#Real-time Object Detection in Flutter

[bonefall]

Herb Guide for Warrior Cats: Epilepsy

Requested by an Anon!

A guide to providing treatment to a Warrior Cat OC with epilepsy. Still requires a bit of a leap in logic as nothing can replace our friend phenobarbital, BUT, if you would like herbs and strategies for managing a Warrior’s epilepsy, this guide is for you.

I researched herbs historically used for epilepsy, chose plants growing wild in a ‘common’ clan biome (temperate Europe and North America), and removed things that a cat could not use. Because of the nature of epilepsy, I also delved into some other treatments and strategies your medics can use!

So, keep in mind, this guide is written for a Clan doctor treating an epileptic cat. NOT from the perspective of a patient who has it.

I would recommend doing extra research into first-hand accounts of what it’s like to live with epilepsy when creating your patient character.

Disclaimer Time! I tried to filter out as much ‘quackery’ as possible, but remember that I am not a vet nor do I have formal training in pharmacognacy. You are also not a vet. This is for fake battle cats. LOOK AT ME. YOU WILL NOT USE THIS ON YOURSELF OR A REAL ANIMAL.

Below the cut is:

What is epilepsy?

Diagnostics

Non-herbal treatments

Managing the different types of seizures

Preventative herbs

What is epilepsy?

‘Epilepsy‘ is the broad term for dozens of different disorders, resulting in recurring epileptic seizures. A warrior could be born with it, develop it over time, or get it after recovering from brain injury (stroke, infection, head trauma, etc).

Epilepsy also varies wildly, and can be so mild it’s hard to detect, or so severe it could put the cat in too much danger to do warrior duties at all. For most cases, however, the warrior would still be able to do normal tasks* as long as they don’t hunt or patrol alone.

* = Head injury and stress from fighting can worsen epilepsy. Going on battle patrols is a risk the warrior must be made aware of.

Diagnostics

So before anything else, your medic will want to identify what triggers the seizures, if anything. There isn’t always an identifiable trigger such as a flashing light/quickly moving object, but seizures can be made worse by stress, lack of sleep, or hunger. Taking note of the warrior’s state preceding a seizure would be extremely helpful for treatment.

Does Wheatwhisker seem to have more seizures when she’s doing certain activities? When she has one, did she sleep well the night before? What has she been eating lately? She may be able to feel it coming-- including sudden intense emotion, an oncoming headache, hot or cold sensations, so on.

Like dogs, cats can detect oncoming seizures. A good medicine cat would take note of all the behavior before its onset to reduce their frequency.

NON-herbal treatments

Once correlation and causes have been identified, the medicine cat should have some lifestyle changes to suggest.

For example, Wheatwhisker has more seizures when she is tired, so the medic prevents her from going on dawn patrol. They’re sometimes triggered by the fluttering of bird wings, so she’s been told to hunt small mammals instead.

A change in diet can also reduce the frequency of seizures. Fatty foods specifically, such as red meat, eggs, and large fish. Trout and carp would be the two easiest* things for a warrior to hunt on a regular basis-- though if the given Clan can’t catch those, it may be worth it to consider trade with another group.

* = If your warriors can cook with fire, fat drippings can be cooked back into the epileptic warrior’s meals. This would make the special diet much easier to prepare than always catching specific prey.

Managing the Different Types of Seizures

Generally there are three types of seizures- ones localized to a specific body part, ones that may seem like “daydreaming”, and ones that cause the well-known convulsions. Less severe seizures are more common.

Seizures do not usually cause pain on their own, except for fatigue in the muscle or headaches. Injury is sometimes caused by external forces, such as slamming against something during a convulsion, falls, tongue biting, or hitting sharp objects.

After any seizure, nausea or a headache may develop-- feverfew will soothe headaches, mallow or fennel will soothe stomachaches. Even if the Epileptic warrior does not take regular medication, the cannabis and valerian root mentioned in the ‘preventative herbs‘ section can be taken on occasion to help the warrior relax post-seizure.

-Localized

One part of the body (leg, head) seizes or convulses. Can usually be self-managed by the warrior, loss of conscious is uncommon. Rest in a quiet area would be the best treatment afterwards. If the muscle fatigue is bad, kneading the limb will help.

-Daydream

The warrior will seem suddenly ‘absent,‘ like they’ve left their body, for typically less than 15 seconds. They may simply wobble and stare ahead (even pausing mid-sentence), or seem to ‘faint‘ and fall over, but in any case they will not remember the seizure. Prevent them from falling on something dangerous, if this seems likely.

In many cases the warrior will just be able to keep going about their day in a few minutes, or even immediately. If not, just like before, let them rest in a quiet area.

-Convulsions

A panicked cat may make convulsions worse by fearfully running around as a seizure starts-- if a warrior MUST be prevented from doing this, it’s VERY important that they are not completely pinned or restrained. JUST kept laying down. Do NOT attempt to stop the convulsions themselves.

Such a circumstance will be extremely rare in a Warrior Cat setting, where the cats are capable of reasoning like a human. There may be a situation where an epileptic cat needs to be brought out of harm’s way-- that’s fine.

Clear the area of anything sharp or hard that the convulsing warrior could hurt themselves on, like stones, or brambles. Roll them onto their side, if they aren’t already. Lastly, cushion their head with something soft, like moss, if possible.

After the seizure is over, the warrior will probably be disoriented and confused. Don’t overwhelm them or offer food or water until they’re fully alert again. Once they do, they might have partial paralysis, nausea, muscle soreness, a bitten tongue, or any variety of symptoms. Just like before, bring them to a quiet area to rest.

If your warriors wear restrictive accessories, such as belts or collars, the medicine cat will remove or loosen them during a seizure if possible.

-what NOT to do

There’s some harmful ideas out there you may have encountered, so here’s some things to keep in mind your medics would NOT do to treat a cat having convulsions:

They would NOT pin them down (this even happened in the books once yikes) Why: This could cause injury to both the restrained, and the restrainer.

They would NOT put anything in their mouth Why: Could damage their teeth or jaw, it does not prevent them from biting their tongue. (also; while tongue biting is common, it is a total myth that an epileptic will choke on/swallow it)

They would NOT start firing out questions as soon as the seizure is over Why: The warrior will likely be disoriented, and not in a state to answer properly. Give them a minute.

Preventative Herbs

Once a seizure is happening, it will have to play out. Warrior cats do not have the medical capability to stop one once started. The anticonvulsant herbs here will help to reduce the frequency and severity of seizures... but they can’t eliminate them entirely.

Anticonvulsants will need to be taken on a regular basis. Stopping these suddenly will cause dangerous side effects; if the warrior’s epilepsy isn’t severe, or herbs are a scarcity for your Clan, it may not be the best choice to medicate them.

Chamomile

Common, and naturalized all over the world. In high doses, this herb will poison a cat. Careful preparation is required to make it safe for the epileptic warrior-- it needs to be steeped in water, like tea*. The leaves should not be eaten.

* = If your cats don’t have fire to brew tea, that’s fine, it can be soaked cold.

This herb also has a side effect of drowsiness. It may make the warrior lethargic and less responsive.

Cannabis

Cannabis is a golden herb for a thousand reasons, it can be made into rope, paper, cloth, oil... but, the thing of note here is CBD oil. Cannabis grows wild all over the world, but ESPECIALLY in North America-based Clans (where it’s called Ditchweed)

Ditchweed has high CBD content, and low THC content. This makes it safe for your warriors (and also prevents them from getting high). Your cats will NOT smoke it, which will damage their sensitive respiratory systems, they will eat it like a standard herb.

Because cannabis is a depressant, this treatment is best for warriors not involved in active tasks. Epileptic warriors that prefer calm, camp-related activities will use this herb. Den-building, tunnel digging, helping the medics, crafting if your Clan makes accessories, so on.

Valerian Root

Known as a sleep aid in humans, Valerian has VERY interesting effects on cats; this is the only Epilepsy treatment that can avoid lethargy entirely. However, in contrast to cannabis, valerian will mostly be found in Europe-based Clans.

(with both, however, it is possible to find each in the other continent.)

Valerian Root has catnip-like effects, perking a warrior up and often filling them with energy. There are some cats for whom this herb will act like cannabis, calming them down, but if there’s a choice, the Epileptic warriors who enjoy active tasks will prefer this herb. Hunting, fighting, patrolling, so on.

[tthieu2808]

Week 8: Digital Citizenship and Software Literacy: Instagram Filters.

Today, the development of social networking platforms opens up many experiences and opportunities for brands as well as many individuals due to the diversity of content and creativity on these platforms. When it comes to social networking applications, selfies have become one of the most distinctive features as it is one of the most popular ways of interacting with the platform. In recent years, filters have become increasingly popular and have evolved to become a tool to enhance the photography experience on social networking platforms, especially Instagram.

Filters may beautify and distort the face, apply animal-like features or adorn users in virtual accessories that follow their movements. Through this practice of ‘digital adornment’ users experiment with creativity and self-expression – as with cosmetics and clothing – while forging social connections and engaging with virtual and augmented reality technologies (Barker 2017). The rapid development of filters helps social networking platforms become more diverse in content as well as enhance the appeal of these platforms to more users, especially those interested in beauty. and the desire to build your own image on social networking platforms will have more content and opportunities for development. A concept introduced by Snapchat in September 2015, officially named Lenses (Snapchat Inc. 2015). The ‘technological wonder’ (Arata 2016) behind Snapchat filters is relatively simple. This application relies on a face detection engine to recognize the brightness and darkness patterns of sample pixels as distinctive regions of the face. The image in the camera's frame is mapped with a series of communications that identify these areas as eyes, environment, and other features. Filters are then adjusted to these speeds so that the virtual elements stay in position as the user moves around (Vox 2016). In just a few seconds, users can try on different designs before choosing one, take a selfie in photo or video format and send it to friends. Some filters only add virtual makeup, allowing users to try out new makeup looks. Others apply whimsical accessories – flower crowns, puppy dog snouts, fluttering butterflies – while tweaking the face underneath.

This breakthrough has later been learned and developed by Instagram until now, with itself being a platform with many users, the platform also develops in photography to enhance the user experience. Combining filters that are constantly improved and upgraded to meet user needs as well as the trends of the times has helped Instagram attract more and more users. Besides helping users improve their image quality and beauty as desired, users can update trending filters such as Happy New Year, Christmas or holidays around the world or typical holidays of each region and country. These factors help not only increase the diversity of applications, but also ensure user experience and build their own community in an era when social networking platforms are developing.

However, the rapid development and easy access to experience also brings many consequences such as many users being immersed in virtual images, overusing filters to deceive or lacking confidence in their natural beauty. of yourself in real life, which is contrary to the filter's purpose which is to help you be more confident in your own beauty. Therefore, the convenience of services or tools such as filters on Instagram, although something worth experiencing, also requires users to have good self-reflection as well as the ability to objectively evaluate to identify Understand the advantages and disadvantages of these tools, avoid overusing them to destroy the original purposes and positive values that these tools bring.

References:

Barker, J. (2017), ‘Considering Snapchat filters as digital adornment’, Fashion Studies Journal, 2 July,

Arata, E. (2016), ‘The unexpected reason Snapchat’s “Pretty” filters hurt your self-esteem’, Elite Daily, 1 August.

Snapchat Inc. (2015), ‘A whole new way to see yourself(ie)’, Snapchat Inc., 15 September, https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/a-whole-new-way-to-see-yourselfie/.

[kevinsoftwaresolutions]

Unleashing the Future: Supercharge Your Flutter Apps with the Magic of AI & ML

Introduction:

In the dynamic world of mobile app development, staying ahead of the curve is not just a goal; it's a necessity. If you're a Flutter enthusiast, get ready to embark on a journey that will redefine the way your apps function and interact. Brace yourself for a tech revolution as we explore how you can supercharge your Flutter apps with the enchanting powers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

The Fusion of Flutter and AI: A Game-Changer:

Flutter, Google's UI toolkit for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase, has already proven its mettle. But what if we told you that by infusing your Flutter app with AI and ML, you can elevate it from excellent to extraordinary?

1. Smarter User Experiences:

Imagine an app that learns and adapts to user behavior. With AI and ML, Flutter apps can offer personalized experiences based on user interactions, making each journey unique. From customized content suggestions to predictive user interfaces, your app becomes an intuitive companion.

2. Predictive Analytics for Informed Decisions:

AI and ML algorithms can turn raw data into actionable insights. Integrate predictive analytics into your Flutter app to make data-driven decisions, anticipate user needs, and stay one step ahead of the competition. The result? An app that evolves and grows with its users.

3. Natural Language Processing (NLP):

Communication is key, and NLP brings a human touch to your app's interactions. Implement chatbots, voice commands, and sentiment analysis to create a conversational and emotionally intelligent user interface. Your Flutter app becomes not just functional but a delightful companion.

4. Image and Speech Recognition:

Enhance the multimedia capabilities of your Flutter app with AI-powered image and speech recognition. Whether it's identifying objects in images or converting speech to text, the possibilities are limitless. Picture an app that truly understands and responds to visual and auditory cues.

5. Fraud Detection and Security:

Security is paramount in today's digital landscape. Implement AI and ML algorithms for real-time fraud detection, ensuring a secure environment for your users. From transaction monitoring to user authentication, your Flutter app becomes a fortress against digital threats.

How to Supercharge Your Flutter App:

Integrate AI/ML Libraries:

Leverage popular AI and ML libraries compatible with Flutter, such as TensorFlow Lite, to seamlessly integrate machine learning models into your app.

Choose Your AI/ML Use Cases:

Identify specific AI and ML use cases that align with your app's goals. Whether it's recommendation engines, natural language processing, or image recognition, tailor the technology to your needs.

Collaborate with AI/ML Experts:

If AI and ML development sound daunting, consider collaborating with experts in the field. Their insights can guide you in choosing the right algorithms and implementation strategies for your Flutter app.

Conclusion:

Supercharging your Flutter app with AI and ML is not just about adopting the latest trends; it's about future-proofing your creation. Embrace the magic of technology, transform user experiences, and lead the way in the ever-evolving landscape of mobile app development. The future is now, and it's time to infuse your Flutter app with the brilliance of AI and ML!

[asset35-maya]

.When the party’s over.

>REINITIALISING…

>ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE

>WIRELESS CHARGING: 69%

>RK900 SYSTEM HEALTH: STABLE

>24H FILE RECOVERY: 45%

Nines slowly regained consciousness. He was lying on his side and everything around him was quiet.

>ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN IN PROGRESS…

>THREAT ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS…

Layers of fabric covered his body and something soft and warm was pressed against his face. Eyes still shut, he nudged it gently with his nose and it emitted a low vibration.

>2% THREAT DETECTED: FELINE SUBJECT

The cat sprang upwards and hopped off the surface that Nines was lying on. It was ostensibly a bed, but Nines didn’t own any furniture apart from a couch and work table. The logical conclusion was that he was not in his own apartment.

>RUN LOCALISATION PROGRAM: Y/N?

>Y

>ERROR: PROGRAM FAILED TO EXECUTE

>ERROR: MEMORY FILE CORRUPTION

Nines had no absolutely recollection of his whereabouts or how he had arrived. He had not been compromised as his system health was stable, so there was probably another reason for being completely disoriented. It was voluntary.

He had gotten the android equivalent of blackout drunk.

It was not the first time and he feared it would not be the last. Such were the hard-partying ways of his friends and colleagues. They were all terrible influences. He loved them dearly, but they were terrible.

At 6PM every Friday, Chen and Miller would start things off rather innocently. “Hey there’s a new brewery downtown.” Or “My bartender cousin just hooked us up with a thirty percent discount!”

From there it wouldn’t take long for the DPD’s resident frat boys Connor and Gavin to gather a steady crowd of officers and check out the venue. If the vibes were good (which they almost always were), Sixty would get wind of things. Then the rest of the frat house would descend and total chaos would reign until the break of dawn.

SWAT Unit 32 was famous for its particularly destructive brand of revelry. Skinny dipping in private swimming pools, scaling skyscraper rooftops and causing media scandals were all par for the course. The day after Captain Allen’s birthday, the DPD crew spent the entirety of their bonuses to repair the collapsed ceiling of the Eden Club.

Nines couldn’t remember how he exactly he was coopted into the madness. Probably peer pressure. Connor insisted that he try thirium alcohol. Sixty said that he would regret being a loser and not joining them. Gavin had just held out a hand and double-winked. That did the trick.

One night blended into another and soon Nines had worked up quite a reputation of his own. He was the Casanova of the homicide department. The handsome devil… the hunter… the sex god. People would actually come by his desk and congratulate him on Monday morning.

Nines hated it but he couldn’t stop himself from doing the same thing over and over. Perhaps it was the appreciative clap on the shoulder from Gavin the morning after Sixty posted photos of a high-end Traci model giving Nines his very first lap dance.

Life at the DPD was the epitome of work hard, play hard. It seemed like one big party but deep down Nines knew they were all just slaves to their compulsions. He wondered whether it was because they needed to celebrate every demon they vanquished or whether they needed to wipe the troubling memories of doing so.

In Nines case, there were definitely things he needed to kill within himself. Some were nightmare inducing crime scenes, but some were memories so heart-wrenchingly sweet that he thought he might self-destruct if he were to dwell on them too long. There were things he couldn’t have and things he needed to erase from his brain.

Something touched his face gently.

>PERIPHERAL OBJECT DETECTED: HUMAN HAND

>THREAT ANALYSIS: NON-COMBATIVE

The hair on his forehead was brushed aside and fingers ran over his features. A thumb swept over his bottom lip and caressed his cheek.

Nines couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes and come face to face with his most recent conquest. He lay still, frozen with regret as the hand continued to stroke his face.

The hand travelled down his neck and fell upon his chest. Nines caught it abruptly. It wasn’t even the month-end and his savings were badly depleted. He couldn’t afford round two. He retracted the synth skin down to his wrist and prepared the electronic payment credentials.

Fingers merely intertwined with his.

“Just take your money and go. I’ll tip extra if you delete everything from your hard drive.”

“What the phck are you talking about?”

Nines eyes flew open. Steel blue met storm green.

>SYSTEM ALERT: THIRIUM PUMP OVERLOAD

“Fuck!”

“Wow that’s flattering.”

Nines pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes in a vain attempt to remember what had led to this absolute, unmitigated disaster.

“What the hell happened last night?”

Gavin looked affronted.

“You ruined our housewarming for one.”

>MEMORY ARCHIVE SEARCH: housewarming, Gavin

>RESULT: TEXT MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM “G.REED” IN GROUPCHAT “CLUBBERCOPS”, 15:33 18 JULY 2040: Assholes. Party at our new place. Next Friday. From seven till LATE. Bring booze, bring bitches. Nah. Actually, don’t. Our landlord’s a bastard and we already got three noise complaints.

>RESULT: TEXT MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM “CONMAN” IN GROUPCHAT “CLUBBERCOPS”, 15:34 18 JULY 2040: Yeah we should keep this one PG. Bring food if you wanna eat. This mf can’t cook and I don’t care to. See y’all!!

Oh right. Fuck. Gavin’s housewarming. Gavin and Connor’s housewarming. His two closest friends who were somehow even closer to one another. Nines hadn’t realised until it was far too late and there was nothing for him to do but smother the bitterness with his favourite coping mechanisms: android alcohol and paid sex.

The circumstances definitely explained the state he was in, but things still didn’t add up.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Did we… did we…”

“No. Nothing happened between us. You were completely shitfaced. I just put you to bed to stop you from embarrassing yourself.”

Nines looked up at the ceiling, struggling to put the pieces together. His system offered him no useful prompts. The fermented thirium had done its job of code corruption extremely well. He looked back down and met the green eyes focused on him with deep concern.

“What did I do?”

“Sixty has videos, but I don’t think you want to see them. God, Nines… why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I’m really sorry, Gavin. I didn’t mean to ruin your night… and Connor’s.”

“He’s fine. He and Sixty moved the crew to Hank’s place. Which is what we should have done in the first place… there’s really no point throwing a party in this shoebox and telling people like Tina Chen to be quiet. Honestly if it wasn’t you it would have been her bringing the house down. Good thing they had all of Michigan Drive to tear up. Hank’s neighbours can sleep though a bombing.”

“What did I do?”

Gavin put his hand back on Nines’ face, his expression unintelligible. The human touched him often enough, but never like this. Never so intimately. Nines forced down the twisting sensation in his torso. He couldn’t get his hopes up. This was pity.

Nines braced himself to hear the worst. He prepared for the shredding of all his dignity and the collapse of his falsely extroverted and confident identity.

What came though was a soft press of lips to his forehead.

“It wasn’t pretty and I wish it hadn’t happened like that, but I think it was a long time coming… I’ve never seen you so emotional before. I’m sorry I didn’t notice anything all this while.”

“Gavin, please.”

“I’m going to focus on the positives, because really… there were a LOT of negatives. Oh boy. You… uh…”

“Gavin.”

The detective dipped his head and looked away.

“Phck, I shouldn’t be so embarrassed…

You told me you loved me.”

Nines closed his eyes. That was it. He should quit his job and move to another state. Hell, he should go to Cyberlife and request a factory reset on compassionate grounds.

“I’m so sorry. I… I should leave.”

He made to sit up, but was pushed back into the mattress. Gavin curled into his side.

“Nah. You’re good.”

“What?”

“You threw up on my plants and smashed Connor’s RA9 sculpture, buuuut you’re good.”

“I don’t understand.”

Gavin wrapped his arms around Nines and edged closer until the android was forced to turn on his side and reciprocate.

