#and at the end when she’s rescued she’s internally grateful for the whole situation because it brought them together again

[daydreamerdrew]

Tales of Suspense (1959) #86

[serumandsteel]

the way we heal | jj maybank

- pairings: jj maybank x reader

- summary: people deal with trauma in different ways but it seems that jj thinks you don't care about the loss of your friends and deep down himself but he just needs to understand that people heal in their own time and through their own meanings, he just needed to be reassured of it. kinda pre season 2 ep 1 give ot take

- warning(s): really motherfucking angsty and swearing. mention of substance abuse

- wc: 2.2k :))))

a/n: all my fics the pogues and reader are the age 17/18 only because that's more comfortable for me to write. its been a long long time since i have wrote something so sorry for and spelling errors

People tend to deal with trauma differently. It could be resulting to crying you eyes out until you can’t breath and you can’t see through your tears clouding your eyes. Drinking until your liver wants to shut down and you whole body is so numb that yourself and everyone around you is so tuned out that you can’t function. Resulting to drugs to either feel something or not to feel anything at all. Or to have something to blame your actions on from yourself acting out simply because you don’t know how to handle the situation of a friend dying.

See you on the other hand dealt with it internally or the whim and feeling of not accepting death. Maybe it was your subconscious talking wanting you not to accept or maybe it was the gut feeling that you always got telling you that they were actually alive and have survived that storm that ‘supposedly’ had swept them away because “no body was found”.

This ‘gut feeling’ had always been right in many life or death situations. Or even just you picking out an outfit that you were unsure of whether it was going to get the boys attention that you had a crush on. It did indeed get his attention that night because that’s how you ended up loosing your virginity that night but that’s besides the point.

The best way you could describe it was like when people would do personality tests and it would ask “are you controlled by your heart or what you feel” probably not those exact words but you get the point. I felt with my feelings if my gut said yes then it was a yes.

Since the night that John B and Sarah had ‘died’ your gut had been telling you the opposite. That they were in fact not dead. As Big John use to say when you were a kid, you can never kill a Routledge. At the time it seemed like bullshit but now it was starting to grow on you.

However now your two friends were presumed dead and not everyone dealt with trauma like you did. Some would even go as far to say that you didn’t actually give a fuck that your friends were dead because you hadn’t cried or you hadn’t drunk yourself into a state of no return or resulted to smoking weed every single day and spray painted ‘murder’ on Ward Cameron’s estate. But at least Kiara wasn’t lying.

But the thing was you hadn’t cried because you couldn’t, you quite literally hated crying because it made you feel weak. Even if you tried and you tried your hardest but nothing came. At this point you could go as far as denial. This gut feeling was like getting hit by a semi truck every time a thought came into your head questioning maybe they were dead. Maybe they did get swept away at sea and never to return.

Your gut feeling was simply not letting you mourn the loss of John B and Sarah and now everyone thought you were an emotionless bitch. I mean they were right to a point but not the whole point.

So that brought you to current day driving around the Cut and night playing fucking real life Where’s Wally but its Where’s JJ Maybank because he’s blacked out drunk somewhere and now you’re on a rescue mission. Not like you had done enough of those in the last few weeks.

About an hour ago your phone rang and it was JJ asking you to come pick him up since somehow he had now idea where he had ended up and was too far gone to put together his surroundings. Well that’s what you had assumed he said since you had to decipher his slurred words.

At this point you had driven around the whole island and gone to every hid out spot that he would go smoke at or to just get away from everyday life. You had gone to all but one place. Where you avoiding that particular house because it held so many memories, plus the fact you hadn’t been near the place since shit hit rock bottom. Yes? But it was the highest chance that JJ was sitting on that dock with his legs swinging over it with a beer in hand.

Well you were right. As you walked down the old dock to where JJ was sitting it was if you could feel all the emotions, thoughts and disbelief crawling their way up your skin from the ground you were walking on. But that gut feeling was like a wave of fire, burning it all the way back to the ground.

“I don’t know why I just didn’t look here first. I should have known aye” you half heartedly said trying to keep the conversation light since you didn’t know what state JJ was going to be in. From the huff you got in response told you he wasn’t in the mood to talk.

“How much have you had J?” You asked with concern but still trying to keep you voice light and less reprimanding because you knew he was in a too fragile state for you to be angry.

“Does it even matter how much Iv had. I don’t feel shit anymore” he replied back with his words straight forward and sobered.

“Well have you even given yourself a break for your body to sober up for you to even feel the effects of it? Or have you still been going since yesterday when I saw you? J its not going to do shit if you don’t give it a rest for at least a day or so” you said back trying you best to keep you and your voice as calm as possible. You fucking hated seeing JJ like this, you would never say it to his face but fuck it just reminded you of his dad when he got into states like this. Until the last week you had never seen JJ this bad. But could you blame him.

“You just don’t get it do you” JJ was now facing you and by the tone of his voice you had unintentionally struck a nerve that you were actively avoiding. “Why did you even fucking come if you’re just going to tell me how I should cope. Do you even care that JB has gone? He was our best fucking friend. He was my fucking brother my only family! And he’s fucking gone just like his old man. You haven’t even shed a tear y/n. You’re just acting like nothing had happened. Do you even care!” JJ was now on his feet breathing heavily and his jaw so clenched you’re surprised his teeth haven’t broken

“J, please do not yell at me right now” you asked with your voice shaking trying to hold back something that was bubbling at the surface. Was it anger or was it the water works that desperately needed to be let out.

JJ started to walk back up the dock, showing that he was done with this conversation that he could have avoided if he didn’t ask you in the first place to come pick him up. Deep down he knew that you would be the only one to come and get him, he just wasn’t as good at showing his gratefulness due to the alcohol that was numbing him.

“JJ just wait please, please don’t walk away” You stood back up and starting walking after him quick on the backs of his feet. He halted his tracks and turned around to look at you with a pained look in his face, as you got up close you could see his eyes stained red. Either from crying or the linger of weed still in his system.

“What could you possibly want to say y/n. I really thought you would be the last person not to care about this” JJ was now right up in your face and his voice was holding back trying his best not to yell. But that last sentence had taken you back.

“You think I don’t care JJ!” now you starting yelling “of course I give a shit JJ our friends are gone, they are not fucking here. I know it might not seem that I don’t care. But just because I’m not crying my eyes out every hour or drinking myself into a state where I don’t now where the fuck I am or getting high that I spray paint on any wall I see” your breath was now battling to come to the surface because you were talking so fast.

“Just because Im not doing any of those things doesn’t mean I don’t care JJ! People deal with this shit differently and you need to understand that” you breathed out trying to grasp for air again “the thing is JJ I have this annoying gut feeling thats telling me that John B and Sarah are not dead, and its literally preventing me to mourn them. I have convinced myself that they are alive and I can’t fucking mourn non dead people J. I don’t know how to fucking explain it”

“Well why didn’t you just tell us that” he replied after bit letting your whole rant sink into his brain, weaving its way through the alcohol that was clouding it.

“Because JJ! Even saying that out loud I sound fucking crazy, like I’m in a deep pit of denial. The thing is I’m far from denial. Yes I know there is a massive fucking fat chance that they are dead and have been food for the sharks” you exclaimed

“Don’t make it worse y/n” JJ shook his head not very happy with your choice of words

“Okay yeah sorry bad wording. Im sorry” you lowered your head in sorrow wanting to slap yourself in the face for trying to make jokes out of trauma.

“So its not that I don’t care J, trust me I do care. But John B and Sarah are not physically here with us and I cant physically care for them right now. But when we see them can do that”

“Y/n -“ JJ tried to get a word in but you hadn’t finished

“Don’t JJ. We will see them again” you put an emphasis on ‘will’ “I trust my gut and even you know that when I get a gut feeling that it’s always been right. Correct?”

“Yes but -“ he tried to get another word in but you needed him to listen.

“JJ I care about you. I care about Kiara and Pope. You guys are physically here for me to care for. The thing is I haven’t spoken to Kie since she’s with Pope half the time and I have spoken to Pope since he’s with Kid half the time and you? I can’t speak to you because your too far gone in beers to for me to even get a coherent conversation in” This was such an over due conversation to be had, you were now on the verge of hyperventilating. You needed JJ to hear this. Fully sober would have been better but half sober is the best you’re gonna get.

“JJ I understand if that’s how you’re going to deal with all of this but you can’t throw yourself completely away. We need you. I need you JJ. I can’t have you going off the deep end and then we loose you too. You need to be here for when we get John B back. He will need you for when he’s back”. The water works that you had been holding back had finally been released and trust it to be in front of JJ. He was your fucking rock, you couldn’t loose him. No way that would be your last day on earth if that were to happen.

“I-. Im sorry. I’m just so fucking lost y/n. I don’t know what the fuck to do. You’re always at work and Kie and Pope are god knows where. I just want this to go away so fucking bad. All this pain, I feel like I have no one” JJ was now crying to and gripping your waist as is you could float away into the air

“I know JJ, but you have us you have always had us. But you have to be so stubborn sometimes that you won’t let us in and help, you won’t let me in a help you” you had JJ’s face in your hands making him look at you so he knew you meant every single word. “I’m so sorry if you didn’t think I cared and I wasn’t there to help you, I just deal with this shit in a different way. Just like every single other person. We all heal differently and that’s okay. It dosent mean we care less. It doesn’t mean I care less”

Now there you and JJ stand on the dock leading off the chateau both in each others embrace purging the pain that’s both been locked up inside you for so long. The past you and JJ had people really didn’t tend to understand but neither did you. But you would always find your way back to each other at the end of the day. Despite the fights you had in the past and the days you would be at each others throats screaming at each other to the days you would be secretly stealing a glance at him because you just couldn’t help yourself.

You would always be there to help him take the pain away and he was always be there to do the same for you.

[nancywheelxr]

Word of Honor prompt suggestion: WKX and YBY play the drunken ancient Chinese equivalent of Truth or Dare. The situation rapidly escalates from throwing Wolong Nuts to property damage, while a horrified ZZS attempts to restore order. In the end, Gu Xiang smacks both of them down.

anon, i am delighted by this prompt, thank you so much

*

Zhou Zishu loves having an extended family.

It’s great, so great. Amazing. Really, just lovely. A blessing.

“Who are you calling blind? Twice that distance, it would still land true!”

A blessing. Especially when they all decide to visit at the same time. Lovely surprise, truly. So great. Zhou Zishu is just so happy. Estactic even. Look at him, he’s a shining beacon of happiness.

“Shifu,” Chengling says, frowning up at him from the where he’s supposed to be meditating, “are you alright? You look stressed.”

“What nonsense are you spouting now?” Zhou Zishu snaps, “who’s stressed? If anything, it’s your laziness that’s stressing me!”

Chengling doesn’t look too convinced because, unfortunately, somewhere down the line, the kid seems to have lost all common sense. Personally, Zhou Zishu blames Wen Kexing. “Sorry, sorry, I promise I’m not being lazy,” he grins, eyes going wide and pleading-- another thing, that, personally, Zhou Zishu blames Wen Kexing for. “As soon as we stop hiding, I’ll go back to training!”

“Who’s hiding!” Zhou Zishu takes a deep breath. He’s been told to manage his stress levels. Besides, he’s not stressed. Beacon of happiness. Shining, that’s what he is. This is all fine. “We’re not hiding. We’re meditating away from the mess your Shishu is making with Ye-qianbei.”

Chengling nods once, serious. “A warrior knows when to retreat.”

“That’s not--” He stops himself. Somewhere, probably in the courtyard, there’s a crash loud enough to echo in the room they’re using. This is fine. 

“Where would that count? I dared you to strike down that tree, not take a statue’s head!”

“What’s wood compared to stone?! Have you gone senile? Your dare was too stupid to consider, I made it better!”

Wen Kexing is slurring his words already, Zhou Zishu can tell, and it’s with a startling clarity that he can see it in his mind: Wen Kexing, drunk, throwing his fan around the courtyard on a dare, and Ye Baiyi, not drunk, unbothered by the very real risk of someone losing a limb if he deemed it entertaining enough. 

They had been throwing those blasted nuts around, the last time Zhou Zishu checked on them. Shooting them around like arrows and leaving dents all over his walls. Then, he had been merely grateful for their unspoken agreement of not ever choosing truth, just in case someone stepped in one of the several emotion landmines scattered in their past-- if anyone starts crying, Zhou Zishu is walking out, he’s decided this very early on.

Well, he supposes, if it’s Wen Kexing, he would probably stick around to sober him up, tears and all, but he’d really rather not. 

It was a mistake though, it seems, to leave them unattended for too long. Now the dares have escalated and one of the statues is allegedly missing a head.

So great.

“Stay here,” he tells Chengling, just in case the kid’s luck strikes again, and goes investigate the noises. Following the chaos is always sure to lead him back to Wen Kexing. 

The several disciples scurrying away from the courtyard is also a good indicator he’s on the right path.

“Old Monster,” Wen Kexing is saying, and in his arms there’s a large stone that might at some point have been a statue’s head but has been hacked at too much to retain any semblance of its former image. Hacked at too heavily to have been done by a fan, lined with steel or not. Which means-- “I dare you to-- I dare you to cut this in half now!”

“Ha!” Ye Baiyi snorts, sword already unsheated, and there’s a faint flush to his face which is all sorts of terrible because if even Ye Baiyi is a little drunk, then how much have they drunk? And could people, please, stop waving around sharp weapons while inebriated? “You call that a challenge? Brat, I could be in my death bed and that would still be too easy. Don’t waste my time, come up with something better.”

Yeah, no, it’s definitely time for an intervention. “Alright, alright,” he calls, stepping out into the courtyard and promptly tripping over an entire watermelon. What the fuck. “What the fuck?”

“A-Xu!” Wen Kexing grins, waving at him while hugging the head to his chest, and it’s horribly endearing, yes, but also, terrible because Zhou Zishu is trying to hold on to his annoyance. “A-Xu, be careful! I won that fair and square, it’s my prize! Isn’t it good? We can have it after dinner but not the Old Monster, he can’t have it, A-Xu!”

“As if I wanted! It’s probably rotten--”

“Oh, it’s good that you’re here, A-Xu, I’ve missed you, and now you can stand guard on our watermelon!”

Deep breaths. “Where did you get the watermelon?”

“I won it.”

Ye Baiyi scoffs. “You cheated.”

“You won it. From where?”

“No, he cheated,” Ye Baiyi repeats as if speaking to a particularly slow child, “I’ve already told you that, stop making me repeat myself.”

“Don’t listen to him, A-Xu,” Wen Kexing walks over with his stone head, swaying as he goes, “no cheating was involved. Look, isn’t it a good watermelon?”

The question is accompanied with a genuinely distressed look, as if it was of paramount importance that Zhou Zishu agree with him on this, as if the whole world is hanging on this thread, so Zhou Zishu finds himself picking up the damn thing and awkwardly inspecting it around. “Yes, it’s very good.”

Immediately, Wen Kexing spins around, using the statue head to point at Ye Baiyi vindictively, “see? Take that, Old Man! How about it? A-Xu says it’s good, so it’s good, it’s not rotten!”

Well, in truth, it might be a little past its prime, but Zhou Zishu decides to keep that to himself and not think about where it came from anymore. This, he figures, is going to be a problem for Sober Wen Kexing when he wakes up tomorrow. So he places the watermelon back down and steels himself for the task of prying the head from Wen Kexing. “Yes, yes, I’m always right, and now A-Xu is saying it’s time to go to sleep.”

For his troubles, he receives a most betrayed look, “A-Xu, it’s still so early, A-Xiang isn’t even back yet,” something seems to click on his head, “and the Old Monster hasn’t completed the dare!”

Zhou Zishu curses silently. Having deemed Wen Kexing’s ramblings boring, Ye Baiyi had retreated back to the his seat at the table and been about to pour himself some water, but now he perks up again, throwing one of their precious nuts at them. “Come up with a worthy dare, then! Qin Huaizhang’s disciple, bring more wine.”

Hearing this, Wen Kexing rushes forward, waving the statue head. “Don’t change the subject! If you think it’s too easy, how about I throw it in the air first, huh? I dare you, cut it in half before it touches the ground!”

I’m going to have to rebuild this place again, Zhou Zishu realizes with a morose sort of resignation. The manor might have survived the Window of Heavens, but he’s not so sure it’ll survive these two drunk idiots. 

This epiphany takes some time to be processed, so Zhou Zishu doesn’t feel too guilty for not noticing Gu Xiang arriving with Cao Weining until they’re at his side, gaping like little dumb fishes at the scene. “Ah, Zishu-ge! Why did you let them get like this!”

“A-Xiang, A-Xiang,” her husband says helplessly, and Zhou Zishu snorts, magnanimously forgiving her slap at his shoulder, “don’t be so harsh, it’s not so bad! Wen-gongzi is...” without anything other than drunk out of his mind to finish his sentence with, Cao Weining trails off.

“What a mess,” she grumbles, “what a mess. You were supposed to keep an eye on them!”

“Me? How am I to do that? Do you think I can grant miracles?”

She hits his shoulder again. “Zishu-ge! You just had to keep an eye on him! That’s the one thing you like doing!”

“A-Xiang!” Cao Weining gasps, grasping at her sleeves to keep her from going for another slap, “Zhou-xiong, we’ll help clean it up, it’s the wine we brought anyway.”

“Pah,” she scoffs, shaking Cao Weining off and marching towards the two still squabbling about how best to throw the statue head, “who’s we? Honestly!”

From their spot by the door, Zhou Zishu watches as Wen Kexing beams at her, saying something too garbled for him to make out, while Ye Baiyi just squints like he’s seeing a new weird-looking bug.

A-Xiang’s screeches are very clearly heard, though. In a minute, she’s prodded and bullied Wen Kexing into giving up the head and poured them both healthy servings of tea, taking advantage of Ye Baiyi’s seemingly internal debate over insulting a little girl to shove the glass at him.

“Huh,” Zhou Zishu says, admittedly impressed. She really is efficient when she wants to be.

“Ah, A-Xiang really is amazing,” Cao Weining sighs in a horrible smitten way, so Zhou Zishu has to fetch and toss the nearest broom at him, on principle. “Ah?”

“It’s very good that Cao-gongzi offered to help,” he smiles, knowing Wen Kexing will laugh about this come morning, “now if you excuse me, this one has a very drunk husband to rescue.”

Feeling very satisfied with himself, he labels the mess a problem for Cao Weining now. 

Zhou Zishu loves having an extended family. A blessing, truly.

[whats-rambled-rambled]

Long Nights - part 5

Neil x Reader

Chapter 5: After rain

(see chapter 4, 3, 2, 1)

summary: you learn to cope with the new situation, but you aren't the only one struggling

warnings: 18+, angst and pain, explicit language and other things

author’s note: This part of the story's been with me for... oh, so long. I just hope I did it justice. ✨6,1k words.✨ I don't even know.

Hurt/Comfort.

The song for this part is Dermot Kennedy - After rain

Enjoy! All feedback is greatly appreciated, let me know what you think?

——————

Tag list: @cxnnienikas @neutron-stars-collision ​ @ergunbilge @invertedneil @wanderedaway @mellifluous-cosmos @wonderwoman292 @buckysgoldenheart @townmoondaltwistle @theriverbeneaththeriver (please let me know if you want to be added/removed from the list)

-----

Your hands clenched on the bed’s frame, its coldness felt like the only real thing your drugged mind could process.

Doctor’s words were filling the room, but they were muffled as if they were coming from behind a barrier. Falling from such height...extreme luck...no broken bones…head trauma...internal bruising....

Was all that talking really necessary? Yeah, you were battered, all right. And it seems that even with painkillers the weird throbbing, like a morse code from your bruised cells, was about to stay with you for a little while.

...just like the darkness.

The more the doctor spoke, the more it became clear that they didn’t have any definite answers for you. Seemed like the day spent on being prodded, stabbed with needles, and tossed into various machines resulted in nothing more than a verdict: optic nerve injury.

As for what were you supposed to do now--

“Let me get this straight, doctor,” you said, slowly losing patience. “Your only solution now is: let’s wait and see what happens?”

Drumming fingers against a piece of plastic, followed by a sigh.

“Yes. There is no effective treatment, we could try a high dosage of corticosteroids, but there is no evidence that it’s gonna make any difference, really. And as some recovery may spontaneously occur within days or weeks--”

Weeks.

A cold shiver ran down your spine and you swallowed with effort.

And that was a maybe.

You just wanted to go home.

“Grand,” you cut in, “please tell me I can wait for that possible joyful occurrence anywhere else but here.” You aimed for a lighter tone, but every word coming out of your mouth was dripping with bitterness. Grimacing at your own attitude, you forced a weak smile to appear on your face. “No offense, doc.”

“None taken,” the doctor said with a snicker. “I get it.” A short pause filled with a rustling of paper. “With all the tests done, I don’t think we need to keep you here for observation any longer, but I’d recommend you weren’t alone for the next few days. Do you have anyone to take care of you after we discharge you?”

“I don’t need--”

Neil’s firm voice overlapped with yours.

“Yes, she has.”

You huffed, startled. And a bit annoyed.

You almost forgot Neil was in the room, but to be fair, you were quite sure he’d never left your side since you woke up. His initial nervous chatter got replaced by a silent presence, always ready to jump in should you needed anything - no matter if it was a glass of water or an arm to lean on. It was all comforting, endearing even, and you were so grateful to have him around, but the thought of having Neil in your apartment triggered an irrational panic.

Instead of dwelling on the roots of the anxiety, you decided to over-talk it.

“Neil, I appreciate the offer, but I’ll be okay, and you surely have better things to do than babysitting me.”

“I don’t.” Was that a hint of hurt in his voice? “Doctor, can you discharge her even if she is gonna be alone out there?”

“I’d rather she spent at least one more day here then.”

Unbelievable. You rolled your eyes, hoping it would make the same effect as always, and groaned. “Fine, you win, only because I want nothing else but to sleep in my own bed tonight.”

“Excellent,” said the doctor cheerfully, “I’ll get the forms and come back to you soon.”

“Thank you, doc,” you sighed, hanging your head in defeat.

After spending enough time with a person, it was always easy to recognize them by the way they walk. That’s how you knew it was Neil who approached you, ever so hesitantly.

And only because of a brush of his fingers against your hand you realized you were still clinging onto the bed frame.

“Hey, I’ll just help you set up everything you need there, all right?” he said quietly and you felt him sitting down next to you. “You’re gonna have all the space you want, and as soon as you decide it’s too much, I’ll get out of your hair, I promise.”

He must have noticed that little panic of yours, huh?

“I didn’t mean it like that.” You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to form a coherent thought. “It sounds good though, thank you.”

“Sure thing.” Neil shifted slightly. “How are you feeling?”

You shrugged and grimaced. “I don’t know, but either I’ve slept through the best high or these drugs they gave me are kinda lame.” Hearing Neil’s light chuckle, you cracked a small smile. “Honestly? I’m knackered.”

He hummed with sympathy.

“Is there anything I can do for you now?”

The softness in his voice was more than your tired and dazed mind could handle. You leaned to the side and rested your head on his shoulder.

“Just… take me home,” you asked, forcing the words past your clenched throat.

Neil exhaled sharply and carefully wrapped an arm around you, pressing a cheek to the top of your head.

“Of course.”

------

“Welcome to my crib.”

“Thank you, it’s...” - Neil hesitated as he closed the door behind you - “...cosy.”

Patting the wall to your right, you located a small hook and hung the keys on it.

“That is certainly one word for it,” you snorted. “Why, what did you expect?”

“Frankly? Considering you’re such an... acclaimed locksmith, I imagined something… well, bigger, for starters.”

You couldn’t help but laugh at the way he stumbled on words, trying so hard not to sound offensive in any way.

Grinning, you put on your most snobbish tone. “Ah, sorry to disappoint, all my gold, glitter, and general pizzaz got moved to one of my many summer houses as my spacious lair worthy of the most infamous thief is under renovation, so I was forced to retreat to my humble family place in this ghastly neighborhood.”

“Such a shame,” he said and a smile brightened his words. “I like it, though. Matches your vibe, somehow.”

“Because it’s small, detached, empty, yet somehow messy?”

Neil sighed in a way you were absolutely sure he was rolling eyes at you, then helped you with the coat. “It’s gonna take more than putting words in my mouth to make me want to leave you here all by yourself, you know.”

You were quite sure a dirty joke was hiding in there, but it eluded your tired brain.

“Damn, need to up my game then,” you giggled, leaning against the wall to take the shoes off without losing your balance. “Nah, I’m messing with you, I’m grateful you got me out of there. Can’t wait to rinse that hospital stench off of me.”

“Do you want me to run a bath for you?”

You mused over the idea for a moment, “Thanks, I’ll take a shower - two minutes tops and I’d end up asleep in the ‘tub.” Probably even faster, considering that you already were running on fumes. “Anyway, make yourself at home, gonna grab some fresh clothes.”

