#who is of course probably not going to the afterlife either since she's now a part of Maki so her own care for her eternal soul goes out th

[maddmuses]

Thinking about my Miwa and how to get her back her sword, and my first thought is a new Binding Vow to void her previous one, in exchange for not passing onto the afterlife?

Alternatively, her initial vow might have been voided by the strike never being used, but they might need a specialized sorcerer to determine that before she tries again.

[thewertsearch]

JASPERSPRITE: I think you should tell him that you like him you might not get the chance if you dont. […] AC: :33 < i know, but its just not that simple. i could make someone else jealous i think, and what if he doesnt f33l the same way, and, urrgh, its so complickated

I totally understand Nepeta’s perspective here. She’s always been hyper-aware of the meteor’s relationship dynamics, and would naturally be overwhelmed by the interpersonal implications of pursuing Karkat.

That said, I think this was a misstep on her part. I don’t think that Terezi – the rival I assume she’s alluding to – would actually mind sharing Karkat with Nepeta. The latter is clearly looking for a redrom, and Terezi always seemed to have red and black feelings for Karkat. Having Nepeta fill his hearts quadrant would help Terezi settle into spades, thus stabilizing their relationship.

JASPERSPRITE: I have another story that might give you hope even though it should be noted again that im only a cat. […] JASPERSPRITE: Yes one time i was with rose and i was sitting there dressed up in my suit with her as happy as can be. JASPERSPRITE: But then she disappeared! JASPERSPRITE: The whole place disappeared and i was in another place. […]

Ooh, now this is one of the oldest mysteries remaining in the comic.

Come to think of it, it’s odd that Rose never asked Jaspersprite about this event before. Sure, she asked him why he meowed as he was spirited away, but she never asked him where he was spirited away to.

JASPERSPRITE: […] There was no rose there was someone else. JASPERSPRITE: I guess i loved her too in time but never as much as rose it just wasnt the same.

A woman or girl, then. My original theory was that Jaspers was snatched by either Rose or Mom - but since Jaspers clearly didn't recognize his new owner, I'm going to have to reassess things.

...I suppose it still could have been Rose or Mom, but they'd have to look very different from the Lalondes we know, so that Jaspers would no longer recognize them. Perhaps an older version of Rose, from much later in the comic - but then again, wouldn't a cat still recognize Rose by smell? Jaspers seems to be telling us, quite clearly, that his new owner was not a Lalonde.

Well, what are the other possibilities, then? I'm assuming his owner was a human, because if Jaspers was stolen by an alien, he'd probably comment on the fact. Plus, the only troll with any interest in Jaspers is Nepeta - and Nepeta won't be doing very much of anything very soon.

I guess he could have been swiped by some version of Jade, such as the future incarnation who serves as the Pen-Pal's 'grandmother'. I have no idea what she'd want with Jaspers, or why she'd return him - but we still don't know anything about Future Jade's activities, so that's just par for the course with her.

JASPERSPRITE: I kept waiting to see rose again but never did and finally i lost hope that i would and then i died. JASPERSPRITE: But then i became alive again and i got to see her and i was so happy! Purr purr purr purr purr. JASPERSPRITE: Thats my story and thats why i think theres always hope even if you die. AC: :33 < so, youre saying that maybe i will have to die to get to be with him? JASPERSPRITE: Yes maybe. :3

I certainly hope not. Not because I want Nepeta’s ghost to be lonely, of course – I just don’t want Karkat to be entering the afterlife any time soon!

[homuraakumaakemi]

Sayaka wasn’t always cold to me. I remember her defending me when some people tried to bully me. But that was an eternity ago. Our relationship was more tense from the point I became a Magical Girl. If I explained myself, she’d take the worst interpretation. When I don’t, she does so anyway.

She was still chosen to help save my sorry ass when the Incubators tortured me and reduced me to live BAIT. Probably had to be convinced. “Oh, of course you can help, but I must save her personally, Sayaka! No, don’t worry! Nothing can go wrong!” I refuse to believe Sayaka would just… give me the benefit of the doubt. She’s almost as stubborn about what she believes as I am. Yet she came. Somehow, she was convinced. I guess the times we could play nice made an impact.

Either Madoka didn’t foresee what was to come… or she didn’t want to believe it…

That awful day, when panic and impulse overwhelmed me… Every bad thing Sayaka said and thought about me was proven frighteningly true. She realized she was wise to not trust me, even if she didn’t know how wise. Maybe she believes not that I should have been left a Witch, since that would play into the plans of the Incubators to undermine Madoka’s wish even worse than I am. Would it make a difference if I planned it all along? No. The result would be the same for everyone.

Maybe Sayaka believes now I should have been killed. Either left in limbo in that Labyrinth in my soul… or shattered some time before…

I doubt she will give me the benefit of the doubt again, and she will be wise for it. No, when she remembers, when the time is right… She will be the one to maneuver Madoka to stop me… by any means necessary. Convincing her to give me everything I deserve for what I did. To her. To them. To everyone. Because now, they see what I am capable of.

All I can hope is that Sayaka understands that yes, Madoka does want to help people, and sometimes, it really is that simple… she is also lonely. Not necessarily literally. I do not know for sure how she set up the afterlife.

But imagine this. You were born a human. Seemingly nothing special, but the truth is you have a family that is alive, well, and loving. You have friends, people who would stand by you no matter what. Your school life is perfectly in the middle. Not a pariah, mocked at every turn, but not so popular that people see you more for your physical attributes or talents than as a person. You were born with an innate desire to help people. You love everyone and everything. You may be thinking that’s wonderful, and it can be. However, it can easily be turned to depression and a desire to affirm yourself, but that does not make that desire any less genuine. Allow me to explain.

You have this burning desire, as well as this passionate belief that EVERYONE deserves a chance to be happy. You also become aware of things happening in the world. You become aware that to many people, their happiness can only come by taking away the chance for other people to be happy. And you become aware you can do nothing about it. You will never be Sailor Moon. You will never be God. But it’s not about you, rather that you want to see justice and love prevail. You feel their pain as your own without the need to think about it. Everyone’s pain. If this were you, how would that make you feel? That’s how it can begin. That is how a kind, gentle girl like Madoka Kaname can hide a lot of sadness in her heart. But she’d think it’s silly to worry about this. She’d think, “Even Sayaka’ll laugh at me and say it can’t be helped.” Who can understand her? Who can reach out and say she knows what this is like?

Arrogantly, I had thought once that I could be that girl. I knew what it was like, feeling like I’m not good enough, yet desperately wanting to be useful to people. Wanting to make the suffering of the world a little less. But a long time ago, I had realized I was a fool. I missed the key. I consistently forgot that I am not the only one who lived this simple truth: When someone you love suffers or dies, and something comes along all, “The suffering can stop, and YOU can stop it. Even the hands of death and time can be turned backwards,” many people will jump on that chance to finally be useful, to finally have the power to TRULY help. Many Magical Girls make their wish for this, even if they do not have the innate desire to help absolutely everyone they can. It’s not just me… and it’s not just Madoka. That’s why the only way to save Madoka ended up being Madoka becoming the closest thing to God in this world. A by-product of our wishes. Yet still, even with all the power in the world, I know… it will never be enough. You can split a river, end a war, solve world hunger, and end dependence on oppressors, but all your mind, even then, will be focused on is what you haven’t done. What you can’t do.

It seemed logical to me when that nasty thought started to fester. Would people realize even God can feel like that? Even God can be lonely? Even Madoka can feel like she’s not good enough? She has this burning desire to help EVERYONE, yet for all her power, it only makes her feel more powerless when she can’t. Now, this isn’t a constant thing. Unlike me, she can find happiness. But sometimes, such thoughts can linger…

I hope Sayaka can come to understand this. She has known Madoka for her entire life. Even if it’s on a smaller scale, Sayaka would know what this is like, if it’s explained to her, and she listens. If anything good comes out of my actions, let it be that, and let it be that Madoka can open up about this to certain people, and they will not mock her for this.

When she will be told it’s okay to be a little selfish, I mean this… and also for her to embrace her desires independent of her desire to help and love everyone. It’s okay to yearn for family and friends. It’s okay to yearn for someone to see the universe with. A true equal. Even when people believe you can have no equal.

Who better to have by your side than the one who’s been by your side all along? She will just need to prove herself, I think. Can your equal rise up to the challenge, Madoka? Will you rise, Sayaka? It’ll be an uphill battle, but who else is in such a potential position?

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

👽AITA for telling kids that aliens are real?👽

this is a bit of a goofy one, maybe not THAT serious, i just want to know the internet’s thoughts.

i (20sM) have a friend (20sF) who is a nanny for a family of 3 kids, and has one kid of her own. i won’t give the kids’ ages but they’re all younger than 10. she often brings her own kid to work so they can hang out, and on this one particular day this summer she invited me to come hang out, getting ice cream and going to a nearby park.

i have a decent amount of tattoos, and since the weather was warm, this was the first time these kids got a good look at them. of course, they’re really into it, and start asking me questions like “did this one hurt?” “will they go away?” yknow, things like that. as they find different ones, i tell them little stories about what they mean: the flower behind my ear is our state flower, the skeleton just looked cool, that one’s for a band you probably shouldn’t listen to until you’re older, etc. at one point we arrive at the one on my upper arm, which is an alien spaceship.

here’s the thing. i’m not very good at talking to kids, and never have been. i was kinda using this ice cream date as my chance to practice and watch how my friend does it. i also do wholeheartedly believe in aliens, and got this tattoo as a way of getting silly with it and feeling less embarrassed when i tell someone i believe in aliens (not that it’s something TO be embarrassed about, i’ve just been talked down to about it a lot by people who disagree so that instilled a bit of shame. but you can’t be embarrassed about something you got permanently etched into your skin!).

so when i get the “what’s this one?” question about the alien ship, i decided i’d have a little fun with it, so i answered: “it’s an alien spaceship. aliens are REAL, you know!”

here’s how i see it: these are kids. i didn’t want to beat around the bush and give a long-winded “i really like aliens a lot, some of my favorite media is about aliens, and i think they actually exist.” i feel like that’s a lot for a kid to grasp, plus with the added concept of “i think this is real, but others might not.” the debate on extraterrestrials echoes a lot of ideas one might have debating the existence of god or an afterlife, and while i’m all for questioning the beliefs you were raised with, these kids are a bit too young for that, and they’re not my kids anyway. plus, believing in aliens is relatively harmless, right? i wanted to give them a little sense of wonder and encourage them to do some research if it’s something they liked the idea of.

after the kids weren’t around, my friend kinda told me off for it a bit. she didn’t want the kids she nannies for to go to their parents and tell them that “[name]s friend with a bunch of tattoos told me aliens are real.” and in that sense… i can see where i might’ve fucked up.

fast forward a couple months, and lo and behold, these kids are now obsessed with aliens. on the one hand, i do feel a little bad for it. but on the other hand, i kinda feel like aliens are a fairly common childhood obsession? lots of kids cartoons are about aliens, and in my mind it seems no different from an obsession with dinosaurs or greek mythology or something. it doesn’t seem like the parents are actively trying to discourage it, either. at the same time tho, i can see how telling the kids something like that could’ve cost my friend her job.

i’m more than happy to talk to the kids about alien stuff more if they want, but i’m still not fully sure if i should’ve said anything at all. is that something i should’ve let them discover on their own?

What are these acronyms?

[polyhexian]

Collected thoughts on the Grimwalker Ghost Zone:

Poor Caleb's experience as a dead person is just. Not normal.

Most dead people are gonna keep an eye on their friends, their kids, their grandkids, and MAYBE their great-grandkids. And then there's no direct ties left to worry so much about the living anymore and you can get on with your afterlife.

And then we have Caleb.

So it's like. The average dead person keeps an eye on the living for 100 years after their death, at most. Caleb Wittebane, who's been cloned 200 times in the last four centuries and feels personally responsible for his still-living brother trying to enact a genocide--

In undefined characters-watching-from-the-afterlife scenarios I usually default the watching happening via TV unless stated otherwise. But it's TOH so I'm imagining Caleb slouched on the couch in front of a big crystal ball. He's not alone of course, Evelyn is there, she checks on him often like, uh. hey sweetie. you doing okay?

Caleb: Evie, meet Virtue! HE ONLY LASTED 11 MONTHS

Evelyn: …you know you COULD stop paying attention to--

Caleb: NO I CAN'T

Evelyn: *sigh* No, you can't.

And of course all the Grimwalkers are there, cuz, like. Where else are they gonna go? They barely had lives, wtf are they gonna do with their afterlives? Might as well wait for Belos to croak, they'll figure out what to do next AFTER they've gotten some closure.

So they're all just in this house together. It's the afterlife, stuff just gets provided, and the afterlife saw fit to provide them with a big stupid house. There's plenty of space and the crystal ball somehow gets repaired every time it suffers an anger-induced shattering and the liquor cabinet is always well-stocked.

Caleb's watching the living with the same energy as someone who's been watching a show since its premiere, but then the writing started going downhill and the plot jumped the shark and now they can't STOP watching because they intend to see this through to the bitter and disappointing end. When he first died he was so upset he refused to even THINK about Philip for a decade and just paid attention to his wife and kid. At some point he checked on Philip out of morbid curiosity, which led to morbid realization, which led to him thinking he should check on Philip more. And then there's clones and this Collector kid and Philip is obviously planning SOMETHING and then Evelyn dies of old age but Philip apparently has no intentions of dying anytime soon and then Caleb's KID is dead and Philip is still alive and Caleb's GRANDKIDS are dead but Philip isn't and there's been 20 Grimwalkers so far and Philip shows no signs of stopping either living OR making and killing Grimwalkers and OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING??

When Evelyn dies she's so ready for her reunion with Caleb. "I'm so glad I can finally rest in peace with my beloved--Caleb what are you doing?"

He's standing in front of a conspiracy board like "Philip's spent the last few decades cloning me and killing the clones and I don't like where it's going."

Evelyn: What. WHAT? Philip's ALIVE? I haven't seen him since he killed you, how the fuck has nothing eaten him??

Caleb: Btw meet Caleb 2, Hunter, Hunter 2, Hunter 3, and Nameless Vivisection Experiment (he's working on a name).

Assorted Grimwalkers: *awkward wave?*

Evelyn: CALEB WHAT?

Caleb's just like, Evie, you have no idea how glad I am you fell off Philip's radar, we're lucky all he did was steal my corpse. I'm being completely serious, unfortunately.

And then the Grimwalkers start coming and they don't stop coming, and they're just stuck in this together because what ELSE are they gonna do? Caleb staring at the crystal ball like "This is Hell. The Puritans were right. Hell exists, and this is it." Evelyn's like "Hell isn't a place, dear. It's just a situation. Our neighbors are resting in so much peace, they'd probably think they're in your Heaven if they knew what that was!"

Everyone isn't watching at all times, cuz that'd be ridiculous. It's kinda like when you're having a party for a sports game, not everyone's paying attention to the TV. You'll have people hanging out chatting and eating and chilling and then there are the people who are intensely paying attention to the game.

Caleb's the one intensely paying attention. Everyone else kinda pops up like "so is he dead yet? is he close to being dead yet? no? bummer. who's this? nice to meet you Virtue. 11 months? yikes"

And it's not like it's just them! It's the afterlife, everyone else who's ever died is perfectly capable of dropping by for a visit. Not that many people do, because the Grimwalker Ghost Zone has a bit of a…reputation. Like. Those people are NOT having a normal afterlife. Let's just. Leave them be.

