#Masters of the Air Defenders of the Sky
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She Was His
Tywin Lannister x Reader
Summary: Sad-ish.. Written fast and slowly at the same time. It’s been in my wip for… a few years now. Enjoy 💕 not mega edited, apologies for any grammatical thingies.
Word count: 2800
An overwhelming race of the steadfast beating in her chest exploded as soon as the fields were flooded with a haze of crimson. Flags waved proudly in the wretched wind of the summer day, creating a sea of blood upon the grassy plains. The first harvests of the summer crept in from the false spring of years past, providing the first taste of freshness in two years.
She could hear the heralds heralding from the gates of King’s Landing where forces encroached on the sky scraping walls. With enough focus, she could spot him riding in front. Rising gallantly from a white steed, the Lannister patriarch sat with a stiff back and cold resolve. Pleated drapery cascaded down from his broad shoulders to attach to his narrowed hips. Everything about him bled with an unwavering confidence, the same confidence that had stolen her heart from her intended many years previous.
“Princess.” The Master of Whispers was always lurking around corners and concealing himself within the shadows spoke. His hand was cold and plush against her shoulder as he delicately reached out to guide the princess away. “You should be in the Holdfast where it is safest.”
“There is no threat.” Her tone was resolute and her shoulders squared as she shook loose from his light hold. The Grand Maester was also nearby, listening as the two conversed. “Lord Tywin is here for our protection.” Her defense was as strong as the impenetrable stones holding the earth down. Beliefs cemented in centuries of faith grounded her as she, for the first time in years, felt a wave of calm wash over her body.
“A precious assumption from a naive heart.” He, Varys, paced the small space of the stone tower. “Have you considered-”
His words meant nothing to her for he spoke in an ill favor of her beloved lord. She would have none of his lies. Fleeing his presence, she joined the Grand Maester at the window’s ledge. Her fingers were warm against the cold stone that separated her from the open air. “It is anything but an assumption, my Lord.”
“Lord Tywin has not taken a stance during the Rebellion.” Varys tucked his chin to his chest as he eyed the silken fabrics that hung from his wrists. “Greeting the city with thousands of armed men often is not a welcoming sight. Should Lord Tywin decide that his faith with the crown has run thin, it will not end well for the Targaryen dynasty.”
“It will turn in our favor.” Pycelle insisted, pressing his shaking fingers to the heavy chains that hunched his back. “Lord Tywin has served the Targaryen dynasty valiantly and faithfully since the day he became Lord of Casterly Rock upon his father’s death. His heir serves in the King’s Guard and his daughter was set to wed Rhaegar.”
“The crowned-prince was slain on the Trident and Prince Rhaegar was wed to Elia Martell.” Varys reminded the room, though his words were not warm.
The mention of his name made her suddenly uncomfortable. “Rhaegar is dead, but that does not mean that Cercei’s love for him has ceased. She would have married him if not for my father’s decisions.” She pressed her hand firmly down on her stomach to quell the fluttering butterflies that bounced from its walls as she looked into the blinding glint of his crimson armor. “Let him in.”
“My princess,” Varys tone had become concerningly low, “do not allow your love for him to shroud your rational thought. There is a reason that Lord Tywin had not chosen a side in this war. At the death of your brother, he joins the battle. Does that not leave a bitter taste upon your tongue?”
“He will not allow us to crumble.” She defended, a sweat breaking out on her forehead. “He was my intended for many years. This is a way for him to finally have my father accept the betrothal. The Lannister army will assist us in quelling this rebellion once and for all.”
A hush fell over the room as the uneven footsteps of the king echoed up the stairwell. His were followed closely by another, a younger man covered in heavy armor. All eyes were focused directly on the painted wooden door that separated the overlook from the rest of the Keep.
Hobbling into the room, thin and frail, Aerys used any railing he could to maintain his balance. A wild look clouded his lilac eyes, fluctuating from pinpricks to full dilation. Nobody present was truly sure if he was aware of his surroundings. Behind him stood Jaime Lannister, a dashing young knight with hearts to spare. Though popular among the crowds of maidens, she wondered who he was truly interested in.
Pycelle and Varys plead their cases to the lone judge who seemed to go in and out of listening. His fingers shook as they gripped at the golden crown of tangled wings placed heavily atop his brittle hair. For a moment he pressed his thinning lips together and contemplated deeply in a way that she had not seen him do in decades. Deep in the cavernous depths of his mental prison, he listened to the voices that instructed him in his daily life. “Lord Tywin cannot be trusted, my king.” One voice, foreign and shrill, urged while the other, mature and shaken, suggested differently. “Lord Tywin will protect this city. He will end the rebellion.”
Aerys did not ponder on his options for an extended period of time. His decision was made in the filling of a lung as he muttered the few words aside from garbled madness he had in the past few months.
“Let him in.”
Those words seemed to mean nothing to Aerys as his eyes glazed back over from his position in the room. He did not look to his daughter nor his council who all dispersed throughout the throne room. Pycelle began his short jaunt to the front gates where he instructed a footsoldier to deliver word from the King that the gates should be opened to Lord Tywin.
“Come, princess.” Varys began to pull the princess’s arm, but found a stone wall beneath his fingertips. “We must get you somewhere safe.”
She was unmoving and uncaring of what the Master of Whispers had to say. Any words that came from his mouth were null in her mind.
“Princess, you must go now.” Varys pulled forcefully at the princess’s arm, so much so that the sleeve of her gown tore in his fingertips. Any other instance as such would leave a man without his head but an urgentness in his chest compelled him to act with ferocity. “Lord Tywin and his men are not here to ensure your safety.”
She couldn’t, wouldn’t, believe it.
All the years Tywin spent as Hand of the King he had vied for her hand. He had, on multiple occasions, taken her to spend the summer months in Casterly Rock where she could live freely and happily. He had planted seeds of safety in her core that had only cemented her trust in him, and hindered Varys’s attempts to guide the girl away.
None of it mattered, though. Tywin would get what he wanted in the end even if his desires had to adjust to the circumstances.
~~*~~
“What of the girl?” The path to King’s Landing had been an easy one, one that Lord Tywin had made many in the past.
Red velvet cloth draped thickly over the encampment that laid near the forking of Blackwater Rush. The room was occupied by a select few. The men within were to carry out the most heinous of crimes. Though reports conflict, it is generally accepted that the sinister deeds were ordered by the Lannister lord. In the distance laid their destiny, one that would alter timelines that had been set in stone for centuries.
Lord Tywin adjusted his jaw from where it had been clenched harshly to the right of center, keeping his lips pressed into a thin scornful line. “Leave her to me.”
~~*~~
Her feet could not carry her fast enough away from Varys. Echos of his pitchy voice rang through the walls and into her eardrums, beating away like sticks upon clashing cymbals. Heavy material glided across the floor, sweeping every bit of dirt and debris into its train as she ran desperately for the throne room. At the very least, she knew that Ser Jaime and her father would be there, waiting for their fates.
It was an odd moment of willful ignorance on the princess’s part. Deep in her heart she knew that she was running to her death. She was painfully aware of the chaos that ensued in and outside of the walls that had protected her for her entire life. The screaming in the streets were not joyous. No bells rang for celebration. Scarlet embers flecked with honeyed gold were not that of the evening sunset.
The screams were pained, filled and overflowing with an extinguishment of life. Sounds of bells were morphed from crumbling walls and pounding doors as foot soldiers stormed through the cobblestone streets. The evening sunset was not due for hours. Fires were set across the city, illuminating the rising smoke and ash that clouded the sky in a display of power.
She should have left.
Within the throne room, she was met with a sight that brought bile rising to the top of her throat. Churning upset her stomach and she heaved on a dry tongue. Though his skin had paled throughout the years, he looked particularly gaunt lying on the floor with ichor trickling from his neck. His fingers were curled into fists that bruised purple down to his wrists. Thin and stringy hair that once glittered in the vibrancy of the midday sun was now filled and bland, painted a shade of garnet similar to that of Lord Tywin’s armor.
If it weren’t for the circumstance, she could have said that Jaime looked particularly regal upon the Iron Throne. Downcast eyes focused on the glint of steel in his lap, concentrated rivet directed at the dense pressure that moved his shoulders downward.
“Ser Jaime?”
She could see the turmoil in his eyes as he looked up from his seat. The princess should have fled for Dragonstone, Jaime thought as she took heavy steps in his direction. He refused to listen to the nagging voice in his head telling him to do what was honorable. Her fate was already sealed.
“Ser Jaime?” She repeated, steps growing faster in speed and more uneven as she clutched at her chest and neared her father’s corpse.
“Ser Jaime? Please!” Anguished sorrow bled from her lips as she placed a hand gently over her father’s heart. It had not beat a single time in nearly ten minutes.
Footsteps fell in large groups from the Throne Room’s main entrance. The doors were left open from when she had come through them, allowing Tywin and his small garrison east entry.
Tywin Lannister stood there before her, his crimson armor dulled from bloodshed. Whose blood stained his chest, she did not know, but given his stature and ease of movement one could presume that he was relatively unharmed. A simple halting of his hand had the remaining infantrymen stalled in the doorway, the majority turning their backs to the room as they surveyed the hall outside. Tywin began his approach.
Faint screams bounced off the walls and into the rafters of the room, rising upward like plumes of heavy black smoke until they disappeared into the air. The princess was beside herself, her hands now red with her father’s ichor matching the front of her dress where he had bled as she groomed his hair out of his face. For all that he had put her through, he was still her father.
Tywin was upon her now, his face hardened as he watched her shoulders relaxing as the weight of her situation fully dawned on her. She turned to him then, eyes filled with tears that streamed down the contours of her face.
He had always thought of her to be particularly beautiful. In the warm summer months, he had spent many hours courting her in the privacy of his own home. There was a hope in him back then that they could wed and from their union would come heirs that he could marry off to solidify his power. Whether there was true love for her in there was questionable.
There was nothing about the princess he disliked. She was agreeable, fairly intelligent, and held onto his word like it had been written by the gods. Although, she did not worship him. A clear admiration for the man was displayed on her features, especially so when he was leading council meetings or sitting the throne in the place of her father. She had told him on many occasions that she wished to be able to hold the room the same way he did. In fact, there were many things he found he did like. Her company was comfortable, always melding into his presence as if she had always been there. No one would argue her beauty either. Similar in looks to that of her mother, the princess was soft and ethereal in appearance. She dressed in beautiful gowns and always smelled slightly of rose and mint. Even now in the chaos of the sacking, she held that same look.
“What does this mean for me?” The words fell like a feather from her lips, floating softly downward to the floor where her gaze was focused.
When no answer came from Tywin she turned and looked upward at him. “My lord?”
There were truthfully only two possibilities for her future and Tywin knew that.
He extended a hand down to her and stiffened when she accepted it and rose to meet his gaze. Trembling fingers wrapped around his. The entirety of her body was shaking. He took the opportunity to pull her into his chest despite the hardness of his armor. A gentle hand smoothed down the back of her hair and rested on the nape of her neck.
“What will come of me now?” She repeated, enjoying the way he embraced her. Calming to his touch, she deepened her hold on him.
“The war is over, princess.” Tywin hushed her tearful sobs, pressing a light kiss to the side of her head as her crying intensified. “The house of the dragon has fallen.”
The princess only looked into his emerald eyes when his gloved finger guided her vision upward. He knew he should not have allowed himself to indulge in the moment. Robert Baratheon would not let a Targaryen, especially the sister of Rhaegar, live peacefully. He personally saw to the death of the prince and Tywin did not intend to let him see to the princess’s end.
Knowing that no guard dared to turn their heads in their direction, Tywin drew the princess near and placed a light kiss to her lips. Their personalities in that moment were completely opposite. She was ravenous, starved of his touch and seeking validation in his arms. Her hands found the dimples of his waist, barely detectable through the armor, and rested there. If it were not for the metal, she would have dug crescents into his skin.
On the other hand, he was calm. A storm brewed in the pit of his stomach, but he did not show it.
She let out a soft breath when the cold metal sunk itself into her chest. Tywin held her still, not allowing her legs to give out. One hand held the blade firmly by his side, soaked in her blood. The other was cradling her body, holding her to his chest. An uncomfortable warmth oozed from the bodice of her dress. It added depth to the blood that already stained his breastplate.
Her lips parted to speak but nothing could come from her lungs for no air remained. Pleading questioning eyes met ones that would display sorrow and remorse if they could. It would be a cold day in hell before Tywin would admit what he had done was wrong. Every fiber of his being scolded him, but his own selfishness was not enough to start a war with a man who had just won his own.
Tywin knew that the only end for her that he would accept was the embrace of death. If not for his blade, Robert Baratheon would either have the princess killed or marry her to claim the throne. Selfishly, Tywin could not bear to see her wed to another.
She was his.
Her love, her body, her heart, and her death was his.
That was how it was supposed to be.
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The Balcony Scene
Summary: A long farewell after a date night is nothing new between you and your very dramatic and theatrical boyfriend. Young lovers often find parting is such sweet sorrow.
Pairing: Eddie Munson x Gender Neutral!Reader
Warning: FLUFF. FLUFF FLUFF FLUFF. You will need to schedule a dentist appointment after this, established relationship, idiots in love, they recite Shakespeare to each other because they're so in love, Wayne being one of those dads/uncles, kissing, very tame stuff, you'll love it.
Word count: 1.4k
A/N: WELL, WELL, WELL. LOOK WHO'S BACK. Me. It's me. I'm back. I had this thought knocking around in my head for a long, long time and finally was able to get it out and completed in one sitting! Eddie seems like the type to be able to perfectly recite Shakespeare, especially after all the failed English classes— you may not come at me. Anyways! Comment! Reblog! Send an ask! A pigeon! An edible arrangement! Something! Let me know what you guys think! I missed you all hehe
Kisses 💋
—K
A soft song of the Indiana crickets floated through the summer breeze that brushed your skin, the sky was a gentle hue of all encompassing black, and the moon hung neatly in the corner of the heavens. The familiar block of the trailer park was quiet, the sleepy summer night lulled everyone into a trance at this late hour. Your night was divine, picturesque and flawless thanks to Eddie who always seemed to make any day infinitely better. He joked and laughed with you over the burger you shared at the diner, his effortless charm and beaming smile lit up the lamely lit booth you were squished into and sent butterflies fluttering through your entire being— even after all these years, you were still into him.
Lovesick, is the word. Absolutely lovesick.
And Eddie wasn’t any better.
The way he was gazing up at you from the bottom of your trailer’s porch, hands gripping the railing to be as close as he could to you without climbing the stairs, standing on his toes so your faces nearly touched while you lean over the railing to meet him halfway. Those puppy dog eyes that twinkled with mischief as a dungeon master, and glazed over with mind-rotting boredom as a student, were now dazzling with adoration as a lover. And damn, was a he a good lover at that.
“You have to go soon, Wayne said you gotta be back before 3,” you whisper gently to your boyfriend, your hands making no motion to remove themselves from his hair as you cradle his head.
“Mmhmm,” Eddie hums, clearly not listening to you completely. How could he when the glow of your porch light behind you made you look like an actual angel. You giggle and Eddie grins at the sound.
“You jerk, you’re not even listening,” you chastise with a smile.
“I totally heard you,” he playfully defends in a soft voice, his eyes scanning your face leisurely.
“What did I say?” You ask while you twirl a ringlet around your index finger.
“You said that I should stay right here with you forever because you never want me to leave,” he grins again as you chuckle at his words.
“Don’t you?” He asks and gives you his gentle pout, something he’s perfected over the years of being together: his eyebrows slightly pinched together and upwards, those button eyes silently pleading with yours, for your love, for your tenderness, for your sympathy. It always works.
“Of course, I do,” you confess and cradle his face in your palm. Eddie couldn’t keep himself from you if his life depended on it. The collision of your lips sends even more winged things fluttering in your stomach, the soft cushion of his lips moving against yours sensually nearly sucks all the breath from your body then and there. Many minutes are lost in your sweet kisses, so many that by the time you both release each other for air, Eddie knows he’s late for curfew now.
“Wayne’s gonna be pissed, I forgot to take out the trash,” Eddie breathes out humorously, his nose brushing against yours as he opens his mouth to speak once again, “he’s going to have my ass for not—“
“Enough, sweet Suffolk, thou torment’st thyself,” you press a finger to his kiss swollen lips, his grin grows at your words.
“You bade me ban, and will you bid me leave?” He recites effortlessly.
“Oh, look who’s been paying attention in English,” you tease.
“Well, if you’re forced to read the same stupid plays 3 years in a row, something’s bound to stick,” he jokes before continuing, “Now, by the ground that I am banished from, well could I curse away a winter’s night, though standing naked on a mountain top where biting cold would never let grass grow, and think it but a minute spent in sport.”
“O, let me entreat thee cease! Give me thy hand, that I may dew it with my mournful tears, nor let the rain of heaven wet this place to wash away my woeful monuments” you bring one of Eddie’s large hands to your cheek, letting him brush the apple of it softly before you plant a peck to his palm.
“O, could this kiss be printed in thy hand, that thou mightst think upon these by the seal, through whom a thousand sighs are breathed for thee!” The porch light across the road flickers to life, a sign from a very tired Wayne for Eddie’s return, but you both ignore it. Eddie watches in rapture as you recite the lines to him, not ready for his short walk home just yet.
“So, get thee gone, that I may know my grief; tis but surmised whiles thou art standing by, as one that surfeits thinking on a want. I will repeal thee, or, be well assured, adventure to be banish’ed myself; and banish’ed I am, if but from thee,” the sound of the screen door opening breaks your eyes from each other over to Wayne, standing cross armed in his pajamas under the porch light, “Go, speak not to me. Even now be gone!” Eddie steals another kiss just as Wayne clears his throat, his hands gripping yours in earnest. “Embrace and kiss and take ten thousand leaves, loather a hundred times to part than die. Yet now farewell, and farewell life with thee.”
“Thus is poor Suffolk ten times banish’ed, once by the King, and three times thrice by thee. ’Tis not the land I care for, wert thou thence. A wilderness is populous enough, so Suffolk had thy heavenly company— for where thou art, there is the world itself, with every several pleasure in the world; and where thou art not, desolation,” he whispers against your lips, “I can no more. Live thou to joy thy life; myself no joy in naught but that thou liv’st.”
“Eddie!” Wayne calls in a hushed voice, mindful of the sleeping neighbors of the block. You know he’s about 2 minutes from crossing the street to get Eddie himself.
