#xander (train’s version)
Note
train tell me about your xander 👀 (please?) (also hi)
XANDDDDERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!
OKAY SO--- for one thing I have a tag for him on here that’s xander (train’s version) (we see a pattern here lol) also my old rp blog for him is @andhaert which has some things like headcanons and aesthetics.
For starters I use Liam James, especially in his role as Billy Bennett, for my actor for Xander for a few reasons:
1. It helps mentally separate this version of Xander from canon!Xander who we all know is Very Contentious whether you think he should be or not, also helps to separate Xander from the actions of his original actor Nicholas Brendan. This is kind of a standard practice in the tumblr rp world (swapping out your actor when you find out the original is Kinda Yikes) where I started to develop my Xander Concepts more coherently and it’s stuck.
2. I think Liam works really well as an actor for Xander both in looks and acting and his role as Billy really highlights it as they’re similar characters.
3. It’s probably his most prominent role atm that I know of so it’s the easiest to get content for. He also works for me as Xander with his normal brown hair but the mohawk is the dominant look.
Moving on from there I really just like..... think about Xander in terms of what we know about him factually and textually and then separate that from the Whedon and 90s teen male tv character taints. Whedon has said that Xander is like, mary sue-ish self insert of his high school self and i feel like it shows and frankly holds his character back a LOT. I’m actually a rabid Xander stan I think he has a lot of potential and good in him. I just feel like both the writers and the fandom don’t really uh..... wanna actually engage with it or his character lol.
We know canonically that Xander comes from a poor, abusive and unstable household. We see in the show evidence of verbal and emotional abuse and heavy neglect. There’s literally a scene somewhere in S1 or S2 that I don’t wanna spend and hour finding in the transcripts where he has to remind his own mom she has a son which is played for comedy but is like um... WOW. It’s implied both of his parents are alcoholics and honestly I think his father is physically abusive (I can’t remember if it’s actually canon or not but it just you know, the Vibe is There).
I don’t think we really see? A lot of that? In how he acts? Like we do see some of it but say, compared to how much the show loves to gorge itself on Buffy’s trauma the amount of time spent on Xander’s trauma and struggles at home is laughable.
So I tend to write Xander as the true ADHD loser burnout he is and things like the dyed mohawk, ratty clothes, punk shirts and bands and skater energy Billy has just like.... Works™ for Xander. Same with the ADHD energy. Xander strikes me as a kid from a bad home with learning disabilities who’s given up on school and has turned to staying out of the house as much as possible, weed/substances, and acting out for attention as ways to cope with his shitty life. He’s sad and desperate and begging for someone to care about him and the only person who does truly give a shit about him when we meet him is Willow with whom he’s in a kinda co-dependent clingfest with because of the huge amount of insecurities they both have.
I’m genuinely sad we didn’t get skater!Xander for the whole high school era and i’m making it happen for society. It fits in soooo well with the whole Vibe the show is going for. Also I made him worse and now he likes Ska because it’s the 90s and also just look at him. Ofc Xander would like Ska. It also adds in some interesting shit with the Xander-Spike dynamic to have Xander more on the ska/skater/burnout end of punk and spike on the more trad/this is a sociopolitical statement/i’m here for the ART side of punk. It does NOT give them an immediate middle ground but it DOES give them the ability to clock each other in 0.00005 seconds. Like Spike sees him in a Descendants shirt and is like “oh I immediately know everything i need to know about you now”.
I also just think it’s more real????? I find generally with people/kids that part of why they get into subculture and special interests and such is to Cope with things. I will never forget when this dude in high school basically told me he was so in the paint for sonic the hedgehog because it was the only thing keeping him fucking sane and it altered my whole fucking concept of life and reality. I physically cannot look at sonic the same now and every time I see it I think of him and all the other people who’re into it and I’m just like “godspeed mother fuckers may you find peace in those fucking emeralds”.
Even while trying to remove the elements of his character that I think are like, creator or era taint that tends to end up skewing the conversation around him from actually being about him to being about Other Shit I don’t remove his dogshit creeper energies in like, high school, especially 1x1 to 1x6. They get better over time sure but I think it’s important to show that side of him. His dad is the Worst and Jesse-- one of his ONLY friends-- is a Massive Creep and he’s a Teen Boy. It’s really not that shocking that when he’s like 16 he just.... Sucks So Bad. All teens Kinda Suck, it’s literally part of growing up. It’s things tho like The Pack that help to start not just him changing but galvanizing others into looking out for him more.
(including the gifs as breaks in the behemoth lol kill meeeeee)
For one thing I will die on the hill that XANDER WAS ALSO A VICTIM OF THE HYENA POSSESSION AND THE SA ATTEMPT. That’s not something he’d do, want to do or ever try to do and it occurred while he did not have full autonomous control of his actions. I’ve seen some REAL DOGSHIT TAKES ON THIS ONE AND I WILL SHOOT ON SIGHT OVER THIS.
I tend to see him trying to cover it up as him trying to compartmentalize and repress the trauma of it instead of whatever the fuck THAT was in the show. I also think it really only works for so long before he loses it because I don’t think he can look Buffy in the eye without mcfucking losing it because he just feels so awful about it. Which is what prompts like..... the only moment of Giles giving a shit about Xander because he talks to him about it and helps him find a way to get some help (be it Giles himself or whatever professional-ish help they can get him given his situation and the desire to keep his parents out of it).
And that’s one of the huge differences in My Xander™ just like, he fucking-- he fucking SEES the fucking guidance counselor or some shit for you know, THE CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT AND SA TRAUMA. Which I mean... he probably should’ve been already give how guidance counselors work but dskjghsdkfj shhhhhhh. It’s then with that, friendship, dating Cordy and Time that he starts to get less and less shitty and more Baby Boy Little Guy Meow Meow Deluxe. He still cheats on Cordy and says shitty stuff but like... there’s a noticeable overall improvement in him over S1 to S3. He’s not getting full on grade A therapy and all that but like, he’s being given a sounding board and some tools and the thing is that Xander at his core IS A VERY GOOD AND SWEET PERSON!!!! So really it’s just all about getting him to a place where all the bullshit beaten into him by his dad and SoCieTy is out of the way so he can Be A Good Boy™.
I maintain his crush on Buffy and his struggle with it over the years but I also have it kinda Die finally around S4 and then not hang around as a weird Complex for the rest of the fucking series. Seeing how he absolutely fumbled his whole relationship with Cordy and then how his relationship with Anya is going in Some Kind of Direction it all helps to finally shut the door on that for him and he really whole chestedly embraces his role as best friendboy after that. I think especially around then when he’s being a MANIAC trying to save up to gtfo out his parents’ house and Buffy’s having a Crisis about like... being a votech gal in academic world they really hardcore bond. They’re both smart but neither of them are really made for academics or classical office vibe jobs and it’s just something people like Willow and Giles will never get. It’s basically ADHD kid solidarity and they’re finally able to achieve their final friendship form without his pining issues out of the way.
I think also to make Spike’s Yoko Factor Nonsense make ANY sense Xander should actually BE SEEN CONSIDERING JOINING THE MILITARY and it’s ENTIRELY because they have that whole recruitment thing of like “join up and we pay for your education/board/etc” and he’s DESPERATE to get out of his shitty home life. Like he cannot get a half decent job for more than a fucking week, he’s desperate for money and stability and idk he didn’t die that one time on halloween and he monster hunts w/o dying either so maybe he can handle this???? and finally Escape????? but then there’s a lot of Classic Xander Strife around the choice and a genuine fear that if he leaves they’ll just... get on with their lives just fine. which would be crushing for him, that he contributed so little they just kept going with out a hitch.
Season 5 to Season 7 is really where Xander for me comes out to be just like.... the carebear godsend hero that he’s supposed to be. Like he’s talked about as the Heart of the Scoobies and Buffy’s metaphorical heart but while he does do a solid job mirroring/expressing/etc her heart he’s kind of a shitty one for the group. Like if he’s supposed to be the MOST EMPATHETIC SCOOBY IN THE GANG THEN JFC YIKES.
By S5 everyone else’s lives are like, officially starting to fall apart while Xander’s is getting more certain and more together. He’s like, Maturing. Like a fine Faygo. And even better he’s finding the balance between being Goofy Silly Mohawk Nerd Xander and like, Adult Big Boy Xander. I think that Xanya and Spuffy should be even BIGGER parallels especially in this season with Xanya being like the more wholesome human/demon romantic relationship dynamic-- basically PROVING that it CAN work-- something that can then be used to lampshade the issue in S6 when Spuffy enter toxic hookup hell. What Spike is asking for ISN’T insane, Xander and Anya ARE DOING IT!! wHaT’s ThE pRoBlEm BuFfY?!?!?!
But Anya’s human you say!!! it’s totally different!!!
Shut the fuck up she was a demon for 1,000 years, had a soul the whole time and never once feels bad for her past actions. She’s in the same boat as Spike you’re just a sheeple falling prey to the broken ass soul propaganda.
It’s also an opportunity with the solidification of his relationship with Anya as like Something Real and not young adult horny relationshiping to show how he really is as a person. Less of the belittling “helpful” comments and more him just like, genuinely LISTENING to her and LEARNING her language like we see him do when he’s Suave!Xander in 5x3. like he Hears her and then is able to almost IMMEDIATELY understand what she’s actually saying/where her anxiety is coming from. I love the idea of Xander basically always being the most kneejerk reactionary to all situations and sometimes saying Dumb Shit because of that but then also being the only one who’s brave enough to then circle back later and reevaluate his stance.
Like he’ll say something that hurts someone’s feelings then be willing to circle back unprompted and look at himself with harsh honesty and see what he did and what’s going on with him then act accordingly and adjust/apologize/reconsider his stance/etc. Basically if Buffy is a bleeding heart then Xander should be too and the thing that makes him The Heart™ and not Buffy is that unlike her he is unwilling or unable to close off his heart to anything. Buffy can face off against the hordes of Hell but will collapse under the threat of emotional honesty with even herself. Xander was raised in Hell and not unlike Angel tbh, has to constantly reevaluate his like Whole Existence to make sure he’s not becoming what he hates-- the very real and human monstrosity that his parents represent.
His whole goal in life is to not be his father. His superpower that not even Buffy has is that he’s so incredibly brave in the face of human evil, human cruelty AND emotional vulnerability. He’s been mocked, ridiculed, bullied and tormented his entire life and he’s still stayed big hearted and intensely kind when it counted his entire life. He’s open, thoughtful, understanding, empathetic and more than willing and able to put himself in the other guy’s shoes. Something none of the others can manage like... at all lol. His relationship with Anya should be in part about showing us this and it only fails because he’s like what... 21? and still working through all his bullshit around his shitty family. Not because they were a broken couple which is more the show vibe no matter how they wanna pretend like he wasn’t a shitty boyfriend to Anya for 2 seasons lol.
