#where she’s trying to force link to eat the frog

[james-p-sullivan]

im going to make so many gif sets of zelda

[1tsjusty0u]

can i present you with a random scenario. what would happen in an au hypothetical where only one of the champions survives the calamity. idk like what would happen for each champion im curious

ywah you can!!

ok this depends on if you mean like. taking links surviving role or surviving alongside link. in my au the former would be.. a bit more complicated? actually that could make for a really fucked up scenario of which i shant say as . probably spoilers? actually no . in wotb link actually dies early (a recent development meta-textually). so basically if hes already in there and a champion has to be put in their instead theres two routes. one he could never be put in there at all, already gone by the time they find the SoR. or two he Is in there but something just Fails Really Badly. it just.. wouldnt heal him. so its a last ditch effort to put a champion in there.

long text below Be Warned.

so while we’re on the topic of that scenario!!! lets start with it!! 1 mipha. she would send out an ok signal to the other champions, and she’d either check on her people first or try to get vah ruta to the nearest champion to help them. or hell she might check on zelda first. i think the plan without link would be to either say fuck it we ball and impa would take zelda to the castle, Or just go straight to kakariko instead as a safety thing. i think she’d actually check on zelda as she’s seen as the most important, then try to reach the champions. i think she’d have the same problems the champions descendants have getting into the divine beasts honestly, though vah naboris would be easy theres no water close enough. vah medoh is not only too high but has an actual shield. vah rudania walks around too much and causes way too much damage to death mountain. she could fire her shot at one of the divine beasts, but that would kill the champion inside it, wouldnt it? so she just resigns to help zelda and impa. she can take care of guardians well enough honestly. her cause of death would probably be either malice or trying to heal zelda or impa While Being Fought at. shes put in and boom 100 years later. i dont know how scales work but i think they wouldnt regrow in the SoR and she’d be left with scarred skin. either rhoam or a zora she knew would greet her on the great plateau. rhoam… wouldnt exactly be happy about. link not being there. mipha being able to defeat her blight is proof to him that shes capable, but also he really has no other options. who else is going to help zelda? mipha had defeated one of his creations.. so she could defeat him. she kind of has to, master sword or not- she’s the only one left. if a zora she knew was there instead i think itd reflect on her personally more? like her healing, her tendency to look after others instead of herself, how she’s dealing with this. the zora wouldnt force her to help zelda, maybe not even telling her. but yeag. still amnesiac, and things go mostly the same as canon besides some.. hiccups. going into zoras domain would have her literally not be able to leave, let alone go to zelda or any of the divine beasts. dorephan and muzu would gush over her because well. they havent seen her in 100 years!! and shes alive!!! she’s been martyred which would be. uncomfortable to her. because she doesnt know who that statue is, even if it looks like her. sure shes calm and nice, but the statues face.. it looks. serene almost. calm. lifeless, dead. vah rutas been protecting the place, and vah ruta would also say hi!! she’d get a memory of herself here which could include her little self or her pre cal self Hiding Things, like vulnerability. itd make her uncomfortable as well!! AND SIDON. sidon would have mixed feelings, but he would absolutely hang out with her in a more.. chill manner. just like. camping and eating. frog hunting. showing her how to ride a waterfall like she taught him. they get to know each other better like. well like siblings. she might do a pre cal and when she suggests leaving while doing a chill hangout she’d do That Smile. the hiding something smile basically, or ‘im the mature sibling’ smile. and sidon would be like ‘youre making that face’ >:( and shed go (sweating) ‘what’. but yeah. sidon would either go with her and travel with her or establish a mail system no matter the cost. They Will Talk damnit. going into other regions is hard when you cant really handle many temperatures that arent in the water. im ppretty sure zoras domain has chillfin trout in it so i think she’d do better in colder weather rather than hot, which sucks because two divine beasts are in hot weather. she’d probably still need at Least a ruby circlet though because hebra is probably too cold, or just sucks because of the snow. death mountain she’d have to put. so much flame resistance elixrs on. she’d also wear a sapphire circlet all the time there even if its not in the flaming zone. she doesnt like the hot springs </3. yunobo and her would-

-get along i think. she’d probably be slightly annoyed at how scared he is but other than that no complaints. he’d be really nice without being a pushover and i think she’d relate/admire that. she’d eat smotherwing butterflies. daruk would be really happy to see her. getting into gerudo town sucks so so soo badly. sand keeps getting under her scales, its Dry, its Hot (during the day), and theres not like. an elixr for her scales. the only real place sand Isnt on her is the lake in the kara kara bazaar. i think she’d put on flame resistant elixir there just so it protects her scales. or she gets some armour to help her with that. otherwise she’s let into gerudo town. vah naboris would be a nightmare for her. she’d have to have like. a hazmat suit for that one. and the yiga!! she wouldnt like them the moment she hears of them, which has to do with link pre cal but saying too much is spoilers. honestly though. i dont think theyd try to kill her, at least not Nearly as much. after all shes Just Some Zora. no sword, no divine intervention. after getting the thunder helm though theyd go after her probably. but yeah she does Not like them and will actually fight them the first chance she gets. this caused problems for the thunder helm stealth mission. urbosa and revali would be impressed to see her but also worried (revali) and defeated/giving up almost (urbosa). she and paya would get along really well and she’d clean with her Instantly. though paya would tell her that she doesnt have to + she should. be doing other things. she’d buy links house which. weird feelings about it so she doesnt really live in it but its just. There. like a memorial. she’d also be annoyed at purah teasing her about having to get parts but she’d mask it. she’d like indexing fish and birds in her compendium, and the sanke carp Fascinates her. she’d like kass’s music and really just sit and listen to him play. she’d also try to tell him what the shrine solution was once she figures it out. though i dont think he’d tell her the calamity legends. impa does however. she’d find lurelin and would So Badly want to go into the sea. however its too much salt. she’d probably fish there honestly, fishing rod and all. also though seafaring is dangerous for her so. no eventide unless a good boat rather than a dodgy raft. she.. tries to make it into korok forest. but she doesnt know how, and if link ever told her how he did it she cant remember. also its Super haunting for her i think she’d minorly see horrors in the mist so. yeah no forest for her. she’d defeat ganon though, and she’d probably live in zoras domain but take zelda with her. OH ALSO HER MEMORIES…. zeldas photos wouldnt help her too much. only 1 has her in it. so she’d get memories based on her surroundings, like how link gets snippets of the champions. seeing her trident would get a memory, the veiled falls shrine would have a memory, goponga village would have a memory, maybe the east post would have one?, and she’d have a zelda memory somewhere in zoras domain (maybe with those history tablets, or in an area with wildlife). and if link has a grave thatd also have a memory. she’d also get a memory of impa because hell yeah. im tempted to make link a spirit that follows her like the other champions honestly. but yeah post cal sidons been set as the ruler so. she can do what she wants. she’d mostly help zelda though.

in the scenario she lives alongside link, she’d tend to him on the great plateau and generally help out purah and robbie. she’d have to be at the domain most of the time though, and she’d be next in line for the crown rather than sidon. she’d grow older and do her best to help with the side effects of the calamity. she HATES yiga even more here than the last scenario. she also hates guardians, but she can take care of even the stalkers now. she’s there to greet link instead of rhoam, and helps him recuperate. she doesnt have a paraglider at first so for him to get down he’d need to climb down. or she couldve made a river system into the great plateau so if he holds his breath he can dive in and out. he still has to do the shrines zelda let mipha know that he has to. she might also travel with him honestly. she’d also spearhead the guardians on the great plateau when she finds out some are active. things would tense between them as time goes on but thats another story. basically old lady who may want to kill.

if revali survived!! uhh first scenario. he would fly all the way to the other champions first, and would check on zelda last. he’d also try to see how the village is doing before he flys to the champions. he cant get to naboris or ruta because he cant see anything, and rudania is at a Really painful angle, and with death mountain erupting.. its a pipe dream to make it there. he dies also to malice, or maybe to a guardian shot. same deal as mipha, either rhoam or a rito he knows greets him. rhoam has the same feelings (+exasperation because of all the champions, it was revali. and he’s a lot more of an old man to him with like changing the deal and teasing him. they would probably fight if not for the fact they dont hate each other). if it was a rito theyd focus more on flying than anything else. actually. he can get off the great plateau. i mean unless he forgot how to glide/one of his wings couldnt work he could. simply get down there. so for plot lets say he forgot how to fly and glide. once he learns how to again he goes to kakariko, and once he learns of rito village hes goes straight there and almost never leaves it. its His Hometown damnit!!! the nostalgia would get to him. though not knowing anyone would be… weird to him. but he’d still love the village. he and medoh would banter but theyd miss each other. he has to get to vah ruta by walking and hes SO mad about it. he would absolutely fight muzu if muzu hated him like he hated link. maybe muzu would doubt his skills and insist no outside help is needed. mipha would be sad probably. not to see him but just to see her family. but i think her and revali would be friends like pre cal and theyd have fun just with now looming dread. the flame resistant stuff would suck to put on, but he isnt going to drink it so he suffers instead. he would probably like yunobo. he’s able to reassure him better and yunobo is like you mentioned more reasonable in general so. yeah!! OH YEAH also he and sidon.. hm. i think sidon would tease him/punk him a lot. be more mean but thatd be why theyd get along in the end. frienemies. vah naboris. would be awful. sand in his feathers the same way mipha had sand in her scales. itd be Doubly hot for him, so he’d have to go at night but rito have terrible night vision so it sucks, and he cant even get into town. he spends a good minute arguing with the guard, not about wanting to be let in but to do Divine Beast things. eventually riju has been summoned and, while exasperated, she believes him. he still has to get the thunder helm, and hes more neutral on the yiga than mipha is. he sees them as a threat but like. he doesnt despise them. if they werent threats itd be fine. i think hes also slightly scared of them. he sneaks through, master kohgas defeated and the yiga are after him, and actually doing naboris hed also need a hazmat suit for. though its a bit better because ARCHERY YEEAAHH 🔥🔥🔥🔥💶💶💶🦅🦅🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹. urbosa would feel the same like she did with mipha, except more exasperated and defeated because Its Revali. daruk would be happy to see him though still. link may or may not be a spirit here? itd be tense at first but i think itd mirror their friendship arc pre cal (of which i need to answer that ask i am sorry) except the roles would be swapped. youll see. anyways yeah. payas meh to him, doesnt like impa a lot but doesnt hate her, would debate purah probably Somehow. he wouldnt buy links house probably. memory locations: his bow and arrow, the flight range, the tabantha village ruins, tanagaar canyon/dinraal, mabe village perhaps, one of zelda same with mipha, links grave, and maybe one of impa. also possibly one at the secret hot springs. post cal he’d constantly help rito village and thats it. Maybe help zelda if she sends a letter but yeah. he’d have to find a hobby though

living along side link. he would also help purah and robbie, though less so. he’d be forced to greet link but in the meantime he’d protect his village and basically become the elder. seeing a young link whiles he old would be… disconcerting. he’d probably feel a mixture of guilt and anger. same deal as mipha though he has a paraglider for him. he wouldnt kill the guardians however and would just find a route for him to avoid them. he’d also be straightforward about what happened to link as opposed to mipha, so their relationship would be less strained as time goes on. he travels with him up to rito village and no more. i think he’d also visit the champion descendants to do his best to help them out.

daruk!! he’d go to the champions straight away. vah ruta is isolated in water which he cant get to (and also has a shield), vah medohs way too high up, and naboris wont stay still, and though hes mighty he can absolutely get crushed by naboris’s legs. god how would he die. yiga misfire maybe???? malice once again?? probably just an accumulation of malice. hed try to instantly leave the plateau (no fall damage like majoras mask goron rock ball form) and while rhoam (if he was there) would try to tease him he’d have to just tell him ‘hey. you Have to do this. Its important. please’ or would straight away tell him the truth. if a goron spirit was there . shrugs. theyd probably focus on strength and building enough to get ganon. goron city, hailed as hero though hes a bit uncomfortable about that and tries to both take it and be mature(?) about it if that makes sense. like hes more comfortable with it than mipha, but it still puts him off a little. vah rudania would hate to see him (rudania missed him so much its unbelievable). vah ruta would be. one Hell of a divine beast to do. he’d have to use a thunder sword instead of arrows, and he’d be A Test to sidons strength as a whole. OH ALSO yunobo would love him !!!!! him bludo and yunobo would probably hang out post cal. anyways. vah naboris he would simply slam into their legs instead of bomb arrows. still would need the thunder helm. master kohga would respect daruk enough however business is business and right now theyre enemies. daruk would not like the yiga like mipha . closer to the hate scale than revali but less than mipha. he’d be pretty pissed at them and wouldnt realize why for a while. the yiga have to get inventive when he becomes wanted which means new weapons methinks!! also he’s let into gerudo town. gorons r genderless so. hell yeah. and. ok so daruk cant get up to vah medoh theres. not many options. either he’s chucked from hebra peak at all of medohs batteries and is finally chucked on board, Or if youve seen klerics 10 ways link can make it up to that divine beast on his own he does that. also also urbosa would have more hope with daruk than mipha and revali. revali would secretly be happy to see the guy. link might be a spirit as usual. memories! his stone smasher, death mountains peak, military training camp, the place where link saved him which he mentions in his diary, the hot springs/springs near the base of death mountain, honestly probably meeting mipha (maybe trading fish) ((where no clue, though he has memories of the other champions like all of them of which they arent the samw memory locations in botw. like miphas statue doesnt trigger a memory for daruk and anyone else ok sorry)), uhh zelda, impa?, links grave, and maybe some place in akkala.

the second scenario he would constantly try to help the descendants rather than link as he figures purah and robbie got it covered, but he visits them while they do great plateau things and they chat!! maybe try to take care of guardians. he would be the most straightforward with link, both in helping him gain strength but in his memories. he’ll offer to travel but wont force it on him. other than that he’d stay on death mountain with rudania. most things wouldnt be a threat with daruk around honestly. just a support beam basically. kind of sad because i. dunno what kind of character arc he would have in most of this. </3

urbosa!!! she’d take a quick glance at her people but go to zeldas and the champions aid. its hard to tell which she’d go for first.. like on one hand she’s biased towards zelda but she just went through a blight and can hear the SOS signals of the others. maybe multitasking? getting naboris to zelda as fast as she can, picking her up/dropping her off (which could lead to some chatting on the way), and then to a divine beast, maybe realizing about a quarter left of the way that theyre already dead and theres no point now. mipha would have a similar revelation probably just.. later. but urbosa dies helping zelda and impa, either distracting something or getting ambushed. great plateau, you know the drill. if rhoam was there theyd have some, “lovely” chats (theyd be So petty against each other. she’d find out her smiting power by trying smite him. though they are friends and have fun and would drink with each other.) and once her whole deal is revealed they have a little heart to heart, and this becomes even more serious to her. she’d go straight to the castle or would reluctantly go to kakariko taking rhoams suggestion seriously. if a gerudo was there it’d probably be more fighting training/regaining strength, plus. warnings of the world beyond this plateau. anyways. impa and her would be besties (though impa would be.. too lax for her). and she’d enjoy paya a lot, maybe try to flex on her to tease her. zoras domain dorephan and her would get along i think AND OH WAIT. SHE HAS LIGHTNING POWERS. if she can get the thunder helm she could finish vah ruta in one strike (though it Does worry the zora a bit). she may throw shade at muzu for his hate of hylians and of the shekiah tech (especially the latter i think). sidon and her would be battle buddies i think, theyd constantly try to outdo each other but still respect each other to have Actual Teamwork. dynamic duo that will kill you. also she makes fun of him sometimes. anyways. mipha would be pretty happy to see her! death mountain. either drinks the elixir first and then realizes most people apply it on their skin so. oops. but she doesnt really care so she keeps drinking it like its champagne. chugging. despite being used to the desert she still doesnt like the heat. yunobo and her would also get along i think!! she would just immediately kill whatever hes afraid of and he looks in. slight fear. though the mines was a workout for her and shes making sure he knows he Owes Her for that one. anyways daruk would be ecstatic to see her theyre Instant Besties. new ghost pal perhaps as well. he’d yell like a sports fan everytime she beats the blight/gets a hit. its chaotic that time the energy is just net positive despite the circumstances. hebra. honestly. she might be ok with it? the desert is cold at night and she lives next to snowy mountains. nice change of pace. teba gets her up there pretty easily, maybe bow troubles? slices the targets with her sword as teba watches in surprise yet defeat. revali and her would, once again, be very petty. however revali would still worry with the blight but she’s fine. i think she’d hate the rotating angle of vah medoh. aaand naboris!!! no freeing to do she just gets to see a long time friend of hers (naboris). she’d love riju and riju may feel a bit of pressure, but over all she’s welcomed back with open arms (maybe some new locals not recognizing her which would be interesting). though she’d have to clear the yiga. now on the hate scale, she probably wants them annihilated (i am so sorry). like riju would have to pull her back saying ‘heyheyhey yeah they suck but dont??? kill them??? or their entire clan????’ which would only barely stop her. she wouldnt even try to sneak through she’d fight them and threaten kohga for the thunder helm. kohga lets her have it without fight and makes a retreat, though he probably lays low? if he hunts her afterwards is debatable because on one hand she Is a threat to them and ganon, but also she Can kill them before they teleport and retreat. so a bit of a choice. also hateno, purah and her wouldnt be-

too much of friends but theyd get along well enough. same with robbie. she wouldnt get links house to her its not her problem. or maybe she does but because she’d think itd be a nice place for zelda. kass and her would just be diplomats to each other. link spirit maybe shrugs . memories!! sword and shield, kara kara bazaar, southern oasis?, shield surfing champion shrine that she did, patricia maybe?, digg dogg suspension bridge, a spring memory with zelda, flora and fauna with zelda, links grave, impa, the champions yadda yadda. the memory numbers probably dont match up between all the champions sorry

second scenario!!! exclusively helps zelda and either stops her from letting ganon eat her or tries her best to fight ganon before retreating and he eats zelda. then she just. wanders. purah probably helping her cope or just. do things. she might even stay in kakariko for a bit, and she moves out of gerudo town. she’d say goodbye to everyone of course. but ywah. also maybe guard kakariko from yiga of which cado would fear her immensely. she’d either greet link or let rhoam do it and just meet link at kakariko and be Cryptic and Vague like he was but push him towards helping zelda, maybe even traveling with him. however she’d probably try to have him stay On Track constantly which would go. poorly. either that or she silently judges him but doesnt say anything. she’d only really hammer in to Go To Castle once all the divine beasts are free. they probably split off though, urbosa going to either chill or help in some way just elsewhere. like helping robbie light his ancient oven and getting guardian tools. also she has more wrinkles now shes super super old

if link isnt revived but the champions arent put in the SoR itd just be a mix of the two scenarios, slowly chipping at the divine beasts while helping out globally and getting old and having to cope with everything afterwards because they still have their memories

this . may not have been what you meant. i am sorry. however. thumbs up

ALSOALSO wanting the yiga dead is not a morally pure/correct course of action for them. it is not morally right thing to annihilate an entire group of people this isnt a bug its a feature. them wanting the yigas dead is not good. just in case.

