#and by fix her i mean i could kill her in a way that launches character development for the ppl that i actually care about

[themyscirah]

Key part of being a comics fan is being completely delusional

[edenesth]

The Way to His Heart [19]

Pairing: general!Seonghwa x wife!reader

AU: arranged marriage au (Joseon era)

Word Count: 3.9k

Summary: Life has been hell ever since your mother's passing many years ago. Despite being from a prominent family, you've never received the privileges associated with it. It only got worse with the arrival of your stepmother and her daughters. When the intimidating General Park was in search of a wife, your father seized the opportunity to dispose of you, simultaneously securing a connection with the powerful general—killing two birds with one stone.

Part 18 | Fic Masterlist | Part 20

"What do you mean it will take weeks for me to fully recover? I don't have that kind of time, Yunho. This war isn't over yet." Your husband frowned, his gaze fixed on the physician from his position on the bed.

You sighed, stepping closer to the doctor, your concern evident, "Seonghwa, Physician Jung is doing his best. How can you return to battle if you're not physically strong enough? What good will that do, hm? And remember, you've acknowledged Officer Song's strategic prowess. Perhaps it's time to have a little faith in him for now."

Like magic, your words softened the general's hardened expression as he nodded in defeat, "Fine, I suppose you're right," He offered you a smile before turning back to Yunho, "I trust you've at least written back to Mingi to assure him I'm fine, right?"

"It's done, my lord."

"That's good; things should be stable for now. We dealt a significant blow to the Ruhon forces in our last battle. It's unlikely they'll launch any new attacks soon, considering their diminished numbers. If things continue to go well, this war might conclude sooner than expected." Seonghwa remarked, feeling optimistic.

"I certainly hope so, for everyone's sake. I made sure to inform Officer Song that you'll need a few weeks to recover. If they need you urgently, I'm sure he'll write back promptly," The physician assured, relieved to see your husband immediately agree with him, calming down so quickly with your presence, "Yes, I'm sure he will." Yunho knew for certain that without you there, he would have had a much harder time attempting to soothe the older man's frustration.

Sensing the general's longing gaze toward you, the doctor suppressed a knowing grin. Understanding that he was interrupting your much-needed private moment, he decided it was time to leave you both alone. With a final bow, he excused himself, "Well, that's all from me for now. I'll return tomorrow for your bandage change and medication. Good day, General Park and Lady Park."

After the physician left the room, you approached Seonghwa to ensure his comfort, tucking the comforters snugly around him and adjusting the pillow behind his back. His eyes remained fixed on your face, which he had missed dearly, as you fussed over him, "Is the temperature alright? Let me know if it's too hot or cold," You inquired. He nodded, and you continued, "Are you hungry? You must be. I'll ask the kitchen staff to prepare something for you—"

Before you could step away from his bedside, he grasped your wrist, his expression displaying a small pout, "Stop, my love. I just want you to stay with me, please."

You softened, placing your hand over his and giving it a reassuring squeeze before brushing some of his hair away from his face, "I'm sorry, I was just worried about you. You've been away at war for so long. I wanted to make sure you have everything you need now that you're home before you eventually return to the battlefield."

He smiled, his hold on your wrist tightening slightly, "All I need is you." He murmured, gently pulling you closer into his arms.

Feeling your heart melt at his words, you relaxed into his embrace on the bed as he pulled the comforter over both of you. Nuzzling your head into the crook of his neck, you sighed contentedly as he kissed your temple. He felt complete with you so close again, "God, I missed you so much," He confessed, "Out of all the wars I've fought, this has to be the most dreadful one. Not because it was tough, but because I couldn't stop thinking about you throughout it all."

"I missed you too, Seonghwa," You confessed, drawing in a deep breath to savour his familiar scent, "I never thought I could yearn to be near someone this badly."

His eyes instinctively fluttered shut as you nestled closer to him, pressing his nose against your hair, wishing for this moment to last forever. After a moment of comfortable silence, he couldn't resist asking, "I've heard a lot has happened while I was gone. I'm sorry I wasn't here to help you through it. Tell me everything, my wife."

Taking a deep breath, you started from the beginning, recounting the events that unfolded after the general had departed for war. You described encountering Jinjoo during your visit to the fabric factory with Hongjoong, the surprise visit from the prince to the estate, and his unexpected invitation to the birthday banquet. You explained how he lied about you representing Seonghwa at the event and your gratitude for Wooyoung and San's help in preparing for it.

As you narrated every little detail that occurred at the supposed royal birthday celebration, your husband's heart swelled with pride and admiration. He listened intently, feeling his love for you grow with each word. Your courage in standing up for yourself and defending him in front of Prince Yeosang filled him with immense gratitude. He realised how fortunate he was to have you by his side.

"I'm so proud of you, my darling Lady Park."

With a light scoff, you teasingly pushed him in the chest, "Are you now, my dearest General Park? I still can't believe the first thing you chose to do after coming back was hurt me and push me away."

Guilt immediately clouded his expression as he drew closer to you, emitting a small whine, "I'm sorry, my love. Truly, I am. Speaking those cruel words hurt me more than this damn wound. I promise I didn't mean any of it. You're not troublesome at all, and I do want you with me for the rest of my days. If anything, you're all I need from now until the end of time."

At that, you could no longer bear to continue making him feel bad. Turning serious, you gently caressed the bandaged area on his abdomen before speaking, "I understand, Hwa. I really do. But I swear, if you ever pull something like that again, I won't hesitate to let Hongjoong loose on you."

His heart skipped a beat at the nickname you used for him, one you had never used before, "What did you just call me? Say it again."

Embarrassed, you blinked rapidly and cleared your throat before repeating softly, "I called you Hwa. It's your name, isn't it?"

He nodded with a cheeky grin, covering your hand with his, "Indeed it is. I love how bold you've become, my love. Now, along with that nickname, tell me you love me again."

You blushed at his request, feeling he deserved to hear it as many times as he wanted now that he'd returned to your side safely. Relenting, you bit your lip and murmured, "I love you, Hwa."

"Again." He demanded, resting his forehead gently against yours.

"I love you, Hwa."

"Again, my love." He whispered, leaning in closer with hooded eyes.

"I love you, Hwa."

"Say it for me just one more time."

"I love you so much, Park Seonghwa."

Intoxicated by your presence, he could no longer resist cupping your face and pressing his lips firmly against yours. You kissed him back fervently, eyes fluttering shut as you relished the sensation of his lips on yours. Both your hearts raced as you made up for lost time, pressing close to one another under the sheets. Your cheeks burned up, realising this was the most intimate moment you'd shared with your husband so far.

Gently pushing him away by the chest, you looked up at him, worry evident in your eyes, "That's enough, Hwa. You're still injured—"

But before you could finish your sentence, he leaned in, capturing your lips in another loving kiss. You gasped in surprise, but your resistance crumbled quickly as he deepened the kiss. Maybe just for a little longer, you thought to yourself, giving in to the moment.

As he savoured the feeling of having you so close, Seonghwa's emotions swirled within him like a tempest. He needed this closeness desperately, especially after the fear he'd felt earlier, thinking he might be close to death. The regret for hurting you with his words gnawed endlessly at him, and he despised the idea of being separated from you again. How could he have ever entertained the thought of you being with another man? The mere thought of Prince Yeosang in his place, holding you, touching you, kissing you, filled him with an uncontrollable jealousy that bordered on madness.

These thoughts fueled a surge of aggression within him as he flipped you around on the bed, trapping you beneath him. He loomed over you, his gaze intense as he whispered, "Mine. You're all mine."

As much as the sudden action flustered you and caused your heart to skip a beat, you frowned at his stubbornness, realising he wouldn't know when to stop unless sternly told off, "Are you out of your mind, Park Seonghwa? Such big movements could affect the wound, you idiot." You scolded, disrupting the intimate moment.

He blinked, momentarily speechless at the abrupt change in tone, protesting, "I'm fine, my wife—"

Before he could continue, the dressmaker barged in with raised brows, "Oh, we're all fine now, aren't we? I guess you're well enough to take a beating then."

The general panicked, hastily laying back in his spot, "Hongjoong, please, it's rude to enter without knocking." He chided.

You snickered when his friend rolled his eyes, "Well, it's also rude to disrespect your wife, but here we are."

"Oh my god, stop reminding me—"

"I'll stop when you learn to grow the hell up."

"Says you?!"

With a deep sigh, you stood up from your husband's bed, "You two fight to your heart's content; I'm going to prepare something to eat for this one." You said, gesturing to Seonghwa, ignoring his silent pleas not to leave him alone with his friend.

Hongjoong grinned at you, "Don't you worry, I'll take good care of him in the meantime."

Oh, I know you will.

"Have we heard from Physician Jung yet?" Mingi inquired as he was being suited up in preparation for the impending attack by the approaching Ruhon men.

"No, sir. It appears we're facing this battle on our own. But with your exceptional strategies, we should manage well even without General Park." One of the soldiers replied, striving to maintain optimism despite the military commander's absence.

"Let us hope so." The strategist muttered, unable to bring himself to reveal that his strategies had been devised with the assumption of having the best warrior in all of Joseon leading the army. Officer Song hadn't seen battlefield action since his promotion, and his combat skills were far from polished. Just why did this have to happen in the general's absence? Mingi feared the responsibility; if they failed in this battle, it would fall on him. The prospect of leading these men to their deaths was enough to make him feel nauseous.

He still couldn't grasp how Ruhon had made such a swift comeback. It seemed implausible given the significant losses they had suffered in the last battle. After all, the enemy nation wasn't known for its strategic prowess; they were often predictable in their actions. Unless... they were intentionally misleading Joseon into underestimating them? If so, the strategist might have played right into their hands as part of their plan.

Oh god, what do I do?

As General Officer Song meticulously went through his preparations for the impending battle, a sense of unease settled over him like a heavy cloak. Even with his efforts to focus solely on the task at hand, his thoughts kept drifting back to Seonghwa. The absence of their commander, his superior, and one of his closest friends weighed heavily on his mind.

With each passing moment, his worry for the general intensified. He couldn't shake the feeling of dread that enveloped him, wondering if his friend was safe and well. Had the older man managed to make it home? Had Yunho received his letter, informing him of General Park's condition?

These questions nagged endlessly at him, gnawing at his insides as he grappled with the uncertainty of the situation. Despite his attempts to maintain a facade of confidence for the sake of his fellow soldiers, Mingi couldn't shake the underlying fear that something terrible might have happened to Seonghwa. All he could do now was hope and pray for his friend's safety, even as the spectre of war loomed ever closer.

A sudden wave of fear washed over him, unlike anything he had experienced in a long time. The general's absence felt more profound and impactful than ever before. It was as if the very foundation of his confidence had been shaken, revealing the stark reality that his sense of assurance had always been rooted in the presence and trust of his commanding officer.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, the strategist found himself questioning his own abilities and worthiness. Without General Park by his side, his confidence wavered, leaving him feeling unsteady and uncertain. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt such panic in war.

With a heavy heart, he squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, attempting to steady his nerves. Doing his best to ignore the doubts that plagued him, he knew he had a duty to fulfil. With trembling hands, he reviewed his strategies once more, desperately seeking reassurance in the plans he had meticulously crafted.

As he waited for the cue to head out and face the enemy, Officer Song resolved to push aside his fears and doubts. He may not have Seonghwa's guidance and leadership at this moment, but he knew he had to stand firm and lead the troops to the best of his abilities. With determination set in his heart, Mingi braced himself, ready to face whatever may come in the battle that awaited him.

Just as he was hoping to receive any updates about the general or word from Physician Jung, a soldier burst into the main tent, his breaths coming in ragged gasps. The strategist's heart skipped a beat, looking forward to some semblance of reassurance amid his mounting anxiety. However, instead of providing the updates he had been desperately seeking, the soldier stammered out his words.

"S-sir, I'm afraid it's time we head out and be on standby," The soldier managed to say between breaths, "The Ruhon army should be arriving anytime soon."

Mingi's hands clenched involuntarily, his mind racing with a mix of apprehension and determination. Despite the lack of information about Seonghwa's condition, he knew that duty called and he had to lead his troops into battle. With a firm nod, he suppressed the trembling in his hands and resolved to face the conflict head-on.

"Let's go out and make General Park proud." He declared, his voice steady despite the turmoil within him. With resolve burning in his eyes, he led his men out of the tent.

Moments later, Officer Song found himself mounted on a horse, the weight of his armour pressing against his shoulders as he surveyed the Joseon army lined up behind him. They stood at attention, ready for his orders, their anticipation palpable in the air.

As he gazed out at the empty land ahead, where the enemy forces would soon emerge, Mingi could hear nothing but the thundering of his own heart in his ears. His hands tightened around the hilt of his sword, a familiar weight that offered some measure of comfort in the face of uncertainty.

With a deep breath, he forced himself to focus, pushing aside the uncertainties that threatened to overwhelm him. He may not be Park Seonghwa, but he had undergone rigorous training and was a capable fighter in his own right. Reminding himself of his own combat skills, he squared his shoulders and steeled his resolve.

"We stand ready." He declared, his voice carrying across the ranks of soldiers behind him. Despite the nerves gnawing at his insides, he projected an air of confidence, determined to lead his troops with strength and determination.

I hope you're proud of me, hyung-nim.

His breath hitched in his throat as he finally spotted a tiny speck on the horizon, growing larger and more distinct with each passing moment. His heart raced as he realised that these were the enemy soldiers they had been waiting for. With a loud voice, he yelled the order for all soldiers to get into position.

Tensions were high as everyone readied themselves, their nerves stretched taut with fear at the absence of their strongest warrior to lead them. But as the figures drew closer, Officer Song's brow furrowed in confusion.

Something was not right.

Instead of a formidable army, only a few Ruhon soldiers were riding toward them, their arms raised in what appeared to be a gesture of surrender. Mingi's eyes widened in disbelief as he heard their cries.

"Soldiers of Joseon! Please don't attack! We have come to surrender!"

A sense of astonishment rippled through the ranks of the Joseon army as they processed the unexpected turn of events. One of the Ruhon men even went so far as to pull out a white flag, waving it frantically to signal their willingness to concede defeat.

The strategist's grip tightened on his sword as he studied the Ruhon soldiers before him, their faces worn with exhaustion and defeat. Despite their assurances, he couldn't afford to let his guard down yet, not after the treacherous tactics they had previously employed against Seonghwa.

"Hold it right there! How can we believe you're telling the truth?" He demanded, his voice firm and unwavering.

The Ruhon soldiers let out heavy sighs, their arms still raised in a gesture of surrender, "Please, we're telling the truth. Most of our troops have been depleted from the last battle," One of them explained, his voice tinged with desperation, "Our ruler has sent word just this morning to put this war to an immediate stop. A messenger is on the way to your royal palace to convey the message to your King as we speak. We come in peace to relay this message, and that is all. All remaining Ruhon troops will be retreating from our camp after this."

Mingi remained silent for a moment, weighing their words carefully. Finally, he lowered his sword, signalling for his own troops to stand down, "Very well," He said, his voice tinged with caution, "But know that we will be watching closely. Any sign of treachery from you, and we will not hesitate to defend ourselves."

The Ruhon soldiers visibly relaxed at his words, nodding quickly, "You have my word." One of them assured before they turned around and began riding away. The tension dissolved as they disappeared from sight, leaving Officer Song and his men standing in disbelief. Relief washed over them, dispelling the earlier fears. The strategist's expression mirrored the collective sentiment of his troops—a mix of relief and disbelief.

"Well, I guess we should head back to camp and await confirmation then," Mingi said, his voice filled with a hint of exhaustion. His soldiers nodded eagerly, grateful that the tense situation had been resolved peacefully. They began to disperse, their spirits lifted by the unexpected turn of events.

Now, everything fell into place, and the pieces of the puzzle aligned once again. His earlier suspicions about Ruhon's swift recruitment of soldiers now made perfect sense. It was clear that they no longer possessed enough manpower to continue fighting this war.

