#Meanwhile Uncle: searching for his lost nephew | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sheadre · 3 years

Text

Aurora Borealis (Jiang Cheng x Reader) Part One

Summary: Zhu Ran'En (Reader) has always been forced to fight for her life through schemes and lies, betrayal and cruelty. However, Jiang Wanyin who grew up in Yunmeng and lived a complicated life full of obstacles, did not have to play these games. Therefore, when he has to face the cruelty of noblemen and the royal family, he has to ask the Imperial Princess for help. Will they manage to dodge all the life threatening dangers the snake Zhu HuaJin and the Second Prince is throwing at them?

Word count: 2720

Warnings: violence (later in the story), mature, fluff

A/N: Hello everyone! So, this story is in the MDZS fandom like a few of my previous works. I will usually post the chapters way later here than I post them on my quotev account or my ao3 account so please check them out here:

https://www.quotev.com/491346452

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vaeri/works

Lotus Pier was quiet now that things settled after Jin Guangyao got out of the picture. Wei Wuxian visited Yunmeng a few times but left just as quickly on Hanguang-Jun’s arm. Jiang Cheng found it ridiculous how Wei Wuxian acted like a whining wife but that is Wei Wuxian. Yanli once said that there is a thing called Aurora Borealis. A natural electrical phenomenon caused by the interaction of charged particles from the sun with atoms in the upper atmosphere. He had no idea how his shijie got her hands on the book she learnt it from but she said that the same thing could happen between two people. He always thought that something of the sort was rare to be witnessed let alone find it for yourself.

However, seeing Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, he realized what his shijie was talking about. Witnessing it – his shijie said – was rare and special. Jiang Cheng only felt envy. The elders were pestering him to find a suitable wife and marry quickly to ensure the heirs of their sect. Honestly, he had no want in marrying someone he never even met before. No one could really match him and moreover, who would want to marry him knowing about his… not so kind and righteous past. Things changed ever since Wei Wuxian came back and now, he regretted some of the things he’s done out of anger and want for revenge.

He cursed his thoughts for wandering so far during a nighthunt. The woods around them cast them in their dark shadows and the leaves hid the starry night sky from their eyes. Their was a cold humidity in the air as they walked, crunching the fallen dried leaves under his boots as he walked. He needed to focus, Jin Ling was with him after all, who would show the kid how to do things right if he didn’t? Not that Jin Ling was not pleading with him to accompany him. Even if Jin Ling was a sect leader, he needed to learn a lot of things and who else would aid him if not his uncle. Jiang Cheng never told the kid that he was proud of him but he thought he didn’t need to. The kid was self-assured without him praising him.

There was a roar suddenly coming from ahead stopping him and Jin Ling in their tracks. His body froze in place and listened carefully for any other sound. He knew they in disadvantage in the darkness and lighting up fire would possibly endanger his nephew.

“Uncle, it’s ahead of us!” the kid said with a hushed tone, warning in his eyes and readied himself for attack. However, before they could move, the song of an erhu interrupted the quiet of the night. It seemed like the time has stopped around them. Even the wind seemed to stop. Everything fell into a dead silence. The sound was beautiful yet terrifying. It had an alluring tone meanwhile anyone would shudder by the notes. Jiang Wanyin carefully walked forward in search of the cultivator who played. The foliage was crunching under his feet as he walked carefully, one step after the other. His heart was beating loudly in his ears as he approached the opening in the line of trees ahead. The resentful energy was so thick he could cut it with his sword. As he led his nephew out of the forest onto a clearing, his eyes widened.

In the middle of the field a woman was playing the erhu, her long hair flowing in the wind, her robes indicating her connection to nobility. Jiang Wanyin never saw her before and by the patterns, she was a member of the royal family. The monster he was chasing with his nephew slowly fell apart by itself. It was a monster that fabricated itself from different corpses. He was on the road trying to catch it around the town where people reported seeing it. The commoners of course were frightened to death by only the sight of it even from a far. The woman stood up and with the motion of her hand the erhu flew back into its holder which she strapped onto herself. She stopped in her tracks and turned to them, her eyes flashing with crimson red before it returned to a natural (e/c) eye color. Her lips pulled into a smile one that people wouldn’t be able to tell if it was kind or sinister.

“Jiang sect leader, Jin sect leader” she bowed to them in respect with a small smile playing on her lips. Her voice was melodic and Jiang Cheng couldn’t compare another woman to her beauty. He had no idea how she knew their names and if she was a member of the royal family, she was definitely not acting according to it. If she was a princess, she should’ve not addressed them first but wait for them to pay their respect. He narrowed his eyes as he raised a hand in front of Jin Ling to push him back behind himself. Jiang Wanyin couldn’t let his guard down now, this woman could be dangerous.

“Who are you?!” Jin Ling spoke up with his eyebrows furrowed yet his cheeks blushed. The woman chuckled and walked up to them. Her movements were graceful like a goddess’. Her (e/c) eyes never left the two of them and her smile held something strange. It was not threatening nor was it scary but it was definitely off-putting. Jiang Cheng felt her eyes roaming his form and he felt a blush forming on his cheeks. He couldn’t decide if it was from how inappropriately this woman was checking him out or from the notion of being checked out.

“I am Zhu Ran’En” she replied with a melodic voice. It was like a dangerously alluring spell drawing men so they would run into their demise. “Nice to meet you.”

“Zhu Ran’En?” Jin Ling gaped in surprise making her chuckle again.

“You might’ve heard about me” Ran’En shook her head a little like she was disappointed. Of course they knew the name especially after the official announcement of the Imperial Princess’ execution for her crimes. But if she was executed, how could she be standing in front of them? Jiang Wanyin narrowed his eyes at her while waited for her to continue. “Made up, evil-minded, biased rumors I bet…” A small pause as she sighed sadly before she bowed again and continued: “If you excuse me, I have to get to Xutong. It was nice meeting you, please excuse me.”

Ran’En straightened up and smiled at Jiang Wanyin gently before turning around and leaving them in the middle of the clearing. Jiang Cheng felt like he met her somewhere before. It didn’t make sense as he never stepped foot anywhere near the capital let alone the Imperial Palace. However, the feeling was strong even while he was making his way out of the forest with his nephew.

Later ~

The weather was nice but in the early hours of the day, fog fell down on the town. It was not too cold outside but people could barely see to walk around for long. That is why the inn she was sitting in was packed completely. Men were talking with boisterous laughter, others were telling each other stories, drinking to their hearts’ contents. Witnessing such simple life made her feel curious. She always wished she could live somewhere peaceful instead of being a princess and now she was here, sitting in an inn, drinking tea in the sea of commoners. It was truly fascinating.

She was aware that her existence was no longer a secret now that Jiang Wanyin found her. Zhu Ran’En tried to keep her existence and whereabouts a secret. Her ways of cultivation were frowned upon after all, yet she had no other choice but to use resentful energy. She never had a golden core no matter how hard she tried. Trying to learn cultivation from just books was difficult especially with the eunuchs and maids scolding her younger self how she was not acting like a proper lady of court. She had no need for it because as an imperial princess, she never had to defend herself. A few months ago, the lowest ranked imperial princess, Zhu Hua Jin and the second prince, Zhu Li Qin worked hard to make the emperor believe them. That is why Zhu Ran’En, the elder daughter of Zhu Zhi Qi – who was the third prince – lost the favor of the emperor and was sent into exile.

She sat in the inn sipping on her tea when two known faces walked in. She felt the shift of the resentful energy no matter how low it was in the room. Her eyes snapped to the new comers just to see the Yiling Patriarch staring back at her. Her lips pulled into a smirk as an invitation for the pair. Hanguang-Jun and Wei Wuxian – known as Mo Xuanyu in his current life – looked around in search for a seat but most tables were full. She had to admit that both of them were good looking. Zhu Ran’En smiled at the black clothed young man and stretched out her arm motioning towards the untaken seats by her table.

“Ah, come and sit, gentlemen” she smiled gently. She quickly waved a waiter over to clean the table for the two cultivators. “I was about to finish here. Feel free to sit.”

Zhu Ran’En stood up and bowed to them while she heard Hanguang-Jun murmur a quiet ‘thank you’ before she straightened up and left them alone. It was better to not linger around for too long. She had no idea if Wei Wuxian could tell that she was a fellow demonic cultivator but she didn’t need him to notice. At least for now. Leaving the inn was easy even though she felt the lingering feeling of someone watching her. A smirk was playing on her lips as she turned down an alley and disappeared from sight.

She spent many days and nights roaming the cities in her exile, collecting information and plotting in the dark. She needed to get back to the imperial palace to protect her younger sister, Zhu WuXi. Ran’En wondered how she was doing these days. WuXi was always bouncing around the palace halls, admiring the beauty of nature and perfected her dance moves. Ran’En was always envious of her younger sister’s delicateness, how lady-like her sister was compared to her. Many people said her younger sister took after their mother and it was true in every possible way. She was just as naïve and good hearted, assuming the best in everyone without a doubt. This made her an easy target for Ran’En’s opponents.

Suddenly, a dog came running towards her while barking loudly, making Ran’En’s smirk pull wider on her beautiful face. Her eyes darkened as she looked at the dog which stopped a few feet away from her in fear. It whined in fear at the sight of her expression she was wearing. Soon, the young Jin sect leader came after the dog with eyebrows drawn together.

“You!” he cried out angrily. The youngster didn’t recognize her right away because she was wearing a simple attire from cheap material. It was easy to hide yourself if you just changed clothes and make-up – she thought. “You scared Fairy!”

Ran’En laughed out loud and lifted her sheathed sword to stop Zidian wrapping around her body, so instead it curled around her sheathed sword. She could hear Jiang Wanyin coming from behind since she rounded the corner.

“Sect leaders” she chuckled. “Pleasure to meet you again in such a short time.”

“Who are you?” Jiang Wanyin yelled angrily. She lifted an eyebrow curiously turning to the man. “Zhu Ran’En, the imperial princess died two months ago.”

“Died?!” she cackled as she was now facing Jiang Wanyin. Her lips pulled into a sneer. “They still lie even when they beat me… I am still here…”

“You’re using resentful energy for cultivation” Jiang Cheng replied but now he took a step back from the woman.

Zhu Ran’En pulled out a seal and showed it to him. The small stone badge was carefully carved, the characters ‘princess’ emerged from the flat surface of the stone. She watched his eyes widen before she hid her last reminder of her title back into her sleeve. To her surprise Zidian loosened and let go of her sword.

“Sect leader Jiang, I advise you to stay out of my business… these are royal matters” she said coldly before she jumped up onto the roof of the building and disappeared from their sight.

She was supposed to be locked up in Qi mansion waiting for the emperor to call her back one day. However, she had no time to wait for so long if she wanted to save her little sister from the evil clutches of her uncle and her cousin.

Jiang Cheng’s PoV.

A few months back, Jiang Wanyin noticed Imperial guards appearing in the town and other towns nearby. They were asking people about a woman, the drawing they were showing to the citizens was drawn with attention. The sect leader now knew who the woman was. The imperial princess was a traitor after she got caught in the crime of money laundering. Everyone was informed that she was executed publicly in the capital, however, if she was executed, why were imperial guards asking around about her?

People were spreading rumors about her but if someone would really think over everything, with the princess’ righteous past, it would be easy to smell something was fishy about this whole thing. And Jiang Wanyin’s nose was similar to a hound. After meeting the imperial princess in real life, he could tell that there was more than what meets the eye and he was keen on finding out the truth. That is how he found himself in front of Qi mansion in Yangsu.

The building was looking like a prison or a robust castle with the dark brown and black colors and stone walls. Thick stone pillars held the roof while there were no windows visible from the front entrance. The wall stretching around the mansion could be around six cun* wide and thirty chi* high.

*[1 cun (寸)= 5 cm; 1 chi 尺 = 0,5 meters]

The doors were closed but there were no guards in front of the mansion and when Jiang Cheng pushed on the wings of the door they easily opened up giving him a view of the insides of the mansion. He could hear some folks talk about how no one entered the mansion since the princess’ arrival to spend her exile in there. He walked inside but when he was far enough inside, the doors closed behind him and as much as he tried, he couldn’t open them again.

“Jiang sect leader… It is a pleasure to meet you in my humble abode” came the familiar melodic voice of the princess. Jiang Wanyin turned around in a blur, his eyes spitting lightning as Zedian unfurled from his hand ready to strike. The princess stood nonchalantly in front of him, in the usual embroidered rich hanfu all the royal family members wore, her figure petite yet something dark was encircling her form as the smile stretched on her beautiful face. Jiang Cheng had to admit that the woman was beautiful, very intimidating yet beautiful. She tilted her head to the side and turned sideways, lifting her arm inviting him further inside. “Would you like to have tea? Lili just arrived back from the market with a new batch of herbs and teas.”

“What are you doing?” Jiang Cheng hissed angrily at the woman who’s features looked like they were frozen into stone. She turned back to him fully, her lips ever so slowly returned into a neutral line before she spoke up.

“If you’re here, you already know exactly what awaits you once you dig yourself into my case” Zhu Ran’En said coldly. “Imperial guards already noticed you entering my mansion, you got involved in imperial affairs. Now come, let’s have some tea.”

The sect leader narrowed his eyes at her but followed her inside silently.

To be continued…

#jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #wei wuxian #jiang cheng x reader #lan wangji #romance #fluff #mind games #royalty #ancient china #fantasy

35 notes · View notes

turtle-paced · 4 years

Text

A:tLA Re-Watch: Fine-Toothed Comb Edition

I thought I could probably do this for a series I love, too.

They won’t all be as dense (and long) as this recap (’The Great Divide’, anyone?), and no set schedule. But I hope someone enjoys reading this, because I enjoyed writing it.

Also, this isn’t going to be spoiler-free. Analysis assumes familiarity with the entire series.

Book 1, Episode 1 - The Boy in the Iceberg

(0:07) The series starts with an intro. It’s a bloody good intro. First, we go through the four elements and the styles, showing Pakku, Azula, and Aang.

(0:19) Then we see a map - and if you know what you’re looking for, you can find a bunch of the landmarks visited or mentioned over the course of the series - while the voiceover starts talking about her own historical knowledge. Before the story properly starts, we get the sense of a character as well as the history. This gives us the setting. Four nations, one Avatar to keep balance between them, but this was “the old days”.

(0:34) “But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” We pan to a shot of Fire Nation soldiers, who we can already tell are industrialised. More to the point, the animation shows the Fire Nation attacking, and they’re attacking the fourth wall. This helps get across the point; though the show goes into detail that the Fire Nation is made up of ordinary people, and the Fire Nation has suffered from the war as well, the war is nevertheless unambiguously wrong. Before we meet a single Fire Nation citizen, before we get a good non-intro look at the setting, the Fire Nation’s soldiers have already shot fireballs right at the neutral, uninvolved viewer.

(0:46) We’re told that what makes the Avatar different is his ability to use all four elements, and we see Roku doing so. We also see Roku vanish. So we’ve got this big, central tension in the setting established. The world is out of balance from the Fire Nation’s war of conquest, and the means of addressing this imbalance is AWOL.

(0:50) This brings us from the old days to the present of the story, where the Fire Nation are winning.

(0:59) We get more information on the character speaking. From the shots of ice and ships, a viewer might accurately guess by this stage that we’re listening to someone from the Water Tribes. Her father and the other men of her tribe left two years ago, leaving her and her brother behind. So this gives us some idea of the immediate circumstances we’ll be jumping into. Including a solid indication that the Water Tribes are patriarchal.

(1:12) Then, the most intimate character detail: the speaker, this Water Tribe girl, has not lost hope that the Avatar will return. We pan over an empty rock spire, up to the sky and the title screen.

This is a bloody good intro because in just over a minute, it’s given us an overview of the political state of the setting and the magic system in use. It gave us the narration, but it also showed the difference between the styles, the lines of the map, the Fire Nation attacking, and the Avatar using all four bending styles. On top of that, it gave us varying levels of detail as to the personal character context of Katara (who’s already got inner life), Sokka, and Aang (by implication, as the missing Avatar).

It took them just over a minute to do all that. Over the course of the series, we’ll see that the writers know how to say a lot with a little.

(2:00) The story proper starts with the siblings in the intro in a boat, in some very icy waters, a long way from anywhere. They’re fishing. We get a name for Katara.

(2:19) Katara grimaces and tentatively starts trying to waterbend the fish into the boat. So we see already that while she’s able to bend, she’s not got a whole lot of skill. We also get Sokka’s name at this point.

(2:40) Sokka ignores his sister in favour of concentrating on his own work and complains about Katara’s bending. He’s already the meat and sarcasm guy! More importantly, from his comments, it would appear that he isn’t able to bend. What’s also quickly apparent is that he doesn’t have all that much patience with Katara’s experimentation, and as a non-bender, does not feel this as a means of connection to his own culture (while Katara does).

(2:59) Sokka’s making muscles at his own reflection shows us early one of the biggest character flaws he’s going to have to work on: teenage insecurity.

(3:31) The show doesn’t go into detail here, but with the boat smashed, Katara and Sokka are in a real bad situation. ’The Desert’ levels of bad situation.

(3:42) Sokka is explicitly sexist here. The fact that he’s so openly sexist, to his sister’s face, is another solid indicator that the Water Tribes as a whole are patriarchal.

(3:49) While this is pretty straightforward ‘Katara gets angry and accidentally waterbends an iceberg into pieces’, look at the movement of the water following the movement of her arms. Specifically, we see waterbending when Katara makes those big dramatic sweeps of her arms, not when she’s making little jabbing motions towards Sokka. Who wants to bet that if Katara were a firebender, the accidental bending would be from the jabs, rather than the arm-waving? The animators put a lot of hard work and thought into the bending and it shows.

(4:29) The fact that Katara’s outburst was a fairly normal sibling disagreement is reinforced by the fact that Sokka immediately puts his arm around Katara to help steady her as they cling to the ice. They might shout at each other, but they’ve also got each other’s backs when things turn more serious.

(4:37) A glowing light appears beneath the water, quickly followed by another huge-ass iceberg. Even aside from the glowing and the vague figures inside it, this is also clearly not a natural iceberg. Far too round.

(5:12) Confronted with a strange glowing figure in a giant ice ball, Katara’s first reaction is “we have to help” and running forward to do so. An establishing character moment that shows her compassion, her courage, and her proactive nature. Sokka, by contrast, is more cautious - he follows Katara, but he emphasises that they don’t know what this is.

(5:37) When Katara breaks the iceberg, a giant beam of light flashes up to the sky, in a giant signal for anyone and everyone in the area, ‘Inciting Incident!’

(5:46) Establishing shot of a metal ship. Despite the hard lines and points marking this out as a Fire Nation ship like in the intro, the ship is all in blue-grey. No black. No Fire Nation colours.

(5:49) Someone else is involved in this inciting incident, too. A young man with red and black armour - so likely to be an antagonist, going by colour-coding - and a nasty scar on his face which can be identified as a burn scar. One shot and we can see that a) this guy is Fire Nation and b) this guy has been seriously hurt by fire. The first thing he says is “finally,” which tells the viewer that a) he’s been looking out for something of this nature and b) he’s been doing this for a while. Two seconds of looking at Zuko, folks. It’s some information-dense storytelling.

(5:54) Our as-yet-unnamed antagonist turns to “uncle” on the deck and asks him whether he knows what this means. Iroh’s first seen playing a game and drinking tea (from a Fire Nation-themed teapot), complaining that he won’t get to finish it.

(6:13) A quick exchange of dialogue and we’ve got Zuko’s name and title. It’s explicitly confirmed that Zuko is searching for a “him” who is incredibly powerful. Iroh, by contrast, is not fully on board with Zuko’s goals and wary of his nephew’s obsession. He’s motivated primarily by concern for Zuko’s wellbeing.

But what I paused here for is this single, throwaway shot, where we get to see Iroh’s game. The Fire Nation is big into fire supremacy, but Iroh’s playing a game where the ‘suits’ of his tiles are represented by all four elements. (The designs are in red, so I’m wondering if this is a colonial game, or whether fire is highest in the suit ranking.) You can see in the corners that there are secondary symbols on each tile representing the previous element in the Avatar cycle, and if you cared to, you could probably work out some of the rules to the game. And as Zuko and Iroh discuss the location of the (air) Avatar, Iroh’s trying to work out where to put his air tile.

This series has so many details like this. It’s nuts. It’s also one of the things that makes rewatching this show really, really cool. And worth it.

(6:25) “I don’t need any calming tea! I need to capture the Avatar!” Zuko shouts. Aside from the joke, this does get to some of the deeper issues here. Zuko’s not calm. He lashes out at people in his anger, which can be provoked by some pretty trivial things. He also considers capturing the Avatar to be a need.

