#she tried to kill him. she saved his life
Text
Break Ups and Make Ups
Jason Todd x reader
Synopsis: Jason breaks up with you to keep you safe only to get saved by you a few weeks later.
Warnings: Mentions of blood, Jason being angsty
Word Count: 3233
Jason couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned in a bed that felt too large and dreamed of futures he lost from his grasp. Every night was the same. He’d spend his energy patrolling to forget you, drag himself through his apartment, and then come to the realization that he was entirely alone the second the AC hit in the face. What made him even angrier was that it wasn’t even your fault, not entirely at least. To Jason, you were the epitome of perfection and had done nothing wrong. You were meant to be protected at all costs and Jason was sure that he could never protect you when you were with him. Every body he saw, every victim of Gotham he encountered had your face. Maybe it was a fragment of his delusion that caused him to worry so intensely, but to him, it came out of a place of real possibility.
That’s why he broke it off with you when things started getting serious. All he really remembers from that day was you screaming something he doesn’t remember (or tries to forget) at him and telling him to leave. It was the worst day of his life, and he would have died a thousand times over again to avoid it ever happening. He’d never seen you so upset before and hated that it was because of him. Every night, this was what he saw before he fell asleep, and once sleep had finally taken over there was no rest from his regret. He’d dream of all the futures you could have had together, bringing newborns home from the hospital, you, walking down the aisle with tears flowing from everyone’s eyes, and the endless possibilities of bliss that he threw away that night.
That was what was keeping Jason up last night. He was exhausted, struggling to stay awake as the cycle of regret repeated every time he shut his eyes.
“You alright Jaybird?” Dick asked, standing in the mirror adjusting his tie.
“Fine.” Jason gruffed in response.
Jason was sitting in one of the many armchairs in the manor staring at the window, brooding. Usually, he’d hear your laughter with the girls from down the hallway, joking about whatever appealed to them at the time. Tonight was different and all he heard were the voices of his sisters, sometimes bringing you up, lamenting the loss of your presence.
“Do you think she’ll show up eventually?” Steph asked, “I mean she kind of has to for press.”
“I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t” Jason heard Barbra reply, causing him to cringe.
He was in the wrong for breaking it off with you. Jason saw that now, regretting the pride that came in with thinking it was only up to him to keep you safe, or that you couldn’t play some part in it. To your credit, you’d survived Gotham for so many years before meeting him, even as a socialite. Why did he think it would be any different?
“You know, it would be worth just talking to her.” Dick said, “If that’s what you’re brooding over. I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re brooding over.” Dick said.
“It’s none of your business.”
“Yea, not really, but you’re acting like you’ve been tossing up the idea of swan diving off Gotham Bridge.” Dick chided, “So maybe you should talk to her. Sounds like she didn’t want to break up anyways, so you’d probably have a chance.”
“She’d kill me.” Jason replied coldly.
Dick didn’t say anything in response, but Jason knew what he was thinking, “Yeah, and right now, you’d deserve it.”
When the car pulled up to the carpet at the front of the gala, it was all Jason could do to not sink and melt into the floor. There would be plenty of questions from reporters asking where you were. It had been three weeks since he dumped you and the internet had been stirring.
“Just walk past them.” Dick said, “And don’t beat anyone”
“No promises.” Jason answered, stepping out of the car, and giving his hand to Cassandra to help her out.
Cass nodded at him giving him enough signal of, “I’ll walk with you.”
Reporters and fans shouted at the family. Jason wished that anyone else was the center of attention, but instead all the questions were centered around his relationship with you.
“Where’s Y/N?”
“Are you and Y/N still dating?”
“Why haven’t we seen you together?”
Bruce managed to shove in front of Vikki Vale to protect Jason from her invasive questions and everyone else made their way inside. The lights of the flashing cameras faded through the crowd inside the gala. Jason felt like all eyes were on him. It was one of the first times that he felt like hiding in a corner, wrapped up in a ball at one of these events. Women with hair overdone and plunging V-neck dresses approached him, assuming that he was no longer off the table. It’s not like they cared when we still dating you whether it was appropriate to hit on him.
If you were here, you two would be making fun of everyone here acting like they were on top of the world instead of the true trash of Gotham, but you weren’t, and now he was awkwardly standing next to Dick ignoring the conversation he was engaged in. Jason was pretty sure they were talking about something related to Wayne Enterprises, but he focused on the bitter cold at his side where you were meant to be on his arm. You’d be making some comment about an increase in recent sales for some company WE were working with, and he’d be staring at you wondering how he got so lucky. Now he stares at the floor wondering how he got so stupid.
“Dude, you look like a dog that just got its favorite toy taken.” Dick said once the person he was talking to left.
Jason left out a gruff in response. He didn’t have a response to that. Instead, Jason was counting down the minutes until he could leave and go crash in his apartment, though, he wasn’t sure that would be any better. Twirling a toothpick from some fancy snack he just endured, he thought about what he’d do if he tried to make it up with you.
“Seriously, go home, take a shower, and call her.” Dick urged, “We all know she liked you; you’re just going to have to explain a few things.”
“She probably hates me.” Jason answered, running his hand across his face, “I can’t blame her though.”
“Maybe she hates you, but maybe she’s just waiting for you to get your head out of your butt.”
Before Jason could respond to that, he heard glass shattering in the building and gun shots echoing. He looked towards Bruce, trying to gage whether they would spring into action. Bruce was busy ushering guests out of the building and not paying too much attention to where everyone else was. Dick and Jason ducked for cover, trying to see where the shots were being fired from. As they scanned the room, they saw a dark gas creeping towards the table where they were situated and there was nowhere to run.
“Tim’s still on the mission with his team.” Dick said
“Can’t blow our cover.” Jason responded, “Isn’t there that new vigilante running around town that Bruce has been trying to pretend he isn’t working with?”
“And you think that will help?” Dick snorted,
“You’re right. We’re screwed.”
You were currently speeding through the streets of Gotham, riding at full speed towards the hotel where the gala was tonight. Bruce had asked you to avoid it since all the others were on a mission or at the gala. It was a precaution he had in place just in case something happened. You were still bitter about what happened with Jason. He was an idiot. Jason thought you had no idea of his persona as Red Hood. He had no idea that you were the recent vigilante in Gotham, Batman took in for your skills. Here you thought Jason would be a better detective.
Flying towards the police lights, you pulled your bike near Gordon’s patrol car and jumped off, helmet in hand.
“What do you have?” You asked.
“We’re waiting for Batman.” Gordon replied, “Hostages have been released other than the Waynes.”
“Batman’s not coming.” You countered, “He’s on a mission with the League.”
“He never told me about that.”
“You think he’d tell you about a classified mission with the League?” You lied, “I’m all you have, so get over it.”
“You really are with the Bat.” Gordon sighed, “Bane sent his men to capture the Waynes and is demanding a ransom of $1 billion.”
“He does realize that most of that is kept in separate investments, right?” You mumbled.
“Apparently he doesn’t” “He’s got them in an east river warehouse and will begin executions at 12am. First one to go is Jason Todd.”
You looked at the time blaring on his phone, beads of sweat starting to form on your forehead, “Two hours.”
“Surely he doesn’t think we could retrieve $1 billion in two hours.” Gordon responded.
“I don’t care what he thinks as long as you convince him that the money is coming.” You said, “I’ll recover the Waynes.” “Keep him ignorant, it’s our best option.”
The drive felt like hours even though it was thirty minutes through the traffic. All the while you were thinking about what Gordon said, “First to go is Jason Todd.” You were still upset with him, but that didn’t negate the fac that you loved him. Jason breaking it off with you felt like someone tore your soul out of you. You were pretty sure once you explained everything to him, he’d understand, but you didn’t have the energy to track him down and convince him to listen to you. Serving around a slower driver, you sped onto the side road that led straight into the warehouses. Bane has a usual point of operation here that you were sure he was staking out in. He wasn’t the most intelligent guy on the block, but it was too risky for the special ops team to come flying into the building with such a threat.
You haphazardly parked your bike and sprinted towards the warehouse you knew they’d be in. The comm in your ear began buzzing and you clicked the button to turn on the feed.
“He’s about to start executing.” Gordon said.
“What? There’s still an hour and a half left?” You whisper yelled, “Did your men screw it up?”
“Haven’t found out yet, Bane has demanded that the time be dropped.” “Are you in there?”
“Almost, how much time do I have?”
“Fifteen minutes.” Gordon replied.
“When I knock him out, I expect that you put him in the most uncomfortable cell in Black Gate.”
“Without a second thought.” Gordon said, confidence lacing his voice.
There were 10 guards outside the warehouse heavily armed. Bane must have been juiced up which meant he was more confident in not needing security, just someone to collect the money and bring it inside. If you were on your own, you’d probably kill them all and let GCPD handle it, but you were in Batman’s turf and had to respect his bounds. Instead, you opted to tranquilize them and leave the clean-up to GCPD to save time.
“I’ve got 10 unconscious out front, make sure they’re in cars before they wake up.” You said, “Don’t come in with sirens and lights on.” “I’m going in”
“Understood.” Gordon responded quickly.
Going to the roof, you looked a window down to see Bane dragging Jason with a bag over his head, to the front of a room where a camera was. There was one other man with a mask on holding a rifle pointed to where Jason was now kneeling. He ripped the bag off Jason’s head to show reveal him with a busted lip and a fresh bruise appearing on his jaw. He must have said something that rubbed one of the recruits the wrong way. Your heart began to race as you watched in horror. With your boot, you kicked the glass once and watched as the shards fell to the ground. From below, Jason heard the crashing of the glass and didn’t look up in case it was falling on him. A loud pop echoed through the building and the sound of metal hitting the floor sounded in his ears. Another shot was fired and after a few seconds, the man standing behind him stumbled backwards and finally fell.
With the immediate threat to Jason neutralized, you jumped down, landing on Bane’s shoulders.
“You picked the wrong day Bane. I’m not in the mood” you said.
“I’ll kill you all!” He screamed, reaching his arms around his back, trying to grab you off him.
“Is that the most intelligent thing you can think of right now, big guy?” You laughed.
Reaching into your utility belt, you pulled out a large knife and positioned to cut into the tubes that pumped his venom. Before you could do that, Bane reached around and grabbed your leg. With a grunt you were thrown to the ground but recovered quickly. Jumping back up, you ran towards him, launching yourself in the air to kick his jaw. A tooth flew past you and blood began to run out of his mouth. These were the moments you were grateful for steel-toed boots. Bane stumbled for a moment before regaining his strength and barreling towards you. You ran back from him, giving yourself space and leading him to a place where you could get back on top of him. He started reaching his arms back again causing you to glide your knife over his arm. Blood was drawn again, and he recoiled in pain. Taking this opportunity, you ran the knife through the pipes, venom spewing out everywhere. He fell back right as you flung yourself off him and out of his reach. Quickly, his muscles started constricting and falling back into their regular form. It was a disgusting sight to and you found yourself grimacing at the sight.
In the commotion of it all, you weren’t aware that the camera had knocked over. Bruce and Dick were still sitting patiently, waiting for you to uncuff them.
“Target neutralized, I’ll bring out the Waynes and Bane.” You said into the comm.
“Got it, ETA five minutes.” Gordon answered
You grabbed the keys that were hanging on the wall next to where Bane had been standing and began to uncuff Bruce and Dick.
“You always manage to get yourself into trouble, don’t you?” You asked, a smirk evident in your voice despite your mask.
“You know it.” Dick said.
“Thanks for the rescue.” Bruce stood up as you helped Dick off the floor, “We can drag Bane out. It seems you’ve got some explaining to do.”
Jason was sitting and staring at the wall, contemplating his life. You weren’t sure what he was thinking, but you could bet it was something about being glad he broke it off with you after something like this happening. You watched for a minute as Bruce and Dick dragged Bane out of the room, giving you two a moment.
“Jason.” You said, trying to get him to turn around.
“You gonna uncuff me?” He asked.
“I was getting there.” You knelt behind him and unlocked the cuff.
The clank of metal quietly rang out. An awkward silence fell, and you weren’t sure what to do so instead you started assessing injuries. You moved to kneel in front of him and examined his lip and the bruise that was getting darker by the second.
“Anything feel broken?” you asked.
“No.” He moved away from your touch, something that hurt your heart, “Who even are you? Batman’s new recruit?”
“Jason- do you?” You huffed and began to pull off your mask, “You’re an idiot.”
Once you had your mask off, he started at you, lost for words. So many emotions ran through his eyes, confusion and then realization being the two most prominent ones.
“Y/N?” He asked bewildered, “How did you keep this from me?”
“I figured you knew, Red Hood.” You said, tucking your mask under your arm.
“You knew about that?”
“You’re not very inconspicuous about it, Jason.” You laughed, “I mean every time patrol ended, Red Hood would head in the direction of your apartment and then you’d drop by thirty minutes later after taken a shower and typically with some sort of wound dressing. Plus, it helps that I went to the cave a few times.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” He asked, hurt lingering in his voice.
“I realized you probably didn’t know anything about it and planned to talk to you about it but you kind of dumped me before I got the chance.” Your smile faded and was instead replaced with a stoic look. Jason knew you were upset, “What do you think I was yelling at you for?”
“I thought you were just yelling because you were mad.” He answered, shame now replacing his look of hurt.
“Yeah, I’m pissed with you. I feel like you thought I can’t handle myself, even if you didn’t mean to come across that way. I was trying to get you to stop so we could talk about it. You were bound to get in and get out.” Tears began swelling in your eyes and you quickly wiped them away.
“Y/N I’m so sorry.” He said.
“Yea, so am I.” Your head hung low for a second before you picked yourself back up, not wanting to break down in front of Jason right now.
“No, it’s not your fault.” Jason grabbed your hands, “This has been the worst few weeks of my entire life. I can’t live without you. Day and night, you’re the only thing I think of. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t do anything right now. I’d rather die a thousand times over than not have you.”
At this point you started crying and Jason grabbed you, pulling you into his chest. You cried into his suit that was already ruined by the dirt and tears from tonight. He was crying to, no matter how much he didn’t want to be.
“I’m so, so sorry Y/N. I never meant to hurt you. I just thought this was best for you. I didn’t want you ending up hurt or dead or- I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”
“Jason” You laughed through tears, “I’m a Gotham CEO, I was already unsafe by myself.”
“I didn’t think about that.” He said, making you laugh more.
“Do you think you’d have me back?” Jason asked, a now solemn look coming across his face.
“Yes, absolutely.”
Jason pulled you into a kiss that felt like it lasted forever and once it was over, he rested his head in the crook of your neck and inhaled deeply.
“I missed you so much.” He said.
“I did too.”
Jason’s family was going to be ecstatic about this. They probably weren’t going to let him live down you realizing he was Red Hood before he realized you were a vigilante.
#dc x reader#dc comics#dc characters#batfam x reader#batboys x reader#batfam#jason todd x reader#jason todd x reader fluff#jason todd x you#jason todd x y/n#red hood x you#red hood x reader#red hood x y/n#red hood imagine#jason todd imagine
139 notes
·
View notes
Text
some Thoughts on chapter 13 now that i've finished:
I LOVE HOEDERER.... i already did but like. Really enjoyable to get his POV in this event and see more of his inner thoughts and motivations. I'm fond of characters who are so tired and worn down and jaded, but manage to hold onto some scrap of hope regardless, even against their own better judgment. A lot like Mlynar in that way, tbh.
regrettably this chapter sold me on hoederines a little. i'm CONFLICTED because i love wines so much, dammit. (and manhoe, but there's not as much of a conflict with my headcanons there.) But their relationship is so good regardless of whether you read it as romantic or platonic.
speaking of, Ines was a delight in this chapter. Love her role as the resident non-Sarkaz Sarkaz who is completely unaffected by whatever arcane bullshit is getting to Hoederer and W in any given moment, so she can yell at them to snap out of it and save all of their lives lmao. I love her deep loyalty and care for them that she expresses in everything but words. ugh ugh i love her
the little subplot with Vendela and the Sarkaz commander who tried to keep her safe was sweet and sad, I wish he'd gotten a unique sprite at least. I kind of want to see her meet Flamebringer now and her reaction to the friendship between him and Perfumer... I feel like there's some parallels there.
We're starting to see some payoff to the buildup with Siege in this arc, and I'm so glad! I've never really understood the hate her arc gets - I know it's partly that I'm biased, she was my first 6* so I'm rather fond of her, and I just really like the whole concept of the Glasgow Gang. And I think it doesn't help that ch12 was (imo) the weakest part of act 2 so far. But also, it was always really clear to me that we've been just... laying the groundwork with her up til now, I didn't really expect her to have big moments or turning points yet? Idk. i kind of want to write a whole post about her arc and my thoughts on it at some point. BUT, I really liked her in ch13, seeing her start to really come into her own and how all the events of act 2 up until now have shaped her decisions.
I'M REALLY SAD ABOUT GUARD ACTUALLY??? :( Tbh I have not really cared much about New!Reunion until this chapter, except for Talulah, but I'm finally getting invested. And Talulah's confrontation with Eblana was AMAZING. I've always seen her as a foil to Talulah - while Talulah started down her path with good intentions and ideals, Dublinn seems to have been like late-stage Reunion from the very start, because Eblana has always cared more about seeking power than about the oppression of the people around her. SO FUCKING SATISFYING to see Talulah, of all people, calling her out on that, and protecting Reunion from her. I really hope we get more of these two in future, and also more Reed in main story please please pleeeaseee.
