#member when people called him the reasonable sensible brother?
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Kai Parker x male reader, reader helping Kai redeem himself and be better
excellent reminder that i need to watch the originals/legacies so if this was meant for a different part of the tvd timeline do ignore
masterlist
It has only been an hour since you woke up, and already, the Salvatores are desperate for your help. It’s not like you can blame them, not really; they seem to collect trouble with an almost professional magnetism. No matter what they try, danger always comes their way, and they are never, ever able to get rid of it without significant difficulty.
This problem belongs to all of you, in a way, not just the two brothers. When your group of friends and somewhat tenuous allies managed to take down Kai Parker, you were all left with the meddlesome question of what on earth you were supposed to do with him.
Killing Kai is tricky. None of you are one hundred percent sure that Kai’s life isn’t linked to the spell keeping Elena in a coma and Bonnie alive somewhere, tethered to her friend, so murdering him could have disastrous consequences. That hasn’t stopped Damon from stomping around and loudly declaring how much he’d like to rip Kai’s twisted little heart right out of his chest, but it’s not like the older Salvatore has ever needed an excuse for drama.
That leaves Kai Parker alive, for now at least, and that means he’ll have to be handled accordingly. Right now, he’s locked away in the cell in the Salvatore house basement, but you’ll still have to do something with him before too long, if anything to shut up the constant source of complaining emanating from the downstairs area. Stefan says it ruins his beauty sleep.
And, for some reason, the above problems have convinced the Salvatore brothers to call upon you of all people. Sure, you’re probably one of the more sensible members of your little friend group, but that shouldn’t mean you’re the one they contact for every murderous lunatic to ever hit Mystic Falls. Goodness knows it would totally destroy your travel plans.
You stalk through the halls of the Salvatore House. Stefan greets you at the door and is hurriedly following you through the rooms, alternating between apologizing for needing you yet again and attempting to extract promises that you will actually help them with this.
“It’s not like we want to do this, obviously, but you’ve got a great track record for fixing these sorts of things, and I thought it was best that Damon not handle this, or Bonnie, so–”
You come to an abrupt stop at the top of the stairs leading to the basement, cutting Stefan off with an icy stare. “And that left me, I suppose? I’d lecture you about how much I don’t want to do this, but I assume you can guess at that.”
Stefan winces. “Yeah, I kind of got that. Will you do it, though?”
You sigh, casting an irritable glance down the stairs where Kai waits somewhere in a cell below you. “I will. You totally owe me, though.”
Stefan lets out an audible sigh of relief. “You can act on that favor any time, I swear. Just see what you can do, alright?”
“We’ll see,” you allow.
In truth, you have no idea how well this is going to work. Kai is, well, Kai, and that means he’s not prone to helping anyone out if he can help it. Odds are, you’re going to try to talk to him and see if he can be trusted just for him to threaten to drain your blood or something else like that. None of you have any better idea what to do with him, though, so you’ll just have to suffer along.
You tell Stefan to stay upstairs while you’re wrangling Kai, something the younger Salvatore is only too happy to agree with. Once he’s gone, you allow yourself one last moment of relative peace, then descend to the cells below.
Kai Parker is sitting morosely on the ground, leaning up against the far wall of the cell. He looks up when he hears you approach. “Are you here to let me out?”
You scoff. “What, so you can launch another mass murder attempt? Not a chance, Parker.”
“I prefer Kai,” he says, appearing by the grate in the door in the blink of an eye so he can stare directly at you, grinning all the while, “I don’t really like being reminded of my family. I’m sure you can understand.”
“Okay, Kai,” you shrug, “Are you planning on killing more people the moment you leave this cell?”
Kai narrows his eyes. “Why are you bothering to ask me this? Yes, obviously. Unless you were going to let me out if I said no. In that case, I would be a perfectly good boy and wouldn’t shed a single drop of blood. I would devote my life to the pursuit of kindness and volunteer service, and–”
You cut him off with a deep sigh. “You’re right, bad question. Look, can you just tell me what it would take for you to change your answer and actually mean it? Neither of us want you in this basement forever.”
Kai just laughs. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not your friend, and I’m never going to be. The second the lock in this door fails, I am going to break out. I am going to kill who I please and enjoy it all the while, and you’re no exception just because you’re trying to talk to me or some nonsense like that. I want you dead, Y/N. Truly.”
His smile is saccharine, and you want to throttle him through the bars of this cage were it not for the fact that this is obviously the reaction he wants.
“Alright, then,” you manage, “Die in here. I hope you do. No food or drink for you, and certainly no blood. I can’t wait to watch you starve. By the end of it, you’ll be wishing you were back in that prison world of yours.”
Kai must be able to sense how serious you are about that threat, because his playful demeanor drops in an instant. “You can’t mean that. You need me alive so Elena doesn’t accidentally die in her coma.”
“That’s why your head is still affixed to your shoulders,” you observe, “Doesn’t mean you won’t be a skeleton by the time she wakes up. You know, if boredom doesn’t kill you first.”
With that, you turn around and head back up the stairs. Kai’s shouts echo up around you, calling for you to turn around and let him out or something, anything. It’s like music to your ears.
Stefan looks up, surprised, when you emerge onto the main floor once more. “Well, that was fast. Any ideas what we should do with him?”
“Kill him,” you say tersely.
Stefan groans. “Trust me, we would if we could, but we can’t risk Elena like that. Is there seriously no way you can get a lead on this guy?”
You shake your head, flopping down into a nearby armchair. “Not unless I come back and try to crack him, like, every day until forever.”
There’s a conspicuous silence from Stefan, and you stare at him incredulously. “Stefan, no. You can’t do this to me.”
He smiles apologetically. “Does me repeating our endless gratitude help in any way?”
“It does not,” you tell him, but it’s not like that does anything at all.
Kai’s attitude does not improve the next day, nor the next, nor the one after that. You thought this was a failed idea from the first minute, but a week later Kai must realize that you’re not going anywhere, because he starts to break at last.
“Are you really going to keep up with this until I die or something?” He asks one day, head leaned idly up against the wall of his cell.
“Yes, unfortunately,” you say. “Does that make you more willing to cooperate?”
“I have never cooperated a day in my life, and I certainly don’t plan to now,” he says smugly.
You roll your eyes. “Trust me, I know.”
Kai frowns. “Out of curiosity, why is it that you of all people got stuck with this job? I would have thought Stefan would have taken it upon himself to be heroic or self-sacrificial and done it.”
You shake your head. “No, unfortunately. See, whenever one of the Salvatores does something stupid like turn off their humanity, I’m usually the one they bring in to convince them to feel things again. I went to the Lexi School of Emotional Manipulation and now I’m great at it.”
Kai snorts. “Should I know who Lexi is?”
“One of Stefan’s old friends,” you say dismissively.
“Not an old girlfriend of yours?” Kai asks innocently.
You look at him quizzically. “No, not in the slightest. Why would you think that?”
Kai shrugs casually. “I figured it wasn’t too far out of the question. You’re a handsome young man, she was present, things happen.”
You almost choke on your laughter, surprising both yourself and Kai. “I’m honored to hear you think I’m handsome. I’ll remember that.”
“Don’t,” Kai advises you, but he’s grinning too, and. Well. You hadn’t counted on having a good time, but when Damon texts you to say he needs something again, you actually feel disappointed to leave. If you didn’t know better, you’d say Kai’s face registers the same unhappiness when you go. Do you know better, though? Do you know anything at all?
The trend continues for a while, actually. Soon enough, you’re looking forward to your talks with Kai instead of dreading them. You’re not sure what they’re accomplishing, in all honesty, but Stefan says that Kai is quieter, tries to escape less frequently, so maybe it’s doing something after all. Maybe you’re really doing this. Maybe it’s all worth it, more than just to you.
It all comes to a head a month after Kai appeared in the Salvatore basement. A group of vampire hunters makes themselves known in Mystic Falls. They break into the Salvatore house, looking for the brothers. You, Bonnie, Stefan, and Damon are occupied with other business, and you come back to destruction of property and vague threats pinned to your door.
What’s worse, the hunters looked pretty thoroughly in the house. Damon appears at the top of the stairs to the basement, face grim. “The door to Kai’s cell was opened,” he says slowly, “He’s gone.”
You suck in a breath. It makes sense, of course; if Kai could talk someone into giving him a key, there is no reason he wouldn’t run, but for some reason it hurts like hell anyway. You really thought you were making progress. You really thought–
Well, what did you think? That he would happily stay in a cell if he had a chance to escape? That you could convince Kai Parker, known murderer Kai Parker, to become a good man? Ridiculous. You may have had success getting friends to turn their humanity on in the past, but that means absolutely nothing when it comes to Kai. It was foolish of you to believe that you could do something like that, and even more foolish to be hurt by the thought of him leaving.
The hunters have to be dealt with, obviously, so your group takes to the town once again, splitting up to cover the most ground and do damage control before something bad happens again. You’re turning down an alley in the search of gun-toting weirdos when you hear something behind you, and then there they are, maybe half a dozen all pointing various weapons at your head.
You raise your hands slowly. “Easy there. Let’s not murder me quite yet.”
One of the hunters grunts. “He’s not a Salvatore.”
Another one speaks. “He’s a friend of theirs, though. That’s good enough to die.”
Not if you have anything to say about it. You pull a gun from your belt and manage to get off a few shots before the hunters recover from their shock and fire back at you. You are able to take out about three of the six, but they’re still shooting at you and you have absolutely nowhere to run.
Just as you’re certain that your luck has run out, the shots cut off abruptly. You look back at them in time to see the last of the hunters fall to the ground. The sick, metallic scent of blood slicks through the air, and someone steps over their bodies. It’s– it’s Kai, of all people, but he’s injured, stumbling as he tries to make some joke about how surprised you look right now.
You catch him before he hits the pavement. The front of his shirt is dark with blood, and he groans in pain when you press your hands to the injuries in an attempt to slow the bleeding.
“I’m not linked to Elena,” he gasps weakly, “She’s not going to die.”
“I don’t care about that,” you whisper furiously, “I don’t want to lose you.”
With a chill, you realize you’re not lying. It’s not just because he saved your life, either, which is wholly unexpected. It’s because you’ve come to like spending time with him each day, and you were terrified that you were never going to see him again once he escaped the cell. You don’t want to live without him. You’re not sure that you can.
You desperately try to staunch the flow of blood from his veins. “What happened to you wanting to kill me, huh? You saved my life, it’s not like you.”
“Wasn’t,” he corrects slowly, “wasn’t like me. Guess we can all change if we want it enough.”
You frown. “What do you want, Kai?”
His eyes are dark in this night, not even the stars above can touch them. “You.”
Your blood feels cold as it runs through you. “What?”
Kai manages to find the strength to roll his eyes. “I know, I know. That was dramatic. I’m being honest, though, Y/N.”
“I know,” you whisper.
When you check his wounds again, you’re grateful to see that the skin is starting to knit together again. You’ve managed to hold him together through the worst of it, which means that he’s going to live. It also means that you have time, now, more time to think about what this means for the two of you, what you’re going to do with this information. You want him too, you realize. You want all of it, and for once, you have the perfect opportunity to have it, too.
tvd tag list: @mayfieldss
#kai parker#kai parker imagines#kai parker x reader#kai parker oneshot#vampire diaries#vampire diaries imagines#vampire diaries x reader#vampire diaries oneshot#tvd#tvd imagines#tvd x reader#tvd oneshot#tvd kai#tvd kai imagines#tvd kai x reader#tvd kai oneshot#vampire diaries kai#vampire diaries kai imagines#vampire diaries kai x reader#vampire diaries kai oneshot
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A is for Aquaman
A while back I worked for a comic book review website called Do You Even Comic Book that renamed itself Comics Horizon and lasted around a year. From my limited perspective the site was forged out of a movement of people from Twitter that wanted to combat the growing Comicsgate movement. To have a real voice amongst the hate, I mostly just wrote reviews. I made a lot of short lived but impactful relationships with those strangers on the internet. I don’t talk to any of them anymore, but that’s just because I’m an anti-social autistic person that struggles with people he knows in person. So, if I’m gonna start this blog I wanna thank them before I get started.
When I would get stressed out or overstimulated as a kid, I would say the alphabet in DC comics characters. A is for Aquaman, B is for Batman, C is for Catwoman, etcetera. Now I’m the sort of guy that loves Marvel, DC, and any other comic indie or mainstream that I think is good, but for the life of me I couldn’t do the alphabet in anything other than DC characters. At least, not on the spot. So, I thought why not do a blog about DC characters and since Twitter seems to be dying thanks to Elon Musk I thought I’d try here on Reddit. I considered Tumblr, but that never clicked for me and Reddit seems to operate in a way I can vaguely comprehend so here we are.
I also wrote some articles on that website, mostly lists and conversations between me and other wordsmiths, that was our working title by the way, which was awesome. One of these was for the upcoming Aquaman movie. I don't think it ever saw the light of day, but I wrote a little thought piece titled “Why do we laugh at a Man that talks to Fish?” Based on the notion that I thought there was no sensible reason people laughed at Aquaman. Granted, like most superheroes, he’s not sensible by design.
Aquaman was created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Nortis to imitate the Timely Comics character Namor, the Sub-Mariner. A lot of comic book characters were imitations of other comic book characters back then, in fact a lot of characters are imitations in one way or another. I don’t think that makes them unoriginal. As Aquaman would very much become.
Now as many of you may know comic book canon is an ever changing and shifting thing. What was true one story could be untrue by the next issue. That said, here’s the baseline of Aquaman’s origin in the modern age. Arthur Curry is the son of a lighthouse keeper with strange powers, in reality he is half-human half-Atlantean and heir to the throne of Atlantis. He becomes a superhero that protects the seven seas against such threats as the pirate Black Manta, his evil half-brother Ocean Master, the fifth dimensional imp Qwsp, and the deadly assassin Mera that would later become his wife and mother to his child. He was also a founding member of the Justice League where a lot of the best or at least most consistent portrayals of the character take place.
Now that’s not the whole story and there’s a lot of other versions and a lot of weirder stuff. Aquaman is a victim of this ever changing mythology of comics. His appearance, personality, and narrative have changed harshly with the shifting of creative teams over the years. This was mostly due to the fact that despite being well known, he was never a very popular character. Because people saw him as silly.
Aquaman was a joke that people saw parodied in cartoons, SNL sketches, and offhanded comments in years. The common denominator of this joke being the fact that he could talk to fish. As if commanding a shark to strike isn’t cool or terrifying, if that’s the issue why are we terrified of the movie Jaws?
The short answer is presentation, Aquaman, like a lot of Golden Age comic characters, was ridiculous. Batman was too back in the day, but he grew out of that, got a serious take that helped the character grow out of the funny. Not that there’s anything wrong with funny, Adam West’s Batman is arguably the best and even Kevin Conroy’s portrayal in the animated series had a good bit of humor. The problem was people weren’t laughing with Aquaman, they were laughing at him, for no reason.
Thankfully the success of Jason Mania’s Aquaman helped give the character some structure and the King of Atlantis got a good run in the comics starting in the ill fated New 52 relaunch, that was a mixed success. Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, as well as other phenomenal creative teams, guided the character in the pages as James Wan guided him on the big screen. This has lead to the most consistent Aquaman to date, but this might not last because the Aquaman movie will be hurt by the Amber Heard trial, which is only her fault, and sucks. Plus he’s currently “dead” during the Dark Crisis event so who knows how the character will land is a mystery. We’ll like see more of Jackson Hyde as Aquaman, who Young Justice fans may know as Kaldur. Which would be awesome.
Well that’s the most I can ramble about Aquaman for a sec, except when I was looking into where we first started laughing at the character it was during Super Friends. People thought his swimming animation was silly, which is weird because they thought the flying was cool and it was the same thing just out of the water. He also talked to fish, but that always looked cool to me.
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Spoilers for Rogues #1!
You can see some preview pages here and here.
Very quick recap to answer questions about the group's lineup: Mark and Digger have died in unspecified ways. Evan and James are on the team, not Sam and Axel -- but the 'guy' in the ballcap is actually Magenta. Evan is completely out of it on sedatives in drug rehab. That is Bronze Tiger with the group.
And the reason I thought James looked youthful in the preview is because he's had plastic surgery. He's a grifter and an entertainer these days, cozying up to old ladies to get their money, and once he joins the Rogues he's unfortunately the team jerk. He's manipulative and a bully towards the others, and I have to wonder if Williamson just does not like him because James hasn't come off well in any of his stories. However, it should be remembered that this is an AU, and this James isn't necessarily representative of the Earth-0 version we know best (even the version in "The Greatest Trick Of All" story arc). It's still odd to see, though.
As Williamson hinted at in an interview, Len definitely has his manipulative moments in this story. He's an effective leader as always, but he locks the others into the heist by killing some cops in particularly brutal fashion, and there's no turning back for anyone at that point. They can all say goodbye to their old lives now, and they're acutely aware of it. Time will tell if that bubbles over into resentment and anger towards him, but it'd certainly be justified. That said, he did save their lives from an imminent police shooting, so he didn't do it just to force them onto the team -- and the others made the choice to spring Evan from what they believed was jail, so there was already some criminal activity committed.
Lisa is indeed a social worker, helping to protect abused families and working in advocacy for lower-income people. She doesn't have contact with her brother or the other Rogues for parole reasons, so she's able to lead a life outside of crime and is clearly helping people. I'd be interested to learn why she risked that to join Len, and hope we'll hear about that throughout the coming story. Does she think she'd be able to better help others with more money (like for example, with the budget she's pleading for in the phone call), or is the siren call of crime and greed too much for her? And she too has her manipulative moments as well, since she probably wouldn't have helped Frankie with her problem if they didn't need her on the team, as Frankie herself observes. But she also defends Frankie from James' cruel remarks, which is something she doesn't have to do, and seems genuinely angry at him for saying it.
Fortunately I really like how Bronze Tiger is handled in this issue, as he's got his moral centre and is a voice of reason amongst the group. It's still weird to see him running with the Rogues, but hopefully he can help steer them away from the chaos we can already see brewing. He and Lisa appear thus far to be the most sensible and stable members of the crew, and possibly Mick is too.
I also like seeing Mick as an equal of Len, because too often he's kind of a mess who isn't as smart or stable enough to truly stand up to him. It's possible he'll start falling apart as things go south, but I don't think so. He didn't need to be here, as he was clearly doing well enough on his own, so he chose this more than most of them and is clearly quite independent. Hopefully we'll see him call out Len's bullshit when necessary, and he's already done that a bit in this issue. Lisa does it too, thankfully.
Frankie needs regular medication to control her powers, and the system's indifference to her difficulty affording it is something that causes problems for more than just her. There's a real-world lesson in that about people's indifference to mental health and addiction, and the general public disinterest in funding treatment.
There isn't much to say about Evan, as he doesn't have much presence here. But it'll be interesting to see what happens if or when the medication wears off.
The issue is a slow burn, but I think it was necessary to set up the Rogues' lives in the current day, and I genuinely enjoy seeing this kind of character building. And I really enjoyed this issue. Books intended for mature readers are often infamously filled with over the top violence and swearing, and this is pretty restrained; it's no different from a Johns' Rogues story, except the profanity isn't bleeped out here. Things will probably get more gory once they get to Gorilla City though, but in regular DC comics we've already seen Grodd rip off Axel's arm and put Roy's severed head on a pike 🙄 So thus far I'm happy with the story, and seeing how everyone gets together and begins interacting with each other. We know from solicits that things will inevitably go badly, but hopefully some of them manage to succeed and improve their lives in what is quite obviously a bleak world.
