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chibivesicle · 3 years

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Golden Kamuy chapters 267 & 268. Filling in the gaps and learning how Tsurumi was involved in the gold.

After a few chapters that I was expecting to be more rewarding falling flat, things are starting to pick up. We first learn about Kiro’s involvement and how his relationship with Wilk became strained. Before they broke Sofia out of prison, Kiro decided to tell Sofia more details before actually reuniting with her. It is unclear if this story was relayed to Sofia via the milk ink or if Kiro wrote this with regular ink meaning anyone could have read the information. What this page does tell us, is that Sofia learned this information prior to meeting Asirpa and Ogata likely knows something about what was written. Noda wouldn’t just throw him in the background for no reason.

I wonder if this information was already shared between Kiro and Ogata?

The chapter title page has an image of Wilk, Riratte and Asirpa as a family. Clearly, a visual parallel with Tsurumi, Olga and Fina indicating that the two men have fates that are intertwined.

When Kiro saw Wilk holding Asirpa, he knew that something was different; he loved her and his family and as a result his priorities would change. Kiro is not happy with this while Huci smiles next to him.

This is an interesting story since Tsurumi is retelling what Kiro wrote to Sofia, clearly in Russian. Tsurumi is dominant and in charge of things as he makes Sofia when he mentions the man Kimuspu. The last remaining person who knew where the gold was hidden. At the same time, somehow Tsurumi learned of this information.

The panel informs us at certain key members of his elite inner circle knew about this, Kikuta in the back, potentially even working for Central at that point in time, Usami close to Tsurumi and Ogata and Tsukishima in the front with Ogata also more distant from Tsurumi.

This confirms what Ogata told us all the way back after the Barato arc with Hijikata. That he referred to how Tsurumi knew what happened to the seven Ainu men without indicating if he was there or not. I loved how Ogata just said that Tsurumi was the intelligence officer who examined the crime scene. Time and time again Ogata speaks but only gives enough information to catch someone’s attention.

The flashback told my Tsurumi who wasn’t there at the time is in part based on what he knows from Kiro as well which is something to keep in mind. The men convened at Noboribetsu, clearly in a kotan close to where Ariko is from.

The group of men were meeting to discuss it and Wilk is leading the discussion. Not surprising at all since he is a natural leader. His back is to us in the middle panel as they talk.

The rest of the men are revealed. The first man who speaks is clearly Ariko’s father, Siromakur based on those eyebrows. The cast of the soon to be doomed men are revealed with a wide range of beards and eyebrows. I’d guess it took a lot of effort to find seven Ainu names and this might be why this plot point is so late, as it is known that Noda avoided names currently in use to be culturally respectful. I will note that Mesira, Irenka and Ratci all have no light or sparkle in their eyes, making them look like they may have had more bad experiences. Sukuta looks like a nice guy.

Maybe it is just me but Oskeporo gives me major Kirawus vibes? I want to see your eyebrows Kirawus! Are you related to Oskeporo? They are both wearing dark clothing, my brain wants to say Oskeporo has a blue attush with white trim.

It looks sort of similar to Kirawus’s - or maybe he’s also from the Kushiro region? In the next chapter we learn that Oskeporo is from Nemuro. That is pretty close to Kushiro since Kirawus was working in Nemuro at the fisheries when he met Hijikata.

Anyways back to the main events. The men realize they need to find the old man, Kimuspu quickly so no one beats them to him, since of course people told other people about it. . .

As they head out Kiro finds Wilk and he’s pissed off. The text bubble tells us he’s beyond upset and he’s got a clenched fist. Finally, we are getting some clarity on why things broke down between Kiro and Wilk.

Even though Kiro had integrated himself into the local Hokkaido community, his best friend left him out of things. Of course, Kiro was always dedicated to their original greater cause as he’s Tatar/Karafuto Ainu and perhaps knows that Sofia is in prison in Karafuto?

Wilk tells the other men to go ahead and so that he can talk to Kiro one on one. Kiro is hurt and angry being excluded from these plans. It indicates that knowledge of their meeting was more well known than Wilk likely would have preferred. Ainu told each other about the gold, the old man, and the leaders meeting to discuss it since Kiro found him easily. Or did Ogata tip him off? Was this the beginning of the cat alliance?

Wilk tells him that they should change focus to only protecting Hokkaido based on logistics. This ignores the places where they grew up and therefore the other ethnic groups.

Tsurumi then asks Asirpa if she understands the difference between a regional ethnic nation that shares land borders with Russia and other countries making them difficult to defend. Which is the exact same reason Tsurumi wants to make Hokkaido an independent state and why Hijikata also likes it. From a strategic perspective it does make a lot of sense, but it excludes most of the minority groups they were fighting for all these years.

This exchange between Kiro and Wilk explains so much of why Kiro said Wilk changed. He sees it as a betrayal and abandonment of the Russian far east and Karafuto. Wilk calmly states they will encourage immigration of different groups.

This is clearly upsetting to Kiro as his skin is covered with the chaotic screentone. This is always used when a character is upset and reeling from learning something that they don’t want to hear. I love the fact that a very similar screentone is used in Ogata’s flashback in 165 talking to Yuusaku. Ogata appears calm but there is emotion behind his ice cold responses.

Interestingly, the screentone with the curved lines is only used with Ogata specifically, and it doesn’t show up again, but both show an inner turmoil.

Kiro argues that because Wilk’s village immigrated to Hokkaido, that is why they failed in part due to going to a place they were unfamiliar with and different ways to survive.

Wilk replies that he understood by the Karafuto Ainu immigration failed and just says ‘we need to avoid repeating those mistakes’. Really? Why do you tell us what they are Wilk? Does he really have an answer for that or is he just saying this hoping Kiro will calm down?

Kiro is quickly able to point out flaws for some of the ethnic groups and Wilk has a cop out of an answer, it will be up to individuals to make that choice. Kiro may be upset, but I think he is correct by telling Wilk his priorities have changed with the birth of Asirpa. These men have known each other for most of their lives and acted in an organization where they had to trust each other deeply.

I do like the switch to see Asirpa’s reaction, she loved her father but she definitely saw Kiro as an uncle figure and did no know about their falling out at all to change her opinion of them when all of this started.

Wilk artfully dodges Kiro’s question by saying he’s being realistic. I don’t think Wilk wants to confirm what Kiro said in stoic Slav fashion. If anyone has been following my meta for some time, you’d know I’m a huge fan of Kiro, so I like the next page. Knowing Wilk, he calls him out on it - he found a place to call home, he loves his family and his priorities have shifted to protect his current home. But Kiro is still holding a torch for Sofia, and wants to break her out of prison and help his own people. The fact Wilk doesn’t even respond tells us Kiro is right.

Asirpa quietly reflects on this. It clearly explains so much about what happened and in a way Kiro showed her Wilk’s original plan with the intention to help the partisans. Tsurumi summarizes the legitimacy of these contrasting goals. His position in the chair reserved for the priest as well as his contemplative expression makes me think that Tsurumi is confessing to his own feelings that are divided within himself.

The page ends with Tsukishima watching things blankly, a frown and stress lines under the eyes - how is he feeling in this very moment?

The flashback continues as Kiro loses it mentioning that Sofia is still waiting for them. This must mean that Kiro has continued to keep tabs on her or maintain some knowledge/limited communication with her. He charges towards Wilk and the two fight, but Wilk manages to get him in a headlock victorious.

Asirpa then is able to tell Sofia that she knew that Kiro had feelings for her, so of course he’d want to go back for her. Of course she didn’t learn this until Kiro died but it does make a lot of sense. Sofia listens closely, but it is still unclear how well she understands Asirpa speaking Japanese.

The fight ends with Kiro on the ground and he lost his shoes in the fight somehow. It is unclear if this is a drawing error by Noda since Kiro is frequently shown bare feet, partly to signal his death in Karafuto, but other times he seems to like having free toes.

Asirpa’s explanation is that Wilk knew the Kiro loved Sofia and he avoided Kiro. It a way it would be a dick move to have a family that he loved, while Kiro can’t do anything about the woman he loved who was their comrade in arms.

Sofia looks so sad here, two men she loved and cared about are dead in this entire mess. The chapter ends with a beat up Wilk tying Kiro to a tree and we see him now barefoot. Did Wilk take his shoes off to prevent him from chasing after them? I don’t know or if Noda accidentally gave Kiro shoes a few pages prior.

But now we finally know the event that lead Kiro to tell Inkarmat that Wilk changed. And we as the readers know he changed. Kiro is pissed off at Wilk and this was the rift that separated the men and their goals for the gold.

Kiro realized that he and Wilk now had different goals and it was what ended their friendship. The next chapter starts with a somber and sad looking Kiro writing the letter. Which now we can see is an ink letter. He reflects on how that was the last conversation he had with Wilk, which likely wasn’t how he had wanted it to go.

Wilk tells him this is for Asirpa’s benefit and her happiness. Apparently, he decided to gift Asirpa with this path based on the fact that he felt Sofia was a good leader/role model. I mean besides the fact that Sofia gave up her chance to live a normal domestic life. It is clear Wilk was impressed with Sofia and her character but it still shows that Wilk is putting her in a situation she didn’t ask for.

Yet, Asirpa isn’t upset by this. She echoes Wilk’s way of thinking which is just like Koito Sr. So in a way she has more in common with Koito and his role to do things his father expects from him. Though Koito’s older brother already died in the service so it isn’t like she has a younger sibling.

Tsurumi seems to suggest that Wilk could have just slid into obscurity and live his life in peace and quiet. Does this mean that Tsurumi wanted to live in peace and quiet with Fina and Olga?

Asirpa boldly tells him that it isn’t possible as the Ainu would disappear. As the Ainu are intrinsically linked to the kamuy. The Ainu must respect the kamuy and in return if they forget them they will disappear.

In reality this was the assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society, losing their links to the kamuy and their cultural identity.

Tsurumi finally responds that the fate of those wanting to protect the kamuy was not good. He looks like he’s barely able to control himself as he’s got his deranged look on his face. So scary that Sofia and Asirpa are shocked.

The flashback then continues from Tsurumi’s point of view. Though we need to realize he may not be telling the truth. The fact that Tsurumi was able to track down Ariko Sr. implies that the secret wasn’t super secret! Good job of keeping things under wraps Wilk and other Ainu dudes. Tsurumi starts off with flattery to get comfortable with Simorakur.

For example he clearly comments about his son being in the army and making sure he is sent the knife to remember his identity. Interesting the other men with Tsurumi are Usami and Kikuta. Tsukishima and Ogata are no where to be seen.

Tsurumi is told he is too late, the other men went in search of the older man and therefore the gold over a month ago. Of course Ariko’s dad decided to leave the group because of the disagreements that began to occur as some of the men threatened the families of others including Cikapasi’s grandfather. Not sure why bringing Cikapasi into this part of the narrative makes sense since he was fine in the story as an orphan who found his family in Karafuto. . . . I wonder if this was supposed to read that the man was Sukuta and he had a younger brother and grandfather. With Cikapasi being the younger brother . . .

Tsurumi turns on his charm and calls Simorakur, a polite Mr. Ariko (obviously Ariko-san in the original) and ties the loyalty of his family to the Japanese to be important. That his family is serving the government in a good way.

The tells Tsurumi that the six men all had pretty big egos, and drastically different viewpoints so they were not a good alliance. But that one man was able to draw them together and resolve conflicts easily and he was a natural leader. That man of course, was Wilk. The flashback allows Tsurumi to learn about this natural leader who is also knowledgeable and even used a fact that Tsurumi told him when talking to the men.

The next page shows Wilk as a mystery to Tsurumi at first. Of course, he’s got the cross scar on his face marked likely to link him with Christian symbols and he’s offering his hand to the viewer, not unlike how Asirpa first offered her hand to Sugimoto.

Tsurumi is impressed and wants to know more about this man. Of course the big reveal is when he learns who the Karafuto Ainu man is. His eyes go white in shock and likely out if his desire to kill him. We also get an even better view of his torn sleeves. Likely the kidnapping of Koito happened recently and he did a poor job of repairing his white uniform.

So, Koito was kidnapped in Hakodate, recently but Usami wasn’t involved in it. Did Usami just join him? As Koito’s flashback only reveals Kikuta, Tsukishima and Ogata. Not surprisingly, his calm exterior is shaded with the hatched screentone again, just like Kiro in the last chapter.

Tsurumi then tells Asirpa and Sofia that he shot a single poison arrow at Wilk, his eyes completely white. He tells Simorakur that Wilk was a partisan fighting against the Russians and had come to Hokkaido for the gold for the partisans.

And he quickly departs and watches as he lead Tsurumi, Kikuta and Usami to the gold. They hear gunfire and are unable to keep up with everyone else. In the morning they find one of the men stabbed with a makkiri. So Tsurumi knows that Wilk didn’t kill any of the men.

If we go back to chapter 70 Ogata tells Hijikata what he knows as Hijikata implies he knows that Kiro is likely a partisan. Now it is hard to tell if the knife in chapter 268 matches one in 70. But Ogata makes it clear that all of the knives had notches on them.

Does this mean that Wilk actually did damage everything? Or did Tsurumi make this up to frame Wilk for the deaths so that Wilk appeared guilty? Or did Wilk actually do this out of cultural obligation? I want more information since right now Tsukishima and Ogata aren’t involved.

Did Ogata find Kiro and untie him from the tree? Did the cat alliance form while he was out of the range of Tsurumi?

The chapter then ends with Tsurumi telling them that Wilk skinned himself, removing his face and putting it on another dead person’s severed head.

Yay! This now at least lines up with Asirpa’s statement that they found her Aca’s nose and ears to identify he was one of the dead.

A long time ago I had reasoned that Wilk disfigured himself by cutting off his nose and ears, but this is a much more gruesome way to fake his death. Did he know someone like Tsurumi was onto him? My biologist brain really wonders how he was able to do this with out a sterile environment and way to protect the healing skin and face and protect the muscles and argh it just seems far fetched to me from a biological perspective. I figured the nose and ear part would make more sense since GK has had ear removal and off page nose removal.

But hey this is GK! People seem to have great healing abilities! So might as well extend this to Wilk’s entire face.

What these two chapters have show is that Tsurumi has let his own emotions control his place in the hunt for the gold.

I wonder when Kikuta started working for central and if he told Ariko what really happened to his father. Or did he always keep this secret from him and instead betray him, which is in part why he felt so guilty when Usami beat the crap out of him before sending him off to be a double agent?

Kikuta does have more of a moral compass that Usami and we now know he has some sort of inspirational role he played with Sugimoto before he joined the military.

I am still underwhelmed by these developments. I was hoping for something bigger but right now Tsurumi looks like a man who was already angry at the Japanese government for the death of his family in Russia, who then doubles down on it when he learns the man leading the Ainu was Wilk so he goes after him.

At least we know why Kiro was so upset with Wilk and why he felt like Ogata had to kill him so that they could take Asirpa to Karafuto and to meet Sofia.

#golden kamuy #Golden Kamuy manga #tsurumi tokushirou #asirpa #sofia #tsukishima hajime #Usami Tokishige #warrant officer kikuta #ariko rikimatsu #ariko simorakur #cikapasi #wilk

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arlenianchronicles · 3 years

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Hi!! :D I really liked the last post about Fëanorians because I had trouble imagining their personality and this helped a lot. ^^ I would love to see your Nolofinwëan headcanons ❤❤

Hello again! I’m so happy you liked my Fëanorian headcanon post and found it helpful! :D I understand it can be tough to imagine character personalities when there’s not much of them; I still have trouble imagining some of the Fëanorians haha ^^;;

I have a clearer image of the Nolofinwëans, so I’m excited to go into them XDD I’ll admit I did some projecting onto Fingon especially, but it’s mostly me projecting one of my OC’s personality/backstory onto him too. Tbh, this is more of a sketch of how I imagine Fingon’s childhood played out, so be warned that this post is a long one. I should also warn y’all that my headcanons for these guys aren’t very happy ^^;; I’ll put in a content warning for mentions of bullying and emotional abuse (mostly caused by the Fëanorians).

If you don’t like these headcanons and they don’t help, that’s totally okay! Lots of people have their own interpretations of these characters, so I’m sure there’s some that are much happier than mine ^^;; I’ll put everything under the “keep reading” tab so you don’t have to read mine if you change your mind. And I’ll also bold the main names like in my previous post; I hope it helps for search purposes, just in case.

Let’s start with Fingolfin. As a child in Finwë’s house, living with Fëanor and Findis, I imagine that Fëanor bullied him a lot. Why? Because Fëanor saw him as a threat, given that Fingolfin is the first-born son of Indis. I think that Findis, and later Írimë, wasn’t viewed with much suspicion by Fëanor because they’re girls (and I even headcanon that Fëanor might’ve had a soft spot for them). And once Finarfin comes along, Fëanor sees him as a wimp, someone who can’t do much to stop him. So Fingolfin is the main target.

Now, to be clear, I sympathize very much with child Fëanor when he’s just lost his mother and his father marries a stranger. This Fëanor is likely more grown-up, though I’m not sure how much; I feel deep down that his actions would be akin to emotional abuse, but that’s a heavy term and I’m not sure if this is a good point in the tale to use it ^^;; So for now, we’ll stick with bullying. Once Fëanor’s a full-fledged adult, then I think it’d classify as abuse. Please feel free to give me advice or clarity, if you want!

So back to Fingolfin. Because of all this happening, I imagine he grows up with self-esteem issues and stress, and some anxiety on the side. He'd believe Fëanor and think that he's not good enough to be Finwë's son, etc. Finwë thinks that Fëanor can't be wrong in anything, so Fëanor must be right about Fingolfin. At the same time, he still loves Fëanor as his brother and wishes for a return of that love. It might stem from a desire to please Finwë (y’know, showing that they can be a real family and that Fingolfin’s making an effort), but also, I imagine he admires Fëanor's confidence in public situations – and especially now that Fingolfin lacks confidence and trust in himself.

Also, if you’re wondering about Finwë, he only scolds Fëanor when he thinks his son is being a bit too harsh, but doesn't do anything for the root of the problem (nor does he know about what goes on away from his sight). Given that Fëanor is his favourite son, I doubt he’d really see his son’s actions, and if he does, he’d be in denial about them.

