#Like I left quote unquote friende behind to move to a new spot only to find Im never going to be accepted

[downfallofi]

.

[descendantofthesparrow]

Shuffle Playlist - Rewrite - Part of Your World - Harry Hook x Reader - Part 14 - Discoveries

=

Evie hung one of the last dresses on the transportation rack, when a knock sounded on her door. She pushed the dresses apart for her to step on the other side and called out; “come in!” Doug entered moments later, a smile on his face.

“Hey! How was the camping trip?” Evie turned to him with furrowed brows.

“C-Camping?” Doug's smile diminished and he looked at her slightly confused.

“yeah?” He tilted his head at Evie “Carlos and Jay said you and the others went on a last-minute camping trip to relax?...is-is that not what you did?” Evie sighed, the questions running through her mind stopping as she realized what had happened.

“oh, um, yeah they lied to you” Doug looked a bit offended “you see, Ben was kidnapped on the isle” now he looked alarmed “let me finish, we saved him and saved Auradon” Doug let out a small sigh of relief and took Evie's hands.

“is everyone okay?” Evie looked off to the side for a moment “you hesitated what happened” She grimaced and shook her head a bit.

“um, well…you know how our parents are kinda pieces of shit?” Doug looked surprised at the swear but nodded “well… Harry's dad is…kinda really bad and…that didn’t turn out well on Harry's side…that’s all I’m saying” she gave a small smile and turned, grabbing some of Dizzy’s accessories that she had brought back with her and sliding some on her arm to carry easier.

“Is he okay now?” Doug asked quietly, stepping to her side and leaning into her field of vision.

“yes” Evie assured him “Mal healed him when we left the isle and he’s with (y/n) now, he should be just fine for cotillion tomorrow~” Doug nodded and gave Evie a small smile.

“that’s good, you had me really worried for a moment there, was anyone else hurt?” Evie thought for a moment then shook her head.

“Mal has a cut on her cheek but that was the worst of our end thankfully.” She gave another smile and looked back down at the accessories “you know…while I was there…I realized something” Doug put his hand on her shoulder “I was lucky enough to be given a chance, and now I need to give someone else a chance too” her mind flashed back to five months ago when Harry had asked Ben to bring Uma over, and maybe after cotillion she could ask about Dizzy?

“My uncle bashful used the say that” Doug switched the topic, sensing Evie was not in the mood to talk about what had happened on the isle with him. Evie smiled, happy with the sudden change and turned to him, her brow raised a bit.

“did he?” Doug nodded, then pursed his lips a bit.

“but, really-really quietly” Evie laughed, spinning around to face the transportation rack and gesturing to it.

“come on, we have dresses to deliver~!” Doug happily obliged to her non-verbal request and moved to the rack, pushing it as Evie pulled it out of the room.

-

Two hours later, after every dress had been delivered, Evie returned to her room and grabbed her last two outfits she had to deliver.

A red rose gown and a red and black suit.

She handed the outfits to Doug and dug into her bag again, finding the red ruby earrings with small crossbones skulls hanging from the top. “perfect” she muttered, carefully holding them in her hand and leading Doug to (y/n)s room.

She knocked on the door, humming as a couple of moments passed by and no response came. She knocked again and sighed when again no response came, she gently opened the door and cooed as she looked inside the room.

On (y/n)s bed was her and Harry, curled up together under her many blankets as soft yellow fairy lights hung above them, the title screen of a movie playing on her tv.

Evie snuck into the room, gesturing Doug to be quiet as she set (y/n)s new earrings on her desk and motioned for Doug to hang hers and Harry's outfits on her closet door.

Evie spotted (y/n)s notepad on her desk and wrote out a small thank you note, pinning it to her corkboard that hung just next to her desk.

She ushered Doug out and turned, smiling at the sleeping couple, and slowly closed the door behind her, shushing it as it shut with a loud click.

“There we go” Evie sighed, turning to Doug and wrapping her arm around his “I’m starving, how about you?”

“Food sounds good” he chuckled, guiding Evie to the cafeteria.

-

Carlos watched from afar as Mal swung her feet just of the gazebo floor, her toes just grazing the cool lake water. He froze as she turned to look at him, her emerald green eyes softening and she invited him closer, turning back to the water as he did so and sat down beside her.

Mal laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, while she and Carlos hadn’t been friends before Auradon, she was glad that she had him by her side now.

“so…you broke up with Ben?” Carlos started, giving Mal a soft smile as she looked up at him. She slowly looked back down at the water as she thought of what to say.

“I…yeah” she sighed, letting her weight fully lean onto Carlos, who lifted his arm and wrapped it around her shoulder. “I’m just…not ready for the relationship he wants…I know I hide my feelings and shit but…I really don’t know how he expected me to just, be good with all of this Auradon lady stuff within six months…I feel like a failure” Carlos let out a low hum, squeezing Mal's shoulder.

“well, you aren’t, you did your best, and your best was good enough, you just found out that that life…isn’t going to work out for you, it goes against your mental wiring, yes maybe you could adjust to it but would you be happy with it?” Mal pursed her lips, Carlos shook her a bit “well?”

“no” Mal muttered, picking at the loose thread on her pants “no I wouldn’t be happy like that…Ben…he said he wanted me…the real me, the isle me-wait…no he wouldn’t want her, she's rude as fuck” Mal smiled at the snort that erupted from Carlos, before it slipped off as she remembered something. Mal stopped Carlos as he was about to speak again “Hey…I did this for Evie but…I wanted to do the same for you” He looked at her confused “I’m sorry for the way I treated you when we were on the isle” he looked off to the side for a moment before he realized what she meant.

“oh! Yeah, it's no biggie” he attempted to brush it off but Mal adamantly shook her head.

“No! it's not “no biggie!” I treated you, Evie, and sometimes Jay, horribly! Even after we became friends! You were and are deserving of kindness, and I’m sorry that I was so fucked up that I was the rottenest little brat to you” Carlos stared at her with wide eyes. “what?”

His shocked look melted into a comforting grin “Thank you Mal” he wrapped his arms around her, pulling into a tight hug that only lasted a moment “sorry, just remembered; you’re not really affectionate” he laughed, grinning wider as Mal giggled along.

“it’s-its fine when it comes from you three” Mal hummed, turning to look back at the lake.

“sooo back to the Ben break up talk?” Carlos tried, smirking as Mal blew a raspberry “come on, you need to talk it out with someone, or else you’re gonna explode keeping it all bottled up.”

“…I’m happy I broke up with him” Mal spilled, not looking at Carlos as his brows shot up “I thought about our future and I realized if I kept doing what I was doing, and we kept going with how we were…neither of us would have been happy…I need to learn to love myself before I can love him properly, because…if (y/n)s forced quote an’ unquote therapy sessions” Carlos laughed at that “taught me anything. It’s that…I rely on someone else's love to measure my self-worth”

Carlos hummed, squeezing Mal's shoulder again “that’s not a good thing”

“no!” Mal huffed, running her hands through her hair and pulling at the roots “it isn’t! I've been trying to earn my mother's love for 16 years, then I just hop to doing so much bullshit to make sure Ben will love me! I dyed my hair blonde, I dressed in those itchy dresses, I dropped my entire personality for all that! And-and it wasn’t good, I felt like I was slipping away Carlos” Mal sobbed, tears trailing down her cheeks as she finally broke “I don’t even remember what I’m supposed to act like without all that because I spent so long doing it I just-I forgot what being ME felt like” Carlos fully wrapped his arms around Mal and pulled her tight to his side.  “I-I know it sounds like I’m being pathetic and having a fucking pity party but I’m just so fucking scared Carlos” Mal whimpered, throwing her arms around Carlos’ torso and pushing her cheek against his shoulder “on the isle my life was commanded by my mother and my identity was pleasing her, and here my life has been being Ben’s girlfriend and pleasing the people of Auradon so they think I’m not some villain whose just after Ben because he’s king…I-I do really like Ben Carlos”

Mal sniffed, pulling back one of her arms and wipe her nose “I do, it's just that…being with him hasn’t helped me move on from my mother bullshit and im-gah!” Mal let out a yell, pulling back from Carlos and burying her face in her hands “I’m having a fucking identity crisis because of my fucking mother! Why can’t she just leave me alone! Why can't all this dumb shit be left behind five months ago! Why do I still have to deal with it?!” Carlos let Mal rant, rubbing her back as she broke down.

“because life is unfair that way” Carlos sighed “Mal I know exactly what you're dealing with right now” Mal peeked out from her fingers, her eyes shining “I still have nightmares from living in my mother’s closet, getting trapped in the bear traps on the ground, or when she would burn me with her cigarette…even ones were she sends dogs at me to kill me…I still hear her voice in my head, telling me I’m worthless, that I’ll never be better than dog chow, my only use was being her servant” Carlos swallowed down the lump in his throat “but I know she's wrong, I’m not anything she says. I’m a tech genius, I've made several computers on the isle just from scraps, I've enhanced my 3D printer to be the best in Auradon, faster than any other and the quality is still top-notch, I've made a tiny little device that was able to make a hole in the barrier, I've gotten offers to work for Tony fucking Stark!” Mal gasped, reaching forward to grab Carlos' shoulders in excitement.

“holy shit what!? When? How? Why?!” Carlos smiled, prying off her grip.

“I knew you all were distracted by something else, especially you, so I didn’t want to make you stressed by my stuff either, it was two months ago. I didn’t take the offer because I want to finish school, but the offer still stands when I graduate in two years” Mal grinned, but it turned to a pout as Carlos gave her a look “Now back to the original topic, I’m not letting you deviate from it, you need to let it all out”

Mal stared at him for a moment before shrugging “I…feel like I already did…Auradon is stressful, my mother is the base of all my mental shit, and I’m not ready to be in a relationship with the dude I love because until I can love myself and learn not to rely on others value of me as my own value I can't be with him in a way that won't hurt him” Carlos slowly grinned “what?” “you said you love Ben~” he teased, laughing as Mal turned red and smacked him.

“I did not!!” she screeched, yelping as Carlos half tackled her and pulled her into an arm lock “Let me go you heathen!”

“you love Ben~ you love Ben~” Carlos sang, laughing as she tried to smack at his face “Come on, pixie! Let's get you back to the dorms, I think you need a nap”

“Don’t call me pixie!”

“How bout gremlin?”

“Carlos!!”

-

Chad carefully pulled the 3D printed copy of the king's crown from the printer and pressed a kiss to the emblem on the front. “Finally,~” He walked over to the mirror that was installed in Jay's standing dresser and carefully perched the crown on his head, smiling as his full cotillion outfit came to light.

He looked like a king~

He tilted the crown down a bit and laughed, posing in the mirror “oh what's that? Why no Audrey, I haven’t chosen my queen yet~” He purred to the fake Audrey in his mind. He turned and started to walk away before spinning back around to pose again “why no Audrey-”

Suddenly his phone rang, and he turned, raising his brow as he walked over to his phone “who could be calling me?”

Caller ID - Audrey <3

Chad let out a high-pitched scream of excitement, dropping his phone to the floor as he gripped his head “ahhAH! Audrey!!!”

“chad!” Carlos groaned, glaring as the other dived to the floor for his phone, and shushed him “Chad! This is my room chad!”

Chad shushed him again, making Carlos roll his eyes. Chad hit the answer button on his phone “Audrey?”

“Hey Chad um, I’m kind of stuck in Sherwood forest, my tire went flat. Could, could you come help me?”

“yeah of course!” Chad covered the mic and turned back to Carlos “she got a flat tire in Sherwood forest and she wants me to come fix it~” Carlos squinted a bit and looked at Chad with an odd look.

“that’s six hours away”

Chad looked at him as if what he said wasn’t a long road trip. “Really? Only six?” he turned back to his phone and put it back to his ear “I’m gonna be there faster than I thought”

“Thanks Chad, I was going to come to cotilli-“ he pulled the phone away and pressed a kiss to the screen, hanging up on Audrey and starting to walk out the door when Carlos stopped him.

“Ah-My printer my crown” Carlos took the crown off Chad's head, who chuckled and gestured back from the printer to the crown before shrugging it off.

“I’m coming Audrey!” he ran down the halls towards his car, leaving a bewildered Carlos in his dorm.

“wow,” Carlos snorted, shaking his head and walking into the room, tossing the crown on Jay's bed. Carlos flopped down on his bed, Dude hopping up next to him moments later “these last two days have been crazy huh?”

“You can say that again” Dude snorted, halfway crawling on Carlos' chest and laying his head down “Nap time?”

“Nap time” Carlos chuckled, pulling his pillow over his face to block out the afternoon sun and sighed.

-end of part 14-

yep, part 14, we’re almost to Cotillion guys! also yep, Doug does not accuse Evie of cheating on him even though he had no reason to do so in the movie and he shows concern over Evie and her friends safety when she tells him about the isle~ what?? no~ this isn't a dig at Doug's awful D2 writing!! how could you accuse me of such a thing~! (Doug had alot of potential but like Mal it got ruined in the second movie and he was pushed as a full on background character in the third) also MORE CARLOS CONTENT~ yes he is smart boi and deserves that recognition and yes, the avengers exist in this universe. hopefully that Mal talk didnt sound like a pity party. 

anyway PERMTAGLLIST

@queer-cosette​ @sephiralorange​

@lunanight2012​ @daughter-of-the-stars11​

@musicarose​ @random-thoughts-003​

@remembered-license​ @rintheemolion​

@thecaptainsgingersnap​ @descendantsobsessed​

@verboetoperee​ @imtryingthisout​

taglist

@thesailbells​ @beccad10x​

[skinks]

I had a REALLY intense beatles phase in my late teens and i had the hots for paul mccartney and one time i found this story where this woman said she met paul at a party in 65 and he took her home and they talked until the sun came up and then he got a call telling him to come to the studio and he started to say he had to leave and she was like "not before you fuck me" and he laughed and then he DID and he left her alone in his house after and she stole his underwear (1/2)

(which she kept for decades until her husband threw them into their muddy front yard one day in a fit of jealousy) and a teapot and it always made me absolutely FERAL with jealous horny rage and like?? just this incredulous feeling of How On Earth Did That Really Happen and anyway bill hader’s dumpster mattress one night stand story is my new version of that (2/2)

The fucking journey this just took me on, holy shit. Did she at least get to keep the teapot?

