#<not really since obviously not canon not even in my head but eh close enough | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

obeiii-mee · 3 years

Note

Hey! I have a really loud and particular laugh that seems to carry quite literally throughout my house and there have been many times people have bought it up with me (I can’t help it my laugh is just loud & contagious!!). Could I request the bros reaction to MC who quite literally is unable to laugh quietly and ends up being heard through the whole of the house? Thank you!🥰

This is so sweet, geez imma get cavities. I also have a very loud laugh and I startle people a lot when I start laughing so I get what you mean!

These HCs are probably written a lot better because suddenly I’m full energy and motivation-

———————————————

The Brothers with an MC who has a loud and particular laugh:

Lucifer:

-He’ll never admit it but whenever you start laughing or even smiling, he can’t really stop himself from doing it too

-Like, he looks at you as you start cackling about a funny meme Levi just showed you and he’s holding back a smile-

-Because, even though you have such a loud and some would say ‘obnoxious’ laugh, he thinks you just sound so precious

-He really struggles to show that he’s not affected by you as much as he actually is

-Even if you start laughing at an inappropriate time, he’d likely not even tell you off properly

- Would never say anything of the sort to your face, but he low-key admires you

-He thinks it’s amazing that a simple human like you that has experienced so many horrible things every since they arrived in literal hell, can have the ability to laugh so heartily even now

-If you’re in public and start doing your boisterous laugh, he will keep a stoic expression on his face

-There’s a hint of a blush on his cheeks if you look close enough, though I doubt anyone is crazy enough to point it out

-In private though? Appreciate these moments y’all, because it’s one of the few rare times you’ll see him laugh freely

-Even when he’s around his brothers and trying to keep a straight face, you can see his lips threatening to curve upwards

-Basically, he thinks you’re baby and your laugh makes him feel at ease

Mammon:

-I head canon that he also has a very particular laugh because he gives off those kind of vibes

-He probably doesn’t even notice how loud you are when you start wheezing

-Normally, he’d join in and start laughing with you as the rest of the brothers take out their sound blocking ear muffs for the third time that day

-You two are loud ok?

-Poor Lucifer who not only has insomnia and is a workaholic, he also has two idiots giggling to themselves in the middle of the night

-When I said Mammon is trying to get a laugh out of you any hour of the day

-I mean any hour

-He will wake you up to just hear your voice and then proceed to run out as you start yelling at him

-Even if he were to notice it, the worst reaction you’re gonna get out of him is a bit of teasing

-“Ya sound like you’re dyin’ over there human. You alright?”

-When in reality, he’s even more smitten with you because your laugh is just another one of your amazing qualities

-Mammon does the stupidest shit in front of you to make you and hear you laugh because it warms his heart

-Even if he wouldn’t admit it, to you or to himself

-The only time he ‘doesn’t like’ it when you laugh is if you’re poking fun at him with his brothers

-That gets him all huffy puffy and sad

-For a minute, before he’s thrown himself onto you again

-Greedy for money and greedy for affection of course

Levi:

-ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap

-“YOU SOUND JUST LIKE THE MAIN CHARACATER’S LOVE INTEREST FROM THIS NEW ANIME I’M WATCHING! IT’S CALLED: PEOPLE KEEP TELLING ME I’M IN LOVE WITH MY BEST FRIEND BUT I’M ACTUALLY NOT, THOUGH WHOA THEY HAVE SUCH A PRETTY LAUGH!”

-Catch him rambling about it for five minutes straight

-Before stopping abruptly, flushing from head to toe and starting to stutter like he forgot how to speak

-This usually has you laughing again, in a more sympathetic and encouraging way and he just...dies

-He doesn’t like his laugh, at all

-He thinks it sounds really awkward and tense

-So he’s low-key jealous about your rather impulsive laugh because it’s so sweet??? And amazing and cute??? Just like you???

-But at the same time, it’s hard for him to be jealous of it when he loves it so much

-Why do you think he keeps coming to you whenever he finds funny memes or compilations online???

-“I don’t expect a normie like you to understand but look at this.”

-He gets a stupidly cute kick out of knowing that he is the one making you laugh

-I suggest trying not to laugh too much while he’s playing video games because your laugh distracts him so much

-And he will throw his headset at you

-Affectionately of course

Satan:

-He doesn’t give much of a reaction besides a quirked eyebrow and a quiet ‘Oh?’

-Sure, he doesn’t really like it when his brothers are being noisy either because they’re laughing too loudly or because they are fighting gladiator style outside his room

-But you’re the exception

-The only person in that household that could get away with interrupting his reading/work is you

-May come as a surprise to some, but sometimes Satan does get worried for you

-If he hasn’t seen you in a while he might start thinking that something is wrong

-But then he’d hear you laughing from downstairs and he’d smile and think “Eh they’re alright.”

-He thinks your laugh sounds so much more endearing than his own psychotic laugh 🥰🥰🥰

-Will throw one of his precious books at any of his brothers if they make fun of the way you laugh

-Basically, he has the biggest heart eyes for you but he’s too good at hiding it

-Laugh with him whenever something embarrassing happens to Lucifer and he will be so pleased and happy for the rest of the day

Asmo:

-“MC my dear, has anyone mentioned what a wonderfully charming laugh you have? And that says something coming from me.”

-Asmo also has a very noticeable laugh

-Not exactly loud but it could be considered obnoxious (to his brothers) and he giggles all the time when he’s very excited

-Having Asmodeous as your partner is basically the same thing as dating your best friend

-Despite being the Avatar of Lust, your relationship with him is super healthy and even he takes comfort in that

-You’d both be chuckling to yourselves in Majolish or something because this bïtch is hilarious if he wants to be

-“Oh my Lord Diavolo! MC, look! I found the perfect outfit for Mammon!!”

-And it’s a Disney princess dress the size of a fuckn toddler

-You guys laughed so hard you got kicked out >:(

-But you ended up buying that dress for Mammon anyway lmaoo

-Spending too much time with Asmo is similar to the whole “I’m trying to be quiet in class but me and my friend keep laughing every time we look at each other”

-The way both of you have to strain yourselves from full on cackling when Lucifer has a go at either of you 😌

-Except you seriously can’t laugh because you will be ✨murdered✨

-“What do you mEAN YOU DON’T LIKE YOUR LAUGH, YOUR LAUGH IS GORGEOUS! NOT AS GORGEOUS AS MINE OBVIOUSLY BUT IT EASILY COMES IN SECOND!”

-That’s the kind of hype he gives you all day every day

Beel:

-The first time he properly heard you laugh was when you started making puns and you were laughing like crazy at your own jokes (samesies)

-And he just loves seeing you this happy because he gets happy and then he doesn’t even want to eat anymore, he just wants to hug you

-“I like your laugh. Do it again for me?”

-Your heart went doki doki

-It’s common for Beel to make you all flustered without meaning to and then you nervously start laughing again because you feel so awkward

-BUT your face brightens up so much when you start laughing or even smiling and he can’t help himself from complimenting you

-Your joyous and loud chuckles always cheer him up

-To the point where he completely forgets how hungry he is

-Took you a while to figure this one out but his mood sort of changes with yours??

-If you’re visibly sadder than usual, he his morale is also surprisingly low and he starts eating more than usual

-In comparison to when you’re all bubbly and doing that beautiful laugh of yours and he gets like these butterflies in his stomach instead of the usual pangs of pain and hunger

-So now he just wants to hear your voice in general on repeat for the rest of eternity

-Im not crying you are

Belphie:

-“You’re too loud dumbass, I’m tryin’ to nap here.”

-Will deadass throw a pillow at your face if you wake him up

-Like hes so rude and for what?

-He loves you and your annoying as fuck laugh, he really does I promise

-It’s a special, unique part of you and all that sappy crap

-But keep it up and you will have a very cranky boyfriend to deal with for the rest of the month

-He can be such an ass at times if he’s in a bad mood

-“I should tape your mouth shut.”

-“Kinky-“

-“Shut up.”

-But as much as he hates being woken up by somebody else, he would much prefer waking up to your voice rather anyone else’s

-You usually wake him up in the mornings to get ready for RAD and you start giggling every time he pulls a face at you and complains that he doesn’t wanna

-“What are you? An alarm clock?”

-And then he just sort of pulls you to him and goes with a completely straight face:

-“You’re annoying but you can be my alarm clock if you want to.”

-He’s either flirting or is so sleepy he’s being unusually soft hELP

—————————-

Thank you for reading! And for all the reblogs and follows. You guys don’t even know how much I appreciate your support. Especially at times when I’m not as motivated to write and now that the fandom has fizzled out a bit.

Also imma have to make a master list soon or something

Al~

#obey me #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me imagines #obey me leviathan #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me satan #obey me mc #🌸 comfort #⭐️ requests #☂️ demon brothers #💞 protective bois

547 notes · View notes

jaypsnax · 3 years

Photo

Alright then, to take it from the top... here’s some things I’ve done here or there for this dang game, from oldest to newest. With a big chunk of months starting with the margin Floofty there. Much is traditional and such, which is not my most practiced medium. Details on each below, just because I like over-explaining and it helps my nerves about posting.

1st: Fairly certain this Gramble is the first thing I did that was OK enough to show. Or, at least close to the first. He was one of my favorites and still is for his kindness(though he also can be really mean and paranoid, also a reason why I like him), so I wanted to get around to em. Also he’s very cute, I love my little malewife. I wanna scoop him up and hold him. Trouble is, Gramble has to have some of the most awkward proportions I’ve yet experienced while trying to draw a grumpus, I swear. That, and the more I looked at it, the more I grew to be unhappy with it. That generally applies to basically all of the drawings from last year, I find them to be “eh” at best. But it is what it is. 2nd: Second up is Flooftyyy, my most favorite. Intelligent, well-spoken, morally ambiguous, NB... and an asshole. But one with a cause they believe in that’s ultimately well intentioned, which they’ll go to self-destructive lengths to fulfill. And it’s clear they struggle to really get a grasp on how to treat people and have learned to cope with their frustration by shutting everyone out and believing them to be ignorant. While still obviously playing favorites between Eggabell and Triffany :p But by the end of the game, they’re learning that in order to really do what they want, they’ve got to really try and understand others. They’re the sort that I’d love to keep following to see their development. The awkwardness, the uncomfortable apologies and attempts at empathizing or opening up, the potential for blossoming relationships and a connection with others that, maybe, they’ve never quite experienced before. Their character is one that’s kind of close to my heart for being interesting and also quite similar to one I made and roleplayed for years. Add in the fact they’re NB and that just sealed the deal, that’s some fucking gender goddamn euphoria right there. So I had to draw them. 3rd: This one also mostly falls under the same explanation as above, except it was an effort as really figuring out grumpus bodies and proportions and stuff. Albeit in the form of solely Floofty, but my mental bandwidth for anything more than a drawing or two at a time is zilch. After that I’m spent. It was the first thing that I felt even marginally satisfied with, however.... I just feel like I’m in danger when looking at it. Like I’m gonna lose my way of things and habits I’ve built now from observing it too closely. Did keep the eyes, however. Kind of. 4th: To be real w you I just felt like drawing a Filbo after seeing a Filbo. He’s cute and I’d put a smooch on his dumb little head. Also more practice w grump stuff, but with some intentional attempts at stylization. I guess it didn’t stick, but who knows, maybe I could pick some of it back up? 5th: THE FIRST NEW DRAWING FROM A FEW DAYS AGO and it’s FLOOFTY, of course. It’s not really the first, there’s a few other things before it, but they suck so... yeah. I’d crawled out of the Bugsnax hole somewhat after a few months and failing to really do anything I actually wanted to do before, but a particular fic conked me right back 6 ft under. Piled the dirt over me and packed it in tight. So here I am again. And not only is it like that, but after binging a whole nearly 60,000 words in a night/morning, I was struck with the inspiration to actually write myself. Or try to, anyway. I have experience in RPing, but not a whole lot in actually... making a story myself. It’s not been going well, but I’ve talked plenty about that already... I’m sure it gets annoying for the whole maybe one person whose seen most of it to witness. And I’m still having fun. I’d mention the fic, but considering it’s NSFW and I’m officially tagging this... I don’t know if they’d want me advertising it as such. But surprise surprise, it’s Floofty related. And don’t get the wrong idea, while it covers explicit subject matter, that’s not entirely the point. Not a bad thing if it were, just that it’s more than that. I just like good character writing over all else, which is something liking this game to begin with heavily reinforced.... 6th: Heeeere’s Gramble, again. I’d been doing some little drawings for character profile stuff in my notebook, but I started to run into some difficulties when I got to him. This here is one of the results of the couple of little draws I did to try and understand. Again, his proportions are so *weird*. He’s just a little guy.... 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th: Here marks the first impulse draw after considering Buddy/Filbo/Beffica poly stuff. As well as the sudden Buddy drawing in general, which came as a big shock to me. These draws are suuuper rough, but I like the concepts. And goodness has this stuff been a whole ‘nother tangent... I did a fair amount of talking about it here. I’d do more, since there were TONS of details I still wanted to mentioned, but... my hands are starting to hurt. So maybe later. I realized that I kinda of messed up their design in my head bc I thought they had more similar teeth to Clumby. Whoops. That’s what I get for not using reference and same with FlooFTY’S TEETH AND THE WATCH NOOOOOOOOOO- .... *Ahem* I reckon the design is subject to change. Gotta make some little adjustment here or there, like maybe different eyes to distinct them from Floofty, but I actually rather... like the look. The hat, tie, and maybe a change to a bag on the side look nice... if totally not canon. But I will have just a little break from canon, as a treat. Otherwise it’s canon or bust. Personally, at least. I don’t really hold others to that standard unless they say they’re trying to follow canon or diverge so badly that a character is unrecognizable.

#bugsnax #Floofty Fizzlebean #Filbo Fiddlepie #Beffica Winklesnoot #Journalist #uhhhhh #Gramble Gigglefunny #This is NOT going to be a common thing #Floating around in official tags kinda freaks me out #my art

137 notes · View notes

guiltysecretpasttime · 3 years

Text

Grey Eyes

This is in response to a prompt I received:

camryn-bria I have a Linzin headcanon that there is a secret (airbending) child. Could you write a one-shot of Tenzin finding out Lin is pregnant after breaking up with her.

I’ll probably put in a better summary, tags or notes later on. But hope you enjoy this 😊

(So I had too much fun (maybe) with this and it ended up being a two-parter rather than a one-shot, hope this is okay)

Lin/Tenzin pre-canon fanfic | 1 of 2

Legend of Korra

---

Despite what the public thought, Chief Toph Beifong was not a heartless person.

While truly a strong woman, it did not mean she did not have emotions. Family and friends played a huge role in occupying a space in her heart.

Family.

It was precisely because of family why she was pacing in front of the doctor’s examination room.

Toph closed her eyes in worry.

Of her two daughters, Lin was the one most like her.

Her youngest daughter, Suyin, at her current state, probably was who her own mother wanted her to be.

Initially scoffed at and at the brink of being of being disrespected, Toph Beifong later on was reputed to be one of the toughest police chiefs that the region has even had.

She had welcomed her daughter during her second year as a police chief of Republic City. The father, unfortunately, passed.

Lin’s father was Toph’s fellow detective. Toph had just given birth to her and was out of the force when Kanto responded to a call. He was hit and he died.

Since then, Toph promised herself that it would simply not do to miss time at work.

The first few months of raising Lin were particularly difficult. She had then elected to live near her married friends, Aang and Katara.

Toph took it hard – spent time away from Lin for the next months and sent her to Air Temple Island. She eventually got back to her senses, realizing her daughter needed her and had reached back to take care of Lin.

Lin always wanted to be like her mother and the father she barely met. Suyin, on the other hand, well, that was another story.

“Mom.”

Toph’s reverie was interrupted by the soft voice of her eldest child.

“Oh, Lin.”

In Lin’s hand was an ultrasound photo of a child, Lin took her mother’s hand and read out to her the notes on the photo.

Indeed, Lin was the child most like her mother.

---

What was he doing here? He has some nerve.

“Aunt Toph?

She tried to ignore the tall bald man in her office.

“Aunt Toph?”

Persistent little bugger, eh?

“That’s Chief Beifong to you.” She felt him squirm and fidget. “The citizens desk is on the other floor. Or have you gotten lost?”

“I, uh, no. I actually wanted to see Lin.”

“Captain Beifong, you mean.”

She felt him flinch. Good.

“I -.”

“Don’t you worry your bald head about it, Master Tenzin.” Aspersion dripping with every word. “Captain Beifong is away on suspension. She won’t be bothering you any time soon.”

“But – no! I didn’t come here to complain or file charges.” Toph could here the shock at Tenzin’s voice. “You didn’t have to – she didn’t need to be suspended!”

Chief Beifong ignored him. “Captain Beifong caused destruction to property – Air Temple Island’s reconstruction will be done soonest – and basically threatened you, a government official. She would have received worse.”

“But -.”

“Is there anything else, Councilman?”

“Uhm, no. I’ll just drop by Lin’s.”

“She not there,” Toph felt the airbender pause at her door. “She’s suspended until further notice; and she been sent away from Republic City.”

---

At least that was what the press was informed, to explain away the disappearance of a prominent person

But internally, with the higher ups in the Republic City Police Department, they knew differently. They were told that she was out undercover and they better not try to make contact – or there will be consequences.

Toph was proud of her daughter’s strategy. She had been an absentee mother in the past years. She wanted to make up for it by supporting Lin’s decisions.

Even if it meant no contact with her in the next months.

---

Lin found herself in a remote Earth Kingdom town which used to be a Fire Nation colony. She had come to this place years ago in a recon mission and had known that there were a good mix of nations, making it easy to blend in.

Her current mission was not anything dangerous – just another reconnaissance mission to look into whether there was some truth to the formation of a new organization similar to the New Ozai Society, who would seek to undermine the United Republic.

As someone fresh out of her 20s, Lin thought she was (or she should be) fit enough for the job at the local bar. Thankfully, she was able to convince the barkeep to hire her even after telling him of her predicament (she wondered if maybe the man really just needed help so badly). She also figured it was a good place to get in with the locals and, well, the local gossip.

Lin opted to keep her first name (common as it was anyway), rented a small apartment unit walking distance from the city center, and now, had landed a job (that hopefully placed her in a good spot to fulfill her mission) which paid adequate wages.

She felt she was prepared to start anew – a new job, a new mission, and a baby on the way.

---

Tenzin huffed as he consulted his map.

He had gone to Gaoling, to the Beifong ancestral home (that was were Suyin was sent there before anyway. But Lin wasn’t there.

He even went out of his way and chanced a visit to Zaofu.

Su was surprised to see him and, no, she has not seen or talked to her sister in years.

Instead, the airbender got a slap for his efforts (“You idiot! You broke my sister’s heart!” “You weren’t even talking to her! You don’t know what’s with her.” “I knew enough to know that she loves you!”).

He tossed the map aside. He was stumped; he didn’t know where else to look for Lin.

He did not even notice his mother, watching from the doorway of his study, looking at him with concern.

---

“Hey, get away from him!”

“Eh! And what’re you gunn’ do ‘bout that lady?”

“I’ll show you!”

“What the -!”

“Scram!”

“Alright, we’re going – we’re going!”

The earthbender turned to the young man on the ground (maybe late teens or early twenties in age, she guessed) who was of Water Tribe ethnicity. “Hey kid, are you okay?”

“I’m fine – didn’t need your help.” The man grumbled, standing up and dusting himself.

“Right.” The woman stated, obviously not believing it as she had just walked across the scene of several benders pulling up by his collar, whether they were mugging him or not, she did not wait to find out before launching some rocks from the road at the thieves. “Of course, you didn’t need help. You had it all in control, didn’t you?” She deadpanned.

The man rolled his eyes. “A truth seer, aren’t you?”

She crossed her arms. “Maybe.”

“No – I don’t think so.” The water tribe man shook his head. “Thanks though.”

The earthbender extended to shake his hand.

“Lin.”

He clasped it with his own.

“Noatak.”

----

Months passed and Tenzin had not lost hope in finding Lin, but he had to admit that the hope was fast dwindling.

Twice Chief Beifong had said that Captain Beifong’s whereabouts were none of his business and that she will put his sorry ass in jail if he pried once more.

Neither Chief Beifong or anyone from his family shared any input to the media as to his relationship status. The disappearance of Lin Beifong and the sudden reconstruction of some of the pavilions at Air Temple Island made up much of the chatter and gossip though.

His cheerless disposition just about confirmed everything anyway.

---

Meanwhile, in the Earth Kingdom, Lin finally gathered enough courage to send out a letter to Tenzin. She had used a post office’s box from two towns away to ensure that he would not be led directly to her should he decide to respond.

After contemplating on the matter for the past months, and after finally admitting to herself, she decided to give Tenzin the option to be a father to their child.

It was the least she could do. She did not want her (their) child to grow up without a father if he was willing to be there. She knew, she grew up with, the alternative to that.

We may no longer be together, but it does not change the fact that this child is yours as well. I’m giving you this chance – to either declare this child as your own or to simply ignore and disregard this. I am fully capable of raising this child as my own so I am open to giving you an out.

Well then, so the proverbial ball was in the airbender’s court.

Gently, placing a hand on her now visible pregnant belly, Lin knew the waiting game has started.

---

In an ill-conceived attempt to raise his spirits, the Air Acolytes of Air Temple Island saw it fit to host a birthday celebration for him. His mother had given it a go signal as she was also at her wits’ end to help bolster his mood. Even the passing of her husband (his father) did not seem to have dragged him down this way.

What Katara did not know, however, was that the press had somewhat managed to get in with the festivities as well.

The papers for the next few days ran a feature on the last airbender’s birthday celebration. They also printed a picture of him with just about any single female he talked to during the party.

This was followed by a steady stream of letters and messages poured into Air Temple Island as well as into Tenzin’s office at city hall.

The first few letters, Tenzin had deigned to read.

But after the seventeenth letter, the airbender, with a furious blush on his skin, went to the kitchen where his mother was calmly instructing an acolyte for tonight’s dinner.

“Mother!”

Katara dismissed the acolyte before turning to her son. “What is it?” She held out her hand to take one of the letters that Tenzin was waving at her.

The waterbender briefly went through the letter. It appeared that –

“They have been sending me propositions!” Tenzin exasperatedly explained, showing the envelopes with addresses coming from different parts of the world. “Ever since the broadsheets and tabloids have been putting in these features about me being single.” He continued to pace in the kitchen while Katara went through the other letters. The content was fairly similar – a Fire Nation noble offering his daughter in marriage, an Air Acoylte from the Eastern Temple sharing her daughter’s knowledge of all things Air Nomad culture, an Earth Kingdom merchant living in the upper ring boasting of his niece… “I’m not interested in any of these, Mother. I just – I just -.” He took a deep breath. “I need to find Lin. It’s only been Lin.”

Katara could believe that.

“I know – Mother, if letters come to the island for me, please send it to my office. I’ll have my secretary handle them.”

And with that, Tenzin swept away, leaving Katara to only wonder and hope that whatever he thought of would truly help him out.

---

I see.

So he has made his choice.

Lin gripped tightly the letter she received in response to the one she had sent.

She tried but there was nothing she owed him now.

The earthbender then tossed the letter into her drawer, to be hidden from prying eyes, to try and forget its existence.

Thank you for your interest but I already have a life partner.

I would like to request for your respect in this avenue and refrain from sending any more letters in this similar vein.

Respectfully yours,

Tenzin

---

Noatak knocked on the door one more time.