[ten-thousand-year-elegy]

Lorepost: Chapter Seventeen, The Storming of Hyrule Castle

By popular reader request, TTYE lore posts are companion pieces for each chapter of the story breaking down all of the Legend of Zelda lore and references made in each chapter, for readers looking to learn more about LoZ or just refresh their knowledge. This chapter contains explanations for: Cryonis, Dead Hands, ReDeads, The Sun’s Song, Magnesis, Princess Zelda, and Link.

The Cryonis Rune

This is one of the specialized runes available to use with the Sheikah Slate. It can generate a strong, sturdy ice pillar from just a few inches of water. Anzu has the smart idea to use the Cryonis pillar to prop up the heavy gate that’s slammed shut in front of them - as Link is seen doing above! Here’s a gif of Cryonis in action.

The Dead Hand

Yup…there it is, in all its awful glory. This art is by Andres Rios, who does some incredible Zelda art, specializing in creepy enemies. In-game the Dead Hand’s, uh, hands are a bit more limited - they stay in place rather than popping up just anywhere - but I upped to ante just to make Kaiba, Eri and Anzu’s lives extra hard. :) Here it is in action. Even in polygon forms it’s pretty gross.

ReDead

This is the thing that screams at Kaiba and freezes him in place. ReDeads are also quite awful, with a particularly disturbing manner of attack. Also check out the link above to see Andres Rios’ take on these freaky mfers. Eri manages to halt it in its tracks with…

The Sun’s Song

This is a ridiculously powerful song that has the power to turn night into day. Perhaps fortunately for everyone else, Eri hasn’t managed to activate that particular ability yet. But it does have one other, smaller ability - freezing ReDeads in their tracks.

P.S. - Here’s the cutscene where Link first learns The Sun’s Song. Does that poem sound familiar to anyone? ;)

The Magnesis Rune

This is another very handy Sheikah Slate rune. It’s a magnetic tractor beam that works on large metal objects, so naturally Link uses it to hurl around gigantic hunks of metal at every opportunity. Anzu makes extremely clever use of it in this chapter to squash the undead!

Originally posted by triforce-princess

Princess Zelda and Link

We finally meet these two!! Hooray!!!

As you all know by this point in the fic, Link and Zelda get reincarnated over and over and are different people in nearly every Zelda game. Zelda, as the aspect of the Triforce of Wisdom, is usually quite wise and mature beyond her years. Link, as the aspect of the Triforce of Courage, tends towards stoicism and reckless bravery.

This Link and Zelda are a little different than their predecessors. Breath of the Wild’s Zelda is brilliant and an accomplished scholar - but emotionally, she can be a little bossy and unempathetic, finding it easier to relate to her books than to other people at times. She’s also gotten her first haircut in this series - so cute!

Breath of the Wild’s Link spent 100 years in stasis at the Shrine of Resurrection and woke up without his memories. This version of Link is less burdened by responsibility than his predecessors and is still brave and reckless but a bit less stoic than usual. He likes eating a lot and blowing stuff up and is prone to horrifically bad puns.

Here’s a bonus adorable gif of Zelda trying to force Link to eat a frog in the name of science. These two are precious and I’m sure even non Zelda fans will come to love them as much as I do by the end of TTYE. 😭

[saleensundria9]

I admire the stark defense of your opinion here, however I do disagree. Yes, Zelda ORIGINALLY saw Link as a physical manifestation of her failures, however though the course of Age of Calamity (and even Link's own lost memories throughout Breath of the Wild) we can see her slowly open up to him, and accept that her failing her duty is not his burden to bear, as she sees that he has his own duty that puts just as much weight on his shoulders as she has on hers.

I feel that, alternatively, she begins to see herself in Link, which could be part of the reason she awakened her powers. Because she was no longer foolishly blaming Link for her problems, she had grown wiser and more mature.

To Link, he was just carrying out his duties. As ordered by the King Himself, an order that, while the highest of honors, is also an order he could never dream of refusing or going against. He was originally put in a really tough position by King Rhoam, forced to guard a princess that, in the beginning, seemed to hate his fucking guts. She could not STAND seeing him everywhere with her at first. But he had to, on the king's orders. A seemingly impossible situation to navigate and I'm sure, very frustrating.

But in Link's memories in Breath of the Wild, we see ZELDA opening up first. In the EX memories, which you can only get if you bought the DLC, and also memory #3, Resolve and Grief, Link (and the other guards assigned to her, before Link was appointed as her guard) stayed a respectfully safe distance, a decent ways behind Zelda as to not disturb her, but close enough to be able to defend her should she be attacked.

In memory #5, Zelda's Resentment, her anger boils over and she blows up on Link, but I think that was the turning point. In memory #6, Urbosa's Hand, we see Zelda is napping with Urbosa, but we don't know what kind of conversation Zelda had with Urbosa before the memory starts, because Link wasnt there yet. However, judging from Urbosa's dialogue we can only imagine that Zelda confided in her, and Urbosa no doubt gave her some advice that she seemed to take to heart.

It probably helps that she was saved by Link in Memory #7, Blades of the Yiga, for once looking relieved to see him. After that, in little ways at first, Zelda begins opening up to Link, for example admonishing him for his recklessness (affectionately) and tending to a cut Link gets in memory #8, A Premonition, Opening up to him about her struggles in memory #9, Silent Princess, and then trying to get Link to eat a frog for... Science.

Usually, this would totally be something a character would just do to a servant or someone they hate, but Zelda offers the frog in excitement, not disdain, and Zelda is not a mean person so I truly don't think she would make someone eat a frog because she doesn't like them. Off topic, but anyways.

In Memory #10, Mipha's Touch, we don't see Zelda so moving on, Memory #11 is SUPER juicy. Zelda and Link are taking shelter from the rain, sees how hard Link actually works and trains, and asks him if he found one day that he just wasn't cut out for fighting, but everyone around him always said he was born the son of the royal guard so he must become a knight, if he would choose a different path.

I think this helps Link (and the players obviously) understand Zelda a lot more in that she was never outright malicious, simply upset at her circumstances and puzzled as to how she could change them and make them work for her. This thought is carried directly into Memory #12, Father and Daughter, where we see the immense pressure King Rhoam is constantly putting on his daughter, discouraging her STEM Girl nature, implying that she's not trying hard enough and comparing her to Link. Her excitement in the first part of the memory is quickly extinguished by the arrival of her father, who belittles her interests, saying that every single moment of her life must be spent praying, trying to unlock her power, otherwise she is "failing" her kingdom and her duties. Truly a ridiculous sentiment, but it puts a lot we know about Zelda into perspective, too.

In memory #13, she prays at the Spring of Power, opening up more about how she feels like a failure compared to her predecessors, her grandmother and her mother, feeling that something must be wrong with her since she still proves to be unable to awaken her power, with Link LITERALLY STANDING RIGHT THERE while she had a mental breakdown in the Spring of Power. We see Link turn around in concern but we don't see any resolution, not sure what happens directly after that. And in memory #14, She thanks Link for his advice on taming her horse and says she's trying to be come more empathetic, and once they get to the top of the hill, she tells Link about her intentions to go to Mount Lanayru to pray at the Spring of Wisdom on her 17th birthday,which happened to be the next day.

I think, if she has not completely fallen for him yet, Zelda has at least grown a soft spot for Link at this point. She talks to him much more gently and compassionately, and he lingers nearer to her and she doesn't seem to mind. She even initiates idle banter, which before would have been unthinkable. Now Link walks side by side with Zelda, or in front of her,when they're running, from this point on, when before he walked behind her silently, because the mere sight of him made her upset.

We all know what happens in memories 15, 16, 17, and 18 by this point. Ganon comes back, all the champions die, Link almost dies and Zelda finally awakens her power and can (for some reason) hear the master sword. She puts Link into a deep sleep for 100 years and he wakes up and the FIRST PERSON HE HEARS when he wakes up is her. Like I know he's her only way out of eternally fighting with Ganon but it must've taken extreme focus to not only telepathically talk while fighting, but also to telepathically talk to Link on every single blood moon, when Ganon is at his strongest.

And there's way more to this in Age of Calamity, we get to see a WHOLE lot more of Link and Zelda directly interacting with each other. But with what I've written so far it's probably enough to give you a headache so I will stop here. Thank you for your time.

not to be mean but theres no way that folks seriously think that zelda “you are a physical manifestation of my failures” hyrule fell first. aint no fuckin way. yall are just wrong.

[nevertheless-moving]

Star Wars Time Travel AU #29 - Frog Promise AU

Several years after the defeat of the emperor, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker is roaming the galaxy doing good, kicking ass, and hunting down scattered Jedi knowledge

He flies through some sort of force nexus. his ship crashes on Naboo in the midst of the trade federation invasion, shortly after Queen Amidala escapes with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon

has no idea where he is or what happened but invading robot army terrorizing people seems bad, even if the droids are really outdated

he’s vaguely heard of the trade federation

used to roaming the post-war galaxy and solving problems alone- a jedi unrestrained by any council or senate, or even traditional jedi values- which makes him 100x more effective and 1000x more terrifying

On top of that he’s a Skywalker- insanely OP even for a Force user. and he doesn’t even know it! ‘All things are possible with the force’ and no one around to correct him 

(Not to mention trained in Guerilla warfare by the best of the rebellion)

Basically by the time Padme makes it off Tatooine and checks her messages, she’s ecstatic to learn that the Jedi have already freed her planet and annihilated the trade federation army

Footage starts breaking across the Holonews and people are in an uproar because did I mention how terrifying Luke is

It’s the mandalorian hallway scene except instead of super special dark troopers he’s just mowing down bobble heads with toothpick arms

takes down the control ship single handedly and wow that was easy thats some stupid programming to link the whole army to 1 ship

Instead of continuing to Courascant they do a 180 back to Naboo because all the reports show the planet is free! 

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are just???? Never seen that guy before??

...time travel revelation and confusion...plot...

EVENTUALLY this leads to Terrifying Mysterious Master Jedi Luke eagerly showing up to the temple like ‘I promised Master Yoda I’d return to complete my training’ also “I brought him these swamp frogs, I remember him mentioning he liked the ones from Naboo” and pulls a live frog from his pocket

"Took long enough, you did” Yoda says. No idea who this guy is but he likes his vibe because Luke is attached but he’s so firmly in the light and he somehow knows Yoda's absolute most feral inner self

Grandmaster Yoda eats the frog in front of the increasingly distressed Council

29 year old Master Luke “...um..S...vader” is running around happily with braid and terrible padawan haircut while the order is trying to fend off the media and an insane amount of trade federation lawsuits

[c-aureus]

My opinions on the relationship between Link and Zelda in BotW, and why I personally detest romantic BotW Zelink:

A strong title, I am aware. I'm aware of the risk this runs of causing a right shitstorm lol.

I'd like to preface this essay with the disclaimer that all of the following are merely my interpretations. It is completely fine if you disagree with me.

My views are not any more or less valid than anyone else's, and do not invalidate conflicting opinions.

Nevertheless, if you are an avid BotW Zelink shipper who does not wish to hear a great deal of criticism about this pairing, then I suggest you do not read this post.

If, however, you are curious to hear my opinions, then I merely request that you keep an open mind, and be respectful of everyone else's interpretation. I will admit that these interpretations are integral to my characterisations within my fanfic series.

OK, so. Firstly. I do not think that anyone can reasonably argue with the fact that Zelda treats Link AWFULLY in the earlier memories. Indeed, BotW makes a rather large point of showing just some of the ways Zelda mistreats Link.

For context, Link is appointed as Zelda's Royal Guard by her father, the King. It is, therefore, his sworn duty to protect her, and he doesn't really have any say in the matter. But I believe that he would be proud to serve his kingdom in this capacity.

Zelda, however, takes great offence to his presence. She takes out her frustration by constantly belittling and berating Link, (knowing that she will not face repercussions for her mistreatment due to their respective positions) and repeatedly trying to escape his escort, despite the fact that he is there for her safety, and despite his best efforts to be as unobtrusive as possible to her.

And then, when Link finds her, because he is devoted to his duty of protecting her, she berates him again.

For merely doing his job.

What Zelda is showing here is that she holds utter contempt for Link and his duty, and actively tries to make his job, and his life, miserable. I cannot imagine the stress Zelda's constant absconding would have on Link, given that if he fails his duty to keep her safe, it's his arse on the line. Plus the entirety of Hyrule's arse too, given Zelda's destiny that she needs to perform.

We know from Zelda's diary that Link, despite his blank facade, IS hurt by her blatantly hurtful actions, as is completely natural and normal in his circumstances.

Now, to be completely fair, I believe that Link is highly sympathetic to Zelda. He understands why she mistreats him, especially since Urbosa spells it out in her cutscene. He understands that Zelda is in an unenviable position, and that she is taking out her frustration and anger for not being able to live up to her destiny on him.

However, despite this understanding and sympathy, that does not mean that the hurt Zelda has caused him vanishes.

He has an explanation for her behaviour. But it is NOT an excuse.

So anyway. Zelda's behaviour continues until the Gerudo desert. Remember that Zelda fled from Link's protection (again) to go to the Gerudo Town, where Link is not allowed to set foot as a male. After he tracks her down to Vah Naboris (in the dead of night - dude must have been walking all day across a desert to reach her), Zelda's first reaction when she sees him is scorn. I can't imagine how hurtful that must be.

Anyway, the next morning, Zelda ditches him YET AGAIN, making her way across the desert alone.

When she is jumped by Yiga Assassins. Who come within moments of killing (or worse, capturing) her, until Link comes flying out of nowhere to save her.

(On a little side note, some people think this is where Zelda fell in love with him. And really, at this point, Zelda knows nothing about him, since she'd never before given him the time of day. She, at best, has a crush on the concept of a Saviour)

Now, fair play to Zelda in that after this pivotal moment, she changes her attitude and behaviour towards Link, even admitting to her previous faults in her diary. This shows a surprising maturity that contrasts her previous childishness.

However, again, this does not make all of the hurt she caused him just vanish.

Now, over the next months, I believe that Zelda and Link became very close friends. Especially given that Zelda was so starved for relationships. And they come to know each other very well, especially with Zelda sympathising with Link's lack of choice in his own destiny, similar to herself.

However, well... even after this point, Zelda still mistreats Link.

I'm referring primarily to the Frog Cutscene.

Now, to preface this, in this instance, I do not believe that Zelda is behaving maliciously to Link intentionally. I believe that she is trying to tease him.

However, her behaviour is not ideal.

In this cutscene, Link shows extreme discomfort with Zelda's insistence that he eat the live frog. This is especially significant, given his usual stoicness. The fact that Zelda causes this reaction means that he feels extremely strongly about this issue.

However, Zelda keeps insisting and pushing him, effectively taking her teasing too far, and causing Link more discomfort. Because who would want to eat a frog? (No offence to French people).

Now, coming from my own experience of having friends take teasing too far with me, and having unfortunately done the same with other people, I can say with absolute certainty that Zelda's behaviour here is not ok. Especially given Link's very apparent discomfort here.

However, there is also another aspect here that I've never seen anyone else mention.

Namely that, despite Zelda's wishes of friendship, she holds authority over Link, as Princess of the Kingdom.

As a Knight, he is duty bound to follow Zelda's orders and instructions. And one could argue that Zelda's insistence could be viewed in the context of her 'ordering' Link to eat the frog. Of course, I do not believe that this is her intention, but, from Link's perspective, there is definitely cause for reasonable doubt.

Which forces Link into the exceedingly awkward decision of having to refuse what MIGHT be an order from the Princess.

And, especially framed in the context of Zelda's previous immature, unfair behaviour towards him, he doesn't know if his refusal might cause Zelda to get all stroppy with him. Let alone other, more significant consequences that might arise from disobeying his superior.

And I feel sorry for Zelda here, seeing that she wants to view Link as a friend (or potentially more), however she must know that they are both bound by their respective positions at this point. Her behaviour is... inappropriate, and as sorry as I feel for her, that does not change the fact that she's dumping Link in an extraordinarily awkward position, and being very unfair to him.

Because, if Link does take issue with her behaviour, what can he do to stop it? Zelda is the princess, and he has no right to tell her what she can and cannot do.

Now, that is effectively the crux of my argument, however I will also note that I interpret Link to be extremely depressed in BotW, due to how much he has lost, and how he is grieving the deaths of well... everyone he's ever known, many of whom he cannot even remember. He's grieving the death of an entire civilisation, as well as people extremely close to him.

In such circumstances, it would be natural for him to resent the fact that Zelda did not awaken her power sooner, and resent Zelda's decision to have him resurrected, even in spite of him understanding the necessity of it.

Basically, whilst I interpret Link and Zelda to be very close, I am very strongly against the idea that Link would form romantic feelings for her, due to his formative impressions of her being filled with mistreatment and abuse. Whilst I do not doubt that he forgives her, the fact remains that first impressions are important. And Link's first, second, third... (and so on) impressions of Zelda are... unfavourable.

If this happened to me, then, perhaps with a healthy dose of sympathy and understanding, I could come to forgive the one who has mistreated me so extensively, as I believe Link does for Zelda.

However, I do not think that I could ever fall in love with them.

And, whilst this was not meant to involve my interpretations about Miphlink, I will say that during the whole time Zelda was abusing and disrespecting Link, Mipha was nothing but kind, accepting, caring and devoted towards him.

As such, if the sequel explicitly puts Link and Zelda into a romantic relationship, or even just strongly implies it, I will be...

Honestly, I'll be furious. Because this would run so completely contradictory to all of my interpretations about BotW and the characters.

I pray that they write with subtlety and leave reasonable room for interpretation.

Once again, these are only my interpretations. If you wish to add your own, then feel free. I'm all for having a reasonable, respectful and informed debate on the matter. However, please remain respectful of other opinions, whatever your interpretation is.

[creacherkeeper]

for the prompts: ayda teaching adaine or riz how to organize her library 💜💜

Intense scrutiny was never a thing Ayda had been good with. She knew she was skilled in many areas, and wouldn’t hesitate to inform others of that if they asked, because purposefully underselling yourself to make others like you always seemed like a double-edged sword (this Ayda had learned the metaphor of double-edged sword very young, because there were, in Leviathan, many actual double-edged swords around at all times). So, she knew she was smart, and was fine with others knowing she was smart, as well as very dedicated and practical and ambitious. She was, also, as a related point, impervious to heat as a half-phoenix. None of these things, however, stopped her from sweating under her armpits.

