#also scans were taken from the internet archive which is why it looks a bit scuffed lol

[wizardhex]

From "I Spy Christmas: A Book of Picture Riddles", Walter Wick

[dragonrajafanfiction]

The Greenland Incident

The post I typed up got deleted on Reddit (!!!) So I’m reposting here. :)

It’s a bit long but has the story written from professor Schneider’s POV. Enjoy!

This is taken from Dragon Raja III: Part I Chapter: Shadows of Greenland.

Schneider took off the oxygen mask and moved his face into the light. Even as he smoked cigarettes, he was on oxygen. When removing the oxygen mask, he will carefully hide his face in the shadow so this is the first time Manstein saw Ned's (Schneider's) face. It's a horror movie mask. The face is a nightmare, the flesh and blood under the eyes are completely dry, only a layer of dry skin is stuck to the bone, the lips and nose are atrophied, and the front teeth are directly exposed.

"It's ugly isn't it? Actually, I am only 37 years old this year but I have the half century old face of a mummy. When the students hear my cough, they think I am an old man in my 50s. But I am even younger than you." Schneider said, self-deprecating.

Manstein shivered slowly: "How can this be?"

"This is the mark left by a mission," Schneider said. "That was 11 years ago, when we first heard a heartbeat signal from the deep sea."

"This (The Japan sea mission) is not the first time we have found embryos in the sea?" Manstein was taken aback.

"No, No. Eleven years ago, that was in Greenland. We found a similar embryo." Schneider spit out a complete smoke ring. "You might have guessed it. I was talking about the  unresolved case in the Greenland Ice Sea. The dive team was annihilated, but the school board ordered all files to be sealed and the investigation was forcibly terminated. If you want to hear this story, you have to be patient, because this story is very long, and please order Norma (EVAs human personality) to leave this room. You with a black card now, you can do it."

"Why should Norma leave?"

"Because Norma doesn't know. The so-called top secret cannot be stored in the system or the drives. It can only be stored here." Schneider tapped on his forehead. "After listening to this story, you can't say a word. You can't even write a memo for yourself. This is a rigid rule of the college. You can only remember every detail I said firmly as far as you can. If you forget it, there's no remedy."

"What happened 11 years ago, can you still remember every detail of it now?"

"Of course, I can." Schneider said quietly. "That was the only trip to hell in my life. How could I forget?"

The icy cold permeated from Schneider's words. Manstein felt that when he mentioned something that happened 11 years ago, the ugly and powerful man in front of him ignited his anger, an anger restrained for 11 years.

"Norma, leave this room and leave the two of us alone for a while." Manstein said.

"Understand that, starting now, the central control room will be outside of my monitoring range for 15 minutes." Norma said.

All the equipment n the central control room stopped running, the cameras and recording equipment were locked, and the lights went out one by one. Norma left and the surveillance was lifted. At this moment, the central control room was independent of the campus, and the shadows of the trees swayed on the high windows, which looked like the depths of an ancient church.

"It was the autumn of 2001...." Schneider slowly began to narrate.

"It was the autumn of 2001. A person with the ID named 'Prince' posted a message on the Internet saying that his tugboat had caught strange bronze fragments deep in the Greenland Sea. He posted a photo and it seemed that there were some intricate ancient characters on them. These characters were completely consistent with the 'Ice Sea Bronze Column Tablet' secretly collected by the college."

"The Ice sea Bronze Pillar Tablet is considered to be a rare artifact that has been passed down from the Dragon Age to today. It once stood in the dragon-kin built cities. The dragons are accustomed to using pillars to record their history and the center of the city is always a huge pillar standing upright. However, the icy sea copper column tablet is only a part of a column that had broken and it is estimated that it is less than a third of its original length. It is the most detailed dragon text material that humans have found to today, recording the war history of the dragon clan, but we still can't interpret it because there is no text for comparison. Those texts are just meaningless patterns for us."

"I was just a young assistant professor at the time, keen to interpret Dragon Words. I think if there is another copper pillar in the depths of the Greenland Sea, then the comparison of the above text may be able to interpret the true history of dragons. So I contacted the 'Prince' anonymously, saying that we were an ancient writing research institute and hoped to purchase these fragments."

"At that time, someone offered an amazing price, but the Prince expressed that he was willing to donate the fragments to research institutions instead of selling them to merchants. He sent the fragments to us without taking any money, and attached the coordinates of where he found them. We immediately sent an elite team to scan the seabed with sonar. We originally hoped to find a huge pillar on the seabed, but we caught a strange heartbeat signal right on the seabed."

"The Greenland Ice Sea is not as deep as the Japanese Trench. Large animals like beluga and tiger sharks live in it. So we didn't think it was a dragon embryo at first. But we observed it for several months. Nothing moved. We had to focus our attention from the pillar to the heartbeat signal. This was too strange. If the thing is a whale or a shark, then it should hunt around. If it is a giant turtle of unknown species, but dormant, then its heartbeat shouldn't be so strong. 

Someone put forward an amazing idea, that is: it is the embryo of a dragon. The seabed is its burial ground, it has experienced death, and cocooning and then reviving turned it into a fetal state. It is undergoing a long incubation.

"The idea was too bold, but the heartbeat signal was too strange and too tempting. Everyone of us was fascinated by this speculation. Since the establishment of the Secret Party, we have only received one dragon embryo, which is a weak one out of three generations. Dragon blood lines are already weak. If we can get a strong embryo, analyzing it can help us learn more about this ancient life."