Sometimes the Witteclaw kid comes to visit. Hi Mom! Hi various tragic brother/uncles (brouncles?) who are literally and figuratively younger than me! Oh, hey new guy, welcome! 11 months? Yikes. Hope you're settling in alright! Mom, what state should I expect Dad to be in when I go say hi? Last time he was manically planning which part of his brother he was going to punch first upon arrival. Ah, depressive episode? Got it, I'll be gentle.

Evelyn's family come to visit like yeesh you and Caleb are still paying attention to the living? It's been like. 400 years. No one stays this invested this long.

Caleb, gesturing at the CB: MY BROTHER IS STILL ALIVE AND IS LITERALLY BEATING A CLONE OF ME AT THIS VERY MOMENT

Relatives: Okay but have you considered, like. getting over it.

They're not even wrong. Continuing to watch the living for this long is, like, the same energy as keeping tabs on your high school friends that you haven't spoken to in 30 years. This isn't healthy. You need better hobbies. Okay it's KIND OF understandable since Caleb's brother and clones are involved, but like. You realize this is entirely optional, right?

Evelyn: Caleb, honey, please, you PROMISED we could have dinner with my parents tonight.

Caleb: ENOCH JUST KILLED A BIRD WITH HER BARE HANDS

Evelyn: We've all killed birds with our bare hands, darling. Come put your shoes on.

When Tell pops up he turns out to be just as invested as Caleb is, on account of the wife and kid situation. So Caleb actually has consistent company for 15 years while they both basically live through the same hell.

Tell walks into the kitchen for a beer and finds Caleb face-down on the floor and Tell's like "what's up man" and Caleb's like "Virtue died" and Tell is like "isn't he like eleven months" and Caleb just nods and Tell's like "cool I'm gonna go meet him" and just leaves Caleb on the floor. Caleb's like "wait didn't you hate him" and Tell's like "yeah but I mean. he doesn't know that."

At some point someone tells Virtue "Y'know Tell literally hated you" (Miles? my money's on Miles) and it starts a whole sibling fight that Evelyn has to break up.

"MILES SAID TELL HATED ME!"

"I didn't hate you I just hated the idea of you! It wasn't personal!"

"Yeah he was always really smug when another Grimwalker would rot in the ground."

"MILES DON'T TELL HIM THAT!"

Caitlyn and Dust die and Dust is like "what is WRONG with your daughter?" and Tell is like "ouch, but fair" and Virtue's like "she probably gets her penchant for not caring about Grimwalkers FROM HER DAD" and Tell is like "HEY." At this rate Caleb's gonna be the first dead person to have an aneurysm.

Evelyn's just glad to have Caitlyn around. Sure, she's dealing with the shock of her death after over a decade of dissociating, but Evelyn's just like FINALLY, someone who isn't a Grimwalker, and she's family to boot!

Caitlyn: Wait, family? I guess you look like a Clawthorne but I've never heard of you. How are we related?

Evelyn: Haha well I'm your many-great-grandma who Belos had very personal beef with 400 years ago and I may or may not be the reason why he decided to enact his sick game of house with you. I would say I'm sorry but literally none of this is my fault.

Caitlyn: Oh my god.

Evelyn: Haha yeah watching you and Enoch over the last 12 years has been extremely horrifying on a deeply personal level. What's your favorite alcohol? I promise we have it.

When Enoch dies Tell's like "well it was nice hanging out Caleb, thanks for all the screaming sessions, I'm gonna go get some quality time with my dead family now, peace" and Caleb's just like haha cool. fine. GLAD YOU CAN FINALLY REST IN PEACE, TELL. how many of my bones are left? there's no way this can continue after they're all used up, right? They're down to a ribcage and he's counting down the ribs.

Jasper dies and gets greeted by Tell who's like "howdy, normally our ortet would greet you but he's a little busy dealing with emotions right now"--*muffled screaming down the hall*--"so it was decided I'd be the best one to explain things since we've got some things in common." Jasper's kinda dazed like "uh…I didn't really think anyone was gonna greet me" and Tell's like "HAHA YEAH none of us ever do."

Jasper becomes just as invested as Caleb is and Tell used to be, because Hunter. So Caleb has a new bingewatching buddy! Yay?

Belos: *about to punish Hunter*

Caleb: *dragging Jasper away* Y'know what, you don't need to see this, let's go outside and get some air or something--

Evelyn: WHAT'S THAT, CALEB? YOU THINK IT'S GOOD TO TAKE A BREAK FROM WATCHING THINGS THAT UNNECESSARILY TRAUMATIZE YOU??

At some point Manny Noceda shows up, all cheerful and polite on the doorstep like "Hi! I heard there might be some people here who're watching someone who's involved in my daughter's life? She kinda stumbled into your world, see, and I was thinking--"

Evelyn's just blocking the doorway staring at him like "Listen. Before I let you in here. I NEED to make sure you understand the centuries of bullshit you're about to step into."

"Haha yeah I get it, family drama sure is--"

"SIR NO YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS."

Manny thinks he understands what he's getting into. Manny does NOT understand what he's getting into. Manny takes it in stride and enjoys these people's company anyway. Evelyn is happy to have another person around who she can count on to not be a constant mess. Manny/Evelyn BFFs 4afterlyfe.

Of course Manny also now has a VERY in-depth understanding of the 4-century clusterfuck Luz has gotten tangled up in and that is. Kinda anxiety-inducing. But like, he's pretty sure she's got this! That's his daughter! She's genre savvy, she'll be alright! Even if this situation is…way more horrifying than he realized at first.

His own dead relatives call him up like "Hey Manny! How's the watch party going? Luz still in that weird fantasy world she discovered? She having fun living out her own personal adventure story?"

Manny thinks about that time last week when Caleb and several Grimwalkers got drunk and tried to make a definitive list of the Top 5 Worst Things Belos Has Done and half of the entries were 3-way ties and there were WAY too many Honorary Mentions, and he just forces a grin and goes "Yep! Luz is doing great! She's having a blast! My new friends are super cool!"

"Oh, that's great! Could we meet th--"

"NO."

Manny tries to find things to do with his weird new friends but like. He's a 21st century sci-fi nerd. He has no idea how to relate to 400-year-old witches. But he thinks, well, I lived in New England, and Caleb lived in New England. So he's like "hey do you guys wanna do Thanksgiving together?"

Thanksgiving wasn't an official holiday until the 1800s, but Caleb knows what a feast of thanksgiving is, it's even a Puritan-approved party (ie the Pilgrims) that they'd do when they wanted to show God their gratitude! So he's just like, Manny. WTF. This is NOT the time.

Manny: Well, I mean, we're halfway through October so now's the time to start planning--

Caleb, gesturing to Belos gooping on various woodland critters: YOU THINK THIS IS WORTHY OF GIVING THANKS FOR???

By the time Luz becomes relevant, EVERYONE has started watching religiously. This is like. The final minutes of the big sports game. The series finale of their lives. But after Belos is dead (and summarily punched by everyone) most of the Grimwalkers stop paying any attention to the CB at all. Like. There's nothing else tying them to the living now. Whew. Cool. Vengeance is had! No need to pay attention to the living world ever again!

Except Jasper, of course, who figures he's just gonna watch Hunter by himself.

And then Caleb collapses next to him on the couch with snacks like "sup" and Jasper's like "oh, you uh, you wanna keep watching with me?" and Caleb's like "I suffered through four centuries of this, what's one more? and after watching every season of my brother's bullshit Grimwalker Trauma And Murder Show, I deserve to watch one of you live a decent life in the infinitely happier sequel series"

Manny's like "Yeah I'll stick around too, it looks like Luz is gonna be spending a LOT of time in your world and I'm really gonna need people to explain things to me. Anyway, I know this is a little late, but things have calmed down now and we have time since it's still just the START of November, so…Thanksgiving?"

And Caleb looks at Hunter, alive and free on the CB, and then glances out the window where Enoch is kicking the shit out of Belos in the backyard, and says, "Alright, yes, a celebration is in order. This is indeed worthy of thanksgiving."

"Oh, awesome! Uh…important question, what kind of cranberry sauce do you like?"

"What the fuck is cranberry sauce?"

JFJEJAJJFJRJWIFF ABSOLUTELY LOSING IT OVER ALL OF THIS

I feel like miles is back there too if only because he and Enoch are nasty little rude children and friends because of it.

Also don't forget flapjack AND hawk hunter are there. Flapjack sitting on Caleb's head and pulling his hair until he passes him a piece of popcorn or a peanut. All of them going completely apeshit for hunters first kiss. Camila appreciation club. Jasper and Manny both delighted by the fact Camila being mother to their child makes them like. Fathers in law? Mutuals? Proxy???? Something. there's a kinship there and it's funny. Hunter carves waffles and flapjack gets so excited he flies into the TV and knocks himself out

[slickshoesareyoucrazy]

Who Ya Gonna Call?

This is going to be a rambling mental health dump about yesterday. Be warned.

So yesterday afternoon I watched Ghostbusters, my all time favorite movie, that I saw for the first time when I was 6 in 1984, and have seen likely hundreds of times since then, with a friend I've had for several years now who is at least as old as me, who had NEVER seen it. I fucking love watching this movie, especially with people who are seeing it for the first time. My son leaves the room when I watch it because, "Mom it's honestly weird that you know every single word of dialogue." My friend commented on that too, even watching it 'together' long distance and communicating via text. I can't help it. I love it. She asked me why I love it so much. I didn't want to write her a full length doctoral dissertation on Ghostbusters while she was actively watching it with me for her first viewing, but here will be a long essay about a couple of the reasons I love it so much today. I wrote an essay before about how I love that the Ghostbusters are good men, about how even cocky, wryly comedic, womanizing Pete Venkman (Bill Murray) reveres informed consent. I've written about how much J is like Egon Spengler. Some folks have heard me talk about how this movie connects me to A, who's my best friend who passed away last December (You want me to get REAL emotional and sappy, talk to me about Ghostbusters Afterlife. That's obviously about both the afterlife and Egon Spengler. That's like ...a lot. But that's another whole essay. I'm sure I could have just a Ghostbusters blog.)

Today I'm gonna write about 2 things though that no one really thinks about when they see Ghostbusters and one of them is HYPER specific, and it will probably only land if someone else reading this is a freakish super fan like me. But here we go.

At the very beginning of Ghostbusters, Pete Venkman is doing a 'psychological experiment' as a professor at Columbia University, where he claims to be studying, 'the effects of negative reinforcement on ESP (extra sensory perception) ability.' The comedy is that his experiment is shit because he's skewing results in favor of a pretty girl he's trying to pick up. But if you pay attention to the scene his actual results are showing that negative reinforcement improves ESP ability. The poor student getting the mild electric shock on the incorrect guesses, does get one right after 4 misses. And while I can't name the card you pull out of a deck without looking at it, or actually read minds, nor did I ever get actual electric shocks or other physical pain-type negative reinforcement growing up, the subtle negative reinforcement I did constantly get from my family except my grandparents essentially trained me to fucking figure out from whatever you can observe and feel in your space how to navigate it and make a guess at what people need or expect from you in order to avoid that. In my case...I think the negative reinforcement enhanced my 'ESP ability,' for better or worse. I've had many people in my life straight up ask me if I was psychic before. I'm not. I just have a trauma history that makes me so hyper aware of other people's feelings and needs that I can fairly accurately project and predict what they'll do and say a lot of the time. And the closer I am emotionally to that person/the more time I spend with them, the better I get at it. I like that part of Ghostbusters.

And the other piece I want to rant about is the silly commercial they make for the business that ends with the line, "We're ready to believe you," and of course, the catchphrase, "Who ya gonna call?" I'm an honest person. I don't lie. But that doesn't mean I'm always believed. My feelings and needs for attention and affection were ignored, denied, and negated often by pretty much everyone in my life except for my grandparents, A, J, my son(mostly), and some online friends. I don't trust them all the time either. It goes back to all that negative reinforcement and overused and overly relied upon ESP ability. Actually, I don't even trust myself a lot of the time, even though I'm not a dishonest person, especially if I'm thinking or feeling something good or hopeful. My default about people I love and want to trust, and even about my own feelings is, "This can't be real (implied: because it's good)." But the Ghostbusters are ready to believe me. They won't ignore, deny, or negate my experience. It's their promised business model and mission statement. And J and I woke up at 2am today and talked all morning about...life. And about how hard it is to trust and rely on other people other than each other. About how neither of us have anyone really, that we feel would be of any real help to us other than each other. All of our closest emotional connections are scattered and fragile, and all of our closest geographic connections are tenuous at best, but actually basically unreliable to the point of uselessness. We don't have anyone to call. We ARE who other people call. I'm 46 years old and a parent and a homeowner and a college graduate, but I admit I wish we could call Ghostbusters. I like that part of Ghostbusters too. They understand my negative reinforcement and they're ready to believe me and if there's something strange in my neighborhood, I can call them. That's basically my lifelong relationship fantasy. That's why I love J so much. It's why I miss A so badly. They give/gave me that for real.

That's not all of why I love Ghostbusters so much, but it's a start. Thanks for watching it with me yesterday. You don't really know how helpful and necessary it was for me to get through the day. ❤️

[sergeantkitty]

Tomorrow, our baby girl, queen of the house, Midnight, is going to be put to sleep. She is perhaps one of the kindest, most gentle souls I've ever known. I know that sounds a bit weird considering I'm talking about a cat, but if you'll allow it, I'd like to tell a little story showcasing her innate kindness.

One summer in high school, I had come down with an insanely bad flu. I was vomiting, shivering, and had a high ass fever, the works. However, the week I had come down with it was literally 2 days before my family and I were supposed to go on a trip to Arizona. Obviously, I couldn't go. So I was essentially a sick af teenager home alone for the first 2 days with my phone constantly by my side in case I needed to call my retired nurse grandma who lived down the street.

Now why I wasn't already staying with her? I'm just as clueless as you are. Either way, I was completely alone with only this cat cuz our dog went with the family too, and the whole time she stayed by my side.

Again, this flu was absolutely horrendous, and the shivers combined with the insane fever put my brain in a bad position, and I started hyperventilating. I had actually never hyperventilated before, so that confusion just made it worse. So I called my mom who was already in a different state and she of course directed me to my grandma (again my brain was NOT working at all) and so I shakily called my grandma who was across town doing some shopping.

So while I waited for her, I had to pee, like, REALLY badly and I'm still hyperventilating, pretty sure I had no pants btw, and I can't walk cuz if you don't know, hyperventilating basically makes it so your whole body feels like when your foot falls asleep and gets all static-y. So when my bladder decides to be the main character, I had no choice but to crawl across the house to the bathroom. Now I'm crawling really slowly and sadly, and through the whole way, this cat o' mine crawled with me. She stayed with me the whole time and gently nudged me forward when multiple times, I just wanted to flop down and never get up again. And she stayed with me on the way back, too. She stayed as long as she could. Now, on her last day here, I'm trying to stay with her too.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. I know it's probably a bit weird for an art account to just out of the blue come in and talk about a cat you've never known, but I've known her since I was 7. I'm 20 now. She's been with us for a long time. I just hope this little story allows you to get to know her even just a little bit. I want my baby girl to have a legacy even if it's to just one stranger on the internet. Because Midnight deserves it. Because my queen deserves it. God save this queen and give her a lovely throne in the afterlife.