Returning to the main tent, Mingi was relieved to find a messenger waiting for him, "Officer Song, there you are! You have a letter from Physician Jung Yunho," The messenger announced eagerly. He hurried over to receive the paper, unfolding it with urgency. His eyes scanned the neatly written words at lightning speed, absorbing the contents. Once finished, he released the breath he had been holding, sinking into the seat behind him, "Oh, thank heavens the general is alright." He breathed out, a weight lifted from his shoulders.

The messenger's face immediately brightened at his words, and he quickly left to share the good news with the others. Mingi couldn't help but smile; everything was finally falling into place.

Peace, at last.

But his moment of relief was short-lived as a commotion erupted outside. The strategist frowned and left the tent to see what was happening. He found his soldiers blocking the entry of a woman, which puzzled him. Women weren't allowed in this area.

"Forgive us, ma'am. Women are not permitted here," One of the soldiers explained. Mingi pushed through to hear her response, "Yes, I know that, but you don't understand. I'm here on His Majesty's orders. We received word that General Park has been poisoned, and I've been sent specifically to treat him."

As he caught sight of her petite figure, his eyes widened in recognition. Not because of her uniform, which indicated she was a female royal physician, renowned for their medical expertise, but because she was the one he had been searching for all this time.

I finally found you, my one.

« Preview of Part 20 »

"The audacity of those Ruhon bastards, attempting to poison my strongest warrior. That's nothing short of treachery, isn't it, my Queen?" The King grumbled, his concern for Seonghwa evident in his furrowed brow. He had even dispatched their most skilled female royal physician to the war zone, trusting her to heal him.

Anxiety filled his being as his wife sighed beside him, offering a comforting hand on his back. She had yet to muster any courage to mention the trouble caused by their fourth son during the general's absence, not wanting to add to her husband's worries, "I wish I had an answer for that, Your Majesty." She murmured sympathetically.

Before the royal couple could further drown in their pool of misery, the royal secretary rushed in with a few letters. He hastily performed the formal bow, only to have the King wave it away.

"Forget the formalities, Secretary Choi! Tell us what updates you have this instant!" His Majesty's voice was urgent.

San nodded, swiftly unfolding the papers and reading each one aloud. With each letter, a weight seemed to lift from the room.

"The first letter is from General Park," He began, "He reports he's safely home and receiving treatment from his own doctor."

Relief washed over the King's face.

"And the second?" Her Majesty pressed, her tone hopeful.

San's voice steadied as he continued, "The second is from the ruler of Ruhon. He acknowledges defeat and officially surrenders. He is also requesting an audience to discuss a peace treaty. It would seem the war is over, Your Majesties."

"Oh, thank goodness it's over."

After a moment of everyone digesting the news, His Majesty furrowed his brows in slight confusion, "Wait, General Park is home already, you say?" His voice carried a note of incredulity, "How odd. That would mean he began travelling back before there was even news of the enemy's surrender. Why would he return home all of a sudden? Did something else happen?"

The Queen's heart sank at that. For weeks, she had harboured the hope of shielding Yeosang from his father's potential wrath, but now it seemed fate had other plans.

I'm sorry, my son.

Woohoo, only the final part is left, and we're done with the main story! Psst, try going over to the Spinoff Masterlist to see if you can spot anything new HEHE🙈

As always, thank you so much for reading, and please let me know your thoughts! <3

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[xxtha-blog]

Why Horrortale Sans is Definitely Evil

Horrortale Sans is evil. This is the opposite of a defence post, I am calling out this character and his many misdeeds! I do not know how people legitimately defend his actions or claim he’s just a normal guy who tries really hard not to eat people. I do not think we read the same comic. This is a comprehensive deep dive into why Horror is evil.

First a chronological look at Horror’s dubious actions. Not all of theses are evil and some have good justification as standalone events, but provide wider context for things:

1. He has to be convinced into helping repair the Core which he knows is broken, and has inside info he knows could help get it fixed, only when Grillby begs him to because as revealed on another page, the loss of the Core means “the fire eats at [Grillby’s] very soul like acid, perpetually burning him alive”

2. He spends a total of 12 months trying to figure out how to repair the Core but based on Undyne’s statements about how he rarely works, either means he’s a. Not actually putting enough effort into it (if we believe her and not Sans) or b. Not telling Undyne and Alphys how his work is going which is probably pertinent information for them to have (If we believe Sans, but want a reason as to why Undyne has that impression)

3. He finally brings her a solution to the Core after knowing he’s going to die (but if you want to be generous, maybe it was just really bad timing and he really did only needed a few more days to bring her a solution) and claims it’s a “long shot” meaning he doesn’t even know if it will work.

4. Undyne, thinking that is an insane plan, tells him she has a different plan. Sacrificing him to save everyone. Sans makes it clear he would never let himself die to save everyone.

5. When a guard begs him to sacrifice himself to save his wife and children, Sans launches him into the stratosphere saying: “fuck off.”

6. Even though Undyne attacks him first, it’s actually Sans that takes out her head and eye first.

7. Sans brutally murders the guards who helped Undyne.

8. When Alphys, showing Sans that her plan has objectively work and he is not dead (bonus!!), Sans destroys the Core.

He destroys the thing that will keep him, his brother, and literally every person in the underground alive. Grillby now suffers eternally, and everyone will die a slow and painful death. This does not help him in any way, does not change the fact his head is broken, he does it purely out of malice. The equivalent of getting shot, surviving, and then nuking the town you were shot in. He does not take his eye back if you thought it was to take his eye back. It’s still in the broken Core.

9. He lobotomizes Alphys

10. He gets Aliza to become a cannibal

11. He tortures and maims Aliza (let’s her get cut in half by a bear trap, pulls her hair so hard it bleeds, let’s her freeze to death in a puzzle, sends her to Grillbys where she gets partially cooked alive, cuts her arm off)

Really great guy here.

Secondly let’s get some of the common defences out of the way:

1. Sans had a plan that would save everyone! Undyne was therefore making a bad decision by trying to killing him

a. Sans says his plan IS A LONG SHOT

b. Alphys explains Sans’s plan would have taken a lot of time and magic ie. time that would get a lot of other people killed

c. Undyne’s plan actually goes better that expected! What was assumed would kill Sans doesn’t end up killing him at all. Literally a win-win for everyone involved.

d. Undyne/Alphys’s plan works, and therefore objectively saved more people. 0 net casualties if Sans had a single ounce of humanity.

2. Sans worked really hard and Undyne betrayed him. Undyne should have told him first

Undyne doesn’t tell him because she doesn’t want to consider hurting Sans despite monsters dying. Moments before Sans shows up, a child dies in a mother’s arm. Then Sans explains his plan is to dismantle the Core, which ‘might’ work, and will take a lot of effort and magic to do so, which is time they do not have (it’s been 12 months. He has had 12 months.). He also blames Undyne for getting them into this mess and mocks her for letting people die. She then attacks him. They end up both losing half their head and eye in the fight, making them perfectly even. The core’s power is restored.

But, whether or not Sans feels betrayed or not is irrelevant to the fact that Undyne makes the most reasonable and moral decision in this moment and also Sans has kind of done everything in his power to not sell his idea and piss off the person he knows is considering killing him so big L on his part for that one.

It also does not in any way shape or form justify destroying the Core, which is probably the most evil thing you could possibly do in that scenario.

3. They both are at fault for the Core/Both Evil then

There is literally a world of difference between:

“Sacrifices 1 person who ends up not dying, to save everyone. Which succeeds.”

And

“Destroys the thing that will successfully keep everyone alive, thus dooming everyone including yourself to die a slow and agonizing death, because you are angry your friend tried to kill you in an effort to save everyone”

That’s not even including the 10 other things on my list that are definitely also evil, but I cannot take people seriously if they put these two things on some sort of a moral equivalence. Undyne is in the right. 1 person for everyone is a worthy sacrifice. If anything Undyne’s only flaw is waiting so long to do it.

4. (Unrelated to the Core incident) Sans is actually morally grey, he doesn’t eat humans like everyone else which is a complex character motivation

You’re right, Sans doesn’t eat humans. Instead he finds enjoyment in torturing them brutally, a much worse thing than eating to stay alive.

His fight with hunger is also entirely self-made. Both because it’s not morally wrong to eat another living being to survive (and it’s not cannibalism to eat a human as a monster) and because he is the reason this is still happening 7 years later. It is literally his fault he is hungry. There is no interesting moral conundrum here, he does not care about hurting people. He is just out of his mind.

In conclusion, Horrortale Sans is a deeply selfish and uncaring person. Whatever minor good deeds he does throughout the comic are so immensely overshadowed by his absolute depravity that they might as well not exist. He is the reason every single monster in that underground continues to suffer, including himself, and while in his mind maybe there’s some weird justification, no outsider observer should look at these actions and think, yeah, that was reasonable. Much less think Undyne or Alphys are somehow WORSE. He destroys the Core because he didn’t die after everyone is saved, solely to be vindictive. He does not gain anything by doing this. He doesn't even take back the eye he lost which is still in the broken core! He lobotomizes Alphys because he’s mad he looks like a freak. He murders people who wants him to help everyone stay alive. He maims and tortures children and no amount of not eating them afterwards makes that any less morally apprehensible.

None of this is meant to say you can’t like him as a character. It is just to explain why characterizing him as a poor lil guy who did nothing wrong, is a little… wrong.

i believe this is an extensive look into why Horrortale Sans is evil.

Thank you for reading :)

[bloodyymaryyy]

Gossip girl xoxo

F1 grid x driver reader

This is part 2!

part 1/ part 3 /part 4 /masterlist

Side note : help this is not in correct chronological order it's like moments leading up to the first part. This took way too long and I can't be bothered to fix it properly so bare with me

Texts

Maxie

You: did you see...?

Maxie

Yeah.... You were right it was true... Now what?.

You : I don't know this is getting awkward especially now on the paddock that we have the races... Do you think he is gonna show up?

Maxie

I don't know, although we can't avoid it we have to face the music soon tho.

You : I am not ready for that

Media is gonna be fucked up.

Maxie

Oh believe me it's gonna be shit, I don't think I will last long before headbutting someone honestly

You : me too I won't last long

Fucking hell

What now? Are we gonna ignore it or?

Maxie

Maybe it's best we don't talk about it. Especially here

You :

You are right let's meet up.

🧍‍♀️👉🏡🤷‍♀️🧍‍♂️👉🏡?

Maxie

🧍‍♀️👈🏡

👉⏱️.

🍔🍟 Or 🍝🍤

You

🥇

Maxie

👍

Before that chaos you were told by Pierre that Lewis was moving to Ferrari in a year that he was told by Charles.

Which that should have been secret until announced by the teams but it's nice to know things... That was something interesting.

....

At Lewis apartment complex

*Puzzing *" Nico! Can you please open the door for me?!"

"Why? " Nico answered from the phone

"uhh I came to see you and the girls!" she made a face at that coming with a lie but not really a lie, she did missed Nico and the girls but she came here to confront Lewis about him leaving Mercedes for Ferrari

There was a moment of silence until his voice came again on the phone

"Sure" that was it the buzzing that opened the door came through and she pushed the door open and come up to his apartment, he was waiting for her to come up with his girls with him. The girls jumped to her, hugging her and welcoming her inside, taking off her shoes she came to Nico next and kisses his cheeks crossed and his wife hugging them for a bit and they started to talk about everything.

After a few hours she left and went to Lewis's apartment knocking loudly at the door. When the door opened and revealed Lewis standing there with gray sweatpants and sweater with his hair unbraided Roscoe at his feet wagging his tail seeing her after quite a bit of time he launched himself at her and she kneeled down petting him and scratching him on his back, under his head and belly making him lay down and smile getting his belly scratches.

" Lewis we have to talk" she finally spoke

" Well first of all, how did you get here?" he asked surprised

"Nico opened the door for me!" there was a pause " don't change the subject! Are you going to Ferrari in 2025?!" she exclaimed

" uh I can't tell you that... Sorry"

" Just tell me why?... Are you retiring? Oh no... Are you? You are returning after that aren't you? God!" she then started to tear up and rant about it the only thing he could do is make her stand up and walked her at the couch while she was having a mental breakdown.

Then there was lando leaked asking for nudes and honestly she learned that from TikTok, she was scrolling down on her for you page while getting her food a bit cooled down and a slideshow popped up about the situation and there was her appetite

Texts

Landinio

You :

Lando!

Lando get the fuck off of my fyp you idiot

Why am I seeing your texts on TikTok?

Landinio

What do you mean?

What texts?

Y/n?

You:

You asking for 😰🤮.... 🍜

Eww I did not want to see that!?

Oh BTW are you okay? Did you not know or?

Are you stupid? Honestly it's a bit ridiculous to leak texts from 2020...

N e way....

Landinio

Wtf?! Why are my cringe text on the open?! From 2020 especially then! I was stupid!

Fuck me...

IT'S NOT MY FAULT THEY GOT LEAKED WTF DO YOU MEAN?!?

Oh pr is gonna kill me fuck

Lmk if you want another part!

[thesharkwhalewhoohooooo]

Bridget x Fem! Reader

"My girlfriend got me a dead rat for my birthday!" Charming proudly puffed up his chest, looking at the group of girls in front of him when they staid quiet for a bit too long.

"What?"

"She got me a dead rat!"

"She couldn't even go for an alive one!" Hecate burst out laughing, Bridget slapping her arm, along with Ella's.

"Ella! Why would you do that?" The girl shrugged, Charming quickly taking over, again.

"Because she loves me! She's obviously like a cat and is giving me food because she thinks I can't hunt for myself!" They all gaped at him once again, this time Ella did too.

"She's sitting right there..."

"I AM NOT A CAT STUPID CHARMING!"

Before she could completely maul the boy, Bridget pulled Ella off of him.

"Let's not kill our boyfriends, all right Ella?" She gritted her teeth, but nodded, a fierce glare fixed upon her boyfriend.

"I mean, I know my strap game is amazing but-?" Bridget all but ran over at her girlfriend, slapping her hand over her mouth and giving her her own glare.

"Don't." Hecate's eyes widened slightly, beforr Bridget felt her smirk.

"You're so hot." Her words were muffled but they did their job of making Bridget flush red just as good.

"Hecate!" The witch pulled her hand off of her mouth and picked her up to kiss her, spinning her around slowly.

"You're so pretty..." she mumbled onto her lips, making the princess giggle.

"Not as pretty as you sweets!" They heard Ella gag, Hecate looked at her and glanced at Charming, arching a brow suggestively at her.

"STUPID HECATE!"

"DON'T THROW YOUR SHOE AT ME! I'M HOLDING BRIDGET!"

-

"What did you do for Bridget's birthday though?" Charming asked, quite literally the next day because Ella and Hecate couldn't be in the same toom as each other anymore.

"I gave her pink roses, a new apron, oh! And I got her a few ingredients she has been wanting to. Experiment with for a while.... Don't!" She held her hand up in front of her face when she saw Ella reach for something, which pissed her off because she wasn't even going to throw anything.

"I wasn't even going to throw anything!" She threw a rock at Hecate, not that it could hurt her, but she withdrew and pouted as she sat next to Bridget, who patted her cheek.

"It was so sweet of her, she even helped decorate the cookies.... God knows she should be banned from using kitchens!" She joked, smiling as Ella laughed at it and started mocking Hecate.

"That's so sweet! You wanna know what I did?"

"Not really."

"I gave her a dress! And I asked Bridget to make her a cake!" Hecate glanced at Ella, who shrugged.

"You guys haven't been in a relationship long enough." She declared, Ella stood up and launched another rock, missing Hecate by a few millimeters.

"Ha! Missed-! Hey!" This time she hit, and it got her right in her forehead.

She shuffled closer to Bridget, who shushed her and rubbed her forehead softly.

"You're not bleeding Honey."

"You guys have only been dating for like 2 months longer than we have!" The blue haired girl crossed her arms, the other blue haired girl shot her a glare and shuffled EVEN CLOSER to Bridget.

"Yeah! Go back to your mommy little pussy!" Bridget send her a look and she rolled her eyes, sitting back down.

