#I FINALLY MET THISTLE
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There is Plot Development afoot but all Laios cares about is Lunch and that's why hes gonna win this thing. Eye on the Prize.
#laios touden#dungeon meshi spoilers#dungeon meshi#thistle dungeon meshi#I FINALLY MET THISTLE#a cutie
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Bones… don’t do this to us… there is too much angst potential in Lizzie being a part of the Forget-Me-Nots, the precursor of Fire Alone, and watching Tangle and Runny grow up to be Thistle Law supporters…
When her kids got older, they all drifted. Mudfoot finally had the apprentice-aged kids he could hang out with, and Lizi had never enjoyed being a mother. She was closest with Deerfoot, having reached an understanding with him when he was a bit older.
While he was Deerpaw, he met the Forget-Me-Nots once. I like to think there was a look of understanding between him and Bluestar, a silence that said a lot, just before she decided to lend her Clan to help his.
Tangleburr and Runningnose though, they went far and stayed far. There IS love there, but deeply strained. Tangle resents how Lizi thinks she can "boss her around," Runningnose doesn't mind her when she "stays out of his way."
From her spot in the stars, she can't say she's disappointed in them. She doesn't feel like she has the right to; they picked their own paths when she wasn't there to guide their paws. Her own mom, Puffballpad (the child Snowtuft failed to kill), was a similar way with her, after all.
But she WILL say that Deerfoot is her joy. She has no idea how he ended up as the person he is, it certainly wasn't because of her help. His sense of honor, his wit, and his indominable will are traits of herself she admires in him, but UNLIKE her, he's dedicated and reliable.
She made a lot of mistakes in her personal life. She'll admit it. Lizi was young when she had them, had a mate who was very unsupportive, was a lot more interested in hanging out with her secret friends. Any actual attempts at parenting were thwarted by Raggedstar and his golden boy, and she certainly didn't push back very hard.
They deserved better, but unfortunately, they got her. And what's done is done.
#BB!Deerfoot#Mudlizard Family#BB!Tangleburr#BB!Runningnose#BB!Lizardstripe#Tangle turns around of course. In the end#But more because of her bond to Deer than Lizi#I think Love Like You is a really good BB!Lizi song#Better bones au#Bluestar's Flowers#The Forget-me-nots
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Thistle and Thorn
Pairing: Kind of Simon "Ghost " Riley x f!Reader ( OC aka Mini MacTavish ) + Johnny " Soap " MacTavish + Captain John Price
Summary : Everyone's worst nightmare comes true. Something you don't even want to think about. EVER.
Warning: ANGST. PURE ANGST. Mature theme , death , swearing. English isn't my first language so expect a lot of mistakes with tenses. Not beta'd.
A/N : seriously, I don't know WHY the hell I am doing this to myself.
Thanks to @saltofmercury for agreeing to my silly fic request and also kindly letting me using her ideas/fic and expand the story from there. I promise her I'll always credit her story because she is my muse * holding Saltofmercury up high lion king style Continuation/parallel universe of “The Favorite MacTavish” , where the reader/OC is Soap's little sister.
“masterlist” for more stories to this Mini MacTavish expanded verse. ( AKA the true happy endings )
You knew something wasn't right when Johnny didn't come home for Christmas as promised, what is even weirder was there was zero update from Gaz ( who you actually became good gossiping buddy during downtime), or Captain Price, even Ghost.
"I am sure Johnny and the team just stuck somewhere with the heavy snow, the weather been dreadful this winter. They will be home soon. " Ma comforted you as you voice your worry.
You came home a week earlier, excited as you finally get to see Johnny again after half a year and scoring victory in " who gets Christmas off " battle when your shift manager was organising everyone's holiday leaves.
Sure, for his line of work, it is hard to expect them to see their family often or even come home on time. But this time you just have this dreaded feeling you haven't felt for ages, like the time before Aunty Esme and Uncle Evan's fatal car crash. You have a strange sixth sense which is pretty much dead on ( excuse the pun ) everytime there's a death in the family.
Sitting by your bedroom window on second floor, you saw a Jeep pulling up towards your parent's front door. Immediately got up, grabbing a hoodie and making your way downstairs thinking its Johnny finally coming home and ready to greet him.
Walking through the hallway towards the staircase, you heard a man's voice, follow by your Ma's anguish cry, you ran downstairs as fast as you can. There you see Captain Price, with bandage peeking through his bonnie hat and he look like he has aged ten years. Your Da holding onto your Ma, comforting her with red brim eye, trying to hold it together at same time.
".. What is going on? Uncle Price? where is the rest of the team? where is Johnny?... Where is Ghost? " You started calling Price " Uncle " when rest of the squad jokes about how Price is like the uncle of the squad and the rest of them are like rowdy teenage kids.
Price just shook his head, beckoning you move closer to the front door. he hold his hand out, and you automatically reach forward , palms up.
Two dog tags. TWO. You swallow hard. Hands shaking.
" I am sorry Mini... Gaz and I barely made it out ourselves...we couldn't.. " he took a deep breath, word stuck in his throat. Reaching into his pocket instead, taking out a little Polaroid photo, a little laminated paper with dried thistle and put it on top of the dog tags in your palm.
It's a photo of you and a very begrudge looking Ghost, looking away from the camera. Both of you look like you been off your head. This was the photo that was taken after you met Ghost for the first time and narrowly lost to him after the drinking game.
The thistle, you made it into dry flower, laminated it onto piece of paper and gave it to Johnny when he came home years ago, announcing proudly he was selected to join the 22nd Regiment, elite force specialising in counter-terrorism.
" Good luck charm for you Johnny."
" A thistle?"
" Ya, well, other than it represent us Scot, you know what the meaning of thistle is? resilience, strength, determination, protection and pride. I want my favourite sibling to come home in one piece everytime. "
" I am your ONLY sibling. "
"And I love you too."
You knew this day will eventually come. The day Cousin Alec dragged Johnny into joining the army , you knew somehow you will lose them on the battlefield. Part of you wish they will come home in one piece, every time, after mission, and discharge honourably and move onto some safer or non-combating jobs.
You barely heard what Price said, " ... Ghost always have this photo with him all the time in his pocket. He look at it quite often, but he wouldn't admit it. " You hadn't had the chance to tell him how you feel. Now you will never have the chance again. EVER.
" hey Soap "
" ... yes Ghost? "
"Two gold fishes in a tank. "
"... you told me that joke before. "
"... Soap. "
" Ghost. "
"... I am taking Mini out on a date next time we go home."
" .... Are you asking for my permission?"
" I am telling you. I am not asking for permission."
"Ghost."
" Soap."
"Don't fuck around with my sister."
".. I wouldn't hurt her. I will never hurt her."
I am sorry.
Usually I am a happy ending person.. look, you can read this as a AU and "non canonical ( pff sounds like I own CoD, but I DON'T ) ending to the Mini MacTavish universe, because I don't want them to have bad ending. I just want to get this out from my head.
#simon ghost riley#johnny soap mactavish#simon riley x oc#simon riley x reader#cod mw2#cod#captain john price#why am i torturing myself#i nearly cried writing this#simon riley x you#simon riley imagine#simon riley x y/n
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May 13th 1568 saw the Battle of Langside.
Mary, Queen of Scots, was finally defeated in her attempt to regain the throne from her son, James VI, and his supporters.
Mary had escaped from Lochleven Castle and quickly amassed an army. She wanted to regain her throne, and she would have to fight to get it back.
The previous July she had been forced to abdicated the throne which passed to her infant son James. Her claim that she had been unlawfully forced to do this was certainly true, Lords Ruthven and Livingstone visited her at Lochleven with their lawyers carrying papers to sign, they forced the sickly queen to listen to the lawyers reading the deeds then placed her fingers around a pen and told her to sign or they'd cut her throat.
You'll recall from my last post about Mary, she escaped from the island on Loch Leven on May 2nd.
11 days later lines were drawn and two armies faced each other at Langside near Glasgow.
The battle was brief, only 45 minutes. After an unsuccessful cavalry charge, Mary`s foot soldiers approached Langside Hill up what is now Battlefield Road, but they were met by gunfire as well as other forces coming down from the site of Pathhead Farm. Between these two wings of Moray`s forces, archers and then the cavalry attacked the oncoming army. About a hundred of Mary`s men were killed and her army fled; Mary turned southwards and headed into England and into the hands of her cousin, Elizabeth I.
The pics are of the memorial to the battle, erected to coincide with the three-hundredth anniversary of her beheading in 1887. It is in the form of a mercat cross.
The lion at the top of the memorial rests his paw on a cannonball and faces Clincart Hill where the forces of Mary, Queen of Scots were positioned. Just below the lion are badges with thistles and lions on them. Next down, the tall ornate column is decorated with a spiral design of thistles, roses and fleur-de-lis.
Below this are eight carvings; each alternate carving has a targe with crossed swords, and the four others have a cannon, a set of bagpipes, a targe with a variety of battle weapons, and an iron helmet with a crossed sword and axe. The four eagles at the corners of the monument`s plinth are preparing to fly. When being built, plans of the monument, a copy of The Abbot by Sir Walter Scott along with newspapers and coins of the day were placed under the structure.