Neil was not willing to give up.

“I’ll get you--”

“I’ve got this,” you uttered, instantly hating yourself for how harsh it came out, so you quickly added, “But would you please put the kettle on?” sending an apologetic grimace along with your words.

“On it.”

He seemed happy to have something to do. Or at least sounded like it as he took the crackling grocery and takeaway bags to the kitchenette.

You walked across the room with confidence, your hand reluctantly extended ahead on your waist level just in case you miscalculated the route to the bedroom. When you reached the door frame, you smiled to yourself. It wasn’t that hard, was it? Almost like going to the bathroom at night, not willing to put the light on to avoid waking up, right?

And exactly then, your shin hit the edge of the bed footboard, the impact sending a searing wave of pain up your whole leg. You bit your knuckle to stifle a groan and a curse that was bound to follow. Every. Goddamn. Time.

The noises coming from the other room stopped, but luckily there was no question. Nor a hero coming to rescue you from the sudden and vicious attacks of furniture.

Finally, the closet. Your fingers ran through the folded clothes. Clean underwear. A soft t-shirt. Comfy pj pants. The fatigue was so severe that the term dress to impress didn’t even cross your mind. Not that Neil cared, right? But before you stepped back from the wardrobe, you hesitated, sliding your hands down to one of the bottom drawers. All that boring into nothingness was straining, and keeping your eyes closed all the time felt wrong, somehow. Might as well, you shrugged, pulling out a silky blindfold. Maybe this would trick your brain into thinking it was just a game. A temporary thing. Nothing serious.

...but what if--

You took a shaky breath and slammed the closet shut. Swallowing with effort, you took the clothes and limped out of the room, then followed the wall to the bathroom.

Neil’s concerned voice reached you halfway there.

“You okay?”

“Peachy,” you said and flashed your teeth in a strained grin.

“Let me know if you need anything, all right?”

A change of strategy, then. You certainly didn’t mind, at least this way it didn’t trigger the unnecessarily rude reaction. And you had a feeling that you were going to need a pair of eyes to take care of those bruises of yours.

...or you could just follow the radiating ache and slap some gel where it hurts most, but at this point, as the painkillers were slowly wearing off, it would probably be easier to just pour the whole tube on the tiles and roll over in it.

“Will do, thanks.”

You closed the door behind you and sighed. The undressing required an accompaniment of grunts, hisses and curses, and when you finally got into the shower (hitting yourself only once while doing so) you were all sweaty and panting as if you’d run up twenty flights of stairs.

You winced as the warm water poured over your body, but you couldn’t wait to get rid of the lingering smell of antiseptics. Using soap uncovered the injured spots with a burning precision, but you gritted your teeth and soldiered through it, changing position slightly so you wouldn’t cause more damage with shampoo and conditioner. Condemning your past self for choosing a matching set of hair products, you were forced to guess and pick one to pour a little bit of it on your hand to judge which is which based on the texture of the fluid. Why did you even bother…?

When you were done and more or less dry, you put on the panties and wrapped another towel around yourself. A slow thumping in your head was growing stronger by the minute, but it was still bearable. As for taking care of the bruises… you realized you didn’t even know where the arnica ointment was. You’d bought one on your way just in case, but that meant--

You groaned and rubbed an eye with the back of your hand. Help it was, then.

“Neil?” you called out, cracking open the door.

A sudden rumble of a chair made you cringe, but a corner of your mouth twitched.

“What is it?” he asked as his rushed steps carried him closer.

“Could you help me with putting something on the most banged-up spots, please?” - a sheepish smile crept on your lips - “I thought about just mixing some cream with my lotion and rubbing it all over, but--”

He scoffed as if the idea personally offended him. “Jesus, please don’t. I’ll be right back.”

Your legs seemed to weigh a tonne, but also started to shake as though they were about to give in any moment, so you sat back on the edge of a bathtub with relief.

Neil came back after a while and muffled clanking suggested he brought a full medkit with him. You waited as he washed his hands thoroughly, and you stifled an amused giggle at the dedication, even though it was nothing more but common sense.

Neil’s soft voice broke the silence. “I’m gonna take a look at those wounds first, but for that, I need to touch you, is it okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” you shrugged. “I imagine you can’t do plenty without that, huh?”

A light chuckle. “Fair enough.” And featherlike touches that followed.

Careful fingers examining every bruised inch of skin, starting from the freshly hurt shin, scraped knees, going up your thighs until they met the edge of the towel. Then, ghosting over your hands, unhurriedly moving up the forearms…

You realized your breath got shaky.

He tucked a still quite damp strand of hair behind your ear and his fingertips glided over your forehead and down your temple, traced your jawline up to your chin. His knuckles grazed your neck, then moved across your collarbones, but when they met the towel again, Neil hesitated.

“Nothing you haven’t seen before, right?” you joked playfully and untucked the corner of the towel, letting it slide down your body.

A sharp inhale and a slipped-out curse.

“Christ…” uttered Neil, and you were quite sure what he was referring to. Your hip pulsated with dull pain in the place where the oxygen container had been, or rather where it must have moved to during the escape, bruising the hip bone and surrounding area at the impact.

You forced a crooked smile to your face. “And here I was hoping it looked better than it felt.”

“I can always lie to you if you want,” he offered, aiming for a lighter tone.

Shaking your head, you nibbled on your bottom lip. Somehow, the sole thought of him lying to you seemed like a certain heartache.

“No.” Your voice sounded weak, but maybe that was understandable, given how powerless you felt overall. Or maybe you could stop being so pathetic any moment now.

You closed your eyes, and while you tried to parley with your brain to give you a break, Neil started meticulously treating your wounds, focused on not causing any more discomfort than it was needed. You switched all your attention to his ministrations, grimacing slightly from time to time as he was tending particularly sore spots. Neil’s warm fingers contrasted with the cold ointment, all the different sensations fought a merciless battle to take precedence over one another, making even more of a mess in your tired head.

You heard Neil shifting in front of you as he was about to move to your injured face. Acting on an impulse, you spread your legs to allow him to come closer, and so he did, positioning himself on his knees between your thighs without a word. Quite a concentration, you thought and smiled fondly to your memories of the times you’d seen him so committed to a task. Slightly furrowed brows, blonde strands falling into shining blue eyes, with a bottom lip tugged between the teeth...

A brief touch on your temple brought you back to reality and you gasped, reaching out to hold on to Neil to keep your balance. As you rested your hands on his sides, he gently cupped your face and continued with taking care of the bruises. It felt as if the warmth radiating from him was mending you whole, even more so when it got combined with tender, soothing brushes of Neil’s thumb against your cheek. You melted into his palm and exhaled slowly, dropping your shoulders and relaxing.

Before you could stop the words from spilling out, you said under your breath, “It was just a fall, I don’t know how it got that bad,” voicing the thought that’s been on your head all day.

Neil pulled back abruptly and the tranquil moment shattered like glass against the bathroom tiles.

“Are you being serious right now? Just a fall? You’re lucky you’re alive, goddamnit, let alone able to walk!” Disbelief mixed with anger in his tone, taking you aback. And to your surprise, it felt like yet another wound, inflicted right at your chest. “Y-you hit the wall before you crashed on the ground, you--” his voice broke and Neil sighed. You heard him packing the medkit, simply tossing things inside before he moved away.

“Oh,” was all you could say, reaching for the abandoned towel to wrap it over your shoulders, in a sudden and desperate need to cover yourself. In every way possible. “Remind me to tie a cat and a buttered slice of bread to myself the next time we do this.”

He didn’t respond to your poor attempt at lighting up the mood, instead, you heard the door handle, a deadpanned “I’ll heat up the food” and he was gone.

You had no idea where his reaction had come from. Normally, you’d have followed him straight away to confront him, but right then you felt so exhausted and helpless you just slouched in your spot, with your hands fisted on the towel, and sat like that for a while, leveling your breath. You mustered all the strength you had left, found your clothes and put them on. Then, you tied the blindfold, letting a piece of sleek material bring a shred of comfort and hide a pitiful glimmer in the corners of your eyes.

You joined Neil in the other room and sat at the table. He didn’t comment on your attire nor the choice of accessories, hell, he barely even spoke to you when he put the plate in front of you, as well as through the whole meal.

Even though you’d picked up your favourite comfort food on the way, it tasted bland, and with your stomach tied into a knot, you couldn’t force more than a few bites into your system. Judging by the sounds - or rather the lack thereof - coming from across the table, Neil’d lost his appetite too.

Finally, you cleared your throat, breaking the heavy silence. “I think I’m full,” you said and stood up, grimacing slightly.

“I’ll do the dishes, go lie down,” he said quietly. “Please.”

As if he anticipated an argument. You really had no energy for that.

“Thank you. Are you--...” you stumbled on the question, but Neil chimed in.

“I’ll be on the couch.”

...maybe it was for the best.

You nodded and turned on your heel to fetch a spare pillow and a blanket while Neil was occupied with the dishes. The ever-growing headache was becoming unbearable, but you hoped that the sweet arms of Morpheus would bring a much-needed release soon. You brushed your teeth quickly and mumbling “‘night,” you disappeared into the bedroom, leaving the door half open for god knows what reasons. Perhaps to make you feel less alone.

The plan of sleeping off the worst pain looked good on paper but proved to be too hard to execute. That bloody awful feeling of being tired beyond comprehension and still unable to doze off, right? You tossed and turned (although carefully), trying to find the most comfortable position. After a while, you took the blindfold off and curled on your side, staring into the nothingness again. Listening to the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. Forcing every breath through your clenched chest. Trying to focus on anything other than neverending soreness.

You heard Neil’s footsteps and how they stopped right at your door. Stalling.

And you didn’t even try pretending you were asleep. Waiting.

“Hey... I wanted to check if you need anything before I turn in for the night.”

The softness of his voice was tainted by something as if he was holding back. But you were so glad to hear it anyway.

“Actually,” you said, propping yourself on the elbow and wincing, “could you bring me one of those fancy painkillers, please? I thought I might do without for a little while but-- ...yeah, not quite.”

“Of course, coming right up.”

When Neil was back, you sat on the bed, allowing him to hand you a glass and ...a shot glass? You shook the latter slightly and something rattled inside.

“Ah, okay, smart,” you smiled with recognition. “Thanks.”

“Don’t tell me you thought it was vodka?”

A hint of amusement in his tone made you snort.

“I can’t say I would mind,” - shrugging, you swallowed the pill and washed it down with cool water - “but this is gonna be more efficient, I guess.”

You shifted in your spot to put down both glasses on a bedside table. Neil was there to make sure you actually placed them on top of it, pushing your forearm gently when you were about to create a mess.

That light touch brought a lump back to your throat. As if the awkward silence wasn’t suffocating you enough.

“If that’s all…” said Neil quietly, taking a step towards the door.

But you reached out into the darkness and found his hand.

“Neil…” you squeezed his fingers, desperately trying to convey words that eluded you. Your plea was barely a whisper. “...stay?”

The pulse pounded in your ears as the stillness that followed seemed to last forever.

Then, Neil squeezed your hand back.

“I will,” he choked out, and his thumb grazed over your knuckles. “Be right back.”

You nodded and let go of his hand, not even sure that he could see your gesture, then moved to the other side of the bed. The held-back breath escaped in a shudder as another wave of pain overrode your senses, leaving a trail of cold sweat down your spine.

A faint tock of the light switch in the other room, then footsteps and a pillow landing next to yours. Neil snuggled down, keeping his distance, and you curled again in your spot, hoping that his proximity will calm you down enough to fall asleep. But as you said your goodnights and Neil’s breath leveled and got deeper, you still waited on the pills to start working, getting more and more lost in your own head and thoughts you’d managed to keep lidded on until now.

Because if only you’d cracked that safe faster. Or maybe if you’d discussed that escape route beforehand, somebody would have found a better path through the roofs. No, scratch that, the plan was tight, and it was your goddamn fault that you’d gotten distracted by a sodding rain, of all things. And that jump? Bloody amateur hour. Should have seen that coming, stepped to the side, or caught onto anything. You’d been granted a second chance at that wall. But no, you’d had to panic like a bush-leaguer, as if it had been your first fall in your life. And now you were lying there, feeling sorry for yourself. Abso-fucking-lutely pathetic.

What if Madame Karma finally decided to make you pay? What if you were never going to get your sight back? A warm tear trickled down your face slowly. No more free runs and adrenaline rushes while taking shortcuts through the most obscure places. No more lying on the rooftops to observe how the sky changes colours through the night. No more sitting on the hill and watching how the sun reflected in the river. How it danced on that messy blonde hair. You would never see his blue eyes lighting up again--

Your chin trembled as the tears stained your pillow. It felt as if you were nothing but pain, fear, and heartbreak. Pressing your lips together, you stifled a sob that shook your body mercilessly. You were nothing.

“What’s wrong?”

You wanted to brush it off, to tell him you were okay and he could go back to sleep. But instead, you sniffled and whimpered, unable to pass any word through your tightened throat.

Neil gasped and placed a hand on your shoulder.

“Hey, hey, come here,” he said softly as his fingers pressed lightly onto your back, urging you to move and you shifted into his embrace, clenching your fists on his t-shirt, struggling for every breath. “I’ve got you, it’s okay, it’s gonna be okay,” he cooed, wrapping the arms around you gingerly. A much-needed reassurance whispered over and over again like a plea to anyone who could be listening.

Weeping quietly into Neil’s chest, you sought refuge in his closeness, clinging onto him as he held you and stroked your hair, waiting for the worst to pass. Soon, you ran out of tears, and there were just sobs, convulsing you whole like a heart-wrenching hiccup. Neil hugged you a little tighter, placed a small kiss on top of your head, and started humming, a melody barely more than a murmur. It felt familiar, but why?

By and by, the song and a steady heartbeat against your cheek weaved together and calmed your racing mind. Enough to finally let you drift off, with Neil’s soothing voice and warmth enveloping you, bringing comfort and hope for a better tomorrow.

-----

You should have known better than to expect something to be different when you woke up. Swallowing down the disappointment and resignation, you dug yourself up from under the covers. The pain dialed down, but was very much there, especially during sudden moves.

Maybe you would feel better if you washed your face, still a bit puffed after all that--

…oh shit.

Your brain halted, torn between making you cringe and spreading the warmth through your chest. If you were to survive the day, the key was not to think about what happened last night. At least you didn’t have to look him in the eyes, huh? Armed with a smile, albeit a bit sour, you grabbed some clothes on your way out and ventured into the quiet living room.

“Neil?”

For a split second you were sure he was gone, but--

“Over here.” Judging by the sound of it, here was somewhere near the couch. “How are you feeling?”

Concern. Obviously. He’d seen you at your worst, so there was no point in hiding your state.

“Like I’ve spent some time inside a cement mixer,” you sighed. “But better, thanks. What time is it?”

“Almost 3 o’clock.” A faint thud of a book being put down. “Are you hungry? I was about to fix something.”

It was a good moment for your insides to growl in confirmation, but at least this time your body decided to spare you. Although your stomach was pretty much cleaving to your backbone, all right.

“Oh yes, please.” You smiled with appreciation and raised a hand with a bundle of clothes. “I’ll join you in a minute.”

That minute took a little longer, as your mobility was still pretty lacking, but fresh as a (beaten-up) daisy, in a comfortable outfit and a blindfold, you followed your nose to the kitchenette.

“Smells delicious.”

A soft chuckle came through the sizzling. “Hope it tastes good as well, wanna try?” When you nodded, you heard Neil walking up to you. “Open your mouth, careful - it’s hot.”

You recognized the rich flavor as some variation of the Napoli sauce, perfectly balanced, and you could only hum in approval. Where the hell had he gotten those herbs from?

“It’s amazing,” you said, but couldn’t resist a little smirk, “or I’m just starving.”

Neil scoffed lightly. “Might be that.” There was a smile and a hint of pride in his tone, and it made you beam a little wider. “Come sit down.”

When you did, and a bowl of pasta landed in front of you on the table, your mind involuntarily went back to last evening. That tension. Sudden distance. Everything after that. What was worse, it seemed like you weren’t the only one thinking about it, because the silence that fell between you now grew heavy with unresolved issues lingering in the air.

But maybe you were misreading the room and you were fine.

“Listen, about yesterday--”

...or not.

Instead of letting Neil finish, you panicked, and before you could stop yourself, you used his moment of hesitation to blurt out, “Oh god, I’m so sorry, I was exhausted and everything hurt and--” you frowned and hid the face in your palm. The shame felt like a tightening ring around your chest, making it hard to breathe. ”I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“Wait, what?” huffed Neil, his voice filled with consternation. ”Jesus, no, that’s not what I meant, I--” he faltered and groaned, then added more softly, “Why are you even apologizing for that?” And when you shook your head, unable to find the right words, Neil gently touched your arm, rubbing it up and down slowly. “I’m glad you weren’t alone.”

Your heart clenched with fondness as you palmed over his hand.

“Thank you for being there for me.”

A twist of the wrist and a light squeeze on your fingers.

“Of course.”

Like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

After a moment, you asked quietly, “If it isn’t about that, then what?”

A loud buzz cut through the air, the unexpected noise almost making you jump in your seat. Impeccable timing.

Neil picked the vibrating phone from the table. “It’s work, I have to get that.” His hand was still holding yours, reluctant to let go. “If I’m not done by the time you finish eating, two words: bed rest.”

“May I make it a couch rest, doc?” you grinned, and by the resigned sigh you could tell Neil definitely rolled his eyes at you.

“Just make yourself comfy and horizontal, all right?” A final brush of his thumb against your fingers and he was up, walking off from the table. “Hi, what’s up?”

Whatever they needed him for, it took so much time that you finished your meal and obediently moved to the couch. That unfinished talk left you anxious enough to nervously pick at the edge of the blanket, but as Neil was still lost in a hushed conversation, and the aforementioned blanket was way too cosy, you slowly drifted off into a dreamless nap.

You weren’t sure what woke you up - a shift on the other side of the couch, or a heavy sigh, one of those signaling the weight of the whole world on somebody’s shoulders. Hearing the latter was enough to wipe the remains of sleep from your system and you sat up, grunting slightly.

“What is it?”

Another sigh.

“I’m an idiot.”

You puffed your cheeks and shrugged, a corner of your mouth twitching in a nervous smile.

“Before I let out a purposeful no and kick you - why are you saying that?” Silence. “...Neil?” When the answer was not coming for too long, you moved to your knees, reaching out until you touched his shoulder. No reaction. Trying to keep a rising worry at bay, you urged him quietly, “Talk to me, please.”

Neil inhaled slowly and he finally spoke, his voice barely there.

“I’m so sorry.”

“For what?” you asked, knitting your brows together as you brushed your hand down his arm only to find his clenched fist, tightening even further under your touch.

“For yesterday, for letting it out on you, when you were just--” he paused to swallow audibly, and then continued, blurting out one strained word after another, “and all of that while this whole mess is my goddamn fault because if I hadn’t hesitated out there, we both would have made it in time--”

“No, no, no, you can’t do that to yourself,” you said, crawling into his lap and nestling between his legs, wrapping yours around his waist. “It was a perfectly normal reaction.” The pulse thumped in your ears when you placed one hand on Neil’s chest and the other one travelled up along his neck to cup his face. Then your thumb glided over a wet trail on his cheek and it felt as if your heart shattered into a million pieces. Oh please, no. “My darling...” you whispered, but it was as if Neil barely acknowledged you were there, trembling and lost.

He pressed his forehead to yours and continued, traces of dread ringing in his hollow tone more and more with every choked-out sentence.

“When I turned back and I saw that--….at first, I thought you’d been shot, then you fell and-- suddenly all I could think was if your oxygen container was intact, or--... I called the Cavalry on the way down but I was so scared I was too late, I thought--” his voice broke and you felt him frowning as he shuddered, struggling to carry on. “I thought that you were gone, and I didn’t--”

His heart raced under your palm while you kept stroking his cheek, consoling him softly, “Neil, I’m here, it’s all right, I’m here.” But when that didn’t seem like enough to bring him back to you, you reached to his neck to pull him closer and kissed him, desperate to make him stop spiralling down. To make him stop hurting.

A muffled whine against your lips. But then you felt him melt and he kissed you back, still helpless, wrapping his arms around you carefully as if he expected you to fall apart under his touch. Not quite there. You deepened the kiss purposefully, burying your hands in his hair, tugging at the strands as you pressed yourself to him as much as you could in your position. You didn’t care about your own pain or discomfort. If any of you were meant to be lost in any way, it might as well be this. Neil gasped and lifted you up so you properly straddled him, then tightened the embrace, clinging on to you for dear life as he captured you in another kiss, and this time it was his turn to try to convey the unbearable mixture of despair, relief, and immense longing. All of that poured into this simple act of devotion until there was nothing but pure need. To touch and to be touched. To hold and to be held. To be close. To be wanted. To be found.

A breathless moan escaped your mouth and Neil pulled back ever so slightly.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said softly, his fingertips gliding over your features.

Oh, how much you missed looking into his eyes.

The fact that he cared, without simply going ahead with it, made your chest clench with fondness. At this point, you trusted him beyond reason, although it was still nice to hear it.

“I’m not made of glass,” you huffed, nuzzling his nose.

A low hum and a trail of kisses along your jawline. You shivered when his lips reached a spot just below your ear and then smiled against your skin.

“Are you sure?” his husky voice was playful, but you knew he was double-checking.

“Try me.”

That moment was not about chasing the high. It was about feeling each other. Being with one another. As close as possible. That couldn’t wait, and neither could any of you, tugging at the clothes in random order with urgency.

Neil looped his arm around your shoulders, settling you on your side in his embrace. Keeping you steady. Safe. Close. And even though his kisses were desperate and leaving you winded, his touch was gentle, and you knew the blue eyes were watching you attentively, ready to react to the smallest sign of discomfort. But also to any encouragement to go further.

A hitched breath. A leg hooked on his hip. Fingers dragged across his back.

He was ready to give you everything and take whatever you were willing to offer. And you wanted to do the same for him until everything else lost its meaning and it was just you and him, and the fire that burned inside you. Searing every nerve. Cleansing the doubts. Numbing the pain. Lighting up the darkness. And, in the end, bringing resolution as you both came undone, moaning and gasping for air only to be comforted by hands cupping cheeks and yet another kiss. Slow. Tender. Full of admiration.

When Neil drew back and shifted slightly, you whined in protest, wrapping your leg around him tighter to keep him in place.

“Where are you going?”

A quiet chuckle, followed by a feeling of a soft blanket sliding over your naked body. And a kiss on the tip of your nose.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

You sighed with content as Neil pulled you closer again. The light stubble scratched your fingers as they studied the impossible angles of his face unhurriedly.

“Good.”

(next chapter ->)

[acesydneysage]

18 and 30 for the va asks?

All the questions

18. What character would you want a spin off of?

I think the POV character would be Jill, and the rest of the Palm Springs gang could have some roles, so I can have more of my beloved Melrose family. She grew a lot during Bloodlines but her character got really sidelined and I think there's still a lot to explore with her. She went through a lot of trauma, and she was just coming into her own and accepting her new role.

Her relationship with Lissa could be fascinating, they definitely have a lot to work through. Lissa sees her as symbol of her idolized father's imperfection. Jill resents being used as a political pawn. They both will have a hell of a lot going on and won't be able to go on bonding trips or anything like that, since Lissa is queen and Jill is the Dragomir princess and will have a vote on the council once she turns 18. Jill wasn't raised as a royal, so she has a very different perspective even to royals who are sympathetic to non-royals' plight.

I really love Eddie and I want to see him happy. Being the main love interest could give him more of a spotlight. I didn't care much about Jeddie in canon (the age gap is a bit uncomfortable and we didn't get any deep insight into their relationship), but I think they have a lot of potential as grown ups. Their knight and princess dynamic could be very sweet, but it could also cause a lot of trouble.

Eddie has his thing about not even knowing who his dad is, while Jill is a princess, so above him. But Jill actually never knew her biological dad either, she was a bastard hidden like a shameful secret, and as I mentioned she's resentful of her worth being determined by her lineage, and her importance to other people's political schemes. And she got killed over it, she has every right to.

Eddie genuinely does see Jill's worth outside of her bloodline, he admires her will to fight and her grace, and how she learns to handle difficult situations. But he still internalized their society's hierarchy enough to let it fuel his inferiority complex. That could be an interesting conflict, he needs to consider himself her equal, and she needs to know he sees her as a person not a princess. Besides all the angst coming from the fact that he feels like he failed her twice before.

Jill and Eddie could have stayed together all this time, but I can easily see them breaking up and then meeting again. Eddie is living far alway form her, and he's dedicated to Sydney, Adrian and Declan. Then they would eventually have to actually decide to get together again when they're not hidden in a human school far away from their society's prejudices and expectations, but smack in the middle of them. Young dhampirs and Moroi, even royals, dating in school is seen as normal. The adult, politically active crown princess is a whole different story.

