And they all lived happily ever after...

[omggirlonthenet]

Good Ending/Bad Ending meme



* Post your characters name & fandom in the header and in the comment set up two scenes. One with an ideal setting (They got what they always wanted, hit it big, became rich and famous, etc.) and one with a bad twist of events (They're homeless, everyone hates them, maybe they're even dying!).
* Others respond to one of the two settings (Or both in different comments, if they want!)
* Respond.
* ???
* Profit!!!

Just remember: no ending is set in stone, good endings can turn sour, and bad endings can be made better. Just see where it takes you and enjoy the ride!

[The fine print: Blank comments will not be deleted, but they will be up for pointing and laughing at. If you'd rather use a different good and/or bad ending for each person replying, say so!]

Comments

Mina Torland (Grimm OC) - OTA

[raisedgrimm]

Good ending
It had been a pair of Jagerbars taking out their frustrations on an already incapacitated Grimm.
She wasn't completely incapacitated, of course, she just had a broken finger, and even still if it had just been one Jagerbar she would have been fine, she'd taken on worse. But two of them was too much for her. So it was a badly-beaten Mina who was leaning heavily against the wall beside the door, one arm held tight against her middle, looking as if she'd just gone three rounds with an angry grizzly.
She wasn't even sure whose house this was, only that there weren't any critters within feeler distance, and that it would be safe enough, or should be, at any rate.

Bad ending
Captured by a Bluebeard, not something she ever expected to happen and he had to know what she was by now, if he hadn't known all along, which explained why she'd been left down here to rot. She couldn't help but think it was her own fault, after all she'd fallen for the bastard, even though she should have known better, but she'd swooned anyway.
So here she was, wasting away in a basement, she'd already tried to bash her way through the door, but it was barred from the other side, and whenever she started getting too agitated, or trying to get out, he turned the gas on again, though now she was exhausted due to not having eaten for the past ... she couldn't remember how long, two days she thought. Everything ached and even her thoughts seemed to be eating themselves.

Erik Lensherr (X-Men First Class) - OTA

[serene_rage]

Good ending
They'd done it. Not the whole world, but he wouldn't really have known what to do with the whole world even if they'd gotten it. They'd done it with the minimum amount of bloodshed, which had surprised him. He'd expected the humans would have put up more of a fight, it seemed to be what they did best, after all. They also weren't all extinct, not by half, but a truce had been reached, even a wary peace. It wasn't what he'd initially been after, but it would do, at least for the time being.
Right at that moment he was enjoying a glass of scotch and the view from his new office, halfway up one of the skyscrapers in downtown New York.

Bad ending
They'd lost, that day on the beach. Or close enough. Erik hadn't been quick enough and Shaw had managed to whisk him away again. The doctor didn't want him dead, even though he knew full well that Erik would kill him if given a chance.
No, he just wanted Erik back under his control. Broken. He as almost there, he'd nearly managed it in the weeks, months, nearly a year since The Showdown, since he'd had to go into hiding taking only his most loyal followers with him.
Erik had only gotten more resilient as he'd gotten older, which just made Shaw try harder, he'd gotten more inventive since the early days, and Erik got to enjoy the brunt of that experience.
Right then he was recovering from having his left arm flayed so that Shaw could get at the tendons for no other reason than he'd wanted to see them.

Tronzler (Tron: Legacy) - OTA

[tr0nz1er]

Good ending
Things were back to the way they should be. It had taken a lot of work, but the Grid was back to the way it was supposed to be, a bustling, busy, populated place. More than that it was a place where Users could visit freely as they wished, and many did. Best of all, Sam had figured out how to integrate the Rinzler memories without causing him to revert to that state and without causing him to overload from the stress.
Officially he'd retired from the games, though he'd still play a match with anyone who asked, and at Quorra's urging (as well as a few other people's) had started teaching grid games styles, tactics and practical improvisation to anyone who was interested when he wasn't busy with system security, and given as how he had an excellent security team, he had time fairly frequently.
At the moment he was doing an informal patrol, ever the Grid's Guardian, even in his off-hours he still kept an eye on things.