This chapter was wonderfully cohesive with the themes of tradition and bloodlines vs forging a new path. Siege, Delphine and Horn, all beginning to break away from their inherited roles in Victoria's hegemony and fight on their own terms instead. The Kazdel flashbacks, the spacetime feranmut, and Hoederer's POV - a character who wants to see a better future for Kazdel, while still remembering and learning from its past. Nine, Guard and Talulah dealing with what Reunion means as a symbol, and figuring out what it should become. Shining and Nightingale, confronting the Confessarii and their own past. Even Vendela, having to let go of the life and traditions she'd grown up in, the townspeople clinging to familiarity and the hope that things would go back to normal to the point that it was literally going to kill them. The confrontation with the Sanguinarch was such a great culmination of all of this, with his fixation on blood purity and the glorious lost past of the Teekaz. And he's defeated by several people who all soundly reject his vision of what the Sarkaz "should" be - Amiya, the outblood King; Logos, who does have a "pure" bloodline by the Sanguinarch's standards but refuses to be defined by the role he inherited; Hoederer and W, two of the mixed-race "commoner" Sarkaz he's so contemptuous of (and Hoederer specifically rejecting the idea that the Sarkaz's destiny must always be soaked in blood); Ines, who isn't a Sarkaz at all, except she is, because her family is Sarkaz, and she's always going to be one of them. It was! So fucking good!
#arknights#i need to properly write up my thoughts on act 2 in general at some point but.#CH13 WAS REALLY GOOD
25 notes
·
View notes
Text
"I'll go to hell if I have to." Emma S.
✨Characters : Sano Emma, Ryuguji Ken, Sano Manjiro and Fem!Reader
Arc: Tenjiku✨
-Emma was no longer lonely. So she never felt the need to make friends.
-I mean, her brother Mikey, his friends and Draken were with her.
-She thought she was lucky, even though her mom had abandoned her.
-At school, everyone was scared of Emma because she was the Sano Manjirou aka Mikey's sister. I guess she didn’t even try to bond with her classmates.
-She probably wasn’t a problem student and certainly had above-average grades, but nothing more.
-It didn’t make her sad, actually.
-Trying to win Draken's heart take all her time !
-So, she really didn’t except you to become her friend.
-You were an ordinary person.
-Emma had seen an adorable plush and you gave her one.
-Emma had happily talk to you and thanked you a lot. Even if it was just a plush.
-You girls ended up talking in a coffee shop. And you exchange your phone numbers.
-Emma had been quick to mention her brother's delinquency and was surprised when you simply listened with curiosity.
-She was so happy. You were her first friend who had no connection with her brothers and delinquency.
-She told you about Draken almost immediately, complaining about him or, on contrary, having stars on her eyes.
-You knew every detail of each other’s lives. As if you were each other’s diaries.
-Emma loved to talk about her daily life, but sincerely appreciated that you didn’t hesitate to tell her everything too.
-Sometimes, she talked about Izana.
-You often had pyjamas parties! At her place or yours.
-That’s how you met Mikey and Draken.
-You were convinced in your heart that Draken loves Emma too.
-You tried to convince her to confess her love but she always refuses !
-When her brother, Shinichiro, died, you always supported her. You listened her for hours and buy her groceries she likes.
-Emma had once again lost a person she loved.
-After that, she almost saw you as her sister. Or platonic soulmates.
-It became like a ritual: whenever she had the slightest problem, you were in the top1 list of person to see first.
-Mikey, Draken and you were definitely Emma’s favorite people. She didn’t want to lose any of you.
-She had already lost too many people.
-Imagine her shock the day she almost got into a car accident after having an argument with Draken.
-She walked frustrated and hadn’t look the road.
-You’d saved her by pushing her, but you couldn’t save yourself.
-Emma had cried so hard and Draken had hurried over to see you.
-"Ryuguji… Could you protect Emma? Please."
-What if you weren’t dead, but in a deep coma ?
-Mikey, Draken often visited you, thanking you for saving Emma.
-Emma visited you every day. Crying or telling you about her day and asking how you were, just like you used to.
-But you didn’t answer.
-You no longer reassured her, no longer argued with her when she went too far for Draken.
-She missed you.
-You body didn’t move, blink or tremble. Despite all the years.
-"Hey… If you wake up, I'll confess to Ken-chan. So please come back soon, okay ?"
-When it was your birthday, she’ll give you your favorite fruits and flowers.
-One day, she stopped to visiting you. So did Mikey.
-Emma was dead. Killed by delinquents in the run-up to the fighting between the Touman and the Tenjiku.
-After her funeral, the one who came to see you every day was Draken.
-He told you in your coma that you best friend had died.
-He told you that you were right and that he had been in love with her all along.
-Draken had cried. You had entrusted him with you best friend’s life. And he couldn’t keep his promise.
-"Mikey said Emma wanted you back."
-"I'll go to hell gladly if I have to, so please wake up."
-Maybe he'd been dreaming, but he saw you crying that day.
#I want to cry rn#Emma and Draken relationship is my reason to live#I want to write a fanfic rn.#tokyo revengers#anime#anime / manga#bonten#mikey bonten#tenjiku#izana#draken#ryuguji ken#ken ryuuguji#manjirou sano#sano manjiro#mikey#emma#sano emma#emma sano#tokrev
25 notes
·
View notes
Text
Day 6
No Refunds or Exchanges by badwolfbadwolf - (Rating: Mature, Words: 18,916, sterek)
Stiles is the newest deputy in the Beacon Hills Sheriff’s Department, and has maybe just been a little in love with Derek Hale since Stiles had made a fool of himself in front of him at the SD summer picnic a few years ago. Being married to him—only for the sake of not getting deported—is going to suck in new and unusual ways.
Survival of the Species by Lissadiane - (Rating: Explicit , Words: 19,370, sterek)
“I think I’m dying.” Nothing makes sense – and now Derek has left him.
“No, Mr. Stilinski,” Deaton says grimly, rooting around in his special cupboard of herbs and remedies. “I’m afraid not. You’re merely suffering from a biological imperative to bear your alpha’s children and strengthen the pack.”
Stiles considers that for a moment, as best he can with his mind a hazy mess, and then he says quietly, “I think that might be worse.”
“So, so much worse,” Scott agrees.
*
In which Derek's pack is apparently stable enough to begin planning for the future, and somehow, the universe has decided Stiles is the perfect candidate to bear his alpha's children.
Imagine Me And You by callunavulgari, hiza-chan (callunavulgari) - (Rating: T, Words: 16,080, sterek)
“My name,” the kid tells Derek, sounding amused. “It’s Stiles. I figure if I’m going to wrestle a complete stranger for a pumpkin the least I can do is offer my name afterwards.”
“Stiles,” Derek tries, testing the way the name sits on his tongue. “I’m Derek.”
“Derek,” Stiles breathes, like he’s testing the weight of the name too. He grins, bright and blinding, which Derek guesses means that he likes the sound of it. “I’d offer to shake your hand, but since we almost got to second base a minute ago, I’d say we’re past that point.”
Bitten Saved Pack by TheRealDanniX - (Rating: T, Words: 7,488, sterek)
Gerard didn't just rough Stiles up. He was aiming to kill. Derek can't take that. Scott doesn't like how Derek fixes it.
*nobody dies
All Coming Back, Like It Was Never Gone by LadyDrace - (Rating: T, Words: 2,756, sterek)
Stiles and Derek spend a summer looking for Boyd and Erica. During that summer they're... something. Something that never becomes much of anything.
But then, years later, it all comes back.
Point me where my life begins by Gotta_seduce_the_Rainbow - (Rating: Explicit, Words: 39,430, sterek)
When Derek wakes up without his memory, he is left with nothing but a note he wrote himself. He no longer remembers anything personal, not himself, not anyone else.
The note is pointing him towards the town Beacon Hills and once he is there, he is greeted by strangers telling him “Dude, I didn’t know you’re back in town”, which is confusing. Apparently, he grew up in Beacon Hills, but left a few years ago without telling anyone about it.
There is this one stranger, who calls him dude and has the most amazing scent. Derek might just want to start his new life here. With this person.
Stupid Over You by Wolfspurr - (Rating: T, Words: 10,461, sterek)
It's a Friday night, and instead of enjoying any of the numerous things he'd rather be doing, Stiles has been roped into dinner with his dad at the Hale's. On the plus side, Derek Hale will be there. On the minus side, Derek Hale will be there, and Stiles already has a hard enough time not making an ass of himself in front of the hottest guy in school. There's no way this can end well.
the shape of my heart by Winchesterek - (Rating: Mature, Words: 4,807, sterek)
Stiles never thought he'd meet someone like Derek. Someone that was in a similar situation as he was - raising kids that weren't biologically his. It was even wilder because Derek was his god daughters first grade teacher and she was best friends with Derek's niece and nephew.
And Derek was hot. So hot that Stiles couldn't help ogling him every time they spent any amount of time around each other, including play dates and lunch in the school cafeteria with their kids. So Derek asking him out for Valentine's Day? That was just icing on the cake. Plus, Stiles was already head over heels for him.
My Wolf by Dexterous_Sinistrous - (Rating: T, Words: 7,654, sterek)
“If he wants to mate Stiles, why not let him?” Jackson asked, ready to part with Stiles if need be.
“Because if I did that, I’d be demoting Lydia,” Alpha Stilinski replied.
“We don’t even know how good of a Beta he is,” Lydia countered, bristling some that her status was being challenged.
“That’s because he’s not a Beta,” Alpha Stilinski stated. “He’s an Alpha.”
A Divine Move by alikatastic - (Rating: Not Rated, Words: 2,138, sterek)
After Derek died, Peter was the one to let Stiles know. Stiles rushed to Beacon Hills to attend Derek's funeral and take care of Eli. When Peter takes Stiles to the Nemeton to show Stiles what happened, they make a discovery. Derek was trapped in the nemeton. All they had to do was pull him out.
37 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Redbridge Hunts, Chapter 52
Loki and Claire were cuddling in bed the following morning, they were speaking about last night of course.
‘I’m sorry I never told you the truth… I’m ashamed, I think I tried my best to block out the fact that he did save my life. I wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for him changing me.’ Loki said sheepishly as Claire lay on top of him, her chin on his chest as she looked at him.
She shook her head. ‘It’s ok. You went through a lot, both of you. I’m a little surprised at your dad for not taking Chris’ worries into consideration before telling you. I know what he does isn’t right, but at the end of the day he is an original vampire with strong instincts. He can control them, though just enjoys letting them run wild sometimes. He seems like he cares about those around him though, since he’s not ever killed a student human or teacher.’
‘That’s true. Even though he often threatens, I think it’s just him being an ass.’ Loki chuckled as he trailed his fingers up and down Claire’s back.
‘Plus a lot of the bickering and teasing is just major big brother vibes.’
‘Hmm. Some a bit far though.’ Loki said with a raised eyebrow.
‘True. I do feel for him though, searching for his soulmate for so long.’ Claire sighed.
‘Mmm, me too.’ Loki said sadly.
‘It’s a shame we didn’t get to enjoy the Halloween night properly though.’ Loki sighed and slid his hand up Claire’s back to the back of her neck, making her eyes flutter shut for a moment.
‘It is… Though at least we’ve got your birthday party at the end of the month.’ She grinned widely.
‘Oh god, how could I forget?’ He chuckled.
‘It’ll be great. I’m guessing we now add Chris to the invite list?’
Loki smiled and nodded. ‘Of course. Though we will need to watch him closely since your sister will be coming too.’ He frowned.
‘Once she meets Matt, I am sure she will be hooked and he with her. He’ll look after her.’ Claire assured Loki.
‘You are determined to hook them up, aren’t you?’ Loki laughed as he put his arms around her and rolled them over.
‘Of course. He’s a lovely sweet guy, he will be good for her.’ Claire smiled.
‘He will be. I think he will enjoy wooing her, he’s quite the romantic from what I’ve gathered.’
‘Not as romantic as you though, surely?’ Claire asked as she put her arms around Loki’s neck.
‘Oh, more so I think.’ Loki chuckled.
‘Oh damn. I went for the wrong vampire then.’ Claire sighed dramatically.
‘Cheeky.’ Loki growled and buried his face into her neck, nibbling playfully on her neck as he tickled her sides, making her squeal and laugh underneath him.
He stopped tickling her after hearing her laugh for a while, he enjoyed just tickling her to hear her laughter. He dipped his head down to kiss her, it swiftly grew heated and before they knew it, Loki was thrusting into her slowly yet deeply, making her whimper and moan against his lips.
Claire clung to Loki tightly, her nails dug into his back, though he barely felt it. Sweat soon beaded on his forehead as his movements became more erratic. The sounds that spilled from her lips was driving him nuts.
He always liked to make her cum first, he enjoyed feeling her cum around him. He slid a hand down between them, he sought out her clit and lightly teased it, working her up nicely until they were both close.
‘Cum for me, baby. I can feel you so close, come on.’ Loki growled and put more pressure on her clit, with a final thrust was all Claire needed.
‘Ohhh fuck! Loki!’ She cried out as she came, setting Loki off too when he felt her clenching around his cock.
Loki collapsed on top of her, though made sure not to crush her. Even though he knew that she enjoyed feeling the weight of him on top of her.
They were both panting hard, needing some time to recover. Although they didn’t get it, as they heard Bat running up the stairs, yelling her head off. It was breakfast time and they were late, which simply wasn’t good enough.
Bat strolled into the room and walked to the side of the bed, yelling loudly at them. She sat down on the floor at the side and kept making a noise.
‘Bat… Give us a minute, please. I know we’re a little late for breakfast.’ Loki groaned.
Though Bat then began wagging her tail in displeasure and with every wag, her tail thumped hard against the laminate floor, making Loki groan even more.
Claire burst out laughing under him, hearing the noises Bat was making. Her displeasure was very clear.
‘I mean, we are one minute late for breakfast. That is the worst crime ever.’ Claire laughed.
‘Do I have to move?’ Loki huffed.
‘Unless you want Bat to get even angrier, I’d say so.’ Claire nodded.
‘Ugh.’ Loki rolled reluctantly off of Claire, he slipped out of bed and grabbed his boxers to chuck on. Bat chirped happily and made her way out of the room, looking back to make sure that Loki was following her.
‘You’re such a Bat bitch.’ Claire called to him with a smirk when he was halfway down the stairs.
‘Just wait till I get back up there, you’re so in trouble!’ Loki shouted back to her, making her smirk even wider.
-
In the afternoon, Loki and Claire were just lazing about watching TV together when the doorbell rang. Loki went to answer it, he wasn’t too surprised to find it was Chris. He had a feeling he’d appear to talk some more.
He invited him in and got them all some drinks.
It was the first time that Claire had seen them both being reasonably relaxed in one another’s company.
They talked a lot, got some more little issues out of the way. Loki knew that Chris wouldn’t change his ways in regards to feeding from humans, it was something he was going to need to just accept. Chris also knew that Loki would never approve of that, so he knew he would need to try and stop badgering him about it being the best way.
Bat had made herself comfortable on Chris’ lap, purring away while he stroked her.
‘I’m glad you accepted Bat when I gave her to you. I had been worried at first you’d turn her away in spite of me.’ Chris chuckled.
‘You know I love cats, I could never have done that. She was far too cute, and still is. It’s like she’s barely aged, I can’t believe she’s almost sixteen.’ Loki said as he looked adoringly at said cat. ‘It’s as if you turned her too, keeping her young.’ He chuckled and took a swig of his drink.
Chris had been petting Bat, but sort of paused and a brief sheepish look crossed his face, though it quickly disappeared and he continued sliding his hand along the cats fur.
But Loki and Claire caught that look.
‘Wait… Chris… Tell me you didn’t. Tell me you didn’t turn my cat?’ Loki put his drink down and leaned forward, his eyes wide.
Chris looked like a deer caught in the headlights as he slowly raised his head to Loki. Bat lifted her chin high and let out a meow, then looked from Loki to Chris.
‘You did… Didn’t you? What the hell, man?’ Loki whined and ran a hand down his face.
‘Look… She was almost dead when I found her. Initially I was just going to leave her, but I couldn’t. Her eyes were just pleading at me to save her. So, I did… I changed her. I wasn't even sure if it would work on an animal but it did. Then I was going to set her free, but she kept following me. I took her home and decided to gift her to you. I didn’t want a pet, but I knew you loved cats. Knowing she will live forever gave me peace of mind that you’d have a companion forever, too. Incase like me you never found your soulmate.’ Chris admitted.
‘I KNEW IT!’ Claire blurted out and clapped her hands excitedly, making the vampires jump slightly.
‘Sorry… but she’s so smart, come on Loki. Surely you were suspicious too? It’s like she always knows what we are saying.’ Claire said a bit calmer.
Loki put his head in his hands for a moment. Bat jumped off Chris’ lap and went over to Loki, she butted his leg with her head, he moved his hands and looked down at her. She meowed at him and jumped into his lap, purring.
‘So, you’re a vampire Bat cat, huh?’ He hummed and scratched under her chin. ‘Why didn't you tell me before, hmm?’
Bat meowed in response, making him chuckle as he shook his head. ‘I guess I should’ve known, really.’
‘Ahhh, Bat! That’s so freaking cool.’ Claire laughed as she reached over to pet her too.
Bat meowed playfully and leapt onto Claire’s lap, she did a little dance around on her lap that made the three of them laugh.
‘I guess you could say the cat’s out of the bag now.’ Chris said with a smirk.
‘Oh god, now he’s doing dad jokes.’ Loki face-palmed. ‘I think I prefer the insults thrown at me.’
‘Don’t worry, brother. There will still be plenty of them.’ Chris grinned. ‘Anyway, I better get going. Some work to do before tomorrow.’
‘Are you going to get in touch with the school board?’ Loki asked him when he stood up.
Chris nodded. ‘First thing.’
‘Let me know when, I’ll join in the call.’ Loki smiled at him.
‘Thank you.’ Chris smiled back a genuine smile.
‘Oh, by the way. Loki’s birthday, we’re having a party here. Be here around four ish, there will be plenty of food and alcohol.�� Claire said quickly before Chris left.
‘I’ll be here.’ He nodded and began to head out, but he paused a moment and turned back to face them. ‘Is your sister coming?’
Both Loki and Claire instantly frowned. ‘Yes… why?’ Claire asked cautiously.