“What do you think, genius? If a guy like me doesn’t throw a guy like you out of the house after all that… what does it mean?”

“That you have a high tolerance for toxic friendships?”

“It means I want you to stick around, dipshit.”

>SYSTEM ALERT: THIRIUM PUMP RATE FLUCTUATIONS. OVERLOAD IMMINENT.

“You mean you like me?”

“Of course I do! I always have, but it never seemed right to bring it up. We’re actually really good friends. I didn’t think it would be possible when we first met but we have so much in common.”

“Bad habits for sure.”

“Come on, Nines. We’ve had a really great time together. Some of my best memories at the DPD are with you. Don’t ever quote me on it but you’re a phcking amazing partner. Can’t believe you thought I had something going with Connor when it’s always been you.

So yeah, I do like you. And I’m willing to try… I dunno… being with you. Like for real.

Stop drinking like that, though. I know I’m a hypocrite but you really scared me last night. I lost my Dad and I nearly lost Hank to the bottle. You might be this super advanced android, but that liquid courage shit is a death trap, man.”

>SYSTEM ERROR: THIRIUM PUMP AT MAX FLOW RATE. PUMP OVERLOAD. REDUCE PRESSURE IMMEDIATELY!

Nines nodded quickly and blinked away the tears that welled up in his eyes. Gavin grasped the android’s chin and tipped his face down gently. Their eyes fluttered shut simultaneously and their lips met.

>SYSTEM RECOVERY MESSAGE: THIRIUM PUMP FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED

They broke apart after several golden moments and Gavin hugged Nines tightly under the sheets.

“What am I supposed to say to the others? I don’t think I can look any of them in the eye ever again.”

“Are you serious? You got nothing on the insanity that bunch is capable of. Sixty thinks he’s hot shit with his blackmail material, but I got receipts that’ll glue his mouth shut for decades. Anyway, that’s what friends are meant to be like. You have dirt on each other but you’re not meant to use it.

The same applies to us too, by the way. Don’t feel like you gotta be… apologetic about what happened last night. Yeah, you better replace my fancy new plants but I’ll never judge you for what happened. I want you to know that I’ll always be in your corner, Nines.”

Nines hummed thoughtfully and ran a hand though Gavin’s hair, marvelling at the fact that he could now do so whenever he wanted. He didn’t say anything in response, and just settled for cuddling closer to the human.

>>RK900 SYSTEM HEALTH: EXCELLENT

[justmypartner]

Still Breathing: Chapter 7 

Summary: AU | When a case goes sideways, Hailey wakes up in the hospital with a revelation that leaves her evaluating her life. While she recovers at Med, she meets Jay, an aloof, yet intriguing patient that catches her by surprise. The two get to know one another as they take on the task of rediscovering what it’s like to truly live, and eventually learn their lives intersect in more ways than one.

Writer’s Note: I realize how mean that cliffhanger was, so I offer you this chapter in apology. I *hope* it makes up for the torture that last line of chapter 6 created. I think this is my favorite chapter so far, so I really hope you enjoy!!!

Read on AO3 or below

“I’m falling in love with you.” 

Stillness followed as those words left his mouth. They stood before one another, barely inches apart, and somehow it was still too much space. Her hand remained trapped in the confines of his, laying rest over his heart. It was as if the world around them stilled too. There was no noise, no wind, no movement, just the two of them there on her walkway, their hearts beating in sync with one another.

It took her a minute to process. At first, she wasn’t even sure if it was real — if the words that left his mouth weren’t just some figment of her imagination. Then she noticed the look on his face, the firm set of his jaw, and the glimmer in his eyes, and it was all enough to assure her that it was real. 

She released her hand from his grasp, reaching up to cradle his face. He closed his eyes with the touch, his hands finding her waist, pulling her even closer against him. It was the type of touch and intimacy that was unfamiliar for them, yet it felt like a habit they’d practiced every day. She raised up, ready to let everything go, the thought of his lips against hers the only thing on her mind. Then, he removed his hands from her waist and brought them to rest on her forearms, pushing her away gently. 

“You’ve had a lot to drink tonight,” he told her, a pang of regret in his voice.

She released the breath she was holding, dropping her forehead against his chest as she let out a confounded, “I know.”

“Trust me, I want this, I just want it when we both have a clear state of mind,” he told her, and she pulled away so that she could look up into his eyes. His level of honor and restraint only made it harder for her not to jump him right then. Though as difficult as it was to admit, she agreed. She wasn’t so happy about it in that moment, but she knew the future and sober version of herself would appreciate their prudence.

“You know, you ruined my surprise,” she whispered as her hands dropped from his face to his collar, fidgeting with it for a moment before resting against his chest. 

He cocked his head at her, his left brow raising to voice his lack of understanding. 

“That thing I needed to tell you earlier… I was going to say I’m falling in love with you too.” 

He bit his bottom lip to smother the smile that broke out with her words. He then grabbed her hand from his chest, slowly raising it up to leave a kiss on the top. Her eyes fluttered closed, melting at the sensation of his lips against her skin. God was she regretting those last few shots of tequila. 

“Goodnight, Hailey,” he said as his lips pulled away from her hand, a low gruff in his voice sending shivers down her spine.

“Goodnight, Jay,” she told him, grudgingly pulling away from his grasp.

She turned and walked up to her front door, turning around when she got there to see he was watching her every move.

She wasn’t just falling in love with him, she was nose-diving, like she had been shoved from a precipice with no warning. Hearing him say those words back only made it worse, giving her that feeling of falling all over again. Though, as enraptured as it made her, it also scared her half to death. She chose to push those fears aside for the time being. They were falling for one another, and that was the only thing that seemed to matter.

— — — —

“Upton! You coming to Molly’s tonight?” a voice echoed through the small locker room, startling her as she shoved the last of her things into her bag. When she closed her locker door, Adam was standing behind it with a look of anticipation on his face. Kim stood behind him with a similar look, both of them eagerly waiting for her response.

“I’m sorry, I have plans,” she told them. She had to force a sad tone, trying her best to keep the smile from breaking away at the thought of said plans.

Not even the hangover Hailey had woken with the morning after the confession was enough to dampen her mood. The first thing she saw when she woke was a text from him. 

Good Morning, please don’t work late tonight. We have plans. 

And don’t even ask, it’s a surprise ;)

She spent the rest of the day staring at the clock, and to her delight, the case wrapped early. 

She slugged her bag over her shoulder as she moved to exit the locker room. Kim and Adam followed her movements, keeping their eyes on her as she kept her stare straight ahead. 

“C’mon, it’s your last few days of desk duty. That’s something worth celebrating. Also, you’re starting to give me a complex. I’m thinking maybe you just don’t like us,” Adam said, the playful twitch in his voice making her chuckle. 

“Shut up. You know I love you guys, I just… have plans,” she said, nervously trying to avoid having to explain exactly what her plans were, or rather, who her plans were with.

“Uh huh. Are we ever going to get to meet these plans?” Kim questioned, her inquisitive look implying the double meaning of the word. 

“I- I don’t even know what that means,” Hailey laughed out, shaking her head as she felt her cheeks burn. 

“Oh, but I think you do,” she said, Adam’s head now snapping in her direction. Hailey opened her mouth to object, but Kim cut her off. 

“Please, don’t think I haven’t noticed the way your face lights up when your phone buzzes. I’ve seen it for weeks, I guess I just figured you would’ve told us by now,” she shrugged.

“You know, now that you say it, I’ve noticed that too,” Adam butted in. 

“Hm, maybe it’s about time you both make detective then,” Hailey said sarcastically, pushing the door for the bullpen open as they descended the stairs into the lobby. 

The department wasn’t as big as it seemed. Hailey had come to learn everyone was connected in one way or another, so revealing anything could mean inadvertently breaking her promise to Jay. She found it best to avoid the subject in any way she could, which meant avoiding even the idea of him when it came to talking to anyone in the CPD.  

“Why don’t you invite him out tonight? We’d love to meet him,” Adam proposed. 

She tried to come up with an excuse, and she was grateful when her thoughts were cut short.

“You three, come here,” Trudy instructed. They shared a look between one another before descending the rest of the stairs and coming to lean against her desk.

“Little birdie tells me you’re back in the field soon,” Trudy said leaning over her desk as she directed her attention to Hailey. 

“Your source may be correct,” she told her, forcing a slight smile that hid her mixed feelings about the idea.

“That’s great. Try not to get shot again, will ya?” Trudy said bluntly. 

“Yeah, copy that,” Hailey said, rolling her eyes as she smiled at the sergeant. 

“You two,” she addressed, pointing to Adam and Kim. “Either of you hear from Halstead?”

“Halstead?” Hailey questioned before either could answer.

“Yeah, he’s the other detective who’s on furlough,” Adam told her before directing his attention back to Trudy. “I haven’t heard a peep since the day before he left.” 

“Neither have I. I still can’t believe he just up and left out of nowhere,” Kim added.

It was the first time Hailey was hearing anything about the detective. Curiosity got the best of her, so she pressed the conversation further. 

“Where’d he go?” 

“No clue. Voight came in one morning with furlough papers on his desk, along with a note that said he was going on some long-planned trip. It was super unexpected-“ Adam’s voice continued on, but Hailey’s mind failed to comprehend a single word.

Her vision blurred and the noise around her muffled. Her mind brought her back to that first night with Jay. When he was still a nameless stranger, telling her his story for the first time.

My team doesn’t know about my cancer. They think I’m on vacation, traveling the world or sitting on a beach somewhere.

Suddenly, she made a connection she should have seen from the beginning. Voight had told her about the detective who took furlough, the whole reason he’d brought her onto the team in the first place. It would be a lie to say the thought hadn’t crossed her mind, but she didn’t entertain it enough to actually believe it could be true. Hearing Adam talk about this Halstead guy, giving an eerily similar story to what she knew about Jay’s team? It made her nervous. She wasn’t even sure why. Her first thought was that it was some unwarranted guilt for being his replacement. She didn’t exactly take his position, but some paranoid part of her imagined him seeing it that way — as some sort of betrayal. Before her mind could roam too far, she snapped back into focus. 

“I really have to get going,” she lied, looking down at the time on her phone then bringing her attention back to the trio before her. 

“Have fun with your plans!” Kim called out as Hailey moved to exit the building. She waved a hand back, not turning around to let them see how rattled she was.

She didn’t want to stick around for more details. She didn’t want to have the theory confirmed. She figured if she could continue to live in her world of blissful ignorance, everything would be okay. 

She was halfway home, lost in her thoughts when her phone rang. His contact popped up on her screen, and it was enough to cast away all of the cloudy thoughts fogging her brain. The rest of the night was about being with him, about openly sharing those feelings she’d tried to keep locked up for weeks. Whether or not he was the same detective from her unit, she wasn’t going to let the idea and whatever implications it carried ruin her night with him. 

When she got home, she took a little extra time to pull herself together. He’d told her he was picking her up, remaining vague about the evening’s plans, so she kept in her work clothes and just fluffed out her curls a little more than usual. Her heart picked up in her chest when she heard a knock at her door. She felt like a teenager, giddy about her crush coming to pick her up for a date. 

The wide smile she was greeted with on the other side of the door immediately had her grinning right back. 

“Hi,” he said, the smile never leaving his lips. 

“Hi,” she returned as she joined him on the stoop, closing the door and locking it on her way out.

He grabbed her hand as they walked out to the street, interlocking their fingers as he pulled her closer to him. She looked up at him, that same smile stuck on her face. She could get used to being that close to him. 

He drove them deep into the city, and she tried piecing together what he had in mind. He’d asked her about her day, and she’d asked him about his, but none of that small talk distracted her enough from eventually figuring out their intended destination. It wasn’t until he was pulling into a random parking lot by the river that her heart officially dropped into her stomach. 

“No…” she whispered. He just chuckled from the driver’s seat, shifting the truck into park as he looked over at her. 

“Jay, I am not jumping into the Chicago River. Do you know how polluted that thing is? And don’t even get me started on the number of bodies I’ve had to pull out of there,” she rambled and he reached over, placing a hand on her knee, making her freak out for an entirely different reason.

“You don’t have to, but it would be more fun if you did it with me,” he said, rubbing his thumb against her jeans. 

“Are you sure you even need to be doing this? Isn’t your immune system wrecked by the chemo and everything?” a sudden look of panic overcame her face.

“I don’t plan on drinking the water, Hailey. I’ll be fine,” he assured. The tense look on her face told him she wasn’t so convinced.

They eventually got out of the truck, and he gathered a bunch of towels from the back. It was nearly 9 pm by that time, so it was dark, and not to mention very cold out. Chicago Autumn was nowhere near as brutal as Chicago Winter, but it wasn’t exactly swimming weather either.  

As they approached the bridge, she only became even more nervous. He’d settled by a bench on the riverwalk, dropping towels on it before kicking his boots off and shooting her a questioning look.

“Last chance,” he said, prepared to make the walk up to the walkway of the bridge alone. She blamed it on a brief lapse of sanity, but she couldn’t shake the idea of wanting to join him. She wasn’t sold on the idea, but she also didn’t think she could bear to watch him jump in alone. 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered. She shook her head as she kicked her own shoes off, resting them next to his. 

“I’m coming with you.”

“What?” he asked, a smile breaking away across his lips. 

“It’s the whole point of the list, right? Make some memories… live a little?”

His smile grew and he nodded, holding out his hand for her to grab as they walked up to the bridge together. They probably looked insane, walking on the bridge barefoot in the middle of the night. When they made it to the ledge, the nerves only got worse as she looked down into what she knew to be very cold water below. 

“Are you sure about this?” she asked as he released her hand to climb over the railing. 

“We’re still breathing aren’t we?” he returned, and she shook her head at him with a nervous groan. 

Once he was on the other side, he balanced himself with one hand on the railing behind him and offered her his other. She took it hesitantly, climbing over to join him on the other side. With one hand joined with his and the other grasping the metal behind her, she looked down into the dark water.

“Ready?”

She whimpered. 

“If I catch a disease from this, I’m blaming you.” 

He laughed, pausing only for a second before taking the leap without warning, his grip on her hand pulling them down together. 

She let out a scream as their bodies gave way to gravity, and in a matter of seconds, they were submerged under the unbearably cold water. The sensation sent chills throughout her body as every muscle tensed up. When her head rose above the surface, she gasped for air, looking around for Jay. She treaded water for a second, her head swiveling around to try and find him. A brief panic overcame her, but then his head popped up a few feet away and she let out a sigh of relief. Somehow the beanie he wore survived the jump.  

“See that was not so bad!” he called out, his cheeky laugh causing her to swipe water at his face.

They swam to the riverwalk, and Jay pulled himself up onto the sidewalk first as Hailey followed behind. The swimming and the effort it took to pull her up must have been too much for her shoulder, and she winced in pain as she exerted herself up onto the sidewalk.

“You okay?” he asked, reaching out to help her stand once she was on solid ground.

“Yeah, that just made my arm a little sore,” she said, rolling her shoulder out.

“Here,” he told her, grabbing a towel and walking towards her. He wrapped it around her tightly, giving her a smile before wrapping himself up in one of his own. 

They carried their shoes back to the truck, their feet leaving footprints on the dry pavement. Out of nowhere, she began to laugh, drying the droplets that trailed down her face with the edge of the towel. 

“What?” he asked as he blindly laughed along with her. 

“I can’t believe we just did that,” she said, shaking her head. 

“Worth it though, right?” 

“Debatable,” she muttered as her teeth chattered. 

When they made it back to the truck, they threw their shoes into the back, and he immediately got his keys to start it up. He was trying to get it as warm as possible before they climbed in. 

“Hang tight a bit, I’ve got some more towels for the seats.”

She hoisted herself up onto the tailgate, scrunching the towel against the ends of her hair to dry the droplets leaving tiny puddles all around her. Every part of her body was shivering. The wet sweater she wore clung to her skin, only making her even colder. She did a quick scope around, finding herself in the clear before trying to tug the sweater over her head. She found it hard trying to pull her right arm through. The pain from her irritated shoulder made it almost impossible, and she let out a sharp wince every time she tried. 

Jay walked around the truck, his movements halting when he noticed what she was trying to do.

“Do you need help?” he asked hesitantly. She was half topless with her right arm stuck in the sleeve of her shirt, and she found it sweet that he was so seemingly unsure of if it was okay to look at her like that. 

“Uh, if you don’t mind,” she said, her chest rising and falling quickly, no longer just because of how cold she was.

He made his way over, standing between her legs as he helped pull the sweater over her head and slide her remaining arm out of the sleeve. He tossed it somewhere in the back of the truck and quickly took the towel from beside her to wrap it over her shoulders, pinching the ends together at her chest.

“Thanks,” she said. He nodded before picking a towel up for himself, resting it between his knees as he removed his own shirt. Her breath caught in the back of her throat as she saw his bare torso, the muscles contracting and relaxing as he pulled the shirt over his head. He kept the beanie on as he draped the towel over his shoulders, and she frowned as she watched water continue to trail down his face from it.

“You don’t have to wear that for me,” she told him in a low voice, her eyes pointing to his head. His mouth parted as if he were going to object, but she just reached out to him, pulling him closer by his arm. She watched him swallow hard as the gap closed between them and he was right back to standing between her legs. She took the hat off slowly, causing him to shudder. His hair was thin and patchy, but it still had a slight wave in it. It wasn’t as bad as he’d warned. She actually found him to be far more attractive without the hat. 

“Brunette. Very light brown, but brunette,” she voiced with a smile, dropping the beanie beside her. 

His breath was shallow, and he remained silent for a moment.  

“I know it looks bad, you don’t have to be nice,” he said evenly, his mouth barely moving as he spoke. The insecure look on his face and the way he couldn’t look her in the eyes filled her heart with pain.

“Jay-“ 

She couldn’t find the words, so she grabbed the sides of his face, pulling him down to her so that she could pepper a slow trail of kisses against the top of his head. Then her lips trailed down his temple and to his cheek, finally pulling away to rest her forehead against his. 

“You’re perfect,” she whispered. “Plus, you should know I kind of have a thing for brunettes.”

She felt him let out a relieved sigh as his mouth curled up at the sides. Instead of responding he just leaned into her and captured her lips with his. 

Her shoulders dropped as she kissed him back. She felt his hands almost immediately snake under her towel to slide against her waist. His fingertips against her bare skin sent chills throughout her body and made her pull him even closer to her. The kiss was hungry and slow, and she was certain she’d never been kissed that way before. When she pulled away, he followed, and when she slid a hand down his chest, his grip on her waist tightened. It was the kind of kiss that made her lose all sense of time and space — the kind you only dream about. He moved his hands to her legs, gripping the sides of her thighs to pull her closer toward him, and eventually those same hands rose to grab at the sides of her face. He instilled a warmth in her that was almost enough to make her forget how cold she was, a warmth that lingered even after he’d pulled away.

“Wow,” she muttered, mindlessly playing with the chain around his neck. 

“Yeah,” he said, stroking a thumb down her jaw as his eyes blinked open. 

“I uh- I don’t mean to cut this short,” she breathed out, still trying to catch her breath. “But it’s really cold, and I desperately need to get out of these clothes.”

They laughed and he raised a brow at her, causing her to swat the back of her hand at his chest. 

“Not like- You know what I mean,” she giggled.  

“I do,” he grinned. He leaned down and left one last peck on her lips before grabbing her waist to help her down. “Let’s go.” 

As she thawed out on the drive home, she also cooled down from that moment they shared. Then she thought about her unintentionally suggestive comment. They hadn’t talked about it, they hadn’t exactly had the chance to, but she wanted to take things slow. Maybe part of it was not wanting to accept the option that left them with a short amount of time together, or maybe it was the fact that she’d never really figured out what a real relationship should look like. Either way, she knew what they had was unlike anything she’d ever had with anyone else. She wanted to make sure they did things right. Though she wasn’t exactly sure if he was on that same page. 

“Hey, um I know time’s not exactly on our side, but I do want to take my time with us… with you,” she told him as his eyes flickered from the road to her.

“I want that too,” he nodded, reaching over and intertwining their fingers together. 

“You do? You’re okay if I want to take things slow?” she asked him, uncertainty clear in the way the words left her mouth. 

“I don’t have any expectations, Hailey. All I know is I want you, and I want this. Everything else we can take day by day,” he said, squeezing her hand gently. She smiled, reaching over and grabbing at his face to leave a kiss against his jaw. 

— — — — 

Hailey insisted on a shower the second they made it back to her place. Jay took that as an opportunity to order dinner, light a fire, and build a bed of pillows on her living room floor. She just about melted into a puddle when she came out to find the setup, a still shirtless Jay trying to dry his pants by the warmth of the fire. 

“How’s your shoulder?” he asked as she sauntered her way over, her mouth agape at his surprise as she brought her arms to wrap around his neck.

“Better,” she said, flashing him a dimpled grin. Her eyes surveyed the room before meeting his again.

“I never would have guessed you were a romantic,” she teased, her eyes pointing to the setup before them.

“Shut up,” he said, rolling his eyes as his fingers tightened around her waist. 

“I can throw those in the dryer if you want to shower real quick,” she told him as she nodded to his soggy pants, her fingers once again fidgeting with the chain around his neck. 

“My shirt’s in the back of my truck, any chance you got a shirt I could borrow?”

“I don’t know I kinda like this look you’re rocking right now,” she said, sliding a hand down to poke a finger at his bare chest. He let out a chuckle, his cheeks turning a bright shade of pink as he sent her a smirk that could make her knees buckle. “But… if you insist on putting a shirt on, I’m sure I have one that’ll work.” 

