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ashes-in-a-jar · 4 years ago

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There Are Moments Like These That Keep Me on My Feet

Martin realises a terrible truth regarding Jon's relationship with this new world and has to make a decision on how to handle it.

Hurt and comfort in the Apocalypse and their consequences.

Rated: G

Word count: 2.3K

Tw: non sexual intimacy, memory loss, bad tea

Looking back after leaving Upton House, Martin finally understood. He'd had a feeling, he wasn't completely blind but he had hoped, hoped so badly that he was wrong. That all those times were just a fluke. That he was imagining things. But no, Jon really did forget. It was almost unnoticeable, small things really, but Jon forgot them all.

It started at Kinloss Barracks. Jon had just finished whatever it was the Eye made him talk about. When Martin looked up and uncovered his ears he saw Jon with the tape recorder clicking off, looking pale and rattled. As Jon breathed deeply Martin got up from where he was huddled and crouched next to him, gently cupping his cheek.

"Hey, you alright?"

Jon inhaled one more time. As he resumed breathing normally he turned his face into Martin's hand, lips softly moving against his palm.

"I'm okay Martin. It was just. Alot. Like my first statements at the institute. " He huffed in amused irony and Martin's heart clenched.

"Do you need something? Can I help?" Martin hated how useless he felt when Jon's emotions were at odds with his... Patron.

"It's alright Martin, I'm alright. Maybe just... Stay like this for a bit?" Jon mumbled, holding Martin's hand in place where he was framing Jon's face.

"Okay. I can do that." Martin huffed a small smile and brought the other hand up as well, bracketing both of Jon's sides, making a barrier between him and the sounds of violence outside their little hideaway.

It didn't take long for Martin to slowly begin rubbing Jon's temples and soon enough he was gently massaging his face, trying to draw out the tension set between the eyebrows and beneath the hairline and throughout the pronounced cheekbones.

Jon sighed contentedly and closed his eyes, letting out small sounds of approval every few moments.

When Martin was done, Jon opened his eyes languidly and smiled softly at Martin. "That felt good. Thank you, Martin. For everything."

"It's nothing, I'm here for you."

"I know." Jon took a moment to just look at Martin with that tender but piercing gaze Martin was still trying to get used to ever since they left the Lonely, then took Martin's hands in his and helped both of them up on their feet. "Let's go."

Later, after the village, after the many questions answered and unanswered, after Helen's headache-inducing laugh dissipated with a creak of a door, Jon made a sound akin to a groan-infused sigh. Martin glanced at him and saw he was rubbing the bridge of his nose, moving his hands to his temples. Martin took a step to face him. "Do you want me to do that again?" He asked, raising his arms as indication.

Jon's thick eyebrows creased in confusion "Do what again?"

"You know, in the war zone when you finished…" Martin saw a deepening confusion and decided to forgo the explanation, "Here." He brought his hands up to rub Jon's temples. Once again Jon sighed and once again he thanked Martin softly when it was time they moved on. He didn't mention Martin doing that again afterwards, or ask for it when Martin didn't offer. Which he did every now and then, suspicion growing as each time Jon reacted in novelty.

But that wasn't the only instance. Martin brought with him his poetry book in his pack. When they were able to talk about the carousel again without mentioning the... Smiting, Martin insisted on defending the good aspects of poetry which the Stranger mostly lacked, namely identity and awareness. Jon countered by asking Martin to prove it and recite poetry. "That's not fair, I can't remember them by heart that well."

"Martin, you have a poetry book here, why not just read out of it?"

"You, you want to hear my poetry?" Martin nearly tripped.

"I thought it was obvious by this point there is nothing I'd like more." Jon smiled at him.

Martin recoiled and stammered incoherently. Jon interrupted.

"Martin, stop. I know your poetry is good. I've seen some." Blatantly choosing to ignore his own wince at the circumstances in which he managed to peek at Martin's writing, he went on. "It really is quite good. It'd be a shame not to take the chance to perform a bit of your words. You'll find I make quite a compelling listener." Jon smiled lopsidedly and Martin snorted.

"Okay, okay fine. One poem. And I pick!"

"Fine." Jon shrugged.

Martin intentionally chose one of his more mundane works. About rain and windows of opportunity being washed away. It did hint a bit at the times where his feelings for Jon felt unanswered but it wasn't as... Glaring as others he had.

When he finished he looked up expectantly. He was not prepared for the intensely affectionate expression he saw, nor the tackle of a bear hug that followed.

"Jon! Watch out, we're walking!" He gasped, muffled by the shock of Jon's tangled hair in his face. They had to stop anyway, as Jon refused to let go, tightening his hold and nuzzling into Martin's neck.

"Thank you." He said quietly. "That was... That was more affecting than I thought it would be."

"Really? It's just some words on paper." Martin teased, petting the hair near his face, mainly to get strands of it out of his mouth.

"But they're your words, Martin. They are a, a window into you, how you think and who you are. I don't Look to see what you are thinking a-and the you in front of me is more than enough! Truly! But it's nice to hear a bit more. And it's nice to see that, that I'm there too. This made me really happy, Martin. Thank you."

"O-oh." Martin squeaked, not expecting the forthright reaction. He laughed nervously "Well in that case, we'll make it a, a tradition? Once in a while, if you ask nicely, I'll read you a poem- If you want." he added quickly, feeling a little presumptuous.

"You already know my feelings on the matter. Don't worry, I will ask you again, you can be certain of that." And with that he planted a kiss on the dazed Martin's cheek, readjusted his backpack and began walking again. Martin chuckled to himself and rushed to join him.

But the request never came again. And later, when Martin tentatively asked Jon if he wanted another recitation, Jon's face lit up and said, "So you're finally willing to share? I thought I'd never see the day."

Martin looked at him confused but said nothing and instead chose a different poem about bridges and connections which elicited a very similar reaction as the first.

The request never came again unless Martin offered. Each time he was too afraid to try the same poem lest his concerns would be confirmed. He didn't want to know.

There were other times as well. The time after the Lonely estate when Martin insisted on sitting with their meager supply of tea and talking about small nothings. The tea was nicer than he expected and Jon was practically jovial with giddy relief at Martin's rescue and choice to stay with him, laughing sonorously and uncharacteristically at Martin's silly jokes. Later, he did not recall what they laughed about, nor understood why the tea supply was depleted when Martin tried to remind him. Other jokes in general too. Martin would make Jon laugh and when referring back to the joke, Jon would simply stare at him blankly. Jon did not remember when Martin brushed and braided his ever more tangled hair, fiddling with the stands wondering aloud when he'd done that. Jon forgot when Martin took out his sewing kit and fixed a hole made by the fires of the Desolation, wondering why his shirt suddenly had stitches. Jon forgot compliments, short rests when they quietly held one another close, brief exchanges of reassurance.

Martin tried not to think about it, tried not to make the connection. Tried not to read into the words 'They just get whatever hurts them the most. Even me.' that Jon had said when they were traveling with Basira on her tragic quest. Tried not to remember the times Jon, and even Martin himself, commented about the nature of this place,

'This is not a world where you can trust comfort.'

'Levity off the cards.'

'Nice things, they tend not to stay nice out there.'

But they were there. And he had to face it at some point. Because after they've left the wonderful comfort of Salesa's home, Jon, feeling rejuvenated, said with a dreamy quality to his voice, "Pity. It’s going away. That peace, the safety, the memory of ignorance. It's gone. Like a dream."

"That’s… Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Martin replied, resigned. It was all coming together now and Martin could not avoid it any longer.

Jon couldn't remember. He was the 'Archive' and whatever that meant ensured Jon retained all the pain and fear this world had to offer and nothing else. Jon could not keep the memories of anything nice or happy that happened to him personally in this hellscape. Every good word, every caring touch, every wide smile, bark of laughter. It all faded right after it occurred. Maybe if it was small enough he could remember. But Martin's mothering? Martin's hugs? Martin's tea? Martin's poetry? None of it stayed. Only Martin could remember those moments and what was lost.

As they walked away from the green and the sky Martin fell slightly behind, trying to reign in his tears.

Of course he remembered. This place ensured that Martin would remember so the pain of loss would be ever more acute later. It was what this world was. The worst pain it could inflict on them.

It's not fair! They had just got together, they had just begun to open up, share their deepest facets with each other, enjoy the closeness. Was that all pointless? Were all of his efforts worth anything in the long run at all? Martin felt himself slowly descending into a sharp kind of despair that became heavier and heavier as he sunk deeper.

No! He forced himself upright and shook his head vigorously,letting the tears shake off his face.

No! It was worth it! Those moments are there and they exist, even if the memory is gone. They have value and a worth inherent to them as the Good moments that they are, apocalypse rules be damned!

He balled his hands into fists, silently challenging whichever dread power was listening. They cannot take those moments away! The hugs, the soft gazes, the pure happiness, even forgotten will remain and have their merit. Martin will make sure there are more of them, always more of them, to spite the Eye! To spite the Fears! To spite this place! Jon will get all of the love he deserves, memory or not. Martin will double, no, triple the care he will give Jon, make sure he is okay in the quiet moments, give him a reason to smile.

He will see the braided hair afterwards, feel the ache in his cheeks from a long laugh, feel the lingering warmth around his arms and back, the tingle on his lips. The remnants will give him the strength to stand against the powers that be and retain the hope they cultivated. And Martin will be there, every step of the way. Loving, caring, smiling. Because that's what they deserve. And Martin will fight for it to the end.

Later, after that dreadful hospital and another long stretch of time walking quietly, contemplating. Martin was sure Jon was still agonizing over his decision to help Breekon by relieving him of his suffering, so Martin called Jon to stop.

"What?" Jon asked, confused.

"I am making the executive decision to make a stop and rest. I have a little bit of tea left and I will read you some of my poetry while we're at it."

Jon's face lit up, though still retaining its confused quality. "Alright, if you insist. What brought this on?"

Martin already settled down and began setting up a small fire for the water. "We had a time so now we're taking a breather. The air here is slightly fresher than what it was back there."

"Alright." Jon smiled.

Martin put the small pot on the fire and looked up at Jon still standing over him "C'mere, " he opened his arms.

Chuckling lightly, Jon unslung his pack and sank into Martin's embrace. Martin in turn pulled him in tight and nuzzled the top of his hair.

"I know it wasn't easy back there but what you did, it was the right thing to do."

"How do you know?" Bitterness seeped into Jon's voice and Martin began stroking circles on his back. Jon shuffled even closer into Martin's jumper, burying his face in his chest.

"I just do. You couldn't leave him like that. A small act of mercy. To spite this place."

"If you say so." Jon mumbled into the fabric.

"I do. Now move over so I can get my book." Martin decided to read the sappiest, most Jon-related poem he had, cringe be damned.

"I don't want to." Jon grumbled and leaned in, eyes closed, breathing deeply.

"Okay, we can wait. There's no rush." Martin said fondly.

They stayed that way for a long while until the water boiled over and they drank what was left if that dreadful brew that dared call itself tea. They sat there in a comfort later forgotten, reclaiming depleted energy and regaining motivation. A moment that had infinite value, regardless of what the past held or the future entailed. A tangible instant that was completely theirs within the infinite universe, unending in the singular space and time which no one can ever take away.

#Finally uploading. It been in my files for a bit.#This is for an ask i got a while back. I hope you enjoy!#tma #the magnus archives #Tma fic #tma season 5 #Tma spoilers #Jonathan sims #Martin blackwood #My tma fic #Ask #Hurt and comfort #tw memory loss #Jonmartin #Fabric rustles #Reader You are welcome to send me prompts! I very much wnjoy them :)

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dialovers-translations · 4 years ago

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DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE, MORE BLOOD Vol.13 Kino [Track 2]

Original title: 寒冷

Source: Diabolik Lovers More, More Blood Vol. 13 Kino [CD not owned by me]

Audio: Here (15:28 ~ 29:54)

Seiyuu: Tomoaki Maeno

Translator’s note: I was already kind of curious about the contents of this track from reading the title, but as soon as the MC returned from the cafeteria with a popsicle, I already knew what was going to happen. I can really imagine the struggles of having a boyfriend like Kino who loves pulling pranks on you. Although compared to some of the other stuff the boys have done to her, being teased with a popsicle isn’t even all that bad. Seeing him try and make it up to her afterwards made for a cute moment as well.

Track 1 ll Track 2 ll Track 3 ll Track 4 ll Track 5 + Epilogue

→ LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

Track 2: Coldness

“ーー And then I ended up arguing with Yuuri over who is correct. What do you think? Which one of us was right?”

You hesitate.

“Seems like you’re having trouble answering my question. Don’t hold back and just tell me. In return, I’ll punish you if you don’t say it was me.”

You frown.

“You’re struggling that much? Guess I have no other choice. I’ll give you some time. Try and come up with an answer by the end of classes today.”

The two of you come to a halt.

“...So, is this the classroom we had to move to? (1)”

You explain.

“The science lab, huh? It’s really such a pain that science classes take place in a different classroom. Oh well, guess it’s fine. Hurry up and open the door.”

*Rattle*

“...Hm? What’s wrong? You’re not going inside?”

You close the door again.

“...Eh? Why did you close the door again? Don’t we have class here?”

You tell him it’s the wrong room.

“Haah!? Who goes to the wrong classroom!? Unlike me, you’ve been going to this school for quite some time, right?”

You apologize.

“Honestly...I don’t know whether you’re just slow-witted or if you actually have a few screws loose...”

You seem confused.

“Eh? What’s weird?”

You tell him there seem to be more doors than usual.

“What are you saying? You’re just imagining things, no? There’s no way the number of doors would suddenly increase. Doesn’t it just feel that way? It’s no good to try and blame your own mistakes on someone or something else. Also, that barely makes for a decent excuse.”

You insist.

*Dingー Dongー・ Dingー Dongー*

“Ah-aaah...Right, right. There’s more doors than usual, huh? Anyway, the bell of the next period just rang. We won’t make it in time for our class so what should we do?”

You frown.

“Well, if we’re confirmed late, might as well say ‘screw it’, right?

You tilt your head to the side.

“You know, let’s just skip class.”

You protest.

“If we go now, we’ll just get scolded for being late, right? So why not? ...Come on, this way! Let’s go!”

Kino drags you along.

*TIMESKIP*

“Fufufu~ I’m almost done with this quest...”

*Tap tap*

“Ahー But before that, I have to use this item.”

*Tap tap*

“Hm? What do you want? I’m busy playing my game right now.”

You seem anxious to get in trouble for skipping.

“You’re still worried about that? We already skipped class, so there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

*Tap tap*

“Isn’t spending time out on the rooftop during class something you have to do at least once while you’re young? We’re here now anyway, so you should try and have some fun as well.”

You frown.

“No buts! ...Ah, I get it. You end up having unnecessary worries because you’re bored, no? In that case, I’ll give you something to do.”

You tilt your head to the side.

“There’s a cafeteria on campus where you can purchase food and such, right? Go buy me something there.”

You ask him what to get.

“Hmー Let’s see...What to choose? ...Then, how about you get something you think I’d like?”

You want him to be a little more specific.

“What would that be? The whole point is that you figure it out.”

You whine.

“It’s not difficult, is it? If you’ve been keeping a close eye on me, it should be a piece of cake! ...Pick the thing that would make me the most happy! Alsoーー”

*Rustle*

“You better not keep me waiting, so I expect you back here in ten minutes, okay? If you’re even one second late...You’ll get a pentalty.”

You flinch.

“Come on. Hurry up.”

You run away.

*TIMESKIP*

*Creaaak*

“Ah! You’re finally back...!”

You ask if you made it back in time.

“Haah? What are you saying? You didnt even come close to making it back on time. Just how far did you have to go for those?”

You explain.

“You got lost? You’ve been a student at this academy for a while, haven’t you? That doesn’t make any sense. Stop making those lousy excuses.”

You try and defend yourself.

“Hmm~? So you got the location of the cafeteria wrong? I guess you went down the wrong stairs or something? Oh well, whatever. More importantly, hurry up and hand it over. You obviously got one of my favorites, right?”

*Rustle rustle*

“...Eh? That?”

You nod.

“Ice cream...? Haah...”

You frown, asking him if he doesn’t like ice cream

“It’s not that ice cream’s bad or anything but...Why didn’t you get me guava juice? You know that I like it, don’t you?”

You tell him that wasn’t an option.

“Haah!? They don’t sell it here!? They really should reconsider their line-up then. But that doesn’t matter, does it? Not only did you make me wait forever, and on top of that, you weren’t able to buy something which would make me happy. Fufu~”

*Rustle*

“This calls...for a punishment.”

You protest.

“No point in fighting back. ...Come here.”

Kino pulls you close.

“Gotcha. When I’m holding you tightly from behind like this, you can no longer get away, can you? That being said, this ice cream has been well chilled. I’m sure it would feel extremely cold if I were to press it against your skin. For example...Against the back of your nape.”

*Rustle*

You flinch.

“You’re already reacting that strongly from just slightly brushing it across? I wonder what would happen if I were to slip it inside your clothes then? Aren’t you curious?”

You shake your head.

“Oh come on~ No need to be modest. Come on...”

*Rustle*

He presses the ice cream against your bare skin as you shriek.

“...Ahaha! Did you hear yourself just now? Well, I guess it would feel cold and disgusting to have an entire popsicle slide down your back. Ah-aah...Your uniform’s a mess as well.”

You call him out for bullying you.

“I’m not being mean, am I? It’s a punishment after all. Besides, that scream just now wasn’t half bad, you know? I’d love to hear it one more time.”

You tell him the ice cream has already melted.

“Guess so. You didn’t buy more than one popsicle after all. ...But you know, I have this.”

*Cling*

“If we use the hourglass to reload, the ice cream and your uniform will return to their original state. You should be grateful.

*Tick tock - Tick tock - Tick tock - Tick tock*

ーーー

*Creaaak*

“Ah! You’re finally back...! ...Hehe, you gave the exact same reaction as earlier. Why are you looking around in confusion? I told you I would reload, didn’t I? Time got turned back. You remember what happened earlier, don’t you?”

Kino approaches you.

“Exactly. Seems like you properly recall. I pulled you close like this...”

*Rustle*

“...And played with you using this popsicle you bought, didn’t I?”

*Rustle rustle*

“Say...There’s something I’m curious about. I can test it out, right? You already know just how cold this ice cream is. The chilled sensation from having it directly pressed up against your skin. So I was wondering...How will your body react if I repeat the same action one more time, now that you’re already well aware of how it’ll feel?”

You try and get away.

*Rustle rustle*

“...Woah there! You better don’t think I’ll let you get away!”

He grabs hold of your wrist.

“...There. Gotcha.”

*Rustle rustle*

“No point in resisting. There’s just no way you could get away from me after all.”

Kino opens the popsicle.

“There we go~ It’s time for the ice cream you’ve just been dying for~ If I run it across your nape like this...”

You flinch.

“Exactly. You can feel it even stronger when you already know what to expect, don’t you? I wonder if it’s your brain playing tricks on you...?”

*Rustle*

“...Hm? What? Throwing in the towel already? Guess I have no other choice. In that case, I’ll warm you up next.”

*Sluuuurp*

“Hm...The taste of this popsicle is pretty mediocre. I don’t think I could finish the whole thing. The person who bought it should take responsibility and eat it all instead. Here you go.”

He forces the popsicle inside your mouth.

“You’re whining was starting to annoying me, so this works perfectly. Keep it in between your teeth for a bit, okay? Meanwhile I’ll dig into this to cleanse my palate. In the end, it seems like I...”

*Rustle*

“...enjoy this the very best. mmh...”

Kino bites you.

*Gulp gulp gulp*

“Nn...You like this too, don’t you? The whimpers slipping through...They’re different compared to when I teased you earlier. They’re sweet yet sorrowful. Almost as if you’re begging for me.”

*Rustle*

“Let me hear more of those...”

*Rustle*

“...Ah!”

You drop the popsicle.

*Splatter*

“Ah-aah...The popsicle fell down. Your skirt’s a mess now as well.”

You apologize.

“Why are you saying sorry? Ahー Because you dropped it? I don’t care, really. ー Wait, what’s with that face? You’re in tears. Your lips are all sticky from the ice cream as well. I’ll wipe you clean, so look this way.”

You turn around.

*Rustle rustle*

“Perhaps I took my teasings a little too far? ...Were you scared?”

You nod.

“I see. ...Fufu. You’re such a crybaby, how cute~”

*Smooch*

“There, all clean. Now cheer up, okay? You don’t want things to become awkward between us, do you? I guess that leaves your skirt...Honestly, it’s kind of a drag, so would you like me to turn back time to before you dropped the popsicle?”

You ask him if it’s okay.

“Of course I don’t mind. ...But in return, I might mess with you again~”

You protest.

“I’m just kidding. Let’s kill some time together until classes end? Ah! But don’t get the wrong idea, okay? I’ll still use the hourglass. ...Well then, how should we enjoy ourselves next~?”

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

Translation notes

(1) At Japanese high schools, students stay in the same classroom for 90% of the classes. For some subjects like science, art, etc. they may move to a different classroom which has the right facilities and material. These are called 移動教室 or ‘idō-kyōshitsu’.

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #kino #diabolik lovers more more blood #diabolik lovers translation #diabolik lovers drama cd #drama cd

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thebigqueer · 4 years ago

Note

A while back you mentioned something about the Apollo kids parents meeting up every one in a while and Apollo running into them during one of those times. Do you think you could write a lil fic about that?

ahhh yes that’s one of my favorite headcanons!!

thanks for the prompt, and i hope you like this! and, as always: i do little to no editing on these fic prompts, so don’t be too judgmental as you read through them. they’re definitely not my best work but i just can’t ever be bothered to look back aslkdjslfkd

this will be in first person because idk i really loved apollo’s pov in first person so i hope i do his character justice lmaoo

also as i was writing this i’m not gonna lie i felt really bad for apollo all he wanted was to have some time with his children 😭

also!!! we are!!! so starved!!! for dad!apollo moments!!!! bro can we just!!! see more dad!apollo moments!!!! come ON rick!!!! i didn’t realize how much i wanted them until i wrote this halskjfaslkjf

I will say, I wasn’t quite sure what to be expecting when I came down to the mortal world today. It definitely was not to find out all of my exes regroup annually to mock me.

Since becoming a god again, I’ve made it a personal promise to come down every once in a while. I’ve grown quite attached to these mortals, especially to my demigod children. After all, my own descendants are the best of all living beings; it’s only fair that I come and talk to them every once in a while. And, believe it or not, being around mortals helps me, too. It makes me find comfort in a world where lives may be short but lives are lived; as a god, I only ever exist.

When I was human, though, I truly lived. It was exhilarating. Now that I am a deity again, there’s a hollowness that resides in me.

Sometimes coming down to this mortal world helps me simulate that experience of being human again. It helps me feel less lonely up in my world of immortality and timelessness.

The sun blazes overhead as I traipse along to my cabin after just meeting with Dionysus. The insufferable bastard beat me once again at pinochle and would not stop gloating, so I decided to storm away from the wine god before he could start beating my ass in Uno.

However, as I approach my cabin, my rage ebbs away. My demigod children stand around the entrance, talking in hushed voices, and my heart bursts with warmth. It has only been a few weeks since I’ve last seen them, but each time I do, I feel only a flush of pride looking at them.

“My children!” I exclaim. “I’m here once again!”

They all jump as if I’ve scared them. For a moment, no one says anything. Then they break apart and each of them offer me a shaky smile of their own.

“Hey, Dad,” Will says, his voice a bit higher than I remember.

I step forward, happiness flooding over me. It hasn’t been too long since I’ve seen them but it certainly feels like it’s been millennia. “How are you all?”

Kayla pushes a pack over her shoulder. “We’re... good. How are you?”

Her words carry a bit of hesitation as if she’s nervous. Suspicion crawls over me. I cross my arms and respond, “I’m good too. Why do you have that bag over your shoulder?”

Austin, Will, and Kayla all turn to each other, sharing a look of panic. A shiver runs through me as I realize they’re up to something. I smile. “Ohhh, are you planning something? A prank, perhaps?” I rub my hands in anticipation. “Can I get in on it?”

Austin raises a hand and scratches his head. “Um, not quite. We’re actually... going somewhere.”

Panic seizes my heart and I rush forward. “Going somewhere? Where? Like, a quest?” I reach out to my children and hug them, feeling each of their bodies in my arms. “Why did no one tell me? Oh, gods, what if I never see you again?” Tears well up in my throat. I’ve only just come down to the mortal world, and they’re already leaving for doom?

“No, no, no!” Kayla exclaims, pushing against my arms. “Not like that, Dad! Not a quest. We’re just going out to the city. No need to worry.”

Relief washes over me and I laugh, taking my arms away from them. “Oh, that’s great! Are you going somewhere fun? Can I come?”

Before any of them can answer, a familiar demigod steps out of the Apollo cabin. They step towards Will and hand him a pack of ambrosia. It takes me for a moment to remember that it’s Nico di Angelo. He opens his mouth to speak to Will, then stops when they notice me. “Oh no,” they mutter.

“What do you mean, oh no?” I ask, the claws of suspicion creeping over my skin once more. “What are you three up to? Is Nico coming with you?��

Nico whispers to the three, “You haven’t told him?”

“Not a good time,” Kayla hisses.

“Well, I guess now is a better time than never,” Nico says. They turn to me and state blatantly, “They’re going to meet their parents in New York City.”

Kayla and Austin smack their faces and Will sighs. “You could have let us say it,” the blond mutters.

“Better to know from a child that isn’t his,” the child of Hades reasons, shrugging.

I blank. I was not quite expecting that response, and definitely not so casually. I stare at the four demigods quizzically. “Oh? I suppose that’s fair. But all three of you? All your parents know each other?”

“Um, well... they’re kind of friends,” Austin admits. “They... communicate often.”

A wave of humility washes over me. I will admit, it’s a little bit embarrassing knowing that the three people you’ve had children with all know each other and actively communicate. I would have suspected they’d feel a bit awkward with each other, but I didn’t quite expect they would be actual friends.

I tip my head in a sad nod. “I see. Well, I hope all three of you have fun today!” I’m trying not to sound too upset, but it’s a little bit hard when you’ve come down to the mortal world just to find out your children are going to be going into the city far away from you.

“Hey, Dad, we can hang out later!” Will suggests, a kind smile balancing over his lips. But he’s only saying that out of pity. He feels bad for me. This makes me crawl in further into myself.

“Yes, that sound alright,” I promise, feigning a smile. "But, really, don’t feel bad.” My shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. “The last time I met your parents their careers were becoming quite busy. I suppose you don’t see them as often as you’d like, is that correct? And at this point, you’ve been seeing me even more often than your own mortal parents. It’s only fair that you have some private time with them.”

A tense silence tightens the air around us. Austin shifts on his feet. After a moment, Kayla says, “Well, we better go. We’ll see you later, though!”

A cold fist seizes my heart.

Will winces. He reaches over and squeezes my shoulder. “We’re sorry to leave you like this, but we didn’t expect you to come by today. We can definitely do something later, though. The three of us will be back by six. Nico’s going to do ghost stories tonight, too, so maybe you’ll want to hear those.”

I wave my hand dismissively and try on a smile that doesn’t quite fit right. “No, really, don’t feel too bad. I’ll come by later and we can do a movie night together after Nico’s ghost stories. I’ll see you later! And have fun!”

They all glance at each other hesitantly, then seem to come to a collective agreement. “Thanks, Dad,” Austin says, pulling me in for a hug. The other two do the same, then all three demigods wander out into the sun, aiming for the exit out of camp.

Nico stares at me, eyebrows raised. “So, what are you going to do now?” Picking at their jeans, they add, “You’re Apollo, so I’m expecting that you will be doing something stupid.”

I frown. “Those are brave words for a demigod to say to a powerful deity.”

“You’re too mushy at this point to pulverize me. They’ve made you soft.” He means it as an insult but their eyes glimmer. A smile laces his mouth.

I offer them a smile back. “Well, I suppose you are correct. I shall see you for your god-tier ghost stories.”

Nico shakes his head and turns to leave. “Please never reference modern things ever again.”

A little bit later, I’m balancing on a chair at a pizza shop in New York City. I’ve chosen the disguise of a businessman, mostly copying the image of a fairly attractive man I met on the way. Perhaps I will go and look for him after I’m done stalking my children.

The scent of pizzas swirl around me, contaminating my nose. The excited chatter of families and friends surround me. Some afternoon sun pours in through the open windows, offering the entire pizza place a relaxed look.

Somewhere to my left, a large group eats and talks, laughter echoing from their table. All my children are sitting to one side of the booth, while the adults loom over them on the other. Will’s bright blond hair gleams blindingly as the sun washes over his locks.

I wasn’t quite sure of what I was expecting from all three of my exes. Perhaps more gray hair, some wrinkles over their faces. No doubt all three of them have those, but they each look at peace, happy with life. There’s a brightness in their eyes as they gaze at their children.

I understand that look. I feel the same pride when I see all three of them.

Envy roils inside me. I’m not sure why, considering that I see the three demigods more often than they see their own mortal parents. Perhaps I’m just nervous that they adore their mortal parents more than they care for me.

But I wouldn’t blame them if they did either. I’ve spent too long only caring about myself. A coil of embarrassment wraps around me.

But I’m changing that now, aren’t I? I wasn’t the best parent, but I can only hope my children are seeing that I’m here for them. I only want what’s best for them.

