@lesenbyan and I have been marathoning the Swan Princess movies, and guys, they are - all of them - somehow better and worse than I'd imagined. Do recommend.

Long ask. Bear with me, please.

I'm still thinking about what counts or not as a fairy tale.

To be honest, I think the only pre-requisites for something to become a fairy tale in pop culture is for it to be a popular fantasy children's story in public domain. And kinda look like a fairy tale, too.

In your opinion, which work would be considered a fairy tale if it weren't for copyright?

Let me give, my examples

C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, especially the first one, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz are considered fairy tales, especially in crossovers, Narnia should be too as it shares many themes, plot points, and character archetypes.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It literally uses all fairy tale archetypes and cliches under the sun, even if it ditches magic for extremely soft sci-fi. Willy Wonka is like Frau Holle or that fairy godmother from Toads and Diamonds, the four brat children are like those siblings and step-siblings who are always magically punished, and even as a child I knew Charlie Bucket was Cinderella but with no focus on romance. He's the youngest sibling that always is magically rewarded.

It is quite funny because I had the idea to make a post about this subject specifically! But since you asked I'll drop some elements of my planned posts here - it can be a good introduction!

Now if you ask me, "fairytale" can't be everything and anything, but that's probably because I come from France where "fairytales" are literaly a literary genre first, and then a category of folktales and legend, and we have specific categorizations different from other countries (again, the merveilleux/fantastique divide for example which determines the French approach to supernatural and fantasy, but is absent from English literature if I am not mistaken).

I... personally do not believe any "popular children story" would be a fairytale. Else that would make the first Harry Potter books a fairytale, or the Winnie the Pooh stories a fairytale or Despicable Me or the recent musical Troll movies fairytales. I think the inherent decision to make something "for children" fairytale like is bad because, again, fairytales were not originally meant for children and thus should not be limited to a child audience.

From my point of view, a fairytale needs to be either a folktale that hold itself in a specific format that makes it separate from legends and myths (the type of local folkloric stories told by old storytellers to children in the countryside for example - but with a clear plot, clear characters, and beginning and ends, separating it from vague legends ; and with a minimum religious element, to separate it from myths for example). I do not like to think of Greek myths as "Greek fairytales". For example, to take an example of the folkloric fairytales of France vs the legends: we have in Bretagne the belief in "les lavandières de nuit", "the night washer-women", ghostly, otherwordly apparitions of women washing clothes at night, and you should never help them else you'll end up dead or with your arms broken. If someone simply tells you what I told you above "It is said there are ghostly women who wash linen at night...", this is more of a "legend", like ghost stories, or "Oh, this is a fairy mound haunted by fairies!" or "It is said a monster lives in this cave". But if you actually tell the story of a specific peasant boy with a specific name, who due to specific reasons ends up meeting these women, and either escapes or falls to their fate, we already are closer to the folktale and thus the "fairytale of Bretagne". But this is all obvious, as these kind of fairytale-folktales were those collected by Grimm and Jacobs and Moe and others...

And then you have literary fairytales, which are stories meant to evoke or imitate the folktales described above, and can derive in many ways (be more "literary") but still identify or present themselves or link themselves to these folktales. These are the Perrault and d'Aulnoy and Andersen fairytales for example. This category can be pushed further with what we call in French "contes détournés" - you could call them "fractured fairytales" to take back a common English term, that is to say all the parodies and rewrites and deformations of fairytales, sometimes for humoristic effects, other times not. Modernization and expansion of fairytales are part of that, so to speak. But we stay in a domain where the story is presented or follows the code and format of fairytales, while also explicitely avoiding, pointing out or reversing the common tropes and rules.

But where the Narnia books and the Dahl books enter, we reach a domain that is not fully fairytale but rather a crossroad between three genres deeply intertwined. "Fairy tales" (or rather "modern fairytales") ; "Fairytale-Fantasy" and "Children fantasy".

Children fantasy is basically any modern children story (by modern I mean deliberately fictional and written as fiction) that involves magic and the supernatural. And these stories can be influenced by fairytales, since it is something children are very aware about, but not always. Peter Pan, just like the Oz books, are "children fantasy" - a form of fantasy for children primarily, or rather a form of children stories that step into the fantasy realm. Pinocchio is one of the oldest "children fantasy", as in a work primarily aimed at children, but with magical and fantastical elements in it.

"Fairytale-fantasy" however is a term usually given to a subgenre of fantasy works that, instead of taking inspiration from epic sagas (epic fantasy) or horror works (dark fantasy) or other things ; takes inspiration from fairytales and folktales. The same way Tolkien was the father of "epic fantasy" he was also the father of "fairytale fantasy" through his Hobbit novel, and also other works (his Tom Bombadil poems, his Farmer Gilles of Ham novel).

The thing is that "children fantasy" and "fairytale fantasy" are deeply interconnected since both can draw source from fairytales and folktales to build entirely new stories. As a result there is a frequent overlap. The Oz books belong as much to "children fantasy" (one of the biggest success in terms of magical series of children-book) as "fairytale fantasy" (they were a pure deconstruction of typical fairytales, explicitely playing with fairytale codes, and later becoming an "American fairytale" classic). The Narnia books are also part of this crossroad, as they are "children fantasy" (they are a traditional fantasy story with epic tones, but for children and teenagers), while also being "fairytale fantasy" (taking inspiration and paying homage to several fairytales and folktales). They all belong to this category of works which are not fairytales per se (since they are not of folkloric origins, nor were they meant to be faithful rewrites or perfect pastiches of traditional folkloric fairytales), but definitively works of fiction based upon fairytales, inspired by fairytales, and mant to take fairytales into the "next step" of the world of fiction.

The main difference between "children fantasy" and "fairytale fantasy" would be as such. Children fantasy, while sometimes inspired by fairytales, is not always tied to fairytales and can be completely fairytale free. For example many of Roald Dahl stories do pay homage to fairytales and are inspired by his fairytales (his witches in The Witches, his giants in THE BFG, Wonka and his factory, the Giant Peach, etc...), he is part of the "writers of modern fairytales". But you have also lot of children stories with magic that do not involve any fairytale reference. Children fantasy can be inspired and allied by fairytales, but is not defined by them.

On the opposite side, "fairytale fantasy" is defined by fairytales - but not by age. Yes some of the most famous "fairytale fantasy" works are for children: the Oz books or the Narnia books. But just as many are for adults and definitively not for children. Neil Gaiman wrote a Coraline for children, but his Stardust is definitively for adults. The movie "Legend", while one of the most iconic fairytale-fantasies, is for adults.

So, I think the real way to point out what a fairytale is, is to look at the format and intentions of the author and of the work, to see if it fits the literary fairytales of old. There needs to be a conscious emulation, pastiche or imitation of traditional fairytales, there needs to be something that make it feel like a fairytale, and not like a story inspired by fairytales. But honestly... this is deep down really, really hard to draw a line as it mostly comes to personal definitions and appreciations. The genre of fairytales is vast and blurry, as it covers traditional European folktales and a specific short literary genre first, but was then expanded to cover other literary works and non-European folktales - and so the lines are... muddled.

I do not hesitate to say that "Over the Garden Wall" is actually a modern fairytale, as seeing the show made me literaly feel again the same kind of feeling I had when I first discovered fairytales. But I can understand why people would consider it "fairytale fantasy" rather than a "modern fairytale" because it was made with the intent of it being a children show and fantasy show first and foremost. Dahl stories are definitively "modern fairytales" - but the fact they are set in "modern day" and a grounded reality where the supernatural is not supposed to exist can disqualify them from being traditional fairytales ; or the humor and parody and play with the fairytale codes can also create a distanciating humor that make them fairytale subversions or pastiches or parodies rather than fairytales. Pinocchio has everything that fits a literary fairytale - but its format also evokes old "story-cycles" like the Reynard adventures or Gargantua ones, and its lack of simplicity and uniformity, or rather its long, flowing nature can also disqualify it from being a fairytale and rather make it a fairytale-inspired fantasy....

Honestly the narrowest definition you can have of "fairytale" is: printed works that explicitely designate themselves as such, from collected folktales (Grimm) to literary fiction written to emulate and imitate them (Andersen). This is the most narrow definition you can have. But then, one can expand to include all folktales that inspired fairytales ; or on the other side, one can push into the literary direction, to include stories that do not have the fairytale format, but that were so heavily inspired and shaped after fairytales, and gained such a popular influence and widespread presence, that they became "modern fairytales". But then this also opens the door to questions such as "What is a myth?" or "What about literary myths?" (like Faust or Don Juan or Frankenstein, all those famous "literary myths" as we call them in French).

As you can see by this convoluted answer, it is not a clear-cut question and nobody can truly answer it. Everybody will have a different opinion, and there is no real limit. The question mostly defines in how the work label itself. Perrault and Grimm and Andersen works called themselves fairytales, so there is no doubt about it. But take Neil Gaiman's Stardust - an iconic of fairytale fantasy, and yet Gaiman refers to it as a "romance in Faerie", evoking more the genre of fantastical and supernatural romances (medieval-meaning of the sense) like "The Well at World's End" and others - and the work is also very inspired by fantasy fae stories with a vague proto-urban fantasy feel to it, like "Lug-in-Mist". Same thing with the movie "Legend" which is definitively inspired by fairytales and a fairytale-fantasy, but was sold as a "fantasy movie" or even "heroic fantasy" movie first and foremost. Meanwhile the Oz books were intended by Baum to be a "modern, American fairytale" - even though their novel format and their franchise nature removes the idea they can become as "traditional" as the folktales he meant to imitate...

I'll stop there for now, but long story short: It's complicated, and when in doubt, don't hesitate to refer to intermediary terms like "children fantasy" or "fairytale fantasy", which clearly evoke modern fictional works and can highlight a difference with classic literary fairytales or folkloric fairytales, without rejecting the idea these "modern fairytales" aren't fairytales in their own right.

What are your thoughts on TotK so far?

[spoiler alert obviously don't keep reading if you don't want this]

-Gloom hands are the absolute best I love them so much never stop being horrible

-Gleeoks are nice. good to see them again. like the new look.

-Admittedly not completely wild about the fuse system but Kohga attacks you with a car and it's fun to watch people build all the looney tunes contraptions people make

-Can't believe they finally dropped Zelda's fursona only to make it a dimension of torment for her. I love the light dragon but can't Zelda have a dragon break rather than a dragon breakdown.

-In seriousness with the fake Zelda running around it could be an interesting twist if everyone believes the light dragon is hostile because it keeps randomly dive-bombing people while a Zelda who is lucid but unable to communicate is trying to chase people away from her impostor.

-Related to a prior point I like to think the Koroks kind of enjoy being yeeted. they're prankster forest spirits. this has to be at least a little bit fun.

-I'm not keen on Kilton in the first place and I don't think we needed Kilton 2: Worse Kilton. I don't like how every NPC in TLOZ that doesn't look completely conventionally attractive is increasingly signaled as either an evil overlord or a funny idiot you shouldn't respect or take seriously. I do not want to watch these clowns dance for me as a reminder to not take any sort of interest in monsters seriously. This is a vibes based thing and is not limited to the designs. I feel like you could keep those designs as-is and salvage the vibes but I'm not quite sure how.

-Narratively, Tears of the Kingdom feels suffused with a specific kind of old man sadness that he is No Longer Hip With The Kids (and this is not gender-specific but the predominant gender of the mouthpieces it is given ingame must be noted) without making any concessions to what The Kids actually care about so Rauru is here because they heard you didn't like Rhoam so now there's a super cool hip with-it dad who never yells at Zelda but also just like Rhoam his actions amount to failing her at a critical moment, leaving her alone to suffer, and then coming back as a ghost to implicitly give Link Daddy's Blessing to marry Zelda.

I want to like Rauru way more than I do because the Zonai's designs are fantastic, but I feel like the depiction of these "Sky Gods" and their role in history ends up patronizing the hell out of both the Zonai and everybody else, but especially the non-hyrulean vassal states where the Zonai are made out to be needless fairy godmothers when they have all the hallmarks of a dying people 10,000 years ago, we can only imagine Rauru's legacy was whitewashed to hell and back considering how central Hyrule positions its non-Hylian allies, But Then Also the Zonai are so beautiful and smart they created everything with their inherent superiority and if the gerudo, zora, gorons, or rito have any meaningful cultural legacy no they didn't the Zonai did this for/with them.

Also can we please not physically put the arm of the king with its power to command things and space on Link's body. This feels like a twofer desecrating Rauru even further by disembodying him down to only the useful part of him and also literally making Link just a bodily platform for the King's Authority. no we're not gonna empower YOUR hand we're gonna hack it off while you're unresponsive to make room for the real kingly authority. We've been doing this since Wind Waker and the quiet part feels like it's getting louder.

-I love Gloom I love the Depths. on the one hand yes they could afford to be a little more Actual Cave Like but as it is it kind of sends the vibe of like, a prior surface that sunk downward into the earth. The idea of moving up as well as down, this sort of heaven-and-hell motifs, are kinda great.

-As afraid as I was of this version of Ganondorf being made out to be a puppet/pawn/disciple of Demise I was actually very, very pleased to see the man just straight up eat Demise's lunch in every conceivable way. Even his demon king form which feels the closest to aping Demise replaces the primal pyroclast vibes with that saturated blood color. Demise feels like a primal titan- Ganondorf feels like a Persephone stained with the fruits of the underworld. I love his designs I love his vibes I love what they did with him. This is SUCH a good return to 'letting Ganondorf be a person rather than a screaming rage cloud'.

Literally the only thing I don't like is I think his tiny dinky oni horns are silly and he didn't need them. that's it.

-I mentioned Kohga but I'm so glad Kohga just decided that since he fell down a hole he Lives There Now.

-the like likes are excellent. If you are sensing a pattern here it's that I'm very fond of the creature design. You begin to see why I'm frustrated with Kilton and Kilton 2: Worse Kilton. Just let me hang out with the horriblins. have you seen them.

-Ok I don't really like that they had a "here, idiot, this is how you make a functional weapon" angle to giving Conspicuously Weapon Shaped horns on all the main monsters so you can just harvest them to make spears or hammers or such. This is part of the part of Fuse I'm not keen on.

-did we really need zonai device gachapons. they were not being at all subtle about how toyetic this new mechanic was, to the point of it feeling kinda immersion breaking. how seriously are we supposed to take this. Zelda is over there doing the anime fisheye stare. This is the last surviving legacy of a dead people. We are capable of recreating the Guardian Massacre from BOTW onto random blins now. But whee. Car go brrrr.

-TLOZ Please Stop Adding Gimmick Robot Characters That Obviously Have Feelings But Are Also Slavishly Bound To A Purpose Long After It's Useful To Anyone And Were Made That Way By Heroic Guys We Are Supposed To Root For And This Isn't Framed As A Problem, and other songs by Fall Out Boy,

-Yona is a good character and I like her, Sidon is allowed to be bisexual

-this isn't unique to TOTK or originating there but I have a little petty rage in my heart that goron rock food is just... comedy cartoon meat but made of rocks. I hate it. expose us to an entirely alien concept of cuisine. Make me yearn to eat bismuth knowing my human limitations would fail me. I was thinking about this the entire Marbled Rock Roast plot.

WHAT IS THERE TO ROAST

IT'S ROCKS

HEAT CANNOT ALTER THE PROPERTIES OF ROCKS WITHOUT EITHER MELTING THEM OR TURNING THEM INTO A WHOLE DIFFERENT ROCK

-I think Evermeans are good and we should live in fear of resource-useful setpieces more often. there should be hostile jar mimics next. Wind Waker had enemies popping out of jars but also you could get the drop on them by breaking the jar like normal, and that fails the mimic test of "am I now afraid to perform Ordinary Actions in places I'm not sure are safe"

Hey do you think fairy godmothers exist in the world of twisted wonderland like.

If your life is going to hell can one day a lady just appear and turn your zucchini into a Prius and your boots into bronze.

They probably only show up more around RSA.

A possibility has entered my head of

A school dance event that yuu (and maybe the other first years too) can’t attend for Crowley related reasons leaving them with only grim and the ghosts.

Dejected they sit outside wishing they could attend with all their friends when

BOOM

A random fairy lady just bursts onto their property like.

“No need for sorrow dear child for I-“

“WHO ARE YOU!?”

Cue one screaming and a in game battle later

The fairy gets a chance to explain that she’s a fairy godmother

‘for those who give but never recieve one wish guaranteed!’

At first the two are suspicious since a random stranger just popped up not wearing any kind of NCR uniform and is offering them free stuff.

“I want to go home!” “I wouldn’t mind some way back to my world if possible?” (Two options)

But sadly the godparent(?) cant actually do that even if they tried but they can do lots of other stuff too!

“Well how about a way to go to the party!”

“Woah henchman! Are we really just going to trust some random stranger this is to good to be true!”

“I heard that they’ll be an all you can eat buffet.”

“..Ok Henchman I the great Grim say let’s hear them out!”

The fairy uses their magic {bippity bop-pity boo}

To make a transport for them out a broom into a broomicycle. With a lil basket for grim at the front of it.

