shoutout to the artemis redesign contest that has some of the most diverse concepts i've ever seen: a fire emblem character, yassified britney catsuit artemis, sexy toga lady (which the art for that one? slayyyyy) and woman with cancerous forest growth

scandalous beauty: athalia ponsell lindsley - an analysis

“Not that St. Augustine citizens went around killing people they didn’t like. But Athalia was not on a level playing field. Nobody liked her, so there was not a big hue and cry when she was killed.” - Sally Boyles, a neighbour of Lindsley’s

For someone so brash, loud, and ballsy, her life, especially her early life, was quite a mystery. Just like her controversial death. On January 23, 1974, former model, dancer, political activist and television personality Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was murdered with a machete by an unknown assailant on the front steps of her home in St. Augustine, Florida. Her murder is notorious more than four decades after it occurred. The only eyewitness said a man attacked Lindsley with a machete in broad daylight on the front steps of her white mansion. Gossip swirled that neighbour Frances Bemis knew who killed Lindsley and would notify authorities. Bemis was later murdered on her nightly walk. Police arrested only one suspect for Lindsley's murder, which remains unsolved to this day. For someone who was a Leo, I don't think Athalia was a very happy person. I think she tried to bring others down, with her based on her ill-concealed dissatisfaction with the way things were. Unfortunately for her, her demise happened in a town that didn’t care for her.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley, according to astrotheme, was a Leo sun and Libra moon (the moon is speculative). She was born Mary Anne “Athalia” Fetter in Toledo, Ohio in 1917. Her parents were both wealthy New Yorkers; her father was a utilities magnate and her mother a socialite. Shortly after her birth, she and her family moved to Isle of Pines (now known as Isla de la Juventud), Cuba where she was raised until the age of 12. By the time the parents moved to Jacksonville, Florida and enrolled her in parochial school, she was winning beauty contests and pursuing an acting career. After high school, she moved to New York City, where it didn’t take her long to be employed as a fashion model for the celebrated fashion designer John Robert Powers, which helped her land work in some Broadway musicals and as a hostess on a TV game show. By 1949, she was the hottest model in NYC. She was just as hot off the runway as well; the list of Ponsell’s sexual conquests was long, including the likes of actor Tyrone Power and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. She was reported to have been married three times, one of  them to a man named Ponsell, but there is no information on him or her other two spouses. She had a scrapbook of all the celebrities and people she was acquainted. But success had quickly gone to the young model’s head, and by 1954, she’d burned all her bridges at her modeling agency, and her reputation as “the bitch of New York” was well-earned and kept her from earning any more work in the entertainment industry.

Out of work, over the hill, and her looks fading, Ponsell quit her 20-years of modeling and entertainment work and retired to a white stucco mansion in St. Augustine in 1972. By that time, the 55-year-old washed-up model became embittered. From the moment she arrived in St.Augustine, she did her best to position herself at the top of the city’s high society. But the sides of that pyramid were very steep, and to the city’s old-school cultural hardliners, she was an outsider, and an obnoxious one, at that. St. Augustine is known for being a rather cliquish town, and unless you have Spanish, Menorcan, or WASP roots, any newcomer is looked at as an outsider. She was known as a pain in the ass, criticizing everything she thought was wrong with the town and its citizens. Naturally the upper crust didn’t take too well to her. She may have annoyed them, but she did catch the eye of another important person, Mayor James Lindsley, a St. Augustine native who went by the nickname “Jinx”. Jinx was known around the city for his ability to work hard and drink even harder. He was of the generation where if he was wronged, or if there was a problem, he settled his differences with his fists. Despite his passionate love affairs with ass kicking and Jack Daniels, Athalia was drawn to Jinx’s good standing with St. Augustine’s old guard, Jinx was attracted to her still-good looks and fiery personality. The two courted hard and fast, and just a few months after they met, they married.

Their marriage was rocky from the start, providing the town with juicy gossip. In fact, just 3 months into the marriage, the two separated. They wound up living in separate homes, fighting back and forth about possessions and property. She may have treated her husband and the town like dirt, but she was very moved by animals and took in a lot of strays and accumulated a coterie of animals. This didn’t endear herself to the neighbours, and they complained of dogs barking and other noises coming from her makeshift “animal shelter”. One neighbour in particular that took exception to Athalia and her animals was a hot-headed county manager called Alan Stanford. Stanford lived next door to her on Marine Street, and the two clashed from day one. Stanford filed several noise complaints against Athalia and her pets, resulting in her arrest. In revenge, she made Stanford’s life as county manager a living hell. She became a fixture at City Hall, attending every county meeting she could and accuse Stanford of all sorts of improprieties, from the mismanagement of county funds to stealing equipment from the road department. Some of these accusations weren’t entirely unfounded, but it got to the point where her presence was dreaded. She was after his job and wanted him fired. Stanford, in turn, threatened her life. December of 1973, she found out that Stanford lacked the civil engineering degree required for all county managers, and went to the state to report him.

On January 23, 1974 she attended her last city hall meeting, armed with petitions of several citizens calling for Stanford to resign. She exposed the fact that Stanford forged documents and padded his experience and qualifications as county manager. Later that day, to celebrate, she met her estranged husband Jinx for lunch. The day went surprisingly well, going shopping in Jacksonville and running errands. At approximately 5:30 pm, they both went home to their respective houses. As Athalia walked her pet blue jay around in her front yard, an intruder emerged from her back yard, armed with a machete. Moments later, the police department received a call about a murder. The police arrived to the provided address and found Athalia sprawled across the front steps of her porch, nearly decapitated and hacked to death with a machete in broad daylight.

The scene was chaotic, with neighbours trampling all over the grass trying to get a look, contaminating evidence. In their great police work, the cops never thought to rope off the crime scene. When her husband Jinx was notified of his wife’s murder, he took his time getting to her house, making a pit stop to his attorney’s office along the way. A few hours later, the cops find a machete in his pickup truck. But an open-and-shut case this was not. In February of 1974, the rumour was that Jinx killed her in a drunken rage. Even though Jinx had a violent temper and smacked his wife around, in the eyes of local investigators, he was “unarrestable”; they had no real evidence against the mayor and he even passed a lie-detector test. A tip from one of Athalia’s neighbours came in: it seems the neighbour’s 19 year-old son claimed to have witnessed her old nemesis Alan Stanford kill her. There was a trail of blood that led from Athalia’s front porch directly into Allen Stanford’s back yard. More than a few weren’t concerned with Athalia being killed because she was such a bitch that they feel that she deserved what she got.

In March of 1974, there was a blood-stained machete, a watch, and blood-soaked trousers found in a bag in a swamp; the blood on the clothes matched Athalia’s, and the clothes belonged to Stanford. On February 22, 1974, Alan Stanford was arrested and charged with murder. On January 1975, the murder trial commenced. The prosecution had a strong case and a guilty verdict seemed almost certain. Just before closing arguments, Stanford’s defense team called the 19-year old witness to the stand. Despite previously identifying Stanford as the killer, the young man was now unsure of the identity, having never actually seen the assailant’s face. On the day following the killing, a young nurse rode her bicycle as she always did. The police stopped her and questioned her about the murder. The nurse picked out a third suspect, deputy sheriff Dewey Lee, as the killer, further muddling the waters. The jury found Alan Stanford not guilty, despite the mountain of evidence against him. Local authorities were so upset by the verdict that they refused to re-open the case. Even though Stanford was acquitted of the murder, Athalia wound up getting the last laugh in the end, they local county board voted 4 to 1 to fire Stanford due to his lying about his credentials. He wound up leaving town shortly afterward. Today, St. Augustine is different; most who lived on Marine Street during the 1960s and 1970s have either moved away or passed away. Athalia’s house, now a historical landmark, still stands today, a grim reminder of how local resentment can go too far.

the murder of frances bemis

Frances Bemis was a socialite and neighbour of Athalia Ponsell Lindsley who happened to be a close friend of hers. Shortly after Lindsley’s murder, Frances started gathering information in order to write a book about the murder, claiming that she had information on what really happened. On November 3, 1974, she went for an evening walk and disappeared. Her body was found near her house, her skull crushed by a cement block. Her murder has never been solved.

This was the next analysis that I planned to do after the Robert Mitchum one, so I decided to just get this one out of the way.

Stats

birthdate: July 25, 1917*

*note*: due to the absence of a birth time, this analysis will be even more speculative.

major planets:

Sun: Leo

Moon: Libra

Rising: unknown

Mercury: Leo

Venus: Leo

Mars: Gemini

Midheaven: unknown

Jupiter: Gemini

Saturn: Leo

Uranus: Aquarius

Neptune: Leo

Pluto: Cancer

Overall personality snapshot: She had a prestigious, compelling presence, even when she was just clowning around, and a natural ability to command both respect and affection from her friends and colleagues. In the nicest possible way she assumed the position of the leader because she had a strong independent streak and believed in her lofty, worthy ideals, but she also gravitated towards collaboration and an impartial examination of the facts. She could be bossy and yet her bossiness was so diplomatic that it was convincing, even impressive. Although she wanted esteem and tended to identify with honourable goals and people, she could work alongside others she respected and she really wanted the best for everyone. She had style, and she instinctively knew that ‘manners maketh man’ and that, if for some reason they didn’t, they went a long way in making life worth living. When she came into her own, she developed a strongly aesthetic approach to life and are naturally creative. She needed a very positive, active medium through which to express herself, such as drama, teaching or running her own business.

Anything to do with beauty and harmony interested her, such as decorating, design and painting. Her interest in social equality took her into politics or the law. She had a strong sense of herself and stubbornly followed her own personal code of ethics, yet she also enjoyed being part of a group that had a common purpose or bond. She cherished ideals of liberty and equality, but if there were some distasteful tasks to perform she moved very smoothly into the role of delegating – well, she thought, someone has to give the orders around here or we would have no harmony at all. Although she seemed to enjoy an easy, breezy approach to life, there was quite a serious side to her personality, and she could be surprisingly controversial and provocative. She was willing to stand up and be counted, and perhaps make it look easy. She had a natural appreciation and enjoyment of the good things of life; she assumed that they should be hers by birthright. And through cunning charm, calculated boldness, and intelligent maneuver she managed to have plenty.

She was ambitious, sound at giving orders, carried responsibility well and was a good teacher, especially able to bring out the best in children. She believed in herself and generally knew the right thing to say at the right time, although she could show a stubborn and dogmatic side. She had a high opinion of her mental powers, and it was certainly true to say that he had plenty of mental energy. She was a mentally restless person, both versatile and broad-minded. She experienced personal growth through analysis and using her intellect, although the collection and communication of facts may have been an end within itself. She was a reliable and loyal person. Her will and sense of honour were strong and she was a great organizer. On the downside, her self-assuredness could become dogmatism and imperiousness. Conservatism may have affected her creativity, artistic values and love affairs. This expressed itself as self-imposed restrictions or as selfishness. She often felt inadequate, which created an insidious form of oppression over all her forms of expression. She could also take herself so seriously, that people think that she was older than her years.

She belonged to a generation that could be unpredictable in that it liked to instigate change simply for the sake of shaking things up and providing stimulation. Humanitarian ideals became extremely important, as well as the belief in absolute freedom for every individual. She came up with radical new ideas which she stubbornly followed. As a member of this generation, she may have felt deep spiritual convictions, although she may not have seen herself as religious in the traditional sense of the word. She was part of a very artistically talented and creative generation that wanted to escape from the demands of the world around them into a world of excitement and glamour. Members of this generation loved the theater and the cinema, in fact, any sort of creative self-expression. They also believed in the rights of any individual to express themselves. This generation was both idealistic and romantic, selfish and individualistic. Lindsley embodied all of these Leo Neptunian ideals. Also, as a member of the Leo Neptune generation, she experienced and fully embraced changes in sexual mores and attitudes, changing the way people approach the whole issue of romantic relationships. Changes were also experienced in the relationships between parents and children, with the ties becoming looser. She was part of a generation known for its devastating social upheavals concerning home and family. The whole general pattern of family life experiences enormous changes and upheavals; as a Cancer Plutonian, this aspect is highlighted with Lindsley’s father dying relatively young and her having to care for her mother until she died.

Love/sex life: There is never any question as to the ground rules of her erotic universe: what best served her ego, best served her libido. She had a marvelous capacity for enjoying sex but her pride and self-possession always came first. Some people might have found the egotism of this position offensive but many others hardly noticed. After all, a lover as lively, generous and exciting as she had good reason to be proud. There was always a distinctively theatrical quality about her love making. She wanted sex to be a big event, full of drama and intellectual significance. This grandiose approach to sex can certainly be entertaining but it often made her romantic moments seem less than spontaneous. More importantly, real life sex rarely met her cinematic standards. This is one reason why she often found the idea of love much more appealing than its physical manifestations.The sex in her head was never common or clumsy, and she could always count on great reviews.

minor asteroids and points:

North Node: Capricorn

Lilith: Virgo

Her North Node in Capricorn dictated that she needed to develop the more caring and compassionate side to her personality and try to place less emphasis on the materialistic aspects of her life. Her Lilith in Virgo ensured that she exhibited a Madonna-whore complex; she made her way through the world with her sensational wits and she had no time for constricting judgments. She confronted the grittier facts of life, especially sex. She was good at sex but not as a form of sappy emotional expression.

elemental dominance:

fire

air

She was dynamic and passionate, with strong leadership ability. She generated enormous warmth and vibrancy. She was exciting to be around, because she was genuinely enthusiastic and usually friendly. However, she could either be harnessed into helpful energy or flame up and cause destruction. Ultimately, she chose the latter. Confident and opinionated, she was fond of declarative statements such as “I will do this” or “It’s this way.” When out of control—usually because she was bored, or hadn’t been acknowledged—she was be bossy, demanding, and even tyrannical. But at her best, her confidence and vision inspired others to conquer new territory in the world, in society, and in themselves. She was communicative, quick and mentally agile, and she liked to stir things up. She was likely a havoc-seeker on some level. She was oriented more toward thinking than feeling. She carried information and the seeds of ideas. Out of balance, she lived in her head and could be insensitive to the feelings of others. But at her best, she helped others form connections in all spheres of their daily lives.

modality dominance:

fixed

She wasn’t particularly interested in spearheading new ventures or dealing with the day-to-day challenges of organization and management. She excelled at performing tasks and producing outcomes. She was flexible and liked to finish things. Was also likely undependable, lacking in initiative, and disorganized. Had an itchy restlessness and an unwillingness to buckle down to the task at hand. Probably had a chronic inability to commit—to a job, a relationship, or even to a set of values.

planet dominants:

Sun

Mars

Pluto

She had vitality and creativity, as well as a strong ego and was authoritarian and powerful. She likely had strong leadership qualities, she definitely knew who she was, and she had tremendous will. She met challenges and believed in expanding her life. She was aggressive, individualistic and had a high sexual drive. She believed in action and took action. Her survival instinct was strong. She wanted to take herself to the limit—and then surpass that limit, which she often did. She ultimately refused to compromise her integrity by following another’s agenda. She likely didn’t compare herself to other people and didn’t want to dominate or be dominated. She simply wanted to be free to follow her own path, whatever it was. She brought about complete and profound transformations in her life, good or bad (and it was often bad). She felt the need to let go of what was familiar to her and accept new and different ways of being and doing things. There were areas in her life where she had to accept regeneration, which involved the destruction of the old and the creation of the new.

sign dominants:

Leo

Gemini

Cancer

She loved being the center of attention and often surrounded herself with admirers. She had an innate dramatic sense, and life was definitely his stage. Her flamboyance and personal magnetism extended to every facet of her life. She wanted to succeed and make an impact in every situation. At her best, she was optimistic, honorable, loyal, and ambitious. She ventured out to see what else was there and seized upon new ideas that will expand their communities. Her innate curiosity kept her on the move. She used her rational, intellectual mind to explore and understand her personal world. She needed to answer the single burning question in her mind: why? This applied to most facets of her life, from the personal to the impersonal. This need to know sent her off to foreign countries, where her need to explore other cultures and traditions ranked high. She was changeable and often moody. This meant that she was often at odds with herself—the mind demanding one thing, the heart demanding the opposite. To someone else, this internal conflict often manifested as two very different people. At first meeting, she seemed enigmatic, elusive. She needed roots, a place or even a state of mind that he could call her own. She needed a safe harbor, a refuge in which to retreat for solitude. She was generally gentle and kind, unless he was hurt. Then she could become vindictive and sharp-spoken. She was affectionate, passionate, and even possessive at times. She was intuitive and was perhaps even psychic. Experience flowed through her emotionally. She was often moody and always changeable; her interests and social circles shifted constantly. She was emotion distilled into its purest form.

Read more about her under the cut.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was a former model, Broadway performer, actress, dancer and television personality who died in a savage late-afternoon attack at her home on Jan. 23, 1974. Wife of the once mayor of St. Augustine, James "Jinx" Lindsley, who died a few years after her death. Mrs. Athalia Lindsley was very active politically.

She also took in many animals, such as dogs, cats and even two goats. At the time of her murder, she was outside trying to rehabilitate one of her rescue birds, a blue jay named Clementine which had an injured wing. She had rescued the little bird from neighborhood cats.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was a very devoted daughter who took care of her mother full time until her mother passed away.

She was 58 years old when her life was brutally cut short.

A neighbor and local politician was the only person ever arrested and tried for her murder, after a very dramatic trial, a jury found the defendant not guilty, and he was acquitted

(x)

Oof I have a craving for Jealous!Alexios, but I can't decide between post-Deimos Alexios or just good ole Regular Alexios?? It's an ongoing struggle! But then I'm also intrigued at Alexios meeting Eivor, or post-Deimos Alexios fighting alongside Kass and absolutely LOSING it when she gets injured in battle? I... *sigh*... take your pick if any of these interest you! I trust you and your writing :P

sorry it took so long, but here ya go! went with jealous Deimos, hope you don’t mind.

Deimos!Alexios x fem!Reader

DEIMOS ADJUSTS THE bronze fibulae at his shoulder, shifting around on his feet —uncomfortable with how vulnerable he feels wearing the deep scarlet exomis. He is not used to being without the black-and-gold armor of the Cult nor without his sword but tonight duty demands it. Part of his unease fades as he watches you on the opposite side of the room.

The nigh threadbare material of your chiton puddles around your feet, but you are quick to slide into the deep blue peplos. “Aphrodite would be envious,” he remarks moving to stand before you, in his hand is a golden necklace with red and green stones. Warmth rushes to your cheeks at his flattery —he had been doing that often as of late. Pulling your hair aside, Deimos drapes the jewelry over your head, securing the hook clasp at the back of your neck.

“It’s not wise to invoke her wrath, Deimos,” you chide. The goddess rarely took kindly to being compared to mortals. He rolls his eyes and unwittingly reaches out, thumb tracing over your cheek —tinted pink with crushed rose and red wine. The urge in his heart says to give into years of longing and kiss you, but there is a lump in his throat, and it does not fade. You look up at him, wondering what thoughts plague his mind, and why he ignores the clear connection time has forged between you. Sighing, you step back, and his hand falls back to his side —clenching into a tight fist. “We should go,” you remind him. Deimos nods.

Samos is unlike the rest of the Greek world, despite the corruption of its leader —it is peaceful and prosperous. The agora of the polis is filled with famed Samian wine and oils coveted by Athenian citizens and Olympic athletes alike. Compared to the busy streets of Kirrha and the constant influx of pilgrims seeking wisdom in Delphi, you think a quiet place such as this would not be such a terrible place to live. The thought brings a distant dream back to the forefront of your mind as you look around the seaside city and to Deimos at your side. Maybe one day we can stay in a place like this, you think.

