#But she’s gonna build up enough points helping people in the temple and learning skills and then she’ll level up

[drawnbythestream]

She’s on a mission (or at least on a mission in the temple gardens)

I’ve been over on main daydreaming about a Star Wars adventure game. Idk enough about video games to make my own but I DO know a little about animation so I just took the new Snufkin video game run cycle and turned it into my little Padawan OC Naarla 🥰

[twh-news]

Interview: Makeup Artist Douglas Noe on Loki’s Looks Through the Years & Creating Anew for ‘Loki’ [EXCLUSIVE]

Douglas Noe has been in Hollywood for three decades. An award-winning makeup artist, he’s worked on projects such as World War Z, Planet of the Apes, Spider-Man 3, I Saw the Light, and Birth of a Nation. On top of these impressive credits, he’s also been Tom Hiddleston’s personal makeup artist since joining the MCU in The Avengers, designing all of the looks for Loki’s subsequent appearances.

Noe has been nominated for three Emmys with one win, and five Makeup Artist and Hairstylist (MUAHS) Awards resulting in two MUAHS awards. His skills include creating making natural and period looks, prosthetics, hair, and tattoos.

Along with being the head of the makeup department for the most recent Disney+ series Loki, Noe is also creating looks for the new Netflix comedy series True Story starring Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes.

We had a chance to chat with Douglas Noe about his work on Loki, The Avengers, the incomparable value of teamwork on set, and most importantly, Richard E. Grant.

Nerds and Beyond: So you started your Marvel journey with The Avengers, but what drew you to your field in the first place? And how did you get your start?

Douglas Noe: Star Wars was a huge influence to me as a young boy, both sketching and drawing, and a little bit of sculpting but not much. Cut to 1983, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” comes out and I find a magazine called Fangoria on the newsstands where I can order blood and wax and pencils and fake hair. So, I started playing with these things. I was also taken with the horror movie craze that was happening in the early 80s — Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, and others, obviously.

In High School, in 1984, I joined choir thinking I would get an easy credit, but my voice had not changed. So the choral instructor had been waiting for a boy soprano to do a theatrical opera presentation. So with that I sang the lead, I quit choir after that, because my peers were merciless, but, I learned the world of theatrical makeup which I hadn’t been introduced to.

I did years of theater. I went to a performing arts high school — it’s called Fort Hayes School for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Ohio — graduated, went to beauty school, and continued working in Ohio doing industrial, commercial, theater, and opera [makeup]. Worked for Maybelline and Revlon, got restless, worked in Cincinnati on my first film in the summer of 1990, it was July so 31 years ago, A Rage in Harlem. And my boss said you come to Los Angeles, I’ll make sure you get on your feet.

Nerds and Beyond: So you mentioned that it’s been about 31 years since your career started, what’s changed over the course of those 30 years in your field?

Douglas: How much time do we have? I’d say the biggest, biggest change would probably be the way we make these things now. Although another large change, more specific, would be the materials that we use. There’s a constant evolution and reinvention of almost all aspects of the materials that a makeup artist uses. That said, I have to shine a light on the way we do things now with the onset of digital and digital cameras. Shooting on film now has almost completely fallen by the wayside. Film was very forgiving, quite frankly, and now it’s not so forgiving. And because of that, the bar has been raised. The wonderful thing about this journey is watching my peers just get better and better and better, my colleagues rising to meet the challenge of not having anything to hide from with this new way we make films.

Nerds and Beyond: So, sometimes you kind of throw prosthetics to the wayside in favor of a more traditional makeup. How do you make that decision on which one to go with?

Douglas: That’s an excellent question. The decision is based purely on what are we going to see. That’s where I start, what is the lighting? I have a conversation with the director of photography and I find out what is the dynamic. Obviously, I know from the script whether it’s an interior or exterior, or if we’re exterior but we’re going to be on a stage, if it’s day or night. These variables all play into my decision as to whether or not I should rely on my theatrical experience and ability to paint 2D to appear 3D, or go ahead and make small prosthetics and put them where I need to put them and use actual prosthetics in lieu of paint.

That has everything to do with lighting, locations, logistics, and because most of his [Loki’s] wounds appear on his arm and some on his face in the Void, it’s all very moody and very dark. And again, the theatrical quality of the paint is not going to be altered by the changing light, it’s just going to react the same way the rest of the face is going to react. It’s purple light, it’s going to make everything have a purple hue. There was no accounting for any correction that didn’t need to be done. There wasn’t anything wrong with that. It’s real.

Nerds and Beyond: So, you did make up for not only Tom on Loki, but you helped plan out the looks for everybody?

Douglas: Yes, what I do is I surround myself with strong talent. It’s all about team. I designed Wunmi Mosaku, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia DiMartino, and Tom [Hiddleston]. Regarding the rest of it, Neil Ellis, both Dennis Liddiard and I, added to the elements of his scars and wounds, which you would only see in close-ups.

The rest of it, the parameters are set — Blade Runner to Mad Men — and stay in those confines. And obviously, I choose color palettes for the women and there are parameters set for the men, but then it’s about team. I’m a big one on a team and not putting my thumbprints on other people’s work, but rather build other people up so they feel like they own what they’re doing.

My team consists of artists that also have stronger resumes and quite frankly, skills that exceed mine. It’s the mutual trust that allows us to keep a high level of artistic integrity in every aspect of the job. It also means I get the very best from my team, and it shows on the screen.

So, I didn’t have every look in my hand. Dennis Liddiard designed the Mobius character and I had Ned Neidhardt run with Gugu and turn up the volume on some of the elements that she already possesses that we can play with. Her eyes and lips, I think Ned turned the volume on both. And because we’re shooting in order, it’s a progression in the makeup you did.

Nerds and Beyond: When it came to Sylvie and Loki, when you when you’re doing those, did you try to kind of plan them both to have any similar things to give them a Loki look?

Douglas: It’s a fair question, but the answer is no. So again, I think the characteristics and traits that were going to be similar among them, aside from wardrobe and costume hints, were all character driven. And I did nothing with the makeup and hair to try to make them look or even closely resemble each other.

Nerds and Beyond: I want to kind of back up a little bit to Tom in the first Avengers film. That was by far one of his most standout looks. Can you tell me anything about what went into the creation of that absolutely tormented, haunted look that he had throughout that entire movie?

Douglas: Yeah, and that’s probably one of the elements that, because the character has evolved, we kind of left with Avengers because by the end of Avengers, and we carried it into Endgame, he does have a bit of an edgier look in Avengers, and not many people pick up on it. But the reality is he’s a little sculpted in Avengers.

I remember sculpting his cheekbones and temples, and doing a little play on his forehead for when he’s in the cell on the Helicarrier carrier with all that overhead lighting. I did like a little devil horn shadow, which is so subtle. The only person who’s going to notice is anybody who looks back at it and having read this and knows what to look for, but it is so nuanced and so subtle. And that’s the only place I think we did that. But the rest of him is very much chiseled and sculpted, but it’s a light touch.

And I think, again, as he evolved through the Marvel Universe and into the other movies that was something that was easy to leave behind, because I think that look played directly into his evil desire to rule over Earth. We rested that design element with that storyline.

Nerds and Beyond: It’s very clear too and I’ve always loved looking at that, because I’m a huge fan of the character. I’ve always loved kind of comparing how he looked in that movie to the rest of them.

Douglas: You’re on to me!

Nerds and Beyond: I’m not! I swear [laughs] So, what’s your best method for making the actors comfortable in the makeup chair? And with the final outcome?

Douglas: It’s dialogue; listening, talking to them, talking to their representation, whether it be an agent or a manager, and doing my homework and doing my due diligence to find out what’s going to make them comfortable the moment they walk through the door. I do my homework on them. It’s not just IMDb, it’s an internet search. So, I spend some time on the web and find out who these folks are, and if I find out, for example, they’re not one that likes to talk a lot, well, the writing’s on the wall, we’re not going to talk a lot, we’ll cut to the chase and get to the point. But also, it’s about building a rapport and building a relationship. Also, knowing that, I’ve said this in previous discussions, knowing it’s necessary to get out of the way.

Like if, for example, I’m not a proper fit for somebody, I have to be plugged in, I have to be aware enough to understand that it may not be working before somebody says to me, “Hey, this isn’t gonna work.” So it’s just about being open, especially as Tom’s personal on these projects and running the department, knowing that I don’t get to do everybody. I don’t get to put my thumbprint on other people’s work. Because not only is that disrespectful, it’s very often unnecessary, because I hire good people. I hire contemporaries and peers. Truly, you’re only as good as your weakest crew member. I surround myself with good people.

So, take Owen Wilson, for example, it would have been wonderful to do Owen’s makeup, but there were times when he was not going to be shooting with Tom and I was going to need to be ready for Tom or available to Tom, so it didn’t make sense. So I never touched Owen, I had Dennis Liddiard design that look and run with it. And then Ned Neidhardt took over that look when Dennis had to depart. That’s just one example of not trying to do everything.

Another one was the Classic Loki. I wanted to do Richard E. Grant’s [makeup] so bad, I can’t even tell you. I’ve been a huge fan since 1987. I wanted so badly to bring that full circle, didn’t make sense. It just didn’t make sense. So again, I never touched him. It wasn’t necessary. Ned was always there. And I think the same thing happened to me on Ragnarok reshoots, which I ran in Atlanta again with Dennis Liddiard. I wanted so badly to do Sir Anthony Hopkins makeup, but it didn’t make sense. So I was happy to hand it off to Bill Myer.

Nerds and Beyond: Oh man, I loved Richard E. Grant in this show so much.

Douglas: He’s amazing.

Nerds and Beyond: He’s so good!

Douglas: He really is. And he’s that good in person. He’s just so fun and interesting and alluring and attractive. He’s such a wonderful, wonderful person and, of course, a phenomenal actor.

Nerds and Beyond: I was watching little videos that he posted and he just seems like the warmest person.

Douglas: You know, just one last tidbit about Richard Grant is he’s got wonderful stories and as he’s telling them he’ll often stop and pause and just laugh. Just laugh, not for the sake of the stories or for anybody that he’s telling the story to, but because recounting the story brings him true joy. So he’ll stop and embrace that joy. Oh, it’s so wonderful.

Nerds and Beyond: That’s so amazing to hear. What is the most memorable job that you’ve done?

Douglas: The most memorable … That’s a tough one because I have so many fond memories of so many projects. The first Avengers film was memorable because there was a buzz, there was a vibration, a frequency, that was in the air when we were shooting that. We kind of knew we were making something big and something special. I don’t think any of us knew how big or how special it would be, but that certainly is one of the most memorable and most special projects.

I’m pretty good about focusing on the positive aspects of all these things, regardless of how difficult the project may be for whatever reason. The pros always, always heavily outweigh the cons, but I have a lot of wonderful, memorable experiences. Another one, it’s the polar opposite only because of the conditions in which we shot, but Birth of the Nation was one of the most memorable and exceptional experiences of my career. I was on the wrong side of 40, had 25 years of experience, and had still never worked so hard in my entire life. We did a 50-day shoot in 27 days. So proud of the work we did.

It was 100 degrees with 99 percent humidity, we shot it in the summer in Georgia, in Savannah, so it was hot, humid, and just getting the makeup necessary to be on individuals to stay put was its own challenge. And then the other challenges only added to that. But Nate Parker, the director, writer, producer, and lead actor, he is a special human being. And he was inspiring from start to finish. Usually, the first people in are the teamsters, transport department, and usually I’m second. He beat me in almost every single day. He’s in three hours before he needs to be. That was a very special experience.

Nerds and Beyond: Finally, are you excited about the news of Loki Season 2?

Douglas: I’m beyond thrilled! I invite being in the dark a little bit, I kind of like surprises and I like not knowing, so I suspected, but hearing the news confirmed, I was thrilled, naturally. What are they going to dream up? This is amazing. How do you top season 1 of Loki? That’s the burning question.

[mosaicofdreamsanddragons]

First Lesson

Pigsy teaches his kids to cook.

ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27769003

It was a well-known fact that Pigsy was at war. Every day he struggled to guide his troops toward excellence. Every day he worked tirelessly to build up the stockpile necessary for a campaign into enemy territory. And every day he poured his heart and soul into the techniques that would carry his crew to victory.

Oh and there was the whole saving the city thing, but that was really his second priority. He liked to think of that life as existing in a separate spears of his mind. He only had so much brain power he could devote to Monkey nonsense. When he was at war, such things were far from his mind and when he was a superhero, war was the last thing he thought of.

Until the day it wasn’t.

It had been an ordinary day: fight whatever demon or demon bull king minions who wanted a piece of his kid and then get back to his real life of noodles and plotting campaigns.

But today, today he’d slipped up. Today he’d almost been squashed by the remains of some demon bull minions and had barely been pulled out of the way by Tang. The attack wouldn’t have even come close to killing him but it could have done much worse.

He’d kept his fretting to himself of course. No point in scaring the kids, they were freaked out enough by the near hit. If a few smiles and gruff reassurances were all they needed to bounce the close call off their shoulders as only the young can, he would provide them.

Tang was no so easily fooled. “Something is bothering you,” he said, glare on his glasses preventing any eye contact. It was not a question.

“I…When we were on the mission…” he began and then stopped.

“I saved you,” said Tang firmly.

“Yes but you almost didn’t save me,” said Pigsy. Tang’s hands clutching the noodle bowl turned white and Pigsy quickly amended his statement. “Not that it would have killed me, calm down.” He waited until Tang let go of the bowl placing it on the table before continuing. “If you hadn’t, I would have broken my arm. And that would mean disaster for my business. I couldn’t cook, so MK would have no food to deliver. And soon we’d lose customers and who knows how many regulars would come back when I healed, what with the enemy always upping his game…we’d starve. And I can’t do that to MK, he’s starved enough in his life.”

“You wouldn’t starve,” said Tang with a hint of anger. “Even if the worst happened, you’d still have me to help and Sandy. Heck even Mei would chip in.” He took a deep breath and grabbed his bowl back. “And you’re missing the most obvious solution. If you broke you’re arm, you could run deliveries…” Pigsy raised an eyebrow at Tang. He snorted “….I’ve seen you drive one handed, don’t give me that look…” Pigsy raised his eyebrow even higher and Tang made a huff into his leftover broth “…fine. I could run deliveries. Then all you’d need to do is teach MK how to cook for you. You’d be able to be back in business in a day!”

“Teach MK how to cook?” said Pigsy. “Not in a day I wouldn’t. Cooking takes art and art takes time.”

“So start now,” said Tang. “Give him the time he’ll need to learn and grow. You could bring in Mei too, make a day of it.”

Pigsy looked down at his hands. “I’m not….the best instructor. Last time I tried to teach…well….Sandy and I ended that with a mutual agreement to never be in a kitchen together again.” He closed his eyes against sudden memoires of a time before Sandy had started therapy.

“Well that was a long time ago,” said Tang. “I’m sure you’ll be a great teacher now.” Before Pigsy could retort that Tang hadn’t been there and didn’t really know the extent of the disaster he caught a glance at Tang’s face.

He was gazing out the shop to where the two children had left. “And I don’t think they’d mind having a normal type of legacy,” he said barely above a whisper, “one without any magic or monkeys or dragons. Something they can learn an fail and the world won’t fall apart,” Pigsy opened his mouth to protest that was Tang not taking the noodle war seriously enough when Tang said, “…like their dad’s secret noodle recipe.”

Pigsy opened his mouth. And shut his mouth. And turned back to the table. “Okay,” he said quietly. “Lessons begin tomorrow.”

Pigsy had seen many things in his life. He’d befriended Sandy before he gave up his fighting ways. He regularly aided his children with saving the city. He’d had to create a noodle business from the ground up and used it to wage war against all who would stand in his way. But never had he been faced with such a challenge as this.

Before him, in the heart of his kitchen, stood only the freshest of recruits, neither who had ever so much as held the weapons of this war in their hands. Beyond them watching expectantly with notepad in hand was his acting secretary, who was far more interested in the potential noodles then jotting the recipe down. Farther back was the emotional support, who was not allowed near this kitchen for reasons both knew and would not discuss. Together they would create a mock battle, with Tang and Sandy as the customers and Mei, MK, and Pigsy as the chefs.

“Okay,” he said to the eager faces of his children. “Today you will be taking your first steps onto a harrowing battlefield.” He paced back and forth moving his spoon and feet with the beat of his words. “Today, you will face trails like you have never faced. It will be the most difficult thing you have ever attempted to do, magical Monkey business included.” He turned to meet the eyes of Mk and Mei. “But I have complete faith, that under my guidance you will pull yourselves from the muck and mire of mediocracy and into success.”

“Pigsy its just noodles,” said MK hands behind his head. Mei shoved her hand in her mouth to stifle a giggle.

“Just noodles!” said Pigsy throwing his spoon in the air and advancing on the boy. “Just noodles! Those noodles are the backbone of our livelihoods! The result of countless years honing my technique to perfection!” he caught Tang’s eyes and took a deep breath. Then in a gentler voice he continued, “And today I will be passing that legacy onto you. Now no one is expecting you to get it on your first try.”

“I make noodles all the time at home! How bad can it be?” said MK.

“You make instant noodles,” said Pigsy stepping back and rubbing his temples. “That’s completely different. No technique, no finesse. This, this will push you to your limits.” He waves towards the assorted vegetables and meat. “Mei, you will be on toppings,” he gestured to a large pot, “and MK you will be on broth. Now I will need both of you to listen to what I say and only do what I tell you. Do you understand?”

The nod in unison. He takes a deep breath and hands the kids the knives. He can do this.

The next hour passes quickly. But for him it goes swiftly jumping between:

“No Mei do not hold your knife like your sword. Watch me, like this.”

“Don’t touch that pan, you aren’t invincible anymore you’ll burn yourself.”

“You need to sauté the vegetables first. No those aren’t ready, you haven’t turned the stove on so they aren’t cooking…”

“Don’t poor boiling oil down the sink! &*@#$ Get on the counter NOW!!!” Both children climbed onto the counter in confusion and even Sandy and Tang pulled their feet up. “The pipe melted,” he told the confused kids. “We stay up here, until I get the boiling oil of the floor.”

“It’s like the floor is lava!” said Mei.

“Don’t try anything crazy!” said Pigsy. “I’m just gonna head over to the broom closet…” he began carefully picking his way across the counter, careful not to step near any of the food or utensils. It was harder then it looked, as the counter was covered with the mess only three chefs could bring. He picked his way across only to discover what he’d thought to be a solid footing turn out to be pan which slipped out from under his foot and sent him toppling down, down…

Something hard and round stopped his fall before he could make contact with the oil slicked floors. “I’ve got you Pigsy!” he heard his kid yell as he slowly became aware of the enormous iron staff now wedged from one side of his kitchen to another, and preventing him from a landing with third degree burns.

He took a deep breath and pulled himself across the makeshift bridge to the counter where Tang, Sandy, and MK were all waiting. And even though he was fairly certain he had got the hang of it by the time he reached them, Sandy still reached out and lifted him onto the counter.

“Real battle we got here,” said Sandy. “But I think the troops are getting the hang of it.” He nodded and Pigsy looked up to see MK carefully maneuvering the staff-bridge to bring Mei towards the broom cupboard.

“They’re ingenuous,” said Pigsy. “That’ll help them with creating new things down the line. Once they master the basics…” he glanced around his kitchen, now covered in oil, with food scattered everywhere and possibly contaminated by the people climbing around it waving their newly discovered brooms and mops and bit back a groan. This was not how this lesson was supposed to go.

Sandy rose to retrieve the one of the mops from Mei but before he left he turned to Pigsy, “No one learns any skill in a day. Give ‘em time. They’ll get it. They have an excellent teacher.”

Pigsy closed his eyes as Tang dropped down beside him. “Sandy’s right, no one learns a skill in a day, not cooking, not teaching.” Pigsy opened one eye to glance at Tang. He grinned smugly at him. “But a little disaster never stopped your campaigns before, eh Marshal? And whatever the result of this campaign, I’ll eat it.”

“You better,” he mock-growled at Tang’s smirk.

Between Sandy, MK, and Pigsy they managed to get the no-longer-boiling oil off the floor. Mei helped as much as she could but all she could really bring was her enthusiasm since she’d never seen a broom in her life and really didn’t know how to clean (and Pigsy made a mental note to teach her later). Sandy even fixed the melted pipes. With the kitchen newly sparkling and all that could be salvaged out and ready, Pigsy got up and fetched the noodles.

“Okay kids,” he said. “Mei, I want you to get the toppings ready to go. MK hold this in the boiling water for three minutes, do not touch the pot again. When the three minutes are up, pull it out and pour the noodles in it in the bowl. Mei, I want you to add the toppings on top once MK’s added the noodles and then poor in the broth. Take your time both of you, you’ll have time to add speed to this later.”

Face squished in concentration, MK slowly lifted up the noodles and placed them in the bowl. Then Mei added the toppings and very slowly and carefully poured in the broth. Now finished their faces broke into relieved grins and they both reached for the bowl, only for Pigsy to yell “Order up!” and place the bowl in front of Tang.

Pigsy turned back to the disappointed faces and handed MK another batch of noodles, nodding back to the broth and stack of toppings. “The point of cooking is to make it for others, not yourself. And besides, we’re not done here until we’re out of ingredients.”

The broth lasted them two more bowls, one which Pigsy handed to Sandy. The two children were left staring at the single bowl. They seemed to be having a silent conversation before turning and pushing it towards Pigsy. And Pigsy found two pairs of wide eyes turned up to him expectantly. He steeled himself and reached up to bring the noodles to his mouth.

It was…not bad. Not to his standards and not ready for sale yet. But it was made with his kids sweat and tears and he loved every bite. “Delicious,” he said, “We’ll make chefs of you yet.”

Sandy applauded. “Much better review then the first time I ever tried to help him! Have we told you that story? It started many years ago and ended with an explosion…”

With the kids happily listening to Sandy regale them with their first cooking disaster, Tang happily listening nearby sipping his soup and stealing some of Sandy’s noodles, Pigsy sat back and drunk the site in. This was something he wanted to savor, a memory he could call up after scares like yesterday or on bad nights.

His kids’ first bowl of noodles, one more step towards growing up. A milestone greater than any of the saving the city they did. He was so proud.

[bungou-stray-dingus]

Sacrifice

Pairing : Kunikida x Reader

A/N : Kunikida needs more love, and I'm not gonna give him that this month, but the next three months he will be happy!

T/W : Basically Suicide ; Death ; Depression ; Angst

Angstember Day 8

He knew when you walked in that day, your first day of working at the Agency, he knew you were the one. You had fit all of his ideals, sweet, kind, gentle, but also serious when you needed to be. When you had smiled at him from across the office, he knew that he needed to have you. He began gifting you with love letters, beautiful poems, and flowers. It wasn't too soon after that you two had begun dating. He was so proud to have you on his arm as he walked down the street, he felt like the luckiest man in the world to be able to call you his.