The ghosts get their own transformation with getting fancy outfits to accompany the students.

And of course yuu and grim get matching outfits

And helmets FOR SAFETY and drive off where more shenanigans will ensue.

This time on Ellisa's Pokémon mythconceptions (a working title), we're talking about some ghost type Pokémon that unfortunately are often misunderstood, and abandoned after the spooky season.

The Gastly line:

The Gastly pokedex entry about it being born of toxic gas and spirits is.. debated, to say the least. Although it is true that they are capable of killing, they're quite shy in the wild, and incidents of human death by Gastly are few and far between. Additionally, being licked by a Haunter won't necessarily make you ill or kill you (some say it tingles when their partner shows affection), and Gengars' curses are usually harmless pranks. They have dangerous defense mechanisms to protect themselves, but they don't go out of their way to hurt anyone. They're also quite intelligent and make really great companions if you take the time to build trust with them! Plus their gaseous bodies can come in handy in all sorts of situations; I've heard plenty of stories from forgetful trainers who's ghost type Pokémon slipped through the wall to help when they locked themselves out of the house, or helping investigate the terrorist organizations in different regions.

The Duskull line:

Duskull's Dex entry isn't an old wives tale like many others. Indeed they are known to whisk away crying children and tirelessly persue victims, but things aren't always what they seem. These little ghosts watch over children like fairy godmothers, and if their child is mistreated, they try to take the child away from the situation. Either they succeed, and become young trainers, or they get caught, and the Duskull haunts whoever hurt the kid for forever. Both of its evolutions do indeed have hollow bodies, and while things can get lost in their little pocket dimensions, these pokemon are also really great at holding onto important items. This whole line makes great service Pokémon, doing everything from nanny work to assisting disabled trainers to caring for elderly. They are very kind and patient, capable of telling medications apart, remembering schedules, and can lift nearly any weight. Many nursing homes employ Dusknoir, since its believed that they help guide spirits and ease the transition to death.

Mimikyu

Because they hate to be seen, and start making their own costumes at a young age, Mimikyu are often found paired with Leavanny. The grass type will teach Mimikyu how to sew when they are young, after finding them crying over a torn costume. These two species work well together in the fashion industry and on the contest scene. The pairing has helped increase Mimikyu's popularity, however they aren't all fashion inclined. All they really want is love and support, so don't be afraid to get to know one!

SONG ANALYSIS TIME :))) Changing it up a bit here in terms of characters. You're Not Welcome by Naethan Apollo is both Cap and Pat. (still mostly cap tho)

The first fuckin verse is...i mean

I don't start fights but I'll handle you just fine Usually I'm very kind to others But I won't think twice if you step to me or mine You're a slimy little motherfucker

If that ain't Pat punching Damien idfk what is. And yeah ofc the man can get a lil annoyed sometimes but the "Usually i'm very kind to others" is literally Pat. My man out here punching a mf for Cap like the fuckin king he is <3

First half of the chorus was basically everyone at the party towards Damien (although Fanny was the one to kick him out)

Uh oh, don't you know? You're not welcome 'round here I think you should go 'Fore you cause some drama

except of course...he causes drama >:(

Uh oh, don't you know? I'm the one you should fear Talk to me if you've got a problem

Pat once again going to punch Damian. And Fanny chucking him out. (legends <3)

And now we get to Cap :)

I can't believe you used to truly scare me

Ofc this would be after everything's happened and Cap has resolved some internal shit.

You were like a ghost story told to keep me wary But I never listened, no, I slept good 'til morning And when our paths finally crossed I didn't heed the warning

This I guess is more Cap continuing to sleep with the cunt despite the fact that part of him knew Damien didn't care about him. But it's not that same tone like in Honey (BTR).

Then push, push, push, push Yeah, you pushed me to the edge I used to dread the thought of falling quickly

The pushing to edge bit reminds me of Cap finding out Damian was married and also the way he treated Cap in bed when they were "together" just using him and shit. And then the last line, Cap's insecurity about finding someone good and falling for the wrong person. (screaming and crying why do you write such good angst)

But now, I just wish that you'd send me off that ledge So I can finally fucking take you with me

Probably Cap after the party when he leaves. All those emotions and he lashes out at his new friends even tho ofc it's Damien who riled him up. He probably woulda preferred going off at Damian than his friends but when you're in emotional turmoil you can do wack shit. (get this man therapy) And also the fact he didn't wanna cause more of a scene at the party than what was already happening. (the way he comforted kitty while he was literally being choked mygod) (charlie predicted fairy godmother cap)

Anyways yeah, Pat (and Fanny) featured in a song analysis :) God those first two lines are so Pat after punching Damien. As he should. King <3

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk :)

(also i forget which but one of the 'TEDTalks' i typed out while tipsy at like 2:30am and i would've slept but i knew if i didn't send it then my ADHD ass would just be like...nahhhhh for the next several months. yeah. gonna go figure out which one it was rn)

broooo you KNOW I absolutely love your TEDTalks about song analysis!! everything fits so well with the scenes you're talking about (also I really enjoy the album cover art for the song!!)

I see the specific scenes and characters that you've noticed in Lost then Found but I would also like to raise you: Cap and Pat's early relationship/rivalry/whatever they've got going on in Adored. I just think it's got the right vibe of them driving each other absolutely crazy and also the wildly inaccurate view that they had of each other ("you were like a ghost story told to keep me wary"). It also works for Pat, "I'm usually very kind to others" 👀 because the running idea in Adored that Cap often comes back to is that Pat is So nice to everyone else but not him.

Once again, always love to read your analysis!! Thank you for sending this!! ❤️❤️

thank u to @korre for tagging me in this one!! i'm esp delighted about the fantasy edition 👀

This or that

hot shower or cold shower // texting or calling // earbuds or headphones (headphones give me headaches so even tho most earbuds don’t fit my ears i reluctantly have to pick them) // paperback or hardcover // matte or gel // 12 hour clock or 24 hour clock (sorry) // blue or green // sunsets or sunrises // tulips or orchids // candle light or moonlight // sci-fi or horror // pen or pencil // pandas or koalas // gold or silver // sneakers or boots // denim jacket or leather jacket (fake leather jacket i bought for a jason todd cosplay, my beloved) // pink or purple // chocolate or sour candy // deodorant or perfume // drive-in movie theater or the cinema (i’ve never been to a drive-in! i feel like a fake american midwesterner lol) // pastel colors or neutral earth tones // lemonade or fruit juice (bless this tag game for not asking about other kinds of drink. i pretty much only drink juice or lemonade) // past or future //

This or that - fantasy edition

spell or curse ∙ abandoned mansion or haunted cemetery ∙ vampire slayer or ghost hunter (WHO YA GONNA CALL—ahem. i’m sorry again.) ∙ phoenix or griffin ∙ wrist bite or neck bite (sorry @ wenzhou but i’m too much of a sucker for vampires) ∙ fairy godmother or evil stepmother ∙ herbs or potion ∙ ghost or wraith ∙ dragon scales or werewolf claws ∙ druid or mage ∙ elf or hobbit ∙ divination or necromancy (i have a dnd-related grudge against divination lmao) ∙ wand magic or hand magic ∙ centaur or unicorn ∙ dark fairytale or disney-style fairytale ∙ sword or bow & arrow ∙ siren or water nymph (i do NOT know the difference here) ∙ garlic or silver ∙ talking animal or walking tree ∙ demon trap or crossroads pact ∙ enchanted fairy forest or mermaid lagoon

again. idk who hasn’t been tagged but if you see this and wanna do it: be free! tag me in it so i can see :D

Cindy Part 6

To read previous chapters, please check out my masterpost.

This is the part where I tell you that my initial narrative intentions regarding the queen were a fucked up mutant of “Cinderella should have more positive feminine presences because the Fairy Godmother isn’t in the story very long and evil stepfam creates a very fucked up narrative with regard to femininity!” But that ended up getting mixed up with me just… loving milfs. So like, the thought process here was essentially: “Oh, the queen could be a really kind and positive influence for Cindy!” And “God I love milfs so much. The queen has to be a milf. She can’t not be a milf.”

Also going against the tradition of previous chapters, and for the sake of timeliness and my liver, I wrote significant portions of this chapter sober. But I’m posting it drunk, just so it has the final approval of Drunk Me.

So, keeping that in mind, I give you this next chapter.

—---

The prince is draped across a cushy and appropriate fainting couch, it’s been about… 3 days since all of the glassworkers have been called into the palace and he is distraught. But with this whole, “literally no glassworker in the kingdom has ever seen anything like this slipper before (and at least one was convinced the slipper is cursed)” thing, he’s hit a dead end in the investigation. He also felt guilty about calling the glassworkers here when they all thought they’d be commissioned for something so he hasn’t really dismissed them saying, “I don’t know, make a chandelier or a greenhouse or something.”

Like, I need you to understand the whole “every girl in the kingdom claiming the shoe is hers should try on the shoe” approach was very much a last resort, at least in the Prince’s mind. In fact, news about the shoe hasn’t even left palace grounds yet. Hell, not even the king knows, which has been a very high priority for the Prince. He’s still trying to keep things low-key even though he’s clearly going full Hamlet—wearing fucking all black, sighing dramatically all the time, and pacing very quickly and muttering things under his breath that make the servants give him a wide berth and a wary side-eye in the palace hallways. The servants are muttering about mystery girl, too—since the prince has questioned the staff so thoroughly, and since she made such a strong impression on a handful of them, they can’t exactly help speculating. And Brad, under orders from the prince, has told the staff, “look, don’t bring this up to the king, he’s um… very busy. The prince can handle this.” And then the servants look back at the prince who is currently the saddest, wettest, most pathetic prince they’ve ever seen and they’re like, “…right.”

The king has mildly noticed the Prince’s transformation, but he’s basically under the impression of, “Oh he’s just being dramatic after that ball that he was complaining so much about. I had a goth phase, too. I’ll just give him space until he pulls himself together.”

So it’s business as usual at the palace but it’s business as usual with the weirdest fucking vibes ever and the Prince is draped over the fainting couch like “Brad she’s going to die and it’s going to be all my fault.”

“Or she’s going to get away with state secrets and it’s going to be all my fault,” says Brad. Brad pauses for a second, “Why do you think she’s going to die?”

“I don’t know if she’s alive!” The prince throws his hands up.

“…is this part of that ‘she was actually a ghost’ theory that’s been floating around the servants, because I still think that my neural agent theory is far more—”

Then a servant bursts through the doors of the prince’s quarters.

“Highness!” The servant blurts out, “There’s a pirate at the gates!”

“Pirate?” The prince glances up and he rushes over to the palace window. Indeed, just outside the gates there is a gorgeous-looking pirate with the hat, the coat, the thigh-high boots, everything. But there’s something familiar about her expression. Patient, regal… Wait—Regal? “Mum!” The prince blurts out and races down the stairs, barking orders at servants as he goes with Brad hurrying after him. Several footmen race ahead and open the palace gates and in strides the queen through the garden. She pretty much kicks the palace doors open and calls, “Darling, I’m home!” to the foyer, where there’s several glassworkers gathered around a small temporary worktable. The queen has two massive treasure chests under each arm dripping with gold and jewels with the slightest movement. She tilts her head at them with a slight ‘Hm’ and they all stare at her awkwardly until the prince cries out “Mum!” at the top of the stares, and then there’s a collective ‘Oh shit’ from the glassworkers as they recognize that this person in the sexy pirate outfit does in fact look very much like the portrait right behind them, and they all take a knee with a muttered, “Your majesty” as the queen sweeps into the foyer.

“Hullo, dear,” says the queen looking up at the prince, “I hope you weren’t too worried—”

The prince is stammering as he descends the stairs, “Well, to be honest, I probably should have been more worried—“

“God, just like your father…” the queen says with an eye-roll, “You know I have contingencies—”

“I know,” the prince says awkwardly.

Brad steps forward. “Your majesty, do you need help with—”

“Oh so lovely of you to offer, Brad,” says the queen, more or less shoving one of the treasure chests into his arms,

“I meant—” Brad starts but she stacks the other treasure chest on top of the first, “It’s—my pleasure—your majesty—“ he grunts under the treasure chests.

“I can always count on a strapping gentleman like you,” the queen smiles before whirling to face the prince. “Now, Chaz,” the Queen says, (another important point: only the king can call the prince ‘Chuck’ and only the Queen can call the prince ‘Chaz’,) “Do you care to explain to me why there are five glassworkers in our foyer?”

“I summoned them,” says the prince.

The queen looks mildly impressed because the Prince really doesn’t get out a lot. “Oh! For what?”

“Well.. I… thought they could… design a new chandelier? Or maybe a greenhouse.”

“Oh you know your father loves his chandeliers or greenhouses,” the queen is tossing off her sick pirate coat and a servant is fucking diving to catch it.

“He wanted us to look at a shoe!” One of the glassworkers pipes up.

“That shoe ain’t right…” mutters another glassworker.

“Shoe?” The queen arches an eyebrow, handing her giant feathered pirate hat off to a curtsying maid.

“Mum, you must be exhausted after all those pirates put you through—” the prince takes the queen by the forearm and is very quickly leading her away from the glassworkers and into a parlor, while Brad awkwardly lumbers after them, barely able to see over the stacked treasure chests and turning beet red with the strain.

“Privateers,” the queen holds up a finger.

“What?”

“They’re privateers now. Our privateers. Lovely chaps. Quite fond of musical theater.”

“…right…”

“What’s this about a shoe?”

“Oh you don’t need to worry about that or the glassworkers. Just a… little side project?”

“Mm,” the queen tilts her head at her son.

“But after all you’ve been through—” the prince starts but the queen motions to one of the servants.

“Would you draw me a bath, please?” and the servant nods and runs off. “Chaz,” she says, flopping back onto one of the parlor couches, “I won’t bore you with all the sword fights, homoerotic power struggles, drama, heartbreak, and musical numbers. Mostly, I’m just concerned with what I’ve missed. And I have a strong feeling I’ve missed an awful lot.”

“Well.. Dad…had… this one party…” the prince starts.

“Oh my welcome back party! I knew he had his heart set on it, poor thing… How was it?”

“It was—” The prince nearly says, ‘Terrible at first but then it was most amazing party ever and now it is also the bane of my existence, it’s very complicated and I’m in the middle of something that might be the most important thing in my life—I’m not sure but it feels like it.’ But he catches himself. “It was… um… uneventful.”

“Dearest?”

The queen perks up to see the king in the doorway to the parlor. She pushes herself up from the couch, “Oh Darling!”

And the prince just kind of glances off and twiddles his thumbs awkwardly while his parents throw themselves into a passionate, kiss-littered embrace, sentences barely making it out between kisses like,

“Oh, my love, were the pirates terrible?”

“Privateers, now. And they were perfect gentlemen. But the worst part was being apart from you, darling. Now you simply must tell me about the party you threw! Chaz was just telling me about it.”

“Oh yes, the ball! Every family of fashion in the kingdom was invited, he had a massive line of potential partners.”

The queen gives a steady, cool glance back to the Prince like, ‘That doesn’t sound uneventful, boy,’ before glancing back to the king and smoothing his hair, saying, “Oh darling, you know that’s an awful lot to put on our poor Chaz, he’s sensitive—”

“Well, we’ve talked about this! You know he can’t carry on the way he has. He’s a grown man, now!”

“He’s also in the room,” says the prince, a bit sullenly. Brad is turning purple in the face with strain at this point, still holding the two treasure chests.

“But I suppose it doesn’t matter, because when I was off checking in with the older lords in the smoking room, he just… disappeared from the whole party.”

“Disappeared?” The queen looks at the prince.

“It… all got a bit overwhelming!” said the Prince, brightening up and nervously trying to laugh things off.

“You could have given me some warning, Chuck!” the king blusters, “I was stuck spending the rest of the night convincing furious ladies that their daughters were in fact very pretty and then having to play rapid-fire matchmaker with any eligible bachelors present to make sure the whole thing didn’t fall into—into—wig-snatching, champagne-splashing, anarchy!”

A quiet wincing sound of strain, close in pitch to a kettle whistling, is now escaping Brad, still holding the treasure chests.

“But what does all this have to do with glassworkers and a shoe?” The Queen taps her chin thoughtfully.

“Oh that?” The prince straightens up in his seat, “Just—totally unrelated. Just a side project like I—”

Both treasure chests clatter to the floor with a clatter and a thud and the tinkling and ringing of spilling gold and jewels as the Captain of the Guard blurts out, “The prince slipped off from the party with a mysterious girl who held his attention nearly the entire night, but she fled the party at midnight. But now he can’t remember anything identifiable about her. Nor can any of the staff who interacted with her. Our only clue as to who she is, is the glass slipper she left. Which is why the prince brought in the glassworkers in the hopes of one of them identifying the shoe and telling him who they made it for. But none of them could. So we’re kind of back at square one.” He’s panting, still pink-faced.

And there’s a long pause in the room.