Meanwhile, what’s on the surface the start of a joke about Iroh’s tea obsession is also an introduction to Iroh’s campaign to get Zuko to look after himself. Sit down and enjoy some tea. Sleep. Eat. Get a hobby. Do something that’s not unhealthily brooding about his mission to find the Avatar, and by extension, earning the approval of his abusive dad.

(6:52) Cut to commercial break on Katara and Sokka staring up apprehensively at a glowing, expressionless Aang.

(7:07) Other side of commercial break, Aang collapses down the slope, gets caught by Katara, and poked in the head by Sokka. Tension deflated! Not to mention repositions Aang so that the audience can see his vulnerability.

(7:17) Aang wakes up and stares into Katara’s face. This is a real love at first sight moment. Personally, I never thought the series was going anywhere but Kataang; the question wasn’t so much ‘are they in love?’ but ‘can they deal with their romantic feelings maturely enough to be in a relationship?’ Not until the end of the series, they can’t.

(7:30) Then we get our first idea of Aang’s character as he plays up the ‘tired and wounded’ demeanour, only to grin widely and ask Katara if she wants to go penguin-sailing with him. Mischievous, fun-loving, social. His enthusiasm for animals is also demonstrated.

I also love our first brief look at airbending, which Aang just uses to help him get around on the ice. (The first look we got at waterbending was similarly utilitarian.) Unlike Katara at this point, Aang is clearly a good enough airbender to use his arts almost without thought. Airbending is just something he can do.

(7:43) Meanwhile, Sokka wants to know why Aang isn’t frozen. Speaking of characterisation. Sokka wants to know how this surviving in an iceberg thing worked.

(7:55) We get a name for Appa before we get a good look at Appa. Aang’s rush to Appa and address of his bison as “buddy” establishes that Appa’s not just a pack animal but a friend.

(8:02) And the fact that Appa is not a common animal in the area is first conveyed by Sokka’s spectacular jaw drop.

(8:17) “Flying bison” is our first introduction to the weird and wonderful animals of the Avatar universe. Six legs included.

(8:32) Again, because this show is really good, I just want to highlight Aang’s simple advice to Sokka that the bison snot will wash out as excellent early characterisation. Aang’s not laughing at Sokka, he’s clearly aware of the non-effect of bison snot on clothing (implying that he’s been the one to do laundry before when a bison has sneezed on him), and he focused on a simple thing that can be done about the unpleasant situation of being covered in bison snot.

(8:46) Katara and Sokka disagree about whether Aang’s a spy for the Fire Navy. This tells us a bit about how Katara and Sokka each approach situations. Katara’s looking at the person in front of her. Sokka’s thinking of the broader situation and potential implications. And they’re both right - Katara’s correct that Aang is not a Fire Nation spy, her read on him better than Sokka’s. Sokka’s correct that the giant beam of light could attract Fire Nation attention, because as we’ve already seen, it has.

This is actually one of the things that makes Sokka one of the best depictions of “the smart guy” I’ve seen, and one of the things that makes the cast as a whole so compelling. The resident smart guy doesn’t know everything, doesn’t think of everything, and has personal issues (in this case, his untrusting nature) that get in the way of clear analysis sometimes, so he doesn’t just benefit from alternative points of view but outright needs them to be fully effective. Meanwhile, Sokka’s not monopolising the team brain, and the rest of the cast can and do make regular, intelligent contributions to group planning. Everyone gets to be smart.

Also worth noting for the future, Katara sees the Fire Nation as evil, and Sokka does not disagree.

(9:10) With a mighty sneeze and an undeniable display of airbending, we get Aang’s name.

(9:21) While the subtitle “the Last Airbender” is a bit of a giveaway to the viewer that Aang is the only surviving human airbender we’ll see in the series, Katara and Sokka’s lack of immediate recognition of airbending and Sokka’s “pfffft yeah” reaction are the first in-universe indications that airbending, much like flying bison, is not often seen in the area.

(9:25) Sokka also refers to “midnight sun madness”, and indeed, while more than a day passes in these first two episodes, we don’t see actual nightfall. This is actually a bit of an inconsistency. The constant sunshine at the South Pole indicates that it’s summer there, yet as soon as we hit the Earth Kingdom, even the southern Earth Kingdom, it’s winter. So this is a minor error, something’s real off with the hemispheres of Avatar world, or the South Pole is the only thing in the series we see in the southern hemisphere.

This is also the sort of inconsistency I’m more than prepared to forgive, because it’s been done to keep the show’s timeline comprehensible and balanced. The series starts at the beginning of winter and ends at the end of summer. One season per element - water in winter, earth in spring, fire in summer.

(9:42) “The Desert”-style crisis averted via Appa’s presence, even if he’s not flying. Though since he’s got a saddle, the fact that Appa is a means of transportation was already clear.

(10:42) Meanwhile, on the Fire Nation ship, Zuko is out of armour and brooding.

(10:54) Iroh first hints, then openly states, that Zuko should get some sleep. (Sun’s still up!) But yes, again, we’re being shown that Zuko’s pursuit isn’t just an unquiet mind but not healthy, and Iroh’s trying not just to look after him, but to get him to look after himself. This includes outright discouraging Zuko from questing at all.

(11:12) Zuko’s response is a telling one. He’s not this dedicated to the goal out of the simple belief that the Avatar is alive and that capturing him would be good for the Fire Nation. It’s unclear at this point how or why Zuko’s honour could hinge on the capture of the Avatar, but it is clear that it’s a personal obligation to him.

(11:41) Katara knows Aang if he knows what happened to the Avatar. On Katara’s side, we see the importance of the Avatar to her. About all she can do to learn what happened to the Avatar is ask the new guy ‘what happened to the Avatar?’ and this is exactly what she’s done.

On Aang’s side, he still doesn’t know what’s going on - he thinks he’s been in the iceberg for a few days. He doesn’t know that the subtext of Katara’s question is ‘do you know how the war can be stopped, my family returned to me, and my home and culture preserved?’ His most recent experience is that being the Avatar loses him friends and family. So he lies and avoids that particular uncomfortable truth.

Though from the ‘just curious’ we can see that Katara doesn’t have much actual expectation that Aang will be able to give her a useful answer. Plus her non-reaction is used to make Aang’s denial all the more awkward for him.

(12:17) We get a sepia-toned nightmare sequence of Aang ending up in that iceberg. He and Appa were flying along when they got caught in a storm and dragged underneath the waves.

(12:30) Then Aang starts glowing, his demeanour drastically changes, and he waterbends the iceberg. Though it might be obvious from the title Avatar: the Last Airbender, the fact that Aang can use both airbending and waterbending would, per the intro, be a demonstration that he’s the Avatar. The show shows us these things.

(12:46) When Katara wakes Aang up, we get a shot from her perspective emphasising Aang’s tattoos. The meaning and significance of these is not explicitly stated, just highlighted as something outside of Katara’s ordinary.

(12:55) Establishing shot of Katara and Sokka’s village. There’s one decent-sized permanent structure, a low snow wall, and a bunch of tents, many of which aren’t in the best of repair. It’s obviously a barely-subsisting settlement.

(13:02) “Aang, this is the entire village,” Katara says. The entire village is 20 people, according to this shot. Aside from this low, low number of people, the demographics are obviously skewed. No adult men at all. The village is entirely women and children.

(13:08) The village also shies away from Aang when Katara introduces him. Sokka’s wariness of outsiders is the more common reaction.

(13:17) Gran-Gran gives part of it to the audience. Nobody has seen any airbenders for a hundred years. The fact that this coincides with the vanishing of the Avatar a hundred years ago may not be a coincidence. The intro gives this context to the viewers lets them piece things together in part, i.e., the airbenders must have been wiped out very early in the war, and this possibly has something to do with the missing Avatar. Without the intro, Aang doesn’t have that context, and is shocked at hearing that airbenders are apparently extinct.

Being Aang, however, he doesn’t pursue the thought any further. We’ll see Aang avoid things he doesn’t want to deal with again and again throughout the series, but it starts here, when he hears ‘airbenders are extinct’ and doesn’t immediately start asking for more information.

(13:32) Continuing to establish Sokka’s character and the world he lives in - he assumes Aang is carrying a weapon, because of course kids Aang’s age would need and carry weapons. He doesn’t recognise it, so he wants to know what it is. But his inexperience also shows because he just grabs the damn thing. What if it was a weapon? Very safe.

(13:44) The basic mechanics of Aang’s glider are explained by Aang himself telling a bunch of curious little kids how it works. The information asymmetry works both ways. Most of the other characters know nothing about airbending and the Air Nomads.

(14:00) Aang takes flight to the oohs and aahs of the people of the South Pole. We cut back between Aang’s smile, Katara’s smile, and the villagers to show that Aang doesn’t just enjoy flying, he enjoys making others happy.

(14:12) More good Sokka characterisation: he built a watchtower. As well as personal innovation, we see that Sokka isn’t training himself personally, but putting an emphasis on technology and development.

(14:20) Meanwhile, Katara retains her sense of wonder, and she’s not afraid to show it.

(14:32) At this point, Katara does not really identify herself as a waterbender. This goes back to waterbending as a means for Katara to engage with her culture. She can bend water, but she doesn’t have the knowledge of waterbending passed down by her tribes that would help her claim the title of a waterbender.

This also begs the question: why doesn’t Katara have this knowledge, or access to this knowledge?

(14:44) Katara’s lack of training is made clearer here, as she tells her grandmother that she’s finally got a bender to teach her. So we’ve just learned there are literally no other benders at the South Pole, and probably haven’t been for years.

(15:03) Meanwhile, back on the Fire Nation ship, we see something a bit different. Zuko’s squaring off against some opponents while Iroh watches. Earlier we saw Zuko yelling at his uncle. Now we see Iroh taking charge, acting in his capacity as Zuko’s teacher.

(15:14) Power in firebending comes from the breath, Iroh tells us. We’ll see that concept come up again, and reflected in the depictions of firebending throughout the series.

(15:22) Also note the warmer colour palette for this scene, and how the sun has been clearly placed in the frame.

(15:26) Iroh demonstrates his point with a small blast of fire that peters out in front of Zuko’s face. This shows us a couple of things. One, Iroh’s got a lot of control. He’s comfortable aiming that blast at someone. Two, visibly burned Zuko does not flinch when his uncle demonstrates a move with fire in his direction. Given that we learn later that Zuko’s wound was deliberately inflicted by a family member, this reveals a lot in hindsight about how much Zuko trusts his uncle.

(15:33) Zuko demands to learn more advanced techniques; Iroh refuses.

(15:53) Zuko points out that the Avatar has had a century to master the four elements. Again, for the re-watch - Ozai banished Zuko and told him he could come home if this teenage boy could find someone who’d been missing for a hundred years and capture someone who’d (presumably) had the time to master all four bending arts. Heads, Ozai wins; tails, Zuko loses.

(16:01) Another thing that we’ll see throughout the series is Iroh refusing to let Zuko bully him, without actually getting into an open confrontation. Yes, I’ll teach you the advanced moves, Iroh says - after I finish my roast duck!

Off the top of my head, I can only think of one instance of Iroh yelling at Zuko, in a moment of some frustration for Iroh (frustration born out of fear for Zuko, at that). Otherwise, he stays calm in the face of his severely abused nephew’s anger, yet does not reward Zuko’s poor behaviour.

(16:15) Meanwhile, back at the South Pole, Sokka is telling the ‘men’ that it’s important not to show fear when facing a firebender.

(16:22) The joke being that Sokka’s talking to a bunch of kids who must all be around five years old. There are some deadly serious undertones to this joke. Sokka’s speech might be overblown and inappropriate to the audience he’s addressing, but he is legitimately trying to prepare for an attack on his home. He’s a teenager. Why is this his responsibility? Why are there actual kids getting this lecture?

Note also that nobody’s talking about getting the adult women involved in the defence of the tribe. Not even Katara.

(16:59) Within seconds of Sokka’s very serious warrior talk, Aang’s enlisted Appa and grabbed a spear to make a slide for the Water Tribe kids. Just because he thought it would be fun.

(17:09) “What war?” Aang asks.

The fact that Aang Rip Van Winkle’d his way into the show’s setting means that thought he’s not a stranger to the physical mechanics of bending, most of his information about the social and political aspects of the setting is incredibly out of date. Aang has to ask questions about things that other characters take for granted, which is often a pretty graceful way of expositing for the viewer. Plus it’s a source of conflict and tension for Aang in its own right, but I’ll get into that next episode and the episode after.

(17:15) Just like the incident with the extinct airbenders a few minutes ago, Aang ignores the information that there’s a war on to go chase a penguin. (Which have four wings and whiskers, in this universe.) Right here, we’re setting up the reveal for Aang that he napped his way into what is, from his point of view, a post-apocalyptic dystopian future.

(17:52) Katara attempts to strike a deal with Aang to score some waterbending lessons.

(17:58) Aang’s willing, but notes that he’s not a waterbender. (Technically a lie.) This shows us the extent of Katara’s ignorance of the world beyond the South Pole. She doesn’t know how different waterbending and airbending are.

Aang’s return question of “isn’t there somewhere here who can teach you?” shows his ignorance in turn. Like I mentioned before, his information about society and politics is so out of date, and his innocent insensitivity here stings Katara with the reminder of how alone she is and how much her culture has suffered in the war.

(18:11) But in a serious good point of his character, Aang just goes “okay, how about the North Pole, then?” looking for a solution for Katara’s problem.

(18:19) Katara reveals that the Water Tribes are actually cut off from each other, furthering the depiction of the isolation the war causes. As if the distance wasn’t bad enough.

(18:30) Aang is generous enough to offer to give Katara a lift to the other end of the planet. Like Katara just said, it’s not exactly turn right at the second glacier. Aang’s very casual about the distances and logistics involved. Travel isn’t a big deal to him. We’ll come back to this thought. Contrast to Katara’s hesitation.

Meanwhile, from Aang’s perspective, this is also a good way to avoid being the Avatar for a while longer.

(19:23) “I haven’t done this since I was a kid.” / “You still are a kid!” This is an oft-mentioned exchange that gets right to the heart of the differences between the world Aang grew up in and the world Katara grew up in. Aang’s a child and he knows he’s a child. (Again, more on this thought later.) Katara was forced to take on adult responsibilities years ago.

This is one of the most touching things about Aang and Katara’s relationship, though: they have fun together. It’s so simple, but Katara’s life was responsibility after responsibility. Aang’s presence in her life, his insistence on not taking on every single responsibility (at least not right this second), is a healthy way for both of them to make time for themselves and just enjoy life. Including, for Katara, age-appropriate horsing around.

(19:48) Aang and Katara come to a halt in front of something that casts a huge shadow. They stop right at the edge of the darkness the shadow casts, but don’t actually cross the visible line just yet.

(19:50) When we pan out, we see that it’s a Fire Nation ship, run aground on some more unnatural-looking ice. It’s an unmistakeable, unavoidable sign of the war’s presence at the South Pole.

(19:59) Since Aang doesn’t know about the war, he doesn’t have the same wariness Katara does about wandering into an old ship that might be booby-trapped. The dread isn’t ingrained into him like it is for Katara. And with that, they walk into the shadow of the war.

(20:28) We see here that waterbent ice punched right through the metal hull of the Fire Nation ship.

(20:56) Aang looks at the rack of Fire Nation weapons with confusion and dismay, while Katara gives Aang the rundown of how the ship’s been here since her grandmother was young, part of the Fire Nation’s first attacks.

(21:04) This, Aang can’t ignore. There’s a ship with weapons, run aground in not-too-accidental looking circumstances. He starts asking what the hell’s up with all this. In an owww my heart moment, Aang leads off by saying that this can’t be right, he has friends all over the world.

Remember that from Aang’s perspective, this is only a few days at most after the final flashback in ‘The Storm’, an episode that showed the senior monks are starting to get very worried indeed about a war starting.

(21:10) Katara spots the thread and works out that Aang was in the iceberg for a very, very long time.

(21:36) Aang reels at the news that he’s a hundred years out of time and there’s a huge war going on. At this point, I don’t think he’s got a real appreciation of what that means (because that’s something for episode three), but it knocks him on his ass anyway.

(21:44) Likewise, I don’t think Katara’s got a solid understanding of what this means for Aang, but she tries to comfort him anyway. Fittingly for a character whose inner life was illustrated by saying I still have hope, she tries to get Aang to focus on something positive. Aang, who’s also an optimist, says that at least he got to meet Katara.

(21:59) Unfortunately, before they can head back to the village, Aang sets off a booby trap. And why would Aang be looking for booby traps? He grew up in a world where he didn’t have to worry about this sort of thing.

(22:10) The result is to send up a signal flare.

(22:24) And someone is watching. From Zuko’s perspective, he can’t tell how old Aang is, but he can definitely see airbending being used.

(22:45) The pan over to the village, along with Zuko’s line that he’s found the Avatar’s hiding place, emphasises that Zuko poses a threat to the village as well as just to Aang.

(22:50) We get a lot of close-ups of halves of Zuko’s face over the course of the series, and it’s always worth noting which side of his face is being used to convey what, because he’s definitely got a duality thing going on. This time, we cut to the “to be continued” on Zuko’s unscarred eye, i.e., the side of his face where his resemblance to his father is revealed to be unmistakeable.

Given that he’s apparently gearing up to attack an already war-scarred village doing nothing but just trying to get by…fair enough.

#a:tla #fine toothed comb edition

88 notes · View notes

k1rishiki · 3 years

Note

i am curious, as someone who’s only exposure to arthurania was reading jane yolen’s young merlin as a child, would you mind saying why hnoc is a bad adaptation? i’m super curious but no worries if not <3

this has been sitting in my inbox for months bc i kept telling myself i needed to write a full essay with proof from medieval lit to make myself feel smarter. however, since i’ve recently lost all credibility bc i can’t articulate points to save my life, and since i’ve realized that i could answer this in a just a couple paragraphs, now seems like the right time to answer this ask. sorry for the wait.

under a cut bc length

also warnings for mentions of racism bc this is hnoc we're talking abt and sexual assault bc this is med lit we're also talking abt

the basic problems are pendragon polycule itself, the story beats of the album, the fridging and lack of characterization of morgan le fay, the clear influence of pop culture arthuriana, and whatever the fuck happened with gawain/e.

pendragon polycule is... just not a good take. there’s a bit in the lancelot-grail abt arthur viewing lancelot like a son (and lancelot not giving a shit abt him). also arthur knew his parents for years before lancelot was even born. plus lancelot just Doesn’t care abt him and i can’t stress this part enough. arthur repeatedly tries to have guinnevere killed, mostly in the lancelot-grail, and guinn didn’t really have any say in marrying him bc she was a teenager. lancelot and guinnevere is a lot better but that’s not saying much. guinn doesn’t exactly treat lancelot too well... like at all, BUT it’s not intrinsic to their relationship and is completely caused by medieval misogyny and i’m all in favor of modern retellings saying fuck that. but also lancelot has multiple pseudo-canon boyfriends (this is med lit after all), and one pseudo-canon husband so like... there were better options. (also lancelot’s husband is basically in a lavender marriage with guinnevere’s maybe girlfriend who most authors just eventually forget abt as the story progresses).

this next one is a problem with a lot of modern arthurian works bc the inclusion of elayne of astolat is too much to ask apparently. the grail quest isn’t tied to the fall of camelot, it just happens to be one of the last grand adventures the knights of the round table have. the event that traditionally sets off the fall is the death of the maiden of astolat/the lady of shalott/elayne of escolat/she has a lot of names, her story has a few variations but usually she either is cursed to stay in a tower and weave and only be able to see the outside world through a mirror positioned across from her window, until lancelot rides by and she rushes to see him out of the actual window and her mirror shatters, setting off her death, or she lives with her father and brothers and takes care of lancelot bc he was injured for a time and she gets to go on adventures to find him and she’s friends with gawaine and she dies bc lancelot rejects her and this version’s a lot more fun but also more happens which makes it harder to explain. the way her story ends however, is that she dies after she makes arrangements for a glorious boat to drift from astolat to camelot carrying nothing but her dead body and a letter explaining that she died of love for lancelot du lac and the court mourns the death of such a beautiful and young maiden (her age varies a lot but i’ve always read her as a young teenager at most). but the important thing is, camelot is doomed from the moment she washes up on its shore bc she’s an omen of the end and has symbolic meaning and all that, the maiden of astolat washes up on camelot’s shores, the court mourns the loss of a maiden in her prime and she marks the end of camelot’s prime as well, morgan le fay reappears after being presumed dead and warns arthur of guinnevere and lancelot’s affair, aggravaine and modred conspire to bring lancelot and guinnevere’s affair to light, they succeed but lancelot escapes, guinnevere is to be burnt at the stake and lancelot rescues her, killing aggravaine, gaheris and gareth (gawaine’s brothers) in the process, gawaine drags his uncle and camelot to war bc he was driven mad due to the loss of his brothers, lancelot accidentally kills gawaine, his best friend and maybe boyfriend (i have RECEIPTS), and gawaine forgives him on his detahbed while lancelot and guinn rejoin arthur, meanwhile modred, who practically had the throne handed to him, usurps and invites the saxons in, camlann happens, and camelot is destroyed. no where in there is the grail quest.