Bad ending
He was being used as a battery, he knew that much, the swarm had overtaken him on one of his forays out to the Outlands. He was vaguely aware of where he was, one of the caves, he could hear the splash of liquid energy in the distance, but he couldn't see the glow of it. He couldn't see a lot at all, actually, which he suspected meant that his helmet was gone, though he didn't even have enough energy to check.
He knew that he'd been able to get a ping off before he was overtaken and apparently carted away by the bugs, but he couldn't be sure if anyone had gotten it, the swarm had come on fast, much faster than he'd expected, and now? Now he didn't even have enough energy to turn himself over or try to get away.

Ariadne (Inception) - OTA

[justpurecreation]

Good ending
Retirement wasn't something she'd considered, mostly because she'd figured she'd be building dreams even on her deathbed. Which was why she had to remind herself that it wasn't retirement just maternity leave, and she could still design, if she had the time for it, she just couldn't go under while she was pregnant, and not until after the kid was weaned.
It still felt like retirement though, since she'd had to turn down a couple jobs already just because the timeline didn't work out, as they ran right over her projected due date, and having to leave the headquarters to go deliver a baby wasn't viable. So she was making the best of it, she'd already paid a lease and had a place to settle in, Paris, of course, it would always be home, and at the moment she was re-arranging the decorations in the nursery.

Bad ending
She'd finally pushed too far and too hard and she'd gotten lost. Though, she'd decided, that Limbo wasn't so bad, though she didn't make that decision until after she'd gotten to the 'acceptance' stage of the grief cycle, and she'd taken her time with the others, anger especially. She'd created whole worlds just to destroy them again because they didn't matter.
That had been a long time ago, she wasn't sure how long, because she hadn't grown old, at least not physically, even though sometimes she caught a reflection of a much older woman, but it was only ever for a moment, out of the corner of her eye, the impression never lasted.

Eames (Inception) - OTA

[neededforger]

Good ending
His mother had finally passed on, and he'd inherited the house, still lovingly referred to as the Eagles' Nest, it was what he'd always called it, what she'd always called it, and it was just what it was. He'd had an estate sale not long after he'd moved in, the few things he knew he could part with and wouldn't need, but other than that the furnishings were largely the same.
It was a safehouse more than anything, as no one in the business (aside from a select few that he let get that close) even knew of his relation to Victoria. He stayed there when he was between jobs, because for a Forger when it rained it poured, both for work and for the lack of it. Right at the moment he was going through another dry spell, but he didn't mind it, really, humming along with Frank Sinatra records while he made himself a pan of lasagna for dinner.

Bad ending
There was a line in a comedy movie once: "The dudes are converging." Sadly for Eames, this had become all too true, his Forges had begun to bleed. There were always a few he'd had trouble with, whether it was due to some physical characteristic, or some verbal tic that he never quite got right, or whether it was due to being one of those people who's skin he didn't want to be in, even just for the duration of a job.
But he'd always been good at keeping each of them compartmentalized, each in their own little box. Lately that had been becoming more difficult, he'd never considered his Forges to be separate personalities, at least not the ones who weren't actual people, but for the past few months they'd been forming their own opinions all the same, and it was something that worried him.

Quorra (Tron: Legacy) - OTA

[quorrious]

Good ending
Things had gone back to the way they were supposed to be. It had been hard going for a while, rebuilding the Grid basically from the ground up. There were quite a few programs who had survived the sweep of Reintegration, something that had leveled everything at the edge of the Sea and had toppled buildings at the edge of the city, merely rattling those closer to the city center, though even then the power had been out for a long time, long enough that programs had started to worry what was to become of them. But they'd banded together in the face of uncertainty instead of turning on each other, which was what Quorra had returned to some time later. It had only been a few days in the User world, but it had been nearly three full cycles on the Grid.
But that had been a long time ago, and since then everything was back to the way it should be, the power was back on, energy was flowing freely and the denizens were hale and hardy and thriving.
At the moment she was taking a long walk, it had been a while since she'd done so, just absorbing the way things were, greeting programs here and there as she passed them.

