#time to start anoter series to fill the time

[wileys-russo]

childhood sweethearts (3) II a.russo x reader

series playlist part one part two

this fic really does have my heart tbh childhood sweethearts (3) II a.russo x reader

alessia exhaled shakily, tapping her foot nervously as her eyes flickered repeatedly between the time on her phone and the door to the cafe, counting down each second which passed that you didn't arrive.

maybe you just weren't going to show up at all, could she even blame you if you didn't? it had been six years since the two of you really spoke, and your last words exchanged were hardly on friendly terms.

when her mum had called her to invite her to dinner with your family, her heart leapt into her throat. your name was something that hadn't crossed her mind in years, well no actually that was a lie.

alessia often wondered what you were up to, occasionally in a moment of weakness imagining what would be different had things not gone the way they had between you both.

but she'd banish those fleeting thoughts and insecurities as quickly as they arrived, knowing she'd just spiral into a tornado of overthinking if she dwelled on them too much.

alessia tried to trick herself into believing she was fine with how things had ended, pushing her real feelings deep down away and filing them under painful memories she'd rather not resurface ever again.

but they always did, and no more so then when you'd walked into that restaurant beside her brother and every thought, feeling, memory and emotion she'd repressed the last six years came soaring to the surface, she could have thrown up with how suddenly she was swamped by them.

the pain only grew when you refused to even meet her eye, greeting everyone else first and alessia was almost certain if you hadn't had to sit beside her the two of you likely wouldn't have even conversed that entire night.

"hi i'm so sorry i'm late i got held up at work." she was snapped out of the depths of her overthinking as you hurriedly dropped down into the seat across from her, exhaling heavily and dropping your bag on the floor beside you.

"that's alright, i hope everythings okay?" alessia rushed out, playing with her fingers which sat dormant in her lap as you nodded, starting to ramble on about the frustration of substitutes not doing their assigned pick up duty so you'd had to fill in.

realising you were getting on a tangent and meeting those ever so familiar ocean blue eyes you suddenly stopped, clearing your throat and apologising.

"you don't need to be sorry, you've clearly found the right career. mum was right when she said she was sure you're an amazing teacher." alessia complimented with a soft smile as you nodded, admittedly still unsure quite how to interact with her after so much time.

"so...how have you been?"

~

"-no because that time was entirely your fault! you were always getting us in trouble." you chuckled, shaking your head at the grinning blonde across from you, your coffees long finished, empty mugs pushed to the side.

"i was not!" alessia defended herself with a playful offended scoff, unable to stop the smile spreading on her face. "you so were! every single time we had detention it was your fault, and any time we got in trouble with our parents it was one of your genius ideas that lead up to it." you couldn't help but smile yourself at the fond memories.

"miss!" your head turned as you heard a voice call out for you, spotting one of your students frantically waving at you from the counter. "sorry, he insisted on saying hi. i tried to explain that you have your own life outside of the classroom." his mum smiled apologetically as the boy hurried over and she chased after him.

"thats perfectly alright. i always say if you guys see me around to give me a wave and thats what you did, charlies one of my best behaved students! aren't you?" you smiled fondly, holding your hand out for a high five which he happily gave you with a grin, waving goodbye as his mum smiled gratefully and hurried the two of them away to another table.

"sorry about that." you apologized to alessia, a slight blush coating your cheeks as the blonde shook her head. "don't be, that was quite adorable. your class clearly love you and who could blame them." alessia complimented with a dangerously familiar look in her eyes as you forced a small smile and glanced down to your phone, eyes widening as you realised you'd been here well over two hours now.

"i should really get going, i've got dinner to cook and lesson planning to do for tomorrow." you smiled apologetically, alessia nodding in understanding as you both reached for your bags. "could we do this again, soon?" the girl asked hopefully as the two of you stood outside, causing you to bite the inside of your cheek.

"look alessia it was great catching up and i'm really glad that football and everything else is working out so well for you. but i just, i don't know if i can make this a regular thing." you admitted with a slight wince, watching as her face fell at your answer.

"why not?" as soon as the hurt was plain on her face it was gone, replaced instead with a firm look of defiance, folding her arms over her chest. "you know why, please don't make me say it." you responded quietly, shuffling uncomfortably and adjusting your bag on your shoulder.

"god you are so frustrating." alessia dragged her hands down her face with a shake of her head. "whats that supposed to mean?" you were now the one to respond with a frown.

"its like i said at the restaurant y/n we were best friends for years before anything changed. we've just spent the however many hours reflecting on how good that time was, i know the way things ended wasn't ideal but why can't we just work on getting a friendship back?" alessia almost begged, taking a step toward you and frowning as you immediately took one back away from her.

"before anything changed...the way things ended? you are so arrogant, as if it was nothing!" you scoffed and shook your head in disbelief that she could dismiss what happened so easily. "that's not what i fucking meant and you know it, don't put words in my mouth." alessia warned, jaw clenching tightly.

"no i think it was exactly what you meant. at least to me alessia what went on between us meant a hell of a lot, and it hurt when everything fell apart. for god sakes we were each others first everything! i can't just go back to being your friend after six years like none of it even happened." you had to stop yourself from shouting at her, well aware that she was a public figure now and though the cafe behind you wasn't crowded, you never knew who was inside listening.

"you are putting words in my mouth. just-" "no alessia, i've spent too fucking long getting over you to fall back into the trap of caring again." you regretted the words from the moment they fell from your lips, cringing with a shake of your head.

"i need to go i'm sorry. i really didn't want to argue with you but i just-I can't do this with you again alessia, good luck with everything." you forced a pained smile, the strikers stomach plummeting as you reached out, your fingertips just ghosting hers sending a bolt of electricity up her arm at the feeble touch, hurrying off away before she could even open her mouth to respond.

~

it seemed your words had struck a chord as you didn't hear a single peep from the girl the entire week following, it had been days of radio silence between you both and you had spent the whole time convincing yourself that was what you wanted and it was for the best.

you weren't sure what alessia had said to her own mum but yours seemed to be relentless in pestering you about how catching up for coffee went, you once again dismissing that too much time had passed and it was awkward.

though the ever persistent woman didn't take the hint it wouldn't be happening again and had tried time after time to press you for more, and you'd taken to dodging her phone calls all week just to avoid the ongoing conversation.

on the bright side you'd made it through another week and you were settling in well to life back in london.

you'd found a favorite coffee spot for your much needed morning brew on the way to work, loved your new school and your class, had dinner and drinks last night with a few co-workers at a local tapas bar and genuinely enjoyed their company, you were on top of your workload and despite needing to currently dodge her you were enjoying living closer to family again.

however you were a creature of habit and so saturday nights were always your night to relish in your own company, recharge for the week and properly switch off. armed with a face mask, a chinese and a glass or bottle of wine at your side, finding some sort of trashy reality nonsense to engross yourself in for the evening.

your family knew this and knew to leave you be, your friends knew this and had long given up trying to drag you out with them unless it was for some sort of holiday or celebration, and your co-workers you'd only gone out with last night and weren't yet all that close to.

which is why it caught you so off guard for your phone to be ringing at half past eleven at night, you'd almost dozed off with a bowl of crisps in your lap, snapping to attention at the ringtone.

rubbing your eyes you fumbled around in the blankets adorning your body for your phone, eventually finding it and answering without looking at the contact, assuming at this time of night it was either an emergency or a scam.

how you regretted that choice.

"you actually answered!" you winced as a loud and very intoxicated voice slurred in excitement, holding the phone away from your ear at the unexpected volume, music pumping away and people laughing in the background.

"alessia?" "baby! what you doin?" the girl slurred and you could already imagine the dopey smile which would be plastered on her face at her words, and the way the corner of her eyes would crease as she squinted.

you grimaced at how much one simple word could cause years of healing to wash instantly away. one little baby and you were suddenly sixteen again, wrapped up in her strong arms sharing soft kisses and giggling about something that happened at school that day.

growing up alessia wasn't one to ever drink all that often given how much time and energy she invested into being an athlete. though on the rare occasions she did drink you quickly learnt the girl couldn't handle her alcohol.

she was a messy drunk to say the least and anytime a drop of alcohol passed her lips you'd abandon your own, knowing you needed to be there and sober to look after her.

"why are you calling me? and at...half past eleven at night." you sighed, collapsing back into the lounge and tiredly rubbing your eyes. "because i wasn't lying when i said i missed you." she laughed and you shook your head at her words.

"alessia you're drunk. i'm going now, please be safe." you tried to wrap up the conversation, knowing she'd likely be embarrassed about this when she sobered up tomorrow, finger hovering over the little red button to end the call then and there.

god how you wished you'd pressed it.

"wait! i'm really smashed and my friends all left me, i can't find them and i need to go home. i'm seeing double babe!" the blonde groaned and you heard a smash and some yelling, your eyebrows furrowing at the noise.

"call an uber home then, or get a taxi." you remanded firmly but softly, knowing that in times like this she needed things very clearly broke down for her.

"i don't know how! i can barely see my fucking phone screen, can you come and get me?" she continued as you withheld a groan, sharply pinching the bridge of your nose at the seemingly never ending flow of possibilities for whatever you answered next.

"where are you?"

~

"god what am i doing here?" you mumbled to yourself, insecurely playing with the strings of your hoodie, feeling incredibly under dressed as patrons of the bar you were stood outside of stumbled around with giggles and drunken cheers.

"y/n?" you turned at your name, frowning at the unfamiliar voice as your eyes finally landed on alessia, who was not alone. "oh wow it is you, hi?" lotte spoke in surprise, eyes wide as alessia cheered when she spotted you, you weren't particularly close to many of the girls football friends but that hadn't meant you'd not known or become fond of some of them over the years, lotte and ella in particular were two names who came to mind.

"baby you actually came!" alessia stumbled her way over with her heels in hand, wrenching her bicep away from lottes careful grip. she was dressed in blue jeans and a charcoal coloured knitted vest, toned arms on full display as a rolex which probably cost you a months salary glinted on her wrist under the streetlights.

you shoved her away as she placed a sloppy kiss to your cheek, but had no choice but to grab her hands and steady her to stop her from falling over right afterwards.

"i didn't know you two were..." lotte trailed off with an awkward pause of uncertainty as you quickly shook your head, smacking away alessia's hands which poked at and clung onto you.

"we're not anything. we caught up for coffee once and it didn't go well, and then she called me tonight saying she was drunk and her friends left her and she needed a lift home." you sighed at the realization you'd clearly been played, feeling stupidly gullible as you swallowed the urge to yell at the tall dopey blonde beside you who really you knew had minimal control over her actions right now.

"well she ran off for a bit when we changed bars but then we found her again, we were actually going to send her off home but we weren't sure if a taxi would even take her, she's had a few too many." lotte winced apologetically as you nodded along with a sigh, knowing exactly how the older girl behaved when she drank.

"russo has a secret missus?" a brunette with a thick irish accent shouldered her way to the front of the group, slinging an arm around lotte and you shifted somewhat uncomfortably as her eyes narrowed and scanned you up and down.

"used to, not anymore. she hates me now!" alessia rolled her eyes moodily and you winced, knowing that sober she wouldn't have likely confessed that, especially given how much the brunettes eyes widened at the new information.

"wouldn't have pegged you for the type to drunkenly dial an ex russo, i learn new things about ya every day. she's quite fit though!" the brunettes lips curled into a smile and you felt a hot flush creep up your neck.

"lay off mccabe!" alessia scowled as her arm draped over your shoulder and you grunted as her body weight bore into you, struggling to keep the taller girl upright.

"oo and you're also the jealous type are ya russo!" mccabe continued to wind the drunken blonde beside you up with a grin, another girl stepping in to drag her back to the group with an apologetic smile flicked your way.

"are you sure you're right with her? i can get her in a taxi." lotte offered sincerely, glancing over her shoulder as someone from her group yelled at her to hurry up.

"no its fine, don't let her ruin your night. i know she's ruined plenty of mine before with her drunken antics." you sighed sparing alessia a glance who scoffed and stumbled slightly as you grabbed her.