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So I’ve been listening to lots of podcasts at work lately to break up the monotony of my office job. Mainly they’re horror, suspense/thriller, drama, that kind of thing. Trying to give ratings without spoilers~
(Check out updated pod recs here)
The Left Right Game (a journalist investigating an urban legend that gets increasingly more dangerous as they go): 5/5, this being one of the first ones I listened to set the bar really high tbh, it was great, immersive sound design, genuinely suspenseful and creepy moments, interesting plot, my only gripe is that I didn’t love the ending but I couldn’t dock a star just for that, highly recommend, maybe I’ll retire to Wintry Bay someday
Alice Isn’t Dead (delivery trucker goes searching for her believed dead wife, comes across supernatural towns and creatures and a conspiracy that goes way deeper than one missing woman): 5/5, so so good, enjoyed a lot, I loved learning the truth about the Thistle men, still don’t completely understand oracles but that’s okay, some delightfully creepy moments, this will be high on my recommendation list (also it’s by the Welcome to Night Vale people, which I actually haven’t listened to lmao)
Harley Quinn and the Joker: Sound Mind (it’s a Harley Quinn origin story basically): 5/5, very enjoyable, sound design great, plot was fun, I don’t know how accurate this story is to the original Harley Quinn origin story but I liked this a lot
The Burned Photo (two women try to fight a familial curse haunting their bloodlines): 4/5, not bad at all, I thought the sound design was great and immersive but I thought the monster’s voice was a bit goofy idk, the plot wasn’t bad though ofc it was pretty bittersweet and sad in the end, tho I think it was never going to be happy for everyone involved
Blackwood (group of teens investigate the town urban legend and uncover more than they bargained for): I can’t decide…3.5 maybe? It was okay. I didn’t love it or hate it, I’m pretty neutral about it. It was interesting enough
Gaslight (girl goes missing and then reappears to her best friend years later with little explanation): 3/5, feels like there should be another season, wasn’t as dramatic/suspenseful as I thought it would be (maybe that’s my own fault tho, from the description and stuff I thought there would be more to it)
Ice-Cream (teens suspect the friendly neighborhood ice cream man of abducting little kids and uncover a dark secret): 4.5/5, interesting and a lil creepy, there’s something oddly funny about hearing someone scream “fuck you Beelzebub” even in context, sound design is pretty good and voice acting is great, finale was also pretty good but I’m docking half a star bc of that very last bit and bc I said so, overall short n’ sweet, no pun intendo (I’m kinda glad that it’s only the one season and not super long, gives the feeling of not overstaying its welcome. Also in awe that they made it within like a month, gonna go listen to their other podcast Cascadia too)
Cascadia (submarine expedition to uncharted waters, gone wrong, we almost died!?): 5/5, by the Ice-Cream people so I expected great sound design and voice acting and said expectations were met tbh, yes god love the drama, ocean depths are inherently scary to me so this is top tier horror, season one was chef’s kiss beautiful and I heard season 2 is coming so I’ll be waiting eagerly for that
Listening now:
Within the Wires (season 1 is relaxation cassette tapes from another world, season 2 is a guided museum tour I think): also by the WTNV people, interesting so far, the plot that unfolded in the first season was cool to watch as it played out, but also I am so sad. I like it so far
Rabbits (girl goes searching for her friend who disappeared because of this mysterious Rabbits game): feels like a really slow start after a few episodes, I kinda wanna get to more action soon please
Wake of Corrosion (apocalypse where characters are trying to find other survivors and also answers): mild shrug, not sure what to make of it just yet. Only like 2 episodes in so I think I need to give it a bit
Ars Paradoxica (scientist accidentally invents time travel and is thrown back to the 1940s): pretty interesting so far, science is fun
Spoiler comment for Cascadia under the cut bc it's the one I just finished and I have Thoughts
As much as I enjoyed Cascadia, when I think about the expedition for more than 2 seconds I get confused. Not the whole alien thing, that’s fine, it’s Badger and Maria and their ulterior motives. Why in the world did Badger spend millions of dollars to make a submarine that’s faulty on purpose? And there was so much media coverage around it so the second something went wrong reporters were practically beating him over the head with microphones, so why risk so much bad press? Plus sacrificing three other talented divers who trusted him with their lives??? That’s the most confusing to me. There’s no way Badger foresaw them getting attacked underwater and losing Declan alone, so he must have been fully prepared to lose captain AND crew. Holden said that he saw Badger as a father, and yet he chose Holden to die? He said he handpicked them, so what did Holden, Alia, or Iris ever do to him to deserve being sent on a suicide mission? Doing all this just to get rid of Declan and be with Maria doesn’t feel right. Feels like there should be something more there. Tldr: surely Badger had another reason for conducting the suicide mission, right? Also since season 2 starts with Lila all grown up, a diver just like her father, I wanna know her opinions of her mother and of Badger. Did she learn about her mother’s betrayal? Is Badger still involved in funding deep sea diving or did the FBI take him out of that? Omg who’s the father of her little sibling…I’m so curious…
#ignore me#mimi reviews#the left right game#alice isn't dead#harley quinn and the joker sound mind#the burned photo#blackwood#gaslight#ice-cream#cascadia#within the wires#rabbits#wake of corrosion#ars paradoxica#i can't believe i had the patience to tag all these...
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(again for the au of buggy having an older sister she only got one chapter so I figured she needed one in this silly Shojo au. Some point I need to watch more Marco episodes, but him and Thistle are 22 in this and young and silly so enjoy)
pt 1 + pt 2 + pt 3 + pt 4 + pt 5 + pt 6 + pt 7 + pt 8 + pt 9 + pt 10 + pt 11 + pt 12 + pt 13 + pt 13.5 + pt 14 + pt 15
pt 13.5
Marco had a ring ready and everything when Thistle joined the crew. He was over the moon that his girlfriend was finally with him and everyone knew it. He wouldn't shut up about it. Thistle was hard to read so the crew wasn't sure if she was happy to be there or not, but when some saw her talking with Pops, not sure what the conversation was about, they saw her smile so maybe she was happy to be part of the family.
Marco was told to put the ring away. His girl didn't seem like the type to marry and if she did she wouldn't want it to be sprung on her. He decided to wait, even if it was difficult, hiding the ring in a false bottom of a cabinet drawer so he knew where it was when the time came.
There were plenty of opportunities that he wanted to ask her: over dinner one night when she gave him the rest of her food when she was full, or when he fell overboard and she helped get him on the ship. There was the time she helped an injured bird recover and he saw how gentle she was with it, how there were tears in her eyes when she released it when they were resting on an island, and he couldn't believe he got to see how soft she was in that moment considering when they first met she was willing to kill him.
It was a long year of waiting.
And then that cute blonde from Lougetown showed up on their ship. He didn't recognize her at first but when she mentioned Buggy and talked about him to Thistle, he saw how the girl's eyes lit up and how much she seemed to care for that silly boy that he thought maybe he should finally propose. Life was short. Anything could happen and he wanted to be with his girlfriend forever.
And so when Thistle was in the kitchen helping clean up a few days later, Marco approached her, hoping maybe they could go talk somewhere, but when she saw him she smiled and spoke first.
"We should get married."
That's not what he expected her to say.
"Wait, seriously?" He laughed. "I've been waiting a year to ask you that!"
"Well, I've been talking with Pops and after meeting Sunny... I thought that everything that's happened in my life shows that anything could happen." She told him as she dried her hands on a towel as she leaned against the sink. "And if I'm gonna go through more stuff like that then I want to be with you when it does."
"Really?" He had a big grin on his face.
"Really, Marco." She chuckled. "Will you marry me?"
"Of course! I have the ring in our room!"
Thistle smiled and stepped over to him, giving him a peck. "I love you, bird boy."
"Aw, I love you, cat girl." He grinned as he wrapped his arms around her and tugged her close. "We're gonna get married! I can't wait!"
"We are!" She laughed as he picked her up. Hearing that was music to his ears. She rarely laughed around the crew but when she did he couldn't stop but smile big when she did.
He was so happy.
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Chapter 52: thistle and weeds
She stayed put in the doorway, her eyes fixed on some distant point. Her face was pale, and she looked disheveled, her wine-red hair pinned back in messy waves, the color bleeding into the air around her with flyaways. Severus thought about going to her, but before he could move, the girl’s gaze swung over him briefly, but unmistakably — its weight almost made him sway on his feet as it caused something to stir within him.
Severus raised an eyebrow at her, instead, trying to disguise his growing concern. He watched her throat bob, like she was swallowing hard, and before he could register whatever that look was, she was barreling towards him like a freight train, her hands grabbing onto his robes and burying her face against his chest.
She was quite small, but he could feel the heat of determination radiating from her as she held onto him tightly — like a fire trying to fight its way out after being doused in water for too long.
“What is — happening?” Severus strangled out.
The girl didn’t move, but her breathing hitched slightly.
Severus let out a frustrated breath, his mind racing. He had never been one for physical contact and was unsure of what to do with the girl in his arms. For a moment, he hesitated, his hands hovering awkwardly over her back as he struggled to understand just what in the sodding fuck was happening.
The girl's grip on him didn't waver, even as he stood frozen. It felt like an eternity before she finally spoke, her voice muffled by the fabric of his robes.
“Just — give me a minute.” she whispered, her voice thick.
He finally brought his arms around her, holding her tightly as if he could anchor her to this moment with him.
One thought pervaded:
I am going to kill the werewolf
“What did he do?” Severus asked, his voice a low hiss.
Miss Evans finally pulled away, sniffling, but her eyes looked dry, albeit a bit bloodshot. She shook her head at him before looking away, biting her lip.
“He didn’t do anything," she said in one fast breath, as if saying it out loud made the thought real enough to break apart. "It was me."
She stepped away from him, then, and Severus watched her take a few slow steps towards the window before turning back around to face him again; he noticed how much smaller she suddenly seemed amidst all of the shadows.
Severus’s chest tightened. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but he resisted the urge. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest and met her gaze with a steely one of his own — although she was likely too lost in thought to register it, now.
"Very well," Severus said slowly after a few moments of tense silence passed between them; leaving it at those two words nearly took the last of his self-control. "Then what is wrong?”
She only shook her head. “I’m alright — it doesn’t matter. I just needed a minute.”
Severus felt something inside of him start to unravel, and he knew that if this went on much longer, he would lose control. Every second was a mini eternity as his patience evaporated like water in the desert sun.
"It does matter," Severus spat out through gritted teeth. “You came here for a reason, did you not?”
Her eyes flashed — something swelled beyond her sadness. “I came here for the Occlumency lesson you demanded we start tonight.”
“Consider yourself pardoned, then,” Severus snarled back, and she flinched. “You’ll accomplish nothing, in this state.”
“I accomplished a whole lot, actually.” Miss Evans snapped back. “That’s why I was late. I was able to conjure a Patronus — twice — even with a Dementor —”
Severus felt something inside of him snap.
“A what?” he said, a bit too loudly for his liking, but with enough menace that the girl shrank back.
The girl seemed to spasm — her eyes had gone wide — alarmed. “Merlin — not a real one! Professor Lupin used the Boggart from our lesson yesterday.”
I am going to kill him — I’m going to turn the Wolfsbane into a fucking paralytic and skin his hide during the next full moon —
“I thought this was supposed to be a detention.” Severus growled, giving her a pointed look.
Miss Evans shrugged. “He said he needed help moving it back to his office.”
"That's not an excuse," Severus said coldly, narrowing his eyes at her. "Lupin should have known better than to involve you."
"It was my choice," she argued back stubbornly. “It would’ve happened during class, anyways. It wasn’t fun — I fainted a couple of times, he kept having to give me chocolate —”
The next thing Severus knew, his arm had shot out to maneuver her to the couch. He yanked her down, Summoning the coffee table with a loud crack so that he was sitting atop it, their knees touching as he began to run a Diagnostic.
“Snape —” she tried to shoo him away, but he pinned her hand down. “It wasn’t a real one!”
#aim and ignite#hp fanfic#snape fic#Severus snape#snape#severitus#harry potter fanfiction#harry potter
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✨9 Ship Songs✨
Rules: List nine songs for one of your ships (or some permutation of ships that equates to nine songs in the end)
I got tagged by both @shivunin and @brother-genitivi so it is time! I, also, didn't want to pick just one ship, so have an assortment of my DA ships below. If there aren't nine songs, keep the wizardry of your numbers to yourself. I don't want to know how to count. I thought about explaining how each song relates to each couple but then this post would be twice as long, so you will have to guess.
Talvinder 💙 Alistair
Aankhon ki Gustakhiyan - Kumar Sanu and Kavita Krishnamurthy
May the impertinence of my eyes be forgiven...
They look at you just a little;
and what my tongue longs to speak,
that is what they tell you.
Wide Eyed - Cold Weather Company
What if I lose all sight and ambition?
What if my heart weakens my vision?
What if all I need
Is right in front of me?
I could die in your arms,
I could die.
Aislin 💔 Isabela
Shrike - Hozier
The words hung above
but never would form-
like a cry at the final
Breath that is drawn.
Remember me, love,
When I'm reborn:
As the shrike to your sharp
and glorious thorn.
The Blackbird - Silly Wizard
Oh if I was a blackbird, could whistle and sing
I'd follow the vessel my true love sails in.
And in the top rigging I would there build my nest
And I'd flutter my wings o'er her lily-white breast.
Aislin ❤️🩹 Sebastian
Archers - Ballroom Thieves
Well, you can let your arrows sing.
I've never met a man of iron skin
But you know, archers never made good kings:
Fly headfirst into everything.
King of All Birds - Aoife O'Donovan
Get up, get up
Get it together and climb on up
To the top of the tree.
I'm an owl now, a lonely owl:
Who, who, where, what, why, when?
How the hell did I get this far without you?
Pull my feathers one by one,
Put 'em in your pocket when I'm gone.