Thematically, it would be very good to have the Dragomir princess say that royal blood is not actually more important than anybody else's, including dhampirs, and she wants to be with a guardian and maybe eventually have little dhampirs thank you very much. Lissa was raised from birth to belive in her duty to carry on the Dragomir bloodline and pop out royal babies, but Jill wasn't and she's more likely to be able to see that that's messed up.

I understand that it's important in-world, but expecting me to actually find it important to continue a royal line is too much for me, sorry. It's a surname, congrats, I do not care. And if Eddie actually confronted what's wrong with guardian idology and that "they come first" nonsense I'd be so grateful. I don't think that was sufficiently taken down in canon, Rose kind of goes back to believing it in the end.

Jill also has shadowkissed problems to deal with. She's interested in self defense. If she had to put that into practice and ended up killing someone she'd have to deal with ghosts like Rose did. And Jill has a connection to Declan, through Adrian and Sydney, and she knows his secret, which could come in handy plotwise.

Declan and his super special spirit magic blood are probably gonna be very important, both because it could be the key in mass producing the Strigoi vaccine, and because the possibility of dhampirs having children with each other undermines their society's excuses for its Moroi supremacist structure.

If Adrian stops taking his meds for some reason, or even changes to a medication that has a similar effect to Lissa's and doesn't completely block the bond Jill could see into his head. So she can see what's going on with Declan and also cute sydrian moments and Eddie being an adorable uncle.

Maybe we'd even get Eddie's POV like we did with Adrian?

I think Angeline could be interesting. She'd start out hunting Strigoi with Trey like they said they would do. I'd really love if eventually she became an ambassador for the Keepers, just because I think it would take a lot of character development for her to become a diplomat.

I'm really into the idea of an Alchemist Revolution, and Zoe might actually be a good point of view character for that.

30. What moments do you remember laughing out loud at?

The tattoo parlor scene really killed me the first time around, and I still love it:

“Yeah? Can you draw a skeleton riding a motorcycle with flames coming out of it? And I want a pirate hat on the skeleton. And a parrot on his shoulder. A skeleton parrot. Or maybe a ninja skeleton parrot? No, that would be overkill. But it’d be cool if the biker skeleton could be shooting some ninja throwing stars. That are on fire.” [...] “Wait!” exclaimed Adrian. There was an anxious note to his voice, like he was trying to get someone’s attention. I had the uneasy feeling that the two guys who worked here were headed back behind the counter to investigate. “I need to know something else about the tattoo. Can the parrot also be wearing a pirate’s hat? Like a miniature one?”

I also loved said, “Mmm. O positive, my favorite.” Adrian scaring Keith in general is great, here's the full trilogy. And when Sydney is finally being rescued and she says "Are you wearing a suit? You didn't have to dress up for me." It was very unexpected. I love her!

And little Rose throwing a book at a teacher and calling her a fascist!

[earthlyemily]

I’m struggling so much financially and honestly just wanted to vent somewhere. I’ve always lived in poverty and I think in my whole life I’ve had maybe 2 years where I didn’t have to stress about money and not be able to buy groceries or pay rent or be put into collections for not being able to make payments etc and that was when I was in college. For at least the past 5 years I’ve been struggling but I never talk about it. I don’t even know where to start haha I don’t even know what it’s like to not stress financially and be in debt. I’ll just start with the first things that come to mind with what I’m owing maybe. So it’s Dec. 23 and rent was due yesterday because we moved into this small suite attached to someone’s house on Nov. 22. It’s $1200 which is so expensive, but also the average price for BC if not even cheaper for a one-bedroom with a yard, utilities included. and no first and last, no pet deposits, etc because this is just short them for 4 months until the end of March because i reached out and asked and they said yes.

After 1 month I already remember why we went into the trailer almost 2 years ago and it’s literally because we can’t afford any other lifestyle. I think that’s the difference between us and some people that live in trailers, vans, etc. like we lived in a mouse & mouse shit infested trailer for 6 months breathing in their feces and urine and having it all over all our belongings. i literally had to take my whole life to the dump and we officially have no food storage because they ruined it all. there were at least 50-60 mice because a few birth cycles happened in the ceiling. I could write a whole post about my experience of living with field mice, but now isn’t the time so for rent, i only had $600 yesterday so that’s what I gave them. thank goodness they were okay with me asking for a few more days to make the other half. but I don’t even know when that’s going to be :(

my etsy shop veganveins has been doing so bad lately for more than one reason, most of my orders are just postcards and stickers, and while I’m grateful for them, that $1-3 profit isn’t going to keep my business going. and it’s so hard for me to work lately. the wifi doesn’t work sometimes for hours and I always get distracted by shawn and the dogs working from home in a small space. I need to get better at my time management. I got up at 8:30 today which is actually early for me so I’m proud of myself. I’m chronically ill and I really need to go get a blood test and see what’s happening because I haven’t gotten one since being diagnosed with graves disease again 1.5 years ago. anyways. i switched to a print on demand method this year for veganveins for some shirts and sweaters because i couldn’t afford to keep ordering shirts in bulk, and it’s honestly been so, so expensive and i barely make any profit. I’m currently owing my t-shirt printer $999 on one invoice (it was originally $2196 so I’ve at least paid half of it) but that was 2 weeks ago and I still need to pay it. Mario, my t-shirt printer has been with me since I started veganveins and I’m so grateful he gives me extensions on paying the invoices. every other t-shirt printer I’ve ever asked has said no. in addition to the $999 there’s going to be another $2200 invoice I’ll be receiving this week for my last order. I think because of the holidays he’s going to give me some time to pay off that too, but the problem is when I have outstanding invoices he doesn’t print new orders for me. He’s closed now until Jan. 4 so I just need to somehow make that much before then.

btw I don’t have a credit card ($8500 all used on veganveins and it got put into collections last march) and I had a fully used $5000 line of credit but I got a debt consolidation loan for $16,000 1 month ago and my payment for that is $167 a month. it fully paid off and closed my credit card and line of credit + $3000 overdraft which is nice. but now I don’t have any extra money except for what comes in. my credit is only 640 which is really bad in canada so I won’t get approved for a new credit card or loan until I build that up, which is going to be a few months of regular payments. so for regular payments, the $167 for the loan is due on Dec. 27. Yesterday the trailer loan which is literally unliveable from what the mice did until we renovate it came out for $260, that’s how much I pay once a month for it on the 22nd. I didn’t have $260 in my account so it got rejected and I got charged a $48 NSF fee. omg if anyone is reading this long i’m shook. i’m genuinely just writing this for myself to process my feelings and in case anyone was curious about my financial situation here you go haha. maybe some of you can relate, maybe some can’t. anyways. so now I somehow have to get $260 in my account for that for when they try to take it out again in the next few days.

another payment that was supposed to come out yesterday but hasn’t, but I’m sure will come out today is our truck loan. they deferred it for 8 months because of covid which was so nice, but we started paying it again 2 months ago. for both those months I called and made my payment a later date and that helped, but there’s barely any service here so when I called 4 times yesterday to try and change the date the payment comes out, I was on hold for 20-30 mins then my phone would disconnect and hang up. so that’s $586 and it will come out today, I have $0.46 in my account right now so it will get rejected and I’ll get charged another $48 NSF fee. this is why being poor always costs more and the banks are always harsher on those who don’t have money. today I’ll try calling again to see if I can ask for it to come out on a different day like january 10 instead, so I can first have time to pay rent and the trailer and also our $190 truck insurance which got rejected from my account 3 days ago, which was another $48 NSF fee. oh and something else i’m so stressed about is CIBC is going to put me into collections on December 28 if I don’t pay $1000, $700 of which is purely their fees. I have a $300 overdraft which they said i have to cover by then and the $700 is literally their $48 fees added up over the past 3 months. I got a text from them today saying my account is over and it’s because an amnesty international $11 monthly donation came out and obvi there’s no money in there, so that’s another $48 they charged. they’ve already given me a month to pay it and don’t want to wait any longer :(

I owe everyone in my family money, my sister $1650, my mom $700 and my brother also lent me $700. none of my siblings have money either and my mom definitely doesn’t so I hate that i had to borrow that much, and it’s literally been months. thankfully they’re so patient but i can’t wait to not owe them that

omg and i can’t even think about the amount of money shawn’s grandma has lent us. she’s genuinely the only reason we haven’t been completely homeless. but it’s a lot. like i don’t even want to say the number on here. she let us use it from her line of credit over the years and we’ve been slowly paying her back, but she lets us go months at a time without making a payment which i honestly hate doing, but have no choice. i’ve felt a lot of shame and guilt about this, but I also know that she genuinely would rather help us than see us suffer.

so i’m gonna talk about a big reason I’m broke this month especially - saving a pig named buster. his rescue cost me $1850 out of pocket that I didn’t have. but otherwise he was going to be killed in 2 days, he was my baby and I loved him so I had to do it. I somehow made $1350 that went towards it but I’m still owing $500, which I just asked for an extension for today until the new year. i’m not really supposed to talk about it but everything I’ve ever posted here has stayed here, so that cost was literally just from me buying the pig off the farmer. myself along with everyone else ive talked to is disgusted that he charged that much, but he wasnt budging and if that’s what it was going to take, of course I’m going to do it. I wouldn’t think twice about doing it for my dogs and Buster was smarter and more affectionate than them. i love him and I’m so happy he was saved. a non-profit organization transported him to a sanctuary and it was my biggest wish come true and the happiest moment I’ve had all year. my eyes are literally tearing up haha i love him so much. i could write a whole post about his neglect but basically he hasn’t had fresh water in weeks, he was only being fed handfuls of mixed nuts, he was constantly dirty in a muddy enclosure with an electric fence that he was always getting shocked on. he never got true love or affection except for when I gave him it. i posted an instagram story about him and asked people to message me and that i needed help, 2 people donated $111 and $120 each, and 2 other people donated $15 and $12. Someone also e-transferred me $20. These 4 donations equaled almost $300 ($277) and I was so grateful for those people wanting to help me help buster. if anyone else wants to help me with the cost of his rescue i still do need help and would appreciate it so much. this feels really weird and vulnerable for me to do and i’m sorry if anyone is annoyed by this post, I just genuinely am struggling and figured if someone does have extra and wants to help, there isn’t harm in that. but i do feel guilty for asking because i know there are so many other people struggling out there that need even more help than i do :(

i haven’t talked about it publically but i guess I will now, this farmer that I bought buster off of is the owner of the organic vegetable farm i was living and working at this past spring and summer. we worked really hard all summer to be able to stay there and park for free in the winter, but this past fall he told us no one was allowed to stay at the farm anymore, including us, so we had to find a new place to bring our 14ft trailer in to live. so that was an unexpected bummer and if we had known we wouldn’t be allowed staying there anymore (despite doing the labour of $1200 a month for free harvesting organic kale, for an off-grid spot he told us was worth $350 a month to park) we wouldn’t have driven 8 hours with the trailer and we would have stayed in the snow in northern BC and sucked it up and lived on the land we got the opportunity to rent this fall. Donna, the woman who is renting the land to us has been the biggest blessing in my life this year. I love her so much. Basically, she’s letting us live on 170 acres for $600 a month. letting us do whatever we want on the land (building a cabin, setting up rainwater catchment systems, having a solar passive greenhouse and a huge garden) LIKE WHAT. we could even open a farm sanctuary if we had money, i wanted to so bad but obviously that dream didn’t even come close to being reality. opportunities like this literally don’t exist in canada, especially not in BC. i cant even process my gratitude, i cry everytime i think about it. when we go back in the spring it’s going to be the beginning of the rest of our life :) i want to rescue so many senior dogs. everything we’ve always wanted to do we’ll be able to do, assuming we have money haha. but i want to have an organic farm and grow veggies to donate to families in need, especially since we live on stolen indiginious land and I see how the goverment actively restricts their access to fresh healthy produce. but anyways by then it was too dangerous to drive 8 hours back hauling a trailer in the snow and it was just easier to stay in the okanagan until the spring. i know the farmer probably doesn’t realize this and he’s also probably struggling financially but not being able to stay at the farm for the winter months we worked for, and buying buster for that price is a big reason I’m in the financial stress I am now so I figured i’d talk about it.

anyways. i think this is long enough and i think anyone reading this gets the point, i’m drowning in debt, my small business is almost costing me more to run and i’m not making nearly enough profit to live, the past few months ive been living off grid (not by choice) and just focused literally on surviving and not freezing and getting water etc and not having service or internet has affected me negatively. there’s internet now in the suite I’m in, it works really good in the morning and not as well at night, like for example tumblr doesn’t work past 5 pm for me to post photos. but ive been in a bad sleep schedule since i got here that i need to change. im sick and i need to heal myself. tomorrow i’ll set my alarm for 7:30. hopefully i make some money today. i got a social media managing job and it will end up being $1000 a month once i do the 3+ hours a day of work which im already feeling like i barely have time for my own basic life tasks. but i can do this.

if anyone reading this wants to help me out a bit, my paypal email is emilymiddin@hotmail.com or http://www.paypal.com/paypalme/veganveins

and my e-transfer email is emilymiddin@icloud.com i have auto deposit so you won’t have to ask a question :)

this is my first time in 7 years i’ve made a post like this or asked for help. i won’t do it again but figured i have nothing to lose. if you read up to here i love you a lot and thank you so much for being here <3

[chaptersinprogress]

demolition lovers  |  6

Realising that his telepathy was not working on King, Ram promptly wrapped his fingers around King's wrist and tugged hard, almost jerking King halfway across the table.

"Hey, hey, wait! Let me get up first!"

King barely had time to put down his pen and clear the edge of the table before he found himself being dragged behind Ram as the younger strode across the bar.

Rating: T

Warnings: swearing, mentions of alcohol and violence

Pairings: Ram/King, Bohn/Duen

King watched in panic as Prae moved further and further away. That traitor!

He snuck a glance at Ram, whose attention remained firmly fixed on Bohn and Duen. King restrained a groan. It was clear that if he didn't say anything, the two of them would be stuck in awkward silence for the next half an hour at least. Assuming the girls even made it back by then to rescue him.

The worst part was, he couldn't even wait Prae out. If she thought that King hadn't made a decent attempt at what he'd been ordered to do, she would most certainly force his hand, and then punish him for making her do the work for him too.

He grimaced at the memory of the last time he'd tried to go against her. He'd had to shave his hair in a buzz cut to get all the gum out and go to school in hot pink shirts when even bleach didn't manage to get the dye out. Bohn hadn't stopped laughing at him for days.

And his parents had been on her side too! How she'd managed to have them wrapped around her fingers he didn't know. They loved her more than any of their own flesh and blood. Perks of being the youngest among them, he guessed.

What Prae wanted, Prae got - and unfortunately for King, that meant that Ting would most certainly be occupied for as long as Prae thought it would take King to make a move.

King huffed a breath and gathered as much courage he could find. Which… wasn't much.

Oh for fuck’s sake! He'd been in far worse situations than having to make small talk with his one-sided crush. Now this was truly pathetic. King took a deep breath and steeled himself.

Clearing his throat, he started, "So… did you manage to solve that problem?"

Ram finally deigned to look at his companion, but cocked an eyebrow in question.

"Y'know, the one I… uh, didn't manage to address before I… ah, left," King attempted again, a faint blush rising to his cheeks at the memory of his rather abrupt departure.

Recognition flashed through Ram's eyes before he shook his head curtly. King winced.

"Sorry about that. Do you have a picture of the question or something? We can very quickly go over it while waiting for the other two."

Ram hesitated for a moment, but then pulled his phone out of the pocket. King exhaled in relief, grateful that he hadn't been unceremoniously rejected unlike the last time he'd attempted a conversation with the other.

Finding a photo of the problem, Ram placed the phone in front of King. Who then stole a napkin off the table and uncapped the ballpoint he carried around out of habit before beginning to work out the question.

At least this way Prae couldn't deny that he'd made an effort, and it had the added benefit of preventing himself from humiliating himself like the last couple of times he'd been in Ram's presence.

He had made it halfway through the problem when the phone vibrated. Spying Ting's name, King nudged the device in Ram's direction, unwilling to contemplate the contents of the message.

"Nong, it's for you."

King was startled out of his thoughts when Ram abruptly stood up, chair screeching harshly. He looked up from the napkin at the other. Ram stared back silently.

"Nong?"

Realising that his telepathy was not working on King, Ram promptly wrapped his fingers around King's wrist and tugged hard, almost jerking King halfway across the table.

"Hey, hey, wait! Let me get up first!"

King barely had time to put down his pen and clear the edge of the table before he found himself being dragged behind Ram as the younger strode across the bar.

Talk about déjà vu.

Lisa looked up from the drink she was mixing as Ram came to a stop in front of her. "Ram?"

Ram shoved his phone in front of her face. Lisa squinted at the screen before her expression cleared.

"Oh, yeah, give me a second. How about you take a seat first." Spotting the hand clamped around the wrist of the male beside him, she sighed. "And do let go of the poor guy will you? He's not one of those massive beasts you call dogs for you to drag him around like that."

"Dogs?" squeaked King. Oh no… no, no, no. That was not what he'd signed up for. Crush or no crush, there was no way he was going anywhere near those teeth-filled monsters.

Lisa chuckled at the expression of pure panic. "Oh yes, Ram adores them. He’s basically the alpha of his pack. I can show you photos."

King shook his head frantically, desperately trying to free himself. "No thanks!"

Smiling, Lisa shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just thought that you should know what you're getting into."

Another bartender slid 3 baskets of fries and wings onto the counter in front of them while Lisa poured a few shots. Placing the food and drink onto 2 trays, she waved the duo off.

"Go enjoy yourselves, and don't let Ram push you around too much yeah?"

Ram scowled at Lisa, who barked a laugh. Dropping King's wrist, Ram grabbed a tray and left for their table without so much as a goodbye.

King picked up the other tray and flashed Lisa an awkward smile before following his junior, unsuccessfully trying to ignore the way his wrist felt bare without Ram's warm hold. He really had to get around to not being so flustered around the other.

Huh... now that was an idea. As Ram's phi, he was well within his rights to tease his nong a little. If anything, it was expected. And would hopefully dispel some of the awkwardness that had built up from their earlier less-than-ideal interactions.

King caught up to the other. "So, it's not just me that you're so laconic with. Too cool to talk to the rest of us mortals huh?" he ribbed gently.

Ram leveled him an unimpressed look. The pair reclaimed their seats, the food and drink placed untouched on the table between them. King propped his chin on his palm.

"Come on Cool Boy, say something," he pushed.

"Something," Ram deadpanned.

A laugh escaped King. So Ram had a sense of humor under that mask of stone, who knew? "Try again, say a long sentence."

"A long sentence."

"Not that," said King, amused and exasperated. "Use words."

"Words."

King leaned forward and stared at Ram. "You're trying to annoy me?"

Ram matched his posture and parroted, "You're trying to annoy me?"

"Come on…"

"Come on…"

"I like P'King."

"I like -" Ram cut himself off, eyes widening minutely as the realisation of what he'd nearly said hit.

King smirked triumphantly. "Not finishing that? Dog got your tongue?"

Ram narrowed his eyes before looking away.

"Unless… you actually like me?" teased King, laughing internally with no small amount of irony.

Ram glared at him.

King had opened his mouth to needle the freshman a bit more when a loud, familiar voice rang across the bar.

"My mom says I shouldn't talk to girls who try to flirt with boys in a bar. They're dangerous."

King and Ram whipped around. Duen was standing in front of a pretty girl, who was now flushed red in embarrassment. But rather unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones who’d heard what had been said.

A well-built man at a table near the pair stood up, rage twisting his features. "Are you insulting my sister?!" he shouted. He threw his glass down, shattering it to pieces. "You wanna fight?!"

Ram shot to his feet, fists balled at his sides. King immediately caught hold of his forearm, bringing him to a halt before he could storm off to rearrange the male’s face.

"Cool Boy, wait. Bohn can handle this."

Ram gave King a scathing look before attempting to move forward again.

King pulled him back forcefully. Ram turned to King, expression clouding in suspicion before smoothing into a blank mask, not unlike the one he'd worn at the fundraiser.

"Cool Boy, do you trust me?"

The two held each other’s gaze, Ram searching King's face. Whatever it was he was looking for, he seemed to find it because he no longer fought to run to Duen's aid, merely turning back to observe the situation - though his muscles remained tense under King's hand.

Bohn had noticed the commotion, and had swiftly dragged Duen behind him even as the offended girl's brother got up in his face.

"Sorry about that," Bohn apologised calmly. "He's had a bit too much drink."

"No I haven't!" Duen protested loudly. "Why's he so angry anyway? I only said the truth."

King facepalmed. Ram seemed to wince slightly.

'For fuck's sake,' King despaired internally. 'Does the idiot have no filter? Or at least common sense?'

"Your buddy doesn't seem to be too sorry," the man scoffed. "Get out of the way. I have no quarrel with you."

Bohn stood his ground. "It is my problem. That's my faen you're threatening."

“Oh, so you think of yourself as some knight in shining armour, is it?” The man gestured to the crowd watching the scene with baited breaths. "You all heard it right? He asked for it," he said, and threw a punch at Bohn.

Bohn's head snapped to the side from the force. Blood from his split lip dribbled down his chin. Groaning slightly, he turned back to the man. "Ok, you've got your hit in. Now can we drop this issue?"

"Drop it? We're just getting started."

Bohn rolled his shoulders. "Then I'm going to end it."

He slammed a fist into the man's solar plexus. The breath rushed out the latter's lungs in a whoosh. Without pause, Bohn drove his knee into the man's stomach, folding him almost in half. Using the same leg, Bohn hooked his calf behind the other's knee and jerked it forward. The man fell backwards to the floor with a thud.

The crowd gasped. The girl rushed to her brother's side as he struggled to breathe where he laid. With everyone else pre-occupied, Bohn gently pulled Duen away from the scene, nodding at King as he headed to the exit. The whole thing had barely taken 5 seconds.

King turned to Ram. "Told you," he said coolly.

Ram tilted his head and conceded. Relinquishing his hold on Ram's forearm, King slumped back in his seat. He'd had enough excitement for one day.

"Do you think we can get this packed?" he asked, gesturing at the food. "I think we're done for the day."

Ram nodded. Moving the trays to one side, King spotted the abandoned napkin and pen, and smacked his head.

"Your question! Wait, gimme a few minutes, I was almost done."

King hastily started scribbling on the tissue, finishing up the last few steps. Capping the pen, he thrust the napkin at Ram. "Here you go."

Accepting it, Ram neatly folded it into a tight square before tucking it into his pocket. He then offered King his palm. The latter stared at it in consternation.

"Do you want the pen too?" he asked.

"Phone," came the curt reply.

"My phone?" King double-checked.

Ram nodded. Still not quite following, King unlocked his phone and placed the device in the proffered hand. Ram typed something into it, before handing it back to King. He then took out his own phone and typed something.

King's phone vibrated. Glancing at the screen, he did a double-take before a slow smile spread across his face.

R: Thank you.

[lifeisdabubbles-undersalmondean]

La Pomme ~ Chapter Eight

Pairing: Sam x OC (eventual Dean x OC and Dean x Castiel. And I mean eventual.)

Series summary: George is a casual French-Mistake-universe Supernatural fan living in no-COVID 2020, who's life is upended when she's suddenly launched between realities, two years into the boys' past (S13E22). What begins as an insane, immersive fan experience turns into more when Jack goes missing and George offers up her AU information to help track him down. Soon it's discovered that she and Sam may actually have history. But that's impossible, right?

Word Count: 3,900

Warnings: {smut, fluff, angst, show level violence, swearing, mentions of suicide} ***Detailed warnings will be tagged for specific chapters.

A/N: Following the events of my prequel Paradise and second story From My Eyes Off. Reading those first gives context but isn’t necessary to start this one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Collapsing into one of the comfier library chairs set between some stacks, George took a sip of the small glass of whiskey she figured she'd earned. She'd just scolded a fucking demon from hell. What was she thinking?! It had been pretty cool, but pissing off an evil, powerful being was maybe not the smartest. She could have gotten herself killed!

It had been unavoidable though; upon realizing that Demon Tim must have been the reason they suspected her of being involved in Jack's disappearance, she had been furious. Not only was it not true, it was insulting, humiliating, and just plain rude. It was also simply a bad plan. So, she took it upon herself to enlighten him and to correct his offensive insinuations. Hopefully, it wouldn't come back to bite her in the ass.

Her focus shifted then to Jack. Reflecting over her time there, there were things she remembered having happened on the show. The refugees in the bunker, AU Michael attacking, Jack losing his powers, Lucifer dude being just a regular human dude now; all of it was familiar, even when it terrified her (see: AU Michael attack). But, when they told her Jack was missing, she was thrown off at first. It wasn't something she remembered seeing on the show. Then again, she'd only just finished binging from season 10 to the end of 13 a couple weeks ago and hadn't started 14 yet. So, maybe she was past the point of being able to tell when things were part of their prescribed timeline or not? Therefore, even if Jack had been kidnapped on the show, she wouldn't have any info for them, right?