"did not!"

ignoring her you again urged lotte to join her friends, sending her a reassuring smile and bidding her a good night as you struggled to move alessia through the crowd of drunken party goers and won the street towards where you'd parked.

"for fuck sakes just get in you idiot!" you grunted as you all but shoved her into the passenger seat, clicking her seatbelt in and slamming the door shut.

"why me? why?" you looked up to the sky with a sigh of defeat, rubbing your temples for a second before moving around to the drivers side and sliding inside, wincing at the strong smell of alcohol wafting from the girl beside you.

"don't touch anything!" you swatted her hands away as she reached for the gearstick, sinking back into her chair with a huff. "you're so bossy now, you weren't this bossy before. you used to do whatever i told you!" alessia slurred with a roll of her eyes as you started up the car.

"yeah? well then it took me six years to grow a backbone. now where am i taking you?" "home." "well obviously alessia but i don't know where that is, do I?" "god can you stop that!" "pardon?" "the whole alessia thing, i hate the way you say it. call me less, or lessi, literally anything else!"

"just tell me where the hell im driving you so i can go to bed? please!" you sighed in frustration, looking at her expectantly. "fine. only if you agree to hang out with me again!" the blonde tilted her head at you, staring with half lidded eyes.

"that is not how this works. i'll kick you out right here and you can walk home!" "if i end up dead in a ditch cause you left me i don't think your mum or my mum would be very happy." "maybe not but you know what? you are no longer my problem to deal with or my mess to clean up anymore alessia. you're responsible for your own shitty choices and their consequences! like calling your ex and lying about your situation to come and get her to pick you up, and then trying to manipulate her into doing what you want." you exploded suddenly, hands balled into fists as you let out your pent up frustration at this entire messy situation.

there was a thick silence that followed afterward and you refused to look at her, feeling her eyes bore holes into the side of your head.

"god you look so good when you're angry."

you let out a groan, head thumping down onto your steering wheel in defeat. the comment took you right back again to being a lovesick teenager, alessia's blatantly charming cockiness both equally attractive as it was infuriating even back then.

"just please tell me where you live so i can take you there and be done with all of this." "um...i forget." "you forget? how the hell do you forget where you live!" "stop yelling at me i'm drunk! all i can think about is jager and vodka and tequila and-" "i don't need a walk through tour of the bar cart currently sitting in your stomach alessia. can you seriously not remember your address?" "nope." "give me your phone then, its gotta be saved in there somewhere."

you grabbed it out of her hands with a roll of your eyes when she refused to hand it over, but trying to open it was a fruitless activity as the screen remained black.

"its dead." alessia commented with a lopsided smile and you almost threw it out of your window. your fingers drummed the steering wheel trying desperately to think of a way out of this. you didn't have lottes number so that was out, and you couldn't just leave her here as tempting an idea as that was.

you didn't have any of her families numbers, you knew where she used to live with them but that was hardly close by and you didn't even know for certain if they'd moved or not, and you did not want to call your mum for support right now.

which painstakingly and infuriatingly left you with all but one option as you sighed and shifted your car into drive, pulling away from the curb.

"where are we goin?" "home."

~

"this is really nice babe!" alessia slurred as you stumbled through your front door precariously balancing the intoxicated footballer clinging onto you, kicking it closed behind you and tossing your keys on your hallway table.

"stop calling me that." you mumbled, dragging her into the living room and pushing her to sit down on your lounge as you rubbed your neck, which was throbbing from having to cart around the girl who was easily a foot taller than you, and being so drunk meant leaning her entire body weight into you.

"make me some food please." alessia demanded, head thumping back into the sofa as her eyes fluttered closed. "what do you think i'm your on call taxi driver and personal chef?" you scoffed, kicking her sharply in the leg to wake her back up as she whined at the action.

"the last thing you need is anything else in your system which could wind up on my floor later. are you sure you don't feel the need to be sick?" you asked for the fifth time this evening as the blonde nodded wordlessly.

"c'mere and gimme a cuddle baby girl." her lips curled into a dopey smile as she opened her arms expectantly, barely able to hold her own head up as your entire body cringed at the long familiar endearment.

"absolutely not, and stop calling me names. you're going to bed!" you refused, wishing the ground would swallow you up as alessia groaned.

"you're so stubborn, and so hot. i miss you!" the blonde slurred as you grabbed her hands, hauling her to her feet with a grunt and stumbling your way to the guest bedroom, sighing in relief as you dropped her onto the mattress.

"no you don't, you're drunk." you replied firmly, running a hand through your hair with a sigh. "i do! i have for years, the one that got away." alessia shrugged, arm flopping across her face as her eyes closed.

with a roll of your eyes you left her for a moment, hurrying across the hall to your own bedroom and grabbing out some clothes. she may right now be the most infuriating person on the planet but you weren't about to make her sleep in jeans.

you hated yourself for caring, why didn't you just ignore the phone earlier?

"jesus alessia." you sighed as you returned to find her with her jeans around her ankles and her vest stuck over her head, meaning you quickly averted your eyes from her half naked form.

"help! i've gone blind!" the blonde yelled and you bit your lip to stop the smile breaking out on your face, shaking your head firmly. "stop that, god you're useless." you couldn't help but chuckle as you helped her strip off the rest of her clothes, again careful your eyes only remained on her face.

"made you smile." alessia slurred with a stupidly attractive smirk, poking at you as you pulled a black baggy shirt over her head, handing her a pair of shorts which she promptly threw over her shoulder.

"alessia!" you huffed as she shrugged, mumbling something about sleeping naked as she rolled over and with much struggle managed to get into the bed.

"god you're a nightmare." you turned to leave her as a hand gripped at the back of your hoodie, firmly yanking you downwards.

"no! get off." you grunted, struggling to wrench her hand away as she attempted to pull you into a hug. "i want a hug! i'll probably never see you again." alessia whined needily as you continued to fight her.

"ohh you always did like when i touched you there." the blonde laughed as her hand accidentaly grazed your bum and your breath hitched momentarily before you pulled yourself free, shoving her back down into the bed.

"jesus christ alessia please shut up before you embarass yourself any further, the less i have to explain to you tomorrow the better." you flared your nostrils and took a deep breath, counting to three and turning away.

"where you goin?" "to bed alessia, go to sleep." "isn't this your bed?" "no this is my guest bedroom, not that i can even really call you that given i had no choice in you staying here." "you can afford a two bedroom flat on a teachers salary? wow baby you're doing good!" "please stop calling me that, now go to sleep." "can't we cuddle? for old times sake, friends cuddle!" "we're not friends." "ouch, way to land a blow babe." "i told you to stop calling me that, now please just go to sleep."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

part four

[evilrat-sabre]

Welsknight Season 7, EP 1 and 2 a Rat's report

So I started watching Wels season 7 again for reasons™ and decided I should take notes, not only of what he does, but about things I observe around the server, so here is my trying to understand my own notes and sharing with y'all. Idk if I will do it again, but I had fun doing this.

Note: I did it again! NEXT

INSANE "Starter" House! | Hermitcraft 7 - Ep. 1

27:04 length, posted 23 may 2020. Watched 30 January 2023.

Wels starts the video referring to it as Season 6, he says that he just had a nap, and he is ready to go work in "projects"

He finds it weird that no one is online Cub enters the world and gets weirded out with Wels being on the word Wels talks with Cub in the nether hub -Wels calls Cub a vex and this makes me unreasonable happy -Wels refers to season 7 as "the future" He goes through a suspicious diamond portal and ends in Hermitcraft season 7

At season 7 Cub gives him some of Scar's crystals, He grabs two:

"Courage of the lion" and a "A gift of love", because I quote -Love is all you need-

Some time observation notes:

Grass and mycelium mix in the Shopping District, this is before the war.

I see a Mumbo for mayor map, I am still not sure what point in the mayoral election this is.

It's before the nether update: The button is alive.

I probably should mention he builds his starter base, it has a lovely colour pallet.

This is where my episode one notes ends, but I went a little bonkers with episode two notes,

Mines & Landscapes | Hermitcraft 7 - Ep. 2

26:15 length, posted 27 may 2020. Watched 30 January 2023.

He starts mining and talking about the burnout he was going through, apparently he took a 8 months break of minecraft, started streaming and swapped to a more general gaming content creation.

Personal note: This reminded me why I started watching Wels to begin with; the man was receiving awful comments, because of his lack of minecraft posting. I was new to the fandom and hadn't ever watched him before, when I got here he was already going with his now very familiar cycle of posting minecraft and vanishing for some time, maybe posting another game and maybe posting nothing for months. I will not lie, I started watching him of pure spite to the awful people that felt like it was a acceptable comportment to go to this guy's comment section and talk shit about how if he wasn't going to post he should get kicked out Hermitcraft. I said it at that time and I will always repeat: You are aren't entitled NOTHING, Wels and honestly any other youtuber, by default owns you nothing, and being a little hater will only ostracize you from other people from this community. aNYWAY; I got hooked in his Binding of Isaac series, and to today he is my favorite youtuber, and his videos -Minecraft or not- bring me great joy. Okay back to my report.

*Spams clicks his bed when the sun starts to go downs* "Bdubs isn't online, someone gotta fill up" Sir, just admit you have a sleeping problem /j

*Insert epic wither skeleton killing montage here*

The button is dead. Wels comment at seeing it dead: "The Gift machine is broken, good thing I didn't spend a long time camping, I could be hurt"

Wels starts going through the mayoral candidates and starts reasoning why he wouldn't vote to some of them

Mumbo: "I can't in good conscious support Mumbo, because I don't need a spoon" (Personal note: I was so amused I anoted the time stamp 07:15) Scar: Scar offered cats for everyone if he wins and I quote Wels "I don't even like cats" (Personal note: Even your favs can do wrong; sometimes living in denial and turning a blind eye for things is a good thing to do /hj) Doc: "I don't know, where I will even begin" (Personal note: "this green man was occupied having a child", Its a good start of a explanation and "He is a menace and a threat to society" is also a very reasonable one. Joe: "He isn't running for mayor" (Personal note: Yeah, he was running for something even better, the whole Dog catcher thing, may be one of the best things I ever saw in minecraft. "Create a problem that only you can solve, so now you hold political power over your fellow friends and coworkers") So this leaves Wels with two good option False and Stress, he can't really decide so he leaves his concrete vote in both of them. (Rat's reaction : Yesss, vote in our queens, oh brave knight!)

10/10 he would book again

Why is he killing the wither with a axe?? (I know why, but let me fins him weird)

He is doing his starter base interior; I am having House flipper flashbacks, at least it isn't grey.

No one sells feathers, Wels commits murder of the poultry category.

He send letters to his close neighbors, it starts with "Hidey-ho neighbor-" and I am smiling wide and losing my marbles.

Every neighbor receives two blue flowers, with exception of Jevin who receives two yellow ones (Persona note: I find this funny, because Jevin is the only one I am aware that blue is his favorite color)

Some time and world observation notes:

Barge was updated from Ep 1 to 2, Wels complimented it.

I just saw Grumbot- Oh god the shopping district was so ugly. (My actual live reaction)

This is the end of my report for now. God I am nostalgic, Season 7 was the season I got into Hermitcraft, and it fills me with joy seeing if from the pov of my favorite youtuber.

