#where he’s talking to the Green Maiden about why she doesn’t want a lover

[105ttt]

Person: I love you

Green: Oh haha I love you too!!

Person: No I mean my heart burns with desire for you

Green: Oh man you might wanna get that checked out dude!! That doesn’t sound natural

Person: No no I mean I would do anything just to make you happy. I cherish you with my entire soul.

Green: Hey same for you buddy!! :D

Person: Oh my god.

[nikosheba]

The Mystery of the Vanishing Elf

First of all, this is not my meta; I’m posting this on behalf of Azh, who wrote it and wanted it on tumblr. (They did say I could take credit for bothering them to write it, and for helping kick around ideas, so I will :D)

Link to the meta on AO3

[all page numbers from the 2007 HarperCollins edition of The Children of Húrin, ISBN 978 0 00 724622 9]

Thanks to starlightwalking for beta-ing!

So I just finished reading the Children of Húrin—which, let’s be honest, I was mostly reading to get the expanded version of the Túrin and Beleg content.  So at first when I started reading the second half — after Beleg’s death — I figured the reason I was less drawn to the text was because, well, Beleg was dead and therefore was less present in the narrative.  After I’d finished the book and put it down, though, I realized it was a little more than that.  Beleg wasn’t just less present. He was completely absent. This is no exaggeration: between the last mention of Beleg’s name in Chapter IX (“The Death of Beleg”) and Túrin’s death, when Gurthang asks to forget the “blood of Beleg my master” there is a single mention of his name, and it’s only a passing description of Gurthang itself as “the Black Sword of Beleg” (pg. 237).

Túrin never says his name again.

What’s going on here?  This is, quite frankly, bizarre. The entire first half of the narrative pivots around the relationship between Túrin and Beleg.  Beleg is the one who finds Túrin when he’s just a child his mother is sending to Thingol in Doriath. Beleg is his friend when’s growing up on Doriath — one of two really mentioned, the other being Nellas — and when Túrin is grown and goes off to be with the marchwardens, “Beleg and Túrin were companions in every peril” (pg 86).  When Thingol and Mablung and everyone else are ready to assume the worst of Túrin, it’s Beleg who shows up with Nellas to tell them what really happened, and it’s notable that this means Beleg didn’t see what happened; he just implicitly trusted Túrin and was the only one to do so.  They care about each other a lot. There is a brief portion of time while Túrin is with the outlaws that they aren’t together (that’s a whole nother post in itself) but Beleg returns to Túrin on Amon Rudh, “in this way, Beleg came back to Túrin, yielding to his love against his wisdom.  Túrin was glad indeed, for he had often regretted his stubbornness; and now the desire of his heart was granted…it seemed to [the outlaws] there had been a tryst between Beleg and their caption.” (pg 139).  These boys are in love. It’s textual.  There’s only one other character Túrin is described as loving in a similar way, and it’s Níniel (Niënor), whom he marries.

In fact, it’s staggering that Níniel is the only other one (pg 218 “Turambar restrained himself no longer, but asked her in marriage”), because there is a very big elephant in the room, and it’s the person whom Níniel is occasionally compared to, Finduilas.  Finduilas is mentioned three times in the text after her death, including twice by Túrin himself in direct quotations:

- “Then Turambar who led the men started back and covered his eyes, and trembled; for it seemed that he saw the wraith of a slain maiden that lay on the grave of Finduilas.” (pg. 214, when Túrin first finds Níniel)

- "But even as he spoke, he wondered, and mused in his mind: 'Or can it be that one so evil and fell shuns the Crossings, even as the Orcs? Haudh-en-Elleth! Does Finduilas lie still between me and my doom?’” (pg. 229, when Túrin is preparing to fight Glaurung for the last time),

- “Therefore he arose and went to the Crossings of Teiglin, and as he passed by Haudh-en-Elleth he cried: 'Bitterly have I paid, O Finduilas! that ever I gave heed to the Dragon. Send me now counsel!’” (pg. 253, after he’s killed Brandir and is desperately trying to deny that Níniel was Niënor, his sister)

This is huge. And it’s huge, because Túrin is not in love with Finduilas. This, again, is explicit, and textual, "In truth Finduilas was torn in mind. For she honoured Gwindor and pitied him, and wished not to add one tear to his suffering; but against her will her love for Turin grew day by day, and she thought of Beren and Luthien. But Turin was not like Beren! He did not scorn her, and was glad in her company; yet she knew that he had no love of the kind she wished. His mind and heart were elsewhere, by rivers in springs long past.” (pg 166, ”Túrin in Nargothrond”). So.  Túrin never falls in love with Finduilas, and, in fact, the reason he doesn’t fall in love with her is that his “mind and heart are elsewhere”.  Hmmmm. I wonder where his heart is?

Okay, so then why is it that Túrin repeatedly refers to Finduilas but not to Beleg?  It’s really obvious based on the quotes I’ve given so far that he was in love with Beleg (and for god’s sake, the man doesn’t talk for a YEAR after Beleg’s death), that he was not in love with Finduilas, and that he was (or thought he was, at least) in love with Níniel, enough to ask her to marry him.  So where the hell is Beleg in his thoughts for all this time when he’s falling for Níniel and thinking back to Finduilas?

For the answer to this, we need to consider the dual nature of Níniel’s relationship to Túrin, and what its source is.

Yes, Túrin loves Níniel, as his wife, but we know he also loved his sister Niënor, as a sister, and part of the reason he kills himself is that he can’t handle that he’s driven his sister to her death via incest (albeit accidental incest).  It’s notable that Túrin loves Finduilas as a sister,

“Then Turin spoke freely to [Finduilas] concerning these things, though he did not name the land of his birth, nor any of his kindred; and on a time he said to her: 'I had a sister, Lalaith, or so I named her; and of her you put me in mind. But Lalaith was a child, a yellow flower in the green grass of spring; and had she lived she would now, maybe, have become dimmed with grief. But you are queenly, and as a golden tree; I would I had a sister so fair.’” (pg. 164, “Túrin in Nargothrond”.)

So these references to Finduilas make a narrative kind of sense — in addition to it mostly happening as Túrin is passing her grave, it’s a textual reminder of a hidden truth: Níniel is not just Túrin’s lover, but also his sister.  He even finds her upon the grave of someone he loved as a sister.  But there’s another truth hidden in the text as well, and it’s related to Níniel’s nature as Túrin’s lover.  Because let’s be real, if he found her on the grave of someone he loved very firmly in a non-romantic way, why does he become romantically interested in her?  She’s his sister—obviously he doesn’t know that, but the narrative is saying it very, very clearly.  Well…there’s a confounding factor.

Here’s how Túrin finds Níniel (pg. 214): “Now it chanced that some of the woodmen of Brethil came by in that hour from a foray against Orcs, hastening over the Crossings of Teiglin to a shelter that was near; and there came a great flash of lightning, so that the Haudh-en-Elleth was lit as with a white flame.”

And here is how Túrin discovers that he has killed Beleg (pg. 155): “But as he stood, finding himself free, and ready to sell his life dearly against imagined foes, there came a great flash of lightning above them, and in its light he looked down on Beleg's face.”

The narrative does draw a parallel between Níniel and Beleg, an extremely strong (if subtle) one.  It uses literally the same phrase to set up the scene: “there came a great flash of lightning”.  So there’s a pretty clear answer as to why Túrin might associate Níniel with romantic love—he doesn’t just find her on his as-it-were sister’s grave, he finds her in a way that hearkens strongly back to the last time he ever saw his lover’s face.

So why doesn’t he think of Beleg now?

Why is the thought of his lover—whose loss cut him so deeply he didn’t speak for a year—so far out of his mind at this moment that his name isn’t even mentioned, even when narratively there’s no way he shouldn’t think of him?

Okay, I’ve drawn this out enough, so let’s cut to the chase: Glaurung. Glaurung, who is responsible for the first hidden truth that I mentioned, the more textually explicit one, that Níniel is Niënor, Túrin’s sister.  He bespells Niënor upon Amon Ethir, “Then he drew her eyes into his, and her will swooned. And it seemed to her that the sun sickened and all became dim about her; and slowly a great darkness drew down on her and in that darkness there was emptiness; she knew nothing, and heard nothing, and remembered nothing,” (pg 209, “The Journey of Morwen and Niënor”) causing her to lose her memories and with her memories her name and therefore any way for Túrin to know who she is.  Glaurung earlier bespells Túrin as well, “Without fear Turin looked in those eyes as he raised up his sword; and straightway he fell under the dreadful spell of the dragon, and was as one turned to stone.” (pg. 178, “the Fall of Nargothrond”)  The first, obvious result of Glaurung’s spell (and the only explicit one) is that he leaves Finduilas and rushes off to try and find Morwen and Niënor.  Now, we’re meant to believe that this is all that the spell does, since in “The Return of Túrin to Dor-Lómin”, pg. 166, the text notes, “And suddenly a black wrath shook him; for his eyes were opened, and the spell of Glaurung loosed its last threads, and he knew the lies with which he had been cheated.”

But I don’t think this makes sense.  I think Tolkien is being poetical here and the “last threads” he’s talking about are specifically the lies about Finduilas.  A number of Túrin’s conversations with Níniel point towards the fact that he’s forgotten something really important and that in that regard the dragon’s spell is still intact.  For example, when Túrin tells Níniel what to call him (pgs 217-218, “Niënor in Brethil”):

“Then she paused as if listening for some echo; but she said: 'And what does that say, or is it just the name for you alone?'

“’It means,' said he, 'Master of the Dark Shadow. For I also, Niniel, had my darkness, in which dear things were lost; but now I have overcome it, I deem.’”

“My darkness” is eerily similar to the repeated motif of Níniel’s darkness, which explicitly refers to the spell cast on her by Glaurung.  

“Behind her lay only an empty darkness” (pg 213, “Niënor in Brethil”); “it seem to her that the darkness that lay behind her was overtaking her again” (pg 214, “Niënor in Brethil”); “it seemed to her that she had found at last something that she had sought in the darkness” (pg. 215, “Niënor in Brethil”); and the two most relevant quotations, “And at that name she looked up, and she shook her head, but said: 'Níniel.' And that was the first word that she spoke after her darkness, and it was her name among the woodmen ever after” (pg 216, ”Niënor in Brethil”); and “when at length she had learned enough to speak with her friends she would say: 'What is the name of this thing? For in my darkness I lost it.’” (pg. 217, “Niënor in Brethil”)

So here it is: Túrin has lost “dear things” in “his darkness” (Glaurung’s spell) and he thinks that Níniel is what he has lost, but she isn’t—or she isn’t the only thing that’s missing. Glaurung has ripped out of Túrin’s mind the memory of the only person he’s ever had romantic feelings for—Beleg—and because he’s confused and trying to find something to fill that gap, Níniel gets cast in a dual role—not just sister (with her ties to Finduilas) but also lover (with her subtler ties to poor, missing Beleg).  

This theory also has significant implications for Túrin’s death, since that’s the only time that Beleg is mentioned again, apart from a tangential sidenote.  When Mablung finally confirms to Túrin what he’s already beginning to fear is the truth, that Níniel was his sister Niënor, he runs up to the Cabed-en-Aras, from which Níniel has thrown herself, and he asks his sword to kill him. His sword is Gurthang, which was Anglachel, made by Eöl, the sword that Thingol gave to Beleg and that Túrin used to accidentally kill him, and the response is somewhat unexpected, since up till now we haven’t had any indication that it’s a talking sword,

“‘And from the blade rang a cold voice in answer: 'Yes, I will drink your blood, that I may forget the blood of Beleg my master…I will slay you swiftly.’” (pg. 256, “The Death of Túrin”)

Interestingly, this is after the sword has been reforged, and there’s no particular reason it should refer to Beleg as its master — after all, Túrin has been wielding it for years, and it was made by someone else entirely.  So then, why?  And why does it ask to forget his blood in particular?

Because Túrin has remembered, finally.  Whether the sword is picking up on the mood, whether it’s a narrative device, or whether it isn’t even really talking and it’s just Túrin’s mind playing tricks on him in his last extremis, I don’t know—though I favor the latter interpretation, particularly because Túrin himself is referred to as “the Black Sword” on numerous occasions.  But the important point here is Túrin has remembered, because Glaurung is dead, and his memory spells die with him, “Then Nienor sat as one stunned, but Glaurung died; and with his death the veil of his malice fell from her, and all her memory grew clearer before her, from day unto day, neither did she forget any of those things that had befallen her since she lay on Haudh-en-Elleth.” (pg. 243, “The Death of Glaurung”)

So Túrin knows by now exactly what he’s done—not only inadvertently marrying his sister but betraying the one great romantic love of his life.  The one he has probably just remembered accidentally killing in great detail.  It’s probably quite present in his mind when, rather than throw himself over the waterfall as Níniel did, he flings himself onto the very same sword that killed the only person he was ever in love with, whose name he has finally, finally been able to bring to mind…

In sum, Glaurung erases Beleg’s memory so thoroughly from Túrin’s mind that only tiny, hidden glimpses remain, even in the text.  This is the solution to the mystery of the vanishing Elf; it explains why Beleg vanishes right up until the very end, and it ties together the sense I had when I was reading the second half of something missing, something hidden, something incomplete.  It is, I imagine, the same way Túrin must have felt after he awoke—as he thought, completely—from the spell that Glaurung laid upon him the first time they fought.

[A/N: I also wrote a fic based on this premise: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28980519 ]

[moscnios]

                                        NOVEMBER FOURTH ━ﾞ

⁺◟   PROMPT . . .           “i know i can’t make you run away with me...”

⁺◟   CHARACTERS . . .           roronoa zoro           fem!reader           mentions of the strawhats

⁺◟   GENRE . . .           smut           fluff           oneshot

⁺◟   SYNOPSIS . . .           princess ( y/n ) has bigger dreams than           becoming a queen and trophy wife to a           man who she doesn’t love. she doesn’t           believe those dreams can come true           until she meets an unfamiliar swordsman,           who offers her an escape.

⁺◟   CONTENT WARNINGS . . .           unprotected sex ‘ light choking ‘ oral           ( female receiving ) ‘ dirty talk ‘ a bit of           over-stimulation ‘ etc.

⁺◟   WORD COUNT . . .           3.2k.

⁺◟   COMMENTARY . . .           ( k/n ) = kingdom’s name

a shallow swallow, followed by a silent gasp filled the dimly lit chamber, decorated with the finest silvers, golds, and platinums, all of which one could adore. the only light had come from the balcony on one side of the room. white silk curtains, made with the utmost care and finest silk in all of the lands, in front of the balcony had flown in with the nightly, cool wind allowing the moonlight to seep in, bathing the face of a young maiden dressed in a long sleeveless lilac satin nightgown, that touched the cold hard floor beneath her feet.

the straps of her satin gown were slipping off of her smooth shoulders. she draped her arm across her clothed breasts, chills going down her spine. she shivered in the nightly, sinful wind, as her head rested on the shoulder of a tall, well-built, green-haired gentlemen standing behind her.

he wrapped an arm tightly around her waist, pressing her smaller frame against his larger one. the green-haired man’s free hand had grazed the soft skin on the woman’s neck.

his touches were the opposite of his hands and how he usually was. usually, they were brutal, deadly, and could easily kill. with her in his arms, they were gentle, sweet, and full of love and admiration. even if the man was a little rough with her sometimes.

if only anyone had seen the roronoa zoro, pirate hunter and swordsman, had such a tender side to him.

if only anyone had seen who the woman entrapped in his arms was.

princess ( y/n ), the future queen of ( k/n ). she was a noble, one who hated her title since she was a weak child. the young princess was not interested in dresses, makeup, marriage and other formalities women around her age worried themselves with. she cared more for traveling, fighting, and fulfilling her own selfish desires and dreams, not those of the kingdom. it wasn’t much of a mystery as to why the dear princess was not married yet.

well, the fair maiden was engaged to be married. her wedding was all planned out and set to happen in only a few weeks' time. she would marry her a marine captain from the marine base on the island and her childhood friend who had loved her since he could remember.

a man whom she could barely stay in the same room with anymore without the looming guilt of indifferent feelings toward him.

no matter how many times those three words spewed out of her mouth...i love you...she never meant them. no matter how many times she would give the marine a kiss on the cheek to send him off for his duties or hugged him before the two had said their goodnights and sweet dreams to one another, she never felt the same way.

she did not wish to marry a man she did not love. she did not want to marry at all.

on one of her escapes from the castle, she had ridden through town, hiding her identity. her ( e/c ) eyes drifted to the long wall of wanted posters full of criminals. seeing the posters had always fascinated her, seeing the many crooks from all of the grand line. her favorites were the pirates.

oh, how she wished to be one, and run away from being stuck in a castle, in a dress. it was her biggest dream. being a pirate would help her achieve her dream of traveling across the world and learn about different islands and their past.

a historian is what you could say she wanted to be. but she could never do it under the roof of strict nobility parents and the man she was going to marry soon.

that day, her eyes had landed on two new posters that were added to the very end of the long wall.

monkey d. luffy

roronoa zoro

their bounties were impressive. she had wondered what the two could have possibly done to receive such high amounts.

and that was when the unthinkable happened. out of the corner of her eye, she saw a green-haired man with three katanas attached at the hip, traveling lonesome, looking around the town as if he were lost.

and he was lost.

when he had approached her for directions, she clung tightly to the wanted poster in her hands. zoro saw the poster in her hands, mumbling curses to himself.

“are you this man?”

“and if i am?”

as he sized her up, she had done the same. even as he threatened to unsheathed one of his katanas, she did not budge, rather challenging him to start a battle. before he could, an orange-haired girl complaining about him getting lost had dragged him away.

that, of course, was not the last time the pair had crossed paths. they had only continued to bump into one another, as the straw hats waited for their log pose to log the island so they could go to another one.

( y/n )’s feet carried her to the docks where she saw it, their ship. she kept her distance, unsure of what to think of her acquaintance's nakama, though they shared no ill-will toward her. the captain who was pretty accepting, even pulled her onto the ship with...stretchable...arms, which worried her. pretty quickly, she had learned of devil fruits and their powers, especially when the little reindeer began speaking to her.

the rest of them seemed nice and lovely. of course, it was only lovely, until his nakama began referring to ( y/n ) as zoro’s little girlfriend. except sanji, who was still set on referring to her as princess.

when his nakama had settled down, leaving the two of them. he had apologized for their behavior, to which she said it wasn’t a big deal. a short silence sounded the two of them before she had opened up to him. a man who would probably never understand what she was going through. a man who lived his days as a pirate swordsman with a bounty so high, her mother would probably drop dead seeing the two of them even near each other.

and he listened. he clung to every word like no one had done before. every word she spoke, was a melody to his ears. she did not expect him to say all the right things, and he didn’t. but he did make her think.

“why don’t you run away with us? don’t think we have a historian on the crew yet. do you want to fill that position? our captain does like you.”

the idea had run through her mind since he said it. it was on a night just like tonight, the moonlight beaming down, bathing them.

she just hadn’t expected to fall so deeply in love with the swordsman.

he allowed his wandering hand to gently grab her neck, his thumb and index finger lightly applying pressure to the sides of her neck, making her gasp once more, this one a bit louder than the last.

he slowly guided her head to look at him. her dark, lust-filled eyes had looked into his, breathlessly. he loosened the pressure, “i know i can’t make you run away with me, but i damn sure won’t let you marry some marine.”

“you’re doing a pretty good job at convincing me to run away with you, i must say,” she teased, with a playful smirk. zoro removed his hand, making the maiden pout a bit. with his strong arms, he spun her around in his hold, grabbing the soft plush of her clothed thighs through her satin dress.

“up,” he said lowly. she jumps, wrapping her legs around his torso, exposing her legs to him, leaving her satin gown to bunch up at her waist. she wrapped an arm around him, pulling his head in for a passionate kiss. he secured her legs around his waist, walking backward to ( y/n )’s large bed, stumbling a bit. as the back of his legs hit the mattress, he sunk onto it. he pulled away from the kiss, a trail of spit from their tongues breaking.

he pulled the straps of the satin gown down, the bodice following in suit, exposing her breasts to him. he wasted absolutely no time, alternating between rough kisses, biting, and suction. she kept a hand on the back of his neck, as she threw her head back in pleasure and a bit of pain. she knew she would be left with hickeys and bruises all across her breasts in the next few days.

“let that marine bastard see these the next time he tries something,” he muttered against her chest between wet kisses, making her giggle through a moan.

“so, that’s what this is? you marking me out of jealousy?”

“i’ll do more than just mark you,” he warned, pulling her out of his lap and onto the mattress, quickly climbing on top of her.

his eyes had darkened, filling with sweet lust as they raked over her naked torso. zoro shifted down, prying her legs open, occupying the space between them, his favorite place to be. he pushed up her bunched up satin dress to reveal her damp panties.

he took a finger, allowing it to slide up and down her clothed slit, staring deep into her eyes with a shit-eating grin. a string of impatient soft whimpers and sighs surpassed the woman’s lips, as she stared down at her lover between her thighs, just the place she had wanted him the most. but he wouldn’t give it to her that easily. she knew him better than that.

he had yet to plaster his favorite part of her in hickeys. her inner thighs. the green-haired swordsman could go on and on about his obsession with her inner thighs, though he preferred being smothered between them.

“zoro, come on,” she whined, allowing her impatient hands to roam his clothed strong chest.

“impatient, are we?” he raised an eyebrow.

“shut up and fucking do something, please,” she begged.

a low chuckle left his lips, “such a vulgar princess.” he pulled away from her, standing on his knees. the swordsman. he grabbed the sides of his white shirt, pulling it over his head, throwing it somewhere off into the darkness of the room. next, he untied his black bandana from his left bicep, as he climbed over ( y/n ). he took her wrists into one hand, tying them together tightly to one of the many rails of the bed frame above her head.

“zoro―”

the swordsman took her chin between his thumb and index finger, forcing her to look into his eyes, “impatient and vulgar princesses don’t get to touch. think of it as punishment. you’ll be a good girl for me, won’t you ( y/n )?”

the maiden nodded, as she gulped. she felt a wave of chills crawl down his spine as she squirmed beneath him, her legs threatening to close. “you like when i call you that, huh? you just want to be my little good girl, don’t you? i want words this time.”

“y-y-yes...zoro. i want to be y-your good g-girl,” she stuttered out.

he released her chin, leaving a trail of wet, open-mouthed kisses down her body, stopping at the satin gown that still resided at her hips. his large hands gripped the sides of the gown, sliding them carefully down her legs, dropping it near the side of the queen-sized bed.

he opened her legs once more, leaving a trail of kisses, each kiss becoming rougher than the one before it. as he disconnected, she could hear a loud pop. he whispered, “you are so perfect,” between every kiss desperately as if he were never going to be able to tell her those four words again.

accompanying her deep sighs of pleasure and light pain, was a dark blush of embarrassment on his lover’s face. she could never get used to the swordsman saying such compliments while face deep in her thighs, near her delicate center.

body worship was his favorite thing, both receiving and giving, though he preferred giving. he gave one last rough kiss, before turning his attention to her now soaked panties. he slid the fabric to the side, revealing her glistening folds. “fuck,” he whispered, “i did this to you?’

“s-shut up,” ( y/n ), stuttered out, “don’t get all fucking cocky.”

he shook his head at her, allowing his fingers to spread open her glistening folds, before shoving two of his digits into her hot, wet hole. “nghh...oh fuck,” she breathed out, jolting forward against the restraints.

“what happened to being my good girl? you were doing so well,” he teased, scissoring her folds roughly. he watched with a smirk, watching her begin to lose her mind, her head tossed back in pleasure, as she tried to fuck herself onto his digits trying to match his pace. a tent formed in his pants, being restrained by the fabric of his trousers. when did his pants become so fucking tight? had they always been this way?

“you’re so fucking pretty like this. so. fucking. pretty. i hope you don’t mind me having a taste,” he muttered as he inched forward, licking a long stride up her folds, making her shiver. a loud sigh left her lips, as she pulled against the restraint, only making it tighter on her wrists. zoro chuckled against her heat, the vibrations going through her body.

he pulled away slightly, making her whimper. the swordsman spit between her folds in a way to claim her and her core as his and his alone. she could feel his spit running down her slit. it was always a sign that he would not stop until he was satisfied.

zoro grips onto her thighs, tight enough to bruise as he buried his rough tongue between her folds, drinking in her essence before his lips gently suckle on her clit. ( y/n ) gripped the rails just above her head in pleasure. the swordsman’s ears drunk up every moan, every whimper, and every cry that spilled out of his lover’s lips. he slid two fingers, curling them as his tongue circles her clit.

“zoro, fuck. i’m...ah...i’m so close,” she warned between mewls and pants. he did not stop his ministrations, rather, he continued listening to her sinful voice rising in octaves. his black, lust-filled eyes fixated on the way her face displayed the pleasure she was experiencing. her back arched slightly as her thighs tried to clamp shut, though his hands on her thighs were stronger, keeping her in place as he growled against her center.

“be still.”

her toes curl as a cry that was a bit too loud passed her lips and filled the air. her body squirmed underneath him, reaching that sweet peak. the first of tonight. he placed a kiss on her hip bone before pressing the pads of his three fingertips against her clit, rubbing rapidly. the room filled with overstimulated whimpering echoes of his name. “i know you can cum again,” he spoke, the friction of his calloused fingertips against her bud, ruthless. it didn’t take long for the band to stretch again.

“oh...fuck!”

the second peak. her body wrenched, eyes squeezed shut as she squeezed onto her the rails, the whites of her knuckles beginning to show. faded, white dots danced along the darkness of her closed eyelids, chest heaving in desperation for air intake.

zoro rose from in between her thighs, retracting his fingers, earning a small gasp. ( y/n ) laid there, her chest rising and falling, looking at the swordsman above her. his tongue wrapped around them, his black eyes never leaving his lover’s as he licked them clean, “you are as tasty as you look.”

he reached down, grabbing the hem of his trousers, “if it were any other time, i wouldn’t mind filling that pretty mouth of yours. but i’m aching to be inside of you.”

