#YES i used to live in the southwest why do you ASK

[haridraws]

contemplating the sea. ruminating upon some ideas.

[jungkookjeon0007]

Nights in Vegas | CH. 8 (JJK FF)

☆ summary: When Olivia flies to Las Vegas for her first ever BTS concert w/ her best friend, she was expecting to make lots of unforgettable memories... What she wasn't expecting was to end up with the lead singer, Jeon Jungkook, knocking on her hotel room door only to find her in nothing but a towel. What will happen when the golden maknae wants to see her again? Will it lead to heartbreak, or a promising future for them both?

☆ pairing(s): jungkook x olivia.

☆ ratings: (18+) for detailed sex scenes + harsh language.

☆ genre: smut, angst, fluff.

☆ word count: 1.5k.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

We went to grab some lunch at the cutest place called The Blueberry Hill Family Restaurant and it was seriously some of the best food I've ever eaten.

We talked and had a good time laughing at each other's jokes and the most embarrassing things that have happened to us in our lives, debating whose was worse.

Once our bellies were full, it was time to take a few tours and do some sight seeing around the city. Jungkook had planned the whole day for us, so I had no idea what was on his itinerary.

We arrived at our destination and I was stunned to see a helicopter waiting for us. I looked at him with a confused expression, "A helicopter? Where are we going in a helicopter?"

He replied with a mischievous smile, "You'll have to wait and see because I can't spoil the surprise."

He winked at me, grabbing my hand, "Come on they're waiting for us"

With that I followed him to the helicopter and once we were ready for takeoff, the pilot had us put on our headphones so we can talk to each other while up in the air. We sat beside one another and as I was looking around waiting for us to take off, I felt someone staring at me. As I turned, I caught him looking at me with an adorable smile on his face. "What?"

He shook his head, "Nothing, I am just thinking how happy I am to be doing this with you."

He smiled and grabbed my hand, interlocking our fingers together.

"Okay, is everyone ready for takeoff?" The pilot asked.

We both gave a thumbs up and said yes in perfect sync. The pilot smiled, starting up the helicopter and before I knew it we were up in the air. If I were afraid of heights, this would be terrifying... but like Jungkook, I was fascinated and could not believe how beautiful the view was.

Our first place to visit on the tour was the Strip of Las Vegas. We could see nothing but a boulevard of casinos, hotels, and a mash-up of replicas of the world's most iconic places (Egypt, Venice, France etc) and it was a sight to be seen. We lingered for a bit while the tour guide told us all about the Strip and why it was so popular, soon flying off to the next place on the list.

The Hoover Dam.

"This is amazing, but why is it so famous? I am curious." Jungkook stated as he peered out the window.

The tour guide once again started to explain that The Hoover Dam is famous because it protects Southern California and Arizona from disastrous floods that the Colorado area used to be common for. 

"Woah, does it do anything else besides that?" He asked full of curiosity.

I caught myself staring at him as the tour guide explained that it also provides water to irrigate farm fields and that it supplies water and power to LA and other cities in the southwest.

He stared at him with big doe eyes shining in fascination.

. . .

We toured a few other places until the guide let it slip that our final trip would be over The Grand Canyon. I gasped in awe as I saw it in the distance and grabbed Jungkook's arm in excitement, "Oh my gosh. I have always wanted to see The Grand Canyon but never actually thought that I would be able to! I am so excited right now that I could cry."

He gave me a huge smile and wrapped his arm around me, moving my headphones to whisper in my ear. "I know, Lacie may have  helped me out with this part." His lips barely touching my ear.

I pulled back and looked at him in confusion as he smiled at me. "L-lacie. My best friend?"

He nodded.

"But, how? I was with you all night and this morning?"

He shook his head as an amused smile spread across his face, "I will explain later, for now look out your window and enjoy the view." He nodded to the window behind me.

I was so into the conversation that I didn't realize we were flying right over the west rim of The Grand Canyon. My mouth was wide open as my eyes were shining in awe at how beautiful it was in person. I could only imagine something like this before, and he made it a dream come true for me to be able experience this. I was feeling so overwhelmed with happiness that my eyes started to fill with tears, daring to spill down my cheeks. It wasn't only the fact of seeing the canyon in person, but it was the fact that he did all of this for me and went completely out of his way to ask my friend what I liked. He will never understand how much this moment truly means to me.

I planted a sweet kiss on his cheek as we flew over end of The Grand Canyon, "Thank you so much for this Jungkook."

. . .

[Jungkook's POV]

We started heading back towards the city after a 3 hour tour of all the beautiful landmarks, along with The Strip of Las Vegas. I couldn't get the image of how perfect she looked seeing The Grand Canyon out of my head and when she kissed my cheek, I swear that spot burned the remainder of the helicopter ride. I am on cloud and loving every damn second of this adventure with her and lucky for me, our day of plans is not over yet.

I surprised her with one more thing and took her to The Strat Hotel Casino SkyPod. This is where some of the world's most extreme thrill rides are located and I myself have been itching to get on them. Naturally they knew I was coming before hand, and only let so many people in to avoid the place being overcrowded.

As we got in the elevator to go up to the top floor, I could tell she was confused.

She looked at me with her eyebrows furrowed. "Are we not going to the casino?"

I shook my head, "Just hold my hand and we will be there before you know it, okay?"

I sent her a sweet smile and while returning it, she grabbed my hand nervously. "Okay."

As the doors opened, I could see the look of excitement flashing across her face, "You brought me to ride these rides??? How did you know I always wan-"

She stopped mid sentence as realization hit her. "Lacie huh?" She asked with a sly smile on her face.

"She may have also mentioned that you've always wanted to ride these as well."

She shook her head as we started walking towards the rides, riding all 3 back to back and laughing the whole time. Never would I have guessed that she would enjoy rides like this or not be afraid of heights.

This woman keeps getting more and more amazing as the days go by, I swear.

. . .

[Author's POV]

After they took the helicopter tour and rode some of the world's scariest thrill rides together, Jungkook and Olivia started to get sleepy and wanted to head back to the hotel. First before going back though, they stopped and got some snacks to take back and within 30minutes, they arrived back at the hotel.

"Hey Liv, I really want you to come back to my room so we can snuggle together and take a nap... but I want to also take you out to dinner later just the two of us. I was kind of hoping it could be like a date." He instantly turned crimson red.

"I would like that too, but I think it would be best if we went to our own rooms so you can pick me up properly for our first date later."

He quickly snapped his head up to look at her as she was already smiling. Before he realized what he was doing, he picked her up and spun her around. She giggled and laughed when suddenly the air got serious. He didn't realize the situation they were in until both of their breaths hitched and got heavier. Olivia's egs were wrapped around his waist as he held her butt in the palms of his hands. They were staring into each other's eyes, feeling the urge to have their lips on one another. She laced her fingers in the back of his soft and silky black hair, pulling him closer. Their lips then met, sharing a steamy and hot kiss inside the elevator.

When the elevator signaled they were on her floor, they broke the kiss and at each other as he put her down.

"I guess I will see you later then huh?"

"Absolutely you will." He smiled at her, waving goodbye.

Not believing what had just happened, she touched her lips softly and knew right then, that she was starting to fall in love with Jungkook.

[deans-baby-momma]

Law & Love Chapter 3

THEN

Y/N it's not what you think. Please call me (406)321-5879

NOW

I don’t call him when I clock out. I don't call him while I take a cab home. In fact, I don't call him at all. 

I am angry! Angry at myself for letting him in and angry at him for asking me out when he is clearly unavailable. 

I don't know how they do stuff here in Montana but I was raised to be faithful and true.  That's probably why I endured Eric's lack of attention and overlooked his cheating for so long.

Yes, I knew my boyfriend was out fucking anything with a vagina almost weekly. I discovered it when I found a hotel receipt in his pocket. 

I did a little amateur sleuthing and found out that he had used that certain hotel for years. He had an open account with the seedy fleabag accommodations; he paid after the use of their room, usually with cash that I still didn't know where it came from. So, I tolerated his cheating and laziness because that's what I was taught to do. 

But now? Now was different. I am not that same girl I was then. I was aware of the obscenity of the world and knew very few people abided by the 'old ways'.

So, I'm not about to let some philandering womanizer get the best of me. He cannot have his cake and eat it too! 

It’s been a few days since the sheriff and his girlfriend/wife/whatever had visited the diner and I was ever so grateful. I didn’t want to see his cheating, conniving face at all! Everytime I thought about the audacity he had to ask me out when he was clearly taken, my blood pressure skyrocketed. The nerve of him! The gall to manipulate the situation to his advantage was mind boggling. 

After the lunch rush was over, I set about getting the remaining tables and chairs back into their proper order when the bell rang and someone stepped in. I smile as I see who I know now is a regular at this time of the day, Joey. Joey would come in when the rush was over and keep Deb and I amused with his stories of different things. He seems to be a nice guy who lived alone and simply desired social interaction.

I smile at him as he walks to his usual spot and settles in. Deb writes up his normal order. As I pass by headed to the kitchen, Joey smiles and speaks. “You look nice today, Y/n.”

“Thanks Joey.”

Deb and I listen to Joey as he regales about the time his uncle took him and his cousins fishing at Park Lake Campground, southwest of town.

"So, here we were standing alongside the lake. We could practically see the fish swimming around, waiting for us to throw our lines in. Marco and Luis were baiting their hooks as ole Uncle Paul was sliding the earthworm onto mine.  He didn't trust me not to try to eat the lure." He pauses as Deb and I give him a look of disgust. He laughs and continues.

"Ladies, I was 4 years old okay! I probably would've tried to eat it," he laughs. "Anyway, he gets the hook ready and hands me the pole. I watch my cousins cast their line out into the water so I pull back and throw……hook, line, sinker and pole. It floats on the water for a second before it sinks. Uncle P starts yelling and running toward the water. No one caught anything that day."

The bell over the door rings and a woman walks in with a brown paper bag with handles. There is no writing on the nondescript back. She smiles at us and asks for Y/N. I groan as I realize exactly what that means.

The fucking sheriff has sent me another goddamn gift. I mask my irritation and I step forward with a smile and take the bag.

Inside is a stuffed animal. I pull it out to see it's a gray squirrel holding an acorn in its paws. On the acorn are the words "NUTS FOR YOU".

Yea, he's nuts if he thinks I'm going to keep accepting his little gifts and trinkets. Not when he's a two-timing jerk!

I stuff the stuffed animal back in the bag and take it in the back room, where we keep our personal items.

After my shift, I'm making a pitstop at the Sheriff's office and putting an end to his treacherous ways, once and for all!

The taxi driver can tell I’m on a mission as soon as I slide into the backseat and utter, “Take me to the sheriff’s office.”

As we pull up outside of Helena P.D. I can see the red truck that I know belongs to the sheriff sitting alongside the other cop cars in the lot. I can’t help but sneer at it as I pay the cabbie and exit the vehicle.

I open the door to the building and am met immediately with the smell of donuts and coffee. I want to laugh at  the plain and simple stereotype of it all but before I can even twitch my lips, I look through and see Sheriff Arlen and his companion through the glass that divides the front of the station with what is apparently his office. They are both smiling and talking and I see him throw his head back and laugh at what she just said.

“Can I help you?” 

I bring my focus back to the front to see the same officer that had come to collect the sheriff and his companion that day at the diner; the day I realized just what a swindler the man in charge is.

“I need to speak to the Sheriff, if you can pull the lovebirds apart,” I jeer. The man looks at me questioningly and goes to open his mouth but evidently Beau has noticed my presence and comes out of the room.

“Y/N?” he calls as he approaches, a smile on his face. What the fuck is he smiling for? Does he not realize I know what a fraud he is?  His ‘whatever she is’ is standing right there behind him, leaning against the door frame of his office. Her arms are crossed over her front and her head is sort of cocked to the side. Does she know who I am? Does she know he asked me out when he is obviously involved with her? Why is she not fuming? Why does she look as if she could care less?

Beau finally gets to the front desk and he nods at the officer who was still standing there. “I got this Popcorn.”

‘Popcorn’ nods and heads back to his desk.

“What’re you doing here?” the Sheriff asks. “Having more troubles?”

I clear my throat and straighten my stance as I pull the brown gift bag from my purse. I reach inside and grab the stuffed animal and remove it. I look at it one more time before I lift it and throw it right in his face. 

“I don’t want your stupid gifts! I don’t want anything to do with you! How dare you try to take advantage of me in my time of need! You’re a fucking asshole and a cheat! Fuck. You!”

I turn to leave but not before I notice the look of confusion on the sheriff’s face.  As I push the door open, I hear his voice. “Y/N! Wait!”

@lostinaseaoffictionalbliss @spnbaby-67 @tftumblin @sea040561 @delightfullykrispypeach @larajadeschmidt13 @atc74 @vicariouslythruspn @squirrelnotsam  @sandlee44 @blacktithe7 @hoboal87 @mogaruke @deanwanddamons @supraveng @deandreamernp @akshi8278 @lyarr24 @kazsrm67 @chriszgirl92 @fanfic-n-tabulous

[byz-was-here]

The Aged Aged Man

Back again with another installment of the Sea Nomads of Aqua Manga series. This one directly follows A Boat under a Sunny Sky. If you haven’t read that, you can find it and the other stories in the AU here. As always, the fic is under the cut. Enjoy! (Yes I know Aged is in the title twice, it’s a Lewis Carroll reference.)

Perdix hid. He lay crouched under the cover of a large, thorny shrub with a hand clamped over his nose and mouth, breathing as shallowly and quietly as possible. Rain dripping through the leaves, and sliding off of his helmet only to drip onto his clothes, steadily soaking them through. Next to him, a figure lay still, only shallow breathing and the weak pulse of a heartlight showing that there was still life in her comatose form. Just beyond his cover, the hiss of pistons sounded, and grass crunched under heavy treads. A deep, metallic growl echoed overhead. The sound came closer, closer... Perdix stopped breathing entirely. Finally, the noise grew more distant, and he drew in a shaky breath. Two days ago... Perdix paced around the island, looking at the other agori sitting in lean-to’s and other temporary shelters, the kind they normally set up on the backs of their Ships when the storms came, only this time, instead of anchoring to the broad scales of a Ship, they were attached to the solid ground of an Island in the place the Matoran called Naho Bay. He paused, catching sight of an older agori and waling towards him. “Ockema, you didn’t leave with the fleet?” he asked.  The older agori was in the middle of using a knife to whittle down the metallic bones of one of the island’s aquatic creatures into a fishing spear- in fact, it was starting to look similar to the staff that the Matoran Elder, Nokama, carried with her. “Eh, Perdix? Pretra’s decided you’re ready to wear a helm, has she?” Ockema asked, setting the carving knife aside.  Perdix sat down on the sand beside him. “But not ready to sail with the fleet, apparently. Why aren’t you going? You’re not sick, and you’re certainly not a child.” 

The other agori chuckled, his helm discolored and pitted from years of exposure to salty air and punishing storms. “It’s easy to forget that you were barely more than a babe when we first saw this island. You don’t remember what life before Mata Nui was like.”  “We were free!” Perdix replied indignantly. “We didn’t have the Matoran looking over our shoulders, and the sea provided everything we needed.” He crossed his arms, emphasizing his point with a nod.  Ockema looked at him, his face tanned like leather from years of harsh sunlight. “Yes, the sea provides.” He looked distant for a moment. “But we must always remember that the Lord of Water is a fickle being. What the ocean gives, it may also take on a whim.” He looked at Perdix. “Many Agori do not live to be as old as I, taken by the sea. Young or old, strong or weak, the Sea can take them on a whim. Even Elder Etris’ brothers, blessed by the great beings with long life like she was, were taken by the sea, one by one. Yes, we were free. But there was a price for that freedom.” Perdix stilled. “You... But... We had our ships...”

Ockema took up his carving knife and resumed his work. “Not even they are invincible, lad. There are beasts in the dark deep that can drag whole Ships under, and all aboard with them. Storms can drown them same as any nomad. It’s a dangerous life, Lad, and a hard one. But this place... Here, no babe will be swept into the current, no lover dragged into the deeps by a hungry maw. I’m tired, lad. He looked towards the water lapping against the sandy shore. “This little island was flooded by storms not too long ago- That’s why the matoran let us settle here, across from their Koro.” He lifted a hand and pointed to the southwest, across Naho bay where the green domes of Ga-Koro could be faintly seen in the far distance. “But we’re no strangers to flooding water. Isom’s had some Ideas on putting the shelters above the ground on legs of this bamboo stuff the Matoran are fond of, while she’s laid up waiting to have her child. But Shelters on legs, I’ll believe that when I see it.” He set down the knife for the final time, and held the fishing spear out to Perdix. “Here, lad. It takes more than a helmet to make an agori.”

Perdix had remained silent through Ockema’s rambles, and took the spear with polite grace. “Thank you, elder...” he said, the older Agori’s words weighing heavy on his mind.  “Bah, I’m just a prattling old agori. I hear that clan head of that Ta place wants to hav another one of those red matoran poking their nose around here again. Make sure whoever he sends keeps his mask out of where it doesn’t belong, will you?”  Perdix grinned, remembering that red armored guard with the blue mask from the day before. That, he could certainly do. 

[theback-rooms]

Our iron bracelets arrived yesterday, so Katie and I repacked our backpacks and went back down again.

We traveled west along the shoreline a second time. Whatever this party is that’s going on in the palace on the other side, it doesn’t seem to ever end? Kind of like the nighttime down here.

This time, we saw Lord Julian from a good way away, and he smiled and waved at us in a very friendly fashion when we spotted each other. He was in about the same place he was the last time, and Katie and I wondered how long he had been there and how often he checked that spot to see if we were in the area? I was a little nervous that he was here intercepting us again, but he was very cheerful and pleasant when we finally came within earshot and said hello.

“Lord Julian--I have to ask,” Katie said when we had finished commenting on the beauty of the night and the weather etc etc (he said the weather is ALWAYS nice here). “Why have we met you here in the same place twice?”

His expression grew rather more serious. “Er...” It was the first time I had seen him lost for words.

Katie looked annoyed. “I mean, isn’t it a little creepy? You intercepting us twice? How did you know we were here in the first place? Why are you trying to get us to go to the palace?”

“The truth is,” he said at last, “that Lady Laurel tries to keep a careful eye on the shores of the lake. “Strangers do wander into our forest from time to time, and they aren’t always aware of the dangers of this place.”

“Dangers?” I said more loudly than I really meant to. “What dangers?”

“Well,” he said reluctantly, “Lady Laurel asked me to intercept you here if you came in this direction, because she does not want you to fall into the hands of the Witch of the Wood.”

“The WHAT?!” I squeaked.

“Oh my God,” Katie muttered. “Of course there’s a Witch of the Wood.”

Lord Julian lifted his brows in surprise.

“I mean--” Katie pulled herself together. “So this witch is seriously dangerous?”

“Deadly,” Lord Julian said solemnly. “Terrifying. She makes doppelgangers of people.”

That was a term I had actually heard before. “You mean—those freaky doubles that look like your clones?”

“Yes.”

I mean, that sounded a little creepy, but relatively harmless? “What does they do, these doppelgangers?” Katie asked.

“They take people’s lives.”

“You mean they kills them??”

“No,” Lord Julian answered slowly, “I mean they TAKE their LIVES. They go back in the person’s place—take over their life. All your friends and family will think it’s you, but actually, you never return to the other world.”

Katie and I stared at him. THAT was seriously creepy.

Seeing that he had finally made a deep impression, Lord Julian continued. “She lives along the southwest corner of the lake. You’d be safe if you walked eastward, but not if you came this direction.” He turned and pointed at one of the diamond willows, a particularly big one that stuck out far over the shore. “We consider that tree to be the beginning of her territory. We try not to pass it.”

Katie and I looked at each other. “So--we’d be safe if we walked the other way, but not this way?” I repeated.

“Yes.”

“So Lady Laurel sent you here to stop us if we came this way.”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you just put up a sign? Wouldn’t that be easier?” Katie asked.

“We’ve tried. The Witch takes them down.” A fleeting expression of anger and disgust crossed his face.

“And there’s nothing dangerous on the east side of the lake?”

“No--just don’t get too close to the unicorns.”

“Why?” I asked nervously. “Do they have some kind of magical powers?”

Lord Julian smiled once more. “No. Because they’re wild animals and they’ve occasionally been known to bite.”

Katie’s eyes narrowed. “Are you going to keep... monitoring our movements while we’re  here?”

“No--we’ve just been making sure you don’t pass the Grand Willow,” he said easily. “I can escort you around on your explorations or take you across the lake if you like--but if you don’t, you can go and see this place for yourself.

“Just not pass the Grand Willow.”

Lord Julian nodded.

There was a long pause, and then we sort of said an awkward good night and walked away.

We don’t know how Lady Laurel managed to tell that someone had entered this area, or how she knew when we would be approaching the witch’s territory. That doppelganger thing is creepy as hell, though. Sounds like the trailer to “Us”: a movie I will never, ever, ever see if I can help it.

Katie and I went back to the path, then walked east a little way along the southern shore, but saw nothing of particular interest, so we went up the staircase and decided to regroup.

We’ve come up with a plan for our next visit: head west until we see Lord Julian again, and then ask him some questions and try to figure this place out a little more.

What do you want us to ask Lord Julian? Our ask box is always open!!

[frenchhoneybee]

7,9,12,13,20,21,22 for the Pride asks!! i know this is late and i'm also still figuring out mine, but i wanted to ask these!! happy pride month!!

first of all, thank you for the ask! i love asks and ask games bc it’s a chance for connection — something we’re all striving for 🥰

7. Are you the “token” queer person in your family? A: i would say for the most part yes. i have a step cousin who is gay and it is very nice to hang out with him, and i have a baby cousin who is trans but he is not out to family yet, so i am the token queer of the rest of the family.

9. When did you realize you weren’t cishet? A: i started questioning things during the pandemic. i had a good queer friends around me and i felt comfortable trying things out finally, and i finally felt like i wasn’t performing gender. i could just wear clothes i liked and that was it. so freeing

12. Name some queer artists or bands you like the most. A: i put together a pride playlist for this month and i immediately put “All The Things She Said” by t.A.T.u on there, Betty Who, Queen, Tracy Chapman, Janelle Monáe, and “Revolution Lover” by Left at London (ofc the classic pride stuff is there too and i tried to include as many queer artists as i could)

13. Do you choose to reclaim slurs? Why or why not? A: i do reclaim slurs bc in queer history, there is record of our ppl taking slurs and using them proudly like saying “yeah so what? what are you gonna do about it?” and i think that’s a rlly great mindset to have. i’m not gonna force other ppl to do so, but if anyone tries to police what i call myself, we will definitely have words.

