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mor-beck-more-problems · 3 years ago

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Death Rings Twice || Morgan and Eilidh

TIMING: Current

PARTIES: @braindeacl @mor-beck-more-problems

SUMMARY: While searching for answers, Morgan and Eilidh realize the situation is worse than they realized.

CONTAINS: conversations with dead people

They came and went in waves. The first time, only the first time, Eilidh believed them to be just a part of being a ghost. James had done so many times—go in and out of view like the watts on a bulb. But those changes had been consensual, come upon by his own will, and he never truly left. Not like she had, and did, and still do. Moments of nothingness. Blink and she was gone, truly and ultimately gone. Blink and she was back, not even left with a memory. Just a faint recollection, a faint feeling of a blank. Like trying to recall a blackout. You knew it was there, you felt it too—pages torn from a book. But you also didn’t, couldn’t, for nothingness was all that remained. Nothingness that seemed to be her destination. Those blinks got longer, longer, longer. With no sign of slowing.

Eilidh knew Morgan was facing her own bouts of strangeness. Maybe they were connected. Morgan believed them to be—magic set loose like a wildfire, with them in its path. Consumed in its flames, would it burn them all the way to the ground? Or would they come out the other side, for the better? This curiosity, and a gnawing worry, compelled her forward, right into Morgan’s residence. She ventured through those great and winding halls, as if she already haunted the place. She ought to haunt at least one. Before it became too late. Passing by an open door, that familiar face was finally seen. Eilidh stopped, stared. Felt that nothingness threatening to claim her again. Visage flickered��like a light on its dying breath. But the feeling passed, leaving her there, shining on. The motion, or her very presence, must’ve caused a stir. The two women met each other’s eyes.

“Boo.”

Morgan just needed to find the right book. Zombies had been around for ages and so even if whatever was happening to her was obviously very rare, it must have happened to someone else before. And that someone must have wanted to write it down. Because magic directly affecting a zombie body at all was worth writing about; doing so in this cruel, backwards way defied everything she understood about magic and living matter. So, Morgan sat on the floor in the library, swimming through a large haul from the scriberary, searching. When Macleod appeared behind the volume she was holding, calling boo, Morgan yelped with surprise.

“Oh! Stars! That was--” she laughed uneasily. “That was something alright.” She sat back and looked at the other woman. She had believed everything Macleod had told her but seeing her friend, so wild and earthbound, so connected to her flesh, floating and transparent was uncanny in a way her mind struggled to process. “I wish I had good news on the funky magic boogaloo front, but there’s just lots of dead ends so far. But that can wait. Are you...okay? At least, relative to our situation?

Good-hearted chuckle lept out of Eilidh—breaking the illusion of the spooky ghost in the corner. She closed the distance between the two, eyes curiously scanning the cover and pages of the book nestled in Morgan’s lap. More were strewn across the room, circling Morgan in a protective barrier, or perhaps a tomb—either for future study or determined unsuited. Where one group ended and the other began, she wasn’t sure. Mouth parted to offer assistance, her hands and mind well-versed to such a skill, but the words quickly died just as her flesh had. Wouldn’t be much use when turning a page was a difficult endeavor. She had learned that fact rather quickly.

When attentions were placed on her, Eilidh perked. “Aye. Convinced this guy his cereal was sentient. And some lady she could control plants.” Snort of delight shot out her nose as their faces returned to memory. But as the chuckles faded, so too did this delight. That lingering worry remained. A hand brushed her lips, seemingly in thought. “Also…” In absence of external stimuli, she bit on a knuckle. But where a prick of sensation, a prick of life, would usually awaken her hand, only a mere acknowledgement greeted her. Fucking hell, how has James not gone mad by now? A low growl rumbled, and at least it felt nice in her chest. Familiar. “Been going in and out. Kinda like blinking. If you did that with a soul. James says it isn’t normal. And they’re getting longer.” Another knuckle met her teeth; that same hollow impact replayed. “Guess it’s soon time.” Her eyes scanned Morgan, transferring the focus back to the other woman. Wandering gaze found the darkness under her friend’s eyes. “What ‘bout you?”

For what seemed like a long time, Morgan could only stare at her friend. Or rather, through her friend. She could see every title on the shelf behind her if she concentrated enough, because Macleod, despite speaking and smiling and grinning and mischief-ing as much as she had ever done, was incorporeal and transparent. Like a ghost. A baby undead ghost. Which wasn’t supposed to exist. “..Blinking? What? Uh, that sounds bad. And weird. I’ve never heard of ghosts doing that before. They cross over, and they have some kind of teleportation thing, but they don’t play peek-a-boo with a whole plane of existence. That’s…” Another very strange, logic defying twist of magic.

Morgan cleared her head and tried to answer Macleod’s questions. “I woke up at the beginning of the week able to feel again. All my physical senses that went dull were back. It took some adjusting, but I think it was more or less how they were when I was alive. But then my body started decaying even when I was full, or more than full, and healing was fading and now it’s basically gone! So I’m basically rotting away for no discernable reason, and I get to be super physically aware of all of it. Also, I smell, so maybe it’s a good thing you don’t have any senses right now. When did your stuff start? I mean, none of this should be happening at all, because the undead are immune to spellcasting magic that engages with our body’s energy, as far as I can tell, and we’re immune to most drugs and toxins, and I haven’t found anyone else in town being effected like this, so it’s not the big cosmic town bullshit--but if we can get a timeline, maybe that will tell us...something.” She sighed and closed the book in her lap, staring off into anywhere but Macleod’s face. The whole world was slipping through their fingers, just when she’d thought it really did want them after all.

Curt laugh escaped Eilidh. “Yeah. You’re telling me.” Just her luck to be subjected to the worst game of peek-a-boo in existence. Maybe her soul truly did want to pass over, but this supposed magic was keeping her here? Maybe the universe was trying to remedy the fact she shouldn’t have remained—at least not in this form—but the magic tried to go against the very will of the cosmos? Thoughts followed that tangent until it caused a dizziness. Bah, there’s too many maybes and what-ifs. She snapped a finger, sharp noise bringing her back to the present. Mind focused on Morgan’s words, her own story. As such a tale unfolded, her face fell, allowing that worry bubbling inside to find itself in her eyes, her parted mouth. Just as quickly, her eyes tightened, mouth closed, jaws tightened. Resolve overcame the worry, gave her goal new fire. “Aye. That is real bad.” Especially when it started so promising—the worst kind. “Best we hop to it prompto, then. Know anything I can look over? Double-check? Triple-check?” The ways of magic, the ways others shifted the energies of the world to their will, was not a strong subject of hers. But perhaps there were other pieces of the puzzle her ever inquisitive eyes could find. She needed that hunt, after all. Needed something to do—when all things physical brought boredom at best, her mind frequently rushed into restlessness.

Eilidh recalled the start of this plight. “I died beginning of this week.” The same as Morgan’s own unfortunes; a fact that did not escape her. “Or alchemied this way. Or some other magic.” At this point, she wasn’t sure which was true. Death was more reasonable to her. Familiarity always felt more reasonable, and she was very familiar with death. But Morgan seemed convinced its cause was magically induced and, well, she was the expert in that regard. Not Eilidh. “Blinked out the first time a few days later. Didn’t think too much of it. ‘Til a few more days later when it kept happening.” How much longer would this affliction let her speak with Morgan? Would it rip her away mid-sentence, as it had with Milo? Sharp snap of fingers returned. Temptation to bite the nagging thoughts away surfaced—to subject another knuckle to her teeth. But the snap sufficed. For now.

Morgan sat back, thinking. The town had already been shifted in the cosmos by the time she and Macleod were affected. And no one else she spoke to, dead or undead, was feeling anything strange in their body. So why them? And how? It didn’t seem right that the universe should literally change its rules just to be cruel to them. And if an alchemy break-through was responsible for Macleod, it didn’t explain her progressive deterioration. She would have to be confined to a circle in order for that to be the case, and the energy required to continually re-write her body would be outrageous.

She looked over at Macleod, aching to give her an answer. “I only have a few general compendiums on the stuff, but maybe there’s some kind of sickness, or some kind of critter that can affect people like us. Like, bookwyrms and brain biters mess with people’s brains, and there’s plenty of necrophages out there maybe…” Some magic, universe defying critter happened to chomp on both of them without their noticing on the exact same night? Morgan could hardly stand to hope for the idea, it sounded ridiculous enough in her head. But she had to try. If she stopped trying, this thing would take her. “Maybe there’s one that can explain this. Weird abilities that make people incorporeal or mess with their magic composition. Um, it’s those thick ones back there--” She pointed. “Or you could check out the area, see if anything unusual is sniffing around. Every critter’s gotta eat and sleep somewhere.” She smiled feebly. “We’ll figure this out before it’s too late. We’ve got too much to live for, right?”

“Critters!” The word shot out like a bullet. That was more Eilidh’s forte. A hand returned thoughtfully to her lips, though a bite did not come. Her mind was moving far too fast to focus on anything physical. Feet began to pace without her knowledge, beating against the air as if they contributed to her movements anymore. “Those bees cause hallucinations…” What were they called again? Those dick-hive bees. She had still yet to encounter them personally—such a treat will have to wait when she finally visits… that woman. Knowledge was acquired specifically for said venture, so she really should remember… “Eintykara.” But as research came tumbling back into her mind, so did an issue. “No. Cold.” Such weathers would cause them to grow sluggish—springing into action now would make no sense. “Hm. Caballi?” Her encounter with one had been very brief, but James’ was much more intimate. And she had certainly heard stories that mimicked their own. Of ghosts being attacked by them. Or more accurately, being fed upon by them. Could be the cause of their deterioration, those astral feedings. Perhaps they can affect zombies too? “But never saw…” They weren’t exactly invisible, to people like them. But much of them was left unknown, on this world at least. Could be a special sort?

More ideas flowed into Eilidh’s mind. And just easily flowed back out—conflictions and contradictions found in every sort. Though the universe was vast and wide and full of exceptions. Hardly anything could be said with certainty. And hardly everything was stored in her mind—that vastness refusing to be contained in just one thing. Or even in one world; creatures not found in any book had laid just beyond those cracks in the air. One, or two, or more could’ve slipped through. “You could be onto something.” Her feet stilled, and it was only then she realized she had been on the move at all. But they already missed that constant motion. Focus turned to the mentioned books, causing a chuckle to stir. “Would. But these guys do whatever the hell they want.” She wiggled her fingers and they blended and meddled together, like waves crashing into each other. “I’ll look ‘round. You focus on the books. We’ll see this through.” There was an attempt to turn and leave, but something held her there just a moment longer. Those hints of decay sprinkled on Morgan’s form—some grown worse over the course of their conversation. “Think you’ll manage?” The question spanning far beyond just Morgan’s research capability.

With the way Macleod lit up at the suggestion, Morgan could actually start to believe they were onto something. The world was full of strange things and there was so much they didn’t know. Of course if it wasn’t someone it had to be something. Maybe even a creature from another dimension. Some of the critters in those portals had probably gotten stuck on this side when Adam closed them, too, and maybe that was why they couldn’t understand the rules this infection worked on.

Morgan met Macleod’s eyes bravely. They were looking for a needle in a haystack. It might take weeks to comb through all of White Crest and identify the exact creatures they were looking for, especially if they turned out to be beyond sapient record on this world. But they would figure it out, wouldn’t they?

Somewhere beyond them, bewildered geese flapped their way to the sky and called to each other for safety, snow crunched under tired feet, a wind blew through the hollow tunnels of the world. Morgan took it all in, staring through the frosted windows. This was a world that buried its secrets better than its dead, but it was also one where life persisted in the most bitter cold. If anyone was proof of that, surely it was her and Macleod. And Morgan had a future to get to; Macleod probably did too, and if she didn’t, she deserved to stick around long enough to come up with one. So she had to be okay. There wasn’t room in this scenario for her not to be.

Morgan summoned her best smile and hoped with all she had that Macleod believed it and let some of the warmth rub off on her. “I’ve got this. And so do you. Death cut us a break once, right? Twice should be just as easy.”

That smile filled the air, found its way on Eilidh’s face, lifting her spirits in turn. Hell yeah. They had this. That implication hung in the air, threatened to bring it all back down. The one where she died. This soul she carried certainly had—will again. And technically death had touched her a few days prior. But the implication ran deeper than that, tied her to an assumption she kept getting chained to. But she did not let that weight touch her; only a twitch of a brow, a tighten of lips, betrayed these thoughts. Resolve kept her steady—kept them both just the same. Fate may try to give them a losing hand, but she’ll keep playing until a full house. And if not, well, seems she’s had her time then. Her soul will enjoy more, if these pesky blinks didn’t consume her in totality. For fate was hungry this week—eating away at her very soul, at Morgan’s very flesh. Was it feeding on others? How far did this hunger spread? She had no mind, no time to worry about passerbyers on the street. Those teeth readied to pierce again, steal more of them away. But she’ll try her hand at dentistry and rip them out before all was taken. “Good to hear! Let’s give this a–”

She vanished.

#wr eilidh #wr chatzy #wr eilidh chatzy #death rings twice

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skye-huntress · 4 years ago

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RWBY V8 Episode 12 “Creation” Reactions

I don’t even know why I’m surprised. If there is one thing that Ironwood is consistent at it’s his incompetency. All his plans are full of holes and blindspots so of course like all of his other plans his plot to threaten Penny into complying would fall apart as fast as he put it in motion due to factors he is too stupid to consider, you know like the fact that members of his own military have enough of the integrity he lacks.

I’m not surprised by the kill on sight order. When RNBWPM set off the alarms in the military compound, Ironwood authorised lethal force against them

Vine seemed to be reflecting on their choices and was perhaps starting to realise they have been on the wrong side of this conflict all along but too little too late

Emerald playing a Penny double is something we all called, but I didn’t expect Winter to be in on the whole plan. Smart of her to coordinate with her sister in order to neutralise Ironwood

“You did the right thing.” “I have. Feels weird.” But you’re smiling so I guess its the good kind of weird, or it’s the euphoria from pulling off such a great con on a massive douche

With both JNPR and Winter ambushing Jimmy, they certainly took no chances with him, which again, smart

Meanwhile, one of the things I’ve hoped for and predicted was Marrow using Stay on Harriet! I mean, it was all three remaining “Ace�� Ops, so it’s not personally targeted at her but I’ll take it

Also, BTW, I think I covered this last reaction but Marrow... Great of you for having enough integrity to understand what Jimmy was doing was very wrong, but try to think through your response to things before you got yourself in trouble, or shot. Good thing Winter managed to keep her head and knew they’d need an actual plan and help

So their plan was to use the staff to solve their other problems with the evacuations and Penny. And with the gravity dust Atlas has they have a brief window but it is as I suspected. You can’t have the staff as such an important part of the show and not use it so Atlas was always going to fall, but it hasn’t yet. This of course is going to cause all sort of problems later but more on that later

Quite the hole Oscar left. I love seeing Ruby use the new application of her semblance, it opens up so many possibilities.

I didn’t quite catch Creation Jinn’s name so I’ll call him Blue until I look it up later. May I just say, I love Blue throwing shade at the idea of a floating city. When you think about it, the then Kingdom of Mantle would have probably been better off keeping their feet on the ground.

Before we continue, I’m just going to say something so people are clear why I stand on this, Penny is, always was, and always will be a real girl/woman. As a transgender woman myself, I know better than most that the parts we are made of do not necessarily define who we are. Whether she is made of flesh or metal, human or faunus, Penny is Penny

It feels a bit like cheating, doesn’t it, like they bent the laws of the universe a bit, but hey, desperate times. I can’t pretend to understand it and I don’t even think Jinn could explain it in a way I could but the results are what matter. Besides, bending rules to save the day is very much a Team RWBY thing

I admit it was unnerving watching Penny’s old body die, the way it reached out like even though it was soulless it still had something of her left like memories of what it had lost. Not to mention a clear visual of what almost happened

So throughout this show, Penny has given and received a lot of great hugs, but never thought much about how she feels them. In hindsight, not exactly something I would want to dwell on since it wouldn’t change unless the tech in her body change, or so I thought. She is just so precious how she is now not only showing her affection but enjoying the physical act of doing so. I want to see more cuddly Penny going forward, for the rest of the show. Because Penny is not going anywhere.

Also, when of the first things I noticed about Penny was that she had a blush!

So begins the Fall of Atlas. And as Jaune begins his broadcast, it goes down. That’s probably not a good sign and the fact they weren’t able to fully explain the situation will likely cause problems further down. But also why? The likely culprits would be Watts and Cinder, and the goal would be to sow confusion as well as make it difficult to communicate via scrolls

Ah, Jacques is still around, somehow. You know, it occurs to me that with the entire Kingdom being reduced to rubble, so goes most of the SDC’s assets. While it’s not entirely clear where he’ll end up, yet, he will have still lost everything he had built up and I find that very satisfying. As for Weiss, her home is her family, that’s all she needs and more than Jacques ever had

So now the critical part, getting everyone out of Solitas before the inevitable. Already, the confusion and hesitancy going around is going to slow things down, and every second is going to count. Then there’s the pocket realm Blue created, where if you fall off, well, I’m guessing there is nothing that will ever break your fall and once the Staff is used again, that whole realm and probably everything still in it may cease to exist

Then there’s the final destination. Before the events of the show, Vacuo would have been considered the least ideal place for a whole Kingdom of refugees to go, and the last Kingdom for Atlesians to go to for help given how their ancestors played no small role in its exploitation and decline. But Vacuo is the only Kingdom Salem has yet to attack and the only one not dealing with any direct fallout. Still, resources are scarce enough in what is basically a wasteland and accomodating such a sudden influx of refugees is going to be impossible. Not even touching on the political shitshow it’s going to be

Now, the outstanding issues. It’s like some kind of cruel joke, Ironwood initially stopped the Mantle evacuations because he thought that was how Cinder got in. This time she actually has planted herself among the refugees. Neo and Watts, too, no doubt. The advantage is theirs and their targets are Ruby, an exposed staff, and Penny who is both unarmed aside from her magic and not quite as durable as she used to be. Three villains, three targets

Then, there’s Salem. Not only are they racing against the Fall, they’re also racing against her resurrection which could happen any moment. And the only way to stop her and her Grimm from following is to close the “doors” which might require creating something else. But who would make that call, and when. I suppose if they manage to keep hold of the staff, the most logical thing to create would be a “temporary” shelter for the refugees. Considering anything Blue creates is temporary, it can be as sturdy as they want

We still somehow have two episodes to go and so much that can and will go wrong. I don’t like it!

Final note, I want to hug Penny, too!

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby8 spoilers

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hellstenglow · 4 years ago

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Fiveya Meta: they need to talk

Endure me, I am on a fiveya-train and my thoughts don’t shut up.

After watching the most recent behind the scene videos of TUA season 2 we can conclude that they did make senseless choices in the plot because in some cases they had to. For example in the case of the snow storm created by Harlan in the final episode, that was added to the script because suddenly there have been a snow storm on the outside set the days before the scheduled filming and they couldn’t clean the place enough, in time for the recording. The snow was added.

I also think they could have written some of the characters better and given them real development (*cough* Luther, Ben *cough*). I wasn’t even a fan of the whole “Vanya lost her memory” thing, but I’ve read that Steve Blackman (the showrunner) doesn’t want to diverge from the original content too much (which is a bit silly to say since they did make major changes since season 1, but okay). I guess that’s why Vanya’s amnesia was still there, although they treated it differently. In the comics it was Mom-Grace who helped Vanya to find herself again and her own value, in the show it was Sissy who did it. I thought it was kind of a hint to the comics the fact Sissy resembled Show-Grace a bit (blond, kind and a mom). Did I think it was unnecessary to have a love interest for Vanya right after season 1? I did, but I justified the choice by thinking that the show wanted to give Vanya a taste of what real love (not like Leonard’s manipulative and abusive love) is supposed to be. I also thought it was a way to show how Vanya needs to stop clinging to the first person who gives her affection, attention and treats her with kindness. I hope she’d realize that and work on herself and family in season 3, first and foremost.

Even with the evident flaws I enjoyed season 2, especially because I decided to treat it as a passing by (detour/digression) chapter in a longer story. All Hargreeves siblings in the ‘60s tried hard to make a new life and ignored their actual life (Allison, Luther, Klaus) or had a convenient amnesia (Vanya) or focused on something too much to lose track of what matters (Diego). Everyone except Ben (who was not treated once again as a full character despite the apparent level up the PR promoted) and Five (who once again was running around in panic mode to stop an apocalypse). Remember Vanya saying, “New timeline, new me.” And Five replying “That’s NOT how it works.”? I may give the writers more credits than it is due, but I hope those two lines were some kind of meta messages for the more attentive viewers. Those two lines can explain perfectly season 2 to be honest.

Nobody can know how long a tv show would run, a fact that expose us to uncertainty. It’s always a gamble trusting writers and showrunners to deliver a good story, but all it’s fair game and one has only to accept it. I do not trust any of them, but I cannot help myself and still hope that they will not ruin everything. With all this said, let’s talk about something I think the show has to tackle in next seasons: Five and Vanya are two points of a theme that needs to be addressed and solved. They need to interact, talk and close their open theme together.

This is not a cohesive meta and I probably will lose myself in too many details, but I hope the message I am trying to convey will arrive. This is only my reading of the show and theories, so you can disagree. I just hope you’d find something interesting and maybe help someone to have a different perspective on what’s going on and where (I pray) the show will go. Here the points I will talk about, if you are in for a very verbose essay, please click on the “keep reading” button. Meanwhile I’ll wear my tinfoil crown and sip some margarita.

Five and Vanya are a theme

It was mean to be Ben

Why the Fiveya’s tension in S2 EP 7’s iconic scene is a symptom of something

I dare to hope in fiveya (at least until proven wrong)

1. We have a theme: Five wants to stop the apocalypse and Vanya is the apocalypse

It’s a twisted joke of the universe that the very thing Five is obsessed about in season 1 (the apocalypse) was caused by the person he trusted the most (“I’ve decided you’re the only one I can trust” - Five in S1EP1). The red thread that linked Five and Vanya can’t be more evident, that’s one of the reasons why I started shipping them. The family’s dynamic, the siblings’ relationships and bonds are equally important, they add layers and motivations to the story, but if we strip everything else and look at the core, we all know Five and Vanya are at the centre of it.

It’s not a simple coincidence that Five said “I’m the four horsemen”. At first, it’s just a funny line, because Five is drunk and he described himself as those fearsome figures (because he is the best assassin of the whole world and time. Death incarnated in his humble opinion). You don’t take him seriously when he said that line, you don’t pay attention to it.

However, later it gains a certain degree of truth. Subtly the show tells you that indeed Five is linked deeply to the “apocalypse” (Vanya), as much as the four horsemen (they are the prelude and the bringers of the end) are linked to the apocalypse (in the biblical sense). He lived it. He was trapped there for 45 years. He is obsessed with it. The Apocalypse is his business.

Timid little Vanya is the first person he looked for in the middle of the doomsday’s ruins and arguably his closest friend. On the first day of his return Five only have meaningful talks with Vanya. Five sought her to confide the horror of his memories and share the burden of the truth. He trusted her above everyone else. Then the universe made a laughingstock of him when it was revealed that Vanya caused the Apocalypse. Five didn’t know he was running towards her, despite wanting to go back to his family (her) all his life.

In the first two episodes of season 1 they made clear that Vanya and Five had an intimate bond in their childhood and still cared for each other after so many years, then the show proceeded to separate them until the finale. They tried so hard to keep them far away from each other during season 1 and we all know everything would have been different if they had time to properly talk, process their situation and find a solution together. Of course, the show didn’t give them that chance, otherwise the show would have ended in episode 3 and goodbye drama!

They did not confront each other in the end of season 1, they let Allison take that role because the show built up their connection as sisters and I didn’t dislike the choice. Did it work thematically? No, Allison has no connection with the apocalypse. That’s Five’s business. He didn’t confront Vanya, he let others take the lead in the most crucial moment and with no surprise the apocalypse still happened.

The other apocalypse in season 2 was still connected to Vanya and again Five ignored the cosmic signals and focused on dead ends. Despite knowing perfectly that the butterfly effect can come from any source, he didn’t even think about Vanya’s being the cause of the apocalypse again. Five should have listened Klaus when he suggested that Vanya might have been the cause. Funny how Klaus told him in S1 that he has an addiction and Five aggressively denied it. Funny how saving his family and stopping the apocalypse are always his top priorities, but Five still deny himself (for a reason or another) the time to confront Vanya (the apocalypse).

We have a theme waiting to be resolved: Five wants to stop the apocalypse and Vanya is the cause of the apocalypse. If Five does not confront Vanya the theme will never have a closure. It’s still open right now. It is still there, waiting to be picked up again. There is no resolution.

2. Vanya and Ben’s goodbye

The scene between Vanya and Ben was one of my favourites from season 2 and after pondering for a while I concluded that it couldn’t have been anyone else but Ben the one who helped Vanya in that moment. My theory is that the show will walk backwards the breaking points of Vanya’s life: Ben’s death, Five’s leaving and Reginald’s abuse.