#Captain Cold#Golden Glider#Heat Wave#the Trickster#Mirror Master#Evan#Bronze Tiger#Magenta#spoilers: comics#Rogues Black Label series#reviews#drug use#horror#violence#death
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Your writing is so much fun! If you feel like it, maybe some more Emperor/Empress? maybe some people want to put pressure on Emperor Zhou but forget that Empress Wen isn't a pampered noble who has never held a weapon in his life?
Hahaha... Thanks! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed reading my works thus far (❁´ω`❁)
I hope you’ll like this one too!
Note: Prince Xu here refers to Zishu (just in case anyone is confused)
There are some parts that will only make sense if you have read this chapter (AO3 only). Takes place after this chapter.
--
Each Minister, with temples streaked with greys and whites, eyes shrew and calculating, all looked at each other in turn; each men had grown up in the comfortable bosom of the capital, none had ever tasted a grain of sand or a moment of hardship in their route to power. All of them were born of the aristocracy so entrenched and deeply rooted in all sectors of society that they have never had a day of worry about their place or their families’ paths in life. It would be simpler to say that their forebears laid the foundation for this nation and their children will reap the fruits of it for generations to come if they are careful.
And this would have been the case, had it not been for the august personage currently occupying the golden seat.
Even before Prince Xu had reached his majority, he had been a pillar of strength to the South and by the time he was crowned a Prince of the First Rank, his military exploits could fill halls with their glory and there was no doubting that he will be a repelling force by mere presence alone. If he had any designs on the throne, it would have been easy for him to build his own faction to stake a claim for it.
But he had not done such a thing. If anything, he made sure to throw his support fully and utterly behind the Crown Prince and to only return to the capital for special occasions that merited his being there. When the old Emperor had died, that had been the longest period of time he had stayed in the capital. Going as far as to have a battalion of his men stationed within marching distance of the city gates as a deterrent to any dissent when the Crown Prince took the throne.
It’s a pity that Emperor’s reign was too short for him to have made a proper mark on the passage of time.
By the time Prince Xu had slicked the flagstones red with the blood of those traitorous scum in revenge for the death of his brother, there was no place for him to go but ascend into the highest position of prestige in the land.
Every single Minister can still remember the way Prince Xu looked as he had led his men right up to the throne room; stalking forth in his armour at the head of a hundred men, face streaked with glory and gore, carrying the sunlight on him as he climbs the last steps up to the throne room. If he had been mistaken as some primordial war god at that moment then, no one would have been surprised.
And then there was the Empress.
The Empress who had borne the Emperor a son and has just birthed another, thus securing the Dragon lineage. The Empress who was still the only official wife of the Emperor, and if the spies in the Inner Palace are to be believed, the only one the Emperor would even deign to look at and listen to - much to the consternation of the Ministers who had hoped to push at least one of their enterprising daughters and granddaughters into the Son of Heaven’s bed.
The Empress who was very much distinctly, a man.
Which makes what they’re doing something that borders on treason and necessity itself.
That man’s influence on the Emperor and the Court cannot continue and must not be allowed to. The gathered Ministers drink their tea in silence, watching the door for the messenger who will bring the report of their success.
They know they cannot lay a hand on either the Crown Prince or the newborn prince; the Emperor has them well-guarded and wrapped in the security of his most trusted guards who were beyond reproach and bribery. But it did not mean they could not get to the Empress. There were more than a few Palace maids and eunuchs who were still loyal to these deeply rooted families; people they have forged connections with that had spanned generations. These were the people they’ve tasked to attend to the Empress during his confinement.
It will be easy to dispatch of an eyesore who should have never been crowned in the first place.
Someone clears their throat and another sets his teacup down a little harder than it should be. Each one of these men looked peaceful on the surface, wrinkled face unmarred by any visible markers of stress. In fact, if anyone were to look into this group of men, they would have thought they were all bound for enlightenment at any moment. But the tension of waiting is punctuated by the changing of the hour and under the placid surface was nothing more than the seas in the middle of a storm.
They were about to call for an attendant to refill the teapots, when a long shadow colours the doorway. Their first instinct was that this was their moment of victory but that quickly sours into the cold realisation of who the person is.
“Your Highness...”
The Ministers rise in a flurry, going to their knees, bowing in flustered and fear tinged greeting.
The Empress smiles. His tall figure is hidden by a long black cloak which does little to downplay the sheer imposing nature of his presence as he crosses the threshold, calmly looking around the gathered members of the Court here. His long dark hard is pulled back in a simple undo, adorned with clasps of gold and turquoise. “Good evening, sirs,” He says, still wearing that smile. Someone bustles forth with a chair and the Empress sits. It is then that they realise that with him are ranking members of the Palace Guards who loom in their dark uniforms and the severe glints of their swords.
“If you’re looking for the Emperor, he isn’t here. He has been provided with a suitable diversion with our children,” The Empress says sunnily, accepting a proffered cup of steaming tea. Sighing as he takes a sip, he calmly regards them with a cheerful sensibility that was at odds with the way the troop of Palace Guards immediately take up all corners of the room.
This does not bode well.
“The way I see it, you have two options. One, you confess to an attempted assassination on this one’s life. In court. In front of all your peers, in front of my husband. Now, I’m sure you all know what he is capable of. What we are both capable of. Your crime will implicate not only you but your families as well,” The Empress says solemnly.
A cold silence descends. “Minister Jing, how is your new grandson, hm? Just celebrated his full moon, didn’t he? And how about your new concubine, Minister Tan? Pregnant, isn’t she? And at your age too.” The Empress huffs, passing the teacup back to the young maid next to her. “Ministers, I could go on.”
“And the second?” Someone quietly asks.
“The second is a warning. Not for you, but for everyone who comes after you.”
With a languid flick of his wrist, he calls forth General Han Ying who unlatches the cover of a plain box to reveal lengths of white cloths. The meaning is clear.
“Of course, it won’t be all at once and I am not so unimaginative that you all will... Leave the same way,” The Empress chuckles, closing an elegant hand over his lips. “Choose this path and we will arrange everything for you. From the second it begins to the moment it ends and to what comes after. You won’t have to worry about a single thing. No one else gets hurt.”
One of the elder Ministers shudders, lifting his head. “This is cruelty.”
“This is a blessing,” The Empress counters, all trace of geniality gone. All gathered cower lower to the ground.
How could they have forgotten? When this man was crowned, he’d been crowned with blood still rusting on his armour and dripping off the edge of his blade. This was the man their Emperor has chosen and for good reason.
With the quiet rustle of fabric, the Empress stands, apparently satisfied with the display of his magnanimity for the day. “You choose.”
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Some Jupiter’s Legacy George/Skyfox theories. Spoilers for the entire first season.
I’m thinking/hoping that George genuinely is not the villain he’s made out to be.
I think that Walter orchestrated the events that split the Union in order to get the rest of the Union to turn on George.
We’re not given hardly any details about George’s defection. Some broad generalities about no longer believing in the Code. A few sweeping statements about him being the greatest Supervillain of all time, and the Union’s greatest enemy. But it’s unclear how much time they actually spent facing him. And there are a lot of details missing.
But we do have Hutch saying that, according to his mom, it was the Union that betrayed George. So there’s definitely something more to unpack there.
And then the flashbacks heavily emphasize the conflict between George and Walter. And mostly that plays as two fundamentally good, decent men who just do not get along. With Walter, you sympathize; he’s trying to protect his family and no one listens to him even when he’s making the smart play. Everyone listens to Sheldon over him even when Sheldon is sorta crazy. And you can see how he sorta got over all that, but now its those same issues coming back to make him turn now, that same jealousy that George called him out on back in the 30s. Walter knows what has to happen, Walter knows the smart play, but everyone follows Sheldon, not him so he’s finally gonna do something to dethrone Sheldon. But one of the main things that made Walter more sympathetic than not was the idea that eventually he figured it out. Eventually he’d be loving Uncle Walter, who is by the far the most sensible, patient, empathetic member of the Union. Except that we learn he’s not.
George on the other hand presents this very entitled, shallow playboy facade and seems to be the one picking fights with Walter more than the other way around. But. The flashbacks repeatedly hit on this other side to George, to show that right underneath that facade is someone very caring, sensitive and empathetic. People just have a hard time seeing it. He makes sure his staff is well taken care of when he loses his money and has to fire them. He opens up to Sheldon about losing his parents and is the one to get through to Sheldon in his grief. He’s the first one to have faith in Sheldon’s visions and goes along with it even when he doesn’t fully believe because he thinks that’s what Sheldon needs. He’s the one who’s mostly responsible for convincing the others to come on the trip to the Island (which makes me wonder if Sheldon’s eroding leadership isn’t mainly because George isn’t there to get other’s to belive in him anymore). He talks about reaching out and trying to connect with Walter multiple times in their past and getting shut down. When they have to each put their hand on the wall to open the portal, its primarily Walter who is the issue, George is one of the first to activate the wall, and while Walter’s addition briefly throws him off, he pretty much instantly is able to push past that, while Walter struggles. When they’re talking about what person they’ve lost they would most want to see, George talks pretty openly about what he would do to see his mother again and it’s Walter who won’t open up at all, who never offers an answer. In fact George’s relationship with his mother is made a point of several times. It’s key to his characterization and its framed around a simple desire to say goodbye to her. Just craving connection and closure. In contrast Walter’s key relationship is to is father and that is framed around wanting to be the favorite child, wanting to be listened to and taken seriously. Walter’s is somewhat bitter and resentful. At its core George’s is childlike. But for most of the season, George’s characterization is colored by what we know (or think we know) from the present-- that eventually George is corrupted and turns on them all. So, it seems, his entitled, vain, reckless side won out in the end.
Two men with shared relationships, each with two sides to them. George is either conniving and entitled, or loyal and empathetic. Walter is either jealous and controlling, or thoughtful and protective. And all along through the season their present characterization seems to tell us which of the sides won out eventually. George became a villain. Walter became the wisest most trusted member of the Union. But in the end the latter is revealed to be a lie. Walter’s jealousy and desire to control everyone else is stronger than ever to the point that is killing people and has turned on his own brother. And he’s framing George for it.
It’s possible that the same happened with George. That the two being in conflict with each other for years drove them both to become their worst selves. But it seems more like we’re going to see a total reversal of what was initially established. That George is the one who’s better half won out. But that Walter framed him and convinced the rest of the Union members to turn on him (he’s a mind reader and can manipulate them to an extent as well, it wouldn’t be hard for him).
Which could mean that the reason George can’t be found is not because he’s hidden himself so well, but because he’s been trapped somewhere by Walter.
Three additional notes:
1. it may be that Walter turned everyone against George unfairly initially and THEN he kinda turned evil because of it, but his lack of presence in the modern story and the lack of details surrounding his villainy makes me lean away from it
2. The idea that he abandoned Hutch is, I think, important. Because so much of his 30s characterization revolves around being orphaned and never getting that closure with his parents, it seems out of character that he would then abandon his son. (or it’s evidence of how far he’s fallen that he’s become the thing that hurt him most).
3. It doesn’t seem like Walter has been evil for a long time, I think his full turn is very recent. Meaning anything he did to frame or trap George is about the grudge between those two personally, more than being part of a some grand scheme. However, he could have done other smaller scale things in the past that he’s hidden.
#jupiter's legacy#george hutchence#jupiter's legacy spoilers#i also know there are comics (or books? I think comics) so if they have answers to confirm or deny this I don't want to know#or I will decide to look it up myself#also I MAY be a little (extremely) biased because Matt lanter is 90% of the reason I watched this show in the first place
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Since I can’t draw right now (it’s like 1 AM) I decided I’d just write things down about Domestic DUno AU (I still don’t have a proper name for it!!) so here we go~
Info below the cut to spare the mobile users my ramblings~~
BACKSTORY STUFF
-Donald first became PK as a teenager (14 or 15), pulling petty pranks and avenging perceived wrongdoings. He ended up accidentally becoming a hero after stopping a thief and unknowingly saving a young girl’s life, and he realized he could direct his temper, anger and frustration not at making other people miserable, but at protecting others. Gyro, who went to school with Donald (Donald and Della attended a private school that would accommodate their adventure schedule; Gyro, being the absolute genius he is, attended on a scholarship) was there and ended up helping, being the one to inadvertently provide PK with the weapon he fended off the criminals with. PK talked to Gyro and the two became partners in crime-fighting that way.
-After deciding to become a hero, it was small-town villains mostly that he dealt with. Thieves, and the like. He didn’t start fighting mutants and those kinds of things until he was 17 or so, and the Evronians didn’t show up until he was 18. This is when Scrooge gave him a summer job at his newly acquired tower, figuring since Donald didn’t want to go with him and Della on a three-month adventure (as Donald was needed in Duckburg, he couldn’t be gone for three months!!) then he may as well work and earn a little money. As Duckworth was still alive, Duckworth was in charge of the manor, so Donald didn’t need to worry about upkeeping the mansion.
-Donald met Uno after a failed attempt to fight the Evronians, and they partnered up, with Uno providing Donald with otherworldly advanced tech that Gyro... would probably understand if given the time and chance (come on, he built a time machine out of a bathtub, he could totally understand future tech). After the first battle with the Evronians that Donald eventually wins, he realized that the game had just just 10x more dangerous. Between working on his doctorate and interning for Scrooge’s science department (something the scientists working for Scrooge were salty about), Gyro didn’t have much time to work on new and improved inventions for PK so when Uno contacted Gyro about him stepping down from helping PK, Gyro agreed, acknowledging that the mysterious Uno Ducklair would probably be a better benefactor for the hero. He didn’t know PK’s identity, though, so he didn’t take the memory erasing candy. Instead he focused on his work.
-Years passed this way, with Donald and Uno working together. Of course Donald had his other adventures, such as with Jose and Panchito and Mickey and all them lovely folks, but Uno was his closest confidante and biggest supporter. He was the one he vented his frustrations with Della and Scrooge to, and the one to give him advice on how to deal with it and talk to them about it all.
-At some point during this time, Gladstone finds out Donald is PK. Of course it happens in the typical Lucky way- him finding out saved Donald’s life. Gladstone is shaken up by the knowledge that his cousin/brother is in danger every day and has almost died multiple times. Gladstone becomes a sort of third member of the whole Crime Fighting thing, yep, you heard it right, Cloverleaf is real here. He figures if he’s out in the field with Donald, then Donald will never die because of Gladstone’s supernaturally good luck. Uno, while frustrated with Gladstone’s unpredictable and illogical luck, accepts this. Donald is less keen because he doesn’t want Gladstone in danger’s path but when the gander makes up his mind it’s made up, yo.
-PK and Cloverleaf (CL from here on out) and Uno work together for 3 years before the Spear of Selene incident, where Donald is suddenly left with three eggs. Donald’s priorities now shifted, he quits being a hero and buys the houseboat so he can raise the triplets without Scrooge’s influence. Gladstone does what he can to help while trying to continue to protect Duckburg, and while watching CL on the news Donald has the sudden realization that Duckburg still needs him- new parent or not. So he (metaphorically!!) throws the eggs into their pram, rushes to Ducklair Tower, begs Lyla to watch the eggs for him and rushes off to CL’s aid.
-After the danger is over, Donald collects the eggs, thanks Lyla for her help, then meets up with CL and Uno on the 151st floor where they have a serious conversation. Donald acknowledges that Duckburg still needs PK, but Della’s children also need him. The three eventually come to the conclusion that the kids would be raised by PK and Uno there in the Tower, where they would be safe- and they would be trained so they’re ready for anything thrown at them. (Gladstone is actually the one who is like “nah cuz you be their dad I’m not cut out for that, I’ll be the cool uncle, I don’t wanna live in the tower! No offense Uno” so it isn’t like Donald just decided to leave him out of the parenting)
-The eggs hatch and Donald names them sensible (AKA not Della’s list) names (and pronounces Llewellyn correctly dammit) and Donald and Uno have a time learning hands-on how to be parents. (“I’ve read twenty different parenting guides in the last five seconds and they’re all saying different things, Donald, WHAT DO WE DO-”) The whole “raising kids together” thing brings them even closer than before and forces them to have a chat about their feelings, too.
-When the triplets are small and starting to run around, Uno baby proofs everything. He has a hard time keeping them from escaping their playpen (which is essentially a huge room with an amazing view of the city, he doesn’t know why they’re so intent on escaping). Then eventually the inevitable happens- both Don and Glad end up stuck on the other side of the world for nearly a whole month, and Uno realizes taking care of three toddlers is much easier when you have a body. So while they’re gone, he balances his time between advising them on their mission, taking care of the triplets and building an android body that can handle an AI as advanced as him (throw out that “an AI who is only good could never make a full person” shit cuz Uno can be petty as hell, he’s a whole ass person even without Due yo). By the time Don and Glad get back he’s testing his prototype. Donald is thrilled, of course- his boyfriend has a body now!
-The triplets gain a sister! Everett brings a child to them one day, a little Coronan girl who was for reasons I haven’t decided yet cast out of her family and Everett, with his weird Enlightened Powers shit, went and found her and brought her back to the people he knew would take care of her well (considering his own past failures...). And so the triplets have a little sister who is an alien! Yee! Yes it’s Asveya (Ve). She came to them when she was ~2 and the triplets were 3 or 4, and as she didn’t have a name Donald named her after a friend he met as a child, when he regularly adventured with Scrooge and Della, and whom he ended up meeting again as a young adult.
-Uno perfects the body over time as he learns more things about being a person (he very purposefully leaves out pain receptors, though he includes the best parts of being a physical person ofc- he wants his cake and he wants to eat it too!). Everett decides now that Uno has a body, it was time to introduce him as his son officially and hand the business over to him (stating that it’ll be good for the kids if at least one of their parents had a proper job and income, since savings don’t last forever), and as the kids get older Donald begins training them so they’ll be able to take care of/protect themselves if need be. Uno creates a training field/obstacle course that is fun and age-appropriate, and by the time they’re ten they’re like little superheroes in training. They can give Webby a run for her money. Ve is less interested in being like PK and more interested in being like Uno- AKA the techie behind the gadgets.
-The triplets are already playing with some rudimentary pieces of tech Ve made, playing like they’re superheroes (or villains, gotta have someone to fight!). Uno finds out when he reviews the Tower footage and immediately confiscates anything that can be dangerous, but lets them keep the more innocent stuff.
MODERN DAY STUFF (AKA the time the show takes place)
-As the kids got older Donald and Uno allowed them more freedom, even letting them go out on their own (with the promise of being back before dark, not telling anyone what their parents did for a living, they all stuck together and they didn’t speak to strangers beyond what was necessary). When the triplets were 10 and Ve was 8 or 9, Uno learned that a powerful artifact (not the gem) was in Atlantis and that if a villain got their hands on it, it would be... very bad. So Donald decides it’s time to put on his metaphorical adventure shoes again and go get it. By this time Gladstone got trapped in the casino (Uno has been looking for him, after not hearing from him for over a week) and Uno had a Big Business thing to attend, real important too, so they talk about getting a babysitter for the weekend they’ll be gone. The kids manage to convince them they don’t need one, as they’ll be safe in the 151st floor (“We’ll be safer there than anywhere else, right, Uncle Uno?”). Donald tried to call Lyla but she was unfortunately in the field, so he agreed to let them stay home on their own until Uno got back (Uno did the math and figured he could stay for a few hours to just make a good faith appearance, talk business with some stooges and then come home the same day).