Chris smirked. ‘I just want to meet her, since I did kill her husband after all… I’ll try not to bite too hard.’ He winked at them.
‘You’ll do no such thing.’ Claire warned him.
‘We’re setting her up with Matt, so you’ll stay away.’ Loki said firmly.
Chris chuckled. ‘Sure, sure.’
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
TW: obsessive behavior, talk about self harm, death, gore, blood, corpses, choking, talk about you being dead, bleeding, bro there's so much - MDNI
SUMMARY: A twisted boy with a twisted mind and a twisted love just for you ♡
CHARACTERS: Yandere x F!Reader
WORD COUNT: 841
𓉸ྀི Never EVER was Blake expecting to fall in love. At first sight too. He saw you and was instantly captured. My condolences, because with him in your life...it'll be turned upside down
𓉸ྀི You're his newest, recent hyperfixation, or better, obsession. Recent? Well, since he ever saw and read this short story in the internet, about death, killing, blood and guts, he was forever obsessed with it. Especially the graphic pictures that we're added for the "realism'. You see, one click on a link and a wrong turn can lead you down a dark alley filled with the darkest mysteries hold by internet. Hidden from those who would never dare step that far into an alley like this. Bit inviting and interesting to those curious enough to take a look...and forever be captivated.
𓉸ྀི with 12 year's old, exactly that happened. This weird 'dare' and a link went around school and of course 12 year olds are gonna jump on it like hungry wolves. His friend send him the link, he was dared to open it and take a look, but was to scared. So he send Blake the link also, so they can both take a look. Shared fear is only half the fear, right?
𓉸ྀི While his friend was throwinh up beside his bed, he kept scrolling. And scrolling...and scrolling. Weird...this doesn't affect him, at least not like his friend. Or how he thought it would. Everyone kept saying its gross, creepy and...twisted. Its odd that he, likes it.
𓉸ྀི His friend claimed he suddenly felt sick, so his mother picked him up. None of them wanted to raise suspicion of course...But the whole night long, Blake kept looking at the pictures over and over again, he read the story multiple times. He probably still knows it all word for word till this day. But what really captured his interest was that woman, how she looked in her own blood bath. Her guts hanging out, everywhere but inside her. Is this real? No it can't be right? No one would ever...
𓉸ྀི when he saw you, he saw that woman. You both look so similar. Maybe the eye color is a bit off, yours are a tiny bit darker but thats ok, you look just like her! Damn, even the hair!...he can't help but wonder if you would...no that's an unhealthy thought
𓉸ྀི he's 18 now, and for 5 years he was in the dark web looking for stories, pictures and videos like this to feed his constant hunger and need for more blood and gore. But he still knows, murder is wrong. But knowing is something else than doing. They both can go hand in hand, the only thing that's holding them both away from each other is the wall called self control.
𓉸ྀི He does have this wall, it just has multiple holes in it. Blake was no stranger to act on his impulsive thoughts. He cuts his arms sometimes when he wants to feel the pain or see the blood. He even tried the 'save way of cutting your wrist', the thrill of almost dying did send him over the edge....The research did help of course. He even tried choking himself, but that does not really do much for him unfortunately, there's nothing hot to it besides the bruises he left on his neck.
𓉸ྀི But right now the wall he trained to stand against the army of his running thoughts is about to crumble by just looking at you. You'd look so great in red, a deep dark red surrounding you...oozing out of y-no-! This is wrong-! He knows you're so so much more than a body, than a corpse. You have personality...damn you really look like you have a great personality.
𓉸ྀི...w-wait-you looked his way-! WHY ARE YOU SMILING AT HIM-! Was he looking at you this entire time?? Ugh, hes such a creep-! Yes, he knows he's one but he doesn't have to act like one to make it obvious- He's so weird, he doesn't deserve you, he would NEVER deserve you. The only thing that deserves him would be the maggots and the mould, eating his decomposed cadaver.
𓉸ྀི If it's not him, than it's definitely your smile that killed him right there and now, on spot. He's disgusting why are you looking like him. Why do you show interest. Why is he smiling back. And why does he really feel the need to hold you in his arms, and kiss you. A kiss that would probably be the beginning of cannibalism. Drag his mouth and theeth across your chest to taste your beating heart...if he thinks like this then living can be beautiful, and so are living things. I mean...you are most definitely beautiful. And you're alive.
𓉸ྀི But you'd be just as pretty dead, rotting and overcome with mould, having flys around you while your body drys out and sinks....but yeah you're maybe even a tiny bit more beautiful alive. (Much more but he can't say it just yet)
TAGLIST: @lucienbarkbark @hehothrowawayfae
#yandere x you#yandere male#male yandere#yandere x reader#yandere#oc x reader#oc#Blake x reader#x female reader#x fem!reader#yandere x female reader
41 notes
·
View notes
Text
Gilded Family
Rating: Teen and Up, Gen
Ch 39/39: Closure
Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6 , Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31, Ch 32, Ch 33, Ch 34, Ch 35, Ch 36, Ch 37, Ch 38, Ch 38.5
An alternate universe in which Evelyn managed to save Caleb after his confrontation with Phillip. The two of them escaped to present day through time pools, and have been using time pools to secretly rescue grimwalkers just after Belos attempts to kill them. The story follows Darius' mentor as he adjusts to his new life, as well as changes to the course of canon.
Ao3
Xxx
“I don’t know about this.”
Cyrus tried to turn around, but A.T. caught his shoulders, turning him around, and Phoenix gave him a push towards the townspeople cleaning up wreckage and graffiti. Most importantly, towards the blue demon boy stabilizing a broken wall.
“Do you like him, or no?”
“I mean, yes,” Cyrus replied, “But we went on one sort-of date ages ago, before everything went screwy! What if he doesn’t like me anymore? What if he doesn’t even remember it?”
“You were halfway through a date before you were suddenly interrupted and dragged off by your family, and then a wild witch showed up and was chased through the streets,” A.T. reminded him, “How could he forget that date?”
“Yes, but what if the whole concealment stone thing drives him away? What if—if—”
“What if he’s got terrible amnesia?” A.T. suggested, “What if he’s got a new boyfriend? What if I unhinge my jaw and swallow him whole before you have the chance to speak to him?”
“What?” Phoenix and Cyrus asked in unison.
“Exactly, it’s all impossible. Go talk to him.”
Cyrus didn’t look too convinced, but he also seemed too startled by A.T.’s statement to protest, and made his way towards his one-time date. He waved awkwardly, saying something Phoenix couldn’t hear. The demon left his work, dusting his hands off, and tilting his head in a question. Cyrus pulled out his concealment stone, put it on, transformed, then took it off when his partner’s eyes lit up with recognition. He put the stone back in his pocket, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
“I’m actually super terrible for lying and you should never even look at me again,” A.T. mimed in a terrible imitation of Cyrus—a truly impressive feat, given how much his natural voice already sounded like their sibling. “I don’t think I’m worth it, even though I totally deserve a spectacular boyfriend!” He switched his voice to a lower pitch when the demon spoke up. A.T. even imitated his tentative hand one Cyrus’ arm.
“Wow, you look so much better without the concealment stone! Let’s get married forever!”
“I don’t think that’s what he’s saying.”
“Could be. You don’t know.”
Cyrus said something else, glancing back at A.T. and Phoenix. A.T. waved when the demon looked over, but the demon barely seemed to see him, his eyes latching onto Phoenix and sparking with something that was almost recognition, but fogged over by confusion.
Right. I ran into him when he was a puppet.
Phoenix wondered how many other former puppets would look at him with that unease, that sense of not quite remembering why he made them uncomfortable, but knowing somewhere in their unconscious mind that he’d played with the Collector, stood by while they were paraded around helplessly.
But Cyrus’ date shook himself, waved back at A.T., and turned back to Cyrus, enthusiastically explaining the work he was doing with a lot of arm waving. Cyrus went along with him, a small, happy smile blooming on his face.
“Aw, well, that’s sweet.” A.T. tugged his hair. “Boy, this place looks different. I hope they don’t rebuild it the exact same. I’d like to see something new.”
“Well, for one thing, there won’t be specialized cells for wild witches,” someone said behind them, “Thank the titan for that.”
A short witch grinned at them. She looked familiar, but Phoenix couldn’t quite place why until she nodded at an alleyway. “Seems like just yesterday you lot helped me out of here, and now, well, I’m back! This time without the chasing, hopefully. Where’s your little friend, the one with the jokes? And the older one?”
“Oh!” Phoenix blurted out. “The witch at the coven day—hey! You made it past the day of unity?”
“Mhm. One of the Collector’s little spies picked me up later, but I’m back now. You would not believe all the apologies I’ve been getting. It’s going to go to my head if I’m not careful. Maybe I should set some scaffolding on fire and give them a new reason to chase me out of town, for old times’ sake. Or at the least to test how far their ‘we’re so sorry, wild witches were right’ sentiments go.”
A.T. reached into his pocket and wordlessly held out a box of matches.
“Did you just have those on you?” Phoenix asked.
“You never know when you’ll have to light a fire,” A.T. remarked serenely, “Just ask Frank.”
The wild witch barked a laugh. “I like you. I’m Annette Thompson; what do they put on your wanted posters?”
A.T.’s face burst into a wide grin. “Matching initials!”
“What’s yours stand for, then?”
“I’ve been told not to ask,” Phoenix told her.
“Oh, a mystery?”
A.T. wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “One that is unlocked after we light enough fires together.”
Annette laughed again. “I suppose we better start, then.”
“Please don’t light anything too important on fire,” Phoenix called desperately after them, “Or better yet—no fires!”
Cyrus jogged over just as A.T. and Annette disappeared into the construction. “I think I need to quit distracting Raphael right now, but he told me when he gets off of construction work, and… where’s A.T. gone off to?”
“To light a fire? I think? He’s made a friend. Or… partner in crime? Possibly both.”
Alarm flashed across Cyrus’ face. “We should be worried, right? We should stop them? They’re just rebuilding.”
Phoenix waved a hand. “I’m sure it’s… fine. Ish.”
“Mm.” Cyrus squinted at the bustling streets. “I guess as long as he doesn’t light anything huge on fire in the middle of my second date.”
“On second thought, I think I’ll go find them.”
Xxx
“I’m leaving.”
Caleb glanced up at Joseph’s declaration, still mostly-engrossed in kneading bread dough for dinner. “Thanks for letting me know. What time do you think you’ll be back?”
“No, I mean, I’m leaving. To go do something else. I won’t be around for… I don’t know how long.”
Phoenix and Frank glanced at each other, but quietly kept chopping up vegetables, pretending they weren’t listening to every word.
“Oh.” Caleb struggled for words, finally managing a simple “I see.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong!” Joseph said quickly. Despite the confidence he’d originally announced himself with, he brimmed with nervous energy, turning a loose griffin feather over and over in his hands, “I love you, and I love the family, and I’ll definitely come back to visit, I just think…” He took a deep breath. “I want to go somewhere else. I’ve been in the same place for so long—and before that, I was with Belos. Now that our home is gone, and we’re rebuilding, and everything is changing anyway… I want to go up to the hand.”
He waved his hands, his nervous energy transforming into excitement. “I mean—the arm is sticking straight up! It’s taller than the Knee now—there’s no telling how the ecosystem up there is going to shift. Plants are going to change to fit the new shape, and the animals are going to have to adapt—and I want to see it. I want to see all the new creatures this brings, I want to see how the old creatures adapt or move somewhere new, or just fail… and I just want to get out and see everything the Isles has. I want to study beasts where they are, out in their natural environments, and I can’t do that if I stay here. I need to go. Please.”
“Okay,” Caleb said slowly. He wiped flour off his hands. “You don’t need my permission, you know that, right?” A wobbly smile appeared on his face. “I gave all of you the choice to leave or stay, remember? I never said that choice had to be permanent.”
Joseph’s shoulders visibly sank in relief. “Thank you.”
“What about the griffins?” Frank asked, finally breaking the unspoken treaty of silence between he and Phoenix.
“I thought—” Joseph rubbed the back of his neck. “—that is—if it’s alright—I thought I’d take Lucy. That’ll make the space restraints with moving closer to town less of an issue. The other griffins I think will be alright as long as they’re fed and exercised, but Lucy… anyway, this—it means the world to me.”
Caleb gave him a small, sad smile. “Permission to…?”
Joseph grabbed Caleb in a bear hug, squeezing so tightly that Phoenix thought he heard Caleb’s back pop. “Thank you, Dad,” he mumbled, his voice thick, “Thank you for everything.”
Caleb hugged back just as tightly. “I’m going to miss you. But I hope wherever you go—I hope you’re happy. I hope you find what you’re looking for. I hope… I hope…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, instead giving Joseph one last squeeze and letting go.
“Say goodbye to your mom, too, okay?”
“Of course. And everyone—I wouldn’t just disappear. Of course not.”
Joseph wandered out of the kitchen, searching for Evelyn, and Caleb sat down with a whump.
“Are you okay?” Phoenix asked quietly.
He managed a tired smile. “Of course, of course. I always knew that someday… I mean, I hoped that one day the world would be safe enough for you. I think I always sort of knew that the house was too small, and that one day some of you might want to leave.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But I don’t believe any amount of time would have actually prepared me for it.”
Phoenix thought of the first time he’d seen Darius after Belos’ attack—how he’d suddenly looked so grown up, how the realization that he didn’t need a mentor anymore had punched him in the gut. “No,” he agreed, “I don’t think it would.”
Caleb took a deep breath. “Things are changing right now,” he admitted, “We’ve been… living in a bubble. The only surprises were when one of you would join the house. But now… now the world’s opened up to us, and nothing will be the same.” He gave Phoenix and Frank a tired smile. “At risk of sounding like my brother, I’m not quite sure I’m ready for the change.”
Frank chuckled. “Now you know how we felt when we woke up in a different century.” He shrugged and chopped furiously at the vegetables on the board. “Things are going to be different. But some things are going to be the same, like—” he yanked back from the cutting board with a short scream.
Phoenix dropped his knife, and Caleb jumped up immediately. “Are you okay?! Did you cut yourself?!”
“My arm!” Frank yelped, “I’ve chopped it in with the vegetables! I didn’t even notice! The whole thing’s gone!”
“Terrible,” Phoenix told him, picking his knife back up, “You are just awful.”
Frank grinned, cheerfully resuming his chopping. “And that is something you can count on never changing.
Xxx
The front of Darius’ house buzzed with activity. Lake and Locke even managed to drag Sam out, although he still fidgeted with that strange box Ghost had found. Joseph paced nervously back and forth, and Lucy eyed him like she might be on the verge of sitting on him. But despite the nervousness, the saddlebags on Lucy and the backpack on Joseph looked natural. Right, even. Even his clothes—he’d bundled up for the likely lower temperatures—seemed to fit him better. His eyes shone with a healthy, excited glow.
“I’ll miss you.”
Joseph tousled Jason’s hair, grinning when Jason pushed his hand away. “Don’t get too mopey over me, or Lucy might turn around midair just to squash you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Come back soon, okay? I want to read about all the new things you find up there.”
“You’ll be the first to see the notes,” Joseph promised. He glanced over Jason’s head at Cherry. “Take care of them, yeah? Especially keep your eye on this one. He’s trouble. He’ll get another concussion if he can manage it.”
Jason stuck his tongue out.
“Always.” Cherry’s one eye flicked back and forth nervously, glancing up at the sky like he was hoping for some sudden terrible weather to appear and delay Joseph just a little longer. “Stay safe.
“Always,” Joseph echoed, “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.” He turned to Evelyn and Caleb. “Thank you.”
“You’ll always have a room with us,” Caleb told him, “You know that?”
“I know.”
Evelyn straightened his scarf. “Go find some new wild things. I just know you’ll figure out some way to befriend them.”
“Will do, ma’am.”
Joseph hugged Evelyn and Caleb, climbed on Lucy’s back, and clicked his tongue. The griffin sprang up into the air, her huge wings beating massive gusts of wind onto their heads. Soon, the two of them were just a speck in the sky, sailing towards the raised arm of the titan.
Xxx
“I can’t do it.”
Evelyn gave Auric a gentle shove towards Hexside’s doors. “Yes, you can.”
Auric scratched at the scars on his neck, balking. “I’m too old. Hexside stops at eighteen, and I’m twenty. They won’t let me.”
“I talked to Bump,” Phoenix reassured him, “He and I go back—and Darius talked to him about it, too. You’re not going to be a regular student, no, but the healing teacher agreed to take you on after school, and help you transition into healing-specific schools for graduates. Like an apprenticeship.”
“I don’t have magic,” Auric replied, changing tack, “I can’t do the kinds of… I can’t do it. I’m never going to be as good as them, so—”
“Hey,” Evelyn said sharply, “Who kept Caleb and I from bleeding out?”
“You would have died without the pain sharing spell, I—”
“Who patched up all the refugees when I couldn’t heal anyone?” Evelyn demanded.
“Those weren’t life-threatening injuries, it wasn’t even—”
“You splinted and casted Clara’s broken bone and kept her cheerful,” Phoenix offered, “You were the first one to realize something was wrong with my arms.”
“You stitched Matt up when he came home injured,” Evelyn added, “Face it, Auric—you’re as good a healer as anyone. Magic or no. Magic healers have it easy—we draw a circle, and the wound disappears. But you? You have to put so much thought into what you’re doing, and you have to do it quick. You are incredible, Auric.”
Auric scratched at his neck again. “I’m just not sure.”
“If you really don’t want to do this, then we can go back home,” Evelyn said softly, “But I want you to look me in the eye and tell me with absolute certainty, that going to healing school is something you don’t want.”
Auric took a step back, then a step forward, hovering between Evelyn and the door. “You think I’ll really be able to do it?”
“Would I have put my life in your hands if I wasn’t absolutely certain?”
Auric took a deep breath, taking a decisive step towards Hexside’s doors. “Okay. I’m ready.”