Your ability wasn't combative, not in the slightest. Being able to slow down peoples movements was only helpful for so long, and it didn't help much that using your ability exhausted you entirely. The longer you used it, the weaker you got, and you would often collapse after using it too long. Kunikida was always there to pull you away so you would be safe, but even then you felt like such a useless asset to the Agency.

Asking Kunikida for help in teaching you how to shoot proved to be useless, he thought that your ability was helpful enough without a firearm. You tried to not seem aggravated by this, he was just trying to keep you safe in every way possible, but you thought it would keep you extra safe if you knew how to use a gun. He again, would refute your claim, stating that you would always be safe with him around, and considering he was always around, there was no reason for you to not feel safe. You could never argue against his logic, even if he was wrong, in his mind, he was right.

"I can teach you how to shoot if he's too stuck up to teach you." Dazai offered you one afternoon while at the office. You shook your head, knowing that Kunikida would not only get pissed off at Dazai for interfering, but he would also be upset with you for not trusting his ability to keep you safe himself. "Tch, you have every right to learn how to use a gun Y/N. We're the Armed Detective Agency, key word being armed."

You didn't have time to respond before Kunikida was behind you, his hands on your shoulders as he glared at Dazai. "She has no need for guns when I am with her. I can protect her. You have no right to say what she needs or what she doesn't need." He wasn't controlling, at least that's not the way he thought of it, and not even you took it that way, he just had your best interest in mind and he truly believed that he would be able to keep you safe, always.

Dazai threw his hands in the air and walked away, sighing in frustration. Kunikida sat on the desk in front of you, staring down at you over his glasses with a disappointed look on his face. "Don't look at me like that. I said no." You mumbled, turning your head to look away from him. He grabbed your chin and tilted your head up to look at him.

"I want you to trust me. Trust that I'll keep you safe. I love you, Y/N, you don't need to worry about anything when I'm around. I'll always protect you." He leaned over to press a kiss to your forehead before hopping off your desk and scooting your chair in. "Now get back to work, I love you."

Fukuzawa called you and Kunikida to his office later that afternoon, telling you both about something that came up recently. There was an armed shooter on the loose, and Ranpo had already pinpointed where the mans hideout was, so Fukuzawa thought it would be better for Kunikida and yourself to bring the man into custody. Kunikida was skilled with a gun, and your ability to slow down peoples movements would give the two of you time contain the man and bring cuff the man.

"Thank you sir, we won't let you down." Kunikida bowed, and you followed the movements. You were nervous, and that might seem silly to other people, but you hadn't actually worked on a case with an armed person before. There was a big difference between using your ability on other ability users and regular people with real weapons. Nobody at the Agency knew the specifics of your ability, and the specifics were a real drawback.

You were able to slow down ability users and their abilities because they were basically one in the same. When a person is using their body as their weapon, your ability works perfectly. Guns were a different story, a totally different scenario, a scenario that you wished you wouldn't find yourself in. You would be able to slow the person shooting the gun, but you wouldn't be able to slow the bullet that could be fired from the gun.

You and Kunikida walked out of the building, his fingers placed perfectly between yours as he led you down the street. The map that Ranpo had provided showed that the hideout wasn't far from the office, and it wasn't much of a hideout either. An old, run down shed with the door falling off didn't provide much room for error, and it only had you more on edge. You silently cursed yourself for not pressing Kunikida more to teach you how to shoot, or even just teaching yourself.

"Everything will be fine Y/N. I've handled these kinds of cases many times, there's nothing to worry about." Kunikida whispered to you as he pressed his lips against your temple. Did you seem worried? Could he pick up on it? Your hands were sweating, and you were strangely silent which wasn't normal for you while out on a case.

"I know, I just feel a little warm. When we get back I should lay down, have a rest." You lied, forcing a smile as you looked up at him. He hummed in response, nodding his head, and you hoped that he would believe you.

The two of you turned a corner, ending up behind a bunch of buildings that seemed just as run down as the shack. They were condemned which made it easy for the man to use the shed, but you also wondered why he didn't choose to use the building instead. There had to be a reason behind it, and as you thought of the potential reasons for the choice of housing your thoughts grew more and more pessimistic.

You didn't have premonitions, you couldn't see the future, but something inside you was telling you to take it slow and not rush into things. You could see in your minds eye Kunikida getting hurt, and you couldn't let that happen. It would be your fault in a way for not letting anyone know that your ability wasn't capable of the things they believed it would be. There was no time to warn Kunikida, he was already marching towards the door, pulling you behind him. He trusted your ability and the capabilities he thought it had, he thought that he would be safe as long as you were there.

He kicked open the door, and just as you had thought, as if your premonitions had come to fruition, the man had been waiting for the two of you to come. He was set up behind a large stack of old cardboard boxes, a sniper pointed right at the door prepared to shoot. Even if your ability was capable to slowing down bullets, you wouldn't have had time. He had pulled the trigger before Kunikida could even pull out his own gun.

It was as if time had slowed down, but only for you. You didn't know what to do, you had thought of this scenario, but you hadn't thought of what you'd do if it actually happened. All you knew was that the Agency couldn't lose Kunikida, nothing bad could happen to him, and you wouldn't allow anything bad to happen to him. You jumped in front of the bullets that seemed to be going at Matrix speed through the air, just in time for them to hit your back. One, two, three, four, five... five shots, five bullets all going through you, throwing you against Kunikidas chest.

There had never been a scream so loud, let alone from him. It was guttural, it was terrifying, it was ungodly. The tears came fast, falling down his cheeks and landing on your face, his body was shaking as he carefully lowered you to the ground. The man was waiting for Kunikida to move you away before firing off another set of bullets. What he didn't know was that Kunikida was ready, he had pulled out his gun already when he was bent down next to you, ready to stand up and shoot in one swift move, and that's exactly what he did.

Kunikida wasn't worried about bringing the man into custody, not anymore. He wanted revenge, he saw red, he wanted that man dead for what he had done to you. It was one quick shot to the head, and Kunikida's accuracy was unparalleled. As quickly as his gun went off you heard the thud of the mans body hitting the ground. He would have someone from the Agency come clean up the mess, the only thing he was worried about right now was getting you back to Doctor Yosano.

He scooped you up bridal style, carefully positioning you in his arms as he ran back to the Agency building. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I should have thought about what could have happened, I should have been smarter, I should have thought of every possible outcome, I should have-" He felt you weakly bring your hand up to his face, brushing your fingers along his tear coated cheeks. It was strange, he was panicking more than you were, and you were the one who had been shot. Maybe it was because you had accepted the fact that you were already dead, and you were at peace with it, you had done it for him. "Y-Yoasano is going to save you, I promise. Just hold on a little longer." You had heard stories of her saving Naomi and Junichiro, and you hoped that she would be able to do the same for you, for Kunikida's sake.

He ran into the office going straight for Yosano's office, laying you carefully on the table. Yosano had followed him back, as did everyone else. Seeing Kunikida in that state was different, he was usually stoic and professional, only losing his cool with Dazai, but that was out of anger. He was a mess, his eyes were blood shot red from crying so much on his way over there, his entire body was shaking at this point as he stood back against the wall. "What happened?" Yosano was the first person to speak up, looking from you and then over to Kunikida. He couldn't even answer, he just shook his head before dropping it. He was ashamed of himself, disappointed that he had allowed you to basically sacrifice yourself to save him. "I need everyone to leave, you too Kunikida." He had to be pulled out of the room by Dazai and Atsushi, his body was like stone, he couldn't move on his own. He didn't want to think about losing you, not like this, but he knew that it was a possibility.

He paced the length of the office, everyone sat back and watched as he chewed on the ends of his fingers, only occasionally glancing up from the floor to see if anyone was coming out of the office. It felt like hours instead of minutes, he wanted news, any news at this point would be enough for him. He wanted to know whether he would be able to hold you again, whether he would be able to kiss you again, dance with you again in the seclusion of your small apartment. kiss along your knuckles as he held your hand late at night while the moon shone in through the bedroom window. Should he hold onto hope that he would do those things again, or should he prepare himself for the grieving process? 

The second hand on the clock went around and around, how many full circulations had it done by the time Yosano had finally walked out of the office? Why hadn’t you walked out with her? Why did she look so upset, so disappointed? He knew that face, he knew what it meant, as much as he tried to not accept it, he had no choice but to do just that. Her face was one of someone that had lost the battle to save a life, the face of someone who had given their all but it wasn’t enough in the end. He looked her in the eye, trying to find some glimmer of hope in her eyes, but they were dull, there was nothing there.

“I’m sorry, Kunikida. I tried, I did. But, she was gone, she was dead when you brought her in.” She whispered, obviously feeling guilty about not being able to save you when he had trusted her with the task. 

“No, that’s not right. You can heal her wounds, you can make her better. You-You saved Naomi and Junichiro, remember!” Kunikida began panicking, he didn’t know how to live life without you now. You were the only person who had ever fit his ideals, you were perfect for him, you were his other half, what was he supposed to do without you? It wasn’t fair. 

“The bullet went through her head, Kunikida. She was dead immediately. I can’t fix that. The bullet was lodged in her brain, I-” 

“No! That’s impossible! She smiled at me when I carried her here! She was breathing! She moved, she touched my face! It happened!” 

“You were hallucinating, she wasn’t breathing when you brought her in. The shot killed her instantly. I’m sorry Kunikida.” 

He wasn’t crazy, no. He couldn’t be crazy, he wasn’t hallucinating, He knew what he saw, he felt your hand reach out and touch him, it felt like you were breathing... but.... 

He looked down at his sleeve where your head had been laying, the stain of blood that was becoming darker... had he really felt you touch his face? Was he really capable of going that crazy? Did it even matter anymore? No... Nothing mattered anymore. 

“Kunikida... maybe you should go home... get some rest.” Dazai finally spoke up, but he only shook his head. Home wouldn’t be much better knowing that you weren’t going home with him. Nothing was okay anymore. The worst part was that he didn’t know how to react now that he knew. 

Should he be sad? Should he cry? Should he be angry at himself for not protecting you? Should he be angry at the shooter who had taken you away from him? Or maybe Yosano for not being able to save you? Or maybe Fukuzawa for pairing the two of you up for this case? Maybe he should be mad at you for being so dumb, to jump in front of bullets to save him. That’s one thing he couldn’t be though, he couldn’t be mad at you. You had sacrificed yourself for him, and that was the last act of love you had given him. 

[tsukihimeyfan]

Sozin’s Comet’s Deus Ex Machina (and ways to fix them)

I’m sure that most of us AtLA fans can agree that the four part Finale was one of the best moments in animation history, with astoundingly well choreographed fight scenes, fantastic emotional beats, gorgeous animation, and frankly breath-taking music. However, I’m also sure I’m not the only one who was frustrated by one aspect of it in particular, the one blot on an otherwise perfect finale: what I like to call the “lion-turtle and pointy rock” ex machina.

The saddest part is that there was very little they had to change to get to a satisfactory, ties-everything-together ending. For example, take Energy-bending and the Lion-turtle. I saw a post a while ago where they suggested that energybending could’ve been related to what Aang learned from the swamp and the Guru, and it just makes SO much sense (Note: I saw the post months ago and I can’t find it anymore, so if anyone knows who first posted that theory please let me know so that I can give credit where credit’s due). After all, Aang seemed to use the energy of the swamp to sense where Appa and Momo were, and later, during Appa’s Lost Days, Guru Pathik says this:

Meaning he, a non-bender, is capable of reading the energy of others, and of locating people bonded to them from miles away. Let’s not forget that he had also previously sensed everything Appa had gone through with the same ability. Sounds like a really useful skill, wouldn’t you say?

Also, looking at both “sensing” occurrences, they look remarkably similar, so we can be reasonably sure that they’re both employing the same method.

It would’ve been so easy to have Aang take a moment to ask how Guru Pathik met Appa. After all, as far as the Gaang knew, Appa was taken by merchants to be sold in Ba Sing Se, so he shouldn’t have had a chance to meet anyone at the Eastern Air Temple. Did the merchants pass through the temple on the way to Ba Sing Se? Did the Guru try to set Appa free? Pathik would then have to explain how Appa had already escaped on his own, and he helped him find Aang by reading his energy. Aang could then ask the Guru to teach him this ability so that if they ever get separated again he’d be able to find and help Appa easily. Boom - energybending basics acquired.

A highly spiritual person like Aang would no doubt have little problems mastering the sensing ability, especially since he’s used a limited version of it before at the Swamp. Also, if we think about how much the spiritual mentors in the show have tried to drill it into Aang that all things are connected,

we can assume that after mastering everything Guru Pathik could do he would eventually be able to sense even people vaguely connected to him from far away. Being the Avatar, the bridge between the spiritual and physical worlds, would almost certainly also help him master energysensing abilities no other had before. 

Maybe they could’ve added a few 30 second scenes here and there of Aang meditating to hone his energysensing skills. Also, during the whole Boiling Rock debacle, imagine how great it would’ve been if Sokka had asked Aang about his dad and, after pressing his hand to Sokka’s forehead and following his bond to his father, Aang was able to tell him that his dad was alive and well, and that he was somewhere in the direction they’d come from, though at that point he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint his exact location.

“I’m sorry Sokka... I can’t tell exactly where he is yet... I know that’s not really helpful...”

“No, knowing he’s alright is plenty. Thanks, buddy”

After Sokka and Zuko rescue Hakoda, I could picture Aang practicing harder than ever until he could use Hakoda’s bond to Bato and the others to locate them in a prison in Caldera City (which would’ve made rescue before ending the war difficult to say the least, and would explain how they were all there for Zuko’s coronation so fast)

Later, during Aang’s trip to the mysterious island, it would’ve been so cool if, instead of handing him the ability, the lion-turtle just told him this:

... and maybe showed him visions of his energysensing training when he did the forehead-touch thing. Then, during the battle with Ozai, maybe after redirecting the lightning away from Ozai Aang could think to himself “I can’t... he may be a monster, but he’s still my friend’s father!”. Then, he suddenly realizes that just like with his friends and family, Aang has a connection with Ozai too, and that if sensing someone’s energy happens by putting a bit of his energy into them, maybe he can use the same route to take some of Ozai’s energy away from him.

Imagine how amazing it would’ve been if they’d added those little snippets of Aang’s energybending training all throughout book 3, without giving it that name, and then Aang used what he’d learned from Guru Pathik and Huu and what he’d taught himself to rediscover a technique that hadn’t been used in millenia all by himself! (well, with a little “nudge in the right direction” from lionturtle-sensei) We were SO close, all the building blocks were there but... *sigh* we ended up still so far. 

Continued with solving “pointy-rock-ex-machina” under the cut

In Book 2, we’re told that to master the Avatar State Aang has to “let go of his attachments”, but that plot point is dropped completely and all he has to do is get hit in his lightning scar and BAM! Avatar State unlocked, no letting go required! 😒 

He was still just as attached to Katara as he was during Book 2, if not more so. So, in the interest of trying to figure out how to tie up as many loose ends as possible, we could try to hit two birds with one stone by fixing another thing at the same time that wasn’t addressed either. 

We could start with a conversation between Aang and Katara where he apologizes for kissing her when she clearly didn’t want him to at some point during Sozin’s Comet Part 1 - The Phoenix King.

“I accept your apology Aang” Katara’d say, “but from now on make sure to respect people’s boundaries, Ok? Especially girls’ boundaries :) We can talk about this more after everything’s over”

At this point, maybe Aang could be left to think and reflect on his relationship with Katara, on his attachment to her, and on how he’d started thinking about her as “his” almost without any input from her.

Maybe Aang could begin to really understand what Guru Pathik was trying to teach him when he said “you must let go”, and the difference between love and unhealthy attachment to people.

He’d therefore be going into the fight with Ozai with that fresh on his mind.

Then, as the battle raged and he grew increasingly desperate, maybe he’d try a few times to force himself into the Avatar State only to fail miserably. 

At this moment

when he’s been overpowered and cornered (and also has a little bit of “downtime” to think), he could start desperately trying to figure out a way to enter the Avatar State, and wondering why he can’t do it. Katara’s been healing him every day! The scar doesn’t even hurt anymore! Why doesn’t it work???

Then, he'd realize that it doesn’t really make sense for a lightning strike to lock his 7th Chakra, since according to what Guru Pathik taught him chakras are locked or unlocked through changes in emotional and spiritual state, not physical. 

(Note: this is also backed up by what little I know of irl chakras and activating Kundalini in the Yoga school of Hindu philosophy. If anyone knows more about it please feel free to add to this or correct me. I’d love to learn how the concept of chakras in Avatar contrasts with its real life counterpart 😊)

Also, if the lightning had messed with the Avatar State some other way, like by blocking his chi for example, he shouldn’t be able to bend properly either.

So what could’ve caused his problem with the Avatar State? 

Of course! After Katara saved him, Aang became even more focused on gaining her love, and grew even more attached to her than he’d been before! Of course he can’t enter the Avatar State! 

Now, I’m a Zutara shipper all the way, and this would work much better if that had been canon, but this could work even with a Kataang endgame since, as I said before, Aang kind of become obsessed with the idea of making Katara “his” no matter what, a clear earthly attachment, instead of loving her unselfishly and letting her love him in her way:

Notice that he said “we kissed” even though he kissed her, and then “I thought we were gonna be together”, an assumption he made without asking her anything once. Same as in this scene:

Mastering the Avatar State doesn’t mean not loving anyone romantically, as we can clearly see through Avatar Roku’s example (also the “if you want power abandon your loved ones” message is stupid and I don’t like it at all. This would be better imo)

Even during the process for unlocking the chakras, the Fourth Chakra tells us that finding love isn’t contrary to spirituality, and can even be a source of spiritual strength. However, I’ve always thought it was a bit strange that the “new love” Aang found to fill the hole left by the deaths of his people was.... just Katara

Because what Aang lost was essentially all of his family and friends right? So wouldn’t it have made more sense for Aang to envision Sokka, Toph, Appa and Momo as well? You know, his old family vs. his new family?

I didn’t fully understand what exactly was wrong with it until I read some of tumblr user marsreds’ metas on the matter, and I have to agree with them that it seems Aang was sort of focusing on his love for Katara so much partially as a way to cope with the loss of his people. To keep it out of mind. That’s not how you build a wholesome romantic relationship, and it doesn’t seem like the best way to deal with grief either. No wonder his Seventh Chakra was blocked.

I would’ve loved to see Aang realize at the moment of truth that in order to access the Avatar State he simply had to let Katara go enough so that he could love her selflessly, so that her wants and needs, and the needs of the world, could come first. He needed to become able to accept her answer, whatever it was, when she gave it. He needed to come to understand that his happiness wasn’t completely (or even mostly) dependent on getting into a relationship with Katara. He had a family he’d found all on his own, made up of friends who adored him and who would’ve given their lives for him if necessary. He was not alone in the world any more. Even if she told him no, he would in all likelihood find new love and be happy.

(in fact we have proof and there’s a perfect candidate right there in the Fire Nation but I digress)

The rest of the finale could’ve played out exactly the same as canon, and in the end Aang would’ve had a better understanding of himself and some inner peace. They could’ve also given us an inkling that Aang would later get to mourn over the deaths of his people properly, surrounded by his loved ones (maybe, ideally, in a hypothetical Book 4-AIR?. God, I wish)

I’ve seen some posts about Aang letting go of his attachment to the Air Nomad’s teachings instead (with maybe that very decision to put the needs of the world above his own being what unlocks his Seventh Chakra), and those are magnificent ideas as well, but I myself would’ve preferred if it went this way because I think there’s something beautifully poetic and satisfying about Aang staying true to himself, finding an alternate solution to violence that would still protect the world, and using the wisdom of His People to put an end to the very war that caused their destruction, while simultaneously giving the worst possible punishment to a man as power-hungry as Ozai

...and leaving him the same way he’s left many of the Fire Nation’s victims in the past: trapped, powerless and forgotten.

I also feel like this ties up all the loose ends better, since it was his attachment to Katara specifically which stopped him from mastering the Avatar State in the first place. And, Kataang endgame or not, it would’ve sent a wonderful message about building and maintaining healthy relationships, perfect for the show’s target audience of preteen and teenage kids.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

[offtopicoverload]

alright, i was on the fence about the oc weekend idea, but fuck it i have a bunch of shit made why not? block “oc weekend” tag if you don’t care cuz same

so have some cleo (and nia) headcanons to kick whatever the fuck this is gonna be off

super long cuz i have a serious problem

So her starting skills were bow, charisma, and wildlife, then woods lore, then blade, medicine, deception, brawling, seduction

She made some money hunting, which is where the bow and animal skills came from

With being an elf, her and Kade were orphaned together in a massacre and taken in by a local farmer

Absolutely got into so much trouble, usually Cleo getting a bad idea and dragging Kade along, but could always talk her way out of it, hence the charisma

MC canonically has relationship experience, right? I think she had a short term partner, maybe some flings with travelers or something, but never really got invested in relationships, just wasn’t her thing

Especially in RIverbend, where everyone knows everyone and it’s awkward if you break up

She’s pretty similar to canon MC, wild and goofy and somewhat reckless

But also really determined and caring and sweet when she needs to be

I adore her if you can’t tell

The first time she saw Nia, totally tongue-tied and a flustered mess, she’s smooth when it’s a joke but incapable of any coherent words when it turns real

She’s pretty awkward, definitely stiff at first, but slowly loosens up as she gets closer to Nia, letting her goofy side show

She for sure pines and gets made fun of for it by Kade, then Mal and Imtura every time she gets flustered 

And Threep likes to rub it in too, occasionally threatening to say something unless he gets snacks he does the same to Nia askjksdf

I’m also in love with the idea of Mal and Imtura playing matchmaker and constantly trying to set them up in situations where they have to be close, and the two of them losing their minds when Cleo and Nia get stuck in that pit

The night at the cabin in the Deadwood was the first moment Cleo realised that there could be something real there, like it just never clicked until Nia was straight up telling her she liked her

From then on things definitely change, and Cleo starts being a lot softer, like at the masquerade and stuff

But the argument in the cabin always sticks out in her mind, she defended Nia’s right to spend her life as she chooses, but she doesn’t necessarily like it

She always tries to find work arounds for Nia using her light, like using her own before Nia can get the chance

She for sure nearly decked the High Priest, just for all his bullshit, and was very happy to get that tracking orb from him to make sure they would be safe she had some plans already

So I don’t accept MC being cool after Nia straight up gets yanked into the Shadow Realm, Cleo absolutely was about to jump in after her until Imtura grabbed her and jerked her back like “what the fuck are you doing”

Cleo was about to snap the entire time they were working their way through the Shadow Realm, definitely wrecked Vonstratz on Nia’s behalf

I also don’t accept the “single tear” line when MC fucking KILLS Nia, Cleo would be bawling her eyes out and refusing to let go of her when she dies

There not being an ily felt kinda weird to me, and cuz Cleo’s a sap, I feel like she’d either say it before stabbing Nia or during the diamond scene where they’re looking out at Whiterun

In the first instance, it’s more for her piece of mind, that Nia knows what her sacrifice means

When Nia comes back, Cleo whispers it a million times into her shoulder as she hugs her, until she sounds like a broken record

For the second one, it’d be a bit spur of the moment, she’d just be looking in Nia’s eyes as the words spill out, but she wouldn’t even care cuz it felt so right

And now I’m going to ignore book 2 and make up my own shit

So immediately after, Cleo and Kade go back to Riverbend to pack up their lives there, Kade in order to stay in Whiterun cuz King Arlan made him a librarian or something, idk but he’s in Whiterun at the royal library and archives

Cleo ends up running a few odd jobs out of Whiterun for a while, helping Mal out quite a bit as Nia ends up with a lot of responsibilities at the temple after the High Priest gets axed

Cleo ends up quite well known as a good adventurer/travel mate by the time Nia ends up quitting the temple

Before they leave on their first trip as just them, Cleo takes her up to that terrace overlooking Whiterun after taking her to the market

They stare out at the city for a while, until the sun’s setting along the horizon

Cleo pulls out a ring from her bag, fiddling with it as she shifts on her feet nervously. She’s wussed out like half a dozen times already, and this is her last chance to do it somewhere so special

Nia figures out something’s up and starts prodding to figure it out, poking her and stuff and laughing the whole time

Cleo’s kind of found out, and turns to her blushing the ring held between her thumbs and index fingers as she avoids eye contact, “So, um. You wanna get married?”

