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flightfoot · 21 days ago

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ML Fanfic Recs for Completed Fics 15K - 20K Words

Only 9 fics this time. Actually only two lovesquare fics in the bunch, and the second one is pretty unusual. I'm down for how delightfully queer it is though!

All of these fics will be in my Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2024 Collection, and if you like that, please consider checking out my other collections, Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2023, Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2022, and Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics - Misc. Years.

who needs sleep when you have superpowers by @14muffinz

Nino looks back down at Alya. “You all look like trash,” he decides. Alya jumps at a loud thump, spinning around to find that Marinette’s head has hit her desk, and she’s groaning softly. Adrien, who had previously evidently been leaning on her side, promptly overcompensates and falls on his side, splayed behind Marinette on the bench. [OR: Being a superhero comes with insomnia. It's a shame that they're already dealing with that as-is.]

So this is from Alya's POV, unusually enough. It was a nice surprise! It's based off the movie universe, after the end of the movie. So like, Chat has the Butterfly now, and they have to deal with the new Peacock user. Though of course Chat's not the only one with a new Miraculous, Alya's not left bereft of one. It's just a treat to see her (and later Nino) get to help out, to be close to Adrien and Marinette in a hypothetical later movie universe, to see what she's thinking and feeling and to get to contribute!

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The Man of Mind Alone by @nemaliwrites

Underneath the taste of ingredients — the chocolate, the lemon, the butter — there’s something hidden, something larger and darker. As though his mouth is filling with the taste of smallness, the sensation of pain, of shrinking, of upset. A taste that he somehow knows is connected to his mother. -- Seven defining foods of Adrien Agreste's life.

So this was a fascinating fic. Basically, Adrien has this ability to taste the emotions people feel while they cook whenever he eats their food, gets to know them a lot better. Which can be a problem if the person cooking is really sad or angry or hateful. I love seeing how he navigates his ability, since it can cause a lot of problems - if he eats something by someone who was feeling nasty things, it can be traumatizing to him, and there's a bit of an invasion of privacy aspect as well.

Of course, he could cook for himself, but then he'd have to confront his own feelings, his own self, and he's scared.

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Graveyard Love Series by @liiinerle

A brief two-parter series which chronicles what happens after Lila dies suddenly, and Marinette finds out that she's the one saved as Lila's emergency contact on her phone. In part one, Marinette seeks answers with Alya's help - and what she finds ends up testing their friendship. In part two, Alya seeks to rebuild their relationship - and perhaps build it into something more.

First fic in series: Absent Soul

Just for a moment, Alya seemed speechless, her eyes as wide as the hallway was long. “You’re really going to start to believe her now?” Marinette sighed. “It’s not her I believe. I just… I don’t think she could manage all… this if it was fake. And besides… me, her emergency contact? That’s too bizarre to be a lie.” Even more than that, it was too bizarre to be true. So what could Lila possibly hope to achieve? “I’m not sure I agree with you,” said Alya. “But I’m not gonna let you go this alone. And I’m pulling you away if I smell anything cooking.” The thing was, Marinette wasn’t sure she agreed with herself. Nothing made sense. Even just knowing more would help settle the tumult in her brain, which felt like it had been speeding up almost imperceptibly for every door she’d passed through since the balcony. --- Marinette suddenly learns that she's saved as Lila's emergency contact on her phone... the same day she learns that Lila has been in a fatal accident. She is then pulled through a week of responsibilities and discoveries she never imagined having before, and a growing fondness for someone she once hated.

So this is fascinating, I love how it explored the insanity of whatever bizarre situation Lila has going on. Marinette's great here, she doesn't understand why Lila did the things she did, or what her background truly was, but if she had no one else, then at least she has Marinette to make sure her remains are taken care of properly. Though perhaps to a worrying extent. Thankfully, Alya's here as well to give support, and perhaps an intervention if things go too far. The second fic in the series focuses around Alya giving that intervention, of a sort.

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The Peacock and the Dragon by TheVioletThread

kagami reflects on love, past and present, lost and won. felix destroys everything he has ever loved.

This is a three-chapter story, with the chapters being mostly independent, rather than naturally leading into each other.

The first chapter is from Kagami's POV, delving into the mindset she's grown up with due to Tomoe's parenting.

The second chapter, on the other hand, is from Felix's POV and mostly follows his horrific backstory, the abuse he suffered at Colt's hands, and his mindset even after Colt died.

The third chapter goes over Amelie's life, how she thinks of being the one left behind to deal with her parents' expectations, how she does, in fact, abide by them, basically being sold away to the highest bidder, and the despair as she's unable to do what she was "purchased" to do: provide an heir to Colt.

There's some beautiful prose here and exploration for Felix, Kagami, and Amelie, I highly recommend giving it a look!

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Monsters Abound by @book-sandwich

Emilie Agreste has been feeling the effects of the broken Peacock Miraculous more and more as the years go on. When her sister's family comes to visit to celebrate their birthday, Emilie must confront the reality of her decisions. Or, what happens when Emilie and Gabriel give Adrien conflicting orders at the same time? That's mentioned in here somewhere. Or, will Colt ever be their friend? You can probably guess the answer. This story is a sort-of prequel to my other story, Not a Monster At All, in that I use that characterization of Emilie (fleshes her out a little) and this whole thing was born of me wanting to see how she reacts to finding out about the consequences of having two controlling rings for one boy. You don't have to have read the other story to understand this one, though this fic does spoil this exact scenario in the other one. So, read at your discretion :)

I really enjoyed how this fic delved into Emilie's mindset. She's genuinely very compassionate, she LOVES Adrien, and she does have some misgivings about using the rings... but she's also good at rationalizing their use, so long as Adrien doesn't appear hurt by them. But she does try to discourage it at least. I can see why Emilie was so beloved, but I can also see the particular mental paths she's gone down in order to convince herself that using the rings is, at least, sometimes warranted. I love seeing these complexities in her character, it matches up well with what we've seen and heard of her in the show.

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After The Bell Rings by fettuccine(LFA)

After a failed stint as a freelance designer, Marinette takes a job as a design teacher at a middle school. It's a lot more difficult than she thinks it'll be, especially with popular creative writing teacher Adrien Agreste residing right next door. It's not him that's the problem. He's one of the only things making teaching semi-tolerable. Afternoon venting sessions and cups of tea in the teacher's lounge quickly lead to becoming best friends. So, no. It's not him. It's the students relentlessly shipping them that's the issue.

You ever wanted a teacher AU for the Lovesquare? You got it! They're adorable, even their students can see they belong together XD

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When Friendships Are Real by im_up_to_shenanigans

A short series expounding on the impact Rocketear had on the friendship between Adrien and Nino. Because we deserved to see the fallout.

First fic: Glass Threads or Frost Work

A few weeks after Rocketear picks a fight with Chat Noir, Nino notices something is wrong with the cat hero. Meanwhile, Adrien has been pulling away at school. aka the post-Rocketear fic I wanted to see in canon.

I love this. Nino just can't understand why Adrien and Chat seem so distant. Add onto his guilt over his akumatization into Rocketear, and that he just can't understand why Chat hadn't fought back... he's in a lot of emotional turmoil. He values his friendships, and he wants to repair whatever's broken and help his friends, but without knowing what the problem is, he's stuck.

I really liked how this explored Nino's thoughts and feelings, his perspective. I adore character pieces like this!

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A Miraculous Christmas Miracle by vase

It is Christmas Eve in Paris, and a runaway Adrien is among the many kidnapped by an Akuma. With neither Ladybug or Chat Noir coming to the rescue it falls to the reserve heroes to stop this threat and save the hostages. But can they really do it without their seniors? Can Queen Bee and Ryuko even exist in the same space when Chloe and; Kagami can’t? All these questions and; more shall be answered in the Miraculous Christmas Special!

I really loved how much this fic centered around Chloe. It starts off with her running out on her family's Christmas dinner because of how awful her parents (Audrey mostly) are being. Fortunately, Adrien happens to run away as well at about the same time, which gives her an outlet for her emotions and an excuse not to return home.

I like how she bands together with her classmates to find Adrien, he's everyone's first priority, above whatever squabbles they have with each other. You even get a glimpse of the adults helping, though the kids have things well in hand.

There's even a budding Chlogami romance, which I'm all for XD.

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(Drag) Kings And Queens by @entity9silvergen

Marinette sees one of her commissions on drag performer Chat Noir and a friendship is born. If only she could get her girlfriend Adriana to go to one of his performances… Adrien plays with a new side of himself through drag with some help from his new online friend Ladybug. If only his newfound confidence could help him work up the courage to tell his boyfriend Marino about it… Closeted T4T Drag AU based on buggachat’s tumblr post with lots of extra identity shenanigans.

So like entity says, this fic is based on one of @buggachat's tumblr posts:

Though it actually manages to be even MORE queer since both Adrien and Marinette are trans.

It's an utter delight! The drag performances are a treat, and I love the identity shenanigans XD. It's just a lot of fun.

#ml fanfic rec #miraculous ladybug

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vvienne · 4 years ago

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SANGCHENG FIC RECS

flight of a one-winged dove by bloodletter

Talking at someone is only fun for so long. That's all being a sect leader is: talking and talking to people bound by courtesy to listen to you. It's so fucking dull. A relief, then, to face one’s equal, and no less an old friend who is inclined to interrupt you whenever you ramble. He likes it. It’s one of Jiang Cheng’s best qualities.

In the years after Guanyin Temple, Nie Huaisang attends to unfinished business.

whipped by reindeercolin

Jiang Cheng blinks. “Dammit, they do think you’re dating one of us! I hate it when Wei Wuxian is right.” “Excuse me?” Nie Huaisang gives him an incredulous look. “First of all, they think I’m dating you, and if anything, they’re getting more aggressive!”

(or, the one in which Jiang Cheng has too many relatives, not enough patience, goes through a brother-divorce and finds out he has a boyfriend - in that order, more or less.)