Xxx
“Hey! Over here!”
A hand closed around Phoenix’s arm, pulling him into the empty kitchen. “Phoenix.” Matt laced his fingers together. “You were part of the emperor’s coven when it was actually, you know, a coven.”
Phoenix winced at the reminder. What was this about? “Yes?”
“So you were around a lot of people.”
Where was he going with this? “Yeeessss?”
“Do you know how to plan a party.”
Phoenix stared at him. “What.”
“A party. Do you know how to plan one? Cyrus and I were in town, and his boyfriend invited him to a housewarming party for one of the newly rebuilt houses—well, he invited me, too, but that was just to be polite, I’m not going. Anyway, the point is, I think a housewarming party sounds nice. We could have one for our house, once we’ve actually built it. It would be…” Matt waved a hand. “You know. A normal thing.”
“A normal thing,” Phoenix echoed.
“Something other people do. I think it might help us settle into the town better, you know? Break some of the tension.”
“Have you run this by Caleb and Evelyn yet?”
“I sort of wanted to surprise them. I’ll warn everyone else, of course, but if we’re going to get anywhere with this, first I need someone who can actually plan a party.”
“A party?” Like the word had summoned him, Darius seemed to materialize behind Phoenix. He arched one eyebrow at Matt. “And you asked Phoenix to help plan it?”
“Hey, I planned social functions.”
“The very fact that you just called a party a social function is proof that you aren’t up to the task. What party?”
Matt explained his plan, and Darius nodded slowly. “Doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Who would you invite?”
“You, obviously.”
“Obviously.”
“Um… Cyrus’ boyfriend Raphael? Maybe that woman A.T. started hanging out with… I bet Jason will want to invite the kids. I guess we could invite the refugees who stayed with us, if anyone knows where they went.” Matt scratched the back of his head. “Do we know anyone else??
“Oh, titan,” Darius murmured under his breath.
“Eda and Lilith,” Phoenix volunteered, “Eber. I think that’s everyone.”
“Small party,” Darius commented.
“There’s over twenty of us, any party we host is already huge.”
“Fair enough.” Darius twirled a finger in the air. “If you’re after goodwill from the townsfolk, shouldn’t you invite some of them? Other than Cyrus’ boyfriend, that is.”
Matt winced. “Inviting strangers isn’t the best plan. I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but most of us aren’t exactly the trusting, openly friendly type.”
“I had noticed something of the sort, believe it or not,” Darius said dryly, “Why don’t you go people watch? Pick guests you don’t find threatening. People who aren’t likely to cause friction, accidentally or on purpose.”
“Reconnaissance. We can do that.”
Darius squeezed his eyes shut. “Reconnaissance. Oh, heavens. Please take Jason with you.”
Xxx
“Not that one. Not that one. Ooo, that one gave me an apology basket, let’s invite him.”
Phoenix glanced over at Annette. “You don’t have to help us.”
“Hey, if they’re not friendly towards a wild witch, they won’t be friendly towards your lively bunch either. My insight is incredibly valuable.”
“Hm.”
“Now might be a good time to test that elixir,” Jason commented mildly.
Phoenix glanced down at his arms. Matt had chosen the top a construction crane, of all places, to people-watch from. It had been a miracle—and Annette’s magic—that he’d gotten up here in the first place. And being out in the town without a concealment stone… it made his skin itch. The curse shifted uneasily, reacting to the stress. It was so ridiculous it almost made him laugh; he’d gotten through the Collector’s “games, the apocalypse, and attempted possession, but being up a little too high and getting a little stressed was making the curse react?
“Here goes nothing.” Phoenix tilted the golden bottle back. Eda had warned him not to let it sit in his mouth, but she hadn’t prepared him for the explosion of terrible flavors that washed over his tongue. He swallowed with a gag. “Tastes like burned animal hair,” he said with a grimace.
“But look.” Jason pointed at his arms. The curse settled back into his normal flesh. He could still feel it curled up inside of him, throbbing in time with his heartbeat, but it seemed… passive. Dormant. Almost like it was taking a nap. Some of the bone-weary exhaustion that seemed to stay no matter how long he slept faded into a background numbness.
“Huh. I guess… I’ll be asking Lilith for her recipe.”
“You think it’ll help long-term?”
Phoenix shrugged. “I know the curse has been useful sometimes, but… it’s a little hard on my arms.” He flexed his fingers, wondering at the difference that slight lift from exhaustion had made. “And I’m starting to think it might have been taking up a little more of my energy than I realized.”
Jason nudged his shoulder. “Sam could have told you that.”
“Yeah, yeah. He’d probably love to run a thousand tests on my day-to-day fatigue levels with and without elixirs.”
“Nah, he’s too busy with that box. Potion-brewing lessons for Phoenix, then. Mom will be ecstatic.” Jason kicked his legs aimlessly, watching the people down below. “You guys ever think about what you want to do now that we’re not on the run?”
“Mix as many kinds of magic together as I can,” Annette answered immediately, “Let’s test the ‘wild magic is dangerous’ theory. I bet some of it could be.”
“Oh, wow, you and A.T. really are perfect for each other. Matt?”
“Something normal.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I don’t know. I just want to live a normal life. Make some friends. Get a job. Maybe fall in love, start a family. Do something stupid and young.” Matt shrugged. “I lost my childhood and my teen years to Belos. Everything was one nonstop, horrifying adventure. Everything was some grand purpose. I kind of want to just have a boring life now.”
He heaved a sigh. “I had a choice, you know? Belos just sort of ditched me in the middle of the boiling sea, so when Caleb found me, I was dehydrated and exhausted, but not… dying. I chose to go with Caleb forward in time. I thought if Belos was already destined to be alive for centuries, there wouldn’t be any escaping him in my time. Now that we’ve actually finally gotten away from him… I just want to leave all that behind.”
Matt gave them all a quick smile. “Not that I’d leave the family behind, of course! I still want to be with you guys, I just…” He fell into a pensive silence, staring out at the people below. “I don’t know. I guess Joseph wasn’t the only one with an itch to get out there. This party, getting our foot in the door and helping Mom and Dad get back in the social life of the Isles… it just feels like the right thing to do before going. Not that I’d leave right after. I still don’t have any solid plans. But someday.”
Phoenix didn’t respond. He didn’t know how. It had been enough of a shock when Joseph had left. He’d known, of course, that things would change. Phoenix himself wouldn’t even be at the house on weekends anymore. But between Joseph leaving, Matt’s plan, Auric’s apprenticeship, and the appearance of new people in Cyrus and A.T.’s lives… everything was moving so fast. Maybe they’d stopped running for their lives, but their lives still kept running. He’d barely had the time to get used to the quiet life in the woods before it was completely overturned.
“Wow,” Jason said finally, “Have you told Mom or Dad yet? What about Ash?”
“I don’t want to spring this on them right now. I mean, with the house building, and everyone still healing, and Joseph just leaving… it’s not right. I don’t have a solid plan, and even if I left right after the party, that’s still months of house-building away.” Matt brushed his hair out of his face. “So… don’t tell anyone just yet, yeah?
“My lips are sealed,” Jason promised. He pointed down at the street. “That one, Annette, they stopped to feed a stray, put them on the list.” He sighed. “Wish I had a plan.”
Phoenix ruffled his hair. “You’re eighteen. Give yourself a minute.”
Jason pushed at his hand. “Hunter has it all figured out, and he’s only sixteen! He already knows he’s going to be a palisman carver!”
“You’re not Hunter. Most of us don’t know what we’re going to do. I don’t. Eda offered the idea of mentoring, but I don’t know if I’ll take it.”
Jason looked up at him with big, sparkling eyes. “Awwwwwwwww, but you’d be so good at it!”
“We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you. Nice try.”
“Hey, I meant it. I wasn’t just trying to distract you.”
“Sure. Anyway, take it slow. Joseph knew what he wanted. Matt kind of knows what he wants. But you don’t have to have your whole life figured out just yet. I mean, everyone on the Isles is a bit displaced right now. There are tons of scouts who have no idea what they’re going to do with their lives now. Everyone’s shaken by what happened and wondering what we’ll do without the covens. So just… take it easy. Forget your entire future, let’s plan small. What do you want to do in the next few weeks?”
“Hm. I sort of want to go back to the human realm. Visit Camila. Maybe go back to the library there. Oh—and I want to take Novus. Phoenix, they have so much mechanical stuff there. I think he’ll explode. And I want to help look for where we’ll build the new house. Of course I’m going to help Matt with his guest list and party planning. And… why are you grinning like that?”
“No reason,” Phoenix said lightly, “It just sounds to me like you’ve got plenty of plans for the future.”
Jason wrinkled his nose at Phoenix. “Alright, point taken. But hey, there goes my point. You’re a great mentor.”
“Thanks.” Phoenix tousled Jason’s hair again. This time, he let him.
Xxx
Caleb eyed Phoenix critically. “You’re supposed to be resting your leg.”
He was, in fact, supposed to be sitting back at Darius’ house doing nothing, but Darius had left to deal with some Terra sighting, and almost everyone else was out close to their old home scouting for a new place to build. The whole place had been quiet, except for occasional mutterings from Sam while he fruitlessly searched for a way to open that stone box.
Phoenix sighed. “If I’m stuck sitting around resting my leg for five more minutes, the curse is going to take over from boredom and I’m going to run back into the woods.”
Caleb blinked twice. “Could that actually happen? Your curse activating from boredom, I mean?”
“I doubt it. Besides, I took an elixir today, it should be fine. I won’t move too much, I promise. I’ll find a spot to sit around out here. I just needed to get out.”
“Did you tell Sam you were leaving?”
“He’s not going to look up from that box for at least another twelve hours. He won’t even notice I’m gone.”
“He should just pour some explosive potion on that box and be done with it,” Novus suggested as he walked by, arms full of levels and angle-measurers, “Or cut into it. That’s the pragmatic thing to do.”
Caleb laughed. “It’s not about getting what’s inside for him, it’s about solving the puzzle. If he gives up, then I’ll let you at it with your tools.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“Anyway—you’re probably right, Phoenix, but still.”
“If Sam figures out I’m gone, he’ll probably just shrug and go back to the box. I don’t think he’s desperate to always have someone around. Unless he solves the box, in which case, he’ll tear over here immediately and demand to know why I wasn’t there to witness his moment of triumph.” Phoenix sat down on a log with a sigh. “I messaged Darius to tell him where I was going. Hopefully that’s enough.”
“Hopefully.”
Caleb wandered off, apparently satisfied that Phoenix wouldn’t rebreak his ankle. Phoenix sat on the stump watching his family. Novus kept laying out string where the house would be, testing different spots with his tools, while Lake casually picked the rope up and moved it just a couple inches to the left whenever he wasn’t looking. Matt wrote furiously in a small notebook—party plans, if Phoenix had to guess. Evelyn drew small circles, testing out her construction magic. Everywhere bustled with movement. If someone wasn’t actively making house plans, they were transporting construction materials, or overseeing everyone else.
“They don’t know how to sit still, do they?” Alex plopped down next to Phoenix. “Neither do you.” They shrugged. “I guess it’s good when we’re trying to build a house. What do you think they’ll find to do afterwards?”
“What do you mean?”
Alex gestured at the busy family. “When the house is finished, what do you think they’ll do? What will you do? None of us are good at stopping and staying still for a moment. We just keep going and going and going. So what are we supposed to do once we finish building the new house?”
“We just… live in it, I guess,” Phoenix answered slowly.
“Hm.”
“Do you know what you’re going to do?”
Alex shrugged. “Keep my feet on the ground, that’s the only thing I know for sure. Stay away from heights.”
“Seconded. How are the falling dreams? Have they gotten any better?”
“Careful, you sound like Dad.”
“Sorry, I just… you know, I don’t think I ever thanked you.”
“For what?”
“When you told me where you died—that’s how we found Ghost. So… thank you.”
“Oh. You’re welcome.” Alex went very still, staring pointedly at anything but Phoenix. “Hey, can I ask you something? And… do you promise not to tell anyone what I said?”
“Sure. But, uh… why me?” Surely there were other grimwalkers Alex was closer to. Phoenix had only ever spoken to them the once.
Alex eyed him critically. “Because you’re the only one who backed off, no questions asked, when I told you I just wanted space to process. I don’t know, I feel like I can trust you to understand. Um. Do you think it would be weird if I moved out of the house really soon?”
The question shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. Joseph had already left, and Matt was planning on it—the moving fever was contagious. But still, Phoenix flinched at the idea of one more grimwalker leaving. “Well,” he said carefully, “I don’t think it would be… I mean, Joseph already broke the ice on that one.”
“I know.” Alex combed their fingers through their hair. “But Joseph was… Joseph. He was big. He was determined. He was capable of wrestling beasts and winning. He… well, he didn’t have a panic attack every time he tripped. What if Mom and Dad don’t think I’m ready?”
“They’ll let you anyway.”
“Right. But would it be weird? I mean, we’re building this house together, and then I… I wouldn’t be in it. They’d build a room for me, for what? For me to leave right after? I don’t want them to think I’ve wanted to leave this whole time and was just waiting for the all-clear.”
“Well, why do you want to leave?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why do you want to leave? Because you want space?”
“Oh. Yes. Something like that.” Alex twisted their hair and let it go. “Time. And space. And I love Mom and Dad and everyone, don’t get me wrong, they’re just… sometimes a little much. So. Um.” Alex gestured towards the town. “You know. Maybe I’ll leave. But I don’t want it to be…”
“Awkward?”
“Yes.”
“You should talk to them about it. I know that’s not your strong suit, but… give it a shot?”
“They’re busy right now.”
Phoenix watched as Novus gestured to Evelyn. She drew one glowing finger in a wide circle, and huge stone walls rose out of the ground where he’d laid out string, her eyes on his blueprints. Her free hand directed another circle, and abominations sludged their way towards the neat piles of tiles, shingles, glass panes, scooping them up and using the stone walls as a base to build windows and roofs.
“Not for long.”
Xxx
“Wow.” Phoenix’s voice echoed in the empty space. He hadn’t realized how everything in the old house had muffled sound until he stood in the empty rooms Evelyn had built. “This took two days?”
“And Evelyn will be passed out for about five,” Caleb said disapprovingly, “I wish she’d taken it slower.”
Lake bounced down a set of stairs, each footstep echoing off the walls and turning into a marching army. “Is Sam getting two rooms again? Because he’s already claimed one of the empty ones up there for his lab.”
“Oh, no,” Novus said casually, “I gave the house a couple of extra rooms for Ghost and Hunter, but I’m taking over the lab space for my work. Machinery will be far more useful than the glyphs now.” He laughed at Caleb’s stricken face. “I’m joking. There’s enough rooms for both. He can have a lab.”
Lake tilted their head. “Seems kinda… bare.”
“We’ll paint the walls,” Caleb promised. He moved through the space with a twinkle in his eye. “The kitchen will be here. Dining room right next to it, of course. What do you guys think of getting a family picture? I’ve always wanted one.”
“What about Achsah’s room?”
Caleb froze.
Lake scratched the back of their neck. “I mean… we saved some of her stuff. Some of the photographs were okay. We could try to set it all up again. But it won’t really be her room anymore. We’ll just be recreating it. Is that something you and Mom want?”
It was like in the absence of Locke, or Sam to bother, Lake had lost their usual goofy demeanor. Phoenix had never seen them be serious for more than two seconds—to drop this reminder on Caleb shocked Phoenix almost as much as it did their ortet.
“Um,” Caleb said in a strangled whisper, “I don’t know. I don’t…”
The kitchen and dining room area held a startling similarity to the old house—Novus had probably designed it that way on purpose. Caleb turned and wandered, half dazed, into the room that would have been Achsah’s back at home.
Lake watched him go passively. “That went well. Do you want to check out the rest of the house? Novus put a state of the art hidden room behind the dining room. The wall slides out and everything.”
“You’re not going to go check on him?”
“Nah, he needs a second by himself.”
Lake wandered through the empty halls, and Phoenix followed. “I don’t get it.”
“Don’t get what?”
Phoenix struggled for a moment to find the right words. “Why you?” he said finally.
“Because Cherry already took one for the team and yelled at Dad for sacrificing himself.”
“Really? That’s it?”
Lake shrugged. “Locke and I overheard Cherry and Novus talk about it when they first showed us the plans—you know how we like to lurk. Lurking is our favorite. Anyway, Cherry told Novus to just leave it in the plans, and we’d get there later, but, well, like I said, Cherry already did the lecture. Someone else’s turn to be the bearer of unwanted news.” Lake blew a strand of hair out of their face. “Would have loved for it to be Sam, Mr. Logic of Logics, but, well.”
They opened a door. Sure enough, Sam had claimed a space for a lab. Right now, he sat on the floor, twisting pieces of the box. He looked up.
“The box is a gridded cube!” he called excitedly, “Jason has compared it to something in the human realm called a ‘rubik’s cube’ and promised to find me one whenever he next visits. I just have to find the right combination…”
Lake closed the door. “You see the problem. Anyway, Locke and I rock-paper-scissors over it, which he ALWAYS wins, you would not BELIEVE how effective it is when he yells out his choice after I’ve already put my hand out. So I was Mr. Logic of Logics today.” They scratched the back of their head. “Not my favorite of jobs. I tried to channel Sam energy, how’d I do?”
Phoenix shook his head. “How do you do that?”
“What, channel Sam energy? It’s very easy, I just think ‘books, books, books’ in my head over and over again until I’m sufficiently stuffy and sneezing out big words.”
“No, I mean you and Locke—how do you stay so…”
“Charming?”
“…upbeat,” Phoenix finished.
Lake shook their head sadly. “It’s all a coping mechanism, we’re so sad and we cover it up with jokes so that no one will see the empty pit of despair welling up inside.” They grinned, immediately dispelling any thought Phoenix might have had that they were being serious. “Look, Phoenix. You just have to stop taking everything so seriously. We beat Belos! We survived! You’re on track for managing your curse! We’re building a great big house! We fought hard. Now enjoy the spoils.”