Bad ending
The worst part was that Clu's lie had come true: The ISOs were unstable, but not in a way that was a threat to anyone but themselves. Perhaps they all had the potential to turn out like Abraxas, they all held the seed of what Clu had corrupted Jalen into. Quorra didn't know, though she'd puzzled over it often enough. All she knew was that everything hurt, it had just started out as a dull ache, usually after a rest cycle, and it went away after she got moving, nothing to worry about.
But it had gotten worse. It was definitely a virus, and one that kept mutating, re-writing itself just as quickly as her system worked to block it. Her circuits hadn't gone to the acid-yellow of Abraxas', but she felt it was only a matter of time before that happened, unless they just went dark, which was the other possibility.
She was leaning against the railing of the walkway outside her apartment, just watching the traffic below, going over pathways she could take and not touch the ground, though they weren't paths she could take any more, even just standing was painful, let alone walking normally, her previous roofs and railings path was well beyond her abilities now.

Arthur (Inception) - OTA

[domsconsigliere]

Good ending
Domesticity. Not something he ever thought he'd be good at, but here he was, washing dishes after dinner. An actual dinner at their own kitchen table. He shook his head, smiling faintly as he rinsed the pot in his hands, setting it aside to dry. It was hardly a perfect Norman Rockwell painting, there were still old employers who might come looking for him, old marks that might get wise, but it didn't matter in the long run, he could handle himself, as could his spouse. Something else he hadn't ever expected, thumb running over the simple steel band on his finger as he rinsed the remaining soapsuds from the sink.

Bad ending
Arthur had long since lost the ability to dream naturally, so when he started again, quite unexpectedly, it was something of a cause for concern in and of itself. The fact that they were nightmares, vivid enough that he couldn't tell them from reality, was even more of a cause for concern. The fact that they were happening every time he fell asleep was the most concerning part of all.
So far he was running on 24 hours with no sleep, he knew it wasn't a permanent solution, or even a very good stop-gap measure, but until he finished his research it was all he had. There wasn't much information on people who'd had this problem, although there were Dreamers who regained the ability to dream naturally, they were few and far between, and not that well documented.

Charles Xavier | XMFC | OTA

[calmestmind]

Good ending
Retirement, it wasn't something Charles had ever really considered. But then again, he hadn't ever considered a lot of things that had come to pass. Officially, of course, he still oversaw the school, and he still taught there from time to time, when he had the energy for it, but for the most part he was content to stay in his study and work on his book.
His new book, he already had three published, all studies in genetics, but this one was something different, a memoir more than anything.

Bad ending
His mind was starting to come apart at the seams. It was something that he'd always suspected could happen, but not anything he'd ever expected to happen. He'd always had headaches, to some extent, especially in a crowd because people always thought more loudly than they realized, but he'd always been able to escape them, there were quiet corners of his own mind that he could retreat to, or if all else failed, quiet corners of the mansion or the grounds that were far enough away from other minds that they were blessedly quiet.
But the mansion was busier now than ever, and while he wouldn't trade that for anything, he didn't have as much of a chance for quiet as he once had, which meant that sometimes the headaches couldn't be avoided. Like the one that had him in its clutches currently, it had come on suddenly enough that he'd ended up knocking his teacup over into the sink, his fingers curling against the edge of the counter, trying to bite the pain back down and get ahold of himself.

Tobi Wegman (Walking Dead OC) - OTA

[ttlyqualified]

Good ending
She'd finally done it, she'd found her Shangri La, a homestead on the California coast, exactly the kind of place she'd been looking for, with a hefty garden plot, it's own well and a gas generator, far enough away from the neighbors that she didn't have to worry about walkers shuffling in from next door, but still close enough that she had a steady supply of fuel from parked and stranded cars, and close enough to town that it wasn't difficult to get more, three gas stations, none of them tapped out as far as she could tell. It was a little slice of heaven.
She could easily see the road from the front of the house, and the edge of the woods from the back, and even with the generator running merrily away in its shed she could still hear approaching traffic and there'd been some while she'd been in residence.
Right at the moment she was pruning back the rosebushes out front, they'd gotten overgrown and wild with no one there to tend them, Pinky, her sugar glider, was scrambling through the bushes, chirping happily.