Another burst of laughter erupts from the booth, and I turn my head, straining my ears to listen. Naomi’s silky voice echoes over them: “...and just as he got up he tripped over himself and fell on the ground. Honestly, I have no idea how he could have been a god, but he sure was dumb.” Naomi sighs. “Maybe that’s why I thought he was so adorable. People just constantly try to impress me. He did, too, but at least he was failing. He may have been a god, but he seemed almost human the night I met him.”

With a shiver, I realize that she’s discussing the moment she met me. Red hot embarrassment spreads over my face. Gods of Olympus, that was a terrible evening for me. I was just so awestruck by her performance. She literally made me come down just to see her perform. I could barely contain my excitement when the show was over!

Will’s sunny voice stands out, amusement lacing his voice. “Speaking of dating, tell us about your new girlfriend. I don’t remember you telling me about her too much at our last Iris message.”

My eyes widen. Girlfriend? I wasn’t aware Naomi was queer! A pang of guilt stabs me in the heart. What else don’t I know about my loved ones? I know I haven’t quite kept up with her, but shouldn’t I at least know this about her?

Shouldn’t I know anything about the three of my exes?

The chatter continues for a bit longer. The adults discuss some more dating history, especially surrounding their humiliating encounters with me. I cower behind my newspaper, feeling only the heat of embarrassment under my skin. Why must I be such an idiot?

Perhaps this is why my children don’t seem to like to me too much. Because I only ever do things to embarrass them. Maybe I’m just a loser of a father.

As I wallow in my own pity, the conversation turns another direction. My ears strain a little more. This time Latricia is speaking, a whisper of nostalgia brushing through her words: “He sure was something. But I think that we can all agree on something: I’m glad he came into my life. Without him...” Her lips quirk into a smile and she brushes her fingers over Austin’s. “Well, without him, I don’t think we’d have each of you. He really brought light into our lives.” She sighs. “He may not have stuck along too much, but you three make it sound like he’s getting better. I’m just glad that... that you’re getting to talk with him again. It seems like he really is starting to care about his children.” Latricia’s eyes rove over all three children, eyes glimmering with satisfaction. “I’m glad he’s seeing you three in the same light as we do.”

My ears turn hot and a red blush coats my cheeks. She’s right; I do appreciate them. Without my children, I don’t know how I could have managed to get through everything I did. Even now, after all that’s happened, it feels as though I have nothing better to look forward to than knowing how amazing they are. Tears stab my eyes.

And I almost jump out of my seat when someone calls, “You can stop hiding behind that newspaper, Apollo. We know it’s you.”

The voice surprises me so much I pop right back into my typical godly form, chiton and all. I’m already so embarrassed that I barely even realize that I’m half naked in public now. Grimacing, I stand and offer an awkward wave. “Ah, hello.”

Darren Knowles smiles at me, a knowing sparkle in his eyes. “You thought you were being stealthy, didn’t you?”

It’s been a while since I’ve really seen Darren, and the years have certainly aged him. Yet there’s still a flutter in my chest as I look at him. He doesn’t look so bad; he’s probably in his thirties or forties. I smile. “Well, I thought my godly powers would help disguise me.”

“Not as well as you thought,” Latricia remarks, smirking at me.

“How long have you known I was here?”

This time, Kayla speaks up. “Dad, we literally knew you were here the moment you got here.”

I blink. “And you didn’t call me out?”

Will shakes his head. “We wanted to see what you’d do. Gotta say, I’m surprised you didn’t do anything too spontaneous. Good job.”

He’s teasing me, but even then I feel a brush of humility come over me. “Well, I have to say that I didn’t quite know you three only come together to make fun of me.”

Naomi waves her hand in a dismissive manner. “Only to make sure our children know how lucky we are to have them.” Her eyes rove over me, almost as if judging how much I’ve changed. “I haven’t seen you in a while," she notes.

The three adults share a look, carrying a silent conversation with each other. Will, Austin, and Kayla watch me as if they expected me to do exactly this. Austin laughs. “You really don’t take no for an answer, do you?”

I shrug. “I just... I don’t know. I know I already see you three often enough, but I suppose I just wanted to see how things were going. Especially with your parents.” I glance at them, my cheeks blooming red. “I haven’t exactly been the best parent in the past. I just want to apologize. And let you know that your children... Well, they’re some of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever met. You’ve raised them better than I could ever have.”

Silence lingers in the air, waiting for someone to make the next move. Then Darren gestures to the food before them. “Why don’t you sit? I suppose we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

#anon tag #asks #apollo/lester #lester/apollo #lester papdopoulos #rick riordan #riordanverse #will solace #kayla knowles #austin lake #latricia lake #darren knowles #naomi solace #my writing #riordanverse fic #riordanverse fanfic #fic prompts #fic prompt #dad!apollo

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kookie-doughs · 4 years ago

Text

Y/N L/N AND THE HALFBLOODS

Percy Jackson X Reader

-Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything was now ruined.

CHAPTER 16: Mini Elvis

The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot. "Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed." "You knew it was a trap," Percy hissed. Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV." Taking the shield from Percy I shoved it at him. "You're a jerk." Annabeth and Grover caught their breath. Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back. "See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas." The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS. Percy said, "You're kidding." Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job." He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to Percy. Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuff Oreos. Percy said, "I don't want your lousy—" "Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving him his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot." I could see Percy gritting his teeth. It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I also didn't want anything that Ares had touched. Reluctantly, he swung the bag over his shoulder. I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us. Great, I thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow.

I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAWS BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER. "You owe us one more thing," Percy told Ares, trying to keep my voice level. "You promised me information about our parents." "You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "They're not dead." The ground seemed to spin beneath me. "What do you mean?" "I mean Percy's mom was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept. As for yours, I saw them myself. Upstairs with the big guys. Why do you think you're causing one of the biggest uproar up there? They're refusing to tell who your parent is. No matter how much cut." He smirked. "What...?" Percy and the others must've seen something as they all held me back. "What are they doing to them?" I could feel the ground shake as Percy's grip on me tighten. We'll save them... calm down. Not the hero. Us. So calm down. "Calm down Y/N." Percy whispered. The ground stopped shaking and took a deep breath. "I will make you all kneel." I said. He looked at me confusedly. Then he shrug it off then laughed, "Oh yeah? can't wait, kid." Percy gripped my shoulder. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues." Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind in my hair. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back." He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street. Annabeth said, "That was not smart, Percy." "I don't care." "You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god." "Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but ..." He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck. "If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry." I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver. We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us. The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter. The trailer was dark inside until Percy uncapped Riptide. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for. Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL! Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur. "This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?" He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and we would've helped him, but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down. We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Annabeth was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips. I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then Percy used Riptide to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. He gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope. Grover calmed the antelope down, while I used my knife to cut the balloon off his horn. Annabeth wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. We told Grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for night. Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuff Oreos and nibbled on one halfheartedly; I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. We could make it in plenty of time. On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with me. At least Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it—he'd put up cameras and advertised me as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, I had a feeling my quest was being watched. I was a source of amusement for the gods. And it wasn't helping knowing they're hurting my parents. Here I was risking my life for them and what are they doing? "Hey," Percy cooed, "We'll save them. No matter what. I promised you that." "Okay." Percy pulled me closer until I was resting on him. Annabeth cleared her throat. "Hey, sorry I wasn't much help back at the park... I could've helped getting you guys out... It's just..." She shuddered. "Spiders." "Because of the Arachne story," I guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?" She nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things." "We're a team, remember?" Percy said. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying. All we did was grab the shield." I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?" Annabeth, Percy and I laughed. She pulled apart an Oreo, handed me and Percy a half each. "In the Iris message... did Luke really say nothing?" I munched my cookie and thought about how to answer. The conversation via rainbow had bothered me all evening. "Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree." Percy answered. In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions. Grover let out a mournful bray. "I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along." "You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus." He nodded glumly. "And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp..." Percy looked at Annabeth. "That was you and Luke, wasn't it?" She put down her Oreo, uneaten. "Like you said, Percy, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were... amazing monster-fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us." "I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," he said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought... I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker..." "Stop it," Annabeth said. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either." "She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably, "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so." "Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" Percy said. "That's not fair." "Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither would Luke. We don't care what the council says." Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy." "You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now." She kicked me in the shin. "Yeah," I said, which I would've done even without the kick. "It's not luck that you found Thalia and Percy, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan. I mean, you found me despite my scentlessness... is that a word?" Percy muffled a laugh. I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he'd fallen sleep. "How does he do that?" I marveled. "I don't know," Annabeth said. "But that was really a nice thing you told him." "I meant it." We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips and looked at me hopefully. Percy didn't take long to fall asleep. Annabeth rubbed her necklace like she was thinking deep, strategic thoughts. "That pine-tree bead," I said. "Is that from your first year?" She looked. She hadn't realized what she was doing. "Yeah," she said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer...." "And the college ring is your father's?" "That's none of your—" She stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is." "You don't have to tell me." "No... it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her.... That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him." "That doesn't sound so bad." "Yeah, well... the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood." She wouldn't meet my eyes. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain." "You shouldn't give up," I told her. "You should write him a letter or something." "Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with." We passed another few miles of silence. "Luke actually told me about you two coming to camp already." "Really?" She looked at me amazed. "You two must've gotten close fast." "Well, I don't know. I feel like I had to talk to Luke. Like I had to be there for him. The same with Percy." We have to be there for both "You're not wrong. I'm not sure how I'd be without your help." Percy yawned. "Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to handle him." Annabeth glared at him. I laughed, "I think you two are cute." Both of them blushed and said some excuse to disprove me. Which then turned into them showing off who's better than who. "If I'm dating anyone it'll be Y/N!" Both of them huffed and glared at each other. I shook my head and smiled. At least I've gotten new friends out of this. "So," Percy trailed off. "If the gods fight," he said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?" Annabeth put her head against the backpack Ares had given us, and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you." "Why?" "Because Y/N will and whether I like it or not you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?" "That's all Mr. Peabody." "Shut up, Droopy." I felt her rest on my shoulder and she fell asleep. "Am I that comfortable?" "Yeah," Percy laughed as he rested on my lap. I had trouble following their example, with Grover snoring and an albino lion staring hungrily at me, but eventually I closed my eyes. ~~~ I woke with a start. I was second one awake. Grover was talking to the antelope. "Morning?" "Everyone had the Y/N privilege except me?" "You fell asleep first." I stroked both Annabeth and Percy's hair, which unfortunately woke up Annabeth. "Sorry about that." "It's fine." She yawned. She brought out some Oreo and handed me one. Until the truck stopped. "They're checking the animals aren't they?" Annabeth froze. I shook Percy's shoulder. "The truck's stopped," I said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals." "Hide!" Annabeth hissed. She had it easy. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover, Percy and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips. The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in. "Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes. "You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face. The lion roared in indignation. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said. Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous. The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!" The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at us. There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer. The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?" A voice outside—it must've been Eddie's—shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?" "What are you banging for?" Knock, knock, knock. Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?" Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot. A second later, Annabeth appeared next to me. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. She said, "This transport business can't be legal." "No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!" "We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Annabeth both looked at Percy, waiting for his say. "Percy, open the lock." I snapped at his face. Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. He grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage. The zebra burst out. It turned to Percy and bowed. Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing. Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas. Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!" "Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said. "The other animals first," Grover said. I cut the locks with my knife which wasn't as easy as what Percy had done. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra. "Good luck," I told the animals. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets. Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos. "Will the animals be okay?" I asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all—" "Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them." "Meaning?" "Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live." "Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked. "It only works on wild animals." "So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned. "Hey!" He protested. "Kidding," she said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck." We stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and we must've looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay us much attention. We passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. We passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty, which was a pretty small replica, but still made me homesick. I wasn't sure what we were looking for. Maybe just a place to get out of the heat for a few minutes, find a sandwich and a glass of lemonade, make a new plan for getting west. We must have taken a wrong turn, because we found ourselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers—lotus blossom, maybe. I'd never smelled one, so I wasn't sure. The doorman smiled at us. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?" I'd learned to be suspicious, the last week or so. I figured anybody might be a monster or a god. But my knife wasn't glowing so... I figured. Besides, I was so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and said we'd love to come in. Inside, we took one look around, and Grover said, "Whoa." The whole lobby was a giant game room. And I'm not talking about cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine. "Hey!" a bellhop said. At least I guessed he was a bellhop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key." I stammered, "Um, but..." "No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, loom 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your Lotus Cash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides." He handed us each a green plastic credit card. I knew there must be some mistake. Obviously he thought we were some millionaire's kids. But I took the card and said, "How much is on here?" His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?" "I mean, when does it run out of cash?" He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay." We took the elevator upstairs and checked out our room. It was a suite with three separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. The balcony had its own hot tub, and sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun. I didn't see how that could be legal, but I thought it was pretty cool. The view over the Strip and the desert was amazing, though I doubted we'd ever find time to look at the view with a room like this. "Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is ..." "Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet." There were clothes in the closet, and they fit me. I frowned, thinking that this was a little strange. I took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. I changed clothes, ate a bag of chips, drank three Cokes, and came out feeling better than I had in a long time. Search and find them Huh? Look for them and warn them I came out of the bedroom and found that Annabeth, Percy and Grover had also showered and changed clothes. Grover was eating potato chips to his heart's content, Percy looked like he was having a headache, while Annabeth cranked up the National Geographic Channel. "Percy you okay?" "Yeah it's just.... All those stations," he told Annabeth, "and she turn on National Geographic." "It's interesting." "I feel good," Grover said. "I love this place." Without his even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes and lifted him a foot off the ground, then back down again. "So what now?" Annabeth asked. "Sleep?" Percy and I looked at each other and grinned. We both held up our green plastic Lotus Cash cards. "Play time," I said. I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun. I came from a relatively poor family. Our idea of a splurge was eating out at Burger King and renting a video. A five-star Vegas hotel? Forget it. I spent most of my time playing and... looking for someone I think. I bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter. I saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing—where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. I saw Annabeth playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. I didn't think much of it, but Annabeth loved it. Percy was playing with Grover. I'm not sure when I first realized something was wrong. Probably, it was when I noticed the guy standing next to me at VR sharpshooters. He was about thirteen, I guess, but his clothes were weird. I thought he was some Elvis impersonator's son. He wore bell-bottom jeans and a red T-shirt with black piping, and his hair was permed and gelled like a New Jersey girl's on homecoming night. When he saw me he gave a smirk and invited me to play a game of sharpshooters together and he said, "Groovy, man. Been here two weeks, and the games keep getting better and better." Groovy? Later, while we were talking, I said something was "sick," and he looked at me kind of startled, as if he'd never heard the word used that way before. He said his name was Darrin, but as soon as I started asking him questions he got bored with me and started to go back to the computer screen. I said, "Hey, Darrin?" "What?" "What year is it?" He frowned at me. "In the game?" "No. In real life." He had to think about it. "1977." "No," I said, getting a little scared. "Really." "Hey, man. Bad vibes. I got a game happening." After that he totally ignored me. I started talking to people, and I found it wasn't easy. They were glued to the TV screen, or the video game, or their food, or whatever. I found a guy who told me it was 1985. Another guy told me it was 1993. They all claimed they hadn't been in here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most. They didn't really know and they didn't care. Then it occurred to me: how long had I been here? It seemed like only a couple of hours, but was it? I then tried to move, but I bumped into a girl. "I'm sorry!" She said. "Hey, no prob." "Oh... uhm... No prob?" "I--- No problem. Say Uh... I kinda lost track of date. What's the year again?" "Huh? It's 1930. Okay, I'm sorry I have to go. I'm looking for someone." Everyone is important in our story "Did you say something?" I go by Y/N L/N, you'll find the one you're looking for at the zombie shooting game. I left her alone and confused. I didn't know why. But I knew now this place is wrong. I tried to remember why we were here. We were going to Los Angeles. We were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. My parents... for a scary second, I had trouble remembering their names. I had to save them. I found Percy first. "There's something wrong." We said at the same time. "Years?" He asked. I nodded. We then looked for the others. We found Annabeth still building her city. "Come on," Percy told her. "We've got to get out of here." No response. I shook her. "Annabeth?" She looked up, annoyed. "What? "We need to leave." "Leave? What are you talking about? I've just got the towers—" "This place is a trap." She didn't respond until I shook her again. "What?" "Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!" "Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes." "Annabeth, there are people here from 1977. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever." "So?" she asked. "Can you imagine a better place?" I grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the game. "Hey!" She screamed and hit me, but nobody else even bothered looking at us. They were too busy. I made her look directly in my eyes. I said, "Spiders. Large, hairy spiders." That jarred her. Her vision cleared. "Oh my gods," she said. "How long have we—" "I don't know, but we've got to find Grover." We went searching, and found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter. "Grover!" we both shouted. He said, "Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!" "Grover!" He turned the plastic gun on me and started clicking, as if I were just another image from the screen. I looked at Percy, and together we took Grover by the arms and dragged him away. His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!" The Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?" "We're leaving," I told him. "Such a shame," he said, and I got the feeling that he really meant it, that we'd be breaking his heart if we went. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members." He held out the cards, and I wanted one. I knew that if I took one, I'd never leave. I'd stay here, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon I'd forget my parents, and our quest, and maybe even my own name. I'd be playing virtual rifleman with groovy Disco Darrin forever. Grover reached for the card, but Annabeth yanked back his arm and said, "No, thanks." We walked toward the door, and as we did, the smell of the food and the sounds of the games seemed to get more and more inviting. I thought about our room upstairs. We could just stay the night, sleep in a real bed for once.... Then we burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day we'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert. I ran to the nearest newspaper stand and read the year first. Thank the gods, it was the same year it had been when we went in. Then I noticed the date: June twentieth. We had been in the Lotus Casino for five days. We had only one day left until the summer solstice. One day to complete our quest.

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Taglist?

@gayer-than-the-gayest-gay @the-natureofme @booknerd-3000 @katara720 @ynfics

#Percy Jackson #Percy Jackson X Reader #Percy Jackson X Y/N #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo #luke castellan #Luke castellan x reader #Y/N L/N #Y/N L/N and the halfbloods #Lightning thief #Book 1 #Chapter 16 #Fanfiction #Fanfictions

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vexing-imogen · 4 years ago

Text

the persistence of 2/?

read from the beginning | on ao3

Percy holds his breath, waiting for Vex to react to Pike’s statement. He likes to think he knows his wife well enough to guess at her potential reaction. He’s expecting confusion, shock, fear. A demand for answers. Possibly denial.

He’s not expecting her to laugh.

Vex holds Pike’s gaze for a good thirty seconds before she snorts and dissolves into helpless laughter. “Alright, that’s a pretty good one,” she says, pausing to wipe away tears. “You really had me going for a minute there.” She takes a breath to compose herself. “Did Vax put you up to this?”

“This isn’t a prank, Vex,” Pike says softly.

“Oh, come on,” Vex says, her tone shifting from humor to exasperation. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe that, do you?”

Scanlan shifts uncomfortably. “Do you really think we’d lie to you about something like this?”

Her response is immediate. “Yes.”

“Okay, fair,” he relents. “This does sound like something I might have pulled back in the day. But do you really believe that Pike would go along with it? Or Keyleth, or Percy?”

“Hey, what about me?” Grog protests.

“You would,” they all chorus.

Vex goes quiet, her eyes flicking from person to person. Percy can see the change in her expression, in her posture as she takes them all in. He sees the moment where she shifts from annoyed confidence to genuine fear.

“Prove it,” she finally says, her voice catching.

Keyleth frowns. “Excuse me?”

“Prove it,” Vex repeats. “If you’re really not fucking with me, tell me something that you’ve learned about me in the past five years. Something that you couldn’t possibly have learned from my brother.”

“You’ve showed me your titties,” Grog offers before anyone can stop him.

Vex’s eyebrows shoot up in alarm. Percy and Scanlan audibly sigh, while Pike facepalms.

“That’s not...really what she meant, Grog,” Keyleth stutters.

“It’s the truth, though,” he says. “And it ain’t like Vax could-”

“Okay, technically, you’re right,” Keyleth interrupts. “I mean, at this point, I think we’ve all seen them in some capacity.”

“I beg your fucking pardon,” Vex says, and Percy might have laughed if he weren’t completely freaking out.

“Not in, like, a creepy way or anything,” Keyleth defends. “You’re just naked. A lot. Sometimes. They’re really nice?” She turns to Percy. “Help me.”

He closes his eyes and thinks. Remembers a conversation had in bed one night, shortly after she’d earned her title of Grand Mistress. The way she couldn’t face him until after she’d told her tale. The tears she’d tried to pretend weren’t falling.

“Trinket,” he says, and her eyes snap to him, her gaze intense. “You once told me the full story of how you acquired Trinket.”

She swallows hard, her eyes darting around the rest of their friends, all of whom are watching him intently. If they’ve heard any of this story, it’s bits and pieces. He suspects he’s the only person she’s ever told the whole truth, that there are details she chose to hide even from Vax.

“Leaving out the bits that you asked me to never speak of,” he starts, “you were kidnapped by poachers. Trinket and his mother were also prisoners. You couldn’t save her, so you took him to raise as your own.”

His heart breaks just a little more when she turns away from him, a single tear falling down her cheek. She gives a tight nod.

Scanlan clears his throat after a minute. “Well, now that we’re acknowledging that this has happened.” He looks to Vex for confirmation, who nods again, sniffling. “I think the big question here is how did this happen? And how do we fix it?”

“I’d like to know that, myself,” Vex agrees, deceptively calm. “I’m guessing I got knocked out, somehow, since I woke up on the ground, but obviously I don’t remember how that happened.”

“We were getting ready to all go home after spending the weekend in Emon together,” Pike says. “We were saying our goodbyes when we got ambushed. It was a pretty easy fight, we scared most of them off pretty fast, But their mage hit you with a spell that I didn’t recognize. It sent you flying, and you hit a tree and were out cold.”

“Did anyone recognize the spell?” Percy asks. “Keyleth? Scanlan?”

Keyleth shakes her head, and Scanlan shrugs. “It could have been Modify Memory?” the gnome guesses. “I don’t know, I’m the worst person to ask about this stuff.”

“We could just ask the mage,” Keyleth suggests. “Can’t you speak with the dead, Pike?”

“Well, I could,” Pike says, “if Grog hadn’t turned the guy’s head into putty.”

“Sorry.”

“Regardless, Pikey, you were able to fix Grog and Percy when they lost their memories of the Feywild,” Scanlan says. “Couldn’t you just do...whatever you did then?”

Percy nods. “That’s right. Greater Restoration, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Pike agrees. “But I kind of used up all of my high level spells for today. Keyleth can do it though, right?”

Keyleth winces. “I...don’t have Greater Restoration prepared today?” She huffs a sigh at their disbelieving looks. “I didn’t think I’d need it, okay!”

Pike sighs. “I guess we just all go to Whitestone, and try it in the morning.” She turns to Vex. “Is that okay?”

Vex gives her a weak smile. “I guess it has to be.” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Um. You still haven’t said.” She sighs. “Where’s Vax?”

There’s an unspoken agreement in the moment that their eyes all meet. Lie.

“He’s not with us right now,” Keyleth says carefully.

Vex frowns. “Why not?”

“He’s working for his goddess at the moment,” Scanlan says. “He became a follower of the Raven Queen a few years ago, and then her champion.”

“He’s on a vision quest,” Pike adds. “He had this dream, about a week ago, and he just...left. Said it was a solo mission. And we don’t really have any way to contact him.”

Vex presses her fingers to her temples. “My brother. Is the champion of a goddess?” She lets out a shaky breath. “I think I need a minute. Or ten.”

They retreat to the other side of the clearing, and Keyleth’s hand is on Percy’s arm the moment they’re out of earshot.

“Hey, how are you doing right now?”

He sighs. “I am having about three separate panic attacks, but other than that...” He gestures at Vex helplessly. “What do I do, Keyleth? How do I help her?”

She shrugs. “What are you going to tell her about, you know, the two of you?”

“How do I not tell her everything?” he asks. “She’ll see it all once we get to Whitestone. The house, and her title, and gods Vesper.” He scrubs at his face. “I don’t want to overwhelm her, she barely trusts what we’re saying as it is, but I’m not going to let her hurt our daughter because she doesn’t remember that she exists.”

Keyleth tries to smile. “I know this sucks, but we’ll figure this out. We always do, right?”

They all sit in awkward silence for a few minutes, occasionally glancing over at Vex, who hasn’t moved. Eventually the silence is broken by Vex’s voice, tentatively coming through the earrings.

“Um, Percy, if you can hear me, I think you and I need to talk?”

============================================================

She watches Percy freeze in place for a moment before he stands. Pike says something that her lip reading doesn’t catch, and he nods. He doesn’t look at her as he crosses the clearing, his eyes fixated on a spot just above her head. He doesn’t look at her until he’s sitting down in front of her, his expression unreadable.

“Hi,” she says softly. “I wanted to start by saying I’m sorry for slapping you.”

He shakes his head. “Vex’ahlia, you don’t...given the context of the situation, you have nothing to apologize for.”

She shrugs. “I’m still sorry.” She looks down at her hands. “I also have some questions that I think only you can really answer.”

“Ask away.”

Vex sighs. “Are we...married?” she starts. “I only ask because you did kiss me, and everyone looked at me funny when I said that we weren’t, and I’m wearing this ring-”

He takes her left hand in his, rubs his thumb over her knuckles. “Yes,” he confirms. “Yes, you and I are married.”

“How long?”

He thinks for a moment. “Oh gods,” he mutters. “Not quite four years.”

“Oh.” Fuck, that’s longer than she was expecting. “Do we. Um.” She chews on her bottom lip. “Dowehaveanychildren?”

He squeezes the hand he’s holding, nods. She gasps, feels as though all of the breath has been punched out of her.

“A little girl,” he offers after a moment. “Vesper Elaina, after my sister and your mother.”

She doesn’t try to stop the tears from falling. “How old?”

“Three,” he says with a small smile. “Just barely.”

“Fuck.” She wipes away tears with her free hand. “Pike mentioned a place. Whitestone? Is that...”

Percy nods. “That would be home,” he says. “The de Rolo family, my family, has ruled there for generations. Still do, in a fashion.” He smiles again. “You’re technically a Lady.”

“Huh.” She sighs. “One more question.” He nods. “Has Grog really seen my tits?”

He almost laughs. “You have flashed him on more than one occasion.”

She snorts. “Yeah, that does sound like something I would do.”

She loses track of how long they sit together, her hand in his, neither of them looking at the other. Their bubble is only broken when Keyleth approaches, twisting her hands.

“Hey guys,” she says. “Um, we were just talking about how we should probably get going soon. It’s getting late, which means it’s probably really late in Whitestone, and Cass will probably get worried if you guys aren’t home soon.”

“My sister,” Percy mouths when Vex glances at him. “You’re probably right,” he says to Keyleth. He stands, offering Vex a hand.

The world tilts and her vision blurs as Percy helps her to her feet. She’s back on her knees in an instant, and this time she actually does vomit. “I think,” she manages, breathing deep, “I think I might have a concussion.”

“All the more reason for us to get you home and resting,” Percy says, rubbing her back. One arm goes around her waist, and she realizes his intent as he asks, “May I?”

She nods, keeps her eyes closed as he gathers her in his arms and stands. It helps with the nausea, but the pounding headache has returned, and she thinks she may have to ask Pike for another heal soon.

Vex hears, rather than sees, everyone gather around them. She briefly wonders exactly how they’re going to get where they’re going, but before she can ask, there’s a tearing sound just in front of them. She opens her eyes to see Keyleth opening a portal in one of the larger trees. There’s a city on the other side, and she doesn’t have time to ask before Percy is hurrying through.

It’s cooler on the other side of the portal, the sun is setting. They’ve apparently crossed the continent in mere seconds.

“What the fuck was that?” Vex asks weakly.

“Ohh, right,” Keyleth says, “I forgot you wouldn’t know about that. That’s how we travel for the most part. As long as I know of a tree in any given place, I can get us there.” She pats the trunk of the enormous tree they just stepped out of. “Hi, Sun Tree.”

“She always does that,” Percy murmurs in her ear. She feels his chest move with a sigh as she takes in the city square around her. “Welcome to Whitestone.”

#critical role #critfic #vox machina #vex'ahlia #perc'ahlia #percy de rolo

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pokeexehasstoppedworking · 4 years ago

Text

Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch8 Battle Gym Leader Milo

(I have read somewhere sheep love dandelions so Im applying that fact to wooloos. I would also like to note that all side quests shall also be considered a part of the story.)

It would be nice to wake up without pain in your neck, sides, or back wouldn't it? That's what you wished you could do as you were shaken yet again the very next morning by someone. The four of you had decided to set up camp in the nearby camping grounds near the stadium since the day was starting to come too a close and you still weren't used to not sleeping on anything between you and the ground besides the thin floor of the tent and had fallen asleep feeling the hard ground beneath you and it must've taken you at least a good three hours before you had fallen asleep that night. Your sobble softly snoring sleeping on your head. And this morning was just like the rest when you woke up with a slight pain in your neck and back, popping them as you stretched. And with what happened yesterday you must've looked a sight-

"You look like you haven't slept in a month." Yep. It was Gloria decked out in her white gym uniform again ready to take on the day and battle ....or so it seemed.

You yawned and rubbed at your neck. Giving a groan as you already felt your sobble climbing on your back to reach it favorite riding spot and you gave him a look when he flopped half of himself over your shoulder. You were starting to see a pattern with this little guy liking to hitch a ride instead of walking himself.....Hm. Well if he was gonna stick with you for a while maybe you should give him a name? But right now you were more concerned with how much you were yawning. "Haha. I wonder why."