“Brad,” the prince says, “What the fu—”

“You said not to say a word to the king, you didn’t say anything about the queen,” Brad is still trying to catch his breath.

“You were with a girl all night?!” The king cuts in.

“Not all night, she left at midnight!” The prince blurts out.

“That’s basically all night,” mutters Brad.

“What was her name?” asks the queen.

And the prince opens his mouth like, oh he should absolutely have an answer ready for that but he just makes a short, half-squeaking “eh—” sound and new horror washes over his face. “Sheeee.... never said,” he says slowly.

“So… you don’t remember any identifying features, you don’t have a name, and all you have is a shoe?” The queen muses, “Well she must have made a very strong impression.”

“He did call her the love of his life,” Brad offers and the prince shoots him a look like ‘Brad I swear to god if I didn’t know you could kick my ass 6 ways to next Tuesday I would fucking destroy you right now.’

“AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!?” the King is pressing the heels of his hands to his forehead.

“BECAUSE I KNEW YOU’D BLOW IT UP AND MAKE IT A HUGE DEAL!” the prince throws his hands up.

“IT IS A HUGE DEAL! IT’S THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE!”

The queen loudly clears her throat and both the king and the prince catch themselves.

“Remember your blood pressure, darling,” the Queen gives the king a gentle pat on the head.

“Look,” the prince takes a steadying breath, “Just… the way she took off, she looked really scared.”

“Possibly because she committed a crime,” Brad peppers in.

“Brad,” the prince says in warning.

“Just doing my job, your highness,” Brad mutters.

“So…I do want to find her,” the prince turns back to the King and queen, “I have to find her. But if I do it the wrong way, I—I could mess something up and never find her, do you understand?”

“Chaz,” the queen says, gently touching the side of the prince’s face, “I can’t tell you how much it thrills me that someone would inspire this… this passion in you.”

The prince reddens a little at the word ‘passion.’

“But I have to ask—” the Queen keeps that steady, gentle tone of voice, “You understand that loving someone isn’t the same as wanting to save them, don’t you?”

“I know…” the prince says, glancing down, “But… the way she talks, the way she acts… she doesn’t think twice about helping people. And I swear, Mum, something felt off, like really off. I need to find her. If anything, just to make sure she’s okay. The way she treated me… I don’t think she’d hesitate to do the same if our places were switched.”

One corner of the queen’s mouth quirks affectionately at her son. “Well, if you feel so strongly about it, I’m willing to trust your judgment. However, I won’t have anymore of this—this…” she flails a hand, “’Sneaking around’ nonsense. Asking poor Brad and our dear loyal staff to keep secrets between the family? That’s simply not fair to put on them.”

“Well-put, your majesty,” Brad says, and the prince gives him a ‘yeah you WOULD say that, asshole’ look.

“And you can bet that we’ll do all we can to help you find this girl as well!” says the King.

“That’s… Greeeaaaaaat…” the prince is forcing a smile.

“My Lady?” A maid stands in the doorway and curtsies, “Your bath is ready.”

“Oh perfect timing,” says the queen walking off towards her and rolling her shoulders as the maid briskly walks off. The queen hesitates in the doorway before looking back at the king and prince, “And I don’t want you two arguing about this!”

And the prince and the king are talking over each other as she walks off.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, dearest!”

“Oh, mum, I’d never—”

“Why this is my flesh and blood we’re talking about—”

“Two peas in a pod!”

“Mm-hmm,” The queen walks off and the prince and the king listen to the footsteps of her kickass thigh-high boots down the hallway.

“Okay,” the prince draws in a steadying breath before pressing his knuckles to his forehead, “So now you know. But I am begging you. Begging you. Please don’t make this a huge ridiculous thing.”

“Huge ridiculous thing?” the king huffs, “Why would I make it a huge ridiculous thing? I don’t make things into huge ridiculous things.”

“You literally turned Mom’s ‘could-have-been-canceled-welcome-back-party’ into some giant matchmaking clusterfuck.”

“Where you met the love of your life! You’re welcome, by the way!”

“I--you--that’s--!”

“He has a point,” Brad pipes in.

“Oh—-pick up the damn treasure chests, Brad!” The prince storms off, leaving Brad and the king.

“So dramatic..” The king puts his hands on his hips, “You know, his mother was just as much of a firecracker at his age, too.”

Brad glances at the king and points to the treasure chests. “Er—Can I get another guy on this—?”

“Of course you can get another guy on that,” the king pats his shoulder.

“…you’re going to make it a huge ridiculous thing, aren’t you?” Brad says after a beat.

“Sir Brad, I am your King. I wouldn’t dream of making it a huge ridiculous thing. Oh--by the way--when you’re done with that, find Gabe the Valet and you two go find me all the criers for every town, village, and hamlet in the country.”

Ember

Tony Stark X Daughter!Reader 

Warning: Child neglect, swearing, angst, death 

Summary: After being kidnapped by Hydra, Y/N does some reflecting on her home life. Especially her relationship with her father

italics = past pov

Bold= thoughts

Italic bold= ghosts 

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

You never thought your life would end like this. Alone, trapped in a Hydra cell, full of anger and resentment for the one man who was never supposed to break your heart. Of course, up until now you had been pretty optimistic your father would realize the error of his ways and miraculously spend years making up for years of missed recitals, ignored achievements, and multiple other offenses. You always forgave him because, hey the man was a member of the Avengers, what should you expect having Tony Stark as a father? 

But right now, as you lay on the cold, damp floor, writhing in pain from whatever glowey nuclear shit those assholes injected you with, you can’t help but remember the mistreatment and neglect bestowed upon you by your father. 

It was, it was September Winds blow, dead leaves fall

You’ll always remember that September day. The day your entire life had changed 

You were only eight when Loki tried to take over New York. You and your mom were coming home from the store when all of a sudden, people around you started to panic. Looking up, you saw a large portal in a once clear blue sky. Creatures appeared out of no where, destroying anything in their way. Your mother, terrified, took you by the hand and headed for a near by building. But, it seemed that others had that idea as well. Before you knew it, your vision was overwhelmed by the bodies of citizens trying to escape the chaos outside. After a few seconds, you found yourself in a crowed parking garage and no idea where your mother was.

You never saw her again after that.

After three days of searching, the police declared her dead and you were sent to live with your godmother, Pamela Isely. 

She was good to you. She held you through nightmares, told you stories about how your mother and her met, and even taught you how to take care of plants. The only complaint you had was that she would usually leave you alone every once in a while and come back with a lot of money, and occasionally, a loud blonde woman in a clown costume would come through the window and pinch your cheeks too hard. Other than that, you got adjusted to your new life quickly.

Four months passed and your life changed again. It was a cold September day, and you had just got home from school. As you walked into the apartment, you immediately felt a tension in the air, and you saw a man at the table with your Aunty Pam, who looked extremely uneasy and pale. They stared at you until your Aunt spoke.

“Y/N...you’re going back to New York.”

Those words alone made the floor fall from underneath you. You had just settled down. You finally felt comfortable without your mother in the world and now this?? Then the man cleared his throat, causing you to snap back into reality. 

“Y/n, my name is Tony Stark”

 You knew that name, he was the man in the metal suit who helped save New York. You didn’t care at the moment though, you just wanted to know why you were leaving your aunt.

Ignoring Tony, you looked at your aunt and whispered,

 “ Did...did I do something wrong?” 

Immediately, Pams eyes filled with tears as she quickly gathered you in her arms and responded with a loud, 

“Oh no, darling of course not”, She then proceeded to tell you the uncomfortable looking man at the table was in fact your father, who up till now you had never met. In fact, you never even fathomed the idea of having a father as your mom had always told you that you were a gift from some fairies she helped. You turned to the man who quietly sat at the table and looked over the man who was said to be your father.

He was definitely a handsome man. He wore a fancy looking suit and some tinted glasses even though he was inside. His hair was dark brown and messy, as if he was tugging or running his fingers through it. His skin looked to be am olive color but it was hard to tell as he looked kind of pale in the light of the small apartment you called home. You thought it was odd he hadn’t said anything other than introducing himself. 

“ Is it true? Are you really my dad?” You asked in a quiet voice.

He finally spoke, “Yeah kid, I’m your dad”

To you, I did surrender

Two weeks, you didn’t call

It’s been two weeks since you were taken by Hydra. Two weeks since you were injected with that mystery substance. You didn’t die, at least you don’t think you did. But you didn’t exactly feel alive either. You were colder than usual, like your body temperature lowered. You slept longer than normal especially the first three days after you were injected. The guards had to wake you up just to get you to eat. But the most worrying symptom of all is that your eyes were the same shade of neon blue as the liquid that was injected into your body. And everytime your eyes turned blue, something weird would happen. 

For example, the first time you noticed your eyes were blue, you woke up from the first long sleep.The second time, you thought you heard voices, screaming in agony and despair.This was odd because you were the only one in that cell block. As you came back to reality, you realized that you could see other ghostly figures in the once empty cells, and that you were floating three feet above your bed. 

Within the two weeks you were in that cell, you learned that that day you were injected, your heart did stop for an hour until you miraculously sprung back to life with a loud gasp, scaring the absolute shit out of the Hydra guards that were tasked with disposing your body. That would go through physical changes as well. Your once brown skin would change to a pale ghostly blue. And your black kinky hair would change to a shocking neon blue to match the color of your eyes.

For two weeks, you learned the ins and outs of your newfound powers. Two weeks of being pushed to your absolute limits by power hungry scientists. Two weeks of learning the names of the dead around you in those cells. 

It took two weeks, to realize that your father truly didn’t care about you.

And looking back on it, you should’ve known

Your life, goes on without me  My life, a losing game

It had been a year since you had moved into the Avengers Tower with your father. It had taken you a while to warm up to the team and for the team to get used to having a child around. But once you all got to know each other, it was like having multiple aunts and uncles. Especially because you were around them more than your own father. 

Unfortunately, once you had settled in and gotten to know everyone, Tony had locked himself away in his lab. Tinkering on a new project for weeks on end, ignoring his responsibilities as a new father.

Now, this didn’t really affect you till you started school. Tony had forgotten to pick you up multiple times, causing you to wait for hours on end till either Steve or Pepper realized that you hadn’t come home and rushed to the school , only to see you waiting on the front steps talking the ear off of the unlucky teacher who had to stay behind to wait with you.

Of course word got around that Y/N Stark was being forgotten at school everyday, thus prompting the kids at school to taunt you everyday after school.

“Where's your daddy Y/N??”

“I bet he leaves you here so you can get kidnapped so he doesn’t have to look at you”

“Your own dad doesn’t even love you”

Once you got to middle school, you joined as many after school clubs to hide the fact that there was no one to pick you up. And a small part hoped that it would be enough to gain your fathers attention. But it didn’t happen.

“Daddy! I made the volleyball team!”

“hmm, oh that's great kid, can you pass me that wrench”

“Dad! I’m in the robotics club”

“Y/N I’m really busy right now”

“ Hey dad...can you help me with--”

“Not now, go ask Pepper”

No matter what you did, you could never get his attention long enough. Nothing you did was good enough. You never got so much as a “welcome home” or a “ have a good day at school kiddo”. And you were fine with that. You were, because you knew that even though he didn’t show it, Tony Stark really did love you.

But you should, you should not doubt me You will remember my name.

After learning the extent of your powers, which included; flying,the ability to talk and see the dead, energy blasts, floating through walls, and the ability to shut off your powers at will. You decided it was time for you to make plans to escape. 

You’d like to think that you were really good at pretending. 

You did it on a daily basis, really. You pretended to be happy, not to notice Tony’s neglect, like you didn’t see the pity glances the rest of the team gave you. So convincing your captors that they finally broke you down wasn’t really a challenge. 

“....fine..i’ll help you” You said in a tired weak voice.

The two guards were startled at first, not expecting you to speak so suddenly

“You..what?” The younger of the two asked in a suspicious tone.

“I said I want to help you” you repeated a little louder. 

The first guard looked to the second, obviously confused at your sudden change of heart. They had a silent conversation with their eyes, as if debating on whether this was a trick or not. Finally, the older of the two turned to you and said,

“This better not be a trick, Stark.”

And with that, he started to unlock the door to your cell. 

“Okay, now I can either fight them now  and make a break for it, or I can wait till i get to the--” 

Your thoughts were cut off by a loud wailing, piecing your ears and automatically giving you a headache. Wincing in pain you look around the empty cell blocks and try to locate the spirit that’s making all that noise. When you see it, your heart breaks. It’s a young boy, around your age. The first thing you notice about him is that he had white hair, kinda Danny Phantom. As you continued to stare at the boy, his head suddenly turned and you both made eye contact, the movement startling you enough to make you jerk in the hold of the guards

“ HEY, eyes forward!” shouted the older guard. “There's no way out, if that's what you're looking for’ He said in a smug tone.

“I said I wanted to join you, why would I want to escape?” You reply, irritation dripping from your words.

“Just don’t pull any tricks kid.”

God does he have any other lines, you think to yourself mentally rolling your eyes. Sounds familiar.

Oh Ember, you will remember

Oh Ember, one thing remains

“Y/N I’m busy, go as--” “I know, go ask Pepper”

“Oh kid, I’m sorry I forgot” “ yeah, I know”

“You’re on the volleyball team” “ yes dad. For four years now”

“Y/N! I’m gonna be in the lab with Peter so try not to bother us.”

“Y/N me and Peter--”

“Good job, Peter”

“Hey Peter--”

God were you tired of that name. You never ever felt the feeling of envy and anger as much as you did when Peter came into your life. 

In fact, you were still healing from almost losing your family you found in the Avengers. Your dad didn’t want you around the “traitors” as he privately called them, so you were secluded. Watching them from afar and yearning for the comfort of hearing Steves pre-war stories, helping Clint pull off the most ridiculous pranks, helping Wanda teach Vision how to cook, and most of all you missed talking to Natasha. She reminded you of your aunt Pam, mainly because they both had red hair. You hoped that your father would understand this loss and step up now that you really needed a connection, but no. He decided that Peter Parker deserved all his attention. So you stopped trying as hard.

Oh Ember, So warm and tender You will remember my name

You walk into a room with a singular table and no windows. Sat at the table was a bald man writing in a notebook. The two guards lead you to the table and make you sit opposite of the bald man. He looks up at you and smiles.

“So, Ms. Stark has finally decided to comply?” He asks in a smug tone. You roll your eyes and answer back in a sarcastic tone,

“Yeah yeah, just cut the crap and tell me what you want me to do.”

The bald man just smiles and looks at you, as if trying to read your mind to figure out your motives. 

“Well”, he says, leaning back into his chair. “Lets get down to business.” He then proceeds to talk about the process of join his team and what you will be doing. But you don’t hear a word of it. Because you were going to escape this hell hole one way or another. 

“Well then, lets get you changed.” said the bald man. “Yeager, Jennings, take our guest to to her new room. 

“Huh so they do have names.” You think, as they pull you out of the chair and into the hallway. Walking back into the cell block, you make eye contact with that white haired boy again. He’s quiet as he watches you walk back to your room, then he disappears. 

You finally get back to your cell and notice a pair of black spandex, black halter top, grey boots and some black gloves on the floor. Changing into them, you take your hair into a pineapple with a hair tie they had given you. Looking into the piece of metal you used as a mirror, you changed into your ghost form. Suddenly, you hear a male voice behind you.

“Don’t let them know you can do that.” 

You startle and turn around, only to see none other than the white haired boy. He looked equally as startled as he realized you can see and hear him. 

“Why not?” you asked, changing back to your normal self.

“Because, they won’t ever let you leave.You’re already the first one to survive the injection. If they realize you can go ghost, they’ll do everything in their power to control you.”

Your mind flashed to Bucky. How Steve told you that they kept him. Brainwashing him over and over till he just became a weapon. You were not going to let them do that to you. You looked back at the boy.

“Can you help me get out of here?” you asked hopefully. The boy looked at you and said, 

“Well I’ve got nothing else to do.” You let go a sigh of relief. You were about to say something when you heard Yeager and Jennings walking down the hallway.

“They’re coming” You whisper, “ what do I do?”

“This base is small. All the people here are the only ones who know about it. They’re all going to be in the training room you’re being taken to. Wait till you get there, phase into the floor to the basement and blow up the heater. That should cause the whole building to cave in” 

You again don’t get to respond, as the two men finally get to your cell and unlock it. You walk out of the cell, head held high and allow them to lead you to the training room. Despite the look of confidence, you were dreading the next few moments. 

“So how come I’m the only one here?” you ask, even though you know the answer. The older guard looks at you and says

“You’re the only one who survived.” You fake a look of shock and look forward as if the news made you uneasy. And it did. It made you mad that these people didn’t care that they were murdering innocent people. They couldn’t hear the cries and the wails of agony these poor trapped souls emitted. In a way, it was ironic. Back at the tower, you were the poor soul nobody could see. And now you were surrounded by them.

Your heart, your heart is rendered Your loss, now bear the shame

This was the last straw. There was only so much you an take before you broke and this was it.