Ponder the Manner of Things by Pip (Moirail)

It's not that Jiang Cheng can't do a quadruple flip followed by a triple toeloop. It's that his mother seems to think that's still not good enough.

Jiang Cheng is grateful that Huaisang doesn’t have the same kind of family life that he does, all - messy with expectations and cravings for closeness and nothing but vague filial piety where love is meant to be.

a matter of time and organ donation by nev_longbottom

This is it. The call he’s been waiting for. His brother had ‘an accident’ or ‘died in his sleep’ or some other lie to cover up the murder.

“Please, Mingjue is missing. He got into one of his moods and he was gone when I came back from grocery shopping. He’s not answering his phone. I don’t know if he left or was kidnapped or if something else happened. Huaisang, please, if you’ve heard anything,” Meng Yao begs.

Nie Huaisang hunts his brother's killer.

no tip necessary by tattletold

With all the nervousness of a virgin in a whorehouse, Jiang Cheng closes the door behind himself and enters, sitting on the low seat across from the escort. The pretty young man keeps his face hidden behind the delicate fan, and Jiang Cheng thinks for a moment that he recognizes the design painted onto it now that he’s closer.

It’s only when he lowers the fan and opens his eyes, wide, does Jiang Cheng paralyze with realization.

They speak at the same time in equally horrified tones.

“Jiang Cheng?”

“Nie Huaisang?”

Your Place in the Family of Things by raisedbyhyenas

No matter what happens, no matter the circumstances, Wei Wuxian will always leave and Jiang Cheng will always get stuck trying to rebuild from whatever’s left.

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

In which Jiang Cheng makes friends; gets a cat; begins to rebuild a relationship; and maybe, possibly, potentially, learns a little bit how to be happy.

sigh yourself to sleep by merthurlin

“Let me take care of you, A-Cheng.”

No one—no one has ever said that, not to Jiang Cheng. He wasn’t a very sickly child, true, but the few times he remembered being sick it was never—he had a-jie, and later on he had Wei Wuxian, for what it was worth, but he never—

halcyon days by serein

They're in a forest, it seems just the two of them.

"You have to be patient," Nie Huaisang says, "I once waited for three days to catch a sparrow."

"Three days?" Jiang Cheng replies, sceptical. He can't imagine Nie Huaisang having the attention span for that.

"It's not that hard," Nie Huaisang says, "if you know what they want, and find a way to get it for them."

[JC stumbles across an array and gets physically de-aged to be 16/17. NHS kindly offers his help to an old friend, but things... escalate.]

To Distraction by isozyme

It’s the third night of Yunmeng’s kite festival celebrations. Nie Huaisang has come visiting, eager to partake in the food, the arts, and Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng wants to forget. Nie Huaisang has some new lube and wants to see if he can put his whole fist in somebody’s ass.

Lights, Camera, Kiss by MissMagus

When Nie Huaisang gets paired with straight porn star Jiang Cheng for a five-part series, he’s sure it will be an utter disaster. Until the cameras start rolling and their chemistry alights like wildfire.

(Or, the five times Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng have sex for their job, and the first time they have sex outside of it.)

Only the Shallow by hamburglar

When Nie Huaisang gets bored and convinces Jiang Cheng to make out with him, he’s probably not expecting to still be dealing with the guy 16 years later.

OR the story where Jiang Cheng goes into: the Cloud Recesses, denial, some bushes, the private porn library at the Unclean Realm, and subspace.

Blind for Love by manamune

Jiang Cheng is poisoned with an aphrodisiac and needs to orgasm repeatedly in order to flush it from his system.

The first person he thinks of going to for help is Nie Huaisang, who does what any good friend would do: he shoves his three decades worth of feelings for Jiang Cheng deep into the recesses of his mind, locks them up so he can pretend they don’t exist, and then fucks him so hard that he passes out.

Descending by lightningwaltz

“I want to… to not be embarrassed.”

“To not be embarrassed during what?”

“During sex.” There. Jiang Cheng can say it. “In general. Also with you right now.”

“Very good.”

“When did you become so authoritative?” Jiang Cheng wants to sound irked, but can’t quite manage anything beyond nervous curiosity.

dark water by Morgan (duckwhatduck)

There are words, somewhere, for this. Words that would put a shape to the thing that sits between them, would seal their understanding. There are words for sympathy, for friendship, for understanding, for that touch, for this feeling.

Jiang Cheng can feel them, somewhere, fluttering formless at the back of his throat, squirming under his ribcage, but he cannot grasp them. They swim beneath the surface, fish in muddy water - and like fish, they will dart away if he grabs for them incautiously, and leave him nothing but cold splashes and grit.

Or: Why talk about things when you could fuck about it instead?

never knew i was a dancer by isozyme

“What’s a stone butch and why aren’t they real?” Jiang Cheng asks, too buzzed to care too much about not being up on lesbian culture.

Huaisang pats Jiang Cheng on the no-man’s-land between her boobs and her shoulder. “You’re so useless, Jiang Cheng. A stone butch is a fictional hottie who doesn’t make you do any work at all, just wants to give head and fuck you stupid on her strap.”

“Fictional?” Jiang Cheng echoes, having - not a moment, per se, but sort of a problem where her thoughts are going too fast for her poor drunken brain to keep up with.

“Nobody actually wants to fuck a chick who’s too lazy to eat you out after,” Huaisang mumbles.

After leaving Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s bachelorette party, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang decide to experiment with some outdated stereotypical lesbian sex roles.

lights out by rynleaf

“Nie-zongzhu makes the most sense,” Sect Leader Yao nods sagely, to murmurs of assent across the Jin Sect’s gold gilded banquet hall. Jin Ling, clad in opulent robes that look somewhat comical on a boy of sixteen, inclines his head as his scribe makes a notation, and the noise rises as sect leaders pat themselves and each other on the back for a decision well made.

Jiang Cheng groans and downs his cup of wine in one go.

In which the Sect Leaders elect a new Chief Cultivator.

shadow eternal by rynleaf

“You want me to distract the Chief Cultivator from the Annual Cultivation Conference, so you and other sect leaders can… what. Sign contracts without adult supervision?”

“If Jiang-zongzhu is amenable,” Sect Leader Ouyang repeats with a nod.

Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose. The pressure he felt building behind his eyes all morning is swiftly coalescing into a bitch of a headache. “Just what do you all think I’m capable of?”

Sect Leader Ouyang bows with a cheerful smile. “We have utmost faith in Sandu Shengshou’s abilities.”

In which a night hunt ends in disaster, Jiang Cheng catches a glimpse of Nie Huaisang's heart, and feelings are discussed after a certain fashion.

Four Days in Lanling by halotolerant

Nie Huaisang looks at him. ‘You are confusing me, Clan Leader Jiang, perhaps I misunderstand, but…’

‘You didn’t misunderstand. You don’t misunderstand. You understand all of it.’ For six months Jiang Cheng has been mulling this over, and now with Nie Huaisang in front of him he can’t figure out if he most wants to knock him down or kneel at his feet. What he does is try and breathe. Clench his hands at his sides. ‘And now I am going to ask you to do something for me. You have to do something for me. You have to help Jin Ling.’

Lean for Love Forever by Pip (Moirail)

Having a crush on your roommate is really embarrassing, except that's apparently the opposite of a problem. Jiang Cheng can't deny that's pretty convenient.

Wei Ying holds it up, a series of straps and buckles and velcro and wow, really a lot of leather. It has absolutely no conceivable form beyond tangled.

Nie Huaisang opens the door at exactly the moment that Wei Ying holds the thing up to Jiang Cheng’s chest, as if he’s trying to imagine how exactly it would fit onto a person, and it falls into a tangled pile between them while they stare at Huaisang in mild mortification.

acquired momentum by mongrelmind

Had Madam Yu known that this is where her son would end up, she would have gouged his eyes out with her bracelet before he made the grave mistake of looking in the direction of Nie Huaisang.

in which Nie Huaisang has an art show, Jiang Cheng is begrudgingly topless*, and there are. Shenanigans.

*Nie Huaisang excluded.

#sangcheng #mdzs #mdzs recs #fic recs #jiang cheng #nie huaisang #ill probably add more fics when I read more fics

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tuiccim · 5 years ago

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Terrigenisis (Part 1)

Pairing: Avengers X Inhuman!Reader

Words: 3870

Summary: Your life is torn apart after undergoing terrigenisis unwillingly your life is turned upside down when you are deemed too dangerous to return to civilian life. You are put with the Avengers team to train and rebuild your life.

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“Charlie, the car’s packed. Are you ready?” You called. Your first vacation in two years ahead. A rock climbing trip to Arizona.

“Almost. Come here.” Charlie called from the apartment kitchen.

“What’s up?” You smile as you walk into the kitchen and see Charlie holding out a small medicine cup. “What am I taking today?” You smile at your husband who is currently on a vitamin kick.

“Magnesium, fish oil, vitamin d, and a multi.” He smiles as he picks up his own cup and clinks it together with yours.

You both take the vitamins and then you lean in for a quick kiss. “Okay, good lookin’, vacation time.”

You turn to head for the door but Charlie’s voice brings you back around, “What’s happening?” he says in a panicked voice, “(Y/N)!” You turn to see his body being covered by rocks.

“Charlie!” You reach out for him.

“Don’t touch me!” He yells, but then you feel something strange yourself. Looking down you see the rocks beginning to cover you, too.

“Charlie!” You yell again.

“I love you!” He says just before the rocks cover him completely.

“I love you!” You cry and then are overtaken.

Fourteen months later.

“So, you’re just gonna spring me on them?” You look at Nicky Fury as he drives to the Avenger’s compound.

“Not like we had a lot of time. Coulson's team had to move. This will be the safest place for you and you can be trained as an Avenger here.” Fury states.