"Is she up?" Victor's head appeared in the opening of the tent next to his twin's and rose a brow at you blinking at the sunlight. "Oh...Wow you weren't wrong? Real case of bed head there, Y/n."

"Glad to know I can scare off Prince Charming," you sarcastically stated, "Although I wasn't expecting any kissing from any royalty anyhow."

Gloria snorted and Victor quickly held up his hands. "WHA- I-I didn't mean to be rude I swear it's just-"

"Ah. It's fine." You cut him off moving to grab your lumpy backpack/pillow at this point and made to crawl out of the tent. "Im always like this in the morning anyways. All I need is a quick hair brush and Im fine. ...What time is it?"

"Pretty early in the morning. We can all head on over to the stadium if you want but we'll still have to wait. Milo's still battling someone at the moment."

It must've been one of the trainers from before you guessed as you completely crawled out reaching up to straighten your hair out in an attempt to look presentable from a night of little sleep. "I guess he's still busy today. Kinda makes me wanna rethink my whole business liscence schtick if this means I'm gonna run a business like that."

"Business stick?"

"...Nevermind. Help me put away the tents then we can head on over to the gym ok?"

The four of you scrambled to put the tents away as you fumbled to get yourself looking half way decent. You doubted anyone would pay too much attention to you being only one random person sitting in the crowd of possibly hundreds of more people...That reminds you. You looked over your shoulder at Gloria who was currently in a pretty deep conversation with her twin whil Hop (tried to-) wrestle the tent down into it's more compact form. Victor mentioned she had stage fright. Not as bad as before stage fright, but still stage fright. He mentioned she had gotten A lot better but it seemed there was still some left since you could still remember her stiff smile and the way Hop had assurringly held his friend's hand out on the field there, which was real sweet of him. You could definately tell he was related to Leon. But it won't be the same here. It's not like you or anyone else would be there to encourage her while on field. The best any of you could do was cheer her on from the stage. Guess the two of you would have to roll with the punches as they were about to hit you. It didn't take too long to pack everything away, and you had helped Hop with his struggling battle to put the tent away. As soon as it was tightly packed away and placed onto Hop's back, you turned ready to journey to the stadium-

"Hey." Gloria's voice stopped you mid step as she pointed back up the way from the stadium. "Before we head on out I need to buy me some dandelions."

You gave her a look like she was crazy. "Dandelions? What would you buy dandelions right now for?"

"Milo's still busy right? Then we have time to get some before we go!"

You had zero idea what in the world Gloria would want with dandelions especially before her first gym battle, but you agreed since it meant you'd have some more time to straighten your hair out. So you agreed and she proceeded to buy dandelions at the florist shope. Stuffing them into her white uniform's pants pocket. She had bought a good amount and you wondered what in the world they were for. A gift for Milo perhaps? By the time the four of you made it back down to the GIGANTIC stadium. Her brother turning to her as you three stopped by to part ways. From here you could hear the cheering from the hundreds of people within and briefly wondered for a moment exactly where all these people came from. Certainly not this small town unless they traveled to see the matches. Which seemed more likely.

"Don't forget to show them your League Card to get in," Victor reminded her.

"I know."

"And stay calm."

"I know."

"Have a clear head and think things through alright."

"I KNOW!! Vic I'll be fine! You guys should get seats and watch me kick some butt!"

You heard him groan and shake his head. "Just....Don't forget what we talked about earlier alright?"

She nodded her head before giving him a smile and turned on her heel to trot on over to the front doors, which was guarded by more of those security people from the first stadium. Hop caught your attention when he nodded his head towards the stadium and you agreed following him as he turned to walk towards around the far side of the stadium with Victor hurrying to following behind. The three of you walked around until you came to two large double doors with stairs leading up and up into the stadium and you followed them screams and cheers becoming more and more promanant until you exited through the top and found yourselves high up and in side the stands....Huh. There wasn't as many people as you thought there would be. There was still a lot of people filling the seats around you but there was considerably less than at he opening Ceremony. There was still a good chunk of empty seats scattered about even with the large crowds. Surrounding the field was hundreds of seats with spectators cheering loudly and chattering likely excited for the next battle with Milo but said Gym Leader was no where to be seen on the field. Your guess was that he was taking a small break before the next battle to be had. You still followed behind them as they walked down the steps(thank GOODNESS that it wasn't as loud as the other stadium. You didn't think you could take that loud of a racket again.) and the lot of you were able to be seated a lot closer to the field this time thanks to the variety of open seats. As the three of you sat down the cheers of the crowd soon turned into loud but managable to your ears murmurs. Your sobble had taken to pushing itself up half on your head to look around interested but you reached up to take him into your lap instead. Neck still stiff from your awkward sleeping position.

It was then you noticed there was no one on the grassy fields below. "Hey. Where is everyone?"

"Gloria must be going through the challenge right now," Victor said it was easier to talk to him now than at the Opening Ceremony. "It took Hop about twenty five minutes to make it through so we'll have to wait and see what happens."

"It wasn't too hard," Hop commented crossing his arms, "In Postwick it's practically a need to know skill how to herd wooloo. A right of passage if you will. That challenge was practically begging me to solve it!"

That's right. Hop and the twins were born and raised amongst these pokemon. This should be fairly easy for them you thought. Or more likely hoped.

"Is this being broadcasted on TV as well?"

"No. Only the Entrance Ceremony and the Champion Matches at the end of the year will be. All the battles at the stadiums are recorded though, but they're uploaded to the Gym Challenge League's official Poketube website. So Mom would still be able to watch us if she wanted too. It helps with the pacing of TV channels and networks and makes it more convienet for anyone watching."

Ah. That makes sense. Guess you just had to wai- ....You blinked and squinted your eyes towards the field and pointed. "Hey. Who's that?"

Both boys looked towards the stadium's giant TV and Hop answered. "Oh. That's Dan. He's the gym's referee here, but he doesn't usually step out on field unless the battle's about to begin."

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! THE BATTLE BETWEEN GYM LEADER MILO AND GYM CHALLENGER GLORIA SHALL BEGIN!!"

All three of you looked rather surprised at what was just said by the blonde man before Hop said what the three of you were thinking. "WHAT?! Already?! How could she have finished the challenge that fast!? It's barely been ten minutes."

You weren't sure yourself but were distracted by the sudden amount of cheers from the crowd as two more figures stepped onto the field. From the far left came Milo, the same man who worriedly apologised for letting his wooloo knock you over and from the right came Gloria..but she looked a bit different. Unlike last time, instead of stiff her movements were fast, jogging her way to the middle keeping her eyes slightly downward as the cameras caught her image and placed them on the screen for everyone to see. The two of them met somewhere in the middle of the field by Dan and although you could see their lips moving as they exchanged a few words you couldn't hear anything. You had guessed you wouldn't unless they had microphones to speak into. Before long the two bowed to each other before turning on their heels and walking away from one another. The flash of Victor's camera making you blink as he proceeded to capture his sister's first real battle of the league. Hop watching with a set determined face. The referee taking a few steps back himself, most likely not wanting to get caught in the crossfires.

"Here we go."

In one fluid motion with a cheer from the crowd, Milo threw a ball out and in a flash of light out came a gossifluer. Gloria mimicked the motion with her own pokeball and to your light surprise it wasn't a scorbunny. It was a corvisquire. The crow bird like pokemon gave a loud caw as it fluttered there awaiting orders. You didn't remember her catching that pokemon. Must've been one of the new ones she managed to capture back before you left Motostoke.

"BATTLE BEGIN!!"

Immediately Milo pointed and his lips moved in yelling in order. Immediately his gossifluer responded by a wind blowing around itself and suddenly leaves danced around it it a tiny tornado before being flung forward towards the bird pokemon. Razor Leaf move perhaps? Gloria's small form (or big form on the giant tv depending on which one you were watching) pointed back and barked something and like a blurred shadow the bird thing shot forward, dodging the leaves thrown at it, and like a seagal plucking a fish from the sea, the tiny gossifluer was quickly snatched up into the claws of the crow thing. You could only watch in worry for the poor thing as the corvisquire flew up, up, up until it would've been considered out of bounds of the gym. Before plummeting like a rock down below. THEY'RE GONNA crash!! Was the first thing in your mind as they went and just at the right moment the pokemon snapped it's wings back up and easily managed to fly away unhurt. A sigh of relief escaped you. Thank goodness....Only...it no longer had the gossifluer in it's claws. Your hold on your sobble increased making it give you a confused chirp, as your f/c eyes instantly went to the part of the field it would've crashed into. Only to catch the part glimpse of a light going back into the pokeball in Milo's hand. That could've only meant that Gloria managed to one hit K.O. the poor pokemon. That didn't sound right, unless the corvisquire she caught was pretty strong or-...Oh no. It couldn't be that- No time to wonder on that now as Milo sent out another pokemon who looked like a walking puffy dandelion. Eldegoss if you remembered right. While Gloria kept her corvisquire....before returning it. Guess she was changing it after all.

"ALL RIGHT!! DYNAMAX TIME!!"

You didn't have time to ask Hop what he meant. A bright red glow oozed out of the band Gloria wore upon her arm as she held her pokeball, it quickly was surrounded by the glowing energy before becoming bigger in her hands. She stumbled a bit seeming to have trouble with the added weight where you for sure thought she'd fall, before uprighting her self and turning around. With her teeth grit, Gloria raised the gigantic red pokeball above her head and tossed it. Your eyes followed it as it sored as high and far as she could- CRAP!! Your hands came up as an explosion of red appeared out of no where like multiply giant fireworks, followed by a whoosh of wind strong enough to push your body back and an UNGODLY giant cry in such high volume you could've sworn your ear drums could burst. There was a very loud chirp of panic and your eyes opened in a panic down to your shirt just as your sobble dove under it to escape the now......FREAKING. GIANT. BIRD THING!!! THAT THING WAS MASSIVE AS YOU STARED AT IT FLYING!! Thank god the stadium was built big enough for that thing to flap it's wings!! Speaking of which every flap sent a gust of wind flying from it, making Victor have to hold hit hat with one hand as he continued taking photos! Good gosh! No wonder your sobble was shaking against you! That'd thing give would give you nightmares too! A red circle of dynama clouds hung over the Corvisquire and it's black body now had a red shine to it. Looks as if Milo had decided to do it as well, because he did the same process of returning his own pokemon and adding the same red energy from his dynamax band. Giving the precious red pokeball a few pats with a smile before turning around and with one arm chucked it into the air behind him. Once again you had to shield your eyes from the bright explosion of red as the giant eldegoss made it's appearance with a slam down on the field that disleveled the ground and shook the stadium from under you. In an instant Gloria pointed towards the dynamaxed grass pokemon and must've given some kind of order you couldn't hear. Because it was at that very moment what you could only describe as a giant whirlwind of a tornado whipped from the corvisquire and straight for the eldegoss in a dead hit. That's right. Dynamaxing was a cool thing, but neither pokemon could dodge each other's attacks they were too big. Dynamaxing was a test of brute will to see how much you could hold out. And you were pretty sure Gloria had the upper hand but not because you thought she was super strong. The high winds made the three of you clutch your seats as it hit the eldegoss head on. If your hair wasnt a mess before it was now. Once the winds (other than the powerful breezes from the bird's wings) died down, you nearly choked seeing Gloria's form on her hands and knees clutching the grass to not be blown from the dirt. HOW WAS MILO STILL STANDING!? With a shriek of it's own the eldegoss leaned it's large head forward and you were surprised when three large green seeds fired off from it's head and landed with giant thuds under the bird's feet. Thank goodness Gloria was already ducking. What sprouted forth was GIGANTIC green mushrooms and grass surrounding it, then it exploded in a giant flash of green light. Giant glowing petals made of energy shooting everywhere before disintergrating into thin air. Green waves of energy washing over the crowds as the bird gave off a giant eagle cry of it's own but still flying in tack. ...That was one tough chicken!

"Eldegoss's Dynamax Move!! Awesome isn't it!?"

You couldn't answer. Another giant eagle cry pierced the air making your ear hurt and two black jet streams poured from it's wings. You watched in horror and shock as the dark jetstreams encircled the poor grass pokemon. Encasing it with a dome of black before exploding in a blast of black. The eldegoss crying out in pain as is tilted towards the ground- OMG! That thing was gonna crush Milo!! The eldegoss went out in an explosion that sent dirt clouds flying up everywhere as it timbered glowing brightly through the dust clouds as it magically shrank down winthin it's own mess. You all watched with baited breath as the clouds spread out and covered the famous gym leader as well, Gloria's bird pokemon glowing a bright reddish color before beginning to shrink down until it was back to it's normal size. It's normal size being about as big as Gloria herself (which was still pretty big but when again you remembered how big corviknight are supposed to get), and perched back onto the ground right next to it's trainer who was staring from her kneeled position as the dust literally settled. At least the giant gusts of wind weren't pushing you against the seats anymore. Maybe you should suggest to Leon to install seat belts on these stands. As the dust finally settled with great relief you saw Milo, unhurt and waving his big sunhat to shoo the dust away. Behind him was a giant crater in the ground and disheveled land. All that was left behind from the battle that had taken place.

"THE BATTLE IS OVER!! VICTORY GOES TO GYM CHALLENGER GLORIA!!"

The absolute UPROAR of the crowd's cheers along with Hop standing up to shout his own cheers to his rival/friend and another flash from Victor's camera signaled him capturing the shocked look on his sister's face just standing there looking around herself....Before you saw the brightest smile Gloria's ever given on her face and hugged her corvisquire making the poor pokemon wobble on it's feet as Milo placed the hat back on his head. The gym leader took a moment to look behind him at the disheveled field and big crater in the ground before looking back to the teenager and approuching her. Gloria seemed to notice because she stopped hugging her pokemon to face Milo with wide eyes as he approuched her. The two exchanged words for a moment before Milo held out his hand in a fist with a smile. Wide eyed she took a moment to stare at it before slowly holding out her own hands and he dropped something into the palm of her hands. Wide eyed and staring straight at it, it only took her a few moment for her to hop about excitedly and hold up the small thing in her hands. The cameras zoomed in enough for you to see that she was holding the same badge Hop had showed you the other day on the TV. She did it!? Her first badge! One more step on your way home! ...At Least you hoped. In the end the two of them shook hands and soon after excited the field as the three of you exited the stands, you taking your sobble and putting him on your shoulder again. The poor shaking pokemon calming quickly noticing there wasn't anymore giant pokemon. Hm. You might have to put him in your backpack from now on if he was gonna react all scared and hide like this. By the time the three of you excited the stands Gloria was already waiting outside the doors she went in. Smiling and bounding over towards you waving the badge around in her hand.

"LOOK AT THIS!!," she yelled excitedly shoving the badge in your faces the bronze-gold shining in the sunlight. "On my first try too! I told you I could do it!"

"You must've took my advice then."

You gave Victor a curious look. "Advice?"

He nodded. "Yeah. We used to play VR battles when we were younger as practice since we didn't have any pokemon. I suggested she pretended it was like the game and try her best."

Oh. Well that worked out pretty well for her anyways. Hopefully it'll work for the next battle as well, but you were a bit concerned that Gloria(and Hop-) only won because Milo and his pokemon was overwhelmed and tired by the onslot of trainers coming so early. But you were reluctant to say so. Not only because you didn't want to disturb the progress of the game's story more than you might have already did just by being here, and because you didn't want to hurt either of their feelings. Weighing your options, you decided that not mentioning it was the better choice for now.

"Congrats! I knew you could do it!," you complimented as she smiled wider.

"Thanks! I guess Hop and I must be on the same battling skill level then!"

"HECK YEAH! Wouldn't expect anything less from the greatest trainers to come out of Postwick!" You chuckled at him. "Oh by the way. What'd you do with all those dandelions you bought? Did you give 'em to Milo or something?"

A sly smile spread across her face. "Nope! I'm surprised you didn't remember."

He rose a brow. "Remember what?"

"Expert on wooloo huh?" She shook her head. "Wooloo love eating dandelions! That's why you barely find any of those flowers where wooloo graze or on farms in general. The objective was to get the wooloo to knock over the hay bails right? What better way than to get them to chase after you with their favorite food?"

Wow. That was actually a really smart idea you had to admit. Growing up in a farming community must really pay off. Hop's jaw practically fell open with this new revolution and his hands hands came up to grip his head. "AW MAN!! Why didn't I think of that!? I got my own wooloo for crying out loud!"

"Hey. It's ok. You're still smarter than me when it comes to science and research. You'd be a pretty good scientist too!"

"Science? Really?"

Hop nodded with a sigh. "Yeah. But it's more of a hobby, I just find learning stuff interesting y'know. But my main goal is to become the next Galar Champion!!"

"Not if I beat you to it!"

"Bring it on, Glory!

"Speaking of becoming champion," you interrupted the two, "Have you guys figured out which person you're gonna battle next?"

Both of them paused before looking at each other and Hop shrugged. "Well, there's really no particular order you have to have to battle in so I can pick anyone I want to battle next. It really doesn't matter as long as you get the eight badges for your Badge Circle...." She looked at you. "But Mr. Milo suggested I should go battle Nessa instead. He said she might be a good challenge for me."

"Nessa? Isn't she that model lady you showed me before?" She nodded.

"No way! That's where we were headed too!" Hop smiled. "This is a great chance to do a bit of traveling together!"

"Hey that sounds like a great idea! But first I want to check out this Turrfield treasure."

You all looked at her confused. "Turrfield treasure?"

She nodded. "I heard from a kid that there's supposed to be some kind 'o treasure around here. I think I figured out the riddle since then and I wanna go check it out before we leave."

"What kind of riddle?"

She made a thinking face. "Uh...Hang on a sec. What did she say how'd it go again? Some treasure lies in Turffield and the way to find it is with the standing stones and a riddle."

"Standing stones?"

"She means the ruins around Turffield," Victor answered you seeing the confusion on your face. "Some people call them 'Standing Stones' since most of them stand upright with their strange carvings."

"Seek the standing stones with Grass before the other ones," Gloria recited, "Use well that strength and find then the strength of it's strength in the end. Dally not if you've a mind to find what time has left behind...I don't know what it means tho."

"I do! It's about Pokemon types duh."

The three of you looked at Hop. "How did you solve that mystery?"

His answer was to point upwards towards the small florist and gift shop. "You remember the gift shop up there we were in?" You nodded confused. "They have this brochure in there with info on the Geoglyph and Standing Stones. I got curious after what Glory said about the thing and had a lil peek. It turns out one of the older standing stones has symbols that spell the word 'Grass' on it. And then there's two other's with 'Water' and 'Fire' cut into 'em too. It's like the three pokemon types. Grass types are usually stronger than water types but water types are usually stronger than fire types. And Fire Types are usually stronger than Grass types. It's a whole cycle of advantage type strengths."

You all were completely floored with such a logical and smart answer to come out of the teen but Gloria seemed the most impressed when she suddenly grabbed onto his hands making the poor boy freeze. "NO! WAY!! Oh my eevee! That makes so much sense! Hop you're a genius!!"

....He blinked a pink hue coming to his cheeks. "I-...I-I am?"

"YES!," she insisted eyes wide, "Who else would've been smart enough to figure out that riddle in one day!? And make the connection with pokemon advantages!" She gave him a tug and he stumbled a bit as she pulled his hands. "C'mon! We gotta go check 'em out! You know where they are right?"

"Wha- GLORIA!! What about our travel plans!?," Victor shouted after her gesturing towards a road that if you looked, was the way out of town.

She waved him off tugging Hop quickly down a different path back towards the Geoglyph. "It's just a quick look see! We'll meet you guys at the Pokemon Nusery on Route Five!!"

"GLORIA WAIT!!.....UGH!!" Victor facepalmed himself with a groan as he stood there and you blinked. "This is why I'm glad she has a traveling buddy." He looked back up at their disappearing forms with a scowl. "She gets one idea in her head there's nothing stopping her from getting it! Then she just rushes off into it without a second thought."

"Then I take it she didn't tell you about tresspassing on the Chairman's mine shafts."

"She did WHAT?!"

"Uh...Nevermind," you deflected pointing down the road. "Should we uh...Go wait for them?" In the end Victor huffed, shook his head, and turned on his heel to begin walking down the road. So you took that as a yes and made to follow him. "So....Where's the way to this Nessa person?"

Victor took a minute to respond with a sigh. "I'm not too sure. I know it's all the way on the other side of Galar in a coastal town called Hulbary. So it's safe to say it'll take some time if they insists on battling her gym next. Let me check my map." You watched and walked beside him patiently as Victor reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Turning on to where the screen lit up and then spoke. "Hey Rotom. How long would it take to travel from the town of Turffield to the town of Halbury?"

Now you know you shouldn't have been surprised considering all phones had a rotom pokemon in it acting as this world's version of 'Hey Google' but you still blinked at the almost robotic voice answering him back. "ZZZZT. Follow on Route 5 to your destination. By Flying Taxi it would take approximately a week. By foot near a month."

"A WHAT!?"

He gave you a look. "Flying is a lot faster than walking, and Halbury's all the way across Galar from here. Of course it would take that long to travel by foot." Oh...right. Not a game. R.I.P your poor feet and the many night of awkward sleeping positions to come. He looked back to his phone messing with something on the screen a few times. "...According to this, Route Five starts once we pass the Pokemon Center and cross Turrfield Bridge. From there it's a straight course right across country to the east coast. It might take a while but it's the most convenient one for all of us."

"Isn't there a train or those taxi things?" Even if you REALY didn't want to try using those birdbrain powered taxi's you didn't like the sound of you walking across country for about a month either.

"Even if we got a taxi you heard Rotom. It'd take like a whole week of flying. And the corviknights need time to rest and eat and sleep too. They're living things just like us. Even cars, trains, and planes need to stop and need time to tune up and refill on gas don't they? And besides there's no train stations or Flying Stations set up in Turffield. If you want a train you'd have to travel back to Motostoke which is half a week, or you'd have to call a taxi from there to pick you up. Besides Gloria has a whole year to complete this task. One month out of eleven more isn't going to hurt anyone."

Except your feet and sleeping abilities but you couldn't argue. He was right. You traveled for four days and waited five for Gloria to get her first badge. You could do it again but longer. As the two of you walked down the road, the town began to fade away a bit behind you as you two traveled down the road. You both were just crossing over a small hill when you noticed a small cabin like building with a sign above his door reading: Turffield Pokemon Nursery. That must've been it! It looked as cozy as it did cute. And a little bit a ways from it was a bridge. That must've been the Turffield Bridge Victor spoke of earlier. Maybe you two should wait for the other two inside? It was pretty sunny out and you've been in the sunlight for a while. As you two walked towards the building, some movement near the bridge caught your eye and your eyes turned towards said movement. And your vision was filled with blurs of black and red and your hearing clogged with yelling. Your hand instinctively coming out to grab Victor's shoulder. The teen stopped from the tug on his shoulder a few yards away from the Pokemon Nursery before giving you a confused look as you stared. He followed your gaze just as what was happening finally registered in your head. It was those goons again! The weird ones that looked like they just stepped out of some kind of rock concert! The same ones from the hotel back in Motostoke! Why were they here tho? Two men who looked about your height a bit taller, were standing there on the bridge just as it connected with the road and backed against a part of the bridge was another man who looked all dressed up to be a doctor. Blue jumpsuit and a mask over half his face as he held up his hands to the men. Now yelling could be heard.

"OI! Just hand over that bike already!," One of them shouted pushing the smaller man's shoulder once, "We need it to cross this long bridge!"

"N-N-No!" The doctor man stammered out backing further against the wall of the bridge. "I-I bought this with my own hard earned money f-f-fair and square! What would two blokes like you even do with it!?"

"We're gonna use that bike ta chase around Gym Challengers! It'll be a scream!," the other said before cackling out with laughter.

"WHAT!? N-NO WAY!! I-Im not letting you two meatheads use my bike to chase around innocent children!"

"...Victor?"

"Yeah I see it." He peered around you brow raised looking at the scene before you two. ''Who the heck are those guys?"

You didn't answer, just stared as the two brutes jabbed the man again demanding his bike (or lack there of as you couldn't see one-) be handed over to them. How mean! But what really caught your attention was mentioning chasing around gym challengers. Now you couldn't remember if anything like this had happened in game but chasing around innocent kids for whatever reason just didn't settle right on your gut. There was two kids with you that were challengers and one could easily mistake Victor for one if you weren't careful.

"....You stay here." To reiterate your point you pulled Victor to the side of the road and firmly planted him there. He blinked and opened his mouth- !? He blinked again once you shoved your backpack into his arms and began walking. Your sobble giving a small chirp of surprise with the sudden movements. "Hold this."

"Wha- H-HEY! Y/N! What're ya doin'!?"

"C'mon old man! Give us the darn bike and we'll leave ya alone! You can get another one!"

The man scowled up at them. "T-Then why dont the two of you BUY one!?"

"Money's tight man! Just give it to us!"

"HEY UGLY!!" Dust sprayed everywhere or at least over one of them. As the three men turned to the sound of a woman's voice only for one of the weird rockstar wannabes to receive a splat of dirt picked up from the road to hit him square in the face and have the rest of it cover his front body. The man sputter/screamed out and hands immediately went to wipe at his face. Luckily none got in his eyes so no pain, but that didn't stop the annoyance. Especially since when he looked back up there was a girl standing there hands on her hips and sobble half hiding behind her head as she point. You gave them the angriest scowl you could muster. "You two KISS lookin' airheads leave that poor man alone! He already said no so beat it before I make you!!"

Behind you Victor's jaw dropped and the two goons seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment. Looking between the two of them confused before scowling and looking back to you. Crap. These two were both at least a good foot or two taller than you were. You hadn't really thought ahead but no turning back now.

"Oi! Girly, why don't ya mind your own business?"

"Yeah! This doesn't concern you!" They said leaning over you. Unknownt to anyone your sobble was starting to get a bit teary eyed at the two above him.

"It IS my concern if you're going around hassling innocent people! What'd the guy do to you two?! Back off and leave him alone before I call Officer Jenny on your arses!" Really you didn't know if this region had an Officer Jenny, but it seemed to work as their scowled wavered a bit.

"Whatcha gonna have us arrested for!? We haven't done any crimes yet!"

"Yeah yet! And what about you two planning on scaring everyone you see?"

"Last chance Girly!" One poked your shoulder as if to intimidate you. "Mind your own busines-"

"WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The three of you were interrupted by a loud almost baby like wail as you immediately cringed from it being from directly next to your head. You hissed hands coming to cover your eyes in a panic feeling tears start to sting from them. Was the pain of the yelling so loud you started crying?! If you could've seen past your furious wiping and tears you would've noticed the other men starting to cry as well, face paint starting to run down their faces.

"AAA!! M-Man what's goin' on!?", one shouted to his companion.

"I-...I D-DONT KNOW!! LET'S JUST GET OUT OF HERE OK!?"

They fled. Bumping into you and knocking you over in the process. You yelped as you fell to your butt on the dirt road and your sobble let out a choked hiccup as it was jostled from your head and onto the grassy ground in the men's haste to escape. Well...the baby cry was gone at least, but there was still a few hiccups from behind you as you hissed and used your sleeve to furiously wipe at your stinging eyes. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!?

"OMG! Y/N! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?"

"Here young lady. Turn your head up." You blinked crying to see past the stinging of your tear soaked eyes and someone gently grabbed your jaw. A Second later a wet cloth was wiping at your eyes. Almost instant relief came from your sore red eyes as someone wiped at them. "There we go. Lucky for you I always have a Sobble Tear Cloth handy on me due to how sensitive the little ones can be." Once you got enough clear vision you could see the faces of Victor and the doctor man who were both kneeled next to your fallen body. "There now. How do you feel?"

".....Peachy,'' you mumbled shaking your head from his grip. "What was that?"

"Your sobble crying. When sobbles cry it's like someone chops a hundred onions near you. It's a defense mechanism that's highly affective as you can see. The effects take a while to wear off but luckily for you I happen to be an expert on these kids of things." Grabbing your arm the man carefully helped you on your feet and smiled behind the mask. "Thank you kindly for the help. But you didn't have to, Im sure they would've left sooner or later."

You waved a hand sniffing as said sobble began to immediately start climbing up your pants leg again. Combined with your wooloo bowling trip, you must've really looked a sight. "It's fine. Can't be worse than being knocked over by a wooloo. Are you alright, Mister?"

He nodded. "Yes. Thanks to you. Here. Let's get you to the Nursery. There's some eye drops in my office that might help you further. I work there as one of the nurses with the caretaker and her assistant."

You nodded and with the urge to wipe at your eyes the Docter and Victor helped you stumble walked your way towards the Nursery, your sobble continuing to climb up your body with little difficulty as it reached your shoulder. You felt it touch your cheek and give a small chirp but at the moment you paid it no mind trying not to fall over.

"Hey, Vick-...Oh wow. What happened? Was Y/n crying or something?"

Oh great. Well at least they finally showed up.

"Ill tell you later. Opening the door over there and let's get her inside."