 Tony didn’t intend for you to hear it, but god did it hurt all the same. One phrase shattered your whole world. 

“You know Spiderling, your kinda like the kid I always wanted to have.”

An tense silence filled the common room. The first time in months you were able to see th eteam and they had to bear witness to this. Of course they did, who else would give you that stare full of sorrow and pity. You barely even noticed though. You were too busy looking at the “heartwarming scene.”

“that's such bullshit” Oh, how you wish you had a camera if only to capture the look of pure “oh shit” painted on Steve's face.

“What..what was that kid?” Asks your father. You turn to him, a fury in your eyes that nobody has ever seen.

“THAT IS ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT.”  You scream. “ FOR EIGHT YEARS I HAVE TRIED SO HARD FOR YOU TO LOVE ME. EIGHT YEARS I JOINED CLUBS, GOT THE HIGHEST GRADED IN CLASS AND FOR WHAT?” 

Tony and Peter look at you in shock “Y/n..wha..what are you talking about?” Peter asks in a baffled voice.

“Oh eat shit Peter! You know exactly what I’m talking about! Do you not find it weird, that your new mentor spends every single second of free time he has on you and not with his daughter?? Or are you so needy for some sort of parental validation that you don’t even care??” 

Deep down you know it’s not Peters fault. Hell, you two probably could have been good friends if your dad wasn’t such a tool. 

“Hey kid, I don’t know what's gotten into you, but that was way over the line.” Said Tony in a stern voice. Your eyes harden.

“Oh, did I hurt your poor little spiders feelings?? I didn’t even know you cared about other peoples feelings Tony? Or is it just your daughters that you ignore ?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t ignore you, stop being so over dramatic.”

OVERDRAMATIC?? DO YOU REALIZE THE ONLY THING YOU KNOW ABOUT ME IS MY NAME??” You are now sobbing. “ Do you even know my favorite color? How old I am?” 

Tony looks at you, eyes wide.”Y/N...” You cut him off

“Just forget it. I understand now. I will never be important to you. Not like Peter apparently is. I just wish it didn't take me eight years to figure that out.” And with that, you run out of the room, tears running down your cheeks and ignoring the calls of your father, the team, and Peter. 

You run for a few blocks and cry in an alleyway. not the smartest idea but you were too upset to care. And as you cry, you don’t notice the dark shadow behind you before its too late and the world goes dark.

Like dead trees, in cold december  Nothing but ashes remain

The hydra base was now engulfed with flames.  Your body was tired from phasing through the walls, and your head hurts from those energy blasts. But one thing brings some happiness in your heart as you watch all the souls that were trapped there realize they are free. All but one, the white haired kid. He walks up to you. 

“So you did it.” He says with a smile. You smile back. 

“Yeah I did.  Thanks to you.”

“Blue suits you.” he says with a blush. You squint at him for a second and let out a chuckle. 

“Thanks” ,You’re both silent for a few seconds, watching the souls leave. You speak up again. 

“Why aren’t you leaving like them” You question him.

“I don’t know, I guess my time here isn’t up.” he says looking out at the horizon. You nod and look at around trying to figure out where you are. 

“So, what are you going to do next” he asks. Your body stiffens as you are filled with resentment.

“I’m going to visit my father.” You say, eyes glowing a neon blue.

You will remember my name.

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A/N: HI!so this is my first ever fanfic! i hope anyone who reads this enjoys it!! Let me know what you think and what i can improve on!💕

DAY 2 REVEALS

Grab your warm beverage of choice, settle in and enjoy today’s line-up. Maybe imagine you’re in a coffee shop while you’re at it. Any coffee shop AU fans?

Make a Wish

[David/Patrick, Patrick/Rachel - T - 26,666]

Patrick Brewer is lost. He's lost in his relationship with Rachel, he's lost in himself. So, finding a magical ring box, and a genie that will grant his heart's wishes should be a dream come true.

Except David turns out to be a little more than just that.

OR, the Genie/Fairy Godmother!David fic nobody asked for ✨

*

so this is the miracle that i've been dreaming of

[David/Patrick, Stevie & David, Alexis & David - T - 10,336]

After finally accepting the arranged marriage his parents made, David meets Patrick. Sparks fly and now David has to figure out whether he will follow through with the marriage or stay with Patrick.

*

Budd is a dud! Vote Sands.

[Stevie/Twyla - T - 7,718]

Her and Twyla are friends. Not great friends. But friends who get high together at parties and have known each other for a long time. And up until right now, she thought they were better friends than a shitty, mean campaign slogan.

The enemies to lovers fic where Stevie and Twyla are both running for the same seat on town council.

*

Fall Off a Bridge, Please

[David/Patrick - T - 7,661]

“I told you,” he says, “You’ve got to answer a question.”

“You never said I had to do anything,” David bites back, the pitch of his voice climbing ever higher.

“If you’re that hung up on semantics I should clarify that it’s actually a riddle.”

“A riddle!” David knows he’s yelling now because he can hear his voice echoing down the bank and through the trees. “What are you,” he asks, “some kind of troll?”

“Actually—” the man smiles again, “—yes.”

OR: Patrick is a troll who guards the Schitt's Creek bridge. David must answer his riddles in order to cross into Elmdale, where he works at The Blouse Barn.

*

Do we soon forget the things we cannot see

[David/Patrick - T - 5,516]

David grimaces. He doesn’t not believe in ghosts, and he’s watched enough horror films in his time to know that summoning them on purpose does not, in fact, seem like a great idea. “Is that really a high school slumber party thing, though?”

*

lost mittens and dryer lint

[David/Patrick - T - 1,100]

David and Patrick’s new house comes with a surprise tenant and David’s not sure how he feels about it. Patrick, on the other hand, is very excited.

*

Honey I Like the Way You're (Everything I Ever Wanted)

[David/Patrick - T - 1,049]

Patrick has a minor surgery and wakes up groggy from the anesthesia and temporarily forgets who David is. David just likes flirting with his husband.

*

Written for Trope Fest. I went with the trope where one person thinks their spouse is just a cute nurse.

*

The Guestbook of David and Patrick Rose-Brewer

[T - 900]

“A home isn't always the house we live in. It's also the people we choose to surround ourselves with.” — The House in the Cerulean Sea

A look through the entries in David and Patrick's wedding guestbook

*

[Podfic] Save the Date

[David/Patrick - G - 8:13 minutes]

“I could go with you,” David offers tentatively. “Pretend to be your date?”

An almost fake dating fic.

[Podfic of "Save the Date," written by schittposting]

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*Don’t forget to track your Tropefest progress with our bingo card! At the end of the fest, we will randomly select two people who complete the card and donate to the charity of their choice.

*Link to the tracking spreadsheet, here.

*NOTE: Creators, if your works were revealed today, please remember to update your date of posting on AO3!

I wrote this for myself to try and organize my current theories on TWST, but I might as well keep this blog going even though I’m out of ideas for card maker memes.

This is basically a rant that starts out with theorizing about RSA, the Cater=Cinderella theory, and Split Card, but then spirals into a Cater character analysis.

For anyone who doesn’t know the Cinderella theory, it’s basically just Cater might have something to do with Cinderella because he has two bossy sisters, and during the ghost marriage there was this whole thing where Riddle needs to rescue Cater before midnight because of some Queen of Hearts rule. 

Spoilers for Cater’s personal stories (including his halloween outfit story) and chat, and chapter 4 of the main story. Okay now let’s get into it. Over 1,800 words geez what am I doing with my life

   Aight so Ace and Deuce don't have their unique magics yet and there is obviously Something going on with Cater so it really makes me think that we're gonna return to Heartslabyul somewhere down the line. We know there's gotta be more stuff with RSA, so that might tie into the Cater = Cinderella theory. Maybe we have a chapter focusing on RSA and Cater will be the main focus or ally for that. IDK man, I'm still kind of eh on the Cinderella theory cause it makes a lot of sense but we already have Mozus being the evil stepmother. Him and Cater are from the same hometown (?) but my concern is that if Cater is a main focus and he gets connected to Mozus then Mozus would also be in the spotlight which would be odd given how nothing seems to suggest that the teachers (except Crowley) getting bigger roles in the story. However, it could always be a situation like with Farena where Mozus is there and some sort of connection is briefly discussed but he isn't important and maybe someone else takes the role of evil stepmother in the story.

   Ok idk so we're gonna go back to Cater. If the Cinderella theory is true, we gotta consider how exactly Cater represents Cinderella. Does he represent Cinderella in the way that he's twisted from her (ex. Azul & Ursula) or that he just takes the role of Cinderella for a chapter (ex. Azul & The Genie)? The fact that he uses dark magic points to it being the latter, that he really is twisted from a card soldier. However, we gotta consider 1. the nature of his unique magic 2. the plot of Cinderella. Though we know he has the ability to clone himself, we don't know how exactly this works. Are the clones identical, or do/can they have differences? In episode 1-15, the Cater clones all have slightly different responses ("はーい" "まかせて！" "おっけー♪") to getting ready to paint the roses. Given how clones don't exist in real life, it's impossible to tell whether this variation indicates actual differences in personality, is just due to the clones' slightly different experiences (like a sort of butterfly effect), or if it's just a decision by the writer so they aren't repetitive. Another thing to note is that in that same episode Cater claims that cloning himself is tiring. If this is the only source for this information, there's the possibility that it just was a lie to let him manipulate the 1st years into helping him paint. Finally, Cater's ability makes me think of Twice from BNHA. Can only the original Cater create clones? Or is he like Twice in that his clones can also make clones, therefore making it impossible for anyone, including himself, to tell who is the original?

  What I'm getting at here is the possibility of Cater having clones that 1. stick around permanently and 2. are significantly different than him. This would create the possibility of him being twisted from both the card soldiers and Cinderella, but he is able to use his clone ability to split up those aspects of himself. One Cater is the card soldier one normally walking around NRC and who has dark magic, but then there's another Cinderella Cater who has light magic. Assuming this is what is going on, it would kind of connect to his two-sided personality, where he presents his bubbly, social-media addict personality to the world but has another, depressed, more private personality underneath. 

  Now, getting into what I mentioned before about the plot of Cinderella, Cinderella normally looks like a humble servant. However, with the aid of the fairy godmother, she completely transforms herself into a breathtaking princess so she can go to the ball. However, once the clock strikes midnight, she transforms back. Basically, Cinderella has the ability of transformation, to have two completely different versions of herself. One version is her true, plain self, while the other is a flashy deception. This information strengthens what I just said about Cater's personality and clone ability.

  Actually, just going into Cater's personality for a bit (yeah, “a bit” lol)... He has a big focus on always being presentable. In his lab coat, he seems pretty desperate to hide all evidence of his true self, claiming that he just failed at putting his magic in the depressed mandrake and then hiding all his other mandrakes aside from the fun ones. This desperation is similar to Cinderella's, with how she flees the ball in a hurry once it reaches midnight so no one will see how she truly looks once the spell breaks. Now, why do Cater and Cinderella behave the way they do? I don't remember Cinderella's exact motivations for attending the ball, but wikipedia says that she had to flee the ball because if the spell broke there she could get caught by her stepmother & stepsisters. What is Cater's "ball"? Well, because of his strong social media presence, his "ball" is basically everywhere, all the time. If something happens on social media that exposes his true self, breaking his "spell", not only can other students see it, but his sisters can also see it.

  Cater hates sucking up to his older sisters, which implies that he has had to suck up to his older sisters and put up his happy front around them too. Just like how Cinderella can't afford to let her stepsisters realize her true identity at the ball, Cater can't afford to let his sisters realize his true self. It's honestly kind of sad; unlike Cinderella, whose stepsisters only showed up later in her life, Cater's older sisters have been around him and making him miserable for all of his life.

  Kinda unrelated, but looking though Cater's chats, in the one he has with Trey they talk about the Queen of Hearts and her love for sweets, Cater remarks that he wants to have tea with her too, leading Trey to say that Cater would be unable to befriend her since they're in different social classes. Isn't this basically a genderbent version of Cinderella, just a commoner, wanting to go to the ball where the Prince is? 

  Now going back to Cater's personality. Even if he does fear his sisters, that doesn't seem to fully explain his 24/7 pep and focus on being magicammable. Now, what if we say that happiness=nobility. In Cinderella, she dresses up like nobility so she can remain in the ball where the actually rich people are. What if Cater is acting happy so he can fit in with the people around him, who are naturally happy enough that they don't need to fake it? Is this a fake it until you make it situation? At the end of his ceremony robes story, after he says he's tired and doesn't care about the ceremony, he says he's just kidding and goes back to talking about the selfies he took that day. Even though he's alone and wouldn't really get hurt for dropping his performance. It gives the vibe to me that his situation is not like Jamil's, where he's fully aware he's unhappy, deliberately acts otherwise in front of others, and tries to eliminate the cause of his unhappiness. Instead, Cater is trying to eliminate his unhappiness itself. He grasps onto magicam because if he fills up his account with pictures of a happy life, it's like he's actually living a happy life.

  This idea I have of Cater trying to fit in also goes along with his focus on the current trends, like in one of his gym uniform voice lines where he panics at the idea of not knowing about a new popular game. Rather than making his own aesthetics or trends, he goes along with the crowd. Sweets and desserts are trendy? Then he'll take tons of pictures of them and say they're super delicious even if he actually hates sweet food. He disregards or evades his own preferences to create the appearance that he's just like everyone else, and he puts effort into staying up to date so he can maintain that appearance.

  Moving on, I reread his halloween outfit personal story. Something that stuck out was the end, when Cater thinks that Lilia wouldn't understand what he's going through. Specifically, Lilia wouldn't understand his 下らなくてどーしよーもない feelings. According to jisho, 下らない can mean trivial/not worth bothering with/worthless, and it can also mean stupid/absurd/silly. Then, どーしよーもない (どうしようもない)  means something that can't be helped, that has no way out of it. Doesn't this seem kind of odd? That he claims his feelings are just trivial then but also he can't help having them? Is this a contradiction? Or is it something like he believes that most people wouldn't have these silly feelings but he specifically is too weak to push past them?

  For self-esteem though, he seems to at least be trying to boost it. Like in his gym uniform story, when he decides to just clone himself and have each one run 1 lap instead of him running 5 by himself, his clones all praise him for the idea. However, this could be a fake it until you make it thing again. The praise does seem a bit heavy-handed. 

  There's also the whole thing in the 2nd part of the story where he talks about all the shallow friendships he has made. He notes that he'd rather have a casual time with people rather than get attached. That plus his family situation... means he's really never had anyone to trust. Anyway, he then goes on to talk about how magicame is amazing for helping him maintain all these casual friendships. So there we have another reason for his social media addiction: not only does it let him create a picture of happiness, he can get tons of feedback affirming his happiness and serving as proof of happiness. How can he possibly be lonely if he has so many friends?

  Both in his ceremony robes and halloween outfit stories have a moment where Cater is tired and admits he's tired but then downplays it. Yeah, the ceremony was tiring, but he got tons of great pictures out of it! Yeah, dealing with guests was rough, but at the same time all the halloween stuff was exciting! This sort of thing is a pretty common strategy for increasing the persuasiveness of an argument. By first agreeing (yes, he's tired) with the opposing view (he is not happy), he can then push his own view (he is happy) and point at his earlier concession as proof that he has looked at both sides of the issue instead of only looking for evidence of his own belief. 

 So basically what I'm getting here is that Cater Is Not Okay. Prevented from building close bonds with friends or family, he's reinforcing his isolation himself through his fervent efforts to never let anyone close and never let his mask drop. He's gone so far as to try and convince himself that he's happier than he actually is through self-deception and social media.