20. Do you feel like you “fit in” with the queer/Pride community overall? A: when i was younger, definitely not. now? more so. it is kinda hard with some of the older generation who don’t seem to “get” nonbinary and asexuality and all that, but that could also just be where i live being more conservative - sometimes it’s hard to tell. i’m still trying to break into the younger (like closer to my age) crowd. i have a couple young queer friends, but it would be nice to have that community. transportation is my main barrier there

21. What message would you give to your younger self? A: fuuuuuuck thats a great question. i mean i know i wouldn’t listen to this, but my message would be: don’t try to conform to what you think ppl want from you. wear what you want, be what you want, do whatever wild crazy shit you want bc literally no one cares! it’s okay! and stop judging out loud other ppl for things you don’t understand. you can write that shit down but don’t say it out loud cuz that shit will get you in trouble

22. How do you usually celebrate Pride month? A: i used to live in NorCal, so i would go to a couple small Pride events throughout June. however, now i’m in the southwest and it’s so fucking hot that we don’t celebrate Pride until October! i’ve been trying to incorporate some sort of pride into my wardrobe every time i leave the house, though.

hey evan, thanks again for the ask! i appreciate you, and i can’t wait to see your answers!!! Happy Pride! 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[kimkat0500]

Alaris - "Look at the high-waisted man, he's got feminine hips." "and I said "No," y'know, like a liar." "I will start with the fact that I am homeless, as that is a given. Then for backstory I will pepper in the fact that I am gay." "Ah, numbers... The letters of math." "When he was holding back the gay part, he did some of his best work." I went to college, I was 18 years old, I looked like I was 11. I lived like a goddamn Ninja Turtle. I didn't drink water the entire time." "I get that mom, but why don't we just tell our relatives that I'm a four-year-old boy..."

Sasha - "Can I please go home? (No! In fact, we're gonna frame you for murder!)" "Sometimes babies will point at me and I don't care for that shit at all." "And my brother was like "Hah, that's great!" *imitates gunshot noise*" "Here goes nothing, "Ya ever seen a ghost?""

Natalie - "I grabbed it, drank all of it, and said "It's perfume."" "I am very small, and I have no money, so you can imagine the kind of stress that I am under." "I made a salad with Craisins!" "Give us some money!" "You're supposed to say "May I please have a Diet Coke please," and then maybe you would get one." "If you think this story ends with me being like "Absolutely Not," you're about to be so disappointed!"

Ella - "(And my girlfriend would just be like:) Let's see if Southwest has any flights." "Nah, nah, nah, you're not gettin' me to no secondary location!" "I'm allowed to make fun of my wife, I asked her and she said yes."

Rowen - "It was really easy to get away with murder before they knew about DNA." "He grabbed a 40, smashed it on the ground, and yelled "Scatter!"" "Eat ass, suck a dick, and sell drugs." "Hey, do you want me to kill that guy for you? 'Cause it sounds like he sucks and I will totally kill that guy for you." "I was two hours late for my intervention- I didn't know people were waiting on me!" "I'm like the great Rasputin, they cannot bring me to my knees."

Kara - "When I was a kid I used to watch "America's Most Wanted, as kids do, and I would always be like "How could a human being kill another human being?"" "You have your law practice, and me? I have all these fuckin' markers." "Ever been to the goddamn zoo?" "There's a horse, loose in the hospital! (literally)"

Thea - "And in a brilliant moment of word association, I yelled, "Fuck Da Police!"" "Because you're never too young to learn our national "No Snitching" policy." "I'm definitely never gonna be president. Not unless everyone gets real cool about a bunch of stuff really quickly." "I was the best-looking person at my intervention, by a mile." "Has there been [an insurrection] since I got out? No, they wouldn't dare. They know Baby J is back on the streets."

Alvar - "You could pour soup in my lap and I'll probably apologize to you." "You want my money? *mimics throwing* Go get it! Then you run the other direction!" "Have you ever seen old film from the past of people just waving at a ship? What if I called you now to do that?" "When I was three years old, I thought Miss America was the Statue of Liberty."

Riina - "13-year-olds are the meanest people in the world. They terrify me to this day." "They'd be like "Governor, what's your favorite food?" and he'd be like "I don't know, fries."" "I need everybody, all day long, to like me so much. It's exhausting." "So I go in and I sit down and I go "Hi, I'm John M..." and they stare at me like "Why are you holding for applause?""

Siral - "He ordered one black coffee, for himself, and kept driving." "And without looking up at me, he said "You have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair."" "So let me ask you this... In Nazi Germany- [...] How are you better than a Nazi?" "Time for Street Smarts with Detective J.J. Bittenbinder! Shut up, you're all gonna die! Street Smarts!" "Well, that was 7-year-old John Mulaney, currently being sued for police brutality." "I don't care for these new Nazis, and you may quote me on that." "Oh, those old winter coats! You know that phenomenon."

Delos - "I was once on the telephone with blockbuster video (which is a very old-fashioned sentence)." "And he was wearing reading glasses to show that time had passed." "What is college? *stammering* Stop going until we figure it out!" "Everything was slower back in the old days because they didn't have enough to do, so they slowed things down to fill the time."

Zarton - "I'll keep all my emotions right here and then one day, I'll die." "I also don't want me to be doing what I'm doing. I don't like that I'm in that lane either and I sure would like to get out of it." "Brush your teeth! Now, Boom! Orange juice. That's life." "There's a horse, loose in the hospital! (metaphorically)"

Tag your OC as a John Mulaney quote

[saratogaroadwrites]

For King and Country (55/122)

For King and Country | saratogaroad rating: T total wordcount:  280,466 characters: Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, Roland Crane, Aranella, Batu, Tani, Lofty, Leander Aristidies, Bracken Meadows relationships: Roland Crane & Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, Aranella & Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, Roland Crane & Aranella, Batu & Tani, Batu & Evan, Tani & Evan, Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum & Lofty, Rolander other tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Mother-Son Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Place Slowly Becomes Home People Slowly Become Family, Found Family, For Want of A Nail warnings: none

Pulled from his world by mysterious powers, former president Roland Crane finds himself caught in the middle of a coup meant to take the life of the young King Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum. Joining forces with Aranella, the pair of them set out to aid Evan in making his dream of a kingdom where everyone can live happily ever after a reality.

But the road to peace is a long and treacherous one and there is no promise of success in a world where darkness spreads ever thicker with each passing day. If they are to stand a chance, they must stand together, for king and for country.

(A retelling.)

=

“O’course, we’d be glad to have ye as neighbors,” Mr. Wright said, hands clasped behind his back. “We been livin’ out there by ouerselves for many a generation now. Neighbors oughta be good for the little’uns.”

“Yes,” Queen Nerea said with a smile. “And we have been isolated for far too long. It is high time we did away with such things.”

Standing alongside the conference table, Evan beamed. It had barely been a day since they had returned to Evermore, and already Queen Nerea was making allies and looking for a place to settle her people once more. He couldn’t blame her, really; the Hydropolitans were being provided for, but they were all wedged in tightly in the southern barracks and needed space.

Roland had muttered something about sardines in a can when Auntie Martha had brought that tidbit of information, which really just left Evan more confused than before. What was a can and why did someone put fish in it? Resolved to ask about it another time, Evan had set the oddity aside. The priority was the Hydropolitans right now.

“Of course, we would not want to crowd you, or encroach on Longfang’s territory.” Queen Nerea was saying, “I will admit I am unfamiliar with the Summerlands.”

“Well,” Evan leaned over the table, looking over the Summerlands. There was miles of empty coast to consider, especially once one had swung into the Calmlands. Thinking back to Roland’s lessons, he considered their options. They would need a good, defensible location, one where they could easily access food and water while trade routes were established.

He eyed a cove to the southwest of Goldpaw, the mountains rising high in a circle around them, but then set it aside. No, that was too defended and too out of reach. Just getting the ships there would take weeks! He scrunched up his nose and looked again, then—

“What about here?” He asked, pointing to a small-looking island drawn at nearly the southern end of the world. Mr. Wright leaned over, squinting for a moment, before he nodded.

“Aye, Larboard Isle. Good eye, Yer Majesty.” He looked up to a pensive Queen Nerea. “’Tis plenty safe, and bigger than this ‘ere map would say. Plenty ‘o space to grow, an’ Sailboard Isle’s much the same if ye need the room.”

Leander, having been silently watching them up until now, made a pensive noise.

“They do seem readily accessible, though we would have to shore up the Isle’s eastern side from the Rift.”

Queen Nerea eyed him amusedly. “I do believe we are capable of a shield spell or two, Leander,” She smiled as he sputtered, cheeks going pink, before she turned her attention back to Mr. Wright. “If you truly do not mind us being so close, I believe we will take your advice.”

Mr. Wright grinned back at her, his old eyes warm as he said, “Aye, Yer Majesty. We’d be happy to have ye. If ye’d like, I could go take a look at yer ships? Be sure they’re set for the trip?”

“That would be wonderful,” Queen Nerea returned with a small bow, “thank you. I will join you shortly.”

Mr. Wright nodded, excusing himself from the room. Once the door shut behind him, Queen Nerea turned to Evan and smiled.

“Truly,” she said, “You’ve a wonderful Kingdom. I am only sorry that we cannot aid you more,” She sighed. “Even should these Isles be suitable for settling, it will be some time until Hydropolis is ready to offer anything beyond a signature on a document.”

Evan shook his head. Queen Nerea had joined Hydropolis—or at least, what was left of it—to the Union the night before, in a quietly understated ceremony. They were allies now, but even if they hadn’t been…

“That’s alright,” He said, “You don’t owe us anything. I’m just glad we were able to save your people.”

“If I may be so bold,” Leander cleared his throat, looking to Queen Nerea, “Perhaps I can be of some assistance in this matter?” When Queen Nerea tilted her head for him to continue, he adjusted his glasses. “I believe I speak for all of Hydropolis when I say we owe Evermore a debt we can never truly repay, but…” He glanced at Evan, who stared back at him with wide eyes. “If it is at all possible, I would pledge my services to you and your Kingdom, King Evan. It is the least I can do.”

Evan stared at him for a moment, then forcibly shook off his surprise.

“Oh, no—you don’t have to do that!” He said, “Truly—”

“Truly,” Leander spoke over him, startling even himself, “I do not offer my services solely out of a need to repay you, but…” He took in a deep breath and then said, “I want to. If you intend to face Doloran, you will need all the help that can be mustered. I would be glad to offer my services—that is—” He looked to a peacefully smiling Queen Nerea, “If you can spare me—”

“After the past three hundred years?” She asked with amusement shaking her tone, “I cannot blame you for needing a change of scenery. Very well. If King Evan accepts,” She looked at him, and Evan nodded. If Leander was doing this out of want and not thinking he had to repay them, then yes! They would be glad to have him. Queen Nerea smiled softly as she turned back to her friend. “I release you from your duties as Archon. Go, aid them where you can. I will care for our people in the meantime, so long as you make me a promise here and now.”

Leander pressed a hand to his heart. “Of course. Anything.”

Queen Nerea reached up, cupping Leander’s cheek in one hand. She said softly, “Try to come back in one piece. You’ve a kingdom to rule when all is said and done.”

“Nerea!” Leander sputtered.

Standing just off to Evan’s right, Roland turned a laugh into a polite cough.

“Don’t worry,” He said when they turned their attention to him. “We’ll make sure he stays in line.”

“Or at least in very good company,” Nella said with a sideways glance at Roland. He looked aside as if to say I have no idea what you’re talking about, and Evan struggled to hold back his giggles. Instead, he nodded to Queen Nerea and the slightly pink Leander. Taking a deep breath of his own, Evan pulled on his lessons of formality.

“We accept your kind offer of assistance, Archon Leander,” he said, though maybe the title didn’t fit anymore. “For the duration of your stay with us, you will be working with Roland.”

If either of the men were surprised, neither showed it. Leander smiled gently, placing a hand to his heart and bowing.

“Thank you, King Evan. It will be an honor.” He turned his head to Roland and said, “Roland, I will try not to disappoint you.”

Roland chuckled softly. “Something tells me you won’t.” Pushing away from the table, he nodded to Evan and then stepped aside. “We should get to work. Your Majesty,” He looked to Queen Nerea, “If you’d like an escort to the docks, we can—”

“Thank you,” Queen Nerea said with a knowing look in her eyes. Evan tilted his head; what was that for? “But that will not be necessary. See to your duties, both of you.” She turned once more to Evan. “King Evan, I look forward to when next we meet.”

“As do I,” he replied with a smile, “Take care, your Majesty.”

Queen Nerea’s smile lingered as she headed out of the room, Roland and Leander a couple of paces behind her. Roland pulled the door to the conference room shut, leaving Evan and Nella alone inside. Nella eyed the door with a pensive frown.

“You know,” She said, “I’m not sure I should be glad Roland will have someone keeping an eye on him from now on, or worried about the trouble those two could get into.”

Evan laughed, sitting down and leaning his arms on the table.

“I think they’ll be alright,” he said as he slumped onto his forearms, “They get along quite well already.”

“Yes, they do,” Nella said. She lay a warm hand on his back and asked, “Are you feeling well, Evan? You’re not still worn out, are you?”

Evan shook his head. “No, I’m alright.” He said, watching dust and particles swirl in a beam of sunlight. “I’m just glad to be back home.”

When Nella wordlessly pulled him into her arms a moment later, Evan leaned in and sighed contentedly.

It was good to be home.

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Simon & Garfunkel, Andy Williams - Scarborough Fair/Canticle - Live" on YouTube

This is one of the ent ships, and yes Hera's and I's clan, the rebels you see. And Scarborough Downs which is part of Scarborough Fair in Maine right down the street from my dad's house her Grandpa and dad used to go when he was living there with Joseph Biden who is actually his real granddaddy his father is Barack Obama and his mother is Queen Elizabeth II. She was living there with Josephine. We used to pass the fair and dad would tell us how wonderful it was and they had everything there you could imagine large horses and wonderful stock that was prize winning and races horse races real ones and I think he said even with the carriages and you said you shut it down a long time ago when it was real sad and we don't know why. Hera and I we know what the stands are and then several of them in a couple buildings of Scarborough Downs that were relocated and some of them are at the Charles Schwab golf tournament in Texas and I'm going to try and retrieve them to rebuild them and they are made out of ENT.

Zues

That was both of us and I'm sad your people here and I feel much better but he's there without me I'm still young but he'll be okay sis these people have a problem and Mac wants the boats too. So I see it we're going to reassemble her and we did it before and yes you have it written down somewhere it'll go into one of the boxes and it's left already no it's the style of one I said wasn't good and it is and it feels like steel and that's what it feels like when it's expanded. It seems so sadness but it's because his family left and his clan and although they're different religions which are everything to us their family. I lost mine too and I have one like this and it's at the same Fair and they're large they're 180 ft long as they're smallest and 20 ft wide Plus he says they're 25% and that's true and when did large there are four miles long and they fly. The ships are very light compared to the strength and they have to be rejuvenated and lengthened properly and carefully and usually that handles itself. The Titanic 2 is reassembled and you can see her in many movies and finally someone gives her flight and they try to destroy it or disabling actually and I think that Mac has control and that's what they're looking at.

But these ships and lots of times more important to us then the tall ships of regular because this is Thor and Freya and it's there area and it's there type of ship and they led humanity to safety. There are father and mother and we love them and respect him and sometimes fear them and obey them. And we have to reassemble the ship and we can't let them down and we need this down there and they agree and it's their plan too he has a movie and you think it's my husband but it's not at least to see him and they were but it's not my husband it's really Dave AKA JC and Joe will pick up that heavyweight and try to carry it and we pay for serenity

Hera

There are a lot of bugs out tonight and we're asking them to spray they're going to try and spray now they're huge swarms and if they don't spray now they're going to grow so they're moving out hopefully we see some of them but they need all of them so having people put in the calls if you know someone ladies and you're reading this they only have like three trucks we need the whole area the whole county the tons of them everywhere actually it's all Southwest Florida and the coast I'm calling it we got to call in everybody else who can call him please do so if you drive one please get out there

Thor Freya

Olympus

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

If I Fell For You (Part 7) - Take It Slow

Summary: Jensen takes the reader and the kids for a day on the slopes but a minor accident has Jensen nervous about their relationship. As Jensen jumps into filming more, he brings home a little surprise for the reader and kids and decides what he really wants going forward...

Masterlist

Pairing: Jensen x nanny!reader

Word Count: 3,700ish

Warnings: language, death of a spouse, mild injury, intruding rabbits

A/N: Enjoy!

________

“Good morning, munchkins,” you said the next day after an unexpected morning shower with Jensen. He’d gotten dressed and had them ready to go for the day by the time you were even drying off.

“Dad says he has a surprise for us today,” said JJ, slurping up her bowl of cereal.

“Oh really?” you asked.

“Yes really,” he said, setting a bowl of cereal and cup of coffee down at your spot, kissing your cheek. “Even Y/N’s don’t get to know. Now eat up everybody. I want to get on the road by ten.”

You helped put away the dishes in the dishwasher after breakfast, crossing your arms and leaning against the counter.

“What’s the surprise, Jackles?” you asked. He grinned and bopped your nose. “Gonna need another shower later?”

“Oh you liked that?” he smirked, pressing his hands on the counter edge on both sides of you. 

“You’re cute with wet hair,” you said.

“Well, since I will need your help a bit with wrangling the three munchkins...I think you’ll just have to find out when we get there,” he chuckled. He kissed your cheek and you groaned. “I’m taking you guys snowboarding today.”

“Really?” you asked.

“Yeah. That or skiing. The kids have a little ski class and I figured maybe you and me could hit the slopes for an hour before we meet back up with them.”

“Uh, I have zero idea of how to ski. Or snowboard.”

“I know. I’m gonna teach you a few basics. Fun? Not fun?” he asked, resting his hands down on your hips.

“I will try my best...and probably end up with a sore butt,” you said.

“I got faith in you. We’ll take it real slow. You’ll get the hang of it real quick.”

“Daddy, I made a snowman,” said Zeppelin when Jensen had finished renting out skis for everyone an hour later. 

“I see honey. He looks very nice,” said Jensen. “Alright. Let’s get helmets on and get out there guys.”

Fifteen minutes later Zeppelin was holding onto your hand and leg, absolutely refusing to leave your side.

“Don’t you want to go play with your sisters?” you asked. He shook his head and Jensen sighed. “Why don’t I stay with the kids for the hour and you can get some actual going down the mountain in? I’m sure I can pick up whatever I need to learn watching them.”

“Are you sure?” asked Jensen. “I don’t mean to ditch and run.”

“I want to hang with Zepp anyways,” you said while you looked down. “What do you think? Sound good to you?”

He nodded and you glanced back at Jensen.

“You’re gonna have more fun not dragging me around anyways. We’ll see you in one hour, okay?” you asked. You kissed his cheek and smiled. “You can still teach me later, okay?”

“Alright, alright. I’ll see you guys real soon.”

“JJ you’re a natural!” beamed Jensen when you met back up with him. She was very good and the twins...well you gave up on them after a bit and simply let them run around the snow chasing one another. 

“Hey!” someone up the hill shouted. You spun around and saw some guy on a snowboard barreling straight for where the twins were sat near the edge of the slope. You jumped in front of them, the guy slamming straight into you but thankfully you were both able to go off to the right of them. You tumbled together for a minute before he slid away a few feet groaning. 

“Ow,” you said, rolling to your back and staring up at the sky. 

“You okay?” asked the guy with a grunt.

“I think so. You?” you breathed out.

“Same.” He made some kind of unclicking sound and then he crawled over, looking down at you. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t really learn the stop part yet.”

“Y/N, honey,” said Jensen, suddenly kneeling down beside you. “Are you hurt?”

“Feel like I got hit by a train,” you said, trying to sit up. You hissed and lay back down, hearing a pair of ski’s stop nearby. “My back hurts.”

“What’s your name?” asked a guy in a bright red coat with a backpack on as he stopped at you on the ground.

“Y/N,” you said. 

“Unit two, possible back injury on southwest side of hill slope. Need the backboard,” said the guy into a radio before he was talking to the other man.

“Daddy,” said Arrow, tugging on Jensen’s sleeve. She had tears in her eyes and you gave her a smile.

“I’m fine, sweetie. Just fell down too hard. Daddy’s gonna keep playing with you guys for a few more minutes,” you said.

“Y/N,” he said quietly.

“They’re scared,” you whispered. “Go. I think my back is just scraped up, I promise. Go on. Meet up with me wherever they take me in a few minutes.”

“She’ll be at the medical station,” said the paramedic. Jensen shot the guy that’d slammed into you a dirty look but he went back over to the kids and you gave them a wave. “Can you describe your back pain?”

“It’s sore. I can move. It’s more like it just hurts, kinda dull like,” you said. 

“Alright. We’ll get you taken care of.”

Thirty Minutes Later

“Hey,” said Jensen as you struggled to pull your thermal leggings back up. “Let me help.”

“Thanks,” you said, holding his shoulders as he hiked them up your legs. 

“The kids could have gotten really hurt if you hadn’t jumped in like that,” he said, pulling them up over your hips. His hand grazed over the hot pack stuck on your skin and you nodded. “You okay?”

“It’s just a few bad bruises. The other guy broke his nose.”

“I could have broke his nose,” he said, tugging your hoodie down over you. 

“It was an accident,” you said. “Kids okay?”

“They got a little upset for a second but they’re fine. They want to be with you though and I’m inclined to cut today short,” he said. 

“Counter offer,” you said, sitting down on the bed and glancing at your boots. He knelt down and tugged one up, zipping it up before doing the other. “We grab lunch and go sledding on the kiddie hill afterwards.”

“We’ll get lunch and then go home,” he said, folding up your snow pants.

“Come on. I’m-”

“You’re hurt. You got bruises all over and sledding’s just gonna hurt you.”

“Jensen,” you said, standing and picking up your coat. “Take a deep breath.”

“I’m-”

“Jensen.” He frowned but did it, cocking his head at you. “Again.”

He did it a few times, looking down when he’d finished. You rubbed his arm and he nodded.

“I’m okay. Not going anywhere,” you said. 

“He hit you so fucking hard.”

“I know but I’m tougher than I look. Buy me some hot chocolate, make me feel better,” you said. 

“You didn’t hesitate to step in you know.”