“finally,” she rolled her eyes playfully. he shook his head, “bratty until the very end, huh princess?”

“you fucking love it, roronoa.”

he smirked, “you bet i fucking do.” he pulled his trousers all the way down to his ankles, allowing his hardened cock to spring free. he pulled his trousers all the way off, flinging them onto the ground.

zoro aligned his head up with her core, rubbing the tip in her arousal to lubricate his cock before slowly singing into her tightness. a light grunt fell past his lips in satisfaction. he buried himself into her ever so deeply, making sure she felt every inch.

“fuuuck...” she mewled, head thrown back in pleasure. he slowly rolled out, only leaving the tip inside of her before snapping his hips forward in a hard thrust. he reached down, grabbing her chin, and planted an open rough kiss to her lips. as he pulled away, a string of saliva had connected their mouths.

each thrust hit the edge of her g-spot, sending shivers down her spine. he knew her body so well. a mix of profanities, moans, and skin slapping against each other filled the room. zoro felt every clench of her walls tightening around his cock, reaching down to rub at her clit. his thumb rubbed messy, rapid circles that had his lover folding in on herself with pleasure.

her eyes screwed shut, focused on the inner fire within her and the sound of the swordsman’s filthy words in her ear.

“if only you could see how you look. the future queen of ( k/n ), losing her mind, getting...fucked by a lowly pirate swordsman under the same roof her parents and fiancé,” he taunted lowly in her ear as he continued to thrust into her, “you’re mine, you understand that? you are my woman. no one else’s. no other royal, no other pirate, not even that damn marine, you belong to me. say it, say you’re my woman.”

“i’m...i’m your woman, zoro! i belong to you!” she cried out, feeling a burning, no, an aching in the lower pit of her stomach. zoro felt her clench around him, tighter than before, almost sending him over the edge. “zoro...i’m going to cum.”

his thrusts turned sloppy. he was just as close to that sweet release as she was. her orgasm hit like a hundred waves, a string of curses left her lips. the swordsman pulled away, pulling out of her just in the nick of time. he took his cock into his hands, jerking himself. white liquid spilled from his tip onto her lower stomach.

the room had gone silent for a second, as the two tried to catch their breath.

“my wrists are feeling a little numb now, can i be untied?”

“oh shit, i forgot. sorry, ( y/n ).”

zoro untied her wrist, retying his bandana on his bicep. he took her wrists into his hands, rubbing them as gently as ( y/n ) sat up. she watched him closely tend to her now-bruising wrists, seeing the admiration and love in his eyes. only near minutes ago, he manhandled her. now he was as sweet as could be.

“zoro...” she trailed off, making him look up at her. she continued, “when will you and your nakama leave?”

his face somewhat fell, “we leave in the morning. but maybe i can get nami to―”

“i want to run away with you.”

⁺◟   BACK TO NAVIGATION . . .

[howlingday]

Jaune: So, I told him, I- (Yang shoves Jaune's friend out of the way)

Yang: Why, hello there. You look like a very attractive, young man. Allow me to take you out on the hottest of dates. I see you have a lot of other word lady suitresses. Allow me to make my case.

Harriet spins a football on the tip of her finger, then juggles it a few times before stepping on and giving Jaune an eyebrow wag.

This girl plays football, but I once won the whole superbowl myself~!

Yang shows a clearly photoshopped and edited video of herself throwing a basketball like a baseball to herself, where she bowls over pins and canned audience roars.

Elm is working the 100lb. barbells, then looks up at Jaune and gives a smooching gesture to him.

This gal is a weightlifter, but I can bench an entire condimental shelf~.

Yang shows a video of herself lifting a shelf of a of assorted condiments, looking at the camera while licking the spout of the mayonnaise bottle.

Winter nods towards Jaune while holding her military dress cap in her dress uniform, and holds out her business card, which has a lipstick stain on it and a set of numbers written on there.

This woman is a general, but I already brought the world everlasting peace~!

Yang shows a video of her punching "Salem," who is just Weiss in a gaudy black dress.

And if that's not enough, let me ask: When was the last time one these bitches killed a motherfucking mythical beast~?!

Oh, yeah, I will rock your world; 'cause I'm a Dragonslayer Girl~!

Yang rips off the midriff of her shirt, showcasing her gloriously soft six-pack. She then turns around and smacks her own butt.

I shall now show off my abs! Don't act like you don't want this ass.

Yang slips Jaune a letter, titled, "For the cute blonde. Inside is a boob pic. No nipple, just cleavage from above, with a little bit of her sports bra showing in the corners. She then hands Jaune a crudely drawn picture book, titled, "Yang Xiao Long: Dragonslayer."

How hard did I just seal the deal, with my dragonslayer steel? Do you feel all my sexy appeal, and my story which is so very totally real~?

The first page of Yang's book features a crayon drawing of her on a Bullhead (or maybe that's a shark), going up a mountain with a sign that reads, "90 MIL HUNDRED 50,000 HUNDRED FT." The second page is Yang fighting Ursa with karate gis and headbands on. The third page was split in two with the top left featuring Yang fighting a green dragon, and the bottom right featuring Blake looking sad at a lonely candlelight dinner. The last page just had the word "BOOM!" written on it.

I flew up to mountaintop, it was ninety million hundred fifty thousand feet in the air~.

'Til I found the dragon's cave, and I fought through her army of awesome karate bears~!

Dragon's breath was a blast from Hell, and we fought so hard, I missed a long-standing appointment with boo~!

Then I swung my Bullhead like a club, and it caused a sonic boom that ruptured space, and then exploded the moon~!

Oh yeah, now you want to fuck, 'til you dragonslayer nut~!

Yang flexes her hands, then shows a photo of her and the rest of Puns and Roses.

I killed a demon with these hands! Did I say I'm also in a band~?

In case, you might need more proof, I brought the dragon right to you~!

Yang throws down a smoke bomb that doesn't go off, and Emerald lazily steps out.

OOH~!

It's the one that I slew, to attest that my story is totally true~!

Dragon Dance~!

Yang tries dancing with Emerald, but she's just standing there pouting. Ruby awkwardly dances with them. Yang nudges Emerald, who sighs.

I AM A DRAGON~!

NOT SOMEONE YANG MET AT THE BUS STATION IN A DRAGON SUIT~!

WHOO~!

Boy, let's go back to my place! Nothing fancy, just a huge mansion in space~!

Yang shows a video of Schnee Manor photoshopped into a starlight sky. Yang hands Jaune a letter, which he opens, and inside is a pair of black, lacy panties. Yang finger-guns him.

Can you guess what coming next? Here's a hint: I'm talking about sex~!

This is the best day of your life! I'll be your dragonslayer bride~!

Yang shows off a wedding photo with their faces glued on the original couple's faces, before she turns around to face the other women and shuts her eyes.

Now it's time to decide, which lucky one of us will be your lover tonight~!

Yang: (Opens her eyes, Sees Harriet is gone) ...Oh, I see you have chosen the football player. (Turns around, Sees Jaune's arms being cuddled by Harriet and Winter) ...And the general. (Elm walks behind them and drapes herself over Jaune's shoulders) ...And apparently the weight lifter as well. (Emerald walks past her, Grabs Jaune's ass) ...And the dragon. (Ruby runs up to them, Shoots Yang an "I'm sorry!" look) ...And my sister, Ruby. (The Summer Maiden pushes Yang out of the way before walking behind the harem) ...And the Summer Maiden?! She hasn't even been revealed yet!

[inviouswriting]

Fear The Reaper

Between mine and Shuri’s polyship and piggybacking off an idea she started for Shuri returning to the frontline.

Shuri belongs to @maiden-born-in-snow​

Kivera had heard the reports from Estinien first hand, about how those that entered the towers came back almost mindless and attacked their own. Something stirred within the normally docile creature. She had seen the aftermath of the scion’s after their return from Ala Mhigo.

She had made a trip first to Ishgard and pointedly threatened Aymeric to never let Kiya into the battle beyond this point. To enjoy being a mother and smaller things. When she had returned home, she had seen Shuri staring at armor she had been given. Coming to terms with herself of returning to the demand of the Scion’s something she was sure she never wanted again.

Kivera had taken Divinity aside, and spoke with her about assuming the mother role for a while for the children in the house.

“What do you plan to do?” Divinity asks, hugging Freya to herself watching her leader hold out her scythe, a transformation spell glows at the reapers feet. Divinity always enjoys these spells when her leader takes on her own image in worlds. Kivera taps her scythe to the bottom of a foot, and it changes from her scythe to a crystal staff. One that Kiya had used for a while before she hung her mantle.

“You should know by now what I plan to do. Only my best.” Divinity is greeted to Kivera looking more herself, but held back with some binding runes until she should need stronger magic. Freya content with seeing magic because of all the lights. 

“That look suits you.” Divinity compliments, seeing her leader take on a darker complexion than what she was use to, hair up in a abanian fashion, and the clothes she snatched from Kiya’s home from the Scion’s. 

“Thank you.” Kivera looks over the pants and boots with a frown and with a glimmer of light she alters them to something from the First. Warg pants and boots that complimented the outfit. She kneels down to give Freya a nuzzle with her own face.

“Take care of Shuri’s precious souls. Divinity. Guard them with your life. I may summon Parn here to help if you need it.” Divinity nods in the chance of having more help given to her. Once kivera got her fill of Freya petting the top of her head. She bids them goodbye and makes a travel out to Mor Dhona.

Kivera doesn’t waste her time meandering in Mor Dhona, she notes some of the curious faces looking at her. She doesn’t pay them attention, in favor of the Rising Stone’s door within the tavern. She ignores a startled voice from the keeper saying she needs to have an appointment with the scion’s before wandering in. 

Inside she is greeted to several on alert from her entry. Kivera notes a few familiar faces from Shuri interacting with Alphinaud and Alisaie. Tataru and Krile she knew from Aymeric’s visits, and Y’shtola and Thancred. The ones that stood out to her were G’raha Tia, and Cid. The ones she had pointedly held up at one point by the end of her blade for interfering with time and soul magic. 

Those two shrink back knowing her visit didn’t bode well for perhaps their health. She sees and sizes up each of the scion members, something she does regardless of who they are. If they choose to be hostile towards her. She doubted they would turn away help with Kiya out of the spotlight, and Shuri contemplating her roles.

“Who are you, I don’t think we have met.” Krile speaks up, and Kivera looks to her.

“Kivera. You can call me that. I am normally around Shuri and Estinien. I’m sure you two remember me.” She glances over to the twins. Her irises flickering between amused yellow and brighter green. The twins take a moment to recall her, then realize who and what they’re talking to.

“Forgive me, but why are you here then? You made it clear of your lack of interest in... mortal engagements.” Alisaie comments, Alphinaud looking at his sister for her words.

“Well, if that is how I am going to be received for my generous offer of helping you sad suicidal fools. I may just collect your souls now and be done with it. Save the trouble of hunting each of you down when your on your last breaths.” Kivera has a wicked grin to her, Thancred on defensive of that statement.

“Help?” Alphinaud takes in the reaper’s clothes and realizes those were Kiya’s gifted ones. Down to the staff on her back.

“Forgive my sister. She holds unnecessary grudges sometimes. You’ve come to help us? With what?” Alphinaud ignores the expression Alisaie has directed at him, a scoffed glare.

“Estinien gave me the reports about the towers. As you are aware, Kiya has stepped out of the dangers of world saving. This place is special to Shuri, so here I am. Willingly offering my hand and magic to you all. Face reality, you need my help. Or I can go back and live comfortable in my lovers home. Only resurface when the world is burning.” Kivera looks at her hand as she speaks, clearly there to hear if they accept her help or not.

“We accept your help then!” G’raha Tia speaks up this time, before anyone else could question her methods of why she even wants to help. 

“I have a few... requirements then. So we get this out of the way from the start. You all may not ask me about my being, Where I am from, and all that pertains to the underworld. I will never answer them. Nor about the certain death you one day will have. If we are in agreement. Summon me for the next missions. Kiya has resigned after all. Let’s let her be happy.” She turns towards Cid and G’raha Tia.

“You two. Looks like we’ll be working together.” She further walks pass both of them in favor of learning the faces of the Scion members.

Kivera is approached by Thancred after a while, he had one more question for her.

“Kivera, was it? Why are you helping us? You made your stance clear from Alisaie’s report moons ago. What changed?” Kivera raises her hands to her face and looks him over.

“Shuri. She is the sole reason I am doing this. You can thank her when you see her.” Her answer leaves him with more questions. He’d have to accept that he might not get genuine answers out of her. 

As if on cue, the aura approaches them after deciding her own path of coming out.

Kivera offers a nod to her, Shuri having more nerve seeing her there. Giving her strength with her presence.

“ “ℑ 𝔯𝔢𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔪𝔶 𝔬𝔴𝔫 𝔠𝔥𝔬𝔦𝔠𝔢. 𝔜𝔬𝔲 𝔰𝔞𝔦𝔡 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔫𝔢𝔢𝔡𝔢𝔡 𝔪𝔶 𝔥𝔢𝔩𝔭, 𝔡𝔦𝔡 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔫𝔬𝔱? ” It is there, the scion’s realize why Kivera is among them. Not once for the them, but for her. She is keeping Shuri from death, from her own fate that she fears she will one day have to do.

Take another life she loves. She prays in her heart to her governing deities she never has to do again. Maybe this time, it would not turn out like Damien.

[serenitydusk]

Until Midnight

A fluffy fic request from my dear friend @nerdqueenkat​!  Just in time for her birthday!  Thanks to @ijwrff for being my beta!  

“I have a favor to ask you.” 

A pit of dread opened up in your stomach. The fact your boss was asking and not telling you to do something told you exactly how onerous you were going to find this task.

“And I’m asking you because I know you’ll do a great job.” 

And that just cinched it. “I’m going to hate this, aren’t I?’ You sighed.

“Absolutely.”  Gressil grinned. It did have a drop of sympathy in it. “I wouldn’t ask, but I cannot go, and you’re the only one I trust to not make a mess of things.”  He quickly explained that in all likelihood, you’d be one of the few, possibly only, humans there.  “Just mingle a bit, make some connections. Be seen.”  It was one of those parties that he couldn’t get out of without offending the host, but even he couldn’t be in two places at once. “There will be a bonus in it, plus overtime.”

In the end, he gave you the bonus up front, plus let you have the company credit card to buy an outfit and shoes. 

“Get whatever you need.” Well, you certainly had. You’d never paid this much for an entire season’s wardrobe let alone one dress. And the shoes. You had actually texted Gressil how much they were, expecting him to blow up and tell you absolutely not. But he had sent you to this place in particular.

‘That’s fine. Whatever you need.’

‘Gress, it’s more than my house payment…for just shoes….’

‘If that’s a hint for a raise….’  There was a pause, then a new text came through. ‘Ok. You should see the increase in next month’s check.’

You nearly choked. You’d never, not once, asked for a raise, and to be fair, you’d never really had to. Gressil had always been good about making sure you were well paid, above what was considered a competitive salary.  

You had to admit, you looked …really good. The guy that helped you pick out everything had been a genius and had made a shopping trip you’d been dreading into something that was almost fun.  

But all that confidence dwindled once you got inside and saw everyone.  Every. Single. One. of them was perfection. Perfect smiles. Perfect hair. Perfect clothes. Perfect bodies.  And here you were a fraud playing dress up and feeling like a potato. The anxiety welled up inside, breaking you out in a cold sweat.  You’d promised Gressil an hour.  One hour. And then you could leave.  And after about fifteen minutes you decided you could do this.  It’s not like anyone was noticing you anyway. You’d made your appearance, now you just had about forty-five more minutes that would have earned you a nice bonus you could use at Christmas.

“You’d think a place like this would have hired decent help.”  A man smiled at you snidely.  You weren’t sure what exactly he was, but he definitely wasn’t human. Not with the green skin and scales. “Do be a dear and run and fetch us some more champagne, won’t you? If you’re quite done gawking.” He looked back at his companion snickering, “Humans… barely worth the effort to impress really.” 

You looked behind you, trying to figure out who he was talking to, when it dawned on you that he was talking ...to you. “I’m not sure what you’re thinking… but I don’t work here. I’m a guest, like you.” 

“Oh, that’s cute. You’re nothing like me.” His smile took on an ugly bent to it. “It’s insulting that you think so.”

A deep laugh came from behind the green-skinned fellow, “You’re right about one thing. She’s nothing like the boil on the devil’s arse you are, Heulog.”  A tall man stepped around them. He looked ...more human than the green skinned man, at first glance. But it was clear that he wore only the thinnest veil of humanity around him.  His eyes were like molten silver and the pupils were cat slitted.  And his face … he had to be the most beautiful man you’d ever seen. “Come on, my dear. Let’s leave these jackeens to their own devices.”  He took your hand, deftly steering you away.  

Jackeens?  Who even said that?  He sounded vaguely European, but for the life of you, you couldn’t place the accent. Scottish maybe?  With a hint of something exotic?

He found a spot out of the way, a place for you to finally sit down as he handed you a glass of wine. “Dreadful party, really. Such a bore. I’m Ash, by the way.” 

Introducing yourself as well, you took the wine. “Thank you for that.”  You glanced around, not seeing the two jerks any longer. 

“They aren’t going to be bothering anyone here again.” He took a sip of his own drink. “And you’re welcome. I should be thanking you for giving me some noble purpose by saving a lovely maiden.” 

Your cheeks flushed at the ‘lovely maiden’ bit. As handsome as he was well, he probably just flirted with anyone and everyone. Giving him a wan smile, “I’m fine now really. If you want to get back to ..whoever you’re with here.” 

“Ah, well, I’m not with anyone.”  Oh he knew a few people here.  And liked even less.  Which was saying something for the gregarious prince. He sat down, “Maybe we can keep each other company until this thing is over?  At least keep each other awake?”  

Laughing a bit wryly, “That hard up for company?” Why was he even paying attention to you when… you looked out across the room and saw a sea of beauty that you couldn’t possibly compare to no matter how hard you tried. 

“I think you’re lovely company.” He gently tilted your chin, bringing your gaze back to his, “Inside and out.” He let out a slow breath, “Besides, you’re exactly what you appear to be and you have no idea how alluring that is for a change.” 

“What do you mean?” It was a struggle to look away from those beautiful eyes, but you managed a glance back out to the crowd. 

He shrugged as he leaned back. “Just what I said. You can’t see it, but that…” He tossed his head towards the crowd, “...is not what you think it is.” 

Well, that wasn’t nerve wracking at all. You knew Gressil wore a human guise, but you had never really thought beyond what was under it. “Are you telling me that everyone here is a monster?” 

“In one way or another, yes.” He didn’t seem particularly offended that you referred to them, ...or him, as a monster. 

“Even you?” Perhaps not the wisest question to ask, but the words had already left your liips.

Gressil had warned you once, “The illusions keep you humans safe, Don’t try to look past them.” And you’d tried not to wonder, accepting what you saw as what was real. But you couldn’t believe this gorgeous man sitting beside you was ...a monster.  Even if he wasn’t human.

“Perhaps especially me.” 

“I don’t believe it. You’re not human, but that doesn’t make you a monster.” You saw a look in his eyes as he sat back up leaning closer to you. A look you couldn’t name, some emotion that was so fleeting. Longing? Almost pleading with a hint of vulnerability and then it was gone. Leaving you to wonder if you had just imagined it. 

As you chatted, a new crowd of people wandered in and that’s when you saw him. Your ex. What in the hell was he doing here? “I have to go. I have to.” You stood, nearly losing your balance as you grabbed your purse.

Ash reached to steady you, catching you by your elbow, feeling your panic rise.  He glanced over to where your eyes kept darting to. “Who is he?” There was a hint of steel in his voice underneath the silk. 

You shook your head. “Nothing like that. Just …”  Dropping your head, embarrassed at your overreaction. “...a very bad decision that I let go on for longer than it should have. I just never expected to see him here.” He hadn’t noticed you yet, you could still slip out. 

A ...goblin? Ash could see through the glamour, but he doubted you could. “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”  He rose. “Don’t run. He’s not worth it.” Tucking your arm in his, he stroked your cheek, “Please?” 

Shaking your head, “I have fifteen more minutes and I can go home.” 

Ash glanced up at the giant, ornate clock. “It’s not even close to midnight yet.” He grinned, knowing it was a cheesy reference. “Stay until then.  Be my Cinderella?” 

You scoffed, “You cannot be serious. This isn’t some fairy tale. Why would you want to be Prince Charming ...to me?” 

“Darling, why wouldn’t I?”  He frowned, clearly confused. 

Hot tears burned at your eyes and throat, but you’d be damned if you cried and ruined your makeup. “Because I’m a pumpkin not a princess?” 

Brushing aside the traitorous tear that slipped down your cheek, “Darling...whoever told you that you weren’t beautiful lied. They were afraid if you knew your worth, you’d know you were too good for them.”  He kissed your forehead and for some reason it calmed you.  If he had hugged you instead, you were sure you would have ended up sobbing in his arms. “There is a reason fae have stolen humans and taken them as lovers for eons past. You are beautiful.” 

“You’re fae?” You swallowed back a sob at his words.

His laugh surprised both of you. All of that only to ask if he was fae. Though, he was not offended, letting you move the conversation to less emotional territory. “Yes. My mother was.” 

At least until you asked, “And your father?” 

There was a flash in his eyes, bitter and sharp, “My father was not.”  It was gentle, but it was also obviously a closed subject for him. “Come. If you wish to avoid him, we can find a secluded spot and watch the party from the safety of a glamour.  Or you can venture out and be treated like the princess you deserve to be.”  

It was a tempting choice, to hide. But after thinking for a moment, “You won’t suddenly disappear?” 

“Not without you.”  Ash grinned, taking your hand and leading you out into the crowd. 

The two of you danced and he did introduce you to some people you could bring back to Gressil as potential clients. One of whom addressed your ‘date’...(was this a date??) as ‘your highness’.

Once they’d wandered off and you were alone again, you leaned close to whisper. “You’re an actual prince?” 

“An actual prince.” He nodded clearly amused at your shock.

“Your mother’s the queen?” You felt just a touch lightheaded at this revelation. 

“Sister, actually. It’s a bit complicated, but yes, she’s the queen, and as her younger brother, I’m a prince.” He spoke of it as if it were no consequence, though in truth, it was. He hadn’t been born into the role, both he and his sister had earned the right to be called fae royalty. It had been no easy thing for either of them. “It doesn’t change who I was five minutes ago.”

The idea of being with a prince was a bit daunting to say the least, but perhaps he was right.  He was who he was, title or not. 

It seemed like the hours flew by and before long the clock started the midnight chime. The two of you had found a quiet balcony, away from the noise and it seemed like the rest of the world had faded away. And you didn’t want this to end.

“It doesn’t have to…”  

Blushing you realized you’d said it out loud, “It does. I go back to work tomorrow and you go back to Neverland, or wherever it is you came from.” 

“I can always return, you know.  Or you could ...come visit. I promise I won’t steal you away unless you want me to.” He brushed a kiss over your knuckles. “If you’re interested, that is.” 

“IF?  If I’m interested?” You couldn’t quite believe this was all happening, especially that he’d want to see you again. 

“Are you?” A smile played at his lips as he brushed a loose strand of hair away from your face, leaning closer as if he was going to kiss you. 

You were barely able to get out a whispered ‘yes’ as the clock struck midnight and his lips touched yours.

[agentrouka-blog]

Sweet Lady - a Sansa key phrase

The wonderful @esther-dot was so kind as to introduce me to the precious resource that is asearchoficeandfire.com and I have been down a rabbit hole ever since. Or more so than usual. (As far as quarantine with toddlers and work, both, allow me, anyway.) It's marvelous for letting you do unfocused word combinations, which really does wonders for finding text parallels and such. But that is a post for another day.

It did inspire me to search all my book files for an exact phrase, though. "Sweet Lady". It doesn't count all the other instances for sweet, lady, my sweet, sweet queen, sweet XYZ, sweetling or what have you. We already know that "sweet" can be a code for falseness. So I didn't want to confuse the issue. Only the exact phrase. "Sweet Lady". It's enlightening.

There are 23 instances in all 5 books, the TWOW sample chapters and all the other searchable publications. They appear as follows:

Sansa: 9 (3 x Joffrey, 1 x Ser Loras, 4 x  Dontos ("Florian"), 1 x Marillion)

Catelyn: 5 times (3 x Varys, 2 x Petyr Baelish)

Jonquil: 1 (Florian the Fool, "The Hedge Knight")

Lysa: 2 (1 x Morton Waynwood, 1 x Marillion)

Shae: 2 (1 x Varys, 1 x Symon Silver Tongue, ironic)

A mare: 1 (Jon, soothing a mare, about to betray the Watch)

Daenerys: 1 (Hizdahr, her "loyal" husband)

Asha: 1 (Quarl the maid, murky lover)

Lady Taena Merryweather: 1 (sneaked in, traitorous lover to Cersei - Everything there a big spotlight for Political!Jon and such, btw.)

To make it short, the phrase is a direct reference to Sansa. 9 direct references, 10 if you account for the fact that Sansa = Jonquil. (22 Jonquil mentions in all searchable publications, only 5 are not in Sansa's chapters: Jaime referencing the song or the puppetry in The Hedge Knight. Sansa is Jonquil. Case closed.) The rest of the usage concerns foils, mirrors or other characters deeply connected to her. It's a spotlight for Sansa.

In most instances, it is a marker for erroneous or "false" knights (Dontos, Florian, Loras, Waynwood), or "false" Ladies (Shae,Taena Merryweather, Alayne), immoral singers (Symon, Marillion), rape (Marillion), Rescue (Sansa/Alayne and Tanselle), political scheming (Cat, Varys, Littlefinger, Lady Merryweather and Cersei) and betrayal (ALL of them, save the true Florian and Jonquil). Also, curiously, the injury of hands. (Symon, Marillion, Catelyn, Jon, Tanselle the Jonquil puppeteer).