"So you decided to dive?" Manstein asked.

"No, we weren't so rash. Because everything is just guessing. The safest way before a human goes is to send out a remote controlled submersible to survey the area. But whenever the underwater robots approached the seabed, they would lose control. We recovered the underwater robots and found that their circuits somehow burned up. This added to the evidence that the thing on the seabed was an embryo of a dragon. When an elder dragon is said to be in the process of incubation, a certain field will be developed to protect themselves. People who step into this field will have fatal hallucinations. Biologically speaking, the hallucinations are all because the cerebral cortex is stimulated, and the cerebral cortex is most easily stimulated by an electrical current."

"So the electric field of embryos burned the robot's circuits?" Manstein said.

"We thought so. We didn't want to send people to dive. If it is indeed the embryonic field that burned down those robots, then the impact on the cerebral cortex would be terrible. Even though all my students are A pedigree, I'm still not sure if they can fight against the field of embryos. In the hallucinations created by dragons, only the most powerful hybrids can maintain self-awareness. Any gap in the psychological defense line will be crushed by the hallucination. This has been recorded in the archives of the secret party." Schneider said. "But this time the school board intervened. They ordered us to dive as soon as possible to confirm the target. Their reason was that we could not wait for the embryo to hatch. At that time, even if it was risky, we had to act."

"Diving was the decision of the school board?"

"Yes. Today they sent you to stop the Caesar Team Embryo dive, but they were the creators of the Greenland plan back then."

"Under pressure, we made a dive plan. We purchased the most advanced diving bell from Germany at the time. It was a kind of all-metal diving equipment. Metal is an  excellent conductor. It can form an electrostatic barrier and should weaken the embryo field. Everyone in the dive team was to wrap their whole body with a fine metal mesh and took nerve tranquilizers orally. They are all the best hybrids. We thought they should be able to resist the interference in the embryonic field after they were fully armed. There were six people in the group. If one person had a problem the other five could force him to evacuate. In order to kill the dangerous embryo we also made a special underwater rifle for the dive team, using bullets polished by the Philosopher's Stone which is lethal to dragons."

"Although they were going to perform a dangerous mission, the students were still excited. Young people are fearless and they had the opportunity to get lose to a dragon embryo, which was as exciting as the opportunity to visit the Kingdom of God."

The weather was unexpectedly good on the day of the dive. The six members of the dive team went down on three diving bells. I provided support on the ice. At first, everything went smoothly, the ocean current was calm. The marine life was calm. They even observed beluga whales. But when the depth reached 170 meters, the leader of the dive team suddenly yelled in surprise in the communication channel, saying that they saw a gate. This is very strange because the seabed in that area is 300 meters deep, and their depth is 170 meters, which means that they are still 130 meters from the bottom. Visibility was very low. But at this point, they saw this gate. Is there a gate suspended in the middle of the sea?

"I became alert and worried that they had strayed into the embryonic field and had begun to have hallucinations. They excitedly discussed the gate in the communication channel. This is completely against the rules of communications. They should not talk about it in the communication channel. This channel is for essential communication only to avoid misunderstandings. I loudly ordered them not to approach the gate. I wasn't sure if it really existed but my instinct told me that the gate should not be opened."

"But they completely ignored my orders. I only heard their hurried muttering and strange noises. It was like someone was breathlessly reading a certain scripture in a deep well. Then the team leader spoke and yelled, "The gate is open! The gate is opening!" Then, "No! Don't Go in!"

"Then the gunshots were heard, loud. I could hear them paddling and the sound of their respirators. They had left the diving bell and were fighting with something. The situation was very chaotic. Someone shouted in the channel but because of the current interference, I couldn't hear what they said."

"I originally told the diving team not to leave the diving bell, because the electrostatic barrier in the diving bell is their important protection, but why they violated my order... there's no perfect explanation. After five minutes, the communication was cut off. We could no longer receive signals from the depths of the ice sea. I decided to forcibly recover the diving bells. Those diving bells are connected to the ice breaker with safety lines. However, we recovered the safety lines, only to find that the safety lines were cut with diving knives. The cuts, judging from the fibers, were made by the diving teams own knives. They cut the safety lines themselves."

"I was frantic and decided to dive down to rescue them. There were no more bells, but I was confident in my physical fitness. I could dive to 300 meters without protective gear. I could dive to 170 on one breath. When I reached the waters where the incident occurred, there was no gate nor were their corpses. The water was clear with no trace of blood, even though I clearly heard the gunshots in the communication channel. At that time, the surrounding water temperature had dropped below zero. It was so cold that any disturbance in the water would form ice crystals."

"I then noticed something behind me that had been silently swimming with me!" "The predator was so cautious to keep itself from being discovered by me. But the super cold seawater was  formed a thin film of ice in front of me and it reflected the light on my diving helmet. I saw its dark shadow in the thin ice, just like the totem on an ancient mural. It was slender, its long and thin tail swung slowly in the sea, like a butterfly in flight. I heard a sound and my spotlight stopped working from the cold and I was surrounded in completely darkness. I thought I was going to die. The embryo had hatched. It killed my students! It was behind me but I can't do anything about it."

