infected life.

People say it was an abomination (An unidentifiable, Tim corrected but you still think abomination captured the appropriate dramatic for that.) that wandered in from farther in the waste. Some people say it was one of Bludhaven's beasts they let loose. You highly doubt Bludhaven was in any shape to contain whatever it is ravaging sector 4-D. After all, it wasn't in any better shape than Gotham was at the moment. You doubt it's ever been in better shape. They're like two cities constantly caught in this vortex of awfulness, looking at each other from two different sides thinking 'poor bastards'.

Sector 4-D was an easy hunting ground where young scavengers got their feet wet before they could move on. Now it was a dead zone, a dead zone with too much potential to pass up.

Like every sector, sector 4 was vast and unexplored and supposedly, there had been a library there. A building full of books and most importantly, medical textbooks.

You feel a little bad plucking at Tim's heartstrings when all you cared about was the payout. Appealing to the guy's sense of responsibility was kind of cheating but-- BUT! The specified textbooks do have stuff about bacteria and illnesses so you aren't really overstating their importance.

You try to push down the number of zeroes the man had shown you as you zip past a rusted sign.

You don't really trust anyone other than Tim to help you with this. Besides, all the other people who won't stab you after cashing in the reward probably don't know half as many words as Tim so you'll definitely need him to get the right books.

You stare at the rows of cars before you. They're overrun with weeds and vines and rust. A stark reminder that your Gotham is just a fraction of what it had been. You stop your bike in front of a taxi with a faded yellow body.

"This is it. This is where your life as an adventurer begins."

You swallow back the wave of nostalgia, letting the bike roll past it into the mess of cars to keep it a little more hidden. It isn't illegal to go to this sector yet. At least not when you checked but you really don't wanna gamble your Scavenger's license on clerical errors by either of your guilds.

Tim steps out of the sidecar, careful not to jostle Basil in his bag. You want to point out that you should probably wake the cat up otherwise you were wasting food on him but you knew better than to expect cooperation from Tim's fur ball from hell.

“So which theory about the illness do you think is the most plausible?” He asks, tucking the walkman away. You both thought it was stupid name but you didn’t really wanna question the teller. “The one that involves the least aliens.” You pause, narrowing your eyes at Tim whose hand is currently being eaten by his cat. “Or alien adjacent things.”

“So, you're one of those people who thinks the government did it.” Tim is *such* a little shit. Maybe that’s why his guild master gave him the most useless cat on the planet. Grade A my ass, you think staring at the furball nipping at his knuckles.

“Not on purpose, no.”

Tim raises a brow. “I didn't know you had that much faith in humanity.”

“Pffff, I think they just fucked up.”

“Here, I was accusing you of being optimistic.”

“A mistake really.”

You two come to a crossroads. A giant large yellow lantern hangs in the middle of the street, swaying listlessly in the air. It’s strange.

“Do you think the people in the old world used those to scare away the sick?”

“If they did,” he looks around, “it didn't work.”

Your eyes flit over the area. Stone walls crumble, vegetation willing in the cracks. Still, even with the overgrowth of life, the city feels hollowed out. Nearly a decade ago, you’d first laid a hand on one of the stone arches of the city hall just down by main street. Nearly a decade ago, you felt the stone crumble beneath the pads of your fingers. Nearly a decade ago, you had come the closest to knowing what it was like having the sickness. Even one of the great cities had been reduced to a fraction of its size.

“Do you think the color of the light matters?” Tim asks, pointing again to the lamp.

You squint. You hadn’t noticed it at first but yeah, the color of the lights was different.

“Maybe,” you tilt your head, “or maybe the people from before were just idiots.”

“You just have a bad opinion of them, don’t you?”

“Like you don’t.” You shoot back, tapping your bat against your boot.

Tim rolls his eyes and shrugs.

You try to smile at that but something’s wrong. Your skin bristling, the air is stale despite the wind. You watch the lantern sway back and forth, the thin wires holding it up, fragile and precarious. A bad feeling crawls up your spine.

There’s a pressure in the air, the atmosphere turning into a vacuum.

Basil hisses, looking as vicious as he can.

The wind stops.

The skittering voices rise like the fluttering of locust wings.

A writhing mass, pulsing and menacing, blots out the horizon. It opens its maw to wheeze and the stench of rot floods the air. Your insides curdle and wilt from the intensity of the putrid odor. Once the *thing* draws another breath, the skittering begins again and this time you know where it’s from.

You can see it in the way its neck twists and undulates, its rotting flesh rippling as the fragmented voices rasp out of its throat. Its limbs, deformed, move unnaturally as it ambles towards you.

You stare at it. Your limbs unmoving. That thing *is* an unidentifiable. In all technicality, it fits the neat taxonomy laid out by experts. It is neither man nor beast. Its form corrupted beyond recognition. It’s rotting and shambling. But the thing you are looking at cannot simply be sorted neatly because it is what it is.

A creature that god himself did not touch.

An abomination.