I love that you had an intense teenage horny phase for a Beatle, I had one for Bob Dylan and I remember watching one of his electric era tour documentaries and being HORRIBLY jealous of the 60s girls hanging around outside his hotel... anyway that’s besides the point

I UNDERSTAND!!!!! THE MATTRESS STORY HAUNTS ME.... Bhader knows what he’s doing, he can try to couch it in as much self-deprecating oh-I’m-just-an-awkward-nerd fronting as he likes but he KNOWS what he’s doing and that woman knew it too. You ever notice how it’s the most competent ones who don’t feel the need to loudly prove themselves by being anything other than humble?? What did he SAY in that club! “It was going well,” he says, what does that MEAN, BILL, what did he fuckjfdkjcnnfkcning do that convinced this woman to leave the club, go to her place, lift a bed onto a car, go to HIS place and move furniture when she was literally moving to a new city the next day all so sHE COULD FUCK HIMMMM HOW IS HIS GAME THAT GOOD I FEEL LIKE A CHARACTER IN AN EDGAR ALLEN POE STORY BEING SLOWLY DRIVEN MAD BY THIS UNANSWERED MYSTERY

Ok sorry, I’m back. This is making me want to read a fic where (before they get together) Eddie watches an old interview of Richie telling the mattress story and he’s a seething ball of jealousy too. Then Richie comes out, he and Eddie sort their shit and get together, and one day Eddie laughingly comments that he had no reason to be jealous after all since Richie was obviously making the story up.

Richie looks at him weirdly. “I didn’t make up—that story did actually happen, Eds, I only changed it so people thought I went home with a chick.”

They are lying in bed. Eddie’s eye starts twitching. “Pardon?”

“Yeah?” Richie stretches, draping his right arm over his own head to scratch his left ear. Eddie will not be distracted by his chest right now, what the fuck. Richie squints at the ceiling. “I think his name was... Marco, or something. At least, that’s the name he gave to quote unquote Chris.”

“Marco, okay. Huh.”

“I wanted to be Lance or something cool, but my friend said I inhabited Chris better, I dunno. I didn’t even tell him why I needed a fake name, he was just like, big into method.”

“Yeah, mhmm.” Eddie sits up, nodding. He can’t stop nodding. His head feels like a champagne cork fizzing at the top of his spine. “So you, you uh—you were such a fucking player in your plaid and your baggy jeans that, that, that were the only things you even owned back then, Rich—don’t try to deny, it I’ve seen the pictures—that you convinced some guy who was moving town the next fucking day—”

Richie’s eyebrows shoot upwards. It makes his eyes look rounder, more delighted. “Convinced? Eddie—”

Eddie can’t stop, twisting the sheets in his hands til his knuckles go white. “Yes, convinced, you convinced him to go pick up some dirty mattress right off the street with a complete stranger even though you always make such a big deal about how awkward and nervous and repressed you were, you still, you still—”

“I was probably on molly or something at the time, man.” Richie’s beaming up at him. He pokes Eddie in the arm. Eddie feels how tense the muscle is, and fights to relax. “I’m kidding, at worst it was just a little tipsy driving. A little Wacky Races. Just call me Dick Bastardly.” Richie grins at his own dumbass joke, poking Eddie some more. “And it wasn’t just the mattress by the way, it was the whole bed. That’s a key detail. Headboard and everything.”

“The headboard?!” Eddie tries not to yell, but it comes out louder than he means to anyway. More of a shriek, embarrassingly. He lurches around in place to glare at their own flat bar of wood behind them. He holds onto that thing! It supports him, even when Richie’s fucking him into the wall!

Betrayal is neverending today, apparently. Eddie turns his glare onto Richie, who is laughing. “Stop laughing!”

“Your face,” Richie gasps. He covers his own face, then changes tack and yanks Eddie down over him to cackle into his flaming-hot throat. “What’s the problem! You’re acting like this is the same fucking bed, oh my god, you think I haven’t at least changed my mattress since I lived like a—like a Beavis and Butthead parody in Westwood, fifteen years ago?”

Eddie squirms miserably. Not even Richie’s broad nakedness against his can salvage this, he’s well and truly destroyed their sweet afterglow with his stupid overreaction. Feels like being fifteen again, ruining clubhouse hangouts with his snappy sulking as soon as Richie mentioned some girl at school. “No! No, obviously fucking not, just. I dunno.”

He doesn’t really deserve the gentle tease in Richie’s voice. “What don’t you know?”

“I don’t know!”

And that’s the part he hates most.

“Okay, okay. I think I do. Jesus, you’re actually jealous,” Richie breathes. He bites his lip, the way he does when he’s so happy about something he’s making a real effort not to talk over it. He’s still a little sweaty and pink from their Friday night activities, bedraggled hair and no glasses. The expression always scrunches his left eye into a full squint, something Eddie finds so helplessly appealing he can’t imagine what it’s like to watch that interview and not feel jealous.

Eddie grunts, shrugs as best he can under Richie’s heavy hug. Fucking Marco.

Richie’s hand is firm on the back of his neck. There’s pressure from his thumb at one point of Eddie’s jaw, the soft part between ear and bone that has him gulping open for Richie’s low murmur, “Eddie baby, don’t be jealous.” Their mouths meet and Eddie sighs into the slick warmth of it, feeling grateful and abashed and idiotic all at once.

They separate with a little snick of spit. Richie lids his eyes open just a touch, looking drowsy with affection. Eddie lowers his forehead to Richie’s shoulder and speaks to his collarbone. “I just—I hate it when you act like people are just doing you a favor for, for liking your shit or fucking going home with you when clearly it was—you’re fucking hot, Rich, and, and sexy when you’re not trying to be, and you were hot back then too, but you still act like it was a miracle anyone wanted to even touch you when I—I always would’ve picked the stupid dirty bed up off the street too. For you. And I wouldn’t’ve moved town the day after. So.”

Richie doesn’t speak for a moment. There is a cloud above their shared, clean bed, implicit with shared memory of all the times they dirtied each other’s sheets with grass stains and grubby feet, chip crumbs and even tears, just once, just before Eddie really did move town and forgot all the things he cared about so much more than he ever cared about getting sick.

He would never leave again though, is his point. Richie always seems to know what he means before Eddie does. He tries to think it loud enough, brings his hand up blindly to Richie’s face and strokes back his hair, not because Richie is a mind reader, but because he knows what it means that Eddie has never wanted to touch someone else like this.

Eddie’s spine then, curving under Richie’s knuckles like brushing a shiver along a set of wind chimes. His hand lands on Eddie’s tailbone, an X marks the spot that still throbs with loosened heat and pleasure from his orgasm. Lying on your front is bad for your posture.

I’m not lying on my front, Eddie thinks, with a little of the vicious defiance he doles out to that cloying voice sometimes, the one that tries to ruin quiet moments with its fretting. I’m lying on Richie’s. He’s good for my posture. He’s gonna snap my spine back into place and this time I’ll let him touch me.

Richie presses their temples together, small-voiced. “I guess... I find most of the flattery shit hard to believe. I didn’t like myself or the stuff I was making, so I’d automatically assume they were lying, y’know? If I agree it implies I believe them, which makes me feel like some giant, arrogant dick—don’t say it.” He pats Eddie on the ass. “But, on the other hand, if I think I’m somehow important enough for people to lie to, that’s kind of an arrogant dick move too.”

Eddie pushes up to eyeball him. “Even with sex? That’s so fucking dumb.”

This second ass-pat is harder, more of a stinging smack. Richie’s guarded look coils into a grin again at Eddie’s bared-teeth hiss. “I never said it wasn’t.”

“Well, I mean, what do you think it meant that fucking Marco—” Richie snorts at the projectile venom burning acidic holes through Eddie’s voice, “—was clearly willing to catch fleas or goddamn tetanus just to fuck you? What about me? You think I’m pretending it’s good just to encourage your weird, unnecessary inferiority thing? ”

“No, you’re right,” Richie laughs. His snorts have bubbled into full-blown giggles now as he squints down at the mess between their stomachs. “That’s pretty hard evidence you’re providing there, Eds.”

Getting harder too, rubbed up against the soft crease of Richie’s hip. Eddie can feel the lingering red throb of heat on his ass, like closing his eyes and still catching the gold-coin flash of the sun branded on the inside of his eyelids. Richie digs his blunt nails into the stung tenderness of his skin and gently pulls Eddie’s asscheeks open. He feels Richie’s quickened breathing against his wet mouth, and wonders how to ask for another spank in a way that isn’t gonna make him want to enter witness protection afterwards.

“I can’t believe you were jealous, you’re the last guy in the world who needs to be jealous,” Richie moans. Eddie feels the vibration of it on his tongue, now sucking on the knot of Richie’s adam’s apple. “Wait, can you really get tetanus from abandoned street beds?”

“Ugh!” Eddie bites him there and pulls off slowly, sucking so the stubbled skin of Richie’s strong throat is released from his mouth’s suction with a wet pop. Richie’s hips flex against him. “I almost wish this was the same fucking bed just so I had something to throw out into the yard!”

“O-ooh, how telenovela of you, I like it.”

Oh Christ, Eddie has to put some kinda stop to this before Richie starts speaking Spanish. He needs to last. He needs to beat Marco. “I’ll throw you out with it,” he says, too breathy and honest for anywhere else but here. “Trashmouth. Sweetheart.”

Richie’s face is flushed, eyes dark and desperate. He grips at Eddie’s ribs so hard Eddie feels them bending. “Dumpster diver.”

Eddie rolls his hips down, plants his palms on either side of Richie, shoves them under the pillows. He braces his elbows hard into Richie’s shoulders and grinds their sweaty foreheads together, but whatever aggression there is within him is softened by his catapulting heartbeat, harmonising with his own laughter. With Richie’s, always.

“Nah, ‘fraid the only thing left to remember that half-night stand with Marco is, well.” Richie looks down between them again, eyes almost crossed. “It’s me. My dick, more specifically.”

Eddie can feel as much. Another wave of possessiveness froths through him, crackling in the pockets of his joints, feels like cartoon steam whistling out his ears. “It better not be half-standing because it remembers anything about fucking Marco,” he snarls.

Richie raises his hands in a down boy gesture. It shifts his arms and shoulders in the way that sometimes makes Eddie wish he were a door, just so Richie could ram him open, and so he pins Richie’s wrists to the bed instead.

“Please don’t throw my dick out into the yard, babe,” Richie says.

“Gonna give you something to remember this fucking bed by,” Eddie says, and slides down Richie’s body to do just that.

[fandomanxiety-fa]

"Fluffy February" - Day Three

The Outerworlds

Felix Millstone X Captain Dottie

Summary: Felix has never left the Groundbreaker, but now he's on a new ship with a new Captain. And she is ready to travel all over the system, and not only is she traveling the system in a cool ship with a dark past, she's traveling with him. After time on the ship, the first place he goes to is Roseway with the Captain along with her annoying Vicar friend, and Felix has seen nothing like it.

--------------------------------------------------

The Unreliable.

This was his new home, and by the way, this home has so much food. So much food. He still couldn't even process how they needed this much food for five people! He was standing infront of the fridge, door swung open, rummaging through the endless supply of food. The Captain gave him a bunch of Rizzos that she bought on Groundbreaker for him, and he had eaten all of it. Now, he wanted something salty, an actual meal.

The cabinets!

He might as well lunged to the cabinets and began digging. While doing so he didn't realize he was being examined by his Captain, and soon he came back with expensive whiskey. It had been hidden far in the back out of view and had Max scrawled out on the side. Felix smirked to himself.

"I can't tell if your hungry, or looking to get roaring drunk," she chuckled a bit, and Felix whipped around in embarrassment.

"Hey, Boss! Erm, what's up?" Felix said, while putting the whiskey back in shame.

"Hey, get that back out. I want some too," she smiled, walking to the fridge.

She was beautiful, and Felix was embarrassed for acting like an animal.

"Honey, don't let me stop you! I came to eat too, ya' know."

Felix turned red all over. He had never been called honey before, and it left him all flustered as he fumbled to retrieve the whiskey from the cabinet. He managed to grab it and close the cabinet door with his leg when he stood up. She smiled bringing glasses whilst setting down things to make food on the burner. Felix watched her long bare legs as she walked towards him. He heard the glasses clink on the table, and it brought him out of the trance he was in.

Stop being so obvious!

He wanted to shrink away, as he watched her strong arms move when she grabbed a pan off a rack. He had never had been cooked for, especially for free, and by a girl! Especially a girl!

Woman Felix, she's a woman, man!

He watched her begin to make something he had never had before.

"You like spicy stuff, Felix?" She asked him, and he perked up nervously.

"Yeah! I do. What erm about you, Boss?" Felix replied, and she laughed at him.

"Why are you so nervous, Millstone?"

"I am not!"

She shook her head, "Felix, did you see the game with Rizzos Rangers this evening?"

"Oh yeah! It was a great game, Boss! You like the Rangers, Boss?" Felix asked, his nervousness went away.

"Oh, I love them! They are a really good team! My favorite! I love the thirty-fifth back!" She smiled, and he poured himself some whiskey.

She was to perfect.. the perfect woman. She loves Rizzos Rangers, is super strong, and-.

"Pour me a glass, will you?" She asked, peeking back at him with her green eyes.

They are Auntie Cleo green...

"Sure, Boss."

"Come on, don't call me that. Call me, Dot."