-Of course, the kids get caught. Uno had already left out for his business thing at like 5 AM, and Donald was about to head out to Atlantis in one of the Duckmobiles. He happened to check on a whim the back of the mobile, where he found his surprised ducklings staring wide-eyed up at him. He knew then that he needed to cash in on a favour- he called Beakley and then drove the protesting children to the mansion. (“Come on, Unca’ Donald!” “It’s a mansion! We wanna go to the lost city, too!” “Come on, we’ve been doing real good in training!” “Please, dad? We promise we’ll listen!”) The excitement over meeting THE Scrooge McDuck is overshadowed by the disappointment that they can’t go on this mission.
-Besides, who cares about a mansion and a rich adventuring duck when your parents and uncle are not only rich adventurers, but they’re also superheroes???
-Donald gives them a forehead kiss goodbye and heads off, and Scrooge has Beakley put the kids in that old room. “It’ll only be a few hours” they said. “Until Uno gets back.” Unfortunately, Uno calls Louie and tells the duckling there’s been a problem and he won’t be back until later- Donald already informed him of the changed arrangements and he’s already contacted Beakley.
-The kids decide to escape the old room, putting their hero training into action, but are ultimately swept up into Webby’s trap. Webby is super excited to meet them when she realizes who they are (though she has no idea who Ve is), and she cuts them down from the net without them having to escape themselves. The kids know they’re not supposed to let anyone know about the “hero family” thing so try to act like normal kids, though it becomes apparent Webby doesn’t know how to be a normal kid either.
-Through shenanigans, the children inspire Scrooge to adventure again, and Dewey lets slip about lost cities and Scrooge has a moment of realization. Thus, he drags the kids to Atlantis with him. While there, the kids each get a chance to show off their moves (which they’re SUPPOSED TO HIDE but you know, when arrows are flying at you ain’t got no time to hide). Donald is pissed when he notices them in Atlantis, and Uno is pissed when he calls Donald and learns the kids are in Atlantis, right where they are NOT supposed to be.
-Things pretty much follow the episode, though with the triplets able to hold their own and Donald gunning for a completely different artifact. When they escape and get back to the surface with their respective artifacts, they’re met by a livid android who absolutely chews Scrooge out for dragging four ten year olds and an eight year old to a dangerous place like that.
-Donald decides that it might be okay for the kids to visit with Scrooge sometimes, to get a little real-world experience, and at precisely that moment something crashes into the 151st floor of Ducklair Tower. Uno is absolutely furious (“MY TOWER???”) cuz that’s gonna take a bit to fix- at the very least it’ll appear to take a while- and when the kids question “what now?” Scrooge offers up some rooms in the mansion. The kids are excited cuz they’ll get to live with Webby and explore a new place. Donald and Uno say “just until the tower is fixed” (Gladstone had Donald’s boat at the time he went missing so Donald doesn’t have it) which is good enough for the kids.
-Scrooge being sus of Uno for like a whole arc cuz he’d never heard of Uno Ducklair before recently and also his nephew?? got married???
-Gladstone finally gets a message out to Don and Uno for help, and they go immediately- but not before Scrooge makes it a family adventure. Scrooge is disparaging of Gladstone, but Donald is just worried about his cousin. They manage to save Gladstone without pseudo-sacrificing anyone. Scrooge gets a little sus when they get back to Duckburg, and days later the missing Cloverleaf has shown up again.
-HDLV ended up spilling the truth to Webby as she got closer with them, but they swore her to secrecy. Of course Beakley found out because Webby is a terrible liar.
**So basically Donald + Uno parents, a kid that calls them her dads, good Uncle Gladstone, Brotherly Gladstone + Donald, Competent Cloverleaf, PK + Cloverleaf teamup, little-hero triplets. Gyro will end up teaming up with Gizmoduck when Fenton takes up heroing, too, just like Launchpad teams up with DW (DW’s story for this AU will be different, also, just a heads up) and basically all their combined kids become a badass team of children (Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby, Ve, Boyd, Gos, and of course Lena and Violet join in later...) Gyro teams up with Gizmoduck because every hero needs a tech guy (even heroes who are also scientists....) and he’s not only very capable, he’s worked with a hero before so he knows the ins and outs :D
However it is now 2 AM and I need to sleep so I’m gonna end my musings here but I am thinking of them so much right now I’m
#Domestic DUno AU#I still need a proper title for it#DT17 AU#PK AU#DUno#I miiiight add some Drakepad and Fenro.......#I'm a sucker for hero/sidekick pairings#Also featuring science family!#I like Gandra I really do but the hero/sidekick mannn#I mean Fenton had two hands so maybe.................
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Lokius Hogwarts AU
All right my dudes, hot take time:
I’ve seen a lot of Hogwarts AU headcanons floating around, and having thought waaaaaay too much about it, I’m here to add my two cents.
( @sortinghatchats has my favorite sorting system I’ve seen to date, since it goes so much in depth into themes throughout the HP series that good ol’ JK barely touches on in her pretty surface level commentary on the subject, so that’s the system I’m gonna use. Go to their blog to learn more about the way the system works bc I’m too lazy to go more in depth than I already have.)
This is gonna be Hella Long tho so I’m putting it under a cut.
Loki: Petrified Slytherin Primary/Slytherin Secondary - sorting: Slytherin House
Perhaps it may seem trite, but Loki really is a Slytherin Primary at heart. Yes he is ambitious and all that stereotypical stuff, but that’s not really what makes a Slytherin a Slytherin. Anyone can be ambitious. No, he’s a Slytherin because he unapologetically prioritizes himself and the people he cares about above all else.
“Slytherin Primaries are fiercely loyal to the people they care for most. Slytherin is the place where “you’ll make your real friends”– they prioritize individual loyalties and find their moral core in protecting and caring for the people they are closest to. Slytherin’s reputation for ambition comes from the visibility of this promotion of the self and their important people– ambition is something you can find in all four Houses; Slytherin’s is just the one that looks most obviously selfish.”
However, Loki’s trauma has pushed him to something this system calls Petrifying.
“Whether through death, betrayal, abandonment (from either side), or through never having had any to begin with, the Petrified Slytherin has decided that having important people is too dangerous. Having those strong ties leaves you open to pain and weakness, and the pleasure of those connections aren’t worth the despair that comes from their seemingly inevitable loss. In this way, they close themselves off to meaningful connections out of what is ultimately fear (though from the inside, it’s far more likely to be experienced as a rational, sensible decision given the circumstances of the world), and gives them a stony exterior that seems impenetrable, resolute, and cold.”
Loki wants love and acceptance so badly, but he is convinced that the kind of attachments and relationships that that comes from are far too dangerous and the risk isn’t worth the reward. He pushes people away, hides behind a mask of self-aggrandizement, and betrays others before they can betray him in an attempt to protect himself from potential pain.
In the series, however, we see him slowly unpetrify and move towards a more healthy style of attachment because of Mobius and Sylvie’s influence on him. Whereas his circle of priorities used to include only himself (and arguably Frigga and later, Thor, in the movie timeline), he proverbially “thaws” enough to let Mobius and Sylvie in, and tragically, because of that, the loss of them hurts him so deeply because by the end of season 1, they’re all he had.
His Slytherin Secondary, however, is obvious in his methodology. He’s the god of chaos. He loves improvisation, and plans only exist as long as another better idea doesn’t come along and usurp it. He’ll change and adapt (quite literally) to best fit the situation in front of him, and he takes joy in that. But beneath all the running and his many personas, he has his “neutral state” that he lets only a precious few see. Mobius gets to see it, and so does Sylvie, and as he progresses through the series, he starts to be more comfortable existing in that state where he’s no longer hiding behind everything he feels like the world expects him to be and he can just be himself.
Mobius: Slytherin Primary (Hufflepuff Model)/Hufflepuff Secondary - sorting: Slytherin House
People like to put Mobius in Hufflepuff, but honestly? I don’t think that’s where he’d be most comfortable. Yes, he is kind and caring to basically everyone, and we see this over and over again in the series. The man radiates comfort. However, like it says in Inky and Kat’s description of the Slytherin Primary,
“Wanting to help someone doesn’t mean you’re loyal to them. Wanting to help them at the expense of your comforts, your values, your commitments and sometimes even yourself–that does.”
Mobius is kind to a fault. But he is not kind at the expense of himself. Not to everyone at least. He is kind to the child in France, but he is not kind to the point of saving him from the resetting of the timeline, and he doesn’t feel guilty about that. He believes in a duty of care, but he does not believe he has any obligation to go beyond what he thinks that duty of care is. He unapologetically plays favorites, and this is mentioned on multiple occasions. Above all else, Mobius values loyalty as a virtue. Sure, he cares about the TVA and its accompanying morality, and he genuinely does believe it’s his duty to care about and be kind to others. He seems to vibe quite well with the Hufflepuff ideal of caring about people simply because they are people, but this is all secondary to his personal loyalties when push comes to shove. For Mobius,
“dropping that model in order to stand by someone you love, or in order to protect yourself, doesn’t feel like a failing. Sticking to that modelled morality at the expense of betraying or abandoning one of their own would make a Slytherin feel guilty and wrong. Being able to put the things and concepts you like aside for the sake of the people who need you feels more righteous than any moral posturing.”
It’s for this very reason that Mobius gets so angry and feels so betrayed when he thinks Loki has abandoned him for Sylvie, and when Ravonna lies to him and prunes him.
“Betraying your own is the worst kind of crime. Loyalty is precious and terrible; it makes you vulnerable. It’s given sparingly, deeply, and a Slytherin will stand by their loyalties through the same death and fire that a Gryffindor would brave for the sake of doing the right thing, or a Hufflepuff to help someone in need.”
Loki is Mobius’ own. Mobius prioritizes Loki over almost everything else, sticks his neck out for him over and over again, and is willing to sacrifice his own happiness for him. He’s even willing to abandon the whole of his former ideology and prior friendships for this relationship that has become closer to him than his own self, the highest tier of trust and loyalty a Slytherin can give.
“It’s an extreme Slytherin who would let the whole world burn for the sake of a friend, but every Slytherin Primary would be at the very least tempted.”
And Mobius very nearly does exactly that. Even says the words, “burn it to the ground” when Loki asks him what he’s going to do. And he doesn’t feel bad about it. Especially after realizing what the TVA has done to him and the people he cares about. He kicks the TVA out of his circle of care, and doesn’t look back. And he does it for Loki.
Mobius’ Secondary is where people get his Hufflepuff vibes from, I think. A Hufflepuff secondary is marked by “their consistency and the integrity of their method. They’re our hard workers. They build habits and systems for themselves and accomplish things by keeping at them. They have a steadiness that can make them the lynchpin (though not usually the leader) of a community.” And that is what Mobius is. It’s why he radiates that kindness and comfort. He quietly and carefully works at and invests in the relationships in his life to the point that people almost automatically trust him, and over time he has learned how to read people and figure out what makes them tick.
He approaches new situations with a steady head and gentle hand that Loki is unused to, and it’s this approach that eases Loki into learning how to trust and rely on people. It’s an inherently Hufflepuff approach, and it’s the key to his success as an analyst for the TVA and an understanding friend for Lokis across the timelines.
Tl;dr - Application to an actual Hogwarts AU fic:
THEREFORE! There’s a compelling narrative to be had with a tiny, first-year Loki coming into Hogwarts. He comes from a pureblood family that’s very proud of their Gryffindor heritage (they don’t talk about Hela, and Loki and Thor don’t even know she exists until later in this story), and his brother had been sorted into Gryffindor a couple years prior, and Loki has heard very little other than contempt for Slytherin House and everyone in it. Loki doesn’t want to be sorted into Slytherin. He doesn’t want to deal with the disappointment and shame from his father and the sad eyes of his brother. But the sorting hat sorts him there almost immediately, and his heart sinks. He wanders over to the table miserably but determined. If he’s gonna be sorted into the “evil” house, might as well just run with it, right? Best not to get close to people though. It’s Slytherin. Who knows when someone will betray you.
Enter Mobius, the tiny muggleborn, bright eyed, bushy tailed, and having no clue about the prejudices between houses. The hat takes a hot minute sorting him, giving him the choice between Hufflepuff and Slytherin and telling him Hufflepuff would love a kindhearted and welcoming member like him. But Mobius has been eyeing the little black-haired kid who got sorted before him and is now sitting far apart from everyone, and he can’t help but feel like he needs to be this kid’s friend. And didn’t the hat just say Slytherin is where you’ll make your real friends? Friends are what Mobius cares about, so he’d like to go to Slytherin, thank you very much, so that’s where he goes, and he happily plunks himself down right next to Loki and sticks his hand out.
“I’m Mobius. What’s your name?”
Loki looks at Mobius’ hand disdainfully and doesn’t shake it, but he does answer, “Loki.”
Mobius’ eyes go wide, and he smiles. “Loki? Like after the Norse god?”
Loki nods, eyeing Mobius suspiciously. People don’t often bat an eye at his name. Not in the wizarding world, anyway.
“Wow, that’s so cool! I loved reading about Norse mythology in school and Loki was always my favorite. Names have power, you know. If you’ve got the same name, then you must be just as awesome.”
Loki has no idea what to do with this kid, but he’s immediately aware of two things:
He’s absolutely sure that this Mobius kid is in the wrong house. No way a Slytherin can be this excited without a single hint of deception in his face.
He’s going to be eaten alive by the other students if Loki doesn’t protect him. What a pain.
Loki is completely wrong on both of these points.
#lokius#loki x mobius#wowki#loki#mobius#loki 2021#look i've thought WAY too hard about this and i just need a slytherin mobius who subverts everyone's expectations about what a slytherin is#while still being 100% obviously a slytherin when you think about it
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Dusty Black Coat
Summary: Tommy Shelby is famous for his dusty black coat - it's part of his signature look. But, really, it's not just his anymore...it's his sister's as well.
Word Count: 2765
Trigger Warnings: References to sexual assault after the third set of asterisks (***).
A/N: Hey hey hey, how are we all doing? I’m so happy to finally share this fic with you, it’s one that I’ve worked really hard on and it was one of the first ideas I had for a Peaky Blinders fic. As usual, let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy it!!
Tommy and Y/N Shelby had a relationship that no one could quite make sense of. Some people argued that the siblings were too similar for their own good, and that was the reason behind their seemingly constant arguing.
But in between all of that, there were moments of tenderness. These often occurred in complete silence, as they simply enjoyed the other's company. Amidst the hustle and bustle of a Friday night in the Garrison, Y/N could often be found with her head rested on her older brother's shoulder, sipping a gin as they watched Arthur and John's drunken antics with soft smiles on their faces. Or, if you happened to glimpse through the window of the Shelby residence on Watery Lane, you wouldn't be surprised to see the pair curled up in front of the fire, reading late at night.
Yes, it was a complicated relationship to say the least.
Then Tommy went to France, and the residents of Small Heath realised just how much Y/N loved her big brother. Of course, she missed all of her brothers while they were away, yet it was the one that the 18-year-old spend the most time yelling at that she clearly missed the most. It wasn't tears or words that communicated it, however. It was the fact that Y/N Shelby was nearly always walking the streets wearing Tommy's long, black coat.
The seven-year gap in age between the siblings meant that it was very oversized on her body to begin with. But as the years passed and the war continued raging on, the coat grew to suit Y/N quite nicely as she moved into her twenties.
When Tommy returned home, no one knew that him and his brothers were coming back, so the family didn't have chance to prepare. In fact, the first time that he saw Y/N, after four years away fighting, she was fast asleep. Upon closer inspection, Tommy had noticed that she was clutching his coat close to her chest and frowned at Polly, who had followed him, in confusion.
"She's barely let go of it since you left," and with those words Tommy found himself mimicking the gentle smile that graced Polly's face.
Since that day, a newfound understanding was created between Tommy and Y/N. Yes, they still argued (a lot, as any member of the Shelby clan would testify), but there was also now an unbreakable bond between the siblings. No one, not even the two themselves, knew what was so different about it, as nothing really changed in their relationship. But there was something there.
Oh, and it was also as clear as day that Tommy's sweeping black coat was definitely now Y/N’s as well...
***
Y/N loved the glamour of race days, no matter what business was occurring alongside them. Getting dressed up, having a few drinks, catching up with friends that she hadn't seen in a while; yes, she adored going to the races.
Everyone usually stumbles straight into the Garrison upon the return to Small Heath, and continues the party there. Tonight, however, not everyone chose to go to the cosy pub.
Y/N knew that her work could wait until the morning, but the meeting today was crucial for the expansion process of the Shelby Company Limited, and she wanted to get it done now.
No one had been into her office for hours, and when she had left earlier that day Y/N had neglected to close the window properly, so the cold October air had seeped into every nook and cranny of the room. She tried to concentrate on the papers in front of her, but her thin (but beautiful) dress did nothing to keep the cold at bay and she couldn't write properly with her fur shawl on. Sighing, Y/N put her pen down and made her way to Tommy's office to see if it was any warmer in there. She hated working in an office that wasn't her own, it was too distracting, but she had to decide which was the lesser evil: distraction through cold, or distraction through location. As she looked around Tommy's grand office, however, she found the perfect solution to her issue: Tommy's coat was hanging on a stand next to the door. With a triumphant smile on her face, Y/N marched back to her office with the heavy material sitting nicely on her body.
An hour later, she was still going with her paperwork, still wearing Tommy's coat, and completely oblivious to the time and anything else going on around her. So, naturally, Y/N didn't notice her brother appearing in the doorway to her office, having noticed the light glowing within the room.
"It's not like you to miss a night at the Garrison."
Y/N jumped what felt like a mile in the air, dropping her pen in the process, and placed her hand on her heart. "Jesus Christ, Tommy! I bloody hate it when you sneak up on me like that!"
A small chuckle fell from Tommy's lips as he sat down on the chair on the other side of her desk. "We had a good day today, Y/N," Tommy stated before lighting a cigarette, "We're moving up in the world." He paused, examining his younger sister thoughtfully. "And that, Y/N/N, means that you can afford to buy your own coat." Tommy's serious tone was, in Y/N's opinion, completely undermined but the glimmer of a smile that graced his face for a matter of seconds.
Y/N huffed dramatically, "It's called being resourceful, Thomas. My office was like an ice box, and your coat was just hanging there. Really, if you're that possessive over it you shouldn't leave it lying around." She raised her eyebrows and smirked at her big brother as she put her papers back into the drawer and locked it. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I actually came here to get that so, come on, give it here"
"You can't be serious"
"I'm always serious, sweetheart."
Reluctantly, Y/N stood up, removed the warm coat and handed it over. Tommy put it on himself, before leaning over and turning out the light on her desk. "Fine, leave me to freeze to death, then you'll regret it."
"Wear something sensible next time then."
Y/N simply responded by sticking her middle finger up as she walked past him, and onto the streets of Birmingham.
(Barely two minutes into their journey, however, Tommy gave in. Hand in his pocket, he opened his arm up and Y/N cuddled into his side, his arm and half of his coat wrapped tightly around her. Suffice to say the pair felt the warmest that they had been since the war began.)
***
The damp early morning mist hung low over the grounds of Arrow House, and the sun was slowly beginning to rise in the distance. Y/N had barely slept, tossing and turning over and over again in her bed, her mind constantly replaying her argument with Tommy the night before. A rival gang had made threats towards the Shelby clan over a week ago, and Tommy had elected not to mention it to anyone. She didn't know why she was surprised, or shocked. But still, yet another row had ensued with her older brother.