Despite all this, I've always imagined that Fingolfin grew up with a desire to help others. He's good at diplomatic talk and politics, but he's not good at defending himself from Fëanor, even after he becomes an adult. Fortunately, he moves out once he's older, and being away from Fëanor allows for improvement.

And then he meets Anairë. I envision her as very loving and kind, and nurturing. She supports Fingolfin as he gains more self-confidence. I also headcanon that she wears a gold circlet in her hair at times, while Fingolfin wears a gold crown, and these both inspire Fingon to wear gold in his hair.

On that note, let's talk about Fingon. Essentially, his childhood is somewhat similar to Fingolfin's. However, there's now the added stress of being caught between Fëanor and Fingolfin's houses. He wants to make his father proud and uphold their family name, but that’s a lot for his young shoulders to handle (nor did Fingolfin and Anairë ever pressure him). I also imagine that Fingon, when he was very young, witnessed how badly Fëanor treats Fingolfin – perhaps at a family gathering when the others have gone somewhere else, and Fingon's waiting for his father, hiding behind a pillar or wall etc. It'd be frightening for young Fingon to witness that, seeing someone whom he loves and upholds as a figure of strength be hurt so much, and it would increase his fear of Fëanor too.

But, lo and behold, he becomes friends with Maedros. I'm still not sure how they met, but in any case, Fingon is glad for Maedros' kindness and admires his ability to shoulder leadership responsibilities near easily, not to mention his ease in a public crowd. Fingon ends up visiting Maedros at Fëanor's house, where Fëanor and his other sons are. You can probably imagine how that'd turn out.

Fëanor sees Fingolfin as a threat, so Fingon is also a threat by extension. I don't think Fëanor would treat Fingon with quite the same intensity, but it'd still be some form of emotional abuse. Fingon would be deeply affected by it; his own confidence would go down, and he’d think that he’s not worthy to be Fingolfin’s son or a prince of the Noldor. And let’s not get started on Fëanor’s sons (but yes, let’s).

As I mentioned in my Fëanorian headcanons post, his sons bully Fingon both out of jealousy (because Fingon is Maedros’ favourite) and anger and to get Fëanor’s approval. I imagine mainly Celegorm, Curufin, and Caranthir doing this; Amrod and Amras might take part at times (following their father and brothers’ example), but are also uncertain of whether it’s a good idea or not. Maglor probably turns a blind eye since he’s too busy perfecting his music.

Maedros would, of course, scold them for being harsh, but that doesn't solve the root of the problem. Nor does he know of how far back the hurt goes. And I think Fingon would be afraid to tell him of what’s really going on because Maedros loves his family a lot. Fingon fears that, if he told him, Maedros would get upset and possibly resent Fingon, and he might not want to be friends anymore. And Fingon doesn't want that. All in all, it’s all very emotionally exhausting, and I think that Fingon would have some crying sessions to himself, since those can be quite cathartic.

Fingolfin doesn't know what’s going on at first either; I think he’d expect that Fingon would be safe with Maedros. But then he ends up recognizing Fingon’s behaviour and how similar it is to what he had, and he asks Fingon about it one day, and Fingon breaks down and tells him everything. Fingolfin comforts him, of course, and tells him not to listen to what the Fëanorians say, and even shares his own experiences so that Fingon knows he isn’t alone. And Fingon doesn't feel alone anymore. Fingolfin becomes his greatest supporter hereafter.

But boy oh boy, now Fingolfin is furious. This is when I imagine his ferocity comes up; he goes to Fëanor and confronts him about it, and Fëanor is startled by Fingolfin’s fierce side since he’s never seen it before. You can think of it as something similar to my painting of angry Fingon, if you like XDD And this is where Fingolfin shows that he is capable of defending others, if not himself. He is fully prepared to protect Fingon however he needs to. And after this, I think Maedros would have to come over to Fingolfin’s house, since Fingon isn’t about to go over to Fëanor’s house and be bullied more (nor would Fingolfin allow it).

(As a side note, Fingolfin showing his fierce side doesn't really help with regard to Fëanor’s suspicions. In fact, it may even increase them a bit, if not a lot.)

Like Fingolfin, I headcanon that Fingon grows up to be good at diplomacy and stuff, but he is also kind and compassionate, quiet and solemn. And also aroace, since I go with the version of canon where he doesn't marry and has no children. I’m sure he’d be a good partner, but all this in consideration, he’d worry about not being good enough as a father, and he wouldn’t want to put his child through the same pain that he and Fingolfin went through. His family’s well-being is his priority, and he loves them dearly. And on that note (if y’all are still reading this ^^;;), let’s bring in Turgon and Aredhel :D

So Fingon has some siblings now! He loves them so much he thinks his heart will burst. It’s only until there’s a family gathering, and Turgon encounters Fëanor’s sons, that Fingon realizes his duty to protect his little brother from suffering the same hurts as Fingon did. In fact, he gets angry when one of the Fëanorians – Celegorm still seems the likeliest one to me, or Curufin loll – insult Turgon, or something like that. And just like Fingolfin, one of Fingon’s strengths is to defend others (even if he’s still not confident enough to defend himself). Because of Fingon’s protection and the combined family nurturing, Turgon grows up stern and confident and with a firm dislike of the Fëanorians. As canon says, he becomes good friends with Finrod (gosh I haven’t even started thinking of headcanons for the Arafinweans aaahhh). I also think of him as a very good architect with excellent visualization. And, of course, he loves his elder brother like no other :’’’)

Aredhel, on the other hand, befriends Celegorm and Curufin (as said in the Silmarillion). How did that happen, you ask? I’m not so sure myself lmao The best idea I have so far is that the two brothers thought her fierceness and spunk impressive for a Nolofinwëan, and they found that she was more risk-taking and no-nonsense than they gave her credit for. As for her, she wants to explore and hunt and be a badass, and it seems that she can learn to do some, if not all, of those things by being with them. And yet I also headcanon that Aredhel adores Fingon as her older brother, so how does this dynamic play out?

An example I have is a little scenario that I thought up; in her youth, Aredhel overhears Celegorm talking crap about Fingon, and gets angry with him. She says she’ll never speak to him again unless he apologizes, but he’s not about to. So she goes to Fingon and tells him. Essentially, he says that he’ll be alright and she doesn't have to worry (he’s not brave enough to defend himself, but he’ll defend her if Celegorm spoke ill of her). Eventually, Celegorm does apologize to Aredhel about it, but it’s not genuine (something like those “I’m sorry I made you feel that way” apologies). She accepts the apology anyway, even though he technically didn’t do her any wrong. This is because she genuinely wants to be his friend, and if she did notice that it wasn’t genuine, she denies it because she wants to believe it was.

I think she becomes more aware of what’s going on between Fëanor and Fingolfin’s houses, but she still wants to keep the connection between Fëanor’s sons and herself. I haven’t really developed that far into her relation with them yet, just her and her family ^^;;

Finally we have Argon. He’s the youngest of the siblings, and at this point there’d be an age gap between him and Fingon. Since Fingon’s settling in his duty as a prince and doing princely things (alongside spending time with his friends and all), I’d imagine he’s not able to keep as good an eye on Argon as he did with Turgon and Aredhel. Nevertheless, he forms the closest bond with Argon due to the shared emotional exhaustion they experience; I headcanon that Argon is deeply affected by the tensions and stress between Fëanor and Fingolfin’s house, and it takes a toll on him as a young child. So he gets some social anxiety and is afraid of large crowds, but when big brother Fingon is with him, he feels a little braver.

And there we are! My headcanons for the Nolofinwëans, as requested :) I might’ve forgotten something, but for now, this is all I have. Thank you for reading this far, if you did!! It was super long, and I’m sorry to have bored anyone ^^;; I actually thought about writing a fic of Fingon’s childhood, but I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon hahaa Thanks again for messaging me anon, and I hope you have a good day/night! <333

#asks #anon asks #house of fingolfin #meta #nolofinweans #once again i worked on my reply while at work loll #man this was a lot of writing #feels good to get it all down on a docs tho #cuz before this it was all in my head #and in various tags scattered across my art of the nolofinweans XDD #some other headcanons include #fingon doing his siblings hair with his gold ribbons at one point or another #weaving argon's hair with his gold accessories helps to calm argon down #aredhel likes to wear her hair long #but she loves it when fingon gives her a little makeover #and turgon is content in any case hahaa

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little-green-forest · 3 years

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Which comic should I focus on doing?

1: Wolf, fox, cat.

A comic series introducing the world, rules and beliefs of all of my OCs. The main character in this story is Gray M. Fox and she is learning everything about her new home (Landtribe) after a tragic incident involving the death of her parents. Her friend and adopted brother, Orange C. Stripe teaches her everything she (and the reader) need to know about this world. This would probably be the best original story to go with cuz’ it explains a lot of stuff better than I could teach you guys with any other original story.

2: Fur, Feather, and Stone

This is the story of Geode, Pine, and Azalea and they run all around there world chasing Pepper, Pine and Azalea’s evil father. Although the story is from Geode’s point of view it has plenty of flash-backs from all three of them, explaining a lot of spoiler-y backstory.

3: Possessed AU

Oh god another evil Steven AU. This Steven Universe AU starts after fragments and when Jasper reforms Steven lets her follow him and even threatens to shatter her again if she disobeys him. After the events of homeworld bound the gems and connie are all worried about him and crowd around him like that scene in everything’s fine but instead of having a breakdown and “corrupting” he instead poffs the gems and slaps connie (jez kevin) then runs away out of beach city. After a little the B team (Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth) show up and are like WTF HAPPENED?!? And after Connie explains and the gems reform they all go out and chase Steven around and the rest (aka the best parts and major differences from the original series) is spoiler territory.

4: Rejuvenated AU/Theory

I have a lot of AUs but this one is also loosely a theory on Jasper’s full character story. This AU is based on an idea I had that Jasper was once on the rebellion's side but then the diamonds captured the strongest member (other than the leader, “Rose Quartz”) then rejuvenated her to get her on their side. I’d also like to sprinkle in a lot of stories about the war (Jasper and Rose fighting each other) and the diamonds just brainwashing Jasper into absolutely despising Rose and many other things.

5: Camp Camp x Steven Universe AU

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Just think of the chaos

6: When darkness resembles good

Angelsdarkness’s backstory.. to much going on to sum it up fast, but I made a lot of projects with him on my old Scratch account if you wanna dig around there.

7: Edgy SU AU

This one is pretty brutal. You see, I this AU Greg died while Rose was still pregnant with Steven and since she still wanted Steven to have tabs on his human side so she put Vidalia in charge of being Steven's new "dad" but the rest of the gems (other than Amethyst but G and P don't listen to her) didn't know or trust her so Steven was raised a lot differently. Steven stayed with Vidalia for the first 5 years of his life before he was given to the gems, who after getting Steven, NEVER let him near any other human and since they didn't have Greg to teach them about what humans need, they tend to starve him and never let him sleep. There teaching methods are even more fucked up as they beat the crap out of him while trying to make him use powers. The only reason I'm not calling this the “Abused AU” is because I think that’s the name of Jøzlyn Moon’s (on yt) AU so I felt I needed to change it, and I thought, ya, the physical and mental abuse could just, turn edgy.

8: Corruptied Time Trap SU AU

Oh, god- Steven used the time warp (or whatever it was called- I have forgotten the real name of it but it was the thing from the pilot and Steven and the Stevens) just before he corruptied and when he got to the time of Era 2 near the beginning of the original series and then ends up in Homeworld and gets trapped by the diamonds and tested on because as stated in Legs From Here to Homeworld the diamonds don't know what corruptied gems are.

9: Fallen Jasper AU

After unfuseing with Lapis after weeks of being trapped with her, Jasper found herself falling into the underground of earth, just before the cluster was about to emerge. This is much less of an AU and more of theories on what happened to Jasper after all the chaos of “Super Watermelon Island” and oh boy, does it make you fell really bad for Jasper

10: Ashstar AU

Finally, an AU that isn’t SU. This AU revolves around the idea that Firestar dies when Hawkfrost wanted him to. This happens because Ashfur notices when Brambleclaw is about to kill his bro, and saves Hawk’s ass. When Hawkfrost realized his brother was going to kill him he turns the tables and both the Thunderclan leader, and deputy are dead. After Thunderclan finds out about this, Ashfur tells a lie, saying he saw Brambleclaw attack Firestar and he had tried to protect Firestar by killing Brambleclaw but he was to late to save Firestar. Everyone believes this and decided to make Ashfur the new leader scents he at least tried to save Fire. Also this AU is very Ash/Hawk because I love my gay babies.

I will do all of these at some point but you guys will need to tell me which one to do first cuz I can't do them all at once.

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sasskarian · 4 years

Note

Romance Ask: 1, 6, 15, 25, 29 for Ryder/Jaal and Ryder/Evfra

Ryder/Jaal + Ryder/Evfra

1. What drew your character to their LI and vice versa?

So, I think the main thing that drew Ryder to Jaal was a sense of kindred spirits. At least at first. Both of them are from relatively high status families— Ryder has her dad, who was a big deal before the whole AI thing, and her mom, who literally helped pioneer biotic research. Jaal talks about his family and how he doesn’t feel like he fits in well. And that’s something Ryder really gets. Later, Jaal’s dual nature as both a lethal warrior and a gentle scholar is a grounding experience for Ryder, who starts (like most of my protags, let’s be real) experiencing some Title-Based depersonalization. There’s Pathfinder Ryder, who isn’t allowed to be anything but the best of humanity, and then there’s Sara E Ryder, chronic fuck up trying her best.

Ryder approaching Evfra was actually Jaal’s idea for the most part, although she starts softening towards him in chapter five. (In an AU I’m considering making canon?) Jaal knows that Ryder and Evfra are more alike than either of them likes to admit: they’re both prideful, stubborn as hell, and a little egotistic. But Ryder is less jaded than Evfra, and while Evfra may not be a ‘friend’ of Jaal’s, he does respect the hell out of him, and carries an affection that could easily turn into friendship if Evfra allowed it to. He knows Evfra is hurting, and that he doesn’t feel like he can show it to the Resistance, but Ryder is good at drawing people in and letting them just… be.

(Also, I’m poly as hell, so. I tend to write poly stuff.)

Quote:

“Bringing my men treats again, Pathfinder?” Evfra growled, hands planted on his desk and menace coiled in a shroud around his body. He didn’t bother to look up, tabbing through two different datapads and thundering against her senses like a storm-head. “We aren’t pets for you to tame.” The ice in his voice slid down Sara’s spine and sent goosebumps rippling down her arms.

“I’m not trying to tame you,” she replied softly, “and I mean no insult with my gifts. You know that.”

Evfra did drag his gaze up at that, all narrowed eyes and slitted pupils. If she only looked with her eyes, danger shrouded him, like a bull about to charge, ready to bellow with rage. But there was a tremble in the current he gave off, bouncing wasp-like and angry against her ribcage, and the muscles around his eyes and mouth had a tight, bloodless look she knew stemmed from too little sleep and no real rest.

On another day, Sara might have been tempted to give him something to fight face to face, something to purge himself on. There were days like that for her, when the pain and loss became salt in a dozen open wounds: Scott, her father, Raeka. All the people waiting on her to find them a home and suffering more each day she failed. The prejudices that were supposed to have been left behind and instead were flourishing. The false, failed promise of the Initiative, the proverbial brochure that said Come, find a home. Come and start anew.

She knew that dark anger, struggled to keep it buried so that the poison wouldn’t splash out onto everyone else— those were the days that she sparred with Drack or Cora, or sought out impossible-looking Asari biotic exercises. Those were the days she pushed her body until she dropped, chasing mindless exhaustion and trying to purge the anger, the sorrow, the resentment. And for the first time, Sara looked at Evfra and saw a reflection of her buried self that no one knew.

The weight on Evfra’s shoulders was at least as heavy as hers, probably more so— and with that realization, whatever impulse she had to smart off at him, or indulge another childish pissing contest, died. For good.

She swallowed hard and stepped closer, setting the last piece of paripo on the corner of the desk. A moment passed between them, his eyes staring into hers. Part of her wanted to reach out with a gentle biotic touch, a proverbial hand on his shoulder. Something to say, I understand. And I’m sorry. How can I help? But she knew it was the wrong moment for that; trying to dismantle their cold war had to wait until Evfra didn’t need that icy distance to keep the losses from becoming overwhelming.

Still, even though she kept all of her empathy to herself, something in Evfra… not precisely softened, but resettled in a slightly-less-hostile fashion. The cords in his neck slowly smoothed out, some of the tension in his face loosening, and— almost as good a sign of some sort of victory, like the tipping of a king in a chess match— the scarred corner of his mouth gave the tiniest of quirks. It wasn’t quite a smile: the day was too solemn for that. But it was something she could build on later.

“As you will, then,” he rumbled, turning his eyes back to what Sara recognized as scrolling casualty reports. The words should have sounded like a sneer, and an hour ago? They might have. But Sara knew something about Evfra now, a new layer to the boogeyman-like persona he projected through the Resistance— and the statement just sounded tired. Leadership became a heavy burden, deciding who lived and who died and wondering what to do if their family asks why? And that, they had in common. He fought against the eradication of his species, and she fought the slow death of the entire Initiative.

Who knew? She thought, stepping back and taking Jaal’s hand. Maybe common ground isn’t so hard to find after all.

6. Who is the big spoon?

Jaal is absolutely the big spoon. Those shoulders are so good for hugs.

15. Does their view of themselves differ from their partner’s view?

Jaal has stars in his eyes for Ryder. Ryder thinks Jaal walks on air. Neither of them sees themselves as the other does, and yeah, they have some insecurities from it, but they’re trying.

25. Share any headcanons about their relationship.

Jaal likes animals, aside from that damn pyjack. When the Initiative settles down and pets start being bred, Ryder comes home with the tiniest ball of fluffy kitten she’s ever seen. At first, she was worried that Jaal or Evfra might scare the poor bab, given that they’re large boys. But the kitten, named Sam for maximum hilarity and joking with SAM, warms right up to both of them. (The first time the kitten stands on wobbly little legs and rubs Evfra’s hesitant hand and makes his face fill with wonder is something Ryder will never forget).