morgan le fay is honestly the most questionable part of the album bc there’s not a single text where she dies. like.... at least with eurydice in udad she died in the original... there’s no basis for morgan dying. also she is NOT modred’s mother and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar, she interacts with him once in the vulgate bc she had three of her nephews over and that’s IT. it’s a horrible take which originated in the mists of avalon by marion zimmer bradley who is an honest to god monster for reasons i don’t want to trigger tag this post for. also she’s one of the most dynamic and thought-out characters in the entire canon and they just made her a watered down morgause (modred’s actual mother, morgan’s sister, canonical milf)... there was no reason for it to be her apart from the fact that she’s more well known......

pop culture arthuriana is,,, one of my least favorite things. no, morgan wasn’t modred’s mother, no, morgause wasn’t abusive but her husband sure was implied to be, no, aggravaine didn’t kill his mother, that was gaheris, he loved his mother, you’re only saying that bc he has a reputation as the “evil” orkney, no, the once and future king is not a good descriptor for arthur, stop making me read it, no, morgause wasn’t the one to initiate the thing with arthur resulting in modred, no, lancelot and arthur weren’t friends, no, tristan wasn’t a self-centered asshole, tennyson is a fucking liar, no, galahad didn’t have sex or want to, he’s one of the first ever explicitly asexual characters out there, no, galahad’s conception was NOT consensual, lancelot was tricked, and no, elayne of astolat wasn’t galahad’s mother, she’s implied to be younger than him. those are just the big glaring ones, but i swear it’s bc of arthuriana’s reputation as a mythology and the connotations belonging to that word (no one true canon (which is true but there are still things that just AREN’T canon, not completely written down, passed by oral tradition) that causes ppl to see mediocre modern texts and go “oh. well this is abt as close to the original as i’m going to get” and don’t bother to look into so much as malory (who i only name bc he’s one of the most well known medieval authors with the most commonly used storylines, don’t read malory kids, he’s a mediocre-at-best writer even by medieval standards). the big perpetrators of modern arthurian tropes are the books the once and future king by th wh*te, who is a shitty person and lets it bleed into his writing (which isn’t like... nice to read or anything, seriously why do ppl love this book so much it doesn’t have redeeming qualities), and the mists of avalon by marion zimmer bradley (it’s poorly written, the story is a mess, and mzb is honestly a monster and one google search will tell you that), and unfortunately the writings of tennyson, which are mostly good but he clearly didn’t read the povest (a later text that’s also my favorite, known for significantly improving ppl’s opinions on tristan, isolde and co.) before deciding he hated both tristan and isolde and he has HORRIBLE takes on them. high noon over camelot is SEEPED in pop culture arthuriana and i think it would have been so much better if the band had read so much as a SUMMARY of the events of le morte. it’s evident in the song “the once and future king” bc it’s,,,, literally named after one of the worst books in existence. it’s shown in the morgan le fay thing, and it’s shown in the pendragon polycule thing. and hell, i think you can even explain away the lack of elayne of astolat with pop culture arthuriana, bc ppl have had bad takes on her ever since th wh*te combined her character with that of ela*ne of corbenic, and the band probably went “huh, let’s write lancelot’s abuser out of this” and they would’ve been right to do so if that’s who elayne of astolat was.

the final big issue is gawaine, the closest thing the genre has to a protagonist, he’s pretty much canon bi and, in some texts, arospec, he’s a dashing knight of great reknown and he derails every romance to steal hearts, commit murder, and make out with every knight and lady mentioned. and in hnoc he’s... racist. that’s it. it’s,,, almost completely unfounded by the arthurian canon and shows a major misunderstanding of his motivations (like i said earlier, he wants to avenge his brothers bc there’s a reoccuring motif of how much the orkneys value family). i say almost bc in one text it’s his motivations for killing palomydes but i’ve never heard it mentioned by name bc that’s just what it’s known for. most arthuriana fans just look away from it except when critiquing hnoc but that one text is an outlier, shouldn’t be counted, and i highly doubt the mechs made hnoc gawain how he is bc they found this text. it’s just a bad text.

hnoc has,,, quite a few more minor issues, such as villainized ladies of the lake (their ONLY crimes were sealing away merlin bc he tried to assault teenage nimue/ninniane (proto-nimue/vivianne from the vulgate), and that one time vivviane/ninniane kidnapped adopted baby lancelot), assigning brain to merlin (y’know,,, the predator who helped arrange the [redacted] of arthur’s mother and tried to assault a teenager,,,) although merlin is portrayed in a positive light throughout modern arthuriana so i don’t think they knew, giving a song to pellinore, who my perception of has been forever altered bc i was introduced to him through malory and the explanation of torre’s conception, which you can just look up “sir torre arthurian” to find out abt if you can’t just Guess, if they wanted a song abt the questing beast palomydes was Right There AND has been associated with the questing beast for longer, but once again i don’t think they knew.

also namedropping a bunch of knights in the fiction is... it Suggests a bigger world full of all these other stories but they just don’t work bc the world of hnoc wasn’t designed in a way where the appearance of half these characters would make sense. like,, tristan is referenced as dying in the grail quest in the same sentence as bedevere (one of the characters who is known for almost always surviving), but tristan Isn’t one of the knights who dies on the grail quest, his possible deaths (ignoring the potentially happy ending of the povest for a second) are either being murdered by his uncle, king mark (bc mark married tristan’s gf to try and get tristan killed and also to spite him), bc he was driven into a fury bc of tristan and isolde’s affair, or he’s injured and only isolde (the best healer in the world) can save him so he sends for her and if the ship he sent for her is supposed to fly white sails if she’s there, or black sails if she’s not, and the ship flies white sails but his wife (also named isolde) says it’s black sails (the why depends but usually comes down to jealousy), and so he gives up bc he thinks all hope is lost and usually succumbs to his injuries, either way isolde dies of a broken heart over his body. there’s no way for the tristan and isolde story to play out like it’s supposed to in the world of hnoc, just as there’s no way for any story with gawaine (and Oh Boy are there a lot of stories with gawaine) or pretty much anyone else, without severely altering the canon.

of course, there are still parts of hnoc i like a lot, most of the music i adore and i just like the idea of space cowboys and the secret good hnoc that lives in my head. and it has one of my favorite characterizations of galahad, even though galahad hnoc is nothing like galahad arthuriana. it’s not GOOD but i like it and it’s fun to turn my brain off too, and i’ll always value it as my introduction to arthuriana.

also there are modern arthurian tropes i do like such as characters being genre-savvy/knowing they’re fictional/knowing they’ve done this before (which hnoc does wonderfully!) and bedevere-as-the-storyteller (everyone say thank you lord tennyson).

WOW that was longer than expected, i feel very passionately abt this, when i was planning to write a fully sourced essay i meant to include a bit at the bottom with recommendations to get into better arthuriana and i think i’ll keep that in this post.

if you like hnoc for the arthurian music i’d like to suggest heather dale’s arthurian music to you, she does occasionally fall into the trap of modern arthuriana (some parts of lancelot and arthur being close, morgan as modred’s mother), sometimes she’s just wrong (galahad at lancelot’s trial, a lot of tristan and isolde), and her stuff is kinda straightwashed sometimes (sir gawain and the green knight, for example) but i’d be lying if it wasn’t catchy, and it’s not quite as bad as hnoc adaptation-wise. culwch and olwen is pretty accurate (albeit abridged bc culwch and olwen has SO many tangents), as is lily maid (it’s abt elayne of astolat!).

if you liked hnoc for king arthur... in space! then may i recommend to you my own fanfic? it's not posted yet but the second i finish writing the first chapter i'm going to make a Big Deal out of it that'll be impossible to miss!

if you want to learn abt arthuriana through tumblr-osmosis like i did at first, i’d like to recommend the love of my life @acegalahads, first and foremost (it’s me on a sideblog i’m just obsessed with myself), and i can’t recommend my arthuriana mutuals over there, @/gringolet, @/merlinenthusiast, @/jcbookworm, @/elayneofshalott, and @/elaineofascolat (the elayne urls have been popular recently), also i know for a fact that my mutual-in-law, @/itonje makes great arthuriana posts that i look forwards to whenever i open the tag.

here are a few good reference posts, a quick guide to the characters, a guide to characters of color, and a much more comprehensive intro to arthuriana post with even more texts linked to it.

if you want to ease into med lit, i’d like to introduce you to pre-raphaelite poetry, alfred lord tennyson and william morris are my favorites, although tennyson can’t be trusted with tristan and isolde. the poem the lady of shalott is basically a rite of passage for arthuriana fans, although when it comes to tennyson’s writings abt elayne of astolat, i prefer lancelot and elaine, which is part of his much larger story, idylls of the king. for morris, don’t trust what he says abt aggravaine killing his mother, but my favorites of his are sir galahad, a christmas mystery, which sounds like a shitty disney sequel, and palomyde’s quest, which i blame for my love of palomydes (that and the one bit of the povest where he asks tristan to be his greatest enemy and that he wants nothing more, gay ppl,,,,).

if you want to read abt lancelot and his husband, there’s the lancelot-grail cycle, which i believe was taken off of archive dot org and i think i found it on @/tobeisexhausting’s blog but don’t quote me on that.

the povest, which was a religious experience for me and i can’t reccomend enough if you want to like tristan and isolde, is here, i don’t know who scanned it but i think i found it on @/lanzelet’s blog

the dutch texts are just good in general, here’s a link to their section of a(n unfinished) site for hosting various texts by my former mutual @/reynier (who’s no longer on tumblr). i’d like to recommend lancelot and the white hart specifically bc it’s mainly just just gawaine being gay for lancelot.

if you want older works, here’s my scan of the history of the kings of britain, and here’s culwch and olwen and pa gur.

oh wow this is even longer than i thought it would be so i’m going to wrap this up by saying that i always love to talk abt arthuriana more than anything if you have any questions or just are curious!

#med lit on main #asks #hnoc #the mechs #romeo.txt

15 notes · View notes

hecohansen31 · 4 years

Text

Not The Right Time

The Story Of How He Found Out:

Ivar+Reader (Modern! AU)

(Chapter 1: The Story of How We Ended Up There)

(A/N): Hello there, lovelies!

I know it’s been a long time since I post this series, and I just wanted to also thank you for the warm welcome you showed it, I was immediately prompted to write more since I felt like it was very wanted.

I am also glad I was able to portray such a theme in the best way, enough not to seem judging or annoying and I am going to repeat that if you feel judged even in the slightest, please let me know and tell me what I could do to make it better.

I hope you’ll like it, again and any feedback is more than welcome!

Have a nice reading!

SUMMARY: It isn’t coincidence anymore when Destiny is trying its best to push you together, even exposing your ‘small secret’ to Ivar.

WORDS: 8 K

WARNINGS: Pregnancy, Unexpected Pregnancy, Pregnancy at a Young Age, Mention of Abortion (and Being Harsh About it), Heartbreak and General Angst, Abandonement Issues and Being A Single Mom, Mention of Infertility, Talk about Custody Battles and Custody, Use of The World ‘Cripple’.

Ivar had a hate-love relationship with taking care of his nephew and niece.

He certainly hated being waken up at 8 p.m. on a luxurious Saturday morning just to babysit his brother’s children, meanwhile he and Torvi went ‘shopping for the newest arrival’, which meant they would probably screw around the entire day.

But he loved the way his niece and nephew’s eyes would light up softly as they came to him, immediately almost tackling him to a ground in a way that made him want children of his own.

Had he ever been able to have one…

Freydis hadn’t been there when the call had arrived.

He remembered she had to go through some treatments and although he had insisted to go with her, she hadn’t wanted him.

‘It’s just… womanly things… I would feel more comfortable going alone’ and he had immediately respected the wishes of his goddess.

So, in the end, he was extremely grateful for the children’s company who had convinced him to drive to another park from the one near his house, because… ‘this one was better, uncle Iv’.

He drove there and let the children quickly spatter themselves around, after they had both thanked him with a quick kiss, keeping an eye on them, not wanting to let them wander too far away:.

Once Hvitserk had been tasked with the ‘babysitting’ since Ivar was busy with some medical visits and he had come back home without the children.

Thankfully the McDonald’s employees had called Torvi and Ubbe immediately, after they had found their children in the fast food restaurant …

He got his phone out, since he thoroughly hated to acknowledge the stares people always sent his way when this happene.

Some would eye him as if they were worried he would grab their children and run, but the actual worst was when they would stare at him with soft pity in their eyes.

So, he preferred to check his phone, shooting a small look at the children who were running freely, around the small park, over the slide and in the little sand box.

And then he saw you.

You weren’t in your job uniform, a loose sweatshirt and a pair of skinny and worn out jeans with some rips on the knees, the entire outfit completed by a pair of dirtied sneakers.

Your hair was in an high ponytail as your eyes sprinkled over the park.

He didn’t know how you could be so fascinating even in that ‘worn out’ mise, but as you turned lightly to him, he was finally able to understand why: your smile was the prettiest thing he had ever seen, and almost attracted by it, he got up and moved to you.

He didn’t know why he did it, but he just felt like seeing you closer, discovering that you hadn’t lost the little moles under your nose and your nails were still painted of the brightest colors, after all this time.

You also hadn’t lost the lovely curves you always had owned, but they fell in a different and more mature way now.

He stopped staring at them as you raised your face meeting his gaze.

And immediately that smile disappeared from your face.

And Ivar didn’t know what to say.

His curiosity had gotten the best of him, but now that he was in front of her, he didn’t know what to do.

So, he went with kindness.

“… hey” it was a weak mumble, but it was all he could utter, as you shieded away your gaze from him, definitely nervous and at unease “… I swear I am not stalking you!”.

“Are you sure, Ivar Lothbrock?” the way you taunted him with his name and his surname made a shiver appear on his back, as it moved down its spine disappearing under his skin “… we haven’t met each other in five years and then suddenly… we met each other two days in a row?”.

“… well that might indeed make you doubtful, but I come bearing good intentions” he prompted immediately, raising his hands and a small laugh came onto your face “Maybe you should take it as a sign that we need to seriously take that coffee, one day”.

“Too busy” you tutted lightly as you shook your head, your small smile becoming algid cold and he knew better than to insist, although his body wanted nothing more than to meet you again.

But he just didn’t understand this impulse.

Why, most of all, it happened when he was happily tying the knot with his lovely fiancée?

He was even trying for a child, undergoing hours and hours of physical and psychological therapy.

Still, how did they say?

You could never forget your first love.

“… I know that we didn’t leave on the happiest note” he mumbled not even truly knowing why he was saying that, although he had wanted to tell you this right after the aching confession on that diner that damned day “… but I missed you”.

The revelation shook you, enough that you weren’t able to properly hide your thoughts and surprise, shown with the way you moved your eyes away from his, not facing him but unable to close your mouth in a stern expression, as your hands were clutched together tight.

“… I… “ he was ready for the worst of insults, maybe a small ‘I missed you, too’, although it wouldn’t have been in your personality, but he certainly hadn’t expected a small child moving towards them, or better… crawling towards them.

“Mommy, mommy!” he called out softly as he moved towards you, adjusting his shirt, a bit dirtied by the wet ground of the park, but he didn’t seem to care, shooting you a beautiful smile, the ones that only children had “… can we stay a bit longer?”.

And if the crawling hadn’t already put him on guard as the child raised his head, he showed him the same blue eyes he saw each day in the mirror.

He shot you a look, as you immediately shrank away from him, moving towards the child as you helped him up, easing him onto the light braces you had in a small fabric bag beside you, Ivar hadn’t noticed.

You helped the child in them expertly, as he continued on pleading on staying more but you were a woman on a mission.

And Ivar was a man glued on the ground beneath his feet.

“Eric, sweetheart, we promised that we would have had lunch with grandma and you also need a bath” your tone was sweet but stern, but it wasn’t tender because of his situation, but more because of a motherly instinct.

As the baby has his braces again, he was able to stand upright and he turned to Ivar, almost asking for some help with his mother, but as he did so, he realized that Ivar wore similar braces the search of pity became surprise.

“Mom, mom! He is like me!” there was no intention to shame him, but simple childish naivety and joyful happiness, but you immediately turned away from Ivar, and shot him one last look, as the big burly man not only found him stuck on the ground, but also speechless.

“It was nice meeting you Ivar, but I hope that you won’t found me again”.

And like that, you were gone.

With what looked like his child.

---

You weren’t able to properly feel safe till you heard the door slamming as Eric complained lightly about ‘wanting to play more’.

Your mother appeared from the kitchen, her hair still damp from the shower she had had.

To try to help you and Eric she had taken a small job at the florist shop near your house: she had always loved plants and flowers so she actually enjoyed working there, and sometimes would bring small plants home to ‘brighten the mood’.

“Eric, (Y/N)?” she looked at you weirded out by your early return: usually Saturday you would go out with Eric and then stay there till lunch time, to work the rest of the afternoon at the diner, having the night off for your small bartender job “… you are early”.

“It’s mom’s fault!” complained Eric, whenever he would do that he would resemble Ivar very much, making you almost want to raise your voice at the small boy, but you tried to calm yourself well aware that he didn’t know that you had done this to protect him “.. and there was a man like me at the park, today, grandma!”.

“Eric, go take a bath” you put more sternness than you should have in your tone, regretting it as the boy stumped his way to the bath and mother sent you a worried look, but you waited for the shower water to run before you answered your mother’s non-verbal question.

“I saw Ivar at the park, this morning” you mumbled and your mother immediately came closer to you, as you slowly slumped onto the sofa “… I had seen him yesterday, already, but I… thought it was a coincidence”.

You felt panic washing through you as you tried to breath deeper in order to regain some kind of control over your body, which was trembling horrendously.

“… sweetheart… did he see Eric?” your mother tried to bring some order to your chaotic mind as you tried to adjust yourself in a more comfortable position.

“Yes, he did”.

And then came the realization that Ivar now knew about your child.

“Baby of mine, don’t panic” he mumbled softly, as she tightened her grip around you, drawing relaxing circles onto your back “… he might not…”.

“Mom he is a cripple, but he isn’t stupid!” you shouted, immediately covering your mouth with an hand to stop the horrid sound from leaving your mouth, worried about Eric hearing you “… I am worried… what if he… comes here? What if…?”.

“He has no right to him” your mother spoke with confidence “… he broke up with you, he didn’t have the right to know there and he doesn’t now, don’t forget it”.

“He is rich, mom, he might… he might get Eric…” Gosh you couldn’t even think about the possibility of Ivar coming for Eric.

Although he had admitted, back then, he never wanted children, you had seen the look on his face as he had taken in Eric, realizing it was his.

You were worried.

“Don’t worry your pretty head, (Y/N)” she hugged you tighter as she tightened the hug “… it is your child, it isn’t his”.

“I can’t live without Eric” you uttered lightly as she softly cooed in your neck to help you calm yourself down “… I don’t know what I would do without him…”.

“… then it won’t happen” she gave you a comforting pat “… don’t think about things that haven’t happened yet”.

“Mom, I…” you didn’t know what to say anymore, the anxiety slowly burning through you “… I know, thank you”.

“Nothing to thank, sweetie, it’s my job” Eric appeared on the threshold of the kitchen, the towel almost making him trip on his own feet “… and our little man might need a bit of help”.

Helping Eric made you calm down a bit, as the little boy told you all about the fact that he had been able to get himself up the small castle stairs by himself all alone.

‘Coach Broadwick, said that I need big hands if I want to be a goalie!” he squealed as you brushed his hair together to dry them faster ‘… grandpa would have been proud, wouldn’t he?”.

“Of-super-course, sweetie!” you smiled at him softly, before you proceeded to smack his entire faces with kisses, as you helped him put his shirt, your mother called you both out for lunch “… let’s see what grandma made for us”.

As you turned, thinking that you had closed the Ivar’s debating, he muttered:

“Did you know the man that was like me, mom?”.

Although you had vowed to avoid lying to you child, you wished you could do it this time, with a light heart.

“He was an old friend” you muttered your tone so quiet that even Eric seemed to understand that it was better not to ask for more “… now we better hurry or grandma’s delicious lunch will be cold!”.

And Eric seemed to finally relax himself, forgetting all about that man.

And you hoped Ivar had done the same.

---

Ivar wasn’t able to simply forget the sight he had seen at the park.

You and a child.

His child.

Because it was either that or you had a fetish for fucking crippled men.

He didn’t know what to do, immediately choosing to leave the kid to their respective parents since he felt like he was slowly spiraling through what looked like’ memory lane’.