I think it’s important in the back end to have at least one of them still semi-functional and Xander’s already been living in “I have to do something about my life bc otherwise I will Become That Which I Fear” hell since high school. He’s the furthest along on that road and the emotional anchor of the group so ofc he fucking sam gamgee carries them all up the side of mt doom for like 2 solid seasons lol.
my depiction of Xander is always about healing, growth and the power of empathy, love and kindness. I feel like making him more subculture-y and with a certain amount of substance abuse (weed and booze mainly) makes sense given his history. I think he’s the foil to Angel and Spike (and Giles in someways) and their own explorations around toxic masculinity and masculinity in general. He unpacks the damage done by his father way more efficiently than Angel ever does and he learns how to be more emotionally open without reflexive retaliation when hurt than Spike does. He’s very much trying to get to this place where “I am. And that is enough.” sits well in his chest and permeates his life. Which is more than anyone else in either series can say LOL.
Also just like.... make the whole Xander vs the trio toxic nerd boy culture meta discussion thing actually WORK.
He also highlights in the narrative the idea of there always being another option. He’s not living the expected college life. He’s not acting or dressing like society thinks he should. He’s also found a way to thrive via construction/carpentry and finds a happy place between growing up and not giving up all the things he likes that can be considered childish or lame. He also hasn’t compromised his personality or identity to “be more mature” or “act like an adult”. He refutes the ideas that Giles keeps expressing about what he (Giles) has to do as an Adult or what Buffy should now be capable of as one by just like being a Cringey Little Dude and also Pay Taxes On Time. Like Spike he’s living and working in defiance of a society that has done nothing but hurt him but unlike Spike he’s coming from a place of optimism and compassion.
Xander SHOULD be friend shaped. He and Tara SHOULD be the go-tos on all things emotional. He should be kind, creative, open minded, empathetic, and loving all while also being Kind of a Dick sometimes. When the writers talk about how when they wanted to make the audience upset/riot they’d just put Willow in danger or emotional distress -- by the end of the show that should be Xander!!!!!! by S7 I should be RIOTING if Xander is in danger!!!!!
Also the faith-xander victims of child abuse self recognition via the other vibes oh god the faith-xander victims of child abuse self recognition via the other vibes
He’s just a silly little guy!!!! just a fun little boy!!!! just a harmless little fun-time boy!!!!!! you wouldnt sentence a silly harmless little fun-time boy!!!!! its his birthday!!!!!!
GOD THIS ISN’T EVEN ALL OF IT BUT I LOST MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT AND THIS IS SOOOOOOO LONG ALREADY FUCK
(last gif for the road bc this is massive Xander/Cordelia energy)
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
You know what we’ve been really missing out on? A dance headcanon. It may have crossed your mind at some point or you have never thought of it, but trust me you actually have, so here you go and you’re welcome.
We’ve certainly gotten sprinkles (read: karaoke scene, I mean, we were about to get FED and bam Grayson pity party) of such things throughout the series but not in any outright way as is the case with many of the things that could give us more background on the Hawthorne brothers. (Why you holding out on us JLB??? Huh?!) Anyways, here. Read.
Nash-He does line dancing, I mean, you should have seen that one coming. He's basically the country star of his family and he owns it to the fullest; he's literally one of Taylor Swift's back up dancers for goodness' sake. Nash's favorite version of line dance is square dancing and being the sweetheart he is, he will go to retirement homes on dance nights and be one of the choreographers or partners to help the old folks who want to dance. Of course, when there's a festival, that's when he really gets down. But, this might surprise you; he's also had a stint with hip hop and he's pretty darn good at it. He can do the dougie for sure. In fact, he got so good at hip hop that he also started adding his own style to it and gave it his country flare at freestyle competitions (Jamie and Xander's minds were blown, at first, before the big brother cool wore off that is but they were still impressed🤭).
Grayson-All of them learned how to do ballroom dancing (mainly waltz) but someone had to be the best of them, too. Enter Grayson Hawthorne. He is certainly the go-to brother for these types of dances but he excels at tango and waltz which also give him his greatest enjoyment. Certainly, at school events, he was always sought after during the slow songs and was always leading man for the school's ballroom team. It was the one chance the ladies were allowed to swoon without a certain redhead ruining everything. Though he competed nationally and worldwide, he preferred the simple entry level competitions for the sake of the peace. It was also more fun. He also challenged himself by learning flamenco and he was enamored by it, loving the fast steps and quick changes from one thing to another. However, his grandfather wanted him to push it further since he was already pursuing the dance so he wanted him to do competitions and as much as he put his heart and soul into it, Gray hated doing competitions when he wanted to do this for fun. After his grandfather died, he quit comps and stopped dancing flamenco for a while but his brothers (read: Xander) have been encouraging him to take it up again as a fun hobby. He's been warming up to the idea.
Jameson-Should it really come as a surprise that this boy can tap dance? Because, yes, he can and he is damn proud of it. It’s a favorite party trick of his to pull on the dance floor or in the middle of the club and he’s always tearing it up. He also loves Irish stepdance and after watching the famous Riverdance live, Jameson was obsessed. That was how he and Xander ended up being trained by the very Riverdance company itself and they trained for two years until Xan no longer expressed interest but Jamie got good enough that he even went on tour with them. Also, he's been expanding his repertoire with street dancing, mambo, and most recently disco due to a certain someone's obsession with the 70s.
Xander-Despite Gray being the undisputed king of ballroom in the family, his youngest brother still takes to the swing better than anyone. He has been the most enthusiastic about it and loves the energy which matches him well in every aspect of the dance. Unlike his brother, competing never really bothered him and this is actually one of the things that he gets him into a perfectionist complex. He was a junior world champ on two occasions and now is teaching Max how to do it. On the more casual side of casual side of things, he also knows how to shag which is one of his favorite things to do on little dates with Maxine when they aren't going anywhere. And, of course, being the most sporadic of his brothers, Xander always shocks people when he tells them he also has done ballet. He never got to become a principal dancer as a junior dancer but he did get to do a few pas de deux and was a soloist when he was with the Texas Ballet Theater. His favorite ballets are The Nutcracker and Don Quixote; he appreciates Swan Lake but hates the unhappy versions.
#nash westbrook hawthorne#nash hawthorne#grayson davenport hawthorne#grayson hawthorne#jameson winchester hawthorne#jameson hawthorne#xander blackwood hawthorne#xander hawthorne#hawthorne brothers#hawthorne shenanigans#hawthorne headcanons#the inheritance games#the hawthorne legacy#the final gambit#tig#thl#tfg
63 notes
·
View notes
Text
So here’s the thing: I think a good chunk of the BTVS fandom thinks of Giles as a father figure to Buffy (of which I am one). But he discourages her from it, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that his trauma with his own father wasn’t healed. His representation of who fathers are supposed to be is already unhealthy, and he can see the absence of Hank in Buffy’s life is a void that needs to be filled in terms of guidance and wisdom. But he’s also very aware of what he’s capable of (i.e. Eyghon, what he did to Ben, etc.) and believes (as many abused children do) that he doesn’t fit the idyllic version of fatherhood that he might have wished for for himself. He isn’t particularly warm on first glance (though he can be), did a lot of terrible things in his life, doesn’t have a steady partner. He can anger and isn’t an infinite well of patience and forgiveness. He cannot conceptualize the idea that he’s the closest thing she has to an involved father figure in her life because that idea is terrifying. Because as a Watcher he can do his job fine but what the hell does he know about being a dad when his own was terrible to him? He doesn’t want her to get hurt by another father figure in her life, and especially not by him. Not because he doesn’t love her or care about her that way but because he feels he is deeply inadequate for the role.
Giles is already traumatized severely. He was attacked at the watcher academy at age 18 by a lorophage demon that killed several people as part of his training. Several watchers including his father had to stop the demon and save him before he died. He wasn’t much older than Buffy when he faced his own mortality, but being alive far longer than her, he faced far more death with little time to process it. His friend Deirdre who died when he was rebelling with dark magic. Not to mention that as a watcher he’s seen a ton of death by his job alone. Then you have Buffy’s first death and Jenny’s brutal death in season 2, not to mention the whole thing with Ethan being back and dragging up his past, then losing his job as a watcher, and a librarian by the end of Season 3.
By season 4 Giles is struggling. He has no employment, Buffy is growing less dependent on him, and he’s struggling to come to terms with what to do with his life. But as he’s trying to prepare to move on with his life, Buffy tells him she needs him and he stays because he loves and cares about her. But after Joyce’s death and her resurrection, he realizes that she’s relying on him so much that she’ll never move forward with him as a crutch. When he’s stepping back he doesn’t perceive this as an abandonment. He’s trying to give her a chance to figure it out on her own. And despite the fact that he is sad to go he knows he’s trying to do right by her. She perceives it as an abandonment and so do we, because why wouldn’t we? This is her show and her perspective. We’ve seen all the love they both have for one another and the respect. But this is a man who has lost so much already. Who has had no time to really process the fact that he has suffered egregiously. Who doesn’t really know a life outside of the job. Who has been shown to seek normalcy when he can.
Of course he loves Buffy like a daughter, and of course leaving her was incredibly hard. He’s been by her side for years. He’s not leaving her as she perceives, he wants her to grow. She can’t see it that way because of all of the trauma she’s gone through, and who could blame her? Getting ripped out of heaven must have been awful. For the life of me I’ve been trying to figure out why he left right after that (okay I know it was Tabula Rasa but close enough) and what I keep coming back to is the fact that he’s not just watching her fall apart- it’s everybody. Dawn is a Kleptomaniac, Willow is getting into the dark magic, Buffy is depressed and a shell of her former self, and Xander and Anya have their share of issues. He’s been the go to man for all of them for so long, and I don’t think his decision was driven as much by Buffy alone as it was by a feeling of burnout and pressure. He cannot carry all of this by himself but this is literally what he’s been doing the whole time.
This is a man who has tried to make up for his mistakes. He’s held himself accountable for his actions. And Buffy and her friends aren’t taking that accountability for their problems by that point. He told them at one point to think of him as an uncle because he can’t see himself as a father figure, but ultimately stepping away to take care of himself and allowing all of them to find their footing is very much akin to a dad stepping back from the lives of his kids to give them a chance to stand on their own. And they all end up rising to the occasion in the end like he believed they would. And despite that, he always shows up for Buffy when she needs him most.
He is a Dad to the lot of them (Buffy especially of course) in the ways that matter, but is completely blind to it because of his own thought distortions and trauma, and I think he gets penalized a lot for it in S6 & 7. And while I absolutely hated the way his arc was handled (he deserved a way better S6 & 7 in terms of his character development, finding his place in the world, and healing himself), I get why he saw things as he did. The early seasons are a better reflection of who he is on the whole as a person (esp seasons 2 & 4) but I get riled up when I hear people talking about him abandoning Buffy in later seasons when he’s literally in the midst of some of the worst trauma of his life. It’s not an accurate representation of what he was trying to do and I think he deserves more grace. He was trying to do what he thought was right, and it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love or care for Buffy or the rest of the Scoobies. But he is a whole person, who suffered massively, and deserved the same compassion that he gave those he cared about and didn’t get it back from the Scoobies and the fandom when he deserved it and needed it most.