You roll your eyes. Not like you hadn’t been training for the last six months with Coulson’s team, but apparently you can’t even tell anyone about them. Now, you’re supposed to join this team and everything will be all better. You put your earbuds in.

You’re brought into the conference room and face the Avengers team. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Wanda Maximoff, Vision, Sam Wilson, and Bucky Barnes.

“Avengers, meet your newest trainee.” Fury states.

You keep your gaze down not wanting to see the anger on everyone’s faces.

“What is this, Fury?” Captain Rogers is the first to speak.

“Look, we need a place for her to train and become mission ready. Right now, here is the safest place for that. I’ll let you get acquainted.” With that, Fury leaves.

You stare after him as he leaves you to the team’s mercy. You turn to look at Captain Rogers, apprehension clear on your face. He seems to take some pity on you.

“You’re an agent?” He asks.

“Fury didn’t give you my file?” You ask quietly.

“What he just said is what he gave me on you.” Captain says, not unkindly.

“Great.” Your quiet, sarcastic reply.

“Why don’t you sit down and we can figure this all out?” Captain Rogers motions to the chair at the head of the table. You felt like you were sitting in front of a jury.

You looked around the table slowly at each solemn face. Miss Maximoff offers you a small smile and it bolsters a bit of courage in you.

“Okay. What’s your deal, then?” Mr. Stark questions.

“I guess it’d just be best to lay it all out for you from the beginning, huh?” You look to Captain Rogers.

“That would make things easier.” Agent Romanoff says.

You look at her and nod. “Fourteen months ago, I underwent terrigenesis.”

“Where did you get a terrigen crystal?” Dr. Banner asks.

“My husband, Charlie, handed me our morning vitamins. One was a new fish oil we were trying.” You say.

“Oh my god. You were one of the accidentally exposed?” Miss Maximoff says sadly.

“Yes.” You nod.

“Your husband?” She asks.

“He was not an Inhuman.” You look away for a minute to compose yourself. The loss of Charlie was still painful. You swallow and continue, “I, however, am. I emerged from the chrysalis with the ability to understand any vocal communication.”

“You mean verbal communication?” Dr. Banner says.

“No, I mean vocal. A dog barks and I know what it’s communicating, not exact words but the meaning. Eventually after hearing any human language for a time I can speak it also. I was fluent in English and Spanish before, but since I’ve become fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, and I have working knowledge of a few others. I’m basically a universal translator.”

Agent Romanoff speaks then in Russian “You can understand anything said to you even if you don’t know the language?”

“That’s correct. I actually don’t know any Russian. If you could speak it to me when we talk I’ll pick it up eventually. If any of you know other languages, it would be helpful for me to learn to speak them.”

“I would be happy to help you with Sokovian.” Miss Maximoff says in her language.

“Thank you. I’m grateful for whatever I can learn.” You smile at her.

“And that’s it? You can’t go back to your life because you can understand what everyone says?” Mr. Stark snarks.

“No. With being Inhuman comes additional strength and stamina, my gifts also include increased hearing and I can, um, warg for lack of a better term.” You give a half shrug.

“Warg? Like embody animals?” Agent Barton says.

“Yes. I can see, hear, feel through them. I have a Red-tailed Hawk who I’ve built a relationship with. I use her often to train.”

“Where is she?” Agent Barton asks.

You warg into her for a moment turning your eyes yellow as the hawks. “She’s in a dogwood tree on the north side of the compound.”

“Did you just…?” Agent Barton raises his eyebrows.

“Yes.” Turning back to Mr. Stark you say, “To answer your questions, Mr. Stark, the combination of my Inhuman abilities with the fact that I am a black belt in Krav Maga and Karate, an expert level climber, and a computer programmer put me in the threat category.”

“Programmer?” Mr. Stark smirks, “You mean hacker?”

“No. I mean programmer. I was not a part of anything clandestine… Until SHIELD.” you roll your eyes and a few of the team chuckled. “I could already kill someone with my bare hands, add in extra strength.” You shrug again. “Anyway, I’ve spent the last six months training with another Inhuman to hone my skills. They needed the full team to be field ready and Fury decided to move me here.”

“What are you lacking for field readiness?” Captain Rogers asks.

“Firearms training mostly.” You reply. “I have control of my abilities. My hand to hand is more than sufficient.”

“Do you have any experience with firearms?” Sergeant Barnes asks.

“Kinda why I got a black belt in Krav Maga and Karate was hoping to never need one. And if I do, I’ll take one.”

“Family?” Captain Rogers asks.

You shake your head, “My mom died when I was three. My dad raised me. He was a Coast Guard pilot. Died five years ago in a helicopter crash.”

“I’m sorry.” He says sincerely.

“Thanks. Any other questions? Anybody?” You look around the table.

“I think you’ve given us enough for now. Do you have bags or boxes we can help you move into a room?” Captain Rogers asks.

“Just those two. I’ve got them.” You pick up the large duffle and backpack.

“Why don’t you take an hour to settle in and then we’ll meet to start training.”

You nod, a little surprised he wants to start training so soon.

“I’ll show you to your room.” Miss Maximoff says. “Where’s she going?” she asks the Captain.

You see a cloud come over Captain Roger’s face for a moment before he says, “There’s a free room on my end.”

You realize he was trying to figure out where to put you and decided to keep the newbie nearby. You didn’t mind.

“Thank you.” You say to Captain Rogers and you nod to the rest of the team before you follow Miss Maximoff. “Thank you for showing me to the room, Miss Maximoff.”

Wanda giggles, “You can call me Wanda.”

“Thanks. Please call me (Y/N). And I thought you were gonna speak Sokovian to me?” You give her a small smile as you walk to the elevator.

“Oh, of course.” She says in Sokovian while hitting the elevator button.

“I wonder how good her hearing is.” You hear the whisper in the conference room.

“Good enough I can hear you from out here, Agent Barton.” You call back and grin at Wanda.

“Thanks!” He calls back.

“Not so loud! Geez” You and Wanda giggle together as you get on the elevator.

“What did he say? I couldn’t hear anything from where we were.” Wanda asks.

“Oh, he just wondered how good my hearing is.”

“Is it really sensitive?”

“Yeah. I have to sleep with earplugs and I wear headphones a lot to block some of it out. It’s taken a while to get used to it. At first, it was super overwhelming.”

“I understand. It was very brave the way you told everyone what happened to you.”

“Seemed fair. I got the chance to read all of your files, so I know about everyone else.”

“Here we are. Do you want help unpacking? I can stick around for a little bit.”

“It’s okay. You don’t need to do that. I’ll see you at training?”

“Yes, I’ll be there. If you need anything ask FRIDAY she can direct you where you need to go and answer your questions.” Wanda waves as she leaves you alone in the room.

The room is nicer than what you expected. A queen bed, desk, bookshelves, tv, walk in closet, and your own bathroom. You would definitely need to go to a store soon to pick up a few things. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be a problem with Captain Rogers. You empty your duffle bag, put your clothes away, and place your toiletries in the bathroom. You unwrap the two framed pictures and place them on your desk. One is you and Charlie smiling in a waterfall grotto after a long hike. The other is your wedding day, you in a short lace dress, him in a white button down and khaki pants, with the sun setting behind you on the beach just after you said your vows. You gently touch the photo, “Love you, Charlie.” you whisper.

You decide to change and head to wherever training would be. You stop at the panel by your door, "Uh, FRI...FRIDAY?"

"How may I be of assistance, Ms. (L/N)?"

"Where would I go to meet the others for training?"

"The training room is located on the first floor." She says as she flashes a map up.

"Thank you." You feel kind of sheepish talking to the AI.

Once in the training room you look around at the well equipped room. Every type of weights, machines, a boxing ring, mats, weapon lockers, and even a rock climbing wall you saw with excitement. Looking up at the ceiling you see it's criss crossed with beams and you get a wicked idea. You grab a climbing rope hanging down at one end of the room and shimmy up it quickly. You're able to swing yourself to the beam fairly easily from there and then walk the beams towards the entrance to the room. You take a seat with your back to a joist and stretch your legs out in front of you. It's not long before Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes come in together.

"Wonder if she’s as skilled as it sounds.” Sergeant Barnes says.

“Black belts in karate and krav maga? I’m sure she has some skills but getting her to Avenger status may be a challenge.” Captain Rogers says.

“Guess the question is, is she up for it?” Sergeant Barnes scoffs.

“I certainly plan to try, Sergeant.” You say from your perch.

“What the hell?” Sergeant Barnes looks up at you and you give a little wave.

“What are you doing up there, (Y/N)?” Captain Rogers says.

“Waiting.” You say simply.

“You felt the need to do that twenty feet in the air?” Captain Rogers scoffs.

You shrug, “Felt like climbing.” Getting up, you walk along the beams.

“Can you come down, please?” Sergeant Barnes says.

“Sure.” You walk back towards the climbing rope, once close enough you jump to it, and slide down.

Sergeant Barnes is right next to you when you turn around, “What would have happened if you’d fallen?”

“It’d hurt,” you say and look up to the beams, “A lot.”

“Might want to reconsider using the beams as a waiting room.” He snarks.

“Nah, I like being up high. I’m pretty sure-footed.” You look back to his face and he is scowling down at you. “What?”

“Nothing.” He says, “I’ll take that to mean you're warmed up. Let’s do some sparring and see how you do.”

“Okay.”

You follow him to the mat. Captain Rogers is standing to the side watching. You take stance and Sergeant Barnes begins. You can tell he is holding back and you go harder at him. After sparring with Melinda May for months you weren’t about to let him patronize you. You were holding your own and noticed the rest of the team filtering in and watching. He grabbed your arm and you used the leverage to jump up, throw your legs around his neck, and throw him to the ground. He rolled to his feet immediately and came right back at you. After a few more minutes, Captain Rogers called out, “Alright. Let’s switch it up.” You stopped but kept your eyes on Sergeant Barnes until he retreated.