Not what Nia was expecting at all and she kind of just 👁👄👁 for a while, until Cleo starts trying to back out of it, thinking she fucked up

And then it’s Nia’s turn to stumble over her words something along the lines of, “No, wait! Okay, um, no, so - No, I don’t mean no, just - Yes! Of course!” 

The ring’s super basic, like plain silver without even a gem 

I feel like Cleo found it on a trip with Mal, and immediately thought of Nia and proposing and freaked herself out a bit, but that’s why she didn’t look for another cuz shes a sap

They travel around the realm a bit, stopping in Undermount so Cleo can look into House Nightbloom, and getting rides from Imtura when Mal gives them a tip on a relic or something

All the while Nia’s trying to spread the Light in small villages, using her magic for little things as Cleo works favours again

At some point they get a cottage a ways away from a village, I’d say not too far from the Deadwood and things slow down for the most part, only the occasional trip for the temple

It’s a really cute house, small and surrounded by flowers and huge trees, Cleo builds a swing on one

The others visit occasionally, Kade and Threep the most often, and I almost want to say they take in an orphan, but I can’t decide if Cleo would trust herself enough for that

Though I feel like Nia would love to have pets at the least cleo always compares threep to the cats to annoy him

Elves canonically have longer life spans than humans, and Nia’s is even shorter from using her Light, so I’m sure you can tell where I’m going with this

Nia passes in her sleep before anyone else in the gang and it really fucks up Cleo, like the way she wakes up to it and can’t even stop it

And the worst part is that she’s always hoping just a little bit in the back of her mind that it’s like the first time, and Nia’s just going to wake up or knock on the front door

The gang meet up all together for a funeral, and Cleo plants the flowers from the bouquet from the end of book diamond scene

She ditches the cottage cuz too much of it is Nia, and is just kind of aimless for a little bit, staying with Kade in Whiterun, but ultimately hates not having a purpose

She moves to the old elven cabin in the Deadwood cuz shes a sap cuz it’s one of her favourite places

She devotes herself to fixing it up and making it better, helping travelers through the Deadwood cuz I feel like Tyril would open Undermount up

Everyone’s stayed in relative contact and tend to invite Cleo on adventures if they don’t hear from her for a while, just to keep her from isolating herself in the woods

Mal works with the monarchy to make things better in the Nooks and Crannies while still thievin, and especially when he’s older settles down more

I feel like he lives pretty long, but ends up sick and passing away, second to go and he kinda laughs about it his mum was sick right? and he jokes about the irony to feel better?

I doubt Imtura really accepts being a princess, I think she keeps captaining and fights it as long as she can until she really doesn’t have a choice

But she’s not like her mum, actually leaving Flotilla and like working with the guard and stuff

I think she’s third, dying in battle like a badass and saving her crew. She’s honored by the clans, and the monarchy and even Undermount declares her a hero or something idk how it works there

I feel like Kade would keep to stories, but maybe spend a while just moving about the realm, stay in Undermount to explore it and stuff, builds up his name as a bard

He dies in his sleep too cuz he deserves it, he passes when he’s visiting Riverbend again, he’s buried there and like the whole village shows up

I feel like Tyril’s significantly older than everyone else, but being an elf hides it

He always gives Cleo tips on artifacts, or asks her to escort travelers through the Deadwood or around the realm if they’re important to keep her busy

He’s not the head of House Starfury, but he’s still pretty involved in elven politics, mainly focused on opening up Undermount, educating people on the elven empire and spreading the wealth and stuff

He’d go before Cleo, just running out of life force after all his magic

After Tyril passes, Cleo’s just done, he was the only thing giving her purpose, and she’s spent decades cleaning up the Deadwood as best she can

Threep’s joined her after Tyril’s funeral, staying with her for a few days and how following her out into the forest

She walks out to the clearing they saw the unicorn at and stops right on the edge, sitting down and setting up a purification ritual

She’s known how for years, she learned after Nia passed so she could spend some of her life completing one of her dreams like a sap

She clears out the darkness from a lot of the Deadwood to drain the last of her life force, stumbling over to a tree and sliding down to the ground, her back pressed against the bark

Threep flutters into her lap, her nails scratching behind his ears as he licks her chin comfortingly, a final goodbye

Her breathing starts heavy, growing slow as her chest feels far more hollow than it did a moment ago, and her eyelids slowly grow heavy

A breeze brushes her hair, stirring her awake. The lake’s shimmering before her, bright and magical as she stumbles to her feet, Threep gone from her lap

The Deadwood’s healed, more than she could possibly have managed on her own, and she has so much more energy now than when she fell asleep

She trips through the trees, running for what feels like hours until she’s back at the cabin, the stone bright against the trees as it sits, whole again after all her effort

She shoulders the front door open, freezing when she sees the fireplace, or rather, what’s before the fireplace

Nia’s there, her back to the flickering flames as she smiles, cheeks redder than the curls falling down her shoulders

And Cleo doesn’t stop running, tackling Nia into a hug and squeezing with all she is, tears dripping down her chin as she laughs, carefree and disbelieving and happy. So, so happy, for the first time since she last saw that smile

[capricornus-rex]

A Legacy Begun (11 - End)

Chapter 11: The Spark of Hope | Cal Kestis x Reader

Summary: After a long time of running and fighting, you and Cal decided to finally settle down after all these years to raise a family. However, it was never a life of peace whilst the shadow of the Empire looms over your heads.

Prompt/s in play: Anon prompt (found in Chapter 1 link) + fic idea

A/N: Wow, I’m a day overdue on this. I was supposed to work on this a day ago until I had a yard accident. Don’t worry, nothing’s broken, but something’s... wiggling. Hopefully, I’ll be okay in a few weeks... hopefully. Sorry for the delay, you guys.

Also posted in AO3

Tags: Scruffy! Cal Kestis, Daddy! Cal Kestis, Adult! Cal Kestis, Jedi Family, Jedi Offspring, Force-Sensitive Offspring, Settling Down, Rebel Alliance

Chapters: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 | Previous: Part 10 | Masterlist

11 of 11

The Kestis family and the Mantis crew eventually decided to join this alliance with the objective of stopping the Empire at all costs. They took up the offer a month after Mari Kosan had personally approached them.

For young Cassidy, it was a big adjustment, having to leave the home she knew back in Zera III and begin to live in a new home. The child had mixed feelings about it, she had sensed the uneasiness of her parents when they prepared for their departure that day.

“I never saw a planet that red before,” she gasped, gawking at Yavin’s main planet that they passed by as they approached the moon’s atmosphere.

When the Mantis had cut through the skies and had full view of the forests that covered the land mass. All of a sudden, little Cassidy didn’t feel a bit homesick anymore.

“It’s… almost like home,” she softly uttered, the treelines reminded her of the wide, green dells of Zera.

Greez prepared the Mantis to land near the open area in front of the sandstone structure. Upon closer look, it would’ve been a temple when it was still in its prime. The entire family was greeted by Mari Kosan, who went out of her way to meet with them as soon as she saw that familiar ship flying into their radar.

The bustle of the temple-turned-base of operations fascinated the young Jedi. Never has she ever seen a different kind of ship besides the Mantis, she had to step back while keeping her head titled up—emphasizing the gargantuan size of the fighter ships.

The new feeling was a two-way road: for the adults working in the base, it was new for them to see a kid running around—understandably so, it was someone’s daughter. As for Cassidy, she wasn’t used to this much people in a single place, she felt small and therefore found more solace with her family.

“This place is so much bigger than our house, Mom!” she exclaimed.

“Well, it is a base after all, darling,”

“Did they build that too?” she points to the pyramid.

“No, it looked like it’s been there way before they even came here,”

Much like her lifestyle in Zera III, Cassidy found herself a spot where she can practice her saber techniques in peace without being in the way of the adults working in the base. It’s no surprise that her spot was another clearing in the forest, little did she know that she was in full view of the scouts in the watchtowers but they didn’t mind her that much, it was also only a few meters away from the base so she can find her way back on her own.

Her parents eventually found her spot, thanks to a watchtower scout, and they continued their training—almost as if nothing happened. Over time, her skills improved and she was able to spar with her parents—something that she has been secretly dreaming even before she had her own saber constructed.

“You’re catching up real quick!” Cal encouraged.

“Well, I’ve been practicing all week, Dad!”

“Don’t get cocky then, Cassy!”

Cassidy’s combat techniques had evolved from sticking to only Form I: Shii-Cho to being a practitioner of Form III: Soresu, occasionally making a medley out of the first four forms if the situation arises. It was a blatant contrast to her father’s combined forms—which were technically powerful, swift, nearly-brutish in terms of movement, and is highly likely to be overwhelming for an unskilled opponent.

You observed that Cassidy was more in the offensive and Cal was being defensive in his stances. He surely didn’t go easy on sparring against his daughter.

“You confuse your confidence with arrogance, keep yourself grounded—literally and figuratively!” Cal lectured as he proceeded to lunge at her, to which she barely dodged by a hair. “Celebrating too early will cloud your judgment. You may think you’re winning—but you’re getting closer to loss.”

From that, Cassidy became more conservative with her attacks, timing for the right window of opportunity to get a jab at Cal, he disarmed her when he made a flurry of combos against her to the point that the grip on her saber had weakened and led her scuttling on the dust. The tip of his lightsaber hovered mere inches away from the front of her face.

“Well, Cassidy?”

This isn’t how Cassidy pictured herself in today’s instruction. While she had her father thinking that she’s submitted to the ground, she mustered her energy in her hands and Force-pushed her father away. It wasn’t a strong push, but enough to stagger him away from her so she can reach for her saber.

Igniting it the second the weapon reunites with her hand, she lunged for an overhead strike to which Cal flimsily deflected while trying to regain her footing.

“Impressive,” he commented as the colors of their blades mixed in the tight space between them. Cassidy pulled away before she could let the weight of her father overcome her in the block. “Most impressive.”

Cal switched his saber off, signaling the end of today’s session. Cassidy made a celebratory spin of her saber before turning it off.

“You’re learning everyday,” you added.

“There are just some parts that I can’t get right,”

“You’ll have plenty of time to work on that, sweetie. Come on, it’s time for lunch, Greez is making your favorite,”

“Alright!!”

Cassidy raced out of the forest, forgetting to wait for her parents and simply dashed towards the Mantis. You and Cal exchange insights on your daughter from today’s session.

“She’s becoming more and more skillful. She really is a born fast learner,”

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t think she’d do a Force-push on me. That was quite creative of her,”

Cal insisted that his daughter had inherited tactfulness and adaptiveness from you.

“Yes well, she got that tinge of recklessness from you,” you rebutted, half-jokingly.

The two of you walked out of the clearing and followed Cassidy to the Mantis. Apparently, she was waiting for you by the entry ramp, when she had caught sight of her parents she disappeared into the ship, probably helping out set the table inside.

“If there’s one thing Cassidy is weak for—it’s fried Nuna legs,” Cal quipped, nothing but a chuckle from you became his reply.

The first few months have been peaceful, yet there was always the looming fear that war will come here and ravage the moon. Your only comfort being you’ll be fighting with good people and in numbers.

—–

0 BBY, IN THE TIMELINE OF “A NEW HOPE”

In the midst of the committee, he was held in high regard, looked upon with great esteem, they turned to him whenever the subject matter felt like his insight was crucial. He was a constant figure among the meeting rooms in the base. They didn’t look down on him due to his second origin of being a scrapper, as a matter of fact, he had the same knowledge as their engineers.

“Master Kestis,” a voice, faceless among the crowd in the meeting room. He had insisted everyone to simply call him by his first name, but out of force of habit, they end up addressing him as Master.

When he knew that it was hopeless for him to correct them, he turned to that voice in the room that addressed him. His glance prompted them to continue.

“Do you think it’s plausible to have a far-range receiver to pick up the Empire’s signal?”

A brief pause allowed him to think. He returned his attention to the holograph where they had gathered.

“Well, the concept is similar to something I’ve designed for our previous home. But to make its range farther—for instance, from the surface to off-planet—we’re gonna have to need a stronger satellite, calibrate it with an open channel frequency, and once we test it, we can figure out how far our dummy ship’s signal can be picked up once it’s out of the moon. The farther, the better—it means that we can pick up the Empire in our radar before they even realize it.”

“It’s an ambitious design, but not impossible,” Gial Ackbar, the Mon Calamari admiral, interjects. “It’s sure to help us buy time when the need to evacuate comes.”

“We’ll see what we can do in the drawing board,” the head engineer added, stroking his grey-white beard as if he’s come up with an idea to add up to Cal’s concept. “I think we can do that on one of the prototype transponders we have to communicate with the pilots from their ships once they’re off the planet.”

“That could work, I’d like to see it some time, if you don’t mind, Head Engineer,”

“My boy, it will be a delight if you stop by!” the old head engineer chuckled, tucking his hands into the pockets of his long, white coat.

The meeting was adjourned after a few more discussions varying between the Empire and the base’s own resources. Everyone else dispersed in the meeting room and Cal was one of the first people to leave the room, trading curt nods at fellow rebels as he passed by the hallways.

Cal wore many hats and served them one by one—sometimes even juggling two at a time. But past the formalities, the conferences, and the ceaseless interaction with the diplomats, he always returns to the one role he has been taking on for eleven years.

“Dad! Watch me train with Mom!” Cassidy comes running up to her dad in the hangar and he catches her in his arms.

“I wouldn’t miss it, sweetie,”

“Then we’ll spar, right?”

“You betcha!”

Father and daughter appear into the forest clearing where you had been waiting for the two of them. Cassidy slipped her hand away from her dad, Cal gently holds you by the cheek and pulls you in for a kiss.

“Darling, you’re back,”

“I missed you,”

“It was only for an hour or two,”

“Yeah well, meetings aren’t really my thing,” the bridge of his nose crumpled, playfully making a grimace as he stretches his arms upward and wraps one of them around your shoulder. “This is a bit more of my thing.”

Bemused, you rolled your eyes and found his hand on your shoulder, “Which one—today’s instruction or me?”

He inched close and grinned, the tips of your noses brushing against one another, “Both.”

His lips pecked yours, but he doesn’t plan to let go of you any moment soon.

Now at eleven years old, Cassidy continued to prove her potential as a Jedi.

The child was lithe and nimble, using them to her advantage whether in combat or traversing the terrain of the obstacle course that her parents had built together. Her strategical skills were put into good use in that training course.

Her liveliness in combat was balanced out in using the Force and meditating, courtesy of you, no less.

“You’re getting better at the fighting,” you initiated, eventually slipping away from Cal’s arm. “But let’s see how you’ll fare without your weapon.”

Using the Force, you spirited away the saber from Cassidy’s small hand. She didn’t have time to react on it and realize that you’re stealing away her saber.

“Oh, don’t think about pulling the same trick as you did with your dad,”

There was stern tone in your voice, just hearing it made Cassidy’s stomach churn. To reassure her that it was going to be a fair fight, you removed your saber from the designated hook on your belt and joined it with Cassidy’s atop a rock’s flat surface.

“There will come a time that you’ll be robbed of your weapon—mostly by your enemies. And when that happens, you’re essentially bare—but don’t let that deter you. The weapon you have next to your saber is yourself. Now then…”

It occurred to her that she had to wield only the Force and engage in hand-to-hand combat against you. You seldom engage in any form of combat with Cassidy—because that was more of Cal’s work—but it was only this one time where she saw you throwing fists and delivering kicks. She’s seen you fight with a lightsaber, but rarely with your bare hands.

Your own daughter was surprised to face her mother—who was barely angry or aggressive, always sweet and doting—not once did Cassidy ever imagine you challenging her. Then again, you were a Jedi, she knew that you would eventually.

She tucked her knees down, placing herself in a stance with her fists in front of her.

“Good form. Now, see if you can attack me,”

Cassidy resumed to being the one who always engages in the offensive first. Springing her heels toward you, she attempted to pull a punch—in the blink of an eye, the whole of your palm stopped the impact on wherever she was planning to hit you.

You pushed her away, deflecting her blow, and she restarted her stance. For every punch she threw, she was denied of landing it; in perfect balance, you bent down level to her waist and your leg literally swept her off of her feet.

“Throwing punches may feel thrilling, but if you’re going to be reckless like that first moment, it’s not going to work,”

“I’ll try again,” she declared, steeling her mental willpower and her demeanor.

Going back to your stance was your reply, you anticipated her attacks. This time, she opted to start with a kick and your forearm shielded you from the tip of her boot. When you swung her foot back to the ground, she hooked her left fist towards your cheek—a bold move, you thought, but it was nothing as you repeated the same deflection as the first time. Cassidy took you by surprise when she flung a kick against your side when you were busy blocking her punch with your arm.

You staggered at the impact, you dented the earth with your boots as you skidded and reset your footing to face her in the other direction. A small smirk curled along your lips—that meant that she’s impressed you with her last-minute tactic—and the fistfight continued.

“Good!” you exerted. “Keep making use of your advantages, Cassidy!”

Cassidy allowed the adrenaline to flow within her, dictate her movements, and be able to analyze the situation faster before you could retaliate. Punches and kicks land between mother and daughter. Flinging and trading fists, making sure that it doesn’t only cut through the wind.

Eventually, your eleven-year-old secured her win on this round when she delivered a kick on your knee and then to your abdomen. When the adrenaline had died down in her system, Cassidy’s clenched teeth loosened and the tension in her shoulders relaxed. She darted towards her mother’s side, assisting you to get back up on your feet.

“Oh… Oh no, Mom! Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine, sweetie,” you grunted, managing a reassuring chuckle and taking her hand, you repeated. “It’s fine.”

“I’m so sorry, I… I don’t know what gotten into me,”

“A little adrenaline couldn’t hurt, Cassy,” you tussled her hair. You exhaled away the aches that her hits have delivered.

The arrival of a Corellian freighter called your attention, catching a glimpse of it on the trees’ canopy. The intrigued youngling darted out of the clearing to find it landing right in front of the base, opposite of where the Mantis idled.

“Wow, that’s a big piece of junk,”

“Now Cassidy, be nice,” Cal lightly scolded.

“Oh come on, Dad, you think so too, right?”

He sighed, bobbing his head left and right, “Okay, it’s not the best piece of work, really.”

“Knew it!” the child chuckled.

From afar, you spot the Princess exiting the ship, flanked by a pair of men, a Wookiee, a gold protocol droid, and a blue-and-white astromech.

“Well, it seems Her Highness has gotten herself stuck with an interesting band of misfits,” you commented within Cal’s earshot.

“Quite an interesting rescue team if you ask me,”

The family approached the group, appearing out of the clearing to greet the princess with the greatest esteem.

“Ah, Your Highness, this is Master and Lady Kestis,” the soldier introduces.

“Your Majesty,” husband and wife greeted and bowed in unison, to which the Princess immediately dismissed.

“Oh come now, there’s no need for formalities,” she beamed a smile with lips as red as roses.

Cassidy was still a tad shy towards newcomers, she hid behind Cal’s hip as she gazed at the mismatched group of misfits; she was mostly interested with the Wookiee and how tall it stood over everyone else, when the brown, hairy creature met eyes with her, she was startled and hid her face against her dad’s arm, but the Wookiee tilted his head slightly, mirroring the child’s gesture as she gradually peeked out of her father’s arm. When she sensed that the tall creature was harmless, she flashed a shy but friendly smile and the Wookiee groaned softly.

The same head engineer from Cal’s meeting beckoned him to join them inside the base.

“Lady Kestis, if you don’t mind, we would like to have your company in the council room as well,”

“Of course,” you turned to Cassidy. “Daddy and I will be back, okay? You go play wherever you like.”

“Okay, Mom,”

You kissed her forehead, “I’ll see you later, okay?”

She nodded and you let her free. You and Cal followed the head engineer and the Princess, boarding a cart separate from theirs on the way into the hangar. The Kestis couple sensed the urgency as they strode into the meeting room, while having the meeting, Cassidy had wandered off into the hangar—secretly following the newcomers and caught the eye of the boy with sandy brown hair.

“Hello there,” the nineteen-year-old spoke in a friendly tone and bent to her level. “What’s your name?”

“Cassidy,”

“What a pretty name. Well, Cassidy, I’m Luke! Nice to meet you,” he gladly extended his hand, offering her a handshake. She hesitated for a few seconds but took his hand with hers and they shook on it.

She didn’t notice it, but Luke’s friendly smile unconsciously dissolved as he felt something within the girl. It was similar to a feeling he had not too long ago. Even with his eyes opened, he suddenly reminisced a moment where he had his vision obscured and the sound of the lightsaber buzzing against projectiles rang fresh in his eardrums. He shook away the thought and managed a smile in front of Cassidy as he let go of her hand.

“Did you rescue her? The princess?”