Bad ending
She'd always known she wasn't going to make it, and that she was probably going to die bloody. That was just the way things worked in the new world. She wasn't out of shells for the shotgun yet, but she didn't have many of them left, and she was saving the last two for herself.
She'd barred the door to the warehouse she'd holed up in, and so far it was holding, but she could hear the Walkers outside, and she could tell that it was getting worse, as if they had reinforcements arriving.
The ones already at the door were scratching and clawing, and it wouldn't be long before they broke through, but she was going to be ready for them. She had the shotgun braced at her side, ready to swing it up into firing position just as soon as the first one made it through.

Albert Heinrich/004 | Cyborg 009

[tearsofsteel]

Good ending

Albert was seated on a rock, one overlooking the tide. It was out there they had their final confrontation with the organization Black Ghost. In a matter of minutes Black Ghost would have lead the world into an unending third world war. But 009, he managed to stop their cursed machine from firing and setting off a chain nuclear reaction. He stopped Black Ghost. More importantly, they saved 009 from frying up in the atmosphere, together. No one had to die, not anymore. Black Ghost was just a bad memory. No one would have to lose anymore loved ones. For a brief moment he looked out onto the sunset and smiled. Maybe there was a better world.

Bad ending

Albert watched helpless as Skull, the infamous Black Ghost commander drove a killing blow into 009. Despite his want to help, he and 009 knew they had to keep on going. They raced past the compound, into the jungle where more death awaited them. One by one he watched his comrades fall to the guns of Black Ghost's killing machines and artillery. 002, the second most fast of the group, was shot down by stray gunfire. 001 and 003 vanished in the hot white blast of a mine. 007 and 006 went out holding on to each other, afraid of the death that awaited them. 008 and 005 nodded to each other as they got mowed down by a barrage of tank fire. But it didn't hit him. It only hit him when he crashed down into safety that he was the only one who got out alive, who escaped Black Ghost's clutches. Breathing heavily, 004 gave a pained shout, useless and futile.

Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton - MCU - OTA

[ihazanest]

Good ending
Guys like Clint never really retired, mostly because they never really got the chance to. But even he, who did have the chance, didn't do it.

Mostly this was because someone had had the brilliant idea to offer him a teaching position for the 'new' Avengers. The Avengers were still, officially, a team and did still, officially, Avenge Things™, but most of them (Clint included) were getting too old for active duty, so new blood was being scouted all the time, some of them made the official roster, some didn't.

It was capture the flag today, in the obstacle course that made up most of sub-level F underneath the Avengers tower, he was overseeing the game from the observation room, both teams were doing well, and he was impressed.

Bad ending
He'd lost track of the days, that was the worst part. He'd never prided himself on being on time, ever, but he liked knowing how much time had passed, if only to give himself some idea of when he could expect a rescue. Because they wouldn't just leave him here.

...Would they?

They might, of course, if they'd all been captured too, he wasn't sure if it had been a full-scale assault or not, all he knew was that he'd more or less taken a brick to the head and he'd woken up here, wherever here was. Blank cell, ragged army surplus cot for a bed and one meal a day. Bread, water, sometimes an orange, sometimes eggs, but never enough.

He was exhausted, he had been almost since day one, he didn't have the energy to try mounting an escape, and maybe that was their master plan, whoever 'they' were, he couldn't even be sure of that, since no one had come to interrogate him or anything.

Steve Rogers || Captain America (Movie)/Avengers || OTA

[justhadadate]

Good ending

The Avengers had done their duty. Were still doing their duty saving the world. There was recognition there that wasn't there before. They'd become heroes to the world. Now though they were training new recruits. Those that would take their place. Something he wasn't sure about but quite a few of them showed promise.


Bad ending

He hadn't told them what was going on. Hell, he'd not even realized what was going on until he'd started feeling weak. Started seeing Bucky's ghost and could barely lift his shield. So far no one knew and he wanted to keep it that way. Though he knew he couldn't hide it forever. The super soldier serum in him was slowly (or maybe rapidly) failing.

→ Good ending!