Anyway just my two cents but this has been bugging me for a while.
#mun post#outofguard#btvs#rupert giles#character musings#buffyverse#buffy summers#buffy season 6#buffy s7#willow rosenberg#tara maclay#xander harris#anya jenkins#Dawn summers#ethan rayne#jenny calendar#spoilers
65 notes
·
View notes
Note
🍏
Thanks!!
So, I guess this is kind of a headcanon for John and Xander as well as Wilbur, but you know when Paul says in TGWDLM that he's never heard of PIEP, and John replies:
'No, and you never will. Not a peep.' ?
That was Wilbur's joke originally. When John was training as a PIEP agent, Wilbur told him he needed to be less intense around frightened civilians, and that making a stupid pun - which Wilbur had a tendency to do anyway - was a good way to put people at ease.
He only meant to use that specific joke as an example, but John took the advice to heart and it became his go-to introduction when explaining PIEP to anyone outside the organisation (even more so after 2005).
That is, until Xander invented the 'we're a small team - just me and a few of my peeps' version from Black Friday, which John immediately added to his repertoire.
#thanks for the ask!#i actually sort of headcanon that john's whole persona in TGWDLM is partly a result of mimicking Wilbur#out of admiration but also because Wil was far more confident with civilian interactions than John at first#anyway hope you like the headcanon!#hatchetverse#wilbur cross#john macnamara#xander lee
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Victor and the Survivor
Summary: Once in the Capitol everything changes for Bellatrix Rose. Haymitch starts to look like her best option at staying alive.
Pairings: Bellatrix Rose x Haymitch Abernathy
Warnings: none this far!
*not my Gif but all my writing!
Haymitch wasn’t lying when he said the peace wouldn’t last. As soon as we were in the Capitol, Darius led us to our suites. We were only there for a moment before we were then swept away to meet our stylists.
“They’re going to make you look marvelous,” Darius raved over us. Going on and on about their brilliance and how they helped to style his own attire.
I faintly wondered if Xander would ever speak again. He hadn’t said a word since we had stepped on the train. He took in the sights, but made no comments on them. He didn’t even speak to Haymitch. The young man might as well be an Avox.
Darius opened a door and led me inside. The metal room looked to be completely sterilized. A large wash basin sat in the corner, and a few robes hung beside it. Bottles upon bottles of shampoos and conditioners and other things I was unfamiliar with sat near by.
I wasn’t alone for more than five minutes when a busty woman popped in the room. Her hair was an unnatural shade of orange, along with her long eyelashes. Two assistants followed her in. Her eyes softened as she looked at me. Rather than hugging me or shaking my hand she went right for my hair, “Oh, my dearest. Look at you, we can most definitely work with this. I’ve seen nothing but black hair for the past three years.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “As long as you don’t cover me in coal like they did last year, I won’t fight you,” I joked. Slightly.
The woman laughed, making her gold corset shake slightly. “Yes, my predecessor’s style was a bit… flashy. Which is why I took his place this year. Where are my manners? I’m Analyse darling.”
I smiled. Her flamboyance was charming. At least she wasn’t mean. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Bellatrix.”
“Oh, I know all about you dear. And by tonight, so will everyone else,” she grinned. She took me by the shoulders and turned me to the middle of the room. “Let’s get started shall we?”
I was undressed and put into the tub. There they scrubbed me with the majority of the body scrubs. I liked the one that smelled like lemon, and despised the two that felt like sand. However the water was warm, I hadn’t had a warm bath in years.
Next they moved to my hair. Using shampoos, conditioners and some kind of foaming scrub. One of the assistants massaged my scalp, and they praised the color of it, asking me where I had gotten it from and telling me they would do anything to get it. It was nearly to my waist in length, and Analyse instructed them to trim it, but to keep as much length as possible.
The woman split my hair down the middle and made two puffy braids, then curled the back half that was kept down.
Makeup was next, and I didn’t hate it. More lotions were used so I smelled like a lemon pastry by the time everything was done. She had used dark shades for my eyes, making the green stand out. My lips were tinted a little darker than their usual color.
I liked that I still looked like me up to this point. A slightly darkened and matured version of me. But it was me nonetheless.
All three of them left for about two minutes, returning with a large garment bag. Excited looks filled their faces.
“While District Twelve might be challenging to others, I was extremely excited when I became the head of this team. I had a vision for your dresses,” Analyse said quickly as she unzipped the back.
I was soon clothed in a floor length black gown. A slit ran up the side and they dusted my legs, arms and fingers in a black glistening powder. Instricate whirls and swirls were ingrained into the fabric of the dress, certain places seemed to glow with life. She adjusted the straps to sit off of my shoulders.
All three of them admired me. Standing in awe of their work. Even I had to admit that they had done well. Instead of making me someone unrecognizable, they had simply enhanced my own features.
“Oh, darling, we couldn’t have asked for a better tribute,” Analyse gawked over me. Then she clapped her hands, “Now, we must get you to the stage before you’re late.”
As quickly as possible- I still hadn’t gotten used to walking in heels this tall yet- we took a series of elevators, and hallways until we made it to the stage.
It was more like a bunker. Holding an array of carriages, horses and people. Tributes stood next to their mentors, all sizing me up. Some looking afraid. Others looked ready to eat me. The games have already started.
District Three was covered head to toe in glitter. The male tribute’s chest was silver with a tan underlay, nothing but a small pair of shirts to cover him. He was nothing but a wall of muscle, and at least three times my size. I shifted my gaze when he caught me staring.
Our own carriage matched our theme. Black with intricate patterns etched into the side. Haymitch was leaning on it, sipping a dark red liquid from a crystal glass. Once his eyes landed on me he nearly dropped it. A familiar sadness filled his eyes for a split second. Just a flash and then it was gone. His smooth grin covering up everything else.
“They really dressed you up, Bell,” he said. He inched closer to me and touched one of the straps of my dress.
“I’m just praying I don’t fall off of this thing,” I answered looking at the tall open carriage. Ignoring the new nickname he had bestowed on me.
“You’ll do fine,” he said reassuringly.
“Where’s Xander,” I asked, trying to fill the silence.
“Finishing up his own primping I’m sure,” he said, still not looking away from me. His gaze was starting to make me uncomfortable.
I shifted a little under his gaze. Though with the motion I nearly fell over. His hands flew out to catch me, gripping me above the elbow so he didn’t disturb the powder that created my own gloves. He smelled faintly of oak and alcohol. He had grown out his hair since I had seen him last. No longer was Haymitch the solemn boy who had gone into the Games. If I survived, would I turn out like him? Would they change me into someone unrecognizable?
“You look a lot like her, you know,” he whispered. I didn’t have to ask which she he meant.
“Was she nervous? During the ceremonies?”
“We all were.”
Before I could ask more Xander and his own team of stylists approached us. His garb was close to mine only in suit form. His own fingers and parts of his face dusted in the black powder like mine.
There was no time to talk as the music began to play. Our teams loaded us into the carriage and we started to move slowly towards the open doors. I gripped the side of it tightly, the heels causing my feet to ache already.
Haymitch walked beside us. “Try and smile. I know you don’t want to, but do it anyway.”
I nodded. The crowd was roaring already. Thousands of them chanting, screaming, clapping.
“Wave, make them remember you. Make them like you,” Haymitch continued. Mostly to me, Xander had gone rigid, eyes wide. His own black coated hands clinged to the railing.
“Bell,” he yelled as the noise grew louder. I looked down at him. “Breathe for me, okay?”
I nodded again and took a deep breath. The crowd roared as we were carted in, I forced my best smile and lifted my hand to them. I pretended that they were my adoring public. As if they weren’t cheering for my death. As if they weren’t blood thirsty.
*****
Dinner was nothing short of extraordinary. After the opening ceremonies we were carted back up to the penthouse, stripped of our elaborate costumes, and summoned for dinner. I relished the feeling of the plush chairs, grateful that it wasn’t like the rigid styling chair I’d had to endure for most of the day.
And assortment of food was on the large and long table. Across from me Xander still refused to speak, but his eyes showed everything he was thinking. We both absorbed the amount of food that was in front of us. It was enough to feed all of my neighbors for weeks.
Fish laid with lemon and rice. Two entire chickens were stuffed with some kind of bread that had the sharp scent of pepper laced into them. Perfectly ripe vegetables and fruits sat in large and imaginative arrays. I’d never seen this much food in my life. Had never dared to dream of it. And they had turned most of it into art.
This time neither of us resisted. Both of us filled our plates with everything that was within reach. Each of us knew that this next week could be the last time we ever got a decent meal. There was no guess as to what the terrain would be like once we were in the arena. I just prayed it wasn’t rubble. I could handle a jungle, or a forest. Anything where there was a way to survive, to hide, to find water. But to find nothing but rock once we were put in?
I stopped that line of thinking when Haymitch walked in to find both of us gorging ourselves. He only smirked at us. “Don’t go too crazy, you’ll make yourselves sick,” he said, sitting down next to me at the head of the table.
I shoveled in another bite of the lemon fish. It was my favorite thus far, but I hadn’t even made it to the other side of the table. I changed the subject. “We start training tomorrow, what should we focus on,” I asked.
Haymitch’s eyes fell to me after filling his own plate. I was happy to see him eating and not just drinking.
“You two impressed the crowd, that’s a good start. They liked you so their more inclined to sponsor you later on. As for training you need to decide if you want to do that together or separately,” he said, tearing off a piece of chicken.
For the first time since we had gotten onto the train Xander spoke, “I’m not training.”
Everything at the table stopped. I couldn’t tell if it was from just him speaking or what he had said. But it was about five seconds before Haymitch asked, “What do you mean?”
“I’m not training. I’m not fighting. I’m not doing anything they want me to,” he said, simply going back to his dinner.
I looked at Haymitch, he only leaned back in his chair, seemingly okay with this answer. Like he had seen it before. “That makes my job a little easier.”
I slammed my fork down, “No, you can’t just give up. What about your family, your girlfriend? You’re not going to fight for them?”
Xander looked at me. He seemed tired. The life had left his eyes the second his name was called. He seemed to already be dead. “I don’t stand a chance. Did you see the kid from Three? Or maybe you didn’t see the girl from one who looked ready to eat us? I’d rather die my way, and not give them the satisfaction of a show.”
I pushed the tears away. Though we weren’t close, he was from my district. From my home. One of the only people that I was remotely familiar with in this world. And he was ready to die. If I was a true competitor I would be happy. It was one less person I had to worry about in the arena.
“You can’t just give up. You can’t just die,” I strangled. My throat was starting to close up from the tears.
He didn’t answer me. He only went back to eating, taking a large sip of wine.