Vanya is not fixed. How could she when she was barely Vanya in this season? “New timeline, new me” she said, but that was just a convenient escapism mechanism. Years and years of mentally and emotionally abuse don’t disappear in one week. The Hargreeves have still a lot to process and resolve, individually and as family. That’s why I hope the show will progress the story in the right direction and actually work on them in season 3. Especially Vanya, who needs to confront her trauma. That’s why the scene with Ben in episode 9 was necessary.

From Vanya’s book:

[…] Our everyday existence was full of evidence that Dad had [...]-pped into treating us like experiments. Not as children, but like animals. And what happened to Ben was the last straw that finally shattered the illusion for the others …

Ben died long time ago and his death was the last straw that shattered the illusion (for the others) that their father cared about them (even in his own messed up way). Everything changed from that moment and each sibling drifted away from one another after that. Ben’s death was the moment Vanya and the rest of her siblings stopped being a family. The definitive step of Vanya’s alienation from her siblings.

There was no place in the group for her. With Five’s absence and Ben gone (he is a caring brother, with Klaus is like that and I can imagine him being kind to Vanya in their childhood too. Although, Ben is not Five and we have seen him being harsh to her in the flashbacks in S1EP10), Vanya was truly lost.

The tearful and important moment between Ben and Vanya was a reverse moment in my opinion. Vanya needed that from Ben, his death heavily influenced the course of her life (everyone’s life) and it was only fitting that Ben should have been the one helping her to start again. It’s symbolic in a sense, but also very factual.

“Sorry that I left without saying goodbye” – Five, S1 EP2

“At least this time I can say goodbye.” – Ben, S2 EP9

I’m using my fiveya-goggles, but we all thought that what Five said in S1EP2 (when Vanya tried to find him at Hargreeves’ mansion) wasn’t just about him leaving her apartment. It’s a very specific line that works on double levels: text and subtext. The subtext of course refers to the day he run out the house and time jumped. I highlighted these two lines from Five and Ben because I think they share the same theme: leaving her without saying goodbye.

Vanya wasn’t on mission with the team when Ben died, and I doubt she even saw his body (or whatever remains were left) when the Umbrella Academy returned. She didn’t even see his manifestation during the Icarus’ fight, too focused in her own power. The scene between them in Vanya’s mind gave both the opportunity to make amend of untold words and missed moments.

Ben is dead, he is the one he cannot return. His departure is permanent, there is nothing they can do about that. However, they can have a closure. Ben needed to be the one first patching to mend Vanya’s relationship with her family, to remind her that she does belong. This sort of second death (finally move on into the Light) has more meaning than the first one, this time Ben completed the mission. He saved someone he loved (he couldn’t stop Klaus from destroying his life with drugs and alcohol) and could trust his siblings to take care of the rest.

I still think Ben didn’t need to die-die, but in a sense it was time for him to move on into the light. He was afraid to go on, but if he could move on so his siblings. It is time for Vanya to move on her own trauma.

(Yeah, I know. I still have problem with the scene because they erased canon in a way and Ben could do a lot more as character. They erased the fact drugs stop their powers like in Klaus’ addiction and Vanya’s pills, so how Vanya was able to use them under LSD? I tried to explain that to myself by the fact “they needed to bs that canon fact in season 1 and ignored it”.

We can also argue that Ben could have prevented the apocalypse in 2019 by doing the same thing, but in their defence S1-Ben didn’t know he could possess a body. Yeah, how did he do that without Klaus’ power help? No idea, that doesn’t make sense to me either. Ahah. I just swam with the flow at that point and accepted it as it is. Call it the power of superpowered siblings’ love. I’ve seen worse plot holes in my life. I can live with this).

3. Pass me the knife, there is some tension here!

From Vanya’s book:

Though prone to arrogance and outbursts, even more than the average preteen, Five was my sole confidante in the years before he disappeared. It almost seemed fitting […] the siblings to leave us, it would be him who [I fully?] […] who fully trusted me.

I said that Vanya’s walking backwards her life’s breaking points. So, after Ben’s death, she needs to address Five’s leaving. Five was her only confidante in the years before he disappeared, as she wrote in her book. Five was very important to young Vanya (and old Vanya needs to remember that) and I bet when he left, that was a scar never healed.

Vanya missed him and hoped for his return, for a while she kept the lights on in the house every night and prepared for him his favourite sandwich. When Five did come back Vanya couldn’t process that fact properly in season 1, all she could think of was that she didn’t want to lose him again. Five on the other hand decided that he would save everyone on his own and for that choice he made a bunch of tragic rookie mistakes.

Miscommunication is their kryptonite and right now Vanya and Five aren’t able to fully communicate at the same level. Reggie did such a good work at parenting that they’re so unfit to deal with their emotions and relationships, that will always be the root of their mistakes.

Same story in season 2, meanwhile Vanya is on the verge to provoke another apocalypse (although indirectly), as usual Five was too obsessed with his own plans and was not even aware of the situation. He knows nobody is insignificant when it’s about altering the timeline, but he always ends to focus on the wrong lead. The show again did incredible summersaults to avoid the two to interact properly and when they interacted things still didn’t work for a reason or another. She didn’t remember her past, he was not entirely sincere with her. She wanted to start anew (having a family with Sissy, easy-peasy), he is trapped again in a run against time to save his family. They are still not at the same page and for the show that is convenient. They still can play with their open theme (my point number 1 in this meta).

I don’t blame Five in S1 for thinking that if the worse happens, they would need to kill her. I think he was in a very delicate state of mind in that moment, he didn’t have time to process the fact Vanya (his favourite sibling and we all know she is his favourite) caused the end of the world. It was disappointing and cynical, but time was ticking fast, and he had been in his “maniacal-panic” mode for almost eight days. I also think he wouldn’t really kill her; he was the one who convinced the others that they needed to take her with them in the time jump. They need to “fix her” (aka help her to never feel alone in the universe and prove her we do love her) or they’re going to make the same mistakes again and again.

Just to be clear I think if Five wasn’t one day from the end of the world and in a rush to stop Vanya, he would had had the same reaction as Old Man Five in S2. His 14-days younger version take it very well “Fair enough” he said and then proceeded to tell Luther how to save Vanya, no mention about killing her whatsoever. Old Man Five had time (10 days more than our current Five) and a direct clue on how to stop the apocalypse (thanks Luther). Nobody was going to kill Vanya.

“Vanya will always be the cause of the apocalypse, unless we fix her.” - Five S1EP10

“Vanya is the bomb. She will always be the bomb.” - Diego S2EP8

Vanya is the bomb and she will always be the bomb unless she heals. A fact that can be added to my number 1 point in this meta, there is an open theme and they need to tackle it. Five and Vanya need to confront each other and resolve it.

This takes me to S2 EP7: the iconic stare-power stand between Five and Vanya. THE TENSION was real, and you could cut it with a butter knife. The first time I screamed at my screen, I felt like Gordon Ramsay in one of those episodes of “Kitchen Nightmare US” when someone finally serves him good food.

Of course, the immediate reading of the scene is that Five needed Vanya to come along and Vanya didn’t want to go because at that point these Hargreeves are still strangers to her (amnesia is so convenient), Sissy and Harlan are the ones she knows and loves in that right moment.

They were still able to cut each other with sharp words and hostile glares though. Five let her have what she wanted, not because he feared her, but because as usual he cares more about her feelings than what he would ever admit. It’s the second time in S2 he let her go, his soft spot and favouritism for Vanya was showing once again! *fakes surprise*

I think the tension shown in this scene is a symptom that Vanya and Five are on the verge of something they will (they have to) confront soon or later. This is the subtext reading I came out with.

Even if you don’t look at it with shipper goggle, you feel there is something going on. They let the viewers feel there is a sensitive something whenever these two have an alone scene together. All their alone scenes have a specific grade of intimacy, they made it clear since the scene in front of Five’s portrait. They care for each other, they love each other (sibling love, platonic love, we-could-have-been-something love etc��) and it’s there. However, Five left and Vanya never truly recovered from that. They didn’t process that fact and I truly believe they can’t move on until they heal that scar.

Basically, S2 EP7 Fiveya’s scene = We have to talk, but this is not the moment because the show is only on its second season! THIS TENSION IS HERE FOR A REASON.

4. Hope is the last thing to die

I shouldn’t trust a show, I’ve been disappointed so many times in the past years and showrunners of popular shows tend to be unoriginal and cowards. However, I am an optimist at heart and until season 3 I dare to hope anyway. If proven wrong, there are always fanfictions who can do better job than canon.

If all was lost they could have eliminated Alluther too from the universe because of certain fans screaming “harcest is incest you weirdos”, but Allison and Luther’s situation still exist and still work on the parameter “will they or not”? I imagine for their shippers it was annoying to have such a regression in season 2, but they didn’t destroy it and they still gave them scenes.

Fiveya had even a more subtle situation than Alluther but they’ve been granted the same level of intimate interaction whenever they have an alone scene together. Until Five (the character) will gain an older body (which he can) the whole thing is suspended. However, I think they wouldn’t have been open about the possibility of Five changing back to an older body and spoke about in season 1 if they didn’t have an idea for that.

I brushed off the line Five said to Old Man Five about being forever trapped in his 13-years-old body. It’s canon that there is a way to gain an adult body for Five, the Commission has the technology and even if it’s not the Commission they can mambo-jambo the thing in a way or another. That would never work. The actor is a growing up teenager and from season 1 to season 2 he has already changed. I imagined he will change even more before season 3 will ever start recording (maybe very late due the COVID-19 situation).

Aidan is a fan favourite and I am one of those who can’t see anyone else playing Five, with this said there are still ways for the show to give us fiveya. Young fiveya flashbacks will be always an option to explore the idea of “they had a crush on each other when they were young” and make other viewers understand that it wasn’t all “sibling” love between them. Endgame in a distant season can always have an epilogue with an adult Five (another actor I mean) having a very non-platonic (let adult Fivey kiss please) moment with Vanya, meanwhile building up the longest slow-burn (kinda, deep down I believe those feelings for each other are there) of the century.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe my tinfoil crow is too tight, and my brain doesn’t breathe. Maybe the show will succumb to easy paths and angry bullies. I don’t know, but until proven wrong I dare to hope.

PS: This is a monster of a meta and it probably doesn’t make sense? I hope someone will get what I’ve tried to say. I hope you survive, brave readers. Here a glass of margarita for you. I’d love to hear what you think

#fiveya #five x vanya #vanya x five #my meta

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thefloatingstone · 4 years ago

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We’ve gone from Self-Isolation to Quarantine and in some places to gradual relaxation phases, but that doesn’t stop the need for more nonsense you can watch on youtube while you wait for things to get back to normal. And recommending things and making lists are some of my favourite things to do but I have not yet figured out how to start or structure a video myself, you guys get another rambling tumblr post of things you can watch on youtube.

This time I’m once again just gonna recommend individual videos rather than full channels like I did in part 2.

Part 1

Part 2

In no particular order;

LOCAL58: The Broadcast Station that Manipulates You

I recently started watching the Nexpo channel when I went on a binge of creepy youtube videos. Most of his videos are really good although the ones where he himself goes into theory crafting can be a little asinine. However, this video is REALLY good. And before you get nervous, LOCAL58 is not a real TV station. LOCAL58 is a youtube channel created by the same guy behind the Candle Cove creepypasta. This video by Nexpo covers the various episodes of LOCAL58 and discusses them. Just be aware going in that this is abstract horror, and will probably get under your skin regardless if you’re unaffected by certain topics or not. although cw for suicide mention.

I also recommend most of the rest of this channel, although be careful where you tread. I don’t recommend his series “Disturbing things from around the internet” as it can sometimes include real life crime, abuse and such caught on security cameras. Everything else is really good tho. (although I was really annoyed by his 2 videos on KrainaGrzybowTV)

The Search for D.B. Cooper

LEMMiNO has a new video out covering one of the most unexplained crimes in the past century of the US. LEMMiNO is the guy I’ve recommended before who did videos on the Universal S. He is very down to earth and not someone prone to conspiracy or even really that fanciful of thinking. (He’s like the one person I feel covered the Dyaltov Pass incident and was confused by why this was even a mystery because if you read the Russian Autopsy reports and documents associated with the case it’s all pretty logical and easily explained)

D.B. Cooper is the name given to a man who, in 1971, hijacked an airplane with a bomb, asked for a large sum of money, and after receiving it, parachuted from the plane and was never seen or heard from again.

The Austrian Wine Poisoning | Down the Rabbit Hole

Down the Rabbit Hole also has a new video out, this time covering the Austrian Wine Poisoning event from 1985. A scandal that involved literally the entire country of Austria, affected multiple countries, and forever changed the way wine was made world wide. As someone who is generally pretty allergic to most artificial substances this one made me personally very angry. But luckily, it has a happy ending and a better world for us all... if I could drink wine which I can’t do anyway.

The Turbulent Tale of Yandere Dev - A Six Year Struggle

The Right Opinion is another channel I only recently subbed to after watching his cover on Onion Boy. I put off subbing to him simply because of his channel name and I thought it meant he would come across as smug and elitist. Luckily this seems to merely be one of those “I chose a bad channel name and now I’m stuck with it” type of situations. (IHE has a similar problem).

Anyway, I have a weird interest in bizarre internet personalities, so I’ve been enjoying his channel as he simply discusses and presents a timeline of events of certain individuals. In this video, he covers the developer behind the much maligned Yandere Simulator. It’s a tale of hubris, arrogance, immaturity, and an unwillingness to accept your own shortcomings due to ego.

Oh and there’s a meme game about Japanese school girls with anime tiddies in there as well.

The Most Relaxing Anime Ever Made | Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō

Kenny Lauderdale is a youtube channel which is slowly becoming bigger which I’m very happy to see. He exclusively covers anime and live action Japanese television no younger than the mid 90s (as is the case with YYK) and which usually never saw a release outside of Japanese Laserdisc. I do wish his videos were a little longer, but if nothing else his videos serve as an excellent starting to point to find some older and underappreciated shows... or hot garbage fires. In this episode he talks about the 2 OVA episodes made based on one of my favourite manga, Yokohama Shopping Log. A Post apocalyptic anime about an android who runs a coffee shop outside of her house, and the quiet solitude of living in a world of declining human population, brief encounters with travelers and other people, and just... existing. The anime was never released outside of Japan and is only available on Japanese VHS and laserdisc.... but hey guess what!! Somebody uploaded both episodes, subbed, to Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2HCVOH6DtA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqSTwfkobME

YMS’ slow descent into madness as he uncovers just how bullshit the Kimba Conspiracy is

I’m linking a full playlist for this one.

YMS is busy planning his review on the “live action” Lion King remake as the original 1994 movie is probably his favourite movie all time (and also self declared what made him a furry). As part of the 2 hour review, he decided to what all 2000 hours of Kimba the White Lion just to mention how The Lion King potentially stole the idea. ....until he actually watched all 2000 hours of Kimba and realised that if you actually WATCH Kimba, it has VERY little to do with the Lion King at all apart from having the same animals in them because AFRICA. Watch as one man slowly loses his mind as he realises just how stupid this conspiracy theory is, just HOW DECEITFUL and straight up LYING people can be. People who write BOOKS. People who teach LAW AT UNIVERSITIES. Because NOBODY bothered to actually watch the entire show and just parroted the “Disney stole this” lie which got started by like 2 salty fans on the internet.

The man set out to just mention how Disney stole an idea, and uncovered one of the most infuriating rabbit holes on the internet. Screaming for SOMEONE to provide him with sources or evidence.

YMS will be publishing his full Kimba documentary this month which he has said is around 2 hours long before he continues to work on the Lion King one.

Science Stories: Loch Ness eDNA results, Poop Knives, and Skeleton Lovers

TREY the Explainer has a video giving us some updates in Archeology from 2019. In this video he discusses the findings of the eDNA results conducted on the Loch Ness to see what animal DNA the lake contains which will tell us what living animals currently inhabit the lake, ancient knives made of poop and if this is a real thing that could have existed, and a skeleton couple found buried together which were at first thought to be lovers, then revealed to be both male, and then how in this instance we cannot let our modern sensibilities dictate what we WANT this burial find to be, but to look at the evidence as presented to us and place in context finds of this nature. The worst thing an archaeologist can do is look for proof to a theory they already have.

The Bizarre Modern Reality of Sonic the Hedgehog

Super Eyepatch Wolf is back and he’s here to talk to us about the very very strange existence of Sonic. a 90s rebellious “too cool for School” answer to Mario, a lost idea as the world of video games changes and culture shifted, a meme and punching bag amplified by a unique fanbase and poor quality games, a transcendence into a horrific warped idea of what he once was, and modern day and where Sonic and his fans are now. As usual Super Eyepatch Wolf knocks it out of the park.

Kokoro Wish and the Birth of a Multiverse: A Lecture on the Work of Jennifer Diane Reitz

I don’t even sub to this channel as I’m not entirely sure what Ben’s usual content is about. But every now and then he has a “101″ class, where he explains to a room full of his friends in a classroom setting (complete with Whiteboard) an internet artist and oddity, the timeline, and what it is they have created. (wait... didn’t I say this already?). Unlike TRO however, the 101 classrooms are not a dark look into disturbed individuals (although the CWC 101 is debatable) nor is it a “lol look at this weirdo” dragging. Instead, of the 3 he’s done so far, it’s usually a rather sympathetic look at some of the strange artists on the internet who through some way or another, left a very big cultural impact on the internet space through their art. Sometimes they may not be the best people, but their work is so outside of what we’re used to seeing that just listening to him run you through these people’s internet history is fascinating.

In this episode he talks about Jennifer Diane Reitz. And although it is titled Kokoro Wish, the lecture is more about Jennifer’s larger work back in the early internet when being a weeb was unheard of, how being trans influenced her stories and characters, and her world building that is so rich and in-depth with it’s own ASTRO PHYSICS it puts any modern fictional world found in games or movies to shame.

Jennifer is not exactly a nice person... and in many ways can be seen as dangerously irresponsible, but she created something truly unique in a way that you kinda struggle figuring out if it’s terrible or a work of genius.

Anyway I think that’s enough for now

#Youtube #youtubers #recommendations #Self Isolation playlist #Long post #part 3 #videos #links

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ordinaryschmuck · 4 years ago

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Top 20 BEST Animated Series of the 2010s-1st Place!

And now.

For real this time.

What is hands down.

The Best.

Animated series.

In the 2010s.

Is…

(Pause for dramatic affect)

#1-Adventure Time (2010-2018)

I mean...what else?

The Plot: The magical land of Ooo has many things: A kingdom made of candy, a sociopathic Ice King, and even a self-proclaimed Vampire Queen. Amongst all this chaos are two adventures: A human boy named Finn, the Human, and his magical dog/best friend/adopted brother (yes, really) named Jake, the Dog. These two then go on adventure after adventure, facing against the many oddities that the Land of Ooo offers. What type of dangers? Well...you’re just going to have to watch the show to find out.

Before I start praising the crap out of this show, there’s one thing I want to get off my chest. You see, I hate Top X lists that always end with “the one that started it all.” It comes across as lazy because there is no way the first story tops every other one after it. Case in point: when looking at the best episodes of your favorite shows, how often do you see the first episode making the top ten, hell, even the top five? Not often, I bet. And sure, you can make the argument that “Without X, there wouldn’t have been Y,” but is that even a fair comparison? Sure, Disney wouldn’t have been as big as it is now without Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs being a success, but does that make it right to ignore great movies like Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994)? Sure, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is the reason why fans love to hate Star Wars in the first place, but how often do you hear people saying Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the franchise. And sure, the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn’t have existed without Iron Man being a box office hit, but with movies like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, can you really say Iron Man is the best in the franchise anymore? To me personally, if you’re going to pick “the one that started it all,” then it better be something that can outshine “it all.” This is why I chose Adventure Time as the best-animated series of the 2010s. Not because it’s a show that practically sparked the existence of almost every show on this list, but because it really is that good of a series. Unfortunately, with a series that really is that good, there will be people who try to pick it apart. This is why I’m going to do my best to defend against some criticism that Adventure Time seems to face.

The first criticism I want to talk about is one that hasn’t even occurred to me until I watched JelloApocalypse's video called, “So This is Basically Adventure Time.” In that video, I realized that Adventure Time doesn’t really have a proper storytelling structure. Hell, most episodes don’t even have a conclusion. They just stop almost randomly. But there’s a remedy to this problem, and it's one that I discovered somewhat effortlessly during my rewatch of the show. And that solution is to stop looking at Adventure Time as a series of episodes and more of a series of experiences. What do I mean by that? Well, while watching, you can either have a good experience or a bad experience. A fun experience, or a depressing experience. A philosophically brilliant experience or a randomly stupid experience. All of which can happen separately or conjoined in every episode. Personally, I like this style of storytelling because I’m more likely to remember the experience of watching something rather than the basics of what is being viewed. However, as JelloApocalypse has proven, not everyone is going to be ok with this style. This is fine, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Just remember that if it doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t mean it won't work at all. Case in point: there’s a reason that this show got ten seasons.

However, with those ten seasons come the inevitable seasonal rot. Which, in this case, can easily be explained. Halfway through season five of Adventure Time, series creator Pendelton Ward left and made Adam Muto the head showrunner. And where Ward’s style relied on being random and hilarious, Muto took the series in a more philosophical direction. Several fans were turned away from this aspect, but I like to argue that this isn’t seasonal rot and more of a series’ development. Tons of shows on this list went through their own transitions, some subtle and some drastic. Whether or not you’ll be ok with those decisions is entirely dependent on who you are. And personally, I actually enjoyed the direction that Adventure Time took. While I was entertained by how hilarious the original seasons were in Ward’s run, Muto caused me to think more intensely than any other show I have seen in my life. This is why, once again, I would like to point out that just because it didn’t work for you doesn’t mean that it won’t work at all.

But one thing that didn’t work for me, and one criticism that I’m inclined to agree with, were how some characters got treated in later seasons. Now to be fair, most of the characters actually become more interesting as the series goes on (Ice King, Marceline, BMO, Susan Strong, etc.) There are just two characters that got a little iffier compared to others: Finn and Princess Bubblegum. The main reason why Finn’s character seemed to fail is that the writers focused more on Finn's love life (or lack thereof). I genuinely believe that Adventure Time has some fantastic romantic relationships, but that aspect of Finn’s character is easily the most uninteresting. It’s even worse when an episode focuses on his armorous hangups through past...mistakes. I even heard that this decision ruined Finn as a character for some people, which I can totally see why. Luckily the show course-corrected itself, and by season six, it started focussing on an aspect of Finn’s character that is actually interesting: His family. Not to give away any spoilers, but let’s just say that Finn gets significantly more fascinating through this decision. Unfortunately, one decision that never got better was how the show treated the one and only Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum. This character started off as a gentle/playful ruler who was as sweet as her kingdom. Only to evolve into a sociopathic control freak who is obsessed with science. What went wrong is that the show goes so far as to say that she’s always been that way, even since she was a kid. I guess she just was good at hiding it in early seasons. Once again, the writers try their best to course-correct Bubblegum, but all they did was make her bearable than despicable.

But while Bonnie doesn't work for me, do you want to know what does? Literally everything else about this show. One of the reasons why Adventure Time is the best series on this list is because it has elements of every other show that has already been mentioned before it. You see, Adventure Time can have: Hilarious comedy, intense action, superb animation, creative ideas, compelling drama, catchy music, thought-provoking stories, good romantic subplots, gay romantic subplots, great lore and backstory, intriguing mysteries, and, most important of all, bacon pancakes. All of which can be handled in ten to eleven minutes, where most shows struggle within twenty-two.

But one element that stands out among the rest is Adventure Time’s serialized storytelling. You see, there are two different types of storytelling: Plotting and pantsing. Plotting is how it sounds: You come up with ideas beforehand and work your way into making them come to life. Pantsing is where the goal is to basically make things up as you go along and try to make everything connected afterward. The ladder is the route Adventure Time takes. Every single amount of lore, character development, and even surprise twists were thought up almost on the spot. And one might think that this makes things more complicated, but when I rewatched the series in 2019, a solid 99.9% of what’s written lines up. Sure, there are small things that get confusing or downright forgotten. But that’s the keyword: small. It’s the big things that the writers try their best at explaining away, which can be much appreciated. And while I can love a show for creating a well-crafted story, I got to give Adventure Time respect for doing the same thing just by improvising. But do you want to know the real reason why I stuck with this show? And why do all the elements mentioned before manage to work so well? The same reason why any show can work so well: The characters.