“I despise these things,” he says, brows settling into a deep furrow as you both stop at the villa’s entrance. Deimos preferred to keep to himself if he could not be with you, and he dreads large gatherings —like the one you must attend tonight. The Cult suspects Lasthenes of Samos is dealing information to their adversaries and slowing them from reaching their goals in the Southern Sporades. They have sent their champion to find if there are any truths in the rumors —you accompany him as a temper. Of all the people in Hellas, only you could quell the fire when it burned too hot in Deimos.

You reach for his hand out of impulse —surprised when he slips his fingers between yours. “I don’t care for them either,” you tell him, something about symposiums always puts you on edge, “but at least we’re together.” His lips kink into a fleeting smile, it feels like a small victory to know you are at his side. It does not last long, though as the ladies in attendance sweep you away into conversation, leaving the men to the andron and courtyard.

Time blurs with the droning gossip, tiring of the talk you slip down the stairs from the rooftop and back to the courtyard, eyes scanning those gathered for Deimos. He is not to be seen. Sighing, you turn your sights to the kitchen —eager to fill your belly with wine. Your plan is thwarted when Lasthenes approaches, a serpent’s smile crossing his pinched face. The leader of Samos is garbed in fine robes bought with the blood of innocents.

“Aphrodite has come to visit Samos it seems,” Lasthenes remarks, lifting a jeweled hand to your cheek. You step away from the leader, turning your cheek away from his unwelcome touch. Deimos lingers just out of sight, the blood in veins beginning to boil. “Tell me how I know every face on this island–” Lasthenes steps toward you again, you back hitting one of the marble columns surrounding the perimeter of the courtyard “–and yet I have never seen yours.” It was uncommon for strangers to be invited to his symposiums —even the hetaerae had familiar faces.

You know why Deimos had been sent to Samos and Lasthenes would be more apt to dispel an accidental truth to you rather than him. Drawing in a long breath, you decide to play along. “I have traveled all the way from Delphi to be here tonight,” you tell the leader, taking the offered cup of wine. That much is true, you and Deimos had sailed from Phokis nigh a week ago and had spent two nights on Samos, waiting for tonight.

“The Goddess of love and beauty has travelled far, then,” Lasthenes says, silver-tongue not missing a beat. You laugh, brushing back what hair slips from its bindings and taking a gulp of the sweet watered wine. “Is it to your taste?” He inquires. You nod in response, though before you can speak another man, garbed in Persian robs interrupts —leaning close to whisper something in his ear.

It is not so low that you cannot overhear, though. He speaks of a meeting between a Spartan general and Persian merchant and you can make out the name Perikles on the man’s lips, too. “I’ll be there shortly,” Lasthenes replies, turning his attention back to you. “Those affairs can wait,” he assures, resting his hand on your arm, “I’d like to learn of the goddess before me.” You force a smile and however insincere it may be, Lasthenes takes no notice of it.

When the leader motions toward a private room, you spot Deimos among those gathered alas. His face is almost as red as the exomis he wears, and his hands are clenched into fight fists at his sides. You recognize the cold anger in his dark eyes, but there is something else too. Deimos storms from the villa. Had it been up to his digression, Lasthenes would be dead —anyone suspected of trading secrets would be inclined to actually do it for the right incentives. But that is not all that weighs on his mind as he leaves the symposium.

Your gaze follows Deimos until you can no longer see him. “I have to go,” you announce, somewhat apologetic while looking back over your shoulder at the leader —noticing the suspicion growing in his stare. Lasthenes says nothing as he watches you leave.

Finding Deimos is not difficult as he often ends up on a beach when something has gone wrong or is bothering him. He paces back-and-forth on the white sand before the villa. To anyone else he is a caged animal in these moments —dangerous and to be avoided— but to you he is still Deimos. You step into his path, placing your hand on the center of his chest. “Deimos,” you sigh, “what is it?” His dark gaze flicks downward before he looks at you.

Then you see the glint in his tawny-gold eyes and understand why is acting this way. “Jealousy doesn’t suit you,” you tell him, lips turning upward into a smile. He huffs, brows furrow, though now his anger has faded. You move the hand on his chest up to his cheek —tracing over the scar below his eye. Had it not been for having to leave earlier, perhaps something could have happened between the two of you.

Without thinking, you push up onto your toes, if Deimos will not act then you will. Your lips find his under the silver light of the moon and stars. His hands are quick to settle on your hips, pulling you closer. It feels like a dream and if it is, Deimos never wishes to wake. All his unease fades into nothing. Feet entangled in the excess fabric of your peplos, you topple forward —not expecting it, both you and Deimos fall back into the sand.

“You don’t have to worry about anyone else, Deimos,” you confess. Flattery and gifts could never buy your love or affection, for your heart already belonged to another. His fingers brush your cheek, moving back into your hair. Despite his sour mood and what had transpired at the symposium, his gaze is soft as he fights to hold back a smile. “My heart is yours.” It had been for some time.

You do not expect Deimos to say anything in turn —he is a man of few words and it may take him a while to find the right ones to say. But the way he kisses you is more than enough for now. Deimos holds you close under a clear night sky —waves breaking softly on the shoreline— as you exchange tender caresses and slow kisses, making up for lost time.

[@novastale @fjor-ok-skadi ]

Sam & Eileen - A Supernatural Romance.

I am quite clearly over the moon about 15x06 and Sam reunited with and bringing Eileen back from the dead. I was so over the moon in fact, that I burst into tears when Eileen stepped out of the bathtub and took Sam’s hand. That was… wow. 

That was the most romantic moment in this show since 13x05 “it’s never too late” (also a return from the dead!)

So I was inspired to write an homage meta post celebrating Sam and Eileen’s romance looking back at everything canon has given us on this epic pairing.

It turns out, despite all my usual grumbling, there is still one het ship out there that I can totally get behind, and no one deserves love more than our dear Sam Winchester.

11x04 - Baby

This is where I believe the story started for Sam. 

“You don’t ever want something more?”

(x)

“You know, with a hunter? Somebody who understands the life?”

This question, from Sam to his brother at the start of Season 11, has shaped so much of the subtext in the seasons following. It’s significance to the Winchesters individual development arcs, their hopes, their dreams. It blatantly spelled out for the audience what both these boys desire and what they deserve for each of their endgames.

Not a white picket fence, not the apple pie life, just something. Something that suits them. Something to share with someone else, romantically, who might fit that particular box. Let me be very clear here and stress that Sam certainly wasn’t talking about him and Dean finding that something with each other.

Dean’s journey towards finding that something has been building for even longer than this particular moment in canon, with the other stand out scene being his confession in 10x16 where he talked about having things, people, feelings, that I want to experience differently than before, or maybe even for the first time. Dean’s journey is something we have discussed at length, and as every meta writer in fandom knows all too well, it only leads in one particular direction - towards a certain dreamy blue eyed angel. 

Sam’s journey has not been discussed as intensely as Dean’s, but 11x04 did lay groundwork for the writers to build upon. It hasn’t been as smooth or as obvious in the subtext as Dean’s either, with certain writing decisions appearing to come out of left field and confuse the path. But it seems that Dabb has course corrected and brought us back on track. 

This episode was the first time in canon in a long time that we heard Sam textually voice his desire for a romantic relationship of some kind. I therefore immediately got excited and locked this moment away in a pocket in my heart to pull out again if ever the show would introduce a character who could fit those requirements for Sam. 

The show did not disappoint.

11x11 Into the Mystic

GOD I forgot how full of delicious layers this episode was! It was written by the same writer who wrote 11x04. Robbie Thompson clearly had something in mind for Sam when he first wrote that script, and he gave it to us (and Sam) in this episode.

Eileen is introduced in 11x11 as another Hunter on a quest for vengeance - to avenge her murdered family.

It isn’t a surprise that we basically immediately shipped Eileen with Sam after this episode first aired, because her entire backstory is written to compliment Sam. Within the first 5 minutes of getting to know her, she already fulfills the requirements from Sam’s wistful speech in 11x04. She is a hunter, she is someone who understands the life. But more than that, she is all of the following:

She is on a revenge quest

She has murdered parents

She was raised by a Hunter or rather “trained” to be a Hunter rather than raised (in a scene which implies a similarly strict hunter upbringing to Sam and Dean)

She continued hunting alone after her guardian died

Her grandfather was a Man of Letters, making her a MOL Legacy, just like Sam.

Her mother was a lawyer, so she makes a joke about studying law which prompts further bonding with Sam due to his Stanford law education.

Eileen catches Sam’s eye almost immediately, and it is surprising I didn’t pick up on that on my first watch at the time, but Eileen is literally disguised as the cleaner in order to go unnoticed. Sam had no reason to be suspicious of her, and I think at the time we all assumed that he just wanted to question a potential witness - but even so, there was no need to interrupt Mildred to go speak to her. Could Sam’s distraction have been a bit more than strictly professional? In hindsight I’m gonna go with YES.

Their next meet is cute simply because by this point the audience is misled to think that she is actually the banshee. The ominous music tones, the shots of Eileen watching the Winchesters from a window. We believe that she is the villain, and then when she uses magic to pin Sam and comes at him with a dagger it’s practically a romantic trope used in enemies to lovers fics. A case of mistaken identity (another trope) and Sam and Eileen are able to reveal each of their truths. They bond immediately with both Sam and the audience learning all of the above. the checklist requirements indicating their compatibility is so blatantly obvious its almost too on the nose. But then het romance always seems that way doesn’t it?

The real kicker in this episode that made my heart sing at the time was this:

“Feel free to drop me a line if you ever need anything. Or even if you just wanna hang out”

“you can’t call me though, I mean you could call but I won’t answer.”

(x)

FIRST OF ALL - HOW DARE YOU KILL ME WITH FEELS SAMMY OVER THAT GORGEOUS SMILE

Sam’s line here though was SUCH A LINE. “Or even if you just wanna hang out”

I see you Sam Winchester. Hoping for Netflix and Chill right? I know you have Netflix. You gave Cas your password. :P

This little interaction at the end of this episode was pure flirtation and it was gorgeous to watch (and to rewatch, with hindsight, knowing what happens in 15x06 to totally deepen their relationship. Urgh. I guess I really am a sucker for a good old fashioned Supernatural Love Story!)

The other big takeaway from this episode is that meeting Eileen rejuvenated Sam. He starts the episode unable to sleep, haunted by his Lucifer trauma and feeling so down and broody that Dean steps in constantly to ask if he’s okay and try to engage in talking about feelings (always a bad sign for a Winchester to get to the point where they feel they need to ask the other to talk about feelings!)

But the end of the episode marks a significant change in Sam. He smiles, he opens up to Dean, he textually states that the case helped him. He opens up a keepsake box (that we never knew he had before this episode) and puts the retirement homes leaflet in there - an indication that he actually has hope that he might live to see a happy retirement (a wonderful sign for someone who just 40 minutes ago was acting like a total nihilist.)

The case alone wasn’t some spectacular revelation, so what else could have possibly caused Sam’s change of heart? The answer is obvious. Eileen did. She acted like a beacon of light this episode for Sam, and in a perfect bookend to how the episode opened, Sam curls up in bed, turns off his light, and is able to sleep. It is only Dean who spends the night restless and haunted.

This was the first time that Eileen acted as a “win” for Sam just by meeting him.

Unfortunately, we don’t meet Eileen again until a whole season later in

12x17 - The British Invasion

This episode is a far cry away from 11x11′s layered genius. Messy, overly plot heavy, too many various character stories causing mental whiplash, too much focus on unnecessary side characters, LUCIFER existing in general, an unnecessary sex scene between Mary and Ketch (eww), a bloody death scene, and moments of utter stupidity from the lead characters.

In other words it’s a CLASSIC BUCKLEMING.

Do yourselves a favour and if you ARE planning on re-watching this episode, just skip to the parts with Dean, Sam and Eileen (the Dagon and Kelly stuff is relatively good as well - the rest is utter garbage).

Anyway, pushing aside my hatred for the terrible duo for a moment, I will say that as per usual, what they lack in subtlety and intelligent subtextual layering, they make up for with a sledge hammer to the face in terms of trying to get a point across. So when it comes to Saileen in this episode, well, it might as well be canon already.

Practically every time Sam and Eileen interact in this episode, they are framed as a flirtatious couple in the early tentative stages. The smiles and playful flirting, the smirks when one does something to make the other proud. It is very clear, even if it is still technically subtextual, that both Jared and Shoshannah are playing this like these characters are attracted to one another, and are building on that relationship.

Hell, even Dean teases Sam twice about Eileen in this episode (though once was in a deleted scene that they should have kept instead of the Lucifer crap):

(x)

What we also find out from this opening scene, is that Sam and Eileen have been communicating off screen since 11x11. It is textually confirmed that the two of them have been developing their relationship previously, and we just haven’t seen it. Did Eileen visit the Bunker previously? Because she certainly seemed comfortable there this episode. Have her and Sam cuddled up to watch movies previously? (We know another pairing that textually do this even though we’ve never seen it on screen - Dean and Cas). Dean feels comfortable enough to tease his little brother in that playful typical sibling way, so clearly Eileen at this point has become a more frequent character in Sam’s life. It’s just a shame we as the audience have never seen anything of it until this episode. 

This episode might be the first time we have seen her again since her introduction, but it certainly isn’t the first time Sam has seen her since. This is canon.

The rest of this episode continues this theme of displaying with zero subtlety that Sam and Eileen have something more than friendship. One of the easiest ways to truly see the effect of this is just watching Sam in scenes with her compared to Sam at any other time. Like in 11x11, Eileen manages to light Sam up and have him grinning like a puppydog. It’s kind of adorable and also quite shocking when you realise how rare it is to see Sam smile (or any of the characters in this angstfest of a TV show for that matter.)

Just look at the above cheesy smile in the car scene. Look at Sam’s bashful face here when Dean teases him in front of his girl:

(x)

Look at this smug face when Eileen snaps back at the irritating guy:

(x)

Jared hits every mark playing a loved up Sam Winchester. 

By the end of this episode, a tragedy strikes and Eileen is scared off. Their relationship here ends on a comforting hug, because meaningful relationships in this show are almost always first signified with comforting hugs following traumatic events, and tentative hand holding.

The way he strokes her hair gently is just SO touching and intimate.

(x)

When all is said and done Eileen leaves, terrified of the British Men of Letters. When Dean asks Sam where she was, he tells him she went back to Ireland, and Sam looks so dejected at that thought. I don’t see how anyone can possibly read his reactions towards Eileen as anything other than romantic affection.

As a bonus point - I will mention that due to Bucklemings sledgehammer approach, it is quite clear that Eileen plays a Cas mirror in this episode. All of her scenes with Sam are paired off against Dean who spends this entire episode trying and failing to get hold of Castiel. In the Winchester’s final scene, Sam greets Dean in the morning and immediately asks his brother about Cas. Sam does this a lot in season 12, because Dean’s concern for Cas is present throughout every episode in which he is absent. Dean admits he is worried, but changes the subject, instead asking Sam about Eileen (note that it is the next morning so Dean assumed she had stayed the night).

Both brothers revert to the other when it comes to their respective partners. Sam leaves it up to Dean to contact and worry about Cas, and Dean does the same with Sam about Eileen. By this being a common pattern throughout pretty much all of Carver/Dabb eras, both brothers subtextually acknowledge that they each have a strong emotional connection with their respective potential romantic partners and therefore any contact or communication about each partner must come from the brother closest. 

12x21 - There’s Something About Mary

Another Buckleming episode and the less said about this one the better. I won’t even mention the extremely insulting and inappropriate way to kill off a disabled character (almost as bad as killing off a lesbian by having nazis butcher her) I also won’t comment on the letter that Eileen sent Sam which whilst it did have romantic undertones, was clearly written by a 12 year old girl and did not marry with Eileen’s character at all (Eugenie showing her misogyny again).

The one good thing that came out of this episode (the only good thing) was Jared’s understated grief over Eileen’s death. 

(x)

(x)

His performance dealing with her death in this episode was beautiful. It was understated, but clearly portrayed as heartbreaking. Unfortunately Sam had to push it down and bottle it up. 

Eileen’s death was a huge shocker to us all as it didn’t make any sense at that point to cut short a story that seemed so clearly to be on a specific trajectory. We often talk about how Eileen’s romance with Sam at the time was tied to Dean and Cas, and that their relationship paralleled Dean and Cas’s in the narrative. This is all true, especially the death of Eileen coming as foreshadowing for the death of Castiel at series end. Just looking at that above gif of Sam where he looks at her corpse bears an extreme resemblance to Dean pulling back the sheet and looking down at a dead Castiel in 13x01.

However much I squee and love that these relationships are clear mirrors of each other though, I need to stress how Saileen, how Sam and Eileen’s canon relationship, is so much more than that. They may have mirrored Destiel, but they are also totally different, on a different course, and with a totally different backstory. Eileen doesn’t exist just to give Sam his own version of Cas to run off with. She is not there just to push up a separate ship. Sam and Eileen’s romance stands alone in this story. It may mirror DeanCas at times, but its purpose is not for DeanCas. It’s purpose is for Sam and Eileen. 

Right from the start she ticked all of Sam’s boxes, and the clear attraction between them made it obvious. Yet Eileen was not written to just be a love interest either. She is an ally, a capable hunter, who is written deeply, with her own trauma’s and tragic past. Yet she keeps fighting, all whilst owning her disability and making it work for her rather than hold her back. She is hardly a Lisa, or an Amelia, both of whom had zero depth of character and were more or less written to look pretty and concerned as the Winchester boys basically treated them terribly. Eileen stands out as an individual character far beyond her relationship with Sam. She was full of potential which is why her quick death was an absolute travesty. 

Eileen should not have been killed off. I believe even the writers are well aware of that, and this is why they brought her back. 

Which brings me to:

15x06 - Golden Time

We knew long before this episode aired that Eileen would be back as Dabb revealed her return at SDCC. He made comments at the time ensuring that any characters he brought back would not be fanservice, that they would be characters chosen because the writers felt their stories ended too quickly, and that they had more stories to tell. Something I believe that DabbBerens are doing in particular in this season is righting the wrongs of the past. Eileen’s death was a clear “wrong” and I think its highly likely that DabbBerens’ were aware of this and saw Eileen as a no-brainer to bring back. As I said at the start of this post, Dabb is course correcting, getting his endgame plans back on track, and ensuring that he hits certain markers in order to do that. 

Once again, we are at a place in the story where Sam is grieving, and suffering deeply from all of the loss and trauma that he has faced. Being God’s personal puppet, losing his mother, losing his son, and losing someone he was close to in Rowena by his own hand, has left him in a dark place. Sam’s arc in early season 15 plays out very similarly to Dean’s arc in early season 13. A Winchester in desperate need of a win.

Eileen was Sam’s win in this episode.

Given the time that has passed since Eileen’s last episode, and how the narrative has progressed since then, I was worried that Eileen’s return would seem like fan service, and would therefore fall flat (I felt this way with AU!Charlie and never warmed to the character because of it). I was also worried that whatever potential relationship might have been building between her and Sam in seasons 11 and 12 might not have shone through in this episode. But thankfully the writers played it pretty damn perfectly and Eileen’s return wasn’t just a small side plot to an otherwise jam packed episode (like Kevin’s return in 15x02). No, her story was the A plot as Sam devoted himself to finding a way to save her from a terrible fate.

My concerns about their potential romantic relationship not being played as it was in 12x17 were also completely unfounded. From the moment Sam saw Eileen’s ghost whilst on a jog the romance was immediately back and I have no doubt that Jared and Shoshannah are once again fully playing up the connection and romantic attraction between the two. 