“Not bad.” Sergeant Barnes says to Captain.

“Natasha.” Captain Rogers looks at her and she nods.

“Agent Romanoff.” You incline your head to her as she approaches.

“Natasha’s fine.” She smiles.

“(Y/N). Thanks.” You smile back and Natasha throws the first punch. You manage to hold your own for a while but in the end Natasha managed to pin you to the mat.

“Well done.” Natasha says.

“Not well enough.” You say with a mirthless chuckle.

“Who or what is next, Captain?” You say looking at the super soldier.

He looks over to Sergeant Barnes, “Bucky, can you take her to the range and gauge her abilities there?”

“Sure.” He eyes you and then makes a motion for you to follow.

As you walk out of the training room and turn down a hallway towards the range, you say to him, “I don’t have a lot of experience with guns, Sergeant Barnes.”

“Bucky.”

“What?”

“Call me Bucky.”

“Okay. I don’t have a lot of experience with guns, Bucky. I’ve shot a few times, but the last year has really been about my abilities and honing hand to hand.”

“Well, we’ll see what we have to work with and go from there.” Bucky says as he holds the door to the range open for you. You slip in past him and watch as he goes to the locker and pulls out a Glock, a clip, and a box of ammo. He then sets it all down in front of you with protective gear and stands back with arms crossed.

You reign in a smirk at his demeanor. He really is testing you. You pick up the clip, add the ammo, load and cock the gun. Clicking the safety into place, you put the protective gear on, pick the gun back up, and move to aim at the target. You take the safety off, aim, and fire. When you’ve emptied the clip, you set the gun down and turn to Bucky while removing the headphones. “It’s still loud even through these things.”

Bucky actually chuckles and hits the button to bring the target up for inspection. “You at least know how to load and shoot, but your aim needs work.”

While you had hit the target with each bullet, the rounds were dispersed throughout the torso. Yeah, your aim was lacking.

"Yup. Want me to go again?"

"No, just trying to get an idea." He gives you a tight smile that you return.

When you return to the training room, Captain Rogers takes you through a workout and then brings you a bottle of water. "Good work today."

"Thanks, Captain. I know it was awkward having me sprung on you."

"You can call me Steve. We all go by first names around here." He says.

"My, uh, my dad always required I called people by their title until invited otherwise. Old habits." You shrug.

"Yeah, I get it. Go get some rest and I'll show you around later."

"That would be great. Thanks."

An hour later you had showered and changed. You went to the common room to see if Captain Rogers, erm, Steve was around for the tour he had offered. Sam Wilson looked up from the couch.

“Hey, newbie.” He smiles.

“Hello.”

”I’m Sam. So, you have a hawk friend? What’s its name?”

“Doesn’t really have an English translation. It’s kind of a mix between a squawk and screech so I just call her Redtail.” You say.

“I’m trying to figure out if you're kidding.” Sam eyes you.

“The first part, yeah. But I really do call her Redtail.” You smirk.

“So, you can… what did you call it?”

“Warg. Warging.” You say.

“You can warg into her anytime you want?”

“Generally. I try to be respectful of her. She’s not a pet. She’s a companion that has chosen to befriend me and allow me to use her. Would you like to meet her later?”

“Yeah. That would be cool.” Sam smiles.

“(Y/N).” Steve strides into the room.

“Captain. Sorry. Steve.” You give him a small smile.

“Ready to take a tour?” He asks.

“Yes, thank you. Would you care to join us, Sam?”

“I’m good, but don’t forget about introducing me to Redtail.” Sam says from his spot on the couch.

“You got it.” You say as you go to follow Steve.

“Redtail?” Steve asks.

“The hawk I mentioned.” You say.

Steve shows you around the compound, explains FRIDAY’s functions, and talks a little bit about the team. He’s very kind through the whole process but you can tell he has some concerns about you becoming part of the team.

“Steve, can I ask you something?” You finally work up the courage to say.

“Yeah.” He turns to look at you.

“How does everyone feel about me being dropped on you? There’s bound to be some resentment.”

“I wouldn’t say resentment. Everyone’s just a bit guarded when it comes to new people. You must have done something right for Fury to put you here, though. Most of them know that.”

“Any helpful hints?”

“They’re all good people. Just give them time. They’ll warm up. And, seriously, don’t ever steal Natasha’s cookies.” He says.

You laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind. Would you like to meet Redtail?”

“That’d be great.”

“FRIDAY, will you let Sam know to meet us at the North entrance?”

“Getting used to FRIDAY already, huh?” Steve smiles.

“I can see how useful she is.”

A few minutes later Sam appears with Bucky following behind.

“Hey Buck.” Steve greets, “Wanted to meet Redtail, too?”

“Uh, yeah, if that’s okay, (Y/N)?” Bucky asks.

“Sure.” You give a small smile and head outside. “Gimme about 15 feet of space, guys. Don’t want to scare her.”

The guys move back as asked and you put your hands around your mouth and let out a loud “CAW CAW!” You look back at the bewildered expressions of the three and start laughing. “Just kidding. Sorry I couldn’t resist.” They all chuckle.

You reach in your back pocket and pull out a falconry glove. Slipping it on, you warg into Redtail turning your eyes yellow and ask her to come to you. Redtail makes a graceful arc from the dogwood tree she had been resting in and landed on your upheld hand. “Hello there, sweet girl. How do you like your new spot?” Redtail looks at you tilting her head.

“Does she understand you?” Sam asks.

“No, we can communicate when I warg, but it’s more like an exchange of images than it is talking.” You warg for a moment to ask Redtail if she can bring her closer to the three curious men and once you receive her consent you release the warg. “I’m going to bring her closer but please keep your hands down, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” Steve says.

“So, she’s your pet?” Bucky asks as you walk closer.

“No, I don't take care of her. She’s not my pet. She’s my companion, my friend.” You say petting the bird's chest. “Would you like to pet her?”

Bucky nods and you take his right hand in yours and bring it up to Redtail’s chest allowing him to pet her. She makes a small chittering sound and you smile at Bucky, “She likes you.” He smiles sweetly.

You move to Sam next and Redtail immediately starts chittering again. You take Sam’s hand and bring it up to her chest like you did with Bucky. Redtail leans into Sam’s hand and tilts her head back and forth studying him. She starts to reach a claw out to move to his hand but you warg to her and show her her talons tearing his skin. “Wow, she really likes you. I guess she sees a fellow bird.” You laugh.

“I do have a way with the ladies.” Sam grins.

You move to Steve last and allow him to pet Redtail. When you look at him he’s grinning and you can’t help but smile at the reactions each of the guys had to her. You look at Redtail, “Thank you, my friend.” You lift your arm in the air and she takes flight.

“She’s beautiful.” Steve says.

“Yeah, she is. I’m so grateful for how she’s stuck with me. I try to always give her the respect she deserves.” You say.

“So, you warg into her just whenever you want?” Bucky asks.

“I can. I usually warg into her and ask her permission. She’s rarely denied me. She was always curious about humans and she feels safe with me, but she’s still a wild animal and I don’t want her to lose that. I want her to always be free, ya know?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Bucky says with a smile.

“Why don’t we head in and find some dinner?” Steve suggests.

“Sounds good to me. I’m starving.” Sam says.

As you walk in, you remember you have no food here and need to go to a store. “Hey Steve. Is there a vehicle I can use?”

“What for?” He asks.

“My grand escape plan.” You deadpan, “I’d like to go to a store and pick up a few things. Or am I confined to the compound?”

“No, of course not. You can use the SUV in the garage. Keys are in the locker. Scan your thumb to access it.” Steve says.

“Great. Thanks. You guys need anything?”

A round of no’s from them, you head to the store to pick up some essentials and food. The rest of the night is spent settling in.

Part 2

Masterlist

#marvel #marvel fanfic #inhuman #inhuman fanfic #avengers #avengers fanfic #bucky #steve #captain america #fanfic #terrigenisis #x you #x reader #reader insert #bucky barnes #steve rogers

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jawsofhakkontranscript · 4 years ago

Text

Ameridan’s End: Talk to Ameridan

(Previous quest - Ameridan's End: Assault the Jaws of Hakkon)

Main questline: Ameridan’s End: Talk to Ameridan

Characters involved: Ameridan

This is the second part of “Ameridan’s End” questline.

Gurd Harofsen is defeated. The time magic surrounding the dragon begins to falter. Inquisitor Ameridan is revealed.

PC: Inquisitor. (Bows their head.)

Ameridan: Inquisitor.

(If the Inquisitor is a human.) Ameridan: How fares Drakon? Has he brought the Chant to the whole world yet? [1]

(If the Inquisitor is an elf.) Ameridan: Andaran atish'an. I am glad Drakon's friendship with our people has remained strong. [1]

(If the Inquisitor is a dwarf.) Ameridan: Has Drakon's empire brought in even the children of the stone? [1]

(If the Inquisitor is a Qunari.) Ameridan: Drakon's empire has spread far while I slept. [1]

[1] Dialogue options:

History: You've been gone a long time. [2]

Elf: No. The humans betrayed us. [3]

General: I am sorry. I have news. [4]

General: You're a little out of date. [5]

General: Drakon is dead. [6]

[2] History: You've been gone a long time.

PC: Inquisitor Ameridan, you disappeared in 1:20 Divine, around the time of the signing of the Nevarran Accord.

Ameridan: You say it as though it was… [7]

[3] Elf: No. The humans betrayed us.

PC: It has not. Drakon's son, Kordillus the Second, destroyed the Dales.

Ameridan: Drakon's son… [7]

[2] General: I am sorry. I have news.

PC: Inquisitor Ameridan, you have slept longer than you perhaps understand. [7]

[3] General: You're a little out of date.

PC: How long do you think you've been here?

Ameridan: You say it as though it was… [7]

[4] General: Drakon is dead.

PC: Emperor Drakon died a long time ago. [7]

[7] Ameridan: How long?