“Get thee hence. The King, thou know’st, is coming,” you giggle and push gently at Eddie’s broad shoulders, “if thou be found by me, thou art but dead.”
“If I depart from thee, I cannot live, and in thy sight to die, what were it else but like a pleasant slumber in thy lap? To die by thee were but to die in jest, from thee to die were torture more than death. O, let me stay, befall what may befall!” His grins when you try to shush his growing voice, your shared giggles making Wayne shake his head with a fond smile. You two were making him sick.
“To France, Sweet Suffolk,” you push at Eddie’s shoulder again, this time he slowly lets himself lower to the ground completely, still gazing up at you from the wild grass as waves of hopeless devotion pour from him. Eddie’s hand holds yours for as long as he can, his fingers gliding across the skin to savor the sensation, your warmth.
“I go,” he nods, shifting on his feet as he finally begins to tear himself from you.
“And take my heart with thee,” you watch Eddie take a tentative step backwards, towards his waiting uncle, your hands still connected as he takes another step. Your arms reach out, fingers laced together until the distance between you is too great.
“Alright, love birds, pack it in,” Wayne quietly calls, trying his best to speed up Eddie’s slow walk home. Straightening up, you watch as Eddie crosses the street, his eyes never leaving yours nor his smile ever faltering. When he reaches the middle of the road, he offers you a wave over his shoulder. You giggle and return his gesture, your face burning with a flurry of feelings.
Another fit of giddy giggles overtake you when Eddie nearly trips on the steps of his trailer. He’s quick to recover, taking the stairs two at a time before lingering at the doorway to stare at you a little while longer, his own face flushed with his happiness. Half in and half out, he raises his hand to wave again when a fatherly grip on the collar of his jacket carefully pulls him all the way in, the screen door bouncing against the frame in his absence. With a content sigh, you turn on your heel and head for indoors, turning to glance at the trailer across the street. There in the corner of the bland building, behind an aged window, you find the boy next door. With wild hair and a sweet smile, he bids you goodnight.
Comments and reblogs are always welcome and deeply appreciated! 💖🫂
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#eddie munson#eddie munson is the love of my life#eddie munson is a sweetheart#eddie munson fanfic#eddie munson x you#eddie munson x y/n#eddie munson x fem!reader#eddie munson x reader#eddie munson x female oc#eddie munson x gender neutral reader#eddie munson x gn!reader#eddie munson x gn reader#eddie stranger things#eddie st4#stranger things s4#stranger things fic#stranger things fanfiction#stranger things fiction#stranger things#joseph quinn characters#eddie munson fluff#eddie munson fan fiction#eddie munson fandom#little lion literature
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Though I Yearn • Part 4
Masters of the Air
Secret Admirer x Reader
A string of anonymous letters causes a stir at Thorpe Abbotts. Who could be the author of the tender correspondence you have been receiving?
Warnings: Love Letters, mentions of stalking and cheating.
Word Count: ~1k
Masterlist Previous Next
x x x
“Though we face a perilous fight in the sky, I am most afflicted by you when my feet are on solid ground. Try as I might to evade your presence, I am only a man plagued by my jealousy and affections.”
His knuckles cramped as he gripped the pen, the words pouring onto the page, this time his printing was messy less concise. It obviously hadn’t worked the first time, writing a letter to relieve his thoughts, they still overwhelmed him. He was sure no one else had noticed you had been acting strange lately, maybe your friend but none of the men you interacted with. There was a curiosity in your gaze, as if you were always trying to decipher if they were him. He had left his last letter on your pillow, nearly getting trapped in the cabin as your group returned to base, being in there felt wrong, he would find other ways to leave any future letters. The letter he currently wrote would never be met by your eyes at all.
He knew he was being foolish, he could not feel such jealousy while he hid himself behind paper and ink. Yet, there you were in the window, simple but ever so captivating and unknowingly fuelling the growing fire. The letter he had tucked in his jacket pocket in a rush now felt like it was burning the skin underneath. You were distracted by the coffee, he tucked the paper beneath the ledge without you or anyone else around noticing.
Another party was in full swing, their mission had been successful- they had lost only one plane but they had made it to Scotland for Curt and his crew to land safely. You sat in an armchair in the corner, once again alone. Half of your job was to converse and boost morale so sometimes it was nice to have a little serenity; the girl wouldn’t let you stay alone in the billet, you had tried that. You had not noticed that Major Cleven was seated in the armchair beside you until you heard him chuckling along to the boisterous, out of tune ‘singing’ of John Egan.
“How does does a stoic man like you befriend someone like Major Egan?” You genuinely questioned, their difference more apparent than any similarities besides both men were talented pilots and great leaders.
Cleven glanced over to you, never really having an interaction unless he was getting a coffee in the morning. “He didn’t really give me the choice.”
“He is very social, especially with women yet you sit here alone. Are you married?” You knew that you were potentially overstepping but your curiosity had bested you.
“Not yet.”
The small longing smile and his tone told that he was thinking of someone back home fondly. “So there is a lucky lady awaiting you back home?”
“Marge.” He handed you the small photograph that he kept in his breast pocket. You studied her beauty, clear skin, perfect curls and joyous smile.
“She’s real pretty Major.” You returned the photograph, “And lucky to have someone so dedicated to her. I’m betting you that most of these men dancing around here tonight all have unsuspecting sweethearts waiting for them at home.”
The Major nodded, his eyes meeting those of his approaching friend, “I am not a betting man.”
Egan occupied the empty armchair on the other side of Cleven, wiping the sheen of sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, “Your bombardier is one of those men if I do recall.”
“Dougie and I are merely friends, sir.” You once again defended yourself, feeling less embarrassed and more adamant.
“No fella waiting at home?” Egan asked, having overheard your previous comments about the ever so lovely Marge.
“Not at home,” Suddenly the men’s gazes felt heavy on you, or maybe it was your heart in your chest that felt heavy. “I believe he’s across the continent now, and I am no longer his to consider.”
“Just means you can dance with any man here.” Egan shrugged it off, sensing the tenderness of the subject. “Say Brady, why don’t you take our girl for a spin around the floor?”
John Brady looked up with his wide eyes upon being volunteered.
“Oh, You don’t have to John, I am perfectly capable of finding my own dance partner.” You assured him but he was already tucking away his pipe but then you were interrupted by a frantic Douglass.
“Helen was telling me about some letters?” His voice was low but not quite a whisper, attracting the curiosity of the men around you.
“Please, excuse us.” You sent the group a tense smile before dragging the bombardier by his elbow into the quiet night air.
It seems like he’s trying to give you a stern look but it comes off more as concerned. “Why haven’t you told anyone?”
You scoffed, folding your arms across your chest. “They are just letters of admiration.”
“Are you positive about that?”
“Dougie, they’re just from some harmless airman who had nothing better to do.” You simply brushed off his concern over the matter.
“They are clearly depraved, watching you like that, taunting you.” He insisted, his voice lowering to a whisper as a small group approached to enter the hall. You led him further away from the entrance to keep anymore of your conversation away from prying ears.
“And when you were gonna tell me that you have a sweetheart at home?”
It was his turn to sigh, fidgeting uncomfortably at the topic. “That is complicated.”
He was not expecting your heel to harshly slam against his booted toe, pain exploding throughout his foot. “Ouch. What the hell was that for?”
“Stop being an idiot.”
“This isn’t about me, it is about these letters.”
“Which everyone knows about now, thanks to you.” Your voiced raised louder than you had heard it in months, your frustration with the situation reaching its limit. “Good night, Dougie.”
You left no room for the conversation to continue as you wandered off into the darkness. Your night had been ruined and no one could stop you from your serenity now.
x x x
Tags: @canyousmelltheflowers @jointherebellion215 @gretagerwigsmuse
#masters of the air#mota fanfic#mota#mota spoilers#bucky egan#james douglass#major gale cleven#john brady#everett blakely#major john bucky egan#curtis biddick#apple tv#austin butler#callum turner#benny demarco#mota x reader
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𝓓𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓦𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓨𝓸𝓾 1
ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ: ᴜɴʀᴀᴠᴇʟ
ɢᴏᴊᴏ ꜱᴀᴛᴏʀᴜ x ꜰᴇᴍ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ
The boys do their best to make [Name] notice her situation then they are sent to protect the Star Plasma Vessel. Why was [Name] not to be involved in the mission?
“Hey.”
Suguru’s calm voice filled your ears and you hummed to him as a response. You weren’t really in the mood to have a conversation and he totally ignored your threat from when you left the class. Not like you were going to actually kill your good friends.
He took the empty space next to you on the spiky grass with his arms resting on his spread out knees.
“You know nothing is going to happen to you, right?” Suguru asked, his soft eyes looking at your closed-off body language.
“Nobody can guarantee that,” The unease tone in your voice could be heard from a mile away and Suguru couldn’t place why you were so adamant about Kaiser’s age.
Your past was a mystery and you only mentioned one family member; a younger sister. You never described her or you never used your last name. Everyone has addressed you by your first name.
It perplexed Suguru that he didn’t know anything about you. Of course, he knew your likes and dislikes. There was also the betrothal between you and Satoru.
From what he understood, the betrothal was an accepted deal you and Satoru agreed upon. It benefited the both of you by keeping The Elders off your back. Satoru described it as a friendship pact and you silently nodded with the stupid description.
“Kaiser, he’s a cursed spirit that is passed down in my family. He’s a guardian of some kind while also giving the master his ability and strength.”
You explained out of nowhere and Suguru wasn’t protesting the idea of it. You were opening up and this whole ordeal was allowing you to talk to him without any distractions.
“He grows with me and I grow with him. I learn how to use his eyes and he tells me what to do. But now, I can’t hear his voice anymore,” Your eyes stayed on baby Kaiser who ran around the big field on all fours. You tried talking to him to ask how he was feeling, but to no avail. He was so silent and you hated it.
Every day, he was talking about anything and everything. He reminded you of Riko and he made you miss her less because of the resemblance. It allowed you to grow stronger to protect her.
“I thought you said that he was in his rebellious stage?” Suguru chuckled because he watched Kaiser leap in the air and tumble onto the grass with an annoyed growl. He didn’t catch the butterfly.
You nodded your head and huffed out, “Yeah, he’s a teenager though. What kind of teenager doesn’t have a rebellious side? Take Gojo as an example.”
“That’s a terrible example,” Suguru shook his head and leaned back on his hands looking at the cloudy sky. “So the only colors you have access to are orange and yellow? Your shield projection can protect you much like Gojo’s infinity.”
You groaned and flopped back onto the grass, “Geto, that’s not the point. I lack the power to fight now. I can defend myself, sure. I can use a Commandment, yet it’s a risky move on my part.”
“A Commandment? What is that?” Suguru questioned as he looked down at you. He blocked the sun’s light and you opened your eyes before propping yourself on your elbows. You were sure that you told him about the Commandment.
“A Commandment allows me to use a color I don’t have access to like purple. The color purple allows me to defy space and time, but it’s dangerous. My body isn’t fit to use the color and the longer I use purple, the more injuries my body sustains. All colors have different injuries, like red will give me burns. Green will make me sick, so very sick.”
You grimaced from an old memory of practicing commandments with Kaiser when you were younger. He told you that green wasn’t all that bad compared to purple. You disagreed with him because you were puking nonstop.
“But your body is used to red, green and blue. You can use the commandments to use those techniques, no?”
An imaginary brick dropped on your head and you looked at Suguru blankly. His question echoed in your head like a broken record. Then you sat up and grabbed him by his shoulders with a giant grin on your face. “Suguru, you’re a literal genius!” You shouted and he looked away from you with a roll of his eyes.
“I think you were so hungover of reverting Kaiser back to a baby to actually take in your situation.” He calmly responded and you stopped shaking him like a ragdoll. A familiar presence made itself known and you turned to see your betrothed behind you guys.
“How come he’s allowed to talk to you, but when I try you attempt to kill me?”
You and Suguru looked up to see a pout on Satoru’s face. His arms crossed over his chest and he plopped himself in between you and Suguru. His jealousy was always just a joke to you. There wasn’t a moment you took him seriously.
“Because Geto doesn’t come over to tease me,” You looked at Satoru accusingly and the white haired male reeled back in offense.
“Are you saying I don’t care about you or your family?”
You hung your head back and denied him, “No, but you literally just joked about me being powerless when I left the class. How is that any way of being supportive?” You crossed your arms over your chest and looked at him with a questioning glare.
Satoru shrugged his shoulders and gestured to him and Suguru, “Maybe because you have us to rely on? You don’t have to do everything by yourself, it’s not that hard to ask for help.”
“Oh sure, says the man who is like the strongest jujutsu sorcerer. You try getting your cursed technique taken from you and let me know how easy it is for you to ask for help.” You picked yourself off the floor and walked over to Kaiser wanting to try out a commandment.
To your dismay, Kaiser noticed your presence getting closer to him and being the childish spirit he was now…he began running away from you. You broke into a sprint after your baby dragon , shouting for him to stop running away from you.
He unfurled his wings and your eyes widened. If he took flight there was no way you were going to catch him. As a last ditch effort, you stretched your arms out and jumped forward. You felt his scaly body in your hands and you pulled him towards your chest as you rolled onto the floor.
You came to a stop on your knees and you looked at Kaiser. The beast had his tongue out as he was huffing and puffing in your face. “Nice catch, [Name]!” Gojo cheered and you shook your head with a smile on your face.
……
“What is she doing?” Satoru asked Suguru and the black haired male watched you with a small smile on his face.
“She’s trying a commandment out,” Suguru explained, “Since she knows how to use red, blue and green, we think her body won’t sustain any injuries.”
Satoru tilted his head and nodded along, “You know what? That does make sense because Kaiser already prepped her body for those colors. You think she might try purple?”
“Nah, she’s not that dumb.” Suguru countered.
Then you disappeared within a blink of an eye and a small “Eh?” escaped from their mouths, their faces confused as ever. Satoru stood up and began looking for his friend with a goofy smile on his face. “I knew she was going to give purple a try! I know her more than you do!”
Suguru nervously smiled and stood up next to his friend, “I was only hoping for the best. [Name] isn’t very bright sometimes.”
“Hey, look up!”
The male teenagers looked up to see you falling down towards them with Kaiser tightly held close to your chest. Your lips were pressed tightly and you looked sickly as you free fell from the sky.
On instinct Satoru pushed Suguru aside and held his arms out to catch you. In no time, you landed in his arms safely and you took a shaky breath in. Your body had been shaking from the sudden teleportation and your chest aches in pain.
You had to thank Satoru, but a heap of your blood was coughed onto Kaiser’s small body. The baby dragon groaned in disgust and hopped out of your arms. He shook his whole body and wings to get your blood off of his pearly scales. Satoru looked at you in mild surprise as he set you down carefully. He watched you cough up a lung (metaphorically) and you held up a hand to the concerned boys.
“Just…give me a…second,” You huffed out and straightened your back out sucking in a deep breath. You closed your eyes in complete pain and mumbled to yourself, “Negative into positive. Negative into positive.” Then your internal injuries began healing themselves with reverse cursed technique. It was a lot harder to focus this time because of the ache in your chest.
“I’m not very surprised to see you use purple,” Satoru smirked and his teasing began. You wiped the blood from your chin with the back of your hand. Then you glared at the baby dragon by your feet looking up at you expectantly.
“That’s only because Kaiser mistook my commandment for blue as purple. I told him that since I can’t use purple I will use blue. He took it as “of course you can use purple, watch!” Next thing I know, I’m forty feet in the air with broken ribs and a punctured lung.” You rubbed your chest feeling the aching like a phantom scar. Kaiser nudged his head into your ankle and purred as an apology.
You waved him off and mumbled “It’s no problem, Kai.” Even though it definitely was a problem. How could the god of death be so…childish? You rolled your eyes and looked behind the boys to see Masamichi making his way onto the field.
“Great, he’s here,” You said disdainfully. You scooped up Kaiser and pulled out your phone from your pocket. The teddy bear charm swinging left and right as you messaged your sister. You haven’t checked up on her in a few days and the concert is coming up soon.
You really didn’t want to talk to Masamichi, all things considered, so you bid the boys farewell with Kaiser nuzzling into your chest. Satoru watched you go silently and he turned around to get a new mission for him and Suguru. It was odd, he thought. How Masamichi gave them a mission that a being named Master Tengen requested their presence for.
And to make things even weirder, the mission involved a protection cause. They had to keep a young girl named Riko Amanai alive so that she could merge with Master Tengen in two days' time.
The smug smile on Satoru’s face was wiped off when their teacher excluded a certain female from the mission. “And make sure that [Name] doesn’t get a word of this. I’m counting on her to not get involved.”
…..
“Huh, you know, isn’t it a bit odd that Masamichi told us not to get [Name] involved?” Satoru asked Suguru, drinking his cold drink from the vending machine. The boys were walking to the destination of where Riko Amanai was currently at.
Suguru replied back with his back hunched over as he walked, “I wouldn’t think too much about it. [Name] is seen as weak in Masamichi’s eyes right now. Involving her would put her in danger of these two groups.”
……
“We can’t afford to watch over her and the Star Plasma Vessel at the same time. Even if she can use commandments for colors, we can’t risk Kaiser misunderstanding her like on the field.” Suguru waited in the elevator as he spoke more to Satoru about your situation.
“Yeah, yeah, are you sure you aren’t underestimating her strength? [Name] would be more suited for a protection mission anyways. She can literally use orange and summon a barrier around the poor girl. Plus with us two, we’re an unstoppable trio. I don’t have a problem with them calling for us two though, we are the strongest after all. I mean that’s why Tengen asked for us specifically, right?” Satoru’s blunt and very arrogant tone made Suguru’s face scrunch up in disgust.
“Uuuuhhhh?” Suguru droned.
“Huh? What is it?”
Suguru wiped the annoyance off his face and went back to his neutral expression. “You know, Satoru, I’ve been meaning to say this for a while. Although[Name] has scolded you for this many times already, maybe you need to hear it from me. You need to stop being so full of yourself.”
“Huuuuhh!”
Suguru could hear the can of soda crunching up over the phone as he walked out of the elevator. “Especially when you’re addressing your superiors. We might end up meeting Tengen soon. You really should be more polite and humble.”
“Hah! Yeah, screw that! I don’t hear you telling [Name] off when she gives Masamichi crap. You should really give her a talk about her attitude then try to talk to me. I wasn’t joking when she told the elders to go fuck themselves. I heard it!”
“Come on, Satoru. She’s basically a lost cause, you know what? I’ll bring this up later,” Suguru gave up and rang the doorbell next to the door.
