#we like a little bit of perspective in this household

[babeyknife]

fun thing to do with your spotify wrapped minutes: divide by 480,960 to find out what percentage of your year you spent listening to music

[igotanidea]

Stuck: Anthony Bridgerton x wife!reader

A/N: seriously, I almost titled this chapter "idiot" , XD (and that's also the spoiler alert XD)

part 1 to too much

part 2 : not enough

part 3 : almost there

***

One year ago

„When will you get those irrational thoughts out of your head Y/N?”

“What irrational thoughts?”

“About marriage out of love. No such thing exist in the world, my dear and if you do not start living in reality you shall become a spinster!”

“Mother!” Y/N’s eyes grew wide at the harsh and unjust words. She was still so young and to almost be called an old maid—

“Do not raise your voice young lady. You shall marry this season otherwise you would be putting our noble house in a very compromising position.”

“But-“

“Ah! Do not object your mother Y/N. You’ll do as I say. I know what’s best for you and you shall follow the lead. And that is precisely why you’ll accept when Lord Bridgerton proposes to you.”

“Lord Bridgerton!? Which one!?”

“The viscount, dear.” Her mother fluttered her fan imperiously. “Lord Anthony Bridgerton.”

“There is no possibility that I-“

“Hush!”

“Mother I –“

“You’ll say yes.” The tone of voice became much more commanding, leaving no space for discussion. It was like Y/N’s fate has already been decided.

“And why shall I? Because the viscount has decided he has enough pleasantries exchanged with modistes and actresses and other ladies free of the burden of the title. Because mighty Lord Bridgerton decided it is time to tie bounds with a young noble lady, who will be naïve and foolish enough to look at his antics without as much as a blink of an eye. Who will – dear lord – bear him an heir to the title and be the perfect little wife he would order around.”

“Y/N Y/L/N!” her mother raised from the chaise longue with cheeks flushed due to her daughter impertinence. “You will accept the proposal!”

“I will not!”

“Your father has already made the appropriate commitments!”

“Commitments!?”

“You shall be courted like a young lady should and get married in the fall.”

“Mother!”

“It has been decided. Now, you go and make yourself presentable. Lord Bridgerton has announced his visit in the afternoon.”

***

The visit was a disaster, to use the light words.

It was clear as day that neither Anthony nor Y/N were fully content with this arrangement and subconsciously tried to discourage the other. That way, when one of them would actually break it off, said one would be to blame for the disgrace, that would undeniably fall on both families.

However-

Despite some many character discrepancies they were both pertinacious and individualistic, ready to go the greatest length to have one’s own way. Neither of them was even thinking of surrendering easily.

Therefore, during his first appointment as a suitor Anthony was met with cold stares, minimum exchange of words and very noticeable distance on his future bride’s part.

Immediately matching the atmosphere and repaying in kind, only doubled in intensity.

Getting burned with the tea in response.

Causing a lot of havoc, many fake words of apologies and even more words of assurance that is must have been an unfortunate accident and he holds no grudge.

For obvious reason the time spend in L/N;s household was cut extremely short and Y/N was send to bed without supper to think about her erratic behavior.

Next few visits were no better.

Especially not the one when Anthony and Y/N were to reveal to a wide audience the nature of their acquaintance by strolling on the promenade, beaming with happiness due to their soon-to-be marriage.

“Dear lord, you are to be enthusiastic.” Anthony hissed in Y/N’s ear grabbing her arm with a bit more force than needed “Smile.”

She put on a fake grin when they were passing by some familiar face, but as soon as the woman was gone she turned to Anthony throwing daggers at him.

“Giving me orders already, Lord Bridgerton?”

“Hopefully you can be tempered if we start getting you used to it this early.”

“Oh! Perhaps it should be you to change the perspective my lord. See the real face of a lady you decided to meet at the altar?”

“And here I though your wonderful mother raised you better.”

“Do not dare speak of my mother the ill way!” she almost yelled, almost yanking her hand free from his grip, stopping the walk and challenging him to do something reckless.

“Forgive me.” He became serious in an instant and the words of apologies actually seemed honest. “You are right, I overstepped.”

“Thank you.” She responded with a deep sigh. God knows how much it took for her to stay calm. Regardless of the on-going conflict and differences in views between Y/N and her mother, the young woman would never let anyone offend her family. Not even Lord Bridgerton. And he should know that straight away.

“Perhaps we have started off the wrong foot, Lady Y/L/N.”

“I believe so. Seemingly we have a way to bring out the worst in each other, Lord Bridgerton.”

“Is that a way to tell me I have already seen you on your lowest behavior?”

“Compliments, Lord Bridgerton, you have endured my greatest efforts to cause you dispiritedness.” Despite herself she let out a chuckle.

“I am known for my endurance even in the least favorable circumstances.”

“I shall keep on my efforts, nonetheless.”

“I am deeply convinced that this will be the case”

***

Dearest gentle reader,

It has come to this writer’s attention that the affection between Viscount Bridgerton and young lady Y/L/N is in full bloom.

Despite the initial misunderstandings and noble behavior, that hasn't deceived any member of the ton, even if have been well played, recent news and observation has shown that maybe there's less pretending and more truth to it. 

Much to the ton’s discombobulation, young pair has been seen laughing together while the viscount resorted to courting in the way that resemble his late father and Lady Violet Bridgerton manner.

This writer daresay that no elite member would have ever do as much as dream of Lord Anthony Bridgerton picking meadow flowers for his chosen one while walking in the fields, away from prying eyes. Neither anyone would ever think about the forever dreamer lady Y/l/n actually so close to fulfilling her dream of marrying out of love. Irrational thoughts, as someone may put.

It is yet to be decided whether the on-going courtship between lord Bridgerton and lady Y/L/N will be a source of impending scandal in the society or whether those two will actually succeed in keeping this lovable atmosphere for following years.

After all – real love is not easily found and even less easily kept once the obstacles arise.

***

Now.

“You are to be enthusiastic.” Anthony murmured taking Y/N;s arm and bowing to the passing nobles “Smile.”

Those words brought back some memories and she couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony of the history that was in fact repeating itself.

“What is so funny?”

“Your memory does seem so be failing my lord. Won’t you remember the last situation when you told me to express my happiness and contentment to the ton?”

“I—” Anthony cut off, letting out a deep, frustrated sigh.

“Seem like you do after all.”

“Y/N…”

“Been a while since I had to pretend I was content though, given the fact that I truly was, of late.” The hint of sadness and melancholy was not to miss and did not make it easier for Anthony to pursue on the apologies he was tirelessly pursuing.

“Y/N…”

“Good job on choosing the right name since the person, whose hand you are now holding for display seem to be too much for you, my lord. To say the full truth I am fairly surprised you chased me here instead of focusing on spending time with one of your-“

“Don’t you finish that sentence.”

“Oh, I shall not, god forbid. I shall keep the pretenses as any lady married into a good family will.” She send the brightest smile to some kids that were running around, preached by their parents, holding her walls up.

At this point, mockery and distancing herself from the entire unfortunate events, if not fight, was the only way to prevent the emotional and mental breakdown and falling into tears. She was hurt. She was deeply hurt on a level she never thought existed. Anthony’s behavior hit precisely in all the sensitive spots, leaving her overthinking and wailing inside. Reminding her of all the years in her family’s household, being forced to act according to the standards, which she constantly broke, defying all the rules of ossified society and paying a heavy price for being herself despite the odds.

Being called too much, constantly.

Until she met Eloise, which was freeing. Y/N could finally feel like herself, spending a lot of time with Bridgertons.

And then meeting Anthony.

And actually creating a happy story with him, believing she would once and for all be free of the typecasting and tag putting.

But he started behaving in the same way to which she was exposed her entire life.

Too much.

Not enough.

And it made her angry.

“Please do forgive me for not easily being shaped in the wife you want me to be.”

“Shaped? I never wanted you any different!”

“Is that so?” she raised an eyebrow teasingly and it got her furious glance of her husband’s and the tightening bruising grip on her wrist. “you’re hurting me. Again.” The emphasis put on the last word actually made Anthony realize that he was not made of stone, but the words he wished to say were not coming easily.

“Y/N…” he clenched his jaw. She was mocking and challenging him even now, when he was trying to admit he was wrong and trying to apologize for the wrongdoings.

“Yes, my lord?” she took a step back, smiling in that light way that made him even more furious.

 “I believe you wanted to spend time on an intellectual conversation with my sister. Forgive me-“ he bowed in a distant manner reserved for strangers rather than spouses “-for being as impertinent to interrupt ladies’ time. I shall withdraw and leave you to continue on your – surely important- exchange”

And with those words, much to the shock of not only Y/N, but also Benedict and Eloise, who were still following them, Anthony bowed again and started walking away, raising clouds of dust due to the speed with which he rushed off from the place where he left his beloved wife.

Feeling the weight of failure and heartbreak on his shoulders, without a single way to make up for his mistake and keeping the face of a viscount at the same time.

Convinced that she hated him and there was no way to regain her favor and affection.

next part (finale!) : Just right

@pietrawebster @chrissisheadisinclouds @fuzzym4m4 @gloomysel @urfavnoirette @dd122004dd @milkbummm @bevstofu @taniasethi @syraxnyra @christinabae @pandoraneverland @bevstofu @topguncultleader @jana-jaeynneee @myaa21212121 @ziarah @cat-lockwood @leaf-rose-thorn @elissanatok @lily3450 @nervousmumbling @budugu @frickin-bats @sillyfreakfanparty @amberpanda99 @nycthophiliaa @myaa21212121 @bananaadeleigate @everybodystaycalm @fmhcatt @sankareatheundead @cat-lockwood @1potato2rulethemall

[blairwaldcrf]

@lyinoptimist On why Louis is a better character with a richer story because of the way they brought race into the show:

[captioned: I agree with his Interview with the Vampire take, and it's not just that I care more that they're black, it's that I care more that they are black in a world where the creators know that they are black and write the story accordingly.

I remember when they cast Jacob Anderson to play Louis in this story a couple years ago and people were confused and nervous and a little bit angry as to why they cast this black man to play a character, who at least in the original story was a plantation owner that owned slaves & let them go I think eventually, but still it's like "what is this choice that you're making?" and the creators were like "no, no we know what we did".

And so now Louis like owns a brothel instead, and it's like Creole and like down in Louisiana 1920s, and you're like, "Oh, that's a pretty solid adaptational choice."

And I think ultimately the decision makes Louis look a lot more relatable, and also makes the story a lot more relatable because at least it would be harder for me to recommend this story if old Louis was the one I was telling you was in this really great show. It's like, "yeah... but he owned slaves...", you know what I mean?

It's just one of the things where it's not something I have to get into with other black fans who are really into like fantasy stuff who maybe don't want to engage in that sort of like problematic content.

Beyond Louis and Claudia being black and then Armand being like South Asian, it also gives us a really interesting look into different readings of the text now that the characters playing it are adapted in this way. This happens a lot in season one remember... like, because Lestat makes both Louis and Claudia he can no longer read their minds, but Louis and Claudia can still read each other's minds. And so in this kind of familial dynamic they've established for themselves, Louis and Claudia have this literal telepathic understanding that Lestat will just never be privy to and you can kind of read into that. It's like a metaphor for their relationship being with two black people in the household and then moving through the world and understanding the world in a way that is just different from Lestat. There's an underlying racial anxiety to Louis and Lestat's relationship that makes it, you know, more complex and like more fun to watch.

Season two there's less of it, but you have things like racialized trauma being used as the backbone for the trauma that the characters are experiencing to both highlight how horrific the things they're going through actually are.

Like Armand and his like, being sexually abused as a child in that specific way very much has the connotation of like, this happened to him because he was a vulnerable brown child and this very powerful white vampire came--presumably, i don't know who they're gonna cast but i was reading into it--came by and did this to him. And it's like, okay yeah, that complicates that dynamic a bit more.

Same thing with the execution that happens to Louis, Claudia, and Madeline at the very end of the season which is very reminiscent of, like-- Claudia even calls it a stoning but I would also argue that there's, like, elements of, like lynching to it, right?

Like, it's very horrific in a very relatable way to Black people, which I think it's drawing upon that but it's not necessarily like glorifying it in that way in order to like make the point that it wants about like, the tragedy that these characters are going through and I think it just makes the story that much richer and allows for a lot more interesting new perspectives because these characters are people of color now and that's what you can do with a good adaptation and like, these creators they understand that. ]

[svnarin]

⊹˚₊‧ ATTENTION

xavier thinks that your recently adopted cat is taking your attention away from him. spoilers: xavier just doesn't want to share your attention, even if it's just with a cat.

“uh xavier, why are you having a staring contest with our cat?” you ask, tilting your head as you look at what is in front of you—xavier holding your cat up in the air, staring intently into the cat’s soul while it meows and purrs in his hold. 

“i just realized something…this cat has been hoarding all your attention these past few days,” xavier responds without batting an eye on you as he still holds your cat up in the air. 

xavier is definitely jealous of your cat. petty, right? you cannot blame him, though, because even before you adopted your cat together, he was the og housecat in this household—your oversized housecat to be specific.

don’t get xavier wrong because he actually liked the idea of the two of you adopting your first together. and when the two of you finally adopted one, he also ended up loving it—he just did not expect that your cat would “take” your attention away from him. 

before, xavier could always cuddle with you on the bed or couch and he always had your hands ruffling his hair while you were both cuddling. your hands are always just on him and nothing else, but now? he can’t even cuddle with you without your hand petting your cat. sometimes, you would even bring your cat on your lap to pet it or play with it, which prevents him from lying his head on your lap as he reads a book like he usually does. 

“xavier, wait…are you jealous of our cat?” you can’t help but give out a chuckle. 

“hey, don’t laugh at me,” xavier protests as he tries to hide his embarrassment by averting his eyes from yours.