“Well there wasn’t really time to pick them up or move them. I figured tackling the guy off to the side was the best bet.”

“That’s not what I’m saying.”

“I know it’s not. But it’s not a big deal and I think we should come back next weekend so you and JJ can ski and me and the twins will go sledding. Deal?”

“Okay.”

“Maybe we can make a snowman when we get home.” You shrugged back into your jacket, Jensen fixing your hair. He zipped you up and took another deep breath, resting his hands on your shoulders. “It’s okay if you got scared. It’s nice knowing you care.”

“I don’t know if I’d survive two horrible…” he said.

“Yes you would. You have three very important reasons to.”

“You didn’t see the shit show I was before you.”

“Somehow you survived that without me. You could survive it without me again too,” you said.

“Yeah well, I don’t want to.” You smiled softly and he rested his forehead against your own.

“Well let’s plan on us having relatively boring normal lives then where we die of extremely old age in our sleep,” you said. “Sound like a plan?”

“I’d be okay with that,” he said. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” you said, kissing his cheek. “Let’s go enjoy the rest of our day, okay?”

“Okay, sweetheart.”

“Ah shit,” you said that night in your bathroom as you put on your pajamas after a shower. You were covered in dark purple bruises all over your back, legs and arms. Jensen had turned around throughout the day and seemed to have forgotten about the incident on the slope. It’d set him on edge which you couldn’t blame the poor guy for but you just knew if he got one look at you he’d start to worry again.

“Y/N,” said Jensen through the door. “Got a minute?”

“Just a second.” You looked around and grabbed the robe you never used off the back of the door and tied it around your waist. You tugged up your sweatpants and hummed. “Come in.”

“Hey,” he said, giving you a smile in the mirror as you started to comb your hair. “I’m gonna have to ditch on the movie. Work just called and my night shoot for later in the week got pushed cause of the storm they’re expecting.”

“Oh. When do you go in?”

“About twenty minutes,” he said.

“Don’t you need sleep?” you asked. He shrugged and you cocked your head.

“I’ll sleep on my lunch break. You mind getting the three of them down for bed tonight?”

“Not at all. Remember to pack your long john’s. It’s not warm and neither is your suit,” you said.

“The perils of playing a superhero,” he chuckled. You smiled and combed your hair, the sleeve of your robe falling down your leg and exposing a bruised arm. “Can I see?”

“It’s one little bruise,” you said, holding your arm up to him. 

“Can I see?” he asked again. You sighed and undid your robe, sliding it off your shoulders. He frowned when he saw your chest and back but only nodded. “Take some pain medicine before bed. There’s some of those heat packs in the kitchen too if you want some.”

“I will,” you said. You put on your pajama shirt and he went to leave, leaving his hand on the doorframe. “Yeah?”

“Aspercreme helps. Worked for me after the accident,” he said.

“Thanks. Text me when you’re on your way home?” you asked.

“Can do,” he said. He tapped his fingers on the frame before swinging around it and leaving. You picked up your brush and went back to brushing, Jensen popping back around the corner. Your gaze found his in the mirror and he glanced down. “Y/N. This is gonna come across a certain way and I hope…”

“We can slow it down, Jensen. I know today brought up some stuff for you.”

“I do care about you,” he said as he walked over. You turned to face him, Jensen taking your arm and running his thumb gently over the bruised skin. “I don’t necessarily think we’re going too fast either. But today kinda fucked me up a bit and I gotta deal with that shit before I keep going with this. I’m sorry. It’s not fair to you.”

“Are we taking a break?” you asked, his head immediately shaking.

“No, no. I just...want to keep the status quo for a bit? Sleep in our own rooms, have a date night on Saturdays. Keep things...the same. Normally I know that’s the death of a relationship but-”

“Jensen you know last night when we were playing around and I told you that we could stop whenever you needed to?”

“I don’t want to stop though. I just-”

“Jensen. I’m saying don’t worry about it. This isn’t the death of our relationship. You are feeling a lot of shit right now and so am I. You’re starting to get into filming everyday and I know that’s gonna be long days and when you’re home your focus is gonna be on the kids and I’m just saying it’s okay if this steps off the gas for a second. Just come back eventually okay?”

“Why are you so understanding?”

“Why would I make this hard for you?” you asked.

“Don’t you want things out of this though?”

“Of course I want things. But hurting you in the process to get there isn’t worth it. I’m not gonna hurt you just so I can hit some stupid milestone that people say you should do by x point in time. Fuck that. When you’re ready to progress a bit again, I trust you’ll tell me. Okay?”

“Thank you,” he said quietly. He kissed you slowly and nodded. “I’ll try not to take too long. I promise.”

“I am going to ask for one thing though.”

“Anything.”

“Call up that doctor you saw. Talk to him about how you’re feeling. Don’t go through whatever’s going on in that head of yours alone.”

“I will. I promise. I still want to be your boyfriend, Y/N.”

“I know and you can be. We’ll go slow,” you said. “Now go get ready for work and kiss the kids goodbye. We’ll see you in the morning.”

“Okay.” He slid his hand to the back of your neck and pulled you in close, planting a deep kiss on you. You stared at him as he broke away and smiled. “See you later honey.”

“Later Jensen. Call if you need anything.”

“I will. Promise.”

Two Weeks Later

“Hi,” hummed Jensen as he knocked on the edge of your doorframe late one night. You were sat on bed with your laptop typing away.

“Hello,” you said, biting your bottom lip as you backed up what you’d written.

“What ya doing?” he hummed again.

“Um, working on another Fox Foxington story,” you said. 

“Must be pretty invested considering you haven’t looked at me once,” he said, a big ass smirk in his voice. You glanced up and he was grinning hard, your jaw dropping.

“Oh my God.” You pushed the laptop aside and hopped out of bed, bouncing up and down on your toes. “You’re suit looks fucking awesome! They let you bring it home?”

“I’m on my lunch break. We’re filming ten minutes from here. I thought someone might like to see it in person.”

“This is so cool,” you said, reaching out a hand but pausing. “Can I touch it?”

“Of course,” he chuckled. You put your hand on his chest and tilted your head. “Feels weird right?”

“Yeah. I bet this thing isn’t comfortable to wear all day,” you said.

“Hardest part is the bathroom,” he said as you inspected him. “I’m not in it all day though.”

“Is that a spoiler?” you asked.

“Is it?” he teased. “Kids in bed yet?”

“Yeah but wake ‘em up. Dad looks freaking awesome right now,” you said.

“You sure?”

“Yup,” you said. You went back to your nightstand and grabbed your phone. “Come on, picture time.”

Ten minutes later and one sprinting out the front door Jensen later you had the kids back in bed and went back to work on your story. You worked for a few minutes when a flashing on the wall caught your attention. You narrowed your eyes at the box by your door, figuring the HVAC system was messing up again.

You got up and stared at it for a moment before you realized what the little flashing light was for. Your phone rang in your hand and you quickly answered.

“Y/N, I got a text saying the motion alarm got tripped,” said Jensen. “Did you-”

You heard a thud downstairs and opened the door.

“Someone’s downstairs,” you whispered.

“Turn around,” you heard Jensen say to the driver. You snuck out of the room and down the hall past the kids rooms. You peered over the balcony and laughed. “Y/N?”

“Uh, I know who our intruder is,” you laughed. “Um, you didn’t happen to leave the front door open when you came in earlier, did you?”

“Maybe,” he said as you heard a car out front. “What-”

“There’s a big ass rabbit sitting in the foyer,” you said, watching it hop over to the boot tray and start gnawing on Jensen’s sneaker. “I hope you aren’t partial to those blue sneakers.”

“What the…” he said as you watched the front door open. You hung up and Jensen stared at the rabbit, the rabbit taking a beat before it went back to chewing his shoelaces. “No! Stop! Bad bunny! This isn’t your house, go home.”

“Oh I need to film this,” you said. You started to record him as he opened the door and pointed outside.

“Go home bunny,” he said. The bunny apparently took that as an invitation to hop further into the house, Jensen groaning. You giggled and went downstairs, following them into the kitchen where the rabbit decided to hide under the counter stools. “Bunny please go home? I’m gonna be late getting back to work.”

The bunny hopped over to him before dashing away to the other side of the kitchen.

“Wait,” he said. He went to the fridge and grabbed a bag of baby carrots. He pulled one out and sat it on the ground by his feet. “Come on little guy. Come on…”

“Here we see Soldier Boy attempting to remove a little bunny rabbit from his home. Will he succeed or will he be late for work and have to explain this strange incident to his boss? Tune in to find out,” you said. Jensen stood up and shot you a bitch face. 

“You gonna narrate too?” he said.

“Maybe,” you laughed, taking the carrot off the floor. “Come on Mr. Bunny. I’ll give you the bag of ‘em if you head outside. It’s getting late. You ought to be home with your family, buddy.”

He hopped over and you knelt down, holding it out to him. He took a nibble and Jensen bent over, picking him up gently. 

“You’re cute and all but no bunnies allowed inside,” he said. He set him down outside and dumped out the bag of carrots by the front door. “Okay? Maybe you can get some more of those if you don’t break in again.”

The rabbit took a carrot in it’s mouth and ran off to the hedge before it came back and grabbed another.

“Ah Soldier Boy saves the day again,” you giggled. He made a superhero pose before laughing and you turned off the video. “Go on cutie. Don’t catch cold either. Wouldn’t want you sick for your birthday.”

“Is it...is it my birthday?” he teased. “Oh I seem to have completely have forgotten about it.”

“I wish you didn’t have work all day.”

“Eh, I’m used to it,” he said.

“Um, since you have a long day and stuff...can I take you out Thursday? I know you’re off Friday.”

“Yeah. I’d love that,” he said.

“Your birthday present is on your bed when you get home later,” you said.

“Looking forward to it. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Later Jensen.”

It was after dinner the next night, Jensen only getting home around lunch after an incredibly long day, when a pair of arms wrapped around you. You spun around and a very tired Jensen was hugging you tightly.

“Hey. I thought you were heading to bed finally,” you said.

“I was. I opened your present. Thank you.”

“S’just a present,” you said. He shook his head and you smiled. “I know. It’s your first one without her.”

“No that’s not it. Yesterday I was a little off because of it but...you got me socks. She always got me socks for my birthday. It was a joke between us but you didn’t know that and you still got me socks somehow.”

“Jensen it’s just a pair of socks.”

“I know. I’m not the kind of person that takes things as signs and stuff but maybe somehow, she was telling me something, like it’s okay to move on with you.”

“Maybe,” you said. You’d honestly only bought them because he couldn’t wear winter boots while he was filming and you knew his feet got cold. But if he wanted to take it that way you weren’t going to stop him. 

“Can we pick things up again? You’ve been taking a backseat the past few weeks and I know what I want and what I’m ready for.”

“What are you ready for?”

“You’re gonna get hurt sometimes and I can’t stop it. I can only be there after the fact and I’m okay with getting hurt in that way. It’s the price I gotta pay and I’ll pay it eventually but I’m okay with that. I want to be with my best friend again if she’ll have me back.”

“Always,” you said. “I don’t need a date every night to make me happy.”

“I know. Would you sleep in my bed tonight though?” he asked. “I missed your cuddles.”

“Sure. I’ll be up in a little while. You get some sleep. You have to be exhausted,” you said. 

“I am. But tomorrow and Thursday should be shorter days,” he said. “On a positive note, it sounds like filming is going faster than expected so there’s a possibility we can all get back home sooner than we thought.”

“Not that I mind the snow but I know the kids wouldn’t mind seeing their friends again,” you said. “Go get some sleep. We’ll talk more tomorrow when you’re more conscious, alright?”

“Yes mam,” he said. He kissed the top of your head and went upstairs, JJ wandering over from where she’d been coloring.

“JJ, why’d you tell me your dad likes getting socks on his birthday?” you asked.

“I don’t know. He just does,” she said. You ruffled her hair and smiled. “What?”

“Nothing. Let’s play a board game before bed, see if we can get the twins to pay attention this time.”

________

A/N: Read Part 8 here!

[bustedbernie]

You can't actually think that the average person is as much to blame for climate change as billionaires who erase years of progress with their own personal space race. Right? Tell me how me using paper straws or freezing in the winter/roasting in the summer is going to counter a CEO ordering a forest cut down a day.

Think you're being obtuse lol. That post isn't about the damage the rich do alone. It's about how leftists are using that harm to refuse their own accountability and their own ability to make small changes and in doing so, they are giving up their collective power to make larger changes. Experts have made it clear that it's not just about "billionaires," so you can shut up with that.

The crisis is going to demand LARGE changes from all of us - and yes, some of those changes are going to be uncomfortable. Set your thermostat at 80 in the summer and at 60 in the winter. Bodies adjust and those temperatures are safe for most everyone. In many climates, AC isn't necessary for more than 3 weeks of the year. Including where i live in the Southwest.

Stop using straws altogether and get rid of disposable items at restaurants - it's not hard. And if you're not the few who may need a plastic straw, then stop hiding behind them to avoid your own ability to change. Take the bus, and plan where you live so that you can. Live in a smaller space. Get a bike. Eat less meat and keep red-meat to an absolute minimum. And yes, vote and advocate for people who can make real change and regulations at the top to make changes for US easier to do in our daily lives while also multiplying the impact.

but don't forget that these corporations function toward demand - and they do listen - and they do know change is coming and preparing for it. If you can afford to, start using the power you do have, and you DO HAVE it, and stop hiding behind some convenient wall so that you can think you're exempt from making any changes in your own life - assuming you actually care about the climate crisis at all and aren't just using it to channel pure anger at an "other" (this case the rich or the billionaire class).

Anger is a secondary emotion and I think the way it is discharged, including in your ask, is not helpful to you or the crisis. You're just discharging blame. Accountability is a two-way street, and if you actually do make changes, you will be living YOUR values, which is valuable and it does matter. If the paper straw makes you feel more aligned with your values (and it does make a difference, no matter how small), then that is a good thing.

What you've done with this post is what they love to see. They don't actually care that you or I think they're evil, shortsighted, or whatever. Because you hiding behind that is just allowing yourself to remove yourself from the system (which can't be done btw) and enables you to keep buying the products made by the evil billionaires. It's funny how that works, isn't it? Saying it's all the fault of the billionaires while changing nothing you are doing is what they love to see.

why is it that you all talk about how each individual can create a massive collective action leading to a revolution or whatever, but you don't see how that is true, if not even MORE true, on this subject? Critical Mass bike rides have politically made it possible for cities to invest in more bike infra. Using reusable jars and containers on bulk items at your local coop reduces plastic individually, and also demonstrates a market for less plastic packaging. You might still need to buy certain things in plastic, but the more you buy available in other packaging helps enable even more. Even Target is now selling deodorant tubes made of paper and toothpast sold in aluminium tubes. I get bulk shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, soap, and cleaning products at my Coop (I in fact now have a plastic free bathroom and nearly plastic free kitchen!).

And like i said, i know my impact is marginal, but it is still an impact. On a personal level, the impacts benefit my mental health, they align with my values, and I find my life more enjoyable. I have a small apartment, but can take the bus or bike everywhere, and I have become more and more a part of a community that shares those values and lifestyles which is enriching. So yes, billionaires are doing a lot of damage, but we live in a society and all play a part. We can work toward holding them accountable and making those changes at the same time we make changes at home. But i have very little respect for people who think they can't make any change or who discharge all their responsibilities on others.

In my 15+ years advocating this way, we have accomplished a rapid transit project in my city that has massively improved public transport in the core, made plastic free options possible at several local Coops and shops, increased commuter bus service from the suburbs, created a commuter rail, grown our bike lane and cycle track network by many, many miles(more than doubling our number of bike commuters),invested in community bike maintenance classes and FREE bikes for low-income or unemployed folks and folks experiencing homelessness, banned plastic one-use bags, have gotten our city and state to use more water capture and permeable concrete in construction, and are helping support a large wind and solar industry (things our region should be especially good at). So idk, If we can make these changes in a sprawling, desert city in the middle of nowhere, then I'm sure there are changes you can start taking part in and advocating for in your city, too. You do have power, and when you put that power to work with other like-minded people, it can be game changing.

But i was recently in Philadelphia talking to someone who had a similar view. They lived 3 blocks from the subway and worked next to a stop, but said "the subway isn't a good option for me" and insinuated they thought it was gross (it's old but perfectly fine and I thought wonderful). They drove to the shop despite living walking distance from a super market. They channeled a lot of the same attitude that I see in your ask. Obviously this person is unique, but I have found a lot of folks with this attitude have similar low-hanging fruit that they are just refusing to take because it would require a modicum of effort. Hate to tell ya, but you've been lied to if you think we can solve this crisis without you evaluating making some changes.

[dennou-translations]

Violet Evergarden Ever After: Chapter 1

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Stories end one day once they begin. With that in mind, one might deem clinging to themselves, to other people or to anything else in the world as a little foolish. Same for how fiercely their heart was burning. Or how it cried for these things. It would all disappear like a dream eventually. One could think that even just putting in some effort was meaningless. Yet it had started.

Born through some sort of cue, anyone would breathe. Open their eyes. Learn to let out their voice. Figure how to walk. Come to understand what love was. Receive affection. Find out that it was a sickness, and either stop or give continuity to it. Nobody was taught how to cure it. There were also those who never even once accepted it from anyone.

Whatever the case, no one was allowed to stop for as long as they were part of this story, of this world. While living, people would be continuously be involved with death. But if morning came, night would also follow. Hunger would abate and sleep would invite one to the floor. Even after losing love, people craved for it. With its eyes cast down to forfeit, the world gradually emitted a new shine. Manifestation of beauty and hideous collapses were in progress at the same time. There was no eternity, but things went on. The story would continue. The world would go round. Even if it would meet its end one day.

Even without you there, morning would come.

   Blue eyes opened.

Purple flower petals fluttered gently in front of her eyes and passed her. They touched her as if to cause tickles, and then disappeared. The illusions of the past that had been surfacing dissipated slowly.

Her wild beast self and her named self. All of the past dissolved into reality, dragged back into the present. Here, there was neither a beast nor the man that it used to call “Major”.

The boat lethargically moved through a large river, an Auto-Memories Doll on it. The rowing of the boater, who wore a big hat, was quite something. For it to cause a chance meeting between her and her past, that had to be a good boater.

The girl, Violet – Violet Evergarden – was looking for someone.

Whenever she opened her eyes, she would wind up doing it. Looking for the person who had given her as much as he could give and then vanished. Looking for the person that she had hurt as much as she could hurt and not managed to protect.

Of course, he was nowhere in sight. There was no way he would be in such a place. She knew it. However, she would end up searching. Her most beloved lord had supposedly died long ago, yet she would find herself searching for him. Even an apparition would do; she only wanted to see him at least one more time.

The world he was gone from had livened up anew and its colors were vibrant. Violet had to live in said world. She had to live in this fresh hell. She could no longer receive orders. Neither could she chase after his back. There were limits to what she could do.

It was easy for people to tell her to move on. However, that was a great difficulty for her. Violet had been told to live. Just as ordered, without attempting to die, she was living while burdened with this difficulty.

“Miss, what is it you’re looking for?”

At that time, Violet was still not a full-fledged human.

   The Rose and the Auto-Memories Doll

   “Wait,” I prayed.

The dark red ribbons tying her golden hair. The pleats on her white ribbon-tie dress. The light blue umbrella. As if playing around, all of these things fluttered in the wind.

——Wait for me.

It was hard to breathe. Flowers from the jacaranda trees were blocking my field of vision. Their beauty erased everything that could be seen. Yet they were nothing but a hindrance now. What I yearned for wasn’t them.

——Please, wait for me.

Tears welled up. I didn’t know whether they were tears of sadness, relief or frustration.

I didn’t understand anything anymore. What was I doing? I didn’t know. Surely, I had never known. I didn’t even know that I was hurting.

——Wait.

If there was one thing I knew, it was that I wanted her to take me away from here.

“Violet, wait.”

That was all.

——So please, wait up; don’t leave me behind.

   It was spring. When it came to the four seasons, spring was surely the best one.

I first met her at a time when lilac blossoms were in bloom. Lightly, nimbly, they fluttered down. It was a season where purple flower petals danced in the sky. Spring. A season of sprouting.

What color came to people’s minds when they talked about spring, I wondered. It was probably a different one depending on where each of them lived. Pink cheery blossoms were scattered around higher lands. I had heard that bougainvillea flowers dyed a certain region in pure white. Apparently, the sight of green stems stretching out from within the snow thaw was the face of spring in some places. As for me, when the topic was spring, it had to be jacaranda trees.

The Jacaranda River was located among the mountains of the d’Arthur Region at southwest of the continent. It was a large river surrounded by steep mountains that rose like giants. Bearing the same name, jacaranda trees were planted along said river as if to enclose it, and during the flowering seasons, the color of the water surface would turn violet.

Ordinary trees had their branches, fruits and leaves pointed downward, but jacaranda flowers grew pointing upward, almost like a hand holding a bouquet. Just one of those flowering trees was already a feast to the eyes, so it was simply magnificent when there were many of them together. The sky was blue; the earth was a cloud of purple. Even God would easily let out a sigh when looking down at this scene from the heavens.

There were countless small communities in the vicinities of the Jacaranda River, and in order to go from the outside to a piece of land that had a settlement on it, one basically had to move by boat. Hence why it was so easy for the people who lived in this neighborhood to become sailors as a job. The pay, in contrast, was not so rewarding, but not to the point of making anyone go hungry. People coming from other places would gather into crowds to see the jacaranda trees during springtime and there was demand from the locals even outside of the busy seasons. So I would continue on my job here forever and never lose it.

In this world, inside this little story of mine, I had an encounter with her.

“Excuse me; I heard that there is a village beyond this point. Is it possible to cross the river?”

A foreign object appeared in that tiny world of mine.

“Hello. Yes, I go there often. This is how much it costs and the payment is in advance.”

Her name would eventually roar throughout the business, but at this time, she was a ghostwriter girl who had barely started to travel the world.

“I do not mind. It will be my pleasure.”

“We usually put the names of the customers on an account book. May I have your name?”

That was how she and I met.

“It is Violet Evergarden.”

To be honest, she was the kind of person who could cause people’s time to stop in fascination for a brief moment. This ferry port was crowded in spring. There were many other people around, so of course, I could spot several beautiful men and women who showed up for sightseeing, but she was unlike any of them. No matter what background was behind her, she would only be a strange object in it. Be it rainy or sunny days, winter or spring days. Regardless of whatever the world was clad in, one would find their eyes going towards her. Beauty was not the only reason for it. Her scent was different from that of other living things.