Party comments:

Cassandra: You were the last Inquisitor. There has not been another since you disappeared 800 years ago.

(If no companion makes a comment.) PC: There has not been an Inquisitor since you disappeared... 800 years ago.

Ameridan: Drakon was my oldest friend. He would have sent someone to find me.

Party comments:

Vivienne: He would have, had the Second Blight not swept across Orlais, demanding his full attention.

Solas: He never had the chance. The darkspawn that rose in the Anderfels threatened all of Orlais.

Dorian: I'm afraid Drakon was a little busy with the darkspawn pouring down from the Anderfels.

Ameridan: I see. [Go to 7a]

(If no companion makes a comment.) Ameridan: But evidently he was occupied elsewhere. The darkspawn, perhaps, or… [Go to 7a]

[7a] Telana escaped the battle. Did she... do the records say what became of her? [8]

[8] Dialogue options:

General: She lived well. [9]

General: She died trying to reach you. [10]

[9] General: She lived well.

PC: Telana died of old age many years later. She never forgot you.

Ameridan: You lie well, but I hunted demons and maleficarum long before I was Inquisitor. (Sighs.) [11]

[10] General: She died trying to reach you.

PC: She returned to the island. From what we can tell, she died trying to reach you through dreams.

Ameridan: I asked her not to. She was a good hunter and the love of my life, but she never... (Sighs.) [11]

[11] Ameridan: I never wanted this job. Hunting demons was so much simpler than politics. [Go to 12 or 13, depending on whether Cassandra is in the party]

[12] (If Cassandra is not in the party.) -> [Go straight to 23]

[13] (If Cassandra is in the party.) Cassandra: Inquisitor Ameridan, how could the leader of the Seekers be a mage?

Ameridan: Has history forgotten so much? I was not a Seeker myself, as most Inquisitors were. I used my magical gifts in the hunting of demons and maleficarum. Do the Seekers no longer welcome the aid of mages?

Cassandra: No. That was forgotten... among many other things. [14]

[14] Dialogue options:

Special: We know the Seekers' secrets. [15] (If Cassandra’s personal quest “Promise of Destruction” was completed and the truth about the rite of Tranquility was uncovered.)

General: Cassandra is a Seeker. [16]

General: Not the time, Cassandra. [17]

[15] Special: We know the Seekers' secrets.

PC: Cassandra is a Seeker... and after the Seekers went rogue, she discovered the truth about them.

Cassandra: We learned they developed the Rite of Tranquility.

Ameridan: You mean sundering one from the Fade? The Seekers do it briefly when granting an initiate their abilities.

Cassandra: It has become a way to control mages deemed dangerous. They are left Tranquil. Permanently.

Ameridan: (Sighs.) Killing a man is ugly work. You learn not to look to it as your first recourse. But sundering them from the Fade is easy. Bloodless. I told them spreading such a "solution" would lead to abuse. They swore that would never happen. They promised. I am so sorry. [18]

[18] Subsequent dialogue options:

Special: Cassandra is rebuilding them. [19] (If Cassandra was encouraged to rebuild the Seekers after completing her personal quest “Promise of Destruction”.)

General: It was not your doing. [20]

General: That doesn't matter now. [21]

General: Sorry doesn't solve it. [22]

[19] Special: Cassandra is rebuilding them.

PC: Cassandra will rebuild the Seekers into an organization to be proud of again... with the Inquisition's help.

Ameridan: Then you both have my thanks.

Ameridan: I was a good hunter. I did not want to lead an organization. [Go to 23]

[20] General: It was not your doing.

PC: You could not have known.

Ameridan: The Inquisition was a vital force, but feared. We fought so many dangers... with so many terrible weapons. I had no wish to chase a dragon to the far reaches of nowhere. I had my people to deal with... and the Nevarran Accord. [Go to 23]

[21] General: That doesn't matter now.

PC: What matters now is the dragon you hunted. [Go straight to 29]

[22] General: Sorry doesn't solve it.

PC: The Inquisition created the templars and the Circle as we know it. Do you know how many mages died when templars abused their power? How many people died when the mages rebelled?

Ameridan: I can guess. The Inquisition hunted evil. It was too easy to see threats wherever we looked. I did everything I could to transform them into a force for peace. I had no wish to chase a dragon to the far reaches of nowhere. I had my people to deal with... and the Nevarran Accord. [Go to 23]

[16] General: Cassandra is a Seeker.

PC: This is Cassandra Pentaghast. She is a member of the Order of Seekers.

Cassandra: I am honored, Inquisitor.

Ameridan: As am I. Your predecessors were good men and women in difficult times. As the Inquisition joined the Chantry, we required a leader who inspired loyalty, not fear. [23]

[17] General: Not the time, Cassandra.

PC: Cassandra, we have more pressing concerns.

Ameridan: You do indeed. [Go straight to 29]

[23] Ameridan: But Drakon told me I was needed... as I suspect you were needed. [24]

[24] Dialogue options:

Sad: It takes everything from you. [25]

Mad: I didn't want this. [26]

Pleased: I’m all right. [27]

Stoic: Let's focus on the present. [28]

[25] Sad: It takes everything from you.

PC: I wasn't Inquisitor by choice. Whatever my life was before…

Ameridan: Take moments of happiness where you find them. The world will take the rest. [29]

[26] Mad: I didn't want this.

PC: I had goals for my life. I had plans and dreams.

Ameridan: And now you have responsibility... including that which I was unable to fulfill myself. [29]

[27] Pleased: I’m all right.

PC: It hasn't been all bad.

Ameridan: I am glad to hear it... and sorry to burden you with my unfinished business. [29]

[28] Stoic: Let's focus on the present.

PC: What matters now is the dragon you hunted. [29]

[29] Ameridan: The dragon carries the spirit of an Avvar god. I lacked the strength to kill it. My own magic was able to bind us all, locked in time. But when the cultists drew that spirit into another vessel, it disrupted my bindings. It is breaking free. [30]

[30] Dialogue options:

General: I will carry on for you. [31]

General: Fighting gods is old news. [32] (If the main game wasn’t completed.)

General: I've killed gods before. [33] (If the main game was completed.)

General: We will kill it together. [34]

[31] General: I will carry on for you.

PC: I'd be honored to finish what you started.

Ameridan: Thank you. [35]

[32] General: Fighting gods is old news.

PC: I'm already fighting one would-be god. I can make time for one more.

Ameridan: Then I leave the world in good hands. [35]

[33] General: I've killed gods before.

PC: I killed the would-be god who unleashed the Blight upon the world. He had a dragon, too.

Ameridan: Then I leave the world in good hands. [35]

[34] General: We will kill it together.

PC: You won't be fighting it alone this time.

Ameridan: No. You will. [35]

[35] Ameridan: The passage of years can be delayed, but not ignored. I will soon join Telana at Andraste's side. Take this. It holds the last few memories of an old hunter who was neither as wise nor as strong as he thought. Fight well, Inquisitor. I am honored to have met you.

(Ameridan dies. The dragon escapes the time-freezing spell.)

Party comments:

Blackwall: We'll have to deal with that dragon, especially if it's possessed again.

Cole: She still has Hakkon inside her. We have to stop her before she hurts people.

Cassandra: We need to stop the dragon. It still carries the spirit of Hakkon.

Iron Bull: (Grunts.) Still need to deal with the dragon at some point. Probably has the Avvar god back inside it.

(Next quest - Hakkon Wintersbreath)

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #jaws of hakkon #dragon age transcript #transcript #main questline #ameridan's end #talk to ameridan #first inquisition #ameridan #telana x ameridan #drakon #emperor drakon #second blight #seekers of truth #seekers

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daywing-moved · 5 years ago

Text

Let Me Go | Nessian Fic

Rating: M (tw: suicide mentions, blood/injury gore descriptions)

Summary: After a heated argument and cruel words, Nesta Archeron left the Illyrian Mountains for a mission. Upon her arrival home, Cassian smells blood and the pain of dancing with death. (Nessian angst and hurt fic. Not a death fic.)

Let me know if you want to be tagged for some of my fics or be part of my permanent tag list here!

Fic Masterlist

Cassian could not stop seeing red.

Such unforgiving, dark red.

He couldn’t stop seeing Nesta’s body half ripped open. Torn apart by whomever she had encountered on her trip to the mortal realm. Had not allowed himself to look closer, to assess her injuries, because he could not stop seeing the blur of red. He knew he would have ripped everything apart against his better judgment, and there was no room for mistakes. Especially now.

His mate, lying there.

So still. So close to the other side. He hadn’t thought it was possible for the incarnation of death to come that close to death itself.

And so he had flown.

He’d flown to the tip of the Illyrian Mountains, surrounded by the frosted mist and cold air. Somewhere where he could finally breathe—big heaves of panicked breaths and shudders—feel anything besides the shallow, uneven beats of Nesta’s own breaths.

He could feel all of her and none of him.

His hands shook.

Cassian could not bring himself to conjure the image of Nesta’s broken body. If he did, perhaps even his Siphons would not be enough to contain that undying rage and panic and fear fear fear-

And yet the picture kept spinning inside his mind.

What if the spies Rhys had sent hadn’t been there to witness it?

Where would Nesta be?

Would anyone have seen his mate getting ripped apart to pieces and pieces and pieces? Until his own heart was ripped to pieces and pieces and fluttered to the floor until it died with his mate six feet below ground?

Would Nesta have-

The word clanged through his mind like a cold wave drowning him under. Would Nesta have died?

Another great heave a breath. In, out. Cassian closed his eyes.

The image reappeared.

So close to death. If it had been a second later...Cassian might have tossed himself off the nearest cliff.

The one he was perching on right now.

What had he said to Nesta before she left? If she had-

If she did not live, what would have been his last words to her?

How are your sisters capable of loving such a monster? How am I capable of it? I can’t fathom. If I were you, I’d toss-

The room had gone silent then.