“How long until we get to work with the actual books?” Adaine asked, glasses being polished by her cleaning rag as Riz held both their notepads. “If I don’t get to breathe in old book smell in the next hour I might die.”

“I’m sure Ayda has a training process and we’ll follow it and be patient because that’s the best way to learn,” Riz said. He grinned at her encouragingly, all sharp pointed teeth. He didn’t look like he’d slept.

“Yes,” Ayda replied. “I do. I do have a process. And we’ll be following it. It’s- well, usually, it’s being followed by retired pirates who’ve had a few too many limbs blown off, and not high school interns, so- it’s- we’ll have to modify it a little, but that’s fine, and this is going to go fine.”

“It’s totally gonna be fine,” Riz agreed, handing Adaine back her notepad. “We’re going to be great interns and you’re not going to regret this at all.”

“Right.” Ayda blinked. “That’s correct. I won’t.”

Riz had a habit of saying technically encouraging things in a way that most people would find highly disconcerting, but Ayda reminded herself that he truly did mean it well and tried not to read the comment badly. Some people were thrown off by him ping-ponging back and forth between completely literal and menacingly sarcastic, and while Ayda at first found herself to be one of them, after spending more time with him (and explicitly asking Adaine through message cantrips) she was getting better at reading his intent.

“I’m so excited I could eat a book,” Adaine said, bouncing on her toes. She quickly continued, “That was not literal. I respect books too much to eat them and it would also likely kill me. I’m just very eager to be working here for the whole summer. Couldn’t possibly think of a better way to spend it. What are we learning first?”

Ayda tried to force her wings to smooth from their bristled state. Eating books was explicitly banned in the Compass Points.

“We’re going to be learning about the library’s organization system,” she said, slipping into her more rigid and formal vocal affect without really meaning to. “It’s unique to the Compass Points and will require dutiful study to master.”

Riz beamed. Adaine’s face skewed in confusion.

“You don’t use the Dewdrop Decimal system?”

Don’t bristle, don’t bristle. The quills of her feathers itched against her skin.

“No. My system was developed decades and decades before Dewdrop and is superior in every way. Dewdrop Decimal was basically a scam artist and is no academic in my eyes. If his organizational system were ever to touch the Compass Points, I’d rather burn the whole thing to the ground and start over.”

Tension crackled between the two girls. Riz grinned again, this time more of a face-wrinkling grimace. He held out his hands.

“Well, how about while we’re here, we just focus on learning Ayda’s system, since that’s what this library uses, and you can continue organizing all the shelves at Mordred by Dewdrop, and not try to reorganize anything here because Ayda might literally kill you?”

There was a loud pop. They turned. Aelwyn stood with a large, dusty tome in her hands, chewing slowly. She popped her gum again, then spoke.

“Is she being a nerd again?”

Ayda stared. “There’s no bubblegum allowed in the library.”

A pause.

“Rawlins gave it to me.”

“Well, Rawlins is expected to know all the rules here, so if that’s true, he’ll be punished swiftly and harshly.”

A few blinks. “I … I traded Rawlins some gum so I could look at this book.”

Riz stood on his tiptoes, neck craning. “Is that the book he keeps with him at all times because if he doesn’t have it, he turns into a pile of bones?”

Aelwyn shifted defensively. “I don’t see why I’m under interrogation here, I just came to say hi.”

Hands rising to cover her face, Ayda tried to breathe.

“Aelwyn, give Rawlins his book back,” Adaine said, short. “And stop stealing my gum, you know I need it for when I study.”

“None of you are any fun at all, but fine.”

The gum popped again as Aelwyn walked away.

Little flickers of flame heated Ayda’s palms as she breathed—deep, calming breaths in and out. Usually, if a new recruit didn’t work out, she could just drop them out the window and let them swim back to some other part of Leviathan while she put a new sign up on the banned patrons wall. But these were her friends. That made it more stressful, somehow.

“I’m really excited to learn about this organizational system, Ayda,” Riz said pointedly. There was a small thump, then a sound like a whap.

“Yes, I am too,” Adaine said.

Ayda dropped her hands. She stared at the floorboards in the space between them.

“Yes. Okay.” She cleared her throat, trying to speak more confidently. “The Ayda Aguefort Library Informational System was developed to revolve around the domains—both divine and scholarly. Some topics are obvious to sort. A book about frogs would fall under the Animal Domain. A book about the legal system would fall under Law. But all books are sorted by their primary domain and then within that, a secondary. So, a book about Leviathan, for example, would fall under the primary domain Civilization and then secondary Watery Death. It’s most important to know a book’s primary domain, and is usually easy to find the secondary following that, as long as you have adequate knowledge of what you’re searching for.”

“Watery death?” Riz whispered.

“Where’s the friendship section?” Adaine said curiously.

Ayda shifted. She blinked a few times, still not looking at them. “Primary, Community. Secondary, Joy.”

She risked a glance up. There was a broad, warm smile on Adaine’s face, eyes squinted happily behind her glasses.

“I take it back. I like this system much better than Dewdrop.”

Ayda’s chest flushed with pride. “Thanks. I do too.”

Footsteps. They glanced up as Aelwyn approached again, one hand on her hip and the other swirling the heavy tome in the air. “Yeah, I don’t know how to put Rawlins back together.”

Tension lessening, Ayda let herself chuckle. “Okay, we’ll take care of that, and then we go back to learning about the library.”

Adaine bounced up to her and linked their arms. The contact was warm and comforting.

“Lead the way, captain.”

[al3x1ss]

Just a friend to you

Chapter 15: What are you doing New Year’s Eve?

“DOLL HURRY THE FUCK UP IM HUNGry!”

Opening the door, she stares at Osamu as he finishes screeching. Hearing the door click, he turns suddenly, his face going from annoyed to immediately brightened.

“Y/N!” He says, his voice going high pitched as she giggles, giving him a quick hug, then hugging both Suna and Atsumu. Bending over slightly, Atsumu allows Y/N in his back, the 4 now traveling to a cafe with Y/N holding Suna and Osamu’s pinkies, Atsumu keeping his arms tight around her legs.

As the 4 eat, Y/N is quick to stare at Atsumu who has checked his phone about 6 times in the past 5 minutes of eating.

“Is there something you’d like to share with the class, Atsumu?” The boy drops his phone, his eyes immediately widening as he hears a small collision from where his phone was dropped. He picks it up, dusting it off and placing it down before looking at the girl across from him.

“One of my friends is around the area-“

“You have friends besides us?”

“SHUT UP Y/N!” He sighs, stabbing another piece of his meal with his fork as he looks at her again.

“I met her when we were partners for a project and we just clicked and stayed as friends.”

Suna and Y/N being oO-ing as Osamu pokes his side repeatedly, with Atsumu swatting his twin’ hand away quickly.

“Wait- a lady friend? What kind of sane female would deal with your piss ass willingly?”

“YOU DO!”

“No, I was forced by Mother Miya.”

After the endless bickering, Suna takes the check in hard, heading to the counter as the twins and Y/N wait outside.

“Would you guys mind if said lady friend joined us?”

Samu shook his head no, while Y/N also said no, speaking for herself and Suna who had just exited the doors of cafe.

After 2 minutes of waving, a new face comes towards the group with a smile and a wave. Atsumu waves back, going towards and and smiling.

“Guys this is Keiko, Keiko this is my twin Osamu, that’s Y/N, and then that one over there is Suna.”

Hearing his name, Suna’s eyes lifted, falling on the girl in front of him. His eyes widened, afterwards a quick smile following. Turning his eyes to his feet, he scratched the back of his head.

“Oh my god!” Y/N’s eyes widen as the girl, a smile immediately coming on her face.

“I love you’re earrings so much, Keiko!” Both girls smiled at eachother, Keiko getting on one knee.

“I have determined that you are sweet as fuck as that I want you to marry me.”

“I have determined that I accept.”

With Keiko getting up with help from Y/N, the two link arms, beginning to walk to their next destination. The boys blink repeatedly, staring at eachother then staring at the two girls giggling.

“Samu what the fuck just happened?”

“I don’t know Suna, I don’t fuckin know.”

The twins argue over the frog hat with Suna holding out his phone, getting content for his Instagram followers is what he says is “his only passion in life”. Covering her mouth, Y/N laughs, pulling out her phone with her other hand to see a text message.

“Who’s Keiji?” Keiko asks, Y/N’s eyes now facing hers.

“Well-“

“LET GO OF THE HAT YOU OLD MAN!”

“AT LEAST MY HAIR DOESN’T LOOK LIKE I GOT PISSED ON!”

“OH YEAH MR.MY BONES HURT AT PRACTICE CUZ I GOT ARTHRITIS! WHAT KINDA EXCUSE IS THAT?”

“BETTER THAN THAT SAD EXCUSE OF YOUR DYE JOB!”

Y/N’s eyes widen, gently grabbing Keiko’s wrist as the two back away from the boys. After being enough away, Y/N sighs, placing a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Long story short, best friend of 3 years, I liked him for 3 years, confessed and got denied, and now we just talked a few days ago after like a month of not speaking and it being awkward.”

“Well I mean, do you still like him?”

“Uh-“

“Alright lads, let’s bounce.” Atsumu says, walking up with Suna and Osamu behind him, the girls looking at eachother before nodding.

The 5 enter a small pizzeria, with Atsumu and Keiko’s stomachs growling as soon as they entered. The 5 laughed, with Y/N handing her jacket to Suna while she went to order with Osamu.

“Hi! Can I get a large cheese pizza with a side of-“

“Suna?”

Hearing his name, he lifted his head, looking at the other two at his table to see them also looking around. Turning to look at the door, he sees Kaori with her fellow manager, along with their very own setter and ace.

“Oh, hi guys.” Suna says with a wave. Atsumu and Keiko look up to see who Suna was talking too, with Atsumu smiling and Keiko giving a shy wave.

“Hey! You guys are just eating?”

“Yeah, Samu and Y/N are ordering now.” Atsumu says, pointing over it to the counter with Y/N poking Osamu’s cheeks.

“Cool, well enjoy your meal! We should totally hang out sometime!” Bokuto says, following Yukie to go to a table, with Kaori dragging a tired Akaashi along.

Plopping down, Kaori and Bokuto look at eachother before nodding, sitting straight back up.

“I can feel 3 pairs of eyes on me, what.”

“Akaaaashiiii, don’t you think it would be nice to, oh I don’t know, please can we invite them ice skating?” Yukie says, staring at him with large eyes from across the table.

“Are you asking my permission or are you asking me to do it, because I’m very comfy.” He murmurs, his head laying in his arms.

“I’ll go ask!” Bokuto says, getting up while the other girls nod. Akaashi sighs, rubbing his eyes carefully as to not irritate his contacts as Bokuto walks to their table.

With the twins messily eating, and the rest starring st them as if they were pigs, Y/N sees another figure approaching, smiling at Bokuto.

“Hi Bo! They told me you were here, what’s up? How ya been?” Y/N asks, wiping her hands on a napkin before looking back at him.

“I’m well, thank you! So the rest of us were wondering if you 5 wanted to come with us to go ice skating? Obviously we haven’t met you yet,” he says as he gestured to Keiko, “however any friend of Y/N’s somehow becomes a friend of ours! And I’m not complainin’!” Bokuto says, his hands landing on his hips with a bright smile.

Looking at Suna and the girls, Osamu nodded, turning his eyes back to Bokuto as he smiled.

“We’ll be there.”

Lacing up her skates, Y/N got on the ice and began to skate around, seeing some of her friends on the ice while Atsumu and Bokuto were still on the bench trying to figure out how to tie them.

“Sometimes I’m shocked he’s a third year.”

Turning around, Y/N faces Akaashi with a small smile on both of their faces.

“It surprises me as well.” She said, both of them beginning to skate next to eachother. With Akaashi looking around at the lights, Y/N turns her eyes to face him.

To her, it was strange. To not feel the butterflies, the rollercoaster in her stomach each time he said hello.

“You excited to see the fireworks?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fun to ring in the New Year with you guys.” Akaashi says, a smile coming to his face as he looks back at Y/N.

The two turn straight, Bokuto waving over Y/N as she nods, getting ready to skate towards him.

“Hey, Kaashi?”

“Hm?” He says, turning back towards her.

“Save me a seat.” She says, giving him a small wave and proceeded to skate towards Bokuto, said male waving and beginning to skate as she caught up.

The pair speak amongst themselves, speaking of their holiday and upcoming plans for New Years. For a few minutes, Bokuto surprisingly goes quiet, prompting Y/N to nudge his side.

His eyes turn towards hers, curiosity on his face.

“Hey, I just had a question.”

“Yeah, shoot.”

Bokuto’s eyes face forward as she still looks at him, his eyes turning again as he nudges his head. Y/N’s eyes follow in the direction to see Osamu skating with Kaori and smiling.

“Does Osamu like you?”

Feeling a pair of eyes on him, Osamu turns, seeing Y/N staring at him. He smiles, giving her a wave then returns back to his conversation with Kaori.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“And there’s one minute on the clock folks!”

The group of friends all sit huddled together in the cold, while other bystanders around them buzz with excitement, confetti and snow flying around already.

Kaori shows Y/N tiktoks, with Akaashi occasionally looking over her shoulder, the uproar of the already booming noise blasting.

10

“Hey Y/N?” Hearing her name, she leans closer to Akaashi to hear him better

9

“Yes Akaashi?”

8

“I just had a question”

7

“Go ahead.”

6

“Maybe it’s much too early in the game.”

5

“Oh, but what the hell, I thought I’d ask you just the same”

4

“I really enjoyed tonight, Y/N.”

3

“Me too Akaashi, me too.”

2

“So”

1

“What are you doing next New Years Eve?”

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

Notes

Akaashi does not like Y/N

Y/N does not like Akaashi

The Inarizaki friend group has had this tradition for about 3 years, but they all agreed having more friends with them was nice

For once I’m going to give clarification :D

Akaashi was talking about all of them hanging out on New Years Eve, he wants to do it again next year even though this year just began

Atsumu and Keiko are NOT dating

Atsumu and Keiko do not like eachother

Suna does not like Keiko

Keiko does not like Suna

Back to Masterlist

C. 14 <- C. 15 -> C. 16

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[likelightningafterthethunder]

Like Lightning After the Thunder: Chapter Two: Reprieve

Fic Summary:

His breath wavered as he stared into Katsuki’s eyes. He knew he could get out if he tried. He could knock Katsuki out, hope that no one else would find them, and run back into the shadows where he belonged. Katsuki may have had him pinned down but he was in Denki’s range now and it would take little effort to send a charge through Katsuki to paralyze him temporarily.

It would take barely any additional effort to kill Katsuki.

As the sparks began to charge, lighting up the air around him, Katsuki refused to back down.

–

Katsuki always knew he was destined for great things.

He didn’t think he’d have to turn his back on all he’s ever known to get there.

Rating: T

Warnings: Eventual major character death, implied/referenced child abuse, psychological trauma

Other Tags: Bakugou Katsuki/Kaminari Denki, slow burn, alternate universe - canon divergence

Read on Ao3 (links to corresponding chapter) or read below

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–

Katsuki wasn’t surprised to see one of his former classmates’ face on the news report with the tagline “found dead after hero-villain fight.” 

The reporter gave a rundown of the fight that had happened a few days earlier on the other side of the city, between a small gang of villains and Ochako. The villains themselves weren’t very high ranking― potential to be B-rank if they were more organized as a group, but C-rank individually― but they had managed to cause a decent amount of damage before Ochako had arrived on the scene. The news replayed the footage taken live from the battle, showing Ochako using her quirk on larger pieces of rumble to assist the lower ranked heroes in the area with evacuation as she charged forward towards the villain group herself. 

The footage wasn’t ideal. It was grainy from trying to capture the scene just outside of the limits of its scope and if it weren’t for the pink of Ochako’s hero costume, Katsuki was certain the camera person would not have been able to keep the camera centered on her. The footage continued until Ochako grabbed one of the villains, freezing seconds after the villain began to float. A red circle appeared around the villain’s face along with a mugshot before cutting back to the reporter.

In the aftermath of the fight, that one villain was never found. 

Ochako had been frantic when they had met up after, her gaze thousands of miles in the distance every time Katsuki looked. She denied anything being on her mind despite it being so blatantly obvious that something was, but Katsuki chose not to question it. After all, if she had wanted to talk about it, she wouldn’t have asked to meet him.

The report continued to explain the search procedures that had taken place over the past few days before describing a call on the tip hotline that ultimately resulted in the discovery of the villain’s body. While they didn’t show a photo of the body, Katsuki couldn’t help but wonder just how bad it was for the report to completely skip over the cause of death.

In the end, Katsuki supposed it didn’t matter what caused the villain’s death. Ochako was certain to end up finding a way to blame herself, for not paying better attention during the fight, for not trying hard enough to find the villain after, for being the last person who saw the villain alive. 

Even if she didn’t, there were parts of society that would make sure she would never forget.

Cheeky: can you meet up with me today?

Katsuki: Takeshi’s?

Cheeky: yeah

Cheeky: drinks/dinner on me after if you want

Katsuki: I’ll be there at five. Don’t be late.

Cheeky: got it!

Cheeky: hey wait why are YOU telling ME not to be late when I’M the one who asked YOU to meet me

Katsuki: You know why.

Cheeky: it was ONE TIME KATSUKI ONE TIME

Katsuki was at Takeshi’s gym a quarter before five, reserving their usual space and changing into workout attire before sending Ochako a text to let her know he was already inside. He started his stretches, looking up only when he saw a pair of pink sneakers approach the ring.

“You’re late,” Katsuki said, continuing his stretches. 

“By five minutes!” Ochako dumped her water and towel on the bench next to Katsuki’s, quickly joining him in the stretches. “I was outside before five, waiting for you!”

“I sent you a text saying I was inside.”

“Yeah, like two minutes before five!” She huffed. “I was totally on time.”

“Whatever. Hurry the fuck up.”

They continued preparing in silence, speaking again only to confirm that the other was ready to start. This time, only a couple of the guests flinched when Katsuki charged forward at Ochako yelling out “die!”

After the fifth time a hit landed that Ochako would have normally been able to block with ease, Katsuki stood down. Her form had been lacking for the better part of the past hour, and there were a few times that her blows hadn’t hit with the full force Katsuki was familiar with. She didn’t even react to Katsuki’s change in form until Katsuki had walked over to the bench for his water.

“Wh― hey! What gives?” She frowned but joined him for a water break when he didn’t return to the ring right away.

“Don’t insult me,” Katsuki rolled his eyes at the shock on her face, “You’re distracted. What kind of fucking spar is worth the time when your opponent isn’t giving their all?”

“I’m focused on the spar! I’m totally and completely here! I wasn’t insulting you but I am now, you’re just saying that because of your enormous ego,” 

Katsuki paused, looking at her directly in her eyes. She didn’t flinch.