“Yeah, I guess we did,”

“Are the bad guys coming here? Because I have a bad feeling about it,”

“Oh well, would you look at that—just when I thought you were the youngest here, there’s one who beat you to it,” the other man, obviously taller than Luke, cuts in before he could give the boy a chance to reply.

The Wookiee grunted in reply.

“Don’t scare her off, Chewie,” the man blurted.

In reply, the Wookiee raised its voice on the man with the black vest, flailing its arm to emphasize whatever point it was making. While the three bickered, Cassidy turned her head to the freighter they came in with, she reminded herself of her father’s scolding and bit her tongue.

Moments later, all of the pilots started gravitating towards the room where the engineer had summoned them. Although he wasn’t a pilot yet, Luke decided to join in, but he politely excused himself in front of Cassidy before he went with the herd of orange jumpsuits. Amidst that gathering of pilots, Cassidy’s parents were also in that briefing, listening to the head engineer as he points at the blueprint of the plans they’ve recovered while giving instructions.

“So much for that far-range receiver,” Cal mumbled within your earshot.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance in making it,” you comforted as you listened.

“Using proton torpedoes, a precise shot into this small exhaust port found in this trench—it’s an opening so small, its width roughly measures about two meters—will cause a chain reaction into the oscillator, destroying it from the inside,” the head engineer explained.

Murmurs filled the room, heads turning left and right as doubt begins to fill the meeting room. You and Cal glance at the uneasy pilots, their collective inhibition was so loud that neither of you don’t need to sense it—because everyone else in the entire room did.

“That’s impossible!” a faceless voice, lost in the crowd of orange and white, stood out from the whispering.

“Then man your ships, and may the Force be with you all,” the engineer adjourned.

“Are you fighting with them?” that question had been suffocating you for the duration of the briefing.

“No, I don’t think I have the strength to leave my girls here,”

Relief washed over you as you smiled, Cal secretly slipped his hand to yours and intertwined fingers with you. The two of you watched the pilots disperse out of the room, some were confident, some were nervous—but if there was one thing they had in common: they’re ultimately anxious.

Cassidy eventually found Luke donning a starpilot’s jumpsuit. She watched the blue-and-white astromech droid being hoisted by a magnetic crane into the designated port on the exterior of the X-Wing.

“I hope they’ve calibrated and oiled your S-foils well,” Cassidy blurted. “It’s gonna be hard if it’s not fully locked in their attack position.”

“You sure know your starfighters,” Luke smiled, impressed.

“My dad used to be a scrapper, so he knows his stuff. Plus, he helps with the ships too!” Cassidy said proudly.

Luke replied an awkward but friendly laugh as he climbed the ladder onto the cockpit of his X-Wing.

“Hey Luke!”

“Yeah?”

“May the Force be with you!”

“May the Force be with you too, Cassidy!”

You beckoned Cassidy into the far side of the hangar, where the three of you watched all of the X-Wings wheel out of the hangar and take off to the skies—carrying the hope of the entire Rebel Alliance as a first step to battling the Empire.

[fangirlfics]

Reunited part 1 (Cal Kestis x reader love triangle)

(this is how y/n’s Armour looks)

word count: 2,001

summary: y/n, a former jedi and current bounty hunter attempts to capture Cal to collect a bounty however upon realizing he’s an old friend she changes her mind. (love triangle) 

When order 66 had been executed hundreds of jedis had been slaughtered by their own troops. Everything erupted into chaos soon after, and the jedi order fell. Y/n was only a padawan when it all happened. She had witnessed her master switch sides and turn against her and she had watched many of her friends parish. Although she didn’t know what became of her best friend Cal Kestis hope for his survival faded away with each day that passes. One year after the horrific events of order 66 she had been discovered by a young boy her age named Jeremy. He was a bounty hunter--like his older brother-- and in time she also adapted the skills of a bounty hunter. Now five years after the order was made, the three of them were a part of a small group (her force sensitivity and past had still been undiscovered.) And her and Jeremy’s relationship had shifted into something that no longer was as simple as a ‘friendship’. Although he could be manipulative at times and blame other people for his own faults, he was all that she really had. Without him and his gang of bounty hunters what would she do? How would she survive? So now laying atop a building on Zeffo, y/n stared through her scope contemplating all of her decisions within the past five years, including all of those people she had hunted down for a dumb bounty. Lately her line of work bothered her--especially considering the fact that being a bounty hunter went against every moral code that the jedi had taught. What if he made it to an escape pod too? Y/n thought, letting her thoughts drift back to Cal. The Star Destroyer that they were stationed at did have a few escape pods after all, so it was possible that he got away. But there were so many of them She remembered, picturing the shooting clones. She shook her head forcing her thoughts about her former friend (and crush) out.

“I have eyes on the target, he’s headed your way.” y/n heard her partner, Jeremy say through the other end of her receiver, “you ready? Remember, he’s got a droid with him.”

“That bounty's practically already ours.” She confirmed, pushing down her guilt. “Just gotta wait till he’s within range.” She stared through the scope of her rifle, ready to deliver an electrical shot, when a tiny droid came into view, it scrambled forward bouncing excitedly as it scanned something on a wall. She watched the droid some more before turning her attention to the person who followed it, moving her aim up to get the full view of who this person was. She saw it was a male, and he was wearing a dark blue colored poncho with it’s hood up, covering his identity. “Bingo.” She said under her breath.

“Keep an eye out for one of those laser swords, he’s a jedi.” upon hearing those words she froze. “He’s a jedi?” She breathed out shakily. She adjusted her blaster rifle, inspecting his waist area though her scope and sure enough, in his belt she spotted a shiny lightsaber hilt. It was clipped to the boys belt. 

“If you’re gonna shoot, better do it now.” She heard Jeremy’s voice echo through her ears. Don’t do it, a voice came into her head. “y/n!” He pressed on when she didn’t respond. She tightened her grip on the rifle’s trigger still aiming at him.  I shouldn’t. It’s wrong. She tried shaking the thoughts away, I should be helping him, he’s like me. What would my master think if he saw me now? “y/n shoot the gun!” The sound of Jeremy’s booming voice made her jump, and she wished that her fingers hadn’t been on the trigger, because it shot. It felt like time was moving in slow motion as she watched the blue electrical charge shoot towards him. “move.” She whispered desperately, not caring if Jeremy heard. Please move. Please. And the jedi ducked down to talk to the small droid, missing the bolt of electricity. y/n took a relieved breath, closing her eyes as she watched the cloaked figure’s head snap up to where the bolt had hit the building’s wall. 

“Nice shot.” Her partner commented teasingly. So he hadn’t heard her. “I got it.” His accent rang through her ears.

“no wai-“ But it was too late because by the time she looked up into the direction where Jeremy had been stationed his blast had hit the jedi in the back, shocking him with enough power to knock him unconscious. “no-no-no.” She whispered to herself, getting up. “I’ll get him.” She blurted out in desperation. 

“Don’t you need help getting him on to the ship?”

“No.” 

“You just want the droid don’t you?“

“uh-y-yeah the droid, I want the droid.“ She lied, she just needed an excuse to be alone with him so she could wake him up and get him as far from the bounty hunter group as possible. 

“Ok, fine.” He agreed much to her relief . “I get to keep the lighsaber though. I’ll round up the crew and get the ship ready for take off. Then maybe later...if you want I can take you on a date. We haven’t been on one in a while.’”

“Great.” She lied. His idea of a date always resulted in going to the nearest cantina and getting drunk out of him mind. 

“I’ll meet you on the ship.“

“ok.“ From her scope she could see that his back was facing her and that he was retreating. Y/n was on her feet within seconds and got down from the roof where she was stationed at, rushing towards the cloaked jedi she fell onto her knees, shaking his shoulder, “Hey get up.” She told him.

“boop-beep!” The jedi’s droid trilled from beside her.

“Calm down I’m on your side.” She reassured the droid, “Help me wake him up, will you?” What if someone from the crew sees me? “Hey get up!” She tried again. He began to stir before jolting awake. And when you just wake up from being electrocuted, a bounty hunter at your side is not what you want to see. The jedi’s eyes widened under the darkness of the night, and he reached for his lightsaber but she was faster and grabbed his wrist to prevent him from drawing it. Seeing this as a threat he jabbed her arm with his elbow, which she blocked and from there they had gotten into a small fight. Each trying to land a hit on the other to knock them down and in the end it was the jedi who tackled y/n down, toppling into the dirt with her.

y/n now lay on the ground with her arms pinned down beside her head. It was then when the the jedi was on top of her holding her down, that she could see him under the faint moon light. His pale complexion, his green eyes, the small freckles scattered across his face.. “Cal?” y/n asked just above a whisper, she had said it so quietly that she was almost certain he hadn’t heard her. 

“Why do you know my name?” He asked, and although his voice sounded threatening, she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. He wasn’t that type of person. Especially with growing up in the jedi order.

“It’s me.” she told him, “it’s y/n.” She tried pulling her arms out of his grasp but he only gripped onto her wrists tighter. “t-that’s impossible.” He breathed out, and something flashed in his eyes although she wasn’t sure what it was. Anger? Pain? “y/n’s d-dead.” He said quieter, “She died when the jedi order fell, now who are you!” 

“It’s really me.” She told him again 

Cal shook his head in denial, squeezing his eyes shut for a second “N-no, you’re lying. You’re just trying to get my guard down so you can turn me in. You’re a bounty hunter, I know your tricks.”

“What does your gut tell you?” y/n said softly.

“If you’re really who you say you are, prove it.”

She thought for a moment before rushing her words out at once, “When we were younglings the other kids made fun of me a-and you were the only one who ever helped me. That’s why we became friends.” He didn’t budge. “After our private lessons with our masters we used to tell each other everything we learned, and we fantasized about being heroes. We used to make bracelets together...” For a moment she thought that he hadn’t been persuaded or that he didn’t remember those highlights of her childhood. But he seemed to freeze for a second, and his mouth gaped open as if he was going to say something, but he didn’t. 

“y/n?” He asked, not recognizing the girl under the helmet, “it’s really-I...what?” He got off of her, still in disbelief as he stood.

Y/n got to her feet slowly observing his reaction before pulling her helmet off, exposing her y/h/c eyes and y/h/c hair-which was pulled back into a pony tail. Cal who had been looking at the ground now turned his head into her direction, and his mouth fell open again. Unsure of what to say he stumbled over his words for a second in disbelief. “I-you...I thought...” His eyes began to get glossy now as his emotions took over, “I thought you were dead!” He cried, trying to stifle his tears. But there was no points because they were coming out like a faucet. 

y/n bit her lip and covered her mouth with her free hand letting out a small sob before dropping her helmet and throwing her arms around her old friend. 

 “I-I t-thought that you died.” She said shakily. 

“I did too...” Cal whispered against her temple as he wrapped his arms around her. “I missed you so much.” He said with closed eyes. 

“Oh my god.” y/n said now with joy. She pulled away, still holding onto his arms as she took another look at him, “you-you grew up.” She observed. “And you’re hair is obviously different.” She laughed.

“You look so different.“ He laughed, but he then snapped back into reality and looked down to her helmet and blasters, frowning slightly. “Why-are you a bounty hunter?”

“Yeah.” She admitted embarrassed. “I just-wait. We need to get you out of here!” She said, suddenly remembering the reason she had come. “My crew, they’ll come looking for you-”

 “I can’t come.” He cut her off, “The ship’s busted, my crew and I took a hard landing. It’ll take a couple of days to get it fixed.”

She bit her lip in thought before replying. Now what? “Well, we have to keep you hidden then.” 

“Well I was staying here-”

“It’s too dangerous there, they’ll be looking.” 

“Then I can stay up in the woods.” He suggested, “There’s plenty of cover and there’s a few caves in the deeper part.” 

“Perfect.” She agreed, “I can go check up on you then.”

“Ok.“

“You should probably go now then, before someone comes here to check up on me...“

“What are you going to tell them?“ Cal asked with a worried expression.

“The truth; you got away.“ She smiled.

Cal chuckled lightly before giving her shoulders a small squeeze “be careful.“

“You’re the one with a bounty on your head.“ She reminded the boy.

He tilted his head in a playful manner. “true.” Then his tone grew serious,�� “But seriously, if they try to do anything to you-“

“Look at you still trying to protect me.“ y/n smiled “You didn’t really change much. Did you?“ He blushed at this. “I’ll see you later. Stay safe.“ Cal nodded and gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze before turning around and disappearing with BD-1. I’m so screwed y/n thought. 

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Maya?? Maya!!

also Athenas lmao

finally i am free to work on this

boy i sure hope we don’t get more info soon *squints at Amara’s character trailer just around the corner*

tl;dr: athenas. wow. uhhh temple areas with the weird vault-shaped statue things might be a teleportation hub or something like a Stargate cuz, uh… they’re probably not Vaults. i mean. given what we know maybe they are Vaults but not like vaults with important stuff inside, just teleportation vaults. you know what im trying to say? i mean it’s not like the eridians had any spaceships we’ve seen. but they had to get around somehow. 

also it’s possible the big temple area we see is on Athenas, is in that giant fucking pyramid in the background that i completely and totally did not notice for the longest time. 

i also discuss Maya and her thoughtlock skill (if she gets her powers taken away from her) and if she’s gonna die or not. because she’s got the Cloud Kill legendary (’oh noo she ded’), an apprentice (let’s be real, the cliches aren’t looking great), and she seems to working beside rampagers in that giant temple area (also another reason i think it’s on athenas) and tbh i didn’t see her tattoos in either of those shots (but that could be cuz she’s so smoll). so that’s cool. 

oh also the order of the impending storm was probably pretty respectable back in the day, since they can track sirens (maya’s assassin in son of crawmerax), and maybe that’s how maya figured out ava was gonna be a siren even tho she hasn’t manifested her powers yet. and Maya’s probably unearthing all this buried Siren/Vault knowledge and bringing the Academic District back into power while also protecting the Order from Maliwan. who’s still v sus.

wow we have a lot to go over

so to start, im taking a wild guess and saying the temple is on Athenas. why? because we really haven’t gotten a lot of looks at either of those areas too much (compared to promethea and eden-6) and the architecture lines up to me. 

also i, an idiot, was all like ‘mannnn Athenas is super mountainy, that’s wild. love it’ and neglected to realize there’s literally a giant fucking pyramid in the background of a lot of shots

on the right

behind the tower

to the right of ava

on the left

so i feel really dumb right now for not noticing this sooner and writing it off as a mountain. It's literally the fuckin Vault symbol like. ~triangles~. i played skyrim i should know what mountains look like when they’re not 1 polygon

either way, if that’s not at least part of the temple, it’s definitely important. somehow.

but let’s talk about the temple. the parts we know.

let’s try to look out the windows of this wild place

see cause this looks like inside a mountain

so my first instinct was eden-6 because we see a volcano on there

i mean im under the assumption this is eden-6???

bc all the plants match up

… maybe there’s more than one temple?

oh god i don’t wanna separate these by temple that’s going to be IMPOSSIBLE

but yeah i guess it’s possible there’s one on Eden-6 and one on Athenas… dear god…

but yeah my first instinct for that was ‘inside a volcano’

possible mountain on the left there

very rocky all around. im assuming this is underground or smth?

it feels like we’re underground

so maybe it’s a thing where it just keeps going further down. iunno.

it’s hard to place exactly where this is going to be because of the whole ‘underground’ thing

the part that’s throwing me off the most is this

because this looks like Pandora bc of Elpis and the rocks

and it looks like we’re walking outside a temple with the same friggen tiles on the floor, which means it is possible that this is The Temple, but you think we’d know about a giant-ass temple just on pandora. especially with the big dig site

but then we see a super similar dig site (supposedly on promethea). so what the HELL

im almost inclined to believe this is some sort of Eridian teleportation system. i know, i know, we have Sanctuary-III so it’s pointless. but… will we always have Sanc-III throughout the story? yada yada orange/gray -> blue/yellow/red markings. you get the dealio by now.

to

when taken by the cult or smth.

idk it’s possible we won’t have sanc-III for the entire game (just like normal sanctuary in bl2, in that we’ll get it back eventually (or ill kill someone for taking my room decorations)) and then we’ll have to use this wicked eridian tech to move between planets with these gateways. sort of like a stargate…

this thing is a stargate. I’ll call back to this in a hot second.

what kinda shit am i tripping on? i don’t really know. but given how it seems like these temples could be on ANY of the planets we see, im trying to figure out wtf the connection could be.

and give me this: we have never actually seen an eridian spacecraft, but we know they’ve traveled across the galaxy, putting vaults on different places. how in the fuck could they have done that if, you know, they didn’t have spaceships to travel through… space? 

well we know they have the power of teleportation down pat. i mean down so hard they were able to create a ‘teleportation gland’ that allowed a giant vault monster to teleport at will. (now im wondering if lilith has one… hm.) 

this blue thing (which… is the same color as siren stuff. okay. im sorry. i won’t get off topic this time. but it’s stewing in my gray matter)

and given that we know all the (okay, we only know for certain some) vaults open up into this other dimension (space place), would it be so hard to believe that they’re created links between planets using this dimension? i just… something isn’t right here and this seems like the most logical solution. 

take a look at Eleseer. look at all those holograms of labeled planets. of galaxies and stars in the distance. it’s possible eleseer is like the Hub for this teleportation system (explaining why it’s always open) and explaining why it’s got all those weird planet holograms sitting around. could also explain why Moon = Key.

These aren’t Vaults, they wouldn’t show up on the Vault Map- explaining why we never saw this one on Pandora- these are like… gateways or something, iunno. name pending until sept. 13th i guess.

so why tf am i going off about this on a post about maya and athenas?

because i think athenas has a gateway in it too

yeah you should recognize that thing in the background!

that’s this place!!! from the behind closed doors demo!!

and it still

doesn’t look like a vault to me

it’s intact (also it looks like stairs…). all the Vaults we’ve seen are 100% not intact. they’re all chunky and in pieces (we’re gonna ignore eleseer and uhhhh all that business right now, but even thinking about how the sentinel tried to emulate a vault by spawning it in chunks and THEN assembling it)

chunky

im just saying there has to be a reason these vault-like shapes are intact. they’re either just statues/monuments or they have a purpose.

so why tf am i convinced they have a purpose?

bc we’ve seen one light up

taken straight from the void itself (seriously it’s like a gradient back there. which is weird.)

so there’s gotta be a reason it does this right? and if it’s not a Vault, because it’s on Pandora and the Crimson Raiders would have seen it on the Vault Map, then what the fuck is it?

welllllllll i just don’t know. but my best guess right now is some sort of teleportation system to travel between planets. if there are ‘temples’ on every planet then it would make sense that there is some way for eridians to travel btwn them. 

personally i think there’s one on eden-6 (maybe in that volcano area??) and one on Athenas (cause we really haven’t seen a lot of athenas yet and… i dunno i just have a feeling). and there’s apparently one on Pandora (given we see it with elpis in the background) and possibly one on Promethea. i don’t know what that instagram video was trying to imply. i don’t wanna think too hard about it right now my brain hurts enough already as it is.

but uhhh i was gonna talk more about athenas than this

i promise this is gonna lead into maya

the academic district, with a Vault symbol on the door, to boot.

so this place is really interesting to me for a lot of reasons.

1. that vault symbol on the door

2. they’re flying flags with the vault symbol on it

3. giant pyramid in the back

it’s staggeringly huge

4. they have siren tattoos on the building in the back there. specifically, amara’s tattoos

yeah. maybe this is Partali? a smaller area on Athenas, like Meridian is a city on Promethea, and this is Amara’s way of tagging her presence/an area under her protection as the Tiger

more shots of Athenas from the amd horizons e3 stream

it’s a very pretty planet

so if anything, this is the place we’re going to go to learn about Sirens.

and i don’t know how much the Order of the Impending Storm actually KNOWS about Sirens, because all we know about them from maya’s backstory is that they were assholes and using maya to keep the people scared and giving them money

also that they knew how to track sirens

that’s probably important…

“Maya, you’ll like this next dude. He’s a Siren tracker named Mordo Sophis, Father of Brother Stephen Sophis, that dude you ganked back on Athenas. And boy, oh boy, is he just itching for vengeance.”

who isn’t, mr. mordo, sir? get in line

anyway apparently the Order knows how to track Sirens. Which could explain how Maya has a Siren apprentice when Ava uhhh apparently hasn’t manifested her powers (or tattoos) yet. might also explain how they got their hands on Maya when she was a baby. cuz yeah… i got the feeling they stole her and killed her parents… just a feeling.

y’know if tannis didn’t kill that siren tracker dude maybe she could’ve learned something from him first. that could’ve been interesting.

anyway, idk. maybe at one point the Order was respectable and, like, didn’t force people into giving them money by using sirens as a scare tactic. 

it looks like they have/had an academic district (which im sure maya is helping cultivate) focused on Sirens/Vaults.

and there’s a lot of importance on books this game

seriously

apparently

there’s

a

lot.

but let’s get back to this in a minute, because i do wanna talk about the name of the Order.

it’s full name is the Order of the Impending Storm.

I know while writing bl2 they probably didn’t know that they were gonna be building towards a war in tps, but it’s still interesting that they decided to bring them back into play now. because they 100% could have just left them as a background monastery that Maya came from and have maya refuse to return/start her own organization. but they made her specifically return there.

so does their name have significance now? i’d be willing to bet a yes. I mean, war is coming. Impending Storm sounds like it’d be a pretty fitting name for an organization that knew this. Especially because according to Maya’s cosplay guide, they worshipped her like a God (seriously lol are all Sirens worshipped as minor deities? most people know Sirens are Sirens right? like just people with magic powers..? hmmm)

And if Maya returned to learn more about Sirens, then isn’t it implied that the Order did, in fact, know more about Sirens than Maya did? hell, maybe even Tannis…

especially if the temple or eridian ruins are nearby. Say… In this giant pyramid…

so this doesn’t fit in with the aesthetic of Athenas at all. it’s almost like those are caution colors on the bottom strip there. warning you to not go inside. i don’t know if this was built by the eridians or by whoever is on Athenas to keep whatever’s inside… inside (cough Rampagers cough)

either way that pyramid is FUCKING HUGE

seriously, just compared to the academic district, it’s insanely big (that is the BASE in the background)

also guess who just realized this would be a hilarious joke by gearbox

to have pyramids built by ancient aliens. oh, you.

also, side note, there’s a crew challenge for moxxi in the academic district

i just have no idea how we’re getting up there…

oh but the Order. yeah i get the feeling they know A LOT about Sirens/Eridians. maybe even what’s about to go down. but maybe a majority of that was lost in the archives when some corrupts assholes came into power. and now Maya returned and is slowly but surely unarchiving everything we need to know about Sirens.

perhapith this book has some Siren-y knowledge within it? from someone who went into the temple on Athenas and… never came back out.

and I would bet Maya is waging war against Maliwan at the same time as she’s uncovering all this buried info (protecting the Order) because Maliwan is trying to get this info as well. 