And yes, I know I just complained about how certain characters were nearly ruined in this series, but that doesn’t change how good they are. Almost every character that the show focuses on has a level of intrigue to them, and characters that don’t still manage to be incredibly entertaining, to the point where a worm’s butt can carry an episode by itself (Yes. Really). But nothing beats the central duo, and I’m being honest when I say they make the series enjoyable. Finn and Jake not only have such an entertaining brotherly dynamic, but the two of them are just so much fun that I can’t help but smile whenever they’re on screen. They’re easily the best thing about the show, as well as the most entertaining characters in it. This is saying something because Adventure Time has a LOT of characters. One might say too many. In fact, one could argue that Adventure Time suffers from the too-many-characters syndrome, which I can absolutely see. However, every character is so unique and creative that to this day, I still remember the Tree Witch in the episode “To Cut a Woman’s Hair.” From her voice to her design to even Tree Witch's creative and hilarious way to convince Finn to get her some princess's hair.

This brings me to another great thing about the show: Its endless amount of creativity. Everything that Adventure Time does is something you will never see anywhere else. From all the unique ways the show has Jake use his stretchy powers, to also having a vampire drink the color red instead of blood, Adventure Time is always a show that leaves me scratching my head wondering, “Why hasn’t someone else done this before?” And the best part is, no other show can do the ideas that Adventure Time has had. Because there is no way of doing it without coming across as a carbon copy. Which I can appreciate. Believe it or not, I would rather see an idea done once and never again, rather than repeated to the point where it becomes stale. Letting Adventure Time keep its creativity helps the show stand out among the rest and prevents it from being forgotten through time.

Thus, we come to the real reason why Adventure Time is the best-animated series on this list: Memorability. When doing a rewatch of the series, I was surprised by how many episodes I somehow remember. In fact, out of over two hundred episodes, I only manage to forget one (which coincidentally managed to be an episode I hate). I honestly don’t know why so many episodes managed to stick with me. Maybe because the show is so creative that it’s hard to forget. It's probably because the characters are instant icons that their impact just won’t leave me. Hell, perhaps it’s because the show is so gosh dang weird that my brain refuses to forget a second of it. No matter what the reason is, it all still stuck. And I’m not going to lie, I feel as though there are going to be a lot of shows I'll forget over the years. But ten years from now, something tells me I’m never going to forget Adventure Time.

Now that I think about it, there really have been many great cartoons over the previous decade. And we owe it all to Adventure Time. The act of being unique and creative with one’s ideas came from Adventure Time. The idea of being more mature and deciding what should and shouldn’t be for kids came from Adventure Time. The fact that a show needs well-written characters to tell a great story came from Adventure Time. Even certain shows were made because creators worked on Adventure Time (looking at you, Steven Universe). Is the show perfect? No. Far from it, even. But when looking back at the many great series we’ve gotten in the 2010s and the many great shows we’ll get in years to come, I realize that the fun will never end WITH Adventure Time.

(Especially since we’re still getting it with four hour long specials on HBOmax)

#top 20 of 2010s #adventure time #what i thought about

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chemicalpink · 5 years ago

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Late Night Call ♡ Jungkook

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Words: 2.7k

Warning: Slight smut, ex!Junkook, slight angst

Summary: Jungkook and you ended your relationship a few months ago, and although you didn’t end up in bad terms, you certainly did not expect him to use your shoulder to cry on at unholy hours only for you both to end up having a heated session of phone sex and some mixed signals afterwards.

A/N: PLEASE DON’T GO BACK TO YOUR EX IF HE/SHE WAS AN ASSHOLE OK I DO NOT ENDORSE THIS. Also, if you liked this please give it some love it means so much to me + I’m sorry I rarely post but I really liked this one so I hope you enjoy. ily

“I’m just saying, did he really had to do that?” one of your friends turned to the other dramatically explaining- or better yet, complaining about the movie you had just finished watching for your regular movie nights at your flat.

Your phone vibrated against the crystal clear surface of your coffee table, you being quick to grab it amidst giggling to what your (clearly tipsy) friends were discussing right now, the screen showing up the most unexpected series of texts you could have imagined

Kook [00:02]: hey

Kook [00:02]: u up?

Kook [00:03]: i would REALLY appreciate it if we could talk rn

Kook [00:03]: pLEase

hey : Y/N [00:04]

yeah sure, is everything okay? :Y/N [00:04]

So here’s the thing, perhaps Jungkook and you used to date a few months back and perhaps even though he wasn’t exactly what one would call a role model in being a boyfriend, things didn’t end up messy… well, at least you thought so up until the rumour of you being a complete asshole to him and ruining his mental state completely started spreading throughout campus. You still consider yourself “friends” though, at least that’s what he’d told you every time he gets pissed and texts you at unholy hours, usually because he has had some type of ‘trouble’ (which honestly is just some stupid thing like not remembering where he put that damn cup of ramen he bought just hours ago but hey, you’re not complaining, it is quite a show to listen to his stories) but once he sobers up it’s like you don’t even exist; you have bumped into him a few times on campus and the awkwardness that can be perceived from a 10 miles radius is enough to confirm for yourself that you are indeed, not his friend, just… his ‘friend’, the one he calls up in the middle of the night and the one that can’t actually bring herself to answer.

Your phone rings just as your friends are making their way out of your apartment and you answer the call, placing the mobile up to your ear with one hand as the other waves goodbye and then closes the door behind.

“Hey” his voice is soft against the speaker, almost as if he was afraid of being actually talking to you

“You’ve said that before, just spill it Jungkook” you snapped and you really didn’t mean to sound so rude, but you can’t keep your friends’ voices from reaching the back of your mind, cursing his name over and over again as they watched you collapse in the middle of every single class following your breakup. They sworn they had seen him up and about around campus and clubs, not affected at all while you cried yourself to sleep, even though the break up was bound to happen for some time and you were the one that voiced it. You were the one that broke up with him.”Sorry. What’s up? Is everything okay?”

“I-” he sighed heavily against the phone “No, actually… I didn’t know who else to go to, you know me better than anyone, Y/N you know me better than I know myself”

So maybe it was true, in the short six months that you and Jungkook dated, you had come to know each other like the back of your hands, better than the back of your own hand if we’re completely honest. There was just something screaming to be saved from this Busan boy that had a terrible reputation of well, a lot of things, but you soon learnt that you can only help someone as much as they allow it. Of course, you wanted to save Jungkook from himself, you made it pretty obvious along the months. But there was a tiny problem: Jungkook did not want to be saved. And that’s how things ended up. With you telling him that you were willing to do anything for him and him telling you to keep it to yourself. And man did it hurt your heart to hear him speak those words as if you giving yourself up to him was just some paper he could refuse to take.

“If we’re doing this, we are doing it my way Jungkook. Throw that vodka bottle away” there was a silence following and a clashing sound that had you guessing he had done as he was told. “Good boy”

“God I always knew you were the dom in the relationship. You never got to tie me up tho” you could practically hear his smirk, but deep down you knew this was all part of his facade to hide how he was truly feeling, a habit of his you were so used to

“Aish you just have to ruin everything don’t you? just go ahead and talk already”

“Okay so… oh dear it is so weird to talk about this with you, I mean you’re my ex and I just-okay” he rushed his words, and you could tell he was nervous as hell about it “So I started seeing this girl and everything was going just fine and we had date night tonight but she texted me to reschedule and” the other end of the line went quiet all of a sudden

“Jungkook?” nothing “Kook?” still nothing “Kookie?” there was a muffled sob that made your heart ache as you took your place on the soft couch of your living room “I’m still lstening, whenever you’re ready”

“Thanks.It’s just that” he laughed dryly “Stupid me, as usual, thought yeah, so she said she was tired why not go to her you know? If she says she’s tired, I’ll just take date night to her” you couldn’t help the stinging pain in your heart as he said that, when you two were together you always had to bring up ideas for dates, practically dragging him out of his dorm to spend just a few minutes with you, no monthversaries’ gifts, and it came down to a point where he wouldn’t even text you for days if you didn’t do it first. “I opened the door and-” another muffled sob “Y/N” pause “She was with another guy”

Sure, Jungkook wasn’t the best boyfriend in your experience, but he wasn’t a bad person, and he surely didn’t deserved to be treated like that “Then what happened Kook?”

“I don’t know, I started drinking here in my flat. And then well, I called you. Hi” Jungkook inhaled sharply and you knew better than to talk, letting him spill every thought “I just- Y/N, I changed, for better” this time he didn’t even try to control his sobs from hitting the speaker, making your eyes start to tear up “But I am never good enough, Y/N. Everytime I’m happy it gets taken away from me. It’s like I don’t deserve it” he went silent for a few seconds except for the small crying noises and you took this as your chance to speak truthfully to him, before his usual self started to toughen up after being vulnerable and it became nearly imposible to get through him

“Ah… Jungkook, please don’t say that. You are an amazing human being. You give your all to the people you care about. It is only fare that the universe will get you back something as good, yeah?” you sighed, feeling hot tears rolling down your cheeks “You have no idea what a beautiful person you are, truly”

“Thanks for listening, Y/N” he had almost calmed himself down completely “Anyways, how are you doing on this beautiful Friday midnight?”

“I just finished watching a movie with Y/F/N and Y/F/N”

“Ah… you still do those?” he asked referring to your movie nights, and you hummed in response “I always had this feeling that they never really liked me, you know?” he laughed faintly

“Nah… well, at least they don’t really hate you” you laughed together with him, following a slightly awkward silence

“Hey, do you still remember when you broke up with me?” Jungkook had taken a liking in teasing you with that the few times you had talked, always acting overly dramatic as to how you broke his heart and so on, at which you rolled your eyes “I can’t see you but I just know you’re rolling your eyes, lady”

“Actually no, but I do remember that time we ended up in the same frat party and how you pulled me to the dance floor only for your drunk ass to almost knock me out while you were dancing to ABBA” his laughed warmed your heart at the memory. A friend of yours had texted you the details and as much as you didn’t want to go, you complied because, you hadn’t been out ever since you and Jungkook broke up, which was a good four months ago, plus, it wasn’t far from home but to your surprise, as you rang the doorbell, the door was opened by none other than Jungkook, who was the only person you knew since your friend was busy sucking some random girl’s face off and as things got out of control you ended up eating burgers from some sketchy 24hrs place down the road.

“I told you I wanted to get back with you that night, yeah” his voice kept going lower and fainter as he spoke and he laughed dryly afterwards, “You told me no in the sweetest way possible” you could feel your face heat up at the memory, as you both ended up sitting on a couch, he started a long-ass monologue, very in character for him, on why it would be a great idea to get together again. And you wanted to believe him, you really did. But the pissed man talking his feelings out through alcohol as the only way possible to do it told you otherwise. Plus, he was a little too late, two months late. You were completely over him.

“I’m sorry okay, we were both drunk and-”

“And honestly at that moment I just wanted to get a good enough excuse to get you in bed with me, for the good old days” you weren’t sure at first if that was directed towards you or if it was just one of the many verbal vomits of his “God Y/N, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you ever since we broke up. I didn’t realise we were over until I had this urge to feel you against my skin and you weren’t there”

“Jungkook what are you talking about?” you would be lying if you said that his sudden urge and octave drop of his voice didn’t made the lower part of your body heat up, but this was getting out of control so quickly

“Do you still use that big old t-shirt to bed?”

“I have one of yours” after ending things so abruptly, a few months in you realised that he had left one of his black baggy shirts at your place and honestly, three months after the break up just didn’t seem like the perfect timing to return a shirt. You could hear his breath increasing at the other end of the line, making your legs unconsciously clench together as soon as you reached your bed

“You can’t be doing this to me baby” you knew what was coming, and you also knew you shouldn’t want it as much as you do right now. But there was just something about Jungkook that drawn you in o him, always, as much as you fought it. Even when the night was lonely and you couldn’t sleep, somehow he made it into your thoughts as you touched yourself. And this? Honestly, this just seemed like the hottest thing ever “Y/N”

“Yeah?” your voice was small compared to his, closing your eyes in an attempt to feel him closer as if that could somehow erase every tear you shed for him and have him by your side on your bed

“Can you still remember the way I used to tease you?” you only hummed at his response at which he chuckled lowly “God I wish I could just play with your tits one more time”

Your left hand made its way down your shirt up to your right breast and started pinching your nipple and massaging it, then the left one, cold hands reminding you of Jungkook’s when he used to do it “Ah...Jungkook”

“Are you touching yourself for me, baby? Are you being a good girl imagining I’m there with you?” a small moan left your lips and it was enough to send a shiver down Jungkook’s pants, his hand going for his hardened cock underneath his grey sweatpants and he couldn’t help but remember the way you used to straddle him every time he used them, it was as if history was repeating itself, only this time you were much further away “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you, Y/N. How much I’ve missed that smart mouth full of my cock when you were being a brat”

Your hand reached down your panties and started playing with your clit, the way he used to, coating your middle finger with arousal as you made sure to spread it to your folds, in a teasing manner “I really need you here Jungkook”

“I know baby, just touch yourself for me, yeah? Treat that pretty cunt of yours as if I was there” you slipped two fingers into yourself in an attempt to release the growing tension at the lower part of your belly and you let out a moan that made you thankful your roommate wasn’t home that night; on the other end of the line you could hear the increase in Jungkook’s breath, sure he was jacking himself off at your sounds “There is no feeling to compare you to, Y/N. I wanna fill you up, fuck you into nonsense until you can’t walk straight, you just wait until I get my hands on you, I’m gonna show you what you’ve been missing baby”

Silence struck again as only your heavy breathings filled both ends of the line, an occasional moan from your side and some grunts from his; a few moments went by with you pumping your fingers in and out, rubbing your clit, making an effort to make it feel the way Jungkook used to, when you felt a knot building, begging to be released “Jungkook I’m about to come”

“Come with me baby” his almost growl was enough to send you spiralling into your high, as you heard Jungkook come undone just a few seconds later.

You rested on your right side, just laying in your bed and there it was again. Silence. But this time it wasn’t awkward at all, it felt warm, almost loving, as you heard Jungkook trying to catch his breath and your eyes started to drop “Jungkook?” he only hummed in response to let you know he was listening “I’m sleepy”

You would never know about the pure feeling of adoration that he felt as soon as he heard you say that, the need to protect you, even from him overcoming each and every thought of his “So am I”

“God being single really sucks I have to get up to clean myself” you laughed as an attempt to end the conversation, not really regretting what you had just done but the thoughts of guilt for doing it and overthinking every second of it unable to stop.

“Hey! as long as I’m alive, and honestly who knows how long that will be, you’re not completely single baby” he could tell you were growing uncomfortable, he knew you that much, but there was something you needed to hear from him, just in case this was the last time you two ever talked to each other “Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you” the line went dead after those three words, leaving you confused and giddy at the same time. Jungkook just wasn’t one to drop a bomb that big, even in the eight months you were together, neither of you dared to say them, knowing deep down yourselves that you and him were just not meant to last.

“I love you too, Kook” you said to no one in particular before getting up the bed, hoping to bump into him to talk things out

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i-write-shakespeare-not-disney · 4 years ago

Text

Director’s Commentary- Lovesick Side Effects, Lance recites his poem in public

My commentary is in bold italics!

With each poet who went up, Lance felt his limbs get weaker and weaker. Part of him wondered if he was going to pass out if he even tried to stand. Lol, honestly me projecting what it feels like to me every time I sign up to perform something.

“Love, are you okay?” Keith whispered in his ear. “Do you want to leave?”

“No, no I’m okay. I’m just… taking it all in.”

Keith nodded and wrapped his arm around Lance’s torso to pull him in and rest his head on his shoulder. I just like gentle touches… also it was a struggle to keep Keith oblivious without making him look like a total dumbass for not catching on so I banked heavily on him thinking the poetry readings were just making Lance upset.

After a few more performers, the host for the night went up to the microphone. “Alright, how’s everybody feeling?” The crowd responded with a cheer. “That’s what I like to hear! Okay, our next poet is new to the Spider House, so I want everyone to please give a big warm welcome to Lance McClain!” so spider house is real!!! It's in austin and I actually went there. Not for a poetry reading but they do those too. But yeah, this wasn't a huge reveal, I mean all the readers know what's happening. Originally I really wanted it to be as much of a surprise for readers as it was for Keith but so many of you guessed what would happen that I just embraced it. I do think it's better that you all got to join Lance on that experience.

“What?”

Lance gulped and stood up before he could think about it too much. He walked toward the stage as the host guided him to the stairs with a smile. “All yours,” she said, gesturing to the mic stand.

“Thanks,” he said nervously. He walked up to the microphone, taking in all the people looking at him. Keith was frozen in the booth, staring at the stage in shock while Hunk and Pidge were both biting their nails. So, yeah, Hunk and Pidge knew. But they're still super nervous FOR Lance! It's a big deal and well Keith is still catching up. He isnt familiar with the version of Lance who goes on stage to read his poetry, especially since he was being so secretive about the poems. Of course. This is Lance, and Lance loves big gestures. “Hi everyone,” he said into the mic. “Uh… It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a stage and… recited anything, so I’m so nervous I think my legs are visibly shaking.” my legs did this once it was awful, so oof He cleared his throat and ran his fingers through his hair. The movement made his cologne waft toward him and he took another deep breath to root himself. The cologne wafting was supposed to be a callback to Allura. To the idea of having her there still, and having that security of knowing he can let them both exist and be loved in his heart without taking it from the other if that makes sense. I really tried adding as many "signs" as I could without making it cheesy or unrealistic aha. “This is new shit-”

A chorus of people yelling back, “New shit!” interrupted him. This shit happens and it's glorious. It shows how interactive slam poetry or just recited poetry can be. It was familiar and encouraging and it made him smile.

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a copy of the poem he’d revised time and time again. “I think I’ve got it memorized, but… like I said, it’s been a while, so….” plus anxiety can get the best of you. A cheer from the back made him smile again as he shut his eyes. Poetry crowds are SUPER supportive even when it's a complete stranger. Like the whole room understands and respects what it is to put poetry, this personal thing created by someone, out in the open to everyone and so everyone is super respectful and reactive and that was a big thing here for Lance especially when his poem gets harder to push through.

“There was a time when, my mouth gave way to words as easily as, my lungs breathed. I imagine this with a certain beat or rhythm. People reciting poetry tend to move and speak a certain way that makes it kind of like a rap, it's hard to explain. I wrote about my aunt’s curly hair callback to the poem veronica mentioned way back! and my first crush, I wrote about the confusing cracks in my voice and the strange way my sister got angry at everything. Puberty. Just to show how the biggest and smallest things gave him a reason to write. Then I wrote about a girl, so beautiful she redefined existing.” okay so this line hit me as I was writing. Because I didnt want to make a typical comparison of beauty. While experiences can be universal, some things require uniqueness and I really needed his affection for Allura to show that. The phrase "redefined existing" just hit me as I was typing and it felt right. It felt perfect. It's not just living that gets affected, shes not beautiful like a rose shes just… so beautiful it made Lance have to redefine what it was to exist. To exist with her as a friend, as a lover. To exist without her. The idea of someone being so beautiful as to redefine existing, i think, lets the beauty remain ambiguous while at the same time pinpointing it to this one person in an emotional sense. Lance paused and took a shaky breath, preparing himself for the next line, for bringing the memory out for everyone else to feel. vulnerability. we know this concept well by now, huh? “The day I lost her I lost, my words- I tried to fit my grief my sorrow into pages, too thin to hold them. Also came up with that line on a whim and I was really proud of it. I liked the imagery of pain and sorrow so heavy that it weighs pages down. The concept of tears soaking through pages and making them fragile. The idea that all of his feeling just couldnt fit into a poem or a page. My words tasted….” Lance gulped and clenched his fist pressing it to his chest. The fist is because when I imagined him talking, I imagine him using his hands. Up to his mouth, spread out as if touching pages, bringing them down to demonstrate the weight I mentioned before. And before he can bring up his fist to pantomime the dirt in the next line, hes overwhelmed and well, he uses his heartbeat as well as the cologne scent on his wrist as a tether by touching his fist to his chest.

A few scattered claps encouraged him. He heard Hunk call out, “You got this, Lance!” at this point everyone knows how vulnerable and sensitive this is. And they know he needs support. Seriously, watch slam poetry videos the way crowds react is beautiful.

He took a breath again and swallowed. “My words tasted like the dirt that slipped, from my fingers and into her grave.” His words began to shake, and he knew he couldn’t stop it, so he just tried to keep going. “They tasted like the last kiss, I shared with her, they tasted like, the goodbye I-" He broke off and cursed under his breath. He grabbed the microphone with the hand holding the poem and bowed his head. A stronger round of claps filled the break until he was able to pick his head back up and speak into the mic. “Like, the goodbye I never got to give her. They tw-twisted inside of me, clogged my throat until, I suffocated, they turned loss into, my own death. Here I imagined him twisting his hands, pantomiming a claw at his throat, pressing his hands against his chest harshly. I became an unrecognizable, shadow of myself, with a dimmed soul and a muted heart.” callback to his conversation with his mom when he told her about Keith! He opened his eyes, ignoring the tears that managed to slide down his cheeks, a small smile on his face. And here comes the transition. I really wanted to be careful with how much of the poem I gave Allura because she deserved more than a couplet, but I also didnt want the poem to be split in half. In the end this is a love poem to Keith. And they both know, hey Allura is gonna be part of this, and yes her presence may fluctuate, but I know what I feel for you and I'm not guilty and it's not a shadow or an echo. But this is who she was for me and while she taught me what it is to love, you taught me to love again. Kind of parallel to when he tells Keith that Allura made poetry easy but Keith brought it back into his life. I also wanted the transition to be tasteful not just BUT ANYWAY THEN WE FUCKED. Like. It's not that he just got over her it's that he genuinely felt the change and let it happen let that light back. “Then you walked into my life. It wasn’t a fairytale start- with longing gazes, across a cafe, or shoulders brushing, as we rushed to class, love at first sight…. It wasn't conventional, you could say haha. It was the bass beating under my feet,(music) at a stranger’s house, and barley breath (beer) note the repeated "b" sounds heh, literary devices yall. forming a question that turned, my universe inside out- it was you. Our beginning wasn’t easy, I can’t really tell you when it began- was it that night your lips first touched mine or, was it the night you shared a piece, of the pain that built the walls around your heart?(roland, aka when Keith's attitude changed too) It was you, this new discovery, note the line break here. "This new discovery" while the full phrase is "this new discovery of me" the beauty of written poetry is finding the hidden lines and double meanings in line breaks that might say more or something different than the full phrase. In this case, the new discovery of feeling that way about a boy, the desire he felt, while at the same new discovery of a part of his identity and then it continues to: of me and what my heart could, hold. It was you, brushing the dust from, my heart and breathing life, back into it with every nose-scrunched smile, holding it in leather-clad hands until, it began to beat again, again, the line break here serves to emphasize the important part "it (my heart) began to beat again" When written that would be isolated and a focal point until I became the opposite of a shadow- you made me light both in terms of weight and luminescence the heavy feeling of loss became less, but hes also "not dim anymore"…. You made me warm…. Your kisses brought poetry back, to my tongue, made the words bloom in my chest until, they burst from my mouth, they taste like hot chocolate, dandelions and firsts and prayers. You taught me that, my heart could love two people, and you loved me for it. You showed me the, magic in small moments. You taught me… that, a boy could give a boy flowers, without the world exploding. You showed me a new side of resilience. Keiths resilience is something Lance really fell for and I think he mentions that in the chapter where they stay at Keith's and run in the rain and share a bath and all that fluff You taught me, not to live in the past not to live for the future, but to exist, now with you… in a universe we’ve created and let that, be enough I hope I can be, again, line break! "Be enough I hope I can be" is kind of Lance's internal dialogue despite the line being half part of the previous phrase and half part of the following. Hes telling himself to be enough and that he hopes he can be but it's also of course part of the whole. enough for you.” He let his eyes fall to the booth where Keith was standing by the table with a hand at his mouth. Keith was absolutely standing for several reasons. He had half a mind to run up to the stage and kiss him. He had a lot of energy from the shock. When lance started to cry, he got up because he wanted to him. Hes anxious to touch him. Hes completely enraptured by Lance. He gets wrapped up in him when he recites poems, now hes performing it and it's meant for him and…. Yeah. Keith is aching to hold Lance. “Our beginning, wasn’t easy- wasn’t a fairytale. But I promise, there won't be an end I promise, you forever after I promise, again. Line breaks. There wont be an end I promise. (It's) You forever after I promise. Small pieces that are whole while also being parts of a whole. Poetryyyyy. Half the work is in the line breaks and it affe ts how one might read it aloud too! poems that will find new ways, to remind you, I love you.” how could I not end with I love you?

Lance smiled and sniffed, keeping his eyes on Keith. “Surprise, mi vida.” okay. So I had no idea how I was supposed to bring him back from ALL OF THAT and… I mean yeah. Surprise, Keith. That was all for you. Lance did say he needed to find a new way to make it a surprise for you.

#director's commentary

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yangyeet · 5 years ago

Text

Is This Heaven (Final)

Pairing: Jaemin x Reader (ft. friends!Jisung & Donghyuck)

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Status: Finished! Preview Here; Part 1 Here; Part 2 Here!