——It’s similar to the feeling I got... when seeing a deer in the mountains for the first time.

Right, a wild beast. She was like a beautiful wild beast. If such a stunning beast appeared in front of anyone’s eyes all of a sudden, they would surely stare fixatedly at it. This one had blue eyes and its mane was golden.

“Please treat me well.”

“Ah, yes.”

Her voice was clear, her gestures elegant.

“Is there anything wrong with my appearance?”

“No, no; not at all. Nothing at all.”

She was full of mysteries that other people would not be allowed to touch so easily.

Her outfit might also be at fault. She was well-dressed in a way that one wouldn’t see around this area. A Prussian-blue jacket, a white ribbon-tie dress and cocoa-brown boots that could be deemed as brand-new. An emerald brooch shone radiantly over the ribbon tie. I had but one toy similar to her when I was a child. That young woman was literally just like a doll. On top of it, even the name I asked for matched her lovely looks, to the point I felt like humming without thinking.

“Ms. ‘Violet Evergarden’. All... right. Now, if you please.”

It was a good name. Like an actor’s. I had never watched a play or anything of the sort, though.

“Thank you very much for your patronage today. I am the safest operator around here. Boater Valentine.”

Once the name was written down and the fare was received, my work began.

The customers would be hesitant when getting on the boat regardless of whether they were men or women, but Violet differed from them. She got on it without a sound, quickly sat down and postured herself in waiting for me to start rowing.

Whatever thoughts she was engrossed in, she quietly closed her eyes after taking a glance at the scattering jacaranda flowers. It was a day of warm sunlight and pleasant wind, so she might have become sleepy. The comfortable silence continued for a while. I thought about leaving her alone, but perhaps because the petals that rode on the wind and flew about had tickled her cheeks, she opened her blue eyes. The scenery of earlier was not supposed to be any different, yet she looked left and right as if searching for someone.

“Miss, what is it you’re looking for?”

As I asked so, Violet moved her neck with a twitch like a small animal and looked my way. After a short moment, the answer came in a low voice with an “it is nothing”. She seemed a bit dispirited.

She looked like an uncommunicative person, so I did think she might not go along with a boater’s talk, but wanting a change in mood, I kept on speaking, “Miss, you are in luck. Now is the best time to view them. The jacarandas.”

“Is that so?”

She was kind of a weird girl. Her manner of speech was weak in emotion.

“For me, this is the time to make money. When this period passes, people stop coming to this remote region. This is my main occupation, but many people do boat rowing as a side-job too. When spring is over, they do farming. Miss... it does not seem that you are here for sightseeing. Is it for work?”

“Yes.”

“Is it a job related to boats?”

“No.”

“My, wrong guess. You don’t get scared of the swaying, so I thought you were used to it.”

“Is that how it looks?”

After we spoke that much, Violet finally stopped searching and moved her gaze towards me.

“You do. It feels like you have no fears.”

Silence drifted about. Rather than ignoring me, she seemed to be having difficulty choosing her words.

Until this mysterious beauty spoke up, I was smoothly cutting the surface of the water with the oar. Maybe due to her baggage being heavy, the propelling was slower than I had predicted. She was a slim young woman no matter how I looked at her, so her luggage was probably the one to blame for the rowing’s bad flow. Come to think of it, a low screeching sound ensued whenever she moved. She might have some sort of manufactured item on her.

“You are right. I have been with the navy before, so...”

Oops, the conversation was back.

“Is your family from the military?”

“No, just me. My military service record was ultimately the army. But before the army... the person that I served was a navy officer.”

The reply was covered in enigmas. Her profile was cold. The way she talked was perfectly fitting of a mysterious beauty.

I thought this strange client was a little scary, but let out my curiosity just a bit more. I had never gone outside of these lands, so I loved chatting with the customers.

“I can’t believe it. To think that someone like you used to be a soldier...”

She had no idea what the description “like you” represented. This impression showed through just slightly in her facial expression.

I rode with many people, so I sort of had my own theories about them. I felt like students from renowned schools would make this into a laughingstock if I were to call it a “philosophy”, but... people communicated the actual state of their emotions through the blinking of their eyes, the way they opened their mouths, the highs and lows of their voices and other such things.

They were extremely scarce in this girl, but I could perceive them. Seriously. I was an expert at “observing” others.

“Do you get troubled when people coax you or something like that?”

As I asked out of curiosity, Violet once again had a question mark over her face, but after a while, she blinked as if to say, “I have arrived to an answer for the inquiry” and gave me an unexpected reply. “In my travels, I am sometimes invited by people to become their bodyguard after saving them. I am an Auto-Memories Doll, so I decline them politely,” she said.

I was asking in a romantic sense, so that could not be considered an answer to my question.

What a strange doll. What an odd girl.

——My life would be wonderful if I were born with these looks.

On first meetings, one’s eyes would go to people’s physical appearance first and foremost. Everyone had a preferred type of face, right? I accidentally ended up comparing hers to mine.

Perhaps as I was always wearing a big straw hat so that my skin wouldn’t be damaged by sunburns, my hair was squashed. Even if I took off the hat, the platinum-blond color could get me mistaken for a grizzly old man. Other girls of the same age as me sparkled so much, and yet, just what was I? Being in the same space as them was embarrassing... No, let’s leave what the eyes could see aside. I should serve the customer; serve the customer.

“Beautiful here, isn’t it? These are jacaranda flowers.”

“‘Jacaranda’...”

“Ah, they sell fruits on that boat over there. Want to buy any?”

“No.”

“Do I talk too much? Ah, look! That bird is very rare. Can you tell it has the color of emeralds? It’s called ‘gemstone bird’. The feathers they drop are my treasures.”

“It is beautiful.”

“I think so too! I might get along well with you. What do you usually do to pass the time?”

During my and Violet’s short boat-riding trip, she told me the following:

She worked for a certain postal company from a military nation in the far south named Leidenschaftlich.

She was a newbie Auto-Memories Doll there.

Through her current commission, it was her first time coming to these lands.

Before arriving here, she drove two groups of bandits away.

She was told by her boss to bring him local specialties of this area as souvenir.

That was it. She had many stories about her boss.

“So the president and employees are close in your company, huh.”

“Is that so... No, you are right. Our company has just barely been built and there are few employees. If the number of unit members is small, the distance between them and the commander naturally grows shorter. Yes, to someone like me, whose origins are unknown, he is a compassionate person.”

“You don’t have to talk like that about yourself...”

“It is true. I am an orphan and do not know where I was born.”

I added “orphan” to the information about Violet that I had inside me. The things that had happened to this person dictated the air about her, I thought. Was that the reason why she seemed somewhat lonely?

“But now I have people who look after me.”

“Your boss.”

“Yes. And a kind elderly couple as well.”

“Aah, good for you. Being alone is sad. If you have someone to be with, that’s better. So you used to be in the military but you’re not a soldier anymore now that the war ended. You got yourself a new job and family, is what you’re saying.”

“Yes.”

“You’re sailing smoothly!”

“No.”

Even though I expressly tried to conclude it with good vibes, it was denied.

“I have many problems.” There was a slight creasing between Violet’s eyebrows. “I don’t yet know if I have the aptitude to be an Auto-Memories Doll... I was given a lady’s education and I have studied languages and other such things, but it is hard to say whether or not I can make effective use of that. I have retained the fighting power... but I am in a state where I do not know how to use it.” The tone of her voice faded a little at the end.

“How are you working like that now?” I asked purely out of concern. After all, she was an Auto-Memories Doll.

I came across all sorts of clients, but she was my first Auto-Memories Doll one. It was a job in which people used ghostwriting as their weapon and rushed around the world. I heard there were many women in that occupation, but I never thought a girl as old as me would be doing it. She could very well be writing for a princess from some other country while I was here, rowing a boat.

“Letters have standard sentences. In most cases, if we add the desired content to those standard sentences that we have memorized, they will take form.”

“Hm, hm, I see.”

“However, it cannot be said that letter you wished to write so much to the point of requesting an Auto-Memories Doll was achieved with this. If we cannot correspond to the expectations, we are failures as tools. Therefore, we are once entrusted with the request’s contents, suggest a few types of details, choose the best ones and accept additional demands, should there be any... then repeat. There are also times when my abilities are not enough...”

“You mean contents you can’t write?”

“Any sort of letter can be shaped to a certain extent as long as there is time. It is a combination, after all. However, I am not well-versed in the art of conversation that entertains people. I am told that I am ‘boring’ or ‘unfriendly’ and am often dismissed by the clients.”

She somewhat convinced me. I was terribly sorry for that. But it might indeed be difficult for someone to feel like composing a letter in a fun way with her. If they were hiring her for serious contents, that was a different story.

“Moreover, we normally have to understand the circumstances that our clients are in... Let’s see; it is similar to, for example, approaching someone who is injured. I am supposed to write such letters, but I do not yet understand what a good letter is. It is hard for me to say that I can manage it... In the end, I do not know if I have aptitude to be an Auto-Memories Doll. I am always asking myself whether or not it is all right for me to work in these conditions.”

Perhaps due to thinking a tad too hard, Violet said something incomprehensible – that “it would be much more efficient if our company’s president became an Auto-Memories Doll”. Wasn’t a president supposed to take care of the management?

But, surely... for Violet to be saying something like that about him, he had to be the kind of person who excelled at being considerate.

With the flow of the conversation, I tried asking what I was most interested in, “W-What do you do about love letters and the like?”

“Love letters?”

“Yes.”

It was a field of great concern for someone who had never had any sort of relation with it since birth.

“That is also a combination. You throw in verses from famous poems or songs... Classic romance novels are valuable reference materials as have quite a lot of rhetoric.”

As I received an answer much more direct than I had imagined, almost like boiled vegetables with no taste but their own, my shoulders dropped. I had expected her to reply that she used her own love experiences as reference, but Violet was an extremely serious bookworm. I was a bit ashamed of myself.

I then started the conversation over, “Must be hard that your first job is kind of all about stuff you’re not good at.”

As I said so, Violet dropped her gaze and spoke, “No, we have a bright female Auto-Memories Doll who is the complete opposite of me, so she is put in charge of cases like the ones I just mentioned. In contrast, a large number of transcription cases that are not letters but instead invoices and contract documents, or that require fast writing, come to me. Describing exactly what I see is my field of expertise.”

“I see; it’s a matter of having the right person in the right place. Your boss’s administration is good. So you’ve been managing it one way or another until now.”

“Yes. But this is my first business trip for ghostwriting.”

“F-First!” I accidentally let out a loud voice.

“Yes, my first.”

This girl was on her first ghostwriting business trip. I was sending her on a boat for that. It somewhat felt like I was involved with an awfully grandiose story, which made my heart race.

“Gets you nervous, doesn’t it?” I sought for agreement, but the one feeling nervous was me. “Will you be okay?”

But Violet did not seem to be okay.

“On ghostwriting business trips, the task is to finish it on the spot, and you must respond immediately. I cannot use the means that I have been using until now, such as taking time to write or securing time by cutting sleep and eating short.”

That may have been the reason for her aspect of weariness. Still, I was shocked. When we, boaters, did not want to take our boats out, we would refuse rides even if there were clients. It was a job where we had to have customers, but we decided the discretion on our own. I did not let the ones with a bad attitude on my boat ever again even if they asked. Above all, not eating was impossible. No one could row a boat if they were hungry or sleepy.

“You have to eat... Isn’t that the most important? And you have to sleep too!”

“The most important is accomplishing my missions.”

I could somewhat understand why this girl’s boss was so concerned about her. Since she was an ex-soldier, she was unable to get used to a peaceful life, and the job she had earned required a variety of emotions that did not fit her, so she was competing with knowledge and effort to make up for it. Talk about dangerous.

“But taking care of your health is also part of work.”

Violet cast down her golden eyelashes. What I said probably made her think.

“As I thought, I was better off as a soldier,” she whispered this bit by bit, out of the blue. As she caressed her emerald brooch, she fixed on it a stare that seemed to be burning.

“How come?”

“When I was in the military... all I had to do was chase after one person and protect him. I was always searching for an adult to follow.”

How was I supposed to describe this girl?

“I found myself the best master of all and used to live my life serving him.”

Rather than sincere, she was too candid. Almost like, yes, a child who knew nothing.

“It would have been great if it were like that forever.”

That was why, most likely...

“So he was someone important to you.”

...she honestly thought as much.

“More than anything.”

Her words probably held no lies.

“That’s good.”

She truly was currently apart from someone important to her and losing heart.

“But the war ended and everything changed. Things are different now. I have been separated from my master, and I must journey around the world all by myself with words and pens as my weapons.”

My country was a prosperous land that had not involved itself with the Continental War. Ever since I was born, I had never once enlisted. I had nothing to respond to her statements. That even though I had nosily asked so many questions – what a person I was.

“Erm... hum, can I say something?”

I wanted to cheer her up. But I had no idea how.

As I faltered, Violet shook her head. “I am sorry...”

She started apologizing for some reason, making me even more confused.

“I spoke too much. Forgive me for... tainting your ears.”

“Why? You didn’t do that at all.”

“I am told not to talk in too much detail about my history.”

“I-Isn’t it okay, though?”

“I must do as told.”

“But—”

“My deepest apologies. I said things that could disrupt you while you are in the middle of work.”

“B-But—”

“My deepest apologies.”

“Isn’t it okay?! You and I are just a customer and boater who can’t see each other anywhere but here!” again, I spoke loudly on accident.

I became a bit flustered. After all, she was apologizing. Even though she was just answering my insistent questions. Even though she was burdened with so much that she wound up unintentionally spilling it to a stranger like me.

“After you get out of this boat, we have no way of knowing what will happen to each other. So please never mind it.”

It was because I asked so persistently that the things she had been holding overflowed.

“It’s all good.”

There was something I could say exactly because I was a boater of a remote region.

“It’s all right,” I affirmed strongly, wanting to do something about those wavering eyes and her aspect of uncertainty. I might have been huffing fiercely too.

Violet looked at me with a gaze that looked like she had just woken up from a dream. And then she nodded with a meek face. “Yes.” Even though she had just nodded once, after a few tens of seconds later, she nodded again while saying, “Yes.”

After that, we eventually reached the shore without talking much.

From what I had heard, Violet’s patron was Mr. Lockhart, an elderly man famous for being rich even within his community. He was already quite old, so it was said that he did not have long.

“You go straight down the road. You should be able to see the village after a while, and Mr. Lockhart’s mansion is the one on highest ground. It has a white roof. The neighbor houses are all extravagant too, so don’t mistake it.”

“All right.”

“On the way back! If you also feel like going back together, look for me!”

“Yes, Mr. Valentine.”

   Perhaps because I had asked for it, Violet actually did look for and called out to me as her ride for the way back. Maybe as I had listened to her life story, it kind of did not feel like we were strangers anymore.

After I intimidated and dispersed the other boatmen trying to take her as their customer, I asked, “How was the job? Did it go well?”

“I do not know.”

Silence.

“At first, he yelled at me, then crumpled the letters I wrote into balls one after another and tossed them away.”

“That’s horrible.”

“But once I presented improvement suggestions twenty-three times, he said he had ‘been defeated by my persistence’ and accepted the ghostwriting.”

“Ms. Violet, you actually have a strong competitive spirit, don’t you?”

Later on, according to what I had heard from people of his neighborhood, Mr. Lockhart was a mean geezer who, apparently high-strung from fighting against a disease, would hire people in order to bully them into quitting. My goodness. He was the type of person whom I would not want to associate myself with even once, so I guessed the fact that Violet would not have to deal with him anymore after just this one time was a blessing in disguise.

However, a few months thereafter...

   “I will be ghostwriting a letter to Mr. Lockhart’s grandchild for a few months.”

...she showed up again holding a travel bag in one hand and reunited with me. Our interactions continued from that point onward.

I did not know what to name my involvement with Violet. We were not friends. We only ever met due to occupational matters and I never saw Violet other than when she came over for work.

“How did things go after that? Is business going well? We’re in the off season now, so I’m pretty free.”

“It seems that people of the postal industry are seeking not to take work away from those of the same line of business. We, Auto-Memories Dolls, usually receive work from the area surrounding our companies, but the number of business trips is increasing. However, it is hard to say if we are on track. Our president looks over his account book every day.”

As we were both from the hospitality businesses, we had worries in common. So I was also happy.

“My wallet gets really empty in the off season too. Well, I can live just fine with the amount I save up in spring... but I have to find a different job when I want something pricey.”

“A different job. Mr. Valentine, for how many years have you been a boater?”

I reminded myself of my ordinary life’s number of years and work history inside my head.

“Erm, I’ve been rowing for two years. But before that, I was something like a handyman, working in an orchard, taking care of other people’s babies, doing cleaning and washing, running errands and being an apprentice at a restaurant’s kitchen.”

“That is a wide variety.”

“My family’s poor. Dad and Mom are gambling addicts too... We’re so poor that we can’t survive without all of us working. I was eight when they told me I had to get a job because our finances weren’t going well.”

“That is commendable for someone so young.”

“No, Ms. Violet, you’re probably as old as me, right? Eh, how old are you?”

   Perhaps she and I really did have a karmic connection, as I was always working whenever she came to these lands.

“Ms. Violet! If it isn’t Ms. Violet...!”

“Mr. Valentine. I was looking for you.”

“M-Me?”

“Yes. You told me to ask for you the first time we rode. I did this last time as well. Will you take out your boat today?”

“Of course! C-Can I ask again? You were looking for me?”

“Yes.”

“I’m so happy! Same for me! I wonder every day if you’re coming anytime soon... Now, now, customer! Please get onto the boat! Go ahead, go ahead. I have tons of things I want to tell you! I see~! So you were looking for me~!”

“Yes, I was.”

   The air about her was like that of a tensely stretched thread, yet as time went by, she became able to show different facial expressions.

“You can’t smile?”

“No. I cannot say I have complaints about it, but... I receive such opinions from the clients quite frequently. For now, I am making physical attempts on it. Mr. Lockhart often lifts my cheeks. He tells me to practice. Yet... it does not work very well.”

“That old man is teaching you weird stuff... It’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone pick their cheeks up to form a smile.”

“Mr. Valentine... you excel at smiling. Do you have any trick for it?”

“Eh~, I’m just being carefree.”

“That is difficult for me.”

“Hm~, but that’s a secret of success.”

“‘Secret of success’...”

“This place is a dock, after all. For a kid like me to be working among men, I at least have to be good at acting friendly, or else I can’t survive.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. That’s why this is something I’ve ingrained in me. Ms. Violet, you’re an ex-soldier, aren’t you? You couldn’t be carefree in the battlefield, so there is no helping that, right?”

“But... that has nothing to do with my clients.”

“Hm~, trying to be better is never too much, but from my standpoint as someone who is also in the hospitality business, I don’t think that is completely indispensable. We give the clients what they seek and they pay the fee. It is essentially this kind of equal relationship. You do not have to abase yourself more than necessary. Customers naturally come to people that do a fine job even if they are unsociable.”

“Is that so...?”

“It is. Someone who instead is friendly but can’t do the job at all is a problem. The fact that you became Mr. Lockhart’s purveyor means you write good letters. It seems he is very particular about his own matters. Y’know, you’re fit for people like that.”

“If so, that is good.”

“Don’t make that face. Shall I lift your cheeks?”

   The things we had to talk about with each other whenever we met increased exactly because we were far apart from one another.

“Speaking of which, you are looking for someone, right? Did you find any clues?”

Our respective circumstances slipped in and out of sight.

“No...”

“But Auto-Memories Dolls have to go to all sorts of places, so there is still hope.”

“Yes. I also think that is the good point of being an Auto-Memories Doll.”

“That so...? Ms. Violet, did you choose to be an Auto-Memories Doll to search for someone?”

“No, perhaps I should say it is wishful thinking. I do not truly believe that I can find him. However...”

By that time, I had realized what the brooch was.

“...I can keep on living while thinking ‘what if’. That is the kind of job it is.”

That it was something related to the important person she had mentioned.

“Is that so...?” while speaking with a laidback voice, I incidentally thought about what that would be in my case.

What was I attached to enough that I would be this obsessed over it?

“You’re the opposite of me. I’m waiting for my family here.”

——If I do have any of that, it’d be the boat my dad used to ride.

“Do you live far away from each other?”

——The house that we all lived in together.

“Huuum... How should I put it? I was sent out to a different town for domestic service when I was eight... and I was completely convinced that my parents and older brother were living here.”

None of what I was attached to was things that could remain in my grasp. It was this land itself.

“When I came back, there was only our house. My family wasn’t in it.”

It was not something I could walk around with.

“They might’ve moved somewhere else... because they hated life here.”

Violet did not frown or make a puzzled face. She just quietly lent me an ear.

“I ran away from the place where I was doing domestic service, so I guess I missed their notice. I think they are troubled now. That they are looking for me. I also want them to come pick me up, but they never do...”

I myself understood. I knew I was saying odd stuff. Weird, wasn’t it? I was aware. If she called me crazy, it would be just the expected.

“Mr. Valentine, should you not be looking for them?”

That question gouged out just a little bit of the weakest part of my heart. Yes, just a little. It pierced me exactly because the person who asked it had stood up from her suffering and was running onward.

“If I leave this place, it’d be a problem...”

But Violet did not say I was wrong at all.

“It be a problem if, by any chance, my brother – no, either Dad or Mom decided to come back...”

She merely whispered a single sentence: “understood”.

   Before I realized, I had started looking for her at the dock.

——Is she coming today? Not yet? She might come tomorrow.

   “It’s been a while...! Has anything changed? We got to meet again because Mr. Lockhart is still alive, huh.”

“It has. Just that the personnel at my workplace increased again. Mr. Lockhart’s voice is so lively when he is angry that one would not imagine he has a disease. Mr. Valentine, what about you...?”

“Y’see, I’ve been going to study lately! I was influenced by you. I can read easy words, but I never went to school, so I’m bad at writing.”

“I could not write either. However, it should be all right as long as you practice.”

“I don’t have enough paper to practice writing, so I’ve been writing on the ground with a stick these days.”

“If you wish, please use these.”

“Eh, what are those? T-They look expensive. I can’t.”

“I also received paper and pens from someone just like this and began my studies. You can.”

“N-No can do! I can’t get something like that from my customer...!”

“You can.”

   As the seasons passed, as the days and months went by, her aspect of anxiousness from when we first met diminished. She steadily built up a record of accomplishments as an Auto-Memories Doll.