The next thing you knew you were inside a cozy looking house and was given eye drops. It took a few minutes for you to go back to normal and the redness around your eyes to subside. But by the time it did you were feeling way better and sitting on a green couch. One hand petting your sobble who happily accepted the affection with a smile. Hop and Gloria had returned from their small search a little bit after you had managed to chase those men off, and they happily explained their trip from standing stone to standing stone...But unfortunately didn't find anything other than an old ten dollar bill that someone most likely accidentally dropped while visiting them. And Victor got to scold you about just walking up to strangers like that. Weren't you the grown up here? Glad to know everyone was ok tho. The elderly lady at the center had offered the four of you tea as thanks for helping to rescue their nurse and Gloria excused herself to check out the Center's Free Pokeboxes in their own rotomi stations. When you asked about it Hop was happy to explain.

"Oh. Free Pokeboxes are basically boxes from people's rotomi boxes. Usually Nurseries and Centers get a whole lot of them if a pokemon's trainer passes away, or if they were donated or abandoned to the system. From there they're sorta put up for adoption or released back into the wild if no one claims them within a year or so.....Y'know I think Ill take a look too. I might just find a neat new partner." He got up to go join Gloria currently flipping through options on the rotomi leaving you with Victor sitting on the couch.

You sighed. "Man. Some day it's been huh? A riddle solved. A gym battle won. And now a nurse was saved."

"All thanks to you. But please maybe don't be so reckless next time. I was afraid something bad might've happened to you by what those brutes yelled running off."

"Oh? What'd they say?"

He hummed. "Um....I think....'You're too strong!" He tried to repeat in a failed attempt at a deep man voice. "If you stay in the Gym Challenge you're gonna cause problems for our lady! You haven't seen the last of us! We're gonna make sure you stay out of our lady's way!'..Or something like that."

Well that perked your interest. You stared at him. "Our lady?...Does that mean someone ordered them to go after Gym Challengers?"

He hummed a more worried look coming over him. "Could be. But I wouldn't know who or why. Who'd want to go after the Gym Challengers?"

That was a very good question. You wracked your brain for a moment. Was there any person in the game with a pack of goons? And was there any lady out to stop the gym challengers? Your memory turned up nothing as you sighed and sunk back into your seat on the couch as you did. Those goons were at the hotel and now here as well. That couldn't just be a coincidence could it? No...You had a feeling there was something linking those guys to whatever's about to happen to you. Too bad you didn't know. As you both silently sat there, another person walked in through the door and up to the counter but you paid them no mind even as Gloria approuched them.

Eventually you sighed. "I wouldn't know either it seems, but just in case I think we should all be keeping a really close eye out for anymore of those guys and let Leon know the first chance we get. As the saying goes better be safe than sorry."

"Couldn't agree more. Especially since this is concerning my friend and sister."

"What's concerning us?"

Oh that was Hop. You turned. "We wanted to tell you about-" You blinked coming face to face with a grumpy purple face in the arms of Gloria as she held the tiny pokemon clinging to her like a baby. ...You pointed. "Where did you get that?"

"My Toxel? The lady that just came in wanted to drop it off. Somethin' bout hatching it and not being the pokemon she wanted or some speel. I couldn't just let a cutie like this go into adoption or tossed out in the cruel wild after just being hatched." She held it up to her face as she smiled. "Look at how cute you are! Who'd wouldn't want acutie pie like you?" The baby toxel in her arms responded by reaching an arm out and grabbing her nose. Aw! Cute.

You shook you head with a smile before standing. Lifting an arm up with your sobble clinging to it to allow it to freely crawl back onto your shoulder before you stood up slinging your pack over your shoulders. "C'mon. I'll tell you as we walk. The sooner we start the sooner we can reach Halbury and our next step of this little adventure."

#pokemon shield #pokemon sword #pokemon swsh #pokemon sword and shield #Pokemon Piers #pokemon piers x reader #Reader #piers x reader #reader x piers

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maddrmatt · 4 years ago

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Kairi’s Epic Journey: The Quest for Sora

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Chapter 21: Inferno in the Ice Palace

Arendelle

Towering before them was an immense palace made of ice attached to the side of the mountain. A staircase made of ice lead up to the double doors which made up the front entrance. The light of the sun shimmered off the crystals.

It was quite a sight that would be usually be considered beautiful. But the beauty was marred by all the damage that was scattered all over.

The walls, once pristine, were now dotted with char marks, cracks and holes of various shapes and sizes. Pieces of the railing on the staircase were missing and the steps themselves were now cracked and broken. One could only imagine what the inside of the palace looked like.

Kairi couldn’t take her eyes off of it even as Marshmallow bent forward and allowed her, Anna and Olaf to slide off of him. She walked over to Elsa who looked just as stunned to see her ice palace in such a state.

“I’m so sorry, Elsa. It must’ve been so beautiful,” said Kairi sympathetically.

“My condolences as well, Your Majesty. It is bad enough that those ruffians are squatters but they’re also vandals as well.,” said the Duke.

“How could anyone do something like this to a work of art? This is a crime against ice,” asked Kristoff as Sven nodded in agreement.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. They’ve gone too far! We should go in there right now, drag them back to Arendelle and throw them into the dungeon,” said Anna furiously as she attempted to stomp toward the palace before being held back by Elsa and Kairi.

“Take it easy, Anna,” said Elsa.

“I won’t take it easy, Elsa! Mistreating Marshmallow was bad enough. But now they’ve ruined one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever created with your powers. We cannot let them get away with this,” shouted Anna.

“And we won’t. But we can’t be reckless about this,” said Elsa.

“Your sister’s right, Anna. We still have no idea about who or what we’re dealing with here,” said Kairi. ‘For all we know, they could be the kind of people the Heartless would obey.’

“If there’s anybody even in there,” said Kristoff who was kneeling by a trail of tracks leading up to the staircase.

“What do you mean, Kristoff?” asked Kairi.

“Take a look at the tracks,” said the ice harvester beckoning everyone to come over to where he was. Once everyone had gathered around him, he continued.

“When we stopped earlier, the tracks were all leading up here. But now I’m also seeing some that are leading away from here,” said Kristoff pointing to several tracks that indeed looked like they were heading away from the ice palace.

“But how could we have missed them if they’ve already left? We didn’t see any other trails besides the one we followed up here,” said Kairi.

“I have no idea, Kairi. And there’s another thing that’s baffling me. If they wanted the ice palace for themselves, why would they damage it like this? Surely, they’d know by disrupting the integrity of the ice like this, they’d only be putting themselves in danger,” said Kristoff.

“Are you certain of that?” asked the Duke.

“Trust me, Your Grace. If there’s one thing I know best, it’s ice,” said Kristoff.

“This mystery is getting more mysterious every minute,” said Olaf with several of the others nodding in agreement.

Elsa gazed up to the ice palace’s doors. “Well, one thing is for certain: we’re not going to get any answers unless we go in there.”

The queen then turned to the group. “All right everybody. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll lead the way into the palace. If there’s any damage to the floors, I can use my powers to fix them, so it’ll be safe for us to move around in there. They’ll also protect us if there’s anyone still in there,” said Elsa.

“Don’t count Kairi out, Elsa. She can help just like Sora!” exclaimed Olaf.

“What on earth is he talking about? What kind of help can she offer?” asked the Duke.

“You’re just going to have to trust us on this, Your Grace. Just know that if the situation calls for it, I’m ready to do all that I can to help,” said Kairi.

The Duke’s eyes gave a skeptical gaze for a brief moment. “Hmm. Very well. But what are we to do if those ruffians return and catch us by surprise from behind?” asked the Duke.

“That could be a job for Marshmallow. He can stay out here and keep watch. Will you, big guy?” asked Anna.

The giant snowman looked a little hesitant. But he assented to Anna’s request with a nod and a grunt.

Kristoff noticed Marshmallow’s hesitance. “I guess he’s still a little nervous. Can’t say that I blame him. I think after what happened earlier, he’s not looking forward to facing his attackers again.”

Kairi gave Marshmallow a pat on the hand. “Don’t worry, Marshmallow. We won’t let them hurt you again.”

“And to make you feel better, I’ll stay out here and keep watch with you, little brother,” said Olaf walking to the giant’s side.

“That’s probably a good idea, Olaf. Is everyone else ready?” asked Elsa.

“As we’ll ever be, Elsa,” said Kairi with everyone nodding although the Duke’s nod was a little more reluctant.

“Good. Then let’s go,” said Elsa as she turned to the staircase and waved her hands. Her ice magic flowed over it and restored the staircase to its pristine condition.

Elsa then ascended the stairs. Following her was Anna, Kristoff, the Duke, Kairi, Sven and Pluto.

Suddenly, just as the Duke stepped on the icy steps, his feet slid. He quickly gripped the railing and gazed down at the abyss below. He gave a whimper of fright.

“Be careful on the steps, Mr. Weasel Town. They can be pretty slippery,” called Olaf from the bottom of the stairs.

“Yes er thank you for telling me,” said the Duke as he regained his balance.

Olaf then looked up to Kairi. “You doing okay yourself, Kairi?” he asked the Princess of Heart who was having a little trouble on the ice herself.

“I’ll be okay, Olaf. I’m just not used to walking on ice,” said Kairi.

Then, much to their dismay, Sven ended up slipping. He fell down with a grunt and slid backwards. He collided with Pluto and the two animals ended up in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

Kristoff shook his head. “Looks like Sven still hasn’t gotten the hang of these stairs yet.”

Pluto gave a glare to the reindeer. Sven gave a sheepish grin in response.

Shaking his head, Marshmallow reached downward and picked up the dog and the reindeer. He set them down on their feet.

“Maybe it’s better that you stay down there, Sven. You can help Olaf and Marshmallow keep watch,” said Kristoff.

“The same goes for you too, Pluto. Don’t want you both to be slipping all over the place,” said Kairi.

The dog and the reindeer looked disappointed. But they gave nods to show they conceded.

“We’ll come out for you all once we’re sure it’s safe,” said Kairi as she turned around to see Elsa had reached the door.

With a wave of the queen’s hand, the doors automatically opened. She gasped in horror as she took in the state of the entry room of the palace.

The frozen fountain in the middle of the room was shattered to pieces. The two staircases had several broken steps and railings. A huge piece of the wall was torn out revealing the sheer drop on the outside. There were holes in the floor that looked like they had either been put there by force or melted by fire. The scene was reminiscent of the aftermath of a wild and destructive party.

“Be careful wherever you step, everyone. Wait until I refreeze the floors and then only step where I step,” said Elsa as she entered with the others behind her.

As her sister used her powers to restore the floor’s strength, Anna took in all the damage done to her sister’s palace. The more she saw, the more her rage grew.

Finally, she shouted in the loudest voice she could muster, “Listen to anyone in here! This is the princess of Arendelle! Whoever you are, I command you to show yourself and explain what you have done!”

Anna’s voice echoed throughout the palace. The group waited to see if Anna’s demand would be responded to. But the only response was silence.

“I don’t think that was going to work, Anna. Judging from all this damage, it looks like they take great pride in destruction,” said Kairi.

“And I’m still thinking that for all we know, they could already be long gone by now,” said Kristoff.

“We should still investigate the rest of the palace just to be sure. Even if no one is here anymore, we may be able to find some clues as to who was responsible for this,” said Elsa.

“But, Your Majesty, this place is quite immense. Not to mention you’ve made it clear that we need to stay with you so you can keep the floors from collapsing. So, how are we to do that?” asked the Duke.

“The Duke does have a point, Elsa. This place is pretty big,” said Kairi.

“Actually, though it looks big on the outside, it really isn’t on the inside. There’s really only one other room: the one upstairs,” said Anna pointing to the large double staircases leading upward.

Kairi was surprised. ‘Elsa builds a giant palace with only two rooms? I guess that does make sense since she intended to live up here all alone when she ran away. There’s really no need for too many rooms if you’re keeping yourself away from everyone.’

“Come on, everyone. Let’s head up to the top floor and see if anything or anybody is up there,” said Elsa as she made her way to one of the shorter staircases that lead up to a landing connected to the longer staircases.

After using her powers to repair the staircase, she led the group up onto the landing. Then they made their way up the left staircase leading to the top floor.

The ascent up the stairs was not a pleasant one. Nearly everywhere on the surrounding walls were the same signs of damage that they had seen in the first room.

‘How could anyone be so heartless to do something like this to such a wonderful place? It’s very heartbreaking,’ thought Kairi as she looked around at the various holes and cracks in the walls.

Then something caught the Princess of Heart’s eye. Actually, it was the lack of something that caught her eye. “Everyone, there’s something very unusual about the stairs.”

“What do you mean, Kairi?” asked Anna.

“So far, everywhere we’ve been, there’s been damage all around on the walls and floors. And Elsa’s had to fix the damage to the floors so we could walk on them,” stated Kairi.

“Go on,” said Elsa.

“So, why hasn’t she needed to fix these stairs? There’s no damage at all to them,” said Kairi.

Everyone then realized what Kairi was getting at. On this long ascent, Elsa had yet to use her powers to fix anything they had walked on like she had earlier.

“You’re right, Kairi. After everything we saw downstairs, seeing something completely undamaged is strange,” said Anna.

“But they smashed up the stairs leading into the palace and the smaller staircases in the first room. Why didn’t they do any damage to these ones?” asked Kristoff.

“I don’t know, but…” Kairi stopped midsentence as she sniffed.

“Hey, can you all smell that?” she asked causing everyone to sniff the air themselves.

“You appear to be right, young lady. There does appear to be a peculiar odor in the air. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say it almost smelled like something was on…” began the Duke.

“Fire!” interrupted Anna pointing upward where a thick cloud of smoke had gathered. Everyone gasped in horror.

“How is this even possible? How can something that’s made out of ice catch on fire?” asked the Duke.

“There’s no time to wonder about that!” exclaimed Elsa as she ran upstairs towards the smoke.

“Elsa, no! You can’t breathe in that smoke!” exclaimed her sister.

Elsa stopped just as she entered the cloud. She gave a few coughs before backing out of it. ‘Anna’s right. I could suffocate in this smoke. But how am I going to get to that fire to extinguish it?’

Fortunately for Elsa, her answer came very soon as Kairi stepped up to her, summoned Destiny’s Embrace and pointed it at the smoke. “Wind!” she cried.

At Kairi’s command, a gust of wind burst out from the tip of her Keyblade. It pushed the smoke upward, clearing the path for them.

Elsa smiled at Kairi gratefully before turning back to her sister and the others. “Anna, you stay behind with Kristoff and the Duke. Stay out of the smoke no matter what. Kairi and I will deal with that fire,” she said as she continued her ascent up the stairs.

“But…” began Anna.

“Don’t worry, Anna. I won’t let anything happen to her or this palace. We’ll call for you when the fire’s out,” said Kairi as she followed after Elsa.

Anna was about to follow after them. But before she could, Kristoff held her back.

“They’ll take care of it, Anna. Trust them,” he said assuredly.

The Duke, in the meantime, was completely taken aback by what he had just witnessed. “Was that…a giant key? She has magic too?!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, Your Grace. Kairi does have powers of her own though they are a little different from Elsa’s,” said Kristoff.

“And you can take it from us that like my sister, there is no reason to assume the worst of Kairi,” said Anna with a hint of warning in her voice.

The Duke said nothing more. But he nodded to let Anna know that he understood her point.

Anna then gazed up the staircase where her sister and her new friend had gone. “Elsa, Kairi, be careful,” she whispered.

________________________________________________________________

Further up the staircase, Kairi and Elsa continued their ascent to the top floor. Kairi kept up with casting Aero spells to push back the smoke.

It wasn’t too long before the staircase came to an end and they entered a hallway. Midway through it, there was a doorway from which a bright orange glow could be seen.

The two of them made their way to the doorway and as soon as they got there, they had to shield their eyes from the glow. When they uncovered them, they beheld a horrific sight.

In the center of the room of ice, a large pile of wood had been erected and set ablaze. Water dripped from the ceiling and the chandelier as the heat from the fire melted it.

The queen was horrified to see a blazing inferno set in the middle of the room she considered to be the heart of the palace. “Kairi, I don’t know if my powers are strong enough to extinguish a fire this big!”

“We have to try, Elsa. While you use your ice magic, I’ll cast some Water spells with my Keyblade. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to put it out as well as soak the wood and stop it from catching fire again. Ready?” asked Kairi causing Elsa to nod in agreement.

The two of them approached the fire. Fortunately for them, the holes in the ceiling allowed the smoke to escape so it was not as thick as it was coming up. Kairi pointed Destiny’s Embrace at the burning wood while Elsa held out her hands, palms forward.

“Stream!” cried Kairi as she unleashed a blast of water from her Keyblade while simultaneously, Elsa conjured blasts of her ice magic.

The two of them cast many magical attacks on the fire and appeared to succeed in extinguishing the flames where they struck. But, much to their dismay, it turned out to only be temporary. Apparently, the fire’s temperature was so intense that it was able to overcome the dampness and reignite.

“Kairi, it’s not working!” exclaimed Elsa.

Then, they heard what appeared to be the sound of cracking. It could only mean one thing: the floor on the verge of collapsing. If the fire wasn’t extinguished, the burning wood would fall through and put the rest of the ice palace in danger of destruction.

Elsa stopped casting her magic on the fire and fell to her knees. Placing her hands on the floor, she channeled her magic into keeping it from falling apart. She pored all her strength into it. “Kairi! I don’t know if we can stop it!”

“We can, Elsa! Just keep the floor up for now! I have an idea!” shouted Kairi as she stepped in front of the queen.

Then, to Elsa’s surprise, Kairi continued to cast Water spells on the fire as she had been doing before. Even though it had been clear that it was futile, she kept on using the same magic.

“What are you trying to do, Kairi? We already know that’s not going to work,” said Elsa.

“Trust me! It shouldn’t be long now! Just be prepared to use your powers on my signal!” cried Kairi.

Elsa’s confusion remained. But seeing no other way, she decided to put her full trust in the Princess of Heart.

As Kairi continued to bombard the fire with apparently ineffectual Water magic, she thought, ‘I really hope this works. Grand Magic is our only hope of stopping this fire!’

Finally, after a couple more Water spells, Kairi felt the power of the now ready Grand Magic coursing through her. She pointed Destiny’s Embrace at the fire and shouted, “Waterza!”

The biggest blast of water so far burst out from her Keyblade. At the same moment, Kairi stepped to the side and shouted, “Now, Elsa! Freeze it!”

Elsa raised her hands and pointed them at the fire. Summoning all her strength, she unleashed a powerful wave of her magic.

The Waterza spell hit the fire splashing all over it. In less than a second, Elsa’s power hit it as well. The combination of the two magical attacks caused the pile of wood to be completely coated in ice, causing the fire to finally be extinguished.

Kairi let out a big sigh as she fell to her knees beside the queen. Her Keyblade vanished into thin air. She looked over to Elsa and gave a smile of relief. “We did it. It’s out.”

“That was a great idea as well as some amazing magic, Kairi,” Elsa said in between deep breaths.

“Thanks. I’m just glad I was able to pull it off in time. Truth be told, I’ve actually never done that level of magic outside of training before and certainly not in a situation like this,” said Kairi.

“You meant you couldn’t have done it right from the start?” asked Elsa.

“No. It doesn’t work like that for me. To perform Grand Magic with a Keyblade, you have to build up the power for it by casting the weaker spells repeatedly first,” explained the Princess of Heart.

“I guess one kind of magic isn’t quite the same as another. But anyway, thank you so much, Kairi,” said Elsa.

Then, from the direction of the staircase, they heard Anna’s voice call out, “Elsa? Kairi?”

“It’s okay, Anna! The fire’s out now! You can all come up!” Elsa called back.

The sound of running footsteps were heard and it wasn’t long before Anna came into view. Kristoff and Duke trailed not far behind her.

Anna immediately rushed up to them and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “Are you both okay? I was so worried for you both.”

“We’re fine, Anna. The palace is saved,” said Kairi.

“I know you both were doing what you had to do to save it. But that didn’t make it any less scary. Promise me you won’t run into fire ever again?” asked Anna.

Elsa chuckled. “I promise. I actually hope it’ll never come to me doing that again.”

Anna laughed too. But her laughter ceased when she gazed at the frozen remains of the bonfire, the melted chandelier and the various holes in the ceiling. Kristoff and the Duke were equally stunned.

“My word. From the looks of this, the blaze must’ve been immense,” said the Duke.

“It was, Your Grace. The fire was so powerful that my magic wasn’t enough to stop it. The whole palace would’ve melted right off the mountain if it weren’t for Kairi and her own magic,” said Elsa smiling at the Princess of Heart.

Anna gazed at the frozen woodpile with anger in her eyes. “This is definitely the last straw. It’s bad enough they chased Marshmallow out of his home and smashed up everything downstairs. But they tried to outright destroy this place! They’re going to pay!” she roared.

“Calm down, Anna. As much as we’d all like to see that, truthfully, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Kristoff.

“But Kristoff…” began Anna before Kairi interjected.

“Kristoff’s right, Anna. Think about it. If whoever was responsible for this went as far as to set a fire this big to destroy the palace, I don’t think they were planning on sticking around.”

“But we didn’t see any trace of anyone leaving coming up here. They couldn’t have gotten by us. Where could they have gone?” asked Anna.

“I don’t know, Anna. It doesn’t look like we’re going to get any answers anytime soon if at all. I think the only thing we can do right now is make repairs to the palace and then head back to Arendelle,” said Elsa.

“But Elsa, what if they come back? What if Marshmallow won’t be so lucky to get away next time?” asked Anna.

“I think we can assume that if they believe their fire succeeded in destroying the palace, they’re not likely to return,” said Elsa.

Anna sighed. “I guess that’s a fair assumption. All right. I guess there really isn’t anything we can do now other than start fixing this place up.”

“Anyone have any ideas on how we’re going to get this out?” Kristoff asked pointing the frozen woodpile.

“Good thing we have a giant snowman who’s the right person for that job. Speaking of which, someone ought to go and tell Olaf, Marshmallow, Sven and Pluto what’s going on and that it’s safe to come in,” said Kairi.

“I’ll take care of that,” said Anna as she made her way out of the room.

But just before she could leave, the Duke ran up to her. “Your Majesty, allow me to go and notify the snowmen and the animals of the current predicament.”

“That won’t be necessary, Your Grace,” said Anna.

“Please. I came up here hoping I could help convince the scoundrels responsible for this of their error. But since that appears to be no longer possible, I wish to be of service to you and your sister in any way I can,” said the Duke in tone that sounded almost like begging.

Anna gave a roll of her eyes before she said, “Okay. You can go and tell them what’s happened if you insist on making yourself useful.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” said the Duke with a bow as he left the room and headed for the stairs.

Anna turned around and once again, gazed at the frozen remains of the bonfire. She let out a heavy sigh.

Kairi rose to her feet and walked up to the princess’ side. “Anna? You okay?”

“I will be, Kairi. It just doesn’t feel right knowing that the people who did this will probably never answer for it,” said Anna.

“I know what you mean,” said Kairi as her thoughts turned to how little Xehanort paid for all the suffering he caused. ‘Although, I guess being utterly defeated by Sora, Donald and Goofy despite having the χ-blade must’ve been quite humiliating for him. Still, after everything he did to me and my friends, I would’ve preferred that he got a lot more comeuppance than that.’

Then Anna smiled. “But I guess there is a bright side to having this all resolved now. Once we get this place back to the way it was, we can focus on finding something to help you find Sora. And since you’ve helped save Elsa’s palace, it’s now more important that we do that.”

Kairi smiled. “I appreciate that, Anna. But don’t feel like you have to help me to settle a debt. Like I told you before, Sora would have done the same thing.”

“Well, he certainly would’ve been proud of what you did here today,” said Elsa who had come to Kairi’s side.

In spite of Elsa’s praise, Kairi’s spirits dropped a little. ‘I hope he would be. But I really hope he’ll be even prouder of me when I succeed in finding him and make up for failing to keep him safe.’

Then the three of them noticed Kristoff had been walking around the room and looking over every detail. An expression of concern was on his face.

“Kristoff? Is something the matter?” asked Anna.

“Something doesn’t seem right here. After looking over the room and from what I know about ice, I’m thinking that this fire may not have been burning for too long,” said the ice harvester causing shock to the three girls.

“What makes you say that?” asked Kairi.

Kristoff pointed to the ceiling. “Look at the holes. They don’t look too big. If this fire had been burning longer, they would have been a lot bigger.”

“But Kristoff, Kairi and I heard the floor cracking. I had to use my powers to keep it from collapsing. Wouldn’t that be a sign that this fire was burning for awhile?” asked Elsa.

“Being directly under the fire, the floor had not only the heat affecting it but also the weight of the wood. That would have caused it to melt faster,” said Kristoff.

Kairi then realized something herself. “And we didn’t see any smoke coming from the palace when we were outside!”

“So, that means that the fire was probably set sometime after we stepped into the palace!” exclaimed Anna.

Then, from behind them, the sound of slow clapping was heard followed by an unfamiliar female voice saying, “Congratulations, Your Majesty, for figuring out our ploy. Unfortunately, it will do you little good since you have put yourselves right where we want you.”

All of them turned around and gasped. They were no longer alone.

Standing behind them was company of seven strangers all dressed in the same crimson colored cloaks with stylized flames around the hems and sleeves. On their chests was an emblem of what appeared to be a light blue reptilian creature baring a fierce expression with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and its body surrounded by violet flames. They were all wearing black gloves and boots. They had hoods over their heads and their faces were wrapped in dark red strips of cloth with only their eyes uncovered.

Upon seeing these strangers and their almost familiar garb, horrible memories flowed through Kairi. Memories of Xehanort and his Organization approaching her, Sora, Riku, Mickey, Axel, Aqua and Ven in the prelude to the battle that would leave her with many scars.

Then they noticed that two of the strangers on the far left had the Duke of Weselton in their clutches. They held him with his arms behind his body with one hand each while holding their other hands over his mouth as he struggled to get free.

The Duke managed to get his mouth uncovered and he frantically shouted, “They were waiting in the entry room! They somehow got past…”

“Keep him quiet!” shouted the stranger in the center who appeared to be the owner of the female voice who had spoken earlier. At her command, the ones holding the Duke put their hands back over his mouth.

The woman then stepped forward. It appeared that she was the leader of this mysterious group.

Now that she was closer, Kairi and the others could see that her left eye was covered by a black eyepatch. Her remaining green eye stared at them venomously.

Anna stomped toward the leader with a look of pure anger on her face. “So, you’re the ones responsible for all this! Why are you doing this? What gives you the right to come in here and…”

Before Anna could finish her angry inquiries, the leader raised her hand as if she was making a signal. In response, the two strangers on either side of her made fast throwing motions toward the floor right in front of the princess.

Whatever they threw moved too quickly for anyone to see what it was other than giving off a bright orange glow. But whatever they were, the spot on the floor they struck suddenly burst into a small flame.

Anna stopped in her tracks as the rest of their group stared in shock. A couple of the strangers let out evil chuckles as the fire burned for a few moments before going out.

“Did they just…” began Kristoff.

“…throw fire?” finished Kairi.

The leader scraped her fingertips over her right palm and produced a small fire in her hand. “Oh, we can do a lot more than that. In fact, our power over fire enables us to do the most incredible feats much like a certain queen’s ice magic.”

Elsa stepped forward while trying to remain calm despite the tense situation. “Who are you? What is it that you want?”

“I am Eimyrja and we are the Order of the Flame,” said the leader as she gestured to the others behind her.

Then she pointed accusingly at Elsa with her free hand. “And what we seek is justice for your crimes, Queen Elsa of Arendelle.”

________________________________________________________________

Onto the next chapter!

#kingdom hearts #kh fanfiction #sokai #kairi #marshmallow #anna #olaf #elsa #duke of weselton #kristoff #sven #pluto #original characters #maddrmatt

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ericsonclan · 3 years ago

Text

Strong and Swift

Summary: Brody and Mitch transfer to Ericson High and get through their first day together before going out and completing their first mission in New York as spider heroes.

Word Count: 3869

Read on AO3:

“All I’m saying is that brunch is a very valid and delicious way to hang out with friends,” Louis strolled through the hallway, his backpack dangling off one of his shoulders.

“Louis, drop it,” Violet mumbled as her hands struggled to hold all the books that she needed for today's classes.

“Well, Clem, I guess you’re the swing vote. Is friendship brunch a thing? Yay or nay?”

Clementine looked over at her friends then focused back on the hallway before her. “Hmmm, I guess we’ll just have to go to brunch and find out.”

“Yes!” Louis pumped his fist while Violet let out a tired groan. The three of them continued to discuss the matter as they made their way into their homeroom class where Javi was leaning back in his chair tossing a baseball in the air.

“Oh hey, you three are early,” He gave a happy smile at the sight of his students.

“No,” Violet sat down in her chair with a groan. “Your clock is wrong.”

Javi looked up in shock then glanced between his phone and the clock. His eyes darted back and forth to check it. “Oh no,” He pushed his chair up to the clock and started to reset it while the classroom became full with the different students.

“Morning, Mr. Garcia,” Sophie’s cheerful tone drew the teacher's attention.

“Hey, Sophie.”

“Whatcha up to?” Renata popped out from behind Minnie with a curious smile.

“Changing the clock. Time was totally wrong and would've been really awkward when the new transfer students showed up.”

Minnie’s eyes widened at that statement. “More transfer students?”

Javi gave a light hearted chuckle. “Yeah, who would’ve thought. Must be that they think Ericson High is quite the place.” He got off the chair and spun it around, taking a seat in it. “You three should get in your seats.”

“Right!” Renata jogged over and slid into her chair; the twins soon followed suit. Javi gave the students a few more minutes to file in and get settled before he rose up.