I am so convinced of the romance being put across here, and I want you to see why I adore this so much (in case you don’t already see it). So here are my biggest and most important takeaways from Eileen and Sam’s scenes in this episode and WHY I feel these stand out as significant elements towards proving the writers intentions for this to be an endgame canon relationship:

1. Aside from the obvious similarities between Sam and Eileen that were written into 11x11 in order to ensure that Eileen was able to stand as Sam’s equal, the one other thing that we have long discussed that Sam needs in a partner is someone who at least somewhat understands the trauma and pain that he has experienced in his life. Sam has predominantly bonded with people via shared trauma. Before her death, Eileen had had her fair share of traumatic experiences growing up in the tough hunter lifestyle, but spending an eternity being tortured in Hell is a different level of trauma entirely.

This episode cleverly once again elevated Eileen to the same level as Sam. They are equals now, both through good and bad experiences. Eileen was dragged to Hell, and only escaped when Chuck released the souls. Given that 1 year on Earth is 100 years in Hell, this means that Eileen was in Hell for 250 years give or take. Her trauma, her pain over this, is something that she can’t talk about just yet, but this significant connection between her and Sam was textualised clearly:

SAM: “I’ve been there too. Hell… long time ago. You try and forget but it gets inside you. Talking helps.”

EILEEN: “I can’t. not yet.”

SAM: “I understand”

And he really does. It is something that we can argue is a shared suffering that can create a (forgive me for this) profound bond between two people. The only other people who can understand just what he has been through were Dean (via years of Hell torture), Cas (via shared Lucifer possession), and Rowena (via shared Lucifer torture). Eileen now makes that very small list.

2. The other big factor that this episode made clear to point out textually was that this is not a Chuck manipulation. This really is Eileen, and her return from death is not part of Chuck’s story: 

SAM: “Rowena got it, she didn’t know the details but she knew the game was rigged so this. Magic. This is how she kept control.”

The reason I do not believe that Eileen is part of Chuck’s manipulations is this very pointed line right here about Rowena. Along with many other things in this episode that indicate that it isn’t guided by Chuck, Sam specifically clarifies that Rowena used magic to maintain control over her own universe.

Whilst I fully believe that Rowena will be coming back as Queen of Hell (because whatever happens to Heaven and Hell at the end, they will need balance, and someone to play caretaker and Rowena has just been set up for this role far too perfectly for me not to at least consider the option), this episode so beautifully respects and honours her character, to the point that Rowena, even in her absence, is able to control and play architect to all that happens. Rowena effectively is given Chuck’s role over this particular narrative, but instead of being framed as something villainous, it is portrayed as a precious gift that she has given to her protege Sam.

Rowena rigged the system for herself, as Sam textually explains. Her use of magic, was her way of escaping Chuck’s control, and it is through Rowena that Sam is also given this power. The power to bring back someone he loves - who was most likely taken from him by Chuck’s own dark and poorly written story (yes I do believe that Meredith was throwing shade at Buckleming in the deep subtext - pretty much all the other writers do this all the time if you pay close enough attention :P)

Rowena’s journey from villain, to reluctant ally, to friend and then finally to family, is one of the most beautiful and epic journey’s on the show (rivalled only by Castiel in my opinion). She remains one of my all time favourite characters, and her tribute in this episode, that even after death she could bestow such a precious gift to Sam, is one that I think will remain one of the more touching stories this show has given us. This is yet another reason why I believe that Sam and Eileen are endgame. Because it is a gift from Rowena, and I believe it is a gift that will be honoured by the writers.

3. It’s a small moment, but it is IMPORTANT. Sam confirms that he was teaching himself ASL after he met Eileen. In a moment of adorable flirtation Eileen beams at him and a bashful Sam smiles and bounces on the spot like a giddy schoolboy. This is yet another reveal of moments in the lives of the Winchesters that we just don’t see in 40 minute episodes. That it is canon that Sam spent hours of his life teaching himself ASL so he could more effectively communicate with Eileen is so precious. There is no way to argue how much she meant to him. 

But it isn’t just evidence of Sam’s affections, it proves to be a useful tool to the hunt in this episode as well. When Sam is unable to speak due to the witches curse, he is instead able to sign “My brother” to Eileen so that she knows to go and get Dean. It is Sam’s knowledge of sign language, which he learned due to his affection and interest in Eileen, that saves his life in this episode. 

One point that I HAVE to mention here is how the writers gave so much thought to their depiction of Eileen as a deaf person, and how wonderful her return is as representation for deaf and hard of hearing people everywhere. In both this episode, and also in her first episode 11x11, her disability was not treated as a set back, but as a tool that enables her to get ahead. The only time the writing displayed an insulting and frankly ableist light was Bucklemings 12x21 which isn’t really surprising. We expect such things from Buckleming. The other writers have proven how much more compassionate and caring they are.

The idea that Sam Winchester could end up falling in love with a beautiful, deaf woman in Eileen is practically unheard of in TV media. When do the protagonists ever end up with anyone less than “TV perfect”? It is groundbreaking that Supernatural in it’s 15 seasons has grown so much and come so far. That it started with the fridging of two women, that it’s cast remained predominantly white men throughout its entire run, that it was blackened by excessive misogyny in its early days, as well as ableism via the treatment of Bobby Singer’s paralysis in season 5. 

Supernatural has faced heavy criticism throughout it’s run, but it seems like the writers have listened and are learning. By allowing Sam and Eileen to have a happy endgame, they are doing a wonderful service in truly putting this show on the map for progression and representation - They just need to make sure that they follow through on that other big important thing too…

4. Rebirth and new beginnings. I am reminded of 13x05 and the brilliant Steppenwolf song “It’s Never Too Late To Start Again” as I rewatch the bathroom scene for the hundredth time. If the rest of the episode hasn’t already had you crying out how desperately these two should be together I fully believe it was Meredith’s plan (along with the entire production crew and Shoshannah and Jared), to have us all bawling our eyes out in happy tears that Sam and Eileen get to be together now!! (well, I certainly cried. A lot. and ruined my mascara. and squeaked at such a high pitch only dogs could hear me. The only other time I have had that reaction was in 13x05… oh, and 12x19. It’s RARE okay!)

I think the most significant point here is the touching of hands, which calls back to an earlier painful moment in the episode when ghost Eileen reached out to try to comfort Sam as he despaired about being a cosmic joke, and found she wasn’t even able to touch him. 

It is a romantic trope that was most famously used in the film Ghost, where touch was a big part of the on screen relationship. Supernatural displays this same trope rather perfectly here when the big win of the episode takes place, and Eileen emerges from the bathtub alive and whole, and tentatively reaches out to take Sam’s hand again with vastly different results.

(x)

Sam is so hesitant to touch her back, so fearful that this isn’t real, that he isn’t being allowed this. The overwhelming sense of relief and warmth that radiates from him when he finally does take her hand was exactly what made me burst into tears. The moment is so extremely breathtaking, so intimate and touching that your heart just aches for them to have that happy ending. It’s rare that Supernatural gives us moments like this, but when it does give them, when it allows its characters a win, they are immediately memorable and stand out as bright spots in an otherwise dark show. It’s moments like this that make watching these characters suffer so much worth it in the end.

The hug that comes after the touching of hands is just as intimate. This is portrayed as a lifeline. Something for Sam to grasp onto and breath. Something that inspires him to change his outlook, to gather his determination, and to convince his brother to join him and fight for the happy ending that both of these boys so desperately deserve.

(x)

The entire bathroom scene was a testament to how well Supernatural can work romance into its narrative. How these talented creators can easily provide us with a romantic scene to tug on our heart strings. Anyone screaming that romance doesn’t belong in this show I will now point at this scene and tell them exactly how wrong they are. This scene is EXACTLY what this show needed. 

For anyone denying the romance here (yeah funny how the bronly’s are so anti Saileen - I wonder why...) I’ll spell it out for them:

This is how you set up a romantic scene in TV Production:

1. Candlelight. Check.

2. Soft focus (dates back to the 1930s when films would use soft focus to portray the dreamy emotional uplift of happy couples in love - see Meet Me In Saint Louis for a very clear example). It is almost always considered a filming technique to portray romance. Check.

3. Chivalry. As if any of us didn’t expect Sam to be a perfect gentleman! But the fact is that the way he turns his back and waits with bated breath to see if the spell had worked is shown as anything other than platonic. He is almost shy, knowing that if and when she emerges from the water she will be naked, but he turns to preserve her dignity. Check.

4. Leading on from that, this is literally a naked woman emerging from a bathtub whilst Sam awkwardly stands in the room. It could have been highly sexualised. They could have used that god awful 70s porno music they like so much in this show. Sam could have made a joke to dispel the tension. If this was a platonic friendship, any of these things would have given it away. The fact that none of this happened, that the scene remained tense and intimate but not overly sexualised only further validates the romantic reading. I mean LOOK AT THIS:

CHECK

5. The music. Music is such an important part in any story. It always plays a vital role in signifying the correct atmosphere, and the correct tone of a scene. We talk about music a lot in relation to Dean and Cas and the sweeping melodic notes that usually compliment any heightened emotional DeanCas scene. The music during THIS scene though? Well it was beautifully romantic in every way. If in doubt, just go back and listen to it with your eyes closed. Play this music track over another random scene of two people sharing a moment, and it will make the scene read as romantic. I guarantee it. 

CHECK AND MATE.

Overall, this episode was the most romantic and most intimate Sam and Eileen have ever got yet in canon. It is a clear indication that their relationship is heading in a positive direction. I couldn’t be happier with how the writers are portraying this and am jumping for joy at the thought that Sam might actually get what he desired all those years ago during 11x04 when he tried to bring up the topic to Dean in the Impala.

We know from promo photos, that Eileen is still staying with Sam in 15x07. That she comforts him. With images like this to go on:

I’d say with some confidence that we will get to further watch their relationship grow, and I couldn’t be more excited for it.

I fully expect there to be darker moments coming up, and potentially Eileen will be sent away for a period of time (my money is on Chuck “dusting” her the way he did with Becky in 15x04 because I don’t believe that kills people and I do believe that they can be brought back from wherever he sends them too - plus “dusting” makes me think of Avengers Endgame which I find amusing because the “dusted” all returned at the end. I wouldn’t be surprised if Supernatural played around with that as it so often likes to play with pop culture references). I think that post Mid Season Finale we will be back to a period of utter loss and despair for the Winchester boys, and that therefore those who they feel strongly for (aka Cas and Eileen) will have to be separated from them.

However, the point is that it is always darkest before the dawn. In this story, 15x06 has laid the groundwork for Eileen to be Sam’s romantic endgame. It’s now up to Sam, and Eileen, to make sure they fight to get what they both so desire.

Bring on the finale show.

(If you liked this meta run through of Sam and Eileen’s building relationship, please leave a comment for me. It took forever to complete! Also, please click the links under the gifs and go give the gifmakers some love! The gifsets I have used are all wonderful and deserve your reblogs. (Gifs that don’t have links are my own)).

:)

Family ties- Part 4

Here is the latest part of my new dad! Ben Hardy series, I hope you all like it. This part is rather long.

Taglist: @lunaticspoem @butlegendsneverdie @langdonzvoid @jennyggggrrr @rogermeddow @radiob-l-a-hblah @rogertaylorsbitontheside @chlobo6 @rogertaylors-lipgloss @sj-thefan @omgitsearly @luckytrashgooprebel @scarsout @deaky-with-a-c @killer-queen-ofrhye @bluutac @vousmemanqueez @jonesyaddiction @rogahs-drowse @milanosaurus @httpfandxms @saint-hardy

Summary: Ben and (Y/n) were single parents but they are trying to raise their kids together as one big family. Now they’re finally having a baby of their own, but nothing is ever easy in their family.

Series masterlist

Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Boys, come on we gotta go." Ben's deep tone flooded through the air as he leaned one arm on the bannister, his head tipping back to try and look up the stairs but he couldn't see either of his boys or hear their feet pattering against the floorboards.

They had a busy day today and he didn't want to be late which is what was going to happen if the boys took any longer to get ready. Ben had to drop Hugo off at school, Ellie off at daycare, take (Y/n) to work since her car was in for repair and then he had to take Cody to the doctors for his checkup and then drop Cody off at preschool before going for an audition. Ben couldn't be late for this audition because it was for a movie he was desperate to be a part of and it was a big role that he had managed to get the audition for. He had turned up late only once before for an audition and it hadn't gone in his favour.

Nor did Ben want to be late for the doctors because if they were over ten minutes late they would lose the appointment and it took Ben half an hour on the phone and a lot of grief to manage to get this appointment around his and (Y/n)'s schedules. Ben had press interviews and photos and events to go to for the next three months which meant he was going to be here, there and everywhere. And he wanted to make sure that he was at all the scans for the baby in between because with the problems they were going to face with this pregnancy, they had to have appointments every month with the doctor.

(Y/n) had her job in between all the mess and they had the kids to look after, these next few months were going to be hectic and Ben didn't want any problems arising.

"I'm ready." Ellie stated quietly, smiling up at Ben as she tugged on his trouser leg to get his attention.

Ben had been rather surprised that Ellie was the first one ready this morning, she could normally be the first awake but she was never the first to be properly ready to go. But she'd had a bath, had her breakfast and was properly dressed for once, ready to go to daycare.

"I know you are, well done princess. At least one of you is ready." Ben reached down and scooped Ellie up into his arms, sitting her on his hip as he smiled when she kissed his cheek. The little girl had been ecstatic when Ben told her that the baby was going to be a boy, she was over the moon to know that she was going to be Ben's only girl for the foreseeable future. And she somehow seemed to think that Ben had done some sort of magic act or that he had some kind of power since she believed he had made sure the baby was a boy just like she had requested.

"What are they doing up there?" (Y/n) mumbled when she walked into the hallway to see that it was still only Ben and Ellie stood there without the boys.

"Winding me up." Ben stated under his breath as he leaned his head on his hand, becoming agitated when he caught sight of the time. They were going to be late now.

Ben's eyes finally landed on Hugo's frame when the eldest started to hurry down the stairs, pulling at his jumper and tugging it a little further down. But when his gaze locked with his dad, Ben noticed the worry in his eyes as he didn't look very happy or at ease. Hugo reached for his shoes behind Ben and sat himself down on the steps, quickly slipping his shoes on but his gaze kept flitting up to Ben.

"Right, you're ready enough so go get in the car. Where's Cody cause we have to go?" Ben grabbed Hugo's school bag and set it down beside him, his eyes glancing up the stairs but the younger boy wasn't in sight.

"He won't come down, he heard you telling mum about the doctors and he's having a tantrum."

Whenever they had to take Cody to the doctors they always told him they were going somewhere else so this kind of situation wouldn't happen. He hated seeing the doctor, the five-year-old couldn't stand needles, he room made him uncomfortable and when he'd have assessments he hated the questions. The doctor and the place in general made Cody unwilling to go but he needed to.

He was having a checkup and another small assessment today, they needed to monitor his progress and see how he was doing. If they missed this appointment Ben wouldn't be able to get another for at least two months. They needed Cody to keep going to the doctor because they were starting him on meds for his sleeping and he needed monitoring to make sure he was given the right dosage and to check if he had to keep having it or if soon he could come off the meds.

"Right, you stay here with your brother, I'll go get Cody." Ben set Ellie down on her feet next to Hugo, his eyes dancing over to (Y/n) before he jogged up the stairs.

He just knew something was going to happen or go wrong today but he didn't think it would start this early in the morning. They had gotten up earlier than usual, got all the kids ready and dressed and fed but now Cody was having a tantrum. This was all they needed.

When he walked into the boy's room, Ben tipped his head to the side as he felt his chest deflating. Cody was laid on his beanbag at the end of his bed with his weighted blanket tucked around him. The blanket was navy blue with white stars on and it had small weights in the corners, it was for his anxiety and it was something that would calm him down or stop him from lashing out which didn't happen too often. On any other day, this sight would have made Ben relieved because it meant Cody was trying to calm down, but right now it wasn't a good sight.

Cody wasn't trying to calm down, he was trying to stay home. He was determined to stay home and this showed that he was trying all he could not to go out.

"Buddy, we gotta go and I can't leave you home alone." Ben kneeled down beside the beanbag and slowly pulled the cover away but he frowned when Cody pulled it back as if they were fighting over the blanket.

"N...n-not g-going." When Cody was angry or upset his stutter became worse and more prominent.

"You're not having any injections today, it's just a checkup, ten minutes and we'll be walking out again. Buddy, I'm not arguing about this because we're late and you know I have to go to work today so come on." On any other day, Ben would have tried to coax Cody to get up and come out of his own free will. It was always better if he agreed to come rather than if Ben had to carry him kicking and screaming out of the house. But Ben simply didn't have the time today.

He quickly took the blanket off of Cody and placed it back in the corner of the room next to the beanbag before he slipped his hands under Cody's arms and stood him to his feet.

"No, no don't even try it. Come on." Ben let go of Cody before he had the chance to try and flop down which he had done before. He stopped holding himself up and tried to turn to jelly to make Ben need to carry him or let him stay where he was. Ben reached down and grabbed Cody's hands so he didn't bite them before he started walking, causing Cody to have to shuffle along or be dragged.

Ben couldn't help but sigh as he lifted Cody from his feet when he stopped walking and let his legs scuff against the floor which would hurt. Cody wasn't a bad child but he knew little tricks to try and get his own way.

If Ben tried to drag him he would go limp and scuff his legs and feet so it would hurt because Ben would have to let him go. If he was carried somewhere and he didn't want to be he would scream if in public or he would start to kick to be released. He had held his breath once until he fainted, but when he realised Ben had simply put him in the car and got him to the doctors a lot easier, he hadn't done that again.

A sob left Cody's lips as he started to wriggle when Ben got to the stairs, trying to make Ben let him go so he could run back to his room and hide. If he was getting an injection or had to go to hospital Ben would understand, but he simply had to sit and answer a few questions, sometimes he only had to sit and not say anything at all. It was never bad but Cody was always certain it would be.

"Start walking or risk being dropped, kiddo." Ben's expression told Cody he was going to start walking despite if Cody started to swing around or kick or be irritable.

Ben started walking down the stairs when Cody broke free and ran down the stairs to the point he almost tripped several times and Ben knew why. The little boy had spotted (Y/n). She was always sympathetic and sometimes a little easier on Cody than Ben. It wasn't a bad thing, (Y/n) tried to give him sympathy and bring him round and Ben took the approach of being kind but stern, he wouldn't give in to Cody's ways because Cody couldn't be brought up thinking he could get his way every time.

"M-mummy! P-pl..please, I w-want to go w...with you." Cody wrapped his arms around (Y/n)'s legs and glued himself to her frame as he started to wail. He looked up at her through watering lashes, relaxing a little when he felt her carding her fingers gently through his hair.

"Okay baby. I'll take you to the doctors if you want." There was a glimmer of hope in his eyes as he thought he had gotten his own way, but the moment (Y/n) made her suggestion he let out a loud sob.

"Come on, everyone in the car because we're late." Ben pointed to the door as he wished it would be this easy and that Cody would simply whine but follow everyone into the car. But the little boy simply let go of (Y/n) and turned to look at Ben with such a deep frown that it was almost laughable.

Cody stomped his foot against the carpet at Ben's words that simply made him even more upset. He wanted both parents to listen, he wanted them to say he didn't have to go or to give him the sympathy he was looking for like he was a baby or a child but he wasn't getting that attention. Ben wasn't playing his game even if Cody did have reasons and worries about the doctor. It wasn't something he had to be scared of and this wasn't something that was going to hurt Cody. He had to get used to going to the doctors.