“That umbrella is cute. It looks good with your clothes.”

“It is a gift. I also... find it adorable.”

“Is that a passionate request for a relationship from your client?”

“No, that is not it. This is a display of gratitude for my work from Mr. Oscar, the novelist...”

Much faster than I had imagined, yet surely, she was elegantly climbing up that brilliant stairway.

“Heeh, a novelist. I don’t know much about him, but that’s amazing. You might be working at some royal palace one of these days!”

“I have.”

“Eh?”

“I have. I wrote love letters on behalf of a princess from a country named Drossel.”

   She became someone well-known around the neighborhood in no time.

How should I describe her vigor? Was “forceful enough to knock down birds in flight” too weird? She was an irresistible force that people were drawn to en masse. Somehow or other, she made a great leap in a blink of life.

Her popularity attracted more popularity, and it was amazing that her work had developed so much. There were such people at the dock too, but this could not be achieved without effort. But it did not look like there were ambitions or dreams to Violet’s efforts. Dream chasers had different eyes than ordinary people. She... her blue eyes were as quiet as a midwinter sea no matter in what season I peeked into them.

Her gaze made it seem like she was looking at me from a different world. As if she were staring up at everything from the bottom of the ocean. Yes, it was that kind of look.

She was there, yet was not. Her blue eyes were mirrors that made me feel like I was looking at myself before realizing it, when I was supposed to be looking at her. She herself was also this sort of person, with an attitude as if her mind was elsewhere.

Her fame... if I were to use a metaphor, she was a broken doll who got praised as a result of single-mindedly working on repeat. That was how it seemed in my eyes. Awful way of saying it, huh? But the Violet Evergarden I had first met had been hurt. She was just a hurt girl.

So I was honestly surprised. Because, at first, she didn’t look at all like a girl who would rush up into Auto-Memories Doll stardom from that point. Yes, she did not.

That might be due to the way we met. If I had met the current Violet instead, I would surely have thought, “Such a full-fledged Auto-Memories Doll”. But although she was indeed an eccentric girl, she did not look like that to me. To me... To me, she looked like nothing but a girl from the same generation as myself, stagnated in a world that she was tossed into. An uneasy girl, who had just started working. The type that definitely could be found anywhere all around the world.

One that was also similar to me. From that day, at that time.

“Dad, Mom, Big Bro, where are you?”

She was like me back when I was at a loss as I decided to live by myself.

With the passing years, Violet Evergarden had bloomed to the world into a marvelous lady before I even knew. Just as her name suggested, she was a girl who had blossomed beautifully.

No matter what, I ended up comparing her with myself... Even though we were reuniting after a long while, even though I was happy, I felt too sad for some reason and wound up saying lots of lame things.

“Ms. Violet... you kind of became an unreachable person all of a sudden, huh.”

It was because, even though I had supposedly lived just like her in the same four seasons and the same time that she had rushed through, I was still an insignificant boater.

“My company is still based in Leidenschaftlich, just as before.”

“No, I wasn’t talking in terms of physical distance. It’s... a spiritual thing.”

Silence.

“You really are admirable. You know, when I think that you’re doing such an amazing job while I’m here, boating without a care in the world... it’s like...”

“Mr. Valentine, you are also working every day.”

“It’s not like boating is a bad job or anything.”

I also didn’t think there was high or low when it came to occupations. Yet I would end up comparing them.

“I quite enjoy it. Rowing the boat, that is. But somehow... like... when I look at you, Ms. Violet... I think of myself. I wonder if I’m okay like this. Because surely, there should be something else I want to do.”

Silence.

“If only I could change myself too...”

“Mr. Valentine.”

“Yes?”

“I felt that we have become closer than back when we first met.”

“Eh?”

I was in shock. Because I thought she wasn’t the kind of person to say something like that.

What did people call this?

“It became a habit for me to look for you immediately around here.”

Those words that were almost as if someone was nestling close to you.

“As you have let me on countless times, you have been recorded within me.”

No, that wasn’t it. It wasn’t that she didn’t say those things – she couldn’t say them. After all, Violet had told me when we first met. That she couldn’t write letters that felt like approaching someone who was injured.

“I see.”

She had been worried that she should leave it to someone else; that she wasn’t qualified.

“Have we become far apart?”

Yet she had become able to do it. By practicing a lot. Involving herself with people.

“Mr. Valentine, you always find me as well. Whenever I arrive here, instantly.”

This girl had become able to do what she was worst at.

“Yep.”

But even now, it didn’t change that she would touch her emerald brooch when she was uncertain.

“Have we...”

“We haven’t...! Sorry. I’m sure I could spot you even if we passed each other in a different city... Sorry, it’s just... wrong. I was wrong...”

Violet had grown up.

“Sorry...”

That day, when we first met, she had been fretting about being able to write letters that could draw close to someone. Having nurtured her heart through many people and a lot of time, she was now even able to say these kinds of things. This girl was properly fighting against the fate that she had been granted.

Aah, I wanted to be like Violet Evergarden.

I wanted to be like this girl. I really did.

I was still young. I could start over anywhere else. But I did not do that. I couldn’t throw away my family. I couldn’t. Ever thought about throwing your family away?

I... I had never.

Because it was family. People I shared my blood with. We were supposed to be together, right? Parents protecting their children and children yearning for their parents – that was the norm, wasn’t it? When I looked around me, that was what people were doing. Was it all lies?

Why, why didn’t my family manage to be normal? Why was normal so difficult for me? Because I was stupid?

I had gone to a stranger’s place when I was eight years old because my parents had told me to. I went with them as my parents said, “Go with this person to help them out; you’ll get payment for it”. I had the feeling that my parents had been smiling. My brother was the only one who had a serious look – no, he was making a face like he was about to cry as he pulled the sleeve of my clothes over and over. He used to be such a scary brother who was quick to hit me on the head and scold me, but only at that time did he exhaust himself from crying.

“You can’t, okay? Listen to what your Big Bro says. You can’t go to that place,” he had told me.

I remember being extremely perplexed. I only had the impression that my brother was always angry and hungry. He never behaved like he cherished me or anything of the sort. Honestly, I used to hate him.

“But they’ll be angry if I don’t do as they say.”

So I had shaken off the hands that were grasping my sleeve. The expression my brother had back then – those eyes looked like everything in front of him had transformed into rubble.

My brother had said one last time with a tearful voice, “Hey, you can’t; please... don’t go. I won’t hit you anymore, ‘kay? ‘Kay?”

Even so, I had not agreed. Because I was afraid that my parents would get mad.

I hadn’t seen my brother since. Thinking back on it now, he might have actually had affection for me.

As for my parents, had that been something they couldn’t avoid? I still didn’t know. But to put it bluntly, they had sold me.

It was not something so unusual. This area was remote, rural and still rooted in such customs. That might still be my case even now. I was living in a land I had once left, disguised so that no one would know it was me. It would be terrible if I were sold by someone again. So I had made myself up. An unknown boy who had showed up out of nowhere. An outsider who had arrived before anyone knew it. That was me.

I was a huge moron who couldn’t throw away her family even though they had thrown me away.

I ran away from the place I had been sold to after not even three days and, starting out as a beggar, I had saved up a sum in order to go back home. I did anything, from working at an orchard to taking care of other people’s babies, doing cleaning and washing, running errands and being an apprentice at a restaurant’s kitchen. Anything, as long as I could earn money.

I had been sold off to a pretty far-away place, so it took me a year to come back. I was making merry when returned home. About things being back to how they were before. About how my life had twisted a bit but it was back to how it used to be. My mother would surely be happy. She’d tell me I did a good job coming back home.

So, that was why... I even now vividly remembered the feeling of astonishment I had when I opened the door and the house was deserted.

“Dad, Mom, Big Bro,” I had whispered intermittently into the empty house.

There was no reply.

——Aah, so homes that people no longer live in also die, I thought.

I was the child from that day even now, standing stock-still.

   “The hijacking case of the transcontinental train... The one on this picture looks like that girl, but she isn’t, right?”

While reading the newspaper that the customers had left behind as usual, I was relaxing at the dock.

The seasons had passed once again and autumn was about to end. Although the years were growing farther from the spring in which I had first met Violet, yet not a single thing had changed.

“Excuse me, are you doing boat rides?”

“Ah, yes. Thank you very much for your patronage today. I am the safest operator around here. Boater Valentine.”

Today, too, I was rowing a boat. That was all.

I would just wake up in the morning, eat, get the boat out, let the customers onto it, do my job, go back home and sleep. A repetition of that. Without anything special happening, without any wonderful encounters or opportunities, I was merely earning enough to eat and protecting my home. Sometimes, I would find myself thinking that I was the only one living this kind of daily life. I had been working since I was little, so I didn’t know how to play very well, and I had no one who was close to me other than Violet.

Even though Violet wasn’t my friend.

“Mr. Boater. Is there anywhere around here where I can have a meal?”

“There is, once you get on land. It might be unlike anything that someone from the big city such as yourself would eat, though... Now, then, be careful.”

Right. Just as she had once said, our relationship was of a boater and her customer, and we would not meet unless she came here for ghostwriting. She was an amazing person who roamed all around the globe and lived in a world completely different from mine.

While returning to the former shore after sending off the customer, I was thinking to myself. Was my life okay like this? I was here today yet again, without attempting to go to where the person that I wanted to be close to was. Even if I used the entirety of the notebook that Violet had given me, I could not report this to her. Because I couldn’t leave my hometown.

   “Mr. Valentine. Hello; it has been a while.”

It was a very beautiful morning that day. Illuminated by the Sun as it emerged from the clouds, drops of the rain that had fallen on the previous night were emitting a transparent shine. The person who had appeared in that stunning world was still a foreign body.

Fall just before winter approached. Violet Evergarden was not wearing her usual doll outfit, instead dressed in black. Black hat, black cape over a black dress, and while the suitcase, umbrella and emerald brooch were the same as ever, everything was pitch-black other than them. She was a black-clad Auto-Memories Doll.

As the wind blew, her clothes seemed to flutter in an unnatural manner on her left arm. The arm was gone. Only one of her arms was missing. She had told me somewhere along the way that they were prosthetics, but when seeing her figure without one of them like this, I felt the loss of it even though it was unrelated to me.

“He-llo... Uh, what’s up with... hum, your arm, your clothes and all that?”

It was almost like that kind of thing.

“You came just a while ago, right? The intervals are really close...”

Almost like someone’s funeral. I had never been to one, but I had observed it from the outside before.

Apparently, my questions had her at loss for a bit. After showing a thinkative countenance as from where to start explaining, Violet put her baggage on the ground and pointed at her left arm with her right hand.

“My arm broke. It is being repaired.”

Her artificial doll-like gestures that I had grown fond of before I realized and her clear voice were now turning into the main causes that made my heart restless.

“I can use the right one without any issues. It is inconvenient, but this will be solved eventually.”

I asked the reason behind it and if she had been involved in some sort of accident. Violet did not tell me the details of her situation. She gave a rare, faint smile, looking troubled.

“In the meantime we had not seen each other, truly, many things happened... However, today is not about me but about someone else. I was told he was famous around here, but have you not heard? He has passed away.”

There was only one person whose funeral Violet would be coming to this land for, dressed in mourning clothes. Her ghostwriting patron, Mr. Lockhart. That old man who people said was going to die, yet had always stayed alive.

“I... I don’t have much interaction with the townspeople... We’ve had heavy rain the past few days... and when I pushed myself to get the boat out, I caught a cold... so I shut myself at home... and didn’t see any of my boatmen friends...”

I came up with reasons one after another as if to give an excuse. Even though I hadn’t done anything bad.

“It seems the funeral is already over. The people from that household contacted me, so I came in a hurry.”

“To visit his... grave?”

“That as well, but I also ghostwrote his will on his own request... and it seems there was a dispute among his relatives when the will was opened. They said they want me to confirm if there was really no mistake in the contents...”

I wondered what in the will had aroused the general criticism. Violet did not tell me, as she could not reveal the contents of her contractor’s letters, but when it came to problems that happened after a wealthy elder died, it had to be the inheritance.

“It simply means that the will is just like Mr. Lockhart. This is all I can say.”

So the mean geezer was mean until the end and then left.

“S-So, Ms. Violet, you’re about to get yourself involved in that big quarrel?”

“Yes.”

“Could it be it’s your last ride on this boat...?”

“Mr. Valentine, if you are still here by then, I shall go back with you as well.”

“I-I’ll be. I won’t take any other customers today and I’ll be waiting for you on the other side of the river!”

“I think I will take very long.”

“That’s okay... I mean—!”

——I won’t get to see you anymore, right?

There was a knot in my throat because of the sadness, so I could not say these words. But I believed they had reached Violet. She said “all right” after a pause.

And so, I sent Violet to the household’s side of the shore. As I had declared, I did not take on other customers, only waited for Violet.

She did say that a lot had happened to her, but if the essence of what she had experienced, which she could only express with that much, was enough for her to lose an arm, then surely there should still be a commotion around her right now. Poor Violet. Honestly, Mr. Lockhart was a client who gave Violet trouble from start to finish.

Still, if it weren’t for that troublesome client, Violet and I wouldn’t have met. We also wouldn’t have had that accumulation of interaction time as the seasons passed.

“You should’ve lived longer,” I whispered selfishly. My pathetic voice was mixed with whining.

I was a horrible person.

To think I would complain about the time that someone I didn’t even know so well should die. But now, my heart felt like it would break. My composure was gone. That was why my tongue was so nasty.

I did predict that we would become unable to see each other one day like this. I did, yet I had thought it would be a gentler end. More different, more...

Yes, one day. One day, just as I had suddenly become unable to see my parents and brother, Violet would stop coming here. But I couldn’t leave this place, so I would keep standing at the dock, thinking that there might be a day where she would come by.

From the viewpoint of other people, they may think this was sad, but to me, it was an ending that still had salvation and hope to it...

I hadn’t imagined that she herself would tell me this was probably the last time. Besides, to think that my chest would feel so tight just because I was no longer going to see a customer that I only saw every now and then.

I was an idiot.

Yes, I wasn’t good in the head. I was sensitive to the subtleties of other people’s emotions despite not bringing them to life in me. Yet I was insensitive when it came to myself, so I was only able to notice things when they started hurting like this.

“I-I...”

Surely, I was all on my own because I was this much of a fool.

“I’m gonna be alone...” the words overflowed from be in a natural manner.

——Be quiet. Don’t cry. It’s like the way you’d cry as a kid.

“Ugh... fu-uh...”

I was happy. That Violet had hired me and would come to ride on my boat.

“I don’t want that... Again... I’ll be...”

I was waiting here. For someone to remember me and come see me. For them to look for me. I was living by expecting nothing but that.

Same for Violet. She was someone from my generation, who had been tossed into the world all of a sudden. She wanted to search for her important person, for him to find her – she was that kind of girl. But she was doing her best to live. She really did her best, without losing to the unreasonableness of life.

As she grew, I saw her shining as an Auto-Memories Doll almost as if it were happening to a different version of myself. The fact she was doing her best was an encouragement. I thought of her as a comrade. Even though we weren’t friends, it felt like we were.

“Big Bro... when are you coming back...”

I was by myself here. So, before I noticed, my encounter with that girl had become salvation in my life. Because we were the same. Because we were both waiting for people who wouldn’t return.

It was okay even if it were just a few times per year. She had remembered and looked for me. To me, just that fact was, aah, so very...

   “I am terribly sorry for being so late.”

I had departed with the boat in the morning, and it was past evening when the black-clad Auto-Memories Doll came back. She did not seem tired, but her voice was on the husky side, so she probably had to talk a lot.

“Good job... How did it go?”

I wanted to make it so that she wouldn’t find out that I had been crying, yet my voice was nasal and clearly an after-cry one. Amidst the sunset, Violet looked straight at me.

“Everything is well. Mr. Valentine, are you all right?”

I did not know, so I fell silent.

——I’ll let you on the boat now. And then, it’ll be the end. You won’t come see me anymore. I don’t know if that’s okay, or if I’m okay with it.

“Give me your hand; come on carefully. This is the time when the sunset and the evening are mixed, after all.”

As if to gloss over it, I conducted myself as merely a professional. Violet’s sense of balance was a bit off, perhaps because she only had her right arm. I helped her until she was seated, and then started rowing.

“It is my first time seeing the landscape at this hour.”

I nodded at Violet’s muttering.

Evening at the Jacaranda River was a sight that looked like a scarlet Sun had jumped onto the water surface. Both the sky and the river would paint themselves red, dyed in darkness before one could take notice. The birds cried as if to announce that it was already time to go home, the boatmen pulling out of work and returning to their houses. It was that kind of hour, that kind of scene.

As winter was about to come around, the trees were bare and most of the fallen leaves over the water had even their colors rusting away as well. There was nothing more fitting of a farewell day than such loneliness.

“Mr. Valentine, thank you very much for being here for me until today.”

Violet’s voice sounded softer than usual. Come to think of it, I felt that the air around her had somewhat changed. I had thought it was because of the mourning attire, but looking at her again like this now, I figured that was not it. Would it be an exaggeration to say that it was as if an evil spirit had been removed from her? She was different from before.

“From the start, for now, for always... thank you very much.”

Yes, back then, when we first met, Violet Evergarden was a beautiful wild beast that had been tossed into the world. She was nervous, wary of everything, unstable and acted kind of cold.

“It might be strange of me to be saying this to someone I only ever see here. But to me, Mr. Valentine, the fact that you let me ride on your boat whenever I come by...”

Yet, within a long time, she had gained warmth and transformed from a beast-like girl into an exquisite young woman.

“I... surely, yes, was ‘happy’ about it. I can now finally say so. Even if it is something trivial for you. I... can only meet you here, so when you said that I could talk to you, I was ‘happy’.”

——It’s over.

The scenery was too solitary. My chest tightened at the words she spoke within it.

“I was definitely not suited to be an Auto-Memories Doll. I did not have the gentleness to speak my mind without thinking as you do. However, you affirmed that someone like me had her good points.”

——It’s really over.

“In a world full of denial, it is difficult to affirm anything.”

——This is the end.

“That is what I think. There is much denial in this world. Affirming is difficult. But you did it for me.”

——Please, don’t say any more of these goodbye-like words.

“Thank you very much.”

——Don’t.

“I have one more thing I want to tell you.”

——I don’t want to hear them anymore.

“Mr. Valentine, I found the person I was looking for.”

——Stop.

“I found him. I discovered that there are many people in the world who are looking for someone they can no longer see.”

——My time with you is going on as you speak.

“I was told by many that it was foolish of me to wait for him.”

——My time with you is melting away.

“However, I followed my heart, which I did not even know I had.”

——It’s melting away like the foam on the surface of the water.

“Mr. Valentine, I support you always waiting here for someone from here onwards as well. Even if, by any chance, you decide to stop waiting and venture out of here, I will support this too.”

——I liked this purity of yours, as if you’re reflecting the other person.

“I assert your kindness. Because you asserted mine.”

——By sustaining you, I was able to sustain myself.

I let out a scream. Yes, I was bawling. For me to be crying while rowing, I was disqualified as a boater. But Violet did not judge me.

After wiping my tears with the sleeves of my clothes several times, I began rowing again. I had only ever done anything while crying when I was a child.

“Dad, Mom, Big Bro.”

The time when I went searching, calling each of them, in my hometown by the Jacaranda River felt like it had been just a few days ago.

“Violet, don’t forget me,” I said as I cried, looking like an idiot.

“Yes. Mr. Valentine, you said this would be the last time, but I will pay a visit if I receive any jobs to do nearby.”

“That’s a lie...! Countless of my customers have said that... but nobody... nobody... nobody cares about...”

“I support you. This is no lie.”

“It is... It’s just flattery... I-I was... happy that you never forgot about me... but you soon will...”

The boat arrived at the dock almost as if colliding with it. The impact caused the tears to fall from my eyes like rain.

“Sorry; just go.”

I crouched on top of the boat. Aah, I had to help Violet get down. Night was coming. I should not be stalling in a place like this.

I was just a boater and this girl was just my customer. We would end here. It was over.

“I learned that having someone to accept you is important.”

I had to wipe my tears and see her off.

“Even if you cannot see them all the time. Mr. Valentine, if I was a bother to you, please know this.”

I felt the sensation of the only arm that Violet now had touching my back. I turned away from it.

We had met each other in this severe world. A world that I hated. I also hated my life.

But, aah, my God. Even when such cruel sorrow attacked me like that...

“There is an Auto-Memories Doll somewhere in the world who accepts you. Please be aware of this.”

——...the world is beautiful.

As she added a “that is not a lie”, I felt like I would end up waiting for her who knows how many years with just that sentence, so I found myself smiling. My foolishness and Violet’s kindness – those two things made me both cry and laugh.

At the end, we joined hands like little kids. I helped her out of the boat and did not let go after that.

   “So it’s not a lie? You won’t forget me?”

“It is not. I will not. I have good memory.”

“Some-Someday...”

“Yes.”

“If I become someone capable of going to see you someday, will you accept me? Wouldn’t I be a bother? I... Y-Y’know, I... actually wanted to be friends with you. Not just a boater and her customer...”

“Yes, I will.”

“But I can’t right away. I have a family... I don’t, but I do.”

“Yes.”

“But, one day... one day...”

“Yes, one day.”

“Surely, on a really nice day for us to reunite...”

“Yes, it will definitely be a good day.”

“Let’s meet again one day, Violet Evergarden.”

   After that, just as Violet had somehow changed, so did I. Just as snow covered the autumn lands, the silver make-up melted down before anyone realized and young leaves sprouted from it, I also changed.

It was during spring that this was decisive. As expected, for one to start something, it had to be in spring.

Purple flower petals scattered down on the Jacaranda River. I was simply looking at the scenery in a daze. The harbor was crowded with customers. Even though I was a boater and there were several customers wanting a ride, I was using the boat only for myself, not letting anyone hop in. Without paying any attention to my fellow boatmen, who stared at me with strange looks, I merely observed the entirety of this landscape, so as to sear it into my eyes.

My beautiful hometown. A hometown of which I only had memories sad enough to pierce through my chest. A hometown where no one would look for me anymore. A hometown that surely none of them would ever come back to.

The fact that Violet would not come this year gave me a sensation akin to waking up from a dream. As if my hazy head was clearing up, such change came to me.

——Let’s throw it away.

It was then that I thought at last.

——I’ll throw my family away.

That was what I thought.