[big-daddy-maddy]

my family and i went to go look at christmas lights bc theres a HUGE ASS neighborhood that always goes way over the top and they were like “HEY get in the car” so we did bc we have to and i was sitting in the back with my 11 year old brother and i was asked him if he wanted to hear about the books ive been reading and he was like “yeah sure idc” and i was like cool!! bc my brothers know how happy it makes me when i talk abt books i read and so they humor me (most of the time) so i start talking abt shatter me and how i didnt finish the series bc i got bored of it but its ok bc warnette got together so woohooo thats all i wanted. then my other brother who’s almost 14 starts talking shit or whatever and says something abt how no one wants to listen to me talk abt books and i was like oh ok well i was talking to cody not you and then cody started telling him he was a brat or whatever (yk the usual sibling name calling) and then my dad jumped to the rescue of trey (the 14 yo) saying that we should include him so then i said “well trey started being mean first, cody’s just trying to defend me” and my mom was like “yeah they were perfectly fine until trey started stuff” and so it was this big thing and then eventually it calmed down a bit and cody asked about the other books ive been reading and i told him about six of crows bc i thought he would like that and i started describing kaz and he was like “so hes dark and brooding and misunderstood” and i laughed bc all i told him was that kaz was a 17 yo crime boss who killed people but its ok bc he cant touch people without passing out or vomiting (no the best description of kaz i realize but hes 11 and i thought he’d find it weird). so we laugh bc its funny and my mom says somwthing to my dad abt how we were rubbing it in that trey was being “left out” so i just ignore it and keep talking bc that wasnt what was happening at all i just wanted to talk abt my damn books and cody seemed genuinely interested. then she said to the whole car “why dont we just go home” and i was like why??? and she was like “bc no one is in a good mood and youre leaving your brother out and cody doesnt even want to hear about your stupid books he’s only doing it to get to trey and leave him out and no one cares” so i told her that cody was listening before trey said anything and i just wanted to talk abt them. and then she kept going on about how no one wanted to hear about my books because no one gives a shit and no one cares and no one wants to listen. and then i started crying bc i knew people didnt really care but why was it such a big deal?  i never talk about any of my interests with anyone and they are the only ones who i actually feel comfortable talking about this stuff with so why is it such a big deal? i get it no one cares but at least they pretend to, even if they arent listening or i dont make much sense when im talking about them at least im talking. im not in contact with any of my friends rn because my parents took away my phone so i only have my laptop so all i do is sit on tumblr and read books and browse ao3 which sounds amazing and it kind of is but i miss my best friend and driving and hanging out with them and im barely eating bc i dont have an appetite and my meds ran out a while ago so ive been really down lately and i failed my dual enrollment classes bc i just cant seem to do anything (thats why my phone and keys were taken) and i dont blame them for punishing me ik i screwed up but my mom wont look into putting me back into therapy or finding a new psychologist and i just want to be okay again but im isolated and numb but when i try to express an interest in the one thing that makes me feel something i get yelled at and told that no one gives a shit and it just sucks but its okay ill be okay 

[magicbystarlight]

One For Sorrow, Two For Joy - Hearing the News

*Bonus Content*

SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you’re reading the series and have not read Part Six yet, I suggest you do so first as this contains spoilers!

Series Masterlist

Summary: How you discovered what happened to your father and best friend.

Word Count: 824

Warnings: Care of injuries. Mentions of death.

HP Tag List: @bamboozledflamplant @charmingandfantasticfics

One For Sorrow, Two For Joy Taglist: @byelannie @sugasthreedollarkookie @bethanystan @maralisa124

March 18th, 1998

"You should have gone with Cho," Marietta said, rubbing the ointment into your back.

The searing pain made your reply short and raspy. "Then someone else would suffer."

She let out a disapproving breath before you heard her close the jar. "So what? You owe them nothing." She gently covered the fresh wounds with a clean cloth. Helping you stand and slip on a shirt, she looked overly distraught. "He's going to kill you one of these days."

"He won't. It'd cause more problems for him and his master. I can handle his punishments, but I won't subject someone else to them." You did your best to not flinch every time the shirt grazed your back, but there was no fooling her. She had seen it all from the beginning, the first welt followed by open wounds and nasty, never fully healed scars. You doubted there was a place on your back that was not marred in some way. She understood the dark magic that it took to cause them and the pain they inflicted.

But she stayed quiet, knowing that you’d continue to take the abuse. Welcoming it even. For every moment it took to punish you, was a moment he could not hurt someone else. One of the few times you had stayed quiet, a First Year spent three weeks in the hospital wing. Never again.

Hours of the night passed, but you weren’t able to sleep. Despite the months you’d endured at your uncle's hand, you hadn't grown used to the near debilitating pain. You laid in the dark, listening to the steady breathing of the only other roommate you had left as she slept peacefully. Audrey hadn't come back after break. Cho went into hiding in early February. Sarah, who you hadn't spent more than a couple of weeks away from for over six years, was on the run with Dad. It had become a lonely existence.

The door creaked open slowly and light trickled in from the hall. Your breath caught in your throat as you wondered what fresh hell awaited you. Maybe this time you could at least pass out from the pain and exhaustion. You tried to calm yourself, but every footstep deepened your anxiety. The person reached your bed and knelt beside it.

"Cho!" Your relief at seeing a friendly face quickly disappeared.

"We have to get you out of here. Now." She was quick to start gathering your belongings, putting what she could into your satchel.

"You know I can't." You lifted yourself off the bed, the pain leaving you gasping for air.

She didn't stop. "It's your dad. They know."

The DA room wasn't far from the common room and somehow you made it without being seen or crippling over. It looked completely different than it had two years before and housed dozens of students who probably had never even heard of our group.

Cho hadn't been able to tell you much. She only knew that Dad and Sarah had been traveling with a small group of other "Undesirables" and they had been found and attacked. She said you needed to talk to Seamus.

"I've been communicating with Dean through a scrap of paper we enchanted. 'Bout thirty minutes ago he told me they'd been attacked by Snatchers and he got separated from everyone. Said someone had called out to your dad by name when they ran and that we needed to get you to safety."

He had no other information, Dean hadn't responded since his warning. Cho found a space for you, one a little more private so she could help treat the lashes.

You waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing.

Your mind filled with regret and worry. You should have gone with them. You should have gone with them. Were they captured? You could have–should have–found another way to hide Sarah. Were they injured?

"You should sleep," Neville told you sometime after lunch. You should. How long had you been awake? Two days? But there was no hope for such an escape.

Cho brought dinner to your new bed. "You should eat."

"I'm not really hungry."

She pushed the plate into your hands. "Remember when Sarah was studying for O.W.L.S. and was skipping meals? Remember what you told her?"

If you don't eat, you won't be able to function properly. What good will that do you?

You conceded and nibbled on the fish and chips. In the background, the radio was turned to something everyone was calling Potterwatch. It sounded a lot like Lee Jordan.

You didn't pay much mind to what he had to say until the word death grabbed your full attention.

"...deaths that the Wizarding Wireless Network News and Daily Prophet don't think important enough to mention. It is with great regret that we inform our listeners of the murders of Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, Sarah Cook, and Erasmus Carrow."

The plate slipped from your fingers and shattered.

Series Masterlist

Part Seven

[crystalelemental]

FE Fates Replay - Part 6

Okay...okay, I think I’m over Peri being here.  Kinda.  Not really, but enough to move on with our lives.  God I hate her...  Her levels have been better than some of my units with Aptitude!  You couldn’t even just make her a bad unit?!

Ugh, whatever, chapter 12.  The map itself is actually really cool.  The idea is that there are a ton of jars lining the field, and they’re filled with poison or medicine.  You can tell which is which when you hover over them.  Attacking a medicine jar heals you or increases stats or something, for all units within a few spaces.  Poison harms you, brings you down to half HP, or lowers stats, again, for all units with a few spaces.  The concept of the map is to navigate through the maze by breaking the medicine pots strategically to make your way forward.  I actually really like the concept of the map.  I’m just...not entirely clear why this place, the most advanced medicinal center of the world, has a bunch of jars of poison laying out.  Or the medicine, for that matter.  You’d think they’d have a storage space for that shit, instead of leaving it lying around.  Kinda strange, when you think about it.

Anyway, Ryoma is here, but you don’t have to fight him.  You can either beat him, or escape within 16 turns.  Failure to do so probably means Elise dies, since you can’t use her this chapter because of the illness.  Saizo and Kagero are the mini-bosses, in a sense.  They hover right near that nice dragon vein that shatters all the jars, and are paired up so they’re more defensive.  Frankly, they seem kinda scary.  High speed, high evasion, able to hit close or distant foes, and having an attack on them just negated if you miss too often?  Pretty brutal.  Or, well, it would’ve been, if Dragon Corrin wasn’t huge.  She basically one-shot Saizo right away, and then massacred Kagero.  It was not even fair, frankly.  They didn’t deserve that hard an ass-whupping.

Now here’s where I want to note again: I am playing Casual.  So at this point, I made a save, and did two different approaches.  One was breaking all the jars instantly and seeing how that played out, and the other was leaving them.  Leaving them lets you be a bit more precise in your movements, but I honestly found breaking them all immediately to be way more effective.  A lot of enemies get hit with the poison, and since you’re causing the break, you can set up your units out of harm’s way.  That said, this does immediately open up the path for like 10 ranged enemy units to swarm you, and most are ninjas so your defenses drop really fast.  It’s surprisingly dangerous.  I’m sure there’s a better way to handle this map, but we’re on a timer here so instead, Dragon Corrin is just going to bait all your fuckers out and take like no damage, then have everyone else run in and smash them to death.  With that, all the remains is Ryoma.  Who is also no match for Dragon Corrin’s hugeness.  I paired her up with Nyx, and she deal something outrageous like 25 damage to Ryoma in that single hit, and took like 6.  Being a dragon is kickass.  Her dialogue with Ryoma is about the same as usual, but I did have Azura land the final blow, getting her unique dialogue with Ryoma as well.  Honestly, it’s more of the “Ah, so you’ve betrayed us Azura!” stuff, and how I guess nobody from Nohr can be trusted.

Look...I get it.  Nohr is the instigator in a war here.  They are, by all accounts, the bad guys here.  But my god if I’m not tired of having every single conversation with the Hoshidans turn into then yelling about all Nohrians being scum, and how being treacherous is just in their blood, yadda yadda.  I know I shouldn’t conceptualize it this way, but my god do the Hoshidans come off as way more belligerent.  Sure, we have the inside perspective of what the Nohrians in general are like, being inside the kingdom, but like...okay, imagine in Heroes, if everyone who met Laegjarn and Laevatein just kept shouting about how they’re horrible awful people and their whole kingdom is a bunch of back-stabbing sub-humans.  That’s basically how Hoshido approaches Nohr, solely because the king is insane and evil.  I get that they’re angry, and they’re right to be so, but their approach to people legitimately trying to act with a sense of decorum and decency is still to constantly call them scum and dismiss the whole kingdom.  Seriously, fuck you guys.

After Ryoma gets fucking bodied, Elise is given the medicine and is back to full strength!  From here we are given our next assignment.  There’s another rebellion in Cheve, and we’re to put it down.  Boy Garon, you’re sure doing a great job leading, what with the constant rebellions going on.  So, off to Cheve it is, where we meet...oh god yes.  It’s Takumi again.  Oh man, I am going to kick his ass into the fucking dirt.  He yells more stuff about Nohr being traitors and shoots Elise with an arrow, securing his death.  The rebellion is all mad and shit, and Corrin gives another order to not kill anyone.  Early on, we get two new characters, Benny and Charlotte.  Benny doesn’t stand out much at all, so not much to report.  Charlotte...is the only character whose outfit might be worse than Camilla’s.  The win still goes to Camilla, because...my god, lady.  But Charlotte is a front-line warrior, who’s barely wearing clothes.  I think I’d be less pissed if her defense growth wasn’t so high.  Look, this is a series with units in heavy armor and units in cloth armor.  There’s meant to be a distinction in which stats are good.  Her having great defense is not following the damned rules!  Also I think the armor part above the cleavage pisses me off too.  Like, if you’re going for the whole seductive appearance, go all out.  That stupid little bit of armor ain’t doin’ shit anyway.  That said though, her introduction is threatening to kill everyone for being too noisy at night, so like...I can relate.  Might be another situation of “solid character, shitty costume.”  But she sucks up to Corrin really hard, so she’s kind of all about the attention from others, and is a bit of a gold-digger in general.  So we’ll see if that goes anywhere in supports.