“Good morning class, as a few of you might already know we are getting in a few new transfer students today.”

Clementine glanced up from her spot. That’s odd. Why are there so many transfer students showing up? The timing seems off.

Suddenly a knock on the door drew all the students’ attention.

“Oh, I bet that’s them now,” Javi lightly jogged to the door and swung it open with a bright smile. “Come on in, you two,” He stepped back, giving the two students a chance to walk and stand in front of the class. On the left was a tall guy with short chestnut hair and green eyes. He seemed to radiate a sort of grumpy energy from. His eyes glanced around the room, challenging anyone to speak up and say something. On his right was a girl who was shorter than him with beautiful pale blue eyes. Her auburn hair was slicked back and her hands were by her sides balled up, most likely due to nerves based on the expression on her face. She seemed nervous but something about her was genuine and kind.

“Well, why don’t you introduce yourselves to the class,” Javi leaned back in his chair with a warm smile.

“Name’s Mitch,” the guy spoke, looking around at the room for a few seconds before focusing his eyes elsewhere. “From Atlanta. Moved suddenly and ended up here.”

“Thanks, Mitch,” Javi said with a smile then looked over at the girl. “It’s your turn.”

The girl looked over at the teacher before taking a deep breath and uncurling her fists. “Hi there, I’m Brody. I’m also from Atlanta. My folks moved because of a new job so I look forward to getting to know all of you,” Brody’s eyes fell back down and for a split second Clementine could’ve sworn she saw Mitch reach out his hand and give Brody's a small, comforting squeeze.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you two. Now as for seating, you can take the seats behind Louis and Violet,” Javi motioned over to the two empty spots behind them. Louis gave a friendly wave while Violet looked up for a second, a ghost of smile on her face before she looked away again. Brody took her spot behind Louis and Mitch sat behind Violet.

Louis immediately turned around in his chair. “Hi, I’m Louis,”

Brody looked surprised by it. “Hi.”

“Louis, if you could turn around again, we can get started on taking attendance.” Javi’s voice caused Louis’ face to change to a guilty look before turning around with a sheepish smile. The rest of the day seemed to go fairly smoothly. Nothing besides the new students seemed unusual for a normal day at Ericson High and soon lunch had rolled around.

Brody sat down at the empty table with a tired sigh. Mitch sat beside her, giving a small, sympathetic smile. Slowly his arm reached around her shoulders.“First days always suck,”

Brody nodded in agreement. “Yeah they do, but everyone seems nice. I just wonder why we got assigned-” She immediately stopped when she noticed Louis waving excitedly over at them and making his way over to their table with Clementine and Violet.

“Hey, mind if we join you?” Louis sat down, placing his lunch tray that was stacked high with pudding and pizza. Violet and Clementine sat down on opposite sides of him.

“Yeah, sure,” Brody gave a kind smile that seemed to cause Mitch’s tension to decrease.

“So, you said you two were from Atlanta?” Clementine leaned forward and opened her apple juice box, taking a long sip from it.

“That’s right,” Mitch responded and took a fry from his plate. “We went to the same school, Prescott High.

“It was a really nice school.” Brody added with a fond smile.

“But you had to move?” Violet’s voice caused them to look over to her. She had a huge pile of nuggets on her plate. Way more than seemed humanly possible to consume in one sitting.

“Yeah,” Mitch grumbled. “Some shit came up and my family had to move.”

“Well, enough with that,” Louis dramatically opened his first container of pudding, thrusting a spoon into it. “Tell me, how did you crazy kids get together?”

Clementine shook her head good-naturedly while Violet gave an annoyed sigh. “Really, Louis?”

“What? It’s a valid question. They could ask if any of us are dating anyone. We’re not, by the way.” Louis flashed his classic charismatic smile.

“Oh, well...” Brody awkwardly twirled her fork around her plate.

“I asked her out to the dance on a dare,” Mitch had a smug expression on his face that instantly dissipated when he saw the look on Louis’ face. “What?”

Brody reached up her hand and grabbed Mitch’s. “It was a weird starting point, but we quickly got along and we’ve been together ever since.”

“How long have you been together?” Clementine took a bite of her burger.

“Three, maybe four years?” Brody looked over at Mitch for confirmation.

Mitch shrugged. “That sounds about right to me.”

“Wait - so you got together when you were what? Thirteen or fourteen?” Louis looked shocked as the spoon slipped out of his slightly opened mouth. Before either Brody or Mitch could answer that a Hispanic girl with dark brown hair jumped onto one of the chairs with a chaotic smile.

“Hey there, just want to stop by and meet the two new hot people in our homeroom,” She offered her hand. “I’m Renata. Rhymes with frittata if that helps,”

Brody awkwardly took it. “Brody, but ummm, what was that about hot people?”

“Well obviously I was talking about you two.” Renata playfully kicked her legs.

“Where’s Sophie and Minnie?” Violet’s words were muffled by the chicken nuggets she was currently inhaling.

“Yeah, aren’t they always with you?” Clementine looked up from her food.

“Usually yes, but right now they’re trying to convince Omar to try the latest masterpiece Sophie has concocted.” Renata tossed forward a pudding cup that spun around the center of the table.

“Pudding?” Mitch looked confused. “That’s already been fucking claimed.”

Renata shook her head and held up a finger. “Hot pudding.” Her eyes wandered over to another table, making the others do the same.

There they saw a girl with long red hair arguing animatedly with a shorter guy with an afro who had his arms crossed. A girl with short red hair who looked identical to the other one was laughing lightly with a happy smile on her face. Only every now and again did she speak up. The other girl lifted up the pudding cup to display it before dropping it and shaking her hands wildly. Renata laughed at the sight. “Sophie really is trying her best,” She turned back to face the others. “So, anyone game to try it? I promise it’s worth it.”

“Nope,” Violet stated, simply finishing off the last of her chicken nuggets. Brody and Mitch looked shocked by the sight.

“I will take the risk!’ Louis dramatically rose from his spot and with one fluid movement gulped down the hot pudding. His face winced from the heat, but soon melted into a joyful, content look. “Holy shit! This is no joke!” “Right? Right?” Renata bounced excitedly in her seat, smiling at the people at the table.

Louis looked around the cafeteria with a wide grin which disappeared after a few seconds. “Damn it, I thought Gabe and Mari would be in the cafeteria but they must be in the newspaper room with Nurgul. Gabe would lose his mind over this.” Louis said, looking round.

“Well, have no fear,” Renata reached forward and snagged the empty pudding cup. “We have the mastermind behind it all,” She pointed back at Sophie who had spilled the pudding all over her pants and was now jumping and dancing around as Minnie burst out laughing. Minnie held out a napkin while her hand shook with laughter.

“Say no more, I’m sold. It was nice talking to you two, definitely wanna hear more, but now I’m on the quest for more hot pudding,” Louis gave a playful smile and wave before standing up.

“See ya,” Renata winked, giving a casual salute as she strolled over to the twins.

Brody and Mitch shared a look before laughing.

The rest of the day went smoothly from that point on. All the teachers seemed nice and understanding and the classmates helped whenever either Mitch or Brody didn’t understand something.

“All in all, not a shitty day,” Mitch smiled over at his girlfriend.

“Nope. I think I’m really going to like this school.” Brody’s hand swayed along with Mitch’s, their intertwined fingers locked firmly together as they exited the building.

“Mari, wait up!” Gabe rushed forward, his camera bag hitting his hip while he tried to catch up with his sister. Mariana looked back at her brother with a playful smile.

“Come on, slowpoke! If we keep going at this pace, we'll never reach the pizza place.” Mariana stopped when she saw the red hand appear on the display, signalling that it wasn’t safe to cross. Gabe leaned over and caught his breath for a moment. “Are you sure this pizza place is any good? Why can’t we go to the usual one on Broadway?”

“Because I heard that this one really does have the best pizza in New York. Sure it’s only been open for a few weeks, but Uncle Javi swears that it's the best he’s ever had.” Mari’s smile faded when she saw the unsure expression on her sibling’s face. “Tell you what: if Reggie’s Pies and Fries isn’t the best pizza ever, I’ll buy you a four pack of pudding.”

Gabe’s eyes danced with excitement at the suggestion. “Make it six and you’ve got a deal.”

Mariana looked at him with a competitive smile. “You drive a hard bargain. Deal!” She shook his hand firmly. “You’re buying the pizza today though.” She turned to start crossing the street while Gabe looked dumbstruck for a second. Running beside her, he spoke up again. “Fine, but you’re paying next time.”

“Of course,” Mariana looked down at the black camera bag that was flailing around as Gabe walked. “Do you really need your camera today? It’s not like we’re gonna stumble across some spider people or anything.”

Gabe smiled proudly while holding his camera bag. “You never know. I have a good feeling about today. Especially after that newspaper meeting with Nuri.”

Mariana opened her mouth to comment on that statement when her phone started to buzz against her back pocket. Gabe’s phone was vibrating as well with the same loud sound. It was one that they recognized immediately. Pulling out their phones, the siblings looked at the Amber Alert that stated to look for a black Sedan with the license plate 7TYP290.

Gabe and Mariana looked at each other with a sad expression. They hated whenever these popped up, but that wouldn’t stop their ever constant vigilance to keep an eye out for the license plate just in case. That was when they heard a loud screeching noise followed by a crash coming from about a block away. They looked up to see a pillar of smoke emitting from a white car that had collided with a blue minivan and black car. People started to gather around it, staring in horror and awe at the crash site before them. Gabe and Mariana ran over without hesitation.

“We should help!” Gabe sprinted forward towards the scene of the accident.

“We should call 911,” Mariana was trying to unlock her phone when Gabe let out an excited gasp. Mariana’s eyes shot up to see what had gotten her brother’s attention. Bumping into her brother with a soft thud, Mariana caught a glimpse of what it had been. There standing on the street sign was a female silhouette. Her eyes were sheltered by a pitch black mask that covered her face all the way down to the bridge of her nose. A hood covered her head, the hem of which was silver. Her body was covered in a skin tight black bodysuit that had silver detailed webs on the torso. The silver on the tips and edges of her black gloves shone in the sunlight.

“Holy shit. Is that-”

“Mimic!” Mariana practically squealed with excitement, finishing her brother’s sentence.

“We’re here to help,” Mimic spoke with a gentle voice when another spider person landed beside her. They were dressed in a black leather biker jacket, dark denim pants and red shoes. A red spider stood prominently on the back of the jacket before he rose up. His black spider mask looked commanding with its red web detailing around it.

“Step back. We don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”

The crowd listened slowly, stepping back from the scene.

“That’s Goliath. I can’t believe it!” Gabe stared in awe.

“I thought they were based in Atlanta.” Mariana looked over at Gabe with a confused expression then turned her attention back to the two spider people.

“They should be.” Gabe watched as Mimic landed softly on her feet and stood absolutely still, pointing towards the left back car door of the minivan.

“Goliath, two kids.”

“On it,” Goliath moved forward and wrapped his fingers around the edges of the door. Crumpling the metal like paper, he lifted off the door.

“That was his super strength. It’s even crazier in person,” Gabe mumbled, too caught up in the sight before him to think to take photos.

Mimic moved beside her partner. Kneeling down, she looked at the two kids.

“Hey there, we’re gonna help you out, okay? Does anything hurt?” Mimic asked in a soft, comforting voice.

N-no,” The older sister was holding onto her younger brother who was crying in her arms. “But our dad...”

Mimic looked back at Goliath. “Check the front door, but be careful.”

“Of course,” Goliath moved forward and ripped open the door, finding the father whose leg was bloody and broken. “Mimic.”

Mimic stood up with the two kids, one in each of her arms. “I’m going to leave you with my friend. He may look mean, but he’s super nice.” Mimic walked over to Goliath and gently handed him the kids.

“Hey there,” Goliath had a surprisingly gentle tone to his voice. “We’re going to go over here for a few minutes.” He placed the kids and knelt before them. “Gotta help the others, okay?”

The older sister studied his face for a minute, reluctantly nodding. “Just help our dad.”

“I will,” Goliath looked over at the younger brother. “Be sure to watch out for your older sister okay, buddy?”

The little boy nodded, his eyes shining with determination.

Mimic had carefully extracted some of her webbing. Her fingers danced while the webbing carefully wrapped around the father’s leg. Gabe and Mariana watched in amazement as the webbing caused the bleeding to stop.

Goliath jumped over and with care carried over the father to his children who showered him with love and care. “That car is clear. Check out that one next, Mimic,” Goliath pointed to the white car that was smoking profusely. Mimic got back into her meditative stance, a shiver running down her spine when she sensed the presence within the vehicle. “Front right hand side.”

Goliath moved immediately, saving a middle aged lady and carrying her over to where the other survivors were.

“One left,” Mimic whispered to herself as she strolled to the last car.

Mariana looked at the black car with a look of concentration. That was a black sedan, right? Her eyes widened in horror. The license plate! What is it? Her heart stopped when she saw it: 7TYP290.

“Gabe,” Mari nudged her brother’s gut and gestured over to the license plate. Gabe looked at it, the realization hitting him only a second later.

“Mimic! Careful!” Mariana called out, causing the spider person to pause right by the front door. Suddenly a man lunged out of the door, stumbling around and swinging a sharp switchblade. Mimic’s body reacted to it immediately, moving in the unnatural way as if she had no bones in her body. The attacker froze when he stared at the spot she once was.

“That was Mimic’s signature evasion move.” Gabe let out a sigh of relief that the hero had made it out. Mariana felt her shoulders relax for a second before tightening again when she saw the fight wasn’t over.

Goliath ran over, trying to close the distance in time as he watched the switchblade try to land again on Mimic. Goliath shot out his barbed webbing, wrapping around the assulant ‘s wrist and stinging him sharply. Letting out a pained gasp, the man released his weapon.

Mimic appeared suddenly in front of him and kicked him in the gut then proceeded to wrap him in an immense amount of webs that stuck with squelching sounds onto the street sign. Mimic froze when she felt another presence nearby.

“Goliath, the trunk.”

Goliath tore off the trunk cover, revealing a young girl tied and gagged with a tear-stained face. “I’m going to take off the gag, ma’am.” Goliath carefully took off the binds and Mimic helped the girl over to where the others were. The sound of an ambulance and police sirens wailed out, signaling that they were nearby. Mimic looked around for a minute before landing her sights on Mariana.

“Make sure that man gets his leg checked out.”

Mariana could barely believe that a spider person had spoken to her. She couldn’t form any words and simply nodded.

Mimic gave a relieved smile. “Thanks.” With that Mimic and Goliath shot out some webbing and swung off into the distance.

“I can’t believe it….” Gabe looked at the sky where the two spider people had flown past.

“We met spider people!” Mariana exclaimed. The siblings excitedly high fived when Gabe stopped mid-high five, causing Mari’s hand to hit his face.

“It’s weird though,” Gabe looked at the webbed assailant. “There sure are a lot of spider people showing up in New York.”

“That’s true.” Mari paused, intrigued by the information.

“Oh, crap!” Gabe yelled as he clutched his camera bag. “I forgot to take pictures!”

Mariana let out a sad sigh and placed her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Oh well.”

Gabe looked at where he saw the heroes swing off too. They can’t be that far away . “I’ll be back.”

“What?” Mariana looked confused as she watched her brother run away. “Gabe!”

“I’ll be right back!” Gabe cupped his hands over his mouth to make sure his sister heard him before turning back and focusing on the task at hand. He wanted that picture.

Brody landed easily on her feet as Mitch soon joined her. Taking off her black mask, she felt her hood slip down as she let out a relieved sigh, leaning against the alleyway. “That was close.”

“Yeah, but we kicked ass. Especially you, Brody! You were so fucking hot,” Mitch pulled up his mask, the crinkles on his leather biker jacket increasing with the movement. In a single movement, he cupped the sides of Brody’s face and captured her lips in a passionate kiss. Brody looked surprised for a moment before leaning into the kiss, her hand traveling up to grasp the back of Mitch’s head.

That was when it happened. The sound of a camera went off, causing Brody to throw on her mask and Mitch to pull down his.

In seconds Brody shot out a web, snatching the camera from a Cuban boy with an orange beanie who looked shocked by her action. Brody opened the camera and took out the film, tossing the camera back to its owner. “Sorry,” she apologized, shooting up a web and launching into the air.

Mitch gave a sassy smile that was lost under the mask. “We don’t do pictures.”

After the pair was far enough away, they landed on top of one of the buildings. Both of them took the risk and took off their masks once more. Mitch gave a small smile towards Brody. His hand gently intertwined with hers.

“Don’t worry, we got the film.”

“Yeah, I know. Just glad our first mission went well.” She had a warm smile on her face when her eyes grew large. Tilting back her head, she let out a long, exacerbated groan.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“I forgot I still have my English assignment to complete,” Brody mumbled, letting her face fall forward in defeat.

“Fuck! I do too.” Mitch’s frown deepened, softening only when he glanced over at her. “Hey, wanna drop by my place and we can finish it together?”

Brody looked over at him with an appreciative smile. “That sounds great.”

A smile appeared on Mitch’s face at her words.

Leaning forward, Brody placed a quick kiss on Mitch’s cheek, causing him to blush.

“Ready?” Brody put her mask back on.

"Yeah!” Mitch scrambled up to his feet and did the same.

With that the pair attached their webs to a nearby building and swung down back to the normalcy of life.

#twdg #twdg clementine #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg sophie #twdg omar #twdg minnie #twdg renata #twdg mitch #twdg brody #twdg gabe #twdg mariana #twdg javi #gabe mari brotp #sophie renata brotp #twdg moody #fanfic #spiderverse au

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connor-draws-things · 4 years ago

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Jamie and Logan’s story thingy :D this is what i have so far

I awake to the sound of my alarm. I tiredly turn it off and get out of bed, dragging myself to my closet of identical-looking clothes. I take one at random and put it on, then fix my hair and brush my teeth. I’ve lived in this house for a while now. To be completely honest, I’ve forgotten what the outside is like. About six years ago, I was kidnapped and woke up here. I still don’t know why I was kidnapped or why nobody has come to save me, but I’ve gotten used to my predicament. I’m just desensitized at this point.

Looking at the clock on the wall, it’s exactly 10 minutes before breakfast is supposed to come. It gets lonely, waiting here. My only form of entertainment are a few video games I’ve beaten multiple times and books that get switched out for new ones every month. Taking one of the more childish fantasy novels off of the bookshelf, I flip through the pages and find my bookmark. Sitting on the couch that has been prepared for me in this house, I begin reading from where I left off last. The brave knight finally escaped his prison and is going to finish his quest alongside his friends. What an experience that must be, to have friends. I used to have them, but I’ve been missing for so long that I’m sure they’ve forgotten about me.

I hear the doorbell ring and I walk to it, opening the slot where a tray of food is handed to me. I don’t know who it is giving me food, but at least they’re not letting me starve to death. I give him a curt “thanks” as I kick the door after receiving my food. Taking the food to the dining table, I eat my breakfast. It’s a boring life, yes, and I still do hope to escape someday. But, there’s no use in putting in the effort right now. The door is solid metal and the windows are bolted by thick sheets of iron. Even when I do manage to unscrew the windows, I get gassed and wake up with the windows bolted over again. It’s a cycle of hopelessness.

Finishing my tray, I push it back through the slot in the door. As I’m about to return to my room, I hear a faint noise on the other side of the door. It sounds like...footsteps? That’s never happened, they usually don’t retrieve my food until 8:30 am. The sound is getting closer and I back away from the door. Someone’s knocking on the door. I’m too scared to speak. They’re ringing the door now. What do they want with me? Unless they…

“Hey, you! You knocking on the door! Are you trying to save me? Hey!” I shout, rushing to the door and frantically begin pulling at the handle. The feelings I’ve stored deep down since that day six years ago suddenly come bursting out of me. I wait for them to answer. They’re not knocking anymore, “H-hey! Hey, please! Please save me!” I start crying.

“Get away from the door, ma’am!” Following the voice’s instruction, I back far away from the door. The footsteps are now charging at the door. I hear a bang and there’s now a dent in the metal door. The banging comes again and again until finally the door flies off its hinges. I duck under the table so as to not get hit by the screws and the pieces of the wall that came out with the door. When I think it’s safe, I reveal my position from under the table to my rescuer. He rushes over to me and holds out his hand for me to grab. Apparently, I was too hesitant and he impatiently took my hand and began dragging me out of what I now know was merely a small apartment in a large building.

“Wh-who are you?” I ask, trying to slow him down, “Wh-what’s going on?” He doesn’t slow down.

“I’ll explain later, we don’t have much time.” We run into an elevator, and it descends much faster than I remember them going. I almost let out a scream before my rescuer covers my mouth and makes a motion for me to shush. I follow his orders and the elevator doors open. He observes the building before pulling me along through the empty lobby. It’s in ruins, completely trashed. What...happened?

We finally made it through the ruined building, but the outside is no better. In fact, it’s so much worse. This isn’t the world I used to know. Everything’s destroyed and the sky is growing gray. Feeling my face growing red, I pull my hand away from the man, “Explain what’s going on right now! I deserve an explanation for all of this!” I cross my arms and stand my ground and he only rolls his eyes in response, upsetting me more. All of a sudden, his expression quickly transformed into fear and he pulled me away just in time.

I turned to see what he pulled me away from, and it was something that wasn’t human. Or if it had been, it certainly wasn’t anymore. An 8 foot tall monster of a morphed person stood before us, long claws ready to pounce at any second. I could hardly breathe as I watched its back, damaged from the tumble, quickly heal itself in a sickening fashion to where I could hear all its bones pop back into place. My rescuer began pulling me into a run and I could feel my heart pounding. What...was that?

We reach a nearby park and he pushes me into a car and gets in behind me.

“William, start driving now.” I look down at my hands, realizing I’m trembling so much. The driver my rescuer just spoke to, William, began to turn around to face us. His face was beginning to morph, scarily like the monster we had just seen.

“I’m sorry, I failed.” Was the last thing he said before the rest of his body morphed completely as me and my rescuer exited the car as quickly as we arrived.

“Good thing we have a backup.” He said, running inside a nearby building. It wasn’t as destroyed as the others and my rescuer let us stop to catch our breaths. This would be a good time to answer all of my questions.

“Hey…” I said, panting heavily, “Wh-what the hell is going on?”

“Did you not see what was outside? That’s what’s going on.”

“But what was that?” I ask, standing straight. He’s quiet for a little while and then started walking. I followed him, “Answer me!”

“You were locked up for so long, you probably wouldn’t believe me. In fact, I didn’t believe it at first…” His voice trailed off, “They’re monsters. From another world.”

“L-like...another planet? Aliens?”

“No, like another dimension entirely.”

I stopped walking, “Wh-what?”

“Keep walking, we don’t have time to stop. I’ll continue explaining if you stop interrupting.” I nodded in response and continued walking alongside him.

“About a month before you were kidnapped, NASA found signs of interdimensional travel from beings not in our own universe. They didn’t release this information to the public because it would cause widespread panic across the globe. Then they discovered that some of the creatures from the other dimension had already started leaking into our world. They managed to capture one and research it and found that if its DNA was to enter a person, that person would begin to mutate. The same happened to animals and plants. I happened to be a test subject and they found out certain people were immune to it. Including me. Around that time, they began quarantining those who are immune.’

‘You happened to be one of those people. They haven’t told those they quarantined, though. They wanted to keep us safe from those monsters and live in ignorance. Since I already knew, I wasn’t quarantined. I’ve been trying to find others like us but…” He went silent.

“What happened?” I asked, curiosity eating at me.

“...” He sighs, “They were all dead. Killed by those monsters.”

“But I thought you said we were safe from them!”

“We are safe from turning into them. But, it isn’t like we’re immune to their teeth and claws. They can still wound us and...cut us up beyond recognition.” His eyes seemed to wander somewhere else, like he was remembering something. Something I knew better than to ask about.

“So we’re the last ones? The last once immune to those monsters?” I asked.

“‘Fraid so.”

“What about everyone else? There’s still a few regular people, right? Like William…”

“Yeah, that’s where we’re headed.”

“Huh?”

“Humans have established a new society with the peaceful creatures from the other dimension. That’s where we’re headed. I haven’t actually been there yet, but it shouldn’t be too different from how the world was before The Catastrophe.” He opened a door for me and we were on the roof of the building we had just walked to. A helicopter was perched in front of us.

“What if it really is different from the world we knew? I mean, you can’t know for certain we’ve established peace with those creatures. Or if they’re really as peaceful as you say.”

“We’ll just have to hope, then. And find a way to live in this new society.” He helped me onto the helicopter as he took the pilot seat, beginning to lift us off the building. I’d never been in a helicopter before...it feels weird. Things were quiet as we flew through the air, passing the occasional mutated bird.

“Hey, so what’s your name anyway? You still haven’t told me.”

“Logan.” He said sternly. He wasn’t one for pleasantries, apparently. He was like a grumpy old man, except he wasn’t that old. Maybe mid twenties? I guess that isn’t really important anyway.

“My name is-”

“Jamie, I know.” He cut me off. He wasn’t one for manners, either. The helicopter ride was silent. It wasn’t like we could really talk about anything other than the end of the world. And that wasn’t a pleasant thought. The silence became unbearable. If we had some music, that would at least make the ride more comfortable. But, our trip didn’t last much longer. A giant monster, with wings nearly its whole size attacked our helicopter.

“Logan!” I yelped out, grabbing his arm to steady myself. Not that it helped much, because he was shaking around in the helicopter just as much as I was. He reached for some bags on the wall of the helicopter and handed me one.

“Put it on, now! We’re abandoning this helicopter!”

“Wh-what?!” But he didn’t give me time to fully comprehend the situation before he put on his own bag and jumped out the helicopter. I hesitated for a second before finally putting on my bag and jumping out the helicopter. Pulling on a cord from the bag, my parachute released. But, the helicopter burned and fell in the distance, and I could see the monster still attacking it. It must not have good vision if it can’t see we’re no longer inside.

I looked below me and saw Logan’s parachute but...below him was water. The sea for miles. How the hell are we supposed to survive this? We glided down, down, and down even more. Until we reached the icy cold water. It didn’t help that I wasn’t that good of a swimmer. At least the parachute could sort of work as a raft to keep me from falling to the bottom. I saw Logan swimming toward me.

“Sorry.” He huffed out, “I don’t think we’re gonna make it.” I already knew that. My first time out of that stupid apartment in years and I’m going to die. I sighed and continued holding onto the parachute. It was clear we were miles away from any shore. I should just give up hope at this point, it was wrong of me to think I had any chance of living a normal life again. I closed my eyes and let myself drift off to sleep…

…And woke up with Logan shaking me awake.

“Huh?” I asked, sitting up. Sitting? I noticed the sand running through my fingers, “Where are we? How did we survive?” I asked.

“I’m...not really sure. I just woke up here with you.” Logan responded. He sounded genuine, which means neither of us have no idea where we are. This could be pretty dangerous.

“Do you have anything we can use to defend ourselves in case a monster tries to attack us?” I ask. It’s scary having to ask that. To realize that this is reality and I’m trying to survive. I just have to deal with it.

“I only have one pistol. It doesn’t have much ammo, though.” He sighed, “We gotta focus on where we are first. Come on, we gotta see if there’s a city or if there’s any people left here at least.” I nod in agreement and stand up to help find any signs of people.

/////////////////////////////

@shsl-bi-ovo @heeliesstuff

#original writing #it's very long qwq #2199 words/7 pages :0 #long post

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snappedsky · 4 years ago

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Fanatics 75

The title’s a little on the nose.

*Links to previous and next chapters in reblog*

Squee’s World Shatters

Rain plummets from the sky, soaking the Nameless City. The large droplets ping against the walls of a van, creating a rather nice ambience for those living inside.

Aron is in his usual spot in the front seat, curled up as he types up an article on his laptop. Behind him, Serena is stretched out on the soft floor, sucking blood out of a bag with a silly straw. Psycho Doughboy is lounging in his hammock, hat pulled down over his eyes. Mr. Fuck, Sickness, and Reverend Meat are spread out on the seats. Everyone is just relaxing, enjoying the lazy day.

There’s suddenly a knock on the side door and they all sit up.

“Uh, were you expecting anyone?” Eff asks. Serena wordlessly shakes her head.

Reverend Meat stands up and slides open the door. “Squee!”

“What?” D-boy questions as everyone gets up.

Squee is standing outside, absolutely soaked as he hangs his head.

“Did you walk here?” Reverend Meat asks, ushering him inside. “Do we have a towel?”

“Yeah,” Sickness replies as she opens one of the storage units in the seats and tosses him a red towel.

“Here,” he says, giving it to Squee who drapes it over his head. “Did something happen?”

Squee opens his mouth but whatever he was going to say gets caught in his throat. Instead he asks, “can I stay here for a while?”

“Uh yeah, sure,” Reverend Meat replies, “make yourself comfortable.”

Squee walks by and sits on the seat, curling up in the towel. The Night Terrors, Serena, and Aron all stand together and watch him, curious and worried.

After a few awkward, quiet moments, the rain finally ends and they go outside, leaving Squee on the seat.

“So, I don’t really understand human emotions, but there’s definitely something wrong, right?” D-boy asks.

“Of course, did you see his face?” Reverend Meat questions, “his eyes are red, his nose is puffy. He’s been crying, a lot.”

“So what do we do? Ask him what’s wrong?” Sickness asks.

“I don’t think he’ll talk about it,” he replies.

“We should go to Nny,” Eff suggests, “he might know.” “But why would Squee come to us and not Nny in the first place?” D-boy asks.