Elodie 💛 Varric
Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley
Love me tender, love me true
All my dreams fulfill.
For, my darling, I love you
And I always will.
Amen - Amber Run
'Cause I see You in the daytime, and I hear You at night
There's a pale imitation burnt in my eyes.
I don't wanna be here, I don't know what to do.
Sometimes I'd rather be dead, at least then I'm with You.
La'ara 💚 Cullen
I'd Pluck a Fair Rose - Anne Dudley, Eleanor Tomlinson
I'd a-pluck a fair rose for my love,
I'd a-pluck a red rose blowin'.
Love's in my heart, I'm tryin' so to prove
What you heart's knowin'.
The Rockrose and the Thistle - The Amazing Devil
'Cause I'll darn you back together
When you think that you're bereft
And you'll wail, you'll scream, but I'll never stop
'Cause it's all that I have left
Tagging: @ottobooty @zevrn @palipunk @tatert07s @creaking-skull @isayashai
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I don’t want to like hijack @spotty-is-too-sleepy ‘s inbox lol but his TigerJake au has suddenly like captured my mind so um have my own take on it :)
Anyway I see them as like first meeting when both were pretty young cats. Tiger is being treated terribly by his mentor and stuck between becoming the cat Thistleclaw wants him to be and hating himself for being like him. He one night attempts to flee and ends up finding Jake, a cat similar his age that’s just so carefree and happy. From Jake’s view he’s met this like super buff mysterious stranger cat who smells like the forest and is def has the hots for him immediately, while Tiger is a bit drawn back but is also pretty quickly falling for the ginger kitty
(Kinda like canon TallJake except yknow between these two and Jake is made to be the same age as Tiger)!
The two don’t formally put a name on it but Tiger thinks they’re officially together while Jake would more call it talking?
Anyways um ofc Tiger has to go back and he is immediately found by his mentor who is furious. Esp as he can smell the kittypet on his apprentice’s pelt. The two are separated for a long time until Tiger has just gotten his name, Tigerclaw after his own claws (but he kinda has suspicions his mentor orchestrated them to share a suffix)
He goes on a lone night patrol and guess who he meets. Jake. The two are right back to where they first met. Jake is his same silly, lighthearted tease while Tiger is drawn back but loving.
They start right back where they were before.
[read more bc this is so long sorryyyyyy)
After like a few moons of sneaking off to see his boyfriend he finally gets caught, by Thistleclaw none the less. He is forced by his old mentor to break up what he has with Jake and Tiger has to. He feels like he has to. He has been selfish and sneaky, breaking the code to see some pet (these are his thoughts sadly). He goes to Jake and tries to speak first but is stopped by-
Jake saying he’s expecting. Expecting Tigerclaw’s kits.
Tiger is horrified and freaking out bc no no no no no while Jake is just staring at him confused. They love each other right? And now Tiger can come with him and they can raise their family together!
The two break up from the fight. But Jake says very clearly that he is not going to raise these kits. Tiger would have to either change his mind or, take them himself.
Even more panicking as Tiger tries so hard to find a way to somehow convince Jake to keep them or how he could take them. He can’t just waltz in with kits!! But as if a gift from the stars, Goldenflower announces she’s expecting. With no other parent…
He pulls her aside and tells her the situation he’s in hopefully to see if she’d agree and luckily she does. Because she’s in the same one lol (the sire to her litter is a kittypet). The two make the plan for Tiger to sneak his kits in the litter as Golden has hers. They’d be raised by the two and appear as full Thunder kittens. Its announced not only their official partnership as mates but also that Tiger is the dad to her litter. Now he just has to wait.
Eventually the time comes and he disappears to try and find Jake with his kits. He finds them and Jake just coldly shoves the two babies at him. Tiger wishes for the love they used to have but. He can’t amend it now.
He’s carefully making it back when he’s stopped. By Thistleclaw. He should’ve been more careful in his tracks. Thistle screams that he’s not only back with that pet but also now bringing back little pests the clan will have to feed!!! It’s real dramatic and as Tiger tries to bite back, Thistle leaps to grab one of the kits. Without thinking Tiger just smacks him back, claws drawn, all the force he can. Thistle is thrown back but too hard, smashing his head on a rock. Tiger is horrified but he can’t keep his kits outside any longer. He cleans Thistle enough to hide his own scent then finally sneaks them back.
Goldenflower has two kits of her own, Lynxkit and Swiftkit she calls them. She feigns another birth as he shuffles his own in the litter. All together they have Lynxkit, Swiftkit, Ravenkit (Scourge), and Leopardkit (Ruby). Lynx dies sadly a week after but the rest make it through. Ravenkit was named after his dark pelt while Leopardkit was after his mom. (Also is matching. Two cat names with Two bird names)
So!
Ravenkit kinda fills the role of Ravenpaw except they still become Scourge. Opposite of Fire arc as he started as a clan cat that then became a kittypet.
He as a apprentice witnesses the killing of Oakheart and then his siblings (Leopardpaw and Swiftpaw are both killed by the dogs). He learns that it was his own dad who set up the trap and runs away. They end up being taken in by Brick and Bone who run a scrappy group of strays. Once he starts working it they become Bloodclan and they kill Tiger in revenge for his siblings but also as a show of what the clans create, monsters.
Fire though. Rusty is instead the slightly younger half sibling of Raven/Scourge via Jake who had him in a fling. Him along with Princess weren’t cared for the best but he did most love the stories he was told by Jake about the woods. Sorta Cloudtail style, Tigerclaw stumbles into Jake and as a “gift” (more begging to plz plz plz take this kit off my paws I cannot raise him) he’s given to the cat. He’s then trained by Tiger, sees the bad his mentor is, helps then Ravenpaw escape, and eventually becomes the Fire we all know and love :)
He kept his name tho and is called Rustyfire. Doesn’t become leader but Sandstar does! He’s mostly a advisor/dad/deputy. Kinda takes a role of both being the deputy but also a camp caretaker and sometimes a medic since he picked up a lot of herbs
A few more brief notes I’ve had lol
Jake is pretty explicitly a bad dad. He just isn’t a cat who can take care of kits so he’s kinda dumped every litter away. Princess is taken soon after Rusty leaves to live in her own forever home. He loves them but more in a uncle kind of way. Not good for them clearly
Raven/Scourge is really just Scourge except with the arc of Ravenpaw. Their a very cold cat that’s incredibly watchful. It’s said they have eyes on the back of their head (if I drew him I’d draw him as a all black cat with the tiger eye ears thingy)
Goldenflower raised all the kits like her own and was hurt so badly by the death of two of them. Even more when her final baby disappeared. Luckily Fire had enough insight to like pull her aside and tell her what happened. She knows what Tiger’s done and also that her baby raven is safer now.
In the final battle Scourge kills Tiger and instead of the Bloodclan/Tigerclan alliance it was Bloodclan/Lionclan. The ending fight is between the cats still loyal to Tiger and Leopard and the ones against it. Eventually it ends in the death of Leopardstar along with most of her loyal fighters. A lot more death. Mistystar takes power and in Shadowclan Russetstar rises (Blackfoot died in the fight)
Fire and Sand are together but in a platonic way :) they still have Squilf and Leaf
Bramble and Tawny are now one cat called Thornflower who was the actual kit between GoldenTiger. She initially followed his dad but turned against him and joined back. Him and Squilf are never together, older sibling vibes ONLY
Scourge takes Bloodclan back to the town but they keep a close alliance. It soon after is renamed to the Blood Band (yes it is a joke on them being a metal band)
#tigerjake#tigerjake au#wc au#warrior cats au#tigerpaw#Jake wc#wc Jake#Tigerclaw#goldenflower#tawnypelt#Brambleclaw#Swiftpaw#lynxkit#Ruby wc#scourge wc#wc scourge#Fireheart#rusty wc
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Funerary Rites, Chapter 3 - Walk
After a few months in which real life monopolized my time, I've managed to finally finish chapter 3 of Funerary Rites!
Danny sees where Caretaker lives! Or part of it, anyway. Oh, and he has a little bit of a crisis. I'm sure it's fine.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2
Words: 5723
Characters: Danny, Clockwork
Warnings: Some controlling behavior, I guess? Caretaker has a very poor understanding of some boundaries.
Read on AO3, or below:
The journey to Caretaker's home was winding and strange. Danny had seen Faerie before, of course; his periodic slips and stumbles through the veil growing up had been how he'd met Caretaker. But he'd never explored, never lingered. As a child, Danny had been paralyzed by fear at the sudden shift. As he grew older, he'd known not to wander regardless. His parents had warned him about fae. And Caretaker had, too.
Thus, the world Danny now walked was strange to him. It was also so vivid Danny felt almost like he'd stepped into a painting.The forest they were in was awash in violet shadow, its twisting trunks and underbrush touched with patches of gilded light. Here, a bough hung in stark relief, leaves a vivid green. There, berries winked from the crown of a bush. The understory and trees wove together into a sort of maze; Danny's attention would stray to the arc of a branch and follow brambles and hills deeper, deeper into the forest through natural archways and halls until the ground vanished.
It was an arresting sight, and more than once Danny would only realize he'd stopped when Caretaker nudged at his shoulder to shake him from the daze.
"We have a long way ahead, child," he murmured once. "Come. You'll not want to be caught by those who weave this place."
Finally, there was a break in the maze. A lightly trodden path slithered into view, and they turned to follow it. With the extra space and without Caretaker tending his every step, Danny walked beside him.
The path was clear of the thorns and thistles that had littered their earlier journey, but the soil of it was dark with moisture. Patches of mud swallowed it whole in places, and there Danny could see the texture of shoes and stranger things; claws and paws and hooves, and a few wheel-tracks that had left the ground intricately stamped behind them.
The same mud pulled insistently at Danny's feet, and he nearly lost a shoe to it. With a frustrated grimace he wrenched it free, only to have the other one stick fast a few steps later. This time he almost snarled pulling it free and overbalanced, tipping forward.
Caretaker caught him before he could pitch headfirst into the mud. His long fingers wrapped securely around Danny's shoulders and pulled him upright.
Danny paused, torn between wordless frustration and wanting to thank Caretaker for at least keeping him from being covered in mud and wanting to dance away from Caretaker's grip–his fingers were too long, too solid.
Wrong.
"'nks," muttered Danny, doing his best to sway away from Caretaker's creepy fingers. "Why're we using this path?"
"It is the least treacherous way out of these woods, despite its frustrations." Caretaker tipped his hood at Danny's muddy feet.
"Oh. Great."
A small, muddy, and very frustrating eternity later the violet shadow of the woodlands broke open.
Light flooded over the path to reveal meadows sparsely dotted with trees, shadows pooling ink. The grasses and flowers painting them were an impossible array of color and scent, but most importantly the path ahead was dry.
"Finally," said Danny, and Caretaker huffed a laugh.
The walking was easier from there, and Danny found himself distracted by the world around them once more.
Faerie brimmed with the wild and strange. They traveled over meadows drenched in honeyed sounds and smells. There were odd little bridges over creeks teeming with darting creatures that only pretended to be fish when Danny looked at them. Once, there was only an assortment of stones in place of a bridge and Caretaker laid three stalks of wheat at the riverside before allowing Danny to cross.
When Danny looked back, he caught a glimpse of something red vanishing beneath the water, and the stalks were gone.
Always, always Caretaker kept Danny close by. Once, they saw shapes on the road and he tugged Danny under his cloak
Danny hated it.
He hated the fear that raced through his heart and set it galloping as he heard the strange cadence of footsteps going past. He hated how slow they were, and wondered if he would hear them stop. Hear them turn and shout and begin to chase them because Danny wasn't supposed to be here. Because Danny was human.