"But yeah, giving Bridget those ingredients was very nice, including the fact that you had me treat the slashes from those griffins you 'had' to defeat on your way back to get her some of their feathers, scales blah blah." She sneaked in another little detail that she had conveniently forgotten to inform Bridget about, who in turn looked at Hecate, who was still pouting, and quickly stood up.

"Hecate and I are going to have a chat in my dorm... maybe we'll see you at dinner, bye Ella, Charming!" They said their bye's back, and Hecate glared at Ella, who smirked at her.

The only thing keeping Hecate from launching at her and ripping her to shreds was Bridget, who was pissed at her.

-

"God damn it you are strong." She muttered, rubbing her wrist when Bridget finally let go, but had now pushed her onto her bed and was zipping down her jacket.

"Hey hey! If you wanted to do something you could've just said.... Oh." She sighed in disappointment when she realised that she was not, in fact, about to have sex with her wonderful girlfriend, but instead was probably facing a scolding that ended in the opposite of that, no sex for as long as Bridget was slightly mad at her, which could end up being something around a day and a month.

"How dare you get hurt because of something you wanted to get for me." Bridget grumbled as she poked at the newly developed scars.

"But they look hot?"

"Shush."

[saphronethaleph]

So a sort of look at a structure one could do for the Sequel Trilogy, admittedly with hindsight.

Opening sequence? Basically the same, except that Poe is meeting with a Resistance spy - the data he's got is the evidence that means the First Order is more than just a rando Remnant faction but is a serious threat. Then the stolen TIE crashes but Finn and Poe link up together. They meet BB- and Rey, and the four of them escape on a ship - possibly the Falcon, but it could be another of the same type, they're supposed to be common. Alternatively make up a new ship type they steal and have that be the Iconic Ship of the trilogy.

Team dynamic is Poe Flies, Finn Shoots, Rey Fixes.

They're heading straight to the Resistance, or that's the plan - they may need to briefly detour somewhere if their ship got damaged in the escape (if so, this is where they visit Maz).

The Resistance is explicitly described as a deniable New Republic operation which is fighting this specific Remmant faction - at the moment. They've fought others before, they're kind of like knights errant, and they have at least one Jedi (let's say Qu Rahm) who gives both Finn and Rey some training.

The Jedi Order as a whole is not involved with the First Order fight because it's utterly routine, there's dozens of Remnant factions... at least until BB-8's information reveals that the First Order has Kylo Ren associated with it, and also the existence of Starkiller Base.

The knowledge of BOTH of those things means that the Jedi Order is able to evacuate their current temple (Naboo or Yavin? Either way it should be a known planet) just in time before it gets blown the fuck up by Starkiller base. Then there's tension involving the need to swat SK base quickly, which mostly goes as per the original film.

In the second film:

The Resistance is still tiny, and the First Order's actions have promoted them from "just another Remnant faction" to "holy fuck" and they're starting to weld the Remnant back together. It is actually not widely known that Starkiller base got destroyed and the First Order is using intimidation tactics to pretend they're unbeatably strong - not helped by how the Resistance genuinely is pretty weak, nobody on the Republic side wants to be the first to jump, and Leia is trying to talk everyone into giving more support (it does slowly tick up)

The general structure here does need more changes than TFA did, simply to fit into the trilogy as a whole, but here I think a good Driving Question could be finding out who Snoke is and where the Knights of Ren came from. Our Heroes are juggling between getting Jedi training (for Finn and Rey), launching raids on the First Order, and trying to find out Snoke's origin - the latter of which fails, but he does get killed instead by Kylo Ren, who takes control of the First Order.

The main ending note at the end of the film would be the loss of Leia; she tried to turn her son back to the light side with full sincerity, but also went to kill him if he didn't. Neither worked, but he's been badly wounded and about half of the Knights of Ren got taken out. (n.b. if this is cheating to get around Carrie Fisher's death, and it probably is, that could be Luke's demise instead - or both.) Our Heroes might well be involved with a hot-extraction of R2 and C-3P0, who have important details of what happened.

Third film:

The death of Leia/Luke/both has become a rallying point and the New Republic is gearing up for war, which gains momentum with every day that the First Order doesn't blow up a planet; it's made clear in scenes showing Kylo that he's under a huge amount of pressure, because Starkiller Base made promises that the First Order cannot fulfil. In lieu of that they're having to turn instead to more standard means of brutally enforcing their claim to authority, and it's not working out well.

Our Heroes meanwhile are involved in hit-and-fade strikes, one of which sees the death of Qu Rahm. The loss of their teacher causes Rey and Finn some problems, but Poe is the one who pulls them out of it - it doesn't matter if they have a teacher or not, what matters is who they are, and that didn't change because they had a teacher. All he did was open their eyes to who they really were.

That's the realization that drives the stormtrooper-rebellion side of things from the Resistance/Republic side, while on the Imperial side we see Phasma having more and more trouble keeping a lid on things. Finn is The Traitor and basically blamed for everything that goes wrong ever as far as the First Order is concerned.

Running out of options, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren orders a decapitation strike by the entire F.O. fleet on the capital world of the Republic. This is a serious threat, because normal strategic calculus assumes that you just don't DO this, and this is what leads to the big final battle over said capital world - the Republic is outnumbered on a tactical scale, and the available members of the Jedi Order help launch an assault on the First Order flagship to try and disrupt the F.O. fleet.

This is where the Stormtrooper Rebellion is really kicked off, as Finn brings the existing tension in the First Order fleet to a boil (key moment: a Stormtrooper panics at the sight of Jedi, one of their officers tries to gun them down, Finn kills the officer before it can happen; this is the moment that disproves the propoganda and it spreads). Rey gets the big final duel, but it's against Kylo, and on at least two occasions she manages to call in strike support from Poe flying outside in his starfighter. This means the final battle is the Jedi Order versus the Knights of Ren on a super star destroyer being torn apart by Imperial infighting, and the resolution is liberation - for the stormtroopers, for example - and the surrender of the remaining First Order fleet.

[slotmachines-fearofgod]

babby ahsoka + twins

Please enjoy this not proofread not edited not ready WIP! we need more baby ahsoka & clones in the world

---

For the first time in his (relatively short) life Rex was at a loss. 

They were investigating some temple on behalf of the Jedi. Anakin had been sent because of his intense attunement to the Force and the 501st had happily followed his lead. Rex hadn’t gotten much out of the man, just that the Jedi would know what to do and all he needed to worry about was following their lead. 

Rex was going to kill him. 

When they first landed and entered nothing had seemed off. It was an old, crumbling structure built by neither Jedi nor Sith millenia ago. The Jedi wanted it investigated due to the strange flow of energy around it, an energy that had steadily been increasing over the past month until the signal reached Coruscant itself. Rex had braced himself for mental games or mind tricks but there had been nothing. 

In fact, there had been so little sign of anything that Anakin decided it would be best for them to split up. Coming as a surprise to no one Ahsoka took Fives, Echo, and Rex along with her down the side passageways, leading them through a winding maze Rex wasn’t sure he’d be able to figure out on his own. 

Which was what led them here. 

Rex stared down at the three children in front of him and felt the vague urge to cry.

Fives blinked up at him, his big eyes full of curiosity as he looked at Rex’s armor. Rex, still frozen from where he’d busted through the door that had trapped his compatriots, watched as his second waddled up to him and grabbed his kama. 

“Fives?” Rex croaked, incredibly out of his depth. 

Fives laughed brightly, “See Echo! I told you it would catch on.”

Echo, now half his original size, scowled, “No fair. Why do you get the fun name?”

Ahsoka, his little commander, his almost-sister, his charge, stuck her finger in her mouth and immediately jammed it into Echo’s ear. 

Echo yelped, scurrying away from the girl who was grinning with her fangs out, “Ew!”

“What’s your name?” Ahsoka asked, seemingly innocent. 

Echo grumbled quietly so they couldn’t hear, still trying to wipe the spit out of his ear. 

Fives ran over to him, laughing all the way, “It’s Echo! It’s ‘cause he only repeats what the trainers say!”

“Shut up!” Echo’s face lit up red as he smacked his brother, “I do not!”

“Ow!” Fives whined, rearing up to hit Echo back, “Don’t be such a tubie!”

“I hate you,” Echo growled, “Stop being so mean.”

“I’m Ahsoka!”

Both clone cadets momentarily paused to look at the togruta girl. 

“I’m a Jedi!”

And with that their feud was forgotten. Rex sighed and walked over, accepting that this was his life now, as Echo launched question after question at a giggling Ahsoka. Fives was trying to bodily drag her away to see her do “cool Force shit,” leaving Rex to wade in between the pack to pick up the little padawan. 

“Hey,” Fives complained, “Give her back.”

“Hush,” Rex fixed him with a look, “Give me a sitrep cadet.”

Fives rolled his eyes, a move that would’ve gotten him another hour of training at the least on Kamino, while Echo stiffened into a less than perfect parade rest. 

“Sir!” Echo started, his voice just a little too loud in the echoing chamber, “Myself and CT-5555 were enjoying our downtime in the bunks. We were taking the allotted rest period to sleep and woke up here in this…where are we? Sir.”

Rex sighed, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, “We are on the planet Erot in the Outer Rim. As for the name of this place, I was not granted access to that information.”

All three kids' eyes widened. 

“Outer Rim?” Ahsoka asked, “That’s so cool!”

Rex shifted her onto his hip so she’d be easier to carry. If he had to guess, they were all about five or six standard years. They could speak plainly and fluently and had little coordination issues, but they were much younger then they’d been a mere five minutes ago. 

“Ahsoka,” Rex started, “Do you remember what you were doing in this room?”

Ahsoka shook her head, now looking around the space, “No. I was in the creche with Uzaa and we were going to class with Master Che. I was late.” Ahsoka looked down sheepishly, a blush of her own on her face. 

Rex smiled weakly, “It’s alright. We’ll work it out.”

“Who are you?” Fives piped up, never content with being silent too long. 

“I’m Rex,” he could answer that at least, “Captain Rex.”

“Captain?” Echo looked up at him with something like admiration, “Wow. Does that mean the war has started?”

“What war?” Ahsoka asked, now alarmedly squirming in Rex’s arms, “Why do you all look the same?”

Rex winced, “It…may be best if we regroup before we talk about everything,” he said apologetically, “But I’ll explain.”

Ahsoka frowned, wiggling so much that Rex gave up and just set her down, “Okay. Are we going back home?”

That was a good question. Right now Rex wasn’t sure what to do with his sort-of soldiers. And there was no way he was getting back through the tunnel system without a guide to help. 

Rex looked around the room, searching for clues or hints of what did this to them. There were strange carvings on the floor in the center and metal piping running along the ceiling, but other than that the place seemed empty. Devoid of anything and everything except for the group of four at the door. 

Rex pinched his nose as he pulled up his comm, already dreading this call. 

“Skywalker here, what’s your status Rex?”

“Uh,” Rex looked down at three innocent and eager faces, “I need a rendezvous at my position ASAP.”

“What?” Skywalker’s voice changed, now startled and anxious instead of cool and collected, “What happened to Ahsoka? She can’t lead you?”

Ahsoka gasped, “He knows me?”

“...What was that?”

“That is my predicament sir,” Rex sighed again, “I believe your padawan activated something. ARC troopers Fives and Echo are down along with Tano.”

“ARC trooper?!” Fives cried in excitement, now bouncing on his toes, “We make ARC troopers?”

Rex gave all three of them a scolding look and pressed a finger to his lips. They all looked down at their feet, adequately shamed. 

“Riiight,” Skywalker drawled, “Sounds like I should see this myself. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Bring Kix please,” Rex tiredly requested.

“Of course,” Skywalker sounded less upset now. It helped soothe some of Rex’s own nerves as he mentally cussed out stupid Force shit in every language he knew. “I look forward to seeing what this is about.”

Rex let out a breath of relief as the call ended. He sat heavily next to the kids, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. 

At least until Echo rounded in front of him. 

“Captain?” Echo asked in a small voice.

“Yeah?” 

“Are we in trouble?”

Rex softened a bit and shook his head, “No. It’s just been a long day.”

Echo hummed, “So is it true? Has the war started?”

Ah yes. The great war. The one they used to dream about as kids. Their strange light at the end of the tunnel. 

“Yeah,” Rex said hoarsely, staring into Echo’s eyes and suddenly being hit with the realization that this Echo’s brothers were still alive, “It’s started.”

Echo frowned, “But you’re not an A clone. Why are you deployed?”

Rex shook his head, “It’s complicated. We’ll explain later, I promise.”

Echo seemed unhappy with that answer, but he didn’t get another word in before Fives was bullying his way into Rex’s line of sight. 

“You said we’re ARC troopers,” Fives accused, “But we haven’t even graduated our base combat modules!”

Rex laughed softly, “You’ll get there someday. Trust me.”

Fives scowled, unsatisfied with Rex’s half answer but Rex wasn’t really sure how much to tell them. Telling them everything - Rishi, their batch’s destruction, their missions with Torrent - seemed unwise. They were still kids. They deserved to be kids. Just for a little bit. 

Rex startled as he felt a weight lean into his side, briefly reaching for his blaster before looking over and realizing it was Ahsoka. 

She looked up, her usually large eyes now seeming comically huge on her face, “‘M cold.”

Right. Togrutas were warm blooded. And she hadn’t gotten as lucky as Fives and Echo, whose blacks shrunk with them. She was still stuck with her skirt and stupid tube top. Rex wanted to rip that thing to shreds and replace it with armor. He’d had the instinct many times before but now…

Rex just opened his arms, allowing the girl to crawl into his lap with a happy sigh.

He glanced at Echo and Fives, unsurprised to find them bickering quietly off to the side. 

“Boys,” he called, his voice booming around the chamber, “Cut it out.”

Fives made a frustrated noise and stomped his foot, going off to sulk in the corner, while Echo stared after him with an angry look. Eventually the younger of the two made it over, subtly checking out of Ahsoka had left any room in Rex’s lap. 

Rex scooted backward against the wall so the three of them could sit more comfortably before he called out, “Fives. Come here.”

Fives turned around, stuck his tongue out, and turned back to the corner. 

“CT-5555,” Rex put a little more authority into his voice, “Now.”

Fives hesitated, fighting with himself a little bit, before groaning and stomping over. Rex gave him an appraising once over, finding nothing wrong with him other than the attitude. 

“What’s this about?” Rex tried his best to go for strict older brother but he was pretty sure the image was ruined by the two kids in his lap. 

“Don’t wanna be here,” Fives mumbled, crossing his arms and looking down, “I miss 4040.”

Ah. Cutup. Fives’ favorite of his old batch. 

Rex relaxed a bit, crooking his finger at Fives and watching the kid tentatively step toward him, “It’ll be alright. We’ll get you three fixed up in no time.”

“Fixed?” Echo craned his neck to look up at Rex. 

Rex winced, knowing where Echo probably jumped to, “Back home, I mean.”

Echo nodded, slumping against Rex as Fives tried, and mostly succeeded, to fit himself between his brother and his future commander. Rex held the three of them in his arms and tried to remember to breathe. 

He didn’t know what to do with this. They couldn’t fight and there was no way in hell Kamino would take Fives and Echo back. He didn’t have the first clue what to do with Ahsoka, hell he didn’t even know if they’d allow her back at the temple after this. Were the Jedi as strict as the Kaminoans? Certainly not except for the exceptional cases. The issue was this was most certainly an acceptable case. 

They sat in a tight anxious silence for the next few minutes. Rex was shielding as best he could, but his skills were rudimentary at best and he knew it was getting to Ahsoka. Adding on to that Fives and Echo kept poking each other and making faces when they thought Rex wasn’t looking. Eventually one of them was going to hit Ahsoka and he just knew that would start an all out war. 

Ahsoka perked up before the rest of them, her eyes going wide and her figure stilling. Rex let out a sigh of relief, well aware of what that meant by now. 

Sure enough, a few moments later they heard hurried footsteps and a few calls between troopers. Rex had them all stand, drawing his blasters and putting on his helmet as he walked to the door. 

Skywalker was the first in line, his face curious but not alarmed. Rex let the blasters fall when he saw him, nodding respectfully to his general. 