So now that we do know that when the phrase shows up, it's a marker for Sansa and that what surrounds it concerns Sansa, let's look at when it's used to see if we recognize anything or if it reminds us of anything. (This is where the rabbit hole comes in because there's a jumping off point for more references in almost every example.

 First Mention: Sansa I, AGOT

“Leave her alone,” Joffrey said. He stood over her, beautiful in blue wool and black leather, his golden curls shining in the sun like a crown. He gave her his hand, drew her to her feet. “What is it, sweet lady? Why are you afraid? No one will hurt you. Put away your swords, all of you. The wolf is her little pet (!), that’s all.” He looked at Sandor Clegane. “And you, dog, away with you, you’re scaring my betrothed.”

The Hound, ever faithful, bowed and slid away quietly through the press. Sansa struggled to steady herself. She felt like such a fool. She was a Stark of Winterfell, a noble lady, and someday she would be a queen. “It was not him, my sweet prince,” she tried to explain. “It was the other one.”

The two stranger knights exchanged a look. “Payne?” chuckled the young man in the green armor. The older man in white spoke to Sansa gently. “Ofttimes Ser Ilyn frightens me as well, sweet lady. He has a fearsome aspect.”

Payne, the mute. Who else is mute? Ghost. A fearsome wolf pet. Where have we heard the word "pet" before… Oh, Right. ASOS.

“The good woman at the brazier,” Mance Rayder went on, “is Dalla.” The pregnant woman smiled shyly. “Treat her like you would any queen, she is carrying my child.” He turned to the last two. “This beauty is her sister Val. Young Jarl beside her is her latest pet.”

“I am no man’s pet,” said Jarl, dark and fierce.

“And Val’s no man,” white-bearded Tormund snorted. “You ought to have noticed that by now, lad.”

Aaaand...

Jarl was with the Magnar; Mance had given them the joint command. Styr was none too pleased by that, Jon had noted early on. Mance Rayder had called the dark youth a “pet” of Val, who was sister to Dalla, his own queen, which made Jarl a sort of good brother once removed to the King-beyond-the-Wall.

 And isn't that some precious phrasing. A "good brother" once, removed.

Contrast Dany, ADWD:

“What, o’ the queen’s little pets?” Brown Ben’s eyes crinkled in amusement. The grizzled captain of the Second Sons was a creature of the free companies, a mongrel with the blood of a dozen different peoples flowing through his veins, but he had always been fond of the dragons, and them of him.

“Pets?” screeched Reznak. “Monsters, rather. Monsters that feed on children. We cannot —”

“Silence,” said Daenerys. “We will not speak of that.”

So the Sweet Lady will have a pet wolf, literally and figuratively. *wink*

But on to other "Sweet Lady" instances. Two involving Catelyn:

AGOT, Catelyn:

“How could you know all that?”

“The whisperings of little birds,” Varys said, smiling. “I know things, sweet lady. That is the nature of my service.” He shrugged. “You do have the dagger with you, yes?”

Catelyn pulled it out from beneath her cloak and threw it down on the table in front of him. “Here. Perhaps your little birds will whisper the name of the man it belongs to.”

AGOT, Eddard:

Littlefinger smiled. “Leave Lord Varys to me, sweet lady. If you will permit me a small obscenity—and where better for it than here—I hold the man’s balls in the palm of my hand.” He cupped his fingers, smiling. “Or would, if he were a man, or had any balls. You see, if the pie is opened, the birds begin to sing, and Varys would not like that. Were I you, I would worry more about the Lannisters and less about the eunuch.”

We know who the Little Bird is (Sansa), so here we know our Sweet Lady will spill important Secrets to the vast dismay of some people.

Now for some sweetness in AGOT. Jon's foils Loras and Joffrey lay it on thick:

To the other maidens he had given white roses, but the one he plucked for her was red. “Sweet lady,” he said, “no victory is half so beautiful as you.” Sansa took the flower timidly, struck dumb by his gallantry. His hair was a mass of lazy brown curls, his eyes like liquid gold. She inhaled the sweet fragrance of the rose and sat clutching it long after Ser Loras had ridden off.

Awww. So sweet, so fake.

 Instead Joffrey smiled and kissed her hand, handsome and gallant as any prince in the songs, and said, “Ser Loras has a keen eye for beauty, sweet lady.”

Actually, we know Jon IS a visual creature. (Natural landscapes, handsome Kingslayers, Radiant Sisters, lovely Val, etc etc etc.) But we digress.

The mare whickered softly as Jon Snow tightened the cinch. “Easy, sweet lady,” he said in a soft voice, quieting her with a touch. Wind whispered through the stable, a cold dead breath on his face, but Jon paid it no mind. He strapped his roll to the saddle, his scarred fingers stiff and clumsy. “Ghost,” he called softly, “to me.” And the wolf was there, eyes like embers.

Jon is probably the only one outside of Florian the actual puppet fool to use the phrase honestly. Jon of the fool references is Florian to Sansa's Jonquil. Brienne is the True Knight she prays for, the Galladon, but Jon is the Florian, the fool knight. Also, "The wolf was there." Jon and Ghost will be a calming, gentle, protective presence in Sansa's life. Also "mare" is an occasional marker for Sansa.

Now for something else:

ACOK, Tyrion:

Varys glanced at Shae. “My lord, must we trouble your sweet lady’s sleep with such grim and bloody talk?”

“A lady might be afraid,” said Shae, “but I’m not.”

(ASOS, Tyrion:)

“You shall rise again, I am sure. A man like you. My sweet lady Shae tells me you are newly wed. Would that you had sent for me earlier. I should have been honored to sing at your feast.”

“The last thing my wife needs is more songs,” said Tyrion. “As for Shae, we both know she is no lady, and I would thank you never to speak her name aloud.”

Which all seems to lead to:

(AFFC, Alayne)

Up here where the slope was steepest, the steps wound back and forth rather than plunging straight down. Sansa Stark went up the mountain, but Alayne Stone is coming down. It was a strange thought. Coming up, Mya had warned her to keep her eyes on the path ahead, she remembered. “Look up, not down,” she said … but that was not possible on the descent. I could close my eyes. The mule knows the way, he has no need of me. But that seemed more something Sansa would have done, that frightened girl. Alayne was an older woman, and bastard brave.

and...

“Unhand me. You forget yourself.”

“Mercy. I have been singing love songs for hours. My blood is stirred. And yours, I know … there’s no wench half so lusty as one bastard born. Are you wet for me?”

“I’m a maiden,” she protested.

“Truly? Oh, Alayne, Alayne, my fair maid, give me the gift of your innocence. You will thank the gods you did. I’ll have you singing louder than the Lady Lysa.”

Sansa jerked away from him, frightened. “If you don’t leave me, my au—my father will hang you. Lord Petyr.”

“Littlefinger?” He chuckled. “Lady Lysa loves me well, and I am Lord Robert’s favorite. If your father offends me, I will destroy him with a verse.” He put a hand on her breast, and squeezed. “Let’s get you out of these wet clothes. You wouldn’t want them ripped, I know. Come, sweet lady, heed your heart—”

Sansa heard the soft sound of steel on leather. “Singer,” a rough voice said, “best go, if you want to sing again.” The light was dim, but she saw a faint glimmer of a blade.

The singer saw it too. “Find your own wench—” The knife flashed, and he cried out. “You cut me!”

“I’ll do worse, if you don’t go.” And quick as that, Marillion was gone.

There's a lot in this. There is yet another averted rape attempt, complete with rescue by a knight. (Lothor Brune.) Then, we have the implication that Sansa's virtue will be compromised ("Truly?" - Potentially by something horrible like on the show. The TWOW "Mercy" sample chapter is one big red flag.) and then we have the foreshadowing of Sansa losing her "innocence" by becoming a bad singer, a liar like Lysa, as we know she will when she lies about her death, or by "singing" loudly of secrets. Songs have the power to preserve and destroy, we learn, and Sansa will have to learn to weild that power benevolently. The fact that she is saved here, tells us that she will be "saved" from moral failure, as well.

Randomly, Marillion's Trial in AFFC:

“If I had eyes I should weep.” The singer’s voice, so strong and sure by night, was cracked and whispery now. “I loved her so, I could not bear to see her in another’s arms, to know she shared his bed. I meant no harm to my sweet lady, I swear it. I barred the door so no one could disturb us whilst I declared my passion, but Lady Lysa was so cold … when she told that she was carrying Lord Petyr’s child, a … a madness seized me …”

It may mean something, or it may not. But Sansa has a lot of bastard foreshadowing. Other characters have "madness" foreshadowing. And a history of miscarriages.

For something darker:

ADWD, The Wayward Bride (Asha)

A shy smile, strong arms, clever fingers, and two sure swords. What more could any woman want? She would have married Qarl, and gladly, but she was Lord Balon’s daughter and he was common-born, the grandson of a thrall. Too lowborn for me to wed, but not too low for me to suck his cock. Drunk, smiling, she crawled beneath the furs and took him in her mouth. Qarl stirred in his sleep, and after a moment he began to stiffen. By the time she had him hard again, he was awake and she was wet. Asha draped the furs across her bare shoulders and mounted him, drawing him so deep inside her that she could not tell who had the cock and who the cunt. This time the two of them reached their peak together.

“My sweet lady,” he murmured after, in a voice still thick with sleep. “My sweet queen.”

No, Asha thought, I am no queen, nor shall I ever be. “Go back to sleep.” She kissed his cheek, padded across Galbart Glover’s bedchamber, and threw the shutters open. The moon was almost full, the night so clear that she could see the mountains, their peaks crowned with snow. Cold and bleak and inhospitable, but beautiful in the moonlight.

Their summits glimmered pale and jagged as a row of sharpened teeth. The foothills and the smaller peaks were lost in shadow.

 At first glance this could be sweet-ish, but the surrounding imagery is kind of sinister and I get reminded of two other things:

Lysa describing her rape of Petyr (Sansa, ASOS):

...and Petyr tried to kiss your mother, only she pushed him away. She laughed at him. He looked so wounded I thought my heart would burst, and afterward he drank until he passed out at the table. (…) That was the night I stole up to his bed to give him comfort. I bled, but it was the sweetest hurt. He told me he loved me then, but he called me Cat, just before he fell back to sleep. Even so, I stayed with him until the sky began to lighten.

And Cersei's wedding night with Robert, (Eddard, AGOT)

Her eyes burned, green fire in the dusk, like the lioness that was her sigil. “The night of our wedding feast, the first time we shared a bed, he called me by your sister’s name. He was on top of me, in me, stinking of wine, and he whispered Lyanna.”

We already had a moment of deeply screwed up consent for Jon during his first time with Ygritte. Suddenly, the scene when Dany asks Jon if he's drunk on the show in 8x04 after the victory feast and then pushes him for sex seems even more sinister. Lysa's rape of Petyr ended in pregnancy. I hope I am wrong about this!

Lastly, this is from The Hedge Knight. "Florian and Jonquil" are being destroyed, i.e. Sansa's very favorite song is getting viciously attacked, her romantic dreams put to the torch. If my horrible suspicion is true, Sansa will live some aspect of her Ramsey storyline, if not with Ramsey, then with someone else. This following Scene festuring Duncan the fake knight and Tanselle, the tall girl playing Jonquil's puppet, however, is very reminiscent of Jon's final encounter with Ramsey. No?

The puppeteer's stall had been knocked on its side. The fat Dornishwoman was on the ground weeping.

One man-at-arms was dangling the puppets of Florian and Jonquil from his hands as another set them afire with a torch. Three more men were opening chests, spilling more puppets on the ground and stamping on them. The dragon puppet was scattered all about them, a broken wing here, its head there, its tail in three pieces. And in the midst of it all stood Prince Aerion, resplendent in a red velvet doublet with long dagged sleeves, twisting Tanselle's arm in both hands. She was on her knees, pleading with him. Aerion ignored her. He forced open her hand and seized one of her fingers. Dunk stood there stupidly, not quite believing what he saw. Then he heard a crack, and Tanselle screamed.

One of Aerion's men tried to grab him, and went flying. Three long strides, then Dunk grabbed the prince's shoulder and wrenched him around hard. His sword and dagger were forgotten, along with everything the old man had ever taught him. His fist knocked Aerion off his feet, and the toe of his boot slammed into the prince's belly. When Aerion went for his knife, Dunk stepped on his wrist and then kicked him again, right in the mouth. He might have kicked him to death right then and there, but the princeling's men swarmed over him.

 So the wolf pet/lover will curbstomp her attacker in some way shape or form.

 Damn. To cheer us, let's look at some Dontos/Florian from ACOK, Sansa:

“I will,” she said. “Tell me who sent you.”

“No one, sweet lady. I swear it on my honor as a knight.”

“A knight?” Joffrey had decreed that he was to be a knight no longer, only a fool, lower even than Moon Boy. “I prayed to the gods for a knight to come save me,” she said. “I prayed and prayed. Why would they send me a drunken old fool?”

“I deserve that, though . . . I know it’s queer, but . . . all those years I was a knight, I was truly a fool, and now that I am a fool I think . . . I think I may find it in me to be a knight again, sweet lady. And all because of you . . . your grace, your courage. You saved me, not only from Joffrey, but from myself.” His voice dropped. “The singers say there was another fool once who was the greatest knight of all . . .”

“Florian,” Sansa whispered. A shiver went through her.

“Sweet lady, I would be your Florian,” Dontos said humbly, falling to his knees before her.

Slowly, Sansa lowered the knife. Her head seemed terribly light, as if she were floating. This is madness, to trust myself to this drunkard, but if I turn away will the chance ever come again? “How . . . how would you do it? Get me away?”

Ser Dontos raised his face to her. “Taking you from the castle, that will be the hardest. Once you’re out, there are ships that would take you home. I’d need to find the coin and make the arrangements, that’s all.”

“Could we go now?” she asked, hardly daring to hope.

“This very night? No, my lady, I fear not. First I must find a sure way to get you from the castle when the hour is ripe. It will not be easy, nor quick. They watch me as well.” He licked his lips nervously. “Will you put away your blade?”

Sansa slipped the knife beneath her cloak. “Rise, ser.”

“Thank you, sweet lady.” Ser Dontos lurched clumsily to his feet, and brushed earth and leaves from his knees. “Your lord father was as true a man as the realm has ever known, but I stood by and let them slay him. I said nothing, did nothing . . . and yet, when Joffrey would have slain me, you spoke up. Lady, I have never been a hero, no Ryam Redwyne or Barristan the Bold. I’ve won no tourneys, no renown in war . . . but I was a knight once, and you have helped me remember what that meant. My life is a poor thing, but it is yours.” Ser Dontos placed a hand on the gnarled bole of the heart tree. He was shaking, she saw. “I vow, with your father’s gods as witness, that I shall send you home.”

He swore. A solemn oath, before the gods. “Then . . . I will put myself in your hands, ser. But how will I know, when it is time to go? Will you send me another note?”

Ser Dontos glanced about anxiously. “The risk is too great. You must come here, to the godswood. As often as you can. This is the safest place. The only safe place. Nowhere else. Not in your chambers nor mine nor on the steps nor in the yard, even if it seems we are alone. The stones have ears in the Red Keep, and only here may we talk freely.”

“Only here,” Sansa said. “I’ll remember.”

“And if I should seem cruel or mocking or indifferent when men are watching, forgive me, child. I have a role to play, and you must do the same. One misstep and our heads will adorn the walls as did your father’s.”

She nodded. “I understand.”

“You will need to be brave and strong . . . and patient, patient above all.”

“I will be,” she promised, “but . . . please . . . make it as soon as you can. I’m afraid . . .”

“So am I,” Ser Dontos said, smiling wanly. “And now you must go, before you are missed.”

“You will not come with me?”

“Better if we are never seen together.”

Nodding, Sansa took a step . . . then spun back, nervous, and softly laid a kiss on his cheek, her eyes closed. “My Florian,” she whispered. “The gods heard my prayer.”

And just to add some sweet speculation…

Jon, ASOS:

If I could show her Winterfell … give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us.

I'm such a hopeful fool for these two.

[nightshadedawn]

Persona 6, anyone?

{Next} {Last}

PERSONA 6 CONCEPT PART 1

You ever just get an idea that you HAVE to put into words? Well, that happened. And now I have put myself into a miserable position considering I’m not on the Atlus team. And you all have to suffer with me.

Before I get into this, check out this video because it’s where most of my ideas, the grounds for me thinking about this in the first place, started from. With that in mind, I changed a few things because I didn’t like them or thought they didn’t make the greatest sense. With that out of the way, click to read more if you’d like to see what I’ve come up with! (Very long, mind you)

I do recommend you watch the video first because there’s a lot my brain just decided that the reader should KNOW, and it’d be hard to amend what I’ve written at this point.

The Mechanics

Main Character - This time around, you’ll be able to choose between being male and female. For a new spin, you will be a third year.

Battle - Battle mechanics will remain the same as Persona 5, including negotiations, baton pass, and Shadow negotiations. 

Romance - With both male and female options for a main character, there are male and female options for love interests. Out of the 22 Major Arcana, there are 10 available love interests. 5 male, 5 female. You will be able to date everyone, no matter your gender.

Harem Romance - Unlike previous games, if you date more than one person, there is the chance of them coming together to make it a triad, allowing for group dates. However, if you choose to date all ten love interests, none of them will be happy with you. It also requires select grouping to allow for triads. Moon-Sun; Magician-Lovers; Hierophant-Tower; Star-Death; Hanged-Devil. If you manage to date both before select days and get the communication across to form the triad, there may be special scenes to include both (ex: school trip, Valentine’s, Christmas, school festival, ect)

The Velvet Room - It’s a hospital this time around. That’s really all I’ve got to say on it for now.

Setting

Characters

MC - Will be able to choose your gender. As a girl, her placeholder name is Hikari Iyashi, derived from the ‘light’ meaning for Hikari and ‘healing’ for Iyashi. As a male, the place holder name will be Hikaru Iyashi for the same reasons. Unlike previous MC’s, this MC is a third year. They moves to a small town to live with their estranged father and younger sister, two people they has not seen since before they can remember, after their mother’s tragic death due to an incurable illness. If you are male, it will be commented that you look like your mother, while if you are female, they will comment about your similarities to you father. It will be exclaimed that after the MC’s parents separated, their mother took back her maiden name and changed the MC’s to that to avoid confusion while they were growing up. Their first Persona will use wind and healing spells. This Persona is possible to be either Achelois or Persephone, and whichever one it isn’t, will likely be a Persona you can later pick up.

Melee: Mace

Ranged: Bow/crossbow

The Arcana

The Fool Arcana - Igor joins once again by incorporating the Fool Arcana. He warns MC of a mysterious illness infecting the town that will not only continue to infect it, but eventually spread to infect the rest of Japan, the world, and every other world in existence.

Upright - Beginnings, innocence, spontaneity, a free spirit

Reversed - Holding back, recklessness, risk-taking

Confidant Ranks

1 - 10 Unknown

The Magician Arcana - Masaru Kazama will be available to talk to at the beginning of the game, though his social link will only be available at night. The closer you get to him, you will discover that he is college age, but was unable to attend anything after graduating high school due to lack of money and resources. He suffers from insomnia, and several meet ups will result with him falling asleep on you because he feels comfortable enough to do so. He is a romance option. 

Upright - Manifestation, resourcefulness, power, inspired action

Reversed - Manipulation, poor planning, untapped talents 

Confidant Rank

1 - 10 Unknown 

The High Priestess Arcana - Persona 3 had a dog, Persona 4 had a bear, Persona 5 had a cat. So why can’t Persona 6 have a bird? Avis will be the MC’s guide through the other world in the beginning. In the real world, she appears as an elegant green parrot with golden trimmins, while in the other world she’s a silver phoenix with green trimmings. She is confident, elegant, and wise. She is easily capable of leading the party through difficult battles or where to go next. Unlike previous counterparts, she is neither cocky nor condescending. Her link will raise as the story progresses.

Upright- Intuition, sacred knowledge, divine feminine, the subconscious mind

Reversed - Secrets, disconnected from intuition, withdrawal and silence

 Confidant Ranks

1 - 10 Unknown

The Empress Arcana - Either their father’s girlfriend or their stepmother doesn’t matter, but Haruka is the new woman of the house and there to stay. She’s a writer, famous for her theories on other worlds and the supernatural. But she doesn’t know how to be a mother. She can’t replace the MC’s own mother, but as they grow closer, she can grow to be a second one.

Upright - Femininity, beauty, nature, nurturing, abundance

Reversed - Creative block, dependence on others

Confidant Ranks

2 - Occasionally asks for more money or items during negotiations.

5 - Allows you to ask for large amounts of money during negotiations.

8 - Makes Shadows less way of you, so it lessens security level increases, and decreases security level more overnight.

10 - Allows you to form contracts with higher-level Shadows.

The Emperor Arcana - Yuuki Kawaguchi is the MC’s estranged father; a stern, hardworking teacher at the high school, and the MC’s English teacher. He has a notoriously weak immune system and tends to forget to get rid of his teacher facade at home and outside of school. The closer you get to him, the more you’ll find out about why he and the MC’s mother split and why the MC went with their mother and their sister stayed with their father. He will also start to loosen up and be not as strict.

Upright - Authority, establishment, structure, a father figure

Reversed - Domination, excessive control, lack of discipline, inflexibility

Confidant Ranks

1 - If you ask him at night, he will make you an extremely unhealthy bento for the next day (it will be shit and not do much for health, but it works for the beginning of the game)

2 - Allows lax study time in class to do something else

4 - Later curfew, allowing you to do more than one thing at night

6 - Gets other teachers in on lax study time

8 - Will make a better, healthy bento, which will greatly up your SP and HP.

10 - Will occasionally allow you to play the ‘sick card’ for ‘personal reasons’ and giving you the ability to do more during the day.

The Hierophant Arcana - Sayaka Ito will be the MC’s first friend, and first possible romantic interest. She’s carefree and kind, and much unlike all of the others of the town the MC will first meet. It’s quickly found out that this is because she is also a transfer student and was moved into a foster home in the town. Part of a small band/music club. She admits that she suffers from Imposter Syndrome from time to time, only lately, it’s been getting worse. 

Persona: Atlanta

Skills: Ice and physical

Melee: Axe

Ranged: Dual wield pistols

Upright - Spiritual wisdom, religious beliefs, conformity, tradition,institutions

Reversed - Personal beliefs, freedom, challenging the status quo

Confidant Ranks

1 - Baton Pass: Allows Sayaka to use Baton Pass

2 - Follow Up: Allows Sayaka to use a Follow Up Attack if MC doesn’t down the enemy

3 - Mediation: Allows Sayaka to step in when an Shadow Negotiation fails

5 - Hypnotic: Allows Sayaka to change the course of negotiation with a song

6 - Harisen Recovery: Allows Sayaka to remove party ailments

7 - Song of Memory: Allows you to recall skills for a short period

8 - Endure: Allows Sayaka to endure fatal attacks with one hit point remaining.

9 - Protect: Allows Sayaka to take a fatal attack for MC

10 - Transforms her Persona into a Mythological Fighter

The Lovers Arcana - Akemi Sonoda will not be available right away, but you first be able to meet her over summer vacation. The closer you grow, you will find out that she’s a university student from the city, back for the vacation. However, she isn’t sure she wants to return. You’ll find out that she’s bulimic, in the early stages now, and part of your link with be helping her overcome this. She is romanceable.

Upright - Love, harmony, relationships, values alignment, choices

Reversed - Self-love, disharmony, imbalance, misalignment of values

Confidant Ranks

2 - Sphere of Prettiness: Shadows will be more likely to give more valuable items

4 - Charming: Allows you to have an easier time obtaining Shadows

6 - Schmoozer: Makes it easier to tell which dialogue you Confidants want to hear

8 - Beautiful Heart: Shadows will give you rare and valuable items

10 - Beguiling: Shadows will become yours before even asking.

The Chariot Arcana - Tsubasa Himura is a coach over at the dojo in town. You will be able to buy different armors and melee weapons from him. During the day, he will also give lessons on martial arts that will boost your HP and SP. The higher you go through his rank, you will begin to unravel his past and see his PTSD and how it’s affecting him, but also help him through it. He is not a romance option.

Upright - Control, willpower, success, action, determination

Reversed - Self-discipline, opposition, lack of direction

 Confidant Ranks

2 - White Belt: Raises how much HP and SP you’ll gain from training (applicable anywhere)

3 - Yellow Belt: Unlocks new weapons and armor

4 - Orange Belt: Bring a party member to train with to raise their HP and SP

5 - Green Belt: White Belt to a greater degree

6 - Blue Belt: Lowers price of weapons and armor

7 - Purple Belt: Unlock new weapons and armor

8 - Red Belt: Green Belt to a greater degrees

9 - Brown Belt: Greatly lowers the price of weapons and armor

10 - Black Belt: Red Belt to a greater degree, increases accuracy, evasion, and defense (you can now train to increase them as well)

The Strength Arcana - Shinju Kawaguchi is the MC’s little sister and was raised by their father. She will be the last to join the MC’s party. She is disabled, and cannot walk, having to move around in a wheel chair. She has a crush on Masahiko in the beginning of her social link, but slowly grows past that while learning to truly accept herself as she is. As she is the MC’s sister, she is not available as a romantic social link. 