You splay a hand on Tim’s chest, pushing him back lightly. Glancing at each other, you nod as you slowly step back into an alley. You quietly curse Gotham’s gloomy weather for the thing’s appearance. You thought you would have at least ‘til sundown to look for loot before having to flee to a safer sector. But when in Gotham, nothing is ever certain even the rising of the sun.

All you have to do is be quiet. Easy enough. Being silent is the first thing you learn to be in this world.

It blinks at you.

It. Blinks. At. *You.*

Your heart stops, the blood running in your veins turning into lead.

Dozens of eyes blink at you. They’re not all human from the looks of them. It opens its maw again, your muscles bunch up in anticipation of its miasmal breath. The discordant voices coming from its mouth coalesce into a horrible sob.

Tim grabs your wrist and pivots towards an alley. The sudden change in movement shocks your body awake. You scoop Basil up and bolt down the alley, letting Tim lead the way.

Desperately, You try to concentrate on the scuff of your shoes against pavement instead of the creak of limbs and the plop of flesh as it drips off the creature. The pinching of Tim’s features tells you he’s doing the same.

You round the corner, shoulder hitting brick, narrowly avoiding dozens of hands reaching for you. Basil yowls and hisses and you would apologize but your shoulder is screaming at you and goddammit Basil, we have bigger issues.

You and Tim squeeze into a space between the buildings seemingly too small for that thing’s gelatinous form. You make the mistake of looking back only to see its limbs skitter up the building and down the other end of the alley. It smiles at you, rows of teeth glittering in the sparse light.

This was it.

This is where your life ends.

Where else is there to go?

You expect the acceptance to come in like a flood or relief. Life was hard with very little room for breath. Scraping by, tooth and nail, knuckles bleeding for every scrap of stability. You close your eyes and take a deep breath. You suddenly feel so tired like the adrenaline had been keeping you together for the past few years. Acceptance should have come easy.

But it doesn’t.

You open your eyes to glance at Tim, finally resignation sets. His features are still pinched and his hand is trembling beside yours. You really did screw this one up big time, huh?

You bite your cheek.

Watching Tim’s mind work, you know you have to keep him alive. You squeeze Tim's hand. He narrows his eyes at you. You give him a crooked smile and let his hand fall.

You pivot, foot pushing against the pavement as you launch yourself to the other end of the alley.

If your estimates are correct, you can buy him 15 minutes. 15 minutes would be more than enough for him to make it back to the bike--

Tim yanks on your hood, throwing open a door. The creature howls as Tim hurls both of you into the building.

"What the heck was that?!" Tim screams.

"A Dick." You answer, rubbing your head. fuck. Tim could throw.

"No! You were being fucking stupid."

You scowl at him in the dark. "Thanks Tim. I get it."

"No, you don't!"

"Can we argue--"

The door rattles and shakes. A fist-shaped dent embeds itself on the metal door. You glance at each other before scrambling towards the very safe-looking stairs.

You fly up the steps like hell was on your heels and as far as you're concerned, it was. You wrench Tim's bag from him and you're half tempted to throw him over your shoulder as well but you're not sure the stare case can hold that much weight.

If you climb to the roof-- If you... climb... It can climb. Fuck.

You and Tim seem to come to the same conclusion as you throw yourselves into another door.

You shove a sofa in front of the door and sit on it.

"Please tell me you've miraculously come up with a plan." You hiss glancing over to Tim who's staring at the window.

He glances over his shoulder to look at you. "If I could pull off miracles, you wouldn't be so dumb."

You sigh. Ok, yeah. He has every right to be mad. It was an incredibly stupid move but it's a numbers game and yeah.

Tim runs his hand through his hair, tugging at the strands. He needs to come up with something. He glances out the window. He walks over and leans out the window.

"We should jump."

"Would you like to elaborate?" You wheeze, still not really letting go of a

"Follow me."

"Tim, I have never trusted you less in my life." You snort, quietly. But you make your way to the window. You set Basil down and look at what Tim is pointing to. There's a dumpster filled to the brim with trash. There doesn't seem to be any infected mice in there and the road to the right is a straight shot back to the bike.

You lick your lips.

"So we're on the same page."

"Uh, if that means what I think it means then yes."

Tim lets out a breath as he opens the window as quietly as possible. You listen to the steady beat of limbs thumping against the wood. You hold a collective breath. The window clicks into place with a loud snikt.

The thumping stops.

You practically shove Tim out the window while you stare at the door. It rattles and shakes. A screech erupts the stairwell as you jump out the window. You land with a thump, sinking beneath the mounds of plastic.

Your heart is hammering and pressing into your throat. Its beat is in sync with the steady thump of the limbs. The wet squelching of rotting flesh scraping against the rusted metal of the dumpster. You want to heave but Tim shoves a hand in your face. You gag silently. Tim's hand smells putrid from the trash.

You hold your breaths until the thumping goes away. You don't dare breathe until Basil settles down.

You fall limp against the trash. Your limbs feel like jelly. You gag. Thinking about jelly right now is probably the worst thing for your health.

Tim nudges you with his foot. You turn your body over as quietly as you can.

You watch him make shapes with his hands. You frown. You cycle through your memory trying to remember what the gestures mean then let go of Basil when you do.

Basil rises from the trash, padding against the plastic.