Lin was nearing her due date and the barkeep had place a notice for a reliever, a substitute while Lin was out.

The Water Tribe man took the opportunity – he had been juggling different jobs in town anyway so what’s one more?

Lin had been showing the ropes to him the past few days and was always ever so prompt so that they have enough time before opening.

This was why he stood at her front door now. The earthbender failed to show up at their regular time and so he worried.

“Lin? Are you there?”

There was no answer.

Something felt very wrong.

He looked to the left and looked to the right. No one was around and so putting his entire weight on it, he hit his shoulder against the door several times until it gave way.

“LIN!”

To his shock and horror, the pregnant lady slumped unconscious at her living room, blood surrounding her at the floor.

Noatak hurried to her, feeling her pulse and closing his eyes.

He had been hiding a secret for so long, no one knew in this new life he had been living. As far as they knew, he was a non-bender – no one had paused to ask, except this woman who had asked him and had graciously not pried further when he said he did not want to talk about his past. He knew she was trying to start a new life, but he wasn’t sure why. She respected him enough as well to leave him to his privacy.

That day when the muggers had almost done him in, he thought that would have been the end of it, revenge be damned. To his surprise, someone did intervene for him.

Enough reminiscing for now though, because now, this woman needed him.

Taking a deep breath, Noatak reached forward his arms, allowing him to feel the push and pull from the two lives in front of him, not in the way his father wanted him to but to save these lives.

---

Tenzin was absentmindedly tapping his pen on today’s agenda in the council meeting.

The monotony of his responsibilities to the city barely weighed on him now.

It was the same old routine at the council.

His interest was peaked when the doors opened and a man, who he recognized as Chief Beifong’s trusted secretary, hurried over to the Chief of Police’s side, whispering quickly.

Toph Beifong suddenly stood up, muttering her excuses to the rest of the attendees of the council meeting and left (something about an urgent matter regarding one of her subordinates’ mission?).

---

“Chief, it would appear that the Captain has now given birth to a daughter.”

“What! I need to get to her.”

“Unfortunately, protocols still state that no contact be made -.”

“But I’m her mother.”

“Please, Chief Beifong, Captain Beifong explicitly indicated that in her report as well. Everything is okay and not to let you go to her as it would impact her cover.”

Nonetheless, this did not stop Toph Beifong from instructing her secretary to send off a large box of baby things to a remote town in the Earth Kingdom.

---

The last airbender quickly made his way out of the restaurant where that farce of a stilted family dinner (that his mother insisted on) was still on-going.

It had been uncomfortable enough when Chief Beifong arrived, nary a word towards him but quite civil with his mother and their visitors. At some point during the meal, the Fire Lord started to pass around photographs of his teenaged grandson and even Chief Beifong was obliged to share photos of her own grandchildren.

Tenzin tried to ignore the longing gaze his mother had on the photographs.

He met the eyes of his brother, who coincidentally was stationed this week near Republic City, who in turn shrugged back at him.

Yeah, that’s not happening. Unless someone comes forward to speak up about the fruits of Bumi having sown his wild oats, their mother would need to wait a little longer to have her own grandchild.

“And who might this be?” His mother brought up a photo of a baby.

“Did Su have another child?” Fire Lord Zuko peered at the small plastic booklet that Toph had fished from her uniform’s pocket.

“Eh?” Toph reached out to get it back, fingers running through the little indentions at the edge, helping her identify the labels on the photos.

Tenzin did not miss the quick panic that showed on the metalbender’s face before it was back to her inscrutable expression.

“It’s an old photo of one of her boys.” She promptly placed the booklet of photos back into her pocket. “I must have taken it by accident.”

As the rest went about their meal, Tenzin could not help but revert to the photograph of the baby. The baby appeared to be a couple of months old and…there was something that was niggling the back of his head about the child.

Conversation went to work, the new policies in the United Forces, the statue of Fire Lord Zuko in Republic City… They were all pleasantries that Tenzin did not want to talk about.

As soon as it was acceptable, he had excused himself from dinner, citing an urgent deliverable from city hall. No one tried to stop him and everyone took it at face value. He had, after all, buried himself into work in the past months in between trying to look for Lin. The airbender simply did not believe anymore that she was merely suspended from the Force after being absent for more than a year now.

Tenzin thought that Suyin Beifong, by now, would have an idea as to her sister’s whereabouts. Recalling their last interaction, however, he rubbed his cheek gingerly in recollection, he felt he needed to soften her up first.

Coming from that awkward dinner conversation, he had an idea.

Her children!

And that was how the airbender found himself at the nearest open store that catered to mothers that carried items (food, clothes, furniture, you name it) for their children.

Tenzin had a vague recollection on how old Su’s children were. He was unsure, though, as to what do kids at those age need or want. He figured that the store’s clerk would know and headed to the store’s counter, waiting until the clerk finished assisting two ladies in selecting the best bassinet that the store offers.

The airbender leaned on the glass counter, tapping absentmindedly as he was wont to do when waiting --- when he saw a brown box just behind the counter hidden from view of the common customer (it just so happened he was tall and nosy enough to see it). There was a small sticky note that caught his attention:

Monthly order of Chief Beifong.

Why on earth would Aunt Toph have a monthly order at this place when her own children have long since grown up?

Tenzin twisted his neck to peer at the label of the box, to check the address, thinking that maybe it was headed to Zaofu for Suyin and her kids.

To his confusion, it was to a place within the Earth Kingdom.

Tenzin froze.

What if…it was to another daughter and grandchild?

The photograph!

He now realized what bothered him – the baby in the photo was relatively fair-skinned and he was sure both of Su and Baatar’s children were tanned. Su was also not pregnant back when he last saw her so it could not have been a new Zaofu Beifong baby.

Toph Beifong would be hard-pressed to care about children or babies unless they were related to her.

This left Tenzin with only one plausible explanation.

The airbender then left the store, hurriedly making plans to get to the Earth Kingdom by the next day.

----

And there she was – as radiant as the last time he saw her (never mind that it was in the middle of the unleashing of her powerful fury upon his childhood home).

With a pang, Tenzin saw Lin Beifong carrying a baby, accompanied by a tall (and very young, Tenzin thought unpleasantly) man who appeared to be of Water Tribe descent. The two were engrossed in conversation that they missed the airbender who had been staring after them.

Tenzin had arrived at the town square and was about to head to the address he had committed to memory when he saw Lin. He was about to approach her when the Water Tribe man intercepted her. The airbender noted the familiarity with which the two interacted (it felt like the air was being squeezed out of his lungs). The man offered to take what Tenzin assumed to be a baby bag and Lin had easily acquiesced.

He surreptitiously followed Lin, unsure where they were going but not wanting to take the risk of losing sight of the earthbender he had been searching for quite some time now.

As he watched every exchange of the two, Tenzin could not help but feel at a loss. He had tried to think of every possible scenario, of what he would say, what he would do once he found Lin.

But none of the scenarios he imagined prepared him for the reality.

He never did imagine finding Lin as a mother.

He never did imagine finding Lin with a partner.

And she looked – content.

Tenzin felt a pit form at the bottom of his stomach. Could he – should he – possibly ruin this with his appearance?

Call him selfish but…he’ll try just one last time. If there was an inkling, of the slightest chance of a future with Lin --- he’ll gamble it.

For himself. For Lin.

---

“Jinora, sweetheart, be a good girl for Noatak first, please? Mama needs to work for a bit.”

The eight-month-old child burrowed herself further into her mother’s arms but nodded nonetheless. “Good girl.” Lin gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead as the younger man hoisted the child, anchoring her to his hip.

Lin had gone back to work on a part-time basis, but more on the management side of the bar (accounting, menu planning, etc) rather than being actually behind the counter, serving the customers like before. The barkeep was pleased with Noatak’s performance during Lin’s maternity leave that he had decided to hire him full-time.

They would usually come to the bar before opening hours, Lin to check on the previous night’s accounting and Noatak with preparing with the rest of the crew.

Lin was scheduled to start with the local bookstore soon on her off-days from the bar.

Today, it was accounting morning at the bar. She would usually be able to have an hour or two of continuous work while the crew would take turns looking after her daughter if she were awake. If not, Jinora would be placed on her sling and Lin could still comfortably work.

Getting out several folders and her writing implements, Lin pulled out a chair near the window, preferring the natural light while working.

She managed to work for around ten minutes when a shadow fell on her work; before she could even raise her head to address who or what was blocking her light, she turned her head to the inner part of the bar as she heard her name being called.

“Liiiin!”

---

When he saw the Water Tribe man leave Lin with the child, Tenzin saw his chance.

He took some time to deliberate though; he observed her quietly, soaking in his view of the woman he had let go (and would be claiming back, if she would have him).

He took a bracing breath and entered the bar.

“Lin!”

Lin would look up at him. “Tenzin! What are you doing here?”

He would kneel – “I’m so sorry Lin, I know you have a child, I’ll love her like she were my own – I promise to treat you better than Mr Water Tribe there. Please Lin Beifong please – I regret letting you go, if you’ll have me, I’ll want to spend the rest of my life proving my devotion to you. Please- Lin please.”

Then Lin would get up, maybe give him a slap harder than what Su gave him then give him a hug before making him work for it.

Before he could even say a single word to put his imagined scenario into action, another voice (that he was starting to dislike) rang out.

“Liiiin!”

“Yes, Noatak?” Lin stood up quickly to address the young man, who was carrying a giggling baby at arm’s length. “What is it? How is Jinora?”

Tenzin felt his heart skip a beat, that Lin named her daughter one of the names he wanted for their daughter… well, he was not sure how he felt about it. Maybe he will explore it a little bit more when he was alone but for now…

“I know I helped bring her into this world –,”

Tenzin blinked at the sudden hurt he felt at his chest at this.

“But please, Lin – take your evil spawn away from me.” Noatak thrusted the still giggling child dramatically back at her mother, half kidding and half exasperated. “You know how much time it takes me each more to fix my hair. Then this little girl here,” He tickles her side and Jinora squeals with laughter. “Decides to blow a gust of air to my face – imagine that!”

The airbender heard this and froze.

“I know you said this brat (“My daughter isn’t a brat!”) is part-Water Tribe,” He gestured to his now unkempt hair. “But I don’t think this is a sign of respecting her culture?”

“My daughter is acting fine.” Jinora kicked her chubby legs as though to prove a point, disturbing the dust on the floor. “And we did discuss this – no training until she’s older. I want her to have a normal childhood.”

“Ok then,” Noatak waved his hand and nodded, obviously agreeing. “Anyway, I’m in charge of family meal today so I better start prepping.” With one last tickle at the baby’s side, he left and headed to the kitchen.

Lin shook her head and called after him “I’ll pack up and get back to the books later!” It would seem her daughter was in a mood today.

Speaking of meals…

Jinora had been tugging at her chest. “Feeding time is it?”

Tenzin watched Lin smile softly at the baby, a smile he saw rarely, a smile that he only saw between the dark of the night and daybreak, in between sleep and wakefulness as they laid in bed together.

He cleared his throat to remove a lump that was forming, a signal of impending tears.

Lin had forgotten about the newcomer as she angled the baby go position her for feeding when she heard someone clear their throat.

“I’m sorry, how can I help –,” Her eyes met familiar grey ones. “You.”

---

There was a lot to take in.

The Earth Kingdom.

Lin.

The Water Tribe man (Noatak, he spat.)

Lin.

The baby.

The airbending baby.

Jinora.

There was no doubt on whose child Lin was carrying.

Tenzin pushed forward at the surprised earthbender to take them (her and their daughter!) into his arms.

----

Note: This is part one of two --- ooor we could end it there? 🤷🏼‍♀️ Let me know!

(how do you tag people anyway?? @camryn-bria

---

2 of 2 here.

#linzin #linzin fanfic #lin beifong #tenzin #legend of korra #lok fanfic #prompt #camryn-bria #toccatina's fanfics #toccatina completed

97 notes · View notes

m-y-fandoms · 4 years

Text

Mondo Oowada x an effeminate male S/O

Request: Oml heyyy may I request a Mondo x male! S/O (imagine or headcanons i don't really know the difference dkfjlds) where the s/o is very feminine and tries to get Mondo to do feminine things? Painting nails, etc.

Of course! This was gonna be a head canon post but I just kept writing so I turned it into an imagine. The bullet points were getting too long LMAO, but it does include some personal headcanons throughout. And thank you for giving me my first ever request! Means the world to me! - Mod Kokichi

Imagine below the keep reading cut! SFW and no spoilers included~

Your first day at Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Tailor, you got teased a bit. It was inevitable. You were the new transfer student, fresh meat to pick on, and you were a dude in a skirt, a doubly enticing threat to bullies. Immature high-schoolers were always going to whisper and glare at the ones willing to step outside the norm.

On one of your first days there, during a particularly ruthless bullying session, the school’s hall monitor and student council president, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, stepped in after noticing the noise, breaking up the situation by standing between you and your oppressors.

“Bullying is not supported in this progressive and nurturing school environment!” Taka’s loud and volatile personality always made quick work of the school’s trouble-makers. He spun quickly around to you, inviting you to spend lunch at his table for your trouble.

You hesitantly agreed, but were glad you did in the end. That day, you met Taka’s best friend, Mondo Owada, a toothpick between his teeth and his feet kicked up onto the lunch table as he fixed his perfectly styled hair.

You immediately found him extremely attractive: the sharp jaw, the bit of chest hanging out the top of his tank top. Quickly, you fell into their little friend group full of excitable and extroverted men. There were random stragglers to your lunch table on certain days, with Akane and Shuichi tagging along occasionally, but the main staples that ate with you every single day were Fuyuhiko, Mondo, Taka, Kaito, and Nekomaru, subconsciously scaring away anyone who wanted to start shit.

You weren’t nearly as close to the rest of them as you were with Mondo, however. You often found yourself leaning against his chair, sharing your packed lunch with him, entranced when he laughed.

He found himself always hanging out with you, shootin’ the breeze, smoking up on the roof after classes, putting his hand around your shoulder when you told a joke that made him and Taka crack up at lunch. He kept many secrets of yours, and promised to take them to his grave.

When you came out to him as someone who likes men, he stuttered his response a little, but pulled it together.

“It takes a real man to admit what his heart’s feelin’, S/O, you can be sure your secret’s safe with me until you’re ready to tell everyone else.” Feeling the atmosphere become awkward out there alone on the rooftop, he quickly changed the subject “So, Ultimate Tailor, huh? Shit’s pretty sick. Seen some of your clothing designs out in the art wing’s showcase. Don’t tailors just tighten up and fix a person’s clothes, though?” You smiled at his interest in your field.

“Uh, yeah, normally I think they take in and size up clothes, b-but,” you put a hand to the back of your neck, nervous with his complete attention on you, “ I think some make designs from scratch, I have always loved making my own clothes. Maybe I should just be the Ultimate Fashionista instead of Enoshima…” you giggled, feigning envy humorously. Mondo smirked.

“Yeah, maybe you should. You gotta design me a new coat sometime. This one’s seen better days.” You both looked at the dirt caked at the bottom of his coat, permanent stains throughout, and loose threads hanging in random places.

“F-for sure!” You grinned.

Your days returned to normal, lunch together and group hangouts after school, but something was different...to Mondo at least. He had to admit, to himself only of course, that he felt a little jealous of you. You could just come out and tell him who you are inside. He could never be that open. He usually was the one keeping secrets, not expressing them. But then, he caught himself. Why should he feel jealous...he was a simple guy, he didn’t even have any secrets or desires to share, even with who would listen. He brushed it off as just his normal hot-headed mindset, and packed up his stuff in his bag for the day.

But the next few days, his eyes would linger on you even more, and he would become uncomfortable, his insides warm, his head clouded with that same envy tugging at his heart strings. In the hallway after last period, he kicked his locker, frustrated at this knot in his head and mind. What the fuck is up with him. Then it clicked…

“It takes a real man to admit what his heart’s feelin’.”

The next day, he pulled you out to the rooftop, his cheeks red and his heart beating wildly. You waited patiently, sitting down, figuring you were just in for another hang out session like usual, and pulled out your homework from third period, until he began to speak.

“L-look man, I have been thinkin’, ever since you told me you’re into dudes…”

Oh no...your head dropped expectantly. You felt like this was bound to come eventually, no matter what. He was this macho dude and hung around you all the time. It must be bothering him, ruining his rep-

“That shit takes heart, like I said before, and I owe you my truth too, r-right, since you trusted me with yours?” He startled you, looking for validation. Mondo only stuttered when he was pissed and screaming, but he looked nervous now, a look of begging to be understood that you empathized with all too well.

“I…” he looked out over the roof. Stop being a little bitch, Mondo, he seethed internally. “Fuck, I don’t know, man. I like you? I want us to be more than just friends. I mean, you’re cool as my bro, but…” He didn’t expect you to reach out and take his hand hesitantly, his cheeks flushing. You didn’t want his evident struggle to drag out until he blew a fuse.

“I think that sounds ‘sick’ ” you mused, taking up one of his favorite sayings. He nodded, a arm around your shoulder, unable to look you in the eyes. But he felt a wave of peace run over him.

Your close friends immediately picked up on this new relationship, seeing you lean on Mondo a little harder at lunch, Mondo’s blush as he rested his hand on yours over the table. Nekomaru slapped your shoulder loudly that first day as a new couple, almost shattering the bone there. He laughed, saying he couldn’t wait for you two to just finally admitted your feelings. A team works smoother when everyone is on the same page, after all.

Weeks passed, and inside school, there was little issue. It’s the 21st century. Most were accepting of your obvious relationship. Those bigots who weren’t didn’t try anything. No stupid ass student was picking on a dude with Mondo, Taka, Fuyuhiko, Kaito and Nekomaru at his back.

The problems started to arise when Mondo took you on rides on his bike, to his gang’s HQ or stomping grounds in general. That was the outside world, not an institution of modern and formal learning like Hope’s Peak. Japan itself was a little behind western society in terms of LGBT acceptance, and like the rest of the world, had a long ways to go.

With Mondo being the leader of a biker gang, a setting known for violence, masculinity, grit, toughness, and a yakuza-like brotherhood of men, it just wasn’t an environment most conducive to openly gay relationships, but no one in the gang dared to call out Mondo, knowing how hot-headed he is and ultimately respecting him as their leader. They owed him unconditional loyalty.

That was, until one day, a rather cheeky second-in-command saw you filing your nails, sitting in Mondo’s lap on a couch at HQ, and decided he’d had enough. He confronted you both in front of everyone, all eyes on you, making you shrink back into Mondo’s chest.

“Eh, boss. If you’re gonna have a dude in a fucking dress doin’ his nails and twirling like a princess on your dick, why not just date a chick? This is gettin’ a little embarassin.” He spoke angrily. Mondo was taken aback, not used to being challenged by his men, obviously the alpha of his pack. He paused, struggling to find a response.

“What’s the fuckin’ issue?! Like most of you idiots aren’t so close that you might as well be tuggin’ each other’s dicks anyway!” He spat defensively, refusing to take back talk from a subordinate. He looked down to your shaking form in his lap, seeing that you were obviously disappointed with his response and looked up at him with a bit of anger, tears at the corner of your eyes.

Why was he defending his rep, and attacking the man back? He should be defending the relationship, and pushing forward acceptance. It made you feel like he wasn’t proud of you, ashamed of what you two had become.

He saw this in your eyes and hated himself, changing his stance quickly. He scooped you up from under your thighs from his lap and set you on the couch beside him. He stood, stepping up to the out-of-line gang member, chest out, looking down on him with malice.

“Maybe you’ve forgotten your place, yeah? You forget who’s in charge? I’m involved with S/O, he’s with me, so he’s part of the gang. You’re gonna accept that, or there’s gonna be trouble to deal with, got me? What, you such a pussy that you can’t accept shit if it ain’t what you expect it to be?!” The second-in command cowered, breaking eye contact with Mondo, and the rest of the onlooking members returning to what they were doing. “Now, we got any other issues?”

When Mondo drove you home on his bike hours later, you sat behind him as always, but squeezed onto his waist a little tighter than usual, and his heart beat proudly, knowing for once he was sure he did the right thing. You two rode silently, you pecking his cheek before slipping inside your house. He walked back to his bike, blushing like mad, and you two texted all night.

The very next week, Mondo was over at your house for the first time, doing homework in your room. Well, that’s what you were supposed to be doing. Mondo wasn’t exactly the model student, much the the chagrin of his best friend Taka, and you just weren’t in the mood. And so you sat, him eating some chips from your pantry, watching you paint your nails on your bed, a towel to catch loose drips under your flattened out palm. You looked up to him, smiling at having his full attention on you as per usual when you were alone..

“Want me to paint yours next?” It just slipped out. You didn’t really mean it. A guy like Mondo wouldn’t want that, surely, but you figured it wouldn’t harm to tease him. To your surprise, he responded rather quickly.

“I seen Kaito walkin’ around this week with that shit on his nails. Maki apparently forced him to after he lost a bet to her. Didn’t look that bad, actually. Kinda looked sick with his jacket, all purple and shit,” he paused to think, “ fuck it, sure. But no pastel shit, yeah?” Your heart leapt with excitement. There’s no way you expected him to answer in a positive manner, but in this relationship, you quickly learned that you often underestimated Mondo, and let his macho-biker-gang persona leave you biased. You didn’t want people judging you by your sexuality or the eyeliner you wore, and suddenly felt hypocritical for ever pre-judging your big motorcylce-head of a boyfriend.

Mondo held his hands out after you finished, observing the slick coat of black polish that covered his once grisly and battered nails. Yes, you had to manicure them real quick to even get the polish to stick. They had dirt under them and the cuticles were disgusting.

“Hell yeah.” he simply spoke, smirking before pulling you in to lean on him as you finally pulled out your homework.

Weeks turned into months, and soon Mondo was watching you get your ears pierced again in a new place, then sitting in the chair to get his done. He took you, in turn, to get “ink that matched your bitchin’ sense of style” as he put it. The tattoo didn’t hurt as much as you thought it would, and certainly inspired you to design clothes that showed it off and accentuated it.

179 notes · View notes

pizzaapplecheese · 3 years

Text

2p Romano

So I made a 2p Italy post a while ago and got an ask to do one for Romano so here it is! before I type anything I recommend looking at the one I did for Italy to get an idea of this ( link ) anyways back on topic, lets talk about my version of 2p Romano.