29. What are your favorite moments that happen between them?

KISSES. ALL THE KISSES. I headcanon that biotics and angaran bioelectricity are at least semi-compatible, given that it’s hinted that Ryder and Jaal can feel each other’s presence. So I made memory-kisses a thing, where bioelectricity ignites neurons and can allow for memory/sensation sharing.

Romance Asks!

#jaal ama darav #evfra der tershaav #mass effect #mass effect andromeda #jaal/ryder #ryder/evfra #ryder/evfra/jaal #rydaal #my fic #i did the thing #natsora

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swamplatibule · 3 years

Text

Paramay Prompt Three! Para+Childhood

I HAVE BEEN WRITING THIS FOR FOUR MOTHERFUCKING DAYS NOW AND I HAVE NO REGRETS :DDDD

this has not been proofread it is 10 at night, I am exhausted, please accept my humble offerings

Damn, only prompt three and I’m already forced to reveal everyone’s tragic backstory oh well lol

Trigger warnings: Abuse, arson, su•c•de, death, homophobia, murder, gun mention

tw; death mention

Alright alright alright let’s fuckin goooo we’ll start off with Hollister, her childhood is no doubt the easiest to write since it’s basically been the same her whole life.

She never met her parents. She doesn’t know if they’re dead, or if they just decided they didn’t want a kid, or if something else happened, and she doesn‘t care. It’s not her problem. At least, she tells herself that, but she really isn’t 100% sure that it wasn’t somehow her fault. Poor baby.

She‘s completely grown up in the foster care system, bouncing from home to home. Hollister kept running away, getting caught, and being sent somewhere else. She’s also, guess what, a fucking genius with technology.

One time she tried running away and then erasing herself from the system. It didn’t work, but nobody realized that she’s tried to do it, so it’s fine, nothing went wrong.

A few weeks into her newest home, one of the other foster kids named Silas (who she’d been fast friends with) went missing days after developing a weird anti-gravitational power. And so she tried to find him. She stumbled across the Starwritten Society - when I say “stumbled across” I mean she followed a few very questionable leads on, like, conspiracy theory websites and shit and actually found something - and hacked into the archives, trying to find some sort of info.

Now, you can imagine the panic that caused in the Society. Complete lockdown. The Starwritten Society is top-secret, and nobody just hacks into the archives that easily. She didn’t actually find anything, one because she didn’t get time to look around before the security system actually started working and kicked her out, and two because Silas just wasn’t in the records anyway, meaning he’d disappeared some other way.

However, before she could go out looking for him, there were three agents knocking at the door, having tracked her location here. And you can imagine the looks on their faces when they saw that the person who had caused the mass panic that morning was none other than some kid with a computer that looked home-made.

Things happened, she asked to join because, y’know, fuck yeah secret society, paperwork was filed, and she got in. She’s currently the youngest trainee to join the Society in seventy-four years. Also, fun fact, they had to fill out the adoption papers and such, so she’s listed as the child of Director Iara Adams. Which isn’t that big of a deal, since literally every kid in need of adoption taken in by the Society is adopted under her name, and most have only interacted with her like once, but... it’s a cool world building detail I felt like I needed to add.

Anyways, ONWARD!!!

——————————————

tw; homophobia

Kennedy was born in a pretty influential family with very “traditional” values. They kinda suck, so we won’t get too into that shithole.

Each generation of that family has had like six kids, and every single time, one turns out to be lgbtq+ and gets ✨disowned✨because the parents are just kinda assholes. It’s just this never-ending cycle.

Suffice it to say, Kennedy - being a flaming bisexual and all that - got disowned when she was like twelve after one of her siblings outed her by accident. Her uncle took her in. Guess what? He had also been disowned! When he was fifteen!

And he also went on to become a very important person in the Starwritten Society, and when he discovered Kennedy’s complete genius with technology, he recommended her to become a trainee at 17 years old.

To be honest, Kennedy’s basically gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to characterization and fleshing-out. I have quite a few paras like that, sadly. I think I might make her a playlist sometime and let her be the main character for a while.

——————————————

tw: abuse, arson, su•c•de, murder, gun mention

Fox. Oh boy. Fox grew up in a very... tense household. His father started out pretty okay when he was a younger kid, but he slowly started getting more and more violent and controlling, to both Fox, his twin sister, and his mother.

Fox always had a very close relationship with his sister, Wren. You know that siblings meme? The “You are my sister, you are my brother, we are siblings and we care for each other,”? The were the living definition of that. They managed to keep a definite sense of humor and lightheartedness with each other, despite everything that had been going on.

They weren’t fine, but they had each other.

And then Wren went missing. There was a huge police search, but they didn’t find anything. Fox was fourteen at the time. That experience basically broke him, and he never saw Wren again.

A month later, he was coming home from school, got off the bus, and found the house in smoking ruins. His mother hadn’t been able to take his father’s abuse anymore, and she couldn’t see any way out. So she set the house on fire, killing both herself and her husband.

Fox, who was a mental wreck at this point, as almost anyone would be, was placed into the foster care system. He never stayed anywhere for longer than a week. His humor became a shield for him, an easy way to seem like he was fine when he wasn’t. After about a year, he ran away. And then joined the circus. Why, you ask? Because I said so; I grow these flowers and if you don’t like it then you can leave my garden

Fox was always a flexible kid. He’d been in gymnastics classes since he was five. And, as it would turn out, he was damn good on a trapeze. It wasn’t a very big circus, just some small family-run traveling one, but it gave him a place to stay and an environment that welcomed him, and that was good enough for him.

He was with the circus for about four years, up until he was eighteen, so technically this isn’t his childhood anymore, but I’m gonna keep going because I want to.

The Starwritten Society was following a lead on an underground lab somewhere around the place where Fox’s circus was performing. Kennedy was actually on the mission, although she doesn’t do many of those anymore after she got injured in the field and such and I’ll talk about that later. Anyway.

The team of agents who were on the search came across the circus, and figured it was as good of a place as any to try and find the person they were looking for, Eleanor Sylvidas. She was actually in the crowd watching, and there was a confrontation after the show. Fox went to check it out, being the one generally in charge of telling people to cool it whenever small fights broke out between customers, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do in a situation where both parties happen to have guns pointed at each other. Especially when Eleanor pointed her gun at his head and told the agents that if they didn’t back down, she’d shoot him.

That wasn’t exactly something that happened to him on a day-to-day basis.

Of course, a fight broke out. Actually, Fox made the first move, he literally tried to snatch this woman’s gun out of her hand. It didn’t work, but the shot she took at him definitely missed, and then there was a very chaotic fight scene and Eleanor ended up losing and got arrested. Course, they still had to find the lab so they could get the kids out of there. Fox was very helpful in that aspect, too.

Once the mission had been completed, he was offered a place as a trainee in the Society. Those who were there will say that the offer was accepted immediately, but he was actually a bit reluctant. He made the choice to go, however, and it proved to be one of the best decisions he’s made.

——————————————

tw; abuse, violence, gun mention

Wilson. Where do I start? He has trauma, definitely, although so does practically everyone who works with the Starwritten Society.

See, Wilson is actually one of the people who were rescued from labs as children, but there are two things that sets him apart from others.

1. He wasn’t kidnapped at birth or after he developed abilities. He was literally created in a lab, which has led to a lot of self-doubt due to being raised to believe he wasn’t “natural”.

2. The Society aims to rescue all powered children from labs as soon as possible, and since many of them are kidnapped at a young age, they try to get them out at least before they turn 10. Wilson wasn’t found until he was a bit older than 17.

He wasn’t even given a name while he was in the lab. He was just “Project Firebird”, with abilities including fire and heat manipulation, as well as immunity to those two things, plus flight and enhanced strength, speed, and stamina. Wilson was made for the sole purpose of being a weapon.

The person running the lab? An absolute fucker of a man named Alastor Killigan. Him? I cannot put into words how much I hate him. He just really fucking sucks, and not in a “loveable bastard“ way. I honestly wish I could physically teleport into my daydreams just to set this bitch on fire.

Anyway, he’s running this whole operation. He’s got guards, he’s got other scientists who he may or may not have blackmailed into helping him, he’s got people who work for him. And this isn’t the first time he’s done this. That’s right, Grey isn’t the first time he’s tried to weaponize a kid. He got caught by the Society last time, but escaped, and now he knows that he has to keep moving around constantly.

So the first 17 years of Grey’s life were just constant training and experiments and tests and moving around and being raised to believe that he was a literal monster and wasn’t worth anything if he wasn’t a weapon. Fucked up, right? But, see, the Society had no idea he existed. They found the lab kids through keeping tabs on recent kidnappings and disappearances. Grey wasn’t on any of those lists. The only people aware of Grey’s existence were Alastor and the people working for him.

In fact, the Society only found him by chance. They managed to track Alastor’s location and find him to arrest him, and they found Grey while they were doing that. There was a huge fight, but Alastor lost, and Grey got rescued. Things were looking up.

Because the Society legally adopts all the orphaned kids they take in, Grey needed a name. He also just needed a name in general. The lady filling out the papers told him he could just pick something, and he panicked. He wasn’t used to being allowed to make his own decisions. There was a plaque on the wall with a list of people who’d been top agents in the past, and he just read one of those.

Grey Wilson.

So, y’know, that‘s why it says he was a top agent in 1937. Just a heads up.

Have I talked about the Society’s different departments yet? No? Maybe I’ll do that later, but anyway - one of the divisions is basically therapy, because some of these kiddos have severe trauma and need help. Grey worked with a woman named Mags for a few years, and then started training for the High-Risk Rescue department. He was taking charge of his own future! Yayyyy!

Oh yeah and then Alastor escaped - again, and Mags went missing on the same day and it was presumed Alastor killed her on his way out, and Grey hasn’t seen either of them since. He’s been working in the Society for about 22 years now, trying to make sure that nobody goes through what he has. He decided early on that he didn’t want to use his abilities again, ever, and it’s become his personal secret, with very few people knowing.

#paramay #paraportal #my paras #my paracosm #paracosm: The Starwritten Society #Para: Hollister #Para: Fox #Para: Wilson #Para: Kennedy #tw homophobia #tw suicide #tw death mention #tw murder #tw arson #tw gun mention #tw abuse #Oh boy I just realized the picture of Tom Hiddleston from my first Paramay post is the header photo #for the whole tag now #well ain’t that fuckin embarrassing lol

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justalittlelitnerd · 4 years

Text

Angry God by L.J. Shen

Man this book was a wild ride from start to finish. I knew from Pretty Reckless and Broken Knight that Vaughn had issues that were borderline sociopathic (all of the main characters in the previous books comment on his weird habits and lack of emotions) but nothing prepared me for his almost psychotic behavior.

The book starts with the history of Vaughn and Lenora’s relationship which began on a family trip where he killed jellyfish and they bonded over a brownie. It then continued to them both attending a summer art program at Lenora’s father’s academy in London when they were preteens and Lenora witnesses Vaughn in a compromising position. A 13-year-old Vaughn breaks into Lenora’s room, darkly threatening her if she breathes a word of what she saw.

Five years later, they haven’t seen each other since that night, Lenora’s mom has died, her father and sister have moved to the US to they very place where Vaughn attends high school, and prior to her senior year they convince her to join them. Neither of them are the same, both darker and damaged by their teenage years. Lenora swears she won’t let Vaughn rattle her even as he makes it his mission to make her life a living hell. Between stalking her, breaking into her house, making her stitch him up when he’s been low-key (I say low-key because it wasn’t fully intentional) stabbed, drawing the wrath of all the mean girls to her, and a million other things that are absolutely insane they keep getting drawn together by a sort of unhealthy possessiveness & obsession.

This book was by far my least favorite of the three and that was in part to the lack of a clear trigger warning. I knew based on the previous books that the family dynamics would be complex and the characters would have an unexpected darkness to them. But nothing prepared me for the violence, the public sex acts (though it was mentioned in the previous novels), the BLOOD PLAY (just really not my thing), and the graphic sexual assault/molestation. I had a feeling going into this book that something happened to Vaughn when he was younger to create his issues with sex and intimacy, but I was by no means expecting it to be graphicly depicted. Talking about the psychological effects of molestation is one thing (it still needs a trigger warning, but it’s important to discuss) but actually showing the acts is completely another. As soon as I realized what was happening I skimmed the retelling because it was just too hard to read and I couldn’t imagine how someone would feel if they had similar experiences.

So basically approach this book with caution.

Keep reading for my favorite quotes from this crazy novel.

Ars Longa, Vita Brevis. Art is long, life is short. The message was clear: the only way to immortality was through art. Mediocrity was profanity. It was a dog-eat-dog world, and we were leashed upon each other, hungry, desperate, and blindly idealistic.

We had the talent, the status, the money, and the opportunity. But if we were silver, Vaughn Spencer was gold. If we were good, he was brilliant. And when we shone? He gleamed with the force of a thousand suns, charring everything around him. It was like God had carved him differently, paid extra attention to detail while creating him. His cheekbones were sharper than scalpel blades, his eyes the palest shade of blue in nature, his hair the inkiest black. He was so white I could see the veins under his skin, but his mouth was red as fresh blood—warm, alive, and deceiving.

Lenora didn’t strike me as a party girl. She had the strange gene, the one that made her stick out like a sore thumb wherever she went, even without the Maleficent wardrobe. I could tell because I had it, too. We were weeds, rising from the concrete, ruining the generic landscape of this yacht club town.

Watching her react to me was like feeling the first rays of sun after a long winter.

“Y’all gonna slow-dance to a Billy Joel song? If so, don’t forget to leave room for Jesus. And Moses. And Muhammad. And also Post Malone, because hey, he’s kind of a religion now, too.”

My heart accelerated to a dangerous speed, fireflies bursting forth as though escaping a Mason jar. Kissing him was like standing on the edge of a cliff. Nice view, but you knew it was deadly. Still, a stupid, irrational, dangerously alive part of you still wanted to hurl yourself down to meet your own demise. I felt his lips on more than just my lips. I felt them in my fingertips, all the way down to my toes. I felt them when my skin broke into goosebumps.

Heartbreak was a mystical, double-edged sword from where I was standing. And I had no desire to experience the full range of emotions in a car crash of feelings. Not ever going there.

“I don’t believe you, but I’ll still catch you,” he said. “I will always catch you, the fucking dumbass that I am.” “What do you mean?” “You soften me.” “Why?” “Because I don’t want to fucking kill you! You’re too fun to fuck with. Now Get. The. Hell. Down.”

There was nothing more beautiful than watching Vaughn Spencer let go.

I said nothing, not really in the mood to correct her and tell her I hadn’t asked whether she believed in ghosts or not because I knew the answer already. It was what made her presence bearable. When we were in a room together, all our ghosts were waiting on the other side of the door. I could hear them.

Strong words, but time, I found, had two opposite effects. Either it made the pain dull and evaporated the anger or it allowed you to stew in your fury, multiplying your rage.

"Don’t take this the wrong way, but you are a bit unhinged.” He said “a bit” for the sake of civility. Truth was, you couldn’t be a bit unhinged, just like you couldn’t be “a bit” dead. Being crazy demanded commitment, which I certainly showed.

He came to her room every night. Not that I was keeping tabs or anything. I was just in the neighborhood when it happened. And by in “the neighborhood,” I mean in her hallway, lurking. And by “in her hallway, lurking,” I mean clearly I needed professional help, an intervention, and a fucking life. I found myself standing behind a Louise Bourgeois statue for hours daily, waiting like some kind of a rabid Belieber.

I pushed the door open, hoping to find her working or reading or converting to a religion where she could only have sex with people named Vaughn Spencer.

I knew Vaughn was incapable of falling in love, but I wanted to steal pieces of him. His time. His talent. His words. His smiles. And yes, his virginity, too. I was a thief of everything Vaughn Spencer.

“I am hell bound, and you are heaven sent. You’re the first girl I ever looked at and thought…I want to kiss her. I want to own her. I wanted you to look at me the way you look at your fantasy book—with a mixture of awe, anticipation, and warmth. I gave you a brownie, hoping you’d remember me sweetly, praying the sugar rush would spin a positive feel around that vacation. I remember how you looked at me when you saw me killing jellyfish. I never wanted you to look at me like that ever again.”

At nineteen, I no longer had a beating heart. I wore a death mask everywhere I went, and I was thirsty for revenge. For his blood. There was just one, tiny problem that did not occur to me beforehand. Namely, his niece, Lenora, who’d shoved a heart back into my chest. Now that it was beating again, I didn’t know what to do.

We were an unfinished business, personal and always walking the tightrope between love and hate. But we were always something, Len. We will always be something. You might move on and marry someone else, have his children and get your happily ever after, but you will never be completely done with me. And that’s the small chunk of mirth I allow myself. That’s my half of the brownie. That’s my one, perfect summer moment in the South of France, watching the face of the girl I will love forever for the very first time. Because, Lenora Astalis, this is love. It’s always been love. Love with many masquerade masks, twisted turns, and ugly truths. I don’t know where I’ll go from here, but I’ll be wishing you were there...It is worthy and beautiful, just like you. I wish I were strong enough not to do what I need to do. I wish I could get the girl. Because, Len, you are her. You are that girl. My safe place. My asymmetric happiness. My Edgar Allan Poe poem. You are my Smiths, and my favorite fantasy book, my brownie, and summer vacations in lush places. There will never be anyone else like you. And that’s exactly why you deserve someone better than me. Love, Vaughn

He just hung in the pregnant air, suspended by strings of cruel hope and tragic impossibility. Heartbreak had a taste, and it exploded in my mouth every time I tried to smile.

“You saw what I wanted you to see. I think I always had this idea that you should be my savior, but naturally, the stubborn ass that I am, I didn’t understand it. Now I do. I want you to save me today, and tomorrow, and in a month, and in a year, and in a decade. Save me. Give me your best and your worst and everything in between. I’ve always watched my dad loving my mom and thought he was stuck in a state of insanity. But he wasn’t. Turns out, love really can be that fucking intense.”