Map itself isn’t that interesting, so once you win, Hans, of course, does his thing and starts killing everyone.  “Uh, um...the king!  Yeah, the king totally told me to do it, so you gotta follow my lead on this one!”  Camilla apparently agrees and insists that there’s nothing we can do here.  Listen...I’m pretty sure there’s a solid argument for not listening to the current commanding officer being a punishable offense.  I get the king’s decree and all, but you know how Leo and the others constantly think around the problem and look like they’re obeying but don’t actually obey?  Yeah.  This is like...the easiest time to do that.  Evacuate the townsfolk and sticking Camilla’s axe in the back of Hans’ skull, and call it a day.  The village is gone, as far as the king knows, and Hans’ death was in battle.  They don’t know the difference.  “Oh, but Iago might be spying on them.”  Bullshit.  Iago could be doing a lot of things, but he only shows up to be slightly annoying.  Besides, if he were really so vigilant, then Leo wouldn’t be able to pull of anything he’s pulled off in the game.  We can’t throw out “Iago is watching” as a convenient catch-all for everyone, except for Leo because the plot needs to make us think that he’s the clever one so no one else is allowed to think around problems.

Chapter 14, the group arrives for some more rest in Cyrkensia, which mostly seems to be about a big theater.  It’s a neutral territory, which I wasn’t aware existed in this conflict.  Leo finally joins us and is around, I guess.  Corrin attempts to confront Garon about the situation in Cheve, and he’s just like “Good job on killing all those innocents.  I hear you even seemed to enjoy the work.  That’s the kind of thing I expect of you.”  Like, buddy.  Guy.  Are you an idiot?  You know full damn well Hans was full of shit on that report, and by now you know that Corrin wasn’t going to go along with it either.  Honestly, this is the biggest problem with Garon, he’s inconsistent.  For such a merciless guy, he sure keeps giving Corrin a ton of second chances after she constantly and consistently defies him.  Almost like...everyone’s kinda full of shit?  And that Corrin can do whatever she wants because plot armor?  Weird.

Azur-uh, the totally mysterious performer on stage, gosh-golly who could it be, attempts to sing this magic song that is too lit for the king to handle, so he has a combined orgasm/heart attack and nearly bites it.  Iago, ever the clever advisor, is like “HOLY SHIT, THAT PERFORMER CAST A CURSE ON THE KING!”  I...don’t think that’s particularly likely, guy.  But no, everyone just goes along with that, as if it’s the obvious answer.  So yeah, I guess that’s what we’re doing now.  Catch the mysterious singer.  Oh, wait, the Hoshidans are here.  Better fight them first.

Keaton shows up, mostly because he has no sense of direction and kinda just bumblefucked his way here.  He seems cool.  Wolf man that collects bugs and shit.  He’s alright.  The map itself was pretty uninteresting.  Mostly it’s just a lot of flying and ranged units on very narrow paths, so it’s kinda hard to defend everyone effectively when the enemy is so much less hindered by the terrain.  Also there’s a cleric who uses the Freeze staff, and my god am I already getting tired of that one.

After the map, Garon commands you to kill all the performers in this neutral territory, because that’ll go over well on the global stage.  Sure doubt that’ll set the neutral territories in motion against you.  Corrin is mortified and does that arguing thing, and Leo gets to be the only smart one and takes her aside, and tells her that they’re going to follow orders by looking in really unlikely places so everyone can escape.  See, this is what I’m talking about!  Iago’s literally in this general area, and yet the plan is spelled out and carried out without a hitch!  Why couldn’t anyone have figured this out back in Cheve?!

Chapter 15, this is another fun map.  Corrin is still upset about all the needless killing lately, and sees Azura taking a walk as well.  Thinking about how similar their situations are, she follows, and finds Azura sinking into a lake!  Fearful that she’s drowning, Corrin chases Azura, and falls through the lake herself, into this mystery world full of weird soldiers that are apparently not able to feel any emotion at all and just seek to kill.  Gunter shows up and is apparently alive and well here, so that’s cool.  Really, there’s a lot I can recall that pisses me off about this hidden world, but that’s for a much later time when they try to explain shit.  For now, just know that I hate this place.

The map itself is neat.  The dragon vein splits your party into two copies, one in the north and one in the south.  A unit and their copy share damage and stat changes, so anything that hurts one hurts the other.  Also only the real Azura in the north can do the singing thing.  It’s a neat concept, and having only three units to do it is an interesting limitation, but...one of them is Azura, who is very weak, and her copy can’t even provide multiple turns.  And the other is Gunter, whose stats are not terrible but who comes with no preparation and the worst growths in the entire game for some reason.  At least you get a bunch of stat upgrading items if you can clear it fully.

Now...this is where things get dumb.  Azura informs you that you must jump off this cliff, and you’ll arrive at the bottomless pit that Gunter got kicked into.  Why?  Dunno, that’s just how they’re connected.  Corrin asks why they can’t just go back through the water, and Azura informs her that only Azura and Corrin are able to do that, so Gunter would get left behind.  Corrin asks the logical follow up of “Why the hell would that be the case?” but this question is ignored so that there’s more shit they can explain in the true route.  I’d call this foreshadowing, but I think foreshadowing comes with a degree of subtlety.  Azura jumps, and Corrin follows, with Gunter going last.  Oh, I forgot something.  Azura informs them that “time flows differently in this hidden world,” which is bullshit code for “we needed a way to get Corrin and Azura alone for this next scene, so Gunter not showing up immediately with them is because the flow of time is convoluted.”  So begins the true contrivance train.  Azura uses a magic crystal from the hidden world that can show you the truth of things.  She uses this to show Corrin the truth of King Garon, that he is a weird goo monster!  Literally, he’s made of goo.  Callie didn’t believe me when I called him a goo monster, but she has since acknowledged this is the only explanation for him.  What does this mean?  No idea.  Initially, I would’ve said he was killed and replaced by the thing, but Azura further explains that her performance in Cyrkensia (*gasp* It was her the whole time?!), was to restore Garon to his senses, implying that he’s still the same human, just corrupted into...whatever this is.  Somehow.  God, I hope they can explain how the fuck this happened, but I doubt they can.  Azura explains that this song was the only way to restore him, and that it failing means there’s only one option - regicide.  About time someone on this fucking team started talking any sense.

CONTRIVANCE TWO!  Corrin says no one else would go along with this, and that they can’t tell the other siblings about this because, as Azura explained earlier, if you talk about the other world, you’re cursed and get drawn back in, never to leave.  Because if you could just talk about the problem, then this entire plot, from start to fucking finish, would be resolved in the span of like 5 minutes.  We needed a contrivance to say why they can’t just do that.  But hey, you know, Awakening’s story just wasn’t that good, and we’re here to do a better job.  They remember the Hoshidan throne, and that sitting upon it would restore someone’s true memories and shit, so their new plan is to gain Garon’s trust and have him sit atop that throne and be revealed as a good monster.  So let’s just run with that.

Chapter 16, Xander finally joins us!  He has a nice introduction with Corrin and Azura in particular, mentioning that when Azura came to Nohr, it was with Garon’s second wife, Arete.  Now...I’m confused.  So, diving into things from my last playthrough, Mikoto and Arete are siblings, from Valla.  Arete had Azura before marrying Garon, so I’m assuming that Garon must’ve already had his four kids by the time she shows up, since none of the Nohrian siblings are apparently related.  But Xander only mentions Camilla and “later, Leo” in his explanation of the other siblings liking her despite the masses not liking her.  So...when were the kids born?  Because in addition to this, apparently Elise has no memories of her father ever being a good person, which I believe happened shortly after Arete, who must’ve come in after Leo was born but maybe not before Elise?  It’s so fucking confusing.

Anyway, we’re on the direct war-path with Hoshido.  We’re told to go by sea, since they’d never expect a sea-based attack!  Garon makes some comment about outsmarting them at every turn, and it’s like...guy, listen.  I know you think this is super clever, but unless the Hoshidans are full-on dumbasses, they thought about the fact that the navy can get to them too.  Iago also attempts to be a shit, by asking where Corrin and Azura went last night.  Corrin, in the span of like two seconds, seems to have learned how to lie really well, and gives the story that they went out for a stroll, encountered some unknown soldiers, and killed them all.  She even parrots Garon’s thing about rebellion and seeds and all that.  Our girl is learning...

No sooner do you leave port than you are besieged by pirates.  Yes, pirates have snuck aboard, and are taking all the gold you set off with!  ...a few questions.  (1) Why is this gold not in your pockets?  (2) When you win, why is some of the money gone forever?  You’re at sea, and there are no pirate vessels nearby.  They all snuck aboard ahead of time, and have no exit point.  So where the hell did the money go?  This mechanic makes no sense.  I will admit though, I do like the idea of balancing keeping your characters alive, and saving as much money as you can in this kind of route where funds are limited.  It’s a cool idea, it just doesn’t make sense.  You’ll also note that the goal is “beat the boss,” but the boss isn’t present.  Part of your goal is to identify which Nohrian soldier is in disguise, and out them as the leader.  Again, really cool idea, for a fairly nonsense map.

There isn’t a ton going on with the map outside of this, but you unmake the boss, Shura, and probably kick his ass really hard now that you have Xander.  Shura talks a lot, but the only thing of value he says is that he’s the one who had kidnapped Azura as a baby, under orders from Yukimura, the tactician for Hoshido.  Shura explains that he doesn’t really have allegiance to either nation, but wants to avenge the death of his clan.  You are given the option to kill him or spare his life.  I sincerely thought about killing him, just to know what happens, but I did let him live.  Corrin thinks he deserves a break after all the shit that’s happened to him, so that’s fair I guess.  With this, we press on toward Hoshido.

UGH.  God, I knew the plot would take a downturn, and here we are.  EVERYTHING about that hidden world, Valla, is just stupid beyond words.  I hate its existence.  Even just smaller things at this point bother me.  There’s no reason Leo has to be the only one with an ounce of sense.  Hell, he even states that all the siblings have become masters of seeming to obey while making judgment calls for the greater good, yet no one else is allowed to demonstrate this ability because then Leo loses his only characteristic so far, being clever.  Honestly, the characters have been doing okay, but the plot’s holding them back.  So next time, instead of plot, I’m going to be doing the supports.  All of them.  We gotta figure out who’s getting paired up with who, after all.  So stay tuned for me going insane, because now I have to deal with Peri talking.  God...if you’re listening...please...look down upon the development team for Three Houses.  If they’re making another fucking character like Peri, where she’s just infantile and murder-happy, give them a sign that they need to knock that shit off.

[grenith-the-skald]

Four days I had spent ascending the tower. Three whole nights spent sleeping on various abandoned floors with nothing to keep warm, and my food scattered outside in a field. Thousands of stairs, hundreds of rooms, and not a single soul in sight. Even the dragon skulking the perimeter of the tower had ceased its pursuit when I had only reached several hundred yards of the building. A structure built of ancient stone and architecture that stretched nearly to the clouds, standing alone in the center of an empty steppe.

Approaching on horseback had been the easy part. Even outrunning the flying death that circled above had been surprisingly easy despite losing my supplies. The creature almost seeming hesitant to get too close to the tower. But scaling the stairs, that was hard. Even in the best shape of my entire life I still found my legs in searing pain by the end of each day. This meant that the relief of laying down on the cold yet dusty stone floors was sheer bliss. Even if my stomach growled and groaned the entire time.

However, I was nearly there by late evening. The final floor was only a few flights higher, and I could hear the sound of someone's soft voice humming a faint tune. Soon I would be there. I would rescue the maiden and the skalds would tell stories of my accomplishment across the far corners of the world. The years spent as a squire within the knighthood had paid off, I wore a sigil of my own and soon it would become recognized as a noble house once the princess was mine.

But nothing could have prepared me for the moment when I opened that door. My helm clanging loudly as it bounced off the floor and rolled down the steps behind me. The room before me filled with multiple beds arranged together in a circle, it’s walls plastered with a miscellaneous series of various drawings and decorations. And that wasn’t even the surprising part. Instead, it was the assortment of hideous beasts before me.