[felikatze]

emblem rinea emblem rinea emblem rinea

good morning june. you are getting. my scrunchies. EMBLEMS BERKUT & RINEA. my fan emblems are made for an AU by @thanatophagency !!! He told me about his Very Very Cool Alear-Veyle roleswap and I thought. "wwhat if. it had different emblems." and then i went hogwild.

SO!!! Berkut and Rinea are, of course, a Duo Emblem. They are also: Firene's Emblem. YKnow how Firene is very very much like Zofia.

(Berkut fucking hates it here and it's Rinea's ongoing psychological campaign to make him smell the flowers)

All my fan emblems have a less... protagonisty slant. They're either all antagonists or got possessed at some point, lmao. (It's thematic to the AU, and it's fun.) IDK if salem actually wants to use these for his AU but I'M having fun and since he only thinks about Alear it means I get to think about roleswap Veyle as much as I want.

So I also had the thought of. "Hey. since we swapped ONE pair of older-younger siblings.... what if. we swapped all of them." so now the younger siblings get to be the plot important ones.

Which means Berkut and Rinea end up with Celine, and as I was thinking about them at like, 1am last night, I did actually hit cinematic parallels. Celine thinks, knows, that she'll be queen one day. That Alfred's rule will not last long. She is prepared for it.

So Berkut and Rinea confront her with a possibility: What if he doesn't? What if you never become queen? What if all your efforts go to waste? Who will you be then? Who are you outside of being a princess? And hearing that from a guy who literally died trying to become emperor is very scary to her. And it's Rinea who helps her grow comfortable with the thought that one day Celine may just be herself, and nothing more. (And in the process also helps Berkut get some closure.)

Much like Sigurd, the two recall their deaths. And they recall their promise to meet together in the afterlife. Despite how bitter Berkut is, that's exactly what Rinea views being an Emblem as, and goddammit she's going to enjoy it. She and Celine hold tea parties :) Even though Rinea can't drink as an Emblem, Celine pulls out the most fragrant teas she has so they can still pretend. It's nice.

I also had a fun thought that, as a dark emblem, they take on the appearance of their last battle. Berkut insane with the purple smoke, Rinea all burned and witch-y. This guideline applies to all my emblems pretty much because it's fun!! Out of Salem's AU four hounds, I'd probably give this Emblem to Pandreo.... burned up by devotion, and all that... narrative parallels....

And that's the story stuff!!!

NOW TO MY FAKE GAMEPLAY!!!!

(I claim no guarantee that this would actually be a good and balanced Emblem in the game itself. I'm just having fun and laying out a general powerset for them helps make AU stuff. Ok.)

(You will also be getting my director's commentary on this.)

(This is definetely my Most Well Baked emblem just from a completion standpoint)

Berkut and Rinea - Emblem of Devotion

Alternate title: Emblem of the Scions (bcuz. Scions' Dance in Purgatory. yknow)

Invocation: Dance with us, Emblem of Devotion! (I'm a sucker for the ballroom dance scene and their ballroom feh alts. I might need to workshop this one depending on how Emblem Ninian shakes out.)

Engage Attack: Waltz Of Embers. Teleport an enemy within 10 tiles toward the user and strike them with a powerful Lance and Magic attack. Mystical: +5 range. Backup: enable chain attacks.

This one's!! So fun!! It's intended as a "reverse warp ragna" more or less. Based primarily on the fact that Rinea has Entrap in Echoes and she will not hesitate to use it so Berkut can kill you instantly. Embers obviously bcuz of the burning stuff, and Waltz bcuz. they like to dance :) Maybe the animation is the engaged unit dancing with Rinea as the enemy comes in and they Kill.

You could so cheese bosses with that. Who needs Astrastorm to proc aggro when you get a free 15 range guaranteed hit Entrap. (I cheesed two bosses with Entrap it was great.)

Engage weapons!!

Rhomphaia: Deals effective damage against armors and cavalry. +2 Speed when equipped. This one isn't really associated with Berkut, but it's a unique lance to Echoes. Same way Roy just has the Lancereaver because it's a FE6 Sword.

Seraphim: Effective against Corrupted. Listen I know this is Celica's, but Celica isn't here, and it's the only offensive magic Rinea has.

Kriemhild: 3-range lance that boosts def and res by +5. You'd think this is OP, but I've actually nerfed it by removing its innate skill. What the fuck, Berkut. This is definetely a bond lv15 thing.

Sync Skills:

Burning Echo: Sacrifice HP to gain Atk (-3hp for +1atk on a single turn. Amount chosen at will.) [When engaged only]. This one's intended as a counterpart to Celica's Resonance skill, except with this one, you can go big or go home. I'd image it would have an upper limit in an actual game, but the idea that you can put yourself at 1hp and use the remaining 60 to oneshot a boss is really funny. Based on Echoes' magic system.

Wildfire: Increases hit and avoid by +10. Increase by +5 oer A-Support partner within 3 spaces. This one is based on Rinea's passive skill in Echoes! I added the support based effect since Berkut and Rinea are the only enemies with anything like this. Considering that Veyle would A support with anybody, you could totally turn her into a situational dodge god.

Phantasm: Halves damage taken from magic and bows. This is what I nerfed Kriemhild with - by moving this to skills instead of having it be innate to the weapon. It could be percentage based, honestly, but eh, I like coming up with the names, not with the numbers

And that's Emblems Berkut & Rinea!!! My beloveds!!

[dead-blondie]

Headcannons!!

SFW

- First off and one of my favourite ones is this girl loves Easter! It's her favourite holiday. I can see both her and Dewey loving to celebrate it when they were younger and now Tatum just can't help herself but get excited over it every year. It's an under appreciated holiday, but she loves it nonetheless!

- Another one I have is that she knits, sews, crochets. This is because to me, her mother looks like someone who sews, so she probably taught Tatum growing up. It also goes hand in hand with another small headcannon that she has a fashion dream. Anything fashion and clothing, she loves!

This can link into the Easter one, as I like to think she crochets rabbits and baby chicks around the holiday. It's sweet.

- Tatum seems like someone who's been through a fair bit in terms of love life. It could be potentially why she's protective over Sid in terms of Billy because she doesn't want to see her best friend making the same mistakes she did and get hurt from it.

Also could explain why she's very wary over Stu, his whereabouts or how he genuinely feels about her. Makes me feel that she used to be a little boy crazy and at some point got hurt real bad, it made her completely turn a leaf, become confident in herself and refuse to let any man walk over her. Though that is also the reason this girl is super prideful, lmaooo!

- From the previous HC, this goes hand in hand with my 'Stu was her first actual boyfriend' idea. She knows alot more about him than she lets on but stays silent, maybe she just thought this was the most she could get out of a guy, since she's used to being someone fling or eye candy. (Not that she doesn't love knowing she can hold a man's gaze.)

- If she had survived the 1996 massacre, she'd have black hair in college. A sort of way of proving she wasn't a 'dumb blonde'. It wouldn't be that much of a drastic change considering Tatum was never a real blonde in the first place. Either black hair or a couple shades darker than her natural brown.

- Tatum was also 100% an aggressive child. She's bossy and always has been, yes that includes those temper tantrums, but she'd hit more than most. Poor Dewey was always victim to his sister's assaults. This is super cute if you remember Tatum and Sidney were childhood best friends. You got a bossy, snappy child who hits, and then her best friend who's quiet, friendly and normally sits in the corner of the room. Besties for life amiright?!

- Tatum loves physical contact!! Side hugs, holding onto wrists, comforting pat on backs, CUDDLING. She's very keen on touching, even with strangers, so someone she's close with and loves? SPOILED WITH HER AFFECTION. She loves giving out attention, but she'd tease anyone who admits it, lovingly of course.

- Okay this one could actually be canon, it was just never confirmed. Tatum could have actually been really close friends with Casey. Them two with Sid could have been an amazing trio if it wasn't for Stu. (It was more her having an issue with being a rebound, it had nothing to do with the fact it was to Casey.)

If it wasn't going to be awkward due to Stu, and well if Casey wasn't dead, I feel like they'd have great potential. (Also I just know they are teaming up against Stu in the afterlife!)

- When sleeping with her partner, she'll entangle herself around them, limbs for limbs. Though she's a freezer during the winter and usually sleeps in long sleeved shirts and comfortable pants. ABSOLUTELY sleep talks, and can totally sleep with any old shit playing, AND do not expect her to sleep when a film she hasn't seen is playing. She will watch it.

NSFW

- BIG OLE INITIATOR, she loves to initiate, she genuinely doesn't know whether she loves initiating or preferring her partner too, it all really depends on her mood. Usually it's a half half kind of situation. She wants to control and take chance, but she also wants to be verbally wanted by her partner, she wants passion!!

- Ways she initiates will include gentle grazes of her hands, ESPECIALLY over her partners thighs, she will flash bedroom eyes, she'll whisper in her partners ear. It's quite obvious when she wants to sneak out to have some intimate moments. As she usually will say yes if asked.

- Is also quite very open minded, whenever, wherever, any position, she loves experimenting. As long as it doesn't unnecessary or unconsensually cause harm to her/her partner or even others. She will most likely get intrigued/ask to try something out or be very enthuistic if her partner were to bring something new and spicy to the bedroom.

- Such a confident girlie!!!! It's mostly her personality and her experience, she definitely knows what she's doing and she's still just as spunky and outgoing in bed, she'll tease and tease to her hearts content, and loves to make her partner feel good.

- She doesn't need to wait all that long to become comfortable in a relationship to have sex. Before Stu (and after Stu), she had her fair share or making out and hooking up etc. She is quite sex positive and comfortable in herself already. Obviously she can wait if her partner isn't ready, she has patience, believe it or not. For people she cares about that is.

- She does happen to be a switch, when she's being a sub, she wants to be manhandled, yes that is one of her kinks, she likes a big strong man to be direct. However if she's in the mood to top, she wants the heavy passion, the fighting for dominance, and then she wants to win. The surge of pleasure and confidence this gives her is immaculate!! Especially if her partner is quite dominate strict.

- The blonde won't even feel bad about leaving marks if she wakes up to see what she did the night before, in fact over anything else, she'll laugh about it and it just might get her in the mood for another round. Seeing the marks scattered and littered over her partners skin from when she lost herself admist the chaos of a desirous and libidinous night.

- With her partner, aftercare is a HUGE thing, she wants to cuddle, she wants to be cuddled, she wants to surround her partner with gentle caresses, she wants to be the reciprocant of said gentle caresses, she wants to praise, be praised, she also finds aftercare a great time to bond and have pillow talk with her partner (also so she can jokingly taunt you about any noises or spoken words.)

- If she's been drinking, whether she's plastered, drunk or tipsy, she'll try to have as many sweet moments as she can in terms of aftercare, but she'll fall asleep fairly quickly.

- If it's the full thing, rather than a quickie or something, and she's waking up in her partners bed or they're waking up in hers, she probably would very much rather cook breakfast with them. But if not, and she's in a loving mood, she'll make breakfast in bed (this is also for birthdays, christmas and other special occasions, where she will expect at least appreciation.)

[duck-in-a-spaceship]

say it back

More House M.D. fanfic! This time with ~chapters~ Also, this is mostly pre-written, so I should update pretty regularly. It's just four chapters, but if anyone wants to be tagged in future updates, lmk

Summary: What if when House tells Wilson he loves him, Wilson says it back?

Well, naturally they turn to humor until “I love you”, “I love you too” becomes the most convoluted, gayest inside joke ever. And then of course they realize they mean it.

Word Count: 2373

Warnings: Near-death experience

Next>>

+++

Chapter 1: Diagnosing the Afterlife

House is dead.

Well, alright, he probably isn’t, but he’s definitely on his way there.

And, in a way, that was his goal, so… hooray for him. If he ends up not-dead, he’ll have to host a celebration. A celebration where he proves that the afterlife, right before it collapses into nothingness, is just his office painted in a stark white.

Every pen, every picture, every fiber of carpet has had its color sucked away. Little details, grooves on the wood and dust on his knick knacks, have been consumed by the startling lack of color. Static, the one exception in the room, fizzles on House’s computer.

Outside of his office there’s true nothingness. A void of white shines on the other side of every window, every stupid pane of glass that surrounds him. If House’s body gives up, it’s easy to imagine me might end up walking out the glass doors and disintegrating into nothing.

It’s a tempting offer, if he thinks about it for too long, so House decides not to entertain it.

Instead, he pushes himself to his feet with his cane (it’s an action of habit, he notes; no pain burns in his leg) and crosses the room to his whiteboard.

“Alright team.” House addresses no one, uncaps the marker with a flourish. “Differential, go.”

“It’s not cancer. If it was, we wouldn’t be seeing-”

“No, not the patient.” In big, messy letters, House titles the board ‘Afterlife’. He taps the marker against the writing, turning around to face his suddenly materialized crew. Every single one of his potential employees is crammed into that room, shoulder-to-shoulder, knee-to-knee. One of the twins is sitting on the other's lap. If he looks at Big Love out of the corner of his eye, he starts to phase into Kutner. Not enough room in purgatory, apparently, for everyone to exist without physics breaking down. It was Cutthroat Bitch that felt the need to start giving him the wrong differential, and House points an accusatory marker her way. “You’re lucky that wasn’t actually you saying that, otherwise you’d be fired.”

She has the skill to look confused and offended at the same time. “That’s our patient. Who else are we supposed to be…?”

House turns back to his whiteboard.

“Right now, there’s not much I can do to help Toto and crippled Dorothy, and since none of you are real-” ‘White nothingness’, ‘Physics breakdown’ and ‘Familiar scenery’ are all added to the list as symptoms. “-there’s nothing you can do either.” The tip of his cane slams onto the ground to punctuate his point. It passes right through Taub’s foot. “Come on people! Differential!”

“You’re dead.” It’s Thirteen that pipes up that time, and House mentally fires her too.

“No I’m not. I’m almost dead. I’m on the tightrope with death, and the next person that says something stupid is going to be pushing me off.” Forget euphoria, forget the most ‘intense thing he’s ever done’, House’s version of almost dying was just a more migraine-inducing taste of reality.

“You’re having a near-death experience,” Taub corrects.

“Obvious, but not incorrect,” House grants him. “So, if this is near-death, then what’s that?” The tip of his cane moves up, through Taub, and points out the glass door into the shining abyss.

“That’s Wilson.”

“What?” House turns his head. Wilson is standing at the entrance to his office, the glass door to death still swinging closed behind him. He looks more real than anything House has seen since he stuck a knife into a socket. The applicants disappear. “Are you happy?” Wilson asks. He steps further into the room, bringing the gravitational pull of reality with him. Color flows into House’s office, shadows deepening every time Wilson’s foot hits the ground, details filling out where House hadn’t even noticed they were missing.

House blinks, and he’s suddenly seated at his desk, one foot propped up like it’s the most natural thing in the world, his cane mid-twirl in his hand. The only evidence that the past several minutes happened at all is the whiteboard still titled ‘Afterlife’, and the unnatural white still shining in from outside.

House fumbles with his cane, and it slips out of his fingers.

“Well?” Wilson demands. “Are you happy with yourself? Did you get your answer?”

“Well I was going to, if you hadn’t interrupted my differential.”

Wilson rolls his eyes. “Oh please, you were practically holding Taub’s hand. You already had your answer.” He leans down and picks up House’s cane, offering it to him by the handle. House drums his fingers on the desk, ignoring the gesture.

“Sure, but it’s more fun if you let them figure it out too. Sharing is caring, that’s what I always say.”

“House, take your damn cane.”