Ben bent down on his knees in front of Cody when the little boy held his breath, puffing out his cheeks to emphasise what he was doing.

"Go ahead and do that but when you faint, I'll put you straight in that car seat and take you to the doctor." Ben rested his arms on his knees as he rested his weight on his feet, shuffling from the balls of his feet to his heels as he stared calmly at his son with raised eyebrows.

A stubborn look came onto Cody's features but he let out the breath he was holding when he realised Ben wasn't playing games. The moment Cody's arms fell to his sides Ben leaned over and scooped him up, not wanting to waste any more time because he couldn't be late for his audition today or for the doctor's appointment.

"Everyone in the car now, let's go."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hugo, Cody's off to bed now so head downstairs buddy." Ben rubbed his hand over his eyes as he looked at his eldest who huffed but nodded. He knew better than to try and argue about this with Ben because he knew it would get him nowhere. Cody wouldn't sleep if Hugo was in here watching tv or playing on his games, after Cody went to bed Hugo either had to go downstairs or go into (Y/n) and Ben's room and only come back in here when he was going to sleep.

When Hugo headed out of the room, Ben headed over to where Cody was laying on the beanbag, the weighted blanket draped over him as he was being extremely quiet.

He threw another fit in the car when Ben arrived at the hospital even when (Y/n) had gone to the doctors with them and headed into work later on. Since then he seemed to have gone into a very quiet but clearly unsettled kind of mood. He didn't speak when Ben picked him up from preschool and he hardly said anything since. After dinner, he took himself to his room and laid listening to his music.

With his mood, Ben thought it would be better for him to go to bed a bit earlier tonight.

"Cody, sit up for me." Ben had a feeling Cody would rather fall asleep here on the beanbag rather than get into bed and that was fine. A lot of nights recently Ben had come in later on and picked him up from here and settled him in bed when he was asleep. As long as he fell asleep, Ben didn't mind where he settled down.

The younger boy did as he was told, his eyes half-lidded showing how tired he was. He kept his blanket tightly wrapped around him as he looked down to Ben's hands.

Ben held out a small plastic spoon that had a rather watery, clear medicine in one hand and a cup of juice in the other. The medicine was for Cody to have so he could sleep better. With him only being five, he had a weaker medication but if he had to keep taking this, in a few months he would move on to take it in tablet form.

"Take this for me and then you can go to sleep." Ben's voice was gentle but it was clear he was tired.

He had managed to get both Hugo and Ellie to school and daycare this morning without them being too late and he made it on time to his audition which he was thankful for. It seemed to go well and he should have a call back audition soon so the day had gone okay considering everything with Cody. But it seemed to have made them all rather tired, even Hugo and he was normally bounding with energy at this time of night.

"Cody, please, don't mess about. Take the medicine." Ben leaned his head to the side as he urged his son to take his medication when Cody simply stared at him with a blank expression. "You know you can't go to sleep without taking your medicine first now come on."

Cody crossed his arms over his chest beneath the blanket and shook his head but Ben didn't know why he was suddenly being like this. He didn't like the medicine but he never normally refused it like this so either he was simply in a bad mood and didn't want it or he was deliberately being a handful just for the sake of it. Ben felt his chest tightening as he moved the spoon closer to Cody until he finally relented and opened his mouth for the medicine that he didn't like taking purely for the aftertaste it normally left lingering in his mouth.

Ben's eyes snapped closed as he turned his head to the side the moment he pulled the spoon away from Cody when the little boy simply spat the medicine back at him.

The muscles around Ben's jaw were prominent as his throat tightened and his eyes stayed tightly closed as he tried not to shout. One thing Ben couldn't stand was any of the kids throwing up or spitting food back out, it made him go rigid but having Cody spit it purposely on him was something Ben hadn't had the displeasure of going through before and it was something that rattled his cage. It was rather disgusting and not to mention rude.

There was a burning fury in Ben's eyes when the finally opened, locking on Cody who looked a mix between upset and scared as if he just realised what he had done. Without saying anything at all, Ben furiously snapped the lid back onto the dark brown bottle of medicine and wiped his face with his sleeve before he pushed himself to his feet.

He set the cup of juice down on the shelf on his right before he turned the CD player off and grabbed the weighted blanket that Cody had scrunched up. He saw it in Cody's eyes that he was tempted to reach out and take the favoured blanket back but he didn't dare move an inch. He knew the rules, if he did something wrong or something as naughty as this then he didn't get to have the blanket. It was a comfort item as well as something to calm him down and Ben wasn't letting him have it tonight now he had done that.

Cody sniffed to try and stop himself from crying when Ben grabbed his stuffed Eeyore toy which he also couldn't have if he was naughty. He watched with worried eyes as Ben continued not to say a single word, he simply turned his back and walked to the door. Ben reached out and turned the light off before he left the room, cascading Cody into the darkness of his room with only the small night light on in the corner.

"Dad... can I go get my game?" Hugo stared up at Ben with worried eyes, his frame jumping when Ben practically slammed the bedroom door shut behind him. The look on his face was one that Hugo hadn't seen before.

"No. Don't go in your room until you go to bed and if your brother comes out, don't talk to him." Ben shook the toy in his hand so that Hugo understood that Cody had done something wrong but it was still confusing to Hugo because Cody got upset but he hardly ever did anything wrong.

Hugo used to think that when Cody got into a tantrum or shouted or screamed then he was doing something wrong but that wasn't always the case. Cody shouted when he was frustrated or upset due to his autism so he wasn't really doing anything bad. But there were times like these when he did do things on purpose and these were the times that Ben wouldn't listen or entertain him because it simply wasn't right.

A frown pulled at (Y/n)'s lips the moment Ben walked into the shared room with Cody's blanket and toy in his arms. He dumped them both down in the corner next to the wardrobe before he rubbed at his face with his sleeve again.

"What's happened?" (Y/n) pushed herself so she was sitting up, her eyes following Ben as he took off his jumper and tossed it into the wash basket before he sat down on the edge of the bed next to her, his expression showing he was far from happy. Reaching over, (Y/n) wrapped her arms loosely around Ben's shoulders, leaning her chest against his back as he raked his fingers through his hair, disheveling the strands everywhere around his features.

"Cody wouldn't say a bloody word to me and then when I gave him his meds, he spat it back in my face. You can try in an hour to give it to him because I'm fed up of him tonight."

Cody still needed his medicine tonight but Ben wasn't going to go and try again. He was done dealing with Cody's bad mood and temper for one day, he loved him but he could be so tiring when he was like this and it wasn't fair.

"He's worked himself up into a state... Ben you know he won't settle without that toy-"

"I don't care." Ben turned around in (Y/n)'s arms so he was facing her, resting his forehead against her own. "He's kicked me in the fucking ribs when I got him out the car and he bit me and now he's spat that shit in my face. He's not having that toy or blanket back until tomorrow. We didn't raise him that way."

Ben knew both he and Cody needed to calm down tonight but he wasn't giving those things back to Cody until he apologised and he certainly wasn't having them back tonight. The little boy could get possessive over those items and it was best to make sure he didn't get too attached and right now it was his punishment to not have them. When Ben tried to get Cody out of the car and take him into the doctors he had thrown a fit and kicked Ben by mistake but it still hurt. Then he bit Ben when he was in a state but Ben couldn't really blame him for that because he had been really worked up.

But tonight he had no reason to spit that medicine back at Ben and he wasn't having it. They hadn't raised any of the kids to be rude or disrespectful to anyone and Cody needed to learn he couldn't get away with doing that.

"Alright, it's up to you." (Y/n) pressed her lips to Ben's to try and calm him down, it was Ben's choice what punishment Cody got for doing that so she wouldn't intervene.

"You okay?" Ben whispered, changing the subject as he slipped a hand between them to rest on her stomach, trying his best to smile. He grazed his fingertips over her slightly rounded stomach as she nodded, smiling gently at the words. Despite the problems they had and were going to face with this pregnancy, Ben felt a spark of something different in him whenever he looked over at (Y/n).

When he was expecting the boys his ex had never been the affectionate kind of type and that was okay with Ben, but this is how he wanted it to be. To be loving and different and gentle and he knew it had been weird for (Y/n) expecting Ellie because until the last two or three months of the pregnancy, she had done it all on her own. Ben only turned up towards the end and he hadn't been at Ellie's birth but he had been there right afterwards.

(Y/n) cast her eyes over to the door half an hour later, her heart both melting and breaking at the same time when her eyes fell on Cody who was stood there, clearly not knowing whether to come in the room or not. (Y/n) silently tapped Ben's shoulder causing his head to lift from the crook of her neck, his arms moving to prop himself up as he was laid on his front with (Y/n) wrapped up in his arms.

When Ben's head turned in the direction of the door a blank expression came over his face when he locked eyes with Cody.

The youngest boy had tears streaking down his red puffy features and he was sniffing horribly, trying to stop himself from crying as he rubbed his runny nose on his sleeve. He clearly knew he had done something wrong and was either here to say sorry and get back in Ben's good books or simply to get his toys back.

"Why're you still up?" Ben's tone wasn't cold or uncaring but it was hardly inviting either causing (Y/n) to hit his shoulder. Cody was clearly sorry for what he had done, making him feel worse wasn't going to achieve anything.

"I'm s-sorry d...daddy." Cody wailed before he suddenly flopped down and sat on the floor as if his legs had given out on him. He simply sat there and started to cry, rubbing furiously at his eyes to try and rid the tears so he could see his parents properly. Ben felt his heart shattering in his chest as he sighed, looking over at (Y/n) as she kissed his cheek before she untangled herself from his arms to go to Cody.

"Come here baby, let's get you settled for bed." (Y/n) cooed, gently picking Cody up who instantly clung to her and cosied up to her chest, basking in the attention and comfort she was giving since he didn't feel happy or at ease.

"Daddy!" He wailed when (Y/n) was about to take him back to his own room.

"What?"

"I'm s...sorry."

"So you should be. Are you gonna take your medicine if your mum gets you ready for bed?" Ben questioned, pushing himself up on his elbow, watching as Cody nodded instantly as he seemed to of learned his lesson. "Good, so go to bed and make sure that attitude is gone by the time I get you up in the morning. And then we'll see about giving you back your toys." Ben's expression stayed blank but his tone and his words showed Cody that as long as he didn't act up for the rest of the night, in the morning it would be alright. Ben wouldn't give him the cold shoulder or any silent treatment in the morning, everything would go back to normal for Cody and that was what he wanted.

But right now Ben wasn't just going to drop everything and settle Cody back to bed. He had said sorry which was good, so when he was calm in the morning Ben would also be calmer and happier. He also knew Cody wanted his toy back since he normally had it with him when he went to sleep but Ben wasn't letting him have it back until at least tomorrow morning or evening in the latest.

Everything would be back to normal in the morning.

FE3H OC - Savina Cecelia Galatea

Story: Blackened Sky | FE3H

Owner: serenerains/wlshlngstar (quotev), wlshlngstars (tumblr)

Visuals:        part one        part two        post canon

Names and aliases:        Name (Japanese): サヴィーナ        Full name (Japanese): サヴィーナセセリアガラテア        Name (English): Savina        Full name (English): Savina Cecelia Galatea        Aliases (Japanese): 黒ずんだ空, 空, ガラテアを数える        Aliases (English): Blackened Sky, Sky, Count Galatea

Biological Information:        Gender: Female        Race: Human        Birthday: August 15        Fodlan birthday: 15th of the Verdant Rain Moon, Imperial Year 1160        Age: 19-20 (Pre-skip), 24-25 (Post-skip)        Relatives: Daphnel (ancestor), Count Calder Galatea (father, alive [preskip], deceased [postskip]), Count Valeria Galatea (mother, deceased), Oliver Galatea (brother, alive [preskip], deceased [postskip]), Asger Galatea (brother, alive), Ingrid Galatea (sister, alive), Corey Galatea (brother, alive), Sivas Galatea (brother, alive), Paxton Galatea (brother, alive)

Affiliations:        Nationality: Holy Kingdom of Faerghus        Hometown: County of Galatea        Residence: Garreg Mach Monastery, Galatea Manor        Factions: Blue Lions        Occupations: Mercenary (former), Student (former), General (former), Count Galatea (current)

Backstory:       Early Life:

               Savina was the second child of Count Galatea, and his first daughter. She was childhood friends with Dimitri, Felix, and Sylvain, and was originally engaged to the son of Viscount Kleiman. However, she left home before she could be married due to her discovery of the Crest of Galatea, a crest that only she bore that had powerful but dangerous properties and abilities. As she was good with a sword, Savina left home and became a mercenary, joining up with the Scarlet Rose mercenary company at 15. A few months after she joined their ranks, however, they were wiped out by Kostas and his cronies, and she became a lone mercenary. Before long, she was a renowned mercenary that went by the title Blackened Sky, a nickname her mercenary company had given her due to her black armor and alias, Sky. She abandoned most social contact beyond merchants, blacksmiths, and potential employers, not wanting to risk giving away her identity. However, she kept somewhat in contact with Yuri Leclerec, who she knew as the King of the Underground, Silent Mockingbird.                Savina was employed by Thales, or Lord Arundel, to murder King Lambert Blaiddyd at the Tragedy of Duscur. Though Savina accepted the mission, her plans were to save the King (whom she still had lingering admiration for despite having cut off contact with everyone from her old life) and kill her employer. Things were worse than she expected, however, and she ended up abandoning her armor and letting her mercenary self be assumed dead in the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. She didn't return to her home country for another four years, sticking to the Leicester Alliance and Adrestian Empire, as well as surrounding countries like Almyra, Sreng, Brigid, Dagda, and Morfis.        Academy Phase:                Savina was recruited into the Garreg Mach Officers Academy in 1180, where she was placed in the Blue Lions. She was then reunited with Dimitri, Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid, who were attending the academy in the same year.  She quickly rekindles her relationship with her childhood friends and sister, as well as befriending Byleth, Ashe, and Claude. She quickly proves her power and leadership skills, and Byleth trusts her to make calls on the battlefield and help her plan out battle strategies.                Savina works with Claude on a lot of things, and their participation in helping Abyss only deepens their bond. The two of them often scheme about what could have happened or whether or not everything was part of a bigger plot, and they confide in each other and tell each other secrets that nobody else knew. She has a similar relationship with Ashe, though they aren't quite as close.                After Remire, Savina becomes increasingly suspicious of the organization that Solon belongs to due to her previous encounters with Thales. Her suspicions are only increased when Kronya reveals herself after she kills Jeralt, the day after the Blue Lions make a promise to meet up for the Millenium Festival. Byleth merges with Sothis, which leads Savina to become suspicious of the church as well as the organization Thales, Solon, and Kronya belong to.                As the events at the Holy Tomb unfold, Savina recognizes the signs of Dimitri's mental state beginning to crack. As soon as he unmasks Edelgard, however, it completely shatters. Savina is unable to do anything about it, try as she might. The pain of knowing that she could have at least helped to prevent it nearly swallows her, but she holds it off as long as she can to stay by her friends side.                Yuri is there to comfort Savina after everything happens, as he knew the details of what she saw that day and what she thought she could have done, as someone who knew her even before she arrived at the monastery as Savina instead of Sky. He reminds her that she's only human, and that she shouldn't blame herself for something that was mostly out of her control.                Savina joins everyone on the front lines as Edelgard launches her attack on the monastery, forcing Hubert to retreat. Edelgard is forced into submission as well, but her backup forces overpowered the Church. Savina attempts to murder Thales after he knocks Byleth into the ravine, but ultimately fails and nearly dies.        Timeskip Phase:                Savina resurfaces in Fodlan as Blackened Sky, becoming a spy for the Kingdom forces. She works her way up in the Imperial army, eventually becoming one of the most trusted people of the Emperor despite being masked and being there unreliably. She is vital for the Kingdoms defense, but there was only so much she could do in the midst of a kingdom that was already beginning to collapse.                In the Wyvern Moon of 1182, Count Galatea is killed and Oliver takes his spot as the Count. However, Olivers skills as a Holy Knight were needed on the battelfield, and in the Garland Moon of 1185, he is killed in the midst of a battle. Savina is named the Count, and officially withdraws from the Imperial forces. She is still an important fighter and general, however, and does not let her new title of Count hinder any of her movements.        War Phase:                Savina, Ingrid, Sylvain, and Felix return to the monastery together with hope that the others would uphold their promise. The four of them arrived in the midst of a battle, and Savina is both surprised and relieved to see that both Dimitri and Byleth were alive. She fights the bandits, and the Blue Lions reunite.                Savina becomes one of the Kingdoms most valued generals, standing on the same platform as Byleth, Dimitri, and Gilbert. She changes her armor from black to white, embracing the Kingdom colors while still keeping the "Blackened Sky" appearance and class.                At Gronder, Savina tries to heal Rodrigue, but ultimately fails. She recoils in on herself, becoming as reserved - if not more - as she was when she first arrived at the Officers Academy. She blames herself for being unable to save the man whom she saw as a father figure. Ashe and Yuri work together to help her realize that it wasn't her fault. She quickly bounces back, and jumps to help with preparations for reclaiming Fhirdiad.                After they help defend Derdriu, Savina and Claude talk about why he was leaving Fodlan. She made him promise to return as soon as humanly possible, which he told her he would.                Savina has her final showdown with the Death Knight, wearing her original armor so he would recognize her. She ultimately turns out on top, and with her success over the fearsome knight the Kingdom was able to seize Fort Merceus. She is gravely wounded, however, and would have died on the battlefield if it weren't for Yuri casting Restore on her before Mercedes or Marianne can reach her.                Claude returns with some Almyran forces before they march to Enbarr. Savina kills Hubert and helps to kill Edelgard, though she is nearly killed in the gruesome battle.        Post-Canon:                Savina and Yuri are married, with Yuri taking Savina's last name instead of vice-versa, and Savina embraces her role as Count Galatea. The two of them have two children, Oliver Calder Galatea and Alina Natalia Galatea, with Oliver inheriting the Minor Crest of Aubin. Personality:        Savina is an INTJ personality type; she's an anylitical problem solver, eager to improve systems, and she has very innovative ideas. She's an intellectual, and enjoys logical reasoning and complex problem-solving. She's great at planning out battles and adapting to the battlefield when needed. She's fairly reserved and serious, and strangers often see her as cold. She is very rational and informed, as well as independent and determined. People often admire her curiosity and versitality, and she embraces those aspects of her personality. However, she can be arrogant and dismissive of emotions, especially those of others. She can be overly critical and combative, and is unfortunately romantically clueless. Stats:        Starting stats:                Class: Noble                Crest: Major Crest of Galatea                        Allows user to manipulate the metals that make weapons and armor to her will. Unknown what brough this about.                Level: 1                Hit points: 30                Strength: 10                Magic: 10                Dexterity: 5                Speed: 9                Luck: 9                Defense: 8                Resistance: 10                Charm: 4        Learned Magic:                Wind                Heal        Learned Combat Arts:                Wrath Strike                Grounder        Abilities:                Killers inctinct                        Grants avoid+ 20 when unit has taken damage.                Sword prowess level 1                Faith prowess level 1                Reason prowess level 1        Skills:                Sword:                        Starting level: D+                        Strength                Lance:                        Starting level: E                        Weakness                Axe:                        Starting level: E+                        Neutral                Bow:                        Starting level: E                        Weakness/acquired strength                Brawling:                        Starting level: E                        Neutral                Reason:                        Starting level: D                        Strength                Faith:                        Starting level: D                        Strength                Authority:                        Starting level: E+                        Neutral                Heavy armor:                        Starting level: E                        Weakness                Riding:                        Starting level: E+                        Neutral/acquired strength                Flying:                        Starting level: E                        Neutral        Maximum stats:                Hit points: 80                Strength: 70                Magic: 52                Dexterity: 49                Speed: 60                Luck: 58                Defense: 64                Resistance: 58                Charm: 39        Learnable Magic:                Reason:                        Wind                        Cutting Gale                        Sagittae                        Excalibur                Faith:                        Heal                        Nosferatu                        Recover                        Seraphim                        Warp                        Abraxas        Learnable Combat Arts:                Sword:                        Wrath Strike                        Grounder                        Haze Slice                        Hexblade                Lance:                        Tempest Lance                        Knightkneeler                        Frozen Lance                Axe:                        Smash                        Helm Splitter                        Lightning Axe                Bow:                        Curved Shot                        Break Shot                        Point-Blank Volley                Brawling:                        Fading Blow                        Rushing Blow                        Healing Focus

LFRP - Zorah Shapa

Zorah Shapa

E C L I P S E - Mixed Blood Miqo’te

The Basics ––– –

Birth Name: Eclipse

Clan Name: Zorah

Age: 22

Birthday: 25th Sun of the 6th Umbral Moon

Race: Mixed Miqo’te (Seeker/Keeper)

Clan: Keeper of the Moon

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Pansexual

Marital Status: Taken by @khoravelaceras​

Server: Balmung

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Maroon/Magenta

Eyes: Jade

Height: 4′10″

Build: Slim

Distinguishing Marks: Small scar across left cheek

Common Accessories: Gold choker with rubies, matching bracelet, pink cherry blossom corsage

Standing at 4'10", Zorah was born as the runt of her family. Aside from her short stature, she also had been born with quite a unique appearance compared to her clan who had normally bore colors of black, white or blue. Her hair a lovely magenta with large sea-green eyes, adorned with long lashes. Trained as a dancer with strict martial discipline, her body is lean and strong. Flexible and great with mobility, her small stature helps her weave in between her dance partners or foes with ease. She has one visible scar on her left cheek received during her very first hunting trip alone.