“You have a family. You have someone to fight for. You can’t just lay down and die,” I continued. Though it fell on deaf ears.
“Xander, please,” I was standing before I could think of what I was doing. The Avoxes that had been filling our glasses backed away at the screech of my chair.
“You think this is going to prove something? You think this is going to change anything? You could go home, Xander. You could have a chance.” The tears were now free flowing.
His silence made sense now. He had made up his mind on what he was going to do long ago. Long before we ever made it to the arena. He was ready to die.
I felt large hands wrap around me. The faint scent of alcohol and cedar washed over me. I tried pushing his hands off me. “You have a reason. You have something to try to win for.”
My feet were plucked from the ground as Haymitch started to carry me away. For a drunk he was surprisingly strong. I kicked and screamed uselessly as he dragged me away from the table. My chest heaved with sobs, but Haymitch didn’t stop until we were back in my room.
He slowly set me on the bed, but I was back on my feet pushing at his chest. “You have to talk to him. You have to convince him to give himself a chance.”
He looked down at me sadly. Like I was a little girl who didn’t understand something. I didn’t like that look. I wanted to punch him for that look.
“Xander’s made his choice,” he said simply.
“He can’t just-”
His patience finally ran out. His grip tightened on my shoulders as he shook me, probably a little harder than he meant to. “Look Bell, there’s no way that both of you can come out of there. It’s just one victor. So this is good for you. You need to start worrying about how you can stay alive, understand?”
I sucked in a breath. He didn’t care. Haymitch didn’t care. I wondered if this was why we hadn’t had someone else win in the last five years. Simply because they had a mentor who didn’t care if they lived or died. But only part of me believed that.
“I don’t understand. I don’t understand why he doesn’t want to fight,” I said while gulping for air. Most of it came out in a hiccup.
He finally stopped resisting the urge to touch my hair. He tamped down some of the hairs that had come loose from the two braids. “Some people don’t want to play the game. Some people want to go as peacefully as they’re allowed. Can you blame him for that?”
“I don’t want to die, Haymitch,” I whispered.
His eyes softened a little. “Then you fight Bell. You fight, and then come see me on the other side.”
“Will you fight for me?”
“We’ll give e’m a show. That’s all they want. Give them that and you’ll make it.”
#fan fiction#imagine#imagines#original character#thg haymitch#haymitch x reader#haymitch abernathy#the hunger games imagine#the hunger games fic#the hunger games fanfiction#the hunger games
40 notes
·
View notes
Text
Smash Bros Corrin's Supports
Vs. Dark Pit
Female Corrin Version
Corrin: This is Pit's brother, right?
Leo: Technically he's Pit's clone, but that is their dynamic. Did you know, if Pit dies than so will Dark Pit?
Corrin: So…does he actually care about Pit, or only help him so he doesn't die?
Elise: Well, despite how edgy and off-putting he seems, he does care! I mean, if I was only fighting to protect someone so I don't die, I wouldn't do a big silly speech with them!
Camilla: Dark Pit has no loyalties, unless you've gained his trust. And so far, only Pit has.
Xander: Poor boy must be lonely
Corrin: Yeah, whenever Pit isn't with him he kinda hides away and trains and stuff. There's being solitary, and then there's that.
Camilla: He has good reason not to trust people. Almost everyone he's met has either tried to control him or kill him. At least this was soon after he was created by the mirror of truth.
Xander: Even now, many mistake him for a villain, when that couldn't be further from the truth
Corrin: Why do people from darkness get casted as evil?
Camilla: Well, there is Dark Link, Dark Samus, etc. And if you are referring to us, given that the sun doesn't shine in Nohr, that's complicated.
Corrin: Still…maybe I'll go talk to him after the match
#Corrin's Supports (a fanmade Smash Bros thing)#F!Corrin#Conquest!Corrin#Xander FE#Camilla FE#Leo FE#Elise FE#Dark Pit#Super Smash Bros
9 notes
·
View notes
Note
Title: Across the Horizons
Title: Across the Horizons, Across the Valleys and the Moors, Across the Highest of Heights
Rating: M
Fandoms: Power Rangers; Power Rangers Mystic Force; Boom! Comics Power Rangers; Power Rangers Dino Thunder.
Relationships: Leelee Pimvare/Clare Langtree; Conner McKnight/Kira Ford/Ethan James; Daggeron/Leanbow; Tori Hanson/Kapri; Necrolai/Itassis; Nick Russell/Xander; Chip Thorn/Vida Rocca; Marah & Cameron Watanabe.
Characters: World of the Coinless Leelee Pimvare; World of the Coinless Leanbow; World of the Coinless Clare Langtree; World of the Coinless Kapri & Marah; Ranger Slayer Kimberly Hart; Remi; Karone; Grace Sterling; Terona Washington; Cameron Watanabe; etc.
Additional Tags: World of the Coinless - Alternate Universe; Major Character Deaths; Beyond the Grid Arc - Alternate Universe; Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault; Emotional Damage; Hurt/Comfort; Anxiety; A Version of Leelee who is a MASSIVE Thirst Trap but goes Limp when Clare so much as Looks at Her; Sleeping Around; Me Just Sitting Here Sniping Beloved Characters from the Roof; Followed by Setting Them Up with Lovers from the Sidelines; Tori Actually Has ZERO GAME; But Sentry Kapri is Used to being Surrounded by Cringe Fail Losers so it's Fine; Cam is SO Stressed it is Unreal.
Summary:
Realistically, there's no way that all of the Sentries working under Drakkon were awful and bad or even assholes. Some of them had to be there for protection, if not for themselves, then for their loved ones.
From a narrative standpoint, it's kind of stupid that there were only Trini, Zack, Bulk, and a few other would-have-been Rangers left alive after Tommy and Billy popped in and Drakkon popped out of their dimensions. There had to be MORE, and they HAD to be on Promethea helping out the other non-Rangers as best they could during the rescue mission.
And Beyond the Grid would have been so much better if we got to look at the background characters much more than just the makeshift team.
Bonus ideas for scenes that popped into my head for this:
Cameron getting to know a different version of his cousins that are actually completely kickass while simultaneously being emotionally shut down and so damaged he wants to hunt down the Lothor of their universe and do unimaginably horrible things to him.
Kapri has tattoos. That include sleeves along both arms. That Tori can't stop looking at when Kapri is on the training flood while toweling herself off from lifting weights--and almost dropping them on Kira's foot from the distraction.
Grace tossing Conner to Terona when she realizes how much of a mess the Dino Thunder Red is around literally anyone with more muscles than him. Terona knows the young man can respect boundaries, and agrees to keeping him occupied with stuff to do (in spite of also knowing Grace was basically throwing him under a bus; but he has a 'look, don't touch' policy, in spite of Conner checking out his ass so much). If Ethan wanders in to help them out and feed them, there's no complaining.
Clare scurrying around out of sight of the Rangers that still have their powers in an effort to get a better read on the Ranger Slayer. Because while everyone says that she was under mind control, she was bound to Drakkon with obedience through magic, Clare is still suspicious. She doesn't deny that the woman looks weary and sad and was making an effort to get them all home and out of danger, but...if there was even a chance she was still a danger to the Coinless, Clare has to be sure.
Leelee missing Camille and Jarrod, Ryan, Toxica and Jindrax, Dayu, and even some of the total losers in her division. Like a missing arm or leg; a completely unexpected thing since Drakkon won her in a game, removed her from the Mystic Realm as well as removing her vampire nature, and passed her off to the least respected Captain in all of his legions to train. (Who treated her better than anyone in all the world and actually helped strengthen her relationship with Necrolai).
Chip and Xander being bros and getting to know everyone, because it's not like they'll ever get another chance like this in their lifetime.
#boom! comics power rangers#ask fill#prompt fill#power rangers mystic force#power rangers dino thunder#shattered grid#beyond the grid
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Fic: “You’re Not Alone”
read on AO3
Fandom: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Rating: E (on AO3); T (on Tumblr)
Summary: Faith accidentally gets sent to another version of Sunnydale. A really messed up Sunnydale.
for @flashfictionfridayofficial
for @femslashfeb‘s Day prompt 24 “dark”
for @febuwhump’s Day 24 prompt “bloody clothes”
for Femslash F*ckery’s Day 24 prompt “hatef*cking”
"Oh, this…"
Faith walks straight out of the historian's office, gawking.
This… isn't Sunnydale. Or at least the Sunnydale she knows and exists in. Faith senses the tingle of dark magic. Maple Court, overflowing with the date night crowd on a Saturday, is now emptied. No working streetlights. Garbage scattered around Faith's feet, blowing away.
"You gotta be kidding me," Faith mutters aloud.
She's gonna strangle Willow. Violently.
Or… whoever the hell did this…
Faith remembers being up on the top floor, alongside the Mayor, facing off against Buffy and most of her friends. Some… some magical artifact. Faith can't remember that part. Her mind feels woozy.
A trans-dimensional portal? Spell gone bad after cooking for too long?
Aggravated, she huffs up to the curb, and then knocked aside as a leather-dressed couple stroll by. Their arms snugly around each other.
They turn.
Faith's blood goes cold.
"You two…" she growls, menacingly cracking her knuckles. "Perfect. I needed to vent out a little aggravation."
Xander tilts his head, far too calm. And since when did he wear eyeliner?
"Look, Will," he says dully. "It wants to play."
Willow leers.
Faith's eyes dart to her cleavage practically spilling out. Damn.
"She's so pretty…"
"Pretty pissed off is what I am," Faith snaps, approaching, then lurching backwards when Willow's face vamps out. "Oh, what the SHIT—!?"
Another person high-kicks themselves in, spinning and packing enough force in their blows to send the vampires of Buffy's old BFFs flying into the asphalt. Xander grabs onto a vamped-out Willow, hissing ferociously. He takes off.
Faith opens her mouth, then gawks. Again.
"Yes, well… very good," Giles mumbles, scrambling for the large wooden stake Buffy harshly throws at him. "It seems that your training in Cleveland has not been lacking, if anything… has your Watcher warned you about—"
"Shut up," Faith (and Buffy, at the same time) blurt out.
They glance at each other, suspicious.
"Don't tell him to shut up," Buffy says nastily, and Faith mock-laughs.
"B, you don't want any of this right now… I could tear you apart." She points to Giles. "And I'll make your little Watcher watch."
Despite the threat, neither of Faith's enemies seem concerned.
"… she's like Cordelia," Giles concludes, eerily knowing.
Buffy warily crosses her arms.
"Guess you were right about how things are supposed to be different, Jeeves…" she monotones.
Faith shakes her head, scowling.
"Would any of you chuckleheads mind EXPLAINING?"
*
They do.
Well, this universe's version of Giles does.
Faith half-listens, gazing up while Buffy prowls the downstairs of Giles' apartment. She didn't expect Buffy to look or act the same… except Faith did.
There's no cheerful smile, or quips, or Buffy-esque levels of blind faith optimism.