#angry god #l.j. shen #all saints high #vaughn spencer #lenora astalis #vaughn x lenora #hs romance #enemies to lovers #bully romance #new adult romance #romance books #books #book blog #booklr #quotes #book quotes

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writingquestionsanswered · 5 years

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Hey, I found your blog by complete accident and now love it. You have so many wonderful insights! So let me ask. I started, a long time ago, a work in progress that involves the main character being the illegitimate but only daughter of a dying king, who decides to make her legally his heir. I am struggling to decide now (after starting the story) on whether or not she was aware of who her father was. I feel like her not knowing is too cliché? Any advice?

The Unknown Heir Trope

The “unknown heir” trope is definitely one that has become cliché due to frequent, unoriginal usage. And the truth of the matter is, it wasn’t that uncommon for illegitimate heirs to be known and sometimes acknowledged, not just by the king but by his council and court.

We’ll get to that in a moment, but first, make sure you clarify why your king is making this illegitimate child an heir. What happened to his legitimate children? What happened to his siblings’ legitimate children? As long as there’s no one else in the line of succession, it would make sense that he’s legitimizing a bastard child–though there can’t be any older bastard children out there. Your character would need to be the oldest, or at least from a classier mother.

So, here’s why it was common for illegitimate children of the monarch to be known…

One of the most important duties of any monarch is to produce an heir to the throne, along with several backup heirs. But especially in times past, this wasn’t always that easy. High rates of disease and infant mortality meant a lot of pregnancies ended in miscarriage, stillbirth, or death soon after birth. Some children survived several months into infancy, or even into early childhood, and still ended up dying. Henry VIII fathered at least eleven children, but only four survived beyond childhood, and two were females, which during his era were not considered to be worthy of reigning, despite the fact that both his daughters ended up inheriting the throne. (In fact, one was the famous Elizabeth I.) This lack of a suitable male heir was the primary reason for his infamous marriage record, because a monarch’s throne isn’t secure without a few suitable heirs in place. If a king dies without an heir, there’s going to be a tussle for the throne, and who knows who will end up on it? So, a king with heirs was thought to be a more powerful king. But during his first marriage, only one daughter had survived infancy, so when he fathered a thriving illegitimate son with one of his wife’s ladies in waiting, it made sense to acknowledge him. He was showing his kingdom, “Hey, look! I can produce a thriving boy. It’s not me, it’s her.” Henry’s illegitimate son was named after his father and given the surname FitzRoy, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “Son of the King.”

One of Edward III’s sons, John of Gaunt, had several illegitimate children with a woman named Katherine Swynford. They were given the surname Beaufort and eventually legitimized. It was through this line that we eventually got Henry VII, who was the father of Henry VIII.

So, since your king presumably has no other heirs, or if he did something happened to them, it makes sense that he probably at least kept tabs on his illegitimate child. And, if he thought there was any chance he may someday have to legitimize this child and make them his heir, he probably made sure that they were brought up as royally as possible. Also, his council and possibly even his court would have known about this child, so it’s likely the child had at least some idea of who they were.

At the very least, if you can contrive some reason why it was hidden from the child, they probably at least heard whispers and saw enough clues that made them suspicious.

Feel free to message me if you want to talk more about it or need help working out the details. This is the kind of stuff I love best!

By the way, I’m glad you found me. Thanks for following!

#writing #writing tips #writing help #writing advice #wqaadvice

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amandajoyce118 · 5 years

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Captain Marvel Easter Eggs And References

My goal for Easter egg lists is always to get them up within a week of a movie’s opening, or the same night that a television episode airs, but I’ve had an injured wrist/thumb that has made writing difficult. So, Captain Marvel hasn’t been delayed because of a busy life, but because I’ve been trying to rest my hand. I’ve been wearing a brace and thumb stabilizer for most of my day for the last few weeks, so I should be getting back to normal soon.

As usual with my Easter egg lists, this list assumes you’ve seen the movie, and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for that matter. There will be spoilers. You have been warned. I’m sticking mainly with comic and MCU references, so you won’t find a lot of pop culture ones here. If you want someone to give you the 90s rundown, I’m sure you can find it online.

The Stan Lee Tribute

Every MCU movie opens with the same sequence, highlighting the heroes that are part of the universe. This is the first Marvel movie to hit theaters since Stan Lee’s death, so they did something a little different. That sequence instead highlights him. The color scheme and the background text remains the same, but none of the actors are there, just shots of Stan Lee from different movies and red carpet events. I won’t lie. I’ve teared up a little every time I’ve seen it.

Hala

Both the name of the main planet and the capital city in the Kree Empire. MCU fans saw it before in Guardians of the Galaxy, though it was a bit darker and didn’t seem as tech-friendly. It makes me wonder just what happened in the years in between.

“There are tabs for that.”

Not an Easter egg, but a tiny bit of world building. Going into this movie, I think most people knew that Carol Danvers AKA Vers was really from Earth. But, I find it interesting that Yon-Rogg is so quick to offer Carol a Kree sleeping aid. It reinforces the idea we’ve seen on Agents of SHIELD that human and Kree physiology are relatively compatible.

Supreme Intelligence

Less of an Easter egg and more of a direct comic book adaptation, the Supreme Intelligence is also an A.I. in the comics. There, it’s made up of all of the minds of the smartest and most distinguished Kree after they day. That’s presumably what Yon-Rogg’s “join the collective” comment meant in the movie as well. The idea of it becoming the person you most admire is created for the movie.

Carol’s Inhibitor

The comics have tried many different inhibitors on characters with super powers over the years. The X-Men usually have collars. Alien species like their neural inhibitors though, which is what Carol appears to have when she trains with Yon-Rogg. Kudos to the MCU for keeping their tech consistent across movies and TV since it appears to be the same type as what Quake ends up with in the future on Agents of SHIELD. Interesting that Daisy’s is embedded in her brain tissue while Carol’s is on the surface of her skin. Something changed in the decades in between - probably the fact that Carol was able to disable hers. Then again, so was Daisy.

Starforce

This is considered a group of supervillains in the comics, so perhaps movie fans might have expected their turn if they knew that. A few of the members are different in the comics. For example, Yon-Rogg isn’t a member, but Ronan the Accuser is. ScreenRant did a good job at running down who’s who in the movie version since they’re all comic book characters. You can see that here.

Torfa

Torfa is a relatively new creation in the planets. It first popped up in 2014, which tells you the movie pulls from a lot of the new comic book continuity. Like the movie, Torfa was a planet where refugees lived. Also like the movie, not all of them survived the hostile atmosphere, though in the comics, it was chemicals, not Kree that were hostile. Carol also had it out with Starlord’s comic book dad there.

Talos

Talos is in the comics, but apparently he’s also a Star Trek reference. Not a Trekkie, though I do find the franchise interesting, so I’ll direct you to this article for a full explanation.

Carol’s Look

One of Carol’s most iconic looks in the comics is her mohawk. She gets it for the movie in the form of her helmet keeping her hair in place. Her uniform, with the green color scheme, is one all of Starforce uses, but it’s also a nod to the original Captain Marvel’s uniform in the comics. In fact, the color changing of her suit appears to be a nod to a few other costumes she had in the comics too. The red, yellow, and blue came later. I’m just glad we didn’t have her bathing-suit like uniform of her Ms. Marvel days.

Maria “Photon” Rambeau

Maria is created for the movie (her daughter is from the comics), and though we learn more about her much later, we see her callsign on her jet during Carol’s early flashbacks. Photon is actually one of the many superhero names Monica Rambeau uses in the comics. Nice touch.

Carol’s Family

Carol’s family flashbacks only ever show us her brother and her father. We don’t get much of an idea about her homelife other than her relatives not wanting her to be as rough as the boys. That’s very much a part of her comic book background. Her father favors her brother so much that, even though Carol has the better grades growing up, he only pays for her brother to get a university education. Carol joins the Air Force for the free tuition and to prove she’s as good as the boys to her father. (It’s also interesting that we never see her mother since a recent retcon in the comics has her mother as a Kree refuge and Carol’s birth name as Car-El as she’s half Kree.) It’s also interesting to note that a lot of Carol’s major stories in her classic comics involve her losing her memories and having to figure out who she is all over again.

Lieutenant Trouble

It’s a cute nickname for Monica with Carol’s military background. It’s also a nod to another little girl Carol new in the comics with the same nickname and Monica being a police officer in the comics when she’s introduced as an adult. She’s also from Louisiana, just like the Rambeaus are in the movie.

Dr. Lawson

We’ve got some genderbending going on for the new generation. In the comics, the original Captain Marvel is Mar-Vell, a Kree soldier sent to Earth to monitor the planet as it gets destroyed by Galactus. Mar-Vell comes to sympathize with humanity and turns on the Kree to help the humans. He also takes the guise of a scientist with NASA named Dr. Lawson while he’s undercover. Sounds familiar, except her Lawson and Mar-Vell are a woman and the race she sympathizes with are the Skrulls. The original story also had Mar-Vell and Carol ending up in an accident with a piece of Kree technology that left Carol with his powers. I love the twist on this origin story. There’s plenty of nods to the source material without Carol’s jealousy of Mar-Vell from the comics, and without her playing second fiddle to a heroic dude for a long time.

Project PEGASUS

In the comics, Project PEGASUS is a unit researching alternative energy sources. It also acts as a prison for those with superpowers. We’ve actually seen mention of it in the MCU before. For the MCU, it was created in the 1940s when Howard Stark found the Tesseract in the ocean while looking for Captain America. It was a joint venture between the Airforce, NASA, and what would become SHIELD to study it. It gets a mention in a few of the tie-in comics for the MCU movies, but specifically, Tony Stark mentions he wants files on it to JARVIS when he’s going through his dad’s stuff in Iron Man 2. A sign for it also appears on the wall in a SHIELD facility in Agents of SHIELD.

Blockbuster And Radio Shack

A+ choices for the businesses for Carol to run into. Two companies that are essentially extinct 20 years later, but were cutting edge at the time. (From what I understand the Blockbuster scenes were actually filmed at the last Blockbuster left in the US. It’s in Arizona. Go figure.)

True Lies

True Lies gets noticed in the video store because Carol shoots the standee, but the spy movie is known for a fighter jet sequence, and it was the first true “blockbuster” movie because it cost over $100 million to make - unheard of in 1994. The fighter jet prop used in it was also repurposed and used in The Avengers, so it’s like Easter egg inception here.

Universal Translator

So much is made about alien races speaking English in the MCU. In the comics, pretty much anyone traveling through space has a universal translator built into their ship or their helmets. This one off mention from Carol reminds us of that, though she’s likely speaking English anyway.

Coulson the Skrull

Phil Coulson appears as a rookie agent in the 90s. I’d wager this is one of his first big jobs since he’s still on evidence collection. You know him from the Iron Man and Avengers movies as well as, you know, Agents of SHIELD. I like that he’s the one a Skrull simulates instead of Fury because there were so many theories about who could be a Skrull when they were announced for this movie. It’s also a nice misdirect from Marvel that there’s concept art out there of Fury’s transformation from a Skrull, but not Coulson’s.

And, I mean, Nick Fury’s not an Easter egg, so I don’t need to remind you he basically started the MCU with Hulk and Iron Man, right? Though this movie does make me worry about his driving record in the MCU. He seems to end up in a lot of accidents.

Stan Lee And Mallrats

Stan Lee’s cameo is extra special because it’s also a nod to a real life cameo of his. How very meta. The script he’s holding on the train is for Kevin Smith’s Mallrats, where he really did say the line, “trust me, True Believers,” something he also said a lot in his editorials in the comics.

Kelly Sue Deconnick

When Carol gets off the train, she passes a woman with red hair and glasses in her walk. That’s Deconnick. She wrote the Captain Marvel comic book series a few years ago that this movie pulls a lot of its nods (and aesthetic) from. We can likely credit her with the surge in popularity Carol’s seen the last few years, and the reason she had a movie in development at all.

1989

In case there’s anything noteworthy for you in the year Carol ended up in Hala: Ron Perelman bought Marvel Entertainment Group, the massive X-Men Inferno story arc played out, the new Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD comic launched, and Jubilee made her comic book debut.

1995

Likewise, for Carol’s return to Earth: the Age of Apocalypse comics launched, Thor made his 400th comic book appearance, comic books like The Fantastic Four and The Amazing Spider-Man had landmark issues as well, and a bunch of Punisher comics were cancelled, only for Marvel to turn around and launch a new Punisher comic later in the year. The Skrull Kill Crew mini series also launched.

SHIELD Logo

Thanks, Carol for calling out the fact that a covert group shouldn’t put their logo on everything. Fans have been saying that for years. Also, nice touch that it’s not the sleek and modern logo we see in Agents of SHIELD, but the older one seen on the Wall of Valor in the MCU before.

“Smile for me.”

I know that Brie Larson was asked about this moment in an interview and said it wasn’t an Easter egg. But the fact that she was criticized so much by male fans for not smiling in promotional materials made me add this to the list.

SHIELD Medical Examiner

Nelson Franklin played him. He also appeared in an episode of Agents of SHIELD. Maybe they’re just relatives.

A “Full Bird Colonel”

Carol calls Fury this during their chat at Pancho’s. His military history before joining SHIELD is right in line with the comics. Of course, he was from New York, not Alabama there. He also says he likes the B’s and spent time in Budapest. Not the same mission as Hawkeye and Black Widow though, right?

“Just Fury”

Nick Fury also points out that he only goes by Fury. Not Nicholas. Not Nick. Just Fury. I intend on going back and finding when in the MCU someone calls him Nick to his face. Maybe it’s like a distress signal for him.

“You look like someone’s disaffected niece.”

Fury says this to Carol when he points out her clothes not fitting in on a secret base. But it reminded me of the comments about her looking like Emily VanCamp, who plays Peggy Carter’s niece Sharon.

The Welcome Wagon

Carol’s not familiar with the term, though Fury is. Probably because that’s what they call the intake program for new “assets” with SHIELD. That’s what Coulson eventually wants Skye to do when he adds her to his team in Agents of SHIELD.

Ronan The Accuser

You probably recognize Lee Pace’s character from Guardians of the Galaxy. In that movie, he was after a little purple gem that turned out to be the Power Stone. He’s a Kree purist, out to conquer neighboring lands and make sure the Kree stay in power. He’s not all that different here. His mention of coming back for the weapon and the woman at the end is likely a nod to him pursuing other Infinity Stones, even if it’s not clear that he knows what they are here. By the time of Guardians, he’s got whole rituals he’s participating in, which includes painting his face in Blue Kree blood. It doesn’t look like he’s quite that fanatical here. He does, however, inspire loyalty in Korath, who eventually works for him directly, which does make me wonder what happened to Yon-Rog after this and how much Korath told Ronan about their encounter with Carol on Earth as well.

“That’s a flerken.”

Goose likely gets his name from Top Gun, but he gets his alien identity from the comics. In the comics from a few years ago, Carol has a companion on her spaceship - a cat named Chewie. As Rocket Raccoon points out to her, “that’s no cat. That’s a flerken.” Like Talos, Rocket was right. Chewie ends up having a whole litter of flerkens. Goose just eats things and people at convenient times.

Women Flying Combat

Maria notes that women weren’t allowed to fly combat in 1989. That’s true. They weren’t allowed to fly combat until 1993, a few years before the movie is set. The first woman to get to after the ban lifted? That would be Jeannie M. Leavitt. Now Brigadier General Leavitt, she actually trained Brie Larson for her role in the film and appears in the new Air Force ads.

ASIS

The name given to Lawson’s new aircraft, as mentioned briefly by Maria, is ASIS. It’s a nod to Marvel’s Ultimate universe where that version of Captain Marvel developed it. Carol was his head of security, and his girlfriend, in that universe.

A Kree Blood Transfusion

We find out that when Carol was brought to Hala, she needed a blood transfusion to stay alive. I like this nod to GH-325 on Agents of SHIELD, but it does make me wonder why Carol was saved from going mad. Is it because that particular Kree on the series had something in his blood that made everyone end up with it driven to find the ancient city? Is it because Carol was already brainwashed into thinking she was Kree? It’s interesting that Kree blood often comes with messing with memories though.

A Kree Imperial Cruiser

Mar-Vell much have had some military connections when she left Hala and came to Earth if she had a cruiser. We’ve seen them before in the MCU commanded by Ronan’s people. The design here is basically the same, but again, it looks like she’s got more tech, likely because the scientific nature of her work. It does make me wonder if she ever ran into the other smaller ships stationed near Earth that were monitoring the planet for Inhuman activity. (Remember the ones left in orbit to destroy the inhuman abominations in Agents of SHIELD?)

The Tesseract

The Space Stone certainly gets a lot of mileage in the MCU. Hydra wanted it, SHIELD experimented with it, Loki stole it, and now, we found out what else SHIELD was doing with it besides Fury’s secret weapons making team. Lawson, though we see her as part of the air force, is a SHIELD scientist. Like I said, PEGASUS is a joint effort by a few groups. She’s using the Tesseract for space travel though, like it should be.

Quadjet

Nice touch that Carol and Maria use a quadjet to rescue the Skrulls. Why? Because just a decade later SHIELD is using the later model - a quinjet.

Carol Stopping The Warheads

This imagery, like a lot of what comes with Carol glowing and flying, is straight out of the comics. She actually flies into Earth’s atmosphere and slows a sentinel from crashing to Earth in one comic. It looks nearly exactly like this sequence, except, you know, there are other Avengers with her in the comics.

Sizzling Power Lines

We hear the crackle of electricity and see power moving along the lines when Carol brings Yon-Rogg to Earth. This looks to be a nod to how her power works in the comics. She doesn’t just magically produce photo blasts. She absorbs ambient energy from her surroundings to fuel herself. That’s why she doesn’t technically need to eat, or even why she doesn’t need to breathe in the vacuum of space. Her power converts energy around her to sources to sustain her.

Mother Flerken

This has to be a nod to the fact that MCU movies don’t drop F-bombs, though Samuel L. Jackson loves them.

Mar-Vell. Two Words.