The reason why I was clinging to this place was that my family might come back someday. I had to return, I had to stay here, or else I was sure they would be troubled if any of them came home. Because it had troubled me. It had made me cry. So I should be here, I thought.

Even though they didn’t give me love, I loved my family.

——But I’ll throw it away.

I was finally able to think like that. As I did so, tears poured down.

I had taken a long time to arrive to this decision, which was a merciless one, and I was a horrible person who surely wouldn’t die a peaceful death and would, as expected, keep on living like this, without being loved by anybody.

But I was going to do it. I was going to throw my family away.

After all, even if the people who were supposed to love me did not, she existed in my world. Somewhere in this world, there was an Auto-Memories Doll who accepted me. So instead of waiting for someone who would never come home, I should take a leap. Because I wasn’t an eight-year-old kid anymore and could go anywhere.

I rowed my boat. Not for anyone else. For the sake of going out into my new journey.

What should I do? When I thought about what to do first, as expected, that girl surfaced in the depths of my mind. The girl I had seen off while praying, “Wait for me”.

The dark red ribbons tying her golden hair. The pleats on her white ribbon-tie dress. The light blue umbrella. As if playing around, all of these things fluttered in the wind.

It was okay for me to go looking for them from now. It was okay.

——Wait for me.

My chest was quivering. Starting life anew was common place, but now that it was my turn, I was shaking. It was hard to breathe from the fear and expectations. Flowers from jacaranda trees were blocking my field of vision, and although their beauty erased everything that could be seen, they were nothing but a hindrance now. What I yearned for wasn’t them.

What I wished to see – the purple I wanted to meet once again – was no longer this one.

——Please, wait for me.

Tears welled up. I didn’t know whether they were tears of sadness, relief or frustration. I didn’t know anything anymore. The feeling I had wasted so much of my life and the feeling that I had finally gotten to this point were in conflict.

I didn’t want to abandon my family. I didn’t.

But the truth is that I’d always wanted to. Aah, I was such an idiot, such a confusing one.

That was fine. I didn’t understand myself very well either. I didn’t. I didn’t understand anything anymore. What was I doing? I didn’t know. Surely, I had never known. I didn’t even know that I was hurting.

But there was just one thing.

——Wait.

One thing I knew. When it came to things I knew, there was but one.

That I felt so refreshed I shouted to the world without minding anyone, “Violet, wait for me!”

I was going to see her, so I wished she wouldn’t forget me. That was it.

That was all.

   Blue eyes opened.

The train had arrived in the city. While the passengers got off in a hurry, a blue-eyed girl was neatly smoothing down the wrinkles on her ribbon-tie dress before gracefully descending to the platform.

She did not act as if looking for someone or show any signs of losing her way. Her figure as she simply walked straight to her destination was almost like that of a mechanical doll. Surely, she would not do things such as be surprised by something or run towards someone upon finding them. That was how she looked.

The perfectly lady-like girl, however, went completely still in the middle of the crowded platform all of a sudden. Her blue eyes had detected something. Upon finding that person, she blinked as if surprised, and then bolted into a run. The hem of her skirt spread out in disarray. The ribbons keeping her golden hair in place swayed.

As she had started running, the other person also pushed through the crowd and came closer. Three, five, ten steps. She, who had broken into a dash, halted exactly in front of him, yet the other did not.

“Violet, welcome home.”

He held her in his arms and buried his face into her shoulder. Her beloved one, whom she had not seen in a while, tickled her with his nose as he sniffed the scent of her hair. He must have been at the platform for a long time. His cold clothes and his body heat conveyed his desire to see her.

“Major, I am back. I did not know you would come pick me up.”

Having changed from a beast into a person, from a person into a girl and then into someone’s biggest love, Violet accepted the embrace of the other person without resistance.

“I am happy.”

Something gradually rushed through her body. It was the sensation that “joy”, “love” and other such feelings had turned into light and were running from the tips of her toenails to the top of her head.

The young woman who used not to know emotions was now in love.

One could spot other charming lovers here and there. Therefore, even as the Army Colonel of this country, Leidenschaftlich, and an Auto-Memories Doll were hugging each other, no one paid them any mind. The intimate figures of both those two and the other lovers were a common sight. If one were to unravel their history, this was a strange pair born through twists and turns, but in everyday life, it was just a part of the scenery.

“Violet. Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Did you say anything?”

Due to Gilbert hugging her tightly, Violet’s remark was processed simply as an incomprehensible something, but she did not care.

“No, it was nothing much. I have returned, Major.”

“Sorry. Yeah, welcome back, Violet... Did I tell you I wanted to see you?”

“Yes, just now.”

“I heard from Hodgins about when you were scheduled to come back... Tired, are you? I have a carriage waiting so that we can hurry home.”

“Major, what about work...?”

“I came after finishing it. I had to force myself but I have no plans more important than you.”

“Then, can we be together for a little bit as the carriage rides?”

“If you’re okay with it, I can send you to the Evergarden house after we have a meal.”

Gilbert took Violet’s eyes going round as a sign of acceptance. He took Violet’s bag in her stead and, in a natural manner, found himself grasping the hand that had become empty. As he held her hand, Violet moved her gaze fleetingly. She started blinking again upon looking at the two joined hands.

“Major, Major.”

Subsequent to their reunion during the hijacking case of the transcontinental train, the two had confirmed their feelings after the CH Postal Company attack incident and started a new, albeit awkward, relationship.

“What is it?”

“I almost look like a child.”

She indeed was like a child in love.

“Because we’re holding hands?”

“Yes; I would never get lost here, in Leidenschaftlich. You did use to hold my hand before, but... now...”

It was a bit lacking for an army colonel who was past his thirties, but if one were to say that it was fitting of modest people such as these two, it indeed was.

“I’d like you to keep in mind that lovers also hold hands, Violet.”

“Is that so...? Indeed, looking around, there are many people doing this.”

“You had told me you understood... so I perceived us as lovers; was I wrong?”

“N-Not at all.”

“Then, in order to strengthen that perception... let’s change the way we’re holding hands.”

Just by the hold changing into one in which their fingers intertwined, Violet went from just a girl being taken away to a lady being escorted. Violet blinked again. Ever since their romance had come to fruition, each of Violet’s reactions entertained Gilbert, to which he let show a smile that he could not hold back.

“I’ll be happy if, one day, you take my hand without saying anything when I hold out my arm.”

“I need training, Major.”

“Kukuh... That so? Then let’s do it, Violet.”

As the novice couple left the platform, yet another train arrived.

While Violet and Gilbert walked amidst the crowd, a different pair passed right by their side. The young woman was quite a lustrous, beautiful person, whom one could tell was of noble birth. The individual walking with a hand rested on her shoulder as if to protect her from the crowd was an androgynous beauty with unusual silver hair.

Cut short, his platinum-blond hair bore the kind of exquisiteness that looked like it would make chiming sounds as he walked. His jacket, shirt and pants were finely tailored ones. He no longer resembled at all the navigator who used to row a boat in the past.

Feeling as if an old acquaintance had passed by, Valentine halted for a moment.

“What is the matter, Rose?”

Upon being called, Valentine immediately resumed walking with a “nothing”. It was not permissible to stop in the general area of a packed entrance.

“Madam... I had this feeling that the girl I am looking for was here.”

Looking for someone all by themselves. Those two had this point in common.

“Violet Evergarden? That’s right; you will be living as an Auto-Memories Doll in the same city as her. It would not be strange if she did pass by. You will meet that girl someday. And one day – one day, you might also get to see the older brother that you told me about. After all, miracles happen every day.”

However, they had still not realized that the gears of their fates were not yet aligned.

Rose Valentine gave a smile with a “yes, Madam”. “To me, Madam, you are the miracle.”

“Why, my rose does not say such things.”

Rose’s flank was hit rather strongly, but although it actually hurt, the smile did not falter. This was also one of his secrets to success.

“Speaking of which, the Auto-Memories Doll school was truly difficult. I am grateful to Madam for sending me to it, though...”

“Oh, but you have come back as a gentleman who has become able to escort me naturally like this, so it has brought results.”

Rose’s amber eyes widened beneath silver lashes. They reflected his madam’s mischievous facial expression. Rose’s smile collapsed a little and turned into a strained laugh.

“Madam, I managed to deceive people in the past because I used to wear a hat to hide my face, but... can I really do this? Also, does this not mean that I will have to deceive all the other employees and customers?”

There was something he had not told Violet Evergarden. Violet Evergarden was a mysterious girl to him as well, but there was not that great a difference between her and himself.

“I left my hometown in order to start my own life for real, and yet...”

He – no, she was going to begin a new life in this city starting from today. Not just as “Valentine” but as “Rose Valentine”.

The madam of the S.W. (Scarlet Winter) Letter-Specialized Shop, which would later make a name for itself as a unique postal company that mostly employed male Auto-Memories Dolls, replied with an alluring smile.

If there were goodbyes, there had to be encounters. And if there were ends, there had to be beginnings.

“We will not deceive them. You will properly sell yourself as Rose Valentine, the crossdressing beauty, from the very start. We sell a hundred different types of letters, stationery, envelopes. And also the caring customer service from charming young men who have some sort of sparkle to them. There is no mistaking that this will be as addicting as high-grade drinks. It’s exactly because this business is full of women that a shop full of men will shine. Is this discrimination? Are you discriminating against me, Rose?!”

Good endings and bad endings – life went on with both included.

“Haah... But I’m a woman. No, I might be almost a man since I’ve lived most of my life tricking people about my gender...”

“That’s what’s good about it!”

“Haah...”

It looked like an eternity but was not, yet on it went.

“Your boyish side and your original girl side. I recruited you taking them into account. Be at ease. You can sell. You can. After all, there is no other such Auto-Memories Doll.”

“Haah...”

“Don’t ‘haah’ me. Geez... my lovely rose. Worry not. Have I ever lied to you?”

The story would go on. Cruel as the world might be, beautiful moments would come by again.

“It has still not been that long since I first met you... so, I would not know, Madam.”

Morning would come as long as you were there. Such was how stories were made.

[illogicalpunkwrites]

The Cave

Long time no see! Sorry it’s been a while. I’ve been in grad school and it’s pretty much sucked the life out of me. But I really missed writing so I figured I could write for my favorite character. Thank you so much for reading! Pairings: Leonard McCoy x Kirk!Reader

*Part two is here

Words: 4.8K

Warnings: injury, fluff, angst (?), swearing, badly written fight scene, Leonard and Reader being stubborn shits, Spock being a cocky shit

Tags: @bloodangelballerina @theweepingvulcan91​ If anyone else would like to be added let me know!

“Captain.” Spock greeted as he caught up to his friend. Jim clapped him on the shoulder. “I must commend you and Commander Kirk on your success in Nuvaruta. Not many would have been able to complete that mission.” 

“Eh, nothing we couldn’t handle. I’m just surprised she didn’t drop the artifact when she got hit!” Jim laughed. 

“Well, it was only a flesh wound. A woman of her position is surely used to it by now. No need to worry about her.” An ensign brushed by Jim, yelping out an apology. 

“She’s still my sister, Spock. Head of security or not, I always worry about her.”

“And captain or not, she will always worry about you.” 

“Well-” They both got quiet when they reached medbay, hearing yelling and seeing Nurse Chapel waiting outside the door, acting like nothing was happening and playing with her nails.

“Nurse Chapel, is everything alright?” Spock asked and she looked up at the science officer. 

“Oh, just the same thing every time Commander Kirk comes back from a mission.” Jim sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“How many times are you gonna be in my damn medbay! I swear you get hurt more in a day than an ensign does in a whole year!” Leonard bit and you rolled your eyes. 

“How many times are you gonna complain every time you see me? I said thank you!” You replied. “You act like I’m ungrateful!”

“No you’re just stubborn as a bull!”

“Pot calling kettle black!” You laughed incredulously. “It’s in my job description to get hurt, it’s in yours to patch me up! But you can’t do that without henpecking at me every damn time!” 

Jim, Spock, and Christine all waited outside. By this point in the mission, they all knew that it was better to just wait it out than to break it up. 

“Henpecking?”

“Yes! I swear you like it when I come in because it gives you something to gripe about!”

“No because you coming in pushes me that much closer to an ulcer! Just get outta my medbay, I got work to do!”

“Gladly!” You walked out of medbay, looking to see the three waiting outside. “Hey.”

“Alright, c’mon. I need your report.” You and Jim walked away, leaving Christine and Spock near medbay. They walked in to see Leonard sitting at his desk with his forehead in his hand. 

“Doctor, are you alright?’ Christine asked and he sighed. 

“Yes, Nurse Chapel. I’m fine.” He replied. “Whaddya need, Spock?”

“I came here with no intention to talk to you, but now it seems I have. I would like to talk to you about Commander Kirk. Why is it that you two argue so much?” The vein in Leonard’s forehead seemed like it was about to pop as he turned to face the Vulcan. 

“Because she’s stubborn and reckless, that’s why!”

“As are you.” Christine looked at Spock with her eyebrows raised and stepped back a bit when Leonard stood up.

“I am not!”

“You are, which is why I am confused. Of course, you are not as reckless as Commander Kirk but you are as much if not more stubborn. You both share a drier sense of humor, both care a great deal about those you work with-”

“What’s your point, Spock?”

“I believe you become irritated when she’s hurt because you care for her. The more she gets hurt, the more irritable you become. There’s a remarkable amount of tension between you two.” Spock clasped his hands behind his back as Leonard walked up to him. “You are simply worried about her and are too stubborn to admit your feelings for her. Meaning it comes out in irritation and rage, making her angry and irritable.” 

“I don’t like her.”

“I think Commander Spock has a point...Doctor.” Christine interjected. “I think you’re also frustrated because you feel like you can’t like her. She is the Captain’s sister after all.”

“Good point, Nurse Chapel.” Spock commended. “It seems that she might be forbidden to our doctor.”

“A forbidden fruit, if you will.” Christine offered and Spock raised an eyebrow at her. Leonard rubbed his temples and she tried to hide her smile from him. 

“Spock, aren’t you needed on the bridge?”

“Oh no, not for some time.”

XXXXXX

Crew-

We are headed down to the planet of Thurilia. It is a barren planet that has not been inhabited in over 100 years but it carries another artifact integral to the Nimbus mission. Don’t mistake it’s barrenness for peace, there are hostile Romulans also looking for the artifact. We must also be wary of dust storms and flying debris from crash landed ships. For this mission I will require Commander Kirk, Commander Spock, and Doctor McCoy.  

“Got everything you need, lass?” You finished attaching your phaser, communicator, and collapsible kali. You missed your regular uniform, all of you required to wear a more suitable and impenetrable to the suffocating dust. It was too bulky for your liking but you knew it was more practical. 

“Ready, Scotty. Just make sure to remember to beam us up.” You clapped his shoulder and jogged over to the teleporter. Of course, the only spot was next to Leonard. “Dr. McCoy.”

“Commander.” You noticed Spock looking over at the two of you and you furrowed your brows at him. 

“Ready, Scotty.” Jim stated. You would never get used to the tingling of the teleporter. It would always be a strange sensation no matter how many times you used it. You all landed on the planet and you wondered if it made Spock feel the least bit homesick. It was a desert, but the sand was purple and the sky always dark. 

“Alright, everyone make sure your masks work. We’ll only have a little bit of warning before a storm kicks in. Lieutenant Uhura will be watching that for us. It gives off a a chemical signature but that’ll be hard to pinpoint with the dust and the crash sites. If you spot any romulans, call for backup and don’t fight them alone.”

“Should we go off in pairs, Captain?”

“I think we should. Might attract less attention and we might find it faster.”

“I shall go with you then, Captain.” You and Leonard’s heads snapped up from your tricorders. 

“Of course, Mr. Spock.” 

“Jim are you sure splitting up is the best idea?” You replied and Jim patted you on the shoulder. 

“Of course. I want you two to go northeast towards the strongest signature. Spock and I will go southwest towards the strongest signature.” The two walked away, leaving you and Leonard standing dumbfounded. 

“That green blooded hobgoblin.” Leonard muttered under his breath as you started following the signature. 

“You comin’ or not?” You called over your shoulder. He jogged up to catch up with you and pulled out his own tricorder. You were both silent, the only sounds coming from the wind and the robes you were wearing flapping. 

“How’s your shoulder?” He asked and you looked over at him quickly.

“It’s much better now, thank you.” He nodded. However, he wasn’t looking where he was stepping and felt his foot sinking down quickly. “Leonard!” The sand felt like it was grappling him, staining his robes a deep purple against the brown. You grabbed his arms and started to pull him out, your feet lacking traction and eventually you resorted to digging your knees in and pulling him along as he kicked. The grip loosened and he fell on top of you, pushing you into the sand. He quickly rolled off of you and panted like a wild dog. 

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, this is why I hate space.” He replied and you chuckled. 

“Welp, gives you one more thing to complain about.” You stood up, dusting off your robes and offered your hand to him. “Watch where you’re stepping.” 

“Yeah, yeah, got it.” He took it and you helped him up. “This place is a death trap.”

“I dunno, I kinda like it.” You responded. “If you look closely, the sand sparkles a bit.”

“I just got a close look, or have you already forgotten?” You rolled your eyes and kept following the signature. 

“You could’ve gotten a closer look had I not been here.” The two of you were silent save for the wind and the beeping of your tricorders. It was so peaceful yet destructive at the same time. No one could possibly live there, it had claimed the lives of so many and had become a resting ground for pieces of space travel. But the silence, the stars, it was beautiful in a way. 

“Commander, Doctor, I’m picking up a storm. Might want to head for cover.” Uhura informed over your communicators. 

“See any structures?” Leonard asked. You squinted down at your tricorder, the sandy wind already picking up. 

“There’s a cave near us, if we hurry we can get there before it gets too bad!” You called back. As you traveled, it became increasingly difficult to move or see. You had to trust your tricorder and stick close to Leonard.

Suddenly, something whizzed by in front of the both of you. 

Then another.

“Hurry!” You called back and grabbed his hand. From what you can guess, pieces of a nearby ship had begun to fly off. Each piece nearly missed you by mere feet. At least for a little bit.

“Ah!” Leonard cried and faltered a bit.

“We’re almost to the cave! I can see it!” You pushed him into the cave and looked to your left. A large piece of metal was bounding right towards you. You yelped and jumped in, right before the metal buried itself in the sand. You stared blankly as you realized it had blocked the entrance save for a small corner at the top. You turned around when you heard Leonard hiss in pain and saw blood soaking his robes. A piece of shrapnel had impaled itself into his side. “Leonard! Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine!” He snapped and you sighed, pulling back the robes and mask from your face. 

“You lay down, I’m going to get some light in here.” You pulled out your phaser and luckily found a pile of rocks. You shot at them, making them burn a bright red and give off some light. “Where’s your med kit?”

“What?”

“We gotta fix that up. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Where’s your medkit?” you unwrapped part of your robes and made a makeshift pillow for him as he pulled out his kit. 

“You sure about this?”

“You got a better idea?” He laid down and rested his head. You cut away at the fabric on the robes and he jumped when it pulled at the piece of shrapnel.

“Be careful!” 

“I’m trying to be, you mule!” You snapped back and he stared at you.

“Did you just call me a mule?”

“A mule that’s gonna tell me how to stitch it up.” He sighed and prepared himself.

“Alright, hit me with the hypospray on the furthest right. That’ll numb it.” You did it quickly. “Now turn whatever’s in there.”

“What?” You yelped. “Turn it.” You did as he asked, wincing as it spun through the flesh slightly. He could still feel a little bit it wasn’t that painful. “Okay it turned, it’s just in my flesh, not a rib. Now pull it out.” “But that’ll make you bleed more.”

“Just do it.” You prepared yourself and quickly yanked it out. He jumped again and winced. “Third hypospray from the right!” You quickly injected it and the bleeding immediately slowed. “Take the device on the top left and do a criss-cross on it.” You did it, watching as the material tightened up and closed the wound. “Now clean it and let’s hope we’re found before it’s infected.” 

“You don’t have a hypospray for that?” He just looked at you, making you roll your eyes. “Are you alright?”

“I will be.” You pulled out your communicator.

“Kirk to Kirk.”

“Kirk here.”

“Doctor McCoy and I are trapped in a cave by a piece of a ship. I’ll send you our location so that you two can come get us when the storm’s over.” “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Doctor McCoy got hit by a piece of shrapnel.”

“I’ll be fine, Jim.” Leonard called out. 

“You two hang tight, we’ll be there as soon as we can.” You took off the rest of your robes, leaving you in a black top and pants. 

“Are you cold?”

“No, I’m fine.” Leonard replied. 

“How many of those numbing hyposprays do you have?”

“One more. I’ll let you know if it gets too bad.” He replied and you nodded. You were both silent as you took inventory of what you had in the cave. You had some emergency stuff but if the storm lasted a while there might be trouble. 

“Thanks.”

“Huh?” You spun your head around and saw Leonard looking at you.

“Thank you, for fixing me up. You did a pretty good job.”

“You’re welcome. I think that’s the first genuine compliment you’ve ever given me.” You smirked and he chuckled. 

“I guess I’ve been a little rough on you.” You sniffed in laughed and sat down next to him, getting close to him and the rock for warmth. 

“A little?” 

“Alright, alright, I get it.” He replied. “I guess I can be a little to hard on you.” You hummed in response. “Y’know you’re not that much of a peach yourself.”

“A georgia peach?” You replied and he rolled his eyes. “Look, I know I’m not the easiest person to work with but you’re not either. And we’re stuck in this cave together until they come and get us. So all we have to do is not kill each other until Jim and Spock come or something comes to kill us.”

“Comforting.” He replied.

“I try.”

XXXXXX

You were busy going through your logs on your PADD, sneaking your eyes over to Leonard every now and then to make sure he was alright. To make the time pass by a little faster, you played music lowly. Of course you two had to argue about what kind of music for a little bit before you just put on some Tchaikovsky. You had some spattered communication with Jim and Spock but the dust storms had picked up too much to the point they had to hole up somewhere too. Last you checked, they were still okay and the doctor had taken his last hypospray.

“So, why did you join up?” You were broken out of your thoughts to see Leonard messing around with a small rock in his hands. 

“Someone’s gotta keep an eye on Jim, might as well be me.”

“That’s it?”

“I don’t really have a more noble or complicated reason. I didn’t really have any other place I wanted to go. Plus I didn’t want to stay in one place too long, I get too antsy. My parents did it, George joined up, Jim joined up, then I did. I get to strategize, protect, travel, and be with Jim at the same time.”

“So it was just the right thing to do?”