"Okay."

Dot.

Felix awoke in his bunk with a headache along with a loud rap on his door.

"Open this door right now!"

The Vicar.

"Go get spaced, I'm sleeping!" Felix yelled back, and he rolled over to the window.

"Ada! I request you open this door! Now!"

"I cannot, Vicar. It violates the crewmate Felix's privacy. On another note, I will not tolerate disrespect from the likes of you, Vicar."

He cussed loudly, stomping down the hall. He made his way down the stairs to the Captain's Quarters, where he tried to compose himself enough to call for the Captain to sort out this mess.

"Captain!"

No response.

"Captain!"

Silence.

"Captain! I would like to speak with you!"

The door whooshed open where a very angry looking Captain stood. She wore nothing but a shorts and a odd top that ended far above her stomach.

"Captain! Make yourself presentable first!" Max scolded, all while red eared.

"This is what your getting for rudely tearing me from bed, Vicar. Now what is it?" She growled, and he tried to keep eye contact.

"What is that...that top?"

Please put a top on...

"It's called a sports bra. Spit out what you want. Now."

"Felix has taken one if my belongings, Captain," Max stated, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. We both drank it. I will get you more. What are you even doing trying to drink this early? Or are you filling up that vial of yours?" She spoke, and he glared at her.

"That vial holds no such thing. You are mistaken, Captain."

"Yeah? Well, tell me what I took a big swig of then?"

Silence.

"Exactly, Vicar," she spoke, and then the door shut in his face.

Well played, Captain. I'll have to hide my spirits somewhere else...

Felix was excited. The Captain was going to Roseway now, and he couldn't wait. He had never been anywhere but Groundbreaker. He finished pulling his red sleeves on and began zipping it up while looking in the mirror. He looked at his wet hair through the steam in the mirror.

The water pressure is good here! And the water is warm! Not like that cold crap on the Groundbreaker!

He picked up his bracelet and slid it on his wrist, and then looked at all the toothbrushes in the cup on the sink.

Which one is mine? Do I use...um...do I have one? I lost mine when I moved in so, uh.

A knock erupted from the door, and he opened it, to reveal the Captian.

"I got you a new toothbrush. It's red, like your clothing," she spoke quietly, and he noticed she looked flustered.

"Aw thanks! What happened to my other one?" Felix asked, and she laughed nervously.

"I saw that it was...really old...and uh...well, I threw it out. It looked like it was really old. Sorry," she mumbled, and he smiled.

"Nah! That's fine! I just couldn't get a new one. Didn't have much money. Thanks, B-Dottie!" He smiled, and it was that boy-ish, cute smile he had.

She smiled and he closed the door when she left. He began brushing his teeth with joy.

This toothbrush is stiff...

He forgot what a new brush felt like. He'd only ever had one. The harsh bristles of the brush glided across his teeth as he though of his new serial-worthy Captain.

She's pretty, and looks like she could break my arm. Which is attractive too. I wonder if she is been everywhere. She seems like it. She has pretty eyes. A nice green. They have a look to them. I bet she's a good fighter and not some board lackey. Yeah! A rebel like me! That makes her even more hot!

Felix realized he had brushed his teeth until they bled, and quickly spat it all out of his mouth.

Oh no! Is this bad? Maybe I should see Ellie? Man, what does this mean? Crap! She probably is asleep! I'll go see the Captain.

Quickly Felix rushed out the door to see the Captain, where he spotted her heading down the stairs. He tapped her shoulder while spewing her name in panic.

"I brushed my teeth and now I'm bleeding!" He cried, and then she burst out laughing.

"Felix that's when you brush your teeth to hard! Your fine!"

"Oh."

He felt embarrassed and looked at his feet. The laughing ceased, and she put her hand on his forearm making him look at her.

"Don't feel bad! It's okay, Felix. I am glad you trust me to diagnose you!" She smiled sweetly, and footsteps came from behind.

"I came for my armor Captain," a voice that sounded an awful lot like a blood-boiling, loathing Vicar.

"Wait. He's coming?" Felix asked, and she sighed.

"You two are going to have to get along. I mean it. So, you'll get to bond over the mysterious Roseway mission," Dottie sighed, and Felix huffed.

He noticed some lockers up against the wall. Six to be exact. Dottie opens a door and began slipping armor on over her clothes.

"Your armor is in a locker over there, Felix," she pointed at the locker on the end.

"Has Ms. Fenhill expressed her concerns to you, Captain?" Max asked, and the Captain looked at him.

"Yes. She thinks it quote, this Roseway business smells, unquote. Do you have anything to say, Vicar?" Dottie asked slipping on her boots.

"I believe we should proceed with caution. This could very well be a trap," Max spoke, and Felix noticed Max's eyes linger a bit on Dottie.

Back off Vicar. She doesn't like you, man. Ew. Who would?

Felix pulled on his final armor piece besides his helmet and glanced back at Dottie, who now had her helmet on.

"Ready to go?" She asked him, and he nodded with an ear-to-ear grin.

This made her smile. She liked he's boy-ish smiles and light filled eyes. He was a dreamy, silly boy that makes her laugh. He proved that last night as they exchanged jokes over whiskey and spicy casserole.

Soon enough, they walked outside the ship. Felix's eyes squinted as the bright light outside hit his eyes, and the fresh air invaded his nose. Glancing around Felix saw beautiful plant life around him that was foreign to him.

Pictures and serials didn't do the outside world justice!

"Felix? Honey? Are you alright?"

He hasn't noticed the tears going down his face, and he grew embarrassed trying swipe them away.

"You've never been off Groundbreaker?" The Vicar asked.

"No. He hasn't. Hey, we can go anywhere you want, Felix! And here, let me show you something," Dottie spoke soft and timid, reaching into her pack.

She pulled out a journal, and opened it while leaning to show him.

"It can be our project. I've been putting different flowers and ferns and such inside from each planet. To remember things and stuff. I've been writing what I can that I know about them. We both can do it!" She smiled at him, and he looked at her pretty handwriting and plants smashed into the pages within the journal.

"Yeah, Dot! Can I sign it? Read the other pages?" He asked excited, while wiping some tears away.

"Duh! Your family now! You can write your name in it!"

His heart grew warm. He smiled and almost started crying, but held it back (he couldn't afford for that insufferable Vicar to see him like that again).

"Now," she began, slipping the book in her bag, "let's go!"

Family.

His heart was pounding with joy at the thought. If a family was a Captain who could break his arm, a pirate sawbones, a sweet mechanic, and a grumpy "Vicar" (that didn't really count)...well, this was a interesting family for sure.

And he didn't want it any other way, because life wasnt dull anymore, and now he had a purpose. He could go anywhere he wanted, no longer being shacked to the Groundbreaker by poverty.

And most of all...

I've got a family!

--------------------------------------------------

[fandomanxiety-library]

"Fluffy February" - Day Three

The Outer Worlds

Felix Millstone X Captain Dottie

Summary: Felix has never left the Groundbreaker, but now he's on a new ship with a new Captain. And she is ready to travel all over the system, and not only is she traveling the system in a cool ship with a dark past, she's traveling with him. After time on the ship, the first place he goes to is Roseway with the Captain along with her annoying Vicar friend, and Felix has seen nothing like it.

--------------------------------------------------

The Unreliable.

This was his new home, and by the way, this home has so much food. So much food. He still couldn't even process how they needed this much food for five people! He was standing infront of the fridge, door swung open, rummaging through the endless supply of food. The Captain gave him a bunch of Rizzos that she bought on Groundbreaker for him, and he had eaten all of it. Now, he wanted something salty, an actual meal.

The cabinets!

He might as well lunged to the cabinets and began digging. While doing so he didn't realize he was being examined by his Captain, and soon he came back with expensive whiskey. It had been hidden far in the back out of view and had Max scrawled out on the side. Felix smirked to himself.

"I can't tell if your hungry, or looking to get roaring drunk," she chuckled a bit, and Felix whipped around in embarrassment.

"Hey, Boss! Erm, what's up?" Felix said, while putting the whiskey back in shame.

"Hey, get that back out. I want some too," she smiled, walking to the fridge.

She was beautiful, and Felix was embarrassed for acting like an animal.

"Honey, don't let me stop you! I came to eat too, ya' know."

Felix turned red all over. He had never been called honey before, and it left him all flustered as he fumbled to retrieve the whiskey from the cabinet. He managed to grab it and close the cabinet door with his leg when he stood up. She smiled bringing glasses whilst setting down things to make food on the burner. Felix watched her long bare legs as she walked towards him. He heard the glasses clink on the table, and it brought him out of the trance he was in.

Stop being so obvious!

He wanted to shrink away, as he watched her strong arms move when she grabbed a pan off a rack. He had never had been cooked for, especially for free, and by a girl! Especially a girl!

Woman Felix, she's a woman, man!

He watched her begin to make something he had never had before.

"You like spicy stuff, Felix?" She asked him, and he perked up nervously.

"Yeah! I do. What erm about you, Boss?" Felix replied, and she laughed at him.

"Why are you so nervous, Millstone?"

"I am not!"

She shook her head, "Felix, did you see the game with Rizzos Rangers this evening?"

"Oh yeah! It was a great game, Boss! You like the Rangers, Boss?" Felix asked, his nervousness went away.

"Oh, I love them! They are a really good team! My favorite! I love the thirty-fifth back!" She smiled, and he poured himself some whiskey.

She is to perfect.. the perfect woman. She loves Rizzos Rangers, is super strong, and-.

"Pour me a glass, will you?" She asked, peeking back at him with her green eyes.

They are Auntie Cleo green...

"Sure, Boss."

"Come on, don't call me that. Call me, Dot."

"Okay."

Dot.

Felix awoke in his bunk with a headache along with a loud rap on his door.

"Open this door right now!"

The Vicar.

"Go get spaced, I'm sleeping!" Felix yelled back, and he rolled over to the window.

"Ada! I request you open this door! Now!"

"I cannot, Vicar. It violates the crewmate Felix's privacy. On another note, I will not tolerate disrespect from the likes of you, Vicar."

He cussed loudly, stomping down the hall. He made his way down the stairs to the Captain's Quarters, where he tried to compose himself enough to call for the Captain to sort out this mess.

"Captain!"

No response.

"Captain!"

Silence.

"Captain! I would like to speak with you!"

The door whooshed open where a very angry looking Captain stood. She wore nothing but a shorts and a odd top that ended far above her stomach.

"Captain! Make yourself presentable first!" Max scolded, all while red eared.

"This is what your getting for rudely tearing me from bed, Vicar. Now what is it?" She growled, and he tried to keep eye contact.

"What is that...that top?"

Please put a top on...

"It's called a sports bra. Spit out what you want. Now."

"Felix has taken one if my belongings, Captain," Max stated, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. We both drank it. I will get you more. What are you even doing trying to drink this early? Or are you filling up that vial of yours?" She spoke, and he glared at her.

"That vial holds no such thing. You are mistaken, Captain."

"Yeah? Well, tell me what I took a big swig of then?"

Silence.

"Exactly, Vicar," she spoke, and then the door shut in his face.

Well played, Captain. I'll have to hide my spirits somewhere else...

Felix was excited. The Captain was going to Roseway now, and he couldn't wait. He had never been anywhere but Groundbreaker. He finished pulling his red sleeves on and began zipping it up while looking in the mirror. He looked at his wet hair through the steam in the mirror.

The water pressure is good here! And the water is warm! Not like that cold crap on the Groundbreaker!

He picked up his bracelet and slid it on his wrist, and then looked at all the toothbrushes in the cup on the sink.

Which one is mine? Do I use...um...do I have one? I lost mine when I moved in so, uh.

A knock erupted from the door, and he opened it, to reveal the Captian.

"I got you a new toothbrush. It's red, like your clothing," she spoke quietly, and he noticed she looked flustered.

"Aw thanks! What happened to my other one?" Felix asked, and she laughed nervously.

"I saw that it was...really old...and uh...well, I threw it out. It looked like it was really old. Sorry," she mumbled, and he smiled.

"Nah! That's fine! I just couldn't get a new one. Didn't have much money. Thanks, B-Dottie!" He smiled, and it was that boy-ish, cute smile he had.

She smiled and he closed the door when she left. He began brushing his teeth with joy.

This toothbrush is stiff...

He forgot what a new brush felt like. He'd only ever had one. The harsh bristles of the brush glided across his teeth as he though of his new serial-worthy Captain.

She's pretty, and looks like she could break my arm. Which is attractive too. I wonder if she is been everywhere. She seems like it. She has pretty eyes. A nice green. They have a look to them. I bet she's a good fighter and not some board lackey. Yeah! A rebel like me! That makes her even more hot!

Felix realized he had brushed his teeth until they bled, and quickly spat it all out of his mouth.

Oh no! Is this bad? Maybe I should see Ellie? Man, what does this mean? Crap! She probably is asleep! I'll go see the Captain.

Quickly Felix rushed out the door to see the Captain, where he spotted her heading down the stairs. He tapped her shoulder while spewing her name in panic.

"I brushed my teeth and now I'm bleeding!" He cried, and then she burst out laughing.

"Felix that's when you brush your teeth to hard! Your fine!"

"Oh."

He felt embarrassed and looked at his feet. The laughing ceased, and she put her hand on his forearm making him look at her.

"Don't feel bad! It's okay, Felix. I am glad you trust me to diagnose you!" She smiled sweetly, and footsteps came from behind.

"I came for my armor Captain," a voice that sounded an awful lot like a blood-boiling, loathing Vicar.

"Wait. He's coming?" Felix asked, and she sighed.

"You two are going to have to get along. I mean it. So, you'll get to bond over the mysterious Roseway mission," Dottie sighed, and Felix huffed.

He noticed some lockers up against the wall. Six to be exact. Dottie opens a door and began slipping armor on over her clothes.