Well, it would be rude to turn down such a polite request. House snatches his cane from Wilson’s grip, and slams it into his foot.

“Ow! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

Huh, real enough to feel pain, even. Take that, Taub. “This is the land of near-death,” House announces.

“Was that really necessary?”

Wilson’s question goes unanswered. “And that-” House once again points towards the white void that shines outside his windows. “-is death. All that nothingness. No God, no long-lost family members, no paradise, no heaven or hell. Just nothing.”

“And do you feel better now, with your proof that every dying patient clinging onto a little bit of hope is a moron?”

“Oh for sure, real weight off my shoulders. They’ll be thrilled to hear the news.” Pain runs up and down his leg like wires carrying electricity. It feels like his foot fell asleep, and now it’s waking up again, lighting his nerves on fire. House rubs one hand over the muscles, trying to relieve some of the tension, but it only makes him realize the pain is not limited to his leg. It burns in his hand as well, tingling in the palm and spreading out to sizzle in his fingers.

“Of course! What dying person doesn’t want their final comfort taken away?” Wilson is prattling on. “You should tell them their existence was meaningless next. That’ll really… Are you okay?”

“Well, I’m about to start living again, which is annoying.”

Wilson sighs, a comfortingly familiar sound. “Better than the alternative, at least.”

“We could just compromise. No dying, no living, I’ll just stay here. Become the new Coma Guy that my replacement can use as a table for his sandwiches.”

“Why would you want to stay here? I mean, no cases to solve, no Cuddy to torture, no team to play games with. You’d hate it here. It’s nothingness, it’s banal, it’s everything you try so hard to avoid.”

“Well the lack of pain has been nice. Besides, you’re still here for me to torture. I’d have you.”

Wilson shakes his head, briefly looking up at the ceiling before his eyes settle back on House. The pain in his leg is reaching reality-levels of excruciation, and the pain everywhere else is catching up fast. It makes it hard to focus, when Wilson walks around House’s desk, when he leans down so their faces are nearly touching.

He looks like he’s about to say something. He doesn’t, so House thinks about taking up the mantle instead. There’s something to be said here, he knows that. It’s what that eludes him.

Then again, maybe there isn’t something to say, because all the sudden, Wilson is kissing him.

House’s brain has run over time again. It skipped the part where Wilson settled on his lap, stuttered over the seconds where he placed one hand on House’s cheek, ignored the moment where he moved his other to House’s leg.

They must have happened, because they are happening, but the connective tissue is gone.

House decides it’s not really worth questioning, not at the moment at least.

Imagining kissing Wilson isn’t something House has liked to make a hobby of, but if he had ever given it a shot, he probably would’ve come up with something like this. Something with soft lips, with overeager zeal, with just enough gentleness to make House want more.

After a moment, a moment too long and a moment too soon, Wilson pulls away. House doesn’t know what to do but stare up at him in shock. He’s pretty sure he’s dying, now, but he doesn’t know how to say that, either.

Wilson sighs, pulling his hand away from House’s cheek. House tries to stop him, tries to grab onto his lingering fingers, but he must grab onto his sleeve instead, his hand closing on soft fabric. One of his ears is ringing, pulsating in what sounds like high-pitched beeps.

Wilson shakes his head, at least, he probably shakes his head. It’s getting a little hard to see, through the blinding white suddenly shining through the windows.

“You’re an idiot.”

It takes a moment for those words to sink in. More accurately, it takes a moment for House to realize that Wilson has said them out loud, that the brightness he’s squinting into is not a white void, but simply the hospital’s lights shining above him, that he’s not sitting at his desk, but in a bed. God it’s bright.

“You nearly killed yourself,” Wilson continues, as if they weren’t just having an entirely different conversation, an entirely different scene.

House blinks. Wilson is dressed differently, a simple dark green shirt instead of the lab coat he was just wearing, but other than that, he’s identical to the pseudo-Wilson House was just talking to, down to his expression: frustration mixed with annoyance mixed with concern. “That was the whole idea,” House points out.

“You wanted to kill youself?”

“I wanted to nearly kill myself,” House corrects. Wilson just stares, incredulous, the concern in his expression multiplying. Which is ridiculous. He should be relieved, all things considered. Trying to nearly kill himself was much better than the alternative.

House looks away. “Is he… better?” He has bigger things to worry about than Wilson’s concern. He can’t let this experiment have been for nothing.

Wilson just shakes his head, defeated. “No, but he doesn’t have cancer. We think it might be eosinophilic pneumonia. Maybe you didn’t want to die-” Oh great, he’s back on this and he hasn’t even answered the question. “-but you didn’t care if you lived.”

“You insisted that I needed to see for myself.”

Wilson pushes away from the stand, takes a couple steps to the side. Another admission of defeat.

“Was he discharged?” House presses.

“No, he’s dying.” Wilson comes to his bedside, turning to face him. “You’ve already had two near death experiences.”

“Not that guy.” Why does everyone think House wants to talk about his patient? “The- the guy in the car accident. With the knife. I… I need to talk to him.”

“He… died almost an hour ago.” Wilson says it like it’s obvious, like he’s confused why House would even be asking. “Apparently it’s bad to electrocute yourself within days of suffering massive internal injuries.”

Goddamnit. House presses his head against his pillow, closing his eyes. The one person he might like to talk to right now, have questions for, is dead.

“Why did you need to talk to him?” House doesn’t give Wilson an answer. What the hell is he supposed to say? I diagnosed the afterlife in my office? You were there? We made out at my desk? “Did you see something?” Wilson presses, and if House was just a little less rational, he would’ve swore that Wilson knew, somehow. Knew what he had seen, had been there, even.

“Eosinophilic pneumonia.” House opens his eyes, staring up at the ceiling. It’s easier, currently, than looking at Wilson. The old, dirty tiles are a strange comfort. The blinding lights are all-too familiar.

“House? What did you see?” Wilson asks. House doesn’t need to look at his face to know he’s switched to full-blown concern; it’s practically leaking out of his vocal chords. Can’t be healthy, really, having that much care for another human being.

“Nothing,” House answers on instinct. He looks over at Wilson. “Whose idea was that?”

“Brennan. Nothing you don’t want to talk about it, or nothing-?”

“Which one’s Brennan?” House cuts him off, and they’re back to their old dance, two conversations fighting for dominance. “Is he the ridiculously old guy?”

“House, you gotta talk about this.”

“If it’s aggressive enough, it might have gotten past the steroids.” House flexes his burnt hand, testing how far he can push the pain. “Start him on cyclophosphamide.”

“I already did.” Regret taints Wilson’s voice, although House isn’t exactly sure what he’s regretting. Encouraging him to try and get a taste of the afterlife? Not being able to convince House to open up about what he saw? Becoming friends with him in the first place? “Just looking at you hurts,” he continues, grabbing the clipboard from the side of House’s bed. “I’m gonna order up some extra pain meds.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” It takes Wilson a moment, it seems, to process what he’s just said. His pen slows on the paper before stopping completely, cutting whatever he was writing off short. “I mean- ah. Well you… you know what I mean.” He starts writing again, like that will somehow do away with the pink that has spread across his cheeks.

“Do I?” House tilts his head to the side, like he’s really considering the question, like it’s really something that needs his consideration. “Honestly, I’m not sure I do. Care to elaborate?”

“You’re an ass.” Wilson glares at him, but the effect is entirely ruined by how completely flustered he is.

“And yet, you love me.”

“You said you love me too!” He gestures with the clipboard, brandishing it at House like a weapon. “I can’t-” He cuts himself off with a sigh. “I’ll come back later to make sure you haven’t found some new way to kill youself.”

“I’ll miss every second you’re away, darling!”

“Goodbye House!” The glass door clangs shuts behind him.

House smiles, looking back up to the dirtied tile and bright lights. Maybe his little brush with death wasn’t such a waste after all.

[alchemist-of-altoids]

Okay but imagine the aftermath of all of this. it’s been four months since Batman died, and six since Robin died. the world is in mourning. Gotham is worse than ever, with the villains pouncing on the opportunity. To make matters worse, the U.S. has declared Gotham a No Man’s Land. Nightwing, Oracle, Azrael, and Catwoman are doing they can, but they’re losing steam. They don’t sleep, they barely eat, they haven’t showered in weeks. Other heroes come in to help sometimes, but they can’t stay here. The rest of the world still needs saving too.

That’s the world Jason comes back to. He begs Talia to take him back to Gotham. They need his help. But she tells him he still needs to regain his strength. So that’s what he does. His memories are coming back. Memories from when he was dead. Jason spends his time either training, resting, or playing with Damian. The kid looks so much like Bruce it’s crazy. He’s so serious, but Jason makes sure the kid still gets to have some fun. After some time, Talia tells him he needs to go to some mountain because some monks can finish healing him. So he does. While he’s there, he gets the All-Blades, and the second his hand touches them, he remembers. His entire life and afterlife flash through his eyes. He rushed back to Nanda Parbat. The Lazarus Pit is ectoplasm. Fucked up ectoplasm, but still. He can use it to call Danny.

Jason remembers what had happened. Some Vampire Guy had been harassing a group of teenagers. And it turns out the phrase “old habits die hard” isn’t that accurate. Even dead, he could let that just happen. He’d jumped in, taking a hit that would have killed at least one of them. Vampire Guy has been so shocked by the interruption that a white haired teen was able to to blast him and then put him in a… thermos?

After some introductions Jason found out that he was dead (that sucks), he’s a ghost (kinda cool), and that he’s a ghost of the Infinite Realms, which means he gets a bunch of powers (fucking awesome).

Turns out, those teenagers were actually kind of important. Like. A king, two princesses, a royal knight, and a pharaoh. And the blast he’d taken absolutely would have killed them.

Jason had spent most of his afterlife with them before his revival. But the important thing was that Danny, the Ghost King, owed him a life debt, which is apparently is a big deal in the Infinite Realms.

Jason immediately starts the summoning circle, making sure he was using the one for Danny Phantom, not The Ghost King. Using a title makes it easier to ignore. But if you use the name, it’s damn near impossible. Once it’s drawn, Jason braces himself for the next steps. Then, he starts gulping down Lazarus Water. It’s disgusting, and it burns his throat. But it’s better than nothing. His ectosignature was basically nonexistent right now, so he needed to make it more noticeable. Once he starts the ritual, it’s only a few moments before Danny appears.

“Jason! Are you okay? How did you come back? Why is your ecto all fucked? Who did this to you?” Danny fussed over Jason.

“Jesus Christ Danny, chill the fuck out! I’m fine.” Jason said. “I need a favor. I’m cashing it in.”

Danny got serious at that.

“Jason, are you sure? Don’t use this lightly.” Danny warned.

“Danny while I was gone… Bruce he-“ Jason choked. “I want Bruce back. Bring my dad back to life.”

“Of course.” Danny smiled sadly. “But, when I bring him back, it probably won’t be all the way.”

“If he’s not going to be himself then it’s not worth it!” Jason says. “What like you’re going to make him a zombie or something? Fuck that!”

“Jason, chill!” Danny shouted. “He’s still going to be him, I just mean he won’t be all human. He’ll be a bit like me. A little more on the human side, and he won’t have two forms, but he’ll probably trigger people’s uncanny valley whatever.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Jason said.

“Now, let me clean your ectoplasm before I go.” Danny said. Then, he pointed at the Lazarus Pit. “Also I should probably take care of that. Eventually. But that’s Future Danny’s problem.”

After Danny leaves, Jason decides to stay with the League longer. He needs to improve his strength and skills if he wants to help out in Gotham.

It’s another six months before Danny brings Bruce back. Apparently, Bruce had been quite difficult. But he and Danny had bonded. When he gets back, he hugs Jason. He tells him that he’s so sorry he was late, but Jason tells him that he never blamed him for than. Jason asks, his voice sounding broken, why Bruce didn’t kill Joker. Bruce told Jason that he almost had. Jason asked what stopped him. Bruce hesitated. He didn’t want Jason to blame anyone else. But he also didn’t want to lie to his son. So he told him the truth. He told him that Superman stopped him because Joker became the Ambassador for Iran. Jason stared at him for a second, making Bruce uncomfortable as he couldn’t read his sons face. Then, he laughed. Jason laughed and “that sounds about right for us.” Bruce smiled back. “Let’s go home, chum.”

Dick was losing this fight. He’d gotten eight hours of sleep in the last month. He hadn’t eaten in a week. Recently, Venom had started to pop up, which every random goon or thug had the potential be damn near as strong as Bane. Dick had tried to stop a deal from going down, but they had all juiced up. So now, Dick was trying to fight 5 Venom enhanced criminals. He was on the ground, his life flashing by. That’s when he saw Batman and Robin. They were coming to get him. He would finally be able to rest. He would be okay. Bruce would protect him.

Bruce and Jason had been on their way to the Belfry. That’s where they’d made their new base of operations. It was on their way over there, completely by coincidence that they came across Dick. So it seemed their return as Batman and Robin would start with them saving Nightwing. The jumped down, landing on two of the goons, taking them to the ground. They didn’t have a constant source of Venom, so it was running out. The two made quick work of the rest. Bruce and Jason grabbed Dick, mumbling about being happy to see them again.

“Good to you too, Dickhead.” Jason said. “Don’t you die on me, I just got back.”

Bruce and Jason carried Dick to the Belfry. It tools about 20 minutes. They had done everything they could for now. The elevator up seemed to take an eternity. When the doors opened, there were two people waiting for them. Barbara, holding a taser, and Alfred, holding his shotgun.

“I suggest you leave Nightwing on the ground and leave the way you came.” Alfred said, his voice calm, steady, and commanding. “Your outfits are in poor taste.”

“Jeez, this is a way more hostile reunion that I expected.” Jason smiled. “Cmon Alfie, Babs. This response to Bruce makes sense but me? I’m hurt.”

“Master Jason!” Alfred set the gun down and ran over. “I will be fussing over you two in a moment, but for now let’s take care of Master Dick.”

They lay Dick on their makeshift medbay table and treat his wounds. By the end of it he’s covered in casts, bandages, splints, and all other manner of dressings. Afterwards Alfred bring Jason and Bruce in for a hug.

“Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but how are you both here?” Barbara asked.

“It’s a… weird story.” Jason said.

“Our whole lives are weird, Jason.” Barbara deadpanned.

“Okay so it starts with me coming back to life, but only some of the way…”

DPxDC prompt/fic idea

Tim didn't end up stealing Jason's suit.

Bruce died, running in solo, angry, impulsive, over his head.

Dick is blaming himself for not being there, Tim is about to implode because he can't tell everyone he knows and that he blames himself that Batman is dead. That he should have done something.

Then Jason comes back, finds out that Bruce is gone and it just about breaks him. Why can he come back but when he's back Bruce isn't?

During his temporary trip to the afterlife, he made fast friends with one Danny Phantom, who owes him a favor.

Danny agrees to bring Bruce back from the afterlife, he hunts him down and he finally finds him, he's a little confused why his friend's dad looks like a bat in the afterlife but ghosts do odd things sometimes. He doesn't question it.

"Are you Bruce? Your son sent me to go get you, come on."

The man blinks in surprise at him, startled out of his brooding session. "... Robin?"

"No? I'm talking about Jason."

"Jason is dead." He bit out.

"And so are you. Do you want to see him or not?"