The problem was, the more she thought about it the more she began to believe she had seen something about this storyline. Jack being missing, the three of them going to save him-

Was it Ryan telling you about some episode where they rescued Jack in the redwoods? They had filmed it on location at some tourist spot you went to as a kid all the time and she thought you'd think it was cool… where was that?

She couldn't remember, and it frustrated her. She was also worried that she was making this all up just to be helpful.

Taking another sip, she allowed her thoughts to wander between episode scenes like an internal microfiche as she tried to nail down her recollection, No, I can definitely picture all four of them in the woods and fighting. Someone had kidnapped Jack, wanting his powers for something… was it the angels?

"Well, that was interesting," Dean stated, startling her out of her thoughts. The three of them were walking into the library a surprisingly short while after she left them with Tim.

Looking up at them, she set the glass down on a nearby shelf and stood up. Dean didn't elaborate further while he poured his own glass. The expressions each one wore were indiscernible and she grew nervous.

"Oh?" George raised a brow and looked between them, "Did he talk? Because you know, I've actually been sitting here thinking about this whole situation and something about Jack going missing is very familiar. Now, unfortunately, I am a few seasons behind, and-""

Dean took a sip, looking at her with curious amusement, and interrupted, "I was talking about you."

George looked surprised and then grimaced, "No, no. I'm not interesting, not at all. I'm the exact opposite of interesting. I'm-I'm… I'm…"

"Uninteresting?" Castiel offered helpfully as she struggled to find the words. Sam and Dean rolled their eyes in unison.

"Right! Thank you, Castiel. I'm highly uninteresting." She gulped a bit and wrung her hands as the three of them kept watching her. In the silence, she nervously looked in Castiels direction and blurted quickly, "I'm also George! Hi! Really nice to meet you! Big fan!"

"Nice to meet you," Castiel smiled awkwardly and nodded a greeting, looking at the other two with a confused expression, "...fan of what?"

"Right, positively boring," Sam interjected sarcastically before he could stop himself. He definitely thought she was interesting. First she's just a beautiful woman, then she's a beautiful woman he may or may not have had a life altering dream about ten years ago, and now she was a beautiful woman from an alternate reality where his life was a prime time television show… who he may or may not have had a life altering dream about ten years ago. 'Uninteresting' was definitely not an adjective he'd use for her.

Dean snorted, "Yea, boring is the last word I would use to describe that scene earlier. You caused Tim to sing like a canary, by the way."

Her jaw dropped in disbelief, "Say what?"

"I almost say we hire her to be our monster torture hypeman," He joked, looking at Sam with a raised eyebrow.

Sam ignored him and addressed Geroge's question, "After you left, Tim-"

"Cleetus," Dean interjected sarcastically.

"Cleetus… well, he sort of... started crying? He said he'd tell us everything we wanted to know if we promised to keep you away from him." Sam looked strangely apologetic and she let a few nervous chuckles escape, unsure whether to believe what they were saying.

"We think you hurt his feelings," Castiel explained further. "Which fortunately seemed to motivate him to talk, so thank you."

"I guess his demon mommy didn't teach him about sticks and stones," Dean cracked, taking another swig.

"Huh. OK. Neat!" George didn't know what to say; she was confused and strangely proud of herself. But she didn't want them to think she wasn't chill, so she shrugged nonchalantly, "You're welcome, I guess. Anyway, as I was saying, I'm not caught up to the current season of my timeline but I think I remember this whole Jack-gone-missing thing a little bit. I want to say you all track him down somewhere in… Oregon? Washington? I'm getting a Northwest-ish feeling." She began unconsciously pacing around the room, gesturing energetically with her hands. "I can picture a battle taking place in the woods...Jack being in danger, you all being in danger, too...some fighting...maybe someone losing the fight? Or getting really hurt," She glanced worriedly at Castiel. He'd be the only actor they'd axe of the three of them, so it stood to reason he'd be the most likely to die if she was right.

Dean and Sam shared a look before Dean asked, "Fine, I'll bite. Do you know a city? A time-frame? Who we're fighting? Anything specific?"

George paused and then slumped a bit in defeat, "No. I've only really watched up through, like, literally now. Other than random things I've heard or seen in passing, I don't know anything that's happened since ya'll got back from the apocalypse world. Been purposefully trying to avoid spoilers, too, which is a decision I now regret, obviously."

"OK, well look, sweetheart, it's OK," Dean began, in an embarrassingly condescending, douchey tone, "We don't expect you to help us. I mean, we're grateful about the assist with Cleetus, obviously but this-" Dean vaguely motioned in her direction and she raised an offended eyebrow, "-was obviously just a weird magical mess that Rowena left for us to clean up yet again. So, you just sit back and relax, and once we find Jack we'll figure out how to get you back home in a jiff, OK?" He winked and finger gunned at her, adding, "Don't you worry your pretty little head about it." In his way, Dean was trying to convey to her a sense of ease and comfort that they would take care of things. But, unsurprisingly, he came off incredibly dismissive and patronizing. Her cheeks flushed an angry red; she'd had it up to here with him by now.

Sam and Castiel exchanged nervous glances at the look on her face and Sam tried to stop it before the inevitable happened, "Uh, Dean, mayb-"

Cutting him off, George slowly walked toward Dean, eyes blazing, "Listen sweet cheeks." She had a polite smile on her face as she tried her hardest to muster up the same condescending, silky, sweet Dean-tone, "I'm sympathetic to the fact that you can't help but be an insufferably arrogant ass most of the time-that's just how you were written," for a split second she saw Dean's cool-guy-smug-face falter and she relished it. She could tell she landed a blow, even if it was a small one, "but maybe you could do us all a favor and try to ignore your cro-magnon dated natural urges and attempt to be open minded for once in your life? Just try to consider the fact that, like it or not, I might not be a total useless red-shirt? That maybe I-once again the lone female in the entire world according to Supernatural-might actually be useful? Hmm? Might actually have useful-albeit vague-information for you? Or would taking your lead from a woman be too threatening to you overbearing, uber-macho, 'we-get-it-you're-totally-straight' masculinity?"

Dean's head jerked back in offense, "Now, wait a minute! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it," She mocked him in a deep, goofy tone, high-fiving herself internally. Nailed it! She'd always hated how damn smug his character was. Yes, fine, he was hot and charming and smart as fuck and right at least like 75% of the time, but he didn't have to be so fucking arrogant about it all the time. She preferred a man with some humility.

Sam was smirking at the look on Dean's face and muttered teasingly, "How does it feel, Cleetus?"

"Except, you actually don't." Cas interjected begrudgingly, as he thoroughly enjoyed watching Dean get verbally bitch-slapped. In fact, he could watch it all day, but they needed to focus on Jack.

"Scuse me?" She said, maintaining her sweet tone while staring daggers at Dean. "Don't what?"

"Have useful information for us," the angel said begrudgingly matter-of-fact.

"Er," Sam interjected seeing the look on her face, "Uh, well, it's just according to Tim-Cleetus-whatever, Jack is being held captive inside an old church in a small ghost town outside Butte."

Dean slapped his hands over his mouth in mock surprise and then, taking a few steps toward George, he mimed a balloon being popped by an impractically large needle. He had an impossibly large grin spread across his face.

"She still has a point, Dean," Sam sighed in an annoyed, if not slightly embarrassed, tone at his brother's display.

Cas nodded in agreement, "Yes, you were incredibly condescending and unfriendly in your attempt at being friendly earlier. Even though she's wrong about Jack, she's right about your inability to relinquish control-to anyone, though, not specifically women."

"You all suck." Dean said flatly.

George ignored him and shook her head. She was more and more sure about her information by the second; despite her doubts she could feel she was right. "Listen, I'm telling you, Jack is not in some bullshit church in Montana. He's…" She struggled to remember. "Erg, somewhere rainy and wooded!"

"Rainy and wooded, you say?" She cringed angrily at the sound of Dean's voice. "That's really great, very helpful. Say, maybe we should look up your little murder buddy-OwnsHisOwnAxe69, was it?-and ask if he's got Jack stashed in the Marin Headlands?" Dean's voice dripped with sarcasm.

George shook her head at him and closed her eyes tight in an effort to block out his negativity. Walking slowly away from him and into the map room, she started talking to herself, in a pointedly loud voice. Her focus bounced between episodes from the show and conversations with her friend, Ryan, a Supernatural Encyclopedia. She was hoping she could piece together something useful.

"OK, hang on, Jack is born, gets sucked into Apocalypse World, comes back, has his grace stolen but he's safely with you guys, he's happy, he's great-albeit, moody and not the best at video games. Then he disappears and you can't find him, yadda yadda."

While she rambled, her mind's eye began conjuring images of what she assumed were scenes from the episode she was trying to think of. While helpful, it was also disconcerting since she'd never actually seen it. She thought perhaps she'd seen clips on youtube while watching bloopers? She never could stay away from them, even if she hadn't seen the episode yet; they were just too funny. Maybe her overactive imagination was just creating scenes around what little knowledge she did have, "...and there's an epic-potentially deadly-fight scene at the end of one of the last episodes of the season. An episode that was, oh so noteworthily filmed on location iiiiinnn…" She tried to demand that her memories behave for her but it was challenging, considering she shouldn't have any memories of having watched the damn thing at all. "...where? Fuck me!" She snarled, chasing desperately after her murky visions as they swirled too abstractly for her to discern.

In a sudden moment of unusual clarity she could see the words displayed behind her eyelids. '...False Klamath? Where the fuck… why does that sound familiar? She flashed to the location in her memories and saw big wooden statues towering outside the scenic little tourist trap

Her eyes popped open with a gasp, "Johnny Appleseed!"

"Johnny Appleseed?" Dean teased, mock exasperatedly, "We're trying to find JACK."

"The Johnny Appleseed statue at The Trees of Enigma! Just outside False Klamath, Oregon!" She slammed both her hands down on the table in front of her in uncontrollably jubilant victory. "HA! Take THAT!" She jumped up excitedly and punched her fist in the air. "I did it! I remembered!"

"Sam, can you translate any of this?" Dean asked, annoyed.

"On the show," She started smugly, before Sam could say anything, "the battle that you two get into when you find Jack, takes place at a tourist spot called The Trees of Enigma. The episode was filmed on location at said tourist spot, in-say it with me now-False Klamath, Oregon. Oregon, Dean. A place that is known for being both rainy and wooded." Her finger was placed on the map table in the general area of Oregon, "that's where you'll find Jack. I'm sure of it." Her adrenaline was pumping and she was so stoked. It felt really good to be useful; like she was part of the show!

"Yea, that's great, sounds fun," Dean started dismissively, though toned down a bit, "but we're not risking Jack's life to follow your hunch."

"Excuse me. Why is my so-called hunch less believable than a demon's word? Especially a demon named Cleetus. Rude," George looked particularly offended now.

"Tim gave us real, solid intel and we've never had a problem when we've relied on our trusted resources in the past," He answered confidently. George's head jerked toward him like she hadn't heard correctly and she gave Sam and Castiel some crazy eyebrows.

"Sorry, you understand that I do watch the show, right?" She asked rhetorically, with a doubtful expression. When he rolled his eyes, she let out a frustrated huff. "Dean, think about this! He's a demon! He lies! Look, I know you have no reason in the world to trust me but you've got to; just think about it. Even IF it is demons that have Jack, don't you think it's possible that the prisoner demon you're threatening to torture might give you a false lead? Especially if he's naive enough to think he'll be able to escape and doesn't want to get in trouble with his bosses? C'mon, this is not-the-sharpest-tack-Tim we're talking about!"

Sam and Castiel had agreeably expressions but Dean's was stubbornly disagreeable, though she could tell he knew she was right. The thought of them going to Montana gave her a dreadful, suffocating feeling, like death.

So, she tried one more tactic and held her hands up in prayer, "Dean please, I don't know what and I don't know how I know, but I know in my gut that if you go to Montana, something terrible will happen. And Jack's not there, I promise you." She dropped all the bullshit and gave him her best seriously-just-listen-to-me face but Dean still wasn't budging.

"Christ, I knew you were stubborn but this is ridiculous, ugh. OK, fine!" She threw her hands up and turned on her heel, heading toward the dungeon.

"Wait, where are you going?" Sam asked quickly.

"Obviously I didn't hurt his feelings badly enough the first time, so I'm going to go have another chat with Cleetus and get him to admit that he's a liar, liar, pant-"

"Er-you... can't do that," Sam cut her off apologetically.

"Sam, he's handcuffed to a chair. I appreciate the concern but-"

"He means you really can't," Dean added. George looked toward him annoyed and Dean continued, "After he gave us everything we needed we pretty much, chk," he finished, slicing a finger across his throat in demonstration. When she looked like she wanted to strangle him, he shrugged and offered, "RIP Cleetus."

George rolled her eyes in exasperation, "But he was lying! Don't you confirm the information before you cut off the source?! Oh my god, why am I even asking? You're the Winchesters, of course you don't." The three of men looked between each other guiltily and she placed her hand on her hip, "What if that was just an act and Tim saw an opportunity. Feeding you some bullshit so that you couldn't actually find Jack? Or, maybe Tim has nothing to do with Jack at all, and sending you to Montana is just a good old fashioned ambush?!" She paused for a moment and gave a surprised, appreciative nod, "Hmm, maybe I underestimated ole' Cleetus a bit. Could have been smarter than I thought."

"She does have a point, Dean. The chances that he was lying are incredibly high," Cas conceded slightly, giving Dean a questioning look. "We have no proof that his lead is any better than hers. Demon's lie."

"Damnit, alright, fine," Dean said, sighing angrily. "Sam and I will go to Oregon to look for Jack; Cas, check out Butte-carefully, strictly recon, do not engage-and call us if you find any trace of him." He shot a quick warning look at George. "We'll turn around and come right to you. Sound like a plan? Great, let's go."

"Wait, no! Don't send him to Butte! Didn't you hear me? If it's an ambush, he'll get his ass kicked!"

"Hey." Cas looked hurt and George softened her face at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry Castiel. You're a total badass when the plot calls for it, otherwise, getting beat up is just kind of your MO." Ignoring the confused look on the angel's face, She turned back to Dean, "and besides you need Castiel in Oregon, Dean. I've seen it!"

"Oh? I thought you hadn't 'seen this episode yet'?" Dean said sarcastically.

"I-I… Well, OK, I haven't, but I've seen the three of you and Jack all together for this fight. Just trust me, you need him there. What if Jack is hurt when you find him? Cas can heal him, right?" She made a questioning face to Castiel; at the moment she couldn't remember the extent of his powers on the show and he was always losing one or another for whatever reason, anyway. But if she was right, she figured that even if Dean wouldn't trust her gut, he might trust that having a healing angel on their journey would be a benefit. "Is that a power you have? I feel like I've seen you do that."

"She's right, Dean. I can heal him if we find him injured," Cas offered her helpfully and she shot him a grateful expression, actually looking him in the eyes for the first time, albeit fleetingly.

"Have you seen Jack get hurt?" Sam asked her, trying to help, too. He remained a neutral party at this point, but if he was honest with himself, he believed her. Maybe a little too much, which is why he was trying to stay impartial. If he was being blinded by his confusing memories and the undeniable-yet-currently-being-denied feelings he was developing for her and ended up wrong, Jack could be killed.

"Uh… I mean, no… not definitively, but it's pretty standard for the show. You're all constantly getting hurt during fights and when it's close to a season finale the danger factor is skyhigh for anyone who isn't you two…" After motioning to the brothers, she trailed off, afraid that this reasoning was going to hurt her more than help her.

Sam gave her a long, contemplative look before finally offering, "I can have a small team go check out Butte. Maybe Garth can join? Last time I talked to him he was near there."

Dean's teeth and fists were clenched as he took a deep, exaggerated breath, "Fine. We'll send a group to Butte and call Garth from the road-No arguments!" He held up his hand to her as she opened her mouth to speak. "The three of us are going to Oregon, just as you demand, but I'm not leaving anything to chance on some alien's hunch. Garth can handle himself."

She made an indignant face at him-she wasn't an alien, she was from an alternate reality! Get it right. But, while she was afraid of someone getting hurt in the obvious trap that had been set for them in Montana, the thought of Garth going instead didn't give her the same full-body fear shudder. So, she figured she'd take what she could get and not push the issue further. Besides, she knew Dean wasn't going to be happy about her next move and she had to pick her battles.

[galaxysedginess]

The Lawful

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Bo-Katan Kryze & Satine Kryze

Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Satine Kryze, Anakin Skywalker, Darth Maul, Bo-Katan Kryze, Ursa Wren

Additional Tags: Satine Kryze Lives, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s05e16 The Lawless, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Near Death Experiences, Romance, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Questioning the Code

Ao3 Link

“Attachment, Rang a pesky voice in his head. He was unsure whom it precisely belonged to, but for that matter of seconds, as he drank in the sight of seeing and feeling her alive, he shoved away his doubts."

Or, what if Anakin came along to rescue the Duchess of Mandalore?

The blood was pounding in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s ears as they bounded by means of jetpack through the skies of Sundari, smoke and blaster bolts streaking the once pale beautiful horizon. Not for the first time since their capture and subsequent escape, he wished he still donned the Mandalorian helmet that he’d “borrowed” earlier. He rapidly blinked, trying his best to avoid running into one of Mandalore’s grandstanding skyscrapers or any of the ex-Death Watch warriors that escorted him. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure which would be worse.

As Bo-Katan narrowly avoided collision after Obi-Wan had veered a bit too far to the right in attempting to evade shrapnel from another explosion, he deduced from her clipped tone that he may have better luck with the former as opposed to the ladder.

“Watch it, Jetii .”

“A bit tough to do with the change of scenery.” He countered back, managing a level tone despite the twist in his gut at seeing the seemingly utopian landscape reduced to yet another war.

The part of him that would normally take the moment to question the Death Watch’s motives was subdued by the situation at hand, which seemed to position them as allies in a turn of fate. Thank the force for that, because had it not been for their intervention, this would not have gone nearly as smoothly as he would have liked.

A blaster cannon soared from behind them, barely missing in part due to Bo-Katan’s unwavering determination to whip them every which way to shake off the enemy. He was grateful for it, but that didn’t stop the grimace that rose in his throat as they barrel rolled yet again.

He really hated flying.

He forced his eyes to remain forward and called on the living force to guide them through the despair, pulling from the light. He had to admit that it was difficult, surrounded by such destruction. Beneath them, a hospital was destroyed. To their left, a school and onwards, a market place. All were casualties in a needless fight that was orchestrated from the bloodthirsty dark side.

Who could want any of this?

If there was one thing Obi-Wan had learned through the countless tragedies from the Clone Wars, was that maybe, there was no such thing as true peace. Not the lasting kind, anyway.

Despite the chaos and mayhem that quite literally engulfed them in their haphazard attempt at an escape, topped off with Maul’s squadron of Mandalorians in tow, he still couldn’t find it in himself to wholly believe that. Not when there was still a chance.

Not when even through the smoke and the blood that polluted the once regulated airflow, he could make out the distinct and faint scent of water lilies brushing against his nose. Regardless of her several days of encampment and near-death, Duchess Satine Kryze still clutched onto him with the strength of a stubborn Tooka cat on its favorite scratching post, even if properly strapped to him prior. Obi-Wan could hardly blame her though, seeing as he was also determined to not allow something as frivolous as a faulty harness to be the cause of Satine’s demise.

Not when it seemed far too achingly close just minutes before.

He didn’t so much as have a moment to consider if she was truly alright, but he guessed that time would have to be for later. They had to move .

“Kenobi! Up ahead!” Ursa Wren shouted above the sounds of blaster fire from the treacherous crimson-colored warriors at their tails.

He did not need to see the ship to know that Anakin was close, the warm bond that had been kindled and strengthened after years of training. It felt a bit like a light at the end of a dreary tunnel. Anakin had not been keen on Obi-Wan’s direct orders to stick with the ship, but he’d hesitantly relented after it had become obvious, try as he might to deny it as he may, this was personal for Obi-Wan.

He would not be dragging Anakin or anyone else down with him on this mission.

However, in this present moment, when all he could taste was smoke and stray wind-beaten blonde hair, he was relieved for his former apprentice’s decision to stow-away (even if it had caused him grief earlier). The ship was beaten to a pulp, but it looked like in Obi-Wan’s absence, Anakin had made some modifications to it.

“Always on the move.” He internally chided, but again, could not stop the flush of elation that permeated across his chest, freeing some of the tension that had been knotted there ever since he first received Satine’s distress call.

That reprieve, unfortunately, was instantaneously cut loose when he felt himself whipped backwards and away from the ship that they were heading towards. Bo-Katan turned, mid-air and despite not being able to see her facial expression thanks to the mask on her head, he knew what she saw was far from good.

“Leaving so soon?” A raspy familiar voice shouted from behind them and Obi-Wan cursed.

He cocked his head over his shoulder, noting that none other than Maul stood on top of a speeder, darksaber drawn and ready, two of his faithful warriors at his side. His eyes perfectly matched the roaring fires that burned behind him. Obi-Wan did his best to shield Satine from seeing him, squeezing her tighter to his chest.

“You should know about running away.” He goaded, though Bo-Katan grunted in disapproval at his banter.

“You cannot run from destiny, Kenobi.” He said almost softly, gritting his yellow teeth as he stretched out in the force to attempt to pull them in as though they were caught in a ship’s tractor beam. “I have taken your master and now, I will have your beloved too.”

Obi-Wan resisted to his best ability without dropping Satine, placing them in what felt like a reverberated limbo, dangling above her people who cried for help as their newly “pledged” leader strove only for his own gains, which evidently included making Obi-Wan’s life as difficult and miserable as possible. On one end, there was victory in the form of retreat, with the engines running the promise for what would hopefully be a new tomorrow for Mandalore and its people. On the other, a painful and torturous end.

The aching in his bones and muscles said otherwise, but he knew, deep in his soul that this wasn’t the end.  

He meant it earlier when he’d insisted it took strength to resist the dark side and he hadn’t just meant from the moral standpoint of pushing against darkness, but the sheer physicality of warding off Maul’s strangling grasp. Slowly, but surely, the jetpack began inching forward yet again and Maul released an infuriated scream, no doubt channeling the deepest of anguish to overpower Obi-Wan.

“But you won’t have Mandalore.” Came Bo-Katan’s grated voice, not muddled with resignation, but resolve, as she and her fellow “deserters” charged forward in an attack sequence that was clearly rehearsed beforehand.

“Bo!” Satine’s voice broke through the disarray for the first time in anguish.

“GET HER OUT OF HERE!” Bo-Katan shouted with only a single glance backwards before throwing herself directly in front of Maul and his readied blade. She parried him, prepared for the strike, but it was unclear how long even someone as strong as herself could hold off against the former Sith lord.

Cold realization settled in to Obi-Wan as he felt Satine’s pain through the force. This was her sister.

Once again, he regretfully didn’t have time to ponder this news. Maul’s cronies, dead set on appeasing their new leader, shot skillfully at Obi-Wan, and managed to scuff the left turbine engine, sending sparks as he and Satine briefly wavered. There was a single second where time passed terribly slow until Obi-Wan used everything left in him to push them forward through the force, throttling through the small entryway of the ship and skitting to an ungraceful landing across the durasteel floor of the ship. He didn’t release the breath he’d unknowingly been holding until the thrum of the ship indicated that it had launched into deep space.

They laid there for an uncertain amount of time before the shock of their own escape settled into their bones. It was Satine, who raised her head first, looking fearful at what she might find in his gaze, but for once, he did not hesitate or subdue himself when he reached forward and framed her face in his gloved hands.

Her alabaster skin was dusted in soot and her eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion and immense sadness, making the intensity of their azure depths all the more captivating. He couldn’t remember last seeing her hair absent of any regality or so wind-swept, but the image reminded him painfully of a different time when Mandalore had been on the brink of swallowing itself whole and when they’d stolen glances and held hands beneath a shared cloak. Except this time, he came so narrowly close to losing her, that the weight of that guilt nearly crushed him.

“Attachment .” Rang a pesky voice in his head. He was unsure whom it precisely belonged to, but for that matter of seconds, as he drank in the sight of seeing and feeling her alive he shoved away his doubts.

She was alive. Right here in front of him. Closer than she’d been in years.

He also had to force away thoughts of when he’d last held her.

She opened her mouth to speak before closing it, taking in his face with her eyes with the same line of reverence that he felt.

“I’ve loved you always. I always will.” She’d said that. Those had been her chosen final words and he winced at how little he deserved them. How he didn’t deserve her or this moment of reprieve.

At the reminder of her close-call, he perked up instantly, feeling a bit ridiculous not to have immediately addressed her wounds.