  Alright that’s all I got for now see ya

The Michigan Fleet authors posted their AUs so here are mine

theunvanquishedzims: I have SO MANY Boat Boy ideas but I'm sitting on them because I came up with a bunch halfway through the book and they got jossed by the end rollerskatinglizard: Hah! Uhhh, sorry? I think?? theunvanquishedzims: (i.e. Basil gets sad and weepy over Rich and Liam flirting at a party, Trimmer plays fairy godmother a la ripping half his shirt off, giving him a pep talk, and sending him back out there to Win Back His Man) rollerskatinglizard: *whooping* theunvanquishedzims: Jossed so hard rollerskatinglizard:Okay, that's DELIGHTFUL rollerskatinglizard: Trimmer is the most terrifying fairy godmother rollerskatinglizard: Anything else? :Dc theunvanquishedzims: Lemme get my notes rollerskatinglizard: *gleeful wiggling*

theunvanquishedzims: Okay so I stopped reading when the Sympatico grabbed Rich during the storm and it took me a month or so to get back and finish, so I was under the impression that the ship was still being fixed in drydock and not, y'know, actually being crewed and sailed. (Trimmer yelling "just let her sink" hits reeeeeaaaallly different when you know that) rollerskatinglizard: Ahaha oh dang theunvanquishedzims: So the big idea was the gangsters needing something from the Sympatico. Not the general thugs and delinquents crewing the Sympatico but the actual organized crime of the Fleet, who were getting pretty used to using ships like the Sympatico to run their dirty deeds through. Except it's basically impossible to get what they need out of it, even when they drag out one of the old IST guys. He finally tells them Rich was the one who did the heavy lifting for the past few years rollerskatinglizard: Ooooh! rollerskatinglizard: What an interesting idea! theunvanquishedzims: Hang on I need to restart rollerskatinglizard: Ah yes, computers theunvanquishedzims: Sorry, that turned into a dinner break and running errands During which I came up with a couple new AUs theunvanquishedzims: Okay, back to mafia: they track Rich down, probably snag him after he's been out boarding. Off work, not expected back on the ship, tired from all the exercise, etc. They're not overtly threatening, just pick up his skimmer and politely suggest that he comes help them, and he probably goes quietly because there's like, six of them. I'm thinking only one of whom was actually posted on the Sympatico theunvanquishedzims: So they get back to the Sympatico. She's been temporarily decommissioned until the Fleet can fix her broken processes, but that's also a cover story by the mob. They want to clear out all the smuggled goods and information, but she's basically a ghost ship, silent and empty, and even the other IST guy couldn't get more than a few blinking lights. She's sulking basically, she knows they're not there to fix her so she's digging in her heels and playing dead. Like a toddler going ragdoll when they don't want to go to bed. theunvanquishedzims: They explain to Rich that they can't get a response and want him to take a crack at it. "Has she said anything?" "Who?" "The Sympatico." "...we didn't talk to it." "Well that's half your problem right there." theunvanquishedzims: At this point you should watch Show Yourself from Frozen 2, and the crystal scene from Atlantis the Lost Empire. Stepping into the place you've been called, making your presence known, and having a greater power reach out for you. Shiny lights, chasing the spark of life to its source, and having the power consume and embody you. Rich is used to it but it's probably pretty freaky from the outside, and way less magical-looking than a Disney movie. Probably more like when Magneto activated the machine in the first X-Men movie. Step up, turn it on, and suddenly it's sucking the life out of you, making you a living battery theunvanquishedzims: In my head I am picturing the glowing blue eyes, lights cracking along the skin like lightning or circuit patterns, the implants glowing in his temples, standing at a terminal like a star trek deck, maybe a faint breeze-like movement of the hair and clothes to indicate the sheer power radiating off of him. In reality it's probably more like he falls down, gets up, stumbles along to a good spot out of the weather, and curls up in a secluded defensible spot to stare emptily at the wall for a few hours while lights randomly go on and off around the ship theunvanquishedzims: Just being trailed by six very wary mafia dudes who have probably never seen someone mind-meld a ship, and definitely not solo. He's like a zombie, and when he does talk it's very clear he's talking for the both of them theunvanquishedzims: If any of them are in sync with the ship they definitely feel the !!!Rich you're back!!! vibe theunvanquishedzims: No idea how that resolves, I guess it depends on how powerful the mafia is. If they're the kind of entrenched criminals who are ongoing characters, then they have Rich scrub out what they need then dump him back on his skimmer to face the fallout alone. He might report it to the spooks? Or at least try to tell Basil and Mitch theunvanquishedzims: If they're not recurring characters then they were definitely being tracked by the spooks, who move in once the Sympatico comes back online. Rich has to answer some very tough questions but he cooperates fully and winds up digging up a LOT of dirt out of the Sympatico, now that the mafia showed him where to look. It's another one of the super traumatizing moments that makes him look cool and heroic. Oh yeah, totally got kidnapped, single-handedly piloted a ship, and helped bust the mafia, please stop talking about it, I need a nap, and also someone to go with me next time I go boarding. theunvanquishedzims: (And then I finished reading the book and found out that the Sympatico had a new crew and was out on the water with her AI still fried and broken, how did no one notice that)

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theunvanquishedzims: Okay I don't have Trimmer's voice well enough to write this fic so I'm feeding it to you raw: Trucker AU theunvanquishedzims: Rich is a long-haul trucker, much to the disappointment of his elder sister Angela, who is in law enforcement and thought he had a decent future in it too. Athena is a pro wrestler and totally down to support her brother traveling the country (and hopefully being in the same city as him sometime, she wants him to see her kick ass!) Rich wants to pursue a degree in [tech or engineering] but college is expensive, and trucking is a good way to make money, on top of which you don't have to pay rent when you're on the road. So he's saving up for school, probably listening to a lot of audiobooks, podcasts, and training guides while chugging along. theunvanquishedzims: Not nearly as bad or sketchy as the Sympatico, but life on the road can get pretty sketch sometimes, especially when you're alone. Enter Trimmer. Or rather, enter Rich into the middle-of-nowhere trucker stopover bar where Trimmer is getting his ass kicked. theunvanquishedzims: (Gonna go ahead and say the bar is called the Sympatico, and this is a very bad night to be there, which is saying something because any night at the Sympatico is a bad night to be there.) theunvanquishedzims: Fortunately, Rich is not trapped there by the cold uncaring waters of Lake Michigan, he can just turn around and leave when he sees the nightly fight brewing. Unfortunately, he has a weakness for cute twinks, and no matter how much the guy is insulting their mothers four on one is really not fair, so he winds up wading in, scooping Trimmer up, and murder-stalking to the exit theunvanquishedzims: [At this point I pause to stare out the window and wonder wistfully what their canon meeting was like, who approached who, if Trimmer just straight-up used his lunch to hire a bodyguard or if Rich did the "are you gonna finish that" puppy-eyes and Trimmer realized how easily he could be bribed, etc etc] theunvanquishedzims: In the Trucker AU Trimmer waits until they're outside to go feral goblin on the arm that's holding him, Rich drops him, and negotiation commences theunvanquishedzims: I don't have Trimmer's backstory nailed down, the "teenage runaway" archetype doesn't really suit someone with a large loving family, but safe to say that whatever lead him to hitchhiking across the Midwest he is determined to see through out of sheer bullheaded stubbornness. The only thing worse than calling your parents to bail you out with bus money home is calling your grandma. It might have involved stabbing a college advisor when the guy got rapey, he's technically not on the run from the law, he DEFINITELY is not on track to getting his degree. Halfway between college dropout and missing person. If he was wealthy he'd be backpacking Europe for a semester, but he's not, so he's hitchhiking America. And getting molested by truckers, because Trimmer can't have nice things. theunvanquishedzims: He is really not interested in getting molested by Rich! But, as Rich points out, he did just save him from getting stabbed, Trimmer doesn't seem to have any exit options for this backwater town, and holy #&$^ the bar's on fire. (The Sympatico burns to the ground that night, to the betterment of the world at large.) rollerskatinglizard: You have no idea how much I'm enjoying this But you should totally post it Splick and Roach would both scream in glee theunvanquishedzims: Rich and Trimmer get out while the getting is good, and it's nearly dawn before they finally hash out details. Rich offers to drop him off at the next town, but they're still pretty close to the epicenter of the mass exodus so the next few hundred miles are probably not going to be safe for Trimmer. By this point Trimmer has found a bunch of the old textbooks Rich bought secondhand to study in his free time and come to the conclusion that [this nerd is a nerd] his story checks out. Just a college kid trying to scrape together the cash to get an education and make a decent living. Reminds Trimmer of Trimmer. (Reminds Trimmer of Joey.) rollerskatinglizard: ;u; <3 Beautiful theunvanquishedzims: So now Rich has a little traveling buddy! Helps him stay awake on the long hauls, lets him use the carpool lanes, even reads to him out of the textbooks sometimes, with commentary. Trimmer is really smart and surprisingly easy to get along with. They nap in the cab, eat in diners, and share motel rooms. Trimmer unclenches a little. Rich is good about not asking personal questions. They definitely watch Athena's fights on tv more than once, much to Rich's chagrin and Trimmer's loud encouragement. He started fanboying over it to annoy and embarrass Rich, but it is surprisingly cathartic to watch someone get trash-talked and respond by just BODYSLAMMING their opponent. ("Why are you rooting for her, you're the biggest trash-talker I know," Rich mutters into his beer, face bright red as Trimmer whoops and high-fives the waitress he got to change the channel in the sports bar.) theunvanquishedzims: ("She would wipe the floor with me," Trimmer responds with a smirk, watching smugly as Rich tries to figure out if Trimmer is having impure thoughts about his baby sister) theunvanquishedzims: (They have already established that Trimmer does not have impure thoughts about Rich, that Rich DOES have impure thoughts about Trimmer, but as long as he stays in his own motel bed that's fine.) (Trimmer still sleeps with a knife under his pillow but doesn't bother in the cab, where their co-naps occasionally verge on snuggling.) rollerskatinglizard: <3 <3 <3 *perfect* theunvanquishedzims: They finally reach their destination. It has been [days to drive a rig between NJ and CA] and they make it there slightly ahead of schedule. Rich drops off the delivery, Trimmer comes face-to-face with the reality of the trip ending. He'd been hitchhiking for months and felt like he was going nowhere, and now a few days and suddenly he's crossed the entire country, and almost kinda maybe had fun doing it! And California's as good a place as any to stay, at least he won't freeze to death if he doesn't find a place to crash for the night. theunvanquishedzims: Then Rich comes back and hands him a wad of cash, pocketing a stack of his own. "Got a cash bonus for finishing early! And since you're the reason I made it here this fast, I just figured part of it is your share..." he peters out, trying to explain his reasoning. They sit in silence for a while, both thinking about Trimmer in California, far away from anyone who would want to hurt him, with a few hundred dollars in his pocket. theunvanquishedzims: "...Let's get lunch," Trimmer finally decrees, and Rich can't keep the relieved smile off his face. They renegotiate some things over lunch, and then go to pick up the next load to haul cross-country. Together. rollerskatinglizard: AWWWWWW!!!! *YES,* I love it!!! theunvanquishedzims: And then eventually they go to college together, and get their degrees, and good jobs, and meet the families, and Trimmer absolutely drags Rich to as many of Athena's fights as they can manage on the road. It's just to save money, things are cheaper when you split the rent, Trimmer hollers on the phone. You put a ring on that boy's finger, y'hear?! Hellbender hollers back. I am so glad the word moirail exists rollerskatinglizard: YES God yes Also this AU pleases me greatly rollerskatinglizard: Blessings upon you for it theunvanquishedzims: ...technically the Michigan Fleet takes place in a post-Homestuck world, so theoretically it could have time to enter mainstream lexicon. It's better than "bromance" theunvanquishedzims: JUST THROWING THAT OUT THERE >.> rollerskatinglizard: Yeah, totally different feel than bromance!

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theunvanquishedzims: Speaking of Homestuck! Wanna hear the Helmsman AU? :3 rollerskatinglizard: YES PLEASE theunvanquishedzims: Okay gimme a minute to get my notes, it's not based on One of Our Submarines but I can't remember the fic title. Have you read the one where the kids redesign the helmsrig and use that to garner support for Feferi as Empress? Lots of political drama, Sollux-centric, [spoiler], and in the end they win *but at what cost* (((If someone knows what fic I'm talking about please link me, I can't find it.))) rollerskatinglizard: No, I haven't theunvanquishedzims: It's good, if you like the nitty-gritty of rebellions. The piece I'm cherry picking is the new Empress introducing a new way of helming that allows more freedom. Instead of a single enslaved lowblood being hung up in tentacle wires until they drop dead, it's something you can unplug from, allowing psionics to swap out, take shifts, etc. So Empress Clearwater (yay seadweller name) is dead, long live Empress Clearwater, and she shakes things up by introducing her new helmsrig and orders it implemented Fleet-wide theunvanquishedzims: I don't think this universe is as bad as canon but it's still pretty rough on the bad ships, and the Sympatico is a very bad ship theunvanquishedzims: Angie is still a security officer, probably fairly high-ranking as a greenblood. Athena is a pro wrestler. Sports are probably a bigger part of life in a Fleet that doesn't center around conquest. The three probably grew up in the same neighborhood, maybe dabbled in quadrants before settling on hatefriends. Oooh, or ash, Athena setting them up to talk out their issues over lunch and then heckle each other over their other quadrants could fit in that quadrant. theunvanquishedzims: Rich is, of course, a helmsman. It's rare for someone that close to jade to be so powerful, he was actually planning on a career in tech, but when he got called in for psionic testing he basically crushed it. Possibly literally. And olive is still technically a lowblood, so off to the helm with you. theunvanquishedzims: His first posting is the Sympatico, and it's a nightmare. The one bright spot (dark spot? How do trolls even. *insert rant about Kanaya being pastel goth not goth-goth*) theunvanquishedzims: The one bright spot is Trimmer, a technician whose survival method is to lock himself in the helm dock and stab anybody who tries to mess with Rich when he's piloting. It's basically how things work in the superstorms, but 75-90% of the time instead of a few times a year theunvanquishedzims: Rich can barely talk most days, they communicate via chat client, and even that requires a lot of brainpower so they can't do it when the Sympatico has to fight something or do difficult maneuvers in space, which is pretty frequently. But Rich keeps an eye out for Trimmer, directing him through the ship to help him avoid people and fights, and tweaking things like hall lights when things get hairy. I think at least once he turned off the gravity, it cost him but it got Trimmer out of a really bad situation and gave him an excuse to hole up in the helmsdeck for a few days until things cooled off theunvanquishedzims: But all that is in the past! There's a new Empress, a new crew, and a new way of helming! theunvanquishedzims: The Sympatico is one of the flagships to roll out the new helmsrig. The original crew was disbanded, culled, reassigned. Trimmer was allowed to stay (at Rich's request) to ease the transition. It's a big day, lots of media attention documenting the new helmsmen, and Rich is doing his best to keep calm. He had to do some physical therapy to stand upright and be able to walk from the big speech to his shiny new helmsrig, but as a fairly young recruit he's not nearly as bad off as some older helmsmen whose bodies have atrophied. He's still pretty skinny though, especially when compared to Angie and Athena, who he reunited with (for the cameras) #helmsmenaretrollstoo, #greenc3<green, #omgishipit, see things are much better now, people can reclaim their lives and quadrants, helming is something to be excited for not scared of, etc. Lots of propaganda, lots of attention, lots of pressure to get this right theunvanquishedzims: And then he walks into the helm and Trimmer is there. Rich would probably have had a meltdown if he hadn't been, but no one can tell because they're so calm and professional. They're both cleaned up and impeccably uniformed, the plugging in goes smoothly, and the Sympatico comes to life and lifts off into the sky into a sunset that would make a Hollywood director weep. The cameras turn off, great job everybody, and things return to normal. Except Rich and Trimmer have no idea how to handle normal. For the first 8 hours it's fine, it's good, it's a little weird that Trimmer looks so tidy and that Rich is sitting in a padded chair instead of being flesh-jacked by tentacles, but it's fine. They chat over text, a little stilted but plenty to catch up on theunvanquishedzims: Rich spies on the new crew and gossips about how boring they are and how weird the ship looks with everything cleared out and well-lit, and wow where did that section of storage come from? Oh right that used to be a hidden smuggling nook. Haha nook. See they're fine, they're laughing at the same old jokes. DEFINITELY weird that Rich is physically laughing. And then their relief shift comes on, with the new 2nd shift helmsman, and it's time for Rich to get unplugged for the day and go. Go to his room, which he has now, or to eat, which he can do now, or any one of a million things that normal trolls do, because he's a normal troll now. (This is turning out a little different from in my head but I like it.) He makes it about two hallways, walking silently side-by-side with Trimmer, before he breaks down. Or rather Trimmer breaks down. Or maybe they both simultaneously break, there is a lot of breaking happening, and it's not great that it's happening in the hall where anybody could walk by and where the new helmsman is almost certainly seeing them and possibly reporting them, and Trimmer's flight instincts are to run back to the helm where it's safe but Rich isn't there, RICH was the reason it was safe and he's not at the helm, he's right there in the hall. Rich, I know not how, picks up Trimmer and gets them to him room. It' close by, thank goodness, and it has a lock on the door, how weird, and Trimmer is there. He missed Trimmer so so much. rollerskatinglizard: ;u; <3<3<3<3 theunvanquishedzims: [The following scene contains content too graphic for wigglers under the age of seven sweeps] rollerskatinglizard: *laughing* Hardcore conciliation!!! theunvanquishedzims: From Trimmer's POV: Merrill requested him to remain a tech on the Sympatico. Makes sense, he was the only one who treated the guy like an actual troll and not a drooling mass of computational power. They got caught up, it's weird how clean and quiet the ship is, no fights to report beyond a spat in the cafeteria that turned out to be pitch flirtation. His shirtcuffs itch and he wants to roll them up but it's day one of the new empire and he doesn't want to get culled for being untidy on the Empress's pet project ship. There's so many other things to get culled for, anyway. And then shift is over. (Weird, he's used to working 16-hour days and sleeping in the helmdeck half the time.) And he has to unplug Merrill (double weird, he's not used to touching Merrill unless it's for a physical repair. Very aware of Rich as a physical person, especially when he's standing up and not obscured in a mass of tentacles.) And then they leave, together, which is WEIRD, because for sweeps Trimmer has been sneaking out of the helmdeck to go on a food run with Merrill texting him directions, and there's no Merrill on screen providing guidance to avoid fights, but there's not gonna BE any fights, and everything is the same but different and looks weird and shiny and there's a giant troll right next to him, stalking him, why didn't Merrill warn him?! rollerskatinglizard: Oh NO, ahaha, oh these poor doofuses theunvanquishedzims: From Rich's POV: he's been seeing these hallways for sweeps, but not from this angle, the ship is so familiar but so foreign to him, and he can't hear her, can't feel her, and he keeps reaching out for her even after all that training he did to get used to the new tech, there's still an absence and some part of his brain that says not being linked to the ship means something has gone catastrophically wrong and everyone onboard is going to die, TRIMMER is going to die, Trimmer is freaking out and hyperventilating next to him, Trimmer's running out of oxygen and the ship isn't responding to him to tell him what's wrong with the oxygen, and then Trimmer goes to bolt back to the helm but that's full of strange trolls and a new helmsman, and that knowledge is enough to shake him back to the situation at hand. He doesn't know where he finds the strength or the presence of mind, but he manages to grab up Trimmer and get them back to safety. It's just that safety is now his berth, not the helm. They're alone in his berth. And Trimmer is still freaking out. Sh-shoosh? Shoosh. Shooooooosh. theunvanquishedzims: Everything is diamonds and snow and beautiful shining crystals (in the movies that will someday be made about this day.) In the moment there's a lot more hyperventilating and snot. Basically, culmination behind the entire fic: do they actually have feelings for each other, or was it just about mutual survival the whole time? rollerskatinglizard: INCREDIBLY ADORABLE AND INTIMATE COMFORT, *YESSSS* Thank you yes, I'll have a dozen God that's splendid theunvanquishedzims: And they're both freaking out, Rich is hungry and physically tired and needs to do a lot of stretches, Trimmer is not used to Rich being huge and mobile and right next to him, and they both have crazy big trust issues, but...yeah, they're pale. They're so pale for each other, and it was so hard during the transition not seeing each other and not knowing how the other felt, not knowing how THEY felt, if they really had feelings or if it was all a bad situation. And now they know. They have feelings. And because they're trolls and not humans, they can flop on a pile and talk about those feelings in a non-platonic way, and Rich can pet Trimmer's hair and tell him how pretty he is and how Rich is glad that Trimmer got it properly cut instead of just hacking it too short for someone to grab, and how much he worried in the hall about not being able to see farther than his own field of vision to keep Trimmer out of harm's way, and how this whole thing is so weird and Rich is so scared but he's just really, really happy that Trimmer took the posting on the Sympatico, because he pities Trimmer and he wants him around and he was so glad that Trimmer wanted to still be around him too theunvanquishedzims: The media always depicts piling as either the traditional fairytale highblood freakout, or an extremely mellow ASMR-ish chillout with lots of hairpetting and horn polishing. Not two midbloods looting a mostly-empty room for enough junk to make a large enough pile to sit on, shrieking at each other about their feelings and how weird this is and why didn't you SAY something, me?! why didn't YOU say something?! Three SWEEPS we've been dancing around this! Well I didn't know if you felt the same way or if you just needed me to survive! Etc etc etc. Lots of getting up and stomping around , pacing the floor while ranting, trying to scavenge more stuff to throw on the pile. Rich owns basically nothing and it's the first time he's not judging Trimmer for keeping his room a garbage heap, even empty pizza boxes would be better than trying to make a pile out of two sweaters and a toothbrush. rollerskatinglizard: XDDD TuT aaaaah, YES theunvanquishedzims: Rich definitely rips off a wall panel and pulls out some wires, Trimmer doesn't even question it, they've lived and breathed this ship long enough to know what every wire does and which are nonessential to ship functioning. And with the wall panel crunched up they can pile stuff around it to make it seem less sparse, and wow it doesn't even matter that he pulled a panel down, this is HIS wall in HIS room now, he can "redecorate" as he sees fit, cue more yelling about how he doesn't know what to do with himself or his newfound freedom. The whole thing is just yelling and cussing and grabbing and shaking. It probably looks black from the outside, but they are swimming in palest cream. theunvanquishedzims: Eventually they give up on the pile. They go through Rich's entire perigee of snack rations to avoid having to go to the cafeteria, halfheartedly make fun of Rich's chewing, then crawl into the recuperacoon together. Thank goodness there was such a big push to show off how great helmsmen's lives will be, Rich scored a blueblood-huge 'coon and he's still skinny enough that they can both fit in it together. They sleep together, in sopor like proper trolls with proper lives as opposed to surrounded by pink tentacles and misery. Tomorrow they'll have to venture out for food, and do Rich's stretches and physical therapy, and head to their shift like the galaxy hasn't flipped upside-down, but they're handle that together. rollerskatinglizard: Oh help, my heart!! TuT It's SO CUTE, AAAAAAAH theunvanquishedzims: Okay my computer has been trying to shut down for the last three paragraphs so I think it's time to log off for the night, but I hope you enjoy the AUs, I will tell you more tomorrow rollerskatinglizard: Thank you so much!! Have a good night! theunvanquishedzims: (In the original version Rich and Trimmer came face-to-face for the first time since the Sympatico was busted up and Rich pulled out for rehab, and basically had a giant pale meltdown right there against the wall. There was purring, and crying, and confessions, all caught on film. Athena and Angie definitely saw. It had to be censored out of the broadcast. Someone uploaded it to Troll Pornhub and it won a Troll Pornhub Emmy for Truth in Journalism, which was not a category the Troll Pornhub Emmys had before, so congrats Merrill and Trimmer) rollerskatinglizard: *dying* oh my GOD Rich would blush so hard he'd keel over