“oh c’mon, xavier. our cat likes you.” you walk right up to xavier. “just look at it.” you point at your cat. “see? it’s staring at you with round pupils and it’s purring in your hold,” you point out, taking the cat from his hold before putting it down. and just right after putting it down, your cat walks toward you and rubs itself on your ankle. 

you are about to crouch down and pet it when all of a sudden xavier hugs you from the back as he rests his head on your nape. “if we had only adopted a plushie instead, i would still have all your attention,” he muttered. 

“you sure about that?” you tease xavier, making him huff.

“hm…anyway, do you want to go to destiny café? it’s been so long since we last went there,” xavier hums on your nape.

“oh, i would love to! but…what about our cat? it might get lonely and cry if there’s no one home to keep it company…” 

it’s that cat again, xavier thought. don’t get him wrong—he loves the cat you two adopted much as you love it too; he just thinks that it is stealing all your attention away from him. he hates to admit it, but it is making him a little bit jealous—that is what he thinks. in his defense, he is only a little bit jealous, even though in reality, it is not like the cat is taking all your attention away from him—he just has to share your attention with it.

“but don’t worry, xavier! i was actually thinking of buying a cat backpack so that we can bring our cat with us, so maybe let’s wait for it to arrive instead?”

xavier just hummed but didn’t exactly respond to your question. you can’t see it from your perspective, but from your nape, he is eyeing your cat—thinking that it is his nemesis that has finally brainwashed you into bringing it on your date. now he thinks he really has to do something about it. 

just as you were enjoying the company of xavier on your back and your cat on your feet, the cat started meowing at the two of you all of a sudden. looking at your wall clock to check the time, you realize that it is already time for your cat to eat, leading you to remove xavier’s hands from your waist before walking to the kitchen to feed your cat as it follows you from behind.

just right after you go into the kitchen to feed your cat, xavier immediately pulls out his phone from his pants before starting to type on it, seeming like trying to chat with someone. 

you walk right towards the couch in your living room to lay on it right after you feed your cat. xavier immediately notices it, finding it as a chance for him to finally get physical affection from you and solo it while your cat is eating and leading him to lay on top of you just like a cat.

“xavier, you are such a housecat,” you chuckle as you ruffle his hair.

“yeah, yeah, i’m your housecat—your first housecat. now, just focus on me.”

“mhm.”

it didn’t even take much time when you heard your cat start meowing. it seems like it is finally done eating. how fast, xavier thinks, feeling a little bit annoyed that he now has to share your attention with it again.

your cat jumps on the couch and then to xavier before resting itself like a loaf of bread on xavier’s back. 

“see? our cat really likes you.”

“yeah, yeah. now don't pet it and ruffle my hair instead. also go ready yourself in a few minutes because we’re going out.”

“go out? but what about the ca—” ding dong—you never got to end your sentence when the doorbell rang all of a sudden.

“seems like he came to the apartment earlier than i thought he would.”

“xavier, who was that?”

“caleb.”

“uh, since when did you even get caleb’s phone number?” 

“no more questions,” xavier responds as he taps the cat from his back, making it jump off of him so that he can open the door for caleb. he stands up from the couch before looking at you with a smile. “don’t you think we also need some alone time with each other, yeah? now go get yourself ready because we are going out for the rest of the day. my treat.” 

you didn’t get the chance to question xavier any further since he had already gone to the door to open it for caleb, so you did what he just asked you and went to the bedroom to get yourself ready.

“thanks for coming all the way here, caleb.”

“no worries, xavier. anything for pip-squeak,” caleb laughs as he taps on xavier’s shoulder before crouching to pick up your cat and petting it in his arms. 

just right after you finished readying yourself, you were immediately greeted by caleb as soon as you got into the living room. “caleb, it’s so good to see you!” you come up to hug him. “how’s grandma doing? aren’t you busy? i’m sorry for disturbing you.”

“what? no! don’t be sorry, pip-squeak. plus, i was about to swing by here anyway. and don’t worry, grandma is doing just well.”

“but what brings you here exactly?” you ask.

“well, xavier told me that he needs someone to look after your cat since you haven’t had a good walk around linkon city ‘cause no one can babysit your cat, so here am i.” 

“you really didn’t have to do that.” you elbowed xavier playfully when the two of you were finally walking through the hallway. “be grateful caleb isn’t busy today.” 

“i am grateful, you know—really grateful,” xavier chuckle. “hm, since it worked, i should probably start calling caleb to babysit our cat whenever we go out on a date so that i can have all your attention to myself.”

“seriously, xavier?” you laugh. 

“you bet. now don’t even think about buying that cat backpack so that you can bring our cat to our future dates.”

𝐒𝐕𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐍 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 | 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

[marchsfreakshow]

Reading This And That {Kyle Spencer x Reader}

Drabble :3

You're reading a small novella before bed, and Kyle cuddles up to you, wanting to use the book as a tool for reading.

General Frankenkyle being adorable nonsense since he deserves some respect in this household<3

Your Perspective.

⊹˚.⋆ ₊꒷ᘏᘏ︶ଓ︶꒷꒦⊹˚ᗢ₊꒷︶ଓ︶꒷

The dreary night loomed through the windows as my book was lit by a small, warm white light by my side. A simple little book I could read in an evening or so. It was a Christmas themed one I'll admit, but I was still happy reading it. The Christmas part of it was barely mentioned, so it didn't feel totally wrong reading it a few months before December 25th. I was distracted by it, so I didn't hear Kyle come in until he laid ontop of me. "Hi angel, what's wrong?"

"Arg.. Argument. Madison."

"Who did she argue with..?"

"Nan." You looked annoyed at the open door, and closed it quickly, so neither Nan or Madison came in. Kyle turned around, and moved under the duvet before running his finger over a paragraph, trying to read it. "Clara... clearly, clearly can't tell..." He stopped himself, unable to continue. As I held the book, I clapped and kisses his cheek.

"Well done Kyle. Wanna try and continue? I can read the rest if you don't want to." I asked, patting his head a bit.

Quickly, Kyle nodded, putting his finger back on where he stopped. "She's, she's making Charlie...un.. uncomfort.."

"Uncomfortable." I whispered slowly, taking it one syllable at a time.

"un.. comfort..able."

"that's it."

Kyle grinned and carried on reading the paragraph to his liking. It just melted me, but I felt proud of him. He was still learning to speak full sentences, and small books worked like that. "Want to read this book in its whole?"

"Can ask.. Cordelia.."

"To get a whole book for you? Okay...Well remember this book okay?" I closed the book, putting the bookmark on the page we just read. "This Winter."

"pictures." Kyle mentioned, opening it up again, and flipping through to find he different illustrations. He stared at every single one, admiring how the author drew them. Every picture of the family, sharing a Christmas that wasn't perfect. Almost like ours. Kyle didn't mind though, I let him look at the pictures as I slowly started to fall asleep. "Love...love you. Sleep."

⊹˚.⋆ ₊꒷ᘏᘏ︶ଓ︶꒷꒦⊹˚ᗢ₊꒷︶ଓ︶꒷

[lucapizzelles]

I just spent like 3 ish hours trying to figure out a floor plan for the Marcovaldo household (the things that writing does to you) and I think I've got something at least. Somewhat comprehensible. Gonna be under a cut because there's a LOT because I just love yapping.

So we can start with the kitchen area, as that's what we see most of.

The first shot doesn't show much that's super useful, honestly, but it puts some perspective into play that I think is just helpful to look at. The next two, though, are VERY useful.

We can establish that the balcony is next to the stove area, which is adjacent to the wall with the window. I put a picture of the balcony from the outside, which faces the plaza, just to be anal tbh. So, now we can also establish that, in the beginning of the scene where they meet Massimo, the entrance Luca, Alberto, and Giulia enter into the kitchen is opposite of the plaza. And, as I noted a little, that window in the 4th image faces the sea. I've drawn out a mini kitchen floor plan (please excuse my handwriting):

Made an assumption that that is Massimo's bed, and I also marked the tomato just to really drill in that the balcony was the same balcony. I don't know why I needed to put so much convincing.

So that's nice right? This is the room that I'm the most confident in out of everything. But there's a lot more to the house. I looked at Giulia's room next, since that's the only other interior room that we see in the film.

So we can establish that that window of hers faces the sea, as it leads directly to the hide-out. Opposite to the window is her door, which you can see when she turns around in the scene where she shows Luca the woderful life of Education(tm) and also in that third screenshot a little bit. Also, based on placement of the windows from outside shots, that places her room behind the kitchen (if you are facing the house from the plaza).

Also note that mystery window. I have no idea what that window is, but it doesn't appear in Giulia's room and it doesn't appear in the kitchen, so it's safe to assume that there's a room between Giulia's and the kitchen. In the second image you can see it a bit more clearly, but it is also one panel wide, whereas the windows both in Giulia's room and in the kitchen are two panels. Also, in the third image (and in the very first image of this whole post) you can see there's a space cutting into the kitchen as well, which I didn't really properly point out earlier.

Floor plan #2 (note: there's no entrance to the mystery room, that's on purpose for now, just one sec):

In those notes I kinda skipped ahead a bit, so let's talk about that doorway for a sec.

There is absolutely some doorway there. Leading somewhere. You can argue that maybe that is a window (which, note (love saying 'note'), it would be facing a VERY close brick wall of the house neighboring the Marcovaldo's), but this makes that less plausible:

When Luca and Alberto enter the house, they come in from the right side, where that doorway would be. You can argue cartoon logic of appearing impossibly out of nowhere, but this movie hasn't really played into that too much (aside from the scene when Luca sees the alarm clock, but I'd argue that the movement he did there is definitely possible and not like rabbit out of the hat type of physics). It's pretty clear that the way you get into the kitchen in the house is by entering through whatever doorway that leads off to.

Also, in the image you can see I added some text. That's to point out that, not only is there a doorway to the right of the kitchen door (from the image pov), but there's also one to the left. It's clear that there is some light being let off from the left direction that is lighting up that little hallway they're in. Also, if you were to watch the scene in real time, the door casts a shadow to the right when Giulia opens it, confirming that there's definitely some light specifically coming from the left. So, that light has a high chance of coming from that mystery window room. I'm gonna say that that's where that room lies.

Going back to the doorway thing, something that that brings a bit of dilemma about:

There's like no space at all for that doorway to fit. The house pretty clearly has an external wall against where Massimo's bed is placed. My solution was that, given that we never see a perfect shot of that side of the house (**IN LUCA (2021). I HAVE TO COME BACK TO THIS IN A BIT.), there's just like,, a part that juts out.

Floor plan #3 (also now there's an entrance to ? room):

I also figured that there has to be some way to get up, so I was like "okay cool steps go somewhere in here."

Boom, Floor plan #4 and also where I was like "okay this is it.":

(Quickly, because I forgot I even noted it, the alley steps is in reference to where you can see some steps in an alleyway leading up towards where I figured the building would jut out. So, just for fun, not necessarily accepting that it was actually a part of the house, maybe those steps led up to a door that also reached that landing there.)

Also quickly, there is a side room on the house that I haven't brought up yet:

So, I originally saw that part of the house and then figured that maybe it simply wasn't apart of the Marcovaldo house because of the way those steps went up. I figured that if there was a structure directly above them, then there would be more shadow.

However, it wasn't until I saw THIS shot from Ciao, Alberto that made me go "oh shit."

Because it's legit just pushed back, but it's definitely still apart of the house. So, it makes sense that the shadow cast isn't super strong. That, and the architecture matches the house.

So, floor plan #6. I added in that little part of the house, but I still don't really know what it's for:

I started going "yeah, okay, yeah, awesome, let me just watch through Ciao, Alberto to make sure there's not any other ground breaking-"

It is pretty clear that there is nothing red jutting out from the side to allow room for the doorway I was talking about earlier. Remember this?

That ** was future me crying and ripping apart my other floor plans. HOWEVER!! There is still a random staircase in that little alleyway which also randomly cuts off at a certain point.

My next, and final, idea is this:

It's possible that that doorway they come in from is actually an external door leading into the house, and those steps lead to it. Also, in the scene right after Machiavelli attacks Luca and Alberto, the underdogs walk out of a side door leading into the backyard. It's possible that they went out that alley-door and then went back in through the pescheria's main entrance and THEN went out the side door, but they look pretty-freshly attacked aka little to no first aid and also they were leaving, so why would they go back into her house? I think there's still an internal staircase leading to that floor ALONGSIDE that external alley-door. This is also not even a rare thing, especially in houses where there's a business on the bottom and a living area on top. Even the house I grew up in actually had an external staircase alongside an internal one (granted, that's due to it being a somewhat-duplex, but still).

Also, I don't know what this area is.

But I've seen a few fics where Alberto's room was in the attic and I don't know why, but that appeals to me for some reason (though he's seen in Giulia's bed in Ciao, Alberto. shhhh..). Also that may or may not have been what sparked literally all of this. The way to access that has to be through an attic ladder in the kitchen. We never see a shot of the ceiling of the kitchen, though, so unfortunately that's just up to my imagination.

Also that mystery room could totally be a staircase. In the final floor plan you can see I wrote and then erased where I thought there might be steps. I erased it because I confused the laundry outside of the kitchen window with that little window. That could totally also be a staircase instead of in the top right corner. Go nuts. Actually, I think that makes more sense than the top right, anyway. It's like 12:30AM though now and I'm pretty sure I'm keeping my roommate awake so I can't draw any more floor plans.

PLEASE feel free to discuss or dispute or point out anything you think I missed or got wrong. I made this mostly for myself because I couldn't find a render of the house and I'm extremely anal when I write fics and needed just some guidelines to follow.