As the clock on her bedside table ticked over to hit 5am, Y/N felt a desperate need to walk and think and breathe. And so, still wearing her nightgown, she made her way over to the stables, only stopping briefly to collect Tommy's heavy coat to keep her warm, not really thinking about her actions.
Y/N didn't know how long she had been in the stables. She had run a hand over all of the horses, speaking to them in hushed tones as she did so. Memories of her childhood came flooding back to her, and she was hit with a wave of sadness as she realised that the simplicity of their old life was long gone. Instead, she only had these lone moments to cherish, away from the chaos that Tommy's ambition had brought with it. Anger towards her brother hit Y/N once again, and yet she found herself hugging his coat closer to her, seeking comfort in it that everything would be okay in the end.
Thomas Shelby, she thought, humourlessly, the king of providing people with conflicting emotions; sounds about right.
She was removed from her thoughts, however, as Y/N heard her name being called out from afar. Speaking of the devil, she mused; but she decided not to alert him to her whereabouts. As Tommy's voice got nearer, she realised that she had heard him use that tone of voice once before, panic-stricken and desperate: when Charlie was taken. Guilt coursed through Y/N's body, and yet part of her felt a small amount of satisfaction. He needed to be reminded of the importance of family, something that had escaped him in the months following Grace's death, and to experience some raw emotion for once.
Moments later, Tommy crashed through the stable doors, wild eyes searching the place frantically. When they landed on his sister's figure perched on a bale of hay, he let out a breath that he didn't even know that he had been holding. Upon finding Y/N's bed empty when he woke up, and seeing the front door slightly ajar, complete, unadulterated fear had consumed his entire being. The only thought that ran through his brain was they've taken her...they've taken her...they've taken her...
And so seeing her, safe, unharmed and swathed in his coat (as she so frequently was), broke down any remaining barriers that were still left standing.
Tommy quickly gathered her into his arms, hugging her closer than ever before. Y/N was stunned – she and Tommy never hugged properly; it just wasn't their way. But, despite her anger, she melted into it, not wanting to let this moment slip away.
As Tommy pulled away, holding Y/N at arm's length to examine her for any sign of harm and finding nothing, he suddenly found himself able to speak again, though his voice hoarse from shouting: "Even when you're mad at me, you can't leave without my fucking coat, can you?" Y/N, unable to hide a small smile, slapped his arm and started to make her way up to the house, Tommy following closely behind, not wanting her to wander off alone again.
***
It was no secret that Y/N Shelby was a fiercely independent young woman (this often clashed rather badly with Tommy's desire to control, and the combination sparked many an argument between the pair). She hated people mollycoddling her, and so when she was still having nightmares a month after being sexually assaulted in a London club, Y/N didn't mention it to anyone. All she did was try to continue her work and life as normally as she could, constantly pushing her exhaustion to one side.
Of course, what she didn't bank on was the fact that Thomas fucking Shelby could read her like a fucking book. And a children's one at that.
He'd been there the night it happened: whilst Tommy had met with the club's owner, Y/N was dancing with a friend. She'd slipped off to get another drink from the bar (on the house, obviously) when one man thought he'd try his luck. Reeking of alcohol and speech slurred, he'd been incredibly...persistent...and because they were at the end of the bar on a crowded Saturday night, no one had noticed as the drunk pulled her into a back room, tearing at her dress as she tried to fight him off.
Well, let's just say that he wasn't very lucky that night – Tommy had noticed his sister's absence and somehow managed to find her before anything went any further. To this day, Y/N still didn't know how her big brother had done it, all she knew was that she'd never been so relieved to see him. She didn't really remember the journey to Ada's house, where Tommy had taken her to be looked after while he went and hunted down the man who had dared to do this to his little sister: he had only managed to get in a few punches before turning his attention to Y/N, and it wasn't enough. The only thing that Y/N could clearly recollect was cuddling into her brother's chest as she sobbed, knowing that she was now safe. He'd buttoned his coat around her trembling figure, and to Y/N it was like he was still hugging her as he drove, the one thing keeping her grounded.
She felt the man's hands on her body every time she began to drift off to sleep. But she wouldn't tell anyone. Carrying on like everything was normal was just her way of coping with things, and she didn't want anyone to take that away from her.
It was eight o'clock at night when Y/N returned to the offices of Shelby Company Limited. She had been at the gin factory all day, checking on the progress being made there, and she was now more than ready for Tommy to take them back to Arrow House so that she could put her feet up. But, to her dismay, Tommy was still working away at his desk.
"Please don't tell me you're gonna be long, Tom?"
The man in question looked up at his sister, taking in her slumped posture and the darkness underneath her eyes. Instead of replying, he simply poured two whiskeys, grabbed his papers and sat down on the sofa in his office, gesturing for Y/N to do the same. Sighing, she removed her coat and hat and collapsed onto the space beside him, taking a large swig of the whiskey once she was comfortable.
"I'll be as quick as I can."
And with that, Tommy continued to read. Lulled by the warmth, whiskey and peace, Y/N's eyelids began to droop and (despite numerous attempts to stifle it) finally let out a long yawn. Not taking his eyes off the document in front of him, Tommy moved the remaining papers from his knee and placed them on the arm of the sofa.
"Go on," he said, in what was (for Tommy, at least) a lighter tone of voice.
Letting out a dry chuckle, Y/N looked over at her elder brother and replied: "I'm not 4 years-old anymore, Tommy, I will not -"
But before she could finish her sentence, she let out another yawn, causing Tommy to finally look away from his work to raise his eyebrows at her with a smirk.
"Fine," Y/N grumbled, "But if we're here much longer I'll just annoy you until we leave."
She slowly started to lay down onto the sofa, resting her head on Tommy's lap, and he subconsciously found himself stroking her hair with his free hand. When Y/N was much younger, this set-up wasn't unusual in the slightest, and the young woman now found herself feeling far more relaxed than she had been in months. So much so that she kept finding herself nodding off, but would shake herself awake every time, not wanting the nightmares to begin playing again.
He didn't show it, but Tommy was disheartened that his sister still wasn't going to sleep. He had hoped that the familiar position alone might be enough to send her off, as Tommy knew that he had quite a bit of reading left to do and wanted Y/N to get some rest. Tommy was more than aware that his sister hadn't been the same since that night in London, but didn't want to mention anything to her for fear that she'd bite his head off.
The great Thomas Shelby was scared of his younger sister, who'd have believed it?
After a few moments of silent thought, he realised that the solution was simple. He reached around to grab his coat, which he had thrown over the back of the sofa, and placed it over Y/N's body like a blanket. When she looked up at him, silently posing a question, Tommy spoke to her softly.
"Get some rest, sweetheart. I won't leave you."
Tears welled up in the younger Shelby's eyes as she nodded slightly, grateful (for once) that Tommy knows her better than she knows herself. Y/N curled her knees up slightly and snuggled in to the warm, dark material. Feeling her brother's hand securely on her shoulder as he rubbed his thumb backwards and forwards over it, and inhaling the scent of whiskey, cigarettes and just Tommy, Y/N knew that nothing could get to her...and so she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
#peaky blinders#tommy shelby#peaky blinders sister#tommy shelby x sister reader#tommy shelby x sister!reader#shelby sister#shelby!sister#tommy shelby x reader#tommy shelby imagine#peaky blinders imagine#peaky blinders fic
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The Untamed, a brief summary [Part 3/6]
Part One: Sword Wizard School
Part Two: The Search for the Yin Iron and the World’s Worst Summer Camp
Part Three: The Fall of Lotus Pier and the Sunshot Campaign
Here’s where it starts to get dark, folks.
Ext, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]
Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng get back, and Wei Wuxian promptly collapses because they were in the cave for a week and then he walked all the way back to Yunmeng. He sleeps for three days. When he wakes up, Jiang Yanli gives him soup. Jiang Fengmian comes in to congratulate him for killing the evil CGI turtle snake. Wei Wuxian tries to say it wasn’t a big deal. Jiang Cheng tells him he only got it done because he was playing the hero, and Jiang Fengmian reprimands him for being a jerk.
Yu Ziyuan comes in and the two get in a big fight over how Jiang Fengmian treats the kids. Yu Ziyuan says people think Wei Wuxian is actually Jiang Fengmian’s son, and Jiang Fengmian gets pissy about it (which is fair since it insults both his friends). The two of them storm off. Jiang Cheng is upset because his father doesn’t even like him. Wei Wuxian tells him not to be so hard on himself and says he’ll beat up anyone who’s mean to Jiang Cheng, that he doesn’t want anyone to think he’s anyone’s son but his parents, and that he’ll always be Jiang Cheng’s right hand man. It’s super sweet honestly.
ENTER A USELESS MESS
Meet Sect Leader Yao. He’s super annoying and shows up occasionally to require exposition and give the characters an excuse to explain things to the audience. His sect just got attacked by the Wens and most of his people are dead.
This obviously ain’t cool so Jiang Fengmian goes to talk to the leader of the Lanling Jin about joining up to fight Wen Ruohan. He brings Jiang Yanli with him for some reason.
While he’s gone, Jiaojiao shows up to demand Wei Wuxian be punished for all the shit he did in Qishan. Yu Ziyuan is enraged at Wei Wuxian for upsetting the Wens, or possibly just at Wei Wuxian existing in general. She whips him with her cool lightning weapon and injures him badly, while Jiang Cheng begs her to stop. Jiaojiao says this isn’t good enough and demands they cut off Wei Wuxian’s hand.
It looks like Yu Ziyuan is going to do it, but then Jiaojiao pisses her off by telling her that once the Wen have taken over Yunmeng, Yu Ziyuan can help out by being their governor or whatever. Yu Ziyuan gets pissed and starts beating the shit out of Jiaojiao. It’s really satisfying.
Wen Zhuliu shows up. He clearly has some history with Yu Ziyuan, because he calls her ‘Violet Spider’ and she calls him ‘Core-Melting Hand’. A rarepair is born.
All hell breaks loose. Jiaojiao signals their troops. Yu Ziyuan takes both Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and throws them in a boat, and then ties them up with her lightning whip. She tells Wei Wuxian to protect Jiang Cheng with his life, which he would undoubtedly do anyway, blames him for everything that’s happened, and tells him she hates him. Then she starts the boat going down the river.
They’re still struggling to get free when they run into Jiang Fengmian coming back. Rather than release them, he ties Jiang Yanli in with them and goes to the defense of Lotus Pier. He also tells Wei Wuxian to protect Jiang Cheng with his life. They really want to drive this point home.
Int, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]
Yu Ziyuan has killed like a hundred guys all by herself. It’s awesome. Jiang Fengmian shows up and charges to her rescue and promptly gets killed. Great job, Jiang Fengmian. Yu Ziyuan sees that they’ve lost and kills herself rather than be taken prisoner.
Ext, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]
Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng have gotten back to find that their parents are dead along with most of their sect members. It sucks. They run away, which is honestly the most sensible thing to do.
Int, an inn [Yunmeng]
Jiang Yanli is sick. Jiang Cheng is shell-shocked. Wei Wuxian goes to get them food and medicine. When he returns, Jiang Cheng is gone. He gives the medicine to Jiang Yanli and tells her to stay there until he can get Jiang Cheng and get back.
Int, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]
Wei Wuxian is looking for Jiang Cheng. He grabs a random Wen and starts to choke them to steal their uniform, only to realize it’s Wen Ning. He asks Wen Ning if he was involved and Wen Ning says no, he heard that Wei Wuxian was in trouble and decided to commit a little light treason. He offers to get Jiang Cheng out.
Ext, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]
Wen Ning puts a bunch of drugs in the party punch. Wen Zhuliu sniffs it and clearly detects shenanigans. Wen Chao tells him to stop being a pussy and drink. Wen Zhuliu decides that if his boss wants him to pass out on company time that’s okay by him, so he drinks.
Wei Wuxian is waiting in a boat. Wen Ning comes back with Jiang Cheng, who is badly injured, and the magic lightning whip. He offers to take them to his sister’s house in Yiling so they can lay low.
Ext, Yiling Supervisory House [Yiling]
Wen Qing is understandably a little miffed that her brother decided to commit treason without checking with her first. But in for a penny, in for a pound, she patches Jiang Cheng up and hides them in her living room or something.
Jiang Cheng wakes up the next day and is basically a shell of a person. Wen Zhuliu, it turns out, has the ability to crush someone’s golden core, which is where they keep their spiritual power, so they can’t cultivate any longer. Think of it like cutting off a Jedi’s connection to the force. He’s lost his will to live and lies there like a dead thing for like two full episodes. No judgment.
Wei Wuxian starts reading every book Wen Qing owns in an effort to find a way to cure Jiang Cheng, despite this being said to be impossible. He finds one. She tells him not to do it because of the sacrifice that’s involved. He remains committed.
For some reason, Song Lan shows up. (Batman from earlier.) Xue Yang attacked his temple. He was blinded and has been wandering. Xiao Xingchen took him to see Baoshan Sanren, a famous cultivator in the mountains. She does not run a sect but will occasionally take on students. Xiao Xingchen was one and so was Wei Wuxian’s mother. Song Lan’s eyes are getting better.
Wei Wuxian tells Jiang Cheng that they’re going to go see Baoshan Sanren, who he knows because of her connection to his mother, and that she’ll restore his golden core. They ask Song Lan to take Jiang Yanli to Koi Tower (Lanling) so the Jin sect can keep her safe. He agrees.
Ext, a random mountain [Yiling]
Jiang Cheng goes up the mountain blindfolded. Wei Wuxian tells him to say his name is Wei Wuxian and ask Baoshan Sanren to restore his golden core.
Ext, a random town [Yiling]
Look, I’m gonna be honest with y’all. What happened between these two scenes is something that I figured out as it was happening, and I was never aware it was supposed to be a ~big reveal~ later. My wife likewise figured it out and treated it as fact. When it’s revealed later it’s a big deal to Jiang Cheng, but it wasn’t a big deal to us. However I’ve seen some people talking about how they didn’t figure it out until then, so I thought maybe I shouldn’t say what happened. But then I thought, this is just a summary, if you cared about spoilers you wouldn’t be reading this, and it’s much easier to explain what happens going forward if you know.
So, on that note, Wei Wuxian cut out his own golden core and gave it to Jiang Cheng. Or actually Wen Qing did the procedure. So now he has no golden core and can’t cultivate. Which sucks because he immediately gets captured by the Wens. He taunts Wen Chao, who decides not to kill him because he might become an angry ghost. Instead, they throw him into the Burial Mounds.
Ext, The Burial Mounds [Yiling]
A big battle happened here and it’s full of dead bodies and restless spirits. Cultivators have tried over the centuries to clean it up, but nobody who goes in ever comes out. Wei Wuxian lands in the middle of this mess and it sucks.
The creepy sword he’s been carrying in a spirit pouch asks if he wants revenge. Turns out he does. It’s super hot.
Ext, everywhere [everywhere]
Everyone is hella pissed that Lotus Pier was sacked. (I guess it was fine when it was Cloud Recesses for some reason.) The four great sects (or what remains of them) band together to fight Wen Ruohan. We see shots of lots of people looking badass. The mission to overthrow Wen Ruohan is dubbed The Sunshot Campaign.
Ext, the Indoctrination Bureau [Qishan]
It’s been three months. A bunch of nobodies are yukking it up that Wen Chao killed Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji comes out of nowhere and forces them all to kneel. It’s super hot. They admit to him and Jiang Cheng that Wei Wuxian was thrown into the Burial Mounds. Obviously this makes him very unhappy.
But on the plus side, they get their swords back. Yay! The disciple offers Wei Wuxian’s sword to Lan Wangji even though Jiang Cheng, who is Wei Wuxian’s brother and sect leader, is literally standing right there, so clearly everyone knows they’re married.
Ext, the Unclean Realm [Qinghe]
Everyone’s coming to Qinghe to discuss the final campaign. Wen Xu is now dead despite having never made another appearance, killed by Nie Mingjue.
Jiang Cheng reunites with Jiang Yanli, who has been in Lanling this whole time. She didn’t even know Wei Wuxian was missing and she’s pretty upset to hear about it.
They have a battle strategy meeting. Lan Wangji asks if he can go kick some ass in Yiling, and Nie Mingjue tells him and Jiang Cheng to go ahead.
Nie Mingjue asks Jin Zixuan how Meng Yao is doing in Lanling, having assumed (for some reason) (actually the reason is from book canon but didn’t translate to the show very well) that Meng Yao would have gone there. Jin Zixuan tells Nie Mingjue that Meng Yao didn’t go to Lanling, and that even if he did, his father would not have welcomed him. Nie Mingjue appears upset, possibly regretting that he exiled Meng Yao over one measly murder.
Ext, Yiling Supervisory House [Yiling]
Wen Chao and Jiaojiao are having a great time until a mysterious man dressed all in black shows up and uses a mysterious flute to drive everyone there insane and kill most of them. Wen Chao only escapes because Wen Zhuliu rescues him.
The next day, Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng show up, view the carnage, and say ‘well that ain’t good’.
Jiang Cheng finds Wen Qing imprisoned in the basement. She doesn’t know where Wen Ning was taken. She thanks him for the rescue and says they’re even now. He gives her the comb he bought for her back in the first arc. Or actually he just sets it on the table because he’s bad at romance. We don’t see whether or not she takes it.
Int, an inn [Yiling]
Wen Chao is totally nuts and freaking the fuck out. Wen Zhuliu is trying to get him to calm down long enough to treat his injuries, while mentally updating his resume again.
A mysterious man in black shows up with a flute and summons a demon or three.
Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng, who have been tracking Wen Chao, show up in time to hop up to the roof and look through a convenient window to see what’s happening. It’s revealed that the mysterious man in black is *drum roll please* Wei Wuxian! He is super hot.
Wei Wuxian is doing absolutely fine with the murdering but Jiang Cheng jumps in anyway, using the lightning whip to kill Wen Zhuliu, which, props to Jiang Cheng. Wen Chao cowers in a corner.
Jiang Cheng asks Wei Wuxian where the hell he’s been, returns his sword, and hugs him, and your tears are ‘what the hell I thought this was a silly show about sword wizards’. Wei Wuxian has clearly forgotten what hugs are. It’s sad.
Lan Wangji ruins the moment by demanding why Wei Wuxian is using seriously evil magic to kill people. Wei Wuxian says ‘you can’t tell me what to do, mom’, which does not help the situation at all. He and Jiang Cheng murder Wen Chao while Lan Wangji stands outside looking messed up about it.
Ext, the Unclean Realm [Qinghe]
Wei Wuxian is reunited with Jiang Yanli and shit I’m crying again.
Jiang Yanli’s worried about the evil magic. She talks to Lan Wangji, who tells her that it sure is evil and Wei Wuxian shouldn’t be doing it because it will corrupt his mind and temperament.
Everyone wants to know why Wei Wuxian isn’t carrying his sword. He blows them off. (It’s because he can’t use it, since he’s not a cultivator anymore.)
Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian manage to use their words for exactly one (1) scene. Lan Wangji says ‘let me help you’ and Wei Wuxian says ‘okay’ and then promptly spends the next ten episodes not letting Lan Wangji help him.
Int, the Unclean Realm [Qinghe]
There’s another battle strategy meeting. They discuss the fact that they need something that can counter Wen Ruohan’s yin iron. Wei Wuxian says ‘I’m working on it’ and then refuses to give them any details and leaves, which is super rude, my dude.