[littlspecificty]

Eames would hear the doorbell ring at that moment, a rather haggard and pale looking Arthur waiting on the other side of the door.

His hair had been shaved off, dark circles were under his eyes. He had been running for a long time now and had been forced to go back to his "bloodier" days of hit work in order to stop the people trying to kill him.

He had sworn to himself, if he had made it out alive, he was going to do something he should have done a long time ago.

So, here he was; in ratty clothes that didn't fit him and looking like he was just one step away from becoming anemic with the one bag (a worn leather backpack he had snatched from a tourist in Sweden) of belongings he had sitting on the ground beside him .

→ Bad ending!

[littlspecificty]

Arthur had started to notice it a bit, as well. It was hard not to when he was with Eames even off the job.

The forger's control and ability to compartmentalize all the different people he had learned to be had always been something Arthur had admired in Eames. The fact that it seemed like Eames was... well, Arthur hated to even think he was "slipping" in any sense of the word but he wasn't sure how much longer he could ignore it.

He didn't want it to get any worse than it was already starting to get.

Sitting at the breakfast table in their modest kitchen in the house they had rented in Seattle, Arthur just says it, not able to stand debating whether he should say anything or not anymore.

"Maybe you should consider retiring from dreamsharing." He didn't like saying it, didn't even like thinking it, but if Eames was having a hard time reverting back to himself after waking up... The point man didn't see this getting any better if Eames continued to go under.

Dominique Cobb [Rule 63!Dominic Cobb] || Inception || OTA

[takenasmyown]

Good ending
She'd managed to get back to her children. No longer taking up jobs and leaving that up to her new husband. That was really... the fact that she was married again. However her children loved the new man in their life. Which is all that mattered to her. She had everything a woman could ever ask for. The perfect husband, wonderful children and a job as a professor in architecture. Everything was perfect.


Bad ending
All of it was a lie. They'd performed Inception and the end result had been her dying. Or at least that's what it felt like or maybe she wasn't dead. To be honest she really didn't know. All she knew was that things felt wrong. Not like how it had felt before when she'd been trapped in Limbo with Mal. All of this though... it had to be a lie. It couldn't be real. And yet...

Lal Banerjee | OTA

[alphalone]

Good Ending

No more curse. Lal had distrusted sorcery all his life for very simple reasons, but in the end he had to admit it could, at least, clean up its own messes. He could be in the company of other werewolves again. They weren't falling over themselves to welcome the spawn of the hunter and the traitor, and there'd always be some waiting for blood to tell, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. He stood up an oversized black wolf, not the least bit nervous about holding his shape, and strode back toward the edge of the park a young man with an uncharacteristic spring in his step. Funnily enough, it was in the human shape he'd so recently resented that he had to keep himself from howling.

Bad Ending

He knew he was in pain more than he felt it. Instead, he was aware of the oddest things. Dirty water passing through his hair as it ran down the alley. The unique sounds of rain as it battered his broken glasses, ragged backpack, bruised flesh. He wasn't really terribly hurt, in the grand scheme of things. While werewolves didn't heal as fast as lore might suggest, they were resilient. If he struggled to his feet, or at least his hands and knees, he could work his way to the end of the alley, flag down help, go to the hospital. He wouldn't even have to answer any awkward questions. The pack had had the sense to send a handful of young males with strict instructions not to shift, to rely on hands and feet and knives. Four of them together had been able to bring themselves to attack an alpha and any one of them would have been a match for Lal on two legs. His human self wasn't a fighter. He suspected they'd meant him to crawl away. Killing another wolf just wasn't natural.

But despite the tickling, cold trickle (still not really pain) of blood working its way to the pavement, he couldn't find it in him to get up. The curse had progressed, as he'd been waiting for it to do as long as he'd understood it. Far from needing to be in a room or a building with him, both packs in the city and even the handful of other loners were having trouble shifting, losing control of their bestial impulses, finding themselves unable to think abstractly as wolves or react instinctively as humans. Rather than pariah and nuisance, he was a detriment to the wellbeing of every wolf anywhere near him. And it would probably go on expanding.

Probably best to let the rain and the alley have him.