When you hear Basil jump down to the pavement, you dig your way out of the trash.

"For the record, I hate your plans." You say, gagging.

"What was yours?" Tim fires back, dusting his hair.

"..."

"Just what I thought."

You're the first to climb out, holding your arms out to him mockingly. He silently threatens to curb stomp your face. You snort and tuck your hands to your side.

Thankfully, you make it to the bike without incident.

Tim tucks his body into the sidecar, occupying himself by comforting Basil. You hand him a bat as you start the bike.

"Just in case."

You kick the bike into gear as you two ride into the sunset.

You breathe a quiet breath, letting your eyes slip shut for a moment. The road is clear for about 14 breaths. That’s all you want to think about.

At the fourteenth breath, you open your eyes to an open expanse of road, endless and breathtaking. You turn to Tim and laugh. He gives you a sour look. You’ll just buy both of you some canned pineapples later and he’ll maybe forgive you. Basil certainly does as he doesn’t participate in Tim’s sour protest, opting instead to crawl into Tim’s bag.

Then you hear it above the roar of the engine.

The skittering.

Voices like the fluttering of wings.

It screeches, the raspy cry making your skin crawl. You don’t wanna look back. You don’t want to see the unnatural movement of its body as it bounds towards you.

You kick the bike to a higher gear. The engine will hate you but you can’t repair it if you’re dead.

The bike slows down. Tim stands up raising your bat over his head, bringing it down. It does not clang. The sound is squishier and moist. Your stomach rebels. Hazarding a glance behind you, you see the writhing mass holding onto your bike.

“TIM,” you shout.

“I--” Swing “-- AM--” Swing “--A LITTLE--” Swing “--BUSY!” “THERE’S A CAN OF HAIRSPRAY IN MY DUFFLE.”

Tim ducks down, throwing you the bat. You swing wildly at the creature, summoning up a truly impressive bout of swearing.

Tim sprang up, nearly falling off the sidecar if not for you grabbing his shirt. Tim flicked the lighter, pressing down on the nozzle of the spray, and unleashing fire on the beast. The thing cries, voice shattering as it burns. You watch its flesh burn. Oh, what a pleasure it was to see it burn.

"We are never doing this again!" Tim wheezes.

"Of definitely fucking not." You bark, kicking the bike to a higher gear. The purring of the engine sounds like music to your ears.

"We are definitely doing easy sectors by a bit." You laugh.

When you don’t hear a snarky remark, you glance to your sidecar. Tim is slumped into his seat, breathing hard. You raise your brow but turn your attention to the road. You shake him. You shake him again and again.

Tim doesn't respond.

You pull your hand away and it’s slick with blood.

______________________________________________________________

Thanks for reading!!!!

Tag list: @batarella, @anothertimdrakestan, @lucy-roo, @multifandomgirl-us, @bungunz , @birdy-bat-writes, @boosyboo9206, @americasmarauders , @l-inkage, @arestorationofbalance , @cloudie-skay, @wunderstell @hyp-oh-critical @glorified-red @ marshmallow12435 @vvipgot7be @jadedhillon @notsostraightweeb

#tim drake x reader #tim drake imagines #Tim Drake #post apocalypse

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mintaka14 · 3 years ago

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See the Light

A Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction

By Mintaka14

Chapter Three – Living in a Blur

“No Rose or Juleka today?” Marinette asked as she stepped down into the galley of the Liberty with that effortless grace that Luka was coming to associate with the woman she’d become. She reached up to tuck back a lock of hair that had escaped from the braid over her shoulder, and Luka moved around the tiny kitchen, pulling out mugs, while the kettle whistled loudly in the background.

“No, they had a few things to organise today for the wedding. They said to say hi, though.” He didn’t mention the other things that Rose had had to say, or the broad, suggestive beams she given him before she dragged Juleka away on whatever mission she’d manufactured.

He handed Marinette the tea that he’d just made and shifted towards the couch in the living room, cradling his own coffee. Marinette sank into the armchair across from him. She blew on the mug and closed her eyes to inhale the steam.

“I still can’t quite believe that Juleka and Rose are getting married. It feels like only yesterday we were all in collège.” Marinette smiled, and sighed.

“They’re incredibly lucky to be getting MDC original wedding dresses. That’s one hell of a wedding present you’re giving them.”

“Juleka and Rose are covering the materials I’m just volunteering my time and a bit of sewing.”

Luka’s eyebrow rose sceptically. “One artist to another, I know it’s not ‘just’ anything, Marinette. Your time and skill is a very generous gift, and don’t forget, I’ve seen what you’re putting together for them. Jules and Rose can’t have been straightforward to design for.”

Marinette laughed. “But they’re giving me the chance to have fun,” she insisted. “I spend all day every day dealing with clients with no individuality or imagination, trying to convince them to trust me, so it’s a relief to get a chance to do something interesting for a change, with friends who are happy to indulge me.”

Luka leaned back, all plans to rehearse forgotten, as he watched Marinette talk about the inspiration behind the wedding dresses and the creative possibilities in dressing certain clients, her face lighting up and her hands gesturing animatedly as she grew more impassioned about her theories of clothing as a reflection of self. He followed the movement of her hands and lost himself in the endless blue of her eyes.