“In a sense. I mean, it’s always been me and Jim. I couldn’t imagine not being able to see him for five years. Jim always kept me out of trouble, I kept him from flying too close to the sun.”

“So you’ve always been a pain in the ass?” You genuinely laughed at that. 

“Yeah, I’ve always been a little shit. But I’ve put that energy towards keeping people safe and annoying you. Now I’ve told my story, spill.” He sighed and adjusted himself a little against the ground. 

“Eh, not much to tell. Wife left, I was a doctor that needed to get away, and found myself at star fleet.”

“I’ll never Jim calling me that day and telling me about you. He said you were some hypochondriac that nearly threw up on him in the plane.”

“And Jim told me you were his hot headed sister who couldn’t keep your trap shut.”

“And look where we are now: trapped in the same cave.” You mused. “Wanna play 20 questions?”

“What?” “I don’t know how long we’re gonna be here, might as well pass the time. I’ll go first if you want.” He sighed and nodded his head in agreement. “Alright, what do you miss most about Georgia?” You leaned against the cave wall on the other side of him, crossing your arms across your chest. 

“I know I’ll sound like an old southern gentleman but sitting on a front porch in a rocking chair.” You sniffed in laughter and he looked over at you with an annoyed look.

“Hey, I’m not judging. It does make you sound like an old man. Ask me a question.” He thought for a moment or two.

“What are you afraid of? There has to be something.” You groaned and covered your face. “C’mon!”

“No, you’ll laugh!”

“I won’t laugh, I promise. With what you’ve seen and done, it has to be truly scary.” He reasoned and you shook your head. “Then what is it?”

“It’s...birds. I’m afraid of birds.” There was silence between the two of you. 

“Are we talking geese or-” “Doesn’t matter. I’m deathly afraid of all birds.” When he didn’t say anything else, you looked up from your palm to see his body shaking with laughter. “Hey! You said you wouldn’t laugh!”

“With everything we’ve seen!” “Alright Hercules, other than space what are you most afraid of?”

“Flying.”

“Man you chose the wrong job.”

“Come over here, I can barely hear you.” You rolled your eyes but made your way over to the wall next to him, resuming you previous position.  “What do you miss doing that you can’t do on the Enterprise?”

“I miss cooking. I love to cook and it sucks that we only have replicators. I’m a pretty good chef if I do say so. I make a mean skillet pot pie.”

“That sounds dangerous. I do miss home cooking.”

For the next fourteen questions, you found out a lot about each other. You both enjoy reading in your spare time, both think Jim and Carol should suck it up and go out already, you had the same favorite old tv show, and generally had a lot in common with each other. You told stories about your youth like when you fell of the roof of your grandfather’s barn, when you rescued a stray dog you found in some cornfield in Iowa, and how your father had raised you to become an old movie buff. He told you about med school and the time that he accidentally ate a hallucinogenic plant and was tripping for three days. It seemed like he could be just as reckless as you sometimes. He told stories of before you joined up and the adventures he and Jim were on, how many times he had pretty much saved Jim but didn’t think he did anything special. You would’ve hated to admit it before but you were enjoying getting to know him.

“After Starfleet, what do you want to do?” He asked. At this point, you were laying down next to him, sharing your robes as a pillow. 

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t cop out now.” He chuffed and you shook your head.

“I really don’t know, McCoy. This i pretty much all I’ve ever known. You can go to a hospital or clinic, I don’t know where else to go. I don’t want to be a civilian officer, don’t want to be a body guard to some stuffy politician.”

“You can settle down?” You snorted. 

“Yeah, me, settle down.”

“You don’t want to?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to. Yeah, I want to be married and have kids one day but I just don’t think it’ll happen. I have a difficult job where I get hurt on a daily basis. Not a lot of people can handle that.”

“You’ll find somebody, Kirk. You’re a catch.” You looked over at him with a smirk. “Don’t tell anyone I told you that.” You laughed and propped yourself up on your elbows and looked at the open area at the corner of the cave.

“Last one, what’s one thing you wish you had known more about before today?”

“You.” He answered and you looked down at him. “I used to think you were the most annoying person on the ship. I was always too hard on you and didn’t even try to talk to you without Jim there to keep us calm.”

“Why did we both decide to hate each other?” You laid back down next to him. “Seems like if we weren’t on that ship we would get along well.” You were silent for a little while. “Perhaps we’re both stubborn. I didn’t like you because you didn’t like me. From the first time I got hurt-”

“You’re Jim’s sister. Jim’s my best friend. The first time you got hurt, I felt an even more overwhelming sense of duty. I had to take care of you even more so than my other patients. Not only are you his sister, you protect us with little regard to yourself. You’re only afraid of birds, not death. I know this is all jumbled but...I think I was scared to get to know you because-” You noticed how his speech was becoming slightly slurred.

“That sense of duty would be even stronger.” You were both silent again. “I’m sorry, Leonard.”

“I’m sorry too.”

“How about when we get out of here we share a drink. I’ve got some damn good whiskey I think you’d enjoy.”

“Sounds like a deal.” You shot up when you heard banging at the front of the cave and grabbed your phaser. You slowly made your way to the large piece of metal and heard some talking on the other side. 

“Romulans.” You muttered and hurried back over to Leonard. You cursed when you saw that he had begun sweating again, his skin pale and clammy. “Leonard, listen to me. I have to move you behind the rocks alright?” He nodded as his head lulled to the side. You grasped underneath his arms and began to drag him, noting that the piece of metal was moving slowly in the sand. “Don’t make a sound, alright? I’ll take care of them and we’ll get back to the Enterprise.” You turned to go away and find some cover but her grabbed your hand.

“Wait, Kirk.” You looked back down at him and he squeezed your hand. “Don’t make me patch you up again.” You smiled softly.

“I’ll do my best.” You hurried to a rock on the other side of the cave and waited for the Romulans to breach. It took them a little time but they finally moved the shrapnel enough to get through. You weren’t well versed in linguistics so you couldn’t make out what they were saying. They came over to the rock serving as heat and light and muttered amongst themselves. They knew someone was there. You could hear them growing closer and heard their phasers click off, presumably not to stun. You looked over at Leonard and saw his shaky breathing, you couldn’t let them find him. As they got closer to you, you finally popped over the rock and shot one of them in the knee and the other in the shoulder, stunning them. You sighed and almost went over to Leonard before a shot rang out and grazed past you.

There was one more waiting outside the cave. 

You hurried back behind your rock and thought about what to do. You could try to get some shots out but he had you cornered, he’d easily hit you first. If he got you, then he would get Leonard. He could also easily ambush Jim and Spock. You decided your best option was to wait and try to get the upper hand if he decided to move closer. 

You listened for his footsteps, grating the sand underneath him. If you could disarm him then you would get your chance. He wouldn’t wait for you to surrender, you didn’t wait for them. He was calling out something to you and even with the language barrier you knew he was cursing you out. As soon as you heard him close enough, you leapt over the rock and tackled him. You rolled to the other side of the cave and you tried to smash his hand against the wall so he would drop his phaser. You felt him kick your shin, then kneeing your hip and you cried out. With one last hit, he dropped his phaser but before you could get your shot, he punched your jaw and flipped the two of you over. You tried to shoot again but the shot just went to the rocks above. He now held your wrists in a crushing grip, willing you to let go. You did the only thing you could do and kick for some sort of advantage. You went for his knees, his stomach, any place you could think.  He was starting to get irritated, he was starting to get desperate. He let go of your unarmed hand to grab the knife in his belt and your eyes went wide. You had to act fast. You grabbed the only thing you could, a rock, and hit him in the side of the head. He finally let you go and you scurried away from him, training you phaser on him. You didn’t realize how hard you had hit him and realized he wasn’t going to move any time soon as blood came from his temple.  You hurried back over to Leonard to see that his eyes were drooping. 

“Leonard! Stay with me!”

“Are you hurt?”

“Just bruised, I’m fine. Hang in there, alright? We’ll figure this out!”

“Commander!” You heard a familiar voice call. 

“Spock!” You cried out. “Hurry, we need to get Dr. McCoy out of here.”

“On our way!” Jim yelled back. You looked back over at Leonard and held his hand. 

“C’mon Leonard, we’re almost there.”

XXXXXX

The events on Thurilia changed a lot of things. It was noticed immediately that you and Leonard weren’t bickering as much. Nurse Chapel noticed that the vein in his head wasn’t ready to pop at a moments notice anymore. It didn’t seem as explosive. Of course, there was still an argument after he quickly recovered about her almost getting stabbed but it wasn’t nearly as tense as the others. 

However, that wasn’t the only thing that got the crew talking. 

Leonard was no longer in his uniform. Instead, he was in his civilian clothes that he usually wore once the day was done: a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt from his college days. He walked down the halls of the enterprise late in the night to get to your door, two glasses in his hands. He knocked and the door soon slid open to reveal you in your civilian clothes with a smile: a fleet sweatshirt and a pair of shorts. It was a little shocking for you to see each other out of uniform but it was oddly comforting. It had shown that the time in the cave had done a lot of good. You two visiting each other for a nightcap had become a regular occurrence.

“What movie did you pick?” He asked as he walked in. 

“Princess Bride. It’s a movie from the 1980s.” His eyes widened, still shocked about your movie collection. “It’s got fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, escapes, true love, miracles!”

“Sounds surprisingly sappy for you.” He chuckled as he poured the drinks. You sat down on your bed with the remote in hand and rolled your eyes. 

“Did you not hear the first part of that?  What with all the violence?” He offered you a glass and you gladly took it. 

“Yeah, yeah I heard you. It sounds great.” He sat down next to you against the headboard and you started the movie. It was a little off-putting how grainy it was but you insisted it added to the charm of the film. The movie continued and Leonard looked down to see the stars in your eyes as you watched. You were absolutely mesmerized by the story and kept telling him facts about the film. He noticed the tightness in his chest and coughed a little, hoping it was just the burn of the whiskey. 

But it didn’t go away. 

XXXXXX

Spock and Uhura watched with wide eyes as they rounded the corner to see Leonard smiling with two glasses in his hand as he walked into your room. 

“Spock, tell me I’m not hallucinating.”

“I believe, ashayam, we are witnessing what you humans call a miracle.” 

[infinity-squared-comics]

Chaska’s favorite place.

Mahad thought he might find him here. As the only member of this impromptu friend group with their own house, he had been tasked with taking in the two “strays” they had picked up. Yep, an alien and a homunculus, living in his apartment. Not to mention the fact that now his rent got bumped up for having an extra person living there (his landlord didn’t know about Jin. Perks of being an invisible alien, he supposed). But there was a bright side. Beyond just enjoying the company(don’t you dare tell anyone he said that)the two were more than willing to help out in any way they could. It was actually worrying, how eager they were to help. Mahad was pretty sure they could use some therapy (who couldn’t) but not being human tends to complicate those sorts of things.

“Sir Mahad?”

Surprising. Mahad didn’t know he’d been noticed. He should probably respond, though. Not like he could just stand here thinking. Well, maybe he could. Chaska didn’t know much about normal social interaction yet, it’d probably be fine to be weird around him. Anyways, response. Yes. Chaska was probably looking for one of those.

“‘Sup? Something bothering you, kid?”

“Well, no, but… I was just… tell me, please. What is that thing?”

Chaska gestures towards the sparkling network of road bellow them. Oh, right. The kid was less than a year old, technically. Pro’ly never seen an intersection, let alone one this fancy. Should he explain the basic concept, or this specific one. Oh well, he’ll just start talking and hope for the best.

“That’s called Starlight Junktion. It’s an intersection, connecting Hero City to our three nearest neighbors. We’re here in the southeast. To the southwest is Dark City, and there’s a stretch of road leading to Grandopolis in the northwest. It was built as a symbol of unity, between our three cities. Makes travelin’ a lot easier too”.

“Ah. So then… what’s to the northeast?”

Oh right. He’d probably have to explain that now. While, it’ll be ok. Just don’t go into uncomfortable detail.

“That leads to Endymion. It’s my hometown. Well, that’s not quite true. They annexed my hometown just a bit before we left. Probably why we left, to be honest, but my parents never talked much about that. They’d always change the subject whenever I asked.”

“Oh. Sir Mahad?”

“Yeah bud? Another question?”

“What does this word ‘Annex’ mean?”

Oh no this kid is way too innocent. Ok. He can do this. Just… try not to traumatize the child.

“Well, Annex is a verb, it’s a thing you do. But you probably got that already, since I just used it as a verb in a sentence. Well, to annex is to take an independent land, and make it part of your land, commonly by military force. At least, that’s how I’ve seen it used.”

“What if the people there don’t want to be part of this other land? What happens then?”

Oh no this kid is so pure. Should he really tell him all this? No. Better to learn here then wait ‘til he sees it in action.

“Well, when you’re being annexed, you have three options. Either you submit, listen to what those in power say, or you fight and they kill you or lock you up. Or, you can do what my family did. You can run.”

It took everything Mahad had to keep himself from adding “like cowards” to that last statement. The kid didn’t need his baggage.

“H… how? How could… how c… what type of monster was it, that did this to you?”

Oh this poor sweet child. He was crying.

“Wasn’t a monster. It was a man. Endimyon, the “I have a gajillion titles because I’m insecure in my accomplishments”. Although, man might not be the right word either, not after all the modifications he went through to stay alive. I’m sorry, Chaska. People aren’t as good as you think they are.”

“I know that. People steal, or cheat sometimes. Sometimes they even try to hurt each other. But this… killing? Mass killings? And for what? Power? Land? What could possibly be worth this much pain? What joy could be derived from something, anything that comes at such a… terrible cost? I do not understand. I do not understand! I DON’T UNDERSTAND!!!”

Oh no this poor child. He seemed to have reached the second stage of his freak out, and miniature cosmic flares were exploding out from all over their body. Mahad couldn’t even get close like this, never mind the fact that he was now slowly beginning to levitate ok this is weird. Ok ok ok. He just has to… do something. This kid needs his help! Ok, plan one. First some magical protection and then-

LEG HUG!

Mahad grabbed Chaska by the legs, partially to offer some support and partially to keep the kid from floating off.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry kid. You shouldn’t have to hear about this. It shouldn’t have even happened in the first place. I don’t understand either. I don’t understand how someone could have such… such little concern for human life. It doesn’t make sense, to sacrifice so much for so little. But we can’t change what happened. Believe me, I’ve tried. We just have to get through this. Just gotta survive. And it’s not fair what happened, what happened to those people, to my friends. But now we just have to survive. It’s over now. It’s been over for a long time now. And we’re still standing. We didn’t die when they tried to stomp us out. We fought, he hid, we ran. And we survived. I have something to show you when we get back to the apartment. But I need you to calm down a bit first. Ok? Can you do that for me, bud?”

…

“Ok.”

Chaska lowers to the ground. The flares lessen and soon extinguish. Chaska hugs Mahad, cries into his arms.

“I do not want to think about it anymore. Can we talk about something else? Please?”

“Of course, kiddo. Anything particular you wanna chat about?”

“No. Please. I just want to speak of something else.”

“Ok then. Well, in that case, I have a question for you. How are you not freezing? I’m chilled to the bone up here. And you’re not even wearing a shirt!”

Chaska laughs. It’s a small laugh, but it’s genuine. Good. This is good.

“I have told you previously, I do not feel cold. I do, however, feel tactile sensations, and shirts-“

“Ooh! I remember this part! Your back is really sensitive, and shirts make you feel uncomfortable, right?”

“Yes. Very good.”

“Actually, I have an idea for that. But! Feeling better?”

“A little.”

“Good. Now, let’s head home. It’s getting late.”

“Let us.”

……………………………..

Later, in Mahad’s apartment. Mahad, Jin, and Chaska are all asleep. The laptop is open to a shopping site with the search phrase “‘virgin killer’ sweater SFW grey”. On the central table sits a doll. It’s a very special doll. It’s made of wood fibers, woven together in a special style that, if a certain would-be conqueror had his way, would be lost to time. But it survived. They always survive.

~the end~

[beatricethecat2]

“I’m super bummed about the yurt,” Myka says.

“It is rather unfortunate," Helena says. "Perhaps internet rentals are unreliable?”

“That’s how everything’s done these days. And it’s not their fault, the pump died, and no water means it’s a no-go. But I still want that river view.”

“And the solitude. Plus the solar-powered generator.”

“You were super into that,” Myka says. “But this place…” She pushes at the cards scattered in front of her. “They just left stuff lying around. Such a dump.”

“It was rather last minute. Merely a stop-gap; a place to rest our weary heads after nights under the stars.”

“And backs on the hard ground,” Myka grumbles. “Where’d you find this?” She twirls a yellow flower between her thumb and forefinger.

“In the garden behind the shed. Though ‘garden’ and 'shed’ are generous terms.”

“Thanks for picking it. And thanks for being so upbeat about this,” Myka says, cracking a small smile.

“Thank you for humoring my curiosity.” Helena gathers the cards within her reach and piles them into a neat stack.

“It’s given us a destination, which we needed.” Myka pushes more cards towards Helena. “You’re sure none of the sites we saw are what you remember?”

“From the stereographs? No.” Helena fans the cards out and begins to arrange them in suits.

“Could you…could it be you don’t remember it as well as you thought?

"Stereographs were the virtual reality of my day. They immersed one in places inherently foreign to our own. The take-away memories were vivid. I was hoping…”

“Hoping what?” Myka says, scooting closer, joining in organizing the cards.

“That the physicality of the ruins would trigger an emotional response. I viewed the images at one of Charles’s parties not long before I was bronzed. My reaction was quite visceral; I’d felt life flowing through the structures, even though they were long abandoned.”

Helena stares at the card in her hand.

“Then again, I wasn’t exactly in my right mind. Perhaps it’s a ridiculous quest.” She lays the card, a joker, on the table.

“Hey, we’ll keep looking,” Myka says, laying her hand over Helena’s. “We’ll regroup in Vegas, then go north and hit Mesa Verde. It’s pretty magical.”

“You’ve been before?”

“Girl Scout trip. Long, miserable bus ride. But even as a kid, the cliff dwellings felt magical.”

“Perhaps they’re the site I’m looking for!” Helena says, perking up. “And, perhaps we met there in the past. Star-crossed lovers, throughout time and space.”

“Past lives? You believe in that?”

“Not in a grand sense,” Helena says, aligning the gazes of the queen of hearts and queen of spades to face each other. “But I do appreciate that these days, one can mention such trivial mythologies without repercussions.”

“What do you mean?”

“In my day, as a woman, there was little room for flippant musing. Christian values dictated our every move, while Spiritualism promoted the fanatic embrace of communing with the dead. Not to mention the base-level assumption women were of a lesser intellect.”

“So you’d never say it out loud.”

“Never. In fact, I’d blocked it out. Hard science was my escape but at the expense of my sanity.”

“I suppose we all need a sense that something out there's guiding us,” Myka says, plucking the two other queens from the spread and aligning them as Helena did. “It’s kind of romantic to think our connection’s lasted hundreds of years.”

“But you’re not sold.”

“Nah.” Myka slips the cards on top of each other and slides them back into the pile.

“Perhaps my bronzing was the universe’s way of aligning our presence.”

“Sounds like a story you might write. Or one you already did.”

“So pragmatic, Myka Bering.”

“You’re the romantic,” Myka says, bumping Helena’s shoulder.

“I’m a woman of science!” Helena quips playfully.

“Hm, yeah,” Myka mumbles, turning to look towards the other side of the trailer. “Come with me, 'woman of science.’ Let’s test out this awful looking bed.”

She grabs Helena’s hand and tugs her across the room. They tumble in tandem onto the full-size futon.

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

Bering and Wells On the Road ("Warehouse 13" Season 5 replacement) Season 1: Episode 5 Title: Las Vegas: Hopes, Dreams, and a Little Bit of Crazy

Summary: Myka and Helena travel across the expanse of Texas toward the arid Southwest, tracking down a memory. A last-minute cancellation leads to less-than-ideal accommodations and musings on the universe. A stop in Vegas turns into an artifact hunt after a few nights on the town. While there, a less than supernatural mystery garners honest talk, revealing a sticking point that, for better or worse, is left hanging to be resolved down the line.

Previously: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4

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

***BONUS SCENE***

“What’s this?” Myka asks, holding a piece of paper found while tidying the room before checkout.

Helena turns from packing and squints at the page.

“It appears to be an advertisement for burlesque.”

“It’s a strip club.”

“There’s a distinction?”

“You’ve watched enough cop shows to know.”

“Touché,” Helena says with a smirk. “Were you considering attending?”

“It’s from your pocket! The stuff you took out to dry clean your coat after it got gooed.”

“I don’t recall saving that piece of ephemera.”

“Maybe you recall this?” Myka flips the paper over.

Helena steps closer and squints again.

“Do you need glasses?”

“I haven’t had proper tea yet,” Helena grumbles. “It appears to be writing.”

“It’s a name. And a number. Who's Giselle?”

“Ah…” A light bulb goes off behind Helena’s eyes. “The tall, blonde you were ogling at the bar.”

“Me? What blonde? Oh…” A dimmer bulb goes off behind Myka’s eyes. “I thought I recognized her from that show we saw, Zumanity.”

“And I’d thought she’d reminded you of a tall blonde from your past.”

“Sam was a man.”

“Gender is a construct–”

“I know! I don’t need another lecture–”

“–designed to control the masses, just like– ”

“Capitalism, religion, television….who knows what else,” Myka gruffs. “No more podcasts in the car for a while, OK?" 

Helena crosses her arms over her chest and grunts dismissively. Myka's face pinches as she holds her ground.

"So you, what, went up to this woman when I took that call from the Warehouse?”

“As it happens, she spoke with me,” Helena says, puffing up like a bird on the defense.

“She came to our table?”

“I’d gone to the bar. I needed a top-up as you’d been gone for an immeasurable amount of time.”

“And she just happened to be there?”

“Coincidentally.”

“Coincidentally? And she 'coincidentally’ gave you her number?”

“We had a lovely conversation about the mechanics from the show. The hanging armatures, the chains, the silks, the water tank. And the athleticism that went into their provocative stunts.”

“Uh-huh. But she gave you her number. Why?”

“I believe there was a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?”

“Must you parrot me so?” Helena plants her hands on her hips.

“If you’d tell me what really happened, I wouldn’t have to.” Myka mirrors Helena’s pose.

“Fine. You seemed so enamored, I thought to ask questions–”

“I thought I recognized her, that’s all!”

“She was quite stunning. Did I mention statuesque?”