Romano’s childhood is kind of different from the canon one. most notably Spain made it his goal to avoid Romano. Belgium was usually busy helping Spain; the only person left to look after Romano was Netherlands. Netherlands usually isn’t the warmest of people, he is still blunt and sometimes harsh times. Romano liked how transparent Netherlands and how truthful he is, so naturally he just clinged on to him easier than anyone else in the entire building. Unlike the canon Romano who had at least 3 people to look up to my version only have one and being the attention starved child he was he kind of lowkey attached to him. Netherlands did find it strange how this child looked up to him since there is literally so many people in this entire building and out of all people he chooses him, but Romano did grow on him. Netherlands did feel pitiful towards Romano since no one was giving “her” any attention especially since this castle is a new environment in which it is easy to get lost from. Ned did missed having a younger sibling around. You could be asking about belgium, but keep in mind she is busy with Spain which also translated onto the fact that to Netherlands Belgium practically isn’t here anymore. They hanged out when Romano is having his break from not doing any work and their personalities did rub off on each other a bit. Spain had to leave one day saying he was visiting someone (Italy who got at that time recently amnesia). Romano found that strange, but continued with whatever he was doing. Netherlands found a box full of crochet equipment and went to Romano like “hey, look what i found, do you want to learn how to do this” and since there is nothing to do he tries it and at first he was bad at it and got frustrated, but Netherlands kept pushing him to at least try making 5 squares and if he still thinks it looks bad then he will allow him to quit. The squares did slowly became better and better and Romano in his head was like “wow i did this??????This is actually fun!” and made more even when Netherlands wasn’t there. It was his hobby and later a way for him to vent and somewhat cope to the news. Romano got a letter from Austria/Spain about Italy a few months after Spain left, Romano being a hot headed kid that he is believed that letter was a joke and decided to travel to Austria’s place alone without anyone knowing (which looking back at it as an adult Romano realized that was a stupid thing to do) and when he finally arrived Spain Austria and Hungary tried to stop Romano from entering not knowing that behind that door was someone different, he looked and sounded like Italy, but he is obviously not Italy. Romano saw a stranger. Anyway Romano blows up when Italy acts like he can’t remember the many recent things that happens and after finding that talking to Italy about it was useless he goes towards the adults who tried to not be clear on it except for Hungary who told him what happened with Italy and boy did Romano exploded. No one under any circumstances is allowed to hurt his brother other the only person who is allowed to do it is him. Sadly he was dragged home and needed to wait for a long long time until he could see his brother again.

okay so now let’s talk about Adult Romano of my universe. Where do I begin? the dude is an attention wh*re. Even if someone took a glance at him that is enough to make him feel happy. He loves creating his own clothes and designs and will not stop talking about it and will somehow shift the conversation towards his clothes. Romano is very overbearing to the people he is close to and over dramatic and annoying to everyone else. He worries and cares for Vene a lot and Seborga as well as much as they appreciate it it can be too much. His relationship with the Tomato gang as an adult is petty complicated (almost like in canon lol) He is very close to Netherlands and they would trust each other with secrets so strong that that they won’t tell anyone else with, he is neutral about Belgium (he does find her pretty though), Luxemburg seems cool, He doesn’t know how to feel about Spain considering that Spain did try to stay away from him he still wonders what their friendship could have been like if they were more open, he find Portugal strange. Then we have the Axis, we already spoke about Italy so let's go to Germany. Just like in the canon he is jealous of Germany because of how close his brother is compared to him in here he will go out of his way to make Germany like his servant and will call him to help him when the smallest inconvenience happens as his way of revenge. Their convos are usually like “hey Ger-man I have a question!” “huh yah what is it?” “how do I put a book on a shelf again? I seem to forget” “please tell me you are joking” “wow rude, I always knew you were a brat from childhood, but this a whole new low” “fine I will come over and show you” “thanks!”. Strange thing here is that he is pretty kind to Japan although it have to do with China, Romano would buy Japan small gifts which confuses the hell out of Japan (now typing it I feel like China is the divorce parent of Japan and Romano is trying to win Japan’s approval to marry him-). Now we have the strange 3. I will start on China to fix any confusion on the Japan part. Romano is friends with China, but they are not really that close it is more of them teasingly annoy each other just for fun, like Romano touching China’s Jewelry (China hates when people touch his stuff especially when they are “too poor” for it, but he considers everyone that so eh) and China would pay him money telling him “I am sorry that this the only thing you can live off for the month, but i hope it helps” and it is just counterfeit money. Next we have America who loves to make videos of himself doing stupidly dumb stuff and Romano likes to join in because he likes getting the attention even if it is from strangers online, everyone's surprise why there isn’t a law about leaving these 2 alone together considering the whole bank incident (you guys shall never know what happened). Last but not least we have Lithuania, Romano deeply cares for him and is usually concerned with the guy, but he have no idea what to do so he usually just tries to hang out with him and refuses to talk about anything slightly negative worrying that it will hurt his mood (Lithuania doesn’t really care at this point, but still appreciate Romano’s efforts) they are tea/coffee drinking buddies.

oh my gosh this took so long to do, I am sorry. I had a test so it took longer to make this than expected.

15 notes · View notes

clairecrive · 4 years

Text

“Mr Darcy”- Alfie Solomons x reader

A/N: I imagined this with a canon Alfie in the sense that he's long hair and full beard, with the scar on his face and his cane because of the limp but at the same time it's also a modern Alfie because it's set at the beach and I don't think canon Alfie would ever go. Idk if it makes sense but you're free to imagine him however you want ofc. Enjoy!<3 Requested with the prompt: "Don't. God don't do it." by the lovely @onl-you Here it is as promised, hope you like this! Oh and I didn’t proofread it so I’m sorry if there are any errors.

Tag list: @deaflikehawkeye, @mollybegger-blog, @of-love-and-of-the-sea, @br0ck-eddie, @fandom--0verdose, @innerpaperexpertcloud, @shadow-of-wonder, @sopxhiea, @evelynshelby (let me know if you wanna be added)

Warning: angst

Part 2

Finally, warm days were here and it was such a beautiful day that when you insisted to go to the beach, Alfie couldn't tell you no. Besides, he knew that you would have gone without him anyway since your friends were also going, and he would never miss a chance to see you in a bikini. Even though you were more the bodysuit type, Alfie never complained and enjoyed the view nonetheless. It had never been a secret that you weren't the most confident girl out there, especially when it came to the beach. For a long time, you had refused to put a bikini on and enjoy yourself, too afraid and insecure of your body. You had never had what they call a beach body. However, growing up, you realized that that was a load of nonsense. What was a beach body anyway? This was your body, you were healthy and that's was all that mattered. Of course, you were still pretty insecure about a lot of your features but with Alfie's help, you had learned to disregard them and just focus on having fun. Bodysuits also helped you since you felt more comfortable in them.

When you got there, you wasted no time and as soon as you saw your group of friends, you ran with them into the sea. You knew that Alfie needed a bit of time to adjust to the water temperature if he wanted to go into the sea that is. Otherwise, he would just be basking in the sun or frowning under the dear shadow offered by the sunshade. There really was no in-between with the guy. So you learned to give him his space. If he wanted to stay on the beach rather than have a wonderful swim, that was fine with you. As it was okay with Alfie that you'd rather soak in the cold water until your fingers resembled a sponge and your lips were almost blue. That was just how it was.

Since your friends had decided to tag alone, Alfie wasn't the only one who'd rather stay dry. Your friend Karen was also known for hating the cold water and preferring to sunbathe until she was a deep shade of brown. Well, to be fair, she wasn't really your friend. She was a friend of a friend who would always tag along because she hoped to get with one of your guy friends. You and her never really went along, you were too different. She was one of those people who would be all sweet and nice to your face and then talk shit about you behind your back. Even though you were aware of this, you had always been nice to her. You thought it best to keep a civil relationship with her since she would obviously spend a lot of time with you. Even if you didn't like her one bit. However, too eager to lose yourself in the amazing sensation of freedom that only being in the sea could give you, you didn't even register her presence there. Or the fact that she and Alfie would be alone. But even if you had noticed, you wouldn't have said anything. Sure, the thought worried you a little but you trusted Alfie. Besides, you could always keep an eye on them from the sea.

As things would turn out, you had better have done something about it; coaxed Alfie to come with you in some way or another. Karen was out for a hunt and the fact that Alfie was your boyfriend wasn't going to stop her. Of course, she was smart. She knew that she had to approach him subtly, casually. Slowly yet steadily she would interfere with your relationship until it would come crumbling down and Alfie would be hers. Karen had always thought that he was handsome, even with that ugly scar on his face. And the dominant vibe that he seemed to emit made him only more appealing to her. He would be hers, she decided when she saw him settling down on the lounger while you ran towards the sea.

"So, how are you, Alfie?" She asked nonchalantly without turning her head to him. She stayed laying down on the sun lounger, her face looking up to the sky.

"'lright, yeah. You?" He grunted a little surprised that Karen was talking to him. Other than pleasantries, the two of them didn't really talk. Alfie was always by your side or talking to one of the guys while Karen was too busy charming one of the guys.

"So, y/n left you here all alone, eh? Run immediately to Luke." She pointed out casually, her first blow. It was obvious that you hadn't run to Luke. Everyone was playing in the sea and you hadn't even looked at them when you jumped in. Alfie knew this and so did Karen but she was also aware of how easily Alfie's jealousy could be poked.

"Nah, she was just eager to get wet, that's all." Shrugging he calmly said what they both knew but Karen wasn't done. In fact, she had just started.

"Well, that's not a surprise really. After what he told her the other day, it was only a matter of time." Completely disregarding his words, she continued with her plan. Second blow.

This got Alfie's attention. He knew that you were pretty close with everyone, especially with Luke since you had known him the longest. Your relationship with him was purely platonic though and it had never made him suspicious of anything. Despite this awareness, Alfie wondered what Luke could have said to you that would have changed something and why hadn't you told him.

"What yer talkin' about?" He couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Well you know, if a guy said all those sweet things to me, I would watch him in a different light too. Y/n has always been very insecure and Luke just had the right words at the right moment." Karen explained making it seem like she knew you like the back of her hand and that you had confessed this to her as a secret. It couldn't be farther from the truth. But Alfie didn't know this. He couldn't have because he knew as well how insecure you were and he had always done his best to calm you with his words. He thought that he had been doing a good job, you were more confident now than ever. But apparently he was a fool. Apparently, you needed someone else to tell you the same things he did. Apparently, his words weren't enough anymore. Had you been seeking comfort from Luke instead of going to him? Trying to find an answer to this question, he flicked through the last few weeks to see if there had been some weird behaviours or anything of that sort but he hadn't noticed anything. Maybe you had done it behind his back?

When Alfie didn't say anything, Karen turned her head slightly to him to study his expression. Smirking when she saw the frown of his face and the faraway look in his eyes, she knew it was the time to deliver the final blow.

"Not that her thighs or her belly are a problem, mind you. Apparently, they are for her or well they were before Luke told her that he rather liked her anyway. She seemed fine after." Turning around on her stomach to let her back tan, she dismissed the conversation knowing that it was enough for now. And, as a matter of fact, Alfie sprinted from his seat to join you in the water. You had returned from your swim and were now messing around with Luke.

Alfie couldn't believe this. How come this Luke guy had all this effect on you? Why did you hold his words in so high of regard? Why was he able to fix everything while he couldn't?

All those questions were swirling in his mind but he couldn't find an answer, only upsetting him further. Maybe it wasn't time for words anymore. Maybe it was time he showed you with facts what he had been saying all along. When he came in front of you, he didn't react when you smiled happily at him for having come in the end. However, he took the opportunity to lift you up and get you to wrap your legs around his waist and get you away from the others and Luke when you wrapped your arms around his shoulders to greet him. Chuckling at his antics, you thought nothing of it and welcomed his touch. When you were far away enough from everyone, he started kissing you. It wasn't the soft, slow kiss he would always give you when you were in public. It was frantic, it was desperate; like he was drowning and you were the oxygen he needed. It was unusual, he usually would reserve such displays of affection for when you were alone in the bedroom but you went along with it. This was your Alfie after all, and every bit of attention he would give you, you would take it without complaint.

"Alfie, what the hell are you doing?" Your jerked in his grip and talked on his mouth while he continued to kiss you. Okay the passionate kiss but throwing your bodysuit aside and initiate something more was a whole other thing.

"C'mon pet, I want ya so bad." His hands didn't stop and he tried to lower the straps of the bodysuit too.

"We're in public Alfie, you can't take my bloody swimsuit off." He still refused to stop kissing you and even when you patted his hands away they only came back to try again.

"Oh c'mon y/n, I promise that I don't care about your rolls. I love you despite them." Wait, what?

"What?" You stilled completely in his arms, unresponsive to his kiss.

"Yeah, yer full of imperfections so what? I don't care about your tummy or thighs. Let me have ya." Full of imperfections?? Since when did Alfie think that? To be fair, you had always thought that and confided in him thousands of times, and he had always comforted you. Pointed out to you how none of those things mattered because in the end that was not all that you were. He insisted that you were so much more than your insecurities. When, apparently, he agreed with you all along.

"Why yer not kissin' back?" He asked finally pulling away from your mouth when he registered that you were unresponsive to his touch.

"I'm not in the mood anymore, Mr Darcy." You spat roughly pushing him away from you. Giving him your back you quickly made your way out of the sea. Not getting the message, Alfie had started behind you and was calling your name like a lost child.

"Stop shouting my name, Alfie. I don't want to cause a scene in front of everyone but please leave me alone."

"I don't understand, what did I do?"

"You pulled a Mr Darcy, Alfie," you repeated hoping that this time he'd get the message and apparently he did because this time when you turned around, he didn't follow you. Alfie stood there helplessly, wondering what could have gone wrong in such a short amount of time. And who the fuck is Mr Darcy?

After that unfortunate event in the sea, things were tense between you and Alfie. He had left you alone as you asked and returned to his lounger while you laid down on the sand to sunbathe and didn't spare him a look. Both of you were completely clueless to the satisfied look on Karen's face. Seemed like her plan was working.

However, the day came to an end and since you and Alfie had come together, you were now in his car on your way home. Usually one of you would crash at the other's place, you tried to spend as much time together as possible. This time though, as the car filled with tension, Alfie couldn't find the words to ask where he was driving. Were you still mad at him? Well, you were mute as a fish, looking out of the window so not to look at him, so he figured that yes, you were still mad.

"Pet?" he tried breaking the silence after a while. When you hummed to acknowledge him he continued. "Are ya mad at me?" he asked sounding stupid even to himself. It was bloody evident that you were. As a matter of fact, you completely ignored him finding that your silence was more than enough of an answer.

"I don't understand what I did wrong pet, right? Can we talk?" he insisted then because he would hate himself if you went home still upset and angry with him. Who knows when he'd be hearing from you then. It was best to settle this now.

"It seems that you have a lot on your chest that you haven't got out so why don't you start?" Alfie didn't think it possible but he was still more confused now.

"I... I still don't understand love. What d'ya mean?" He earnestly asked, honesty was the best policy after all and he knew he had messed up. Pulling over to the side of the street, he stopped the car so that you could have this conversation face to face. If you would look at him, that is.

"I mean Alfie, how apparently you think your girlfriend is deeply flawed, how you threw in my face every insecurity I ever had and talked you about; how apparently you have been lying straight to my face every time you told me that you didn't see them as imperfections." You finally did turn to him but the look you were throwing at him now made Alfie wish that you hadn't. He had always hated seeing you cry and now you were looking at him like he just stabbed you or killed your cat. Like he had wronged you beyond repair.

"Pet, yer dramatisin' this 'hole thing, right? That's not what I said, innit?" As soon as he said those words and watched as your eyes hardened and your lips tightened in a thin line, he wished he had never spoken in the first place. If he could he would kick himself right now.

"Oh yes? And what did you say then, enlighten me please." Your voice as sharp as a blade well sharpened.

"I just told ya that I don't care about 'em, right? Everyone has 'em." What a perfectly pathetic attempt Alfie, well done.

"You used to tell me I was perfect Alfie." Shaking your head, anger was replaced by hurt and your voice came out as a mumble. Turning away again towards the window, Alfie felt his heart tighten. He didn't understand why you were taking it so seriously but it hurt him to see you this way, even more, because he was the one who had hurt you.

"Well yeah to me yer." His voice matched your tone. He didn't know what to say since every word he chose was actually worsening his position.

"But I'm full of imperfections at the same time? Are you even listening to yourself, Alfie? You're not making any sense." Snapping your head in his direction, Alfie actually gasped for the sudden movement. Your chin trembled and he knew you were doing your best to keep the tears from spilling.

"I don't see what's the big deal, love. Everyone has 'em. Just look at me for fuck's sake, half of me face is fuckin' mutilated, I limp and I 'ave a fuckin' bad back. You don't hear me complaining tho, do ya?" Now he was growing agitated too. He had hoped that talking about it would have fixed it while it was only making it worse.

"Then I guess that's the difference between me and you Alfie. I've never seen those as imperfections." You turned away from him again, voice trembling for the lost battle on keeping the tears in.

"Why yer makin' such a big deal out of this?" He asked after a while. He was completely clueless and helpless. He just wanted to make this right and curl with you in his bed and put an end to this awful day.

"Because, Alfie, if you are with someone you think it's so not right, then how long until you find someone that is interested in you who is?" Ah here it is, he thought as you finally opened up to him. No matter how many times he would tell you that he was head over heels in love with you and he literally didn't see anyone else, you still couldn't shake the feeling of being replaced by someone who you thought was better than you. Alfie didn't think that there was someone who could be better for him than you, but he couldn't persuade you to agree though. The truth was that you had always wondered if Alfie had been interested in you only because you were interested in him in the first place. You knew how Alfie thought of himself, like some unlovable crippled and deformed old man. So it was only fair to suspect that he was with you because you loved him despite what he perceived as flaws and because he thought that he didn't have the chance to pursue other women. Who would want him?

You did, and Alfie was absolutely baffled as to why you did, but even though he thought you could do way better than him, he was selfish enough to keep you by his side.

"That's utter bullshit y/n. Who the fuck in their right state of mind would want me?" He scoffed at your words and insecurity unaware of the fact that he had just proved you right. Apparently, you had been right in doubting his feelings. You knew that he was way out of your league. Instincts never lie.

"I do..." Your voice quietened even more than you thought possible and shuffling on your seat you as thought this is it. This is the problem. A problem you couldn't fix because you were the problem. As always.

"You know what, Alfie? Maybe it's best if we part ways. So that you're not stuck with someone who is oh so wrong and you won't even have to lie anymore. Sounds good?" It didn't matter if it broke your heart, it didn't matter if you couldn't imagine your life without Alfie, it didn't matter if you were a goner for him; it wasn't what he wanted and you learned a long time ago that it was best to leave if you felt like a burden. Swallowing, you wondered if maybe you should get out of the car and find another way to get home. Fortunately, you weren't so far away from your house. You could easily take your leave now and put you both out of your misery.

"Don't. God, don't do it." Alfie's voice was quiet while he pleaded you. The desperation in his voice startled you and you wondered if maybe you were making a mistake, if you had read the whole situation wrong; if he really loved you after all and you were wrongly pushing him away.

"I'm doing you a favour Alfie, you should be thankful. You're finally free to be with the girl of your dreams." But you couldn't know and Alfie would never tell you. Only time would tell, you thought. You were sure that he could very well find what he was looking for and while you could overlook this and stay with him, you knew that it wasn't fair to you. You deserved to be with someone who chose you because he really loved you and not because he was afraid of being alone if he didn't stay with you.

"But you are. Yer everythin' I fuckin' want." Alfie felt like he couldn't breathe anymore. His lungs were failing him. He felt like he was drowning and couldn't find his way up. He couldn't believe that everything had come falling down so rapidly and so irreparably. How could he have failed to see what was happening right in front of him? How could he have managed to hurt you so much, up to the point where you didn't want to be together anymore? Had he really said something so wrong? And if so, why didn't he perceived it as such? But more importantly, how could he fix it now? There has to be something he could do to fix this, right? It wasn't too late. Right?

Alfie was sure that there was, that it wasn't too late. That your bond was too strong to be severed just like that. He knew you loved him, you had just said it, and he was painfully aware that he'd be completely miserable without you. How could you not see it? How could you think such things? Someone better than you? Impossible. His dream girl? You were the girl of his fucking dreams. Had he been such a shitty boyfriend that you didn't know how much he cared for you? How much he loved and cherished you? How far he would go to ensure your safety and happiness? Were you really that clueless?

"It's alright Alfie, you don't have to pretend anymore. Goodbye." And with that you were out of his car and of his life, taking with you every certainty he had, the remaining pieces of his heart and the last chance he had at being finally happy. He knew he had been lucky enough when God had graced his life with your presence. That went his last shot. He knew that. Watching you walk away, he knew that he wouldn't want to be with anyone else. Turning the engine on when you disappeared from his field of vision, he lazily went through the whole day to spot the exact moment he messed up. He could work his way back into your arms from that, he knew that. Or at least he would try until he was.

#alfie solomons #modern alfie solomons #alfie solomons x reader #alfie solomons angst #peaky blinders #alfie solomons imagines #alfie solomons one shot #peaky blinders x reader #peaky blinders imagine #tom hardy #tom hardy x reader #tom hardy imagines

167 notes · View notes

yellowmagicalgirl · 3 years

Text

Once and Maybe Future Chapter 14: Incognito Patrol

When Nimue sees a girl with far too many hairclips and radiating dark magic, it's up to her and Douxie to save Arcadia.

Heyyy, yes I know it's been over six months since I last updated and this fic is now very much not canon compliant. At least this chapter is half the length of all the previous chapters combined.

Originally this was going to be a single chapter covering the events of both "Night Patroll"/"Terra Incognita II" as well as "So I'm Dating a Sorceress" and "The Exorcism of Claire Nuñez", but due to the length I decided to only have it cover the events of "Night Patroll"/"Terra Incognita II" in this chapter; another chapter is going to finally get around to the Clairegana-and-Douxie confrontation and not just the aftermath.

AO3

FFN

It was a normal day at the Zimue records store.

Which was to say, it was absolutely boring, but there were enough customers around that Nimue couldn’t practice magic… or even really do homework for her independent study courses, considering that her manager was here today.

The door opened and closed with a blast of warm late May air.

Nimue shivered and grabbed the counter as the flashback overtook her.

Nimue-the-first did not leave her lake often. She was busy enough with her forge, and she didn’t care much for most people, especially not in crowds. She frowned as she saw wagon tracks on the road; she was getting close to a village or at least a farm. She preferred for her adopted son and his family to visit her rather than the other way around. They may be royalty, but she was a sorceress and far older. They could show her some respect.

Instead, she’d be paying her last respects to her son and her daughter-in-law.

There was a war outside her lake, and there was dark magic fueling it beyond what the Gumm-Gumms could normally use. It had been a long time since she had last seen Uther’s stepdaughter or her green-eyed gaze, but Nimue-the-first knew that Morgana had corrupted herself and was fueling the war. That, or the war was fueling Morgana; Nimue-the-first could feel it in her bones.

Nimue’s bones ached as she was released from the flashback to her first lifetime. She glanced around, trying to figure out just what had caused the flashback this time. However, there was nothing new in Zimue, nothing that would’ve set her off, and definitely not anything that would’ve caused her to flash back that far. Nimue inhaled deeply, trying to see if maybe Douxie was cooking something up next door, potion or otherwise. That had set her off once. She had been tempted to tell him then and there the truth about why she had magical powers, but she had stopped herself. Wizards were normal. Relatively rare compared to most of humanity, but normal.

Reincarnation, as far as she knew, was not. Heck, every legend about King Arthur returning was propaganda, so it wasn’t like he’d reincarnate, much less anyone else from her first lifetime.

It was kind of lonely, walking around with so many memories of bygone eras, but it had been Nimue’s life since she was twelve. Besides, the magic was more than enough to make up for it.

Then again, Douxie would never practice dark magic, and even if he wanted to surely Archie would stop him. She squeezed her eyes as she manned the register. She felt worse with every customer, though it was possible that she just was getting a headache and mistaking it for dark magic. Dehydration, maybe, as ironic as it was.

A girl stepped to the front of the line, holding the new Papa Skull album. She had a white streak running through her dark hair, with multiple colored hairclips and a matching Papa Skull shirt. She looked a little sick, a little sleep deprived, a little younger than Nimue.

Nimue gulped as the girl placed the album on the counter. The girl smiled shyly before coughing into her elbow, loud and shaking.