Loud banging echoed through the house, metal on wood. Lake glanced at an imaginary watch. “It appears to be checking on Dad o’clock.”
Caleb had left “Achsah’s” room. Instead, he sat in the empty place where the kitchen would be, building a table. He gave Phoenix a cheerful grin. “Been a while since I’ve done any woodworking.”
“You seem… chipper,” Phoenix said cautiously.
“Oh, for Titan’s sake, I can’t do this,” Lake whispered under their breath. They disappeared, and came back with Sam. “Go,” they ordered, pointing him towards Caleb.
Sam blinked, as if disoriented by how fast Lake had separated him from the cube and dragged him here. “Nice table. Avoiding our problems again?”
“I’m not avoiding anything. We need furniture if we’re going to live in this house. I’m solving problems.”
“Very reasonable,” Sam agreed, “How about that problem of Achsah’s room?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Phoenix sighed. This was going nowhere. “Are you okay?” he asked Caleb, “I know this can’t be easy. I know how much keeping her room meant to you.”
Caleb’s hand shook on his hammer. “I knew she wasn’t coming back. I mean, Eda and Lilith existing made that painfully clear. I guess I just hoped… But Lake’s right, aren’t they? It’s not her room anymore. The room’s gone, she’s gone…”
“It’s not wrong to want a reminder,” Phoenix said quietly, “You don’t have to forget her.”
“I don’t think I ever could.”
“You don’t have to decide now,” Sam chimed in, “You can leave the room empty for now. Leave it for last. Besides, you should probably talk to Mom before making a decision.”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course.” Caleb gave the three of them a wan smile. “Thank you.”
“Except Lake for bringing it up,” Sam added.
“No. Lake, too.” Caleb took a deep breath. “I’ll think about it.”
He turned back to the table, but the hammering seemed less desperate now. Phoenix swung out at the obvious dismissal, followed closely by Lake.
“Nice handling,” Lake told him, “Next time, I’m leaving the hard discussions to you.”
“No, thanks. I’ve had enough difficult discussions recently, and I don’t need one more.”
Lake gave him a lopsided grin. “Loosen up, remember? Makes the hard stuff easier.”
They disappeared back up the stairs, leaving nothing behind but the echo of their footsteps.
Enjoy the spoils.
Phoenix took a deep breath, looking around the new house with a small smile. They still had plenty to worry about—making this place home, what to do about Achsah’s room, Matt’s upcoming plans—but for now… maybe Lake was right. Maybe it was time to let go.
Days blurred into weeks of painting and building, moving one room at a time. Kitchen and dining room first, so that they’d have somewhere to cook and eat. Caleb set chairs and tables he’d built in the dining room, beaming with pride. Then came the bathrooms, and the common rooms, and finally, Evelyn declared that they’d picked over the ruins enough, and they wouldn’t find anything else, so they might as well start on their rooms. Phoenix still made the commute back to Bonesborough every weekend to see Darius and catch up on the Isles-wide reconstruction efforts.
Phoenix stared at the blank canvas of his wall. While Jason lined his room with books, and Mole lovingly set potted plants, Phoenix sat on his bed, wishing he could do something besides paint. Even before the house had been destroyed, he hadn’t been there long enough to make the room his own—and the time he did get was so hectic, he wasn’t even sure he’d had anything in the house to salvage.
“Going for the minimalistic approach, are we?” Darius asked from the door.
“Darius!” Phoenix jumped up from the bed. The cast had been cut off yesterday, but his ankle was so weak it almost folded underneath him immediately. “Hey—what are you doing here?”
“Getting all the stuff out of my living room. And having a top secret meeting with Matt about his party. You know, I’m not entirely certain he’s separated the idea of a party from coven work.”
“That sounds right.” Phoenix waved a hand at the walls. “What do you think? Bright purple for the walls?”
“Don’t you dare.” Darius looked around the room. “I know just about everything of yours was confiscated when you… disappeared… so I thought… ah, just take it.”
He handed Phoenix a photograph in a simple wooden frame, a photo of he and Darius during the mentorship. Phoenix gently brushed one hand over his photographed face. He’d gotten so used to the scars from Belos’ attack that seeing this photograph without them now felt strange and foreign. His face looked so… young. But even with the great grin plastered across his face in the photo while he headlocked Darius, a tired sadness seemed etched in his face.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, “I don’t remember this being taken—where did you find it?”
“My memories,” Darius replied casually, “I had a copy made.” He sighed. “I know things weren’t rosy perfect back then. I know so much happened to you that I never saw. And I know—or at least I hope—we’re headed towards a better chapter of our life now. But don’t forget the last chapter, eh?”
Phoenix set the photograph up on the dresser, sweeping elixir bottles to the side. “Never. And—Darius? Thank you. For the photo. For letting us stay with you. For… everything.”
“Anytime. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a top secret party meeting I must attend. I believe we are discussing snacks.”
Xxx
“I see someone—wait, no, that’s just someone’s abomination that’s gotten loose.” Jason all-but had his face pressed against the glass of the front window, watching out for incoming guests. “They’ll come, right? I mean, of course our friends will show, but given that half the point is to get the townspeople used to the look-alike family that wandered out of the woods, we really need some people we don’t know.”
“I’m sure they will,” Phoenix assured him, but he watched equally carefully.
“Oh!” Jason yanked back from the window, opening the door and sprinting down the careful garden path, currently devoid of an actual garden. “Willow! Gus! Amity! Luz!” He bowed to Willow with a flourish. “Lord of Bats.”
She returned his over-the-top bow with one of her own. “House of Crows. How lovely to see you again.”
“It’s been three days,” Amity reminded them.
They both laughed, and Jason led the kids towards the door.
“Eda and Lilith are on their way with King,” Luz told Phoenix, “They’ll be here soon. I might take King home at some point, though. Don’t want him up too late and all.”
A loud gasp sounded from the path, and a witch from town clutched her chest. “I—I just thought I was meeting the new neighbors,” she stammered, “I didn’t know that Luz the human would be here—and did you say the owl lady was coming?”
“Yesssss?” Luz said uncertainly, as if unsure whether this information would scare the witch off or not.
“Oh. Oh, my. Excuse me. I’ll be right back.”
She dashed off back towards town, and Luz winced. “I think your guest list might have just gotten a bit bigger.”
That didn’t bode well. They’d kept the invitations small on purpose—not that anyone but Matt and Darius really knew who was coming, but still, Phoenix thought some of the others might notice if too many people showed up.
Eda, Lilith, and King arrived in a rush of feathers and a bag of elixirs pushed into Phoenix’s arms. He answered Lilith’s seemingly endless questions on their effects, wondering vaguely if anyone had warned Caleb and Evelyn they were coming, but mostly focused on the steady trickle of strangers now coming towards the house.
Caleb and Evelyn wandered into the living room, stopping dead when they spotted Lilith and Eda. Phoenix winced. Caleb didn’t look much like his descendants, but their resemblance to Evelyn was impossible to deny. He could practically see the wheels ticking in Eda’s head. But before she could say anything, the other guests reached the house and she was swept away in a tide of questions and admirations. Luz looked similarly swamped.
“Well, this wasn’t in the plans.” Matt stood on the stairs, chewing thoughtfully on a pen. “I should have guessed something would go wrong. I need to warn Silver.”
The mobs around Eda and Luz split into a third group, buzzing around Darius the moment he walked through the door. He arched one eyebrow at Matt, who winced and shrugged.
“Well, we’re getting a reputation for being well-connected,” Locke said at Phoenix’s elbow, “Fantastic, I’m sure this will hold no negative consequences.” He grinned. “We should invite celebrities over more often.”
Babble surrounded Phoenix as people slowly got over their star-struck awe and spread out. They stuck in small packs, townsfolk interacting with their neighbors, and grimwalkers talking to other grimwalkers. Both groups eyed each other uneasily, skirting around each other and only occasionally exchanging brief hellos and ‘excuse me’s.
“Ah, yes,” Locke deadpanned, “I can feel the house warming up already.” He stuck his nose into the air, shaking his head back and forth. “Can you feel that, Lake?”
As if summoned, Lake seemed to materialize at Phoenix’s other side. “No, Locke, what is it?”
“The tension! It’s so thick it’s starting to physically manife—”
Thump.
Muffled murmurs. Evelyn’s immediate sprint, pushing through guests and grimwalkers alike. “Give him space,” she ordered.
“Steven,” Jason breathed, “He’s having a seizure—we need to move everyone away, there’s not enough space.”
More murmurs and exclamations. Across the room, Silver’s face was as white as a sheet, and they beelined for the nearest window, opening it and oh-so-casually leaning against the sill, prepared to leap out, if Phoenix had to guess.
This is bad.
It didn’t take Darius, party expert extraordinaire, to know that. People flocked naturally to a disaster—they’d crowd Steven, stress Silver, and probably panic themselves, which would only—
“Well, I think it’s time to move this party outside!” Locke hopped up on the stairs, raising their voice, “Do we have any plant witches in attendance tonight?”
Willow raised her hand, and a few others tentatively joined her.
“Who feels like a seed race?”
“What’s that?” someone called.
“Only the best way for a plant witch to show off their magical prowess! Winner gets to take home a rare human realm plant known as ‘mint,’ proven to thrive even in the Isles!”
A few ‘ooo’s rose up, and witches started to wander outdoors. Cherry had quickly assembled a circle of grimwalkers around Steven and Evelyn, blocking them from view while guests went outside.
Willow hung back, raising one eyebrow at Locke. “A seed race, huh? How come I’ve never heard of that before?”
“Because I made it up just now. Mole, you’ve got some seeds, right? Where did you want some of the plants in the garden to go? I’ll make it look natural.”
Caleb slumped against the banister. “Thank you, Locke.” Behind him, Steven slowly sat up, watched by Evelyn like a hawk.
“Hey, it’s what I do. Be a loud and annoying distraction. Just ask Sam!” Locke grinned, bouncing out the door. “Alright, three categories: speed, size, and healthiness! Line up!”
Caleb sighed, joining Evelyn and Steven.
Eda nudged Phoenix. “Hey, introduce me to your planner. We’ve been scheming up a quinceañera party for Luz, and so far, this party’s been a riot.”
“Wish it was less of one.”
She grinned and held out an elixir. “Bottoms up, kid.”
Phoenix glanced down. He hadn’t even noticed his arms had started to drip. Great. Another thing for the townsfolk to take home as a story. He gulped the elixir with a grimace. “Does the taste ever get better?”
“If anything, it gets worse. Ah, well, necessary evils and all that. Not to suddenly change the subject or anything, but do you mind explaining her?” Eda waved an accusing hand towards Evelyn.
“I think you’d better ask her. And Caleb.”
“Yeah, I kind of thought that would be your answer. Well, can’t blame me for trying the easy route.” Eda grabbed Lilith’s arm. “C’mon.”
“What? Where are we going?”
“Answer-hunting.”
Before they could approach Evelyn, Sam thumped down the stairs, puzzle box tucked under his arm. “Oh, is the party over already? Excellent, I didn’t actually want to go.”
Lilith gasped. “Ooo!” She pulled herself from Eda’s grip, reaching for the box. “May I? I love a good puzzle.”
“Be my guest.”
“Aaaaand I’ve lost her,” Eda muttered under her breath, “Right, just me then.” She squared her shoulders, and marched towards Caleb and Evelyn. Steven waved the two of them off with a tired smile, and the two nervously gestured towards Achsah’s room, still untouched.
“They are definitely going to botch the explanation,” Sam said cheerfully, “They always do.”
“Yeah…” Phoenix looked back at Steven to check if he was still upright. He was with Darius now, and the two of them spoke in low voices, occasionally glancing down at Steven’s burned-off sigil. Cherry stood only a few feet away, looking like he was desperately trying not to listen in and at the same time, straining to hear what was being said.
“You’re my WHAT?!” Eda’s voice squawked from Achsah’s room.
“Got it!” Lilith said triumphantly at the same time, “You were so close. I barely had to do anything.” She looked up. “What happened to Eda?”
Phoenix hurried to Achsah’s room, Darius and Steven forgotten. Eda jabbed a finger at him the moment he entered.
“You are not allowed to be my great uncle,” she told him, “Not allowed, do you hear me?”
“Sorry. I’ll try not to be.”
Lilith came in on Phoenix’s heels. “What’s going on?”
“They’re our ancestors, Lili. Our ancestors.”
“Oh,” Lilith said thoughtfully, “That makes sense. Fascinating.” She held out the box. “This is for you two, by the way. Someone called Achsah went great lengths to make sure it reached you through time.”
Caleb all-but snatched the opened box from her, his face pale. “Achsah?!”
Evelyn delicately lifted out a letter. Phoenix caught sight of a bracelet inside, hand-woven leather and beads. Evelyn scanned the letter, her eyes welling up with tears.
“Get Mole, please,” she whispered, and Sam was off. Mole arrived moments later, and Evelyn held up the letter. “Caleb, would you…?”
Caleb took the paper from her, his eyes devouring it like a starving man. “Dear Mom and Dad,” he read out loud, “I’ve buried this letter in a puzzle box under where the kitchen will be someday. I hope you finally get to work on that root cellar you always wanted, or else you won’t find it. Dad—” he choked up, and Evelyn took the letter.
“Dad, I know exactly what you’ve probably been doing since the moment the time pool washed away, and I want you to stop it. What happened wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s. For a while, I was sad, and lost, and wanted nothing more than for you to pop out of another pool and bring me back home.” Evelyn took a deep breath. “But since then, I’ve met some beautiful people, including my partner.”
Caleb took the letter back. “You two would love them, just as much as I love them. I wish the three of you could meet. While I write this, your grandkid is tearing through the house like a tiny terror. He’s got your nose, Dad, and Mom’s eyes. And the healer tells me I’ve got twins coming—isn’t that crazy? I’d do anything to protect them, and I know if you could have come back for me, you would have. But I want you to know that I’m happy here and now. I miss you every day, but I don’t regret the people I’ve met since. Please don’t be sad I’m gone.”
Caleb smiled at Mole. “This next part is for you. Say hi to your lookalike for me, Dad. If he’s anything like you, the ‘don’t blame yourself’ bit goes for him, too. I don’t regret rescuing him. I only wish I’d gotten to know him. Bet he’s awesome. I made a bracelet for him. I know he was passed out, so he probably didn’t see me at all, but it’s just something to remember me by. His younger/older sister.”
Mole sniffed, delicately lifting the bracelet out of the box and slipping it onto his wrist.
“I know we were hiding. I didn’t realize it first, but now that I’ve spent my life here trying to pretend I’ve always lived in this time, I can see it’s the same. Mom. Dad. I don’t want you to keep hiding. Whatever happens, get out there. Show the world who you are. All the love in both dimensions, Achsah.”
Caleb folded up the letter, and they all stood there for a long moment, no one saying anything. Finally, Evelyn took Caleb’s hand. “No more hiding,” she said softly.
“No more hiding,” Caleb echoed, “No more grieving.”
“Are you ready to show the world who we are?”
“If you are.”
Evelyn smiled, and together, she and Caleb walked out to meet the Isles.
Xxx
“Latissa.” Evelyn said the word carefully, like it might shatter in her mouth. “That’s an interesting choice. Any reason?”
Steven rubbed his arm where his sigil used to be. “Darius mentioned something—I know it’s gone, but…”
“The sigil experiments,” Phoenix breathed. That had to be what Darius and Steven had been talking about at the housewarming party. He touched his own mark. The Day of Unity was over, and with it, the danger of the draining spell. The sigils didn’t affect him, but countless witches couldn’t access all their magic—Alador led the way in sigil removal research, and Darius was right there with him.
Steven nodded. “The sigil experiments. I don’t think mine is the same as the modern sigils, since it almost killed me instantly, but Darius said getting a look at the earlier attempts might help them understand the ones we have now.”
“But you said it: you don’t have yours anymore,” Evelyn replied, “How are they going to study it?”
“Questions. Anecdotes. And… the seizures. Darius thinks they’re related.”
“We knew that.”
“Well, yes, but this might be—I mean, if what I know can help them, and if their research can stop the seizures entirely… even if they can’t, I want to help.” Steven shook his head. “I used that glove on other people, even knowing what it would do to them. I can’t change that, but… maybe I can make up for it by helping witches suffering from those sigils now.”
Evelyn chewed on her lip. “Latissa is a bit of a commute without a palisman,” she said finally, “What’s your plan?”
“I’d be staying there.” Steven shrugged, as if trying to make it seem like nothing. “There’s space—they converted the old police station into their center. I’m sure we can fit a bed.”
“I see. Do you—do you know how long you’d be there?” Evelyn’s voice held a sort of desperate casualness to it, like she was trying not to scare Steven off, but also didn’t quite want to let him go.
“Not forever.” Steven’s voice matched Evelyn’s, somehow both intensely normal and strained at the same time. “I’ll be back. Um. I mean, how long could it take, really?”
“How much is Alador like Sam?” Evelyn joked. She rubbed her arm. “Will you be okay? I should go with you.”
“What? Mom, they need you here.”
“But the seizures—if one happens—will Alador know what to do?”
“I’ll tell him,” Steven promised, “And I’m almost certain healers will be involved—I’ll be in the best possible place if something does go wrong. Besides home.”
“Hm.”
Steven took her hands. “Mom, I’ll be safe. I promise. This could be… it could be huge for me.”
“It could be.” Evelyn sighed, wrapping him in a hug. “Oh, I knew you all would grow up. I just didn’t think it would be so soon.”
Phoenix thought uneasily of Matt and Alex. Neither of them had announced their plans to leave yet, but maybe Evelyn suspected. Or maybe with Jason always off with the kids, and Auric always off at his new apprenticeship, and Phoenix gone every weekend, she just felt… lonely.
“I won’t be gone for long. Promise.”