Alex Summers || X-Men First Class || OTA

[tendtohappen]

Good ending
They'd managed to gather quite a few new mutants. He'd helped the Professor with schooling them. Even if he didn't think that he was good enough for it. However, his control was more than exceptional now. On top of that the Brotherhood was leaving them alone. That was a plus and he couldn't really ask for more. It meant he could focus on his teaching.

Bad ending
He'd been captured and he wasn't sure by who. They wanted to know about the Professor and he wouldn't give them the information. He'd made sure that he couldn't give them the information. Or at least that's what he thought anyway. The collar around his throat kept him from using his abilities and it felt like he was going to burst. Really... he couldn't take much more of this.

Maybe he'd just take his own life and get it over with. At least then he could make sure he didn't tell them anything.

[puppy_lancer]

Good ending

Lancer stands by the sleeping girl and carefully runs his fingers through her hair. Just the sight of her sleeping peacefully seems too good to be true. The curse had eaten away at her body faster and faster. It was only because she returned his Gae Bolg that he had been able to win the Heaven's Feel and secure the Grail for her. And even then, she had hung onto her life through determination alone. Then it had turned into a huge mess with the Grail being dirtier than a public toilet. But he had destroyed it, and along with it, the curse that ravaged Misaya's body. He doesn't know how long he can last without the support of the Grail, but he knows that he'll spend every second of it with his Master.

Bad ending

This couldn't be happening. He hadn't released Misaya from her zombified state yet! He hadn't recovered Saber for Ayaka yet! He...he was the hero Cu Chulainn. He couldn't just die like this! And yet...there was nothing he could do. He was being slowly devoured and even though he was alive and conscious, there was nothing he could do to fight against the black mud that was tearing him to pieces. Tears of blood stream down his face as he whispers what could be his last words.

"I'm sorry..."

[neededforger]

His brow furrowed, checking the time, not too late, but still later than most people would be coming to visit. He did still get the occasional traveler who'd known or worked with his mother and hadn't yet heard of her passing, or had and wanted to pay their respects, but it had been a while since that had happened.

The first thing he said, once he realized who was on his doorstep was: "Good lord Arthur, what's happened?" Though he did, at least, step aside to wave the other man into the house, checking surreptitiously to make sure he wasn't being followed, nothing had pinged the security system, not even Arthur, which meant he should probably check it to make sure it was working properly.

[neededforger]

That was ... not something he'd been expecting to hear, and least of all from Arthur. His brow furrowed, blinking over at the other man, "And what's brought this on?"

He realized that he'd been having trouble, of course, and he knew that Arthur had realized it too, but he'd been running on the theory that it would pass, eventually, and he'd be back in top form. It was only Arthur's current suggestion that made him realize just how long it had been going on, and the fact that it was actually getting worse, even just after a practice run he sometimes had trouble remembering who he was supposed to be.

[littlspecificty]

He doesn't look at Eames, one finger tapping against his coffee mug, "I think you know, Eames."

Bad ending

[strayslikeme]

Warehouses, to those in the know, were fascinating labyrinths with a hundred defensible perimeters. Not that Smog had thought about that consciously when she'd gone to sleep. The well-concealed office (who wanted the forklift grunts being able to find their overlords easily, after all?) had been almost comfy. If tiny and requiring that she spend the night with a suicide's half-mummified remains, the back of the skull blown off so as to leave him harmless. No need to fear the dead when they weren't busy trying to eat you or anything.

But while she was a bit of a heavy sleeper on the rare occasion she'd found somewhere halfway safe, Smog's nose got her up. Lots of them around. Oh, goody. Escape would be pretty tricky, then.

Being cocky was her main emotional defense.

But before she could check out her escape routes and decide on tactics, she caught a fresher scent. Huh. Not too many of those still kicking around. Better go and check. Moving as silently as she could, Smog ducked out onto the main floor and headed for the warmer presence. Aware of the mental state of most of those left, she opened her greeting with, "Try and don't turn the stupid gun straight at me like a spaz because I'm talking and shit and damn would you feel stupid!" Though she fired off the words too quickly for each one to be intelligible, the result was clearly distinguishable from random air forced through rotting vocal cords.