He excused his action with Ubbe, justifying it as Freydis needing a hand at the fertility clinic and his brother didn’t say anything simply asking whether he could do something more.

‘Let me know if I can do something for you’ had replied weakly Ubbe, not a true offer.

He couldn’t help him with what he needed.

But somebody else could.

He stumbled all the way to Heahmund’s apartment, an elegant loft which matched perfectly the personality of the distinguished lawyer.

Who was fucking a girl onto the table of his kitchen.

Ivar simply coughed to let his presence known and the girl immediately almost stumbled away from the kitchen, Heahmund’s cock sloppily leaving her, as she fell onto the ground, her knees weak for the amazing sex.

“What the fuck, Ivar?!” instead shouted Heahmund, annoyed and angered, it wasn’t the first time it had happened and he seemed almost used to it, retrieving his boxers from the ground “… it is fucking Saturday morning”.

“… I had the need of a professional consult” he simply replied, muttering lightly as Heahmund pushed his shirt onto the poor girl, barely able to calm herself, but glad for the shirt.

“Fucking come back Monday” the girl sneaked to the bedroom, probably to retrieve her clothes.

“It’s urgent”.

“How can it be so fucking urgent to disrupt my lovely Saturday morning?” replied immediately Heahmund, pushing a hand through his hair shaking them lightly.

“I have son” muttered Ivar and Heahmund promptly stopped what he was doing.

“… no, you fucking don’t, son of a bitch of a cripple” shouted back Heahmud, coming towards him in a threatening way “… you told you couldn’t get your cock up!”.

Once the company had gone pretty well and they had gone out to party: it turned out that Ivar was a sad drunk and had dunked onto Heahmund is entire family’s history.

“… I could… once” he couldn’t still believe it “… she was an old school sweetheart, it was my first time”.

And yours.

He remembered the way your face had morphed in pain and the blood that had coated the sheets of your bed, the way you had rushed to hide them, obliging Ivar to throw them.

‘Please my parents will fucking get angry with me if they found out I had sex!’.

How pissed had they been when they discovered you were carrying a child?

“What you are telling me… is that, my friend, who constantly complains he can’t get it up, once did?” and before Ivar could glare at him a skeptic look “… and had a fucking child? How fucking low are the chances to get pregnant on your first try?”.

“The gods love me” replied Ivar, a smug smirk on his face, although he didn’t understand why.

“No no, God fucking hates you” mumbled Heahmund as he sat onto his sofa, meanwhile Ivar moved onto the farthest armchair, checking it for any body fluids “… and how did you discover?”.

“I met her in a park, and she had her child with her” Heahmund was the one to send him a skeptical look this time “… he had braces, like me… I know he is my child Heahmund”.

“And you believe that because he had braces, he might be your son?”.

Ok, honestly that sounded creepy.

“… Heahmund, the timing is perfect, and the braces aren’t simply there for show, he fucking has osteogenesis imperfecta!”.

“Then why don’t you go to her house and talk with her about this?” shout back the lawyer, making Ivar still on the spot.

He had seen the way you had shrank away from him as he had taken in your son.

You had hidden him from Ivar, willingly.

He was sure.

Hence, he couldn’t just barge in your house and ask for explanations.

“… she hasn’t simply forgotten to notify me the fact that she was pregnant, Heahmund, she hid it willingly” and then he felt like he had to share what had happened in that diner, not so long ago “… I broke up with her a few weeks after we had… we did the deed… it wasn’t anything serious… my brothers had dared me to do it, since they said we were too clingy… and I… I would have cleared the entire thing the following day…”.

“That is a truly enlightening lesson on toxic masculinity believe me” humored him Heahmund, as he adjusted on the sofa “I’d say she has her reasons to make you stay away and I… don’t understand your need to meet her and the son… look at you: you are successful, you have a beautiful soon-to-be-wife and you are trying for a child”.

But he couldn’t just simply shake off his son’s eyes.

The joy in them, the way you had naturally acted with him that honestly had brought a smile onto Ivar’s face.

It wasn’t easy to simply forget about this.

“She works as a waitress” Heahmund gave him a simply skeptic nod as if to say ‘what about it’ “… what if she can’t take care of my child? What if she has money troubles?”.

“I’d avoid saying that to her face… women don’t take easily words like that”.

“I just want to try to make this right”.

Something in Ivar’s tone got the best of Heahmund, who huffed annoyed, but replied.

“… we take the law outside of it for a bit, or you are going to scare her… try to set up a meeting with her and talk about the child, make sure that you tell her you are doing this for the child’s wellness”.

“Ok” that sounded reasonable and he could check out the diner he had gone to yesterday to try to talk to you: at work you certainly wouldn’t have thrown a fit “… and this goes unsaid, but… don’t utter a word to Freydis”.

“… my lips are sealed” and then eyeing the almost dressed woman he was just fucking on his kitchen table a few minutes before, he muttered hungrily smiling at her “… but now I have business to attend to”.

---

Lunch with Eric and your mother had eased your nerves although you were still nervous about Ivar.

But working helped you ease the stress, keeping your mind busy, as you scurried around the tables, thinking that not only you were covering the afternoon shift, but you would be working till midnight at a nearby bar.

And then, you saw Ivar.

He was sat onto one of the table, and not only you almost stumbled onto one of your fellow coworkers, but you were sure that you were having hallucinations, till Ivar got up, catching your gaze onto him.

And then he moved towards you.

And you run your way out back in the kitchen, an amazing idea, had Will been there.

But the kitchen was empty, since Will had moved onto the bar stool to chat amicably with Mrs. Innbitt, a nice older woman who had lost her husband a few years ago and would try every receipt Will would give her.

You were just able to steal a small look at the barstool, because as you turned Ivar was upon you.

You let out a shocked screech, immediately shutting yourself with a hand onto your mouth, hoping you hadn’t alerted anybody, although you definitely felt uneasy.

Not only Ivar was closer to you than it was healthy, but it immediately brought you back to the child discourse.

“… now you are officially stalking me” you mumbled, as he backed away quickly, immediately understanding your discomfort.

“Maybe I am doing it because you hid my son for five years” he replied, shocking you enough that you were the one to take a step back, stumbling onto a small table with flour on it, your hands absorbing it, staining them white.

“It isn’t your son” it wasn’t a proper defense, but it was all you had in mind.

“… oh, then you have a fetish for cripples” this time it was Ivar who had raised his voice and you gave him a hateful glare, being the one to tell him to ‘kindly fucking lower his voice’.

“What the fuck, Ivar?” and now it was all rage “… you come back five years and expect everything to fall on its place?!”.

“… I would have expected you to tell me, at least, that you were pregnant with my child”.

Although he hadn’t screamed, his words hurt you even more, and you shrank in yourself, as your legs lightly trembled.

“… it isn’t your child” you were simply able to utter, as he simply shook his head.

“(Y/N) don’t treat me like an idiot” he stammered, and in his tone you could almost feel the Ivar you had known, begging desperately to be allowed to show his worth “… the kid… he is like me, I have seen myself enough times in the mirror to know what ‘osteogenesis’ is like”.

“He is my child, solely mine” you muttered, grabbing onto the table, as you dug your fingers in it “… you are simply a sperm donor”.

Ivar seemed taken aback and the young Ivar you had seen in his look quickly disappeared.

“… that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be part of his life, (Y/N)”.

You hated the way his name sounded in his mouth.

Because it sounded like the only way it was pronounced.

“No, I chose what is and isn’t part of his life” you shouted back, although you were well aware you must have sounded like a dictator.

Ivar seemed taken aback from your anger: you had never been like that with him, but you had certainly grown up so he shouldn’t have expected anything less.

He took a big breath to collect himself.

And then spoke.

“…I know, but I also know what it means for a child to grow up without a father” he spoke, each word slowed down to represent its meaning “… don’t let him become me”.

“That’s what I am doing and that is why I don’t want you near him”.

“Then I don’t think there are other solutions” he looked at you in the eyes “… I do think that I’ll have my lawyers know…”.

That was your worst nightmare.

Your eyes froze onto him and your hands moved on their own onto his arms, surprising you and him, as you immediately retreated, but you still saw Ivar’s nostalgy in his eyes.

“… please don’t”.

You wouldn’t have enough money to support yourself and Eric’s health, paying for a lawyer and battles for the custody of a child were long and tiring.

“… then give me a chance!” Ivar sounded sincere, almost desperate in his attempt to meet your son “… I am not asking for him to become my son, just… I want to know him”.

Something broke inside of you.

But you couldn’t surrender so quickly.

“… what made you change your mind?” you asked him, bringing yourself to look at him in the eyes, in order for him not to lie to your face “… about children… you didn’t want to have them, back then…”.

“I…” he seemed not to know it he, himself “… me and my fiancée are trying for a child…”.

“He won’t be your surrogate child or a training dummie” you immediately spoke out, your tone stern but not broken “… he is a child, and if you want him to be… if you want to…”.

“I know this isn’t easy to accept” his tone was strangely soothing “… but I don’t mean to hurt him”.

“… you better” you took a deep breath, getting away from the table “… I am thinking about this… I’ll give you an answer before next Saturday”.

He seemed baffled by the fact that you were attempting to take time but allowed you with a small nod.

“… I’ll leave you my number” he simply mumbled, as you moved out of the kitchen.

Dread was setting on your stomach in that moment, but strangely you stole one last look at Ivar who was searching his card in his wallet, being able to stare at him without him noticing.

He had certainly changed in all the ways that heightened his figure, bringing him to gain muscles, but his expression had remained the same shadowed and grumpy, in a way that got your heart to gently shudder at that sight.

But you immediately turned as Ivar found the card and moved towards you, limping in that way that he hated but to you it was as familiar as if a day hadn’t passed since you had first met him.

And fell in love with him.

“I’ll call you” you mumbled, taking the card and he tried to smile at you, but worry still shone on his face, and although he hadn’t a reason to want your child to be also his, he… seemed to want it…

… desperately.

“I hope you do” he mumbled, before walking away and turning one last time, effectively surprising “… can I… can I at least know his name?”.

“Eric” you should have avoided saying it, not wanting Ivar to find him, God only knew what that cunning shit could do.

But he simply seemed out of his wits, amazed by the name.

“It’s a good name”.

---

You had named your child Eric, a typical Norse name, meaning ‘ever ruler’.

It couldn’t simply be a coincidence.

It meant something.

You still had somehow a respect for Ivar in naming the child that way, which could show that, although you had been truly cold-hearted with him, you still… latched onto him.

As he did with you.

The memories and the desire to be closer intensifying as the memory of your child came to replay in his mind.

Eric had his eyes, but he had your smile, open and careless, in a way that made him carefree and frail.

He wondered whether he wouldn’t fall asleep at night because his legs hurt too much.

He certainly had back then.

If his braces were comfortable enough.

If you kissed him on the forehead as Aslaugh always did with him.

If being a parent meant worrying, he certainly was on the right way.

He fell onto the bed, completely exhausted, as he tried to kick off his unlaced boots, a message on his phone shining to show a message from Heahmund.

‘How did it go, baby daddy?’.

He was barely able to unlock his phone before he felt the telltale rummaging of keys against metal signaling that Freydis had come home and he made sure to lock his phone, pushing it into the first drawer of his bedside table, as he adjusted onto the bed, stretching himself and pushing the braces off the bed, knowing it pissed off Freydis to find them there.

“I am home!” she giggled gently and any trouble he might be having was washed away from his mind, as he tried to reign himself away from the memory of Eric and (Y/N).

“I am glad you are” he mumbled softly, as she dropped her bags in the kitchen, got a small drink from the orange juice cardboard, as she always did after the long session of hormones and other therapies “… I am in the bedroom”.

She immediately joined him, her heeled shoes already off, as she discarded her coat and jacket, revealing an elegant white blouse, showing her small curves, matched perfectly with a black skirt, the image of the elegant businesswoman.

And although she was irresistible, his mind went back to you in a comfortable hoodie and worn out sneakers.

Which wasn’t good.

“… how did your day go?” she asked, as he moved onto the bed, a bit far away from him to get off her stockings.

“Ahem…” ‘I have solely discovered that my high school sweetheart has had a child with me’ “…it was nice… what about you?”.

He tried to shift the attention, grateful that the hormonal cures made her tired and sleepy.

“… as always tiring” she mumbled, moving lightly towards him, a few buttons of her blouse coming undone in a naïve provocation “… but I am glad, the doctors are saying that it’s improving!”.

“Oh, that is nice” he says without thinking too much about it “… have they told you something about me?”.

He grimaced when Freydis nodded her head, but was immediately comforted as she grabbed his hand, gripping it tightly.

“… the usual hour, next week” she mumbled gently, rubbing her thumb onto the back of his hand, in a gesture that used to be soothingly alluring for him, but now he couldn’t help but feeling like she was rubbing piece of coarse paper against it “… I know it isn’t easy for you, but… I appreciate it Ivar, you are working for our future”.

He had never wanted to have children till Freydis had come in the picture.

He still didn’t know why he wanted them maybe it was the desperate need for something to leave behind and Freydis’ love for them.

Their relationship had definitely moved faster than it was conventionally approved, but he hadn’t minded it.

He had never had somebody who had cared for him, so when Freydis had come in the picture, so gentle and sweet, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from falling in love with her, to the point that she could ask for the moon and he would have given it to her.

He hadn’t been in love like this with you, it wasn’t this intense and maddening, it had been low and timid, in the shy way all high school crushes were born.

But it still haunted him to these days.

“… Ivar” called him Freydis and he immediately turned to her, with a questioning look “… you haven’t heard anything I said, have you?”.

“I am sorry, I just have a bit of… I am just tired”.

“So, am I” shot back gently Freydis, stirring herself so that she could make her body come closer to him, pushing her hand into his “… let’s just go to bed, and talk about all of this tomorrow”.

He nodded, adjusting himself on his side.

“Goodnight, love”.

He couldn’t help but feel more relaxed because of this, but the last image that laid in front of him was Eric grabbing your hand, as you ran away from him.

“Goodnight, Ivar”.

He wondered, at last, if you had wished Eric ‘goodnight’.

---

The entire week had been pretty tough on you.

But what was worse was the fact that Eric had realized your bad mood pretty quickly, even going as far as asking you on Sunday, before leaving for your job, if you were angry with him.

‘No no, sweetie’ you had tucked his hair behind his ears, gently kissing his forehead ‘… I am just a bit busy with some things’.

‘… need my help?’ had asked the little boy, making you smile sadly at him.

‘You already give me too much help, sweetie, just think about your soccer match!’ you had then ruffled his hair but sent a meaningful look at his mother.

Please don’t let him know of everything that has been going on.

You either found out a way to pay your lawyer or you would have to let Ivar see your child.

You hadn’t met him in five years, so you didn’t trust him, in the slightest.

Your mother, although she would have supported any decision you would have taken, insisted that you tried to mend the relationship with Ivar, even more after she had heard about his suggestion of helping you financially.

‘Mom I am not going to let him control me with money! He can’t buy his son back from me!’.

You had almost felt insulted by her proposal.

‘… but (Y/N) think about this attentively: he might help us with Eric’s cures, don’t do it for him but do it for your child’.

‘I can take care of my child’ you had retorted, and your mother had eventually dropped the argument.

Now it was Wednesday night, you had checked Eric’s homework and were getting ready for your first trial at the art gallery, worrying lightly due to your mother’s absence.

She had promised you she would take care of Eric, meanwhile you were out.

It was strange she still wasn’t back there, and when it came to an hour before the entire thing you tried calling her, worried both about work and her as Eric finished his dinner, watching the latest Avenger movie.

You hadn’t been able to get in contact with your mother till fifteen minutes had passed, and when she had answered you the situation had worsened.

‘(Y/N)… I was at the theatre, what are you calling me for?’.

“Mom you should have… you were supposed to be babysitting Eric, meanwhile I was on the trial thing at the gallery!” you remembered her, trying to understand what to do, since your mother was clearly unavailable for the evening.

You tried to remember the name of the babysitters you liked, immediately running their numbers in your memory

“… (Y/N) no you didn’t tell me, I am sure…” you huffed out loudly “… don’t huff at me young lady! It wasn’t written in the timetable!”.

And to your horror, as you moved to check, you found out you hadn’t written it, probably for the fact you were too taken by your inner turmoil and indecision about Ivar.

“… I am coming back immediately, but it’ll take me an hour, sweetie, I have to wait for Marissa!”.

You had thought, as you rushed because it was missing simply half an hour to your interview, it would be simple.

But it wasn’t… in the slightest.

Half of the babysitters weren’t available, and the other ones didn’t babysit anymore.

You didn’t trust your neighbors enough to put Eric in their hands, but the list was running short and you would be running late.

This honestly terrified you extremely aware that the job might be an amazing offer to help you take less works and stay more with Eric earning better, but you couldn’t just leave Eric alone.

The thing was starting to become low key nerve-wrecking for you, because although you loved your role as a mother, you had loved the thought of going back into a place where you wouldn’t be serving plates and calming drunkards.

You couldn’t believe that you were ruining completely that chance for you.

Then your phone buzzed again, an unknown number and you answered thinking that maybe it was one of the babysitters’ friends.

But as you picked up the call you were surprised.

“Hello, (Y/N)” Ivar’s voice was pretty hoarse through the phone “… your mother has called me”.

You almost cursed, stopping yourself a you realized that Eric was in the room.

“… what do you want, Ivar? It isn’t Sunday yet!”.

“Your mother talked about you having need of a babysitter” he ignored your indignant tone.

“No no, don’t worry I solved it” you replied, almost slamming the ‘end call’ button.

“(Y/N) I can come, I am nearby, I don’t have a trouble…”.

“Ivar this isn’t… this isn’t…” Gosh you didn’t know what to say.

Certainly, you were still wary about the thought of actually letting your son meet up Ivar, but it was a solution to a problem that was tormenting your body, enough to make you tremble.

“This isn’t an official meet up, you can give me every rule you want, I can also just stay silent for the entire night, I just…” and he took a deep breath, it was evident that he was both hopeful and stubborn and there was a desperation in his voice that froze you “… I just want to help you”.

You thought about it: you either gave up the chance for which you had been working so hard and which wouldn’t come back or you allowed the father of your child to see him, which was an alternative that scared you in a way that was completely irrational.

“I…” you didn’t know, you didn’t know what to do, but then took a small look at Eric, trying ‘discreetly’ to listen onto your conversation, and as you met those beautiful blue eyes… you were just frozen on the spot, and answered with a lower tone “… you can come, but you are not his father, you a friend of mine”.

“Thank you, (Y/N)” his tone was almost moved, and you tried to stop yourself from matching his.

“My mother will come in an hour, all you have to do is check that Eric take his medicines and gets in bed, without breaking any bones”.

“I know the drill, believe me” his voice was more joyful than sarcastic which was strange “… I am going to take care of him”.

“You better” you mumbled biting on your tongue “… this is your chance to prove me that you are worthy to be part of my child’s life, you better not fuck it up”.

---

As he had arrived you were in a black attire, a small little back outfit on you and although he was well aware it wasn’t as expensive as the ones Freydis wore, it certainly did the best it could for your figure.

He had tried his best not to stare at you, meanwhile you explained him the rules: no sugar, no movies, Eric just had to take his medicines and be in bed, he could play a bit and maybe read to develop his abilities, but he needed to be in bed for when your mother came back.

Eric, for the entire time, had remained in his room, although the door was open and Ivar had tried to take a few looks at the child, trying to see if his memory remembered him properly.

‘… Ivar I am trusting you with the most precious thing in my life, please… don’t…’.

‘I am not an idiot, (Y/N), you should know it better than anyone’ the sharpness of his tone had made you shudder lightly but you had hidden it, simply smirking at him one last way, calling Eric over, and kneeling at his side.

‘Sweetie, mommy is going to work tonight but grannie will soon be back, in the meanwhile you’ll stay with my friend, Ivar, the one from the park’ you explained to him gently, as you adjusted his cute hoodie.

‘The one like me?’ wondered aloud the boy, immediately moving to look at Ivar’s legs and crutches ‘… hi I am Eric’.

And he had shot out his hand to Ivar, leaving him confused, meanwhile you sent him a small nod, as if to allow him that grip.

‘Ivar’ he muttered, although he tried to brighten his tone with a small smile, but Eric didn’t seem to notice it, instead checking out his braces ‘… I like your braces, buddy’.

‘Ohhh, mommy got them solely for me!’ he explained enthusiastically, before he shout out a small leg to show him that at the end there were some stickers of the Avengers, meanwhile and… rather sarcastically a few of ‘The Flash’ ‘They are cool, aren’t they?’.

‘Super-duper’ he spoke, before shooting a reassuring look at (Y/N) ‘I think that we will be alright, you can go’.

‘Mommy is going to miss you’ you simply replied, not looking at Ivar and kissing the small man, who immediately washed away the kiss, faking of being ashamed.

At least him and the little man had something similar.