“Coming!” A female voice called out then a beep rang out alerting the black haired male.
!BOOM!
…
Satoru pulled the phone away from his ear and turned around to see the top floor of the building explode. He put the phone back near his ear and asked Suguru casually, “You alive?”
Suguru’s calm voice came over the phone, “I’m still breathing.”
“You think we’ll be blamed if the kid died from that? Ah, I’m just gonna call [Name] to do this mission for us.” Satoru tossed the can aside and watched Suguru catch the young girl in his arms.
“Now don’t be ridiculous. She shouldn’t be involved.”
Satoru’s shoulder slumped in defeat. His thoughts wander to you and Masamichi. There was a rift between the two of you and it started when you were expelled. You were lashing out more and Kaiser was following your emotions. His behavior had nothing to do with his age, it was always your emotions that he mirrored non-stop.
Then there was Masamichi. He had you revert Kaiser into a young baby. Why would their teacher force that order on you. It didn't add up and Satoru wasn't a math guy.
He dug into his memories for old conversations he had with you. He was searching for anything that could help him figure you out. Then it clicked in his head.
“You know, [Name] might be on her period. Maybe that’s why she’s so moody.”
“Are you serious right now?”
#x reader#anime imagine#manga imagine#x female reader#gojo satoru x reader#jjk gojo#gojo x reader#jjk x reader#death will come for you
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(To no one's surprise) Alfons is giving me the second lead feels in Elbert's main story. He's just so omnipresent and melancholic, and not usually his trollish self.
Just let me love you.
Chapter 11 has this beautiful scene, where Kate is searching for him. (no major spoilers, just wistful Al goodness)
Finally, in a nearby garden, my eyes were caught by the familiar raven black hair, now bathed in pale moonlight.
Kate: "... Alfons."
Sitting cross-legged at the tea table, he appeared to be drinking.
Alfons: "You shouldn't be wandering around so late at night..."
Alfons: "If it were someone else, I'd be tempted to show them a pleasant dream."
Alfons: "You don't seem like the type, oddly enough."
Kate: "...is this something to be happy about?"
Alfons: "To do something so audacious you'd have to be full of sadness and despair."
His words were accompanied by a captivating gaze.
(He's enigmatic as ever...)
Sylvetica flowers (*forget-me-nots TT) swayed at his feet.
Come to think of it, Alfons' family name was the same as the flower's.
Alfons: "Did something happen with El?"
His eyes the colour of the night sky narrowed meaningfully.
I hesitantly approached him and sat down next to him.
Kate: "...lord Elbert wants to possess me."
Alfons: "Ah....I see."
Alfons: "I knew it was only a matter of time, but I never thought it would be tonight."
Alfons: "It becomes even more doubtful whether you'll be able to complete your work as a fairytale writer."
Alfons: "Now I feel troubled."
Kate: "Well, you certainly don't look like it..."
Alfons: "No, no, quite to the contrary, I've always looked out for you, you know?"
His fingers in a black leather glove traced the outline of my chin.
Alfons: "The world is already filled with tragedies,"
Alfons: "It is foolish to try willingly enact one's own."
(All this time Alfons kept telling me not to get involved with Lord Elbert)
Most likely, he knew that this would be nothing more than stepping into misfortune.
He tugged at my chin with a gentle caress, his sweet scent tickling my nose, leaving me conflicted.
Alfons: ".... should I make El lose interest in you?"
~~~more spoilerish part follows~~~
Kate: "........"
Alfons: "If you remain in his sights, the possible consequences are confinement, imprisonment or, worst of all, death."
It was said more bluntly than I would have liked, and sent a shiver down my spine.
But being scared here was not going to solve anything.
Kate: "I'm already aware of it. Right now, I'm more interested in ...... I want to know what Lord Elbert's crime is."
Kate: "That's why ... I was looking for you."
Alfons: "I see... you want to plunge into darkness rather than choose the path that would save your life?"
Kate: "...I ---"
Kate: "Of course I don't want to be locked up or changed into a specimen. But..."
Kate: "More importantly, if that would happen..."
Kate: "Just imagining how deeply Lord Elbert would be hurt by this… how sad it'd make him... is terrifying."
Kate: "That's why ...... I want to know what makes him behave this way."
Alfons: "........"
It was hard to believe that Alfons, who had been with Lord Elbert since childhood, could not be aware of the circumstances.
Kate: "Why does he allow his butler and maids to do such things?"
Kate: "In his position, he should be able to dismiss them, order them to stop, or at least avoid them."
Alfons: "Indeed. After all, he is the master of the house."
Kate: "At the art dealer's party, I was protected by Lord Elbert's express defiance."
Kate: "All he has to do is defend himself in the same way..."
Kate: "The reason he can't do it... is because of his 'sin', isn't it?"
I could feel a light night breeze in the twilight,
A sweet, intoxicating floral scent wafted through the air and tickled my nose.
Alfons: "... even though it's pointless to face reality."
Alfons: "You're serious to a fault... you and El."
Muttering this, he removed his hand from my chin, then got up from his chair and walked away into darkness.
Kate: "Where are you going....?"
Alfons: "Follow me, please."
Kate: "Huh?"
Alfons: "You want to know it, yes? His 'sin'."
~~~
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Why All This Music?
Masters of the Air - Rosie Rosenthal x OC
link to the masterlist is here <3
12. A Drop in the Ocean
Freddie’s first real assignment as part of Operation Corona was a baptism of fire, to be sure. Some of the new wireless operators panicked and froze under the pressure when they made contact with the German fighters. Others rose to the challenge. Freddie had to keep an eye on them, ready to jump in and bail them out of trouble if they forgot their training, while also keeping a firm hand on the German fighters she was tuning into herself, calling them off of the American bombers when their real orders had been to shoot them out of the sky.
Three promotions did not come without its share of responsibility. Freddie was responsible not just for her own sabotage and the efforts of the wireless operators in her outfit but for determining which types of subterfuge they were to use, an attempt to predict the fighters’ orders. For this mission, over Berlin, she had told everyone to focus on making the Messers avoid trying to take the bombers out. “Tell them the likelihood of German civilian casualties and casualties of the Nazi brass has been deemed too high to account for American B-17s falling out of the sky,” Freddie had ordered everyone in their briefing. “Call them off of them, tell them the anti-aircraft guns on the ground have been deemed safer. Call them out of formation as a last resort.”
It was stressful. More so than any assignment Freddie had been given as a normal wireless operator. But it was exciting, too. There was no denying the thrill she’d felt as adrenaline had flooded her veins upon hearing the first few German words out of the foreign fighter pilot’s mouth over her radio. She had been completely in her element for the hours she’d spent helping to defend the B-17s. Here was something she could do to really help - not only that, here was something she was good at. A German-speaking wireless operator with a reason to want to protect American bombers. Who could possibly have been better at it?
When the B-17s came back they were relieved of duty. No Luftwaffe fighters had followed them to England. Freddie wasn’t sure how many had made it back, who had made it back, but she had to force herself to trust that Rosie was among them.
She hated not being the first to know. She loved her new position and the hand she played in keeping him safe but resented that she could no longer be the first to talk to him as he came in for landing.
Freddie led countless sabotage operations in just her first month in the role. Her tactics for manipulation became stronger as she better came to understand which orders the pilots responded to without question and which they were suspicious of. She became better at pre-empting their orders, their formations, and their reactions, too. As the Luftwaffe realised there was some sort of British interference in their orders they changed all of their own wireless operators to women. As such, all of the men and boys who had originally been under Freddie’s leadership were swapped out for new, freshly trained women and girls. She was mother-henning two huts’ worth of women both while on duty and off, but they all soon found their feet.
Before anyone knew it, Christmas was coming. Gone were long summer evenings where Freddie could convince Rosie to come and sit with her in the grass, Meatball lying across their laps to demand attention even when their eyes were firmly on each other. It was too cold out now to go anywhere without gloves and a coat. Everyone piled into the officers’ club every evening more to keep warm than to celebrate, but as Christmas decorations were slung on the walls and festive tunes started to be played on the gramophone it was hard not to be just a little bit taken in by all the cheer.
It was set to be Freddie’s third Christmas without Daniel. It was the first one she hadn’t felt like a bullet to the heart. He had loved Christmas. He had loved spending time with his family and Freddie, loved going on walks to look at the Christmas lights before the blackout, had loved giving gifts even though he’d been remarkably terrible at it.
This year, Freddie was determined to enjoy Christmas. Daniel would have hated to have turned it into a sad time of year. She took to wearing red ribbons in her hair - against uniform regulations but she ranked so highly these days no one ever said anything to her about it - and to playing whichever Christmas songs she knew or was able to learn on the piano when the club wasn’t yet quite so crowded. She started planning her gifts early and thought hard on what to get her nearest and dearest. Her new rank gave her leave from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day and she was dragging Rosie and Meatball home with her.
“Daniel’s parents will be coming over on Christmas Day,” Freddie briefed Rosie as they sat in an otherwise empty compartment on the train to Oxford, “and they won’t be massively weird with you but they’ll certainly ask if we’re together. More out of curiosity than resentment, I imagine. They’ll probably try to show you old photos - if you’re not comfortable then tell me and I’ll intervene. My mum and dad will also probably ask you if we’re together, just so you know. Sorry in advance for all the interrogations you’re about to endure.”
Rosie smiled softly at her from across the compartment. “I’m a lawyer,” he reminded her, “I’m kind of used to it.”
Freddie grinned. “Glad to hear you’re thoroughly prepared.”
“What should I tell them?” he asked abruptly. The words seemed to leave him before he’d properly decided to say them. Even still, he didn’t blush or try to take them back or even start to fiddle, as he may have a few months ago. He sat still and watched her, patiently awaiting her reply.
Freddie paused. “About whether or not we’re together?” she asked. Rosie hummed his affirmation so she continued, “Whatever you think the answer is.”
“What do you think the answer is?”
Freddie sighed and turned her eyes out the window, watching idly as the British countryside rolled by. They hadn’t kissed or anything, but they spent a lot of time together. They held hands sometimes, she sat in his lap sometimes, and she’d given him the occasional kiss on the cheek when she wished him luck before missions. Did that make them together? Or did it just make her too afraid to let them be?
“I don’t know,” she confessed quietly.
“Still deciding?” Rosie asked. He didn’t sound unkind - Rosie was never unkind, especially not to her - but he did sound a little bit put out. And why shouldn’t he be? They’d known each other since August and now it was December. How long was she going to take deciding whether or not she wanted him?
“Still scared,” Freddie corrected him, resting her forehead against the glass of the window.
Rosie sighed quietly but even in her periphery she could see him nodding.
Meatball was resting across Freddie’s lap and she buried her fingers in his fur. “Do you want to open your Christmas presents tomorrow morning with the rest of us or do it privately?” she asked instead of pushing the topic further.
Rosie’s eyebrows rose with scepticism. “What do you mean, ‘presents’?”
Finally, mercifully, Freddie grinned. “Come on, Rosie,” she teased, “don’t tell me you thought you were coming home with me for Christmas and you weren’t going to get anything for your troubles.”
“It’s not any sort of trouble!” Rosie protested, grinning back at her. “I’m glad to be getting to see where you go when you’re off base. And excited to get to meet your dogs, of course.”
“Ah, yes,” Freddie acknowledged. “I did say they’d be your honorary pets, didn’t I?” Back during only their second full conversation, if she recalled correctly, when they’d gotten to know each other beneath the stars just before getting drenched with the sprinklers. The memory made her smile.
“Anyway,” she continued, getting back on track, “I know you don’t celebrate Christmas but it would have felt strange to me not to get you anything, so I got you a gift - which I think you should have expected, honestly. And since I gave my parents fair warning that you’re coming home with me they may have gotten you something too.”
Rosie laughed as he shook his head, getting all bashful all of a sudden. He was so endearing sometimes it hurt. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“Well, I wanted to,” Freddie replied. After a moment’s thought she added, “Sorry if you feel weird getting Christmas presents when you don’t celebrate. None of us mean to offend you.”
Rosie brushed her aside. “You haven’t,” he assured her. “I promise. It’s… it’s really thoughtful of you all, to have thought of me.”
Freddie smiled. “Of course.”
“Do your parents know?” Rosie asked after a moment. “That I’m Jewish?”
“Of course,” she said again. “My dad thought about getting a menorah for the occasion since it’s Hanukkah right now, isn’t it? But he didn’t want to offend anyone since we’re not Jewish. They wanted to try to combine the celebrations a bit - Hanukkah and Christmas, this is - to make sure you feel included, but didn’t know how to go about it, really.” She sighed out a self-conscious little laugh. “I know it’s probably not at all helpful to hear what we might have done and what we thought about doing but I just want you to know that they are fully aware that you’re Jewish and will understand if you don’t want to partake in any of our Christmas traditions. So please don’t feel weird about it or anything.”
Rosie was smiling wide when Freddie next looked across at him. “Your parents,” he began around his beaming smile. “They sound wonderful.”
Freddie herself smiled at this. “They are,” she told him. “You’ll like them, I think. They already like you just from what I’ve told them in my letters.”
Rosie smirked. “Oh? And what have you told them?”
She shrugged coyly. “None of your business.”
When their train finally pulled into Oxford Station, Freddie jumped up, beaming. Rosie took care of both of their bags while Freddie focused on getting Meatball off in one piece, and as soon as they were on the platform Freddie’s parents started calling to her from the other side of the ticket barriers.
“Wils!” her mother was shouting, jumping up and down and waving wildly.
“Mum!” Freddie called back, grinning. “Dad!” She turned back to Rosie and gestured at them. “Those are my parents.”
Rosie chuckled. “I figured.”
Meatball was barking as they attempted to get him, the two of them, and their two bags through the ticket barriers, causing as much commotion as he could, but he calmed once they were through. Wordlessly, Rosie took the lead from Freddie to hold onto Meatball while she greeted her parents, standing back with a small smile as he watched her hug them both tight.
When, eventually, her parents had finished gushing over her, Freddie turned to gesture at Rosie. “This is Rosie,” she told them. “And the nuisance he’s holding onto is Meatball.”
“Hello, both,” Freddie’s father greeted, while her mother approached Rosie with outstretched arms.
“Rosie, dear,” she greeted him, drawing him in for a hug. “It’s so lovely to finally meet you.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you too, ma’am,” Rosie replied, hastily dropping his and Freddie’s bags to reciprocate her hug.
Freddie’s mother scoffed good-naturedly as she let him go. “You can just call me Alma. Or mum, if you prefer. I don’t mind.”
Rosie nodded. “Right.”
“And you must be Meatball,” Freddie’s mother - Alma - went on, turning her attention to Meatball. Freddie laughed as she watched Rosie stand there awkwardly while her mother fawned over the dog at his feet.
“Mum, you can say hello to him once we get home,” she reminded her. “I’ve been stuck living in a freezing cold hut for however many months and I’d rather like to get out of this uniform and sit by the fire, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Back five minutes and already throwing around her demands,” Alma whispered to Rosie conspiratorially as she dutifully rose to her feet. She turned to Freddie with a fond smile. “I hope you don’t order Rosie around the way you do me, Wils, or else I have no idea how he puts up with you.”
Freddie rolled her eyes indulgently and took Meatball’s lead back from Rosie. “He’s a grown man who is quite capable of telling me to piss off if the situation so requires I can assure you, mother.”
Thus, all the way back to the car Freddie was berated by her mother for her foul language.
They spent the journey from the train station to the house all scrunched into the car, discussing everything which had transpired since Freddie had last visited home. Millie was doing fine, she told her parents - was feeling better now about Brady’s fort going down because she’d received a couple of letters from him since, assuring her he was being looked after well enough in a prisoner of war camp (though how much truth there was to the sentiment Freddie wasn’t sure). And Freddie’s work was intense but gratifying - no, she still couldn’t tell them exactly what she was doing, but her father lit up from behind the steering wheel when she assured him she was using her German everyday.
Freddie’s parents asked Rosie about his work and he told them about his recent missions - as much as he was permitted to in the interests of secrecy, of course - and about his wider responsibilities as a pilot. They asked after his family back home in Brooklyn and what he would be doing if he wasn’t in England and lamented to him that they hadn’t quite managed to work out how to add some Hanukkah celebrations into their Christmas revelry.
By the time they reached Freddie’s house, Rosie already felt ten times more comfortable with her parents. She had been right. He liked them. Her mother was a lot warmer than he’d expected - she seemed to have accepted Rosie as one of her own before she’d even met him - and her father was more awkward and self-conscious than he was disinterested or standoffish. Freddie described him simply as “Austrian”, which had made Rosie laugh. He hadn’t honestly met enough Austrians to know whether they all behaved that way but he liked her father even still.
Freddie’s house was beautiful. Not huge but big enough for being relatively close to the city centre. They had a guest bedroom, even, which Alma had made up for Rosie to stay in. There were paintings on the walls and family photographs following him up the stairs. He got to watch Freddie grow up every time he walked up there. There was a grand piano in the living room and an ornate fireplace decorated with traditional Christmas stockings, each with the name of a member of the family embroidered, including the dogs. And at the end of the line, beside Freddie’s stocking, was a new one with Rosie’s name embroidered, and for some reason the sentiment made him want to cry.
Alma mistook his reaction for offence as she showed him into the living room, Freddie long since having disappeared into the kitchen to greet the dogs instead of getting settled in her bedroom as Rosie had.
“I’m sorry if it’s too forward,” Alma told him, watching him as he looked at the stocking. “I know you don’t celebrate Christmas, I just didn’t want to leave you out -”
“It’s wonderful,” Rosie told her, offering a shy smile as he ran a gentle finger over the red embroidery. “Really. Thank you, ma’am.”
“Alma,” she corrected him, smiling again now. “And think nothing of it. I know you’ve been looking after our Wils for us. This is a drop in the ocean of the thanks we owe you for it.”
Rosie grinned. “I didn’t know that was her name,” he said, instead of risking getting more emotional and responding to her thanks. He inclined his head in the direction of Freddie’s stocking, which had Wilfrieda embroidered on it.
At this, Alma laughed softly. “She never told you her full name?” Rosie shook his head and she scoffed. “I know she goes by Freddie now - I’m sure it makes her life easier, too - but I think we gave her a beautiful name. Probably a bit too German to give her a quiet life so I understand why she hides it, I just wish she wouldn’t.”
“Wilfrieda,” Rosie read aloud, trying the name out for size. He hadn’t honestly thought very much about what Freddie was short for but it made sense. And it suited her, he thought. Elegant and beautiful, just like she was.