Persona: Hephaestus

Skills: Fire, buff

Melee: Her chair

Ranged: Cannon

Upright - Strength, courage, persuasion, influence, compassion

Reversed - Inner strength, self-doubt, low energy, raw emotion

Confidant Ranks

1 - Baton Pass: Allows Shinju to use Baton Bass

2 - Follow Up: Allows Shinju to use a Follow Up Attack if MC doesn’t down the enemy

3 - Bedtime Gossip: Allows Shinju to step in when a Shadow Negotiation fails

4 - Lil’ Sis, All Ears: Allows you to see skills and potential items drops on the analysis screen

6 - Harrison Recovery: Allows Shinju to cure party ailments

7 - Kids Talk: Allows you to see Null, Repel, and Drain on a target in battle

8 - Endure: Allows Shinju to withstand a fatal attack with 1 HP remaining

9 - Protect: Allows Shinju to take a fatal attack aimed at MC

10 - Transforms her Persona into a Mythological Fighter

The Hermit Arcana - Hiroki Hisakawa will be available to talk to after you hear rumors of him at the theater. After you go to the forest, you’ll find him alone in his hut. Throughout your time with him, you’ll learn of his alcohol addiction and help him overcome this while helping him with his yard. He will make you a special ranged weapon at the end of every rank and will sell his wooden models of guns.

Upright - Soul-searching, introspection, being alone, inner guidance

Reversed - Isolation, loneliness, withdrawal

Confidant Ranks

1 - Opens gun sales to you

2 - Increases the amount of weapons for sale

3 - Allows you to make your own weapons

5 - Decreases money for weapons

6 - Increases the amount of ammo

8 - Increases amount of weapons

9 - Allows you to craft higher level weapons

10 - Decreases money for weapons

The Fortune Arcana - Mizuki Kazama will be available after some time is spent in the hospital. During her social link, you’ll be acting as a volunteer in the hospital and you’ll be spending time with Mizuki as she goes through chemo for her cancer and comes to terms with her deadly illness. You’ll inspire her to not give up hope by the end and try to live her life again. She is not a romantic social link. 

Upright - Good luck, karma, life cycles, destiny, a turning point

Reversed - Bad luck, resistance to change, breaking cycles

Confidant Ranks

1 - Allows you to swap current party with backup members during MC’s turn.

3 - Chance for a follow-up by a backup member if MC downs an enemy.

5 - Allows you to attempt to escape, even when surrounded by the enemy.

7 - Earn double money if a battle is won in one turn after a successful ambush.

8 - Decreases turn delay to zero, allowing you to instantly escape battle.

10 - Allows you to swap current party with backup members during anyone’s turn

The Justice Arcana - You’ll meet Dr. Ren Ueda shortly into the beginning of the story, as he’ll be the one to examine the MC and their family for symptoms of the virus. With the MC being the only one that’s clean, he jokingly asks if you’d like to do some volunteer work around the hospital since they’re severely understaffed. His first link will be available the first time you volunteer at the hospital. The biggest plot to his link is trying to find a cure for the virus. Throughout his social link, you will learn how he lost his right arm and how he learned to live without it and despite its loss is still a good doctor. Sadly, there’s probably some dark secret he’s trying to hide. 

Upright - Justice, fairness, truth, cause and effect, law

Reversed - Unfairness, lack of accountability, dishonesty

Confidant Ranks

1 - Will give you healing items under the pretense of you handing them out to your family

3 - Increases the selection of healing items he’ll give you

5 - Adds more healing items to the selection

7 - Adds support items to the inventory at the selection.

9 - Decreases the price for all items sold at the selection.

10 - Increase the selection of revival items at the selection.

The Hanged Man Arcana - Masahiko Oshiro is a transfer student sent to this grimy, rural town by his father after his greed and arrogance get the better of him. At first, the only one he has any sort of good opinion of will be the MC, as they are from the city too. Sayaka is too… wild for him to like even though she’s also a city kid. Masahiko will be very quickly affected by the virus spreading throughout the town and will almost succumb to it… but instead awakens his Persona and becomes the fourth to join the team. He is a second year. He’ll be the team’s navigator throughout the rest of the playthrough. Throughout his social link, you will open his eyes to the fact that all people deserve respect and that the world these people in the town live in isn’t so bad, even if it’s neither rich nor glamorous. He will be a romantic option, though will struggle to admit his feels if the MC is male.

Persona: Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld and wealth

Skills: Navigation

 Upright - Pause, surrender, letting go, new perspectives

Reversed - Delays, resistance, stalling, indecision

Confidant Ranks

1 - Chance to cast Kaja or party-healing magic during battle.

3 - Chance to instantly Hold Up enemies when starting a battle.

4 - Moral Support may now Charge or recover SP.

5 - Chance to revive search objects in the area after battle

6 - Harrison Recovery: Change to cure party ailments

8 - Chance to swap current party with backups when two or more people are KO’d.

9 - Protect: Change to guard MC from a fatal attack

10 - Transforms his Persona into a Mythological Fighter

The Death Arcana - Miyako Fujimori will be the second female party member added to your team after Sayaka. She will be depressed and have almost succumbed to the virus and take her own life. She is a second year. Throughout her social link, you will help her come to terms with her depression, what caused it, and help her look into healthy ways of dealing with it with the end goal of getting better. She will be a romantic option.

Persona: Osias

Skills: Curse, ailment

Melee: Sais

Ranged: Throwing knives

Upright - Endings, change, transformation, transition

Reversed - Resistance to change, personal transformation, inner purging

Confidant Ranks

1 - Baton Pass: Allows Miyako use Baton Pass

2 - Follow Up: Allows Miyako to use a Follow Up Attack if MC doesn’t down the enemy

3 - Heart-to-Heart: Allows Miyako to step in when a Shadow Negotiation fails.

4 - Fearful Expression: A chance to go directly into an All Out Attack after a successful ambush

5 - Extends the reach to jump into an ambush

6 - Harrison Recovery: Allows Miyako to cure party ailments

7 - Chance to instantly win a battle after a successful ambush.

8 - Endure: The chance to survive a fatal attack with 1 HP remaining

9 - Protect: The chance to sheild MC from a fatal attack

10 - Transforms her Persona into a Mythological Fighter

The Temperance Arcana - Hiroko Ikeda’s social link will be available after you work for her three times. It will quickly become evident that she’s got dementia and can’t really remember things. She’ll never remember your name, and instead call you by the name of one of her grandchildren. However, she’ll eventually admit that she’s lost so many memories of her family since they stopped visiting her while witing for her to die, and now the only person she truly remembers is you.

Upright - Balance, moderation, patience, purpose

Reversed - Imbalance, excess, self-healing, re-alignment

Confidant Ranks

1 - Allows you to grow and harvest vegetables in her garden

3 - Unknown

4 - Increase how many crops you’ll get from a single harvest

6 - Doubles the amount of land you can use to grow vegetables

8 - Decrease the amount of time it takes to cultivate vegetables

9 - Unknown

10 - Unknown

The Devil Arcana - Jun Sanada will be the next to join the party after Hoshiko. You will first meet him while he’s hitting on Hoshiko about a week after her dungeon crawl, and gets violent when she rejects him. You’ll step in the way of his hit while the others tell him off (seeing as the MC’s are generally quiet and all). You will get the chance to help him work through his anger issues and learn appropriate responses to things as you go through his link. At rank nine, you will accompany him as he apologizes to Hoshiko along with other women and people he has wronged along the way of learning to be better. At the end of this rank, he will become available as a romantic partner, though like Masahiko, will struggle with admitting his feelings if the MC is a male. His initial persona is Lyssa, and he will use electric and almighty spells. 

Upright - Shadow self, attachment, addiction, restriction, sexuality

Reversed - Releasing limiting beliefs, exploring dark thoughts, detachment

Confidant Ranks

1 - Baton Pass: Allows Jun to use Baton Pass

2 - Follow Up: Allows Jun to use a Follow Up Attack if MC doesn’t down the enemy

3 - Passive Aggression: Allows Jun to step in when a Shadow Negotiation fails.

4 - Unknown

5 - Unknown

6 - Harrison Recovery

7 - Unknown

8 - Endure

9 - Protect

10 - Transforms his Persona into a Mythological Fighter

The Tower Arcana - Yūdai Shinoda is a third year and will be join the party immediately after Sayaka. He will be hesitant to join at first, because it’s a lot of work he just doesn’t want to do. But he will eventually agree, and become part of the party. Throughout his social link, he will try different things to lose weight in order to be a better fit for the party. However, none of them will work. He comes to admit that he just likes food. Likes eating it, likes cooking it, he just likes it. By the end, he makes the decision to becomes a chef. He will be your first male romanic option. His initial Persona will be Hidaru-gami, and he will use debuff and nuclear spells.

Upright - Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening

Reversed - Personal transformation, fear of change, averting disaster

Confidant Ranks

1 - Home Meal: Teachss MC to cook a meal that will slightly recover HP

2 - Baton Pass: Allows Yūdai to use Baton Pass

3 - Follow Up: Allows Yūdai to use a Follow Up Attack if MC doesn’t down the enemy

4 - Reknown Chef: Teaches MC to cook a meal that will moderately recover HP

5 - Peace Offering: Allows Yūdai to step in when a Shadow Negotiation fails

6 - Harrison Recovery: Allows Yūdai to cure party ailments

7 - Culinary Genius: Teaches MC to cook a meal that will fully recover HP

8 - Endure: A chance to survive a fatal attack with 1 HP remaining

9 - Protect: A chance to protect MC from a fatal attack

10 - Transforms his Persona into a Mythological Fighter

The Star Arcana - Hoshiko Akiyama is a first year student and will join the party after Masahiko. She suffers from extreme social anxiety and will hardly be able to say a word to anyone outside of the MC for some time. The bright red of her hair often subjects her to bullying, and is part of the reason for her anxiety. Besides this, she is kind and this kindness is often used but never repaid, which leads her to become hateful, something you will have to help her overcome. Through her social link, you will help her obtain the confidence to stand up for herself and no longer be treated as inferior. She is a romantic option. She will be the first (perhaps only) to mention in the main storyline (outside of confidant links) that she likes both boys and girls.

Persona: Cerberus

Skills: Physic

Melee: Dagger

Ranged: Sniper Rifle

Upright - Hope, faith, purpose, renewal, spirituality

Reverse - Lack of faith, despair, self-trust, disconnection

Confidant Ranks

1 - Scanner: Allows Hoshiko to scan and print simple skill cards to duplicate them.

2 - Baton Pass: Allows Hoshiko to use Baton Pass

3 - Follow Up: Allows Hoshiko to use a Follow Up Attack if MC doesn’t down the enemy

4 - Breathing Exercise: Allows Hoshiko to step in when a Shadow Negotiation fails

5 - Printer: Allows Hoshiko to scan and print adept skill cards to duplicate them.

6 - Harrison Recovery: Allows Hoshiko to cure party ailments

7 - 3D: Allows Hoshiko to scan and print master skills cards to duplicate them.

8 - Endure: A chance to survive a fatal attack with 1 HP remaining

9 - Protect: A chance to sheild MC from a a fatal attack

10 - Transforms Hoshiko’s Persona into a Mythological Fighter

The Sun & Moon Arcanas - The Sun and Moon arcanas will effectively act as two different social links, and both will be datable options. However, as you will discover after reaching the sixth rank of both, they are efficiently the same person. Rather, the same body. The Sun Arcana, Natsuki Yamauchi, will be the first you meet as a classmate and member of the theater troupe you can join in town. The Moon Arcana, Yota Sonohoka, will be meetable after Natsuki’s first rank. Throughout their social links, you’ll discover that they have DID, dissociative identity disorder, that came from Natsuki’s abuse when she was small. Throughout it, the MC will help them learn to accept one another and coexist. Both are separately romanceable, and if you so chose to date them both, one or the other will come out during romantic outings with a possibility of them fighting for your attention.

Moon

Upright - Illusion, fear, anxiety, subconscious, intuition

Reversed - Release of fear, repressed emotion, inner confusion

 Confidant Ranks

1 - 10 Unknown

 Sun

Upright - Positivity, fun, warmth, success, vitality

Reversed - Inner child, feeling down, overly optimistic

Confidant Ranks

1 - 10 Unknown

The Judgement Arcana - Sayuri Shimizu is a young girl in elementary school who is blind. She has a seeing eye dog named Momo that leads her around. She’s only got Momo and and older sibling that takes care of her, both parents having been taken by the virus some time ago. She tries to be strong, but she can tell how much stress she’s putting her sibling under, trying to take care of and accommodate her on top of working several different jobs. Though she can’t see Avis, she can hear her, and thinks she’s just another human. 

Upright - Judgement, rebirth, inner calling, absolution

Reversed - Self-doubt, inner critic, ignoring the call

Confidant Ranks

1 - 10 Unknown

The World Arcana - The Plague will act as the main villain for this game and will exclusively be seen in the other world and in the MC’s nightmares. He looks like a Plague Doctor, and acts as though he’s doing something good, though treats the town like his own personal playing ground and somewhere to conduct his research. He has an immense, almost obsessed, fascination with the MC, the only one who seems perfectly immune to his virus. 

Upright - Completion, integration, accomplishment, travel

Reversed - Seeking personal closure, short-cuts, delays

 Characters without Arcana

Teachers - Mr. Hayashi (Homeroom), Ms. Kita (Social Studies), Ms. Maki (Science), Mr. Nakamura (Math)

Kyo Shimizu - Sayuri’s older sibling who works endless hours. Will be met during Sayuri’s route, and will apologize, needlessly, for Sayuri bothering the player. 

Hana-chan - A very pretty second year at the high school. Unfortunately, she’s a right bitch and one of Hoshiko’s bullies. 

Asuka Himura - An old classmate of Akemi’s who also goes to university. She seems polite enough, but made some snide, pointed, and extremely rude comments about Akemi that really put her down. “Oh my, Sonoda-chan, you’ve really lost weight! You’re not fat and stupid anymore! Well, maybe not fat.” Also a bitch.

Ryūnosuke Oshiro - The father of Masahiko. He’s hot-headed, stubborn, and it’s easy to see where Masahiko got his entitled streak. He shows up just as Masahiko starts enjoying his time in the country (and feelings are evidently being felt) and intends to fuck everything up. 

Lucius/Gilbert - He will be the Velvet Room attendant this time around. He’s anything but serious, and a total flirt. He will unabashedly flirt with the MC no matter the gender every time they enter the Velvet Room. When they first wake up in the Velvet Room, the MC will be woken by a kiss, to which he will teasingly ask if it was their first. I just haven’t decided on a name.

Tomomi Miyamoto - A fellow student who offers to walk the MC to school that first day. He is the second death because of the virus, and what sets the MC off to go battle the Shadows of the Plague. He is also a good friend of Natuski and Miyako. It’s implied in either Natsuki’s or Yato’s links that he was the only other one to know that Natsuki and Yato are one in the same.

Plot/Playthrough

The first cutscene of the game will start off with a flashforward/nightmare. It’s in the other world, at the edge of a cliff. Everything is painted in blacks and dark greens and is completely in ruin. A large, panning shot shows this all off. The view tilts up to look away from the edge of the cliff and The Plague comes to a stand still, appearing smug as all fuck (though his face is hidden behind his mask). He will mock the person across from him, asking if this was what they desired, if they were happy with their work. He certainly is. After all, they are the cause of all this. The camera will shift, and all that’s seen is the back of the MC, merely a black shadow in the darkness.

And then the MC wakes up on the bus. 

Scenery passes by as it’s shown the only two people on the bus are the MC and the bus driver, and passing farm fields. 

The bus will quickly come to a stop and the MC gets off on the bus stop. They look at their phone, a message telling them to wait there to be picked up. So they sit, and they wait. And they wait. And it’s dark before a car pulls up and the window rolls down. Yuuki pokes his head out and calls for the MC to get in.

Not a lot is discussed on the way to the house, just Yuuki explaining that he had to go to set up at the school before the semester started and din’t get finished until late, and also him reprimanding the MC for not trying to contact him when it started getting too late. 

Once at the house, you’ll meet Haruka and Shinju, both trying a little too hard to welcome you into the house. The next morning, Yuuki will take you to the school to meet the other teachers and get signed up. This is where you’ll input your chosen name.

After you’re freed from your father while he finishes things up, you’ll meet Tomomi Miyamoto, a neighbor. He is in the theater club and happy-go-lucky. After a while of talking and Tomomi showing you around the school, your father will drop the two of you off back home, and Tomomi promises to make sure you get to school alright the next day. 

He does so the next morning. Drops you off at your classroom before heading to his own. Introductions are made and blah blah blah. At lunch you’re assaulted by Sayaka Ito, a girl who sits close to you in class. She says that you’re lucky to have gotten the protagonist seat and blah blah blah. And because of certain seating arrangements, she’s totally supposed to be your best friend. She also points out that due to anime seating arrangements, Yūdai Shinoda is supposed to be your love interest, but the reasons for why that likely won’t hold up will differ from gender to gender. (If you’re a guy, it will be stated it’s because you’re both boys, but you’ll have the option to say you’re into men too)

Anyway, now that the day’s over, you’ll go home with Tomomi. Once Yuuki and Shinju come home, Haruka will talk about the news she heard that day while she was cleaning. The virus going around the town seems to have doubled overnight. It slightly worries Haruka at the quick spread, but Yuuki isn’t bothered, saying that the virus has been around for years and if nothing, it’s only making the people of the town more immune and stronger for it. Haruka relents, but still reminds Yuuki to wear his face mask when he goes out because of his weak immune system in the first place.

The next day, the whole town is abuzz with the news that an old lady died. She suddenly got very sick, symptoms of the virus harsher than ever, but no one really minds too much. After all, she was old, and it couldn’t be the sickness. No one’s died from it before. She was going to die soon anyway.

As the MC and Tomomi walk to school together, everything seems to darken, like a cloud passes over the sun blots out the light. Everyone looks like nothing more than still-frame shadows, a bright green orb floating over their chests. The MC looks over to Tomomi and sees that his is tinged in black, and vine like tendrils are reaching for the center of the orb. 

Tomomi shakes MC out of the daze and everything goes back to normal. He smiles at the MC before coughing but claiming he’s fine, he just forgot his face mask. He tells the MC they’ll need to get one too, because they’re ‘the fashion accessory of the country.’ 

Sayaka meets MC in the classroom and the day goes forward as school would… save for the fact that Yūdai has the same blackened orb as Tomomi. After school, Sayaka drags MC out to town for treats and points out several different places to hang out. The Mom-and-Pop Shop that acts as a burger joint, cafe, and icecream parlor. The antique shop. The music store. The bookshop. The dojo. 

Then Sayaka drags the MC to the forest and off the beaten path with the intent of showing them her favorite place. Unfortunately, her short cut gets them lost. Fortunately, the MC is apparently attracted by pretty things and follows a glowing blue butterfly that leads them to a magnificent waterfall (which Sayaka now proclaims that this is her favorite spot). 

The butterfly leads them down a path to under the waterfall. In the cave is ten doors of all different colors. Red, blue, purple, green, white, yellow, pink, black, gold, and silver (not necessarily in that order). There is also a large round table with eight seats around it in the middle of the cave.

The butterfly flies through one of the doors (any but the blue and black will do) and it swings open. The other side of the door will be… something very, very strange. It will act as this game’s “Palace.” 

They go in, end up confronting The Plague, who is in the middle of doing something… sinister. They barely make it out alive, only doing so through pure luck and the MC awakening their first Persona. But they have no clue what happened, and it’s confusing as fuck, and it’s kinda just agreed that they’re not going to talk to anyone about it. So they part ways and go home. 

In another scene, we see Tomomi start coughing and choking and nothing is able to help. He pulls his hands away from his mouth, and they are absolutely covered in blood. He collapses on the ground as people shout around him. But it’s too late. The next morning, the MC will receive the news that Tomomi is dead.

But first, they will dream.

They’ll be woken up by a kiss to this dream world, Igor’s assistant giggling and backing away to go stand by Igor, who sits behind a desk to the far side of the room. The MC will sit up, only to find themselves in a hospital bed and in hospital clothes and hooked up to an IV. Confusion may be expressed at this point. 

Igor goes on to explain the Velvet Room and everything and such, and how he didn't expect there to be another visitor so soon. He’s a cryptid as ever, but explains that The Plague will be a deadly force if he’s allowed to continue, and he requests the player to stop him, now that the MC has awoken their Persona. No matter if you say yes or no, the game will continue. The Velvet Room dream ends with Igor’s assistant blowing you a kiss and a wink and a key in the MC’s hand.

The next morning, everyone receives the news that Tomoni died in the hospital last night, due to the virus in town. Sayaka will drag you back to the waterfall from the day before, claiming that the thing The Plague was messing with before looked like Tomomi. She wants to go back and figure out why. 

So you do, shit happens, Sayaka awakens her own Persona so you’re not fighting alone anymore. This will also be the day you meet an injured Avis and discover a shape that looks like Yūdai. Avis will not fight, but she will help guide you in the coming fight and out of the door. 

Explanations will be made about the The Plague, you’ll investigate the doors and the cave and find that the black door has eight key holes, and is extremely locked. So in there is where Avis needs to go. Like, desperately. Doesn’t know what’s beyond it, only that that’s where The Plague makes his base, and it needs to go. So the MC and Sayaka agree to go and try to find the keys to open the door.

Shit happens, as it does, with Sayaka talking to you during class and within earshot of Yūdai (about him) and the Shadow and his corrupted core (that she can now see due to her awakened Persona). They gotta save him, she says, so what happened to Tomomi doesn’t happen to him. He overhears, ends up going after them to figure out what’s going on. 

And I’ll end this here because you don’t want the entire thing in one post, do you?

If people are interested, I’ll even make a part 2. (Edit: Guess what? I made a Part 2)

{Next} {Last}

[pendulum-sonata]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Akaba Ray/Zarc Characters: Akaba Ray, Zarc (Yu-Gi-Oh), Akaba Reiji Additional Tags: One Shot, Romantic Fluff, Family Fluff, Inspired by Art, ZarcRay Week, genesishipping - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, obviously Summary:

…A reconciliation of mutually contradictory propositions, the mutual contradiction being reconciled on a higher level of truth. This is a one-shot inspired by the prompts of the Zarcray Week 2k18, because to be honest I was a little busy to do a prompt every day

[The Forest]

“Deep within the forest dwells a wolf monster….”

The painting appeared to depict as first impression, shadowy figures surrounded by a splash of greens, blues, greys, reds and purples; the lighting of the room gave it an ominous feeling and he had to wonder if it was on purpose for when you watched from a certain spot the shadowy figures came into light and took the form of two black arms holding tight onto a feminine figure wearing red, her eyes almost glowing in what he now realized was a dark forest.

[Red Flowers]

“…Its petals and leaves remind us of lovers who never meet”

This one had a woman with a bridal gown kneeling in front a of a pond filled with red-spider lilies and as she extender her hand to grab one of them, a dark monstrous arm raised from the waters reaching out for her.

[Marine]

“Call me soulless or heartless… I do not care, I still long for you”

This time it was all blue, all shades and tonalities of it, and in the middle of it a merfolk creature, its tail was a combination of obsidian luscious scales and green and long fins some of which blanked in with the rays of light shining in the water.

Like with the previous ones, the brush work and colors were beautiful and almost held movement, this one in particular felt alive and almost out of place with the rest of the paintings.

Almost.

Until you noticed that the girl the merfolk was carrying down the sea with him was neither a mermaid nor breathing.

[Death and the Maiden]

“Give me your hand, you beautiful and tender form…”

This one was less abstract: it was a young naked girl – despite himself he felt his body fighting the blush creeping up his neck – a crown of flower resting on top of her red hair, behind her stood a figure of a man draped in a dark cloth, only his face was visible and half of it was nothing but a skeleton. The other half had a golden eye, a skeletal hand covering her eyes.

[La Sylphide]

“A waking dream…”

This one was different.

This one depicted a young man holding the lifeless form of a feminine spirit draped inside a veil, her wings withered and falling off.

He doesn’t focus on that detail though, despite seemingly reversed roles, the woman still finds her demise on the hands of a lover and once again she has a hair colored a deep red color – if mitigated by the veil – and the man who holds her has golden eyes.

[Revelation]

"It's a difficult matter to keep love in the dark..."

This was the first one that had the girl completely facing the audience without shadows or light tricks.

She was wearing a sleeping gown and holding a lantern on of her hands, her face wore a face of full surprise at the sight illuminated by the light: a bedside where a young man laid awoken and a look of anger and betrayal in his – once again golden – eyes, the young man could be called beautiful even as he had a harsh-looking grayish skin almost resembling plates or scales, wings folded behind him.

[Frontier]

“Lovers, foolish him and foolish her…”

Any doubt in his mind was cleared by this moment, but he still took the moment to appreciate the painting.

It was a woman wearing a bridal gown, leaning to kiss a sleeping young man… no, he wasn’t asleep, the skin was pale as paper and he wore black clothes and was surrounded by white lilies.

.

.

.

“I still don’t understand why I had to accompany you tonight.” Reiji told her as soon as they were alone on another section of the gallery not on exhibition.

“Oh please, I saw you gawking at these works, you love good art.” She said, a glass of wine in her hand.

“I wasn’t gawking…” Reiji muttered the obvious lie, but he left it at that, because otherwise it would be admitting the embarrassment he felt at seeing an image of Ray, his sister, naked, idealization and perspectives be dammed. “When you told me you had a gig as model, I certainly never thought this was what you meant.”

“Neither did I, I thought I would just be modeling for some art students, not for a professional artist.” Ray didn’t look phased in the slightest, and Reiji had to remind himself the lengths she often went to piss off their parents.

Just when Reiji was about to say something else, there was a person approaching them, Reiji almost dropped his own glass – which he accepted because of manners – when he recognized the features of the young man in some of the paintings; and he finally did drop it when he saw Ray greeting him by fixing his lopsided green tie, his face blushing and her eyes shining brightly at the mere presence of him.

“Zarc, this is my little brother, Reiji.” She said breaking his train of thought. “I wanted you to meet him first.”

“A… pleasure to meet you.” Reiji found himself saying, automatically as usual, thanks to harsh etiquette lessons which were already nagging at the back of his head because of the growing stain on the wooden floors.