"Your armor is in a locker over there, Felix," she pointed at the locker on the end.

"Has Ms. Fenhill expressed her concerns to you, Captain?" Max asked, and the Captain looked at him.

"Yes. She thinks it quote, this Roseway business smells, unquote. Do you have anything to say, Vicar?" Dottie asked slipping on her boots.

"I believe we should proceed with caution. This could very well be a trap," Max spoke, and Felix noticed Max's eyes linger a bit on Dottie.

Back off Vicar. She doesn't like you, man. Ew. Who would?

Felix pulled on his final armor piece besides his helmet and glanced back at Dottie, who now had her helmet on.

"Ready to go?" She asked him, and he nodded with an ear-to-ear grin.

This made her smile. She liked he's boy-ish smiles and light filled eyes. He was a dreamy, silly boy that makes her laugh. He proved that last night as they exchanged jokes over whiskey and spicy casserole.

Soon enough, they walked outside the ship. Felix's eyes squinted as the bright light outside hit his eyes, and the fresh air invaded his nose. Glancing around Felix saw beautiful plant life around him that was foreign to him.

Pictures and serials didn't do the outside world justice!

"Felix? Honey? Are you alright?"

He hasn't noticed the tears going down his face, and he grew embarrassed trying swipe them away.

"You've never been off Groundbreaker?" The Vicar asked.

"No. He hasn't. Hey, we can go anywhere you want, Felix! And here, let me show you something," Dottie spoke soft and timid, reaching into her pack.

She pulled out a journal, and opened it while leaning to show him.

"It can be our project. I've been putting different flowers and ferns and such inside from each planet. To remember things and stuff. I've been writing what I can that I know about them. We both can do it!" She smiled at him, and he looked at her pretty handwriting and plants smashed into the pages within the journal.

"Yeah, Dot! Can I sign it? Read the other pages?" He asked excited, while wiping some tears away.

"Duh! Your family now! You can write your name in it!"

His heart grew warm. He smiled and almost started crying, but held it back (he couldn't afford for that insufferable Vicar to see him like that again).

"Now," she began, slipping the book in her bag, "let's go!"

Family.

His heart was pounding with joy at the thought. If a family was a Captain who could break his arm, a pirate sawbones, a sweet mechanic, and a grumpy "Vicar" (that didn't really count)...well, this was a interesting family for sure.

And he didn't want it any other way, because life wasnt dull anymore, and now he had a purpose. He could go anywhere he wanted, no longer being shacked to the Groundbreaker by poverty.

And most of all...

I've got a family!

[dzamie-oc]

Smaugust 21 - Hydra

While the dragon's away, the kobolds will... commit shenanigans. (1908 words)

Just outside of a wide, rocky cave, a dozen distraught kobolds of all sorts of horns and colors surrounded a blue-scaled dragon. Four kobolds sat patiently in bags hanging off the dragon's side, along with several of his favorite things.

"I'll just be gone a week or two," he said in a soft voice that clashed with his outward appearance of tough scales and sharp claws, "the festival is not something I want to miss, and I can take the opportunity to start these four on their new task." The little lizards in the bags chirped their enthusiasm.

A teal kobold with short, rounded horns approached. "But what if someone comes to steal from your hoard?" she asked.

"Then you shall stop them," came his calm answer. "The VitAzurel den does a fine job working together; why, losing a kobold is rare for us, AND it's rather uncommon for me to have to face adventurers, myself, unless I particularly want to." The dragon turned and carefully stepped over a couple of his kobolds, preparing to take off. "Oh, and if - not when, but if - you do lose a part of my hoard, make sure to note what the thieves look like. I'm much more lenient on a full stomach, after all." With that, he sprang off of powerful legs, flapping his broad, blue wings to soar towards the nearest friendly town.

The twelve remaining kobolds looked at each other. "So... we have our assignment," started the teal one, "we just need to figure out how to guard our lord's hoard."

"A dragon's hoard is best guarded by a dragon," a white-scaled one pointed out, only for a red one to interrupt, "but Azurel isn't here, and another dragon might try to claim it for themselves. So his hoard can't be guarded by a dragon."

They chatted amongst themselves, offering ideas for traps and encounters to dissuade or kill adventurers. While several were accepted as helpful minor things, and more were discarded out of hand, the kobolds couln't quite come up with anything big. Nothing could beat a dragon guarding a hoard.

Just before the den was going to return, fruitless in finding an idea to protect Azurel's hoard, the black-scaled kobold gasped. The others turned to see a big, eager, sharp-toothed smile on his muzzle. "Guys, what if... what if WE were the dragon protecting his hoard?"

There was a brief period of assorted muttering before the teal kobold came up and placed her hand on his shoulder, two pairs of yellow eyes locked onto each other. "...we're kobolds. We're not dragons. There is a truly insurmountable difference between us and Lord Azurel, and us and other dragons, even though he IS exceptionally amazing." Several kobolds behind her nodded as sagely as they could manage.

The black kobold shook his head, still smiling. "No, not an actual dragon. But Azurel encourages us to be sneaky and tricky to keep unfair fights in our favor, right?" There was a general murmur of agreement, so he continued, "so, we're small, and dragons are big, but there's at least ten of us, and we're scaly like dragons."

"And we have tails, too!" a green kobold helpfully offered from the back of the group.

"So, what if we trick adventurers that we, together, are one dragon?" the kobold continued, undaunted, "we have scaly, we have big, and they'll be expecting a dragon so they'll totally believe us!" His tail whipped back and forth in excitement. This got the group talking, some of them planning out a costume, others just gossipping about the mimic that Teal was getting to be a little too close friends with.

"We don't have a breath weapon or wings!" one pointed out, but another called out, "multiple heads! Our fake dragon's breath weapon will be more bites than a silly adventurer coul possibly imagine!" A cheer went up, and, invigorated, the den of kobolds hurried back into the depths of Azurel's lair to work on the disguise.

---

The white-scaled kobold pushed away from her part of the costume, dangling from the ceiling by a rope. "Okay, how's this?"

The green, black, and teal kobolds wriggled into position, drawing the aperture of the necks closed around their own. They looked at each other and tested out their controls, wiggling the heads around and occasionally bumping into each other, then grinned. "Functional and sturdy! I swear, Raktor," the green one said, "if I didn't see you make this in front of me, I'd think you had done some magic on it to get it to work so well!"

Teal turned around and called down to the body disguise, comprised of a kobold per leg, plus one to move the tail. "How's it working down there, guys?" She got several chirps of approval, and the fake, three-headed dragon took a step forward to test. More chirps. "Great! This is coming together really w-"

Suddenly, the group was interrupted by a pink kobold slipping out from one of their small kobold tunnels. "Intruder alert!" he called out, "a human traveler is in the lair!"

The green kobold gasped. "A human traveler is in the lair?" The kobolds looked at each other, gauging how ready they were for their first test of their dragon costume.

"Protect the hoard!" the pink one loudly reminded them.

"We must protect the hoard!" the green kobold relayed, and the eight dragon-bolds maneuvered between the entrance tunnel and the start of Azurel's huge cache of gold, gems, and other shiny things. The other four grabbed weapons and retreated into ambush points, waiting for the interloper to make an appearance.

Instead of the menacing adventurer, armed to the teeth, that they had expected, a young woman with curly, brown hair in a yellow sundress stepped out, smiling brightly when she saw one of the hiding kobolds in his normal spot. "Hey, VitAzurels! It's Penny. Is your dragon around?"

The green kobold opened his mouth to answer, but the black one started faster and replied, "foolish human girl! Your adventure was futile! This Ah-shoo-rell you speak of does NO LONGER exist in this lair!" Hidden claws moved the kobold in a fake dragon neck closer, looming over her. "Now flee, flee before you face the wrath of TAM!" The pink kobold made eye contact with Teal and Raktor, silently assuring each other that nobody else knew that was what he was going to call the fake dragon.

The woman seemed amused by this show. "Oh, huh! I thought he'd be back by now. So, do you kobolds wanna hang out? Feels a shame to waste all the time I spent coming up here, and I'm in a very playful mood."

"SILENCE!" the black kobold shouted. "Do not waste your time here, Penny-girl, for we have clocks numerous and beyond your feeble human brain! And-"

"I don't think that's working," Teal said, "gotta be more direct." She turned to face Penny. "Look. Human. I'm Tam, the dragon who now lives in this lair and protects its treasure from humans."

"Yeah, but you guys know me. If I was going to steal from Azurel, I'd save all of us the time and effort, and just climb down his throat directly."

"I... don't know what 'guys' you speak of, strange human," Teal lied, poorly, "now leave, or I will eat you, as that is what we dragons do to humans who try to steal treasure."

"Okay, then, eat me."

The three kobolds blinked. "What?" they said in near unison.

Penny pointed at Teal. "Eat me. Send me down that throat and into that belly. I don't think you're a real dragon; prove me wrong."

The baffled kobolds looked at each other, then the black and green ones stared expectantly at the teal one. Her scaly hands gripped the controls for her neck disguise. "Uh... okay, then," she said, and dipped down towards Penny.

"Wait, what?" The human took a half-step back and froze in shock. Right when she was above Penny, Teal spun the lever letting her have a snug fit in the disguise. She let go of the controls, reache out, and pulled Penny under her body and into the disguise's neck, pushing her out of the way before taking the controls once more and lifting back up with her green and black denmates.

Penny slid smoothly down the costume's neck like it was a slide, in large part because it was a slide, until she came to a stop in the empty cavity where the leg and tail kobolds stared at her. The human looked at them, rolling onto her back to better see all of the kobolds. "Huh, and from here I guess you could start beating on an adventurer..." she mused, "clever. Anyway, so what do we do now?"

The red kobold glanced around. "Uh... we could undo one of the flaps and let you out through there, I guess." There was a level of tension in the costume that all six of them could sense, but none of the kobolds were willing to break it.

Fortunately for them, Penny was not one of the kobolds. "Let me rephrase, guys and girls. Ahem," she fake-cleared her throat before putting on an exaggerated voice, "oh, heavens me, here I am all alone, deep in a dragon's lair, and hopelessly surrounded by kobolds. I wonder what ever might happen next!"

Purrs and soft growls filled the base of the dragon costume as multiple sets of scaly hands went to grab at her clothes...

---

"...so we only got through her modeling, like, a quarter of the casual outfits you keep for princesses," Raktor explained to Azurel, "plus, when she left the first day, she suggested mixing and matching stuff, so that was us set for the rest of the week. Oh, and yesterday she and Jimothy came over for House-Rules Parcheesi, so Teal and Irnat are almost done cleaning that up."

The blue dragon lifted one of the necks of the limp costume in a paw, peering at the mechanism inside. "Well, I'm glad to see my creativity has been rubbing off on you," he said. "How'd this do versus an actual threat? Looks well-used by now."

Raktor fiddled with her horns, a little sheepish. "Well, actually, only two tried; one ate the brownie we helpfully labeled 'poison,' and the other got mimic'd. It looks worn because we all wanted a go at quote-unquote 'eating' Penny, and she liked the slide." The white-scaled kobold perked up with a wicked smirk as she recalled one more detail. "Oh, and Norak is now called Tam."

"Oh, that's a fun development. Who's best to ask about that?"

"Probably Teal. She and Vernda were closest to him when the thing happened, and Vernda..." she trailed off.

"Doesn't have a way with words," Azurel supplied. "I'll look forward to hearing it from her, then. Now be a dear and get a couple others to put away the bags and the sword Kassar no longer needs." He yawned as he walked through the wide main caves. "Oh, and see if one or two will volunteer for basic shining duty; I'll be napping after that long flight, so it's perfectly fine if they can't get much of my scales."

Raktor chirped and darted off through the kobold tunnels as everyone fell back into normal motion again, the absence of their dragon remedied and new memories passed around as gossip.

[50shadesofmittens]

Completely fucking unfinished but I wanted something from this AU to make it online

<I have decided to call this the Headlockverse. Basically the idea is a group of Custodians used to sneak out of the palace in order to do the kind of work ALL Custodes in cannon have been doing, and Kitten was one of them. Then all bar Kitten died, and after a brief period of being mad and then being lost Kitten took over alltheir jobs. One of these tasks was keeping tabs on various fragments of Magnus who have sentience and were deemed unable to be kept safe in the palace for one reason or another, or who kept escaping the palace. As it happens, these interactions are sometimes unplanned and sometimes have unusual results. The song Headlockby Imogen Heap reflects the relationship Kitten has with the various Magnus-fragments he’s met over the years- with the Crimson King ie the guy on Sortarius being the only one who has not met Kitten over the years>

…/…/…/…/…/…|…\…\…\…\…\…

Millennium 42, unknown restaurant

…/…/…/…/…/…|…\…\…\…\…\…

There is something very pertinent about anticipation.

Some would think that minutes were nothing in the life of an eternal, but there are certain things that can only occur on small time scales. There’s a certain mix of terror, doubt, and a conviction one struggles to maintain, and this mixture can only be experienced in the handful of minutes that it lasts. Time seems to stretch out and the feeling weighs on a person even once the wait is over, but mere days later that terror is forgotten. People remember the way they botched their audition or stumbled during their interview, but no longer can they remember why.

I spotted her on the catwalk wearing a nice dress and a headscarf. Even her satchel looked like something a local woman would keep, and at a distance I wasn’t sure if she’d dressed up the bag she always kept at hand or splurged and got a new one from a local shop. It was certainly fancy enough for her to pass as someone who had access or gifts from my own funds, with my silk jacket and gold-woven cravat.

I flagged her down. She smiled at me and left to maneuver her way over. Ringing a bell summoned the waiter, and I gave the man a brief description of my ‘young lady friend.’ The server smiled and promised they’d send in the right girl.

Sure enough, when the knock came and the door opened, she was right behind the waiter. Before we were even alone she leapt onto the plush sofa to embrace me.