Magic radiated off the girl as Nimue rung up the album. It was old, and it was dark.

Perhaps being the only one with magic and memories from bygone eras would have been for the best, as lonely as it was.

The girl walked out, taking most of the dark magic with her. There were some traces of it lying in the air like a miasma.

Nimue quickly swiped her hand over her pocket to make sure her phone was there. She’d ask her manager to let her take a break, text Douxie, and the two of them would go after the girl with the dark magic. Hopefully she was just some kid with latent talent who found a dark magical spell on the internet.

“I’m taking my lunch break,” her manager told her right before she could open her mouth. “Make sure we don’t get robbed.”

Nimue made sure her back was turned to her manager before she grimaced and hoped that she had enough hay fever that it was distorting the amount of dark magic she was sensing.

“Nimue, calm down and talk a little more slowly,” he said. They were both on break, her from her day job and him from band practice with Ash Dispersal pattern. Specifically, Hank and Raoul were off to grab burgers for their lunch.

Nimue took a deep breath. “Look, this girl came into Zimue and there was something bad about her. Like, I could feel the dark magic coming off her in waves.”

Douxie decided not to ask her just how she knew it was dark magic, though he did wonder. For someone who had had no training outside of spell books on the internet and his father’s attempted tutelage of the two of them, she progressed remarkably fast. Douxie hoped that Nimue wouldn’t be able to sense years-old dark magic. “Okay, do you want me to fake being sick and go after her?”

“Uh… she left the shop an hour ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Douxie was secretly glad. Nimue’s reaction to dark magic users scared him.

“Because my manager already doesn’t like me and this was the soonest I could go on break… it could be hay fever, but I made sure to take my allergy meds and I don’t think it is.”

“Okay, okay, well, what does this girl look like?”

“Uh… brown or black hair with a white streak, green, wait, no, brown eyes…” That certainly didn’t narrow down the field that well, but it did help affirm the fact that there was something about the girl Nimue had seen that had her spooked. “Oh, yeah, she was wearing a Papa Skull shirt, and hairclips? Uh, like, two, no, three, no, there might’ve been more… it’d be easier if I could show you.”

“Nimue, we both know that the extent of your drawing abilities are runes and stick figures.”

“No, not a drawing, there’s surveillance video in the store, and she came straight up to the register.”

“Isn’t that illegal? Somehow? We don’t need the law coming in and messing things up somehow.”

“I mean, technically the improvements on your pipes might also be illegal since you didn’t tell your landlord about them and they’re also giving you extra water.”

Douxie grimaced; he still wasn’t entirely sure if one day he’d have to deal with the magically enhanced water turning what was supposed to be his dinner into a potion of some sort.

Zimue closed at 7 PM every day, so at 9:30 PM Nimue snuck out of her house to break in. Her parents thought that she was sleeping after having prepared for finals she’d be taking. She wore a beanie and long sleeves to cover up her dyed hair and magically induced tattoo.

“Douxie, I thought I told you to do something that would make you less recognizable,” she said. He was wearing what he wore every day, except he didn’t roll up his sleeves.

He dramatically placed his hood over his head, and then awkwardly tucked his dyed bangs behind his ears. “Why’d you want the water bottle?” he asked, pulling one out of his pocket.

“For this,” Nimue said, sighing wistfully. She preferred shopping for clothes in the women’s section, but she missed having space in her pockets. She took the water bottle, uncapped it, and then upended it. As she handed the water bottle back to him, she made a swirling motion with her other hand.

Another good reason for wearing long sleeves: her tattoo was probably glowing right now.

A thick fog surrounded the two of them and the storefront.

“Oh. Cool,” Douxie said.

“Wish it could’ve been a smoke bomb instead of a steam bomb, but this is good enough, I guess,” Nimue said. “Besides, we don’t want to set off a smoke alarm.”

Douxie knelt next to the door, pulling out a pair of straightened paperclips. He inserted them into the lock, wiggling them around. His expression grew frustrated, and he closed his eyes. When he stood up once more, he held the lock with one of his hoodie sleeves.

“I thought you could pick locks,” Nimue said. “Well, without magic, anyways.”

“Last time I picked a lock I was in foster care, and before that…” Douxie stared off into the distance, a morose look on his face.

“Before that?”

Douxie blinked and put on an obviously fake smile. “Eh, tragic backstory stuff.”

“That joke stopped being funny halfway through ninth grade.” Nimue pushed past her friend and opened the door. Fog filtered in, covering the cameras. “Okay, so we keep the security footage over this way.”

Douxie closed the door behind him. “You know, I don’t even know if the magic shop has security cameras.”

“Good thing mystery dark magical girl came here, then.” Nimue pulled up the footage. “And good thing my boss showed me how to go through this in case we ever get shoplifted from or anything. Not that we probably will, ever. At least, if we do it’s probably gonna be on my day off. And, there!”

Douxie looked over her shoulder at the slightly grainy video, taking a photo of the girl. “She goes to our school. I saw her outside Mrs. Barros’s office last year. I think she’s a year younger than us?”

Nimue groaned, standing up and beginning to erase the evidence that she and Douxie had broken in. “If she’s a year younger than us, then she might be a member of that stupid pilot program where freshmen could graduate in a year and a half.”

“I can ask the guys; they might know since they still go to actual school.”

“Make sure you get a name; it might make it easier to go after her.”

“Hey, Nimue?” Douxie asked. She threw a glance over her shoulder as she locked up the store.

“Yeah?”

“What are you going to do to her, once we find her?”

“I don’t know exactly, but she’s got dark magic. She’s dangerous, and we’re the only non-dark wizards in Arcadia. We need to stop her.”

Douxie gave her the same sort of faraway, morose look that he did whenever he accidentally shared a detail about his childhood before foster care. Without a word, he turned away and walked to his apartment.

Nimue let the enchanted fog roll away and began to walk home. She tried not to think about Douxie’s question too much. Anyone who used dark magic had to be evil since they’d know better than to use it. They deserved what was coming to them.

“Hey, does this girl still go to our school?” Douxie asked, holding his phone out to the other members of Ash Dispersal Pattern.

“What, do you wanna ask her, wait, no, sorry, forgot you were gay,” Raoul said. Honestly, Douxie was still a little surprised that he had even had to come out to Raoul and the other guys last October. After all, Douxie trying out for Ash Dispersal Pattern had been him trying to confess his crush to Hank back in freshman year. Not that it mattered, anymore, since all the other guys in the band were straight and Douxie had moved on from his crush six months after the band had formed. “Uh, I don’t know?”

“Nimue saw her at the record store, fiddling with a ring, and she dropped it. Nimue found it after she’d left, and she wanted to try to find a way to give it back to the girl. I remembered seeing her outside of Mrs. Barros’s office last year, but I’ve got no idea about if she’s in the year-and-a-half program.”

Hank walked over and squinted at the photo. “She doesn’t go to our school; she transferred to mole high. She’s friends with my ex; the girl’s name’s Claire. Do you want me to go over?”

“Dude, Mary isn’t gonna get back together with you,” Dominic said.

“No, well, I have no idea about Hank’s ex. But no, I’ll go over,” Douxie said.

“Hand out the Battle of the Bands flyers when you get there, will ya?” Douxie took the stack of papers from Dominic. Good, now he actually had a reason to go there.

Multiple female students of Arcadia Oaks High swarmed Douxie, but not as many of them grabbed the flyers he was passing out. None of them were Claire, either. One of them mentioned the nickname that Nimue hated. Personally, Douxie wasn’t sure why it was such a problem; Hank had gone through a phase where he’d called everyone by their first initial, but there were two guys with a name starting with the letter “d” in the band and Dominic was significantly shorter than Douxie. Therefore, “Big D” and “Little D”.

A girl pushed through the crowd and tripped, dropping her books. Douxie knelt next to her helping her grab her books, and then he felt the waves of dark magic coming off of her. Something about them felt familiar, but how? Douxie placed a smile on his face.

“C-Bomb, is it? Consider me blown away, because you are nuclear.” If she knew that he was a wizard, then she would understand that this was a sign of respect. A sign that he recognized her power, but also a sign that he recognized the danger she radiated.

She smiled back but said nothing. Hmm. Maybe Nimue’s theory of Claire being an inexperienced wizard who accidentally cast a dark magic spell was possible, but that powerful without knowing how to sense for magic? That was strange. Perhaps she was goading him?

A boy in blue walked up to them, slinging his arm around Claire’s shoulder. “So, what brings you to our humble school?”

The boy placed a hand on Douxie’s chest, pushing Douxie away as Claire began to cough. That was nice of him. Something about the boy felt oddly familiar, and not just because Douxie remembered seeing him at Benoit’s multiple times. No, Douxie almost felt caught in a feedback loop, like he had sent his own magic outwards and then it got sent back at him. Almost. The magic that got sent back felt purer, less tainted. Innocent, and not yet marred by necromancy.

“The Battle of the Bands is coming up,” Douxie said as he handed a flyer to Claire. “Ash Dispersal Pattern – that’s my band – will be crushing this.” And maybe the hand motion Douxie made was a little too threatening, but there was something odd and Douxie felt like he had to do something to show a little of his strength. Not too much, but enough to make himself seem like he wasn’t a victim. “But, we’re encouraging others to give it a shot.”

Claire coughed again after congratulating Douxie on Ash Dispersal Pattern’s headline performance for Papa Skull last fall. Douxie couldn’t help but wonder if it were a regular cold, or if perhaps the illness were magical in nature. If so, maybe he, Nimue, and his father could find –

No. Douxie would have to help her on his own. Nimue and his father thought that dark magic users were evil and dangerous. They would probably advocate for letting Claire die if the illness caused by her own meddling in dark magic, or perhaps the two of them would grant “mercy” to Claire by killing her. They would probably do the same for Douxie if they ever found out the truth.

Two girls rushed over to Claire, exclaiming that they should be a cover band. Neither of them seemed to have anything magical going on, but Douxie was pretty sure one of them was Hank’s ex.

“I don’t know,” the boy said, pushing Douxie away once more. “We’re pretty busy with our after-school activities.”

Hmm. Were Claire and the boy perhaps trying to learn magic together, much like Douxie and Nimue were?

Claire took the flyer back from the boy and agreed with the girls about starting a band. Douxie glanced to his hands and quickly put them in his pockets. They were empty, and they were trembling. But why? Claire seemed powerful, but not necessarily threatening.

“I look forward to seeing you again, Fair Lady Claire,” Douxie said before walking away. Yes. Perfect. That was exactly the right amount of respect to show to a fellow wizard whose diplomatic position towards you was still unknown but was clearly dangerous due to her clearly dark but hidden power. It was good to know that, after a millennium and a half for everyone else and eight years for himself, his diplomatic training as a prince had finally paid off. If only his parents, Merlin, or Uncle Kay could have been alive and in the right mind to see him.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. This whole morning was stupid. Nimue had been so stupid as to tempt fate. She glanced up from the tile she was trying to kill with her eyes when the door opened and closed, and her best friend walked into Zimue Records.

“Everything okay?” Douxie asked.

“We got fucking robbed,” Nimue said. “This wasn’t supposed to happen to me! If this was going to happen, why not on my day off?”

“Well, at least you have security cameras. Was anyone hurt?”

“No, though the shoplifters played dumb like they didn’t know what shoplifting was. Ugh. At least some cop got there so no permanent damage was caused and I didn’t even need security cameras. How’d flyers go?”

“Fine, I found Claire.”

“Okay, and?”

“And what?”

“And what have you done about her? Fireballs? Potions turned Molotov cocktails?”

“What? No! I’m not blowing up our rival school, and neither are you! No, I just got a feel for her, and I treated her with the proper amount of respect.”

“Proper?”

“Yes. Given that she’s powerful, I called her by the term Lady,” Douxie said as Nimue smacked her forehead. “What? There’s no need for her to immediately want to kill us for disrespect!”

“Douxie, this is why people think you’re straight.” She wrinkled her nose. “Please tell me you’re just being cheeky when you call me Lady Nimue and not trying to curry favor.”

“I’m being respectful to you because you’re my friend… but also sometimes it bugs you.”

Nimue rolled her eyes. “Okay, so what are we going to do about Claire? You have any ideas about how to fight a dark wizard?”

The door opened and closed, but no human walked in. “You two won’t be.”

“You told him?” Nimue said.

“No, but he should have,” Archie said. “You two are louder than you think.”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” Douxie mumbled.

Archie raised an eyebrow at Douxie. “Between raising you,” he said before turning to Nimue, “and teaching you my fur has gotten plenty grayer without the two of you taking needless risks like tracking down a dark wizard.”

“But she could be hurting people! And we’re the only ones in Arcadia who could save the day! If we pull off some sort of sneak attack – “

“You won’t be,” Archie said. “If the two of you are to be fighting another wizard, which you won’t be, I expect you to fight with honor.”

“She’s a dark wizard. She’s evil.”

“Or she’s young and hasn’t had the training that you have. She might not know the difference between regular magic and dark magic. After all, did you know the difference when your powers first awoke?”

Nimue’s breath caught in her throat. Of course, she did; she knew so many things instinctually from her past lives.

“Or Claire’s desperate,” Douxie mumbled, breaking Nimue from her thoughts. Archie turned to him.

“That’s not an excuse to use dark magic, and it’s especially not an excuse I want to hear coming from your mouth – either of your mouths,” Archie said. “If this girl turns out to be a danger to others, or to be using dark magic while being fully aware of the consequences, then fine. I will guide the two of you in planning an attack. But I do not want either of you getting near this dark wizard without me. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Archie,” the two of them said in unison.

“Good. Now, how is studying for finals going?”

#toa zoe #claire nuñez #hisirdoux casperan #jim lake jr #toa archie #tales of arcadia #trollhunters #3below #once and maybe future #my writing #toa mordred #ash dispersal pattern #tight jeans hank

13 notes · View notes

elencelebrindal · 4 years

Note

Actually, that last one was a really good question, so: for TLC Golds, how would you rate fanfic getting them right? I'm curious!

I don’t read as much TLC fanfics, mostly because a lot of them are pairing-based and those pairings are not my cup of tea, by I did read enough to have a couple opinions. Maybe not as thorough and complete as the one for the classic Golds, so excuse me if I’ll miss some characters. Also, same disclaimer: I might have read different stuff from other people. My opinion could sound wrong to you if you read something I didn’t and viceversa. With some of them I’m not familiar enough with the canon version at this point in time to have a 100% good answer. I forgot at least half the manga because art history replaced all my knowledge, and I have no free time to read it again.

Shion 7/10 I mostly saw good depictions of him, with a fairly good respect for his canon characteristics. Though, some stuff was... questionable. I won’t go into details, because this particular post has to stay sfw, but there’s some things out there were Shion is definitely not in character. Plus, I’ve seen him depicted with a somewhat dull personality more than once, and people apparently (even if it’s a running joke) like to think he’s not as skinny as he actually is. It’d be totally fine either way, obviously, but it conflicts so much that it automatically triggers me. You ever looked at a bulky armor, guys?

Alebaran/Rasgado ?/10 I never read actual fan fiction with him as a character, other than one that was basically just comedy and no character accuracy. So I can’t have an opinion on him. I have a couple posts to use as reference, but they’re not enough to pinpoint what people do with him.

Aspros 10/10 This score is mostly due to the fact that I’ve only read a couple works with him in them. And he was perfect, really to close to his canon counterpart. Since I’ve nothing to expose, I’ll move on.

Defteros ?/10 Same as Aldebaran, I never read a proper fan fiction, just posts here and there tackling him. I don’t even know if my representation of him is actually good or not, I am not familiar with Defteros enough at this particular time.

Manigoldo 10/10 Never seen a bad representation of him in fan fiction. Then again, this man is not that difficult to get right, once you understand his mentality. Bonus for him actually flirting during a battle, pretty sure writers have a blast with this Saint.

Regulus ?/10 The only fan fiction I read with him properly in it was pure comedy. I have no idea how people depict him outside canon, unfortunately. He’s never been one of my go-to characters when searching for stuff to read, so I have almost nothing to use as a comparison. I read some other works, but he was mainly a secondary character with the task of being adorable, so I don’t know.

Asmita 10/10 I only read one single work with him as the protagonist, and it was good. So damn good. I don’t remember the title or where I read it, or I would have definitely linked it to you all. So... kind of a biased score, but it’s all I have. The rest is just random posts, and he’s cool in those as well, so I guess Asmita got lucky.

Dohko Same as the previous, is literally impossible to get him wrong, unless you’re doing something purposefully ooc.

Kardia 10/10 I love every single work I’ve read with Kardia in it. It’s always spot on. His personality is not that easy to handle, being who he is, but so far I’ve only seen good depictions of him, as close to his canon behavior as they can possibly be. Honestly speaking, I almost exclusively read fan fictions with him and Degel as a couple, but still! Those authors never betrayed Kardia. Good job, everybody. The one and only complain I have is the depiction of him that one artist has (not going to say the name, I’m not a snitch and their art is still pretty darn good), but since it’s such a little drop in the ocean I’ll completely let it slide. For now.

Sisyphus 5/10 They either get him right, or he’s the way too overprotective uncle with one too many issues to deal with. I get it, you people want Sisyphus to care for Regulus, but don’t you think that making him act exactly like my mother is a bit much? I’ve seen some very impressive depictions of him, some works where his personality was absolutely amazing, but others... eh, I still wish I didn’t read them.

El Cid 8/10 Most of the time he’s perfect. People nailed his personality and behavior, it’s so close to the canon version that the whole thing is actually scary. But, sometimes, authors tend to exaggerate his traits too much, and then the story becomes unpleasant to read. Perfectionism can be dangerous if not used in the right amount, after all.

Degel 9/10 As far as I’m aware, and I’m only aware of works with him and Kardia as a couple (I’m hopeless, I know), he’s pretty good. His personality is not easy to grasp, and I’ve seen people making him too stuck up or too obsessed with his god-forsaken library, but if you get it right... well, you get it right. And it’s beautiful.

Albafica ?/10 I’m unsure about him. I grasped his whole character myself, because I stuck my head so far into the lore I’m actually still unable to get it out, but even with this I’m not sure how to relate with Albafica in fiction. There’s so many versions of is personality and a lot of them seem good, while at the same time some of those feel weird. To me, obviously, not in general. The fact I mostly read stuff with him in different pairings doesn’t help the confusion I have in my head, because it’s a different behavior with every person. I think that most authors are able to fully understand him, and they wrote Alba with justice for him in mind, but I’m so unsure I don’t feel like giving him a score.

#saint seiya #i cavalieri dello zodiaco #los caballeros del zodiaco #os cavaleiros do zodiaco #gold saints #lost canvas

14 notes · View notes

nightlight-stardust-and-rain · 4 years

Text

So I wanted to do a Homestuck HP au because I love writing about Homestuck. But like right now I don't have a lot of ideas so I'm gonna write whatever goes in my head.

John is a muggleborn. Everyone thinks he's a halfblood because when he talks about his dad people thinks he's a wizard (nope just a weird but cool muggle who took the magic thing very well). John doesn't correct them because honestly, pranking half of his classmates without even trying, that's something (he just want to see their faces when they realize). Also I think he would be a gryffindor. Oooor maybe a slytherin, but idk I don't see the "ambitious" side. No, gryffindor. Because pranks. He think he'd be very good at potions and charms ? Because pranks. Like you know you're better with subjects that are interesting to you. He really likes potion and charms because the amount of pranks he can do is like, unlimited. He's also good with a broomstick, even if he's not on the quidditch team : he likes to fly for flying, not for playing. He never really understood the problem with houses - or rather, the competition. He pranks everyone equally, that's all that matters (OK maybe he pranks more Dave and Karkat, but come on. Their reactions are priceless).

Jade is, I think, a half-blood ? Honestly, nobody knows, not even her : she doesn't remember if her grandpa was a wizard or not, and she remembers even less her parents. She grew up on a island (like in canon tbh) with Bec, who is a ex-wizard : he had a accident and he got trapped in his animagus form but due to the incident he sorta kept some of his powers (that's why he can still apparate) and, kinda, got the mind of a dog (still more intelligent than any dog, but not enough to notice that he was a wizard - he doesn't even remember bieng one). She's a slytherin ! Because she's really clever and kinda ambitious ? Like she really want to mix science and magic. She wants the magic world to know science ("guys, they don't even know what an atom is !!!"). Due to that, she's really fucking good with potions. The best of her years (of any year, really). While being a arithmancy and herbology genius, She's also pretty good in every other class tbh. Not really the best at flying, but she tries. Also she somehow learn to apparate when she's like 12 and everybody is stunned like HOW (and she's "oh my dog taught me !" "... WHAT"). She's very happy to be a witch but her scientific side SCREAMED when she learned the existence of magic. She can often be found staring at the moving stairs mumbling something about the physics laws.

Rose iiiiis... A pureblood. Come on. Like she grew up with magic traditions and such. She also loves the muggle's representation of wizards (it's very funny). She's SO a ravenclaw. That was obvious. Her mother is a famous witch (both famous for her acts of heroism during the last War (??) and also famous for being drunk anytime) and she doesn't really likes to be famous by association, but eh. She's obviously a Seer (like, a true one). She took divination and she fucking destroyed the teacher. Like she just looked at them with her superior smile (you know the insufferable one) and proceeded to walk out of class and never return (the destroying the teacher part took place at the exams when she got the highest score despite having skipped every divination period). She's really good in DADA and Alchemy and potions. Maybe sometimes she's a bit too close to the dark side of magic (*snort*) but eh she didn't killed anyone (yet). The only classes she's not good with is care of magical creatures : the creatures are all afraid of her (tbh it's because she tried to summon a eldricht horror once. She failed but the eldricht aura kinda stayed on her). She's very interested in vampires, but her interest may be personal rather than scholar ;)

Dave is, I think. A pureblood ? Tbh I really don't know where Bro stands. Since he's Rose's twin, he's obviously a pureblood, but he didn't grew up in the same place. Bro was the kind of wizard who was absolutely obsessed with muggle's technology so one day he just... Moved to the muggle side ? Idk. So here I'm really torn up between "Dave's shitty childhood and shitty role model is a important part of his character" and "I want Dave to be happy and have a happy childhood". Fuck it he' ll have a extremely weird but happy childhood (like. Remember before we knew that Bro was abusive and we tought that he was just a cool and really really really weird guardian ?). So he grew up in a mix of magic and technology : ofc Bro didn't hide he was a wizard, he used magic pretty often. Dave knows some things about technology but he kinda lacks... Basic knowledge. You know. Bro still taught him fencing (kinda was a family thing) but like. Low-key ? Like not before he was ten and Dave wasn't beat up, it was actual teaching (I just want Dave to be happy without PTSD, dammit). Also Dave is a hufflepuf (fight me). The beta kids are all the four houses (they think that's funny and they're kinda proud to be a multi-house group. XD amateurs just wait to see the trolls). When Dave got his letter, he was "... Bro. There is a magic community ??" "yes ? You didn't knew ?" "you never told me I tought we were mutants". Bro then realizes he never told Dave that he was actually a wizard, uh. Then "oh yeah your twin sister must be at hogwarts too" "I have a twin sister". Like. Bro legit forgot to tell him. Also Dave is absolutely fascinated by magic pictures. He's kinda good with classes because he's pretty smart but he's better with charms and DADA. He can fly (I mean with a broomstick of course) but he's not in the quidditch team. He took divination because he knows it's bullshit : it's for irony. He carries a camera everywhere because honestly magic pictures are so cool. He takes pictures every time because come on, Hogwarts is wonderful (he sends some of his pics to Bro who replies by "I know how Hogwarts looks, dumbass"). He also likes to take pics of his friends and also of this strange, huge group of friends who are not in the same house and who are indeed very strange and very differents but they stay together no matter what (yeah I'm talking about the trolls). Not gonna lie, he takes more pics of one of them... (yes I'm talking about Karkat. Because I ship DaveKat). He didn't realized he got a crush, the poor boy (also a lot less internalized homophobia because Bro is so gay. Dave's just takes a while to understand that he's Bi).