Xxx
“Where was that you said? The wreckage of the keep? Again?” Darius pinched his nose, nodding along to the conversation on the other end of the raven phone. “I know—yes. No, we’ll look into it. I said we’ll look into it! Yes, lovely day to you too, goodbye.”
Phoenix winced, setting his weekend bag on the floor with a thump. “Bad time?”
Darius tossed the phone to the side, letting it fly to its perch. “It’s fine. Just Terra rearing her head again. Most of the scouts and coven heads settled in peacefully enough, but every couple of months…”
Phoenix shuddered. He doubted she’d come after him specifically, but part of him was tempted to start checking his drinks for poison. “Is it safe to leave her on the loose?”
“Unlikely. If anyone’s going to cause havoc, it’s going to be her. But the…” Darius heaved a sigh. “…CATs… are spread too thin. Between guarding the new palistrom tree, rebuilding what Belos and the Collector destroyed, and keeping the peace between disoriented and disillusioned citizens, we haven’t had a lot of time or manpower to spare towards tracking her down. And I don’t want to assign someone inexperienced to the job—we need someone who’s used to handling threats. Big ones. People who can corner her, and…” he tilted his head. “You have a thinking face on. You know someone, don’t you? One of your siblings?”
“Yes,” Phoenix said slowly, “Or—at least, I think so. Let me see that phone again?”
One short phone call and a griffin-flight later, Meleager, Horus, Hamlet, and Venari sat in Darius’ living room, studying pictures of Terra with matching frowns.
“Plant magic…” Meleager mused, “Fire and ice, then. I think I still have some leftover frost potions.”
“We need to get her off the ground,” Venari added, “The further she is from seeds and dirt, the harder it’ll be for her to get away.”
Hamlet scratched his head. “Coven head, though, so it’ll be tricky to separate her entirely—any capture method like nets or rope can’t be made of plant fibers, because she might be able to manipulate those.”
“Once we get her hands and feet immobilized, that won’t be as big of an issue,” Horus declared, “Focus on the capture—containment after should be comparatively easy.”
“Sounds like they’ve got this under control,” Darius murmured to Phoenix.
“They’ve been bored,” Phoenix replied equally quietly, “Oh, just—make sure you prioritize capturing Terra alive.”
Darius chuckled, then glanced at Phoenix and stopped abruptly. “Oh, you’re not kidding. They’ll—”
“Without hesitation.”
“Huh. Well, would it really be that much of a loss? Kidding,” he added quickly, “I’ll be sure to tell them.”
Phoenix shrugged. “I’ve got no love lost for Terra. But I don’t want them killing anyone, for sure. I don’t think that’s a path anyone wants them taking.”
“Hey.” Darius gave Phoenix a small smile. “Give them a little trust. They met Petro—I don’t think they’re in any hurry to go down the killing spree path.”
“Hm. I hope you’re right. They still might engage in some light torture, though.”
Darius squeezed his eyes shut. “Why do I feel like you handed me a bigger problem than the one you’ve solved?”
“They’ll be fine. Just…”
“Reiterate the capturing her alive part, yes, understood.”
“We’re going,” Venari declared, “We’ll see you in… what, 3 days at the worst?”
“We’re staking out the keep. We might come back to steal Dagger,” Meleager explained, “We got this, Phoenix, she’ll never poison anyone again.”
“Alive,” Darius warned, “Capture her alive!”
Horus gave him a thumbs-up, and the four of them disappeared out the door. Darius watched them go, the worry on his face shifting to a pensive, planning expression. “You know, if this goes well, I might have a few other hunts for them. Terra’s not the only one who’s clinging to her old power.”
Phoenix grinned. “I’m sure they’d like that very much.”
Xxx
“Oop—watch the root—”
Phoenix caught Mole’s arm at Jason’s warning, keeping him upright when he stumbled. “Maybe we should take off the blindfold?” he suggested, “The footing’s getting a little treacherous.”
“But then it wouldn’t be a surprise!” Jason protested, “Maybe you could carry him?”
Mole’s nose scrunched up at the suggestion, and Phoenix shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t think he wants that.”
“Well, we’re almost there anyway. Come on.”
Phoenix didn’t pick Mole up, but he held his arm out for Mole to cling to and guided him slowly over the forest floor. Mole gave him a brief grateful smile, jabbing one finger at the blindfold and heaving a fond sigh.
“He’s a bit excited,” Phoenix agreed, “He’s been taking trips out here with Hunter and Willow an awful lot, but they’ve been tight-lipped about it to me, too.”
“Okay, Phoenix, now you have to close your eyes, too!”
“I thought this was a surprise for Mole?” Phoenix protested.
“It is,” Hunter agreed, appearing at Phoenix’s elbow with Flapjack in his staff form, “But it’s a surprise for everyone. Don’t worry, I’ve got you two.”
Phoenix closed his eyes. Hunter’s hand closed over his arm, and he heard the tell-tale sound of a flash-step, his balance just ever-so-slightly thrown off at the sudden change in placement.
“Okay, open them,” Jason ordered.
Phoenix opened his eyes, and beside him, Mole took off the blindfold.
A massive blue tree towered over them, blooming with blue leaves and flowers. Phoenix had never seen a tree like this, but something about it seemed… familiar. His skin crawled with that feeling of just knowing something, deep inside, like how his curse recognized Belos, but more positive.
“Is that… palistrom?” he asked.
Mole stepped forward as if in a trance, putting one hand on the massive blue trunk. He nodded in answer to Phoenix’s question, pressing his forehead to the bark like it was an old friend. Silent tears streamed down his face, and Phoenix remembered just how long ago Mole had technically been born. He must have been used to seeing palistrom forests peppering the Isles, and had woken up suddenly in a world without them.
“The palisman this tree could make,” Phoenix murmured, “It grew so big so fast!”
“Willow had a lot to do with that part,” Hunter explained, “But, well, there’s a reason there was a shortage for so long.”
“Palistrom were kept strictly monitored by Belos,” Phoenix remembered, “You think he kept them small on purpose? Of course he did,” he answered his own question, “Why wouldn’t he? The more magic stifled, the better.”
Hunter fidgeted, twisting his hands around each other. Jason nudged him. “Go on,” he whispered, “Tell them.”
“Tell us what?”
“I’m going to be a palisman carver,” Hunter burst out, “Caleb’s taught me some, and I’ve been talking to Eda’s dad, Dell—he was a professional carver, you know—and he’s going to take me on as an apprentice.” He looked up at the tree, eyes shining. “With the way this tree’s been growing and flowering, we should be able to repopulate the Isles with palistrom in no time. Luckily, the palistrom is a self-pollinating plant. And even just a solid branch from this tree—anyone can have a palisman. Everyone can.” He scratched the back of his neck shyly. “I was thinking… I was thinking I could carve one for Caleb first. Since… you know. He carved my palisman.”
Phoenix smiled warmly. “That sounds like a great idea.”
“And… I could carve one for everyone in the family. Or you could adopt!” he added quickly, “The Bat Queen has dozens of palisman looking for a home. But yes. I could carve one. Hypothetically. No promises yet, I’m still learning, but—oh, okay, you hate the idea.”
“What?” Phoenix reached up to find tears running from his eyes. “No—no, Hunter, I don’t hate the idea, I…” he searched for the right words to describe how he felt. A palisman? For him? He’d never even considered it, not with the life he’d lived. The curse curled up inside him rumbled at the idea, but he couldn’t tell if it was the remnants of Belos protesting, the palisman eager for a palisman of their own outside of him, or something hungrier. “Is that a good idea?” he said finally, “I mean, with…” he gestured to his arms.
“Do you want one?” Jason asked.
“Yes.” The word slipped out of Phoenix’s mouth almost without a thought. He hadn’t realized he wanted one until now, but he knew it deep inside, watching Flapjack and Hunter. “I do.”
“Then we’ll find a way to make it work,” Jason said firmly, “Whatever that means.”
Mole nodded joining them. He pointed to himself, tilting his head in a question.
“Yeah, of course I can make one for you,” Hunter interpreted, “Any idea what you’d want? We can always go the egg route if not. Sounds pretty easy to carve, too.”
A mischievous grin crept over Mole’s face, and he pointed to himself again. Hunter frowned.
“I don’t know what you’re asking—sorry, we’ll figure it ou—”
Jason groaned. “Oh, no. You want a mole for a palisman, don’t you?”
Mole nodded vigorously, breaking off into peals of laughter. Phoenix groaned with Jason, but Mole’s laughter was infectious, and a smile took over his face despite himself.
Palisman for us. It didn’t seem right—not after all the palisman he’d handed over to Belos. Maybe Mole or Jason deserved one—after all, Belos had tried to kill Jason for protecting the little creatures. Phoenix? He’d never even considered another option besides giving them to their doom.
But Flapjack sat scarred and proud on Hunter’s shoulder despite everything, like a beacon saying it’s possible; you just have to want it enough, and the tree loomed over them, big, and beautiful, and strong despite what Belos had tried to do to its species, and right here, in this forest, Phoenix did want it.
We’ll find a way to make it work.
Xxx
Phoenix climbed out an attic hatch onto the roof—another holdover from the old house’s design. He didn’t quite join Cherry where he sat on the edge of the roof, legs dangling over, but he sat down close.
“I thought this was Jason’s brooding spot. Enjoying the view?”
Cherry glanced back at him. “It’s quieter than I thought it would be.”
“Hm?”
Cherry waved a hand at the town sprawling in the near distance. “I thought it would be noisy, living so much closer to other people. But in the evening, if I close my eyes, it’s almost like nothing’s changed. It’s like we’re still back in the forest, and we’re all together. No one’s left and gone where I can’t protect them. And then I open my eyes, and… it’s all so different now.”
“It’s not a bad thing. They’ll be okay.”
“Mm.” Cherry stared out over the town again, his hair almost red in the light of the setting sun. “You ever think it was strange, how close to Belos we were hiding? I mean, the third rib? We might as well have been on his doorstep. But we weren’t discovered. Somehow, we were never discovered. Somehow, Mom and Dad managed to save every one of us, no matter how badly we were injured. Isn’t that odd? We didn’t lose a single person.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Belos always said loss was so necessary, and I believed him. I saw it firsthand, how sometimes people had to be sacrificed. We were some of those people. But somehow, no one died. None of us—despite how many people we killed, not one of us went down. Why did we get to survive when so many people didn’t?” He chuckled, a low, humorless sound. “Doesn’t that seem so improbable, when you think about it? Belos might have been lying about the titan having plans for us, but sometimes it almost does feel like there’s some higher power out there who’s decided to keep us alive.”
“Or one determined human and witch.” Phoenix scooted closer to Cherry, eying the edge of the roof. “It does seem improbable,” he admitted, “People died—and we were responsible some of the time. But we all made it. Against the odds. I think this family is good at that.”
Cherry heaved a sigh. “But what’s the point, if we’re not going to stick together? What’s the point, if after everything, everyone goes their separate ways? We got so far, only to fall apart at the end.”
“We’re not falling apart.” Phoenix looked up at the moon and stars slowly replacing the sun as the brightest things in the sky. “You know… I used to see Darius every day. I’d take him with me on missions. I’d test his skills, but I was always there to protect him if something happened. But when I first woke up with Caleb and Evelyn… he’d grown. He was a capable adult who could handle himself. And that was a hard thing to accept. If he didn’t need me to protect him, if he didn’t need a mentor, then what use was I to him?”
Phoenix smiled. “But we haven’t fallen apart yet. Maybe he doesn’t need a mentor anymore. Maybe he doesn’t need my protection. But I think he still needs me. Just me, because I’m me and that’s enough of a reason.” Phoenix nudged Cherry’s shoulder. “It’s not going to be the same. They’re not going to be as close. They won’t always need your protection anymore. And that’s going to be difficult to get used to. But I don’t think they’ll ever stop needing you.”
Cherry watched the sun finally disappear completely over the horizon, silent until it was gone. “I don’t want our lives to change,” he said finally, “I think I’m glad for the others finding what they want, but I’m not sure who I am without them. I’ve been looking after them for so long, trying to forget the past for so long… I don’t want to be left alone with myself.”
“Hm.” Phoenix leaned back, finally kicking his legs over the edge of the roof and sitting fully next to Cherry. “Well. I can tell you some good news about that.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yes. Even if they all leave, even if we all go our separate ways, you aren’t going to be alone, Cherry. We will always have your back. We’ll only be one raven call away.”
A smile flashed across Cherry’s face. “You’re going to have to teach me how to use one.”
“Oh. Right.”
“But… thanks, Phoenix. For having my back.”
Xxx
Despite Phoenix’s late start, his room filled up over months of living. Mole commandeered his window space with new plants, human realm varieties that Camila shared. Light blue walls were quickly covered over with scribbles that Ghost had presented him, and photos Willow shared. She always seemed to be dropping by, picking up Hunter or Jason or both of them. Sometimes, even Mole went along to visit the palistrom tree. Little practice wood carvings that Hunter made with Caleb and Dell surrounded the photograph Darius had given to him. Hunter hadn’t carved any palisman for the family besides Mole’s mole, but one day, Jason came back from the human realm library with a massive book full of animal pictures that he and Phoenix pored over for hours, looking for a creature that felt right.
Jason tapped one foot. “We’re going to be late. Hunter and Willow are outside waiting.”
“Yeah, yeah, give me a second. We’ll have at least half an hour while Caleb and Flapjack catch up.” Phoenix drank an elixir. Today had been a good day for the curse, but he didn’t want to push it staying up late.
Jason wandered over to the window, peering into the garden. “He’s gotten taller than me,” he grumbled, “Traitor. I’ll be inconsolable if Ghost gets big like that. I cannot be the shortest in the family.”
Phoenix ruffled his hair, his arm braces clicking gently at the movement. “Aw, don’t you want to stay the baby forever? You don’t want to be Evelyn’s little snuggle buddy?”
“I will always be Mom’s little snuggle buddy, thank you very much, but that doesn’t mean I have to be the shortest. Ghost has to be shorter. They have to.”
“Do not.” Ghost wrinkled their nose at Jason from the doorway. “I’m gonna be so big. Gonna eat griffins. In one bite.”
“Don’t let Joseph hear you say that,” Phoenix joked, “He’ll disown you.”
Ghost squeaked, tugging on Phoenix’s arm. “Nee-Nee, it’s time to go,” they said impatiently, “I wanna see King.”
“Alright, I’m coming, I’m coming.”
Phoenix followed Ghost downstairs. Hunter chattered excitedly to Caleb about the palisman he was working on, and Willow gave Jason their customary bow and exchange of royal titles.
“I can just walk, right?” Phoenix asked Hunter.
“Low and slow,” Hunter promised.
“You never actually mean that,” Phoenix grumbled, but he sat behind Hunter anyway, picking Ghost up and holding them tightly in his lap.
Hunter did fly too fast and too high for Phoenix’s taste, but Willow and Jason still beat them by a mile, so he supposed Hunter had been taking it easy on him.
Ghost squirmed out of Phoenix’s lap almost before they’d completely landed, bolting to tackle King in a hug. The titan fell in mock defeat.
“Curses! You’ve defeated the king of the demons this time, little Ghost!”
“She’s coming!” Eda called, “Everyone ready?”
Luz walked through the door, and the quinceañera passed by in a blur of well-wishes and laughter. Phoenix exchanged smiles and hellos with what seemed like everyone on the Isles.
“You thought any more about the mentoring offer? The university’s really taking off.”
Phoenix smiled tiredly in response to Eda. “I’d need a way to get there. Getting Ghost to Hexside is going to be tricky enough.”
“Man. Get a palisman already, would ya?”
Eda’s grin dispelled any bite to the words, but Phoenix’s attention hung fully on the portal door hanging wide open behind her. He glanced around to make sure Ghost was safe—they chased happily after Flapjack, who Phoenix was relatively certain was one of the more responsible people here—and quickly pushed through into the human realm before he could convince himself not to.
Creak.
Phoenix’s eyes darted over furniture that formed monsters and familiar specters in the dark. Wait a minute…
“Petro?” he called, just in case.
“No,” Jason’s voice called from the basement, “Just me.”
Phoenix creaked his way down the stairs to the basement, wincing at every sound. He sat on the bottom of the stairs next to Jason. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Jason gestured out towards the mound where Phoenix knew Belos’ remains lay. “Do you ever wake up and just… forget for a minute that he’s gone?”
Phoenix rubbed his arms. A part of Belos would always live in him, in the curse—for him the problem was more remembering that he was gone at all. “Sometimes,” he admitted, “I’m guessing you do.”
Jason sighed. “I know it’s been years, but… sometimes it just doesn’t feel real. Sometimes I feel like he’s still coming for me. I mean, after all he’s survived, how can I even truly be sure he’s gone?” He rested his chin on his knees. “I don’t know if I’ll ever really believe it.”
Phoenix chuckled dryly. “Can you imagine how furious he’d be if he was still alive?”
Jason cracked a smile at that. “A university of wild magic?” he joked, “He’s probably spinning in his grave fast enough to generate the electricity needed to power this whole neighborhood. Not to mention us.”
“Not to mention us,” Phoenix echoed, “He’d be devastated if he knew we were happy.”
“Guess we better keep being happy, then. Just to spite him.” Jason’s smile faded, and he went back to looking over Belos’ grave.
Phoenix nudged his shoulder. “Hey,” he said quietly, “He’s dead. For real this time. He’s not coming back. But when it feels like he might, when it feels like he’s going to jump out of nowhere and sink his claws into you… you know where to find me. Or Cherry. Or Caleb, or Evelyn, or Mole, or anyone else. You’re going to be okay.”
“Yeah. I think I am.”
Jason got up, stretching and offering his hand to Phoenix. “Let’s get out of here.”
Phoenix happily obeyed, following Jason back into light and laughter. Ghost wandered over, their eyelids drooping. Flapjack chirped an admonishment, tugging affectionately on their hair.