His mouth was dry.
Caretaker's cloak was as soft on the inside as always, his tunic crisp and cool to the touch. His hand was clasped against Danny's shoulder. It was warm like comfort, like I will guide you home. For a promise, for a price.
Warm like a familiar face in a horrible situation.
Horrible like one.
Outside the shelter of the cloak Danny remembered hiding in too many times, the footsteps stopped, and a voice like sand and wind said something he couldn’t make out. Caretaker gave some kind of calm response.
Danny felt sick.
His parents had said that some fae ate humans.
Caretaker didn't. Caretaker wouldn't. A stone grew in the back of Danny's throat at the idea of it, of one turn too many in an awful day.
He swallowed it back and let his fingers brush the lip of his back pocket.
You shall not harm me, nor through inaction allow me to come to harm…
It would be fine.
It would.
In the dark of the cloak, Caretaker’s hand wound farther around Danny’s shoulder, solid like iron. He said something else, and the footsteps resumed, then faded to nothing.
When Caretaker released him, Danny surged from the cover of the cloak like he was surfacing from underwater and twisted to face him, gasping the fresh air.
“Are you alright?”
Danny’s answer stuck in his throat, too tangled to come out.
They kept walking.
Past trees bent low and knotted, past reeds and vines woven into sculpture, boulders that breathed and a thousand other strangenesses. The slip of earth beneath Danny's feet faded into a dull rhythm and a sharper ache, and he found his mind wandering despite the circumstances.
The sun ambled through the sky.
Occasionally, he could hear snatches of music on the wind, a faint ringing. A distant bell tower, maybe. Danny occupied himself for a time wondering what belltowers looked like, here.
Slowly, the brushstrokes of Faerie's landscape became at once less deliberate and more defined. Trees took less artful paths to the sky. Scrub bristled haphazardly together, and copses of trees combined to form a patchwork with grasses.
It was a transition. To what, Danny didn't know.
Eventually, they came to a tree. It was an enormous old thing, bowed and creaking with age, and its branches swallowed the path in its shade. Caretaker paused by it to run a hand over its bark, before stepping around the roots at its base onto a hidden path. Danny followed.
This new path was as knobbled as the tree, and too narrow to walk side by side; in places it was barely wide enough to show as a line in the grass. Without the space to walk beside him, Danny trailed behind Caretaker close enough to brush his cloak. They wound around hillocks and through more brush until the ancient tree was hidden from view many times over.
Caretaker stopped.
Close on his trail, Danny almost ran into him. He scuffed a few steps back to right himself and peered around Caretaker to see what had made him stop.
There was a sculpture.
It emerged from the brush surrounding it incongruous and tall; taller than Caretaker by several feet and farther across than Danny could spread his hands, but with barely any depth at all. It gleamed silver, but looked closer to lace than metal and more delicate by far than the iron bars guarding the windows of Fenton Works.
It evoked a spider's web.
Danny looked at Caretaker, who glanced in his direction before easing off a glove.
Oh, Danny thought. That's what's wrong with his fingers.
They had too many, too mobile joints.
Caretaker fluttered them for a moment, fingernails winking bronze in the evening light. Then he traced a finger over the sculpture, strumming it like a harp to a sound like falling dew.
It shivered. The webbed strands slid past one another, leaving the knots at the edges tightening and the holes at the center growing, growing until what stood before them wasn't a sculpture at all, but a doorway framed by intricate knotwork.
Caretaker gestured him through. Hesitant, Danny went.
He didn't know what he'd expected, but it wasn't this. One step through the door, two, and the world was the same one he'd seen. No sudden shifts caught Danny off guard, no sense of danger or sudden swell of chatter from the trees. No sudden silence, either.
He was just on the other side.
He turned, and there was the strangeness Danny had expected. From this side of the doorway, there was a wall of bramble framing it.
Caretaker let it weave shut behind them with a wave of his hand, and then gestured for Danny to follow. Danny did, trying not to let ice creep too far through his veins.
Caretaker had opened that door, and he'd shut it. Danny had no idea how to do either. Was he stuck on this side of the door now? Without Caretaker, could he leave?
Did it matter?
He was only going to do something for Caretaker, right? Nothing bad or that would hurt him, and less than a week.
A week. He could keep it together for a week. No matter how weird it got.
Danny stepped over a long tuft of grass.
The path was wider on this side, though not better kept. It was laid with stone, but the cracks were overgrown. Tall grasses reached out from them and drooped over the flagstones, and Danny picked his way from one to the next. While Caretaker moved with careless grace, Danny was a bit more awkward on his feet. He didn't really want to stumble and fall. It would be embarrassing. And it would give Caretaker a reason to help bring him to his feet again. With his creepy hands.
Danny shuddered.
They were a thousand times worse now that Danny knew what they were like under the gloves. Not that Caretaker had replaced the one he'd removed, no. He'd removed the other glove as well, and tucked both into his belt and now every time Danny caught sight of his hands he also caught sight of the way they bent.
Against his better judgment, Danny looked up. At the sight of him, Caretaker smiled again. It was a quick thing, and small.
Danny ignored it. It was probably just another tactic to make him feel safe.
He wasn't. He wasn't safe, didn't feel safe. He looked around, and discovered that they were in a field. It was dense with bushes, and full of grass that came up to his waist. In the distance he could see the straight lines of a building, veiled by a stand of trees. What was that? Were they going there?
"Child," said Caretaker, and rested his hand on Danny's shoulder. "Come. It's been a long journey. Don't you wish to wash yourself free of dust and grime?"
Danny shrugged off the hand, and considered. A shower did sound nice, actually. They'd been walking for hours and right now Danny was sticky with sweat. He could imagine the film of dust covering him, too. And it would be wonderful for his aching feet. Just because his parents occasionally took them on wilderness survival vacations didn't mean Danny liked hiking.
"What's the catch?" Danny asked.
"I'm offering you hospitality, as agreed."
"That doesn't mean there isn't a catch," Danny said. "What is it?"
"Why are you so eager to see ulterior motives in my kindnesses?"
"It's a kindness now?" Danny asked, pointedly.
Caretaker paused, then dropped his hand with a sigh. "The catch is thus: the human world is laden with many poisons. Especially with the destruction of the study, you will be covered with them. I have no wish for you to leave traces of poisonous dust within my home."
That…made sense.
The bathhouse was a pale building nestled on the edge of a large clearing, the path leading up to it as worn and overgrown as everything else beyond the spider’s web gate. Danny was starting to wonder if Caretaker preferred a touch of wilderness, or if wherever they were just lacked a, hah, caretaker.
The sun was low, now. It was not quite brushing the treetops, but the shadow of the forest was already creeping from the shelter of the canopy. The space between the trunks was deep and dark, but not uninviting. A faint breeze ruffled the trees and Danny's hair, and Caretaker's cloak waved gently in it.
The air was sweet.
The first of the three steps to the entryway was cracked. The smaller part of the step tilted away from the center, and a tuft of grass poked from the space it left behind. The steps, at least, were swept clean.
Danny followed Caretaker up them and into the bath house itself.
Despite the wear of the exterior, the interior was clean and in good repair; the door opened to a small room with a tile floor and wooden benches. Light fell from a pair of high windows into the space, criss-crossing the far walls in clean lines without hitting any suspended dust.
Caretaker pulled a towel from a cupboard along the wall and set it down on a bench. "The bath is through the door," he said.
Danny nodded.
After Caretaker left, Danny padded through the doorway. He'd never been in a bathhouse before–he lived in Illinois, not ancient Rome. But it seemed intuitive enough. The stone walls of the exterior were bare on the inside as well, and a wide tile walkway separated them from a large pool. Bath? Danny shrugged mentally. It didn't really matter. The water was clear and inviting, and if Caretaker wanted him to clean himself with it, he didn't expect it to do Danny any harm.
Besides, the trek had left him footsore, dusty, and more than a little sticky. Even if Caretaker hadn't been of the opinion that the human world was full of cooties or whatever, a bath would be nice.
Danny dipped a toe into the water to test and found it cool, verging on cold. Just right for tired feet. He sat at the edge with a sigh, and let them soak for a bit before he slid the rest of the way into the water with another, deeper sigh.
It did feel nice.
Danny scrubbed everywhere he could. He didn't know what the proper decontamination procedures or whatever were if you were covered in something poisonous. But he could try. If Caretaker was right and he was coated in dust poisonous to fae, it would only be right. He wouldn't want poisonous dust in his house, either. And considering he didn't know when the house had been built, maybe there was some stuff poisonous to him, too. Didn't they use lead and asbestos in buildings at some point? And it wasn’t like his parents did normal things in the basement. Who knew what was involved in tearing a hole in reality? He hoped it wasn't mercury. Or anything radioactive. Or poisonous in general.
Anyway.
A nice thorough scrubbing was hardly the worst thing under the circumstances.
Danny surfaced from rinsing his hair and looked at the door. He wondered where Caretaker had gone off to – he hadn't heard footsteps since Caretaker had left him to the bathhouse, and it was starting to feel like a long time.
He should probably finish before Caretaker came back.
The towel was in easy reach. Danny wrapped it at his waist and dripped through the doorway to the changing area.
He stopped cold in the doorway.
“What.”
His clothes were gone.
Where were his clothes?!?
The room wasn't empty.
A dark square of fabric lay under a piece of paper on one of the benches.
His piece of paper, Danny determined after studying it with unsteady hands. It hadn't been swapped out or changed. The rules they'd agreed to were still there. He set it to the side and picked up the cloth.
It slithered through his hands, unfolding into a bunch of much longer material. Some of it fell to the floor and puddled there.
It was probably clothes. Danny breathed out, feeling his pulse fall back from the verge of panic. Okay. He had clothes. They just weren't his clothes. This was fine. Well no. It wasn't fine. The whole thing was very far from fine.
But he had clothes.
…
It made sense, Danny told himself, and remembered to breathe in. If he was covered in poisonous dust, then his clothes were, too. Caretaker was probably just. Taking care of them. Making sure they weren't poisoned, or washing them. and then he'd give them back, and these clothes were just so Danny wouldn't be left without while that happened. Which was nice of him. Generous. Or something.
Weren't you supposed to tell your guest what you were doing, when you did that sort of thing? Assuming Danny believed that it was just kindness.
He didn't, really.
Danny swallowed.
His cereal bars were gone too.
…It wasn't important.
If Caretaker only gave him food with terrible strings attached he'd just go hungry.
Nor through inaction allow me to come to harm, murmured the rules in his head.
The tunic slipped through Danny’s fingers again and fell to the floor. Did hunger count as harm? Starvation would. Going hungry for multiple days probably would.
What was Caretaker allowed to do, to make sure Danny wouldn’t go hungry?
Danny realized he wasn’t breathing again.
Focus.
One problem at a time.
His clothes were gone. His cereal bars were gone. He was still only wearing a towel, but there were clothes he could wear.
He could put on the clothes. At the least, it would make him slower to die of exposure if he had to make a break for the trees.
If, Danny appended a while later, he could figure out how. He'd laid them out on the floor to get a better idea of what they were and overall they seemed…complicated. And a lot. A lot of complexity, a lot of pieces. A lot of embroidery, on some of it.
Well, he had to start somewhere. If nothing else he'd just get decent and then Caretaker could deal with the consequences of replacing all of Danny's clothes. If he wanted to give Danny a confusing mess then he should expect Danny to wear it like a confusing mess.
So there.