“Rex,” Anakin greeted him, “Mind showing me what this is about?”

Rex nodded, peeking over his shoulder to see Jesse, Kix, and Hardcase. That was good. The boys would love Hardcase. 

“Yeah,” Rex stepped aside and pointed at the trio of children, “Feel free to take a look.”

Anakin, it seemed, had the same reaction to children as Rex did. Which was freeze. 

Kix nudged him aside easily, sparing a curious glance at his general, before he too paused in the doorway. 

“Hi!” Ahsoka waved cheerily, one of her hands in Echo’s, “I’m Ahsoka!”

[lukedanger]

Caitlyn's Narrow Way Through without a Golden Path - A Spectulation

So, in the new S2 teaser, Caitlyn lists three objectives for her task force: locate Jinx, dismantle shimmer, and neutralize any of Silco's remaining loyalists. A clear set of objectives, and ones that in theory allow for precision as not every Zaunite is a Silco loyalist - the Firelights, for one. And ones that would almost certainly be in contrast to someone else's idea of how to retaliate. Say, a Noxian invasion? An invasion that this compromise of her leading a task force into Zaun can avert. Yet to do so, Caitlyn would still need to lead the Enforcers into Zaun as a military force: the opposite of what she wanted before.

This is not going to be pretty, but I think this is going to be a situation where she sees it as the least bad option. Caitlyn knows full well that the Piltover Council being exploded was not an attack by Zaun as a whole - Jinx made the decision herself. Caitlyn absolutely wants revenge, but I do not see her wanting to collectively punish all of Zaun for it.

Others, though, are itching to punish all of Zaun for the hexrocket attack. The most likely leading voice for that? Ambessa Medarda: if Piltover does nothing, then Noxus steps in. And Ambessa's methods would be an indiscriminate orgy of blood and fire that isn't going to care whether a Zaunite was one of Silco's men or a Firelight who opposed him. And we know that Noxus is sending at least one ship full of troops for the job from the teaser.

So, Caitlyn, now the closest thing Piltover has to a leader (assuming Jayce and Mel are out of action even if they live), steps up to the plate. She takes the reins before Ambessa makes a decision for them. And with that Sword of Damocles overhead tries to find a way through, however narrow, that avoids a total war between the cities or Piltover becoming a de facto Noxian vassal.

She creates a compromise to appease the warmongers while still avoiding collective punishment of Zaun, and asserts that Piltover is not free real estate. A narrow path of three limited objectives to resolve things in the absence of a golden path to bring justice to both cities. It is not a good solution, but the now-dead council missed every opportunity for one in their neglect and apathy. Cait makes a plan with the options she has available to her after all the better ones were lost.

Is it a good plan? Hell no! I fully expect that Cait's willingness to launch even a limited invasion of Zaun as a compromise is going to be because she wants revenge herself. At the same time, I don't think it is going to completely erase her good heart. She still is going to want the cities to heal, she just sees this conflict as one that needs to be resolved. Definitively. By her actions. Once she finishes fixing this crisis, they can deal with the actual root causes. The alternative means surrendering to despair and letting the broken system continue to fail.

But with her judgment clouded by revenge and no small amount of "I have to fix this because I seem to be the only topsider who cares", Caitlyn could lose the good heart we know her for in the first season. No doubt Ambessa will be there constantly encouraging Caitlyn to listen to the little voice in her head that says 'screw them all, they deserve to suffer for killing mom!'. To include more and more under the description "Silco's Loyalists" until that distinction is functionally meaningless. Or even starts counting Silco's enemies like the Firelights when they object to the inevitable excesses of the Enforcers.

This is where Vi will step in, I believe. She is someone who cares about Cait as a person and who is not going to fall in line to enable her worst impulses past a point of no return. I fully expect that Vi will call Caitlyn's judgment into question when it absolutely needs to be, painful an argument as it will be for those involved and to watch.

At the same time, it will be that argument that yanks Caitlyn away from the void she was about to step into. The other half of this is that when Vi calls Cait out, she listens and learns. It's just that this time, it is the lover's plea to the hero to step back before it is too late.

Maybe it is still too late for the main plan by the time this happens. Maybe this is what causes the final showdown between sisters as Cait has to let go and trust Vi to face this alone. Or maybe Vi has to do it alone because Caitlyn has to stop Ambessa as their timer runs out. There's a lot of ways it could go from here, but I think it will be a continuation of the same thing: a desperate attempt to find the narrow way through as every better option is closed off.

[mikiafina]

“VICARIOUS EMBARRASSMENT”

Message:

I do not own the characters mentioned in story below, I had this idea earlier and thought that it might be fun to imagine if it would really happen.

The reader's pronouns in this oneshot are not mentioned, but female reader is on mind while writing. Do point out my typos if you ever noticed one!

My apologies if this was too short, ‘m not really fan of writing in a long amount of time.

P.S: Read the mentioned stories made by kunichigo first before reading this.

Note:

CRITICISM ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED! IF YOU NOTICED ANY ERRORS IN MY WORK, FEEL FREE TO POINT IT OUT SO I COULD FIX IT!

——————————

I DO NOT POST IN ANY OTHER PLATFORMS EXCEPT HERE ON TUMBLR!

Trigger Warning:

Ooc, grammatical errors, misspellings, typos, possibly curse words, suggestive content (sort of), mature-ish content (is that even a word?), Informal use of language

SUGGESTIVE THEMES ARE GONNA BE MENTIONED SO BE WARNED!

Synopsis:

After reading a oneshot-series of Genshin SAGAU made by one of your adored author, you felt a sudden desire to see your babies, husbandos and waifus. As soon as you logged in, you arrived at the entrance of mondstadt as you greeted your beloved babies and husbandos.

While doing your daily commissions, the topic that your sister were talking about went from another game named ‘Roblox’ to the story that you have previously read. And without your knowledge, my oh my. Your beloved acolytes are seemed to be listening with your conversation, oh sheeshhh.

What a disaster.

Genshin Characters x Reader

Dedicated to & Inspired by:

My favourite and underrated author, Kunichigo!

“[N/n] let's play roblox, I'll let you borrow mama's phone later for you to be able to read, for now play roblox with me.” Your sister tries to persuade you, even going to the lengths of letting your borrow the phone later as a bargain just to quote o' quote, play with her.

"Hm.. Alright, but make sure to let me borrow mama's phone. Or else.." You reluctantly opened the second computer as you placed your mother's phone on the side, while waiting for the desktop to load, you engaged in a conversation with your sister on what games to play.

"We can play Evade or Shoot out if you want, we can also play the games you play, uhh.. Arsenal? Was it?" Your sister habitually tilt her head in an insure manner, you hummed in confirmation at her question.

Despite the talk that you and your sister had made, you both weren't able to play roblox because you noticed the time and remembered that you have yet to finish your commissions and quests. So after setting up your recording software and opening up your preferred browser (Opera GX y'all), you launched Genshin and waited for it to finish loading.

"Oh by the way, have you read kunichigo's latest post? It was so good and underrated, like damn." Your sister squealed in delights as she proceeds on controlling her chosen character, Zhongli.

"Ah, you mean 'Cherry Red Lips?' and 'Terrible, Terrible.' if you mean those two, I did. But on the 'Cherry Red Lips?', she said she's inexperienced with those types but she narrated it sooo good! Like the way Kaeya shamelessly raised his voice to let everyone outside their beloved creator's chamber know that he's being pleasured by her is soooo— Aghhhh! It's so juicy! Like imagine if Aether really is withering and shaking underneath us while we suck on their blood? DAMN! I'd kill to see such sight under me! And don't get me started about Kaeya, that man is a walking menace! But that's one of his hot traits! Like— like just imagineee!" You fangirled while controlling Razor, running and teleporting around mondstadt doing commisions.

"Right?! It's just ashame that the author didn't make a detailed scene about Diluc withering and panting under his beloved creator's touch! But Lisa's scene was so lit, despite being written so short. But man, Aether's really well narrated, the author made it clear that he's a babygirl." Your sister added, fangirling as much as you do. The both of you continued on squealing as you played Genshin together, having fun and making it clear that whatever is the "story" you two were talking about, is what made your day better.

Unbeknownst to the both of you, the oh so said characters are listening to your conversations. My oh my, what in teyvat did they just listen on to?

In the land of teyvat, Zhongli cannot believe what just reached his ears. Did he hear it right, are their ears working right? Did they hear it correct?

Much to Diluc's dismay, the conversation about the story that you both read did not end with just Kaeya and Aether being mentioned cause it seems like he was too, in the story. The mentioned characters can't help but feel blood rushing to their face, ears and neck due to either embarrassment or whatever human emotion you are supposed to feel in such situation, even those who weren't mentioned were flustered at the topic of their creators, despite this, they aren't sure whether to pity the others or to get jealous cause they're the topics of the beloved creators, nonetheless, they still feel the second-hand embarrassment for the others.

Meanwhile back in the Serenitea Pot, Xiao, Tighnari and Ayato looked at Diluc who's face is crimson as his hair, attempting to have the floor of the abode swallow him alive. He doesn't know whether to be thankful for kuni- or whoever the author of the story is for not writing a detailed scenario of him or he'll probably ask the Geo Archon to have the floor swallow him on the spot.

Kaeya who's sitting just right beside Diluc, laughed at his semi-miserable state, and honestly speaking, Kaeya is tad bit embarrassed but he'd be lying if he said that he denied that he's proud of how the author wrote him. Chongyun who has been silent for the whole time, almost choked on his ice cream if it weren't for Heizou and Thoma helping him unclog the small piece of popsicle on his esophagus.

Zhongli, who's being possessed by one of the creator and who's listening on the conversation from the very beginning, did not know how to react. Razor, who's beside the Geo Archon is quite confuse and worried, was the traveler, cavalry captain and librarian of knights of favonius sick or in pain? Poor boy doesn't really understand his creator and their sister is talking about, if the said people are sick then why are his beloved creator, squealing? Is there something he's missing?

Needless to say, it was an eventful day for both the vision holders and the creators. The boys are just thanking the archons that the girls aren't in presence and are having a peaceful picnic somewhere in Sumeru, or else they wouldn't be able to handle the embarrassment, much less, face nor confront them.

® mikiafina

[heliads]

Kai Parker x male reader, reader helping Kai redeem himself and be better

excellent reminder that i need to watch the originals/legacies so if this was meant for a different part of the tvd timeline do ignore

masterlist

It has only been an hour since you woke up, and already, the Salvatores are desperate for your help. It’s not like you can blame them, not really; they seem to collect trouble with an almost professional magnetism. No matter what they try, danger always comes their way, and they are never, ever able to get rid of it without significant difficulty.

This problem belongs to all of you, in a way, not just the two brothers. When your group of friends and somewhat tenuous allies managed to take down Kai Parker, you were all left with the meddlesome question of what on earth you were supposed to do with him. 

Killing Kai is tricky. None of you are one hundred percent sure that Kai’s life isn’t linked to the spell keeping Elena in a coma and Bonnie alive somewhere, tethered to her friend, so murdering him could have disastrous consequences. That hasn’t stopped Damon from stomping around and loudly declaring how much he’d like to rip Kai’s twisted little heart right out of his chest, but it’s not like the older Salvatore has ever needed an excuse for drama.

That leaves Kai Parker alive, for now at least, and that means he’ll have to be handled accordingly. Right now, he’s locked away in the cell in the Salvatore house basement, but you’ll still have to do something with him before too long, if anything to shut up the constant source of complaining emanating from the downstairs area. Stefan says it ruins his beauty sleep.

And, for some reason, the above problems have convinced the Salvatore brothers to call upon you of all people. Sure, you’re probably one of the more sensible members of your little friend group, but that shouldn’t mean you’re the one they contact for every murderous lunatic to ever hit Mystic Falls. Goodness knows it would totally destroy your travel plans.

You stalk through the halls of the Salvatore House. Stefan greets you at the door and is hurriedly following you through the rooms, alternating between apologizing for needing you yet again and attempting to extract promises that you will actually help them with this.

“It’s not like we want to do this, obviously, but you’ve got a great track record for fixing these sorts of things, and I thought it was best that Damon not handle this, or Bonnie, so–”

You come to an abrupt stop at the top of the stairs leading to the basement, cutting Stefan off with an icy stare. “And that left me, I suppose? I’d lecture you about how much I don’t want to do this, but I assume you can guess at that.”

Stefan winces. “Yeah, I kind of got that. Will you do it, though?”

You sigh, casting an irritable glance down the stairs where Kai waits somewhere in a cell below you. “I will. You totally owe me, though.”

Stefan lets out an audible sigh of relief. “You can act on that favor any time, I swear. Just see what you can do, alright?”

“We’ll see,” you allow.

In truth, you have no idea how well this is going to work. Kai is, well, Kai, and that means he’s not prone to helping anyone out if he can help it. Odds are, you’re going to try to talk to him and see if he can be trusted just for him to threaten to drain your blood or something else like that. None of you have any better idea what to do with him, though, so you’ll just have to suffer along.

You tell Stefan to stay upstairs while you’re wrangling Kai, something the younger Salvatore is only too happy to agree with. Once he’s gone, you allow yourself one last moment of relative peace, then descend to the cells below.

Kai Parker is sitting morosely on the ground, leaning up against the far wall of the cell. He looks up when he hears you approach. “Are you here to let me out?”

You scoff. “What, so you can launch another mass murder attempt? Not a chance, Parker.”

“I prefer Kai,” he says, appearing by the grate in the door in the blink of an eye so he can stare directly at you, grinning all the while, “I don’t really like being reminded of my family. I’m sure you can understand.”

“Okay, Kai,” you shrug, “Are you planning on killing more people the moment you leave this cell?”

Kai narrows his eyes. “Why are you bothering to ask me this? Yes, obviously. Unless you were going to let me out if I said no. In that case, I would be a perfectly good boy and wouldn’t shed a single drop of blood. I would devote my life to the pursuit of kindness and volunteer service, and–”

You cut him off with a deep sigh. “You’re right, bad question. Look, can you just tell me what it would take for you to change your answer and actually mean it? Neither of us want you in this basement forever.”

Kai just laughs. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not your friend, and I’m never going to be. The second the lock in this door fails, I am going to break out. I am going to kill who I please and enjoy it all the while, and you’re no exception just because you’re trying to talk to me or some nonsense like that. I want you dead, Y/N. Truly.”

His smile is saccharine, and you want to throttle him through the bars of this cage were it not for the fact that this is obviously the reaction he wants.

“Alright, then,” you manage, “Die in here. I hope you do. No food or drink for you, and certainly no blood. I can’t wait to watch you starve. By the end of it, you’ll be wishing you were back in that prison world of yours.”

Kai must be able to sense how serious you are about that threat, because his playful demeanor drops in an instant. “You can’t mean that. You need me alive so Elena doesn’t accidentally die in her coma.”

“That’s why your head is still affixed to your shoulders,” you observe, “Doesn’t mean you won’t be a skeleton by the time she wakes up. You know, if boredom doesn’t kill you first.”

With that, you turn around and head back up the stairs. Kai’s shouts echo up around you, calling for you to turn around and let him out or something, anything. It’s like music to your ears.

Stefan looks up, surprised, when you emerge onto the main floor once more. “Well, that was fast. Any ideas what we should do with him?”

“Kill him,” you say tersely.

Stefan groans. “Trust me, we would if we could, but we can’t risk Elena like that. Is there seriously no way you can get a lead on this guy?”

You shake your head, flopping down into a nearby armchair. “Not unless I come back and try to crack him, like, every day until forever.”

There’s a conspicuous silence from Stefan, and you stare at him incredulously. “Stefan, no. You can’t do this to me.”

He smiles apologetically. “Does me repeating our endless gratitude help in any way?”

“It does not,” you tell him, but it’s not like that does anything at all.

Kai’s attitude does not improve the next day, nor the next, nor the one after that. You thought this was a failed idea from the first minute, but a week later Kai must realize that you’re not going anywhere, because he starts to break at last.

“Are you really going to keep up with this until I die or something?” He asks one day, head leaned idly up against the wall of his cell.

“Yes, unfortunately,” you say. “Does that make you more willing to cooperate?”