"Desperation brings out courage. So I remembered that I was still holding my underwater rifle. All the special ones were handed over to the dive team. I only had an ordinary one filled with ordinary bullets. But I can't sit and wait for death. So I turned and took a shot in the dark."

"I then saw blood. I had actually hurt it!"

"How can an ordinary rifle harm a dragon? That thing was only used by divers to kill sharks and can't even kill a large shark. And you were too far down for it to work effectively." Manstein said.

"I can't answer that, but there was a strong smell of blood penetrating the seals of my helmet. I wasn't injured. The dragon was." Schneider said.

"I could clearly feel it right in front of me. I and the injured dragon are facing each other in the dark, very close. But I still couldn't see it."

"It hissed at me and in an instant my oxygen mask shattered into pieces, and the cold current rushed into my air supply carrying with it, the dragon's blood. I lost consciousness."

"My companions heard my screams and brought me back up from the water with a safety cable. When the water rushed out, I was frozen in a piece of the sea ice weighing several tons. Like a fish frozen at a market."

"Fortunately, the rescue helicopter arrived in a few minutes. After I woke up, the doctor said that I had suffered from the extreme cold. I danced with the god of death and inhaled that cold air it breathed out at minus 200 degrees. It necrotized my face, the temperature of my brain dropped and my blood was frozen. My chance of survival should have been non-existent."

"The doctor tried his best and managed to save my tongue. But I must wear an oxygen mask at all time, and change the plastic trachea every two or three years, otherwise my respiratory system will fail and I will die."

"I used to love hand rolled cigarettes, but this box of shredded tobacco is what I have left over from 11 years ago and I haven't finished smoking it. I only roll one cigarette occasionally to smoke when I am reminiscing about that period. I remember the past more clearly. I assure that every detail I said is true, because I dare not forget. These memories are painfully carved into my mind."

"We were unable to successfully capture or kill that dragon. It is still alive, hidden in the deep sea of the world, looking for opportunities to surface. A few hours after the incident we used diving robots to explore again. The fish disappeared quietly in the ice sea and no trace was found. We explored the seabed but did not find embryos or copper pillars, as if everything we experienced was just a nightmare that disappeared when we woke up. A few years later, a marine minding company found a wealth of manganese in the seabed and build an offshore mining platform. Today there are thousands of marine miners working there. Nothing supernatural happened again, until not long ago, we observed exactly the same heartbeat signal deep in the Japanese Trench."

[skipping down because they talk about other things]

"Only one in 100,00 people can evolve safely after being in contact with the blood of an elder dragon. I was actually one of the lucky ones. I was able to survive the bottom of the sea because it had already begun to increase my potential. But I am not a person who is fully able to accept dragon blood. My body is riddled with holes. strengthening me while destroying me. I have endured the pain for 11 years. The most likely in the college to turn into a Death Servitor is not Chu Zihang, but me."

"I'm not afraid to dive, but my body can't bear it. Now sitting in front of you is a dying patient. Were it not for the dragon blood's corruption, I would have died already."

"Does the principal know?"

"He knows. The college has formulated a special medical plan for me. I change my blood every year, but the dragon blood can never be cleared. I'm not sure how much longer I have left." Schneider knocked on his heart. "I have an explosive device the size of a pacemaker right next to my heart. Once I lose control, it will explode. I will suddenly fall to the ground and it will not be of any trouble to you."

"Must you be so cruel to yourself?" Manstein whispered.

"People who are cruel to others must learn how to be cruel to themselves. Otherwise they are just cowards." Schneider said slowly, "many people think that I would never perform assignments after the Greenland incident. That I would shrink back into my research. Because of that incident, I lost six students and I am the way I am now. They thought that a person who survived hell should value their life all the more."

"But I chose to be the director of the executive department. I am the last member of the Greenland team. Those young people whose lives were blooming like flowers died. And I survived. If I were a stupid coward, wouldn't that be ridiculous?"

[eryiss]

Gambler’s Luck - Chapter Six

Summary: A drunken night at a bar; that’s how it always starts. A few shots, some self loathing and a decision you would never make when sober. But for Laxus Dreyar, the morning after doesn’t include regret, copious amounts of aspirin and a stranger in his bed. For he only made one drunken decision, becoming the personal driver for professional gambler - Freed Justine. [Fraxus Multi-Chap]

You can read it on FanFiction, Archive of Our Own or under the cut. You can also see the chapter list here. Hope you enjoy ^.^

Chapter Six – The Calm

Leaning back against the cushioned chair and scrolling down a list of available job positions in the local area, Cana let out a groan. Surrounded by clothing racks filled with an assortment of suits, she had to wonder why she had let Laxus drag her to the mall just so the blonde could buy a new suit for his job. She could have been at home, nursing a beer and making up excuses as to why she hadn't been looking for a new job instead of trawling every store in the building that had a chance of selling a suit that would fit her blonde friend.

Eventually, Cana got sick of looking at the tiny suit selections most male clothes stores had hidden in the far corner and had dragged him to a formalwear place. She then picked out five suits for him, sent him into a changing cubicle and demanded that he pick at least one of them to buy or she would leave him to walk home in the rain. He had agreed to the deal but seemed to be spiting her by taking his sweet ass time.

"Come on. You kinda need the suit before the sun explodes and kills us all." She raised her voice to the closed curtain, slamming her foot against the side of the cubicle. "If the boredom doesn't get me first."