(Except, please don't go "haha you're overthinking this" or "sometimes you gotta accept that they probably didn't plan out the house fully and there's some plotholes." I know. I'm just having fun)

[malaierba]

God (may have been the devil) just blessed me with Benadryl that hits so I need to get out this thought about Maizuru and Toshiro quick:

Toshiro's conflicting and even hypocritical way of relating to Maizuru, the way he's pulled away emotionally and seems to be annoyed by her helicoptering, yet runs to her the moment he needed help with something (first time he ever asked for help with anything, too. Explicitly said by her, and isn't that something to hear from a mother figure? That her cared for someone who, unless given things directly, would just go without them), is difficult to grasp in fiction for many fsr but it's really not that odd a dynamic irl, right? Lots of people are disillusioned in their parents and still instinctively rely on them. Ryoko Kui makes sure this is one of the first things, and one of the main themes, that the readers internalise of Toshiro, as it's one of the main aspects that establish him as a foil to Laios (and a distorted mirror to Kabru, although less explicitly, but I digress)

But it's Toshiro's perspective, and since Toshiro is one of Laios' character foils his POV (as detached from it as Toshiro seems to be. Like, we'll see memories from his perspective, and his true feelings may be mentioned, but with the exception of the times when he's a child, he rarely acts in accordance with them He usually behaves as we assume is expected from him) his POV will always be a bit more visible. Obvious, even default.

It's always caught my attention how, despite Maizuru's POV being one of the main if not the dominant voice helping us catch a glimpse of Toshiro's childhood and upbringing, her own feelings for the situation are always subordinated to her role as a teacher and caretaker of Toshiro, with all the obvious affection she's poured into those.

(Like mother like son? Interesting how the roles they're meant to play structure the way they retell parts of their backstory)

And the question that's been on my mind is: WHY. Why did she come to love Toshiro so much? Was it motivation alone? I doubt it was vocation or anything, I think we can all agree after taking a look at how she raised/handled Toshiro, Izutsumi, even Tade, that she's not like. A natural at it, let alone trained in it.

So why, why, why. Was it empathy alone? Even though Maizuru's empathetic skills are OBJECTIVELY so bizarre they're funny? Did she see something of herself in him, from the very start? Did she pitty him? Was it THAT obvious, from the moment she met him, that (and bear with my dramatic wording) he was doomed to loneliness, neglect from the adults in his life, and that she was one of the few grown-ups who could change that for him a little bit? Did she just see a gentle kid, thrust upon a teen because it was convenient to the master of the household, and feared that he'd turn out like that exact master?

It feels very reductionist to ask 'why does this person love this other person' but these are characters, so it's not insane to try to seek a motivation. At the same time, I wonder if Maizuru's is obscured on purpose. It could be that Ryoko Kui didn't think it necessary in order to tell the story that she wanted to -- The household dynamic being dramatic enough without the extra details, probably.

Or maybe it's a way to hint at how much Maizuru sacrificed by staying with the Nakamoto (unclear how much agency she had in this decision, ofc, this is a theme with pretty much everyone that isn't Toshiro's dad. The Nakamoto web is difficult to escape, and Toshiro is disruptive in that he allows Izutsumi to leave, and is implied that he wishes Tade would realise that his dad aint shit so maybe she leaves too), where any feelings that aren't useful for the role she plays are... where are they? She has moments where she expresses frustration at how some things are handled by Toshitsugu, but she never says how SHE PERSONALLY feels about it. If she's not talking about the Nakamoto household in general, she's talking about the kids in her care in particular, and all the things she's done for them, but not, you know, how she feels about being saddled with those responsabilities.

It's not obvious but if this ^^^ is what's going on, then that's yet another thing that Toshiro picked up from her. Unexpectedly so, too. They have such different personalities after all. Whether the situation is that Maizuru is obscuring her less-compliant thoughts on purpose, or that she's repressing them in order to cope with the lack of control in her life, she's without a doubt waaaaay more succesful than Toshiro at making people think that she's fine with the hand she was dealt in life.

I wonder if Toshiro's wondered this, too, what the logic behind Maizuru's love is. How can she enable his dumbass dad, maybe even make him believe that she loves him, despite being so critical of him? When she seems to think that she did a great job with Toshiro because he's nothing like his dad, with so much conviction she can't see all the other ways in which Toshiro is messed up? Why would she love him? What inspired her to decide to get emotionally involved when they first met? Why wasn't he just another job to her?

[joliackermann]

MY SWTD OC

FINALLY CALEB IS HERE

WOHOOO

His full name is Caleb Evans, becoming Caleb Zakarius after he married later on in his life.

He is my bald squad OC, btw 👀

Here is a little doodle I did of him:

Still working on this tho, but I finally have something to present, so here we go:

Explanation: 

Caleb is one of my pre-existing characters. I wanted to finally create my SWTD OC and used a random name generator and it just gave me the name “Caleb” and I was like “eh, why not?”

So this Caleb is technically Caleb from TS4 Vampires, but from my super old legacy save file. Gonna write some more about this later.

My sims 4 save file is a canon part of my book universe, so technically this is canon in my book as well?

It’s honestly kind of complicated, but since this OC is part of my book universe, I will apply the rules of my universe to this character.

Basically there is this thing, where time and space can sometimes be a bit unstable.

You know the feeling when you can’t find something, even though you are 100% sure that it has to be there somewhere?

Or all those missing people, whose bodies were never found?

Yeah. That’s what happened to them.

They were taken from their time, their universe and put somewhere random in another universe, without really knowing or understanding what had just happened.

Spoiler: this is how Caleb survives. 

Backstory:

Caleb grew up in an abusive household, becoming very protective of his sister from a very young age.

At only sixteen years old, his sister decided to run away with an older man, leaving Caleb with nothing.

He knew he needed money if he wanted to escape from home, which he now could. Without his sister, there was nothing holding him there.

Which is why, at the age of twenty four, he decided to take a job on an oil rig in the North Sea. 

When first arriving, he was placed in a room with Addair, since no other rooms were currently available due to water damage.

His job was simple; helping Roy in the galley. Following instructions, not really having to think for himself. For the first time ever, he could turn his brain off and just live, not having to care about anything really. 

He got along well with Roy right from the start, but let's be honest, who wouldn’t?

Roy was understanding whenever Caleb made any mistakes and was willing to help him, becoming a sort of mentor to him.

With Addair, the start was a lot rougher.

Addair never tried hiding his political views, giving Caleb flashbacks from his abusive home. For a moment, he was scared that the universe wanted to pull a prank on him and Addair was going to turn out to be a copy of his father.

But Addair had many good qualities and even though he and Caleb didn’t have the same political viewpoints, they got along great.

Addair gave Caleb another perspective; showing that even someone with these kinds of views could be a good human and a good father.

It was almost as if Addair was healing bits of the damage done by Caleb's father. 

For the first time, he didn’t need to protect anybody. Instead, he was being the one who was being protected by others.

Over time, Caleb's relationship with both Roy and Addair developed into something more. Nobody ever really talked about it, but Roy and Addair give him security and the feeling of being loved; something he never really had before.

Roys and Addairs relationship changes as well. Roy and Addair never really had a problem with each other, being mostly neutral to one another. But both overly protective over Caleb and in love with him, even though they never said a single word. Everybody knew, even though they themselves didn’t even really realise, and everybody accepted it. 

The events of the game: 

So Caleb was with Roy for the beginning part of the day.

After Caz decided to go to the lifeboats, Caleb went on his way to find Addair.

He knew Roy was safe, hiding in the pantry with Caz looking out for him.

But Addair was somewhere out there and Caleb needed to find him. 

He actually encountered mutated Gibbo at one point, though both held their distance.

When Caleb asked him about Addair, Gibbo had a breakdown. He couldn’t think straight for a moment and went for Caleb, though Caleb managed to outrun him, locking the door behind him before bringing more distance between himself and Gibbo.

But soon after, he started feeling worse; hearing voices. More specifically, his sister’s cries, from when they were kids and their father, in a fit of rage, had thrown his half empty beer bottle at his children.

It was something he often did when he had too much to drink. 

Trying to escape the voices and the visions, Caleb started running before suddenly breaking down as he felt pain shooting through his body.

It was the worst pain he had ever felt.

Worse than the stinging feeling when the beer bottle had hit him in the head, or the burning sensation when he was forced to pick up the broken glass and cut his hands. Worse than all the times his father had beaten him.

Caleb closed his eyes in pain and when he opened them again, he was somewhere else.

TS4/Book universe:

At first he thought it was only another hallucination.

After opening his eyes, Caleb found himself on the ground outside, a giant black castle right in front of him.

It was night, even though he was 100% sure that it had been the middle of the day just seconds ago. 

A strange man opened the door.

He was tall and skinny, his hair grey and his face full of wrinkles. He looked a thousand years old, at least.

The man smiled at Caleb and asked him if he needed help; said he knew just the right thing. A cure for every disease possible.

Caleb agreed, not really having anything to lose, his sister's voice still crying in his head. 

The cure turned out to be more of a curse, but it was too late when Caleb realised, already on his way to become the blood child of the mysterious master vampire. 

Caleb lived a hundred years, studying medicine and working night shift at the hospital. He had time and the hospital had an endless supply of blood.

It took years for Caleb to let people into his life again.

He had lost so much and was afraid to lose even more, so for a hundred years, he kept his distance. 

But then came this boy, the son of an acquaintance. Leif Zakarius, the third child of Johannes and Mike Zakarius.

They hadn’t meant for Leif to come into this world, having already enough to do with only two children and a cat at home.

But Leif came into this world and proceeded to stay there longer than any other of his family members. 

Leif always felt like an outsider in his family.

Much like Caleb, he wandered aimlessly through life.

And with time, they fell in love.

It was the first time in a hundred years that Caleb had allowed himself to love again.

Not knowing any cure for the vampire curse, he turned Leif into a vampire instead. It was either spend eternity together or die together as old men, but that wasn’t an option.

Soon, at least for vampires, they welcomed their first and only daughter into the world.

Fiona Zakarius, a beautiful, intelligent girl.

Never before had Caleb loved someone so much.

He became protective, overly protective if you asked Leif, and when she started dating an older man, Caleb was against it.

His sister had run away with an older man and he was afraid that his daughter would do the same thing to him.

But she didn’t. Sure, she moved in with the older man, turned him into a vampire, wanting to spend eternity with him, but she often came to visit and whenever the man was not at home, Caleb came to visit her as well. 

It seemed like he was finally in a position where he could allow himself to heal.

[laconicenigma]

⁂ Bubba Sawyer x Male Reader

Hello!! ⍢ I’m new to Tumblr so I hope this is a sufficient first post… I love Leatherface!!

❀ ; Male reader, FtM, AMAB friendly! (He/Him) Reader is implied to be taller, possibly buffer/broader as well. He leans more towards traditionally masculine. He’s a smooth talker with a bit of Southern charm to fit the setting a little.

❀ ; Bubba Sawyer AMAB (She/He/They) Bubba may be bit out of character, I added in some of my own personal headcanons and such! A mix of their paranoid personality in the 1st movie as well as their affectionate side shown in the 2nd. Hope you like! ◡̈

⁂ Headcanons

It doesn’t take that much to swoon Bubba.

She succumbs so easily to a bit of flirting, as we can see from the 2nd movie. A bit of sweet talk with a sprinkle of pet names and suddenly she’s a big, squealing mess.

The whole Sawyer family is wildly eccentric, so you don’t have too much to worry about in regards to their acceptance. Sure, you’d most likely be a popular joke in the household but it’s nothing worse than what they give each other. Given the time of the film, the most you’d have to worry about would be the public’s opinion about you and your dangerous lover; but let’s just assume that they don’t get the chance to know about y’all.

On a similar note, your sex and gender don’t matter to Bubba all that much. He clearly has unique ways of expressing himself, and he knows it (because of all the teasing his brothers do). He wouldn’t find his feelings for a man to be weird or anything of the sort; though he’d still probably be surprised at the fact. Don’t worry your pretty little head though, Bubba is the furthest thing from judgmental.

The surprise would just be because they’ve always been more into femininity. Both in the way the dress themselves, to the people they’re attracted to— Bubba’s just always loved to indulge in more womanly things. But that doesn’t eliminate you from having a chance, not at all!

The second you sweet talk him with your smooth voice, he’s on the damn floor.

Bubba didn’t have to fortune of receiving affection while she grew up. She’s most likely been isolated from regular society her whole life, and we know damn well the Sawyer’s aren’t known for their loving nature. Take your hands and just gently graze her face a little, or tell her how sweet she is and how much you love her, she’s all yours.

Even just some basic manners will get you a long way with Bubba. They yearn for some sort of human interaction that isn’t clouded with blood and the hum of a chainsaw, don’t blame them! A ‘Thank you’ will keep them giddy for weeks on end.

Trying to shift to a more realistic perspective, though, you’d have to be one sweet son of a bitch to get the Sawyer’s to spare you.

We saw how Bubba eventually folded under the pressures of his families demands when it came to Stretch, even though he liked her quite a bit. If you even want to get close to the point of Bubba stepping in to protect you, you are gonna have to be the smoothest and most charming man he’s ever met (which isn’t very hard, but still). No trying to fight or escape like Stretch, though you’d probably meet Bubba on different circumstances anyways.

⁂ Scenario

‘Oh, god damn!’ Was the only thought that seemed to run through your head at the moment. Wrist pressed against your forehead and sweat dripping down your lips, an exasperated sigh fell from your dry mouth. It was moments like these that made you regret fixin’ up such an old girl to be your car; she could be a bit unreliable.

It’s not like it was the car’s fault, no, you should’ve known you were runnin’ out of fuel just from how long you’d been driving. But, damn, you really needed to fix up that faulty fuel gauge. Always having to be on edge when you traveled, since you didn’t know when your gas was going to run out. Shit, what was even wrong with it?

The sun was burning your skin, and you needed some sort of help. It was only you out here.

After wandering around the unfamiliar area for a long few minutes, a sense of relief completely washed over you when a large farmhouse came into view. The estate was beautiful, and you could only hope somebody in it would be willing to help you out. After walking through the long dirt driveway, you gently stepped onto the porch of the home. The old floorboards creaked under your weight, the peeling paint bringing a slight surprise to your face. The home sure looked occupied, though not very taken care of. You gently knocked against the white frame of the screen door.