There was a tall Orc with her long braided hair reaching the floor, a pair of identical Goblins wearing matching piercings in their ears and noses, even a Kobold with pinkish scales next to a Yuan-Ti snake woman with intense yellow eyes. Each of them wearing some manner of dress made of rich and colourful fabrics. The air itself filled with the scent of rare oils and perfumes. Everything screamed that there should be a princess living here, yet all I saw were creatures of the savage races.

My jaw nearly hit the floor as I stood there frozen and confused. I must have been in shock for at least a while. Because when I finally snapped back to my senses it was only to find myself sitting on a bedside with a crowd of excited girls chattering about me. The younger Goblin twins excitedly tugging on my cape and prodding various points of my armour curiously, while the Yaun-ti and Kobold bombarded my ears with an onslaught of questions that I couldn’t keep track of replying to. Although the large one, the Orc, was quietly watching from afar and nervously twisting her braids back and forth between her hands.

This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. I was supposed to be the hero who saved the beautiful princess and became a king like the stories of old. It wasn’t supposed to be a room full of...monsters up here. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack. The walls seemed to be closing in, my armour was unbearably hot and heavy, even the room was starting to flow and twist while it spun around me. Perhaps it was something in the air, maybe the girls had used a form of witchcraft on me.

Or maybe it was just the lack of proper rest and no eaten meals for nearly four entire days that caused me to lose consciousness. Yet the fact I awoke without my armour and was tucked securely into a bed overflowing with pillows was the more concerning matter at the time. A concern that was quickly quelled by the hot cup of tea, bowl of soup, and hair braiding offered to my bedridden figure.

Turns out they were all princesses of one kingdom or another, taken years earlier as children and kept locked away to ensure the pacification of their respective lands. The dragon wasn’t even meant to keep anybody away, but rather to keep them trapped here. This entire prison being some kind of cruel idea by our glorious...or...rather less glorious now...Emperor.

So instead of finding some helpless girl to rescue and marry, I was now trapped within a sky-high tower with a group of hostages who hadn’t seen the outside world in years. I was disappointed, to say the least. It really put a knot into my plans to be a classic hero from the legends told amongst the common folk and nobility alike.

But given some days of rest and bedside care from the young women, I felt my strength return. I obliged their requests and told as many stories of the outside as they desired, answered the hundreds of questions they pelted me with, and learned that apparently blue really suited me when they painted my nails. My initial misgivings of them being entirely wrong, and perhaps even bigoted.

Given time I could find a way for us to escape. Although maybe not like in the stories where a lone knight rode out to slay the dragon single-handed. I might have had a sword and some armour, but I still wasn’t insane enough to think that someone the size of an ant in comparison could slay what amounted to a boot dropping from the sky upon them.

But when the princesses mentioned something about a portal on the floor below delivering supplies and gifts each week, it gave me an idea. And kindled memories about a particular wizard who owed me a favour...

A classic princess locked in a tower protected by a dragon, except there's a good reason why this princess is locked away...

[theepolynesian]

Dresses

Summary: Kili tries on a dress.

Warnings: None

Pairings: Kili x Reader

Word Count: 656

Master Lists: Drabbles/Imagines, and Completed Series

The laugh that escapes your mouth is unstoppable as you see Kili look at himself in the mirror.

He was dressed in a rather gorgeous royal blue dress. For some reason, they accentuated his body perfectly. It was a little flat in the chest area, but that was to be expected. It was your dress after all. 

“This doesn’t seem too bad,” he says, twirling around yet again.

You had come home complaining about the tightness of your dress and how they were such a pain, but because you were his wife, you had to wear it. Something about keeping up the royal image.

You almost told Thorin to go shove his royal image where the sun don’t shine, but he had sent you out of the throne room before you had a chance too. He aleady knew your feelings about wearing dress it seemed.

“You can’t really say anything because you’ve literally been in it for ten minutes. I have to wear it the entire day thanks to your Uncle,” you mumble, moving to lay on your front at the foot of the bed.

"Our uncle, love,” he says as he tries to check out his bum and you smile.

“You look better in that dress than I do,” you huff and he sends you a cheeky grin through the mirror.

"I look better than you in anything,” Kili says, going through your dressers.

“That’s not a good thing. There are somethings you shouldn’t look better in,” you mumble as he finds a sock (socks exists because I said so). He begins stuffing the bust area and you can’t help but let out anoter laugh. It takes him about 20 pairs of socks and other material before the bust fills up properly.

He stands in front of the mirror again, this time he tries to get a side view of himself and what he would look like with breasts

. “I would make a lovely darrowdam, if I do say so myself,” he says, turning to look at himself from a different angle.

There is a slight knock before the door opens.

“Y/n, Kili. We-“ Thorin starts, walking into the room with Fili behind him, but he stops as he spots Kili.

Kili’s eyes widen in horror.

He turns around with wide eyes.

Uncle! This is not what it looks like,” Kili tries and Fili snorts.

He looks so constipated trying to hold back his laughs.

Thorin looks to you for an explanation and you shrug, smiling.

He turns back to Kili and closes his eyes, hoping to Mahal that he’s just imagining things. He opens his eyes and nope. Kili is still wearing a dress stuffed with articles of clothing.

“Mahal, why?” Thorin asks, crossing his arms and staring Kili down.

He rubs the back of the his neck.

Y/n, dared me to!” Kili exclaims, pointing an accusing finger at you.

You stand up, putting your hands on your hips. “I did no such thing, you liar,” you reply.

Thorin sighs.

“Kee. Why are you in a dress?” Fili stutters out, face red.

Well, y/n was complaining about how she has to wear them and I, you know, thought I’d try them on to get a feel,” Kili explains, shuffling around. The flutter of the skirt catches his eye and he moves more pointedly, watching the skirts sway back and forth.

“Kili!” Thorin barks, cursing his nephews sort attention span.

Kili stops immediately and you giggle.

"Whenever you’re done with your… experimentation, meet us in the throne room. We have to go over a few things,” Thorin says, turning and walking back out the door.

You watch them both leave, but Thorin pops his head back through the door.

And take that ruddy dress off. You look like your mother,” he says before leaving and you know that that is what broke Fili’s restraint. You hear his laughter echoing through the halls and you decide that wearing dresses weren’t too bad if Kili wore them with you. Even if it was in private.

Tags: @sdavid09 @jotink78

[backseat-imagines]

I hope an assassin series will be a hit! ;) What if the future s/o of the guys (and cor/titus cause I got crushes on them too lmao) were sent by their enemies to kill them but eventually they fall in love in the process?

I hope so too! But then again it’s a fantastic idea so it already is in my book!Also sorry for the time it took. I’ve been here doing this one and I can’t tell you how many times I would go back and rework this and rework and rework and- you get the idea!But seeing as how this scenario has ALL SIX of these characters, it is very long so I will go ahead and put this under a readmore as to hopefully not eat up too much dash space!

  There was a long period of time where Noctis was always tired and sick. At first everyone thought it was maybe a small, contagious illness that he had caught running through the various towns. However they quickly ruled it out when it never spread.   They thought maybe even a case of food poisoning. But yet again only Noctis had been the only one in the entire party that was affected by this. Surely if it was something like food poisoning then it would have hit more affected more in the group, and it wouldn’t have lasted for so long.  The illness hit severe points and several of times it nearly rendered him useless, meaning he was nearly entirely bedridden on multiple occasions (if he wasn’t as stubborn as he is then he likely would have been).  Every now and then it seemed like they were making headway on his sickness. Patches would come in where his fever was down, vomiting far less and able to keep food down, more energetic. But those were always short lived.  And every single time sickness would rear it’s head up- it was always worse than ever before.   Noctis, who remained as stubborn as a Dualhorn, would still refuse to go and be checked over it; saying that he was fine, and that he didn’t need nagged and watched over like he was some child. That he would be over it in no time.  In the meantime, as he fought through hellish fevers (and the night terrors that came with them) and the pain and grossness of it all, he was grateful to still have everyone by his side; both friends and partner.   Gladio would carry him, Prompto would offer to do anything the Prince needed, Ignis was primarily helping him as best as he could in regards to health, and his partner took care of his food and helped clean up after any messes left behind; they all took care of him.  Most of all he was grateful for the fact his partner remained by his side. His friends were used to seeing him at some of his worst, but they were childhood friends. So the fact that they did handle him at his absolute worst of this- well, he figured they were a keeper.  But the one thing he hadn’t known about his partner, something they hid well, was they were never there to help him- no. They were here to claim his life, and they were slowly poisoning it out of him.  At first they took glee in their mission; watching someone who would have been a regal king fall to a state so pitiful and pathetic was almost a delight to them and his suffering served as fuel in the beginning. And every time the group thought he was getting better it was nothing more than them letting him recover just so they could enjoy the cycle being started once more.  However as the time went on things began to change. The more time they spent around him, the more fond they grew. Even when his guts were ready to exit one end or another… he didn’t seem so charmless after all.   Their fondness of him was starting to get to a point where it was making it hard to carry through with the job, where finally it was starting to hurt them more than anything. So they chose a night. It would be the night, the one where it would finally end- they were finally going to overdose him on the poison that they had been spoon-feeding him with this whole time.  Except they didn’t… When the night had come, they couldn’t keep a steady hand or a steady head.  No more. This had to end.  Miraculously Noctis’s illness started to fade, and things went back to how they should have been.  Truly it was a miracle!  And never once did he know. At least not back then. It wasn’t until far later in life that he discovered. Old files left from the Empire that was presented to him. Not something that was entirely unusual. Though the Niflheim’s was no more, things such as this could be useful for the future. After all the best means of prevention was learning from history. But this time it was different.   Included in the files was something he had never expected. As he cracked it opened he was face with a familiar name and an image.  “What?” He was stunned. Noctis hoped that this was a fever dream of sorts, that it wasn’t real. But the pages felt so real has he looked through them, finding information of old mission and the summaries of his, and where they were later labeled M.I.A.  In that moment he felt like the world was ripped right out from under his feet, just as his trust for them was ripped from under theirs.   Could this really be true? But how- why?  The more he looked into it, and the more he thought about it, the more a lot of things began to make since. From their sudden appearance, down to his health declining for a while for some time after meeting them.   As much as it filled him with every kind of negative emotion, right to his very brim, hit bit his tongue and he held the secret close to him. This was a matter to deal with for him and him alone; behind closed doors and with no one to intervene in his questioning. He strode down the halls and stormed into the room they currently presided in, slamming the door open and then shut behind himself.   Before they even so much as had a chance to greet him, he spoke. His voice loud and booming, “What is the meaning of this?”  “What do you-” He tossed down the proof on the table right beside them. The file open and everything staring them in the face.   “Explain yourself.”  Their heart sank and immediately the began to shrink down into themselves; head lowered and their arms raised in front of themselves, fingers fidgeting together.  “Noctis that was a long time ago-”  “I said explain yourself.”  Doesn’t matter what they say or what excuse they use. Nothing will change the torment they gave to him and what they nearly got away with.  If they were lucky, then exile would be the best gift a situation like this could have to offer them.