“Please don’t…” you spoke, one last time grabbing your coat.

“I won’t, now go and get that job”.

The smile you had was the gentlest he had ever seen, and he couldn’t help but stare at it even as you closed the door behind you, shooting one last look at Eric.

He was brought back from his trance by a light grip onto his hand, Eric.

“Want to play Avengers with me?”.

And for a moment he was thankful that Hvitserk had brought him along to see that movie.

They didn’t spend much time discussing any plot, the small boy playing on his own and following around Ivar’s bad guy, and he immediately stopped as Ivar asked him whether he had a favorite superhero.

“It’s Thor!” he replied, immediately, grabbing the blond-haired hero “… he is super cool, and mom has told me all about him! The my… myth…mythlogy!”

“Mythology?” he replied, softly and the boy nodded “… has she told you about the time he had to dress up as a woman to get back his hammer?”.

Apparently no, with the way he shook his head immediately, lighting up interested.

The rest of the time passed with him telling his child stories, even when your mother walked in home and smirked at Ivar, although her eyes showed that she hadn’t forgotten the heartbreak he had made you go through.

‘Can you handle Eric for a bit longer? I am going to use the bathroom and then start getting him ready’ he looked at Eric who was pleading him with his eyes for another story.

‘I think I can’.

He then moved away as your mother came back, tucking in Eric and checking his bones and if he had taken the medicines and then wished ‘goodnight’ to him softly blowing a soft smile on his forehead.

He almost wished he could have done the same.

He hadn’t spent so much time with the boy, but he couldn’t help but feel attached to him already.

He had been worried to find somebody like him as a child, spoiled and grumpy, but Eric was an happy child, no matter his legs, he was active and sweet, curious enough to show that he was smart, but he wasn’t as cunning as him.

He believed that you had done an amazing good job, raising up the child.

Your mother came back, with a small smirk on her face.

“He says he wants to say ‘goodbye’ to you”.

And like that he slipped inside of the room of his son, taking a better look at it, realizing that it was a small and pretty crowded but tidy, and he didn’t know whether it was you who kept in order for the boy, himself.

But Eric soon caught his eyes again.

“… hey, Ivar!” he turned to him, stumbling closer to the bed “… your stories are even better than mom’s!”.

“I know, I know” he winked at him jokingly “… but don’t tell her, if I know one thing about your mother it is that she hates losing”.

“She does!” shouted back Eric, giggling lightly, as you always did when you heard something funny.

He wondered if you still did.

“Well I am glad you liked my stories! I hope to come over again to tell you more!” he replied, tentatively hoping that Eric speaking with his mother might convince her, although… he knew you could be even more stubborn than him.

“… I’ll tell her! And maybe we can watch ‘The Flash’ together! I can show you why I like him so so much”.

He honestly hated superheroes but due to the huge smirk on his son’s face he couldn’t stop himself from agreeing, and maybe… just maybe he would have finally enjoyed those movies.

“Of course, kiddo!” he promised, even swearing with the pinky promise, a small smirk on his own face, and the sudden realization of how small his son’s hand was instead of his, in a way that made him almost shiver at his frailty.

And he made to turn around, definitely nervous about how and what he should do next.

He knew that you wouldn’t have liked if he tried to say the things that were going around in his head in that moment, and although he knew it was a tough battle, he respected the boundaries you put around yourself.

“… Ivar!” Eric called him out one last time, his gaze focused onto his legs, in a way that showed him immediately the theme of the talk they were going to have “… do they also hurt you very much?”.

He stopped, the sunny boy he had met a few moments disappeared in a more introvert one, almost ashamed of his question, and Ivar couldn’t help but feel like that was his part, that was his legacy to him.

He had also been a scared little boy wondering what would be happening to him, if it was normal, finding a reason behind his pain.

“Yes, they still do” he couldn’t lie to his face like that “… but… you get used to it, and there are some things that can be useful for the pain…”.

“Mom always says that I am extraordinary for… the pain… like I am ever better than Flash!” he mumbled, a smile making its way on his face “… you are pretty cool too, Ivar”.

Although he hated all those stupid encouragement speeches, the sincerity in his son’s voice, shook him.

“… thank you, kiddo” and he then moved away, finding you in the hallways, trying to discard the painful heels you were wearing in a way that brought his heart back at your first prom together and how you had discarded the uncomfortable shoes, when you had hidden away from everybody in the porch of his house, bunching up the dress, to be more comfortable.

“Oh… you are back” he couldn’t help but feel stupid, but you didn’t give it too much thought, instead checking for Eric’s room, walking past him without giving him a second glance.

Eric faked of being asleep, but you still caught him, a small smirk onto your face, and you moved inside, tucking him better, as you pushed his braces away so that he wouldn’t trip over them when he would wake up tomorrow.

All the gestures of an attentive mother.

He couldn’t help but be a bit amazed, and as you finished the entire trip to Eric’s room.

You closed the door behind you, as he felt your mother doing the same, although he wouldn’t be surprised to know that she was listening with her ear onto the door.

“He seemed pretty happy” you muttered, clutching yourself tighter in your jacket.

“I hope your interview went well” he replied, a bit embarrassed suddenly.

“I’ll know in a few days” your voice didn’t let go anything in your tone, but he couldn’t help but feel like the night had gone well, no matter your worry.

“When will I know if…” ‘if I am allowed to see my son again?’.

“In a few days” your impassible tone broke a bit, letting some emotion pass “… thank you for coming”.

“He is my child, that’s the least I could do” he shot back, immediately “… even if you don’t want to accept it”.

Like that you were again still and rigid with him, going to the door to open it for him, in an obvious sign that he should go.

“… goodnight, Ivar”.

“Goodnight, (Y/N)”.

And now all he had to was hope he had done a good impression.

@ funmadnessandbadassvikings @zumzum96 @lovenomatterwat @fisherbrookphotos @ bagpipes606 @justmoondustwoman @ nina2697 @ squids-for-knees @ xaviers-nipple @alhenablack @crazy-fan-101 @dumbitch-juice @ivyfatale @ v3ro00 @emilie1993 @kittybites-94 @lordsexmachine @nadiahiikers @ electronicrascalbasketballdean @ notorious-dom @veggie2meggie @loveabove @ohmy-sammy @cutegyrl927 @ szarigray @ khaleesi-provenance @mypmaddiction @ thatweirdhippiesblog @chrys-1029 @queenboosha @loliismutt @ hallowed-heathen @rls905 @ manunitedgotbruno @ fantasygirl1864 @ amy8220 @heavenly1927 @marvel1995 @ serafina21 @ feministattraction @pedernille @ that-friend-in-the-corner @crispygiantsaladgarden @l loveliklove @ love-livinglifetothefullest @ace-fiction @ lastfallenstar @justacollegestudentyay @ multi-fandomwriter97 @ghostssss @miss2001babe @badskinbabe @choppedroadwolfathlete @ ironwolfbailiffclam @lucyroz3y @ ovular-ovoid @myheartbeatsjustforyou @tgrrose @winchesterwife27 @ntlmundy @secretsthathauntus @walkxthexmoon @lol-haha-joke @myheartbeatsjustforyou @gearhead66 @akaduds @youbloodymadgenius @frenchzodiacgirl @lordsexmachine

#Ivar The Boneless #Ivar The Boneless Reader #Ivar The Boneless x Reader #Ivar The Boneless Imagine #Ivar The Boneless Angst #Ivar The Boneless Fic #Ivar Reader #Ivar x Reader #Ivar Imagine #Ivar Fic #Ivar Angst #Angst #Modern! Ivar #Modern! Ivar The Boneless #Ivar The Boneless Fanfiction #Ivar The Boneless Fan fiction #Ivar Fanfic #Ivar Fan Fic

265 notes · View notes

dorizardthewizard · 4 years

Text

The Revival of Akillian: Chapter 2

Prologue / Chapter 1 / Chapter 3

2. MEETINGS

Just like Maya, Rocket has invested in a cave at the foot of a large Cedryan, whose gnarled roots mingle with stalactites and walls of ice. But this tree is well and truly dead, and Rocket has not built his cave to exercise a talent for fortune-telling. Rocket is not clairvoyant, but he is passionate about Galactik Football.

Secretly.

In secret, because his father Norata no longer wants to hear about Galactik Football; it is out of the question for his son to indulge in it. But since it’s forbidden, that makes it exciting! And Galactik Football is a sport - the most compelling spectacle there is. In his cave, Rocket hung banners and posters of his favorite teams and players: the great Warren of course, captain of the Lightnings and top scorer in the whole Galaxy, THE star of GF; the terrible Kernor, goalkeeper of the Rykers, who defends against goals like a knight in a castle; the beautiful Lun-Zaera, attacker of the Wambas, that every GF player dreams of having in his team - even in his bed [T/N: UUHHHH maybe this sounds more normal in French??] ; and especially Aarch, his uncle, to whom Rocket devotes true worship. Being the nephew of the one who almost made the Akillian team win the Cup fills Rocket with pride, a pride he unfortunately does not share with his father. According to Norata, Aarch is dead and buried- or exiled to the Shadows, which is the same. This "betrayal", Norata has never forgiven. Never.

For his part, Rocket is not content to just revere Aarch! He collects the figurines of GF stars and sneakily watches matches on the family holo-TV. Always in secret, he trains. Saving money on tips and delivering the flowers grown by his father, he managed to buy himself a ball. In the ice walls of his cave, he has carved a dozen targets at different heights and positions of increasing difficulty - which he strives to hit with well-adjusted shots. However, it has become too easy, he does it flawless almost every time... he will have to find something else. The ideal would of course be to join a team, or simply to go and kick the ball around with a bunch of friends on the Windy Plateaus... but how to keep it secret, with constant and scrupulous paternal supervision? Rocket doesn't even have any buddies, at least none who are a fan of Galactik Football like him - his dad makes sure of that.

So he lets off steam with his other passion: speed. Norata consents to this. For his fifteenth birthday, he gave him a jet snowmobile, with which Rocket frees himself from his frustrations in crazy races in the mountains or on the plateau. In addition, combining the useful with the pleasant, the snow jet is used to deliver the bouquets and floral arrangements that Norata creates with love and competence in his heated greenhouses.

This is what he is supposed to be doing now, as he successfully shoots yet another flawless shot by aiming straight at the hole in the ice next to marker 10. In the meantime, the magnificent floral basket of the family Matto is freezing on the snow jet! He'd better go deliver it before the flowers are all shrivelled...

He throws a glance mixed with devotion and pride at the life-size poster of his idol, which sits in the middle of the stalactites.

- Yeah, you're right, Aarch. I have to go deliver these damn flowers, or dad will skin me alive…

Rocket carefully hides his ball in a crevice (his father is unlikely to find his lair, but you never know), zips up his gray coat, puts on his gloves, gets on his snow jet and takes the crate down the snowy slopes.

***

Meanwhile, in his vast wooden lodge with the windows misted up by the abundant plants which adorn it, Norata engages in color tests on some rather brownish Lepidodendrons. In greenhouses, his crops get everything they need - controlled heating, daytime lighting, soil with scientifically calculated pH, computer-controlled irrigation, etc. The absence of the beneficent rays of Vega is sorely felt: his flowers often have dull hues, pissy yellows or browns that are not very spicy. So, he invented a chemical composition of which a few drops are enough to immediately restore their brilliant colors. But the effect does not last, which is why he sells with his bouquets a nutrient solution incorporating this composition. Cheating? Not at all: a plus, an exclusive service from the Norata company, which enchants its customers and earns it abundant orders.

Today he is trying it on a cardinal violet that he had a hard time developing. A few drops in a pipette, carefully poured into the center of the calyx... The product diffuses into the veins of the leaves, which soon take on a pretty violet hue. He must now see if the dosage is correct, if this solution will not roast the plant, if the color will hold up to watering...

Norata hears the door to his lab open but does not look up, due to experience: it is undoubtedly Rocket, back from his delivery...

- Finally, you're back! You took a long time!

- You are right... indeed, fifteen years is a very long time.

The voice is not that of Rocket: more serious, older. Norata sits up abruptly, but refrains from turning around.

- Aarch - he whispers - I don't believe it... Aarch looks around the lab in admiration.

- I see you haven't lost your skill, Norata. Flowers have always been your passion, as far as I can remember.

Norata decides to face his brother anyway. As much as Aarch, a footballer with a long career, remained massive and muscular, Norata, handicapped by his artificial leg, was melted, thinner, his features hollowed out by suffering and loneliness. Only his flowers sometimes manage to cast a shadow of a smile on his thin lips, downturned bitterly.

- What can I do for you, sir? - he utters in a cold tone.

- Sir ?! - notes Aarch offended - I haven’t changed that much! Don't tell me you don't recognize your brother?

Norata swivels his chair, and stares at Aarch angrily.

- You must be mistaken, sir. I had a brother once, it's true. But he disappeared when everyone needed him most... especially me. Since that day, for me, he's as dead as this leg.

He stretches out the artificial leg - made by Technoid - which replaces the one he lost in the Catastrophe, frozen and broken in the rubble of the Arena Stadium, fifteen years ago.

- I'm sincerely sorry for your leg, but that’s not my fault. If I had stayed, it wouldn't have returned to you.

- If my brother had stayed, I would have overcome this ordeal. (Norata swivels his chair again, leans back over his purple Lepidodendrons). Now, if you will kindly leave me... I have a lot of work to do.

Aarch is searching for a relevant line that would break the ice between the two brothers, when he is distracted by the lab door sliding again. Rocket bursts in, dishevelled and covered in frost, face reddened by wind and cold.

- It's okay, dad. I delivered the order to the Matto family, they are ... (A glance at Aarch) Hello, sir... They are really delighted. Mrs Matto found your flower arrangement beautiful, she...

Rocket pauses again, staring more attentively at this stranger standing at the door of the lab. His hazel eyes widen in surprise.

- Hey, but... you wouldn't be…

- Goodbye, Norata! - calls Aarch, returning to the exit.

- But...

Rocket glances at his father, leaning stubbornly over his flowers, then follows Aarch out.

- Rocket! - scolds Norata. - Come back here immediately!

His son doesn't listen to him: by the time the old man gets up and follows him, with his droid leg...

- Hey, sir! Wait! You’re Aarch, right? You are my uncle, aren't you?

- Yes - Aarch admits with a smile. - And you, you must be my nephew Rocket, right?

- Yes, sir... that's right. - replies Rocket, blushing.

- You look a lot like your father when he was your age.

Rocket blushes even more, intimidated to finally meet his uncle in the flesh. Indeed, he has the same elongated face as Norata, the same chin (a distinguishing feature of the family) that he tries to hide under the three patches of hair that serve as his goatee. Abundant brown hair adorned with some dreadlocks gives a little volume to his narrow head.

- I'd rather be like you, sir. Uh... I have posters of you.

- ROCKET! - roars Norata from the lab.

- Goodbye, Rocket. Maybe we'll see each other again.

- I... I hope so, sir. (He wants to shake his hand, but he doesn't dare). Goodbye… Aarch. - he whispers behind the back of his idol, who is already walking away.

***

- I don’t get it. I’m sure I left them here!

Kneeling under his anti-grav hammock, Micro-Ice is rummaging through the indescribable mess that constitutes his room, in the attic of the family house. Sitting on a pouffe (from which he had to get rid of a stack of GF-Mag, the magazine on Galactik Football), D'jok observes the scene with a mocking air.

- Sure it's weird, seriously, how is it possible to find tickets in such a tidy room?

- D’jok, I swear, it's not funny - sighs Micro-Ice, sweeping away a pile of schoolbooks with the back of his hand. - If I don’t find them quick, I’m a dead man!

- You should have thought about that before doing business with these thugs. (D'jok opens a can of SuperForm, the amino sports drink, chugs it and continues). What an idea, too, to give them photocopies! Did you think Ballow wouldn't notice?

Micro-Ice gets up and bumps into his hammock, which sways gently on its anti-gravity lifters. It pisses him off.

- I didn’t expect it to rain. If you’re just gonna lecture me, then there’s no point in you being here!

D'jok shrugs his shoulders, gets up and goes to the sloping window overlooking the hill. He leans over, intrigued: outside, in the immaculate snow, very clear footprints have emerged. Right under the window.

- Hey, Micro-Ice, come see!

The boy joins him, and also sees the footprints.

- Apparently, you're not the only one going through the windows, D'jok remarks. They’re Techno-Sizor 128’s... the same brand as mine. But let me reassure you right away, I wasn't the one who stole the tickets from you - he says, showing the ordinary sneakers on his feet.

- O.K., if it's not you, that means everything is fine! You're still my best friend. Seriously, D'jok, I really have to find them, otherwise...

- Yeah, I know, you're a dead man. But don't worry, we'll nab him, your ticket thief.

***

“It’s Akillian’s big comeback on the interplanetary football scene since that famous match, remembered by all, which was interrupted by the Great Catastrophe. And the least we can say is that things have started badly: 3-0 for the Rykers after only ten minutes of play, the outcome is sealed! ... "

On the ground of Unadar Stadium, the Red Tigers are having a rough time. They barely manage to get possession of the ball and attempt a pass, when the wing player is jostled by an aggressive Ryker attacker. She projects her Metal Scream - the Flux of Unadar, which manifests in sizzling electric shocks -, leaps with the ball to an incredible height and, with a powerful shot, sends it straight at a Red Tigers defender, who proves unable to stop such a missile. He receives the ball in the stomach, is propelled with it into the goal, where he completes his glide by collapsing against the goalkeeper in a tangle of arms and legs.

“And the fourth!! the TTV announcer exclaims. “4-0! The word "crushing" seems to be perfectly suited to the situation, and even Artegor Nexus will not contradict me. The former Akillian defender certainly did not know what he was getting into when he agreed to coach the Red Tigers... "

In the suspended pod reserved for the technical staff, in front of his control screen, Artegor tears at his hair.

- Aaarrrh! - he fumed. - What a bunch of incompetents!

On the field, the players have resumed their position. The ball springs from the central spot, rises... and falls right into the feet of the Red Tiger striker, who finally sees the opportunity to take action. But his rival Ryker unleashes a nasty Metal Scream that paralyzes the poor player on the spot, crackling with static electricity all over. She has no trouble retrieving the ball and the Rykers set off again for the Akillian goal.

Adium grabs the remote and turns off the holo-TV.

- I'll spare you the rest. - she says to Aarch, who had come to visit her in her large and bright office on the first floor of the high-tech Federation building. - We lost 10-0. And yet, I have the impression that the Rykers eased off at the end of the game so as not to humiliate us even more... (Aarch nods sympathetically) As you can see, Akillian's Breath is totally gone. Gone are the days when we could hope to compete with the best teams in the Galaxy…

Adium - a young and pretty brunette, who makes herself look stern with her hair bun and strict-looking outfit - sighs, then continues:

- Anyway, personally I have no reason to complain: I have a good position, a high title - president of the Akillian Federation - and I earn a good living. But football has become a sport for snobs on our cold planet...

- I see that. - replies Aarch.

- And you, to what do we owe the pleasure of having you return here?

- I came to create a team.

- What, here? On Akillian? (Adium stands up and walks around her desk.) You know, Aarch... people don't take you coming back very well. Not me, of course, but there’s been a lot of talk since you've been here. You have to understand them, too: you left like a thief…

- I do understand them! Besides, I came back to redeem myself in their eyes. And mine...

- Galactik Football has no future on Akillian. Open your eyes! You’re wasting your time!

- Well, that's good. - replies Aarch. - I have time to waste at the moment.

With that, he leaves Adium's office and the Federation building, as luxurious as it is useless. To believe that the League or the sponsors of the GF - Technoid in the first place - have money to throw out the window...

Standing behind the large window, Adium watches Aarch, who is standing on the porch of the building. He seems to be contemplating the desert of snow and ice that the Windy Plateaus have become, as if he were searching in these desolate expanses for a sign of Akillian's rebirth... She could almost pity him.

A call from Artegor Nexus brings her back to her office. On the screen, the coach of the Red Tigers displays a haughty expression behind his everlasting UV glasses. Adium summarizes her conversation with Aarch.

- And you gave him your authorization?! - he yells as if scolding her, as if he holds any power over her.

She is irritated by his superior tone.

- He never asked me, imagine that!

- Fortunately, I wasn't counting on you to get rid of him. - Artegor emphasizes, with a condescending little smile.

- And may I know who you’re relying on, exactly?

But the screen turns white: Artegor cut without answering.

#galactik football #not a whole lot of new info here but some nice details on rocket's obsession with gf #and just how sciency norata's profession is #the revival of akillian

18 notes · View notes

carnistcervine · 4 years

Text

Haunting AU

Hey everyone, it’s ya gurl Carnist with another AU that she came up with instead of sleeping.

*The Avatar is an ancient spirit amalgamate that is reborn into a new mortal body every time it's current one dies.