“Same here, kiddo.” The man said with a wide grin, he definitely didn’t give the vibe of someone who could thought up such grim subjects for any type of art, but here he was.

“I’m sorry Reiji, but I didn’t know how else to introduce you two without my parents knowing or suspecting anything.” Ray did sound like she was sorry and Reiji felt his sour mood mellowing the slightest bit. “So… why don’t I leave you two alone so you can chat and become the best friends!”

There it was again, Reiji thought sighing, of course before he could formulate a response Ray has already whisked herself away.

“Uh… so tell me the truth…” Zarc started, his hand scratching the back of his head. “What do you think of the exhibition? I mean, beyond being exposed to your sister’s nudity.” He laughed at the last sentence, and Reiji was thankful for his poker face now more than ever. “That bad uh?”

“…The paintings are beautiful, although I would lie if I say I was not increasingly unnerved by the themes in it, specifically Ray perishing.” If he was going to be honest, then Reiji could do it too.

To his surprise, Zarc laughed before explaining:

“Oh yeah, that was a concept – you knoe ‘Tragic Love’ – I had been working on since before I put the announcement that I needed a model, I swear I have no sick fantasies involving Ray – well, at least not of that type – but she was very understanding and cooperative.”

“You do know she only took this ‘job’ because she wanted to piss off our mother right?” He said. “And while I hate to put it like this, it isn’t the first time she has dated guys with the exact same purpose.”

“Yeah I know; she didn’t tell me but I guessed by how much she complained about her parents during the first few appointments – she talks a lot when she’s bored right? – Another laugh from him.

This time however, Reiji was able to tell the glee did not reach his eyes and instead glimpsed the worry in his eyes.

“Still… for what is worth, she has never introduced none of these guys to me, and certainly never dragged me to any event for the sake of it.” He said adjusting his glasses and watched carefully the relief that settled on his shoulders.

“Thank you, for real.” Zarc started, “And for what is worth, even though she complains about you too, it’s never with the same spite and afterwards she always goes on a length on how smart and dedicated you are.”

“…Thank you, I appreciate that,” Reiji could only hope that the low lighting of the place hid his burning cheeks.

“I want to marry her.” He said, his eyes suddenly very serious and eager to hear his answer he supposed, because there was a deep silence after his statement.

“I have no troubles with that.” He started, surprisingly he was serious, for some reason he could imagine them living together already. “But I can’t guarantee the same from our parents.”

Especially not from father, who thought no man in the earth was good enough for Ray.

“I guessed as much, but Ray said she didn’t care as long as she had your support.” Zarc was smiling even more now and went to call Ray when she exited what he supposed was the restroom.

Despite everything, it had not been a bad night at all.

[khelinski]

Snow White Mondays

For whoever is reading this - if you have any talents at all, don’t give up on it. Harness it. Perfect it. Keep at it.

And share it.

Exactly ten years ago, Karii Lynn wrote this story. A year later, she shared it with me.

She’s been gone for two years now...but...her words live on.

This is a tough read, but it’s a great read.  She was a natural writer. I wish she had more time to write more.

💙💙💙

October 12, 2010

Snow White Mondays

By: Karii Lynn

She always visits me on Mondays. Or maybe Wednesdays? Sundays perhaps? I've no idea honestly. They might've changed the names of the weekdays for all I'm aware.

All I'm aware of is those bright days filled with long blonde hair and hazel eyes. Her beautiful voice telling me stories of useless everyday drama. Sometimes she'll even sing, though only loud enough for me to hear.

Every Monday she brings me a daisy. My namesake flower, so of course I’ve kept them all.

On these days I forget. I forget about the mirrors.

_______________________________

New York State Psychiatric Institute

Daisy Todd                                                                               Case No.: 446, 7058                                                                  

Admission Date: 10/12/15   Date of Birth: 9/7/1992

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Ms. Todd was born in Chicago, Illinois. She currently resides in New York City.

Her father passed some years ago and the mother does not seem to want any contact. She does have a girlfriend who regularly visits.

Ms. Todd does not currently appear to be following a career path. Instead she seems to be selling artwork from her Bronx apartment.

_______________________________

It's Monday again.

Melody is here. My singing beauty. My snow white princess.

She tells me about her boss, Madian. She doesn't like him. He makes her eyes turn blue. I've decided I don't like him either.

When it's my turn to talk, I speak of leaves. It must be April by now, right? It's been winter for so long in my room. It’s so white in here. Sometimes I think I see snow falling from my whitewhite ceiling. I brush it off but it refuses to budge. Often, I try to push it into piles and organize it on the floor.

When I tell Melody this she smiles sadly. Then she kisses me on the forehead and leaves.

Another Monday gone. Now I'm left alone, alone with the reflections.

_______________________________

PREVIOUS MEDICAL HISTORY: Ms. Todd appears to have no previously noted medical conditions. She has never been to a counselor or therapist. The trigger for this change of behavior is unknown.

_______________________________

I miss painting. And drawing.

The canvas was always blank and waiting. Waiting for me to change it, influence it. And oh, the things I could do. I was wonderful, wasn't I?

"You always were so self-centered," Melody smirks playfully. Yes I'm sure I was. It's hard to remember days without snow. The snow and cold.

I don’t know what I might paint if I were even allowed. I’ve nearly forgotten color, something that was once so important to me. I believe first, I would paint my room yellow. Then, maybe I would paint a daisy. A painting of every daisy Melody has brought me on our Mondays.

They would be lovely works of art. Museum worthy no doubt.

"You’re so narcissistic! Do you remember what you used to say, baby? Remember? 'I'm just soo curious!' Personally, I think it was just an excuse to look at yourself longer," she says laughing softly. She’s having a good day.

A cold sweat breaks out over my face. Curiosity. It killed the cat. The cat, the cat. All dressed in black. The cat who looked in the mirror too long. The cat who discovered the secret on the other side. It took her on a horrible riderideride.

I can see them now. Melody helped me forget, but now. Ohgodohgod.

My eyes are closed. When I open them I find I'm under the bed, a safe place in my little ice igloo.

"Watch out, babydoll," I warnwarnwarn my Melody. Can't have her pretty face hurt by them. "Can't you see them?!" Their creeping, crawling, slithering.

My eyes are closed again. I'm lost, drowning in my fear. When I come around again, my arms are trapped to the bed. Trapped by white, ice tendrils.

Melody leaves me. One sad green eye covered by her hand. This is not entirely rare. The dark figures often get her before she leaves. I'm quite a bad hero.

Goodbye, Monday.

_______________________________

PRIOR TO THE INCIDENT: According to Melody Artem, the patient's girlfriend, Ms. Todd was displaying unusual behaviors about 6 months previously. Losing sleep, obsessing over insignificant things, and uncleanliness of her living space. Ms. Artem also described a serious obsession with mirrors.

Apparently Ms. Todd proceeded to smash all the mirrors in her apartment. Behind them, scribbles covered the walls. "Cannot have it", "leave me alone", and "not crazy" are among the various phrases.  

_______________________________

"If I should call you up, invest a dime, and you'd say you belong to me, and ease my mind..."

So happy together. My Melody and I. How she used to hold me tightly all the night through. Warmth, skin, and true love. My forever girl. That one that you can never live without.

The white maidens that the tuck me in say we're so adorable together. I think they watch us when Melody comes to see me on Mondays. Maybe that's why she sings so quietly? How very rude indeed.

Sometimes I remember what colors are like. On the outside. When I wasn't dangerous. That's what the maidens say at least. They say I cause the bruises on my dear Melody’s face. I beg to differ, but who shall listen to my frail vocals? Just because they can't see...

Anyway, color. The dates. Sweater dates were my favorite. October, of course. Walking the corn mazes pretending to be lost, donuts and cider in hand. Stopping for kisses and peeing in the dense spots, laughing all the while.

That ended of course. When I stopped eating and discovered what lay on the other side. Who watched when you thought you were alone. They can't take what you don't have, right? The smaller I was, the less there was to steal.

Melody wasn't happy, though. She didn't understand. She used to bake me lovely meals, absolutely delicious delights. My favorite food every day. Chickenchickenchicken. But I would turn my head away after a few bites. I had to. Really, I did. I wasn't trying to make her cry. I tell the maidens that every time they bring me my mashed potatoes. It wasn't my fault. Blame the darkdarkdark figures.

I try to tell her this on Monday. To apologize. But I get choked up on darkness and have to stay under the bed again. On the bright side, I had a nice visit with her feet.  Converse, I believe. I thank them for carrying her to me every Monday.

_______________________________

INCIDENT REPORT: Patient was found in her home by her girlfriend. Ms. Todd had broken every mirror in her home (there was an unusual amount considering the apartment size) and proceeded to harm herself. Clumps of her hair seemed to have been ripped out and it appeared to have been several days since her last meal. Garbage was plentiful and the apartment was a mess. Paint was splattered everywhere and most of her prized art work was in tattered ruins.

We are unsure of her intentions, logical or otherwise. Since arrival, Ms. Todd has displayed many psychotic symptoms including, but not limited to: muttering, hallucinations, disordered thinking, trouble concentrating, repetitive and regressive behaviors. Due to these factors, Ms. Todd has been unable to give us an accurate account of the cause of her actions and is being kept in a separate inpatient ward.

___________________________

I'm so very tired of white. Bored perhaps? I wish it were red in here. Red walls, red floors, red stars.

When I felt like getting out of bed one Tuesday (for it couldn't have been Monday, my Melody's chair was vacant.) I try to paint. I discovered once with my mirrors that there is paint hidden under my skin. How useful indeed. This way I shall never run out. Very good for my budget. I should tell Melody this secret, she can take it with her to economics class. What a hero she will be.

Unfortunately, the snow maidens do not like my painting. They bumbled about howling about the wounds. “How did she manage this?!” How indeed. Teethteethteeth. They stitched my paper skin back together though, thus stifling my masterpiece.  Oh the woes of an artist.

I am put on punishment. Forced to spend several days strapped to my snowbed by icicle handcuffs. How they make me cold.

Maybe I am dangerous? A danger to myself and to my dear, sweet, lovely girl. Why did I do that, I wonder blankly. As I watch from my straps, the janitor cleans my paint from the wall and I continue to wonder.

Maybe I am crazy. Psycho. Loonytoons. Bananacrackers.

But then the whispers come from beneath my bed, and I know that I'm not the one who cannot see properly. "Silly thoughts you're having, Daisy darling. Do you doubt?" I spend the next few Mondays convincing them of my belief. If I say the right things they won't touch me as much, my dark and painful lovers.

Oh, where is my Melody?

_______________________________

It didn't used to be like this. She used to be normal. I'm not sure what went wrong, what I did wrong.

We began dating my freshmen year, her junior. It was confusing and new, but we fit together so perfectly. There were rough patches, but nothing any normal teenage relationship doesn't go through. We were so in love, but I suppose even the strongest of love can’t save someone from themselves.

It was normal enough. We moved to New York two years ago. We decided to get separate apartments like we'd always planned. Though I would've been completely satisfied living together, Daisy had always liked her independence and space. So while I attended NY Medical College, she sold paintings, sketches, and anything art related from her home. I was often jealous of the easy life she led as I dragged my book bags up the stairs to her sixth floor apartment.

I noticed the changes about six months ago. I'm not sure what caused them. Did something happen she didn't tell me about?

The first sign was her refusal to eat normally. It started off with little things. First claiming to hate foods she'd previously liked. Then refusing to eat healthy amounts of what she would tolerate. Eventually, I don't think she was even eating five hundred calories a day.

I tried everything. I cooked, I brought takeout, I took her out. Nothing. I ordered, screamed, begged, and sobbed. Nothing. Daisy just turned away from my emotions and back to her paintings. She always said it wasn't her fault. What wasn't her fault?!

Then came the mirrors. It seemed like every time I visited there was a new one. Tacked up lopsided, leaning against a wall, and even on top of the refrigerator. Not only that, but her paintings began taking on a sinister theme. Twisted limbs and dark shadows seemed to reoccur the most.

Everything came crashing down the day I forced myself into the apartment. She hadn't been answering my calls all day, but I'd been unable to get over there until late because I had work. It had been almost three weeks since I'd been inside her home. She kept claiming to have some masterpiece she was working on that I couldn't see. I had reluctantly agreed to give her privacy.

That was the biggest mistake I have ever made.

When I arrived on October 11 and received no answer at the door, I got a spare key from the building manager and let myself in. The sight I met was horrifying.

Daisy was sitting in the middle of her studio apartment, naked and bleeding. She was surrounded by her blonde hair (stained pink by blood) and shards of mirror. Muttering about darkness and rocking, she continued to carve line after line into every inch of available skin. She didn't notice me. Since October 12, 2015, Daisy Todd has been a patient at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

It's been 3 years. _______________________________

PROGNOSIS: Based on observations, Ms. Todd appears to suffer from Disorganized and Paranoid Schizophrenia. Hospitalization is recommended, but not required. Patient is being prescribed Clozapine, an antipsychotic.

_______________________________

My baby came back today. They haven't let her come since I tried to paint on the wall. (Silly Daisy, you're not a child. You should know better than to paint on the walls. Badbadbad.)

She holds my hand for a long while, a faraway look in her eye. Is she tired of our Mondays together?

"No, darling, I'm not. It's just..." She doesn't finish. I feel quite curious, maybe even worried. Doesn't she love me anymore?

"You know I do. I promised forever didn't I?" Her eyes are red. Were they that way when she arrived? I cannot remember.

My mind is spinning. Maybe she doesn't want my forever anymore. Someone else has come along, I'm sure of this. My baby darling dear.

I shake my head, trying to bump the silly thoughts outoutout. They make my Melody's eyes water. My onion-like thoughts.

I wish I were better. I just don't know how.

I'll try harder.

_______________________________

Daisy Todd                                                                               Case No.: 446, 7058   Date of Birth: 9/7/1992                                                               Admission Date: 10/12/15   Release Date: 4/7/19

_______________________________

It's Monday but it feels different. The door is still open and Melody is already inside.

The doctor comes in, the head wizard. His cheeks are red and his expression flustered. "I don't really think this is wise..."

"I've already signed the papers." Melody seems determined. I can't imagine what about. Maybe she's trying to get the maidens to paint my room a different color. Yellow perhaps? How pleased I would be.

Suddenly, my icicle handcuffs are gone, my feet are on the floor and Melody is wrapping a coat around my shoulders. A coat!

But that's not all! I'm leaving the igloo, out the door and into the...is that sun? Oh, sunlight indeed! The colors! It is spring after all! I survived the harsh winter.

"Yes you did, honey," Melody tells me rather tiredly. "We're going home now."

_______________________________

Home.

Such a simple word with such a grand meaning.

Here the walls are all different colors. I'm led through the kitchen. Royal blue. Shown the bathroom. Pumpkin orange. Introduced to the living room. Forest green. And last, our bedroom. Crayon yellow.

This is true love indeed.

I peek cautiously around every corner I'm shown. No mirrors. No shadow figures can get me here. Not really. Not quite.

Though I've spent many a Monday in bed, the first thing we do in our new home is sleep. Lying on the bed curled together, her nose pressed into my hospital hair, feels foreign yet familiar. Like a long, lost memory. You never forget how to ride a bike, you know. I suppose this is the same thing.

As I drift away, comforted by the arms locked around my waist and the warm breath on my shoulder, I can feel Melody shaking.

"You'll be okay, baby. Maybe not the same as before, but it'll work. I'll fix you. We never even have to leave this bed if you don't want to. Anything to make you happy and alright. Apple cider and donuts everyday if you like. We can paint all over the walls or watch every movie from the video store or read every book you’ve never read. Oh my poor darling, nothing matters except that you're back with me. In my arms, safe..."

Sobs wrack her body. I roll over and press my face into her neck. Squeezing tighter, I mutter softly how lovely yellow the room is and float into safe oblivion.

_______________________________

Home has rules:

1. Must take my white pill at proper times. 2. DO NOT SKIP TAKING IT. 3. Must eat my required three meals a day. 4. No mirrors may be purchased or brought into the apartment. 5. No bodily harm may be done to myself. 6. No putting myself down. 7. Privileges such as: driving, working, leaving the house, and painting must be earned. 8 All cleaning supplies and sharp utensils are to be kept locked away. No snooping. 9. Must call Melody immediately if anything happens while she's away. 10. Must attend therapy appointment weekly.

_______________________________

Melody has spent the first week home with me. She took work off. Oddly, I don't remember her having a job when I entered the snow world. But I don't mention this. I don't think I want to know the answer.

But today is the first day I'm to be left alone. Melody seems more nervous than I. Silly baby. She writes down her cell phone and pager number on four different sticky notes and posts them around the apartment, in case something happens and I can't get to one of the other three.

I laugh quietly and push her gently out, "I'll be fine, promisepromise." She runs her hands through her long hair several times, but eventually leaves.

I sit on the couch. And wait.

I wait for them to come. My painful lovers.

They don't. And I believe I might be safe.

_______________________________

Life goes on softly for several months. I eat leftover toast when I get up and paint for several hours after. I avoid looking in corners and focus on my work, the task at hand.

My paintings are different now. I no longer paint severed arms, legs and heads. Or the blood that flows so freely below the softsoft skin. I pretend that I don't want to paint the shadows. Instead, I paint trees, leaves, and oceans.

I do not paint snow.

In the evenings, Melody makes dinner, often refusing my help. I've never been any good at cooking. Or anything related to kitchens really. Even Koolaid is almost too complicated for me.

Afterwards, we watch TV and make deadpan jokes about the ridiculous shows. Melody writes medical reports and I read fantasy books. Sometimes I consider looking for jobs, but then the cold fear washes through me and I press deeper into my novel.

I don't want to go out there, especially by myself. I'd be so open to attack. All those...the shadows. The creeping bodies and reaching rough hands. I don't tell this to Melody.

Everything went smoothly for a while.

But it wasn't meant to last.

_______________________________

I am pacing. Anxiety racing through my body.

I've broken a rule. Two actually.

I've stopped taking the little white pill. Nine days now. It was making me sick, you see. Blocking the reality and my creativity.

Except that the shadows are back. Squeezing through the cracks of the doors, the windows, the closets.

That's the difference. They stay trapped on the other side of the mirror if you don't know they're there. But once you do, it releases them. Freed from their glass prisons, they creepcrawlscrape their way towards you.

Why? What did you do? You looked in the mirror too long, that's what. It's your own fault. You deserved this, you baddirtywhore.

I was only walking home, took the alley shortcut. Dirty. Pretty girl. Out they came. Handshandshands. Ruined my shirt, my skirt. Slut. How pretty I was that evening. Your fault. The mirror. Shouldn't have looked into the mirror for so long after. Vunerable. Beauty. They saw my soul, tried to have it. It's mineminemine. Go away.

Go away. away. away. away.

_______________________________

Daisy's acting strange. Sometimes, I think I hear her talking to herself. It's indistinct, but still. I've checked her pills, but she still seems to be taking them normally.

I don't know what to do. I'm so scared. I don't want to lose her again. I don't think I can bear spending every evening in that hospital again. Watching her deteriorate on that impersonal bed, in that impersonal room.

I'll call the doctor in the morning.

_______________________________

REPORT UPDATE: 12/21/19

Patient's girlfriend, Melody Artem reported recent unusual behavior. Ms. Todd seems to be withdrawing into herself and is displaying alarming signs. Talking to herself, depressing paintings, strange bruises and scratches, and weight loss. Patient appears to be continuing to take prescribed medicine.

Ms. Artem works long hours and cannot watch Ms. Todd constantly. The hospital is considering revoking Ms. Artem's custody rights if Ms. Todd becomes further unstable.  

_______________________________

I found a mirror. Hidden behind a photoframe in the hallway. I knew they were getting in somehow. Their doorway.

This time, I'll stop them. Stop the hands that touch.

I willwillwill.

Daisy the hero. Blood soaked beautiful hero.

_______________________________

It's been about three weeks now since Daisy started changing. I've tried to ignore it, but I can hear her chanting in the bathroom again. It's frightening.

"Daisy?" I'm knocking softy on the bathroom door, trying the keep the fear from my voice. "You alright, baby? Can I bring you anything?"

No answer.

I try the handle. Locked. Shit. _______________________________ I've stolen the mirror from behind the photo. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.

Close. Red. Dark is creeping. Do you see it? Slipping beneath the door? The tub is filling up behind me. Black. The midnight beast. I ignore it, I'm on a mission.

SuperheroDaisy.

_______________________________

She's humming. Humming Spiderman. What the hells going on?!

Walking to the bedroom, I begin pulling open drawers, searching for the bathroom key. When I fail to locate it in my dresser, I turn to hers. Dread washes over me. I begin pulling open the drawers, removing shirts, socks, shorts.

A pile of pills hidden between her underwear. Her Clozapine. That explains alot. And beneath her sweatpants...

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

My head whips around. I choke on a scream.

"Pretty isn't it? I used to watch 'Snow White' constantly as a child. Sometimes I dream about the wishing well." She's smiling widely, no fear in her eyes, only triumph.

In her hand she's clutching the sharp remains of the only mirror in the whole apartment. It's covered in blood. Across her arms she's made long gashes. Her shirt is torn and the scars from before have been ripped open. Her bare legs are almost completely covered in red, pale skin nearly gone from view. Slices trace her facial features, almost artistically.

The most noticeable thing about my horrifying Daisy however, is the pride radiating off her in waves. She's proud of what she's done. More proud of this disaster than of any painting she's ever sold. Almost as if she's won something. That's the most frightening thing of all.

"Come on h-honey, let's go get you cleaned up," my voice is shaking uncontrollably.

She's shaking her head, frowning. "I'm fine, babydoll. All better. See?" She spreads her arms wide and spins, not seeming to notice the blood staining the carpet in the process. "I actually just wanted to lie down for a few minutes. Just a few. Please?"

"I..." What do I say? "After a shower, alright?"

I convince Daisy to bathe. She doesn't seem to notice the cuts or feel any pain from them.

Afterwards we lay down in bed. I'm shaking and scared, but this is still my Daisy and though she hurt herself, she won't hurt me. I'll take her back to the hospital in the morning; it's the only thing to do. There's no hope. But for now I just want to enjoy my last night with her. God, I love her so.

"Hold me?" Daisy's green eyes are pleading and scared. I do. Outside, snow begins to fall.

[iammarylastar]

2. Husband and wife

*5 years earlier*

“Jack let me introduce you to Shade Johnson. Shade this is Jack McLane, your partner.” Chief McKay announced.

The new pair stared at each other from head to toe.

Interesting! He thought. Embarrassing! She pursed her lips.

“I work alone!” They both objected in unison.

What a good pair! McKay thought to himself. They already are on the same page.

“Sorry guys but we need you both this time. We have some jeopardized interests in Paris. A branch of the Calabrese’s mafia from New York threatens an operation of dismantling of weapons and drugs deal. Our contacts on the spot who have been working undercover for nearly a year just fucked up. They’re off. You will fly to Paris and keep an eye on what the fuck is going on down there and report your French counterpart. Nothing really hard. Sneaking in the clubs the Italians regularly attend, keeping a watch on the big shots and their whereabouts, noting down addresses and acquaintanceships, reporting to French competent authorities. Like a walk through a meadow for you both.”

Chief McKay stopped his speech and looked at his two recruits. The man seemed bored and the woman upset.

“I’m sure Mr. Action man could do this all by himself right? I’ll surely be more helpful in another place with something riskier to do than babysitting McLane.” She snapped.

“Oh! Mrs I-have-menstrual-cramps-30-days-a-month sounds grumpy. An all-expense-paid trip in Paris with nothing to do than hanging out and be on a stakeout, I’m in! I bet the little Frenchies are warmer than you, Icecube.”

“Fuck you McLane.” She glared at him. Motherfucker. Fucking blue eyes.

“Matter of time baby.” He winked at her. She’s sexy when she’s pissed off.

“I’m glad you would enjoy a mouthful of some frog’s legs Parisienne.” She smiled exaggeratedly. Bastard.

“Sounds tasty darling.” He licked his lower lip before he blowed a kiss to her. Partner.

“Stop this! You are official agents of the CIA and you’re on mission from now on. I’ll not allowed any complaints nor whining. If you have personal requests, please use the hierarchical ladder. Now, pack up and take your files. You could study them in the aircraft. Take off at 1:00 p.m.”

Both agents grabbed their files, mumbling purposely too loud some chosen love words to their forced partners.

“And fill your luggage with fancy clothes, you’re gonna spend time with Parisian’s ‘la crème de la crème’. Lucky you, the American taxpayers offer you a room in the most expensive Parisian hotel. Luxury ‘à la française’. You will reside in the Ritz, place Vendôme for the next 3 months.”

“Nice!” Shade mumbled. “High heels and diamonds necklace, my life.”

“Picky princess…” Jack whispered.

“Guys I warn you, however you need to fix it, you figure it out. Get ready to get along and share a suite and live together for awhile.”

“Together?” They startled at the same time.

“Hold on guys. We need you as a couple. You’re officially Mr. And Mrs. Sinclair. Congrats you lovebirds!”

Shade’s face crumbled in pieces, while Jack’s lightened up just a bit. One thing he got from his hated father was the ability to push the other’s button. He has inherited the sardonic one-liner skill, the itchy trigger finger John McLane senior was well known for.

“Now get out of here, I’m tired to see your faces.”

Jack walked gently Shade towards the door, he opened for her. Reaching out the hand he unsuccessfully placed in her lower back before being yanked at roughly, he bowed:

“After you, love”

“I’ll be sick!” She grumbled.

“And no hanky panky guys you’re on duty!” McKay shouted to the young couple, laughing out loud.

*

“Let ’s work on our love story honey.” Jack shifted in his seat, facing his temporary wife.

“Don’t call me that McLane.” She glared at him for the hundredth time since they had settled down in the airplane.

Jack had acted like a fucking gentleman, touchy, smooth and attentive at will. Though she found him pretty attractive, he was definitely not her type.