“Hello? ‘S anyone home?” You tried to call through. If you looked closely enough, you could see into the interior of the home. For some odd reason, these people didn’t close their front door. That either meant that they were home, or they were just plain careless.

You called out once more, speaking to the walls of the home in hopes you’d elicit a response. “Hey, partner, I’m in a real bad place right now. I-If I could just get some help here, it would be much appreciated,” a chuckle carried through your speech, though you were only met with radio silence from the home. “My car’s broke down and, by god, it’s hot as hell today. If I could just get a glass of water, I’ll be in your debts forever,” you held your tongue after you spoke, desperate for any sign of life within the home. You were practically dyin’ out here!

You were about to make your ways away from the property when you heard some booming thuds from within the building. You leaned into the screen door, squinting as you tried to decipher the darkness of the place. You couldn’t make out much, though you were almost certain you could see a figure cautiously trying to make it down the stairs— almost like they didn’t want you to see them. The person looked— and sounded— huge, though. With the amount of area they were taking in the staircase, alongside their heavy and creaking steps— this person had to be big. Without a doubt. Even if you could only make out a silhouette.

Upon noticing the mystery person, a smile stretched across your handsome features and you began to wave at them through the screen. “Hey, partner! Am I glad to see you!” You exclaimed to them, though the figure stayed unmoving. You realized that you probably came off a little strong, so you attempted to backtrack in the case that they had just noticed you. You spoke again, this time much softer and sweeter, “My car broke down not to far from here. Real sorry about showin’ up on your property like this but I could really use some help. Anythin’ would be much appreciated,” You managed to coo through the screen, an inviting smile on your lips.

The figure seemed to be trying to process the situation, not moving towards or away from you, though you could see their head dart around frantically. Not a good sign. You attempted to calm them from afar, they were your only hope at salvation at the moment. “Hey, hey, hey, now… Don’t worry, I ain’t here for trouble, darlin’. I promise,” as the words left your throat, so soothing and calm, the figure laid their gaze directly onto you. You could feel it. “You don’t have’ta help me, sweetheart. I can leave you be right now— but I ain’t a threat.” To speak to soft and so loving was something of second nature to you, but it was currently, unknowingly, saving your ass right now. “I’d just really appreciate a hand, if you’d be willing to give,” your desperation was painfully obvious. That seemed to be the breaking point for the person— in a good sense.

They slowly made their way down the stairs, the wood moaning under their weight as they stepped. Once they came closer, you were able to slowly make out their features. Their clothes looked dirty and old, though mostly concealed by a bright yellow apron— and they were fucking huge. Tall and big, extremely fucking huge. Though you two battled heights pretty evenly, you’d still have to say you were pleasantly surprised about their stature. You’d never really met someone who stood head to head with you like this. However, it took everything within yourself not to cringe at the mask they sported. It looked so— so grotesquely real. Like nothing you’d ever seen, not even at a Halloween store.

Even though it was grossly off-putting, you made the decision to not point it out. Didn’t want to scare off your only help at the moment. One of their large hands timidly laid against the frame of the screen door and pushed it open. They softly squealed in a pig-like manner.

Once the door pushed open, you got a good look at this person in all their glory. They looked just as grimy and dirty as they were when they were shielded by the screen, though now you could make out more finite details— like their crooked teeth and hairy arms. They refused to make eye contact, their body tense and frightened. They definitely raised a few red flags in your mind, and you couldn’t say they were truly all that attractive— but you still found them cute, for some odd reason. You smiled at their compliance, despite it all. “Hey, darlin’, thank you for openin’ up for me,” the words smoothly fell from your lips, causing their gaze to bore into you. They made some sort of mumbling sound, unintelligible to you. They seemed so utterly confused.

You gave them a signature smile, sensing their discomfort, and doing your best to alleviate it. You could tell at this point that they probably weren’t used to interacting with people, given the way they had been so reclusive. In attempts to get them to open up, you spoke softer, kinder, even more charming than usual. “There any way you can help me, partner?” You were burning at this point, skin glistening with sweat and your clothes glued to the moisture on your body. They seemed to try and subtly eye you, though they were extremely obvious— even moreso as they embarrassedly looked away from you. You chuckled.

They shifted on their feet, acting shy despite how intimidating they were as a person. After a moment of thought, they nodded a bit. When they looked at you again, you could make out a hint of a shy smile on their face. They stepped aside, willingly giving you a pathway into their mysterious home. You stared into their eyes, giving them a handsome, toothy, smile. “Thanks, darlin’,” You hummed to the large and timid person. They squealed a bit, joy taking over their face as you stepped foot into their odd home.

[melodianaartist]

I’m so tired and a bit sick anf I am thinking about how the new wicked movie is presenting nessa as good representation and her actor is saying she is so grateful for the chance and I just looking at it in absolute concern. Because like..either they’re going to change her character or this is just sad.

I‘m not opposed to changes. The whole tragically beautiful oh no the chair is so horrible thing is not the best representation from the reading on disability rep that I’ve done. (Though feel free to correct me if I am wrong please) and what happens in the second arc is even more iffy. Nessarose as is is not the best representation. However it’s a sensitive thing to handle because in wicked the musical the plot is very much rushing. Everything is connected and we have rather little time. It’s usually 1 plot point per scene and it works as well as it does because everything is connected. Nessa is a part of that so changing a connecting piece can be to the overall detriment of the story. If the overall story should take precident over representation could be argued, but I’m gonna be honest if the movie isn’t enjoyable the representation no matter how good it is will suffer too.

Not to mention that I don’t really know the director’s work and idk how they would handle this.

I think the thing I would like to see most of all is just to spend time with Nessa. In the og musical we only hear like 1 minute of a song and a few lines from her perspective in act 1. Everything else is everyone remarking how tragic she is. The wicked movie adaptation will encompass two parts. The straight up musical already has enough time to fill two movies but I’m hoping that maybe we can get a bit more time with everyone but especially nessa. I can’t think of any big changes I would do off the top of my head to remedy this but still keep the story mostly the same but at least let the audience understand her more. Let her speak. Let us understand l the conclusion she is bound to come to. We know how Elphaba is the way she is but maybe show us nessa’s perspective of her household. Does she blame herself too and that is the source of some insecurity? Is she sick of beeing just seen as a tragedy? Does she not see the meaner version of her father? Is she sick of the coddling? Whats her opinion on glinda at the start before the set up? What kind of music does she like? Is she good in school? I don’t think I’ve seen her attend with elphaba in the musical. Where is she all this time? Does elphaba tell her about the lion?

[misguidedasgardian]

The Winter Sun (EPILOGUE 2)

Into the future, part I

MASTERLIST

Summary: Twelve more years had gone by, and you travel South to attend a celebration in King’s Landing with all of your children

Pairing: Cregan Stark x Fem!Targaryen Reader 

Warnings: Cursing, medieval and asoiaf customs, AGE GAP, Cregan is 12 years OLDER than reader), arranged marriage, implied smut, talk about war, implied sexual assault, bullying, fluff, and a bit of angst, might miss some warnings

+18, MINORS DNI

Wordcount: 3.2 k

Notes: HERE IT IS! A while ago I published that I had written a fluffy but heartbreaking scene, AND IT IS IN THIS CHAPTER!!!! Sorry for the long wait though! HAHA, but it is here. RHAENYRA HAD HER VISENYA! SURPRISE!  * GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE TO SEE THE AGES OF CHARACTERS IN THIS CHAPTER*

12 years later

You were certain that you had given birth to the most handsome young men in all of Westeros. Rickon was handsome, like his father, rough on his features but in a classic way, but Jonaerys? He was beautiful. 

His silver curly hair, his sharp eyes with the color of ice, his beauty was ethereal 

Your youngest children still had their child features, it was too soon to tell, but to you, they were all beautiful, the most gorgeous children Westeros had ever seen, but perhaps you were being biased 

That is what occupied your thoughts in your long journey South

You had left your home two weeks ago, and you were too soon, if not by the end of the day, to reach Harrenhal. You had been invited to the Red Keep, it was unclear why, but you had heard tourneys and celebrations were being held, not clear as to the reason, perhaps you, to celebrate you all being in the capital. Perhaps we all need a good reason to celebrate besides marriages, births, and name days

You had decided to take all your children with you, leaving Sara, and her three kids in Winterfell, because there was always must be a Stark in the capital of the North

You saw your children riding their horses in front of you, Cregan and you in the back, he had said that is the position the alfa wolves held, in the back, protecting his pack from this perspective, the thought made you giggle.

Soon it was time to set up camp, when you rived, the squires and soldiers had already set the tents and a big bonfire for your entire household.

You descended from your horse, as did your children.

Rickon was stuck to his father’s side, who was trying to teach him everything he could, you knew it was a concern of Cregan, he was getting “old”, not to you of course, but, he was growing concerned that his eldest son wasn’t ready in case something horrible befall him. 

“When we get back Cregan, you are going to marry Jayne Manderly”, said his father, Rickon only nodded

“I had been betrothed to Jayne Manderly since we were in our mother’s wombs”, he laughed, Cregan smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder, and then one in Jonaerys who approached him. 

“You were”, he said proudly, “and you…”, he chuckled, looking at his second oldest son, “maybe we can arrange something for you in King’s Landing, uh?”, he blushed but nodded

“Yes father”, he said energetically. He wanted to make his father proud, but really… still with the doubts clouding his mind

Cregan looked at Jonaerys, trying to read his mind, but it was hard, he had notice that the last couple of months, his silver haired son had been distant, specially with him, he sometimes found him following you around like a puppy, it was unusual as he always was with Rickon, training, hunting, sneaking off to Winter’s Town… He talked to you about it and you did answer him that you did think something was different in him, like he became overprotective over you, but you guessed it was because of the coming trip. 

Cregan smiled as he saw Torrhen signaling to Rhaenys what they were talking about, his big brother’s coming wedding

“You are never getting married are you? you are never leaving your old man”, Cregan signaled to Rhaenys, the girl only giggled, “my little girl, you are going to take care of your old father until I’m gone?”, she shook her head without stopping smiling, and Cregan feigned being really hurt, placing a hand over his chest

“I want to get married”, the twelve year old girl signaled, and that did break Cregan heart just a little bit, no poor bastard is ever going to be good enough for his little girls. 

“Robyn!”, he called, her little girl who was your spitting image, but with his coloring came running towards him

“I’ll take care of you papa!”, she giggled 

“That’s my girl”, he knew the real reason she said that is because she didn’t want to get married at all, she was very vocal about that, she was his little spitfire

The sun soon fell over the camp, and once you were installed in your tents, you gathered around the bonfire to eat what the hunting party had brought 

Were you concerned about the trip to the Red Keep? Yes, you know better than anyone how terrible it could be, how mean the people were, but you needed to think that now it was different, different times, different monarchs. 

And your children were… different from who you were, you needed to believe they were going to be fine. 

And at night you cuddled with your husband in your tent, playing with the silver hairs in his beard, he was getting snow up there if you knew what that meant

He believed he was getting old, but to you he was only more and more handsome 

“Mmmm”, he purred under your touch, “really, needy one?”, he chuckled

“I’m the needy one?”, you teased

“Oh I know how you get on trips”, you laughed 

“me!?”, you laughed

“Oh yeah, Rickon was made in dragonstone, Torrhen when we went to White Harbor… Orys on that trip to Bear Island, the girls on Castle Black… when we went to try to fly over the wall…”, you giggled 

“Well, there is this thing to trips…”, he chuckled

“That our children cannot sneak into our bed”, you giggled

You kissed, deeply.

There was something about trips that turned you on…

The very next day, you rose early, you were close to King’s landing and you wanted to arrive already. You were proud of how well your children were fairing, you brought a carriage just in case, but they preferred to ride their horses alongside you. 

You braided Rhaenys’ hair, and with Robyn too, by your side. You kissed the side of her head lovingly, you loved your girls

“I can’t wait to get to the big castle”, signaled Rhaenys, and Robyn only cheered her on, you only smiled, “are they more dragons?”, you nodded

“There is Syrax, the Queen’s dragon, there is Vermax, prince Jacaerys dragon there is Caraxes, the King consort Dragon”

As on que, your dragons flied over your heads

Rickon’s dragon never hatched, but Jonaerys’, Rhaenys’, Robyn, Torrhen… they did. Cregan grew scared, five dragons growing in the North

And all your children became Dragonriders

Rhaenys’ especially at Cregan’s horror, since he believed she wasn’t going to be able to control ehr beast, but she did, better than all of them, she had a secret language, palming her dragon’s spine with certain gestures.

Her dragon was beautiful, silvery light blue with dark blue markings, slim body and long neck, she was the fastest one.

Not like Karnax, Jonaerys’ dragon that took after Vhaelar, only with dark black markings, Robyn’s dragon was deep purple, they shone greenish under the sunlight, and Torrhen’s was of a beautiful copper color

Soon the march began again, and by midday, the burnt towers of Harrenhal appeared in your eyesight, you tried no to look too much, painful memories came flooding back, and Cregan reached for you over the space between your horses.

“Are you alright?”, he whispered, you only nodded

“Let’s have some food and then let’s keep going”, you whispered. Since the war the castle had been empty, since the fall of house Strong, so you really didn’t have the need to pass inside it to pay your respects, only warn ahead of the arrival of a large northerner commitive. 

So you tried to distract yourself from such gloomy sights.

But your son… noticed everything, noticed your face, what Cregan said to you… and that only made him approach his father, with the castle on their sight

“Who is my real father?”, he asked hastily, like he was going to lose the bravery to ask. That did take Cregan by surprise, he knew something was different about his son, but he never, ever, expected it to be this. 