*However, since the attack on the Air Temples 100 years ago, no one has encountered any trace of the legendary being.

*It is with this knowledge that Ozai banishes his gravely injured son, sending him on a quest to find the Avatar.

*So, a freshly burned Zuko is send off with his uncle and a motley crew with a half-trained medic.

*At first Zuko's fever fueled nightmares are centered purely around the agni kai and his father burning his face away.

*However, it's not too long before the dreams evolve. The dark figure that looms over Zuko changes in shape, instead of burning him, it gently cups his chin.

*The figure is not Ozai, no, it looks barely anything like his father, it's hair is much too white, and the beard is too large.

*It is gentle with him, but he finds himself afraid anyway. Zuko eventually finds the strength to push away from the figure and run, but he finds that he's surrounded by familiar, yet unfamiliar figures.

*They loom around him, closing in on him, chanting his name.

*Thankfully when he wakes up, he's safely by his Uncle's side.

*By what is considered a miracle of Agni himself, Zuko recovers from his injury. The only reminder being the scar that now mars his face.

*Once he's well enough to stand, he demands to search the air temples.

*Iroh tries to get him to rest, as the old man knows Zuko will never find the Avatar, and needs this boy to take this time to rest and recover. But Zuko is too stubborn to listen. So Iroh assists the boy in getting around until he's well enough to walk on his own again.

*There is a heaviness in the temples that Zuko cannot ignore.

*He tries to anyway, leaving as soon as he's able to see the Avatar isn't around.

*He pushes himself to get back to firebending as soon as possible.

*Much to his dismay, he's developed pyrophobia. His terror over his own element drives him up a wall. Iroh is patient with him, but Zuko can't stand his lack of progress and nearly re-traumatizes himself trying to force himself to get over it.

*The Iron Slug roams from place to place as Zuko runs his crew(and himself) ragged tracking down every hint of the Avatar.

*He pours over any information on the Avatar or Air Nomads to find any info he use to locate the Avatar.

*He's absolutely obsessed determined.

*It's been three years, his crew have grown resentful of him, and his Uncle just keeps trying his best in the hopes that he can help his nephew.

*One fateful day, he spies a strange light while sailing through the south.

*"It must be the Avatar." He tells himself.

*His Uncle however, believes it to be nothing more than the southern lights and encourages him to get some rest, maybe drink some calming tea.

*Zuko persists and tracks the lights down to a small Water Tribe village.

*The village is nothing more than women and young children.

*Well, there are two slightly notable exceptions, a teenage boy and girl who hold the most vicious, venomous gaze towards Zuko.

*He simply brushes them off as he talks to the village's leader.

*The woman holds a firm glare at him, telling him that his people have already taken the last of the waterbenders, that their village has /nothing/ left.

*Zuko remarks that he's not interested in waterbenders, or warriors, or anything of the like. He's looking for the Avatar or information on the Avatar.

*The woman makes an odd expression, and tells him that the Avatar has been gone for a hundred years.

*Zuko knows that the woman is hiding something and threatens her at flamepoint, when suddenly his target comes out of hiding.

*A small boy, eyes burning with the purest light comes in from seemingly out of nowhere.

*The Avatar offers himself up if Zuko leaves the village alone.

*Zuko accepts these terms.

*He doesn't see the strange, pitying looks the villagers give him as he leaves.

*Zuko tells his men to lock up the Avatar, and they just look at each other, only opting to move when he yells at them to quit dawdling.

*Uncle looks very concerned and asks Zuko if he's feeling alright, Zuko says that his journey is finally over and he can finally go home, he's never been better.

*Iroh looks even more concerned at this, but Zuko brushes him off to go to his room.

*He's not surprised when he finds the Avatar sitting on his bed, head tilted like a curious puppy.

*Zuko's not really surprised that the Avatar has essentially been allowed to roam loose on his ship, his crew are a bunch of useless good-for-nothings and he has to do /everything/.

*The Avatar doesn't even so much as flinch as he approaches him, but the second he's on the stupid arrow head, he's all the way across the room.

*Like he teleported or something.

*Zuko pinches his nose. He should have known that catching and containing a spirit would be hard.

*The Avatar offers a friendly smile and calls himself Aang, he extends an offer of friendship to Zuko, but Zuko turns the spirit down.

*Aang frowns, glumly saying that he won't play along with Zuko's game if he doesn't wanna be friends.

*Zuko angrily yells that none of this is a game, when two new voices catch his attention.

*It's the Water Tribe teens from before.

*They're pretty pissed at him, ranting at him about how terrible he and his country are.

*Zuko yells and argues back until he's as blue in the face as their clothes.

*Eventually, he just yells at them to fuck off, and just like that, they're gone.

-Now for the other side of things-

*Iroh's already tired when Zuko goes on an impassioned rant about the southern lights. Like sure, they're very beautiful, but they've been down this road before.

*The Avatar is GONE. If they go and check out the lights, they won't find anything.

*They end up coming upon a tiny village, a remnant of the once might SWT. Iroh can barely bring himself to look at the place, seeing what his country has done to these innocent people hurts him deeply. But he needs to keep an eye on Zuko and make sure he doesn't get himself hurt.

*Iroh notes that the only people in the village are grown women and small children, and no one else.

*Iroh and the crew are very surprised at how easily Zuko agrees to leave the village.

*That surprise turns to muted horror when Zuko tells his crew to take the Avatar below deck.

*They want to ask Zuko exactly who he's referring to, as no one was taken aboard the ship, but Zuko is quick to get angry and yells at his crew to get on it.

*Not looking to get yelled at some more by the clearly agitated Zuko, the crew disappear below deck. They opt to gossip in the engine room like they usually do when Zuko is behaving strangely.

*Iroh tries to ask his nephew if he's feeling alright. He worries that some of their food might have gone bad or that the boy had caught something.

*Before Iroh can press further, or check for fever, Zuko disappears below deck to go to his room. He specifically requests that no one disturb him.

*Iroh hopes that Zuko is going to finally lie down and get some rest. He clearly needs it.

*The crew have grown used to tuning out Zuko's yelling, so they don't bat an eye at the shouting match coming from his quarters.

-Basically, Zuko is being haunted/possessed. The Avatar is pretty much a person that's possessed by a spirit amalgamate. Zuko is the Avatar.

*Aang is one of Zuko's past lives that's reaching out to him.

*Katara and Sokka are ghosts from the SWT that came to torment Zuko because they’re mad about being dead.

*Aang gets Katara and Sokka to slowly mellow out and chill a bit, and be a bit nicer to Zuko.

*Aang also convinces Zuko to go to all sorts of places in an effort to get him to have fun.

*He convinces him to visit Kyoshi, where Zuko is assaulted by the ghosts of the Kyoshi Warriors.

*When he inevitably gets captured by the locals after getting beaten and tied up by ghosts, Iroh has to come in and rescue his nephew.

*In fact, quite a few scenarios end up like this, where Aang somehow convinces Zuko to do something or go somewhere and Zuko ends up knee deep in ghost shenanigans, meanwhile Iroh's blood pressure could kill a komodorhino.

*Zuko has always been a bit off, but lately his strange behavior has taken a frightening turn. As no one else can see the ghosts(except Iroh, on few occasions) the crew go from near mutinous to deeply worried over Zuko and his mental state.

*Once they learn the truth of his scar, they want to go and kill Ozai themselves.

*A few times the Iroh Slug will dock at a port and a mysterious entity will be spotted. At first it's assumed to be a glow-eyed jiang-shi, only to be later identified as the lost Avatar.

*During these times, Zuko is overtaken by the Avatar Spirit and takes on one of his past live's appearances. Usually Aang's. He'll move in an unnatural manor, like something that isn't used to controlling a human body, or some limp, corpse being.

*It's not until Iroh realizes that he hears other distinct voices coming from Zuko's room, with no evidence of anyone coming in or out, that his nephew is being haunted.

*Slowly but surely, Aang drags Zuko northward so that they can "teach Katara waterbending". *wink wonk*

*It's only after they end up at the North Pole, fighting off waterbenders that Zuko goes into the Avatar state in front of his crew and they realize that /he's/ the Avatar.

*But the NWT also know that Zuko is the Avatar and they're like: 👀 so Zuko's crew is gonna have hell keeping custody of him.

*Especially when the ghosts keep trying to drag him away too.

*Speaking of ghosts, Yue is fairly ghost-like in appearance, with her pale brown skin, supernatural blue eyes, and snow white hair, but very decidedly physical and alive.

*But she is haunted/possessed by the Tui, and can empathize with Zuko on the being harassed by ghosts or possessing spirits.

*I'm still deciding on whether Toph should be a ghost or someone pretending to be a ghost.

*On the one hand: Ghost!Toph who kicks just as much ass and causes even more trouble than normal Toph, and haunted the shit out of the underground earthbending ring before she decided that harassing Zuko would be more fun. On the other: Little blind girl who dresses up as a spooky spirit and beats everyone's ass teaming up with a ex-prince who's possessed by an evergrowing, all powerful spirit amalgamation and constantly haunted by a pair of Water Tribe ghosts.

*It does eventually get back to Hakoda that the spirits of his children are haunting the Avatar and he just: 👁👄👁

#ATLA #Avatar #Avatar AU #Zuko #Avatar Zuko #Haunting AU #i wrote this instead of sleeping #I probably left something out but my last braincell is melting #It comes out that Zuko is the Avatar #So Azula ends up being sent to capture the Avatar #I'm not sure what I want to do with Zhao #But I do think it would be funny to have the ghosts harass him every time he messes with Zuko #Like they become a bit protective of him #He's their target #Back off sideburns

28 notes · View notes

chaoswillfallrpg · 3 years

Photo

CAIUS BURKE is TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OLD and a SHOP ASSISTANT at BORGIN AND BURKE’S in KNOCKTURN ALLEY. He looks remarkably like GREGG SULKIN and considers himself aligned with THE DEATH EATERS. He is currently UNPLAYABLE.

→ OVERVIEW:

Always the life and soul of the room, Caius Burke is from a long line of sorcerers who know that simply to be liked is a very undervalued power. The eldest son of KRATISTA FLINT and EELIS BURKE, Caius was born into a family of great privilege and thus in the best possible position to ascend amongst the wizarding elite residing in London. From the incredibly wealthy and noble house of Flint, his mother Kratista was not overly thrilled at the prospect of becoming a Burke. A woman raised with finery on a sprawling estate which held large dinners and lavish parties, moving into the Burke residence in Bloomsbury was a dark and dismal downgrade. The townhouse stood tall over four floors surrounded by beautiful gardens, but for Kratista it was less than enviable. Whilst Caius’ uncle had kept his mother’s family home to raise his children, his aunt married into the Yaxley family and moved to their estate. His cousins were often said by his mother to have a similar upbringing to that of her own, taking tea and scones in great glasshouses and hosting other families for long weekends. Meanwhile she had been landed with his father whose assets were tied up in a shop in Knockturn Alley she had no love for and was owned by Caius’ grandfather CARATACUS BURKE who refused to sell it or bump out his partner CALLISTHENES BORGIN and thus prevented his mother from living her dream life in the Home Counties.

For Kratistia Burke, Borgin and Burke’s was the chain around her neck she’d been burned with but had taken it on to ensure she was married and children to someone within The Twenty-Eight. But to Caius and his younger sister LYRA, Borgin and Burke’s was their entire world. Whilst most children shied away from things they found strange, he had a fondness for dark objects and odd things just as his grandfather did. Caius liked the grandeur of Borgin and Burke’s. His family were in possession of centuries worth of strange and wonderful pieces of history, each with its own backstory. Whilst his father worked for Borgin and Burke’s in a travelling capacity, scouring the county for new artefacts to bring home to the shop, his mother was doing the rounds of various tea rooms, restaurants and houses rubbing shoulders with important families to ensure her children would make good marriages. It was because of this, Caius and Lyra were often left in the care of their grandfather. Their days were spent on the shop floor and making up scary stories about the things they found there and never failing to get chills when Caratacus and Callisthenes told them the real history behind them. There he and his sister would be each day, their eyes wide and beaming smiles on their faces as they explored the wonders of the shop, marvelling over each new addition and pouting when ones were removed.

It was the time spent in Borgin and Burke’s that ignited a deep love of magical history within Caius and a respect for those that had come before them. His mother had certainly raised him a traditionalist and Caius was incredibly proud and honoured to come from two incredibly important families. Social status certainly mattered to him and from an early age he began to understand the importance of presentation, being well liked and that intelligence, charisma and good connections meant a lot within the circles their family moved. Caius was proud of Borgin and Burke’s and of his grandfather’s achievements, but he had a feeling their family could do more with what they had. Unlike his mother, Caius had little interest in ousting the Borgin family from their shop, it was an important part of Borgin and Burke’s history and with such big dreams and ideas he knew that having help was certainly important. Thankfully, his best friend understood that too. ERIK BORGIN was the great nephew of Callisthenes Borgin and the only person who could continue to run the shop from their family after he passed away. The same age as Caius, the two quickly became close. Erik was like Caius and Lyra. He was strange. He wasn’t frightened by darkness; he was curious about it and had enough charisma to convince other people they should be too.

The three of them fit together perfectly, the next generation of Borgin and Burke’s laughing about the future and concocting great plans as they watched Knocturn Alley bustle below from the windows. Caius knew his and Erik’s talents lied with running the shop. His sister, however was destined for better. Lyra dreamed of adventure and distance between the restrictive arms of their mother, she had always known her own mind and Caius admired her persistence in trying to forge the life she wanted. Whilst Caius was happy for his mother to speak on his behalf and arrange marriage contracts for them both, Lyra despised it. Love meant something more to her than it did for him and Erik. For them their life would be the shop, marriage would be for security and status but Lyra didn’t want that. She was his very best friend and the only person he would willingly face his mother’s wrath for. Leaving Lyra to go to Hogwarts hurt him, but at least he had Erik and they were determined to ensure their presence was known at Hogwarts and amongst the rest of the young members of the wizarding elite. Sorted into Slytherin, Caius felt at home with fellow intelligent folk and natural born leaders. He was every inch the Slytherin, sure of himself willing to do and say anything to win the opinions and favour of others and attracting friendships with incredibly influential figures, LAVENDER BULSTRODE and CORNELIUS CRABBE.

Though he was the head of his small group of Slytherin students, Caius was part of a much wider group he shared with Erik. ANYA ROOKWOOD, LACHLAN MCTAVISH, Caius, Erik, Lavender and Cornelius owned the halls of Hogwarts, garnering a reputation amongst their fellow students of being elitist and pureist. Caius himself, was neither of these things. Erik was a ¼ veela and not from The Sacred Twenty-Eight, though Caius had never viewed him any differently. He didn’t think blood made you better than anyone else, but that was the society they lived in. Caius wanted to be somebody and was he was willing to play the role life had handed him in order to get there. Graduating from Hogwarts a member of The Slug Club, with brilliant grades and important friends, Caius returned home to Borgin and Burke’s to begin his education with his grandfather. For the first few years he lived a double life, spending his days learning about how to identify objects, studying their history and dealing with cursed items, travelling with his father and searching for objects before he was trusted to take the occasional one himself. The other side of his life was rubbing shoulders with the elite under the instruction of his mother. Kratista had big plans for her son and had entered him into a marriage contract with ALECTO CARROW some years ago before her family had lost their fortune.

Now she had designs on someone else she firmly believed was a better match for him. ADRASTIEA GREENGRASS, was a beautiful witch from a very powerful and wealthy family. Though his mother liked the idea of Caius and NARCISSA BLACK, which Caius liked as well, Kratista thought Adrasteia was a good match for him. Adrasteia was certainly beautiful and a handful, which Caius liked, but as a natural flirt with a fondness for forbidden fruit, a certain redhead still held his attention. Alecto Carrow would never bring him any happiness only trouble. But for a young wizard who liked to dance with danger, trouble was exactly what he wanted. It was this same love of darkness and dangerous situations that have resulted in Caius ending up in the midst of a war he has little interest in the cause for. Convinced to start speaking with BELLATRIX BLACK through his close friend RABASTAN LESTRANGE, the pair quickly had their services called upon. Given a list of artefacts including Salazar Slytherin’s Locket, The Sword of Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup and Merlin’s Book, the boys have been doing their best to track down the objects but have increasingly felt out of their depth. After his cousin ROSALIE FLINT went missing after The Yule Ball, Caius considered the worst and has been doing his best not to put a foot out of line ever since, even if there is an ever growing voice in his head telling him to run for the hills and take Alecto with him.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Blood Status → Pure-Blood

Pronouns → He/Him

Identification → Cis Male

Sexuality → Up to Roleplayer

Relationship Status → Single

Previous Education → Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Slytherin)

Societies → N/A

Family → Eelis Burke (father), Kratista Burke (mother), Lyra Burke (sister), Caratacus Burke (grandfather/boss), Dionysus Flint (uncle), Lotte Flint (aunt), Decius Flint (cousin), Rosalie Flint (cousin), Elijah Yaxley (uncle), Ismena Yaxley (aunt), Eleanor Yaxley (cousin), Victor Yaxley (cousin)

Connections → Erik Borgin (best friend/colleague), Lavender Bulstrode (best friend), Cornelius Crabbe (best friend), Anya Rookwood (close friend), Lachlan McTavish (close friend), Rabastan Lestrange (close friend), Walden MacNair (close friend), Christiano Parkinson (close friend), Adrasteia Greengass (friend/potential love interest), Alecto Carrow (friend/potential love interest), Jonathan Reeves (friend), Bellatrix Black (boss)

Future Information → N/A

CAIUS BURKE IS A LEVEL 6 WIZARD.

#gregg sulkin #death eater #borgin and Burke’s #mob rpg #city rpg #alleys #knockturn alley #caius burke #unplayable #unplayable wizard #unplayable death eater

5 notes · View notes

girlofgeekery · 5 years

Text

As much I love Irondad, I’ve never been a huge fan of Bio Dad Tony. I don’t know why, and I totally understand the appeal, but I’m super picky about stories where Peter is biologically Tony’s kid. That being said, I keep thinking about Bio Dad Tony with Peter going through the spider-bite/becoming Spiderman.

· 13-year-old Peter still going to Oscorp and being bitten by the spider but forgetting about it when he gets home because his Uncle Rhodey is coming to spend the weekend with him while his parents are out of town on business and he hasn’t seen Uncle Rhodey is forever

· But Peter ends up crashing early that night because he doesn’t feel well and he and Rhodey both just assume he’s coming down with the flu

· Until the next day when Rhodey goes to check on him and Peter is burning up. Like, not conscious or coherent, dangerously burning up

· Rhodey’s trained to remain clam in a lot situations, but rushing his 13-year-old nephew to the med-bay is not one of them and he is panicking

· He calls Tony and when he tells Tony he needs to come home, Tony makes a joke about Rhodey not being able to handle a teenager, but all it takes is Rhodey being line “Tony, no.” And Tony is rushing home in a panic

· The next 3 days are a blur of tests and meds and trying to figure out what the hell is happening to the kid and Tony hires the best of the best in the world to take care of his kid but no one knows what’s happening and Tony doesn’t know what to do

· His kid is dying and he can’t figure it out and he can’t fix it and he can’t find a solution and he can’t save his kid. And above all, he can’t lose his kid, he just can’t

· And then just as suddenly as it started, Peter improves, he wakes up and he seems perfectly healthy

· And Tony wants to question it and he wants answers, but all he really cares about right now is the fact that his kid is alive and all he really wants to do is hug him and never think about losing him again because he doesn’t think he could live with that

· After Peter develops his powers he thinks about telling his dad, but then he just…doesn’t

· His dad has always been his hero, he’s seen Tony become Iron Man, and he’s grown up around the Avengers and he wants to help. He has these powers and he can do something

· But he knows his dad will freak out and put an end to that before he even starts, so he just keeps it to himself until it’s the “right time”. Or at least that’s what he tells himself

· So he makes a suit and he starts patrolling in the places that need help – it takes a little bit of searching, but he ends up in Queens and he feels like he’s doing good, so he becomes their own personal hero

· Meanwhile, Tony doesn’t understand what’s happening with his kid. Peter, who has always been open and honest and just a damn good kid is acting different and keeping secrets and sneaking out

· And when he tries to talk to him, it just makes things worse. When he tries to have Friday keep the kid from sneaking out at night, Peter just starts ditching Happy when he goes to pick the kid up and is gone for hours before coming home

· But its when his kid starts coming home with bruises that Tony really freaks

· And he knows Peter is a good kid – a great kid – but he also knows what he was like at that age and what he was involved with and Lord help him if he screwed Peter up the way Howard did him

· He thought he was doing good with Peter, thought just maybe he wasn’t like Howard. But by all appearances, maybe he really wasn’t any better

· So he confronts the kid, he tries to make him talk and he doesn’t mean to yell or accuse the kid of anything, but he’s terrified

· He knows what that path is like and he almost lost the kid once and he’ll be damned if he loses him because he was a bad father

· They get into a fight – the worst one they’ve ever had and Peter storms out so of course Tony tries to follow him

· And it doesn’t make him feel any better when he follows the kid into some back alleys in Queens before losing sight of him

· And maybe its because he’s distracted, he doesn’t hear the morons who think it would be a good idea to try and mug Iron Man sneak up on him

· They get in a few good punches before something red and blue flashes out of the corner of Tony’s eye and the next thing he knows, all 4 of the thugs were pulled off him and his good Samaritan was dealing with them instead

· His good Samaritan takes a couple of nasty hits, especially when one of the guys pulls a knife, but he’s victorious even if he is leaning against the wall of the alley dazed and injured

· So of course Tony goes to help because, duh, this guy just saved his life but he needs to be able to see how bad the damage is and ends up pulling the guys mask off to take a good look at his head wound

· And its Peter

· His Peter

Its such an angsty concept and I love it and I have the urge to write a full-length, multi-chapter fic, but I don’t have the time, but this idea won’t leave me alone. Do you see my problem?