“I really need to ask Juleka if she’d be willing to model for me sometime. She’s always so compelling in whatever she wears, and so much fun to design for,” she said eventually. He found her eyeing him speculatively. “I’d love to have the chance to dress you one day.”

“You could at least buy me dinner first,” he said without thinking.

There was a heartbeat, then Marinette burst out laughing.

“Smooth line, Couffaine. Does that work on all the girls?”

“I wouldn’t know.” He decided to lean into it, and grinned at her. “I’ve only ever tried it on you. Is it working?”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “How are you still single?” she asked.

“You’re a hard act to follow,” he said, and Marinette levelled a look at him.

“Luka, I was a fourteen year old clumsy mess who kept on flaking out on our dates. You can’t tell me I’m the gold standard of your relationships.”

Put like that, it was ridiculous, but it was true nonetheless. He’d had relationships, and they were sincere in the moment, but he’d drifted out of them as easily as he’d drifted into them, and they’d left him with little more than fond memories. None of them had left a mark like Marinette had. Over the years, he’d put it down to rose-coloured nostalgia, but then she’d walked into his life again, more Marinette than ever, and he’d fallen harder and faster than he had before.

He looked down at the mug of coffee in his hands.

“How about you? Anyone special in your life these days?” he asked the coffee with casual disinterest. She gave a soft snort.

“Hardly. It’s not like anything’s changed since we were going out.” She seemed to catch herself, and froze as Luka’s head came up to stare at her. “I just… mean, who’s got time for a relationship, right? Life’s too busy.”

“Not since we were going out?” Luka echoed her, frowning. “Marinette, you were fourteen. You haven’t dated anyone since then?”

She shrugged uncomfortably. “I dated. It just never lasts long. It’s not that big a deal. And besides,” she muttered, “I’ve learned my lesson, the universe doesn’t want me to have a relationship.”

She put her mug abruptly on the table and stood.

“Weren’t we supposed to be practising?”

Luka got to his feet and reached for his guitar. Clearly this was a line of conversation that Marinette did not want to go down with him, and he dropped the subject to run through the song with her a few times, correcting her gently when her voice faltered.

He had to wonder, though, what the hell was wrong with the men in Marinette’s life that had left her love life such a sore subject?

Luka stopped again to make a suggestion about phrasing and breath control.

“All that time, never even knowing just how blind I’ve been,” Marinette tried again, sounding more confident with the slightly awkward vocal skips this time, and Luka gave her a smile.

“See?” he told her. “Fashion designer to the stars, artist, and now singer. You can add that to your résumé.”

He’d finally coaxed a laugh out of her, and then Marinette’s handbag buzzed. Luka watched the smile drop off her face. Her eyes flicked to the door. “I’m really sorry, I have to go. I have… a thing…”

She was gone before he could say anything further. For a moment, Luka sat there with his guitar silent in his lap, frowning thoughtfully. Apparently she was right – not much had changed in the ten years since they’d been kids together. There were still the abrupt excuses, the silences, the sudden disappearances.

Luka plucked out Now she’s here, shining in the starlight, and he considered the empty space where she’d been. He was coming to suspect that whatever had been going on when they were kids, whatever she’d been keeping to herself when she broke it off with him, it was something bigger than he’d imagined.

At that moment, Luka’s own phone chimed with an akuma alert, and the timing of it was jarring. His hand dropped, as it always did, to touch his empty wrist. He looked down at it, his frown growing troubled as a new thought took hold.

He found himself thinking back over the timing of some of those disappearances, and odd excuses, and the times she’d had just a little more knowledge of Ladybug's movements than any random civilian ought to, but it had all sounded so plausible at the time. Seen through this new lens, those moments took on a new significance the more he turned them over in his mind.

Black pigtails, unmistakeable blue eyes. The same damn plain black earrings that Marinette, the consummate fashion designer, was still wearing ten years later.

How had he never put it together before?

Luka was still sitting there, his hands resting on his guitar and his gaze fixed on nothing, when Juleka and Rose came home.

“Where’s Marinette?” Rose asked in obvious disappointment when she took in the quiet room.

“She had to leave,” Luka replied absently.

“Luka! You just let her leave?”

Luka could see the tiny frown that he was feeling reflected in his sister’s face, although he wasn’t sure what had prompted it in Juleka’s case.

“I’m not going to badger her into staying if she needs to go, Rose,” he said mildly.

Rose threw up her hands. “And how is she supposed to know you want her to stay if you don’t tell her? I don’t get why you’re both fighting this so hard. She’s single, you’re single, but both of you are too chicken to make the first move.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Juleka interjected, shooting a dark look at her brother. “Because I remember weeks and weeks of Taylor fucking Swift, and I do not want to go through that again.”

“That was ten years ago! You cannot tell me that there’s not something there!” Rose whirled and stabbed a finger at Luka. “You can’t argue with the Sparkly Sense.”

Luka was only half paying attention to the argument, and responded vaguely, “Marinette has too much going on in her life right now to worry about a relationship with anyone.” Like saving the city, over and over and over again, holy shit, she was Ladybug.