Personal ––– –

Profession: Aetheric Dancer, Tavern Staff with @drunkdungeoneers-ffxiv​

Hobbies: Reading, writing, botany, partying

Languages: Hannish, Eorzean (a bit broken)

Residence: Lavender Beds, The Black Shroud, Gridania

Birthplace: Radz-at-Han, Thavnair

Religion: Non-religious

Patron Deity: Menphina, the Lover

Fears: Bees (She’s allergic!), flying

Zorah is a passionate, caring and easily excitable Miqo'te who does her best to help make someone else's day that much better, no matter how she's feeling herself. She's quite transparent, what you see is normally exactly what you expect and you can easily pick up on her young and naive nature. However, she can be fun and a trustworthy friend who will go to the ends of the earth to help them. She is also a very physical person. Don't be afraid to inform her if she's too close or bothering you! She will step back, she just likes being close with people! She does enjoy her downtime, however, preferring only the sounds of a crackling fire or rain where she can cozy up in a blanket and read her book.

Relationships ––– -

Mate: @khoravelaceras​

Children: None

Parents: Raija (mother), Father name unknown

Siblings: None

Other Relatives: None

Pets: Bubbles

Traits ––– -

Extrovert / In Between / Introvert

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: None

Drugs: None

Alcohol: Socially

RP Hooks ––– –

The Near East - Zorah has, albeit a short one, history in Radz-at-Han. Born on Thavnairian soil, she spent much of her life in the bustling city. It was there she learned to dance, read and write and grew up among the haughty wealthy by looking for work to do for her own gil. Upon hitting adulthood, Zorah began offering Courtesan services through an underground club called Aetheric Tranquility. This also means Garleans who have visited Radz-at-Han may have met her around the streets or through services paid for.  This also includes Garlean Agents who have been to Thavnair.

Shapa Clan - Before the Calamity: While they had fled long before the calamity, any who may have survived and had lived in Gridania may have known the Shapa Clan. Originally poachers ran out by the Adder's, they are a Keeper Miqo'te Clan who, for a while, thrived as some of the biggest poachers around the Shroud.

Former Courtesan - It may be well known in Thavnair and possibly Kugane that Zorah was a Courtesan. Originally a free-lance courtesan after traveling to Eorzea, however short, recent developments in her story have changed, she is no longer available for services.

Botanists Guild - The first time she stepped into Gridania, she fell in love with the forest. Completely foreign to what she grew up with, Zorah took to the vast city-state eagerly. This included joining the Botanist's Guild the moment she learned about them. She is slowly learning about plants, the Shroud and the elements of the forest.

Gridania/Black Shroud -  Zorah can often be found wandering around Gridania or the Shroud when she's not at the Botanist's Guild. Deciding to enjoy nature and learn more about her new home.

OOC Information ––– –

When I am online, please feel free to send me a tell or walk up and start RPing! Even if I do not have the RP tag on, I’m always down for impromptu RP! My main server is Balmung, however, I am always up to world visit other realms to meet new players!

Romantic/ERP situations are based on where the role play goes, if it goes that way at all. Dark themes in general are more than welcomed and I love them. While my character was a courtesan, I am in no way looking for any such relationship OOC. Friendships only OOC.

While Zorah is a main character for me, I do not at all mind her being a supporting character for yours to help your development!

I am fine with most that happens to a character, within reason for the situation and it has been discussed OOC. Loss of limb or senses are fine, but the story cannot be half-assed. Death is also fine, however, highly unlikely. The type of character she is does not welcome death immediately and thus it’s unlikely your character will have a legitimate reason for her to be dead

While the lore is in and out, I am more then willing to accept headcanons and fanons within reason. If it’s too far fetched for me, it’s unlikely I’m going to work with it.

If your character finds Zorah annoying, overbearing, childlike or in general does not like her, feel free to have your character react as such. Don’t be afraid to message me OOC if you’d like to check before hand!

While I am located on Balmung, I can absolutely visit other crystal data centers!

Contact Information  ––– –

Discord: Zorah#1112

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Wiki

CARRD

Last Updated: January 14, 2020

August-2030

The sun is hot on my back, and my thighs burn with the effort of holding this position. My back doesn’t hurt, though. Those stretches work.

My face is full of leaves. They come in triplets, saw-edged, each the size of the space between my thumb and forefinger. Hard, unripe berries tap against my glasses. Somewhere too close, a yellow-jacket buzzes.

I put one hand down and reach with the other into the shadows, scattering leaf-hoppers. The sweat sticks to the inside of the glove as I squeeze the handles of the garden sheers. A growing resistance, then a dull snap, and a brown, prickly cane shudders behind the leaves.

The dead cane tears away from the bush like velcro, exposing a patch of soil, the wall of my parents’ house, and a small volume of empty space, dangling with raspberries.

I grab one and put it in my mouth. It tastes like the dirt and leather on my glove, ash from the recent forest fires, and decades of piled summers.

Raspberry canes take a year to grow up from the root, another to produce fruit, and then they die in the third. My job is to clear out the dead canes of last year to make room for next year’s shoots. I’m also exposing more of this year’s berries to my daughters and their cousins.

I wanted to do this in my garden, which is just old enough to have its own raspberries. They’re planted in rows away from the house, just the way my grandpa had them. And I have already done the chore of cutting out that patch’s first crop of dead canes. But my kids were firm: if we were going relive someone’s childhood today, it would be theirs.

I decide that my back is hurting after all and slowly stand.

My parents’ garden hasn’t changed much since Julia was a nine months old and pooping in the wading pool. The lilacs have grown thicker, the apple tree has died. The bird bath is now at our summer house three valleys south of here. Julia manipulated my parents into giving it to her.

But there’s still the enormous rhubarb plant next to the compost. To the east, beyond the rhubarb, the hill slopes down to the Interstate, the web of aerial traffic, and the houses, condos, restaurants, business incubators, network hubs, and micro-factories of Lolo, Montana.

Julia and Mikhaela move through the garden like a hummingbird and a lawnmower, respectively, with the other teenagers strung between them. Some are talking or doing incomprehensible things with their key-rings and charm-bracelets, but an impressive amount of berry-picking is still getting done. Mikhaela said she wanted to make a pie for the party, and they already have enough for two.

I glance to my right, where my younger daughter is methodically mowing her way down the raspberries. I can’t tell whether she’s listening to an audiobook or sharing her POV with some other kid in Saudi Arabia or just thinking her thoughts.

I remember my grandpa when he drove me home from the airport one summer. I had wanted to read a fantasy book, but he wouldn’t let me. He kept me talking that whole drive.

“What did you learn in drama camp today?” I ask her.

“Diegesis,” she says.

There’s a conversation starter! But my attempt at a follow-up question is interrupted by a delivery drone descending onto our lawn. Its brown plastic carapace is emblazoned with the logo of the nearest hub, which means only that this isn’t a delivery from a Lolo caterer or micro-factory. The kids could have ordered something from Seattle or New Zealand, and it would still get routed through the local hub. My guess, though, is that it comes from Sofia, Bulgaria.

“What did you forget to pack, Yooli?” I shout at my older daughter, Julia, as she runs toward the drone, waving her wallet-key.

Last summer, Julia packed almost nothing for our trip to the US. She told us she thought it would be easier to just mail herself stuff when she remembered she needed it. When we saw the international shipping bill, we got her her own bank account and wallet-key, which might have been the whole point of the exercise.

The drone sees her key, releases the box it was clutching, and zips back into the smoky air to join the sky-traffic.

“I didn’t forget anything.” Julia shakes her hair out of her face and lets go of her key-ring, which zips back to her belt on its recoil line. The belt is bright pink, with green and blue Kazakh embroidery patterns. Each key on the ring is a different color and pattern, for a different digital purpose. “This is for our party.”

She pulls open the self-storage box, revealing an irregularly-shaped pink crystal the size of a melon. It’s a salt-lamp.

Generational cycles are funny things. Growing up means doing whatever your parents didn’t do, but we all have a soft spot for our grandparents. I want to be firm and practical like my grandpa, Mikhaela wants to be strong-minded like my mom. My older daughter Julia, for her part, cultivates a free romantic spirit like my mother-in-law. This, for me, is an endless opportunity for spiritual growth.

“Your salt-lamp.” I repeat. “Why do you need a salt-lamp for a party? Why do you need your salt lamp? You could have ordered a brand new one and it would have been a lot cheaper.”

I know what she’ll say next: “it’s my money. You‘re the one who told me to get a job and now I have eighty.” I open my mouth to tell her that she still ought to save her money for something important. And what is it exactly that she’s doing in these eighty jobs anyway?

But Julia hoists the salt-lamp and says, “it has to be this one. My friends and I licked it into just the right shape.”

I have no idea how to respond to that. I close my mouth and process data while my daughter skips away, tongue-sculpted lamp cradled in her arms. I’ve been out-maneuvered again.

I strip off my gloves and hat and go to find my wife.

Pavlina is on the balcony, sipping chilled white wine with her brother and sister-in-law. They’ve lived in California since the early 2010s, and in some ways they’re more American than me.

“I need to go to the teenager party,” I tell Pavlina.

“Zashto? Ti li si tineidjar?” Why? Are you a teenager?

Pavlina’s brother lifts a bottle of beer in my direction. “Ne trevozhi, bre. Veche si imam pushkata.” This is an in-joke.

According to Bulgarian tradition, Julia’s and Mikhaela’s first teenager party means we adults are all exiled here, to my parents’ house. We’re supposed to have a party, too, but I suspect it will be more like a military command center. Lots of tense pacing while we try to imagine what chaos is unfolding on the front lines.

“What are you talking about?” My dad appears from the kitchen with a tray of cheese and the tactical situation becomes more complicated. Neither of my parents approve of the teenager party, and we’ve been tip-toeing around the topic all week.

“We could be in the attic,” I tell Pavlina. “Or the basement.”

“That is where I’ll lock you when you go insane, yes,” she says.

Pavlina’s brother cackles and my dad says “What?” in a tone that means “I am playing the doddering cyborg grandpa, but I really am angry that you’re talking over my head.”

“It’s the teenager party.” I look out over the balcony, where our kids are doing incomprehensible and scary things in the yard below us. “I mean, what if something happens?”

My dad doesn’t say, “exactly! We have to cancel this whole barbaric ritual.” He says, “I’m worried too.”

“Yooli and Mishi will take care of it,” Pavlina says. “That’s what they’re learning to do.”

“What if someone brings dope?”

“They’ll tell him to smoke it outside.”

I check to make sure my mom isn’t in earshot. “What if things get…physical?”

“Zdravko and Boris are big. They’ll beat him up.” These are Julia and Mikhaela’s cousins, who seem to be engaged in some a virtual sword-fight right now. Mikahela is directing it.

“Now you say, ‘there can be only one sun, one moon, and one great khan!'”

I look around for support, but even my dad is nodding. “You don’t need to worry about boys,” he says.

I pick up a piece of cheese. “Well, at least I got them to pick raspberries with me. Mishi’ll make a pie.”

Pavlina looks serenely out at the Sapphire Mountains. “Sore wa kokuteiru no tame da to itta yo.”

‘She told me they were for cocktails,’ in Japanese, a language which nobody within earshot speaks but me and my wife.

I try to slow my breathing.

It isn’t just the underage drinking. It’s the social situation. My kids keeping secrets from me. Me keeping secrets from my dad. I reach down inside of myself for that still, small, voice. It says “be honest.”

“Mikhaela is making cocktails?” I say.

Everyone stiffens.

The US and Bulgaria have very different ideas about what constitutes proper behavior for teenagers and police officers. My dad, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law now all agree that the teenager party is a terrible idea.

Pavlina, meanwhile, looks steadily at me, letting me know that I have now become her opportunity for spiritual growth.

I put my cheese down on the balcony railing. “I’m just worried. Our kids are going to be alone in the summer house, which we just finished. They’re going to be drinking and smoking and licking salt-lamps.”

“Huh?” says my brother in law.

“What’s going to happen? What are we going to do when something does happen?”

“You’ll deal with it.” Pavlina declares, standing. “Nali si moyat mesten vodach?” Aren’t you my native guide? Another in-joke.

She pats me on the shoulder. “In the mean time, meditate on trusting your children, or at least trusting God to watch over them.”

“The God of fools and children,” I mutter. But that still, small voice speaks to me. “Go pick some more raspberries,” it says.

Stephen’s Cosmos

Alternative title: My frustrations with Steven Universe coalesced into form in an AU

So Steven Universe: The Movie came out and after months of slumber, it woke my gripes with the series due to stuff that happened within the movie that irked me. I’ve had my problems with Steven Universe for some time now, and it's not that the movie is the straw the broke the camel's back, but hey, seems like a good time as any to do this.

Statement of Purpose: My main problem with Steven Universe is not an issue of the attempt at redeeming villains, for a dude like myself that grew up on an anime media diet, villains getting turned good is old hat. I’ve seen it better done than SU and worse than SU. The idea that yes, somebody that has done wrong in the past and has recognized the error of their ways has a possibility to atone is a good message. The problem is with SU scale, because of its insistence of going cosmic and having most serious problems have the sake of the world in the balance as an allegory for family issues makes it less credible, and more than a tad reprehensive. So this is an AU that remixes the show to do away with it. Mind you this is just a basic, vague, ranty pitch, probably not going to write out any episodes. We good? Ok. Let's begin.

Premise and Setting: In the interest of cutting down on the ‘epic’ scale of original SU, I’ll have this set mostly on modern-day earth and maybe other realms if necessary. Stephen’s Cosmos would have more of a straight-up magic/fantasy feel than the sci-fi magi-tech the show uses. This is because we’re not using aliens here, we’re using witches. And since we’re going for differences I’ll be using a Floral/herbal naming scheme for these witches, maybe even have them have developed plant-like features, but having them be human women at least as a basis. The backstory would go like so; existing for centuries in the shadows there would be a coven of powerful Witches known as the Chrysanthemum Circle, composed of the Elder Sister; White Chrysanthemum, Middle Sisters; Blue and Yellow/Golden Chrysanthemum and the youngest Red Chrysanthemum. They would rule over a pseudo-amazonian secret island in the middle of the pacific ocean, where they have built a society of witches that work under them, basically for both the preservation of the society itself and for them to be able to live in luxury. Red would be treated as a child by the other three instead of an equal, constantly the victim of abuse and punishment for her oddities in her sister’s eyes. This causes her to run away a few times before burning bridges in an impulsive manner, escaping and taking a few like-minded witches with her, namely her handmaiden and confidant Lily, the mysterious Sunflower, and a few others. Red would shed her imperious persona for a softer, friendlier Pink Rose. From there they would wander the world of man, picking up a young human girl that would come to name herself Carnation. They would settle and build a temple in the small coastal city of Beach City eventually, where they would live until the foreseeable future as the coven of the Wild Flowers. There Pink would find Mr. Universe and things would progress as cannon... except Pink doesn’t need to die here. So we have Pink Rose as part of the secondary cast. The main premise of the story would be to have an episodic structure with monster/problem-of-the-week setups(depending on how much action it makes sense to have in it), slowly integrating Stephen and the Flowers into the quirky town of Beach City, as well as learning lore and having the Flowers help with the strange occurrences in this town. These episodic seasons would get broken up with two-parter season finale to have a nice bombastic event. It would get slightly more serialized as it goes along, more-less the Avatar: The Last Airbender model. There would be a reveal of who Rose is about halfway through where Lily reveals it under dire circumstances and would fragment the Wild Flowers. Why not go with a completely mundane plot? Because flora is pretty, witches are cool and lesbian witches are double cool. (If you must though it's actually not that hard, the Diamonds are an old money/noble family, staunchly elitist and traditionalist, have them be in Europe where they rule over a township. Rose runs away due to similar situations and we’d have her and other runaways come to Beach City and slowly get integrated with ensuing hijinks and slice-of-life situations.)

Characters

Red Chrysanthemum/Pink Rose: Ok this is the big one so we better get it out of the way first. Since she’s going to be around her main impact on the show is actually being able to be there and explain herself but also deal with the fallout of her own choices. Her personality would be very nice, motherly, soft and friendly but in a way that she seems above it all, careless and perhaps a little too hands-off. Her main flaw to be dealt with is her selfishness. Her main arc would be raising Steven, and recognizing other people as her equals that she loves instead of her inferiors to be protected. The secondary arc would be having to deal with the repercussions of her past actions and her secrets.

Stephen: If one’s theme is generational abuse then exploring the next generation is crucial. Stephen would serve as an instigator to get the Flowers closer to the regular human population, and the audience closer to the bizarre and mysterious Wild Flowers. Stephen’s arc or arcs rather would focus on many things, but the main one being on his growth is the best of both worlds, his mother and father’s better qualities without the baggage that brought them into being, having to struggle with his identity between two worlds and the friction therein. He would eventually mature to be better than Pink. 

Lily: Lily would be Pearl’s equivalent, a Handmaiden literally sworn to serve Red; now Pink. The first thing that was done after their escape was to break her oath. We’d keep her arc of her having unrequited feelings for Pink, and her issues with her self worth and need for outside stimuli and approval. Her feelings would eventually need to be confronted and her dependency issues would be dealt with by her efforts to own her own person, be well with herself by being independent, and find maybe a new love?