Lan Xichen is getting information from a mole in Wen Ruohan’s troops. Nie Mingjue asks where it’s coming from and Lan Xichen beats around the bush.
Wei Wuxian wanders off to have a PTSD breakdown.
Ext, somewhere I don’t remember
Jin Zixuan is a jerk to Jiang Yanli. It’s about soup. It’s as stupid as it sounds. Wei Wuxian loses his temper even though it’s stupid and nearly evil magics Jin Zixuan and a bunch of guys to death. Lan Wangji tells him to chill.
Ext, Nightless City [Qishan]
They’ve fought their way to Nightless City! Now all they have to deal with is that Wen Ruohan has like a zillion zombie puppets. It goes as badly as you would expect.
Int, Nightless City [Qishan]
Somewhere along the way, Nie Mingjue had the brilliant plan to sneak in and assassinate Wen Ruohan during the chaos of the battle, despite the fact that Nie Mingjue is akin to a rhinoceros and does not sneak. He is immediately captured along with a bunch of his guys.
Meng Yao is here! He has big ‘look how much better I’ve been doing after the divorce’ energy. He kills a few of Nie Mingjue’s guys and then taunts him about how much he sucks.
Ext, Nightless City [Qishan]
Despite the fact that it took Wei Wuxian three seconds to summon evil spirits over his sister’s hurt feelings, he stands around for like twenty minutes watching every non-main-character get murdered before he’s like “oh, right, the creepy sword I have was yin iron all along” and he’s made it into an amulet which enhances his power. He seizes control of Wen Ruohan’s zombies and makes them all kill each other. He is super hot.
Wen Ruohan stops murdering Nie Mingjue when he realizes this is happening and goes out to see what’s going on. He and Wei Wuxian, who is still super hot, have a brief exchange before Meng Yao fucking stabs Wen Ruohan in the back like a badass motherfucker.
Wei Wuxian passes out which seems reasonable.
Int, Nightless City [Qishan]
Nie Mingjue is pissed. Lan Xichen quickly explains that Meng Yao is the one who was undercover and was passing information back to him the whole time. Nie Mingjue points out that Meng Yao killed his men. Lan Xichen points out that Meng Yao had to, because he didn’t want to blow his cover. Nie Mingjue begrudgingly accepts this explanation.
Turns out that when Lan Xichen was fleeing the Wen sect burning down Cloud Recesses, he ran into Meng Yao, who headed to Gusu after leaving Qinghe because Wen Chao told them that Wen Xu was going to attack it. Meng Yao saved Lan Xichen’s life, and with this paragraph, a hundred fanfics were born.
~end part 3~
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Aight @dilfaeneas this one’s for you because Helenus absolutely deserves to punch Paris. I’ll probably write more later but it’s 4 am sooo
Gods, what a miserable day this was turning out to be. First, Helenus had woken up with an absolutely killer headache, which Apollo was not doing anything about despite his prayers. And now, he’d received visions that Paris would finally return from his little hideout in Sparta- and he wouldn’t be coming back alone. Helenus and Cassandra had both warned their father that letting Paris go to Sparta was a bad idea, but Priam had been convinced that his newly discovered son would do just fine, and thus had completely ignored the seers’ warnings. Initially, Paris had returned empty handed, causing Priam to believe that all was well and that nothing terrible would come of sending Paris to Sparta. But then came the incident at the games.
The annual games were something that the athletic men of Troy trained for all year. It was a glorious time, with events such as chariot racing, archery, javelin throwing, and more. This year, however, the javelin event had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Cocky Paris wanted to participate in *all* of the games, and had somehow managed to win one or two of the easier events. So, “Aphrodite’s Favorite” had tried his hand at javelin throwing, and somehow managed to miss the target so badly that he hit a person. Now, normally this wouldn’t be that big of an issue, but this person was Antheus, son of Antenor and lover of Deiphobus. Helenus had been close with Deiphobus all his life, and thus wasn’t particularly surprised when his brother absolutely lost it in front of the audience and demanded to duel Paris right at that moment. Paris, being who he was, ran for his life to the then hospitable house of Menelaus in Sparta. And now, some months later, here they were.
Getting up out of bed, Helenus would trudge out of his chambers, knowing damn well that the arrival of Paris’ ships had been announced, and that some of his family members would be there to greet the prince. And good gods, his headache was really putting a damper on his mood. Once he arrived at the port, Paris was there, as expected, along with Hector, Priam, and Hecuba. With a ship full of what looked to be stolen gold, fantastic. It was on days like these that Helenus truly wished that he’d never said anything about the identity of Paris, because then Paris would have died and this wouldn’t be their problem. As he came closer, he became aware that Hector was quite loudly telling Paris off, presumably for the amount of treasure that he’d looted from who knows where. Unfortunately, Helenus knew there was more aboard that ship than just shiny gold.
“Oh, but wait brother! Despite what you may say, this gold will be good for us! And before you yell some more, take a look at the most valuable thing I’ve brought for us.” Paris was truly nonsensical. Troy had no need for gold, they already had plenty of wealth to go around, so this foolishness just showed off the man’s greed. Idiot. With a load of unnecessary dramatics, Paris would unveil his greatest “prize”. It was a woman, one of astounding beauty. It took Helenus a moment before he realized that this was her. Helen of Sparta, the woman who had caused so many men to fall hopelessly in love with her. “What the fuck have you done?” Helenus asked, in an almost disgusted tone. “Well, brother, I took what I wanted. Since I’m a prince, I see no prob-” Paris was then interrupted by Helenus punching him in the face. He heard the crack of his brother’s nose, finding a bit of satisfaction in knowing that he’d temporarily ruined the man’s face. He’d then move back, wiping the blood off of his fist as he turned to Hector. “As a seer and as your trusted brother, I’d say the best course of action is to send her back immediately. By now, I have no doubt that Menelaus has called for Agamemnon to help him get his bride back. Please, brother.” Helenus had seen the doomsday visions for years now. Helen couldn’t stay, or his city would burn.
Thankfully, Hector nodded and turned to their father with a huff. “I must agree. Paris has broken the rules of hospitality, which could damage our relations with Sparta. Father, she cannot stay.” Priam was unfortunately not having any of this, and would gently approach Paris. “The Greeks… will not return my sister. She has lived away from her home for so long, kept away from her family. If Telamon will not give Hesione back, I see no reason to return Helen as of now. Perhaps we may negotiate and come to fair terms.” Helenus did love his father, but the man was old. His hair grew whiter by the year, and perhaps the time was coming to just make Hector king already. On top of that, Priam had straight up ignored all warnings about this very event. Helenus did feel a bit bad for Helen, as the poor girl looked like she absolutely didn’t ask for this. At least she hadn’t done this shit willingly. As the gentle king moved back to stand with his wife, Paris would once again haughtily speak up.
“Would you look at that? Father agrees! So I think we’re done here, me and my new wife will be going now-” Paris was once more interrupted by Helenus trying to punch him, raising a surprised gasp from Helen. This time, Hector quite literally lifted the seer up by the back of his tunic and threw him back. “ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!” Taking a deep breath, his older brother continued, “We will discuss this matter in front of the council. Perhaps the royal advisors will be able to talk some sense into you. Helenus, you and I must speak later. And Paris, at least give the poor girl some privacy to bathe.” With another huff, Hector was off, likely to go to the stables to calm down after this misery. Priam accompanied Paris and Helen to the prince’s chambers, where perhaps Priam would come to his senses and talk Paris out of this. Hecuba, however, would approach Helenus and lay a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“You warned them, didn’t you?” Honestly, Helenus quite liked his mother. She was sensible and smart, plus she’d mostly raised him and his siblings while Priam had been busy with royal duties. Or other women. Hecuba would start walking to the gardens, beckoning Helenus to follow. “I did. I told them not to send him there, because exactly this would happen. I told you. Why didn’t you listen? Why couldn’t you convince father?” He asked, a tone of pleading in his voice. He was much calmer now, either from not having to see Paris or from the grounding presence of his mother. “Believe me, I tried. Your father’s quite convinced that nothing wrong will come of this. Neither of us can blame him for wanting his sister back, however, because how would you feel if Cassandra was taken away? Or Ilione, or Polyxena?” She was right… sort of. Priam rightfully wanted Hesione back, but keeping Helen in Troy was not the way to do it. Helenus had seen glimpses of fire and ruin, people dying and the city crumbling. That couldn’t happen, it wouldn’t happen.
#helenus#my writing#hector of troy#paris of troy#priam#hecuba#helen of troy#trojan war#idek where i'm going with this#if i'm going anywhere#i felt the need to write it though so lol
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A Fitting Finale: Bringing Ian Full-Circle
Is everyone sick of my essays yet? Excellent. Here’s another anyway!
I’ve been trying to put my finger on what it is about Ian’s story in s11 that I love so much. It’s clear that he’s struggling on a number of levels, and he’s certainly spent the first third of the season under so much stress that it’s impacted his moods and marriage. In 11x04, we began to see hints of the tension breaking, and it made me realize that there’s a common trend in Ian’s behavior throughout the series coming to a head in his final act. It’s part of what has him so passionately advocating for Mickey to get a legal job, communicating their need to hammer out the specifics of what their marriage means, and upset at his own employment status.
From start to finish, Ian has been driven by two important motivators: love and fear.
Ian’s deep sense of love and compassion for others is well documented. We know that he will do anything for his family. I’ve mentioned before that Ian is at his best when he’s with them and his worst when he’s not. They’re his support system, and he’s a key part of theirs. They look after each other and rely on one another when the chips are down. They’re all grown up now, Liam being the exception, but those bonds are strong. They’ve matured and branched out to include Mickey, Tami, Franny, and Freddie. Ian’s heart belongs to his family, and he’s given as much of himself as he can to the people he’s been with over the years in whatever capacity they’ve needed him to.
Ian has also always been a fearful character, though not in the manner we typically visualize. He’s strong and motivated, ambitious and sensible, clever and insightful. When he decides that he wants something, he goes for it, from a South Side thug hovering in his orbit to pursuing the highest military accolades despite his small beginnings. Over and over again, we’ve seen him leap into serious and often strange situations in order to achieve his ends or something for the people he cares about. This man stole a water heater from a dead person’s house with his brother and tried to help his best friend hide a body. Certainly, he doesn’t fit the traditional stereotype. He’s not a coward.
But Ian is terrified—of everything:
· Not amounting to anything
· Not being worthy of love
· Being the center of attention
· Fading into the background and being forgotten
· Not being able to help other people or those he loves
· Not having a path
· Not being in control of himself
· Not being enough
He’s never said it. He’s never discussed these issues, except perhaps not having control. That isn’t who he is. That’s never been his way. Maybe we should add fear of communicating too, or fear of being seen as weak.
In s1, Ian makes a lot of brave choices. He comes out to three people, two of them family members, knowing how that is viewed in their neighborhood. When Mickey is after him, Ian takes the battle to his doorstep. He turns his back on an arguably easier life in a nice, middle-class neighborhood and a home with a father who would provide for him to live in the constant struggle to which he has grown accustomed. On the surface, he’s one put together kid. But then there’s Kash. There’s this man who preys on him, a middle child so responsible (and so male) that no one thinks he’d fall into any sort of trap—and Ian is desperate to keep him. He fights Lip over it and so painfully tries to make him understand his perspective, that he’s spending money he should probably be using for things he needs to buy Kash music and baseball tickets, to make him like what Ian does so that they can build their so-called relationship. That Kash is married with kids is unimportant to him; that he’s exploiting Ian’s fear of loneliness and not finding love outside his siblings, unthinkable. We know it. Lip sees it, powerless as he feels to do anything about it. Ian can’t. To date, he never will. He’s blinded by a culture that doesn’t believe such things can happen to males, and until Mickey comes along as a viable outlet for his affections and source of the ones he needs, he’s too afraid to be cautious.
Throughout s2 and s3, Ian makes difficult decisions. They’re not always smart, but it takes great strength to commit to the choices he makes: allowing Monica into his life, voicing even an ounce of his feelings to Mickey, pursuing West Point, and running away. All of them, however, are driven by love and fear alike. He’s vulnerable and needs his mother, the one who slaps Frank for shoving him and listens when he feels alone. She assuages his fears by telling him what he needs to hear: that he can do and be anything. We know there’s a danger in that, especially when she takes him to enlist when he’s nowhere near old enough, but it’s still validating for him. It feeds that need for attention but not too much attention, for understanding but not coddling, for love that originates from someone who isn’t his siblings. We see similar trends emerge: fear of losing Mickey on multiple occasions, fear that he’ll forever be in Lip’s shadow when he receives a letter of recommendation instead of Ian, and fear of never having Mickey’s full affections spiraling into fear of facing his own emotions in the aftermath of the wedding. We’ve seen that Ian runs from what he can’t process. He runs from what he can’t handle. He runs when he’s scared, especially of himself.
It continues repeatedly throughout the series. In s4, Ian is afraid of going backwards and once again losing his position in Mickey’s life. In s5, he’s afraid of being a burden on everyone around him, changing them, and losing control of his own mind. In s6, he’s afraid that this is it: his path and his goals have come to nothing, and he’s doomed to fall into the shadows where no one will ever see or love him. In s7, that fear of himself re-emerges when a patient is hurt on his watch and he has to come to terms with the fact that being better doesn’t mean he’s “cured.” In s8, he’s afraid of the void where Monica and Mickey used to be, and it sends him spiraling into a deeper one he doesn’t fear until it’s too late. In s9, he fears a lack of guidance, an indecisiveness born of having been able to rely on his hallucinations to tell him what to do. His path is gone, and he has no options. And that’s terrifying. Then Mickey is there, and he can put some of his fears to rest until they resurge with the idea of marriage in s10. All of a sudden, he’s back where he was in s5, fearing himself but also what he’ll do to someone he loves.
In s11, we’re seeing an Ian far more like he was in earlier seasons: rigidly devoted to having a plan, knowing what’s coming next, and ticking off certain boxes on the list of things you’re “supposed to do” as a married adult male. He’s spent a lot of this season seeking value in his employment and position in their marriage, and the stress has been dragging him down—quickly.
And it’s no wonder: he has every reason to be scared right now.
The thing about prison is that it is what’s known as a total institution. It is removed from society and, as such, operates under its own social beliefs, values, and norms. Like the military, another total institution, prison involves an initial period of sloughing off roles and identities from the greater society and subsequently being resocialized into a new role set. Upon release, a person undergoes the same process in reverse, and there’s an adjustment period to reintegrate into normal society. We can see that process begin when Ian gets in the car with Lip and shudders a bit, unsettled at the prospect of being outside these walls for the first time in months—going home far earlier than anticipated. For many people, it’s a difficult transformation, especially once they realize the full extent of how your life changes as an ex-convict in the U.S.
Ian doesn’t really get to adjust. From s8 to the start of s11, he undergoes a whirlwind of emotion and change. He literally loses touch with reality, starts a cult, commits a felony, is on the run from law enforcement, allows himself to be captured with one final display, goes to jail, remains unmedicated until he’s bailed out, panics at what his movement became, feels alone in the house as everyone deals with their own business and leaves him to his own devices, seeks guidance from above only to realize it wasn’t what he thought it was, can’t find answers, has warring factions telling him how to plead in court, ostensibly takes a plea deal that requires some amount of time behind bars, goes to prison, finds the love of his life there waiting for him, has to let his sister go, is released without Mickey, gets repeatedly screwed over by a corrupt PO, gets engaged, breaks up (sort of), gets engaged again, sees his wedding venue burned down, gets married, and hurtles straight into a pandemic. That’s… That’s a lot. Being a newlywed in a pandemic is a lot without all the rest of it, but this is what Ian is dealing with going into s11, and he hasn’t had the benefit of a stable readjustment and reintegration period.
He’s drowning.
He’s scared.
He has every reason to be. Marriage is scary, especially if you are so young and so in love with the person you’re marrying. Employment is scary, especially for them, because it could mean the difference between paying the utilities and running out of water. Change in general is scary, especially when it hasn’t done you any favors before.
Add all that to what Ian’s behavior has indicated that he’s been afraid of since the start, and you have a recipe for disaster.
To a great extent, that’s what I think his arc is all about this season: learning how to live again. It’s about not being so afraid of himself that he desperately grasps for any stereotypical structure for married life that he can. It’s about regaining the confidence that has always left him clawing his way to the top instead of letting life beat him down. It’s about finding the happy medium where he and Mickey aren’t doing anything illegal but aren’t stuck in a valueless spiral, scrambling and struggling to pay the bills like when they were kids.
It’s about learning not to be so afraid anymore, and I think that’s a beautiful goodbye for a beautiful character.
#shameless#shameless meta#shameless spoilers#ian gallagher#uh oh#guess what time it is#you bet#it's ian gallagher loving hours#please do not add hate for the writers or JW to my post
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What it Ursa took her children with her? - Pt.2
As we were saying:
Little over year has passed since the family arrived in Hira’a, and fateful news gets to them: Ozai remarried. His new wife is someone who is honoured to marry the Firelord and doesn’t mind the fact that his head is so deep up his own arse- anyway, and they are expecting a child, who is to be the Firelord’s legitimate heir.
Azula’s hopes and dreams are shattered. At age ten, she is quite literally being replaced in her beloved father’s life. It’s like she’s never even existed, and she can’t help but wonder what she did wrong.
Zuko is also upset, of course. All those years when Ozai told him he was unfit and worthless come flooding back. But somehow, he already expected things to turn out like this. Unlike Azula, he wasn’t so deeply feeding on hopes that things would go back to normal. He sees it more as a situation that was out of everyone’s control.
He convinces Azula it’s not her fault, and these kids will still be trying to understand and defend their father later down the road. There must be a reason for all of this, right? They start thinking of a reasonable scenario…
Ursa just feels sorry for the poor woman who has to deal with Ozai now.
So we get a timeskip: about three years came and went. Zuko and Azula – treated as kids and not as weapons – lead a peaceful and happy life whenever they’re not thinking of their father and everything they could be doing out there.
They have become known local troublemakers in their spare time. Kids know better than to challenge them, people know not to leave flammable goods out in the open – a strict policy regarding fireworks has been established after a chaotic incident – and failure to keep an eye on them this one time led to… well, let’s just say that the town is still unsure of whether or not they’re is being haunted by evil spirits.
They aren’t allowed anywhere near Forgetful Valley, but bold of you to assume they never tried. In-jokes arise.
‘No, I’m serious: that tree’s face looked exactly like yours, Zuzu. You really should befriend it,’ Azula mocks, remembering a particularly ugly tree they encountered in their adventure.
‘Sorry, I wasn’t looking at it. I was busy looking for whoever it was that asked you,’ Zuko retorts. ‘Since Forgetful Valley has all the kinds of crazy stuff.’
‘Maybe we should go back and look for your impulse control, then.’
‘None of you are going back in there,’ Ursa reprehends. ‘It was very irresponsible of you. Forgetful Valley is a dangerous place, you could have gotten hurt!’
‘Your mother is right, you know?’ Noren comments. ‘I’ve been to that jungle before, and it’s definitely not a playground. But I swear…’ He makes a dramatic pause. ‘I once saw Ursa’s sense of humour in there.’
The kids burst out laughing while Ursa sighs. ‘Since you can find such amazing things in the valley, dear, why don’t you go back there and find yourself actual funny jokes? I’m sure my sense of humour will be around the same corner.’
*More laughter*
(IDK, I write crappy comedy, ok?)