“Okay,” he murmured. He leaned forward and her face scrunched up as he left a light kiss on the tip of her nose. “Be right back.” 

He left his clothes out in the hallway and she tossed them in the dryer. She had a collection of oversized shirts she often wore to bed, so finding one that fit him wasn’t hard. She picked one out and left it on the door handle of the bathroom before making her way back to the living room to wait for him.

Not long later, he returned in just the shirt and his boxers, causing a smirk to creep across Hailey’s face. 

“Actually, I think I like this look better,” she told him as he made his way over to her.

“The jeans were still damp, also I figured if you get to be comfy, so do I,” he smirked, helping her with the boxes of takeout splayed across her coffee table. 

“Hey, you don’t see me complaining,” she winked at him. “I’m going to go get a beer from the fridge, you want one?”

“Sure,” he said, nestling into the pillows she was retreating from.

When she made it to the kitchen, she checked her phone that rested on the counter. She had one text from Kim. The message elicited a mindless smile the second she opened it. It was a picture of Kim, Kevin, and Adam at Molly’s, their drinks raised in the air as their bright smiles lit up the screen.

I hope your PLANS are treating you well. Totally not sending this to make you miss us ;)

Her smile fell when she looked over at Jay in her living room and she was reminded of the conversation at the district earlier that evening. What if he really was the same detective from Intelligence who took furlough, the one who left them shorthanded, the one whose spot she had filled. Part of her wanted to talk to him about it, but then again she found it pointless to try and put out a fire she wasn’t even sure was lit yet. She took a step back from it, trying to settle her mind on just being with him, savoring every bit of that perfect night that she could. She pulled two beers from the fridge before turning her phone off and rejoining him in the living room. 

The rest of the night was filled with easy conversations, tangled-up bodies, and lazy kisses. Yet, there were a few times that night when she tried the name on him. Jay Halstead. She repeated it in her head, and she couldn’t shake the way it seemed to fit him so well. Then her mind would drift to a reality where it was true. A reality where he was better and he was back at work, and they were partners, and they worked well together, and that same way he naturally made her feel safe translated to when they were on the job. She was pulled even further into the fantasy when she imagined they would get to go home and work well together there too, build a family, spend time with their friends, and everything in that reality seemed to be so perfect. It seemed like the kind of well-lived memories she would have wanted to have when she woke up in that hospital room.

Then she looked over at his beautiful face in the orange glow of the fire before them, the light from the flames creating dancing shadows across his face, and she realized he wasn’t that guy and that wasn’t their reality. To her, he was just Jay, and their reality was perfect moments and indefinite timing. Though that might not be as ideal as that one she’d created, she just knew she wanted every moment with him she could get. He’d taught her how to live, how to find a way to appreciate life outside of her job, and it made her that much more grateful for everything he was. She found some solace in that, so she tried to push that fantasy from her mind completely. Though no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t help but replay the name Jay Halstead in her mind. It made her wonder if maybe that was one part of her fantasy that carried some sort of truth.

[angelanimedesaray]

Wings in the Dark Chapter 4: Limelight

AN:  Ah...next chapter.  I keep finding myself thinking about/writing Wings in the Dark even though I’ve got so many other stories to keep up with, some of which are only one piece away from being done or oneshots XD

Also I apologize I keep forgetting to put Fem!Vampire!Reader, I keep getting lazy there...tagging error.

Characters:  Levi, Fem!Vampire!Reader, Erwin, Oluo, Petra, Gunther, Eld, Various BG Characters

Pairing:  (Eventual) Levi x Fem!Vampire!Reader

Warnings:  Language, Blood, Peril, Mentions of Death

Word Count:  6101

<----Previous Chapter    Masterlist    Next Chapter---->

*Reader’s POV*

Beneath you, Zephyr shifted from foot to foot, the crowding of Scouts in the street just before the gate looking disorganized, but each squad in specific places meant to make the transition once outside the walls much easier.  You knew where you were in the formation, right with the vanguard--not quite at the front though, since you were still a rookie.  Instead, you were in a message position.

Just a few horses in front of you, you could see Captain Levi and his squad, their gazes fixed forward like most of the Scouts.  Your hand fluttered briefly to your neck as you gazed up at the giant wall that was casting its shade upon most of the gathered Scouts, your heartbeat quickening as the reality of what was happening settled over you.

Decades without open air and sunlight before you managed to find the key that would allow you to walk on the surface in the sun once more.  Never before venturing outside the walls.  Now here you were, about to ride out beyond its boundaries into open, fresh air and sunlight where there was no edge where a wall or some other boundary of mankind kept you in.

As if sensing your restlessness, Zephyr pawed at the ground, antsy and ready to move forward.  The horse standing behind you at the end of a lead had been jumpy since being handed off to you, but its nerves were only getting worse between the aura you and Zephyr were radiating.  Your grip tightened on the reins, gaze fixated on that gate that you were begging to just raise already and let you shoot out into the world.

This was what you were here for.  You’d finally made it.  Now was the time to throw yourself all in for the cause.  Messenger or not, you were going to do everything you could to help.

The brick gate up ahead finally finished rumbling, and a pure white horse holding Commander Erwin Smith reared up.

“Forward!”

Your heart leapt into your throat, and it took everything inside you to wait until the people in front of you started to move forward before your heels pressed lightly into Zephyr’s hindquarters, urging the speckled grey mare forward.  Your breaths came rapidly as the brick gate approached, head tilting up on instinct as you went through the tunnel, momentarily plunged into darkness with light piercing through the end before Zephyr burst through, one set of many thundering hooves as you broke past the wall.

Green grass rolled out before you with towering trees dotting along the horizon, stretching as far as you could see, further.  The wind whipped at your hair, sun beating down on you harmlessly as you soaked in the unbridled rays, lips parted as you took a deep breath of truly free air.

This was a feeling you would never forget.  It was as if the wings upon your cape would emerge and spread wide, carrying you up into the blue sky far above and off to a land where there were no stifling walls real, social, or in your mind, no secrets and constant hiding of who you were.

Feeling eyes on you at your reaction to crossing beyond the walls for the first time, you closed your eyes briefly, the self-imposed darkness grounding you back to reality as you reminded yourself what the goal was here, what you were supposed to be doing.  You had a purpose out here, and the others couldn’t afford your distraction.

Your head lowered from its tilted back position, and your eyes opened with focus burning in your gaze, fixed forward as you leaned slightly over Zephyr’s neck.  Within a few minutes of running straight forward, the formation began to take shape, Scouts spreading out to the left and right while most of the cargo stayed in the middle.  You were one of the ones who went out to the right, falling into place at a relay point with your skittish extra horse trailing just behind Zephyr.  Off to your left, you could see Levi Squad, within eyesight but still quite a distance away and placed closer to command than you.

While everyone here had to depend upon smoke signals and their own limited sight to tell them if a Titan was approaching, you were at a unique advantage when it came to the task of spotting Titans.  You could hear them long before you could see them, but your sight was much better than the other’s here, as well.  You would be able to tell if there was a Titan approaching long before anyone else, which could drastically help the mortality rates of the Scouts if you could use your abilities.

Of course, the matter was complicated by the fact that you would have to wait until there was visual confirmation of a Titan if you didn’t want to look like you were firing flares into the sky for the hell of it, which you were certain would piss many people off very quickly.  So, you were restrained to detecting where the Titans were, and keeping track of them until they got close enough.

If it was a big enough threat, though, you would take the risk.  You would still have to wait if you wanted people to believe you, but you weren’t going to wait as long if it was something like a horde of Titans or a clustering of abnormals.

That part you had decided ahead of time.  The rest you would play by ear and see what happened, or simply play the role you had been assigned for this expedition.

*Levi’s POV*

While Levi and his squad had their duties that went with their position in the long range formation, Levi had his secondary objective to observe L/N from a distance, keeping an eye on her at least partially at all times while his squad handled much of the spotting and message relaying, Levi only giving curt orders when necessary.  They certainly wondered what was causing his distraction, but no one questioned it, especially from the serious look on his face.

He’d been watching L/N from the moment they rushed out of the gate beyond the walls, her reaction reminding him strongly of himself, Isabel, and Furlan when they’d first gone beyond the walls.

Before he could have someone snap her out of it so she was paying attention, she’d brought herself back around, snapping back to full focus on the task at hand impressively fast despite how swept away she’d been moments before.

With the more central position Levi’s squad held, they were better positioned to be sent whichever direction they might be needed if shit hit the fan, and the more protected position than the vanguard and the relay lines allowed Levi to put more of his focus on L/N without causing unnecessary risk.  No doubt that was part of the reason Erwin had arranged them the way they were for this expedition.

At first, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.  She kept her head on a swivel, fired the signal flares at the appropriate time to pass along the message to shift the direction of the formation.  However, Levi eventually began to catch the anomaly he might have overlooked if she’d been a little further away, or he’d been a little more distracted by what was going on in his position.

Her head stopped swiveling, her gaze fixing in certain directions for long stretches of time before she would fire off her flares.  At the most, her head might twitch in one direction or another, but nothing more.  The big give away, however, was the fact that he occasionally caught sight of her loading a flare into her flare gun long before the signals went off.  As if she knew it was coming.

Either she had insane intuition, or she was able to see something they couldn’t.

It was a good thing he'd noticed her focus and how she seemed to be picking up on approaching Titans before the vanguard, because it greatly effected how he reacted when she fired a shot before even the vanguard.  She went perfectly still, head turned forward right towards an outcropping of trees in the distance.  She stayed gazing in that direction for several long moments before she suddenly reached into her pack, loaded her flare gun, and fired a black smoke signal into the air.

Everyone reacted with surprise from the display, Levi included, considering no Titan could be seen, and she was not relaying a signal from the vanguard.  Immediately, the others began to grumble and complain at rookie audacity, what she thought she was doing, the usual complaints.  Levi, however, was staring hard at her back, noting how she was still staring in the same direction, thinking of how she'd been aware of every flare coming so far…

"Gunther, relay that signal."

The complaints about L/N stopped, the others looking at Levi in surprise.  "Sir…" Petra ventured to say in a cautious tone, clearly not wanting to question him but doubtful of the black flare's accuracy.  Still, Levi could hear Gunther preparing to fire the shot behind him, even as Petra continued.  "That signal is coming from nowhere, the rest of the vanguard haven't even fired anything."

"Because she's spotted something they haven't," Levi said bluntly, as behind him Gunther relayed the signal, which went down the rest of the line to Command.  Erwin’s green shot fired into the air shortly after what must have been a confusingly sudden short burst of signals.

Levi kept his gaze on L/N the entire time, except the direction change, looking for the payoff or justification for her sudden signal.  At first, he didn't think he would see it.

In the distance, within that outcropping of trees that had held her attention before and was now further away from them thanks to the direction shift she’d prompted, Levi saw something clear the treetops.  It was hard to catch at this distance, but the scattering of birds from those trees helped confirm what he was seeing.  Within a few moments, two fleshy figures of Titans burst through the treeline, one running sporadically forward and the other leaping around, both headed in the direction of the formation.

There was more distance between the formation and the abnormals, thanks to their shift, which gave them more time to respond, but they were still going to collide with the ranks.  He could see L/N coiling atop her horse, ready to leap into action if they broke past the vanguard and reached her position, eyes no doubt fixed on the incoming threats.

“Captain, should we go assist?” Petra asked from behind him.

“If they break through the vanguard ranks, yes,” Levi said, gaze sweeping over the other positions in the formation that held less skilled rookies.  He didn’t want to risk abnormal Titans colliding with the newbies, so he’d make sure they were stopped there, if the vanguard couldn’t handle them.  Instinctively, Levi tensed as the abnormals reached the front lines...and then burst right past towards L/N’s position.

Abnormal, indeed.

Oluo swore as they saw both abnormals barreling towards L/N, who was already kneeling on the saddle of her horse and waited a few seconds for the abnormals to draw a little closer.  Levi and his squad were already heading towards them before L/N leapt off her horse, one of her cables firing into the rushing Titan since it was at least keeping stably on the ground, swinging around and away from the front of the attacking Titans, firing the other higher up to try and get a quick shot in at the Titan’s nape.

The second Titan shot over the first in a leap towards L/N, forcing L/N to change direction and release her cable from the first Titan.  With a nimbleness that surprised Levi, she pushed off of the arm of the second Titan as it went by to add momentum in the direction she wanted to go, cables releasing again so she could swing between the legs of the first Titan and still avoid it’s reaching arms.

With her cables detached again, she rolled to a stop and got back onto her feet, taking a second to register her position before one of her cables sank into that first Titan's shoulder and she shot towards it again.

At that point Levi and the others were close enough to do something and had a good grasp on the situation.  At Levi's orders, Eld, Oluo, and Gunther broke off to deal with the jumping one while Levi and Petra rushed to intercept the one L/N was handling.  Levi had a pretty good idea of what she was trying to do, but expecting it to go terribly wrong, he was trying to reach her before she lost a limb. Or her head.

The Titan snapped at her as she came within biting distance, but she let loose a burst of gas at the last second to sail over its shoulder, twisting in midair as the men handling the other Titan let out an alarmed shout.

Both cables sank into the shoulder blades of the first Titan and brought her in close with her feet landed just below its nape, and she sliced neatly through, killing it in one stroke.  As she turned with the strike, the second Titan came into her view, ignoring Eld, Gunther, and Oluo entirely as it launched for her, still anchored onto the falling Titan.

The cables disengaged so she could fall back and drop out of range of its maw, feet barely missing the teeth as she dropped vertically and headfirst towards the ground.

Eld went in for a quick kill while it was fixated on L/N.

"No!"

"Wait!"

"Eld!"

At angles they could see where the Titan's attention was trained, L/N, Levi, and Perra, respectively, all shouted out for him not to go for the obvious kill. Its eyes had shifted in the direction the cable came from, towards Eld, and it swung out an arm that caught the wire.  Eld was sent careening to the ground, the jumping Titan punching toward him with jaw agape again as the now-injured man got up to right himself, cables still sliding back into place and unable to deploy yet.

Two blurs in opposite directions cut through the air at the front and back of the Titan.  Levi was at the back, slicing cleanly through the nape to kill it before it could kill Eld.  At the front and coming from the opposite direction, was L/N, slicing through arms and bottom jaw in a wide arc to render it unable to eat Eld.

As they passed each other in the air, they momentarily locked eyes, and instead of fear or anger which commonly filled the eyes of the recruits, Levi saw...exhilaration.

Considering one of his men almost got killed, she better be taking this fucking seriously.

As they both landed on the ground at opposite ends of the Titan body, Levi turned to see her already sheathing her blades and approaching Eld to make sure he was okay and help him to his feet.  Gunther and Oluo were close behind, pulling beside them as Eld was brought to his feet and Levi stalked towards them from behind.

"Are you both alright?" Gunther asked.

"That was a hell of a risky move you pulled there, rookie--your leg got cut open when you decided to jump right through its mouth!" Oluo chastised.

Levi’s gaze dropped to her leg, the large tear diagonally across her leg now clear, with bloodstains along the frayed edges of the fabric.  But the skin of her calf was unblemished save for a slightly angry red mark running parallel to the rip.

"Hm?" She asked in confusion, turning back to glance down at the offended leg before she twisted so the others could see.  "It was risky, and close, but it didn't draw blood.  Just a graze," she remarked, eyes lifting to see Levi approaching.

He was caught between angry and indifferent, with a bit of reluctantly impressed.  He couldn't exactly chastise her for endangering the others with that out in the open now, could he?  She'd been handling them alone off circumstance before they intervened, and when one of his men was in danger of dying, she'd apparently risked a leg to intervene.

It was still reckless, even if in the moment she'd deemed it necessary.  She was a rookie out here, she didn't know the full extent of her capabilities against the Titans yet.

Levi’s gaze slid momentarily to the two rapidly dissipating Titan bodies.

Or perhaps she did…

"Petra, help Eld.  Everyone, get a move on, before we're left behind," he said instead, turning back to his horse as L/N let out a sharp whistle to call her horse.  The dappled grey appeared with the spare horse in tow and still tied to the saddlehorn via the lead so it wouldn't run off.

Once he was certain everyone was mobile and Eld was being taken care of, Levi led the way for his group to rejoin the formation, L/N racing off to retake her position.

Levi’s gaze wandered back towards the pillars of steam that billowed into the air from the dead Titans.

Why had they both been so set on /her/ that they blew past everyone else?

*Reader’s POV*

"All right, we need people for the night watch, so if--"

"I'll do it," you said before he could even finish, standing up from your spot around the fire as you spoke.

All he had to say was night watch.  It was another one of the things you felt that you were the most suited for, considering you were a creature of the night.  You would do far better in darkness than anyone else around you.

After volunteering to be one of the people on night watch, you were sent up into the nearby trees to give you a better vantage point, able to gracefully find your way up onto a tree branch without issue.  Once where you were supposed to be, you took a seat, resting your head against the trunk as your gaze wandered across your surroundings, allowing your hearing to focus so it was listening for things in the distance or abnormal sounds within the vicinity of the camp.  As such, the cacophony of people speaking to one another before heading to bed faded away into a faint buzz in the back of your mind, allowing you to focus on your watch.

This also gave you a moment to reflect on your first day out in the field, and the unexpected consequence of your presence that you had discovered.  So intent on contributing to the Scouts and using your abilities to assist them, you'd forgotten some basic predatory instincts.

Out here, the Titans were at the top of the food chain.  Within the walls, it was vampires.  The Titans were mainly active in the day but quiet at night, and vampires normally thrived in the dark and could not go out in the sun--you were an exception, thanks to something you had taken from a vampire far older and more experienced than you.  There was a clear division between the two preventing them from coming into contact with each other, mostly the night and day difference and the literal wall dividing their environments.  But you had just entered their habitat, and you were well aware that a vampire could still be killed by a Titan if they got careless, or if the Titan got one lucky bite in.  As such, you didn't consider vampires at the top of the food chain when placed in the same space as Titans, but adjacent to them.

The Titans had focused on you, likely because you were an invasive, competitive predator in their lands.  You were a threat to them and their food supply, and they could not safely feed if there was a vampire in the area.

As such, if the opportunity presented itself, they were going to target you first.

Lovely.

This was new, dangerous information, and you were still deciding how to react to it.  Maybe not every Titan would completely ignore a meal in front of them if there was a vampire nearby, but today two abnormals had barged right through the vanguard to get to you.  It wasn't something you could ignore.

For a while, your watch went undisturbed, allowing you to quietly stew in your thoughts high up in the trees, before a sound broke through your filtered hearing, and your attention snapped into full focus.

Down below, hidden by the tall grass, darkness, and trees, you could make out the spread out shapes of a wolf pack stalking closer to camp, towards where some of the horses were hitched for the night.

Bold wolves.  Or perhaps they were desperate, or had yet to learn to be afraid of mankind.  Either way, you couldn't let the wolves get to the horses, the lifeline out here for the Scouts.

Quietly, since the way you wanted to handle this couldn't be seen by the other Scouts, you dropped down from the trees, crouching low to the ground and blending into darkness as you moved to intercept the wolves while they were still shrouded in darkness and the environment.  When you put yourself firmly in their path, the tension in the air shifted.

For the wolves, while they were in a pack, you were a more dangerous predator, one that they would normally avoid.  As such, the pack's attention shifted, and you let out a low snarl, red eyes flashing in the night and fangs barred as the wolves cautiously stalked closer to you.  They loosely encircled you, and you quickly tried to assess each one, looking for the alpha, the one who acted first that the rest followed.  The wolves got dangerously close before you managed to pick it out, and you spun around to face the alpha head on, making yourself look big and keeping that snarl.

It hesitated, stared at you for a few moments, and then the grey wolf leapt forward to attack. Anticipating the motion, you plucked it out of the air, arms wrapping around its furry upper body and slamming it into the ground, causing it to yelp and yip as you held it down, pinned, its throat exposed.

You held it there for several moments, making sure the rest of the pack could see the alpha had been bested before you let the wolf up, the large creature immediately taking the opportunity to run and letting out a high-pitched howl for the rest of the pack to follow as it raced away.

Composing yourself once again, you turned back to the camp, heading in the direction of the horses to make sure they were alright, several Scouts intercepting you just before you reached camp.

"We heard wolves."

"What were you doing out there?"

"I chased them off.  They were thinking about going after the horses," you assured them calmly.  "All it took was a well aimed rock and the sounds of quite a few humans from behind to chase them off," you said, explaining the yips and their sudden absence with ease.

"Right.  Back to your posts, or back to bed, whichever it is for you.  Go on," one of the senior officers commanded to get everyone to disperse again.  You didn't say anything more, feeling no need to as you instead used the ODM gear to return to your perch in the trees.

*Levi's POV*

While Levi was checking his gear to make sure it was still in peak shape for the rest of the expedition, his squad had their fireside discussion about the day's events, the topics free ranging since Levi seemed to not be paying any attention to them and was a fair distance away.

Mainly, they were talking about the display with the two abnormals.

"Did you see how they charged right through the line towards that rookie?"

"They were abnormals.  You have to stop questioning abnormals so much or you'll drive yourself mad."

"I'm more interested in that rookie.  Did you see how she handled those Titans?"

"No shitting herself or anything--perfectly calm, like she wasn't even bothered."

"It was almost like she was dancing around it for a few moments there--you could even call it graceful."

"And did you see how in sync she was with Captain Levi when they took it down? Even if it was brief?"

"It was still a risky move--she went right through its mouth!"