Sunflower: Sunflower would be the fusion between two witches in love, separated by their classes back in the Island; the knightly and flaming Poppy and the serene seer Tulip. They wanted to be together with such fervor that when they were ordered to stay separated due to their social standings they performed a forbidden ritual that bound them both as one sole entity, sort of as a witchy marriage. The Chrysanthemums banned this ritual due to the exponential increase in power between the two participants, fearing it may topple them, so they declared it forbidden and decadent due to the ‘loss of two precious lives to bring in one tortured life’. The ritual cannot be sustained forever and it would be dissolved every new moon, and the preparations to properly perform it take a few days at least. This allows the two cute lesbians to be cute together. There would be parallels between them and the Rose/Lily relationship, but also serve to contrast them. Their arcs would mostly be relationship-based, regarding if they are codependent, if their relationship is healthy, they would have their rough patches and arguments like any married couple and hopefully a second more human wedding. 

Amy Thistle Aka Carnation: Carnation would be a neophyte witch kicked out of her foster home due to her magical inclinations. Finding a kindred spirit in their search for freedom Rose takes her under her wing. Carnation turns out to have the more ‘normal’ demeanor of the three witches. She would have parallels with Rose in the sense that even after Stephen’s around she’s treated like the kid and even not a ‘proper’ witch, this results in aggravating the self-worth and self hate issues she had. Rose’s words of ‘you’re perfect as you are’ would soothe her but in the long run, it just put obstacles in her development. She would grow to have frictions with Stephen, but would resolve them together with him. 

Connie: Basically the same but make her parents actually overbearing or traditionalist as to make parallels with the Chrysanthemums.

Lavender: A cloudshaper that got caught up in a riot against the Chrysanthemums, was sealed in a mirror until Stephen liberates her accidentally. Once out she lashes out against even the ones that gave her a helping hand. Her way to cope with her own trauma due to being sealed for hundreds of years would be violent and volatile. Her arc would be of her working through that trauma and for her to serve as a MASSIVE red flag for Rose of what her sisters’ deeper sins may be.

Mint: Keep Peridot’s arc and just adjust for lower scale. Her whole arc should be about broken misconceptions about the society outside the Island, and breaking through the behaviors that repressive society has ingrained. Parallels with Rose on that one. 

Oak: Oak would have more-less Jasper’s role in the story at large, first as a weapon for the Chrysanthemums and later as a recurring antagonist. Functionally she would begin to show to Rose and the others the consequences of her running away and other past actions since Oak was a member of her former court. 

Peony: An original member of the Wild Flowers that was found by Stephen as he messed around with portals. Her conflict with Rose originally would be more-less the same than Bismuth, their ideological differences, in this case, Peony has created a garment that would sever one’s connection with magic, reducing the user to a regular human. As with the original, she would be right in wanting justice and revenge. She wanted to use that to topple the Chrysanthemums and have them face the people’s justice. Rose exiled her before, and kept her secret. When she appears again old wounds are opened, and it is Peony that plants the seeds of direct rebellion within the Wild Flowers.

Townies: Most of these are fine and we don’t need to touch it, there are three major changes to be done though; Kevin, who should get a rehabilitation arc from a douche creep to a decent person, as a sort of practice for Stephen to help everybody else. Lars, since he can no longer be of the Stars, would become a part of the human contingent of Wild Flowers, mostly out of a search for purpose and adventure. Ronaldo would be rehabilitated from a self-important conspiracy buff into another, Dipper Pine’s-ish Wildflower.

The Chrysanthemums: Ok now the big bads. The Chrysanthemums would be aristocratic and authoritarian, capable of atrocities and overall believe themselves to be superior to everybody else. They would be the center of a “Diamond-Days”-esque arc in which Stephen, Rose and the other Wild Flowers go back to the Island with the explicit purpose of changing things for the best. They would need to test the lessons learned by Rose and her growth. General personality for the three? Yellow should be be imperius and ruthless, Blue should feel sublime, like the serene calm for a perpetual storm. White would actually have a god complex; she thinks of herself as perfect and eternal. They have been ‘mourning’ Red since she ran away, but the mourn an idealized version of her, the Red they wish they had lived with. From here during their story arc we would slowly begin to find out that Blue and Yellow act the way they act out of fear, though there is a degree of them that did buy into White’s beliefs. They’ve seen what White is capable and they know they’re not powerful enough even combined. Rose would end up confronting all three of them about the trauma they put her through, not only that but for the combined suffering and pain their rule of repression has caused to the witches in the island. She would reach through to Blue and Yellow… but not White. White reacts how an angry god might. They would manage to repel her and she would become the true antagonist, a goddess ousted from her temple. Blue and Yellow over the course of the next seasons begin to realize the true extent of their actions and set upon trying to fix and atone, but it would be made clear that hundreds of years of oppression cannot be easily wiped away. White herself would end up being defeated, depowered, and put on trial. Ultimately she would be sealed away.

So yeah, that’s it, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Garrett & Lilith (because of that scenario where she gets pregnant again lol)

@insatiablelilith

So these girls are kinda like an AU of sorts, that stemmed from this girl and I joking about if Garrett and Lilith were in a situation like the TLC show Outdaughtered :P They are so cute though

Name: Lucy Rose Baxter-Bradley

Gender: Female

General Appearance: chocolate brown hair, brown eyes, very curly, round face with baby cheeks, wears glasses, fair skin

Personality: goofy but quiet, kind, gentle, creative, compassionate, smart, passionate

Special Talents: creating cartoons and art

Who they like better: although Lucy is close to each of her parents, she gets along a bit more with Garrett just because he is a bit more goofy and relaxed, which helps her be more creative for her art

Who they take after more: Garrett from her soft goofy nature as well as her gentleness and more relaxed personality/mood

Personal Head canon:

is named after Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia

Lucy is the most artistic of all the Quints. She loved to do any type of art, and it was her favourite class at school. She loved to finger paint as a toddler and Garrett and Lilith have all of the work she did for them (and some she gave to them) in a scrapbook. In high school she took every art class she could and after submitting her work to contests she won and they went into books. From there, she got contacted by an author to be an illustrator for her books. It gave her enough money to go to school and take more art classes as well as art history classes. 

Married the author of the books she was illustrating for

Name: Hermione Dahlia Baxter Bradley

Gender: Female

General Appearance: dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, resembles Lilith the most out of all the girls

Personality: methodical, protective, kind, smart, sociable, sassy, clever

Special Talents: figure skating

Who they like better: Hermione likes both of her parents equally, but she has a closer bond with Lilith. She goes to Lilith when she needs someone to talk to or is having a bad day and loves to cuddle and have bonding time with her

Who they take after more: Lilith. She is very confident and methodical like Lilith, and she is also very social and sassy like her

Personal Head canon:

is named after the character in Harry Potter

is the biggest bookworm of the girls, and specifically loves fantasy and dinosaurs - however she realizes quickly that she cannot write as she hoped and gives it up

However, she finds that she really enjoys yoga (and it really helps with her figure skating) and quickly becomes an instructor - it’s one of the best ways she finds peace 

Name: Carrie Violet Baxter-Bradley

Gender: Female

General Appearance: mousy brown hair, brown eyes, short (shortest of the Quints), large birthmarks

Personality: adventurous, confident, daring, kind, sarcastic, protective, smart, active, curious (especially as a baby), inquisitive

Special Talents: playing Checkers and Chinese Checkers. She never loses

Who they like better: she likes both of her parents equally, and is equally close with both of them

Who they take after more: Garrett. She is very adventurous and goofy and doesn’t often always think things through before making a decision and is slightly impulsive when it comes to her curiosity. She is also very protective of her family in the way Garrett is

Personal Head canon:

is named after Carrie Fisher 

Garrett calls her the most adventurous and daring of the girls, and was constantly getting in trouble for it. She would be the girl to always get broken arms or sprained ankles because she wanted to see how high she could climb a tree, if she could walk on the roof of a house, generally explore around, etc. Sometimes she can take it too far

has large birthmarks over her body. There is a large on that goes from behind her ear and down her shoulder and almost onto her chest like a blob. She also has a large circular like blob on her left thigh and on her right hip. She also has a few palm sized ones scattered along her arms, ankles, and back or stomach. Her parents and doctors don’t know why she got these large birthmarks and none of the other girls did

Name: Selene Iris Baxter-Bradley

Gender: Female

General Appearance: light (almost white honey) blonde hair, straight with little waves, green eyes, freckles on her arms and chest (more so than Seren)

Personality: calm, peaceful, open, idealistic, imaginative, protective, supportive, compassionate, clever, social

Special Talents: knowing the capital of every country in the world without thinking of it

Who they like better: she likes both of them equally, but is a bit closer to her mother due to her gardening a lot with her 

Who they take after more: Lilith with how peaceful and loving she can be

Personal Head canon:

twins with Seren

is named after the Greek Goddess Selene of the moon

has the biggest green thumb of the whole family. Even as a kid she loved helping Lilith out in the garden (or her grandmothers when she was visiting them). She loved to collect succulents and indoor plants in her room or takes care of the ones around the house. She also has a small garden where she plants her own flowers. For Christmas one year Garrett made her two garden boxes so she could grow her own vegetables. Every summer she grows more vegetables to share with the rest of the family

Name: Seren Lily Baxter-Bradley

Gender: Female

General Appearance: light (almost white honey) blonde hair, very wavy, green eyes, a few freckles on her collar bone and shoulders

Personality: independent, quiet, reserved, responsible, warm, gentle, kind

Special Talents: can name all of the constellations in the sky and can also find them when stargazing with her family

Who they like better: she doesn’t really like one parent more than the other, but she is closer to Garrett. Garrett was the one who played sports with her when she could play. As well, while Selene was often with Lilith in the garden, Garrett would be playing with her in the yard 

Who they take after more: she takes after both of them almost equally. She is methodical and caring and smart like Lilith, but she is also protective and goofy and caring and adventurous like Garrett

Personal Head canon:

is twins with Selene

is named after the Welsh word for Star, so she and her twin are named as the Moon and Stars

had hip dysplasia when she was a baby. Garrett and Lilith didn’t realize that something may be wrong until the other Quints were beginning to sit up and she was still laying down and crawling, and realized something was seriously wrong when she was missing her walking milestone as well. Whenever she tried to stand up  or Lilith and Garrett helped her/held her up she would scream and cry. Something else they realized later on was that they had to hold her at a certain way and angle or else she would start to cry. When they took her to the doctor she told them what she had. After that Seren had to wear a baby brace for months to get her hip to be replaced and to grow in place. That left Seren even more fussy because she was often out of place with her siblings when playing and the brace could get uncomfortable and painful

however she still had hip problems for the rest of her life. Although Seren was very sporty, when she was 8 playing soccer she landed on her bad hip the wrong way and was in a brace for a few weeks and needed physiotherapy for almost a year. She still takes regular by weekly visits to the physiotherapist to make sure it doesn’t get that bad again

A message to my heart

I’m probably too old to be writing about talking cats but, hey, gotta do something. This is technically a post I made on warriorcatsarpg.com (Which I’m biased but is p fun check it out). I just had a lot of muse for this poor dude.

Frostlight was surprisingly not too fond of leaf-bare, even if his name would have you think otherwise. Still, the snow white tom pushed himself out of the warmth of the elders' den, his joints popping like a popcorn kernel as he did so. Even though he was weary from the traveling he had something he needed to do, a tradition of sorts, and as a WindClanner he held traditions very near to his heart. Once a moon he would take the journey outside of camp, which nowadays he rarely left, and go sit on top of Outlook Rock where he and Wildflower had their first date. From this spot not only could he see all of the territories but he was closer to the stars that way. He would tell her everything that happened, all the clan news, who of their old friends had passed away, about how the kittens always got into his fur, everything she would have loved. Then, he would make his way back to his nest before sunrise, except this time his clan would not find the elder in his nest the next morning. However Outlook Rock was gone, he had made do with what high points he could find during the travels but part of him wondered if the stars could even hear him in this foreign land. However he managed to find a nice spot near a cliffside and gently lowered himself down, he could not move as quick as he once did, his back had been causing him pain for moons, but the journey had worsened it. At one point Frostlight was the quickest cat of his generation, none could run faster than he could, never losing a race - not once! Now he was sure a turtle could run circles around him, but he was not upset with that he had a full life full of many memories and knew that it was time for the younger generation to have their fun. Frostlight gazed up at the stars his cloudy blue eyes locking in the brightest one, even if cataracts had consumed his vision, leaving everything tinted with fog, he could still find the stars and he was thankful for that much. As the stars above him twinkled with a brightness that he had not seen in the moors for at least a season now he could tell that StarClan was strong here. WindClan would be safe, he truly believed that. "Hello, my love." The white tom mewed, his voice quiet and tired, he was still trying to catch his breath from the trek up here from camp. "A lot has happened, so you may want to grab a rabbit, I assume StarClan of all places would have a fine rabbit." He said with a chuckle, lowering himself down slowly and curling his fluffy white tail around his paws, the entire time the snow crunching below him. "I guess.. I'll start off with the bad, when we were making our way through the mountains.. a bear attacked us. I never have seen anything as big! Warriors and apprentices rushed in... but.. many were injured, Thornwind - that old fool! He rushed in, he was always one to never think before acting, the elders were told to stay back but of course, he didn't listen, and no him being deaf isn't an excuse." Frostlight said with a huff, Thornwind was his dear friend, an apprentice who he aspired to be like as a kit, and a dear friend later in life. "I didn't see it at first..what he was doing, I was closer than he was, I..I should have.." The elder's voice broke, tears streaming from his face as that moment played in his head. "He knocked an apprentice out of the way." He then mewed between breaths as he desperately tried to make himself just breathe but it was hard when the sadness of a memory sucked the air right out of you. "The apprentice is fine, Fairypaw, but... Thorn...Thornwind didn't make it." Perhaps it was silly to tell his mate this, of course, those two were probably both in StarClan being chummy. Once the tears stopped blurring his vision more than it already was he glanced back up at the stars and for a moment he swore he saw a second star twinkling alongside the Northstar. "Thornwind, I bet you're up there having a good ol' laugh at me crying right now. You just remember to keep your paws to yourself, Wildflower is my gal!" "We got here though, I hear its huge... I haven't been able to get out of my nest that often, its-I'm.. I guess I'm just always tired lately, it's getting worse as the moons pass. We're safe here. This will be a great home, and oh my dear flower, you would love Palestar. Every day she shows herself to be one of the finest leaders we have ever had. Her heart is kind, her voice is soft and full of wisdom - of course, a former medicine cat will guide the clan closer to the stars, more than we ever were..you would love her." The leader reminded her of his mate so much, kind, caring, thoughtful, but willing to stand up for her clan. Making the clan one that helps others and keeps the peace, a place where he knows his sons would be safe. "She just had her kits, they're strong! Apparently, Dawnflower, Polkastrike, and Palestar will raise them.. not quite sure how that works, but I'm not one to judge, just means those kids will be loved by three cats and who can have anything bad to say about that! Their names are Nymphkit, Juniperkit, Hawkkit, and Woolykit, they're the first to be born in this new land by the lake but they won't be the last, I'm sure of it." He mewed with a smile, kits had always warmed his heart, always will. He was a father, a grandfather, soon to be a great-grandfather. All he really wanted in life was a big successful family, that was all he needed. "Flowerblossom is pretty far along in her pregnancy too, soon she and Polarislight will be parents! Did you ever imagine we'd be great-grandparents, love?" He asked, the smile only growing, his son was a fine warrior and his mate was a strong she-cat, claws sharpen than anyone else's! "Some strangers joined recently too... I hear they're loners, perhaps kitty-pets some are nervous about them joining us, Berryheart said they won't help the clan. Don't you worry tho! I made sure to remind her that if you were here you would have ripped her ear off for that. I swear, you're more of a warrior than I ever was, you might have been born a kittypet but you had the heart of a lion!" He not only loved his mate, but admired her, he respected Wildflower more than anything in the world she had constantly proved herself to be strong, loyal and was also the most beautiful cat he had ever seen. The white tom's eyes were starting to close, he laid his head down in his paws and let out a purr of amusement, "You're a tough one, you're just who the clan needs right now." As he got comfortable again he thought about his sons, his family..everything that had gone on, had he missed anything? Perhaps, his memory was not as good as it once was either. "I think the kids know what's going on... They're smart, its pretty obvious. Dawnflower says there's not much she can do, I don't blame her there's no herb to cure old age." Frostlight said with a sigh, he wouldn't want to waste herbs anyways, not with how many were injured from the journey to the lake. "I don't mean to worry them, I'm just so tired all the time it's hard to keep up with everyone, I try my best, I know you wouldn't want me lazing around all day." A silence filled the cliffside, the white tom was blending in well with the snow on the ground that was still falling from the skies. It was almost like mother nature was tucking him into his final resting place with a blanket of snow. Even if it was cold it did not matter much to Frostlight, he needed to fulfill his commitment to his mate, no matter what. He had promised her when they were just apprentices that he would always tell her everything, their relationship had been open and honest and even with her death he would keep that going. "Sorry my flower, give me a moment, I'm just so tired." Frostlight said softly, his voice trailing off into the silence of winter, the whole world was asleep and at peace. The moon's glow illuminated the area around the elder, but soon there was something brighter to be seen. "It's alright sweetheart, come, tell me on the way, we can take our time, I want to know everything." A voice said, leaning down to nudge the white tom with her nose. The white elder opened his eyes and just stared, she was here, and still as beautiful as ever. A stunning calico but now stars were laced into her fur and as he looked down at his paws he saw those same stars. "Well my flower, it all started on Outlook Rock.." When his clan would find him, they would at least know he died happily, for the last thing he saw was the love of his life and so he died with a smile upon his face.

Some losers club headcannons

yeah it’s really long sorry i have a lot of thoughts

Bill:

- Hates rain/storms/bad weather, because it reminds him of Georgie.

- Plays baseball

- only swears under his breath (that’s why after the garage scene when he says “one more f-f-fucking time-” it kinda leaves everyone speechless)

- sneezes every four minutes

-the little spoon

- giggles at everything

- huge romantic

Richie:

- loves raccoons

- hella lanky/thin

- really good at drawing (Bill draws a little, like in the movie, but he sticks to writing, mostly. Richie taught Bill how to draw)

- started a comedy club at school

- says cursed things like “totes McGoats”, “mark my worms” and “You know what really kame hames my hah”

- “Richie, what are you doing? “[immediately, with no hesitation] Treason, of the highest order”

- Wentworth Tozier grew up in Italy, met Maggie Tozier in a trip to NYC, where they fall in love. Richie can speak p good Italian and moved to Derry when he was 5-6

- Loves the movie Grease, and has gone as Danny Zuko several times.

- has (a) really big hands/mouth/feet/ears etc. He’s just generally a large person.

Eddie:

- flexible as hell (He does the bridge once and begins to freak out because he thinks he broke his spine)

- “you all are not”

- Loves musicals

- does track an field

- has a leather fanny pack (Christmas, 1992, Beverly thought it fucking incredible)

- “I’d sell you to satan for one corn chip”

- loves to dance

- “mama didn’t raise a quitter but she did raise a fool”

- freckles

- will wear layers and layers even in hot weather

- grows his hair out to spite his mother, who always liked it short

Stan:

- sneaky as hell

- talks to fast sometimes

- lots of voice cracks

- tallest of the club (6′5″ by grade 11)

- perfect posture

- laughs loudly once in a blue moon

- really really nice hand writing

- born in Israel, moved to Derry when he was 5-6

- white passing

- goes for a long run every morning

- Does track and field

- loves ABBA more than he loves himself

- “you’re telling me, a chicken fried this rice?”