“I am”, he said, but the seriousness in his eyes revealed to your son that he knew what he spoke of

“Yes, of course you are, I mean…”, his voice trembled and he struggled to meet his eyes, he closed his gray ones, “I mean that… we were studying the civil war of the Targaryens”, he explained, “and how Aemond Targaryen took my mom”, he whined, “took her south and when you both returned, you came back with me”, he whispered, looking at the feet of the man that raised him and loved him, the man that he respected and loved

“My boy…”

“Mom suffered in his hands, did she not?”, he asked, finally looking up at him, “I am not deaf”, he said sadly, “I know what they whisper behind closed doors, I know what Aemond Targaryen did to my mom”

“She did”, he said truthfully, “but that doesn’t mean anything, we, her family, erased everything he did to her, we made sure of it, we healed her with our love, her children… are everything to her”

“I know, but…”, he took a second to think about what he was about to say, “I know you are my father, the man that cares for me and loves me, but, I wonder if the man that sired me… was Aemond Targaryen?”, he rephrased his question, looking into his father’s eyes

“No”, he said truthfully

“Father…”

“Your mother was already pregnant when I left to fight the war”, he said gently, “you have my eyes…”

“But what if…”, Cregan shushed him gently, cradling his face with his hands and looking into his eyes 

“I see myself in you every day and every time I look into your eyes I see your mother, you take after her”, he said gently, “we might never know who sired you but you are our son, my son, my second born male heir”, he said firmly, “you are a northerner, a wolf of Winterfell”

“I’m glad you are my father”, he said with shiny eyes and a choked voice

“And I’m glad you are MY son”, Cregan held his son against his chest, caressing his silvery locks, “and besides, I claimed you the minute you were born”, he felt his son choke in a laugh, “you are mine, I fought for you, and if he wants you he will need to crawl back from hell and kill me”, Jonaerys laughed, hugging his father tightly, and he kissed him in the top of your head, “you are mine, there is no doubt in my mind”

“Thank you”

You looked from afar with tears of happiness in your eyes, you did not hear everything, but you were happy they were this close.  

The rest of the journey went in without a hitch, Rhaenys was drawing everything she saw, when you stopped to rest, Robyn was sneaking out of the camp to go hunting with Rickon, Jonaerys and the rest of the men, Torrhen also scribbled in his leather notebook, and Orys, well, he was often a thoughtful boy, always wondering, looking around, lost in his thoughts, he collected rocks, branches of trees he had never seen before, and also leaves…making you smile.

And soon you could hear your children's gasps and cheers, as Rhaenys applauded, you could see King’s Landing, in all its glory, and the two greatest buildings that stood up from everything else, the Dragonpit and the Red Keep

“It’s incredible!”, cheered Rickon

“Wow”

“Look at the size of the Dragonpit”, of course you had tell them stories about the historic buildings, but there are no words to describe them in all their glory 

A comitive of royal soldiers were expecting you, dressing all in black and red, and a sense of familiarity invaded you. The late Queen Alicent had taken everything she could get her hands on, and for some time, everything you saw was green, and a seven pointed star, now everywhere you saw, there were statues of dragons, the Targaryen heraldry, and the colors red, black and gold also. 

You soon rode through the streets, soldiers interrupting everyone’s day to let you trough

When you entered through the huge gates of the outer wall of the Red Keep, you saw a comitive waiting for you, you recognized Rhaenyra herself, and Daemon, Jacaerys and Baela by his side, and young people, everyone was there, Young Aegon and Viserys, other young men with olive skin and silver hair, right next to Jacaerys, you guessed it was his son. A young woman, you guessed it, was princess Visenya. Lord Corlys was also present in the meeting. 

*See bottom of the page for the ages of everyone in this chapter* 

“Here comes Cregan of House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North and his lady Wife, princess (y/n) Targaryen, and their children, the lords and ladies of the North, Rickon Stark, your son bowed as you taught him, “Jonaerys”, your other son followed, “Torrhen, Orys, and the ladies Rhaenys and Robyn”, and your girls bowed diligently

“My niece”, certainly bored with all of this, Daemon approached you and hugged you tightly 

And since the courtesy was over, you greeted your family like that is all they were, your family, you hugged your cousin the Queen lovingly 

“I’m so glad you are here”, she whispered

“I’m happy to see you all again”, you said back

“let me look at you boy, how big you’ve gotten”, Daemon said, looking at Jonaerys, who had grown to be the imagine of your father 

Corlys looked from afar with a smile on his lips, as he looked at the girl who was named in honor of his wife. Everyone in the Keep and in the family knew of her hearing problems. Nobody really cared, she was a beautiful, healthy young girl, he had also learn her sign language to be able to communicate with her, just as other members of her family, she had a fire like his dear Rhenys have had, and she was a dragon rider, he had cared for the girl from afar. 

She caught him staring and smiled brightly at him, she walked towards him and signaled a hello

“Hello little one”, he signaled back and Rhaenys was amazed that he knew how to. 

Jonaerys went to greet Visenya, who smiled at him

“So… you are the Valyrian Stark”, she said, and he blushed

“I didn’t know I was called that”, he chuckled, nervous

“You are sort of famous”, she giggled

“I have done nothing to deserve such a thing”, he said nervously

“Let's see” 

Rickon approach the prince of Dragonstone after his father Jacaerys

“Rickon”, he introduced, offering his hand, and he struck it back

“Baelor”, he answered with a shy smile. 

As it was the custom, a feast was being held, in honor of the guests.

The real reason behind the journey is that it was a plot between Daemon, Cregan, Rhaenyra and you, to let your children get to know each other, and also, because you wanted your children to be in touch with their targaryen ancestry, and maybe, just maybe, search for proposals for marriage for them. 

You saw with a smile as your older children were getting along with Baelor as you chatted with Jace by your side, telling you how his brother Joffrey was in Driftmark and couldn’t make the journey, as he was acting Lord of the Tides, how he had three children with a Velaryon. 

Then Rhaenya made a announcement, that in the celebrations of her name day, a week from now, this entire ten days were going to be filled with tourneys, parties, feasts, and people from all over the Kingdoms, and specially the great houses, were coming to the capital, to celebrate harvest and abundance the Kingdoms were enjoying.

A celebration of hope, friendship and especially peace, and you were here for it. Also to celebrate the name days of your twins, who might as well fly under the perception of the rest, but you still were happy to celebrate it with your entire family.

Your children seemed happy about it, and couldn’t wait to meet new people

Rickon was talking about how he could participate in the tourney, but you and Cregan had blatantly forbidden it, for Jonaerys as well. 

You were happy to be back, you no longer held bad memories about this place, everything felt brand new, and now because of the decor, but, everything felt different, all of it, the castle and the people within it.

this was a new beginning for your family.

The coming days were filled with excitement and preparations, people were arriving. You had the honor to be housed in Maegor’s Holdfast, you needed four rooms for only your family, Rickon and JOnaerys were going to be roomates, as well as Orys with Torrhen, and the twins, down the hall from your’s and Cregan’s rooms 

Everything around the castle had changed, and once you settled it was hard to find your children, who were always discovering new places, it took them three days to even get to know the main places within the Keep itself, they were like small children, scouting all day

But as the girls went to the huge gardens, promising they will not part ways from one another, the boys went deeper within the castle.

And by accident, they ended up in the dungeons

Jonaerys wanted to play the valiant one, and separated from Rickon, and soon he was lost.

This floor of the cells didn’t have guards, but torches were lit up all over, it wasn’t difficult to see, but the awful smell made his head spin. 

He wanted to turn back, but something prevented him, maybe sick curiosity, he would say he heard his name being called from inside one of the cells.

It was closed, but it seemed it was empty, he couldn’t see anyone inside, so he lean in curiously, grabbing one of the bars with his hands.

A boney hand grabbed it, making him gasp in surprise

“My son”, he heard, and Jonaerys screamed, taking a step back, releasing himself from that ghostly grasp, “I knew you’d come”, he whispered, and jOnaerys could see with horror a lean figure, with white hair and a purple eye, and another sapphire, but he was probably making it all up.

He ran, calling for his mother and father, he magically find the way out until he ran and crashed into Rickon, making the two of them fall in the middle of the main floor

“For the gods Jona”, moaned RIckon, rubbing his ass, “what is going on?”, but his brother was on the brink of tears, “what happened?”, but he shook his head

“Nothing, really”, he whined, “it’s just, the people down there, it was awful”, Rickon only nodded

“Are you alright?”, Jonaerys nodded

‘Yes, just… we can never go down there again”

“Deal”

Both stood up, Rickon grabbed his brother’s arm

“Remember the lessons about Aemond Targaryen?”, he asked, and Rickon nodded, he had replaced his missing eye with a sapphire, didn’t he?”

“Yeah”, Jonanerys looked back at the stairs leading to the cells, and shook his head, he could never go down there again. 

Characters and their ages… maybe its just me that is obsessed with this kind of thing haha

Reader and Jace are 36, Cregan: 48, Rhaenyra: 54, Daemon: 67 

Corlys: 76

Rickon: 17, Jonaerys: 16, Torrhen: 14, Orys: 13, Twins: 12

Visenya: 16

Jace and Baela’s son Baelor: 15

Viserys and Aegon: 20 and 17 

Taglist!

@severewobblerlightdragon @missusnora @stargaryenx @poppyreader @chainsawsangel @court-jester-stuff @batprincess1013 @eddiepicker 

@lyannesworld @arujee @kamisunshine @​​mss-nthng @partypoison00 @grimistangel @elleclairez @may-machin @prettykinkysoul @justagurlwithships @champomiel 

@laura-naruto-fan1998 @zoleea-exultant @devotedlythoughtfulanchor @zoleea-exultant @llleon666 @dark-night-sky-99 @bitchigoteverythingissues @harrypotteranna23-blog

@esposadomd @ajanauia @phantomtea19 @let-love-bleeds-red @kishie8 @dreamingofyourmoons @esposadomd @sandronebabyy @kemillyfreitas @​​trifoliumviridi @dreamingofyourmoons @darling-jace @biblichorr @ivvypg @mendes-bae @borikenlove @tssf-imagines @praline357 @alitaar @prettykinkysoul @aelora-a @a-mexican-waffle @ateliefloresdaprimavera @alexa4040 @lrboyd @anditsmywholeheart  @weaselyss  @scarlettqueen190 @deeeeexx @cloudroomblog @dreaming-of-the-reality @yentroucnagol @crazymusicgirl104 @toodlesxcuddles @thanyatargaryen @mxtokko @bellstwd  @elaena-aerrin @glaciuswduo @holb32

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

what would megumi’s life have been if he was actually raised by the zenin from day one? like either gojo lost the custody battle or they were able to scoop him up before gojo ever reached them. i doubt they would want to keep tsumiki with them so she’s not there for little baby megs.

i think it would be really cool to see a zenin raised megumi interacting with his fellow classmates when he attends the school, not to mention the contrast between him and gojo. like on paper they both should have gotten the same treatment-being pampered and spoiled rotten but we also know that the zenin think that hurting little kids makes them stronger so it would be super interesting to see megumi realise that the stuff that happened to him wasn’t normal and for gojo to have a guilt trip bc he wasn’t able to help megumi when he needed someone to help him the most.

So I have a fanfic that I’ve half written (no idea if I’ll ever finish it—I’d love to, it’s just hard to find the time) about EXACTLY THAT that I talked about in this post for an ask game.

That being said, that entire thing happens from Tsumiki’s perspective, and I agree with you—I don’t think the Zenin would have ever actually taken her too. They don’t want her. She’s not Zenin. She’s not a sorcerer. They only bought Megumi. For the most part, Megumi is absent from that post, and you asked about Megumi. So this is what I think would happen on Megumi's side of that post I linked.

It comes down to two things:

1. He is never, ever happy with the Zenin.

2. He never lets go of his sister.

Megumi’s old enough to remember Tsumiki when the Zenin take him away. He's old enough to love her. And I think that Megumi loves very quietly, but he also loves very violently. He wouldn't let his sister hold his hand on the walk to school, but he would sacrifice himself for her future.

I think the Zenin took him from his sister, and I think he kicked and screamed and wasn't strong enough. I think they thought he would forget her eventually.

And then I think he bit most of the Zenin Clan.

At the end of the day, what Megumi wanted was the one thing the Zenin were not willing to give him. They were never like the Gojo clan, they were never going to pamper him, but there are a great many things in this world that they would give the Ten Shadows finally returned to them. But they would not give him a non-sorcerer, non-Zenin sister who would only be a weakness to him. They refused to let him have any contact with his sister, and that was the source of a lot of what soured.

Any Megumi that was taken in by the Zenin would have been taken in to Naobito's household directly. He would be announced as the one who finally inherited their most cherished technique, and he would be declared heir, and the Zenin would call him beloved for it.

They would keep him in a room that was large and empty and almost always dark, and he wouldn't be allowed to decide when he slept or woke, and the door would always be locked from the outside. They would give him a wardrobe of expensive clothes that he hated, and he would never get to pick which of them he wore.

Megumi would hate them. He would hate all of them.

He's just not the type to be comfortable with or enjoy the adoration of others--especially when it's not backed up by genuine love. Megumi is someone who very much values sincerity and depth to emotion--it's one of the reasons why he seems to respect Yuuji so much. Yuuji is a good person who follows through with what he says. He's not just going to talk about wanting to save people--he's there making the sacrifices as he does it.

The Zenin do not actually love him. And he knows it. He's experienced love before, and this isn't it.

They love the idea of him. The fantasy of him that lives in their heads. He has no interest in being their little god prince to contend with the Gojo's own. He knows who he is, and it's not this. He wants to go home. He wants to find his sister again. He doesn't want to do this anymore.

And I think that's a feeling Megumi never escape: he just didn't want to do this anymore.

Megumi would feel like a bug pinned beneath glass in the Zenin compound. He would constantly have people managing him--when he ate, what he ate, what he wore, when he slept, when he woke, when he trained, what he did. Having to become a jujutsu sorcerer signified an inherent loss of control, but it's nothing compared to the sheer objectification that he goes through when the Zenin have exclusive control over him.