Nesta—Nesta Archeron, whom he had figured out layer by layer, like the petals of a thorned rose—had built her walls back up that moment.

You should go.

And like the stupid bastard he was, he had just turned around and left.

He’d just left. The unfinished sentence, the unspoken words, haunted him that night, and the next night, chasing him to training and through the skies, until he had felt an excruciating pain burst along every edge and seam of him days later, like he was falling into darkness and doom and eternal coldness-

If I were you, I’d toss myself off the balcony.

Cassian did not think he had known true fear until the moment that horrible pain had shot down the bond, making him double over on the floor. That moment, when he had connected the dots and realized with that knowing, imminent dread settling in his stomach, that something terrible had happened to his mate.

He’d burst out of the room he had been in and found blood drips on the ground.

Had smelled Nesta Archeron.

When some of the other Illyrians had witnessed the red-streaked ground and asked about it, he’d simply snarled, “Get out of my way,” and bursted inside the healers’ wing. He’d stared at Rhys’ concerned, starless gaze—knew and raged an inner scream that that gaze was for the well-being of how Feyre would fare with the news, not for Nesta. He had avoided the lithe figure draped in towels and bandages to his left.

Rhys had murmured quietly, “Cass.”

And Cassian had looked.

Had looked at his mate, insides half jutting out, lips cracked and smeared, red dripping from her nose, eyes closed, lashes fluttering, hair knotted and frenzied, and had stumbled back out of the tent with wild eyes and panicked breaths.

He’d taken to the skies after that, reminding himself how utterly useless he was in the life and death of his mate, his tether, his blood and soul, how completely worthless of a bastard he was for not being the first one to have tended to her and to have saved her. He’d sat here for the entire day, watching the sun rise over the mountains, only to be concealed by the clouds.

The pain of the sharp wind against his cheeks felt like a blessing.

Maybe all that red had leeched the rest of the color away from the world.

He sat here on the cliff, high above the entire world, and stared blankly at the bleak, gray clouds.

What would Nesta tell him to do?

Haul your ass up, his brain immediately replied, and he almost smiled. Almost. But that was the problem, wasn’t it?

Nesta wasn’t here.

She was in a tent. Half-dead, drowning in her own blood.

He’d been the one to suggest having Nesta take this mission. Her skills were in her political ability, the sharpness and cleverness of her tongue that could swipe all the chess pieces off the board with a single word.

It was his fault that a pair of knives had impaled themselves in her—if those knives had been an inch closer to Nesta’s center, she wouldn’t be breathing.

Was she still breathing?

Cassian started shaking his head to the misty sky as if he could undo all of that day. Rewind to the moment he decided to tell the lords to send Nesta to the mortal realm, because she would not be cowed but would still understand humans, and tell himself to close his mouth. Undo the moment Nesta confronted him, telling him she didn’t need him to get jobs for her, that she was capable of handling herself and what she wanted to do. He’d told her that he had been helping her, that it would raise her ranks amongst the Illyrians. Like she was some piece of filth who had been tagging along on the ride that needed to climb ranks. His apology to her the day she was about to leave had come out as a soliloquy of anger and fumes, burning her castle walls down until she realized that she needed to rebuild them stronger, higher.

He was a damned bastard. He did not deserve that day Nesta had accepted the bond, a few years ago. Maybe he should undo that moment, too.

Silent footsteps neared from behind him, coming from a figure trailed in shadows. Cassian didn’t bother turning to his brother.

“Cassian.”

Why did everyone say his name and his name only, without anything to follow it? As if uttering his name would magically make him forget that his mate was dying and make him continue every day like nothing was wrong.

Nothing was wrong.

This feeling of nothingness, the empty well inside him that was an infinitely deep abyss, the tethering strands of the mating bond flung over the side, felt wrong. And yet, so very right. It felt right to internally punch himself in the stomach over and over again.

Azriel rested a hand on Cassian’s shoulder, and Cassian’s lip curled. He did not need Az’s pity.

“I’m not,” the Shadowsinger said tacitly, as if he could read Cassian’s mind. I’m not pitying you. “They finished the procedure on Nesta a few hours ago. You’ve been sitting here the entire night.”

Cassian just stared ahead of him.

“You’re allowed to visit her.”

Cassian stayed still. “How is she?”

There was a pause that seemed to hold the world slightly off-balance, like the cliffs and the skies and the seas were all holding their breath.

Az’s shadows cloaked around him. “The healer said she whispered your name in her sleep. Nobody else is allowed in except for you.”

Maybe his heart had broken in two and he was scrambling to recollect the pieces. Cassian finally looked at Azriel, eyes shuttering but grasping onto that dangerous light of hope. “Do you think she wants to see me?”

The Shadowsinger’s face was unreadable as he replied vaguely, “You’re her tether to this world.”

Cassian felt it then. The bond falling into the abyss, getting pulled back up, inch by inch, by someone so resilient and brave who had finally started pulling it back-

He rose to his feet and flared his wings. A nod at Az, and together, they took to the skies and back to the camp.

The winds howled in his ears like death became song. The camp appeared into view, sitting under the towering trees and the slate-gray sky.

His heart pounded furiously to the beat on the other side of the bond, fighting to remain a part of this world. Nesta, Nesta, Nesta.

The white flaps of the tent grazed his arm as he entered, looking away from Nesta’s figure propped up against the headboard. Her gaze barely shifted to him, dancing and flickering away.

Cassian felt like his body had gone numb.

She was covered in bandages. Some staining red and others fresh, and Cassian was seeing red again. Brutal, beaten red. Red, like the essence of life that made the most appearance when life was about to end.

He sank to his knees next to the bed and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Nesta.”

She turned his head away from him, and he closed his eyes at the small groan of pain it elicited from her.

Cassian shook his head. “I...I said too much too soon. All I wanted was...by the Cauldron, Nesta, I just-I didn’t mean it-”

“And yet you did,” she rasped. His wings drooped.

“I didn’t mean it that way. I-not that you need to raise your rank here or anything. I just thought that…” He trailed off, not knowing where he was going with this. It had come out of his mouth before it had even registered in his mind. Cassian sighed.

“I thought that you would be best for the mission. I’d been proud of your political abilities--still am--and I thought that being cooped up here in the mountains instead of using those skills in negotiation with the mortal realm was...gods, I don’t know. I just wanted something better for you.”

He watched a tear slide down her cheek and wanted to die then and there. “Nesta, please, look at me. If you’re going to let me go-” his voice broke, “-then at least look at me while you do it. Whatever you decide to do with...with my love. Just. Look at me.”

She turned to face him, and the devastation on her face was another slap to the face. “They were going to kill you,” she snarled. “They threatened to.”

Cassian’s blood ran cold. “What?”

“They were going to imprison me, and I fought. I fought because they were going to use me as bait-”

A growl ripped out of him. He would tear them apart.

“-for you. And I knew you would take the bait.”

Cassian swore his heart stopped. “Gods,” he breathed.

“I know you didn’t mean what you said. That doesn’t mean that you get to decide what missions I go on for me without my permission or talk to me that way. But they were going to kill you, and I couldn’t allow that when the last words we’d set to each other were-”

She closed her mouth abruptly, but Cassian just nodded. “I’m so sorry, Nesta. So, so sorry. I know that doesn’t fix a single damned thing, but I’d take it all back if I could.”

He wiped a tear away from her cheek. That drew another sob from her, great heaves of panicked breaths not because she was going to die, but because he might have exchanged his life for her. She tucked her head into the crook of his neck. Cassian held her tight, his chest tightening immeasurably. “I’ll be here. Always. I’ll be waiting wherever you go, but...Cauldron, Nes. I would really have come for you. But I would have torn them all apart.”

Nesta sniffled a little smile at that. He pressed a gentle kiss to her ruffled hair and spread his wings around them. There would be more time to talk, more time to piece together the puzzle pieces later. “Rest, love. I’ll be here.”

And so Nesta wiped the tears away, each one stripping her walls away until the entire complex of her palace was open to her mate, brimming and glistening with all those broken chandeliers that looked like starlight on the floor. When Cassian’s scent, more comforting than the crook of a pillow or the rustling of wind, slowly lured her to sleep, he stayed with her, was there for her. Always.

---------

tag list: @justgiu12 @maastrash @b00kworm @illyriangarbage @savemesoon8 @bryaxisthefaceofnightmares @yourtypicalbookworn @iammissstark @sayosdreams @sarcasticsashimi @sensitiveillyrian @sjm-things @courtofjurdan @acourtofmarauders @empress-ofbloodshed @ryhsrocks @thesirenwashere @rose-havilliard-calore

#nessian #nessian fic #acotar #nessian angst #nessian fluff #nessian hurt fic #a court of thorns and roses #acosf #sarah j maas

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buckyswinterbaby · 4 years ago

Text

Leave a Light On—Series Chapter 2

Song: “Bad Dreams” by Faouzia/“Ashes” by Céline Dion

Word Count: 1,724

Synopsis: In the process of settling into life at the new compound, Steve and Natasha find comfort in one another presence. Then together they start working towards rebuilding the program and assembling a new team of the Earth’s mightiest heroes.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff

Warnings: language, fluff, angst, death mention, grief, PTSD, eventual friends to lovers, slow burn (if you read real slow), eventual OC inclusion (not sure if that needs a warning but I don’t really wanna get complaints 😂).

Please like and reblog (I love that shit)! Click here to fill out the form to be added to my tag list!

Divider is made by me. Please as permission to use it.

Previous Chapters: Chapter 1

Note: Here be the second installment of LALO, I hope you all enjoy it. If you do, I would greatly appreciate a reblog/commentary as I’m just starting out (on Tumblr, I’ve written elsewhere). Let me know if you want to be added to my tag list!