“Hey, Ghost,” Phoenix said quietly, crouching down next to them, “You all tired out?”
They rubbed their eyes. “I’m not sleepy,” they said stubbornly, in spite of their giant yawn, “I just… want to go to bed and rest my eyes.”
“Fair enough.” Phoenix scooped Ghost up, holding them as easily as if they were still a toddler. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
#YAY WE FINISHED IT IN TIME FOR GILDED'S BIRTHDAY!!!! BARELY BUT WE DID IT!!!#toh#the owl house#gilded family au#toh fanfiction#my writing#caleb wittebane#golden guard oc#evelyn clawthorne#willow park#hunter wittebane
22 notes
·
View notes
Text
Hi, everyone! So, I know there's a lot of controversy about Rhys's behavior Under the Mountain (at least in Brazil fandom it's a hot topic), a discussion that is valid and definitely needs to be had, so I did a lot of research on the subject and compiled the three texts that influenced me the most into a compilation that I'll share here — along with my thoughts and additions.
These texts that serve as my supports were made here on Tumblr and can be found under the following titles, although the third one is the most comprehensive of them all:
*Rhysand's Defense Post (The author had only read A Court of Thorns and Roses when she wrote this).
*The Difference Between Tamlin and Rhysand: The Man on the Throne and the Man in the Arena — Acotar and Acomaf's Excerpt Analysis (The author was following the small teaser quotes for A Court of Mist and Fury and analyzed them).
*Understanding Tamlin and Rhysand — A Post-Acomaf Reconciliation of Rhys's Actions Under The Mountain in a Culture of Defeat.
In addition to discussing Rhys's behavior, however, I'm also going to discuss Tamlin's behavior and compare the two. It's going to be quite fun… Just a heads up that I don't want any hate messages. Do you want to share your thoughts agreeing or disagreeing? That's fine, but with respect. Any offensive comments will be deleted.
Now here's my defense post for Rhys:
Leadership is a heavy burden. When you're a leader, especially when it's not your choice but comes to you because of the family you were born into, for example, responsibility can be a burden. But when you're a leader, there's something very important to consider when making a decision: those who follow you.
All of Rhys's actions as High Lord of the Night Court must be thought of to put the well-being of those he is responsible for first. And when he, Tamlin, and the other High Lords are Under the Mountain, he decides that he will be Amarantha's whore to ensure that his Court is in the best possible condition within the situation — he lets himself be raped to ensure that his people and his family remain safe when he could have done nothing.
But from the moment Feyre strikes the deal with Amarantha, he is the only one who is truly in a position to make a difference: the other High Lords do not have enough of Amarantha's trust for her not to suspect anything if one of them tried to bargain with Feyre as Rhys did, for example. If any other High Lord — Kallias, Thesan, Helion, etc. — tried the same thing as Rhys, Amarantha would have been suspicious.
So in this case, he is the only one who can truly act.
But he doesn't have to. The point is that his Court is reasonably safe because of his role in the court Amarantha built, so Rhys doesn't really need to help Feyre win. But he does it, not because he wants his power back, but because he's the kind of leader who will do everything achievable to change — for what he believes is the best — the lives of his people.
And I'll talk about how admirable that is later on when we're talking about the culture of war and defeat, and about Tamlin's behavior.
So, he decides to act, and he tells Feyre in A Court of Mist and Fury:
"I decided at that moment that I would fight. And fight dirty, and kill and torture and manipulate, but fight. If there was any chance of freeing us from Amarantha, it was you." (A Court of Mist and Fury, page 550, Brazilian edition)
He knows, then, that the fight he would have to wage was not the beautiful, heroic, noble thing we're so used to seeing: Rhys knew that his actions to ensure victory — for Feyre and Prythian as a whole — would be horrible and would probably haunt him for the rest of his life. He knows that. And he doesn't excuse himself for a moment. He doesn't invent, he doesn't embellish, he doesn't paint himself as a hero. He knows he's not and he really isn't a hero.
A hero is someone who sacrifices themselves in a grand gesture to save the entire population, a true hero doesn't really sacrifice one person to save others. And while Rhys does have his own share of sacrifices, that doesn't excuse him from the horrible actions he took Under the Mountain:
So, the first part of his questionable behavior in Under the Mountain comes to light: the moment he twists Feyre's injured arm to convince her, to scare her enough to accept his bargain. This is a minor moment and my description alone makes it understandable: he does what he does to keep her alive and charges an insignificant price (which he planned to release her from later, as he himself says) to keep up appearances.
And Rhys needs to keep up appearances because his whole game to defeat Amarantha depends on how he appears to her and to other people: no one can notice while he moves the pieces on the board to bring the advantage to them. No one, not even Feyre, who is the "lamb to the slaughter," so to speak. And she can't know for several reasons:
Feyre is not in a mental condition to act and pretend to hate him as much as he needs her to pretend. So if she knew what he was doing, she would probably let something slip, or wouldn't be convincing enough, because honestly? Who could?
Rhys spent the last 50 years fighting alone and being surrounded by people who constantly despised him for being Amarantha's whore or for those who tried to ingratiate themselves with her through him, so he doesn't trust others easily, even though he was falling in love with Feyre, as he says in ACOMAF.
He couldn't trust that Feyre wouldn't trust others — Lucien and, therefore, Tamlin — with this knowledge. With their mutual hatred, they would surely end up messing things up.
Feyre was there to protect the High Lord who killed his mother and sister — and Rhys didn't know that Feyre didn't know the history behind his and Tamlin's relationship — so, in theory, it made sense that he wouldn't want to show his "true face" to her.
That's exactly what the book is about: like a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, the book is about how appearances deceive. If Feyre found out that Rhys is a decent person right away, it would be the same as throwing the whole intention of the story out the window.
So we have the second — and most controversial of all — point: the dance and the wine. I'm not going to mince words about this: It was sexual harassment. Period. But with this, Rhys manages to:
Get Feyre out of her cell, which is driving her crazy, as she says in this part: "I was alone, locked in silence — although the screams in the dungeon continued day and night. When they became unbearable and I couldn't ignore them, I looked at the eye in my palm." (A Court of Thorns and Roses, page 356, Brazilian Edition). And let's face it, anyone would go crazy in an environment like that.
Keep an eye on Feyre so that no one else could harm her — something he disguises with a comment about not liking others to touch what's his — and that's a curious thing because Feyre never expresses concerns about being abused by others after Rhys starts taking her to these parties (it's also interesting to note that despite the various traumas of what happened Under the Mountain, Feyre never showed any signs of trauma from sexual abuse, as far as I know — and again, not that this excuses Rhys, it's just a factor to point out that maybe she understood his game better than we did).
To leave Tamlin full of anger — which he claims is the main reason for all that theater during A Court of Thorns and Roses — so that he wouldn't hesitate if he had the slightest chance to kill Amarantha in the end or between challenges, no matter as long as he didn't hesitate. Because from Rhys's perspective, Tamlin is the noble golden prince who might spare Amarantha's life to demand some kind of trial or something. Which I consider he might have been dumb enough to do too.
Divert Amarantha's attention, as, thinking that Feyre was already humiliated and abused enough during those nights, she wouldn't give Feyre those ridiculous tasks anymore (like cleaning that filthy hall or collecting lentils from Rhys's fireplace). And if you reread ACOTAR, she really never gives those small tasks to Feyre again after that.
Send a message to those who could read, as Rhys himself says: he crowns Feyre every night, and for the cruel ones, this would be a subtle kind of mockery, but for those who could see beyond the evil, Rhys was declaring Feyre the champion of them all. He declared that he believed in her and in her potential to free them all.
Convince Amarantha that he's still playing on her side — a belief that was shaken by Rhys betting on Feyre in the first task and closing that bargain to heal her arm. This might be the most fundamental of all points: the one that allows the game to continue toward victory. He needs to prove to Amarantha that he's doing it for fun, out of cruelty, considering Feyre as the whore of the whore, someone lower than the lowest of courtesans. Thus, Rhys clears the way to act when the time is right.
By taking Feyre with him to those parties, he moved not one, but six pieces of the game to be in his favor. He killed six birds with one stone. Strategically, it's an incredible tactic, by the way. But morally, this act leaves something to be desired.
So why the wine and the dance? Because Rhysand plays with appearances. Everything in his game depends on it.
Feyre wouldn't play the whore of the whore while conscious, no one with a shred of self-respect would accept that without knowing the reason behind it, and Rhysand, for the reasons I mentioned, wouldn't tell her anything. So he makes her drink the wine to keep the whole purpose of that show and keeps her close to prevent her from being touched by anyone other than him.
But besides that, the wine is a form of escape, a way to forget about the horrors, as Feyre herself says at the end of the chapter where all this happens:
"[…] and I began to long for the moment when Rhysand would hand me the goblet of faerie wine and I could let loose for a few hours." (A Court of Thorns and Roses, page 381).
In fact, Rhys sees it this way: when he is forced to kill the High Lord of the Summer Court (not Tarquin, but his cousin from whom he "inherited" the title, Nostrus), he himself drinks the wine with Feyre — it's an escape from the character he so carefully plays because not even Rhys can bear everything without letting the facade fall, even if only a little.
Note: not that I'm saying this would be a healthy way to deal with all that trauma and accumulated stress, but considering the place they were in and the situation, perhaps it was the most… effective way.
I have to say, however, that all of this doesn't justify what he did: it was still sexual abuse and it's still very bad and very serious. However, I need to point out to you: what we do to survive often does not reflect what we would be in a normal situation (normal being their everyday life without Amarantha, in this case).
When we are confronted with a situation like this, where to survive we end up needing to do something horrible, many say they would never do and would take the noble path of dying before giving up their values and principles, which is great, it proves that you have a very good character. The problem is that Rhys doesn't have the choice to think only of himself and how much this abuse will cost his dignity and principles because every decision he makes affects his people.
So here's my question for you: could you love someone who chose to preserve you instead of saving thousands of innocent — children, women, and men — who are under their responsibility?
Because I couldn't love someone who did that. And that's how I make peace with what Rhys did to Feyre Under the Mountain: I couldn't love someone who condemned the world to save me from abuse that I know I can endure — even if it causes me terrible harm.
Of course, it's entirely valid if you decide not to forgive him for what he did, because, after all, it's a morally gray action when you consider the whole situation they were in and what Rhys did. So, no one is really wrong for not forgiving Rhys for what he did, but those who forgive him aren't wrong either. It's very important that we understand that.
Now, an argument that is often used and that annoys me every time I hear it is that Sarah "changed Rhys and Tamlin's personalities because of shipping", so she ignored everything Rhys did Under the Mountain to make him the hero just because fans liked him.
There are so many things wrong with that that I don't even know where to begin, but let's analyze all of Tamlin's, Feyre's, and Rhys's behavior throughout the ACOTAR and ACOMAF stories and show why I know Sarah did absolutely everything with careful consideration:
There is a trait that is very striking in Tamlin from the beginning of the ACOMAF story and is especially explicit when Alis tells the whole story about Amarantha, Tamlin, and the curse, which is the fact that Tamlin can't deal with the consequences of his actions:
The first time he does this is at the beginning of the curse when he gives up sending his soldiers to die for him, thus Tamlin simply gives up not only freeing himself but all of Prythian, all the people who live there, and still condemns the human lands in the process. He only started sending the soldiers out of desperation after 46 years, look at Alis's speech:
"For two years, he sent them, day after day, needing to choose who crossed the wall. When there were only a dozen left, Tamlin was so devastated that he stopped. He canceled everything." (A Court of Thorns and Roses, page 294, Brazilian Edition).
The second time I can point out is Feyre herself (this because I'm ignoring the events during her stay in the Spring Court, as I don't remember what happened): he takes Feyre to Prythian with the intention of making her fall in love with him, but at the first glimpse of direct danger from Amarantha — in this case, the scene where Rhys makes him kneel — he sends her away.
He gives up saving Prythian because he can't stick to the decision to put Feyre in danger so that she could break the curse, so much so that he condemns himself for it, because Feyre only doesn't say that she loves him — and breaks the curse — precisely because she's leaving:
"— I love you. — He said, and stepped back. I should say — should say those words, but they got stuck in my throat because… Because of what he needed to face, because maybe he wouldn't find me again, despite the promise…" (A Court of Thorns and Roses, page 261, Brazilian Edition)
These are the main events, and perhaps I could list more for you if I reread A Court of Thorns and Roses. But what does this show us? That every time Tamlin makes a decision, he freezes and backs down at the first sign of an obstacle. He retreats and avoids anything that shakes him.
So it makes sense that Tamlin's reaction Under the Mountain is paralysis — a common behavior among leaders in times of war and defeat, by the way, which aligns not only with Tamlin's personality but also with the reaction of a true leader in such a situation.
Alright, let's stop there and go back in time to analyze Feyre's behavior:
Right from the start, we learn that, even being the youngest of three sisters, Feyre was the one who, when they were starving, took action and sought a solution, which shows us right away the kind of person Feyre is: she's the kind of person who acts when forced to face danger, whether it's something intangible, like death by starvation, or tangible, like Amarantha.
This is proven repeatedly throughout the books: when she seeks answers with the Suriel, when she tries to fight off the bastards who tried to rape her at Calanmai (because paralysis can also be a reaction to abuse of that kind), when she goes to Under the Mountain to fight for Tamlin without even hesitating, when she heals from the traumas of Under the Mountain as soon as she has something to focus on, something to dedicate herself to.
And this is one of the fundamental differences between Tamlin and Feyre: while he paralyzes, she acts, and whether we like it or not, differences create friction. Especially with what happened Under the Mountain because she and Tamlin were separated, and neither of them experienced trauma together. Paralysis generates a different trauma from the trauma of someone who is acting, so the end of their relationship begins when she goes to save him Under the Mountain — and Tamlin freezes.
Then we have Rhysand, who is exactly like Feyre: he acts when confronted with danger or defeat and has thousands of actions of his that exemplify this:
As soon as he becomes High Lord, he bans the wing clipping of Illyrian females regardless of the reaction of the Illyrian lords or what they thought about it. It's not that he doesn't care: Rhys, unlike Tamlin, is willing to pay the price that comes when a decision is made.
He becomes Amarantha's whore to protect his people from her getting too close to them. He doesn't care about the cost to himself simply because Rhys knows he's doing some good for his own people by letting himself be raped.
When he sees in Feyre the chance to do something to free all of Prythian, he goes all in knowing that that game would be total defeat or victory. He acts.
When Hybern starts threatening Prythian, he is willing to do whatever it takes — lose a potential friend, hand over the city he loved with all his heart to horrible women, give up his own life — so that they wouldn't fall into slavery again.
When the war comes anyway, he faces it head-on and uses every card he has to stop the King of Hybern: monsters of all kinds, all his power, his own life, and the truth about himself, about who he is.
And these are just a few examples. The fundamental difference between Tamlin and Rhys, just like between Tamlin and Feyre, is how they respond to situations and traumas.
Quoting Teddy Roosevelt (btw, this is a direct translation of the Portuguese version of the quote, so it can be different from the original):
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Feyre and Rhysand are the ones in the arena, they are the ones who fight to be able to act in the face of evil — Amarantha. And it's interesting to note that those who condemn Rhys for the dubious actions he took Under the Mountain never say anything about Feyre committing murder there as well, which is a crime as heinous (or at least should be when it comes to innocent people) as Rhys's.
I'll tell you why: when we're faced with a gray and complex character like Rhys — and we don't know his heart, instead we're "infected" with the main character's partial view — we tend to connect him directly with evil, instead of understanding that this character is neither wholly good nor bad. We forgive soldiers for killing people in a war — that's also a combat in Under the Mountain, so why can't we forgive both Rhys and Feyre?
We forgive Feyre because we know how sorry she is, we know her heart, and we love her. But Rhys? He's the High Lord of the Night Court — which alone triggers some unconscious alerts within us — and he's playing dirty, hiding, and being a horrible person, so why should he be forgiven?
That's what our brain unconsciously thinks sometimes, and it makes us judge some characters more severely. Understanding the duality and complexity of a character is not an easy task; it requires a lot of empathy and an open mind.
But why am I saying this? Because it's important to understand: Rhys and Feyre are extremely similar, and they understand each other at a fundamental level because of that. Tamlin, on the other hand, has a completely different personality. He's the one who freezes, who paralyzes.
Rhys and Feyre experience the trauma Under the Mountain together, so Feyre and Tamlin are separated, which, combined with the glaring difference between the two, makes it difficult — perhaps impossible — for them to heal together because, out of loyalty to the character's nature, Sarah can't make Tamlin talk about what's happening like Feyre needs.
Even after Under the Mountain, Tamlin's instinctive action is to freeze. So he doesn't talk about Feyre's nightmares, he pretends not to see her despair, he turns away from her need to talk about the subject — because looking at her trauma would be the same as acknowledging his own.
And he can't do that because it's part of his nature to freeze. But this isn't healthy, hence the explosions of anger, and hence he locks Feyre up the moment she tries to assert herself: these are the consequences of forcing someone who deals with PTSD by freezing to actually deal with their traumas (that and the fact that he's horrible).
I can understand that (not in his relationship with Feyre, I'm talking more generally here, about him as High Lord, he can rot otherwise) but I can't forgive it like I did with Rhys because, unlike the actions Rhys took, paralysis only allows evil to continue to grow and end up imprisoning us (this is, in fact, one of the reasons why Tamlin didn't try to fight like Rhys while Amarantha was killing Feyre: his lack of previous action left him unable to take action when it was time to "put up or shut up").
While Tamlin's paralysis pushes us down while doing us harm, Rhys's actions, as horrible as they may be, are done in the hope of something good, they're done to move us forward. I can forgive him because I'd rather be someone who does horrible things in the hope of creating something better than be someone who allows evil to continue to grow until it imprisons me.
It's that simple.
And Feyre is exactly that kind of person. She needs to act, she needs to talk about it to heal. She needs to have a purpose, not be coddled like Tamlin — and his trauma — wants her to be.