#my writing#watm#mota#hbo war#masters of the air#masters of the air x oc#masters of the air fanfic#masters of the air fanfiction#hbo war x oc#rosie rosenthal#robert rosie rosenthal#rosie rosenthal x oc#rosie rosenthal fanfic#rosie rosenthal fanfiction
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Runaway Chapter 4: Poison_Part 1
Summary: Lilia tries to speak with Malleus about everything. But will Malleus listen?
<-Previous Chapter
Master List
Ao3 version
Notes:
*I had to split this as Tumblr no long takes long posts
*Twst spoilers for Chapter/Book 7
Despite all the books Malleus had read over the years, the young prince couldn’t think of the words to describe his emotional state.
Malleus was just grateful that he was able to return to his quarters during this state, as the familiarity helped him.
Malleus feared that the rest of the dorm wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him and would argue against his return. Not that he would have blamed them.
However, Malleus underestimated them. The Diasomnia students welcomed their house warden back and showed concern for his mental and physical state. Despite the circumstances, Malleus was touched.
He curled into the familiar black sheets, feeling sick.
After having a long talk with his grandmother, Malleus needed time to process everything.
While Malleus was still quite upset with her about all the secrets and lies and how she allowed the Senate to treat Lilia when the latter saved his life, he couldn’t help but feel pity for her.
“I loved you all I could back then, but it wasn’t enough,” she had said. “I just—I didn’t want to lose you after I had lost your mother.” Her expression had been so broken when she spoke. It reminded the young man that he wasn’t the only one hurt by his mother’s death.
His mother’s--
Malleus’ black-painted nails tore into the silk pillow beneath his head as he took a sharp breath through flared nostrils, his body tensing.
It wasn’t as if anyone lied about Malenore’s death; he was always told that she was slain by humans as she defended their land and him. That’s why, for the longest time, he detested humans. Until he met Silver, that is.
‘Silver…’ At the thought of the boy, a horrid set of feelings mixed inside of Malleus, like poison, was being conjured in his chest.
Rhrr…
The growl rumbled in his throat as his eyes reddened.
Malleus hadn’t heard about Silver since being told he was missing.
A part of him wanted to find his knight as soon as possible, especially when he first woke up and recalled everything. Malleus had wanted to apologize for everything he said and more.
But then he remembered why he said them. How Silver had--
His lips curled back into a snarl. There was a pounding in his ears as his blood raced and boiled.
“Dammit…” How was Malleus supposed to feel right now?
Silver was the son of the man who killed his mother. Silver. The child he sang to sleep, cradled, and taught magic to was the son of an invader who murdered his family.
And Lilia knew it.
The memory of his guardian infuriated him even more, as he realized that Lilia, the man Malleus trusted above all else and whom he cared for so much that he blotted over, lied to him.
For sixteen years, Lilia knew who Silver was and kept quiet. For sixteen years--
Malleus jerked upright in the bed and tossed his pillow aside as he swung his legs over to the edge. Body tensed, he stood from his bed and stomped to the window.
As he watched from the outside, the dragon gripped the edge, turning the stone beneath it into dust.
BANG!
Clouds thundered and roared as they crashed into one another. Night had fallen, and now a storm covered the sky.
The rumbles shook the glass dorm as the wind whistled outside.
Whooshhh...
The air rushed through the thorny vines below, making them wave like vipers.
Malleus watched them dance.
‘Is this my doing?’ He hoped not. He caused enough pain as it is--
Knock, knock…
Malleus lifted his head when he heard the sound but didn’t look around, not even when he heard the long creak that followed.
“Malleus.” The young dragon tensed.
Usually, Lilia’s voice brought comfort. Now, however…
Malleus still didn’t turn but saw the bat fae reflected in the glass. From what Malleus could see, Lilia was paler than usual. And his expression was as blank as paper, other than the concern in his eyes.
A nasty feeling inside Malleus rose.
He defended the fae against his grandmother, yet now that it was just the two of them, all sorts of emotions were burbling beneath his skin like tar in a swamp.
Lilia closed the door behind him but stayed near it as if debating running away. Just like his son had.
“How are you feeling?” he asked after a moment ticked away. Malleus grimaced. Was Lilia seriously asking that right now?
“How do you think?” he bit out before his teeth clenched shut. He pressed his forehead against the glass, his body shaking as all his emotions came tumbling out.
“You lied to me about everything,” he accused. “About the Senate, about my birth..." How Lilia’s life was shortened because of him. How the loss of his magic was HIS fault. How he suffered all this time--
All because of him.
Lilia’s expression softened, his eyes full of care for the other.
“I didn’t want you to blame yourself,” Lilia said gently. He closed the distance between them. Through the corner of his eye, Malleus could see how weary the other had looked.
His eyes were red as if he had been sobbing for hours. The lily-pale skin was covered in raking red marks that appeared self-inflicted. It was as if he had tried tearing himself apart.
Without a thought, Lilia reached out a hand and touched Malleus’ arm.
“It was my choice, and I never regretted it. Not even for an instant,” the bat told the other. “More than anything... I had wanted you to live. And for that, I would have paid any price. And it was worth it. You were born. And you managed to grow into a fine young man that Malenore and Leven would have been proud of. And I’m glad I got to see it.”
Malleus felt his heart tighten. He quite literally owed everything to Lilia. Not only was Lilia beside him his whole life as a mentor, friend, and guardian, but he was literally the reason Malleus was alive.
Not only did Lilia give him his life in a literal sense, but he was the one who carried Malleus to safety when he was still within his egg. If not for Lilia, he would have ended up like his mother.
His mother…
Heh…
The bitter laugh came out as the emotion turned the warm feeling inside him cold.
“Is that why you lied all this time?” The accusation slipped through Malleus’ teeth before he could stop them. He pulled away from Lilia, his eyes glowing with green embers and pain as he glared at his guardian. “About Silver?”
--
Next Part->
Oh, boy. Things are heating up now. Good thing Lilia's used to dodging lightning.
#twst#mine#twisted wonderland#lilia vanrouge#twst lilia#lilia twst#disney twst#malleus draconia#twst malleus#twisted wonderland malleus#twst Runaway#twst fanfic#disney twisted wonderland#twst wonderland#twst spoilers
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of violent delights chap 5
trapped
TW: Panic attack, talk of abuse and claustrophia. I have added ** to the beginning and end of the scene so it can be avoided. I've also put a summary of this moment at the very end.
9 November 1996
Euphemia's POV
Harry had to stay in the hospital for the rest of the weekend. I sprained my wrist in my attempt to catch him but beyond that, I came away in better shape than my brother. There's something he isn't telling me but I won't pry, not yet at least. Saturday's match shook us both up pretty badly. Watching Harry tumbling out of the sky may be the most terrified I've been since I was little. The sight has been plaguing my nightmares the last few nights, mixing with the old dreams of Voldemort and Sirius Black and the Dursleys. I slept so poorly last night that I am basically running on coffee.
"Alright, that's all for today. Reminder that your essay on your chosen creature are due on Thursday," Professor Lupin announces, pulling me out of my thoughts and back to reality. Quickly, I begin packing up my notes and textbook sloppier than I normally would in my daze.
"Phe, let me get that for you," Fred says from my shoulder, reaching out for my bag. I shake my head, not interested in being coddled. I only sprained my wrist and I can carry my own bag. "S'arlight, Freddie. I have to talk to Lupin. I'll meet you in History of Magic, okay?" Fred nods, leaving the classroom with the rest of my friends as I walk towards Lupin's desk. "Professor, might I have a word?"
Lupin turns, eyebrows raised at me in concern. "Certainly, are you well? I spoke to Harry earlier today about the match this weekend."
"I'm fine. That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I was doing some reading yesterday, on dementors, and I found a charm to repel them. The Patronus Charm."
"Yes," Lupin says slowly, leaning back against his desk. Sunlight streams through the windows at an angle, a beam cutting through the air between us, looking like a golden veil was hung between me and the professor.
"Can you teach it to me? And Harry?"
"Euphemia.." Lupin starts but I cut him off.
"We can't go on without some way to defend ourselves. We were lucky this time but we might not be again. From what I've read this charm is the only defense against them. We have to learn it," I speak quickly, nerves causing my hands to shake slightly at my sides. "Please."
Lupin considers me for a long moment, before standing straight up with a weary sigh. "It well beyond the Ordinary Wizarding Levels..."
"I can handle it," I say quickly causing Lupin's lips to twitch into a sad smile.
"You looked very much like your mother when you said that. She was always at the top of our class, intelligent beyond her years. I suppose... if anyone could master the Patronus at such young ages it would be the children of James and Lily." Lupin studies me sadly, a flicker of pride lingering in his eyes.
"So you'll do it?"
"Yes, I can try. I do not claim to be an expert at fighting dementors and it will have to wait until next term. I'm afraid I've chosen a busy time to fall ill." Lupin says, turning to look at the papers stacked on his desk.
"That's fine, thank you, sir. Thank you very much," I say earnestly, smiling at him through the golden veil of sunlight. He nods slowly and I turn, leaving the class much more hopeful than when I entered it.
10 November 1996
Riddle and I stroll down the halls, walking our usual route through the castle in a slightly tense silence. Really, slightly tense is about as close to comfortable as we can get. We are near the end of our rounds, when a huge crash echoes through the hall causing both of us to jump.
"The hell was that?" I ask, turning around searching for the source of the crash.
"Dunno" Mattheo says, his eyes narrowed. Another crash sounds to our left, from a broom cupboard. I step towards it but Mattheo reaches out, grabbing me by the arm. Startled, I yank my arm back hard but Riddle's grip is harder and we stumble, my back hitting the wall as he collides with me, his hand reaching out to brace himself on the wall over my head. For a moment, we stand there completely still, stunned at the position we find ourselves in. I can't help but notice the faint scent of his cologne, the dark brown of his eyes where amusement dances as he stares down at me, a small grin on his lips.
"Get off me!" I say angrily, snapping out of the moment, trying to push Riddle away.
"Did you stop to think that you might not want to burst into whatever is happening in the closet, princess?" Riddle says, raising his eyebrows suggestively. "I know I'm only ever in broom closets for one thing."
"Please spare me the details of your favorite conquests. It's past curfew. What are we here for if not to catch people not in the dorms?" I respond sharply, refusing to admit that, no, I had not considered that possibility.
"Your funeral," Riddle shrugs as he loosens his grip enough for me to shove him off. He stumbles back a few steps, a crooked and cocky grin growing on his face as he chuckles slightly.
I step towards the door carefully and knock, Riddle to snorts a laugh behind me. The sounds stop from inside the closet and I roll my eyes, pulling open the door. As I do something sweeps out over me and before I know it, I am stumbling forward from a force at my back. I stumble forward, catching myself on the back wall of the closet, and Riddle tumbles in after me before the door slams shut. I hear a cackling from the other side of the door as Peeves compliments himself and the rattle of the doorknob as Riddle tries and fails to open the door. No, no, no, please.
Mattheo's POV
I quickly turn back to the door, throwing my weight against the wood. "PEEVES! Let us out!" I bellow, trying to get the door open. Peeves just continues cackling as his voice gets quieter and quieter, presumably as he floats leisurely down the corridor, immensely pleased with himself. I bang one last time against the door, groaning in frustration before turning around and reaching in my pocket for my wand. "Lumos," I murmur and a soft light blooms from the tip of my wand. "Alohomora!" I say and try to open the door to no avail and kick the door once more for good measure. "Fuck."
**
I sigh and turn back to face Potter, leaning against the door. Now that there is light in the room, I notice her pressed up against the back wall, her breath shallow and uneven. "What's the matter with you?" I ask, raising my eyebrow.
"Shut up," she mumbles, closing her eyes and leaning her head against the wall. Her chest heaves with each uneasy breath, her hands pressed tightly up against the wall, her heart beating so hard and rapidly I can see her pulse in her neck.
"Potter, what is happening? We'll get out eventually, everything's fine. No need to panic."
"Mattheo! Shut up!" She yells suddenly, her eyes wide and fear filled.
I stand there stunned for a moment, watching Euphemia Potter try to control her breathing and she slides down the wall till she's sitting, her knees pulled up to her chest. She's never called me by my first name before and she's certainly never lost her cool in front of me. No matter how hard I've pushed she has always maintained her cool, any anger or hatred might bubble on the surface but still always under her control. Her breathing is steadily getting quicker and quicker as she places her hand over her chest, rubbing roughly against her uniform sweater. Panic attack. The realization hits me like a ton of bricks and I sink down to my knees and reach out towards her but she recoils away from my touch.
"It's okay, Euphemia. Just try and focus on my voice, okay? You're safe, you're gonna be okay. Try and breath with me, okay?" I sit against the door, trying to give her as much space as possible, and breath deeply, exaggerating my movements so she can follow better. I'm not sure how long we sit here, me breathing deeply as she tries to match me. Slowly, her breathing slows and the fear in her eyes melts, no longer wild with panic and fear.
Eventually, her breathing slows to near normal and she drops her knees to sit crisscross, her thumb and forefinger playing her ring. "Thank you," she whispers so quietly I almost miss it. "I just really don't like tight spaces."
"Yeah, I kinda put those pieces together myself," I say although I immediately regret responding with a quip. "Sorry."
"No, actually you being irritating is helping. Distracting," she huffs a small laugh. "I don't think I've ever heard you apologize," she adds after a moment.
"Hm, I don't do it often. I'm so very rarely wrong," I grumble, still watching Euphemia closely as she scoffs, shaking her head slightly. "If we're talking firsts, I've never heard you call me Mattheo before."
"Well you wouldn't shut up," she quips, shrugging as she studies me for a moment.
"I thought you said me talking was helping."
"Now, not before," she corrects. "Did you try Alohomora?" I nod and she sighs, her face screwing up in concentration as she tries to think of another solution.
We sit in silence for a long moment and I watch her. The way she bites her lip as she thinks, her green eyes bright even in the dim light, and her hands fidget with her ring, the pale stone catching the light every so often, the lighting scar on her left hand shining white as its illuminated by the light from my wand, her hair messier than it was in the hallway, more pieces falling around her face, softening her features. I think back to that first night we did rounds together, where she flinched at my raised hand, and I realize, possibly for the first time, that maybe her life isn't as perfect as I always thought it was...
She suddenly takes a deep breath, leaning back against the wall with her eyes closed. "You alright?" She nods slowly, her fingers spinning her ring quickly. "Someone will find us eventually," I assure her. I want to say more, ask who hurt her so badly she flinches at a raised hand and panics in small spaces, and honestly, I'm surprised at my own interest. Violence and abuse is nothing new to me. I have a record longer than my arm of all the fist fights I've gotten into in the last 5 years alone and most of the people I know and grew up with have been punished by their parents physically in one way or another. But something about watching Euphemia Potter curled in on herself makes me want to find whoever did this to her and hurt them so badly they never lay a hand on anyone else ever again.
"My aunt and uncle... when I made them mad, which was pretty often... as I'm not really obedient by nature," she chuckles softly, "... they had this small cupboard under the staircase... they'd put us in there. Added a lock to the outside so we couldn't get out..." She speaks quietly and slowly, making sure to keep her breath measured and deep, she voice shaking slightly.
"Merlin... that's terrible," I say eventually, surprised she's willing admit this to me. I clench my fists, trying to control the rise of anger in my chest. Why do I care all of a sudden? She shrugs slightly, pulling her knees back up to her chest. "I don't think I ever knew who you lived with 'til now... did you ever report anything to the Ministry?"
"They're Muggles. Ministry of Magic doesn't care about Muggles," she says simply, her eyes meeting mine for the first time.
"I thought the Potter family was a pureblood fam-"
"Mum was Muggleborn. Her sister, my aunt, hated her for being a witch."
"There wasn't anyone else? Any one better?" I ask, truthfully bewildered that the golden children, the saviors of the wizarding world, have absolutely no one else to turn to. She just shrugs and shakes her head. "I'm sorry."
"Two apologies in less than an hour? Who are you and what have you done to Mattheo Riddle?" She asks, her eyes narrowed mischievously. Her fingers still dance around her ring but the worst of the panic seems to have faded, or she's adept at hiding it.
**
"I'm not completely unsympathetic," I say, "Besides, it wouldn't be fair to kick you while you're down," I add as an afterthought.
"Like that's ever stopped you before. I've seen you beat people unconscious and keep going," she challenges, but I don't see judgement in her eyes like I normally do, but rather a cool interest. Like I am a problem she can't figure out how to solve.
"Maybe they deserved it," I say and I begin to feel uncomfortable under her watchful gaze. Her green eyes seem to pierce through my skin, through the armor of indifference I've spent years building around myself and I find I'm feeling vulnerable and exposed.
"So, any ideas how we get out of here, princess?" I ask, ducking my gaze away from hers, suddenly itching to get away from this closet where so many vulnerabilities have been laid bare.
"Fred and George will figure it out eventually," she says confidently. I raise my eyebrow.
"Uh, what makes you think that? I didn't think the Weasley twins were the brightest of the ginger bunch."
"Oi, we were having a not-so-terrible moment, don't ruin it by making fun of my friends," she says defensively and I raise my hands in surrender. "At least one of them always stays up until I come back to the common room after rounds and when I don't show up, well, let's just say they have a way to find me."
"Okay...Two questions: Why and how?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.
"The why is that George and Freddie are protective and they don't trust you. The how is a secret," she says simply, running her fingers through her hair, my eyes following the movement.
I avert my eyes and look down at my watch. "Well we should've been done about a half hour ago so I hope they catch up soon. I think this is now officially the most time we've spent together in one sitting, princess."
"And we haven't killed each other yet. We must be growing up," she quips sarcastically, making us both laugh. They are genuine laughs and for a moment, I think hers is the best thing I've ever heard.
Another 10 or so minutes pass, and we sit there across from each other, sometimes chatting and sometimes sitting in an easy silence. It is the most enjoyable time that I have ever spent with Euphemia Potter, panic attack aside.
"Mia!" A voice calls distantly and Euphemia jumps up, stumbling over me to reach the door, kicking my knee slightly and I grunt.
"Fred! George!" She calls back frantically, banging on the door of the closet. I breathe a sigh of relief, sitting on the stone floor was getting painful and I was starting to think Potter placed too much faith in the Twins; I push myself up to stand behind her.