After hearing a grunt in response, she looked back down to her phone and continued to scan the job opportunities. Most of them either required the weirdest qualifications that she didn't have, were too low paying so she wouldn't be able to afford her part of the rent, or involved alcohol in some way and Mira claimed she couldn't be trusted in that kind of job. Which of course she found completely offensive; Cana liked to drink, she didn't lack impulse control.

Granted, when she worked at Mira's bar she occasionally took a free drink or two. But she was dating the boss, she was allowed the perks.

Laxus still not having surfaced, she slammed her foot against the cubicle again and threatened to enter it and dress him herself if he didn't hurry up. She got a snide look from a man working there as she removed her shoes from the white wall. She bit her tongue on the comment that he was working in a suit store, wasn't a tailor and should drop the 'holier than thou' thing he had going on. Pretentious jackass.

"Calm the hell down." Laxus said from inside the cubicle. "There ain't a lot of space in these things."

Pulling the curtain aside, Laxus stepped out in a dark blue suit with a white shirt and brown tie. It was considerably better than anything he'd worn until that point, probably because it was actually his size. It didn't look half bad, but the nearly invisible pattern on the jacket made it look more party outfit that it did work clothes. Still, the pattern was hard to see, and it could easily pass as a work suit, especially in a fancy kinda job that Laxus would soon be doing.

Still, she'd reserve her judgement until she'd seen them all. She didn't want to insult the suit that would end up being the best one, that would lead Laxus to second guess himself and she really didn't want to spend any more time in the damn mall. So, she just let Laxus walk to the nearby mirror and check out the suit for himself.

"Your new boss gonna pay for this?" Cana asked as Laxus straightened the jacket slightly.

"No. He didn't really mention anything about what I have to wear." Laxus said as he turned his body to look at the back of the suit. "But he seems put together, so probably wants me to look a little formal. And I'm getting a pretty good raise, so I thought it made sense to get some new stuff."

Cana hummed in reply, glancing back down to her phone as Laxus finished checking himself out – at least, that's what Cana assumed he was really doing – and walked back into the cubicle to change into the next suit. As the endless slew of waitressing jobs filled Cana's screen again, she placed her phone in her pocket and looked to the closed cubicle again.

"So, what's your new boss like?" She hummed, tapping her fingers against the chair. "You said he's rich, right? He a stuck-up dick?"

"No, not really." Laxus said from behind the curtain, Cana seeing a hand push the curtain slightly as he removed either his blazer or shirt. "He's pretty down to earth, actually. He's got a good taste in music, actually turned me on to this internet composer guy who's pretty good so we have that to talk about at least. Ain't really pretentious I don't think. A bit of a stickler for time maybe, but that ain't too bad. I don't like being late either, so who cares?"

Cana nodded, glad to hear they got along. It was mainly for selfish reasons, in Laxus' previous job she had often had to deal with his complaining whenever Mira wasn't available at the bar, so she was glad that wouldn't be happening again. And, you know, Laxus' overall happiness would improve. But mainly it was her selfish reason that made her happy.

Laxus had taken significantly less time to change this time, apparently the threat withstanding from before. This suit was grey, had a waistcoat covering the blue shirt and looked more professional. It was also a bit more flattering to his figure. Was that a bad thing? Nah, he probably wouldn't care.

The two continued to talk a little about Laxus' new boss, who eventually was revealed to be named Freed and an old friend of Mirajane's. It took a moment of thinking about the man's name for Cana to remember who exactly he was; her memory was jogged considerably when Laxus helpfully mentioned his hair was green. Cana vaguely remembered that the guy was a friend of Mira and her siblings and had kept in touch throughout the years. But Freed was busy with whatever he did, and Mira was busy running a bar, so they hardly ever got to see each other. She remembered him being pleasant enough, not a dick about having money and overall being pretty decent. Basically, exactly how Laxus had described him.

Yeah. If Laxus ever did end up complaining about his boss to her again, she knew it would probably be him being petty.

Laxus returned to the changing cubicle to try on the third suit. Cana unlocked her phone again and cycled through her twitter feed, watching as Laxus struggled against the small cubicle when he changed with the smallest of smirks on her face. Maybe she could see if Mira could drag Elfman over to try something on, they he and Laxus could struggle with the small booths at the same time.

A notification slid down from the top of her phone, making her smile a little as she opened the message from Mira and sent a quick reply. It seemed her synchronised struggling plan was a step closer to becoming reality.

From: Mira <3

Hi. Just finished with the brewery and got the price I wanted! What store are the two of you in? I'll come by and help if you haven't killed each other already :)

To: Mira <3

Seaton's. the place with the carpet that looks like its from the sixties by the furniture store. And its great about the contract, means I can steal like double the booze and feel the same amount of guilt. And you make more money to spend on me. Love ya ;) ;) ;)

From: Mira <3

Or you could not steal anything and have no guilt. But I'll be there soon. See you :-^

Cana grinned, pocketing her phone as Laxus left in the next suit. This one was the best so far: a velvet blue jacket, waistcoat and trousers with a white shirt and slightly brighter blue tie. The shoes didn't exactly work with the outfit and it the jacket was a little scruffy, but that would be fixed with a trip to a shoe shop and a changing area that would better suit the large blonde. But overall, it worked well and flirted the line with it being professional and casual. She suspected that was what Laxus wanted.