Seriously, anyone else notice Maliwan is SPREADING?? They’re not just on Promethea. they’re on Eden-6. They’re on Athenas. They’re even fuckin on Pandora in some trailers (although I would not trust any trailer with roses at this point. something’s really fucky. I will make a seperate post about that i think, once we get Amara’s and Fl4k’s trailers). I’m really suspicious that Maliwan has either joined the cult, or they’re going to become the main villains. which, y’know, given corporations are the big bad in borderlands always… that seems about right.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if Maya/the Order knows something about the Children of the Vault. Given that one pic of her holding a book with the CoV symbol on it.

that she seems to be passing on to Ava

I dunno. I don’t think Children of the Vault is a name that the cultists/Calypsos just HAPPENED to come up with. And I still don’t think that the broadcast easter egg is from the Calypsos. it doesn’t make sense. I know I went over this in-depth in the Promethea post but god damn it im going to do it again because i feel so strongly about this.

i feel like the cult stumbled upon this name and decided to adopt it as their own. or tried revive an old cult with the same name. and if they didn’t, why in the hell does the message say ‘Do Not Open the Vaults’? How do the twins know about Tannis by name?

i mean, okay, granted we don’t know exactly how she fixed the Vault Map and it could be that the twins know how she did it. Because I still haven’t been able to place that one shot of them walking outside the Recruitment Center 

this one

and we know tannis fixes (??) the Vault Map in the recruitment center, so, maybe they saw it happen or there’s some sort of record in the vault map? that shows her fixing it and when they get to Promethea they send out that message?

i meannn she seems pretty surprised it’s functioning, herself.

so maybe they come while/after tannis fixes the key/map to get it back and Lilith like alright everyone let’s book it to Ellie’s garage with the Map. she’ll help us get to Sanc-III.

and in that they see that she’s able to fix it (possibly with weird Siren/Destroyer/Slag/pickurpoison powers) and that’s how they know Tannis is not what she seems.

and maybe the twins just don’t want their cultists opening the vaults because they want to be the ones to open it.

Sure

BUT that’s boring sauce to theorize about because it’s all just there. I’m still partial to the idea that Children of the Vault is actually referring to Sirens tho. It would explain why Maya has a book with the symbol for the CoV on it and is offering it to Ava. Because why would Ava need a book about the Calypsos? who would WRITE a book about the Calypsos?? and make it look THAT old? like… c’mon.

At the very least, it’s an old name for a cult that got revived by the Calypso twins.

At the most, it’s the name for Sirens.

Or it’s the symbol for the Order of the Impending Storm, back when they were respectable. tho you think we’d see maya wearing the symbol somewhere in bl2, so maybe not. unless she took it off her clothes because they had her try to kill unarmed civilians.

I mean, why is the cult’s symbol the Vault symbol upside down, anyway? We know that the symbol for the Vaults in Eridian is the upside-down V in a circle, because Tannis tells us so in bl1. So why would a cult of people who believe the Vaults to be their birthright go around slapping what is essentially the opposite symbol everywhere?

i personally wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the symbol for Siren or something, given how closely intertwined they both seem to be to that alternate dimension.

regardless. let’s keep going

so let’s talk about Maya’s fate in BL3. Is she gonna die? is she not gonna die? i dunno. let’s discuss.

i personally would not be surprised if she does, but i’d be a little disappointed regardless. if any Siren is gonna die… Lilith is going to finish her character arc this game. not that I want her to die, but still. I get that they gotta keep the Siren cycle going.

sooo one big point in the ‘maya dies’ category:

“Oh noo she ded” i mean. that’s just mean, gearbox. 

of course we don’t know if that’s talking specifically about Maya, could be talking about Tyreen, or a miniboss, or something. but i do think it’s interesting that it’s on maya’s legendary. plus uhhh given we had a death out of Roland in BL2, and in TPS 2 of those VHs died as well, I think it’s a given at least one BL2 VH isn’t gonna live to see the end of 3. as much as that actually physically pains me to type. 

And… to tip the scales further to Maya, Zer0 has crew challenges, which probably means they won’t be biting the dust anytime soon, unless you wanna completely ruin doing all the crew challenges by beating the game before doing the assassination quests. which doesn’t seem like something they’re keen on doing, if Roland giving out side quests had anything to say about it. Of course there’s always the argument that someone will take over Zer0′s crew challenges if they die, but… who would? Rhys? maybe. i get the feeling he might be too busy with Atlas though. Lorelei..? … i don’t know her well enough to make a statement on that.

taken from K6′s awesome legendary loot vid

Back to the legendary. we know it’s hers based off the name ‘Cloud Kill’, which is one of her best skills (after the buff lol). It’s a corrosive only Maliwan smg (as far as i can tell. it doesn’t look like there’s the option to swap elements. so it’s cool to know uniques might throw out their manufacturer’s alternate firing modes). i’m gonna take a guess and say it mimics cloud kill by spawning a cloud on top of enemies that are shot with it. that could clean out an entire room in seconds, especially on Amara with Phasegrasp.

anyway i got more

so Ava is Maya’s apprentice, hmmmm?

well i dunno about you guys but whenever a character gets an apprentice/kid/whatever, it’s not good news for the character. and given that borderlands definitely doesn’t need children to keep the premise fresh, I’m a bit worried for Maya.

Ava must be important to the main story, or they could’ve taken her out or put Gaige in. The devs themselves said they only wanted to bring in characters that they knew had significant importance to the plot and so that characters wouldn’t feel shoehorned in.

so there’s a few ways things can go down with Ava, using apprentice stereotypes:

1) She takes over after Maya dies/has her powers stolen/is brainwashed and helps us bring Maya back by proving herself using the stuff she learned from Maya (or, the stuff she taught herself that Maya said wasn’t important)

1b) she inherits Maya’s powers and Maya trains her in the way of Phaselock

possibly maya handing over her class mod or smth

2) she’s evil and the cult is using her to get info and secretly hates maya or whatever

Given Ava is like… 12… I wanna believe she’s not evil. of course we don’t actually know if she’s 12 cause apparently the Siren lore got messed up knowing Angel had her powers manifest at 5. but that’s not canon until mentioned in-game, so fuck it: let’s believe Ava is 12 and not evil and is just Maya’s kickass Siren apprentice.

The apprentice Maya was able to find because the Order knew how to track Sirens/determine if someone is going to exhibit Siren powers.

yes, let’s go with that.

So… what’s gonna happen to Maya, then?

I personally believe she’s going to have her powers stolen and used against her. One major part of her powers is that she’s able to ‘Thoughtlock’, which basically brainwashes an enemy to fight for her.

That sounds like it would be insanely powerful in the hands of the Calypso twins, especially since Maya has gotten more powerful since bl2, and tbh I can’t see them wanting to pass it up. Of course it could also be story-breaking, but let’s say they can only have one person ever Thoughtlock-ed at a time and suddenly it’s a lot less troublesome.

so this scene makes me do a big thonk

(also, another reason im thinking this temple area is on Athenas is bc Maya’s there! plus there are triangles everywhere. Triangles… pyramids… iunno. just spitballing)

also idk if this is just cause she’s super teeny-tiny buuuut

im worried i can’t see maya’s tattoos

she’s also entirely focused on the player instead of… oh, idk, the giant rampager right next to her

and idk it looks almost like she’s holding a gun and aiming it at us?

which hey, i wouldn’t jump to conclusions right away because she does have a skill that allows her to heal allies by shooting them

but also… if she doesn’t have her siren powers, then that’d just be like… regular shooting, wouldn’t it? and if she DOES have her Siren powers, why in the hell is she not using them on the giant monster right next to her???

we see her again in the background of this shot

again… tattoos not 100% clear.

she also seems to be taking radiation damage from the rampager! which is good. but also she doesn’t seem to care that much about it.

we can also see her gun here

sorry it was kinda being obscured by the youtube progress bar

but uhhh it’s not looking good.

boy i really hope Maya doesn’t die

we also know it was hinted that Krieg might be making a return! from his voice actor’s twitter:

tho, he also soon made a tweet after that was all like “this doesn’t confirm nor deny that krieg is returning” which, yeah i get that.

either way, if Krieg is coming back, it’d be interesting to see what goes down with him, especially if Maya dies. or even if Maya’s ‘just’ in trouble, I could see him going absolutely apeshit.

maybe krieg will sacrifice himself to save maya, somehow. maybe he’s have a moment of pure lucidity and save her. maybe she’ll die and he’ll lose his mind and become a boss battle. maybe she’ll save him and they’ll live happily ever after ;w; who knows~

maybe ava will have heard about Krieg through Maya and will go to get him to try and help save her. that’d be really interesting to see- krieg smashing through a wall with Ava riding on his shoulder lol

anyway, holy shit im exhausted. i gotta wrap this up because it’s like 1am and i’ve been working on this post for like… 3 days straight now. ech.

if maya does die, it would be interesting to see is Ava inherits her powers after we kill the Calypsos. like, would the powers try to go back to their original host? would they see she’s dead and just find another Siren to give the powers to? i wonder if maya dying/being about to die would be enough of a traumatic experience for ava to unlock her siren powers.

ohh it’d be cool if Ava unlocked her siren powers and used them to save Maya from the cult/brainwashing/whatves

alright. im tired lmao

good night.

[quicksilversquared]

There’s No Camembert in Tibet: Chapter 13

links will be in the reblog.

The Valley of the Temples was stunning.

A clear blue stream meandered through the middle of the valley. The emerald green meadow sloped up gently towards the edges, turning into forest before they sloped upwards abruptly in a circle of rolling foothills, merging into several low mountain peaks. Taller mountains peeked over the slopes from further out, some snow-capped and reaching into the clouds. The meadow was interrupted in places by stands of trees...and the ruins of the temples, right in the center of the valley.

"It was more divided up when I was here," Master Fu told them as they all followed him down the valley, pace no longer frantic. "There were fields down there for us to grow our food, and on this far end we had out livestock. There in the middle- it's so overgrown you can't even tell where it was- that was our training area. One section was brickwork, another swept dirt. We learned many styles of combat there. And that grove over there was where we students like to sit and learn. It looks quite different now than it did back then, of course. A large part of it got flattened in the fight, and a good many new trees have come up."

They all stared as they peered around, trying to envision the large valley full of life. It was hard to visualize, especially since the whole place had a lonely, abandoned feel to it. The former fields were overgrown, no hints of the previous crops left in them. The bricks and swept dirt of the training area weren't even visible. The forest had clearly started to creep forward over time, smaller trees springing up on the edge. If they squinted, they could see where the remains of some structures had been near the stream.

And as they got closer to the center of the valley, the ruins of the temples came into clearer relief. In the corner of the largest one, a white light gleamed and swirled.

Chat Noir swallowed hard. Ladybug slid closer to him, wrapping her fingers around his. Lycaena wrapped an arm around him, pulling him into a side hug as they walked. The Rat gave them a puzzled look, and Chat Noir did his best to square his shoulders and look unaffected by the swirling mass of magic light that warned that his mom was trapped there, because it would not do for the Rat to figure out who he was now.

Not that he actually thought that the Rat would be a threat, but he just wasn't comfortable with it.

They were actually here. His mom was so close, and hopefully, hopefully, he would have her back within twenty-four hours. He wouldn't be able to run up and hug her like he so desperately wanted to- he had to keep his secret identity secret from her, just in case- but he would be able to see her, and know that she was safe.

The nerves were building in his stomach.

"We can set up camp by that orchard over there," Jade Turtle told them, pointing as he headed that way. "There's a mountain stream that runs nearby, and we can refill our water there. It's also gorgeous."

"And not too close to the ruins, which are creepy," Queen Bee piped up. "And- is that a graveyard?"

"I did mention that there was a battle here, right?" Jade Turtle reminded her. "It was not like the akuma battles in Paris. There were heavy casualties."

Queen Bee shuddered. "Gross."

Chat Noir blinked, then looked to the Rat. The other user couldn't understand the conversation at all, of course, but was also looking at the graveyard. Chat Noir looked again, and noticed something odd. Some of the graves were fresh.

Like, just-this-past-month fresh. Or just-a-few-months-ago fresh. Which in turn suggested that there had been burials in the not-so-distant past, even if there hadn't been people dying here recently.

Which also suggested that the Rat hadn't just been returning to the valley just to keep it safe from invaders. He had been returning to give his fallen ancestors and their companions and teachers the burial they deserved.

...that had to be really depressing.

Master Fu pointed out a few more things- some of the old dorms, the large garden where he often sat and studied herb lore, a crater in the ground that hadn't been there prior to the attack- but Chat Noir had more or less checked out. A slight breeze had picked up, and the magical light was bobbing and swaying with it, leaning towards them as though it could sense their presence.

Did his mom have any sense as to what was going on in the outside word while she was trapped? Or was everything just blank until she was rescued?

They reached the orchard and detransformed, pitching tents in a half-circle. Mrs. Cheng and Master Fu worked on preparing the kitchen area while the rest of them headed off with the water filter and every water vessel that had been brought along on the trip.

"Dibs on using this first," Chloe said as she filled up one of their Sun Showers. "I will die if I have to wait another week to get a hot shower, and I know that the sun's gonna go down soon."

"I'll go last," Nino volunteered. "It takes me less time to wash up, so I don't mind as much if my water isn't super warm. Or I can go if someone doesn't have enough water in their bag for someone with long hair to do a complete shower."

"We're going for two people per bag, then?" Marinette asked as she filled their second Sun Shower. "Making sure to turn the water off while soaping up?"

"That's the only way we'll even be able to hope to get through everyone this afternoon." Adrien capped off another water bottle before reaching for the next one. "And we might have to do the heat some water in a pot, mix it with a bit of cool water, and then dump it over our heads thing to get everyone through. The sun isn't going to be up forever."

"A couple people could go tomorrow after the valley tour and before we try the spell," Marinette pointed out. "If we need to. It's possible that the last four people might just have to deal with lukewarm water."

They finished filling up all of the bottles and bags with water and headed back. Master Fu already had veggies chopped up for a stew, and Mrs. Cheng was mixing up a flatbread to have with it. The Rat had prowled off somewhere, just leaving the seven of them.

"We'll have dinner cooking soon," Master Fu told them as they set up water bottles and put the sun shower bags out in the sun. "And then we can practice reciting the spell. I know I introduced it earlier in the trip, but, ah..."

"I've forgotten it," Chloe announced right away. She scoffed at Marinette's startled expression. "What? It's not in French, so obviously I wouldn't remember it."

"I've been working on memorizing it every night! Well, almost," Marinette corrected herself when Alya gave her a dubious look. "Every night when we weren't completely exhausted. I tried to get a section memorized, and Tikki coached me."

"And I generally know it because of her, I just need to polish it up a bit," Alya chimed in. Nino nodded.

"Same. I've been listening to Adrien practice."

"Well of course Adrien knows it," Chloe sniffed, apparently choosing to ignore the fact that the others had been working steadily on learning the spell as well. "He's good at remembering stuff in other languages. And I'll work hard on it. I'm good at memorizing things short-term when I work on it. It's how I pass all of my exams. It's easier than studying a bunch."

"That's a, ah, very useful skill," Mrs. Cheng managed, looking as though it wasn't very nice at all but she felt as though she had to say something. "But I suppose we should start working on that right away. We want to be ready for tomorrow, after all."

"And the spell won't work in French, are we sure?" Chloe asked, clearly still not enthused about the idea "Because that would be easier to memorize."

"The kwamis think that it wouldn't work," Master Fu told her. "And it's not as though there's a direct translation for all of the words. This is just how we know the spell works, so I don't want to mess with it."

"Fine," Chloe grumbled. "That's still stupid, if you ask me. But I can start now. So, what's the spell, again?"

  The sun was high in the sky by the time they headed to the temple ruins the next day, all transformed and with the intention of trying out the spell for the first time. They had spent the previous evening taking their showers and polishing up their knowledge of the spells. Marinette, Adrien, and Mrs. Cheng (and, of course Master Fu) all had it memorized. Nino and Alya needed work on their pronunciation. Chloe...

...well, at least she had thrown herself into it and made a good bit of progress. And while they were taking a tour of the valley that morning after their lie-in, the Rat drilled her on the spell.

They were ready. Hopefully.

Chat Noir's grip around Ladybug's hand had grown tighter as they drew close to the dancing light. She gave him a gentle squeeze back, but it was hard to tell if it had helped at all.

"Okay, everyone form a circle," Jade Turtle called. "The main seven, I mean. Try for even spacing. Okay. Now, hands out, like so. We'll go in three, two, one-"

Ladybug raised her hands to mimic Jade Turtle and carefully started reciting the spell. They had worked on it so that they would all talk at the same rate. The column of light grew more solid, settling into a human height. It grew brighter, and brighter, and brighter-

-and then dimmed, thinning out and going back to normal when they were only partway into the spell. Ladybug frowned, hoping that maybe that was just something that was supposed to happen.

They got to the end of the spell. The light remained as it was.

"Once more?" Jade Turtle suggested. There was a slight from on his face. "All together?"

They started again. The same thing happened. The Rat spoke up, saying something in Mandarin. Ladybug looked to Chat Noir for translation.

"He said that the pronunciation might be wrong," Chat Noir explained quickly. The panicked look on his face had faded somewhat. "Which- I mean, I wouldn't be surprised."

"We probably should have had one last run-through before coming out here," Paon agreed. "I bet I was off again. And I also bet that I wasn't the only one."

"Let's break for lunch," Jade Turtle suggested. "We'll review pronunciation again there, then try again later this afternoon. We want to get this problem ironed out as soon as possible, but I'm sure you all would work better on a stomach that isn't empty."

They all made noises of agreement and moved away from the ruins, carefully picking their way over broken stone and brick. Ladybug was at Chat Noir's side immediately, and they lagged behind the group as they headed back.

"I thought it was going to work there," Chat Noir said quietly as their fingers laced together. "I really, really did. The light changed. And then it just...didn't."

"At least we're on the right track," Ladybug offered, unsure of what else she could say. "We got a reaction, even if it ended up dropping off. That's better than it, like, just not reacting at all and just being a blob of light, right?"

Chat Noir nodded and detransformed. Plagg swirled out of the ring to perch on Adrien's shoulder. The kwami looked startled, glancing around. His eyes settled on the light and he visibly drooped, snuggling up to Adrien's neck in his own form of comfort.

"We're going to try again after lunch," Ladybug, releasing her own transformation. "There were probably some pronunciation problems. We should have been spending more of our evenings practicing, apparently."

"But you've had it down perfectly these past few days!" Tikki objected. "I mean, you've got a moderately strong accent when you say things, but it's clear enough that it should work with the magic."

"We're guessing that the problem is probably Nino, Alya, and Chloe," Adrien chimed in. He was slowly recovering from the disappointment of not having their first attempt work. "They weren't quite as dedicated as Marinette about learning the spell. Alya and Nino just need to work on pronunciation. Chloe..."

"She remembered the spell pretty quickly," Marinette said. "Really quickly. The basics of it, at least. But her accent is worse than mine, and pronunciation..."

"It's harder for her to memorize exact pronunciations and words in a foreign language than it is to memorize just enough to skate by in classes at school, which she should have known." Adrien neither looked nor sounded pleased. "I would have thought that she would have put in at least a little effort beforehand."

Marinette reached out for him, her fingers curling around his arm. She didn't blame him for his frustration- none of them could believe it at first when Chloe mentioned that she hadn't even started trying to learn the spell that would release Mrs. Agreste- but it wouldn't help anything for him to get frustrated and take it out on Chloe now. They needed to stay calm, breathe, and try to help the others learn their pronunciation and remember it for at least as long as it took to get the spell to work.

"Hopefully we can get them all ready by the end of lunch," Marinette said, pulling Adrien closer. "Then we can try again. And we do have the Rat to help coach people."

Adrien nodded, and then the two of them sped up to re-join the group. Master Fu had leftovers from their dinner re-heating on the stove, and Mrs. Change was listening to Alya's recitation of the spell while Nino listened. To the side, the Rat was listening to Chloe. In the few seconds since they arrived, both had received a pronunciation correction.

"Hoo boy," Adrien muttered as they went to join Master Fu. "Okay, we definitely should have spent our rainy days getting drilled on that rather than playing games all day. And back when we were doing normal hiking, we could have been memorizing, too."

"They're all close," Master Fu told them as he handed them the water jugs to fill. "Very close. We should have just done a run-through a few times right before heading to the temple, and that probably would have eliminated the problem."

Adrien just nodded.

They practiced all through lunch, going over the same words over and over until everyone had the proper pronunciation absolutely memorized. Then the kwamis got re-charged and they headed back across the field, still muttering the spell under their breaths.

Ladybug hoped that it would work this time. It had to.

"Keep your focus, guys." Jade Turtle called. "Ready? Three, two, one-"

The pillar of light gleamed and grew stronger, getting less translucent. It condensed to the height of a human, and then started narrowing. It had just started to look human-shaped when it dimmed again, going back to the loose swirling mass.

"Let's try again," Jade Turtle suggested as soon as they had finished and nothing had changed. "Focus and make sure that you're saying everything right. I know we can do it. Again."

The same thing happened. Chat Noir's expression had turned worried again.

"Let's break again and do a bit more practice," Master Fu proposed. "Surely someone is tripping up somewhere."

Chat Noir frowned as they all stepped away again. "Again. This is going to take forever."

"It might just be one person at this point," Ladybug pointed out. "Which could be easy to fix."

"Or it could be the wrong spell and it won't work at all."

Ladybug hoisted herself up on top of a broken wall, detransforming and pulling Chat Noir against her so that his head was tucked under her chin. "Tikki, you can understand the spell, right? Does it sound like the wrong spell?"

Tikki shook her head. "No! No, it doesn't. It definitely mentions release from a trap. It sounds right, and obviously it's working to some point."

Chat Noir sighed, settling into her arms. "That's true. There must just be an error, then. You're right."

"We'll get it, kitty."

Jade Turtle came up to them then. "The others are all getting the spell right. If you two could run through it really quickly, just to check..."

Marinette went first, followed by Chat Noir. Jade Turtle's frown grew deeper.

"Well, we're all pronouncing things correctly," he said, frowning. "We got that fixed, at least. We'll try it one more time. If that doesn't work, I'll revisit the spell and see where I've gone wrong. I'll keep an eye on when we lose the spell and pay particular attention to the translation there."

Marinette transformed again and one more time, they formed their circle. Chat Noir was looking properly nervous now, but he let out a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and lifted his chin. His eyes went to Jade Turtle, awaiting the signal.