"That either takes a hefty set of balls, annoying levels of confidence, or sheer insanity."

"I still swear I saw her leg get cut open on those teeth."

"Clearly not. She showed us her leg, it came close and she was damn lucky or pulled it off that well. It was just the rip, the red mark, and some Titan blood."

"Still...she has to be that rookie all those rumors are about, right?"

"The ones about Captain Levi possibly letting a rookie join the squad?  Those are bullshit and you know it."

"I'm not so sure anymore, after seeing her in action.  It's not impossible.  They might wait until she's a little less green, but…"

"Captain Levi did seem a little distracted today.  And our position was right where he could see her at all times."

"So it is possible...it would be weird...and I still think they should wait until she's not so green...but I wouldn't complain."

"It'd be nice to have another girl on the squad…"

Levi stood up at that point, the group's conversation halting as Levi moved, then resuming when they realized he was walking away from the fire, not towards it.

Don't get attached, you idiots. If she's as dangerous as I think she is, she won't be around for long.

Moving further away from where his squad was chatting amongst themselves, Levi headed towards the trees where Erwin was taking at least one night shift, using his ODM gear to bring himself up to the tree branch beside the towering blond.

"I heard those abnormals caused a bit of a stir," Erwin said as Levi settled onto the branch beside him, hardly able to see one another with only faint firelight a ways behind them and moonlight mostly blocked from the trees around them.

"They barreled straight out of a treeline and through the vanguard.  Didn't give them a second thought and went right for L/N."

Erwin looked at Levi with the way he phrased that last line, like there was more to it.  "They were abnormals."

"Yeah...but even abnormals don't usually fixate on just one person.  Not to mention two abnormals at once."

Erwin turned slightly towards Levi.  "They didn't pay attention to anyone other than L/N?"

Levi shook his head.  "Not until Eld went in for a killshot on the last one.  They seemed...drawn to her."

"Interesting…" Erwin murmured, both of their attention drawn by the sound of wolves yipping and then howling, the sound getting further away.  There was a slight commotion at the edge of the camp, with L/N appearing from the darkness in the direction the howling had been and saying a few words before everyone settled back down.  She must have chased them off, then.

"There's more," Levi added, eyes following her figure as she disappeared up into the trees with ODM, apparently one of the few taking a night shift.  "This entire time, she's been picking up on Titans before anyone else sees them, even the vanguard.  She knew those abnormals were coming long before we had visual confirmation."

"That would explain the odd, lone black flare before the others started being fired," Erwin murmured, his gaze fixated in the same direction as Levi.  "Keep watching her.  We won't be out here too much longer, since we'll reach our destination tomorrow.  You can give me the rest of your observations in an official report when we get back."

"Right…" Levi muttered, turning away and heading back to the ground to admonish his squad about still being up and get them to get some rest before they talked the whole night away with their conspiracy theories.

*Reader’s POV*

When you returned from the expedition, you were surprisingly exhausted.  The Scouts had returned a few hours ago, and as soon as you were free of your duties, you headed up to the barracks so you could crawl into your bed and pass out.

While the first day had gone relatively well besides the obvious for all the horror stories about the Scouts and their expeditions, the second day had not gone so smoothly.  Even worse, when the Titans collided with the left vanguard, you couldn't do anything about it but watch Levi Squad break away as they were dispatched to go help.  You were, after all, just a messenger for the right side of the formation for this expedition.

Because of the attack on the left, the Scouts had accumulated a body count and ended up with quite a few injured.  It wasn't bad enough to cause the mission to fail, thankfully, as the Scouts still managed to reach the destination and set up supplies for future expeditions, but after a couple more incidents on the way back, a few more injured and dead were accumulated, and the Scouts were looking rough upon the return to the walls.

On the bright side, if it could be considered a bright side, you were already sitting on two solo Titan kills at the end of the expedition despite being a messenger, you made it through your first expedition, and you knew more about how you would fare against Titans and your usefulness to the cause.

Right now, that was all food for thought at a later point, as you quickly fell asleep once your head hit the pillow and you were finally given the chance to relax.

Unfortunately, it didn't feel like it lasted for very long.  You were woken up by one of your fellow new recruits attempting to get you out of bed, though a quick glance towards the windows told you it was now night--you’d been able to sleep the whole day away.  Yet you still felt groggy and tired.

"Hey, L/N.  L/N!  Get up, already.  Captain Levi wants to see you.  So get to it--last I saw him he was in the library."

*Levi's POV*

"Extraordinary reflexes, stronger than she looks, quick on her feet, calm under pressure, skilled and resourceful with the ODM gear, capable, patient, able to pick up on approaching Titans long before anyone else…" Erwin's fingers tapped lightly on top of Levi's official report of his observations about L/N, the papers sitting in front of him on his desk.  "All this time and all I can see so far are more reasons to make sure she's advantageously placed in the Scouts and used to her full potential."

Levi turned to give Erwin a disbelieving look before it fell into a scowl that was becoming quite common at these meetings between the two to discuss Y/N L/N.

"You can't tell me you're not curious about the how, that nothing about her raises questions?" Levi scoffed.  Erwin leaned forwards, fingers laced together in front of his face.

"Oh, it does.  It seems trying to find out more about L/N only raises more questions instead of providing answers, and I'm determined to start finding answers.  But I'm not talking about wanting to know how.  This started because you said you had a bad feeling about her, that her motives might be malicious.  So far, all you've given me is more material to believe her intentions are at least aligned with our own if not good, and more reasons to make sure she stays part of the Scouts, not anything to prove she's of ill intent."

Levi looked away, teeth grit.  He'd almost fallen into the same trap. Until…

"The night before the expedition, we ran into each other in the mess hall.  She'd just come back from the Underground, which I know because she still had that smell on her...as well as the smell of blood."  Levi turned to look at Erwin, gaze sharp.  "I doubt she was down there healing sick kids considering, as far as we know, the extent of her medical knowledge is the first aid she learned as part of her training."

Erwin frowned, his eyes probing as he studied Levi’s expression.  "That would have been nice to know, sooner."

"It hadn't come up, yet.  And it's not exactly something I can put in an official report."

"It's still not enough to go on, Levi."

"You don't think I know that? It's driving me mad catching these little pieces that suggest something's off about her, and then failing to get anything else.  It doesn't help that she knows I'm watching her."

Erwin sighed, leaning back in his seat with a thoughtful look, gazing down at the report on the desk.

"Go ahead and recruit her for your squad."

Surely he heard him wrong.

"I'm sorry?" Levi asked in surprise.

"Not as a fill member, not yet, anyway.  She's still too green to justify moving her to the special ops team even with how well she did on her first expedition.  Have her start as an aid for you and your squad, that way she's still in a learning and assisting position until she's more seasoned."

"And your reasoning for this is…?  What if she wants this?  Not knowing her motivations--"

"Gives us all the more reason to make this move.  As part of your squad, even as an aid, she'll be directly under your command.  You'll be able to keep a much closer eye on her, find out more about her--I'm sure your squad members will be able to find out things about her naturally on their own time.  Keeping her close is the best play right now."

Levi sighed in frustration.  Sure, he'd considered picking her for his squad already, but his suspicions had killed that desire, at least for now.  Plus, usually he got to choose if and when he added someone to his squad.  He wasn't too keen on being ordered to add her, even if Erwin had a good reason for doing it.

However, it wasn't like he was going to tell Erwin no.  He'd just have to deal with it.

Shaking his head and biting back the complaints he knew didn't mean a damn, Levi changed the subject.  Even though he didn't confirm that he would do as Erwin asked, they both knew he would.

"What about you?  Did your contacts manage to find anything?"

A frown returned to Erwin’s face.  "Like I said, more questions with very few answers."  He took a moment to open one of his desk drawers, pulling out a report and laying it next to Levi’s expedition report.  "I couldn't find a trace of her anywhere inside Wall Rose besides the last few years after she suddenly surfaced.  Even in the town she has listed as where she was born, the closest I came was a girl who shared a first name with her that died tragically over forty years ago.  Maybe it's where she got the name, considering it was a big deal in the town's history, but beyond that, nothing.  Before she appeared on the surface a few years back, she didn’t exist."

Erwkn held out the report for Levi to take.  "Her absence does, however, lend itself to your Underground theory.  Especially if you say she was in the Underground the night before the expedition.  I suggest you pursue that lead--you know the Underground better than anyone else here."

Levi hated the thought of going back down there, even if it was to find some answers.  However, he finally felt like he had something solid to pursue, and he wasn't going to let it slip through his fingers.  He was cornering her, and he was going to pull back the façade and find out what was really happening with her no matter how hard she tried to keep it concealed.

She couldn't hide whatever it was forever.  Especially with Erwin and Levi bearing down on her as hard as they were.

Enough questions.  It was time they started getting answers. 

Next Chapter--->

Levi Tags:  @clary-quinn @humanitys-hottestsoldier @whalerus @sunny-flo @thirstyforsometea​

Wings in the Dark Tags:  @regalillegal @animeluver23 @theshylittleelfgirl @queenthorin1 @dilucs-thighs @sociallyanxiousmouse

[a-long-walk-in-the-forest]

Genjutsu

• Definition

Hypnosis and illusionism to confuse the mind…

It’s some kind of hypnotic technique that drags the target’s mind to an illusory world and may cause confusion or physical/mental exhaustion. The main difference from other jutsu is that it does not directly affect the user’s body. There are many types of Genjutsu that may be used to attack or give a handicap to those who use them.

Advantages: It’s hard to detect who used it. Not only that, there can be many targets all at once.

Disadvantages: Prolonged use exhausts the user and it hardly deals physical damage to the target.

Source: first databook

• Doesn’t just cause illusions but can also be used to control people to some extent (we can probably guess the extent of this control by what the cranial nerves can do)

• Cranial nerves

1. The olfactory nerve transmits sensory information to your brain regarding smells that you encounter. Nerve signals are sent to areas of your brain concerned with memory and recognition of smells.

2. The optic nerve is the sensory nerve that involves vision. The information received by your rods (black and white vision and night vision) and cones (colour vision) is transmitted from your retina to your optic nerve. 

3. The oculomotor nerve has two different motor functions: muscle function and pupil response.

 Muscle function. Your oculomotor nerve provides motor function to four of the six muscles around your eyes. These muscles help your eyes move and focus on objects.

 Pupil response. It also helps to control the size of your pupil as it responds to light.

4. The trochlear nerve controls your superior oblique muscle. This is the muscle that’s responsible for downward, outward, and inward eye movements.

5. The trigeminal nerve is the largest of your cranial nerves and has both sensory and motor functions.The trigeminal nerve has three divisions, which are:

 Ophthalmic. The ophthalmic division sends sensory information from the upper part of your face, including your forehead, scalp, and upper eyelids.

 Maxillary. This division communicates sensory information from the middle part of your face, including your cheeks, upper lip, and nasal cavity.

 Mandibular. The mandibular division has both a sensory and a motor function. It sends sensory information from your ears, lower lip, and chin. It also controls the movement of muscles within your jaw and ear.

6. The abducens nerve controls another muscle that’s associated with eye movement, called the lateral rectus muscle. This muscle is involved in outward eye movement.

7. The facial nerve provides both sensory and motor functions, including:

 moving muscles used for facial expressions as well as some muscles in your jaw

 providing a sense of taste for most of your tongue

 supplying glands in your head or neck area, such as salivary glands and tear-producing glands

 communicating sensations from the outer parts of your ear

8. Your vestibulocochlear nerve has sensory functions involving hearing and balance. It consists of two parts, the cochlear portion and vestibular portion:

 Cochlear portion. Specialized cells within your ear detect vibrations from sound based off of the sound’s loudness and pitch. This generates nerve impulses that are transmitted to the cochlear nerve.

 Vestibular portion. Another set of special cells in this portion can track both linear and rotational movements of your head. This information is transmitted to the vestibular nerve and used to adjust your balance and equilibrium.

9. The glossopharyngeal nerve has both motor and sensory functions, including:

sending sensory information from your sinuses, the back of your throat, parts of your inner ear, and the back part of your tongue

 providing a sense of taste for the back part of your tongue

 stimulating voluntary movement of a muscle in the back of your throat called the stylopharyngeus

10. The vagus nerve is a very diverse nerve. It has both sensory and motor functions, including:

communicating sensation information from your ear canal and parts of your throat

sending sensory information from organs in your chest and trunk, such as your heart and intestines

allowing motor control of muscles in your throat

stimulating the muscles of organs in your chest and trunk, including those that move food through your digestive tract (peristalsis)

providing a sense of taste near the root of your tongue

11. Your accessory nerve is a motor nerve that controls the muscles in your neck. These muscles allow you to rotate, flex, and extend your neck and shoulders.

12. Your hypoglossal nerve is the 12th cranial nerve which is responsible for the movement of most of the muscles in your tongue.

•Taught during latter years in the academy

Stuff they learn in all years: taijutsu, ninjutsu

Stuff they learn in early years: senjutsu

Stuff they learn in later years: genjutsu

• Getting rid of it

Chakra disturbance (can be done by the person under the illusion or someone else). 

Chakra disturbances can be caused through any of the senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch. It can also be done using physical pain.

• Examples

First databook:

1. Mist Servant Technique (Kasumi Juusha no Jutsu)

•Genjutsu, D-rank, Supplementary The tenebrous phantoms arise from the fog and multiply endlessly!! The somber, uncanny shinobi phantoms appear out of trees and rocks one after the other, cornering the enemy. They all move sluggishly, but each time one of them receives a blow it multiplies, making the fog-dwelling ghost part quite the real article. There’s definitely no escape from those black shinobi phantoms…

2. Temple of Nirvana Technique (Nehan Shouja no Jutsu)

• Genjutsu, A-rank, Supplementary, Close to long range Fluttering in the air, the white feathers lure people into a realm of torpor!! A Genjutsu that generates a fluttering rain of sleep-inducing, illusory white feathers. Whoever sees them as they fall, piling up and covering the whole target area will experience Eden-like bliss and fall into a state of tranquil slumber. No matter how much one resists the hypnotic spell the desire to sleep is instinctive, and there’s no fighting it!!

3. Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique (Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu)

• Genjutsu, C-rank, Supplementary, All ranges A thin layer of deception covering all that the eye can see!! A Genjutsu that allows one to trick others into mistaking the place they’re in for another. This technique’s main feature is that it can be cast over an extensive surface, therefore any and all who step into the illusion’s area of effect will fall under the spell. That said, it might not work so well on people who are well-versed or otherwise skilled in Genjutsu.

4. Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique (Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu)

• Genjutsu, D-rank, Supplementary, Close range This jutsu reveals the fears that dwell inside people’s hearts!! Whether they are aware of it or not themselves doesn’t matter: pictured in the bottom of their hearts, everyone has an image of the one thing they least want to ever see. This Genjutsu is a technique that draws forth such an image from within the heart and has one mistake it for reality. In other words, if the mental image is a gruesome one, the shock will be accordingly great.

Second databook:

1. Bringer-of-Darkness Technique (Kokuangyou no Jutsu)

• Genjutsu, A-rank, Supplementary, Mid to long range Everything falls into a tenebrous hellhole! Inside the cruel obscurity, there is no room for countermeasures!! A Genjutsu which exerts an hallucinatory effect upon the eyesight, stealing all light away. A world of darkness, as if a thick, jet-black curtain had been dropped. No matter how skilled someone is, they have no option besides turning into sitting ducks…

2. Tsukuyomi

• Genjutsu, Kekkei Genkai, Supplementary, Close range An inner hell as eternal as Heaven and Earth. The grip held onto the principles of all creation thoroughly annihilates one’s heart and soul!! Amidst the insight and hypnosis possessed by Sharingan, is a supreme Genjutsu, born from the aforementioned hypnosis: Tsukuyomi. Originally, people on the face of the Earth live bound by limitations like time, gravity, and space; and how people exert their abilities within those restrictions is what separates the victors from the vanquished. But in the mental world where the caster drags their opponent, the Tsukuyomi jutsu gives them control over those very limitations! Namely, this means inside the Genjutsu, the physical world’s common sense is completely irrelevant and opposing the caster is impossible. Somebody caught into the Tsukuyomi find themselves into a strange world of infinity, their fate entirely lying inside the caster’s hands. Some time, they will undergo the torments of Hell, and some other time, they will be repeatedly shown a horrendous, hellish picture of agony and mayhem, with no idea of when either of those will end. As a result, the poor prisoner can only wait until the collapse of their psyches…!! Even a body made of iron or the speed of light are powerless before this jutsu, which is the reason why it is feared as the most powerful.

3. Demonic Illusion: Mirror Heaven and Earth Change (Magen: Kyou Tenchi-ten)

• Genjutsu, Kekkei Genkai, Supplementary, Close range The mechanics of a false image is duplicated by these eyes, its effects largely turned back onto the enemy!! One decrypts a Genjutsu that has been applied onto them, and casts back a jutsu with identical effects onto the opponent!! It’s a form of illusion reversal, but in order to instantly read through a jutsu and cast it in return, the Sharingan’s power is necessary. As Genjutsu is initially used to confuse the enemy, this technique which sends it right back to its caster deals a high amount of mental damage, more than anything else. Every half-baked Genjutsu will fall prey to the mirror that is Sharingan!!

4. Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death (Magen: Jubaku Satsu)

• Genjutsu, B-rank, Supplementary, Close range Ensnared and captured. Such is the nefarious influence of the dire tree!! One of the Genjutsu that have been passed along since ancient times in Konoha. One is completely robbed of their mobility as they see the mirage of a tree coiling itself around them! Given that the subject remains conscious, this jutsu proves extremely efficient for information-gathering.

5. Demonic Flute: illusionary warriors’ manipulation melody

• Genjutsu, B-rank, Supplementary The melody of death that controls three demons Tayuya’s ninjutsu that controls three demons that have been summoned with the sound of the flute. Tune varies according to behavior pattern of demons and gets complex to avoid getting analyzed.

6. Demonic Flute: Phantom Sound Chains (Mateki: Mugen Onsa)

• Genjutsu, B-rank, Supplementary, All ranges The sound of the flute beckons hellish captivity. Restraining the limbs and taking all freedom away!! One of the Genjutsu that rely on the sound of the flute. Whoever hears it will be assailed by the vivid sensation that their limbs have been fastened with sturdy ropes, thus becoming unable to move about freely. At the same time, they are fed morbid hallucinations, which makes it also possible to run them down mentally. Given that the means of transmission is sound-based, it has a large range of effectiveness, on top of which it can be applied even without knowledge of the enemy’s position, which makes for an exceedingly convenient jutsu.

7. Bringer-of-Darkness Technique (Kokuangyou no Jutsu)

• Genjutsu, A-rank, Supplementary, Mid to long range Everything falls into a tenebrous hellhole! Inside the cruel obscurity, there is no room for countermeasures!! A Genjutsu which exerts an hallucinatory effect upon the eyesight, stealing all light away. A world of darkness, as if a thick, jet-black curtain had been dropped. No matter how skilled someone is, they have no option besides turning into sitting ducks…

Third databook: Won’t include because I cannot be bothered to type it out.

Fourth databook:

1. Izanagi

• Genjutsu, Kekkei Genkai, Defensive, Close to mid range The forbidden Doujutsu that connects illusion and reality! During battles where defeat was not an option, this great eye power made its name, the power that was used by the Uchiha Clan for a long time. It is activated by making the [hand] seals of the Rabbit, Boar, and Ram while the user has the Sharingan active. From there, the jutsu erases any harmful reality to the user for a brief moment and then replaces it with a reality in favour of the user, helping the user to solve complicated situations. The duration that the jutsu is active depends on the user’s power capacity. It is a dangerous Doujutsu that leaves the user practically invincible. By using it, the user risks blindness. He hides even death within an illusion, for the duration of the jutsu.

2. Izanami

• Genjutsu, Kekkei Genkai, Supplementary, Close range The forbidden Doujutsu that creates an infinite cycle that decides the destiny!! A scene of an opponent’s action is recorded by the user’s Doujutsu, then an identical scene needs to be recreated. The opponent is then trapped infinitely in a loop between the first and second scenes that were recorded. To escape this Genjutsu, the victim must accept his original destiny. Reforming the conduct allows someone to escape Genjutsu.

3. Kotoamatsukami

• Genjutsu, Kekkei Genkai, Supplementary, All ranges The eye dominates the consciousness, transforming the one who sees into a pawn. The Mangekyou Sharingan of Uchiha Shisui uses the strongest Genjutsu. The user exerts influence on the opponent, manipulating his actions without his being aware of it. Victory can be achieved without a battle, a wonderful jutsu. The constraints of Impure World Reincarnation were rewritten by their power. The Sharingan that Danzou stole from Shisui was used to manipulate Mifune in order to secretly dominate the conference of the Five Kage.

4. Infinite Tsukuyomi (Mugen Tsukuyomi)

• Genjutsu, Kekkei Moura, Supplementary, All ranges The divine eye observes all things of creation, caught in this prison of infinite dreams!! On a full moon night, the Rinne-Sharingan, capable of manipulating the world, is reflected on the moon, and then its light illuminates people on earth, placing them in eternal Genjutsu… The light emitted by this technique can cross obstacles, so even if a person is hiding in a closed place, he cannot escape! Those who have fallen into infinite dreams are enveloped by the roots of the God Tree, which have been expanded on a global scale by God: Nativity of a World of Tress, and have their chakra sucked into eternity. The circular eye floating on the moon!! The moon turns into a Rinne-Sharingan, putting all of humanity into a Genjutsu! Rinnegan’s appearance appears in the eyes of those affected by jutsu. Those involved in jutsu are trapped by trees and their chakra is absorbed.