“I know your maiden name, date and City of birth, everything about your fake parents and big sister, where you were in High school and college but the file doesn’t mention private stuff like…” He paused and thought of what he wanted to know.

“Like what, McLane?” She roughly asked.

“First, my name, our name is Sinclair, and since we’ve been in love and married for…” he flipped through the pages of the file to check on the date.

“Supposed to be in love.” She snapped.

“OK hun. Supposed to be in love and happily married for 2 years, I think you could call me by my first name. Jack, remember? We’re stuck with each other for the next 3 months, and 'undercover’ means we have to build a good story, in case people ask for more details. Details make the story credible.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed loudly, giving up. “Well Jack. What do you want to know?”

“Favorite colour?” He tried.

“Who would give a fuck?” She snarled.

“Honey…” he begged.

“OK, OK. I’ll answer but stop calling me honey! Blue.” She said.

“Great! Favourite meal? ”

“Bo bun. Thaï food. ”

“Mmmm. Love Thaï food too. Hobbies? ”

“I like to read files and reports. I like study about weapons and close quarter combat. I run 5 miles every morning and work out at least one hour a day. I don’t hang out with mate, I hate shopping, I don’t drink alcohol nor smoke. Satisfied?” She taped a forced smile on her beautiful face.

“Well… Let’s say you like reading books and going to the gym. We’re heading to France, are you sure you don’t like wine? French have some stunning Grands Crus, it would be a crime not to taste them.” Burgondy fine wines were Jack’s weakness.

“No. Read my lips. No alcohol. No cigarette.”

“Jesus, I hope you have sex at least. Otherwise your life would sound… deadly boring.”

“Dont push my button McLane.”

“Ok I’m done. How did we meet?”

“Highschool. The common cliché. You were the most popular quarterback. I was cheer leader.” Shade said.

“Great. Our wedding?”

“Simple. You fell on your knee to propose to me during the Superbowl, broadcast live on the big screens, I said yes, jumping up and down like a hysterical teen. You offered me the engagement ring you paid with your first salary, I jumped into your arms, everyone was in tears. Big ceremony in a luxury hotel, wedding pic on the beach. You looked dapper in your three piece suit, I looked fabulous in my 20000$ spectacular wedding gown. First dance was “Fly me to the moon” by Frank Sinatra- barf- Champagne and huge cake you and I cut together. The pic is pinned in our living room.

“Sounds like real. Very romantic. Honeymoon?”

“Gosh! Paris or Hawaii. Whatever. My dear husband refused to leave the bed to go sightseeing.” She sighed.

“ Yeah, you worn me out. I love that part. That’s why we’re back in Paris. Romantic getaway to finally enjoy the City of Lights and Lovers.” Jack looked straight into Shade’s green eyes and went on.

“Do we want kids?” Jack abruptly asked.

“Why did you ask that question?”

“We’ve been married for two years. That’s the usual next step…” he wondered.

“I guess we wanted some, one day, but we’re actually busy with our careers.”

“Do you want kids?”

“I just answered, didn’t you hear?” Shade got upset.

“Nah, I mean you, the real Shade. Do you want children?” Jack sounded serious.

“That’s highly personal. But I feel like you’ll harass me until you got your answer so. .. No.”

“It’s a shame. I’m sure you’d make beautiful babies.”

“You sneaky bastard. You don’t end up as a CIA spy without serious family traumas, do you?” Shade smartly noted.

“Good call. My so called father has me choosing for this job. He was a cop. Married to his loyalty to the NYPD. Never at home for Xmas nor birthday cakes. Only seeing in me a lame juvenile delinquent, like I was a disappointing pain in his ass. Never want to be that kind of father for my own kids.”

“Do you still want kids? Your trauma is not as serious as mine. I win hands down McLane.” Shade smirked.

“Sorry to hear that Honey.” Jack grabbed her hand.

“Don’t call me Honey. I warn you.” She yanked at it in disgust.

“Fine. What would be our emergency code?” Each agent, each mission needed one.“

"Not Honey for sure…”

“Anything in mind?” Jack asked.

Shade sighed loudly, obviously bored by the game. “I figured out all our love story already. You chose. I don’t care.”

“Great I like this. Let’s say… Babe.” He tried.

“No way. Pick something else.”

“Mmmm. Have you ever own a pet? I’m sure you’re a dog person.” Jack guessed.

“Wrong. We were not that kind of happy perfect family with pets and smiles. Mostly punches and bruises.”

“Holy shit. You’re right, you win hands down. Worst childhood award. Any blankie or favorite teddy?” He went on.

“I had this koala bear my aunt sent me from Oz when I was born. He was fluffy and cute. He had little Boomerangs tied on his back. I named it Boo. He was my best friend. We were inseparable until my father threw it in the fire.”

“Boo. Suits you. That’s it. You’ll be my Boo.” Jack smiled.

“I totally hate it. That’s the most ridiculous pet name for a guy??? Let’s say…. you do look like Cupcake, what do you think?” She smirked.

“I’m a fan. I vote for it. Boo and Cupcake. Sounds like killer names for a dangerous mission. Exclusively reserved for emergency case.” Jack said, proud of his nice touch and of his ability to make Shade talk about herself. It punched his heart to figure out her as a little girl fighting with family issues but that’s what made her strong and bitchy. Which he liked a lot.

“Anything you wanna ask about me?” Jack was ready to let it all out for her.

“Only one. When are you going to shut up?” She snapped sarcastically.

Jack frowned and slammed his back on his seat. It was a long shot…

Jack suddenly shoved into his carry on and dug out a dark blue jewel box he was quick to open. Two wedding rings were lying on the velvet pillow, tied with a silky ribbon.

“I thought those ultimate details would make our romance real. I hope you’ll love the one I chose for you.”

Without asking for permission he freed the single diamond ring and put the ring on her finger. A weird twist tickled her stomach when he stared intensely at her, squeezing tenderly her left hand.

“For better or for worst, Boo. Happily ever after.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up McLane.” She snapped, uncomfortable. Why had he be that damn cute?

@kenzieam @oddsnendsfanfics @pathybo @frecklefaceb @jaihardy @jaicourtneyseyes @tigpooh67 @pernilleals @writingismyhappytime @beltz2016 @societalfailure @beautifulramblingbrains @captstefanbrandt @red-diary @badassbaker @bookwarm85

@singingpeople

@angelswannawearmyredshooz

[blake-moran-madam-secretary-blog]

Small Fanfic for Guggi

Hey! I wrote this at like 2:30am and it’s about our Oc’s! Hope you enjoy! @guggi04 This is only the first couple of pages

Elizabeth walked into the grand foyer, her skirts swishing around her ankles with every step she took, of the home she shared with her husband Victor Andrew, she as looked for her young daughter Rose. Maids bustled around them, fulfilling their duties. Elizabeth smiled and exchanged greetings before she went back to the task at hand. Rose had run off while she was playing Hide and Seek.

“Rose Stephanie Andrews, where you are?” Elizabeth asked softly, a joking tone in her voice even though she used Rose’s full name. A smirk was sketched onto Elizabeth’s face as she heard  a giggle from behind one of the black velvet chair that Victor put in the foyer for guests that come over. Elizabeth walked over and looked behind one of the chairs, the smiling face of her daughter looking up at her.

“Found you” Elizabeth giggled as she reached down and picked Rose up and rested her on her hip. Rose giggled as she covered her face with her hands.

“How about we go see Papa in his office?” Elizabeth asked and Rose nodded, grinning.

“I want to see Papa!” Rose nodded and clapped.

“Very well! We shall go and see Papa!” Elizabeth smirked as she hoisted her skirts up with her free hand as she began to climb the staircase that lead up the high floors of their house. After walking for what felt like forever, they reached the 3rd floor where Victor’s office was. Elizabeth made sure that Rose was still comfortable against her hip before she walked over to the large oak that opened to reveal Victor’s office. Elizabeth knocked on the door and quietly heard a soft

“Come in”

From the other side of the door. Elizabeth opened the door and stepped inside, bending don as she put Rose back onto the ground. Elizabeth looked up and smiled at her husband as he sat at his desk, scribbling notes down onto a blueprint of the latest ship he was designing.

Victor was a man that Elizabeth had met while she was going through a hard time. Victor had arrived in the small village from Ireland and instantly changed Elizabeth’s life. Victor was 6’2 (Quite tall compared to Elizabeth’s height of 5’1), had slightly thin lips, his hair was a dark grey with a lighter grey coming through at the roots, his fringe has a slight wave to it, his dark brown eyes were warm, comforting and inviting and he had small laugh lines at the side of his eyes. Victor was 30 while Liz was 22,while Rose had only recently turned 4.

Rose had been born when Liz was 19 and while Liz and Victor had become close after they met, they only got closer after Rose was born. Within months of courting, Victor had proposed to her and Elizabeth said yes, a huge grin on her face and they moved into the grand house not long after the proposal. They were married 2 months after.

“Papa!” Rose called as she ran around the desk to reach Victor. Victor looked up from his work, a smile instantly on his face.

“Ah Rose!” He bent down and picked the young girl up before standing to his full height, before sitting down and resting the girl on his knees so she could have a better view on the desk. Rose’s eyes widened as she saw the blueprints and the countless scribbles. Elizabeth stood up and dusted off her dark green skirt and white blouse as she walked over to where Victor and Rose were sitting.

“Hello Victor” Elizabeth bent down slightly as she reached her husband and kissed his cheek, a loving grin plastered on her face.

“Hello darling” Victor smiled, appreciating the kiss. Elizabeth couldn’t help but blush when he called her darling. Everything he said sounded wonderful with his accent.

“Rose wanted to come see you” Elizabeth explained as she pulled a chair up beside her husband and sat down.

“I was hoping to see my princess and my beautiful Queen at some point today” Victor smiled as he bounced Rose on his knee, emitting a giggle from the young girl.

“Well you could of come down to see us instead of being holed up in your office all day” Elizabeth joked slightly as she looked over to the blueprint plans, brushing a stray lock of curly hair out of her face.

“I was hoping to but I’ve had a lot of work to do” Victor motioned to the plans on his table.

“Are you designing another ship already?” Elizabeth asked as her eyes scanned over the paper.

“Oh Aye!” Victor’s eyes lit up when his wife mentioned the ship. Elizabeth noticed that victor’s eyes always lit up when he was talking about the boats he was designing.  “My boss imagined a boat so grand in scale and so luxurious in its appointments, that its supremacy would ever be challenged and here she’ll be” Victor lightly hit the table with his hands “Willed into solid reality. Also the boat will be steam powered! The first of its kind!”  

“Victor! T..That’s amazing!” Elizabeth grinned. A boat powered by steam. How was that even possible?

“Daddy building another ship?” Rose asked, suppressing a yawn.

“Aye, that’s right Princess. Daddy’s building another ship and do you know what it’ll be called?”

Rose shook her head, looking up at her father with wide, curious eyes.

“It’ll be named the Rose Andrews” Victor grinned.

Rose’s eyes widened and she looked at her father.

“Like me!” She grinned.

“That’s because it’s named after you sweetie” Victor chuckled as Rose’s eyes got wider and so did her grin as she clapped.

“A ship named after me Daddy?”

“Of course! This ship will travel all over the world and you deserve the world”

Elizabeth had a soft smile adorning her features as she rolled her eyes at her husband. He always spoilt Rose but was careful not to over spoil her at such a young age. Rose’s excitement was cut short as she yawned once more, her eyes having trouble to stay open.

Elizabeth walked over to the door and opening it, seeing one of the maids walking towards her.

“Oh Louise! If you aren’t too busy, would you mind putting Rose down for a nap?”

Louise nodded as she followed Elizabeth into Victor’s office.

“Of course Mrs. Andrews”

Elizabeth gave the young maid a soft motherly smile and the young maid couldn’t help but smile back as she picked the youngest Andrews family member off her father’s lap, leaving the two on their own.

Victor took his wife’s hand and lead her over to the couch that sat in front of the large windows. Elizabeth could see the view as she sat down. The river was running smooth as the sun shone dwn on the water and shined upon the hills. Elizabeth always thought it was quite fitting where they lived, right next to the river, considering her husband’s job.

“Darling, you surely know that once the ship is built, it’ll have to go through multiple sea trials to make sure it’s safe for passengers and then it’ll be disembarking on it’s maiden voyage and it’ll make the headlines, I bet you. It does also mean that I’ll be away for long periods o’ time  and I can’t sure sure when I’d be back for certain.”

Elizabeth nodded as she listened to her husband. She knew what it meant being married to a ship designer/master builder and though she’d never stop him from following his dreams, it hurt when he left as Elizabeth and rose missed him dearly. Rose still didn’t know why her daddy had to leave for long period of times and Elizabeth found it hard to explain to her daughter when Rose was crying. Seeing her daughter upset was the worst thing for Elizabeth as she only wished to see Rose happy.

“But for this time, I want you to come with me, and Rose will be joining of course” Victor grinned as Elizabeth looked up, her eyes full of excitement.

“Are you sure Victor?” Elizabeth asked, not fully believing what victor was telling her. Elizabeth had grown up in a village, living in a small cottage living with her adoptive parents Tom and Dick and her adoptive brother Stanley while visiting her biological parents, Madam De Garderobe and Maestro Cadenza, at the castle and now she was living in a grand house with her husband and daughter and soon she was going to travel on the grandest ship in the world that would surely make headlines, seeing as it was the first boat of its king due to it’s scale and the fact that is was the first steam powered boat. The 1730’s seemed like a year of progress indeed.

“I want you and Rose to accompany me on the ship. I want my wife and my daughter to travel in luxury and also I’m not sure I could stay away from you for much longer” Victor admitted sheepishly before the two gently kissed. Every time was like the first as cliché as it sounds. There were always sparks.

Once they pulled apart, Elizabeth cupped Victor’s face in her hands, resting their foreheads together as the two lovers shared a loving smile.

“How I ever told you how lucky I was when I ran into by accident the night we meet?” Elizabeth asked softly.

“You might o’ mentioned it once or twice” Victor joked, smirking softly. “but I never tire of hearing it”

“You, Victor Andrews,are the most amazingly, astounding, wonderful man that I’ve ever known. I’m not an idiot, I know how the world works. I used to have ten francs in my pocket, I had nothing to offer you and I knew that but I became too involved and I’m glad that I was able to become your wife.You have blessed my life in so many ways in a way that word’s describe but I know how people will views you as you are on the grandest ship in the world, with a village girl as your wife. They won’t be favourable of it and won’t see our marriage the way..the way we see it.”

“You think I care about that Elizabeth? All I care about is that my daughter and my wife, who I love so much to the extent of the universe and back, to accompany me on this trip of a lifetime. You never know, we could possibly start a new life there..Doesn’t that sound wonderful, my love?”

[takanos-love-butt]

World’s Greatest ‘Mary-Sue’

((You can also read on Fanfiction.net if it’s easier that way. Writing this to blow off steam, so let's have fun shall we? Onodera reads his first yaoi manga that'd been penned by his new kohai (OC). He doesn't realize just how intoxicating her work is... Gonna touch on all pairings in SiH, but I might mess with Junjou Mistake because who doesn't love Isaka-san? XD Rated M to be on the safe side.  ))

Prologue - Meet Meiri Uehara (OC Background)

Onodera had just arrived at the office to find his coworkers (except Takano) all already deep into their new projects. The atmosphere was fresh as the cycle had just restarted and only two days old!

"Ohayo!" he greeted everyone as he sat down.

"Ohayo Ricchan!" Kisa smiled. The rest of the department responded in kind. Ah, the first few days of the cycle are always the best! No one was groaning or moaning, bitching or itching to get to make it at the last minute. Of course they'd have to face it again in just a few days, however...

The young transfer really didn't want to ask, but as always his overthinking curious mind got the better of him. "So where's Takano-san?"

"Ah he went to go meet with our new team member," Mino answered with his trademark smile. He was the first one in when Takano was leaving to go meet with this new prospective.

"A new team member?!" all three exclaimed at once. It also seemed that the other editing departments on that same floor perked up their ears as well.

"Hmmm so we need to get the new employee training manuals out again, huh?" Hatori said already going to see where he might've put them.

"Actually, Takano-san said she wouldn't need much training at all..." Mino replied stopping Hatori in his tracks. However, the pronoun struck and resonated more so. 'She?'

"Ehh?! So a woman is joining our team?" Kisa asked. Not that it would be bad at all. Though the image they held as the "Maiden Club of Handsome Men" would change just a little.

"Personally, I think it would be a nice change of pace," Mino added with a finger up. "And like I said, Takano-san said that she actually isn't very new to editing manga at all. I believe he said she has three years editing experience in manga along with actually being a mangaka herself for nearly 15 years. So she should be able to slide right into work, no problem!" he smiled again. "Not to mention, we could sure use the help!"

"Wait...wait...so..." Onodera started. This new person isn't really new to editing and she's an author? So.. he pondered. "If that's so, why..."

As if on queue, the editor in chief himself stepped back into his department. All the papers of the new recruit in his hand. Including what looked like a manga book, but its cover was shielded by the way he held it. Mino was the first to speak up as the others were obviously very curious in hearing this news. "So how did it go Takano-san? Is she going to join our team?"

Takano gave a sigh, but was smiling as he finally settled at his own desk. "Well...Best part is that we won't have to struggle teaching her anything. She edited and still writes for Marukawa. So she knows basically the whole process and how it's done. Though I'm not exactly sure why she wants to edit shoujo manga right now,"

"Wow, so where is she?" Kisa asked. Pretty sure everyone else was gonna ask the same thing.

"Filling out HR formalities and paperwork. GA will be bringing her in a while, possibly about lunch time," Takano said thumbing through paperwork thinking about what the first jobs and projects he was going to assign his new employee. Unlike with Onodera, Takano actually got to greet the new prospective at the interview.

"You said she's a mangaka for Marukawa right? Would it be an author we know?" Mino asked curiously.

"Not sure," he said pulling out the little manga book out from underneath the file. And handing it over for Hatori (who was closest) and all to see. "This would be one of her works apparently...I found it in our archives. I'm told it's been running for 3 years but it will finally be ending with its finale book due to hit the shelves next week,"

The cover was very similar to the volumes of shoujo manga that the Emerald team pushes out every month. Even down to the sparkles, roses, and...pink. But there was one major difference that said it wasn't shoujo manga at all. Both characters on the front cover appeared to be male.

As soon as Kisa got a clear look at the cover from where he was, he gasped; pulling the book right out of Hatori's hands. "N...no way! No way!" Kisa said sparkly eyed and excited. "Uehara Meiri is gonna work with us?! Ahhhhh I love her work!" This of course drew the attention of the Sapphire BL Editing Division. They were most DEFINITELY looking their way now. Particularly the editor in chief.

"I see we have a fanboy among us," Mino chuckled at Kisa's eagerness. Though Kisa himself ignored the teasing that was implied.

"Of course I'm a fan! She's amazing! I've followed this particular series from the very beginning and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out!"

"Yaoi manga?" Onodera said with a rather nervous voice. Of course everyone who was anyone in the business of manga knew what that meant. He saw Kisa flipping through the pages and happened to catch a very heated scene between the two male lovers. A scene that made Onodera himself light up like a red traffic light.

"Of course she was already hired before I saw this. I guess the only REAL thing I might have to teach her is not to go overboard and remind her the audience is little girls not josei bachlorette women ..." Takano hummed.

"Erm...she's not really as bad as you think." Kisa began; a little apprehensive in countering his boss's remark and attitude about it. "I mean yes her work has ….heated moments that make you blush and that you shouldn't be reading in public," he laughs nervously. Then his face had a bit of somber look to it as he continued. "But there's just something about those particular moments. She writes a desire that builds up to such hot intimacy that means everything and not just lust. She can actually turn something that's racy and r rated, into something that's so natural and beautiful; something we'd all want in a potential life partner. Sex that speaks of love, longing, and trust as if it were the greatest blessing between a couple. And the fact that she can do that on love stories between two men makes it even more amazing!" he gushed.

Everyone's eyes widened a bit. What Kisa just said struck a huge cord with all of them; except perhaps Mino, but anyone could guess that he understood the feeling. "Ahhh...I don't think I've ever heard you talk like that Kisa," Takano began. Now he was really interested in this particular manga series. Perhaps he'll give it a try since he never read a yaoi manga. Though he did know of Usami Akihiko's BL novels, he just never read MANGA that told the same stories and was illustrated in manga format. "I'll be taking that back now, I'm sure you have this one at home, fanboy..."

Kisa blushed two times over as he handed the book back to Takano. "Okay, w...well I'll be getting back to work now," he laughed nervously and opened his laptop. The rest of the Emerald team really just chuckled at the display.

"Good idea," Takano agreed. "Time to check storyboards,"

Onodera was sort of lost in thought as he was working. So someone actually DRAWS stories like that? He pondered again as he pulled out his storyboard to work on. Not that he wasn't exposed to the fact of kind of thing existing really. After all there was a branch of the department that specialized in it; that worked on the same floor as them. It was probably more the fact that Marukawa published yaoi of that nature. He even began to ponder if the company that bears his very name put out yaoi mangas like that! It seemed interesting enough, but again it really was just a manga. Onodera's curiosity was killing him though. Especially after all that Kisa has gushed about her series. Not to mention the author of those books would soon be working with all of them. Looks like a trip to the bookstore might be in order after work...

/(^x^)\

Through the morning there were whispers about the new addition to Emerald echoing all around the floor. And she hadn't even arrived yet! But it seemed people were talking about the fact it would no longer be just a group of men. Rather a group of men plus one sole female. Some found it amusing while others found it... Onodera was just appalled that people would start thinking unnecessary thoughts right off the bat, though...it's not like he himself was new to that kind of treatment either.

"Hopefully you don't get too excited about the arrangement, Kisa. But I'll make sure to have a bucket of water handy," Takano jested. Kisa just laughed off his snarky remark.

"Aww c'mon, can't I at least ask her for her autograph?" he laughed keeping up the joke. He did really want an autograph though. Hopefully it wouldn't be too weird asking her for one now that she'd be working with them.

"Never said you couldn't...Ah, in fact" Takano stood up. "Here's your chance,"

"Takano-san! I have your new employee!" The woman from GA sang as she breached the Emerald department walls. And it was almost as if everyone on the editing floor turned their heads, not just the Emerald department. Their new recruit had deep red hair pulled back in a nice ponytail being held with a bow, her eyes a bright blue green color (though hard to see behind her red framed glasses), and she dressed in a red and black color scheme of a professional looking blouse and skirt. Not to mention, she looked insanely young!

"Nice to meet you!" Meiri bowed. "I'm your new editor starting from today, please look favorably on me! My name is Uehara Meiri, but you can call me Meiri-chan if you'd like!" she showed a bright smile happy and eager to work. Almost as if she was starting a job for the very first time.

"Ah...Uehara-san, that's not really..." the general affairs woman tried to remind her of formalities in the workplace.

"It's fine! I'm actually more comfortable to that name. It means you're my friend and since I'll be working along side them, being their friend is TOP priority! It makes the work a better place to work if you can get along and associate with those you work with!" she smiled. "Besides, doing that would help push books through a lot faster and easier, wouldn't it?" Meiri said immediately going to Takano. "So boss! Whatcha got for me?" she said referring to her first tasks.

Hearing this, Takano couldn't help but smile and wonder why she didn't run her own publishing branch. He bowed to the GA woman saying he could handle it from here; dismissing her. "Well like I said, I won't have you on any authors until next month when I see for myself how you work and what kinds of weights I can put on you," Takano said with a stern face, but all the while happy he had someone he might not have to fuss over from everything he's heard. "So I'll have you as a subordinate to one of my editors here and since you're not the only one new to Emerald, I'll have you work with Onodera. With any luck, he might learn a thing or two..." Onodera made a face at the teasing Takano was insinuating.

"Aye aye, Cap'n" she mock saluted him. All in good fun. Though the way she was acting toward her new boss would make other employers or leaders weary of her professionalism, Takano felt otherwise. As well as everyone else in that department. To Takano, she might just be like another assistant director to him and Onodera just from her first day. Though she might need to prove that to him first. This vibe echoed through the rest of the Emerald team.

Ignoring his chief editor and his uncontrollable urge to tease Onodera, he stood and greeted the new subordinate. "I'm Onodera Ritsu. I look forward to working with you," he bowed.

"Pleased to meet you! I look forward to working with you as well!" she bowed deeply to him. Onodera felt a little uneasy being treated with such high regard, but maybe this wasn't so bad after all?

/(^x^)\

Meiri settled into her new work space that was the empty desk in front of Onodera (beside Mino) since she'd be working under him it seemed. Takano had given him all the things she needs so he could guide her properly. He also really wanted to see how well Onodera worked in 'training' a new employee. Though she didn't need much it seemed.

There was no further ceremony from them or anyone after she got to working. Especially since they had to wait in getting to know her further until after work. There was still that damning question as to why she went from author to editor and one outside her preferred genre. Yes all that would have to wait until they were done fighting authors for their storyboards, getting them to agree to changes, and gear up for the next few steps through the month.

At the end of the day, Takano found Onodera and Meiri hitting it off really well. He actually felt a bit jealous in the beginning and almost regretted his decision to have her work under him. That is...until he remembered on her resume how it said she was married as well as the rose gold wedding band on her finger.

According to Kisa, Meiri is the wife of a prominent actor whose forte is musical theater, Uehara Takuya. She also seemed to gush about her husband a bit while she was working (even put up a little picture of them in the corner of her new workstation), so Takano's worries were quickly laid to rest as far as that was concerned.

"Ahhh I think that about does it for today," Takano sat back and stretched. There was nothing more they could do with their authors for the day. "If anyone else is interested, how about a small drinking party to welcome our new Emerald member?" he smiled. He wasn't much for these kinds of things, but he really spoke for everyone in his department that was curious and really wanted to know more as to her situation. "Unless you have plans, Meiri-chan?"