But the longer he held his gaze, the more Katsuki could tell that she was holding back.

“First,” He began, “Don’t be cheeky with me―”

“Well maybe I wouldn’t be so cheeky with you if you didn’t call me cheeky all the time!”

Katsuki held back an amused smile.

“Second,” He continued, “I hit you five different times in ways that you should have been able to block with your eyes closed.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult or a compliment, because what I’m hearing is that you think I could fight you with my eyes closed.”

“Insult. You didn’t fucking block the hits, dumbass.”

Ochako huffed, crossing her arms. “Whatever. I’m going to focus on the compliment part of it.”

“Third, you didn’t even notice I walked away until after I reached the bench.”

“I― I was expecting you to come back! That it was some sort of trick to get me to lower my guard or something!”

“And fourth, you speak faster when you lie.” He let Ochako stammer for a while in response, continuing when her shoulders slumped with a heavy sigh. “You sure this is the break you need? I don’t mind wiping the fucking floor with you if that’s what you want but you better respect my time back and fucking fight me with your all,” He shifted his weight a bit before adding hesitantly, “I can try to listen if you want to talk instead but that’s not really my thing,”

Ochako didn’t answer immediately, instead taking a drink of her water. Katsuki waited as patiently as he could, although he did offer her a glare to try to speed up her thought process. 

She put her water back down and hit her knuckles together, briefly reminding Katsuki of Eijirou. “Okay! One more round. I need to redeem myself before we leave for drinks,”

Katsuki grinned, shoving her lightly with his shoulder as he walked back towards the ring. “Whatever you say, Cheeky. You’re still going to fucking lose.”

“I’ll make you eat your words, Katsuki!”

She did not, but not for lack of trying. Ochako actually paid full attention to the spar after the interruption and while Katsuki still had the upper hand on brute strength, she was nimbler and lighter on her feet. Katsuki was fairly certain that had the shift manager not interrupted to tell them that their time was up that Ochako was only a handful of moves away from finding some “barely legal in a spar between friends but completely legal in a rules free battle against a villain” opening and winning the round. While technically neither of them had won, he did agree—after some teasing and pestering— to counting it as her point in their ongoing scoreboard, adding, “But if you want me to count it as eating my words, you’ll have to fucking try again.”

Ochako seemed to be in a brighter mood when they met up again post-changing in front of Takeshi’s. She bumped shoulders with Katsuki as he approached and began chattering about work and her day as they made their way over to the restaurant they usually ate at after sparring sessions. He didn’t offer much other than the occasional “yeah” and swear when her story necessitated it, but she didn’t seem to mind. She spared him from talking until after they were already seated and ordered their food and drinks. 

“Oh yeah! I heard from Tenya that you finally sent in your response to the reunion! Do you know when you’re heading down to Musutafu yet? We should get on the same train so that the ride isn’t as boring— well, kinda, since you’ll probably not be talking,”

“Shut the fuck up, I can talk when I want to,” Katsuki scowled, rolling his eyes when all it resulted in was a laugh from Ochako. “I haven’t looked at the train schedule yet. The Shitty Four Eyes approved for both the 28th and 29th off though.”

“Nice! Well, when you figure out when you want to head down, let me know and I’ll be your Anti-Explosion Time buddy for the ride down,” 

“Oh fuck off.”

Ochako laughed again. Katsuki hoped this would be the extent of the reunion talk but she continued, “It’ll be great to see the entire class again, don’t you think?”

“You make it sound like we never fucking see anyone. I literally saw you a few fucking days ago and you spend half your weekends with Frog Face or Four Eyes or the fucking Nerd or whoever the fuck,” Katsuki pointed out. “We see basically everyone at the Billboards too,”

“Don’t be such a bore, Katsuki. Reunions are different from the Billboards. We don’t have to deal with those ‘damn extras’ at the reunion,” She put on her best Katsuki impression at “damn extras,” extending her palms outwards and adding a playful “Boom! Pow!” 

“I don’t fucking sound like that.”

“Yes you do. I’m the great Katsuki Bakugou! Die you fucking piece of shit! Boom! Bam! You fucking extra! Bow before the king! Boomboom!”

Katsuki let the faintest hint of a smile slip. “I have never said ‘bow before the king,’”

“Oh come on Katsuki, you tried to name yourself King Explosion Murder, don’t deny it. Even if you’ve never said it, you’ve definitely thought about it.”

He scowled, muttering a “fuck off”, refusing to acknowledge that yes, yes he had thought about saying it once or twice.

“So you admit that I’m right!”

“Fuck off, I said no such fucking thing.”

“You didn’t say ‘no’ either though.”

“I’m demoting you to a fucking extra, you shitty fucking extra.”

Katsuki was given a brief break from any potential cheeky response from Ochako when the server stepped in with their drinks. They raised their glasses, a silent toast to making it another day alive, to making it as far as they had come, to their friendship.

To the silent understanding that there were some struggles that were best left unshared.

He didn’t press further about whatever it was that was stressing her out, even if he had a strong feeling about what caused it. She didn’t comment on the circles under his eyes or how his mind seemed to wander after she brought up certain high school memories. They talked, ignoring their stressors, and for a while, they could pretend everything was fine.

[rukakikuchi]

LOONAverse timeline theory (REDUX!)

So... Yeah. This is something I’ve thought about doing for a while now. It’s been a little over a year now since I started getting into LOONA and analyzing the lore, and my views on the timeline have changed slightly.

Nothing major, but I still wanted to do an updated version of the timeline since now feels like a good point in doing so.

In the year since becoming an Orbit, I’ve used the theories of others as well as my own to get a better understanding of the story of the LOONAverse. This has led me to questioning and critiquing certain theories, and even going back and revising my previous views on the lore, and seeking out other interpretations to come to a new conclusion.

There are some theories from my old timeline analysis which I feel are outdated, since I no longer agree with certain points, and other elements which I want to bring more into question.

For those who may or may not know, I’m on the autism spectrum. And ever since I started listening to their music, LOONA has been one of my most recent special interests. I got hyperfixated on the story that was being presented, and I wanted to analyze all the pieces of the puzzle to get the bigger picture in my head.

With all that being said, let’s go ahead and get this started.

Part 1 - The [+ +] timeline

I think this is the part of the LOONAverse story we can get the clearest view on. This encompasses everything from pre-debut, starting with Heejin, all the way up to Hi High.

It was the first chapter, or the first major story arc of the LOONAverse. We were introduced to the characters of the 12 girls, the worlds they inhabited, their individual conflicts, and an established main goal: finding each other and breaking the loop, an enigmatic force that’s opposing them.

Here’s my breakdown of the timeline of events:

This isn’t a perfect charting of the timeline, since we can assume certain events overlap or run parallel with each other, or take place in a very close amount of time between each other.

Part 2 - The [X X] timeline

Just going to refer to this as the “new” timeline. I believe this is the current timeline we are in in the story, starting from “Butterfly”. This is where Go Won created a butterfly effect by going to Iceland, Haseul’s location, and changed events of the timeline.

For now, let’s assume that everything before love4eva/Let Me In still happens, since that is the point where Go Won changes the timeline. Here is what the new current timeline looks like:

Because of Go Won altering the timeline, the events after love4eva/Let Me In never happen and certain events that occur in the [+ +] timeline have been altered.

ViVi doesn’t meet ⅓ and is still an android, though she presumably had found a way to become human again by “Why Not”.

Yeojin doesn’t get lost in the endless forest.

Olivia no longer resents Yves since she was not abandoned. Her journey to loving herself begins anew through “So What” and “Why Not”.

Odd Eye Circle has yet to reunite. However, we see that Choerry was with Hyunjin in “So What”, and the girls are rediscovering the powers of Odd Eye Circle in “Why Not”.

Part 3 - Updated theories

This is where I want to bring up some previous points I made in my last timeline analysis and how they have changed.

No one killed ViVi

I am no longer sided with the theory that Olivia or any of the members were involved in ViVi's death. Instead, I think she could’ve become an android after an accident. (See my “How did ViVi become an android?” theory.)

Yves does not lure Yeojin into the forest

I think something else might’ve happened that caused Yeojin to wander off, but I have seen a theory that Yeojin was in Eden and the “frog prince” she saw was Yves. I don’t think this was the case, since they have also said that the frog prince represents Yeojin’s “boyfriend” in the LOONAverse, but it’s an interesting perspective nonetheless. (Check out fairypinch’s video on Youtube.) 

Side note: The “forest” that Yeojin has been described to be lost in has been referred to as the “endless forest” aka “the Moebius forest”.

I watched a video that was part of a “complete” lyrical analysis of LOONA’s discography (unfortunately, they’ve only done up to Olivia’s solo debut T T but it’s a very interesting watch regardless; the channel is Ross Kpop Stats.) and based on their theory, I think Yeojin could’ve heard a song calling to her and wandered into the forest.

Yves meets Choerry prime, not mirror Choerry

Mirror Choerry cannot come into Choerry prime’s world; however, she can still communicate with Choerry due to her Odd Eye powers connecting her to the mirror world.

I do still think, however, that Mirror Choerry did see Go Won, since she was upside-down and I previously theorized that what we saw in “One & Only” could be a dream. (See my dream interpretation analysis on Go Won’s MV.)

Olivia’s heart was not “swallowed”

I’ve begun to think that Jinsoul’s rap in “Egoist” might not be referring to her herself “swallowing” Olivia’s heart. It might be Jinsoul acting as shadow Olivia (as I’ve theorized Olivia has a split personality; link here). Regardless, there’s still some significance that they chose Jinsoul for the rap.

Also, she doesn’t wish for the other yyxy members’ hearts to merge with her. When we see her bite the apple in that same video, it is showing her finally decide to reject Eden and be free of it completely.

yyxy are not “one” as in they are literally one person; they are “one” as a unit and a part of LOONA as a whole.

No broken cassette tapes

Loominosity debunked the idea that ViVi’s tape case was cracked; it’s just tree branches behind ViVi. (Link here)

No diverging timelines either; The Carol 2.0 is just a cute holiday video with ViVi, Choerry, and Yves!

Everything from Butterfly to Why Not is one timeline

Essentially, Butterfly showed us the catalyst of LOONA’s “butterfly effect” to change the timeline. We see the result of that in “So What”, which has many parallels to “Hi High”, and “Why Not”.

I’m also beginning to theorize that Heejin actually jumped forward in time. She could’ve temporarily escaped the loop (as we see in the #1 teaser) and fell back into “So What”.

This also means that Go Won would retain her memories of the previous timeline, while everyone else has forgotten them.

I’ll admit, a lot of my old ideas felt like reaches since I was still learning about the lore. Now that I’ve spent time becoming more familiar with the group and their music, I think I’ve come to a clearer vision of the story.

So with all of that said, here is my new breakdown of the current storyline...

The LOONAverse started out as stable, but then something caused it to become unstable. This resulted in the universe becoming a Moebius strip, separating three worlds (Earth, Middle Earth, and Eden), and creating a time loop.

We don’t know when or how this happened; all we know is that the loop exists and it is a force that is preventing LOONA from reaching their goal.

At some point, Odd Eye Circle was formed with Kim Lip, Jinsoul, and Hyunjin, and were given the powers of the Odd Eye.

In Eden, Yves finds and eats the forbidden fruit, where she’s given knowledge of her fate and of the loop. She decides to rebel and travels to Earth, where she meets ViVi.

Shortly after, however, ViVi gets in an accident, nearly dies, and is converted to an android, where her memories get messed up and she forgets Yves.

Hyunjin receives a mysterious bracelet from an unknown sender, and tries to search for answers. 

Odd Eye Circle finds the cherry that can send them to Earth. Jinsoul leaves one for Choerry, and when she eats it, she and Hyunjin switch places.

Jinsoul decides to go to Earth to look for Hyunjin, and meets Olivia Hye. She gets trapped on Earth and loses her powers and memories.

Heejin, a normal girl in Paris, is bored of her repetitive daily routine and wishes for her life to be filled with color. In search of some excitement, she decides to go travelling.

Two of Yves’ friends in Eden, Chuu and Go Won, decide to reject Eden and join in her plans to escape to Earth. They meet Kim Lip, who was searching for Jinsoul, and it’s revealed Go Won made the bracelet that was sent to Hyunjin.

Now, Hyunjin lives in Tokyo, with no memory of the Middle Earth or Odd Eye Circle. She meets Heejin and the two become friends. They both befriend Haseul and Yeojin, who are like sisters. ViVi meets Jinsoul in Hong Kong.

During Christmas time, Haseul finds Chuu when she first fell from Eden and wakes her up.

Haseul then has a dream where she finds and kills her doppelganger.

Yves, Chuu, and Go Won escape from Eden, leaving behind Olivia Hye, who feels resentment and anger for being abandoned.

ViVi meets Heejin, Hyunjin, and Haseul, and eventually becomes human. However, they learn Yeojin has wandered off into an “endless forest” and went missing, so they cast a spell of love to find her.

Olivia Hye falls to Earth, and learns to love herself and let go of her anger. She then meets Heejin after she went into the endless forest and learned about the loop. She convinces Olivia to join the others on Earth, and eats the forbidden fruit to be free of Eden.

Jinsoul regains her powers and memories, and Kim Lip senses Choerry and pursues her. They revitalize their powers during an eclipse and learn of the loop. 

Kim Lip helps Choerry find the mirrors where she awakens her powers, connects with the mirror world through her reflection (her shadow/mirror world counterpart), and learns of the loop. They reunite with Jinsoul to merge their moons and complete the Odd Eye Circle.

Choerry meets Yves when she first fell from Eden and helps her escape by meeting Go Won in her dreams and leaving the roses for them in the forest.

After all the girls gather together on Earth, they try to break free of the loop, but fail as the time loop resets.

In order to change the events of the timeline and break the loop, Go Won stays behind in Eden while Olivia takes her place. She then goes to the dreamworld/mirror world to stop Haseul from killing her doppelganger and changing her fate.

Due to Go Won’s butterfly effect, the timeline begins to change. Heejin temporarily breaks out of the loop before falling back in and chaos ensues. The girls start a rebellion in their efforts to break free. They see the moon burn and meteors fall to Earth.

After the chaos, the Odd Eye Circle members start to regain their powers, and the group holds a midnight festival in celebration for the rise of a new moon.

...

And there you have it! Like I said, this may not be perfect, there are definitely parts of the story I want to re-analyze, and I’m sure whenever LOONA make their next comeback, it’s going to lead to some very interesting developments.

But I also wanted to do this since some of my theories have changed. The LOONAverse is so fascinating because it can lend itself to so many different theories and viewpoints, that it even challenges the viewer’s own thoughts on the story.

I hope you guys found this interesting. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions as well! Have a good day and, as always...

Stan LOONA! 🌙✨

[pastelsandpining]

Santa Baby (Christmas List)

The second prompt in 12 Days of Christmas by @zelink-prompts​

Prompt List

**Note: For the stories actually involving Christmas, I and a few other authors changed the holiday to Hylia’s Day (credit to @fatefulfaerie​ for this) so that it’s more relevant to Hyrule

Cover Art: @neezlebums​ be sure to show some love to the original here!

Words: 2264

Summary: For their first Hylia’s Day together after everything that happened, Link just wanted to gift Zelda something special.

**If I don’t have explicit warnings, read with caution. It simply means there’s nothing I could think of that could be potentially triggering, but I could’ve just missed something. In that case, please let me know and I’ll be more than happy to put a warning!**

BotW, post-calamity with angry child Eggbert because I said so

Zelink-mas 2020  l  Masterlist

Relearning everything about his past and about Hyrule was no easy feat. A world that was so familiar yet so foreign still left him unsettled at times, because he was a young adult trying to understand the things that nearly everyone else grew up with. It was fascinating to learn about traditions and holidays and how they came to be, and he did genuinely want to know everything he once knew and more.

It was how he’d ended up awake until the break of dawn, listening to Zelda tell stories of Hyrule’s past. She was in her element when she got to research or explore or teach. Watching her was something he felt incredibly lucky to do, much less sit so close to her on the bed while they poured over books. He wanted to be as prepared as possible.

He’d heard of Hylia’s Day before, but it would be his first time experiencing it (that he could remember). Zelda explained it as a celebration of love and giving, of friendship and of victory. She told him of the festivals they used to hold, and the balls they’d been forced to attend, and of the parties they used to have. She told him of the traditions of gift giving and of family gathering.

And when they finally settled down to sleep, Link asked her what she wanted for Hylia’s Day. She replied just as she always did—that she already had all she could ever want.

It didn’t stop him from trying, though. He brought it up at the most nonchalant of times, during breakfast or trips across the kingdom. He would listen intently every time she spoke, more so than usual, and tried to pick up on any instance of an “I want”. Only once did she give a direct answer, saying she wanted a Silent Princess. 

Link was not satisfied with that. It wasn’t special enough, so he took it upon himself to fill Zelda’s nonexistent Hylia’s Day List.

He didn’t expect to feel as nervous as he did when the day actually came around.

“How does this look?” came the voice of Zelda from behind him. Link paused the stirring of his soup to turn around and answer her question. She’d been adjusting the decorations all morning, no matter how many times he’d promised her they looked fine.

“It looks perfect,” he replied. “Just like everything else.”

“Well, good, because I want this to be perfect,” she said, making her way to his side. “It’s the first Hylia’s Day we’ve had since—the first I’ve had outside of a castle. Getting to decorate and set everything up however you want is incredibly stressful. I want our friends to be comfortable and happy.”

“You worry too much,” stated Link in return, bumping her with his shoulder.

“I happen to worry a perfectly healthy amount, for your information.”

He chuckled and turned back to his task at hand: finishing up their dishes for the celebration. The traditions called for a family gathering, and their family was large in both number and size. A little extra wouldn’t hurt, even if their friends were all bringing their own dishes.

“You look beautiful, by the way,” he continued. Zelda’s cheeks flushed, even after a hundred years, and it made him want to smile. He loved when she wore things that were too big for her, including the white sweater that she had to keep pulling the sleeves up on because they were too long. The golden linings made it look fancier than it really was, but she called it comfortable on more than one occasion and it was soft to the touch, so it was one of his favorites too. 

“Thank you,” she replied, hugging his arm. “I dressed myself and everything.”

“Wow, impressive,” he stated, pulling his arm free so that he could take the bread out of the oven. He didn’t miss the roll of her eyes before she turned back to the tree tucked into the corner. 

“I can’t help thinking something’s missing,” she said. Link placed the pan on a rack before turning to face her again, reaching for one of her hands.

“It’s perfect,” he repeated, spinning her to face him. “The only thing missing is a star at the top, but I don’t think you’d fit.”

She gave his hand a gentle swat and huffed.