[sarahjkl82-blog]

Artistic Instinct: Chapter 6

Header thanks to the lovely @yespolkadotkitty

Summary: Marcus Pike and OC Anushka Pierce have been selected to work on a 5 eyes (Australia, Canada, NZ, the UK and US) intelligence team to track down art forgeries as a part of taking down an international white terrorism cell. Marcus is trying to escape his broken heart, Anushka is just trying to escape what the world expects of her.

Word count: 6200 (yup, the words ran away from me!)

Warnings: Language, mention of death.

Pairing: Marcus Pike x reader (OC)

This comes with a MASSIVE THANK YOU to the lovely @yespolkadotkitty , who read, re-read, pointed out the constant flipping between tenses and gave me the confidence to try to write something!This is the first thing I have written since angsty poetry as a teenager. Apologies if it is shit!

To an untrained eye, need and love are as easily mistaken for each other as the real master's painting and a forgery.

Deb Caletti

Chapter 6

A low lit room- more fitting of an old jail than an art lock up- surrounds you with cool air that tickles the tiny hairs on the back of your bare neck, as you bend over double, digging through the equipment in the abyss of your bag. A gap forms between the waist of your jeans and t-shirt, revealing the tiniest bit of the lace edging from your bra band- a tantalising fact that catches Marcus’ breath, alerting you to his presence, “Hey, you ok?” you ask straightening up, “Did you find something?”

“Yeah, uh sorry. Think I just had a bit of dust in my throat,” Marcus stammers, utterly thrown by that glimpse of your underwear, as he tries to clear his throat and remember the reason he was standing in front of you, “So, uh, yeah, um- we found a couple of signatures from Paul Guillaume and Albert C Barnes- weren’t they the guys we had to look out for?”

Looking over the papers with your cotton gloves still on, you pour over the shaping of the letters that made up the signatures of the possible previous owners, “I dunno. I’m not convinced- the positioning of the letters seem odd- like a crude rendition of someone’s signature. Almost like someone’s faking their mum’s signature to get out of PE class. Only the thing is, you know the movement of your mum’s hand as she signs something because you’ve watched her do it a million times before. Those signatures do not seem real to me, personally.”

Marcus’ eyebrows raise as he crosses his arms, desperately trying to hide the smile that was creeping across his face. “You faked your mom’s signature a lot?”

“Poacher turned gamekeeper,” Élodie remarks as she crosses between the two of you, straightening your t-shirt up where it has caught upon the back of your jeans.

Marcus tries not to let his disappointment show. Calm down, Pike, you’re hardly a horny seventeen year old. But that was how you made him feel and certainly the uncomfortable pressure building in his jeans might prove otherwise.

“I don’t think we will necessarily manage to get this solved today,” you begin, “The section that Élodie looked at dates it reasonably within the time period but those signatures are now tingling my spidey senses. It’s probably going to need to be sent for further investigations at a proper lab. I’m about to look at it using the stereomicroscope- do you want to have a look with me?”

Marcus nods eagerly, earning a grin from you, and you start setting up the pieces you need- ensuring that the video camera is linked to your iPad so Marcus can see everything you are looking at in real time along with you.

Marcus drifts closer to the painting. You haven’t seemed to notice his closeness yet, and he half hopes you don't, as from where he’s standing the aromatically pleasing scent of your shampoo wafts dreamily from the dark shimmer of your hair.

“So tell me more about this piece. I love listening to you speaking about art. You make it seem like I’m looking over the artist’s shoulder as they’re painting it.” Marcus remarks, smiling when he notices the flush creeping over your cheeks that his words bring.

Impressed by your decision to play into his words rather than focus on how awkward you feel at the compliment, he loves how you fan yourself and flutter your eyelashes at him, “Monsieur, you flatter me! Well, looking at this piece it’s not difficult to imagine that Soutine may have had a longstanding beef with food. Though he was fascinated by food and frequently painted these edible arrangements, this stands as one of his most memorable and dare I say, raw interpretations.”

At these terrible puns, Marcus pretends to drum, “Ba da boom tish!”

“Do not encourage her!” Jacques shouts from the other side of the room where he is labeling the bags for the slide samples that Élodie had been collecting, “Once you acknowledge one pun, she’ll ensure that everything she says has one. Queen Nush of the dad jokes!”

“So at the meat of Soutine’s obsession,” Marcus half-snorts, half-groans, intending to encourage you as you add, “You find that a combination of not having anything to eat due to extreme poverty and using what food the family did have to practice Kosher traditions is largely to blame for his playing with his food rather than eating it.”

Marcus watches you flick through your phone so as not to interrupt the finally clear feed from the stereomicroscope focussing on how you bite your lip. You quickly google the Rembrandt that you want him to look at. “The remains of this omnivorous…”

“Oh you’re still gonna continue with that theme, yeah?” Marcus’ feels his lips curve at your humour, shaking his head at the ridiculous word play.

“Oh, I can keep this going all day,” you say with the cheekiest of winks, and Marcus hopes you will.

*****

“Omnivorous obsession,” you continue, “was based on his adoration of Rembrandt whose 1655 Flayed Ox was frequently salivated over by Soutine on his regular visits to the Louvre. Rembrandt’s carcass is noted for its vivid colors but when compared to Soutine’s, which was coated almost daily with fresh buckets of blood by his assistant, Rembrandt seems downright dull. The smell of rotting beef and fresh blood became so oppressive that neighbours called the police, who almost threw away the fermenting flesh before, what I can only assume was the Frankenstein-esque assistant, shooed them away like so many flies covering a carcass.”

“Always with the focus on the graphic elements of art,” Jacques calls out with a snort at your zombie-like impression before receiving a sharp nudge to his ribs to focus on the job Élodie has asked him to complete.

“Art is just a reflection of the things that humanity finds interesting and what can be more interesting to a temporal being than their own mortality or that of the creatures and objects that surround it?” At this statement, you tug Marcus’ coat sleeve away from the piece to come and look at the feed you have set up for him, “Come on you, we’d better focus or Élodie will have my guts for garters for not concentrating on what I should be doing!”

Marcus allows you to lead him over to a black metal folding chair to look at the feed, “So what are we looking for, Mademoiselle Pathologist?”

“Hah, did you just call her mademoiselle? She’s too old for that!” Élodie shouts in your direction.

Refusing to respond verbally to Élodie’s rudeness, you flick a finger up at her and turn back to Marcus, “Madame Pathologist will do- I am comfortable with my age. So what we are looking for are any bits of difficult to detect damage, fading, repairs and the ways paints and other coatings are distributed. Also if there are any strange fibres that we can spot using the double lens.”

Hovering the microscope over the bottom left hand corner, you start to scan the piece, “So what we’re looking for are any irregularities that we might not have picked up on a first scan that Élodie did to take the samples. The stereomicroscope helps us to understand the art in more 3D terms- so we can see something that generally looks flat becomes a landscape of hills and valleys.”

“Why’ve you chosen that corner to start?” Marcus probed inquisitively, wondering as to whether there’s method in your madness.

“Just felt like it!” You shrug and snort at his look of mock horror. “Nah, it’s where the signature is and ‘cos I’m not sure about the signatures on those documents you found, I want to take a closer look at Soutine’s over here. Kinda feels like a sensible place to start.” Your eyes squint as you drink in the images in front of you, snapping up when you hear a small grunt of consternation from your boss, “Have you found something, Marcus?”

“That’s weird. It kind of looks like the signature has been scratched into the art,” Marcus squints at the signature on the screen, reaching over to the table where the possible documents with Guillaume and Barnes’ scrawls lie, “Also, I am not an expert in graphology but the letter e looks consistent across the three names- they all arch at the same point.”

“Waouh- that’s a good catch,” Élodie agrees, pulling Jacques with her to look over Marcus’ shoulder at the finds upon the feed.

Jacques escapes Élodie’s clutch and starts to flit back and forth, checking between the painting and the feed with a mild look of confusion on his face, “This is preposterous. Why have they done the signature in a different medium to the one used to paint it? It’s almost like they want to be caught.”

“It looks like it has been lacerated by a needle,” Marcus scratches at his patchy beard in astonishment, “Spot on Jacques, it’s like they can’t even be bothered to hide their tracks.”

“Ok, I think we may have found one of our fakes,” a smile slowly creeps across your face, “Obviously, we can’t be definite -there are still so many tests that need to be done but I don’t think this is an original,” you shake your head with a half smile, “Élodie, I think we need to organise for this to be couriered back to the labs.”

An excited squeal from Élodie and a soft oof from Jacques puncture the cool air as she flies into his arms, squeezing him in sheer delight. As the pair embrace with joy, you and Marcus are left there- Marcus on the fold out chair, gripping the iPad tighter than necessary- I swear that man never quite knows what do with his hands- and you sitting cross legged on the floor with the stereomicroscope lying in your lap- grinning like idiots at each other.

✪✪✪✪✪

More coffee and cakes are devoured in the aftermath whilst you await a courier to come and pick up the likely forgery- you are not entirely sure that the blood in your body hasn’t entirely transformed into sugar and caffeine at this point. After checking alongside Élodie that the painting had been carefully loaded into a van, you sit next to her on the pavement outside the auction house.

“Do you know where Marcus and Jacques are?” you question as you sink onto the dusty ground next to her.

“Yeah, they’re inside taking an informal statement from the auction house owner before the local police quiz her properly,” Élodie rests her temple to your shoulder, “Today has been wonderful. I really like Marcus - from what I have seen of him. I think this will be a good move for you.”

“I do miss having you here though. Today feels like the first time I have had both of my arms. Since you returned to London, it has felt like a part of me has been missing.”

Hauling a deep breath into your lungs to try to quell that gnawing ache in your belly, you turn to press a gentle kiss to the top of her head, “I am sorry, El. To be honest, I don’t even know where to start explaining what happened or even truly understand how everything fell apart so badly.”

The mountain wind decides to blow an icy gust that cuts through your clothes to the bones of you, “It was a normal undercover job- we’d been watching the comings and goings of the gang from a inside a local greasy spoon for ages-just trying to get a clear idea of what their patterns of behaviour were and it just all went South so quickly.

“Being a tiny caff on an industrial estate by the Thames, it was open 24 hours and the day it happened, it was during the middle of a night shift when the gang decided to up the ante. They’d obviously clocked that we weren’t exactly who we said we were,” you snort softly at the memory, “I mean Jas’ accent was a bit sus for being a short order cook but still.

“The gang openly marched the illegal immigrants out of the container and made them kneel in front of the caff as a lure to us, trying to get us to drop our cover. These fucking innocents just trying to find a better life and the evil fuckers just started executing them- one after the other. Jas just ran out there straight away- dropping his cover without any proper back up, a flak jacket or anything. His stupid, kind self trying to save at least one of them without a backward glance.

“I said the code word so we could have armed back up within minutes but I knew it wouldn’t be there quickly enough,” your voice starts to falter as your throat tightens over the words.

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, chouchou,” Élodie squeezes the thigh nearest to her.

“I know but I should tell someone, somewhen. You’re probably one of the few who would understand.”

You pause, squeezing your eyes tight shut as you allow that stagnant, putrid box of memories to reopen, flooding your senses with the foul gangrenous smell of the past.

Having called in backup, you make the decision to slip out of the back door of the caff and run for cover behind the large communal bins. The incessant rain was giving zero sign of stopping and the noise was deafening as it bounced off the metal sides and drummed upon the tarmacked surface. You could barely hear the desperate negotiations that Jasper was trying to make for the lives of these poor, exploited humans.

From here, hiding amongst the shadows, you could catch the eye of one of the kneeling men and signal to him as to when he should try to make a run over to you. He’d reached his little finger out to the person to his right to alert them to the plan. Achingly slowly, tiny gestures had passed down the line of five remaining fellows, from person to person, notifying them of your presence and how you were attempting to save them.

You counted them down and then screamed for them to run. Gunshots rang throughout the air as they made a break for the supposed safety of the bins by you as blue lights and sirens swirled, announcing their arrival between the shipping containers. You counted them as they ran for their lives past you.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

But the gunshots…

Jasper.

As you ran to your former partner’s lifeless form, three more shots rang through the air, taking out the associates who’d been ruthlessly gunning down their illegal chattel. Jasper lay there in the harsh headlight of the armed response unit car, his apron and chef’s jacket were no longer the starchy white that glowed under the strip lighting of the kitchen but his skin had taken on a similar pallid tone as his life force pooled around him, staining the oily surface with a bloody bloom. Knelt there with the grit from the floor biting into the skin of your knees, you held his head in your lap, stroking his cold cheek as a shadow cast across you both.

“He’s gone, Nush.”

Tears course down your face in tiny rivulets and spill into Élodie’s hair, “If I had said yes at Fourvière. If I had accepted the position St Vincent had offered me, he’d still be here. He would still be here.”

After putting a hand on each cheek, Élodie then taps you upon the nose making your red-rimmed, watery eyes look into hers, “You didn’t shoot the gun. You didn’t kill him,” she says so matter of fact that you almost feel an inclination to believe her, “You have to stop blaming yourself at some point.”

“He made the decision to go out there without back up or any protection. If I remember correctly, it was Jas’ decision to head back to London too, effectively ending the freedom you had out here,” she adds gravely, “Everyone has to make decisions, Nush. Ours just tend to have more life or death outcomes and remember, the choice you made- you saved five people.

“As for marrying him, you didn’t want to and I don’t know quite how to clearly say this but you don’t have to marry someone because they ask you. Or because you think it’s the right thing to do. You saying no to him, had zero implications in how his life ended,” Élodie smooths a tendril of hair that has escaped your plait behind your ear, “Your relationship didn’t have a true balance because you spent so long trying to hide it- everything feels so much more amplified if you are constantly watching your coattails.”

Rubbing the exhaustion from the onslaught of emotions from your eyes, you turn to face Élodie, “What if that’s it? What if that was my chance of happiness?”

“Okay so you’re now fully in the ridiculous territory, idiot! So bloody naive,” Élodie rolls her eyes and slaps your knee, “ There’s no one person out there- nobody is perfect for you. There are just people who enter your life at different times and there is a certain compatibility…”

“Like you might want to jump their bones,” you giggle through the snot.

“Yep, that definitely helps! But after a while, other stuff comes up and again, you have to make those decisions whether you want to move to the next one or work at the relationship you have,” Élodie says frankly, “ Your first proper grown up relationship wasn’t ever truly allowed to develop into something normal and healthy but please don’t ever think for a second that is all you deserve or will ever get.”

“More happened than just Jasper’s death,” you confide in your ally.

“I know sweetheart. You tell me when you are ready,” Élodie pats your leg, “You will always have Jacques and I here for you. And I reckon Pierre would take you back in a heartbeat if you ever need to escape Marcus, not that I think you will.” You feel a little confused by Élodie’s last statement but don’t have time to swell upon it as the door to the auction house swings open.

Noticing two figures- one wiry and talking rapidly with his hands, the other broad and showing great interest in what the other has to say- walking towards you, you offer Élodie a hand up from your pavement seat. You feel a gentle hand brushing over your bottom and crane your neck to see who it belongs to, “Well, I’d hate for you to make my car any dirtier,” Élodie winks at you.

✪✪✪✪✪

The trip back to Lyon didn’t allow for any more rest for tired eyes against cool car windows. Excited chatter filled the car as between the four of you, you were all busily beavering away from making shouted calls to the science laboratories in Interpol- calling in favours to get your samples tested first- to fingers tapping on screens, flinging emails back to offices trying to inform everyone who needed to know. Although the journey was far longer, it felt as though five minutes had passed from the moment you’d left the auction house- the exhaustion from your disclosure to Élodie giving way to the adrenaline pumping through your veins with the excitement of having found a piece of the puzzle.

Jacques quickly parks in the Interpol car park, where you all pile out of the car, heading back towards the offices. As you walk together, you hear Marcus answer the phone to Andy back in London, filling him in on the events of the day- thankfully leaving out the parts where he’d talked you through a panic attack or accidentally held hands with him.

You didn’t need anyone else in the London offices thinking you were unprofessional. There were enough of those already.

Marcus. So much of the fear has ebbed away about the new role, and in such little time, thanks to your new boss. This straight-speaking American, who makes you speak up and want to stand up a bit taller. For the first time in what felt like forever, work doesn’t feel like a chore to pay the bills for a small, damp flat in South London. It isn’t so much the work as you know that like the back of your hand- it was that feeling of appreciation.

That feeling that someone sees what you can offer and values your contributions- not just as some rookie in an established office but as an equal. You know you are lucky- you get to use all the knowledge from your art history degree (oh how your family had groaned in consternation- doctor or lawyer- those were the proper options. Y’know, a proper career path not something seen as being so wishy-washy) and use it to protect the beauty of art from the shadier underbelly. Not that you could ever explain that part to your mum or her sisters, who just thought you were in some IT job with ridiculous hours.

In fact, it was the first time. You’d worked your way up from being a rookie with Stephens and although you'd got to work in a field with which you had a borderline obsession, you were still always seen as the new kid, even though others came and went after you’d joined and that got a bit wearing, especially when you’d hit your thirties and as you edged ever closer to your forties, it had bordered on the ridiculous.

But Marcus. He didn’t just listen to what you had to say, he positively encouraged you to speak- never expecting you to hold your tongue or wait for the “grown ups” to stop talking.

“Hey, Earth to Anushka,” those ridiculously warm eyes try to call your attention into focus.

“Sorry, heard you on the phone to Andy and took the opportunity to disappear with my thoughts for a bit. It’s been a bit of a day, hasn’t it?” you mutter as the knuckles of your hands almost rub holes in your eye sockets.

“Yeah, I thought we’d find zip on our first check as a team but that was something else,” Marcus nods, pouting his lips in thought, “I honestly thought it was an authentic piece when I found those signatures- just shows how careful we have to be with these crooks.

“You look about ready to collapse- that sleep on the way over, not help? I was about to ask if you fancied grabbing some dinner together but you’re dead on your feet.”

“Didn’t really get much sleep last night. Was kind of dreading what today would bring but,” your hand extends to squeeze Marcus’ forearm, “But you’ve made today far less painful than it could have been.” You feel a warmth creep through you, blooming from the spot where Marcus has placed his hand on top of yours, his thumb unconsciously tracing small circles upon your skin.

“How about a slow walk back to the hotel, we grab some pizza on the way back and sit and watch Sharknado 4 this evening?” you suggest, still not removing your hand from his arm, ”I need to eat something other than breakfast pastries today.”

“Hmmm, I would say that dinner is the best time for breakfast food but yeah, probably best that we find something a bit more substantial,” Marcus relents reluctantly like a petulant child as Élodie and Jacques turn towards you both.

“Oh, why the sad eyes, Marcus? Has she been mean to you? ” Élodie teases, “We have contacts- we can make her disappear…”

Jacques shoots you a despairing look from under his arched eyebrow. The aching sadness returns in your tummy- you’ve missed them so much and missed out on so many special moments with them, “Oof, hey Nush! This isn’t goodbye- no matter the threats Élodie makes upon your life!”

Élodie leans in to sandwich you between the pair of them, “No, Marcus has given me your phone number and your email address- and he has promised me that even if you don’t respond to my communications, that he will send regular updates.” You look over at Marcus, who sends you a sheepish grin and a slight shrug of his shoulders, flashing that goddamn dimple in his right cheek.

“Élodie, are you going upstairs to get everything ready?” Jacques questions his wife, “ There’s only twenty minutes before I need to pick up Xavier from my parents so I’d probably better head off. Can you grab a taxi home afterwards? Nush, I love you and I will see you soon.

“Marcus, it has been a pleasure. I will ensure that all the details are shared with you in London. Let’s keep the lines of communication open between us, oui?” A firm handshake was not the only thing to pass between the men, as Jacques pats Marcus on the back and they wordlessly share a thought, Marcus’ eyes flickering back to you with a small smile.

“Come on, let’s find food and a film before we collapse,” Marcus beckons you towards him with a wave back to Élodie and Jacques before they head off in their respective directions, Élodie’s hand stroking yours as she walks away.

✪✪✪✪✪

Half an hour later, you find yourself standing barefoot outside Marcus’ hotel room door, oddly nervous about knocking. Your hair hangs in waves around your shoulders, still holding some of the twisted kinks that the plaits you wore it in had formed over the course of the day, face scrubbed but you are second guessing your choice of wearing pjs to your new boss’ room. Not that they were in any way indecent- just a good old pair of cotton jammies from M&S and you’d kept your bra on underneath, because not even the worst war criminal deserves to be tortured by the sight of you with your bra off. Just as you were about to head back for a hoodie to perhaps offer an ounce more decency, the door swung open and a slightly surprised look adorns Marcus’ face.

“Hey, I was just about to check where you were. Pizza’s getting cold and you should probably have something warm in your belly that isn’t coffee today!”

“Oh, I was just going to swing back to my room for a hoodie,” you awkwardly mutter in the direction of the deliciously soft looking man, wearing grey joggers and a white t-shirt in front of you.

A small pout crosses Marcus’ lips, “Come on, if you’re chilly, the pizza’ll warm you up but if you’re still cold after eating, you can grab one of mine- that is if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable,” he checks by lowering his eyes and gently lifting your chin.

Deciding not to keep the pizza waiting, you nod and shuffle past Marcus, the plush carpet deliciously soft underfoot, “I haven’t forgotten that we were halfway through a conversation this morning when El and Jacques arrived to pick us up. You want to tell me why you don’t feel like you are where you feel you should be?” you don’t look at Marcus as you ask him, picking the olives off the top of your pizza.