Mind made up, Danny reached for the most intuitive part of the ensemble: what was possibly an undershirt.
Danny took stock.
There was no mirror in the bathhouse, but he felt…not sensibly dressed. There was no sensibly dressed with whatever this was. But at least somewhat okay. If Caretaker disagreed, well. He should have left instructions.
Danny looked at the door again, almost expecting Caretaker to appear at the thought of him.
He still hadn't returned.
Danny picked at a sleeve, examining the barely-visible embroidering on it for a moment while he wavered. But he couldn't stay in the bathhouse all week. Danny tucked his paper into a reasonably secure fold and opened the door.
Caretaker was on the other side. "Ah," he said, looking down at Danny. The corners of his mouth tugged it into an almost-smile.
"What?" asked Danny, already irritated by the pointless complexity of the clothes.
“That’s an unusual way to wear those.”
“Well I would hardly know, would I?”
Caretaker cocked his head. “Of course not. I had–”
He interrupted himself by kneeling before Danny, and reaching out for the length of cloth Danny had used to tie his shirt closed. “Here," he said, and pulled it apart in a swift motion. "You need to wear it like this–" he broke off.
This was probably because Danny had frozen. His hands were fisted in his pants tightly enough to ache. Every hair on his arms had puffed out and he stood ramrod straight and stiff as a board. Like imitating wood would make this stop.
In the silence, Danny could hear the belltower tolling away in the distance again, low and soft and something else.
Caretaker withdrew his hands, watching Danny from under his hood; it was light enough still to see more than the glint of his eyes. They looked at one another for a moment, and then Caretaker gathered himself with a breath.
"I do not intend to harm you, child," he said, voice as soft as the ringing.
"I'm not–" said Danny. "I don't. Don't do that." His hands moved to the sash of their own volition and clutched at it maybe a bit too tight. He took a shuddering breath. "What did you do with my clothes?" What did you do with my food?
"They were contaminated as well."
Were. Danny swallowed, and decided that he could freak about what that meant later. Later. One thing at a time.
"Don't touch me like that," he said, and his voice wobbled a bit despite his effort to seem unaffected.
Caretaker frowned. "I was fixing your clothes."
"Yeah. Don't. Look, can you just. I don't know, show me?"
"I was also doing that."
Breathe, Danny.
"Not on me."
Caretaker's eyes flickered over Danny's face. He retracted the hand reaching for Danny and brought it instead to his neck. His frown deepened. "You fear my touch?"
"I–" yes wasn't the truth. Not quite. But no wasn't, either. "Maybe."
The bell in the distance – a clocktower? – gave one final toll, sharper than the rest before falling silent.
"You did not fear it before."
And at that, the panic and fear boiled into fury. Before he knew what he was doing Danny stepped forward, words rushing out of him like steam. "Because you hadn't threatened my parents! You said you'd kill them! You hurt them and scared me and now you've stolen my clothes. What did you even do with my food?!?" He punctuated the last with a jabbed finger.
Caretaker recoiled from it, hands curling in on themselves like dying insects. He stood and his hands vanished behind the folds of his cloak but Danny wasn't done.
"Why are you so surprised that I'm afraid of you after all that? I thought–I thought."
Danny's voice broke. He couldn't finish that sentence. The betrayal was still too thick on his tongue for that. So he fisted his hands in the cloth of his too-strange clothing and changed tacks, voice turning quieter. "Anyone would be afraid, if you showed up and nearly killed their parents and then demanded they come with you to save them." He found himself looking at Caretaker's boots and forced himself to look up again. To meet Caretaker's eyes. "Anyone would be, if the only thing keeping them safe from you was a piece of paper and you took their clothes and their food the moment their back was turned and then showed up like you hadn't done anything at all, and then you, you." Danny shook his head.
Caretaker was silent. Watchful.
"Of course I'm afraid," Danny said again, and the silence trailed between them.
Caretaker remained in the doorway for some time. But the slant of his shoulders was heavy, and he made no move to enter the bathhouse.
Eventually, Danny looked away and down at the towel he'd left piled on one of the seats. He picked it up like fiddling with it would make the situation less awkward. He began to fold it.
"I can take that," said Caretaker, and held out a hand. It was the first thing he'd said since Danny had said he was afraid of him, and his voice was soft, the movement ginger, his fingers still.
Danny tossed it to him.
"And," added Caretaker. "I can show you how to tie your sash."
"I know how to tie knots," Danny snapped.
Caretaker did not react to the venom. "Later, then. You will need to be properly dressed the day after tomorrow."
At the reminder that he was here to fulfill some purpose, Danny's stomach dropped. He'd forgotten. How had he forgotten that Caretaker wanted him for something? That he hadn't just kidnapped Danny to torment him or to dress him up.
"Why?" Danny asked.
"It will be a formal ceremony."
"A ceremony? Will there be other fae? Will they–will they know I'm human?" Danny asked.
"No," said Caretaker. A hint of amusement sneaked back into his voice. "No others. Just you and me. You do not need to worry about fooling anyone."
"Then," said Danny. "Why is how I'm dressed important? Why can't I just dress how I want? Like a t-shirt and jeans."
The amusement vanished. "You must be dressed appropriately," Caretaker snapped.
Danny's anger sputtered like a fire quenched. He drew back, feeling ice race along his skin even as the terrible expression which had crossed Caretaker's face vanished as swiftly as it appeared. Concern replaced it, and Caretaker stepped forward.
Danny stepped back.
Caretaker almost shrank in place. His shoulders fell with his head and for a moment he seemed only skin and bones and exhaustion. He hung still, silhouetted by the doorway. Behind him, the dying evening light burnished the trees and garden in copper.
"I have no desire to hurt you," he said, and Danny knew now that he was lying. "I–"
Silence choked the next word.
Caretaker blocked the door. The hand–the claw holding Danny’s towel flexed unnaturally.
The first cicadas began to scream. It was almost enough to cover the sound of the distant clocktower, ringing again.
“If you are hungry, there is food,” Caretaker offered. It was quiet. He was still playing at smallness. Like Danny hadn't seen the ugly truth of him just now.
“I’m not hungry,” Danny lied, and wondered if Caretaker would call him on it.
The cicada-song swelled.
“In that case,” Caretaker said. “I will show you to where you may sleep.”
It was a spacious room.
It was also spartan. There was a bed, a window, a wardrobe. The walls were plain and bare, the floor, cold. There was no rug. There were no paintings or pictures or tapestries on the walls, and no designs engraved on them either. When Danny opened it, the wardrobe was similarly empty. It smelled only vaguely woody and a little sharp.
Danny shut its doors and looked at Caretaker, who loomed at the entrance, the towel still an incongruous presence in his claws.
They were in a small building in the same large clearing as the bathhouse, built with the same stone and low angles, and in the back of his mind Danny wondered why they were so similar when the house he'd glimpsed through the trees was so different.
It didn't matter.
What did was the way Caretaker was lingering just outside the doorway. With his hood still up, the twilight was now deep enough to swallow the subtleties of his expressions but the slump of his shoulders remained visible.
Danny ignored it. "Is this a prison?" he asked, squinting at Caretaker.
"No," said Caretaker, voice a hoarse whisper. Had Danny still believed that he was kind, he would have believed that Caretaker was devastated. But fae were adept at lying without speaking untruths. Pretending horror or defeat would be a good way to do it.
Danny narrowed his eyes, and tried again. "Are you planning to keep me here against my will?"
Caretaker straightened. "I am not planning to violate the terms of our agreement."
That wasn't what he'd asked.
"Do you think," asked Caretaker before Danny could respond with another question, "that our agreement is unambiguously not against your will?"
Oh.
"Do not think that I have deluded myself into believing you are happy to be here, child.” Caretaker’s voice was quiet and exhausted. ”Nor that you would be here without need on your part." Soundlessly, his silhouette turned.
"Then why is it so empty?" asked Danny.
It was a moment before Caretaker responded. His hood tilted in Danny’s direction.
"Would you accept a well-appointed room? Or would you grow suspicious that the comforts of it were intended to bewitch you?"
"But there isn't even a rug."
Caretaker turned back towards Danny. "The rooms in the house are more comfortable. Would you prefer one of them?"
A choice.
The pit that had been twisting in Danny's stomach for ages gave a yank. Caretaker had suggested that Danny clean up, and then replaced his clothes.
What was the expression? Give an inch and they'll take a mile?
Was this a test?
A way to get a foot in the door, make another crack in Danny's…everything?
What was going on?
Danny swallowed. "No. I'm okay here."
The outline of Caretaker's hood bowed in a nod. There was a rustle of cloth, and Danny felt something cold and hard pressed into his hand.
"Um."
"Whisper into it if you require me. I will hear."
And with that, Caretaker was gone.
There wasn't much to do after that than crawl into bed and sleep.
Or try to.
The insect hum that had built through nightfall was thick and heavy in the air. It sat on his chest and buzzed and it seemed almost to weigh at the passage of time as well; It felt like the line of moonlight through the window hadn’t moved in hours.
Danny stared up at the ceiling and tried to concentrate on the dark shapes of the beams crossing it. Counted them, tried to count the knots he could see in the wood, traced his eyes along the shadows' edges.
Tried to drown his thoughts in the relentless insect hum from outside.
It wasn't that there was something wrong with the bed. It was soft, and the sheets were clean and cool in the summer night air. Nothing itched.
His nose did. Danny scratched it.
There was nothing wrong with the bed. There were no lumps, it didn't squeak when he shifted his weight or any of the other things that could be keeping him up. They smelled odd but not alarmingly so, like sleeping over at Tucker's house and smelling a different detergent on the sheets.
Not a friend's house.
Everything was wrong.
Danny was scared. He was scared and alone in the dark in a strange place in another world he'd never had much luck escaping by himself and someone he’d trusted had nearly killed his parents and he didn’t know how they were even doing and it was very, very hard not to imagine all the horrible things that could happen when he could only look up at the ceiling and try to distract himself from the knot in his stomach with the knots in the rafters he could barely see.
He got up.
The door was a vague shadow on the wall, and Danny considered it. Remembered his parents’ preoccupation with thresholds, remembered the way Caretaker had stayed just outside the door.
Maybe…maybe he shouldn’t open it.
The light from the full moon through the window was enough to see by, and Danny shuffled across the silvered patch of floor to look out. If he couldn't sleep, then maybe he could at least look at something more interesting than the ceiling.
The clearing was still. The trees stood sentinel around it, the space between them dark as the sky above.
He could see the overgrown maze of bushes between the buildings. It was everywhere; climbing up walls and piling on itself. He'd thought the path Caretaker had led him along was badly overgrown, but from the window he could see another path vanish entirely into a mess of probably-shrubs.
Who was supposed to take care of this? People with lots of land had gardeners, right?
Had Caretaker done something to his?
Movement caught Danny's eye and he crouched down to peer over the windowsill.
A figure wound its way among the plants with smooth movements that belied the waist deep plants. It wasn't dressed in Caretaker's dark cloak–instead it was covered in a pale cloth. It knelt and vanished behind a mess of twigs.
What was it doing? Danny rose to get a better view, and succeeded only in seeing a sliver of white and obscure movement among the bushes. Some twigs trembled, and Danny swayed to the side to look, to no avail.
After some time, it stood.
Danny froze, heart hammering. But it wasn’t enough.
Slowly, the dark of its face turned towards Danny.
It froze.
For long moments, nothing moved.
And then the figure turned away and slipped along a different path, out of sight.
Danny pulled himself away from the window, no longer sleepy in the least.