Once seen, it was hard to understand how he could have missed it, and his mind briefly derailed to speculate that it must be some sort of kwami-induced magic that obscured her identity. Given how adamant Ladybug had been back in the day that the secret of the miraculous holders’ identities had to be preserved, and how hard she had worked since then to maintain that secrecy, Luka had a bad feeling about how things would go if he told her that he knew.

He was about to become another crack in her armour, another worry dumped on her already overloaded shoulders. Although, what did he really know, when all was said and done? He had his suspicions, nothing more.

“Hopeless, the both of you,” Rose complained, and glared at Juleka. “Don’t you want your brother to live happily ever after?”

“I don’t want to have to live through weeks of I Almost Do again, because my stupid brother hasn’t got the sense he was born with, and you’re just encouraging him.”

Rose stomped away, muttering things under her breath, but Juleka stayed silent after that. His guitar still in his hand, Luka got to his feet and headed for his bedroom before Rose could come back and start again. He had too much else on his mind to deal with Rose’s matchmaking.

Every time he thought Marinette couldn’t get any more extraordinary, she surprised him all over again, but the music he played softly in the solitude of his room that night ached with all the burdens he’d seen in her eyes.

Some time later, he heard a soft knock on his door and it opened quietly. When he looked up, Juleka was leaning there, her hand on the door handle and a look of equal parts irritation and uneasiness on her face.

“Luka –“

“I’m fine,” he cut her off before she could say what he knew she was going to say. “I know what I’m doing, and it’s all good.”

Juleka’s mouth pinched. “Do you, though? Because from where I’m standing, we’re heading for Taylor territory again.”

Luka didn’t answer, his focus on his hands and the fragments of melody that he’d come to think of as Marinette’s song. Eventually he heard a sigh, and Juleka said, “I love you, you dumbass.”

“I know,” he said quietly.