“I have never cooperated a day in my life, and I certainly don’t plan to now,” he says smugly.

You roll your eyes. “Trust me, I know.”

Kai frowns. “Out of curiosity, why is it that you of all people got stuck with this job? I would have thought Stefan would have taken it upon himself to be heroic or self-sacrificial and done it.”

You shake your head. “No, unfortunately. See, whenever one of the Salvatores does something stupid like turn off their humanity, I’m usually the one they bring in to convince them to feel things again. I went to the Lexi School of Emotional Manipulation and now I’m great at it.”

Kai snorts. “Should I know who Lexi is?”

“One of Stefan’s old friends,” you say dismissively.

“Not an old girlfriend of yours?” Kai asks innocently.

You look at him quizzically. “No, not in the slightest. Why would you think that?”

Kai shrugs casually. “I figured it wasn’t too far out of the question. You’re a handsome young man, she was present, things happen.”

You almost choke on your laughter, surprising both yourself and Kai. “I’m honored to hear you think I’m handsome. I’ll remember that.”

“Don’t,” Kai advises you, but he’s grinning too, and. Well. You hadn’t counted on having a good time, but when Damon texts you to say he needs something again, you actually feel disappointed to leave. If you didn’t know better, you’d say Kai’s face registers the same unhappiness when you go. Do you know better, though? Do you know anything at all?

The trend continues for a while, actually. Soon enough, you’re looking forward to your talks with Kai instead of dreading them. You’re not sure what they’re accomplishing, in all honesty, but Stefan says that Kai is quieter, tries to escape less frequently, so maybe it’s doing something after all. Maybe you’re really doing this. Maybe it’s all worth it, more than just to you.

It all comes to a head a month after Kai appeared in the Salvatore basement. A group of vampire hunters makes themselves known in Mystic Falls. They break into the Salvatore house, looking for the brothers. You, Bonnie, Stefan, and Damon are occupied with other business, and you come back to destruction of property and vague threats pinned to your door.

What’s worse, the hunters looked pretty thoroughly in the house. Damon appears at the top of the stairs to the basement, face grim. “The door to Kai’s cell was opened,” he says slowly, “He’s gone.”

You suck in a breath. It makes sense, of course; if Kai could talk someone into giving him a key, there is no reason he wouldn’t run, but for some reason it hurts like hell anyway. You really thought you were making progress. You really thought–

Well, what did you think? That he would happily stay in a cell if he had a chance to escape? That you could convince Kai Parker, known murderer Kai Parker, to become a good man? Ridiculous. You may have had success getting friends to turn their humanity on in the past, but that means absolutely nothing when it comes to Kai. It was foolish of you to believe that you could do something like that, and even more foolish to be hurt by the thought of him leaving.

The hunters have to be dealt with, obviously, so your group takes to the town once again, splitting up to cover the most ground and do damage control before something bad happens again. You’re turning down an alley in the search of gun-toting weirdos when you hear something behind you, and then there they are, maybe half a dozen all pointing various weapons at your head.

You raise your hands slowly. “Easy there. Let’s not murder me quite yet.”

One of the hunters grunts. “He’s not a Salvatore.”

Another one speaks. “He’s a friend of theirs, though. That’s good enough to die.”

Not if you have anything to say about it. You pull a gun from your belt and manage to get off a few shots before the hunters recover from their shock and fire back at you. You are able to take out about three of the six, but they’re still shooting at you and you have absolutely nowhere to run.

Just as you’re certain that your luck has run out, the shots cut off abruptly. You look back at them in time to see the last of the hunters fall to the ground. The sick, metallic scent of blood slicks through the air, and someone steps over their bodies. It’s– it’s Kai, of all people, but he’s injured, stumbling as he tries to make some joke about how surprised you look right now.

You catch him before he hits the pavement. The front of his shirt is dark with blood, and he groans in pain when you press your hands to the injuries in an attempt to slow the bleeding.

“I’m not linked to Elena,” he gasps weakly, “She’s not going to die.”

“I don’t care about that,” you whisper furiously, “I don’t want to lose you.”

With a chill, you realize you’re not lying. It’s not just because he saved your life, either, which is wholly unexpected. It’s because you’ve come to like spending time with him each day, and you were terrified that you were never going to see him again once he escaped the cell. You don’t want to live without him. You’re not sure that you can.

You desperately try to staunch the flow of blood from his veins. “What happened to you wanting to kill me, huh? You saved my life, it’s not like you.”

“Wasn’t,” he corrects slowly, “wasn’t like me. Guess we can all change if we want it enough.”

You frown. “What do you want, Kai?”

His eyes are dark in this night, not even the stars above can touch them. “You.”

Your blood feels cold as it runs through you. “What?”

Kai manages to find the strength to roll his eyes. “I know, I know. That was dramatic. I’m being honest, though, Y/N.”

“I know,” you whisper.

When you check his wounds again, you’re grateful to see that the skin is starting to knit together again. You’ve managed to hold him together through the worst of it, which means that he’s going to live. It also means that you have time, now, more time to think about what this means for the two of you, what you’re going to do with this information. You want him too, you realize. You want all of it, and for once, you have the perfect opportunity to have it, too.

tvd tag list: @mayfieldss

[daeagon]

My Reactions to ep 9 of TDofJ

MAJOR SPOILERS!! fyi this is an actually image of me while watching this show, this and me crying

this is very long so fair warning!

I also watched some of this with my IRL friend, so I’ll add their reactions!

THE BOAR SCNEE! You don’t know how excited I was to see this since it’s in the opening credits, and they just have it in the first 2 seconds! I THOUGUT THIS WOULD BE A HUGE CHANCE SCENE!! Nope

Oh she angy

I also love J’s little head tilt thing, it’s so smooth!

I LOVE HER and this line is so fucking funny! (Don’t think about how I could connect this to Bianca’s character and actions in the show)

THE PARALLELS THE PARALLELS! they speak to me!

the way this connects to J and Nuria’s hug/J crying but it’s the opposite, B is crying and doesn’t get a hug, however her partner knows about her job!

I don’t have any photos but during J going home and speaking to his kid my IRL was yelling at him to stop speaking Spanish, I was going OH SHIT.

also my IRL thinks Nuria is very hot and she can do better

When Nuria was confronting J and saying is this real when pointing to her ring: DAMN

basically that whole bit was me and my friend being in shock and reacting to it and saying Nuria was hot!It was very fun and surprising

HE FUCKING SNAPPED OH MY GOLLY! I LOVE THIS TROPE YEESSSSSSSSSSS

my IRL was also wondering why J was just standing there, he really hit the 🧍‍♂️

THIS FUCKING SHOT! HOLY SHIT

this looks like a painting! I don’t know which one but this should be in a museum! THE LIVHTING!! (I feel like someone should look into potential Biblical references or connections in this show, bc Nuria is in paradise and that falls apart because of her curiosity, I’m sure there’s more this is just surface level)

when Nuria walked away my IRL repeated that and said as she should

WHAT IS GOING ON WIRH THE BROTHET OH NO! I think he’s in something deep

oh wait, this could be a setup/trap

WAIT NOOOO!

AND WHAT YOU WANT ME TO BE GREATFUL FOR THAT?! F off! I USED TO LIKE YOU!

the way I need him to do this to me, and tell me everything is ok

but I know your fixing your marriage and that’s great but you have a man to unalive

I LOVE UDC!!! ‘Super rish people have to give up private jets so young people can have a future’ PREACH! PLEASE COME TO THIS WORLD PLEASE!! 🙏 This world really needs someone like UCD and River

YESSSSS QUEEN! If UDC has no fans I am dead (pun not intended)

but River launches tomorrow, that’s not a lot of time. I think UDC will die but River will still launch and the world will go into chaos

also very interesting timing of this show with recent events in NY, completely random thought

that’s the UK’s foreign secretary guy

’so where is the Jackal?’ Mans getting a boat, love him for that (to get to the island???)

I think I might be going to Spain at some point late next year, im actually so excited!

WHAT THE FUCK!! HELLO?!

WHAT?! It wasent the Jackal, was it? I DONT KNOW

Bianca’s so real for that

None is having a good time, J is mourning Norman, B is mourning her family even though they’re not dead

This song feels like a set up for the season finale, but there’s still time left in the ep

NOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT THE REGRET FOR SNAPPING AT YOUR WIFE NOOOO

OH SHIT! B is going to Spain oh god

Ah shit, here we go again

Very pretty bird!

They are knows for their ability to mimic the songs of other birds, sometimes kept as a cage bird 👀, that could connect to J’s username on the dark web, someone posted an analysis about that

The fit is giving Sherlock Holmes/deer hunter

also side note the fits in this show 👌, I need them!

bird call in distance

I might be a sleeper agent for anything bird related

I really should expect everyone J interacts with will be killed but wow, knife in the sock

I thought for a sec J would dive/swim to the island, glad he’s not doing thst

That’s a crazy set up wow! I mean it’s to account for the shaking of the boat so it makes sense

Jackal is so homophobic, you killed Rasmus your going to kill UDC who hurt you?

OH NO! Ullie’s partner is convinced him to swim and he’s going to die and he’s going to have so much guilt nooooooo

oh no there’s a drone!

and that dead guy is still just sitting there, sure

He shot the guy on a jet ski, he’s going to shoot the drone, is he going to do this with one bullet?!?

I’ve been so invested and mesmerized, the mucus it’s so tense!!! I’m scared

What did he do to the drone?! Huh

HE HIT THE WRONT MAN!!

THE COUNTDOWN IS SO TENSE

I am on the edge of my seat

OH SHIT!!

THERE YOU ARE ARE YOU INSANE

omg, I am actually in shock this show, I don’t think I was breahting

your just going to sail away!

NO THE PARTNER NOO IM SO SORRY

THE MUSIC! principle down!

IM GETTING MY CHSCE SCENE! YESSSSSSSSS

THE SHOT COMPOSITION IN THIS SHOW IS ACTUSLLY INSANE!!

I’m shaking

they just cut it there

god I have to wait a week

what did I just watch

a masterpiece that’s what

I need a week to process that actuslly

This show, I don’t have the words for how good it is, this is some of the best TV I’ve watched in a while

Welp until next week 😭

[cetaitlaverite]

Why All This Music?

Masters of the Air - Rosie Rosenthal x OC

masterlist is linked here in case you missed it and you're interested, the bonus chapter of the first night freddie and rosie spent together in his plane is linked here <3

26. Bärchen

With a hand shielding her eyes, as though she could somehow protect herself from the words Freddie was about to throw at her, Jem let out an almighty huff. “Fred, don’t tell me what I think you’re going to tell me.”

Freddie had her hands clasped behind her back, swinging her hips left and right coquettishly with a pleased little smile on her lips. “Depends on what you think I’m going to tell you.”

“Good or bad news?” Millie asked suspiciously, sitting in the grass around the back of the wireless operators’ nissen hut. Her head was tipped back to rest against the wall behind her, her eyes fixed on Freddie warily. The morning sunshine made the strawberry blonde of her hair appear strikingly red.

Freddie smiled innocently. “Good news!” she chirped. “Very good, I think. And if you love me you’ll be happy.”

“You and Rosie are back together,” Jem said blankly, as though tired of the preamble.

Now it was Freddie’s turn to huff. “Jem, that was my news and I was supposed to announce it!”

Millie snorted. “Fred, you are so predictable it’s unreal. The fact you thought we didn’t anticipate you and Rosie returning from your little holiday thick as thieves is laughable.”

Freddie wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to feel offended. “Well, I didn’t know.”

Jem scoffed.

“Okay, well, maybe I thought it might be nice if all of my anger finally faded away if we went home again,” Freddie amended. “But I didn’t anticipate telling him I love him.”

“What?” Jem’s eyes shot open, the hand shielding them falling instantly to her side.

Freddie smiled smugly. “Ha! Didn’t anticipate that one, did you?”

“You told Rosie you love him?” Millie asked, sitting up straight in the grass. Even Meatball, lying beside her, tilted his head, sensing a change in the tone of conversation.

Freddie’s smile turned sheepish. “It kind of slipped out. Daniel’s mother caught us dancing outside together when we came back from the jazz club.” Freddie launched into a hasty retelling of the argument which had ensued and how her confession of love to Rosie had fit into it. By the time she was finished, Millie and Jem looked decidedly less wary of the entire situation.

“So everything’s back the way it was before?” Jem asked after a beat in which the story settled on the air between them. “You’re just pretending the break up never happened?”

“I apologised for what I said, if that’s what you mean,” Freddie answered her steadily. “Because I was spiteful and unkind. But I don’t see any real reason to drag out the argument any further. I love him and he loves me and that is so special, after everything which happened with Daniel. It’s important. When you first met me did you ever think I’d get to this place ever again? Even this time last year the idea would have been preposterous. I would have laughed in your face if you’d told me I’d fall in love again.”

With a soft sigh, Millie pushed herself to her feet. She approached Freddie and took hold of both of her hands, considering her for a moment, before grinning and using her hold on Freddie’s hands to pull her into a hug. “I’m proud of you, Fred,” she said into her shoulder. “I know it’s not always easy for you but you’re always trying so hard and I’m proud of you.”

Freddie smiled into Millie’s shoulder. “I don’t have to try so hard anymore, really. Not with Rosie. Sometimes I have to be brave but he makes everything feel so safe and so easy. I find it impossible to be angry with him for long.”

When Millie pulled away from their hug Jem was right there and waiting for one of her own. “If he goes down I’ll still fucking kill him,” she warned, wrapping her arms tight around Freddie.

Freddie laughed.

“But I’m proud of you too, Fred,” Jem went on. “You know I only ever want you to be happy, don’t you?” Momentarily, Jem pulled away from the hug and rested both of her hands on Freddie’s shoulders. Her gaze was serious. “When I’m suspicious of Rosie or I complain about him it’s only because I care about you and I don’t want you to get hurt, you know that, don’t you? I think he’s really good for you, and I don’t want you to think I’m being unsupportive.”

Freddie smiled and hugged her tight. “I know, Jemmy,” she whispered. “You’re looking out for me. I wouldn’t ever want you to be any other way.”

But while Freddie and Rosie were formally back together, back on base they saw each other almost as little as they had before spending the weekend in Oxford. Work had picked up prominently; Rosie was flying again and he was flying often, and Freddie knew without having to be told that her workload was increasing day after day in preparation for a big invasion of Europe.

She looked over countless flight plans for Croz, circling the locations where Luftwaffe resistance was likely to be the most oppressive in red ink, and combed back through every transcript she could get her hands on of previous manipulation attempts as part of Operation Corona. As time wore on she started to receive some specifics. The invasion was going through France, so she should prepare specifically to target France-based Luftwaffe efforts. Incidentally, it did matter to her planning where they should expect the planes to be coming from.

Later and later into the night she remained in her office. No one batted an eye because she wasn’t the only one. Croz was likely single-handedly causing a coffee shortage in the south east of England - Freddie wasn’t sure he had slept since March - and the bags under Jack’s eyes were so dark against his pale skin they almost looked like bruises.

Freddie’s office was a mess. There were piles of paper everywhere, some screwed up in balls where she’d become frustrated with her own plans and tried to toss them into the bin and missed. Her shoes were strewn halfway across the floor along with a couple of Meatball’s toys from Christmas. Her jacket was on the leather sofa - Meatball was currently using it as a pillow - and her tie was hanging off the back of her chair. The chaos was organised, at least to Freddie, but it was still chaos, and chaos it would remain until the invasion had come and gone.

Today, Freddie had skipped lunch. If she wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour for once she simply couldn’t afford the luxury of leaving her office. She worked relentlessly, until her eyes burned and her throat ached for water, until the typewritten words on the pages in front of her started to blur together. She rubbed at them harshly until she could see straight again.

She wasn’t sure when Rosie had arrived. She hadn’t heard him come in. He called her name in a tone which suggested he’d been calling it for a while and when she looked up he was frowning, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall opposite her. “You weren’t at dinner.”

Freddie nodded. “No time,” she said, turning back to her work.

“You weren’t at lunch, either.”