He has no power of what clothes he wears. How his hair is styled. His schedule, his diet, the people he speaks too--he's suffocating and the Zenin are just increasing pressure on him.

I don't think Gojo ever thought that would be Megumi's life.

We’re gonna just have this imagining exist in the same world as the Tsumiki centric fic described in the linked post, and in that, the reason why Gojo never took him in was because he didn’t know Megumi had a sister. He showed up, saw the divine dogs, realized Megumi had the Ten Shadows, and decided he couldn’t do this. He was a mess. He was grieving Suguru and Haibara. Megumi looked just like the man who killed Riko, and apparently inherited the fucking Ten Shadows of all the goddamn things. The Zenin would lose their shit, and Gojo didn’t have the energy to fight and told himself he didn’t need to, because if Megumi was the Ten Shadows he’d be cared for like a prince with the Zenin. He turned around and left and spent the rest of his life with Megumi in the back of his mind, always nagging him with whether he made the right decision. It wasn’t until Maki got there and made a few worrisome references to Megumi's standard of living that he started to really worry that he had made the wrong one, and it wasn't until he found out about Tsumiki that he knew it was the wrong decision.

It's like this: The Zenin hurt Megumi in every world.

It would be bad no matter what, but it really gets bad because Megumi refuses to stop trying to get back to Tsumiki. She's his sister. They didn't have anyone or anything in this world, but they had each other, and he couldn't let these people just take her away. He’s feral about it. He refuses to fit the mold they keep trying to cram him in. He’s trying to scale the walls to escape. He’s increasingly desperate and angry and the Zenin are getting more and more frustrated the longer he fights them. He’s the heir to the clan, and he can’t stop trying to leave it to get back to some random girl who isn’t his real sister and isn’t someone they’ll ever allow him to have.

It gets bad.

They put him under increasingly strict levels of control. He’s constantly being trained, which means he's constantly being hurt. He’s not allowed to speak to anyone without the clan head’s approval. He is under absolutely constant guard after he manages to get over the wall and halfway to his old neighborhood before they catch him again. Tsumiki’s name is not allowed to be said aloud, or his old name. He forgets his name used to be Fushiguro, but he doesn’t forget Tsumiki. He doesn’t let himself.

I think it escalates until it hits a breaking point. Megumi becomes increasingly self-destructive and non-responsive to everything they try. They push him to extremes that start risking permanent damage.

I think Megumi would try to hurt himself, eventually.

He wouldn't be in his right mind. He's in the most shit situation possible. He's undergoing pretty severe abuse. He'd be at the end of his rope from the lack of control over his own life, and he'd be spiteful as hell towards the Zenin. And the only thing he has to hurt them with is himself.

As a character, Megumi has always considered his own sacrifice as an acceptable means to the end of getting back at someone. Mahoraga, intrinsically, requires him killing himself as a way of killing someone else. He'd hurt himself if it was the only way he had of hurting them.

Naobito would cover it up. He'd never, ever want the rest of the clan to find out that it happened. It was already bad enough that Megumi openly hated them--he couldn't have the Zenin seeing any vulnerability in what was meant to be their most powerful member. He'd put Megumi in total lockdown until he could make it all go away.

Then they'd make a deal.

A binding vow. Megumi could never purposefully hurt himself again. He could never again try to leverage his own safety against the clan.

And in exchange, Tsumiki would be taken care of.

The last time Megumi saw his sister, she was on a sinking ship. They were running out of food, money, options--he doesn't know if she even has food anymore. He doesn't know if she lost the apartment or if there's still running water.

They're not letting him see her. But they are letting him take care of her. He can sacrifice another piece of control over himself, and she'll never have to worry about money again. They'll pay for her housing, her food, her education, for her every desire for as long as she lives. The trust the Zenin set up for her will be a generous one, and it will be managed meticulously by a trustee who can make sure she'll be provided for until she's old and grey. And Naobito will vow to never hurt her or send someone else to hurt her. She'll be safe. She'll be taken care of.

Megumi makes the deal.

In the end, the deal's what sort of breaks him.

Because he doesn't promise to stop looking for her, but the Zenin manage to make it a part of the terms anyway. When they approach Tsumiki's mother with the offer to be her family's beneficiary, they include a requirement that Tsumiki be moved to another city entirely with no forwarding address given. She needs to be somewhere that Megumi can never find her again.

The Zenin keep the old apartment. They pay the rent every month. And the next time Megumi manages to make it off compound, they let him make it all the way there before dragging him home. They let him see the empty apartment with all its empty rooms.

Naobito wants him to know that Tsumiki's gone. He wants him to know that he'll never find her again.

He tries to run a few more times after that, but he never makes it very far. He doesn't have anywhere to go.

In the linked post, Megumi finds Tsumiki, just once. She's on a class trip. He's on one of his very few and far between allowed excursions off the compound grounds, and he sees her in the crowd and recognizes her, and he ducks away from his escort before anyone can stop him.

She remembers him. He didn't think she would do that.

She tries to save him. He didn't think she would do that either.

She still loves him. And he was always too afraid to hope she would do that.

It goes the same way it did the first time. There's a car, and the Zenin shove him in it. She's on the outside, and he's trapped within, and he wishes she didn't scream so loudly when it happens. The sound never seems to leave his dreams.

His sister still loves him. Naoya hits him in the back of the head. He wakes up, and it was like she was never there at all.

But they hit him harder, after. Like they're trying to beat the memory of her out of him. He has even less freedom, when he already had next to none at all.

But he still has a sister. He has a place to go that isn't here. He just has to figure out where that is.

He wouldn't really have anyone in the Zenin clan. Most people are just... weird about him. Naoya's violently abusive. Naobito's weird and violently abusive. Everyone wants him to be someone he's not.

Maki would be his favorite.

He doesn't care about whether she's got cursed energy--his sister didn't have any. And she's obviously strong. She doesn't treat him like a divine blessing or try to force him to act a certain way. I think they would have genuinely liked each other, but kept each other at a distance. They're both trapped in an abusive situation and keep themselves safe by keeping everyone else at arm's length.

He would have been happy to see her get out, though. He would have told her that she could have his spot as heir or head or whatever when she came back if she wanted it. She would have told him that if he ever got out... well, fuck it. They could be something then. Family. Whatever the fuck they weren't allowed to be here.

She would have told him she's sorry, and she would have meant it. The only one she she regretted more than Megumi was Maki. He would have told her not to be, that if she dared to be sorry for getting out that he would never forgive her, and he would have meant that too.

I think his relationship with his own techinque would be very different in a world where the Zenin raised him. In canon, his issue is that he doesn't view himself as someone who could be powerful or win in the long run, but in this world, all he ever hears is how powerful he is. Pride of the fucking Zenin. The most powerful of them in centuries. Meant to rival Gojo fucking Satoru himself.

I think his real issue would be controlling it.

His technique would be a source of negative associations for him. It's the reason why the Zenin took him away. Most of his interactions with it have involved getting beaten and hurt by either his family or a high-level curse they shoved him in front of. I think he'd have a lot more firepower under his belt than at the start of canon, but he'd have less of a fine tuned control over it.

He lost control over his own life because of his shadows. It think that would manifest in struggling to control his own shikigami at times. he's not as in-sync with them as he is in canon.

Eventually, he'd go to Jujutsu High. He would be the only one in the first year class at the beginning, just like in canon. And he'd finally meet Gojo Satoru, the man he's supposed to topple.

He looks at Megumi really goddamn weird.

He's... enthusiastic. About. Teaching. He guesses. And constantly asking prying questions about the Zenin, but not in the sort of way he'd expect from a rival. In the sort of way he'd expect from someone concerned about him. Which is stupid. And annoying. And weird. He keeps a distance from everyone. They've all heard about the Zenin clan heir, and he has no interest in having to fit or break whatever mold they've already cast him in. He's better off on his own.

Maki's there. She's cordial where other people can see it, and in private, she takes care of him in a way that's terrifyingly close to familial. He's not sure if he likes it. He's not Mai, and she's not Tsumiki, and they both want someone they can't have.

She isn't sorry she left. She is sorry she left him. He can hate her for it all he goddamn pleases.

Of course, if this is in the same world as the linked post, Megumi finds Tsumiki again. He finds her in Sendai.

He gets to keep her, this time.

Gojo Satoru, of all the goddamn people, intervenes and becomes his sister's benefactor. It's super fucking weird. He won't stop looking at Megumi strangely. He won't stop insisting that he didn't know he had a sister, like that matters.

That would sort of be the first time in a long time that life actually gets better for Megumi.

I think he would ask to go by Fushiguro again, once he asks Tsumiki what his name used to be. He'd ask her if she minded it, him taking the name again, and he'd ask the rest of the school to call him Fushiguro instead of Zenin.

Predictably enough, Naobito loses his shit when he finds out, but it's not nearly as big of a pain in the ass as he thinks it is? Because Gojo intervenes.

Gojo keeps intervening.

It drives Megumi nuts, because if anyone was supposed to hate him, it was this guy. If anyone was supposed to be against him, it was this guy. This is the guy he was supposed to rival. This is the guy who killed his shitheel bio dad.

Gojo's just... good to him. He keeps him safe. He keeps him safe from his own goddamn family, and that's--no one's ever done that. No one's ever protected him from the Zenin.

The Zenin try to remove him from the Tokyo campus and move him to Kyoto the second they find out Tsumiki's there, and Gojo just... says no. It causes an uproar, and he doesn't fucking budge. It's treading dangerously close to him kidnapping the Zenin clan heir, his refusal to let them remove him from the Tokyo campus, and he doesn't care about whatever problems it causes him.

Megumi's his student. He doesn't want to leave. So Gojo won't let them take him.

He personally goes to Kyoto and collects him, the one time the Zenin force him into a car and move him when Gojo's off on a mission. He tells the higher ups to get fucked. He changes Megumi's student I.D. to read Fushiguro, and he causes problems for Yaga and the assistants until they start calling him Fushiguro as well.

Megumi's different with the other students once his sister is there.

He's more connected with them. He becomes best friends with Kugisaki and Itadori. He gets closer with the second years. He's visibly happier, and it sort of casts in sharp contrast how unhappy he was before this.

And Gojo? Gojo's so goddamn sorry. He didn't know megumi had a sister.

The thing is that now that both Tsumiki and Megumi are on campus, it sort of haunts Gojo with what could have been. They're both fantastic kids--funny, smart, resourceful. And it's painful watching them try to rebuild what was taken from them. And it could have just. never happened. Because he could have saved them both. He could have been their family.

It's sort of painfully obvious the Zenin abused Megumi, and it fucking haunts him. He doesn't even have to read into Megumi's behavior--he sees it happen, right in front of him, with how they try to control him and push him around. He wants to kill them for it. He wants to hate himself for it. He could have saved Megumi and he just. He didn't.

He wishes he did.

[igotanidea]

Not enough: Anthony Bridgerton x reader

(Part 2 to too much)

„I am so terribly sorry for the inconvenience I might have brought on you with my sudden appearance-” she started while walking inside the place of her destination or, to put it more bluntly, after fleeting from her own house upon not-so-subtle fight with her still-husband.

„Y/n! Nonsense my dear, your presence is always welcomed here.” she heard in response and for the first time since the argument she managed to look into the eyes of another person as well as take in the scene in front of her.

Oh dear lord!

Her timing couldn’t be more wrong.

Apparently the only person who was missing from the widow viscountess Bridgerton household was the queen herself, since not only the lady of the house alongside with all her unmarried daughters were enjoying the afternoon tea, but - to Y/N’s very well hidden terror - the duchess and lady Danburry were present as well.

„duchess.” Y/N bowed in the most polite manner she could even though her knees were shaking „lady Danburry.”

Act like nothing happened.

Behave like a lady and not like a little kid, who came her to pour all her worries and tell on her husband who happened to be mean. The last thing she needed was for everyone to talk about her nervousness and giddiness. None of those ladies would be easily fooled and most definitely not lady Danburry with her nosy nature and piercing gaze.

The point was to visit her favourite sister-in-law Eloise who- luckily - were free of any marriage troubles and gain some perspective but that scenario flew away with the gentle summer breeze faster than Y/N could think.

And now she would be kindly invited to join the tea and the respect for widower viscountess alongside with the obligation to the higher positioned duchess (even if family) would forbid her from declining.

„Y/N.” Daphne sent her that tiny, quite shy smile that didn’t calm the nerves even in the slightest. Yes, the duchess was one of the most polite and subtle person in the society, but she was also happily married with another baby on the way.

„Viscountess Bridgerton.” the oldest, lady Danburry on the opposite was known from her sharp tongue and straightforward attitude. That one did not pull her punches.

„My dearest Y/N.” Violet Bridgerton, the mother in law stood up from her place and hugged the girl close. Obviously she was the most open one with her emotions. And the simple warm welcome made Y/n feel a bit strengthened to the point when she even gave a little smile. Tiniest, but honest and still visible.

„Is Anthony with you my dear?’

„Unfortunately my husband is absorbed with the matter of the household today.” Y/N explained, taking a seat next to Violet. „I was rather confused with all the men’s affairs, which brought me here.”

„confused?” Eloise, of whose presence everyone seemed to forget scoffed from her book „You are way smarter that Anthony is, Y/n!”

„Eloise!” her mother friendly scolded her second daughter

„It’s true mama!”

„Even though-’

„Did you come baring notices by any chance, viscountess?" lady Agatha cut into the family exchange innocently taking a sip of her tea, those sharp eyes of a predator glistening

„Notices?”

„Yes viscountess, notices. It;s been a fair amount of time since the marriage, surely something should happen soon between two people who are lucky enough to be in love as much as yo and the viscount?”

Oh...

Oh, she meant that kind of notices.

„May this be so, Y/n?” Daphne asked seeming uncharacteristically brisk. „shall we expect?”