“You’re ridiculous.” But she was smiling anyway, and that was enough of a gift for him. He considered pulling her closer, spinning her around and trying to get her to laugh, but there was a knock on the door before he could. Link let go of her hand so she could answer it, and he was unsurprised to see Purah bouncing on her feet at the door, with Symin behind her carrying a far too large bag, probably full of presents. 

“Check it!” she exclaimed--her form of a greeting, apparently. “Happy Hylia’s Day, you rascals! I’ve been looking forward to this all year!”

“Purah,” Zelda greeted. “It’s lovely to see you again!”

“You can put the bag down here,” Link told Symin, gesturing to the area under the stairs after shutting the door, keeping the cold outside. Now that Purah had stolen Zelda away for some excited conversation about Sheikah technology, Link had an opening. “Did Robbie manage to.. do the thing?”

“Fix it up? Yeah, I heard he and Purah talking last night. He was able to restore it, but I don’t know if it’ll have all the same functions as before,” Symin answered, his voice lowered to keep anyone from hearing. Some tension in Link’s shoulders relaxed. That was one thing checked off the list—the one thing he was really nervous about.

“I’m gonna owe Robbie an entire decayed guardian for this.”

“He’ll take payments in increments.”

Link snorted and shook his head. As eccentric as Robbie was, he was positive the Sheikah would try and refuse payment. But Link didn’t exactly need his permission to haul a decayed guardian up to Akkala’s Tech Lab, so it would turn out either way. He just hoped, with a glance towards Zelda, that it was the right gift.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Symin asked. 

“You could take coats by the door,” Link joked as another knock echoed through their house. 

He was pleased to see Sidon, Impa, and Paya were the next to arrive. But he didn’t get much of a greeting out before Sidon, crouching to get through the door, lifted him from the floor in a crushing hug.

“Happy Hylia’s Day, Link! Lovely to see you!” 

All Link could really do was pat Sidon’s shoulder in return until his feet were returned to the ground. 

The arrivals began increasing faster than he expected, with Teba and his family arriving next—with Kass in tow, of course.

“I’m worried we won’t have enough space,” Zelda stated suddenly, scaring the living daylights out of him. “We could move it outside, but we’d need a fire. I’m sure the Rito are fine with the cold, but we could give everyone else some blankets and coats. Do Zora get cold?”

“I don’t think so,” Link replied, furrowing his eyebrows. “The water in East Reservoir Lake wasn’t exactly warm, and Ruta hurling ice blocks at us didn’t make it any better.” He was still bitter that he didn’t think to use Cryonsis until he’d already been knocked off of Sidon twice. 

“But the Zora are used to water, so perhaps they’re used to the cold as well.”

“Why don’t we just ask?” Link pointed out, bumping her with his shoulder. “We have a Zora.”

“You say that like Sidon is a pet,” Zelda scolded, crossing her arms. 

“He’s basically a huge Hylian Retriever, yes.”

“Besides, would it be rude?”

Link grinned and ruffled her hair as he said, “Nothing is rude in the name of science.”

“Except eating a frog, apparently,” Zelda bit back, swatting at his hand.

“Oh, let it go,” he laughed. “I ate tons of frogs.”

“And?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow with a smug smile.

“You were right.”

“What are you two love birds talking about?” Sidon asked, and Link jumped for the second time that day. How could someone so large sneak up on him so easy, even if there was a good bit of noise in the house?

“Sidon!” Zelda said quickly, her cheeks flushed with pink. “We were just discussing moving everything outside.”

“Brilliant idea! Do you need help moving anything?” 

Link thought of assuring Sidon he was a guest and didn’t need to lift a finger, but apparently those gears in Zelda’s head were turning.

“No, but we have a few extra strings of fairy lights,” she replied, tapping her chin. “We could put lights on the tree outside!”

“You,” Sidon said as he picked her up. “are a little genius, Princess! Everyone, outside!”

Link hardly got a word in before they were out the door. All he could do was laugh at them with a warm smile. This was more than he ever could’ve wanted.

“It’s good to see you happy.”

Kass was smiling at him, just in that way where he looked like he knew all he was thinking. 

“Holiday cheer,” Link replied with a shrug, but Kass hummed.

“Ah, yes. Holiday cheer and nothing to do with dear Zelda.”

“Well,” Link sputtered, glancing towards the door everyone else had gone out of. “She helps. How’s, uh, how’s your song coming?”

“Rather well, actually. I think she’ll be pleased with it. Come, we’re missing all the fun.”

And Kass was right. Riju and Teba’s son were chasing each other around the pond, occasionally being joined by other village children, and Yunobo was being used as a rock pile to climb over in the process—not that he looked to mind it much. Buliara was observing carefully from her perch on the ramp, discussing something with Teba and Saki, and he was pleased to see they were all smiling. 

Impa was busy scolding Purah for something, and Robbie was coming to her defense, and whatever Symin had interrupted with made them all laugh. 

And then, to his (pleasant) horror, he found Zelda and Paya up in the tree, wrapping strings of lights around the bare branches. Sidon was underneath, wrapping another string around the trunk. They were having far too much fun with it.

Zelda spotted him from her perch and waved, and he had no choice but to join them in the decorating.

A little later into the evening, they sat around a campfire that turned out to be a joint effort and swapped various stories while they ate—stories about the Champions, who were there in spirit, about troubles they’ve solved, and other funny recalls of their lives. Link tried to listen, but his attention shifted every time he saw Zelda next to him with a smile on her face.

A gathering so wonderful wasn’t complete without swapping gifts. They’d given and received so many things, but Link chose to wait until everyone was finished to approach Zelda with his gift. Upon seeing the big box, she lifted an eyebrow.

“Alright. I know a Silent Princess isn’t this big, so what could you have possibly gotten me?” she asked, sitting in front of the crate. Link only shrugged and gestured for her to open it up. 

Her careful fingers pulled the ribbon apart and she took the lid with both hands. He watched her closely, nervous for what her reaction would be. 

Zelda was quiet for a moment, her eyes locked on the contents of the box. When she lifted her head to look at him at last, there were tears glistening in the firelight. 

“Where did you find him?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“He was in that same crate on a shelf in your study. I brought it to Robbie and he was able to restore it,” he explained as he pressed the Sheikah Slate into her hands. Zelda tapped the screen with trembling fingers, and he bit back the urge to take her hand. 

A soft beep filled the air and a blue light burst from the crate. A metal claw gripped the edge of the box, then a blue eye appeared and flipped its lid in greeting. 

Zelda pressed a hand over her mouth and reached the other out towards the little guardian they’d found and studied all those years ago. It beeped again, pleased with her recognition, then scuttled out from the crate.

“It’s in near perfect condition. How did it get..?” But she decided she didn’t care and instead wrapped her arms tightly around Link, whispering out a million thank you’s. All he could do was press a kiss to her head and hold her close.

There were so many things he’d wanted to give her. There were so many things he wanted to say. But he knew of her love for the ancient technology, and he knew of her love for him. 

Even if her list hadn’t truly existed, he wanted to give her something special. He wanted to give her everything and more, but for now, he was okay just giving her comfort that he remembered. 

He remembered her, and he remembered their adventures, and he remembered her interests.

He remembered.

And by the kiss she’d given him, to the delight and cheering of the others, he thought it turned out to be the perfect gift after all.

Well, until the little guardian butted in with its opinion in not so polite beeps, but some things simply couldn’t be helped. 

[umbry-fic]

A Palette Full of You (6)

Summary: Glimpses into Colette and Lloyd’s lives as they grow up together, learn who they are, and fall in love with each other.

(Written for Colloyd Week 2021)

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters: Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel, Zelos Wilder Relationships: Colette Brunel & Lloyd Irving Rating: G Chapter: 6 of 6 Word Count: 3442 Mirror Link: AO3 Original Post Date: 15/06/2021

Chapter Title: Ace Up Your Sleeve

Chapter Summary: Colette finally comes to the end of a long journey and finds the answer she didn't know she was seeking all along.

(Colloyd Week Day 7: Free Day)

Notes+Warnings: Last chapter of my multi chapter Colloyd week fic! Zelos is also... Demisexual! Warning for mentions of acephobia.

Thank you to anyone who's read all the way through and big thank you to everyone for a great Colloyd week!!!

Chapter list Full fic Previous chapter

~~~

17-years-old

“You haven’t been listening at all, have you?”

"What? Uh, no! You - you were talking about denominators?" Colette snapped to attention, scrambling for an excuse as she was met with Zelos' searching stare. Her friend was sitting across from her, their fingers drumming impatiently against the long table they were seated at in the common area by the bookstore, a dozen other students seated at the other long tables and quietly murmuring amongst themselves.

"You haven't written anything down," Zelos muttered, tapping the open exam paper in front of Colette. What they said was true - there were no new markings in green ink on the paper, only the blue ink that had been scribbled down during the exam and the red crosses left behind by the teacher. "It is a bit annoying to have been talking to a brick wall for the past five minutes, you know."

"Sorry for wasting your time." Colette bowed her head, feeling rather horrible. She was the one who had asked Zelos to help her explain some of the midterm questions that her teacher had skipped over. Zelos was a surprisingly good math teacher when they felt like it, giving calm and comprehensive explanations that seemed distanced from the usual flirty and boisterous Zelos. Not that Colette could tell they were being flirty - it all just came off as normal conversation to her, even though Sheena often complained they were.

Yet she'd gotten distracted.

"It's alright; no hard feelings or anything. What's got your attention so badly, though?" Zelos enquired, raising one eyebrow and beginning to play with the ends of their ponytail.

“Um... That…?” Colette stuttered, waving her arms in the vague direction of Zelos’ school bag. Oh, this was so awkward.

“That…?” Zelos echoed, staring at their school bag with their brow furrowed, before seemingly coming to a realisation as their face cleared. “Oh! What? The frog pin?”

Yes, that was what she'd been staring at for the past ten minutes: the new pin. Next to the familiar enamel pin of a grumpy kitten playing with a ball of yarn that was purple and yellow in colour, was one of a derpy frog sitting on a lilypad. It was cute. (Add frogs to anything and it would be cute. That was a principle she strongly believed in.) But what was confounding her was the peculiar colouration of the lilypad: purple, white and grey.

“Uh… Yeah…” Colette averted her gaze as her fingers jumped from place to place, trying to expel all of her nervous energy - picking at the folded sleeve of her white blouse, fiddling with the school badge pinned over her breast, smoothing out the wrinkles in her green skirt. She hadn't brought up the curiosity eating away at her because she hadn't wanted to force Zelos into a spot where they felt like they had to answer.

Silence reigned for a few seconds as she began to panic. As she’d feared, Zelos didn’t want to talk about it. Oh, what to do? She didn't want to offend them or anything.

“It’s a cute pin! That’s all!” she blurted out, hoping that would give them both an out from this situation.

Zelos let out a loud exhale, placing a hand on their forehead in exasperation. "You could have just asked, you know? I wouldn't have pinned it there if I didn't expect questions. For anyone else, I would just answer that I like the colours. But for you, my trusted friend, I'll tell you the truth. It's the asexual flag colours. I got it from the same place as the cat one; they released a new frog line just last month. Cute, right?”

“Very,” she chirped, relieved that Zelos wasn’t mad. “Frogs are always cute, no matter what they’re doing. But, uh... If you don’t mind me asking another question, what do you mean by asexual?”

She'd heard that word once or twice from Sheena when she was working on her bio homework, but never in the context of people. Surely it was something relating to gender or sexuality, considering the yarn tangled in the kitten's paws was in the non-binary flag colours. She knew that much, even if she wasn't on social media a whole lot.

If she knew more, then she’d better understand her friend! That had always been one of her greatest desires - to learn more about her friends, all of whom were their own unique persons, holding diverse qualities and each facing their own set of challenges. If she didn’t have the necessary information, she couldn’t support them to her best capabilities.

“I can't explain the whole thing right now, but it's basically a spectrum," Zelos replied flippantly, raising a finger. "It means feeling little to no sexual attraction. You know, never looking at anyone and thinking you want to… do it with them.” Zelos cocked their head, gaze slipping towards the ceiling. “Is that a good way to describe it? Hm...”

But their words were washing uselessly over Colette, who had frozen into a statue. Her heart sat unmoving in her chest, her mind both running on overdrive and feeling incredibly sluggish as she struggled to process what she'd just heard. It felt like she was pushing through water, the pressure pressing against her.

"There's a word for that?" she couldn't help but blurt out, eyes wide in shock as her fingers opened and closed uselessly. Time itself seemed to have ground to a halt, her heart unable to decide how she wanted to feel. She was stuck in limbo.

"Well, yes? It's an entire identity - Woah, Angel, you all right?"

Zelos laid a worried hand on her shoulder, just now noticing the wild look on her face.

"There - there's a word for how I feel?" she whispered as she placed her shaking hands in her lap.

Ever since she'd fallen in love, she had lived each day with the question of why she was broken buried in the back of her mind, casting a constant miserable cloud over her. She didn't want to keep waiting for the day where she would want what everyone else did, for she had no hope that day would ever come. But she had thought she had no other choice, her heart shrivelling in her chest every time she was told that everyone was supposed to be attracted to someone.

This was an answer she hadn't known had existed, and had just somehow fallen from the heavens in answer to the prayers she had hesitantly made for something or someone to fix her. But if there was a word that belonged to her, an identity that meant she wasn't broken, she would gladly accept it. She couldn't describe the immense relief she felt, like the invisible shackles chaining her down had finally been unlocked with the key of knowledge.

"Oh. I... I had my suspicions, but I didn't want to assume," Zelos muttered, their expression equally as shocked as hers as they removed their hand. "So... You..."

All along, she'd thought she was alone, the only one in the whole wide world who felt this way. But there were others. Even someone right across from her, a friend who had experienced the same thing the entire time.

She wasn't alone.

It was liberating to know that.

"I... I think so?" The relief had been replaced with an almost dizzying excitement, one that made it hard to speak. Or focus. "Can you tell me more?" she asked eagerly, leaning closer. The fires of curiosity had now reached an all-time high, her need to know overtaking all else. She wanted to know everything.

"Calm down, calm down! I can talk to you about it after school," Zelos replied with a happy chuckle. "Right now, though, you should go back to class. The bell's going to ring soon."

Her gaze snapped to the wall clock, which showed there were only 8 minutes left till her GP period. "Oh, you're right!" Springing to her feet, Colette stuffed her math paper into her school bag, frantic energy unable to leave her body. "But promise you'll tell me more? Please?"

"It's a promise, Angel. I'd be happy to."

Giving Zelos one final wave goodbye, Colette started running up the stairs, a huge grin on her face. She couldn't explain why she was so happy, fireworks exploding in her chest.

Only that the world that had always been against her had finally started to make a tiny bit of sense.

~~~

18-years-old

“Lloyd?” Colette said quietly, setting the plate in her hands down on the study table. She smoothed his wet hair out of his eyes, only for it to fall right back into place.

It was quite late, the digital clock on the study table displaying 07:30 in red, blinking digits. Sheena and Zelos had already quit revising and left at six, saying they were going to get dinner together, but Lloyd had insisted on staying to continue. “Only a month left to As,” he’d muttered, head buried in his A4 notebook full of econs notes and eyes frantic with worry.

“Lloyd?” she said, a little louder this time. But he showed no signs of stirring, eyes still firmly closed, breaths steadily trickling in and out of his nose. They’d migrated to her room after Sheena and Zelos had left, Lloyd using the study table while she took residence on the bay window, having shifted all of her soft toys to the bed. She’d returned from making a sandwich in the kitchen (without tomatoes, of course), to find him slumped over on the desk, his pen on the floor.

Colette sighed. She didn’t have the heart to wake him up now, not when he looked so peaceful, lit by the warm light of the table lamp. He could stay.

She opened the drawer of the study table, gaze landing immediately on the folded up letter that had Lloyd’s name written on the cover. Reaching out to touch the smooth paper, she wondered if today was the day she would finally have the courage to give it to Lloyd.

Over a year had passed since Zelos had introduced the word asexual to her. As promised, they'd gone over the entire concept with her, an activity that had taken hours, until she was utterly certain the identity fit her. Scarily so. It explained all the little moments throughout her life that she'd had no explanation for until now. She'd spent a whole day afterwards just being stupidly euphoric, unable to wipe the large smile off her face, overjoyed that that were so many others like her all around the world, a loving community who shared her experiences and would accept her with open arms.

The euphoria she had felt at that moment had dimmed, of course. But she was still much happier than she ever used to be, now armed with the knowledge that she didn't need to change. She wasn't broken, for there was nothing to fix. This was just who she was, and she no longer had to force herself to act in how society deemed right or feel awful for not being able to do so.

But there was still fear involved. Keeping secrets from Lloyd was just... not in her nature. Every second that she was alone with him was a moment where she wanted to inform him of her life-changing realisation, for while telling him would not change much, it would be authentically living her truth. Even if she never confessed her feelings, she wanted to tell him as a friend, a companion. The words she wanted to say burned on her tongue, but every time she opened her mouth nothing came out, the jitters in her stomach overpowering her will. Zelos was the one who had suggested writing a letter. Easier to express in text everything she wanted to in one go without all the stutters and awkward pauses that would no doubt come from a face-to-face encounter.

Picking the letter up, she slowly slid it under Lloyd’s open right hand, praying that he didn’t wake up right at this moment and heaving a sigh of relief when he didn’t. She was staking everything on him heeding the first line she’d written, almost a month ago, pouring her heart out onto paper with shaking hands. Please, read this to the end. And at the end of it, she prayed that he’d still be willing to talk to her.

She had read countless horror stories. People who refused to believe asexuality existed. People who argued that no one could know they were asexual until they’d had a sexual experience, who then turned around and argued in the same breath that those who’d had sexual experiences couldn’t possibly be asexual. People who continued to claim that asexuals just hadn’t met the right person because sex was what made us human and people who didn’t feel sexual attraction must be cold, unfeeling monsters with standards that were way too high. People who stared at you with pity and tried to comfort you for “missing out”. People who told you they could "fix" you.

Lloyd was the most accepting person she knew, and she didn't believe he could ever be that way. Still, there was no guarantee how this would end. At least she had the advantage of being in the safety of her own home. She could kick him out if she needed to, even if cutting him out of her life would be akin to ripping her own heart out. But better to rip the bandaid off now than let the secret lurk in her heart.

Straightening up, she shut off the table lamp to give Lloyd some peace. She made her quick retreat out of the room, heading to the kitchen and placing the sandwich into the fridge. Lloyd did so love his sandwiches cold.

The only thing left to do was wait.

There was no sound filling the living room but the ticking coming from the analogue clock hanging on the wall that Dad still refused to replace, even after twenty years. It was always in need of a change of batteries or a tuning.