- Has two cats, Cookies and Creme

- wakes up at 5:30am

- can’t deal with ticking clocks, freaks over locking doors and hates seeing messes (because OCD, u know)

Mike:

- “Y’aint”

- always has snacks on him

- wears glasses but only for reading and they hang on the edge of his nose

- pats people

- random hugs

- can’t swim (The losers had to teach him how)

- named his sheep after the losers and named one particularly awful one Lil Penny

- hums a lot

- stronk man

- loves to climb trees

- saw a movie once, probably

Beverly:

- plays piano and guitar

- wears a jean jacket

- lots of patches on her clothes (mostly the jean jacket)

- is the meanest person in the world when she first wakes up

- stronk

- responds to most compliments with awkward finger guns

- “cool beans”

- goes on hikes/walks a lot

- sunburns

- “....whomst?”

Ben:

- owns like 3 shirts

- loves music

- has all the nice toys (water proof walkman, dope ass bike, etc.)

- has seen every movie ever

- cries everytime someone breaks a pencil (”You need to treat it with respectI”)

- Will always buy you food/lunch if you don’t have any

- Plays football

- owns a Foosball table

General:

- Richie and Ben have mutual respect for each other

- (Richie thinks Ben is super brave and incredibly humble and kind, and thinks that if he could be Ben for a day he would finally learn to slow down and appreciate everything around him)

- (Ben thinks Richie is super cool, funny and undeniably one of the smartest people he’d ever known. If he were Richie for a day, he’s sure that he could make every wish he has come true.)

- Eddie is always concerned Bill is sick.

- Stan talks back to teachers and Richie thinks it’s the most beautiful thing in the world

- Richie is the only one allowed to call Bev Bevvie. everyone else gets a slap.

- Eddie and Stan bond over their love for Meryl Streep and ABBA

- Richie and Stan learned english together because it’s their second languages

- the most dividing fight the group faced (other than the IT fist fight between Richie/Bill) was the debate of which is better, Hot chocolate, Tea or Coffee. (richie/Ben think hot chocolate, Bill/Mike think Coffee, Eddie/Stan think Tea. Beverly says redbull, its a whole thing)

- everytime Bill drinks coffee everyone (including Mike) gags a little bit (Bill drinks coffee straight from the pot. No sugar or milk. Straight coffee)

- Bev and Bill constantly check to see who’s taller

- Mike and Eddie have an inside joke of correcting each other (“Y’aint” “you all are not”)

- Richie almost got arrested after losing his temper around Sonia Kaspbrak, in which he punched her, and Eddie had to convince her not to press charges

- When Ben learned that Stan had OCD and Richie had ADHD, he went to the library and did research on it, so he could help them if he needed

- Richie and Ben are the only two that drive

-  by 10th grade, Richie was banned from the school library. When Ben asked why, Richie grinned, looked over at Stan, who also grinned, turned back to Ben and said “I’ll tell you when you’re older”

- Richie’s parents like to throw big Barbaques and things of that nature and towards the end of the night, they always let Richie do a quick stand up show, and Stan or Wentworth will also sometimes go up and do something.

- Bev and Richie are like the brother/sister combo who take the school by storm. Loud, bold and hand in hand.

- Stan and Bev are like the brother/sister who are genuinely there for each other. 

Grade 11-12 heights: Stan (6′5″), Richie (6′0-1″), Mike (5′11″), Ben (5′10-11″), Bill (5′8″), Bev (5′7-8″), Eddie (5′5″)

just finished the first chapter of a quick little fic i’m writing (based on a couple of characters from the d&d homebrew campaign i’m putting together). figured i’d drop it here on the offchance that anyone would like to read it. more below the cut.

~1~               

“It has come time to serve your family once more.”

Mother’s words still tugged at the corners of my subconscious as I hitched my horse by the Market District gates. With an exhausted sigh, I pulled my plain black cloak closer to my shoulders and made my way from the stables up the darkened flagstone streets. Even for near-midnight on a Sunday, the typically busy center of Starfeld commerce seemed strangely deserted. As nice as it was to be able to make my way up the main path without having to weave through a sea of people, I couldn’t stomach another moment of quiet. At this point I was desperate for anything to distract myself from the thoughts racing through my head.

Just a few feet ahead, a weather worn wooden sign marked my destination; The Crossroads Inn. My home away from home.

A tall, iron-framed wooden door stood before me, flanked by two thick stone columns. I could already hear the soft, lilting tune of a lyre coming from within as I approached, accompanied by clinking dinnerware and muffled voices. Sounds like I had dropped by in the middle of one of Hilda’s weekly performances.

As I stepped inside, the strong scent of heady wine and cooked meats filled my nose. The flames in the gilded lanterns lining the crimson-painted walls were low, bathing the few patrons seated underneath them in a subdued orange glow. The diminutive halfling form of the lyre-wielding bard, Hilda, stood front-and-center of the room, swaying languidly with the tempo of the music that flowed from her fingers. A large stained glass window set into the middle of the ceiling reflected shimmering, multi colored light in an intricate geometric pattern on the floor with the full moon just visible beyond its surface.

I made my way straight to the counter off to the right, which was being tended by a familiar Dragonborn man by the name of Alzax. His scaly brow raised as I approached and sat down on a stool. I could tell I was about to receive an enthusiastic welcome, as I normally did, so I raised a hand to him and smiled. Understanding my intentions, he nodded and grabbed a glass from under the counter. While I normally enjoyed his exuberance, I just wasn’t in the mood for it tonight.

“Evening, Zax.” I said as he began pouring a drink. At this point, I didn’t even have to tell him what I wanted.

“Ezra! I wasn’t expecting you here tonight. How’ve you been?” He placed the white wine in front of me and leaned on his elbows as he responded. I pulled a few gold pieces out of my coin purse and laid them down for him.

“Oh, just splendid,” I replied, almost musing to myself. “This past week has been an absolute shitshow.”

Realization dawned on the red-tinged lizardfolk’s face, and he nodded. “I just heard the news today. You’re gonna end up with some Laurelian princess, right?”

“Regrettably, yes.”

“Ah,” Alzax reached across the counter and gave me a hearty pat on the shoulder as I took a long sip of my drink. “Hang in there, big guy. Arranged marriages never last anyway. And besides, I hear Laurelians are big party people. At least there’s a chance she won’t be boring.”

It took an incredible amount of willpower to keep myself focused on the conversation, as the prospect of my future (or lack, thereof) being the topic is nothing short of exhausting. My so-called “Princely Duties” were precisely what I was trying to distract myself from in the first place.

I sighed and held my head up with the heel of my palm, my other hand focused on halfheartedly swirling the glass of pale alcohol in front of me. “As much as I enjoy the notion of living out the rest of my years in eternal party mode, I think I would prefer to do something that actually matters. I couldn’t care less about some King I’ve only ever met twice at political gatherings.”

“Such is the nature of ruling a nation, my friend. If you inherit the throne, dealing with people you don’t give a rat’s ass about is going to be part of the everyday minutiae.”

“I’d rather give that responsibility to my sister. She seems more patient than I am with these things.”

At that moment, Hilda’s final song finally tapered to an end, eliciting a wave of applause from the modest number of patrons across the room. She bowed, left her tip jar and lyre on the table beside her, and sidled up to the counter, taking purchase on a stool at the other end. Alzax regarded me briefly, then moved to attend to her.

With this newfound solitude, I turned to survey the people behind me, searching for any other familiar faces. They were all strangers this time around, but a group stationed in the corner briefly caught my eye-- there were six of them sitting around two tables they had pushed together, carrying on a lively conversation, each with large steins in their hands. As my gaze passed over them, I couldn’t help but notice one of them staring at me.    

I was met with ocean-blue eyes. The emerald-skinned man making careful eye contact with me had his studded leather boots propped up on the table, his feet crossed at the ankles. Covering his shoulders was a Sea Captain’s coat, open at the chest--inky black with silver and red trim. He appeared to be Triton, which was a rare sight in Fallreven, much less so far inland. His watchful eyes made me the slightest bit unnerved, but at this point in my life I was used to people gawking. I almost had to double-take when I saw a faint, wry smirk play across his lips. Shaking it off, I turned around and went back to emptily watching my drink swirl in its glass.

About an hour passed without major incident. I was beginning to feel restless, and the alcohol sitting in my stomach didn’t help. I bid Alzax farewell and exited the inn, not sure where I was headed next. As long as it wasn’t home.

Once back out on the city streets, I walked to the nearest fenced-in platform overlooking the Twine District below and leaned on it, trying to gather my thoughts.

I knew this arrangement would happen eventually, but now its inevitability hung over my head like a dark stormcloud. I couldn’t stand the thought of having to pretend to be in love with a perfect stranger, just so we received outside help for the war with Zhilthorn. I didn’t even want to broach the subject of having kids.

But, Laurelia has what we need to turn the tides. As much as the thought irks me, I would do almost anything to put an end to this ridiculous fighting.

A few minutes passed as I stared blankly at the sprawling residential district below, the cool Autumn breeze ruffling my hair and playing at the edges of my cloak. I couldn’t help but wonder what life as a working-class commoner was like--what it would be like to wake up each morning and not have three handmaidens fussing over me, dressing me up like a doll. Perhaps a simpler life would be more fulfilling.    

I was about to make my way back to my horse when a shout from a few feet away dragged me from my quiet contemplation.

“Oi! If you were trying to be sneaky, you’re not doing a very good job of it!”

I whipped around to face the source of the voice, then was immediately tackled and pinned down by a brawny, shadowed form--almost taller than myself. As I fell to the ground with it, the sound of quick, distant footsteps pounding across the flagstone towards us met my ears. I hardly had time to recover from the initial shock before the glint of a dagger poised above my throat demanded my immediate attention.

“Fuck!” I cursed as I attempted to free my pinned arms and wriggle out from under the masked man’s crushing weight. The knife came down and I threw my head to the side to dodge it, the sharp steel making hard contact with the stone beside me. Not enjoying being pinned against the cold, hard ground, I reared back and slammed my horns into the assailant’s forehead, eliciting an agonized yell. While he was still recovering from the headbutt, I leveraged my weight against his and threw him off, finally scrambling to my feet.

Before my hand could touch the hilt of the sword sheathed at my side, a lithe figure sped up behind the attacker and pierced a rapier through the back of his throat. The would-be assassin’s hands weakly reached up to the hole in his neck as blood began to trickle down, a wretched gurgle bubbling from his mouth. The blade was pulled from his skin and wiped off with a handkerchief as the man eventually quieted and slumped to the ground, a pool of blood gathering by his head.

I let out the breath I’d been holding in through the entire scuffle, and finally got a good look at my savior--it was the Triton man I had seen at the inn just a few moments ago.

“Shit...What a terrible assassin.” I breathed, mostly to myself. After affixing the thin blade back to a belt under his coat, the Triton let out a soft chuckle.

“I’m sure you had it all handled, I was just feeling generous.” He spoke with a pleasant Northern lilt. If honey was a sound, it would be his voice.

He then reached out and brushed some of the dirt off of my cloak with the same smirk he had given me the first time I saw him. “No way he could’ve taken out a battle-hardened Prince such as yourself, hm?” Before I could open my mouth to respond, he winked at me. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell.”

Something about his face made it difficult to focus and find the right words. I instead found myself blushing under his gaze. “Th...Thanks.” was all I managed to get out. Clearly amused by my floundering, he clicked his tongue as he looked down to the corpse at our feet. “The guards’ll take care of him, right?” he quipped, an ironically light tone to his voice.       

“I should hope so.” I replied as I knelt down by the body and peeled his cape away from his chest. My suspicions were confirmed when I spotted a scroll poking out from a pocket on his hip--an illustration of a boar’s head in profile, surrounded by a wreath of thorny vines marked the heading of the parchment. The crest of one of Zhilthorn’s wealthiest families. The letter contained information for a hit and bounty on my head. Not surprising, but not really enjoyable to read with my own eyes, regardless. I sighed and pocketed the note. “I always knew the Vargharods hated me.” I muttered to myself as I straightened back up to my full height. The still unnamed man watched with a curious glint in his eye. Before he could ask any questions, I stepped closer and put a hand on his shoulder.  

“I know we were both just in there, but I believe I owe you a drink…Uh,” I trailed off, just then realizing I didn’t know what to call him.

“Arin. And don’t worry about that, friend. We--or you in particular, should probably stay sober if there could be another hitman on the loose.” he said. My hand dropped back to my side and I nodded, the shock finally wearing off, then the reality of the situation starting to set in.

“I suppose you’re right.”

“If you’re so insistent on repaying me, you could give me a ride up to the palace.” Arin continued. I looked at him for a brief moment, bewildered by his request. 

Seeing this, he pulled a folded note from his own pocket. It bore my family’s seal and the Queen’s own handwriting. “Your ma wanted to see me.” he explained, flashing the note at me.

I suppose I did remember Mother mentioning that she planned on receiving a guest sometime this week. I just nodded and started back on the road toward the Northern Gate. “This way, then.” He followed behind me without a word.     

The Captain’s Secret - p.1

“Objects in Motion”

A/N: This little plot bunny has been following me for a few weeks so I had to pursue it. The story is set pre-Discovery. Owing to lack of information available at present, I’ve taken the liberty of naming Lorca’s previous ship the USS Triton. With the reveal of the Buran, the Triton is now Lorca’s first command, and he subsequently takes command of the Buran. (The reasons for this will eventually become apparent.)

Full Chapter List Audiobook Version 2 - Game Set Match >>

The banal nothingness of interstellar travel was anathema to Gabriel Lorca, because as fast as they were moving, he hated sitting still.

As the Triton hurtled through the cosmos towards its latest transport assignment, Lorca wandered the bridge and did everything he could to avoid sitting in the one seat most officers spent their careers hoping to attain: the captain's chair.

It wasn't that Lorca had any aversion to actual specifics of the chair, and certainly he had longed for it as much as anyone, but now that he had it, he found it irksome. It was comfortable enough, but Lorca hated sitting as a general rule, and so instead he paced the bridge with a padd in hand, wandering past the various command stations and idly glancing at console displays as he did.

Arzo, his science officer, referred to this behavior as "hovering." Lorca liked Arzo. The Tiburonian was abruptly honest and unflappable, a good foil for Lorca's aloof confidence. "You are making the crew nervous," Arzo had said during their first week together. "The constant hovering over shoulders... do you not trust the competency of the crew?"

"Have you ever thought how hard it is to sit in the captain's chair and do nothing but waggle your fingers for hours on end?" Lorca had replied. This was not, of course, an accurate summation of the role of captain, but it did describe how sitting the chair made Lorca feel.

Arzo had harrumphed and fixed Lorca with a look that suggested sitting still in a chair was not something Arzo found to be particularly difficult. Even now, three months after the conversation, recalling that look still made Lorca smile.

As usual, Lorca found himself up by the viewscreen, one of the few places he could stand on the bridge without making anyone feel like he was hovering over their shoulder. He read over crew requests as streaks of starlight tantalized the edges of his view. To think that each of those streaks had a story, and that he, as captain, might detour and discover any of those stories as he willed...

"Captain, I'm picking up a transmission." Kerrigan was the communications officer on duty, a decent but uninteresting man who liked to talk a lot but usually said very little. "Broadcasting on all bands, audio and visual. Unknown language."

"Origin?"

"A Dartaran ship," supplied Arzo. "Far edge of our sensor range. Small."

The Dartarans were a notoriously private species in the region who occupied an array of moons and planets in the cluster of systems they claimed for themselves. They were not averse to the Federation or anyone else, they just preferred not to be involved in outside affairs.

"Adjust course to intercept and put it onscreen."

The starry streaks disappeared and Lorca found himself standing directly in front of an enormous green eye as an endless stream of wet, lilting syllables assaulted his ears.

"‒ lalilalulhallilinnlalanalenilalalanelamelimanlalunilalemilanalalennilaminulalalaililana‒"

Lorca took a half-step back. The words, if they were that, belonged to an alien with soft grey skin, pale grayish blue fur, and a pair of almost perfectly round enormous green eyes the color of fresh spring grass with dark slits evenly spaced around. Standing in front of the screen as he was, Lorca could make out the flecks and strands of striations in the creature's giant irises and see the lights of the Dartaran ship's console reflected on the broad, glassy surface of its lenses. The alien's tongue fluttered like a small grey moth just inside its mouth. The neckline of some sort of fluffy white garment was visible.

"‒lemalunilalamelanalilianilililialemalal‒"

Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't Dartaran. "Translation?" said Lorca.

"Coming online now," promised Kerrigan.

"‒lalimilalilunilalamanilamili‒ me! Help me, please! Is there anyone there? Please, can anyone hear me? Help me! Hello, can someone please help me?"

The transition from nonsense sounds to abject desperation was abrupt enough that the helmsman just behind Lorca startled in her seat. The universal translator rendered the voice as high and gentle, almost childlike, and feminine in tone, but that didn't mean anything. The pleas continued without pause, an endless stream of begging directed at no one and anyone with very little variation in theme. "If there's someone out there, anyone, please, I need help. Please. Can anyone hear me? Please, help me, please..."

Between the clear distress, the unknown language, and the unfamiliar species, it was a veritable siren song for any Starfleet captain, and Lorca was not averse to its tune. "Arzo?"

"A personal transport vessel. I detect no structural issues. I am attempting to search for any matches to species in our database."

"How certain can we be of the translation?"

Kerrigan bristled. "Extremely. The base elements and structure of the language don't match anything on file so I had to initiate a new matrix from scratch, but the alien is alternating in matching phrases of Dartaran, Romulan, and even English. The vocabulary is limited, but accurate."

That any of those la-la-la syllables could have been an attempt at speaking English bordered on ludicrous, but both Kerrigan and the computer seemed to think it true. "Open a channel."

"--if there's anyone out there, please, I'm in need of--"

A beeping noise drew the alien's attention and it stopped speaking and looked around.

"Hello? Is someone there?"

"This is Captain Gabriel Lorca of the Federation starship‒"

The alien did not hear him. "Hello? Can you hear me? Is someone there? Hello? Hello?"

"Trying again, sir," said Kerrigan quickly, sounding vaguely sheepish. The beep on the other end sounded again. This time the alien started poking around the console and Lorca heard the connection cue.

"Dartaran ship, this is‒"

"I see you!" exclaimed the alien, visibly startling. "You're human! Can you see me?"

Lorca remained professionally nonplussed. "Yes we can. This is the USS Triton, responding to your distress call. Please identify yourself."

The alien brought its hands together and began moving them in a repeating circular motion, one over the other, like a fly cleaning its legs. "I'm Lalana!"

It wasn't an easy name. Three softly-voiced but wet syllables verging on two, lah-lah-nah turning almost into lullna, the tongue flicking concavely against the roof of the mouth yet remaining almost stationary. Lorca managed it passably well. "L... Lalana?"

"Yes! Yes, that's right!"

Whoever this alien was, it did not seem to have a firm grasp on proper intership protocol. "I'm Captain Lorca. Can you explain the nature of the problem you're having?"

"Yes, absolutely! I'm trying to escape." What the alien lacked in knowledge, it certainly made up for in enthusiasm.

"Captain! Another vessel coming into sensor range, also Dartaran."

Lalana's hands switched from the circular motion to a rapid knocking together of curled fingers. "That is them! Please, please, don't let them take me back. I beg of you, help me!"

There were too many unknown variables, but Lorca judged the alien's pleas to be sincere. "We're headed towards you already, there's no need for worry. Can you tell me who's chasing you?"

"Margeh and T'rond'n," said Lalana. "They are… hunters. They captured me."

"The pursuit vessel is broadcasting a message," said Kerrigan.