„I certainly hope she won’t be burdened with the heir to the title any time soon--”

‘Eloise!”

„Is it the only purpose of a woman to be obedient to a man and give him children?!”

All the four older woman in the room went quiet and Eloise realised she might have had said a little bit too much. Not only for the lady but in general.

„I suppose our dearest Y/N would love to become a mother and bless us with the little boy or girl, am I correct?”

Of course I would love to, Violet.

I would love to.

Unfortunately so it happens your oldest son refuses to even speak or look at me, let alone performing his so-called marital duty. Which is even more tragic, since I became one to him. Here is the essence of my existence - forever being reminded of the burden I put on his shoulder with storming into his life.

Obviously those thoughts were something the newest viscountess Bridgerton could not form out loud.

„I shall send the regards to my husband ladies. Certainly will not omit to inform him of the expectation placed upon us both.” was the only thing she managed to say with confidence before her voice broke and she covered the sudden wavering by reaching for the sweet placed on the nearby platter.

„Oh my dearest Y/N, it’s no obligation!” Violet seemed quite hurt by the words spoken by her daughter-in-law „Regardless - a child is always a miracle that-”

„Maybe Y/N wouldn’t have to worry about it, if Anthony were taking more interest in her rather than spending time with Benny and Colin.”

„Eloise!”

„It’s just a simple observation! Benedict and Colin are still bachelors, even though the ladies of kind are sharpening their claws for them both, considering the fact the viscountess title is not longer available. Nonetheless, neither of them seem to be interested in taking in marriage-”

‘Eloise!” Violet called upon her daughter once more

„Perhaps if they weren’t spending their times in the club, effectively convincing Anthony to go with them--”

‘Enough, young lady!”

„But-”

„Enough Eloise.”

Y/N went pale at all the words spoken. Not because of their truthfulness, but due to the fact that the word already got out. This was a calamity she was trying her best to cover up and now her favourite member of the family announced them to the world, not thinking about the possible consequences of aforementioned action.

„Y/N, are you quite all right?” Daphne was the first one to take some action „that sudden pallor cannot be good for you. Shall we take a walk?”

Naturally the little stroll around the room will be something to make her feel better. Luckily the most perceptive Eloise noticed the torpid expression on the viscountess face and, not giving her sister any chance to press the matter further, vigorously explained that Daphne certainty meant an actual promenade outside on the manor grounds and that was something y/n was more than delighted to engage in.

Presenting a perfect opportunity to actually indulge in a meaningful conversation not regarding children and submission due to a woman.

***

On the other side of the city Anthony didn’t even notice his wife’s actual absence.

How could he, when she was always present and vivid in his mind, leaving him with her image in front of his eyes even when she was away from him.

Y/N’s face and silhouette, her smile and her resonant, joyful laughter were forever carved in his mind, ever since the day she laughed at him at the lake upon their first meeting, through the first moment of stolen forbidden intimacy, up to the moment looked into her eyes while vowing to love and to cherish her.

His beautiful bride.

His beautiful wife.

Strong willed, hot headed, always having an opinion of her own and doing things her own way, capable to charm everyone with the cheerful character and most natural humor and intelligence.

All the traits that could not be bought by any of the obedient, quiet and shy ladies from high society.

All the traits that put him under her spell and made him want to spend the rest of his life with Y/n.

Only with her.

And he didn’t want to fight, he wanted the same kind of marriage his own parents were joyful to share.

It was all so perfect, until the moment those bright memories got covered with storm clouds of how he behave towards her.  

Not that the viscount gave them much thoughts, too lost in his own meaningless settlements that were not due till the fore-coming month.

It was easier this way.

Forgetting about all the words he said int he moment of anger and of fear (if not mere terror) of his own emotions.

Emotions that, unfortunately, refused to be closed in a hard shell of harsh, obsessive behaviour and being ignored.

Once let out, they wanted to run free.

And oh, so they did, causing the viscount to feel dizzy and giving him palpitations.

All the marriages had their bad moments.

It was impossible to continue for years keeping the same flame that started years ago.

The wife was supposed to be obedient and comply with her husband wishes, especially not bothering him with her presence and whimsical needs or fairy-tell beliefs.

A lady was a diamond in the crown but a wife became a part of the estate, of the livestock. Forever in her husband’s hand to rule.

He was the the man.

He was the viscount and before he met her she was just another long-forgotten by admirers débutante desperate to--

No.

No this was not true and as much as it would be comfortable for Anthony to dwell in all those thoughts, his heart was still in the right place giving him a very clear signal it was time to stop justifying his previous action. Those were the foundation for a very unstable and fragile house that could be blown away easily.

Maybe it wasn’t that his emotions were too much. Maybe it was that his heart capacity was not enough to contain the amount of affection he held for his one and only.

His Y/N.

And he couldn’t have that.

He had to find her wherever she might have been.

He had to fight for her and make it all right.

Even if that meant getting back on his knees, making a scene straight out of those unrealistic romance novels ladies loved and putting it into practice.

„Where on earth is my wife?!” he yelled to the servants, opening the door to his office, his voice loud enough to make the walls shake.

I’m coming for you, my viscountess.

My love.

***

It's not over yet!

Edit: part 3 : almost there

@pietrawebster @chrissisheadisinclouds @fuzzym4m4

@gloomysel @urfavnoirette @dd122004dd @milkbummm

@bevstofu @taniasethi @syraxnyra @cat-lockwood @pr3ttyfac3jaelyn

[artiststarme]

Love Me, Love Me Not

Based on a prompt from @mysticcrownshipper, I hope I did it justice! I hope you guys like it and please leave your thoughts in the comments!

~*~*~*~

After the harrowing events of Spring Break, the school banned Hellfire from meeting on school grounds. They’d finally managed to get rid of him by sending him a pity diploma, there was no way in hell they were going to let him back for a nonacademic game. Eddie’s new trailer wasn’t big enough to comfortably host all of them, Gareth’s mom wouldn’t let them meet in the garage after hearing about Eddie’s accusations on the news, and Mrs. Wheeler wouldn’t let them use the basement. Just like that, one of the only things that kept the boys sane was taken away from them. 

Eddie was practically bursting at the seams when Steve offered for them to use his dining room. Steve hadn’t heard from his parents since Christmas and he wasn’t expecting them to come back any time soon. And he was itching to do something to make the kids happy. They’d been through so much already, they deserved to act like kids for a while and play their little nerd game without restriction.

From that point on, Thursday nights at the Harrington household were devoted to Hellfire. The first few sessions of the new campaign were a bit awkward. The Corroded Coffin boys didn’t know how to interact with Steve. He’d never bullied them or messed with any of them directly but they’d heard enough rumors about him to be wary. After the first few meetings though, they lost their hesitance around him and he became just another guy, another friend that they were excited to hang out with. 

On one fateful Thursday, the boys were mingling during a break in the session and Gareth opened up a can of worms he would’ve rather kept shut. He’d been watching Eddie making eyes at Steve all day and he finally called him out on it over a beer and some Cheetos. 

“So, you and Steve, huh? I didn’t think he was your type. You going for jocks now?” Gareth said it as nonchalantly as he possibly could but Eddie still snorted his beer up his nose and fell into a coughing fit. 

“Fucking shit, Gare! Don’t just drop that on me like that, what’s the matter with you! Of course I’m not, just leave it!” Eddie sputtered.

The Corroded Coffin boys narrowed their eyes at him in unison. None of them believed him especially since he had waxed poetic about the golden flecks in Steve’s eyes just a few hours prior. 

“Dude, that’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard you say and you’ve said some really dumb shit,” Jeff told him deadpan.

Grant scoffed in his face, “yeah sure. Just lie to us like we can’t see that you’re head over heels for the guy.”

“I’m not! Why would I be interested in Steve? There’s no way in hell that would ever work out. Just drop it, you’re making me uncomfortable” Eddie seemed adamant on that and the other boys nodded in reluctant agreement. What they didn’t realize was that Steve had heard their whole conversation from his position in the hallway. 

He really thought he was getting somewhere with being Eddie’s friend, maybe more. Just like all of his other relationships though, he was putting more effort in than Eddie was. He didn’t realize that he hated him so much though. But, maybe he should have. Eddie had seemed hesitant to accept his offer of hosting Hellfire at his house. Steve probably made him uncomfortable, either being a jock when jocks had terrorized him over Spring Break or maybe because he knew Steve had a thing for him and wasn’t interested. Regardless, he didn’t want to make Eddie feel any worse than he already had so he took a step back. 

Steve turned down invitations, made himself scarce on Thursday Hellfire nights, and limited his regular tangents to bland responses. He wanted to make Eddie feel more comfortable with the Party and himself. However, all it served to do was make Eddie pissed off. 

From his perspective, Steve had seemingly out of nowhere decided that Eddie wasn’t worth being friends with. Their weekly smokeouts that he looked forward to were canceled. His lengthy conversations at Family Video with Steve and Robin were met with stilted conversation and narrowed eyes. He didn’t know what had happened to cause the change but Eddie couldn’t help but feel offended. What the fuck had happened to cause such a profound change between them?

Eddie lasted a lengthy two weeks before he exploded. Steve refused yet another invitation to watch Hellfire and Eddie couldn’t take it anymore. “Oh yeah? You’re too good to fraternize with mere peasants, huh King Steve? You have everyone fooled but you’re still such bullshit!” 

Steve whipped around in shock and stepped closer to Eddie to scream into his face. “I’m bullshit? Really? Are you fucking serious?! I was fine, I was having fun talking to you and hanging out and then you said I made you uncomfortable so I backed off. If anyone is bullshit here, it's you. Stop sending fucking mixed signals and leave me alone!”

Eddie just blinked at his back as Steve grabbed his car keys and took off in a haze of confused anger. Well shit, he’d fucked this up immensely. He couldn’t even bring himself to move until Gareth pushed harshly at his shoulder. 

“Dude, what the hell is the matter with you? Steve’s a good guy, why are you jerking him around?” He sniped at him, stabbing his chest with aggressive finger pokes. 

Eddie was still in shock at Steve’s words, still reeling at his proclamation. “He said he likes me?”

“Are you a dumbass?” Jeff asked him. “No seriously, are you stupid? He just said that he backed off because you said you were uncomfortable, he was respecting your boundaries, and you called him bullshit. We’re past him liking you now. We’re in ‘you fucked it up’ territory now, bud.”

Eddie’s heart fell. He didn’t know where to go from there, he’d never liked anyone quite like Steve. “How do I fix this? I really like him.”

Grant sneered at him, “you don’t deserve Steve. You’ve been treating him like shit for the past two weeks, just leave him alone.”

“Wow Grant, thanks for your opinion. That was very helpful,” Eddie said before turning to Jeff and Gareth. “Seriously though, how do I fix this?”

Gareth just let out the most profound sigh anyone had ever heard. “Jesus Christ, Eddie. I think he heard you telling us that we were making you uncomfortable when we asked about him and he misunderstood. I’ll talk to him and explain but fuck man, you need to get better at communicating. If this does work out between you guys, you can’t just keep everything bottled up like this. It’s stressful for all of us.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ll make it up to you, I swear!”

“Yeah, you better,” Gareth muttered.

Hellfire was postponed that week while Gareth tried to barter with Steve to hear Eddie out. He didn’t know the details of what happened after he dragged Steve back to his own house but when Corroded Coffin met for band practice the next afternoon, both Eddie and Steve were sporting multiple hickies and hiding small smiles. 

The boys just sighed at them. They were happy for the pair but good god, they had just gotten used to Eddie’s ramblings about Steve. Imagine how awful he was going to be going forward now that they were together. 

(And they were right. Eddie made it his mission to mention Steve at all times and always managed to include how great his ass looked in any conversation no matter the topic. The Corroded Coffin boys suffered forevermore, always regretting getting them together in the first place.)

My Permanent Tag List: @doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog @newtstabber @i-less-than-three-you @straight4joekeery @carlyv @pyrohonk @ksherlock15 @conversesweetheart @estrellami-1 @suddenlyinlove @yikes-a-bee @swimmingbirdrunningrock @perseus-notjackson @anaibis @merricatty @maya-custodios-dionach @grtwdsmwhr @manda-panda-monium @lumoschild @goodolefashionedloverboi @mentallyundone @awkwardgravity1 @anzelsilver @jestyzesty @gregre369 @mysticcrownshipper @disasterlia @lillys-weird-world @messrs-weasley @gay-stranger-things @pnk-lemonades @coolestjoy30 @awkotaco24

@strangerthingfanfic @dangdirtydemons @bookworm0690 @hannahhook7744 @dreamlandforever @marsbars97 @precursorandthedragon @romanticdestruction @5ammi90 @death-thee-nervousqueer

[bob-the-cemetery-ghost]

[I'm starting to get a couple of asks about my perspective on the whole Wilbur situation. So... I'll just... Say it here :P]

[I will always support and side with Wilbur. Not because I like defending abuse, or manipulation or whatever it was. It's because I've seen so many people's lives get ruined because they were accused of something like this and they killed themselvs over it because nobody believe them. It's also because I've noticed EVERYBODY sides with the woman in the relationship just because its a woman and everybody "knows" that they "cant do any harm" which is really fucked up. I'm not exaggerating I AM QUOTING. As far as I know Wilbur is just being accusing of something and is being forced to play along because he knows what someone popular can do.]

[Now about the response Wilbur made, I wish I could say its forged but I doubt it. Even then, I've heard everybody say that he "never even said sorry" and that he didn't even care and made it about himself which, if you don't know, REALLY is not like Wilbur to do. He would always take accountability for his actions, yes, but he wont make it all about himself for fame and popularity. I say its forged but nobody can know for sure.]

[Also also. Wilbur says that "its normal for bugs to be in British households" when its really not. A British household rarely has bugs in it at all... I think. Even then that's only on the southern side of Britain and Wilbur doesn't really have a Southerner accent. Maybe a posh accent if any. But even then its mainly wasps and insects and an ant IS an insect but for an entire colony to infest an entire house is rare.]