Ladybug couldn't be prouder of him. Shoe couldn't even begin to imagine how hard it must be for Adrien to stay composed and focused through their failures. She was having a hard enough time with staying focused and not letting her mind wander to worries of what if it doesn't work, and it wasn't even her mom that they were rescuing.

The group started again, frowns on all of their faces. The light grew, then died back again, just like it had before. Chat Noir pulled his eyes away from it as soon as their recitation was finished, a pained expression on his face. Ladybug was at his side immediately, wrapping him up in a hug.

"Master Fu still has to look at the spell again," she reminded him, feeling the way he leaned into her, limp and miserable. "There might be something translated wrong, or maybe there's some hand motions to go along with the spell that we don't know about. We'll figure it out, kitty cat. No matter what, we are not giving up."

  Their group had headed back to the campsite in silence, occasionally glancing back at Chat Noir as they went. Once they were back, the kwamis were released in a multicolored flash of light, and then both kwamis and wielders settled down in their little cove. Master Fu headed into his tent to pull out the Miraculous book and settled down a short distance away to double-check his work.

After glancing at Adrien, Alya pulled her things out of her and Marinette's tent and brought them over to Nino's tent, waving Adrien over so he could join his girlfriend. Adrien managed a smile at her and carried his things over to Marinette's tent, crawling in immediately and setting up right next to Marinette's sleeping bag instead of on the other side of the tent like Alya had before returning to Marinette's side.

"I can't even imagine what he must be going through right now," Nino murmured in her ear as they watched Adrien. His knees were drawn up to his chest and his chin was perched on his folded arms as he stared a bit blankly at the fire that the Rat was setting up. "We've come so far, and now the spell isn't working right." He sat up straight all of a sudden. "You don't think we need all of the Miraculous active, do you? I don't know if we'd be able to find holders for them all."

Alya worried her lip. "I don't know. That seems like a really big thing to miss. But if that's the problem, then at least we would know where to go from here." She glanced over at Adrien. "But I don't know how we would be able to get away with another trip like this. It's not like it's a weekend camping trip. I had such a hard time getting my parents to agree to this, when we had no idea when the end date would be. They weren't expecting me to be gone this long, either, which is going to make it difficult if we have to go again."

Nino snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "But we know where to go, now. Maybe we could hire a 'copter- when I say we, I mean Chloe, or Nathalie once that money is cleared- and just fly out and back. Then we could say we're on a weeklong camping trip and get away with it."

"We'd have to find people with passports to be holders, though. Either that, or find people here." Alya glanced over at Master Fu again. He was immersed in his notes, brow furrowed as he checked his translation against the copy of the original text. Over on the side of the camp, Adrien was still in the same position as before, but Marinette had returned to her spot at his side. Her arms were around him and her head against his shoulder as she whispered to him. Tikki and Wayzz were there as well, clearly trying to cheer Adrien up a bit. Wayzz didn't stick along for long, though, before flitting off to re-join Master Fu and the Rat in bending over the notes in search for something that they might have missed.

"Hopefully Master Fu figures out what went wrong soon," Alya commented quietly. "So we can at least know that something wasn't right, and that was why it wasn't working, instead of just...this."

They kept sitting. Nino once opened his mouth to suggest they maybe play a game, but then caught sight of Adrien again and thought better of it. Then Sabine got up to start preparing dinner and he hopped on the opportunity to get up and help. Anything was better than sitting around and moping until they figured out what had gone wrong.

Mrs. Cheng was distracted as she directed Nino, glancing over to Adrien frequently. Nino winced as he watched, hoping that she wouldn't accidentally cut herself while working. When he saw an opportunity to take over, he took it.

"I can chop those, Mrs. Cheng," Nino said, snagging the cutting board from her. "Then you can get the, uh, rice started. Or whatever it is that we're having with this."

"Is this a ploy to get me away from the knife?" Mrs. Cheng asked with a small laugh, seeing right through him. She handed it over to him regardless. "That might be a good idea, I will admit."

Nino managed a small smile as he took the knife and started cutting. "Yeah, I can tell that you're a bit distracted."

"I so hoped that we could get the spell to work today," Mrs. Cheng told him by way of explanation. "Just to get that part of the trip over with. Hopefully we can figure out where we went wrong and try again tomorrow."

Nino nodded, slowly and carefully making his way through the vegetable cutting. "Yeah. Having to have an entire day of waiting would stink."

"It really would. And can you cut those a bit finer, please? It's so difficult to get everything to cook through in such a large pot when the pieces are big."

"On it, Mrs. Cheng!"

Even with Nino's super-careful fine chopping, dinner didn't take nearly long enough to make. He brought two bowls over to Master Fu and Tsomo, who hadn't made any move to leave their work at all, then got in the end of the line to serve himself up last.

"Do you know where our food is stored, Nino?" Duusu asked politely, appearing at his side. "We- the kwamis, I mean- are hungry, too."

"Of course, dude!" Nino leapt and the chance to stay busy. Setting his bowl aside, he dug in the big backpack with all of their food and supplies. "Okay! Uh, dried figs for Trixx, sugar cubes for Tikki, a chunk of cheese for Plagg-"

"Can I have two?"

"No, we don't want to run out. I can throw in a couple dried mushrooms, though."

Plagg made a face and snatched up his cheese. "Nah, I'll hunt for fresh ones. We have the time."

"Okay. Wayzz, some dried pea pods for you-"

"Thank you!"

"Honey for Pollen- how much do you get?"

Pollen whizzed up to him, a grin on her little face. "An entire bottle!"

Nino laughed. "You do not. Chloe, how much does Pollen get?"

Chloe glanced over. "Just use that little cup that's in the kwami food bag. That's what it's for."

Nino dug, and it didn't take long for him to find the measuring cup. "Got it! Thanks, Chloe."

Chloe just gave one sharp nod and turned back to her food.

It didn't take long for the last two kwamis to get fed, and then Nino could finally finish dishing up his own food. He sat down between Alya and Marinette, shoveling a generous forkful of food in his mouth. Across their little circle, Adrien was nervously picking at his food, but at least he did seem to be eating some.

Gah. Nino understood the tension in the group, but it was going to give him indigestion. And indigestion was not something that he wanted to deal with in the wilds, not when their options for a bathroom were behind a tree and in a destroyed ruin of an ancient bathroom.

Maybe he shouldn't complain. Normally they only had one option, aka behind a tree. Or a rock. Or a bush. But Nino couldn't deny that there was also something deeply unsettling about using the bathroom in an outhouse that had half a wall blown out and the roof completely gone, particularly when the view out of the blown-out wall overlooked the new graveyard and part of a destroyed temple.

Dinner finished, and Alya and Chloe dove in to volunteer to package up the leftovers and clean up the dishes. Nino raised a brow at Chloe's sudden enthusiasm for cleaning, but he guessed that she wanted to try to avoid the uneasy tension as much as he had earlier. He had just started trying to figure out what he could do as an excuse to get away from the campsite when there was a shout from the far side of the site. They all jumped and turned to see a triumphant-looking Master Fu sitting there, beaming.

"I have found it!" Master Fu announced, sitting straight up and grinning at them. Next to him, Tsomo was looking pleased. "With Tsomo's help, I have discovered why the spell didn't work! There was a simple mistake in my translation."

[thebookkeeperslibrary]

The Time Page’s Wish: Ch. 13 - Exit This Way

Fandom: Time Warp Trio

Author: The_Bookkeeper_96

Rating: G

Summary: It’s been four months and Uncle Joe is still missing. On his twelfth birthday, Joe decides it’s time to track him down. One wish lands them in the middle of a revolution. And it seems the only way to get them home is with the help of some untrustworthy thieves. As long as they don’t take The Book for themselves.

A/N: The penultimate chapter is here!

Read on AO3

Fred, Sam, Arwen, and Juniper sit on the steps waiting for Joe and Tessa to return. It's only been thirty minutes, but it's been a long thirty minutes. The temple sits high above the city. The ruined streets of Cealus stretch out before them. The sunlight reflects off the marble pillars and cracked walls. It's so serene, it's hard to believe this place is boobytrapped.

"So, how long does this usually take?" Fred looks to the girls.

Arwen lifts her shoulders. "Tessa was only up there for fifteen minutes last time. I have no idea what's taking them so long."

"Maybe Joe died."

Everyone stares at Juniper, eyes wide.

"What?" She shrinks away, hair falling into her face. "It could happen. Not everyone can handle the awakening. Statistically, ten percent of wizards don't survive it."

"June, we really need to work on your filtering."

"I don't see the point in being dishonest." She crosses her arms, her mouth set in a firm line.

Arwen sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I'm sure they'll be back down any moment."

"Well, I'm going to go explore while we wait. I can't keep sitting around like this. I can feel my muscles turning to fat." Fred flexes his arm, poking at his bicep.

Arwen stares at him. "You can't be serious. You'll be dead within five minutes. You have no idea what kind of traps and monsters are out there."

He walks down the steps and turns his head over his shoulder. "Then come with me if you're so worried about me."

Seeing Arwen's look, Sam says, "He's going to go no matter what you do or say."

Arwen glances at Juniper and Sam, and seeing that neither of them are going to make an attempt to stop Fred, she stands up and follows him down the steps. "Just stick to the roads, okay? Last time we were here, we ran into a vicious monster that I'd rather not face again."

Fred scoffs a laugh. "I didn't realize you were such a scaredy cat. You and Sam would get along great. Of course, I shouldn't expect anything less from a Red Sox fan."

"I am not a scaredy cat," Arwen says, scowling. "There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity. You clearly don't know where that line is. And if you bring up this stupid sports rivalry one more time..."

"Whatever you say, scaredy cat."

They move through the streets in awkward silence. Despite the high sun, the light doesn't reach into any of the buildings, hiding whatever may be lurking inside. They reach the end of the street and turn right down a new path.

"See? No scary monsters anywhere. Sorry, Ari, seems like you girls set off all the traps last time you were in Cealus. Maybe you three aren't as great as you think you are."

"First, only my friends can call me Ari, and you haven't earned that privilege yet. Second, just because we've been lucky so far, doesn't mean there isn't anything out there."

Fred rubs the back of his neck. "Man, you girls are so uptight. I get you've been at Horae Manor longer than us and know more about magic, but you don't need to be so snobby about it."

Arwen puts her hands on her hips. "Well, maybe if you three took this more seriously, we wouldn't have to act so uptight about it."

"Jeez, you really are like Sam," he grumbles under his breath. A squat building tucked away on the side of the street catches his eye. It's painted a bright blue color and shines in the sunlight.

Arwen sighs and follows along behind him, stretching out her limbs and cracking her knuckles as she goes.

Fred watches her from the corner of his eye. "What are you doing?"

"Preparing for the trouble you are inevitably getting us into."

"Not gonna try to stop me?"

"What's the point?"

"Fair enough."

They enter the house side by side. The interior is as dilapidated as the rest of the city. Broken windows allow trace amounts of sunlight to stream inside, but overall, the house is dark. Standing in the foyer, Fred and Arwen can see almost every room in the house through various holes in the walls. Wooden beams with rusted nails and piles of crumbled stone and marble are scattered everywhere.

"Congratulations. Your adventuring skills have led us to discover tetanus city. I can't wait to pick out my souvenir rusty nail." Arwen rolls her eyes.

Fred heads further into the building, stepping over mounds of debris. "How cool is this place? It's like something from a horror film."

"How comforting," she grumbles as she follows behind Fred.

"Where's your sense of adventure?"

"I must have left it at home."

"You should lighten up, magic can be fun too you know."

The corner of Arwen's mouth quirks up. "You sound like Tessa."

"Maybe you should listen to her. She's fun."

Arwen's smile vanishes. "That fun has nearly cost us our lives several times."

"But," Fred pokes her in the shoulder, "hasn't it also given you tons of awesome adventures? And saved your lives several times? You just gotta find the balance. You act like we could die at any moment. Take a chill pill, scaredy cat." Fred folds his arms over his chest and leans against a wooden beam. A crack fills the air, the beam splits in two and crashes to the ground. The noise reverberates through the house as dust floats up from the ground. "Oops."

Arwen coughs. She flicks her hands in front of her face in a desperate attempt to create breathable air. "Great. Now I can have asthma to go with my tetanus."

Then a roar rings out from the back of the house.

"What was that?" Fred says, while at the same time Arwen says, "There it is."

"There what is?"

"The trouble I knew you were going to get us into." A slight grin plays along her mouth as she cracks her knuckles.

He smiles in return. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you look like you're about to have some fun."

She shrugs back at him, not even trying to hide her enjoyment. "I enjoy a good fight or two."

Soft footsteps begin to move toward them and a large, hulking shadow emerges from the darkness. It lets out another roar.

Arwen's smile vanishes. "But not this fight."

"So, you're saying that magic is science?"

Juniper nods, only half-listening to Sam while she skims through the notebooks she picked up earlier in the catacombs. "Technically, it's just one of the many branches of science, a long forgotten one by normal people."

"That's ridiculous." Sam huffs and crosses his arms. "Science is facts and research. Magic is… magic. It had no basis in reality. It shouldn't even exist."

Juniper lifts a shoulder, still not looking up from her notebook. "There are currently twenty-two million people involved in the magical world. I wouldn't say that to any of them. You'll figure it all out soon enough once your lessons start at Horae Manor. Magic is fascinating."

"Is that why you're so focused on those books?"

Juniper jumps and slams the book shut. "Maybe." She turns away, hiding behind her hair. "I just like learning, okay?"

"Okay. I didn't mean to offend you. You don't need to be so defensive about it. It's actually refreshing to meet someone who loves learning almost as much as I do."

"Almost?"

A groan from behind interrupts their conversation. They both snap their heads around and find an exhausted-looking Joe and Tessa standing behind them. Tessa is out of breath, but otherwise appears okay. Joe, on the other hand, looks worse for wear. Heavy bags rest under his eyes, and there's a smear of dried blood under his nose. He's leaning heavily on Tessa, who grunts under his weight.

"Joe!" Sam jumps to his feet and hurries over to his friend. "What happened?"

"The awakening." Tessa answers. "Highest high of your life. Worse hangover you'll ever experience after."

Joe groans again, too weak to speak.

"He'll be like this until we get him to the infirmary at Horae Manor. Cas will be able to heal him." Tessa sets Joe down as gently as she can. As she stands back up, her eyes do a quick scan of the marble steps. "Where are Fred and Arwen?"

On cue, a roar echoes down the streets of Cealus.

Tessa runs her hand over her face. "Nevermind. We were gone for less than an hour! What the hell happened?"

Arwen and Fred come peeling around the corner, charging up the stairs. They nearly crash into the others.

"We gotta get moving. There's this-" Fred stops when he sees Joe holding his head in his hands. "What happened to you? You look like death."

"Thanks," Joe mumbles, his senses slowly returning to him. He manages to turn his head to Tessa to glare at her. "A warning about this part of the awakening would have been nice."

She turns away, a rock on the ground suddenly becoming very interesting to her.

"What are you two running from? What was that noise?" Sam yells.

Another roar rings out. Closer this time.

"Fred pissed off a drake."

"Hey! You're the one who-"

"We don't have time for this!" Tess interrupts him. "We need to get out of here before it finds us."

"What's a drake?" Sam runs his hands through his hair.

"It's like a small dragon without wings. They spit out a highly corrosive acid," Juniper responds.

"And we're dead if it gets to us. So let's get moving. Now."

Fred helps Joe to his feet, and everyone rushes down the stairs. Fred stumbles down the steps under Joe's weight. He looks to his friend. "Can you walk at all? There's no way we're going to make it out of here like this." Fred drags Joe down another step, and bumps into Sam. "Okay, you standing here doesn't help either. Why aren't you moving?"

He peers over Sam's shoulder and sees why the group froze. A beast with forest-colored scales stares at them from the bottom of the steps with glowing yellow eyes. Razor-sharp spikes line its back from the base of its head to the tip of its tail. The claws on each of its feet are just as sharp. A string of saliva drips out of its mouth and onto the stone street, turning to the road to liquid. A low growl rumbles out of its throat. The drake.

"Change of plans." Tessa takes a step back. "Escape is no longer an option. We'll have to fight."

"Fight?" Sam's eyes widen. "You can't be serious! It's bigger than my mom's car!"

"He's right, Tessa. There's no way we'd win," Arwen says. "We'll just have to go around it."

Tessa scans the rooftops. "I can work with that. Arwen, keep the drake distracted. June, get the boys back up top. On my signal, we run."

"What are we supposed to do?" Fred asks, eyes never leaving the slowly approaching predator.

"Stay out of the way," all three girls answer at once.

"I like this plan," Sam says, following Juniper as she retreats to the temple.

"I don't," Fred responds, but pulls Joe back up the steps anyway.

Tessa runs to the side of the staircase, leaps off, and lands next to a mostly still-intact building. She starts scaling the side, making her way to the roof. Joe watches as she goes, fascinated by her speed and dexterity. Was all that because of her training at Horae Manor? Or were these skills she had picked up from her years in the circus?

Only Arwen remains at the bottom of the stairs, ready to face the drake head-on. It shows little interest in her retreating friends, and continues to crawl towards her, hissing as it does so. "I hope your fast, Tess." She lunges for the drake, landing a heavy punch directly on its snout.

The drake blinks, more surprised than hurt. It shakes the shock off and snaps at Arwen, forcing her back. Acid flies out its mouth, destroying the steps around them. Arwen feints left, driving her foot into its soft underbelly.

It cries out, whipping its tail at her, throwing her to the ground. She rolls to the side, narrowly missing a blast of acid to her face. She stands back up, ignoring the pain in her legs. "I need you to be faster, Tess!" she calls out to the rooftops.

"I'm doing my best!" Tessa's hands glow vivid purple as she whips them through the air. But nothing down below seems to be happening.

"Well, do better!" Arwen jumps back as the drake lashes out at her with its sharp claws. "I'm not trying to die today!"

"We have to help her," Fred says as he watches the fight. He tries to move down the stairs, but Juniper holds him back.

"No. You'll just get in the way."

"We can't just let her fight that thing alone! She'll die! She's already bleeding." He points to the red smear on her legs.

"Arwen is more capable than you think. She'll be fine. Besides, you're the one who got us into this mess. Do you really want to make things worse?"

Fred glares at her, but stays silent.

"Arwen, get back to the others!" Tessa yells down. "When you get up top, jump off on the right."

Arwen dances away from yet another acid ball. Throwing in one last punch, she spins on her heels and takes off for the temple. When she finally reaches the top, she's out of breath. "Tessa says to jump off on the right side. That'll take us out of here."

"Jump off? Is suicide really our only option?"

Arwen and Juniper roll their eyes in unison. "Just trust us."

They grab onto the boys and pull them over the edge. The drop should have been over fifty feet, but they hit the ground unharmed instantly.

"What the-?"

"We'll explain later. Now, move. Tessa won't be able to fool the drake for long."

The group runs down the narrow alley, Fred once again carrying Joe, who's still too weak to run on his own. They follow every twist and turn, but somehow never make it back to the main street. In the distance, they hear the drake screech. They push on, rounding one last corner before bursting out into the jungle. The last stones of the street turning into dirt.

Everyone stops to catch their breath, doubled over in shock and exhaustion.

"Where's Tessa?" Joe wheezes. "We can't leave her behind. That thing is still back there."

Like a true performer, Tessa chooses that moment to launch herself off the roof of a nearby building. She rolls out of the landing and pops up next to the others. "What are you standing around for? The drake will track our scent at any moment. Move!" Without waiting, she runs off into the jungle.

The others don't need to be told twice. They follow her, dodging boulders and trees as they go.

"We just need to get outside the magic barrier. Then I can tear us back to Horae Manor."

The group presses on, sprinting through the jungle, leaping over rocks and fallen trees. Their escape comes to a sudden halt when they reach a wide river. The water is too murky to see the bottom.

Tessa curses. "We'll have to find a way around."

"Why? Let's just wade through it." Fred lets go of Joe, moves to the front of the group, and peers into the water. "The current isn't even that strong."

"We have no idea what kind of creatures are in there. Besides, it could be too deep to wade through."

"Can't you swim?"

"Of course I can. I just-" Tessa bites her lip. Her eyes dart to Arwen, then back to Fred. "We're going around, and that's final. I bet there's a bridge or something farther upstream."

"That would take too much time. Can't you just do whatever weird magic trick you did to get us out of the city? What was that anyway?"

"Yeah, there's no way we should have survived that fall."

"Just a little spatial manipulation. As long as I have an aerial view of the space, I can twist the locations of buildings and pathways, basically making a maze. It's the same trick I pulled in Paris." Tessa steps away from the water and starts to head upriver.

"Paris?" It's difficult for Joe to process anything through the haze of pain and anger he's in, but a recent memory resurfaces in his mind. His fists clench. "You tricked us. You lured us into one of your mazes when we were in Paris. We were trapped in there for hours!"

The trees behind them begin to shake. Heavy footsteps move toward them.

Tessa's eyes flick through the jungle. "Now is not the time for this conversation. The drake will catch us if we don't get out of here."

"Why?" Joe crosses his arms. "First, you steal my pocket watch. Then you lie and manipulate me? We're supposed to be partners! What is wrong with you?"

"Wait, she stole your pocket watch?" Sam narrows his eyes at Tessa, really studying her for the first time. "I was right! I told you they were untrustworthy thieves. I knew it the moment we met them."

"We can all talk about how Tess is a terrible person later." Arwen grabs Joe's wrist, pulling him forward. "Like when we're safe inside the dining hall at the manor. It'll make great dinner conversation. But we need to survive here first."

"No." Joe pulls his arm free. "I don't trust her. I don't trust any of you."

Tessa flinches. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"Definitely not okay."

Arwen growls, "Look, she is the only one who can get us home. You can trust her now, because her life is at stake too. And I promise you, she values her own life too much to die today." Arwen's eyes slide over the trio. "So get moving. Now."

"I'm with Joe on this one." Sam holds his stance next to his best friend. "Ever since we met you girls, you've been hiding stuff from us and acting all superior. How do we know you're not leading us into a trap where we get left behind and you three make it out alive?"

"Because we're not monsters!"

"Sure about that?"

"All right. Everyone needs to just relax." Fred steps forward, placing himself in the middle of everyone. "We're in a tense situation, and we don't know each other that well yet. Once we get back to the manor, we can do a ton of team bonding stuff. We can't give up on each other just yet."

"You're only saying this so you can win the bet," Sam puts his hands on his hips.

"I am not!" Fred frowns. "That's just one of the reasons."

"What bet?" Joe's glare shifts from Tessa to Fred.