“I thought you said you like olives?” Marcus questions confusedly as he grabs a slice himself.

“Oh I do, but I’ll eat them afterwards as I like to savour them by themselves,” you giggle at your weird pizza eating habits, “Was that a wish to evade the question? Would you prefer to put on a film?”

“Hah, no! You’re full of quirks, y’know? It’s cute,” he mumbles through a mouthful of food.

“Cute?” you raise an eyebrow at this affectionate comment, “Eh, I dunno. I don’t think you can get to almost forty without embracing your quirks at some point.”

“I just hoped that by this point I’d be married with 2.4 kids, a dog and a nice house. Y’know, settled- never taking it for granted, obviously but comfortable with a family,” there’s a flicker of pain that passes through Marcus’ eyes as he speaks and it cuts through you like a knife.

“How on Earth are you not in a long term relationship with a lucky person? From what you’ve shown me over the past two days, you’re kind, considerate and thoughtful- although you should never tease a woman about her supposed snoring,” you pull an ugly face at him, sticking your tongue out and wrinkling your nose to diffuse the tension in his forehead, forcing him to laugh.

“Oh, I was married once and had long term relationships but neither worked out, sadly,” Marcus shrugs, focussing intently on his next pizza slice, “Can’t the same thing be said about you? You’re a beautiful, funny and intelligent woman and although you are a menace to yourself and those around you with a coffee cup in your hands, I don’t get why you haven’t been snapped up.”

Grabbing the pizza box and Marcus’ hand- pulling them both towards your room, you say, “Come with me.”

Thrusting the pizza box towards his hands, you put the keycard in the door and the light flickers to green. Guiding Marcus by the food container through the room to the balcony, you swing the French doors open to be greeted by a stiff Alpine air and the twinkling lights of Lyon spreading towards you.

“As you know from today, I was here in Lyon before. My partner and I were seconded here to work alongside Interpol on an art smuggling case- that’s how I knew El, Jacques, Pierre and everyone else from this morning’s meeting. We weren’t just work partners, we’d been hiding a romantic relationship for just over a decade in London as we knew that our supervisors wouldn’t allow us to continue to work together,” you clear your throat and see a flash of concern from Marcus seeing how much your hands were trembling.

He reaches for your hand with the lightest of touches grazing your ring and little fingers but not letting go.

Drawing a deep breath, you continue, “You see the beautiful cathedral up there- Fourviere?” you catch Marcus giving a gentle nod as he looks in the direction of your hand, the one he’s not holding, “Jasper asked me to marry him up there. And I, um… I said no.” Your eyes guiltily shift to the left after owning up to your shoddy track record.

“I mean, I did love him but I couldn’t offer him what he wanted or needed from life or from me. We’d hidden too long in the shadows and the thought of trying to explain everything to our families, to our friends, to our workplace was just too overwhelming. I had a lot more to lose than him.

“As you said earlier, our work is very much an old boys network and as a mixed race woman against a white man- who’d got his position due to a bit of nepotism as his uncle was our London boss- I stood to lose so much more. I have always had to work harder and to be a more impressive candidate to be taken as seriously as any white man in the room.”

“Had we returned to London as a married couple, there would have been so many unspoken questions about when we would think about having babies so there’d never be a chance of going any higher for me. And although seeing El and Jacques today- they have it so balanced. El was telling me that they split her maternity leave equally and that even now their baby is one, they have flexi working times so although they have such a little one and such intense jobs, they can still be there for bedtimes and neither of them be sidelined. But I know that’s not how it would have worked with us. Jas would have worked full time and I would have been a simmering pot of resentment.”

You notice that despite your confession that Marcus still hasn’t stopped holding your hand and regardless of the evening chill, warmth spreads through you at the thought that you haven’t entirely repulsed him with your actions.

“Where is he now? DId he ask for a transfer when you headed back?” Marcus gently questions.

“He took the ultimate transfer. We were working together undercover and he was shot multiple times trying to save some people from being murdered,” with a small shrug, you take your hand back from Marcus despite the comfort it is bringing you and cover your face. As you do so, he pulls you towards him, holding you tightly into his chest, resting his chin on top of your head.

With a gentle push back from his broad chest but without leaving his arms completely, you tilt your face up at him, “In fact, other than Jas’ death the bitterest pill was me being transferred out of the department. As you can probably imagine, a lot of shit went down after that night and a lot of the blame from it was laid at my door. Whilst it was all happening, I wasn’t allowed to have any contact with work colleagues and of course, your family can only know so much of what’s going on when you follow our line of work.

“So, I spent eight months in a stupid kind of limbo- being paid full whack whilst sitting at home, mourning a man who I’d been with for a quarter of my life but didn’t want to marry.” Shaking your head slowly, you continue, “That’s why I was a bit of a mess today- I kind of dreaded seeing everyone and how they might blame me for everything that happened with Jas.”

“Shit, I’m sorry sweetheart,” with that affectionate nickname confidently trickling from Marcus’ lips, you look up and smile broadly at him, “I am sorry that you went through all that. I have to be honest, as I am a terrible liar- there is a part of me that is glad that our paths have overlapped- I just wish it could be under happier circumstances.”

“No,” you pat him upon his chest, “You don’t get to our age without some kind of baggage and in our occupation, it’s hard for most people to understand our commitment to our job.”

“Hah, you can say that again- that’s what ended my marriage. That and her new partner,” you scrunch your face in consideration of Marcus’ pain, your thumbs rubbing back and forth, “And the failed engagement is what brought me to London- kept seeing her and the man she left me for around the DC offices.”

“Let’s go toast to those ghosts and our converging paths with what will be now a very warm bottle of white wine and cold pizza,” with eyes widening in amusement you smile at him, your hands still on his chest and his hands on your back, “But indoors as it is fucking freezing out here, no matter how pretty it is.”

“Agreed,” Marcus chuckles deeply, moving his hands to rub some warmth back into your arms.

“Just going to grab a hoodie,” you call over your shoulder as you go back into your bedroom. As you rummage through your bag, you miss the flicker of disappointment on Marcus’s face that he wouldn’t get to smell your perfume on his clothes.

✪✪✪✪✪

“Hey,” that beautifully soft baritone meltingly drifted up from the sofa in Marcus’ room, “Comfy now? I hope you don’t mind but I chose Casablanca instead of Sharknado 4.”

As you cross the floor in socked feet to try and thaw them out from your balcony adventure, you shake your head with a lopsided smile, “Not ok,” but to put Marcus’ raised eyebrow at ease, you add, “It’s my favourite - but you’d better have tissues at the ready as it will make me a snotty mess.”

“Already prepared,” he holds a tissue box aloft, “It does the same to me too.”

Instead of sitting at the other end of the sofa, you grab a glass of wine from the table and slide into Marcus’ side- half sitting up, half leaning against him. He reaches over, pulling your head onto his shoulder, stroking your hair away from your face and there you stay, comfortably curled into his side. Not for the hour and three quarters of the film, but until rays of spring sunshine filter through the blinds the following morning.

Tag list of glory: If you’d like to be added or dropped from the tag list or have any thoughts, thots or suggestions, please do get in touch! I don’t bite hard 🥰

@astroboots @silverwolf319 @lunaserenade @danniburgh @leonieb @mrsparknuts @sirowsky @yespolkadotkitty @agirllovespancakes @tardisfangurl @zukoyonce @absurdthirst @green-socks @pedropascalito @disgruntledspacedad @mouthymandalorian @the-ginger-hedge-witch @lv7867 @songsformonkeys

[haircoveredwriter]

Welp, it happened again. I guess my subconscious is more excited about S11 than I knew or maybe I'm just so bored with the lack of spoilers that it's taken matters into its own hands (so to speak). Again, this is a free flow of phone word vomit.

This convoy is huge.

Carol glances up at The Commonwealth truck a few feet ahead, feeling the earth rumble beneath from the 4 others she knows are behind them. It would be easy enough to catch a ride in one. Been walking most of the day already without more than a few minutes to catch their breath or get a needed bathroom break, but it's easier this way. Sitting between a bunch of worried children and parents isn't the kind of heartbreaking reminder she needs right now to bring back everything she's lost. She only has to close her eyes for that.

Daryl: Hey, you good?

His soft tone soothes the burning pangs building in her chest as she offers a weak smile in return.

Carol: Yeah ... just tired is all.

It's not the whole truth and they both know it, yet now isn't the time for mending fractured souls. Daryl quirks his mouth awkwardly and nods, allowing the fib to pass unnoticed while he changes the subject.

Daryl: Think we're bigger than any herd of walkers left. Guess that means we're safe. If anybody's still out there, they'd have to be crazy to try anything.

Carol: Or Mercer's arms will scare them off.

Their eyes travel together to land upon the red-clad mercenary riding a horse at the front of the pack. Stifled laughter fills the space between them as the horse objects, and the man's tensing arms glisten under the fading sunset.

Daryl: Nah, he seems alright. A little uptight but Ezekial trusts him so we should probably give him the benefit of the doubt.

Dog pads to Daryl's side, leaning wholly into the face scratches offered and groans when fingers reach his ears.

Carol: When did you join the Ezekial fanclub?

Her tone is quizzical and playful, knits brows offset by the coy smirk she's directing straight at him. Letting Dog wander off into the crowd, Daryl shrugs, toying with a worn strap across his chest.

Daryl: You told me once he was a good guy. Figure, if he passed the test with you ... that's all I need to know.

Her lips curve into a full smile.

Carol: Remembering minor opinions I made years ago ... knowing about my claustrophobia. You're a regular Encyclopedia Brown, Mr. Dixon.

Daryl: Huh?

She can't help but laugh slightly at his confusion, pulling it together moments later to clarify.

Carol: He was a boy detective in a whole series of children's books growing up. Knew everything that was going on. What, not your cup of tea? Bet you were more of a cowboys and Indians type of kid.

Daryl: Liked the Hardy boys enough but none of them dealt with anything real. Just lost, secret museum stuff or some myth about a creepy guy living in a haunted house outside of town. Nancy Drew was better. She did it all on her own.

The thick silence which follows lifts his head, finding Carol frozen on the road behind and he scoffs at her expression.

Daryl: Stahp.

Her hands raise in mock surrender.

Carol: I didn't say anything.

They fall easily back into moving without words, ghosts of faded laughter settling in to an accepted comfort that's always been. There isn't anything they couldn't say to eachother. After a long beat, he breathes in deep before uncovering the last leaf of his heart.

Daryl: I spent a lot time as a kid out in the woods ... more than at home. If you'd even call it a home. But being out there taught me one thing though; it taught me how to pay attention.

Taking hold of her hand, his palm fits effortlessly against hers and their fluttering pulses beat in time. Her bottom lip wavers as he holds the promise in her eyes.

Daryl: I pay attention to what's important.

[forsakenoathkeeper]

I Am Alive (chapter 14/?)

Chapter 14: I Know All Your Parts

Deviant!Connor[RK800] x (fem!)Reader Rated M(18+) for canon-typical violence and gore, medical procedures, and graphic sexual content

Chapters: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • more coming soon

You can also read on AO3 & thank you for supporting me ♥

"Markus, how could you let them in here?" Robert demanded.

Androids had scurried away from him, undoubtedly frightened by the gun in his hand, leaving Robert out in the open. He wasn't holding the pistol limply. He had it raised, pointed in a trained position on you and Connor. All of a sudden, everything went silent, all conversations in the room immediatly dying out.

Markus pushed his way through the crowd.

"Robert?" he blurted out.

"How could you let HER in here, Markus?" Robert continued, a little more loudly.

Connor quickly rotated around, his arms pushing you back, positioning himself between you and the pointed barrel, and enveloping you in his shadow. Disgust washed over Robert's face at the sight; the detective android glared back at him.

"This is a safe place for androids," Robert said lowly. "Yet, you STILL put the humans above us."

"She's here to help us," Markus explained. "Look around, Robert. We have supplies. We are healing, because of her help." He was loud, but not painfully so. His voice was commanding, yet oddly gentle. You could easily see how Markus had gathered such a following. Listening to him was almost poetic.

Robert didn't seem moved by Markus' claims.

"You let the deviant hunter come here, too," he stated in a low voice, contempt heavy. "He's killed our people."

Connor didn't seem interested in defending himself. He was too busy trying to conjure a strategy. Markus was trying to keep the android from doing something he would regret.

"Connor was under the control of his programming," Markus defended him, fiercely. "We all know what that feels like. If he hadn't deviated, our numbers would not have been great enough to-"

"He's their PET!" Robert shouted.

Connor knew there was no talking Robert down, no coercing him into taking a different path. There was no changing the hatred he felt.

"He works for the cops! He fucks this human!" the android continued, teeth bared and free hand clenched into a tight fist. "He isn't one of us!"

Finally, Connor spoke, lowly, "I want what's best for both sides. Not all humans are what you think they are."

Robert laughed darkly. "Like this one, huh?" he taunted, flailing the gun at Connor in an attempt to gesture over the android's shoulder, where you were hidden behind him. "You think she loves you? You think she cares about us!?"

He was wrong; but, you still flinched at his words.

"These supplies are here BECAUSE of her," Markus declared, voice rising to match Robert's.

"So she can feel better about herself?" Robert sneered. "What do you think she's hid-"

"She has NOTHING to repent for!" Connor roared, his voice sounding unlike himself, echoing around the crowded room. It startled a violent tremor from you. "She's here because she sees us as living beings. This is HER CHOICE!"

Fear briefly reflected in Robert's eyes, frightened by Connor's outburst. He wiped that look off his face immediately. "You're their obedient little machine and her toy," he said lowly, his eyes narrowed dangerously at the detective android.

"They made us to own us - to use us - that won't ever change," he continued. "You're happy being their plaything? I'M NOT!"

Connor was designed to sense the stress levels in other androids. He wasn't sure if Markus was equipped with the same capabilities. If he was, then he could see that Robert was a ticking time bomb. They were getting nowhere.

He had to act.

Now.

"Robert, please put the gun-" Markus pleaded.

"Stop telling me what to do!" he whaled, voice echoing around the room.

Connor felt heat rise in his core and his thirium pump kicked into overdrive. He charged at the feral android. The gun went off, the sound echoing around the room in a loud boom. Connor grabbed for the gun, his hand landing on the top just in time to stop the sliding mechanism from reloading the chamber.

He roughly elbowed Robert and sent him to the ground. Markus was also quick to react, landing on top of Robert and wrestling him into a chokehold. Another android quickly joined him to help finagle Robert into submission.

"Let me go!" he cried out, thrashing around.

Connor staggered back, the feeling in his body rapidly deteriorating.

Something-

-was wrong.

Connor's HUD was overrunning with errors and his optic sensors were beginning to fail him. Connor felt his grip go slack and he dropped the gun. It clattered to the ground, the sound drowned out by your voice screaming his name, "CONNOR!" so loudly that your voice cracked.

The android slumped forward, falling onto one of his knees. His sensors were overwhelming his HUD, warnings of an intrusive object in his chassis and lack of proper thirium flow to result in imminent power failure.

The bullet-

-his thirium regulator.

He opened his mouth and uttered your name. It was staticky and hoarse and barely recognizable. Connor reached for his regulator, his fingers twitching uncontrollably. He hunched over and nearly met the floor.

You collapsed on your knees beside him, arms wrapping around his shoulders to hold him up. Another android immediately came in, falling to the ground behind Connor. You saw pale arms wrap around Connor's shoulders from behind.

Your eyes, glistening with tears, looked over Connor's shoulder to see Simon. You let go and the PL600 leaned the detective back against him. Connor was helpless to resist, going rigid in the other androids grasp, his legs spreading out limply in front of him.

Connor's optics were failing him, making it difficult to properly take in the sight of you. He could make out the color of your hair, but struggled to properly read your facial expression. His power warnings were telling him he was going into emergency shutdown. He opened his mouth, but only static came out.

You crawled over his lap, hands frantically tugging at his shirt. You followed the thirium leaking out of his torso and realized the bullet landed right on his thirium regulator.

"Fuck!" you cried out, hands briefly coming up to cover your face, trying to calm the heat rising in your body. You could feel panic like lava starting to boil over. Your heart was thundering away in your ears, chest tightening.

No-

No-

-calm down.

"I n-need V3.78," you stammered out, voice weak, trying to hold back sobs. You placed your hand on Connor's shoulder to balance yourself and rose onto wobbly legs.

Before you could even step away from him, another android was running over, one of the new thirium regulators cupped in their hands.

You stammered out a weak, "t-thank you," as you took it from them, and immediately fell back to the floor, ignoring the way your knees cried out in protest against the concrete.

Your tear stained eyed looked over the regular real quick, recognizing the size and shape as that of the V3.78. You straddled Connor's thighs and arched over him, setting the thirium regulator down beside him.

His eyes were staring blindly ahead, clearly not relaying any information to his processor. He was limp, LED fluttering scarlet, struggling to stay online as his damaged regulator failed to properly sync with his thirium pump.

Without any hesitation, you clawed your way into Connor's mid-section, pushing past his damaged chassis, and wrapped your fingers around the regulator. You found the connectors and gripped them, struggling as it was slippery with thirium.

When you pulled it free, some of his blue blood gushed out of his torso. You eyed the mechanism briefly and could see it had stopped the bullet, shattered in the center, beyond repair.

"H-hold on, Connor," you whimpered, dropping his broken regulator on the ground unceremoniously and reaching for the new one.

Hastily, you dragged your inner elbow across your face, wiping away tears.

With a deep breath, you shoved it in. It clicked into place with a loud snap and Connor jolted forward, gasping like he had just been suffocating. He blinked rapidly, eyelids shifting unnaturally as his system attempted to reassess his state.

Your hands were still buried in his sternum.

"C-Connor, please d-don't move," you begged him. His eyes struggled to focus on you, staring at you for a second as if he didn't know who you were. Simon's arms tightened around Connor, trying to keep him still.

Your fingers were still wrapped around the regulator. It was returned to the slot, but not fastened yet. You were scared to move, afraid he would shift and you would damage him even more.

Connor couldn't quite register his state of being, his diagnostics going haywire. But, he heard your voice, analyzed it to verify the identity, and processed the request - far too slowly that what was standard for his model.

He went still and you twisted the regulator until it snapped into place. You could feel the rush of electricity through the biocomponent and it hummed to life, vibrating between your fingers. You slowly let go and slid your fingers out of his chassis.

The android squeezed his eyes shut and wheezed. He jerked forward, an unconscious movement from the return of flowing thirium, a movement you took as a good one.

"Connor-" you cried. "Connor, are you okay - please - please, give me a diagnos-"

"I'm okay," he gasped, the sound choking out of him in a staticky mess. Simon released his hold on the android, but stayed behind him, keeping him upright, one hand solid on his upper back.

"I'm okay," Connor repeated, leaning forward.

You reached for him and cupped his face, smearing thirium across his cheeks. Connor's eyes soaked in the sight of you. He looked angelic, like all the good in the world existed right here, right now. His soft, brown eyes took you in like it was the first time all over again.

Connor reached back and cupped your face in his large hands. You made a pathetic noise in response to that touch, a thankful smile gracing your lips.

"You - you knew the part number," he uttered, awestruck. His thumbs traced patterns along your cheeks, smearing tears and thirium across your skin.

"I know all your part numbers," you sobbed.

Almost-

...lost him-

Connor leaned in and pressed a kiss against your lips, tasting the salt of your tears. Some thirium smeared across your mouth; but, you couldn't bring yourself to care and kissed him back, tasting the bizarre metallic flavor of blue blood.

When you parted, Connor hastily wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into his chest, where you buried your face and tried to drown the tears. You cried - ugly, heavy sobs that made you tremble from head to toe. Connor pulled you in tight and rocked you on the floor, whispering into your hair.

"I'm okay - you saved me - please don't cry - don't cry..."

Simon rose to his feet and stepped back, giving you space where you huddled together on the floor. Some of the androids in the room stared on, mystified by the sight, while others looked away as if they were witnessing something they shouldn't have, and others looked at Robert with dismay.

If there had been any doubt, it was long gone now.

It took some time before you calmed and Connor helped you to your feet. An android approached hastily, an old washcloth in her hands. You took it with a grateful smile and wiped the tears and thirium off your face before wiping the remaining blue blood off your hands.

Connor approached the gun he had dropped - Robert's gun. He snatched it off the floor and stepped over to Robert, who was kneeling, hands cuffed behind his back with some ties they had removed from the crates. Markus eyed Connor, afraid he was going to shoot Robert.

He wanted to-

He fucking wanted to-

He could feel his arm twitching, fighting back an instinct to lift the gun and pull the trigger. Humans called them instincts; androids called them programs. It was something from his code, Connor realized, like a faint murmur in the back of his mind - what he was made to do.

Markus grabbed Connor's wrist, pushing past the fabric of his jacket to touch bare skin. Markus' tan skin faded away to the android sheathing underneath so they could share words in private.

"Please, Connor," Markus asked. He wasn't pleading, he wasn't desperate. He was a leader and he spoke like one. He was firm, but requesting. "They are all afraid. Help me make an example for everyone. They need to be held to the same standards as humans."

Connor could hear Markus' voice in his head; but, his eyes were focused on Robert. The android looked utterly defeated, staring down at the ground, not even bothering to acknowledge him.

This wasn't about him. This was about you. The bullet was intended for you. Connor just got in the way. If he hadn't intervened, the deviant-

Connor blinked rapidly and relaxed his grip on the gun.