Prompt: In a world where people have their soulmate's name on their body somewhere, you find yourself caught in a dilemma that would result in a whirlwind of events. Are you ready to face this challenge in a world known to be cruel? Will you find your heaven in a place where people refuse to follow their hearts? Or will you fall as a victim to the legend?

Warnings: character death im sorry in advance

Word Count: 6.6K

Jaemin. Na Jaemin. That was the name of the person who had entered your life like a hurricane and left you on the edge of your seat, eager for more. He certainly was a whirlwind of a person. In under 24 hours of learning about his existence, he had managed to charm you through snapchat, meet you with a mysterious bullet wound, and was now about to tell you another grappling secret that you were sure would impact you significantly.

“Do you…do you perhaps know what The Dragon is?”

His eyes were uncertain, flickering from side to side. You could see that in the way that he started fiddling with his hands and bouncing his leg nervously.

“No,” you whispered, afraid that you’d break the boy if you spoke any louder. Jaemin peered into your eyes and then took one of your hands, lifting it to the scar on his shoulder that you had noticed earlier.

“As you know, a dragon traditionally can be very symbolic.”

You nodded your head. You recalled that Jisung would often talk about dragons, alluding them to his interest in mythology and their relevance in the modern world.

“Well, dragons can symbolize chaos. That’s the meaning we’re going for.”

“So let me guess, you’re a part of a gang that’s called The Dragon and that tattoo is a symbol for your gang, and it was supposed to be on your shoulder which is like one of those gang tattoo things. But there’s more to it.” You tried putting together every stereotypical piece of information that you could remember from the various dramas that you’d watched.

It seemed that you hit the bullseye when Jaemin patted you on the shoulder.

“Oh ho ho. You’re a lot smarter than I took you for.” He didn’t say that condescendingly. Rather, he was looking at you quite proudly as if he were saying that’s my girl.

“Thanks,” you responded, shying away from his gaze. “But what else is there?”

“Actually...everyone in the gang...we don’t have soulmates. We’re outcasts.” He was looking into your eyes, gauging your reaction to see if you’d be disgusted from his reveal.

You weren’t.

In fact, you were more concerned about one specific fact.

“Um...who’s in your gang again?”

“You know Haechan and Jisung are. And my friends Renjun, Jeno, and Chenle. One of our members, Mark, just went on hiatus for a bit to go to a university abroad.”

“So...you all don’t have a soulmate?”

He shook his head. “That’s why we had all tattooed a dragon on ourselves to show we’re the hidden chaos amidst the fake peace. Mine just got removed for a mission a while back.”

“What about Park Jisung?”

“No..he doesn’t have a soulmate. Why?” Jaemin was starting to look a bit perplexed. He looked honest and you completely believed him. Of course, that didn’t have anything to do with the nagging crush in the back of your mind. But you were convinced that he was correct.

“He told me he had a soulmate. I met her too...”

“She’s probably a fake.” Ah. You finally understood a bit of what was going on. If the girl was a fake you could completely understand where he was coming from. A lot of the wealthier families chose to fake a soulmate for their child if they didn’t show signs of a soulmate mark. As long as the person didn’t fall in love, they were free to act however they wanted to; usually, families just bought a fake for inheritance purposes. Nothing more and nothing less.

However, even if that was the case, Jisung would have known that he did not have a real soulmate. He looked so in love whenever he talked about her though. If so…

No, you didn’t want to think about it. That would be playing with fate. And that wasn’t okay...right? It’s not like you were doing the same thing at the moment.

Jaemin was ignorant of your inner conflict and chose to push the topic of the younger aside. “So...I just wanted to say that things haven’t gone as properly as I would’ve liked. Would you like to go on a date with me when I recover? A proper one?” He looked into your eyes earnestly and who were you to deny the handsome boy?

“Of course! Gotta give you time to heal. Also...I have a confession to make.”

“Oh?” He quirked his head to the side like a curious puppy and you would have laughed if you didn’t feel like you were about to reveal the most intimate secret about yourself.

You chose to whisper the secret, afraid of the ears on the walls. “I don’t have a soulmate either.”

He didn’t look shocked. In fact, he looked kind of relieved. “Two people without soulmates meet each other. What a story, huh.”

You nodded your head. “Well, I’m glad we got that much off our shoulders. Introduce me to the rest of the gang later?”

“They’re not the best people, but we’ll see. The sun’s rising right now, but let’s sleep in. You don’t have any obligations in the morning, right?”

“Nah. Let’s sleep.”

______________________

The week passed by just like that and you went on the date as promised. He took you to a bowling alley and then a high-end restaurant, showing off his earnings with a reserved table for the two of you. In a way, it was very much like him to shower you in his affection and love by giving you the best possible experiences he could provide. He even gifted you a metal ring that he claimed would protect you from harm’s way, even though you had no idea what he meant by that. Later, you learned that it could be part-blade and part-GPS with a small chip. You were overwhelmed at his gestures, but happy that he had considered you lovely enough to shower you with his love.

Even after the date, Jaemin stayed at your apartment to avoid going out and getting caught by the mysterious enemy. He didn’t explain what his mission was, but he did tell you enough for you to conclude that it was dangerous.

To be honest, living with Jaemin wasn’t too bad. Sure, he was overly affectionate and clingy and slightly dependent on you due to his injury, but it wasn’t overbearing. He had his own quirky way of drawing you in.

You noticed that he really wasn’t a man of too many words. The explaining he had done in the first two nights seemed to be the most he had ever said to you. He chose to show you his feelings through his actions. Some mornings, you would wake up to the wonderful aroma of breakfast wafting to the bedroom. Before you could take a step beyond the blankets, Jaemin would burst into the room with a smile on his face and a bounce in his steps. In his hands would be a tray of warm food, along with some juice, water, and any utensils you’d require for the meal.

Since his shirt was ruined, you had let him borrow the clothes that Jisung had left on the occasional sleepovers and they were adorably a bit too large on him. Jaemin would always joke about how the baby was the one who’d grown the most over the past few years. You’d laugh and agree, remembering how the younger was the chubbiest, most adorable child you’d ever seen.

It wasn’t uncommon for the two of you to exchange childhood stories and banters from crazy experiences in the past either.

He’d talk about his best friends who would always be bound by his side: Jeno, Renjun, and Haechannie. Jeno was the strong figure in his life who had gone through the most terrible storms, but would fight through each and every one of them. The two would have their on and off fights, but they’d try to get along for the peace of the group. Renjun’s art could even make the Mona Lisa smile, according to Jaemin. And Haechannie was the happy virus with a knack for bringing the mood up. Jisung had joined the group after his hacking abilities had caused Jeno a headache. They took the younger in due to his talent and they became a happy family. And of course, he never forgot to bring up Mark, the Canadian kid who nearly threatened to quit the gang due to “Donghyuck’s persistent skinship.”

You laughed at his tales and would respond back with some stories of your own. You’d talk about the time that Jisung had scraped his knees and instead of telling anyone about it, he came up to you and told you that he was an immortal superhero with the strangest powers. Or the time you chased the younger around with a worm in your hand.

Jaemin’s eyes sparkled as you told him various stories of the past. He responded by saying that you looked like you had hearts popping out of yours whenever he’d speak. You’d like to disagree with that, but you knew it was true.

And when it came time to change the bandages, Jaemin would come up to you with the biggest puppy eyes he could muster and pout until you got up. You wouldn’t ever keep him waiting and always had the first-aid supplies ready for whenever he needed them.

Whenever it was time for you to cook dinner, he’d sit on the dining table and just gaze at your figure, absentmindedly admiring you. Most of the time, you’d catch him in his hazy state and point out how the hand leaning against his head caused his cheeks to mush up and turn red. He’d deny that and start arguing how you were just distracting and he really didn’t care about what happened as long as he could keep looking at you forever.

And sometimes, it’d just be you and Jaemin cuddling on your sofa with some Lo-Fi music playing in the background. It was safe to say that you had grown used to having another individual in the house. You were living a much livelier life with him around.

It wouldn’t always be the two of you in the apartment alone. Haechan would sometimes pop by to make sure that everything was alright. The first time he came around, he brought the tattered shirt and threw it at Jaemin’s face, telling him that it was beyond his ability to repair. The second time he came, he caught the two of you snuggling and nearly launched himself at Jaemin for taking advantage of his friend. You put yourself in the middle and gave him a cheeky smirk that he easily turned away from.

In the chaos that was now your life, you surprisingly noticed that Jisung hadn’t bothered to contact you this whole time. He knew you were in a rough spot, so why didn’t he contact you? Maybe he found out you met Jaemin and was mad at you? That still didn’t excuse his absence.

So as you sat across from Jaemin, you dialed his number in hopes of finding out the reason. One ring passed...then another. He strangely still didn’t pick up. Jisung would always pick up your call, even if he was in the middle of class. You tried again, hoping that it was a mishap and you made a mistake, but you still ended with the same result.

“Um, Jaem?” The boy hummed.

“Jisung isn’t picking up.”

“Wait what? He always picks up, though.” Jaemin pulled out his own phone and dialed the number, waiting until the call went to voicemail before looking at you.

You got up from your spot. “I’m going to go to his house.”

He shook his head. “That’s dangerous. I’ll go.”

“You’re still injured,” you reminded him as you grabbed your bag and the pepper spray that was laying on the table beside it. “His house is here, and there’s still light outside. Don’t worry too much.”

Jaemin didn’t look too sold on the idea of you going outside when you were practically harboring an outcast in your home, but he respected your decision and finally resigned. “Okay, but stay on Facetime with me the entire time. I want to see you safe, baby.”

You almost cooed at the pet name and walked up to him, giving him a chaste kiss on his forehead. He wrapped his arms around your waist and gave you his infamous puppy eyes. “Call. Now.” Rolling your eyes, you video called him and watched him pick it up,

After he was satisfied, you walked out and closed the door securely, making sure that no intruder could break in from the outside. It wasn’t a typical occurrence in your neighborhood, but you were never too sure about that.

The walk to Jisung’s house didn’t take too long and Jaemin stayed on the call as promised, telling you the most obscure facts so you wouldn’t get bored. When you arrived at his place, you could hear voices from inside the house. You gave a signal for Jaemin to quiet down and placed your ear against the door. You knew eavesdropping was rude, but hey, if you got any information from it…

You could hear three male voices, one of which belonged to your friend. The other voice that was currently talking was deep, not as much as Jisung’s but still comparable. He seemed to be talking in a soft manner, not raising his voice.

“...it’s...don’t worry....bomb….detonated and...got her and I’m....Jaemin…” The ending fizzled out and you could only make out a few words.

Another hushed voice spoke up, sounding like pure honey. “...he’s right. Also, I think we’ve got a visitor.” The voice sounded much closer and you didn’t have time to back up before the door swung open. You were met with a tall male with bleached hair, his dark roots showing prominently. He looked at you with piercing eyes, looking as if he were ready to eliminate you without hesitation.

Another male walked up behind him, taller and much more intimidating than the first despite his calming aura. His dark hair was a sharp contrast to his milky skin, and his fingers were adorned with rings. However, the next thing you noticed was a dragon tattoo on his biceps, peeking out under the loose t-shirt he was wearing.

“Are you looking for someone?” He asked briskly, clearly wanting to get this conversation over with quickly

The other boy looked offended that he had the audacity to ask you the question. “Jeno, what if she’s a spy?”

“Well, Renjun, let’s give her a chance. She already knows our names thanks to you.”

Renjun just huffed and looked at you. “So, spill.”

“Wow, rude,” you commented, rolling your eyes for a dramatic effect. “Also, I’m looking for Park Jisung. This is his house, after all.”

You heard a sniffle from the background. “Let her in. It’s just (Y/n).” Giving a smirk directed to the boy at the door, you let yourself in and took your shoes off before running to the boy.

“Jisungie, I’m here for you.” You heard a muffled audio vibrate in your pocket and realized that you had left Jaemin hanging. “Jaemin is here too. What happened?”

Jisung looked absolutely heartbroken. He was struggling to contain his tears and you pulled him into a tight hug. “It’s okay. Let it out.” You stayed there in that position, hugging as the two boys behind you awkwardly shuffled around and grabbed some water.

The taller, Jeno, tapped you on the shoulder and held up two bottles of water. “It’s a sorry...for how I acted before. Also Jisung might get dehydrated from all this crying.” You accepted the beverage gratefully and rubbed the sobbing boy’s shoulders before prying him off of you.

“Drink,” you commanded.

Renjun moved to squat beside you and handed the younger a tissue box. He turned to you. “Sorry I was harsh to you too. How do you know Jisung?”

Ah, he was straight to the point. Well, as long as he acknowledged you weren’t dangerous, it’d suffice.

“They’ve known each other since they were kids,” Jaemin shouted through your phone speaker.

“I keep forgetting you’re here,” you snorted.

“How rude.” You could practically hear him pout as he said that.

Renjun, on the other hand, was pretty interested. “Jaemin, Jeno told me you got shot?”

“Uh, yeah,” he replied. “It was a fake.” You heard Jisung cough in the background.

“Anyway, I’m glad you’re okay. Stay on the down low for a bit,” Jeno spoke firmly. You could hear a leader like vibe radiating from him. It was scary.

“Yes, sir,” Jaemin quipped. “Ight, (Y/n), imma head out.” With that meme worthy exit, he hung up on you.

Jisung seemed to finally calm down and was breathing normally, almost a look of determination in his eyes. “(Y/n)-”

“Uh... does she know?” Renjun interrupted.

“The Dragon?” You responded, wanting to show him that you did have some knowledge. “Yeah, I do.”

Jeno quirked his eyebrows and plopped down beside you. “So you know I’m the temporary leader while Mark is out?” Well, no you didn’t. But that made sense.

“I assumed that.” He seemed to like your reply and then gave you a little smile.

“Our maknae...baby Jisung, he received terrible news from an incident that occurred not too long ago.” You leaned in to hear him closer, as if the distance would clear up your curiosity. “His soulmate received a bugged package that exploded. It was on impact…”

You heard a whimper and saw Renjun patting the younger on the shoulder.

“When did it happen?” You asked. “Specifically?”

“Last week. Um, about six days ago? At night, around eight?” You gasped. That timing seemed familiar to you. A bit too familiar.

“Who did it?”

“We don’t know. Our intelligence can’t determine how it got to her hands.” This time, it was Renjun who responded.

“Jisung, can’t you use a tracker or hack a camera to figure that out?”

He shook his head, puffy eyes meeting yours for the first time that day. “I sent that package. I didn’t know she’d get it. I-I fell in love with her too.” He quickly gasped before covering his mouth.

“I know,” you said. “I know you don’t have a soulmate.”

“You’re a smart girl,” Jeno commented. “We can use you.” You didn’t know whether to respond to that as a compliment or to fight him, so you did the next best thing: ignore him.

“Well, I guess I signed up for this in a way,” he responded, downcast.

You sighed. This wasn’t good. You were finding yourself in a similar predicament as him and you were afraid to find out what would happen if you treaded the same path.

The rest of the day dwindled just like that: Jisung mourning with the three of you trying to console and comfort him. You learned more about Jeno and Renjun and obtained all their socials as well.

When you arrived back home, Jaemin welcomed you with open arms and a wet smooch to your cheeks. Haechan, who probably arrived a bit after you left the call, was sitting adjacent to you guys in the living room looking grim. You were surprised to see him so serious, not even breaking out of character to strangle Jaemin for his affection.

“How’s Jisung doing?”

“Fine. It’ll take a while to get over it.”

Jaemin nodded understandingly and brought you down to sit next to the other boy, handing you some pizza bites and mozzarella sticks. You thanked him and ate properly for the first time that day.

Haechan observed you grabbing the cheesy snack before swooping in and taking a big bite from the piece in your hand. You glared at him.

“(Y/n), I found out some information that you wouldn’t like to hear.”

“What?” You asked.

“Jisung’s girlfriend received the package. But that was one of my packages. And I can guarantee you that it did not have any explosives when I sent it out.”

You must’ve looked really perplexed because both boys broke out in light hearted laughter.

“Don’t make that face,” Jaemin finally spoke. “You’re so cute, I might eat you up instead.” You nearly threw up at his cheesiness and threw a stick at him. Lucky for him, he caught it in his mouth and scrunched his nose at you. “Nice try, baby.”

Haechan gagged. “You two are disgusting.”

The two of you chuckled in response before you decided to talk about the elephant in the room. “So you’re saying that the package was bugged?”

“By who?” Jaemin inquired. The other boy shook his head. You all decided to leave the matter hanging in the air and ate to your heart’s content before retiring for the night. Haechan waved you two goodbye and left as you got ready for bed.

By now, you were more than comfortable to sleep with Jaemin and his injury was healing quite well. He was the little spoon today, seemingly more sensitive than before. You combed your hand through his hair. “What’s wrong?”

“That...what if that package was the one I sent?”

Oof. You had speculated that he’d arrive at this conclusion. So had you.

“It could be.”

“But who spiked it?”

“Dunno.”

Those were the only words exchanged before sleep lulled you both into the realm of sleep. This time, the dream you had was even more frightening. You were in a room that was dark and cold. You couldn’t see a single thing beyond the stone walls and that terrified you. It seemed so realistic. The musty basement smell that permeated the air was giving you nausea in your dream.

A brown dragon swirled around, moving in before attempting to wrap around you. You tried so hard to free yourself, but it was becoming harder to breathe with each passing minute. Feeling a spark of hope, you yelled into the void and woke yourself up to the morning light. Except, it wasn’t morning light. It was the bright light from a bulb above that flickered tic, tok, tic, tok, until it too went out.

That was how you found yourself stuck in your current predicament. You had a vague recollection of getting thrown out of a car and walking into a warehouse, the general directions fuzzy to you. There wasn’t much more that you could recall, detail-wise.

After a few minutes, you heard shuffling and a resounding thud against the door. The person let out curses as they struggled opening the knob and resorted to kicking the door down. It went silent for a couple of seconds and you were afraid that the guards had woken up and decided to fight back. You moved your feet in an attempt to move a bit farther from the door, in case there was an enemy who would barge in.

Feeling all hope of your rescuer disappearing, you let out a sob. “Please, please hurry.”

Although your hands were free, your feet were still bound to the chains and you couldn’t go far without making a ruckus. It was futile but you tried to bang the shackles against the floor of the mini prison. There wasn’t much point in doing that, but you wanted to somehow reassure the person on the other side (if they were alive) that you were still kicking and alert of their presence.

You heard a click and a creak of the door, signaling the person had gotten through. Blinding light filled your vision and you squeezed your eyes shut. You heard a figure run towards you and fall to their knees, hugging you tightly.

“You’re safe now. I won’t let them hurt you. Not ever. I got you.”

“J-Jaemin?” You’d recognize that voice anywhere. He spilled apologies, putting his head on top of yours and rubbing his hand on your back to comfort you. Jaemin held onto you as if you were the last thing he’d ever hold and that was bringing tears to your eyes.

“I’m so happy to see you,” you admitted, sniffling and slowly opening your eyes to adjust to the scenery around you. The two of you were in the damp cell, with the only source of light coming from the open door in front of you. Miraculously, the guards who had initially brought here (assumingly) were lying unconscious on the ground, mouths hanging open as if they had been taken by surprise.

“I thought I lost you,” he confessed. “I can’t believe I hurt you. It’s my fault, but I have to make this right.” He pulled out a tool from his pant pocket and swiftly waved it, revealing a lock-picking point. You understood his intention and turned around, putting your bound feet onto his lap. He made quick work on the bindings, easily twisting and shifting through the locks until they fell apart.

You sighed in relief at the feeling of blood rushing through your legs and massaged them. He raised his eyebrows at you and let out a laugh in the ironic moment.

“You freed your hands by yourself? That’s my girl,” he complimented, pressing a kiss to your cheek before standing up and giving you a hand. “We don’t have time. Jisung’s waiting with the car.” Time was of the essence. This wasn’t a time to become sentimental, so you wiped your tears as you stood up, accepting his hand.

The two of you cautiously took a step outside the room and looked both ways as you headed down the hall. Your getaway route was easy. Just a left, then a sharp turn to the right, and the door would be straight to the right. A couple of stairs would lead to the entrance of the warehouse and you could escape from the abandoned building. You had memorized the route when you were brought into the warehouse and Jaemin followed your instructions, trusting your memory. When you asked him how he entered, he replied that he simply popped down from the roof and that the helicopter had flown away already.

Learning enough about him to know that it wouldn’t do you any good to bother asking question about his methods, you squeezed his hand and moved forward. He reciprocated the action and pulled you closer to him as you neared the edge. Jaemin peered past the opening and signaled that it was clear. Honestly, you were surprised. You hadn’t expected it to seem this easy.

It seemed that your anxiety agreed. Adrenaline was pumping through your body and you could hear sharp noises of what seemed like a rat scurrying through the pipes. Your nerves were practically on fire at each movement you took through the hallways, but it seemed that you had nothing to worry about as you arrived at the door.

“Not bad, huh?” Jaemin whispered with a grin.

You rolled your eyes. “Have you never watched dramas? No protagonist says that.”

“Shh, nerd,” he replied. But as he pushed the door that says pull, you let out a snort.

“Yeah, I’m the nerd here. At least I know how to open doors,” you retorted, pushing his aside to open the door.

The rickety metal stairs were slightly rusty, but they looked in good enough shape to walk in. You placed all your bets on a line as you inched forward onto the platform, hoping that there’d be no noise. Jaemin walked behind you, one hand hovering over your waist as he looked below in search for any enemy.

Going down the stairs was tricky. The shadow of the warehouse masked the two of you well enough that you wouldn’t be in direct sunlight. Thankfully, there wasn’t a lot of noise from the steps and you finally made your way down to the last step.

Jaemin suddenly paused in his step, sniffing the air. You turned to look at him.

“What?”

“Shit, we’ve been bamboozled. Can’t you smell it?”

You looked up and smelled the air, sensing the musty smell of an old moldy basement. However, you could faintly smell something else like rotten eggs. Was that something that should strike you as odd? “Smell what?”

“We’re gonna have to try to run for it, but it’s dangerous.” You looked at him, stunned, but nodded your head nonetheless.

“Now?” He mumbled a yeah and the two of you took off to the opening of the warehouse. As soon as you were halfway to the exit, there was a thud and the giant cover slammed down. You were completely engulfed in darkness.

Jaemin was still holding your hand, but you could feel him shaking.

As bright lights turned on, you found yourself surrounded by a group of thugs. A familiar face walked out of the crowd and stood in the center, holding a gun cockily and giving you two a smirk.

“Well, well, well. Look who we caught.” His voice sounded as if he had calculated the end result of a simple game of chess - only that game of chess was in his favor and he was about to declare a checkmate anytime soon.

You almost felt your jaw drop. “Is that...no way?”

Jaemin, on the other hand, didn’t look too surprised. Rather, he looked angry. This was not the outcome he wanted and he felt betrayed. There was no way either of you could have stopped this in the end. “Jisungie-”

“Don’t call me that,” the younger snapped. The heels of his boots echoed through the warehouse as he approached you and lifted your chin with the butt of his gun.

“Who do you think sent you the wrong information the other night?”

You heard an audible gasp beside you and saw Jaemin’s eyes widening in realization. “That’s why the deal busted. Even though I made sure it was safe.” He lowered his hands down to his abdomen as if he were still feeling the aftermath of the phantom pain resonating in his body.

Jisung chuckled and waved his hands around. “No, no, no, you have it all wrong, You didn’t make sure it was safe. I made sure it wasn’t safe.” He put his hands in his pocket and pulled out two pairs of earplugs. One had the signature engraving that Renjun usually drew on his raw material. The other was a counterfeit, quite similar to the other, but missing the symbol.

“You gave me a fake? That cost your girlfriend her life!” Jaemin was raising his voice and you could sense him visibly losing his cool. The other men who were standing guard immediately pointed their weapons at him to warn him from acting foolishly. You were at a disadvantage and if you didn’t get out soon, this would go downhill very quickly.

There was a sliver of hope in your mind that the ring on your finger was still working well enough in the abandoned region to gain satellite positioning and alert your other friends where you guys were. However, you knew that Jisung also had access to the technology and he probably would’ve found a way to shut it down.

At this point, Jaemin looked like he was about to lunge at Jisung, weapon or no weapon, and he probably would have done it if you didn’t put an arm on his shoulder. “Not now,” you said rationally. With his head practically being a red target for the enemy, you knew that any rash actions would lead to your demise.

His gaze pierced into yours before he relaxed, stepping back and taking a deep breath. The tension in the room was high and Jisung seemed to enjoy this turn of events.

“(Y/n), I’m so glad to see you making the right decision,” he praised you.

You were gritting your teeth at his comment. “That doesn’t mean I’m letting you off the hook. Why are you doing all of this?”

He rolled his eyes before mocking you in a high pitched voice. “Have you ever been in my shoes?”