#Irondad #iron dad #iron man #peter parker #spiderman #uncle rhodey #rhodey #headcannon #fics #I need to write this #but when?

301 notes · View notes

sanikori · 5 years

Text

So, i forced myself to watch Leaving Neverland...

And i swear, i've never hated some stangers in my life to the point where i want them dead. I felt my oxygen leave me and i was choking on my fucking tears from all the lies. I felt so sick, that i puked 5 times. But now i've recomposed myself so that i can expose these liars. I didn't want to go back in time and know how in feels to be a moonwalker in 1993. I wanted people to still talk about Michael, but not like this, never like this.

First things first, as Michael Williams, stated on Twitter, Michael has been investigated from the FBI for 13 fucking years.

Here we see 72 officers and 50 FBI agents in the Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara. They searched every angle and interviewed everyone to find evidence and guess what? They found nothing.

He's been proved innocent at not 1 but 2 trials. To this day, there's still no valid proof that Michael did any of those things.

Even Michael’s fucking bodyguard stepped in to defended him and expose Wade.

Here's some of the bullshit they said in that documentary, Let's start with James Safetruck: James: "I've spent Thanksgiving in 1987 with him at his home" Wrong, Michael was in Australia as a part of the Bad Tour in November 24 1987 James: "Michael didn't want us spending any time with women and cut contact with me after puberty"

Really James? then how come we see you AFTER puberty holding an umbrella for Michael while Michael's ex wife, Lisa Marie Presley, was there with the both of you. James: "I was abused by Michael in New York in 1989 after he performed at the Grammys" Fake. The Grammys were in Los Angeles and Michael didn't perform at the Grammys in 1989. Now let's go with Wade Robson Wade: "I was molested by Michael between ages 7 and 14" Wade is now 36 so it happened from 1989 till 1996. So you're telling me that these "rapes" happend DURING the Chandler investigation and DURING Michael's marriage to Lisa Marie Presley as well? and the FBI found nothing? really? bitch please.

Here comes my favourite lie Then there's the MANIPOLATED footage of Michael begin honoured at the Regent Hotel and he apparently recorded a message for Wade "on his birthday" where Michael "says" "Hello Wade, today is your birthday"

The video at the Regent Hotel was recorded on the 20th February in 1990 while Wade's birthday in on the 7th of September and the original video was meant for Elizabeth Taylor.

Also Wade and James didn't even really grew up with Michael, they didn't even know Michael that well... they BEGGED to have Michael's attention and since Michael is an angel, they got it. Also i'd like to tell you that it’s the same Wade that DEFENDED Michael not only once, but 3 mother fucking times.

If you two are saying that Michael raped you both, then how come that Macaulay Culkin (the kid from the "Home Alone" movie) the one who literally grew up with Michael by his side, who basically lived at Neverland and was a child like the both of you, said that nothing happened between him and Michael and is still defending him to this day?

They change their stories every fucking second too. Wade has changed his story 4 times and James 2 times. Wade's first version of the story: Michael threatened and manipulated him that they'll go to jail if he says anything Wade's second version of the story: He didn't "realize" he's been abused Wade's third version of the story: He felt shame Wade's fourth version of the story: He ALWAYS knew what Michael did but he didn't realize it was bad (because who doesn't have anal sex with kids, right?) Then there's James: James's first version of the story: Michael and his people were threatening him to keep quiet and James refused to testify but he and his mom knew he had been abused James's second version of the story: He didn't realize he was abused till 2014. They're so worthless that they don't even know how to lie. If you gotta lie about a dead man to earn money, do it properly. It's also funny how they don't mention that Michael was around little girls as well and not only boys, whenever it was on the streets or in Neverland. Meanwhile Oprah just said "Fuck you" to 3 generations of Jacksons by backstabbing the man who welcomed her in his house by siding with these little shits. Not only Oprah knew, but she provited the “victims”. Also the reason why Oprah promoted "Leaving Neverland" is because at the Sundance, it was also a documentary about Harvey Weinstein, who is an actual pedophile and has been found guilty. But since he's Oprah’s best friend (yes, you heard that right) they just diverted the attention in media to Michael instead of Weinstein But Wade is the one i hate the most because not only he is a liar but he's also the REAL pedophile... his reputation was so bad that kids at jumpdance called him "Uncle Perv" and the mothers wanted them to stay away from him. Like, there's literally a photo of him side hugging a girl and his left hand is close to her breast while he has his right hand on his fucking dick.

He cheated on Michael's niece, Brandi Jackson (the two have been in a relationship for 8 years) with Britney Spears which resulted in Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River" song and he did hard drugs. Not to mention that he made out with his SISTER ON STAGE! and this bastard has a son which i really feel sorry for... but most of all, he's a crazy ass bitch. Paris Jackson (Michael's daughter) and Taj Jackson (Michael's nephew) are both REAL victims of sexual abuse, stop to think how these two feel about this. Also Taj found texts with Wade in 2009 where Wade is thanking Taj for letting him go to Michael's memorial

Also Taj recently stated in an inteview that Michael's third son, Bigi (Blanket) Jackson is not talking anymore. And the teachers are worried about him. He literally won't speak, at all.

In conclusion: Michael Jackson is innocent. He’s the real victim.

Please, tell what would lead him to do such a thing?

You're just gonna forget all the money he gave to charity? the many lives he saved? how he considered his fans as part of his family?

I've been a fan of him since i was 4 and i'll love and defend him till i die. This man saved me with his music in my darkest times, i feel protected whenever i see or hear anything related to him, he's my inspiration, my everything and if i could make a dead celebrity come back to life, it would be him... i was meant to go to his "This Is It" concert in July, meeting him for the first time but... it never happened... because he left... i've been called a pedophile supporter just for defending him... do you know how much this hurts? I've seen "moonwalkers" turning their back on Michael like it was nothing... i've been told that i need to accept the fact that my hero is in reality a bad guy, that i'm protecting him just cause i'm a fan.

They made you belive that he bleached his skin when in reality he suffered from Vitiligo and wasn't confident enough to show it to the entire world.

They made you belive that he changed because he had too much plastic surgery when in reality he suffered from Lupus. But even if the did have too much plastic surgery, why should it matter since half of the celebrities have plastic surgery?

They made you belive that he was gay when in reality he has been married to Debbie Rowe, who gifted him with Prince and Paris, and Lisa Marie Presley, he crushed on Diana Ross and Brooke Shields, was kissed on stage by Taitana Thumbtzen aka the girl in TWYMMF (The Way You Make Me Feel) and how to forget his infamous In The Closet song with Naomi Campbell? but even if he was, he’s still Michael.

They made you belive that he was a Junkie when in reality he had many medical illnesses that needed medication and a lot of painkillers.

But most of all, they made you belive that he was a pedophile when in reality he wanted to create the childhood he never had in his adulthood and there's nothing wrong with that, he couldn’t trust adults because instead of seeing him as a human with emotions, they saw him as a cash machine. If it wasn't for the kids, he would have already killed himself, he wouldn’t care to live and he said that he would rather slit his wrists instead of hurting a child.

It's not about defending my idol just cause i'm one of his countless fans, it's about giving a voice to a man who's no longer here to defend himself.

How am i going to belive them since they're accusing Michael Joseph Jackson, the same Michael that didn't want to step on a bug and called his bodyguard to take it while saying "Don't kill it!" while he was performing on stage? the same Michael that would have died for a squirrel?

This man is dead

Attacking a dead man isn't brave.

James Gunn is still alive and he signed with a major studio

Where in everyone in the media?

They are a bunch of pathetic cowards.

So guys please, don't watch this so called documentary cause they are calling:

His ex wives liars

His friends liars

The people who worked for him for over 20 years liars

His fans liars

His FAMILY liars

But they want you to just belive the word of two proven liars.

It’s been almost 10 years since we lost him.

Wake the fuck up.

Can’t belive we’re in 2019 and you decide now that he’s guilty for something he never did. Evan Chandler forced his son, Jordan Chandler, to accuse Michael for money. Then when Michael died, Evan regretted it so much that he hanged himself. I'm waiting for Wade, James, Oprah, Martin, Connrad and everyone who belives them to do the same thing since they're all nothing but a waste of air. But don't you worry cause Taj is making a TRUE documentary that proves Michael's innocence and once it's released, they will watch their lifes crumble into tiny pieces with their own eyes and i will be there, smiling while eating pocorns. Anyone who’s a brain washed moron who don’t belive that Michael is innocent or even thinks of calling me a pedophile supporter needs to fuck off right fucking now because you will be attacked visciously, blocked and reported so DO NOT BOTHER ME

In case you didn’t understand, i’ll gladly repeat in a more vulgar way since it’s the only way you can all communicate with other people

DUMBASS BITCHES DO NOT INTERACT WITH ME! STAY THE FUCK BACK!

You guys don’t bother to do your research, you should hear both sides of the story to come to a conclusion instead of going along with everything they say. You all eat their plate of lies just like you eat your mother’s food at lunch time. You don’t ask yourself “Are they lying to me?” no, you just go along with every single fucking thing they say cause you’re dependent from the Media.

Face it, we are in the right and we’re going to win this battle. Also, these people without Michael in their lifes, would have been nothing. PS: Someone needs to tell Wade that fantazing about having Michael's dick in his mouth at age 11 in not normal.

Now i want you all to blast at all volume the songs Money, Tabloid Junkie, Morphine and Leave Me Alone in honour of these good for nothing liars as you read this post of them begin exposed from head to toe by me

#michael jackson

699 notes · View notes

killerandhealerqueen · 4 years

Text

The Place Where Lost Things Go

It was a quiet night as Wei Wuxian walked around Lotus Pier, humming softly to himself as he walked around his old home. As he continued down one of the paths, he heard soft whimpering coming from inside one of the rooms, so he followed the sound until he arrived before a room he knew very well: his nephew, Jin Ling’s, room. He frowned and quietly slid open the doors before stepping inside, quietly closing the doors behind him. He then walked over to Jin Ling’s bed, watching his nephew as he tossed and turned in his sleep, moans and whimpers coming out of his mouth.

“Jin Ling” Wei Wuxian whispered as he knelt down next to Jin Ling’s bed. Jin Ling just let out another moan, tossing and turning again.

“Jin Ling” Wei Wuxian called out a little louder, trying to not scare his nephew. Jin Ling continued to toss and turn until he suddenly let out a scream and sat up, eyes wide.

“MOTHER!” he screamed. Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened and he quickly reached out, grasping Jin Ling’s shoulder.

“Jin Ling! Jin Ling!” he exclaimed. Jin Ling panted harshly, looking around his room until his eyes landed on Wei Wuxian.

“Uncle Wuxian? What are you doing here?” he asked. Wei Wuxian huffed.

“I was just enjoying a night walk when I heard whimpering coming from this room. Bad dream?” he asked gently. Jin Ling shook his head.

“No” he replied. Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow.

“No? Then why were you whimpering and moaning? Sounds like a bad dream to me” he mused. Jin Ling shook his head.

“No…not a bad dream…” he murmured. Wei Wuxian looked at him for a moment before he sighed.

“Jin Ling…I’m not Jiang Cheng. I’m not going to get mad and yell at you for having a nightmare. Just tell me what your dream was about; you’ll feel better” he explained. Jin Ling was quiet before he sighed and laid back down, staring up at the ceiling.

“I don’t…I don’t really remember what I was dreaming about…all I know is that I was with my mother…and then suddenly…she was gone” he whispered. He then looked over at Wei Wuxian, tears shining in his eyes.

“I miss her” he whimpered. Wei Wuxian smiled softly at his nephew and nodded as he reached out, gently running a hand through Jin Ling’s hair.

“I miss her too” he agreed. The two men sat quietly in the room, with Wei Wuxian running his fingers through Jin Ling’s hair while Jin Ling shut his eyes and let out a deep, content sigh. After a while, Jin Ling opened his eyes and glanced over at Wei Wuxian.

“Uncle?” he called out softly.

“Yes Jin Ling?” Wei Wuxian replied.

“Could you sing me something?” Jin Ling asked softly. Wei Wuxian smiled.

“Sure” he replied before he cleared his throat.

Do you ever lie

Awake at night?

Just between the dark

And the morning light

As Wei Wuxian began to sing, Jin Ling shut his eyes again, sighing deeply as he let himself relax.

Searching for the things

You used to know

Looking for the place

Where the lost things go

Wei Wuxian smiled softly and continued to run his fingers through Jin Ling’s hair as he sang.

Do you ever dream

Or reminisce?

Wondering where to find

What you truly miss

As he ran his fingers through Jin Ling’s hair, Wei Wuxian’s soft smile slowly turned sad as he thought about his older sister and how she used to do this to him and Jiang Cheng whenever they had bad dreams.

Well maybe all those things

That you love so

Are waiting in the place

Where the lost things go

~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng was walking around Lotus Pier, deep in thought since he couldn’t really sleep, when he heard Wei Wuxian’s voice coming from Jin Ling’s room.

“What the hell?” he whispered as he walked over to Jin Ling’s room and opened it to find Wei Wuxian sitting next to Jin Ling’s bed, running his fingers through his hair. Jiang Cheng’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something, more like snap, when he heard Wei Wuxian open his mouth and continue to sing.

Memories you've shed

Gone for good you feared

They're all around you still

Though they've disappeared

Jiang Cheng froze; he forgot how nice and soothing Wei Wuxian’s singing voice was. So, instead of deciding to bark at his older brother and nephew, he just decided to lean against the door and listen.

Nothing's really left

Or lost without a trace

Nothing's gone forever

Only out of place

Wei Wuxian had no idea that his little brother was listening in on him singing Jin Ling to sleep, he was more focused than anything else to make sure that Jin Ling wouldn’t have any more nightmares and would actually get a good night’s rest.

So maybe now the dish

And my best spoon

Are playing hide and seek

Just behind the moon

Waiting there until

It's time to show

Jiang Cheng shut his eyes and let out a deep sigh as he crossed his arms, still listening to his brother sing their nephew to sleep. Normally Jiang Cheng wouldn’t let Wei Wuxian anywhere near Jin Ling, mainly for fear of his older brother being a bad influence on Jin Ling, but seeing Wei Wuxian with Jin Ling reminded him of Jiang Yanli comforting them whenever they had nightmares, so really…he couldn’t be mad at his brother at all.

Spring is like that now

Far beneath the snow

Hiding in the place

Where the lost things go

Wei Wuxian paused in his hair stroking and looked at Jin Ling, who he was pretty sure was asleep, so he removed his hand from Jin Ling’s hair and made to stand when Jin Ling cracked open an eye.

“Uncle. Don’t go” he whispered. Wei Wuxian looked down at him with wide eyes before his face softened and sat back down.

“Alright. I won’t go” he replied as he cleared his throat.

Time to close your eyes

So sleep can come around

For when you dream you'll find

All that's lost is found

Jin Ling shut his eyes and let out a sigh as he made himself comfortable in his bed before looking over at Wei Wuxian.

“I really miss Mother” he murmured. Wei Wuxian nodded.

“I know…I miss her too” he agreed. Jin Ling was quiet before he looked into Wei Wuxian’s eyes.

“Do you think…do you think she’s proud of me?” he whispered. Wei Wuxian frowned.

“What do you mean? Of course she’s proud of you!” he exclaimed before he reached out and gently cupped Jin Ling’s face in his hand.

“Jin Ling, she loved you more than anything in the world. And she could not be more proud of the young man you are becoming today” he assured. Jin Ling sniffled.

“It’s just hard…you know, to not have your parents around and to hear them say that they’re proud of you” he murmured. Wei Wuxian sighed.

“I know. And I’m sorry that I took them away from you so early” he apologized, guilt and regret deep in his voice. Behind them, Jiang Cheng felt tears come to his eyes. He had blamed Wei Wuxian for so long for the death of his sister and his brother-in-law and for the death of his parents but he had never realized how much pain Wei Wuxian must have been in after losing his adoptive family as well as the Wens, who he had decided to take care of. All of that pain, as well as being basically shunned for heading down the path of demonic cultivation, would definitely push someone to their breaking point. And he couldn’t believe he had been a part of Wei Wuxian’s breaking point. He wanted to cry, honestly, and apologize to Wei Wuxian for causing him pain, but he wasn’t actually sure if Wei Wuxian would accept it or if he would tell him that everything that happened was in the past and that he should just forget about it.

Maybe on the moon

Or maybe somewhere new

Maybe all you're missing lives inside of you

Wei Wuxian’s soft voice jolted Jiang Cheng out of his thoughts and he watched Wei Wuxian gently stroke Jin Ling’s hair.

So when you need her touch

And loving gaze

“Gone but not forgotten”

Is the perfect phrase

Both Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling’s eyes filled with tears as they looked at Wei Wuxian, Jin Ling looking into Wei Wuxian’s eyes while Jiang Cheng looked at his older brother’s back. Wei Wuxian just smiled lovingly down at Jin Ling and gently caressed his cheek.

Smiling from a star

That she makes glow

Trust she's always there

Watching as you grow

Find her in the place

Where the lost things go

Jin Ling smiled tearily at Wei Wuxian before he shut his eyes and got settled into his bed.

“Good night Uncle Wuxian” he murmured. Wei Wuxian smiled and caressed Jin Ling’s cheek again before he leaned in and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“Sleep well, Jin Ling” he whispered before he pushed himself to his feet and turned around, only to see Jiang Cheng leaning against the doorway.

“Jiang Cheng. I’m sorry, it’s just that I heard Jin Ling whimpering and I wanted to see what was wrong—” he started when Jiang Cheng pushed himself off the door frame and walked over to him.

“Shut up” he grumbled as he threw his arms around Wei Wuxian and hugged him tightly. Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened and he glanced at Jiang Cheng.

“Um…” he started when Jiang Cheng pulled away and looked him in the eyes.

“That was a thank you and an apology” he explained. Wei Wuxian frowned.

“Okay, the thank you, I get, the apology, I don’t” he replied. Jiang Cheng sighed and took his older brother by the wrist, dragging him out of Jin Ling’s room so that the boy could sleep. Once they were outside, Jiang Cheng sighed and looked at Wei Wuxian.

“It’s an apology for accusing you of causing me and the rest of the world so much pain” he explained. Wei Wuxian frowned.

“But I did cause you and the rest of the cultivation world a lot of pain with killing so many people, killing Jin Zixuan, killing shijie!” he exclaimed softly. Jiang Cheng shook his head.

“If I know our shijie, I don’t think she would want you to blame yourself for her death. Remember, she saved you from getting killed” he reminded. Wei Wuxian huffed.

“Yeah, which resulted in her death” he grumbled. Jiang Cheng sighed.

“Your right, it did. But like you told me in the temple when Jin Guanyao was trying to kill us, it’s in the past. You shouldn’t dwell on it. It happened and while we shouldn’t forget our sister, we should remember her how she was before she died. That way, when Jin Ling asks about his parents and wants to know about them, we can tell him about how beautiful our shijie was and how much of a cocky peacock her husband was” he stated, making Wei Wuxian crack a smile. Jiang Cheng then motioned for Wei Wuxian to join him as they walked away from Jin Ling’s room and began to walk around Lotus Pier like they used to when they were younger.

“Do you really think she’s looking down at us?” Jiang Cheng asked after a while.

“Who, Shijie?” Wei Wuxian replied. Jiang Cheng nodded. Wei Wuxian was quiet before he nodded.

“Yes, I think so. And I think she’d be proud of the amazing sect leader you’ve become and I think she would also be proud of how well you’ve done in raising Jin Ling” he explained. Jiang Cheng smiled softly before he looked over at him.

“And I think she’d be very proud with how you’ve raised Lan Sizhui along with Lan Wangji and how you’ve become a mentor to the junior disciples” he stated. Wei Wuxian looked over at his younger brother with wide eyes.