“Helena, why?” Myka waves the page in Helena’s direction.

“She offered us a backstage tour.”

“Us, or you?”

“I’d pointedly mentioned you, so us.”

“Oh.” Myka’s shoulders slump. “What does 'backstage tour’ mean?”

“I believe a peek behind the production.”

“Because you said there was a misunderstanding.”

“Due to her somewhat pointed overtures.”

“I knew it! She was hitting on you.” Myka smacks the desk with her hand. 

Helena grimaces. “I believe she was 'fishing’”

“Do you even know what that is?”

“I do, as per the aforementioned police procedurals. In fact, it was….refreshing, being courted by a woman." 

"I’m a woman!”

“Yes, but….in the wild, so to speak.”

“Did you…” Myka starts, then glances at the paper again. She sits on the edge of the bed and looks up at Helena. “Did you want to go out with her?" 

"Again, I’d pointedly pointed out I was taken.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because we rushed off New York, New York the minute your call from the Warehouse finished.” Helena throws her hands in the air. “We then spent the majority of yesterday chasing an elusive King Kong around that scale model of the city.”

“We did. Stupid antiques convention.”

“I swear we spend more time on Warehouse business than our own.”

“Like once a month.”

“Every week.”

“Every other week. When they call us. Us getting whammied doesn’t count.”

“Mine was New Orleans. Yours Austin. But the others…”

Myka tallies missions on fingers until she hits ten. “You’re right. We’ve spent a lot of time on Warehouse stuff. I’m sorry.”

Helena shakes her head while breathing out a heavy sigh. She sits next to Myka and lays a hand on her thigh. “To answer your question, we’re off today anyway, so there was no point in mentioning it.”

Myka slips her hand over Helena’s. “I bet you actually wanted to see the mechanics backstage. That’s something people do on vacation.”

“Quite an improvement from Trouble Wit,” Helena says.

“I don’t know that that is.”

“Illusions with pleated paper. Parlor tricks, but they delighted Christina so.”

“See, I like hearing that stuff,” Myka says, squeezing Helena’s hand. “Would you have told me any of this if I hadn’t found the flyer cleaning up?’ She hands the paper to Helena.

"Why would it matter?” Helena crumples the paper and lobs it towards the garbage can. It bounces off and onto the floor. 

“Because for this to work we need to talk to each other, tell each other how we feel.” Myka looks Helena in the eye. “I can’t read your mind.”

“Then, perhaps we were not destined to meet throughout time and space.”

“Hey, you can’t take it back. I like that idea now.” Myka threads her fingers through Helena's and flips their hands over. “You’re really annoyed about the work stuff?”

“I was hoping to have you all to myself.”

“You do.” Myka squeezes Helena’s hand again and lifts it up, kissing its back. “How much time do we have before checkout?”

Helena glances at her wristwatch. “Not nearly enough.”

“But it could be.” Myka threads a lock of hair behind Helena’s ear and guides their lips together. Their kiss leads to more-than-kissing in record time.

Next Scene: Running late to checkout…

-TBC-

NOTES: The quote, “Las Vegas is a city built on hopes, dreams and a little bit of crazy,” is by Eleanor Goggin. If you haven’t seen a well-shot stereograph in a viewer, you are missing out. Their mock-3D spaces from bygone eras can be mind-blowing.Myka with the flyer is from a season four episode where she and Pete go to Las Vegas. The show Zumanity is a racy offshoot of Cirque du Soleil and just closed after a seventeen-year run in Vegas. I started reading a fascinating dissertation about why middle- and upper-class Victorian women embraced Spiritualism. In a nutshell, it gave them autonomy and a sense of power within the rigid confines of what was expected of them as women while they remained safe within the construct of home. H.G. would have bristled at that, because she wanted more. But I’m certain she would have been fascinated by Hilma af Klint’s amazing drawings and paintings, even though they were based in Spiritualism and Theosophy. Oh and here's on of the stereographs. (H.G. would have seen it later than 1898.) Also, the title font/design is from the first edition of the book you are thinking of but the content is not related.

[haphazardlyparked]

the war AU

@gingerly-writing originally i started this as a response to your captured solider/person-enemy general thing  but then it just turned into a whole bunch of self-indulgence sooooo 

(i'm a softie at heart??)

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

"Masara," a voice hissed in her ear, and Masara came back to her senses, only to swallow back a groan. Her whole body was an ache that burned at the edges, part magical exhaustion and part old-fashioned beating.

"Arlis," Masara murmured back, trying not to move. Trying to catalogue her hurts before she tested them, trying to remember what had happened. She did not say, You young fool.

Masara's heart––already burning her chest with grief and war––had leapt into her throat and turned to fear when she'd seen Arlis emerge from the tunnel pass, adept enough with the spells that she could open the hidden routes on her own. Masara's young, foolish squire, who had followed her because she thought her knight-mistress had gone off to do something brave, when all Masara was was reckless, desperate––and desperately hopeful.

Panam as heir was safe, the king was on his way to the Yina stronghold, and Fathmir, who had been at the holy mountain's summit since the new moon, could be made High Priest soon. The heart of Amir would be preserved, even though Amirasa had fallen. Even though things might had been different, before the assassination and the war.

Masara knew her part now. She was the most experienced knight traveling with her uncle––fleeing, navigating the twisting paths and hidden tunnels that wound through the foothills of the Endless Ridge. The king had to make it to the safety of Mount Yina, and that was worth Masara's life.

In some small measure, Amir would survive, watchful and isolated while her southern lands became a battlefield between two imperial powers. Ancient Lapur to the southwest, hemmed in by the Blasted Plains, and Kas to the northeast, a young and eager threat.

Masara had dreamed of her kingdom’s waning. She had felt the shadow of death hanging over her head since Panam had brought news of the High Priest's assassination.

When she had volunteered to lead the pursuers away from the king's trail as he and a fragment of his court ran for holy Yina, the king had faced her as her father wold have––grieved, yet proud. But he had faced her as her king, too, grimly resigned to her sacrifice.

"You might have been one of our greatest queens, if my sister and I chose differently," he had whispered.

Masara could scarcely meet her uncle's eyes.

"I dreamed a fire would burn away my future, during my rites,” she confessed. One did not usually speak of the visions, if there were any, but Masara thought she could ease her uncle’s conscience. “When Panam came with word of my father's death... I already knew how this could end. This is my decision, Uncle."

"May the Lady Sascrin guard your path, Masara," the king said.

The knight knelt, and kissed her uncle's hand, and when she rose––when the king drew her to her feet to hug her one last time, the farewell embrace she never had from her father––she smiled.

"It will be your job to look after Arlis now,” she said when they pulled away from each other. She stepped back.

Arlis was a jealous squire, and would likely be furious when she realized Masara had ridden to battle without her. Later, she would come to understand that she was too young for this.

And then the little fool had burst from one of the rocky passages, into the pitched skirmish while Masara charged a company with a twilit illusion, riding alongside moonbeams, and dropped the bridge to cut off pursuit of the king’s path.

She thought the destroyed bridge would been a good place to die, right up until she saw Arlis and realized with a ringing clarity, Not now. Her squire needed her.

Masara's vision filled with molten silver, magic in her hands and spitting down the length of her blade, and Arlis flickered across the field in her mind's eye, a star to be guarded. When they reached each other—the knight a blur of spell and steel, her squire a smaller whirlwind no less fierce for her youth, and Kassan footmen with their blue-rimmed shields and clumsy swords—Arlis screamed, and Masara's world exploded.

In the tent, when she opened her eyes, the physical ache seemed to coalesce in her chest as she put everything back together again.

There was her beloved, fool squire whom Masara would protect with her last breath; and beyond that, all the things that threatened her.

Masara and Arlis were tied side by side to foldable campaign chairs, which was quite civilized, all things considered. She could see spells crawling on the walls of the tent, and smelled the distinctive sting of burning a sharp, distinctive incense. Natural inhibitors of magic.

"Do you know where we are?" Masara spoke. Her voice was cracked and barely audible; her throat dry as dust. Unlike Arlis, she was tied to her chair by only one arm, because the other was broken. She woke with it cradled against her chest in a sling.

"I'm sorry, sir, I––” Arlis began urgently, quick and breathless, all the words she'd been thinking while Masara was unconscious now tumbling out. Masara let her relieve herself. "I shouldn't have followed, and then I ruined your plan and you went down––and I panicked. I surrendered. I thought they were going to kill you!”

“You did as you should have done, Arlis," Masara assured her squire when she fell silent. “I am grateful to be alive."

It was true. Masara had made her peace with her sacrifice, but she hadn't wanted to die. If she could live––and she had somehow, for Arlis or thanks to her––she would. (She wondered if this meant her vision was wrong; or if there was another fire threatening her horizons.)

"But Masara," Arlis mumbled. “You weren’t about to surrender.”

“That only means you have proven yourself wiser than me.”

“But... I told them who you are.”

Masara considered her broken arm––splinted and bandaged, carefully tended to like the rest of her battered body, and found Arlis's confession did not surprise her.

"And yourself, too?" Masara asked.

"Yes."

"Good," Masara said firmly. "We are alive now, and I will not see you die, Arlis."

Her squire knew enough to hear the grim promise.

"Sir," she acknowledged. "I don't think they'll hurt me. They think I'm a child––a poor, misguided girl-child who accidentally maimed some soldiers..." Arlis indulged in a little complaining, and when Masara recalled her visit to the Kassan court years ago, she decided Arlis was probably justified. And yet, they still burned the incense; they still spelled the tent. They were cautious.

"They were horrified when they realized you were a woman, and that was before I explained you are a high lady," Arlis continued. "After that, they bundled us up and had a surgeon come; you were stabbed through the shoulder, by the way. I tried to do what I could, on the road yesterday. They put us in a wagon and set a guard. They don't think very highly of me, and didn’t notice I what I was doing."

Masara considered that, and realized that was why that whole upper side of her hurt, not just the broken arm.

"Thank you, Arlis," she sighed. "It's called battlefield healing for a reason, and you've always been one of the best. I am fortunate." It really wasn't much more than cleansing wounds and dulling pain, but it was more than nothing.

Arlis grinned. "Am I better than Guira?"

Masara ignored the question, as she always did. She smiled, and then her lip split. Grimacing––carefully––she asked, “How long was I out?”

“The rest of the evening and all of yesterday. We stopped last night, and I slept, so it may be morning again,” Arlis reported. “You destroyed the footbridge we used, and that was the only easy path for a large party, so they've had to retreat back out of the foothills. They didn't stop until they were out, which was late last night."

Masara was shocked to hear she had been unconscious for so long--but something in the back of her head disagreed, remembered a dream, perhaps. Later. She said instead, "These are Sascrin's foothills; outlanders think they are cursed. Even I only turned back to make very, very certain they would too."

Some things were too important to leave to should and probably; the king had understood that when Masara proposed remaining behind to guard their rear.

Arlis didn't ask her what the plan was now. She didn't ask what it had been, either.

Trust, or insight? Masara thought it was the former, and she tried to turn her worry into resolve. Her uncle had depended on her before; now Arlis did.

"Has anyone spoken to you?"

"Only a captain," Arlis reported. “He said their general could decide what to do with nobility."

"And have you seen a mage?"

"No. But I do think there's one around. The tent could've been prepared, but the incense smells... intent."

Masara tilted her head––carefully, to avoid tugging at any other injuries she wasn't fully aware of––and smiled lopsided at Arlis, trying to avoid the split. "Very good," she said, winced, and licked at the cut. "I thought you might notice that; that's the scent of the mage's spell. Now, what other kinds of magic inhibitors are they using?”

"Sir," Arlis protested, half-indignant, but she was looking at the canvas around them. She knew better than to try and fuss more over Masara's wounds; she'd already done what she could. It was nothing she would not recover from, she decided––given a chance to recover, of course.

"We're currently bound to chairs in a spelled tent, Arlis," Masara said. "We might as well have a brief lesson."

Masara heard rather than saw Arlis's roll of the eyes. She could never keep from that airy, "As you say, sir."

But Masara saw how she relaxed a little, easing back into her seat and straining  less at her bonds.

"Let's begin with the standard suppression spells," Masara went on. "One of the nice thing about them is that they're always visible, as it's active magic, and look––these weavers didn't even try for subtlety. Tell me which ones you know already."

Arlis and Masara discussing the fire protection spell woven into the seams of the tent, where the different cuts of fabric had been sewn together, and how they served to isolate each separate piece of fabric, when they were interrupted.

"It looks newly done," Masara murmured. "And it looks northern too, not like a spell that's been fully assimilated." That was the thing about magic. There were always spells and brews you could learn, but they worked best when you had truly made it yours, or if it was yours.

Masara often wished the fireless explosions Arlis was so fond of hadn't been her obvious calling.

"How can you––" Arlis began, but then the tent flap opened and a man stuck his head in.

He came all the way in when he saw Masara was awake, daylight flashing through the opening, and stood before them.

"Good," he observed after an assessing gaze. "Surgeon said if you were out the whole two days, we might have problems."

He wasn't a very tall man, but he was broad-shouldered and confident, a soldier in a blue cloak. He had the olive skin and dark hair of some of the Kassan, though with clearer, lighter eyes that spoke of some northern heritage. Or magic and vanity.

The soldier crossed his arms and frowned when Masara said nothing. It took Masara a moment to realize he had been expecting her to speak––he had asked no question. She instead had been looking to Arlis, to see if her squire recognized the soldier, but a twitch of Arlis's fingers said, he's new, and Masara wondered again where they were. The tent also kept them from hearing just what kind of camp lay outside. Masara would bet it was far larger than the one company that braved the foothills and her attack, if the general was said to be coming.

"Are you injured?" the soldier demanded, eyes narrowing.

Masara smiled––carefully, lopsided.

"I believe so," she answered.

The soldier's frown didn't change. "Well enough to speak the general now, I see."

"Lead on!" Arlis challenged boldly, unwilling to be overlooked and left behind. Masara didn't bother to check her.

"Oh no," the soldier corrected with a grim smile. "Do you think we're letting you out of this nice tent? The general's on his way here. You should be honored. Him coming to you." The soldier sounded disgruntled enough by the necessary breach of etiquette that not even Arlis commented.

They didn't have to wait long. The soldier left the tent after another moment of silence––did he think either Masara or Aris would say something, unprompted?––and then the flap opened again, and he returned. This time, he was followed by a younger man, another soldier, alert and brisk. He'd become very tan under the Amirran sun, his hair burnished to a golden blond currently bare of a crown, but Masara was surprised to recognize the general.

Arlis shifted by her side, suspicious. The general regarded the both of them in silence, his pale brown eyes almost dark in the tent's dim light.

"Leave it open, Kinlo," the general––if that was how he chose to style himself––said, and Kinlo, the first soldier, went to pull back the opening. Clear morning light spilled inside, silhouetting the general, and from his slight smirk, he knew its effect. "They won't run."

Masara quite honestly didn't feel up to a break for freedom, so he was right, which was mildly irritating. The smoke of the incense kept her weak, as though she hadn't slept or rested in days.

"We're in the middle of my camp. Surrounded by thousands of men," the general explained reasonably. One couldn't hope to escape or be rescued against such odds. Amir's people really would be penned into the foothills, with Yina as her only stronghold. "Of course," the general said, "we will treat a high lady of the land and..." he trailed off, and frowned at Arlis.  What stories had his men had told of Masara and Arlis's capture?

Arlis's fingers twitched. Treat us with honor, I bet, she signed. Masara affected not to notice, and did not smile.

"Well?" the general prompted.

Masara lifted her gaze and fixed on the shadows by the door. "I didn't realize you wanted an answer," she excused herself. "The young Lady Arlis is my squire, if that is what you were looking for."

The general nodded, as if all was now confirmed for him, and he stepped to the side, away from the tent opening. It was strange to think of such a man––young, open-faced, eager for action and the field itself––ordering the High Priest's death. This general had plenty of battlefields to choose from, without provoking a new series of them. But he had advisers, and they were apparently in the capital, directing the empire while the general was here.

"And it was the two of you who blocked the advance company?"

Masara inclined her head as far as she could.

"You wouldn't have gotten far anyway." Arlis raised her voice in a taunt. "The foothills can be quite haunted, you know."'

The general snorted. "I don't doubt it. I don't think 'foothills' is fair name for them, either. It's like calling the Henori river a little creek. I'm ready to forget the whole campaign." He sounded matter-of-fact.

"By all means, do," Masara suggested.

"But there's Lapur to worry about. And your mages."

"Our mages," Masara repeated, turning it into a question with an arched brow. The movement pulled at a scrape on her cheek by her hairline.

The general looked at her, slow and considering.

"Yes. Mine are worried. My advisers tell me it's unnatural that you don't use spells. Materials, incantations - the common instruments." He paused, then added: "Is it?"

Masara spoke before Arlis could. "Your imperial majesty," she said blandly, deciding now was as good a moment as any to dispense with all pretense, "why should any Amirran spill our secrets to you?"

Arlis frowned, backing down. She hadn't known who the general was, and Masara could tell she was swiftly reconsidering their situation.  

"I have found some who were very talkative, actually," the emperor-general retorted. Arlis hissed at the implication of torture––but Masara frowned at the general’s honest, untroubled irritation, and heard her quiet oft-ignored fear confirmed.

There was a traitor.

How else could Amirasa have fallen? And their escape to the foothills had been too close, too harried. Masara signed another hold to Arlis, one that called for caution, and said nothing.

"Unfortunately, they do not know much about your magics."

"You have captured Amirasa," Masara replied mildly, though the admission was ash on her tongue. She didn't dare ask for the general's chatty Amirran, not yet. "If your mages cannot see the spells of our city, that does not mean anything."

"They see those spells," the emperor-general clarified. "The battle magic, on the other hand..."

He trailed off expectantly, but neither Arlis nor Masara rose to fill the silence. When it stretched on, the emperor straightened, chin lifting as though he suddenly felt the weight of his crown, and said, "Even if you don't talk, you will be useful bargaining tools. Perhaps now your king will be tempted to meet me at a crossroads. What do you think, High Lady Masara?"

Masara offered the lopsided smile she could, but without warmth. "If negotiation is what you wish, I will write to my king myself."

"You doubt me?" the general demanded.

"Your army holds our ancient capital. You have done nothing but kill our people and claim our land."

"I sent an ambassador, and your king gave him back and declared war."

"Ambassador?" Arlis snapped. "Is that a new word for assassin?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The High Priest," Masara answered succinctly. It came out flat, an accusation torn free of the sudden hollow chasm that threatened her. It appeared suddenly, as usual, and nearly all-encompassing. She breathed through it slowly, counting in her head to ten.

"He was the head of a militant religious order," the general replied carefully, sensing the delicacy of the topic. "The greatest obstacle to diplomacy. He would never accept surrender."

Arlis scowled, but Masara called for her silence again––she was never very obedient for long, but she held her tongue for the moment.

"And did your sources also believe Amir would be amenable to surrender after an assassination?" Masara asked, with pointed equanimity.

The emperor-general frowned, and crossed his arms, and then changed the subject.

"I think the most important thing to remember is Lapur. They cannot be allowed to grow past the Blighted lands."

"How gratifying, that our kingdom can be a foothold in your imperial wars."

It wasn't exactly a fair assessment; Lapur worried Amir, too, with its constant, probing incursions north of the desert, into the no man's land usually left to Amir.

But it was Kas, young and full of its own power who had invaded, not Lapur.

The emperor-general's eyes narrowed, glinting nearly like gold as he coolly declared, "Say what you will, High Lady. But we cannot afford an Amirran succession crisis, not with Lapur so close and so restless."

Masara gestured minutely, freeing Arlis while she considered the general's words.

"That was your reasoning for your conquest of Seriona," Arlis burst out, after holding her tongue for what surely felt like ages to her. "We are not Seriona. In Amir, we know our king and our prince!"

The general frowned at Arlis, but replied to her as seriously as he had to Masara. "And if your king should prefer his niece over his son?" he challenged.

Arlis strained briefly, forgetting she was tied up as she tried to point at Masara. "We are here," she settled for instead, spitting the words out furiously. "A lone knight sacrificed to hold off your whole company, the high lady, the king's supposed favorite––doesn't that tell you anything?"

A new uneasiness settled in Masara's chest as she realized how badly she had underestimated her young squire. Arlis understood Masara's decision... and she was still a fool for endangering herself. In the past half year of border skirmishes, the outbreak of war, and their flight from Amirasa, Arlis had grown up a great deal.

Masara felt she herself had aged decades.

The general's expression didn't change, yet Masara still felt a shift in his attitude.

"It tells me more than you know," he said, and then waved his hand, dismissing the matter. "My ladies, I've been distracted from my purpose. I simply wished to inform you that you will be hostages until a suitable agreement can be come to with your king, which I hope will come swiftly. Until then, you will be kept with the camp quite safely, and we will do our best to see you treated with honor. If you need anything within reason, you need only shout to the guards." He glanced at Arlis, and added, "I don't think you'll have an issue with that."

Arlis regarded the general balefully. He ignored the young squire's glares, and asked Masara directly, "Should I send the surgeon to you again, my lady?"

Arlis fumed under her breath about it being his fault anyway; Masara's mind spun.

"That would be appreciated, your imperial majesty," she said quietly, focused more on the realizations that were slowly coming together for her, overcoming her unwillingness to see them.

"In the field, I prefer the title Imperial General. Hokiraj," said the emperor, magnanimous in his role as captor, familiarity offered as a flattering courtesy.

"Well then, Imperial General. It appears we are in your hands," Masara returned in kind, though distracted.

The imperial general coughed, made a vague noise of agreement, and then made his departure with, "I will send that surgeon along. Later, we will discuss that letter and what terms your king may agree to.”

As soon as he was gone, Kinlo followed him out and shut the tent. The haste of his exit went on unremarked, and it was Arlis who finally broke the silence.

“I think there’s a traitor, sir,” she whispered, reluctant to speak her fear too loudly.

Her squire was so old at fourteen, yet Masara wanted to protect her still. "I think I know who it is,” she prevaricated.

The king had broached the idea of changing the succession only once that Masara knew of, and only idly. Masara knew he would never act without his son’s complete agreement; it was how rule had been decided between himself and his older sister, Masara’s mother. He had thought he might have Panam’s approval.

Only Panam and Masara were not siblings, and it had been a while since they had been close as such.

Oh, cousin, she thought, unease dripping through her memories of Panam like oil. Could you really?

But Masara could not let despair overcome her. She had Arlis to protect... and Amir, too. However she could.