[roger-that-cap]

wildest dreams

witch!wanda x reincarnated!reader 

summary: wanda had walked around the earth for centuries with no magic and hardly any soul left after losing her soulmate. she thought that her lover would never return and that the only reunion they would have would be in the afterlife, but a run-in with bucky changes everything after he insists that he met the long gone y/n at a fountain in the park. 

yet another au by me... 

word count: around 6.5k?

imma tag one person bc she gets upset when she isn’t tagged- and idk if anyone else would actually be interested?

@teenwonder

also this picture is not mine, and the dividers are by @firefly-graphics !!

without further ado, it’s almost 6 in the morning but i give you this!!

She held you tight, fingers digging into your skin as she trembled above you. The rose bushes were rustling in the wind next to you both, the sweet smell of the flowers contrasting with the moment. You were halfway gone already, eyes far off but trying to swim back to the surface, wanting to look at her one last time before the inevitable happened. 

  “S…” you tried to say, but she hushed you immediately, tears falling down on your face and mixing with your own. You shook her head at her as hard as you could, begging for her to let you continue. “Say you’ll remember me,” you ground out, fingers tightening around her hand. 

  “What?” Wanda asked, voice already thick with grief as she tried to decide whether or not it was better to keep the knife lodged between your ribs inside of you.

“When I come back-” you cut yourself off by coughing up blood, and Wanda didn’t even wince when it splattered on her cheek. “Back for you, promise that you’ll remember me.” 

 “Darling,” Wanda whispered back, her voice cracking as she bent over and rested her head on your stomach for a moment, hiding her sob. She could feel her magic tingling inside of her; under her skin, in her bones, dancing on her fingertips. “I wish I knew- I wish I just knew how-”

  “Please.” You said, a desperate look in your eyes as you halted her words, already knowing what Wanda wanted. But natural magic was nothing to mess with. She sobbed again with her lips pressed together, no sound escaping her. You squeezed her hand tighter as the sun started on its routine descent, basking the two of you in an orange glow that you would have stopped to admire in any other moment in time. But Wanda would grow to hate that shade of orange with every breath in her. “Please.” It would always remind her of the sound of your begging, voice reaching for something that she couldn’t see. 

Maybe it was the desperation in your voice, or the way that she just knew that you were well within your last moments, because she looked up at you one last time. “Of course I’ll remember you, darling. I couldn’t even dream of forgetting you.” There was a wheezing sound that came from your chest as you cracked a bloody smile, and then you gave one last squeeze before you looked away from her, your soul settling in the afterlife. 

  Wanda Maximoff would never forget it. Suddenly, her previously  irrational fear of losing her magic became real, but that feeling didn’t even come close to the one she got when you grew lifeless in her arms. 

Ever since you knew what a normal person was supposed to be like, you had identified that you, in fact, were not the normal person that you were probably supposed to be. Normal people didn’t daydream to the point where it felt like their bodies weren’t in the present anymore. Normal people didn’t have birthmarks under their ribs that aced and burned. Normal people didn’t feel out of touch with their world, like they weren’t even meant to be in the century they were in. Normal people didn’t feel like they were searching for something tirelessly, something just under their noses. And normal people surely didn’t dream of the same set of hands, same pair of eyes, or the same voice over and over again, a new setting every time, but always the same, faceless person. You either drew the same faceless person or rose bushes, and every sketch book you ever had was full of them. 

At first, you were sure that you were going insane. Every time you closed your eyes, you would see a flash of reddish brown hair, or the same set of eyes, or the same pair of pale hands. You kept seeing this person without ever seeing a face for nights at a time before you went to see a therapist, who just ended up telling you that worrying about it was only going to make it worse, whatever it even was. But eventually, you learned to get used to it. 

Acceptance turned into expectancy. You went to sleep knowing that there was going to be a pair of hands accompanied by the same slender fingers as always before you, sometimes intertwined with your own. You knew that there was going to be a set of eyes on you, watching you intently with no ace to go with them. You knew that you would hear whispers of the same voice, speaking so clearly in a language you didn’t even come close to understanding, and soon, you were craving to see and hear those things. And wanting to see them led to something that you never told your therapist; drawings. 

You drew nearly every day under the sky, trying to find different park benches to see the sun rise and set at different angles for inspiration. You loved the sky, moon and stars alike, but there was something special about sunrises and sunsets. Sunrises and sets both meant new beginnings to you, out with the old and in with the new, and each rise and fall filled you with a strange feeling of nostalgia. You were watching the sunset on a park bench by yourself, a sketchbook sitting on your lap as you held an idle pencil, still thinking about the way you wanted to draw the hands. The birthmark between your ribs started to tingle, letting you know that it was about to burn again. That damn birthmark. You dropped the pencil and scratched at it, trying to beat the annoying feeling at its own game. You cursed the mark, but your eyes didn’t leave the sky, and you noticed your heart swelling in your chest, faint despair in the pits of it, churning around like the middle of the deep sea. 

 You shook your head and put your pencil in your hand again, brain not even having to work hard at all to see the features of the faceless person who was in your every dream. 

Even before she ever met you, Wanda didn’t sleep well. She would toss and turn for at least an hour before she finally found some temporary, flimsy form of peace. Her sleep was always light and she hardly ever had dreams, which was customary for a woman like her at the time- an un-blossomed witch. 

It was hard for her to remember the time where she didn’t have magic, but that time certainly existed. It lasted nearly thirty years. She never aged a day past twenty one, time moving past her without a care in the world. She was stuck right there, no magic except for the little bit in her bones that was keeping her young. And then she met you. 

You were the person that kicked her magic into gear. You were her kindred soul, her other half and the power to her magic. Meeting you had flung her right into the world of magic and spells, things that she only watched others do, but even as she was introduced to an entirely different world, she could remember only really wanting you. Her heart and soul called to you far louder and stronger than spells called to her eager mind. When she met you, it all fell into place. It was an easy love, one that was never going to be disputed or questioned, and loved it. She was prepared to move heaven, earth, and the gods for you, if she had to. Your arrival into her life had caused her to finally blossom. 

But now, she had bloomed and flourished and wilted all the same, and she was just waiting to decompose. 

“Have hope,” was all that Bucky, a warlock who had been tortured enough in his own way, would tell her. “Have hope that something good will come to you, and it will.” 

She never had the heart to tell him that good things hardly came to those who waited. He himself was a product of waiting, and it had served him well. Before he met his other half, he was taken by a rival clan and experimented on with spells that were so far past illegal that they made the casual witch shudder. Eventually, he was broken out and the rival clan was defeated, but he returned to them as an empty shell of a man. But then, Steve came, and then the man was nothing but a ball of light. His magic grew to be strong and so did Steve’s, and together they became known as some of the strongest practitioners of magic in the world. 

 But what did Wanda have to hope for when you were gone? What did she have to wake up for and smile at when she knew that she had buried you hundreds of years ago? It wasn’t even about the magic. She couldn’t care less about the way she felt the energy leave her- and it was dramatic- leaving in a singular burst of light the second you left. She only knew that you were gone, and that was the only thing that mattered, and it seemed to be the only thing that she even really felt. 

Well, she did feel one other thing. Exhaustion. Exhaustion caused by the lack of you by her side. And exhaustion was exactly why she assumed that she was hallucinating when she felt a small tug at her heart, in a part of her brain that had been dormant for years and years. She shook her head and tried to take her thoughts away from you and the nagging feeling in her gut. 

“Oh, no…” you exclaimed, voice tapering out into a whine as you watched the ruined paper sink deeper and deeper into the fountain, a fist clenching at your side in disappointment when you realized how many hours were lost, just like that, and then even tighter when you realized that part of you wasn’t even truly upset about the time spent on the ruined art. You were mostly upset that you lost the only vision of the hands that you had during the daytime. 

You were on your knees, sleeves still all the way down as you reached into the water frantically, causing the paper to move even further away. You weren’t even worried about your sketchbook that had fallen open onto the pavement, more focused on the rapidly deteriorating piece of paper. You hardly even noticed the man who knocked into you talking, trying his hardest to make the situation better. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do?” 

“I mean,” you breathed out, taking the nearly disintegrated paper from the water and grimacing. When you realized that the man was fumbling to say something from behind you, celery apprehensive over the fact that you were upset, you took a short breath and turned around, giving him a small smile. He had dark brown hair that was cut short and crystal blue eyes that were striking, but you knew that they held thousands of stories by looking just once.  He was holding your sketchbook, and by the way he was gripping it tightly, you could tell that he had flipped through it for a second. “It’s just a drawing. I guess I can make another one.” 

  His eyes widened. You saw his jaw slacken and his neck stretch out, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He blinked three times, and his parted lips trembled for a second before he slammed them shut. You cocked a brow at him, your sadness about losing the drawing being replaced by a weak feeling of uneasiness. “Sir?” 

  “Knew it.” His face was clear from any type of emotion as he watched yours, and when you opened your mouth to ask him if he was okay, a grin spread across his face. “I’m Bucky, what’s your name?” You furrowed your brows at him, asking what the hell had just occurred without saying a single word. “I’m sorry, you just looked really familiar.” 

 Just like that, you smiled. You knew that feeling, you felt like you got deja vu far too often to be normal. You hated when people made you feel strange for it, you always had, so you tried your best to ignore it with him. “You’re fine, don’t worry. I’m Y/N.” You extended your dry hand for him to shake it. He stared at it for a moment, and then with an eagerness that made you smile, he shook your hand. 

“‘I’m Bucky.” 

  For a moment, you could have sworn that you had done more tha just seen him before. Could have sworn that you had shaken his hand, met him before, been at the receiving end of his blinding yet somewhat shy smile. It flashed through you warm and bright, and you cleared your throat before pulling your hand away and realizing you had held it for too long. You cleared it again when you saw something flash in his eyes, a weak smile lifting on your lips.

“It’s not her.” 

Wanda was furious. She was insulted more than anything, really, angry that Bucky could even mistake the light of you for someone else. She knew that you would never grace the earth with your presence again, and she was so used to the fact that she was going to have to die before seeing you again. And for one of her closest friends to try to convince her that you were back? 

 “She would have already found me.” And Wanda believed that with her whole heart. You had asked her so long ago that you remember her, like she could ever forget. Your scent was so flowery that whenever she walked past a growing garden that she smelled you, your smile was so bright that she saw it in the way the rays of sun came down on the earth. She heard your laugh in the chirping of the birds every morning, and she saw your playfulness in the running waters of the stream by the cabin. She could never forget you, because everything was traced back to you. And you would never return without finding her. 

“I don’t think she even knows it yet, but she is looking for you.” Bucky insisted, stepping forward and receiving Wanda’s burning glare while Steve stepped to the side and let it happen. “I bumped into her and she dropped her sketchbook. I saw her drawings- she drew your eyes.” 

  Wanda’s heart skipped a beat. “What?” 

“She dropped the drawing of hands in the water, but I saw she had drawn eyes that looked just like yours, hair the same shade as yours, even drawn the necklace you used to wear. She draws roses, too. I swear to everything above, it’s her.” 

She could feel herself getting warm, the sort of emotions stirring inside of her that had the potential to turn into a singular weapon. The thought of a rose bush made her sick to her stomach. “It’s not her.” 

“You forget that I knew her, too,” Bucky stated, and Wanda’s desolation was replaced by some ancient feeling of possessiveness. “I could never forget her face, and that was it right there. That was her face, without a shadow of a doubt, And her voice-” 

Wanda’s face curled into a snarl. “Stop talking about her.”  

“Hey, Wanda, take a deep breath,” Steve cut in, ever the mediator, but Bucky was hardheaded. If he thought something needed to happen, he was the one to push for it to happen, and he needed her to see. 

 “She looks the same as she did the day she left.” Wanda let out a choked noise. For a second, all she could picture was her lover dying by the blooming rose bushes in the sunset, ruining two of the most beautiful things in life at once. The third (but first) was you, but not even your horrible death could taint Wanda’s memory of you. You would forever be the brightest and most beautiful thing to grace the earth. “I got her number, we’re meeting at a coffee shop a few blocks away.” 

“Leave her alone.” Wanda said through gritted teeth, tears welling up in her eyes. When she saw the brunet’s eyes widen and his mouth drop open, she spoke before he could get a word in. “Just stay away from her, Bucky.” 

All she could think about was your death. The way you choked on your own blood. The way you cried and looked up at her, but still managed to smile. And as she was consumed by rage and memories, the only other thought in her mind was that she was yours and you were here, and that she couldn’t save you then. But she was surely going to preserve your memory from Bucky’s mouth. 

  “I know you feel it coming back. You haven’t felt it in so long, but it’s warm, right? It’s powerful. You always were the strongest, and you’re not dormant any longer. Stop lying to yourself and depriving yourself of love, Wanda. You know Y/N-”

  She saw red. Red as red as the fires that burned in the magma underneath the ground, as red as embers in a fire. “You don’t get to say her name.” She saw so much red, so much hot anger that hardly covered her sadness, that she didn’t even see the way that she had her hand out red coming from her palm as she lifted Bucky right off of the wooden floor of their shared home. “You don’t get to talk about her.” There was a warbling noise in her ears, whispers that sounded like her name, getting louder and louder until she finally realized it was Steve trying to get her attention. 

  “Wanda.” 

Instantly, she dropped her arm and watched Bucky fall to the ground, landing in a crouched position. She watched him catch his breath on the ground. She opened her mouth to apologize, to say that she felt terrible and that she had no idea what happened, what took over her, but she was stopped by the brilliant smile that came onto Bucky’s face. 

  “You used magic.” He said, slowly and steadily, not a hint of hesitance or animosity in his eyes or voice. Instead, he seemed more proud than anything. “You can’t deny this now, Wanda.” 

She was hyperventilating, the pain in her chest intensifying as she tried without any results to get the right amount of air in her lungs. She felt her knees hit the ground before she knew that she did, her hands covering her face as she sobbed into herself. Her heart ached, tugging in so many different directions as her brain fought to rationalize what everything meant. She had used magic,  and that meant that you were back, in one way or another. She was in disbelief. She was in despair. She was in shock. 

“I know you do, I know you do,” It was Steve’s arms around her, and Steve’s voice in her ear, and she realized that she had been saying I miss her, I miss her, over and over again until the words jumbled. “We know you do, Wanda. We miss her too.” 

But he didn’t understand. He hadn’t lost Bucky since he had found him. He hadn’t walked the earth for centuries after losing the only thing that mattered to him as an empty shell of the person he used to be. He would never understand, but that wasn’t his fault. In fact, she prayed that he would never understand. 

“I’m sorry I approached you like that,” Bucky said, crouching down and hugging her just as Steve was, enclosing her into a hugging circle. They were coven, related by magic, and just being around them made her tears subside. “But you know that I would have never said anything like that unless I was one thousand percent sure. I would never do anything to hurt you, Wanda. All I want is for you to be happy. And I know that I found her.” 

And how could he want anything but the best for her? He knew her just as much as Steve did. Just as much as she probably knew herself. He and Steve were the ones who stormed the coven that took you from her by her side, and they were the ones that helped her send them to their graves. They supported her through thick and thin, through revenge and peace, and mostly, they loved you almost as much as she did. Why would Bucky lie? 

Wanda blinked, staring down at her hands in fear and wonder as her heart beat started to get away from her. Steve’s warm hand landed on her shoulder, and she flinched from the sudden touch after such a rush of power. 

“I think you should go with him, Wanda.” Her heavy breathing was all that filled the air for a moment. “Just take a look at her from outside so you can leave if he was wrong without anyone knowing, but you should at least try. I think Buck’s right.” 