Weren't there fae you weren't supposed to look in the eye? What if this was one of them? Caretaker had agreed Danny wouldn't be harmed during the deal but what about after it? Had Danny just stumbled into a trap where he had to agree to more deals with Caretaker to keep safe from an irate fae he wouldn't even have seen if not for the deal he'd had to make to keep his parents safe?
Was that the reason for all this?
He slid down the wall, one hand over his mouth in an effort to keep quiet, half convinced that any moment the fae he’d just seen would come howling at the door.
The door– he hoped thresholds held weight here.
What was he going to do?
What did Caretaker want?
He’d never said.
He’d never said.
How could Danny have forgotten to ask? How hadn't he pressed the question?
What would Caretaker make Danny do? What was happening the day after tomorrow that he needed to be dressed up?
What was happening tomorrow that he didn't?
The knot in his stomach sprouted into a more intricate dread and grew up his ribs, gripping at his lungs and heart.
…
Danny curled in on himself, head filling with horrors.
No matter how the night dragged on, the morning would come too soon.
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The Rose and The Thorn
Merry Christmas! This is my Secret Santa gift for the ever so lovely @sunalsolove! I'm so excited to finally get to share this fic with you! It kind of turned into a long one so I will figure out posting schedule soon! I hope you are having the happiest of holidays!
Fic Summary: Five years after World War I, Jemma's father, a former soldier, receives a letter from a young man he met on the front lines. The man asks for her father's aid in finishing the life-saving research they started during the war. However, with her father unable to answer the young man's call for help, Jemma decides to take his place. Snowed in at the young man's grand manor, Jemma must work towards not only helping in finishing her father's research, but also in discovering the many mysteries surrounding the Rose-Thistle Manor and its reclusive owner, Leo Fitz.
Chapter 1: Once upon a time...
Sneak Peak: For as long as anyone could remember, Rose-Thistle Manor had sat upon the hill at the very edge of the village, nestled amongst the tall dark pine trees, animal lairs, and wild flowers for which it was named.
Read it here on Ao3!
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Peter Pan in Tsubasa of Phantasia didn't want to grow up because he didn't want to lose relationships(Memories of the past) with friends or he didn't want to change to become something else(This fear is the same as Punch and Gilgamesh afraid of death. And that's why Peter Pan would never let go of Tinkerbell, the only family he has now.) but after he met Wendy and Zelda.
Peter: You've changed.
Wendy: Not really. Not ever ...
Peter Pan is immortality but he knows he will lose them someday, if he makes a connection with them. Peter decides to go out into the Outside world with Tinkerbell. And the first friend that Peter will never forget, a precious memory that brings him back to the duties of King Arthur, is "Syaoran". And that time after that from season 1 to season 5, Peter chose himself to not shut down or protect himself to exist. Because of that decision he finally finds the someone he looking for for so long is Punch and this time Peter won't let go of Punch and will continue to protect Punch.
When Tinkerbell see this Relationship between Peter and Punch Tinkerbell comes to support Peter as well because Peter's not different from her.
Once Tinker Bell finds parts of a music box on the beach and figures out how to put them back together. Iridessa, Fawn, Silvermist, and Rosetta witness her doing this, then tell her that she was tinkering and that she should be proud of her talent. They tell her that if this is what she is good at, then the Mainland should not matter. Regardless of what they say, Tinker Bell is still set on going to the Mainland. She asks Rosetta if she will still try to teach her to be a garden fairy, but Rosetta says she thinks that tinkering is Tinker Bell's talent.
Tinker Bell decides to leave Pixie Hollow because of the destruction she caused, but after talking with the dust-talent fairy Terence about how important his job is, she realizes the importance of being a tinker. Tinker Bell redeems herself by inventing machines that quicken the process of decorating flowers, ladybugs, etc. This allows the other fairies to get back on schedule, thus saving the arrival of spring. Tinkerbell and Vidia quarrel causing Vidia to admit in front of the other fairies that she told Tinkerbell to capture the thistles. This leads Vidia to being punished by Queen Clarion. Queen Clarion also allows Tinker Bell to join the nature-talent fairies when they bring spring to the Mainland. More specifically, Tinker Bell is given the task of delivering the music box to its original owner (shown to be Wendy Darling). The narrator ends by saying that when lost toys are found or a broken clock starts to work, "it all means that one very special fairy might be near."
We're already "special" since we were born and don't hate the life you born into this world.
Tinkerbell: Yes. Because I’m a tinker. It’s who I am. And tinkers fix things. But I can't do it alone.
Tinkerbell and Punch together heal Peter Pan's wound from his cruel fate in the past like Syaoran and the burden of King Arthur. From now on Peter accepts to grow up but does not change his personality and that makes him become a hero once again.
#hint#Relationship between Peter and Punch#tsubasa of phantasia#tsofph season 11#Tsofph peter pan#tinkerbell#punch whalen#Yes. Because I’m a tinker. It’s who I am. And tinkers fix things. But I can't do it alone.#Tsofph Season 10(Chapter2 Fake World)#The legend of king Arthur#Peter or Link the Hero of Time's life was not different from Syaoran#Syaoran and Peter (Since they are also the protagonists) can't let go of their past so Punch and Sonic save them.
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wait hawkfrost's turnaround??? hawkfrost redemption real???
Yes!
There are two things that bother me massively about Hawkfrost's story, and I've got fixes that are going to pinpoint both of these.
Hawkfrost inherited evil.
Because he never met his father until after the journey, and RiverClan has apparently completely moved on from supporting TigerClan and wanting to murder mixed-Clan cats and is sooo sorry (i hate shadow in riverclan), it implies Hawkfrost is the problem. His death is just the removal of a 'bad apple' allowing RiverClan to Finally Have Peace. There Is No Need To Throw Out The Barrel :) No deeper systemic issue at play, here.
Evil people can't change.
Born evil, died evil, continued to be evil in death. Pair this with the way the Dark Forest had no plan besides Doing Violence and the fact we only BRIEFLY spoke about redemption in the last arc, it implies he's just a ball of malice with nothing deeper.
There is actually a lot I like about Hawkfrost as a villain! But these are the two things I felt were most important to fix, so I worked with these two things as a guiding philosophy to reduxing Hawkfrost.
FIX 1: Inheriting Evil
Instead of inheriting evil, Hawkfrost is radicalized by ex-TigerClan supporters in RiverClan.
Blackclaw, Skyheart, Heavystep, and his mentor Leopardstar think there were "some problems" with Tigerstar, but hey, why throw out the kitten with the tonguewash? Thistle Law did not have the reckoning in RiverClan that it had in other Clans.
Leopardstar had a brief period of guilt after the fervor of TigerClan drained away, and in a better time, may have had a true reckoning with what she allowed to happen... but as time passed, the shame, the fear, and the repentance began to fade and she started to remember those days with some fondness.
And Hawkfrost was all those best qualities of his father, without the bad ones. Or, that's what they saw and encouraged.
The death of Hawkfrost is actually one of the most important aspects of Bonefall TNP, imo... because this time his death doesn't make the ideas go away. Mistyfoot thought it would fix it, just like the last time a Tigerkin died in a bloody and horrific way, but RiverClan is still hardening. They don't believe he impaled himself on the spike Mothwing was holding. They think ThunderClan had something to do with it.
The argument about the meeting island is brought up again and RiverClan explodes into an argument. Mistyfoot looks up at her leader begging her to stop the fighting, and the sun turns Leopardstar into a shadow
The shape of a cat lounging on top of a pile, staring down at her with amber-eyed amusement. It's the Bonehill. It's the cheering crowd. It's Stonefur's last stand all over again.
She realizes that Hawkfrost was just another type of victim; and these ideas will not die unless they are killed.
FIX 2: Evil Can't Change
Hawkfrost is able to realize he has been used.
I find this important because the redemption and death of Hawkfrost should do what Snowtuft's does, functionally, waaaay off in TBC. It shows it's possible, but the question is put off because of his untimely death to leave it open for future arcs to pick back up on.
Though it's also important to not say that Ivypool "fixed" him. It is a realization he has on his own, helped along through the way he becomes her Dark Forest mentor.
(REMINDER: Mentorships are best described as being similar to getting a third parent in this rewrite)
I'm still planning the exact order of scenes to determine how this happens, but I do have several in mind.
Ivypool's Horse
A cute moment where, as a mentor, he tries to reward her by bringing her to see the nightmares. The scene is important for several reasons;
1. horsie
2. It establishes the Dark Forest is not actually a prison to escape. It has beauty and fun in it just like any other territory. He never realized that before.
3. Shows he isn't completely lost. The bar is so low it is literally in Hell but he does consider the needs of his apprentice, more than just training a soldier.
A Chat with Leopardstar
Every day, Leopardstar is reminded of what she supported, and of what TigerClan really was like. She's demoted back to lackey status and Hawkfrost sees his proud mentor getting pushed around. Leopardstar deeply regrets a lot of things, and chats honestly with Hawkfrost about them.
1. This conversation makes Hawkfrost connect the dots that he is doing to the trainees what was done to him, though he doesn't make the connection that this is Bad yet, ("when the dark forest is StarClan we will BE their gods so it's fine. It's all for the Cause.")
2. It starts to sink in what Tigerstar does to people-- uses them.
The horrifying death of Antpelt
He did NOT know that the living could kill Dark Forest warriors. This event shakes confidence in many fighters, but especially Ivypool who experiences survivor's guilt feeling like she's the reason he's gone.
1. Suddenly there's actual stakes to this. Attacking the living could mean dying to them-- is that something he wants to risk?
2. Ivypool is distraught
Something to do with infighting
The Dark Forest demons have MANY different motivations and don't always get along. Ripplestar and Spottedpelt are being convinced to fight for revenge, Ryewhisker and Cloudberry want the abolishment of the Law of Loyalty, Clawface is a true believer in Thistle Law, Runningnose looks like he's planning something. Hawkfrost has to get in the middle of these opinions and prevent the coalition from falling apart.
1. Exposes him to new ideas
2. Shows that Hawkfrost is doing a LOT of the work of maintaining the alliance and remembering several lies at once, which is very tiring.
3. Allows Ivypool to realize he's telling people what they want to hear and trust him less, which is a blow to him.
Flametail
When he dies, the Dark Forest cats are prepared to get rid of him so he won't end up ascending to StarClan and taking their secrets with him. Tigerstar steps in and prevents this from happening.
1. THIS is the moment Hawkfrost realizes he will always be second fiddle to Tiger's first litter. "...he never would have done that for Mothwing."
2. There is no great commitment to a cause. Tigerstar is just doing whatever he wants. If he's going to just be saving random people he likes... what's the point of attacking?
3. I want this one to be one of the last ones.
As you can see it's a lot of planning about what I WANT to do. Less of an actual roadmap.
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Eternal happiness among us
Pairing: Simon “Ghost ” Riley x f!Reader ( OC aka Mini MacTavish )
Summary: Epilogue to the Mini MacTavish series : Simon route
Confession time.
Warning: Mature Themes, Swearing, hints of sexy time. fluff ( yes, I finally add in some fluffs), alcohol use, violence mentioned.
A/N : Kind of Continuation/parallel universe of @saltofmercury ’s “The Favorite MacTavish” , where the reader/OC is Soap’s little sister. PLEASE GO READ HER STORY first to make sense of this series. Thank you for leading me your character!
“masterlist” for more stories to this Mini MacTavish expanded verse.
When he promise you he will take things slow this time round.
IT WAS SLOW.
Always the same routine. He comes back from the mission, forces one of the boys ( they always happily accept ) from the squad to babysit, takes you out for a quiet dinner, take you home. Never stays overnight.