They still have a bit of a hard time making friends. I wouldn’t say they are shy, but they definitely have a talent to say the wrong things at the wrong times, and it’s hard to make deep connections. Sure, they would play with other kids from time to time, but in the end, Zuko and Azula are each other’s best friend.
They’ve cleared an area by the beach that any Hira’a resident knows to stay away from when they’re training.
Azula discovered a great passion for theatre. Not only are her acting skills fantastic, she also seems to be naturally aware of what makes a good scene. People say she’s Noren’s Little Assistant.
She hates being called Noren’s Little Assistant. She would much rather be called Ursa’s Little Star, because goddamn is she a good actress and she needs everyone to know that.
Zuko is more of a plant-lover guy. Unfortunately, he hasn’t inherited his grandmother’s green thumb, and despite Ursa’s best efforts to teach him, it seems like everything he touches dies.
He has grown to show a way with animals, however. Any variety of frogs and toads love him; lizards of all kinds are attracted to him like he’s a magnet; furry animals big and small adore him and any type of bird-like creature seems to think he is the best human being in existence. But his favourite animals are still the turtleducks.
Back in the palace, Iroh eventually learns of Ozai’s bullshit and how he got the throne in the first place. And you know what? The time has come for Iroh to draw a line in the sand. He confronts his little brother, who confronts him back by telling him that, should he try to tell anyone in the Fire Nation the truth – that Ozai was a top-grade traitor who actually had no right to the throne –, no one would believe him. Since his brother won’t be sensible, Iroh decides that’s it: he’s fucking out.
Now a fugitive from the Fire Nation, he somehow winds up owning a lovely traveling tea shop called the Jasmin Dragon. Most people don’t even suspect he is the fearful Dragon of the West, because he’s just so nice?
You can bet he serves blends of tea from all across the nations.
The tea shop is also a good cover up for his exchanges with the Order of the White Lotus. He gives and receives information, and does his best to help villages to either defend themselves or evacuate during Fire Nation attacks.
One day a member of the White Lotus travels to Hira’a for one reason or another and finds Zuko and Azula. This person then sends a letter to Iroh.
Iroh comes to Hira’a to visit the family. He’s glad to see they’re ok, even if he can’t stay for too long. But long enough for some Quality Time – these kids have grown so much!
Iroh doesn’t know of Ursa’s part in Azulon’s assassination, and only assumes she knew of Ozai’s plan. But now, it’s time that her children learned a couple of things, and he is willing to teach them, so that when the time arrives for them to meet their destiny, they should be able to choose wisely and face whatever comes their way. So he asks the children to accompany him in his travels.
Ursa doesn’t want to let them go. They’re children, they should be here living a peaceful life, not meeting some grand, dangerous destiny! What if something horrible happened to them?
Iroh understands the pain of losing a child. He doesn’t want to make Ursa spend her time worrying about losing two, so he respects her decision and soon leaves the town.
But the siblings are not about to just sit here when they know they’re destined for something greater. What incredible knowledge did their uncle hold? Did their father have something to do with this? They always knew there was more to their fate than just living in Hira’a for the rest of their lives, and this is their chance; it’s now or never.
Zuko and Azula are about to sneak out and follow Iroh when Noren spots them. But instead of trying to stop them – he is well aware that he can’t – he gives them two masks and some advice about never forgetting who they were.
Why yes, I am saying that they eventually take the masks and become partners in crime, Zuko as the Blue Spirit and Azula as the Red Spirit, because parallels.
They catch up with their uncle and adventures and shenanigans issue as Zuko, Azula and Iroh cross the Earth Kingdom.
Now imagine this trio: two of the most awkward firebending teenagers travelling with their old tea-loving uncle, who spits proverbs like he’s made of them. The possibilities for both hilarious and heart-warming moments are endless.
Iroh thinks himself a matchmaker. Whenever he thinks he sees some romance going on, he encourages his nephew or niece to make a move. His flaming cupid arrows do more damage than good, yet he only has good intentions at heart. Teens all around the kingdom encourage you to stop, sir.
Their new life is even more humbling than in Hira’a, since they are constantly travelling. But they manage, and they know their uncle is nothing but wise… even if Azula is still quite arrogant and manipulative, and Zuko is impatient and hot-headed, which can lead to a lot of conflict.
Iroh teaches them both how to create and redirect lightning. Zuko is better at redirecting than Azula. Creating it, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated, and both of them get their fair share of explosions while learning. Neither of them really gets a hang of it – although Azula is better at it than Zuko, that’s not saying much – for they still have a lot of identity-related turmoil inside them that won’t let them grasp the energy.
Guess who else teaches them? Other members of the White Lotus. Both Zuko and Azula get some swordsmanship Skills™ from Piandao, some different (and somewhat unwillingly taught) firebending technics from Jeong-Jeong and a lot of things from Bumi, including but not limited to: creative thinking, the art of patience, strategic planning, dealing with pirates and a surprising amount of rocks-related knowledge.
Bumi adopted Zuko and Azula and gave himself the role of Second Uncle. You cannot convince me otherwise.
So one day, little over a year after the siblings joined Iroh, they wind up in a city where this big circus is performing. Uncle Iroh decides to take his niece and nephew to see it. And oh, aren’t they surprised by who they see performing?
Even though Ty Lee was essentially the only one between her sisters to befriend Azula – and consequentially, the only one to periodically spend time in the palace with her –, Zuko and Iroh still have a hard time distinguishing her from the six other girls who look exactly like her, uncertainly calling her all different names before Azula snaps ‘you idiots, that’s Ty Lee!’.
The acrobat is so glad to see her friend again, because damn: it’s been nearly four years since they last saw or even heard from each other! And Zuko, I thought you were dead? This is such a neat reunion, there’s so much for them to talk about! And sure, the circus has to leave soon and so do the siblings, but Ty Lee reassures them that, if they ever needed her, she wasn’t hard to find. This isn’t the last we’ll see of Ty Lee.
Azula doesn’t let it show, but she resents Ty Lee a little bit for choosing to abandon her noble life. She really wishes she could have had a choice.
Uncle Iroh tells the siblings stories about the war that would have some day mesmerized them. But now, his opinions about those events and what he did as a prince general have changed; that, along with what the family sees in their journey – all the horrors brought to innocent people – gives Zuko and Azula a new perspective on what they used to think was a greater good. It will still take a while for Azula to understand that no, these people are no lesser than her and for Zuko to understand why any of that matters.
Iroh eventually tells them the truth about Azulon’s death. Or at least, what he knows of it: their father killed Azulon, banished them, took the throne by force and planned to gain more power at the expense of everyone. This is a lot to take in, and the siblings don’t quite believe it.
After four years thinking about it, Zuko and Azula decided to take their mother’s early words – they went to Hira’a to be safe – and formulate what for them was a reasonable scenario. They believe that Ozai never actually wanted any of this to happen. The whole family had to have been in danger, be it due to some political, social or personal threat, and Ozai wanted to take it all by himself to protect them. So he sent his wife and children away, concocted a plan with Azulon to cover for them and, once Azulon died and left him the throne, remarried to keep appearances. To Zuko and Azula, this makes perfect sense. And they thoroughly convince themselves of that.
They initiate an argument, thinking that Iroh is jealous of Ozai.
Their uncle sees these children are starting to stray from their path, but he knows this is a necessary journey for them. They will never be able to deal with reality unless they face it.
The siblings leave Iroh, planning to head straight to the Fire Nation capital and find out what really happened. Maybe now that they are older, it would be a perfect time to come back home; they surely could defend themselves from any threats.
Of course, they’ll be very disappointed to know that Ozai was just a bitch and never actually cared for any of them.
I don’t have a full formed idea about how their reencounter with their father would go down, but I say Ozai would officially banish both his children from the Fire Nation for trying to cause a commotion – which could easily be perceived as a threat. Not only that, but Zuko and Azula are the children of a traitor; cue for Ozai revealing what happened that night four years ago, confirming that he was the one to kill Azulon with Ursa’s help.
I also think that, after that day, the Firelord would have discreetly helped spread rumours about Ursa that would drag her name through the mud in the Capital – was she cheating on Ozai? Was she selling Fire Nation information to the Earth Kingdom? Was she planning a coup against the Firelord? Her crimes change from mouth to mouth. In the end, no one would take Zuko or Azula back unless Ozai wanted it. But he doesn’t. Not now, at least…
But Ozai also decides to play with his options: he plants a seed of doubt in his children’s minds; should they prove themselves useful later on, it would only take pulling a few strings for them to come crawling back to him. So he tells them that they needed to prove themselves for everyone to see that they weren’t traitors like their mother. They needed to prove their worth so that he could accept them.
Ozai goes a step further with Azula and tells her that, before his demise, Firelord Azulon had a plan. A plan to bring her back and put her in the leading, prestigious role she was always meant to get. But they needed to wait for the right time. There is a right time, Princess Azula. Your hopes were right all along, they will come for you eventually if you prove yourself.
The siblings have a lot to think about while they’re leaving the Fire Nation. They idolized Ozai so much all these years. But the undeniable truth came crashing down on their heads, spoken by the man himself. What would they do now? They didn’t think it possible, but their harsh actions made things so much worse: they couldn’t come back to their mother, they didn’t have many hopes of running into Iroh again, they can’t even set foot in their homeland anymore; Zuko and Azula are all on their own.
Maybe it’s time to turn a new leaf. It starts with them being fairly neutral, not completely loyal to either the Fire Nation or to the rest of the world. During this period, they would argue a lot about what to do or where to go next, getting separated and going their own ways before destiny makes them stick together again, over and over.
They manage to get a few deals and own a few favours here and there, become known thieves as the Spirits, and maybe meet up with Ty Lee’s circus every now and again. Life is hard.
But there is one thing that is about to be a beacon in their darkness…
Time to catch up to the show. Oh, you thought I wouldn’t go there?
Part 3 coming right up!
(I know I said this would be a two-parter, but it got ridiculously long, so I split it again. Three-parter now.)
#I planned on posting this much earlier#But I've been having some technical issues#I suppose it happens#This is still messy#And it will only get messier#It would be one long fanfiction#Avatar the Last Airbender#ATLA#canon divergence#Zuko#Azula#Ursa#Firelord Azulon#Firelord Ozai#(Bitchlord)#Uncle Iroh#Ty Lee#King Bumi#Order of the White Lotus#Part 3 should be up in less than a week if I get time to post it
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Hobbit!Legolas x Reader: Meeting
(Author’s note: Heyo! I know I write a lot of dwarf fics, so I figured it was time to write something else!
This one goes out to those who are team elf! Holla)
. . . .
Still, you couldn’t fight the feeling in your chest at the thought of seeing him again.
. . . .
“‘Just go to Middle Earth’, he said,” you muttered aloud. “‘It’ll be fun’, he said. Well, Gandalf, I’m not exactly having the time of my life!” You withdrew the sword from the spider’s corpse in front of you. “When I see him again, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”
“_________, what are you muttering about?” Kili asked, glancing at you and then at the dead spider. “Nice kill, by the way.”
You shrugged. “Thanks. So, do you know if we have a plan to get out of here? These spiders are just gross. I didn’t even want to come here in the first place.”
“We’re just fighting our way out, looks like,” he replied, turning to watch your back. “Think you could lend me a sword?”
“Sorry, I’m out of extras.” You jumped forward and slashed another spider as it raced to attack a member of the Company. Bofur shouted a thanks, and you acknowledged his gratitude with a nod.
This was the scene in the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug movie where the Company escapes the spiders. As an outsider who knew the course of the journey, you had really hoped to steer the Company clear of this part, but unfortunately, the spiders still caught you all off guard.
You had arrived at the beginning of the journey when the Company first met Bilbo in the Shire. Even though you’d been traveling with them for some time now, fighting still made you nervous. Your sword skills had improved greatly, and sometimes you peppered the battlefield with comments to make others think you were unafraid, but deep down inside it was still scary at times. Especially when dealing with giant, gross spiders! Ew!
Unfortunately, this fear made an appearance when one of the spiders launched itself straight at you, slimy mouth wide open and revealing fangs. The sight was so disgusting, and the arachnophobe in you cringed away from the creature instead of meeting it with your steely blade.
“_______!” Kili called from several feet away. He was unarmed and too far to help. Other members of the Company were preoccupied with their opponents to intervene as well. It looked bleak for a split second. Then, the spider was thrown aggressively off its path by an unseen object. It fell over onto its side, writhing on the ground with an arrow lodged in its flesh.
Your eyes darted back to where the arrow could have come from, and you saw a figure in green with light blonde hair slide down a curved tree trunk until he landed near you. The spider had stopped moving for now, so he instead aimed his bow and arrow at you.
“Drop the sword.”
You did as he ordered and put your hands up. Around you, residents of Mirkwood began appearing on the scene, taking out spiders left and right before circling the Company. Tauriel was among them, which was neat. Her and Kili had hit it off. They spoke in their elvish language, and as a Lord of the Rings fan who spent your time learning the language back home (especially movie lines), you understood nearly all of it.
And it was utterly frustrating not being able to use it when it mattered most.
You had kept this ability of yours to speak Sindarin a secret from your group. Since Thorin had such contempt for elves, you figured that advertising your knack for the language was a bad idea. It wouldn’t help you earn his trust which you had so carefully fostered over the course of the journey. If you spoke for the Company now instead of letting Thorin speak first, that would also be disrespectful. Even so, you wondered if it would do you any good at all anyway. Mirkwood elves were not like Rivendell elves. You had let Elrond in on your secret, and he had been fascinated, but Legolas and Thranduil might end up being even more suspicious.
Legolas was being all mean and insulting, making accusations of Thorin stealing the blade Orcrist, and accusing him of lying about it. He called Gloin’s wife his brother, and his son a goblin.
Just you wait, Legolas. You’re going to spend a few decades outside the Woodland Realm and are going to become a big softie by the time the Fellowship is formed.
Then, he looked at you with those blue eyes. “Are these dwarves keeping you their prisoner? I cannot imagine any other reason a young woman would travel with such a… crew.”
“I am not their prisoner,” you clarified, resisting the urge to scoff at such a notion. You had to remain as calm and sensible as possible, or it would make things worse. “They are my good friends. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t raise false accusations against them.”
He observed you for a moment longer with that beautiful but wild gaze. He then turned to give his soldiers orders in Sindarin. The Company was escorted through the deadly woods, no doubt to the fortress.
Before long, you found yourself in a cell alone a little ways away from the rest of the Company. The others chattered and hollered, some even tried kicking at the doors to no avail.
“Leave it! There is no way out! This is no Orc dungeon,” Balin scolded. “These are the Halls of the Woodland realm. No one leaves here, but, by the king’s consent.”
At that, the hollering and loud bangs stopped, but the Company continued to chatter as if devising a plan for escape. You leaned against the wall and sank to the floor slowly, knowing very well it would be hours before Bilbo arrived.
“________,” Bofur called. “ You okay, lass? You’ve been awfully quiet.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” you replied. “Just tired, thanks. Everyone up there alright?”
“We’re fine, dear,” Balin assured you. “I can almost guarantee that Thranduil is offering Thorin a deal. The question is: will Thorin take him up on it?”
“Considering how he feels about these people,” you hesitated. “I’d say our chances of him taking the deal are slim.”
“I’m afraid I agree,” Balin sighed.
Some time had passed before Thorin was dragged into the dungeon and pushed in his cell. Balin inquired about whether Thorin was given a deal, which of course, Thorin had refused. However, Thorin remained hopeful that there was another way out.
Later that night, you were still lying on the cell floor listening to the nature-y sounds that filled the dungeon. There was the sound of running water, like a stream or small waterfall, and it was quite soothing. A couple of voices echoed softly. You spared a glance outside your cell to see Tauriel outside Kili’s cell talking. Those two were so cute.
Suddenly, a shadow was cast over your cell. Legolas stood there gazing at you quietly. You hadn’t even heard him approach!
“What business does a young woman have with a group of dwarves reclaiming Erebor?” he asked.
“That’s a good question,” you nodded. “I asked myself that a few times when the journey first began.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” He didn’t sound angry, just curious. “I do not understand why you would endure such a journey for people who are not your own.”
“I do not have to be from Erebor to care about them,” you countered. “I think you place too much importance on where a person’s from or who their people are. It’s normal to take pride in those things. I know I do! But friendship and comradery should go beyond that.”
He was silent for a few moments, as if taking in all that you said. “You are wiser than you look.”
“Oh...thanks?” you weren’t sure if that was an insult or compliment for certain.
“I meant, you are wise beyond your years,” he clarified.
“Ohh,” you nodded in understanding. A compliment. “Thank you, I appreciate that.”
“Appreciate what?”
“What you said.”
“I was merely stating an observation,” he said dismissively. “You are...different. Not like any maidens here.”
“Well, I’m not from around here,” you explained. “Where I come from, this place is the stuff of legend. I suppose even here it is.” With a pause, your eyes found his. “It’s very beautiful.”
“It is,” he agreed. “Though I would not mind traveling, visiting the other realms. Your home- you said it was not around here. What is it like?”
“Like me, it’s...different,” you went on. “It is beautiful in its own way.” You watched him, curious as to why he was there talking to you instead of jealously watching Tauriel and Kili. He considered you a stranger, so it would be odd to ask such a personal question. “I don’t believe we have formally introduced ourselves. I am ________, member of the Company of Thorin Oakenshield.”
Legolas’ lips formed a small smile. “I am Legolas, son of Thranduil, prince of Mirkwood.”
“I suppose it’s a pleasure to meet you, despite the circumstances.”
His brows furrowed as he looked at the bars that separated you, remembering that you were a prisoner. He took a step back, conflicted.
Then, he walked away. “I must go.”
As expected, you and the rest of the Company had made your daring and clever escape. Bilbo had returned and ushered you all into the barrels, pulling the lever so they’d drop and fall into the river. With many other experiences on this journey, you discovered that it was so different to actually live the scene as opposed to watching it on TV. The water was cold, and you worried your barrel would tip.
The situation had erupted when not only the Mirkwood soldiers perceived your escape, but also orcs arrived on the scene. Early morning sunlight shone in the sky, and the air was brisk. You felt it every time it touched your skin when you rose out of the water momentarily. There was a particularly big and hideous orc on the shore aiming an arrow right at you. You could do nothing but try and duck into the barrel since you were lacking your weapon. Even then, it was risky.
Before either you or the orc made a move, an arrow went flying into the side of its head. Your eyes followed the path to see Legolas leaping into battle with another orc. He paused, blue eyes meeting yours even from a distance. It hadn’t been simply about protecting Mirkwood, he had rescued you. Something flashed between you. You weren’t sure what, but it was something.
The fight progressed, and you even got a hold of an orc’s axe. You knew very well Legolas could protect himself, but when the opportunity arose, you threw the axe at an orc to stop it mid-swing behind the Mirkwood prince. He no doubt heard the orc’s shriek, turning to glance at it and then you before resuming conflict.
The stream’s current picked up, and pretty soon the Company was so far along that no orcs could be seen. No sign of Legolas or Tauriel either. You knew you’d see them again soon, but until then, a part of you would miss Legolas Greenleaf.
How silly. You thought to yourself. You’ve only just met him. No need to get all mushy already.
Still, you couldn’t fight the feeling in your chest at the thought of seeing him again.
Part 2
#legolas imagine#hobbit imagine#hobbit fanfiction#legolas x reader#reader insert#mirkwood#the company#kili#bofur#legolas greenleaf#the hobbit fanfic#legolas fanfiction
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For the Wicked never Sleep - Commission!