The trolls are a big multi-house group. Some of them knew each other before Hogwarts but mostly they were strangers who inexplicably and despite all their differences became friends the first day of school and stayed together for their whole life (it's Karkat. What keeps them together is Karkat).

And you know what I'm gonna do the ancestors before the beta trolls.

The Handmaid, Damara Megido (yeah they're keeping their post-Scratch selfs names), is Aradia's mother. She works at the ministry's time department (idk if it exists in HP so if not it's a department to regulate time travel and time traveling objects) and she's pretty great since she's the head of her department. She likes her work and she's pretty famous : both for her work, her magic skills (she's super fucking powerful) and her one-night stands (come on it's still Damara I had to). Actually Aradia comes from one of these one-night stands. She never hid it to her daughter. Aradia honestly doesn't mind. She's the type you would never expect to have a kid, but she's actually a good mother. She smokes a bit too much and maybe sometimes she forgets to cook but she tries.

The Summoner, Rufioh Nitram, is Tavros' father. He's part fairy and has absolutely no fucking clue about who was a fairy in his family but he doesn't really cares. His wings are cool, he likes to fly, talking to animals is even cooler. He's really chill about it. He never really felt ashamed of his wings, even when people tought they were girly. He's an auror affected to the department for control and regulation of magical creatures. He deals with dangerous creatures such as dragons. He loves his job. It's perfect for him : when he was a teen he was torn between auror (the action !) and the department [...] of magical creatures (the creatures !) but he got a mix of the two. He's proud of his son : he fully knows that being different can be hard and knows that his son is doing his best.

The Psiioniic, the Signless and the Disciple are in a happy poly relationship. Their kids Sollux, Karkat and Nepeta are actually triplets. The funny thing is that since they named them differently (Sollux is Captor-Vantas-Leijon, Karkat is Vantas-Leijon-Captor and Nepeta is Leijon-Captor-Vantas. Honestly their parents did that just to mess with everyone) and that most of the teacher's call list was only long enough to include the first of their last names, everybody at Hogwarts took like a year to understand that they were related and one more year to discover that they were triplets. That's exactly the kind of mess that was in their parent's mind when they named them.

The Psiioniic, Mituna Captor, is one of Sollux's, Karkat's and Nepeta's dads. He's a sarcastic little shit who got a job with computers on the muggle side of the world (people are usually stunned when they discover that he's a pureblood). He's a parseltongue and has a yellow-blue-red snake named Gemini. Honestly the only reason why everyone doesn't know he's a parseltongue isn't because he hides it (he doesn't care about people's opinion) but because, as a very not talkative person, he talks to his snake (or any snakes) like he talks to people : rarely. He's trying to introduce technology in the wizard world. It goes slowly. He' s actually a good dad who may forget to eat and/or to cook sometimes and has bipolarity (wizards usually think it's a curse. He gave up trying to explain every time) but he loves his childrens and is so in love with Signless and Disciple that sometimes he embarrasses himself.

The Signless, Kankri Vantas, is Sollux's, Karkat's and Nepeta's other dad. He's a half-blood and a Seer. Unlike Rose, he can't see the future, but the past lives. His past life or anyone's. He needs to touch people to See their past life and it's not really useful but he likes it. He's a teacher in Muggle studies : he was so appalled by the muggle studies in hogwarts that he decided to correct wizard's opinion on muggles. That's how he met Psii : he was trying to make a computer who could resist in Hogwarts (spoiler it exploded) and Signless was extremely interested (spoiler he lost his eyebrows in the explosion because he was too close). He kinda travels in various magic communities to teach them about muggle things that are very useful (he's not 'muggle are better than wizards'. Just 'we could learn so much from them and also the muggle are not a different species, we're all humans'). When his kids talked to him about their friends he laughed really hard and said "of course. You twelve are bound to each other after all". He's such a great dad. He loves his childrens so much and when he looks like he could explode you know he's thinking about how much he loves Psii and Disciple.

The Disciple, Meulin Leijon, is Sollux's, Karkat's and Nepeta's mother. She's a author and journalist. She does documentary-like articles. Like about animals or nature. She's a muggle born who was raised by a nundu ! You know the leopard-like creature with spikes in Fantastic Beasts (It moved silently, despite its "gigantic" size and was considered by some to be the most dangerous creature alive. The breath of the Nundu was toxic and filled with disease so potent that it can wipe out entire villages of people. Source wikipedia). Her muggle village was wiped by said toxic breath. Her magic protected her and somehow the nundu adopted her *shrugs*. She lived with her until she was seven and a witch found her and took her to the wizard world. It took her time to learn to talk, write, read, behave like a human. But oh she loved writing. She loved the books and she loved the stories and she loved to read. She kept some things from her years with her mother (she won't call the nundu who adopted her anything else), like the ability to move very silently and the, well, wilderness and fight skills. Honestly everyone believes she's a werewolf. She's tiny and pretty but actually more dangerous than half of the ancestor combined (admittedly in this HP au they are physically weaker or just not used to fight). So she writes reports about magical creatures and animals, she write books (her best book is an autobiography : everyone believes it's a fiction because of the adoption by a nundu thing). Sometimes Signless helps her to find a good story because you wouldn't believe the crazy things they did in their past life : he tells her, and she writes a book with that basis. Sometimes she works with the department [...] of magical creatures because she knows a lot about magical creatures and she understand their mind you know. Sometimes she works with the Summoner. They make a good pair and are very good friends.

The Dolorosa, Porrim Maryam, is Signless' adoptive mother, Karkat's, Sollux's and Nepeta's grandma and Kanaya's guardian and relative. She doesn't look that old because she's a vampire. She's Kanaya's ancestor, but literally. She must be like +600. She's really wise and really cool and also she can kick your ass easily. She lived in both worlds (muggle and magic) and lived in every country. She knows almost everything. Really she is just super badass. She adopted Signless when he was like 3 months. She greatly influenced him and his ideas. She's a very supportive mom and guardian. Also she uses a chainsaw. She's a bit of a legend everywhere honestly some people don't believe she exists.

Neophyte Redglare, Latula Pyrope, is Terezi's older sister and guardian. She's a auror (duh) and one of the best ! She's also a part-time lawyer and she's feared. With reason. She is Terezi's role model ! Redglare is very proud of her little sister and think that she will surpass her one day. Her and Psii are good friends even if they have nothing in common except their tendencies to sarcasm (Signless says they get along well because they dated in another life. They both gagged at that).

Spinneret Mindfang, Aranea Serket, is a fucking criminal. That's all. Like. She's a rich pureblood who leads a sort of magic-muggle mafia ? Like she does things on the muggle side and on the magic side and her group has wizards and squibs and muggles (who of course know about magic. When you're breaking laws everyday, what's one more ?). Her group works with magic methods as well as non magic methods - that's kinda why she never got arrested. Muggle police can never find them because magic, and aurors usually don't know where to search on the muggle side. She's feared everywhere and she's Redglare's principal target but she's not worried about being caught. She's not a really good mother to Vriska - she loves her daughter but she's a bit neglecting ? Like sometimes she's not home for a week or something. Also she has a pet acromentula.

Darkleer, Horuss Zahhak, is a black-Smith who lives in the same magic town as The Nitram, Maryam and Captor-Vantas-Leijon. He's a pureblood from a high family but he somehow get kicked out and ended up being a blacksmith. He actually, truly loves his job and while being Greatly ashamed (sweating) to have been kicked out of his house, he actually thinks that, hadn't he been kicked out, he would never have found his true vocation. He's very very awkward but his son doesn't mind since he's also very awkward. He's a good dad who teach blacksmithing to his son (while trying to erase the "better than anyone" way to think that his House teached to his son). He's friends with Disciple, she thinks his awkwardness is cute and he's kinda fascinated by her wilderness - they come from totally opposed sides after all.

The Grand Highblood, Kurloz Makara is a pure mystery. Is he wizard ? A muggle ? Is he at least alive ? Nobody knows.

Orphaner Dualscar, Cronus Ampora, is a pureblood who was a little shit when he was young (see post-scratch Cronus) but somehow (spoiler he pissed off the wrong person) he got his wand broken on his teens and he was dropped in the muggle world. Since he didn't knew what to do he ended up being in the marines by accident. It was hell for him. He fought a war, a muggle war, and saw what muggles can do. Years after his PTSD is still here. That's where he got his scars. After the war he succeeded to come back to the wizard world. He got a new wand and still had his family's name behind him but he still had the war in his bones. He never talked shit about muggles again and while being very scared of them he's also kinda fascinated - he had a sort of rifle harpoon (harpoon rifle ?) in the marines and it felt more right than his wand. He had Eridan like a year after being back. He panicked at first of course but he did his best to be a good father (he didn't had the best parents either) and kinda dropped everything to take care of his son. He's a very good dad even if he had to hire a cook because he can't cook to save his life. He later adopted Feferi and he has no clue why he did that but he loved her as if she was his biological daughter. Now that Eridan and Feferi are at Hogwarts he's searching for a job (spoilers he'll end up being Disciple's secretary because she's absolutely hopeless with planing and such and also he helps her with her books because he knows some things she doesn't about the muggle world or the army. He'll end up writing his own book - an autobiography)

The Condesce is the queen of the Selkies. Just. The queen. She's not a very good mother since she drooped Feferi in a magic orphanage after having her with a human.

now the beta trolls !

Aradia is a half-blood. She lives with her mother and their house is in the middle of a magic graveyard. Aradia grew surrounded by graves and ghosts, and she loved it. Some ghosts were around often, to visit their own grave or their family's grave. She talked to every one of them ! And they all had stories to tell ! And (and one day when she was little she met a woman with gray skin and eyes glowing of diferents colors and she had ram horns and she wore a green dress and she asked Aradia "tell me about yourself" Aradia told her about her mom and how she loved talking to ghosts and how her mom is the best with time problems and how they both are happy and the grey lady cried rust red tears and said she was relieved to know that at least in this universe they could know happiness and she vanished and Aradia never forgot her). She's a little spooky and also every ghost loves her, even Peeves ! That's, like, her own power. She can do necromancy and she thinks it's super cool. She doesn't talk about it outside of their group because she knows that even if her friends have no problems with that, the magic society isn't that accepting. She's gryffindor, even if the hat seriously considered Ravenclaw. She really like the dark red of gryffindor (that reminds her of the red eyelashes and red lips and red tears of the grey lady with ram horns who never came back but is somehow still with her). She' s really good with charms and DADA. she's not very good with herbology, every plant she touches seems to age a bit too fast. She's very good with flying ! Maybe a bit too risky. She's beater in the quidditch team ! She's animagus. A ram ! She loves it (and she swears she heard a laugh in the back of her head and she knows that was the lady with ram horns and rust red lips even if she never heard her laughter)

Tavros is a pureblood who grew in a magic town. He was kinda bullied because his family somehow got fairy blood - that's why his father got wings (Summoner is proud of his wings and doesn't see how having fairy blood makes you feminine). He had a disease who got him paralyzed. The Zahhaks built him a sort of magic-mechanic thing who helped him to walk but he still has to use his wheelchair sometimes. He can control animals and talk to them (he can't control people who are part animal and creatures who are sentient but he can talk to them). His father says it comes from the fairy blood. Despise being kinda bullied because being part fairy is "girly" he's still proud of his fairy blood like his father taught him ! (also it's hard to think that being part fairy is girly when your father is the Summoner). I'm so torn between hufflepuf and gryffindor for him... Nah gryffindor (like Neville you know). Gryffindor helps him to be more brave you know ? He's also the absolute best in care of magical creatures (of fucking course).

Sollux is a slytherin. His blood status (as well as his sibling's) is kinda undetermined since he got three parents. He's not a muggle born for sure. Honestly he doesn't care if he's a half-blood or a pureblood. He's kinda pissed to not have inherited of his dad's parlestongue because he likes snakes but eh. He's a absolute genius with computers and he HATES how computers doesn't work at hogwarts. He's trying to make a magic-proof one (spoiler it'll explode and more spoiler Karkat Nepeta and him will be too close and will get their eyebrows burned). He's pretty good with potions but he's better with transfiguration. Arithmancy is like his favorite class (it's easy for him and he's kinda in competition with Jade). Surprisingly he flies pretty well but he hates broomsticks. Like. Blurgh. He's animagus and guess what he's a bee. Karkat and Nepeta made fun of him endlessly but it's actually quite useful. He likes it. He's not bipolar like his dad but he got some pretty bad mood swings. Honestly he wanted to go to hufflepuf because they're yellow. He likes yellow. The fact that everyone took like two years to figure out that him, Nepeta and Karkat were triplets was absolutely hilarious to him. Like. They have the same birthday and the same parents how did they not understood once they figured out that they were related ? (he knows they don't look alike but seriously) he's one of the only persons to know about Karkat's secret obviously. This tsundere won't admit he loves his siblings but Nepeta and Karkat are on top of his "things I love the most" list.

Nepeta is a gryffindor. She got a limited form of metamorphmagi (?) mixed with her animagus form (she's a cat of course) she can manifest only a part of her animagus form, like the tail and ears or the claws. But she can't do what a normal metamorphmagus can do. She can fully turn into a cat of course. She keeps the ears and tail more or less always. A lot of people think someone cursed her to be part cat. She's really fucking strong : she learned martial art (more specifically taekwondo and aïkido) and parkour. She knows that most of the wizards are physically weak and that without their wand they're usually kinda useless. She's not really powerful magically speaking. More average but she doesn't mind. She's good in care of magical creatures and transfiguration. She absolutely hates flying. Like she's not afraid of heights but if she was made to fly her animagus form would be a bird not a cat ! She's Equius' best friend and nobody understands how they became friends (then again, nobody understands how the whole group became friends). She likes to ship people and they usually come to her (or Karkat) for romantic advice. She wants to be like her mother because she's so cool. She loves listening to his dad's stories about their past lives and she tries to understand her other dad's thing with computers but honestly the only thing she can do with a computer is an explosion. She likes to go to the forbidden forest to fight some dangerous creatures. She LOVES her brothers so much you wouldn't believe it. One of her favorite thing is the faces people do when they discover that they are triplets. It's priceless.

Karkat is a hufflepuf. To everyone's surprise. Like... He does works hard but friendly ? Him ? (when you tell that to his friends they laugh because Karkat, not friendly ? lmao dude he's the mom friend™) he inherited of his dad's ability to talk to snakes. He think it's completely useless and also he doesn't talk about it because ~discrimination~ he doesn't want to be seen as a dark wizard (he sucks at Dark magic anyways). He also has a weird thing with his blood : his blood is kinda like a soothing soporific ? Like, he can calm people by contact and when someone touch his blood they sleep. Nobody knows why is blood is like this (although Signless muttered something about candy red and a mutation). He keeps it secret (obviously his family knows) because honestly he doesn't want to be a test subject for the Department of mysteries. It's actually super useful when Sollux or his Dads are in lack of sleep - one drop of blood and bam they're asleep. Ironically, he's insomniac - he's obviously immune to the soporific effects of his blood. So he's a hufflepuf like Dave and some others and maybe he has a little crush on Dave. Ok it's not a crush he's in love but still a bit in denial. He likes potions and charms and alchemy and he's quite good. He also likes DADA but despite it he's not really good. He thinks Divination and Muggle studies are bullshit (but he regrets to not have been here to see Rose destroying the teacher). At first he took muggle studies to see if it was as awful as his dad told him - nope. It's worse. He absolutely, fully, from the bottom of his soul, HATES flying. He's actually one of the best students (not as good as Jade or Sollux but eh). First years are always afraid of him at first because he's always grumpy and angry and loud but the older are "lol no give it some time you'll see he's a giant teddy bear". He ends up being a sort of big brother figure for the youngers badgers. Nobody except him is surprised when he's named prefect. He's known at hogwarts to be somehow angry to everyone but also soft to everyone, all houses and years included. Everyone kinda loves him, despite *vague hand gestures to Karkat *. Some people don't like him, of course but he's not in danger : he got some powerful and protective friends. He's like one of the only persons who did not get lost in the castle. Like not even one time.

Kanaya is also a hufflepuf. She's a kind of cousin to the Captor-Vantas-Leijon since Dolorosa, her ancestor, adopted Signless. She's not a vampire like her ancestor (yet. She'll be at like 25. Don't want her to be 13 firvever after all). She's absolutely feared by everyone but nobody knows why. Like she's not really threatening ? She's really nice and pretty and always helping people. But she's still feared. Pure mystery. She likes to do handmade clothes and she's obviously very good. She took study of ancient runes and she's really good. She likes to sew protective runes onto her friend's clothes (they really need it). Strangely she's absolutely terrible at charms. She's pretty good with everything, but charms ? Nope. She's the mom friend as well as Karkat. But less aggressive of course. Her blood status is just as unknown as Sollux's, Karkat's and Nepeta's (them because they have three parents and her because the only family she has is Dolorosa who is too distantly related - and Dolorosa might have forgot her own blood status. She's old after all). Of course she knew that Nepeta, Sollux and Karkat are triplets, she basically grew up with them. She has always been more close to Karkat than to Sollux and Nepeta but she likes to have tea with Nepeta and reminding Sollux to eat had become a daily habit. She's the other prefect of hufflepuf, no surprise. When she and Rose began to date, everyone was both happy for them and midly terrified. Because they both pretty scary to begin with, so together ?? Brrr.

Terezi's a muggleborn like her sister Latula. She's been raised in the magic world. When she learned about dragons she went absolutely apeshit. She wants one, it's like one of her big goals >:] also she's a Slytherin. She's still blind but it was from birth. She has extreme synesthesia, an actual blind cane and some magic detection abilities. She's fine and is actually one of the few people who can find their way through the castle. She wants to be the head of the Justice department ! She's already D34L1NG W1TH TH3 1NJUST1C3S at hogwarts. Usually the culprits ends on the infirmary. She's maybe a bit too violent, but she's fair. She is surprisingly good at flying (better than Nepeta, Karkat and Feferi, even if that's not difficult) : she says that's because she was a dragon in her past life (Signless quietly disagreed but said that she had a strong bond with a dragon in her previous life). She's pretty good with the other classes but absolutely terrible in potions. Nobody knows if she's really that bad or if she messes it up on purpose (her failed potions always explodes). She and Vriska are absolutely the castle's terrors.

Vriska is a pureblood. The hat hesitated between gryffindor and slytherin but she ended up in slytherin. She's absolutely fascinated by acromantulas. She's also extremely disappointed that she cannot be a pirate (she fully intends to take over her mom's criminal network). She's good with potions, particularly the mind-controlling ones (*badum tsss*). She's also good with DADA and transfiguration, in her own way : everything she does in transfiguration class ends looking like a spider.

Equius is a ravenclaw. He grew up in a pureblood family (see Darkleer's part for more details) and kept some pureblood manners. He likes to build magic objects and is absolutely fascinated by muggle technology (and also ashamed bc muggle technology). He's the most discreet person in the whole castle. This boy is tall and buff and always carries metal things, but somehow he's like hidden in the shadows. He's not very good in magic but that's because he always breaks his wand :( he'd trying to learn wandless magic (that's how it's called righ ?) so he can avoid to buy a wand every week. This also happens with broomsticks - he's been definitely banned from flying class after breaking five broomsticks. He loves his house, they're all pretty calm (with a few exceptions) and they don't seem to mind his awkwardness. When he discovered that Sollux and Karkat were Nepeta's triplets, his brain exploded (they're so differents - both mentally and physically. He tought that Nepeta had a crush on Karkat because she was always hugging him. Nope she's just a very affectionate sister and Karkat loves hugs even if he won't admit it).

Eridan is a hufflepuf and he's very disappointed. He wanted to be in slytherin because he kinda got the mentality "pureblood = slytherin, hufflepuf = lame". But well hufflepuf he is. He'll find out later that his house is actually great and full of nice people who support him :) he's pretty good in DADA (his expelliarmus is mortal *badum tsss*) and good with water spells (*badum tsss x2*). He can fly but only because he had hours of training (if he hadn't he would be just as bad as Karkat, Nepeta and Feferi). His dad adopted Feferi when Eridan was like two. He had a crush on her for five years then realized that being her best friend was better (listen I want them to be happy and without major relationship drama). He's animagus but nobody knows except Feferi and Karkat (and that's becayse Karkat saw him on his animagus form by accident) he hides it because he's a seahorse (*badum tsss x3*) and he thinks it's lame and people will make fun of him but he enjoys being able to breathe underwater so... He's that kind of wizard who claims that muggle are disgusting but actually hides muggle books under his bed.

Feferi is technically a pureblood since Eridan's dad adopted her but her mother is actually the Selkies queen (yes I'm talking about the Condesce) and her father is a unknown wizard. Since she's not fully selkie she doesn't have the turn-into-a-seal thing but she can still breathe under water and swim really fast. She's a Slytherin (Eridan was jealous at first). She's just as bad with flying as Karkat and Nepeta - she's afraid of heights. She's a pretty good student but she's especially good in herbology. Like Eridan she's good with water spells (*badum tsss x4*). She's pretty ambitious (that's why she's in slytherin) : she wants to be the Minister. To change the magic world ! But like in a good sense. She wants to introduce muggle technology into the wizard world ! That far she gained the support of the Captor-Vantas-Leijon family (especially Psiioniic, who works in the muggle side with computers and Signless who knows a lot about muggle things) and Jade (come on she's a scientist). She's very determined >:)

So much for having no ideas... I wanted to do the Beta kids but this post is already long enough. Lets' just say that Jane is in slytherin, Jake in Gryffindor and Dirk and Roxy in ravenclaw. Thanks to @cornusblr ;) you kinda helped me I think you'll recognize some things.

75 notes · View notes

luna-almighty-god · 4 years

Text

Guardian Angel N°4 [Sweet mistake, isn't it?]

Hello, here's the fourth chapter!

This story is obviously not canonical, please do not refer to it if you are looking for canonical information.

===

First Chapter

Previous Chapter

===

“You're still here?!”

Ink burst out laughing when he heard Horror's scream. He easily dodged a bone thrown in his direction and then dropped into the sofa, quietly putting his feet on the table:

“Indeed, this castle is very comfortable!”

The cannibal growled as he turned his head to the corridor:

“CHIEF! INK STILL HITS THE INLAY!”

To which Nightmare didn't respond, probably because he was tired of always interfering. It had been almost four days since the Creator had been quietly squatting in their house, and the bad guys kept trying to kick him out. At least, when they saw him at the beginning of the day, they attacked him. Then after a quarter of an hour of chasing, they would give up and go back to their activities, not without grumbling against the artist.

After all, Nightmare didn't order them to catch their enemy or even shoot him down. He himself, as he left his office, ignored Ink to continue his daily routine. See, sometimes the master of the house would sit down next to the painter to watch TV or just exchange a few words. If at first it had seemed strange to his henchmen, they had decided that a little truce wasn't so bad after all.