_________________________________________

theunvanquishedzims: I woke up to the idea of Rich as Fezzik and Trimmer as Inigo Montoya (book version.) rollerskatinglizard: Hah! Oh man, delightful theunvanquishedzims: Soft-hearted giant and stabby little friend rollerskatinglizard: Yesss theunvanquishedzims: Only problem is Trimmer's grudge seems to be against the entire world, not any particular murderer theunvanquishedzims: But they could definitely take on the Zoo of Death together rollerskatinglizard: It could be both, in the AU! Specific grudge and also he hates everyone theunvanquishedzims: Instead of not being left-handed he pulls his feet out of his boots and surprise! More hands to stab you with Makes the acrobatics on top of the cliff more exciting rollerskatinglizard: *dying* YES Perfect! theunvanquishedzims: I don't know who the Man in Black of most beautiful woman in the world would be, but Rich catching them jumping out a window to whisk them away on horseback is lovely rollerskatinglizard: *strokes chin thoughtfully* If Rich is Fezzik, I think Basil might as well be the beautiful love interest, and Mitch is his farm boy turned dashing rogue theunvanquishedzims: Mitch and Trimmer sword fighting rollerskatinglizard: YES theunvanquishedzims: Mitch going through hell and back to save his lady love, then Rich shows up with the horses and says "hello pretty lady" and Basil is just swooning over him rollerskatinglizard: Mitch is pretty chill with Rich by then, he can handle sharing Rich didn't try *hard* to kill him, after all theunvanquishedzims: He even made it a fair fight instead of ambushing him He put down the rock and Mitch put down the sword and they tried to kill each other like civilized people rollerskatinglizard: *laughing* Yes, exactly theunvanquishedzims: Rich even helped bring him back from being mostly dead rollerskatinglizard: They're practically best buddies now! theunvanquishedzims: Which I imagine is 1000x funnier because Trimmer hates this guy and doesn't want to help him but he has info Trimmer needs rollerskatinglizard: Rich just being reprovingly like Come on, buddy, he's cool really I KNOW you bonded over your sword fight with him Don't lie Trimmer: HE'S STILL A DIPSHIT theunvanquishedzims: Trimmer: It was a little fun to take the boots off I guess, I don't get to do that often rollerskatinglizard: Hahaha yes theunvanquishedzims: Downside of being the best swordsman in the world, nobody can touch you. UNTIL NOW. Trimmer: I killed the guy but now I have nothing to live for. Mitch: Have you considered piracy? Stabbing people all day and all the rope ladders you can climb rollerskatinglizard: *dying* theunvanquishedzims: Now Trimmer's life goal is to reclaim his title of Best Swordsman, which means fighting Mitch a lot rollerskatinglizard: Which they both enjoy Sometimes Trimmer wins, sometimes Mitch does rollerskatinglizard: Roach points out that Liam would be Miracle Max theunvanquishedzims: I was just about to type that! rollerskatinglizard: Heee! Good brain wave theunvanquishedzims: You need a cure for death? Nope, sorry. You need to it humiliate my mortal enemy? Coming right up! rollerskatinglizard: YUP theunvanquishedzims: Slipping Rich the holocaust cloak "because it fits so nice" rollerskatinglizard: Pfff yes theunvanquishedzims: Which is said with a million more winky faces than the movie rollerskatinglizard: XDDD Naturally Liam is a much higher-libido mad scientist-substitute theunvanquishedzims: He doesn't have a wife he has like six boyfriend minions hanging around in various states of undress. He got fired for banging the king when he was the royal miracle man, he did a good job but the prince found it icky. rollerskatinglizard: *dying* YES theunvanquishedzims: Basil as Buttercup tho. Basil: Mitch is a good friend. :) Just a great buddy. :)) Kind of smelly but a nice boy. :))) Someone: *might possibly find Mitch attractive* Basil: What? Why. No. Why would she. I mean yeah he's smart and muscular and tan and broad-shouldered and has perfect teeth and his sweat glistens in the sun as he does his chores shirtless, but c'mon, he's not THAT much hotter than her middle-aged husband. No way. rollerskatinglizard: *snickering* rollerskatinglizard: My cowriters very enjoy this AU concept, btw, thank you theunvanquishedzims: Excellent theunvanquishedzims: Trimmer: I told him I was there to kill him and he just...ran away? Mitch: Who does that? rollerskatinglizard: *snickering* theunvanquishedzims: Basil being a slobby peasant until two minutes after Mitch leaves, then realizing he has to take care of himself if he wants to keep Mitch's attention, and only then starting to regularly bathe and brush his hair and work on his figure. rollerskatinglizard: Snirk! Sounds about right, doofus nerd that he is theunvanquishedzims: Then he becomes a princess and has two servants per limb to keep him clean and shining, so when Mitch sneaks into the wedding announcement crowd his first view of Basil is 1. clean 2. shiny hair 3. dressed like a queen

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General book chit-chat, no specific AU

theunvanquishedzims: I saw the post about the Sympatico crew having a very different view of Rich than his friends and now I am consumed with the idea of Rich being seen as scary by anyone who knows him for more than a single minute. Like, he flinches at the sight of a uniform, he can't stand to be in a room with more than one other person in it, and he's so busy working he doesn't really have time to go around carving out a territory rollerskatinglizard: Right? You'd think it'd be tricky, but apparently no theunvanquishedzims: And now there's video of him covered in kittens, and doing cool board tricks, and pretending a little barbel is too heavy to lift, and also he might be in the news for taking down a murderous conspiracy at the Mall. rollerskatinglizard: *laughing* Indeed theunvanquishedzims: Where did big scary monster Merrill go, who is this marshmallow rollerskatinglizard: What scam is he trying to run?!? theunvanquishedzims: Oooh, I pity the fool who is assigned to a boat with Officer Merrill. Double flinch response rollerskatinglizard: RIGHT? *OH SHIT, THERE'S ANOTHER ONE* And she's ARMED theunvanquishedzims: Try to blow off some steam by watching some wrestling, A THIRD ONE rollerskatinglizard: Some poor dumbass who sneered at Trimmer once ends up hiding out on a penny boat bc there's MERRILLS EVERYWHERE, IT'S NOT SAFE OUT THERE theunvanquishedzims: *dying laughing* I imagine a non-terrible Sympatico crew member meeting reformed Rich is like those Very Special Episodes where the hero's high school bully or childhood bad influence friend comes to town, and they're so nice and friendly and apologetic about what happened back in the day rollerskatinglizard: We actually have an encounter something like that planned! theunvanquishedzims: The hero's friends are all charmed and the hero can't convince anyone that it's all an act, he's secretly still terrible, look I'll prove it *does something that makes the hero look bad and the reformed guy look like a victim* Yaaaaaaaaay!!! Outside perspective is the BEST rollerskatinglizard: Rich and this random dude, both acting like the other one is a total menace Meanwhile, anyone who's known either of them since is like ....No?? He's a fine guy, perfectly reasonable Merrill, stop growling theunvanquishedzims: Two Spider-Men pointing at each other rollerskatinglizard: Hah! Yes theunvanquishedzims: Also the fact that Rich has gotten BIGGER since leaving the Sympatico is probably a shock rollerskatinglizard: OH yeah theunvanquishedzims: Richard "Cranky Because He's Slowly Starving To Death" Merrill rollerskatinglizard: I mean, it's a shock to Rich When he hits another growth spurt So it's definitely a shock to anyone else theunvanquishedzims: Oh yeah, he was like 17 when he was first assigned there, nowhere near done growing yet Richard "My Shirts Rip When I Flex Wrong" Merrill rollerskatinglizard: *snickering* He'd look so sheepish and disgruntled if someone gave him that "I flexed and the sleeves fell off" shirt theunvanquishedzims: I am so glad Trimmer got to him before, like, a gang could figure out he's easily bribed with food. Things could have gone so much worse, corruption-wise rollerskatinglizard: YUP theunvanquishedzims: I just finished Athena and the Midnight Chicken and WOW Rich was actually kind of close to giving in to peer pressure there, if Athena hadn't thrown herself towards the proverbial sword he might have let himself be talked into something he really didn't want to do. rollerskatinglizard: It's possible! Baby Rich is very weak to peer pressure theunvanquishedzims: If they had been smart and manipulative and laid the groundwork first it would have been even easier, not just "here's a knife let your ingrained killing instincts do the work" rollerskatinglizard: Yeah! It could've gone much worse theunvanquishedzims: In the wrong hands Rich would make a very good, very sad soldier But like, deep down inside sad where no one could see it. rollerskatinglizard: That was actually close to his original story when I came up with him

[I’ll check with Skates to see if it’s okay to post that bit]

theunvanquishedzims: I'm already nervous about those two Horrible Old Men rollerskatinglizard: Which two? theunvanquishedzims: My face went D: at the idea that there's more than two rollerskatinglizard: *pats u gently* theunvanquishedzims: The werewolf guy with the boys on leashes is the one that makes my instincts scream KILL IT WITH FIRE, but there's also the one with the scar on his face? I wanna say Arthur Carroway rollerskatinglizard: >u> Gosh, Zims, idk WHY you'd be worried about him Just bc my tablet keyboard knows how to spell Carraway That's no reason to be concerned! rollerskatinglizard: Maybe Splick made him the [tarot] Devil bc he's devilishly handsome! Did you think of that?? theunvanquishedzims: I am terrified of him showing up, I know I'll be cringing too hard to keep reading right away. Men who abuse positions of power are so squicky, I couldn't even stand to watch the Office and Michael Scott is like, the most benign example of the trope But yeah a guy like that getting to Rich as a younger more mallable person, fresh-faced and eager to please. Ugh. Such a bad ending. rollerskatinglizard: YUP theunvanquishedzims: William Sandgren is the other one, I think rollerskatinglizard: Fortunately Rich did get rescued originally! I don't do sad endings theunvanquishedzims: He looks cool, I don't immediately want him dead for my own safety rollerskatinglizard: <u< theunvanquishedzims: ...I will ignore that face and continue to think of him as the lesser of two evils for now rollerskatinglizard: Absolutely feel free! ^u^ theunvanquishedzims: When I thought about this earlier I imagined Liam actually being the one to start a pissing contest with Arthur. Rich guy vs criminal guy, my grandmother bedazzled the skulls of her enemies, your teeth would make a lovely necklace, etc etc "Well I'd love to get them around your throat" ;) rollerskatinglizard: You know Liam QUITE well theunvanquishedzims: I'm a visual learner, so all the illustrations are helping me flesh out characteristics. Liam smiling like a psycho while his face drips blood is very telling. rollerskatinglizard: Hah!!! Right? God, he's SUCH a little firebrand theunvanquishedzims: (Also, AU where Liam is the babydoll heir and Rich is the soldier mod bodyguard he climbs like a tree) rollerskatinglizard: We have definitely discussed that AU thoughtfully >u> It's good, v tasty theunvanquishedzims: Rich is all THIS GOES AGAINST THE RULES and Liam is all oh you like being told what to do hmm? >:3~ rollerskatinglizard: Rich: God this is SUCH a bad idea, I'm gonna get so fired Liam: Not if you're good enough at it! theunvanquishedzims: I imagine without a pregnancy they'd be able to keep it under wraps slightly longer than grandma Beaker rollerskatinglizard: True! theunvanquishedzims: "Under wraps" like everyone in the house can't hear them rollerskatinglizard: Pffff YUP theunvanquishedzims: Ugh now I'm remembering Trimmer being scared of Rich getting drunk and pushy and I'm sad again rollerskatinglizard: No one likes Rich's drinking except Rich rollerskatinglizard: It's okay tho, Trimmer trusts Rich more after that theunvanquishedzims:I think he'll figure it out given enough time. Rich: Well everyone drinks because work sucks. Basil and Mitch: Nope! Rich: Well I'm a soldier mod so it just LOOKS like I'm drinking a lot. Angie and Thena: Nope! Rich: Well I have trauma from the Sympatico so I need alcohol to deal with that. Trimmer: Nope! Rich: ...well I guess I have a problem then. :< Everyone: Yep! rollerskatinglizard: Indeed theunvanquishedzims: I am so curious about their origins, how the relationship developed, how apparently they had half a handjob between them and went NOPE NEVER AGAIN, how they wound up co-sleeping, if they ever cried on one another, etc etc rollerskatinglizard: I'm 100% certain that Rich cried on Trimmer at least once, while Trimmer awkwardly patted his hair and gently called him a wuss or something If Trimmer ever cried it would've been in the middle of the night, and none of them would ever mention it in the light of day theunvanquishedzims: Was that Trimmer's first posting? I know it was Rich's, so he kiiiind of didn't know any better, but Trimmer is older by a bit rollerskatinglizard: It definitely wasn't Trimmer's first, no, the latest in a long string of postings that went from okay to bad to worse theunvanquishedzims: Oh nooooooo No wonder he finally said screw it and got a solo boat rollerskatinglizard: Yep

Cinder’s Backstory...