Adjusting her position so her head was pillowed on one of the many cushions, her eyelids unwittingly shut. She hadn’t noticed how heavy they’d felt until now, when she had nothing to do. After a whole day spent splitting her head over chemistry mechanisms, sinking into the soft leather without any chemical equations to squint at felt like heaven. Maybe she deserved a little rest.

Just a little…

~~~

“Colette.”

She groaned, rolling onto her side away from the voice’s origin and throwing her arm over her face.

Who…? Where…?

“Colette!”

The voice was a little more insistent this time, a hand gently shaking her by the shoulders.

Knowing she had to wake up now, Colette opened her eyes, staring with blurred vision at the cream couch cushions. Craning her neck, she spotted a blob of peach and brown hovering over her that eventually solidified into Lloyd’s face.

“Lloyd…?”

“Hey.” Lloyd moved his hand to her back to steady her as she slowly sat up, rubbing at her eyes. He took a seat next to her, their shoulders pressed together. “Sorry to wake you up, but I need to tell you I’m going home soon.”

“Oh! That’s good...” Colette mumbled groggily, having still not fully come to her senses. She couldn’t quite recall what had occurred between studying and falling asleep here. She could remember that Lloyd was supposed to go home.

There was something else, wasn’t there…?

“I guess we’re both tired. If you were going to sleep you should have just done it on the bed, silly,” Lloyd admonished her, poking her arm. “Too late for that. At least you had the good sense to sleep on your back. Mine hurts.” He threw his arms over the back of the sofa, stretching his back, joints popping.

“Ah, right. Sorry for not waking you up sooner… It’s just… You looked like you were having a nice nap.”

“No, it’s alright,” Lloyd placed his hand over hers, interlocking their fingers and squeezing. “I did enjoy it. I needed the break. And thank you for the sandwich. It was delicious"

"No problem." She yawned, giving her own long stretch.

“Anyway… The other reason I woke you up was to tell you I read your letter.”

Lloyd held up a familiar sheet of paper, the crease where it had once been folded in half clearly visible. Her stomach sank immediately into a pit of dread as she bowed her head, her free hand curling into a fist.

There it was. That was what she was forgetting. But she’d made the choice to go forward, and there was no backing down now.

However, now that the moment of reckoning was here, only the worst-case scenarios were running through her head. She was ready to pull away and run, pulse skyrocketing.

“Hey! Hey. Don’t panic.” Lloyd’s thumb started drawing tiny circles on her palm, a motion so familiar to her that she instinctively started taking deep breaths to calm herself down. It was like he'd predicted she was going to bolt like a frightened rabbit. “The first thing I wanted to say was thank you for telling me something so important to you. I know how scary it is. Remember when it was my turn?”

“You…? You weren’t scared at all!” Colette protested, raising her head and meeting Lloyd’s gaze. The light tone to his voice was reassuring, as was the smile on his face. No condemnation to be found there, just a sweet happiness that warmed her own heart. “You figured it out so quickly and just blurted it right out!”

“I was petrified, trust me, even if it I didn't show. I don’t even know what possessed me to say it in the first place! But remember what you said to me, back then?”

“I like... boys too. Both girls and boys, you know?”

The whisper rang out in the silence, Lloyd facing away from her as she looked up from the comic she’d been reading, the two of them curled up together in the safe darkness of the tiny pillow fort they’d constructed in the living room.

“Okay,” she answered after a pause. “Uh… Well…”

She didn’t quite know how to put her thoughts into words.

“Who you like doesn’t change who you are!” she declared with gusto. That sounded cool. Right? But it was true. Lloyd would always be Lloyd. Silly, awkward, kind Lloyd.

In her eyes, there was no other possibility.

Colette still strongly believed that. She always would. But she had never thought those words would apply to her, a girl who stood by the sidelines looking in on a world she couldn’t understand.

“Those words meant the world to me, you know. And it's the same for you; I’d be a hypocrite for saying otherwise. You’re still the same person, Colette. Nothing’s changed. And although I can never see the world through your eyes, what I can do is listen to you. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.”

Colette sniffled, shoulders shaking as tears pooled in her eyes. She had thought she could get through this without breaking into tears, that she could sit and calmly accept whatever news she would receive. Clearly, that was not the case.

But it wasn't weak to cry.

Lloyd’s arms wrapped around her, a comforting embrace that she never wanted to leave.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Lloyd whispered into her ear, pulling her closer. “You’re just you.”

With shaking arms, she returned the embrace, burying her face in his shoulder as the tears overflowed. This time not out of overwhelming fear like she had on the rooftop, but out of incredible, crushing relief, the last of the weight leaving her shoulders, leaving her so free it was terrifying.

“And I’ll keep telling you that, as many times as you need to hear it. Just like you did for me.”

She already knew that all of the things he said were true - they were sentiments Zelos had already expressed, that she had already read on internet forums. But she'd underestimated how it would feel to find acceptance in someone who she loved with all her heart, and who viewed the world through a completely different lens.

To know that one was accepted, for every part of them… Wasn’t that the most beautiful thing?

“Thank you,” she choked out amid all the tears.

And for the first time in a truly long while, Colette thought that everything would be alright.

[bakubabes-tatakae]

The Regalia and the God (Part Two)

Author’s Note: If anyone wants to be added to the taglist let me know ! I’m happy to do it for anyone.

(Yato X Reader)

Summary: The delivery god Yato has never been that popular with the public, but when it comes to fighting phantoms he’s one of the ones you want by your side. Every god needs a trusty Regalia by his side… that’s where Y/N and Yukine come in.

AO3 Link

Part One

Part Two:

Word Count: 2,596

When Yato had said we had a job searching for Milord I had thought we would be searching for a person… but no, Milord was a cat, and Yato was just as excited as he could be to search for him. We walked around the bustling city, cars flying down the roads, people littering the sidewalk, and for most of the people in the city it was like we weren’t even there. We blended in with them. “Milord!” Yato cupped his mouth with his hands to make it just a little louder. “Where are you Milord! Come to Yato.”

I walked slowly behind him, scanning the areas I knew that he was missing. Yato might be an impressive fighter when it came to phantoms, but he wasn’t the best at seeing the pictures, a big reason that he has me. “Yato, call me. I can help you search better.” 

Yato hated to call me unless we were in a fight, but he knew that I was right. “If I call you tho you won’t be here walking with me, and when I talk to you I’ll look like a lunatic.”

“Do you really think anyone is paying attention to you Yato?” I motioned around me. “Look at everyone, they’re too busy in their own worlds. I could probably tell them all I was going to take off my shirt and not a single person would even move.”

His vision turned to a glare. “If anyone looked I’d have to step in, you know?”

I shook my head slowly, closing my eyes. Tough Yato was my favorite Yato, but he always pulled him out at the worst times. “Just call to me Yato.” 

“Fine,” He put his hand out. “Come, Norikki.”

I felt my energy change as my name was called and I entered my domain. The world around my body was different from the world that was around Yato. In the spirit world as a Regalia I had my own space, a space that no one was in other than me. I scanned the crowd and Yato continued to walk. We walked past a group of girls on the sidewalk and I could feel one of their attention’s turn to us. Usually humans didn’t even notice Yato, I wonder why this one had?

Yato noticed it too, he turned slowly and when she was passed he looked straight ahead again. “Did you see this Y/n?” 

I hesitated. “Yea, I did.” I could feel my jealousy creeping up, I knew that I had no reason for it, but it was always there. I scanned around again when I noticed a small furball in the middle of the street… Milord. “Yato, to your left, slowly. If you move to fast you’ll spook him.”

Yato turned and his mouth opened wide, gasping. “Milord, there you are.” The cat started to run off and before I could interject Yato was hopping over the gate in front of us. “Hey, wait, come back.”

He took off after the cat and I tried to get him to stop. “Yato, there’s a bus coming, stop run-” As I tried to finish my words I could feel Yato being thrown to the otherside of the road, the force taking the wind out of him and stopping my words. 

A girl with long brown hair stood before us.Yato slowly sat up and looked toward her. “Running into the street like that!” She was clearly angry. “What kind of an idiot are you?”

In my Regalia form the only person that could hear me was Yato, something I had forgotten. “You jumped into the street too, what’s that make you?” I looked back toward the street and was shocked to see the same girl sitting before us apart from her body. Her body still laid on the street in front of the bus, her friends from earlier surrounding her. “Yato, she’s a spirit.”

“You realize you could have been killed!” She was huffing, trying desperately to get her breath. 

Yato looked behind him and motioned his head toward the bus and her body. “Aren’t you missing something?”

The girls stared at her body and before we would try to explain anything to her she was screaming. 

* * * * * * 

Yato sat on the stone wall of the garden we were in. I slowly sat down next to him and put my hand over his. “What are you thinking about Yatty?”

“That girl… First she could see me, and then she risks her life to save me?” The bewilderment in his eyes was more prevalent than I had seen it in a long time. “I just don’t get it.” 

I hated to say it because it was not something that I was too fond of doing… but I knew it would probably make Yato feel better. “What if we went to the hospital to see her?” I smiled at him, trying to hide my jealousy. I hated how bad I got with that stuff. “We can get in and get out without them even noticing.”

He smiled at me. “You alway think of the best ideas.” He put his hand on my cheek and placed a small kiss on my lips, running his hand down my cheek. “Now let’s go, before it gets too late.”

* * * * * * 

When we reached the room of the girl who had risked her life to save Yato she was still asleep. Yato sat on top of one of the couches in the room, patiently waiting, while I sat in front of him on the cushion, not waiting quite so patiently. Just as I was about to say something to him about leaving and coming back tomorrow her eyes opened, looking around the room and finding Yato and I waiting for her. 

She stared in disbelief at the two of us sitting in her room, and she looked like she was listening for something. Yato knew that look. “You can hear the voices of the far shore?” She screamed and ran to the corner of her room, staring at us in fear. “Doesn’t look like you got hurt too badly, huh?” She calmed a little as she recognized Yato’s face. “Thanks for that by the way.”

I stood from the couch and crossed my arms. “Of course… he didn’t need help avoiding that bus…” 

Yato saw me looking for a catfight and interjected. “But, no human has ever tried to save me before.”

The girl walked over to the couches and slowly sat, watching every move we made. “I don’t get it, who are you?”

Yato smiled at her. “That’s easy. I’m a God.” The girl took a cellphone out and started making a phone call, telling the person on the other line that there were crazy intruders in her room. “Wait! Hang up the phone. I’m not crazy. I really am one of the Gods, okay?” When he saw her relaxing a little he pointed to himself. “I am the God Yato, and this is my Regalia, Y/n.”

She looked angry again. “A God called Yato? What are you playing at? I’ve never heard of that God. And what’s a Regalia?”

“That’s understandable, I’m still what you’d call an up and comer, but just wait, before much longer the whole world with know my name!” Yato stood and threw his hands out at his sides. “I’ll be mega famous, the go to God, the God that everybody prays too! I’ll be the highest God in the land!” I laughed at him and smiled. Seeing him feel good about himself was intoxicating. “Me! The God Yato!” He started to laugh to himself. 

I nudged his arm and motioned to the door. “Yato, I can hear them.”

Yato looked from the young girl to me. “It’s gonna be a stormy night, this place is already crawling with them, and I’m essentially Regalia-less so I can’t stick around.” He grabbed a basket off the table and started to eat the contents. “By the way, what’s your name?”

She didn’t know how to react. “It’s Hiyori. Hiyori Iki.”

“Hiyori Iki, huh? I came to make sure you were okay and you seem just fine.” He hopped off the back of the couch. “So, we’re even now.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the window. “See ya.” He opened the window and we both hopped out. 

* * * * * * 

The next day flew by as we continued the search for Milord. Before we knew it darkness had hit. I looked at Yato. “We need to get going Yato, the phantoms will be out soon and you know that I can’t protect you. I’m a guidance Regalia, not for fighting.”

“Just give it a little longer, I promise we’ll go in before anything crazy can happen.” He had a stick with a string tied to it. On the end of the string he had placed some pieces of wood. “Come on out now kitty! Milord!” He ignored my pleas and continued to walk. 

I had a bad feeling, but Yato was my master, I couldn’t disobey him. The wind gusted around us, it was getting cold. Suddenly I heard a cat crying, I sprinted in the direction it was coming from, Yato on my heels. We turned the corner and saw him, he hissed when we came into view. 

“Milord! Just stay there, hang on.” Yato placed the stick beside him. “There’s no need to run.” As Yato started to slowly inch forward the cat came running to him, jumping straight into his arms. “What’s the matter boy?”

I had found what was the matter. A phantom started to manifest in front of us. “Yato, we need to run. NOW.” 

He looked toward the phantom. “Come Norikki.” My form changed and Yato snatched the silver ring out of the air, placing it on his finger to secure it. “Guide me, where’s the best way out.”

Before I could tell him which way to go I sensed an attack. “Yato, jump, get out of there.”

As he jumped an attack hit where he had just been standing. He landed a couple feet away and the phantom's eyes were all around us. Were they coming from one phantom or twenty? “They’re just small one, but there are too many of them, Norikki.”

More attacks sent a tingle down my spine. “Run Yato, they’re attacking again.”

Yato listened and ran, tucking the cat into his tracksuit. “Numbers aren’t on my side here!” He ran forward and I scanned the area. There was a field coming up and before I could tell him where to go he hopped the fence, coming face to face with a phantom. 

A giant frog stood before us, it lifted its head into the air and started screaming. Yato dodged an attack from it as it sent one of its hands down toward him. I saw an opening. “Yato, hit it from underneath.”

He landed a hit on the underside of it’s chin, sending it flying backwards. “A lot of good that did.” The frog got back up and stared at Yato as he went running for it. “Hanki, come.”

“Yato, what are you doing?” I was baffled. “We don’t have Tomone anymore, she left, remember?”

“Oh crap, I forgot.” As Yato went to turn, a hand took his and set him running the other way. Hiyori Iki was dragging us along. “This chick again?”

She was screaming as she turned to it. “What is that thing?”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but the tongue from the frog's mouth was about to hit them both. “Yato, break left, tongue coming at you.”

Yato dodged it multiple times and before we could stop her Hiyori was running toward the giant frog. “You idiot! Don’t run at it!”

The frog grabbed her leg and she started screaming. In a panic Hiyori threw her leg toward the frog, screaming something as she landed a kick to the side of it’s head. The force threw the frog across the field. Yato stood with his mouth gaping open, me doing the same from inside the spirit world. She landed back on the ground. “Woah, it worked!” 

The frog was getting ready to get back up and pounce. “Yato, grab her, get into the air.”

Yato grabbed her arm and dodged the frog’s pounce just as it was about to hit her. He carried her bridal style and landed on the frog’s head, giving him just enough of a bounce to get away, using the telephone polls and building to take us to another area. 

As we landed in an area that we were sure the frog wouldn’t follow he called me back. “Revert Norikki.” We sat for a minute, making sure the coast was clear. “I think we lost it.”

The girl stood up from the wall and walked toward Yato. I wrapped an arm around his waist, him doing the same to my shoulder. It wasn’t very often that I was around another female, other than Tomone, and I had nothing to worry about with her. “I’m glad I caught up to you Yato. I’ve got a lot of questions to ask you know. You just suddenly ran off on me. No dodging my questions this time. I want some straight answers.”

“Sorry,” He pointed to the pink tail that was coming from the girl. “But your soul, it slipped out.” She looked at her tail and screamed. He pointed back toward the fence. “If you want your body,” Her body was laying over the fence. “It’s over there.”

She was still screaming. ‘How’s that possible? What happened?” She grasped her tail. “Does that mean that I’m dead?”

Yato grabbed her body from off the fence, leaving me to deal with her. “Not exactly, it’s like your body is just taking a nap.”

As Yato laid her body back on the ground her spirit self passed out, landing back into her real body. She stayed asleep as she laid on the sidewalk. The cat popped it’s head out of Yato’s tracksuit. He scratched the top of it’s head. “Look what you did. I thought only black cats were supposed to be bad luck.”

“We have to finish our job Yato.” I reached over and scratched it’s head myself.

He smiled. “Let’s get you home little buddy.”

“What about Hiyori?” I looked down. “We can’t just leave her here.”

“What else are we supposed to do with her?” He was puzzled. “We don’t even know where she lives.”

I sighed. As much as I wasn’t fond of the girl, I didn’t want to leave her here unattended. There were some real creeps in the world. 

“You take the cat, I’ll take her.” He handed me Milord and grabbed Hiyori, setting her on his back.

* * * * * * 

Yato opened the gate to the house that Milord had belonged to, letting the small cat run up to the door. I walked with the furball, hitting the doorbell and running back out before anyone could see me on the porch. We left a second later, headed to find someplace where we could bring Hiyori. As we walked we both heard a voice. “You’re the best ever Yato. I knew you wouldn’t let me down.” Praise for the God Yato could be heard by himself and his Regalia when humans use his name. I looked over at him to see him smiling like an idiot. Making a difference in the world was one of the only things that Yato wanted to do… and tonight, he had done it. 

Taglist 💕 @izzythefanfreak

Updated: 5/13/2020

[alienseason]

Okay gaymers, the HLVRAI x Half Life x Portal crossover star trek au. YES i know it sounds like I’m a TWISTED CYCLEPATH BUT HEAR ME OUT OKAY. 

HLVRAI Gordon is the Captain! He’s human and has a robotic hand that somehow always ends up breaking for practically no reason. Joshie is there too! Joshie is not immune to Wesley sweaters i’m sorry. But Joshie is practically thrown around the ship when it comes to baby sitting; he usually ends up in Benrey’s care whether Gordon likes it or not.

Gordon’s first officer is Chell, who is an ex-b (ex-borg). She doesn’t talk much due to being an ex-b, as she doesn't really know how to make conversation. She’s still got some borg enhancments in place, and she isnt completly severed from the collective, but nobody else is aware. The borg queen, GlaDOS, is always being REALLY naggy and annoying to her in her brain. She’s not as annoying as Wheatly though. 

The Chief of security is Barney! He’s usually good at his job, but he spaces out a lot on the bridge. He’s really into political conspiracies and hates pretty much anything that crawls on four legs (unless they're frog or lizard-like). Barney’s spends A LOT of time being reckless n rowdy on the holodeck and usually ends up in sickbay with a bad leg. He’s just a southern space himbo, he cannot change this. He’s dating Matthew and sometimes fakes sick to go see him (we’ll get to Matthew later).