——————————————–

  Ignis was a sharp man, and he was able to make fools of most. Even if he didn’t intentionally set out to do so. And that’s exactly what he did to them.  There was a pretty penny in it if they nabbed the group. More so alive than dead, though either option was good. But then there was a slight kink in the works.  Once, they had stayed back; watching and observing the group from afar as they schemed. It became apparent who had caught their attention the most.�� They kept a close eye on Ignis, studied him in fact. He was careful and cautious, always watching their backs and seemed to be prepared for everything, including the unexpected- especially the unexpected- and he would be hard to slip by for certain.   The way he fought was certainly a sight to behold. He was a quick one, his daggers near relentless as he pressed forward. But he was also a graceful one; whether in his spear-work and how he could balance himself at the top of it, or how he could backflip his way out of the middle of a pack of monsters while free of fear.   Every last detail of him they took in; how he walked and talked, finding the reasoning for his logic and the patterns behind them, how he laughed, down to noticing all the freckles on his face, the back of his neck and on the rest of any skin he would expose.  Before they ever even had a chance to realize it, infatuation had set it. And when it did that’s when the desire to get closer set in. So that’s what they did.   They approached the group, under the guise of hunter who was coming to their rescued. And by luck they managed to talk their way into accompanying the boys.  And boy that was a mistake- infatuation turned into being lovestruck…  All of the sudden they went from feeling like one of the world’s strongest to feeling as helpless as a chocobo chickling; they weren’t even as quick on their feet anymore now that they always seemed occupied and distracted.   And it was all thanks to Ignis.  The longer this went on, the harder it was becoming. Capturing the whole group would be difficult to the point of impossibility, and killing the entire party was out of the question too. Because killing Ignis was out of the question.   However, because that was going to be a no-go that meant killing the others would be too. It was too risky to get caught with the blood of his friends on their hands. And lord knows their plan of having an ‘accident’ happen in a battle wasn’t going through either.   But nobody was any of any of the wiser to that. Not until…  Ignis thought their behavior to be strange; They became fidgety and more secretive all of the sudden, but it was very slight and minor. Of course it was going to be harder for the others to pick up on but Ignis notices the small things. He trailed off after them, careful to not be seen (especially since they were checking behind themselves frequently; paranoid, even, he would say) until they found a more ‘private’ spot… And in came a call.  “Yes, reporting.” -Reporting? To whom?- A curious thing, indeed. “Not yet. Out of the question. It’s within grasp, but only within certain limits. I would only be able to nab one or two if I was careful. All of them is asking for the impossible. Not unless you let me call in anot- what do you mean?” Before, when they spoke, they tried to keep it hushed. But now their voice was starting to raise; distressed, displeased, even anger was slipping into their tone. “Pull back? Forget the dut- you’re not- Don’t you count me in as a failure without giving me mor- If that’s what you wish… Just realize that where I can’t go, I can make sure you won’t be able to reach for the services of many others too. No, not a threat, but a guarantee. Goodbye.”  As soon as they clicked the button to end the call, Ignis tsked and walked out from behind his hiding spot, “And what do we have here?”  The sound of his voice caught them off guard and made them jump, “Ignis!” They gasp.  And sure enough when they turned around it was him in the flesh- instead of some random person who sounded similar like they had hoped. “So you heard then?”  “And whatever could it have been about, I wonder.” He hums out lowly.  Ignis crosses his arms. A glare so rooted in anger and distrust falls over them.  “You don’t have to say a word,” He says over their silence. “I can venture a good guess.”  “Ignis…”  In hopes of quelling some of his anger (and also partly due to fondness for him) they opened up to him. However it didn’t matter how much they explained, or how they tried to soften the situation; Ignis was still disappointed and galled. Of course. “So that’s all… I don’t suppose you all need a shadow amongst you all still? Could be reeeeal handy.”  “I think not.” He retorted. “After all this do you really think I could hold any credence in your presence? As it is you’re lucky I am willing to let you go, even only if because your affiliation with them has now ended. But don’t ever let me catch you coming back around if you have any more nefarious plans.”   As saddened as they were to hear his words, they understood.   That’s love for you…

——————————————–

  For the longest while, Gladiolus was being left purposefully in the dark.  They didn’t want him to know just who exactly they were, or who they had been. Or how many times they stood awake in the shadows of the night, right at the bedside, ready to cut open that pretty little throat of his before moving on to the next target of the group.  Maybe they haven’t been apart of the group for long, but that didn’t lessen their feelings or take away their cold feet on the job.   At this point it was being stuck in a hard place; quit the job and hope he never finds out, especially in fear of his temper(they didn’t think he would enjoy this news about a near ‘betrayal’ against the group), or hope what was really happening was a mere infatuation and hoping for it to die down quickly so that they could carry through with the mission.  …Besides, it doesn’t exactly look good for a royal guard to be involved with an assassin meant to murder him and the prince he was meant to protect; that’s a story to never tell future kids.  But secrets have a funny way of getting out.  Late in the night the group had been caught outside by daemons, and the long battle started to cross over into the dawn. An imperial airship flew overhead. They all thought it was more trouble coming their way. But the assumption was wrong, and they were thankful that it was.  Instead of trouble, it was a miracle that came; Aranea Highwind’s righteous spear came jetting down, and she impaled the daemon in it’s head. She struck the final blow.  As the fight ended, some of the boys were thanking her for her help. But Gladio’s newest partner stayed back and tried to avoid being noticed.  “Oh, what’s this?” Aranea turned towards them and stepped forward. Despite trying to avoid the attention they certainly got it. “Didn’t expect to find the emperor’s new toy out this way. Don’t tell me, you got tired of the gig too?”  They shot her a glare. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, you must have the wrong person.”  “Oh, alright. I get you. Nothing more than an ordinary denizen too.” Thinking they were a former assassin rather than still a current one, the ex-imperial officer waved her hand and brushed it all off. “Anyways, it’s about time I got leaving.”  With that, Highwind took her leave and the group went back to business as normal. And before anyone new it the night came back in what felt like minutes.  Camp was set up, and right before they went to head into the tent for needed rest Gladio had pulled them aside. “Meet me at the crack of dawn” he said. But he gave no reason as to why he needed them so immediately in the morning.  They did as requested; keeping an eye on the time, in between short naps, from their phone. And when it was getting close to the right time they got up and exited the tent. And lo and behold, Gladio was already waiting outside the tent for them.   “What’s up? You want to spar again or something?” They ask, yawning.  “No. Wanted to just talk.” He states. “So what was that about yesterday?”  “What was what about?” They already knew what he was referring to. But it didn’t mean they wanted to get into this; not now, now ever. But something in their gut told them that things weren’t going to go their way.  “Don’t play dumb with me. It’s about that woman, and what she said.”  “I don’t know.” They quickly brushed it off and gave a small shrug.  Gladio sighed in frustration. “No, you do. With how casually she addressed you and how you looked at her? You both know each other and I don’t appreciate you trying to lie to me. Spit it out; what did she mean by “emperor’s toy”?”  “I’m not going to be able to go anywhere unless I say something, am I?” They grimaced.  “Absolutely not. Now tell me.” He demanded.  “Fine, but promise me you won’t get mad.”  “I’m not going to make any promises.” Gladio growled out. He could already feel his fuse becoming shorter.  “Then I won’t say.”  “Fine, I’ll bite…” He said, rolling his eyes. “I promise.”  “I’ll be honest with you then. Long-story-short; I’m a hired shadow of the Emperor. And I was sent to kill your group and your Prince.” They bluntly stated.  “You what?” Gladio was first taken aback by surprise, his expression pulling up and his eyes widened in shock, but quickly anger took it’s place. He bared his teeth in a sneer. Angrily, he stomped forward and they immediately took one step back.  “Please, listen to what I have to say!” They pleaded.  “Why the hell should I do that?” He took another step towards them. Or rather stomp… It was already hard enough for him to keep himself from sending his sword their way.  “Please quiet down, I don’t want the others to come.”  “As if that would be a bad thin-”  Frustration filling them to the brim, they finally snapped, “Just shut the hell up and listen to me Gladiolus! Give me one fair shake here!”  “You got two minutes before I decide to take the nearest rock to you.” He growled. He stepped back, his stance tense and rigid and he crossed his arms, tapping a finger impatiently against his own skin.  “Try me and I will defend myself and you’ll be maimed! And believe me I don’t want to do that…” He could see the determination in there eyes that told him they weren’t exactly dishing out an empty threat back at him.  “But the story here is I was taken under the wing of a master assassin and trained by the best himself. Trained for years until I was supposed to be worthy enough to start picking up missions, and then one day we had been approached by a man cloaked in white, and another wearing dark clothes and adorned with scarves and a hat.”  “Ideloas and that creep Izunia.” Gladio chimed up.  “Yep. And he came to us requesting our services. Though my mentor refused it for himself, he still pushed me towards it. Encouraging me to take jobs in high places while I had the chance. Though with the handsome reward being offered, I don’t think I could have ever said no. Deliver the Prince’s head on a platter and I could live my life in luxury without having to worry again. Deliver the rest of you and there would be more as bonus.  “Really, you all were supposed to be my first.” Though in retrospect that seemed strange and almost a terrible idea to let someone who would still technically be a beginner this take on something such as this. But in their head they were thanking their master for believing in their abilities.  “I think I would have preferred being a first for something else entirely,” Gladio chuckled at his own joke before taking up a serious tone again, “You’re not exactly doing a great job on convincing me to not just crack that skull of yours open though.”  “Would I be able to do that if I told you I changed my mind?”  “And you expect me to believe that?” Gladio huffed, “You just said you were being offered all the riches in the world, what the hell could possibly sway you from that?”  “You.”  “What do you mean ‘me’?” He said, cocking his brow.  “Because along the way, you became a bigger treasure than any gem, any amount of gil, or any jewelry. Every night we spent together I found myself melting into you more and more to where now I just look at you and I just sigh dreamily. There’s no price in the world that’s worth giving that up.” A slight blush started to creep up onto their face. They couldn’t believe that they were spilling their heart out and in such a… overly cheesy way. Even harder to believe yet was the bad timing in which they were doing this too.  “And if you were telling the truth-”  “I am.” They interrupted.  “Aren’t you worried about what they will do now?” “No. I was trained by the best.” They answered with nothing but confidence in tone and in the way pointed their chin out, almost giving them a smug look. “Aranea might have found me, but the empire won’t; not unless I want them to.”  “I still don’t fully believe you. But I will give you one chance.” Gladio stepped closer to them, placing his hands on their shoulder and leering directly into their eyes. “Don’t make me regret it.”