"So… the Master never dies," Faith repeats. "I'm not called."
Giles hums.
"That appears to be correct, yes."
"Fantastic."
"Miss Summers," Giles addresses her, nodding. "I contact the others. Would you mind staying here with, erm, her?"
Buffy shrugs again, not answering, and he must be taking that as a yes—Faith sees him head out the door. "What's your problem, B? Huh? I've never seen you act that coldly to your Watcher before."
"He's not my Watcher." Buffy's eyes narrow. "And stop calling me that."
Faith smirks, tossing aside a couch-cushion while getting nearer.
"Whaddya gonna do about it? Huh?"
Buffy gets into Faith's face this time, glaring. But she's not making any moves.
Faith keeps a hand on her own belt, within reach of her new favorite dagger, and doesn't move either. She wants to revel in Buffy's darkness. The thing that was always there and that Buffy denied she had like Faith had.
But… a part of Faith can't. There's nothing in Buffy's eyes. No emotion. She's shut off like Faith had been after her first human kill.
Faith clears her throat, glancing down to Buffy's grey tank-top.
"That your blood?" she rasps.
And, no, Faith isn't concerned by asking…
(Even if she is. It's like a bad habit. It's like trying to quit smoking, and by the next night, Faith savors the cigarette on her lips.)
"Couldn't save someone. It is what it is," Buffy speaks like she's been numbed on the inside. "We fight, we die."
Faith thumbs a bloodstain, curling her hand around the hem of Buffy's ruined top and yanking a little. "You'd make a great motivational speaker…"
Buffy snorts, her nostrils flaring.
No, it happened—Buffy did smile, Faith thinks, amused. A crappy-looking smile, but it was a smile.
"Faith, has anyone ever told you… how much of a bitch you are?"
"Only in bed," Faith says sneering, tapping her nose affectionately against Buffy's. She ducks a grab, and then twists Buffy's arm, yanking again. Mouths crash together. Faith moans, grabbing tightly onto Buffy, feeling the other Slayer's hands in Faith's hair. There's no getting enough of her.
*
Magic crackles underneath Faith's skin.
She disappears and reappears in the historian's office with no Mayor in sight.
Faith holds in the urge to strangle.
"You gotta be kidding me…"
#flash fiction friday#buffy the vampire slayer#fuffy#fuffy fic#buffy summers#faith lehane#femslash#femslash february#femslash february 2023#femslashfeb2023#femslash feb 2023#febuwhump#febuwhump2023#febuwhump 2023#dark femslash#femslash fuckery#femslashfuckery#buffy x faith#faith x buffy#btvs#btvs fic#btvs fanfiction#femslash fic#femslash fanfic
27 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Lemon Legacy: Generation 1, Chapter 31 - Extra Extra
This temporary version of the Let Them Eat Cake wedding band has one more rehearsal before the big day tomorrow! However, during a break, Moses gets a very interesting alert on his phone…
Moses: Uh, guys? Ty Harper just posted a feature about Penny and Miko’s wedding.
Drew: Tiff’s husband? I thought Penny said she didn’t want a feature on PlumBright.
Moses: Judging from the title, it looks like it’s not the kind of piece they would have run by her.
Moses: “Penny Pizzazz and Miko Ojo: The Disaster Before The I Do”
Ophelia: What?
Moses: “Self-obsessed blogger Penny Pizzazz recently proposed to mousy, irrelevant Social Justice Worker Miko Ojo. Why?”
Moses: "We all know Pizzazz's taste in clothing is horrendous, but who knew her taste in women was so dull? These two are a train wreck waiting to happen, but we love mess. We’ll bust out popcorn when Pizzazz inevitably leaves Ojo for someone way hotter and way more relevant.
"They’ve already started fighting, about something as silly as the guest list. A nobody like Miko bossing around Penny Pizzazz? Where does she get off?”
Drew: What? That was barely a fight! He’s one to talk, he’s married to the bossiest Sim in Tartosa!
Ophelia: I can’t believe this. What kind of person writes something like that?
Moses: Oh Watcher.
Ophelia: What? How could it possibly get worse?
Moses: Because it mentions what day the wedding is happening on… and that it’s happening here.
Ophelia: What? But we’ve kept it so under wraps! Penny and Miko had to make their own parents sign confidentiality agreements!
Moses: Ty claims he has an inside source.
Drew: Oh wow, whoever could it be?
Ophelia: There’s no way Tiff would go that low. Is there?
Moses: “Dumb bartender who couldn’t make a good wrench if you held a SimRay to his head?” Guess that’s Xander. He even insults the catering staff. But the lead violinist “overshadows” the other two “hacks” with her raw talent.
Drew: Gag me. Of course Tiff gets off scott-free
Moses continues to scan the article.
Moses: “Hector Laurent’s family has hosted weddings at La Coppia Serena for generations, and as owner has continued to keep the venue a success. Or, at least he tries, no thanks to interference from his nagging shrew of a wife.”
Ophelia: You’ve got to be kidding me! Tiff definitely told Ty to write that in.
Moses: “Our source states Mrs. Laurent is overbearing, argumentative, and takes every chance she gets to sabotage her husband’s legacy.”
Drew: The only person I’ve ever seen her argue with is Tiff!
Drew: Not that I wanted him to get dumped on too, but of course Hector doesn’t get any crap. Tiff’s such a suck-up, she’d never let Ty write anything negative about him.
Moses: Oh no. Hope you guys weren’t feeling left out. They mention us.
Moses: “Sources state that Pizzazz and Ojo, thanks to their lack of taste, have an inexperienced friend with a stupid name singing at the reception with the Laurents’ tone-deaf band instead of someone with an ounce of talent. Notable Newcomer? More like... Unknown Nobody."
Ophelia: I can’t believe this! Tiff used her husband as a mouthpiece to talk shit about every single one of us to the entire world! He wouldn't know half of this stuff if she hadn’t told him. We signed confidentiality contracts but of course Tiff’s mouth is too damn big to care!
Moses: Hey, I get that it must suck you were singled out but it could be worse. At least the article didn’t mention you by name.
Ophelia: Yeah, because Tiff’s so vain she can’t even let her son of a llama husband give me credit when he’s trashing my reputation!
Drew: Did you… want your name attached to this?
Ophelia: Of course not! But Penny’s going to post pictures and word’s going to get out the singer was me! Not to mention people will know you’re the band they called tone-deaf! That’s llamashit! How are you guys not mad?
Moses: I can’t speak for Drew, but trust me, I’m angry too. There’s nothing we can do about it now, though. It’s out there. Luckily, nobody takes PlumBright seriously.
Drew: Oh Drew is pissed. Tone-deaf?! Tiff’s gonna be completely deaf when I slap her upside the head!
Xander runs over from the bar, looking concerned.
Xander: Did you guys see the PlumBright post?
Drew: Unfortunately.
Xander: Dude, three people I went to high school with have texted me and asked if I could sneak them in so they could meet Penny. This is bad.
Ophelia: Penny’s fan base has some dedicated stans. You know people are going to try to come meet her!
Moses: We’ve got to tell Hilary and Hector the day and location got leaked. Maybe they can hire extra security or something.
Xander: Hey, hate to interrupt here-
Hilary: If you’re going to tell us about the PlumBright feature, we already know. Reporters and fans have been blowing up our phones for hours. Hector and I have been trying to do damage control.
Ophelia: Has anyone talked to Miko and Penny?
Hilary: I did, extensively. I assured them extra security would be hired and detain any trespassers within a 5 mile radius. I offered to move their date but they didn’t want to let the paps win. As of now, the wedding is still on.
Hilary: I still need to finalize everything. It’s going to be hard to get as much security as we need on such short notice, but we’ve done much more with much less. And hopefully we can get another violinist to take Tiff’s place.
Hector: Why would we need to replace Tiff?
Hilary: You can’t be serious, dear. Penny and Miko’s first demand when I called was to have Tiffany removed from the wedding plans. Of course they don’t want her anywhere near them anymore after what she and Ty did. I’m sure when the rest of the staff read it, neither will they.
Hilary: The only issue is Tiff isn’t picking up my calls.
Ophelia: I wonder why. Probably because she knows she’s going to get fired for breaching her confidentiality agreement.
Hilary: Trust me, once I’m done putting out fires, it’s the first thing I’m going to do.
Hector: Now now, let’s settle down. We don’t know for sure where Mr. Harper got that information.
Drew: Hector, with all due respect, are you woohoocking stupid?
Hector: Excuse me?!
Hilary: No, they’re right. You and Tiff are the only staff members in that feature that weren’t insulted. That’s far too convenient for my liking. And I highly doubt you would tell Mr. Harper I’m a ‘nagging shrew’, unless you want to sleep on the couch for the rest of your life.
Xander: Why are you still defending her? This thing says stuff that Tiff specifically said to our faces and behind our backs. She’s guilty. You’re going to stand by someone who said those horrible things about your staff, your own wife? Do you respect my sister that little?
Hector: Of course I respect my own wife!
Xander: Then start acting like it, you son of a-
Hilary: Enough! Fighting is getting us nowhere. We will deal with Tiff in the morning, since she’s not responding. Right now, we need to make sure everything goes smoothly tomorrow.
Hilary: I hate to ask this of any of you, but we're on a time crunch. If you can stay and help arrange more security for tomorrow, we'll pay you overtime.
Hector: Overtime? We'd be losing money on this if-
Hilary: I suppose that's your favorite employee's fault then, isn't it?
Ophelia: I don't need overtime. Penny and Miko are my friends. I'll do it so the best day of their lives isn't ruined by a mob.
Drew: I'll do it so I have more reason to rip Tiff to shreds the next time I see her.
The guys agree too.
Hilary: Thank you all. Let's get to work.
And so, that's what they spend most of the night doing. The four are able to research and find last-minute security guards that will keep the venue safe for the employees, Penny, Miko, and their guests. It'd be a real beautiful night if this wasn't how they were spending it.
#The Sims#The Sims 4#The Sims 4 Legacy#The Lemon Legacy#TS4#The Sims 4 gameplay#sims 4#generation 1#ophelia#xander#drew#moses#tiff#hector#hilary
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
Ok, let’s switch gears from the Edelstan bs and talk about something more fun.
Got any fun Fates headcannons you’d care to share?
-Okay so Elise is canonically great at violin and Corrin is also noted to be a good piano player, so I HC that the Nohr siblings are all trained in some kind of instrument. Xander's good at bagpipes, but he saw Leo being good at bagpipes so he switched to cello. Camilla is great at any kind of percussion, cuz she gets to whack things and they make pretty noises.
-On the flipside, Sakura is the only one in the Hoshido fam who has any musical talent with her koto. The rest of the sibs cheer her on, Ryoma especially (he tried the koto once and the dividers in the palace got broken)
-Camilla dotes on her undead wyvern when she can. She got a baby wyvern as a gift from Garon when he was still good, but it killed by one of the other concubines or their kids. Her mom said if she "took care" of a certain rival within a deadline, she'd get the best sorcerers to revive her dragon friend. And she did it! Love that for her.