“The darksaber.” Was all he could blurt out as he tenderly inspected the patch of exposed skin on her torso.

“It’s just a graze.” Was all she said in a hoarse voice, eyes still glued to his face as she reached out and smoothed what would likely become a scathing bruise across his cheekbone.

“A bump.” He said gently and held the hand that touched his cheek, feeling queasily reminiscent of when he believed for a moment that she was to die in his arms. She had literally met the blunt of the darksaber and yet she could only think of him. Both were of equal standing in terms of colloquialism, but neither were too fond of words at the moment. Obi-Wan didn’t have any for how he felt. Jedi weren’t supposed to, anyway.

Even that thought didn’t yet shake him as they still sat tangled together, simply amazed that the other was here.

“Ben.” She said gently, hardly above a whisper and the resurrection of the old nickname both tickled and pricked something soft in him that he believed had long since been put to sleep.

“Satine.” He said, trying to sound level, self-assured, but feeling none of that. “I thought…”

“I did too.” She swallowed and nodded before pressing her forehead to his. “I did too.”

“I wanted you to know-” He began speaking before his mind could catch up with him, paranoid instantly where his words would lead him without abandon, but showing no signs of stopping as he felt himself melt into her.

“-Well, don’t everyone thank me at-” A smug and approaching voice cut off surely at the sight of the uncharacteristically vulnerable scene he’d unknowingly interrupted.

“-Once.”Anakin winced as he leaned against the hanger door, shrugging in apology to Obi-Wan, who was trying very hard to give him a disapproving glance that was supposed to convey that nothing was happening, even if, Obi-Wan, himself wasn’t even sure if that were true. He just couldn’t tell whether he was grateful or wistful at his former padawan’s interference.

For Satine’s part, the bubble had been effectively popped as she straightened and stood to her feet, somehow looking regal even in the same clothes she’d worn for well over a week and with the dark circles under her eyes. There was still immense sadness there, no doubt for her people and for the sacrifice of her sister, but she’d returned to being the leader again.

“I am eternally grateful for the assist, Master Jedi.” She said in an even tone that didn’t dare suggest she’d been so close to crying.

Anakin nodded stiffly, shooting a brief glance at Obi-Wan to try and get a better read on the room before deciding it was best not to pry too much… Yet.

Obi-Wan grimaced as he knew what unrelenting teasing was heading his way once they were out of harm’s way.

“We’ll get you to safety, Duchess.” He said kindly. “You can count on us.”

She seemed to bristle at that and Obi-Wan could see the argument forming on her tongue about how cowardly she was being or that her safety would be a price she was more than willing to pay for her people. However, she swallowed them and nodded curtly instead. The exhaustion seemed to weigh on her for the first time as well as real dread. He wanted to probe for more, to try and help, but he knew this wasn’t the time. Satine would need and want space, which he would certainly give her.

He would also do everything in his power to get Mandalore back for her again. For the galaxy. Surely, that’s why.

“Yes, I can.” She finally said smoothly, sneaking a look at Obi-Wan that made him question for the millionth time in knowing her if she could read his mind.

And as Anakin retreated back to the cockpit and implored Obi-Wan to follow to discuss what half-truths they would tell the council as to why they broke rank to rescue Satine, Obi-Wan knew he was lying to himself.

[strongerwiththepack]

Fab-Five-Feb: Scott

Biggest bro’s time to shine. Poor Scott, so many little brothers to keep track of - and they don’t make it easy for him. A stressed Scott trying to keep all his trouble-prone brothers alive is a common theme in my writing :) Thanks again @gumnut-logic for the fab challenge! If you squint you will find the prompt “What do you mean?” in here somewhere. 

“I’m not leaving her Scott!” Virgil shouted through the comms. Scott could hear the strain in his voice. The raspy tones caused by the growing volume of smoke. Virgil had already been in that house for too long.

“It’s too late Virgil. Turn around and head back.” Scott replied grimly. “That’s an order.”

“But Scott…”

“I know Virg.” Scott’s voice held a type of misery that was reserved for the most dire situations. “There’s nothing more we can do.”

There was a long pause of silence on the line.

“Confirm Virgil.”

A sigh. “FAB Scott. Heading out now.”

Knowing that his brother was headed out of harms way made Scott’s adrenaline ebb away. His field commander persona slipped ever so slightly as he cried out in frustration.

9 years old. The girl in that building was only 9 years old. There had been a rapid spread of fires in this neighbourhood and the residents hadn’t had any chance to evacuate. When International Rescue arrived a young women had been screaming that her daughter was still inside their now up in flames house.

They hadn’t hesitated. Virgil had been inside for over 20 minutes now. No sign of the girl. Scott hoped beyond hope that she wasn’t in there. That she had managed to escape by herself. The alternative was too horrible to consider.

The building was highly unstable now. Scott had been forced to order Virgil to call off the search. Parts of the roof were already crumbling in on themselves. It would be a matter of minutes before the whole place came down.

“Virgil, what’s your status.” Scott muttered into his comm as he began to worry about why his younger brother wasn’t out yet.

Silence.

“Virgil. Report.” He tried again.

It was John who answered him this time.

“I’m tracking him, he’s not heading out Scott.” John said grimly. “In fact he’s been moving further in.”

Scott’s heart clenched as he tried the comm again. “Virgil. I am ordering you to leave that building.”

Silence.

He started moving towards the entrance.

“Scott, stop.” John’s voice came through hurriedly. “You can’t go in there.”

“Virgil’s in there.”

“Virgil is wearing a fire protection suit, if you go into that house you won’t last 60 seconds.” John relayed in a calm voice that grated on Scott’s nerves.

“The suit won’t protect him if the bloody building collapses on top of him!”

John didn’t reply. Scott knew he was being unfair. John was just supplying him with facts, it wasn’t his little brothers fault that Virgil wasn’t answering his comm.

A cough though the comms had Scott standing up straighter practically bouncing on his heels as he listened.

“Enough Scott.” Virgil’s voice was clear as day.

“Virgil I swear to god if you don’t get your arse out here in the next 30 seconds-”

“I heard a cry Scott.” Virgil grunted. “She’s here. I can’t leave her.”

The building gave an almighty groan.

Scott panicked. “I’m sorry Virg but we can’t save everyone”

It hurt Scott to say but it was true. They couldn’t rescue anyone if they were dead.

It was a quiet whisper.

“I’m sorry Scott.”

“No.” Scott said firmly, emotions pouring through the stern voice. “Virgil, don’t you dare do this.”

The familiar beep of the comm being disconnected struck Scott straight in the heart. He screamed at the door of the building. “Virgil!”

“John!” Scott frantically yelled. “Get him back on the comm.”

“I can’t just-“

“What do you mean you can’t!? John I swear to god if you don’t force a connection through-”

The building gave almighty shudder before slowly collapsing in on itself. Scott watched helplessly as ceiling became floor and floor became debris. Flames still licking at the blackened remains.

“No. No. Nononono” Scott stood wide eyed watching the remains, not believing that his brother could be under all that.

He snapped himself out of the daze. “John. Get me a fire services team here now.”

“Already on route Scott.” John replied and Scott could hear the shakiness in the space monitors voice. It took a lot to shake his younger brother but Scott didn’t have time to deal with that right now.

Scott took a double-take at the rubble as he saw a piece of cladding shifting upwards. He almost cried out in relief when he saw the arm of the exo-suit pushing out of the rubble.

“Virgil!” he cried as he ran forward. “I have eyes on him John.”

Please be okay. Please be okay.

He still couldn’t get too close to the depleting flames. The heat burned on his skin as he tried to edge closer.

When Virgil had fully uncovered himself, Scott noticed a bundle of blankets in his arms. He was confused momentarily before his eyes widened further. The girl!

With a civilian back in the mix Scott managed to slip back into his field commander role. He squinted to see what condition they both appeared to be in.

“Virgil!” He shouted. “You have to get her away from the flames.”

He didn’t know if his brother was injured but they didn’t have any other options at the moment. Virgil seemed to have heard him though as he slowly rose, legs shaking in the process. He kept the bundle of blankets wrapped close to his chest. God, Scott hope she was still alive. He darkly wondered how someone could have survived that without any protection gear though.

His brother started moving towards him slowly. Scott shouted encouragements as Virgil stumbled multiple times. He always kept the bundle pulled close to his chest though. When Virgil was within a metres distance, Scott couldn’t help himself. He sprung forward pulling his brother away from the flames and hissing at the heat burnt his arms.

Virgil collapsed to his knees as soon as he was clear of the debris. He coughed harshly and Scott quickly removed his brothers helmet that clearly wasn’t helping anymore.

Virgil held out his arms in a silent plea. Scott carefully took the bundle and shuddered. The small body felt lifeless in his arms. He felt the wetness of the blankets as he gently unravelled them. The must have been soaked in water.

He saw Virgil collapse behind him and it hurt so much that he couldn’t check on him just yet.

He found the young girls face, darkened with soot but with an oxygen mask placed firmly over her mouth. He eyes were closed and she was breathing harshly but at least she was breathing, thank god. He saw paramedics sprinting towards them and sighed in relief. They could take her from here.

Once he was sure she was being cared for he hastily crawled across to his brother. Virgil’s eyes were open, if only barely, as he lay on his side taking ragged breaths.

Scott’s eyes watered.

“Idiot.” He whispered harshly even as he gently brushed Virgil’s hair back away from his face.

Virgil just gave him a sad smile, not yet ready to say anything.

“Don’t you ever do something like that again.”

Scott said it more out of pretence than anything else. Virgil knew it too as he just held his brothers gaze sadly. Virgil had saved that little girl. It would always be worth it in his mind.

Another paramedic came over to help them and Scott shifted aside slightly as his brother was fitted with an oxygen mask and rolled onto a hover stretcher. The fire suit was singed and ripped and by the pained look on his little brothers face Scott was sure his body was littered with burns.

Idiot. He repeated again in his head as he walked alongside the stretcher towards the waiting ambulance.

It was sometime later, after Virgil had been treated and was sleeping peacefully in the local hospital that Scott gave a sigh of relief. It had been a stressful day. He’d already had a long conversation with John, making sure his space-bound brother wasn’t spiralling in silence after the days event.

Scott knew he hadn’t been the kindest to his younger brother throughout the ordeal. He’d already ordered John down for mandatory leave. Scott didn’t want his brother up alone on Thunderbird Five right now, John needed to be with his family.

Scott sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead softly. He peered over at Virgil. How did they end up in this mess? Oh yeah, because Virgil’s an idiot who doesn’t listen to direct orders.

Scott sighed again. He couldn’t really be annoyed. That little girl had survived. She was alive because of Virgil actions.

So yeah Virgil was an idiot, but he was Scott’s idiot. And Scott wouldn’t trade him for a thing.

[the-goddessfighter]

[Werewolf-Vampire AU -SEQUEL VIII: Family Reunion- ]

 by : Little1993lamb

for: Temperans-sama / @the-goddessfighter 

Words count : 7557

Warning : Long long sequel is very loooong again, as this becomes the longest sequel so far. I actually have to split the initial sequel plan for this and make it as a whole new title. Many kissy-kissy Batarou moments and many more of heartwarming moments for our WereVamp family ahead, all of them, yaay! Also, who wants to see Batarou sweet moment about Garou giving a special present to Badd on their date night? Hmm..

 Disclaimer: Gaman, the Batarou love child, is Original Character created by amazing @the-goddessfighter. Not mine, I just borrowed him temporarily for this story at her permission ;D

  @kaincuro @metalbatandzenko @dies-first @beautifulnightmareus @guppys-paw @ruby-ess

 - VIII -

The moment after Garou left the battlefront to fight against Amai Mask, the fighter team werewolf pack alliances was temporarily lead by Bomb. He couldn't leave the battlefield to come checking Bang's condition in Imperial Palace right now, for he must leading his team to win this war. Bomb hoped his little brother is going to be alright, it worried him so much that he poured his frustation out onto the enemies, demolishing them together with the team. The more he stalling the time, the more his pack alliances members would die, and he didn't want any of that happened. Not to mention his stamina wouldn't last longer, different from when he's in prime age like decades ago, he blamed his old age. Because of that he must ended this battle as soon as possible, as fast as he could.

 Finally soon after that, Bomb along with his remaining Alpha warrior members defeated the last batch of assassin enemies then captured and restrained them, so the royal law enforcer could arrested them later. Some of the werewolf alliance members relayed the information to the Imperial Palace current residents that all of the assassin pureblood vampire army in the battlefront has been successfully defeated. Now they just waiting the royal family vampires do their job to clean the mess.

 Wanted to rest for a while after fighting nonstop, Bomb sat down on the ruined grass field that used to be the Vampire Council Fortress' front yard beautiful garden. He took a relaxed breath while watching the aftermath battle scenery around him. There are many of his own remaining Alpha warrior subordinates who helped the werewolf alliances members from Bang's and Garou's division to bring the war criminals into the Fortress, with assistance from the non-sabotaged guards and the law enforcer officers from royal family. Bomb felt relieved that finally this battle took them into good direction, where vampires and werewolf set aside their differences to help each other. But he knows that their great achievement followed by more greater sacrifices.

 He saw from the corner of his eyes their subordinates covering their fallen comrades and bring them into Fortress' side yard, where all the bodies of the fallen werewolf warriors were laid down in rows, waiting for their funeral ceremony time in Memorial Cemetery for Heroes. On the other hand, the corpses of the dead assassin vampires were collected on the other corner of Fortress' frontyard, waiting to be buried without honour in the forest. There's no fancy ceremony for a bunch of Vampire Order traitors, no matter how high their social status among the communities, nothing at all. And the remained alive assassin pureblood clan members will be punished severely and forever being humiliated for the rest of their life.

 It's an irony: how the highest rank of pureblood vampire clan stumbled down to become the lowest beings in their own society, when the lowly werewolf tribes they hates for centuries raised up to gain the highest honour they ever received from the supposed sworn enemies. Bomb chuckled at the thought, but he calmed himself before he got up from his sitting position. He walked through his werewolf alliances members who still busy cleaning the war mess along with the royal guards, to the Fortress' side yard.

 Arrived at the place, Bomb crouched down beside his, Bang's, and Garou's fallen subordinate bodies. There's too many victims of this war from their side. Even though it's saddening him, he's proud of them all. As an Alpha Warrior himself, he's proud that all of his comrades and subordinates, also all the other werewolf fighters from another divisions, carried out their mandate they're vowed before to protect their family and innocent people until their last breath. And as their leader, Bomb will never forget their sacrifice. He hoped that wherever they go after they're died, they will happy in there now.

 After Bomb giving the moment of silence for all ofthe fallen heroes, he decided that it's time to go checking Bang's condition at evacuation area in Imperial Palace. Suddenly he heard someone running from the forest direction in hurry, when he looked up to see who was that he felt relieved instantly. It's his nephew, Garou. And it seems he's winning the fight against that snob vampire assassin bastard who hurted his little brother, that's good thing.

 For a moment Garou saw Bomb and waving his hand for him before continue running towards the Imperial Palace. Bomb guessed that Garou wanted to meet his Mate and the rest of his family. With a slow smile, he walked to the same direction as Garou. Just walking though, no running anymore because he's an old wolf and also his body was already tired as hell.

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 Back to several minutes at the evacuation area inside Imperial Palace before war ended, Zenko was busy healing and recovering Bang's condition who's now sleeping peacefully on the makeshift bed in the emergency infirmary. He was poisoned before from the wound infection by Amai Mask's poison-coated weapon. And it made Zenko really furious because firstly, how dare that vampire hurted her family member again! Secondly, the difficulty level to find the exact rare poison antidote before Bang's condition got worsened was hellish thing to do for Zenko.

 Fortunately Tareo finally find the poison antidote that he brew himself on the spot quickly, he was panicked when searching the right formula but managed to make it perfectly as what Zenko asked. As soon as it finished being brewed, Zenko made Bang drink it to neutralize the poison first, before she started on healing the internal damages in Bang's body caused by the poison.

 While Zenko taking care of Bang with her healer vampire magic, Tareo continue to aid the other doctors and nurses, also other medical staffs helping the injured werewolf fighters. He's specialized on treating the physical or external injuries, with good knowledge to make potions and some medicines in emergency situation. While the werewolves have very excellent quick regenerative abilities, if the injury was heavy enough, especially on vital organs, or they've got too many injuries at the same time, it could endanger their life. So, real quick treatment is an important thing to do to save them.

 With the large amount of the fighters getting injured in this war, some of them even in comatose condition, this was really busy field day for every medical staffs in evacuation area, included Zenko and Tareo. But because of the first prioritity is the people's life safety, none of them ever complained about being too exhausted. They must do their job until they've made sure everyone got proper medical treatment.

 Then there's the werewolves rescue team who relayed the information from outside, coming hurriedly to the Imperial Palace to announce that the war between the werewolf fighters and the treacherous pureblood vampire assassin army has already ended. And that they have the promised victory. Everybody screaming in joy, both from vampires side and werewolves side. No more dividing wall between them, they just celebrated their victory together in sheer amount of happiness, hugging each other as the grateful feeling of being saved by the heroes in battlefield.

 Badd, who still guarding with sleeping Gaman at the Imperial Palace gateway, heard the news and let out his relieved sigh. Finally the painful memories of his horrible past was ended along with this last battle. Badd thanked whoever werewolf pack members in the alliances fighting in the battlefront, for granted his wishes to end the cycle of hate by stopping the greedy pureblood vampire clan's advances.

 He could say goodbye to his terrible nightmares that always plaguing him for so many years, even when he'd got guaranted safety from his Mate every night. Not to mention Badd could finally get rid of the worry feeling he had everytime he imagined that the pureblood vampires targeting his new family again, especially Gaman.

 His son, his own child, the miracle boy who finally unlocked all of wonderful potential he had just now. Using them first to save him, secondly to fight side-by-side with Garou and him, then lastly back-to-back with him. How Badd really proud of Gaman and made him loving his son more than before. He though of that while hugged Gaman tightly in his arms, kissing the top of his head softly. Once he's awake and the situation getting more condusive, Badd is gonna show Gaman how proud he is to him by celebrate Gaman's successful glorious transformation along with Garou and the rest of family.

 But until now, he should focusing on the safety of his family packs, not to mention he also worried for Bang's critical condition. He's very shocked when his pack members brought the unconscious Bang to the evacuation area's infirmary. Hopefully he's going to be alright by now.

 Decided to move Gaman into the more comfortable place to sleep, Badd craddle-carried him while walking into the Imperial Palace. When he entered the gate, he could hear and see many people rejoicing their battle victory. Some of them even embracing each other without any discrimination, werewolves and vampires celebrating it shoulder to shoulder.

 When Badd arrived in the main hall of Imperial Palace where the emergency infirmary located, he'd seen many of his injured but already recovered pack members still resting on their makeshift bed. Most was sleeping, but the ones who's awake were being thanked by the royal family or vampire civilians.

 Even Badd found out his one or two werewolf pack members getting a crush on by some young male vampires who give them a flower bouquet as thankful gift. Where were they get that flower from so quickly? And one of them even bravely kissing his subordinate on the cheek! Hmm, that's gonna be interesting...

 Hearing too much noisy voices, Gaman stirred up in his sleep in Badd's craddle. Didn't want to disturb his sleeping, Badd quickened his walking pace toward the most quiet resting place on the corner of hall. It was a small guest room where he saw Bang's followers sitting stand-by in front of the room. As soon as Badd coming closer, they recognised him and give brief salutation to acknowledge Badd as someone who had a higher position than them.

 So this is where Bang was resting? They opened the door for him, and when he's entered the room there's Zenko and Tareo in here watching over Bang, who's already awake now. Bang offered Badd to hand over sleeping Gaman to him, so Gaman could sleep in the bed beside Bang. Gaman immediately curled against his grandpa, feel more comfortable now he's asleep on proper bed.

 Badd gives hugs for Zenko and Tareo, thanked them for their great job at helping people in the Imperial Palace. Badd asked Bang if he's okay or not, because he's still worried about Bang's health condition. Bang answered that he's already feels so much better thanks to Zenko and Tareo, also seeing Gaman again made it perfect, he's not feeling pain anymore. Then the four of them sharing a brief story from each side so they could understand what happened on them hours ago.

 Hearing Badd's story, Bang felt very proud of his grandson it brought him to tears, knowing that now Gaman finally found his true self to protect their family on the first try. Bang hugged Gaman who's still in a deep sleep beside him and kissing his forehead with so much care for him. Hearing Bang's story, Badd was furious for what Amai did to him. He hoped Garou could kick his ass real hard this time for them. Speaking of Garou, Badd hadn't seen him coming back to the Fortress. Maybe it's time for Badd searching for his dear husband Garou.

 He asked Bang's and Zenko's permission to go outside looking for Garou, and to entrust Gaman temporarily to them while he's outside. They permitted Badd, but not before Zenko asking Badd for him giving a congratulatory kiss for Garou, she said he totally deserved that for kicking Amai's ass! It made Badd blushed hearing Zenko's suggestion, but agreed with her nonetheless. Besides, it was actually his initial plan once he found Garou. He got out Bang's room and walking towards the Imperial Palace gate.

 Badd was only stepped out from the gate when he saw Garou coming towards him. It seems Garou also had already seen Badd from afar just from looking at how excited his dorky expression and his running speed. A very happy looking smile spread from his lips, Badd joined running towards him with the same enthusiasm. They finally met in the middle then immediately hugged each other tightly. Garou even swooped Badd up and spun him around, while Badd clung onto Garou's neck, both of them laughing wholeheartedly together before Garou putting him down on the ground again.

 Still clinging tightly onto each other, Badd couldn't exactly described verbally how much he missed his werewolf husband, so he just nuzzling Garou's neck then gazing softly into his eyes. Garou definitely understand what Badd was meant to express just by looking at Badd's delighted face and his twinkling eyes when he's gazing at Garou. Garou never get bored seeing how adorable his Mate is whenever he's in his arms, truly the most beautiful person in Garou's world.

 Replied with the same adoring smile, Garou kissed Badd slow but passionately, pouring all of his feeling out into the kiss. The love he feels for Badd never once wavering nor faltered, it strenghtened throughout time they've been together. Just like this moment. For a brief second Garou letting go of their lip-locking act to take a breath, then resumed the kiss with even more intimacy than before. It made Badd whimpering softly into Garou's mouth, his knees weakened and he'd be fallen down if not for Garou's strong arms supporting his standing position.

 Not too long after that, Garou ended their intimate kiss but still peppering small kisses on both of Badd's cheeks, nose, forehead, the on the top of his head while inhaling his hair scent. It still smell sweet even though it's overlapped with the blood scent. But thankfully Badd still alright, no one hurting him or even touched him in wrong way. That Badd still alive, Garou could feel the beats of Badd's heart thumping rapidly beneath his hands on Badd's back. Garou wanted to thank Who Have Great Power Above for keeping his Mate alive to him. Letting out a relieved sigh, he released his embrace then smiling widely to Badd, the usual adorkable smile that Badd loves to see.

 Didn't want to lose from his adorkable husband, Badd eagerly reciprocated his silent declaration of love. With the strong yet tender hands, Badd cupped Garou's cheeks and caressing them for a while, before he tiptoeing and encircled his arms on Garou's neck. His finger running through Garou's silky hair then finally pulled Garou closer again to share a very deep kiss together. Garou was more than happy to oblige him, in fact he loves it very much when Badd started to get addicted with his kisses. They didn't care about the passerby people seeing them doing all of it in public, not after both of them nearly separated by death. It's the best moment to express how much they're grateful to be reunited again.

 Especially for Badd, who got worried nonstop for Garou, afraid that some assassin vampire bastard like Amai Mask fatally hurted him like what he did to Bang. So it brought Badd to tears for having Garou coming back to him unscathed, made him kissing Garou more enthusiastically because he's just overjoyed. Unconsciously, Badd nipped Garou lips until it bled a bit. He eagerly sucked and licked Garou's sweet blood, while still maintaining their deep kiss. After feeling like eternity, they finally breaking their snogging session in public. Foreheads still touching, they laughing together in relief while remained hugging each other tightly.

 Suddenly there's clapping sounds that got more louder and louder coming from their surrounding. Curiously, Badd and Garou immediately looked around them. Turned out, their packs members, the werewolf alliances, and also vampire civillians applauded together for both of them, joining to celebrate the reunion of the most controversial yet romantic couple in their society. All seemed very happy for them too, no resentment detected from the expression or the reaction from what Badd and Garou just did, only pure supports.

 Applause sounds then also added with many other voices, such as cheering, cat calling, hollering, praises, congratulatory, complain for their Bosses to get a room immediately or not to PDA again, and many more noises. But the similarities, everyone approved their relationship. Seeing all being very supportive to their loving relationship, it made Badd wanted to cry happily again. And then he's really bawling in the middle of Fortress' side yard, in the arms of his very confused dorky werewolf husband, in the center of equally confused people's attention.