There is some shuffling and talking on the other side and soon, the door opens, dim light flooding in from the darkened corridor, to reveal the Weasley Twins on the other side, wearing matching panicked expressions. As soon as the door is opened, Mia stumbles out and and into one of the Twins arms, causing the pair to stumble back and allowing me to step out of the broom closet. Before I have fully stepped into the corridor, the twin not holding Mia grabs me by the collar and slams me against the wall, the back of my head connecting with the rough stone wall.
"What the hell did you do to her?!" He yells at me. On instinct I swing my fist up, connecting with his jaw and shove him off me.
"Fred!" Mia gasps, and tries to step forward but George holds her back. Fred stands upright, anger in his eyes as he takes a swing for me. I duck his first swing but he lands a second in my gut, knocking the wind out of me and before I can recover I'm back to being pressed up against the wall with Fred's snarling face inches from mine. "How dare you touch her, you piece of shit!"
"I didn't do shit, Weasley!" I snarl back, grappling with him roughly. Both the Twins have a few inches on me but I've been in more fights this term than they have their whole lives. I take another swing but Fred is ready this time and ducks causing me to graze his shoulder, and he retaliates with a punch to my mouth.
"It wasn't his fault! FRED STOP!" Mia shouts, louder than I thought possible for her. Fred stops for a moment, looking at the girl.
"Yeah right," scoffs Fred, keeping me pinned to the wall.
"I didn't do shit!" I spit, a little blood mixing with my saliva.
"I didn't ask you, Riddle."
"It was Peeves! He shoved us and locked us in somehow. It wasn't Mattheo's fault!" Potter says, breaking out of George's hold. She steps towards us and manages to get Fred to release his grip of me and pushes him back. At her touch, Fred visibly relaxes, his eyes quickly scanning Euphemia and, seeing no signs of any hurt, steps back further and my gut twists.
"I told you I-"
"And what, may I ask, is happening here?" We all turn towards the voice, startled out of the stand off to see Professor Lupin standing at the end of the hall, his eyes scanning the four of us, the blood on my lip, and raises his eyes.
"Apologies, Professor. Riddle and I got locked in this closet by Peeves. Fred and George just came to get us out," Euphemia supplies easily, removing her hands from Fred. Lupin watches Euphemia standing between Fred and I, George behind us and raises an eyebrow.
"And?"
"I was blamed for no reason" I grumble, glaring at Fred.
"And how, might I ask, did Mr. and Mr. Weasley know where to find you?" Lupin asks, seeming suspicious.
"Hm, I'd like to know that as well," I say, looking at Fred. The Twins exchange a glance, the kind of mind reading look that twins are famous for, but before they come up with a story, Euphemia speaks up.
"They know what parts of the castle are Riddle's and my responsibility. When I didn't come back when I normally do they got worried."
"Yeah, we walked around until we heard Mia yelling, sir," George adds, sticking his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulder.
"Hm" Lupin sighs, eyeing the trio and then me, "Well then, that was very chivalrous of the two of you. However, you are out past curfew and fighting. Five points from Gryffindor each for breaking curfew and another 5 for fighting for both Mr. Weasley and Mr. Riddle," Lupin declares simply. "Is everyone alright? I can escort you to the hospital wing if needed."
"No," I grumble at the same time Fred and George say, "No, sir."
"Thank you, professor. We'll go right back to the dorms," Potter adds to which Lupin nods.
"Yes, please. See that you do. Goodnight," Lupin says, turning and walking back the way he came slowly.
"C'mon, guys," Euphemia says quietly, tugging on Fred's arm. Fred spares me one last glare, which I match, before turning away. Potter hesitates for a moment, turning back to me with a soft smile. "Thank you." I nod in acknowledgement and watch for a moment as the trio turns away, Fred's arm around Euphemia's shoulders, and that strange twist in my gut returns.
A/N: Wow this is a long one (3.6 words) but I hope you enjoy it and enjoy getting to see Mia and Mattheo actually connecting for once as they begin to start deconstructing some of their preconceived ideas about each other. And protective Weasley twins, my loves.
Summary of scene between the **:
Mia and Mattheo are locked in the broom closet and Mia starts having a panic attack. Mattheo, after realizing what is happening starts trying to calm her down and guiding her breathing while sitting as far away from her as possible. After a while, she is able to calm down and admits that the Dursley's would lock her in the cupboard under the stairs when he misbehaves. (Harry and Mia shared the room that canon Harry sleeps in from Chamber of Secrets onward since they wouldn't both fit under the stairs but didn't want to remove the cupboard aspect completely) They talk a little about why Mia and Harry were given to the Dursley's and Mattheo starts realizing that the Potter's life may not have been as perfect as he has always assumed and feels angry for Mia. He comments that in her panic, Mia called him Mattheo for the first time, and he also apologizes for a quip he makes and that she had to be raised the way she was. Mia then jokes that Mattheo never apologizes.
#mattheo riddle fanfic#mattheo riddle imagine#mattheo riddle#harry potter fandom#harry potter fanfiction#harry potter#hp fanfic#hp#hp fandom#potter siblings#hogwarts#hogwarts oc#hogwarts houses#hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry#gryffindor#ravenclaw#slytherin boys#mattheo#matteo riddle#wizarding world#second wizarding war#fanfic#benjamin wadsworth#of violent delights
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merthur fic ideas that are keeping me awake at night (trying to figure out which one to start first) so please help me out 😌
Full descriptions here:
1. hurt!merlin, huge hidden injury he’s sustained from one of his late night camelot saving missions, Arthur teases him for days saying he’s acting different and getting paler though he’s really just hiding his concern but then when Merlin collapses in the court yard Arthur goes mental
2. Soft Magic reveal (inspired by the deleted scene where Arthur gives Merlin the sigil) they’re out alone in the woods and Merlin has the fire going but he’s clumsy and knocks his water skin straight over the fire so he lets his eyes flash and restarts the fire, he doesn’t even acknowledge what he’s done until he turns back to Arthur’s wide eyes.
3. Hurt!Arthur/Protective!Merlin. A sorcerer and his bandits attack the group whilst on a hunt. Arthur rushes off before Merlin can stop him to fight the sorcerer though he manages to get Arthur in a hold, on his knees, seemingly attacking him with the air that surrounds them. He’s bleeding and bruises and Merlin stumbles across them with the battle dazed knights behind him and knows there’s only one option to save Arthur.
4. Magic Reveal. BAMF!Merlin unleashes the full wrath of his power as he watches Arthur about to be dealt a fatal blow in the midst of an already draining battle. He collapses just as the magic saves his king
5. Visiting lord/royals/knights are arseholes to Merlin but not just in the way that’s considered normal for Servant and Master. Merlin starts becoming increasingly late to serve Arthur so Arthur questions it but doesn’t think anything of it. Merlin tries his best to hide the injury’s costing his body and It isn’t until one of the knights wrestles his jacket off of him accidentally in the training fields does Arthur realise what’s been going on
6. Protective!Knights, the knights had already worked out that Merlin had magic for themselves and had made a vow between themselves to protect Merlin from any rage that may befall him once Arthur finds out, inevitably Merlin gets found out and the knights show Arthur that, even if he is king, they will fall for Merlin first and always
7. soft drabble, late at night in the physicians chambers, (gauis is not there…) they both have minor injuries from a rough training session and they patch each other up, Arthur wonders why gentle kisses and soft whispers cannot while always the blood that trickles from Merlin’s knuckles.
8. CourtSorcerer!Merlin, Arthur has to defend camelot from an attacking kingdom and so he lets his court sorcerer attack from the tops of the castle, he doesn’t realise just how powerful Merlin is or how much he loves him until the same gold that pulses through merlin’s blue eyes coats the night sky
8. CourtSorcerer!Merlin, Arthur has to defend camelot from an attacking kingdom and so he lets his court sorcerer attack from the tops of the castle, he doesn’t realise just how powerful Merlin is or how much he loves him until the same gold that pulses through merlin’s blue eyes coats the night sky
#merthur fanfic#merthur#merlin#merlin fanfic#merlin x arthur#court sorcerer merlin#bbc merlin#arthur pendragon#knights of camelot
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JTTW Era: From Monke to Havoc
The general plotline was the same as the show's, just with a few different caveats and a lot more context.
-Water Curtain Cave was one of the abodes abandoned by Jie immortals during their eastward retreat. Its construction was never finished, which was a good thing, because a completed abode would have much more deadly defenses than a waterfall, a barrier seal, and some illusory walls.
-Strangely, even though SWK was born in the East Sea, when he was on his quest for immortality, he didn't go for the closer option that was the Three Islands of Immortals, and went all the way west to the mainland instead.
-Why is that so? My explanation in this AU is, well, the Three Islands don't stay still. Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou are all massive palace complexes built on the backs of giant turtles, descended from the divine beast who willingly sacrificed its limbs, allowing Nvwa to use them as replacement sky support pillars.
-Same goes for Jie Sect's headquarter, Golden Turtle Island + Biyou Palace, except it is a floating island in the sky that can be piloted around. Because of this, the East Sea immortals had the reputation of being elusive and unapproachable, and among regular humans and yaoguais, they were little more than a myth.
-Subodhi had more in common with "classic" Western Sect sages than the Arhats of Western Heaven, with knowledge and proficiency in both Daoist arts and Buddhist principles. Despite the interesting implications, his origin remained a mystery and it was unlikely that he actually participated in the War of the Investiture.
-In the original JTTW novel, SWK made quick friends out of his coworkers after he became an official in the Celestial Realm, and remained on surprisingly good terms with them during the journey, despite having beaten most of them up during the Havoc.
-In this AU, it's even less of a surprise. Like, this guy had no baggage from the War, nor the trauma of deification, nor any interest in office politics, which was a breath of fresh air for most celestials.
-The same couldn't be said for the Western Heaven interns——even though PIF didn't give a damn about the old factionalism, she was still highly ambitious and determined to make the Wind Bureau stand on its own, as the equal of Thunder Bureau instead of its eternal handmaiden.
-After his defeat, Azure had genuinely come to believe in the Chan Sect's cause, as he witnessed King Zhou's atrocities during the march to the Shang capital and realized that this was what his sectmates had been defending, what they had been throwing their lives away for.
-Wenshu the immortal master was a lot more ruthless than Manjusri the Bodhisattva, but even he started to see a problem and ask himself uncomfortable questions about Fate and Will of Heaven during the late stages of the war, and found the answers offered by his sect lacking.
-He wasn't as warm as Puxian, and there were plenty of armor-piercing questions fired at his new disciple, who spent a lot of time tied onto the Five Dragons Pillar after all the failed escapes and attempts on his life.
-But little by little, Azure did develop a grudging respect for him and eventually, trust, as they went into Western Sect lands and he saw what Wenshu was like outside of war: a natural teacher, a skillful debater, and someone who sincerely believed in sharing knowledge to all.
-Growing up as a child soldier is still gonna do a number to you, though. He is certainly less naive than his canon counterpart, and is even more desperate in his need to find a right cause to fight for, to make all the death and suffering amount to something in the end; his tendency to unquestioningly latch onto ideals + "us or them" mentality didn't help either.
-Above all, his experiences had installed this absolute, unyielding hatred of tyrants in him, one that eventually drove him to rebel against the JE.
-If earthly kings could be overthrown for treating their subjects like cattle, if, to paraphrase Mencius, "I do not hear about the murder of Zhou the ruler, only the death of a monster", why should the heavenly one be exempt from that rule?
-Especially when JE's demand was what landed him in that horrible war in the first place. Before he accepted the internship in Eastern Heaven, he justified the whole thing to himself by thinking that such sacrifices were absolutely necessary to create a more effective Celestial Court, to end the tyranny of the dead over the living.
-Then he saw some of his old acquaintances in the 28 Lunar Mansions again, was extremely disheartened by their bitterness and apathy, and tried to convince them they should stop living in the past and actually do something for mortals and yaoguais.
-They called him brainwashed, a traitor, a Western Sect shill. He retorted that if they really thought so, they should have died like all the others, whose death didn't land them on a cushy heavenly cushion. He was no longer invited to parties after that.
-Disillusioned by pretty much the entire Eastern Heaven, tired, and often lost inside his own head, meeting SWK was truly like seeing a beam of light in the darkness. A being of complete freedom, who is unabashedly, joyfully himself, a true king who earned every bit of his subjects' loyalty and adoration.
-Tusks was simultaneously better and worse when it came to dealing with war trauma. Better because unlike Azure, he was never a stranger to Shang cruelty or a believer in Jie Sect's whole "one big Daoist family" talk.
-Having been kept in a pen for most of his youth, he awakened right on the eve of his own scheduled death, where he was supposed to be buried alive together with the sacrificed slaves in a ritual dedicated to the Kings of Ghosts.
-He was only saved because Azure and a few others were passing by and recognized that spark of intellect in the panicking beast's eyes. His loyalty was to Azure alone, not the Jie Sect, and began to resent the latter more and more as they adopted their Shang allies' necromancy practices and called upon the Kings of Ghosts' assistance.
-Because of that, Puxian had a much easier time convincing him after his defeat and capture, and their master-disciple relationship was a lot less turbulent thanks to Puxian's bombastic personality. The "worse" part came from his decision to give up on pursuing immortality and embrace death, just when Tusks had come to truly admire and love him as a parental figure.
-Muzha, who was also Puxian's student, did not take it well either, and stormed out when he told him to not look for his reincarnation, and seek out Cihang's instead.
-See, FSYY Era Muzha was kind of a hothead (thus getting bricked by Nezha); I felt like that might be less middle child resentment, and more his master rubbing off on him, and in this AU, Puxian realized that Muzha needed a different kind of teacher to help him grow as a person.
-In the end, Tusks was the only one left in the abode, awaiting the return of his master's reincarnation. But when Samantabhadra the Bodhisattva did come back, she was a different person, a being of the Path of Asura who lived in the western lands prior to becoming an Enlightened One.
-She was still good and kind, and from time to time, he could catch a glimpse of his old master in her demeanor and speech, but it was just that; a glimpse. The old connections, the trust built up over the years, the most emotional aspects of her memories——they were all gone.
-And he could never get over that, could never treat Samantabhadra with anything other than polite, detached obedience. Like Azure, he was trapped in the past, but whereas Azure could not let go of his resentment and the need to fight for a cause, Tusks could not let go of specific people and his loyalty to them.
-His belief in SWK's rebellion is more ideological than emotional. Azure's adoration of SWK stemmed from this romanticized ideal relationship between a liege and his just, virtuous lord; he is an "old school" Confucian at heart, and by "old school", I mean actual Hundred Schools Era thinkers like Mencius and Confucius himself.
-Tusks, well, outside of a few specific people, he was a lot more pensive and thoughtful and critical of blind acceptance. Whereas Azure tended to see either a true sage king or a tyrant, with little in-betweens, Tusks would point out that even a "good king" could still be deceived by his ministers or make ignorant decisions, and being a good liege means telling your lord harsh truths, whatever the consequences might be.
-Peng…well, he was basically this giant dumbass teenager in the FSYY Era, who only joined the fight 'cause Shen Gongbao told him that Jiang Ziya was talking shit about him. No, seriously.
-Then he got captured and taken to Western Sect juvie by Sage Randeng, and subsequently learned that the sister he had a falling out with was also the really annoying peacock guy he couldn't get a good read on. It's complicated.
-I've thought long and hard about how to reconcile JTTW's Mahamayuri with FSYY's Kong Xuan, and the best I could come up with is "Kong Xuan is one of her Bodies of Manifestation she unknowingly created."
-Think Marika and Radagon, but God-Demon Novel. After Mahamayuri was subdued by the future Taghatha Buddha, she was also ridded of her unnatural hunger, and came to regret what she did while under its influence.
-So she tried to cleanse all traces of her demonic nature by splitting her own power and storing them in five feathers, which, uh, didn't go as planned, and her colleagues had to subdue and drag her rogue half all the way back to the west, where they merged once more, but could separate when needed.
-Mahamayuri was her Bodhisattva self, while Kong Xuan was the wrathful Wisdom King self who, nonetheless, had the same androgynous appearance as his other self, something quite unusual among Wisdom Kings.
-Back to Peng: he is like the delinquent who idolizes his gangster sibling, then, when said sibling ended up in jail and decided to turn over a new leaf after getting out, saw it as a grave betrayal and doubled down on that criminal lifestyle.
-For literally everyone he ended up hating——Mahamayuri, Nezha, SWK, there is this underlying sentiment of "WTF you used to be cool, now you are just a spineless bootlicker". The only exception was his mother, the Primordial Phoenix of Penglai Island, whom he just hated, period.
-Whereas the rest of the Brotherhood's grievances were against an unjust authority, he simply despised authority figures and being told what to do in general. Ironically, he also tended to latch onto big sibling figures in a very immature and possessive way.
-Basically, Li Kui from Water Margins is his spirit animal (human?)
Rebellion and its Justifications
-This is more ranting than worldbuilding: like, I get it. The show has a serious "show-not-tell" problem when it came to the corruption of the Celestial Realm.
-Old Marxist historians really loved throwing the word "feudal" around while describing dynastic China, however applicable it was, mostly so they could tell you how dark and oppressive everything was, and the "Havoc in Heaven as Class Warfare" reading was just so prevalent and cliched due to its usage in propaganda.
-But just because the Celestial Realm wasn't cartoonishly evil and could have nice people in it, doesn't mean it can't, still, suck. In the JTTW novel, JE has no problem with subjecting the Fengxian Prefecture to an eternal-in-all-but-name drought, solely because its governor fed his offerings to the dogs after a quarrel.
-He is a caricature of a typical emperor, who could, and did abuse their powers throughout history, causing incredible human sufferings.
-Like, even a so-called "good emperor" was unlikely to be a good person by modern standards. Azure's grievances were absolutely justified. His fault lay in the same idea that so many historical peasant rebellion leaders believed in——that a good, virtuous emperor on the throne would somehow make everything better.
-A specific thing I want to explore in this AU: quite a while back, one of my Chinese moots on Twitter mused that both LBD and Azure were very Confucian-coded in their beliefs (we are both Chinese dub/sub watchers, so that might be a factor).
-Namely, the hope for a "sage king", a virtuous lord, and the inevitable disillusionment that led them down similar, yet different paths.
-The thing is, FSYY is even more hamfisted with its Neo-Confucian messages. As shown by the ten billion pre-battle speeches that could be summed up as "Filthy rebels! How dare you take up arms against your rightful lord!" and "No, we are perfectly moral and righteous in our cause, because…"
-And you could actually find support for rebelling against bad rulers in classic Confucian texts: Mencius was pretty straightforward in stating that loyalty between lords and lieges was a two-way street, and if your king treated his ministers and subjects like crap, you are perfectly justified to respond in kind.