No. He wasn't the deviant hunter anymore.

Markus was right.

He had to make-

-the right choice.

Connor rudely shrugged Markus' hand off his forearm. He lifted the gun and removed the magazine. It made a loud, metallic clicking sound as it released.

"Thank you for providing the murder weapon," he said coldly to Robert. "742-11-904, you are under arrest for the murder of Evelin Wheeler, attempted murder of a police officer, and assault with a firearm."

The detective knelt down and grabbed Robert by the arm, yanking him to his feet. The android followed, reluctantly. Connor read Robert his Miranda Rights, his voice unwavering and fierce.

[phoenix-downer]

The Princess of Light Chapter 4: Heart of the World

~2290 words. Angst, Romance, Fluff, Fairy Tales. For SoKai Week 2021, Day 4.

Summary: Princess Kairi is cursed to be without love when she is a baby. She grows up cold and without a heart to help her understand other people’s feelings, no matter how hard her parents try to help her. One day, however, she meets a mysterious prince from a faraway world, and he just might hold the key to breaking her curse.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7

Prince Sora met with Princess Kairi the next night, and the next, and the next. She thought it was because he liked the light pool too, and he’d also said something about his ship needing repairing. Though all of that played a role, she was blind to the real reason he wanted to see her. This continued for over a month with Kairi none the wiser as to his true intentions, for a girl without a heart cannot understand things the rest of us take for granted.

One pleasant evening in early autumn, the moon shone down on the two of them and the light from the pool shone all around them. Sora thought Kairi looked like an angel as she floated on her back, and she caught him staring at her.

“What is it?” she asked, searching his face. She thought he had a rather pleasant face, all things considered. “I keep catching you staring at me.”

“Don’t you know why?” he replied.

She tilted her head. “Could you explain, please?” 

Sora figured her curse would make any direct confession on his end fall flat. It is also entirely too easy to overdo a romantic confession, resulting in one’s beloved running for the hills, so Sora decided a different approach might be best. Though the thought of Princess Kairi taking off running and creating a miles-long trail of ice behind her after hearing an overplayed, overwrought declaration of passion made him chuckle.

“You’re laughing?” she asked, her face one whole puzzle of perplexion.

“Not at you, at my own silly brain,” he reassured her. “Sometimes I get these really vivid images in my mind, and they make me laugh.”

Kairi gently drifted in the light. “Like stories?” she asked. Not much caught her interest, but stories did. Sora had told her many stories about Destiny Islands, and she always listened quietly and asked him questions afterwards.

“You could call them that, yeah,” he replied. “But I’m getting sidetracked. You asked me why I keep staring at you.” He took a deep breath. “Princess, have you ever… had feelings for someone?”

“Feelings?” She frowned and touched the hole in her chest. “Without a heart, I’m not really sure.” 

“Then let me tell you how it feels.” Sora smiled and rested a hand over his heart. “Like you can’t wait to see that person. Your whole day improves when they’re there. Your heart speeds up when they approach. You feel like you can do anything if you have them by your side. And you would do anything to be with them.” He sighed happily and studied Kairi’s face. “Have you ever felt anything like that at all, Princess?”

“No,” Kairi said after a moment. None of those things sounded like the strange fluttering she sometimes got in her stomach. And none of the rest of it was anything she’d ever experienced.

“Oh,” Sora said, his head drooping. He sank deeper into the light pool. “I’m… sorry to hear that.”

She floated downwards to catch up to him till at last they were both at the bottom of the pool. “Why?” she asked. From here little trickles of light bubbled up from between the rocks, for the pool was some distance above the Heart of the World. 

Sora stared at Kairi, at her face surrounded by light, and despaired over her being so in the dark about what he was trying to tell her.

“Love is the most powerful magic there is,” he finally said, at a loss as to how else to explain it, for it impacted the entire way he experienced the world. “It’s like a light in a dark room that illuminates everything else for me.”

She reached for where her heart should be, but instead the usual empty hole greeted her. Sora’s heart went out to her. She was trying so hard to understand what he meant, but she just couldn’t grasp it. The whole thing reminded him of trying in vain to hold sand in his hand and watching it slip through his fingers.

“I’d like to experience it someday for myself,” she said at last, and he thought he detected a hint of wistfulness in her voice.

“I hope you will,” he replied, his voice breaking on the final word. 

She studied him for a few moments, then said, “Can we fall in again?”

He smiled sadly. This at least was familiar territory. He offered his hand, and she took it. 

“Of course, Princess,” he told her. They fell in several times together, and hearing her laughter, seeing her smile… poor Prince Sora became even more smitten with her. He resolved to help her however he could. It was clear her parents had tried everything they could here on Radiant Garden. But maybe his parents on Destiny Islands could offer their assistance. Maybe there would be some clue or hint as to how to help Princess Kairi. The repairs on his ship had been completed, so he could go back and ask.

When it was time to go home, Sora bowed and said goodbye. Kairi tilted her head, as normally he simply told her goodnight. She looked radiant in the moonlight, with the wind playing with her hair and rippling through the grass beneath her feet, and his heart fluttered in his chest.

“Princess, I’m going home to see if I can find something that might help you,” he said. 

“Oh, okay,” she replied, her voice sounding as if he’d told her he was having a sandwich for lunch tomorrow. He tried not to feel a little stung over her lack of sadness at their parting, but it hurt nonetheless. Still, it drove his resolve to find a way to help her.

“I don’t know when I’ll return,” he said, “but I’ll come back to you, I promise.” His hand curled into an upright fist, a gesture on Destiny Islands that meant you were determined to follow through on your promises. 

Kairi hesitated for a moment, then said, “Okay. Goodnight.” He wondered if she’d understood him at all. What if, in his absence, she thought he’d left her for good and forgot all about him? The truth was that she didn’t have much experience with saying goodbye. The people in her sheltered existence were just always there, and she supposed they always would be.

As she and Sora parted ways, they didn’t notice the strange black bird perched in a nearby tree. Despite what the stories say, spooky black birds can hide in the shadows perfectly well, thank you very much. And this one did its job splendidly and returned to its mistress in her creepy castle and reported what it had seen.

“Diablo, thank you,” Maleficent said, petting its head as it perched on her shoulder. “This is very grave news indeed. You say this foreign prince was flirting with my pathetic excuse for a niece? That he’s searching for a way to help her?” Maleficent shuddered. “That’s not good. That’s not good at all. Suppose she starts to regain her heart. We can’t have that, now can we?” 

Cursing Kairi further would be too obvious. No, Maleficent needed to do something more wicked and depraved than what she’d already done. That’s another problem with being evil. You soon acclimate to lesser evils and need greater and greater ones to give you the same twisted rush of delight.

“You say the princess is always playing in that light pool?” Maleficent said. “And now with that prince too? Well, we’ll have to do something about that, now won’t we?”

She cloaked herself in darkness and used it to travel quickly to the Heart of the World, which was in a cavern deep underground. Now, the Heart of the World is not a heart like you or I have; it is physical, but it is in the shape of a heart that children like to draw on scraps of paper, not the shape of an actual physical heart. At the time of our story, it was not as magnificent as it had been in olden days, but it was still big and red and bright. A single stream of golden light flowed out of it, and from there winded and curved through a series of tunnels and caverns up, up, up to the light pool guarded by the royal family. The whole thing was very beautiful, but to someone like Maleficent, who was twisted by the darkness, it was horrifying. 

Reaching into her cloak, she pulled out a tainted dagger. Tainted objects like this one leave no mark on their victims, who die slowly and in great agony. It was how she had killed her own father, the former king, without getting caught. 

With a cruel glint in her eye, she drew the dagger, strode to her next victim, and plunged her weapon into the Heart of the World. The poor Heart shuddered at the wound, for it is very much a living thing. Maleficent smiled wickedly and yanked the dagger out of the Heart, doing even further damage to it, then tucked it back into her cloak. While she could have used a single curse or spell to completely obliterate the Heart, that would not have satisfied her desire for revenge and petty evil in the slightest. 