Fury mistakenly calls Mar-Vell Marvel. Carol corrects him. That’s kind of how the Captain Marvel term came to be in an alternate universe in the comics though. No one could pronounce Mahr-Vell in the Ultimate universe, so people called him Captain Marvel.

“We found her, and we weren’t even looking.”

I know that this is a nod to Fury’s eventual gathering of the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye together. But this is also a reminder that for decades, SHIELD was seeking out people with powers. As Agents of SHIELD showed their audience, some of those people were then locked up and exploited by Hydra agents working undercover. SHIELD still likely has a lot of super powered skeletons in its closet.

Mid Credit Scene

What a surprise. Captain Marvel will show up after the pager is activated in Avengers: Endgame. We’re all surprised, right? (Sarcasm, I know.)

Special Thanks

During the credits, there are a slew of comic creators listed in the special thanks section. Among them are heavyweights like Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Waid, Ralph Macchio, Gene Conway, Jack Kirby, and Chris Claremont. I honestly missed that section the first time and didn’t read them fast enough to catch more. But they aren’t directly responsible for Captain Marvel, but instead had a huge effect on Marvel comics as a whole with massive runs for different properties.

Post Credit Scene

Goose coughing up that tesseract was necessary for Fury to later use to attempt to develop weapons, just like Hydra, in a secret SHIELD program that Captain America won’t like in The Avengers.

A few side notes:

Coulson’s Gut

To be perfectly honest, I feel like Coulson’s part was originally just a generic rookie SHIELD agent in the script. I think when they got the chance to add Clark Gregg to the cast, a few things changed, like this exchange between Fury and Carol about going with your gut instead of following orders. That has always been Coulson’s thing. And, even though Fury is always yelling at people to follow orders, it’s actually how he operates too. It’s why he’s always set up ways for himself, and his proteges, to work around the system. I like that it was touched on here since it’s such a big part of Agents of SHIELD.

Coulson’s Kree Knowledge

Does this create a plot hole? Coulson specifically remarks to Fury at the end of the movie that he heard a Kree took out his eye. But when Lady Sif made her appearance on Agents of SHIELD, Coulson had no visible reaction to her telling him that Kree were one of the blue skinned aliens she knows of. Also, does Coulson even know they were (mostly) blue? After all, he might not since his only face to face with a “Kree” was Carol. It makes me wonder if he suspected the alien that provided GH-325 was Kree all along. Obviously, this is just the kind of thing that happens when universes expand, and it can all be explained away with SHIELD’s use of their memory machine on him, but it still makes me wonder.

Fury And The Women Around Him

I love the theme in the MCU of Fury surrounding himself with powerful women. We’ve seen that Maria Hill is his right hand over and over - even when she was working for Stark. We also saw that he and Natasha Romanoff were close. He trusted her to do the dirty work Steve Rogers wouldn’t. We also know he trusted Sharon Carter and Melinda May to report to him directly during their spy work. Now, Carol Danvers inspires the Avengers Initiative and he invites Maria to work with him after spending one mission with her. I want to meet Fury’s mom. Because she must have been one hell of a woman.

That’s it. Anything I missed? Feel free to tell me because there’s no way I caught every Easter egg.

#captain marvel #marvel comics #marvel easter eggs #agents of shield #iron man #easter eggs

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seenashwrite · 5 years

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It’s Always Sunny In Lebanon

Status: Complete Word Count: 4.1K Category: One-shot, Humor, Holidays, Christmas, Cross-over (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) Rating: (Older) Teen & Up Character(s): People and places you’ll recognize [be surprised, eh?] Warnings: A solid section of, um, coarse language Pseudo-Warning: If you aren’t familiar with the show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, this one may not be for you, just FYI. [wink] Author’s Note(s): For @ellen-reincarnated1967’s “Andi Turns 36: SPN & It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia Crack Challenge” - hope I did your favorite shows justice! I strenuously recommend readers “hear” the non-dialogue parts in your best-worst approximation of a super-snooty British accent, as if a posh older gentleman is telling you of this debacle (for instance, our main character’s name should be pronounced “Buh-nurd”). Imagine your guide is seated with perfect posture in a leather chair near a fireplace, snifter in hand, looking down his nose at you. And of course there’s a damn ascot and a jacket with embroidered monogram, I’m not playing around, neither should your mind’s eye; more post-story Overall Summary: This is the story of the largely unmentioned Bevell son, who was born out of wedlock many years ago. A reject from the MoLs, he was shipped off to ‘Merica in disgrace, and after prompting from his nephew, is determined to solve the mystery of his missing sister, Lady Antonia “Brain-Diddle” Bevell. Overall Summary Spoiler Alert: This does not go well.

Bernard Bevell was born to one Anastasia Bevell at the worst possible time. She was fifteen, finishing what would be her final year at a private girls' school, established for and populated by the most posh and elite young ladies, the ones destined for greatness. In Anastasia's case, this meant a life full of action and adventure, fulfilling family tradition by becoming a member of a prestigious - albeit unknown to most - society. All she had to do was make it to the end of term and pack up her room.

She hadn't known she was with child, as he wasn't a terribly active house guest, as it were, quite slug-like, in fact. Then when a particularly raucous round of gas sent Anastasia to the loo, she hadn't been perched on the throne for long when there came Bernard. It was, to be sure, a less-than-illustrious beginning.

Bernard's life followed suit.

Anastasia was not allowed to proceed with her plans, in large part because of his existence. No amount of pleading and pledges of sizable donations on her father's part were accepted. Everyone knew the situation, and as everyone's opinion mattered, this vexed him, which vexed his wife, which in turn brought their ire down upon their daughter, declaring that her piece of the family fortune would now be bestowed upon her other siblings, and them alone.

Though Anastasia had not a maternal bone in her body, when she fled from the family estate she brought her son, and everything she could stuff into as many suitcases as would fit into her Aston Martin. She departed in the dead of night, stopping only to transfer Bernard from her valise to the floorboard after an impressive nappy fill. He had inherited his mother's... constitution.

It should be said, neither Bernard - or Bernie, as he came to be called - nor Anastasia were Bevells in the beginning, and for several years after the estrangement, they struggled, despite the chunk of cash Anastasia stole from her father's safe on the way out. The ancient, rotting duplex they called home for the first six years of Bernie's life was never without action, however; they had frequent visitors, many of whom he saw more than once, and they always brought him toys to play with when they'd go upstairs with Anastasia to discuss business. She explained to Bernie that she was a bank of sorts, and that they were stopping by to make deposits.

Bernie knew better, though; they played, too. Those old, creaky floorboards in combination with the old, creaky mattress didn't muffle much. Bernie couldn't wait to be a grown-up, so he could jump on the bed and laugh and shout without getting scolded.

While his mother was cold, to say the least, and she did her business double-time at holidays, she never failed to make them special, arranging virtual parades of pudgy cupids and tall Easter bunnies, and then best of all was Christmastime. Father Christmas after Father Christmas after Father Christmas - sometimes two and three at once! - would stop by, and even the occasional troupe of elves would show up. Bernie was proud for the connections his brilliant mother had made. The neighbor children didn't believe him, so he'd invite them over to see; their parents never let them stay. He felt sorry for them.

The toys were fantastic at these times of year, what with the bows and arrows, and the chocolates and candies, and the army men and train sets. By the time he was five years old, they had moved on to lodgings more suited to his mother's taste, and the holidays were still filled with sweets and presents, but it wasn't the same. He hoped after they moved that all of her business associates - especially the Father Christmases - had found new banks for their deposits, ones as exceptional as his mother.

These dealings allowed his mother to integrate herself back into society a bit, and soon she became a Lady, because she'd married Lord Bevell - which is what Bernie was instructed to call his new stepfather. Bernie never did learn his name, though he was allowed to call the Lord's mother Grandmother Bevell. He was largely cared for by a nanny here, a butler there, and his adopted grandmother was loving - she'd made the attic quite comfortable for him, in his estimation. And when his sister came along, he learned she'd been named for their grandmother: Antonia. Bernie himself had been named after the dog.

As time went on, Bernie's behavior became of concern to all parties - his initial royal flush was not his last. His adoption into the Bevell clan brought along with it some perks, such as a sizable allowance and private schooling. His academic career began with a rousing start, wherein he failed first grade, going on to fail out of many schools, including the last resort, militaristic boarding school where, at seventeen, he was the oldest freshman they'd ever had. The gambling ring he'd begun, including but not limited to betting on squirrel battle royales, ensured his departure, and by the time he was twenty, he'd torn through most of the modest trust fund bestowed upon him at eighteen.

But most concerning to Lord and Lady Bevell was Bernie's influence on Antonia. Lord Bevell was also a member of the Men of Letters, like his wife's father, and while Antonia's mother's antics had not been forgotten by the elder members, that she had done well for herself in the end had not gone unnoticed. Antonia's education and training had already begun, courtesy of her father, at a young age. She was exceptional, earning high marks in all subjects with ease, an accomplished equestrian, could best any competitor in fencing.

And she could manipulate the hell out of anyone who stood in her path.

Antonia loved her older half-brother to the extent he was of use, case in point: taking her to the more questionable areas of the city so she could drink and play billiards, and - as her grandmother would later put it - carouse. She was smart enough not to reveal her actual identity, and so Toni the Tramp became legendary, a name whispered in the pubs, warnings issued amongst friends, then further amongst the pub owners who warned their barkeeps of the pre-teen who would talk them into serving her shot after shot, challenging them to beat her, leaving them stumbling while she nicked from the till.

Bernie was so, so proud of his genius sister. He considered her his best friend, despite her frequent sneers and insults. Alas, their hijinks were short-lived; she was sent off to Kendricks, and he was exiled to America with what was left of his trust fund.

Settling in Philadelphia, Bernie continued his antics, being conned out of large sums of his money along the way - often by the trust's manager, Frank - stumbling into circumstances that allowed him to get it back by other means, though he'd fortunately made a great friend not long after he'd been in town, a chance meeting at the meth clinic. Mac frequently borrowed money from Bernie, given their shared love of beer and the resulting hefty tabs, but the thing that solidified their relationship was a love of Christmas.

His friend's family did it up right, and Bernie was blissfully surrounded by gingerbread and turkey and sparkling lights on trees. It made him miss the old days, and even made him miss the later days, when he'd be tasked with crawling under the tree at the manor, getting covered in sap, passing Antonia's presents to her as he located his own. Santa had always been careful to hide his presents at the very back, where his curious sister would not tear into them with her teeth. Antonia always was partial to biting her way through things; as usual, Bernie admired her style.

The years passed.

Grandmother Bevell took ill and died, and due to a careless secretary Bernie was made aware. After the funeral, a large spread had been assembled for the mourners and whilst in the process of stuffing his pockets with roast lamb, he spotted Antonia lingering in a corner. He rushed over, immediately drawing her into an embrace, which made her immediately grimace; her only reciprocation was to push him away.

"You smell of meat," she said.

"Nah, it's just this lamb, I never get it back home, better stock up while the getting's good."

"Your pockets are dripping. And why have you adopted that ridiculous American accent?"

"I dunno. Hey, wow, Tones - you're getting fat."

She glared. "I'm not fat." A pause. "Do you have anything besides lamb in your pockets?"

"You mean----"

"I mean, let's go out to the stables."

"I don't wanna ride right now, but thanks for----"

"We're not going to ride, you buffoon. We're going to get out of this godforsaken misery. If you've nothing of worth on you, then nevermind, I'll have to find another way to distract myself. I can't believe you've shown up here empty-handed."

"I had some poppers, but those were for the plane----"

"Then just swipe some of the wine and meet me there. Hurry it up!"

Bernie grew sentimental. "Aw, like we used to?"

He received no answer; Antonia had already turned and begun walking to the kitchen, so she could slip out the back door.

Bernie learned that day that his sister was not, in fact, getting fat. Like her mother, she had found herself out of wedlock and with child. But unlike her mother, she was already at Kendricks, only a year away from graduation, and she held great promise, such great promise that she was already considered an asset to the Men of Letters. The headmistress, Dr. Hildegard Hess - the one Toni called "the crone" - had herself been at Kendricks many moons ago and knew of the Anastasia-Bernie situation. Ordinarily, she'd have given a student who'd behaved so irresponsibly the proverbial boot, only she saw future benefit in keeping Toni around, and so she helped Toni cover up her pregnancy by saying she'd been sent away on an apprenticeship. Lord and Lady Bevell arranged for a stately home away from the city, though not too terribly country, and a nanny was employed, and baby Artie was safe and sound while his young mother finished her time at Kendricks.

More years passed.

As Toni's status in the Men of Letters grew, so Baby Artie grew, though in his case, it was not by much. That is to say, his mind - like his mother's - was far ahead of other children his age, but his stature remained diminutive. He appeared many years younger than his actual age, and his innocent countenance let him get away with murder. Literally. Bernie knew this because despite Toni's forbidding Artie to be in contact with his uncle following the mess Bernie made of Artie's christening when he caused the priest to faint upon the sight of the carefully-crafted rat mobile gnawing its way through the gift box, his conniving nephew was proficient at hiding email trails and stashing phones.

Artie appreciated that Bernie didn't scold him when he told of his adventures. He'd regale Bernie with stories of his neighborhood hijinks - baptizing cats, and shooting stray hounds with pellet guns, tossing the occasional molotov at other neighborhood children - but he assured Bernie that he left the badgers alone, even trained a particularly vicious one to nip at his most recent nanny's ankles, did it with a dog whistle, he'd bragged. He'd sent Bernie a video, it was amazing, though Bernie still held an affinity for squirrels. He had found that Philadelphia city rats were comparable, highly trainable, offered to ship one over as he had a shoebox handy; Artie wisely declined.

And then, disaster struck.

Summer had barely begun when Artie called Bernie in near-hysterics, causing his concerned uncle to steal away to the corner of his favorite bar, trying to calm the child.

"Art, my man - chill out! You gotta slow down!"

"It's Mummy!"

Bernie's eyes grew wide. "You have a mummy? Did you wrap up your nanny?" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Did you remember to take out her brain?"

"I mean MUMMY - my mother! She's been in America for ages, and now she's gone missing!"

"Whaddya mean, missing?"

"We haven't heard from her in over a month!"

Bernie leaned against the wall, suddenly feeling wobbly in the knees. "Artie, what was she doing here? Where was she? What----"

"You have to find her," Artie said, and gone was the child's panic, his voice now more adult than his uncle's, his tone both grave and demanding.

"How am I supposed to----"

"I've wired you money for expenses. There is a plane ticket waiting for you - you're going to Kansas City, then I'll have a car rented for you - you have to go to a godforsaken mole hill called Lebanon."

"I can't do this alone!" Bernie blurted out, not bothering to argue, he knew he'd go as instructed, but he was scared.

Artie huffed, said, "Fine - I'll arrange another ticket, bring that friend of yours, he has some sense, at least."

Bernie felt the sting. "Artie... what's that supposed to mean?"

Artie immediately reverted to his most innocent. "Aw, Uncle Bernie, I'm sorry. I'm frightened for Mummy. Please don't be cross with me---" a pause for a sniffle "---I just don't know what I might do if I thought you hated me."

Bernie assured Artie of his love, assured him that he - and Mac - would do whatever they could to find Toni.

Bernie and Mac missed their flight.

Much shenanigans ensued, thanks to friends of Mac's who had warily accepted Bernie into their group, cheekily called “The Gang”.

Months passed.

Artie's fury grew.

And finally, once a van was procured with the last of the funds Artie had provided, the duo took off for Kansas around Christmastime - but first, they stopped off at Mac's mother's home, knowing his stocking would already hold both candy for the road, and cash for their pockets.

It was here that Bernie regaled Mac with more tales of his love of Christmas, why he loved it so, and specifically how his own mother used to do it up right. This is when Mac said those fateful words, though he did not know just how much they would alter fate at the time. It was a simple statement, well-phrased, delicate, empathetic. Mac said:

"Based on that story that you just told me, I'm fairly certain that those Santas were running a train on your mom for money."

Bernie stared.

"Chew on that for a second, let that settle in," Mac added.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Mac called out a goodbye to his mother, and herded his flailing friend to the van. Bernie continued to deny the truth of the apparent holiday prostitution festivals for several miles, but finally it did indeed settle in. And he went silent. The rest of the trip to Kansas was filled with Mac trying to cheer him, mostly with liquor and candy. Bernie vomited, but it seemed the purge helped.

By the time they'd checked into a cheap motel, Bernie was renewed, more vigor than ever. Texts to Artie were filled with confidence. He placed ads in local and regional papers. He set up a website. He crafted flyers with Antonia's picture, had hundreds printed, plastered the town.

They questioned people wherever they went. Artie sent more money. Subsequently, Bernie questioned the strippers they then visited nightly, so as to make it a work expense. Though Mac did note Bernie's disinterest in the stripper called Candy Cane, who was draped in glittery garland and sported the traditional red hat of the jolly old man, Santa continued to be a non-topic.

Until.

Two particular residents of Lebanon were particularly dodgy, a pair they encountered at a diner. The tall man, whose hair Mac admired with great envy, was nothing but a collection of "Ah"-s, "Um"-s, and gulps as he stared down at the flyer Bernie had shoved into his hands. The other man, with the gruff voice and deep frown, denied all knowledge as he crumbled the flyer and threw it away, finally barking a piece of advice. Just before he climbed into a muscle car, which Mac admired with great envy, the man turned to Bernie, finger right in his face, and said:

"Why don't you go plop on Santa's lap, tell him you want your sister for Christmas, make it a real Lifetime movie moment, but we're done here, you got it?"

Bernie once more grew solemn. The duo sped away. Mac watched his friend carefully.

"Let's go to the mall," said Bernie in a low, flat voice.

Now it was Mac who gulped. "Why?"

"I think I know what happened to Toni."

It occurred to Mac where this was heading. "Bern, she didn't disappear around Christmas, I don't----"

Bernie lunged, grabbed Mac by the jacket, shook him furiously. "He's EVERYWHERE, man. He can get to ANYBODY. This is about me, this has been about me the WHOLE TIME."

"Huh?"