-There is one potential problem, though. If the only morally justified rebellion is rebellion against a tyrant, it is even easier for you to believe that there are only sage kings and tyrants, and for tyrants to say that, since every rebel and their mother claimed they were rebelling against an unjust ruler, people who use such rhetorics were no more than filthy liars, and you should be unconditionally loyal to your ruler, period.
-So how does SWK’s motivation fit into all this?
-Well…paradoxically, he is somehow more idealistic yet also less ideal-driven than the rest of the Brotherhood. To him, the Havoc is less "Down with the Unrighteous Tyrant!" and more "How dare you be an asshole! To me and mine specifically, but also the others, I guess! Because of that, I'll steal all your shit and maybe take your fancy chair too!"
-Azure and Tusks were ex-believers who suffered under an oppressive set of social structure and norms, yet, even while rebelling against it, could not truly think outside of its boxes. SWK was never in that system in the first place, so he just didn't see the point of all these fusses and boring speeches, nor did he care for the rigid principles of the court.
-The problem with not being inside that system, of not understanding where they are coming from, and how outrageous his behaviors look to the higher-ups? He also couldn't relate to the visceral fear of people who had been personally taught that This is what happens when you go against the Will of Heaven.
-But he would, very soon.
Flames and Ashes
Because this is an AU and I don't have the show's strange aversion to showing Buddhist gods, I will proceed to selectively disregard the whole "Defeated by the JE" thing as visual symbolism, and say it is still Erlang, the Plum Mountain Brothers, and later, Lao Tzu + Buddha that brought SWK down.
I've said in another Tumblr post that my HC is "Erlang did not order, or lead the burning of FFM personally, he was up there making reports to JE when it happened, due to the Plum Mountain Brothers interpreting 'search the mountain' rather loosely, since, well, they were hunters, and for them, 'search the mountain' meant you set a fire to smoke out as many preys as possible."
But let's do it differently in this AU, and say that Erlang did lead the burning.
Well, for one, this wouldn't be a first for him. During the War of the Investiture, one of his first accomplishments was setting fire to Grand Tutor Wen's army supplies. He was there when Luo Xuan tried to raze the city of Xi Qi to the ground, when the Holy Mother of Flame Spirit led an entire army of fire-using sorcerers against the Zhou forces.
The burning of FFM looked like a little candle next to the fire-based formations and AOE attacks of the FSYY Era.
He would be completely desensitized to this form of warfare, and also genuinely thought of it as an act of mercy, compared to, say, activating one giant flaming formation that covered the entire island and reducing it to a barren rock covered in melted glass.
(As far as lessons about the inevitability of Fate and futility of resisting the Will of Heaven went, it was a *gentle* one. Certainly more gentle than his own, where he joined the Investiture War because he was promised an answer to his mother's whereabouts upon victory, only to find out that it was all for nothing in the cruelest way.)
To those on the receiving end, it was very much Not A Mercy.
Much like SWK's 72 caves of demon kings in the original novel, most of the Brotherhood got separated and captured during the first wave of attack, led by the Heavenly Army. While SWK was on his way to rescue them, Erlang arrived with his Plum Mountain Brothers and intercepted him.
Both Peng and SEM managed to make a quick getaway, with the intent of returning later, but for different reasons.
Peng was gonna pull that same trick he used during the War of the Investiture: transform into his giant yaoguai form, create a tornado that sucked up the East Sea's water, and flood the celestial army camp with it.
Then he got snatched up by Kong Xuan mid-transformation and dragged back to Penglai Island, kicking and screaming the whole way. Upon arrival, his mother promptly disowned him, which would have been great news if she didn't also permanently seal away his war form, leaving him at a mere fraction of his original strength.
SEM headed straight for SWK, having heard the commotion of Erlang's forces marching towards FFM from a long distance away, and arrived in the midst of their epic shapeshifting battle. He focused on holding off the Plum Mountain Brothers, but soon got Skyhowler'd and barely managed to limp away via shadow travel.
DBK and PIF had already clashed several times prior, but this time, she finally captured him and took him prisoner. They argued fiercely at first, grudgingly admitted that each other had a point next, bantered some more, until she just sighed and let him go, stubbornly claiming "It'll be more satisfying to mop the floor with you repeatedly when you come back for a rematch, instead of just letting them chop your head off and call it a day."
Azure and Tusks, however, had no such luck. Ancient armies, heavenly or not, did not obey Geneva Conventions, and they were captured by the 28 Lunar Mansion guys, many of whom still held a grudge against Azure for his insults and were eager to get some payback.
Let's just say…bodily mutilations happened. When they were sent back to their respective masters in chains, Tusks were missing two of his tusks, Azure, his tail, and these weren't the only losses they had suffered in captivity.
Yeah, "Heavenly Mercy" at its finest, lads.
Kingdom of the Exiles
I will say it now: to me, sincere idealism being slowly dismembered, crushed, and corrupted into grim vindictiveness + desperate sunken cost fallacy is always more delicious source of angst than "They are just delusional, power-hungry people all along!"
(To paraphrase Lu Xun: "Tragedy is viewing the destruction of all that is valuable and beautiful in life." It is watching people slowly become the worst parodies of their best intentions and slip inch by inch into the abyss, not cheering at assholes getting their comeuppance.)
(The key ingredient here is genuine beliefs and hope, goodness, or at least mundane everyday humanity. The sense that they used to have these things, or at least had had a chance at attaining them, but could never go back now.)
So let's show that process in motion.
By the time Peng broke out of his house arrest on Vulture Peak, Azure and Tusks were allowed to exit their respective master's Pure Lands, and SWK and SEM had their fallout, their dream of overthrowing the JE was thoroughly dead.
PIF found her job more and more unsatisfying compared to her regularly scheduled epic death battle against DBK——now an independent yaoguai warlord. Especially when her contributions in the Havoc Campaign got overshadowed by the Thunder Bureau guys again, who, together with Numinous Official Wang, managed to hold SWK off after he broke out of the furnace until the Buddha's arrival.
Furthermore, her very origins became a source of gossip and distrust in the aftermath of the Havoc; most celestials still viewed the Western Sect as this bunch of snotty, opportunistic foreign sorcerers who joined the War of the Investiture just to grab pets and shiny treasures, leading to the conspiracy theory that their interns weren't actually interns, but saboteurs who orchestrated the Havoc to weaken JE's influence, as well as make their new leader look good.
After receiving one jab too many during a banquet, PIF finally got fed up, slammed her drinking cup against the table, tossed the Grand Mistress's seal back into a shocked Hanzhi's hands, and walked out of Eastern Heaven to challenge DBK to a fight again.
Except her heart wasn't in it, and DBK bluntly pointed that out, and, to her surprise, didn't mock her when she started tearing up. The rest, they said, was history.
Back to the trio; their reunion was much less heartwarming, and mostly a sorrowful affair. They briefly discussed breaking SWK out of prison, but soon realized the impossibility of success.
Like, Azure and Tusks had no hopes of beating their masters then or now, and Peng couldn't even break his mother's seal, not without dying horribly in the process. The Buddha's seal was way beyond their current power level.
In the end, they settled on building their own kingdom on the Middle Kingdom's far western borders: their dream of overthrowing the Celestial Host might be dead, but maybe they could still realize the old Jie Sect ideals of creating this one big, tight-knit family who would take all under their wings, before they were irreversibly corrupted by the horrors of war and deification.
It would also be a new base where they could recuperate and rebuild their strength, and, for Azure, a place where SWK could return to after he was released from his imprisonment.
Sounds great? Well, there are a few problems, right from the start.
First, the inevitable ecological devastation caused by a construction formation of that scale. The power supply had to come from somewhere, either 1) the local "dragon veins" of the earth, 2) a high natural concentration of one of the Five Elements, or 3) the individuals powering the formation.
Since 2) didn't exist in a desert, and depending on 3) entirely would kill at least one of them, 1) was the option they ended up choosing. The result? Overnight oasis inside the formation itself, but all the lands surrounding the city were just barren and forever dead now.
At least they were sacrificing life so that more lives could flourish. At least it wasn't like those purely destructive formations. Or so they tried to justify their actions to themselves.
Secondly, they built their city on the actual Lion Camel Kingdom's borders, and its human ruler did not take too kindly to a bunch of demon "usurpers".
In fact, their choice of location was kind of intentional: this region traditionally fell under the influence of Mt. Kunlun-aligned immortals, and quite a few could trace their lineages to now-dead veterans of the Investiture War, who had passed down the worst of Chan Sect's anti-yaoguai prejudice to their successors.
As such, the persecution faced by local yaoguais was a very real and often deadly thing, which did cause many to flock to the budding LCR. Initially, the ruler of LCK turned a blind eye to their migration, but the sheer numbers quickly became a concern.
Like, what were these talking beasts really up to? Nothing good, probably. Better nip the problem in the bud, before all the nearby townsfolk were eaten by hungry yaoguais. Thus an army was sent onto their doorsteps, demanding that the so-called "Kings of the Ridge'' bow before the LCK King as his vassals, else they would be crushed like the filthy rebels they were.
Azure and Tusks wanted to resolve this diplomatically, by sending out envoys to explain that they had explicitly forbidden their subjects from consuming humans, and they wished to trade and peacefully coexist with LCK as equals.
Peng's suggestion was to violently crush them first before they could strike, because these mortals were just looking for an excuse to wipe their little kingdom out, and also, how dare they disrespect their betters.
Then the envoys' heads were sent back on a sharp stick, which, unfortunately, proved Peng right. There were no negotiations at this point, and if they accepted the human king's terms, their subjects would lose all respect for them.
Years of bloodshed and battle ensued, first between the two kingdoms' regular armies, then the LCK king started enlisting the help of wandering Daoist priests and immortal masters, and LCR, too, stopped holding back and unleashed the full arsenal and wrathful might of three Investiture War veterans upon them.
When the dust settled, LCK was no more, and the new Kingdom of the Ridge stood atop the blood and bones of its previous occupants.
(In trying to recreate the best of their old sect, they had unwittingly repeated all of its worst mistakes and atrocities.)
(But at least it amounted to something in the end, right? Right? They could finally rule their kingdom in peace, make it flourish, and grant their subjects the same prosperity and happiness they once saw on FFM.)
(If only.)
#lego monkie kid#lmk#lmk au#lmk azure lion#lmk sun wukong#lmk yellow tusk elephant#lmk peng#journey of the gods#journey to the west#jttw#investiture of the gods#fsyy#fengshen yanyi#erlang shen
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It's is I, the wizard!
Monsters had been appearing more lately. [Reader] couldn't tell that within a heart beat, all of them could. Their blood was darker. and visibly wanted with magic. It took them all to take down a single moblin from Time's world, which was. . . unusual.
[Reader] sighed audibly. They weren't a hero, not like the others were, however, they were still a hero. More specifically, a hero of fairies. As a young child, [Reader] was always able to understand fairies. and they loved [Reader] as much ad [Reader] loved them. When the fairies magic and homes were threatened, [Reader] set out on a quest to find the four great fairies of their world, and used the power granted by them to slay a beast that was sucking the land dry of its magic.
They weren't a hero of courage, but they were treated as an equal in the group, all the same.
Yet, something was wrong. They could sense it. Usually, fairies would always cone yo visit [Reader], night and day, wether yo relax or to just say hello, they always visited. Yet. not one had come by in two days. It was worrisome.
"Are you alright?" the voice belonging yo the ranchhand asked, sitting next to them. "You look like you've got something on your mind. Rupee for your thoughts?"
[Reader] sighed. "It's just. . ." They ran a hand through their hair. "I can't help bit worry. Fairies always came to me often and in small groups. Yet. . . I haven't seen one in the past two days."
Twilight hummed. "Well, normally I would say we have bad luck. But we aren't accustomed to being popular to fairies, so we don't find them nearly as often as you." He looked at [Reader], seeing the worry in their eyes.
[Reader] felt a reassuring hand on their shoulder. "I'm sure that if something happened, they'd be hiding. Maybe we are scaring them off, with how many monsters we've been encountering as of late. I can't promise this, however-" he gave a squeeze on their shoulder, "I promise, if something has happened, we will do everything we can to help them."
[Reader] smiled at Twilight, his pretty eyes holding no deception. He was always an attractive man, strong with nice looks, and a wonderful personality to boot. He was a dream (Shame he seemed to have someone else in his heart. . .)
Hyrule suddenly rushed into the camp, looking Paniced. "We've got issues! Monsters are nearby, and they're attack a great fairy!"
[Reader]'s neck snapped from Hyrule and looked at Twilight in alarm, and within a heart beat, a small group was running to where the monsters were.
They were indeed attacking a great fairy, who was trying desperately to protect the small balls of light around her, yelling for them to go away. It looked like a great fairy from Wild's time, yet the lizalfos (from Sky's time) were still snatching the fairies, all sounding like thousands of bells ringing to the heros. but [Reader] could very well hear their tiny screams of panic.
Twilight ran in and attacked a lizalfos holding a bag full of captured fairies, slicing its arm off and making the bag fall. It shrieked in rage and spun, nearly hitting Twilight with the spiked ball on its tail.
Warriors ran to another one, which rose its large metal arm to mock him. only for it to get slashed in the face. He gasped seeing the dark blood seep through its wounds. "Infected!" He yelled, narrowly dodging a burst of flames from its mouth. A sword went through the back of the lizalfos and Sky stood, Master Sword in hand before rushing the the Great fairy's aid. who was currently defended by Hyrule.
"Leave us alone!" a tiny voice shrieked and [Reader turned to see a dark purple fairy hitting a lizalfos in the head over and over, trying to stop it from taking its friends. [Reader] drew their sword and charged, but the lizalfos blocked their sword with their arm, hissing and mocking them before spinning and jumping in the air, knocking them back. [Reader] landed on the ground but rolled out of the way of a punch before stabbing their abdomen. It didn't even flinch.
The Lizalfos opened its mouth. about to spew fire at [Reader] when Twilights sword appeared into their vision and sliced its head off. it fell down, lifeless. He offered his hand to [Reader] who gladly took it. "Thanks." they said, "Took me off guard."
"It's nothing." he said, before turning and checking the others. "Everyone okay?" he called.
Warriors pressed on a cut on his arm and a bleed on his stomach. hit by the tail of another lizafos before it was killed. Hyrule and sky were near the great fairy who was all frazzled and in a panic.
"Thank you." She said, as the heros and [Reader] got onto her platforms. "Those wretched beasts appeared from thin air and started to attack the little ones!" she explained, as the pink fairies swarmed the group and healed their wounds. At least ten were fluttering around [Reader], all singing their praise and thanking them, despite the others only hearing bells.
"Really?" Hyrule asked, concerned. The great fairy nodded.
"It started earlier today. when the more color varied ones here came to me asking for help finding their fairy whisperer. They were looking until those monsters found us and started to attack!"
"Fairy whisperer?" Sky asked, looking at [Reader]. "Isn't that what you are?" Reader nodded, when the dark purple fairy appeared and she spoke, the others able to hear her.
"Yes!" the fairy spoke. "Oh it was awful! Our whisperer and the rest of us were minding our business when this scary shadow with red eyes appeared and attacked us! It went after Lu and then more monsters came and we had to scatter!" the fairy turned to a shade of indigo. "Oh, I hope they're alright. . . "
"Wait a second!" [Reader] exclaimed "You're that fairy that always yelled 'It is I, the wizard!' when ever you entered a place or started to speak to someone!"
"This one if from your era?" Teilight asked as Warriors looked at the fairy. [Reader] nodded
"I've never seen a dark purple fairy before. . ." Warriors muttered
More colored fairies flew out, surrounding them and thanking them all before flying back to the Great fairy. The dark purple one turned a dark shade of red and slammed into his forehead. "Personal space!"
"Wizard-" [Reader] spoke in an urgent tone. "Are their more lizalfos around? You need to tell us."
Wizard Turned back to her main color again. "oh no! thats right! There's a camp a bit away on the mountain!"
Hyrule looked alarmed. "If the shadow is after the fairies, it must be for a reason! And the shadow might be there! We need to warn the others!" He turned to run, the others about to follow suit when Wizard flew in front.
"Please, I wanna help, at least allow me to help you!" she cryed before flying onto [Reader]'s sword, and it was surrounded in a light as Wizard's wings flapped. In a flash, [Reader]'s sword went from a simple blade to one with jewels on the hilt and a noticeable power within it. some fairy markings on the blade now. The group looked in awe as Wizard flew up. "There! now your sword it stronger! But it doesn't last more than 20 minutes, so hurry! Please!"
"Thank you!" [Reader] exclaimed.
"Lets go!" Sky yelled and the group ran into the woods to get the rest of the group, and defeat the rest of the lizalfos at their camp.
....
Hope you enjoyed this! I decided to write something based on a ask I left earlier, about fairy whisperers. Enjoy, and have a good day/night!
Wizard!! What a delightful surprise!! XD
I wasn't thinking that there was going to be anything more in the Fairy Whisperer idea. This was super sweet! Thank you for sending it in. :D
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Precure Day 242
Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 43 - “Terrifying! Eternal's Director!"
Date watched: 14 April 2024
Original air date: 14 December 2008
Screenshots
Precure Metamorphose Gallery 1 Gallery 2 | Sky Rose Translate Gallery
Project info and master list of posts
face/off
The moment has arrived! Eternal’s Director finally steps out of his office and reveals himself to Nozomi and the Precures for the first time! Are they ready for this encounter? Let’s find out!
The Plot
Eternal’s Director dreams about his first visit to the Cure Rose Garden, where Flora rejected him and locked him out because he wanted to take control of it. Knowing that Flora has given Nozomi the access he was denied, he decides to finally see her for himself.
All the girls except for Nozomi are hanging out at Natts House, doing homework and studying for an upcoming exam. Nozomi has chosen to study at the library instead, so she doesn’t end up relying on her friends too much. She struggles and they miss her, but they let her do her thing.
When Nozomi finally leaves, she notices it’s very gusty outside. She stops to ponder a large tree, and is joined by Otaka the principal/lunch lady, who tells her it used to be small and weak, but it withstood and grew big and strong (this is a metaphor). Nozomi then realizes she forgot something and rushes back to the classroom, where she stops at the teacher’s desk and acts like she’s presenting a class. Coco shows up to give her some encouragement, but they keep getting interrupted by more wind. Suddenly they detect a powerful presence like they’ve never felt before, and rush outside.