Bad ending!

[lucky_no_7]

At some point in the evening, after dinner, a young woman stumbled into his room as if she'd been pushed, landing heavily on her knees and shaking her head like she was trying to clear her vision.

She staggered to her feet after a moment, looking at Alex and the room itself, but somehow not really looking at any of it as much as looking at something that was a nearer distance around it all.

"What's the probability factor?" A voice asked through the room's intercom. She shook her head, her voice strained, barely there, "I don't know." Whoever had asked gave her a moment to keep looking at whatever it was she was seeing before asking again, the same question: "What's the probability factor?"

She shook her head, a vague, half-circular movement, "I don't know. Astronomical. Too high."

[littlspecificty]

Arthur didn't answer verbally or move inside. He just stared at Eames before moving in and practically bruising Eames' lips with his own, his hands cupping the other man's face as he kissed him.

He had too many regrets in his life as it was, he had realized, and the decision to stop running from what he had had with Eames came rather easily when he thought he wasn't going to make it out alive at one point.

He wasn't about to waste the chance he had given himself. He didn't want to act aloof or immune to the other man anymore. Like he didn't want Eames or care about him. It wasn't worth it. Arthur knew that now.

Maria Merryweather | The Secret of Moonacre | OTA (no smut)

[miss_merryweather]

Good ending

Moonacre valley was safe. The curse was broken and the Merryweathers and the De Noirs were finally on their way towards ending the sensless feud that had gone on for far too long. Both Moonacre Manor and the De Noir stronghold were buzzing with the preparations for the wedding between Sir Benjamin Merryweather and Loveday De Noir. Maria really was very happy for them, but sometimes it did prove a little too much, especially since all the fuss was rather dreadfully upsetting for Miss Heliotrope's indigestion. Honestly, you try having lessons with a tutor who can't stop passing wind both back and front, so to speak.

And so she found herself spending rather a lot of time out riding on her beloved pony Periwinkle, which wasn't really a problem. Being outside increased the likelihood of running into Loveday's younger brother Robin after all, and while it would be a while yet before she would freely admit it she did tend to go looking for his company. He was a bit of a brat a lot of the time, but something about him still made it feel like a whole swarm of butterflies were fluttering about in her stomach.

There was no longer much to fear in the fair forests of the valley, and so she rode with a light heart and a smile on her face as the sun sent pin pricks of light through the canopy of leaves above.

All in all it was a rather splendid day so far.

Bad ending

The moon loomed large over Moonacre valley. Too large, impossibly large. It seemed as if it was about to crush the whole world.
She was the only one who possessed the power to avert this fate, and she had failed. She hadn't found the pearls yet, and now they were out of time.

A terrible wind knocked her to the ground as the moon touched the horizon, a frightening glow as if from a great fire briefly flaring before everything suddenly was as dark as a midwinter night.

"Robin!" she cried out, and thought that she heard him call her name too, but then all was silence.

After a while, the darkness eased up somewhat, and her eyes adjusted. Looking around she found that she was utterly alone, Robin being nowhere in sight. She called out for him over and over again, but to no avail.

The valley did not seem to be so much worse off than it had been before, apart from the darkness, and she could almost have believed that the curse had never been real if it had not been for that dreadful silence and of course the darkness.

No moon at all shone over the valley now. No moon would ever do so again.

She somehow managed to make her way back to Moonacre Manor, all the while calling for Robin, for Sir Benjamin, for Miss Heliotrope, for Loveday, Marmaduke and Digweed. She even tried calling out for Coeur De Noir.

No answer.

The Manor was a ruin, appearing as if no one had lived in it for many, many years. The forest had taken over it, the walls were crumbling and the fine furnishings were naught but dust and debris.

The tower that her room had once been in had crumbled completely, taking other parts of the house with it as it fell.

She sank to her knees on the ground, and the somewhat foolhardy courage that had carried her through so many hardships up to this point finally broke.

Now she was just a little girl, helplessly weeping by the ruins of the only home she'd had left, and who did not know if there was anyone left to grieve for the loss of it with her.