Wanda’s breaths were still labored. Her hands trembled as she moved hair from her eyes, and her lip quivered before she found the strength to mutter a few words. “Will she- will she remember?” 

“I think she will,” Steve said softly. “But she’s probably just a human. It may take more than just seeing you for her to remember everything.” 

 Her eyes were wet with tears, and her heart was so big with warmth and need that she was scared that it would burst open at the seams. But she was even more terrified to lose the idea of you. Slowly and shakily, she nodded, her head bobbing up and down as she sealed her own fate. “I’ll go.” She saw Steve give her his fatherly and supportive smile, small yet full. “I’ll see her.” 

You didn’t know how you were gently swindled into giving Bucky your number. You knew that it was nothing but friendly, but he was so charming that you felt like you could never not know him. In fact, it felt like you already did know him. He said something about maybe commissioning an artwork of yours, and of course that excited you. You were going to meet him at a coffee shop, in a public place even though you weren’t the slightest bit afraid of him. But something felt different. 

 It started once you got into your car. You were driving to get to the shop when tingles came down your spine, and bumps raised on your arms, like someone was whispering against your skin. You started to feel warmth come and go in waves, brushing against your mind and then retreating again. You shook off all of the strong feelings as you turned your car off, parked in front of the coffee shop while the music from your speakers filled the silence, soft piano music that was perfect for the weather. 

  It was drizzling, the kind of weather that you liked to call a “lover’s drizzle” because of how often it was seen in romantic scenes. Scenes of confession, of reunion, of desperation between two lovers- more often than not, they had the mild rain to stand in. You turned the music down before shutting your car off and then stepping out, closing the door and locking it immediately before walking briskly to the entrance of the coffee shop with your recent drawings in hand. 

 Bucky wasn’t there when you arrived. In fact, hardly anyone was there besides the few employees, who smiled at you when you entered but otherwise fell back into conversation amongst themselves, which was fine with you. There was one beefy blonde man who was sitting with a laptop and a ball cap on. He glanced up for a moment and then took a double take, blinking hard at you with a star struck look on his face, and then he shot his gaze back down and went back to typing.

You sat down at a table for two, the only type of table that was there besides the long, awkward study tables that they had set up in the center of the room. You would much rather take the intimate setting of a two-seater than to sit in the middle of the shop, so you did just that. You flipped through your work, looking at it closely now that you had the time. He had mentioned something about possible portrait work for a friend of his, so you naturally brought most of the drawings that you had done with hands, arms, eyes, hair, nearly everything that was the closest to your heart. You rested your palm on top of them and watched your fingers trace the slender ones that you had drawn in what felt like by memory at the time, like you were just remembering the way an old friend’s hands used to look. You peeled that one back and looked into the eyes, the strangest and prettiest light green color that made your heart pound every time you looked at it. You took a deep breath in.

  “That’s gorgeous.” You jumped in your seat as the chair in front of you pulled out from under the table, and there was the charming brunet that you had met by the fountain, giving you the same welcoming smile that he first granted you. You smiled back without hesitation, your heart warming at the sight. “You sure can draw.” 

  “I try,” you joked, your grin nearly splitting your face. “Do you drink coffee?” 

“Nah,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “But I like tea, though.” You gave him a thoughtful look. 

“Are you into herbal healing?” 

You could have sworn that there was some sort of excitement in his eyes, but you weren’t sure enough by the time he opened his mouth again. “Yes, actually! What, does it look like I’m into it?” 

“No,” you answered, and it was true. Bucky was huge. He had the kind of build that intimidated other guys at the gym, the kind that made athletes jealous. He looked like the typical meathead, but he was sweeter than you could have imagined. But he looked nothing like a man who would be into herbal healing. “Just a guess.” 

“Pretty good guess,” he mused, and you grinned back. Your head was in the clouds of some strange deja vu when he asked you if you wanted something, and the entire exchange of whether or not you were going to pay was on the back burner as you sifted through your thoughts. By the time he came back, you noticed that you must have told him that you liked hot chocolate, and that he must have paid. You scolded him before he sat back down, waving you off. It was silent for a few moments as you looked out of the window, the rain still steadily working through the atmosphere. The cup was comfortingly warm. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

  With any other man, you would have immediately told him no, or at least have your guard up. But there was just something deep down, so buried that it was faint, but it was there, that told you that he was nowhere even close to being a threat. “Yes.”

 He nodded, taking a sip of his tea and then putting his cup down gently before giving you an intense look. “Who’s the girl?”  

You frowned. “What girl?” 

He raised a singular brow. “The one you draw.” 

Your breath hitched in your throat. You blinked twice, and then tilted your head to the side. “I don’t draw just one person,” you said slowly, the lie dragging its way out of your mouth and through your teeth. “They’re different people.” 

“Oh,” he said, but the smirk on his face told you that he knew you were lying to him and to yourself. You sipped your drink and something tugged at you, telling you to look out of the window and into the rain again, just one more time before you spilled your guts about seeing things- and then something caught your eye. A flash of a familiar reddish-brown. You turned your full body to look that way, and once you did, you nearly dropped your cup. 

  There was a woman staring back at you, eyes wide and full of so much emotion that the artist in you wanted to rush to make an unworthy attempt at capturing it. Her lips were parted in pure shock, but you were watching them tremble even from far away. She was getting slightly damp in the rain, but she stood there like it didn’t even matter, just locking eyes with you and sending your heart rate through the roof. When your eyes finally came back to hers after looking at her for what felt like the quickest eternity, you gasped. You knew those eyes. 

  If you weren’t so deep into gazing at the woman stuck behind the glass, you would have noticed the pleased and content look on Bucky’s face, and the look that he gave the big blond sitting with a ball cap on all by himself. You would have noticed the way that the blond man was turning his body towards your table, watching with the same amount of anticipation as Bucky was. You tried to understand why she looked so familiar, why she was scratching the part of your brain that always tried to convince you that you were much older than twenty something- and then it hit you. 

  You had been drawing this woman. And you had been thinking about her ever since you knew how to think. It was just the first time you were ever seeing the full picture. “I-” you muttered, eyes stuck on her and the way she looked like she was about to topple over from emotions. The words got stuck in your own throat as you weakly tried to get your mind to take you back to the conversation. “I- excuse me. I have to- I’ll be back- excuse me.” Your chair made a loud noise as you stood from the table in a haste, pushing the door open and walking towards the woman who was still standing on the sidewalk, dumbstruck. 

Before you even knew you were outside and into the rain, you were standing not even four steps away from the woman, who was now looking at you with an incomprehensible look on her face. You couldn’t even feel the rain on you. All you could feel was her gaze and the warmth that was settling in your stomach and chest, and the same intense familiarity that was hitting you when you looked at Bucky. But it was so much stronger. 

“I-” you frowned, taking a step closer and resisting the urge to reach out and touch her. “Do I know you? Have we met?” You had to have met. You had seen her in your sleep, in your daydreams, in your sketchbook. And still, you never could have imagined how beautiful she was. 

She was silent. 

“I know this is random and that I just bum rushed you, but, did we go to school together or something?” You were embarrassed. You had never begged someone to remember you before, but this woman was different. She hadn’t said a word to you, and you didn’t even know her name, but you were enraptured. You swore you knew her. You swore you saw her eyes glaze over for a second. 

“You really don’t remember, do you?” Her voice struck something familiar in your chest, something warm and comforting. It was so familiar, so far back in your memory that it felt like home. Her accent, her inflection, the way she spoke slowly yet deliberately. It was all there in your mind, but you just couldn’t figure out how you knew it so well. “You don’t remember who I am?” 

 That had you closing your mouth. You tilted your head to the side at what could have been a hostile question, but her tone made it sad. Did you forget a high school friend? “Oh, um, I know you from somewhere, but I can’t really-” 

 “Think.” The desperation in her voice made your knees shake. If she were anyone else, you would have told her to go away, but you couldn’t. You didn’t want her to go away. But you couldn’t quite place her either, even though your own heart was screaming at you to remember. 

  “I’m sorry,” you said, a hurt expression on your face. You braved yourself to leave, taking a deep breath and giving her a weak smile that embarrassed you even further. “This was weird of me. I’ll just-” 

 She was reaching for you. Time started to run slower as her pale arm extended towards you, long fingers that you had committed to memory and to paper a thousand times outstretched. Your mouth dropped open ever so slightly as you stood in place for a second, body still until you subconsciously leaned forward, your nerves buzzing under your skin. 

  For a second, the only thing you could do was look at the point where her skin touched yours. 

  You had seen magic before. You had seen it in movies and at theme parks and when miracles happened, but nothing ever like when her skin touched yours. You swore that the warmth that your body had been feeling kicked in even stronger, surrounding you in comfort. Her hand was wrapped around your arm, gentle yet begging, firm yet wishing all the same for something you couldn’t quite see yet. You looked up and into her eyes, the eyes you had drawn and seen so many times, and then you saw it. 

   You saw it in more than flashes. They were coming in at the speed of light, but somehow you were able to catch every moment and every feeling that came along. You heard her voice as clear as day, ringing with laughter. You saw the two of you attempting to skip stones. You saw her enchanting your stones behind your back to make you think you had actually done it. You saw her mouth brushing over your cheeks, your mouth, your forehead. You could feel her hands on you, holding you, protecting you, cherishing you all the same. You could remember the way that you felt when you saw her standing in traditional witch’s clothing, being inducted into her coven as a blossomed witch. You saw everything and nothing, and you remembered it all. 

Wanda. 

A strangled sound escaped your body, so feral that it scared you, but you didn’t care. You pulled her forward, your head clashing against her chest. You could feel her shaking, like she wanted nothing more than to hold you just as tightly, but she was hesitating. “Wanda,” you called out, hugging her tighter, and then, like something in the universe stretched too far and then snapped right back into place, she was returning the embrace. 

  “I thought I had lost you forever,” she said, her voice hollow yet so full, so expressive. “I lost you, darling.” 

  The memories were all there, like all it took was a touch, but you were still coping with the knowledge. You had been murdered. Murdered by witch hunters, way back when witches were known and feared. That had to have been hundreds of years ago, you knew it. But still, your focus was on Wanda. It always would be on Wanda, forever and always. Just like hers was on you. 

“You didn’t,” you managed to say, your own voice thick with emotion as you buried your face into her neck, finally feeling the texture of the hair that you tried so hard to get right. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere ever again.” 

“I’m sorry,” she said, suddenly sobbing in your arms. You had no idea how you weren’t being interrupted in the crowded streets, but when you took a look back inside of the cafe to see the men who you so clearly remembered as Steve and Bucky, you knew it had something to do with them and their fulfilled smiles. “I wasn’t able to save you. I let you die, and I’m so sorry, darling. I’m so sorry.” 

  Her words brought you back to the present. “Wanda, no. No, no, no.” You wanted to pull away and look at her face, but the second you started to, she held onto you even tighter. You leaned your head back onto her chest. “It wasn’t your fault. There was no way any of us could have known, and no way that you could have saved me. It was beyond us.” 

  “Nothing should have ever been beyond us.” She argued softly. “I’m so sorry.” 

“But it was,” you said. “And now it’s behind us. Don’t apologize, Wanda.” You wiggled around and got free enough to look up at her teary face. “I may not have recognized you, but now that I do, I can’t believe that I ever forgot you.”

   “A new life will do that to you.” 

“Is it really a new life if I remember everything?” You said softly, the rain long gone as you stood with each other, bodies nearly molded together with how close you were. 

  She pulled away to look down at you, her eyes and overall expression tense, and then there was a look that you recognized from a long time ago. It was a look of sweet desire. You closed the cap between the two of you, pressing your lips to hers in a way that proved that you were both two lost souls who had wandered their way back to their other halves. 

“It can be whatever you want it to be, darling.” Her lips brushed your again, soft and tender and eager for more touch. “As long as you let me be in it.” 

[filaree-flower]

Convoluted Jade Winglet headcanons?

I'm curious!! /gen

Noble anon and great friend, I am so glad you asked. This post will probably be long so <3 I'll put a tl;dr at the beginning.

Just a warning, in case someone hasn't read them - this will contain spoilers for the Jade Mountain Arc and Legends: Darkstalker!

TL;DR: The Jade Winglet is composed of multiple reincarnations of the Darkstalker: Legends characters. Moonwatcher is the reincarnation of Clearsight; Turtle is the reincarnation of Fathom; Kinkajou is the reincarnation of Indigo; and Qibli is supposed to be the reincarnation of Darkstalker, but Darkstalker never died.

So, this used to be a big theory of mine when the JM arc was still coming out, but I still cling to it as a headcanon. I just see so many parallels between the characters of these arcs and the Legends: Darkstalker characters. It's been a while since I've actually read those books, but I think my knowledge is still sound enough to write this. If not, who cares, I disregard canon anyway /lh. I am referencing pages on the Wings of Fire wiki pretty frequently as I write this, so props to those guys.

The background. Page 14 of Escaping Peril mentions that SkyWings have specific burial rituals, in hopes that the spirit of the dragon will be free and can be reincarnated into a SkyWing. Though this is FAR from being the definitive canon for dragon afterlife, this is the main jumping point for my reincarnation theories. It appears to be at least accepted in the SkyWing tribe that reincarnation is a thing that can happen to the souls of the departed.

Moonwatcher is the reincarnation of Clearsight. Personally, I always found a lot of similarity in their personalities. With Moonwatcher being the first prophetic (and mind-reading, but Clearsight's thing was prophecy) NightWing in centuries, it seems fitting that this is how Clearsight's spirit would return to the world. Her connection with Darkstalker was not like the one he shared with Clearsight (due to the age gap, ofc, and I am NOT a supporter of shipping the two in ANY capacity), but I felt I drew parallels between Moon's genuine trust in Darkstalker and Clearsight's. If I remember correctly, Darkstalker compared Moon's temperament to that of Clearsight a few times, though I can't be completely sure. Furthermore, Moon's evident involvement in Pantala now gives me more ground to support my funny little headcanon. Clearsight, as the """""""Founder"""""""" of Pantala as we know it, might find her spirit drawn to helping save the broken continent. This idea is also lightly supported by her starting a relationship in canon with Qibli but since I don't really care for that relationship, it's... much more of a backseat thing.

Turtle is the reincarnation of Fathom. After all, the first thing Darkstalker did upon emerging from the mountain was call Turtle by the ancient's name and promptly try to beat him up. That would pretty much confirm that they look super similar. Turtle is, of course, an animus and a member of the royal family--big whoop, that doesn't seem too uncommon in SeaWings. But personality-wise? I'd almost assert they're the exact same. Both fear their own power, both are nervous and easily flustered. And both end up challenging Darkstalker. If the wiki's right, they also go through similar arcs of learning that it's ok for them to be happy.

Kinkajou is the reincarnation of Indigo. This one took me the longest to think of and, yes, it is the biggest stretch. Indigo was a SeaWing, while Kinkajou is a RainWing (although, it appears as though the last known location for Indigo was the Rainforest, so... perhaps not as far-fetched?). But Kinkajou is tough--like when Darkstalker attacked Turtle, she jumped in to save him. And Turtle did have a crush on Kinkajou but that whole agitating love spell thing ruined all chances of that being smiled upon fandom-wise for a loooong time (thanks, Anemone :/). Anyway, Indigo always believed Darkstalker was up to no good, and then Kinkajou was the one who damned him to a fate of being a tiny rainbow hybrid dragonet with a singular fruit.