Jaemin huffed. “Here we go with the dramatic villain monologue…”

Jisung ignored him and continued his rant, posing with one hand on his hips and the other waving his gun in the air. You’d have to admit that he looked a little cute when he was mad, only if you ignored the situation that you were in and pretended that you were all shooting a film instead. His pout only made him look like a child who was throwing a tantrum to his parents.

“I’ve always been the underdog. What do I do? Sit around with a bunch of monitors and track people or things while breaking into firewalls all day. Do you know how boring and tedious that is?”

“Uh yeah, that’s what a hacker does,” Jaemin mumbled.

“And you know what the saddest part is? I wasn’t there for the love of my life when she died. Because I have more ‘important’ things to do. And you know who killed her?” He was starting to pace back and forth.

You were getting nervous at his actions. Forget about his big motive reveal, you had never heard the usually docile boy talk this much and felt sad that you weren’t there to comfort him at his most vulnerable time. “Who?” You asked, even though you had a feeling you knew the answer.

“Our gang. Jaemin...you were assigned to kill her.”

This time, it was Jaemin’s turn to be shocked. “W-what? I didn’t kill her. I didn’t know,” he denied the accusation.

“Jaems...” You looked at him.

He shook his head. “Honest to god, I did not. Why would I do that to my baby? If only I’d known-”

“Don’t call me that. You don’t have the right to call me that anymore.” Jisung was practically shaking from anger and a sadness that was bubbling slowly to the surface. “They told you to deliver a package-“

“Oh my-no way. Jisung, is it possible that the hidden explosive was made from someone in the group?”

The boy nodded. “Yes. It was. She didn’t see it coming and neither did I when I sent you the location and told you to leave. I didn’t...I didn’t know she’d be the receiver and people would stop you from checking the contents before delivering it.”

You knew that this conversation wasn’t about you, but you did know you’d have to do something quick. Not quite thinking straight, you stepped in the middle.

“Ji-she’d never want you to do this. How were either of you supposed to know?”

“He should’ve known!” Jisung yelled back. You flinched at his outburst. “Whenever we send packages, it’s always-“ His sentence faded with a choked sob. He was broken. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.

Beside you, Jaemin looked helpless and absolutely gutted. He had caused his best friend pain without even realizing what he was doing and now he was stepping on a minefield with every passing second. He looked so conflicted as if he wanted to help him, but he couldn’t. Jisung was so broken.

You took a deep breath and walked up to the younger boy. All signs of hostility had left his body and he was hunched over in pain. Even though you had suffered a bit at his hands, he was still the one who’d hold you close and console you whenever you were down. You figured that unlike Jaemin, you had a chance to get closer and disarm the boy in his moment of weakness.

Your assumption was correct as Jisung immediately crumpled into your hold and let out all of the pain he’d been holding back.

“I’m so sorry,” he mumbled over and over as you tried to hush him. A soft thump resounded against the concrete ground as he let go of his weapon.

“Why’re you sorry?” Jaemin cautiously approached you two and hovered his arms around you both, checking to make sure he wouldn’t get attacked by anyone before he engulfed you two in a tighter hug.

Jisung only sobbed louder and mumbled something under his breath that you strained to hear. “Huh?” You asked.

“Issa trap. I’m so sorry” Although his voice was muffled against your shirt, you could understand his speech. Jaemin also seemed to understand what he was saying this time and he looked at you, his eyes widened.

Before you could adjust to this new information, you heard the sound of a magazine being inserted and a couple of bullets ringing out, eliminating all the guards.

The Dragon, or should you say the leader of the gang. Lee Jeno, stared coldly at your little circle. His gun was pointing at Jaemin, the red pointer clearly indicating a small mark at your boyfriend's left shoulder.

“Good job, Jisung. You’re the perfect little agent.” Jisung whimpered in your hold and held you tighter, if possible. He was afraid. It was safe to say that you were too.

Jeno had this crazed look in his eyes as he glanced at Jaemin. “You’ve ran for long enough. It’s time for you to go. Any last words?”

The boy stared defiantly back in response. “I’m not dying. My girl, best friend, and I will make it out of here.” He didn’t seem too sure of those words as his voice wavered.

Jeno huffed at the retort. “You sound unsure of yourself.” He was taking small steps and walking over with his gun never leaving the mark.

“Don’t kill him,” you spoke up. “You need to let go of this delusioned idea you have of people. Not everyone is like you.”

“So? I couldn’t get my love. Why should he? You know what happens to those who defy fate. I was meant to be your obstacle,” he reasoned, almost trying to convince himself why he was doing this.

You found a weak spot in his hesitance and decided to strike. “If this is about soulmates, you can learn to love again. Love comes in all shapes and forms. If you weren’t destined for a lover, then love your friends. Love the people around you. If you can’t do that much, how could you live knowing that you hurt so many of your own gang member’s chances at love?”

“It’s all jealousy,” he shouted back. Jeno was less than a meter away from you by now. Pure adrenaline was pumping through your blood and you were ready to fight-or-flight. The fear from earlier was dissipating into a feeling far more rushing.

Jaemin stood up from his spot beside you as he and Jeno were now finally face to face. “We were like brothers. I’m sad to see you’ve chosen this path.” He sounded disappointed as if he were scolding a child rather than facing death in the eyes.

Jeno just chuckled and thumbed at the activator. “Do you know why they say you shouldn’t defy fate?” You squeezed your eyes shut just before you could see Haechan, Renjun, and Chenle burst through the opening and reach out to stop the boy.

But it was far too late.

He shot.

You finally realized why they always told you to never break the soulmate rule. The one who you loved would always die.

You had averted your eyes to avoid watching Jaemin fall to the ground, clutching his shoulder - or should you say, his Achilles heel. It wasn’t quick. It wasn’t painless either.

The boys had reached you guys way too late. It was kind of ironic. They said heroes would always be there in time to save you, but they never did. You couldn’t be the one to divert fate.

It was almost as if a crescendo background music had ceased. The blood rushing through your body from pure adrenaline was almost deafening at this point but there was no way you could miss his body dropping to the floor.

But there was no way you missed how Jaemin crawled to hold your hand and tell you he loved you and he would continue to love you in every life. He said he’d go meet you every time, even if he didn’t have a soulmate mark, because he knew you’d be the only one for him.

Haechan had later seized Jeno’s weapon and wrestled him to the ground. Nothing, however, could change the fact of the events that transpired. The gang decided to eliminate their current leader and reinstate Mark, who’d been angry at the news. It wasn’t a very happy ending, but you were satisfied that the boys stayed by your side.

Later, much much later, Jisung held you in his arms as Jaemin’s passing finally hit you. Oh, how the roles were reversed. It just wasn’t fair. Not at all. Such a beautiful life had been taken from Jaemin before he could truly experience life all because he dared to fall in love.

Now you were determined to hold on to the sliver of life just to keep living for him out of spite. Even if you weren’t meant to fall in love, you had met an angel who dared to show you what heaven was like. Sure it wasn’t ideal and it burned fast, but you had enjoyed the ride. You wouldn’t cry anymore. No, you were over it. It was time to pick yourself up and be strong, for yourself and for Jaemin.

Tag list (i’ll try to do this for my next series): @markleeswifeee

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thewebcomicsreview · 6 years ago

Note

Can you maybe contextualize the Homestuck epilogue for someone who has never read Homestuck but is curious what all the hullabaloo is about?

It’s 200,000 words following 8,000 pages of comic, so I’m not sure if I can really explain it “simply”, but I’ll do my best. *ahem*

Spoilers, obviously.

tl;dr;, by the way, I actually really liked it. But I can see why a lot of people didn’t.

So, I can, have, and will rant about the myriad of reasons everyone hated the ending, but for the sake of context let’s only focus on the main ones:

1. The climax of the story was meant to be “John masters his powers, goes back in time, and undoes a lot of the terrible things that happen”. This didn’t at all feel like a climax, so everyone expected a “real” climax and was confused when we didn’t get one. Worse, because the solution to, say, Rose’s alcoholism was that John changed things so that she never started drinking, it felt less like characters overcoming their struggles and more like the characters we loved being replaced with alternate, better versions, and we never saw how things went for the “real” characters (John’s main change, preventing Vriska’s death in Act 5, invalidates something like 15% of the entire comic!).

2. Because the climax fell so flat and the big bad wasn’t defeated (and because [S] Collide ended with the music turning all sinister), everyone went in to Act 7 expecting one last huge twist. But while we were given enough information to figure out the basic gist of how Lord English was defeated, we don’t actually see it.The above screenshot, of Caliborn powering up into his Final Form, comes in the last fifty seconds of Homestuck.

So, that’s kind of the context of the ending. Everyone went in expecting like a full act, was wildly confused that Act 7 was a victory lap, and then we all kind of figured out eventually what Hussie was going for and we were like “Oh. Okay” in a monotone. So, everyone hoped for the epilogue to “fix” the plot, but the plot wasn’t so much broken as it was badly told.

Phew. Okay, now lets talk about the epilogue.

So, John is given the choice of whether to actually go back into the comic and kill the bad guy or not, represented as a choice of eating meat or candy for lunch. The canon, alpha timeline choice is to kill Lord English (”meat”), and the choice to stay behind and leave a time loop/plot thread unclosed (”Candy”) creates a doomed timeline. Doomed timelines in Homestuck exist as physical bubbles you can fly to, so the two “timelines” are really physical places in Paradox Space. There are three such location in the epilogue

1. The “meat” timeline, which is the actual “canon” alpha timeline with no unbroken time loops, where most of the Meat Epilogue takes place. It takes place in the normal universe

2. The furthest ring, a void above and around all timeline bubbles where John fights Lord English. This is normally where all the doomed timelines are, but they are getting sucked into a black hole that’s sweeping out all the “irrelevant” stuff

Nepetaquest 2019 was never meant to be

3. The “candy” timeline, which is doomed, irrelevant, and thus sucked into the black hole. The whole thing looks like this

The reason I’m explaining all this is because the two epilogues are actually one epilogue, and one affects the other such that you need to read them both.

In the Candy timeline, Dirk immediately realizes that he’s no longer canon/alpha, and immediately kills himself. Rose and Kanaya are happily married and adopt a troll. Roxy goes all stepford wife and decides all she really wants is to crank out babies with John. John is all “you seem to be wildly out of character for reasons that won’t be explained but okay”. Jade, Dave, and Karkat have a miserable polyamorous relationship where the boys don’t admit they want to each other’s dicks but are willing to settle on Jade’s furry knotted dog penis, which she apparently grew after becoming a dog girl in [S] Cascade

Pictured: The exact moment in Homestuck that Jade Harley grew canine genitalia. I had a print of this artwork and I’ll never look at it quite the same again

There’s relationship drama, but the most important part is Jane, who is now TrumpHitler for basically no reason,. She marries Jake but Gamzee cucks him and, well

There’s a scene of Jake talking to Jade and thinking about maybe murdering a baby while his wife has rape-play sex with a clown in the next room. We don’t have time to unpack all that, because Jane is also TrumpHitler now, and sets out to commit a literal holocaust on all the Trolls for….um…..well for no reason. She’s just evil now. Jade’s corpse crashes from the sky, which is a shock to everyone, most of all Jade. Then Aradia and Sollux show up and Jane’s corpse comes to life as a god and everyone kind of just….nods…..and ignores it. The JadeCorpse is possessed by a version of Calliope who’s basically God, whom Aradia serves. Calliope explains that nothing in this timeline matters and it would normally just dissolve but she’s keeping it around because letting everyone dissolve into nothing when you can stop it seems like kind of a bitch thing to do and also she needs somewhere for Lord English’s body to land. Everything in Candyland gets as comically terrible as possible, full-on civil war. John has an existential crises about being irrelevent but gets over it, and Calliope finally finds Lord English and eats him, gaining the power to escape the black hole. Somewhere all this Dave meets up with Barack Obama (??!!?!?!) who is a god (!!!!!!!!!!!) that fucked Dave’s bro (!efefiebnfuewf) and merges all Daves together into one Ultimate Dave that he puts in a robot. Davebot, Aradia, and Calliope all leave the black hole and close the door behind them such that nothing inside (which includes the “canon” Vriska and every single alternate Timeline that existed or will ever exist) can ever get out to interfere with the canon timeline ever again.

Also 16-year-old Vriska fucks 40-year-old Gamzee and is so embarrassed about it that she kills him.

Feel free to take a break here

==>

In the Meat timeline, Dirk has ascended and god from God-Like-Thor to God-Like-God, and can now manipulate the story in a fourth-wall breaking way that’s effectively nigh-omniscience and mind control. He’s also evil now, but that makes more sense then Jane being Hitler.

John recruits the pre-retcon versions of Dave, Rose, and Jade, who with John are the closest thing to the “original” versions of the main four that Homestuck is gonna give us at this point. They fight Lord English and successfully boot him into the black hole, but all die in the process. John is mortally wounded but survives long enough to bang Terezi in the back of his dad’s car and get them both home (said car ends up in Candyland, where Candy John finds it and recognizes Terezi’s cum because thanks Hussie). Jade lives long enough that she could get to Earth C herself, but this version of Jade doesn’t even know about Earth C and decides to die via black hole. Dirk tries to stop this, but Calliope, who is more powerful than Dirk, pulls her in

It is indeed to late, and OG! Jade gets sucked into the black hole, crashes into Candyland, and leaves behind a fresh corpse for Calliope to control and all the people in Candyland to be weirdly blase over because deep down they know their world doesn’t matter. Having control over this Jade lets her possess the alpha Jade in Meatworld, which in turn lets her influence things there. She and Dirk fight about who gets to be president of earth (which doesn’t seem important unless you read Candy and know what president Jane will do), and Dirk manages to tranquilize Jade and keep Calliope from affecting anything else.

Jane becomes president of Earth and starts off and the path of becoming God Empress of Mankind. John dies, and we get more than a hint that Dirk killed him for being insufficiently grateful of their paradise planet

With things on Earth taken care of, Dirk mind controls Rose into become his (sex?) slave, and mind controls Kanaya into thinking that’s cool. He tells Terezi (who he can’t control, since Mind is her power) that if she comes with they can maybe revive John, and they all home into a spaceship and fuck off to a new planet. Dirk is the new Lord English, Jane is the new Condesce, and Rose -now a dreambot - is the new Handmaid. And Terezi is….also there. They find a new M-Class planet and set up to evolve some life there for a Sburb game. On earth, now of of range of Dirk’s mind control, everyone realizes that him kidnapping Rose was actually kind of fucked up, and they hop a spaceship to chase after them, with Jade-possessed Calliope giving them advice.

And that’s the epilogue! Dirk has kidnapped Rose and become unto god, and is setting up a nefarious plan we don’t know the details of, and a the heroes are racing to stop him. Good night everybody!

I’m assuming there’s going to be an Epilogue Epilogue, because this was just a straight-up cliffhanger, and I’ll guess I’ll see when I think when that happens or when it becomes clear that won’t happen.

Hopefully that was easy enough to follow, I did my best.

#homestuck #sirksome #homestuck epilogue #homestuck spoilers

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krizaland · 5 years ago

Note

Do you think in your Zimvoid story that our zim has a random picture of his s/o in his pak and is looking at it a lot. Like he is under the impression he might not ever see his s/o again. (the sad talk from all the other zims arent helping either.)

How delightfully angsty Anon! You just made me cry gave me inspiration for a chapter 2!

Bring some tissues and strap in! We’re going on another feels trip! I apologize for any sadness this chapter may bring you!

Be warned: There’s spoilers for the Invader Zim comics ahead!

First Chapter

Protip: If you listen to a funny song (like a meme song such as: All Star or even circus music) while reading angst then it helps halt the tears.

Meanwhile, your Zim had just climbed the ranks in the arena.

“Congratulations, 2170, you’re the new 2165. You can look forward to your new assignment, Mold Scraper” 500 sighed as he changed the number on your Zim’s collar.

“What?! No! Is that better than sewage unclogger?” Your Zim huffed.

“Very slightly”

“Unacceptable! I demand something better!” You Zim snapped as he pointed to the sky.

“Well if you really want to participate in more fights..” 500 pulled out his book of Zim opponents and flipped through the pages.

“As many as it takes! It’ll be a cakewalk! No Zim walks cakes better than I! You hear?!” You Zim declared as he shook his fist at the sky.

“Just point me in the way of the mes I need to destroy!” Your Zim’s voice dripped with venom as a sinister grin spread across his face.

“Alright, let me chose your next opponent. Just wait here for a bit.” 500 groaned as he gestured to an empty seat in the waiting area.

Your Zim promptly took his seat and let out a sigh. While he would never admit it, he was starting to get tired.

“Why am I even doing this? Everyone knows that I’m the superior Zim! And what’s with all of this talk of ‘things’. This Zim needs no pathetic ‘thing’! These battles are a waste of my time!” Your Zim thought to himself.

Suddenly his mind reminded him of something you once said to him when he was feeling down:

“Sometimes, we have to do things we don’t want to do. Does it suck? Yeah. But can you do it? Absolutely. Zim, you’re the best at everything you do! Go out there and show them who’s boss!”

Your Zim chuckled as he straightened up a bit. He opened his PAK and a small gadget popped out and displayed a hologram of you.

It wasn’t just any hologram of you. It was his personal favorite hologram of you.

In the hologram, you were wearing your fanciest formal attire for the Skool dance. You looked so lovely that evening. Your Zim let out a dreamy sigh as he remembered that night:

“Thanks for coming with me, Zim.” You smiled as you held Zim’s hand.

“It’s of no trouble, Sweet Y/N! I’d like learn more about these human ‘dances’” Your Zim explained as he followed you inside the Skool.

You gently lead your Zim to the lunchroom. The lunchroom was poorly decorated in half assed streamers and poorly edited posters that read: “Danse”. The smell of mold and expired milk still lingered in the air but your Zim didn’t care.

All he could focus on was the feeling of your hand intertwined with his.

“Seriously, Y/N?! I can’t believe you brought that alien monster to the dance! He probably wants to plant a bomb or something!”

Dib’s whining woke your Zim from his thoughts.

“Dib, he’s not a monster. Zim and I are just here to dance and have a good time.” You huffed as you shot Dib a glare.

“Yeah! So go wallow in your lonely existence somewhere else, Dib-Stink!” Your Zim added.

“Zim! Don’t stoop to his level!” You scolded as you shot your Zim a glare.

“I don’t get it! What do you even see in him?! He’s an alien! An evil monster that wants to destroy mankind! How can you stand there and call him your boyfriend?!” Dib ranted as he gestured to Zim.

“Dib, there’s more to Zim than you think. He’s not evil and has given up on destroying the Earth like a year ago.” You huffed.

“Do you honestly believe he’s changed?! How gullible can you be?! Why don’t you -”

“I’m not going to argue with you, Dib! Leave us alone!” You interjected.

“Gah! Why do you love him?! There’s so many better people out there! You could do so much better!” Dib insisted.

“C’mon, Zim let’s go find somewhere else to dance.” You growled as you gently lead your Zim away from Dib.

Your Zim let you lead him away from Dib but stuck his worm like tongue at him while you weren’t looking.

“You should be dancing with me…” Dib trailed off as he hung his head in defeat.

“You’d think after you apologized said you’ve changed that Dib would leave you be.” You grumbled as you sat down at one of the open lunch tables.

“Oh let’s not let the Dib monkey rain all over our perfect dance!” Zim mused as he sat beside you.

“Heh. I guess you’re right, about that.” You giggled.

“Attention, students! It’s time for the obligatory slow dance! Find yourself a partner or suffer in your bone crushing loneliness!” The DJ announced.

“Slow Dance? Are they going to bring out a time warper and slow down the flow of time?!” Your Zim squealed as his eyes lit up.

“I wish! But no. A slow dance is where they play a really mushy love song and you’re supposed to dance all slow to it.” You chuckled.

“Oh. I liked the time warp idea better.” Your Zim pouted.

“Yeah, me too. Wanna slow dance anyway?” You offered as you got up.

“Sure, why not?” Your Zim chirped as he joined you.

You gently took your Zim’s hand and lead him to the dance floor.

Upon observing how the other students were dancing, Your Zim activated his spider legs and gently put his hands around your waist.

You giggled as put your hands on his shoulders.

Your Zim was very nervous but the soft look in your eyes put him at ease.

Soon the music began and all your Zim could focus on was you.

Your Zim followed your gentle movements. His hips swayed with yours and let the music take the reigns.

“Wise men say, Only fools rush in.

But I can’t help falling in love with you.”

You mouthed the words as you gazed into Zim’s eyes.

“Shall I stay? Would it be a sin? Oh if I can’t help

Falling in love with you.”

There may have not been a time warper nearby but time still felt like it was slowing down none the less.

“Like a river flows, slowly to the sea. Darling so it goes

Some things are meant to be”

Suddenly the other students seemed to melt away. It soon it felt as if you and your Zim were the only ones in the room.

“Take my hand, take my whole life too. Oh for I can’t help,

Falling in love with you”

Your Zim gazed deeply into your E/C eyes. They looked as if they twinkled with stardust.

“Like a river flows, slowly to the sea, darling so it goes,

Somethings are meant to be”

Your Zim never thought he’d ever feel anything like affection in his life. He used to think affection was for the weak but all of that changed once he met you.

“Oh take my hand, take my whole life too. Oh for I can’t help

Falling in love with you”

Your Zim never expected a human to be on his list of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen but there you were.

Your Zim had travelled throughout the universe and had seen his fair share of beautiful things but you? You surpassed every single one of those things. It so was more than just your physical appearance as well.

You were strong, intelligent, and most importantly,

You were open minded.

You never judged nor made fun of him. You always gave him the respect he so rightfully deserved! You were the only one who understood his incredible genius! You were perfect in every way.

“Oh for I can’t help

Falling in love with you” You and your Zim’s voices melted together as you gently pressed you’re foreheads together.

The moment the song ended, your Zim’s instincts kicked in.

Without a second thought, he removed his hands from around your waist.

He cupped your face and pulled you into a passionate kiss.

It wasn’t just any kiss, however. It was a first kiss. For the both of you.

Your eyes were wide for a moment before slowly closing as you let your Zim explore every inch of your mouth.

Your tongue playfully wrestled with his as he let out a few muffled chirps and purrs.

“Hey! Excuse me!”

The sound 500’s tired voice brought your Zim back to reality.

“Huh? Gah!” Your Zim yelped as he realized he was kissing your hologram.

“You should probably put that away. You’re never gonna see them again.” 500 sighed as he gestured to your hologram.

“Nonsense! Of course I’ll see my sweet Y/N again!” Your Zim insisted as he shut off the hologram.

“That’s what every Zim says” 500 groaned as a few tears begun to trickle down his cheeks.

“And your point is?”

“My point is that you’re stuck here forever. No Zim has ever successfully left the Zimvoid. You might as well forget that your Y/N, heck, any Y/N even existed. Trust me, keeping those memories around just makes things worse than they already are.” 500 explained as a few more tears streamed down his face.

“No! You lie! YOU LIE!” Your Zim screeched as a few tears of his own begun to form in his eyes.

“That’s what every Zim says.” 500 shook his head as he dried his tears.

“I will leave this filthy planet! I will leave this planet and see my sweet Y/N again IF ITS THE LAST THING I DO!!” Your Zim roared as a few tears dripped down his cheeks.

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve heard it all before. Here. I’ve found your next opponent. Come with me please.” 500 groaned as he lead your Zim back to the arena.

“Very well! GIVE ME YOUR WORST!”

#Anonymous #invader zim #invader zim into the zimvoid #Invader zim x reader #Invader Zim comics #Invader Zim dib #Invader Zim spoilers #spoilers

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prettyyoungtragedy · 6 years ago

Text

Written in the Stars - Epilogue

Characters: Bodyguard!Bucky Barnes x reader

Summary: You’re the type of woman who is headstrong and fiercely independent. Heiress to a fortune and one of the most brilliant minds of the 21st century. Until you’re forced into witness protection. Your “Protection” turns out to be 220 pounds of dreamy, sassy, delightful Bucky Barnes. Whatever could go wrong?

Warnings: Fluff and more god damn fluff!

A/N: And the time has come for me to say goodbye to these characters that I poured my blood sweat and tears into lol. Man, I love each and every single one of you who left the most amazing, gorgeous heart rendering feedback on this fic! You made my days SO MUCH BETTER with all the comments and reblogs and asks screaming at me! I adored writing this for you guys and I hope the next time I write some Bucky trash you all will jump on the bandwagon again!

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for coming along this angsty garbage train of a fic and for sticking with me through till the end. Y’ALL ARE SOME FUCKIN’ OG MOTHER FUCKERS AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT!

Thank you to @suz-123 for all the hours you put into listening to me whine about Bodyguard!Bucky and for all the words of encouragement (and the threats lol). This fic wouldn’t have been half as great if I didn’t have a fucking world class Beta like you. I got real love for you friend!

Links are being a bitch so you can find the whole fic in my WIP masterlist in my bio!

Taglist is closed, Sorry guys!