“Do you really…think she’d be proud of me?” he whispered. Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes before he reached up and smacked the back of Wei Wuxian’s head.

“Ow!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, she’d be very proud of you. She’s always been proud of you. And…so have I” Jiang Cheng murmured. Wei Wuxian looked at him in shock before he smiled brightly and threw his arm around Jiang Cheng’s shoulder.

“Ah-ha! I knew you had a heart underneath your grumpy exterior!” he teased. Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes again and elbowed Wei Wuxian in the side.

“You ruined the moment” he muttered. Wei Wuxian let out a laugh, something that Jiang Cheng hadn’t heard in a really long time, not since they were young. Wei Wuxian then nudged him, smiling brightly, the smile actually reaching his eyes.

“Come on A-Cheng, you’re it!” he declared before he rushed off. Jiang Cheng’s eyes widened and he quickly ran after his older brother.

“Wei Wuxian! People are asleep!” he exclaimed softly, but he let out a laugh as he chased after Wei Wuxian. It’s been so long that he actually laugh and had fun that he almost forgot what it was like. And now that Wei Wuxian was back in his life…he thinks that his A-Jie would be very proud of the bond that they’re starting to rekindle.

#sass writes #the untamed #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #jin ling #song fic

15 notes · View notes

localscissors · 5 years

Text

Magica:

In Triplet de Spell AU, this Magica is pretty similar to our Magica. She’s dramatic, comes up with needlessly complicated plans, and is a terrible and abusive parental figure. But unlike TV Magica, this AU Magica never became a shadow, and here’s why.

Ten years ago, there was a legendary battle between Scrooge McDuck and the infamous sorceress, Magica de Spell. Scrooge won. Using wit and cunning, he trapped all of her powers into his Number One dime. Magica barely escaped.

Humiliated, angry, and rightfully afraid for her life, Magica ran, searching desperately for something to protect herself from Scrooge, some sort of plan to save herself. Without her magic, what is she? What power did she have?

Then, she remembered that Scrooge had a niece expecting triplets. At the moment, it was a desperate act. Scrooge couldn’t hurt her if she had his family, right? But what started as an impulsive decision became a diabolical plan with long-lasting effects.

Magica stole all three eggs. She stole them before Della went to the moon and before Scrooge and Donald fought. None of that happened. Instead, the Duck family spent the next few years searching for the lost nephews. Even when Scrooge was forced to stop because of finance, and the police declared it a cold case, Della never gave up on them. And Donald continued to be a supportive brother.

Magica, meanwhile, was stuck with three hatching babies and no idea how to take care of them. She had this plan, to teach them magic and use them to steal the dime back, but that plan seems so far away when you’ve got three crying ducklings on your lap and no maternal instincts. All the while adjusting to a life without magic, too. She drops in on her brother, who is not a raven yet, for emotional support and practical help.

The triplets grow to know the two as Aunt Magica and Uncle Poe.

#ducktales #ducktales au #magica de spell #ducktales 2017 #triplet de spell au #localscissors #i was gonna make art to go along with this #but ive got so much other art i wanna post for this au i got impatient #text works #right?

48 notes · View notes

staytiny-angel · 5 years

Text

Safe Haven 3/?

Co-written with @scream-qween

Pairings: Drew McIntyre/Becky Lynch, Eventually Drew McIntyre/Becky Lynch/Seth Rollins, Jon Moxley/Renee Young, Sasha Banks/Bayley/Charlotte Flair

Warnings: Violence, Language

Word Count: 1799

Summary: After an 8-year absence, 25-year-old Seth Rollins returns home to his pack but in no way resembling the Beta Werewolf that ran away after a violent misunderstanding with his brothers.

Seth is feral, and trapped in a form the bitten wolf shouldn't even be capable of, it turns out that he is the victim of a powerful curse that would make him a mindless slave.

Meanwhile Alpha Werewolf Drew McIntyre and his Part Banshee, Part Sea Witch mate Becky Lynch have joined the unorthodox pack of Haven in search of the final member of the Triad a seer told the pair they were destined to be apart of.

Taglist: @sethsevolution @feathers-and-flesh-and-wrestling @deepdisireslonging @writtingrose @pikapuff316 @hitory--chan @finnsauroraborealis @the-beastslayers-queen

Becky took a step back, "What the hell is that?"

Finn sighed, closing his eyes until they returned to blue. "It's a long story"

"I got time, explain" Becky demanded, Drew stepping up next to her

Seth whimpered and licked Finn's face, causing Finn to smile, and lean down to rub his head against the wolf's.

"You know he doesn't like that story" Elias says gently

"I know" the vampire replied "Go play with Baron, Seth. Ember should be around somewhere as well."

With a huff and one last lick to the face of each vampire Seth ran off though the mansion to find his other friend, Baron following closely behind him.

"I recognize you as well, Cailleach na Mara and you are supposed to be very much dead." Finn says standing up and brushing off his black slacks before reaching down and helping his wife to her feet.

"So the hell are you cousin." Becky says with a snort

"Cousin!" Everyone exclaimed

"How…" Stephanie started to say

"I'm older then I look." Becky says easily, "MUCH older"

"You were killed by a Vampire." Becky says as if putting the pieces of a puzzle together "The clan told stories about seeing you still walking around after you'd died but…"

"Attacked by a vampire? Yes. Killed? Not so much"

"Prince Devitt did die that day, remember your memory problems?" Violet said.

"If you hadn't found me, I'd gone completely feral" Finn remised, kissing her head.

"Explain" Becky said

"I found him." Violet says "Dying. My sister attacked him and I saved him but his transition was….brutal and he lost a lot of his human memories. Balor has been slowly healing that part of his mind for well over a century"

"Now somebody explain why our child is a fully shifted wolf" Finn says

"Paul Heyman. He tried to turn Seth into...a slave for whatever reason. It didn't work out so well, but Seth's been like this for a while" Elias answered, making sure to step back.

Finn took a shaky breath, his eyes flashing between blue and red before finally settling on red. "Really Bálor?" Violet asked

"That....walrus, he tried to enslave our Puppy?" Balor roared causing everyone to wince and take a huge step back from the demon king. From somewhere in the house you could hear a howl and heavy four-legged footsteps, then from a corridor came Seth running, followed by Baron and a smaller wolf with orange-tipped black fur.

Seth, much to the discomfort of both Drew and Becky ran straight for the demon, who in a surprising show of strength caught the huge wolf.

"He's close with a demon...cool" Becky said, uneasy.

"We need to tell Shawn about this" Violet spoke up. "Tell a broken hearted fire sprite, 'Hey, the thing that killed your wife and twins? Yeah, his buddy tried to enslave your youngest nephew!' That? Is a death sentence" Eilas argues

"And it'd be better for him to find out later?" Violet asks

"I would highly suggest we save that conversation for after Seth is back in human form" Hunter says knowing his adopted brother well. "Seth is one of the few people who can keep Shawn calm, "

"We need your summoning circle and we need Balor to put one of his Shields around it, so we can turn him back" Stephanie explained to the pair, before asking Seth "How big are you now, so I can conjure you up some clothes"'

Elias looked down in surprise "Really? Finally had that growth spurt?" he smirked at the wolf before telling Stephanie "He says he's 6" 2" and kinda beefy?"

"Can finally fight me brother" Mox grinned, Seth growling playfully. Bálor set him down gently before summoning a ring of black fire around him. "How are we doing this" he gestured to Becky

Becky stepped forward and gestured to Stephanie,"Guide me through the counter-curse?"

Stephanie nodded "Are you ready, Starshine?"

"He's ready." Elias answered for the wolf

"Everyone back up, and keep that shield up Balor." Stephanie says taking the sea witch's hand and beginning to chant, her own golden magic soon being joined by Becky's ocean blue.

Stephanie began to pant with exertion as gold, blue and black magic surrounded Seth, who howled in pain

The magic flared almost all the way to the top of the high vaulted ceiling, completely obscuring the form within before finally fading and revealing a tall, tanned man with long dark, blond tipped hair and a thick beard, shivering and panting, with sharpened nails and fangs.

Stephanie magiked clothes on him before collasping into Humter's arms.

"Welcome back baby brother" Mox said.

"Glad to be back" Seth replied in a voice raspy from disuse, before he started to laugh for a few minutes until his eyes landed on Becky, who was now sitting on the floor with Drew wrapped around her from behind holding her up

Almost in a single leap Seth crossed the room and landed in front of the pair, startling them.

"Here we fucking go" Elias murmured

As soon as the pair locked eyes with the man crouched in front of them sonething…clicked.

"Son of a bitch" Drew swore. "You can only sense your mates for the first time when their in human form."

"Bingo" Elias says with a smirk, "Seth knew as soon as he was in his right mind"

Stephanie's eyes darted between her son and the newest members of their pack, "Goddess Above" she whispered "Xavier was right"

Everyone looked at the witch who was being held similarly to Becky by her own mate. "What?!" Mox says looking at his mother.

"Xavier had a vision about 3 months ago. He said we had to let the next two people who came to us for sanctuary into Haven, that they would be the key to getting Seth back. You two showed up about a week after that."

"We were told to come here to find our third" Drew muttered.

"Sorry we had to meet like this" Seth said. "With me all growly and shit"

Becky leaned forward and petted Seth's beard much like she had petted him in wolf form, Seth leaning into the touch "It's okay. You were kinda cute. Much cuter this way though"

"Anyone else notice that the redhead has a type?" Mox asks, pointing out the similarities in Drew and Seth's appearances

"All werewolves kinda look alike though" Violet argued.

"True but two mates looking like they could be related? Kinda a stretch" Mox replied

"I have to talk to Uncle Shawn" Seth said, turning to Stephanie "Mom. The twins aren't dead. Heyman has them under some kind of mind control spell. They both wear these amulets that they aren't allowed to take off for any reason. I managed to snatch Rhea's off of her when I was in wolf form and she recognized me, that's how I escaped from his compound. She blasted me out but The Beast caught up to us and Heyman put it back on her."'

Stephanie covered her mouth in shock. "Oh my god, Shawn always said he knew they were alive, but...we could never prove it" Seth hugged her tightly.

"What made Heyman target you?" Drew asked

"I'm not what I thought I was." Seth said quietly "Heyman's spell didn't work right on me...because I'm part warlock. Remember Mom? We always wondered why I was so good at seeing magic?" Seth waved his hand in the air creating a shower of silver sparks. "My birth mother was a Wolf and my birth father was a Warlock, they worked for Heyman but escaped when they found out they were gonna have me. That's why Heyman was here the day he killed Aunt Chyna and took the twins. He was looking for me"

"He will never have you again" Violet says. "You are our son, my baby." she caressed his cheek, Seth grabbing her hand.

Ember nudged Bálor, who scratched her head."You're gonna have to be careful Seth. Heyman won't just let you be free"

"That's why I'm here, he's going to try and get an pure Alpha. He think Omegas and Betas shake off his magic too easily and it isn't just Wolves that are vulnerable The Beast was a Dragon before Heyman fucked with him" Seth explained "When I was here the only Pure Alphas were Roman, Dad, Xavier, Charlotte and Renee"

He looked up at Drew "I'm gonna assume you are too?" He asked "Honestly, don't know for sure" Drew replied. "And I don't really care. Alphas have to protect everyone, I just have to protect Spitfire"

Seth nodded and continued "Whatever Heyman's magic did to me I have no fucking clue what I am anymore, I know it broke the seal my birth mother must have put on my magic, cause I can actually do shit now"

"I can help teach you" Becky quietly offered walking toward her new mate.

"Thank you" he says gently, with a slight bow. "I know I come with a fuckton of baggage, so I do understand if neither of you want to be mated to me"

Their impromptu meeting was interrupted when a golden blonde Wolf came barreling into the house and ran straight to Elias barking furiously

"Slow down, Renee what's wrong?!" The siren knelt down and placed a hand on her head. "I'm just gonna look okay honey?" he says gently as he closes his eyes only for them to snap open in horror a moment later.

"Elias?" Stephanie asks

"The Beast was here. Heyman took Roman."

#shai writes #seth rollins #seth rollins fic #seth rollins imagine #rollynch #rollintyre #becky lynch #drew mcintyre #drew mcintyre fanfic #Rollynchtyre #wwe fic #wwe fanfiction #roman reigns #jon moxley #dean ambrose

36 notes · View notes

prue84 · 5 years

Photo

(Hakka & Dragoneyes’s) Merlin AUs | Royal (dragon) husbands

AU in which a series of canon divergences lead to Arthur surviving the mortal wound inflicted him by Mordred at Camlann and, with the help of Merlin who then becomes his Prince Consort, bringing the golden age foretold by the prophecies.

Few months after the sacrifice that has shaken the core of Camelot, Lancelot awakes in the land of the living, his spirit released from the world behind the Veil. His return to Camelot comes as a surprise but all rejoice in seeing him well and in health. Always mistrustful Merlin fears the hand of Morgana behind the miraculous return from the dead of his old friend, but the vengeful high priestess is for once innocent and Lancelot turns out to be who he appears to be: a man who has been given, for unclear reasons, a new chance at life. With a little nudge from Merlin, Gwen finally questions her relationship with Arthur and the relationship she never had the chance to have with Lancelot; this eventually leads to her understand that, while her love for the king is big and sincere, they simply aren’t meant, for the woman could be a good wife to the man Arthur and the servant could be an unofficial good advisor and friend for the king to turn too in time of need, but the handmaid named Guinevere couldn't be a good queen to administer justice and hold the reins of the kingdom in place of her husband. With Gwen and Lancelot exploring their rekindled and yet new love, with the grudging blessing of the king, Arthur turns his complete attention to a kingdom that needs him the most, especially with Morgana's looming shadow and the presence of a traitor in the castle: there is no time for him to find a replacement for Gwen in both his heart and on the throne. His uncle encourages his lack of action on the matter by suggesting his nephew takes some time for himself after the breakup to "heal his broken heart"; Agravaine does also his best to dissuade Arthur from ever considering a political marriage with the princess of Nemeth to solve the dispute, an ally that wouldn’t be liked by Morgana – who doesn’t want any woman to sit on the throne she perceives hers. Meanwhile, Merlin’s life is no easier and, between thwart Morgana schemes and protect Arthur from his uncle, he finds the time to save the last dragon egg from the destructive wishes of his king. Kilgharrah suggests Merlin to hide the egg somewhere where the last dragon will rest until it will come the time for the little creature to be hatched.

With the threat of Morgana always looming on his life and his thrust once again broken by who that was closest to him by blood, Arthur permanently puts aside the search for a woman to stand at his side. Morgana’s suspicious disappearance allows him a couple of years of relative peace, in which he is first involved in small skirmishes with rogue magical bandits unrelated to his sister and then in the chaos ensued after the fall of Sarrum of Amata, whose death at the hands of his prisoner – surprisingly, the vanished Morgana – has left his kingdom in shambles. So it happens that, when Mordred betrays him by joining Morgana and Camlann is elected as the battlefield for the last stand, Arthur has neither wife nor heir to entrust the kingdom to. It’s all or nothing, for the Pendragon siblings.

Without the help of a dragon to forge an invincible sword for her champion, Morgana last battle is an ultimate failure: Emrys has returned with his power, her army of Saxons is defeated and her only ally dies on the battlefield without successfully taking the life of her hated brother. Having lost her spy at the castle, exposed by Gwen and promptly executed before the army even reached Camlann, she has only herself to discover what is happening to her brother and what Merlin/Emrys plans to do to cure his king from the magical wound. This delay allows Merlin and Arthur to almost reach Avalon when Morgana intercepts them, thus Arthur is saved – although his recovery lasts many weeks, what it takes for him and Merlin to mend their broken bond and trust.

The time spent bound to a bed, and with a warlock-servant plagued by nightmares of “what ifs”, forces Arthur to rethink about his life since this gangly and clumsy boy has come at his service. The true nature of his feelings for whom he thought his closest friend are revealed and eventually Arthur faces Merlin – who was just brooding in his unrequited love since years. The intimacy in their relationship comes with time, as the gradual opening of Camelot to healing magic. By the time Arthur makes his relationship with his servant official, the court has resigned to the fact the warlock who protected Camelot in the last eight(?) years will soon become their Prince (Consort). The blessing comes with the agreement that Arthur will give the throne an heir, a detail that Arthur keeps postponing until Merlin feels that the egg he saved many years before (and that now rests in a chest on Arthur’s bedside cabinet) really wants to be hatched. The dragon that comes out of it decides that the grumpy human staring at her really looks like a dragon and must therefore be “papa dragon”, a father that adopted her by allowing her egg to be brought in his very-dragon nest. The little scaly thing conquers poor Arthur’s heart and becomes Camelot’s princess, although officially she’s given only the title of “Ward”; the court finds it much funny that the first heir the king has sired is... a talking dragon. Arthur becomes a master in turning a deaf ear to the court’s request to give the throne a human heir, his hands full of his dragon demanding and spoiled daughter, until the dispute with Nemeth becomes relevant again. Princess Mithian travels with the delegation appointed to settle the dispute. She enjoys Camelot’s hospitality and gets to know – and like – the King and his Prince Consort. And the lady-in-waiting assigned to her for the time of her stay. Especially the lady-in-waiting.

Nemeth and Camelot reach an agreement that will be formalised with an union between the king of Camelot and the princess of Nemeth, aimed at siring an heir for both the kingdoms. Mithian is such a kind soul that quickly conquers the hearth of the whole court, and in no time gets crowned Queen, second in line for the succession to the throne. Mithian gives birth to a son and, a couple of years later (after bugging Arthur about this, because he doesn’t want to risk her life with another pregnancy), to a daughter.

The golden age of the High King has started. But, when the new generation of Pendragon will be ready to step in, the Once and Future King will be reclaimed by sleep, to awake when he will be needed again.

(More content from “Royal Husbands AU” here)

———————————————————————————————

An old thing started in February 2018 finished for the @merlins-springcleaning project.

I plan to translate the almost 20 pages of notes I have about this AU, mostly an in-depth summary of what happens after Camlann, through the Nemeth and Camelot’s agreement and to finish with Arthur’s future as sleeping king (and Merlin’s life through the centuries). I also have on the works an edits series to illustrate the "chapters" of this story. If you are interested, be my guest and return here in the near future: all will be under the tag linked above. For now you can find a one-shot about little Aithusa and her papa. ;)

———————————————————————————————

This AU has originated by the RPG I and @dragoneyes started to have some fun during our evening chats. At first it was just a "Merlin and Arthur are together", no plot, no explanations, with a generic time setting ("Camlann already happened"). With months going by, and the addition of little Aithusa to the mix, I eventually felt the need to give some sense to this "universe" we were playing with. Hence this AU got shaped, and it has a fine plot if one had the time and dedication to turn it into a multi-chaptered monster-length fic. I have none of that dedication (plus I already have too many ideas that are more worth) but I feel that this story should still be shared because I like it very much.

The plot features baby dragons raised as members of the household who think their papa are dragons of a wingless kind (else they wouldn't be called "Pendragons", duh!) mated with dragonlords, sons who have to fill the uncomfortable shoes of their already-legendary king fathers, former servants who feel uncomfortable in their new crowned roles, an united Albion, a Mithian Queen of Camelot and a fusion with Harry Potter as in Merlin founding a school of magic with four wizards. A packed plot, for a RPG meant to fill some evenings, right?

As far as I remember, I must credit @katiemcgrath at Tumblr for the initial idea of the Narnia kids as the kids for Arthur (and Merlin, in that case). I know she leans more on the Narnia kids as small versions of the OT4 instead of children of the four main character, but yeah: all thanks to her nonetheless. :)

On a side note, I still have to find a "face" for OC Meredith, the lady-in-waiting. If you have suggestions (actresses in medieval/historical tv series/movies only), hit the ask in my main @hakka84.

———————————————————————————————

For those of you discovering me thanks to the Merlin’s Spring Cleaning Project (seriously, thank you to the girls behind this idea), I do have a decent amount of Merlin's content, other AU ideas and manips, with at least four time of that amount in WIP, so please come by and have a round. Seeing notes (and, ever more, people discussing about my ideas) prompts me to work and made me want to finish up things that I put on hold because it didn't have any meaning to post in the void. Don't leave me alone, else I don't feel like bothering work. ;)

———————————————————————————————

Crossposted: Livejournal: prue84.livejournal.com/72353.html Dreamwidth: prue84.dreamwidth.org/64990.html Deviantart: deviantart.com/prue84/art/Merlin-AUs-RPG-Royal-husbands-794593632

#Merlin BBC #Merthur #Arthur Pendragon #Merlin #Mithian #Aithusa #Pendragon heirs #ArthurMithian #AUs (Merlin)#AU: The Royal Husbands #AU: Aithusa Pendragon #Series: Merlin AUs #Edits #||#crossover with:#Chronicles of Narnia

31 notes · View notes