-Takumi hates royal gatherings, but partly why is because he has a picky aesthetic sense and the formal outfits were never his thing. That's why he's so appreciative of Oboro's talent. He's canonically a big bookworm, so I think he'd write some amazing poetry, too.
-Niles likes gazing at the full moon so much because it's something that can get dark and bleak but start to shine and be "full of light" again, something he finds beauty and comfort in.
-Rhajat's near death experience which changed her personality changed it in a way where she has an obsession with life and death, hence her lines about reincarnation in the JP version, devoting life and time to someone, creating Faceless as opposed to practicing Hoshidan magic, and her surprising knack for caring for plants (showing that she's good at supporting life's growth) in her support with her mom
-The doors in Nohr's castle had to be resized after Xander hit his growth spurt because he kept hitting his forhead on the top of the doorframe
-All of the ninjas can knit and sew because they're great with their hands, but Saizo doesn't do it anymore because he sees it as frivolous (Kaze still has a blanket his brother knitted for him when he was young)
-Ryoma grew his hair out because he wanted to emulate his father, but also because a baby Sakura once tried to climb it and he broke down in tears from how cute it was (Shiro eventually did the same thing as a baby)
-The scar Benny has on his face is one he got protecting endangered animals from poachers.
-Orochi totally told Kagero the story where Saizo wet himself from fear of the fortune she told him, and she purposefully told it when they were dating because Orochi is just built like that
-The Hoshidan army has a secret fight club, and one time Hinoka entered to get a designer pegasus saddle that was stolen from a merchant. She proceeded to clobber all of the contestants in her bracket. She never returned the saddle.
-Leo once used Brynhildr to grow other fruits and vegetables for a time, but he now only grows tomatoes cuz he got tired of all the puns that Corrin made ("heard anything through the grapevine?" "berry nice shrub you made, Leo" "Leo's my special spuddy buddy") and thanks the gods every day that he hasn't said "Toma-tome" yet (Corrin himself has forgotten this entirely in his shift to making fun of the backwards clothes)
-Corrin had successfully surprise attacked Xander with a love tackle once when he was little (and he has also forgotten about this), and Xander has held a secret grudge ever since and has gotten great at sneaking up on Corrin-despite being a huge motherfucker-just so he can scare his little brother all the time
These were fun to think of, thanks for the suggestion
41 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Future is Forgiven
Relationships: Nohr Siblings (Xander, Camilla, Leo, Elise)
Gen Audiences/No Warnings Apply
This for the Day 2 Prompt of Fates Route Week, Family!
While enjoying a ""leisurely"" afternoon, the Nohrian princes bond over a sparring match while their sisters cheer them on.
wc: 1,944 (also crossed posted to ao3!)
By Nohr’s standards, it’s a beautiful day. The thinned cloud cover allows weak rays of sunlight through, dappling the sparse grass in spots of light yellow. There’s a hint of summer on the air, promising brighter days ahead.
One such sunbeam cuts across the corner of the book propped in Leo’s lap, making the white pages glow. He shifts, adjusting his seated position underneath a large tree until the book no longer glares up at him. Rough bark digs into the space between his shoulder blades. Annoyed he’s no longer comfortable, he lifts his head, observing his siblings scattered across the training field.
Xander stands alone, proud, Siegfried held loosely in one hand. His chest heaves from practicing various forms with rigorous precision. Camilla sits primly atop a blanket laid over the haybales used for striking practice, her axe laid lengthwise across her lap. A whetstone runs rhythmically up the blade’s already deadly edge while Elise watches, asking a million questions about whatever topic has recently captured her attention. Something relating to being a lady, most likely, since Elise hasn’t pestered him about it.
Somehow, throughout the war, it had become an unofficial tradition for them to gather once a week. Neither the activity or day was set in stone; so long as they made a point of spending some measure of time together, it satisfied whatever arbitrary requirement had been laid out.
Leo is positive Camilla organized the whole thing without any of them quite realizing it. She’s far more cunning than anyone gives her credit for—especially when it comes to her family. And since he was not the one responsible for keeping the training grounds mysteriously clear, the only other person capable of instilling such a healthy dose of fear and respect in their army is Nohr’s eldest princess.
Their awe for Xander sometimes outweighs the more sensible respect. He would not risk alienating those serving him (and Corrin) by appearing vain in asking for some privacy while he trains.
He must sense Leo’s scrutiny, for he looks over one broad shoulder, expression less stern than usual. “Enjoying your book, Leo?”
The whetstone continues its metallic scraping, but Leo sees Camilla tilt her head in their direction from his peripheral vision. “I am, Xander, thank you.”
“What subject are you so enthralled with today?
It’s still jarring, interacting with a relaxed version of his normally stoic brother. Speaking of their interests not for the sake of competition or out of duty, but merely for a conversation between siblings.
(The little boy yearning for love, for acceptance, that still resides in Leo’s heart preens at the attention.)
Leo suspects this was Camilla’s ultimate goal.
Still, the younger prince hesitates. He’s sure his hobbies are already well known to Xander–observation was a skill hammered into all the Nohr royals from a young age. “...Botany,” Leo finally replies, letting the book fall shut with a muted thump. “Specifically, the unique flora found in Nohr.” Gloved fingers trace the title etched into the cracked leather cover. He should be going over strategy, dissecting mistakes from yesterday's battle, but it felt—not wrong, merely incongruent—to lug his notebooks and maps out here.
This is as close to leisure as any of them get.
Xander nods his acknowledgment, then plants Siegfried into the ground. A faint purple aura illuminates the great blade for a moment. It’s imposing, just like its wielder. A challenge tinges Xander’s expression.
“Come, Brother. I cannot recall the last time we sparred together. It is my duty to ensure you’re still polished.”
The whetstone ceases its song. She props her axe against the haybale, blade glinting menacingly in the weak sunlight. With sinuous grace, Camilla stands, mouth curled in amusement. “Now, promise me you two will take care of each other. I cannot have my only brothers sliced into ribbons.”
Nohrians are not known for training lightly; many a soldier has gained all manner of cuts and bruises from a sparring session.
Leo glances between his eldest siblings. Initial surprise fades, leaving only resigned acceptance in its place. He cannot deny Xander, no matter how much he wishes. Biting back a sigh, he removes the book from his lap, placing it neatly down, and pushes upright.
“Certainly.”
“Don’t look so dour about it,” Xander chides with something Leo might call amusement if he didn’t know better. “We will use wooden swords; this is a test of skill, not a battle to the death.”
A cynical eyebrow raises before Leo can stop it. There was certainly no difference in past mock fights; not that they had any choice as children used for political gain. He’d grown out of that lingering bitterness, but the insecurity refused to leech from his veins.
Elise, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet, finally bursts. “I’ve never seen you two spar each other! Ooooooo, I don’t know who I should cheer for!” She bounces in place, clapping her hands. Her enthusiasm pulls a chuckle from Xander, and even Leo softens.
Something crosses her mind, then, turning her serious, making it harder not to laugh when her cheeks puff out. “Wait! Wooden weapons still cause damage, and I left my staff in my tent. Pleaaaaaaaaase don’t do anything reckless, okay?”
“Don’t worry, dear,” Camilla replies, sauntering over to the rack of training weapons. “We’ll stop them if things get rowdy.” She selects two swords, examining them for splinters and cracks before deeming them worthy.
“Watch carefully, Elise. It will be good for you to learn a few things.” Xander accepts one weapon, testing the weight in his palm. Camilla lingers when handing off Leo’s; he gives a curious glance and she pats his shoulder, then strides away.
Frightening, how well she knows what goes on behind his impassive mask.
Old anxieties clamor for attention as he wraps his hand around the wooden sword’s hilt. The faint echo of his mother’s voice threads through, demanding more, do better, surpass that boy!
Leo tightens his grip. Settles into a fighting stance–knees bent, shoulder width apart, body angled. Xander’s form is, as ever, absolute perfection, not one movement wasted. They eye each other, taking in a dozen little details in the space of an inhale.
Stillness descends.
Exhale, and the stillness shatters like a pane of glass as Xander darts forward. Leo neatly sidesteps, fake blades knocking together with a stilted clack. Approval shines in Xander’s eyes. He pivots, sword held aloft.
On lighter feet, Leo edges into Xander’s reach, feinting left before quickly stabbing right. Xander catches it in time, batting away Leo’s sword in an effortless flick of his wrist. “You leaned into the stab before finishing the feint. Do not lack conviction even on false attacks.”
The younger prince shakes hair out of his eyes. “Understood.” There is nothing else he can say; he knew going in this was an assessment. Improvement matters far more than his petty irritation.
Seeing an opening, Xander attacks again, aiming for Leo’s exposed shoulder. Another sharp clack rings across the field as the wooden swords meet. There’s a cry of encouragement from Elise, though Leo can’t tell who it’s for.
He’d like to tell her not to waste her breath on him. Xander will win, it’s just a matter of how long Leo can hold his own. Neither of them are holding back—had his brother dared pull such an insulting ploy, Leo would have stalked away immediately.
They break apart, circling each other like wolves, falsely starting forward solely to make the other twitch. Xander finally commits, performing some elegant, sweeping arc Leo could never hope to imitate. He blocks it in time, shockwaves radiating up his arms from the force of the blow.
Quickly, he searches for a clever countermove, one that might give him a brief upper hand. Xander moves to step back and Leo seizes his advantage, ducking underneath the wooden sword and lightly tapping his own weapon against Xander’s ribcage.
Surprise ripples across stern features. A breath of a laugh escapes Xander, true satisfaction softening the corners of his mouth. He keeps his guard up. “Well done, Leo.”
“GOOOOO BIG BROTHER!!!” Elise yells. Camilla offers muted applause.
Wary, Leo spares his sisters a dip of his chin, attention still mostly focused on Xander. “Do you yield?”
“Not yet.”
His attacks come faster now. He’s not teaching any longer; every blow is meant to land. Leo keeps the first handful at bay, giving up precious ground in doing so. Scowling, he opts to mount his offense, aiming for a simple yet effective horizontal slice across Xander’s stomach. Easy enough to block, which would set up the follow-through for a jab or a fake blow to the neck.
The first half goes according to plan. Xander easily knocks aside the slice, stepping back as Leo anticipated. Younger prince flicks up the sword, only to meet empty air. Brows furrow in confusion just as he feels a blunt sword tip land squarely at his back.
“Do you yield?” Xander asks, voice even despite his heavy breathing.
Leo swallows. Lowers his weapon. “I yield.”
The pressure at his back disappears. A tangled knot of emotions settles in his stomach—relief, disappointment, apprehension. Their sisters are quiet, though he can feel their eyes on him.
Xander’s throat clears. Leo uproots himself from his spot, finally turning to witness his family’s reactions to his pitiful display.