Fred doesn't meet Joe's gaze. "It's nothing. Arwen and I just had a little deal that if you could stick it out with Tessa, I'd win fifty dollars. But I totally had faith in you. I know you can stick this out."

"I don't care! Why would you do that?"

"It's not a big deal. Just calm down. I thought your little rages were supposed to go away once you were awakened?"

"Stop telling me to calm down!"

"Bunny-"

"And stop calling me that!"

The argument continues, the shouts growing louder and louder until everyone is screaming at each other.

And no one hears the drake approach. It bursts through the trees, acid spit firing everywhere. It charges forward, bulldozing anything blocking it from reaching the kids.

Their screams of anger turn into screams of terror as the beast approaches. Arms and hands fly up in a meek attempt to protect themselves.

No. Joe can't let them die like this. He may be weak and his mind may be scattered right now, but he wasn't useless. He puts all his energy into raising his hand at the charging beast and opens his mouth.

"Stop."

[wyrdautumn]

Express

This is one of those stories that falls into a broad category of “what’s a little short self-contained thing I can write about a character I’ve had around for a while but haven’t gotten to do much with?” I’ve written about this character before, but I wanted to write something that got a little more into her personality and what her whole thing is.

I’ve got plans to write another little short featuring this character, getting into more of the big-picture lore around her, that’ll be going up as a Patreon exclusive by the end of the month. It’s only a $3 pledge to get those bonus stories, so keep an eye out for that!

Afonse didn't like the new mercenary. It wasn't that she always wore a bandana over her face, or that she didn't talk. Better quiet and hidden than open and loud, if you asked him. But any postman worth his salt knew you couldn't trust a mage, and this girl couldn't go five minutes without lighting up her arm, just to remind you she weren't normal.

The worst part was seeing the rest of the caravan embracing her, like she was their friend, like they thought you could trust the magic turncoat as far as you could throw her. Every time he told Boss to dump her off in town he just gave him some malarkey about about her skills. Never mind that it'd only take a little touch of magic to make any clumsy idiot look like a master swordsman. And Charlie and Helen were both spending nights in her tent, the ungrateful skanks.

They were still only halfway through their route the day Boss told him to leave camp with the merc and go fill up their canteens. He protested, like any sane man would, but Boss wouldn’t budge. “Watering hole's a mile away, Fons, and there's ferrix around,” he said. “We're gonna need you to help pack up once we catalog what we lost to the dust devil, so I don't care how bad you wanna die, you're taking her.”

That was that. Afonse left camp with the merc. Neither of them were happy. He knew she didn’t think much of him either. For a woman without a voice, she knew how to make herself heard when she wanted to.

Whatever. The last thing he wanted was her friendship.

It only took them fifteen minutes to reach the watering hole, a deep well that connected to a groundwater stream far beneath the arid soil. A land company dug it years ago as part of a quickly-abandoned development project. As far as Afonse figured it was a testament to why nobody should have been building in this forsaken hellscape to begin with. Even the nomads knew better than that. And here he was bumming through the badlands with a mage, barely making enough money to afford three square meals. Fucking society.

As soon as they reached the well she leaned herself against a post and started drawing something in the little book she always carried around. That’s what she always did when there was work to be done. She could have filled all the canteens herself with a snap of her fingers, but of course she was too good for that. She lit up her arm with a faint off-white glow just to spite him.

When he finally finished with the last canteen Afonse heard something rustling nearby. He capped the container and looked around cautiously. There were a few hardy, scraggly bushes, struggling by on what little water they could pull up from the ground and whatever travellers spilled onto the dirt. They were short thin things, not nearly big enough to hide anything dangerous. Certainly not big enough to hide the massive orange-furred many-mouthed creature stalking towards him on all fours.

Afonse turned and ran for his life, knocking over the canteens he had spent so much time filling.

The toothy, gnashing thing was bigger than him, and faster and stronger too. It beared down on him and knocked him off his feet. He scrambled away from it, barely avoiding its wicked bites, and looked up to the merc, howling at her to help him.

She looked up from her sketchbook and met his eyes. Without moving from her spot, she flipped the book around and held it up where he could see. Above a few rough, stylized sketches of a ferrix she had written two words, large and bold enough to read:

“Good luck.”

Dao wasn't going to let the ferrix eat his face off. He wasn't worth the hit to her rep. But she let him twist in the wind just a fraction of a second longer before she rose to her feet and turned to face the monster. A gust of warm desert air made the ends of her coat flutter around the sword at her waist, and she didn't care how much of a dweeb that made her, it was cool.

She blinked to the beast and drew her sword into its side.

Her blade cut true. She sunk it deep into the ferrix’s flesh and flung the monster away from the idiot.

The ferrix landed five feet away, bleeding badly from its wound. Before Dao could follow up it scrambled to its feet and bared its fangs at her. It puffed up its fur to make itself seem more intimidating and snarled aggressively, daring her to come for it.

Dao didn’t care. She stepped toward the monster, brandishing her sword, determined to put it all the way down.

She wasn’t afraid of the ferrix, but the ferrix was afraid of her. It hissed and growled and scrambled backwards, keeping its eyes locked on her.

There was enough distance between them now to be a problem. Dao kept a careful watch on the creature, holding her sword at the ready, weighing her options.

Grabbing the loser and running was a bad idea. Leaving a wounded ferrix alive was dangerous. It was scared of her, but before long it would be desperate and hungry enough to come back to the best meal it knew of. It wouldn’t have a hard time tracking them back to the caravan, either. And that was assuming the thing didn’t attract more ferrixes, or something even worse, dripping blood all over like it was. Best to make sure it was dead, and leave its body for the scavengers.

Blasting it wouldn’t be a sure kill. She couldn’t risk using up the rest of her magic on a miss. The only thing was to get in range and finish it before it could react.

She charged at the ferrix. It kept backing away from her. That wouldn’t help it. She blinked again straight into its face and jabbed her sword into its paw.

But the ferrix was smarter than she thought. It was ready for her. As soon as she struck her blow, the thing’s teeth were upon her, lunging towards her throat.

Dao threw herself back and tumbled to the ground. The ferrix was on her. She scrambled away from it, diving and rolling to avoid the sharp, thrashing claws that caught her coat and ripped up the ends. She didn’t have the stamina for this. Her limbs ached and stung in protest every time she flung herself into the dirt.

There was no room to use her sword. So she let it fall to the ground. The ferrix lunged again. She threw herself straight at it and clocked it in a jaw with her metal gauntlet.

The ferrix only flinched for a second. That was time enough. She grabbed it with her open, ungloved hand and sent all the magic she had coursing through its body.

It twitched and convulsed and was fried in a second. Dao let the creature fall to the ground. She took back her sword, struggled painfully to her feet, and put the blade through its throat, just to be sure.

She was slowing down. Darkness encroached the edge of her vision. Her entire body burned with exertion while her lungs flared and contracted desperately, trying to fill themselves with the air her crushed windpipe couldn’t provide. She ripped the bandana off her mouth instinctively. It didn't make a difference.

Almost a full year of this and she still hadn’t learned how to pace herself. Still wasn't going to. Restraint isn't exactly an option when a monster is trying to bite your head off. She shook her limbs out spitefully, willing them to move whether they liked it or not. Finally she felt the surge of Jehoram’s magic returning to her, and she used all of it immediately to fill her lungs with air and her blood with oxygen.

Now that she could move comfortably again it was time to get back to the job. The carrion birds were already circling, and they got nasty when you didn’t leave them to their work. She kicked the dead ferrix out of her way and went to grab the canteens and the traumatized jerk. He walked ahead of her on their way back to the camp, casting anxious glances back at her constantly, stumbling over his own feet trying to keep his distance. Dao carried the canteens herself, because he was just that useless.

Twenty minutes later they made it back to camp. The rest of the crew saw how much worse for wear they were and left their work to meet them. “Did you run into a ferrix?” Boss asked.

Dao nodded.

“Is it dead?”

She gave him a theatrical, sarcastic thumbs up. Of course it was dead. That’s what they paid her for.

“Good.” Boss looked past her to Afonse. “If you’d gone out there alone, you wouldn’t have come back. Aren’t you lucky you listened to me?”

“Lucky?” Afonse snapped. He stomped up to Boss and shoved him in the chest. “I’m not fuckin’ lucky, Boss. She was gonna let that thing kill me!”

Dao scrawled a message in her sketchbook and turned it to show him: “And yet I didn't.”

Afonse glared at her and fumed.

“All right, son, you’d best cool your head.” Boss put a hand on Afonse’s shoulder and stared him down firmly. “Monster’s dead, you’re not. Ain’t much more you can ask for than that.”

“I can ask her to do her job!” Afonse pointed at Dao accusatorily. She rolled her eyes at him. “That monster attacked me and she, just, pulled out her little book and wrote ‘good luck’ in it!”

Boss looked over at Dao, who waved her hand dismissively. “Did you do that? No, nevermind, of course you did.”

Dao just shrugged.

Helen and Charlie both snickered while Boss sighed deeply and rubbed his temples. Afonse shot a dirty look in their direction. “Y’know, Fons,” Helen said, “this job’ll be easier if you don’t keep trying to make enemies with the people you gotta bunk with for weeks on end.”

“Why don’t you two get back to work?” Boss interjected. “I’ll handle this situation, thank you.”

“Right. We’ll get on it, Boss.” Charlie put his thick broad hand on Helen’s shoulder and pulled her away before she could start an argument.

Once they left Boss turned back to Afonse. “Look, I know you’re not happy, but she still saved your ass, whatever she might have written. Maybe if you learned to be a little nicer she wouldn’t feel like she had to mess with you like that.”

“Nicer?” Afonse scowled at Dao. “You’re not payin’ me enough to be nice to a fuckin’ mage, Boss.”

“If that’s the way you feel I don’t need to be paying you at all.” Afonse turned to Boss in disbelief. “You think you got job security cuz the head office won't approve any other hires, but if you can't get your head out of your ass, I'd rather be traveling with a stunt crew.”

That finally got him to shut up. He shoved his hand into his pockets and quietly seethed until Boss sent him away.

Now that Boss had Dao to himself he sighed and ran an exasperated hand through his hair. “Why do you have to antagonize him?”

Dao cocked an eyebrow. Did he really need to ask that?

“You know how much harder it is for me when I have to be mad at both of you, right?”

Being mad at both of them was his own choice, Dao thought. She did her job. If Boss wanted more than that he should have made it part of their agreement. She stared at him blankly and blinked.

“Just don’t pull any more stunts like that, okay? He’s an asshole, but he’s part of the crew. I still gotta watch out for him.” Boss didn’t wait for a response. He walked past Dao towards camp, but he stopped for just a second and looked over his shoulder at her. “Thanks for not letting him die.”

Dao stood impassively and watched him go. The sun was starting to go down, and the air was beginning to chill. She grabbed a few blocks of wood to start a fire and brought them in to the middle of the camp.

Once everyone else finished repacking the deliveries, they gathered around the fire for dinner. Dao took a seat next to Helen, who was eager to see the day’s sketches. She laughed at the “good luck” page.

Afonse glared at them angrily across the fire, until Dao glanced up and met his eyes. He looked away immediately and spent the rest of the night being ineffectually grumpy.

What a pain in the ass. There was no fixing a man like that. All he wanted was to feel right and just in his ignorance, and nothing you did was going to change his mind. Getting chewed out would only make him resent her more.

But that wasn’t her problem. He wasn’t going to do anything except stew in his own petulant rage. A coward won't try anything if he knows you can kick his ass. And he knew that just fine.

[magic5ball]

Nature Trail to Hell Arc V: Back into Hell (1)

Chapter 1: It’s Always Chilly at Camp Sham

           Back when I was in the cub scouts, my dear old Dad gave me a manual on Boy Scouting. Can’t remember a single thing from that book, except for the ever so honorable motto: ‘Be Prepared’. It was right pretty in its simplicity, something I remembered long after I’d spilled grape juice all over the pages. Not to always be prepared of course. That was something only total NERDS believed, but that if I had a short. simple slogan, people would think I was the smartest guy in the room no matter what I did. Which was why, when yours truly had done gone and sent his army straight into enemy territory without so much as an ink of what he was gonna do, he thought improvising the whole thing over two hours was the smartest idea since chocolate chip waffles. Granted, I had been to an improv camp the last summer, but considering my greatest accomplishment was getting coffee splashed in my face, my prospects weren’t looking so hot.

Not helping were the little sponge dinos asking what the plan was every five minutes, like one of those backseat drivers constantly asking if they’re there yet.

But what I lacked in improve skills I more than made up with in last minute panic. I’d been evoking that dark power to plow through school as long as I could remember. Heck, even in kindergarten I’d build an entire six foot scale mansion with a swimming pool and martini bar just one minute before the thing was due! AND got that passing C- (I got the grade raised by threatening legal action). So I buckled in (not literally. Cardboard boxes don’t exactly have safety regulations) and got thinking.

           And you know that moment where you’re trying to get an idea, but for some reason the more you try to look for it the harder it gets to find it? Guess when that old feeling decided to set in. I tried everything. Wrapped my head in my hands, rocking back and forth. Rubbed my temples. Banged my head against the side of the box. But no matter how hard I pushed the old noggin, nothing came out. Like squeezing a potato through the eye of a needle.

            As the icing on the crap cake, turned out packing peanuts weren’t even edible! All those years figuring Mom was keeping me from them because they were bad for my teeth, pining for that soft, rainbow marshmallow flavor that would melt on my tongue: WASTED!

“Is the plan ready yet?” Growled the little sponge dinosaurs at the worst possible time. In the EXACT same tone I used when I found I wasn’t getting that pet Lystrosaurus from Santa, too!

Still, the old grey matter was totally clogged. Only thing to do was keep pushing the metaphorical tater through the needle until the Almighty got embarrassed for me and struck me with divine inspiration.

For their part, the sponge dinos looked up at their leader as he babbled about potatoes and coming to the terrible realization that maybe, just maybe, the horse they were risking their lives to back wasn’t exactly the sharpest steed in the stable.

The rumbling truck came to a halt. Couldn’t have been more than ten minutes of driving. Frankly, I had no idea what was worse: the fact I had run out of time, or that I HAD DIED LITERALLY TEN MINUTES FROM A FREAKIN’ WEGMART! OF ALL THE STUPID, LOUSY THINGS THAT-

My whining would have to wait. Outside, I could hear the wails of kids having to sing about Tarzan getting a tan for the five zillionth time, a shiver running down my spine. And beneath that moaning of the ding-danged, I heard none other than the thing disguising itself as Ms. Hoebag chatting it up with the delivery guy. The spongey dinos, still unsure about what they were supposed to be doing, started to make inanimate object noises to disguise themselves, proving that maybe they should have been the ones leading this operation.

“A week late!” She roared, her deep, satanic baritone a far cry from the pleasant camp counselor voice I’d heard when I first arrived all those weeks ago.

At least the truck guy wasn’t gonna take it lightly. “Listen. Ma’am, I’ve had a crazy day and frankly, after certain events, I kinda want to check into an asylum.”

“In that case, want to SELL YOUR SOUL?” She went prattling in a tone no camp counselor should have been able to make. Not even the sort who’d expose young, impressionable minds to Carney the Dinosaur.

“No can do, Ma’am. I already sold it for a lifetime supply of spicy bean chalupas at Tako Shak.”

           At that, Hoebag wasted no time eviscerateing the poor feller about the good virtues of selling your soul wisely. Funny how the first useful thing I’d learned at camp I’d found weeks after the fact. If nothing else, at least I got twenty new swear words to add to the ol’ collection.

           This took up a good half hour I should have been using to plan, but really, when could I expect to hear those words so dirty I would still be cleaning pieces out of my ears three years later again? I wasn’t about to waste my chance to gather forbidden knowledge! Like the little kid I was, I insisted on waiting just a little longer… until I felt the ground beneath me get all light. Somebody was lifting the box, taking me in… wherever it is the Camp kept its’ Styrofoam containers. But going to that place meant passing through Camp Sham itself. And the more I waited, the more curious I got about what was happening in the camp since I’d been away. I’d only heard Freddie’s rumors, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Mostly what came to mind were images from those old Disney movies my Grandma showed me under the delusion I’d find them fun, only to realize Fantasia involved a literal trip to Hell that gave me nightmares for weeks (and also a scene with dinosaurs that would pretty much define my life for the next half a billion years).

           My dumb kid curiosity, the kind that makes you think flooding the house to make your own pool is a good idea, finally got the better of me, and I poked two little eye holes in the cardboard. Or tried to. Now that I was a ghost in the physical world, my fingers kinda just sunk through, like quicksand. After taking a moment to feel dumb for not thinking of that, I put my face to the box so I could look through. Didn’t have to worry about being seen, of course, being a ghost and all.

           Freddie had lied to me back at Tako Shak. What I saw outside was worse than anything that had come out of the old turd’s mouth. It was less like a camp, and more like one of those old Renaissance paintings of the underworld used to scare kids out of snack time, except greyer, with giant snow-belting storm clouds circling the sky in a massive vortex. Christmas in July, courtesy of some genie who went out of his way to be a jerk. There was not a single festive light or wreath to be found, but rather large television screens advertising how ‘Carney is Watching You’ duct taped to cold, three legged lookout towers. Kids, dressed only in swimtrunks and coats most likely made in arts and crafts, shoveled snow quickly as their little arms could go, while guards carried around sabertooth tigers- actual sabertooth tigers!- on chains, threatening to sic then on anyone who might slack even a little bit. I recognized those guards, too. Where their skin was exposed I could see elaborate tattoos (though branding marks is more like it) with some all-too-familiar patterns on them. Patterns like ‘Orange you glad to be here?’ or ‘I’m berry proud of you!’. I felt sorry for those poor kids. My Dad says they don’t hire people with tattoos anymore. Yet as bad as things got, I kept STAREING. That’s the thing about Summer Camp, the thing I learned the hard way: no matter how much you try to erase it, to drown it out the memory with video games and t.v, you can never really run away from the horror, always sitting at the back of your mind, waiting to pounce you when you least expect it, like a hungry sabertooth.

           All this, in the name of building character or some other buzzword the grownups read off their memos.

           The last thing I saw before I drew my head in, curling up in a ball on the opposite end of the box, was a kid, his butt frozen off- LITERALLY FROZEN OFF!- standing in the snow as three other campers tried to reassemble his gluteus maximus like one of those 3-d wood puzzles you find at bookstores, their fingers stuck fast to the pieces.

           Somehow, the inside of the mess hall was even worse, a chromium dungeon of pure monotony, icicles long as I was a danglin’ menacingly from the ceiling, ready to (try and) impale my ghost body at a moment’s notice. Here, delivery guy finally put the dinos and I down on a shelf, leaving us for dead in that wintery world. Even after his footsteps were long gone, I got the jitters something fierce, fierce enough to stick me in place. Felt especially bad for the dinosaurs. If I was stuck in place, those guys must have been frozen solid, warm blood or no warm blood.

           Heck, at that point I think I forgot about planning entirely in favor of thinking about how to find warmth, because Lord knows thinking doesn’t do you much good when you’re frozen half-solid! Rubbing my Rhode Island-sized goose bumps for just a little bit more heat, I faded through the box before I became the human Watt-sicle, landing smack-flat on the metal floor, sending a fresh wave of shivers through my ethereal form. 

           I could barely get my feet off the ground before I heard someone coming. Coming, and looking right at me. A chunky kid in a dirty white chef’s apron, his sleeves rolled up despite the obvious weather conditions; feet not slipping despite the icy floor. A kid I recognized him almost immediately.

“SHATNER?!”

He jabbed a butcher’s cleaver into the empty air, clearly startled.

“WHO GOES THERE?!” 

[a-halfblood-named-coin]

With Korra coming to Netflix, there’s been this whole WAVE of “no more korra hate!” And I’m gonna be honest here, I do, I do hate the legend of korra. Not because it’s more sexual or because Korras a headstrong women but I feel like they tried to be so different from ATLA, more mature and realistic that it lost a lot of the charm. It has other charms but I just don’t like them as much. So to prove I don’t hate the show without reason here are 3 things I liked in concept that they handled poorly in my opinion.

1. Korra herself

Having a headstrong, egotistical, women waterbender with lots of muscles and bravado was AN AMAZING choice to constrast from Aangs pacifist, peaceful and calmer mindset. I loved that part of Korra. But my problem is in her character development, or how I don’t think the writers remember what development means, development =\= pain porn. A lot of Korras ‘development’ was her getting beat to a pulp, having her bending removed, being wheelchair bound, etc. and by the end of the show she becomes more wary and scared of everything around her. Instead of what I personally wanted, which was for her to be underestimating the effort and work it takes to be a good avatar, get knocked down a few pegs by Tenzin or someone and come back stronger and more grounded. Still cocky but now she has the power AND understanding to back up her claims. I never wanted her to lose her ego entirely, or to fall so far she never comes back the same. Speaking of avatar stuff...

2. The removal of an avatars journey

This one is hard, because I understand why they did this but also removing it took a lot away from what made avatar so good. I think they removed the journey as to not just repeat the structure of the OG show, they didn’t want to seem like it was just Ctrl+ v with a new lead. But a big part of ATLA’s charm came from the world building , expescially since it drew so much from different parts of Asia and other groups, making a fantasy world with that backing and exploring it was SO cool. In Korra most of the show is set in Republic city, they leave a couple times to visit the various bending nations but they always go back to that damn city. I don’t hate the idea of modernizing bending, I wouldn’t place a show there but the thoughts are cool. Stuff like electric benders being 9-5 workers is funny and pro bending is an interesting thought but I think the overall setting is...tired. I have read/seen so many pieces of media set in either 1920s America or INSPIRED by 1920s America it isn’t even funny. It was an aesthetic time that’s for sure but I have seen it before and I’ll see it another million times. I don’t know why they would take a fairly unique setting and make a mainstream, Americanized version of it that is arguably more boring and less compelling. But this point is supposed to be about the avatar journey I hear you say and yourre right. The lack of a journey adds to the boredom, in ATLA they could continually have new locations and new people to keep the interest of that episode because they were almost always on the move. In Korra everything comes back to republic city, I got bored of looking at those city streets after the first season! Plus I think Korra as a character could have really benefited from a journey of her own, less focused on bending and more on connecting with the people she’s supposed to protect. In my dream version of this show, Korra gets knocked down but tenzin or smth and as a last ditch effort he sends her on a shorter version of the avatars journey to help her connect with the people and the spiritual realm. She could bring her merry band of idiots (except you bolin) and they could bond over their travels, learn about each other and actually have some meaningful conversations outside the parameters of the weird love thing they all have going on. We could see an updated but familiar world space, run into some familiar places and get into plenty of trouble and Korra could really bond with her people. Learn that understanding and listening are important skills for the avatar to have just as much as bending all four elements. It could all culminate in a trip to an air temple, she could speak her piece in a cool but honest rant about herself and her life and maybe as she leaves the wind could pick up and it would just...click. She would get her air bending in a hopefully more satisfying way than what was shown in the show,speaking of...