[Also also also, I noticed that the person who made all of these accusations was smiling alot, a few times they hesitated and were moving a lot which are a bunch of red flags that they're lying. Not that I'm saying they ARE lying but it is a huge possibility since we live in a world where women like to lie and ruin lives just for the fun of it or just because the male partner didn't do a few things for a while. I also noticed that everybody instantly jumped and attacked Wilbur about this just because they have been shipped together. The third red flag for me was that Shelby THEN told everyone that is had been Wilbur the entire time and that he was doing all of these things he had been accused of. People used recent videos of Wilbur saying things to back up the accusations. Shelby revealed ZERO bite marks at all and barely explained how much they hurt or if she had any marks of biting at all, she also never said anything about any infections or skin breaks because if she was hurting so bad then the skin would atleast be punctured or have a bite mark for a little while. She showed ZERO sign of any marks and even then was wearing a bit of exposed clothing showing her arms and a little bit of her shoulders and saw no bite marks.]

[So my take on the situation, Wilbur is innocent and he's in danger of being accused of abuse being backed up by more woman. Even his friends are turning on him. I will always support Wilbur and no matter what I will always side with him.]

[itsawhumpsideblog]

The Safehouse, pt. 16

CW: for institutionalized slavery, mentions of abuse, treatment of people as things, medical details (some here, more next time)

Advice from the Box Boy Liberation Movement:

Although your contacts are available to offer assistance 24/7, you are best positioned to advocate for your rescuees' needs. However, it is also true that connecting rescuees with the services they need presents a unique challenge. Many services are more difficult to access without the identification and documentation available to free people. One of the most challenging parts of your job, from an administrative perspective, is balancing the needs of your rescuees with the constraints inherent to having those needs met in secret.

The night of Mikey's fall, once the rescuees were safely in bed, Angie went downstairs, cried into Tim's shoulder for twenty minutes, and then took a deep breath, dried her eyes, and got on the phone. She sat in the kitchen with the receiver in her hand for almost an hour, but when she hung up, Mikey had an appointment for surgery.

The bad news was, it was for the following Friday, five days away. But at least it was on the calendar.

After a night of unsatisfying sleep for the whole house, Tim and Angie opened the door to the rescuees' room to find Nathan and Francis awake, both looking pale and tired. Tim went to Francis to take his temperature, as they did every morning to populate a medical chart that Tim was keeping, and Angie helped Nathan sit up and situate his leg more comfortably.

"I don't think we got a whole lot of sleep," Nathan said. "Any of us."

Francis nodded agreement and looked over at Mikey. "Mikey was in pain during the night," he said. "Francis is... is worried about him. Francis does not mind the lost sleep and he has often gotten by with less, but... he is worried about Mikey- about his friend."

"Well, then I've got good news," Angie said, trying to sound cheerful. "Let's see if Mikey is ready to wake up and we'll talk about it."

Ordinarily, she would have let Mikey sleep on but he didn't look as if it was doing him much good. His face was very pale and he kept shifting his head, as if searching for a more comfortable place to lay it. His arms were placed on the pillows exactly as Tim and Angie had left him and whenever he twitched his shoulders, there was a hitch in his breath.

Angie bent over the sleeping boy and smoothed his hair back, trying to wake him as gently as possible. "Hey, Mikey," she said in a very quiet voice. "Wake up for a little bit and see us? We won't keep you up too long."

With a gasp, Mikey roused instantly from sleep to wakefulness and his head shot up and swiveled from side to side. His expression was panicked until his eyes landed upon Nathan, who was giving him an encouraging- if rather sad- smile.

"Morning, buddy," Nathan said. "How you feeling?" Mikey did something expressive and mournful with his face that neither Angie nor Tim understood, but his fellow rescuees did. Francis tensed and shook his head and Nathan frowned. "That bad, huh? I'm sorry, buddy."

"Mikey says that his arms hurt him badly," Francis translated, giving voice to the expression. Mikey gave him another look and Francis continued, "He would be grateful for any relief you can give him. He says it is unbearable."

Mikey nodded, looking between Tim and Angie with an expression so pleading than even they understood it.

"I'll get you some medicine," Tim said. "It won't be perfect, but it'll help a little bit." He stood and left the room, the rest of the household waiting quietly behind him.

The quiet did not last. Mikey shifted his hips and gasped, feeling the movement affect his shoulders. He pressed his head back into the pillow, biting his lip, his face contorted in pain.

"Oh, geez," Nathan muttered under his breath. Angie put her hand on Mikey's head and stroked his hair with her thumb, knowing that it wouldn't help. It seemed like a very long time until Tim came back.

Once Mikey had taken the medicine and there were packs of frozen vegetables on his forearms, he sighed and rolled his head to the side to look at Angie.

"You said you had news," Nathan reminded her, possibly on Mikey's behalf. It was hard to tell, sometimes, whether Nathan was speaking for himself or for one of the others; it was easier with Francis, who had yet to use the pronoun "I".

"We've got an appointment scheduled for you, Mikey," Angie said. She had to resist the urge to talk to Nathan, as if he needed to translate the other direction. "It's not until Friday, but Friday will be here before you know it."

The news was not greeted with quite as much enthusiasm as she had hoped for. Nathan looked relieved, but Mikey just stared at her, his face unreadable, and Francis looked openly nervous. The two of them held a brief visual conversation and Francis spoke up.

"Ma'am, what will they do to him?" His voice got very quiet as he added, "Will he come back to you, or go... elsewhere?"

"He'll come back here," Tim said firmly, and began by addressing the unspoken concerns. "So first of all, don't worry about that. Nobody's going anywhere and we are not kicking Mikey out or getting rid of him. The doctor is just going to take care of his arms. He'll need surgery to put everything back in the right place, so it stops hurting all the time, and then he'll recover right here with us."

Francis nodded, still looking uncertain, but less frightened. Mikey was still watching Angie closely, but his eyes flicked to Francis and then Nathan and one of his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, I'm sure Angie will stay with you," Nathan said. "It'll be like when I went to get my cast, remember? Angie went with me and she stayed with me for the whole thing. You'll stay with Mikey, right, Angie?"

"Of course I will!" To Mikey she added, "I'll be there the whole time, if you want me. Don't even worry about it, we won't let anything bad happen to you."

Mikey still looked a little skeptical, but Francis looked vastly relieved.

"And they will fix his arms and then allow him to leave?" Tim had to remind himself that in Francis' world, nobody was allowed to make the choice to leave independently.

Tim nodded. "It'll probably happen like this. Angie and Mikey will drive to the hospital and meet our contacts there- other Liberation Movement volunteers. They'll get Mikey ready for surgery, help him go to sleep, and fix his arms while he sleeps. So far, so good?" Francis nodded. "Then he'll wake up in a quiet room, in a comfy bed, with Angie right there next to him. When he's fully awake, they'll put him back in the car and she'll drive home. He'll probably have a cast and some stitches from the surgery, but he's going to feel a lot better."

After another silent conversation with Mikey, Francis nodded again. "Francis is sure that it will be alright," he said. "And Mikey trusts Ma'am, so he says he will do it. He says almost anything would be better than this."

The week passed both very quickly and too slowly. Mikey only got out of bed when Tim helped him to the bathroom, although his legs seemed to work well enough.

"He's afraid to fall again," Nathan explained. "He doesn't want to go down the stairs unless he has to."

"I don't blame him," Tim replied, and the four of them spent most of the week in the rescuees' bedroom, keeping Mikey company whenever he was awake. Angie disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with a wheeled coffee table, on which she set up the TV so that Mikey could see it from his bed.

"It might be good to have after you get home, too," she said. "You might want to spend a lot of time sleeping at first." They took turns picking the shows, a gentle way for all three of the rescuees to practice making choices.

Nights continued to be a struggle; Mikey's pain seemed worst in the evening and nothing they said or watched was enough to take his mind off it entirely. Francis often wanted to be helped to his bedside, where he sat very patiently for the hours it sometimes took Mikey to fall asleep, speaking quietly in that narrative, stilted way he had. He found that Mikey liked it when he retold the plot of shows they had watched as if they were new stories.

When Friday morning arrived at last, it was hard to tell whether the predominant mood in the house was anxiety or excitement. Tim kept smiling and humming to himself; as a medical professional, he had no fear of hospitals and was looking forward to Mikey's recovery finally getting underway. Nathan was more talkative than usual, which could have meant anything or multiple things, but Francis was plainly nervous and, when they came to bring him downstairs for the day they found that his hands were shaking and his fever had risen in the night.

"Probably stress," Tim told him, intending to be reassuring.

"Francis is very sorry," he said wretchedly as Tim lay him on the couch, shivering and pulling his hoodie tighter around himself. He had the hood up, but was wiping clumsily at his sweaty forehead. "Francis will try to be good. But he is worrying about Mikey. Hospitals are..." He could not finish the sentence.

"Don't worry about it," Tim assured him. "Everything's going to be fine." He put another blanket over Francis and tucked a cool cloth into the hoodie. "We'll watch a little TV and they'll be back by dinner time."

"Yes, Sir."

Mikey was apparently in agreement with Francis about what hospitals were like, because he was fully awake, wide-eyed and pale when they came to get him ready to go.

"Are you excited to have it all done?" Angie asked. Her voice was cheerful, but she had admitted to Tim earlier that she had butterflies in her stomach regardless. It would be the first time she was alone with one of the rescuees for so long, and what if Mikey needed something and she couldn't understand him? Tim had assured her that it would be fine, but she couldn't shake the weight of the responsibility that seemed to rest more heavily on her shoulders that morning.

Mikey bit his lip and nodded, not looking sure at all. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his lips tightly together as they sat him up, very slowly and carefully.

"Let's just leave his shirt where it is," Tim suggested, to Mikey's immense and obvious relief. "They'll help him get into a hospital gown when he gets there, anyway." They helped him maneuver his left arm back into the sling and then held a pair of sweatpants for him to slide his feet into. "We'll get your shoes downstairs," Tim told him. "Easier to walk down that way, if you're not worrying about tripping."

A visible shiver ran through Mikey at the idea and his breath caught, but he nodded and stood up, very slowly and carefully. Tim pulled the sweatpants up to his waist and, for the first time in several days, with Angie in front of him and Tim at his side, Mikey walked downstairs.

When he stepped onto flat ground and felt safe looking up, Mikey found that a farewell committee had convened in the front hall. Nathan was leaning on his crutches, grinning reassuringly at him, in total confidence that he would return safely, which did make Mikey feel better. Nathan had been to the hospital and come back, and surely so would he. Francis was seated in a chair Tim had brought from the kitchen, bundled in his sweatshirt and smiling in spite of the alarming red of his cheeks and the way he held his head with one hand.

Take care of yourself, Mikey said with a look.

"Francis will be better soon," Francis murmured. "But don't worry about Francis- Sir will look after him. Ensure that you look after yourself, Mikey, and Francis will be anxious to see you home soon."

Don't worry too much, Mikey replied and tried to smile for Francis.

"Don't stress about it, okay, buddy?" Nathan said. He limped forward and tousled Mikey's hair. "You're gonna do great- you'll just go to sleep and when you wake up, your shoulder's gonna feel so much better! And we'll be waiting here for you when you get back."

Mikey nodded and caught Nathan's eye. Thanks, he said. See you tonight.

"See you tonight."

Getting out to the car wasn't as difficult as getting down the stairs had been, Mikey felt, but it was very strange and a little unnerving to be outdoors. Last time he was outdoors he- Mikey cut the thought off and put it purposefully out of his mind. He didn't want to start shaking and risk another fall.

Master picked up a throw pillow from the couch and then he and Mistress walked on either side of Mikey, hands out like they might need to catch him, and led him around to the far side of a small, grey car. Mistress opened the door and Master helped Mikey crouch down and get his legs in and sit back. Then Master pulled out some kind of restraint that Mikey had not noticed; Mikey realized he must have an apprehensive look on his face, because Master smiled. Sinister? Amused? Mikey watched his face intently, waiting to find out.

"It's a seatbelt," Master explained. "It'll help keep you safe. It clips over there, by your hip, and it's designed to come off when you push the red button. I know the button is hard for you, but Angie will help you get it off when you get to the hospital, okay?"

Mikey was fairly sure he had no choice and nodded. He held his breath as Master pulled out the belt and crossed it over his body, so that it held him down at the hips and chest. There was a click as the belt was secured and Mikey moved his head from side to side, trying to look at the belt. Tentatively, he leaned forward and was both surprised and relieved to find that the belt moved with him, instead of holding him tightly to the seat.

Master laid the pillow on Mikey's lap, under his right arm. "I know Angie will drive as carefully as she can," he explained, "But the roads can be a little bumpy. That should keep the ride from being too hard on your arm." When Mikey nodded, he gave a little smile and closed the door gently.

Next, Mistress got in the car and Mikey was surprised to see the she was also wearing a belt, like his. That made him feel better, he realized. If Mistress was going to use one of these, then perhaps they really weren't a restriction or a punishment. Maybe it really would help keep them safe.

"Okay, here goes," Mistress said. She pushed a button, did something with a lever, and then the car was moving, backing out of the driveway.

Mikey took a look at the house from outside, the first time he had seen it that way. He wasn't sure how he felt about any of this; on the one hand, if he really was going just to have someone take care of his arm, then it was a happy occasion and he ought to feel happy. But on the other hand, Mikey couldn't trust a situation so unknown, and so the happiness he hoped to feel remained tinged with nervousness as the car picked up speed.

Next time: Mikey and Angie check in to the hospital; at home, Francis and Nathan worry.

Master List

Notes: This went from a one-part plotline to a two or three part plotline real quick.

Tag list: @pigeonwhumps, @cepheusgalaxy, @i-eat-worlds, @honeycollectswhump @taterswhump, @starfields08000 @whumpsday, @fruitypinapple00, @currentlyinthesprial