Crisp cool sheets against your back, Bucky’s lips ghost over yours and you sigh, headily. It’s a reunion, you finally got the all clear from the doctors that you were healed from all bullet wounds, broken bones, and bruises and it wasn’t even half an hour later that you were all over Bucky.

It was desperate stumbling through the lake house, clothes tossed across the room, his arms around you as tight as he could hold you and lips pressed to yours, tongues dancing with each other before you both crashed into the bed in his bedroom.

He placed slow deliberate kisses along the column of your neck, pausing at your pulse and just feeling its slow steady beat for a moment, his mind filled with only thoughts of you and how much he adored you at that moment before he traces the outline of your collarbone with his tongue. Your fingers tangled in his dark hair, pulling him impossibly closer, his lips traveled across your chest, pausing at the scar the bullet had left and pressed a kiss to it then moved to the next scar.

Bucky takes his time, he has no urgency about this moment, he wants it to last for as long as it could. A lifetime of exploring your body with his mouth didn’t feel like enough time for him. His hands roaming across your body, yours on his, soft kisses and murmurs of how much you loved each other.

He holds you as close as he can to his body as he pushed into you, his lips finding yours again, muffling the moan that escapes your throat.

“Fuck, I love you,” He muttered leaning down and kissing you softly again as he fucked you, each slow deep thrust sends a spark snapping up your spine and your mind spinning with affection for this man. He looked at you with those starlight eyes and you were drowning in them. The way he looked at you, the way he touched you, everything about being with this man sets your existence alight.

You curled your arm around his neck, the other under his metal arm and hold him closer, your bodies flushed as you moved to the rhythm of the other. The ecstatic pleasure building between the two of you, higher and higher and you feel dizzy from it.

And when that ecstasy implodes, toppling both of you over the edge of that cliff you’re standing on together, it’s like everything in life aligned for you again, and nothing else mattered but him, and this moment.

~~~

“When did you and Fury decide on that?” Bucky asked, interlacing his fingers with yours. It had been a week since your little reunion and he had done well not to ask too many questions, or demand answers from you.

The two of you kicked everyone out of the lake house and just wrapped yourselves up in each other. Taking every moment you could, just loving each other.

Bucky said he loved you every chance he got, he said it when he woke up, when the two of you went to sleep, he murmured it when he held you in his arms as the two of you did nothing but cuddle on the couch, and he fervently said it every time he made love to you that week, which was more than two people should have at that point.

Every time he said it, you responded with the same amount of fervor he did. It was like the two of you wanted to keep saying it over and over until it was all the other could think about and at that moment, it was all you could think about, just how much you loved this man.

“After the car incident, he came to see me while I was in the Med Bay and we talked about it. He told me they would never stop coming after me as long as I was alive,” You replied tilting your head and looking up at him, “So he explained Tetrodotoxin to me, which I already knew about, since I sort of helped Banner with some of the research for that, and we came up with the plan to kill me in a way.”

Bucky frowned at you, the memory of being told you had died replaying in his head again, and he hated it.

You reached up and smoothed the frown from his face, before kissing his forehead softly, “Of course being taken by Arcas wasn’t part of the plan, we’d initially thought we could stage a car accident or plane crash or something. But life kinda got in the way and well Arcas did too.”

“I hate that I didn’t know about this and that I wasn’t there to protect you from that,” He murmured,

“Stop, don’t do that. You did everything right, Bucky,”

“But, I could have-”

“No, you couldn’t have, because this was my decision, and mine alone, to make. In a way, I am glad things turned out the way they did because I get to leave behind that old life and start a new one, with you.”

“Yeah still doesn’t make me feel any better,” He muttered,

“Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot,” and he grimaced as he said that realizing the joke he had inadvertently made which made you burst out laughing.

“Why didn’t you tell me about the files Bucky?”

You watch his whole face change, you had been wanting to ask him about the files since you two we reunited but held off on it not wanting to ruin the moment. Bucky knew about your work, he knew what it was being used for but he never told you.

Bucky sighed, “I guess I wanted to protect you from that, I thought if I never told you and you never knew what they were doing with your work that guilt wouldn’t be on your shoulders,”

“But it was my work that made all those soldiers and I don’t know how many countless others,” You said softly, “And you shouldn’t have hidden that from me, I had a right to know.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, I just...wanted to keep you away from my world even for a little bit, and if it meant hiding that from you then I was willing to do it,”

You placed your hands on either side of his face and pulled his lips to yours, kissing him deeply.

“I love you for that but don’t ever lie to me ever again.” Your tone makes him chuckle.

Bucky smiled when you said this, his fingertips brushing against your bare shoulder. “I mean as fuckin’ crazy as your plan was, which, by the way, you could have really died, I am glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks to that serum,” You muttered and you feel him tense up beside you again.

“Are you...is...do you feel different?” Bucky asked cautiously. Neither of you had spoken about the serum that Strucker had given you and after Banner and Tony ran multiple tests on you they discovered that it had sort of enhanced your being, kind of like what had happened to Bucky and Steve in a way just with different effects.

“A little yeah, maybe stronger? But that’s neither here nor there.”

“And there was no way to reverse it?”

“We’re working on that, but for now, I’m just glad it saved my life. Funny how my life's work is the reason I almost died and I am still alive today,” You let out a quick laugh

Bucky didn’t find this funny, he frowned at you again and pulled you even closer against his body. “Not funny,” he muttered,

“Oh lighten up asshole, I can joke about it now.”

“Too soon,”

“I know but it’s okay because I am here, you are here and that’s it.”

You tilted your head up again and kissed him sweetly, Bucky sighing into the kiss. He’d never get used to kissing you, it was his new favorite thing to do. He held onto you tightly, like he had been doing since you came back to him. Too afraid to let you go for fear of losing you again but he knew in his heart that nothing would take away what he felt for you, and vice versa. He was going to hold onto you till his dying breath and even then if there was some kind of afterlife, he knew he would spend an eternity holding onto you because you made him feel whole and more alive than any other soul in the universe.

“I love you,” Bucky muttered breaking the kiss,

“I love you more, idiot.”

This made him smile.

~~~

In the months following your ‘death’, things changed drastically, more people came forward exposing Hydra. SHIELD cracked down on their operatives and began rooting out moles and other Hydra agents among them. The Avengers became the front runners in doing this, shutting down as many Hydra cells as they could.

Bucky, of course, took it a little more personally than the rest of the team, as he had a new fervor to fight with. He tried his best to stay out of the fighting as much as possible, after the last fight he’d been in had brought out more of the Soldier that he would have liked, but he still went on missions with the rest of the team.

Bucky had told you what he’d done after you were taken and both of you agreed, he’d stay out of the line of fire, it was better for everyone.

You, on the other hand, had a whole new life to start, and it began by hiding out in Bucky’s lake house, trying to figure out what you were going to do next with your company now under the control of Stark Industries, you had the financial freedom to do whatever you wanted.

“I like Germany?” You said taking a bite out of the slice of pizza in your hand, the two of you seated on the floor in the living room of his lake house which had now become your home too.

“No, I don’t have good memories of Germany,” Bucky shook his head,

“What about somewhere in Morocco?”

“Yeah, Morocco is a hard pass, the Winter Soldier has been there too many times,”

“God, is there anywhere in the world you actually like?”

“I like Italy.”

You paused for a moment, chewing thoughtfully at his suggestion. The two of you were trying to pick a destination for you to go to for a little while, to lay low at until this Hydra thing blew over. Turned out it was harder than you’d imagined, seeing as neither of you could agree on a place to go to.

“Italy is only nice in the summer,” You replied,

“No, it’s not, Italy is nice all year round,”

“Uhh, have you been there recently? Because I have, and it’s not,”

“Don’t argue with me, I am telling you, Italy is for us,”

“Oh yeah, how can you be so sure I’ll like it?”

“Because, it’s got wine and pasta and Prada, everything you love, sweetheart,”

You laughed heartily at his response, before leaning over a kissing him sweetly on the lips.

“You get me, Bucky Barnes.” You murmured smiling at him.

~~~

‘Terrorist organization rooted out in SHIELD as the Avengers shut down the organization in pursuit of the criminals behind the human experimentation's done in Queens. Doctor Werner Reinhardt, Baron Strucker, and Alexander Pierce all arrested as allegations made against them bring to light their ties to the criminal activities. Officials are now calling for Senator Sterns arrest amidst his ties to the Hydra sect. Forerunner to this whole operation is Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes whose tireless efforts have brought justice to so many nameless victims in this war-’ - NY Post

“Are you reading the New York post, again?” Bucky sighed grabbing the tablet out of your hands and tossing it onto the nearby couch,

“Yes I am, and give that back, I wasn’t done,” You grumbled reaching for it but Bucky snatched it up again and held it out of arm's length as he sat down beside you, pulling you close.

“What are you even reading?” He asked his eyes going to the heading of the article you were reading and he groaned, “Good god, don’t read this pompous trash,”

“Why not, my boyfriend’s a hero and an Avenger.” You laughed,

“Fiance and retired Avenger,” Bucky corrected you,

“Semantics,”

“No, say it,”

“No, it’s a stupid word.”

“Oh my god, don’t mock centuries of tradition, woman, I put a ring on that finger, and demand you call me your fiance!” Bucky feigned offense as he tossed the tablet onto the coffee table and pounced on you pinning your hands over your head, pushing you down onto the couch.

“No, you giant moron, nothing about you and I are traditional,” You laughed as he assaulted your neck with kisses. Bucky let go of your hands and nudged your legs open, settling above you with a grin on his face.

“I missed you,” He said softly completely changing the tone of the mood, he leaned in and kissed you, softly.

“I missed you more,” You said, pulling him in for another kiss,

“So are you all set for our sabbatical?” He asked, pulling away and sitting up,

“Yeah, can’t wait to stop hiding out here and actually go on a real date with you,”

“I’ll take you on all the dates, the moment we get there,” Bucky grinned at you,

“That makes no sense,”

“I know,”

“You’re so stupid,”

“But you love me.”

And oh how you did love him.

~~~

The sun was setting over the beautiful horizon, it casts a warm glow across the apartment kitchen. Sun streaks dancing across the terracotta rooftops in Florence, a soft breeze making the silky curtains flutter with them. You stood on the balcony holding a glass of wine in your hand, gently twirling the stem in your hand and watching the sunset.

You hear soft footsteps behind you moments before you feel Bucky slip his arms around your shoulders and draw your back flush to him. His muscular naked torso hot against your body.

“There you are,” He murmured against the skin on your neck before placing a kiss on your bare shoulder,

“Thought you were still asleep,” You said reaching up behind you and carting your fingers through his hair, he needed a hair cut.

“I was but you weren’t there and you know I can’t sleep without you,”

You smiled at this comment, two years later and he was still so god damn needy. You loved it.

“You’re such a needy little bitch,” You laughed softly and this earned you a little nip on your neck from Bucky.

“It’s called love, you hussy.”

You laughed again and twisted around in his arms to face him. You placed the wine glass down on the table next to you and reached up linking your arms around his neck. God, he looked so fucking perfect in the setting sunlight,

“Why are you so pretty?” You sighed leaning into him and placing a kiss on his neck,

“What kind of question is that?” Bucky chuckled tightening his arms around your waist as you trailed a line of kisses across his neck and jaw,

“You’re supposed to say I am pretty too, Bucky,”