Camilla looks immensely satisfied, like her wyvern relaxing in a rare patch of sunlight. Barely contained excitement practically spills from Elise, who is kept in check by Camilla’s arm around her thin shoulders. He steels himself for whatever disapproval he’ll find on Xander’s face. At last he meets his brother’s gaze, inner turmoil tucked neatly away behind a mask of perfect composure.
There is no derision. No trace of the disappointment he expects. Only a quiet pride evident in the curve of Xander’s smile, the faint flush sitting high on his cheeks. “Well fought, Leo. Your reflexes are as sharp as I remember.” A lock of hair lays flat against his forehead. His circlet is just askew enough that Leo can notice it, and the reminder that his infallible brother is human shocks him more than the compliment.
“...thank you, Xander.” Sweat trickles down his temples in time with the pleasant feeling blooming inside his chest. They stare at each other, letting their adrenaline fade with every labored breath. Something unspoken passes between them—a realization that neither of them are the boys they once were.
Elise barrels out of nowhere, knocking into Leo, sending him stumbling back a step. She hugs him fiercely, and he drops the wooden sword, returning her embrace. Camilla appears at Xander’s side.
“Well, I say we need some tea after all this excitement. Are you two done?”
Leo looks up from where Elise clings to him. Later, he’ll attempt to draw the truth out of her, if she’d hoped he and Xander would make the first moves towards settling whatever broken thing frays strains their relationship.
Drawing himself fully upright, Xander smooths his wrinkled shirt. “Even the crown prince can find time for a brief break.”
“Nothing too sweet this time, please,” Leo acquiesces. Elise squeals in delight, untangling herself from Leo.
“But the kind you like is so bitter!”
“You and I will have something more suited for our tastes, dear Elise.” Camilla soothes, returning empty-handed from the weapons rack. Xander makes for the tree Leo had been sitting underneath earlier. Younger prince trails after him, watching in silence as Xander bends, retrieving the discarded book.
He brushes a stray blade of grass off the cover and hands it to Leo.
1 note
·
View note
Photo
more largely s1 nobody’s daughter doodles also some loose just general doodles/roasts
1: storyboard of a scene from the chapter(s) that’ll theoretically deal with the ep angel and it’s fall out
2: brooke in her mandatory sessions with mr platt in s1
3: xander’s shirt says skankin’ pickle and yes that IS a real ska band
4: making angel actually look 18ish means i can’t stop thinking about boss baby jokes and yes this pose is a reference to the boss baby poster
5: #PrayForGiles
6: hacker jenny in her natural habit with her fuel of choice, mountain dew and doritos
7: storyboard from prophecy girl. no i will not elaborate.
#buffy summers#jenny calendar#rupert giles#Xander Harris#brooke summers#my art#nobodys daughter#miss world#joyce summers#angel (train's version)
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter - Monday, December 5
BUFFY: Training. Slaying. All of it. It's just ... I mean ... I can beat up the demons until the cows come home. And then I can beat up the cows ... but I'm not sure I like what it's doing to me.
~~Intervention~~
The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.
[Drabbles & Short Fiction]
Dusted (Buffy/Spike, G) by theultimatespoon
Heirlooms (Dawn&Spike, PG) by apachefirecat
Brave (Buffy/Spike, PG) by apachefirecat
Precious Moments (Angel/Cordelia, T) by apachefirecat
Momma's Boy (Buffy/Spike, G) by apachefirecat
Good Match (Devil May Cry/Resident Evil/Background NCIS Crossover, T) by madimpossibledreamer
Chosen (The 100 crossover, G) by ProphecyGirl
Headlights Pointed At The Dawn (Buffy/Angel, M) by harpsichord
In The Neighborhood (Giles/Joyce, E) by Sdhuskerfan
It’s a Christmas Movie (Buffy/Spike, M) by EllieRose101
The trickster vs. Sahjhan, Holtz and The Trio (Angel/Cordelia, T) by Bl4ckHunter
First Kiss (Buffy/Spike, G) by violettathepiratequeen
[Chaptered Fiction]
Guardian Who: la nascita del Tredicesimo Guardiano Chapter 1 (Dr Who/Angel crossover, Not rated) by Sayman
Guardian Who: the birth of the Thirteenth Guardian Chapter 1 (Dr Who/Angel crossover, Not rated) by Sayman
Totally Real (Like, Really) Chapter 1 (Buffybot&Harmony, T) by thenewbuzwuzz
Lucky in Love Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by honeygirl51885
Daughter of Aurelius Chapter 54 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Loup Noir
Carpe Diem, baby Chapter 12 (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only) by Axell
Next Time Won't You Sing With Me Chapter 8 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Willow91
[Images, Audio & Video]
VIDEO: Spuffy having shots by moonwalker_96
PODCAST: Living Conditions by Buffy the Vampire Straya
[Fandom Discussions]
David Boreanaz on Angel, Bones and whether he would ever return to his past roles by American Aurora
Help ep continued by American Aurora
Disney is focused more on the buffy novel rather the comic continued by American Aurora
BtVS Characters' Styles and Costumes discussion thread continued by flow
About the episode Amends by ILLYRIAN
Can anyone help identify the person(s) on the right of this Buffy forum banner? by RPGOwl
What’s the worst story idea you can think of for an episode of Buffy ? by GamesterOfTriskelion
Dawn by chemeli888
The office rewatch by Lurtzolas
What things did you notice on a re-watch that you didn't notice the first time? by darkaurora84
Favorite season? by Far_Needleworker_636
Who's your least favorite character in the show? by Defvac2
Is Spike right? Can Giles not handle that Buffy surpassed him? by ThickPeanut136
Coats, knitted sweaters and leather in California? by RightYeAre
Any theories on what happened to wishverse Buffy to get this scar? by N00B_DuDe
who do you dislike the most? by colorsinmybrain
should angel have been more scary? by Current_Ad_9850
Which episode were you the most upset with Giles? by Opening_Knowledge868
What Xander-centered episode do you like more? by brendalchuck
[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]
Buffy's Version of Kryptonite Unveils the Ultimate Anti-Slayer Weapons by Screen Rant
Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!
Join the editor team :)
5 notes
·
View notes
Note
37, 40, 9 & 20 !! :D
not me taking an eternity to answer these because i'm an indecisive gal 🏃🏻♀️ fyi i’m mostly gonna be answering for my two favs but malakai might show up here and there
37 - which oc has the best handwriting? the worst?
xander FOR SURE has the worst handwriting. he’s an apocalypse boy, it all started when he was 15 and a bit illiterate, so his handwriting is a bit childlike.
kage on the other hand has a sharper handwriting, a bit more calligraphy like. it’s a bit chaotic as well, cause my girl has things to do and places to be aknsdfkaf
here is a side-by-side comparison
40 - if all your ocs were to get into a giant, mcu style fight, who would win?
all my beans are human, so it’s somewhat a fair fight. however, kage is from an alien planet and has spent all her life fighting and training to defeat the predators that lived in her homeland. so, she’s has a big advantage there, she would win without breaking a sweat.
xander and malakai are two chill dudes. malakai would probably be too high to understand what in the tarnation is going on and xander would be in awe with the idea (because he’s a marvel NERD) but would most likely be too distracted and kage would just whoop his ass.
9 - what is one universe/story an oc would fit in to besides the one they live in?
this is such a hard one asjskjdg. i have no idea.
xander is just a normal dude who just so happened to be caught in the apocalypse, without that factor he’s a bit of a dumb dumb. so really any teenage normal ass universe would be ideal. or i think he could fit in as one of peter parkers' best mates, like ned's dim-witted version or something asknfafn
kage is an assassin, she would likely fit in well in dangerous settings and just spend her life fighting for justice (and survival). which seems unpleasant but she likes that. she’s a bit of a loner, does things to protect the ones she loves and doesn’t spend enough time with herself (ironically) to find different interests. so that type of environment would suit her well, but which universe in specific? i have no clue 💀
20 - which oc gets crushes the easiest?
xander, without an ounce of hesitation.
he gets the most crushes, malakai gets the most girlfriends and kage gets the most ass (she’s the ship's slut).
3 notes
·
View notes
Note
((10 facts about Oboro!))
-||[🌟 Drop one of my characters’ names in my inbox and I’ll tell you 10 facts about them 🌟]||-
(Please be aware these are mostly headcanon)
@myfrillspaythebills
Her family has designed and fashioned clothes for the Hoshidan Royal Family on several occasions. Oboro herself designed most of the current outfits worn by the Hoshidan Royal siblings (with the exception of Ryoma's armor).
Despite being Takumi's retainer, Oboro actually trained under Hinoka to learn the Naginata and frequently spars with the Princess.
Even before Oboro has children, she's already got Mama Bear status.
She is slowly getting over her resentment of Nohrians, but she will admit, they do have interesting fashion sense.
She does have some skill with katanas, as she occasionally acts as Hinata's sparring partner, this usually ends with one of them getting injured (usually Hinata).
(Conquest-AU)
This Oboro survived the events of Conquest. After Takumi's defeat at the wall, Oboro was taken prisoner, but Hinata was killed. She was given to Hans as a play thing, which resulted in her being beaten senseless whenever Hans was in the mood.
Following the events of the story, Oboro attempted to assassinate Corrin at a conference between Hoshido and Nohr but was stopped by Hinoka, resulting in her hair being cut and losing an eye.
Having to beg Xander's favor, Hinoka managed to bargain for Oboro to be taken back to Hoshido as a prisoner but would not be allowed to leave the country. Hinoka did this because she knew if Oboro was tried in a Nohrian court, she would not be given a fair trial and would face execution.
Oboro managed to escape through an Outrealm gate and tried to replace another Oboro in an alternate timeline, a scheme that ultimately failed.
She currently resides in another version of Hoshido where Takumi and Hinata somehow survived the events of Conquest, but their Oboro did not.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
celia’s buffy rewatch: the witch
lots of thoughts on parents this episode! i am discomfited by how accurate my perception of joyce was as a kiddo; i was so hoping that she would be better than i remembered. i am, however, touched to see so much buffy and giles.