Freddie shrugged. She didn’t look up.

“Fred, the invasion ain’t tomorrow,” Rosie said.

“It might as well be,” Freddie replied, her focus largely on the pages in front of her. “I need to make sure we’re prepared. If working overtime for a little while helps to save lives then what does it matter in the grand scheme?”

Rosie sighed. “You won’t do your best work if you’re exhausted.”

Freddie shook her head, her eyes quickly scanning the words on the paper before her. “It’s muscle memory by now. My German’s native, I don’t have to think about it, and I know these missions. I just need to be sure -”

“You need to rest, Fred,” Rosie cut her off.

Freddie shook her head again. “I just need to get these done.”

She almost forgot he was standing there, watching her closely, as she fell back into the routine of her work. She marked out places where communication could be stronger, highlighted instances where orders had been evaded, distrusted, or confusing. All of this needed to be tightened. There needed to be no doubt on the day of the invasion that the fake orders they were giving the German fighter pilots were real.

The words she was reading became loud in her head. Her temples started to throb, thudding with the rhythm of them. Her eyes were blurring again. She squeezed them tightly shut a few times until her vision straightened, then went straight back to her work.

“Fred,” Rosie said with a sigh as she reached for a new set of papers, “the world won’t end if you take one night off to go on a date with your boyfriend.”

Freddie glanced up. This was the first she was hearing of a date. She rested both of her elbows on the desk and put her chin in her hands. “My job is important. I want to make sure we win -”

“Brilliant as you are, Fred - and you are brilliant - you aren’t gonna win us the war single-handedly, sweetheart. Especially not like this.” Rosie’s voice was soft and so were his eyes when she met them. He was always so gentle and patient. 

For seemingly no reason at all, Freddie’s bottom lip started to wobble.

Rosie was crouching beside her desk chair in an instant, turning it to face him.

“I’m just tired,” Freddie batted away his concern as she sniffled and pushed back her tears. “And I want to go on a date with you but I’ll feel so guilty if I don’t get my work done.”

“Just a short date,” Rosie reasoned, resting both of his elbows on her knees. His eyes were kind. “It’s warm today. I brought you some dinner and I thought we could have a picnic for dessert.”

Freddie smiled, reaching out and pushing back some of his hair. “Did you get chocolate?” she asked quietly.

He smiled wide, chuckling a bit under his breath. “I got so much chocolate,” he assured her. “The kitchen’ll probably put up warning posters once they see how much is missing.”

Freddie laughed. “My most favourite little thief,” she said fondly, still running her fingers through his hair, attempting to loosen the gel and free his curls. “Aren’t lawyers supposed to be loyal to the law at all costs?”

Rosie scoffed, grinning. “No. Lawyers just know how not to get caught.”

Laughing, Freddie leaned down to kiss his forehead. She let her lips linger there for a moment before sighing and withdrawing. “I can’t be gone for more than an hour,” she told him, keeping her eyes on him and the way his eyes lit up even as she began to organise the papers strewn across her desk into files.

“I’ll have you home before curfew, Fred, don’t you worry about that.”

Freddie laughed, rolling her eyes indulgently. “You’re so cheesy sometimes, Rosie.”

“I’m just in love,” Rosie dismissed her. “And who can blame me?”

Rosie had his military issue duffle bag waiting outside her office door - evidence Freddie hadn’t needed that he hadn’t been prepared to take no for an answer - and he picked it up to take with them as he led Freddie and Meatball to the airfield. 

It was deserted aside from some of the mechanics working on the planes. The ground crews paid Freddie and Rosie no mind - aside from Ken Lemmons, who called out his greetings. When Meatball ran over to greet his former babysitter, Ken promptly smothered him in attention, grinning as Meatball ran around his ankles and barked.

Rosie laid out an old blanket for him and Freddie to sit on and then set out his wares. Along with everything he’d taken from dinner for Freddie, he’d also managed to scavenge multiple chocolate bars and some strawberries. Freddie smiled as she watched him try to lay it out nicely for her.

Meatball, worn out from demanding Ken’s attention, made his way back over to them and laid down on the blanket behind them, content to laze in the warmth of the sunset. The sun was still setting so late. Freddie wondered if the government would decide to treble the daylight savings this year and have it still look as bright as midday at midnight.

Freddie started to eat the dinner Rosie had brought her quietly while Rosie entertained Meatball, playing fetch with one of the toys Meatball had brought along with them. Smiling, Freddie watched them and tried to imagine having this even after the war. Her, Rosie, and a dog, sitting outside to watch the sunset and having a picnic. It sounded like a dream.

“Is this our first date?” Freddie asked suddenly. She had just finished dinner and was watching idly as Rosie started to unwrap one of the chocolate bars.

He glanced up at her with a confused grin. “No. Of course not. It can’t be.”

“I think it is.” She shared his smile, cocking an eyebrow in challenge.

“What about all those times in my plane?” Rosie countered.

Freddie scoffed. “Those were not dates. They were…” She searched for an appropriate word. “Trysts,” she decided. “Rendezvous. I don’t know. But I’m disappointed to have to inform you, Major Rosenthal, that taking a girl to your plane to fool around does not constitute a date.”

Rosie laughed, rolling his eyes amusedly. “Alright, first of all, we don’t ‘fool around’. And second of all, if I remember correctly you were the one taking me to my plane the first time we made love.”

Freddie grinned. “Oh, yes, because you took so much convincing. Need I remind you I can’t actually get in without your help?”

“What about in Oxford, then?” Rosie challenged, returning to unwrapping the chocolate bar but grinning to himself as he did it. “When we got ice cream? When you showed me around? When we went to the jazz club?”

Freddie hummed thoughtfully. “Though you make a strong case, you remain incorrect. We got ice cream because I wanted ice cream and you agreed to go with me. I showed you around because that is what people tend to do when they take someone home with them. And the jazz club…” She had to consider her argument for a moment. “Well, the jazz club would be your most compelling argument, but considering it was my idea and I suggested it to you when we were still just friends, I don’t think it can be considered a date.”

Rosie tipped his head back and groaned playfully. “There was a rose on our table!”

Freddie raised both of her eyebrows as he met her eyes once more. “Did you put it there?”

“No.”

“Did you ask them to put it there?”

“No.”

“Then I fail to see the relevance.”

Rosie laughed, tossing the chocolate bar to the blanket so he could wrap both of his arms around Freddie and lift her to sit between his legs. “So hard to please,” he teased into her hair as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She giggled as he kissed her cheek and then her neck. “If all those weren’t dates then this ain’t a date either. If we’ve still got a first date to have then I wanna plan it properly.”

Freddie grinned, turning her face towards him and instantly receiving a kiss to her lips. She laughed. “After careful consideration I’ve decided to allow you to take me on a formal first date, Major. This will be a prologue, of sorts. A prelude.”

“A preview,” Rosie suggested, grinning.

“Right,” Freddie agreed. “A preview. Exactly.”

“When can I take you out on a real date?” His eyes were all lit up like he was looking at the stars.

Freddie smiled back at him, lifting a hand to caress his cheek fondly. “I believe that’s up to you, the Right Honourable Date Planner.”

“Alright,” Rosie conceded. “When would be a bad time to take you out?”

Freddie considered this. “Late at night or early in the morning,” she decided. “A good window of opportunity would be when we’d usually be in the officers’ club.”

“Gotcha,” Rosie confirmed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Freddie smiled, leaning in to nuzzle their noses together. “I look forward to seeing what you come up with.”

Freddie remained sitting between Rosie’s legs as they made a start on the dessert he’d acquired for them. She hummed happily as she alternated between the chocolate and the strawberries, smiling every time Rosie leaned down to press a kiss against the side of her face.

She could feel how in love he was feeling, sitting there on an old blanket in the middle of the airfield, eating stolen sweets as the sun set. He couldn’t seem to get his hands off of her, nor his lips. And Freddie resented that she’d been the reason they’d been kept apart for a little while. This new workload had come with a lot of consequences but the worst of them was making her take for granted the man who had her heart.

“Rosie, I love you,” Freddie declared as she finished her chocolate bar and turned to face him. She sat up on her knees between his legs and curled her arms around his neck. “I love you so bad.”

His smile was wide as he gazed back at her through the vibrant orange of the setting sun. “I love you too, Fred. So, so bad.”

She sat quietly and just looked at him for a little while, taking in his face and its happy glow, his curls and the almost red tint to their ends under the light of the sunset, the fond curve of his lips as he smiled, not for any particular reason other than contentedness.

“I love you so much,” Freddie whispered, brushing a kiss against his smiling lips. After Daniel was killed she thought she’d never love a man again, that she’d live a long, lonely life and die old, still dreaming of the love she’d lost at twenty-one. But here was Rosie and she loved him more than life itself, more than she’d imagined herself capable of feeling love anymore. He’d met all of her rebuttals with patience and acceptance and gifted her the love she had now by being willing to wait for it. “My angel,” she breathed, rubbing her thumb over his cheek as she cupped it. “My love.”

Rosie was smiling. His cheek was warm beneath her thumb. “How do you say ‘I love you’ in German?”

Freddie smiled and moved her thumb out of the way momentarily just so she could press a kiss to his blushing cheek. “Ich liebe dich,” she said. “But you can only use it with someone you’re in love with. You have to be absolutely sure.”

“Ich liebe dich,” Rosie said, trying hard to work out the unfamiliar syllables.

Freddie smiled, endeared by his attempt. “Ich lieb’ dich auch, Bärchen.”

“What does that mean?”

“Bärchen?” Rosie nodded, so she translated, “Little bear. It’s a term of endearment. You would only use it for a boyfriend or a husband and since Daniel hated German I’ve never really gotten to use it. But you -” she was smiling wide as she kissed the tip of his nose, “- are the most ‘Bärchen’ Bärchen I have ever met.”

“I’m a little bear?” Rosie scrunched his nose up, both in response to her kiss and to her claim.

Freddie laughed. “Not because you’re little! Because you’re precious. ‘Little’ is used in German terms of endearment more to emphasise the fondness you feel for something than for size. So a Junge is a young boy, but a Jungchen is a young boy you feel affection for, generally a son. He doesn’t have to be little. It’s the same with Bärchen. So you’re my Bärchen. Und ich lieb’ dich so sehr, ich könnte sterben.”

Rosie was smiling even though he couldn’t understand her. “Can you teach me some? I wanna be able to understand you when you speak German.”

Freddie grinned, sitting up straighter on her knees. “You want to learn German?”

Rosie tilted his head to the side as he gazed at her, his eyes flicking between the bright smile on her lips and the warmth in her eyes. “It’s a part of you. Maybe the only part of you I don’t understand yet.”

Freddie fell forward into his arms, curling her own around his neck as she kissed him repeatedly. “I love you,” she mumbled against his lips between kisses, again and again and again. “Ich lieb’ dich. I love you. I love you so bad it hurts.”

“I don’t want it to hurt,” Rosie said, pressing another kiss to her lips.

“It feels happy too,” Freddie reassured him. “Safe and warm and exciting. It just hurts when I don’t know how to express it clearly enough.”

Rosie smiled. “I think you do a pretty good job.”

Freddie shook her head. “You’ll never know how much I love you, whatever language I tell you in.”

“But I feel it.”

“Good.” Freddie smiled. She needed him to feel it. If there was one person in the whole world who deserved to know he was loved it was Rosie. She couldn’t stand the thought of him ever passing a day doubting it.

[miraclesnail]

title still pending, wip, chapter 2

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When you think of Travis Stoll, what comes to mind? Powerful? Intelligent? A protagonist? More like weak, a bit on the air-headed side, and a minor character at best. So why is he being chased by a crazy man with a foot long butcher knife?

Percy hisses as Annabeth shoves his arm back into its socket without so much as a warning. A heads up would have been nice but this probably for the best. The blindingly white-hot pain only last for a minute before simmering down into a dull ache. He rolls his shoulder experimentally and flexes his hand, making sure all function is there. 

It could be worse though. He could have a knife in his back. The way Travis was holding on to that knife? For one scary moment, he thought Travis was really going to do it. 

Thankfully Clarisse saved his butt. Not so fortunately, she got stabbed in his stead. . 

Will manages to squash Clarisse’s bleeding knee and the ambrosia she’s angrily munching on heals any damage Travis did ripping his knife out sideways. 

Leo is nursing his bitten hand. 

Piper is rubbing her kicked shin. 

And Chris is… well, Chris is taking care of his headbutted region. 

“It took six of us,” Leo starts, “To pin him down and we weren’t even successful. Are we really this weak? I mean. It’s just one man. And it’s Travis of all people. I beat him really easily in that sparring match a couple months ago. Me. Out of all people too.” 

Travis is asleep, thanks to Mr. D (who, by the way, is getting chewed out by Chiron. Something about ‘you can’t make them pass out everytime they cause trouble’ though if Percy were to be honest, Mr. D made the right call.) 

Percy swallows as he takes in Travis’s outfit. 

It looks like something Nico would love to wear with the black leather gloves and black turtleneck and black sweatpants. It looks unbearably hot in this June heat. Definitely not Travis’s style either. Though to be fair, Percy has never seen Travis without the orange camp shirt and khakis. 

A hand slips into his and a nectar bottle is pressed into his other.

 “You okay, seaweed brain?” Annabeth asks, “What happened? Why did he attack you?” 

“I don’t know. I saw him in the forest just standing there. I tried to get his attention but he wasn’t answering me so I touched his shoulders then out of nowhere, he’s trying to kill me.” 

Percy tries not to recall the unbidden anger in those eyes. Travis is … surprisingly terrifying when he’s angry. 

*** Fix bottom scenes/add something/maybe delete

Problem for future me *** 

Jason is rolling Travis onto his back. He’s handcuffing his hands together. When the first cuff locks on, Travis’s hand twitches. 

His hand twitches. 

“Jason, get —”

Travis’s eyes fly open and they zero in on Jason. Fear grips Percy’s heart. He’s too far. He can’t get there fast enough. Jason is going to — 

A blink and Percy would have missed Travis taking down Jason with a scissor leg maneuver. Another blink and he would have missed Travis shoving pulling a small knife from his plumber’s belt. 

Percy’s not the best at archery but maybe if he threw Riptide while it’s a pen, that’ll draw Travis’s attention. Maybe if he— 

But Travis isn’t standing above Jason anymore. He’s running towards him with remarkable speed. Annabeth curses and steps in front of him with her weapon out. 

He tries to shove her back, but Annabeth fights him on it. And okay fine. They’ll fight Travis together. But he doesn’t want to. He really doesn’t want to. Travis is his friend even if the guy did just attack him out of nowhere. 

But Travis runs past them, actually using Annabeth’s first swipe as a bouncepad to launch himself up and over the two of them. Percy readies to guard Annabeth’s back, but Travis moves past them, jabbing a knife into Mr. D's eyes while simultaneously thrusting a full gladius sword into Chiron’s stomach and ripping it sideways like he did with Clarisse’s knees. 

It all happened so fast. 

Travis shoves the knife in the eye. Travis pulls the hair back to expose the neck. Travis kicks the back of the knees to bring Mr. D to his knees. And Travis pulls out a new, much longer and broader knife with a golden tinge, places it against Mr. D’s jugular and very cleanly swipes across. 

And just like that, one decapitated god in five seconds. 

Percy’s going to be sick. 

Someone is already retching behind him. 

It makes Travis’s head perk up and there’s none of that crazy, unbidden anger Percy sees earlier back in the forest. They’re surprisingly free of emotion. Calm and focused. Confusion. Relieved. Surprise. If… if… Percy pushes it actually, he could say he’s seeing happiness in those gaze. 

That is until they met him and his calm went to panic.  

“I can explain,” Travis says with a hand out like he meant no harm. 

“Sleep!” Piper screams behind them. 

Travis stumbles, but right himself. 

“Go to sleep!” Piper yells again, desperation tinged in her voice. 

And Travis is down entirely, head bonking the banister. 

[scotianostra]

On July 3rd 1883, the Clyde shipyards suffered their worst accident when the SS Daphne capsized at her launch.