3.Changing up the bending/AS . Listen the way the treat bending in Korra is so fucking weird. 1st of all I cannot come up with any reason why a 5 year old Korra would be able to bend 3/4 elements. The thing about bending is that it is a lot harder than some of the characters make it seem (because they are all using their skills at an extremely high level) part of bending is innate skill, that’s true but you would be awful at it if you only relied on instinct. Take Katara from season 1 of ATLA, she can bend of course but it’s shaky and poorly balanced, she can’t do it for long and can barely move any water. This is because she has never been properly taught, once she gets some teaching she becomes one of the best waterbenders in existence, it took training to get her there. So I could buy (kind of) baby Korra bending them innatly when she is found by the white lotus, but a 5 year old who has only ever interacted with water benders should be bending all the elements as if they were water. Bending is all very different, each form is based on a different form of martial arts. The styles are different and require different points of concentration and movements to execute properly. Our little tyke is seemingly doing actually fire/earth moves...now where the hell did she learn those?? Anyway continuing into probably my biggest gripe with Korra is the treatment of Air bending. I like the fact that it is emphasized how much of air bending is about spirituality, more so than other bending forms. I like the struggle there for Korra. But I feel like she never actually listens to Tenzin, never admits he is right and takes on his teachings properly. She ignores his advice and fucks of during training (which is very Korra behavior) but there is never a point when she has to listen to him. She gets all her bending taken in another form of pain porn and when she gets it back, instead of having her realize how much her bending means to her and finally fucking listening to Tenzin and learning air bending the real way, she just goes into the avatar state (which is the least satisfying version of that display) and just...has airbending. And now for my last point, wtf was up with the avatar state?? In ATLA the AS was a dangerous state to be in for Aang and everyone around him, it caused him to lose control, kick ass yes, but lose his sense of self and him struggling with those complicated feelings about his biggest trump card was amazing. Korra however uses hers to beat children in racing games...I am not joking. They toned down its abilities so that Korra could use it more often but not beat the crap out of everyone... you could have just not had her use it for stupid reasons and kept it a power level at 3000?? Like why? Why does the fucking avatar need to have weakened avatar state so she can use it more often, should she be powerful enough on her own?? Maybe it could be harder for her to activate (because Korra does seem like the type to use it too often) maybe she has to talk to her past lives to figure out why she’s having such a hard time using it and it’s revealed that Aang in specific locked it away because she couldn’t be trusted. It could be a whole thing!! But no she just uses for stupid shit and never learns...

So that’s the end of my rant, 3 things I could get behind in theory that, in my opinion, they handled pretty horribly. If you like Korra, that’s great! Tbh I’m kinda jealous, I wish I could enjoy it more because I love ATLA it was a huge part of my childhood and I’d love to have more of that world. I have so many other feelings on Korra if anyone cares. Like the romance fucking with the show, the half assed rep, explaining the magic, side characters being wet paper towels with 1 character trait or Bolin being highkey romantically abused and no one caring but that’s for a different extremely long tumblr post.

[wakraya]

Hiveswap: The Theorizening

Having finished Hiveswap, there’s a lot of different things going through my head at once, thoughts, theories, characters, so I’ll try to not mix things together! That being said, as theories tend to be, Spoiler Warning under the cut! Also sadly I won’t be able to post images in it quite yet since they’re not too easily available around right now, will probably have to wait until some Youtube Video pops up with the gameplay/cutscenes. Without further ado!

Grandpa Harley - There’s a lot that has been revealed about Grandpa in the first half of Act 1, before moving to Alternia. He’s an absent father, and his absence obviously affects Joey a lot. She doesn’t like to blame herself for him not being there, and thus channels this as well deserved anger towards him, specially as she cannot relate to him in the slightest with his disdain for animal life. However, I noticed a few things Joey mentions. He’s been coming back home less and less ever since his wife died, and having ‘vacations to the Pacific Ocean’. I don’t know what’s going through that moustached head of his, but Jake didn’t come across the Frog Temple by mere chance, he actively seeked it for years before bumping into it. Where did he learn about it? What’s going on? Also the basement is full of Crockercorp Tools, old, but still present there. Is there some mind control and manipulation going on perhaps? Jane had to bear with the Baroness for a long while before she straight up faded, but Jake just ‘left her’, perhaps Crockercorp things reminded him of his departed sister? For all the hoarding and aimless adventuring we always thought he did, it seems like he does have a goal. That being said, the obsession doesn’t excuse his neglect for his family or being a shitty parent and being absolutely crazy but, yeah. There’s something deeper going on with him, and I’ll be glad to explore this facet of him on Hauntswitch.

A. Claire - She’s dead. From the very first moment you start the game, in the very first room, you get heavy clues that she’s already dead. However, while I thought A. Claire was nothing more than ‘Joey’s Mom’ before, after playing through the game I can’t help but feel there’s something more to it. She had the Key. The Key was a ‘Heirloom’ she stored in her jewelry box? Or did it appear there afterwards? Joey heavily associates it to her, and with Grandpa’s obsession of tracking down the Frog Temple growing stronger after she died, I have to wonder if there’s something more going on with her. How did she die, exactly? What was she hiding? Again, something really interesting to have in mind for Hauntswitch.

Tetrarch Dammek - Wow. I don’t think any of us expected him to be such a dick. Look at that name, too- Tetrarch Dammek. Tetrarch is basically ‘one of four rulers’, and I believe Xefros alludes to there being another 3 Tetrarchs within the resistance. With him gone, the power structure of the Rebellion is shaking, and now Trizza will make her move- They have to make do, and they’re very likely going to have to get Joey to help them. Back to Dammek himself though, Tetrarch is ALSO an 8-Letter title, like Adults on Alternia seem to use. The Tetrarch. Along with his ideals and how he treats Xefros, it seems that he’s living a sort of Highblood Power Fantasy of Leadership and Control to bring Trizza down. If we’re supposed to care about him, Jude/Roxy are very likely going to shove him in the right direction. Maybe without his guns and in an alien planet, he shows his true colors, scared, defenceless, with no one backing him up- And he learns to be a better person before going back to Alternia. I sure hope so.

Xefros Tritoh - Sweet cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too PURE. I fell in love the moment Joey started to talk with him, poor thing has been pretty much brainwashed. It puts in perspective just how shitty Rustbloods REALLY have it on Alternia, and makes me wonder if Aradia’s complacency comes from this too. Like... It’s not just that it’s her thing, she was ‘0kay’ with things, but rather just a... Grim outlook on not being able to do anything about her situation. “That’s fine. It’s how things are.” That being said, Joey came to the rescue quite unexpectedly, I didn’t think she’d lash out against Dammek like that and I’m VERY glad she did! I still think Dammek has a chance of redemption on Earth, but what he’s done to Xefros is intolerable, and I’ll be glad to see his confidence AND his psychic skills develop over time as he journeys with Joey through Alternia to bring down the Empress!

Doc Scratch - We have little information about him so far. There was the delivery to Xefros but that’s about it. That was incredibly creepy. Someone also mentioned the Hint System sounded a bit like Scratch- But I’m not quite sure since I never clicked the ? Button, I might check it at a later date. For now, his involvement seems to be pretty tame, but if he’s pulling the strings behind Trizza, it’s been a nice little cameo so far.

Trizza Tethis - What a bitch. I love her. We didn’t see much about her, but we heard more about how awful she is, and got that one last image at the end. “Wish you were here”, what a piece of shit. Who was she saying it to? The other members of the resistance perhaps?

Axolotl - We actually did get a little bit teased about that! The painting in the hallway had what, to me, looked like Aztec representations of the Grimalkin, the Sloth and the Axolotl, which is very interesting. Foreshadowing? Or perhaps something more? There was also a weird tapestry in the Trophy Room I can’t quite remember, but it could be something really interesting to analyse at a later date.

Biggest Fan - I’m assuming Xefros and Joey are going to see Cridea at the end of the game. Maybe? The only other option I can think of is the Rebel Marshall. I believe they said their biggest fan was a ‘she’, unless I’m thinking wrong, otherwise it could be Fiamet too! (Wait is Fiamet a guy? I actually think I just assumed he was a guy because the Axolotl from Animal Crossing is a guy. God dammit, it could really be anyone huh? What a mess). Whoever it is, given he mentioned it’s a ‘Fan’, I doubt it’ll be another Tetrarch.

Tetrarchs - The leaders of the Rebellion. Dammek was one of them. I wonder if Cridea or Fiamet are Tetrarchs too. Who knows, maybe the Canon Fantrolls are Tetrarchs! That would be an interesting plot twist wouldn’t it? I’m assuming Fiamet IS one, merely based on the fact he has the power of the Green Sun on his side. Too valuable and powerful of an asset to NOT be a leader.

Alternia - We’ve gotten a few glimpses at life in Alternia! Lo and behold, it just so happens that Hellworld is EVEN WORSE than I thought from the canon! Even with Trizza being excessive in her killings, it just feels like absolutely no one cares about Rustbloods and lives of the lower bloods can be taken for like, anything at all. Seems like there are contests that can change people’s lives however, like the music one Xefros and Dammek seemed to want to attend, that would either give them a life of ‘luxury’, or death. There was a comment on how it took SWEEPS for Scythian to deliver something to Rustbloods, which means that apparently you MUST register your caste on literally EVERYTHING online. Another interesting fact, aside from the Stickball sports which seems a mixture of Rugby, Quidditch and Pool, Xefros mentions Rustblood Dead Communion, and also Blueblood posh attitude and crushing strength, making it canon that, yeah, those kind of powers aren’t actually genetic oddities but are commonplace among castes! Of course comparing Aradia’s telekinesis with Xefros’, it’s obvious some Trolls may be better gifted than others, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some outright lack them. Still, interesting.

Jude - He’s still convinced that the figures are behind this, but something the previews and trailers didn’t mention is that he believes the figures are after the portal. In the same vein, on Alternia, the interviews said that Trizza wants to get her hands on the portal too, which after driving Joey and Xefros away is incredibly easy. Seems like the villains of both games are after this thing, whatever it is. I thought Jude would be nervous and shaky and scared, but NOPE, he’s fucking ready, he’s been ready all his life to take those things down, and I think that’s kind of impressive. Still a dork though.

Joey - Poor thing knows nothing about Alternia, and it’s hilarious to see how confused and grossed out she is through the game. I wonder if she’ll have to eat bugs at some point. I hope she has to eat bugs at some point. She’s so pure too. I like how at the end, Xefros blushed grabbing at her, but she just flashed a little, comfortable smile. I ship Xefros <> Joey already, and feel like, given how her orientation has been leaning so far with the paintings and statues in the Harley Household, she’s totally gonna fall in love with some blueblood lady. Watch her blush when Cridea enters the scene.

The Portal - God this fucking THING. Up in the attic I tried to see if I could see the God Tier’s symbol next to the portal, but it was too difficult. I think it was somewhat round? It might’ve been Mind? But I might’ve just imagined things too, who even knows. The portal itself though, I did NOT expect it to be artificial. It’s not just a structure someone found. Jude has Blueprints. And on Alternia, the more futuristic looking version is also built and has Blueprints. Xefros calls it a ‘weapon’ but he also obviously has no idea what it does, meaning Dammek likely has some more idea about it, just like Joey does. Did they build it? was it some attempt to contact both words? Can a built structure actually be a Juju? I have so, so many questions about that thing and I hope the game solves all of them eventually. But for now, there’s just not enough information to determine anything. It’s soooo weird.

Those are my thoughts on the lore the game added upon so far. We’ll see how things go as more things about Hiveswap and Act 2 start to pop up!

[cauldronoflove]

Ok so this is really obscure, but I've had this idea for a while now, and I'd love to see you work with it? Headcanons for a time travel AU in which Peter Parker is messing with Stark Tech and gets sent back to the 1940s? He could work with Peggy Carter in the SSR to solve the case and pretend to be her little brother. Plus in 2017 Tony and Steve working together to get him back. If you think it's weird or want to skip it no worries! If not, then thank you so much, I love your headcanons!!

i love this concept so much you dont even know?? but also okay i realized abt halfway through these 2.5k+ words that this wasnt exactly what you asked for and i feel kinda bad about that but i hope you still like it all the same!! also i wanna say thank you for thinking of me for this prompt im super flattered????

- peter wasnt technically supposed to be in the 4th basement of stark tower

- technically he was on his lunch break and was supposed to be using said time to both eat and work on his spanish homework

- but he'd heard these whispers from a couple of the older interns about some of the old stuff that mr. stark had thrown down there because he never had time to finish them and peter had an idea

- see, he's been wanting to move up a bit, have mr. stark trust him a little more, and what's better then maybe taking one of his old designs and making it better and making it work

- so thats why he's in the fourth basement of stark tower, trying to remember if he's had his tetanus shot because some of this stuff is seriously Old

- and then he stumbles onto this little pyramid shaped....doohickey

- its the only thing in 4 floors of Things that doesnt have a label or a file or a crude drawing taped to the front of it so now peter is Officially Curious

- he kinda fiddles with it for a few minutes until his phone beeps with his 'hey pete youre gonna be super late getting back to work again' alarm and he about drops this thing on the floor because like everyday the alarm scares him to death

- but because hes clumsy and because hes pete he actually does drop it and everything goes black

- but everything's fine because he wakes right back up and he's pretty sure that he electrocuted himself but thats happened dozens of times so he picks himself up and brushes himself off and realizes that he may have been out longer than he thought because theres fewer boxes in the room than before and geez his head hurts

- "are you quite alright?"

- oh god he mustve hit his head harder than he thought because that looks like

- "m-miss carter, no sorry, ma'am? oh, oh god i'm so sorry that was so rude, agent? agent ma'am?"

- "this is howard's fault isnt it"

- "howard? as in....oh god oh god"

- "do you know where you are?"

- peter parker loved a lot of things and one of those things was museums and one of those museums in particular had an exhibit on a certain mr. rogers and adjacent to that exhibit was a small plaque about the woman standing in front of him and oh god he was going to hyperventilate and throw up in front of a literal legend and hero at the same time

- "remind me to kill him later. right now lets get you something warm to drink, yes? maybe some new clothes, youre looking a little singed"

- flash forward half an hour and he's sitting in front of the agent carter sipping at some terribly bitter coffee while she pursed and unpursed her lips a few times

- (annnnd time skip back to present day)

- friday: mr stark theres a woman downstairs beating on the door asking for youtony, 47 names going through his head: ...go on

- enter may parker, in her pjs, fire in her eyes, carrying on the legacy of brunette women ready to end a stark's life

- "it is ten o'clock on a school night, i've talked to ned, i've talked to mj and liz, i've talked to every corner sub shop owner, i even had a nice long chat with pepper, yet no one could tell me anything so you better have answers as to where my nephew is anthony"

- and in that moment, tony stark's life flashed before his eyes

- "hey, friday, where is the kid?"

- "peter's vitals havent been detected since 1:32pm on floor D"

- tony: fu-

- (back to pete and peggy)

- so he's quickly caught her up on the gist of whats going on (aka he told her he's from 2017 ny and hed really just like to go home) and she's taking it surprisingly well, all nodding and hmm-ing and cursing howard stark under her breath, kinda how may is when tony does like.. anything

- but now shes leading him through their super secret base and he's trying not to stare because, has he mentioned, hes literally standing next to peggy carter

- "right, well, here's your cot. if you need anything, dugan can help you. he's that one, there, with the cigar. you get some rest and i'll find howard and see if we cant get your...issue squared away. oh, and whatever you do, dont accept anything dernier tries to give you, you've already blown up once today, i dont think you can afford another"

- present day

- tony's been working through the night, a marginally-more-than-slightly disgruntled may beside him, and an even-more-than-marginally-more-than-slightly peeved happy beside her

- ("how do you lose a teenage boy, tony" happy moans to his phone when he wakes up and sees all the missed calls and texts he has)

- good news: it only took like 2 1/2 hours and three shots of espresson for tony to figure out what happened to peter

- bad news: it wasnt even a Tony Stark Exclusive Design, it was a Howard Stark One-Time Use That Was Actually A Malfunction Design, he'd had several more coffees that werent even close to being strong enough, and he had a growing black eye from the punch may landed before happy could pull her away and calm her down (maybe that last part should be in the good news column)

- "so he's just stuck in the 40s alone, then" may surmises, rubbing at the tension headache in her temples

- tony doesnt respond because at this point he needs his other eye for miracle working and depth perception

- "well, probably not alone," happy begins. "i catalogued everything in that level, and that stuff came from one of howard's london facilities, so it was probably calibrated for that time, so he's probably with-"

- tony: "hap, please dont finish that sentence"

- may: "1940s london. so he's with steve, then, safe. with captain america. okay, i can handle that."

- tony: "no, ah, a little later than capsicle, probably"

- may: "so not safe with captain america"

- happy: "safe with agent carter, more likely"

- pete and peggy

- good news: pete made it through the night without being blown up by the howling commandoes

- bad news: once howard was finally located and sobered up, he explained that he hadnt built that particular device yet, so peter was kinda stuck

- peter wasnt coping well

- "i have a spanish test tomorrow! and a trig test on friday! and i'm supposed to hang out with ned on saturday, and then may's gonna kill me when i dont show up for sunday dinner, and shes gonna kill me in general because i never checked in because holy shit i never checked in!"

- howard: peggy he's crying what do i do

- peggy: do i have to do everything myself

- she advances on peter and takes his chin in her hand, locking eyes with him: peter, you know who i am, dont you?

- he nods as best as he can

- "then you must know that i'm going to do everything in my power and then some to get you back home, dont you?"

- "yes ma'am"

- "good. go take a walk while i talk to howard, and if anyone asks, youre my american brother in for a short visit." and then she pats him on the cheek and his soul kinda ascends then and there because agent carter just patted him on the cheek AND gave him permission to tell people he's her brother

- so he goes to take his walk but the thing is when he gets anxious, he likes to fiddle with the loose legos he keeps under his bed, building and rebuilding tiny structures to help ease his nerves

- needless to say, he's an Absolute Nervous Wreck while he waits for some kind of something from peggy or howard and there arent any legos to keep him busy

- so he kind of takes that walk right on down to the lab and starts poking around because even if he is a certified nervous wreck he's also thr most inquisitive little shit that ever did walk the earth

- peggy finds him two hours later with a pair of loose fitting goggles on his forehead, his sweater sleeves pushed up to his elbows, and some . substance on his hands

- "please dont tell me youre somehow howard's long lost son too," she says, taking his appearance in

- he shakes his head as the beakers in front of him emit a puff of green smoke directly into his already scrunched up face "no ma'am; it's just that mr. stark kinda has me on desk duty and never lets me get my hands dirty so i like to take every oppurtunity i can get"

- she nods, "good, because howard needs you to describe what you remember of the device, and then you and i are going to begin the slog through the logistics of it all"

- "ooooookay"

- which is how peter parker ends up sitting across from peggy carter, the both of them scribbling extremely advanced mathematics onto yellowing sheets of paper as howard stark tinkered with some spare parts he had lying around as he tried to construct a crude rendering of the device

- peggy mostly doesnt talk, actually, she hasnt spoken since explaining that shed picked her math skills up on an assignment shed once had where she learned she actually loved numbers and then howard had been letting her do calculations for him in her free time

- peter was too impressed to respond bc from what he gathered she'd only been on that mission for six months and she didnt have much free time which meant she'd had to pick it all up FAST

- anyway, they got at that for hours, until peter cant keep his eyes open and even howard is dwindling; peggy waves them both off to bed but stays and keeps scribbling away

- they repeat that routine for 3 days

- on the 5th night, after she waves them off, peter goes to his cot and he tosses and turns for hours, listening to the commandoes play poker and crack jokes, but he cant sleep

- finally he gets up and just starts walking, anywhere his feet take him

- coincidentally, his feet take him past what he quickly realizes is peggy's room

- "peter why are you still up? is everything all right?" she asks, pulling off these big hulking glasses that made him incredibly homesick because she reminds him so much of may in that moment, big glasses on, hunched over a book in her lap, hair pulled back out of her face

- and he apologizes, but she Knows something's terribly wrong, so she gets up and ushers him away from her doorway, and leads him down a hall or two and then theyre standing in an open space, and she's looking at him like shes trying to solve one of her equations

- "do you know how to throw a punch, peter"

- " whatever youre thinking i dont think its a good idea we dont have any gear and i dont want to get hurt-"

- she shakes her head and asks again, and he finally answers with a kinda

- "'kinda' will get you hurt; watch me" and she begins to demonstrate a few slow punches and he follows her movements and tries to copy them but hes a little sloppy but its ok because she corrects him and finally theyre just standing beside one another counting out punches when she asks "whats on your mind"

- and he doesnt even hesitate he just lets loose everything, how much he misses may and how terrible he feels that he cant get in touch with her, how much he misses ned and mj and liz, how much he misses his fire escape and the deli on the corner and the buildings and then he's crying again, but she gracefully doesnt point it out

- once he's done spitting out everything thats bothering him she gets this kind of sad smile and says, "you remind me of a man i knew. he cared so much about his friends, sometimes to the point of not even worrying about himself, whuch meant he was always in some sort of trouble, as you can imagine. but he always found his way out of a problem, even if he was the one who created it." she laughs slightly then. "i guess what i'm getting at is even if i cant get you back home, even if howard cant, i believe that youll figure it out."

- "are you comparing me to captain anerica right now because i'm already crying and i dont think i can take much more" he says through sniffles, his arms slack by his sides now

- she smiles and nods, keeping her stance, and peter feels an overwhelming sense of gratitude for this amazing woman who immediately helped him without much of a pause and who's made sure he was okay for the past 5 days and who's up at god knows what time showing him how to throw a punch and being his borderline therapist and he just wants to give her something in return

- "im not sure if im supposed to do this, because for all i know it could tear a hole in the fabric of time and space but i really want to show you this," he begins, pulling his wallet put of his pocket.

- he flicks the little photo holders out and theres may, and theres ned and mj and liz, and theres that cat he found that one time, and theres him and tony, and there, at the bottom, is the time he officially met steve after the whole fight thing and all

- "this was taken a couple months ago; well, a couple months for me, it's decades from now, but here," and he holds out his wallet for her to see and she looks over the photo curiously before she understands and a tear slips down her cheek and she smiles the most grand smile

- "thank you, peter" and she passes the wallet back and puts her hand on his shoulder and says "i promise i'll have you home in time for sunday dinner"

- and she does