“You’re pretty too, sweetheart.” He laughed, a moment before his lips found yours and he kisses you with fervor. The way his hands slid down your body, over your ass and to the back of your thighs before he lifted you into his arms told you where this was going and you weren’t about to complain.

~~~

It was well into the evening when the two of you collapsed tiredly onto the soft sheets beside each other, breathless and satisfied. The pale moonlight drifted across the room, casting a pale glow through it.

It was a perfectly starry night outside, and the weather was perfect. In fact, every day since the two of you had gotten here was perfect. There wasn’t a moment that you weren’t at absolute peace here.

After traveling around for a bit with Bucky to the Bahamas, Mexico and half of the Asia's, you’d both decided on Italy for an extended sabbatical. It was the perfect place for both of you considering how much you loved the food and wine and, well, Bucky just agreed with you because it was where he wanted to go the most.

It had been the most amazing year of your life, being with Bucky and traveling the world. He retired as an Avenger but still, on occasion, helped out his friends with missions when they asked nicely. But otherwise, he left that Avenging life behind, and the two of you lost yourselves to each other, traveling. It kind of became a history lesson with you every time you visited a new place and Bucky told you something new about it, or when he was here as the Winter Soldier. Things he remembered or had done. He was open and honest with you and it was everything you could have asked for.

A year since your ‘death’, Bucky asked you to marry him as the two of you stood in the Louvre beneath the starry night sky and you were at a loss for words. It had been the longest time since anything had felt normal for the two of you and at that moment you realized both of you wanted more than to keep traveling and moving around.

So you decided on Italy, Florence to be specific, the one place both of you could agree on wholeheartedly, and it turned out to be the best decision you’d ever made. A wedding in Florence with the few people that mattered to both of you and those who knew you were alive of course, Steve, Sam, Tony, Natasha among the guests and then it became your home.

You missed New York City, as you’d spent your whole life there. Bucky said maybe one day when all this was over, the two of you could go back, but as soon as you found a home in Florence you forgot all about New York and it suddenly felt like the home the two of you always needed.

And tonight, on the anniversary of your living here, you couldn’t have thought of a better place to be. The two of you now stood on the balcony enjoying the quiet of the night and each other’s embrace, taking in the beauty of the city below.

“You were right, Italy is great any time of the year,” You murmured kissing his forehead,

“I’m always right,” Was all Bucky said, and you could almost hear the smirk in his voice at that moment. You laughed softly and intertwined your fingers with him, the gold band on your finger glinting in the soft moonlight.

“Okay, calm down there, you’re right like forty percent of the time,” You snorted,

“Let’s not have this argument again or I will have to bring up Acra,”

“You wouldn’t dare!” You gasped feigning shock and Bucky laughed.

“Oh, I would, believe me, I would.”

You were about to reply when the soft sound of a cry came through the little black monitor you’d set on the table nearby. Both of you sighed, and Bucky moved first.

“I’ll get her,” He said giving you a quick kiss before he made his way back inside and you can’t help but grin at his retreating figure. You still couldn’t believe just how much your life had changed since meeting Bucky, from hating him with every fiber of your being, to loving him more than you could ever love someone. Of course, you had Nick Fury to thank for all this, and you laughed at the thought of thanking Nick Fury for allowing Bucky into your life because god how you loved, adored and cherished James Buchanan Barnes.

#Bucky Barnes x reader #Bucky x reader #Bodyguard!Bucky #Bucky Barnes #james buchanan barnes #the winter soldier #Bucky #Bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes series #Bucky barnes imagine #marvel au #bucky barnes au #bodyguard!au #Bodyguard fic

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botslayer · 5 years ago

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) review (Long)

Star Wars has a place in all of our hearts, I think. This series has had literally galactic-scale highs and lows. Be it the video games, the movies, the comics, the novels, what have you, Star Wars is one of, if not THE biggest sci-fi universe in the world and one of the most important in all of nerd culture. After the controversial madness that was EVERYTHING about The Last Jedi, I felt the need to see this one. How does this new Trilogy end? Is it any good? Well, let's dig in. 1. Technical aspects The movie looks good for the most part. It's a lot of good CGI and descent puppetry, a lot of explosions, and a lot of color. All the places that the movie goes do feel genuinely unique to one another, so points there, I guess. But it has some serious issues with the editing. The editing is god awful for most of the movie, the camera flips around too much, I think. I don't want constant tracking shots but they keep jump-cutting all over rooms and very suddenly for scene transitions. There are a fair amount of wipes but only one scene transition actually stood out to me at the very start of the movie, everything else was kinda dull. This has to be addressed, Carrie Fisher is still in this movie. What they did was cut snippets of her head out of unused footage from Force Awakens and Last Jedi, then put it relatively well over the face of a body double. This allows her to exist in the movie but it isn't good. From an ethical standpoint and from how it affects the flow of her scenes. Her tone of voice doesn't feel right for any of the scenes she's in and her answers to what people say are usually just kinda weird, as well as what people say whilst responding to her. 2. Acting and characters (very lite Spoilers) The acting in the movie is okay generally. It's nothing to write home about though. It's solid and generally does the job but the characters themselves are a different story. One problem is that the movie introduces a shit ton of them, including but not limited too, (Spoiler warnings for this paragraph), Zorii Bliss, An old Spice running friend of Poe's who is trying to ape a Mandalorian (Like the society) vibe in the look of her outfit but doesn't do it well. Babu Frik, her tiny alien boss and a surprisingly tech-savvy little so-and-so. D-O, a small droid consisting of a cone head and a single wheel, voiced by JJ Abrahms. And Jannah, who like Finn, is a rogue Stormtrooper from the first order. Everyone and everything else introduced are just more generals for the "Final order" (A rebranding of the First Order) and a bunch of background aliens and stuff for the resistance. The main problem with these characters is none of them have time to develop because of how many are introduced. They try with Zorii, bless them, but her scenes are too short so her character doesn't "Develop" it just starts at one point and changes at the drop of a hat. And the returning Characters honestly aren't handled great either. Rey is okay for the most part, but Finn contributed just about nothing, Poe wasn't worth much more than a ride between planets, Kylo Ren goes back to wearing his old helmet for some reason and again, seems to change without much provocation. Leia's death is weird and kinda pointless, although I'm happy they won't do what they did again. The only consistently good, solid characters in the movie were the droids (Especially C3PO) and Chewbacca. Characters with very few lines or who literally cannot speak. That's such a weird thing to say, honestly. 3. Plot and thoughts as we go (Heavy Spoilers) A transmission has gone all across the galaxy, Emperor Palpatine lives. Kylo Ren is hunting for a "Sith Wayfinder" and Rey is training under Leia to become a better Jedi. Kylo finds the Wayfinder and goes to a sort of hidden Sith planet whereon he meets Palpatine, here it is revealed that Snoke was a clone made by Palpatine's servants, "The Nights of Ren" and that Palpatine was "Every voice Kylo heard in his head." (Not too subtle change into Darth Vader's voice as he speaks.) Kylo and Palpatine have a short exchange where the younger pledges both his and the First Order's services to him, in exchange, Palpatine will add a whole new fleet of Star Destroyers to them. Star Destroyers he literally just summons up from the ground. Hangar bay doors don't open, these things just slam up from the ground like titans of myth rising from ancient slumbers. And while that might sound cool, it comes with a lot of issues. For starters: Who made these things? The Knights of Ren? How old is that organization, then? How old are these ships? Why don't they have hangar doors overhead? Hell, we learn later that these things will bolster first Order forces by "Ten thousandfold." How many of these things are there? How many ships does the First Order (Now "The Final Order") have at this point? Anyway, back with the resistance. After a cameo by the best fictional game in the series, Holochess, we find that they're getting information from an ally I never caught the name of, flanked by some sort of weird alien on the ship who's apparently on a first name basis with Finn and Poe. We also learn the Final Order has a spy and a decent chase scene ensues. All well and good, but all this and the conspicuous lack of porgs makes me wonder how much time has actually passed between this movie and Last Jedi. Especially when we cut back to Rey who is trying to hear the voices of past Jedi but just realizes she can't and immediately drops the meditation in favor of running a training course. She ends up getting distracted while running it and accidentally drops a tree on BB8. She says to Leia that she will one day earn the right to use Luke's lightsaber... But it broke in the last movie. Again, can we please get a time stamp? Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, and their crew return, whereupon there's a kind of funny back and forth about what Rey did to BB8 and what Poe did to the Falcon during the chase. The highlight of which is "At least BB8 isn't on fire!" "What's left of him isn't!" During this breif stop, we learn that The Final Order is broadcasting their plans, in sixteen hours they will lay waste to entire worlds because as it turns out, the new ships that Palpatine gave them all have planet-destroying laser weapons on the bottom. A Fleet of Star Destroyers, each with Death Star-grade power. That's definitely upping the anti, I suppose. During this, we also learn that the "Wayfinder" Kylo went after is important because its the only way to find the planet Palpatine is holed up on, a world called "Exegol," you won't find it on any other maps. So the crew goes on a quest to find a man in service to the Sith, a bloke named "Ochi" who was last spotted on a planet called "Pasaana" because for some reason, Luke and Lando Calrissian were tracking him. The movie doesn't explain why they were after him, nor why they seemed to abandon the search. (Or when any of that happened, for that matter.) Our heroes journey to Pasaana where, as it turns out, there's a festival happening. One that celebrates family and ancestry. Cue the best comic relief in the movie, C3PO, as when Poe expresses that he isn't psyched about working with a crowd of people all around him, C3PO expresses elation, "We are very lucky, it only comes once every Forty-Two years--" Etc. Honestly, C3PO is the best part of the movie. As the resistance crew goes about the Festival, Rye gets a necklace from a local who asks for her family name, not just her given, but Rey just says she doens't have a family name. Kylo contacts Rey with their weird psychic bond they had in Last Jedi, and they have an interesting exchange about the last movie and her wanting to take his hand at the end but deciding against it, and how when he offers it this time, she will take it. He steals the necklace Rey got from off her throat because as established in TLJ, he can do stuff like that. He has Final Order members analyze the necklace and learns of the planet Rey and her cohorts are on while they gad about the festival looking for any sort of clues or leads. They end up getting found by Final Order Troopers, but saved by Lando, apparently, Leia told him where they were. They mention the resistance could use his help, but he just says that his flying days are behind him before he sends them off. The gang is followed by Final Order troopers, resulting in a chase scene, one I quite like. The Final Order has jet troopers now, and the crew basically just have their sidearms as weapons, having stolen vehicles from the locals. It's a very intense action scene, even when the crew crashes into "Not-quite-quicksand." Everyone starts sinking in and Finn says he's always wanted to tell Rey something. What it is goes unanswered as he sinks down. The lot of them have fallen into a cavern of some sort. They explore the cave until they find two things, Ochi's land cruiser, and Ochi, who as it turns out is long dead, nothing more than bones and whatever he had on him at the time. Rey digs through his body and finds a scary-looking dagger that has most definitely been used for some less than savory deeds, Rey sensing the negative force energy off it. 3PO tells them that the inscriptions all over the dagger are in Sith Runic. He CAN translate it, but he can't say it aloud. It has to do with Old Republic regulations on translation modules. They keep the dagger, at least. There's also a giant serpent, one the cast calm into letting Rey get close, whereupon we learn she has the ability to force-heal injuries. The snake lets them out and she explains that it's basically channeling some of her own life force into whatever she's healing, and when she sees Ochi's ship, she's unnerved. She knows it from the day her parents left her. Some true madness begins to unfold as Kylo shows up in his ship and Rey cuts one of the wings off, forcing it to crash. Chewbacca is captured and ostensibly killed accidentally by Rey because she summons force lightning and blows his transport's engines. There's another brief exchange with Kylo about him seeing the lightning for real, thus her capacity for darkness, before Finn and Poe tell her they NEED to leave. They do and Kylo radios for pick up as the Final Order literally toes the Millenium Falcon into a Star Destroyer. It is here we learn that Kylo knows about the spy in their ranks and that Chewbacca survived. While they waddle about in Ochi's ship, thinking of a plan, C-3PO reveals that there IS a way to get a translation out of him. Essentially they need to do a factory reset. This means 3PO will lose all memories of his friends and life. But what is that compared to a galaxy dominated by fear? Poe knows the man for the job, trouble is they need to go to a world called "Kijimi" where Poe made a booboo before joining the resistance. But again, literal planets worth of lives are at stake, so he swallows his lack of pride and they go. A not bad tracking shot of Poe creeping around the streets and finding it crawling with Final Order troopers later, his mistake comes up to him. Both her pistols drawn, and one to his head. We learn that "Zorii" and Poe's old outfit were spice runners, and their old friend "Babu Frik" is the guy they'll need to crack 3PO's head open. Babu only sees people who are part of the crew, which Poe no longer is. They eventually convince her and the other spice runners to let them in. There's a genuinely heart-wrenching moment where 3PO goes completely silent before the process gets going and he says he's just taking one last look at his friends. Meanwhile, we see Poe and Zorii on top of a building, Poe mentions how no one came after the last movie, their distress call was for nothing. Way to invalidate the most controversial movie in the series, you dolts. Also, Zorii seems to have changed for no reason. She went from not wanting to look in Poe's general direction to inviting him out to her new life as a farmer on some rock at the fringes of the galaxy. Poe turns her down because he has a war to fight, whether or not he wins. She gives him a First Order Captain's badge, which would allow docking in any Final Order ship or planet because the rebranding is only so recent, I guess. C-3PO gets rebooted and the crew learns what the inscription on the dagger means, but again, the cost is 3PO's memory. He reboots and introduces himself as "C-3PO, human-cyborg relations, who are you?" Babu introduces himself and Rey fixes the wheel on a robot found on Ochi's ship, a little cone head thing we don't learn the name of until about an hour later, "D-O." At about this point, Rey realizes what's in orbit just overhead, Kylo's flagship... And Chewbacca inside. The crew boards the ship to free Chewy and get the Falcon back, along the way, Rey mind tricks a couple of troopers, the crew shoots a few dead, and then she goes off on her own, trying to find something. Her scenes on the flagship are pretty awesome, as she enters Kylo Ren's quarters and starts not only talking to him again but also fights him. This leads to some very interesting cinematography, a fight where when they accidentally break things in their respective locations, they appear in front of the other, so for example, Kylo is in the streets of the city the crew was in, specifically a market in it. He cuts open a pot full of berries/nuts and they all appear on the ground in his chamber while Rey is fighting him. It's pretty impressive. During the fight, we also learn A. the real reason Rey's parents sold her: Protecting her from her grandfather. B. Who this grandfather is. The Emperor. Rey is seriously Palpatine's granddaughter. C. Rey's parents died protecting her. Kylo learns she's in his quarters when she accidentally destroys a podium, on which was resting Darth Vader's semi-melted helmet. From there, it all spirals out, Ren has them lock down the ship, Rey snags the dagger and Chewy's gear, Chewy, Finn, and Poe are caught, only to find out that general Hux is the spy who saves them When his motives are questioned, Hux says he doesn't care if the resistance wins. He wants Kylo to lose. Rey and Kylo have one more confrontation before the falcon shows up and Rey literally leaps into space to get on the entrance to the falcon. Where Finn is. Audibly screaming at her. Y'all can say what you want about a downward bombing in space probably not working very well in Last Jedi, but this is a whole new level of bullshit. Rey leams OUT OF A RAY SHIELD into the vacuum of space. I don't care that Leia survived being out way longer in TLJ, at least she wasn't audibly saying things as she went, at least it felt like she was in space instead of just a big random fall. Also worth noting, to ver their escape, they blast the bad guys with the Falcon's engine trails, this burns or knocks back all the Troopers but Kylo, who is standing roughly the same distance as at least two of them, and Rey, who is closer than ANY of them are unaffected. This one moment is more agitating to me than most of The Last Jedi, honestly. There's Wardian grade plot armor, and then there's this. The crew gets away and Hux is killed by another general because he figured out that Hux was the spy, they end up at another planet because of the inscription and the Falcon crashes, drawing the attention of "Jannah" and her random tribe of people. They resolve to fix the Falcon while waiting for the water to calm, something they at once have zero choice or time for. Turns out the Sith Wayfinder is on a hunk of the second Deathstar. Rant to come. While waiting for the water to calm and repairing the Falcon, we learn Janna is a rogue Storm Trooper, just like Finn. Her entire company was meant to open fire on civilians, but ALL OF THEM refused. Finn mentions he didn't think there were others but I have to question where Jannah's entire unit gets off doing that. How did all of them fight their programming? Moving on, BB8 raises a concern, he hasn't seen Rey in a while. Turns out she stole the rogue trooper's sea skimmer and rides the waves JUST right, so she can make it to the chunk of Deathstar. I was never big into the idea that Rey was a Mary Sue until this happened. I was willing to write everything else off up to this point but NO. She has NEVER used something like this. She spent most of her damn life on a planet with NO water and no point actually drove anything like this save for the land boat she stole from the natives during the festival but even then, it didn't have the quirks this thing had (It's a repurposed ship of some sort, she needs to constantly raise and lower an arm of the ship to reduce drag, I suppose.) I know this seems like the most random thing to officially stand in that camp, but what's that old saying about straws and camel's backs? Rey goes to the shard of the Deathstar and starts exploring, it's full of old classic Storm Trooper outfits, mostly helmets. She goes to the Emperor's old throne room and through an old door, she ends up in a kind of trippy, maze-like space until she finds the Wayfinder and faces a seemingly Sithified version of herself with a dark robe and a collapsable double-sided lightsaber. This version of her fights her for all of four seconds and is never seen again because normal Rey flees out of the room and into Kylo Ren's waiting gaze. Now, my question is WHY would Palpatine keep one of these things on the Deathstar 2? In case he wanted to go to Exegol? Why not keep it in a more remote location than about thirty feet to your left? It's an ancient Sith artifact, you'd figure he'd be more protective of it. But nooo. So Kylo breaks the Wayfinder Rey found, wasting all of our time, before engaging in a lightsaber fight on the outside of the ruins. Finn and Jannah catch up to see this but can't do anything, partly because if they don't hug the ground, the turbulent water below will likely send a wave up just high enough to knock them into the ocean, Rey and Kylo, however, are clear I guess because they have higher ground away from the tides, they still get sprayed a lot. The fight ends with Leia dying from using what's left of her energy to reach her son, Rey stabbing and then healing Kylo before she leaves in his ship. The crew, save for Rey, and Jannah's rogues join up with the rest of the resistance where they find out what happened, and Chewbacca loses it. The Wookie collapses to his knees and starts screaming and wailing, beating into the ground, etc. He's lost all his human friends, 3PO's mind is wiped, the only things left from the good old days are R2 and the Falcon. This is a genuinely harrowing moment for longtime fans, I think. Meanwhile, Rose Tico shows up for the second time this entire movie, the first time being her explaining why she can't go with, she has lines that could have been given to almost any rando in the resistance which is honestly a shame. Then we cut to Ahch-To, The planet Luke exiled himself to in Force Awakens and TLJ, to find Rey burning Kylo's ship and very nearly, Luke's lightsaber. Luke's ghost shows up, catching the saber, and giving her a pep talk, telling her he knows now that exiling himself was stupid and that she needs to face the darkness in herself and the galaxy head-on. That delusion she saw getting her Wayfinder wasn't the first, she's seen herself ruling at Kylo's side as the empress, but given Luke's Pep talk, him showing her a spare lightsaber that used to belong to Leia, and the fact that Kylo had HIS Wayfinder in his spare ship, Rey agrees to continue fighting the good fight. But how will she leave the planet? Luke's force ghost raises Red five from the ocean. I'm not kidding, he literally just force lifts it with some show-offy joy. That thing has been waterlogged for how long? Even assuming Rey could fix it, where the hell is she getting fuel for it? Back with Kylo, we see him gawking out over the sea, a familiar old voice starts talking to him. Han Solo's ghost shows up and they start having a heart to heart oddly reminiscent of the one they had in Force Awakens. Han says he knew his son was in there somewhere, and when Ren says "Your son is dead" Han says "No, Kylo Ren is." In that spirit, I will now refer to Kylo as "Ben" for the rest of the review. Ben throws his lightsaber into the ocean and is left to his own devices by his dad's ghost. The resistance somehow knows that there are radio towers on Exegol that help the ships navigate through the constant storms and rain, Poe and Finn organize a plan, to distract the ships while a ground force attacks the tower and Chewbacca will go off and send another distress signal, allowing others to join the battle if they can. They come up with this because D-O has the plans for the ships and the like stored in his head if memory serves, and also 3PO gets his memory back, R2 had a back up, wouldn't you know it? The Resistance charges into battle against the Final Order over Exegol, And thus begins a fun clusterfuck of lasers and explosions. As one expects from this trilogy. Now, the first order has this actually brilliant moment when they realize they can shut down the tower, and start broadcasting the same helpful signals from one of the ships themselves. Which they do, this allows them to down some Resistance ships before Finn sees what's happening and has them do a ground invasion style attack ON that ship. As in they deploy troops over the top of it ON HORSEBACK. Honestly one of those things that's so loveably stupid. They end up in conflict with a bunch of troopers on top of the ship as they look for weak spots to plant bombs or the like. Rey, meanwhile, has snuck into the Emperor's hiding place, just as Ben lands on the planet. There's a lot of running around on all sides, dogfights under and around the larger ships, Ben fighting knights of Ren with just his bare hands and the Force, Rey being lured into Palpatine's grasp, Finn and Jannah's group shooting at troopers and passing ships as they look for weak spots. It would have all been fairly tense if the editing wasn't done by a coked-up squirrel. Almost nothing feels impactful in the fights, there are too many cuts in scenes largely about singular or just two characters. There are good elements to all this but I didn't care enough about most of these people. for it to mean much. Also worth noting: not much can be done. They've already lost so many pilots, soldiers, and fighters, Finn and Jannah's group haven't fulfilled their goal yet, Palpatine is giving Rey a very "Let the hate flow through you" speech about how it's all pointless and her friends are doomed, but if she kills him, and becomes the empress, the Final Order will be hers to control, she agrees for a moment, letting a bunch of the Knights of Ren and Palpatine begin ritual chanting as a horde of them look on, Poe is out of hope. Rey is about to give in and Ben is surrounded with no weapon. All hope is lost... Until Rey enters another sort of shat with Ben and gives him the lightsaber she was moments ago going to kill the Emperor with. Ben strikes down his aggressors and makes his way to Rey and the Emperor, they slaughter the knights in the immediate vicinity. While that's happening, an entire fleet of random people shows up to help the resistance. Zorri and Babu are right next to the Falcon, which contains not only Chewbacca but Lando. The fight begins anew as Finn and Jannah blow the antennae in the ship they're on and cripple the Final Order Fleet. Now all the Resistance has to do is blast the planet-killing lasers and the entire ship they're rigged up to will also be destroyed... Which makes some sense but is still a pretty massive design flaw. Down with Rey, Ben, and Palpatine, the youngsters try to strike the Emperor down, only to basically have their life forces partly fed upon. Ben goes flying down a naturally formed cave shaft, presumably to his doom. Palpatine has regenerated from the life steal thing and sits on this massive stone Sith throne just under the battle in the sky, and in a moment so absurd I was dumbstruck when it happened, sends lightning up into the sky. A massive MASSIVE pillar of it, so massive that not only does it reach the sky, but when it does, it fans out and strikes dozens, if not hundreds, of resistance ships, taking them right out of the sky. This guy is over a hundred years old, several of which he was DEAD for and for some reason now, he has power I would only be able to describe as "Godlike" for no damn reason. I forgot to mention earlier that he didn't live through being exploded in ep 6. He brought himself back to life somehow, just wrote it off as his access to the dark side. He still looked terrible though, like he was actually a corpse with rotten hands and pure white eyes and all that. But somehow, two random idiot children's life forces, nowhere near in their totality, are enough to rejuvenate him and give him power unseen by most of the deadliest Sith in all of Star Wars. Vader's apprentice from The Force Unleashed wasn't this fucking OP. The worst he did could be chalked up to gameplay, this one-man lightning storm bullshit is actually canon, though. So this creates a problem: How does Rey defeat someone with the power of a god on her own? She ignites Leia's old lightsaber from when Luke was training her and then redirects the Emperor's lightning back into his face, destroying his head. From there, the Final Order's fleet is destroyed and Finn and Jannah are rescued from a fiery death as the ship they're on starts crashing to the ground, I guess being the only surviving members of their attack squad. Ben climbs out of the shaft and gives his life force to bring Rey back from the dead, they share a kiss and Ben dies, allowing Rey to flee in the Red Five, much to everyone's relief. There are celebrations and hints of things to come, including Lando taking Jannah with him on adventures through the stars, Rose hugging some dude who ISN'T Finn, much to Finn's annoyance, and Zorii and Poe exchanging wordless gestures. The final scene is Rey going to the old Skywalker Moisture farm to burry Luke and Leia's lightsabers just outside the house. How she knew where the farm was or why she buries them is anyone's guess. She pulls out a new lightsaber, a Yellow one. Which... Okay, I guess but where did she get it? Did she make it? How? Where? Did she just find it somewhere? How? Where? But anyway, an old woman comes walking by and mentions that the hasn't been anyone at the farm in so long and asks Rey who she is. Rey says "My name is Rey." "Rey Who?" Luke and Leia's force ghosts appear and smile at Rey. She proudly announces that she is "Rey Skywalker." And her and BB8 watch the suns over Tatooine set. The end. 4. A Nitpick? Some of these are just little things I couldn't find a good place to put elsewhere: In flashbacks, we see Luke training Leia a bit, in those scenes, her lightsaber is green. In the modern-day, for whatever reason, it's blue. I'm not sure if that's an oversight or not. Also worth asking: Where is Luke's personal saber? I did some research and he apparently reclaimed it at some point in the EU (Which is no longer canon) but even in Last Jedi, the last we see of it is him almost using it on a young Ben Solo. Where the hell did it go? 5. Conclusion I see this movie has it’s good bits but it isn't enough to make up for how shoddy the overall product is. There are too many new characters to let even the pre-established ones breathe, let alone each other, the editing was total garbage to the point where I genuinely got a headache, the plot invalidates both episodes eight AND six, while itself being kind of terrible... Nothing can kill Star Wars for me. This movie certainly tried. TL;DR: Do not watch this trash, I don't care if it's your first Star Wars film of if you're a long-time viewer, it isn't worth your time or money. Merry Christmas, everyone, and have a happy new year. (FTR: This is something I stole from my own deviantART, I’m not plagiarizing shit, I’m just copypasting myself and adding edits if I see hiccups in the future.)

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ashintheairlikesnow · 5 years ago

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Lars and Aidan Caught

(An Anon requested a chapter from my original WIP that had Aidan/Lars, so here you go! Although it goes... dark places. This is a novel about demons, after all...

CW: Threatened noncon towards the end (doesn’t actually happen), some violence. Takes place in a fantasy universe, in a cult that has very homophobic tendencies and there is some use of in-world homophobic language)

The moon was a sliver of itself, leaving the world bathed in a more complete darkness than usual. Aidan stepped off the path northeast of town and instead walked through the woods, in no hurry, pretending to be taking an idle stroll.

The whole time, he placed each foot carefully to avoid sticks that might crack or leaves that might rustle as he passed, trying to keep one eye over his shoulder. No one was out this late at night, the point where it was nearly early morning. Guards at Petra’s Gate, maybe; maybe a Hunter or two around the perimeter.

They never met near either of those places, and sticking to the north part of town meant you’d see even fewer people, since everyone avoided the caves. Still, the tension in town every day meant it had been nearly three weeks since they’d been able to pass a message along, set up a time. Aidan couldn’t seem to stop second-guessing himself, looking over his shoulder with every step.

Something was going to happen, or… maybe it had happened already. Something he didn’t know about or understand. The air in Morlofte had changed. Aidan had been comfortable in this place, it was his entire life, but he was starting to feel nervous. The rules were changing, rules that had always been etched in stone were slipping away like sand.

The Singer held Gatherings with new fervor, sometimes three times a week, her eyes wide and white-rimmed and wild. She spoke about taking the word of the Mother out into the world itself, but… the message wasn’t the same. She wasn’t promoting peace. This wasn’t the sermons he was used to. He’d once all but rolled his eyes as they droned on and on. Now, he sat in rapt, horrified fascination.

The Singer told them to have faith in the coming storm. She spoke about opening the Gates like Morlofte was an army preparing to invade, rather than a peaceful town mostly made up of farmers. The people cheered, their eyes strangely empty while they applauded. She had started training everyone in town in combat, having the Guards walk them through the basics, claiming it was for ‘defense’.

Yesterday, Aidan and a couple of other Guards had been denied entrance into the caves, where Guards had always been the ones who came and went to take care of those in punishment. Now only the Elders and the Singer and her daughters went in there these days.

No one in punishment had been allowed to come out in weeks. On the other hand, crimes that had once been punished by time in the caves were either being ignored outright, or people were beaten. Sometimes openly, in the street. Aidan had been ordered to strike someone the other day.

Elder Brem said there was a new law, that the Singer had had a message from the Mother that they must become tougher, harder on the people. Prepare them to stay together even in times of great distress.

What distress? What were they planning?

People were frightened.

If the Singer suddenly didn’t want people in the caves, she had to be hiding something in there. It couldn’t be the runaway; Tyler Rykke’s existence was common knowledge by now. They were keeping people out of the caves, and at the same time, talking about opening the Gates. Even the hum of the fence, the gentle permanence that had never left Morlofte and had always sounded like comfort and reassurance to Aidan, had a jagged edge these days.

Something was different. Something was about to happen, and he didn’t want to be here whenever whatever it was occurred.

It was time for Aidan to leave, and he knew exactly who he wanted to take with him.

He went to their usual spot, a secluded clearing, barely the length of three men lying head-to-toe, alongside a small stream. Just enough rushing water sound to drown out their words if anyone came nearby, but not so much that they couldn’t hear the crashing sounds of anyone unused to the woods.

The clearing was empty when he got there, but that wasn’t unusual. Aidan settled himself into the shadow of a tree, trying to shake off his exhaustion. These after-midnight meetings were hard the next day. He’d have to try and sneak off for a nap at some point, if nobody seemed like they’d notice.

Everyone seemed to notice everything these days. Nobody talked about anything but surface things, but you could hear the fear in their voices, the worry. He knew even the younger ones were worried, too. Bram had taken to crawling into Aidan’s bed in the middle of the night, fourteen year old Bram, to ask him if they were about to be overrun by the world outside.

He wasn’t sure how to explain that they might be the ones gearing up to go out there themselves. He wasn’t sure if he should ask him to run away, too.

Aidan heard the sound of someone coming through the brush, and although he was pretty sure he knew who it was, he took another two silent steps back himself, until he was completely shrouded by shadow.

After a few moments, the person he’d been waiting for stepped into the clearing. With his eyes adjusted to the dark, Aidan could see every detail.