The blonde immediately walked to the mirror – as Cana's contribution to the day had been taking him to the store and literally nothing else – and looked at himself. Without knowing it, he agreed with Cana. This was definitely the best of the suits so far. And he expected that this would remain his favourite, given that the other two Cana had picked out for him were not good. He half suspected she had picked them out to force him to wear just to tease him.

"Well don't you look fancy." A voice gentler than Cana's came from behind. He turned to see Mirajane walking to them. "So, you two didn't kill each other. I'm proud of you both. Hi, by the way."

Mirajane leant down and gave Cana a chaste kiss, pulling away before Cana's raised arms could trap her into a more passionate exchange. Instead, she looked Laxus up and down. The blonde seemed to be a little uncomfortable at the gaze, if the twitching of his fingers was anything to go by. But he knew Mira was the best person to give him advice, she was actually a fashionable person. She had claimed both his and Cana's style was 'unique' and 'an acquired taste.'

"It's good. Smart." She smiled, looking to her girlfriend. "Is this the first one, what did the other's look like?"

"First was good. It had a pattern though, looks a little casual." Cana said, motioning to the open cubicle where the suit was hung up and visible. Mirajane walked to it, looked at it for a moment and turned back to them both.

"No. You're right, looks a little casual. And it won't work with a lot of other shirts and trousers." She smiled a little. "And I mean this with all the love and care I have for you Laxus, I don't think you can keep up with your laundry fast enough to handle it."

Laxus was indeed offended. Mira's love and care didn't help.

"And they grey one's a little better. But it doesn't have much colour, it'll contrast a little with your hair really." She glanced at Laxus, lifting a sleeve of the jacket and looking at it beside the blonde's hair. Definitely a contrast. "And the other two are hideous. I'm guessing Cana is the one who picked these out for you?"

Cana grinned proudly and gave a small salute to her girlfriend, cackling when Laxus threw a small box containing a bow tie at her. She caught it and went to throw it back, but Mirajane took it from her and placed it back on the display that Laxus had taken it from. She then walked to the blonde and looked him up and down again. She reached up and played around with his tie, removing it from around his neck and undoing the top button. Both Laxus and Mirajane ignored Cana's claim that she was the one Mira should be undressing. They also both missed the foul expression of the store worker that apparently didn't like Cana much.

"There. Perfect." Mirajane smiled.

"You sure?" Laxus said, glancing at himself in the mirror. It did look better but the lack of a tie seemed a little too much. "Ain't this a little informal? The guy was wearing a cravat when we met."

"Trust me, you look great. And Freed won't be that bothered by what you're wearing." She patted Laxus on the bicep. "Come on. You change, we'll get you some shirts and then we can go to lunch. Then we'll get you some good shoes, because those are hideous."

Again, Cana cackled as Laxus rolled his eyes and walked back to his cubicle. Once he closed the curtains, Cana wrapped her arms around Mirajane's waist from behind and pulled her close. Mirajane smiled and turned in her girlfriend's grasp, leant up and gave her another chaste kiss. She smiled a little, tucking a piece of hair behind Cana's ear and resting their heads together.

"Congrats on getting the contract." Cana smiled. "It's really great, was it hard to convince the guy?"

"A little. At first, he was adamant that he stick with his original price. But I managed to convince him to take my price when I agreed to use all his commercial items." She smiled a little when Cana frowned. "Coasters with the beer brand on it. Put one of those sidewalk chalkboards with the company name on it outside, those kinds of things. But that works well, I've been wanting a chalkboard for a while; Elfman's more artistic than you'd expect so he could do cute little drawings on them. Anyway, so now I'm basically getting paid to get one."

"We should celebrate. I mean, you did say we should get some lunch. Why not make it a little fancy?" She smirked when Mirajane nodded. "And since blondie's been bragging about his raise all day, his smug ass is gonna pay."

"Like hell I will!" Was exclaimed from behind the curtain.#

Sitting on a leather-bound dining chair, Freed sent a quick glance to the collection of playing cards in his right hand. His face showed nothing as he looked across the muted glass table to his opponent, eyes unblinkingly calculating as he looked for any tells the man might have shown. Rather annoyingly, his opponent knew that he would be doing this so looked directly at his eyes, a toying smirk on his face.

Freed had known Loke for quite some time. He had first met the young bachelor when he had played against Freed in his father's place – Loke's father was abysmal at poker, Freed had proven that multiple times – and Freed had lost money in a game for the first time that year. Loke was humble in his victory, unlike his father, and the two young men had chosen to share a drink. They'd become friends shortly after and, as Loke offered unique challenge of being competent at a card game, they began to play a friendly game once a month for a social occasion. Hence why the two men were sitting in the bachelor's penthouse with a modest stack of money and a handful of cards.

"You're glaring at me." Loke smiled a little as he spoke. "These games grant me the pleasure to see your eyes so close. How am I meant to admire them properly when you hide them from me?"

"You're meant to be focusing on the game." Freed spoke in a calm voice. "I hardly seen how my eyes are important to that."

"Oh Freed, who needs a silly game to entertain them when beauty is present before them?"

Freed chuckled a little, reaching for the glass of scotch on the table and taking a small sip. He was used to Loke's flirting, charm was essentially the bachelors first language. With a smooth tongue, handsome face, body that looked good in the suits he favoured and the eventual inheritance of a company worth millions, the ginger often found himself topping local tabloids 'most eligible bachelor' lists. Freed often populated those lists as well, but Loke was always in a higher position and apparently took great joy in informing Freed of this fact.