And so a fifth day went by. This time Ink was present for lunch and was happy to discover Horror's culinary talents. He joked with Dust and Killer, gave some tips to Cross so that he could dredge Dream without being caught by Nightmare ... and speaking of the nightmare master, he arrived towards the end of the lunch and sat down at the table, starting to eat while the others left the room.

Ink lingered however, smiling:

“I wasn't expecting this, but it's actually really cool at your place!

- Shut up, there's nothing cool about it!

- Ohlala, you're always so bad-faithful! Come on, admit it, you love them, your beloved henchmen!”

Nightmare glanced at him blackly, but did not attack him. That was also new: the goalkeeper took a lot out of him to stop his impulses, and that was really beneficial: his subordinates were less afraid of him, and he could now graze Killer without him panicking.

“Of course he loves them.” Nyx replied for him.

The other two jumped, barely holding back a cry of surprise. They turned back to their friend who had once again appeared out of nowhere and quietly settled down at the table, coming to dive into the still hot dish that hadn't been cleared.

“Horror cooks really well,” he commented.

- Don't be embarrassed.” Nightmare grumbled as he continued to eat himself.

Ink laughed softly:

“Hey Nyx. How's it going?

- Very well, my goodness. How are you? You look tired.”

The painter had a poor smile:

“Oh, yes, I haven't been sleeping much lately, but don't worry!

- Are you worried that Error won't come?”

Ink did not answer but his evasive look was a clear answer. Nyx smiled briefly:

“Don't worry. His patience has run out.”

His two comrades raised an eyebrow and looked at him, perplexed. They were about to interrogate him when they were interrupted by a loud noise. A noise coming from the entrance, followed by the cry of Dust.

Ink and Nightmare immediately abandoned their occupations to rush in from the ruckus, drawing their receptive weapons - brushes and tentacles - in preparation for battle. As for Nyx, he took another bite out of his meal, thinking that his role would soon come to an end.

When he reached the entrance, Ink froze as he recognized the magic of his opposite, and his body shuddered violently as he met the angry gaze of the Destroyer.

Error was in an uncontrollable rage:

“So you were hiding there you bastard!” cried the glitch who held Dust and Killer in his strings.

Seeing his lover in the hands of the Destroyer, Nightmare clenched his fists. He could have attacked but didn't want to take any ill-considered risks. He looked at Horror, who had fainted, having been thrown against a wall, and at Cross, who was also looking for an opening to attack despite a leg injury.

He scolded, the anger growing stronger and stronger:

“How dare you enter my house and attack my subordinates?!

- Shut up, you octopus!" Error replied. You have only what you deserve for taking MY painter from me!”

Despite the situation Ink felt violently blushed. However, he recovered by crossing Nightmare's icy gaze, took a breath and took a step:

“Error, could you...

- SHUT UP! ARE YOU HAVING FUN MAKING ME GO AROUND IN CIRCLES? YOU MUST HAVE LAUGHED WHEN YOU SAW ME LOOKING FOR YOU, EH? I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY!”

The Creator remained forbidden for a moment. Searching for him... ? Error had sought him?! He barely had time to be happy about it when he was attacked by Gasters Blasters. He dodged immediately, holding back a smile: he had missed his fights with his opposite, but now he couldn't give it his all. By then he was in the castle of Nightmare with the Bad Sanses.

He was taken by the Destroyer who suddenly teleported behind him. Damn, he didn't pay enough attention! He closed his eyes waiting for the impact, but a scream of rage and lack of pain made him open his eyes again. He realized that Nightmare had stepped in, grabbing Error with his tentacles.

Ink, although he blamed himself for doing this to his rival, took advantage of this moment to teleport himself back to Killer and Dust, immediately freeing them from their ties. He then turned his attention back to Error, who had managed to escape the tentacles and attacked Nightmare with all his might, his bugs becoming even more violent than usual.

Nightmare, who seemed to be hitting him with a bit of difficulty, couldn't help but giggle:

“You seem to be pissed off at the mistake! Yet it seemed to me that you didn't give a damn about the artist!

- I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO CALLS HIM THAT!”

He was about to carry out a more violent attack but Ink intervened:

“ERROR THAT'S ENOUGH!”

And strangely enough, the Destroyer stopped dead in its tracks, while continuing to tremble with rage. The Creator looked him in the eyes, feverishly:

“Nightmare's right... You've always rejected me, always told me I was nothing to you... Why are you reacting like this?”

Error's anger was replaced by immense confusion, then by palpable shame. He calmed down completely, even taking a step backwards, while looking away:

“Shut up, it's nothing to do with that!”

Ink looked down:

“... You said you wanted to destroy me before Nightmare did, right?”

Error tensed up, looked at him with surprise:

“Wha... ?

- You wanted to kill me with your own hands, you were afraid that someone would steal this feat from you. Don't worry about that, no one took it out on me. But please, if you want to kill me... wait until we are in a quiet UA, where no one will get hurt...”

The Destroyer became livid... and threw himself on Ink, grabbing him by the shoulders with force:

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! I NEVER...”

He paused, gritted his teeth, bowed his head as the Creator raised his.

“... I don't fucking... I don't get it either... I...”

But Ink was no longer paying attention to his words, too shocked by something else:

“... E.... Error, you...”

The one who was questioned did not understand, straightened his face, and became impoverished when he saw how close he was to his opposite. His discomfort only increased when Ink added, tears in his eyes:

“... You're touching me...”

Indeed, he had touched Ink of his own free will. It shocked him as much as the artist, and again there was a long silence. Silence that was cut short by Nightmare who grumbled, annoyed:

“Hey, there are rooms, assholes.”

Error tensed up and began to move backwards, but was held back by Ink, who grabbed his wrists and suddenly teleported them.

Nightmare looked up to the sky and joined his henchmen as they recovered from the attack. His footsteps naturally guided him towards Killer, whom he gently supported, before placing a hand on his cheek to force him to look at him:

“Are you all right?”

Killer got worse, unaccustomed to such attention.

*** ***

Error clenched his fists, confused, unable to speak while Ink, sitting right next to him, silently watched the sky of OuterTale.

This was one of the only things they had in common: their love for this universe, for the stars that overhung them, that offered them the most beautiful and peaceful of spectacles.

But the Destroyer was not in the mood on that day. No, he was far too uncomfortable to be able to relax and enjoy the view. Much too uncomfortable because of what had happened just a few minutes earlier. Too uncomfortable to have lost control, to have been weak, to have been feverish in front of Ink, and especially in the presence of Nightmare.

Damn... (Sighs) He weighed down, resting his chin on his arms, themselves resting on his bent legs. Ink's silence didn't help the situation. That filthy painter who had ignored him for weeks... To think that Error had worried, only to discover that his opposite was the Bad Sanses. That he HAD FUN with the Bad Sanses! Damn, the multiverse wasn't going well at all.

“You've really been looking for me... ?”

He jumped, turned to Ink who looked at him timidly, who didn't dare believe what the Destroyer had told him. The Destructor returned to look up at the sky, embarrassed:

“Perhaps...

- Yes or no?

- Damn the painter... Yes! Yes, I've been looking for you, you little...”

He grunted, holding back yet another insult, tensing up as he felt the gaze of the artist examining him, gauging him.

“Why?” Ink asked again, as if he had a sickly need to satisfy his curiosity.

Error bugged for a moment. What could he say to that? Not the truth. Certainly not the truth!

“I missed you...”

FUCK! THAT WAS THE TRUTH!

He slapped himself mentally not without noticing the stupefied expression on the face of his opposite. It almost made him laugh if he wasn't himself at his worst.

“... You missed me ... ? But you always pushed me away!”

Error growled again, coming to hide his face in his arms. He didn't want to continue this conversation, but he felt Ink would not let go of him. Then he sighed:

"Because you're a pain in the ass, always yelling and sticking me. But... But... But...”

He hesitated, searched for his words, before whispering softly:

“...in spite of everything, I care for you...”

Ink widened his eyes, his mouth wide open, unable to believe what he had just heard. He came a little closer to his opposite:

“Say that again?

- No,” he said.

- Error, please!

- NO!”

The artist puffed up his cheeks, crossed his arms and mimed sulking. This wrung a laugh from the glitch who gave him an amused look:

“You look stupid when you do that.”

Ink smiled back at him:

“I don't mind looking stupid if it makes you happy...”

At the same time, they both get angry and embarrassed by the line that had deliciously sounded in their ear canals.

Ink looked away, decided to change the subject:

“I'm going to have to apologize to Night for the ruckus...”

Night', this all too familiar name made Error frown and lose his smile. His rage suddenly returned, almost as strong as before, grabbing his soul with brutality. His magic crackled with anger, alerting Ink, who didn't have time to react: he found himself on the ground, the Destroyer above him, blocking his wrists and overhanging him with his whole body, giving him a black look.

“Only with me can you be this close. Only with me can you be as familiar. No one else.”

Ink felt a long shiver, both frightened and excited by this look, this voice.

“You are mine”

He came and kissed him violently, without trying to wait for his consent, wrenching a squeak out of the painter. He kissed him savagely, without the slightest restraint, attacking him as if to devour him, making him moan softly, provoking confused but full of desire cries as their two bodies stuck together, suddenly becoming far too hot despite the cool temperature of Outertale.

Ink felt himself caught in this wave of new sensations, didn't notice that his pupils were changing shape too quickly in the excitement. His lower abdomen made him shudder, made him moan again, as he responded as best he could to the onslaught, seeking to deepen the contact with his soul mate.

And in the midst of sighs and groans, as their caresses began to go much further, Ink clearly heard this murmur in his ear, this sigh released by his opposite:

“Don't ever leave me...”

*** ***

The next day, Nyx was visited by Nightmare and Ink. Like the first time, the one with the black bones took his place at the desk while the artist sat on the bed and the master of the house leaned against the wall.

Ink was the first to speak, with an angelic smile on his face:

“Error told me he missed me. He told me that even though I could be a pain in the ass, he cared about me a lot. This is clearly an innuendo to say that he loves me, isn't it?

- Depends, what did you do next? Nightmare asked.

- We had sex all night !”

The nightmare master almost choked, clearly not expecting such a cash answer. He grunted and flipped the painter's finger, which the painter happily returned to him. Nyx smiled his usual smile and scribbled on his notebook, before turning to Nightmare:

“What about you?

- Mm... I took care of Killer. For some reason I didn't understand, he was pissing me off. Then I found out that he was actually jealous that I was spending time with Ink.

- Did you like that?”

Nightmare had a grin:

“Many. It pushed him to take initiatives to show that I belonged to him, but in the end I was the one who got the upper hand.

- Hey, you act shocked when I mention it but you fucked your man too! Bouda Ink.

- Shut the fuck up! And we didn't fuck! We didn't...”

He blushes softly as he looks away:

“We made love. This is different.”

The eyes of the creator began to twinkle:

"So cute! And you finally said 'I love you'?!”

Nightmare became even redder and growled an insult. Nyx and Ink smiled broadly: thus, their friend had indeed passed the test! Everyone had finally gotten what they wanted!

“Ink! Chief! Let's eat!” Horror called from the kitchen.

The two didn't hesitate to head for the door, their stomachs screaming for food. Nightmare, however, stopped in the doorway, drawing the puzzled eyes of the other two. He seemed to think, then turned to Nyx:

“Do you want to come?”

The one with the black bones blinked his eyes, before letting a surprise look appear on his face:

“I thought I wasn't supposed to show my face?”

Embarrassed, Nightmare shrugged:

“Well, at this point...”

Ink smiles, waiting to see that Nightmare had finally accepted their friend.

Nyx also had a smile. A smile that was much bigger than usual, which showed the gentle warmth that had embraced his soul:

“Thank you for the offer, but I'm going to turn it down. I still have things to do.”

A little disappointed, the owner grumbled, but pretended not to:

“As you wish. I'll see you later.”

He left the room, followed by Ink who first made a small sign to Nyx.

Remaining alone in his room, the black-boned one held his notebook gently against him. Nightmare and Ink ... he was glad he hadn't made a mistake: those two had a much better side than he thought.

He tidied his things properly in his bag, then put it on his shoulder and looked one last time at the room he had occupied in recent weeks. Yes, he was really glad he had come here ... he was glad he had made a difference, that he had stopped that timeline from going as wrong as his own.

He had one last smile, listening to the distant laughter coming from the kitchen. And as he quietly teleported away from the castle, he couldn't stop his last words from escaping:

“Goodbye, fathers...”

===

Next chapter

You can support me on my Utip or on my Ko-fi account !

===

Credits =

Nightmare -> Joku

Error -> LoverOfPiggies

Ink -> Myebi

Killer -> Rahafwabas

Cross -> Jakei

Dust -> Ask DustTale

#undertale #inkmare #errink #nightkiller #fanfiction #sans #killer #nightmare #horror #dust #bad sanses #ink #error #cross #dreamtale #Guardian Angel

29 notes · View notes

mksc77 · 4 years

Note

Hi! Can I ask for Shandy, fluff, either 5 or 8? :D Thank you! 💜

Thanks so much for the ask, @allons-y--spaceman!

My Sharon is retired (by choice) and says “fuck” every now and then, sorry about it :). She and Andy bought a house a couple of months after the event that didn’t happen.

The canon of Andy being an alcoholic is suspended for purposes of this chapter, and liberties have been taken with characterization, in general.

“Can we stay like this forever?”

After spending the morning cleaning, doing laundry, and starting a couple of large pots of soup, Sharon took a shower and settled on the couch with a mug of tea and her favorite blanket. CNN had been blaring all morning, but she'd heard enough about the administration's incompetence with handling the coronavirus threat to last her a lifetime. It was rainy and gray out, and the silence that fell over the room when she switched the input on the TV was a relief. After a few clicks, the opening credits of the newest version of Little Women were appearing on the screen. She'd seen it in theaters right after Christmas with a few friends, but she wanted to watch it again now that she could do so in sweatpants, wet hair, and no makeup.

Sharon startled when the doorbell rang, but she could tell by the way Poppy lost her shit that it was a delivery. She was generally a friendly dog, but for some reason, there was one FedEx delivery guy that made her go apeshit every time.

"Stop it, Poppy," Sharon sharply reprimanded as she pulled herself off of the couch. Poppy whimpered and gave Sharon the wounded “fine, get yourself killed” look of any loyal dog just trying to protect their human. Sharon opened the front door and waved her thanks to the delivery man before kneeling and dousing the small box with Lysol. Raising two children had cured her of any germophobic tendencies she might’ve had at one time, but she wasn't taking any chances with this coronavirus mess. She saw Andy's car pull up and stop at the mailbox, so she put the box on the kitchen counter, washed her hands, and slipped into a pair of sandals before meeting him in the garage to help him bring in the groceries she'd asked him to stop for. He'd worked a half-day before Major Crimes shut down to work from home, unless they got a case, and Sharon had placed a grocery order that he could pick up without getting out of the car on his way home. Or so she thought. The first thing she saw through the back window was an ungodly amount of toilet paper. "Andy! What the hell?!"

"I know, but we could be stuck at home for a few weeks—"

"So you thought you'd buy a fuck ton of toilet paper?!"

Andy shrugged. "I saw people leaving the store with shopping carts full of it and thought I was missing something, so I went to get more."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "We just got a month's supply from Amazon yesterday, and we still had several packs left then. There will be people who really need it but won't be able to get it because everyone else is panic-buying."

"I didn't think of it like that..." Andy got out and started unloading groceries. Defeated, Sharon joined him.

Once the car was unloaded, groceries were sanitized, and hands were properly washed, Andy got a spoon and went to the stove, practically salivating. He'd picked up lunch for the two of them on the way home, but the aroma of the soup was too good to pass up. Sharon shook her head and took his spoon from him. "Nuh-uh. I'm freezing that in case any of us get sick."

"But..." Andy looked longingly at the large pots on the stove. "There's so much!"

"And we could end up with three sick people here, for all we know. Or some of our neighbors might get sick and need some.”

“I guess,” Andy muttered, sounding much like Rusty had when Sharon had informed him that he wasn’t going anywhere unless it was necessary once he got home from work that afternoon. UCLA was switching to remote lectures soon, and today was his last day going to the office of the law firm he was clerking for before working from home when he could. “Did the kid finally come around on the self-imposed lockdown?” Andy asked, seeming to read her mind.

Sharon nodded. “It took a minute for him to realize that just because he would most likely be okay even if he did get sick, that we might not be so lucky if he brought it home and passed it to us.”

Andy rolled his eyes. “He didn’t understand that it’s not all about him? You’re kidding.”

Once the groceries were put away and the overflow of toilet paper was stashed in the garage, Sharon opened the package that had arrived earlier. It was the Chanel moisturizer she’d been expecting, and she twisted the cap off and sniffed the familiar scent she loved before putting it back on the counter. She was surprised when Andy did the same. She couldn’t quite identify the expression on his face, but she didn’t ask any questions and started unpacking their take-out.

Later that evening, Sharon and Andy were cooking dinner together when Rusty came home. “Nuh-uh, wash your hands, put your clothes in the dry-cleaning hamper, and go take a shower,” Sharon instructed when he started to open the refrigerator.

“This is going to be a long ass few weeks,” Rusty muttered.

Sharon raised an eyebrow. “Would you rather be safe or sorry?”

“I know, I know, you’ve already threatened me multiple times.”

On Sunday Morning, Sharon hummed and snuggled more closely to Andy when she woke up. She hated what was going on, obviously, but she wasn’t complaining about the fact that he wouldn’t have to rush to get up and out of the house in the morning for at least a couple of weeks. She slid one of her legs between his, taking in the lazy, early morning and the soothing sound of rain falling outside. With half-opened eyes, Andy kissed her dead in the eye, probably aiming for her forehead. Sharon put her hands on his cheeks and guided his mouth to hers.

“Starting this quarantine off right, huh?” Andy murmured against her lips when it was evident that she had more than a good-morning kiss on her mind.

Sharon shrugged. “What else is there to do?” And someone’s going to have to convince Poppy to go out in the pouring rain to pee, and it’s not gonna be me.

Later that morning, Sharon and Andy cooked breakfast together. Sharon made bacon and eggs for herself and Rusty, while Andy stuck to healthier things for himself. Rusty stumbled to the coffee pot soon after 10:00 and made a face at the oatmeal Andy was doctoring up. Sharon batted his hand away when he reached for a piece of bacon. “Just a second, everything’s almost ready. Get some plates and glasses out of the cabinet.”

“Fine…Oh, come on, you guys, can’t you keep your paws off of each other for half of a second?!” Rusty whined when Andy grabbed Sharon’s butt as he walked behind her. “Social distancing, please.”

“Sorry, kid…Eh, no I’m not,” Andy replied, grinning at Sharon.

“Forget the coronavirus, I’m going to die from disgust before this is over,” Rusty muttered.

Poppy ambled into the kitchen and lay down at Sharon’s feet under the table while they were eating, having smelled bacon and knowing whom the pushover was. As soon as Sharon felt the dog’s furry weight against her bare feet, she broke off half of a piece of bacon and slipped it under the table when Andy wasn’t looking. He had been the one to find her and bring her home, and he couldn’t figure out how Sharon had managed to become the stray dog’s favorite human, and Sharon planned to keep it that way.

Emily facetimed while they were cleaning up, and Sharon quickly dropped the sponge in her hand and picked up her phone. It had been less than a week since she’d last seen nineteen-month-old Marie, but she was already missing her like crazy.

“Gammy!” Marie exclaimed, reaching her arms toward the phone.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Sharon crooned through the phone. “Gammy misses you so much!”

Andy leaned over Sharon’s shoulder, absently brushing her hair back from her neck. “Hey, wild girl!”

“Poppy!” Marie grinned. Rusty leaned in long enough to say hello before going back to his own phone. Sharon and Emily chatted for a few minutes with Marie piping in with random words here and there.

“You’re in a good mood, Mom,” Emily observed. “You guys taking advantage of the quarantine already?”

A horrified look came over Rusty’s face as their better-than-usual moods and constant looks at each other that morning started to come together. “Ew, Em, I have to live here!”

“Speaking of which, when are you going to tell us about your new boyfriend?” Emily barreled on.

“What?” Sharon looked at Rusty, whose expression had turned to panic. “What boyfriend?!” Rusty was frozen, unable to speak. Sharon looked back at Emily through her phone. “How did you know?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Speaking of good moods, he’s actually had a few recently, and he’s suddenly been guarding his phone like Fort Knox. My guess would be his ‘friend’ Logan that he used to talk about all the time, but hasn’t mentioned at all in a few weeks, probably to keep us from getting suspicious. It’s not rocket science.”

Sharon looked at Rusty. “Is this true?”

“Fine, but we are not playing twenty questions. I’ll tell you what I want to when I want to.”

“Of course we won’t—“ Sharon started.

“Hold on, Mom, I didn’t agree to this,” Emily interrupted. “Now that the cat’s out of the bag—“

“I’m leaving now.” Rusty went to the living room and started flipping through the channels on the TV.

“Poppy?” Marie asked, obviously wanting to see the dog, this time. She had unintentionally named the dog with her toddler-tongue of “Papa” the day Andy found her and begged Sharon to keep her. Sharon tilted her phone under the table to show the dog long enough for the toddler to be satisfied.

Sharon ended the call a few minutes later, and she and Andy finished cleaning the kitchen. With a refilled coffee mug, Sharon curled up in the recliner and logged in to Emily’s facebook account on her computer. St. Joseph’s was live-streaming mass for the time being, and she was enjoying being able to watch it in the comfort of her pajamas and not having to go out in the pouring rain. The familiar scene of the sanctuary and the recorded piano music playing It Is Well With My Soul filled her with comfort.

“You know, some people would take the break from mass obligation as an actual break,” Andy commented as he squeezed in the chair beside her.

“Oh, right, I should go ahead and tithe,” Sharon murmured in response to Father Stan’s reminder of remote methods of doing so, ignoring Andy. She opened her bank app on her phone and transferred her monthly commitment. When the service was over, she shut down her computer and rested on Andy’s shoulder. Rusty had found How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, one of her favorites, on TV.

“Since when do you like chick flicks?” Andy whined in Rusty’s direction.

“I don’t, but Matthew McConaughey takes his shirt off a lot in this movie,” Rusty explained.

“Indeed, he does,” Sharon agreed dreamily. “Ooh, Rusty, have you seen A Time to Kill? Mississippi summer, no air conditioning. Talk about taking his shirt off.”

Rusty’s eyes widened. “No, but that’s next!”

“Oh good god,” Andy grumbled.

Sharon gave him an innocent look. “What? That’s not a chick flick. Compromise. Ashley Judd doesn’t look so bad in that movie, either.”

“Oh, yeah...I’m okay with that compromise.”

The first week or so of quarantine went by fairly smoothly, but after over two weeks of captivity, tensions were rising. Andy was working from home, but even the paperwork had slowed down a bit, and having both him and Rusty underfoot all day was definitely taking some getting used to for Sharon. Even though she was retired, she was usually gone a good bit during the week with volunteer commitments, doing things at church, and seeing friends and Emily’s family. Being at home around the clock, especially with a needy, whiny husband and son, was a new experience that she didn’t care much for.

“Andy, I closed the door for a reason,” Sharon said, exasperated, when Andy followed her into the bathroom one Wednesday afternoon. Her annoyance rose when she spotted an empty toilet paper roll beside the toilet and a fresh roll on the back of it. Was an inability to replace the damn toilet paper roll built into the DNA of men? It drove her insane. “But, while we’re in here, how about a teaching moment? When you use the last of the toilet paper, the new roll goes here,” she explained. “Not the back of the toilet.”