“Hello,” He said softly, stepping out of the shadow of the tree. “Missed you.”

“Hello yourself,” Lars Mikkelson replied, a smile playing across his face. He looked somehow leaner in the shadows and dim moonlight, wearing just a thin shirt and pants that could have been blue or gray or any color at all. The thin, silvery light washed everything out. They were all just grays, now.

There was a pause, while they just stared at each other. It occurred to Aidan that he’d never seen anything as beautiful as Lars in the middle in the night. He opened his mouth to tell him, realized how absolutely, atrociously awful it would sound if he tried to find the words, and closed his mouth again.

Finally, Aidan said, “C’mere,” in a voice that seemed caught somewhere in his throat. Lars crossed the length of the clearing in something slightly less than a run and they grabbed onto each other like drowning men, their kiss one that felt more like a need than affection.

When they finally broke apart, both gasped for air. Aidan ran a hand through Lars’s hair, as always a little caught off guard by how delicate he seemed. “You’re late,” He whispered, and kissed him again.

Lars laughed, more exhalations than sound. “I’m not. You were early.”

“It’s been weeks, Lars.”

“There was never a good time. We’ve been busy. Things have been…” Lars trailed off, and finally shook his head. “Healers have been needed more than ever these days. Plus, El has been watching me like a hawk. I had to make sure she was asleep before I could go. Let’s hope no one has a nightmare tonight and wakes up and she has to explain where I am again. She hates how often I go for ‘walks’. Plus, she says with things the way they are now..”

“She hates everything about you,” Aidan shrugged. “She always did.”

“No… she doesn’t hate me. She tried to make it work for a long time. I’m the problem, not her.” Lars looked away, off to the side, crossing his arms in front of him. “She’s hurt, Ade. I’ve been married to her for years and all I’ve ever done is hurt her.”

“You didn’t ask to be assigned to her.”

“She didn’t ask for me, either. Let’s stop talking about this. I don’t want to meet you with her right there behind me, telling me all the ways I’m evil this week. I want being with you to be just being with you.”

“I want that, too.” Aidan frowned, standing awkwardly for a moment before simply folding Lars into his arms. There were times it paid to be the taller man, and the feeling of the top of Lars’s head tucked just under his chin… it was something he thought about all the time, going through the motions of the rest of his life. It was all just biding time until there was this. “We’ve got to get out of here, Lars.”

“I know.”

“I don’t know what, but something is really, really wrong.”

“I know.” Lars pulled back, and Aidan for a moment regretted having said anything at all. Here, these times they met in secret, time sped by. The rest of his life, it stood still. He would have given anything to switch the two. “But where would we even go? You’ve heard what it’s like out there.”

“What we’ve been told it’s like out there. What if it’s better? What if they don’t want us to know because they’re afraid no one would ever stay?”

“Aidan… what if it it’s not better? What if we run, and we hide, and we find our way out there and it’s… worse?”

“I don’t think there are walls out there. If it’s worse, then we just keep going. We just go until we don’t see anyone, and we stop in that place, and we live for each other.”

“You can’t just live for someone else for forever,” Lars said, softly, but there was a smile in his voice that Aidan would have given anything to hear again.

“Watch me,” Aidan whispered, and kissed him again before he could say anything in reply. They folded into each other in away that was utterly natural. Their mouths opened to each other and Aidan thought there had never been anything so soft as Lars, as everything about him. The stream beside them burbled away, a squirrel took off with a crash in the branches above them. Aidan pulled back, just for a moment, just long enough to pull Lars’s shirt over his head, then his own.

“We can’t stay too long,” Lars said, his hands already going to undo the button on Aidan’s pants.

“How long is too long, exactly? I think I can take up exactly that much time.” He laughed, pushing Lars’s back up against a nearby tree, one hand sliding around behind the back of his head, the other finding its way further down.

“Shit-,” Lars gasped, and Aidan cut him off with another kiss. There was quiet, except for their shifting, the occasional gasp, the sound of their mouths together. Aidan pulled back, looking at the shadows sliding around and over the other man’s face. “By the Far God, you’re pretty,” He said. His voice was hoarse with desire.

Lars blinked at him, startled by the casual heresy, but he put his hands up to Aidan’s face. “Oh, Ade. I-”

There was a sudden loud crash in the bushes off the way they had come, the sound of someone cursing. Aidan felt a cold wave of fear wash from head to toe, undoing every ounce of warmth that he’d had a moment earlier. He pushed himself away from Lars, trying to do his pants back up over the very obvious bulge trying to make itself known. “Shit.”

Found us. For nearly three years they’d been meeting like this. Three years, in different places, always after midnight. For three years no one had ever suspected a thing.

“Oh, Mother,” Lars whispered. Even in the darkness, his face had gone a sickly chalky white. “Oh no. Oh no.”

“Lars, get out of here,” Aidan snapped. “Just run. I’ll keep them busy. Maybe it’s just Eldaway. Maybe she followed you.”

“Eldaway already hates you enough, and that cursing was a man’s voice,” Lars said, but the humor didn’t quite land. His eyes flickered, panicked, back and forth between the source of the sound and Aidan’s face. “Ade, they’ll know we-... they’ll hurt you-”

“Not your problem. Go.”

The crashing was louder. It was definitely more than one person, Aidan thought. He tried to calm himself. Lars just stood there, like a deer staring down an arrow headed right for it. “I said go!”

Lars looked back at him once more, nodded, and took off. He ran barefoot through the cold streamwater. Smart; one way to not leave a trail right off the bat. Aidan swept his sword up into his hand and spun around just as three Guards stepped out of the trees into the clearing. That had been close. How much had they seen?

“Who was that? Get him!” One yelled at the others. Ben, Aidan thought. That was Ben. One of those the Singer trusted to leave with Traders, to go out into the world. Aidan hadn’t spent years afraid of this exact moment for nothing. Aidan raised his sword and stepped into the path of the one who had moved to follow Lars, smiling.

“That’s not necessary. I think you’ll have your hands full with me,” He said smoothly. His heart pounded with panic, but none of it showed on his face. At least he hoped it didn’t. Run, Lars. Run fast.

“Looks like you’ve had your hands full enough tonight, flit.” Ben’s lip curled with disgust. “What else you been filling?”

“Oh, do you need me to show you how it works?” Aidan raised an eyebrow. “I give lessons, you know. I’m very talented.” The rage was building in their expressions, rage and disgust. If he made them angry enough they’d forget Lars entirely, focus on him. Aidan knew he should feel ashamed but all he could think about was Lars, racing barefoot through the woods, putting as much distance between them as he could before they realized Aidan was pissing them off on purpose.

“Shut up, slagpile. You’ll be damned for that, you know. For… that.” The man gestured to the spot where Aidan and Lars’s shirts were in a pile together on the ground, near their shoes. “We saw it was a man, Garnes. You’re well and truly fucked, now.”

“No, that’s what I was about to be before you showed up to join the fun, Benny.”

“Shut up and surrender, degenerate,” another guard said, spitting to the side. “Tell us who you were with. It doesn’t have to go down like this.”

“I’m sorry, Eli,” Aidan said sincerely, setting his feet into the dirt with one slightly angled in front of the other, trying to keep his eyes on all of them at once. His body moved into a low, defensive posture fluidly, instinctively. “It doesn’t matter who I was with.”

“Shit,” the third Guard said, nervously. “I don’t want to fight Aidan. I’ve seen him practice.”

“Coward,” Ben spat. “Flits can’t fight.”

“Most of them, maybe,” Eli shrugged. “We know Aidan can. You don’t get to be Elder Brem’s favorite without being able to handle a sword, Ben.”

“This piece of shit handles more than swords,” Ben said, rolling his eyes. There was something off about them, Ben’s gaze seemed wrong somehow, but it was too dark for Aidan to tell exactly what it was. “Take him down. We’ll find out soon enough who he’s been rutting with like an animal out here in the woods.”

“I’ll have you know I rut like a man,” Aidan said smoothly. “With other men.”

The distraction had worked. Ben roared and ran at him. The other two swung out to the side to try and get at his weak spots. Not one of them even looked in the direction Lars had gone.

Ben swung first, and their swords met with an ugly clang. Then Eli from the side, and Aidan just barely met his blow, ducked under the third guard’s first attempt. By then, Ben was already trying again. Aidan couldn’t last. It was three on one.

But he gave it a good fucking try, that was for sure.

It was Eli who got the first good cut in, a few moments later. Aidan spun away as blood dripped down his side, hissing at the hot flash of pain. That’d slow him down, and from the relief that flashed across their faces, they knew it. He tried to back up, dancing lightly away, but they kept pressing him in. A few more cuts, shallow, but they hurt like hell. The circle of trees seemed like bars on a cage, now. He just had to buy Lars some more time.

Just buy him some more time-

Ben stuck his foot out. Aidan, distracted trying to defend against Eli, managed to trip right into it and fell. His head smacked against a tree trunk.

His grip on his sword went suddenly slack, and Eli kicked it away. It skidded across the clearing, too far for him to reach.

Blade to his neck, less than an inch away. “Hold still, flit.” Throbbing skull. Something felt like it had broken in his mind. Breathing hard, Aidan held still.

Ben grinned down at him, sweaty enough that Aidan could see the sheen on his forehead and cheeks even in the night. Too sweaty. Why? The fight hadn’t been that long. It was still cold out here at night, still spring. “You’re bleeding in four places, Garnes. It’s over. Put your hands up. You’re under arrest for the pursuit of unlawful carnal knowledge.”

Aidan turned his palms out, hands up, sitting slowly up with the sword to his neck the whole time. He was sweating, too, or bleeding from his head where he’d hit it. Something wet was running down his face, in any case. “Fine. Take me back to town, then.”

“Not just yet.” The other two looked, confused at Ben, who just smiled down at Aidan. The smile stretched too wide, was held for too long. Aidan shuddered. “Who knew Aidan Garnes was degenerate, this whole damn time? Who’d have guessed it?”

“Well, I knew,” Aidan said helpfully, but his voice was weaker than it had been before. The air felt heavy and Aidan, for once, was afraid.

“Shut up.” Ben looked back at the other two, that smile still lingering in his expression. There was an empty hate in his eyes, something else roiling underneath. The faces of the congregation at the end of the Singer’s sermons, when she talked about the evils of the world outside, how the Mother would cleanse them all. “You were spotted leaving town, when we’re all on curfew these days. Now we know why. The Singer’s going to be so angry,” Ben said, with something like delight in his voice at the thought. Something perverse. “They’re going to kill you.”

Something had changed, in the air. Something was making people worse. Ben was being worse. He could see the surprise and uncertainty in Eli’s face, the unhappy looks he exchanged with the third guard, their confusion.

“So who were you with, Garnes? Tell us the truth, and we’ll go easy on you. Maybe you get to live. Turn him in. Let us know what other flit’s been seducing you. Maybe it wasn’t your fault, eh? Maybe someone else made you do it?”

“No one seduced me,” Aidan snorted. He blinked as red filtered into his vision in his left eye. Definitely bleeding from the head, then. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Doesn’t it? Guess I wouldn’t know. I waited for my wife, like the Singer said.”

Even Eli couldn’t pretend to believe that one, he and the other guard exchanged a baffled look. Aidan laughed out loud. “Oh, please. You went to the hayloft with Aisha when we were fourteen.”

Ben frowned, eyes narrowing. It’s in his eyes. What is wrong with his eyes? “At least I went with a girl.”

By now, Aidan knew Lars had to be far enough away that he’d stopped running. Maybe take a second to catch his breath. Walk back into town a different way, explain to Eldaway if she was up that he’d gone swimming or something-

“You’re really not going to tell us who you were with?”

Aidan spat on the ground, right at Ben’s feet. “I’d rather die.”

That slow, sick smile spread across Ben’s face again. Something is making people worse in Morlofte. What is it? What changed? I’ve never seen this face on him before. From the look on Eli’s face, neither had he. Something had changed in Morlofte.

Why isn’t it changing everyone?

“Let’s get him back to the Singer, Ben,” Eli said, in nearly a whisper, his own eyes suddenly wide, ringed with white. That was when it occurred to Aidan what was wrong with Ben. The thing that he hadn’t been able to figure out.

Ben’s were totally black. He had no whites in his eyes.

“You like men so much, Garnes?” Ben laughed. It was a low, throaty laugh. Lars laughed that way, sometimes, when they were out here in the woods. From Ben, it was the worst sound Aidan had ever heard. “Let’s find out just how much.”

“What?” Aidan’s lips were numb. “No.”

The sword moved away from Aidan’s neck, just a little. “You don’t get to say no. Get up on your knees.” One of Ben’s hands dropped, starting to undo his own pants.

“Ben, what the hell?” Eli sounded frightened, suddenly. “Stop.”

“I said on your knees, flit,” Ben said, flatly, ignoring him. There was another voice behind his. Something darker, an echo. Something almost liquid.

Survive, Aidan. No matter what you have to do.

Aidan felt his heart pound as he nodded, silently, and slowly pushed himself up onto his knees. He couldn’t think of any witty retort. He couldn’t think of any words at all.

“Ben.” That was Eli, but he sounded far away, and weak. Aidan could barely hear him. “You can’t do this. This isn’t right.”

His hands hung like dead weights at his sides. He tried to lift them, to push Ben away, but nothing happened. The air felt like it was pressing in, he could barely breathe. It was like having some massive stone laid atop his chest, only it was everywhere, all around him. The pendant at his neck burned and burned and burned.

“You’re going to do what I tell you,” Ben said. The other voice, syrupy black, twisted and writhed around his. “Or we’ll tell the Singer we found a corpse.”

“Ben, listen-” Ben turned his black stare on Eli and the other man closed his mouth, almost with a snap.

“Did you hear me, slag?” Ben turned back to Aidan. The point of the knife pricked the side of his throat, and he felt a trickle of blood run down. “You’ll do what I say. You don’t get to say no.”

“I heard you, Ben.” He had to run. To stand up. To get away. But the weight pressed in every side and Aidan, who spent hours every day practicing combat, who had been first through the fence after Tyler Rykke, was frozen with fear. “I heard you.”

“Good.” That awful laugh again.

“What’s wrong with him?” Eli asked the other guard, the one Aidan didn’t know. The other guard just shook his head. Both of them looked like any second they would step forward and end this, but they just didn’t. They just stood there. Like they couldn’t look away.

“Help me,” Aidan whispered. “Help me, Eli, please-”

“Shut up,” Ben growled. There was a shadow behind Ben, the shape of someone else, something darker than all the other shadows in the woods. There was no moon, no sliver of light found its way inside that darkness. There is someone making him do this. This is magic. Aidan, staring upwards as Ben moved towards him, thought he could hear a woman’s laughter, a sound like something rotten bursting open to let all the awful inside out.

Ben grinned, a sickly smile. Behind his face Aidan could see another one, wide black eyes that watched him, a shifting of skin. He could nearly see its expression, some horrible joy slipping in and out of the hateful desire in Ben’s. “Do this right and I won’t make you do it again with no teeth.”

Aidan, frozen, only nodded again. Ben put a hand on top of Aidan’s head and began to force it forward.

“Wait.” The pressure around them began to lift. Eli moved, finally breaking from his paralysis, reaching out and grabbing Ben by one arm. “Ben, stop it! Just stop!”

Ben jumped and looked over at him, and it was like a spell had broken. The face behind his was gone. The shadow seemed to slither downward and then disappear, a sense of anger in the air in its wake. “What?”

“Ben, what the fuck are you doing?”

Suddenly, he was Ben. The Ben Aidan had worked next to for years, the one who chased after girls but never meant any harm by it, the one who had spoken dreamily about becoming a father one day.

Ben blinked rapidly, his eyes their perfectly normal mix of white and brown, and shook himself like a dog after rain. “What did I-... Oh, shit, what did I do-” He growled, stumbling backwards. His face burned bright red as he redid his pants and then kicked Aidan in the stomach with a force that sent him onto his back onto the ground, coughing. “Ugh. What the fuck just happened to me? It’s… it’s his fault somehow.” Ben kicked Aidan one more time for good measure, and something snapped in his ribs. “Let’s take him to the Singer and tell her what happened. She’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. She’ll… tell us what to do.” Ben’s voice shook, a little. Behind all his bluster and anger he looked terrified. “She’ll tell us what happens next.”

Eli and the third guard nodded, still staring at Ben as though they’d seen a ghost. They slowly moved forward, Eli unhooking the irons from his belt. It was the third guard who dragged Aidan’s hands behind his back and he didn’t even fight, staring still up at Ben, wondering what the fuck he had just seen.

Why had he frozen? He’d never frozen when threatened before. But no one had ever threatened him like that...

Something is wrong in Morlofte. Something is making people change.

The irons clicked onto his wrists, locked tight with the turn-click sound of the key. Ben held his hand out for it and Eli hesitated, then finally nodded and handed it over. “Let’s get him back to her fast,” Eli said, softly, and Aidan found himself nodding, quickly.

“Yes, absolutely, get me back to her fast.”

“Shut up,” Ben snapped. “Don’t make me do that again.” Aidan legitimately couldn’t tell if it was a threat or a plea.

His stomach ached, his cuts burned, and as they pushed him forwards through the woods he realized he must have twisted something in his leg when he’d tripped, as it began to throb as well. Eli and the other guard held him by the arms, thank the Mother, while Ben walked several feet ahead.

They’d been walking for a few seconds, Ben so far ahead they almost didn’t see him through the trees, when the third guard whispered. “What happened back there?”

“I don’t know,” Eli said, frightened. “I don’t know. Ben doesn’t… Ben isn’t a degenerate. He’s never been… he asked the Singer for a marriage assignment last week!”

There was a pause. “Maybe the flit did it,” The third guard said.

Aidan didn’t dare look at either of them. He kept his eyes on the ground, trying to look beaten. It wasn’t exactly hard, since he was bleeding in more places than he could count on one finger at this point.

“I don’t think the flit did it,” Eli replied finally. “He was too frightened. I saw… something else. I’ve seen a lot of something else lately.”

“Yeah. Me too. May the Mother keep us safe. We should tell the Singer about the shadow. About all the shadows.”

“Agreed. Even if Ben doesn’t, we have to tell her. And we don’t let Ben alone with him again. Just… just in case. It happens again. Whatever it was. I just don’t think the flit did it.”

“I didn’t, for the record.” The third guard smacked the back of his head. Aidan thought of the sheer volume of times he had hit someone to shut them up and honestly, the simple irony of it was kind of funny. He had to bite back a smile. Luckily, neither of them was looking.

“Let’s take him straight to her, don’t stop at the caves. Singer first.”

“Definitely agreed.”

If it was a choice between whatever had been in Ben’s eyes, trapped alone in a prison cell with the shadow that had turned Ben into someone else, and going to see the Singer, Aidan would pick the Singer any day. At least she’d just order his head cut off.

He tried not to think about the woods, as they came out of the forest and were back on the path heading towards town. It was late at night, nobody was awake but the usual patrols.

This was his second-worst fucking nightmare. But it wasn’t the worst.

Get home safe, Lars.

Goodbye.

I love you.

#original fiction #fear not the novel #aidan garnes #lars mikkelsen #tw: violence #tw: homophobic language

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mirkwoodshewolf · 5 years ago

Text

Chapter 8; 5 years later

*Author’s note*

Hey all, well been a long time hadn't it? I am so sorry for this delayed chapter. I got so involved with other requests and then school that I had to set this aside even after getting half the chapter done already and then finally finishing it just a second ago. So I apologize for the ending of this chapter, I didn't know how else to end it but I hope it's not too terrible for you all. I hope to get the next chapter up quicker than this one but we will just have to wait and see. Anyways I hope you all enjoy this next part of Mother Raksha :)

Taglist:

@psychosupernatural

@plethora-of-things

@ixchel-9275

@waddles03

_____________________________________________________________

*3rd Person POV*

Five years. Five years since Thanos had revealed that he had only used the stones after destroying half of the universe, just to destroy the stones. The Avengers were devastated, families were beyond hope. But as the saying goes; ‘Life goes on’ and for this case, it’s as best as it can. People who had survived tried to continue to make a living.

Some joined other families to help raise children that had lost their parents, some joined in group talks to discuss everything that has happened and how they are slowly trying to move on, however there are some that couldn’t move on.

They feel the guilt of why they are still alive and hundreds of others including those that they loved had to get snapped away into oblivion. Why those people, not them?

At the Avengers facility, Natasha who had grown her hair back out and was back to it’s natural red state at the roots but at the end was the blonde hair she had sported five years ago.

She sat at a desk cutting up her midnight snack, a peanut butter sandwich while on four holograms in front of her were as followed from left to right; Rocket and Nebula, Okoye and Morowa, Carol Danvers (who was sporting a new haircut as well, a sort of mohawk style hair), and Rhodey.

“Yeah, we boarded that highly-suspect warship Danvers pinged.” Rocket said sarcastically.

“It was an infectious garbage scow.” Nebula stated in disgust.

“So, thanks for the hot tip.” Continued Rocket as they both turned towards Carol.

“Well you were closer.” She said.

“Yeah. And now we smell like garbage.” Complained Rocket.

“You get a reading on those tremors?” Natasha asked Okoye and Morowa. Morowa, sporting the reigning Queen of Wakanda crown on her head stated.

“It was a mild subduction under the African plate.”

“Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?”

“Nat. It’s an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it, by not handling it.” Answered Okoye.

“Carol, are we seeing you here next month?” Nat asked turning to Carol.

“Not likely.” Captain Marvel answered.

“What? You gonna get another haircut?” questioned Rocket.

“Listen fur face. I’m covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth are happening everywhere. On thousands of planets.” Rocket then began muttering in understandment, knowing that she was right. She then turned back towards Nat and spoke the honest truth, “So you might not see me for a long time.”

“Alright. Uh, well…..this channel’s always active. So, if anything goes sideways….anyone’s making any trouble where they shouldn’t….comes through me.” They all agreed and then one by one each transmission ended.

*Morowa’s POV*

I removed Ramonda’s crown from my head revealing my newly short cut raven black hair. I sighed heavily and leaned up against the throne. Ever since that day five years ago, with all members of the royal family gone, I was forced to take the throne of Wakanda.

All the tribes have been trying to survive and adapt from the blimp. Many of us lost family, for me it was like a triple blow. I already lost my first family, with T’Challa, Shuri, (y/n) and Ramonda it was a double blow, and now…..Rauri and the Chimeras.

One day after Rauri, Dean and Mitchell returned from finding Thanos. All of them were gone, the remaining chimeras all just left without a note or a word.

And so far no one has been able to find them, I’ve had the remaining Wakandan spies that were still spread out across the world looking for them, I even sent out other Wakandans to find them, and so far nothing.

I refused to tell Nat because this wasn’t something she needed on her plate right now. I knew the chimeras better than anyone, and they weren’t gonna listen to an Avenger, they needed the Alpha female’s mother.

“Morowa, you’ve done all you could do.” Okoye tried to assure me as I felt her hand at my shoulder.

“But is it really enough?” the doors opened and walking in was M’Baku and two of his Jabari members, Azizi and Kamari who were forced up the ranks after his true second and third in command were snapped away.

“My Queen.” He greeted solemnly in Wakandan.

“Brother.” I greeted back. “Any word?”

“We may have found something.” I looked at him desperately and he continued, “There’s been rumor sightings from one of my Jabari spies in Ireland, in a wooded area just 10 miles from Bristol.”

Of course, Bristol was where both he and Connor were from. Guess he thought with the wider greenery passages, he’d be able to fit what’s left of the chimera pack there.

“Okoye, you’re in charge till I get back.”

“You’re going to find them?” she asked me.

“That or die trying.”

“Morowa, my sister. Are you sure that’s a good idea? When Rauri returned with Dean and Mitchell, none of them reverted back to their human forms. And in his mouth Rauri carried the body of Thanos. How do we know he’ll want to see you?”

“That’s the risk I’m willing to take. I’ve…..I’ve already lost so much in my entire life. Five years ago I lost twice as much. I promised (y/n) that I would look after her husband from doing something reckless. And you both know that I never break a promise.” They both nodded.

I grabbed my old Dora Milaje spear and wore a similar teeth collar that Shuri had made for T’Challa as an improved Black Panther design, however it would turn into my Jaguar armor.

I opened up a portal to Bristol and I turned towards my two friends and remaining brother and sister.

“I leave Wakanda to you till I come back. And if I don’t……the throne belongs to both of you.”

“Yes my Queen.” They both said in Wakandan. I crossed my hands over my chest in the Wakandan salute and they did it back to me then I stepped through the portal and closed it up behind me.

It was cloudy and foggy, not good weather for tracking down a bunch of grieving probably pissed off animals. I walked along the acres of woodlands and ranging hills. I must’ve hiked for what felt like hours till I finally came across a pair of tracks. I raced up to them and knelt down. I stroked along the outlines of the paws till I realized that they were bear tracks.

“Dean.” I whispered. I heard the sound of a twig snap and I quickly ducked for cover behind a nearby boulder and kept low. I began hearing the huffing sounds of a bear and when I slowly turned to look past the boulder there I saw a great grizzly bear that was twice the size of a normal one. It was Dean.

He turned towards me but I quickly ducked back and I could hear him softly roaring and sniffing the air. I bite my bottom lip as I tried not to make a sound, especially since I could hear his sniffing and growling coming closer.

Very slowly and as silently as I could, I slide around the boulder, in case he decided to peek over and would find me. But it wasn’t until I heard the sound of a dog’s howl in the distance. Dean ceased his sniffing and took off running.

I looked over the boulder and trailed after him. I couldn’t let him out of my sight but through all the fog and mist, I could hardly see where I was going. But using my mystical arts abilities it made guiding through the mist slightly easier as I tracked him down.

I didn’t want to suddenly cause a change in the weather, that would just startle him further and then I’d never be able to find him while also maintaining control of the weather. I soon came to an open field and it was just dead silence.

No birds, no small critters, nothing not even the wind.

Suddenly out of nowhere I just felt something charging at me. I leaped over in the air to see this giant mass of fur running under me. I landed on the ground and soon standing well over 10ft was Dean in his bear form.

“Dean.” I said warily. He growled at me before finally roaring and leaned forward to swipe his huge paw at me. I cartwheeled backwards and warned him as I took out my spear. “Don’t make me do this Dean!”

He suddenly charged forward his mouth wide open as he let out a roar so I put the handle of my staff between myself and his mouth as he forced me down and the two of us were at war with each other. He shook his head trying to take the spear away but I kept a strong grip.

I knew I had to snap him out of it, but at this point it was like all humanity was gone from him, all that was left was the grizzly bear. So when I found an opening, I lifted my spear up with my left hand to ensure his head raised up, so that with my right I palm-strike him in the chest, in order to reach deep down and push his astral form out.

I soon saw his human astral form come out as his bear body collapsed right on top of me. I let out a groan and tried to get his body off of mine.

‘Wha—what the hell is this? Morowa how did—when did you get here?’

“Explain later.” I groaned out.

‘Here I’ll—’

“It’s no use. Your astral form is useless in the physical world.”

‘The what form?’ I groaned as I finally managed to get out from underneath the giant soulless bear. I panted and as he reached out I told him to back up as I stood myself up.

“The astral dimensions is a reality where the soul exists a part from the body. Your current form can’t touch or affect what is out here in the physical world. You are in one of the billion realities known only to the sorcerers.”

‘So basically I’m a ghost?’

“In a way. But now’s no time for a sorcery lessons. Where’s Rauri?”

‘Wouldn’t we all?’ he said. At this point I was confused.

“What do you mean?”

‘It’s exactly what I mean. No one has seen Rauri for over 2 years now. One morning Mitchell and I went to talk to him only to see a note telling us that we were in charge.’

“Goddamnit Rauri.” I muttered. “So where is everyone else?”

‘We made camp base about 5 miles East. Rauri said it’s along the very village where he and Connor used to grow up in. Thought it’d be the best place to live since it’s been abandoned since Hydra invaded their village.’

“Take me there.” He sighed heavily.

‘You sure about that Morowa?’

“From the moment you all came to Wakanda and were saved from Connor, (y/n) made it her responsibility to look after all of you. She’s my daughter and now that she’s gone, that makes all of you my responsibility.” Dean just looked at me grimly before saying.

‘Alright. But I warn you it’s not gonna be pretty.’

“I understand what I’m about to see.” I then slowly swerved my fingers into a fist lifting his bear body up which absorbed his astral form and Dean’s bear eyes soon woke up.

Instead of the soulless black ones, they receded and had a more human spirit to them.

‘Hop on.’ I mounted his back and he took off eastward.

As we now came to a clearing, what I saw stunned me. For mounted along a pike of quills, claws and teeth marks was a skeleton of sorts. A skeleton belonging to only one deity.

“Is—is that…..”

‘Yeah. The skeletal remains of Thanos. Since the rest of the chimeras didn’t get to have their fun, Rauri brought his beheaded corpse to us to have our own go at the bastard. Animals take grieving very seriously. We also have this up as a warning. To warn anyone still around who somehow venture this far to turn back, for here lies the beasts that ended the bastard who started all this.’

I felt a shiver of fear run up my spine as Dean walked further into the thick forest. Already I could hear the sounds of animal growls. Then I saw them.

The remaining big cat chimeras all lowly growled from their dens. Already I caught some glimpses of bones near them, the same sized bones as from the Thanos display. Their eyes were cold and soulless like true big cats eyes were as they all began growling and roaring as we walked past them.

“You weren’t kidding Dean.” I muttered.

‘While humans all around the world have tried to move on. Animals don’t. Thanks to these animal instincts the pain humans went through five years ago is ten times stronger. Animals never forget, nor can some of us forgive.’ We stopped at a small rock formation and I hopped off of Dean but stuck close to him. ‘You all remember our Alpha female’s mother Morowa.’

At hearing my name I only got roars and snarls in response. Not just from the big cat chimeras but the crocodile ones, some of the ape chimeras all huffed agitatedly and I got thunderous rumbles from the elephant chimeras.

“You shouldn’t have brought her here.” We turned around and coming out of the darkness of a cave nearby was Mitchell. He definitely looked different the last time I saw him, he grew his hair out down to his shoulders and he started to slightly grow in a beard. Around his neck was a necklace that looked like fingers.

“Mitchell.” I greeted him with a simple nod.

“No offense Morowa, you can’t be here.”

“I know, I only came to talk to Rauri and find out where exactly you all went to.”

“Well….”

“I know Dean told me that Rauri left. And you have no idea where he could’ve gone to?”

“Not a damn clue. Though to be honest I think he couldn’t take the heat anymore. He think he’s the only one who suffered. We all suffered! I lost my girlfriend of over 12 years because of Thanos!”

“Alright Mitchell calm down.” Dean now in human form tried to hold steady.

“And you Dean, you’re whole family is gone. And you’re acting like it’s not even bothering you!”

“You think it doesn’t? My brother, my wife, my sister in law, everyone is gone from me. But if anyone needs to keep their heads on straight it’s me. And it should be you. You’ve always been the collected one while I’ve been the hotheaded one. So don’t you talk to be about suffering dog boy!”

“Alright, alright you two break it up!” I came between them. “Look; no one has forgotten about all that’s happened. And I don’t expect all of you to forget and forgive just as easily. Your alpha female and savior was my daughter. I’ve already lost my real child and my husband years before I met her, and losing her five years ago was like reopening those wounds.”

Everyone was silent and that’s when Mitchell said.

“Then what do you expect us to do?” Honestly I didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Be there for each other. Cause all I’m seeing now is that you all are even more divided than five years ago. You’re all that’s left of your family. Don’t turn on each other.” At hearing my speech, the chimeras all seemed to let go of their savage animalistic instincts and turned to look at each other.

“And you two. Being the only Betas left, you both are in charge in making sure none of your pack members tear each other apart. I’ll try my best to find Rauri.”

“You promise you’ll find him?” asked Mitchell.

“I’ll keep you updated.” I hugged him and I whispered in his ear. “Just don’t fall off the deep end. Not again this time Marine.”

“I’ll try.” He said as he slowly embraced me back. I then turned to Dean and I hugged him.

“Thank you Morowa, for—snapping me back into reality.”

“My pleasure, keep an eye on these guys. They’re going to need you more than ever. You and Mitchell.” He nodded.

I hopped off the rock formation and the chimeras let me pass by. Every now and then I stroked their heads in comfort or grazed their trunks and tusks as a promise.

As I left the forest that’s when I got a beep from my kimoyo beads bracelet. I activated it and forming before my eyes was Okoye.

“What is it Okoye?”

“Nat just contacted us. She said her and Captain Rogers found something.”

“Found what?”

“A way to bring everyone back.” At hearing this my eyes widened.

“Tell me more.”

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