Bubby is the Chief science officer. He’s a cardassian because eat hot chip and lie. Nobody really trusts him...he kinda goes out of his way to seem suspicious just to mess with people. There’s a big rumor on the ship that he’s a spy, and this inflates his ego 100%. 

Alright....Benrey is a Q. Or Qrey if you prefer. He just kinda comes on the ship to cause mischief and annoy Captain Gordon. He’s always asking for Delta quadrant credentials, no matter where they are. He has an obsession with the holodeck and is always messing around with everyone’s programs. Like he made one of Gordon’s relaxing fishing programs turn into a bank robbery, ya know, for fun.

Tommy is an android and is the operations officer/ lieutenant commander. He’s got an up-link to Space Wikipedia in his system so he uses this to his advantage. Benrey gave him emotions (cause he was bored and kinda wanted someone to listen to him) but practically the only emotion that works properly is happiness, so he isn't that good at reading the room. He has a habit of giving the wrong info at the wrong time, but he tries his best! He also has Sunkist in his quarters.

Canon Gordon is named Matthew, and is HLVRAI Gordon’s brother (kinda based off @maxkillertart​ ‘s freeman brothers AU). He’s the Chief medical officer and just wants to do his job and have drinks with his boyfriend...that’s all he asks. He’s actually an augment, but the procedure KINDA messed up. He’s still basically a superhuman, he’s just mute and hard of hearing due to the augmentation going wrong. Gordon is the only one who knows about him being an augment since it’s still illegal in starfleet at this point.

Coomer is a quite broken Vorta clone that kinda gets thrown into their care. He was being produced durning an attack on the cloning phacillity he was born at so his dna is a little scrambled. He’s usually repeating random things and is always punching people for no reason. He and bubby are a terrifying force. Do not let them mix. 

Alyx is the chief engineer. You might think she’s the most sane one on the ship- but you are quite incorrect. She usually ends up making some sort of weird enhancements to the ship that were DEFIANTLY NOT NEEDED. She won’t stop though, and nobody can stop her. She’s got a big crush on Chell, so she’s usually attempting to impress her by making dumb little inventions. Alyx is always the one who is working on Gordon’s arm and giving Tommy a tune-up. 

Gman is secretly a Q who works for section 31. He’s always trying to recruit the Freemans, which always ends up in a no (though Gordon is tempted). He was the one who built Tommy in the first place.

[spectraspecs-writes]

Tatooine - Chapter 65 (Zaalbar, Carth)

Link to the masterpost. Chapter 64. Chapter 66.

@averruncusho, @ceruleanrainblues thank you for reading you get a tag. @skelelexiunderlord thank you for your support you get a tag.

------------------

It’s about thirteen hours from Tatooine to Kashyyyk, but these gizka are threatening to drive everybody nuts before we get there. For a little while, we managed to keep them isolated in the cargo hold, but someone must have opened the door long enough for them to get out. According to Canderous, Juhani found one in the fresher this morning and screamed, before muttering curses in Cathar. Personally, I think they’re adorable, but I’m in the minority. These little frogs are testing even Bastila’s patience. 

But they are simply adorable in my opinion. They like to be scratched behind the little nubs where their ears should be. It makes them purr a little. Unfortunately I’ve petted enough of them to have a small mob hopping behind me. HK wants to shoot them all but that’s not a very good option. We’d end up with a pile of dead bodies. And gizka aren’t particularly tasty so we couldn’t do much with the dead. I think Zaalbar tried to eat one of them, but couldn’t finish it. They’re just not that appetizing to anyone but Ithorians and Aqualish. And at this point they aren’t fit to sell for food - the regulations are very strict as I understand it as to who can sell gizka, the circumstances they’re raised under, the food they can eat while being raised. If they’d been delivered to the right people instead of to me, that’s probably where they’d have ended up.

If they’re still here by the time we’re done with the Star Forge, I’ll see about taking them to one of their native worlds, but until then they’re along for the ride.

Zaalbar has asked for my help trying to wrangle them once more into the cargo hold - which is the only place on the ship large enough to house them all now - and I’m helping him, but I don’t see how much good it’s going to do. If I may coin a phrase, the gizka’s out of the bag, so to speak. It’d be easier to keep them out of places than it would be to keep them in. 

When his makeshift gate collapses again, he groans in exasperation as the gizka hop out of the cargo bay again. “I’m telling you it would be a lot easier to just set up little electrical fields to keep them out of the dormitory quarters and the fresher. I can pick up some parts for it on Kashyyyk,” I tell him.

Zaalbar sort of huffs a sigh. His heart just isn’t in this anymore. “You okay?” I ask.

“Kashyyyk…” he says softly, slowly, “... my home. I should prepare you to go… but I don't know if I'm prepared myself.”

“How do you mean?” I ask him.

“I didn't leave Kashyyyk voluntarily. Mission must have told you how I was fleeing slavers… but there was more,” he says, “I am an exile. The slavers on Kashyyyk only took me after I was forced to leave my village home, 20 years ago.”

“Why were you forced to leave? What happened?”

“My brother made deals with the slavers and allowed them to get a foothold,” he says, “I found out and attacked him. The fight was stopped, but my father did not believe me when I told him about my brother's actions. I was made an exile, disowned by my home and people. I should not be here. They will not accept me back.”

“Why didn’t your father believe you?”

I almost get a sense of shame from him. “When I attacked my brother,” he says, “I was so mad… I used my claws. You don't understand what that means to a Wookiee. Our claws are tools, not weapons. To use them in battle is to become an animal. It is madness without honor. I am forever a madclaw in the eyes of my people. Nothing I say is to be trusted. They were right to cast me out.”

“Maybe things have changed,” I say, trying to be optimistic.

“Perhaps,” he says skeptically, “I just hope I can prove myself to my people. It will be difficult to make them listen. I just don’t know. I don’t have much hope.”

“Well,” I say, “I know it doesn’t mean much, but you’re always welcome here.” He sort of grunts. Perhaps that was the wrong thing to say.

-------

I knock on the bulkhead near the cockpit and Carth turns. “Hey,” he says before looking back at the controls, “What’s up?”

“Want a co-pilot?” I ask, “My piloting skills aren’t that great, but under the tutelage of a master such as yourself, I…”

“Don’t be such a kiss-ass,” he says with a smile, “Have a seat.”

I come the rest of the way in and turn the co-pilot’s chair.

There is a gizka sitting in the chair.

“There’s a gizka here,” I say.

“Yep.”

“Did you… put the gizka there?”

“Nope.” So I pick up the gizka and it wriggles out of my hands onto the deck, hopping away. So I sit down. “Although,” he says, grinning, “I was enjoying its company.” 

“Shut up,” I tease, surveying the controls. “I’m really not a good pilot,” I say, “I can navigate okay, but at least in surface vehicles I hit a lot of things.”

“Well, hyperspace is the most stable part of the trip,” he says, “Not much really needs doing.”

“Seems like the perfect time for me to come in, then,” I say, trying to interpret sensor readouts, “I won’t break anything or shoot somebody, run somebody over.”

“Well, you could knock us off the hyperspace route,” he replies, “Then we’d be in trouble.”

I quickly pull my hands off the console. “Maybe I shouldn’t touch anything then.”

He laughs, just a little. “I’m just saying it’s possible,” he says, “The controls for that are over here, anyway.”

I shake my head. “I guess I should just stick to droids,” I say, and I start to stand up.

“No, please, stay,” he says, “I could use the company, same as you.”

I stay, but -- “What do you mean, same as me?”

“You didn’t need my help to work on HK-47 the other day,” he says, “You didn’t even want my help. My company was a lot more valuable than my assistance. If it was just another set of hands you wanted, you would have used Teethree.”

I start to open my mouth, but I don’t say anything. “Uh-huh,” he says, “You know…” And then it just drops off. “Never mind,” he says, shaking his head, “Come on, where’s the woman with all the questions I was stuck with on Taris?”

Out of questions for the moment. Although I am curious what he was about to say. But when has a direct question worked on Carth? Something seems to be bothering him, he’s just putting up a front. I can’t tell if my people skills are telling me that or the Force, or what, but I know. “Well,” I say, “here’s a question for you, if you’re so eager.”

“Fire away.”

“Tell me why you want revenge on Saul so badly.”

He looks a bit surprised. “I already told you,” he says, “He betrayed us all.”

I shrug. “It just seems to be more… personal than that, that’s all.”

He sort of tosses his head a bit, looking a bit hesitant. But hey, he did tell me to fire away. “Well,” he starts to say hesitantly, “there… there is more to it. I'm… I'm sure you don't want to hear about it.”

“I asked, didn’t I?”

“It's just that I… don't talk about it very much. Okay?” Obviously. “I told you about my homeworld. Telos. Four years ago, Saul led the Sith fleet there and demanded its surrender. The planet refused and Saul proceeded to devastate its entire surface. Millions died.”

He hesitates again. “I had… a wife and son on Telos.”

Oh, so he was a dad. I knew it. Come on, Rena, not really the time for that, is it? “I thought they would be safe there,” he continues, “But my task force arrived too late to be of much help.” He takes his hands off the controls, just sort of letting them rest on the panel. “We didn't have enough medical supplies. The colony was burning and the dying were everywhere. I-I remember holding my wife and screaming for the medics.” And for a moment, I can see it, hear it, feel it like a rock on my chest. It’s weird, and I don't think either of us wanted it to happen. I’d have to ask Bastila about it to know for sure (and I know neither of us want that either), but I guess the emotion of the memory is just so strong that I just… felt it, I don’t know. “They… didn't come in time.” The feeling starts to fade. But I’ll never forget it. And neither will he.

“I’m so sorry,” I say softly, “That’s terrible. I had no idea.”

He stammers a little. “Of course not. How could you?” He shakes his head and goes back to the controls. “I… had nothing left after that, really. I devoted myself to the fleet. Hunting Saul was my only purpose. I… I miss them,” he says. His mind isn’t really on the ship. “I know killing Saul won't bring them back, and it won't make me happy again… but I have to do it. I don't expect you to understand. I have to pay him back for what he's done - I have to. It's all I have left.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” I say.

“No, it’s alright,” he says, “I don’t mind.” Well that’s a change.

“What was she like, your wife?”

He smiles. Of course he does. “She had courage… and she was stubborn.” He chuckles shortly. “A bit like you, in that respect.” (I felt a weird jealousy for a minute, but now it’s gone.) “I could never talk her out of anything once she put her mind to it. And she hated it when I signed back onto the fleet at the start of the war. I had planned on- on leaving soon, to join her…”

It’s nice to know where all the anger comes from. I couldn’t get over that either. “So what happened to your son?” I ask, “You never said.”

“His name was Dustil,” he says, “and I don't know what happened to him. The colony was a complete ruin, and we never found any trace of him.” Ouch. “I made inquiries and followed the reports from Telos for years, but… I stopped.”

We’re both quiet for a little bit, before I give a grim chuckle and say, “I guess this isn’t what you had in mind when you asked for my company, is it?”

He returns the chuckle. “No, but to be honest, I’m just glad you’re here. I like it when you’re around.”

“What a charmer,” I say. I’m glad to see him smile again. “You’re the most normal person on the ship to talk to. Canderous has nothing but war stories, which Mission loves but you have to be in the right mood for it, in my opinion. Juhani’s… a bit clingy, don’t tell her I said that. HK is… HK.” He laughs a bit at that. “And Bastila usually just wants to talk about Revan and Malak.”

He shakes his head. “To think that I once looked up to those two as the best that humanity had to offer,” he says, “Now I'd like nothing more than to put a blaster to both their heads. Although I suppose only Malak is left, isn't he? Turned on his own master, not that Revan didn't have it coming.” A wry chuckle. “Typical for their kind, I guess.”

“Did you ever meet either of them? Bastila hates talking about Revan.”

“I didn’t know them personally. They aided the Republic during the Mandalorian wars. They were heroes. Without them the Mandalorians would have finished us for certain. In the fleet, we didn't see much of the Jedi. I only met Malak once, but I was impressed by him,” he says, “I guess that just shows how much the Dark Side can change someone.”

“Do you… know why they turned?” I ask. I don’t take Bastila’s concerns seriously, but then maybe I don’t have enough information.

“Nobody does.” Well, that’s helpful. “When they left after the Mandalorian wars ended, they were Jedi. When they returned… they were something else. They had an entire fleet with them. Nobody knows where they got the ships. They had a lot of them and as the years have passed there always seems to be more and more… while our forces dwindle.”

“I have a feeling the Star Forge has something to do with that,” I say, “I mean, all the Dark Side I felt in the ruins on Dantooine, I’d be surprised if it didn’t have something to do with them.”

“In the end, the Dark Side won’t help them,” Carth says.

“You say that like you know something about it,” I say.

“I, uh… I used to think that it was a fancy name for something that I see every day. Corruption is everywhere. People are greedy and stupid and do horrible things,” he says, “I'm starting to think it's different for the Jedi, however. That there's this evil watching them, waiting for its chance.”

“Wow,” I say, “somehow you make it more ominous than Bastila.”

“I mean, you have so much courage and strength in you... yet, somehow, I have no trouble imagining it differently. Like the flip side of a coin,” he says. Please give me some words of comfort. “It's not just you. It's Bastila, as well. She's so... intense.”

I scoff. “Tell me about it.” 

“I don't pretend to know much about the Force,” he says, “… but I know evil.”

That’s an interesting thing to say. “You think Bastila and I are evil?”

“No, of course not,” he says quickly. Good, finally something comforting. “All I'm saying is that when you have so much power, the stakes are higher. I can only imagine the kind of conflict that goes on inside you. Neither you nor Bastila are fully trained on how to handle your power.” Well, that’s certainly true. “I'm just concerned at what might come.”

Oh, my God, what is that feeling? “That’s sweet,” I say, “I didn’t know you cared.”

He tries to backpedal, but the damage, so to speak, is done. “Well,” he stammers a bit, “that’s not what I… I mean… I wouldn’t want to see you hurt. Either of you.” Uh-huh. Sure. “I suppose finding the Star Maps is more important than your training… and your safety,” he says, “I just hope there isn’t a price for you to pay.”

“Believe me,” I say, “so do I.”

[cyborgsquirrel]

Sanctuary: Chapter 19

Pairing: Wolfstar

Summary: The epic tale of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, from their first meeting until their happily ever after.

Link to Prologue

Link to All Chapters

Tuesday, 5th October 1971, 4:30 pm

Remus left the hospital wing and headed straight for Gryffindor tower. He was still a little sore from his transformation, but there was no way he was going to admit that to Madam Pomfrey. Knowing her, she would keep him in for an extra night, and he wanted to see his friends too much for that. He had information they needed to know. 

Before leaving, though, he had asked her about the mystery of his full-moon symptoms starting so much earlier than normal, and she had put it down to how much he was using his magic every day. It was nice to have an answer, but, on this occasion, he hoped she was wrong. If she was right, it meant three full days of pain every month instead of one. Although, when he really thought about it, he had to admit, if he were forced to choose between Hogwarts and less pain, he would choose Hogwarts. Even if it meant pain all day every day, he would choose Hogwarts.

He clambered through the portrait hole, dashed across the common room (as much as he could dash with his aching joints, other people would probably call it a meander), and up the stairs to the dorm.

He burst into the room with an excited, ‘Guys, I’ve figured it out!’ kicking the door closed behind him, crossing the room and dropping his bag on his bed.

‘Figured what out?’ James asked, leaping off his bed and jumping around, apparently caught up in the excitement.

‘Hello, Remus. And how are you feeling?’ Sirius asked from where he was lounging on his bed and writing in his journal.

Remus turned to face Sirius. ‘I’m all better now, thank you. Nothing to worry about.’ He turned back to James, who was still bouncing on his toes waiting for the news. ‘I’ve figured out how to make everyone burp bubbles.’

‘Yes!’ James punched the air. ‘You are the best researcher a team of magical mischief-makers could ever ask for! How do we do it?’

Remus smiled. He had been hoping the news would be sufficient distraction to keep them from asking questions about his hospital stay. It looked like it was working.

‘The belch powder uses delayed transfiguration, like on the robes the Marauder did. So all we have to do is add an extra layer and set it to be triggered two seconds after the first layer.’

‘And you know how to do that?’ Peter asked.

‘Yes, it’s really easy. I can show you.’

Sirius closed his journal and placed it gently on the bed next to him, stood up in a single, graceful movement and sauntered over to him. ‘Hmm,’ he said, looking Remus right in the eyes. ‘I think I know your secret.’

Remus’ blood went cold.

 -o-o-o-o-

 ‘Hmm, I think I know your secret.’

Remus’ face went white. Shit. That was an epically piss-poor choice of words. Sirius hurried to finish before Remus did something ridiculously stupid, like outing himself by shouting, “I’m not a werewolf.”

‘You’re the Hogwarts Marauder,’ he said, pointing at him.

‘What?’ James said.

Sirius turned to James to explain his theory. And to take the attention off of Remus, who seemed to be struggling to catch his breath. ‘He has regular access to the laundry,’ he said, ticking each point off on his fingers. ‘He has apparently used delayed transfiguration before because he knows it’s “easy.” And he somehow knows the Marauder used delayed transfiguration to do the robe trick. He is amazingly good at transfiguration, as if he’s had lots of extra practice. And I’m pretty sure he was lying when he said he’d never altered a spell before. Therefore, I conclude, he is the Marauder.’

James’ eyes went wide, and he turned to Remus. ‘Is he right? Are you the Marauder?’

Remus seemed to have regained control of his lungs and he nodded. ‘Yeah. You got me, Sirius. It was me.’

‘That is so bloody brilliant!’ James said, returning to bouncing like an over-excited squirrel. ‘We can all be The Marauders! It’s much easier to say than magical mischief-makers. Oh, I wish we’d known before the niffler hunt. We could have used it for our team name.’

‘Breathe, James,’ Sirius said, laughing.

‘That was awesome, Remus. I really liked the lion,’ Peter said.

‘Thanks, Pete. I can make you another one if you like?’

Peter grinned. ‘Yes, please!’

James suddenly stopped bouncing. ‘If we’re going to be a club, we need rules and stuff.’

Remus frowned. ‘We’re a club now?’

‘Hell yeah, we’re a club!’ Sirius said.

James ran over to his trunk and pulled out another brand new notebook with a beautiful red dragon-hide cover, before sitting at the head of his bed cross-legged and patting the mattress in front of him. ‘Come on.’

Sirius and Peter were quick to pile on, but Remus hesitated. Sirius shuffled further over to make more room for him. ‘Come on, mate. You’re safe with us.’

Remus climbed onto the bed with extreme caution, sitting himself right on the edge. He was in danger of falling off, but Sirius didn’t want to push him. The full moon was only last night. Speaking of which…