The SS Daphne was a 460-ton steamer to be used on the Glasgow-Ireland run. The ship was launched from the shipbuilding yard of Messrs. Alexander Stephen and Sons at Linthouse, Govan. Within three minutes she had capsized with over 200 workers finishing the internal fittings still on board. 124 died as a result.

As was usual in the launching of ships two anchors and cables were employed to check the way on the vessel after she had entered the water. On this occasion the checking apparatus failed to function. The starboard anchor moved some six or seven yards, but the port anchor dragged for about sixty yards and the current of the river catching the ship at a critical moment turned her over on her port side.

A joiner who survived named Kinnaird wrote:

“I was busily engaged on the deck, and felt the vessel moving on the ways, and nothing occurred until she had taken the river. Then an extraordinary scene happened, and tremendous shouts arose from those on board. I felt the vessel toppling over to the right and in a moment every person on board was hurled into the water. The shrieks and cries were terrible. I, along with some others, scrambled on to the bottom of the vessel, which was turned upside, and retained a hold. In a few moments a man came round with a small boat, and asked me to jump into the water. I did so, and was rescued. There would be about twenty persons besides myself who clung to the bottom of the vessel, and also succeeded in getting into the boat. Round about I could see a large number of people struggling and shouting in the water. Prior to the accident there were so many men and boys on deck that it was difficult to move about. I believe that over two hundred people were in the vessel. I cannot possibly describe the heart-breaking scenes which I witnessed.”

An enquiry was held and the yard owners were exonerated from any blame, leading to claims of a cover up. One of the outcomes of the disaster was the limiting of personnel aboard to only those necessary for mooring the ship after the launch. The ship was raised and repaired at Govan Dry Docks and emerged as the ‘Rose’.

Such was the scale and tragedy of the disaster that there are two SS Daphne Memorials in Glasgow. One is located in Craigton Cemetery the other one in Elder Park representing the loss to those communities involved.(As seen in pics 3 & 4)

The following extract is from The Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette, 7th July 1883 & 14th July 1883.

A PAISLEY VICTIM OF THE DISASTER

Robert Baylis, aged forty-three years, a carpenter, is amongst the unrecovered dead. He resided in Paisley and was known amongst his fellow-workmen as “Paisley Bob”. He has left a widow and seven children, the youngest an infant. When his wife heard of the accident she hurried to Govan, but could not find him in his lodgings. He was one of those upon the ill-fated vessel. The poor woman stated that her husband left home on Monday morning. He turned back three times saying that he could not understand what was wrong but he felt ‘sweer’ to leave, as he felt as if something was going to happen to him.

The Daphne still lies in the bed of the river, and no search was made on Thursday for the bodies, which are still lying in her hold and engine room. About thirty of the victims who perished on Tuesday were buried on Thursday, and a number were buried yesterday. The method fixed upon for raising the Daphne is to close up all apertures, pump the vessel dry and bring it on a level keel by means of pontoons. These operations will necessarily occupy a few days.

As for those who were killed, there are memorials dedicated to them on either side of the Clyde; at Victoria Park to the north and Elder Park in the south.

A total of 126 men lost their lives with 40 women widowed and 150 children left without their main breadwinners as a result of the catastrophe.

[ai-luni]

Virago Pt 2

David "Hesh" Walker x Fem!Reader

Part 1

A/N: I did planned to take this further and try to fix it but an angsty end just felt right. My heart's broken, I hope yours is too. There likely won't be a third part but I like vig (she's basically a self insert so um...) and might write her again.

Again thanks to @aukuro for finding his photo for me

Word Count: 5.7k

Warnings: Angst, canon typical violence, sexual assault reference, panic attacks

June 28th -  Tragedy

You could have sworn you heard gunshots, your unconscious hazy and unstable state made anything you saw or felt or heard feel like a dream. You heard Hesh’s voice, he called out to you, he calmed you down and you wanted to smile. 

You thought of this all over. You thought of his voice. Had you been awake, the thought would have all felt incredibly indulgent but when your subconscious prevailed, your core desires never hid. They always led your mind back to a little house with that silly little boy and his silly little dog. 

Some days it was a cabin in the woods, just you and him alone while Riley chased rabbits. Other times it was a house next to the coast. Playing volleyball with the boy, shirtless and tanned while Riley ran away from the waves. There wasn’t much beach left for unauthorised personnel’s this day and age but your subconscious never wanted to play politics. 

The moment you truly opened your eyes, it took you a few seconds to realise you were awake. Uncontrollable brain fog; you couldn’t figure out what time it was, you couldn’t figure out where you were. All you knew was that you wanted to go back to sleep, live in that dream a little longer. 

Your knees felt like fucking shit. Your head felt like fucking shit. 

Oh dear Lord what happened. 

What was in your lungs, were you drowning?

Why are they so sticky, why couldn’t you breathe.

Fuck.

What happened, fUCK WHAT HAPPENED. 

“Hold her down.” A gruff voice you didn’t recognise spat at you and a little bit on you. A pair of arms reacted, wrapping around you and holding you tighter to the wooden chair frame against your back. You were so in your head, so in your body, you hadn’t realised your thoughts manifested into panic and your heart was beating dangerously fast. 

“After all that and she’s still going.” The voice behind you added. He spoke directly next to your ear, too loud you instinctively flinched away from him, The sound like a patrol banging on someone's door, prying their way in. 

You opened your eyes, first meeting Hesh. His eyes painted with concern and defeat and rage and… You weren’t sure. He probably wasn’t sure.

Then you met Merrick’s line of sight, his eyes only told you that he was sorry. Your heart shattered, everyone accepting the situation for what it was. The ghosts had failed their mission. 

Keegan wasn’t back yet. Elias was yet to be seen.. 

You looked to Logan. His face was pale, blood covered his clothes, eyes bloodshot and puffy red. You gave him a concerned look he failed to meet. That’s when alarm bells rung in your head. Something happened while you were out. Of all of you, Logan’s spirit was the hardest to break and this boy right now looked the epitome of defeated. 

“She wouldn’t last this long if I got my hands on her, if you know what I mean.” Some of the surrounding soldiers chucked which turned into hollers. You were tied and held back like your soul depended on it but Hesh and Merrick, it was their final straw. 

“You’re fucking disgusting, I’m going to kill you!” Hesh launched out of his chair, directly towards the sergeant quicker than anyone else could even think about stopping him. Merrick took the chance of surprise, following suit soon after.

Like it was coordinated, a window shattered, the commanding officer in the centre of the room fell to the ground half a second later. There was no time to question it.

“Logan now!” He sprung out of his chair, knocking out the sergeant behind you. It took you a moment to find your balance. Logan’s arms were held out for a second to spare, making sure you did stay on your feet.

“Got you Vig.” You’d smile later, realising he used Keegan’s nickname. But not now.

Everything burnt. Adrenaline burns hotter.

You stole the gun from the body behind you, ready to keep moving. You hadn’t noticed the way you stumbled as you walked, Hesh did. He was by your side in a heartbeat.

“Virago,” He held your shoulders like fine china, his voice soft and low, a sound that would get you into bed any other day. “You okay?” 

“I think so.” You groaned as you tried taking a step. Perhaps you were worse off than you thought. In reality, you almost saw death’s door. Your face was purple, legs almost numb, something between your legs and in your gut stung like the worst pain you’d ever felt and your chest crunched at every step you took.

“You okay, Merrick?” Hesh asked over his shoulder, Logan helping him to his feet. 

“Yeah. Ribs broken, but I can move.” He didn’t sound well, but he was more put together than you were. Maybe you had come out of this most worse for wear. “You stick with Virago, we gotta keep moving!” 

June 28th -  Start of Mission

Logan led the way, Merrick a close second, double clearing a room. Hesh had an arm around your waist, you felt like dead weight, clutching your gun like it was gonna make a difference. 

 “Keegan, we’re up and moving. Get here as soon as you can.” Hesh spoke into his com. The static of it was even enough to set off another siren in your head. 

“Check. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

“We need to make it to the west side of the building, It’s our best chance of getting out of here.” You spoke, Hesh depositing you against a counter to open the next set of doors. From where you stood, you weren’t sure you’d helped all too much, maybe hitting one soldier. Performance at this very moment wasn’t your main concern however. 

Then finally you made it to the kitchen. The long room was clear, keegan meeting you halfway, eye focused on the exit. 

You held your hand out to catch yourself on the wall, there was a small office off to the side you entered, giving a quick once over and nodding back to Hesh. 

 “Vig doesn’t look too good, is she gonna make it standing?” You could barely hear Keegan's voice as he spoke to Hesh.

“They did a number on her but she’s still got some in her. She sticks with me.” He replied. 

“It’s clear. Bring Merrick in here, he’s gonna need a minute.” The moment it left your mouth, Merrick’s torso gave out and he fell onto a rack of plates and cutlery. Hesh was by his side in moments, basically dragging him into the office room. The racket of it all sounded 10 times worse with the stakes at hand.

“Shit, we gotta hide. Logan, in here. Quick.” Keegan was the last to enter the room, stationed and ready next to the archway. They heard us in the kitchen and were making their way in. 

You sat on the back wall, finally taking the moment to catch your breath. 

“Turn your radio down.” 

A chorus of shh’s echoed in the space. 

Your heart hasn't slowed down since you woke up. 

All your focus was on the window. Heavy footsteps and a radio spouting portuguese steadily approaching. 

The next series of events happened within the blink of the eye. Keegan jumped on the soldier the moment he entered. Body to the ground with his legs flailing about, searching the carpet for anything. Not a sound to be heard but his struggling grunts, Keegan's arm playing the part of a suffocator and muffler. 

Then show time really began. 

It was a shit show. One room after the other in a maze of hallways and foyers. Elias seemed long gone, Riley only crossing your mind upon Hesh’s inquiries. You stuck close to his shoulder, he almost had you anchored over his right shoulder, your feet sometimes not so much as grazing the ground as he moved you along quicker. 

It took a two story drop for all of your injuries to really let themselves be known. Even after Hesh breaking your fall. 

Something in your left knee wasn’t sitting right, blood had soaked a patch of fabric off the back of your shirt, a warm liquid trickled down the side of your neck and all you could hear was the ocean again. 

A dog bark, a seagull squawk. Instead of fading black, your vision desperately wanted to fade a gorgeous baby blue. Sweat built behind your knees, sand sticking to it for dear life. His voice calling out to you once more. 

He called you by your name, and it was bliss. It wasn’t a question of give up and give in, but inevitability.

“Virago?” He took you by the shoulders, now in front of you. Hesh’s panicked look subsided as you responded to his call, waking up. “Thought we lost you for a second.” 

“If we can make it to the strip, I can find us a ride out of here.” Keegan reassured, not much of a plan but enough of a goal. A guttural moan left your lips as you tried to take a step, you were over Hesh’s shoulder completely in seconds.  

“Take it slow, we’re gonna be outnumbered.” With that, Merrick led the way. 

You fell into a routine,  Hesh stationing you behind a fallen structure piece to cover him as he covers Merrick and Keegan making further ground. 

Logan had Riley on his own shoulder as you preoccupied Hesh’s. The poor dog ran out at the wrong time but he’ll be okay. 

Gunshots and yelling. It felt like years.

“Right side!” 

“Cover me!”

“Watch out!”

“I got him!”

A total overwhelming, overstimulating combination of every sense. The sand and the hot sun. Your jaw crushed at every recoil, the sweat on your palms building your gun almost slipping out of your hands.

The smell was foul. 

It was too much, you told yourself you couldn’t do it anymore.

It was exactly that that made you run to the evac helicopter. And that that saw you collapse the moment you were safe.  

The baby blue sky had already swallowed you whole by the time the helicopter left the ground. This time it wasn’t just Hesh’s voice. Merrick’s voice as course as the sand you saw further and further in the distance. Keegan’s the tall grass that tickled your feet and Logan’s the seafoam that met the shore ocean to the shore. And it all drowned out. Only four steps in the waves took you under, cold and refreshing, a tingle on your skin. 

You woke up maybe 15 minutes later, still in the air. You were in Merrick’s arm, himself just as out cold as you were. Hesh sat across from you, next to his brother, Riley over his lap. The three of them looked sorely unwell. But it was all over now. You hoped it was all over now. 

-

Once you were out, HQ sent you to a US naval carrier just off the east coast. And that first night, you held Hesh. 

He didn’t say anything, he didn’t cry. He barely slept. He just rested his head on your chest and let you hold him. In the early morning, he got up and left.

People heard what was going on and just pretended not to notice the two of you staying together at night. It was the least they could do. He watched his father die in action, his brother get shot in action, his dog get shot in action, his girl could barely walk and was now undergoing sexual assault kit. 

Merrick took you and waited five hours for you to finally re-emerge from the medical ward. You did not see Hesh until later that night. He found you and on that second night, you both cried. 

The second day, you stuck by Hesh’s side and he stuck by yours. Slowly but surely you found life returning to him. As your own and his brother's wound healed, he was starting to understand that he hadn’t lost it all. 

Riley was walking, you were walking by yourself, Logan was walking by himself. And although you almost saw him smile, he still continued to blame himself.

It was that day however, you had your first mission debrief. He did not visit you the third night. His eyes became a cold shell again, he had one thing and one thing only on his mind. And you know you wouldn’t be able to join him on the mission to stop him from going too far.

“You’ll be leading this one, Hesh.” Merrick informed, something returned to Hesh’s eyes like a challenge. 

The fourth night was the beginning of the end. He wasn’t a cold empty shell, whatever he felt evolved into something worse. Rage over rage built in layers. Every time he looked at you. The deep purple bruise under your eye and busted lip. When he touched you anywhere and saw you flinch or felt a lump. When he heard your manual breathing with every step you struggled to take. 

When he saw the healing bruises on Logan’s shoulder, heard the wheezy cough he’d let out when he tried to drink or laugh. Or when he held his father’s balaclava in his hands. The image of his father’s body on the ground next to his brothers in a pool of blood. 

He only heard one voice, it was the laughing of a killer and his men. 

Unconditional rage turned David’s pupils a colour so unnatural. It hardly recognised him. 

You wanted to beg Merrick but you weren’t sure what for. Hesh had to do it, the mission had to come first. You had no idea how to express to Merrick that this was going to become more than a mission to him. 

Keegan was already gone who knows where and you were alone. Even in Hesh’s arms. There was no one to hear out your screams. 

“Those fucking federation scum are gonna get it for what they did to you. As for Rorke.”

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. 

You were scared. 

He was more than ready.

-

The eighth night, you couldn’t sit right. Everything felt wrong. The night before, you had a dream so terrifying, you woke up in a cold sweat and paced the room until five. You couldn’t bring yourself to visit anyone. Every passing day waiting for this thing to happen felt like another failed day to stop it. You knew you couldn’t but by god if you didn’t feel guilty for not trying. 

Something bad was going to happen. Something so earth shatteringly bad, nothing was going to be the same and you weren’t ready for it. It was so consuming and tiring and you were so exhausted. Your muscles were under constant stress and fizzled by the day, it felt like you’d had a cold for 4 months. Your skin pale and bruises refused to heal like they should. It was wrong.

You were almost on your knees to Merrick, you had to be out there with the Walker boys. He denied. David denied. Even Logan denied. 

That eighth night, you almost felt like you could throw up at any given moment. It was actually that eighth afternoon when Hesh visited you. Merrick sent him to check up on you. He’d never seen you so unravelled, even after so many years of being a ghost by your side. 

Hesh calmed you down, himself oddly relaxed for the chaos that had unfolded just days ago and was bound to unfold any second. He coaxed you into your berth, hands firm on your shoulders and he coached you to breathe: in and out. 

In and out. 

His gaze was then the softest you’ve seen them since he found out this was his mission. Was it more or less settling, you were unsure. You just wanted a break, you wanted to forget even for a moment. 

You kissed him to forgot, he kissed you like he loved you. Everything he wanted to get back for you, he put into that kiss. He made everything so hard to forget. Everything had to come out. It was your last chance and if he slipped through your fingers, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself. 

“You can’t do it. Please don’t go.” It was a sob, barely audible on his lips. A stain now appeared on his left shoulder as you laid everything you had out to him. 