In the school’s courtyard is none other than the Director of Eternal, in all his masked giant chair glory. He interrogates Nozomi, asking why she wants to go to the Cure Rose Garden, and she says it’s because Flora invited her to do so. Coco tries to defend her honor, but is attacked, and so Nozomi transforms into Cure Dream.
The Director uses shadows to blow holes underneath Dream and Coco. Dream attempts to punch him, but he blocks her with an energy field and strikes her with his shadowy wings. He makes a speech about how everything in the world can be classified as either something of value, or of no value, before destroying Otaka’s tree, and then the entire school and surrounding forest, leaving nothing but a giant crater in the ground.
Cure Dream is in shock, and the director declares her to have no value, but just then the other Cures and Milky Rose appear to back her up. The Director turns his shadow wings into five Hoshiina orbs that plant themselves in the shadows of everyone aside from Dream, spawning color-coded Hoshiinas shaped like demons. The girls use their special attacks, but the Hoshiinas absorb them, distort them, and return fire, leaving everyone strewn about. Dream steps forward, giving an inspirational speech that all the items and places he erased were things that could have grown to become much greater, and that he does not get to universally decide the worth of anything, especially them.
Coco gives them power and the Cures all perform Rainbow Rose Explosion on the Director. He turns the Hoshiinas into a dark rose to counter their attack, and it seems that he can repel the attack, but Mint turns to Dream and reminds her, via the metaphor of the tree, to hold to her beliefs so she can grow and support her friends and teammates. This is the encouragement she needs to push through the Director’s defense. He is overwhelmed, and moves out of the way of the attack. He stands up, weakly, but before he can try to attack again, Anacondy shows up and teleports him back to Eternal. As he reflects on what just happened, he thinks to himself that maybe the cures do have some value after all.
Over at Natts House, everyone is looking at the still sleeping King Montblanc and worried about the future….. Except Nozomi, who reiterates that she can grow and become unshakeable for the team, while eating a special pancake that everyone made for her earlier. Everyone is cheered up by her positivity and that ends the episode.
The Analysis
What I Liked
As we near the endgame, things are starting to escalate. The Precure have faced many formidable threats so far, but this first taste of the danger posed by the Director is different. His absolutist attitude towards things of value is fearsome and his only desire is to impose his will and control everything.This is of course why Flora denied him entry into the Cure Rose Garden, but he believes he has the strength to impose his will. While he doesn’t wipe the floor with the heroines like we’ve seen evil leaders do before, he is able to match their energy without great effort.
Feeding into his ideology, the Director fights mostly by erasing things and copying or reflecting things. He removes things he perceives to have no value, and doesn’t have the creativity or desire to use his own attacks so he just copies the cures’ abilities. He doesn’t even see them as having value enough to destroy, so he just wants to remove them as an obstacle.
I admire Nozomi’s drive. She recognizes she has been a bit lackadaisical in her studies previously, so now she’s overcorrecting by trying to do it alone. She struggles a lot with it, but dang it she’s trying. Otaka’s speech to her is also positive encouragement, and builds into the lesson of the episode: lay the foundation today so you can grow strong in the future. This is going to be the push that she needs to make it as a student and a future educator herself, and it’s enough to give her the confidence to overpower the Director during Rainbow Rose Explosion.
On a lighter note, there are several clever scene transitions in this episode, one that stands out is during the Rainbow Rose Explosion, the Director sees a vision of Flora, which turns into Cure Dream. There’s also a cute one where one of Syrup’s pancakes transitions into the sun.
What I Didn’t Like
Nothing.
Miscellaneous
I think I speculated earlier in the show that the mysterious relationship between Flora and the Director was romantic. This certainly seems to squash that theory. As I’ve said before, I did watch this show once before, but that was over a decade ago at this point and I binged it while working on a craft project so I clearly didn’t retain many of the finer details.
At first it looks like we’re getting a new Dark Precure 5, but it’s actually a group of Hoshiinas that absorb each cure’s abilities and warp and reflect them back. Interesting footnote on the list of copy and evil cures.
Milk does not appear in her fairy form in this episode.
King Montblanc is still asleep.
Conclusion
This is a thrilling episode, the transition point between the bulk of the show and the endgame (with a bit of a pause for the Christmas episode in between). We finally get our clearest look at the mindset of the Director and he makes himself known to the heroines. Unknown to him, they have been given the necessary tool and encouragement to overcome his destructive, isolating nature. The two sides will come to a head very shortly. But first…
Next time on Precure Daily: Santa Claus is coming to town! Look forward to it!
Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Kettei
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Please Just Remember ~ *Seo Changbin*
Summary: He has been waiting for you for so long, he’s almost given up all hope. His friends tell him to be patient and you will come. But he’s already waited five hundred years. If you haven’t shown up by now, will you ever?
Pairing: Seo Changbin X Fem!Reader
Genre: Fluffyish Oneshot
Word Count: 4056
Warning: Some swearing, couple mentions of blood, and Victoria’s Secret
Masterlist
Taglist: @foxwinter @maeleelee @mxnsxngie @kpop-will-kill-me
A/N: I CAN BE PERSUADED TO WRITE A PART TWO OR ONESHOTS FOR CHAN/JISUNG. Just letting you know...
He remembered it like it was yesterday. The smell of perfume in the air, the tightness of his collar as he was trying to adjust it, the dress that flowed around you like a cloud. Changbin could remember it all like it was happening every time he closed his eyes. The day you two married was the happiest day of his life and he knew he was never going to forget it. Honestly, he couldn’t believe your father, the King, was allowing a simple soldier to marry his beloved daughter, but he was forever thankful for him. Changbin was so nervous that day but with your hands in his, he felt like he could face whatever life threw at him, even if it were a couple of vows that he couldn’t for the life of him remember. That kiss that you shared that day was forever imprinted on his lips and even in the stillness of the night, he could feel your lips brush against his like a whisper from the past.
He remembered it like it was yesterday. The gates were destroyed beyond repair, the screams that filled the hallways, the stench of blood in the air. Changbin was trying to find you, sword in hand. His militia was too far when the palace was first attacked. The battle was devastating and before he knew it, he saw the King killed before his eyes, trying to protect his wife. Changbin knew he would do the exact same thing to protect you, if only he could find you. God, why couldn’t he find you? He was becoming frantic, searching every room in the palace to find you. He froze when he did. You were dying in your bedroom, calling out to him weakly. He held you in his arms as you took your last breath, all while still defending you from the last remaining remnants of the invaders. The bitter tears he wept that day could still be felt staining his cheeks even now.
Changbin sighed. That was over five hundred years ago. Honestly he stopped counting at this point. It wasn’t worth it. He knew his quest to find you was a futile one. The Gods had promised him he would one day be reunited with you again, but he was losing hope. He didn’t understand why they decided to keep playing this cruel trick on him. What he wanted more than anything at this point was to feel the sweet embrace of death so that he could finally be in your arms again. But no, he was here, trying to decide what he wanted for lunch.
Someone slung their arm around his shoulder, making Changbin sigh. “Aw, why the long face soldier?”
“Don’t start with me, Jisung.” He snapped.
“Are you still mad that my Master Hwanung is making you live forever so that you can be reconnected with your long lost love?” He asked, poking his begrudging friend’s cheek.
“Yes, I am. Thank you for noticing.” Changbin folded his arms over his chest. “Some spirit of the sky you are.”
“Hey I have no control over what my Master Hwanung decides!” Jisung held his hands up in mock surrender. “But it was a council vote, so there’s that.”
“You’re not helping your case, Jisung.” Chan huffed, pulling his black hat up a little to better look at his friends.
“Neither are you!” He snapped. “You’re supposed to be finding her soul or whatever! You’re a grim reaper aren’t you? Or are you just some guy who’s pretending to be one for popularity reasons.”
Chan sputtered, “I am! It’s just, souls are harder to find when they’re actually, you know, in alive people.”
Changbin scoffed. “I don’t know why I’m friends with the two of you.”
“Because you love us.” Jisung pulled his friend close before rubbing his cheek against the disgruntled Changbin’s cheek. “That and we can help you find your long lost love and fulfill your mission.”
“Unfortunately.” He muttered before pushing the spirit of the sky off of him. “Either way, unlike the rest of you, I’m hungry, so I’m going to get some food and the two fo you can leave me alone.”
“Aw, where’s the fun in that!” Jisung pouted, stamping his feet like a two-year-old.
Chan sighed before placing a hand on his shoulder. “C’mon oh “wise” spirit. He needs to be alone with his thoughts. It is the anniversary of that day you know.”
“Wait the day of his wedding or the day she died?” Jisung asked. “Wait, no, they both happened on the same day, a year apart, right?”
“JISUNG!” Chan shouted before pulling him away from the melancholy Changbin.
Shaking his head to clear the nightmares that were trying to creep into his mind, he entered the restaurant. He ordered a simple meal and stared out the window in a very morose fashion. He knew his brooding wasn’t going to get him anywhere, but after some coffee and a bit of food, maybe he would feel up to visiting her gravesite today.
The bell attached to the front door of the restaurant jingled and Changbin barely registered the sound. It wasn’t until two seconds he heard something familiar; something very, very, very familiar. He remembered like it was yesterday. She was laughing at him for falling into the river on accident. But it wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t looking where he was going. She was just too beautiful not to be admired. Really, she did it on purpose by wearing that dress that he loved so much. It was her fault that they both ended up in the river that day.
She was wearing that dress again. Not the exact same one, but it was the same color and the same pattern decorated the skirt. The skirt was shorter and the sleeves barely brushed her shoulders. Her hair was styled the same way though, in a low bun with a pretty hair pin that matched the color of her dress. He assumed it was her as soon as he heard her laugh and his assumptions were confirmed when he saw her. He would never forget the love of his life, not in five hundred years, not in a million.
You were with a couple of your friends and were taking a break from your shopping spree by grabbing a bite to eat at your favorite restaurant. Usually the place was pretty empty as it was more of a hidden gem kind of eatery, but today seemed to be a bit busier than usual. Nevertheless, you still knew everyone.
Well, almost everyone.
There was a very handsome man sitting near the window, sipping absentmindedly on his coffee. You instantly thought he was cute before blushing. Your friends teased you for “falling so quickly for a stranger”, but to you he didn’t feel like a stranger. Something, some very small part of you, seemed drawn to him, as if you knew him from a previous life…
But that was just nonsense.
Instead, you simply enjoyed a lunch with your friends before making a plan of which stores you still needed to visit. As you chatted, you managed to sneak a couple of sly looks to the handsome man at the window. It was as if he was a painting come to life, something that should be hanging in the Louvre. Again, you felt a small tug towards him, as if you needed to speak to him about something, but you simply dismissed the feeling. It couldn’t be real. Just some weird premonition thing that didn’t even matter. It’s not like your whole life was going to change drastically if you talked to him.
Changbin, on the other hand, was struggling with what to do next. Of course he meets you on the anniversary all of this took place and of course you were out with friends. You were always a social butterfly and talked more than you should as a princess. But that’s what he loved about you. Being with you was never boring and the two of you could talk for hours on end about anything and everything.
But he really, really, really wished you weren’t so social at the moment.
Honestly, it’s not like he could just go up to you and say “hey remember me? We got married in a past life and now I need to save your life so we can be together forever again.” No one says that. Not in this day and age, although he didn’t understand why. It would be a very romantic gesture.
He needed to get you alone somehow. If only Stupid and Bothersome was here with him, because they could distract your two friends while he spoke to you. But knowing them they were probably halfway on the other side of the world now, annoying some other immortal as they do.
“I seriously can’t believe I’m friends with those two.” He muttered under his breath through gritted teeth, his grasp on his coffee cup so tight he might shatter it.
Sneaking another glance at you, Changbin gasped when he caught your eye. Your eyes still held the entire galaxy in them, even after all of these years. He could feel himself melting under your gaze and he couldn’t tear himself away, even if he knew how awkward it was. He begged and pleaded with his eyes, as if they would tell you to come closer to me, come see me, come talk to me please.
But you turned to your friends, grabbed your things, paid for your meal, and left without a word to him. With a grown, he let his head fall onto the table with a clang. This day literally could not get any worse.
“Oh but it could.” A cool voice said before someone patted his head.
He groaned louder. “Go away, Chan. You and that stupid ghost boy are no help whatsoever.”
“Wait, what? What’d I miss?” Looking at Jisung, he noticed that the spirit was stuffing his face and cheeks with the bread Changbin didn’t eat.
“Do you ever stop eating?” Chan asked him with a disappointed sigh.
“I may not need the sustenance but human food tastes so GOOD!” He whimpered as he shoved more food in his face. “I wish I could eat more often.”
With a shake of his head, Chan turned to Changbin, who’s chin was still resting on the table. Lacing his fingers together, Chan placed his chin on top of them before speaking, “So what’s your plan of attack?”
“You should follow her.” Jisung interrupted with his mouth full.
“That’s insanely creepy.” Changbin exclaimed. “And you’re just as disgusting.”
With a shrug, Chan shrugged. “I don’t know, it might work. Just don’t be creepy about it. I mean it’s not like you can go right up to her and tell her about what happened all those years ago when she’s with her friends. And besides, if you follow her, maybe you’ll find your moment where you save her life.”
Okay, maybe Bothersome did have a point. He knew where you were now and he knew you still looked the same after all these years. It wasn’t that bad of an idea. All he had to do was be chill and nonchalant about the whole thing, which he could totally do! He was the epitome of suave and nonchalant.
Chan sighed again. “No, you’re not discreet whatsoever, but keep telling yourself that. Who knows, it might actually work.”
“Very funny.” Changbin rolled his eyes before standing up and paying for his meal. Upon leaving the restaurant he sighed. “Well, wish me luck. This could either go really well or really bad.”
“My money’s on really bad.” Jisung offered.
“We’re not making bets, we’re trying to help.” Chan smacked him upside his head, causing him to wince. He then pushed Changbin in the direction you went. “Well go on. No use standing around here.”
With a determined nod, he set off to go find you. On the way, he made a list of things not to do in his head, knowing deep down this plan wasn’t going to work. Nevertheless, he had faith that maybe, maybe, maybe, it just might work out a tiny bit. But it probably wouldn’t.
Before he knew it, he was trailing you around Victoria’s Secret. He was trying not to let it show how embarrassed he was to be here. Seriously, did you have to look at all the skimpiest lingerie and underwear? Couldn’t you have gone somewhere else like Build-a-Bear or whatever?
Little did he know was that you saw him almost immediately when he entered the mall. At first, you didn’t think much of it. Maybe he had some shopping to do for his girlfriend or whatever. But then you noticed how he was kinda, sorta following you around. Every time you moved to a new store, you saw him at least once outside of your peripheral vision. You have to admit, he was doing a good job trying not to seem suspicious, but he was still failing. That is exactly why you asked your friends to make a quick pit stop at Victoria’s Secret. You were trying to keep yourself from laughing out loud as you watched him attempt to look like he was interested in some pajamas.
“Seriously, this guy has been following you this whole time. We need to call someone or whatever!” One of your friends hissed in your ear.
“Yeah, this guy could be bad news.” The other one added with a nod.
You shrugged. “I don’t know. He seems harmless to me. I mean if he really was as bad as you guys think he is, he would have tried to talk to me by now and he hasn’t.”
“I don’t know. I still get weird vibes from him.” Your second friend shrugged. “But it’s up to you.”
Tugging your bottom lip into your mouth, you knew you had a choice to make. You couldn’t string this poor guy along forever and he was about to burst a blood vessel from how red he was turning. You either could hear what he has to say and maybe take a chance on him or you let him down nice and easy by saying you’re not interested. Either way, you needed to approach him first.
As you got closer, that feeling of needing to be near him intensified. You found it a little odd, but you tried not to think about it. It was nothing, just your mind playing tricks on you, that’s all.
Taking a deep breath, you tapped his shoulder. “Excuse me, sir, can I talk to you?”
Changbin’s mouth twitched at being called sir. You would never say something like that to him, even way back when. Manners and formalities weren’t really your strong suit. Nevertheless he nodded and he allowed you to lead him out of the store and even out of the mall. His alertness increased, a feeling of unknown danger pricking at the back of his mind for some odd reason.
“Look, I know you’ve been kinda, sorta following me around ever since I left the restaurant.” You admitted and he groaned internally. Chan and his stupid plans.
“For the record it, was Jisung’s stupid plan.” Chan corrected him and Jisung gasping in shock. Changbin kept an eye roll to himself. Of course they would be here at a time like this.
Bowing his head a little, he said, “My apologies. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s just, um, you remind me of someone very important to me and I guess I just got a little carried away.
Your eyes softened. “Oh, that’s alright. I understand.”
“Still, I’m sorry.” He exclaimed. “Is there, um, anyway I can make it up to you?”
He noticed how you seemed to stiffen at his response. “Yeah, way to not sound creepy.” Chan commented. “I’m sorry I was following you around because you look like my dead wife, can I take you to a secondary location.”
Sometimes he wished Chan never had a mouth.
“Rude.” He huffed as Jisung laughed.
“Ah, sorry, I’m being too forward, aren’t I?” Changbin tried to recover, fumbling over his words slightly.
Nevertheless, you chuckled, making him feel a little bit relieved. “Yeah a little bit.”
An awkward silence fell over the two of you. He wanted to tell you everything. He wanted to tell you how much he loved you and how much he missed you and how much he hated himself for not protecting you that day five hundred years ago. He wanted to hold you in his arms and kiss you again, especially since you were so close. He could smell your perfume, the same scent you wore on your wedding day. He was practically drowning in your presence and he knew he should say something to you, anything.
Just as he opened his mouth, a man came up to them quickly, brandishing a gun. He started shouting, “Gimme the money, purse, everything. Gimme everything you got.”
Everything was going in slow motion as Changbin watched your frightened expression as you tried to give him your purse and phone. Tears welled in your eyes and as one slipped down your cheek, he instantly stood between you and the mugger. “I don’t think so.”
The man held the gun almost directly to his chest, but before he could pull the trigger, Changbin wrapped his arm around it with such force that he dropped the gun. He slammed the heel of his hand into the guy’s nose before kneeing him in the stomach. He shoved him to the side before grabbing your hand and the two of you running. You both stopped in a parking garage where he checked you over to make sure you weren’t hurt.
“Are you alright? Did he-”
Your lips were on his.