 After a lot consoling and made Badd calmed himself, both of them thanking all the people for their supports. Of course it followed by people thanking them instead, for being very good co-leaders at the battle (this come from Garou and Badd's werewolf subordinate and family packs) and for being their heroes (this come from vampire civillians). Now that Garou already comeback to him again, Badd decided to go back to their family along with Garou. He thought maybe they'll stay in Imperial Palace for one night, considering it's already at dusk and they all are still in recovery time from battle, royal family offering their Palace to become sort of guest home for them. They walking back to Bang's room so they could resting for a while.

 Immediately after they entered the room, Garou hurriedly running to Bang' bed side and hugging him. Garou was very worried for his father figure's condition all these time, so when he saw Bang was safe he felt so relieved. Bang was surprised briefly, but he accepted Garou's sincere gesture by returning the hug, telling him he's alright by now, just need a bit rest with Gaman. Bang said he was very proud of everything Garou did as Alpha warrior who lead the entire alliances members in the battlefield. He never regret his decision to choose Garou as his successor, and it's already proved this time.

 Listening the kind and wise words from Bang, Garou only could mumbled thank you repeatedly while his body started shaking and then there's tiny sound of sniffling. He was so glad Bang survived and still alive, then telling him that he's very proud of him, the former rebel kid. Badd was the first realized it, immediately thinks, "oh no, now Garou is the one who's crying". He then coming to Garou's side and leaning to his shoulder, trying to calm his husband down whereas Bang only fondly smiling while patting Garou's back.

 The noises woke Gaman up, he rubs his still sleepy eyes and when Gaman saw his dad and father has already come back together he called them. Hearing his little son calling him, Garou wiped his tears off then offering Gaman his hug. Gaman quickly hugged Garou, telling him that he and Father Badd missed Dad Garou so much, and he's happy that now they could be together again. To emphasize how much Gaman missed his dad, he smooches Garou's cheek and said "I love you Dad", before clinging on Garou's neck tightly. Garou chuckled at Gaman's behaviour, definitely mini clone of Badd because he's doing the same thing as Badd. Parents's habit really inherited to their child, eh?

 Determined to lightened up the atmosphere, Garou lifted Gaman up in the air and spun him around in the middle of the room. Garou said to Gaman that he's very proud of him for his successful first transformation as WereVampire hybrid and his wonderful fighting teamwork that they did together before. That's why once they gets home after all the family packs recovered they will throw a celebratory party for Gaman. Both of them giggling in joyfulness together. Bang only nodded in approval of Garou's plan, while Badd letting out a small laugh seeing his husband silly antic to their son, but he's happy to see them full of joy like this. He decided to stop Garou spinning Gaman around before both of them getting dizzy.

 At the same time, Bomb, Tareo, and, Zenko entered the room together. Bomb was initially wanted to come visiting Bang soon, but he must be going hunting animals in the forest first with other Alpha warriors, to prepare dinner for all of werewolves who stay overnight in Imperial Palace. Whereas Tareo and Zenko had just finished their shift in the infirmary, they're too tired to attend the crowded dinner feast in the Palace garden, they've decided to just have a dinner in Bang's room. That's why Bomb bringing Bang's and their dinner into the room so they could eat in here together while resting. Everyone else already joining the dinner feast outside the Palace, which is just started by now.

 Tareo, who saw his usually cool Protector Leader swinging his overjoyed son in the air and spinning him around while giggling like a madman, only blinking his eyes and give Zenko "what-are-they-even-doing" look. Zenko just shrugged his shoulders, already immune to those kind of silly sceneries in their home. Fortunately his big brother stopped them right there so they wont fallen off from dizziness.

 Bomb put their dinner container onto the big table in the corner of the room, then continue walking to Bang's bed side, patted his shoulder and asking how was Bang feeling right now, or is he alright already. Bang knew his big brother really worried for him since that incident, so he reassured him that he's already get the best treatment thanks to the amazing kids' help (he meant Zenko and Tareo), even better after he took a nap together with his grandson. Bang glanced to his family who gathered together here, seeing what they do now.

 The guilty-looked Garou was handed the nauseated Gaman to Badd, who's scolding Garou because he made Gaman feel dizzy, while hugging his son carefully so he wont vomit. Tareo was busying himself preparing their dinner on the table, then Zenko asked Garou to come help her arranging the plates and the eating utensils. Bang explained to Bomb, even though his family is always sorta messy like this, but they're very precious to him and he loves them so much. He wont regreted to have a unique family like what he had now. Never. Bomb quickly understood Bang, glad that his little brother feels happy with his little family.

 Already finished being prepared, they started to have a dinner together in Bang's room. The crowd noises coming from the werewolf dinner feast outside of Palace could be heard from there, and also the deliciously barbecued meat aroma that they've made near the bonfire could be smelled from every corner in the Palace. As their leader of the alliances and the Big Boss for his subordinates, he should be joining the crowd to have dinner together with them. But instead of going outside, he stayed to eat his dinner in the room with Badd and the others. He rather be with his own family than with anyone else. Besides, he didn't feel comfortable enough to be in the crowd. Too much people around him when he's still eating was not good. Maybe he just going outside after he finished eating to seek fresh night air.

 Bang was on his bed and Bomb sitting accompanied him on the bedside, eating together while chatting occasionally. The rest were sitting on big carpet near the window, circling around their dinner meal. Tareo excitedly telling all of his experiences story during his time in infirmary with Zenko to them, while still in the middle of eating his portion of BBQ meat. Badd told him to slow down and don't talk too much with mouth still full. Just a few seconds after Badd warned him, Tareo got choked on his own food that it made Badd fetch a glass of water for him, said "told you so" exasperatedly. Zenko complained Tareo to be more careful, while happily sipping an animal blood pack beside him.

 Badd resumed to drink his own bottle of blood wine, a present from some member of royal family. And of course it's not the one made from human blood, for he refuse to drink anything beside animal blood or his Mate's blood. He leaned on Garou's shoulder who was eating a big chunk of BBQ meat together with Gaman in his lap. When it comes to eating dinner, his husband always turned into a blackhole, wolfed all down (heh, "wolfed") in just a few minutes until nothing left on the table. Badd hoped Gaman wont following his feral dad's habit, at least right now Gaman has some decency in him, like eating meat slowly and not making a mess during eating. Maybe next time he will teach Gaman the proper eating manner in the family before it becomes too late.

 Seeing Garou left some messy smear of meat juice on the corner of his lips, it made want to lick it off. But everyone else were here so he shouldn't do PDA in front of them. On the other side, he really wanted to give Garou some husband-wife lovey-dovey moment, too. It was too tempting for Badd, especially after the whole nearly-separated-by-death experience they suffered together. After a hot minute thinking about that, Badd decided to fuck it, he'll do it right now. He shifted closer to Garou then licked the remaining meat juice off from the corner of his lips. Garou got surprised by Badd's action but didn't mind it at all. He turned to face Badd while giving him his trademark sly smirk, before move forward to kiss Badd on the lips, complete with lewd humming that earned Badd's soft whimpering noises.

 Seeing these two making out shamelessly when everyone still eating, Zenko was pointing and screaming in protest at her big brother and her big brother in law, reprimand them to stop doing that in front of her. Also she asked Gaman to quickly close his innocent eyes and ears to prevent any horror imageries entered his pure mind. Poor Gaman who's still currently sitting in between his parents. He's closing his eyes tight and put his hands to close both of his sensitive ears with grimace expression, wondering when will his dad and father stopped their kissy-kissy moment. Gaman was wondering, have they forgot he still sit right there, just below them?!

 Tareo was so done with his guardian and co-leader's antics, he just started collecting his own dirty dishes, and left to clean it up. Bang was actually seems amused watching both his son's and his son in law's happy moment, thinking "aaah young love", but he really wanted to save his grandson's innocence from them. Bomb was pondering maybe they should keep their youthful romance down when there's a whole family watching them.

 When he was finished eating with Gaman, of course after Badd and him got earful complaint from Zenko, Garou realized that Badd was eyeing his pouch bag which he put down on the table suspiciously. He knew Badd will be able to smell something odd from them, as his vampire senses are excellent like werewolf's. Now that they all finished having dinner, it's time to bring Badd outside with him. He picked up his pouch and tied it around his hip. Then Garou grabbed Badd's hand and made him standing up from his sitting position, asking if he wanted to go outside with him together as their "romantic date night", then giving Badd a flirtatious wink. Both Zenko and Tareo groaning at the sight of that, ushering them to just go while they will stay inside babysitting Gaman.

 Badd considering this was his chance to have quality time with Garou, but he got a feeling it must be related with Garou wanna talk about the strange thing in his pouch. He could feel it coming. He accepted Garou's invitation and letting him lead the way. Before they leave, Badd giving Gaman a hug and kiss, ensured him that they will be back soon. Gaman nodded and give his father his cheerful smile, wishing him to have a good date night with his dad. Garou waving his hand to Gaman from the doorway and Gaman wave him back, before Badd following Garou leaving the room.

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 Garou and Badd walking together until they arrived at the main entrance of the Palace. From there, they could see many people attended the dinner feast at the Palace Garden. Werewolves and vampires gathering together, blending perfectly into one community. Same as what their own family did inside Bang's room, the werewolves alliances members eating the dinner feast, while the vampire civilians and some royal family member drinking blood wine together with them.

 Most of them eating or drinking while chatting and laughing together out loud around the bonfire, a few of them were lingering around in the corner or the side yard. And Badd could even see there are his werewolves subordinates trying to flirt (or court? he felt déja vu) some poor young vampires, who seems to accept their attempt. Looks like there will be not only Garou and him as werewolf-vampire couple who have a romantic date tonight.

 Seeing everywhere already too crowded, Garou suggested if they should go to the less crowded area, but he still not familiarized enough with the entire place. Badd had already know both the Vampire Council Fortress and Imperial Palace, thanks to his experiences when he visited this place several times with his late family back then in the childhood years. Badd decided to bring Garou to the small river on the east wing of Imperial Palace complex, where they could hang out on the beautiful wooden bridge that was built across the river. He held Garou's large calloused hand so he could lead him towards the place. Also an excuse to feel the warmth of Garou's hand emanated onto his from their handholding.

 On their way to the river, Garou sensed there's someone had occupied the secluded section of the Palace Garden. He found out that it was one of his subordinate, making out with a young male vampire?? Since when? Why didn't he know about this before?? Sighing while facepalming at his husband's confused expression (and at the sight of "the scenery"), Badd explained that it's happened when their subordinate was still being medically treated in the infirmary. He already saw that because he's also in there while searching for Bang's room before.

 Guess these two got too fast progression, but Badd was happy for them. Seems like more werewolves taking an interest for vampires as their Mate, and for vampires considering werewolves as the potential good love interests. Good for them. On the downside, he got bad feeling that soon he's going to be a marriage or relationship counselour for his subordinates. Badd was shaking his head, now he feels Garou and him had become sort of trendsetters or relationship goal.

 Being a sly bastard leader, Garou made a loud coughing sound to distrack the subordinate and his new lover then casually waving his hand to them both with wide naughty smirk. He continued it by doing exaggerated kissy-kissy gesture to Badd, mimicking of what he saw the subordinate have done before (Badd reprimand Garou to stop that, he'll embarrass the poor couple).

 Of course it made the young vampire becomes too shy, he's hiding in the arms of Garou's subordinate, who looked mortified yet exasperated that his leader cockblocked them in the hottest moment. But the vampire's eyes sparkled when he saw Badd, as if he regarded Badd as his idol or inspirational person. He encouraged himself to shout a "Thank you!" to Badd, which got an approval thumbs up and soft smile from Badd.

 Not wanting to disturb the newly couple any longer, Badd grabbed his silly husband's hand so they could continue their journey towards their date destination. Finally they're arrived at the riverside, where the straight wooden bridge with a lots of beautiful decorative ornaments on the railing connected the Palace area to the private Recreational Garden for the royal family. The river is not too rapid flowing one, its water is very clear you can see many small fish under the surface and some crayfish on the river floor, the sky full of twinkling stars sceneries looked better to watch from atop the bridge, and the moonlight shone brightly upon the riverbank and the garden.

 Of course the Recreational Garden was closed for anyone who's not royal family or their relative, unless they've got a permission first or was invited by them. Badd remember he'd already visited the Garden with both of his parents and baby Zenko when his father was invited by the Queen to talk about some Order's issues. If only he could have a picnic right there once again with his new family...

 A soft thud from Badd's behind break his thoughts, he turned around only to find Garou kneeling before him. In his hand was a pouch which made Badd feels very curious. Garou began his speech, he's telling Badd that before he confronted Amai Mask who hurted Bang, pursued him into the forest then had a big fight right there. Garou didn't expect Amai would use a last resort plan to fight him, the vampire changed himself into his Fighter mode, just like Badd. But for him, it looked more like a monster, both outside or inside. Amai almost put him into nearly death experience after his monstrous transformation, and he's afraid that he couldn't fulfill his promise for Badd to come back alive.

 But once he remember Badd's words about keeping the family safe with all of his might, and he only use the power not to hurt people but to protect them with love, it give him strength. It made Garou more determined to not giving up so he could always protect his family, just like Badd always do. Somehow that precious memories about his whole family triggers new power inside of him, same as what both Badd and Gaman had, the "Fighting Spirit". Because Badd once told him that it actually could be learned as long as the person has a strong determination to protect their beloved people, right? With a new power he just obtained, he could defeat Amai Mask quickly. And Garou made sure he wont interfere Badd's life again, no more nightmarish dream for Badd, no one will get hurt by him anymore.

��That's why Garou will present Badd his final courting gift, to prove that he was successfully protect his packs family and his people, also eliminated the biggest threat for his own family. Badd watching Garou opened his pouch to reveal a heart organ cadaver, and presented it in front of Badd like he was giving a very valuable gift. This really shocked Badd because it implied that Garou killed Amai after defeated him, then pulled his heart out of his body.

 He already knew very well that Garou had no qualms about killing people who he deemed could endanger his pack family, but it's only on self-defensive and not actively attacking people without any reason. But this time, Badd was amazed about the fact that Garou did it all for him. To prove that Garou truly loves him by making sure noone would hurting him anymore. Maybe presenting the enemies' heart to their Mate is the romantic way for werewolves to show how much they love their Mate? Wow, Badd was actually impressed by Garou's romantic gesture. Somehow that was quite touching, too. It brought Badd nearly in tears, and made him giving Garou a very sweet adoring smile that only reserved for his dear werewolf husband.

 Seeing Badd's sweet expression, Garou got excited and turned into dorky puppy mode, asked if Badd really likes his gift. Badd only smiling wider, then suddenly frowned and put a disgusting face (B: "Garou WTH you doing??! That's diSGUSTANG AF!!", G: *shocked* "But I thought you will like it, Babe?!", B: "Yeah of course I like it but do you have to carry it along with you the WHOLE DAY? It smells yucky iuuugh..", G: *sad puppy wolf noises*).

 Not wanting Garou to becomes a miserable puppy wolf, Badd cupped Garou's hand that still clutched a heart cadaver gift with both of his hands. Badd said it was just a joke, because in truth this is actually the best present he'd have ever received in his entire life. No one before willing to do something for his sake this far, moreover as a romantic gift for him. No one except Garou, who stubbornly courting him despite their status as natural sworn enemies. Who succesfully preyed his way into Badd's delicate heart, and made Badd into his forever Mate. Promised Badd that he will always be there for him, and not hesitated to prove it to him.

 So of course what Garou did was meant so much to him, and to be honest even it sounds impossible, that gesture made Badd becomes more fallen in love with Garou.

 Badd pulled Garou up so they're both standing in the middle of the bridge, under the moonlight and twinkling star. He declared that he accepted Garou's gift as the best courting present to strenghten their bond, both as Co-Leaders of their packs family and as Mates for life. Hands still clasped on Garou's hand, Badd stepped closer to Garou then tiptoeing to kiss him on the lips softly. Happy that Badd already accepted his love proof, Garou responded him by grabbed Badd's nape with his free hand so they've become much more closer to each other, and their kiss become more deeper and passionate. For a moment they released the kiss to catch their breath only to have their lips connected again in so much more aggressive kisses.

 Luckily for them, nobody is around to witness or to hear these werewolf-vampire Mates sharing such an intimate moment together without any care for outside world. They're already in their own world, showing how devoted them to each other without saying any word, only all the loving and affectionate gestures. As usual, Badd was melted from their intense kissing acts. Not only because Garou secretly a very passionate lover, but also he himself letting his own feeling for Garou out during the acts. Garou always enjoying the soft and sweet whimpering sounds from his adorable vampire Mate, not to mention Badd's reddened blushing face is very precious! Only him who can see the vulnerable side of Badd!

 As soon as he thought of that, he break the kiss and instead peppering small kisses from Badd's jawline down to his neck, until he stopped on Badd's shoulder where he used to bite as a part of their Mating ritual back then. The mark is still remained on Badd's deliciously flawless caramel tan skin, showing Garou's ownership upon Badd as an Alpha Werewolf's Mate. He decided to renew his mark as he whispering to Badd, asking for Badd's consent to bite him again. Badd immediately allowed Garou to have his way, he didn't mind. He even tilted his neck in the most vulnerable way, offered his uncovered shoulder so Garou could bite him more freely.

 Feeling glad Badd was very cooperative, Garou swiped his tongue on the side of Badd's neck that it caused Badd shivering from the sensation. With final lingering kiss on the shoulder, Garou bite it hard until it bled a bit. That made Badd moaned from the pain and pleasure from the bite. Still hurts like their first time they did it, but Badd enjoyed this so much. After Garou finished re-marking Badd, he lapped the remaining of Badd's blood. Tasted bittersweet for Garou, but he likes it.

 All of the re-marking ritual have finished, Garou smooched Badd's forehead. They're back to gazing into each other's eyes lovingly, followed by Garou giving Badd his usual trademark troublemaker smirking, whereas Badd tried to suppress his giggling, but ended up bursting into loud laughter. He couldn't believe that Garou successfully managed to make both of them making out while still clutching Amai Mask's yucky rotten heart cadaver??! Oh Lord, what even his husband is, Badd shaking his head amusedly. Not wanting to waste time any longer, Badd taking Garou's present and grasped it with his palm. He said a thank you to his husband sincerely, for doing this for the sake of their family and also to him.

 He staring at the organ in his hand, admiring about how neat Garou's work on pulling Amai's heart out. Minimum damages on the organ's tissues, both outside and inside tissues, indicated that Garou excels at impaling the enemy's torso and cutting the organ off from the body with such precision. It's like he's already trained or experienced to do it for so many times long time ago. Badd shuddered at the imageries of cold-blooded "Hunter Killer" Rogue Alpha Werewolf Garou in the past. Luckily, he could tamed that terrifying Garou into a more softer "Family Man" Alpha Werewolf Leader Garou. With a Power of Love. Oh no, Badd started getting sappy romantic again.

 Already make up his mind, Badd walked back to the riverbank. He reached his metal bat that he was previously attached on his hip strap, throwing Amai's heart cadaver into the air then smashed it real hard with his metal bat until it exploded into small chunks of rotten meat. Garou was surprised at Badd's decision and panickedly asked why he did it.

 Badd retaliated how else he was supposed to do with that rotten organ. Saving it as trophy at home? No, it's super disgustang, he wont having any smelly rotten corpse in their house, thank you very much. Give it to Tama as her plaything? He's 100% sure she wont even touched it. Give it to Rover as a food? Do you want him getting poisoned?! Or worst, make Badd eating it?? Uugh Garou WTF, you eat it instead!! The only solution is to destroy all of Amai's existence from his life until nothing left behind. Besides, he's fully appreciated all of Garou's deed for him. Sincerely. So Garou didn't have to worry about it anymore.

 Felt disgusted after too long holding a rotten cadaver, he washed his hands and the metal bat on the river. After drying his hands and reattached his metal bat back to the hip strap, Badd comes back walking to the middle of the bridge again to hug Garou tightly, leaned his head on his shoulder comfortably. Garou returned the embrace with same intensity, enjoying the serene atmosphere that surrounded them on the wooden bridge across the small river.

 Badd thinks this is not quite a bad date night, on the contrary he even enjoyed it thanks to Garou's surprise gift, it made him feels very special tonight. On the other matter, he also enjoyed a lot being with Garou, just two of them having a quality time together without anyone complained for their PDA.

 Garou smiled at hearing Badd's reasoning then replied, it's nice to spend quiet time with only Badd tonight. Letting out of all their happiness feeling, before they attend the mass burial ceremony for their fallen friends in the next morning. Badd felt a bit sad after being reminded of the harsh reality of their victory, of course they'd lost many of theif friends, colleagues, even their own packs family members, too.

 Sensed Badd's somber mood, Garou pulled him deeper into his embrace while caressing Badd's back or Badd's soft jet black hair, calming and reassuring him that everything's gonna be okay. Let them rest peacefully after finished their honoured mission, Garou was sure the fallen heroes now also celebrated their victory together happily in some better place than in here.

 And the ones who still alive should be grateful for them, remembering all the great services they offered to the alive ones. Badd didn't have to worry if he wanna cry at the ceremony, Garou always will be on his side lending his shoulder to cry for Badd.

 Badd only responded by nodding weakly while hugged Garou more tighter, he really hoped everything is gonna be alright, just like what Garou ensured him. But he set those gloomy mind aside for a while so they could enjoyed their happy time together right now.

 The sounds of crickets and the rustle of tree leaves become more vivid in the background. The sounds of water flowing in the river and occasionally the splashing of small fish on the water surface gives the calming effect for both of them. The chilling night wind blowing through their bodies not even make them feeling bothered, it's soothing on their skin instead. They feel blessed to have date night at there, basking in moonlight shower and somehow the sparkling stars made the night sky looked more beautiful to gaze about tonight. They just stand here in silence, enjoyed their loving moment while it lasts.

  -TBC-

  Notes:

 Originally I was supposed to write the actual conclusion in this sequel (Peace Treaty), but I got carried away when writing nearly every single Batarou family member interactions + Batarou lovey dovey moments, lol!.

 Because it becomes too long if I still insisted on stick to the initial plan, I split it in the middle instead: this sequel focused on the family reunion only, and then the next is the funeral ceremony + peace treaty between werewolves and vampires. And it's still too long, I'm so sorry if it makes your eyes feel tired 😁💦

 When you dedicated 5-6 paragraphs on your story just to describe their making out scenes... I lost control guys, sowwie! But it's still good right? At least it's not as cringy as my action scenes on previous sequel oof 😅😂

 My favorite parts are when they're gathering in Bang's room (the whole family assembled!), or the entire Batarou moments on the wooden bridge at the riverbank. Oh yeah also the hints that there's influx on werewolf-vampire couples among Batarou packs family, lmaoo!!

 What's the more romantic way than presenting your dead enemy's heart to your lover as a special courting gift, hmm?? Aren't Garou a truly romantic at heart? Awww Badd is swooning right now 😩👌💗💘💓

 And I headcanoned past!Garou after he's separating himself from Bang's pack, but long before meeting Badd and Zenko, as a cold-blooded "Hunter Killer" Rogue Alpha Werewolf Garou. I mean he's still not actively killing any hunters (could be werewolf hunters or vampire hunters, or something else), but he only killing them if it's ONLY ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, such as defended himself in or guarding his territory from potentionally dangerous hunters.

 Yes Garou can be very scary if he's in killer mode, but as what Badd had said fortunately he tamed Garou and slowly melting Garou's cold heart. And VOILA! He's become adorkable wolf puppy who loves his entire family, also become a respectable leader of his own pack! 👏👏😭💕💖

 "Behind a successful man, there is a strong (and fearsome) wife" - Dyan, about werewolf!Garou and vampire!Badd 😤

 Next is the two ceremonial events, the fallen heroes' burial and Badd's official job assignment in the Vampire Order. Please stay tune with me, friends!

 -Little1993lamb-

[norcumii]

Ruminating on Rebels, 2

I know I took awhile with this episode, but boy does it feel long. The pacing is off? Or my brain is just unhappy. No idea which. I suspect that’s just my brain, though.

SPOILERS AHEAD. REBELS CRITICAL. For details what this is about, here’s a post.  My relevant tag is “throwing popcorn at Rebels”.

Episode 2: Spark of Rebellion Part II

Overview:

Ezra runs into the Star Destroyer to warn the team, gets to Zeb and Kanan just before they get ganked at the cell block. Sabine cuts the gravity, leaves a lot of explosives at the control room, but Ezra gets caught on the way out. The Ghost crew makes it to hyper before finding this out from Zeb, vote on going back or not. Kallus makes a pretext of questioning Ezra (note: I think it’s meant as legit, but it felt lackluster), and then Ezra escapes as the Ghost crew arrives to rescue him. They meet up part way and book it, only to find that while escaping, Ezra overheard where the wookies REALLY were being held. Off they go to Kessel to save the wookiees! Fight scene at the spice mines, leading to Kanan using the lightsaber and getting ID’d as a Jedi, Ezra faces off against Kallus to save a kid wookiee, the team escapes. Kanan offers Ezra a chance to join up and learn to use the Force, and away they go to a  dramatic voice-over by Obi-Wan via holocron recording.