Before Mac knew it, the keys to the van were snatched, tires were screeching, and he barely made it into the passenger seat, and then Molly was dropped, in which Mac participated because he was, after all, a supportive friend. In a hopped-up haze they'd arrived at the mall, then as if by magic suddenly found themselves smack in the middle of it, drawn to a makeshift North Pole, staring at all the happy people in the line leading to the tree-lined stage. Bernie trembled with anger, one of the flyers clutched in his fist.

A series of flashbacks ran through his mind: the Santas bringing him presents when he was a boy; his mother joyfully escorting them upstairs; Artie, sound asleep and safe in his bed; and Toni, missing, possibly gone forever. His eyes narrowed. He saw red.

"I won't let him get to Artie," Bernie said through grit teeth.

"Bern, don't---" Mac tried, but it was for naught. Bernie had joined the line of children, his anger growing by the moment. Mac sighed and joined him.

The time finally came, and Bernie sat himself on Santa's lap.

The costumed man blinked in surprise, glancing at Mac questioningly before asking Bernie, "What would you like for Christmas, son?"

"Did you fuck his mother?"

Santa's jaw dropped for a moment, and he whispered, "What?"

"Did. You. Fuck. His. Mother."

Nearby, parents covered their children's ears.

"I don't know what you're----" Santa began, but Bernie cut him off.

"You're after my family, aren't you? What did Toni do, she try to brain-diddle you? Take down your whole racket? Expose you for what you are? A mother-fucker?"

Mac buried his face in his hands.

"Listen, son----"

"I'm not your son!" Bernie screamed. "And neither is Artie!"

"Who?"

Bernie held up the flyer. "Don't pretend like you don't know, you fat motherfucker! WHERE'S MY SISTER? I KNOW YOU TOOK MY SISTER!" Bernie turned, gesturing, addressing all the children. "HE FUCKED MY MOTHER! HE'LL FUCK YOUR MOTHERS! AND HE'LL BRING HIS ELVES TO FUCK YOUR MOTHERS, TOO, SOMETIMES THERE'LL BE FIVE AT ONCE!"

Said mothers gasped, began ushering their children away. The nearby elves were shaking their heads, bells on their caps tingling, denying the accusation. The clomping boots from the approaching security guards could be heard from all sides. Mac begged Bernie to stop, asked what Toni would think of all this.

That was when Bernie snapped. He followed Mac's advice, did think upon Toni, thought on what Toni would do. And he snarled.

Bernie bit Santa, and hard, and Santa began flailing, trying to free himself from the enraged man perched on his lap. But Bernie held tightly, continued his gnawing, and blood began to seep into the fake white beard, stream down and add a shiny glaze to the already red suit. It was so much blood, in fact, that Santa almost immediately passed out, slumping, and Bernie followed him to the floor, howling like a rabid dog. The nearby patrons were screaming, pushing, shoving, knocking into each other, desperate to get away.

Bernie's phone had gotten tossed aside in the mayhem, sliding over near Mac's feet - it rang, and he saw it was Artie, and he answered the phone, not bothering with a greeting, cutting right to the chase. "Bernie's gone bugfuck crazy!"

Saying it aloud - and seeing several security guards radioing for backup, others pulling out tasers - jolted Mac from his shock, and he snatched the back of Bernie's jacket with his free hand, wrenching him from his straddled position, dragging him off of the still, unmoving Santa.

Artie huffed, asked, "What in blazes is all that noise?"

"He attacked Santa Claus! I'm trying to get him outta here, the security guards are----"

"He WHAT?! What does bloody Father Christmas have to do with finding----"

"Bloody is right! He bit him! I think the dude is dead!"

Carols served as a backing track for their escape, Mannheim Steamroller sharp in their ears as they rushed through the shoppers, plowing them down if need be, Mac practically throwing Bernie into the back of the van, then jumping into the driver's seat and peeling out of the parking lot.

"ANSWER ME, CRETIN!"

Mac had shoved the phone into his front jacket pocket, apparently with Artie still on the line, as the boy's shrill voice was so loud he heard it despite it not being on speaker and despite the fact that Bernie was right behind him, curled into a fetal position, sucking his thumb and rocking back and forth, noisily sobbing. Mac took a hairpin turn down an alley, sirens not far enough in the distance for him to feel comfortable, and after he'd cut the engine, he dug out the phone, put it on speaker officially, and tossed it to the dashboard.

Mac ran his hands through his hair nervously, saying, "Man, this is bad. Artie, we're in real----"

"I'm done with the both of you gits. I've managed to make contact with one of mother's associates - the only one who is left from the mission to your godforsaken land. I'm told the cockney twit who always sucked up to me is dead, as is The Crone. You've been useless, I should've handled this myself from the start." Artie stopped addressing Mac, yelling out, "BERNIE?!"

Bernie sniffled. "Yeah, Art?"

"Lose. My. Number."

The call ended.

Artie's tone had been cold - frigid, in fact. It reminded him of his mother. But it especially reminded him of his sister. And that made Bernie smile.

While he packed, Artie listened to the man with the smooth voice as he detailed the plan.

".....and it will essentially give him a new existence entirely, now known as Charlie. I've already arranged for the same procedures to take place on the woman who will serve as his mother, the friend you mentioned, and his other... associates, the ones from the pub, the waitress he fancies, his financial manager. Any others can be taken care of as they pop up, but you're certain those are the only persons to whom he is close? There's no need to attend to your family?"

"They'll happily forget about Bernie on their own, no need." A pause. "Shall we just have him killed?"

"Mmmm. Such passion at so young an age."

"You disapprove?"

"No. I understand your desire for your uncle’s comeuppance. But he may be of use to you later - you must think ahead.”

“Fine,” said Artie with a disappointed sigh.

“For now, he'll believe he's always been an American living in Philadelphia. Nice, sunny life for the moron. Though, if you like, I can see to it Bernard Bevell is declared dead. A token of appreciation on my part, an official good riddance. I did cherish my time with your mother - no matter her whereabouts, she'll be missed. Lady Bevell was such a gift to all of us."

Artie stopped his packing, gave the phone a bit of side-eye. "You sound as if you're giving condolences. If Mummy is dead-----"

"My boy, we will work together to find out what exactly happened, and I will be pleased to help you exact any vengeance you deem necessary."

"And this won't inconvenience you?"

"I have some time on my hands. I'll have to pop away on occasion, but I trust your self-sufficiency. Besides, I think we have a great deal in common. I would be pleased to act as your mentor, that isn't merely a story for your grandparents."

Artie pondered on this for a moment, then said, "Yes. I do believe I'd benefit from your tutelage."

"Then it's settled. When can I expect you?"

Artie stuffed his teddy bear into his backpack, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and picked up his phone, walking out of his room and down the hallway, ignoring the muffled cries from his tied-and-gagged nanny in the closet. "I'm on my way to the airport now."

"You have suitable transportation, I take it?"

"Yes."

"Good. I look forward to your arrival, Mr. Bevell."

"Thank you, Mr. Ketch."

In the garage, Artie climbed upon his scooter and donned his helmet, then sped off, visions of motorcycles dancing in his head.

See Nash Write : Master / See Nash Write : Mobile

🏷️🏷️Wanna be tagged? Hit me up! 🏷️🏷️

Author’s Note #2: My prompt was: “Did you fuck my mom?” and as y’all could see, I changed it slightly to fit the story. You can see the clip with the set-up of the Santa issue here, and the clip of the actual confrontation with Santa (you’ll spot bits of both in that gif) from the "Sunny” ep from which it hails here.

Author's Note #3: Yes, Artie is short for Arthur.

Author's Note #4: Go with it, your suspicion is correct.

Author's Note #5: I mean it, don't doubt yourself, listen to your gut.

Author's Note #6: HE'S KETCH'S SON DAMMIT

Author's Note #7: I'm not sorry I've planted this seed in your mind.

Author's Note #8: Mwah-ah-ahahahahahaha [evil laugh]

Behold, the summoning of The Nashooligans...

@butiaintgonnaloveem @impandagrl @waywardjoy @jalove-wecallhimdean @jame-sbarnes @just-another-busy-fangirl @amanda-teaches @fanforfanatic @salt-n-burn-em-all @idreamofhazel @cyrilconnelly @rozadolphin @theblackharrystyles @carryonmycobaltangel @ilsawasanacrobat @klaineaholic @helvonasche @ericaprice2008 @amionthetumbler @tankcupcakes @littlegreenplasticsoldier @emlostinwonderland @michellethetvaddict @theoriginalvicki @ellen-reincarnated1967 @copperseraphim @mrswhozeewhatsis @crowleylovesyou @bumbleball13 @anticipate1003 @sixtysevenandwhiskey @raspberrymama @lastactiontricia @babypieandwhiskey @winchesterprincessbride @gripmetight-raisemefromperdition @roseblue373 @waterfeenix137 @thisismysecrethappyplace @fandomismyspirit @thedevilinthedetails

#Supernatural Fanfiction #SPN Fanfic #makeandilaugh #anditurns36 #Nash Writes #Queueby Dooby Doo #Dad's on a blog post and #he hasn't been queued in a few days

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magicalsalamander · 6 years

Text

The Firefly that Guards the Fox III

Pairing: BTS Taehyung ⇆ Reader

Words: 6.9K

Warnings: Overall story rated mature; Explicit themes, action/ violence, bloodshed, death of minor characters.

Summary: His mother and father weren’t supposed to fall in love. They weren’t supposed to find a mate in one another.

They weren’t supposed to.

After losing his father years ago, Taehyung vows to find and avenge the injustice his family has gone through. You were childhood friends with Taehyung. The four of you Taehyung, Hoseok, your older brother and you were inseparable. You were torn apart from Taehyung, your fox who’ve you’ve always vowed to protect and be with, without a warning. He called you Firefly, you called him Tae-Tae the fox. Was your fate supposed to end there in the past with your childhood?

A/N: Orig post date: 01|17|18; Updated intro 12|12|19. Part of the KLF Universe.

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Before the elevator doors could open to the ground floor you stood up, but the haze in your eyes didn’t clear. You walked out of the elevator and out the glass entrance door weaving yourself into the sea of passing people. The crowd took no mercy on you, the masses were on autopilot. Standing in the midst of the crowd shoulders knocked against yours repeatedly; your purse was pulled to the ground on accident when a business man on the phone carelessly ran into you. Still, you remained indifferent to everything. He kept going not bothering to apologize. Everyone kept moving, except you. You were frozen.

He was alive! However, meeting him again and finding out that he’s a well-known lawyer, your potential boss, was not the way you pictured the reunion. How could he be in such plain sight? It clicked so you rushed to pick up your purse and pulled out your cell phone. It was one of the first generations of smart phones, but it still worked and it didn’t have any scratches on it. You open a web browser and searched “Kim Taehyung Hybrid Welfare Legal Law Group, LLC,” and instantly over 10,000 results came up. The first article was of him walking from a courthouse with the title “Kim puts the notorious serial, hybrid killer behind bars”, another was “Lawyer Kim Taehyung gives statement on bringing the CEO of CJT Corps, who abused his hybrids, to light.” You were stunned, he’s been in plain sight this whole time. It was the twenty first century, why didn’t you use the internet? You already knew the answer to that though, you were just too busy and didn’t have any social media.

You kept scrolling and opened the company’s website moving past the other lawyer’s bios until you found his. This is why you should’ve done your research. You stopped when a photo of him working came into frame. They must’ve taken his picture without him knowing from the candid shot. He was looking down at some paperwork with his head propped at a 45-degree angle resting in his hand at his desk. It was weird seeing him grown up and so--manly looking, his deep voice rang in your head picturing him in the exact same way minutes ago. You shook yourself out of staring at the photo and read his short bio, “Kim Taehyung has been a brilliant lawyer for Hybrid Welfare Legal Law Group, LLC, since 2014. Kim graduated early from the national University at the age of twenty, opting to take honor and advance placement classes. He graduated with a degree in Linguistics and a minor in Philosophy. Kim entered the University’s Law program the following semester after graduation and left three years later ranking in the top 10% percentile of the Bar Exam takers. He’s worked for Free Will Legal Office, LLC, and Liberation Legal Advocacy Corporation, LLC, throughout Law school and interned afterwards. He started working for us at the age of twenty-four and worked his way up to being one of the four main lawyers of our office. A quote from Kim, ‘I will work hard until I can put an end to hybrid abuse and put those who abuse hybrids behind bars.’ We believe Kim Taehyung is the future in hybrid rights.”

Your jaw fell agape, you couldn’t believe this was the same Tae. The Tae you knew was a clumsy, happy-go lucky, carefree kit. Time has really changed things. You crossed your purse over your chest and put your phone back in its slot. You tucked your blazer closer to you when a breeze blew by and walked towards the nearest bus stop. You felt so ashamed of yourself, you wanted to see him again, but he didn’t even remember you. Were you that forgetful? Did your friendship mean nothing to him? You kept walking to the bus station and sat on the cracked, plastic bench and almost missed your bus when you were lost in thought. You ran after the bus, almost slipping on mud, smacking the side of the bus until it captured the driver’s attention and he stopped for you. Even on the ride on the bus you couldn’t stop thinking about him. The rest of the day was spent in this weird smog as if you were walking through a valley of smoke.

You walked up the steep hill to your apartment late at night after your closing shift. You deviated from your path and stopped at the living room converted into a convenient store tucked in one of the houses along the road and perused the short isles. You picked up a few beers from the fridge and chips on a stand. The auntie who sat on a loveseat watching old soap operas just asked for the money with an outheld hand without even paying you any mind. You’ve been here enough to know eachother by first name, “Thanks Lola.” She waved you off with her enclosed hand, you were interrupting the dialogue of her show. You walked up to your rooftop apartment and sat down on the low platform outside your apartment. You sat the crinkling plastic bag next to you along with your purse and just sighed. You dug inside and pulled out any one of the two beers. You pulled back the aluminum tab that released a satisfying hiss. You hoped that this little thing would release some of your pressure too. No, you weren’t a drinker only having drank a total of two times before; both times with your brother when you graduated college, then law school. You just wanted to indulge in this one time.

You took the can and cheered it to the sky before taking a hefty gulp of the stout and breathed a sigh of relief afterwards. You really didn’t understand why people like the taste of alcohol or the flavor of beer at this point, it tasted awful. However, you spent five dollars on all this you weren’t going to let it go to waste. You kept sipping with furrowed brows trying to catch a buzz to sleep better tonight. You laid back on your elbows supporting you looking up at the starry sky. Its been so long since you’ve looked up and taken in the world around you. The stars were so beautiful they twinkled and glimmered as if they were communicating with one another. You picked up your beer and took small sips. This reminded you of the old days when the four of you were laying on the same type of platform doing the same thing. You were starting to feel tipsy, maybe because you never drank or maybe the alcohol hit your system fast because you haven’t eaten in a while. Maybe. You took a deep inhale and then yelled out, “Yah! Taehyung! You’re alive! You’re-- really alive and doing well! I’m so… proud of you! Wow, I saw you today and you didn’t—you didn’t even recognize me! Did I really change that much? Huh?” You had to catch your breath you were so worked up and somewhere along the line you started crying. “How could you—how could you do that to me?” You don’t know when but as some point exhaustion took over from crying so hard and yelling. You fell deep asleep on the platform.

A half hour later your brother walked up the side stairs, his black combat boots clinking against the metal staircase leading to the apartment. He hummed and blew a puff of smoke in the air from his hot breath hitting the icy air. He rubbed his gloved hands together and shoved them in his pocket for any warmth and dug for his keys. The yellow-green flood light dulled against the cement floor, but it caught his attention when it reflected against the plastic bag on the platform. He stepped closer to see exactly what was there only to find you sprawled out sleeping. Tired from his long day as well, he came up to you and smacked your cheek, “hey, hey wake up.” You just groaned and turned to your side landing on top of the plastic bag and knocking over your half full beer. “Hey!” Your brother went to grab the sticky drink before it leaked any further onto the wood and shook his hand in frustration when it coated his hands. He really took in your appearance redden nose, dirty clothes and sneakers haphazardly thrown. You had your “suit uniform” spilling out of your purse as if it was shoved in angrily. He hated seeing you work endlessly and keep going to job interviews tirelessly. He wanted to make your life easier, but he didn’t have a direct way fix that. He sat you up and slung you over his back and then hung your purse over his neck. The plastic bag was in his hand while the other held the house keys, “Yah, you feel too light. You’ve lost too much weight. Why aren’t you eating stupid?” He knew you couldn’t hear any of his complaints, but he still complained none the less. He flopped you onto your twin size bed and pulled the comforter over you. He sat next to you and flattened your wild hair down, it was the least he could do for you after all the things you do for him. Somewhere down the line the roles have changed, and you started taking care of him. He kissed your forehead and turned off the lights closing your bedroom door.

The next morning at seven thirty you woke up to your phone alarm blaring that repetitive noise and a fat headache. You were in pain, but you still had to turn off your insistent alarm. You looked at yourself and wondered how you got inside, it must’ve been your great instincts. You blindly made your way to the bathroom and took a shower. The hot water was so comforting easing the headache to a dull pain. You made it back to your bedroom to change into your day uniform, but were stopped by a surprising figure in the kitchen.

With eyebrows raise you looked at your brother who was diligently mixing something over the counter. He had something on his cheek when he turned around, “Morning sunshine, you look great!” You furrowed your brows and grumbled to him, “shut up.” He laughed, “be out soon to eat before you leave. You don’t have much time before you have to go.” Not about to argue with his comeback you went to change and ready your purse. You packed your only other set of skinny jeans and the same black t-shirt into your bag replacing your suit uniform. You made your way out of the room with light makeup on since it was more appropriate for your day job. You took a peek over your brother’s shoulder on your tippy toes and made a face pulling the sides of your lips down impressed with his makeshift breakfast sandwich. He smacked your creeping hand trying to grab extra pieces of packaged ham and said take some aspirins. “Yes, mom. Love you, mom!” He laughed at your annoyance and you followed through really needing it to carry on today. He let you slip your shoes on before handing you paper bag with a ham sandwich and a breakfast sandwich to carry tucked into a napkin. You were so touched your brother never did stuff like this. You looked at him suspiciously, “did you do something wrong?” He played up an expression of upset with a hand over his chest, “can’t a brother do something nice for a change?” You smiled not willing to have your sandwich revoked and hugged him tight, “thank you for everything.” You snatched the sandwich and placed it in your mouth as you ran out the door waving him goodbye.