...Is probably one of the most superficial Cinderella stories I’ve ever heard of. It completely ignores most about the original story except what happens at the very surface.

Basically, Cinderella at its core is a riches-to-rags-to-riches story. It is also notable that it is a fairy tale in which the main character (Cinderella) never grows as a character or learns a moral, because she is an already perfect and moral person. She was born that way, just as how she was born into a rich family, and when the natural order is disturbed by her evil stepmother and sisters by putting her in rags, Cinderella persists in being herself, remembering her birth parents and being kind and virtuous and moral and upstanding, and as such, through a fairy godmother/guardian angel/bio-mom’s ghost, gets to go to the ball, meet the prince, and eventually be married into her natural state of living in riches again.

Now, those themes and that moral is a bit outdated, however, when you boil Cinderella down to its distilled form, you have a story about a character who have something by birth, loses it, and regains it.

Combining them with Cinder’s relentless quest for power, I propose that a better Cinderella story for her would have been a powerful-powerless-powerful backstory.

We already know, through Marcus Black, that there are Semblances capable of stealing/locking/destroying others’ Semblances. What if Cinder’s stepmother had one like that? A Semblance that locks away another’s Semblance.

Lets say Cinder’s Semblance is considered rare and precious because it is so versatile and useful for a huntress. Meanwhile, her stepsisters’ Semblances are pretty standard, but without Cinder around their skills would have made up for it, but with Cinder around, yeah... Cinder’s clique at battle school bullies them relentlessly (because she’s Cinder, and Cinder has shown literally zero kindness in the entire series).

And then Cinder’s dad dies, and stepmom immediately locks away Cinder’s Semblance. Stepsisters at school turns Cinder’s clique on her, and stepmom no longer buys new clothes and such for Cinder, making her an even bigger target for bullying.

Then, one day, Cinder runs away from home and ends up going to where her mother (a huntress) died (it should look a bit like Summer’s grave cliff to reflect her future rivalry with Ruby). And there she is cornered by Grimm and “rescued” by Salem (fairy godmother). Salem temporarily unlocks Cinder’s Semblance, but warns her that if her stepmother is not dead by midnight, it will be locked away again.

So Cinder kills her stepfamily, and takes on a new name (her birth-name would have been Ella) and new identity to hide it by Watts (who suggests the name “Fall” showing exactly why Salem, Watts, Tyrian and Hazel are recruiting this young girl to the viewers). She goes on the run and meets her “prince”, a huntsman, who she likes a lot, but he finds out about her murdering ways (maybe by matching her footprint to a bloody footprint on the crime scene photos), and she kills him, but nearly dies as he is a professional huntsman and she’s basically a high school dropout, and again goes to her mom’s last resting place and meets Salem again, and she accuses Salem of ruining her life.

Salem disagrees and tells her that she’s given Cinder opportunities, and then goes, “would like an opportunity for more power? To wield true magic?”

And Cinder goes, “tell me more.”

It would explain her motivations, why she works for Salem, and why she keeps losing despite her Maiden powers.

Also, it goes without saying that Salem lied about the midnight deadline, but Cinder will never know that except maybe just before her death (that she could have just left with her Semblance and lived happily ever after).

I’ve-Been-Neglecting-My-Tags Tag Game

So basically, I’ve been dead to the world for awhile, and instead of individually going back and making posts for tag games I’ve neglected, I decided to just compile them into one bigger post! 

Meet the WIP Tag

So @cecilsstorycorner​ tagged me like two months ago and I’m pretty sure I straight up did not process it. But I found it now, and it looks really fun! Thanks for the tag! I’m going to pull out Castle on the Hill for this because it’s been awhile so this can be like a mini reintroduction.

Title: Castle on the Hill 

Logline (1-3 sentence premise): In the early 1960s, a group of young German students face the struggles of university life - finding ambition, relationships, discovering identity, surviving finals, and coming to terms with their nation’s dark past as they look to its future.

Favorite theme explored: There’s kind of a lot going on under the surface, but I think one of the biggest is recognizing internalized biases and understanding the importance of how personal context shades perspective.

A character I’m proud of and why: It’d be easy to say Klaus because he’s one of those characters that just basically writes himself, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Josef. He was the first character I created for the story, and he arguably undergoes the most intense change from start to finish.

That characters tag: yeah, so... if you just search ‘josef’ on my blog he’ll show up. Technically I think I made tags for the Lads, but it didn’t really stick. 

Link to a piece/excerpt/post that I’m proud of: So this is a little old but it sums up the group dynamic pretty well. This one has more focus on Josef and Klaus. 

Any additional info I want people to know/am proud of: I haven’t posted about it in awhile since I’ve been a little more active in other projects, but I’m still working on it! I need a bit of an overhaul on some of the broad strokes (re: basically I’m working on having a little more structure to the plot) but it’s still kicking.

Manuscript Search Tag

Thank you @regan-wickworre for tagging me in this, sorry that it took like a month to respond to! I’m going to use Beneath Alder Creek because that’s the last large project I’ve worked on.

My words: eyes, friend, chance, fear, desire

Eyes

He was standing several paces back, half-hidden by a wide tree trunk, but there was no disguising the wide-set eyes staring at her incredulously.

Friend

“Would you like a ride home, Miss Pewitt?” Leslie asked amicably, as though the two had been longtime friends and not mere acquaintances with an unfortunate history.

Chance

Still looking away, Winnie raised the pin between her forefinger and her thumb. “You’ve been skittish ever since you saw this at Pryderi’s estate. I might not be the most worldly woman, but I’m smart enough to recognize that stabbing my own guide might delay my chance to find my brother.”

Fear

“He left. He’s afraid of the Evenfall Vault and he left,” she said evenly, hoping it would mask the fear gripping at her chest.

Desire

“Do tell.” There was a dullness to her tone, like she had heard of Enid’s offerings before and was merely amusing her, but Queen Ceridwen examined Winnie and Taliesin with interest. Winnie didn’t dare look over at him, in case she couldn’t resist the wild desire to laugh.

Words I’m leaving: accept, voice, near, resent, silence

Tag Game: This or That (Fantasy Edition)

Thank you @medeaes for the tag!

spell or curse ∙ abandoned mansion or haunted cemetery ∙ vampire slayer or ghost hunter ∙ phoenix or griffin ∙ wrist bite or neck bite ∙ fairy godmother or evil stepmother ∙ herbs or potion ∙ ghost or wraith ∙ dragon scales or werewolf claws ∙ druid or mage ∙ elf or hobbit ∙ divination or necromancy ∙ wand magic or hand magic ∙ centaur or unicorn ∙ dark fairytale or disney-style fairytale ∙ sword or bow & arrow ∙ siren or water nymph ∙ garlic or silver ∙ talking animal or walking tree ∙ demon trap or crossroads pact ∙ enchanted fairy forest or mermaid lagoon

Heads Up, Seven Up

Thank you for tagging me, @em-dashes and @akindofmagictoo!

(I can’t do the last seven because I just finished something and it’d spoil the whole thing, but here are a random seven)

“You have new merchandise, Ms. Kim,” Mike pointed out as he dug through his pockets. “I didn’t even know there were spells for maintaining battery life.”

“Yeah, well, some companies intentionally provide weak batteries to make you replace your phone after a couple years. This cheats seems the lesser of the two evils.” I rested my elbows on the top of the register as I watched Mike stack the contents of his pockets onto the countertop. Books, empty potion bottles, a pair of gloves. After withdrawing a black notebook with an engraved monogram and a full-sized human skull, he finally pulled out his wallet.

I had to ask him what spell he used to get that kind of pocket space. 

I’m just gonna start tagging people, and you can respond with whichever tag game you want!

@booksnotbookies @rhikasa @tate-lin @parafoxicalk @absolute-nonsense-scribblings @de-profundis-ad-astra and @riaisntwriting and literally anybody else who wants to!

“Old AU/fanfic ideas I’m probably never going to write” dump

(Long post warning)

---

“Full Circle”, first fic I came up with when I got into the fandom around early 2018, your basic next-gen fic except the main focus is on the student council, who all somehow wind up involved in the case of Ayano’s daughter, Kataba (which is a dumb name in retrospect). Kuroko is Kataba’s teacher, and Akane is the guidance counsellor. Aoi and Shiromi don’t actually appear until after the first rival is killed (pretty early in the story), when Aoi - a bodyguard at Saikou Corp. - is sent to the school to watch over Megami’s son, and Shiromi is a detective/journalist assigned to the case. Weirdly enough, Megami’s son Haruki ends up being the one to trigger the “senpai effect” in Kataba

I had some ideas for rivals:

Haruki’s close friend Emiko, kind of a flirt. Gets stabbed to early in the story for the audience to really get to know her

Rikuto, leader of the gardening club, and a very emotional guy who may or may not have been suffering abuse at home. Iirc Kataba drops something heavy on him in the shed to kill him

Kano, leader of the (now-official) gaming club, grumpy and rude but has a soft spot for cute things, kind of a depressed attitude and maybe has drug problems. Gets driven to suicide

Kazumi, leader of the art club, an energetic girl who’s popular around the school, but a daydreamer. Suffering from an unwanted pregnancy

Chika, leader of the science club, cold and distant personality, others call her “ice queen”, looks up to Kaga who now has his own huge corporation. Kataba sabotages her experiment (a small robot) to quite literally blow up in her face at a science convention, which kills her

Isamu, leader of the school’s kickboxing team. I never really fleshed him out tbh

Tamotsu, leader of the delinquents, infamous throughout the school and has the kind of personality you’d expect a delinquent to have. I don’t remember the details of how I planned to have him eliminated but I think Kataba found some way to get him killed by a rival gang

Sadashi, a timid and quiet new student who moved from elsewhere in the country and is struggling to adjust to life at Akademi. Again, I don’t think I fleshed her out as much as the others, but there was something about her trying to get into the student council

Masumi, Haruki’s childhood friend whose family is constantly moving around for business reasons, but is always texting and video-chatting with him. Just like Haruki, she’s extremely rich and is one of the only people who can really relate to him. A very calm and polite girl. If I'm remembering right, I think she actually survives, but gets kidnapped and tortured by Kataba and never really recovers from the trauma

The tenth rival is actually Haruki’s bodyguard, Aoi. By this point in the fic it’s all gone to shit, there’s a missing person’s report out for Masumi, Akademi is in a state of panic and many students have stopped coming to class, and there’s been talk about shutting the school down permanently. The focus is kind of split between everything that’s going on (Masumi, the state of the school, Shiromi’s investigation, Taro and Ayano’s marriage falling apart, Kataba trying to kill Aoi) instead of just focusing on the current rival

I think had one idea for a student who’s not a rival: a Midori-like student called Tsuki Muun... but she was a gag character more than anything

There are other canon characters who appeared in the story, like Ayano and Taro, Megami (though she doesn’t play a major role), Info trying to help Kataba for her own benefit (I had a vague idea about her going undercover as one of Shiromi’s coworkers and trying to sabotage the investigation), possibly Osana and/or Hanako, and I considered having Oka show up as a ghost

Taro is kind of an ongoing obstacle for Kataba and is the one who rescues Masumi from the basement (he also hits Ayano with a chair when she tries to stop him from taking Masumi to the hospital by threatening him with a knife. King behaviour)

Kataba is actively trying to sabotage Shiromi and her coworkers. Early on in the story she kills Shiromi’s search dog as a “warning” to her

Shiromi and Taro end up becoming close friends whilst she’s investigating his daughter’s crimes. Ayano gets kind of suspicious but I don’t really remember where that ended up going. Also there’s this whole scene where they break into Kataba’s room while she’s out to find her bulletin board with notes/pictures of all the rivals and how to eliminate them

Aoi is not only Haruki’s bodyguard but his godmother as well, and he calls her “auntie”

There’s some conflict between them because he feels that she’s too overprotective and, being a teenager who wants to hang out with his friends, he doesn’t want some middle-aged woman lurking over his shoulder all the time

Over the story they start to resolve things and grow closer. Aoi supports him when he feels insecure about not living up to the “perfect” image of his family

Since the story would take place around 20 years in the future I think I was going to take some liberties with technology and stuff like that, especially during Chika’s week

Akademi’s uniform also changed over the years to something more fitting for a high school, the number of students attending grew much larger, and their sports club/martial arts club were replaced with something closer to actual high school sports teams

---

Supernatural creature AU, where everyone except Taro and Hanako is some kind of monster/creature/etc. 

Taro is oblivious to everyone around him being monsters and thinks the school he attends just has a lot of weird students, but he’s an accepting and non-judgmental person so he just takes it in stride. Hanako, however, knows what’s going on and has to constantly keep Taro from walking straight into danger

Ayano is a demon who Taro unknowingly sold his soul to in exchange for a bag of chips, and now she wants her repayment. She and Hanako are almost constantly at odds with one another, but on occasion they team up to protect Taro from a “greater threat”

Instead of an occult club (because I think that would be kind of obsolete in this AU), there’s some kind of support/therapy group for undead creatures like zombies, ghosts, vampires, etc. Oka decided to start it because of the struggles she’s faced as a zombie

The sports club are all aquatic monsters of some kind. There’s at least one merman in there

The science club are aliens and/or have some kind of “artificial human” theme going on (robots, Frankenstein-esque creatures, etc.)