Another commission for the lovely @anorptron! Thank you so much for your patronage!
Following the finale battle at the Steps of Faith, Edmont and the rest of Sage’s family take shifts watching over him, have important and difficult realizations regarding their treatment of their friend, and resolve to let him rest. Lots of familial hurt/comfort here!
Word count: 5,026
Commission info!
Ever since the conclusion of the Dragonsong War, the members of House Fortemps found themselves in a struggle no less arduous, though one of a much more personal nature: the struggle between needing to give their wounded brother the space needed to recover, and the desperate need to ensure that he was well and truly alright.
Would that it was only a matter of entrusting the chirurgeons to do their job— that would have been a simple enough thing, though the waiting would doubtless be no less agonizing for them— though there were whispers of other factors needing to be considered, things that had to be taken in to account considering who it was that was being tended to.
Sage had laid the dread wyrm Nidhogg to rest, at long last capping off a millennia of war and strife, and leaving the chance for genuine peace between man and dragon to be achieved. The battle had been fierce, fearsome, and fateful, leaving losses on both sides thus far innumerable and insurmountable. That he was not among those slain in the line of duty was nothing short of a miracle, though his wounds were grievous.
With Nidhogg slain and Estinien restored, Sage had tried his damndest to posture and insist he was well enough to make it through Foundation under his own power, though he scarcely made it long enough to ensure Aymeric had left with Estinien in tow before promptly collapsing into the stone of the Steps of Faith. For a blessing, none presumed him truly well, and the field medics reporting in for duty had already been ordered to see to him as Aymeric had passed them, not fully trusting that Sage would have permitted them to see him if it were not under direct order.
Sage had lost consciousness before the chirurgeons had even gotten to him.
Thankfully, Ishgard housed the best and brightest chirurgeons available outside of the Shroud, and so he was brought to the Congregation for immediate treatment. Though the Fortemps family had been notified of what had befell their ward, by the time they arrived, the chirurgeons were already ushering them out before they had even entered the medical wing, citing a need for space. Given the spacious nature of the rooms, one could only guess at how many of them were needed to stabilize him, and how desperately they had to work to heal him.
For the first stretch of the chirurgeons working on him, they would not let even the Lord Commander through to check on him. By all accounts, it was touch and go enough that they could not afford the lapse in focus. Despite wanting to pace a hole in the stone floor for how anxious Edmont felt— he, and Sage’s brothers, all— Aymeric managed to talk the rest of the family down from doing so. With the promise that Aymeric would stay behind and work through the night besides, but would also work from the office beside the chirurgeon’s ward to be available for any updates as soon as there were any to be had— “For he is my brother, too,” he’d said— the remaining Fortemps men had agreed and ultimately relented, and waited for news at home.
Just as the Lord Commander had not slept, nor did they, even back in Fortemps Manor, though given the runner that was sent to notify them around the first bell past midnight that Sage had been stabilized but not yet regained consciousness, they considered their restlessness a blessing. It hadn’t mattered that Artoirel had his own minor wounds to have care for, nor had it mattered that Edmont’s bad leg locked up something fierce in the cold. When they received word, they had ran to the Congregation.
Aymeric had been the one to meet them at the entrance, and had managed to calm them enough that by the time they had made it up to the chirurgeon’s ward, they were sufficiently quiet, and with a reassurance that they would behave satisfactory to the chirurgeons handling Sage, they were given clearance to be granted entry. His wounds are deep, but pain medication has been administered, said one of the chirurgeons. He’s stable, and he’s expected to make a full recovery, but he needs to rest, emphasized another.
A sentiment they all agreed with, even before they had laid eyes on him, though the moment they saw him, bandaged and bruised and battered, lying unconscious on his bed, they agreed all the more vehemently. There was a fever that had yet to break, they had been warned, though seeing how significantly his skin had paled made him look all the more sickly. Despite the sheen of sweat that stubbornly clung to him, he shivered beneath the blankets. Shivering that further exacerbated what stitches and wounds he yet bore.
Seeing their brother in such a state, Artoirel and Emmanellain shared a look, nodded amongst themselves, and took point. The elder brother fetched a blanket from the storage cabinet and passed it over, and the two of them worked to unfurl it and cover Sage with it, movements slow and careful. Even before the heat of the blanket had fully settled over Sage, the worst of his shivering had already noticeably improved. While Artoirel took to searching for a bowl to fill with water, Emmanellain gathered some few cloths to use, and when the water was thus procured, wet one of them himself and brushed the sweat from Sage’s brow.
Once Sage had quieted, they all took it upon themselves to take the vigil over him in shifts. Aymeric had already taken the first, the Fortemps men reasoned, it seemed only fair that he step out and continue working for the time being. Reluctant though the Lord Commander was to leave his brother in such a state, he ultimately agreed that it was more sensible to take shifts to avoid spreading themselves all too thin. It would do none of them any good to wring their hands together and wait, when it was much more productive to have one of them tend to him at a time between the chirurgeons coming in to administer medications and check his bandages.
Aymeric stepped out to return to the spare office— “just the next door down, should you need me,” he made a point to reassure them all. Changing of the guard, and all that. Edmont knew it well, as did his sons, and thus promised to notify him if aught changed before it was his turn to take watch within the next few bells.
“Be sure to get some rest, lad.” Edmont called out, catching the Lord Commander at the door.
Aymeric offered him a wincing smile on his way out. “...I will. As much as one can, given the circumstances.”
The rasp of Sage’s breathing sounded loud in the somber quiet of the room. Emmanellain had taken his respite in a chair in the corner of the room, the sleepless night prior at last having caught up with him. Artoirel, sat in another stool beside his father, looked to be stubbornly clinging to alertness, eyes not leaving the rise and fall of Sage’s chest. Edmont could hardly begrudge him not retiring for the night to at least try to get some sleep; none of them were going to truly rest until they could at least speak with Sage. Having him awake would be a greater reassurance than anything else, anything that the chirurgeons could say to them, even if, by all logical standpoints, they knew that he was stable.
Tataru had joined them as soon as she could, though her shift at the Forgotten Knight had been particularly grueling for the volume of people that had been in desperate need of something to drink to cope while waiting out the battle, and then in celebration of their victory. She’d looked infinitely more wrung out than most of them, though stubbornly remained for want of being close to Sage. Alphinaud, similarly, had managed to fall into an uneasy rest in a chair off to the corner at some point, though between Sage and Estinien, had refused to leave the chirurgeon’s ward for more than what was absolutely necessary. Aymeric had taken the time to notify the other Scions via linkpearl of what had transpired, but otherwise they were as glued to Sage’s room as the others, wondering at how best to watch over him and what could be done.
But Artoirel, Aymeric, and Edmont were all old hat at taking watch in shifts, in the turning over of the guard. Edmont insisted on taking first watch, citing his newfound availability that came with retirement, and that both of his sons had other duties to attend to, even if they would not rest. Though they had been reluctant to acquiesce, they inevitably conceded that his argument had merit, and left to give the room more space. Guard rotations were a familiar sort of routine, however, and the three of them had managed to fall into a rhythmic cycle between themselves to ensure both that Aymeric was able to tend to his myriad duties along with checking in on the other wounded, and to more or less force each of them to take the time to step out to stretch their legs, to have something to drink, something to take care of themselves while they waited over Sage.
He needed rest, needed time to heal and people who cared enough about giving him that time to ensure that he actually got it.
What he got was one of his friends in the Scions awaiting permission to enter Sage’s room in the chirurgeon’s ward, nervously thumbing at a letter written for him, judging by what Aymeric had told them when he slipped back through the door unexpectedly, well before it was his turn to take watch again.
To anyone who did not know them, it should have been no concern of Edmonts, nor any of his children, adopted or no, what missives Sage might or might not have awaiting him. Had any of them loved Sage any less than family, it would have been just that, and the message would have been left without preamble for whenever he was well enough to be the Warrior of Light again.
They all loved him immeasurably, however, and thus closed ranks with silent, unanimous agreement that Sage needed time.
“I am certain that if we but explain that he is indisposed due to injury, they will be satisfied,” Aymeric spoke up again in the ensuing, incredulous silence, attempting to be the voice of reason, as he always did. “Nevertheless, I would speak with them in the hall, rather than Sage’s room. His rest need not be disturbed.”
Another thing they all agreed upon. The Lord Commander stepped outside of the room, and the guard changed back over to Edmont for his absence; though it had been many years since he had last been able to fight afield, a knight was ever a knight, and Edmont kept track of their rotation with that same sharp focus he had in younger years.
That did not preclude him from listening in, however. As much as the closed door would permit, at least.
Discussion seemed amenable, at first: though it was little more than muffled conversation, though the tone of it grew tense, the volume raised ever so slightly before the clear words of, “You will keep your voice down.” came through the door as Edmont approached it.
The guard changed again, as Edmont stepped outside to see who would want to debate Sage needing rest.
“I don’t mean to raise my voice,” The man conceded, though he had darted his bright eye toward Edmont when he stepped out into the hall. “Truly. I apologize. If it could wait, I wouldn’t even be here— we just received word on Sage’s injuries.”
“If it absolutely cannot wait, I would suggest you find someone else suited for the task—”
“It’s not a task. Not yet, anyroad.” The man’s uncovered eye hardened as steel, his mouth pullin back in a grimace. “I can say little more than that out here, I’m afraid. What’s that saying— discretion being the better part of valor, and all that?”
“Master Thancred, if you would prefer to speak plainly, we may do so inside— though I insist you keep your voice down. Sage has not yet awoken.”
With a nod from the Scion, Edmont reluctantly opened the door again and ushered both men back inside. Tataru and Alphinaud looked up at the additional person, eyes widening in alarm. Leaving them to rise and greet the newcomer, Edmont moved back to Sage’s bedside.
It was Tataru that broke the silence to greet him, her arms gesturing in frenetic sweeps as she bounced on the balls of her feet, fretting. She seemed to struggle to contain herself, but managed to do so with a firm stomp of her foot and a deep breath before she attempted to speak.
“Thancred! Did you not receive our message? I spoke with Y’Shtola, but—”
“We did.” He reassured her, hands motioning in a calming gesture to encourage her to be still. “But…”
His eye drifted over to where Sage rested, and Edmont swore he could see the moment the words died on his tongue.
“Though it had been hard to believe when you told us, I can see your report was far from exaggerated.” Thancred said quietly. “He’s certainly seen better days.”
“Now that you have ascertained his condition for yourself, I presume you mean that you intend to bear a message to the Scions on Sage’s behalf, given the extent of his grievous wounds.” Edmont spoke up before the man could so much as utter another word.
To his credit, the man looked genuinely remorseful that he’d been sent on the errand at all, wincing at the borderline accusatory tone the retired Count had taken with him.
“I don’t want to be here like this, either, to be clear.” Said the man, and the hand not still holding the letter ran through his ashen hair. The one eye not obscured by a bandana glanced away. “He’s clearly in a bad way. I’d much rather be here just to support him as his friend, rather than a runner for urgent news. But we received word that—”
A sharp crack of Edmont’s cane knocking against the floor startled even him, but he made a point not to show it. Instead, he let his anger and indignation on Sage’s behalf boil over, just a little, just enough for it to show. Incapacitated as he was, Sage could not fight for himself— and even if he was, all present knew that he would follow orders without complaint, even wounded as he was.
The outburst rang in his ears, all the more in the silence that ensued. All eyes were on him. In any other circumstance, he might have been more comfortable, might have been able to at least feign an air of political neutrality and good cheer, in particular for well meaning allies that were naught but the messenger.
But this was his son. And if the realm was not going to stop long enough for him to recover from near death, someone had to speak up on his behalf and say, “Sort it out without him just this once.”
Edmont intended to be calm, cool, and collected, as he always had been when leading his house through the ever shifting landscape that was Ishgardian politics. Perhaps if he had not already passed the mantle on to Artoirel, he may yet have that composure. As it stood, retirement had made him more of a father than he had ever been permitted to be for his duties— to Ishgard and then later to his family in the wake of his infidelity...and grief made him all the more protective of what sons he had not lost.
“Master Thancred,” Aymeric spoke up from further away from Sage’s bedside. When the Scion turned to address him, he seemed almost reluctant to do so. “If I may be frank, what is so urgent that the Alliance must have Sage available at this moment, present circumstances considering?”
“Imperial and Ixali movement both, I’m afraid.” Thancred said quietly. “Right now, we’ve adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach with the latter to avoid antagonizing them into potentially summoning a primal, but then that still leaves the Empire—”
“And this has to involve Sage, when he has yet to even regain consciousness, does it?” Edmont asked in a low, gruff snarl. “When his wounds have not even had a chance to mend?”
“At the moment? No,” Thancred conceded almost immediately, hands held out in a placating gesture. He looked like a man attempting to negotiate his way out of being a lion’s next meal, metaphorically speaking.
At least he was aware of how thin the ice was beneath his feet, Edmont thought darkly.
After a moment, Thancred tried again, “I only wanted to let him know to stand ready in the event—”
“You did not answer my question.”
The rogue took a moment to swallow, eye searching the retired Count’s face. Edmont met his gaze with an even but heated stare. After a tense moment, Thancred allowed himself the span of a careful breath to consider his words.
“I will be blunt: while we have other Echo bearers in the wings that might assist in handling Garuda, Sage has usually led the van against primal threats, and our numbers aren’t what they were before the bloody banquet.”
“And that means that it must needs be Sage? No one else can rise to the occasion?” Edmont pressed in all ways but physical.
“We don’t have anyone near his caliber.” Thancred attempted to reason, though even he seemed to flounder on it the longer he looked on at Sage, lying all but broken in his bed. “I’m hoping it doesn’t have to come to that at all—”
“If you start spreading your hopes out more evenly, then they will not all inevitably fall on Sage’s shoulders.” Edmont snarled, and turned his body to gesture with emphasis at his sleeping son. “Look at him, and tell yourself he is ready to handle such a task.”
Thancred had, to be fair, been doing little else but looking. Sage was reluctant to speak on how close he was with those Scions outside of Alphinaud and Tataru, though Edmont had to imagine there was at least enough camaraderie between them that the rogue could at least understand the position Sage was in and want to protect him as much as he could. Edmont had to believe that. Little else made sense, and it was the least that Sage deserved.
“Though I only have the one, my eye does work.” Thancred replied in a low, sarcastic drawl.
“Then how could you expect him to do aught but convalesce in his condition?!” Edmont demanded.
He barely recognized his own voice for how anger had warped it. When he realized his hands were shaking in rage, he made a fist with his empty hand and tightened his hold on his cane hard enough the leather of his gloves creaked in protest. It was a struggle to recall the last time he felt this sort of anger before, burning in the pit of his gut, clawing at his ribcage, demanding to be let out—
A tentative weight laid itself heavily atop his clenched hand, still gripping his cane. His head snapped down, shocked to see that it was Sage reaching out to him, weakly hanging onto his hand. With a pained noise in the back of his throat, the Bard’s head lolled toward Edmont, and he cracked his eyes open, just barely. His lips parted on a shuddering breath, and in the quietest, most lost voice Edmont had ever heard from Sage, he croaked only one word.
“Da…?”
As quickly as the anger had engulfed his chest, its fires were doused, and he was gently shushing the beleaguered and battered man.
“All is well, Sage. Rest. We are here for you.” He murmured in the most soothing voice he could manage for how heavily it trembled.
“But...they need—”
To the horror of everyone in the room, Sage made an attempt to sit up, though he barely got farther than managing to raise his head and shoulders off the bed some scant few ilms before he dropped back into the pillows with a strangled grunt of pain. Weakly, he writhed in agony, shifting ever so slightly from the pain, only further exacerbating his wounds in the process.
Edmont moved before anyone else had the chance, his cane clattering to the floor as his hands came up to usher Sage into stillness when he tried to struggle to get up again.
“Shh, shh, you need to rest, Sage.” He said, shaken to his core, and hoped it wasn’t obvious to his son how hard his hands were trembling as he moved the blanket to settle back over the Bard’s shoulders. “I promise you that your only obligation is to rest. You’ve done enough. More than enough. 'Tis our turn to care for you. Let us. Please."
It took little coaxing for Sage to nod off again; between the myriad of medications and healing magic that had worn him down from the constant treatments and his own overwhelming exhaustion besides, he had barely opened those brightly gleaming eyes of his before they were drifting shut again. His head fell back once more, his horn and cheek sinking into the pillow. It was obvious in the way his pained expression went slack that his consciousness had fled him rapidly.
Even with how seriously he was wounded, Sage still wanted to fight. Still wanted to do what was right and protect those that were closest to him. Edmont grappled with the pride and worry that tangled in the back of his throat. His eyes faintly stung with the threat of tears, praying desperately to the Fury that there would come a time where the Warrior of Light was no longer needed. When he wasn’t quite sure he would be able to swallow down those tears, he took an extra moment to collect himself. Smoothing back Sage’s sweat slicked hair away from where it clung to his forehead, Edmont took a deep, shuddering breath as he bent to retrieve his cane, using the time it took to straighten again to steel himself before turning back to the group of them, all looking down at Sage’s fitfully unconscious form with varying degrees of horror and sorrow.
No one seemed to know what to say for a long moment. The air in the room was heavy with tension, thick with dread and the scent of sickness, antiseptic, and the copper scent of blood. The only sound that could be heard was Sage's faint, wheezing breaths, steady but shallow. Time seemed to hold its breath for how still everything had become. Even the gods themselves were reluctant to break this oppressive silence, it seemed; Edmont swore that the very wind blustering beyond the window had quieted in the wake of what had transpired.
“I do hope,” Aymeric spoke up in the lingering quiet. His voice was hesitant, as if he was even reluctant to breach the silence at all. "This suffices as evidence that he is not sufficiently well."
"More than. I'd thought so the moment I came in." Thancred replied in a tone that matched the Lord Commander's. His eye lowered in admonishment. “Admittedly...we hadn’t realized it was this bad. We never do. Sage is always so reserved and hates showing weakness. I don’t...I don’t think he’s ever come to any one of us with an injury that needed tending.”
Horrified realization dawned over Thancred’s already clouded expression. He bit the inside of his cheek, hands clenching into fists and flexing out as far as his fingers could stretch intermittently as if to work out anxious jitters that had suddenly overtaken him. When Edmont focused enough on them, he realized they were trembling, ever so slightly.
“I’m not sure he’s even ever trusted us enough to tell us when he’s vulnerable...and we never really asked.”
“Sage is a private person,” Alphinaud stammered in an effort to comfort his fellow Scion, breaking the weighty silence that had again ensued, until then only punctuated by the Bard’s shuddered breathing. “Even with those he's close to, he tends to hide his wounds and weaknesses—”
“And we’ve never pushed.” Tataru spoke up sadly. She fiddled with her hands, her gaze locked on them as she did. “I think we were scared of them, too. I know I certainly was.”
"We should have done better by him. I'm not too proud to admit that." After another long moment of studying Sage's sleeping form, Thancred looked up at Edmont directly again. "...Thank you. For caring for him where we didn't."
"'Tis because of us that he is in the state he is now." Edmont softly replied with a shake of his head. "We have, all of us, asked too much of him. The thought that we will yet ask even more, even knowing the lengths he will go…"
Again, his grip tightened on his cane. No one dared to interrupt or attempt to console him with empty platitudes. There was no making this better, save for working toward building a realm where heroes like Sage had no call to action that they must needs answer. They had but one course, it seemed: to find a better path.