“I know, I know, you tell me all the time!”

“Well, it obviously bears repeating!”

A few minutes later, Sharon got her Yeti out of the cabinet and made a margarita. One of her friends in the neighborhood had had the idea for them to take chairs to the ends of their driveways so they could see each other and talk without being exposed to one another, and seeing another human being in person who didn’t have a penis was long overdue.

“What—oh, yeah, I forgot you guys were having a little hen party this afternoon,” Andy commented as Sharon sprinkled margarita salt over the top of her drink. “And what is the purpose of this again?”

“Mo-om, I need to go to the store. We’re out of potato chips,” Rusty complained from the pantry. He’d been trying his hardest to find any excuse to leave the house for the last few days.

“Those aren’t a necessity, Rusty, and I’ll get some next time I have groceries delivered,” Sharon answered calmly. She gave Andy a pointed look. “What were you asking me, again? Come on, Poppy, we girls have to stick together.” Poppy looked lazily at her from where she was lying down near the window, soaking in the warm sunlight, but she scrambled to her feet when she saw her leash in Sharon’s hand. Sharon hooked the leash to her collar. “Want to go outside for a little bit?” Poppy barked excitedly and wagged her tail. Sharon kissed Andy on the lips and Rusty on the cheek. “Love you guys.”

Sharon was a few minutes ahead of the scheduled time by the time she pulled a tailgate-style chair to the end of the driveway, but she was going to lose her mind if she stayed inside for another second. Apparently, everyone else was in the same boat, as the other five had already started to gather. Sharon situated the handle of Poppy’s leash under her chair and greeted everyone before sitting down. She’d used the long leash so the dog could roam around the yard. A couple of drinks and a long conversation full of laughs later, her mood had lifted considerably. Which was a good thing, because as she approached the garage with Poppy, she saw that the dog had engaged in a toilet paper massacre at some point while they were outside. Bits of plastic wrapping and toilet paper were everywhere. “Poppy!” Sharon chastised. The dog looked up at her with the saddest of innocent puppy eyes. “Oh, no you don’t, those puppy eyes are not going to work on me…Oh, god, who am I kidding?” Sharon patted the top of her head and let her into the house.

Hearing the commotion, Andy came to the garage door. “What—what the hell happened? Were you not watching her?”

Sharon rolled her eyes. “As long as she wasn’t near the road and I could hear her and had an idea of where she was, no, I didn’t keep my eyes glued to her every second. This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t decided we needed to equip ourselves with toilet paper for the next twelve years.”

“Don’t try to pin this on me—never mind, it doesn’t matter. Hey, kid!” Andy called into the house. “You were just complaining about being bored, so we thought we’d help you out a bit.” Andy got some trash bags from a shelf in the garage and separated a couple for him and Sharon.

Rusty appeared in the doorway to the garage. ‘Wha—okay, this is not what I had in mind. Whose idea was it to get a dog again?”

After dinner a few days later, Sharon went out to the porch with her computer and a glass of wine. She’d cooked dinner, so she’d left the responsibility of cleaning the kitchen to Andy and Rusty. One of her nieces had gotten the idea to do a family video chat on Zoom after having to use it for work a couple of times, and while Sharon had been talking to other members of her family on the phone and FaceTiming a lot more than usual lately, she was excited to “see” everyone at once. It took a few minutes to talk some of the technologically challenged ones through getting connected and switching to video, but before long, her siblings and their spouses and children were looking back at her. Being in isolation was particularly problematic for such a loud bunch, and it took a few minutes of talking over one another just to get the greetings out of the way.

When Sharon saw Rusty join the chat, probably from his computer in his room, she knew Andy would be out soon. Sure enough, he appeared a couple of minutes later with a fresh glass of wine in his hand. “Thought you might need a refill.”

“You read my mind.” Sharon finished the last sip of her glass and placed it on the table in front of the swing before taking the other glass from Andy. “This is why I married you.”

“I knew there had to be a reason.” Andy kissed the side of her head.

“Whoa, now, we clearly should’ve set some ground rules,” Sharon’s niece spoke up. “Rule number one, don’t be nauseating.”

“Good luck with that,” Rusty retorted. “They’re either at each other’s throats or being gross. There is no in-between.”

The next afternoon, Sharon and Andy took Poppy for a walk around the neighborhood. As they approached their driveway on the way back, they heard the garage door from the house across the street open. They didn’t think much of it until they heard hysterical laughter. “What just happened?” Sharon called to their neighbors.

Becky held up a Corona beer can. “Our daughter was telling us about some video she saw somewhere—the youtube, the twitter, I don’t know—but anyway, you put a Corona beer in the hooks inside of your garage door, then hit the switch to open the door. As the door goes up and back along the ceiling, the beer will be upside down, so you follow it and chug it. We joked about trying it, and our daughter laughed at us, so we had to it for real.” Becky shrugged. “We’re bored out of our minds, and that was actually pretty fun.”

Sharon shrieked with laughter, but Andy gave her a look. “Don’t you get any ideas.”

“Too late.” Sharon waved to their neighbors before they headed back to the house. Andy didn’t drink that much, but, ironically, he would drink a Corona or two every now and then at the beach or a hot afternoon by the pool. He drank just often enough for them to keep a stash in the garage refrigerator, a habit he was starting to rethink.

Sharon pressed the button to close the garage door before getting two beer cans out of the refrigerator. “Sharon, really—“

“Oh, come on, Andy, it’ll be fun! You have to admit we’re running low on entertainment around here.”

“Oh, all right.”

Once the beer cans were in position and popped open, Sharon pressed the button again to make the door rise and got in position. She got a little on her face, but her beer-chugging skills from college came right back to her, like riding a bike.

Andy, on the other hand, didn’t fare so well. He coughed and sputtered as more got on his face than in his mouth, and he lost his footing and hit the ground as the last bit poured onto his face. Sharon caught the last bit of hers in her mouth before looking down at Andy. “Are you okay?” She managed to get out through choked-back laughs. As soon as he nodded, she stopped trying to hold it back and started laughing hysterically.

Andy glared at her as he stood up, rubbing his now-sore ass. Her side of the “Corona Challenge” was mostly dry, as was her face. “Wait, how did you do that? You didn’t spill hardly any!”

Sharon shrugged. “You didn’t know you were married to the kegstand queen of Theta? You have to open your throat, did you never chug beer in college?”

Andy shook his head. “Not much. I tried a couple of times when everyone else was doing it, but I could never get it right…” He gave Sharon a leering look. “I would love to see you do a kegstand. Open your throat, huh? That actually explains a lot.”

Sharon lightly jabbed him in the side. “Andy!”

The next morning, Andy was still sleeping when Sharon slipped out of bed. It was a little chilly out, but she needed some fresh air. After changing into leggings and a sweatshirt, she brushed her teeth and looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn’t as diligent about staying ahead of her roots since she’d retired, and last week’s canceled salon appointment had been disastrous for her hair. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d put on makeup, but she was still adhering to her morning and nightly skincare regimen. As she applied moisturizer, she put more than usual on her chin, as her skin was irritated from Andy’s failure to shave every day. With a mug of coffee, her book, and her favorite blanket in hand, she went to the back porch and settled in the swing with her favorite playlist playing from her phone.

A little over an hour later, Andy came out to join her. She smiled at him and marked her place in her book as he got comfortable in the swing beside her. He’d been annoying the hell out of her for much of the last week or so, but she loved his disheveled and sleepy state when he had just woken up. She extended the blanket to him and lay on his shoulder. “Morning.”

“Morning.” Andy lowered his forehead to hers and inhaled the scent of her moisturizer. “I love the smell of that cream or whatever…Did I ever tell you about why I kept that stuff after…well, after all of the Stroh stuff?” Even a couple of years later, he still couldn’t refer to her as being dead, even though it had been a ruse.

Sharon shook her head. “I do remember being surprised that my makeup and clothes and everything were still there. I was dreading having to replace it all and getting a new phone and everything, but it was all still right there waiting for me.”

Andy nodded. “Yeah…I couldn’t get rid of it. Every night when I thought you were gone, I would smell that tube and call your phone to listen to your voicemail. I couldn’t face life without you, and that was the closest I could get to you. Same with your clothes. Having enough closet space for once would’ve been unbearable, so I left everything where it was. I would’ve done something about all of it eventually, but thank god I didn’t have to.”

“Andy…” Sharon cupped his cheek with her hand and kissed him. “I’m sorry it had to be done that way, but if—“

“I know,” Andy assured her. “We could’ve messed something up and tipped off Stroh if we’d known you weren’t really dead. You were right, the fewer people involved, the better.” They sat in silence for the next couple of minutes, listening to the music from Sharon’s phone.

Don't you worry

Sometimes you've just gotta let it ride

The world is changing

Right before your eyes

Now I've found you

There's no more emptiness inside

When we're hungry, love will keep us alive

I would die for you

Climb the highest mountain

Baby, there's nothing I wouldn't do

Andy kissed the top of her head and pulled her closer to him. “Can we stay like this forever?”

“Hmm, fine with me.” Sharon nuzzled into his shoulder. “And if people don’t stop being dumbasses and going out when it’s not necessary, then we just might have to.”

This refers to a hastily-written “story” I wrote right after what didn’t happen—a lot of you probably missed it, but you just need to know that Sharon faked her death to keep Stroh from going after Emily or Ricky to distract her (we already know they thought he was after Rusty), and also so Stroh wouldn’t consider her when he was using his m.o. of spreading the LAPD too thin and she could be an extra body if backup were needed.

The part with It Is Well With My Soul came from M’s twitter, and the part about the roots didn’t--I was already planning to include that before I saw her video :)

Hope y’all liked it!

#Major Crimes #major crimes fanfiction #shandy #mikuscfanfic

26 notes · View notes

rosalind-of-arden · 4 years

Text

Sword and Pen Reread, chapter 16

Time for things to get stabby! Long post. Some discussion of a canon torture incident (y’all know which one).

We left off last chapter with Dario making his dramatic entrance. We pick up here with Wolfe lecturing Jess, Morgan talking to Dario, and Glain sending Codex messages. Who is Glain messaging? Her squad? Santi? Khalila?

Jess admits he’s dying, and Wolfe shows a flash of emotion - Jess can’t tell if it’s anguish or anger. I think Wolfe is seeing himself in Jess here. Jess’s “Getting killed for something worthwhile is better than dying alone” echoes Wolfe’s death letter from Ash and Quill: “I hope I died for something, as I lived for it.” Wolfe in Smoke and Iron, too; he’s not afraid to go into the Colosseum and probably die fighting, but the thought of dying slowly and helplessly in prison terrifies him. He understands exactly what Jess is thinking, and that hurts.

Why did I go back and reread that whole letter? There’s something in my eye now.

Second page of the chapter, here’s Jess thinking that his friends have made him a better person, while his family’s influence makes him worse. His impulse to kill the Archivist comes from his family, and he expects his friends would disapprove. Interesting parallel with Dario later in the chapter.

Wolfe’s discomfort with violence again? He neither agrees nor disagrees with Jess’s argument about killing the Archivist. He just shakes his head and gets on with the scheming.

But this isn’t just a moral “is it ok to kill the Archivist” thing, necessarily. For Wolfe, especially, there might be a lot of vindication in seeing the Archivist formally and publicly accused and tried for his crimes. Obviously, he’s not going to admit that outright, but it could very well influence his stance on what to do with the Archivist (and co-conspirators).

And why isn’t Wolfe getting into this argument with Jess? He knows how much vengeance means to Jess. With Jess dying, Wolfe doesn’t want to have an argument that would hurt Jess unless it’s absolutely necessary. Wolfe might also know just how much of the “we need to kill the bastard” talk is emotion talking, too. After all, in the end, Jess is surprisingly compassionate toward the dying Archivist. And Jess wasn’t completely on board with assassination when Anit first brought it up earlier in the book, either. If anyone can recognize angry bluster, it would be Wolfe. Echoes there of Wolfe in Ash and Quill telling Jess how well he knows him.

Wolfe goes to talk to Glain and Dario (there’s the planning team), leaving Morgan with Jess. He’s giving those two a private moment - does he know they broke up? Probably not? But also, keeping his distance from Morgan after the energy draining incident?

Morgan and Jess, bonding over their mutual decisions to sacrifice themselves for the people and cause they care about.

Dario’s first response to being asked to lure the Archivist into a trap: “I’ve had enough of intrigue.” He’s still deeply hurt by the betrayal. He doesn’t want to do anything like that again. But here’s Glain trying to talk him into it. What message is Dario getting here? That his friends need him to be a bad person. Ouch. Guess what this pushes Dario toward?

Lose Wolfe’s trust, never get it back. He immediately and aggressively rejects the idea of working with Callum because he expects Callum to betray them. Very similar to his reaction to trusting Zara again in Ash and Quill.

Dad Wolfe holds Jess up when Jess just about collapses coughing. Wolfe’s hands are shaking while he holds Jess, which is interesting, since that’s always been a PTSD thing for Wolfe up until now.

Wolfe very much wants to be there to catch the Archivist.

Dad Wolfe, quietly checking in with Jess: “He glanced at Jess, just briefly, but Jess understood that to mean something.” This is a nice moment of understanding between these two. There’s the nonverbal communication, which itself shows how well they understand each other. But then there’s Wolfe, knowing very well that Jess might not want his vulnerability openly acknowledged, keeping this little check-in quiet. Jess does choose to explain, but Wolfe’s not demanding that. I suspect he would have accepted just a nod.

Jess says he got a new mask and stronger meds “on the way out”. Intercepted by a Medica? (Medica: ugh, you’re all impossible. Fine, have meds if you’re going to insist on sneaking out.) Or lying?

Magic ring restrictions: no harming anyone unless they’re harming the wearer first, no taking away choices from people.

“My clever father,” Wolfe muttered. “Trust Eskander to find yet another way to make this more difficult.” At this point, Wolfe’s talked to Eskander what, once? On page, at least. And hasn’t exactly had a lot of opportunities for off-page conversations. So where is this coming from? Keria, I’m guessing. Wolfe doesn’t know his father, but I’ll bet he heard plenty about Eskander from his mother, whose view would be... biased, to say the least. Rumors from the Archivist and Artifex, too, maybe - he might have been close enough to either of them in the past to hear them griping about Eskander making trouble in the Iron Tower.

Dario-Wolfe parallels: Wolfe doesn’t want to die in a graveyard because that’s embarrassing, Dario doesn’t want to die like a commoner.

“We’ll make sure everyone knows how royally you bled to death.” Glain gets all the best lines.

Also, though. Here’s Dario saying he doesn’t want to kill the Archivist. He says it’s because he doesn’t want to be killed in revenge for that, but is that it? Or is this another hint at conflicted morality? Or devotion to Khalila, knowing she definitely wants a fair trial?

“Their old dormitory must have contained postulants for the upcoming year.” So, by my guess, this is happening in November. I really, really cannot think of a way this could be happening at the beginning of the school year. It would be hard, even, to push the date into December and say Jess means the new year not school year. So... Alexandria isn’t using the same calendar as us? (Where would that be on the ancient Egyptian/Greek calendar?) Or the Library starts school years irregularly? Or Jess is just out of it and not thinking that this group of postulants would already be pretty far into the program. Eh, let’s go with that. Jess is unreliable.

More Dad Wolfe moments: playful slaps on the head for Jess and Dario. @thegreatlibraryfangirl this is it. The closest thing to a sweet dad moment Dario gets.

I’m kind of sad we don’t get any more Morgan POV. I’d like to know how she’s feeling about Jess when she hugs him here. Questioning her feelings again? Wanting to part on good terms? Just needing a bit of physical comfort and knowing he’ll give it?

So did Callum really set the trap like Jess asked? Or did Callum actually tip the Archivist off, leading the Archivist to send the Elites? I can see him playing both sides.

Also, is this happening before or after Zara shoots the Archivist? Who knows.

““Any last words, Scholar? I’ll be happy to record them and add them to your journal... Oh, sorry, the Archivist has ordered your journals burned.” That’s just vicious. The Archivist didn’t just send his captain to kill Wolfe, he sent him to taunt Wolfe with an extremely sensitive subject first.

Ok, ok, another tiny little Wolfe-Dario moment: “I don’t have followers [...] Do I?” “No, sir [...] I’m afraid not. You’re too unlikable.” So we have some very small signs of affection between Wolfe and Dario, but they’re wrapped up in mock hostility. Fitting for both of them, since neither likes to show emotion or vulnerability, but still. Poor Dario.

“Make it between adults, if you can manage that.” Wolfe, snarking at gunpoint again. And trying to draw the enemy off the kids. (Unconventional patronus/animagus/daemon for Wolfe: a fucking killdeer.)

Interesting parallel here between Wolfe and Morgan tricking the Elites with Morgan’s illusion and Wolfe and Khalila in the Welsh general’s tent. Wolfe and kid tag teaming an enemy. But also parallels with the Philadelphia planning - once again, Wolfe and Morgan plan to save everyone at the cost of overusing Morgan’s power.

Wolfe tries to spare the Elites’ lives, but when he fails at that, he doesn’t hesitate to shoot the captain. But that’s while the captain is still grappling with Jess and Dario. Once the captain surrenders, Wolfe won’t shoot. How much of Wolfe’s thinking on when it’s ok to kill someone is influenced by all his work with Santi in war zones? This seems like a very military code of conduct. Give the enemy a chance to surrender, fight if he doesn’t, stop when he does.

So, the stabbing. It’s easy to see how Dario gets here. He’s spent the whole series characterizing himself as ruthless and willing to make hard choices, and in this book he’s just been told by the people he cares about that he can only help them by doing the dirty work. Over and over, he feels bad about what he has to do (or thinks he has to do), and over and over, he’s told it’s the only way. Add in whatever fucked up family backstory, and this is where he ends up.

This actually reminds me a bit of what @eli-wray said about Jess and Dario’s plan in Ash and Quill. This is an act of self sacrifice for Dario, much like that plan. He’s doing something he feels is wrong but necessary so that other characters don’t have to. In Dario’s view, the only way to get the information is to torture the captain, and his friends are good people so they shouldn’t have to do it. He’ll be the bad one for them.

“I want this to be done, for all our sakes.” Here’s Dario’s main motivation. Dario is tired of this fight. He was tired of it after betraying Spain. He was tired of it at the start of this chapter. Dario just wants to get all of this over with.

Dario’s grinning and threats have Jess freaked out, but we already know Dario is a good actor. I don’t think he’s having as much fun as he pretends he is. Will he feel as bad about this as the betrayal? No. But this is definitely adding to the list of reasons Dario does not think of himself as a good person or worthy of Khalila.

And where does Dario’s act fall apart? It cracks a bit when Wolfe asks him to stop, and he sounds more exhausted and frustrated than gleefully murderous. It shatters when he learns Khalila’s in danger. Genuinely murderous Dario isn’t grinning or taunting anyone. He’s just putting the knife right in the captain’s heart.

Anyway, enough Dario. I’m supposed to be rambling about Wolfe here. So, for obvious reasons, this isn’t going to be comfortable for Wolfe to watch. Jess is oblivious as usual, but we get a couple hints. First, Wolfe’s dialogue. We get “Dario, stop”, then nothing until he checks on Jess as they leave. Short sentences, basic word choices. Twice, Jess notes that “not even Wolfe” said anything. Wolfe gets quiet when he’s triggered. And then there’s the “bleak look in the Scholar’s eyes” at the end of the chapter. There’s more than enough to cause that - Khalila is in danger, Jess and Morgan are dying - but trauma is another cause. Pretty sure his expression has been described as “bleak” before when he’s triggered and/or remembering Rome. This is far from the worst trauma response Wolfe has had, but he’s definitely uncomfortable.

Wolfe might have more pragmatic reasons to object, too. He’s been tortured himself. He probably has a pretty good idea of how likely the captain is to give them true and useful information. This may not even be his first time in this kind of situation - there were those 10 war zones, after all. And sure enough, while the captain does point everyone in sort of the right direction, what he says is as much a taunt as an answer, and it’s leaving out quite a bit - possibly, the captain didn’t even know about the final plan to destroy the Archives. Wolfe would probably expect those problems. Dario doesn’t.

#the great library #sword and pen reread #sword and pen spoilers #canon torture #stabbing

1 note · View note

fullmetalscullyy · 4 years

Text

day 5 - the cowboy’s christmas ball | the killers

the magic of christmas time - royai advent calender

24 days - 24 oneshots | with angst, fluff, and everything in between | both canon and au

a collection of christmas themed oneshots to celebrate royai | chapter prompts based on my favourite christmas songs

read on ao3

and the music started sighin', an' awailin' through the hall

it was there that i attended "the cowboys' christmas ball"

Roy tipped his hat in greeting at the man at standing by the door. In return, he tipped his own and greeted Roy with a joyful “howdy” before moving onto the next person, shooting a grin at everyone who entered the old barn.

Glancing up as he entered, Roy spotted decorations hanging from the rafters above, dangling down over their heads. Candles lined the walls, their flames flickering in the cool evening breeze of the east. Even at this time of year it was warm due to the proximity of the desert across the border. Tinsel and paper fluttered however their crinkling was drowned out by the lively band at the other end of the barn. There was no singing in their songs, but the banjo, fiddle, and drums would have blocked out the singer anyway with their cheery, upbeat tune. The dancers in the middle of the dancefloor gave it their all, moving effortlessly in time to the beat, obviously used to dancing this one. Their feet thumped in time on the wooden floor beneath them. This song appeared to be a regular at events like this, because everyone was in time and didn’t miss a beat.

Easing himself through the throng, Roy approached the bar and tipped his hat in greeting.

“Howdy,” the barman shot him an easy grin, placing the glass he’d been cleaning on top of the bar and tapping it once, silently asking what Roy would like. His country drawl settled over Roy like a comfort.

“Beer, please,” Roy replied.

The man looked slightly taken aback, then nodded and chuckled at his own private joke. “Apologies, sir. I was surprised by the manners. We don’t get a lot of that ‘round these parts.” Roy shrugged. It wasn’t the first time that had happened to him today. “You from the city?”

Roy nodded. “Yeah, Central.”

The man whistled lowly, apparently impressed. “I bet this is a far cry from what you’re used to, huh?”

“It is,” Roy agreed, turning to glance around the room. Someone caught his eye and Roy grinned to himself. “However, I have a good person looking out for me,” he reassured the barman, turning back to collect his drink.

“That’s a mighty fine idea, if I do say so myself. The east can be a wild place. You’ll find none of that trouble here, but it’s good to have someone lookin’ out for ya.”

“Thank you.” Roy lifted his glass in thanks and nodded to the man. He tipped his hat in return and the two parted ways.

The dancing continued around them, the dancers becoming more animated and enthusiastic as the music reached a crescendo. Everyone froze expertly in time when the music paused, finally hitting its peak, then the music continued at its initial, much slower pace. It was an incredible thing to watch. The way they were all in sync and with wide grins on their faces. It was much different from the waltz in Central, and it was refreshing. This was more freeing, and Roy thought he’d take this kind of dancing over waltzing any day.

“Hello, darlin’,” he greeted, taking a seat at one of the long tables stretching around the outskirts of the barn.

Riza Hawkeye turned to face him with a wide grin. “Howdy, partner.”

Roy chuckled and took a swig of his beer. “So, what brings a pretty girl like you here tonight, all alone? Surely you have a fine young man on the way to meet you?”

Riza rolled her eyes and Roy laughed at her response. He’d never been good at “cowboying it up”, as Havoc called it.