You made your way into the diner and grabbed your apron from of your locker. You greeted the older auntie who ran the shop and your coworkers, it was back to the basics. You were working non-stop until you had a fifteen-minute break around noon. You went to your locker in the breakroom and pulled out your phone. There was a missed call from Mrs. Lee. You were panicking internally. What if it was something important? Why was she calling back so soon? For sure only early call backs were rejections, how could he decide overnight? With a shaky finger you hovered over the call button but pressed it and brought it up to your ear. You sat in a chair shaking your leg impatiently while chewing on your thumb in anticipation. There was no voicemail, so it was up in the air to what she needed. She picked up after the seventh ring, “Hello Mrs. Lee this is Y/N Y/L/N. I’m sorry I missed your call I wasn’t able to answer the call while on shift.” She waved it off bidding everything fine, “I understand. I wanted to call you with the results of the interview.” Your heart was racing and begging her to put you down gently. “Mr. Kim has decided that he wants to hire you. We would love it if you could start as soon as possible.”

You were frozen. You were hired! You were hired? “I’m sorry Mrs. Lee, can you please repeat that please?” She laughed at your confused state, “You’re hired Ms. Y/L/N. When can you start?” It took a few seconds, but you were smiling like and idiot and bowing in thanks even though she couldn’t see. “Are you sure Mr. Kim relayed the message right Mrs. Lee? I don’t mean to guess your work, I just can’t believe it,” you spoke at her rapidly and in disbelief. “I’m positive Ms. Y/L/N.” You promised that you would be able to start in the next few days since you had to let your current jobs know you would be resigning. She congratulated you and hung up. You were so excited with the news you stood up and danced, you absolutely couldn’t hold in your excitement. You stopped mid jig and the news really set in. You were going to be working with Taehyung. Would you tell him who you were? So many thoughts were running through your mind, but first things first you had to quite these part time jobs!

You spoke to all your employers who were happy for you, but they asked for a few days more until they could find a replacement. Your bosses from both places were more like long time friends now and they wished you luck and to keep the door open to use you for legal help. As soon as all things were set you called Mrs. Lee to let her know you could make it exactly in three days. She was glad to hear that you worked it all out and would see you very soon at eight a.m. sharp. You were so excited that that night you went home and told your brother you finally got the job! You even made a video call with your brother to your parents telling them the news. They couldn’t be happier for you, and it felt like things were finally working out. You spent that night sitting in bed scrolling again through the company’s website on Taehyung’s bio page. You reread the information over and over again. This was too important to pass up and if Taehyung didn’t recognize you, that was fine. You were going to start fresh again now anyways, so if he didn’t remember you it wouldn’t be the end of the world. You wondered if he still spoke to Hoseok. You wondered a million and one things, but it still didn’t change how hurt your heart felt. You plugged your phone in to your charger and set it on your bed side table. You stared out your window and thanked the stars for watching over you.

You adjusted the same blazer, button up and slacks you wore on your interview. The same flats were adorning your feet, ready for work. You pulled your hair up in a pony tail in the elevator. The smooth, long locks flicked side to side as you looped it in the hair tie. The elevator doors opened to the receptionist lobby. The receptionist, who now asked you to refer to her as Mrs. Smith, congratulated you on your employment. She looked left and right subtly then curled her index finger to beckon you in whispering distance. “Mr. Kim can be a bit…rude. He’s not the kindest, but he works very hard. You’re the only interviewee that made it out of the 150 that applied just this month. I don’t even…” Mrs. Lee came into the receptionist office and cleared her throat. You jumped back and bowed to greet her. She smiled politely at you and raised a brow to Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith began humming and went back to work like nothing happened. Mrs. Lee signaled for you to follow her down the hall. You trailed behind her into the open work space.

“This last row of desks in this open space in the far back is where we will be working. The other three rows are meant for the other lawyers.” She pointed along with her words as she lead you down the rows of already busy workers, some gave you a glance while other worked diligently. You were shown to the first desk at the beginning of the row where it was empty, “this is your spot. You can decorate it as much as you like.” You thanked her setting down your purse and she lead you to the other employees under Mr. Kim. The first employee she introduced you to a man who went by casually by the name Key, but his actual name was Kim Kibum. He was a paralegal and was Taehyung’s right-hand man. He looked you up and down, but welcomed you politely. Key carried this sassy carefree air about him that seemed to lack for a lawyer. The next employee was female employee younger than you who was there as a legal assistant. She was still in law school and working her way to becoming a lawyer. She was cold towards you and didn’t care to respond, but Mrs. Lee let you know her name was Jung Krystal. She was pretty, but her attitude made you want to take that statement back. That was the whole team. You could see why they needed you on the team. There weren’t enough members on the team, you wondered how they’ve won so many cases so far with so little people.

Mrs. Lee lead you to Mr. Kim’s office knocking getting the typical non-lingual response. She motioned for you to enter and followed behind closing the door. Your heart was racing seeing him again, in fact it’s been racing as you entered the ground level lobby. He was in a navy-blue suit that really brought out his orange fur on his ears. You tried to calm yourself knowing hybrids can sense your heart rate and anxiety levels. He was in the same position as the other day, but instead he had a cup of coffee in his hands taking sips of his black coffee delicately. You gulped and after Mrs. Lee called to you, you turned to him and reintroduced yourself with your self still bent in a bow thanked him for hiring you. You slowly raised yourself to standing position, but didn’t bring your eyes up immediately. You raised your eyes slowly and as if the world slowed his eyes locked on yours holding them in amusement. He held his gaze on yours silently with a raised brow. He was sizing you up, so you continued, “I will work hard under your team as a lawyer.” He laughed a little, “No, you won’t be working under me as a lawyer. At least not yet.” You looked at him wide eyes, but he continued, “You will be working alongside Ms. Jung, until you prove you can hold your own.” He took another sip of coffee looking for you to challenge him. You were going to have to start from the bottom, the literal bottom of the food chain. You were ready for the challenge though, you lived for the challenge. You smiled politely at him, “I’m willing to show you that I’m a worthy member of this team Mr. Kim.” He was curt and just hummed waving you both off to leave. You understood Mrs. Smith now.

Mrs. Lee escorted you back to your desk and Krystal and Key came over to your desk to drop four boxes full of paperwork that needed sorting and to be categorized by case. You sighed internally at the amount of work, but rolled up your sleeves went to work. Mrs. Lee patted your shoulder and wished you luck. Before you knew it the hands on the clocked turned and it was noon, you were barely a quarter of the way through with one box. Mrs. Lee tapped your shoulder interrupting your concentration, “Mr. Kim is calling for you in his office.” You got up dusting yourself off and made your way over to his office. You knocked lightly and wiped your dusty hands on your slacks and got the approval grunt. You stepped in and was only greeted by an outstretched sticky note in which you took in both hands. “What is this Mr. Kim?” You couldn’t make out the coding of what FR, OC and BrB meant. He looked up at you with a glare as if you’ve just insulted his mother. “My lunch, now go pick it up for me,” he looked at his watch, “and I want it by 1 p.m. Now hurry.” You looked at the clock on the wall and it read 12:15 p.m. How were you supposed to make it back to the office in 45 minutes?

You were going to prove him wrong for underestimating you, “Of course, Mr. Kim.” You stepped out of his office and power walked back to the open space, but was stopped by more sticky notes by your team; even the intern who should be doing all this. You were a little upset by the intern’s rudeness, but you weren’t going to let this shake you. You took them and asked them to decode Mr. Kim’s note first. “Its fried rice, orange chicken and broccoli beef from Panda Express.” Not caring to waste any more time you ran out of the office like lightening. You had to pick up coffees from Starbucks, sandwiches from Subway on top of Mr. Kim’s order. You were walking so fast with three bags swinging on your arms and four coffees in a carboard cup holder. You were adjusting a bag on your arm trying to reach the sticky notes your blazer pocket one last time when someone ran directly into you. The coffees in your hand down poured onto you soaking your white button up. A mix of hot and cold pungent liquid all over your white button up. You liked coffee, but not to this extent. You weren’t concerned about your shirt though, you were about the coffee. You checked the time and ran back to the coffee shop a few stores back. The man who was trying to apologize to you was left standing there in confusion.

You made it back to the office panting at 12:59 p.m. and set everything down on the round conference table of your section. The members at their desk all looked at you concerned with the blatant brown stain on your shirt, but you were in a rush. You only had a minute left! You grabbed his tray, fork and napkins along with his venti coffee. You knocked on his door with your elbow and got the grunt. You made your way into his office and set the food down on the cleared portion of his desk. You stepped back waiting for his response. He set his pen down and took his Ray-Ban Clubmaster glasses off. He looked at you judgingly and then took in the brown stain poured down your front. He chooses to not comment but went to grab the tray. He popped open the container and hummed, not in approval or disapproval just a throaty noise. You were sweating for more reason than one. He finally said something, “you’re late by two minutes Ms. Y/L/N. How do you expect me to depend on you with that kind of timing?” You were shocked you made it late but bit your tongue, “I’m sorry Sir, it won’t happen ever again.” He raised a brow, “better not Y/L/N.” You were surprised that he addressed you by your first name. It felt weird hearing it again. He grabbed at the plastic fork but tossed it in his small trash bin, “I don’t eat my Chinese food with a fork, go get me chopsticks.” You were panicking you didn’t grab any, so you tried to think of anything besides having to go all the way back. You remembered you had your own chopsticks for your lunch. You asked him for a second and ran to your desk and rummaged your purse until you found your chopsticks at the bottom of your lunch bag. The metal chopsticks would work perfectly. You knocked again and handed him the utensil with both hands. He took them from you and commented, “I prefer wooden ones, but I’ll settle.” You were holding your comeback in, you were glad you weren’t a dragon hybrid at this moment. You asked him if that was all he needed, and he waved you off again. You made it back to your desk where everyone was now eating and working at their own. Mrs. Lee and Kibum thanked you, but Krystal just ate quietly. She’s yet to say a word to you.

You got back to work and ate your food with an extra plastic fork left in one of the bags. Again, time has passed by quickly and before you knew it the rest of your team was leaving for the night and biding you good night. Mrs. Lee told you to, “go home soon, there’s always tomorrow.” You smiled and said you would, but in by the looks of your desk you knew it was going to be a long night. Your desk lamp was the last one on in the office and you were working on the last four case files from the third box. You sat up cracking your back then heard a voice next to you, “I’m not paying you for overtime.” Jolting at the sound you banged your knee on the desk but stood up with a click of your knees and replied, “Mr. Kim! I know, but I want to finish before I leave.” He looked over your shoulder to see the stack of different sorted casefiles. He looked back at you stoically with his tail swishing casually and just walked off. You called after him, “Good night Mr. Kim” and you whispered, “Good night Tae Tae” when he was around the corner while rubbing your knee.

Taehyung came home to an empty apartment. His roommates Hoseok, Jimin and Jungkook were still out. Jimin and Hoseok was out practicing choreography for an upcoming tour for a famous artist. Jungkook was probably working a late shift at the station. They’ve all made it into fields they’ve dreamt of. Taehyung pulled out a bottle of wine from the wine rack and popped open the cork. He used his better sense of smell and took in the fruity flavor of the vintage wine. He poured himself a glass and pulled out some ingredients from the fridge and went to prepare himself dinner. A few minutes later he heard the keycode being punched in and the scuffing of boots at the entrance. The heavy timberlands hit the floor with a thud near the shoe rack and a Bunny still in his police uniform set his phone on the island counter along with his badges and plopped himself in a bar stool across the stove. He greeted Taehyung, “Hyung, I’m home! You won’t believe the day I had!”

At home Taehyung could let loose and be himself, he didn’t have to put up a hard exterior that he did at the office. “Tell me about it then, Kookie.” He went on to say about a few weeks ago a drunk uncle was abusing his young hybrid but a heroine stepped in and saved the hybrid. She was a lawyer too! She beat the man into submission and pinned him to the floor. She went with the hybrid to the hospital and he found out she knows Jin too! He took the hybrid into his shelter according to the report and getting a phone call from the bear himself. “Anyways, she was really pretty hyung, and I wanted to ask her on a coffee date, you can’t let a cool woman like that just walk by. But that’s not the point, the point is the drunk man is suing the station for taking away his hybrid when he was in an inebriated state.” Taehyung turned to him to him with raised brows and tail swishing in interest, “did you ask her out?” The bunny’s ears went down in sadness, “No, she got into the ambulance before I could even say anything.” Taehyung and Jungkook always told eachother stories going on in their work since they both often shared cases.

More noise came from the front door and in came the last two roommates. Hoseok came into the kitchen first doing some gliding moves but Jimin kneed him in the butt to move out the way. Jimin greeted the two and did the secret handshake that only they would know. Hoseok came next to Taehyung at the stove, “Tae Tae, what are you making? Is there enough for all of us?” He didn’t plan on making enough for everyone, but wordlessly he was throwing more portions onto the skillet. Hoseok thanked Taehyung and the three sat down on the island next to Jungkook who retold his story of his day. Hoseok listened intently then said, “Hey, Tae, doesn’t that girl remind you of the girl from the country side where we used to live? She would do the same for us when we were kids. Her and her brother would always stand up for us!” Taehyung smiled remembering the face of that girl, she had choppy hair and rags for shoes, but she was always happy. He couldn’t remember her name and her facial features were blurry to him now, but he knew the person. He answered honestly, “I do Hobi, it’s was so long ago. Her face is blurry to me now, but I remember that choppy bowl cut flying squirrel.” They all laughed at him calling you a squirrel. Jimin turned to Hoseok, “is she that girl in that photo at Tae mom’s house?” Hoseok lit up remembering the photo,” Yeah! That exact girl!” They carried on chatting and joking. They ended the night with some video games. Taehyung was about to get into bed when he pulled out his phone and in the gallery, he took a picture of that photo in his mom’s house. There was water damage on the photo, so all the faces were blurry. He zoomed in on your face and smiled fondly, “Hey Firefly, it’s been a while. I hope you’re doing well. I hope your still kicking butt and saving foxes like you used to.” He stared at the photo a bit more then set it to charge for the night, “Good night Firefly.”

The next morning you came to the office with the same outfit. You didn’t have enough money to buy any new clothing, your last paycheck to pay utilities and rent. The coffee stain came out of your button up after soaking it in a concoction of home remedy stain remover. You were the first of your team in the office. You finished all the filing last night at 2:30 a.m. A few moments later Mrs. Lee made her way over to your row, “good morning Y/N!” You greeted her back, but she rushed to drop her bag off at her desk to go back to the receptionist area. You sat down at your desk and waited for her to return. Mr. Kim came around the corner with his briefcase adjusting his glasses. You stood up to greet him, but he stopped in his tracks, “You’re still here?” You raised your brows in question, “you hired me correct?” He nodded and carried on to his office closing the door behind him. You saw Mrs. Lee escorting the same family you saw the day you submitted your resume. This time the young man had bruises and a black eye. You looked worriedly at Mrs. Lee, but she just mouthed “later” to you. She sat them at the conference table and told them to wait for her. She came over to you asking for you to get some files for her to present to them. You nodded following her instruction.

When you returned with the case files she asked for, you to sit with her and the family. She introduced you to the woman, Mrs. Miller, and her son David. You shook their hands introducing yourself. She spoke to them about the new revisions and terms that were set by the recent lawyer meeting. You listened intently picking up that she was going through a lawsuit where the other party is suing for assault and defamation. It was hard to believe with David looking as if danger was waiting around the corner for him. Mrs. Lee directed them towards Mr. Kim’s office to discuss things further and Mrs. Lee returned to you. “Mrs. Miller and her son are in a civil lawsuit. A few rich kids at the private school assaulted him, and their parents are trying to turn it around on them. Claiming that David inflected the injuries on himself and are trying to ruin their image. They don’t want to settle out of court. With all evidence we have so far, it points towards hybrid discrimination.” You nodded silently, longingly looking at the office down the hall. Mrs. Lee went to get up but you stopped her before she went on to give you work, “what did Mr. Kim mean when he said ‘you’re still here’?” She looked at you with raised brows sitting down beside you again, “We’ve hired people before you to join the team, but they never stayed after the first day. We’ve gone through 15 people leaving after the first day. They complain that they don’t want to do bottom work with a lawyer’s license, they want to practice already. He always lets them leave. He purposely is a bit overbearing in the beginning to really see if people are made out to work here.” You slowly nodded finally understanding his words. You smiled at her and said, “please give me more work to do!” She laughed at your eagerness, but then went to hand you more boxes. You honestly were more motivated to work harder, this was your dream even if it was starting at the bottom. Nothing good is every handed out, it’s earned.

You went back and forth around the office and brought all cases up to date on filing. The next few weeks you worked endlessly proving yourself. You stayed late often re-doing reports and checking and rechecking paperwork. Taehyung would stop by your desk nightly before he left seeing you were the last one, but never said anything. He just stared at you then walked off, but you always wished him a good night and that he worked hard today. When he stepped away you always called him Tae Tae. It was hard to control your beating heart around the handsome fox.

Taehyung was impressed by your hard work, but he would never tell you. He was impressed the first day when you offered up your chopsticks. He knew he was being difficult, but he needed you to be flexible and adaptable. The things he’s been putting you through were test, not just miniscule task. You still had a long way to go before he trusted you to work on a major case.