But the flirting was harmless. Freed had realised on their first meeting that Loke flirted for fun, not because he wanted a relationship. He wasn't offended by the comments – if he was, he would have informed Loke and he would have stopped – so the flirting became a regular part of their friendship.

After placing his glass down on the table again, Freed picked up chips that equated to fifteen dollars and slid them into the middle of the table; his hand wasn't too bad, and this was a friendly game, so it was an appropriate bet. Loke glanced at it, picked up an equal amount of chips and then raised him five dollars, setting the bet to twenty. Freed glanced at Loke, scanning his face for any sign as to why he had done this. He was met only with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

"Although, perhaps I should expect that I'll soon have to share your eyes." Loke continued, picking up his glass of rosé. "I've heard rumours that you've been on a date or two with a handsome blonde. Is this a misunderstanding, or should I run crying to my bedroom now?"

Freed's brow furrowed slightly. It was obvious that he had heard about he and Laxus meeting on more than one occasion; it could be considered a date to someone who was observing carelessly. Freed's confusion was from who this observer was and how their incorrect observation had managed to reach Loke.

"At least wait until I take your money until you throw a tantrum." Freed spoke, ignoring his confusion. "And I'm afraid your rumours are incorrect. He's my employee, not my lover."

"So, there's hope for me yet." Loke grinned as Freed, after taking a moments contemplation, raised another five dollars. "Why do you need an employee? Unless your situation has changed, you don't own a company."

Loke was quick to raise a further five dollars, now leaving the bet at thirty. The gusto and confidence the chip was moved with suggested that Loke was sure that his hand would win. Of course, this could be a bluff and he was simply trying to make Freed think he had a good hand so he would fold. He'd fallen for this trick once or twice with Loke. Most of his other opponents couldn't quite get the balance right, being just a little too cocky with their bluff that it raised suspicion. Loke was much better at acting, Freed had to wonder if the bachelor had ever considered doing it professionally.

But that was beside the point, he wouldn't fall into the trap Loke may have set. Thirty dollars was a good amount to win, and not too much to lose. He slid a five-dollar chip into the pot to match Loke's amount, ignoring the small smirk on Loke's face as he didn't reach for another. He didn't let it bother him, Loke wouldn't drop an act until the cards were shown.

"I call." He said, reaching for his scotch again. "And perhaps employee isn't the right term. I hired him to be my driver. I was interviewing him for the position in public, which must have been confused as a date by your informant."

"The traffic finally got to you then. I knew it would." Loke chuckled. "Why did you interview him? You could've just got one from a chauffeur agency, I could have given you the number for the guys I use."

Loke placed his cards on the table, face up. He had four queens and the two of spades, giving him the 'four of a kind' hand. Freed sighed a little as he placed his own hand down; two aces and three kings. It was a full house, yes, but Loke's hand was higher than his own. Freed reached for his money and slid out three immaculate ten-dollar notes, handing them over to Loke and taking his chips back. Freed always handed the money across at the end of a round instead of letting the chips stack up; it made it simple and it subconsciously reminded him that he was playing for money and not for plastic. It was a little thing that was probably inconsequential, but it was a habit he'd gotten into and didn't see the point in breaking it.

As Freed began to shuffle the deck – the loser of the previous round always shuffled, supposedly it was more fair – he considered Loke's question. He supposed going through some kind of agency was the sensible thing to do, but he had his reasons for choosing Laxus.

"I happened to meet him in a bar, we got along, and he revealed he was unemployed and used to drive professionally." Freed said, not looking at the cards as he shuffled them. "It was a logical step at the time, and I stand by it."

"As expected. You're more stubborn than you like to think." Loke grinned, taking another sip of his rosé. "And because of that stubbornness, I won't press you further on the real reason you hired him."

Freed didn't reply. Partly because it annoyed him that Loke could see through him in the same way that he could see through most people, and partly because he was grateful Loke's understanding treatment of the situation. This was part of the reason as to why they were friends, Loke was more than willing as to accept Freed's privacy just as Freed was willing to accept that half of what Loke said was flirting. They were well suited for each other in that respect.

The cards were dealt quickly, Freed picked up his scotch again before glancing at his own hand. It was good, so he faked a split-second frown. He picked the hand up and spread the cards across the table, face down, in an even curve. He leant back and watched as Loke looked through his own cards, seeing if there was any sign of either disappointment or excitement. As expected, the bachelor revealed nothing.

Loke started the pot this time, raising only ten dollars. This meant nothing, the bachelor would always throw random acts of misdirection into a game. It was this that made him such an entertaining opponent for Freed. The unpredictable nature of the games always added that extra edge.

"So, how exactly did you hear about these rumours?" Freed said as he raised another five dollars into the pot.

"I can't expose my sources, Freed. That would be immoral."

"If you were a journalist, perhaps." Freed watched as Loke raised the pot a further five dollars. "And there's most certainly an argument claiming you using these 'sources' to spy on me is also immoral. So, I ask again, how did you come upon this rumour?"

"That little truck stop diner you speak so highly of, I paid it a little visit after I had some out of town business." Loke smirked. "When I was ordering, I got to talking to the beautiful woman serving. I mentioned the food came highly recommended by a friend, she asked who this friend was and, shockingly, the handsome man with long green hair was enough for her to recognise you. She then mentioned you'd been there the day before with a handsome blonde, both of you looking dressed for a date. It's a fair assumption."