——————————————–

  Prompto stares up in horror, in complete and utter disbelief of what’s going on.  He’s on the cold ground, unable to even back away. His poor self is already backed to a wall, and he’s face to face with the sharp, cold steel of a blade.  Prompto wants to shout, he wants to cry out. He wants to plead or yell for help. But every word is getting choked up in his throat and he can’t bring himself out of silence.  The sharp tip was already pointed down between his eyes, he was so heavily focused on it and he watched as it (painfully) slowly rose up. And then the blade started to quickly descend-  Prompto’s eyes clenched shut and he shook- this was it! His life was going to be whisked, and he didn’t even have a chance to look at his love one last time, not as they were the one behind the blade- he looked so much like a frightened child…  Clang  There was a loud, ear-piercing sound that came from beside him. His eyes jolted open. And he saw the weapon laying on the ground. Quickly he turned his attention to the one standing before him, and just in time to see them dropping to their knees.  “I can’t do this…” They say, voice cracking more than the cement in Insomnia after the invasion, “I just can’t.”  They began to soak their hands as they hid their face behind their palms, wetting them with the tears that were quickly becoming out of control. They slumped forward.  Prompto’s immediate reaction was to scramble forward onto his knees and comfort them, trying wrap himself around their shoulders and pull them in. He was still at a loss for words, still in an utter daze, but eventually he managed to get something out. “What’s going on?”  In utter disbelief, they couldn’t believe what he was doing. They just outright attacked him… and he’s still not picking up the gun and aiming at them? He’s not bringing them down while they’re vulnerable? And yet he still- “I can’t do this, I just can’t!”  “Do what?” Prompto kept trying to prod answers out.  “Not like this… not like this, I just can’t- I can’t kill you!”  His eyes went wide with shock. Kill… him? “What do you mean kill me? You’re just joking right? Please tell me this is a bad joke, please.”   Even though it was apparent what you had just tried to attempt, a piece of him had hoped that somehow this was just a bad prank, or an unexpected form of rough-housing. Just anything to explain this away…  “No Prompto!” They shoved him off. “I’m not fucking playing around, don’t do this to me!”  So many thoughts racing through his mind and it was hard to grab for just any single one. His lips kept moving like he was ready to say something, he was stuck like this for a few minutes until he finally blurted something out, “But why?”  “Why? You’re the empire’s lost little play thing! And since they can’t have you, I was supposed to get rid of you!” They barked at him and gave him a look of fury.  But then their anger settled back down into a pained expression. They were trying to not let sadness spill over, trying to repress and hold back the water forming in their eyes, and by The Six they were trying their hardest not to- but it was too hard. “But I- you- just- There’s no way. For as someone so sweet, who’s smile could cut through the darkness… You didn’t even fight back against me for lord’s sake. And you’re far too harmless to someone like me- You’re too kind of a person for your own good.  “Even if I hadn’t fell and let my own personal feelings about you settle in; it’d still take a special kind of monster to bring themselves to actually do this.”  The longer they spoke the closer their voice got to a whisper. And they bowed their head in shame, “And I can’t bring myself to be so heartless…”  Though Prompto’s trust of them was starting on the downswing of dwindling, he knew it in his heart that he could trust their words to be true this time and not a ploy to put him back off his guard. No one fakes remorse this well, he thought as he looked them over. They looked on the verge of breaking.  And he has so many questions he wants to ask, so many thoughts running through his head. Does he try to make a quick and sudden getaway? Does he try to reason through this? Should he tell the others? What’s going to happen now? He means- he knows that the small thing that they both just started going is out the window now. But what will happen here? What does this mean for him and the rest of them. What about…  “So if you’re a… what’s going to happen now?” He asked, though he feared the answer.  “Prompto, don’t you ever mention this to the others!” They suddenly lunged for him with a look of pure mortification, and grabbed him by the shoulders. They shook him frantically as the words kept rolling out. “Don’t ever say a word about this! Not to the guys, not to anyone! And I promise you I won’t have to touch a pretty hair on that head of yours. Promise me you won’t tell a soul!”  Prompto felt like he had no other choice than to nod along and agree.   “Good. I just- time I need some time!” Eyes darting around, as they searched their thoughts their grip on him loosened and released him. “I need to go!”  “Go? Are you really just leaving? Don’t I get to ask questions or have closure?”  “You can, but let me go back. I’ll go back, I’ll report in my failures. I’ll take the punishment, and I will get myself reassigned to something else. And then I’ll come back. I’ll come back, and I will hold off any force that tries to hurt you. Just wait for me and I’ll prove myself; you will wait for me right? Please?”  He says nothing, but he nods. He wants to ask if he even has a choice. He wants to question if he even has the option to question them. Something in his gut told him no, he never would. But would it even matter?  What’s done is done. No matter what they do now, he’ll always remember this. He’ll always flinch at the next sudden move they make; expecting the blade to be back in their hands and lunging for him. But that’s if he even has them stick around.  He thought the thing they had going was good, or he used to, but now that might have been founded on top of mere lies. He wants to be able to trust them- to give them the benefit of the doubt- but can he really?   The longer he thought, the more doubtful he became, and the less he could even trust them to keep to that word. Gods the apprehension tugging away at the back of his mind.  And now he’s left with so many questions he feels like he won’t be able to pry out the answer to.  What did they mean “Empire’s Plaything”?  And when should he tell the others? If… If he told…

——————————————–

  Cor waits in the confines of home for them. Patiently.  He sits and ponders; there’s a lot of thoughts and a lot of emotions to sort through now that he’s found a certain new piece of information.  None too long ago, he had been looking around the home in search of files that the hunters HQ had given to him; reports of creatures already taken care of, where the latest sightings of behemoths and mischievous cactuars. And it also had contained information of places that recently became “trouble spots”; places that were getting an unusual surge in daemons and abnormally strong ones at that.  It was important information he needed to track back down. After all his duty wasn’t with just the King and Kingdom but also to the people. He fought to keep the people as safe as he could in any way possible.  Initially he thought he may have misplaced it. But then he remembered that the last he had seen it was when he had momentarily handed it off to his partner.   Knowing it wasn’t the first time that his stuffed had managed to find it’s way into theirs, he went to search through their stuff. And as he peeked through their desk drawer he found something that took him by surprise; a somewhat aged letter with the seal of the enemy placed on it. And the orders-  He’s a member of the Crownguard; it made his skin thick and has taught him to always expect the unexpected. But even this caught him off guard. And now he’s ready to kick himself because he should have known better. He was a Crownsguard, he was The Immortal, and everyone wanted him dead and he should have been more careful and should have known better than to trust so readily.  But it was too late to beat himself up over this now.  The front door creaks open and he hears their voice calling out “I’m home” before they enter into the room he’s waiting in.  “There you are! How was you-”  “We need to talk.” He sternly interrupts.  Immediately they know something is up- he’s so much more serious in look and tone than usual. And he can ready the apprehension on their face. “Okay? Is something the matter?”  “Yes as a matter of fact.” He pauses briefly, sharply inhaling and slowly exhaling as he prepared to just get through this. “You would have me killed and my head served on a platter to the empire.” Cor tries his best to remain calm sounding, though there is an unmistakable anger in his voice. But it’s the anger he’s trying his best to hold back; anger is something that would cloud his vision, and today was not a day he wanted to create a new regret.  Their eyes go wide in shock. It doesn’t even take a whole second for them to figure out that he knows. “I- what are you-” They try to feign their confusion and attempt at bringing any doubt out of him to escape from having this talk, but Cor doesn’t let them.  “There is no use in beating around the bush; I know everything.”  “So then you found… I’m not sure how but I’m afraid you still don’t know the entirety of this.”  His hand tightly curls into a fist. “Then enlighten me.”  “I’ll admit it. When I was first sent in, I had every intention of killing you. It’s what they wanted, it’s what they were going to pay me for.”  “But why have you not? After all this time? Were you just using me to feed information to the empire then?” Depending on their answer, Cor was already getting ready to make a final choice. If that was the case, and if they really had been demoted to spying on him then all hesitation was going to be tossed to the wind.  “I was just rolling around to that, if you’d let me speak.” They sighed, “They wanted me to trail after you, and I won’t lie about the fact they wanted me to kill you horrifically; disembowel you and slit your throat, or skin you, behead you- it didn’t matter.” Cor grimaced at the details. He’s seen a lot of gruesome things in his life, but to imagine being on the receiving end of that… “You were going to be a message. But the trouble was getting you in a place where you’d be alone, and without your guard being up. And I swear, with you that’s impossible. Even in your sleep you probably would have slaughtered me.  “So the only option was to try and get close to you. But there ended up being one problem.”  Cocking a brow, Cor went to inquire, “And what would that be?”   “In trying to do so, I fell for you.” His stern gaze softened, “I joined up. I fell in love with the legend. And in befriending that legend, I fell in love with the man.”  “And then you couldn’t do it?”“By the Six, no! Every time I even so much thought of it, my hands would begin to shake and I found myself becoming unsure and, dare I say, upset. I’d find myself stressing out and losing sleep because what was I supposed to do? As if the other side would take too kindly to me failing the mission- but I couldn’t kill the man I grew to love.” They paused, and took a slow and deep breath before continuing on. “The man I saw a future with, that I wanted a future with… I can’t kill someone who holds my heart in his palms.  “Maybe I should have told you sooner, been more honest with you. But I was so afraid in doing so. I didn’t want to lose you… But I promise you, that’s all behind me. I left all that behind a long time ago! You don’t have to trust me, but I do promise that I could never bring myself to attempt harming you, or giving you away!”  “Maybe you do mean that, maybe not.” Shaking his head, Cor began to step away. The disappointment in his tone was still evident, and his expression cold and vexed. But behind those blue eyes they saw the melancholy that was hidden behind them.   Cor felt more than he was ever going to let on and that they knew. And frankly, if the situation was reversed they can’t say they’d be taking this any better than was now. They were lucky they were still standing where they were. They knew this was far from over though.   They watched Cor move for the door. “I’ll need my time and space to think about this.”  He was in desperate need of being left alone to a quiet where he could collect his thoughts to where he could figure out the next step in all of this.  Though it was a response that could never put a smile on their face, it was a more realistic one and and ultimately the best they could have asked for. They nodded in return of his answer.  “I understand.”

——————————————–

  Another skirmish had started on the toes of Lucis, none too far from the capital no less.  The Glaives had been contacted and deployed. However, things proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Captain Drautos would be unable to stay on the sidelines and serve to guide his squadron.   No- This time, instead of overseeing the others and commanding them on the field, to guide them all back to safety to the best of his ability. Things were bad enough to pull Titus out onto the front lines.  As he ran through he found Glaive after Glaive left on the ground. Defeated- but yet so many were still warm and breathing. Peculiar. Most enemies would rather outright kill or take the ones left living as prisoners. So why were there so many left breathing- or at least why were Glaives being left while other forces and citizens were cold and lifeless?  Up none too far ahead Titus could hear scuffling and the sound of metal scraping against metal, and following was two hard heavy thuds of what sounded like something heavy being thrown down. People, he guessed.  And Titus’s gut wasn’t wrong. It never was.  As soon as he rounded the alley corner, he found two more of his men down on the ground. And one lone figure stood there, hidden in the cover of the darkness that the buildings cast, and their face shadowed over by the hood they wore.   Though he couldn’t see any feature of theirs, he could feel their eyes on him. Staring him down. Not moving- it was like they expected him to make the first move.  Titus gave a half-cocked smirk; if that’s what they wanted then he’d give them exactly that.  Before they had chance to cause anymore damage to another one of his unit, Titus drew his blade and engaged them in battle.   Long, grueling and tiring- something about this seemed so familiar to him but yet he couldn’t place it. Something was off about all of this.  Metal screeched as the two were locked in place together, trying to fight for dominance of the situation; it was anyone’s game now and it all came to a matter of whose strength could give out first, which defense was broken first and whose blade could finally make full contact. But that was ended as soon as Titus found his opening and manage to repel them and swept them aside, knocking the unknown enemy to the ground.  He stepped closer to them. The hood of his enemy had finally slid down and -”it’s you?”- it was one of his own. One of his own Glaives and it was the one who he kept repeated dragging back for “overtime” for long nights and seeing in secret out in the streets of Lucis.  So that’s why the fight felt familiar… He knew he recognized their style, and it was from previous sparring sessions.  Surprised was he in this turn of events. But the surprises of this betrayal faded into a sneer.  “Looks like I could lure you out. But too bad I don’t have bite to back that up- or the will.” They muttered, more to themselves rather than him.  “When you said you were a person of mystery, this was the last thing I had figured you to be.”  Still on the ground, they laid back and rested their weight onto their elbows, “Well, you can’t say there wasn’t some kind of warning.”   The Glaive captain stepped forward, and lifted his blade towards them and let the sharpness rest against the flesh of the underside of their jaw. Still glaring down at them. “What did you ever hope to accomplish?”  “I don’t know. Renown, fortune, an earned place to keep? Maybe something else or maybe for no reason at all. Why should I tell?”  “You have never been one to do something without reason. But if you don’t wish to answer than I’ll-”  “What? Strike me down in anger? Should you really be so mad towards me? After all you play the same game.”  Titus cocks a brow, “What is it you imply?”“What do I imply?” They chuckle as they shake their head, “You tell me that, Lord Glauca.” They watched his face distort; Titus was completely consternated. After all this time he had been so careful to conceal that identity from everyone, and yet somehow it was out there and- when did they find out? “Did I touch a nerv-”“Be silent!” He spat, pressing up just slightly further and making cold steel dig lightly into the skin of their neck.  “Why? Don’t worry Titus, I swear the secret will go no further. I won’t damn you for it either. For hearth and home, right?” They asked, “Well, it’s for hearth and home for me too.”  Lowering his blade, though not his guard, he prodded them for answers. In which they told him their story. “-but I guess I’ll spill my guts figuratively before you do literally; you can take pride that you’re name is out there well enough for someone to what your head delivered on their doorstep.”  Giving nothing more than a tilt of his head, he muttered out an “Oh?”  “Someone was willing to pay enough to buy a whole private island just for someone to take down the leader of the Glaives- just for one of Lucis’s defense branches to be knocked down entirely.”  “And I suppose you were the one hired for the job…” He earned a nod in response.  But Titus was no fool. His gut was telling him there was something up. He didn’t train up an idiot and whoever wouldn’t have hired one.“You hesitated too much,” And it was the truth. They had plenty of opportunities on him, especially during this squabble, “Why?”  “Because you’re lucky enough to be so handsome.” The alleyway filled with echoes of their own hearty laughter. They always found something to laugh at no matter the time or situation. Even if they had to make it themselves.  But then they began to speak up again. “The same reason you did.” They began, “For hearth and home. And you were becoming my hearth and home. That’s why I wasn’t killing the other Glaives; if I couldn’t pull through then I didn’t want to do too bad of damage.”  Nothing but silence on the wind that the two shared between them. No weapon raised or pressed to their throat, still pointed at the ground. He looked down at them as if he was judging, and they awaited his answer with a stare of indifference.   “So answer me this, my captain…” Their hand started to slide a little closer to where their weapon had fallen, “Where does that leave us now?”