“No, there’s no man I need to wait on,” she stated firmly. “I got nothing from the informant,” she stated. Ah, so business it was. Roy was slightly disheartened. He thought the man he’d sent her to meet would know at least something about their quarry, but apparently not.

“That’s interesting,” Roy stated, pondering over what she’d said. He shifted closed, placing an arm around her shoulders as they sat and watched the dancers. Roy’s foot tapped in time with the music. “The group were here.” His announcement was quiet, Roy finally dropping the act he’d crafted for the locals here.

“He confirmed it?” Roy’s informant had been the barman. They’d conversed back and forth throughout the week, and at the man’s insistence, they’d come to this “Christmas Ball” in the middle of nowhere to scope the situation out. However, it was a good decision, because the atmosphere was electric and Roy was thoroughly enjoying himself, despite only being here about half an hour.

Roy nodded, tipping his head closer to Riza so they wouldn’t be overheard. It wasn’t likely, but it meant he was close enough now that he could smell the lavender of her shampoo and that wasn’t an opportunity he was going to pass up. “They’re in the area,” Roy added, his voice a murmur in her ear. Minutely, her spine straightened, and her shoulders tensed as a reaction to it, and Roy smiled to himself now she could no longer see it. “I don’t know where, but they’re definitely “around these parts”.”

Riza snorted as he put on an eastern twang just for that last part. “I see you’ve been sucking up the culture of the place.”

Roy pulled away and didn’t hide his grin this time. He shrugged. “It has a certain charm to it,” he replied, not tearing his eyes away from her for a second. Riza’s cheeks turned pink slightly and she looked away as he took another swig of his beer. She knew well enough he was talking about her. Since moving to Central she’d lost her own twang, but it came out every now and again and Roy loved those moments.

“They seem to be dangerous though. He said it’s good I have someone looking out for me.”

“Well, that’s a given, sir,” she stated.

“I’m glad,” he grinned, taking another drink.

They’d gathered the intel they needed for the night, so that meant the two were free to enjoy the rest of the soiree as they saw fit. They had to blend in, after all, and that would require dancing. Roy couldn’t wait.

As he scanned the barn, he couldn’t help but notice the large banner hanging on the wall behind the band. “I must say, I’d never heard of a “Cowboys’ Christmas Ball” before this trip.”

Riza shrugged. “I think nowadays its run to attract tourism to the area – a real treat of the old eastern ways. It’s very authentic though, I must say.”

“You went to things like this as a kid?”

Riza nodded and smiled. “With my mother, yes, they were a staple of the east. I used to dance with her by standing on her feet.” Roy chuckled at that image, finding it positively adorable. “They fizzled out in frequency, if I remember correctly, so we stopped going, but I know here in this town they do one every Christmas and have done for decades. It’s the longest running Christmas Ball and quite a famous event in the east. Plus, it just adds to the spirit of Christmas.”

“I quite like it, if I’m being honest. The spurs are kind of annoying,” he added, looking down at the boots he’d bought from a fancy-dress shop in Central before arriving. It was the only place in the city that stocked those boots. “But this is something I could get used it,” he grinned.

Riza snorted. “I’ve seen you on a horse.”

He’d fallen flat on his ass the first time he’d ridden one. “I could still get used to it. I don’t need to be a cowboy who rides a horse.”

“That’s kind of the whole point,” Riza replied.

Roy shrugged. “Eh, when have I ever let something like that beat me?” he winked. Riza just rolled her eyes. “Yeehaw, Riza.”

She snorted again, but this time her eyes widened, as if she hadn’t expected it. “I never thought I’d hear those words coming out of your mouth, yet here we are.”

“See? I’d crush it.”

“Sure,” she replied, seeming very convinced. Roy chuckled and noticed as her smile never dropped as a new song kicked up. Instead it grew wider as she observed the dancers

Roy’s smile turned crooked as he observed her. “You really love this stuff, don’t you?”

A wistful smile overtook her face. “It reminds me of my mother.”

Roy placed his beer on the table behind him, then stood, extending his hand. “A dance, darlin’?”

Riza smiled at him and gripped his hand tightly as she stood. “I’d love to.”

He spun her onto the dancefloor and Riza laughed at the unexpected move, sounding so carefree Roy almost stuttered to a stop. Catching himself, he grinned and threw himself into the dance with Riza. He was not as coordinated as her, she was an expert at line dancing, however, Roy quickly picked it up. They laughed together throughout the night and it reminded him of how they were as kids.

Young and carefree.

Happy.

#royai #royai fanfic #royai fic #the magic of christmas time #royai advent calendar #emma writes

12 notes · View notes

sage-nebula · 5 years

Text

Astral Chain - Howard Twins Headcanons

As I usually do when I play video games, I came up with headcanons and fleshed out the narrative / scenes in my head as I played through Astral Chain. I’m thinking about putting all of those ideas into a fic that’s something of a novelization of the story (albeit with some canon divergences, deeper explorations of relationships, and lots of flashbacks to the past), but until I do that, I figured I’d jot down some headcanons I have for the twins that would absolutely play into anything I decided to write for them, both serious and trivial.

With that said . . .

- - -

Their names are Maki and Akira. Maki is the girl, Akira is the boy.

Max is the one who named them, because their father was nowhere to be seen when he found them, and their mother redshifted into an aberration minutes after they were born. That said, it took him a while to come up with names for them; for the first week and a half he referred to them as “Girl Baby” and “Boy Baby” respectively.

That said, he did put legitimate thought into their names. When he got a chance he went through baby name sites to try to find Japanese names, and ultimately picked their names based on what they (the twins) meant to him. He chose “Akira” because the site he found said it meant “shining; bright.” He chose “Maki” because the site he found said it meant “truth; hope.” He later learned that Japanese names can mean many different things depending on the kanji chosen for them (and that he hadn’t chosen any kanji at all because he couldn’t read it), but he decided to keep the names anyway because he liked the sound of them, particularly since they subtly matched (Maki, Akira).

He actually doesn’t know which one was born first, but just decided it was Maki after being asked one too many times by strangers and flipping a coin to decide on an answer.

Maki’s hair is naturally light bluish-silver, and her eyes are naturally purple. No one knows if this is due to genes on one parent’s side or another, or if this is due to the red matter she and Akira soaked up while in the womb. Max would rather smash skulls than let scientists find out.

Maki is also naturally near-sighted, which gives way to needing vision correction. She usually wears glasses, but does have a pair of brown contacts---the same color as Akira’s---that she uses sometimes as well. She used these and black hair dye when she took the police academy entrance exams to make a better impression on those testing her, not wanting to be looked upon as a delinquent and have that affect her scores. Once accepted, she went back to her natural hair color / showed her natural eye color, knowing they couldn’t (or rather, wouldn’t) exactly boot her out so long as she kept her performance up.

Akira’s eyesight is perfect, as are his other senses. Darker hair and eyes also speak to dominant genes. These things always made Akira subconsciously think he was stronger than his sister, which is part of what caused such a shock to his system when she could fully control her Legion while he lost control of his.

On a lighter note, Maki and Akira have always considered the other to be their best friend, and were always open and unashamed about this fact. Obviously, things took a turn for the very strained and bad once they both came to Neuron.

That said, when they fought, they fought; neither has ever held anything back from each other and shouting matches could get intense. They always forgave each other, but there were times when Max had to separate them for his own sanity and eardrums.

Like most people, Akira cried when he was born. Maki did not. In his defense, Akira was also nearly killed by his aberration mother shortly after being born, so.

To that end, Akira has always been something of an easy crier, as well as loudly expressive of his emotions. Maki cries less easily, and is quieter about how she feels, though no less expressive if you look at her (and even with how quiet she is, she can be pushed---see the reference to the shouting matches above).

Akira is more impulsive, whereas Maki takes more time to think. However, Akira places far more importance in following rules and regulations, whereas Maki prefers to ask forgiveness rather than permission (and even then, does not always ask forgiveness if she doesn’t care whether the other person forgives her or not; this is the case with Yoseph after everything in Zone 09 and how she’s thrown in jail, for instance).

To that end, while Maki does look up to and respect Max a great deal, she didn’t feel it was strictly necessary to become a cop to save people, and signed up partially because Akira was signing up and she wanted to watch out for him as his partner on the field. This is why she goes along with things like trying to fight a chimera even though Max said not to (because she doesn’t want Akira to get hurt / killed), and also why she doesn’t really mind being a fugitive once Yoseph declares her one.

Maki’s favorite colors are blue and purple; Akira’s favorite color is red; and Max’s favorite color is green.

Maki is asexual with an ambiguous romantic orientation; she doesn’t think gender really plays a part in who she develops feelings for at all, but she does develop feelings for Hal and he’s a cyborg who interacts with her through a drone 99.9% of the time, so. There’s that.

Akira is gay, but he’s been so laser-focused on becoming an officer for so long that he’s never realized / recognized his attraction to anyone before, much less thought about a relationship. When he does develop a crush on someone, he’s caught so off-guard and becomes so flustered that he’s more likely to pull a “get out of my precinct” than anything else. When Maki notices, she tries to help him be less of a disaster about it (and when he realizes that’s what she’s doing, he points out that she’s dating a cyborg who interacts with her primarily through drone and so she’s not exactly an expert on this, which is when she points out that he just told his crush to get out of HQ via handwritten note, which is when Olive overhears this and decides to give both of the disasters some guidance (”or,” she says, “at least Akira, because at least he’s got better taste than Hal”).

While Akira is more impulsive, Maki is the one more likely to jump to practical violence faster, e.g. knocking out guards instead of trying to sneak past them, punching someone in the face for making fun of her brother when they were younger, et cetera. Part of this can be seen in how Akira prefers to fight from a distance with ammunition, whereas Maki prefers to get up close and personal to hit things.

Once they became officers, Alicia made a comment along the lines of, “Guess your sister prefers the short staff because of her eyesight, huh?” to Akira, to which he replied, “I think she just likes to hit things and get it over with.” Later, when Alicia brought up her theory to Maki (saying she’d mentioned it to Akira), Maki shrugged and said, “Eh, I just like to hit things and get it over with.” Akira’s grin was so smug.

Maki loves ice cream; it’s a huge vice and weakness. Akira prefers cake, and keeps little snack cakes in his locker at HQ.

Consequently, their birthday cakes were always ice cream cakes.

Although they’re not identical and couldn’t pass for one another, they used to always swap and wear each other’s clothes growing up, and even now that they’re adults Maki still has no qualms about “borrowing” one of Akira’s sweatshirts or jackets (and he really doesn’t care if she does).

Max took extra care to never make one of them think the other was the favorite. Whenever he praised one for something, he found something else to praise the other for, and so forth. Any time it seemed like there might be a hint of competition for his attention or affection between them, he shut it down real quick by giving attention and affection to both at the same time.

Akira was always quietly envious of Maki’s ability to seemingly always remain cool and level-headed in tense situations; Maki was always quietly envious of Akira’s ability to quickly be open with and befriend strangers.

Akira is very ticklish in his sides and whenever he would get too wrapped up in trying to appear mature and Definitely Ready to Save the World, Maki would tickle him there to bring him back down to earth. Obviously, it wasn’t really possible to fix things this way once they got to Neuron.

When they were kids and Max had them out shopping or for errands and they’d get too rambunctious, he’d tell them, “stealth mode, eyes up.” Thinking this was part of Hero Training™, they’d serious up very quick and be much more manageable for the rest of the trip.

“Eyes up” is the Howard way of saying, “stay safe; take care” whenever separating.

Maki tries to keep Akira out of (life-threatening) danger; Akira tries to keep Maki out of (serious) trouble. As demonstrated by everything that happens once they join Neuron, both tend to be rather bad at their self-appointed tasks.

While Maki would punch those who teased Akira in the face when they were children, Akira took a more passive-aggressive approach to dealing with those who would tease Maki. He would stand up for her in person, generally, telling the other kid to back off---but then he’d also pay close attention to them so that the moment they did something wrong, he’d get them caught by the teacher (or principal, or whoever) so they’d get in trouble.

They shared a room for many years growing up. Max got a bigger place so they could have separate rooms once they hit their teenage years, but on nights when Max would be out very late working, both twins would end up sleeping on opposite ends of the couch together anyway, Maki’s legs up over the back while Akira’s were spread out across the coffee table, both because they’d tried to wait up for him, and because they felt less anxious about his safety if they were near each other.

Once they were old enough to use things like the microwave, stove, or even oven without burning the house down, Akira and Maki worked together took cook dinner (or breakfast, or whatever) for Max on his birthday. On Father’s Day, they always pooled their allowances to get him a mutual gift. (They would hand make him cards, and Max saved each and every one in a photo album.)

Each year on their birthday, they played a game of trying to guess what the other got them. By the time they hit Neuron, their scores are about even.

When they were in school, if one of them got detention, the other would do something wrong so they’d be in detention together after school. For instance, once Maki got detention for pouring her soup over a boy who was harassing another girl in the lunch room, so Akira landed himself in the same detention by looking a teacher straight in the eye as he knocked their coffee mug off their desk and onto the floor, and then not even saying sorry after. (He bought them a new mug two days later.)

Akira is a horrible liar, and he doesn’t make a habit of trying, but he’d often try to if it meant covering for his sister, which would usually go something like: “I think your sister did [this wrong thing].” “I don’t know, I don’t know her.” “You don’t know your sister??” Maki is only slightly better because she usually shuts her mouth and refuses to talk at all.

One time when Jin was babysitting he took the twins out for a day of fun, and at one point they decided (without asking) to play hide-and-seek with him. At first their hiding spaces were pretty obvious to him, though he pretneded they weren’t, but then somehow they managed to slip away and he, however briefly, lost them and panicked because he knew that he’d be dead before he had a chance to make a will if Max found out. Fortunately, he found the twins before then.

Another time when they were kids, they decided to give each other haircuts. When Max saw them, he laughed so hard he cried, and took pictures. The twins, fortunately, were too young to be embarrassed.

#astral chain #maximilian howard #akira howard #maki howard #astral chain spoilers #ac spoilers #ok that's enough for now #i'm so sad at the ending this family got THEY DESERVED HAPPINESS #maybe if i novelize it i can do something slightly better #because that clone bit . . . it's too sad for words #but anyway Akira has lying skills on par with Miles Morales and you will pry that from my cold dead hands

22 notes · View notes

365daysofsasuhina · 4 years

Text

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Three Hundred Eighteen: Doubt ] [ Hyūga Hinata, Haruno Sakura ] [ SasuHina, NaruSaku ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ] [ AO3 Link ]

“Hey, Hinata...can I...talk to you?”

Startling a bit, not having been paying attention as she picks up some groceries on her day off, Hinata turns to see none other than Sakura standing behind her. And if the kunoichi’s tone wasn’t enough, her posture - unsure, hesitant, and clearly worried - tells even more. The Hyūga’s brows wilt in a mix of concern and sympathy. “Of course, Sakura-chan. Um…” She looks to her bag of groceries, which is technically only half full when compared to her list. “Could you...give me just a minute?”

“Oh, I-I don’t mean right this second!” Sakura backpedals, waving her hands. “I...I just happened to see you, and...I wanted to talk to you. But no, don’t let me interrupt! Uh...maybe we could...meet somewhere later?”

“Sure. There’s a really nice cafe two blocks east of here...do you know it?”

“I think so.”

“Give me maybe...half an hour to finish up here, and I’ll meet you there, okay?”

“Yeah...yeah, okay. Thanks, Hinata.” Managing a flicker of a smile, Sakura then makes a beeline in the other direction.

For a moment, Hinata just stands, blinking. Well that was...odd. What could Sakura want from her…? Why did she look so nervous? Mulling it over, she then remembers she’s technically on a schedule now. Finishing up her list, she makes a quick trip home before returning to the belly of the village to meet her old classmate.

Hinata has never been particularly close to the rosette. Part of Hinata had always shied from her loud nature, and...well, maybe part of her was put off due to seeing how much Naruto fawned over her. She wouldn’t call it jealousy, but...maybe a very early knowing - one she couldn’t bring herself to admit to - that in the end, Naruto wouldn’t choose her.

Of course, nowadays that’s hardly a concern. Hinata’s changed a great deal since the war several weeks ago. And so has everyone else...some for more obvious reasons than others. While she played her part and supported Naruto as best she could...there was still no quite catching up to him.

And she’s made peace with that.

Part of her, she knows, will always be fond of him. He was the first person she felt that sort of affection towards. But so too does she know now that she isn’t what he needs. She’ll always support him. Always endeavor to be his friend. But as for anything else - anything more - well...he’s clearly made his choice.

Mind full of such thoughts as she pushes open the door, hearing the staff greet her jovially, Hinata quickly finds Sakura seated in a corner by a window. Her gaze is caught through the panes, brows slightly wilted.

“...Sakura-chan?”

The other girl startles, obviously burst from her thoughts “Oh -! Hinata! Sorry, I was…” She gestures to the view. “...zoned out, I guess.”

“That’s all right.” Daintily taking her seat, Hinata waits a moment to see if Sakura will offer any information first. When she doesn’t, she instead asks, “Are you...all right?”

“Huh?”

“You seemed rather...out of sorts. And, well...you still do, honestly. Is something...wrong?”

Jade eyes seem to flicker back and forth between Hinata’s own pale orbs. Even now, her expression is so...nervous. “I’ve, well...I’ve been doing a lot of...of thinking lately. And, uh...I’m not sure where to go from here. So I thought I’d ask someone, and...you were the first person to come to mind. I just hope I’m not...stepping over my boundaries.”

“Well...I’m not sure if I’ll be able to help, but I’ll certainly try,” Hinata assures her gently. “My f-first concern is if you’re okay.”

“...literally? Yeah. There’s just...something that’s been weighing on me. I guess a...choice I have to make? I’m just not sure what the right one is...y’know?”

Hinata gives a small tilt of her head. “You have...doubts about your decision?”

“I...yeah? Well...it might be more of a doubt about...myself…” Sakura’s expression falls. “...for such a long time, I was a blind, naive girl. I chased someone shallowly who had no interest in me, all while turning a blind eye to someone who genuinely cared for me. Maybe Naruto only claimed he liked me at first because of his rivalry with Sasuke-kun, but...our common goals, especially after Sasuke-kun left...they brought us a lot closer. But I’ve realized it wasn’t just Sasuke I hurt with my actions and wayward feelings...but Naruto, as well.”

A kind of knowing twists Hinata’s gut into a knot.

“S-so, I...I’ve been easing myself back into talking with both of them. It’s...well, obviously, it’s going a lot easier with Naruto than Sasuke-kun, as you’d probably guess,” Sakura mumbles. “...but I really do want to make up for how I failed them both. And I know it’s not going to happen overnight. I...I need to change. I have changed, but...not enough. And…” She hesitates.

“...you want to know if you should open your heart to Naruto-kun after so long of dreaming of Sasuke-kun.”

Sakura’s face goes slack with surprise. “You…?”

Hinata gives a small, somber smile. “...in some ways, you and I both know what it is to chase someone who, in the end...didn’t want to be chased. That’s why you came to me...isn’t it?”

There’s a long pause, and then the Haruno wilts, looking almost ashamed. “...yeah...I-I know it’s a shitty thing for me to do - you loved Naruto for so long, and -”

“And people change,” Hinata interjects gently, but firmly. “...we both know he doesn’t see me the way I saw him. And even then...sometimes I doubt just w-what I saw in him. Inspiration, sure...but does that lead to love? I don’t know…”

Sakura considers her. “...I’m sorry, I...I shouldn’t have -”

“No. It’s fine. Part of me will always be with Naruto-kun. But I can’t make him love me. And I wouldn’t want to, e-even if I could. And it says a lot about you that you’ve learned the same lesson with Sasuke-kun. Even more so that you’re considering not just your feelings, but theirs as well. You have changed, Sakura-chan.

“As for...making a decision, I don’t know if you need to make it quite yet.”

“...but -?”

“If you do still have doubts about yourself, and your choice...then it’s not the right time to make it. Let yourself grow a little more. Them, too. If Naruto-kun has waited this long, then...I’m sure nothing is going to change his mind. But...maybe you could talk to him. Be h-honest with how you’re feeling. I’m sure he would appreciate you being open with him, and...maybe it will lead to you both finding middle ground, i-in the meantime.”

Sakura blinks. Blinks again. “...you know, you’re really good at this, Hinata.”

The comment makes her go pink. “I...I guess I’ve just thought about this sort of thing a-a lot. That’s all.”

“Well, still...you’re very easy to talk to, and...you’re a lot wiser than I gave you credit for. Heck, maybe you should give talking to Sasuke a try,” Sakura sighs. “I mean...you two have talked before a bit, right?”

“Just since after the war...before then, almost never.”

“...maybe that will help, in all honesty. A lot of us, well...we left rather bad impressions on him before he left. And…” Sakura flinches. “...some of us only made things worse with time. But if you two are still relative strangers...maybe he’d find it easier to open up to you. Start clean, y’know?”

“Well, I...I’ve been trying to help bridge that gap, admittedly. I feel like, in some small ways...I understand what he went through. Obviously not completely, but...our pasts have a few small parallels.”

“...maybe that could help you start. But...if it’s not something you want to do, don’t force yourself, of course. Though I know I really messed up with them both...I still want Sasuke-kun to be happy. And maybe that could start with him making a friend.”

“Well...I-I’ll try. But I guess in the end, it would be up to him.”

The pair fade into a thoughtful silence, each lost in their own webs of ideas and decisions.

“...thank you, Hinata. I...I feel a lot better.”

Looking up from her absent stare at the table, Hinata gives a small, warm smile. “I’m glad. And...p-please, never fear coming to talk to me. I know, um...I know this was an awkward topic, but I’m always happy to help, or at least try.”

“I appreciate it. Really, I do.” Making to stand, Sakura gives a tired smile. “...anyway, I better get going...I’ve whittled away a lot of my day off on all this nonsense, so I’d best get some things done before tomorrow. See you around, Hinata.”

“G-good luck, Sakura-chan.” Waving, Hinata decides to keep her seat, sighing. She’s content, in a way...maybe Naruto and Sakura can be happy together. And them being happy with make her happy.

...but poor Sasuke...though Hinata knows he’s still more than angry with his teammates (and she still only has bits and pieces of the story), he still has to be so lonely…

...maybe she will reach out a little more. Maybe their clean slate means she’ll have a bit more luck. And regardless of anything else, she wants him to be happy, too.

And if she can be even a little part of that, well...she’ll be all the more glad to have helped.

.oOo.

Well this is...super random? I uh...I had a really rough day, and just feel kinda...off. So I'm not sure if this is any good. Doesn't help the prompt had me kinda eh for inspiration. I realize the ship isn't really IN this one, but it's more of an introduction into how things go in the canon divergent verse I have. Which...I'm heavily revamping for plot holes, so that doesn't help with how off the whole thing feels while I clean up 7+ years of dust and old, inexperienced plotting :'D But uh...yeah. ALAS sees a lot of character growth that's...honestly missing in canon post-699. Especially concerning team seven and Hinata. A bit of which we can see here. Naruto and Sakura both have a LONG way to go in that story from this point, but...it's a start! And Hinata's also getting her first inclinations to start really reaching out to Sasuke... :3c Anyway, I am...very very tired, and drained, and just...blegh, so I'ma go. Thanks for reading~

#sasuhina #narusaku #hyūga hinata #haruno sakura #a light amongst shadows [ canon verse ]#365daysofsasuhina

12 notes · View notes