“We’ll only figure that out if we go to Nny,” Reverend Meat replies and looks at Serena and Aron. “You guys can watch him, right?” “Eeehhh,” they groan with uncertainty.

“Great, thanks, guys,” Eff says before the Night Terrors wave and run off. They hop across a couple buildings before Reverend Meat inexplicably stops.

“Meat?” Sickness questions, “what’s wrong?”

“Something’s…changed,” he muses as he looks around. “You guys go to Nny. I’m gonna look for something.” “Uh, okay,” Eff shrugs and they split apart.

Reverend Meat makes his way across the city before stopping next to a collapsed building. It used to be the South Mall, but it was recently destroyed. Clean-up crews are just now starting to remove the rubble.

Reverend Meat lands on the ground across the street and stands over the rain-soaked gutter, looking down at something familiar.

Meanwhile, Devi glances impatiently out Johnny’s window before checking her phone for the umpteenth time. “He’s not answering my texts.”

“I don’t get it,” Tenna says, “where is he? Didn’t he say he’d meet us at home?”

“Do you think something happened?” Devi asks.

“He seemed pretty wiped out before we went on that quest,” Nny muses, “making that forest must’ve taken a lot of energy. He’s probably just resting somewhere.” Cammie whacks him with her cane and he cries out in pain.

“You shouldn’t have left him by himself,” she scolds.

“He can take care of himself,” Nny snaps, rubbing his head. “He’ll come home when he’s ready.”

There’s a knock at the door and everyone perks up. Devi quickly answers it and withers with disappointment. “Oh, it’s you guys.”

“Hi, Devi,” Sickness waves as she, Eff, and D-boy walk in.

“Ugh, what do you guys want?” Nny asks in annoyance before blinking with realization. “Wait, what do you want? Where’s Squee?”

“Well, that’s why we’re here,” Eff replies, “did something…happen?” “What do you mean?” he questions, getting up from the couch.

“He showed up at our place a while ago after walking in the rain,” D-boy explains, “something is obviously wrong but we don’t know what.” “He’s at your place?” Devi questions with surprise and she and Johnny look at each other. “Why would he go there?” “I-I don’t know,” he replies with confusion, scratching his head.

“And he’s not answering my texts,” she adds, “something must’ve happened between that quest and now.”

“Something did happen.” Everyone turns around to Reverend Meat walking through the door, something small, brown, and wet hanging from his hand.

“What?” Eff asks as he walks by and drops the item on the coffee table. Everyone gasps when they see it’s Shmee.

“Shmee?” Tenna questions, “why isn’t he with Squee?” “That’s not Shmee,” Eff says darkly.

“Huh?” she gasps.

“What do you mean? Then who is it?” Johnny asks.

“No one now,” D-boy replies, “Shmee’s gone. Now, it’s just a normal teddy bear.”

“What?” Devi exclaims, “how did that happen?”

“I don’t know,” Reverend Meat replies, “the Daydream must’ve extracted him.”

“Jeez, it’s no wonder Squee’s so upset,” Sickness remarks.

“Yes,” he agrees, “but we got a bigger problem. With Shmee gone, Squee has no protection from the Nightmare or any other evil creatures. And we all know how much of a magnet he is for trouble.”

“Oh, shit, that’s right,” Eff says, “we better get back.”

The Night Terrors turn to leave but Devi holds them back. “Wait!” she exclaims, “we should come too. We have to bring him home.” “No,” Johnny grunts.

“No?” she scoffs.

“No,” he insists, “if he wanted to come home, he would’ve already. Who knows what he’s going through right now. He must want to be alone. We have to respect his wishes.” Devi starts to argue but stops when Johnny sits down and glares miserably at the floor. She and Tenna look away sadly while Cammie comfortingly rub his back.

Before the Night Terrors can leave, Devi points at them menacingly. “You better protect him.”

“That’s literally what we were made for,” Reverend Meat points out before leaving.

The Night Terrors hurry back to their van and quickly let themselves inside. Aron and Serena are sitting in the front seats while Squee is in the back. He’s wearing baggy clothes that look to big on him with a blanket draped over his shoulders and a water bottle in his hands. He watches everyone with tired eyes as Aron and Serena get up to greet the Night Terrors.

“How was everything?” Reverend Meat asks quietly.

“Okay, I guess,” Aron replies, “I gave him some of my clothes to wear so he’d be in something dry.”

“And I made him drink some water,” Serena adds.

“Now, when you say ‘made him’…” Eff questions with concern.

“I gave him the bottle and told him to drink,” she replies incredulously.

“Okay, just checking.”

“You’re already taking better care of him than us,” Sickness comments.

“Sure, but did you find out what’s wrong?” Aron asks.

“Yeah. It’s…bad,” Reverend Meat replies before looking at Squee. “Squee, if you need anything, you just let us know, okay?” He just nods quietly.

“We should get him some food,” Reverend Meat states, “maybe take-out?”

“How about Taco Hell?” D-boy suggests.

“Really? You wanna get Taco Hell when we don’t have our own toilet?” Serena scoffs.

“It’s his favourite,” he shrugs.

“We should probably go with something lighter though,” Sickness argues, “soup from the deli?” “He also needs a pillow,” Eff adds.

Squee watches them discuss quietly amongst themselves. He should feel happy that they’re worried about him and he should thank them for helping him. But right now, he’s too exhausted to feel or do much of anything. So he just keeps sitting there, blinking his heavy eyes, and swirling the water in his bottle.

After finally deciding on a simple dinner of Bloaty’s pizza, Squee spends the night. The van’s seats are soft and comfortable, but his blanket is thin and the pillow is flat. It makes him miss his bed with its big pillows and quilt. But he doesn’t wanna be home right now.

Despite everything, however, he does fall asleep from pure exhaustion. And while Aron sleeps in the front seat and Serena goes out to do vampire stuff, the Night Terrors sleep in shifts. They take turns throughout the night, keeping an eye on Squee and making sure nothing happens.

That morning at Skool, Zim, Dib, Tak, and Pepito stare worriedly at Squee’s empty desk while attendance is called. Knowing their friend like they do, they know that an absence can only mean bad news.

“He’s not answering our calls or texts,” Dib muses as everyone goes to their first class. “Do you think he’s been kidnapped again?”

“When I talked to Colton, he said they had to go on some weird quest yesterday,” Pepito explains, “and Squee was pretty wiped out from it. Maybe he’s just resting and taking the day off?”

“Perhaps,” Zim grunts, “but it is not like him to not inform us.”

“Well, after Skool, we can stop at his place and figure out what’s wrong,” Tak declares.

“Hey, you don’t make the plans! I do,” Zim snaps, “after Skool, we’ll go to his place and figure out what’s wrong.”

Tak growls at him as they enter the classroom.

After Skool, they take the Epic and drive straight to Squee’s house. When they knock on the door, it takes a couple minutes but Cammie finally answers, cracking it open just a bit.

“Oh, you’re Squee’s friends,” she says.

“Uh, yeah,” Pepito nods, “is-is he here?”

“Um no,” she replies, glancing into the house with uncertainty.

“What? Then where is he?” Zim asks.

“If he hasn’t told you, then it’s not my place to say,” Cammie says, “he must just want to be alone right now. We’re all just gonna have to respect his wishes and be patient.”

“Has something happened?” Dib asks.

“Again, I can’t say,” she replies and closes the door. “I’m sorry, kids.” They stare at the door for a second before turning and walking back to the car in silence.

“I guess she has a point,” Gaz says, “if he wanted us to know where he is, he’d tell us.”

“That’s not good enough,” Zim huffs, smacking the steering yoke. “If he will not come to us, we’ll go to him, like true friends.”

“That’s not really respectful of his wishes,” Dib points out.

“Well, none of you respected my wishes when you chased me to Irk,” he argues.

“Dammit, he’s got a point,” Pepito grunts.

“I will send him one last text,” Zim declares as he grabs his phone. “And if he does not reply, we will hunt him down.”

“I admit, I like this plan,” Tak says.

In the Night Terrors’ van, Squee hears his phone buzz from his bag, which is sitting on the floor. He knows he should check his messages and let everyone know he’s okay at least. But he just cannot be bothered.

What he has been doing all day is napping on and off. He’s feeling less and less rested each time he wakes up, but at least if he’s unconscious he doesn’t have to feel anything.

As for the other van-mates, Serena has also been sleeping the day away and Aron’s been gone all day. The Night Terrors have just been hanging around, keeping an eye on Squee and trying to make sure he eats and drinks whenever he’s awake. They still may not understand much about humans, but they know at least that’s important.

They’ve been on edge since finding out about Shmee, but it’s been quiet all day. No sudden monster attacks and nothing from the Nightmare either. However, they’re not gonna drop their guard for even a second. If something does happen, they’ll be ready for it.

In the early evening, Squee is fast asleep in the same spot he’s been in since he first arrived. The Night Terrors are hanging around quietly, letting the time trickle by. But the silence is interrupted by a sudden moan from Squee. They look at him with surprise and see him trembling beneath his blanket, his face twisted with fear.

“A nightmare?” Sickness questions.

“I’m surprised this is his first one here,” D-boy remarks as he leans back.

“Should we wake him?” Eff asks.

“Mmm, I don’t know,” Reverend Meat replies, “maybe just keep an eye on him for now and we’ll wake him if it seems to get worse.”

They watch as Squee curls into a tighter ball, panting and whimpering.

“It looks like he’s trying to hide from something,” Eff comments.

They all lean in closer, almost intrigued, when he starts sweating and breathing harder. And then they immediately jump back.

“Wha-what-what’s that…” Sickness asks in shock.

No one can answer as they watch, agape, a black cloud form over Squee’s head. It gets bigger and bigger until a large claw extends out of it and slams into the floor.

Meanwhile, Zim, Tak, Dib, Gaz, and Pepito are driving through the city in Epic.

“So how are we gonna stalk-I mean find Squee?” Gaz asks.

“Simple,” Zim replies, “there is a small tracking device hidden in Squee’s bag, which we know he’s never without. I already know where he is.”

“Goddammit, do you have tracking devices on all of us?” Pepito growls.

As they near Squee’s location, they recognize the Night Terrors’ van parked by the curb.

“The Night Terrors?” Dib questions, “why is he with them?”

As they start to pull up, Eff suddenly runs out in front of them and crashes into the hood. Zim immediately stops the car and they all jump out as Eff picks himself up.

“Oh, it’s you guys,” he says, “what are you doing here? This is really not a good time.”

“We’re trying to find Squee,” Zim replies.

“Ah, right. Well, maybe come back in like…ten minutes?” he suggests.

“Why?” Dib asks, “what’s going o-?”

He’s cut off by D-boy screaming as he’s flung over the van and slams onto the roof of the Epic.

“What on Irk was that?” Tak exclaims as a large, black claw slaps down on the roof of the van.

“Like I said,” Eff growls, glaring at it. “Really not a good time.”

“What…on Irk…is that…?” Tak asks again, this time in more shock as they all watch a large four-legged creature climb onto the van. It’s all black, almost like it’s made of pure darkness, except for its sharp fangs which are glistening white. It has no eyes, but they can feel it glaring at them as it snarls.

“That-,” Reverend Meat says as he and Sickness race around the side of the van. “-is a manifestation of Squee’s nightmares. All of his fears and anxieties rolled into one near indestructible physical amalgamation.” “How poetic,” Sickness comments drily.

“I miscalculated,” he sighs, “I should’ve known this would happen. I was so focused on watching out for the monsters on the outside, that I forgot Shmee also protected Squee from the monsters in his own head.”

“Yeah, this is your fault,” D-boy groans painfully as he rolls off the Epic.

“Wait? Did something happen to Shmee?” Pepito asks.

“There’s no time to explain!” Eff snaps, “you wanna help? Get in there and wake Squee up. We’ll keep this thing distracted.”

“Fine,” Zim grunts, “but not because you told us to. We’ll do it because we wanna see Squee.” “Fine, whatever,” he groans, rolling his eyes.

The Battalion start to race around to the other side of the van, where the main entrance is, but are cut off by the creature slamming its claw down in front of them. They all yelp as they jump backwards and look up at its eyeless glare.

“It doesn’t want us getting to Squee,” Pepito says.

The creature snarls at them when a knife flies at it, pinging harmlessly against its head but grabbing its attention. It turns and hisses at Eff as Reverend Meat leaps up and uppercuts its jaw, knocking it off the van and onto its back.

“Go, go, go!” Zim orders and the kids race around to the van’s door. The monster sees them going and roars angrily before reaching for them, but Sickness jumps in and smashes its arm into the ground.

The Battalion successfully tumble into the van, slamming the door shut behind them. They look over to see Squee, curled up on the seat, whimpering, sweating, and panting.

“This is just like when Devi kept sleepwalking cause she was dreaming of that monster chasing her,” Pepito points out, “all we gotta do is wake Squee up and his monster will disappear.”

They all flinch when they hear Sickness cry out in pain outside.

“K, well, we better do it fast,” Dib adds and they hurry over to Squee’s side. “Squee,” he says gently, “Squee, you gotta wake up.”

“That’s not gonna wake him,” Gaz snaps. She shoves Dib out of the way, grabs Squee’s shoulders, and shouts into his face, “Squee! Wake up!”

No response.

“You’re going about this all wrong,” Pepito states, “obviously this is a princess situation and he’ll only awake to a kiss from his prince charming- me.”

He kneels down and presses his lips to Squee’s. The others watch for a couple seconds before Pepito lifts his head, to find Squee still asleep.

“Okay, that didn’t work,” he remarks, wiping his mouth while the others groan. “Also, he is real sweaty.”

They all jump as they feel something slam against the side of the van and hear the Doughboys cry out.

“I don’t think the fight is going well,” Dib comments.

“How is he sleeping so hard?” Gaz snaps, “he was never a heavy sleeper.”

Pepito looks at Zim and Tak. “Don’t you two have any ideas?”

“Don’t look at us,” Tak shrugs, “Irkens don’t require sleep.”

“Yeah, I’ve only started doing it out of recreation,” Zim adds.

“Lotta help you two are,” Pepito grumbles.

“Wait! I got it!” Dib exclaims and reaches into his pocket. “The one thing that can wake any sleeping teenager!”

He removes his phone and taps the screen a couple times before holding it up to Squee’s ear.

“What are you-?” Zim starts to question when an alarm starts ringing.

“Oohhhhh,” they all exclaim in realization.

Immediately, Squee’s eyes snap opening and he gasps for breathe.

“Squee!” Pepito shouts happily as he sits up, gasping and coughing.

“Guys?” he questions, wiping his mouth. “What-what happened?”

“You created some kind of nightmare creature in your sleep,” Dib replies, “the Night Terrors were just fighting it but everything should be fine now that you’re awake.”

He opens the door just as Reverend Meat is thrown into the ground. The monster hisses and smacks away the Doughboys before trapping Sickness beneath its large claw.

“Uh it’s still here,” Zim states.

“We can all see that,” Pepito replies scornfully.

“I don’t understand!” Dib exclaims, “Squee’s awake! Why is it still here? When Devi woke up, her monster disappeared.”

“Squee’s power of imagination is ten times more powerful than Devi’s,” Reverend Meat points out as he stands up. “It’s gonna take more than just Squee waking up this time.”

“Then what-?” Dib starts to question but stops when Squee slips past him. They all watch as he steps outside and in front of the monster. It sees him and immediately loses interest in the Night Terrors. Snarling, it leans down to Squee, its fangs mere inches from his faces. He just stares at it with tired eyes.

“That’s enough,” he says and rests his hand against the monster’s fangs. It instantly disappears.

The Battalion and the Night Terrors stare at him in shock.

“Huh. Well, that was easy,” Zim comments.

“Oh, yeah, so easy,” Sickness says sarcastically as she picks herself up off the ground.

Squee suddenly falls to his knees and everyone gasps and rushes to his side. “Squee!”

“Squee? You alright?” Pepito asks. He doesn’t reply; just hangs his head, breathing heavily.

“I…” he croaks, his voice just a whisper. “I wanna go home.” A little while later, Johnny is lying on his couch with Nugget curled up on his chest. He strokes her fur as he stares at the ceiling.

Cammie rolls up next to him and shakes her head. “Quit your moping. Like you said, Squee will come home when he’s ready.” Nny glares at her. “Just because I understand Squee’s actions doesn’t mean I can so easily handle them.” She sighs, “I suppose not. I admit, I’m worried about him too.”

They both shoot up as the door opens and Squee walks in, the Night Terrors behind him.

“Squee!” Nny exclaims as he stands up. “You’re back. Are you-?”

Squee looks up at him with exhausted, heavy eyes and Nny doesn’t finish his question. Instead, he simply pulls Squee into a tight hug. Squee presses his face into Nny’s chest and grips his shirt.

Johnny doesn’t say anything as he rubs Squee’s head. There’s nothing he can say. All he can do right now is hold him.

#invader zim #invader zim fanfiction #johnny the homicidal maniac #johnny the homicidal maniac fanfiction #iz jthm crossover #myocs #myart

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thebibliomancer · 4 years ago

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Shadows of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 22

Shadows of the Dark Crystal by J.M. Lee because OHGOSH the Skeksis are evil?!

Last times on book: Naia’s quest to prove brother Gurjin’s innocence has brought her to the Castle of the Crystal despite numerous warnings by Tavra and misgivings from Kylan. In the castle she sees the Skeksis acting defensive and evasive and the castle staff oddly zombie-esque. Oh, also they confess that they’re super evil and capture Tavra. Yeah.

Chapter 24

Naia finds Gurjin. Things get complicated.

Naia starts heading upward into the castle because the Crystal showed her that Gurjin was being kept in one of the towers.

With the help of Neech, the shoulder eel, Naia finds the right tower.

Iron cages holding Gelfling lined every wall within the cell. Most captives huddled in the cramped space with their arms wrapped about their knees, while others leaned against the rusty bars. Some were alive -- she heard shallow, labored breathing and quiet little whimpers. Some lay so still they were certainly unconscious, if not gone altogether.

Geez.

None moved but a twitch when she entered, and she thought perhaps they were sleeping, but when the faint light from the hallway touched the face of one prisoner nearby, she saw his eyes were milky and vacant, like the Podling slaves... like the Nebrie.

Geez!

I think in comparison, exploding when drained might actually be the better outcome??

Naia finds Gurjin locked in a wooden crate looking... bad.

The croaking voice was almost lost in its fragility, but the timbre in it brought tears to Naia’s eyes. Crouched in a wood crate in the far corner, nearly hidden by shadows, was a haggard Gelfling with gray-tinged Drenchen skin and thick locs pulled into a bun at the back of his head. So much of his natural bulk was gone, leaving him thin and bony like a child. He twisted, holding on to the thick wood and pressing his face between the slats to get a better look at her. His voice was muffled and weak, but it was definitely Gurjin.

“Naia? Is that really you?”

“Gurjin,” she breathed. “You’re all right. You’re all right!”

“All right?” he repeated with a little cough. “I’ve been tossed in a bin like a noggie husk.”

Heh. I can hear this last line in Gurjin’s voice.

Naia breaks Gurjin out with the Totally Sweet Metal Dagger. But Gurjin has been locked up for days with no food and the Skeksis have been drugging him with moonberry. Which is called a sleep-flower.

Learning about botany today.

Gurjin is so weak that Naia has to bear most of his weight. And she realizes that even if she could get the other cells open, she couldn’t possibly carry them all.

Gurjin shook his head. His voice was so soft, it was hardly recognizable.

“They’re already drained. It’s too late.”

Naia didn’t know what he meant by drained, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. The awful fact was, they didn’t have time. If she wanted to help the silent dull-eyed Gelfling, she would have to save herself first.

“We’ll just have to come back for them,” she said, determined. “We’ll come back.”

Oof, really kicking up the horror of the drained from the movies. We don’t see much of that in Age of Resistance because of the aforementioned exploding.

She’ll also have to come back for Tavra because she can only support exactly one Gurjin. She is but one girl and nobody told her to bring a wheelbarrow.

Then there’s a gust of wind from the tower stairway. Someone is coming up. And Naia smells something that she realizes is Gelfling essence. (Dunno how she knows what that smells like.)

The Skeksis in black that was staring at Naia in the dining hall comes up the stairs. Being a bit... dramatic.

“One and two,” he purred. He jabbed a finger first at Naia and then at her brother. “Two, but one. Two, one... twin. Had the one and been waiting for the second. Now we have her! Oh, have been waiting for this wonderful night!”

“skekMal,” Gurjin whispered. “No...”

“Now, come. Closer. End this now, skekMal will do. Time for special draining of twin Gelfling. Waiting so long! skekTek the Scientist says may make a special essence for Emperor. Ha! Not if skekMal make and take it for himself.”

You’re dropping a lot on me all of a sudden, book!

So the weirdo in the dining hall was the Hunter? He ran ahead into the castle to sit down at dinner and pretend he was there all along?

And also that the Skeksis have apparently been doing the draining thing long enough that they know that twins are special? Or... I don’t know how to interpret this at all.

This is really a different take on the Hunter. He’s more tricksy, camp, and more willing to deal with the other Skeksis’ bullshit.

I guess he mostly just stomps around the Dark Woods and then goes back home for dinner.

Huh.

The Hunter tosses a partially-drained Tavra on the stairway like a broken bag of potatoes.

A couple of things come together in Naia’s brain. The Hunter was waiting for her. The Emperor asking if Naia was the one they were waiting for. Why Tavra seemed insistent on bringing Naia to Ha’rar in the first place.

“You knew?” Naia whispered.

“I knew they wanted you. I didn’t know why. When I found out, I tried to make it right. I tried to stop you, in the wood, but you followed me here anyway. I’m so sorry.”

Despite the distant sense of betrayal, Naia felt the pain in the soldier’s confession, and then the urgency in the three words that followed:

“Warn the others.”

The Hunter yells that no one warns anyone and just grabs Tavra and starts shaking the age of resistance out of her.

He drops the unmoving Tavra on the stairs and comes for Naia. She holds the Sweet Actual Metal Dagger at the ready but the Hunter just laughs.

“Hard to fight while carrying stone,” skekMal cackled.

It was the grim truth: There was no way she could carry Gurjin and fight at the same time. Letting go of the knife would leave her defenseless, but she would not let go of her brother. But perhaps...

Now the Hunter waits behind him...

He knows not what lies below him...

Who said songs never teach you anything?

Naia tosses the dagger out the window behind her. Which confuses the Hunter. But like in Kylan’s story, Naia listens for the splash and then jumps out the window pulling Gurjin after her.

Which makes the Hunter shriek, probably in ‘ffs not again’

She felt a rush of wind and a blossom of pain in her back and shoulders as the updraft hit them. Naia closed her eyes and prayed, bracing herself for the impact of the water, hoping it could cushion their fall enough to save their lives. Expecting freefall, she clung to Gurjin and prepared for the fast drop to the castle moat. Its thick waters were quiet - save for the single wet splash it had offered when Gurjin’s knife had struck from above.

But they weren’t falling. Instead, their descent was light and airy, like a plumed seedpod drifting on the wind. Looking over her shoulder, Naia saw skekMal hunched in the window of the castle, screeching madly after them, and then she saw them -- felt them.

Black and iridescent, reflecting the light of the storm in vibrant blues and fuchsias, Naia’s wings held them afloat, high above the wood and away from the terrors within the Castle of the Crystal.

“Naia,” Gurjin said. “They’re beautiful...”

Wow!

I knew that all of Naia’s wing-longings were leading up to something and I still was surprised at this moment!

Wings know how to make an entrance!

Its like ‘oh we’re falling to our deaths? Time for wing-puberty!’

But if it had to be either something like this or Naia realizing at the end that wings would happen eventually... well, this was nice.

Of course, she’s not going to be flying on wings that just popped out but she just barely manages to fall with style enough to ensure they land in the moat.

Stunned after falling in the water, someone helps Naia and Gurjin out of the moat.

Naia turned to the one who had pulled her from the water -- had whistled the signal from below -- throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

“You shouldn’t have,” she whispered. “It’s dangerous -- they’re coming. The Skeksis --”

Kylan the Song Teller of Sami Thicket nodded, rising and helping her to her feet.

“Then we’d better move, hadn’t we?”

Awwwww! Best boy and best friend Kylan to the rescue! He just fell himself right back into the synopsis!

Naia tells Kylan that the Skeksis betrayed the Gelfling and that they have to tell the All-Maudra. Kylan tells her they need to make it to the Landstrider he left by the river.

Also, they apologize to each other for the fight. Aww, best friends.

But there’s a crash in the woods and they know that the Hunter is coming for them.

Gurjin pulls Naia into a hollow tree stump and Kylan follows. Gurjin tells Naia that he’s too weak and he can’t run. And unless skekMal is stopped, he will find and kill them. Because he’s too relentless and knows the woods too well.

“What... what are you saying?” she asked, though she knew the answer.

“We don’t have time. Dreamfast with me, now!”

Naia numbly took her brother’s hands when he reached out to her, and then all at once, every memory that lived within his mind crashed upon her.

Downloading his brain into her brain, huh?

Hey.

Uh.

I understand that this is a different continuity than the show so I’m kinda worried that Gurjin is going to die. It better not happen. Gurjin is rad. Naia has had such a hard journey with so many complicated emotions about her brother.

I’m just saying.

Don’t.

Do not.

#dark crystal #the Dark Crystal #Shadows of the Dark Crystal #liveblog #Naia #Gurjin #Tavra #Kylan #SkekMal #the Hunter #don't look at the tags if you don't like spoilers #dunno what to do about that #not tag?#impossible

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valdez-and-the-argo-crew · 5 years ago

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God!Percy fic Ch. 6

Previous chapter https://valdez-and-the-argo-crew.tumblr.com/post/617957596801974272/godpercy-fic-ch-5

This wasn’t death, which is good. But I’m not fully alive. Or maybe I am I don’t know. Godly life is complicated.

The point is, I sat up and I could tell I was in a dream.

“Ah, there he is.” A familiar voice said. “Welcome to the land of the living. Well— kinda. Because...y’know. I’m not alive.”

I tried to focus on the voice, but my vision was still blurry.

“Who...” my words sounded far away, like they weren’t my own.

Once my head cleared I could see who was standing in front of me. Sandy blonde hair, a near perfect tan, blue eyes that would’ve been picture perfect, had it not been for the unmistakable scar running down the side of his face.

“...Luke.”

“Hey Percy. Long time no see?” He laughed a bit as he reached out a hand. He helped me off the ground and gave me time to get my balance back.

“What are you...why am I talking to you?” I asked.

“That’s a difficult question. See...you’re currently toeing the fine line between life and death. And I guess I get the lucky chance of talking to you. But this isn’t really me and deep down you know that.” He said. I looked at him, probably closer than I ever have, and I could really see just who he was.

“How can I be dying, I’m a god. I’m supposed to be immortal.” I said, to which Luke chuckled.

“Curses work differently. Kind of ironic that you drowned, all things considering, but that’s how it is.” He said. “Oh and congratulations on godhood. You’ve really come far since you were that scrawny 6th grader I trained.”

I gasped jokingly. “I was not scrawny!”

“Could’ve fooled me.” Like teased.

For that moment, everything felt okay. We were just two friends joking around. Nothing mattered except for this, no gods, no titans, no past memories...

“Luke...when Kronos offered you power... why did you take it?”

His expression grew dark. For a moment my heart was seized by fear. He looked so much like he did when he was possessed, all he was missing was the golden eyes.

“I did it...” he paused, and I was taken aback by how cold his voice sounded, nothing like the boy I had just been talking to.

“I did it because the gods are unfair. They take and they take, but never once do they give. I mean sure they do things like...like make you a god, but you earned that and they had to respect that. Never once do the gods do something other than for themselves.”

And for the first time, I could really see what he was talking about. I thought about my life so far. My dad wasn’t there for me, leaving me with Gabe and my mom. Just as he comes forward and claims me, I was shipped off on a quest for him. I was the one who stopped the war over the lightning bolt, not any of the gods. I was the one who stopped the titan army. I was the one who collapsed the labyrinth, and I was the one who organized the protection of New York in the war. None of the gods helped me then.

“I never really wanted to play for the bad side. Really. I just wanted justice for all the young kids who grew up disadvantaged because the gods thought themselves too high and mighty to contact them.” He said, looking down.

I let those words play over in my head. And...Luke was right, the gods only really take, they never give.

Our eyes met, and a moment of understanding passed between us. Some unspoken connection, an agreement that we believe the gods can do better.

“I can...do something about it. I’ll wake up and...and I’ll confront the gods once this quest is over.” I said. “I’m going to change the tide for demigods.”

Luke looked at me. I wish I could tell what was going on inside his head.

“I have to go. But just think on that okay? And be better than the other gods. You can have more to have, so long as you have more to give. So choose to wake up and fight.”

I nodded, still lost in my thoughts.

“And Percy?”

I looked at him, and once again, his blue eyes seemed to dance gently, a caring expression crossing his face.

“Tell Annabeth I miss her.”

With that Luke faded, and I was alone. My gut started to hurt, and a dull pain spread throughout my body. I found it difficult to breathe again, and my surrounding started to melt away.

“Percy? Percy wake up!” Someone said. Oh right...I’m dying.

But I can change that. I choose to change that.

I gather as much energy I can, and I dispel the water from my lungs. I lurch forward, coughing and heaving as I can once again breathe in sweet sweet oxygen.

But not for long, as I’m tackled in a hug by Jamie.