"Oh no not at all!" she cheerfully quipped. "I'd love to get to know you guys too! And...I kinda feel like I'm being watched," she sweatdropped. Both her AND Takano were receiving some looks from Meiri's former editor who happened to be editor in chief of the Sapphire BL department. Though she made no real move to confront them.

"Yeah we should converse in peace," Takano agreed. He's only met the Sapphire head on passing occasion since they shared the same floor. But now it seemed he was on her 'to-die' list by the way she was glaring at him through the day.

The team sought out a little hole in the wall not far from the Marukawa building. The pub had a very peaceful atmosphere and the snacks and drinks were something to brag about. "Okay well first question," Mino started. "You were a mangaka? Why are you going back to editing?"

"I'm actually still considered a mangaka," Meiri causally sipped her beer. "But I came back to editing because I'm in a slump right now. A BIG slump. I don't know if you've heard of my most recent series, but it's receiving HIGH regard. It's received tons of awards and such. I know it sounds like I'm bragging...but that's the problem..."

You could literally hear the 'eh?' in everyone's head as they waited for her to continue. "How am I ever gonna follow up such a great story like that? It's actually been bugging me for the past year when I knew it was about time to end this series. I felt this oncoming slump fast approaching and before I knew it, my series was over. It's not good for me to get rusty, so I consulted with Isaka-san about returning to editing with a special interest in shoujo manga. You know...just for the time being," she'd already explained to them that she chose shoujo to see if she could make a story that was more fluff than sex. It was actually something she was criticized on quite a bit.

"Your editor doesn't seem too happy about you going back to editing though..." Takano commented, speaking of course of the person who couldn't keep her eyes off them all day.

"Ahhh...no she isn't. But she all she really did was tell me 'You'll come up with something, just do it!'. As if that helped in anyway..." the red head layered on the sarcasm. She could feel Takano's pain as she'd been glaring at the both of them all day. "I figured she'd glare me down...but I don't see why she's staring daggers at you. You didn't have a say in where I was placed...Isaka-san did...Matter of fact, I asked him to," she told Takano. It was actually a bribe, but she didn't know if she should go around telling anyone that information just yet. It did draw some curiosity, but Takano spoke up first.

"I didn't even have a say in where I was placed when I got hired by Marukawa last year...that was also Isaka-san's idea," he offhandedly remarked.

"I don't think anyone did..." Kisa added and Mino and Hatori all nodded in agreeance. Onodera as well. The disastrous mid-career placement of going from literature to shoujo manga is a moment he'll never forget.

"So if she wants to place blame on anyone, it should be Isaka-san right?" Kisa continued.

"Well...knowing her, she's staring daggers at Takano-san for another reason. I think it's because I had no intention of going back to editing with Sapphire. I assume that would be the case no matter where I was placed,"

"Sooo she's jealous of Takano-san?" Onodera spoke up.

"Yep!" Meiri quipped. "She obviously isn't happy that I'm back at editing and to make matters worse, didn't even request to go back to Sapphire. ...where she could bug me, in other words... And I'll bet after she's done staring at the both of us, she'll finally come forward and confront us,"

"As if we need such interruptions during work..." Takano sighed with a griping tone. One could imagine a 'pyun-pyun' on the side of his head.

"Can't help it, that's how she is. Try being her author for the past seven years..."

"Well thanks for the heads up, now I know what to say to her if she ever does decide to disturb me,"

Author's Remarks

Ahhhh! This is just a story to get off my chest. I hope you like it. /(^x^)\

Ah and when I say "Please look favorably upon me" it goes back to the term "Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu" in Japanese culture that you use when greeting new coworkers or people you're about to do business with. (どうぞ よろしくおねがいします)

I decided to spell out the phrase in English because for me, it can get confusing when using Japanese terms and pleasantries in writing something that's primarily in English. And I'll try to keep it to a minimum because blending two languages can be VERY confusing. Though I'm sure our fellow fans of SiH or Junjou Romantica might know Japanese suffixes and their importance since they were never dubbed...and if not...GOOGLE IT and learn the wonderful world of Japan and it's language. Not just the anime/manga business. #LearnJapan

[inviouswriting]

Aspectabund

Letting emotion show easily through the face or eyes

Let me start by saying... this is a side AU. Going off another thought that hit me during my rp with Meeps. If Kivera acted of her own volition on G’raha. Some friends of mine asked for some angst regarding Kivera and G’raha. They got what they asked for~

Mentions of @meepsthemiqo  Meeps, @earthlystar ‘s  Yume, @candideangel ‘s Angelique, and the polyship with @maiden-born-in-snow 

This is long to boot. at 19 pages and 8,429 words. 

Be comfortable reading.

Kivera is an observer type, she spends her time watching people. She’ll sit in a busy place and just watch them going to and from places. She chose Mor Dhona for this past time of hers. Green eyes peering out through the holes in her mask. She was here on official business for herself. She was still raw in her ordeals, and witnessing the grief so strong in Meeps day to day. 

The reaper felt like she was getting too close to people. She spied one of her targets, and all she could feel is her soul turning to ice to steel her resolve. Make it easier to not care about him. She was good at cutting her emotions off when it mattered.

She spies G’raha Tia, leaving the Rising Stones. He looks across the plaza and his ears flatten as if he has seen a ghost. The expression that waits and stares at him. He wonders if Estinien meant that she liked him, or if it was him covering for her mood.

There was something off about Kivera, and he hoped he was wrong about the look in her eyes. They stared anger, they stared hate, he knew those looks, he knew little of the reaper save for that chance encounter before he was facing off against Elidibus, then again when he was assaulted with water attacks by her.

His face pales at what the water truly was about. She was gauging his reflexes. G’raha felt he was staring at her namesake, Death. He had seen the mad stare in her eyes when she extended the offer to him before fate was altered. 

His feet move him closer, and before he knew it he was standing across from her, mustering a sheepish grin and fidgeting with his hands.

“It’s good to see you again. Kiv-”

“Be silent. Save your pleasantries. I doubt you’ll greet me the same after today. I have told you, you have not earned that right to call me by name yet. You and I have some unfinished business.” When Kivera spoke the first words, G’raha felt his voice leave him. He barely understood why he couldn’t talk, he tries using a spell on himself and they don’t work. He was fully silenced. He stares at her, wondering how she can muster it with just words.

“I want you to stay quiet while I speak.” She extends the spell placed upon him, drawing a full line across the front of her mask as if zipping his mouth with it. 

G’raha can’t do anything but stands there staring at her.

“You should count your lucky stars gracefully, that you still walk among the living. I want you to know at what cost. I want you to feel it.” At her words, G’raha feels an intense sadness wash through him, an intense sorrow tinged with rage, confusion. He looks at her.

“What you feel is the life altered, by your doing. Your meddling. Your victory.” Her voice was low and full of malice. He soon realized these were Meeps feelings being thrown into him. He looks away from Kivera, feeling unworthy to even stare at her eyes.

“Look at me.” A command. Reluctantly he does, he meets red eyes. She still sits there calm and unmoving from when he first chanced on her. The wave hits him again in how Meeps truly felt afterwards. Heartache, he himself was barely holding himself together. 

He got to walk away, when Elidibus died. No he got a chance to live again, through magic and the tower.

He felt the spell removed and clears his throat of any lingering effects.

“You are here for me then?”

“I can’t kill you. Doesn’t mean I can’t make you wish I did.” 

“Estinien said you were okay with me.”

“I tolerate you. Because that is what I am suppose to do. Let things happen, not intervene unless I have a merit for myself, or perhaps I see that a realm is in danger with your presence. You are very much a threat. you and that engineer.” 

“Cid? What does he have to do with this?”

“You are here because of his meddling. If you did not investigate the tower. You would not be here, you would not have stuck your nose in what was meant to happen.” Kivera stands up motioning for him to follow her outside of Revenant’s Toll. He reluctantly follows her, not inclined to reject her. She’d make him.

“The future was dead! There was no future! You saw it yourself! How was I suppose to just sit back and let it happen.” Once they were outside the gate and towards the Agrius. Kivera stares over her shoulder in eerie calm at his words.

“That is how fate works. You let it happen. And deal with it. How thousands before you handled their lives, how thousands after you will do so. Let’s just hope you and that man don’t tamper with anymore forbidden doors.” 

“The Garleans were going to use a bio-weapon that sapped people of their aether and left them to die horribly. I was suppose to stand back and watch Angelique die that way?” 

“Exactly. .. it doesn’t matter, your feelings in it. It was meant to happen. This world would have died, and so forth. To me, just more souls.”

“You speak so plain of the ones you call lovers too?” He hears her laugh dark, and her eyes focus on him again.

“You’re talking to someone who has had to kill their soulmate. Because he was going to be used in some ritual to do what you did in body hop. The great thing about the afterlife is they would be returned to me, as I would pluck them from the shores of Acheron myself. I wouldn’t have had to worry about them.” 

“You thought that out? In case they died?”

“I am loyal to Shuri and them. They have earned my trust. But I am not here to discuss my personal things with you. I think you have much more to worry about.” He feels a ripple under his feet, and before G’raha knew it, the ground beneath him caves and he sinks into it to his knees. His eyes snap up towards Kivera who had disappeared from his line of sight.

“Damn it where did she go!?” He manages to get out and looks around him for a sign of her. He knows nothing about her abilities. He feels something touch his back from the base of his neck and down his spine. It was alien to him, then intense heat.

“L'anima del fuoco dell'inferno brucia.” G’raha feels himself on fire but no flames to be seen. He dashes away from the hand at his back, seeing Kivera standing there. Scythe drawn, and glowering down at him as she hovered.

“What did you do to me..” He feels the flames still, a cold chill through him it lasted through him and didn’t ebb off. 

“I’m not going to bother wasting my time explaining. There is no need.” She flits and the sight before him falters and fades out. What he had been conversing with was an illusion, his ears perk up and he holds his staff to his side to parry the blade aimed towards his torso.

The power behind the hit forces him back with the blade as it swings. He barely has his bearings with her attack. He notes she is fast, just as soon as her attack connects she flits out again, he feels the blunt side against his back, knocking him forward. He was knocked with enough force it launches him towards one of the fallen airship pieces bouncing off once.

He gets his bearings this time after shaking the confusion off. He jumps back to avoid the point end of her scythe embedding into the ground right where his head just was. He realizes, she is out to kill him.

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t kill me?! What was that?” G’raha can’t believe what he witnessed in her breaking the ground with her attack. 

“I changed my mind. I think I will take your soul.” She hisses under her breath, G’raha was still recovering his own strengths, fighting her as he was, is a suicide mission. She rivals anything of a primal, and he knows he won’t win.

“Y-you’re going to kill me?” G’raha asked more in disbelief, this woman had spared him. Now she wants to run him through with her scythe.

“I think it would be the best option. Before anyone else gets wrapped up in whatever you have to bring forth. Spare more lives from potential doom?” She mocked him openly, and G’raha sees her shift on her feet after pulling her weapon free. 

G’raha assumes one of his roles to heal himself then adjusts for his other to defend himself choosing something that might last long against her.

They both trade blows, he parries her blade to keep it from striking him. His arms shake with each hit she leaves on his staff. The ground gives under him again and he feels something pull at his ankle under the rubble. A vine. He changes his role to burn it off, taking his attention off of her again.

Kivera uses his distraction to launch a elemental attack in a fire column. Deep black and green flames arched and raced towards him. He felt that same soul chilling burn in him again. He raises a protection around him, but it doesn’t stop the sensation running through his entire form. 

“How annoying. Silenzio!” He hears her shout that last word, he felt its meaning as he is silenced again. He glances up and now understands why she is called an angel of death. Wings spread, scythe raised, green eyes glaring down at him, and flames surround her blade as she swings down letting the fire splash and rain down on him as if it were water. It did not feel like water, it burned his very soul.

He doesn’t see her next attack till the arch of her blade almost connects with his head. He glances up and sees someone had blocked her attack, yet his feet sunk into the ground from the force of her hit. If she had connected, his head would be rolling. 

“So this is where you ran off to, to be a murderer now?” Ardbert holds his axe to parry her attack. Her strength unlike what she shown him before. 

“Is that what you think of me?” Kivera presses harder pushing down.

“That is what it looks from a distance. You know he is not at full strength still. Why attack him? What happened at Meeps place.. or is this your true face that even Shuri hasn’t seen?” Kivera glares anger at him for his words.

“Why explain it to you then. You wouldn’t understand! You still think of me the same. That man behind you should not be walking! He doesn’t deserve it!” Kivera surges lightning through her scythe into Ardbert’s arms.

 “Damn you! You said yourself it changed! You have no authority over it! Not without messing up some grand design you refuse to tell us about!”

“I’ve said in the past! My world is off limits to the living!” G’raha witnesses their exchange, both staring at each other in pure pained expressions. Kivera’s a bit more.

“I am not living if I last recalled! Remember?! Slain by a sin eater!” Ardbert pushes her back, and Kivera flits putting distance between him and her. She glares dark at him, and sinks her foot into the earth. Ardbert knows this ability, and moves G’raha off half tossing him onto a machine part of debris. Below where G’raha was sharp vines impaled the ground from below. A second late and he would have felt those himself.

“You prove I can’t trust you! Why should I now! You obviously side with him! Always wanting to play the hero! That’s what got you killed!” Kivera sees Ardbert’s eyes lower then glare at her.

“What of you? You yourself have your hands covered in blood of innocent people. Including Damien’s.” Kivera flits and appears directly in front of him slamming the blunt end of her scythe into his abdomen launching him for that remark.

“How dare you! Don’t you say his name here!”  Kivera throws a fireball his way, and Ardbert blocks it.

“Struck a nerve? Do I finally see more than the same brooding expressions day in and day out? You finally show what is beneath that exterior.” Ardbert runs towards her, Kivera dashes pass him instead still aiming for G’raha. G’raha just now gets himself together in time to see her swing her blade and ducks underneath the sharp edge of her blade as it hits into the piece of airship next to him. She rends it deep, G’raha shrinks further down seeing how she stares down at him now. 

Kiya presses a hand to the metal and sends a pulse through it letting it ripple beneath him. G’raha feels the lightning run through him, and yelps out only for it to stop as Kivera is grabbed around her waist and thrown back by Ardbert.

“G’raha! Get out of here!” Kivera turns her attention now onto Ardbert in full, she hovers on her feet as she stares at him. G’raha gathers himself and races back towards Mor Dhona. Kivera keeps an eye on him from her distance and poises a bolt of fire, snapping once and sends it at him. Ardbert sees this and changes his class to deflect her attack. 

Ardbert sees G’raha make it through the gate, and at least his relief that he won’t die today. His attention returns to Kivera, who holds his stare, he closes his eyes after seeing them flash bright green. 

“So, what was all that about? Why so hellbent on attacking him all of a sudden?” He tries to reason with her. He glances at her, and sees her expression one of pure anger at him.

“Why bother telling you anything if you’re going to throw it in my face.” She remains where she is, Ardbert sees her scythe wrapped in her flames, even growing in their intensity. How he wished he had Divinity to intervene but he dug this one bringing Damien in.

Kivera eyes him carefully after but it is only a brief moment when she appears in front of Ardbert. She swings her scythe blunt end towards his middle to strike him this way. Ardbert takes this hit, but he wasn’t prepared for what the hit would do to him. He is engulfed in her flames they felt cold but it burned him in a way he hoped did not transfer to Shuri. 

He sees bright red eyes glaring at him through the black and green. Her scleras dark.

“Always playing the hero, always on this bravado about the right and just. When a wrong has been made. It should be corrected. That miqo’te should not be walking. He is just like Vanth. Not a single care to who he affected, the reasoning behind what he had done. He lied to everyone, he put my charge in danger, he put Kiya at risk of losing her life. He took everything from Meeps that she held dear. He took the life of his former self locked in the tower for some idea to live another life. Instead of resigned to fate the way it was intended.” Kivera’s voice comes out in pure malice as she speaks of G’raha Tia. Ardbert is pushed back by her scythe.

“You truly feel this?”

“Why would you care? I am just a murderer. So let me be the murderer, and end your life just the same. You shouldn’t be walking EITHER!” Ardbert feels a surge of energy rush at the end of her scythe and he is launched back towards a crystal structure.

Kivera hot on where he falls, Ardbert regains himself and jumps to his knees. He is overcome by intense sadness in his heart. One that has him doubling over, and he realizes his wrong he committed with Kivera. She was masking her eyes to hide her pain, she shifts at will, and he looks up to see her irises falter to a deep very deep blue staring at him.

“Kivera! Kivera! I did not come to fight you! Just saving G’raha from you! Would you hurt Shuri this way? The life of one of your loved ones too?” Kivera leaps and strikes the ground near his head. Ardbert uses this as a way to grab hold of her, and rolls to pin her.

“Why would you use Damien... G’raha knows nothing about him!” Kivera digs her nails into Ardbert’s arms and uses her lightning to deliver a continuous shock. He grimaces, her lightning unlike that of Ramuh’s, he remembers she won’t kill him because of Shuri. 

“I know! That was wrong of me, but you can’t go and jeopardize your life in exchange for some feelings! You said it yourself, you can’t intervene in fate once it is in motion! We’d lose you!”  Kivera’s lightning weakens, but the fire she had around them remains.

She is angered still, she had done irreversible damages if G’raha tells what she had done. How she attacked him. 

“I’m not apologizing to him... he should not be here... He and that man should have never set foot where they don’t belong! Look at what grief it caused!” Kivera feels Ardbert wrest her hands off and pins them over her head at the wrists, as he has seen Divinity do.

“You don’t have to like him! Shuri doesn’t! He lied to alot of us, you don’t have to do anything for him either. But killing him in cold blood is not an answer! What would happen if you took his life? You’d put yourself on target for others to have to slay you.”

“I’d like to see them try it... they wouldn’t be able to. There isn’t a soul around here that can.” She barks back at him. 

“Oh? So you’re immune to holy magic? Last I checked you are not! One of the alliance leaders is adept in holy magic, she’d be able to take you down. You also forget myself. I can use that same magic.”

“So would you kill me?” Kivera narrows her eyes. Her question makes him sit back on her abdomen. Keeping her pinned. All he can see is her eyes, he reaches to pull her mask off, only to be shocked by the same magic that is around her neck. An intense electrocution she musters.

“Kivera! Stop! I want to see your face! It’s only me here now, and I have seen you without it.” Kivera keeps the pulse going.

“No! Answer me! You would kill me then?!? Someone who has sworn to protect me? You would kill me.” Kivera glares through her mask. Ardbert feels the heat of her flames rise around again. She was prepared to continue the fight depending on his answer.

“If I knew Shuri was in danger of you, yes! I’d have no regrets! You’d just be another primal to slay here in the eyes of the realm!” At this, Kivera uses a different element between them, air combined with fire to create a blast to launch him back away from her.

“Then let’s just get this over with here and now! Hero. To be frank with you, I am rather annoyed with your constant judgement of my role and what I do. You did not have to try and love me. In fact... I rather you didn’t. I was content with the others... Now that I know your feelings in this.. I won’t show mercy then.” Kivera stands still at the edge of where Silvertear Lake is, leading towards the Agrius.

Ardbert sees her pull off her mask and ties it to her side. He wonders why she is even doing this now. Perhaps to sever their ties together. He hoped she wasn’t doing that to make it easier on herself to do her role without being questioned by him. The air around Kivera shifts to cold winds, and intense heat scorching the ground.

“What have you done!? Ardbert!?” Ardbert looks over to a ridge to see Divinity kneeling on both legs of hers, her head hanging low as she sees her leader’s demeanor change. 

“What do you mean what I have done?! She attacked G’raha Tia!”

“She wasn’t going to kill him! She can’t kill him! Kivera! Stop! He doesn’t need to see this side of you!” Divinity sees Kivera glance at her then stare at Ardbert again, Divinity glances down at Ardbert.

“What in the seven hells did you say to her?!” Her attention snaps back to Kivera when she hears the air crackle around.

“We exchanged opinions again, she didn’t like them. When the question came about whether I’d kill her for the sake of others. I had said yes. I would.” Divinity stares in horror at his words.

“You broke her trust!?” Ardbert realizes that was the intense sadness he felt from her. Her trust was broken down. He is faced with someone who doesn’t have any qualms about using her full power on him now.

“ O 'Plutone, io sono il tuo mietitore, il tuo angelo della morte, la stella dello Scorpione e lo spirito che guida tutti negli inferi. Supplico il tuo nome, perché ho bisogno del tuo potere per mostrare a quest'uomo la grande grandezza di ciò che farà un portatore di morte. Non ucciderò o mutilarò quest'uomo, ma mi assicurerò che sappia il suo posto. O 'Plutone, io sono la tua falce, sono il tuo servo per tutta l'eternità. Invocazione dello spirito di morte.” Kivera’s voice is solemn as she speaks almost in a song. A lament in her incantation as she invokes her deity.

“Kivera!” Ardbert hears Divinity’s voice pleading the reaper to stop. Kivera ignores Divinity for now, and the Libra spirit feels chills run through her spine at the sight of Kivera changing to her preferred form of the arc angel.

“Spostamento dimensionale.” Kivera changes the realms that she and Ardbert are in. Leaving Divinity behind to keep her from getting into their fight. Ardbert is dropped into the wasteland he remembers from when she first took him to one of her worlds. A dead star, much like Amaurot. Where she won’t hold back. He looks for her and doesn’t see her where she was once hovering. 

“Silenzio...” Before he could muster a spell to protect himself, he hears her voice in a quiet whisper, next to his head. Kivera touches his back in the same manner she had done G’raha Tia. Ardbert feels flames run through his body, an intense burning sensation that feels like his very soul is on fire.

Ardbert jumps away from her, and catches a glimpse of her, golden eyes, and braided hair instead of the wild sleek black he was use to or green irises. He’d take her red over the gold he sees. Something rang in his mind that this was not the same reaper.

He wished Divinity was there to explain this form to him. He braces himself.

“Mandala.” He is caught off guard when he sees a flash of a array around her. Then it dissipates. He is confused to why it dissipated only for the ground beneath him to unstable and the controlled elemental attack bursts under him. He has a split moment where he jumps away, she was much faster, just as he lands another hit was thrown his way.

“Tempo di stop.” He had a moment to dodge this other incantation. She attempted to use stop on him, Ardbert flailed a bit in this fight, trying to figure her out, she does things just enough to keep him on his toes. Kivera was about to send another blast when Ardbert sees a shield raised around him.

“Kivera!” Ardbert hears Divinity again, and sees her hold her barrier up. Kivera sees this and glares at her charge.

“What do you think you are doing? He chose this of me.” Kivera drops in front of them, scythe held behind her.

“Kivera! He’s not an enemy. He answered a question, and you are taking it as if today is the day he’ll act on it! Tell me, what is all this? What made your trust break this way? Are you this upset over G’raha Tia still living? Does he remind you that much of Vanth?” 

“Vanth?” Ardbert looks at Divinity confused as she fends off the blast that was thrown down, raining embers. Kivera seeps those embers into the ground, and uses the ground to race them underneath Ardbert. 

“Acque della Bilancia.” Divinity says this incantation, and beneath Ardbert a pool of water forms to protect him from the hellfire as it raises through her barrier.

“Vanth, is an evil person.” Divinity says brief to Ardbert.

“He is the reason behind her acting like this, she sees alot of what he has done echoed from G’raha Tia’s actions. I should have suspected her lashing out at some point..” Divinity says to Ardbert, keeping her eyes on Kivera as she drops in front of them, Ardbert sees the difference in her now, the normal black and white wings replaced with full black ones, the braid on her descends down pass her back, but her eyes unnerve him. They were devoid of any emotion, except the telling anger at the corners of her eyes in expression.

“Vanth was the reason behind Damien’s Death right? When she showed her memories to me, I remember a cloaked figure stabbing him.” Ardbert keeps his stare on Kivera, Divinity is his best defense.

“He is also responsible for my own death. He lead the events of what made many towns and villages to burn anyone who practiced herbalism and ways to heal in medicine. Claiming it as witchcraft, thus my death. Vanth is a lich.” Kivera seethes at the other side of Divinity’s barrier, she keeps her magic up waiting for her to calm as she explains the being.

“Lich? An undead spirit?” He has seen them before, specially among Tam-Tara, and other dungeons.

“Yes, they’re a step above necromancers. They enslave both spirits and the dead together. Kivera has a special hate just in that alone, per her role as guardian of the dead. But Vanth, has also used her in several of his rituals, including enslaving her once to do his work. All liches start as necromancers. They think what they do is innocent in bringing back what is dead, soul and body. However the body is already dead, and rots when the spirit is returned. It’s a great taboo.” Divinity feels her nerves on edge with Kivera’s gaze still on Ardbert, waiting for her to drop her magic. She’s thankful she was blessed in holy attributes to fend her off sometimes.

“So this Vanth, enslaved even her? What does that truly have to do with G’raha Tia?”

“His soul jumping and time meddling. Vanth does both to avoid death. Avoid her. She sees G’raha Tia’s jump from The First to The Source as the same magic. Something that should not have happened. Beq Lugg, animates and uses soul magic. Similar to what Vanth uses, though Beq, renounced their use of that magic. Kivera sees it the same as raising the dead, or tempering with the flow of death.” Divinity glances over to Ardbert.

“Forbidden magic.” It makes sense to him, he had inadvertly set foot into a fight that was her, in her right as an arbiter of death. She was suppose to handle it, she sees him as a threat, and Ardbert had foolishly jumped to the defense of someone she thought a pure enemy to her nature.

“I had no idea...”

“She doesn’t tell people of him, because his name invoked could easily summon him to places. Vanth alone is devastating. He is smart, places like Ishgard would be ideal with their former prejudice against other races and holy agendas. If Vanth had been here while the Dragonsong war was still going on...” Divinity sees the reaper glance at her, she lowers her barrier sensing her change. 