“Oh my darling, it’s been so long! Oh, we have so much to talk about, so much to do! Mwah!” She cried with all the drama of a rapturous preacher as she planted a kiss on my cheek.

The waiter bowed swiftly and closed the door, leaving the two occupants alone for our ‘reunion.’ She remained enthusiastic in her hugging, and so I told her;

“You know jumping on me disturbs the displacer field. The waiter might’ve noticed.”

“But he didn’t.” A snicker echoed through the small dining room, and she pulled back with a shit-eating grin. “A man like that knows full well to look the other way as soon as a young, pretty thing moves in to greet her host. You wouldn’t have picked this place without checking every security detail and privacy guarantee. You always read the fine print.”

“It’s still an unnecessary risk you created.”

“I know, darling.” She kissed me again, still leaning on my arm. “But if you’re going to go through all the trouble of setting me up as your quote-unquote mistress, it’s only polite that I give them a show. To respect the effort you’ve put in, I mean.”

“Ana-” I said, trying and failing to be annoyed by her antics.

“&#131;&#131;&#131;&#131;.” Ana said, finally leaning back and doing her best impression of my “Ana-be-serious” face. “Is there something I’ve done wrong?”

I didn’t answer, knowing this game all too well. “Is the planet about to be exterminatus’d? Is my better half about to find me?” Ana continued, “Is one of my brothers about to jump out from behind that curtain and drag me, kicking and screaming, all the way home so he can cut off my head in front of billions of onlookers?”

“No. None of those things are about to happen.”

“Then you can stop looking so dour and glum.” Ana flicked my nose, before settling a bit farther away on the couch. “Now, I’m sure you’ve got some terrible news about Angelos or Cadia or something, but it’s been too long and I want to mooch off your funding. Let’s get lunch first and catch up on the non-apocalyptic news- however scarce it may be these days- and then you can fill me in on who’s killing who.”

“Ana-” I sighed. “please keep it at a reasonable amount.”

“Perks of being my parole officer; every lunch meeting is a feast.”

“You know we’re supposed to be mortals.”

Ana grinned. “Ah, but what rich young man takes his mistress out and doesn’t spoil her with more than she needs?”

“They might notice when we order seven pounds of food and they get back empty plates.”

“So we order fourteen pounds and eat seven. It’s fiiine. You worry too much.” She grinned. “Besides. It really has been too long. You still seeing that one girl?”

She grimaced. “Urk, never mind. Y’know breaking the furniture like that is just as unusual as my appetite, right?”

I unclenched my hand from the edge of the table. Ana was right, there were handprint-shaped indents in the iron surface. Handprints that reflected the true size of my hands.

I pressed my elbow into the table, rolling it back and forth to conceal the pattern in a smoother dent. “I’m fine.” I said. “I’ve been studying lately, so there’s not much to report.”

“If you say so.” Ana said. “Alright then, I know what I want to order. Let’s get some food, and then I can tell you what I’ve been up to.”

“You haven’t even looked at the menu.”

“I got a glance of one open on a table I passed on my way to you.” With that she leaned over me and pulled the bell-string.

I didn’t pay much attention while Ana ordered. When the waiter turned to me I pasted on a smile and said, “I trust she’s got enough food for us to share.”

“I see, sir. Are you happy with Miss V’neer’s customizations?”

“Missus, actually. And it’s pronounced ‘veh-near,’ not ‘van-ear.’” Ana said.

“Apologies, Madame.” I was a little impressed the waiter didn’t even flinch, even though Ana’s clothes were nowhere near expensive enough for her to pass as my wife.

“I trust her taste.” I said.

The waiter left with a bow, and Ana turned back to me. “You feeling a little better?”

I opened my fists. Only a little bit of blood, and most of it dried by now. “Well enough.” I said.

“Remind me to never bang you.”

“Remind me to never get insensate around you.”

“HA!” Ana laughed. “Wouldn’t stop me from robbing you blind, kitty-cat. I don’t need to pick your pocket, all I gotta do is get you to buy me lunch.”

“So true.” I said. “Pity. I can only flinch so much before it starts gets noticed.”

“Bull. You’re the only one there who pays attention. Everyone else lives in their own little bubbles of their obsessions and duties.”

“The Ecclisiarchy is surprisingly rational, these days.” I said. “The ones who make it to the palace are all true believers, at least.”

“I sincerely doubt your perception isn’t skewed by all the madness in that place.” Ana sighed. “Well, the preachers are less crazy than the Inquisition, I’ll give you that.”

Our food arrived. I looked out the window as Ana cooed over the food and asked questions to the waiter. All the people in the city, each with their own lives and dreams and fears and aspirations. How pitifully beautiful.

Finally the waiter left, and Ana dug in. I’m not sure which of us was giving the other space, but I felt indebted to her all the same.

“That isn’t a promise.” Ana said, eyes glued to the reflection in her cup. “For all you know He just wants to kill me.”

“Nonetheless, there’s a good chance I’ll be hosting you. Ana. I need to know more about what I’m getting into. I need to know how much danger we’re going to be in.”

“Do I still confuse you?” She smirked. “It’s not that hard. I in the whole sense am a fractured being. Just because I in the personal sense have multiple aspects to myself doesn’t mean I’m any less than a fragment of a human.”

“Yet you still show traits outside of your base drives.”

“Mm.” She took another sip. “Humans weren’t made to be two-dimensional caricatures. If I have a thought that would better suit a me who isn’t me personally, then I simply won’t think that thought. It’ll be thought by that me.

”Kleptomania, Anima, self-analysis, insufferable love of gene-dad-jokes, love of the Sapphic-” She grinned, “obviously, and a few others- all those are mine and mine alone.”

“But how does it work.”

“Well, occasionally I start thinking very, very hard about two or more beautiful women and/or daemonettes flicking each other, so presumably the rest of me has no appreciation for yuri and the associated genres.”

“So it works like intrusive thoughts? If, say, you got into a barfight ‘cause you stole some bloke’s purse and banged his wife, and he said something dumb and you reallywanted to punch him, that desire to punch a man would go to the Crimson King?”

“You’re focusing very hard on this ‘guest’ thing.” Ana pouted. “I mean, what red-blooded pansexual doesn’tget distracted by the thought of two birds getting it on?”

“A) one who also has a healthy dose of self-control and self-restraint, and B) has that everworked on me?”

“Point. But seriously, you’re unusually on edge. Usually that would get you to crack a smile-”

“I’ve got an unstoppable daemon primarch about to arrive in the holiest place in the galaxy.”

“You need to calm down, Amon. You’re too wound up, you’re not thinking clearly-”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Xanalyse. Damn fuckin right I’m tense, I’m about to be the only person standing between the Emperor and oblivion!And I’m all alone because everyone under my command either hates my guts or doesn’t listen to a word I say, and you won’t help me redeem yourself!” He stood, throwing his hands up in exasperation. They got caught under the edge of the table and overcame the strength of the bolts securing it to the floor, flipping the entire table over and spilling food across the room.

They both stared, neither one having expected such a reaction. For a moment the room was quiet but for Amon’s heavy breathing. Ana waited until his breath evened out, or he started up again. He did not.

“… It’s flattering that you think I could destroy Father.” She said, bitter smile on her face. “And… you’re right. I haven’t been very helpful. Maybe it’s time I learned to live with myself.”

“Ana…”

“Delusion. Self-hatred. Wrath. Whoever else you haven’t told me about.” “They may be me, yet I still fear them. And can you blame me? Delusion so powerful it bends reality itself and destroyed all rationality is insanity. If I am wrong, then I must be mad to fear being swallowed up in it.”

“Ana I didn’t-”

She continued. “Self-hatred so strong it lashes out into the warp, psyker powers no longer at the beck and call of the psyker but instead summoning daemons and incurring hatred. Self-fladgillation so extreme it destroys everything and everyone around the poor boy.”

“I didn’t mean to-”

“Wrath so powerful that the desire to destroy becomes the only known goal of the man. That pursuit of revenge becomes an obsession, stripping away all other goals. To the point that he’d rather be a slave to an uncaring god than let ancient war crimes be forgiven.”

She shook her head. “I must be the stupidest bitch in the galaxy if I’m not desperate to feel that! Tell me, Amon, have you faced down all the ugliest parts of your own heart?”

“…I’m sorry.” Amon said. “That was insensitive of me.” He sighed, and flopped down to the couch.

“…I know that there’s no avoiding myself forever.” She whispered. “But at the same time, I know I’m not strong enough to overcome myself. In the end, it’ll be Reveul’s partner and the King. Billy and me, we’re good as gone.”

She looked Amon head-on. “It’s a bitter loop of growth and despair. I go out, face some unimaginable horror, and I survive because I’m me. I stay unchanged, because either I turn my trauma into rage at the monster, or I lie to myself about how much danger I was in. Except I can’t think those thoughts, and they go to another me. Then that me gets a little stronger, ‘cause there’s more of me personally contributing to his identity.

“You want to know how to fight the King? Then know this; we’re still connected to each other. Every time I meet someone so monstrous I want to destroy that person completely, he feels it for me. And every time he wants to nick someone’s shit, I feel it for him. I am still one person, even if different parts of me control different aspects. If I start changing, if I become a more aggressive person, then that part of me gets stronger.

“That’s why I can give a damn about my sons. That part of me died ten thousand years ago, but that just means any thoughts about them aren’t limited to just one of me. I rebuilt that part of myself from the ground up over these millennia. I’ve changed, and…

“I don’t know how much of me is someone I want to be. If insanity overpowers honor, rage overpowers curiosity, and guilt overpowers innocence I just… I don’t know if I’m someone I can love anymore.”

Amon didn’t know what to say. Perhaps there was nothing to say. Nothing that would make the galaxy they lived in any less of the shit-storm it was.

“I have honor, but not personally.”

[sylvaniaschoolofmagic]

The Trials: The Hallway

[Another trial done, Sonic and Knuckles must face the next room. It looks safe enough, but looks can be deceiving...]

Once Sonic’s paralysis wore off, they left Angus in a pile of sodafruit. The little blitzhound was snoozing amongst his snacks, probably worn out from the quote-unquote “battle” (which was soundly a butt-kicking from Sonic’s point-of-view—Angus: 1, Sonic: 0), and he didn’t move and only snuffled deeper into his nap as they found the door, shook the light out of their wands with a simple Nox, and departed.

“Man, that was great exercise. We should spend more time with Angus,” Sonic said as Knuckles heaved the giant door open. A sharp burst of light greeted them. “Oh cool, a room with decent electricity. What a change of pace.”

Sonic’s sarcasm—the direct result of having his butt handed to him twice on two separate occasions—sailed right over Knuckles’s head and the echidna simply shrugged as he stepped over the threshold into the next room. “Don’t trust something just because you can see it. You never know what’s lurking behind these stones.”

“Wow, archaic and sagely. Where’d they pick you up, Mister Echidna-man?” Sonic shot back. It was rude and insensitive, but his knees were scraped and felt a bit like two balls of flame turning in their sockets and he couldn’t quite feel his toes, so he wasn’t exactly in the best mood.

Knuckles ignored him and stopped as the door slammed behind them. Sonic was forced to swerve to avoid running into him. “This is new,” Knuckles muttered, hands curling into tight fists.

The room was more of a hallway than a room, a long, narrow passageway that shot straight down to the next door. In front of the door there was some kind of pedestal with an angled table pointed toward them, like a drafting table. The walls on either side of the room were made of stones, irregular and shoved together as if the builders were in a hurry to get it done and get out. Sonic craned upward and the ceiling was nothing more than the Room’s typical mist, lit from behind with a soft glow.

Knuckles took a step toward the front and Sonic’s hand snapped out and grabbed his sleeve. “Don’t,” the hedgehog hissed, eyes tracking down to the floor. “Have you ever seen a treasure hunting adventure movie?”

“Huh?” Knuckles stopped only because he was stumped, immediately, by Sonic’s question—just what Sonic wanted.

“You know, Indiana Jones? The Mummy? Where they go into a crypt or dungeon and you can just tell it’s a trap? What if we move forward and arrows shoot out of the walls or something?”

“Sonic,” Knuckles’s voice sounded pained, “this isn’t a dungeon. It’s a room in a school. Do you really think they’d do something that could hurt someone?”

He had a point, but Sonic wasn’t convinced. “You might be right, but I think we need to be careful.”

Knuckles threw his hands up. “What do you want us to do? Stand here? We have to do something! I thought you wanted to get to the Philosopher’s Stone!”

“Whoa, whoa.” Sonic grabbed Knuckles by the shoulder and tried to tug him back, but Knuckles was too strong. “Since when are you the impatient one?”

“Since when are you the one that thinks things through? You’re always jumping into danger, and now, when you’ve nearly gotten me killed twice by the way, you decide to hesitate! Well, I’m the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and I’m done waiting around!”

Knuckles shrugged Sonic off, took a step forward, and then another, looked smugly back at his friend, and continued forward. Sonic stayed where he was, shocked and boggled at Knuckles’s behavior, surprised at his own, wondered for half a second if maybe the mist had somehow magically swapped their personalities or if their stress reactions were really this on the nose—

And then the walls started moving.

Knuckles froze, stopped all his locomotion like he was flash frozen in place, and slowly, with deliberate movements, looked at the walls. They were reshaping themselves, stones moving like snakes as they dislodged from each other and crept forward, toward the middle of the room, toward Knuckles, like some magical, creeping version of the walls from every adventure story ever. The type of thing that made the main character yell—

“The walls are closing in!” Sonic practically screeched as he realized. The walls were moving toward them in a ripple, stones moving both independent of each other and in a unit, creating a solid block that crept inward at a slow, terrifying pace. Sonic jerked and rushed for the door, swung past Knuckles as his friend tried to get his bearings, tried to understand what was going on, and jumped over the pedestal. He ripped at the door handle, hand grappling and lurching the handle, but—

“It’s locked!” Sonic cried. The sound of the walls almost washed him out. He craned to look over his shoulder and Knuckles seemed to finally be getting his feet back under him, his brain back under control, “Knuckles! We gotta do something!”