"I wouldn't say we were dressed for a date, as such." Freed commented, adding another five dollars to the pot. "And I'd appreciate you not using me as a way to flirt with waitresses."

Loke laughed a little, biting his tongue about how Freed hadn't mentioned he shouldn't gossip about him in a non-flirtatious way. Instead, he added an extra five dollars to the pot and made it thirty dollars. In the low stakes games the two men played, a thirty-dollar pot was one of Freed's cut off points where he typically would fold or call if needed, so seeing Freed's next move would tell him a little about the hand he had. He didn't always do this, and he certainly wouldn't have such an obvious technique for his real games with the people he considered 'clients', but it was the closest thing to a tell he had.

Raising the pot to thirty-five dollars, Freed finished the scotch in his glass and placed it back onto the table. He stood and walked to the drinks cabinet, glancing at the rainy Magnolia skyline through the glass doors that lead to Loke's balcony. Freed would have preferred to be playing there – where they would have been if the weather were better – as the penthouse balcony had a spectacular view that Freed's apartment couldn't match.

The gambler didn't feel the need to check Loke wasn't cheating as he found a scotch he liked in the rows of alcohol. Instead, he picked the bottle he liked and poured himself another glass, also bringing over the rosé when he saw Loke's glass was nearly empty.

"This driver then." Loke began, raising another five dollars to the pot. "Tell me something, other than that he has 'a jaw you could cut glass on.' You know, I should be annoyed at you. Your handsome driver really put me at a disadvantage with the waitress."

"I'm sure you didn't let that stop you." Freed teased. "And there's not much to tell, not yet at least. His name is Laxus, he used to work as a garbage man and we have a similar taste in music. Now, let's make this a little interesting."

Freed pushed enough disks that would raise the pot by twenty dollars, making the bet an even sixty. Loke smirked and immediately did the same, taking the bet to eighty. If Freed's confidence was well founded and not just a bluff, Loke would lose the play. His hand was average at best, but he didn't care about losing. It was basically his father's money and unless he started betting in the thousands, he would occupy the moral and financial high ground in relation to losing money to Freed. With this in mind, he leant back as he let Freed think through his next move.

The pot was soon raised to one hundred dollars and Freed was sipping at his scotch again. It was then that Loke started to think through his choice; their limit was five hundred dollars a round and it seemed that Freed was willing to go that far. Loke decided that it would be stupid to lose that much money, so he would make a final effort to make Freed fold before he would end the play.

"Don't forget about the jaw that could cut glass." Loke reminded Freed as he fiddled mindlessly with a chip he had picked up. "From what the waitress said, it was one of his most notable qualities."

"I can't say I took notice of it." Freed said. "What are you going to do, Loke?"

The bachelor laughed, tossing two twenty-dollar chips into the middle of the table to raise the pot to one-hundred-and-twenty dollars. He noticed that Freed was avoiding his eyes, only confirming to Loke that his friend had indeed noticed his new employees jaw. Most likely he had seen other attractive qualities in the blonde, if he was almost getting defensive.

"You are allowed to find people attractive, Freed. Even if you're employing them." Loke leant back in his seat. "And, as long as you make sure they don't feel forced into it, you can date an employee. Its not like you're a teacher dating their student."

"Your father would disagree."

"No. My father doesn't want me flirting with staff because he thinks I'll end up sleeping with them and never calling them, affecting his business." Loke chuckled. "If he thought I was going to date one of them, he wouldn't stop me. And if he did it would make him a hypocrite. My mother was his secretary before they got married, you know."

Freed simply picked up some chips and raised the pot to one-hundred-and-forty. Loke matched it but didn't add anything onto the pot, placing his cards face up on the table and looking to Freed with inquisitive eyes as to his reaction. When there was none, he spoke again.

"All I'm saying is that there's no point in denying you find the man attractive. You don't need to act on it, but don't beat yourself up because you like his legs or whatever you're into." Loke smiled. "Now, show me your hand. If you don't, I'll keep talking."

Again, Freed didn't speak, but Loke hadn't expected him to. The gambler glanced at Loke's upturned cards first, not bothering to hide the smirk when he saw only a two pair; two eights, two threes and a king. He turned his cards over to reveal he had a straight flush, from the five of diamonds to the nine of the same suit. Loke started to count out the one-hundred-and-forty dollars as he saw Freed relax just a little and sip his newly poured scotch.

Loke had decided to leave the topic of Laxus alone. Freed clearly wasn't in the talking mood in relation to that and Loke knew his statement would have more weight if he left it as it was – Freed was the type of guy who contemplated things, after all.

The money was exchanged across the table and Freed placed it at the bottom of his pile – Loke knew it was to press out the few creases contained on the notes – and the deck was put together again. Loke started to shuffle it, lacking the faultless finesse that Freed's shuffling had. The cards were soon dealt, chips returned to their respective owners and drinks replenished as they readied themselves for the third round.

"You know, as we're both fairly wealthy, we've sort of lost the excitement of gambling, haven't we?" Loke asked with a small amount of humour in his voice. "Well, I believe I've come up with a rather entertaining solution to that-"

"I've told you this on multiple occasions, Loke." Freed frowned. "I will not play strip poker with you."