But the day came, a month in working at the office. He finally asked you to do something else besides paper work and running small errands. You knocked on his door and stepped into his office. He asked you to sit down in the chair in front of his desk. You were slightly worried thinking you were in trouble, but he interrupted your thoughts, “I want you to go out tomorrow morning with Mr. Kim to David Miller’s private school to get a testimonial from the school and any evidence. We need some papers signed by their principal.” You were relieved you weren’t in trouble and the anxiety turned into happiness. You tried to hide your smile but failed miserably when your lips twitched and settled into a smile. “Thank you, Mr. Kim, I’ll do my best.” He just looked at you dully, “this is work Mrs. Y/L/N not something to thank me for.” You bowed and asked him if he needed anything else before you returned to your desk. He breathed in deeply looking you once over then tilted his head to the side, “is that the only clothes you have? That “uniform” of yours should be put away for a new one, don’t you think? Wear something else for tomorrow’s visit.” He looked down to his paperwork again and waved you off. You were excited with the given task, finally he trusted you enough to do actual work. However, his comment on your clothes sucked a bit off happiness out of it. You knew very well that you shouldn’t wear the same clothes every day, but it was the only thing you had. You bowed and left with a smile still on your face. You ran into Mrs. Lee who was about to knock on the door, you excused yourself and walked down the hall. Mrs. Lee was still staring at you walking down the hall, she overheard and was surprised you didn’t look phased. You were a strong woman indeed.

There was something about you to him. The sense of familiarity only got worse over time. Something in his gut was pulling him to you, maybe it was your pretty face? Maybe it was your persistent personality? Every time he looked at you he just felt like something was missing, but he didn’t know what it was. A mysterious nostalgia. He smiled to himself when you left the room and laughed quietly at your cute behavior. It was hard holding back and keeping a stone face when you were here. He felt comfortable with you. Every night when he passed by your desk he always wants to speak to you, to chat casually, but he doesn’t want to cross professional boundaries. In the end he just walks away leaving you to work. When Mrs. Lee walked in he corrects himself immediately, coughing and clearing his throat to cover his laugh.

The next morning you came in to work, again being the first of your team. You still had your “uniform” on, but you had no choice. None of your friends, even your ex-coworker, had any professional clothing they could lend you. You sat at your desk turning on your computer to get to work until Key came into the office. Mrs. Lee came into the work space humming and swinging three, large, unfamiliar bags. You didn’t pay any mind to her after you greeted her normally. She came up behind you and tapped on your shoulder. You turned to her holding up three bags in front of you blocking your vision. “What is this Mrs. Lee?” She lowered the bags and said, “I was going through my closet yesterday cleaning it out any of the pieces I had that were still in good condition, but I never used. I was wondering if you would want them? It’d be a shame to throw out such good pieces.” You looked at the bags and then back at her, “Oh, I can’t take something so nice.” She stopped you, “No, I won’t be using them anymore! We seem to wear the same size so please, take them. It’s my gift to you.” You reluctantly took the bag and then pulled out some gorgeous blouses, slacks and pencil skirts. The last bag had two pairs of heels, one was classic black, thin heel pump and an ankle strap, nude heel. You turned to her amazed at the beautiful clothing, “this is so expensive. I—!” She stopped you again, “Hush, take it and don’t let them go to waste on an old woman like me.” You pulled out a white, bell sleeve blouse, a black, knee length, tight fitting pencil skirt, and the black heels. You went into the women’s restroom and changed into your new outfit. It fit perfectly, even the shoes! You were a bit unstable at first but got used to it quickly. You looked in the mirror at yourself, you looked like a real professional. I guess fair feathers make a fair bird. You pulled your hair out of the ponytail and it cascaded down into romantic, tousled waves. You didn’t get a chance to dry it after showering last night tying it up wet. You smiled at the new you, ready to take on your mission today! You folded your old clothes and walked back to the work room. You got some stares from the other lanes as you walked by, but you kept going avoiding their gaze. You made it to your desk and stuffed your old “uniform” into one of the bags. You pushed them under your desk until your shift would end. Mrs. Lee came up to you and simply said, “wow, you clean up really well Y/N. These clothes were meant for you! You look great!” You were blushing folding your hands in front of you not sure how to receive compliments. Krystal even raised her eyebrows at you and nodded, but quickly returned to her work.

“Mrs. Lee, do we have a guest?” You heard Taehyung ask Mrs. Lee from behind you. You turned around to look at Mr. Kim, who was wide eyed when he realized it was you standing there. “Oh, Y/N. It’s you.” He was thrown off by the woman standing in front of him, it was you, but different. The way the pencil skirt hugged your hips and your collar bones showed through your blouse was captivating. You were a fresh Spring day, the warmth of the sun that came along with the season and freshness. Your scent filled him to the brim. The biggest note of yours was lavender, it calmed him the more he inhaled. It was like a crisp breeze came through him as he took in your scent. It was heavenly and soul soothing. He had to shake himself out of his spell realizing he was staring, and just casually said good morning. He walked to his office leave all three of you just staring at his disappearing figure. You shared a look with Mrs. Lee raising your eyebrows at his strange morning greeting. You never got those.

Key made it to the office ready to leave to visit David’s school for a statement. You walked down to the parking garage of the establishment and got in his Mercedes. The twenty-minute journey to the middle school was anything but boring. You found out more things about Key, he’s quite chatty and funny. You shared things about yourselves even obscure things. You were having too much for this to be professional. You arrived at the front of the school stepping outside the parked car. Key and you made your way to the front office and sat down waiting in the reception. Key went over with you that he would do a majority of the consultation, she can be a stick in the mud. The woman stood up at the secretarial desk and instructed you to follow her into an office. The woman in the office looked like a true private school principal. The gaudy jewelry, the stuffy suit, and botched plastic surgery showed off her wealth. You both sat down in front of her desk after introductions and she immediately began to defend herself. “I’m sorry Mr. Kim, we will not provide any assistance in that regard. The offenses happened off campus and it was not under school hours. This is a private personal matter.”

She was obviously using any legal loophole she could find to take the responsibility off the school. Key informed you on the way here that this school had records before of hybrid students being assaulted or discriminated. You were genuinely upset that the system that was supposed to be protecting all kids equally failed them. You tried interjecting, “Ma’am, we still need –,” but she held up her hand stopping you. Key and you exchanged a look knowing there wasn’t going to be any way to get her signature. You shook her hand and left with Kibum. He stopped you once you left the building and with a cat-like grin asked, “You know we should go find David. You know… observe the environment to get a feel for it.” He knew that this was probably crossing the line, but he was always up for gathering evidence. “This way we can find out and study if there are any other discriminations going on.” You nodded agreeing with your fist held up to his in a fist bump. You walked down the halls trying to observe the private school for any abnormalities. You kept walking until you made it to the gym area near the back of the school when you heard it. You heard the huffs and grunts of someone, and a gaggle of laughs. You and Kibum crept around the corner of the building peering over the edge of the gymnasium. David was on the floor surrounded by five, tall built boys who were obviously older than him. Two of the kids were smoking cigarettes passing it between them. The one who just kicked flicked the still lit stick onto the young bunny. Anger boiled within you and you made a step towards them when Key stopped you and hushed you. He brought out his phone and began recording the situation. You needed evidence.

“Little Bunny, who’s going to save you now, huh?” They continued to kick him in his fetal position, but when they got tired of it they pulled on his ears. He let out a large yelp in protest. They continued their ministrations, but you’ve had enough! You didn’t even spare a look back at Key who was whisper yelling at you. Your heels clicked as you paced over to the group of men surrounding David. You yelled out, “Hey, leave the kid alone!” You stood a few feet away with a hand on your hip the other pointing at them when the group of five stopped what they were doing and turned towards you. They raised an eyebrow at you, “who are you lady?” David was clearly scared, but limped behind you when he recognized you. He tugged on your shirt, “Mrs. Y/L/N, please, save me!” You bent down to his level and petted his ears, “It’s okay David. Go to Mr. Kim over there, okay? He’ll protect you. Don’t come out until I say so, okay?” He nodded and ran over to Key who was still recording.

You were going to handle this as rationally as possible, but the boy standing in the center just lit up another cigarette taking a drag. You supposed all of them were around seventeen years old, maybe seniors here. The leader, you assumed, approached you taking a few steps out of his group, “Look lady, do you know who I am? My dad could-.” You laughed, “Look kid, I don’t care who your dad is. I’m going to call the authorities to handle this okay?” You went to turn around, but the kid grabbed your wrist roughly. “No, were not lady. This is going to be kept quiet.” You’ve had enough turning halfway around to look at his firm grip on your wrist. You asked him calmly to release your arm. He refused to release it, but you asked once more, “let my wrist go, please.” He laughed and looked at his friends who were egging him on. “Fine,” he suddenly yanked of your wrist causing you to stumble onto the ground. Your knees scrapped against the hot, black asphalt and one heel fell off. You stabilized yourself on your aching wrist from breaking your fall. You noticed your one heel still on had broken! You just got them! His friends were laughing hysterically and so was he, he dropped his fag in front of you and stepped on it twisted his foot tauntingly. The laughing stopped when you flipped the switch on them. You stood up and tied your hair into a pony tail kicking your broken shoe off. It was game on.

You caught the leader’s hand, who was attempting to grab you in an outstretch reach, into your right hand and with your left on the boy’s collar of his button up shirt. Using the momentum of his weight charging towards you, you flipped him to the ground. These boys towered over you, but they didn’t have the same life experience as you. The boy was groaning on the ground and when realization struck his comrades they came rushing to you. They all began circling around you stepping back and forth trying to scare you. One of them even brought out a pocket knife and started waving it at you with a smirk. You were thanking the heavens that your brother taught you things in his free time.

Two boys came at you at once, but you ducked avoiding his right hook. You stood back up avoid his second attempt. You round house kicked the guy in the neck. He stumbled bent over and you took advantage of it bringing your knee to his face. The other guy came at you while you were distracted and grabbed your pony tail pulling you back. The one with the knife attempted to stab you while you were being restrained but avoided it losing the bell sleeve to the grazing. You wiggled yourself free of the pony tail grabber and pushed him away. The knife wielder came back at you, but you grabbed his wrist before he could do anything and twisted it past its normal extension. He wasn’t a knife wielder, it must be for show since he was coming at you sloppily. You heard his wrist pop and the knife clang to the floor. He backed away holding his wrist screaming, “She broke my wrist!” These boys looked stronger than they were. The last two stood there watching their friends and decided they should make a run for it. They were stopped though when two police officers intercepted them.

Key was running over to you, “Y/N! Are you alright?” You retightened your pony tail, “Yeah, that was nothing.” You dusted your hands off in a satisfied manner and key spoke again, “Your shoes--!” Before Key could finish authorities along with the principal came around the corner. The principal was yelling, “No, not these boys! They would’ve never done anything wrong! That Miller kid must’ve provoked them!” You were in complete shock, despite the clear evidence she still chooses to side with these kids. The police officers rounded the boys up and took the one with the broken hand to the ambulance. A familiar face came up to you, “M. Y/L/N, we meet again, in another unfortunate situation.” You look around squinting at his uniform and caught his name and it clicked, the same bunny hybrid officer from that night! “Officer Jeon,” you shake his hand, “Our lawyer, Mr. Kim, sent us here to get a testimony, but we caught our defense under attack by the same boys who are holding a lawsuit against him.” He wrote down your notes and testimony. He turned to Key and asked for his story, who basically repeated after you. Key whispered to you, “Y/N, I think you’re going to have to with them to the station. You’re a badass, but legally beating up minors doesn’t work out.” He was right, but you weren’t going to stand by watching someone get beat up. Another officer came up to Jeon and discussed things you couldn’t hear. He turned to you with an apologetic look, “I’m sorry Ms. Y/L/N, but we’re going to have to take you down to the station for further questions.” You weren’t surprised, the chances of you scathing by this with rich kid’s parents protecting them was unlikely. You told Key to go back to the office and report everything without you. You held your wrist out towards Officer Jeon with no words and he silently cuffed you walking you to his patrol car.

Key was impressed with you, he felt like he was watching a live super hero film the way you jumped in saved the kid and beat up those guys! He had to snap himself out of his giddy atmosphere and let reality sink in. He had to let Taehyung know and get you out! He had to get you out! He picked up your broken heels raced to his car slipping into the driver seat and peeled out of the parking lot. He made it back to the office in record breaking time, parking haphazardly in his spot in the parking garage of the office. He snatched the heels in the passenger seat and ran to the elevator. He pressed the up button of the elevator repeatedly as if his life depended on it. The door opened, and he stepped inside pressing the fifth floor and mashing the close door button. He was sweating at this point, it was supposed to be a simple task, but it escalated into something major fast. The elevator doors opened, and he zoomed past Mrs. Smith who called after him. He speed pass the work room not paying attention to his team who was eyeing him in wonder. He repeatedly knocked on Mr. Kim’s door not waiting for a come in, and he closing the door behind him. Mr. Kim was on the phone which gave Key time to catch his breath. He was tapping his foot impatiently on the floor. Mr. Kim finished his call and turned to his team member, “What is--?” Key interrupted holding up the shoes, “Taehyung, Y/N! Y/N, she was taken by the authorities—you know what just watch this!” He pulled out his phone and came around the desk and showed him the video of earlier. It began with the kids bullying David, but then you came in the picture. Everything was fine until the kid laid a hand on you. You were tossing the kid around and even dodge a knife. He was worried when he saw the shoes, but it got worse when he saw the video. When the video finished he turned to Key, “where is she?” Key looked down at the floor, “The police took her. They want to question her further.” Taehyung got up from his desk, “Fuck!” and without any other words put on his coat and took his keys and made his way out the office with Key behind him.

The longer it took them to get to the downtown station the angrier he got. How could you carelessly attack? You didn’t think ahead at all! They made it to the station and walked into the entrance. The phones were ringing, officers were running around, some hanging around at their desk. He recognized a familiar face who was standing next to his partner, Kim Yugyeom who was a friend of his as well. Wordlessly he walked up to Jungkook and grabbed his arm, “Where is she?” Jungkook was surprised to see Taehyung here, it wasn’t common he ever came down to the station. “Who hyung?” Taehyung looked around the office not seeing you anywhere. “Y/N. Y/N Y/L/N.” Jungkook eyes lit up, “Oh! She’s in a holding cell. Do you know her hyung?” He didn’t care to respond to him, but carried on, “Take me to her, I need to see her.” He was seething at this point; his tail was flicking, and his ears were down turned. Jungkook picked up on his anger with his ears standing straight up, he wondered what did Tae have anything to do with you? Jungkook tapped his partners arms then lead him and Key to the back hallway where the holding cells were. He unlocked the metal cage door revealing rows of cells along the hallway. He let them enter and directed them to the second to last cell on the right side. Taehyung came up to the cell, but held his tongue when he saw you curled up in the corner. Your knees have crusted blood dripping down your leg and your shirt was torn. He turned around running his hand through his hair calming himself down.

You looked up to the noise slowly and noticed the three of them staring at you. You went to sit back on your heels despite the pain and leaned forward in a bow, “I’m sorry Mr. Kim.” You stayed in that position even as he responded, “I can’t believe you. On your first errand…How--.” He walked back to the station’s main room with Jungkook following him. Key remained crouching down, “Y/N, get up. He’s gone.” You rose with a stoic face, you felt so guilty that may you had ruined the case. You wanted to bring justice to David, but you were just complicating things. In your heart you did the right thing, you stopped violence and the innocent from getting hurt. “It’s going to be okay Y/N. Taehyung may be upset right now, but he’ll get you out. He’s not one of the four famous lawyers at our firm for nothing,” Key explained. It made you feel a bit better and you offered him a small smile. He left you but offered his blazer to keep warm and you took it from him reluctantly.

Jungkook came up behind Taehyung who was staring at the Miller family situated at one of the desk. The mother was rocking her son back in forth in comfort. She had tears in her eyes and her bunny ears were flopped down in sadness. This hurt his heart. It reminded him of his own mother when she comforted him those nights realizing his father wouldn’t come back. He wasn’t going to let these kids get away with their bullying. Jungkook spoke up, “Who is Y/N to you hyung?” Taehyung turned to him, “she’s my newest employee.” Jungkook’s mouth formed the perfect “O” in realization. Jungkook lead Taehyung to the family and they discussed what actions would be taken further. Their discussion was interrupted by a few women coming in yelling at the top of their lungs. “My son is innocent! Where is the bitch that ruined his wrist!” the fancily dressed woman shouted into the room. Jungkook stood up addressing the women, “Ma’am, please sit down,” directly the woman to sit at the desk. “No, I want to see that women who beat up my son and his friends!” Taehyung stood up as well attempting to mediate the situation. Mrs. Miller was holding her son closer, protecting him in the best way she could. The woman struggled in Jungkook’s hold but everyone stopped when a tall man, with overly gelled back hair walked into the room. He has a uniform that was littered with badges on his left chest. The man spoke loudly, “Ma’am, we need to ask you to calm down and take a seat.” The woman turned in Jungkook’s hold, “and who are you to order me around?” Jungkook bowed to his senior, “Chief.” The man waved him off and took charge of the situation directing the woman to sit down at one of the conference tables.

Taehyung and the woman’s lawyer went at eachother for a while back and forth trying to come to a resolution, but they were stubborn. Taehyung was off in the corner trying to come up with a new statement when the lawyer asked for a break. Jungkook came up to him with a coffee in a Styrofoam cup which Taehyung took thanking him. Jungkook sat next to him, “Hyung, remember how I told you about that heroine?” Taehyung nodded after taking a sip of his dark coffee. “That’s her. Y/N is her.” Taehyung raised his brows not expecting the wonder woman of Jungkook’s story to be you. He laughed though, you were full of surprises today. Jungkook patted Tae’s back returning to his desk. Taehyung finished his coffee tossing it into the trash. Mrs. Miller, the rich wives were already gone, and Key went back to the office it was only him left. He sighed with a heavy heart and made his way back to the dimly lit cells. He walked slowly to your cell to find you in the same position as earlier. He crouched down to your level and called to you, “Hey, hey!” You looked up at him with sad eyes that he had to turn away. “You’re going to have to stay here for the night. There seems to be progress with the families, but this isn’t a simple lawsuit anymore.” You nodded knowing that there was no way going the easy route. He got up to walk away from the cell wordlessly like always. You spoke softly in whisper as always, “Good night Tae Tae.” The footsteps once moving down the hall stopped, turning around to you even faster. Taehyung grabbed the bars knocking on the cell door with a rattle looking at you with wide eyes, ears at attention, “What did you just say?”

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