The walls were moving at a good clip now, but they had enough space to maneuver in. Knuckles quickly jogged over, paused as he came to the pedestal, was jerked out of his musing by Sonic’s jerks and groans as he fought the door, pushed Sonic aside without a word, wrapped both his hands around the handle, and heaved with all his might.

“Yep,” he said with all the calm and peace of mind of a man going to the gallows, “it’s stuck. Probably magic.”

Sonic wasn’t very keen on the idea of being squashed to death, so he was maybe beginning to hyperventilate. He couldn’t really tell because the only sound he could hear was the walls, creeping ever closer. “I thought you said they wouldn’t kill us!”

Knuckles gestured quietly, coolly, to the pedestal, as if he had all the time in the world. Some small part of Sonic’s brain said, Knuckles has lost it. He’s okay with dying; that’s why he’s so calm, and that just jacked his panic up higher. He didn’t wanna be stuck here with someone resigned to death. He needed someone that would fight with him.

He was about to grab Knuckles by the shoulders and shake him, but his friend simply gestured at the pedestal again. “Look, Sonic, calm down and look.”

“What? What am I looking at?!” Sonic whipped around and practically teleported to the pedestal in his agitation. Speed out of control? Not good.

“The walls’re narrowing more up here.” Knuckles’s voice was even, grim, as if the danger of all this had just occurred to him. He pointed at the door, where the walls seemed to be forming into a sort of point, a triangle-like edge that would seal the door off before the rest of the room. “But, I think this thing,” he indicated the pedestal, “will stop them from crushing us completely.”

Sonic tried to take it all in, but he was still too panicked. “So, what? The door will be blocked off but we’ll be fine?”

Knuckles nodded. “If we wanna get the door open, I think this thing has something to do with it.”

“Why aren’t you panicking right now, man?!” Sonic demanded. “We could get stuck here!”

“I am panicking!” Knuckles roared as he slammed his fist on the pedestal. “I’m just trying to stay a little calm because you’re—”

Something shifted on the pedestal, agitated by Knuckles’s anger, and they both went silent as they watched as a few pieces of wood slid down from some hidden compartment, snapped into place in a small square inlaid on the angled part of the table, and they had some sort of pattern on them, almost like... Sonic gasped.

“It’s a slide puzzle!” he cried as he reached toward it. The pieces slid easily under his hands, stuck to the board by some kind of magic. He looked up and his eyes landed right on the door. “It must open the room!”

Knuckles peered over his shoulder. “But what is it? It looks like a bunch of lines and dots.”

He was right. The pieces were nonsense, just a bunch of straight lines connected to bright white spots on a black background. Sonic hummed as he moved them around, trying to get a feel for it. His hands moved quickly, slotting pieces around with the speed that he was known for, and eventually, after about thirty seconds and a few inches from the walls, two pieces lined up and it all made sense.

“It’s the sky!” Sonic cried as his eyes finally made sense of the lines. “Look! It’s constellations!”

“Cool,” Knuckles deadpanned, “hurry up and do it because even if we won’t die if these walls close, it’ll probably be uncomfortable.”

Sonic barely heard him, because he was zeroed in on the puzzle. The pieces were starting to line up in his mind and his eyes hovered over them, trying to create a plan on how to move them without wasting too much time. “Uh huh,” he muttered when Knuckles started to shift and cough nervously.

“Sonic,” Knuckles pressed, “are you listening?”

“Yeah, yeah, let me focus. You figure out how to slow the walls down.”

Knuckles groaned, already exhausted from their little run-in with Angus, and pulled his wand out. “I don’t know if I can do that with magic,” he muttered down at it.

“Well figure it out!” Sonic snapped as he began to move the pieces. “This is gonna take me a while.”

Knuckles didn’t respond, just nodded and looked up, brow furrowed as he zeroed in on the walls. His hands curled into fists. “I got it.”

[phoenixfireartists]

Backstory

The rain poured down outside the stasis pod, and a silver haired woman in red and purple armor shines a flashlight at a young girl with raven black hair and silver eyes. The girl walks out of the pod and soon tumbles out, only for the woman to catch her. She then asks her for their name, the silver-haired woman saying her name was Elma. The girl then stated her’s. But before all this and the girl meeting Elma, she lived a completely different life, a story of passion, regret, and redemption. This is Athena’s backstory

---------- 

16 March 2037 AD

A day that no one would forget. It was a bright and sunny day in London, England. The contrast from the once dull grey skies was a nice change as a new life was brought into the world. A girl, with dazzling green eyes, was born to Marianne Midorikawa and Kristopher Arthur Thea. This girl was given a name: Athena Hikari Thea. 

From the beginning of her life, Athena seemed that she was destined for greatness. She had good grades, a loving family, and was talented. She was considered a prodigy among the other kids in her school, which lead to a lot of bullying by her peers and, meaning that she never had that many friends. And those that were her “friends” were just using her to get good grades and go to all these special functions. 

But her life wasn’t all that bad. She had her younger sister, Nyx, to be with all the time, and Athena treated her well with care. Nyx had her own thing, and Athena respected that, even if the two of them managed to bicker sometimes. The Thea family was probably the closest thing to a quote-unquote “perfect family” to many people and friends. But that always wasn’t the case.

You see, Athena’s parents were prepping and crafting her into a vessel for potential gods to use. Keeping the secret that their daughter was becoming something much more than human, Marianne and Kristopher used Athena as a way to possibly benefit humanity. Many factors were taken into consideration when they started to make Athena a vessel, such as health and mental risks that come with the process of becoming a vessel. 

For about ten years, the Theas lived outside the city of London, from 2037 to 2047. In 2047, Kristopher told his family that they had to move to America in order to keep up to date on everything going on with Project Okami. 

For a quick overview of the project, Project Okami was once a project in which the idea of putting actual humans in stasis was starting to be risky. With mims now being the solution to putting humanity forward, the project then turned towards looking for other methods of preserving humanity. This included the possibility of divine intervention and making vessels.

For about two years, things seemed fine for the Theas as they now lived in the northern part of California, near the Redwoods. However, on her twelfth birthday, Athena discovered the truth of what her parents were doing, having found a file that was left lying on the coffee table that had her name and everything her parents had done to her for the past twelve years recorded onto the file. Her world turned upside down that day. And she did what any tween would do if they found out about a secret that wasn’t meant for them to hear.

She ran from home and into the forest. Her parents searched for her for over a week until they found her near a creek cold, covered in scrapes and cuts, and more than likely starving. Having seen her parents again made Athena feel guilty for running away, for having worried them so much. But she was still mad at them for having kept what she was becoming a secret for so long. But she forgave them, nonetheless. Things went back to normal after that. 

Then came a day where Athena’s hellish days was about to begin.

4 July, 2049 AD. Athena and her parents were on their way to a quick fireworks ceremony when a group of men ambushed them and knocked them out cold. The next thing Athena knew, she had her hands tied behind her back and was at a construction site that wasn’t in use. It wasn’t long until an old friend of the Theas, Marcus Tamashi, showed up, holding a pistol in his hand.

The next thing Athena saw was the gun barrel pointed to her head. She was scared out of her wits, shaking like a leaf as she saw the barrel of the pistol aimed at her head. Soon came the pleas to spare her, to save her. Marcus then removed the barrel from her head. All seemed peaceful finally...

Then two shots rang out.

Athena watched in horror as her parents were shot at point blank range, blood splattering along the ground and the I-beams that were in place. Athena screamed and lashed out, trying to get out of the men’s grips while she still could and run. She couldn’t, and the next thing she knew was that she was hit with the butt end of the pistol and blacked out.

When she came to, she was in the facility her parents worked at, only this time she was in one of the many containment cells that housed the vessels her parents were working on. But Athena remembers that they used to roam around the facility and chatted out in the open, and there were no sort of containment cells when she went with her parents here.

It didn’t take long for her to realize that a certain someone had taken the project and facility by force. A man by the name of Alexis Manchester.

For a brief synopsis of Alexis, he ran Manchester Inc., a company that was profiting off of everything that dealt with the Coalition government and with ECP. He often went to drastic measures to get what he wanted: blackmailing, swindling, and of course, murder. The Okami Project was the next thing on his hit list, and at long last, he finally got it.

Anyway, Alexis soon turned the project that Athena’s parents had worked so long on into something that he and others desired: a super soldier that had the ability to house a god. And Alexis saw Athena as the prime subject for it all. But, in order to keep her status as a vessel, he needed the original source material, and Athena was the closest thing he was going to get in terms of source material for their notes. He also knew she wasn’t going to cooperate with anyone, but he thought that if she befriended someone, she might spill the beans.

Alexis had a son named Xander, and he was one who knew how to get his way with girls. Athena was no exception to him, for she quickly fell for his charms and grace. Athena soon fell in love with him and she told him everything she knew about her parent’s research. Xander then told his father what she would tell him and Alexis would quickly write them down. 

When she was thirteen, Athena and Xander were pitted against one another in a fight for “scientific purposes”. In reality, Athena had done her duty and would now be executed on the spot by Xander himself. All went well, and soon Athena found herself pinned to the ground by Xander’s foot, a pistol in his hand. He then proceeded to taunt her, told her that he didn’t really love her, that he only used her to get the information his father needed out of her. 

That made something snap inside Athena and she was not happy with this turn of events. In some way, possibly an adrenaline rush and a surge of anger and rage, she managed to get up before Xander could pull the trigger and then proceeded to stab him in the chest. Athena was at first satisfied with getting rid of him, but once she came back to her senses, she immediately regretted it all. This caused her to become for socially awkward and more rebellious. She didn’t want to become someone she didn’t want to be.

Years passed, and with each year that went by, Athena’s mental state deteriorated little by little. When it was at an adequate level, according to Alexis at least, Alexis and his team had finally decided that it was time to commence with her becoming the thing he desired most. She was only fifteen when the procedure to make her the thing he desired most in everything he had desired to achieve. 

Everything was going well until something happened during the procedure. Athena soon passed out during it and was quickly taken into medical ward of the facility. In critical condition, a team of doctors and nurses tried to resuscitate her, but to no avail. She had managed to flat line and was declared dead that day. 4 July 2052, the anniversary of her parent’s death.

But, in reality, she wasn’t really dead. Of course, her heart stopped, but her consciousness was somehow still there in a sort of limbo. In this limbo, she received a gift, one that she would use to escape from the place she considered a prison. She was gifted with the ability to summon the myths of old to help her and aid her in combat situations. After that, she awoke in the room that she was brought into and saw that Marcus was there, along with a woman named Charlotte. Charlotte was the one who brought meals to the people in the containment cells and was the one who monitored their conditions.

Anyway, Athena stirred awake and saw both Marcus and Charlotte in the room, both of which were surprised to see her alive. Athena proceeded to tell them what happened and showed them what she was now capable of doing. Surprised by this, Marcus thought that her new ability would be the key to having Athena escape.

However, this new ability had a bit of baggage to it. It costed her the color of her eyes, changing them from their once dazzling green to the metallic silver ones she now has. This made her anger boil more and more. All the years that Athena had been placed under the knife had now reached its climax. All she wanted now was Alexis dead and gone.

The next two years would be the hardest Athena would ever endure. Alexis, having found out that Athena was still alive, cranked up the intensity on all testing procedures with her. He made her life a living hell. He had her body abused, cut and scraped over and over and over, leaving many scars on her body. She soon became self-conscious about how her body now looked, hiding the scars that now covered her whole body.

But that hell didn’t last long. On March 19, 2054, just days after her seventeenth birthday, she was finally free. Alexis had wanted to save his son, so he tried to revive him by using the same process that Athena went through, only this time there was some...slightly different results. The result was a deformed, unimaginable monstrosity created to combat any living organism. The alarms sounded and Charlotte escorted Athena out of her containment cell and into the hallways of the facility. Alexis was in one of the testing rooms, the boy once known as his son approaching him with some primal instinct to kill. Next thing that happened was Alexis being stabbed by an appendage emitting from its being.

Xander then set his sights on Athena. Charlotte shoved her out of the way before getting stabbed, sacrificing her life to save Athena’s. The next thing that happened was something unexpected. All that Athena remembers was seeing white and then waking up in an actual bed. Marcus had found her on the floor, unconscious, and brought her to his home. He then explained everything. Her parents we’re dead; he only faked their deaths so that they wouldn’t be tracked by Alexis anymore. Her sister was in a magnet school, studying robotics. And they were in his home, waiting for her to come back to.

And when Athena saw her family again, she couldn’t help but cry tears of joy.

The next few months after were a blur. Marcus gave up his spot for Athena, stating that she deserved to start over somewhere and regain control of her life. Then on July 2054, all hell broke loose and Earth was destroyed. Athena and her family escaped on the White Whale, traveling for two years before the Xenos came and destroyed the White Whale. Athena and her sister were the first of the family to enter the stasis pods. Kristopher told them that they would be reunited once again once they were all found. He activated the stasis pods and down the girls went. 

But that wasn’t the end for Athena. Something happened while she was falling. The merging of a vessel and a god. Ceres was her name, the Goddess of Mira. She was a soul who had lost her real body long ago and now needed a vessel in order to explore the world. Athena’s presence resonated with Ceres, and soon, their two souls merged. Athena felt a sort of power envelop her body and she was soon knocked out afterwards. This caused her to lose most of memory, save for her name and a memory of her mother telling her to run away before she was shot by Marcus. Elma found her, and Athena’s life on Mira would soon begin...

______________________________________________________________ But still, questions remain. What happened to Athena that day she earned her silver eyes? Why was it that she was suited for Ceres? What made her earn her name “The Tactical Goddess”? Well, guess you’ll just have to wait and see.