[y0rkminster]

I completely believe you but I'm really interested in the mummies with cancer and heart disease thing. Do you have sources? I just wanna read more up on it!

No problem at all, it's a really interesting topic! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and in order to prevent a problem, we have to understand what causes it. I'm not an expert but "modern diseases" in mummies suggests that the cause of these disorders is probably way more complicated than we realize. 

Heart Attack of the Mummies - Archaeology Magazine

This is a really interesting article-apparently the Egyptians were not alone! Mummies in other cultures usually came from people who did not survive long enough to develop heart disease, but they had plaques in their arteries that showed that they would have developed cardiovascular disease had they lived long enough. Some did have full blown heart disease though, including one woman who had coronary artery disease so severely that she would have had bypass surgery today.

Some of these cultures ate diets thought to prevent heart disease, and genetic predisposition doesn't tell the whole story either unless there are genes associated with heart disease that we haven't identified yet (very possible). One theory is that frequent infections and inflammation may have done the trick. Even today, inflammation is believed to be a huge problem.

Mummy CT Scans Show No Significant Differences in Atherosclerotic Disease in Modern vs. Ancient Egyptians | Imaging Technology News

A fascinating study showing that, amazingly, the incidence of coronary artery disease ("clogged arteries") is no higher in modern Egyptians than it was in Ancient Egyptians! Different environmental factors may play a role, but genetics is the most likely explainer. As a species, we humans tend to be very prone to cardiovascular disease.

From ancient Egyptians to modern humans: Why do we still have the genes for heart disease? | Pursuit by The University of Melbourne

One may wonder why the genes for heart disease have been around for so long. This article discusses how genes associated with plaque buildup in arteries actually helped our ancestors reproduce.

Dying in ancient Egypt—evidence of inflammation, infection and possible cancer

Broad but very interesting article on how looking for bio markers can indicate cancer, infections, and other diseases even when mummies aren't preserved well enough to reliably determine what their cause of death was.

Medical Xpress: Prostate cancer found in ancient Egyptian mummy

Cancer in mummies is an interesting problem. A major study in 1998 seemed to show that cancer was vanishingly rare in ancient times; for long enough, this was taken by some as proof of cancer being a modern or even "manmade" malady. However, the problem with that study is that the technology to reliably detect cancer in mummies didn't exist before 2005. New research on this topic was quite rare until around 2011 when an Egyptian mummy was found with advanced cancer.

This does NOT mean that modern carcinogen exposure isn't responsible for many cases of cancer. It just means that cancer is not an entirely new problem.

Galen on Cancer: How Ancient Physicians Viewed Malignant Disease

Slightly off topic as it's not mummies, but discusses cancer in ancient times.

This webpage isn't live anymore, but there's a snapshot of it on Web Archive. Long but very interesting read on how the famous Ancient Greek physician, Galen, viewed cancer. Many of our modern terms relating to cancer come from the Greek, and many of these terms were actually used by the Ancient Greeks

Claims that cancer is only a ‘modern, man-made disease’ are false and misleading - Cancer Research UK - Science blog

In 2010 (before mummies were reexamined with modern technology on a larger scale), an opinion paper in Nature asserted that cancer is a wholly manmade and wholly modern problem because few mummies were found with evidence of cancer. This paper was, frankly, bad science. Being an editorial of sorts, it wasn't subject to vigorous peer review like most scientific papers, which is probably the only reason it got published. Sadly, it caused a lot of guilt and worry amongst cancer patients and their loved ones, and gave rise to a few conspiracy theories even. This piece explains why the editorial was incorrect, and discusses risk factors, as well as evidence based prevention, for cancer.

Pathological skeletal remains from ancient Egypt: The earliest case of diabetes mellitus? (PDF Download Available)

Diabetes is really hard to diagnose in mummies and other remains. We know that type 1 diabetes existed in ancient times because ancient medical texts described and even named the condition, but type 2 remained elusive and finding evidence of it has proven very challenging. Even in modern times, because of the way cells can change and influence blood test results, diabetes can be hard to pick up in autopsy. However, there are telltale signs of diabetes that can help identify the condition in mummies. In ancient times, there was no supplementary insulin. Sadly, this meant that type 1 diabetes was a terminal illness. Because of this, complications associated with longterm diabetes could likely be attributed to type 2. Here, a mummy had evidence of longterm diabetes complications, implying that he had type 2 diabetes.

Prevention (not a link, links below) 

Even though this was about mummies and ancient illnesses, I think it'd be a bit remiss of me if I didn't include sources that talk about ways to possibly minimize one's risk for cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. We can't control our genetics but lifestyle can sometimes help with harm-reduction. These sources do not imply that illnesses are sometimes people's "fault", but rather give people the option to possibly reduce risk if they're worried about developing certain chronic illnesses

How to Help Prevent Heart Disease - At Any Age

Preventing Diabetes | Basics | Diabetes | CDC

Cancer prevention: 7 tips to reduce your risk - Mayo Clinic

Also, I just wanted to restate that I'm not an expert, just a nerd on the internet :-). Being in the medical field myself does not give me the authority to give medical advice online, and nothing in this post should be taken as medical advice (that said, it’d be pretty hard to in this case because it’s about ancient diseases, but still). The sources are peer reviewed, my analysis is not. I could easily be wrong, and would be very open to any criticism.