“Kivera! I take it back, I wouldn’t kill you. Now that I know this, I can’t.” He sees her glare back at him. Divinity even looks at him.

“It’s going to take some time before she’ll open up again to you. If at all. Shuri might be crossed with both of you for fighting like this. did you try to understand her reason before you came to blows?”

“I jumped in the middle of her delivering a death blow on G’raha. If I hadn’t, he would have been either seriously maimed or his head would have rolled.” Divinity glances at Kivera.

“I wouldn’t have killed him. I was trying to scare him half to death.” She says it nonchalant. Like it was no big deal to her.

“Ardbert, you need to trust her a bit more. She does not kill needlessly. She does this alot to one of our own in Aiden, the Aries spirit. He’s constantly getting himself into trouble, and she occasionally will do a false blow to remind him of how close to the edge he was.” 

“Yet she was so certain of his impending death.”

“You still have alot to learn about her. Think of the attacks she made, were they truly for death strikes? Or were they close calls?” Ardbert thinks to her scythe attacks, and how they struck the ground next to his head, and how she cleaved a good gouge in the metal of one of the airship pieces. 

“Close calls.” Ardbert sees Kivera revert back to her base form, black and white wings, and hair wavy instead of sleek.

“If she had truly aimed to kill him. He would have been taken out with her first attack. You felt her touch your back right?” He nods.

“She never misses a target if she truly aims for death. Her namesake after all.” Ardbert’s shoulders lower down a bit, he was foolish.

“Aye, shows how much I need to spend time with her. Estinien spars with her alot more.”

“He’s also earned more of her trust. He keeps her secrets, and doesn’t throw them at her in fights. I heard that bit about Damien. Never use him in an argument with her.”

“That is unforgivable on my part.” He doesn’t add anything more onto that one. He knew it was wrong. She had seen her beloved die before her, she had taken his life, she had begged for his life to be returned and paid an ultimate price in having him back but not in the way she wanted. Unable to remember or even look at her without it making sure she’d lose him permanently. He’d never find the same strength if Shuri had to make that same choice or he about her.

Divinity drops to her knees once the fight was over. Kivera is at her side. 

“I’m relieved that.. don’t worry. I thought for certain that I’d have to get get Shuri to stop this fight. Ardbert, never make her invoke Pluto ever again. She can destroy an entire world through him.” The dead world they were in, was an indicator for Ardbert to understand she had intended to do that.

“I apologize then, My words were careless and callous.” Kivera turns her head away from him. She leaves a gate for them back to The Source, and disappears from them both.

“She’ll return... After she cools her head.” Divinity turns to Ardbert, she first delivers a hard slap across his face.

“What was that for!?” 

“You’re an idiot! You have no idea how much you hurt her!” Divinity then hugs him tight.

“What do we tell Shuri...” Ardbert realizes they need to tell her what happened.

“The truth. She obviously felt it, she is going to worry over Kivera.. I know my leader, she won’t be back in Eorzea for a while till the flames have died off.” 

“We should get going in telling Shuri then. Might do to tell her about Vanth too. So she understands where her anger and resentment comes from.” He is helped up, as he holds onto Divinity’s hand she heals him of the hellfire that was leeching into him still. He didn’t realize he still had her spell on him through it.

The trip back to the house, it felt like he was walking on eggshells. Shuri was pacing out in front, she had already heard from others who came back from Mor Dhona that there was a huge fight with Kivera and G’raha Tia. She had gotten several linkpearl notices from Tataru and Krile. 

“Where is she?” Shuri says upon seeing both Divinity and Ardbert.

“We don’t know. She disappeared from us.” The Libra spirit answers and once she was safe after helping Ardbert, she collapses to her knees again, as her own emotions run through her. She was terrified, she had nearly witnessed Kivera lose her mind again. 

“Divinity, what happened out there?” Shuri asks her.

“Kivera went after G’raha Tia. She was harboring feelings against him from sparing him. After seeing the magic he used. It reminded her of the person that was responsible for Damien’s death.” Shuri stares from her to Ardbert, seeing him in a dishelved state.

“You got in the middle of it?” 

“She did not leave me much choice, I thought she was going to kill Tia. You know I’ll defend the weaker of people.” He defends himself in his method.

“But she doesn’t kill out of spite. You know this. She’s told us alot she doesn’t kill unprovoked.”

“Divinity was thorough in reminding me on the way here.” Ardbert folds his arms across his chest as Shuri looks Divinity over, remembering Kivera would never hurt her either. 

She inspects Ardbert, the deep punctures on his arms where Kivera had dug her nails into them. She places her hands over them.

“She was in alot of pain, if she did this. She wanted to get away from you both.” Shuri helps heal the punctures on his arm, noticing how all the abilities Kivera used were not to kill him. They were to let her hurt out. Even she knew Kivera would not harm any of them unless she was backed into a corner.

“Divinity, you know more about Vanth, help us understand.” Estinien had approached Divinity as Shuri tends to Ardbert.

“You remember Edda and Dantalion? The odd events that were happening in Tam-Tara with her experiments?” 

“Aye, she was using blood and soul magic. To try and revive her lover Avere.”

“Vanth can do that magic on a larger scale. He is a lich. He uses the magic to jump from one body when his is too rotted, into a new host. In short... when he had taken Damien, he was planning to use his body to house his spirit then. Thus why Kivera could not use her magic, and why I was held back from doing the same.” Shuri listens to her intently, her heart aches for Kivera having to be pushed into that corner to do it.

“Vanth has also used Kivera as a catalyst in other spells, including one where he had enslaved her as a puppet and attacked us.” Ardbert heard this part, but not the details of Kivera once attacking Divinity.

“Go on.” Estinien has Divinity rest her head on his lap, her sight had gone out as she recalls her memories.

“Kivera sees the same magic used between Beq Lugg, and what it took to transport the Scion’s back to The Source. She would have been satisfied with them, as they were not meant to die yet. G’raha Tia on the other hand...” Divinity trails off.

“He used it for his own means. To cheat death.” Shuri completes the sentence. She remembers well, and sees where their supernatural lover is angry with him. He was not suppose to cross that threshold.

“So now he is untouchable to her, as whatever fate in store needs him as well.” Ardbert feels even more foolish upon realizing he intervened with her doing her job to right the world. They don’t know if his death here would truly upset things or not.

“Exactly. Soul magic is forbidden in the underworld based on the fact, what is dead and should be dead, remains in the underworld. That is the very law set in that world. Hades, forbids the magic, and anyone practicing it is to be hunted down and dispatched of. Lest we have more people like..  Sisyphus. Who cheated death so much he is pushing a boulder uphill in Tartarus.” Shuri finishes healing Ardbert up and has him sit with her across from Estinien and Divinity.

“So she really was doing her role.” Ardbert says quietly to himself.

“Those that constantly cheat death, are looked down upon in the afterlife and underworld. They’re selfish about it. Because if this was truly about just the Scions, he could have tested his theories and magic with one of them implementing their memories without him using his own. It’s why Kivera took G’raha Tia’s younger selfs memories to exchange for him doing so. Since the future we knew was going to happen.. isn’t. So there was no need for the memories of the current G’raha to exist.” Divinity raises her head as her vision returns to her. Choosing to see Shuri’s face.

“That explains why she went after him then. But why did she attack you so hard Ardbert? I’ve never seen her lose her composure, your body speaks volumes.” The burns, the cuts all over him, the deep gouges in his arms from where she had dug her nails. She saw someone acting in pain more than anger.

“I said some things...” 

“What did you say?”

“He threw Damien at her. Said that her hands are covered in blood, including Damien’s.” Shuri looks back at Divinity in shock, then to Ardbert. He looks away from her.

“You didn’t... No wonder she was in pain!” Shuri wants to seek Kivera out, but she has a feeling she wants to be alone to heal herself. 

“Ardbert.. Damien... there is a reason I don’t bring him up in her presence, specially when she is heightened.” Divinity leans back against Estinien.

“What are those reasons? So I never say it again.” 

“Agitazione. She showed the devastation of that world?” He nods remembering that.

“Once Damien died, she awoken. All star spirits awaken. Kivera did in a grand display, being her own role, the sign of death alone experiences great tragedies. All leading to a great moment where they invoke their deity to either defend or defeat a foe. Aiden, burned his whole city, Io defended women from Zeus, Gemini were chased through Maedryn. Cancer fought Hera to earn his. Silvara uprised an empire for their gladiator tournaments, Virgo defended a citadel, I was burned at the stake and in my moments I tried to make my people see their errors. Kivera lost her soulmate... Sagittarius has always been Chiron. The start of the circle, Capricorn was drowned to save someone, Aquarius escaped a slave trader, and Pisces did the same as they were in the same troupe. They died defending themselves.” 

“Each born of tragedy and doing something to invoke their spirit. Kivera would explain it better. Eitherway, Ardbert, when she is reminded of him, she tends to lose her composure because it still haunts her. She feels immense guilt over his death still. They had been together for a long time. He was the first being to show her love, and the last to truly show her unconditional next to Shuri here. I avoid talking about him, specifically in public. Unless we want to see a city razed to the ground.”

“I’ll keep that in memory around her.. what can I do to make it right with her?”

“Time. She has to come back here first. She’ll vanish alot. If I had to chance a guess at where she is, she’s in Purgatory.”

“Time we will give her then. Is there a way I can go to her and check on her? In a few days?” Shuri asks Divinity.

“I’ll tell you in private, I sincerely doubt she wants to be around men right now.” Divinity looks to Estinien who raises an eyebrow but leaves it alone.

Ardbert can understand that sentiment.

“Divinity, The day isn’t over yet, I think you should talk to the Scion’s and relay the same information to them.” Estinien remembers the linkpearls. He had gotten one from Krile. Frantic about the state G’raha had been in. Divinity nods.

“I agree. As much as I want to rest. Damage control.” She sighs and Estinien helps her up, to go do so.

“I’ll come with.” Ardbert says, he had to explain things from his perspectives.

“You will stay with Ysayle.” Shuri says. Divinity looks at her and nods knowing she won’t take “getting rest” as a means for her to stay back and let one of their lovers be slandered.

The task in itself was rough as the tension in Rising Stones could be felt, the confusion at why Kivera reacted the way she did. Divinity spoke and relayed everything she had learned, Ardbert’s side, and further explaining the reasons behind her actions. 

G’raha had no idea to how it looked from a pure outsiders perspective. He had only meant to help, not realizing how much he had tread on others to get there. This was his doing in how the reaper attacked. Soul magic was forbidden, even he knew that, there were reasons Beq Lugg had stopped using it. They had caused alot of damage.

Kivera was trying to prevent another Vanth from happening if things went sour. The person in possession of that knowledge, can do so much. Elidibus only had the vessel with his blood and used it to summon people from across worlds and realms. It was a threat. If that fight had gone in any other direction. It could have meant deaths worse than what was going to be another Calamity.

“So what do we do about her now? We cannot overlook this, too many people have seen her and are scared. They think her another primal.” Alphinaud speaks up, voicing the concerns around the people.

“What do you mean, what do we do about her?” Divinity questions him in the tone of concern, coming off as aggressive. Estinien places a hand at her shoulder to still her.

“It will take time for the people to forget what they saw and felt in the air.” Alphinaud mentions, he knows that Shuri and Divinity will keep her safe and the reaper will lay low when she comes back to this world. He worries that they’ll be forced to take action on her. 

“Then it will be time for now, she is not a threat to the realm.” Divinity speaks up, defending Kivera from the idea of being hunted the same as a primal.

“She did attack G’raha.” Thancred mentions.

“And it was explained why she did.” Divinity reiterates. 

“We’ll have to see how the public perceives her then. She’ll have to stay out of public eye for a while.” Krile suggests.

“I don’t think she has a problem abiding by that. If she returns.” Divinity says that last bit under her breath, she had a bit if disdain for the way they were talking of her. Like she was a monster now. Estinien’s hand on her shoulder keeps her from saying or adding onto anything.

“So we’re done here then?” Estinien asks, he wanted to put some distance between his home and the Scion’s more for Shuri and Divinity. 

“We’re really going to sweep this under a rug then?” G’raha Tia pipes up, not understanding why they want to defend her actions.

“You should count your lucky stars she didn’t decide to kill you! Besides, if a former warrior of light, was struggling against her, what makes you think we have any hold against her? She was there among Amaurot’s Doom creatures. And with you at half your former power, can you go toe to toe with her? I think she was certain of that, if Ardbert hadn’t intervened..” Y’shtola reminds him of where he should stand for now.

“What if she does decide to finish the job now?”

“That is highly unlikely now.” Divinity hisses, she couldn’t believe her ears.

“You are certain?” He was speaking of his own hurt. He sees her glare at him, Estinien tugs Divinity along.

“Don’t answer him. Let’s not drag this on further.” Estinien keeps hold of Divinity’s wrist to tug her with Shuri. 

They had left without answering any more questions about Kivera if it would lead to more hurtful judgements on her. They know the reaper is coming from pain and hurt. She doesn’t want to see another tragedy befall the realm like she had witnessed and dealt the hand herself.

The evening was long once they returned. Kivera’s presence missing greatly, Divinity making an excuse that the reaper had to visit another world for a bit. The spirit closes her eyes to sense her or detect her only to be shut out of their link together.

“Any luck?” Shuri asks, approaching Divinity with a sleeping Ysayle.

“She’s in her world. Sanctuary. She’s not receptive still.” Divinity sighs feeling defeated in her attempts to reach her life long lover.

“She requires time to process her feelings.” Shuri reassures her, they still have to do their part in keeping her name clear and anyone seeking her in this world would be chased off by either of them for now.

Divinity is invited to rest her head at the end of Shuri’s lap her mind plagued with great headaches concerning what she had just went through and using her own abilities to defend one of their own from an enraged angel. There are times even she forgets her leader’s unrivaled strength.

“You’re not angry at her?” Divinity raises the question.

“I’m mad at both her and Ardbert for fighting. But not the reason behind why. She did not do anything to hurt him beyond shocking him the way she did. As you said, all of that came from her pain. She and Ardbert will have things to talk about civilly. For now, distance between them is needed. Mostly on her part, Ardbert has remorse for what he said to drive her away. She needs to hear it herself.” Shuri recalls the times even she had to fight against him before The First. He can say things to get at his opponent. 

Shuri adjusts Ysayle to let Divinity hold her on her own chest while she cards fingers through Divinity’s hair better.

“Tell me something about her from your world? You two share the Underworld. I could use something positive of her.” Shuri requests, and Divinity knows what to talk about.

“She takes extra care towards children. She carries a special flute for them, and plays it when she has to find lost souls.” Shuri runs her free hand through Divinity’s hair soothing her nerves the way she has seen Kivera do.

“What kind of flute is it?” Her voice low and quiet.

“Made of crystal. She keeps it safe within Antares.” Shuri thinks about it and wishes to hear Kivera now.

“Antares is her weapon, you speak of it like it is part of her.” Shuri pauses her hands.

“That’s because it is part of her. It was made from her own heart.” Divinity sees her eyes widen. 

“Antares is her heart? Makes sense why she is never seen without.” Shuri sees her smile.

“There is still a whole lot we don’t know about her. It’s only fair for the others to still be weary of her.”

“For good reason. For events like today. She could be ordered to raze a world and she has to carry it out. Vanth isn’t dead, he’s an immortal being. So her concerns are valid. If she feels someone is under his wing or doing things similar to his magic. She doesn’t hesitate. She wanted to scare G’raha from ever using that magic again. She did something similar a few days ago to Cid. She pinned him against the wall of his workshop and threatened him to never tamper with time temporals again. The poor man never saw where she came from.” Shuri manages a laugh.

She remembers Yume telling her that Kivera had chewed the man out something fierce, his hand in things less offensive compared to G’raha Tia. Cid may have opened the door to all this, but G’raha was the one who did more than he should have. Now that she knows the reason behind Kivera’s actions lately, she would never be angry with her for acting on what she knows is right.

“Let’s hope she comes back soon.” Divinity nods in agreement. She closes her eyes to try her link with the reaper again, this time she isn’t shut out from her.

“I love you.” Is all she sends through their link, she feels a sense of warmth run through her.

“Te Amo... you, and Shuri... Tell her I am sorry..” A smile graces her face, her hands that rest on Ysayle rubs the child’s back. Shuri can sense something good happened.

“She respond?” Divinity nods, Shuri feels relief.

“She extends her love to you and I. She apologizes too. Means she was watching the whole time.” Divinity feels Shuri’s hands still.

“Thank you...” It eased her mind knowing she still cares, still loves them despite her anger and running away. Divinity closes her eyes again.

“Take your time to return. Come back soon. You are missed.”

“I’ll return, visiting Chiron. I need guidance.” Kivera answers her brisk.

“I’ll let everyone know. You’ll have to apologize in person to Shuri.”

“I know.. I’ll let you know when I return. I want to see you and her first before the guys.” Divinity relays the information and Shuri nods.

“We’ll keep things civil here on your behalf.”

“I’ll do that myself.” Kivera ends the link after that, and Divinity sighs, but knows she will come back.

Just need to give her time.

~~~~~~~~~

Translation notes~

Incantations - 

“Hellsfire soul burns.”

Silence,

Invocation - 

"O' Pluto, I am your reaper, your angel of death, the star of Scorpio and spirit that guides all unto the underworld. I beseech your name, for I require your power to show this man the great magnitude of what a death bringer will do. I will not kill or maim this man, but I will ensure that he knows his place. O' Pluto, I am your scythe, I am your servant for all eternity. Invocation of the spirit of death!”

Dimensional shift

and Waters of Libra.

[inviouswriting]

Cruore

It literally means “flowing blood”

Half original. Half going on the recent story I wrote.

Mentioned characters - 

Meeps/Fae - @meepsthemiqo

Shuri - @maiden-born-in-snow

Yume @earthlystar 

Some warnings in here for touching on Kivera’s descent in Hell.

Kivera is use to the smell of blood, the world she is from is full of it. The underworld, the realm of the dead. Her world she has known after her death from the hands of Bathory. She knows the realm inside and out, from the deepest pits in Tartarus and Hell itself. To the highest peak in Purgatory where she watches those who come before her. Seeking passage to Paradise.

Her punishment as much as bestowment. Punishment for her sin, bestowment for her servitude. She is under Thanatos and Hades. She does their work without question, and never asks the Fates of their reasons.

Kivera is capable of seeing the world up to the earliest of her memories she remembers. In other times she has witnessed how civilization takes hold and grows over periods. Other worlds, she sees how far behind, or how they destroy themselves.

The smell she is use to is that of flowing blood. She is use to it so much it doesn’t phase her like her fledgling days. So Kivera stands over a sight she is accustomed to people pleading her for a difference. To be let into Paradise, on behalf of some good merit they did.

“You have not learned yet, and I cannot let you through.” Her voice echoed in the hall, softer as she addressed the face before her, another of many. One she’ll forget after a few days. She sees so many. Her mind constantly drifting back to her interactions in The Source.

She had let a few dozen through, and encountered only a few people who need to humble their hearts more. Still full of resentment.

“Why do you get to play as judgement here?” The words echo in her mind.

“That is just the way things are.. I just do.” She says automatically. Practiced words, ones she has said countless times. The faces change, her words remain the same as she gives these people their tasks and trials to complete. Till she grows tired of doing this, letting the realm do their part.

She retreats to her personal space, and replays the events that she had done. Her own hands burn from when she used her hell flames on Ardbert. She still feels their heat. She had marked three people to keep an eye on. Cid, G’raha, and Ardbert. She had tied their lives into her own spirit. She had to do something to keep them from meddling. 

Kivera recalls her encounter with Cid. He was busy with something he had worked on, barely even noticed her slipping in through a mirror. Before he had known, he felt something graze through his back and touch his very soul before searing heat engulfed him internally. When he had turned around, he was met with the blunt end of a scythe raising him up and pinning him to the wall nearby.

“You’re Shuri and Estinien’s lover?”

“That saves me time. I know you, and have watched you for a while now.” Kivera’s eyes were a bright green behind her mask, and he sees black surrounding them. He felt his limbs as if they were freezing in place.

“What is this about? Surely you are not?”

“Just be quiet and listen to me. You of all people should heed me. You are very much alive, and I am very much capable of ending that now. Right here. So I have a warning for you.”

“I don’t have much of a choice do I?”

“No you do not. Either you heed it or you rather not know what will happen. You have stepped into a world and realm you have no business in. One that WILL kill you. If you have any sort of devotion to your beloved, Yume. You will stay out of the time temporals. I let the events of The First slide, because I was meant to stay out. But I won’t have you setting foot where you shouldn’t now. Be with your lover.” Cid feels his arms returned to normal but his legs felt heavy as stone. 

“I can’t just abandoned my work.” He tries to bargain with her.

“I never said you didn’t have to stop. Just not mess with time. It does not lead to anything good.” She warns him. Her voice softer than he remembered, but in the empty room it was haunting as she is the border between two realms. He notes how with ease she lifts him, not even shaking in her hold bearing his weight at the end of her scythe. 

“I’ll try not to.” He is met with a glare behind the mask, irises flashing orange in her annoyance. He feels his body returned to normal in the way he doesn’t feel his body stone and the blood rushing back through him. Kivera turns and tosses him with her scythe across the room.

Kivera wanders to the door to the workshop and exits it, scaring Wedge with the sudden slam of the door. She stalks out and goes to stand in the center of Revenant’s Toll, she still had one more person to see within this place..

Kivera’s memories of what happened after replay, she had only intended to scare the miqo. 

“Maledetto! Ardbert! Why did you have to....“ She throws a fireball across the floor letting it race and fizzle out before it reaches her scrolls. She had lingered in a mirror when she spied on the meeting at Rising Stones. She saw the way her loved ones defended her name. How Shuri didn’t reveal everything about her, Divinity had to disclose, she doesn’t blame her for talking about her so much. Explaining her reason and resolve.

She sees how haunted G’raha Tia looks at how the Scions seem to just accept it, not wanting to make a further mess by targeting her as an enemy. They are wise in that choice. They know her power already with Amaurot. How she can raze a world, how she can destroy something without a thought. They see keeping her on their side more vital than a dispute.

Kivera felt guilty for how she treated G’raha, but she did not feel sorry for the way she went about her methods. He had to know the gravity of his meddling. That the lives he altered permanently, they have to deal with the repercussions. Meeps and Fae both have to come to terms with their feelings. How to raise a child without their parent they had spent.

“A parent is a god in the eyes of a child.” Her voice comes out in a whisper, she would never have that opportunity. Her life had been snuffed out decades ago. She regrets attacking Ardbert, he had just gained her trust. Then shattered it with careless words.

Antares’ orb reflects her eyes in a deep blue at that feeling. She cared, she knows their interaction is unavoidable. She feels the familiar pricks in her mind from Divinity searching for her. She quickly shuts her out, unable to really show the Libra spirit the sorrow she feels. 

Ardbert used it as a means to provoke her, and she let loose on him. To draw her attention off G’raha, and onto him full force. It worked, she had attacked him in pain, they had exchanged blows to the point she had invoked Pluto into her own body. A deity of destruction. If Divinity hadn’t intervened. She is certain Ardbert might not be around due to the magnitude of what she was about to unleash on him.

Kivera feels another prick into her link, and sighs as she curls into one of the beds she keeps to lounge on. 

“Te amo.. You and Shuri.” She gives Divinity what she seeks. Her response to ensure she would come back to them.

Her mind drifts to the time she spent in Hell. Wandering as a broken soul, stumbling blinded, and torn apart almost from the many who saw a pristine being and set about ruining her in every which way. She feels the hands still when they gouged skin or her eyes.

She resigns her thoughts to another thing, she needed to see Chiron. He helped her through the days following Damien’s death, then after when the conditions of his revival were placed on her. When she was asked when she would return. She answered after she visits the Sagittarius spirit. She needed tempering in her abilities, how to redirect her anger, her alignment had shifted in that fight to a little more chaotic than her neutral state. 

She’d have to summon G’raha when she returned. Any explanation she should give him, is best from herself. She didn’t need her loved ones apologizing on her behalf for losing herself.

Kivera ruffles the hair of Silvara, the sphinx raises her head to eye her.

“Tell me of a riddle.” Kivera asks her, and Silvara thinks about it.

“You are planning to see him?” A nod and she stretches herself across the reaper’s body.

“No.” Kivera snaps her attention to her.

“Why?” She was being denied entry.

“You know what must be done. A riddle nor Chiron will give you more answer than what you already know.” Silvara feels Kivera stir underneath her, and only presses down, grateful for her lion like body having some weight to pin the angel down.

“And what is that answer?!” She is met with a smirk.

“That would give away the answer.” Kivera tries to slip out from her grasp. Silvara keeps her there. Not inclined to move off and lets her frustrated curses be sound in her ears.

“Maledetto!!!!!” 

“Silenzio!” Silvara chirps back taunting her. Kivera blinks, and resigns herself.

She did know what needed to be done.

Apologies to those involved. She had let her own wrath speak for her. 

“Forgiveness right?” She says quietly.

“Bingo. Head scratches.” Silvara demands. Kivera sighs and gives the sphinx pets on her head. She won’t be allowed up unless she does.

“Don’t eat my books again in my absence.” Kivera reminds her.

“They were ones that you wouldn’t miss!”

“Silvara! Don’t eat my books! Eat Chirons! He has more than me.” Silvara gets off of her finally, and lets the reaper up.

“You’re going back right?” Silvara takes over Kivera’s spot.

“I need to. I did some things I shouldn’t have, and there is a few who miss me already.”

“Divinity always did worry when you up and leave. Even in Paradise.”

“I have a role to do, and I must see it through.” Kivera starts towards a mirror, to head back to the world she ran away from in pain.

“Don’t burn people too much again.”

“Aww... that is my specialty.” Kivera sees the grin on the sphinx, then promptly curls her wings around herself.

Kivera enters through her mirror, she had some atonements to make.

~~~~~

Translation note -

“Damn you!”

“Silence.”