The door shut behind her, and he was left alone with his thoughts and Marinette’s secrets.

~~~~~

“You’re playing with fire,” warned the voice of responsibility in Marinette’s handbag, and Marinette sighed. She shifted the bulky dress bags in her hands so that she could see the little round face peering up at her.

“It’s just a dress fitting, Tikki. Can’t I even have friends anymore?”

“It’s Luka,” the tiny kwami said primly. “Things never stay just friends with Luka, and I saw the way you’ve been looking at him. Remember what happened the last time you told someone?”

“That was ten years ago, and Luka is not Alya. Don’t you think things have changed a bit since then?”

“It never ends well,” Tikki insisted, and Marinette felt the weight of Ladybug closing in on her all over again. She looked up at the Liberty as she drew closer, and had never felt less free in her life.

“Don’t worry, Luka’s not even going to be there,” she said wearily. “Juleka said he’s got something tonight, so it’ll just be her and Rose there. And anyway, there’s no chance he’d ever be interested in me like that again.” Because if there was a chance, then Marinette would have to walk away now before she could do any more damage, and she’d never get to see Luka again. She couldn’t do that. She just couldn’t.

“Luka was a wonderful holder for Sass,” Tikki conceded, “but he’s always been a little too perceptive for comfort. If he were to find out…”

“We’re here,” Marinette said, cutting off the rest of Tikki’s dire predictions. The kwami vanished into the depths of her handbag, and Marinette maneouvred the dress bags carefully as she climbed the gangplank onto the boat and called a greeting as she reached the empty deck.

In spite of her mood after Tikki’s lecture, she felt a tiny smile curl her lips as Rose’s answering shriek echoed up from below deck, and she followed the sound down into the depths of the boat.

“Marinette!” Rose scolded reproachfully as Marinette descended carefully into the galley with the two dress bags in her hand and moved through into the living room. “You didn’t even say goodbye last time! We got back and you were just gone.”

Marinette held the dresses clear as Rose engulfed her in a whirlwind hug, and turned to meet Juleka’s more sedate greeting. The dark-haired girl gave her a nod and a quirk of a smile that turned to a frown when Rose gave her girlfriend a smug look.

Rose turned towards the bedrooms, and bellowed, “Luka! Look who’s here!”

“What’s up?” she heard Luka’s voice, and felt her heart stutter. Oh, that wasn’t good. Luka swung around the edge of the door, leaning against the frame behind his sister as he directed a slow, sweet smile at Marinette.

“Hey, you,” he said, and Marinette couldn’t help but smile back at him. Juleka rolled her eyes and slugged her brother in the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“Juleka!” Rose scolded.

“Weren’t you going out? Rose said you had a thing tonight,” Juleka said, and Luka frowned at her.

“Not for another hour. The band we were going to check out isn’t on til later.”

“Did I say eight?” Rose said innocently to the ceiling. “I meant nine. Oops.”

Marinette found herself standing there awkwardly holding the dress bags, her eyes shifting between the three of them.

“You don’t want to keep the guys waiting if you said you’d be there,” Juleka pushed.

“I only said I might,” Luka said, shooting his sister an annoyed look.

“Besides, he can catch them another time,” Rose insisted, staring at her girlfriend with a pointed message that Juleka ignored for once. “They won’t mind, and Marinette’s here now.”

Luka elbowed Juleka aside none too gently and came into the room. “I’m getting a coffee. Did you want anything, Mari?”

“I’d like a coffee,” Juleka said in a saccharine voice, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

“I didn’t ask you, monster child.”

“You don’t have to stay on my account,” Marinette told Luka. “I’m only here to do the final dress fitting.”

“Oh no!” Rose protested. “You have to stay for dinner. It’s the least we can do after everything you’ve done with the wedding dresses.”

“You haven’t even seen the finished thing yet,” Marinette pointed out, and felt a flush rising at the smile that Luka was giving her.

“We don’t need to see them to know they’re going to be incredible,” he said. “And it wasn’t important. I was only half thinking of going out anyway.”

The noise Juleka made was not polite, and Luka made a rude gesture back without looking at his sister.

“Well,” said Rose brightly. “How about we leave them to it? They’re going to be doing this for a while.”

In Juleka’s bedroom, Marinette didn’t have to ask Rose if she was happy with her wedding dress once she’d settled the clouds of soft pink organza around her and done up the miles of tiny buttons. Rose was making a noise like a tea kettle on the boil that rose to a squeal of happiness as she spun around in front of Juleka’s bedroom mirror. Handbeaded organza flowers spilled down in glittering trails across the skirts as she turned, and Rose raised a hand to touch the flowers that clustered all over her bodice.

“It’s perfect!” she breathed. She made a move as if she was going to throw her arms around Marinette, but Marinette fended her off with a laugh.

“Hug me when we get you out of the dress,” she smiled. “How does it feel? Nothing slipping, or too tight?”

“It’s perfect,” Rose repeated, her voice turning a little wobbly with emotion.

When Marinette finally got Rose to stop twirling around for long enough to take the gown off again, they headed back to the living room to find the Couffaine siblings glaring at each other. Luka looked away as they came in, his mouth pressed in a tight line, and Juleka spun on her heel, stalking towards the bedroom without a word, leaving Marinette to follow.

She carefully removed Juleka’s wedding dress from its hanger while her friend stripped down to her underwear and slipped her formal shoes on, and then Marinette started easing Juleka into the gown.

“Mari, what’s really going on with you and Luka?” Juleka asked, her voice a little muffled by the softly glittering black fabric over her head. Marinette slid the dress down and settled it into place. “I love you, but he’s my brother and I’m worried about him.”

“We’re just friends,” Marinette said, and suppressed a flinch at the words. Juleka rolled her eyes.

“You were never just friends even when you were just friends. And the last time I thought you were just friends it turned out you’d been dating my idiot brother. So excuse me if I’m not buying it.”

Marinette swallowed at that, stung but unable to argue the point.

“Believe me, Juleka, I’m well aware of how badly I fucked up back then, and the last thing I want to do is hurt Luka like that again,” she said, insistent in the face of Juleka’s scepticism.

“You won’t mean to, but Luka gets stupid when you’re involved.”

“That was ten years ago,” Marinette protested.

“That was two minutes ago.”

Juleka’s exasperated words provoked a cold wash of dismay. Juleka had to be mistaken. Luka was long over her, he had to be. Somewhere deep down, though, Marinette felt a tiny fireworks explosion of something that she didn’t dare acknowledge.

“The moment you turn up, he drops everything without a second thought,” Juleka muttered as Marinette eased the hidden zip up. Marinette stepped back, and Juleka turned to face the mirror.

“Wow. Damn, Marinette,” she breathed. She angled herself a little, her eyes still on her reflection in the mirror. “I take it all back. You’re welcome to wreck my dumbass brother, as long as I get to keep this dress.”

Marinette gave a tightlipped little smile, and went back to regarding the gown with a critical eye. There really didn’t seem to be much that needed adjusting. She repositioned the crystal chipped dragon brooch that coiled over Juleka’s hip, where it caught up the fall of the fabric, but it all seemed to be working.

She extracted Juleka from the gown again, and back in the living room Rose was sprawled on the couch, scrolling through something on her phone. Luka had his guitar in his hands again, strumming something with his coffee forgotten on the table beside him. He looked up as Marinette and Juleka came in.

“How’s the dress?” he asked.

“It’s stunning,” Juleka said, and heaved a put-upon sigh. “I can’t stop you from being stupid, but at least you have good taste.”

He gave her a suspicious look, his eyes shifting to Marinette when there was no further explanation forthcoming. “What was that all about?”

Marinette shrugged awkwardly, but fortunately he didn’t press her on it.

“So are we doing Thai or that new Indian place tonight? There’s nothing on the Akuma alert,” Rose said from the couch, “but there is a new theory about who Ladybug is on the conspiracy forums.”