He remembered it like it was yesterday. He had just stumbled out his marriage proposal when you grabbed him by the collar and smashed your lips into his. As the two of you kissed for the first time, he could taste your tears which made him pull away too soon for his liking just so he could ask you what was wrong. You told him that you wanted nothing more than to be with him forever and the two of you kissed again. This kiss now felt like time was repeating itself and the love he had for you in his heart grew tenfold.
As you pulled away, there were tears in your eyes and a small smile on your face. As he wiped your tears away, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Changbin, I missed you. I missed you so much. You have no idea how much I missed you.” Your voice cracked as he pulled you into a hug. As you cried into his shoulder, he held the back of your head firmly.
“Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay, I’m okay, we’re okay. Everything is going to be alright now.” It was his turn to feel tears well in his eyes as he continued, “Oh, Y/n, I’m sorry. I’m so, so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you that day. I should have never gone to patrol on our anniversary. I should have been by your side and saved you. I’m so sorry I failed you as your husband.”
“No!” You almost shouted, slipping out of the hug just enough to look him in the eyes. “No, Changbin, don’t talk like that! You didn’t fail me! You had a duty to your militia just like I had a duty to the throne that day. No one could have predicted what would happen that day. No one is to blame for what happened, okay? You never have and never will fail me. I love you Changbin, no matter what.”
“I love you too, Y/n.” He breathed before pulling you into a tight hug again.
After what seemed like mere seconds, he heard a forlorn sigh. “You two are so cute together.”
He looked up to see Chan smiling at the two of you, making you both pull away. “Chan?”
Nodding, Chan held out his hand to you, “Shall we, Your Highness?”
You looked at him, confused. “I beg your pardon?”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Don’t you two remember the deal? Once you save her life the two of you are to be together forever, in the afterlife.”
“Oh.” Your face fell. “I see.”
Changbin pulled you closer. “No. I won’t accept this. I can’t accept this. You can’t just act as if those five hundred years of waiting for her to return to me were for nothing. No! I want to still live with her! I still want to be with her for as long as she’ll have me in the living world. I can’t accept death now, not when I finally have her here in my arms again.”
“That’s not a decision you can make.” Chan sighed. “The deal was you save her life, you two reunite, you two die together and are together forever in the afterlife. You can’t just change that. Only a God can do something-”
“WAIT!” A voice screamed. Jisung came running towards them before stopping and panting, his hands on his knees. Holding up a finger, he wheezed. “Wait, wait, wait!”
“Oh for God’s sake stop with the theatrics and get to the point!” Changbin snapped, earning a soft slap on the chest from you. “What? He’s being dramatic.”
“That’s still no reason to torment the poor boy!” You scolded.
Jisung instantly stood up straight, beaming. “Oh I like her! Why couldn’t you have found her sooner?”
“Your point, Jisung.” Chan huffed, crossing his arms.
“Oh yes that!” Jisung turned to the two of you before stretching his arms out widely and saying in his Spirit voice. “By the holy powers vested in me by my glorious Master Hwanung and the Gods of this realm and others, I grant thee a long and healthy life here in the living world, until your mortal bodies deteriorate.”
Chan frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means they’re human now.” He explained. “They get to live a human life as normal twenty-one year olds starting right now.”
You gasped. “Really? You mean it?”
“And we get to keep our memories too?” Changbin added before looking at you endearingly. “Because I never want to forget her for as long as I live.”
Jisung nodded, still smiling. “Yes, you two sappy love birds. The Gods have looked upon you both favorably and wish you a long and healthy life here in the living world.”
Chan sighed. “So much for my job. I’ll see the two of you someday.” Putting his hat back on, he vanished into thin air, leaving Jisung, who was dissipating rapidly.
“So happy for you two but I’m also happy I don’t have to see your cheesy PDA.” Jisung sighed before disappearing as well.
Rolling his eyes, Changbin looked deep into your eyes before kissing you passionately. Breaking the kiss, he asked, “So, are you ready to get married again?”
You frowned. “Really? Are you seriously proposing to me in a parking garage of all places? And I thought you were the romantic one in the relationship!”
He sighed. “Fine, how do you want me to propose to you then?”
Smiling devilishly, you booped his nose. “I want it to be a surprise and I want it to be done on your own time, just like last time. And I want a big, grandiose wedding, just like last time as well.”
“So demanding.” Changbin sighed before chuckling and scooping you up in his arms, carrying your bridal style. “Does this mean I get to throw you in the river?”
“Absolutely not!” You shrieked. “I’m still a princess!”
“Then where’s your kingdom?” He shot back.
You pecked his lips. “Right here with you.”
“Jisung was right, you are cheesy.” He teased.
“You know,” You sighed, pretending to think. “Maybe I won’t say yes to your marriage proposal. Maybe I’ll find someone else to marry and have a big family with.”
He squeezed you tighter before spinning around a couple of times. “Over my dead body.”
Chuckling, you smirked. “That can be arranged since I know a guy.”
#Stray Kids#Stray Kids Fanfiction#Stray Kids Oneshot#KPop#KPop Fanfiction#KPop Oneshot#Stay#Seo Changbin#Seo Changbin X Reader#Seo Changbin Fanfiction#Seo Changbin Oneshot#Seo Changbin Fluff#Changbin#Changbin X Reader#Changbin Fanfiction#Changbin Oneshot#Changbin Fluff#Reincarnation#Reincarnation AU#Oneshot#Angst#Fluff
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Tumblr Holy Grail War: Wave 7 - Day 2 (Team Lancer, Team Archer, and Team Caster)
As always, an exciting fight served as the setting between Archer and Caster. Of course, the battle between Archer and Caster was the least of their Master's worries.
Fifty meters away from the main territory that occupied the space of the Grail War, a Servant was seen in the air. Clad in blue from head to toe, surrounded by burning magical energy.
"...Gae..."
"...Bolg!"
One. Ten. A hundred. A thousand. Uncountable spearheads from the cursed spear began raining down on Archer and Caster. No… not just Archer and Caster. Towards every Servant within the territory that had been created for this Holy Grail War that had so boldly thought to 'take a break' during the Holy Grail War. Though the brunt of it was focused on the Archer and Caster before him.
If the Caster dared to weaken his Territory Creation… then fine. He'd simply make it more of a problem.
In other words… well, if the rules of warfare were out of the question for a Holy Grail War-- then he'd just carpet bomb their 'arena'. After all, his Masters had given up three Command Spells for his sake. Of course, they were expecting the 'Barbed Spear that Pierces with Death'… but well, surprising them with the variant wasn't too bad, right? They had just asked for him to 'use his Noble Phantasm', after all.
Scrambling, Dante set his Shades to work as the sky turned red with Lancer's mana.
Dante: "…Shades! Caesar! Protect our Masters and the territory alongside me! Hector! Penthesilea! Focus on Arjuna!"
Arjuna: "So you put illusions before me once again, Dante! For one who judged me on my pride as a warrior, you seem to be quite the treacherous coward yourself!"
[ EVENT START: The spear of the legendary hero Cu Chulainn can also function as a deadly AoE Noble Phantasm! Archer and Caster are at the epicenter of the attack, but it's spread out far enough to hit Saber and Rider as well! Do your best to defend yourselves! ]
Cu Chulainn has used his Noble Phantasm! If he wins 1st place, Dante and Arjuna will sustain 2 wounds!
Dante is on his final wound! If he doesn't get 1st place, he'll die!
Cu Chulainn has [2] wounds! Arjuna is uninjured!
The 50% boost from Cu Chulainn's Noble Phantasm has been nullified by Territory Creation!
Arjuna has a -30% debuff on him from Dante's Noble Phantasm!
Territory Creation is active! Cu Chulainn and Arjuna's buffs are nullified!
Based on skills, augmentations to the final score are:
Cu Chulainn: +0% (due to Territory Creation)
Arjuna: -35%
Dante: +8%
Active Skills/Noble Phantasms:
Dante (Caster)
Innocent Monster (Commedia) (EX) - If victorious when attacking, if the resulting score gap is larger than 35%, recover a Command Spell.
Territory Creation (Holy) (C) - When 'playing defensively' and attacked, nullify the attacking Servant's bonuses, and Dante gains +8% to his final combat poll results rather than +3%.
Arjuna (Archer)
Hero of the Endowed (A) - If fighting an enemy Servant, and the difference between scores is within 3%, take the win.
Cu Chulainn (Lancer)
Protection from Arrows (B) - When going against an Archer, Caster or Assassin-class Servant, gain a +5% to final combat poll results, and reduce their results by 5% as well.
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y'know just the fact that hylia had to ask link whether he was going to take revenge on the kingdom that held him in contempt or save it from doom was enough of an eye-opening moment as it was (even though hylia already knew what his answer was going to be):
but genuinely if he hadn't already died and could've heard what hylia said about his imprisonment and suffering being "willed by the heavens" because it was "necessary to transform him into the one fit to wield the master sword" i think he might've just been like Actually. Fuck you guys. Revenge it is. because while link DOES stand with his comrades again after his imprisonment and DOES call them his friends even after their betrayal and DOES pray for their happiness above the clouds with all his heart and DID want to take to the sky with them.....the emphasis on the land itself being what link fights for more than the people is absolutely woven into the story here. when he stands above the crowd of people and promises to always defend the land of hylia, he looks out at the mountains, not down at the crowd, and even says:
"Though people's hearts may change with time, this land's beauty, pride and purity never change. If you have need of me... ...then I will forever fight to defend you."
and the amount of times the destruction of the land is emphasized....
"Wicked desire assaulted the world's surface, staining it the color of obsidian... ...and the mountains, the plains, and all that flowed pure on the earth were ruthlessly scoured by fire."
and when the demon king strikes link down and goes on to continue his rampage before hylia eventually seals him away, link doesn't think even once of the people until the red loftwing appears and link asks him if he would show their people to the skies. instead, he thinks this:
"My hometown... The beautiful air... The mountains... The rivers... ...reduced to this. Will this be the last thing I ever see?"
like. he stands with the people even after all they've done to him. he acts as their figurehead. their pawn that they cast aside to torture and rot and only dragged back out because lord dagianis died and they finally decided that a hero was needed again. he fights with them. he calls them his friends despite everything. he hopes for their happiness. but first and foremost, it's the land itself that he fights for, not the people living on it. not really. when he says "people's hearts may change with time" he kind of even acknowledges that—it's a verbal slight against them and all of their fickleness concerning him and his imprisonment and his freedom the instant they were in danger again (same as when he said "It was you—my own people—who said you had no need for a powerful hero. And now that it's convenient for you, you want me to fight?"). and maybe nothing would've changed if he'd heard his suffering was ordained by the gods. maybe his love of the land still would have won over his hatred of the people and the gods doing what they did to him and he still would have fought just the same. but i honestly would not have blamed this dude one bit if he'd just decided to be like "Fuck This. Fuck All Of You." and dipped. he's suffering more than jesus out here
#i like this guy. can you tell#i love a good bitter and jaded character who lets themselves be used like a pawn by the gods and people both if it means#protecting the thing he ACTUALLY cares about.#anyway.#prequel#skyward sword prequel manga#txt
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The sound of waves is soothing and irritating all at once. It almost drives him mad, and then it calms him down again. His heartlight pulses a little quicker than it should. A sense of anxiety gives his rocking motion a strange apprehension.
The sea bears life.
The sea bore us.
His sister's words make him feel sick in his chest.
"Pohatu..."
His head raises suddenly to the grey sky, smiling: "I'm here."
"Where are you siblings?" asks Teridax's voice with a windy whisper, slithering around him.
"Trapped underground."
"Very well," the Makuta's voice purrs; bashful pride swells in the Toa's chest. "Where is the Mask of Light?"
"With Akhmou, to be melted down in the forges."
"Very well," another rumble in the protodermis sea, another caress from the howling gale. "Where are the Turaga Metru?"
"If they haven't been caught already, on the way to me."
"Very, very well, my Toa." Pohatu grins, basking in the quiet praise - but his heartlight stills a moment later as the sky sighs: "And yet..."
Has he done something wrong?
Something bad?
He tried to do everything right, as right as he could.
Did he waste too much time?
Cold winds wrap around him; the ground beneath him seems to sink a little more under his weight, the air curls heavier around his limbs and head, and the entire universe seem to close in on him, to observe him more intently.
He's not scared by this.
He knows Teridax would never hurt him.
He's just trying to understand what he did wrong.
The sounds solidify in the shape of a well-known claw to trace the maskless face he cradles in his arms: "He is still here."
Pohatu looks down.
Takanuva remains unconscious.
"Pohatu..." Teridax asks sweetly, rumbling like a thunderstorm, "You do remember what I've told you... The Toa of Light..."
"But it wasn't his fault!" Pohatu interrupts him. His hold on his little brother tightens slightly. "You said it yourself, Takua has nothing to do with this. If it wasn't for the Turaga, for that mask - he's innocent."
"He is, of course," the Makuta growls, "But danger lurks within him."
The Toa curls around the much larger body in his lap: "But he hasn't done anything wrong," he continues to defend him. "And without the mask he can't do anything, he's just like a Matoran again, without any powers - so I thought... I thought..."
"You disobey me?"
"No! No, no, I'm not disobeying, I don't want to disobey!" he's quick to reassure his master. Nothing frightens him more than the quiet heartbreak in his tone - he's good, he's good, he wants to be good, he wants to be good and useful and someone to be proud of, he doesn't want to make him upset, he doesn't want to disappoint him, it's just... It's just... He looks down, to the closed golden eyes of Takanuva. His shoulders close around him tenderly, to shield him from the cruel world that saw it fit to throw him into such a terrible life. "But he's... He hasn't done anything... He thought - they made him believe he had to, that it was his destiny, it wasn't his fault... He's just Takua... He's just..."
"Your little brother," Teridax finishes for him.
Pohatu nods.
The waves recede until the seabed is almost visible; they crash once more against the cliff with a long, gentle sigh.
"You have much too big a heart, Pohatu," the Makuta tells him, willing the salt in the air to cradle his puppet's head as though it were his palm. "And though it is an admirable thing, it still sometimes blinds you from what must be done - especially when it is in your little brother's best interest."
The Toa looks up, into the sky, to the spectral light of the twin suns. He has no trouble imagining the deep crimson of Teridax's eyes in place of their thin silvery shine.
"He has been turned into my enemy against his will, that is true," the usurper continues, voice low and sweet: "And I cannot execute him for being guilty of a crime others forced him to commit without even knowing what he was truly doing. But he must die regardless, Pohatu - not because he must be brought to justice, like your siblings and their mentors, but because he deserves to be given mercy."
"Mercy?"
"Yes, my Toa, mercy... The very same thing the Turaga denied him. Reflect well: the Avohkii has mutated him, tearing his previous careless, happy existence from him, staining him with the irreversible mark of its blinding light. No matter how far he may run, Destiny will always hound him, chasing him into his demise."
Pohatu hugs his brother closer, as though Destiny was a beast standing right before them in this second, hissing and writhing as it eyes Takanuva with a hungry gaze.
Loving claws of frigid wind soothe his head, caressing it slowly: "Do you see, then?" the waters churn below him, "Death is not a punishment; it is a kindness. Free him from such a horrible fate. Put a gentle end to the life of strife and agony he has been sacrificed to."
This -
This is the only time Pohatu laments following the code.
He would. He would kill Takanuva, right here and now, in his own arms, while he's still unconscious - so he could die loved and safe, without even noticing, drifting into even softer, even deeper sleep.
He would do it for him, so he doesn't have to suffer, so he doesn't have to be torn apart by something else, something so much more terrible than a brother who honestly, honestly loves him, a brother who loves him enough to spare him from something as horrible as a life he should not be forced to live.
He would, he would, he wants to (Teridax is right - what a fool he was for doubting him, when Teridax is always right and always good, and he even talked back to him and argued with him - oh, a fool, a fool, an idiot, a cretin, a worthless mindless sack of rocks - he is so lucky Teridax is so patient with him even when he's this incredibly stupid, so lucky he still cares about him enough to call him dear), but he can't. He can't. He can't.
He rocks Takanuva slowly, for no good reason, and he thinks.
He thinks as hard as he can.
"There's a cave in Po-Metru," he mutters - half to himself, half to the universe, "By the docks - the Visorak horde opened it with a tunnel, but the rest of it caved in... It's under the sea, I remember, with an entrance that can only be found underwater... Getting there was a mess. But I remember the way, I could do it. And the adaptive armor would make it easier. With some luck, the high tide would catch up to him before he could wake up. He wouldn't feel a single thing."
The ground beneath him rumbles: "There," Teridax praises him, "How clever you are, when your mind is clear."
The fear and guilt and worry are washed away from him completely in the mere fraction of a second, like a bad dream chased off by a gentle embrace: Pohatu smiles, embarrassed and flattered.
"Although, just in case luck does not favor us - perhaps, a shackle or two... As he would not understand your act of mercy..."
Of course, of course: "I'll make sure he's secured, Great Spirit."
The grandiose title makes the cliff on which the Toa sits stand even taller as the Makuta preens himself. Great Spirit - yes, of course; that is his name, now, and this is his universe; and oh, it is with such reverence that Pohatu says it, such conviction, such blind all-consuming devotion...
His claws in the shape of the winds lift the Toa's chin up to the sky, his brilliant eyes so eager to make him proud: "Well done, Pohatu," Teridax croons; with another gust of gale he presses against the forehead of his mask to push it down again, in a show of obedience: "I knew you would not disappoint me."
Pohatu never disappoints him.
Pohatu craves to be loved too much to disappoint him.
"Now run along, my dear Toa of Stone. You have a brother to save, and six traitors to imprison."
Pohatu nods, brimming with purpose and quelled anxieties.
Then he disappears, an orange flash beneath grey skies.
The waves keep crashing against the small cliff.
Under it, Hewkii shakes, breathing too fast.
#bionicle#pohatu#makuta teridax#takanuva#hewkii#random writing#orpiment au#mercy killing tw#discussions of it#emotional manipulation tw#me while writing: hehe :) hehehe!!! ohohoho!! >:D yippie!!!!#me while re-reading: oh. oh no. oh fuckin- oh yikes#back to pohatu being nice for a change but also unfortunately we get to see the depths of the chokehold teridax has on him#and ill be fuckin real with ya i got uncomfortable at a point#he is. so desperate for his approval. and so consumed by said desperation. that he will completely change his view of a situation#if teridax presents it to him with the right words. and teridax ALWAYS know how to present it to him with the right words.#that last line wasnt planned but it was a great idea. putting him in the fucking blender. enjoy hell my lad
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