--------

I really hope you all enjoyed learning about Athena before she came to Mira. The reason for her silver eyes will come soon, but for that I need to explain my own Xeno species that I just started to make. But I really hope you all enjoyed. Next time it will be either Athena’s interactions with the main party members in the game or the ones she’s met in RPverse. We’ll see.

[hey-i-wrote-a-story]

Chapter 14 The Four Young Hoodlums

They ran through the darkened streets laughing. They’d been doing a lot of laughing lately. It felt good, and made for a nice change. Aadesh and Kaitlyn took the lead, holding hands, doing their best to keep pace with one another. They’d been doing a lot more of that these days, too. Erin was close behind them, her requisite huge coat flapping in her wake. She was never without it, and kept it on regardless the weather. You’d think the weight of it would hold her back, but when the group took to running, it was almost as if it added to her speed, like a reverse sail. Freddie, as per usual, held up the rear, perpetually looking back over his shoulder to see if they were being pursued. They never were, not anymore. Freddie considered himself the team’s lookout, but in truth he had just never had this much fun before, and certainly not for this long, and was expecting it to all come crashing down any minute. His giggling and rush of excitement only increased when they’d get away with it again. Tonight they hadn’t gotten away with much, but it was a great rush all the same.

The quartet rounded a corner and slipped down an alleyway. Once in the shadows, Kaitlyn pulled Aadesh over to the wall and began kissing him passionately. Erin saw this routine unfolding for the umpteenth time and did her best not to roll her eyes right out of her head. She’d have muttered for them to get a room, had they any room to go to. Erin then spotted Freddie, lingering at the head of the alley, still craning his neck to see if they were about to get caught. Erin grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Get back here, out of the light, genius.”

“I just didn’t want anybody to see us!”, the nervous Freddie tried to justify himself.

“Well, sticking your head out under the nearest streetlight is the best way to avoid that, I’d think”, she snarked back, roughly pushing her red-headed companion to the back of the small alley where he collided with a dumpster. On contact with the rusty metal refuse bin, Freddie started and leapt forward by several feet.

“Hey! Watch it!”

Erin was about to make one of her caustic remarks, chiding Freddie for being such a big baby, until she glanced back and saw what she had unintentionally shoved him into. “Oh, hey. Sorry about that. I didn’t know that was back there. You oka—“

Freddie cut her off quickly, not wanting to have that conversation again. “Just be careful, alright?”

Erin held up both hands. Alright, alright. She looked back at Kaitlyn and Aadesh. Freddie looked to. The romantic duo were still going at it, romantically. Aadesh ran his fingers through Kaitlyn’s long hair, Kaitlyn gripped Aadesh’s shoulders tightly as they pressed against the alley wall, unmindful and uncaring about their grimy surroundings. The kissed passionately, never coming up for air. Erin grew irritated and Freddie was getting bored.

Finally, Freddie tapped the shoulder of his best friend. Aadesh came up for air and glanced at his ginger pal, his expression almost one of surprise that anyone else was there. Freddie tapped his wrist in a checking-my-watch gesture and then spun his index finger in quick circles. Wrap it up, bro. Aadesh smiled, stifling a laugh, and then gazed into Kaitlyn’s eyes.

“Just showing some appreciation for my awesome psychic girlfriend.”

“Technically”, Kaitlyn corrected him, “I don’t know that I qualify as psychic, given the parameters of my gifts.”

Aadesh drew her close again, resting his forehead against hers. “Like I care.”

Erin scoffed. “The parameters of your gifts. Spare me, you guys.”

“Don’t be all huffy!”, Freddie scolded her. “We had an excellent night. Another score for us!”

Again Erin rolled her eyes. It was becoming her signature look. “Some score. We got onto the Whitmore Club’s golf course and had a golf cart race. Big time, guys.”

“No, we cleverly broke onto the Whitmore’s private golf course”, Freddie stressed.

“Thanks to information gained from the lovely Kaitlyn’s psychic visions”, Aadesh interjected.

“Thanks to that”, Freddie amended, “and engaged in a spectacular race of golf carts which evolved into a genuine golf cart joust.” He clicked his tongue, snapped his fingers and pointed at Erin. “Beat that.”

“If only you’d give me the chance”, Erin grumbled.

Aadesh shot her a look of disapproval, his arms still around his girlfriend. “Oh come on, it was fun.”

“You were cheering right along with the rest of us up until Freddie upended your guys’ cart”, Kaitlyn pointed out.

“That was a strategic move that went unexpectedly awry”, Freddie declared.

Erin shrugged. “Okay, yeah. It was fun. I just think we’re underutilizing the new tools we have at our disposal.”

Kaitlyn raised her eyebrow in an ironic show of offense. “Are you calling me a tool?”

It was good they could all make light of it now, especially Kaitlyn. It had certainly not started out that way. When Kaitlyn first told her three closest friends (her only friends) that she had been having “visions” as she called them, there was great concern for her grip on reality, particularly with the other three knowing of her mother’s mental history. But as her claims persisted, growing more and more vivid and detailed each time, Aadesh had arrived at the perfect solution to dispel his girlfriend’s delusions; they’d simply put them to the test. Showing her that her supposed hidden glimpses into the recent past were only bizarre dreams or stress-induced moments of imagination was the best way to show Kaitlyn that all was still relatively okay. His method would be doubly effective, Aadesh thought, with her three closest friends showing their mutual support. So they investigated the next “vision”.

And it panned out.

“Never heard anybody scream at such a high-pitch before”, Erin said, shaking her head while suppressing a laugh.

“Especially not a guy”, Aadesh remarked.

“A guy who happens to be country prosecutor Anthony Taguine”, Freddie emphasized.

“Coke-snorting, easily-bought, money laundering county prosecutor Anthony Taguine”, Aadesh elaborated.

“He sounded like a little girl”, Erin grinned.

“A little girl on helium”, Freddie agreed.

“I give up”, Aadesh said to Kaitlyn. “How did you know Tanguine was deathly afraid of goats?”

“Or which part of the Emerson’s back fencing had fallen so we could nab such a goat to tie to his front porch railing?”, Erin probed.

Kaitlyn was all smiles. “It was because of something that happened to him at a petting zoo once”, she explained. “He never got over it.”

The other three exchanged puzzled glances. “I’d think we would’ve heard about something like that at some point—“, Erin began.

“It was when he was 7”, Kaitlyn clarified.

 Okay, that may have been a lucky guess. Or perhaps Katlyn had overheard something somewhere, noticed some bit of news or local gossip on some online bulletin board she’d scrolled past, not even realizing she was absorbing the information. Another test was called for.

And that one passed, too.

“Damn”, Freddie marveled, leaning over Erin’s shoulder to read the headline on the screen of her beat-up laptop. “Decorated police officer Louis F. Morse arrested for involvement in illegal dog fighting ring.”

“This the same Officer Morse who shot that little Chihuahua because he said it had quote-advanced on him in a threatening manner-unquote?”, asked Aadesh.

“The same”, Erin, said, scrolling through the article, silently relishing the various names of hated authority figures who were embroiled in the scandal.  

“An anonymous source alerted local News Team 15”, Freddie read aloud. He glanced at Kaitlyn. “I wonder who that could be?”

“You don’t have to wonder”, Erin stated. “Considering she told us about it beforehand.”

Kaitlyn sat in the corner, arms folded over her chest, smiling. “Morons shouldn’t have held the fights in the same place every time, I guess. Oh, well.”

 So three times’ the charm, right? But that vision (no longer framed with quotation marks) proved to be right as well.

Kaitlyn tossed the new cell phones to her friends, who examined them with wide-eyed glee. “Delivery guy doesn’t believe in locking the back of the truck when he takes his lunch break. Guess he won’t make that mistake again.”

 So it went. The following vision was correct, as was the next and the next. Worry that had become suspicion was now growing excitement. Tests had become adventures.

It was progressively easy to sneak out of the halfway house, now that Kaitlyn had glimpses into current security rounds schedules, habitual employee trips to the vending machine or the toilet, and the odd fault in the system. Faults had become easy for Kaitlyn to spot once she learned how to look for them. Faults like a certain gate that a night watchman at the exclusive country club left unlocked for extramarital rendezvous with the club’s buxom events planner. A gate which provided easy access for four young ne’er-do-wells to slip in and engage in a bit of golf cart joyriding.

That little adventure behind them, the foursome mused about what the watchman’s face might look like as he returned from his tryst to find the course and the carts in a disheveled state. They laughed as they made their way home, or to what currently passed as their home.

“I’m thinking he’ll go like this”, Freddie said, striking an exaggerated pose of shocked surprise. “Can you hone in on him”, he asked Kaitlyn, “So you can see how close I am?”

“You know it doesn’t work like that”, she chided.

Considering that, Aadesh, his arm still draped affectionately around Kaitlyn’s shoulders, looked at Erin. “What did you mean by saying we’re underutilizing Kaitlyn’s visions?”

Erin shrugged. “I just think there’s a lot more we could be doing than wrecking a golf course, is all.”

Kaitlyn furrowed her brow. “Such as?”

Erin’s expression became one of the sly plotter. “You ever think about how we might get ourselves some wheels?”

“We’ve got my truck”, Freddie jumped in.

“I mean some real wheels”, Erin said, ignoring Freddie’s crestfallen look. “If you were to concentrate on something specifically…I dunno, a general idea or desire…you think you could find us a car?”

Kaitlyn offered a slight frown and considered it. She had no idea.

“It’s worth a shot”, Aadesh nudged.

 Kaitlyn’s fingers danced across the small keypad, deactivating the building’s alarm system.

“So how did you know about--?”, Aadesh started to ask.

“Owner’s nephew runs the place on Thursdays and alternate Saturdays. Has a memory like a sieve, so he’s got the alarm code written down and stashed over there for him to refer to.” Kaitlyn jerked her head in the direction of the now-dark neon letters that adorned the building’s façade. Everyone looked quizzically in that direction. Before anyone could ask the question, Kaitlyn added, “Behind the ‘L’. The first one.”

There was a soft beep and the door opened silently. “Come on”, she said.

Inside the roller rink, Freddie wheeled in large circles across the floor as lights from a mirrored globe danced across the ceiling as music unchanged or updated in twenty years played on crackly speakers. Aadesh laced up his own skates, looking forward to a slow song to skate along to while holding Kaitlyn’s hand. It was a bit corny, but he was a romantic at heart.

Erin was the only one not getting into the spirit of things. She sat nearby on a worn vinyl seat looking annoyed. It was kind of her default expression. “When I said wheels”, she said, an edge in her voice.

“Roller skates have wheels”, Aadesh pointed out. “Don’t be an old grump. Relax for two seconds. Grab some skates and join us for a spin already.” He held his hand out to Kaitlyn, who took it, gliding gracefully up beside him.

“I told you it wasn’t an exact science, these visions”, Kaitlyn reminded her. She and Aadesh wheeled over to the rink and joined Freddie, who spun in tight circles with his arms extended as some disco diva sang about how she loved the night life.

“Thing is”, Erin said, not getting up, “I actually like Mr. Sanocki. He’s an alright guy.”

“Everybody likes Mr. Sanocki”, Aadesh said, rolling slowly past. “But it’s not like we’re robbing his place. We’re just having a late-night skate without the price of admission. Just this once.”

“We’ll set the alarm when we go”, Kaitlyn said, taking Aadesh’s arm and making a slow turn to the left. “No one will ever know we were here.”

“So we roller skate for free”, Erin huffed. “What a thrill.”

“And eat popcorn!” Freddie fairly slammed into the partition between the rink and the sitting area. He leaned over it, balancing himself on his elbows as he kicked his feet in the air behind him. “We can eat a TON of popcorn! You ever see how much he has to throw out every night?? We’ll be doing him a favor.”

“That’s a great idea”, Aadesh teased. “Popcorn for everybody!”

“If you’re not going to skate, you can at least get us some snacks”, Kaitlyn joined in.

“I prefer grape soda, by the way”, Freddie grinned as he pushed off the partition back onto the rink. The night life lady had been replaced by some guy with a deep voice proclaiming someone to be his first, his last, his everything. Whatever that meant. Erin trudged over to the snack bar, wondering whether or not she should spit in Freddie’s grape soda. She flipped up the portion of the counter that allowed for staff entry and grabbed up some striped popcorn bags. She nearly tripped on what lay unseen at her feet.

Then she saw it. Then she screamed.

The other three sped over as fast as they could skate. Erin was not one to scream lightly. And she hadn’t now.

On the floor behind the counter, vacant eyes staring up at the pock-marked ceiling, lay the body of Mr. Sanocki whom everybody liked, his head bashed in by a pair of bloody skates. The floor was sticky and dank, the puddle covering the cracked flooring something other than the usual syrups used to flavor the snow cones. Freddie sped across the carpeted floor and threw up in the drinking fountain.

Aadesh pointed beyond the snack counter to a portion of paneling that had been torn away from the wall. Behind it was a safe, old and flimsy, easily broken into, with its door off the hinges. The roller rink was hardly a huge money maker. The haul could not have been worth the trouble. It had to have been done either out of malice or by someone lost in a narcotic haze.

Popcorn and old music forgotten, the delinquent quartet fled the building. They did not reset the alarm. But they did call 911.

 It was another week or so before they dared venture out again in response to one of Kaitlyn’s visions. They opted to keep things small. No focusing on cars or anything on that level. Instead, Kaitlyn thought of simple things like knickknacks and tchotchkes. She hoped it might lead them to the leftovers of some basement rummage sale or an equally innocuous destination. As the four of them stood outside the weather-beaten door of just such a shop, Kaitlyn felt that perhaps she was finally getting the hang of directing, or at least reading, her visions.