It didn’t take long for the pair to settle into life at the compound once again, resuming their dynamics with one another, almost as if no time had passed. Things were still very different from the energy of the old compound. There were no early morning arguments over coffee grounds, Clint was no longer around to slip down the hall during his routine call with Laura. It was still home, just different.

The normal buzz of conversation was replaced with the sounds of ongoing construction on the opposite wing of the compound. Natasha complained, at first, about the steady sound of hammering and drilling that often began as early as eight in the morning, but the assassin soon found comfort in the consistency. She saw everything Steve was trying to build, the tired look in his eyes as contractors came to him with another problem they had uncovered and the bags under his eyes from another sleepless night. She wanted to help but for the first time in years, she was truly lost.

Even after the snap, she still knew Clint was alive and out in the world. She couldn’t find him but she could still function, if anything, keeping busy is what kept her sane. Following his death, she no longer had the energy to pick her work back up, at least not at the same level she did before. Natasha knew she spearheaded the Avengers after millions were dusted. She never gave up hope that a solution would be found and the lost would be returned. Clint’s death was permanent. “A soul, for a soul” was not a transaction that could be reversed and finding a way to live with that was easier said than done.

Steve was doing his best to help her and she saw it, the way he spread himself too thin. Too many nights of being jolted from his sleep from night terrors of his own or the screams that escaped her from across the hall.

As she shot up in bed from another nightmare of Clint falling to his death, she heard his familiar steps leaving his room before he punched in her access code to enter her room.

“Nat?” he called out, his voice still thick with sleep. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of her room, as only a thin strip of moonlight was cast across her bed. He shuffled over to her quietly, trying to not startle her in case she had yet to realize exactly where she was. Gently, he sat down on her bed and waited for her to gather her bearings.

Within a few minutes, bloodshot green eyes looked over at him, “Go back to bed, you look exhausted. I’m sorry I woke you.”

“I could say the same about you, you’re not looking so hot.” His hand moved to rest reassuringly on her leg as he spoke again, “Which one was it tonight? Vormir?”

Natasha nodded simply, “Isn’t it always?”

“No, some nights it’s the Red Room, during others it’s the battle. You don’t typically scream during those,” Steve answered, a hand running over his face as he tried to wake up. She tended to block out her night terrors to the best of her abilities as soon as she woke up, pushing them back into her subconscious, as deep as they would go. Normally after a few hours, she couldn’t even remember which nightmare she had that night.

“You have my nightmares memorized by if I scream or not?” Steve could see the slight outline of her grin in the moonlight. “That’s almost sweet, Rogers,” Natasha teased.

“Almost,” Steve let out a light chuckle and looked down as her hand moved to take his. He knew she was deflecting, it was a nasty habit of her’s that he was trying to break, but changes like that take time. “Let me help you. Lay down,” he instructed, his voice still calm and kind.

Natasha considered protesting like she usually did, but she was too exhausted. Steve moved to lean against her headboard, half sitting and half laying down in her bed, before he held his arms open. There was nothing romantic to his actions, just a friend offering support so she wouldn’t feel so alone. The assassin laid next to him, allowing his arms to hold her, and found a surprising amount of comfort in the simple act. They laid like that as Natasha eventually drifted off to sleep once again. Steve stayed still and watched her quietly, almost as if he was waiting to be sure her nightmares wouldn’t start again, before allowing himself to fall asleep.

When the sun rose the next morning, Natasha was still tucked closely to his side. It was not unusual for the two to end up in the same bed from one or both having a rough night. Sometimes it was just easier to have someone nearby. This night was not unlike the rest as Natasha blinked into consciousness and looked up at Steve, who was already awake and watching the sun rise quietly. The early morning rays washed over his features, a growing stubble on his jawline was now visible. Not that Natasha would ever admit it, but she preferred him this way. The facial hair was a change when he first decided to keep it, after his falling out with Tony, but it quickly grew on her and those he became allies with while on the run.

Natasha moved to sit up in the bed beside him, leaning against the headboard, “Did you even manage to sleep?” she asked with playfulness in her tone but concern on her face. She knew he never slept well after he came out of the ice and his problems only seemed to grow afterwards. He had a cocktail of PTSD from WW2, New York, Sokovia, Thanos, and even Germany. The events of his life were testaments to where he had been and what he had conquered to get where he was, but they also served as reminders to the price Steve had paid time and time again. He may have never truly died, but he lost more pieces of his life as time went on. Sometimes Natasha still found herself questioning why he came back when he had the chance to take back one of those pieces.

“I did, for a few hours,” he responded, looking away from the window and over to her with a light smile. “It’s more than I usually get, which I likely have you to thank for that.”

She lightly nudged him with her elbow, returning his look with a small grin. The pair sat in silence for a few more minutes, taking in the peace while they could. It was the rare moments like these that they were most grateful for, especially after everything that had happened within the past year. Nowhere to be, no tasks to be done, no one in need of saving. Just two friends sitting together in a building they were trying to make into a home.

Not long after, they went their separate ways to get ready for the day. Natasha walked into the new kitchen, her hair was still a bit damp from her shower. She couldn’t help but watch as Steve shuffled through a large stack of paperwork, his coffee sitting beside him, untouched. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration as he read through the first few documents. If only his day could continue as good as it began. Natasha quietly set a hand on his forearm as she reached for half the stack of papers in front of him.

“Natasha,-” he started to protest but was promptly cut off.

“Don’t try to fight me on this, Steve, you know I’ll win.” Natasha picked up the papers, moving them away from him, “Let me help you.”

The assassin moved to grab herself some coffee before sitting down with her half of the stack, skimming through the first few files quietly. After a few more moments, Steve spoke up, “I told you when you came here that I didn’t want you to help because you felt like you had to.”

“I’m well aware that I don’t have to. I’ve been here for what? Two, maybe three weeks since you picked me up? You haven’t pressured me to do a damn thing. I’m doing this because I want to. Besides, we always did make a good team, you and I.”

***

The next few weeks followed closely in suit with papers spread out across various surfaces and a steady brew of coffee filling their cups as they tried to piece it all together. There was a lot to plan for the program. Protocols, regimens, and most of all the criteria that would help them select possible candidates. Some of the structure was already there from the Avengers Initiative through S.H.I.E.L.D, or what it used to be. But they both knew how much the world had changed since the original program launched and they knew the new one had to be able to grow and develop with it.

It took some time, but eventually, they managed to narrow down the core ideals they wanted any recruits considered to hold true to. Many of which were formed from the most prominent and influential traits of their old team. The values that not only made them heroes, but the ones that made them human.

That was the goal afterall, was it not? Not the perfect soldiers that the government may want, but good individuals. People from all walks of life that could come together to create something larger than themselves.

Steve and Natasha stood outside the compound after the last few construction projects on the compound were finished. As they looked at the future of the Avengers Program, they couldn’t help but smile lightly, knowing that Tony and Clint would be proud of what they built from the ashes of what use to be.

Natasha crossed her arms and took in a deep breath, “So, what’s next?”

“Now, we find some recruits.” Steve responded, looking over at her, “You ready for a road trip?”

“I am, but I’m driving this time. I’d like to arrive before I get to be your age.”

“You know what, Romanoff…”

#natasha romanoff #steve rogers #steve x natasha #Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff #romanogers #romanogers AU #marvel #marvel AU #marvel fanfic series #marvel fanfiction #captain america #black widow #marvel angst #leave a light on #leave a light on series #LALO #LALO series

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midnight-strays · 5 years ago

Note

Omggg what about sister Headcanons for them like older or a smaller sister.(You can pick any character)

//So many of these precious characters need the guidance of an older sister, so let’s do older sister headcanons! I could so do this for like, majority of the characters. As an older sister myself, all I wanna do is help these poor souls XD I may have gotten a little carried away here.

Atsushi Nakajima

As the older sister of Atsushi, it would be easy to compare your life to taking a burning stroll through hell. It wasn’t easy, having to watch on as your little brother is beaten for reasons he didn’t know or understand. You barely understood yourself, but you did try to take care of him to the best of your ability.

After leaving the orphanage, the two of you wandered together for a bit before eventually, Atsushi took it upon himself to keep you safe from the ‘tiger’ following him and left you. You looked up and down for him but to no avail, he was always on the run and because he was always running, there was no telling how far he would get in a day, what turn he would have made and if he was even alive anymore.

You had a better grasp as to what was wrong with him now, understood he was an ability user- you had heard of them during your time on the streets but wasn’t sure how to explain it to him, so you kept it to yourself for now. You’ve regretted that decision every day since because maybe, just maybe, your baby brother wouldn’t have run off the way he did.

You just thought for sure that while together, you had done enough for him to feel safe with you. You gathered as much food as you could- though it wasn’t much- you were more willing to steal than he was, kept him as warm as you could, told him stories you’d made up in your head to help him sleep and even stayed up at night to ease his mind about the tiger returning, despite you knowing that it was in fact him that was the tiger.

It was months after he ran off that you met again. Atsushi was on a job, nothing serious, and you were running down the street, still in ragged clothes and holding a loaf of bread close to your chest. You weren’t looking where you were going for a spit second, looking back to see if you were still being chased, only to run right into the boy, knocking him to the ground and making you drop the bread.

The both of you immediately sprung into apologising to each other, helping each other up before finally making eye contact. As much as I’d like to say you threw yourself at him and the two of you hugged in the middle of the street, the guy chasing you caught up and pulled you back by the collar of your shirt, yelling at you about stealing form him and how he was going to report you to the police and everything.

Atsushi almost threw himself at the man but quickly put two and two together when he saw the bread on the ground. Taking responsible action, he calmed the man down and paid for the bread to get you out of trouble and once everything was taken care of, he took you by the hand and brought you elsewhere, where you finally held on tight to each other, quietly weeping to each other about how much you’d missed each other.

From there, he takes you back to his apartment so you can get cleaned up and things go from there.