Lorca was forced to make a split-second decision. "Now, Lalana, don't worry. If you need help, we are more than happy to provide it. But I'm going to have to hear what the folk coming after you are saying, all right? Not that I don't believe you‒"

"Yes, of course!" interrupted Lalana, utterly devoid of pretext. "To you, I am hardly ilr. You must be careful." There it was at last: a word the translator couldn't parse. It was somehow reassuring to Lorca; it suggested this wasn't some form of perfectly-crafted, elaborate ruse. It could still be a ruse of course, but at least it wasn't a perfect one.

"Let's hear it," Lorca said to Kerrigan.

A recording of two Dartarans appeared on the Triton's viewscreen adjacent Lalana's feed. They were brown in color, with orange streaks along the ridges that lined their spiky jawlines.

"Federation starship!" boomed the smaller Dartaran. "We are in pursuit of stolen property. This is an internal Dartaran matter. No assistance is required. Repeat. Federation starship! We are in pursuit..."

Kerrigan looked at Lorca. "Do you want to respond, sir?"

Lorca didn't answer immediately and looked at Lalana. "I assume if we take you aboard the Triton, you have no objection to returning their ship?"

"No, no, but… the ship is not the property they wish for the return of. The property is me."

Lorca had studied up on the Dartarans prior to his posting to the Triton, along with all the other notable players in this region of space. While the Dartarans were not full Federation members, they had associate status and all signs pointed to them becoming members at some point in the future because there were no actual barriers to it. It was just that the Dartarans were slow, cautious, and scrupulous, and had chosen a very slow timeline to pursue.

Which indicated to Lorca that, whatever societal customs the Dartarans had, slavery was not among them. "I didn't think the Dartarans engaged in slavery."

"Oh, no, I am not a slave. I am a…" The universal translator seized up a moment and finally spat out, "pet."

Lorca's fingers tightened on the padd in his hand. It was one thing to answer a distress signal, quite another to wade into a situation of potential diplomatic delicacy.

There was a course required of any Starfleet officer interested in pursuing a command career: Intercultural Ethics. One of the lectures was inspired by an anecdote of Captain Jonathan Archer, Starfleet's first captain, about an off-hand comment made about his dog.

That off-hand comment led to a full two hours of the course devoted to the question of free will and pets. Dogs, while not possessing the same logical, reasoning, and communication abilities as humans, were nevertheless intelligent creatures who had thoughts and feelings and could understand basic commands and communicate their own needs and wants. Yet if a dog ran away, the expectation would be for it to be returned to its owner, regardless of whether the dog wanted to return or not.

What about other primates, and the more intelligent birds? Though protected now, they had long been subjects of abuse and research, often against their will and with little regard for their well-being, and many were also kept as pets. Given their intelligence, did that constitute enslavement? A monkey might learn to operate tools or utilize nonverbal language. Where then was the line as to what level of intelligence might be considered a pet and what should be considered an independent being with a right to self-determination?

What were Dartarans in pursuit of a wayward pet going to feel? Would they see the pet as having a right to choose? Or would they, like the average dog owner, demand the return of the animal, even if it was smart enough to steal a spaceship and hold a conversation? And even if their pet seemed to be a wholly intelligent being, was it right to enforce the ethics of one culture onto another? As humans still kept pets, were they in a position to judge, and did that open them up to be judged as oppressors by another species?

Any of these points might have gone through Lorca's head, but he was only momentarily reminded of the lecture and briefly wondered how badly this might impact Dartaran/Federation diplomacy before deciding it probably wasn't important because of one tiny detail.

Lalana had said they were hunters.

Lorca crossed over to Arzo's station with two long steps. "Show me both ships. Distances, speed, weapons. All of it."

Arzo's display lit up with information from across the bridge: weapons analysis from the security station, course and speed from navigation, plus Arzo's ongoing scans of both vessels looking for anything of note, most recently checking for signs of explosives or spatial anomalies.

They were identical ships, a matched pair of personal transports traveling at almost the exact same speed, except the pursuer was going very slightly faster and would eventually overtake its target in several hours if they continued as they were. If the lead ship stopped, though, it would be caught in a mere seven and a half minutes.

Both ships had shields, but neither had their shields engaged. The Dartarans seemed to have rerouted their shield power to their engines, accounting for the boost in speed, but even so, they were managing only a smidgen above warp three. Weapons consisted of a pair of cutting lasers -- designed for asteroids and good at short range, but incapable of doing anything more than tapping on the Triton's shields.

"All right, let's give this a go, then. Lalana, I'm going to ask you to trust me. Can you do that?"

Lalana's head bobbed. "It is within my power to do so. As for whether I will... Yes, I will trust you!"

"Isolate and hail the Dartaran ship. Dartaran vessel, this is Captain Lorca of the Federation starship Triton. We have reached an agreement with the thief of your vessel to return the ship to you, with the one single caveat that the thief requests to be taken into our custody." He said this with great gusto, as if announcing the Dartarans had won a prize.

The Dartaran recording was replaced by a live picture. The larger Dartaran bristled, but it was the smaller who spoke. "Federation captain! This is a Dartaran concern, we have no need for you. The crime was committed in Dartaran space and must be dealt with by Dartaran justice."

"Be that as it may," said Lorca, "the thief has promised to set your vessel to self-destruct unless this one condition is met. So in the interests of you not losing what looks to be a very fine and expensive vessel, why not let us take the lead on this? The Federation would consider it a great token of our esteem for your people if we can get you your ship back, and then we can talk to your Council about having the thief returned to Dartar so you can also get that Dartaran justice you're after."

The Dartarans exchanged a look. The larger spoke in a low, deep voice. "Thank you for your offer, but no."

Lorca had been hoping the Dartarans would fold, but apparently they were going to double-down instead. Fair enough. He crossed his arms and fixed the Dartarans with his most recalcitrant glare. "So you're telling me you'd rather have your ship destroyed than get it back?"

He gave the Dartarans a moment to chew on that. They didn't answer, which was as telling as anything they might have said in reply. Lorca unfolded one of his hands as if making an offer and waved it faintly about to subtly illustrate his points, of which there were three. "Perhaps I'm not making myself clear. I'm not asking what you want to do about your stolen vessel, I'm telling you what's going to happen, and if you have a problem with that, then you can bring it up with the Dartaran Council and have them petition the Federation on your behalf." He ended with his hand closed in a pensive fist.

The Dartarans hissed and growled and terminated communications. Lorca snorted. "Is our channel with Lalana secure?"

"Yes, sir."

Lalana's audio resumed mid-sentence. "‒but as much as I am grateful for the assistance and as enjoyable as that was, I do not wish to blow myself up, else what was the point of me escaping in the first‒"

"It won't come to that," promised Lorca. "You just hang tight, and everything will be just fine."

"Captain," said Arzo in a sharp tone indicating he had something important.

"Hm," Lalana continued as Lorca moved back to the science station to take a look, "you did request for me to trust you, and I suppose given the circumstance it is only fair for me to allow the opportunity to..."

"Well that can't be right," said Lorca, looking back up at the viewscreen. "How can it?"

"Nevertheless, sir, I am quite certain. Our sensors read no life signs aboard that ship." They looked at Lalana.

"Oh!" exclaimed Lalana. "Oh, no, they wouldn't. You see, my species, we... we do not show up on scanners. That is why it is such an accomplishment to hunt us. If it were easy, our skulls would not be such a spectacular trophy. If is my understanding that we emit an electromagnetic radiation field indistinguishable from the background noise of the universe. We look like nothing on technology devices. As the hunters say, optical and sonar only."

Lorca stared. "Did you say skulls?"

"Oh, yes. We are not usually taken alive." Lalana sounded entirely nonplussed about it, as if this statement were something so obvious and self-evident it was the same as saying the stars were shining and space was big and full of them.

Lorca leaned over the science console, gripping it tightly. It looked like a movement of calculated intensity, but in truth he did it to steady himself so his crew wouldn't notice how shocked he was. Not that they would have. The entire bridge seemed to be frozen. The helmsman's mouth was hanging open, and over at the communications panel, Kerrigan was blinking in disbelief. "Are you telling me Dartarans hunt you for your skulls?" asked Lorca in a measured voice.

"Not just Dartarans. I was taken by Dartarans, but any hunter who relishes a challenge might go to Luluan. Gorn, Tremi, human... There is no one species that hunts us. Any do."

Human. The word echoed in Lorca's head. In this day and age, to think that there were humans who would knowingly fire upon a sentient species in the name of sport... Of course, Lorca knew as well as anyone that humans were as fickle, diverse, and morally variable as any other species, but it was still a rather uncomfortable feeling to know that the person you were talking to might view your species as so utterly bereft of decency based on firsthand experience.

"Captain?" said Lalana, and Lorca realized the bridge crew were looking to him for some sort of sign.

It took him a moment to find the words. All the jovial amicability and lightheartedness present when he had been toying with the Dartarans was gone from his voice. "Lalana." Lorca swallowed and took a deep breath. "Would you be able to tell us where Luluan is?"

"I do not think so." Lalana looked downward and away. "I do not know how to get there. I do not even know how to fly this ship. I... just wanted to escape."

Lorca took another deep breath and exhaled it slowly, centering himself. "All right. Let's just get you off that ship and we'll go from there."

Since they could not pick up Lalana on their sensors ‒ and it was unclear if the transporters could even properly register a pattern given the unknowable biological variables of a living creature that appeared as background radiation ‒ they could not beam Lalana directly over to the Triton. To further complicate things, they would have only seven minutes once Lalana stopped before the Dartarans caught up and potentially interfered with any operations underway, and Lalana had no real navigational control over the vessel beyond making it start and stop.

The easiest solution was to have a pilot beam over and take control of Lalana's vessel, but Lorca rejected the idea outright. "They can detect a transporter," he drawled, "and that opens us up to accusations of piracy, with evidence to back it up. No, we're gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way, with a docking procedure. Carver?"

Lt. Carver, the helmsman, pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Maneuvering the Triton into position relative such a small vessel will be tricky given our mass and power, but it can be done."

"How fast?"

"Six minutes, maybe."

"I need it done in two. Chief, you said the ship would fit in our shuttle bay?"

The chief engineer, Billingsley, grunted in assent. What she had said was the transport was roughly twice as big as a shuttle, which wasn't even close to saying the same thing from an engineer's point of view. It just happened to be technically correct in this instance. "It's a tight fit. Not impossible, but I wouldn't want to force it in two minutes and damage the bay."

"What if we could give you, say, four minutes? That enough for the kind of precision to make you comfortable?" There was a mild sense of confusion. Why would the chief have four minutes to tractor the ship to the shuttle bay when Carver had been allotted only two?

"Captain?"

Lorca grinned with self-satisfaction. His crew didn't share his smug confidence, but Arzo at least could tell the captain had what was probably a brilliant but needlessly showy and over-complicated plan. In the three months since Lorca had taken command, Arzo had learned that most of Lorca’s plans could be described this way.

Lorca glanced around the room conspiratorially. "Now, docking one ship to another, that's no piece of cake, we'd need at least one of the ships to be stationary. But what if neither ship were stationary?"

"You mean running the tractor beam at speed?" said Billingsley with a mixture of dread and excitement.

"Exactly!" Lorca held up the padd in one hand and plucked the insignia from his uniform with the other. "We match our speed and course ‒ we can do that easily enough ‒ and use the tractor beam to pull the transport in nice and tight towards the shuttle bay." He moved the insignia close to the padd. "Then we decelerate slowly as the transport does."

"Minimizing strain on the tractor," Billingsley observed.

"By the time we're at a dead stop, the ship's pitching distance from the shuttle bay. Won't take more than fifteen seconds to finish bringing it in. Now, the Dartarans--" Lorca put down the insignia and grabbed Arzo's arm, signaling him to make a fist. Arzo begrudgingly complied. Lorca slowly moved the padd towards Arzo's hand. "They've closed the distance as we've decelerated, but we've bought ourselves another sixty, maybe seventy-five seconds to do what needs doing before they arrive."

"That is a hell of a lot of effort and risk for an extra sixty seconds," said the chief engineer, wondering what would possibly make it worthwhile.

Arzo lowered his arm. "Dare I ask what it is you want us to do with this extra time, Captain?"

Lorca smiled. "A lot can happen in sixty seconds."

Part 2

My Two Coins:  My argument on Defense

Disclaimer: "My Two Coins" are to be read as such, someone's two coins about the topic at hand. IF at any point you disagree with it or agree, remember they are just my coins about said topic and the value you have of it will differ from my own because of religion, upbringing, beliefs, and logic based on your own experiences. Do not assume my coins are the international equivalent for it may be considered of a lesser value in the bank of public exchange. Thank you.

“Why didn't you complain about the previous third versions/sequels/whatever that did the same thing? That shows you are biased against Gen VII.“

I’m saying it Once and I’m saying it again.... BIAS MY@$$!!!

Welcome ladies and gentlemen. You've found a wild Jewelwriter.

And I’ve been given this a lot lately with some of my more personal allies and I feel like I have got to defend myself once again.  Though it’ll be in response to each of the criticism that I’ve been sent my way along with extra notes to go with my replies.

=1=

"The removal could be to like you stated, the Framerate is poor. It also doesn't help that they weren't even popular in the first place. You queue for a triple or rotation battle in previous generations and you can be sitting there for maybe 30-40 minutes? Think about it, the game is all 3d, that is a LOT of space being used up and compressed for code and other information."

The patience some people have is sad when I look at it.  (Though makes me wish that my time would have been included for that)  I've considered that 3d animation takes time but at times the Pokemon have vanished when attacks are used...trainer included.  So it could have worked still to a degree.  This is the most bendable of points since the programming isn't easy.

-

And I mean it as the Programming that probably is going to be a problem when trying to get certain things into a certain space but then again they had managed to do it before to fit a number of details into the game so it isn’t as easy to do but it is possible if by working edges to smooth them out.

=2=

"Super Training was bullshit and I never used it. The change of pace for Island Trials was due to the face Alolan didn't follow the rest of the world in the system. The Gen I pandering is to be excepted as the region is neighbors with Kanto. The Ultra Beasts were an interesting twist on Pokémon Legendaries/Mythicals And really, the whole story. I'm sorry to say this, but it sounds like she is bitching over spilled milk, crying because she wanted another dull Pokémon Game.”

Super Training wasn't bs because it honestly will tell you what EVs you are giving which is a lot more than what the islands are doing.

Doesn't excuse how they aren't as filling as the trainer battles and Gym battles.  The fact would be one of the more filling battles that were given with the gyms was oddly a Gen 3 battle (the 7th one oddly...better known in Emerald for having 4 Pokemon to worry about.) so in a way I wasn't in as much a headache with the Gym system and more with the Trials.

I might as well see Mt Moon with how that seems to be that close to Kanto with all those Pokes.  I mean there are other generations that deserve some love and barely got any (Gen 5 especially...I mean Audino for the only mega poke?  And I could count nearly 19 of them before you get through half the islands.) so it would help to see more mon that isn't just restricted to Gen 1 remixes?

Cosmog was an interesting concept.  The Ultra Beast had some promise, but the story was about LILLY and her mostly needing your help to find answers while you randomly get the story pointed to you instead of the main goal of it being on you when the boring part of her quest kicks in.   Followed by Edgy the wannabe rival that tries to be the blue you wanted at the last minute when the Professor did a better job of that and he was more interested in seeing you grow out of anyone else.  And that's on top of the fact that I accepted that Hau wasn't going to be the strong battler rival of the game.  So excuse me for being factual on something that was done wrong and judged the game on its own before comparing it to the rest of the legacy which this is the weakest by far.

-

And how can one defend this one since they literally have you working around everyone else and barely have anyone really interested in you as a true trainer to watch grow sans the professor when you begin.  Hau is the friendly fighter who’s just trying to grow beyond his Grandpa, Edge Prince Gladion is a last-minute fighter using an apparent god fighting Pokemon that apparently got a type power up stronger than yours.  At least the professor fights you on your level of sorts.  Ultra Beasts storyline kind of is left to the aftergame and barely anything really revealed about them.  The only one that kind of gets development before you get it is Cosmog who kind of goes with you all over (though it tells you something when Lilly is able to carry Cosmoem) so it’s workable.

=3=

“Seriously, Sun and Moon got me back into series after the disappoint of X/Y. I liked the story, but at the same time, X/Y was just boring outside of it. Same old same old. I mean, I love it when you beat the champion and then the old King himself AZ appears and challenges you. It just seems she hates everything new they are trying to do."

I honestly felt more enlightened to Pokemon thanks to Black and White and X and Y felt like more the most completed revival of the series that people wanted out of the Black and White.  And sure I understand there are risk and reward for trying something new but when the new fails it is time to call it out on THAT and at least wait to see if it gets better or worst.  I'm kind of happy that you can hatch 19-24 eggs in one time, happy you can get rare items and stones to sell and use for your Pokemon to evolve, and I'm happy that they added more ways to battle with the Battle Royal and made it that you are the champion and are defending your belt against different trainers instead of just taking on the same foe again (Fun fact: for the mission of that sort I took it on and did it 5 times which I took on Hau, The Dragon Rocker, the Professor, Team Skull's former babysitter, and the kid on route 1. :P ) so excuse me for seeing the negatives outway the positives but when it is true... it is flipping true.

-

And I’m not kidding about it since I had to hunt for the reasons why I liked Gen 7 instead of finding it flowing out like a river of water.  If Orre was more memorable than alola then there’s a problem.

=4=

"Platinum and Emerald were done in literally half of a year. And B2W2 had worse footing then Sun and Moon. If that is not a paste job, I dunno what is anymore. I'm just going to stand on my ground of that, a majority of the Pokémon Community is spoiled. I mean, look at Kirby games. Most of them are nearly similar in gameplay and theme but always get extreme praise. There is very little hate towards it, so why on God's Green Earth is Pokémon getting it?"

-.- (GOD that is so incorrect.) Time for a bit of a time check...

Gen 1: September 28th, 1998 Yellow: October 19th, 1999 ({=Unexpected here.  Then again I was moving during this time.)

Gen 2: October 15th, 2000 Crystal: July 29th, 2001 ({= Here is under a year.)

Gen 3: March 17th, 2003 Emerald:  May 1st, 2005

Gen 4: April 22nd, 2007 Platinum: March 22nd, 2009

Gen 5:  March 6th, 2011 B2/W2:  October 7th, 2012

Gen 6: October 12th, 2013 ({= I had to flinch at how short this date was.) ORAS:  November 21st, 2014 ({= Only thing comparable for the time.)

Gen 7: November 18th, 2016 Ultra S/Ultra M: November 17th, 2017

They only did going under a year twice... and that's before the 3rd comes up.   I'm one of the few that try to make my own Pokemon from the ground up and the only thing I hate worst than this generation is what is flipping going with Smogon so think of it like this: I might hate Gen 7 (Which might not change my mind when the newest of it comes out and I got to work with it.) but I rather play with that than step anywhere near Smogon at all costs.  Sure competitive Pokemon is a mess but I would want that to grow and be more diverse than what I'm seeing from the worst of the community which is in that area of toddlers.

-

And I’m being truthful here.  I REALLY despise Smogon with such a fury that it makes My gen 7 hate I got to look like a cake compared to a Snorlax dinner that is the fury I have for Smogon.

=

And that’s EACH and every counterpoint and I will still defend my argument to the end since it is under a year...and in a way, I expected more in a way from Game Freak, The Pokemon Company, and the people that know their history and support them.  I might be one voice but after all the things that went wrong with this one I’ll be glad to get out of vacation mode in Pokemon.  Write to me if you feel like I’m write, right, wrong, or mixed in some way.  After all THIS is a text box.

As for me... this wild one runs away!