“Percy I was so scared I thought...you were dead...and I...” Jamie was saying through sobs. I pulled away to look at him.

“I’m okay buddy I promise. I’m not dying any time soon.” I assured him. I looked over at Nico.

“Are you good? What happened to the other spirit?” I asked.

“Jamie killed it. Excellent swordsmanship, I have to say. Seems like someone taught him well.” Nico smiled a bit.

Jamie once again cut off my air supply as he hugged me tight again.

“What happens now?” I ask, looking around.

“Well I suppose I have to go make sure the spirits got back to Tartarus okay. You two should probably just head back to camp.” Nico looked at Jamie. “It was nice meeting you, kid.”

“Wait you’re leaving? Why aren’t you coming back to Camp Half-Blood?” Jamie asked, a small pout pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“I’m...not really one to stay in one place. Camp isn’t really my home. But...I’ll be sure to stop by.” Nico explained, kneeling down to see eye to eye with Jamie.

“Promise you’ll come visit soon?” Jamie asked him.

“Oh looks like someone’s got a favorite cousin,” I laughed. “C’mon kid, Nico needs to take care of the Arai. We’ll see him again soon I’m sure of it.”

Jamie smiled at Nico and waved a bit.

With that...the quest was over. We went our separate ways, Nico to the underworld and us...back to camp.

Maybe it’s just me but...that felt all too short to be a quest. And the prophecy felt incomplete. We beat the spirits, gave them to Nico, who was definitely the ‘cold hands of death’ guy. When he was shaking me awake, his hands were so cold I could swear they gave me frostbite.

But there was nothing about Olympus falling? I mean other than that weird dream conversation I had with Luke, nothing too godly was involved.

“Do we have to take another long train ride back to camp?” Jamie asked as we walked back towards the train station.

“Yea— well...actually no. No we don’t have to.” I said. “Because I’m a god. Watch this.” I simply waved my hand and my Godly Magic That Obeys My Every Command transported us to New York, right outside of camps boundaries, next to the tree that had once been my friend Thalia.

Luke’s words echoed in my head. “the gods are unfair. They take and they take, but never once do they give”. Zeus could’ve saved his daughter. But it was easier to let her die than to fight for her.

“Jamie why don’t you head to the cabin, I’m going to go talk to Chiron.” I said. Jamie nodded and took off across camp. I watched him run until he was out of sight, and then I turned to go towards the Big House.

But I didn’t go there. I walked right past it and went to the beach. I needed to think things through.

Before I knew it, the sun was melting past the horizon as Artemis pulled the moon across the sky.

I was still sitting on the beach when I felt someone sit next to me. Without looking up I knew who it was, because she could always tell when something was wrong.

“What happened?” Annabeth asked.

“Almost died.” I said, mindlessly doodling in the sand. “By drowning, nonetheless.”

“Jamie explained that. Poor kid was terrified of loosing you. Nico was there too?” She asked, and I nodded.

“He was the one to return the spirits to the underworld. Which you’d think would be the last bit of the prophecy, right? But...” I shrugged and looked at her for the first time since getting back. “Somethings missing.”

Annabeth gave me a gentle smile and brushed some loose hair out of my face. “I can’t tell you what the prophecy means. But I can tell you that you’ll know what’s supposed to happen and when it’s suppose to happen.”

She gently brushed my cheek, and then tucked some more of my loose hair behind my ear.

“Luke said hello...” I said, completely ruining the moment. Nice going Percy.

She withdrew her hand and looked at me. “Luke? You...talked to him? How?”

“It wasn’t really him. Not fully, at least. But...as I was kind of dying he came to me, and just...talked to me.” I looked back out at the sunset, though there wasn’t much left to see. The sun was almost fully beyond the horizon.

“What did he talk to you about?” Annabeth asked. I could tell by her voice she was tentative. She didn’t want to pry but she wanted to know every last detail.

I didn’t answer her question. Instead, I asked, “do you think the gods are good?”

“...what?”

I looked at her once again. “Do you think the gods are good?”

“No I heard you but... what do you mean? Of course the gods are good!” She said. “They protect us, and help us, and...why is this even a question?”

“No reason. Just...thinking...” I tossed a small shell I found into the waves that were coming just short of my toes.

Annabeth put her hand on my arm. “Percy, look at me.” I did. “The gods are tricky. We’ve always known this. But they’re the reason we’re alive.”

“I shouldn’t have brought it up.” I said, standing up and brushing the sand off of my pants. “The conch should sound any minute now, you go enjoy dinner, I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Percy wait-“

I did a really cool thing where I kinda just dissolved into water using my Godly Abilities. Once I was completely underwater I became myself and looked around.

A school of fish passed by, followed by a bigger fish. There’s always a bigger fish I guess.

I descended deeper into the water, letting my thoughts drift away with the currents. I thought of Annabeth, and then of Camp. Chiron would be displeased if I brought up the questions of the gods’ morals. I thought of my dad, and then of my mom. I hadn’t seen her and Paul in a while, and I knew she missed me, but every time I go there, I know she is only reminded of how I chose immortality over her and everyone else I love.

I thought of my first quest, and the sense of belonging that came with it. I fit in, and no matter what, Annabeth and Grover would always be there for me. I thought of how, if I didn’t have my dad, at least I had my friends.

I thought of Jamie, and then Tyson, and then Thalia, and the Hunters. So many people...and they all just blindly follow what the gods say.

Can I change their minds?

Can I show them that we have the right to be ourselves, not pawns to gods?

I looked down at my hands. Without meaning to, I’d changed my appearance to be what I looked like at age 16, the last day I was ever truly mortal.

I knew what I needed to do, and I knew just how to do it.

#pjo stuff #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #rick riordan #pjoverse #trials of apollo #pjo #chb #annabeth chase #percabeth

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nelvana · 5 years ago

Text

In which the tower of time is explored

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which the god of time is met Previous: In which the land between time is explored

“They’re expecting us…?” Alex repeated, his brows creasing at Ceebee’s comment.

“I didn’t do anything to activate this. It had to be someone else, and based on how we’ve gotten this far, it was probably manually activated,” Ceebee explained quietly, “right?”

Giratina, speaking from the rock still being held by Edgar even after all this time, let out a hum of confirmation, but did not divulge into the subject further.

Alex sighed, “I suppose that I shouldn’t be too surprised. Even if our arrival didn’t come in some sort of time vision, Dialga must know by now that if anyone was going to step up to handle this, it would be us.”

Dusknoir sat up, “they may have been expecting my… return here, as well,” he added.

Frowning, Alex turned away, staring out into the now clouded horizon. His gaze followed some of the floating islands as they slowly moved like on a fixed axis around the Temporal Tower. The Rainbow Stoneship continued its journey at a steady pace, navigating around any stones in its path as if it had always been a natural part of its path.

Dusknoir slouched slightly as the conversation died at his words, idly tracing the markings on their cruise. A few eyes continued to watch each other, but soon everyone had glanced off to either watch their surroundings or their ride.

Carefully padding towards the edge of the Rainbow Stoneship, Nelvana crouched at the back of the platform, studying the rainbow trailing behind it with wide eyes. The glow of the colors bothered her eyes slightly, but at the same time she never wished to look away. Hesitantly, she reached a hand down, waggling her fingers through the arc. It didn’t feel like anything, and unlike natural light, it did not bend around her hand, giving the fur no illusion of extra color. Regardless, the act of touching a rainbow at all brought a smile to her face, and she only moved her hand back to sit on her lap due to her concern for safety.

“Now this is really cool,” Damien gasped.

Nelvana glanced up at the gengar, only mildly surprised by how silently he had wandered up beside her. He leaned down to poke the rainbow as well, but leaned back much sooner than Nelvana had, sitting down and leaning back with his hands palm down behind him for support.

“Well, I can knock ‘touching a rainbow’ off the bucket list,” he joked.

“Touching a rainbow was on your bucket list?” Nelvana chuckled, smirking back at him.

“Not really, unless you ask, like, maybe eight-year-old me,” Damien responded, “I’m more surprised that you know what a bucket list is,” he commented.

“Oh, yeah, bucket lists were kinda common, for humans at least,” Nelvana replied, wrapping her arms around her knees to pull them up to her chest and rest her chin onto. “I can’t remember if I ever had one. I guess the knowledge that I would either succeed my one goal and disappear, or die trying, kind of discourages the idea.”

“Or encourages it,” Damien pointed out, though the casualness at how Nelvana spoke of such a dark fact got him the frown momentarily. “I never really had one either. Maybe we should all work on one when we get back. It’ll keep us occupied, at least.”

Nelvana snorted, “add it to the ‘we’ll do it when we get back list’.”

Shuffling up in between the pair, Keahi ruffled up zir feathers and leaned up against zir partner, smiling and looking out at the rainbow trail behind them as well.

“I can see why Alex was pretty excited for this. This looks amazing!” Keahi commented.

“It really does,” Nelvana agreed, and then paused. “Has he or Ceebee come back over to get a look at this?”

“Dunno about Ceebee, but Alex is still busy brooding over there.” Damien leaned his head back to peer at the grovyle sitting on the other end of the platform. “Here, you two can keep sitting here together, I’ll go check up on those two. Maybe see how Edgar’s holding up afterwards… seemed a bit shaken up by some of those monster houses.”

“Oh yeah, I asked Edgar about that, but he said he was fine… maybe you’ll get some better comfort out of him, he’s always been pretty close to you,” Keahi responded, “thanks Damien!”

Nodding a farewell to the pair, Damien stood up and walked off towards Alex. Both Nelvana and Keahi watched him head over to the grovyle, but then turned back to watch the colorful trail being left behind their ride. Keahi snuggled closer to zir partner, who shifted her position so she could wrap an arm around the torchic.

“Is it just like you thought it’d be?” Keahi asked, turning to look up at Nelvana. “Just the Rainbow Stoneship and all, I mean,” zie added, before sighing. “Wow, it’s been a long day. Can’t see where the sun is from here though, wonder what time it is.”

“This area must be locked into daytime. I have no idea what time it really is anymore,” Nelvana responded, “but… yeah, kinda how I imagined it. Kind of different. I guess the people here and the circumstances really make the difference though. I don’t think the Rainbow Stoneship itself has really changed.”

Keahi let out a hum, “that’s true,” zie agreed, closing zir eyes as zie leaned zir head to fit in the crook of Nelvana’s neck.

“Am I interrupting something?” Alex joked, going to sit beside the two without waiting for an answer.

Keahi flinched in surprise, lifting back up zir head, but not making an effort to move away from Nelvana otherwise. Nelvana blinked over at the grovyle, before chuckling and shaking her head, not moving much either.

“Nah, we were just talking about the Rainbow Stoneship here,” Nelvana told him.

“Hm, yeah… quite the view, huh?” Alex replied, “Damien insisted that I should come back here to look at the rainbow, and he was definitely right that moving back over here would be worth it. I had only been waiting to see if anyone else would rather get situated here first; I’ve already seen this,” he explained.

“Yeah, I mean, may be yo- our second time, but who knows when we’ll get the chance to look at this again?” Nelvana responded.

“At least this ride is pretty long, so we can take it all in,” Keahi added, “makes for a nice break too. I was just saying to Nel, that it must be getting pretty late now.”

Alex turned back to glance over at Temporal Tower, steadily growing closer, “I was hoping we could make it through the tower before resting; we don’t really want to hang around at the base of that thing.”

“Do you think it will be any better at the top?” Nelvana asked.

“Had better be. A good night’s rest is the least we deserve once we get all the way up to Dialga,” Alex sighed.

The trip lasted at least ten minutes, the Rainbow Stoneship not being the fastest method of travel, but finally they had arrived at the base of Temporal Tower. They stopped by another rocky island, the cliff of such a platform rough and jagged. Though this base seemed small, the structure built on it stood tall into the swirling clouds above them all. The outside walls were deep blue, with a lighter metal forming patterns around the tower, likely adding extra support to such a massive building. Their only entrance to Temporal Tower were huge, double doors right ahead of where they landed.

Silent from the awe of such a building, the group one by one carefully stepped off the Rainbow Stoneship, which depowered once they had all gotten off, remaining in place beside the rocks in case of their return.

“Woah… so this is Temporal Tower,” Keahi murmured, “this feels… different than looking up Sky Tower, in a way. I can’t quite explain it.”

“This is an actual dungeon?” Edgar suggested.

Keahi laughed, “maybe.”

“That, and this certainly has… a much more powerful aura to it,” Tsuki added, “Sky Tower may have been Rayquaza’s home, but Temporal Tower is an extension of Dialga’s power. You can feel it.”

“Yeah… that’s probably it,” Keahi murmured.

Sizing up the next step in their quest, the group fell into another comfortable silence. Keahi turned away from studying the tower though to look over zir teammates, and extra allies. Despite the turmoils of the day, no one appeared tired enough to have to call it quits yet. Zie couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief; zie didn’t want anyone getting too exhausted to complete this next dungeon mid-war, including zirself.

“Same number of floors, same safe floor spot, and same dangers as Hidden Land,” Alex stated, crossing his arms as he stared up the tower. “Big difference is that here, the main type is psychic, with some steel, poison, and ghost pokemon lingering here and there as well.”

“Mainly psychic pokemon? Good thing we have three ghost-types here!” Keahi commented.

“With two of us as mainly support,” Damien pointed out.

“You were doing really well with your thunderbolt attack! You can give yourself a bit more credit,” Keahi insisted.

“Still… we should be back to the usual dungeon pace. Plenty of different pokemon, not all fully evolved,” Alex continued, “doesn’t mean that this will be easy though.”

“Will this all be similar as to when you were last here, though?” Tsuki questioned, “Temporal Tower was broken when you had travelled through here; now it is fully functioning.”

“Giratina? Do you know?” Edgar asked, shaking the rock slightly in his grasp.

“What Temporal Tower is like typically… unfortunately, my experience out here specifically is not much. What Alex has been saying so far has been correct, and stays… fairly the same between the two timelines. You may find less variation of pokemon here, as less have attempted to enter but got trapped in this timeline than the other, but that should be the largest change,” Giratina responded, “if anything is this world manages to stay strong throughout destruction… it’s mystery dungeons.”

“How mysterious,” Damien joked.

Alex sighed, shaking his head, “well, no sense in dilly-dallying; we’re almost to Dialga now.”

Small nods of agreement. Taking a couple steps towards Temporal Tower automatically summoned the doors to open wide in front of them. Despite any mild surprise, they were forced to simply chalk it up to Dialga expecting them, like Ceebee had said before. Now without any troubles due to habitude from doing this a couple times before, the group formed their line, and entered Temporal Tower.

Perfectly cut stone floors, and metallic walls with a mild blue hue filled their surroundings indoors. This simplistic design to the dungeon gave it something closer to the appearance of an actual, ordinary building than any dungeon before this one, which only served to create an eerie feeling. The way the ceiling constantly stretched out high above them, and how each hallway exiting a room had its own doorway made everything almost as if they were walking through a strange mansion than the ruined and overgrowth mystery dungeons they were all accustomed to.

“Hey… does anyone else hear that?” Damien asked quietly, eyes flitting around their current room.

“Hear what?” Edgar responded.

“That… ticking noise, like a clock,” Damien told him.

Everyone paused momentarily to listen more, though some, already hearing it at the same time Damien did, were already nodding back to him, but respected the current silence and everyone else wishing to listen and didn’t say anything. Faintly was the sound Damien had described; ticking, just like an old hand clock. The ticking, while almost sounding distant, was still clear as if it were in their current room, despite the source clearly not being here, if there was a solid source at all.

They waited for nearly half a minute, listening to the tick, tock, at every second, before someone spoke up.

“That’s weird, I don’t remember that being here when we were here last, but you’re right, there’s definitely a ticking here,” Alex commented, “think it’s because time is flowing?”

Ceebee nodded slowly, “that was going to be my guess. It must help symbolize the time passing in real time. A tick for every second.”

“Oh, yeah, that would make sense…” Damien murmured, “with everything being time based here.”

Continuing onwards, their first dungeon spawn encounter of Temporal Tower was the psychic-type solrock; just as foretold, and something almost all in the group had seen before. Nelvana dealt with it with a couple swift bonemerang attacks, and they continued onwards without terribly much difficulty.

In fact, the more the continued exploring the dungeon, the more they found that many of the spawn here were not only familiar, but easy to defeat. These foes were certainly stronger than any previous of their kind any of the group had found in dungeons, but still shared weaknesses, and that knowledge helped deal with any of their opponents before they had the chance to become much of a problem.

No, it wasn’t the spawn themselves that were the main problem of this dungeon, as they quickly became aware of. The true challenge began when a grovyle leapt from another hallway in front of the group. Nelvana jumped, startled, but her surprise and confusion only grew as she identified the scars of this grovyle as being the same that Alex had. There were fewer than what Alex currently had, but the scar that stretched across his muzzle was unmistakeable.

“Wha…”

The grovyle ignored the group, even as they looked in their direction, the golden eyes seemed to look past all the pokemon crowded by another hallway. Instead, the grovyle turned back towards something or someone. Their mouth opened as if they were speaking, but no sound came out. In response to their silent words, someone else hurried out from the hallway; a human.

“Is that…” Keahi trailed off, tearing zir own gaze from what was happening in front of them to glance up at zir partner.

“That’s me,” Nelvana confirmed, her voice scarcely a gasp.

The… duplicates of Alex and Nelvana paused in the middle of the room momentarily, talking to each other without any sound. Strung over the grovyle’s shoulder was even the same bag he had now, slightly less worn than currently, but inside the satchel a slight blue glow emitted; a time gear.

Just as soon as the pair entered, they left. Hurrying off to the other end of the room as if in a hurry and fading away from sight before they hit the wall.

“They’re illusions,” Nelvana whispered, letting go of the breath she had been holding.

“Illusions…” Keahi murmured, “you didn’t say there were illusions here,” zie said, glancing back to the back of the group.

“I didn’t know there were any either,” Alex replied, voice sounding far away despite having entered the room with everyone else at the tail end of the illusion display.

“Is this… the normal for here, then?” Tsuki asked, cautiously padding towards where the illusions had disappeared, sniffing the floor and finding nothing unusual.

“It is,” Giratina answered, “I apologize, I had not realized before… But yes, these illusions are us seeing pieces of time.”

“Why weren’t there any when any of you went through here?” Damien questioned.

“Time was frozen then. It must not have been able to… display anything from other times,” Ceebee told him, “it must be that when it flows normally, visions of other times leak in.”

“That must explain why the spawn was not up to the same caliber as Hidden Land; the dungeon’s energy is seeping more into these illusions than typical dungeon tricks,” Dusknoir added, gesturing with one hand vaguely as he spoke.

“Why was there no sound from it though?” Edgar asked, “I didn’t hear anything from it, at least, but it looked like… it looked like, uh, they were speaking.”

“Could be for a number of reasons. I have not seen these illusions before, so it could be normal for Temporal Tower to only display the sights and not the sounds from these points in time it chooses to create as illusions,” Giratina responded, “or it could simply be from the fact that that was an illusion from the dead timeline. Illusions specifically from that timeline must be more challenging to grab.”

“I am surprised we saw an illusion from that timeline at all,” Tsuki admitted, padding back over to her vague place in the lineup; the group now closer to a huddle in the room together than a line. “It must still be slightly connected to then; dungeons tend to latch onto more disastrous energies, I’ve found,” she added.

“That must be it then,” Keahi murmured, “are we all okay to keep going, then…?”

Alex shook his head, exhaling, “yeah, yeah… we’re going to have to get used to that soon anyway.”

“Nel?” Keahi stepped up beside zir partner, who was still silently staring towards where the illusion first appeared, as if expecting it to return.

“I… Yeah, let’s get going,” she replied quietly, continuing onwards in more of a daze, almost stumbling over her own feet after the first step, but catching herself and moving forwards as if that had never happened at all.

They ran into another illusion on every floor.

The next illusion they found was another from the dead timeline, and another with Alex and Nelvana. The group almost didn’t see this illusion, and almost didn’t want to. In the corner of a room they barely peeked into at first, was an illusion, showing the pair sitting together, Nelvana wrapping bandages around Alex’s right leg. It was a simple vision, and unlike the other, did seem to loop, and never disappeared, even as Nelvana paused to stare at it for a long time before coming back to her senses and moving on, skipping the room.

On the third and the fourth floor were more illusions from the dead timeline, one with a horde of sableye running through the hallway and startling everyone enough to move aside despite the fact that the army wasn’t actually there, and one with a trio of pokemon, an audino, a mamoswine, and a porygon, that no one in this group recognized personally, but this trio were quickly surrounded by sableye in the illusion, disappearing before the inevitable could be displayed.

It was on the fifth floor that they finally spotted a vision from the past, an incineroar and a salamence, both sporting rescue team badges, cautiously walked together, tired from assumedly having walked for much, much longer than this illusion would show, yet their eyes narrowed with determination and focus. Suddenly, the pair reared up at an unseen enemy, Salamence blasting it with a powerful beam shot out from their mouth, surely defeating whoever their opponent was in a single hit. The illusion disappeared soon after, but not before Incineroar gave Salamence a small pat on the back as a silent compliment.

“That was a rescue team…” Nelvana murmured, “have you heard of them, Keahi? An incineroar and a salamence?” she asked, glancing back at her partner.

Keahi nodded, “yeah… I think that was Team Endeavor!”

“The diamond rank team?” Damien interrupted for clarification.

Again, Keahi nodded, glancing back at the gengar momentarily before going back to facing forwards, staring past Nelvana and out to where the illusion had been.

“That wasn’t all of them though. There are four members. Er, well, at least four from the last time anyone heard from them….” zie continued, “the team has been missing for a long time now… it’s a mystery as to what happened to them, but Drapion keeps them as the diamond rank team anyway, so they must be okay.”

“Perhaps if we see more visions of them from here, we might be able to figure out where they went,” Tsuki suggested.

“Maybe…” Keahi replied, “I kinda hope so; that would be nice, huh? It would be really cool to actually meet them, and it would be great to have some confirmation on what they have been up to.”

“They looked tired,” Nelvana commented quietly, “I hope they made it out of wherever they were, at least out of what we just saw there, alright.”

The next few floors continued similarly, but nothing got easier. To say that other dungeons got easier as they progress as well would be untrue, however, in most dungeons, getting used to the pokemon that showed up and picking out signs of traps or monster houses granted some more ease for exploration. Here with the time illusions… no one could get used to that. How could they? How does one get used to seeing visions of other times, including the timeline of the darkest future, whenever one least expects it?

And unfortunately, simply because this dungeon had an extra trick, didn’t mean that it laid off on other, more typical, dangers. There were times the group would pause to watch one of the illusions, and wind up getting attacked from behind from one of the spawn.

On a couple floors, they ended up finding a monster house in the same room as one of the illusions. In those cases, it could be challenging to discern which pokemon they were seeing were really there or not.

The traps, while few here, still would crop up here and there to throw everyone off. Traps could never be perfectly predicted, dungeons always hid them too well for that, but sometimes the more experienced one could take a moment and pick out spots where not to step. Any chance of those predictions being successful were thrown off as well, with sometimes everyone feeling too caught up in everything else to remember that traps were, in fact, still a problem.

Fortunately, for the most part, the few traps they ended up stepping on were mostly harmless. Nelvana stepped on a slumber trap in a hallway, but the effects were temporary and she woke up again after a couple minutes. The spin trap and the slow traps that Keahi and Damien accidentally stepped on turned out to be ways to lighten the mood more than anything else, with those two making jokes out of their temporary situations while they waited for the effects to wear off. Plus, if they had to, there were still heal seeds packed just in case to handle those sorts of effects from traps.

On the tenth floor though, they ran into a more inconveniencing trap, paired with an illusion.

The illusion itself appeared in a large room, a couple moments after everyone had entered. A portal swirled and glowed from the back wall, and the figures of Alex and Nelvana could be seen in front of it, almost entering, but not quite. Nelvana was slouched over so low that Alex standing beside her appeared taller than her, despite the full group now knowing that as a human she was about twice his height.

He turned back, calling out across the swarm of sableye, out to Ceebee, fluttering weakly not far from the portal as well, arms outstretched in front of her and antennae twitching with the telltale sign that she was focusing her abilities. Alex yelled again, the desperation stretching across his face despite the illusion bringing no sound to his voice. Ceebee glanced back, calling something out to him in return. He screamed at her, evidently not liking whatever she had said, but as another sableye lunged at him and Nelvana, just barely missing, he swallowed his pride and guided Nelvana into the portal with him, it closing behind them, them and a sableye leaping in last second, as a couple in the group watching this all managed to glimpse, and leaving Ceebee behind.

Continuing still as one of the longer lasting illusions, they could see the image of Dusknoir roar in fury. While Ceebee was putting up a good fight against the numerous sableye with her fairy-type move, she was inevitably knocked out by a powerful shadow punch attack, Dusknoir shaking with rage as he pulled off the attack. The illusion faded soon afterwards, with the image of Ceebee slumping to the ground, defeated.

“So that’s…” Keahi was the first to speak afterwards, zir voice quiet and hesitant. “…that’s why Ceebee wasn’t with you guys at first when you traveled back in time.”

Ceebee nodded somberly, “with one of the time gears broken, it was important that I managed the portal. It would have been risky for me to get in there with them in the moment,” she explained, “we were already cutting things close.”

“That makes sense…” Keahi murmured, “but Nel, you looked really hurt there. What happened before what we saw to-“

Keahi was cut off suddenly at the familiar sound of a click somewhere in the room. Everyone managed to look over in time to see Dusknoir, having moved to the side slightly during the illusion to watch better, now had a warp tile below him. And just before anyone could say anything, the trap activated properly, and Dusknoir disappeared.

“Where did he go?” Edgar blurted out in alarm, “if we step there too, will we go to the same place…?”

“No, we won’t. Warp tiles always take you somewhere random in the dungeon; no one should step on that,” Tsuki warned.

Ceebee sighed, “I’ll go looking, I can already sense him from here. You all can keep exploring, we’ll catch up later, just don’t go to the next floor.”

Taking the mobile scarf to make the trip quicker, Ceebee bid small goodbyes to everyone before flying through one of the walls to search for the missing Dusknoir.

Traveling through walls was, of course, still disorienting, but her own practice using this item in Murky Cave helped her stomach feel better about it all. She found though, that akin to the rest of the most building-like structure for this dungeon, that the walls were thinner and always seemed to offer more rooms behind them, unlike many other dungeons which truly felt like tunnels more than anything else. This meant she had more walls to travel through, but each wall took less time to pass through.

Eventually, she located Dusknoir in a small room. He had run into another illusion, and Ceebee found him watching it, frozen in place. She couldn’t see his expression, or much of the illusion itself due to her coming in behind Dusknoir. However, what she could see was the images of two septile laying on the ground in front of him, blood pooling over unseen grass. They were dead. Unable to help herself, Ceebee tried peering around Dusknoir, and met the gaze of his duplicate, a younger version of Dusknoir, with bloody hands and no remorse in his eye.

The illusion faded, and sensing the extra presence in the room now, Dusknoir spun around, eye wide, to face Ceebee. For a few moments, neither of them said a thing. They only stared at each other in silence.

“Come on,” Ceebee finally muttered, “the others are waiting; they might have even found the stairs by now.”

Wordlessly nodding, Dusknoir followed Ceebee out of the room, and continued remaining quiet as they made their way back to the rest of the group. By the time they had returned, the others had managed to find the stairs to the next floor, and after forming their lineup again, they moved on up the steps.

Proceeding past the eleventh floor afterwards finally brought them to the safe floor, where they could rest. Though there was the lingering thought of if illusions could reach them here as well, when nothing happened for the first few minutes, the group slowly began to relax again. For once, this floor became an opportunity for them to discuss what they had previously seen more, rather than focusing on specifically checking on supplies and whatnot.

Nelvana sat against a wall with Keahi beside her, leaning up against the cubone for comfort again, while Alex chatted with the both of them, starting out mostly speaking about the illusions from the dead timeline, but eventually curiosity brought them to talk about Team Endeavor again; fascinated by the mystery surrounding the elite team. Looking for more clarification otherwise, Ceebee talked with the rest of the group, explaining to them about what she knew.

Dusknoir, for the beginning of their break, separated himself from everyone else to lean on the wall across from where Nelvana, Keahi, and Alex were gathered. He said nothing and did not move, at least not until moments after Alex got up to check on the others with Ceebee.

Cautiously, Dusknoir floated over to the pair still sitting against the wall, letting himself drift lower to the ground as to not appear as large, at least slightly. Despite his efforts, Nelvana still stiffened as she realized he was approaching, though she remained frozen in place, allowing him to reach a comfortable conversation distance from the two. Sensing Nelvana’s returning unease, Keahi leaned closer, bumping zir forehead on zir partner’s shoulder for a moment before turning zir head to face Dusknoir again.

“Hello, Dusknoir,” Keahi greeted after a few moments passed where Dusknoir still said nothing despite his closeness. “Did you need something?”

“I had been hoping to speak with Nelvana briefly, if that would be possible,” Dusknoir requested.

Keahi glanced at Nelvana, who, after a pause, hesitantly gave zim a small nod.

“Okay,” Keahi replied, without moving.

Dusknoir waited for a moment, but when he realized that the torchic would not be moving, he simply let out a sigh before continuing with what he wanted to say anyway; he didn’t want to have to force Keahi to leave, it was clear why they were refusing already to do so.