[berthastover]

How to Increase Travel Website Bookings, Automatically

Working in seasonal industries like travel and hospitality is challenging to say the least. You’ve either got tons of people making reservations on your site or hardly any, forcing you to constantly review your marketing budget spending. The good news is it doesn’t always have to be like this. What I’m about to show you is how you can increase your travel website bookings throughout the whole year, with the use of marketing automation.

 Why bother with the technology

Let’s first look at the why, not the how. Why bother about any of the tools like email marketing, marketing automation, social media, and what not? The answer is quite simple.

We’re all people. We’re physically not able to be in the office 24/7. We’ve got hobbies, friends, families, and whether you believe it or not – we even sometimes need to catch up on sleep. It’s also not efficient to hire more people to get them to do everything you’re doing, if it’s something a simple piece of software could do instead. Especially if it’s at a fraction of the cost of employing someone new.

Marketing automation, just like the name implies, is meant to help you become more efficient by automating some of your recurring marketing activities. Which ones exactly? I’ll talk about that in the next section.

Is it worth it though? Marketing automation messages have long been praised for delivering an even higher engagement rates than email. And email marketing has been rated as the most effective online marketing channel in our recent study.

Of course, these channels can’t be separated. You have to sync them, and make them work together. Let’s now dive into the ways travel and hospitality industries can benefit from using email and marketing automation technology to increase website bookings all year round.

 10 steps to increasing travel website bookings

 Onboard new users and track their behavior.

First of all, I’m going to assume that you’re already building an email list.

If you’re not, here’s a quick ebook that will help you get up to speed with this task:  21 ways to build your email list.

Now if you’re building a list, it’s most probably through an online form where a user has to fill in their contact details, such as email, name, and maybe their city. That’s some data to start with.

When someone signs up to your list, they should receive an automatic welcome email or even a whole onboarding series. Why? First of all, to show your gratitude that someone entrusted you with their personal details. Secondly, to start building a strong relationship and guide them to the most important places on your site, e.g. where they can place a reservation or find the answers to the most frequently asked questions.

In your welcome emails, you can also include some of your best offers from different categories – short-term weekend trips, last-minute deals, vacation rentals, and so on. Make them short, beautiful, and actionable, so your subscribers click through to your site.

The main purpose of all of this is to onboard new customers, i.e. get them to engage with your website and get them used to it. It’s also to start tracking them. To collect the data about their preferences and use it later to present them with offers they’ll find relevant.

  Segment them based on the purpose of their stay.

 The next thing you should do is to mark down the purpose of your customers’ stay. Why did they decide to choose this location and this particular time? Was it for business or a short out-of-town trip with the family? Or maybe a weekend trip with friends?

Their reasons might be different and to make your claim effective, you have to appeal to what’s really important for them. So make sure you mark these differences down, then target your campaigns accordingly, i.e. adjust the visuals, copy, and timing of your emails and paid ads – you’ll definitely get more bang for your buck!

  Segment your customers based on their past choices.

If you want to communicate even more effectively, then you need to pay close attention to what your customers choose when they book with you.

Take, for example, the room type that they chose. Was it a premium penthouse, a budget option, or maybe a room with a view of the pool? Then go beyond that. Did the customer ask for a smoker friendly room or optional breakfast, did they use the spa lounge?

Or think about the hotel itself, what makes it so special? Maybe it’s located next to the highway? Or it’s the opposite – it’s secluded, deep down in the middle of a national park, surrounded by trees and beautiful scenery?

Information like this can help you build a rich customer profile. Just tag your customers in the system according to the choices they’ve made, and target them with the right offer next time they’ll be thinking of traveling out of town.

 Target them when the time’s right.

 When looking closely at your customers, I’m sure you’ll find some other characteristics that will help you divide them into a number of useful segments. One example I haven’t discussed yet is the preferred time of the year they choose for traveling.

Some like to travel in winter – they love skiing, snowboarding, or just sunbathing while seated comfortably on a sunbed next to the slopes. Others might be into the summer season – lying on a beach, swimming in the ocean, or walking around the ancient town of Rome in the scorching sun.

These preferences should help you personalize the communication better and send it at the right time of the year. Take into consideration not only when people choose to travel, but also when they’re making the initial decision to go on a trip. Perhaps they have to notify their boss ahead of time, before they can plan time off. Or maybe they’re working in an industry that only allows them to leave on vacation in a particular month?

Take this information, tag your customers, and schedule your ad campaigns ahead of time. Present the images that relate to the type of a trip they might be most interested in, send newsletters that go in line with them, and convert customers efficiently.

  Retrieve them when they’ve shown interest.

Cart abandonment is a challenge that not only online stores have to face. Your travel website most definitely experiences it too – visitors who search through the offers, look into a few that they like the most, compare them, are about to make a reservation, but in the end decide not to do it. Perhaps they need to talk it over with their partner or call up their friends to see what their plans are. Whatever the reason, you should try to get them back onto your site.

If someone’s already made it through your site, got familiar with it, or maybe even booked with you in the past – you have to give it a try and win them back. To get this done, you should get familiar with remarketing, through email, SMS, or paid ads.

Send automatic messages and follow up with your audience after they’ve left your site without making the reservation. In some cases, you should send more than one cart abandonment email to get the best results, other times one will be enough.

In terms of displaying retargeting ads, you have to test what’s going to work best – you can, for example, show ads to your visitors for 2-3 days, then pause them for two weeks, and show them again for 1 day only, but just for those people whose trip is still some time away. This way you’ll only spend a fraction of the cost you spent acquiring the lead in the first place, and will get a second chance to convert them when they’re likely still interested in the offer.

  Keep the location in mind.

Answer this one for me. How often do you actually travel? If you do it for business, chances are that even multiple times every month. If you do it for leisure, then maybe just a few times per year, for a couple of days, and then only once for a longer trip.

Now does that mean that the second group shouldn’t get any communication from you throughout the entire year, and only receive emails before their chosen season starts? Let me answer that for you – of course not.

The fact that your customers won’t be traveling anywhere far away for most of the year, doesn’t mean they won’t be keen on going out of town somewhere nearby. Offering them something that’s just a few hours’ drive or a short plane-trip away from their location, can motivate them to plan a short, spontaneous, and fun trip!

That’s why you should keep the location of your customers in mind. This way you’ll stay relevant and get a chance to help them plan a trip to get out of the office once in a while. Some even say that planning is the best part of the trip, so why not try it out a few times a year?

  Reward loyalty.

People like to be treated like they’re VIPs. They want to be appreciated by other people and brands they interact with. That’s why if you want to truly engage with your audience, you need to show that you care about them.

Take a look at how often your returning customers book with you. There are probably some who haven’t made their first booking yet, but there’s a chance that there are also those, who keep coming back. They’re the repeat buyers who are loyal to your brand. But for how long? That depends on you.

Even if you don’t have to keep winning them back, it’s nice to show that you reward loyalty. Offer your loyal customers something special, loyalty points that they can exchange for discounts, free room upgrades, or maybe other great deals nobody else would get. This way your customers will stay happy and keep coming back. And who knows? Maybe they’ll recommend your service to others, because a happy customer is the best type of advertising you can get.

  Ask for reviews and remind users of the good memories.

Another way to get people engaged is to ask them to review their recent stay and share their opinion with others who plan to book a place with you. It’s got a number of clear benefits for which you should pursue this method, so read on.

First of all, you’ll get another chance to interact with the customer. If they were happy with their stay, they can share their opinion, which might convince others to book a stay with you. At the same time, while they’ll be re-living the great experience, they might even feel inspired to book another stay!

On the other hand, if they weren’t completely satisfied, then you’ll have a chance to alter their experience and win them back. Offer them something extra, answer their concerns, and make it a success story. Others will see it and it might just make them see you as a trustworthy brand.

To get this done, you can create a simple automated email workflow asking for an opinion. If they leave feedback – great, thank them and maybe even serve them something special in return. If they don’t, try one or two more emails a week or two later. Don’t overwhelm them, but do make sure they know how long it takes to leave the review and what the benefits of doing so are.

Getting reviews has another advantage. You can use your customers’ opinions and remind them of those good memories some time in the future. Let them know six to nine months later it’s time to brush the dust off their suitcases. Maybe you can even say how many people have liked and thanked for their previous review. This way they’ll know that it’s worth leaving their feedback and that they’re part of a great community!

  Send automatic trip reminders.

People get anxious before traveling. They’re worried that they’ll forget something or that something might be wrong with their booking, costing them their precious time and energy. If you want to dazzle your customers, you’ll want to take that into consideration and reassure them that everything’s going to be just fine.

To do this, you should get your customers prepared for their upcoming trip. Send them automatic reminders – check-in hours, directions from the airport or the city center, and their booking summary. You can also send something extra, e.g. a handy guide on what to do in the area, or a list of events that are happening at that time. Trust me – they’ll appreciate that!

Also, keep in mind that your customers are traveling. Be it locally or from abroad, they probably won’t have access to their laptop but they’ll be using their mobile phone instead. Make sure that your emails and website are responsive, so they can access all the important information at any time. And if you have an app they can use to check in quickly, make sure that they can download t before they arrive!

   Use content marketing.

Hospitality and travel industries are competitive markets. It’s not enough to just have the lowest prices to get people to book with you.

First of all, you need to get found online. That means you need to invest in SEO and paid advertising. If you’re going to focus on search engine optimization, it’s very likely that you’ll also look into content marketing. Reasonably so, too.

Content marketing can help you not only get found – as content ranks well in search engines – but also convert those who actually find you. A blog full of guides and articles around traveling, talking about interesting places to see, and inspiring them with beautiful photos is something that can be much more powerful than a simple discounted offer.

Other than having a blog, you should consider making videos or recording a podcast – either as a guest or on your own, if you can afford spending the additional time on such a project. If not, maybe consider sponsoring one that’s already attracted an audience full of avid travelers – this way you’ll put your brand right in front of your target audience.

If you do those, don’t forget about all the other marketing learnings you’ve gained so far. If you’re running a blog or a podcast, then collect a list of email addresses. Send them automatic RSS email reminders about new episodes, and invite them to join the conversation and share their photos with others. If you manage to build a community, you’ll see that they’ll be booking with you not just for the price, but for the entire experience.

  Share your thoughts with us!

Now that you’ve gone through these 10 steps to getting more reservations on your travel website throughout the whole year, it’s time to reflect. See what you’ve done in the past and whether you can implement these activities into your own strategy.

If you’ve had success with any of them already, then let me and other readers know by leaving a comment below. If you haven’t, but wish to know more about a particular step, then simply ask – we’re all here to learn and share our experiences.

Have a safe trip!

Related posts

Customer Retention – The Lost Art (And Science) Of Marketing

3 Easy Steps to Boost Summer Bookings – Without Blowing Your Budget!

The post How to Increase Travel Website Bookings, Automatically appeared first on GetResponse Blog - Online Marketing Tips.