"i'd say [giles] should get a girlfriend if he wasn't so old" always made me smile at fourteen and still makes me smile now. we're counting that as a jenny mention. i'm feral enough to count it as a jenny mention.
xander's "yours always" bracelet is...such a profoundly shitty moment for him. i say this very specifically because in that scene where buffy calls him "one of the girls," she goes on to ramble about how any other guy giving her a bracelet like that would want to date her -- and while the scene then peters out, my heart really goes out to buffy in season one. that little throwaway line establishes exactly how dear xander is to buffy, and how his friendship really is worth a lot to her, and how painful it has to be for her when he inevitably confesses. the fact that xander takes buffy not being interested in him romantically as this huge cruelty when she cares about him so very much, and finds so much comfort and relief in the concept of a platonic male friend...my heart really goes out to her.
it's also worth mentioning here that i still do not really find myself on the xander vitriol train! a lot of the stuff he does is pretty much garden-variety teenage boy shittiness, which is perhaps why it inspires so much anger in so many women who watch the series. he represents the kind of self-involved bullshit that women have to deal with in real time, and the narrative very clearly sympathizes with his plight. i'm not saying that he gets off scot-free -- he does not -- but it's still framed very much as "poor xander, he's such a sweet guy but buffy doesn't like him" when i really think it needs to be "poor buffy, her best friend doesn't understand the inherent worth of a platonic connection and is harboring resentment towards both her and her boyfriend for not liking him back." xander is cruel here. buffy loves him very much as a friend. that's worth something.
buffy immediately springing into action to save flamey cheerleader girl! what a sweetheart.
giles & his extreme enthusiasm for the supernatural again jumps out at me -- always, when i see it this early, i think of how it is absolutely gone once jenny is killed. also, i was hugely reminded of wesley initially, especially in the episode's first scene -- giles's overblown horror at buffy's disdain for her calling, his pathetic attempts to "appeal to her common sense," his meaningless threatening to enact discipline, all of that is very much season three wesley. thing is, though, wesley's puppyish excitement crumbles into fear in the face of the very real threats they are facing, whereas giles starts in with the giggly glee whenever people start talking about murder or monsters or spontaneous combustion. giles is morbid as all hell. there's a bit of a Strange Streak there.
as i continue to try and reconcile sweet puppyish giles with the more grounded, careful version of giles we start to see after the dark age, i wonder again if something can be said about the show's perspective evolving as buffy does! she sees giles as a green, stumbling, one-dimensional watcher until prophecy girl, at which point his desire to learn and grow beyond the restrictive council teachings becomes incredibly apparent. searching for any sign of a man who raised demons in his twenties, i find myself observing that giles is stiff and awkward and a little bit of a space case but also very sweet. it's hard to even imagine him capable of cruelty, simply because he seems so disconnected from the world around him. he's a relic. it feels a lot like he has locked the most vital parts of himself away and has very politely distilled himself to the most functional aspects.
i like that reading, too, because it places him shoulder-to-shoulder with jenny yet again, which we all know i LOVE. she doesn't seem to have any connection with the dutiful soldier she is expected to be, and that parallels the impossibility of seeing ripper in giles so NICELY. looking for a gentle, loyal, obedient daughter in early jenny feels as implausible as looking for a vicious, street-savvy rebel in this early giles. they continue to be soulmates.
again, we get buffy trying to stop willow and xander from jumping into the fray -- and again, they refuse to let her! it's touching to see that trend continue, especially as her resistance begins to carefully give way. i think it's still interesting that she's clearly under the impression that she is Letting Them Help rather than considering them as full-fledged members of the group, and i can see why this could become something of a sore point that eventually evolves into a festering wound by season four.
willow casually mentioning that she and amy used to hang in middle school caught my attention! i've been thinking a lot recently about how willow really doesn't have a girl best friend, and wondering what the in-universe explanation is for that one. obviously outside of canon they needed willow to be bestie-free so that she and buffy could become as close as they do, but willow having no female best friends still feels straight-up strange. has she just been spending her time hanging with xander and jesse? how did that happen? i am left with more questions than i started with.
that said, xander and willow's bestie banter is adorable and remains adorable forever. i wish we knew more about the xander/willow/jesse dynamic, but it is a profound delight to know that xander and willow are always as close as they are.
i beamed at buffy's slayer sense picking up on something with cordelia! i'm pretty sure it's the first time we see it happen, even if it's not named as such. pretty much all buffy sees is cordelia walking a little weird and she is already on the case. i love her so very much.
cordy's shitty driving also ends up being a plot point later in prophecy girl! i appreciate that.
i am watching willow with wide eyes every episode. her snarky little comment about people wanting to harm cordelia "because they met her" is immediately followed up with a shyly nervous "did i say that?" there's this real vitriol under the surface from the very beginning, but it's softened by her very real compassion, her ever-present patience, and how consistently bashful she is. it's hard to notice unless you're looking for it, but i'm looking for it! and it's there! and i honestly think it's the finest character work going on thus far, however intentional or unintentional it might be -- that even in season one, willow is cruel to people. it's just muted, and directed at people who the narrative agrees deserve it.
this episode is very very much about parents! both joyce & giles! buffy mentions it with amy too -- the amount of pressure a parent can lay on you (as said in the library)
the doctor gregory cameo delighted me!! i miss that man. i don't know what it is about being a good teacher that gets you killed, but pretty much every good teacher we see gets killed. doctor gregory, stephen platt....Someone Else...
xander's bracelet being what enables there to be a curse on buffy -- bouncing off of my thoughts about that bracelet, i kinda like that too. that the poison enters buffy through xander's gesture, which she interprets as friendship but which he is attaching meaning to. (can you tell i greatly did not enjoy him excitedly talking about her wearing the bracelet like they're boyfriend and girlfriend, despite buffy never consenting to this? yeah.)
loopy buffy!! cutesy buffy! my beloved! <3
xander being "one of the girls" is actually really pertinent, i think, when it comes to the kind of guy he is! he's emotive, sweet, and playful. he's willing to gossip and hang and cuddle. the problem of course is that he sees being "one of the girls" as a bad thing -- as a failure on his part -- and this really prevents him from growing in a positive direction. he has the ability to foster meaningful friendships, TWO really incredible girls who consider him a sweet and valued friend, and at this point in time, he's fixated on buffy and getting her to like him, because he wants to be a "boy" who is desirable. he wants to know with certainty that he's valuable to buffy, and the only way he can see himself being Valuable is as her romantic partner. he does not consider friendship "enough" because a girl's friendship is not supposed to be "enough" for a boy, despite there being a very real and deep platonic connection there. basically i am as always very fascinated by xander and how he's hampered by toxic masculinity, and while this episode in my opinion was a HORRIBLE look for him, my attachment has not softened. he's a dumb teenage boy. that's pretty much it.
also very much worth noting: willow being like "i can help you with your witchcraft" hits hilariously different with the knowledge of what's coming later.
i really think that amy would have made a way cute scooby! she's sweet and acerbic and smart in a way that would have jived well with the group dynamic. i wish we'd gotten more of that.
buffy is amy's constant advocate in this episode, and i find that incredibly intriguing, especially when juxtaposed with the way she is treated by joyce in this episode. buffy is the one who informs everyone that "[amy] only became a witch to survive her mother" WELL before we know the truth about amy, and well AFTER people have been harmed by this witch. buffy is constantly trying to reach out to amy, and understands amy's conflict without hesitation. buffy has this insane level of understanding and empathy towards a girl with a shitty mom, even as that girl is causing problems. i don't think i need to spell it out any more than that.
which is of course a GREAT way for me to transition into my big point about this episode -- it hits WAY different now that i'm not fourteen, and now that i have a whole lot of emotional and physical distance from some of the stuff i was going through at the time with my own mom. this episode is very much about mothers -- about mothers and daughters, specifically, and all the different flavors of resentment that moms end up harboring, and how that can so brutally fuck up a teenage girl who does not have half as much power as her mom is so ready to imply. obviously the show is highlighting the fact that amy's mom is worse than buffy's, but joyce...this is not a good episode for joyce. i am beginning to wonder if there is going to be a good episode for joyce.
i want to dissect some of the moments that jumped out at me with regards to joyce. the first one, of course, is the fact that she just straight-up doesn't remember that buffy is trying out for cheerleading. the show really does want to push this idea of "joyce is a stressed single mom who is dealing with a lot," but joyce herself consistently contradicts this -- she is constantly trying to push buffy in these very specific directions, CONSTANTLY reacting with rigid indignance to buffy's "willful" requests, and then totally ignoring anything buffy tells her that isn't inflammatory or disobedient. joyce, from her perspective, has a delinquent daughter who isn't communicating with her -- would she not want to scoop up any scrap of information that she is given, that might help her understand buffy better?
and yet here we see what happens when buffy extends the olive branch. buffy tells joyce what's up in her life, and joyce isn't listening. buffy shyly insinuates that she'd really enjoy for joyce to share this cheerleading thing with her by helping her coach, and joyce responds that she's too busy. which, again -- yeah, sure, stressed single mom, but when joyce's big complaint is that buffy isn't trying to communicate or cooperate, this moment becomes particularly hard for me to watch.
it's also hard to watch joyce try and push buffy towards joining the yearbook, buffy saying "i do not want to do this" in a way that is the average dickish teenage girl kinda thing, and joyce immediately volleying back with "you don't get to choose what you want to do anymore. you don't have that right after you fucked up your whole life." it's of course so much smaller than what amy is going through -- her mom has LITERALLY taken that choice away from her, whereas joyce never does any such thing -- but buffy and amy's parallel experiences are really intriguing because there is this determination to let joyce off the hook in-text. the episode ends with joyce basically saying "i've come to the conclusion that i don't understand you because i'm not a teenager," buffy saying "mom, you don't want to be a teenager, right?" and joyce saying "i absolutely do not." it's supposed to be a touching moment, emphasizing the fact that joyce does not ACTUALLY want to live vicariously through buffy in the same way that amy does, but there's also this feeling of ... joyce has no interest in understanding buffy, and we're supposed to see that as a positive thing to some degree.
and i think it is not always an awful thing! people are hard to understand, especially in a parent/child dynamic. it's just that joyce's lack of understanding always seems to be paired with this total lack of empathy that can make her interactions with buffy really uncomfortable. her focus seems always on making sure that buffy is Normal, and on being upset that buffy isn't Normal, and that never really alters as the show continues.
also, buffy openly saying she's a vampire slayer in front of joyce and joyce largely ignoring it becomes really uncomfortable with the retconned institutionalization. but that one i think is more the fault of the retcon than anything.
to bring up buffy's other parent: there's a little interchange between giles and buffy that i think really sums up what is happening between them in this episode. she inquires "did we find?" and he responds, without hesitation, "we found." he is very literally responding to her in her dialect, despite being a british man in his early forties who up until this point has shown a kind of detached disdain for buffy's whole "american teenage girl" schtick. this episode is in many ways about giles stepping up as a parent -- he is doing what joyce does not. he is showing a willingness to adapt in order to try and understand buffy better. though he's confused about the cheer culture, about the girls, about buffy herself, his initial indignance gives way to him listening attentively as the kiddos explain high school hierarchy to him. he is, at this point in canon, primed to learn and grow. he WANTS to learn and grow. (it hurts to think about the fact that he has this potential now and excises it from himself later. knowing where giles and buffy end, it is so hard to see where they start.)
#btvs#celia's buffy rewatch 2022 edition#as always: talk to me about this stuff i am definitely many thoughts head full here
28 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
imdimples
I.M and I.N dimples enthusiast
kyptis
Drowned in your laughter, and dead to the core
amercado98
is possible🌙
tickle-her-senseless
All Things Ticklish