“Aliens, or the Mayor’s secret revenge love child this time?” Juleka asked, dropping onto the couch beside her.

“I miss the Ladyblog,” Rose said, stretching her arms over her head. “Remember that time Alya thought that Chloe was Ladybug?”

Marinette remembered.

On the couch, Juleka laughed. “How is Alya,” she asked, and tilted her head to throw a look at Marinette. “Have you seen her lately?”

Alya again. The universe seemed determined to beat her over the head with her failures. She opened her eyes to find them all watching her, and she gave a strained and unconvincing smile.

“Not recently. I think she’s working in a travel agency now. It’s been a few years, though.”

Nearly six years, to be exact, since she’d last bumped into Alya.

“Jules,” Luka said casually, “how about you and Ro go pick up dinner? Mari and I really should work on the song for the wedding a bit more.”

It was a transparent excuse to shift the subject and give her a bit of space, and she was grateful for it, even if Rose did give Luka a very unsubtle wink that he pretended to not see. Rose and Juleka didn’t seem to have noticed anything odd, but Luka threw her a quick glance as he laughed at something Rose said, and reached out to toss his wallet at Juleka, who pulled a few euros from it and threw it back. Marinette managed to respond lightly enough to a question about her preferences, and by the time it was just her and Luka she’d pulled herself together again.

“I take it that things aren’t good with Alya,” he said gently.

She shrugged, and the smile she gave him was a little unsteady. “Our friendship didn’t end well. We don��t talk to each other anymore.”

It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it was as close as she could get without giving away too much. There was no way she could explain how her former best friend had looked straight through her as if she was a stranger the last time they’d run into each other, or the sickening wash of guilt, remorse, and self-loathing she still felt over the reason behind it, even after all these years.

“It was a long time ago,” she said as easily as she could manage, but Luka had always been able to read her better than that. His hand closed over hers briefly, reassuring and strong, and for a moment she let herself draw on his warmth.

“It still leaves a mark, though, doesn’t it?” he said.

She couldn’t help wondering a little bitterly how different things might have been if she’d told Luka everything, instead of Alya, back when she was fourteen. Would it have been Luka looking at her with that terrible emptiness?

Marinette broke eye contact and pulled her hand away to wrap it around her now-cold mug. She was aware that Luka was regarding her as if he saw a lot more than she was letting on, but he didn’t push for more. Instead, he got to his feet.

“I need another coffee,” he said, and gave her a questioning look. “Tea for you?”

She took the distraction, and followed him into the galley.

Luka kept to safe subjects after that, telling her about the group of students he’d been working with after school, and a gig that had gone disastrously wrong, until she couldn’t help but giggle when he described the drummer slowly sliding off his stool and passing out face down on his snare drum.

“It actually improved the quality of his playing,” Luka said wryly.

And he laughed when she countered with an account of Chloe Bourgeois commisioning her to design and make an outfit last season.

“I don’t think she’d even considered that MDC might stand for Marinette Dupain-Cheng until she turned up for the fitting,” Marinette grinned. “You should have seen the look on her face, though.”

“Ridiculous!” Luka scoffed in a passable immitation of the Mayor’s daughter, and waved his hand in the air as Marinette giggled at him. “Utterly ridiculous!”

“And of course, nothing was good enough. She couldn’t believe I was expecting her to pay full price for such shoddy workmanship. I should be paying her to wear my rags.”

“Tell me you told her where to shove it,” Luka said, and folded his arms on the benchtop, leaning forward in anticipation. Marinette’s smile grew broader.

“Oh, better than that. I told her if it wasn’t to her satisfaction she was welcome to leave the dress and I’d cancel her contract, and I’d even waive the cancellation fee because we’d known each other such a long time. I was very helpful. I told her I was sure I could find someone willing to buy it instead, and Clara Nightingale had already seen it and asked if it was for sale. Which was true,” she added as an afterthought.

“And?”

Marinette tilted her chin, her smile turning smug. “She took the dress, of course. And ordered another one under a fake name a month later.”

“Seriously?”

“B. Queen, to be delivered to the Grand Paris Hotel. With her exact measurements. Seriously.”

Luka tipped his head back and laughed hard, and Marinette lost herself in the sound. God, he was a beautiful man.

Next to the couch in the living room, her handbag shuffled in agitation, and Marinette ignored it, but her smile faded in response to the reminder.

“Marinette,” Luka said more seriously, and when she looked up his blue eyes had deepened into something that was a little hard to read. He frowned a little, as if he was trying to decide what he should say. “You don’t have to tell me anything, but I get the feeling that things haven’t been so easy for you. I know it’s been hard to let yourself get close to anyone.”

He was speaking slowly, measuring out each word carefully, and it felt like there was a whole lot he deliberately wasn’t saying.

“I just need you to know, the Liberty is always a safe place. We’re here for you. I’m here for you, whatever you need.”

It would be so easy, so very easy, to fall into those ocean deep eyes and fall into his arms, and tell him everything. That was what made Luka Couffaine so dangerous to be around. With ten years of Tikki’s constant litany of concealment and duty ringing in her ears, Marinette clamped her mouth shut on all her secrets even as a tiny voice in the back of her head pleaded but this is Luka.

“Weren’t we supposed to practise the song?” Marinette blurted out, and felt the heat of an embarrassed flush rise in her cheeks. She hadn’t felt this thrown in years.

Luka accepted the abrupt shift with nothing more than a nod and a soft smile, as if he’d expected it.

“Back to the Disney salt mines,” he said drily, and startled a laugh out of her. “Don’t tell Rose I said that. She’d have me tried for treason.”

“How did we get ourselves into this?” Marinette asked, and Luka chuckled.

“Well, Ro loves Disney, no surprise there, and Jules loves Ro.”

“And you love them both,” Marinette said softly.

“And you’d do anything for the people you care about, even agree to sing at their wedding if they asked you to,” Luka said just as gently, and they exchanged glances. “So here we are, knee deep in Disney magic. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to sit through Cinderella, both versions, and I can recite Tangled in my sleep.” His smile softened. “I’m developing a new appreciation for it, though.”

Marinette dropped her gaze, avoiding his eyes. He said in an easier manner, “I have to admit, there’s some great music. You should hear Rose belt out Let It Go sometime, and Jules did an incredible cover of Once Upon a Dream one Valentine’s Day for Rose.”

“What about you? Do you ever sing along?” she asked, trying to match his tone.

“What do you think? Music nerd here.”

He rapped out a solid, syncopated beat on the benchtop, and that husky voice of his sang, “Tatou o tagata folau...” She couldn’t help grinning, and he grinned back as he segued into a phrase from Circle of Life before riffing a bit of the simple bear necessities, and then finished on “You’re welcome, and thank you!” as she burst out laughing.

“Good music is good music,” he said with a shrug. “I get a lot of eyerolling from some of the kids when I start talking Disney in class, but it’s a starting point for a lot of discussion, and it turns out everyone always has their favourite song.”

“So what about you? What’s your favourite?” she asked, and he said easily, “Oh, there are a lot I could go with. It all depends on my mood.”

“Yes, but if you had to pick one?”

She wasn’t sure why she was pushing, and he hesitated for a long moment. Just when she thought he was going to brush it off, he reached for his guitar.

“It’s not strictly Disney, but ...” She didn’t recognise the soft, rippling intro that he played, and it wasn’t until he started singing that she worked out what it was.

He didn’t look at her as he sang about someday, out of the blue. It didn’t have to mean anything, it was just a song, he could have been thinking about anyone, but when he sang about still believing and still having faith in a voice that was far too heartfelt, Marinette felt her breath catch.

She couldn’t be doing this to him all over again.