“The mission comes first, It has to be done.” It felt like he was lying through his teeth.

“Then stick you’ll the mission!” 

“Rorke is my mission!” 

“When they tell you to come back David, you come back!”

“Rorke has to die! That motherfucker took everything!”

“Then don’t let him take you from me!” 

“He won’t be taking anything from anyone when I get him!”

You wailed into his shoulder. The screaming match (certain the entire boat could hear) ended with you on your knees, holding the boy by his shirt. He had whittled you down to nothing, a pure catch 22. Your pleas fuel the one action that caused the pain in the first place.

“You have to trust me.” He cooed, your name sounding like the most gentle word on earth when he said it. 

“I trust you with my life. I don’t trust you with yours.” You were defeated and the anticipation was unbearable. If he couldn’t make you forget, then you’d have to show him all your love while you still could. 

Every piece of skin, every nerve in his body. You would feel guilty - deep down you knew the call was coming tomorrow - but you didn’t give a shit, he wouldn’t give a shit. If this was all you could get, you had to make it count. You couldn’t make it stop, you might as well give him something more to fight for.

July 5th - All or Nothing

You got two hours of what you could barely count as sleep. The both of you back into preparation for the day waiting for the call. And it came early. 

The carrier was being evacuated, you made your escort quickly alongside Merrick. The last image you kept of Hesh for the next couple hours was his hunched form over a gun, clearing the deck and you might have as well prayed in that moment. 

Merrick brought you with him to the mission control room, you were still unwell but your input is always valued. 

In truth, you knew he only kept you on the bench because you’d throw a fit if he didn’t.

You were sitting in the back of a dark, hot room. Filled with coloured screens. People everywhere and Merrick in the middle of it all. He stood for the most part, hunched over his own screen. You listened intently to his every word. 

“Latest intel has confirmed Rorke is at the facility but you have to get that missile launched first.” Your breath was caught in your throat. It was almost pathetic how worked up you were over this boy. 

You knew to him, this mission was nothing. An A to B when his real goal was R. You knew this could change everything, put you in a large lead against the federation but that switch failed to push itself completely over. The image of that boy’s concentrated eyebrows, two finger’s applying the navy face paint in the mirror. His lips, his hands. The love you once saw in him blown out pupils. 

It was excruciating. You were restless. You couldn’t see anything, you could barely hear anything. You have no idea how Elias did this so many times before, you’d lose your mind. 

There was chatter and movement. You knew everyone in this room was skilled at their job - hell, they save your life every single time you go out there - but movement right now made you want to shit yourself. 

It had barely even been 15 minutes until you heard a “we have a successful launch.”

You felt your first breath, taking in enough air to prepare for another hibernation. Now was the true test of Hesh’s self control, true motives and how smoothly it was going to go was unprecedented. 

“Negative Hesh.” Your ears perked up, Merrick in the centre of the room had an eye on you. “Return to rally point, we’ll track him down together.” 

You were on your feet now, the closest person to you had their headphones ripped off. The poor lady was too focused on the screen in front of her to really care. 

“Sorry Merrick. Your mission is complete, ours isn’t.” It was his voice. The feeling of sickness returned quicker than it left. Everything played out exactly as you knew it would. Just as you were anticipating and you could do nothing about it. 

“Goddammit boy!” Merrick threw the headset onto the table in front of him, the people within his vicinity ducking out of the way. The look of defeat in his eye, no match for your own.

You told him so. You tried to tell him so. And he didn’t listen. He didn’t want to find you, if there was anything on this earth he would be afraid of, it’s the look he knew was waiting for him. 

You couldn’t take it. The room was suddenly so stuffy. Too loud.n

You stormed out. Merrick was close on your trail. Your back was to him, wasn’t gonna stop you from giving him a mouthful.

“Those stupid fucking boys!” And hell broke loose. “Of course he wasn’t going to listen!”

“Virago.” Merrick held a calm and steady voice, sure he was angry - maybe even more than you because it slipped through his fingers, it was always right in front of his eyes - but it felt less like a loss of everything to him the way it did for you. 

This boy had you wrapped around his little finger, he couldn’t take his finger off the trigger. 

Merrick took slow, calculated steps. Approaching a wild animal moments before disaster. 

“Don’t you dare! Of course he doesn’t listen! He never listens and he’s gonna get himself and Logan killed! I knew it was going to happen, I just knew it and I still couldn’t stop it.” Your hand was holding the wall, every word coming out more of a heave than a yell. Merrick’s efforts of calming you down really only made it worse. “Don’t you dare! I begged you! I was on my stupid fucking knees!”

“Sergeant.” Your hot headedness was never going to outdo his own, spontaneous outbursts. “I am your superior!” 

That was all it took to make your engine stall. The ball of energy trapped and swallowed once again and you were humbled back to a professional stance. 

Sweat leaked from your pores, tears crawling out of your eyes, spit settled on your chin. In any attempt to hold back any emotion, it was too strong. And if not anger, distress was the next best option. You must have looked like an idiot but it happens to the best of us. Merrick had no words to speak, his own body processing a loss of his own. 

“I’ve just never had something that good before.” It was all you could think of. After a beat of silence, it was the only thought brought to the forefront of your mind when you questioned your overattachment over the past day. And with a sheepish expression, Merrick showed you his attention. His own eyes filled with a sorrow like the reality of Elias’s death and now the possibility of his son's death only just hit him. 

“You got me, kid.” It was the most genuine thing you’d ever heard from him. The sight of a tear on his cheek was sobering. A plug pulled out of the drain, the adrenaline escaping your body taking all your colour with it. And you laughed. 

“You’re an old fart.” He seemed to go through the same process, soon his own pale face smiled in the bittersweet moment. 

“You’re probably right.” You shook your head.

“Nah. You still got it. You’re the greatest leader I'll ever have.” And the closest thing you have to a father figure you wanted to scream. But the grin that was fighting it way onto his face was enough satisfaction for you. 

If it was just the two of you out on the field, you knew at that moment it would be enough. You could do it by his side, he could do it by yours. It would be enough.

“If they’re not dead by now, go find him.” 

-

You took Merrick’s place. It only took a couple seconds to orient yourself with the information in front of you but with perfect timing, you heard his voice once more. You left out a sigh of relief. 

“Merrick, we’re on the train. We’re going after Rorke.” There was clear gunfire in the distant background, only a few minutes until the air attack. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen quickly and it had to happen now. There was little time to blink, a much needed gear shift was finally made in your mind to focus. The switch was pushed all the way. 

“Solid copy.” 

“Vig?” That was Logan.

“I can prepare an evac as best I can, recon’s on standby but the place is going down.” You heard Hesh let out a breath. Maybe you were just letting yourself hear things. “Be careful.”

Like a send off to a deathwish. The radio silence was an overwhelming sound. You turned to Merrick once more, watching your command. 

A proud smile and eyes that spoke a truth of wisdom. “There’s no turning back now, might as well guide them back home.” 

With that, you stationed yourself off to the side. Watching as Merrick took over the room again, this was a much bigger assignment than just getting these boys home but things felt so much better now that you were finally off the bench. You listened closely to the progression of things. Merrick trusted you’d guide the boys if any problems were to arise. 

“Virago, do you copy?” Hesh called.

“Copy, Hesh.” 

“We’re moving in on Rorke. If you hear the word “checkmate”, you will fire on our position. Confirm.” 

“Say again, repeat your last.” 

“You heard me, Vig. On “checkmate”, hit the train”

At this point, there was no point fighting. Merrick’s grounding stare gave you a nod. You had to trust him. 

Hesh was stubborn like that. Somehow his mission was now yours. You found it hard to deny him of what he wanted, what he planned. You couldn’t deny the rage he was feeling that filled the void of his father and you couldn’t deny the insufferable lack of motive he’d have for anything else if he didn’t get this out of his system. 

There was no fighting him. Not for something like this. Even if it was going to kill you on the inside. He has always been driven by his heart, over his brain and especially over his dick. And you knew for as long as it took, revenge for you and his dad was always going to be the only posted note on his to-do list in there. 

“Checkmate.” In under two minutes. 

“Checkmate confirmed.” The train was taken down. Then fully submerged. So was your heart and the lump in your throat. So quickly, you couldn’t even think about it. An awful, hideous part of your brain, the mind you held pre Rorke’s return, started to think this could be the start of the end of it. That this could all be worth it. 

So long as you remembered how David made you feel, it would never truly feel worth it. 

Every limb had gone numb and you sat in your chair spaced out. The chaos around you drowned out.

You saw it again, like it was through a looking glass. The beach. The sand and the waves. You couldn’t hear it. As much as you forced yourself to - ‘Bark Riley! Goddammit bark!’ - it always felt too artificial. And what once was a gorgeous baby blue, returned to black. And the dream was gone. 

So deep in your state of mourning, it took multiple radio calls to try to put life back in you. 

“Virago, Come in.” 

“Vig? Merrick?” 

You were so out of it and stunned, so certain for at least 15 minutes you’d heard the last of him. Merrick scrambled to your side. Connection was weak but enough. He grabbed your comm. 

“Hesh? Hesh, is that you?” 

“Yeah, I'm with Logan. We’re okay.” He sounded scuffed but he sounded alive, that’s all you could ask for. 

“And Rorke?” Merrick asked, your sigh faintly picked up by the device that brought a smile to Hesh’s face.

“Dead. He’s dead.”

“Copy that.'' The smile on Merricks face was undeniable as he proudly patted your shoulder, “the federations in full retreat. The rest of the payload’s inbound to finish the job.” 

“Sit tight, recon’s coming for you!” Finally gaining your bearings, you snatched the device to reassure them. You only wished you could be there to pick them up. 

- 

Yourself and Merrick ran to meet them upon arrival. Their return not at all being what you expected. 

“No! We have to go back! That motherfuckers taken him who knows where!” The helicopter door was opened to Hesh kicking and throwing a riot. Logan was not there.

If the Walkers were good for one thing, it was disappearing on you. 

A soldier exited the aircraft, meeting your side. 

“He’s been like this when we picked him up, not in good shape.” 

“What about Logan?” Merrick asked.

“There was only him when we got there.” 

There it was, you thought It all felt a little too good to be true. 

It was a struggle but the two of you managed to get the last Walker brother inside, explaining the event. 

Rorke was still alive, he dragged Logan away. It took two hours just to get that out as you patched his face and examined him. He wouldn’t let anyone else in the room. Hesh was in bad shape, you suspected he had a bad concussion. 

After another two hours, you finally convinced him to get in someone who could properly look after him. You were quick to find Merrick at that time, he was waiting for information. He actually looked nervous.

In that hallway. As people ran around you, Merrick stood in front of you. It all felt a little useless. Everything you fought for for at least the past five years, this back and forth. It was always going to be just that. Just a back and forth. Only took maybe two weeks, but it was enough to pile nihilistic thought upon nihilistic thought in your mind. 

“Rorke’s alive.” You failed to meet Merrick’s eyes, the tone in your voice spoke volumes. “He took Logan. Dragged him who knows where.”

“Sonofa-!” He threw something against a wall. Suddenly you felt like a child again, getting in trouble, standing at the front of the class with your hands behind your back. Life repeats itself like that.

“Just when you think you’ve done enough to change, everything repeats itself.” You weren’t going to cry. You didn’t even feel sad. You’ve taken lose after lose before but this was different, the collateral damage was too personal. It just made you wonder. 

“Are you still with us Y/n?” You could only nod. He kept an eye on the door Hesh was behind, he was contemplating. Like it was a game of chess, he anticipated every outcome as far as his mind would let him. He was a good leader like that.

“Go, find keegan. He should be back in 2100.” You nodding making your way to the control room. It was significantly quieter. Maybe only two people were at their stations, the rest were gone. 

“Keegan, how to copy?”

“Keegan, can you hear me? What’s your status?” 

“Copy. Mission was successful, on our way now.” There it was. 

“Copy that. Loki was a success.” The moment success left your lips was enough to set off a tear. Everything in your gut wanted to fight it, you had to. You had to stay professional. 

“Good to hear, Vig.”

“Get some rest, things will get hot when you get back. Logan’s gone MIA. We'll be on his trail soon.” Keegan only let out a dissatisfied grunt. He wasn’t the type to show his emotion, but you knew this would be difficult for him to deal with, especially after Ajax. 

“Copy.”

October 10th - unadulterated hope

That night Logan disappeared, seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours. Then to days and weeks and before you could get an ounce of proper sleep, it had been three months. Three months and with the four of you, scuffed, exhausted, dehydrated and just on the edge of radio connection in the amazon forest. 

You knew any day now you’d have to give up. You had already been advised to drop this rescue search for a month now, it was only a matter of time until it was no longer a suggestion but an order. 

You weren’t even sure how far lost Logan would be by now. You knew Rorke wanted him on his team, you know what the federation did to Rorke was probably what they’d have to do for him. It took Rorke 10 years, if you found Logan within the first year, there was no doubt you could save him. 

Hesh trembled in your arms most nights. You were all he had. 

You were his distraction. He tried to be yours but the boy couldn’t help getting so overcome by his emotions most of the time. When things get tough, you turn to Merrick instead. He grounded you and you grounded him. 

Most nights you and Hesh found yourselves talking about the beach, talking about finding Riley and Logan and laying in the hot sun together. 

He would explain San Diego to you, it was everything you could ever dream about. He told you about the stories his father would tell him. 

You drifted to sleep with the vision of a blue, not quite that gorgeous baby blue you remembered but it was blue enough to get you through it. You forgot how Riley’s bark sounded, Hesh’s warm arms were substitute enough. 

[mintywolf]

A Long Road Home - Page 56 Author Notes

Page 56

Cling to Life lets Laudna regain 1 hp on a 16 or higher death save, as opposed to Strength of the Grave which allows her to remain at 1 hp instead of 0 after a successful CON save. Since the former is a Hollow One ability and therefore a "gift" from Delilah whose intervention we are witnessing, mechanically, that's what just happened.

So okay in my original draft (right up until the time I was working on the first page in fact since that’s when the Gelvaan episode aired, by coincidence) Imogen unambiguously killed the ex-sheriff. Then in that episode (48) Imogen asks about the aftermath of the fight and Relvin confirms that everyone survived:

MATT: "You and your friends probably shouldn't stay too long. Some folks around here that don't have the fondest memories of your exit." LAURA: Are they okay? MATT: "They got better, but--" LAURA: Good. MATT: "The tales have certainly grown with time. At a certain point, they just stopped listening to me."

And let me tell you I was vibrating with anxiety that entire episode because I was FOUR DAYS from launching the comic after months of work and preparation when they just happened to decide to go to the precise setting of it in that week’s episode. I’m still kind of amazed at how lucky I was that there were only a few small discrepancies to reconcile. (One being the physical description of Relvin, which was easy to fix, two being that Flora doesn’t actually live with the Temults and might not actually belong to them, which I just let slide, and three being that everyone survived the incident that caused them to leave town.)

But I think it works better this way because Imogen already has a LOT to process right now. She has to leave her home and go on the run, someone tried to kill her pets, she saw Laudna apparently die, then un-die and turn into a spooky monster, previously unknown lightning powers just erupted out of her hands and carved themselves into her skin, and the barn is on fire. (And she just got over a bad case of scarlet fever like three days ago.) There isn’t really space in the story right now for her to stop and come to terms with having taken a life, even of someone who deserved it.

(Also it makes something that happens near the end of chapter 3 much more impactful if she’s never killed anyone before.)

So by now Imogen has been presented with pretty solid evidence that there is something Not Quite Right with Laudna. She has definitely heard the accusations (spoken and unspoken) by the people in town but she hasn’t been able to bring herself to believe that the most loving and vivacious person she’s ever met could be undead. She’s also been kind of digging in her heels about it because acknowledging that she’s really dead would mean accepting that the people of Gelvaan are right about her (and then maybe also about herself). Allowing her deadness to be true also means knowing that something awful must have happened in the past to make her that way, and she’s not ready to confront that just yet. She will have to soon, though.

Right now though her foremost concern isn’t that she might be a monster but that she’s had a hole punched in her.