The relationship between her and Tamlin becomes abusive the moment he tries to stifle her feelings to maintain a state of paralysis. And that's something you'd expect from a character like Tamlin, that's how he was built. But this happens long before Under the Mountain: I remember that on the first day Feyre yields to the dresses Tamlin gave her in ACOTAR, I think it was the morning after Calanmai, she warns herself to be gentle, to be kind, when dealing with Tamlin and Lucien.
But after Under the Mountain, Feyre can no longer accept that her feelings be stifled simply because her traumas are consuming her from the inside out. So she fights back. And that's what completely ends their relationship.
But the point is: both Tamlin, Feyre, and Rhysand follow exactly the line of their personalities throughout the story. They are those kinds of people from start to finish. There's an evolution, of course, but it's an evolution of beliefs, opinions, and perceptions — their essences remain the same.
That's why Sarah is brilliant in these books: by being completely faithful to her characters' personalities, she created a story that discusses abusive relationships, the varied responses of certain types of people to trauma, and the various reactions of leaders in times of war and defeat.
But the point is: none of them were changed to fit a ship, simply because they weren't changed. All three of these characters act exactly the way they should within the limits of their own personalities.
Rhys is the High Lord who plays dirty to create a better world, and Tamlin is a leader who can't make a tough decision. And there's another fundamental difference between them:
While Rhys knows that, from time to time, he'll be forced to make decisions that will end up harming part of his people (and will choose the lesser of two evils), Tamlin still struggles with the enchanted vision of a superhero who saves everyone without exception. And when that doesn't happen — because it's never possible to save everyone no matter what you do — he prefers not to act.
I think the two things that illustrate very well the kind of person Rhys and Tamlin are is the Illyrian tradition of cutting the wings of their females and the Tribute:
Rhys risks a revolt to improve the lives of his people and sticks to that decision, willing to pay the price for it if the result is a better life for the Illyrian females, while Tamlin fails to abolish an extremely unnecessary tax because his inability to act makes him cling to archaic traditions like the Tribute.
So, yes, I forgive Rhys for what he did Under the Mountain, because I couldn't love someone who freezes and leaves me to die. I prefer to love someone who cares so deeply about something — a dream — that they're willing to fight and play dirty for it. And then go to battle to defend it.
Hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to point out points that I didn't comment on; I'll try to respond to everyone's comments!"
#acotar#rhysand#feyre archeron#feysand#rhys acotar#books#fantasy books#sjm#sarah j. maas#sarah j maas#cassian acotar#a court of thorns and roses#acomaf#a court of mist and fury#a court of wings and ruin#tamlin#tamlin acotar#morrigan
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
so Faith huh
Loses her family, loses her watcher, loses everything. moves to Sunnydale, falls in love with Buffy starts making friends again but her past trauma and growing sense of self-defeat cause it to fall apart. She sees the world through the lens of death. Her role as the Slayer is to slay things and so she does, both literally and metaphorically. in this, she gains a father in The Mayor which gives her a sense of fulfillment but the cost is her humanity and she betrays her role as a Slayer (allegedly protecting humanity). and guess what! she fails him and loses him as well. and she doesn't even die about it. She does not get to complete her role as a Slayer and die in battle.
she spends 8 months in a coma experiencing shared prophecy dream space with the person who foiled all of her plans, getting killed by her over and over. she watches her father figure die again. she wakes up from this hell and receives the will of the mayor. The only man we ever saw her look up to tells her that her life is over, everything sucks, you might as well go out with a bang, babe.
so she tries to do that. this crazy plan of swapping bodies with Buffy and upending Buffy's entire life just like her own. Make her lose everything. but even as she tries this she becomes Buffy she sees what it's like to have friends who care about her, a guy who actually loves her beyond the physical, she finds meaning and purpose in the act of slaying, she answers her calling the way she was always meant to.
and then she loses it all again
she becomes actively suicidal and tries to goad Angel into killing her. Instead, he shows her that there is meaning and purpose to be found in repenting for your past crimes. The same way that he's been doing for All of the bad shit that happened without his soul. just like he said to her in season 3, "we are very similar."
This is the same shit happening to Buffy now. she is losing her friends. Xander has a 9 to 5 job and he's getting married so he just won't have time for her anymore. Willow is falling deeper and deeper into this hole of scary magic she might not come back from. Giles doesn't even know if he wants to be in Sunnydale anymore. Buffy is still grappling with how her job as a slayer is an existential threat to her friends. she lost her mom, she almost lost her sister but she died in the line of duty as a Slayer and was rewarded with paradise. however it was taken away from her. she is living in hell now and is a hair's breadth away from being suicidal like faith was because everything is overwhelming and she's failing repeatedly and she has no greater purpose. she can't even go back to college which was her aspiration before all of this happened. she can't even die properly, The one reward for saving the world from demons and all of your burdens being lifted from you as you spend eternity in heaven.
it was already obvious The first time around that faith was always lying when she said she was 5x5. it is so much harder now knowing that she was doing the same thing Buffy is now. lying through her teeth to the people that she supposedly loves just so they won't approach her and get close to her vulnerabilities. and it's causing her to crack under this immense pressure of being alone. she is isolating herself because she thinks she's no good for anybody.
We even have the similarities that the brunette Slayer is working with the brunette vampire to help herself and the blonde Slayer is working with the blonde vampire to help herself. I will be shocked if Spike is not the one person who's able to prevent her from going over the edge this season. I mean it's almost obvious because she's isolated herself from everyone else and no one knows how bad it is because she will not let them in.
I already know it's too much to hope that there's any mention of faith in this season. just as much as faith became Buffy when she was open to the Scoobies and Riley and a fulfilling slayer role, Buffy is becoming faith as she pushes those things away. she even brutalized a demon she had already killed in her basement the way Faith did in one of the early times we saw her slay something.
Whateva. It's fine. I'm fine about it. none of this matters because The Three musketeers of dork ass nerds Make me so mad that I can't think straight so I have to get these ideas out before I watch any more of the show.
#btvs#faith#faith lehane#buffy summers#she's the main character of the show. this show is about faith.
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
I don’t think I’ll ever be over ghost bird and control tbh
#their friendship means the world to me#jeff vandermeer#is the king of writing fucked up characters that have the most fucked up tender relationships#the biologist and her husband ALWAYS guts me#but these two too!!!#she tried to kill him. she saved his life#he becomes so obsessed with her as the key to unlocking a larger mystery he doesn’t fully recognize he’s attracted to her#(< generalization)#they’re both learning that they were created by others for mysterious purposes#they’re both learning who they aren’t#he chases her across the country not to recapture her but bc she is the only thing he’s sure of#she cares about him so much but knows she can’t help him the way he needs#god. yeah#mine#the southern reach trilogy#southern reach
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
it’s actually wildly funny that amethar’s epithet came about because he was the only person in his family not horrifically murdered. imagine if every single one of your relatives got stabbed and from that point on everyone called you “johnny no-stabs." that’s amethar’s life
#his life is SO sad and SO funny#and frankly I have a lot of ideas for ways we could make it sadder#like killing ruby in the cathedral fight#(we get rococoa on the way back to candia and amethar should be happy but he can’t help feeling like there’s some sick trade at work#like when he was in that cathedral wishing for his big sister back—wishing she could come fix his mistakes—#he spent just a second too long being willing to offer up *anything* in exchange#how can he not blame rococoa? how can he not hate what’s left of her? the only person he hates more is himself)#also. killing liam as he tries to drag jet’s body back to the castle alone#(how can he not when he left ruby’s body behind in the cathedral?#how can he not when he was the one who wasn’t strong enough or quick enough to save her sister?)#(and then amanda maillard follows them out of the castle.#and amethar looks to his wife—who may not have loved him but did love their daughters—for comfort#and she won’t even look at him. and she’s in amanda’s arms)#just like. kill that dude’s family#amethar the unfallen for real. everybody he loves dies. and he has to keep going and going and going#a crown of candy#dimension 20
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
"How has Layton not snapped from all the trauma" because his story is that of grief and acceptance. He's known pain and has suffered from it but after many years he learned to move on because life will continue whether he wants it to or not so he may as well make the most of it. He carries the painful memories with him but is also capable of seeing the beauty in life. He cries for his loved ones who have died but appreciates the people he has in his life now. Layton is an amazing character BECAUSE he hasn't snapped.
#OH AND THIS DOESN'T MEAN HE DOESN'T MOURN BTW LOOK AT HIS FACE TALKING ABOUT RANDALL IN MM LOOK AT LITERALLY ALL OF UNWOUND FUTURE#he feels his feelings i love him#speaking of UF I think that game rlly drives home the point I'm trying to make here#he's a good parallel to Clive who spent 10 fucking years making an expensive revenge plan#and Dimitri who worked tirelessly to keep Claire in the present despite her telling him like#'bitch if you try this again you're gonna kill even more people let it go'#you can argue Dimitri's case and say all he wanted was to save her life which is fair#but ultimately it's presented as him being unable to move on#and I think if it had been Layton he would have also tried to save her at first but would have listened to Claire when she told him to stop#professor layton#hershel layton#professor layton and the unwound future#professor layton and the lost future#professor layton and the miracle mask#professor layton and the azran legacy#i haven't even touched Azran Legacy btw i'm going off UF and MM
31 notes
·
View notes
Text
obsessed with Mór as the anti-ya mom. she’s alive she walked away she thinks she doesn’t love. she fucking shows up and saves ronan in a ya the perfect ya mom typically does not do because she is dead
#mór ó corra#mor o corra#greywaren spoilers#like his mam actually does save him in the end with the sweetmetal. she thinks the antichrist maybe#she walked out on him she tried to kill him but she steals the ink from boudicca to wake him up#and i have a suspicion she's going to be on the run for the rest of her life for doing so#ronan lynch#what a dynamic
35 notes
·
View notes
Text
I wish I was a tv executive so I could make a British Criminal minds - mainly just so I could make a televised fan fic without people being mad it’s just a televised fan fic
#criminal minds#for starters reid would keep all his background but he actually has a drug problem for more then 5 eps and we see him struggling at crime#scenes that involve drugs#move up the dating his therapist but make it so people in his life are actually concerned that he’s dating his therapist when they find out!#either make it the same but he tries to help her or make is so she never dumped her Fiancé and he kidnaps abs kills her for the affair#move prison to like s7 and have it planned by scratch but when cat finds out she orchestrates it so that some of the womens prison has#to be moved to a unused wing of the mens and makes a riot so that her and spencer meet up and she gets actual preggas#I do want him to date a women who also has a kid from a serial killer yes I want that to be Ainsley from prodigal son but I’ll his that rip#off#next to Morgan my love#have him show more emotions in child related cases#he’s a player who falls in love with a women even though he’s not ready for commitment and when he finally gets his shit together it’s too#late/the job/timing just made them incompatible for rn#thinking a Buck 911 growth kinda thing though I know dereks nothing like buck1.0#keep a similar SL to the one with that little girl but make her not so… defo gonna grow up to be an unsub u know#he feels he needs to protect the kid maybe they went through something like he did but he knows to save them he needs to let them go to a#good home because he’s on the road so much but he still visits and the kid wants to be an FBI agent because of him#Emily is a Lesbian so help me god#she adopts a little girl with her wife!!!!#she is happy and doesn’t have relationship drama just oops so I have to fake my own death now drama#more practicality added to that SL as well no grenades in cars#and more visits from the other agents she knows from previous jobs#I think hotch having more too do with his own divorce would be good#like it kinda seemed like it had nothing to do with him and it was just a work problem but like idk I’d probabs change that#I like everyone else’s story’s basically just a little change her and there#I wouldn’t wanna make it just a character drama these SL’s are already in the show or would replace others#like the ooo reid had a ✨vision✨ SL will go#oh wait I want reid to be a women#2 Reid’s!!!#or if double lesbian related pregnancy is viable by this poin 1 reid!
49 notes
·
View notes
Text
thinking about how the last time reed saw ailette in the 300th, she greeted him with "and i'm still on your side," and now she's definitely not on his side. im okay im okay im okay
#s-class heroine spoilers#reed#why are you with that bug from the 17th#this isn't where you should be. fall into the abyss with me#if it's only pity then you should be with me. since you feel more sorry for me#and then ailette straight up telling him that she'll be with 17th even if they fail to save the world#WHAT DOES THAT MAKE REED THEN?#the person who was told that you'll be by his side#is also him!!!!!!#round 90+ when he asked the bible where ailette is. i explode.#splats all over the floor#the amount of rationalisation he's doing rn is killing me!!!#although i do think part of it is him just wanting to provoke her#but also he really did just get up just to say hi and talk to her (side benefit of torturing tesilid)#im sowwy but the way ailette very clearly rejects him hurts me#she'll go to the ends of the world with the 17th but not him? the one who has tried to save the world an additional 80+ times#what. is he not noble enough for her now?#when he's tried to do that over 80 additional times already?#i need to change my url to reed apologist at this rate#maybe i'll just wait until his official localised name comes out#like i get it i get it ailette isnt suicidal she wants to live a nice long life with her loved ones#and reed wont listen to anything except for the destruction of the world bc he is THAT angry#so there's literally no communicating with them#BUT ALSO#the things that spending 6+ months writing about the regression period does to a person#i am so extremely biased rn#wait also i just realised. reed may be rejected rn but 117th is also listening to this LMAO#he's not just listening to 'she's with you only to save her own skin'#but also 'she doesn't place enough importance on reed's suffering to sympathise with him'#oh girl.... :(
1 note
·
View note
Text
“But to the BatFam? That is just Some Guy. A random dude - if you will.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m missing my spleen.”
“Oh cool, yeah, missing organs suck. I’m missing a kidney and part of my liver. Oh! And my gallbladder but that was more of a necessary evil, it was like, poisoning me or something.” Danny was so focused on applying pressure to his wound (and maybe being a bit too light headed) that he didn’t notice how silent his friend had gotten. Like-wise the comms had gone equally quiet as Gotham’s vigilante family realized that they knew very little about this kid.
It was concerning how quickly they all started to see him as a friend considering it was them as vigilantes he interacted with the most. Tim was the only one who saw him frequently when out of the suit because he was a regular at Danny’s day job. (He worked as a barista in the coffee shop Tim favored.) The others saw him occasionally but more often than not it was just in passing. Steph, Duke, and Dick had to stop themselves from approaching him on the street.
It was odd, one day he had just moved to Gotham, seeming to appear out of nowhere, and then the next he was a constant presence in their lives. Usually armed and ready with a concerning or odd quip, it had started with him being another victim of the city’s petty criminals and had snowballed from there.
Now it wasn’t like the bats saw Danny everyday, but it was expected that he would cross paths with at least three of them before the end of the week. They ran into him more often than any other Gothamite, including the criminals and rouges they fought.
At first the constant meetings by “coincidence” was suspicious. If he wasn’t the one being saved from a mugging, kidnapping, or city wide villain assault, then he was near by and trying to help.
(“Trying to help” usually meant drawing attention to himself so the original victim could escape. Once it had meant Danny armed with a baseball bat against four grown men. Bruce and Dick have tried to talk to him about putting himself in harms way but the kid is surprisingly elusive when he wants to be. Yet, even when avoiding Batman and his eldest, Danny could be found on the patrol route of another family member.)
But honestly? The guy seemed just as exhausted as they were of seeing each other. By the twelfth time in a month, Danny had accused them of stalking him.
The background check Bruce and Tim had run came back clean and he never seemed to be involved in the various criminal activities. He was just there, a weirdly unlucky bystander. So as far as Dick and the others could see, Danny was a completely normal dude. He just said strange things and wasn’t intimidated by them, he actually made it a point to be unhelpful sometimes. When trying to learn his name he gave them the run around for two months. (“I know about stranger danger. I don’t care how often you say you’re the ‘good guys.’ I’m not falling for it.”)
On one memorable occasion Danny had disappeared for a week and a half. When they started to assume the worse, he popped back up behind the counter at work. Tim had relaxed significantly when he entered the shop to Danny organizing pastries in the display case. Once he’d placed his order, the young CEO asked Danny if he’d been on vacation. To which Danny had just sighed and told Tim “I wish, but no I was called to court to handle some affairs I couldn’t get out of.” (After a check to see if Danny had gotten charged with something and coming back empty, Tim had concluded that it was an odd way to say he had had jury duty.)
Thinking about it now, outside a stray comment or two, Danny didn’t talk about himself or his life. They knew he didn’t have a good relationship with his parents, “they were much more goal oriented than that joke of a kidnapper, but I think drugs do that to a person.” (It was still unclear if he meant his parents were kidnappers themselves or on drugs.) They knew he had an older sister who would “kill me again if she finds out I was in another bank robbery.” They also knew he was, possibly, depressed after last week’s comment of “is it considered murder if you’re already dead but, like, still alive?” (Damian had saved him from a drug ring but after another “baby ninja” comment the young Robin had threatened to give Danny back to his would-be murderers.)
Dick knew Danny was a weird guy who never wanted to elaborate on the things he said. (Jason was still confused on what he meant by “rotted milk soul.”) That didn’t mean the comments themselves didn’t say a lot about him. And tonight’s comment, accompanied by the prominent and jagged autopsy scars, said more than Danny was probably willing to share.
#Basically the other side of Danny is just Some Guy.#batman#batfamily#jason todd#batboys#batman fandom#batman wayne family adventures#dick grayson#danny phantom#dp x dc#dpxdc#dc x dp prompt#dc x dp crossover#dp dc crossover#dp x dc crossover#dp x dc prompt#dc x dp#damian wayne#Tim drake#dcxdp#I didn’t actually mean to write this#but? like? enjoy I guess
4K notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
fashionlouist
Louis Tomlinson Fashion
thunderblessedhero
Let me hear the voice of your Pokémon!
underfart-snas
THE WHITE ROOM
account-boring
Ashe
manavamp
Icy Veins