“I wanted to tell you this, since I do not know that the other two will give me a moment to listen, so I do thank you for giving me a moment despite everything,” he began, “in my time here in this timeline with you all, I have come to realize my faults, and that I was wrong in what I did before. I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry,” he told her, “I know that you may not believe me, or that this does not fix what I did to you and your friends, but I do not know when I might get another chance to apologize. Though I regret my actions before when I worked under Dialga, they still brought me back here, and I wish to repay them, so my plans of staying with then after this have not changed. However, if there is something I can do to make anything better for you… please let me know. And if you could, let… let Grovyle and Celebi know that I am sorry too.”

Nelvana stared at Dusknoir, unsure of what to say. This was completely unexpected to her, and if she didn’t trust her ability to read others so well, she would have thought that he was completely lying. Though, knowing that he was telling the truth only made it harder to wrap her head around.

“Okay,” she finally croaked, unsure of what else to say in this moment.

Dusknoir’s gaze softened, “okay. Thank you for listening, despite everything. Again, I’m sorry.”

With that, unwilling to bother Nelvana any longer, Dusknoir turned away and floated back to where he stood before. Nelvana watched him leave, her throat dry and heart still pounding. She didn’t understand.

“You alright?” Keahi asked, sitting up more to properly rest zir own forehead against Nelvana’s.

Merely humming back in response for now, Nelvana leaned back to Keahi’s touch, letting herself breath for a few moments. She let her shaky hands find the comfort of brushing through her partner’s warm feathers, listening vaguely to the background noise of the others still wrapped up in their own conversation.

“Do… Do you believe him?” Keahi asked hesitantly, curiosity already eating away at zim after what had just happened.

“I don’t know,” Nelvana whispered, denial at the truth of the answer twisting her thoughts and leaving her with uncertainty in her words instead.

Keahi didn’t say anything else, not trusting zir own knowledge of the situation to make any sort of assumptions. To zim, Dusknoir sounded sincere, but there was always the option of him being a good liar. Admittedly zie still hadn’t spent enough time around him to pick out which was most likely.

“We should keep going,” Nelvana announced quietly, leaning away from her partner and immediately missing the warm touch.

Without waiting for a proper answer, Nelvana shakily stood up again and moved towards the exit of the safe room. Keahi sighed, but got up to follow after only a moment’s pause. Gathering the attention of everyone else, the group quickly collected themselves and headed out to tackle the next half of the dungeon.

Though by now they considered skipping by any illusions that they came across, the possibility of valuable information was far too important to pass up, despite the extra time it took to watch the images came appeared in various rooms, despite how emotionally draining it could be to view something from one’s own past so openly displayed.

This was, at least, fortunately the only major delays they would have throughout the dungeon. The latter half of Temporal Tower introduced more pokemon for them to battle against, but there were only a couple new encounters of which none of them had seen in any dungeons before, but even those ones were the evolved forms of pokemon that they had just seen in the earlier half of this dungeon, and often the same sorts of battle strategies could be used on them as had been used before. Their largest difficulty with the spawn came with the salamence that would appear, which were mistaken from the illusions of Salamence of Team Endeavor a couple times, catching them off guard.

After a few hours after entering the dungeon, surely getting late into the night in the outside world, they stepped up to the final floor. Alex announcing this achievement was met with tired cheers, all thankful to finally be so close to their goal after all this time. They quieted down after this for a few moments, until Damien spoke up again.

“You know… and I’d hate to jinx myself here, especially so close to finishing… but we haven’t seen any illusions from my past,” Damien commented.

“That is an interesting point, actually,” Tsuki replied, licking her whiskers idly. “The illusions we have been seeing do not seem to range that far into the past, or into the future aside from the dead timeline; at least from what we can assume.”

“Does the Temporal Tower have a range of time that it can create illusions from?” Edgar asked.

“I am not certain about that, but it would make sense,” Giratina answered, “this is a dungeon, but it is distantly affected by Dialga themself. It is possible that they may force the dungeon to create… more relevant illusions.”

“I would have been interested in seeing some illusions from that far in the past though,” Nelvana admitted quietly, “your time sounds incredibly fascinating from what you’ve told us, Damien.”

Damien shrugged his shoulders, glancing over at the walls, “nah, nothing really that special… a couple big events happened that I can recall, but honestly nothing as exciting as these mystery dungeons and stuff.”

“I’m sure there would be something interesting to see!” Ceebee chimed in, “you lived centuries before any of us! Well, except for Giratina, that is.”

Giratina chuckled, “Damien is not giving his own time enough credit. The humans then did some incredibly interesting things. You’d get some group of them attempting to summon one of the legendaries every decade or so.”

“Really?” Alex responded, “and you call that not interesting, Damien,” he teased.

“We’re literally about to talk to a legendary right now! We’re currently talking with a legendary and a mythical!” Damien pointed out.

“How do you summon a legendary though? Aren’t there just places to find them?” Keahi asked, “we’ve walked to most legendaries we’ve talked to, and there weren’t even mystery dungeons back then.”

“That’s exactly it though. The legendaries would often have to hide themselves in more… creative locations without mystery dungeons being available to guard themselves. Those that could hide in pocket dimensions often would, and many others would sleep deep underground,” Giratina explained.

“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” Keahi murmured, “you know, we haven’t seen many humans from these illusions either. How many humans were in the dead timeline?”

Alex clicked his tongue, “not nearly as many humans as pokemon, but their numbers were steadily growing over the years. Because they needed good weapons to handle themselves in battle though, it wasn’t often you’d see them exiting the safety of their communities. That’s probably why we haven’t seen many illusions of them. The illusions we’ve seen from the dead timeline that haven’t been of us have been of other traveling pokemon; the humans couldn’t afford to travel as much as pokemon, and pokemon travellers were even few and far in between.”

Keahi nodded, though any previous response was interrupted as zie peered into the next room they were entering, “oh hey, the stairs! Good job, Nel!”

“Finally,” Damien groaned, “my feet are killing me, and if I see one more damn il-“

The image of an enormous pokemon appeared in front of the stairs. The tall quadruped stood on pointed, golden hooves, and it was coated in a smooth white pelt with a grey underside. A golden cross-like wheel was attached to its body with green jewels on each point that matched their eyes. Their long neck was covered in a flowing mane, which reached up to their head and flowed out back from it, appearing similarly to their long tail.

Though no one in the group had seen this pokemon in person before, a few pieced together their appearance to one of the images they had seen carved into the walls of the Old Ruins to go along with the story of creation.

This was Arceus.

The god of all gods gazed across the group, almost as if they were more than just an illusion. And for a moment, everyone was caught up in the silent and peaceful awe at being able to look back at such a powerful being that even some legendaries would not have seen in centuries.

Suddenly, something struck Arceus in the side. They roared in pain, and even though there was no sound to the illusion like all the illusions were silent, the feeling of what the sound would have been seemed to strike right into one’s heart. Arceus, like a tall and powerful tower, slowly toppled over, and unlike all other illusions, they did not merely fade away as the vision ended. Instead their image seemed to peel away and disintegrate, the individual pieces finally disappearing into the air.

The horror at what had been witnessed gripped the group into silence.

Tsuki moved first, as her eyes lidded shut and she collapsed to the floor, unconscious. Not before brushing against Damien during her fall though; who screamed at the sudden touch, jumping up in shock before immediately slapping his hands over his mouth as his voice echoed in the room.

Fortunately for Damien’s dignity at least, attention was drawn to their fainted friend before anyone could be bothered to focus on his shriek. And fortunately for everyone’s worries, Tsuki woke up and began shakily rising back to her feet just as quickly as she had fallen.

“Are you okay?” Keahi was the first to ask, though the question was surely on most minds, and zie shuffled around Damien to stand in front of the absol as she pulled herself up into a crouch.

“I…” Tsuki breathed heavily, her eyes still not focusing properly. “I don’t know,” she admitted quietly, “what was that? What could have harmed Arceus like that?” she questioned instead, staring blankly out towards where the illusion once was.

“What did you see?” Giratina asked worriedly, unable to have been able to see the illusion.

“Arceus. They were hurt by… something, and it looked bad; only one hit too and it almost looked to defeat them on its own,” Ceebee told them, “do you know what could have damaged them so much?”

Giratina paused, “I… I’m not sure. A legendary or mythical at least. Mortals can fight us legendaries and even win, as you’ve proven, but to beat Arceus in one hit… I’m not sure if I would have ever been capable of doing something like that even.”

All questioning faded out for another moment as everyone considered this answer. Even Giratina sounded nervous as they responded to Ceebee; the idea of something that posed such a threat scaring even a legendary that existed on another dimension didn’t inspire any confidence in anyone either.

“I think… for now at least, the more important question is… did this happen in the past or the future?” Alex pointed out.

His question brought heads that previously looked either towards Tsuki or the rock that Giratina spoke from now turned to the grovyle.

“That’s a good point… Is this a threat that’s already here, or can we prevent it from happening…” Nelvana murmured.

Dusknoir’s gaze hardened, “we need to speak with Dialga. Now.”

Never had anyone in this group found had themselves agreeing with Dusknoir more than they had now.

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which the god of time is met Previous: In which the land between time is explored

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romantasyrabbittrail · 5 years ago

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Long, Barely Coherent Thoughts about The Rise of Skywalker

Since some of you wanted to hear my thoughts about “The Rise of Skywalker”, I’ve taken some time to write them up and provide context for why I responded the way I did.

A small preamble: I didn’t hate it. Hate is a strong word. And there were moments that I liked. Some that I even loved. However, the aggregate feeling for the movie overall was disappointment. For certain elements, it went beyond that into something genuinely painful and I don’t think that will make sense unless I also go into why I loved the previous two installments of this trilogy.

Also, if you loved this movie, I’m very happy for you. This is about my personal response to a piece of media and I make no judgements on those who enjoyed what you saw. I wish I could join you.

Finally, I will be talking about some sensitive subjects, including child loss and abuse. Please be aware of that before reading further.

Okay, so what was my overall impression of The Rise of Skywalker?

Soulless. Cowardly. Incoherent. Badly paced.

I spent large portions of the movie unable to get into the action because the pacing was so breakneck. There was no time to breathe. Consequently, there was never enough time to recover from one rush before another started. If everything is exciting, nothing is.

I think that this was a deliberate choice to cover up the lack of sense behind the exposition. Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron looks dead inside as he temporarily takes up the mantle of Basil Exposition to explain that somehow or other, Emperor Palpatine has returned and there’s a hard time limit on destroying his fleet.

This is a fine example of a running problem throughout the movie. Whereas both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi used visual storytelling to move the story forward, things in TROS were explained through dialogue time and again. And the dialogue was incredibly clunky.

But back to the story. We are given a paper thin explanation of the Emperor’s return, and immediately are thrown into a fetch quest to find the Big Bad. I’m sure it will make an exciting video game adaptation.

The thing though is that the fetch quest makes no sense. One of the wayfinders is found in the first two minutes of the movie. Yes, it’s in the hands of the bad guys. But does the audience not remember that our heroine is bound to the villain? Why couldn’t she try to use that bond to get at the directions? Why does the Resistance not try to use that bond? Has she hidden from them her connection to Kylo Ren? Either she’s built up a wall of mistrust between her found family and herself by keeping the bond a secret, or she’s revealed all and no one thinks to try to use that bond to their advantage. It’s just conveniently overlooked.

Oh, a sidenote. Wayfinder. Why? There is an in-universe word for such objects already. It’s a holocron. Why not use holocron? We throw Star Wars-isms at the audience all the time. It would be an Easter Egg to the diehards while not bothering the general audience one iota.

Back to our fetch quest. We head to the desert planet of Pasaana. There’s a festival going on. A festival about family. Rey looks longingly at children and infants. A child gives her a fertility necklace. And then suddenly she’s connected by her bondmate through the force.

Now it’s no secret that the Rey and Kylo dynamic is one of the reasons I loved the first two movies in the trilogy. The actors have great chemistry. More importantly, the characters have interesting conflict. And yet that conflict seems off in this movie. TLJ left them complicated enemies. But they feel out of character. I don’t understand what each is trying to get out of their encounters. I have to do massive amounts of work to understand their actions and the dialogue doesn’t help. Because it doesn’t ring true.

Setting such details aside, Kylo rips off the necklace in a moment worthy of the Phantom of the Opera and for once it’s an action that makes sense, having both the subtext of obsessive love and jealousy, and the text of offering a clue for analysis to Rey’s location. Bravo. The writers did something right.

Meanwhile, we get a clunky reintroduction of Lando Calrissian. Has he been stuck on this desert for over 7 years? Longer? We just don’t know and he doesn’t tell us. Our heroes hitch a ride and then we get a fun speeder chase.

Okay, a couple more questions. There’s some good stuff here. The omnipresence of the First Order helps convey how thorough their control is. But why doesn’t Rey hotwire the speeder? It was established two movies ago that she’s a good mechanic. And on Jakku that kind of skill makes sense. Why hand that off to Poe? And why this Trio stuff. It’s fanon. We have just been assuming that Finn’s best friends would form the new Han, Luke, and Leia. Because reasons. None of them textual. It was a failure of TFA to not establish this dynamic if this was an essential element of Star Wars that had to be there from the start.

Which gets to the heart the problem in fandom which is that Star Wars is different for every fan. What is essential to the series is subjective. For me, Star Wars is light sabers, hyperspace, the Force, epic battles, strange world with one biome only per world. So I’ve never felt like something was missing. But if an essential element was a very particular character dynamic (like a good guy Trio), then I can see why some fans felt let down. As if all the pieces were there but never got put together.

Back to Pasaana. We have a brief descent into the underworld in which Rey has a moment of true Jedi compassion and is rewarded when her compassion for the monster leads to an exit from said underworld. Nice. Mythically coherent. And hey, we also get one of the MacGuffins we’ve been searching for, so, bonus.

Now we get the arrival of Kylo and his backup band. What was the point of these dudes? I mean, they look cool and I can’t wait to edit videos of them to classic NKOTB. But narratively, why are they there? Why did Kylo reforge the mask? Why all these questions in the third act when we should be in the process of tying up loose ends.

Rey, in a moment reminiscent of bull leaping from Crete, goes out to stall them? I guess? And then ends up in a battle of wills with Kylo that leads to her inadvertent use of Force Lightning.

Okay, another side trip. Are they trying to make out that Dark Side Powers are genetic? Because that’s all I can figure. Really, it’s kind of gross because it suggests that darkness isn’t a human trait that we all carry and must confront, but rather that Rey’s specific problem is a dark legacy. Which, that’s Kylo’s story. He’s the one grappling with the legacy of Vader and how that led his family to fear his darkness rather than aid him in confronting it.

Anyway, we have Rey briefly thinking she’s killed Chewie and that sets our heroes off to our next quest location and another set of problems: Why did we make the Latino man a drug runner and car thief? No, this isn’t just putting an unneeded real world spin on the universe. This is about narrative consistency. Because in a bid to make Poe Dameron an ersatz Han Solo, they broke his actual in-universe back story that had been established in comics and novels. That Poe Dameron was a pilot in the New Republic Navy, the child of war heroes Kes Dameron and Shara Bey. He grew up on Yavin IV. When did he have time to be a smuggler? He’s only a few years older that Ben Solo.

See Lucasfilm has a Story Group that is supposed to help keep narrative consistency between the various media released. And I can’t help shake the feeling that the Story Group was ignored or stonewalled. To please who? The fans? Which fans? Because I would be under the impression that the fans who read the novels and the comics, who dig the trivia aspects of the universe, would be the first to desire the universe to remain coherent.

The Kijimi stuff is fun. Babu Frik is adorable. C3PO is touching. There’s good moments. There really are.

We now go to the infiltration of the Star Destroyer (Does it have a name? Nerds, help me out here. Usually I know this sort of thing.) Again, good moments. I like the implication that Rey’s Force Powers disturb Poe, but it’s never brought up again. One of dozens of Chekhov’s guns left unfired. This is incredibly sloppy in the plotting. Hux is the mole!?! Fun. Yet, again, wasted. And out of character, but I’m sure that’s not going to bother the general audience. Rey gets caught sneaking around in Kylo’s bedroom? Priceless, and some good imagery (smashing the altar to Vader) combined with incredibly clunky dialogue and some more serious questions that never get answered.

The whole time Kylo thought Vader was talking to him it was Palpatine? Why the hell does he still have that mask on a pedestal? He just couldn’t bear to get rid of a collectible? He hadn’t had time to konmari yet? And just what does smashing the pedestal symbolize? Is this the start of Kylo breaking free? We’ll probably never know.

Rey escapes on the Falcon. After getting the worst character reveal in the Saga. I’m sorry. Rey Palapatine is just dumb. I liked that she was a nobody. It allowed her to be the Forces solution to the manipulation and abuse heaped upon the Skywalkers. She was brought into the story and bound to the last scion of House Skywalker as a corrective. She wasn’t overpowered. (No really. She executed a few very basic Jedi skills in the first two movies, none of them exceptional.) And her skill level makes sense the moment you understand that she is bound to Ben Solo. She is literally downloading his training. She can do what he can do. Even her fighting style mirrors his. Fun fact: if you watch the scene in The Last Jedi where she’s practicing sword forms on Ach-to, and compare them to Kylo in his duel with Luke, they’re identical. To a move. Rey is powerful because the Force chooses its vessels. No one was asking who Mace Windu’s parents were. Or Ki-Adi Mundi’s. But Rey is skilled because a very clear in universe device means she has access to Ben Solo’s mind and that included every skill he ever learned.

Alrighty, so now our team is on to the next step in the quest, the ocean moon of Kef Bir, one of the many moons in the Endor system. (No, it’s not the Forest or Sanctuary Moon with the Ewoks.) We meet Jannah, another wasted character. She is pretty and could have been cool. But she exists for us to realize that Finn is probably Force Sensitive and that he broke conditioning not due to innate morality but because he’s not a Muggle.

Which brings me to my gripe with how Finn’s character was treated. He spent the whole movie running around shouting Rey. That’s it. That’s his arc. I don’t mind that he can feel the Force. But I feel like his development was regressed. He had a clear character arc in the first two movies. From a man running away from responsibility to one willing to fight for a friend, to a man willing to commit to cause. This movie should have had him building on that, and perhaps like Moses returning to free the rest of the Stormtroopers who are canonically child soldiers brainwashed into fighting for the bad guys.

Back to the plot. Rey takes off for the Death Star, searches the haunted house and yet again has her moment in the cave, this time confronting a dark vision of herself. Dang that was cool. Would have liked to see more of that. Anyway, she confronts Kylo and he smashes the holocron. Emphasizing for us how pointless this fetch quest has been. Girl could have hopped a ride in his TIE at any point and dealt with the fallout after they dealt with the emperor.

They fight. It wasn’t a bad fight. Just not my favorite. It did emphasize though that Kylo is never ever fighting on the offensive with her. Never in three movies has he ever taken an advantage of an opening for a killing blow, and never was it more obvious than in this fight. Kylo gets distracted, Rey stabs him mortally, and this act seems to wake her up from whatever possessed her in the throne room. She heals him and runs away.

This brings up another thing that bothers me. I know the filmmakers were working with some severe challenges with their footage of Carrie. I don’t think it was badly used for the most part. But I was left baffled at what exactly was going on here.

I was not baffled at Kylo/Ben’s confrontation with Han. This was the high point of the movie for me. It was pitch perfect in tone, and touched on the one an only sin Ben ever committed that wasn’t connected to a war objective, the murder of his father. And it made clear that the prodigal was loved and wanted and it wasn’t too late to come home. The heart of Ben’s problem has been the conviction that he has done too much wrong to come home, and while it is only a memory, it is a true memory of the man who loved Ben enough to walk straight into Hell though he knew it would probably be the death of him. I can forgive this scene for throwing the lightsaber into the ocean. I realize that most of the audience doesn’t know that you can heal kyber crystals. Yes, the saber was a metaphor for Ben’s damaged and unstable soul, and yes, it would have been poetic (and badass) for him to show up later with a healed lightsaber, stable and blue and looking like something an angel would fight with. But I’ll forgive that for the poetry of what happens on Exegol.

And then we go to my low point. I’ll set my costumer’s beef with Luke Skywalker’s wig aside. It looked cheap and that’s all I’ll say. It was more the deliberate middle finger to TLJ in the lines while ignoring that Luke’s most iconic and Jedi-like moment in the original trilogy was casting aside his lightsaber in an act of compassion. Yes, Rey was burning her ship and throwing away her weapon for the wrong reason. And it was a deliberate echo of Luke who also was appalled when his fear was twisted by the Dark into an attack on his nephew. She is overcome with the same shame and fear of self. Luke can speak to this in a real way. With better dialogue, it might have worked for me. Alas, it didn’t. Instead we got more exposition to provide us with an extra lightsaber. And more questions about why everyone in this family gave up on Ben Solo.

Here’s the thing. If Leia remains untrained, lots of things make sense: her instinctive but infrequent use of the Force; her fear for her son and sense of inadequacy in dealing with he struggles with darkness, her unresolved issues with her father which lead her to hide her parentage not only from the galaxy but also from her own son. All of this is undone by the training reveal and makes us wonder why everyone was willing to help a descendent of Palpatine but not their own flesh and blood. And in a movie that used dialogue to explain nearly everything, these lacunae stand out more than they would in a film that trusted the audience more. See you could have had Luke say “We messed up. We gave in to fear. And we didn’t want to make the same mistake with you. Rey. I’m the son of Darth Vader. I know more than any man that we are more than our bloodline. And forgetting that with Ben was the worst mistake of my life.” But he didn’t. Which in a movie which tells as much as or more than it shows seems like a deliberate choice.

Have you noticed that I’m ignoring the space battles? That’s because they’re forgettable. I just didn’t care about them. Especially since the galactic conflict remained essentially unresolved. Back to the Force Plot, the only plot that matters.

Rey confronts Palpatine. Yawn. At this point I just don’t care. For most of the movie, she hasn’t seemed like my Rey. I couldn’t relate and by this point I’ve lost interest so I’m more wondering where did all these people come from. Are there concessions? How much does a hot dog and Coke cost on Exegol? Does this stadium have bathrooms? Nice to see that it’s built like the AT&T one down the street with the sliding roof panels. And then my boy Ben Solo arrives and the film is good again. Without a word of dialogue (besides “ow”) Adam Driver delivers the best performance of the movie, showing that the Han Solo of the trilogy was there the whole time in his son. Was there ever a more Han Solo thing than running into a Dark Side temple in your pajamas, armed only with a blaster? And then Rey passes him Anakin’s saber. OMG. Brilliance. The best part of the movie. For a moment I thought that they would at least wrap it up well. And for a moment they’re side by side and all is right in the world. And then Palpatine throws Ben in a pit.

I hate this. I don’t hate this movie but I hate this moment. For three movies we’ve set up that Rey and Ben (He’s Ben now; don’t’ @ me.) are equals in the Force. They have a Yin/Yang dynamic that made this work. The natural conclusion here should have been that they take out Palpatine together. Because both have a beef with him. This is the man responsible for ruining the lives of four generations of Skywalkers. And while Ben is at the bottom of a pit, Rey stands alone, calling on the Jedi to help her.

The Jedi that are ignoring the Skywalker at the bottom of the pit.

Including Ben’s grandfather that he’s been begging for years to help him.

Including his uncle who promised to always be with him. (We were robbed of Ghost Luke trolling Kylo. Robbed I tell you. Mark Hamill would have nailed that.)

Ben is at the bottom of a pit being ignored while the Jedi transform Rey into their sacrificial lamb for Girl Power points.

So, yeah, I hated how Rey defeated Palpatine. It was wrong. It wasn’t in union with her bondmate. It wasn’t through the power of love and compassion. It was Space Wonder Woman meets Harry Potter. And then she dies. Because the Jedi only ever viewed people as tools in their grand battle with the Sith.

But Ben. Oh, Ben loves Rey for who she is. And he climbs out of the pit without a lick of help from anyone and cradles her lifeless form in the most heartbreaking Pieta, and you can see on his face the moment he make his decision and gives everything of himself to bring her back. It was beautiful, and they share the most pure, the most perfect kiss.

And then he dies.

And that’s where the movie breaks me. Because he didn’t have to die. It doesn’t make sense. Why does Leia hold on until this moment? Why does Maz seem satisfied? Where did Ben go? Why does he go unmourned? Where is his Force ghost? This movie just leaves us with more questions.

And the very end kills me. Rey is on Tatooine. A dead world that holds no importance to her (or Leia, I might add). She buries the Skywalker sabers. A funeral. She sees the ghosts of Luke and Leia bless her as she takes on the Skywalker name. A name that she could have taken in a life-affirming way through marriage, but that appears as scavenged from the dead that she has surrounded herself with as she ends the movie an eternal child, side by side with a stolen droid.

It makes no sense.

But whence my nerd rage? Why do I care? Why have I devoted over 3K words to this?

Because the first two movies in this trilogy made me care about these characters.

When I first saw The Force Awakens, I connected immediately with her loneliness. Loneliness is something I get viscerally. I have always been socially awkward and had difficulty making friends. I rarely felt known or understood and I understood that deep longing to belong. When Rey was being interrogated by Kylo Ren, that was what struck me. He notices her loneliness.

And you realize that Kylo is projecting. That he is seeing in her a kindred spirit. He too is lonely, and trapped by fear into being stuck in a place that he knows in his heart of hearts is a dead world. He too is trapped by relics of the past.

So, you see, Rey and Kylo were both me. I had lived that loneliness. I had experienced profound isolation and the sense that no one truly understood me. I desperately wanted them to find their belonging and heal their wounds. And that’s certainly the story that TLJ picked up on and continued.

But there was more. I became fascinated with the question of how the son of Han and Leia fell, and I could see the possibilities in the pattern of their characters: Leia, the woman driven by duty, trying to build the New Republic to make a better galaxy for her son, and leaving her son vulnerable to predation in the process; Han, a man who had only just stopped running from responsibility, and who’s own lack of father figures left him feeling inadequate as a father. Throw in a villain who can groom and psychically abuse their son and you have the ingredients for a tragedy.

And because I identified with Leia, Ben became, in a way, an additional child. A parent’s greatest fear is that in trying to do the right thing for your child you inadvertently make things worse. Poor Leia. She needed a mother to tell her child mattered more than a bill in the Senate. That the galaxy could wait. But Palpatine killed her mother. Both her mothers, because he was as complicit in the death of Breha Organa as he was in the death of Padme Amidala Naberrie.

So when Ben Solo died, it was like losing a child. And anyone who knows me personally knows that I do not choose that phrasing lightly. And being a mother, there is always a sense of survivor’s guilt. The sense that if you had done the right thing, it wouldn’t have happened. It doesn’t matter if that isn’t the truth. It’s how it feels.

I have met so many people online who identify with Ben Solo because they were abused as children. Who like him processed their trauma in unhealthy ways. It’s not where I come from, but I have the capacity to empathize and hear the message they’re inadvertently being told: that if you do bad things because you’ve been groomed and manipulated and brainwashed, you can’t come back. Even if you turn your life around, it won’t matter. You’ll only find peace in death and you will die unremembered as punishment for your sins. And your family will replace you with someone nicer and easier to live with.

But I can hear you saying: It’s not that deep. It’s fake and in space. It’s just a story.

Well, here’s the problem:

1) The brain does not distinguish real people from fictional characters. The part of the brain that produces serotonin and dopamine can’t distinguish fact from fiction. This is actually why art has the power to heal. The catharsis experienced in a work of art can help us process trauma because we relate to the characters in the story. But the flip side is that stories can cause genuine trauma. If we related to characters in a story and they are treated unjustly, we feel that injustice and it hurts as badly as if it were real.

2) Ben Solo was written to be sympathetic. He is the child of beloved characters. His backstory is one filled with pain. He was failed by every family member who should have protected him. He was abused physically and mentally for years. Recently published materials exonerate him from the destruction of the Jedi temple. It was all part of a plot to push him to the Dark. All Ben ever wanted was to be loved for who he was. And that was snatched away from him.

3) I can’t turn off my brain. I can’t stop asking questions and trying to make sense of things. I can help but see the Chekhov’s guns and the symbols and the messages, however inadvertent.

4) It is a grand failure of a movie if it only works on a surface level and not when you start digging deeper. Every other Star Wars movie, including The Phantom Menace, rewards the person who can’t turn off their brain. This was the first one that falls apart so completely the second you start asking questions.

I wish I could like this movie. I was prepared to like it if not love it. And while I got Ben’s redemption and the Rey and Kylo romance that I wanted, I feel like I got nothing. Like they don’t matter at all.

I am planning to start new hobbies in the new year. I got some war gaming miniatures painting sets for Christmas and I’m glad I have a new special interest to pour myself into. I have enjoyed sharing my love of Star Wars trivia with my kids but it just hurts too much at the moment to spend time thinking about a franchise that has been so badly mangled. I’m probably in the bargaining stage of grief at the moment. I wholly buy the theory that there was happy ending filmed and someone blinked in the game of chicken, leaving us the mess that we were handed.

I’m also planning to get back to writing. If even Disney can’t tell a fairy tale properly anymore, it’s time for a new batch of writers to get out there and tell the stories I want to hear. I am sick of grimdark fantasies and cynicism masquerading as sophistication. I may write a fanfic or two to fix the story in my mind, but I think that ultimately I need to be creating original works. I know that there are children eager to believe in happy endings, plenty of women who believe that Byronic heroes can be redeemed, and not a few men who will buy both if the story is well told.

#tros spoilers #negativity #cw:child loss #cw: abuse

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