No, she wanted the Heart to slowly die and the light pool to slowly dry up. Her smile got bigger as she thought about what would happen next, and that smile turned into a cackle and then into a roaring laugh. 

~~~

When Princess Kairi went to the light pool the next evening, she had two surprises. The first was that Prince Sora was not there to greet her like he usually was. She frowned, but the light pool was too enticing to leave alone for long, so she sat next to it and began removing her shoes and socks.

Now, Kairi had been visiting this pool every evening since her thirteenth birthday. She knew it better than anything else in the worlds. So when she was about to step in, she noticed there was slightly less light in it than there should be. She shrieked and raced the short way to the castle barefoot, leaving a trail of frozen grass behind her. 

“Aqua! Mom! Dad!” she cried as soon as she arrived, panting for breath. 

“Kairi?” Aqua called from a window a few floors above. She spotted the trail of frozen grass behind Kairi that was continuing to spread and yelped. “My lady, your feet!” 

Kairi gasped as she realized what she’d done. Aqua was already to the rescue; she grabbed another pair of enchanted shoes and socks for Kairi and tossed them down. Kairi hurriedly put them on, and by the time she was done, Aqua had joined her and sent for Kairi’s parents.

“What’s wrong?” Aqua asked, for she could tell Kairi was very distressed. 

“The light pool is drying up!” Kairi cried, her eyes wild. “It’s drying up! What am I gonna do?” 

Aqua’s heart thudded in her chest, for if Kairi was right about this, then… 

“Are you sure?” she asked, searching Kairi’s face. 

Kairi nodded and fidgeted with a strand of her hair. “There’s less light than there was before. Aqua, what’s gonna happen to me? If it dries up, will I freeze?”

Aqua didn’t know what to say. They needed to investigate the issue further. But if the light pool dried up, then Kairi would very likely freeze to death. Right now it kept her warm and kept the curse in check, but if it was gone… The light enchanting her clothes would stop working too, and—

Before Aqua could say anything else, however, Kairi’s parents and a few guards arrived. After a brief explanation, Aqua went with her father and the guards to investigate the light pool, leaving Kairi with her mother to await the verdict.

This was any mother’s worst nightmare come true: her daughter in imminent danger. Especially because the queen partly blamed herself for the curse. If only she’d taken her husband's concerns about Maleficent seriously instead of insisting he try to reconcile with her, their daughter might not be in this situation. So while she did her best to soothe Kairi and reassure her, she was very scared herself. Especially when Kairi’s breath caught and she clutched her chest.

“Mom, I think the hole’s getting bigger,” she said. All of the queen’s careful composure fled at Kairi’s words, and tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. What if the hole consumed Kairi? What if it devoured her daughter till there was nothing left? 

This was all her fault. If only she’d protected her daughter better.

Kairi frowned and touched the queen’s face. “Water’s leaking out of your eyes again.”

That just made the queen cry harder. Her poor daughter couldn’t even cry for herself and her fate. All she could do was purse her lips and tilt her head to the side as the queen shed the tears her daughter could not. 

When Aqua, the king, and the guards returned, they confirmed that the light pool did appear to have a little less light in it. The next day, the difference was definitely noticeable. By the third day, the light pool had lost a good foot of depth, and Kairi felt ill. The hole in her chest kept getting bigger, and the enchantments for her clothes had weakened, leaving her colder than usual. 

If the light pool drained completely, everyone feared the worst. While the royal family initially tried to keep what was happening under wraps, word soon spread, and the king and queen knew they would have to take action.

It was time to consult outside help.

[kiranatrix]

Appetites

Lawlight // rated T (some smooching)// Summary: Your birthday is a terrible day to lose your appetite for cake.

For @deathnotetober [Day 31: L]

-------

L sat cross-legged on his bed, looking down at the objectively very appealing chocolate mousse cake on a silver tray in front of him. Watari had brought it to him about 10 minutes ago and he still hadn’t dug in, the fork weighing heavy in his hand. Light would have probably asked if that was some kind of record for him. If he were here.

There was nothing on the cake to indicate that it was L’s birthday-- only Watari knew the exact date and of course, his caretaker wouldn’t take the chance of parading an obvious birthday cake through the halls of Kira HQ and giving that protected information away. Light was still here in the tower, out of the handcuffs as of three days ago, and more than that had changed for Light but L wasn’t sure how. He’d felt the change like a barometric shift, like ozone in the air after a lightning strike.

Unfortunately, both the Task Force and the courts trusted L’s gut feelings far less than real evidence. Which, currently, he had none of. He only had cake and not the appetite to eat it.

This was a disaster.

L sighed and put the fork down, crawling over to his nightstand to take out the long pair of handcuffs that had, until recently, bound him to Light. His fingers itched to grab the phone as well and call Light, even or especially because he knew the man was sleeping. L had never felt strange about spending a birthday alone before, but then L hadn’t had anyone but Watari before this one.

He looked between the cake and the cuffs a few times before stuffing the cuffs back in the nightstand, hunching in on himself like a perched gargoyle. I’m not going to do it. Not going to call him.

---

Light’s eyes flew open as he heard his cell-phone go off, and he groaned and turned over to glance at the caller ID. Caller unknown. It’s L.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, groggily answering, “Ryuzaki, it’s 2 am. This better be an emergency.”

“Oh, sorry to wake you up, Light-kun.” L didn’t sound sorry in the slightest. “It is an emergency. I need you to come to my room right away. Please hurry.”

“But what happ--” Light blinked as he heard a dial tone, holding the phone away from his ear with a sigh. “Nevermind.”

---

L answered the door before Light even had to knock, he’d been glued to the surveillance on his laptop.

“I came as soon as I could. What happened?” Light was barefoot and still in his pajamas, eyes wide as he looked past L into the room.

“Please come in, this is very serious.” L stepped aside to let Light come in and closed the door behind him.

Light gave him a look of alarm. “Is everyone ok? My father--”

“It seems I’ve lost my appetite for cake.” L pressed a finger against his lip as he stared mournfully at the untouched chocolate cake on his bed.

Light let out a sigh of relief but immediately switched to anger. “What?! Ryuzaki, THAT is not an emergency! You shouldn’t scare people like that!”

L shifted onto one foot, scratching his ankle with the other. “I suppose you don’t understand how disconcerting this is for me. This has never happened before.”

Light closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. Calmly, “Ryuzaki…” He opened his eyes and tried not to imagine picking up that cake and smashing it on L’s head. “What exactly do you expect me to do about it?”

L smiled slightly, climbing onto the bed to crouch by the cake. “If Light-kun ate it with me, I think my appetite might return.” He stated this as if it were the obvious and logical solution to a very pressing problem. “Unfortunately there is only one fork but we’ve gotten used to sharing things haven’t we? So it should be no issue.”

“If I eat a couple of bites, will you let me go back to bed?” It was probably easier to just do what L wanted than to protest. Not like eating a little cake was so awful.

L picked up the fork and held it out. “Of course.”

Light gave L a suspicious look but tentatively took the fork and sat beside him on the bed. The cake looked really delicious--- raspberries and strawberries dotted the chocolate icing and the top was dusted with white chocolate shavings. “Alright, here goes.” He stabbed the fork into the cake and brought a bite to his lips, unable to keep from making a soft sound of approval. “Mmmm.” He swallowed it with a nod. “Wow, it’s really good. Even better than Watari’s usual cakes.” Light didn’t have the greatest sweet-tooth but chocolate was his weakness. “Here, you try some now.” He tried to hand the fork to L but the detective shook his head.

“Still not there yet. Keep going.”

Light shrugged and ate another bite and then another, until there was a sizable hole in the cake and crumbs dotted his shirt. But as he lifted one last bite, he smiled and brought it to L’s lips instead. “Come on, you have to be wanting some by now. It’s really special. Just trust me.”

L was wanting some; he’d been wanting some since Light’s second bite but had been enjoying seeing Light enjoying it more. “Trust you?” He stared at Light a moment before slowly opening his mouth and permitting the forkful of cake inside. His lips closed around the fork, eyes fluttering shut as the sweet, creamy icing spread across his tongue. Watari had really outdone himself this year, it was one of the best cakes he’d ever had. Or was it because of… him.

Light laughed softly, retracting the fork from L’s mouth and leaning back on his elbow. He’d forgotten how comfortable it could be with L sometimes, when they weren’t snarking at each other or at each other’s throats. He dangled the fork from his fingers in front of L, urging him to take it. “There, problem solved. Have some more.”

L looked at the fork and then at the cake, saying softly, “I would like to trust Light-kun again.” But he is Kira.

Light hesitated and felt something tighten in his chest when L took his hand, dug the fork into the cake, and ate the bite. L’s eyes burned into him, and there was a strange openness Light hadn’t seen before. A question unasked, painted on L’s wide pupils. A chance.

L shifted closer to Light, “And again…” His squeezed Light’s hand until the fork was dropped, moving Light’s finger into the icing instead to lick it off. Softer, “....and again,” repeating the action. His appetite had returned but it wasn’t for cake, had never been about cake.

“Ryuzaki?” Light’s eyes widened in surprise, breath coming fast as L moved nearly nose-to-nose, his finger still embedded in L’s mouth. This wasn’t supposed to happen, not tonight, not ever. This was how people slipped up, caught feelings...shit. As soon as he pulled his finger from L’s mouth, L closed the distance between them, sticky sweet lips pressing to his and sending a shiver down through his guts. He needed to jerk away but he grabbed at L’s shirt, needed to run from this room but only pulled L’s body closer against his. He should be yelling at the invasion but instead opened his mouth wider, letting L taste Kira as he’d never tasted Light-kun. He should be thinking of his next moves to take L out, but as the cake was shoved off the bed, forgotten, all he could think was how hungry he was.

[angelic-writer]

Polyblank’s “death” (2/3)

Polyblank’s POV

Peace. That was all he felt when he lost consciousness. He didn’t feel pain, he didn’t feel dread. In fact, he felt... happy. Relieved. He got the files, so he completed the mission, at least. In just a few minutes, he will arrive back at Darlington Station and the Director will give him another objective to complete. He didn’t get to see everything in the corporate building. He was in just such a hurry. Oh well, I’m sure the next mission will be much easier. Who knows, maybe he’ll go to the Kai Tak Resort again. Maybe this time, he won’t need to dress up as a girl.

He began to feel a floating sensation. It felt like he was being lifted up by something. He looked around, but there was no one carrying him upwards. No strings attached to him or anything. His positive emotions turned into confusion. What...? What is this...? It was supposed to be a simulation. What was happening? Is the Missionyl still in effect for him? If it was, it was beginning to feel too real.

Suddenly, he heard someone playing a piano from somewhere. He would call it a peaceful melody, but a few of the keys were broken, giving it a touch of dread. What the hell? What is going on? Polyblank was really confused right now. Is this still a simulation? Where was he? Why isn’t he back at Darlington?!

“C’mon, Poly, stay with me. You will not die on me, alright?”

That voice... Ed?

He was suddenly outside the Tokyo corporate building. He could see two men carrying a stretcher with a familiar person laying on it. Beside the stretcher was another familiar man, having an uncharacteristic look of fear on his face.

Wait a minute. That’s Polyblank in the stretcher. That’s the Editor beside him. And that’s two of his henchmen.

His mind now had a sense of clarity. This isn’t a simulation. This is real. He’s actually dead. At that moment, a calming voice began to sing.

Ah, that’s it. It all came to this. He died doing his retrieval mission and his nemesis was over his body, worrying his fancy suit off. Though, he was still confused. Why was the Editor begging him to stay with him? He was supposed to be an antagonist for the Syndicate. A cold, heartless kidnapper and murderer. He was the one who kidnapped the Director in the first place! He had no idea why the playboy would be worrying about him at all.

A warm hand was placed on his shoulder. “It’s time to go, Polyblank. It’s time for you to rest.”

He nodded and closed his eyes. The feeling of being pulled up was felt again. He started to walk up a long staircase. He could see a bright light in the distance. If he could just reach that light, everything will be okay.

“Don’t be afraid, Polyblank. Nothing will hurt you anymore. You’re safe.”

Nothing will hurt me anymore...

His life began to flash before his eyes. Some of them are standard memories of his childhood, his earlier missions, and him getting to know the Director. But his most recent ones were of the Editor.

They played golf, gravy boat racing, even some VR tennis. While Ed proved to be quite a cheater at the first game, Poly couldn’t help but think he at least had a bit of fun. Especially when he had the chance to inflate his ego just enough for him to literally pop him like a balloon.

Even though he should be feeling nothing for this man, he couldn’t help but feel sad. Here he was in one of the memories, introducing himself to Polyblank. The way he spoke just felt right to him. The line “I swear, I’d marry you if I wasn’t such a playboy.” was enough to make his heart flutter. He knew nothing about this man. Well, he knew him enough to know that he was an antagonist, but he shouldn’t be feeling infatuated with him. No, it wasn’t that. It was love.

Unconditional love. It took him an entire pufferfish to realize that he loved him. He loved this dastardly young man who kidnaps and murders people for fun. Well, that and he makes potpourri, but still. The way he looked at him, the way he smiled at him, even the way he talked to him felt... strangely right.

He suddenly felt apprehensive. He was almost at the border. He had a decision to make. Should he step in or should he go back?

Eddy...

The Editor’s P.O.V.

“Poly! Goddammit, Polyblank, open your eyes!!” The Editor shouted at him as the goons wheeled him to the medical room. The nurses began tending to the spy as the henchmen started to pull him out of the room. They hooked him up to some devices, one of them a heart monitor. Polyblank had already went through decontamination so the only thing the nurses had to worry about were his vital signs. And by the looks of it, they were not good.

His heart rate and breathing were slow. Almost 20 minutes had passed since the toxin had been in Polyblank’s body. They need to act fast or else...

The Editor felt himself start to shake, not with fear, but with anger. Who... Who do they think they are? They think they would just surprise attack Poly with fugu fish?! Whoever they are, they are dead! If he dies, he will kill them!

“Sir, calm down. Nothing will be gained by you losing your cool.” The henchman by the name of James said.

“Oh, I am keeping my cool. I’m just thinking of ways to murder whoever did this to Poly!”

“Look, can we just step out and try to-” The other henchman by the name of Wally started to talk before the Editor snapped his icy glare at him.

“Listen here, I don’t have time to be standing around talking to you idiots! Instead of that, why don’t you go and track down whoever tried to kill Poly?! If you can’t do that and Polyblank dies, I will go to hell and back to make sure they pay! Now, I won’t tell you this again. Go track down whoever tried to do this to my nemesis, you understand?” His usual aloofness was gone, replaced only with an anger that can only be described as terrifying. The two henchmen both nodded and ran out of the room.

At that moment, a rapid beeping started emitting from the monitor as Polyblank’s heart rhythm began to change. The nurses immediately prepared to shock him. Ed could only stand in horror as they tried to revive his rival. This... This isn’t right... There is no way... There is no way he’s dying here. He went through more dangerous stuff before. Well, okay, this is dangerous, but-

*Beeeeeeeeeeeeep*

“..........No........”

The nurse looked somberly at the Editor. “I’m so sorry...”

“No... No, no, no, NO!” He scrambled over to Polyblank’s bed. “No, you will not die on me! Do you hear me, you bastard?!” He started doing chest pumps. He did not know what he was doing, but he was not going to lose him.

The nurse tried to pull him off, but he pushed her away. He glanced over at the monitor and saw he was flatlining. Okay, what do you do if someone’s flatlining? Whatever the Editor was doing is something you should do. You shouldn’t shock them when their heart’s not beating- Ah-hah!

The Editor swiped the bottle of adrenaline and a syringe that was sitting on the table and filled it up. He hoped it was the right dose. He jabbed it into Polyblank’s chest right where his heart is. He killed enough people to know where the heart is. He continued to pump his chest until the monitor detected something. Poly’s heart finally started beating.

Ed sighed and stepped back. He’s okay... He’ll be okay... Thank god...

The nurse led him out of the room as the others began to tend to him again. Polyblank may be alive now, but he is still not out of the woods yet. He still had to get his stomach pumped and monitored until the toxin’s completely out of his system. Until then, it was just a waiting game to see if he pulls through.

In the mean time, Ed is planning on having a little visit with this red-haired fiend.

[mistyeyedbi-archive]

for the kiss prompt thing: 1 with zuri and falk since u mentioned slxmdşxm

Here it is! It's long, pretty angsty and I'm hoping the kiss was shy enough lol.

Random kiss prompts: 1. A shy kiss

--

It was too quiet. Too still. White walls towered over her, the shadows cast across them taunted her, jabbing at the lump in her throat with a stick, poking at the evidence of her loneliness. A gentle breeze billowed past the curtains and rustled the leaves of her many houseplants, a sound that may have soothed the ache in her chest if her heart would allow it, would stop drumming in her ears and slow the rush of blood to her face. The sun was setting behind her windows, bathing the sparsely furnished room in a fiery orange and it was beautiful. It was. But it had no substance, a pretty room that stirred nothing, not the way a set of eyes caught in the sun’s glow and a hearty laugh would. Zuri was alone.

And she didn’t do well alone.

She sat cross legged on a fuzzy carpet, staring into the mirror that leaned against the wall and stretched to the ceiling. The eyes that stared back at her were rimmed with red, cheeks puffy from the silent tears rolling down her face, salty and sweet in her mouth. Her hair was tied into a puff, baby hairs frayed and shriveled back to their natural state, bonnet discarded when sleep evaded her. She couldn’t go back to Unit Bravo. Surely they’d had enough of her, of the tension in their muscles whenever they were out and about, of constantly being alert should someone decide to cash in their bounty. She wouldn’t put them, or anyone else in danger. So she stayed in the apartment.

But she can’t stand this quiet, this anxiousness crawling up her spine whenever she was alone. She needed someone, anyone.

Her lips trembled when they parted. Words bubbled beneath the aching lump, a choked plea squeezing its way past it in fragments. A tiny voice lodged in the back of her mind screamed. Screamed at her for being so pathetic, for refusing to use the knowledge she had to get better. To be better. But a doctor could not treat themselves objectively, despite being aware of the symptoms. So she sat in a pool of self awareness and inaction. 

She shouldn’t need people like this, but she did. This has almost killed her, crushed her soul into specs of dust and left her a hollow shell of herself. She couldn’t let that happen again, screamed the voice. But her emotions overwhelmed her rationale, reducing it to a whisper. 

The reflection rippled before a stream of cool air fanned her face. A taloned hand reached through the mirror and landed on the carpet, followed by another, and head full of white hair, and eventually, Falk was sitting in front of her. 

He squinted slightly in the light, white brows knitting together as concern flickered in his golden eyes like flames. Her hands clutched each other tighter, resisting the urge to reach out and follow the streaks of light highlighting his cheekbones. To pull him into a hug because he was here. He was actually here (but it wasn’t of his own volition, and embarrassment boiled in the pit of her stomach). His hand raised from the carpet and reached for her face, pausing in mid-air before wiping away the steadily falling tears from her cheeks. Zuri shivered and bowed her head, lips trembling as she spoke. 

“I’m sorry,’ she said, her voice hoarse and tight with the effort it took to swallow silent sobs. “I just...I don’t do well alone.”

A crooked finger underneath her chin urged her to look up. His next words were soft rumble, burrowing into her chest and soothing the drumming of her heart into a familiar flutter as she gazed into his eyes. His lips curl into a soft smile. “Fortunately, you no longer are.”

***

Falk started to visit more often, slinking through the mirror at the same time of their previous meeting with a smile on his face. They were frequent, almost everyday, and the subtle accommodations they had made for each other sat on her shoulder like a parrot, constantly pointing out her growing attachment to him. He began to leave his shoes at the door next to hers, occasionally opting to arrive barefoot. She drew the curtains closed to ease the effect of the sun on his eyes and offered him a wink when his eyes landed on the tea she made for him.

He was sitting on the couch, hands clasped around a steaming mug. The sight of him in her apartment was still strange to her. It was almost as if he wasn’t real, a figment of her imagination to chase her anxieties away. His extravagant robes and accessories contrasted the splashes of pinks and greens accenting the mostly white rooms. This was the most time she had spent within these walls, a place that she has never called home. And yet images of him filled each room with a warmth that was never there before, and a need to flee reared its ugly head. Nothing good came from staying, but she could bring herself to keep her distance. She didn’t want to.

“I’m surprised I haven’t ran into one of your companions yet,” said Falk. He blew at the tea (her eyes lingered on his lips and the butterflies in her stomach battled with the buzzing of impending doom), the steam shifting to reveal the curious gaze.

She blinked from her place next to him, clearing her throat before answering. “I’m sorry?”

His lips curled into a teasing smile having noticed where her attention was. This was a dance they had rehearsed many times, the brushing of hands and thighs and flirty exchanges becoming part of their routine. 

“I was under the impression that you spent quite a lot of time with them.”

She laughed, a manufactured giggle escaping her lips as a sharp pang needled its way into her chest (he knew it was fake, the brief wince on his face was a surefire sign that he saw right through her; a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ frown that she caught only because her eyes refused to look elsewhere). She did. She wanted to. But not with that bounty. Not when she had so easily become a burden. She shifted, her knee brushing against his as she turned to face him . "Oh, no. There has to be some space between us. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say"

“A saying that inspires pain, I’m sure,” he murmured, a faraway look washing over his features. Before Zuri could question it, Falk had set the tea down and placed a hand on her knee, a jolt shooting up her leg as he continued. “It seems you have grown quite close to them.”

“They’re just supposed to be co-workers,” she said. A stern tone seeped into her voice, as if reprimanding herself for allowing them to become anything more. For allowing them to wiggle their way into her personal life and see what was below the tip of the iceberg protruding from the surface. 

“Yet they are not. I have seen the way each of them look at you. They are already fond of you. As am I,” he said, a softness taking over his features. Her heart skipped in her chest at the admission, their bodies drifting closer as they gazed into each other's eyes, surroundings fading away as gold met brown.

"Your presence is valued, detective-"

"Zuri."

"Right," he chuckled, a low rumbling sound like rocks tumbling down a mountain. "Zuri."

A shiver ran down her spine. She had been trying to get him to say his name, but she wasn't as prepared to hear it as she thought she was. It fell from his lips as a low hum, dipped in adoration that she had never heard before and she wanted to hear it again. Have him whisper it into her skin until it settled into her bones and that was all she knew.

"It is?" She whispered, voice dying in her throat.

"More than you could know." The tip of his nose brushed against hers as he continued, "I hope we can grow close as well."

Zuri smiled, butterflies fluttering frantically in her stomach, heart beating against her ribcage, both drowning out the voice telling her that this wouldn't last. She wanted to kiss him dammit, the thought alone made her hands tremble. All caution was thrown to the wind.

"We're pretty close right now," she said with a breathless laugh.

"Then perhaps we should get even closer."

There was her opening. She should just lean in and kiss him. Kiss him. Kiss him dammit!

But she was frozen in place. Shit! She has never been this nervous.

"The feeling is mutual," he chuckled, a warm tint growing on his cheeks. She must have said it out loud, shit!

She forces her body to move, jerking forward to press a chaste kiss to his lips with her eyes shut tight. He smiled and cupped her cheek before coaxing her forward and meeting her in the middle. His lips slid against her, soft and cool and slow. She sighed into the kiss and clasped the back oh his neck, her fingers delving into the base of his hair as an arm slinked around her waist.

She didn't do well alone, but she was starting to like being alone with him.

[wonderlander-i]

How to nail a study date when you’re not even dating

Pairing : Beckett Harrington x f! MC (Eli Russell)

Warnings : none, it's pure fluff (if you exclude one bad word... Or maybe two 😂)

Words count : 2,5k

Author's Note : The world needs a little bit of domestic love and well... I'm an emotional ball of drama who'd rather spend a week working on this than read my school books.

*sends virtual hugs to everyone*

On the afternoon of a rainy autumn day, Eli stood by the closed window of her dorm room, watching the clear water droplets hit the glass then race down to the wooden frame. She smiled to herself. Being a sun att and all, she loved the summer. But there was something about the rain that calmed her buzzing mind. This whole season brought her soul to an unusual peace. The mixture of the earthy sweet smell rising from the ground, the unanticipated flashes of the lightning followed by the roaring thunder in the darkening sky, the steady beats of the drizzle when it meets the window. She hugged her arms tight, humming to herself a song. She barely noticed when the door opened, and Becket stepped in with a pile of books in a hand and a dripping umbrella in the other. He set the books carefully on her desk and looked around. She already had her hanging lights on the wall next to her bed, and they were casting a soft glow across the room. It smelled the gentle spice and freshly baked cookies. That was no mystery to him; she had something baked for him each time he visited.

Finally, his eyes landed on her. And he chuckled when he noticed that she was wearing a pink cotton onesie. He walked to join her by the window, where she was deep in her thoughts.

“It’s beautiful” He mumbled, looking at the rain pouring from the grey clouds.

“Yes” she sighed wistfully “And you’re late” She turned to face him, poking his chest.

“I had to fetch my umbrella”

She shrugged “Still not an excuse”

“I brought us some hot chocolate”

“That’s a damn good excuse”

He clicked his fingers, and two mugs appeared on the desk next to his books.

“I couldn’t carry them all the way to your room, it’s too cold outside”

“And you wouldn’t miss a chance to show off your powers” She rolled her eyes, amused.

“That’s nonsense” he objected, swishing his fingers to channel an air current around her. She crossed her arms over her chest as the air pushed her straight to her bed, making her fall on top of the mattress.

“you pretentious little–” She got up, but he was already sitting down next to her. He handed her one of the mugs, and the rich smell of chocolate persuaded her to let this one slip through. He opened one of the books on his lap.

“I found this one is the hidden aisle in the library, I thought you’d find it interesting”

“Pendragon: a history of mythical fire breathers” She read out loud “You mean to tell me that dragons are real?” her eyes lit up as she flipped the pages, stopping at the drawn image of a burgundy creature with fire bursting from its mouth. “The Morelth Nighthowler” She ran her index finger under the name “Burns his victims alive after trapping them in…”

“Slow down” He interrupted her laughing “You didn’t know?”

“How am I supposed to know?” She furrowed her eyebrows. “It’s not like I walk around asking people if leprechauns exist. Or how the dwarfs keep their beards perfectly trimmed”

“To answer your questions, yes and dwarfs go to barbers like anyone else would do”

“That was sarcasm!” She exclaimed “Wait are they really that short? do they really have a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?”

A strange warmth invaded his chest when he looked at her excited expressions. Born to a magical family, nothing was unusual or unbelievable to him. All the things that made Eli’s eyes go wide were mere facts to him. To be the one who introduces her to these small fragment of their world, of the world she lived far away from for most of her life, was an honour he didn’t believe he deserved. He shared all his knowledge with her, not holding back anything. And it made him... Proud ? No... Happy. Happy that she’d listen to everything he teaches her. Happy that she was passionate about those things the same way he was. Happy that she understood him.

“Eliana, your curiosity is a breath of fresh air” He chuckled “Let’s start from the beginning now shall we?”

She nodded, scooping closer to him so she’d get a better view as he flipped to the first page and started reading to her “Chapter one... “

Many hours later, he was halfway through the book when something clicked inside her head. She picked up a sharpie and looked at him with a strange glow in her eyes.

“It has been proven that his scales could be useful to treat battle wounds if they’re properly smashed and mixed with Hooded Skullcaps at high temperature to make a salve–”

He stopped reading when Eli leaned forward and started drawing lines from his cheekbones to his nose.

“What are you doing?” He asked her, crinkling his nose as he felt the ink running across his face.

“Playing ‘connect the dots’ ” she replied, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

“On my face?” he arched an eyebrow, still confused

“Yes”

“With a sharpie?”

“Yes” she huffed; blowing away a strand of hair that slipped from her bun and fell on her forehead

“May I ask why?” He shook his head, waiting for her answer.

She didn’t reply, biting her lips instead as she studied his face, contemplating her work. After few moments of silence, she mumbled.

“Orion”

“Excuse me?”

“Orion, the hunter” A grin broke into her face. “Your freckles match the constellation”

He was speechless. He looked at her, his jaw dropping. How does she manage to make everything poetic? Moreover, for how long did she need to gaze at his freckles before she could join them up into a constellation? Did the Eli Russell really pay him that much attention?

“Right” He cleared his throat, looking away blushing. He took a sip of his drink “Maybe you can focus back on your lesson now?”

“You’re so bossy” she rolled her eyes, shifting her gaze back to the page he was reading.

“The Cordonian Gronkaloth dragon” He carried on “Though it was thought to be a descendant of the latter, was nothing compared to the Corpsebreath Pelagius, which was last spotted in the Irish highlands in 1783. With its ability to change the colour of its scales to fade in the surrounding environment, this beast represented a major threat to the kingdom…”

Eli smiled to herself, looking at him recite the history passages as if they were poetry. She loved the way he was passionate about it, as if he was lost in the words that ran from his lips like a sweet melody. Everything makes sense when it comes out of his mouth. It was his secret talent perhaps. His eyes twinkle with every name of a forgotten king he reads. The corners of his lips lift up to a discreet smile whenever he stumbles upon a reference from an ancient historian. Sitting there beside him, with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands and a blanket around their shoulders, was her favourite getaway spot. Just seeing him all relaxed in his world made her heart flutter. And she felt grateful that he never rejects her when she asks him to come over. Little did she know that he’d throw away any plans he had scheduled for the day each time she’d call him, that their study sessions meant more to him than to her. She was roughly the only person he’d be willing to read to.

“The prohibition law came afterward on January 1863” His voice ran through the room “banishing every act of… Eli, are you following?” He paused, looking at her from the corners of his eyes.

“You aren’t wearing a blazer” She ran her fingers across his arm, caressing the fabric of the dark green wool sweater that replaced his usual button-ups and blazers.

“I’m not” This came out more like a question than a statement, looking down at his sweater. “This is more suitable for the season isn’t it?”

“Well” she chuckled “It’s refreshing to see the ‘Always-put-up-together-Beckett’ cozy up”

“Excuse me?” He raised an eyebrow “Are you saying that I’m uptight?”

“Of course not!” She exclaimed “More like…constipated” She giggled, covering her mouth with her fist.

He glared daggers at her, but the smile that he was fighting to hide gave him away eventually.

“Very funny, miss ‘I wear pink more than I wear my own skin’” He smirked.

“That’s not true!” She grabbed a pillow and threw it at him, which he easily caught before it made contact with his face.

“And you’re not wearing a pink onesie” He pointed out “With this... unicorns and rainbows pattern”

“But... It’s cute” She pouted, giving him the biggest puppy eyes she could manage.

Don’t say it Beckett.

Don’t give her the satisfaction of hearing it from you.

Her eyes grew more insistent, and he sighed defeatedly .

“Yes, it is cute”

Her face light up, mischief gleaming her eyes. “Hum...” She tilted her head to the side, looking at him thoughtfully.

“Eli, why do I feel like you’re going to make me regret saying that?”

“No reason”

Three minutes later, he was standing in a pair of pyjama pants that were identical to her onesie.

“Don’t say a word.” He said through his gritted teeth.

She was in the middle of forming a snarky comment, when loud music blasted from the room next door.

“Shreya!” Beckett groaned and walked to the wall, knocking on it furiously “We’re trying to study here”

“Can’t hear you over the sound of my one person party, you loner nerd” Shreya’s voice echoed over the song.

Eli exploded laughing and he turned back to face her.

“What’s funny?”

“Dance with me, Beckett” She smiled, offering him her hand.

Eli wasn’t the dancer, and he knew it. He pursed his lips, studying her facial expression to detect any ulterior motive behind her request. And when he found none, that she genuinely just wanted to dance, he gladly took her hand, joining her in the centre of the room.

“Don’t step on my toes” he warned her as he moved them both, guiding her around in swift movements.

“I make no promises” She twirled, her hair completely breaking loose from the bun, flying around her with each turn, then landing back to her shoulders. She looked up to him, biting her lips to cover a giggle as he missed a step while looking at her.

The song came to an end too quickly; the upbeat vibes were replaced by a softer serenade. They slowed their pace, and suddenly aware of how close they were, they stopped dead on their tracks. Eli looked down, a million thoughts rushing through her mind and each time she’d try to grasp them they’d fly away, leaving her heart in utter confuse.

Beckett Harrington was a handsome man indeed. Even if it took her a lot of time to realise it. He wasn’t just a pair of beautiful eyes, a strong jawline and the body of a Greek god in tight jeans. He wasn’t just the sum of perfectly crafted parts. He was more than that. He was the smartest man she’d ever met, with the heart of a lion and the good manners of a prince. And for the flicker of a second, she saw the heaven in his eyes.

He brushed his knuckles under her chin, and then lifted her head up to meet his gaze. She blinked, then looked up, her mouth gapping. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers running through the strands of his soft hair.

“Hello” She smiled shyly.

“Hi there” He breathed out. He clutched her hips gently, his eyes widening at how perfectly she fit between his hands.

He swayed her slowly from side to side, the soft light of her pink lamps reflecting on her eyes, turning the whole room into some sort of pink/purple-ish wonderland. She smelled like wild lavender and white honey, and he inhaled deeply, letting the scent flood his senses, making it even harder to focus.

It was like a snow globe. He wished he could be stuck in a glowing snow globe, dancing with her to the endless song his heart was beating to.

But why was he thinking this way? What has gotten into him? She’s just Eli... The same Eli he shares all his secrets with. The same Eli he’d give the last slice of his blueberry pie. The same Eli he knows like the back of his hand. The one who makes him feel ever so... Alive?

She was always something else, something extraordinary. With the way her face lights up when she walks by an ice-cream shop. How her eyebrows crease when she’s so focused. When she tears up after laughing too hard. The way she blushes when he pokes her little nose.

She lived with her head over the clouds, just like the golden sun. Always so warm, so dreamy. Nothing was so far beyond her reach. She believed that everything was possible. What was impossible is the way his heart raced with her in his embrace. It’s like a wave of sunlight was rushing through his veins. This newfound idea thrilled him in the most delicious way. His shoulders relaxed, his mouth curved into a euphoric smile. He gazed at her eyes, at the dilated pupils which starred right into his soul through her batting eyelashes. And he knew. He knew that these were the eyes he wanted to be lost in forever.

He blushed, muttering the first question that popped in his hazy mind.

“Did you put something in my drink?”

“No I didn’t”

“Then why am I feeling so... light headed?”

“I may have bewitched you” She whispered, her cheeks burning to match the shade of his.

Too shy, he stutters after planting a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“That, you did”

The next morning, Atlas walked into Eli’s room to wake her up for their usual training. And she was greeted by the sight of her sister and Beckett in a deep slumber. They were curled up together on the blanket fort they made last night with a lot of bed sheets and pillows. With her head resting on his shoulder and his arms wrapped around her smaller body, they were holding into each other like nothing else mattered. It was only them, snuggled up in their little world, surrounded by the open books of last night, the papers they scrabbled together, and Eli’s million sharpies.

Atlas groaned, slamming the door shut.

“Fucking teenagers”