Originally I was going to say here that Winter is the reincarnation of Arctic, but the more I thought about it, the less it fit and the less I could justify it at all. Seems like Winter is either a different or a new soul, after all. Good for him. Anyway,

Qibli, the one who should have had a used soul. This might sound weird, but bear with me. Qibli was not swayed by Darkstalker's promises, and Darkstalker is known to be viciously manipulative and convincing. Qibli turned Darkstalker down, Qibli stood against some of the best manipulation in dragon history. That's striking to me. Only someone who really knows the tricks would be so resistant, I think. And more than just that, Qibli was GIFTED with wording spells and I vividly recall him constantly wishing he were an animus, as though there was just a part of him he felt was missing. Except there was no animus soul to give him, because Darkstalker never died. And perhaps this was so much for the better. Darkstalker and Qibli are both witty, intelligent, and observant, but Qibli didn't end up with an old, dark soul--there was a new one required for his place, one that was able to survive and stay good-hearted in a place as vicious as the Scorpion Den with dragons as heartless as his relatives. A soul so similar to Darkstalker, yet without the treachery, was a key piece in defeating the ancient evil. Though I do headcanon that, had Darkstalker been killed, Qibli would have been the reincarnation of that soul.

----

So that's basically it, I think? Feel free to call my bluff or burn my crops for this, but I think it's a fun and neat thing to headcanon and think about based on 1 line of SkyWing culture lore that we got, lol. If you wanna ask questions or discuss, I am totally in.

Obligatory request to ignore any grammatical errors or typos, I finished writing this at 1:30 AM and I think I started at like. Midnight lol.

[makerofmadness]

I’m just gonna dump a bunch of AAF headcanons (note: I’m still relatively new [hasn’t been a month yet I think?? Idk] and any headcanons may change)

*Andy’s the only one who sees all the weird creepy sh*t going on with everyone else. He either zones out or passes out when the cutscenes or whatever the frick’s going on with Peter happens. He sees the stuff often but doesn’t want anyone to worry so he doesn’t say anything. Most of the time his friends don’t really care or notice but during the Christmas party they probably did get at least a little bit concerned.

*Speaking of the Christmas party: there wasn’t actually a corpse in the box (by that I mean: no, Claus did not get the dead decaying head of probably Kamyrn or something and stuff it in there and think “wow I should totally give this to my pal!”), that’s just what Andy saw. his friends got him a keyring.

*Andy is now deathly afraid of the barn. and dark places in general. sleeps with the lights on now.

*Margret makes fun of everyone else for being shorter than her sometimes but it’s all meant lightheartedly. Felix is the shortest so she picks on him the post.

*Melody is a vindictive b*tch (affectionate). Fittingly, Isabella is the most vengeful of the spirits trapped in the game (everyone’s out for Thomas’s head).

*Margret is a dog person. Kamryn was also a dog person. Dog is love, dog is life. Margret will pet every puppy in sight.

*Melody can sing. GOOD.

*Felix hordes boots like his life depends on it. Probably eats them sometimes too. Don’t ask why, he just does.

*Claus thinks he’s better than everyone else but he doesn’t say it too often, just quietly thinks it.

*Andy has a lot of problems with nightmares and paranoia and he needs a lot of emotional support, at least ever since the events of the game.

*Speaking of: yeah everyone’s out for Thomas’s ghost head. lots of misunderstandings/Thomas is the only one who knows about the Entity (besides Andy who had to watch all those cutscenes but even then he probably doesn't fully understand all of that yet). Also they’re all kinda pissed he kept them from going to the afterlife by tying them to the game (he was grieving okay-).

*Claus gay, Margret bi. There is no reason for this. Frick you /lh.

*Andy’s pan because one day I randomly thought of the pun “pandy” and I haven’t gotten it out of my head since.

*Melody also gay (lesbians ❤️). and Felix is aroace. :P.

*Yes, Andy plushies exist. Andy doesn’t know how or why. Baylee probably made them.

*Pierre acts like Fresh from Lucidia but without the whole parasite thing. also less 90s and more surfer bro. actually they don’t have much in common besides being kinda obnoxious.

*Peter is, of course, a b*tch. he relishes in Andy’s suffering. and Thomas’s.

*Melody doesn’t know how to swim. Felix is currently trying to teach her.

*Melody and Felix are especially close because they’re the shortest. shorties gotta stick together y’know.

*Margret’s the Team Mom™ but is kinda irresponsible like 75% of the time. everyone’s some kind of teenager and she is not exempt from this.

*Andy’s friends care about him despite messing with him constantly. they just have a hard time realizing when they’ve gone too far. they’d still probably defend him if they saw Peter trying to torment him. unfortunately, they probably never will be able to help him...

*Andy’s currently kinda falling apart on the inside after seeing all that stuff about how he and his friends might be inhabited by ghosts and whatnot. let’s see how long he can keep up a smile...

*Margret strong. (she could carry the others in her arms easily).

*Literally no one knows Peter. He’s basically the Entity’s sh*tty self-insert.

[randomly--accessed--memories]

My (and @voxaholic's) personal takes on each of these general routes:

Happy Ending : Vox slowly recovers over the course of decades. His old identity and new identity merge and are no longer in conflict with each other. He knows what happened to him and who he used to be, but accepts that Alastor is long gone and still has affection for the hotel crew.

Bittersweet Ending : Kind of what it says on the tin. Vox gets better over time, but is never going to be who he used to be or an independent person in general. Doesn't mean he can't still be happy though. His old relationship with Val and Vel may be lost, but he builds new ones with them. Keeps in contact with the hotel crew as much as possible. Probably even develops a little, schoolboy crush on Val that Val doesn't even notice because he's so resigned to the fact that the person he loved is gone and the person left behind will never love him in the way he craves.

Neutral Ending : The true ending imo. It's the Bittersweet Ending, except mortality eventually factors into it. Val gets killed somehow (probably by a hotel resident) and Vox backslides because of it. Velvette has the weight of the world on her shoulders, now having complete control over the entire Vee empire, as well as having to care for a Vox who's struggling almost as badly as he was during the early years. Over the course of decades, she continues to expand her empire, massively overstretching herself and not getting any true satisfaction out of it– but she feels like she needs to be as powerful as possible if there's even the slightest chance that Alastor might come back. Vox eventually mellows back out (although is now perpetually quiet and despondent) and she introduces him back to society once everyone's forgotten who he used to be. Everyone either assumes they're fucking or that he's some kind of attack dog, because why else would the most powerful overlord in Hell keep this random lunatic so close. It barely matters to her anymore.

Sad ending : (This one is @voxaholic's baby) Vox starts recovering, but he's not happy about it. He's not better enough to be functional, but is cognizant enough to know that something is fundamentally "broken" about him. He slips into an overwhelming depression, barely able to leave his bed most days. Eventually, he convinces Val and Velvette to just let him die since he's "clearly never going to get better." Val shoots him through the chest with an angelic bullet as Vox experiences a peace he hasn't felt in decades. Val goes into his own passively suicidal spiral, acting even more recklessly, hoping that someone will just kill him already so he can follow Vox into the abyss. He and Velvette make little trinkets out of Vox's internal components to remember him by.

Bad ending : Al gets Vox under contract at the hotel and disappears into the ether with him. Alternatively, Alastor shows back up in the Sad Ending while Vox is at his lowest and convinces him to come with him– he's nothing but a "burden" to Valentino and Velvette, after all. Al has somehow gained the ability to travel to the other Rings, so even though they know they're out there (Alastor never stops broadcasting, no matter where he is), Vox is perpetually out of reach for Val and Vel. Vox wishes so badly he could force himself to stop loving Alastor, especially now that he remembers what happened and understands that this man is responsible for completely ruining his afterlife. He never can, though.

Other : Something happens to Vox and he's suddenly completely cured. However, the resulting cognitive dissonance he experiences is overwhelming. The trauma from what he's been through these past seven/eight years and the complete contradiction to his worldview that he experienced at the hotel is just too much to deal with. He immediately launches into an incredibly self-destructive revenge quest against Alastor and the hotel residents, which he 100% intends to end in him and Alastor killing each other. The Vees, initially overjoyed to have his old, wicked self back, are now trying to restrain him because goddamnit Vox, they just got you back, they're not about to lose you again!

While I've decided that the main story of this AU will end "happily" with the Vees reuniting, there's a lot of wiggle room for what happens in the epilogue. @voxaholic and I have come up with several sad/bad endings this past week or two; now I'm curious how the rest of y'all see this story ending. If you have any specific ideas, feel free to share!

[moonlightreal]

Fate season 2-7

It’s the end!  And I don’t think the writers knew the end was near so will the story be wrapped up at all?

It’s been a while since I visited the world of Fate, I was swept up in the less pleasant world of school and then the more pleasant world of Christmas, neither of which led to wanting to write long episode recaps.  

So when we left Fate: Tales from Elemental Academy, Miss Dowling just visited from the afterlife (and House of the Dragon being her afterlife is 100% my headcanon.)  and told the girls the secret of transformation?  Is accepting all emotions?  Which works emotionally, it feels very Jedi, acceptance and balance.  But narratively, it’s an awfully simple secret to be lost for so many years.  Maybe every school did like Ms. Dowling and concentrated on positive emotions to avoid people like ragebucket Bloom happening, but it strains credulity that no individual reached enlightenment in thousands of years.

Also Valtor and some lore about the ancient past that I already forgot, and Beatrix is now working with the baddies and I can’t really blame her after how much the plot has been kicking her this season.  And she let a bunch of scrapers into the school.

How will it all end?  let’s find out!

Last episode: All the Wild Witches

It’s dark.  The power has gone out. The general is looking for Bloom, who just busted out of jail remember.  She’s on the phone with Silva, who says Bloom isn’t dangerous.

Musa and Flora are returning.

Scrapers attack pretty much everybody!

Flora gets knocked over and there’s Beatrix and Sebastian.  They catch Flora, but Musa is hidden in the shadows and Beatrix either can’t sense her or pretends she can’t. Hard to tell with B.  So Flora is caught and Musa escapes.

Opening!

Morning!  The school has been taken over!  All the specialists have been puppeteered, apparently.  Bloom is reporting this to Silva, Dale and Riven, Kat, and a few other specialists.  The team that went to capture the blood witch lair is safe, but they used all their anti-puppeteering potions.  The fairies are locked in the school dungeon so Sebastian can steal their magic one by one.  Musa is hiding in the school and sending video and info to Bloom.

Silva says some soldiery things about their plan of attack.  Bloom says she’s going after Sebastian and Silva invites her to “walk with me” to discuss more tactics.

Terra, Stella and Aisha are still in the random cottage where they met with Miss Dowling so they are also not captured.  Aisha watches a video of Grey and another blood witch hauling Flora off.  Aisha can’t believe the nice guy she knew would work for Sebastian.  Terra says there must be a reason.

Otherworld bigotry seems to be the reason.  Seriously show, why didn’t you go with “Blood Witches are an extremist group, they’re healing fairies who chose to use their magic to control instead of to heal.  They chose the name ‘Blood Witches’ to symbolize their hatred for all other fairies.”

Oh, and about Grey?  On their date, he made little bugs in the water light up, using his blood witch powers to manipulate life.  There was foreshadowing!

Terra’s guess is that maybe Sebastian’s just really persuasive.  Stella’s guess: “Or maybe the people we care about are really just shitty people.”  Ouch! Also Stella is looking at her phone, a list of unanswered texts to Beatrix.  Ending with “of course. you're working with Sebastian.” and “I don’t know why I ever expected more from you.”  This show is giving me emotion and it’s anger at the writers for being this unrelentingly cruel to Stella’s character.

Bloom and Silva talk and it’s quite wholesome.  Bloom says Sebastian wants the Dragon Flame and Silva says he definitely shouldn’t get it and the one who should have it is Bloom.  They’ll have to fight.  Together.

Thank you, season 2, for giving Silva at least one good moment!

Then Bloom realizes Sky isn’t there. I had forgotten, but he tried to bust Bloom out last episode and landed himself in the dungeon.  Where he probably still is in the taken-over school!  Yikes!  Silva says, “Before you go nuclear remember, Sky is resourceful.  He’ll be fine.”

Sky has managed to sit himself in a corner of his cell that’s not visible from outside.  When a female soldier comes in, he’s got himself up hanging from a grate in the ceiling.  He smiles hello then drops on her.  A brief scuffle later Sky walks out of the cell.

Back with the girls, Aisha doesn’t want Bloom going in alone.  “What if you accidentally set someone on fire?  I could be there to put them out.”  Aisha says.  Uh, it’s a battle, setting people on fire is kind of what you’re there for? Yeah I know, don’t hurt innocent people but still, weapon. Battle. Bloom is checking her phone.  Sky has not texted back.

The girls don’t want Bloom going alone, and they have good points.  Terra is a medic, Stella can do invisibility, and Aisha is on top of extinguishing.  But there are scrapers so everyone with magic is in danger, also a good point. Bloom says she’ll be safe because she can transform and be stronger and faster.  The other girls say they know how too, but Bloom doesn’tv think they have time.

Bloom also says, “that’s Silva’s plan, not mine.”  Bloom, you do know this is supposed to be a friendship show about a team of fairies, right?  Not Bloom,  Lone Wold and Edgelord of Elemental Academy?

Edgelord Bloom summons a handful of dragonfire and says she has to do it alone because only this power can take down Sebastian.  And she says, “I love you, I do.” but she has to do it alone.

Then Bloom… hears a psychic voice calling her name from a mysterious tower.?  And faints.

She sees visions.  Sebastian doing some yellow colored magic.  Burned Ones.

Silva comes in to find the girls helping Bloom up.  She says she just passed out from stress and needs a glass of water because heaven forbid the edgelord ask an adult who knows about magic about the strange new magic that just happened to her.

Sigh.  I try not to do Fate-hate but it’s hard not to hate Bloom’s character when she acts like this.

Silva helps the girls boost Bloom up and she says she’s ready to go.  But the plan is for Silva and the specialists to do the first… tactics… to make the scraper-filled school less dangerous for the fairies.  So the girls should wait.

Sky sneaks around the school and has a lucky break!  He comes upon the baddies just as Beatrix asks Sebastian what his endgame is.  Sebastian says telling her wasn’t part of the deal.  But then Beatrix did her bit and can just leave. Sebastian hands her a piece of yellow paper which I guess is the last bit of her payment for letting him in.  Sebastian goes off to continue devouring fairies’ magic.  Beatrix looks thoughtful.  Sky sneaks off in the other direction.

Down in the dungeon many students are unconscious and/or bloody and beaten up.  I guess they dump them back after their magic is stolen.  Flora sits with a boy I don’t recognize—oh, it’s the fire fairy boy!  His name is Nick apparently.  He wants to escape!  They’re not locked in a cell apparently, they’re just in a par of the dungeon with light shining down, because scrapers stay in the dark so if the fairies leave they’ll get scrapered.  Flora says don’t do anything dumb but Nick summons a flame, goes out of the room, and promptly gets scrapered.

Musa is down here too, hiding from some guards by a cell door.  

Outside Silva and the specialists, there are like 20 of them now, head for the school.  Puppeteered specialists are standing guard outside.  So, we’re gonna sneak in and incapacitate them one by one so Bloom and the fairies can go in! Let’s go!

Back at the cabin the girls get a call from Musa, who’s hiding in the suite.  Sebastian may be on to them! A bunch of puppeteered specialists are heading outside.  If they take down Silva’s team the plan is toast.  Musa also knows where Flora is, but can’t get her out.  Terra suggests appealing to Grey, and Stella says she can ask Beatrix again but Musa thinks B left. Terra is upset thinking her cousin’s going to become magicless and there’s nothing they can do!  But Musa has an idea.  That she doesn’t share with her friends, but she does grab her fighting stick.