For those they had lost. For those they could yet save. And that included Sage.
“I’ll route these concerns elsewhere.” Thancred said after a long, uncomfortable pause. “I can do little with regard to primals, but the Adders are still monitoring the situation. I can keep an eye on the Imperials in the meantime, see what I can do to mitigate anything that might come up along the way. Give Sage time to rest.”
"You need not tackle either task alone, Master Thancred." Aymeric said, tone more firm and formal and much more like himself again. "As Lord Speaker and Ishgard's elected representative in the Eorzean Alliance, 'tis the least I can do to coordinate surveillance of Garlemald— and your own tutelage in the known ways of primals may also yet be put to use. There are other Echo bearers, yes?"
"Plenty. Many within the ranks of each city-state's military, even." Alphinaud supplied, and Edmont could see the gears whirring to life in the boy's mind. "We must needs confer with the Alliance regardless for what should be done with the Imperial activity— surely they could also put the call out for those able bodied Echo bearers to stand ready for the impending threat of a primal?"
Aymeric gave a single, enthused nod of encouragement. "I can arrange a conference anon. I would need but confer with my counterpart in the House of Commons first. We will find a solution, Master Thancred."
"It'll keep Sage safe and resting, at least." Thancred said, and some exhausted relief tinged his words. "Would that we had done better by him sooner."
"The best time to have done so would have been from the very beginning. But the next best time to start would be now. For all of us." Aymeric reassured. "Now then,” he turned to face the retired count. “Pray, do forgive me Lord Edmont, but if I might forfeit my shift at the watch for the moment—?"
"Take as long as you need. Artoirel and I have things well in hand.” Edmont reassured, gently shooing them toward the door. “Master Thancred, was it? ...I was unduly harsh toward you. Forgive me, you deserved more respect than that.”
“You were protecting Sage. You have nothing to be sorry for.” Thancred reassured him, and the smile he gave felt more genuine, more relieved than the faint, wincing things he had barely been able to muster before. “I should thank you. It was much needed. You lot have given me much to think on.”
Alphinaud, Aymeric, and Thancred all left without delay, quietly but excitedly chattering as they did. The trio were scarcely out the door before Tataru let out a quiet gasp.
“I should contact the Scions, let them know what the plan is!” She said more than half to herself, fretting and bouncing on the balls of her feet again. “I can see if there’s anything we can do to coordinate our people— oh, and maybe I can ask Arenvald if he’s up for keeping an eye on the Ixal, just in case—!”
Edmont could not have gotten a word in edgewise if he had remotely attempted it, but he couldn’t help smiling with pride as she, too, rushed out the door in an enthused bid to help Sage rest and recover.
And then it was only him, standing in the room, silence settling in save for the Sage’s shallow breathing. He took the time to pull the chair he had been using back closer toward the bed. Ignoring the creaking pop of his bad knee, he eased himself into the chair and took up his watch again. Artoirel would be back within the bell, perhaps he might get a nap in before his next shift.
He leaned back into the chair until the knot of tension in his back popped with release. Straightening back up, he relaxed into his seat with a heavy sigh and contemplated Sage’s sleeping face again. Though the Bard was still clearly in pain, the pinch in his expression had eased, and the rise and fall of his chest came more smoothly than before, less shuddering and painful. The sight eased some of Edmont’s worry.
“I hope you know just how loved you are, my boy. By so, so many people.” Edmont said softly, fearful of waking him, and picked up the cloth at his bedside to begin blotting away the sweat once more, all the while praying to the Fury that all of this would be enough.
#ffxiv#writing commissions#anorptron#Sage Bradley#Edmont de Fortemps#Aymeric de Borel#Alphinaud Leveilleur#Tataru Taru#Thancred Waters#familial bonding#mention of injury#minor 3.3 spoilers
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who are your favorite top ten black clover characters & ships? talk about them! ~tat!
From Cindy: Hello tat! I hope you are doing well today and thank you for visiting my blog. It was really fun to write this because I got the chance to really think about the characters in depth. I’ll be honest, I’m not much of a shipper so I couldn’t come up with 10. I did my best to think of and write about as many ships and brotps as I could though.
Also, I got your other ask about BNHA as well! I have a Japanese lesson I need to prepare for this evening, but I’ll definitely get that posted tomorrow sometime!! Thanks again!!
This is very long, so I put it under a cut :)
Top Ten Black Clover Characters
Yami Sukehiro
I love everything about this guy. He’s hilarious, number one. Everything he says cracks me up and the nicknames he uses for people are gold. I like that he insults people and makes toilet jokes so casually. He comes off crass, but it’s the fact that he treats everyone equally that makes me respect him so much. He holds everyone, including himself, to the same standards. He doesn’t care about your past, wealth, appearance, gender, unconventional magic abilities or wacky personality. No matter who you are, he will call you out if you’re not acting the way you should, but will also back you up and support you when it’s needed. He’s a great leader because he treats everyone equally and is also very accepting that everyone is different.
Luck Voltia
Luck was one of the first characters I fell in love with. I don’t have a lot deep meaning behind how I feel like I do with Yami though. I just really enjoy his chaotic energy and the fact that he wants to fight people all the time. I also think his magic is super badass. His little lightning boots and gloves are so cute. I just wanna cuddle him and ruffle his hair.
Finral Roulacase
I feel so bad for Finral. This poor love starved boy doesn’t deserve the heaping amounts of anxiety he always seems to be feeling. I know he’s supposed to be the ‘perverted’ character, but compared to characters from other anime (Mineta [BNHA] Meliodas [SDS]) he’s not that bad. He tries so hard to be a gentleman by taking people on dates, complimenting them, giving them flowers, and not physically molesting them lol but they never give him a second glance. I also love his character growth so far. Watching him find self-worth beyond being just a mode of transportation, and confidence enough to stand up to his brother has been really fun to watch. I’m so proud of him and I think he’s amazing!
Zora Ideale
This guy. Haha His blunt honesty is so uncomfortable but hilarious at the same time. Like Yami, he calls people out but is somehow so much more offensive about it. I love how he just gives people unsolicited criticism and then adds injury to insult like “oh by the way, here’s a freaking stink bug in your nostril.” To be fair though, he is just as harsh on himself and will acknowledge (to himself) when he made a mistake. His backstory is also so tragic! It is seriously messed up what happened to his dad, but I love that Zora uses that trauma to try and change the word for the better by being the best magic knight he can be and also encouraging (threatening?) other magic knights to be better too. He could’ve so easily become a villain, but he didn’t and I think that’s really honorable.
Mereoleona Vermillion
Oh my god. I love this woman so much. The fact that she was supposed to be the captain of the Crimson Lions but said “nope” and then just went off by herself to live in the most dangerous places in the wild to get stronger is just phenomenal to me. I also really like that, even though she’s a royal and a member of the Vermillion family, she doesn’t just focus on her own squad. It was great when she showed up at the Black Bulls hide out and straight up kidnapped them to have them join her training. I’m just in awe of both her physical and mental strength. She was so cool when she went up against all those elves by herself. I’m not caught up with the manga, but I think I saw a spoiler about her recently and I’m very excited to find out more about it. I pretty much wish I was Mereoleona. She is my spirit animal.
Charmy Pappitson
There is a lot to adore about Charmy. First and foremost, she is an adorable badass. I love that her passion for food is something she shares with her allies and friends instead of being something that makes her greedy. I feel like Charmy is underrated because her magic is great for restoring mana, defense and offense. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t she one of the highest ranked knights in the black bulls? I also love how she gets away with a lot of shit just because she’s cute. The episodes where she straight up just hops onto the wizard king’s lap and feeds him snacks without anyone batting an eye get me every time!
Vanessa Enoteca
Sometimes I think about how Vanessa was willing to give up her own freedom just to save Asta’s arms, and how she gave up drinking for a few episodes in order to focus on a way to not only make herself stronger for upcoming battles, but the rest of her teammates as well. I like her dedication to the Black Bulls. Her thread magic is also pretty cool and I like the clever ways she’s learned to use it.
Fuegoleon Vermillion
Poor Fuegoleon is so calm and sensible compared to his siblings. I like that he’s a fair leader that makes sure to consider all angles before passing judgement on someone. He is also a dependable captain and full of great wisdom that aids in character development for important characters like Asta and Noelle. I love how he competes with his sister though, and watching them bicker in the episode where they throw a birthday party for that nun lady was silly.
Asta
How can you not like Asta? He has such a big heart and the best self-discipline out of anyone in the show. He would always rather talk things out before resorting to fighting and likes to understand the motivations behind the actions of his enemies. He is unashamed to be himself and continues to pursue his goals even when other people mock him or put him down. I also like that he is more perceptive of how people think or feel than it would seem sometimes.
Sekke Bronzazza
His personality is pretty much the worst (and I think he actually tried to kill Asta after the magic knight exam… asshole) but the way he always manages to fit “ha-ha” into his speech is so funny to me and always cracks me up. And the way everyone calls him the “ha-ha” guy is very amusing to me, especially when he tries and fails to politely correct them. I also love how he always ends up in the most random situations (in Yami’s bathroom or working for the king).
Top Ten Black Clover Ships/BroTPs
Finral x Vanessa
I guess I just think back to that fight against the Despair guy from the Third Eye because both Finral and Venessa sort of worked together and pushed past their limits for the first time. I think Venessa is also the one that put the green in Finral’s hair, right? I don’t know. Venessa is good for Finral because he’s so insecure and she’s so supportive of other people. They’re cute together.
Yami x Charlotte
I think everyone ships this? lol Charlotte’s independence and personal strength are important to her, and the fact that Yami acknowledges and respects those traits in her makes them a great match. He also constantly encourages her to show her softer side, saying that it’s okay to lean on other people and ask for help. He could help her find balance and be comfortable in her own skin.
Asta x Mimosa
Mimosa is a much better match for Asta than Noelle because Noelle constantly needs validation and attention that she’s just never going to get from Asta. His brain just doesn’t work that way. Mimosa is content with supporting Asta with her magic as best she can, and doesn’t get jealous or competitive in the way Noelle does. Mimosa is soft and gentle which is a nice contrast to Asta’s loud and rough personality.
Yuno x Charmy
I know this is almost like a crack ship, but I can’t help but like it anyway. Like Asta, Yuno isn’t going to be the type of guy to actively pursue a relationship or be overly affectionate. This doesn’t seem to affect Charmy who seems fine with even the most minimal of interaction haha. I think it’s so cute how much she supports and roots for him when she sees him in a fight. And Yuno doesn’t seem to mind her trying to feed him and take care of him either.
Magna x Luck (brotp)
Lucky’s personality is quirky, chaotic, and frankly just difficult to understand, so I think it’s hard for people to get close to him. He comes on so strong with the pranks and desire to fight, plus he doesn’t really know how to hold back. The fact that Magna can endure all that while also seeing Luck as a person on a deeper level than just being some spazzy boy is really wholesome to me. I think it’s good for Luck to have someone who can respect him that way without asking him to change his behavior. I do not think this would work romantically though. Magna is actually pretty sensitive and emotional, and gets pretty upset when Luck is stronger or does better than him in something. It ultimately just drives Magna to work harder, but I think that sort of competition might be bad news in a romantic relationship if he’s always feeling inferior.
Yami x Jack the Ripper (brotp)
I want their friendship! I really do. The way they go from relaxed and having fun to ready to beat each other’s asses is hilarious. And there’s literally no reason for it, they’re just like unnecessarily competitive and I’m living for it. Whether they’re celebrating at a festival, about to have an important meeting with the wizard king, or in the middle of a huge fight with a major bad guy, it doesn’t matter. They will trash talk each other and probably end up brawling. I love it.
Gauche x Grey
The episodes where Gauche had to fight with Gordon and Grey were really cool because those three are probably the oddest oddballs of the Black Bulls. I don’t know if I ship them romantically or just at friends, but the development of the relationship between Gauche and Grey has been interesting and I wouldn’t mind seeing more. Also, please give Gauche something else to obsess over besides his sister lmao
Mars x Fana
I don’t have any strong feelings for them as characters individually, but I like that they fought so hard to protect each other as kids and how they continued to fight for and protect each other after being reunited.
#Tat anon#chat with cindy#black clover#black clover ships#yami sukehiro#luck voltia#finral roulacase#zora ideale#mereoleona vermillion#Charmy Pappitson
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⟨ CAMILLE RAZAT. CIS FEMALE. SHE / HER. ⟩ though the mist might prevent some from seeing it, CLARISSE PROUVAIRE is actually a descendant of K H I O N E. it’s still a question of whether or not the TWENTY - SIX year old ART HISTORY MAJOR from AVIGNON, FRANCE has taken after their godly parent completely, but the demigod is still known to be quite EBULLIENT & HAUGHTY.
❄ DOSSIER. ❄ PINTEREST. ❄ PLAYLIST.
PERSONALITY.
a sunny disposition offsets clarisse’s frosty lineage. while one might expect her to brush you off, the girl is rarely seen without a smile on her face, and is welcoming to all she meets ⸺ just as long as they treat her well. after all, her name means ‘ bright ’, and she is ever - determined to prove herself as such ; clarisse is always happy to lend a hand where needed or offer a shoulder to cry on if someone is upset. she is a force of positive energy, forever trying to find the silver lining where there may not always be one. while she rarely lets things get to her, clarisse’s desire to trust and see the good in all means that she is often misled. she’s not always the best judge of character, and she has been hurt because of it in the past. people tend to mistake her trust for naivete, and while she can be quite oblivious to people’s intentions at times, she won’t allow them to walk all over her.
as the middle child in a family of three, clarisse has often felt like she has to prove herself in order to be seen. a perfectionist at heart and a dancer for most of her life, she tends to focus on the smaller details and gets frustrated when things become misaligned or fall out of place. she is extremely studious and hardworking as a result, and has always been at the top of her classes. she refuses to let herself be anything less than number one, and can occasionally come off as something of a snob when something ( or someone ) doesn’t meet her standards. once clarisse sets her heart on a goal, she will always see it through, no matter the outcome. she sees mistakes as a reason to learn and better herself. improvement is never out of reach for her and it is something that has always been encouraged by her loved ones.
being surrounded by people is one of clarisse’s great joys in life. she is fond of large crowds of people and seldom likes to be alone, having always been lucky enough to have at least one friend by her side. clarisse is usually seen as the mother figure in her friend groups, and has frequently been described as ‘ the sensible one ’. there is nothing she wouldn’t do for her loved ones, but be warned, once you have betrayed her trust and shown her your true colours, she’s not so easily swayed. she is a firm believer that second chances should be earned through actions, not freely given, and no one ⸺ not even herself ⸺ deserves to be excused purely on words alone.
FACTS.
clarisse’s mother is an art collector, often acquiring rare and exquisite pieces to sell to museums. both philippe and madelyn are benefactors of several large and infamous art galleries in france ( including the louvre ). their donations are annual, significant, and their names are almost synonymous with some of the most prominent art communities in europe.
clarisse has a grey long - haired cat named basile. he is of the norwegian forest breed, and was chosen with the knowledge that norwegian forest cats are adapted to colder climates, much like the siberian husky or alaskan malamute. the name basile means ‘ regal ’ in french, and clarisse frequently calls him her little prince. he is her emotional support animal due to her anxiety.
khione has visited her daughter many times over the years, though she would often disguise herself prior to clarisse’s official claiming, as she wanted to give her daughter some semblance of normalcy until then. she always brings her small gifts, often in the form of jewellery, and was usually introduced to her as a distant aunt. one gift in particular arrived on the eve of clarisse’s sixteeth birthday and was a silver necklace featuring a pendant of intricate snowflakes. clarisse has never taken it off and she treasures it immensely.
clarisse speaks with a heavy french accent, and it can be quite difficult to understand when she is speaking quickly. her language preference is french, as it is her main tongue, and it pleases her greatly when she runs into other people who can also speak french as she doesn’t have to be so self - conscious about her speech.
clarisse was a summer member of camp stark from 2010 – 2012, and left the camp when she was seventeen years old. she went on one quest in the first month of her final year, and was accompanied by two other camp members. their task was to seek out and return the diadem of mnemosyne to calliope, the leader of all muses. they were successful.
before arriving at eonia university, clarisse attended the ballet de l’opéra national de paris, where she went on to become one of their principal dancers. at the age of twenty - three, she was forced to quit, after a trio of harpies attacked her and several audience members during a performance.
POWERS.
aerokinesis : perhaps the one power clarisse has used before but still has yet to fully refine. occasionally, on a cold, stormy night, when the wind rattles the windows in their frames, she is able to brush it away as it it were a mere fly hovering about her head. she has summoned gusts of wind in the past, the most recent that she can recall being her final performance with the ballet de l’opéra national de paris. audience members and staff will say that it came from the hole in the ceiling, but she knows what she did, what she is capable of doing. the wind swept from her body as sharp as knives, whipping through the theatre like a winter gale. it tore a hole through the roof and blew the creatures away. she cannot forget. she will always remember what she is able to do.
cryokinesis : it comes as naturally to her as breathing. at five days old, she was creating small blizzards in her room. by eight years old, she was making slides down the staircase by pouring water over the steps and freezing it to ice. clarisse never found it particularly strange or peculiar that she was able to manipulate the cold with such ease. in fact, when she was younger, she assumed it was something that all children could do, and was left astonished when her brother informed her otherwise. she learned to embrace her unique gift from a young age, and taught herself how to hone her abilities without expert instruction, almost to the point of perfection. she’s learned how to create beautiful figures made of ice, sculptures that her parents would proudly display during dinner parties and family gatherings. she uses her cryokinesis habitually, and it is something she is completely unashamed of, even if the frequent demonstration of her power has brought her trouble in the past.
fearspeak : clarisse is too fair and too kind to ever willingly use this ability on someone who doesn’t deserve it, and every time she’s ever used her fearspeak in the past, she has felt nothing but the deepest of regret. for her, it is a shame she must carry. she never wishes to incite fear in anybody, but she can sometimes perceive what they are feeling. it speaks to her, calls out to her, and when it does, she can’t help but inform them of the worst.
other abilities :
heat sensitivity : the first ability that ever manifested in clarisse was a sensitivity to heat. her mother could never understand why her baby would cry relentlessly in the middle of summer, or by the fireplace in the living room when it was lit. the hottest days of the year were an endurance for the entire family. while she was as obedient and easygoing as they came, it was the one time of the year where she would fuss and stick up her nose. she’s gotten in frequent trouble with her father ( who has a weak disposition and bad circulation ) for turning down the heating during the coldest winter nights. extreme heat makes her skin feel itchy, like she’s about to break out in hives or burn to a crisp on the spot, but she’s learned not to complain.
immunity to cold : clarisse has never felt the cold the way that she felt the heat. she says it brushes over her like water ⸺ almost unfeeling, rippling over her skin. in the depths of winter, she can walk around in single layers ⸺ the thinnest silk dress, the shortest sleeved t - shirt ⸺ with a smile on her face, as if it were any other day of the year. she seldom wears thick winter jackets, but if she does, know that it’s for everyone else’s sake than for her own. it’s better to fit in than be judged.
OUT OF CHARACTER.
it’s your fave, nixie ( 24, gmt, she / her ) coming in with muse number two !!! very happy and excited to finally be writing clarisse, who I have thus dubbed as my lil sunshine winter baby. I know I’ve been hyping her up for the last few weeks, but I absolutely cannot wait to write her, so come and plot with me !
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