He always picks you up, look at you in the eyes first for permission before reaching for your hand. Two of you will then stroll down to the Italian restaurant not far from your house, order two pasta, two glasses of wine, a dessert to share, and slowly walk home.
He didn't attempt to kiss you until the seventh date. On the CHEEK.
He tries to be a good father. He made an effort to spend as much time as he can with the kids while he is back in UK. Little Johnny always keen to "talk" to his father, blabbering baby languages ( "I did say he is like you. Chatterbox." Simon joked.) While Aileen was slower to warm up to him ( You could see he was disheartened when Aileen screamed and refuses to let him hold her first few weeks.) One day she crawled slowly towards Simon, all by herself and open her arm demanding her father to pick her up. Simon's heart just melt. He knew he was a goner by then. He is determined from that day onward no pests is good enough for his baby daughter.
Months later after the start ( restart?) of the slow courtship, Soap was staying over few nights in London, he sat you down and announce that their upcoming mission will be taking them away for at least six months. His eyes flickers towards Emma who was preparing dinner in the kitchen. " Probably have to go dark for a period of time. Can't say much but we got solid lead to bust one of the larger cartels in the area."
He usually isn't the one that will give you information voluntarily about work. Your sense is tingling. You don't have a good feeling about this. The kids will miss their uncle. Their dad. You will miss your brother. You will miss your... date? boyfriend? father of your child?
You and Simon haven't really had " the talk ". Gosh , it sounds so silly putting it that way. You two basically have done things in strange order. Meet, became acquaintance, had sex, produced babies, near confession plus rejection , going on date and.. what?
What if they don't return?
Hurrying up the stairs, into your room, you drag out a shoebox from the depth of the wardrobe. As soon as you found what you were looking for at the bottom of the box and set right to work.
Next night, Simon came over again. Out for dinner. Usual routine. But something felt different this time. The atmosphere seems more tense. His thumb rubbing along your knuckles as you two slowly walk home.
Stopping at the front door of the house, you turn around to face him. Gathering courage, you fidget with the small object in your pocket.
"Simon." He look down towards you, "I .. um.. want you to have this." Pressing the small polaroid photo into his hand. it shows picture of you and a very begrudge looking Ghost, looking away from the camera. Both of you look like you been off your head. The photo that was taken after you met Ghost for the first time and narrowly lost to him after the drinking game. You can see a hint of smile on his face while looking at the photo.
Turning the photo over, there was a dried Thistle on the back of it.
" ...I gave one as well to Johnny when he first joined SAS as a good luck charm... Thistle means strength and protection.." you look at his large, callous hand. " Come back in one piece Simon. The kids need their father.. I need their father." you swallowed, looking up at him,
" I need you. I can't imagine losing you." you confessed. Tears filling your eyes. Next second you feel his lip on yours. You moaned into his mouth. Tiptoeing up, pressing your body into his, wanting to get closer, to feel him. He deepens the kiss.
"Aye ye two! remember protection this time round!!! Guest bedroom downstairs is free!! "jumping apart when you heard Soap yelling from the second floor window and feeling of embarrassment rising, you quickly buried your heated face into Ghost's chest.
"I swear.. that bampot cockblocking brother of mine.." You mumbled.
"Git awa' an bile yer heid!" Simon shouted back as he hold you tight. Pair of hand appeared behind Soap and yanked him back inside.
" Sorry! please continue!" Shouted Emma as she slam shut the window.
Lifting your head with horror, " Simon! Where did you learn that?!!"
"Heard it from Soap when he told me to fuck off once. " He shrugged.
" What? My kids are half Scottish, I need to learn some words."
You laughed. " If I hear them running around saying that.. I will chop you and Johnny's head off first."
As the laughter settle, you two pulled apart. He gave you one last kiss on the lip before stepping away , ready to leave. You grab his arm to stop him.
" .... Stay for the night? Please?" You whispered. His eyes darkened.
" .. Are you sure." " I am. Just like last time. I am sure."
That night, he confessed with the three words you never thought will ever hear coming out from his mouth as you drifted off to sleep, both worn out from the passionate yet tender session.
" I love you."
Don't worry they won't die. lol
If any of you have read my alternative ending ""Thistle and Thorn" ( which i wrote before writing this epilogue) you will know the meaning of the thistle and more story behind it.
Well. This is the end of Simon's route. I was going to add bit of drabble with this, but it felt right to end the chapter where it is. I'll put up a drabble chapter just for the domestic life after. If anyone ever noticed, I been dropping hints here and there setting up for Soap x OC/Reader if I manage to finish off König's route.
THANK YOU all again for all the likes, comments and reblogs. That kept me going, wanting to write more.
#simon riley#simon ghost riley x you#simon ghost riley x reader#simon riley imagine#simon riley x reader#simon riley x you#task force 141#cod konig#konig#john soap mactavish#johnny soap mactavish#captain price#captain john price#kyle gaz garrick#cod mw2 imagine
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BG3FicFeb Day 16
SFW: Inspired by your favorite song, poem, book.
I struggled a bit with this, as it is hard to pin down a specific media piece that I don’t just hyper fixate on for a while (Hi Baldur's Gate). By wonderful chance, one of my favorite full albums is The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists. It is a rock opera, that already tells a tragic story throughout the entire album, and the more I thought about it, the archetypes in it would fit very well into an AU story with characters from Baldur’s Gate 3.
This story is a tragedy, so beware that it is much different and darker than my usual angst and smut. I’ve cried like a baby in public listening to this album and cried writing the final song drabble. And sorry if this makes you hate Astarion a little. He is such a complex character, with a lot of potential to be good or evil.
Content Warnings: Sex, philandering, infanticide/filicide, kidnapping, attempted sexual assault, miscarriage, death/suicide. Nothing is written in graphic detail and is as concise as possible in its descriptions.
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Prelude
Margaret Tavish (AKA Tav) was promised to the Goddess Chauntea and lives in the cloister in Baldur’s Gate, as a young initiate. William Halsin was abandoned at birth by his impoverished wood elf parents and was discovered by the cruel Goddess Talona, who raised him as her child. She granted him Druidic powers as well as immortality.
The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone (The Hazards of Love Part 1)
Tav borrowed a horse from the cloister stables, intending to go for a short ride. She hated the coldness of the city, even though the cloister of Chauntea was covered in nature. She put a gray cloak over her white and green initiates robe, and sat side-saddle, riding at a soft gallop past the walls of the city, heading to the small forest nearby. She found a good spot to tie up her horse and went to explore the forest, hoping to bring back some medicinal plants for the Mother Superior.
As she gathered a handful of thistle, she saw a flash of white in her peripheral vision. She glanced over, seeing a pure white fawn struggling to walk, its hind leg maimed by a hunter’s trap. The fawn caught her glance, but did not run, staring back at her. “Don’t worry,” Tav put up her hands, setting her thistle down. “I won’t hurt you.”
The fawn’s ears twitched in response, as if it could understand her. “I know a healing spell,” she eased to her feet, hoping the creature would let her approach. “I can try to heal you.”
She approached it slowly, its eyes fixed on her with curiosity. It had laid down, its breath rapid from its struggle to walk. “It’s alright,” she knelt beside it, reaching her hands out to begin weaving the healing spell.
As the magic flowed around her hands, the fawn suddenly began to change, its white fur turning to golden brown skin and growing to the size of a man. He was handsome, with long brown hair that was half pulled up around his pointed ears. He had a sturdy frame and eyes that shone with kindness. Tav felt a heat growing over her as the man stared into her eyes. “Thank you,” he said, taking her hands gently in his.
“Are…are you a Druid?” She asked, feeling a blush across her face. Her life in the cloister was fairly sheltered, but he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen in all her time in the city.
“Something like that,” he nodded with a smile. “What is your name?”
“Margaret…but everyone calls me Tav.”
“You can call me Halsin,” he responded, her hands still held in his. They blushed at each other awkwardly, their eyes fixed on one another.
“Will you be alright?” she finally asked, looking down at his ankle, still red from the wound he’d sustained in his wild shape.
“I think so,” he tried to stand up with her help.
He stumbled a bit, pulling her close as he did. They looked into one another’s eyes again, both utterly and completely smitten. “I have never met anyone more beautiful in my entire life,” he brushed a strand of hair from her face.
“You are the most handsome man I have ever seen,” she reached up to caress his cheek, already feeling her body collapsing against him. Their connection was magnetic and instant.
He bent down to kiss her, softly at first, but feeling an immediate ardor and lust for her, engulfing her in a long, slow kiss. When he was finally able to wrest his mouth from hers, she looked up at him with that same ardor, her heart racing along with his. He pulled her in for another kiss, their bodies melting into one. They found their way to the forest floor, slowly pulling their clothes off. They made love gently, under the canopy of the forest, their moans joined by birdsong and the soft whisper of the wind. At the end of their ecstatic joining, they lay nestled together on Tav’s grey cloak. “I’m sorry, Halsin, but I have to go,” Tav looked up at the fading daylight. The Mother Superior would already be upset that she’d been gone this long, if she didn’t make it home before dark, there would be greater consequences.
“I wish we could stay here forever,” he gazed into her eyes, but understood that she couldn’t just disappear.
“Will I ever see you again?” She asked as she reached for her clothes.
“I wander through these forests quite frequently. If you ever find yourself here again, just sing for me, and I will come,” he kissed her again.
They both dressed and shared one last kiss, promising each other they would meet again soon. He left her at the forest’s edge, watching her ride back towards the city. He felt the darkness of the forest creeping in on him, a waft of decay filling the air. His mother was calling for him to return. He shifted into his wild shape, ambling away as Tav’s figure grew even more distant.
A Bower Scene
When Tav returned to the cloister after dark, the Mother Superior gave her an earful, revoking her stable privileges for three months. Tav sulked back to her room, but as she lay down in bed, his warm seed still inside her, she felt it was worth it. She thought about him every day, clasping her hand to her thigh as she remembered the wonderful moment they shared.
When her bleeding didn’t come a month later, she felt both panic and elation. The Mother Superior would be livid to find her with child, but Tav didn’t care. She just hoped she could hide her pregnancy for the remaining two months and then she would just disappear with one of the horses.
Secrets weren’t easily kept in the cloister, and by the second month all the other initiates were gossiping behind Tav’s back. When word reached the Mother Superior, she called Tav into her chambers. “So, Margaret…I’ve heard talk that you’ve missed your bleeding two months in a row…I assume it was the wretch that kept you away until dark?”
“He’s not a wretch, Mother Superior! I love him,” Tav confessed.
“Love, my sweet child? Has he ever come to see you here? I know you haven’t had visitors in the past two months, unless you have been sneaking off. He bedded and forgot you and left you in a bad way. You will not be able to raise a child here. It will be put up for adoption as soon as you deliver it.”
“You can’t take my child away,” Tav clutched her stomach, her small bump just beginning to form.
“I can and I will,” the Mother insisted. “You were entrusted to my care, to shape you into a loyal servant of Chauntea. I will do just that.”
“Damn you!” Tav swore, running out of her chambers in tears.
She went to her dorm, crying on her bed, cradling her stomach in her hands. “I know Halsin loves me. I felt it in the way he looked at me, and the joy I felt with him,” she cried to herself. She brooded for a while, hatching a plan in her mind as her tears dried. She waited until dark, sneaking past the older clerics who kept an eye over the initiates and sneaked into the stables. She left everything behind in her room, aside from her robes and cloak. She didn’t even bother saddling the horse, riding it bareback out of the city and towards the forest.
Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
Margaret left the horse, leaving it untied so it could wander its way back to the city. She conjured a simple Light spell and began to make her way into the forest. She had no idea if Halsin was near, but she was determined to keep walking until she could find him, singing a soft song to herself. Exhaustion eventually overtook her and she lay down in a patch of Columbine flowers, wrapping her cloak around her. When she awoke in the morning, greeted by the sweet song of a mistle thrush, she continued her journey.
Halsin had returned to the forest many times in the past two months, hoping to see Tav again. He also sang as he walked, hoping to call his true love to him. He couldn’t imagine what had kept her away, knowing in his heart that they were destined to be together. Just as he’d almost lost hope, he heard a quiet voice drift along the wind. He followed the sound, finding Tav wandering the forest, half-starved and weak from exhaustion.
He ran to her at once, lifting her off her feet with a happy shout. “Tav, my heart, I knew you would return,” he set her down, planting a kiss on her lips.
“Halsin,” she smiled up at him. “I’m so sorry it took me so long…the Mother Superior would let me…”
“It doesn’t matter now,” he kissed her again, holding her close. “You are here now…and…” He felt the slight roundness of her belly against his. “You are…pregnant?” He beamed.
“I am,” she smiled as he dropped to his knees and kissed her belly.
Wager All (The Hazards of Love Part 2)
Halsin whisked her away, finding her food and water and making a soft bed for them among the clover. They made love again, remaining in their lover’s repose until the birds called the dawn upon them. He weaved flowers into her hair as they walked among the trees, already making plans for themselves and their new child. They would somehow make a life for themselves among these woods, their love the only thing that mattered.
The Queen’s Approach
They had no idea they were being watched by dark and pestilent eyes.
Isn’t It A Lovely Night?
Tav and Halsin settled in for another night in the forest, a cloud of fireflies shining down as they lay nestled against one another on a thick carpet of thistledown. Halsin lay with his head resting on her stomach, singing softly to their unborn child. “I knew from that first moment, when we lay together, that I loved you,” he looked up at her, gently stroking her skin.
“And what a wonderful gift that moment gave us,” she smiled down at him, her fingers interwined in his hair.
“I hope to give you many more,” he found his way up to her lips, kissing her softly. They made love once again, oblivious to the dark shadows creeping around them.
The Wanting Comes in Waves/ Repaid
Halsin awoke in the middle of the night, the cold, cruel air disturbing his skin. He once again smelled decay and heard the quiet cracking of twigs underfoot, like bones snapping out of flesh. He got up carefully, wrapping Tav in her cloak so she would not wake. He walked towards the void in the forest, that was bereft of all sound and life. “Mother…I know you are here,” he spoke into the darkness.
The hiss in the wind answered him. “This is how I am repaid?”
“I owe you everything, Mother. My entire life and my powers. But…I love her.”
“I gave you everything, my son. I saved you from death, made you undying, let you wander at your will. But you find yourself wanting more. This is how I am repaid?”
“I did not mean for this to happen…but how can I turn my back on her now?”
“You would not exist without me. You would have died in your crib. It is you who have turned your back on me. This is how I am repaid?”
“Please,” Halsin begged. “Just allow me one more night with her. Let me take her to safety. I have served you for so long, you owe me a life. Just one night.”
“And if I grant this request? I will keep you forever afterwards, never to return to the mortal world.”
“Fine,” he nodded, knowing he would never return to her.
“Consider your debt repaid,” the wind howled, pulling his immortality and powers from him, the darkness seeping away.
An Interlude
Halsin returned to Tav, still sleeping peacefully. He lay down beside her, wondering how he could escape his mother. She might not even allow him to escape, her powers reaching far and wide. He would enjoy all the time left he had with his love, pulling her bundled frame close to him. He slipped an amber ring onto her finger, a trinket he’d found during his time wandering the forest. If his mother managed to take him, she would still have a small reminder of him.
The Rake’s Song
Astarion had been afforded every luxury in his life, the son of a noble Upper City family. He was already a magistrate at the young age of 21 and could have anything he wanted. One day his eyes set upon a beautiful woman and he married her at once, bedding her nightly, even when she became heavy with child. They named their firstborn Isaiah and soon enough, his wife found herself pregnant once again. He still enjoyed the fruits of other women, returning to berate his wife for losing her figure and otherwise ignoring his infant son.
When his wife gave birth to twin girls, Charlotte and a terribly colic Dawn, he felt himself suddenly trapped in his own personal Hell. His lust for his wife had been the only thing on his mind when they’d married and now he was stuck in a house full of screaming children. His wife grew frail and overwhelmed, him continuing to bed her as often as she had the energy for and even sometimes when she didn’t. She found herself once again pregnant with their fourth child.
By some miracle of a cruel God, or just his constant neglect and abuse, his wife passed in childbirth along with their unborn daughter, who he barely even bothered to name Myfanwy. Now a widower, he found himself caring for three unwanted children with an armful of servants to do what they could. It wasn’t enough and he began to plan for their untimely deaths. He poisoned one of his daughters with a sweet laced with foxglove. Dawn, who had developed asthma due to her colic, drowned easily when she was left in a bath unattended. Isaiah was the trickiest to get rid of, old enough to avoid his cruel father. He fought back when Astarion tried suffocating him with a pillow, managing to crack one of his ribs with a sharp kick, but still he passed and Astarion burned his body in the fireplace.
Astarion returned to his old life of philandering, bedding whoever he wished, without a second thought or regret about his dead children. His cruelty caught the eye of an equally cruel Goddess, who came to him one night with a proposition, which he accepted. He left his manor in Baldur’s Gate and rode towards the forest that lay outside the city.
The Abduction of Margaret
Halsin had left Tav to sleep some more, wandering the forest in search of food for her, still trying to figure out a way to escape from his mother’s clutches. Guided by the whispering voice of Talona, Astarion found his way to the sleeping woman. He seized her with a firm hand as she slept, clapping his hand over her mouth and pressing his body on top of her to bind her wrists and ankles. “What are you doing? Who are you?” She cried before he gagged her and slung her rudely across the back of his horse. Talona guided him again, this time towards the Chiontar River.
The Queen’s Rebuke/ The Crossing
Talona would see her son returned to her, no matter what. Margaret would be the one thing that could keep him from her, so she offered the woman’s life to Astarion to do as he pleased. There was little that could stop her powers, commanding all the cruelties of nature. When Astarion arrived to the raging river on horseback, with Tav bound and gagged, she parted the waters for him to cross safely. Halsin would never be able to follow them across the rapids and it would take more than a day for him to find a way around. By then, she would be able to reclaim him, as dawn came and his promised night of freedom was over.
Annan Water
Halsin had heard Margaret’s strangled cry and had run back to the glade he’d left in, only to see her being carried away by a white haired elf. He followed as quickly as his legs could carry him, managing to steal a pair of horses from a nearby homestead. He rode furiously in pursuit of the rake who had stolen his beloved, but found his path blocked by the raging river in front of him. He rode up and down the banks, looking for a safe place to cross but found none.
He tried to summon any residual magic, so he could wild shape into a bird, but his mother had taken everything but his life from him. “Margaret!” He screamed into the air, praying that some other deity might grant him the favor of seeing his beloved again. He swore he could hear her calling him, her voice strangled by some force. He collapsed onto the bank, beating his fists into the ground, his tears flowing into the river. “Please,” he begged. “I will offer you my life in return. Just let me cross and see her again.”
Margaret in Captivity
Astarion pulled Tav rudely off his horse, setting her down on the ground without a care. He sunk onto an old chair and grinned at her terrified eyes. “Now, what to do with you, my pretty thing?” He looked her over. She was barely clothed aside from the cloak wrapped around her. He looked at the round of her stomach with disgust. “Already ruined I see,” he sneered at her. His divine employer had not mentioned that fact. “Oh well,” he sighed, pulling out his dagger. “That just means I won’t keep you around for long, but we can still have some fun.” He took his dagger to the binding on her ankles, pressing himself on top of her as she screamed and thrashed against him, calling for Halsin to find her. “No one can hear you, darling,” he began to cut off what clothing she was wearing. “And the more you struggle, the more I’ll like it.”
She closed her eyes as his knife torn away her clothing and his hands groped her vulgarly. She called to Halsin, to her former Goddess Chauntea, to anyone who could bring her true love to her side and rescue her from the rogue’s cruelty.
Revenge! (The Hazards of Love 3)
Astarion reached down to unbutton himself, the woman no longer struggling against him. He’d almost hoped that she would, but perhaps after the third or fourth time she would. He felt a chill run down his spine as he pulled at his buttons, looking back towards the whisper he’d heard in his ear. “Father…the pie…it burns my belly…father,” he heard a quiet, child-like voice whisper.
“What?” He looked around, seeing nothing around him. He’d nearly turned his attentions back to Tav, before another voice whispered to him. “Papa, my bath, the water is too high, and I have no breath…”
“Who’s there?” He climbed off Tav, seizing his dagger again.
He saw the faint red glow of a fire down the hall, figuring there must be some other squatter in the ruined fort. He gripped his dagger tightly. Perhaps he would get to kill two people today. He crept quietly down the hall, approaching the glow, and seeing it form the figure of a small boy. “Isaiah?” he dropped his dagger, the fiery figure having the visage of his murdered son.
“Father,” the boy smiled, holding out his glowing hands to his killer. “We’ve returned to you.”
Astarion felt two tiny, icy hands grip his wrists, looking down to see the wraiths of his dead daughters holding him tightly. “The hazards of love, the hazards of love,” they sang to him, dragging him into the fire as he screamed in agony.
The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
Tav heard nothing for a while, after the screams of the man that had abducted her faded. Her hands were still bound, but she managed to get to her feet, still unsure if he was still there. She managed to pull her cloak around her and peeked tentatively down the hall. She was no signs of the man, aside from his dagger that sat on the ground. She went to retrieve it, finding nothing else aside from a slight scorch mark on the floor, as if someone had made a fire there. She picked up the dagger and cut her bindings, hanging onto the weapon when she heard footsteps.
Halsin rounded the corner, seeing her crouched in her cloak and seized her in his arms right away. “My heart. My one true love,” he held her tightly as they both cried.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” she wiped his tears away.
“I had to tell you I loved you first,” he squeezed her tighter.
The Drowned (The Hazards of Love Part 4)
They left the ruined fort, huddled against one another, finding an old boat pulled onto the bank. “My mother will never stop pursuing me,” Halsin held Tav tightly against him. “And I swore a promise to this river…if it allowed me to cross…to hold you one more time…in return for my life.”
“I don’t want to leave you…” Tav cried. “I can’t leave you. Let us give both our lives to it then.”
“No,” he hugged her against him. “You should live…for our child.”
“I think…the child is gone,” she cried, showing him the blood on her thighs. She had felt the loss as the man had carried her away.
“Then let us make this river our bed, forever…married under its waves,” he looked down at her.
She joined hands with him and they pulled the boat into the water together, climbing into it before it was swept away by the rushing current. It began to flood almost immediately, water gushing into the holes in the bow and over its sides as they drifted down the rapids. They held onto each other tightly, saying their silent vows, their lips sharing their final breaths.
“These hazards of love, never more will trouble us.”
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For people who are sending in propaganda, here's what I'm still undecided on: Chrysalis vs Oogie Boogie (familiar with both but from years ago), Gog-Agog vs Eveline (know pretty much nothing about either), Red Death vs Calamity Ganon (both are VERY good and really should have met in like the finals), Thistle Men vs Eldon (forgot what comment I was going to put here).
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