‘Oh, if this is our first club meeting, then we should have chocolate,’ he said, before climbing carefully off the bed and going to his trunk to fetch the extra-large box of chocolate frogs he’d ordered ready for today. Fancy expensive chocolates were delicious, but right now Remus needed quantity, not quality, and he figured he’d be willing to eat more if they were cheap ones.

Sirius plonked the box in the middle of James’ bed and climbed back on.

James raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Are we ready now?’ 

‘Not quite,’ Sirius said. He ripped the box open, took out four chocolate frogs, throwing one to each of them and ripping the fourth open, before taking a bite. ‘Now we’re ready.’

James chuckled and shook his head. Ignoring his chocolate frog, he placed the notebook on top of the box in the middle of the bed. ‘This book comes with a built-in notice-me-not charm. If we all channel our magic into it and then activate the charm, we’ll be the only ones who see it.’

Sirius frowned at James. ‘Are you telling me you’ve had a way to pass notes in class without being seen this whole time and you never said?’

James gaped at him. ‘I never even thought of that.’

‘Idiot,’ Sirius said, cuffing James around the back of the head.

James scowled at him but didn’t argue. ‘Yeah, alright. Get your wands out then.’

They all took out their wands and channelled their magic into the notebook before James activated the charm. He opened the notebook to the first page and wrote  “The Marauders” across the top, followed by their names in a list.

‘We need to pick roles,’ James said. ‘I’m the ideas man, and Remus is obviously Chief of Research. Sirius?’

Sirius grinned. ‘I’m the charm.’

‘Why exactly do we need charm?’

‘To charm our way out of detention, of course. Minnie loves me.’

‘Hmm. We’ll come back to you. Peter?’

Peter shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I’m not really any good at anything.’

‘You’re great at potions. You’ve stopped me killing myself at least twice,’ Remus said.

‘And we’re all very grateful for that,’ Sirius said, nodding.

‘Chief Potioneer,’ James said, writing it down next to Peter’s name.

‘If Remus and Peter are both Chiefs, then we should be too,’ Sirius said. ‘You can be Chief Imaginator. And I’ll be Chief… Um.’

‘Artist?’ Remus suggested.

‘Excellent idea.’ James wrote both the titles next to their names and turned the page. He wrote Marauders Code along the top of the new page and looked back up.

‘Rules?’

Sirius grinned. ‘All feast days are Marauder celebrations and should be marked as such with Mischief.’

James pointed his quill at him. ‘Nice!’

‘All Marauder Mischief should be harmless and fun for everyone,’ Remus said before taking a large bite from his third chocolate frog. 

‘Unless we’re getting revenge,’ James said.

‘That’s not mischief,’ Remus said with a shrug. ‘It’s revenge.’

‘Good point.’ James wrote it down.

‘Marauders always keep each other’s secrets,’ Peter said.

‘But are not obligated to reveal their secrets before they’re ready,’ Sirius added quickly, making extra sure he wouldn’t look at Remus when he said it by reaching for another chocolate frog.

‘Rule, and amendment, accepted,’ James said.

‘Ooh, Marauders always come before girls,’ Sirius said.

James rolled his eyes. ‘Obviously.’ He wrote it down anyway.

‘A Marauder will always come to a fellow Marauder’s aid,’ Peter said.

‘That really goes without saying, doesn’t it?’ James said. ‘But I’ll write it down anyway.’

None of them could think of any other rules, so James put the notebook away, and they spent the rest of the evening stuffing their faces with chocolate and making more plans for Halloween. Remus was given a new research assignment, trying to find the recipe for the animation potion they had used before, and Sirius was delegated the task of drawing the most realistic picture of a bat he could manage. 

 -o-o-o-o-

 They didn’t find time to practise the mass delayed-transfiguration until Saturday. Remus had still been exhausted from the moon on Wednesday and spent the whole afternoon asleep, and it was far too much work to bother starting during a measly hour-long free period. Thursday evening, Remus and Sirius had Art Club, and Friday evening, they had all agreed they were too tired.

Remus sat his students down in a line on the floor and gave them each a bowl he’d borrowed from the kitchen that morning.

‘I want you to find your magical core and channel your magic into the bowl, just like we did with the notebook,’ he said.

He watched as they all placed their wand tips on their bowls and closed their eyes, and he knew it was working when the hairs on his arms stood on end. 

‘Good. Now’—he handed each of them a chocolate frog wrapper he had saved for the lesson—‘I want you to turn your wrapper pink.’

They frowned at him but did as they were told.

‘What was the point in that?’ James asked. ‘We’ve been able to do that for weeks.’

‘Because you have to do what you just did at the same time as channelling your magic and speaking the incantations for the delayed transfiguration, the timing charm and my combining spell.’

‘I thought you said it was easy,’ Sirius said.

Remus shrugged. ‘It is. You just have to focus.’

‘I can’t focus on that many things at once. I can barely focus on one thing.’

‘I found it easiest if you start channelling first, before focusing on your target and intent. Once you have your magic flowing, it’s fairly easy to turn your attention to something else while it continues in the background. We can work on adding the incantations when you get the hang of the first part.’

‘Okay,’ Sirius said, still sounding sceptical.

‘So, start channelling your magic. Once it’s flowing into the bowl, create your mental images of the pink wrapper and whatever colour you want to turn it. And if you think you’re ready, say the incantation for the delayed transfiguration.  Moratus Mutatio . You’ll need to channel for about twenty seconds to change the wrapper.’ 

‘Moratus Mutatio,’ they all repeated before beginning the task.

James was the first to open his eyes. He grinned at Remus but didn’t speak, obviously knowing better than to break his friends’ concentration. Peter was next. He looked around and seemed surprised to see Sirius was still trying. Looking at Remus, he raised his eyebrows, jerked his head towards Sirius and raised his fists in the air as if celebrating a victory. It took all of Remus’ self-control not to laugh. Sirius didn’t take much longer, opening his eyes about thirty seconds after Peter and glancing to the others. 

‘Dammit, I’m last,’ he said with a huff. 

‘It’s not a competition, Sirius,’ Remus said. 

‘Everything,’ Sirius said, ‘is a competition.’

Remus rolled his eyes. ‘If you say so. Let’s see if you all managed it, shall we? Drop your wrappers into your bowl.’

They did so and all three of them changed. James’ turned Gryffindor red, Peter’s turned white and Sirius’ turned blue with bright orange spots. 

‘No wonder you took longer,�� Remus said. ‘Why did you bother with spots?’

Sirius shrugged. ‘If you’re going to do something, might as well do it properly.’

Remus laughed. ‘Well, I guess if everything’s a competition you won this round. Ten points to Gryffindor.’

‘If only you  could  hand out points,’ James said. 

Remus was finding he quite enjoyed teaching. He got a thrill of excitement when they managed to achieve something under his guidance.

‘What’s next?’ Peter asked.

‘Next, you need to learn the timing charm. I tested it with defodio, but we probably shouldn’t damage anything in here. You all have the hang of Wingardium Leviosa, right?’ They all nodded, so Remus continued, ‘Great, I want you to cast the timing charm on your wrapper followed by wingardium leviosa. After you cast the levitation charm, you’ll need to move your wand in the path you want it to travel. The timing charm is  Statuto tempus.’

They all followed his instructions to the letter. Remus was a little surprised that James and Sirius were being so attentive. They never paid that much attention in class. But he supposed this was for fun, so it was far more important than class in their minds. 

Sirius and James succeeded on their first attempt. Peter took a few tries, but it was only a couple of minutes before his wrapper was floating around the room with James’ and Sirius’, seemingly of their own accord.

‘We have got to use this for Halloween. We can make the candles do a dance,’ James said.

‘That will take forever to set up,’ Remus said.

James rolled his eyes. ‘So? We can do it over a few nights if necessary.’

‘Alright, we’ll talk about that later. We’re on the last step now. Basically, do exactly what you did before but add the timing charm and my combination spell. The full incantation will be  Statuto tempus et magicae simulio moratus mutatio.’

‘Merlin’s ragged and pointy hat, that’s a lot to remember,’ Sirius said. ‘How in Godric’s name did you manage to do all that?’

Remus considered the question. He hadn’t really found it that difficult. But why was that?

‘I think it might be the meditation.’

Sirius frowned. ‘The what?’

‘It’s a muggle thing. My mum bought me a book about it a few months before we started school. It helps me control my temper, but it’s improved my focus too.’

Sirius looked interested. ‘I could use a little help with that too. How does it work?’ 

‘It’s a lot of breathing and visualising stuff in your mind. I could teach you?’ 

‘It’s a date,’ Sirius said, winking and making him blush. Again. Goddammit. He really needed to stop reacting like that. 

Sirius smirked at him.

They went over the incantation several times until they all had it memorised before they tried it. Remus told them to set their timing charm for eleven o’clock. An hour would be long enough for them to get it done, he thought.

James finished first, again, after thirty minutes of trying, Sirius came second this time, finishing ten minutes after James and beating Peter by a full five minutes. They sat in silence, waiting for him to open his eyes. Sirius kept pulling faces, trying to make them laugh until Remus scowled at him to make him stop.

They dropped their chocolate wrappers into their bowls, and while they waited to see if they had been successful, they returned to the discussion of the dancing candles. 

‘It could be dangerous,’ Remus said. ‘If someone got in the way, they could be burnt or even catch fire.’

‘That would be bad. We’d be expelled for sure,’ Peter said. 

‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ James said. ‘I think we need to add that to your Marauder role. Remus Lupin, Chief Researcher and Safety Monitor.’

Remus bowed. ‘I graciously accept.’

‘Excellent, I’ll write it in the book later. So, Maraudering Chief of Research and Safety, how do we do the dancing candles without hurting anyone?’

‘Hmm, some kind of shield charm around the candles? That would stop anyone getting hit by molten wax, too.’

Sirius frowned. ‘That sounds pretty advanced.’

Remus nodded. ‘The basic personal shield charm is a second-year spell, I think. But we wouldn’t need anything that powerful for this. It only needs to stop fire and solid objects, not magic. I’ll have a look next time I’m in the library.’

‘Which will probably be later today, right?’ Sirius asked, laughing.

Remus refused to be embarrassed by his dedication to schoolwork. They wouldn’t be able to understand why it meant so much to him, so he couldn’t blame them for finding his behaviour strange but he wouldn’t hide it. 

‘Probably,’ he agreed. ‘I want to look up some things for the cockatrice essay,’

When eleven o’clock came, all three wrappers changed colour. James’ was gold this time, Sirius had gone for purple and Peter’s was black.

‘Well done,’ Remus said. ‘I can’t believe you all got the hang of it so fast.’

Sirius winked at him. ‘You’re just an amazing teacher, Remus.’

‘That might be a part of it,’ Remus said, feeling his face heating up again. He was going to end up permanently red at this rate.

They practised a few more times, trying out more complex transfigurations and working their way up to creating bubbles. They took a break for lunch, and the other Marauders joined Remus in the kitchen, where Remus taught them the theory of turning a gas into a liquid, as they wouldn’t be covering it in class until November. Peter picked it up surprisingly quickly, and Remus wondered if it was the informal setting putting him more at ease. The classroom environment didn’t work for everyone. 

By two o’clock, they were all happily transfiguring pockets of air in the room into bubbles of various sizes, and the dormitory was filled with them.

‘I think you’re ready,’ Remus said, with a wide smile. 

James fetched the belch powder his dad had sent him, and they settled down to complete the mammoth task. They would need to channel for an hour to be sure there was enough magic in the bowls to work on each grain of powder. 

 -o-o-o-o-

 The following Tuesday, after lunch, Sirius was lounging on his bed in the dorm, chatting with James and Peter while they waited for their spells to activate. They had been practising the timed levitation charm for Halloween, and there were a number of items placed strategically around the room.

 ‘Only four more days until we find out what’s behind the locked door,’ Sirius said.

James was sitting up on his bed, tossing a balled up pair of socks back and forth across the room with Peter. ‘I know. I can’t wait. What do you reckon it is? I bet it's something awesome.’

‘This is Hogwarts, mate. It could literally be anything.’

They all looked over when the door burst open and an out of breath Remus rushed through it.

‘I’ve found the recipe!’ he said, collapsing on his bed.

James perked up. ‘For the animation potion? No way!’ 

Remus sat up. ‘Yes. I still don’t see how we can use it, though. We don’t want to ruin the feast by making the tables gallop off again.’

‘Give it to our Chief Potioneer. He’s going to see what he can do with it.’

Remus stood up and took three steps across the room towards Peter when all of a sudden various items around the room rose into the air and converged on him.

‘Oh shit! Remus, duck!’ Sirius cried.

Remus didn’t need telling twice. He dropped to the floor and rolled onto his back to watch as the quills, socks, screwed up balls of parchment, and potions bottles carried out an elaborate dance above his head.

He pointed at one particular item. ‘That quill is out of time with the others.’

Sirius threw his pillow at him. ‘Shut up, it was our first attempt.’

Remus arched his head back to look at him. ‘Really? Well, in that case, it’s very impressive. Well done.’

A couple of minutes later, it was safe for Remus to stand back up, and he handed the recipe he’d copied from the library book to Peter, who looked it over with a frown. 

‘This is pretty straightforward,’ he said after a couple of minutes. ‘If I substitute a couple of items and add in a targeting charm at the end, we can make it so it only animates the bats. We’ll need to add one of them to the potion so it knows what to target.’ He looked up from the parchment. ‘It’ll take two full days to brew though.’

‘We’ll have to do it in here over the weekend,’ Sirius said.

‘But what if they do a dorm check and catch us? We’d get in serious trouble for brewing in the dorm,’ Peter said.

‘If one of us stays in the room at all times, we can avoid dorm checks. The house-elves don’t come in if the room’s occupied,’ James said.

Remus looked at him. ‘How do you know that?’

James grinned. ‘My dad told me. He thought it was important information every boy should be aware of.’

Sirius laughed. ‘I kind of love your dad.’

‘Strange. I kind of love him too,’ James said with a chuckle. ‘He would adore you. You should come over in the summer holidays. All of you. We can have a Marauder sleepover or something.’

Yeah. That wasn’t going to happen, Sirius thought. No way his parents were going to let him out of the house that summer. 

‘I can practically see you thinking, Sirius. You can’t possibly believe your mother is daft enough to refuse an official invitation from House Potter? That would be social suicide.’

He was right. She’d be furious about it, of course, but she’d have no choice but to let him go. Sirius grinned. ‘It’ll be brilliant!’

‘Yeah, it will! Peter, you in?’ James said. 

‘Definitely. I’m sure my mum won’t mind.’

‘Remus?’

Sirius glanced over. Remus was biting his lip. He knew what the problem was; he wouldn’t be able to say yes unless he knew exactly what day it was going to be.

‘I’ll have to ask my mum. But I’d like to come if she lets me.’

Translation: I want to come, but only if it’s not a full moon.

Sirius decided then and there to make sure the get together happened when it wasn’t a full moon so Remus could be there. It wouldn’t be a Marauder sleepover without the original Marauder, after all.

 -o-o-o-o-

 Two days later, after Potions had ended, Remus waited for the rest of the students to clear out before making his way to the front of the class.

‘Excuse me, Professor. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about the uses of dragon blood in potions?’ 

Slughorn looked up from the essay he was marking. ‘Of course, my boy. What is it you’d like to know?’

‘Well, I was thinking about its use in healing potions. Could it be mixed with dittany to make its effects stronger?’

Peter had told him to ask that. Apparently dittany and dragon’s blood were an explosive combination.

‘Oh, Merlin, no! That’s a terrible idea. Dragon’s blood is very volatile, and it dislikes dittany immensely. Don’t ever combine them.’

Remus nodded. ‘Understood, sir.’

‘Do you have an interest in potions?’

Remus shrugged. ‘It’s more an interest in healing, really. You may have noticed I’m not particularly adept with a cauldron.’

‘Well, you’ll need at least a little competency with potions to get into the healers’ program at St Mungos. But I may be able to help you with that. I have a few connections in the trainee intake department. Why don’t you come to my party this Saturday, and I’ll see what I can do for you? You’re friends with Black, Potter and Pettigrew aren’t you?’ 

Remus nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Invite them along too. It starts at seven pm in the room next door to this one.’

‘I will, sir. Thank you.’

‘Not at all. Have a lovely evening, Mister Lupin.’

‘You too, sir’ Remus said, hurrying from the room and hoping he had kept Slughorn talking for long enough.

James, Sirius and Peter were waiting for him outside and gave him a thumbs up. They had got what they needed for the potion. Excellent.

 -o-o-o-o-  

 The Official Marauders Notebook

The Marauders

James Potter - Chief Imaginator and Lily Evans Stalker

Sirius Black - Chief Artist and Charmer of Teachers

Remus Lupin - Chief Researcher and Safety Monitor and Chocolate Eating Genius

Peter Pettigrew - Chief Potioneer and Master of Food Procurement

  The Marauders Code

- All feast days are Marauder celebrations and should be marked as such with Mischief

- All Marauder Mischief should be harmless and fun for everyone

- Marauders always keep each other’s secrets but are not obligated to reveal their secrets before they’re ready

- Marauders always come before girls

- A Marauder will always come to a fellow Marauders aid

- The Chief Imaginator is responsible for providing all Marauders with daily chocolate and must give compliments to them once every hour.

  6th October

The crossed-out sections were added in permanent ink at some point during the night when all NORMAL people were sleeping, and they do not count. The main suspect is one Sirius Black, who is giggling like a girl. - James Potter Chief Imaginator and Lily Evans Stalker.

  7th October

Sirius! Stop adding things to the Official Marauder Notebook or I’ll kick you out of the club! - James Potter Chief Imaginator and Lily Evans Stalker.

 8th October 1:23 am

James! Never! And I don’t giggle like a girl. My laugh is deep and manly. - Sirius Black Chief Artist and Charmer of Teachers.

 Monday 11th October 11:45 am

  Chief Imaginator to Chief Researcher, Gods Transfiguration theory is boring, have you had any luck finding that recipe yet?

No, I’m going to look tomorrow afternoon. And it’s not boring; it’s important. Especially if you want to be able to change, oh I don’t know, bubbles into bats? -  Chief Researcher and Safety Monitor.

You have to sign your messages so we know who it’s from. I did it for you this time. And you make a good point, I will try to pay attention. - Chief Imaginator

You know who it’s from, James. I passed it to you. And you’re not doing a very good job of paying attention. I saw you flicking bits of parchment at Snape. -  Chief Researcher and Safety Monitor.

They were drawings of his ugly nose. I think he appreciated them. Please sign your name. For me? - Chief Imaginator.

I will if you do your work - Remus

Fine! - Chief Imaginator.

 Thursday 14th October, 3:00 pm

 Remus, we need you to distract Slughorn after class. Can you talk to him about something? - James.

Sure, how long do you need? - Remus.

Long enough to sneak into his office and grab some ingredients. - James.

Ask him about mixing dragon’s blood and dittany, he’ll be horrified - Peter.

Why, what does it do? - Remus.

Let’s just say they’re an explosive combination - Peter.

Peter, you’re giving me ideas - Sirius.

Sirius, as Marauder Safety Monitor, I forbid you to blow up the school - Remus.

Remus, you spoil all my fun :( - Sirius.

Chapter 20