~~~~~

He knew, the moment that his hands stilled on the guitar strings, that he’d gone too far and given away too much. The stricken look on Marinette’s face made that blatantly clear.

From the doorway, Rose breathed, “Oh Luka, that was lovely!”

Juleka dropped the bags of takeaway on the table and muttered something, while Luka watched Marinette and felt his heart sink like a stone.

“We so have to do a Road to El Dorado movie night tonight,” Rose was saying brightly. “You’re staying, aren’t you, Marinette? Otherwise Luka’s going to be the odd man out again.”

“I wish I could,” Marinette said. “I… I have to go. Sorry, Rose, maybe another time.” Her glance flickered in his direction. “Sorry. I’m really sorry I can’t stay for dinner after all.”

She scrambled her things together, dropping her handbag and coming up red-faced. This was more like the Marinette he remembered from their teenage years, and it brought up some difficult memories. She flashed an awkward smile in answer to Rose’s protests, and then she was gone.

“Well,” Rose said, staring at the empty doorway. “I guess Marinette’s still Marinette.”

“Rose!” Luka’s voice cracked like glass, and his future sister-in-law’s eyes widened at Luka’s uncharacteristically sharp tone. “Remember all those plans to get Marinette and Adrien together?” How well did those work out?”

“But this is different!” Rose protested.

“This is no different. No more plans. I’ve screwed things badly enough as it is.”

He drew in a deep breath and blew it out again, thinking of all those secrets that Marinette had to keep, and the distances that had grown in her life because of them. More quietly, he said, “Marinette could really use a few good friends in her life. I don’t want her to lose us again because we’re pushing for more than she can give.”

“I…” Rose looked away, biting her lip, and then met his eyes. “Yeah, I get it.”

Dinner was quieter than usual, and Luka ignored the perturbed glances his sister kept shooting him. He pushed the food around, barely tasting it, and put it aside when he couldn’t pretend he was actually eating it anymore.

Luka swung away from the table, his phone in his hand, and hesitated, then he texted Marinette before he could talk himself out of it.

+Sorry about that. Rose has promised to back off on the matchmaking – I think she’s just got wedding fever. Want to run through the song one more time before the wedding?+

It wasn’t Rose’s schemes, though. He knew that. Marinette was taking far too long for it to mean anything good, although he kept trying to tell himself that she might not be able to answer, she might be in the middle of something, she might have her phone off... Juleka muttered at him to stop fidgeting so much, god, you’re driving me crazy, before it finally chimed with a response.

+I think I know it now+ she sent back. +See you next week+

Luka stared numbly at the words on his screen. It was happening all over again, and this time he had no defences left. Juleka was watching him with a look of exasperated sympathy.

“You’re just as stupid as you ever were,” she told him, and Luka exhaled heavily. It was hard to argue with that.

#see the light #lukanette #lukanette endgame #pro lukamari #Disney

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