Random impressions:

These wookiees are AWFUL

PLASTIC FOR YOU, PLASTIC FOR YOU, BAD ACTION FIGURES OF EEEEEEVERYONE

I really, REALLY, R E A L L Y don’t like Hera. She’s advertised as team leader and Space!Mom, but all I keep seeing is manipulative bullshit. Apparently letting Ezra take the holocron was a test to see if he was Force sensitive. Her comment in the Ghost the last episode about “If all you do is fight for your own life, then your life is worth nothing” - aaaagh. That – I get what they’re TRYING to say, about having Purpose is good, but having been in A Very Bad Place where all I could do was cling by my fingernails and try to take care of myself because 1, no one else would and 2, that was literally all I could manage – that just smacks me in the face with guilt-tripping. I know it’s not meant to be that, just...UGH. At best, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m going to continue side-eyeing her until she proves she’s not ACTUALLY an asshole, and yes, that is apparently an uphill battle.

The rescued wookiees say that if the Ghost crew “ever need help, they’ll be there” - THAT BETTER PAY OUT BEFORE THE SERIES IS OVER. (spoiler: Wookieepedia indicates it does not. I am disappoint, though I will keep an eye out in case it’s wrong.)

I am totally convinced now that Ezra HAS actually been using the Force awhile. The way he somersaults over crates into cover – dodging blaster bolts – and then later over a trooper to get between him and a Wookiee kid – that’s something Ezra KNOWS he can do. Like, past experience doing that sort of leap. I want to see how this interacts with Kanan’s lessons.

Kanan dodges bolts a lot more than he reflects them, but when he does they tend to take out troopers effectively. Someone’s spent time practicing.

Speaking of, he goes WAY hard on the Stoic Holy Jedi (With A Lightsaber Up His Ass) thing. Ugh. I want the goofy smuggler more. That’s more fun, AND show’s growth away from his past. We’ll see how that interacts with right now he’s trying to Jedi because oh noes, it’s a padawan (WHUT DOOOOOO)!

When Kanan shows up to save Ezra, he’s is riding on top the ghost, which pops up alongside the catwalk. ....meaning Mr. Drama Llama opened the doors to a shipping crate in flight and somehow flipped his way up to the top of the ship, OR lightsabered his way an exit through the TOP of the crate, which I hope was done carefully or they took out parts of the magnetic seal keeping the crate attached to the bottom of the ship. ...Jedi. SIGH. WHY COULD NO ONE MAKE A CRACK ABOUT THAT? YES IT WAS IMPRESSIVE, BUT THEN AFTERWARDS IT MAKES A GREAT TENSION RELEASE TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT WAS UNUSUAL. Meh. Ok, that one’s probably me being too finicky.

Sabine left about 20 explosives in the control room. Just one of those has been shown to be enough to blast open doors and destroy a speeder bike. HOW MUCH BOOM DO YOU NEED? I mean, ok, this leads to a hole in the side of the super star destroyer (venting atmosphere! :D That was some LOVELY animation and there WAS squee about that!)

Zeb is a gods damned wreck. If he were less physically violent, I would pick him as a favorite, because interesting non-human and it’s clearly trauma and not knowing how to people that leads to him being...him. However, I can’t get over the way he’s THAT rough. There’s a line between “you’re dealing with old issues poorly, and that expresses itself through (at best) roughhousing and not gauging your own strength” and “you’re beating up on others and using your trauma as an excuse for it, and we all know how well ‘cool motive still murder’ works as a defense.”

When Ezra left, Chopper made sad bwoops and waved goodbye in a non-sarcastic way. Whut.

The animators are still not getting clear direction. The bit that really jumped out at me was when Ezra saves the kid wookiee, he’s shown hoisting the kid’s cuffed hands and looking all puzzled at the binders – and we just saw how he IMMEDIATELY knew how to pick those things open on the adult wookiees. Possibly just me being nitpicky again, but it’s very jarring to me.

The “I swear, if he gets left behind again it is not my fault!” bit showed up, and I can’t tell if that’s them trying to make the repetition is funny thing, or establishing a trend? I mean, I COULD see a longer running...not gag, but trend, of Zeb having to either leave or haul Ezra out of things and them bitching at each other over this for YEAAAAARS until it’s just an easy thing, a well-worn way to poke at a friend like an affable punch to the shoulder that is just a thing they do. Which could be cute, if done right.

Hopefully more coherent views:

The inter-group dynamics are wild, and I don’t think I mean that in a complimentary sense. Zeb is just...kinda broken, ok. Sabine was kind of a non-entity through most of this. I don’t have the spoons to count her lines, but the most memorable thing that she did was want to know how the explosion looked. Which...ok? I guess? Hera had more characterization, and we got the Competent!Pilot thing – along with the Manipulative Asshole thing, which yeah, I’m eyeballing a LOT more. Chopper came across as irritable and generally a cranky old man, which would fly better if Zeb wasn’t already trying to squat on that territory. It makes things feel more grating than perhaps they are. Kanan is your average Jedi but in better clothes, and I can’t tell how much sanctimoniousness is he doesn’t know how to teach, how much is just discomfort, and how much is I don’t like the manipulation of Ezra.

As for Ezra, he’s got some NEAT skills. I...kinda like the whole “nope, I’m not a hero, not running out there in a the middle of a blaster fight to save some rando” attitude because it’s hints of the hero’s journey having far to go, but there’s not enough heart of gold for me to give any shits. He’s TOO caught up in his own situation for me to care (and while I don’t blame him as a character for that, it makes him a third-rate Aladdin archetype. All the ‘in the rough’ but no ‘diamond’).

Kallus is satisfying to dislike, for all that he feels like a poor man’s Thrawn. The temper tantrum of kicking the surviving stormtrooper off the catwalk was gratuitous, but fine. We’re not supposed to like him. (Yes, I know about later, but I’m ignoring that at the moment.)

So. Yaye, I guess. We have our characters, we have our villain and our on-the-sidelines villain in the Inquisitor waiting to swoop in to be all mastermind badguy. We have our setup, and a few potential threads to follow back on.

End summary:

That was a weak (second half to a) first episode. I mean, again, that’s not a killer, but nothing about the show grabs me and goes “ISN’T THIS THING AWESOME???” There’s too much internal conflict without enough glue to bond people together, I have strong reasons to dislike almost everyone (and the rest are too undeveloped yet to really hit me one way or another). With the animation doing nothing for me, it’s...getting no traction so far.

[pilyarquitect]

War for Genius - 9.- It is a promise

Hello everyone, here I bring you the new chapter, I hope you all will like it! I really want to thank @empro-8 for helping me on editing this story, I’m very grateful to her 😊 😊 😊

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Fenton was actually flying to Waddle’s building. Mr. McDuck had called and informed him about the situation. That boy, Huey, the first person who believed in him, the one who fixed his suit, the one who spent so many hours in the hospital accompanying him while he was recovering... had been kidnapped. And the number one suspect was Mark Beaks, who else could be?

The Hispanic duck didn’t know much about the McDuck family’s numerous enemies. But he did know Beaks enough to know he could hold a deep resentment against anyone who crosses him. Fenton could only hope that if Huey was indeed in Beaks’ hands, that he could be rescued as soon as possible.

But, if the parrot wasn’t responsible of his disappearance, then Fenton would find Suspect #2 real fast. He would follow all clues until the kidnapper was found and Huey was safe.

But Fenton was worried. He didn't know what situation Huey was in, or what those who took him planned to do with him. The only thing the superhero knew, as Mr. McDuck told him, was that his capture was a deliberate attack against Huey specifically, no one else.

Yes, the duckling was the kidnappers' only objective, but what was the reason? Fenton wished with all his heart that they would find answers in Waddle, and hopefully, the boy himself.

When he got there, the first thing Fenton noticed was that his mother was there also, along with other officers and Mr. McDuck’s family. The Hispanic duck gulped. His mother didn’t know that he was now a superhero, and for obvious reasons, he wanted to keep it that way. Even still, Fenton knew there would be times that he’d have to work side by side with the police, which meant work with his mother, he had just hoped it wouldn’t be so soon. She could never discover his secret identity. The less she knew, safer she would be.

Landing at a safe distance so he wouldn’t harm anyone, Gizmoduck quickly approached Mr. McDuck and his family and said:

"Mr. McDuck! I came as fast as I could after receiving your call.”

Scrooge looked at him and nodded seriously:

"Good, lad, I'm glad ye're here."

Fenton couldn’t blame Mr. McDuck for his seriousness, especially given the situation’s gravity. Even though Fenton knew what was happening to the family, he couldn’t understand how they had been able to determine that Beaks was the one to blame for Huey's kidnapping. Gizmoduck exposed this by saying:

"If it's not too much to ask, what has led you to think that Mark Beaks is the one to blame for all this?"

Scrooge looked at the three ducklings next to him, and putting his hand on the head of the only girl in the group, the richest duck in the world replied:

"This young girl saw the kidnapper... partially, but with what she saw, we came to the conclusion that it was someone named Falcon Graves, who had worked for Beaks in the past.”

Fenton started to say something else, but just then, Mark Beaks appeared. He rolled in with his usual music and flashing Segway board, but was clearly furious. Seeing Scrooge, Gizmoduck, and all the officers, he singled Fenton’s mother out as the top officer and bellowed loudly:

"What does all this mean?!"

Fenton's mother immediately took the initiative. Stepping closer to Mark, she replied calmly:

"Mr. Beaks, you’re suspected of kidnapping a child.”

The Waddle’s CEO reeled back, apparently surprised, although Fenton couldn’t tell if his surprise was real or feigned. Then, the parrot asked:

"Kidnapping?! Kidnapping of who?”

The next person who spoke, was the other adult duck, who was next to Mr. McDuck, and seemed quite distressed by the situation. When that duck spoke, he did it practically jumping on Beaks while shouting:

"My nephew! And if I find out that you've done something to him then I'm going to... AQKKAYQBA!”

Wow, so that sailor-dressed duck was Huey's uncle, and most likely Mr. McDuck's nephew.

Fenton saw that Scrooge quickly got between that duck and Mark, while trying to calm the sailor-dressed duck down, saying:

"Come on Donald, calm down. Ye getting like this won't help us at all."

Mark narrowed his eyes and focused all his attention on the duck with a top hat. Waddle’s CEO crossed his arms and said angrily:

“Don't tell me Scrooge, do you really think that the disappearance of that nephew of yours is my work? Or is all this really a ruse to discredit me so I’ll never become richer than you?”

This time it was Scrooge's turn to squint, and glaring back at the Waddle’s CEO he replied confidently:

"I do not need to resort to such lowly measures to earn more money than you Beaks, but one thing I do share with my nephew, is if ye really are responsible of Huey’s disappearance, I will personally take care of ending ye.”

Beaks threw his arms up exasperatedly, as if for him that whole situation was absurd, and looking to Fenton's mother. He complained:

“Oh, come on, this is ridiculous officer. Why would I want to kidnap that kid? I’ve got nothing against him.”

Before any of the adults could respond, a new voice joined the conversation, saying:

"That is not true."

Everyone looked down in surprise, and saw that the one who had spoken was the little duck dressed in blue —Dewey if Fenton remembered correctly— whose hands were clenched in fists, glaring at Beaks with ferocity in his expression. The parrot focused its attention on the little one and asked:

"What?"

The duckling pointed the Waddle’s CEO with his finger and accused Mark by saying:

"I know perfectly well that you hate my brother. You can't stand him."

The other duckling, the one who wore green, stood next to Dewey and added:

"Yes, it’s true. In addition, we saw what happened the other day on television. There it could be seen pretty well that precisely... you don't like our brother.”

Mark put a hand to his chest and sounding angry, answered the two ducklings saying:

"Do you accuse me only for some images that you saw on television?"

The boy who wore blue was far from yielding to Beaks' words. He narrowed his eyes. And answered the parrot with a furiously calm voice:

“The guy who kidnapped Huey is Falcon Graves, whom you hired to steal the TAH-DAH project, a project that never really existed.”

The parrot crossed his arms at those words, and in an annoyed voice responded to those accusations:

“Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I didn’t hire Graves, my project did exist, and it was stolen by Graves in the first place! He took me hostage, remember? You just say all this because I fired you and your stupid brother when you were my interns.”

That seemed to deplete Dewey's patience, who in a clearly furious voice exploded screaming:

"You’re lying!”

Mark narrowed his eyes at the boy and responded:

"You can't prove it."

Parrot and duck looked each other furiously. It seemed that at any moment one was going to jump on the other, to the point that Fenton wondered whether he should intervene or not.

Fortunately, someone else decided to intervene, ending that discussion. And that person was his mother, who, putting herself between them, looked at the Waddle’s CEO and said:

"Mr. Beaks apart from the assumptions of this boy and his family, the police have reason to suspect you. Remember that I was here the day of the incident with Waddleduck, and I saw that the relationship between you could be considered… tense.”

The Waddle’s CEO changed his focus from Huey's brother to the police officer who had interposed herself among them. Speaking harshly, he told her:

"And that is it enough to believe that I’ve kidnapped him?"

Fenton smiled proudly when he saw his mother crossing her arms and confidently answered:

"It’s enough to consider you a suspect, and that authorizes us to investigate and register your properties."

Mark narrowed his eyes at the woman, but finally, he gave in while saying:

"Register what you want. You won’t find the boy, because I haven’t kidnapped him."

His mother took a step toward the parrot saying:

"If you're so sure about that..." then she turned to her agents, ordering them:

"All men, begin to search the building."

Then she turned back to the Waddle’s CEO and said:

"And you Mr. Beaks, I’ll need a list of your properties to be registered to them too, and don't skip any, you know we can easily contrast the information you provide us."

Beaks snorted and said that naturally he wouldn’t skip anything, because the parrot affirmed and assured that he had nothing to hide.

Fenton frowned. Despite Beaks' claims, the Hispanic duck saw him smile with some malice, as if he was hiding something and knew there was no way to be discovered. That made him suspect, it was very likely that the parrot knew more than he was letting on.

The police quickly began the building’s inspection process. Beaks was very collaborative with them, allowing them access to the entire building, to prove that he was hiding nothing. He also gave the authorities a list of all his properties, adding that if they wanted him to be present when they registered them, they only had to notify him.

All this cooperative attitude only heightened Fenton's suspicions that Beaks was hiding something. He'd have to talk with him privately, but he couldn’t do it while the search was taking place. For obvious reasons they didn’t allow Mr. McDuck's family to participate. Fortunately, he was given free access to investigate results as much as he wanted, something that Fenton obviously did, trying to not leave a single space overlooked.

When the police announced that they hadn’t found anything and that they were leaving, Fenton saw it as the chance to talk with Beaks alone. While his mother and the other officers were transmitting their results to the victim’s family, Gizmoduck went directly to Beaks office, knowing that the parrot had gone there when the police announced that they had finished.

When he arrived at Beaks' office, saw that the parrot was doing something with his laptop. This gave Fenton the idea that, if he managed to hack Beaks' servers, maybe he could get more information, and determine whether the parrot had lied to them. Something that the Hispanic duck already had as an almost absolute certainty.

That thought made him so furious that he entered to the office before he could stop himself, practically shouting:

"Beaks, where is the boy?"

The Waddle’s CEO jumped slightly at the sudden interruption, and quickly lowered the laptop screen, probably trying to hide what he was doing.

When the parrot recovered from the "fright" took a confident stance, and looking Fenton in the face said:

"Remember that I know who is hiding under that Gizmo suit, so don’t even try to threaten me. I can reveal your identity to the whole world, and we both know that you aren’t interested in that."

Getting carried away with anger had been a mistake, but in Fenton's defense, he was so worried about Huey that he couldn't help reacting like that against the most suspicious person of his disappearance.

Taking a deep breath, the Hispanic duck tried to control his growing anger, and speaking in a much calmer voice and perhaps, with a touch of supplication, Fenton said:

"Listen Beaks, I just want you to tell me if you know anything about Huey.”

The parrot smiled and leaned back in his chair. He said cheerfully, almost as if he was mocking:

"Oh, so you know him by name."

Fenton straightened, Beaks was playing with him, with what intention? He couldn’t determine it. But he couldn’t allow that bird to discover more information than necessary, so replied:

"He is the kidnapped grand-nephew of my boss, of course I know his name. They’ve called me to look for him."

The parrot smiled even more. He seemed not to believe that was the only reason Fenton knew the boy's name, and he proved it when he asked:

"Surely that it isn’t because you’ve got a closer relationship with him than with the other Duck kids?"

The Hispanic duck was quick to answer:

"It has nothing to do with that!"

But it was clear that Beaks hadn’t believed him. He spoke again, sighing lazily:

"Oh, I should’ve guessed you’d try to deny any personal attachment to the boy, because in the case that it was me who had kidnapped him, you’d think I’d use that knowledge to harm him, don't you?"

Okay, that was enough. Beaks had crossed a line by suggesting that he’d harm Huey if he had him, which was most likely did. Slamming Mark’s desk, the superhero said angrily:

“You are a monster, Beaks! Definitely, the biggest mistake I made in my life was to accept working for you.”

The parrot then narrowed his eyes. He rose, pointing his index finger at Gizmoduck and said:

“No, your biggest mistake was believing that you could wear that suit and help people. Now what? You haven’t been able to help a poor boy who has been kidnapped without a trace. And instead of looking for him, you come here accusing me of being responsible for his disappearance,”

Then Mark turned from him and headed to the window, said:

“I know that boy trusts you deeply, Gizmoduck, and you, you’ve failed him.”

Fenton clenched his hands into fists, knowing that what that parrot was saying was true. He had failed Huey, he couldn't protect him, but that didn't entitle Mark to say those words. Facing him, the superhero spoke slowly and deliberately:

"I promise Beaks. I'll find Huey, and if you happen to be the culprit of his kidnapping, I’ll make sure justice fall upon you as severely as possible."

Beaks turned to look at him with that smug smile still on his face, and cheerfully replied:

"Oh, look how I tremble. You'll never achieve anything, amigo."

Fenton's voice was much harder and more dangerous than before when he replied:

"Don't be so sure Beaks. I won't rest until I find him, that's a promise."

After these words, the Hispanic duck could see a slight flash of fear in Beaks' eyes, that was enough for him. He had nothing left to do there. He knew he wouldn’t get anything else in that place, but he also knew how to move from there, although, to do so, he needed Dr. Gearloose's help. With this in mind, Fenton left the building and after saying goodbye to Mr. McDuck flew straight to the laboratory. There was a lot of work to do.

****************************************************************************

Welp, can anyone imagine what idea has Fenton had? Do you think that it’ll work? You’ll have to wait to discover it. Now, I’d really like to know what do you think of this chapter. This will make me really happy!!

As always, I’d like to thank all the people who’ve read the story, the ones who commented, the ones who reblogged and the ones who liked it. Thank you very much!! @drummergirl231-2​ @marshmeadow12​ @infamousquack​ @jennamberking​ @alphatheplant​ @squackcrowquack​ @dragonsareawesome123​ @i-cant-find-any-creative-name​ @hakuneki07​ @hopeless-chicana​ @themagicwolf6677​  @northofanvi @greatgamedota​ @duckworth-is-love​ @sugerheart​ @welovelouie​ @demon-witch-cat​ @falcongraves​ @fantasystar14​ @wellshit333​ @mediocrecartoondrawer​  @im-only-here-for-the-memess​ @constellations1​ @ninjawarrior100​ @mulaneysnl @wellshit333​ @lightchilofthespring @shipping-potato18 @malxcarlos4ev​

[shabre-legacy]

Starbird’s Calm (revised)

Corin braced her feet and leaned across the grated floor to push her weight into the wall across from her as the captain barely gave warning before pulling the starship into another barrel roll. 

As everything stopped spinning, she continued hurrying down the corridor. Her footsteps echoed along the metal and she kept her hands braced on the walls. The Captain was a brilliant pilot; however, three ships from Galactic Customs were chasing them with orders to bring down the ship regardless of crew casualties. Getting out of this situation required some fancy maneuvers. Luckily for the crew, the artificial gravity was still working, even if the ship bucked like a plane in low atmo., at least they could still walk. Finally, she made it into the engine room and dropped to the lower platform next to the ship’s mechanic. “Captain sent me” 

“Great,” grumbled the mechanic, Aster, from under part of the containment chamber holding their ships AB Drive, “That last hit knocked the whole damned drive offline and fried half the damned connectors.” Aster didn’t look like what Corin had thought a mechanic would look like when she’d joined. Instead, a tall, lean, red-haired man in his mid-twenties. He’d been brought on as ship's mechanic before Corin had joined this crew and tended to be a good-natured, cheerful man. 

Their crew was in a particularly nasty place just now and this job had proven much more difficult then they’d thought it’d be. Who would have thought getting stolen medical supplies from the planetary corporations out to the refugees from the western quadrants would be this difficult? Sure, they didn’t exactly buy them first…. But people needed those supplies and the Starbird could outrun any of those private security or Galactic Customs ships. At least, they could when the space-damned AB Drive was fucking working. GC didn’t have FTL capable ships on security watch. If they could get the drive up, they would be in the clear. She handed Aster a wrench and started trying to figure out how to best help get the star-damned thing online again. 

AB drives were the best for faster-than-light travel, but this one seemed to always give them fits.

The Captain hadn’t stopped the ridiculous stunts that she called ‘evasive maneuvers’. The ship twisting around like they’d been hit by solar winds. The internal ship’s comms beeped online and, based on nothing but the string of curses, she could tell it was Duro, the Starbird’s navigator and Aster’s father. The old man was usually serious and quiet, but clearly pissed off at Aster. “What are you doing down there? Get that fucking drive up now! Do your damned job or I swear I will throw you out the fucking airlock myself.”

Duro devolved into more curses as the Captain yanked the ship straight up, if up could exist in space. Corin fell back and staggered a bit as the ship leveled out for another moment. This would almost be easier without the artificial gravity. Moving like they were on a planet was nice, except for now. Why was she still even on this ship? She could barely remember why she’d signed up anymore. She’d always been the type to hold her tongue and work, but this fighting made her want to start shoving people into the airlock. She wouldn’t, but she sure did feel like it.

Aster and Duro started swearing at each other again as soon as they stopped bracing themselves, The bridge, and the rest of the ship and crew, could probably hear Aster more clearly than she could, what with him having moved further under the drive’s containment in the process of his repairs. “I am doing my damn job, you old bastard!” A hand popped out from behind the unit. “Connector.”

She grabbed one from what appeared to be the ‘new connectors’ pile and rolled it to him, nearly tripping in her speed. She was not sure how much more the ship could take. She really didn’t want to die because some GC ship managed to get a lucky shot.

Duro and Aster were still cursing at each other. She honestly couldn’t pinpoint when they’d started this. he last few months had been worse, with the two of them in near constant conflict. The in-fighting had spread to the crew too. A lot of them had started snipping at each other. Turning minor issues into big fights and days of shouting matches and insults.

Corin had left home because of this. Well, not entirely because of the fighting. The constant fighting in and around her home had made it really easy to leave. If it hadn’t been for Caithi, she’d probably have left this crew now. She could barely remember why she’d come to space to begin with. This job, this crew had pushed it out of her mind. If these two, and the rest of the crew, couldn’t get themselves together long enough to finish this run, she’d kick them out herself. Kick them right into dark space.

She grabbed new tools and started another set of repairs. If they couldn’t get this online, then there’d be trouble. Their ship didn’t have the fuel capacity of the Galactic Customs ships and one vs. three usually worked out poorly for the one. 

“ENOUGH! You fucking idiots are done with this now!” The Captain's voice burst over the comms, clearly having had it with their loud, vulgar fight across the small ship. “Aster get that drive up. Duro, coordinates ready now. I want to hit FTL the fucking second that damn Drive’s good.” 

Corin ignored the men and their responses, trying to focus on her job. Space wasn’t somewhere to mess around. One wrong move, and they could be dead. The Starbird kept tilting and rolling, which slowed the work as Corin and Aster frequently had to brace themselves or hold onto whatever engine piece they could reach, so they didn’t fall across the room or into the AB drive. She’d seen what crashing into an active AB drive does to a person; it wasn’t pretty. There was also the possibility of exploding into space dust if they screwed this up. They had artificial gravity in here, but that didn’t matter much with the stunts their Captain pulled out to keep them from being shot into oblivion. 