The gardening club are all fairies - the kind who do things like tending to flower gardens and cleaning around your house

Shiromi, on the other hand, is more of a “trickster” kind of fairy who steals shiny things/valuables, gets people lost in the woods for fun, and may or may not eat human flesh (Hanako makes the assumption that she does and tries to save Taro from her). She doesn’t get along too well with most of the gardening club

Akane is a banshee who ends up serving as the student council’s “alarm” for when someone is dying

Aoi is some kind of reptilian/dragon creature who can breathe fire, but probably can’t fly

I don’t think I ever got anything set in stone for the rest of the student council. I was thinking of making Kuroko or Megami a seraph but that doesn’t really fit in with the “monster” theme

One of the bullies is a shapeshifter of some sort

At least one of the delinquents is a werewolf

Iirc the existence of monsters/supernatural creatures wasn’t common knowledge even in this AU and Akademi was created as a “safe” school for them to get an education without the threat of being discovered by humans. How Taro and Hanako got in... nobody knows. Maybe someone thought the two of them were a little too average and had to be hiding something

Most of the other students at Akademi are aware that the two of them are humans, and some find them fascinating or like to mess with them. Others are wary around them and try to avoid them out of fear that they’ll react badly. The rest of the students are just horribly confused and trying to figure out what they are

---

Aoi x Shiromi biker/mechanic AU

Aoi is part of a biker gang, but her bike is an absolute rustbucket that’s constantly breaking down and there’s only one reliable repair shop in the small town she lives in. The mechanics keep suggesting that she gets a new bike but she has a sentimental attachment to her old one and doesn’t want to get rid of it. She’s gonna get fined for driving it eventually

Aoi doesn’t get along with her family in any AU it seems, and trying to stay away from the house as much as possible led to her getting involved with the biker gang (probably with the martial arts club members). Luckily, the gang she’s a part of is much more benevolent than the other major gang in town and mostly acts in defense of themselves or others. They’re politically active more than they are actually criminal, and the illegal things they do basically amount to protests and the like

The “rival gang” is the delinquents. They’re the ones who commit more crimes like theft, vandalism, drug trafficking, etc., and usually do what they do for money. They’re not afraid to use physical intimidation and violence to get what they want. Both gangs often wind up in trouble with the law for collateral damage during their fights

The delinquents hate Aoi more personally than the other members of her gang because of a) the amount of problems she’s caused for them and b) a rivalry with their leader, Osoro, which dates way back to high school. Aoi gave Osoro that scar on her face, and Osoro damaged Aoi’s eye badly enough that it had to be removed

Kaga and Shiromi’s parents died at some point when Shiromi was in high school. Kaga was already an adult at that point, plus a mechanical genius, and was old enough to take over the repair shop. He taught his little sister everything he knows so that she could help him after she graduated. They live in a small apartment right above the shop

Shiromi usually winds up being the one to repair Aoi’s bike (or at least helping) and the two of them start bonding over that

Most of the people around Shiromi’s age (19-ish in this AU) left town to attend college somewhere better, or get a job elsewhere, so she’s found herself lonely a lot since she graduated high school. Sure, there are the other employees at the repair shop who she gets along well with, but they’re all significantly older than her and she can’t really connect with them the same way she could with her friends from high school. She’s grateful for the opportunity to talk to someone close to her own age for once and potentially make a new friend (though Aoi doesn’t really want anything to do with that at first)

At some point Aoi comes in seriously injured after a fight, but denies that she’s hurt. Shiromi convinces her that she needs to go to the hospital and gets her there

Kaga already has some protective-older-brother tendencies (which Shiromi hates), but it practically doubles when she starts hanging out with Aoi and the rest of Budo’s gang. She knows Kaga just wants her safe and uninvolved in gang conflicts, but by this point she’s really attached to Aoi and wants to keep seeing her, so Kaga backs off under the condition that Shiromi stays on her guard and doesn’t go out at night

As Aoi and Shiromi start hanging out outside of the repair shop more often, the delinquents realize that Aoi has someone close to her that they can use to hurt her

They start making threats against Shiromi just to provoke Aoi, or otherwise messing with the two of them. After a fight in which Umeji suffered a major head injury that hospitalized him, and Osoro’s gang lost the drugs they were trying to sell, Osoro makes the decision to kidnap Shiromi to lure Aoi in and beat up/possibly kill her. They succeed in the kidnapping, but it falls apart when Shiromi tricks the guy who’s supposed to be guarding her and escapes on her own before Aoi even shows up

After this incident Kaga is full-on freaking out and forbids Shiromi from seeing Aoi, blaming her for Shiromi getting kidnapped. The two of them keep communicating through text and Shiromi sometimes sneaks out to see her

Before the story takes place Aoi wasn’t super close with the other members of the gang - they were acquaintances more than anything. Over the course of the story she gets closer to them and starts to learn more things about them (like the fact that Budo is/once was in the same situation as her - in love with a girl (cough-Oka-cough) whose family wouldn’t let her near him because of his lifestyle)

There’s a whole arc focusing on Aoi’s parents trying to get Aoi out of the gang, not because they’re genuinely worried for her safety but because they think their daughter being part of a gang reflects badly on them. They possibly try to get the other members of the gang arrested

After this arc, Aoi moves out into her own place near the repair shop, and Shiromi and Budo help her move in

Aoi and Shiromi end up happy together, Kaga and Shiromi resolve things between them, Aoi no longer has to deal with her parents, Budo ends up with Oka, the other gang members resolve their own character arcs, and the delinquents end up in jail

---

Magical girl AU which, tbh... I never really fleshed out. It was mostly an excuse to draw cute magical girl outfits. But I did have some stuff down for it!

The placeholder club leader/now the empty demon is the “Kyubey”-type thing that gives all of them their powers

I never really figured out whether I wanted to take a dark route or a more light-hearted one with this. I think my favourite idea would probably be something in between, though - not super grimdark and edgy, but not all sunshine and rainbows either

All of them got not only powers and weapons, but also enhanced physical abilities like running faster, jumping higher, increased strength, increased durability, and more stamina. But those abilities would only take effect while transformed. I was thinking one of them would get used to having enhanced abilities and keep trying to do things they can’t actually do in their normal daily life, which eventually gets them hurt

Kuroko has some sort of rifles and the ability to form hard-light shields to protect herself or others

Akane’s weapon is a bow for which she can produce as many arrows as she has energy for. She also got the power of flight/levitation

Aoi has a sword, like a really heavy broadsword type of thing that she can somehow lift with one hand, and the ability to breathe fire

I think I was planning on giving Shiromi a weapon at some point, but I don’t remember what it was... My other idea was her not having one single weapon, but being able to produce as many small projectiles like throwing knives, shuriken, etc. as she needs. She can also become completely invisible

I don’t think I really had anything fully decided for Megami tbh. I had a vague idea of what kind of outfit she would wear but I never drew any designs (at least, not that I remember)

They definitely have to do some travelling around Japan at some point

Ayano may or may not have been an “evil magical girl”, I don’t really remember

---

Another one I didn’t flesh out a whole lot: the fic where a bunch of Akademi students go on a camping field trip

Info attends school as a normal student in this AU and is part of the group that goes camping

It’s Ayano, Info, Osana, Megami, Kuroko, Akane, Aoi, Shiromi, Osoro, Kaga, Taro, Umeji, Budo, Itachi, and Tsuruzo

There’s a scene where they’re all gathered around a campfire telling horror stories. Kaga offers to hold Megami if she’s afraid. Megami is not afraid, is sick of his shit, and tells him to go sit somewhere else

At some point they need more wood for the fire, but nobody wants to go into the woods to get it, so Shiromi tells the boys that whoever brings back the most wood can have a date with Akane. It gets most of the boys off of their butts for sure, but Kuroko scolds her for it. Shiromi just says that, once they’ve got the firewood, it’s not like they actually have to go through with their end of the deal. Kuroko heads off into the woods to collect some herself

Kuroko ends up bringing back the most wood and waves Akane off, saying that she just did it so that she wouldn’t have to go to dinner with one of the boys, but Akane insists on giving her that date when they get home

Everything is going great with the camping trip until they wake up one morning to find Osana missing from the girls’ cabin. They spend hours searching before someone finally finds her dead in the lake

Everyone is certain that this wasn’t an accident and the mood immediately plummets. Almost everyone has their suspects and is at each others’ throats. The teachers who are supervising decide that they’ll all pack up and be ready to leave tomorrow morning

However, Itachi and the delinquents want to figure out who killed Osana and bring them to justice. One thing leads to another and all the students end up lost in the woods. At some point the delinquents suspect Info and attack her, which injures her and splits the group in two

After that I’m not really sure where things go, but everyone is trying to get back to the main camp and get home safely. Aoi is in the same group as Info and is hella suspicious of her as well so not everything is peaceful. There are some people in Umeji and Osoro’s group who are pissed at them for attacking Info and splitting the group. Taro is extremely upset by Osana’s death and Megami comforts him, which leads to Ayano plotting to kill Megami as well while they’re still here, and possibly hindering the group/trying to isolate Megami as a result.

---

I had a pirate/mermaid AU for Aoromi but I never wrote anything down for it - I just had a few really, really old sketches I never posted

Iirc, the general plot was that Aoi’s crew was struggling after the betrayal of Ayano and the death of the former captain Megami + many other crew members, and couldn’t really do anything but run from other crews who tried to attack them, their only advantage being that their ship was still the fastest. Then they fish up a mermaid, Shiromi, who they plan on selling for money to hopefully try and get back on their feet, but end up getting emotionally attached to her

---

Superhero AU which I think I’ve mentioned before but

Anyone with superpowers is legally required to work under the government to defend the citizens whenever they’re called, but they don’t get any pay or significant benefit from it so they also have to work other jobs in their civilian lives. This causes huge amounts of stress

There are some who formed their own group to rebel against this system, which eventually evolved into trying to establish a new society in which they are above those without powers. Info is their leader. Her powers revolve around hacking, not just technology but people as well (though the latter is a lot more complicated and difficult)

Hanako is a sort of “sleeper agent” who doesn’t actually know that she has any powers, let alone that she’s one of the most powerful. Info finds out before she does and brainwashes her. Hanako constantly finds herself “blacking out” and then waking up in her room hours later with no memory of what happened. Meanwhile, a new member of Info’s organization shows up under the name “Nemesis”

Kaga doesn’t actually have any powers, but works for Info and her organization anyway. He’s a technological genius who built himself some kind of Iron Man-esque robotic suit to fight alongside them. He believes that if he works with the “winning side”, when they eventually take down the government, he’ll be spared/treated better than the others. Spoiler: he won’t. Info is planning on discarding him as soon as he outlives his usefulness to her

Also Kaga’s codename was “Dr. Bluescreen”. Clearly the most intimidating name ever.

Homu is a robot and one of Kaga’s inventions. She ends up developing sentience and emotions

Seiyo and Ajia are rivals in both their civilian and superhero lives. They work as waiters at the same restaurant

Being born with powers also comes with enhanced abilities like speed, power, endurance, etc. Ayano doesn’t have any actual powers, but has all the other enhancements (maybe even more so than the others) and is considered one of them anyway

Megami’s power is to calculate her opponent’s weaknesses and adjust her own powers accordingly. It sounds good, but it’s not so great when facing off against more than one person at a time

Aoi has fire-related powers and is in constant conflict with the fire department

Kuroko can produce toxins from her body, Akane can fly, and Shiromi can camouflage herself or other objects/people

Info and Shiromi go way back and Info is constantly trying to convince her to come over to her side. Info may or may not brainwash her at some point which sort of sets off Kaga because opposite sides or not, that’s still his little sister

At some point I was thinking of adding a “middle group” who don’t want to work under the government but don’t want to put themselves above people without powers, either. Maybe the delinquents

---

Hey love! Could you do another chapter of rules were made to be broken? Maybe after the coffee date one finds out or something and they all have a big fight and four threatens to leave the ghosts or something? I’m not really sure and you can change this idea if you want, I don’t really write fanfic. Thanks love! 💚💚

Rules Were Made To Be Broken Part 2 [Request]

Part 1

Note: Sorry dear 💚 Nonnie for the wait for this! I hope you'll like this, I tried to make it the best I could! 💕

~~~

You came in early, maybe a bit too early. It was nine thirty, and you were sitting in the said coffee shop, waiting for him, for Billy. You had told your friends, who hardly believed it – because they dragged the boy down for days as you wallowed because he never called you back – and told you to not put your expectations too high, and they were true. Nonetheless, you came in early. Your hands were fidgeting, drawing circles on your coffeecup from time to time. It was beautiful outside, the sun shining, and partially for that reason you sat next to the glass window to catch some sun on your face, but also to make him notice you way quicker.

It wasn't ten, but you were already anxious. Would he be there? Would he come? You knew that if he didn't he would have your friends on his back, and by the way they dragged him down he wouldn't last long. You sighed before sipping some of your coffee before your eyes spotted a familiar silhouette. It was him. His golden locks showing up from under his blue hoodie, shining under the sunlight; and as he approached the coffee shop he noticed you, you could see it by the way his eyes glistened while he passed by you, right behind the window glass. He stopped for a while, took his hood off and smiled at you. You looked up, mesmerized by his eyes and this smile, this dazzling smile. He looked even more handsome than he did in the club, in the purple lightning, in a crowded space, with his torso against your back. Your face was instantly illuminated when you put your eyes on him, and he seemed to notice it as he quickly made his way in in order to sit at your table.

He sat right in front of you, charming as he was the last time you had seen him and he only said hi before a waiter came to take his order as you watched him, your hand under your chin. Hearing his voice again made you remember how hoarse his voice was, and how enchanting he sounded – even while ordering an espresso.

“So,” he stared after the waiter left you alone, in the middle of the coffee shop surrounded by other clients, “I want to apologize for leaving you like a coward last time, y/n... It was pretty much a shitty thing to do, I agree.”

“Yes, it was very, very shitty,” you emphasized before grabbing your cup and drinking from it, “but I'm open for some explications on why when this guy came in you had to leave.”

“Long story...”

“We have plenty of time,” you reminded him before adding as dreamily as he did yesterday on the phone but with a wink, “so much time.”

“You know that doing this is illegal, love,” he said as your smile widened because of how he looked at you, with heart eyes.

“Yes,” you nodded.

“Well... It's... You know ninjas, right,” he asked and you nodded with a smile. “So, basically I'm a ninja, doing parkour and catching bad guys.”

“So, you're a kind of ninja? That's pretty cute and hot,” you surprised yourself saying. You couldn't really tell what was happening to you when you were with him, probably your fear was gone with him because you felt that he wouldn't judge you.

“Enough talking about me and my ninjas skills, love, tell me something about yourself.”

“I like your smile,” you replied looking right into his eyes.

“But I think I like yours better,” he replied as the waiter put the coffee on the table right in front of him.

This date was way smoother than you thought it would be.

~~~

Billy made sure that no one would notice him sneaking out during the day to see you, and he adopted a well-known strategy of telling that he was gone parkouring through the city. A strategy that Blaine and Amelia knew too well to let him do this without any consequence. So, together, they waited for him to show up at their headquarters, Amelia sitting on the table and Blaine on a chair as Billy entered the room taking his hood off. And immediately he knew that he was screwed up. Definitely, especially by Amelia's look.

“Welcoming committee, never thought I would be this famous,” he joked trying to drive the conversation to another place.

“Have you seen her,” Amelia asked without further ado and he gulped. Shit. He didn't dare to lie, neither to reply. “God Billy, you're not a disney princess!”

“You can't marry a girl you just met,” Blaine said, quoting a bit too much Frozen for Billy to not pick it up.

“But it's true love, and she's not fucking Hans, she's like Kristoff or whatever,” he carelessly replied as Amelia stood up and put her hands on his shoulder while facing him.

“You know the rules, Billy, you shouldn't do this. You put her in jeopardy, and you put the whole team in jeopardy,” she reminded him.

“And you're dead,” Blaine quickly added, rising a finger.

“We're all dead,” Billy protested liberating himself from Amelia's grip, “but that doesn't mean that I can't feel fucking alive! And I feel alive with her!”

“But you'll be dead for real if One finds out,” Amelia said a bit too loud before she heard One's voice behind her.

“And Five's right,” One said, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against one of the door frames.

“Oh my shit,” Billy cursed under his breath.

“So, let me summarize what the three of you are doing, just so we're on the same page. You, meaning Four, Five and Seven are sneaking out into clubs because why not apparently, being dead is an easy thing to keep, fine. I'm telling you that you can eventually, from time to time go and have fun because you're human not corpses, right? Right. And now, after two fucking days,” he emphasized angrily, “I hear that Four is going on a date, and thinks he's a disney princess. Should I bring some music, birds and maybe a broom so he can be our Snow White and clean this place,” he asked ironically.

“One, let me explain,” Amelia tried but he rose his index to tell her that it wouldn't do.

“It's Four's problem, and he will deal with it.”

“How, wanker,” Billy asked, still cautious.

“You tell your girl that you're not so cool and that she should stop dating you... Are you even dating, or a thing or whatever,” One asked with some disgust on his face.

“Unbelievably yes, we're a thing,” Billy replied and Blaine facepalmed himself. “I know, shocking for somebody who left love behind for fuck's sake.”

“Don't you fucking dare,” One gnashed his teeth after saying so.

“I fucking quit this weirdos group, I'm fucking done with all of this, with all of these sick fucks,” Billy declared before going towards the main entrance.

“You step outside right now, you never come back,” One warned him.

“Go fuck yourself,” Billy replied before going to his trailer.

~~~

That was probably the biggest decision he had taken out of spite, for a simple feeling and nothing else. He used to live like this, by his feelings, and it never leaded him anywhere. Well, it led him into stealing and later into being abandoned by his teammates. Rationality had brought him peace, stability and probably a family. And no, Amelia and Blaine weren't sick fucks as he had said, and he didn't want to lose them, neither you. He was lying on his bed, in his trailer, still thinking about packing his things and going outside to find you, but, honestly would you allow him to enter into your life after one meeting, just like this? This was insane, and he couldn't ask you that, not now.

“Sick fucks here,” he heard coming from the door, Amelia had a smile on her face and right behind her there was Blaine.

“Coming to see our disney princess,” Blaine added. “With a plan, be happy we're like your fairy godmother but from another movie dude.” Billy arched an eyebrow as they entered his trailer.

“One won't come here for the deal, because you know how proud he is,” and before he could add anything she said, “yes you do because you're as proud as him, we know. So, we got an agreement with One.”

“You know the Cullens,” Blaine asked and Billy was truly confused by all of this. “Yeah, you know the Cullens. So, you're like Edward and your girl is your Bella, and Amelia is like Alice,and I'm probably Jasper...”

“Straight to the point,” Amelia said, cutting him off, “One agrees on you dating her, but you have to find a way to maker her join the Ghosts, to find a talent which will be more than 'she's good looking' and One's ready to accept the whole thing.”

“And why Twilight,” Billy asked, proceeding all the information.

“Because it's easier to explain it this way,” Blaine replied as if it was obvious.

“It was even more disturbing than I thought it would be,” Amelia said giving Blaine an not really amused.

“So... Should I call her,” Billy asked, skeptical.

“Yes,” Amelia rushed him.

He smiled as he dialed your number, and when you replied his smile widened.

“Love, I have an incredible offer for you...”