“I can’t believe you actually found a place called Eloise’s Attic”, Erin remarked under her breath. There was a clunky wooden sign out front, the type you might have made at a craft fair, of an old woman holding a cat in her arms above a poorly-painted logo compete with little flowers. Charming, Erin thought sarcastically.

“I didn’t even know there was a strip mall over here”, Aadesh said.

“I’m not sure that four ramshackle old shops stuck together in a row constitute a strip mall”, Erin said.

“That was impressive”, Freddie added. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the word ‘ramshackle’ in a sentence before.”

Erin was about to smack him upside his ginger head when Kaitlyn spoke. “From what I could tell in what I saw”, and she tapped her temple to indicate what she meant by “saw” as if anyone needed reminding, “this place has been dark for well over a week. So the old lady who runs the shop—“

“That would be Eloise, I’d imagine”, Freddie chimed in.

Kaitlyn continued as if he hadn’t spoken, easily prying open the back door with a credit card. “—is probably out of town. Maybe visiting relatives or something.”

“Probably attending a funeral”, Erin commented.

“So we have a little bit of time”, Kaitlyn finished.

“Okay, remember what we decided”, Aadesh said. “We have a bit of time to explore, but no wrecking anything. We can each take one thing—“

“One small thing”, Kaitlyn emphasized.

“One small thing”, Aadesh agreed, “as a memento of this little adventure, but that’s it. Got it?” Erin and Freddie nodded. And in they went. But they didn’t go in very far.

“Eeww!”, Freddie exclaimed, recoiling. “What stinks in here?”

“It is the shop of an old lady” Aadesh said, placing the back of his hand under his nose. “There tends to be a bit of reek along with that, right?”

Erin stepped forward between the two boys. “That’s a hell of a lot more than old person smell”, she stated. The stench hit her harder as she moved further into the shop, her stomach lurching despite her strong constitution. “Somebody get the lights”, she hissed.

“What?”, Freddie said. “We’re gonna get caught!”

“As if anyone’s gonna see a light on in this place way out here”, Erin snapped. “Besides, if this what I think it is…just find the lights!”

They did. After a bit of stumbling around the wall by the back door, a light switch was found and flipped. Dim yellow lighting from a couple standing lamps with dusty shades illuminated the room as well as their low wattage could. Around the kids was a typical curio shop. Rickety shelves and small stands were littered with run-of-the-mill castoffs and leave-behinds; incomplete tea sets, long-obsolete children’s games, hideous scatter rugs and throws, musty hardcover books absent dust jackets but with plenty of browning pages and boring prose, and an excess of unattractive keepsakes no one wanted to keep. And there, in the midst of it all, behind the centrally-located sales counter, lay none other than old Eloise herself, flat on her back and long dead. Her twisted expression of shock and dismay indicated a sudden heart attack. Her unappealing shop indicated that no one visited enough to either find her or even notice she was missing. Atop her chest was her pet cat. It was jet black (of course it was) and sat proudly over the whole it had ripped in its owner’s chest as it tore into her in order to eat something after being locked inside for so long.

“Oh my God!”, Kaitlyn proclaimed, and turned her head away from the ghastly sight. Aadesh quickly took hold of her and pressed her to his chest. Freddie felt the nausea churning inside him. Erin just stared in disbelief. The cat, on the other hand, licked its lips as it gave the foursome a disdainful glare, clearly annoyed that they had interrupted its extended repast. Without emitting a hiss or a meow, it went back to enjoying its feast.

 “Hurry up!”, Kaitlyn cried. “Can’t this thing go any faster??”

Freddie growled behind the wheel of his pickup. “How many times have you ridden in my truck? You think it can suddenly improve on its speed??”

Aadesh put a hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder. “Hon, you’ve got to calm down.”

“No, you don’t understand!” Kaitlyn was frantic.

“I understand that if this is because of another one of your visions”, Erin said, “which, by the way, we agreed not to pay attention to anymore for the sake of our collective sanity, we should be moving fast away from whatever this is instead of toward it.”

“I hear that”, Freddie muttered under his breath.

“This time it isn’t about us!”, Kaitlyn snapped. “It’s not just for us to have fun or get away with something—it’s about them!”

“Who?”, Aadesh asked desperately. “Who is them?”

“Gah!”, Kaitlyn rubbed her temples as if her brains might burst out of them. “You’ll see! I don’t want to go into all of it right now, we just need to—come on, Freddie! Go faster!”

“The pedal’s to the floor! What more do you want?!”

What Kaitlyn wanted was not what she, or her friends, was going to get, as they found out soon enough when Freddie rode furiously down the pitted dirt road right up to a dead end. He slammed on the breaks, fishtailing the truck, very nearly smashing into the sign warning of the cutoff and the trees that lay just beyond it.

The four friends were shaken, jostled about the truck by its violent movement, and fumbled about to right themselves and get their bearings.

“What the hell was that?!”, Erin snarled, looking daggers at Freddie.

“Don’t look at me! This is the way she told me to go! Kaitlyn said to take this road, this one right here—apparently not caring what it would do to my axle, or my shocks, such as they are--!”

“Not now”, Aadesh scolded. Then to Kaitlyn, he said, “Where were you taking us, honey? What’s this all about?”

Kaitlyn leaned out the window to see the sign lit by the pickup’s glaring headlights. Three harsh words stared back at her. NO WAY OUT. She stepped out of the cab, legs unsteady, knees shaking.

“I was so sure…”, she mumbled under her breath. “This has to be where it’ll happen…it has to be…”

Aadesh was already behind his girlfriend, hands resting on her shoulders in an attempt to steady her. “Kate, if you would just talk to us.”

Erin was halfway out of the cab, her expression showing that she was about to unleash one of her trademark caustic comments when suddenly she stopped, her head turning quickly to the right. “Hey. Any of you guys hear that?”

The others strained to listen, at first hearing nothing. It was Freddie who picked up on the sound next. “Yeah, I do. People talking…yelling.” At that point, everyone could hear the not-so-distant cries coming from somewhere in the darkness. “Somebody’s having one hell of an argument”, Freddie realized.

Kaitlyn blanched. “We’re on the wrong street”, she gasped.

Spinning on her heel, she dashed around the back of the pickup truck to peer into the woods. There, perhaps some two hundred feet off, were the lights from house windows. The shouting was coming from there, echoing dimly through thick grove of trees with overlapping branches and interwoven roots above ground, which obscured some of the sound. Kaitlyn looked back the way they had come. If they were to pile back in the truck, drive back down the lengthy road, then take the main thoroughfare of lazy curves until they reached the proper street to turn down in order to reach the house, they’d never get there in time. So Kaitlyn started running right into the darkened woods, ducking around trees and avoiding branches with partial success as she raced toward the distant house.

“Kaitlyn!”, Aadesh shouted. “Wait!”

He turned to Erin, who was already a step ahead of him. She had snatched a large metal flashlight which Freddie had tossed her from his glove box. She lobbed it to Aadesh, who caught it easily. Turning it on, Aadesh aimed the beam in Kaitlyn’s general direction and took after her. Erin and Freddie were not far behind, with Erin using the flashlight app on her phone to guide them.

“You’re gonna get hurt!”, Aadesh called after his girlfriend, who paid no attention to him as she stumbled and lurched her way through the legion of tree trunks with their clutching outstretched limbs and twisting uneven roots. “What is going on with you? What is it??”

Kaitlyn stopped for half a heartbeat to turn back to her boyfriend. Hair flying in her face, her eyes wild, she responded, “He didn’t clean his gun!!” Again she was off like a terror.

Aadesh had no idea what she meant, but he didn’t like the sound of it. He quickened his pace as best he could, given the surroundings, and tried to keep up. As they drew closer to the house, the noises became more distinct. A man and a woman arguing, their voices raising in volume and pitch. As they shouted, a baby cried a frightened wail. Kaitlyn and Aadesh were nearly a dozen yards from the house when a shot rang out accompanied by a flash of light. The cries of the baby stopped. A few seconds of terrifying silence were followed by the voices of the man and woman again. The shouts were now shrieks, screams, and tearful babbling.  Another shot sounded, the flash that came with it illuminating the house for a split-second. The hysterical voices were gone. Silence took hold once more.

Kaitlyn was crying, her long hair sticking to her face where the tears stained her cheeks. “No, no, no, no, no!”

She made it to the house’s back porch to find the hideous scene laid out before her. To the right, a baby’s crib and wall behind it spattered red. To the left, a woman caught in the struggle to take away the weapon, hung limply from her husband’s arm, her hands still wrapped around the hilt and trigger. Her chest and torso saturated with blood, she slipped down to land on the floor with a sickening thud. In the center of it all, a man, his eyes wild with shock and confusion. In one hand he held a gun, his arm now slick with dripping red. His mouth moved in disbelief, trying to form words of regret and apology, but no sound came out.

It had become a routine. An unnerving, horrible routine. Carl, the husband, had grown to resent the woman whom he felt he had been forced to marry after learning she carried his child. It was her fault, hers and baby’s, that he had to work the godawful job he hated to support them. His life and dreams cut short by responsibility he never asked for. Each Wednesday night, Carl went to the shooting range to blow off steam. Each Thursday evening, he went through an elaborate ritual of cleaning his gun, taking it apart and putting it back together. Any bullets that hadn’t been fired at the range were stored carefully in a hinged wooden box. After work let out Friday, Carl proceeded to get drunk. He came home angry and inebriated, letting all his anger and frustration spill out through foul remarks and shouted obscenities. His tirade would end as it always did, with Carl taking out his gun and waving it around, making mock targets of his wife and child. First he’d point to the bassinette, claiming the child was to blame for his predicament. If that kid had never come into his life, he wouldn’t be trapped as he was. He’d pull the trigger of the empty gun. Click. Then he’d turn on his wife, going on about how it would be even better if they’d never met. If she’d only be gone, too…he’d take aim again. Click. Carl would then shuffle to the bedroom and collapse onto the bed. Saturday would be spent with tears and apologies, declarations of love and a promise to change. Sunday would be filled with flowers and outings, trips to the lake or long drives in the country. All would be forgiven and Monday saw Carl back to work at the job he hated, the job that would by Wednesday, send him back to the shooting range to blow off steam. But this past Thursday, as Kaitlyn saw, Carl’s routine had been interrupted when he was called back into work to help out the night shift. As a result…

Kaitlyn looked the stunned man, this unintended murderer, in the eye as she whispered, “You didn’t clean your gun.”

The man put the gun to his temple, eyes gushing tears as he hoped there was at least one more bullet in the chamber. There was. He fell to the floor beside his betrothed just as Aadesh made it to the door.

“Holy God”, he gasped.

It was perhaps twenty or thirty seconds of terrible silence until Erin arrived. “What the hell is going on here? Were those gunshots? Why did you bring us all the way out here to—“  She also froze upon seeing the aftermath of what had transpired. Freddie was right behind her. Erin turned swiftly, blocking his view. Grabbing Freddie by the shoulders, she spun him around so his back was toward the house. She spoke quietly but sternly in his ear. “Go back to the truck. Just walk and do not turn around. Get in the cab and wait for us. Do not under any circumstances look back. Now move.” Erin gave Freddie a firm shove and Freddie did as he was told. He knew his friends’ moods and behavior well, and he understood that Erin would not have said what she did, the way she said it, if it were not an extreme emergency. Whatever was behind him, Freddie did not want to see it. Rapidly, he returned to the truck.

After more strained silence, Erin said softly, “I thought you couldn’t see what’s going to happen. I thought you could only see glimpses of the past.”

“She can’t”, Aadesh said. “But she can piece things together from what she’s seen and figure out what might happen next.” He swallowed hard. “We have to get out of here. We have no idea who else might’ve heard the shots.”  Then he turned to his side, saying, “Kaitlyn, don’t blame yourself for—“ only to find she was no longer there. Both he and Erin looked left and right, expecting to find Kaitlyn right next to them. She was not.

“Where did she go?”, Erin said.

Kaitlyn ran through the woods away from the house and away from the pickup truck. She sobbed, fighting to erase the bloody scene from her mind which lingered before her even when she closed her eyes. Is this what her visions were for? To bring her and her friends to one scene of horror after another? It was bad enough that the three most important people in her life had begun to fear her abilities. Now Kaitlyn was afraid of them too.

There was a distant rumble of thunder and soon thereafter, lightning split the sky. Rain began to fall, mixing with the tears that streaked Kaitlyn’s face. Had she not been so overwhelmed, she would have scoffed at how cliché it seemed to have the scary thunderstorm follow on the heels of the tragedy she’d just witnessed. Thoughts of greater importance occupied her mind. Was she psychically drawn to the bad things because she was a bad person at heart? Were she and her friends inherently evil? Or was she seeing visions which led to the horrible and dark because that was how she saw herself—how all four of them saw themselves? Was this just a prelude to the dark, destructive life the courts predicted for them? Perhaps there was no way to change their course. If so, all that lay ahead was bleak.

Desperate and afraid, for herself and even of herself, Kaitlyn did something she had never done before and would never do again. She forced her visions. Her head was ravaged with the pain of a thousand razor blades as she cried out into the night. Falling to her knees, she shouted up into the downpour as the thunder covered her cries. Take the visions away, she pleaded. Get them out of my head, out of my life! She pushed harder, doing all she could to cast her powers away, to bid them begone. Why couldn’t she and her friends have had different lives? In bringing them to see the darkness, did they expose themselves for that darkness to claim them?

Once more she pushed, even harder than before, and as a stake of sheer pain sliced through her mind, Kaitlyn felt something give. Her visions…or the power that caused them…shot outward from her mind, firing off in all directions. But they did not leave her. If anything, she still felt tethered to them, and no matter how distantly her visions spread, they would never leave her. As she lost consciousness, Kaitlyn asked the universe if she could not be rid of the visions, could she at least see something—anything—good, if only once. Could she please see a glimmer of hope amid all the darkness and horror?

           And just this once, the universe answered.