After what felt like hours, but likely less than a minute, Aster flung himself out from under the unit and began flipping switches. Corin tightened the last containment bolt as Aster hit the primary activator and yelled at the comms “She’s up! She’s up! We’re good to go.” Corin slammed the panel on the containment unit shut and jumped back to the controls as the warbling hum began and the ship prepared to hit FTL. 

“Woo! We out, see ya jackasses!” The Captain's typical sarcastic and arrogant tone echoed from the comm as she activated the FTL controls. The ship jolted as they entered lightspace, leaving the GC ships far behind. 

Corin clapped Aster on the shoulder as he ran more scans and headed back up to the bridge, tucking a stray lock of dark brown hair back behind her ears. The corridor from the engine room rounded around the whole ship with a short hall and two steps up to reach the bridge. The Captain was leaning back in the pilots seat and relaxing a bit after their successful heist and escape. She didn’t really look like much. Captain Caithi wasn’t the striking beauty that the captains in those old pre-contact vids were. Corin had heard her described as rather plain, with long black hair tightly tied back from her face and dark amber eyes. She had a strong jaw and brow and a nose she always said was too big for her face. She seemed to be always laughing though, laughing or bragging or joking around. Corin would follow her to the depths of hell itself. 

She’d meet Caithi when the corporate freighter she’d been on ended up in a port taken over by a multi-species criminal gang. They’d taken the ship, the cargo and the crew. Caithi and her boys had shown up and rescued the ship and crew. They’d taken the cargo for themselves, but Corin had been offered a job with them. She’d probably fallen for the reckless starship captain the moment Caithi put her gun in the biggest gangster’s face and backed them down. Her threats had been bluffs, but they’d worked and Corin walked onto the Starbird and had been at Caithi’s side for the last three years.

Duro had the same red hair as his son and maybe a foot or more shorter, probably twice as broad in the shoulders though. He sat at another one of the consoles near the main piloting console, tapping away at the navigator’s screen and angrily muttering under his breath.  Another of the other crew members, Jaren, stood nearby. He was mostly muscle, a good shot, better at keeping the cargo bay organized. Short, with dark hair that curled around his ears and eyes almost darker than Corin’s own. He stood right where she’d left him when she’d been sent to help Aster; leaning against one of the few open wall spaces watching the blurred lines that space always became during FTL travel. Lightspace looked weird and strangely beautiful, by far the fastest way to travel and one of the more dangerous. 

As she stepped onto the bridge, she could hear Caithi lecturing both Duro and Aster. The same lecture they got every time they did something stupid like fighting instead of working together. This time though she seemed serious. Usually, some kind of lecture on crew cohesiveness and small spaces and compromises, but today…. “Get your shit together and figure out how to exist together without clogging the comms with your fucking fights or you’re both off this ship at the next port. AM I CLEAR!” the quiet murmurs of “Yes, Captain” from both of them were the only sounds from the crew for a few seconds. Caithi never shouted at her crew in anger. Fear, excitement, drama, sure, but never anger. She meant this threat. 

The moment of stunned silence broke as a loud crack sounded through the ship. Aster’s cursing from the engine room drowned out by the shouts of the crew as the ship spun around and shook violently as they fell out of lightspace. It took a few minutes, but the Captain managed to stabilize the Starbird and bring her to a stop, or as close to that as space allowed. Corin could almost feel the whole ship take a collective sigh of relief as the movement they could feel stopped and everyone realized they’d survived. 

The crew erupted into yelling and debating about what had happened. The sound of many feet heading towards the bridge echoed; only pausing when Aster popped onto the comms. “Looks like one of those Customs ships got a shot nearly to us when we made the jump. It caught up and hit the exterior portion of the AB Drive. The shields deflected most of the damage, but there’s still a lot and the main engine’s down too. I’m bringing ‘em up for repairs, but I don’t know how long it’ll be.” The tone in his voice left everyone a bit shaken as what he’d said sunk in. No engine. No AB Drive. No clue how long repairs would be. Their only hope being that they were near enough to somewhere populated to get a signal out. But the view out the bridge windows didn’t offer any solace. They’d been lucky not to fall out into a sun or worse. No one would come for them.

This area was beautiful though. The darkness of space around them highlighted the imploded star maze off to one side and the blues, pinks, whites and reds of nebulae and distant star systems on the other. Ahead of them they could see distant trails of light blending into the backdrop of stars and galaxies you could only see this far from civilization. They sat in what seemed to be an empty spot, safer from gravity pulls, far enough from phenomena and suns, black holes and other dangers, that they could just pause for a few minutes. The nearest nebulae, four from what she could see, painted the stars in vibrant colors and left her nearly speechless. This! This was why she’d come to space. This beauty, this freedom. The endless possibilities of seeing this. How had she ever forgotten this! This was everything and she’d found it again.

Most of the crew though, seemed caught in their worries about survival, cramming onto the bridge as they argued and cursed about what they should do. A few seemed to be in awe of the sight as well, but years in space made many a bit jaded to its beauty.

The heated arguments came to an abrupt end as the ship rocked. It stabilized for a moment and then rocked again. “What the fuck was that?” She called out into the suddenly quiet bridge. Around her, the crew shifted to prepare for whatever was coming. She saw Jaren move towards the door. You didn’t get moved in dark space by friendly things.

The crew was tense, hands on the guns tucked into their belts, ready to head to the cargo bay or up to the ship’s guns. Whatever decided to bother them wouldn’t take them down without a fight.  “Got something on the scanners” Duro tapped rapidly at the scanners display screen as though that would clear up whatever had been detected. 

“What do we got? Pirates? More GC? Space Debris?” Captain Caithi didn’t even give him a chance to answer before hitting the comms back on. “Aster, get us one of those damn engines NOW! I’m sending Jaren and Tigg down to help. Corin, if this goes bad, I need you on the front guns.”

A quick echo of “Yes, Captain” came from Jaren and Tigg as they slipped past the others and took off running to the engine room as another soft rock hit the ship. 

Aster answered with the irritation he’d had all day. “I’m fucking working on it, Captain. It’ll be ready when it’s fucking ready. It’s not my fault the damn things half-fried.” 

The Captain seemed about to hit Aster with a verbal lashing he wouldn’t soon forget when they heard it. Duro had activated the audio scanners to try to figure out what they were picking up. The song was a haunting warble. She’d only heard things like it in the nature vids from earth. Corin leaned even closer to the window and stared as the creatures finally moved into view. “No fucking way!!”

There must have been 50 of them. Massive creatures, the babies were nearly the size of the Starbird and the adults at least four times the size. Fins or wings or whatever gently moving through the empty vacuum that should kill them and yet there they flew. “Space Whales.” One of her crewmates behind her whispered as they stood stunned. 

The Captain softly called down to the engine room. “Hey boys, you gotta see this.” They all watched, crowded around the few windows. It was easy to see why people, or humans at least, called them space whales. It wasn’t only their song that reminded people of earth’s gentle giants, they looked like whales too, sort of.  Aster and the other two joined them on the bridge. All nine members of the crew crowded together watching the show. 

The pod danced and flew and played together with the colors of the nebulae and all the glittering stars behind them. Their song continued as they called to each other. An ageless melody that few would hear or believe to exist. In this moment, Corin found herself feeling completely at peace. As the whales danced among the stars, she noticed Duro moving softly. He placed a hand on Aster’s shoulder and they simply stood there; silently watching one of the rarest views in the galaxy. 

Too soon for her liking, the pod moved on. Twisting around each other and moving away as they, for a fraction of a second, appeared to blur into lines of light before vanishing. They disappeared faster then they’d arrived. The crew of the Starbird simply stood there. Staring at the nebulae and soaking in the shared experience. Many had believed that space whales didn’t exist. To have this experience, to almost literally stumble onto the pod, it felt like that first moment you see space from your first ship. Pure awe at the beauty and incredible surprises that the galaxy is capable of. 

The silence was only broken by a soft whisper from the back of the group. “Hey Dad, care to help out getting everything working again?” Corin glanced over and out the corner of her eye she saw Aster staring straight ahead as though slightly embarrassed to not be yelling. 

Duro squeezed his shoulder gently, “Of course, kid.” The warmth in his voice so unlike the tone he had lately. It was a moment like in the old stories, the ones where people looked at some old place and found they could understand each other better for a little while. The whole crew had been affected.

It would not last, there’d be more problems. They still had to fix the engines and finish the job. But this, they might make it to port now. They could work everything else out there. They’d drink and fight out their issues, so much was due to close quarters and getting distance would help. For now, calm and peace and cooperation among the crew. Maybe, just maybe, this moment of peace and reflection had been exactly what they needed.

[arolla-pine]

No room to swing a Cat? - p.23

(23) – Ladybug to the rescue!

Before the classes with Pierre de la Coste Marinette was so nervous that nothing could calm her down. Even her memories of the last talk with Adrien – especially its end with the Cheshire Cat mug in the leading role, that had lightened up her day, couldn’t help her now.

When de la Coste appeared at the door, Marinette’s stomach made a triple flip, and she clenched her fists. Fortunately, her project had been safely put down on the table before, otherwise it would have been ruined right now. She glanced at the design to check if it was okay, and because of that she missed the moment when the most hated teacher turned into an ordinary pig. Before students managed to express their delight, a strange furry creature entered the classroom and yelled:

“What will you say now, you pig?! Maybe that will teach you to respect the others!”

The students applauded, but Marinette felt torn between her duties and satisfaction of seeing her oppressor punished so spectacularly. She was sure the creature was akumatised, yet she had no idea about the reason of akumatisation nor superpowers of the villain. All in all, she had to defeat the opponent as soon as possible. And to do so, she had to escape the classroom quickly and unnoticeably.

“Quiet!” the supervillain silenced the students. “You’re not better than him! I’m Fur Fury and I’ll teach you to respect our planet and animals!”

The joy was immediately gone. Some girls began screaming in horror, and Marinette felt she was running out of time. She had to leave the room somehow and to help her colleagues to run away from the supervillain. Fortunately, Pierre de la Coste – at the moment in the form of a fat hog – was making a fuss that engaged Fur Fury enough to create an opportunity for superheroine.

Hidden behind desks, Marinette led her colleagues to the exit. She was the last who went through the door, but before she did it, she looked back if everyone had left the classroom. At that moment, she noticed Cat Noir who had just appeared on a window sill. He was checking the room to assess the situation. And finally, their eyes met. His face twitched as if he was horrified with a thought how close to the danger she’d been. Marinette nodded to give him a hint that everything was okay with her. After that she ran away to let him focus on the fight.

She immediately went to the toilet to transform into Ladybug, so she could go to fight by her partner’s side. When she jumped in the classroom she saw Cat Noir trying to avoid Fur Fury’s shots. The Hog de la Idiot was squeaking and writhing – and definitely not helping in the fight against the supervillain.

“I’ll turn you into a mouse, you alley cat!” Fury yelled.

“I admit I’m Cat Noir, but I don’t eat mice!” the superhero laughed. “Actually, I barely eat meat. You could say I’m almost a vegetarian.”

Ladybug glanced at him amused. A couple days ago he ate a pizza with salami that was totally opposite to a vegetarian meal.

“You can lie all you want!” Fury mocked. “But as soon as I hit you, we’ll know the truth! You’ll turn into an animal you’ve just eaten.”

“Oh… So you’re one of those fanatic vegetarians…” Ladybug commented ironically just to distract the opponent.

“This world is heading for destruction!” the superviallain yelled, unknowingly touching her WWF panda necklace.

“Thank you for helping in its way!” Ladybug answered back, noticing a plausible object hiding the akuma.

“Not true! All I want is to make people aware what they’re doing to those animals, to the planet!”

“Lucky charm!” Superheroine stopped chatting and went to the action.

After a second she caught a plate with a steak on it. Fur Fury rushed at her immediately, but Ladybug eluded the attack luckily, shouting to Cat Noir: ‘The necklace!’. He destroyed it with his ‘cataclysm’ and the fight was over. Ladybug purified the akuma. Seconds later both superheroes recognised a famous supermodel, sitting on the floor, confused, not remembering anything that had happened.

“What… What happened?” the woman asked.

“You were akumatised.” Ladybug explained, sitting down next to the blonde.

“And what’s that pig doing here?”

“You turned one of teachers into a hog. I have no idea what he’d done to you, but knowing him, I’m sure it was something nasty.”

“You’re right. The last thing I remember was an affront. But it started before, when I was on a meeting with one of the most popular designers. Have you heard about Gabriel Agreste, maybe?”

Cat Noir froze, and Ladybug felt her heart stopped for a moment. Poor Adrien! She couldn’t do anything to help him, except answering on behalf of them both:

“We’ve heard about him…”

“He tried to make me pose in fur coats. In animal’s natural furs! Can you imagine?! I made it clear in my contract! Everyone in fashion knows about my priorities! So, I left disgusted. But it wasn’t the end. Right after the argument with Agreste, I met this hog. He told me that I’m ‘no one’, because I come from the country with no achievements in fashion. Idiot! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! And I am not ‘no one’! I’ve worked with the best ones in the industry! I know almost all catwalks in the world. I’ve been on Vogue’s covers!”

“We know that…” Ladybug muttered. Cat Noir glanced at her in astonishment. Of course, he knew the supermodel, but how on Earth Ladybug could know her as well?

“I feel so helpless…” the blonde continued. “People are so stupid. They’re not aware that they devastate the planet. They use the cheapest fuel to heat their houses and then they breathe the air polluted by themselves. Their children breathe the same air. What will they leave as their legacy?”

“Don’t lose your faith in people…” Ladybug smiled. “Never give up. We also save Paris every single time for something bigger. For the better future…”

“Thank you.”

“So, what are we going to do with that hog?” Cat Noir cut in.

His partner looked down at her lucky charm in hesitation.

“I almost regret to use the spell fixing all damages…” she sighed. “That idiot will turn back to his mean self. I’m more than sure that he hasn’t learnt anything from this lesson…”

Cat Noir took a glance at her, uncertain. Did it mean that Pierre de la Coste’s reputation was so well-known?

“We have to go back…” he muttered to Ladybug and then turned to the supermodel: “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m great, thank you. I’m so grateful for giving me back the faith in young people.”

“You’re welcome!” Ladybug replied and added in whisper: “Oh, and thank you for the therapeutic salt. I know someone whom it helped a lot…”

Then she used her spell ‘Miraculous Ladybug!’ and observed detransforming the hog into Pierre de la Coste. She sighed regretfully. ‘Welcome back, you jerk…’

“You should apologise to this lady!” Cat Noir commanded to the teacher, indicating the supermodel. “Not only to this one…” he added under his breath.

Ladybug looked at her partner gratefully. Soon after, they both jumped out to the nearest rooftop. Both should go back to their work interrupted by the akuma attack, yet neither of them could do it. Cat Noir apparently was plucking up the courage to say something…

“Are you okay, Cat?” Ladybug finally asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.

“Not quite…”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“You’re not rushing back?” he glanced at her, surprised.

“I’ll manage.” She assured him. “I don’t have to go too far…” she added quietly, rather to herself.

“Er…”

“What’s bothering you?”

“You can retrieve everything that akuma destroys, right? Could… Could you fix something that was ruined by someone who wasn’t akumatised?”

She knew perfectly what he was referring to. She felt a heartache. For a moment she was tempted to tell him the whole truth right now, but she gave up quickly. They were standing on the rooftop in the middle of a day, and someone could notice them any minute. The more, she wasn’t sure how he would react on the news she had for him…

“What happened, Cat?” she asked softly instead.

“I screwed up…” he confessed and sat down as if he couldn’t stand up straight anymore.

“Don’t you dramatize too much?” she tried with a joke, but he looked at her with such reproach that she immediately sat down next to him and embraced his shoulders. “I’m sorry…”

“How would you feel if your happiness was at your fingertips, and you ruined everything?”

“I’m sure you can fix it!” Ladybug comforted him, internally kicking herself for not answering for Cat’s letter.

“She unbosomed herself to me. She told me everything. Everything, you know? And I left. I left her. Can you imagine?! What did she think about me?!” he asked with pain in his voice, and she felt like start crying. She could tell him now that she hadn’t thought anything bad about him. She hadn’t answered his message not because of being mad about his leaving, but because of discovering his true identity.

“Why don’t you talk to her?” she suggested.

“I let her decide if she wants to see me again…”

“You have to talk to her.”

“But she doesn’t want to see me…”

“Not at…” she began, but stopped in the middle of ‘not at all.’ “Oh, Cat…”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bother you with my love problems…”

“You’re not bothering me… It’s just…”

“I know. That’s weird that I’m talking with you about my girlfriend, right?”

“You already did it once. Remember?”

“That was ages ago. And that was a mistake…”

“Why are you so sure, Cat? Maybe you wouldn’t be the same person if you weren’t with… her?” she hesitated, because she almost blurted out ‘Kagami’.

“I don’t know…” Cat Noir shrugged. “I’d be happier without that part of my life.”

“You’ll never know. My kwami always says that everything happens for something. Maybe even that latest akuma was for a reason?”

“Maybe for my heart attack. You have no idea how I felt when I saw her so close to the supervillain…”

“Her?”

“Ma… My girlfriend.”

“Oh…” she sighed and felt hot. Like last night when they were hugging the mug. “Talk to her.” She insisted and squeezed his shoulder.

“But…”

“Don’t wait for a message. Just go to her. Trust me!”

Saying it she ran away, before she gave up and kissed him right there. She left Cat Noir on the rooftop and his face expressed how confused he was.

—

No room to swing a Cat? p.22  <-  Previous part |  Next part  ->  No room to swing a Cat? p.24

Start reading from the beginning

[dailyaudiobible]

08/30/2020 DAB Transcript

Job 34:1-36:33, 2 Corinthians 4:1-12, Psalms 44:1-8, Proverbs 22:10-12

Today is the 30th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it is a joy to greet the new week together with you and step into it together. It’s this shiny threshold that we throw the gates open and walk into every week and just remind ourselves nothing’s gone right or wrong, not…the bottom hasn’t fallen out of anything and we haven't soared into anything. It's a week that is in front of us and we will live into it, moment by moment and the story of this week will be told with the words that we say the conversations that we have the actions that we take the decisions that we make. That's what's gonna…that's how this week is gonna form itself. And, so, we choose now to center ourselves in God's Word and orient ourselves to Him and to submit ourselves to Him on the front end of the week, not at the backend when everything has gone wrong, now. We get to choose how to live into this week and what posture of heart we will live into it. Like are…are we gonna rage all week long or are we going to be patient? We get to choose that. And, so, let's choose wisely. And one of the wisest choices that we make is to continue the rhythm around the Global Campfire, allowing the Word of God to speak into our lives and inform our week. And, so, let's dive in. We’ll read from the New International Version this week and continue the book of Job. Today chapter 34, 35, and 36.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us into this shiny sparkly new week and we look to the future with anticipation as we prepare to end a month and begin anew. We mark the passage of time, as we as we always do. The passage of time is an opportunity for us to see Your faithfulness, that You have brought us here, that we are still standing. No matter how worn-out we might be, You have been faithful. We are still here, and we are grateful. And, so, we look forward with longing to all that You will speak to us in Your word and the coming week, all that You will do in our lives in this transformation process, this removal of the veil so that we might see and reflect Your glory upon this earth. What a gift. What an invitation. What an overwhelming sense of possibility, that we get to collaborate with You in the world this week. Come Holy Spirit. May we represent You well. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, check it out. You can check it all out using the Daily Audio Bible app as well by hitting the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner.

Check out the Community section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. This is part of what the Global Campfire is, that we are people who pray for each other, that we stay connected, that we actually get invested in each other's stories. We feel that spiritual connection with our brothers and our sisters, people that we may have never seen, people we may actually never be able to lay human eyes on. But as we…as we learn, that doesn’t mean we don't love them, that doesn’t mean we don't care. We are the body, right? If one hurts, we all hurt, and we sense that. And when one rejoices, we all rejoice, and we sense that. So, the Prayer Wall is definitely a resource for always being able to reach out for prayer and in prayer with prayer for one another. So…so check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. The link is on the homepage. If you are using the app, the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button. We have a Hotline button in our community. We can always reach out. And that is found in the app, little red button at the top, you can't miss it or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good afternoon family this is Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada. If you guys…as you guys will remember, my mom passed away in March. She had breast cancer and other things and I was trying to get to Maryland before she passed but I missed it by hours. But my youngest sister, my baby sister, who has given up her whole life to care for our mom has had a mammogram and they called her for a diagnostic one and now they have seen some…something that they want to go and to a biopsy on. And, so, I’m asking you guys to pray, please in deep prayer for my baby sister Sandra as she’s faced with this now and she is in…is in emotional turmoil already because of the death of our mom. She hasn’t resolved that yet and now the possibility that there may be something there. And I am also a breast cancer survivor. So, please pray with me. My heart is just troubled because I’m concerned for my baby sister. So, I ask you all to join me in prayer and ask for God’s divine intervention so that He would miraculously remove whatever they…that there is…they are seeing their, that the biopsy will show a non-malignant situation. Grant her piece now because I’m sure she’s scared. She’s not saying much but I can imagine her thoughts. So please ask the Lord along with me to wrap His loving arms around her, protect her and keep her mind fixed on Him. She’s a Christian. She loves Jesus and I thank you all. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey fellow DABbers this is Lincoln from Canada and I was wondering if you would be so kind to pray for my wife and myself. In June it would’ve been six…seven years since we got married and the first six years were pretty rocky but this last year has been a pretty good year until January when my wife informed me that she was leaving and I was completely blindsided by that. I did not see that coming. And, so, after she had moved out, we started some reconciliation efforts and we started to spend a little bit of more time together and things seemed pretty promising until May when it was my birthday. When I came home on my birthday she was at the house and she and surprised me with my favorite meal and she had gotten me some gifts and we spent an amazing weekend together, which was really nice. And then, right the very next weekend she…things weren’t going so well. So, she decided she was going to block me, and I have not had any communication with her in 2 ½ months now. So, today I reached out to her to see if there’s a way that we could come to the table and discuss a plan forward and she doesn’t seem to be willing. So, it is very painful, and it seems this marriage me may end in a divorce and I am praying that may not be the case. So, I’m inviting you to join me in prayer as we seek God’s leading and hopefully, we can get this marriage restored.

Hi Brian and Daily Audio Bible family this is Victory Michelle calling from New York. I’m so glad I was able to get in touch with you guys. I called once before but I don’t think my call got through. I’ve been with the Daily Audio Bible about 12 years now. Here’s my prayer request. I don’t have a job right now and I have some mental health issues that kind of prevent me from working sometimes. So, I really need a job that doesn’t stress out my mental health issues. Also, I’m thousands of dollars behind in my rent. I’ve applied to the city for grant. So, I need prayer that they will grant my request. And basically, that’s it. I’m also behind on my taxes as well. So, I have a lot of financial problems that have been giving me a lot of anxiety and depression. I’d also like prayer for a husband because I’ve been single all my life. I’m in my 50s right now and I believe God wants me to have one. Just want to thank you and I really appreciate being on this call and I hope someone’s able to pray for my prayer request. Thank you.

Hi this is Dorothy out in California. This message is for Jana who has a daughter, Amber in third grade, and you’re worried about school. This is for Shannon. Your birthday is this coming Saturday and you just lost your mom and I am so sorry about your loss. And Prodigal, who you’ve lost everything and you’re struggling with your son who’s addicted to heroin and stole from you a lot of money. Abba please, please, rescue them. Please help them. Please step in. Guys, I can’t…I can’t give…say anything in that I’ve ever experienced…I’ve never been where you’re at. One day you’ll be able to help someone who has been where you’re at. God came to me in a dream a couple days ago. I think it was God. There was this man and his name was Abba but he said make sure to mention only my kids call me that and I was distraught over something and I was ready to give up on life and he had said, there’s more than what you see, don’t give up. Keep going. I love you guys. You are not alone. You have a DAB family. Keep calling and keep posting on the Prayer Wall even if it’s every day. God loves you. He is the God of miracles. He has you in His hands. I love you guys.

Hi, DABbers this is Lucy in Huntsville Alabama. My family lost two members on Tuesday, August 25th. My dad died. I had not called in about him, but I put a prayer request in DAB friends on Facebook. I did not know at this time that a cousin of his who was, I guess she’s a third cousin of mine, she died as well the same morning. She had been diagnosed with melanoma just a few weeks ago and was doing great and suddenly had to be rushed to the hospital a week and half ago and had a pulmonary hemorrhage. They had to do work on her in the hospital, but they couldn’t get her in an ICU bed because there were no ICU beds available because of all the COVID patients. My dad got the COVID-19 also. He was in a nursing home. He was safe but someone brought it in, and he ended up with pneumonia last week and I kept checking on him nobody could visit but he seemed to be doing great until Monday. The nurse told my brother that she thought he was about to die, and he hung on for one more day. I really appreciate your prayers. My brother and I both of us had cancer. My cousin had cancer. I got…her daughter also has another form of cancer. We would really, really appreciate your prayers at this time. Thank you.