Stella stands up and walks away, very upset.  I swear this show ships Stella/Beatrix and it is weird.

Bloom is drawing… an eye? An eclipse? Aisha asks what it is and Bloom admits she had a vision and this is something she saw.  Bloom starts choking up and says she’s really scared, after what happened with Rosalind and having to be strong. Aisha says you aren’t less of a badass if you let your friends take care of you.  Aisha learned this because after Grey turned out bad she had her friends to help her get through it.  They hug.

Back at school it turns out Dane texted the guy he’s supposed to take down.  I guess it was one of his boyfriends?  And Riven’s like,. ‘What don’t you understand about the concept of a surprise attack?” and then the guy comes out and he’s big.  Swordplay ensues!  Dane thinks he can wake his friend up from being puppeteered but it doesn’t work.

Also Riven is using two swords.  Cool!

They go down to defeat and Sky jumps in and rescues them.  But more puppeteered specialists are coming!  The buys grab their target and they all retreat.

In the dungeon Flora’s checking the pockets of her passed-out classmates for a weapon.  She finds a fountain pen and then the blood witches come to get her.  She seems to be the last one.

Also the blood witches are dressed in olive green and many layers.  This show was made before Zelensky made that his signature color but the outfits do not proclaim “villain” they proclaim “rebel fighters.”  I can’t tell if this is a deeper message from the design team or just something I’m reading into it from watching, I dunno, Rogue One maybe?  

Outside in the graveyard!  Sky and the boys return.  He’s using the sword that was supposedly his fathers, that Andreas dissed.  Sky says it’s fine.  Silva says the sword is just old, in fact it belonged to his father, not Sky’s. Andreas was probably angry at the deception.   They don’t say any heartfelt words, but it’s clear they have reconciled.

But we can’t talk for long, we have to do strategy!  With the blood witches alerted this small group can’t do much.  Best bet is to wait for the Solarian army.  Riven is not ok with leaving Musa and Flora in the lurch but Silva says it’s not up for debate.

Inside the school Musa attacks the blood witch soldiers transporting Flora!  Musa is badass and knocks him down.  Unfortunately the other blood witch is holding a knife to Flora’s throat!  Musa knocks him down too.  Cool!  Flora still has her magic and they are loose in the school!

Bloom keeps drawing the… portal?  A dark glowing circle.  Sky calls so Bloom knows he’s safe.  Musa also called so she knows those two are ok hiding in the school. Excpet… oh no!  Sky is being puppeteered!  He hands the phone off to Sebastian.

Sebastian of course will kill Sky unless Bloom does what he says, which is to sneak out of the cottage where the other girls are and go with Grey to the school.  Grey is the escourt for Plot reasons, obviously.

Flora mixes up a potion in the suite. She’s gathered all the possible ingredients in the rooms, Terra’s herbs and Musa brings over what looks like some beauty products. Flora is working on a secret project she doesn’t want to tell Terra about so Terra doesn’t get distracted.  Then Musa gets a text that Bloom and Sky have gone missing.

Bloom and Grey go in through the greenhouse and the infirmary.

Stella has gone outside to look for Bloom but instead she gets found by Beatrix.  Stella says, “You’re the villain.”  and Beatrix pulls out the book with info about scrapers and spills Sebastian’s plan.  he’s “obsessed with righting the wrongs of Aster Dell” and his plan involves an “entity in the Realm of Darkness” that can raise the dead.  Well that’d right the wrong pretty thoroughly, if you just bring everyone back to life!  But of course it’s super dangerous and can destroy the world.  Sebastian needs the Dragon Flame to open a portal to the Realm of Darkness, and once the portal’s open you can only close it from the other side.  So it’s very important that Bloom stay away from Sebastian, but too late for that!

Stella reams B out, “You think you can play both sides, don’t you” do some good deeds and that’ll make up for letting Sebastian devour every fairy at school.  B says she did what she had to to survive and Stella says, “Congratulations, you survived.” and turns away

And B says, “I have two sisters.” which she hadn’t known either.  She made the deal Sebastian wanted to make with Bloom, info about her past in exchange for help. Sebastian couldn’t tell her why she was at Aster Dell on the day but he did know about her sisters.  Beatrix starts to cry.  she’s lost everyone, and now she has newly discovered family.

Stella says, “You had me.” and goes back to looking for her friends.

As they walk through the halls of the school Bloom gives it a try with Grey, the straight “It’s not too late to do the right thing.”  But Grey shoots back, what is the right thing?  Fairies killed his family at Aster Dell so is it wrong to steal their magic?

Yes, because Rosalind killed your family pretty much single-handedly so don’t be a bigot, Grey.  But trying to raise the dead back up, if Grey doesn’t know the spell is dangerous, would be a complicated moral question.

Bloom pulls out a less complicated question.  Aisha really liked Grey and he lied to her.

They get to the courtyard and Sebastian sends Grey away and shows off what he’s done to Sky.  Poor dude’s all tied up in vines to the balcony with vines around his neck ready to strangle him.  And unconscious.  Sebastian says it’s a bit dramatic but gets the point across.  Heh.

Bloom’s like ok, you can have the Dragon Flame and takes off her coat so a scraper can eat it.  But Sebastian says that would make a scraper explode so they’ll use the convergence crystal to transfer the power.

Bold of Sebastian to assume he won’t explode.  He’s eaten how much magic lately?

And Bloom starts sending her magic into the crystal.  

Back out in the woods the girls are keen to do something to stop the triumph of evil but Silva still wants to wait for the army.  Terra gives an impassioned speech about how Bloom, Musa and Flora are all fighting and they need to fight too.  She says that’s what Miss Dowling would’ve wanted, all of Alfea fighting together.

That’s what gets through to Silva and he agrees.  Time to go battle!

Dane is worrying about his friend Luke who they rescued and who’s still puppeteererd and passed out.  Dane worries he’ll wake up and tell the blood witches what’s up, and just that he’ll wake up and be scared being suddenly in a different place.  Riven says maybe Dane should stay with him.

Kat tells Terra that speech was very hot.  Heh.  Terra starts rambling about how she learned about empowerment from a TED talk (so TED talks exist in the Otherworld?) and then they share a romantic kiss.  Aaaaw!  They are so cute.

Then we go to… big fight!  Sky and Silva nod to each other and lead the specialists into battle with a great war cry!  They meet their puppeteered comrades in battle!

Inside Flora is working on her potion but needs more solvent.  Musa insists she ask Terra for help and calls her.  Flora admits her plan is… to attract all the scrapers to her, and poison them.  With something that will also poison Flora. Terra of course is very upset!  But Flora says this is her home too and she’s going to do her part.  Terra tells Flora about other things she can use for a solvent, including Bloom’s art supplies and Stella’s vodka stash.

Swordfighting continues!

Bloom sending her magic into the crystal continues!  But they are interrupted when another blood witch comes to report the attack.  Sebastian tries to mindgames Bloom, saying she’s relieved to be giving up her power and she should be able to be an ordinary teenager without the pressure of all this destiny.  Sebastian says he lost his chance at a normal life too, and “Nobody gets to have a normal life when the Dragon Flame is involved.”  

Bloom snaps, “Are you taunting me?” which is a weird phrase but also good point.  Sebastian says he didn’t mean to taunt and Bloom says that since he got everything he wanted Sebastian should at least tell Bloom what he knows about her mother.

And Sebastian does.  Standing in the courtyard with daylight coming in the glass windows.  

Bloom’s mother had the Dragon Flame too.  And that was a thousand years ago!  Baby Bloom was in stasis all that time.  Bloom’s mom was a hero in an ancient war and then she lost control of her power and accidentally killed a bunch of people.  Not being able to face the possibility that her child would end up with the same burden and maybe also lose control, she put baby Bloom in stasis when she was born.  And she exiled herself to the Realm of Darkness.

...or Sebastian is just saying that to get Bloom to open the portal.  Bloom! Your mom is in another castle!~

Sebastian says Bloom’s mother never wanted her to have this burden of power and would basically approve of giving it to him.

And Bloom’s cool with it and goes back to sending her power into the crystal.  She is of course pretty upset from learning that her family lived a thousand years ago so none of them are around anymore.

Outside night is falling and the specialists are still fighting.  they’re having a rough time and the giurls want vto use their magic to help, but tyhey can’t risk distracting the scrapers from Flora, who can draw them all to her and destroy them.  

And Flora’s ready to go!  In the hallway she holds up a bottle that I think is scraper-attractant and injects herself with the poison.  Musa is horrified, but Flora says there’s stuff to do, there are still fairies in the dungeon that need rescuing.  Frightened even in her determination Flora asks if it hurts and Musa says, “Like hell.”

Flora sends Musa off the help the others and makes her final stand against a wave of scrapers.

Outside the fairies from the dungeon make it outside.  If they got out that means Flora took care of the scrapers.  Silva nods at the girls.  They can go in and join Bloom. Musa joins the specialists in their battle and Riven comes to fight beside her.  

Stella, Aisha and Terra enter the greenhouse and of course there’s Grey standing guard.  He tells Aisha he lost a brother in Aster Dell, making him the replacement kid.  Grey says he just wants to be free from all of it, being the replacement kid, doing blood witch stuff.  If his brother comes back the pressure will be off him.  He says Aisha should be able to understand family pressure.  And he says he didn’t lie about his feelings with Aisha.

She says it was only true for him, because he knew the truth the whole time so he gets the memories of a relationship while she gets memories of having been played.  Her memories of her first romance are ruined now.  Grey looks like he finally realizes that, and the girls push past him and go inside.

Bloom is still sending her magic into the crystal.  There must be a lot of Dragon Flame for it to take this long from afternoon into night!

And here comes Beatrix, she didn’t run away like a sensible person, she came back to spill the beans to Bloom about Sebastian’s plan!

Bloom glances up at Sky and asks if it matters what Sebastian’s going to do.,

B says, “Remember you said that.” and zaps the vines with lightning.  Sky falls like a sack of flour and as Bloom runs to him the crystal falls and shatters on the floor!

Bloom cries over her dead-seeming boyfriend and Sebastian crouches over the shards of his plan.  Then he stands up and faces Beatrix.  She grins and says she just saved the world and it felt pretty good, and Sebastian blasts her into a wall.  It doesn’t look like a terrible attack but I know from spoilers that B is in fact dead.  All her possible future plotlines cut off in an instant.

Bloom has reached the end of her emotional rope.  She opens her wings as dramatic music swells…

Sebastian reminds Bloom this is the same thing that happened to her mother and then she killed a bunch of people.  Bloom is rather past caring.  And oh hey, here’s the other three.  Aisha tries to talk Bloom down from going nuclear.  Bloom tells them to get away and summons a ball of scary fire in her hands. Stella says they’re not leaving.

Then Sky gasps!  Grey is there, using blood witch magic to make his heart beat!  See, healing fairies, come on writers seriously…

Bloom’s fire goes out and she runs to Sky.  But Sebastian’s still keen to fight-- and now Bloom can’t, well, get her fire up again.  She’s used up all her power with that last flame-up!

So Sebastian points out that they’re all still screwed and Beatrix sacrificed herself for nothing.  The others hadn’t seen B collapsed in a pool of blood but Stella rushes over—almost to her, and sees she’s dead and turns back with her eyes lighting up.

Aisha calls Sebastian a monster and he says yeah, and he’s stronger than each of them.  Terra asks if he’s stronger that all of them and--

And insipid pop music ruins the moment!

But yeah, they all get wings.  It’s pretty good.  Their eyes light up, they float into the air, magic swirls around their limbs and their wings come out.  Aisha’s are made of splashing water, Terra’s look like green glass and Stella’s are just thin beams of rainbow light.  It is very pretty but it feels incomplete, maybe because their clothes don’t change, maybe because the lighting in the room and on them doesn’t change.  Maybe because seriously, the moment when we need music to catch our emotions and make us feel how epic the moment is, we get this.

Bloom I think pulls some of her power back from the pieces of crystal and summons her wings again and the four of them blast Sebastian from the four directions until he is destroyed.

Appropriately, the way it looks Terra is in the North, Bloom the South, Aisha the West and Stella the East so somebody on the directing team knows their cardinal directions!

In the hallway, Flora isn’t dead! She’s been chewed on by a bunch of scrapers but she’s alive!

In the forest Dane’s boyfriend Luke wakes up and they hug.

On the battlefield Musa’s eyes glow and she knows they won.  She’s not happy with her magic back now, hearing the thoughts of everyone who just went through a traumatic experience!

Bloom hugs Sky, who is alive.  Stella kneels sobbing beside Beatrix, who isn’t.

And Bloom has a vision!  A Burned One? The portal.  The tower.

Then we cut to the girls back in the suite, recovering.  Bloom passes out pillows.  Musa brings snacks. Terra jokes about being sore from flying.  The girls say nice things to Flora, making her a full member of the group.

The other Blood Witches are running away.  Silva let Grey go back to his family.  Beatrix will get a spot in the graveyard.  Bloom says she and Beatrix both did things because they wanted answers, and Stella and Musa mention how Beatrix helped them.  

Leaving the other girls to their post-battle slumber party Bloom goes to her room and looks through the magic book Beatrix brought back.  Then she sneaks out past her sleeping friends to… the portal!

I guess Sebastian already opened it? Anyway it’s somewhere in the dungeon.  Sky followed Bloom down and she tells him it’s a conduit to the Realm of Darkness.  So it seems Sebastian didn’t need the Dragon Flame to open it, he just wanted the Dragon Flame anyway.  Bloom could close it but only from the other side.  She wrote goodbye letters to everyone because she’s going through it to close it from the other side.  Sky doesn’t want her to go.  Bloom says she’s dangerous, the Dragon Flame is dangerous, she doesn’t belong in this world.  She says she isn’t scared.  This is how she saves the world instead of putting it in danger.

Sky tells Bloom he loves her and they kiss in front of the toxic yellow portal but of course Bloom is going through it, there’s no other way the story could go.

She does, and the portal closes.

Aisha wakes up and finds Bloom’s goodbye letters.  The girls hug and cry.

Future montage!  Riven brings Musa some magic-blocking bracelets so she doesn’t have to have her powers if she doesn’t want them.  that’s very sweet.  Kat comes to pick up Terra for a date.  Stella puts a lily on Beatrix’s grave.  Aisha lounges by the river, watching the hawk.  Riven and Musa spar.  Aisha is by the river and Grey comes up to her.  Flora opens her shirt to reveal terrible scars from the scraper attack, and tears up.  Stella unfolds the note that Beatrix carried and… I can’t read it. “Isobel and D’arcy” last name starting with D, hopefully not Dark’ness, and what could be an Otherworld address.  As Stella leaves the graveyard an ominous wind blows through and… something appears.  A dark humanoid figure.  This is what Bloom’s been seeing in her visions, I thought she was seeing Burned Ones but she’s seeing this thing.

And Bloom has been walking through the Realm of Darkness which looks like a slightly less verdant part of Ireland, conveniently enough.  It is empty of people but not actually very dark.  She reaches the tower from her vision and opons the door.

Inside, a human figure is backlit by a brazier of flames.  It could be a woman with red hair.

Bloom asks, “Mom?”

Aaaaand credits!  That is the end of Fate!  Right on the cliffhanger!