Being his older sister means lecturing him whenever he doesn’t take care of himself properly because he doesn’t exactly know how to or because he’s been too stressed out or distracted to do so. It means being scared for his safety often because he’s constantly dealing not only with the mafia but other dangerous people who could hurt him. It’s being so proud of the new skills he’s developing, the control he has over his ability and him finally finding people he can trust aside from yourself. It also means putting up with Osamu Dazai on the Daily because ‘Hey, Atsushi has a cute older sister.’

I don’t really think Atsushi would allow his older sister to join the ADA and would maybe insist she get a job in the café downstairs as it would be safer but still close to him. He feels like he should be the one protecting you because of what he does now. He knows he’s capable of taking care of you.

This does not, by any means, mean that you don’t treat him like your baby brother. This is the kind of relationship where you’ll openly be affectionate towards him in front of everyone, lecture him in front of others and so on. Embarrassing older sister anyone? I also see you bringing him lunch whenever he forgets or you’re feeling generous (which makes Dazai swoon and beg you to bring him lunch sometime- before asking you to commit a double suicide with him)

Oh for the record, Atsushi isn’t one to get too grumpy with Dazai, not openly at least, but he does get really fed up with him asking you to commit suicide with him all the time though so he has been seen passively telling Dazai off.

It’s a very loving relationship, the two of you supporting each other in ways you always have in the past, but now with the benefits of being able to eat properly, stay warm and healthy and not need to rely on each other to survive another day of hell, because every day isn’t hell anymore.

Kyoka Izumi

If Kyoka was to have an older sister, she’d be reasonably older, perhaps a stepsister that wasn’t around when their parents died. I imagine she would have been studying abroad or something of the sort, so by the time she arrived to be there for her baby sister, Kyoka was already gone.

This would leave you searching for her for years. Missing posters, private detectives, constantly bothering the police, asking if they had any leads yet and so on.

You would end up broke, exhausted, possibly depressed and unbelievably desperate, so much, that you would take one last chance at reaching out for help. The police had recommended the Armed Detective Agency to you after pestering them repeatedly, but you had been sceptical.

You still were after seeing them. They seemed quite… unorthodox. Not a very professional bunch but then again, they seemed to be focused on making sure the dramatic brunette left you alone.

That was last year and even they didn’t seem to come up with anything, so you slowly began to lose hope.

You didn’t find out that they had found Kyoka until after she had officially joined the Armed Detective Agency and you’d just about choked Dazai out for waiting so long to call you until Fukazawa explained their reasoning to you.

After that, you were a sobbing mess, in the middle of the office, just holding onto your little sister who seemed oh so unsure of how to feel. She had thought for sure that you had forgotten about her, that you’d not even bothered searching for her and continued on with your life. It took her a while, but she too broke down, more so from relief than anything else, as she had someone who actually loved her by her side.

You would be so grateful towards Atsushi for everything he had done for Kyoka, he was the reason she was still alive after all. This was after managing to sit through the explanation of what’s been going on for the last few years.

This being said, it was no big surprise that you, Kyoka and Atsushi started going out places together, having a good time and experiencing the many amazing things in life that they and even you had missed out on over the years.

I totally reckon Kyoka’s big sister would totally take Atsushi in as a lil brother or something thanks to all he’s done for the girl.

Alone time with Kyoka would often involve eating. The both of you are foodies and share a love for crepes. Your time together isn’t just spent eating though. It’s full of kept promises, getting to know each other again, teaching each other new things and rebuilding a bond that was never given a chance to bloom in the past.

Much like she does with the ADA, she looks to you for guidance since she doesn’t know how to live a normal life anymore, but she’s bound to adjust quickly.

You offer to take her away with you, away from the mafia and the ADA, but she insists on staying, leaving you to settle down in town so she can continue to stay with Atsushi and the others, keeping a close eye on her and giving her a place to live so she isn’t crowding Atsushi.

Chuuya Nakahara

Chuuya was a loner from the start, so you’re not his actual sister. Instead, you’re the one who found him on his own and offered him a hand up. Sure, he didn’t exactly trust you at first but over time, the two of you came to rely on each other and eventually formed a sibling bond. If someone asked if you were siblings, the answer was quite simple. Yes.

Even while you were members of Sheep, you, being relatively high rank thanks to Chuuya becoming the leader, the two of you remained closer than anyone else. You could see Chuuya, in a way, liked being relied on, gave him a purpose. You were of course, proud of his strength, but also a little concerned over the dangers that came with the Port Mafia fighting with the Sheep constantly. Of course, you were just as much of a delinquent teenager as anyone else was, but you didn’t want your little brother on the front lines like that.

Honestly, you’re concerned about him most of the time until he joins the Port Mafia. Whether you join or not doesn’t make too much of a difference to your relationship. If you don’t join, Chuuya would insist you receive the Mafia’s protection as a condition to him joining their ranks. If you do join, he insists you stay by his side.

I doubt you’d become an executive unless you’re able to develop quite the amount of skill like Dazai or have an ability that is of great value. You need to be ruthless to be an executive and I don’t quite see Chuuya being okay with you changing so drastically. He’s always been this way, while you’ve been softer, kind, helping those around you when they need it. So, you’d most likely end up a subordinate, but still ranking quite highly.

You’re not allowed around Dazai without Chuuya there and even then, he doesn’t want you around Dazai. Chuuya would rather die than allow Dazai to lay a hand on you. Not only because he sees him as a complete asshole who should kill himself already, but because he understands that Dazai is an incredibly dangerous, deceptive guy who can and will hurt you if he needs to. (Dazai would never hurt you).

You hate it when he uses Corruption. Seeing him or just hearing about him losing control in such a way hurts you deep down because you know that he could easily die after taking a whole lot of lives. You have slapped Dazai for being careless while he was in that form too. If something were to happen to your brother while they were together, and it could have been prevented, you will blame Dazai.

Despite this, you’re both heavily impacted by Dazai’s disappearance, but you step up to help your little brother handle his anger (mostly about his exploded car) and even became his new partner on important missions. Meaning, yes, you became an executive.

Do the two of you drink wine together? Hell, yes you do. It’s how you relax, unwind from all the stress of the mafia. It’s time for you two of open up to each other and reminisce about the past, even if it did suck.

You take care of him to the best of your ability, even if he is stronger than you in so many ways. He won’t say it out loud but you are his rock. He needs you to keep him grounded. If anything were to happen to his big sister, the one he relied on so much to get by, he wouldn’t be able to cope.

Days off are almost always spent together. Treating each other out to lunch, getting drinks, buying new clothes, and just acting like normal people. You’re both very ready to jump into action if need be, whether it’s against criminals, targets or just assholes getting in your way. Chuuya also doesn’t tolerate guys flirting with you. No one is good enough for you. In return, you tend to cockblock him when he meets someone because two can play at that game.

While being Chuuya’s older sister, you don’t always get to see him or act as an older sister to him. Actually, a lot of your time while you can’t be together and you’re not doing your own thing, is spent on Akutagawa and Gin. Having had a rough childhood, somewhat like theirs, you take it upon yourself to try guide them in the right direction and even too over Akutagawa’s training. Needless to say, you were a lot easier on him than Dazai was, but it was too late to make much of an impact on him. Gin, however, was easier, so you kinda have a younger sister now too. Aku is you new lil bro, he just doesn’t know it.

You and Chuuya don’t rely too heavily on each other. Well, you do but you don’t. You need each other, no doubt, but you can cope on your own as long as you know the other is okay. You don’t want Mori finding out about how much you guys need each other because while you’re both completely and utterly loyal to the man, you both are very aware that he is a bad man who can and will manipulate situations to his advantage.

So, just a headcanon of mine- obviously, but I feel like the two of you could share a penthouse apartment of sorts. Absolute comfort considering the money you both make and all that Jazz. You both have your own large rooms, your own bathrooms and all that, but you’re always close. Your rooms aren’t far from each other, you sit across from each other at the dinner table, sit right next to each other when watching tv and occasionally, when one is having a hard time sleeping, you’ll curl up beside each other to help ease you both into sleep, feeling safe in each other’s presence.

#bsd x reader #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bungou stray dogs x reader #sister reader #x reader #atsushi nakajima x reader #atsushi x reader #atsushi nakajima #atsushi #kyoka #kyoka izumi #kyoka x reader #chuuya x reader #chuuya nakahara x reader #chuuya nakahara #chuuya

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iohourtime · 4 years ago

Text

Kiokuya (The Memory Eraser) Review - With Spoilers

Since I read the book, sort of followed the filming progress, and read a bunch of interviews (that all sounded the same after a while), I should finish off by writing a review for the movie itself!

Thanks to the pandemic, I was stuck at home watching Netflix for 7 months, so I’ve watched all sorts of movies & TV; sadly most are in the average to crappy category. To me, Kiokuya was probably in the average to slightly above average category. In other words, there are elements I like and there are things I feel the movie can improve on.

The review is a bit long since apparently I have a lot of thoughts about the script.😅 I pretty much summed up my thoughts in the “theme” section. If you are interested in the book / movie differences & things from the DVD visual commentary, I included those in the script & characters section. (Movie Walker included highlights from the visual commentary here.) . If you want to discuss the movie but don’t want to put spoilers on Twitter, leave me a message.

Theme:

The movie’s main theme is obviously about memory. If a memory is making your life miserable, or even stopping you from living, is it better to erase it? Or do all memories, even bad ones, shape you as a human? If someone’s memory of you is gone, are you killed in their minds? If you think someone is better off forgetting you, do you have the right to ask Kiokuya to erase their memories of you? Are the memories gone forever? If you have the power to erase someone’s memory, what are your responsibilities? And to some extent, what are the criteria to evaluate each request and what due diligence should you do before you accept this task? These were the questions the movie wanted you to ask. You know because the movie kept hitting you on the head through the dialogue! That’s probably my main complaint about the movie.

I didn’t study film so I don’t know the theories, but I think being heavy handed at telling you what you should be thinking is like listening to a textbook; it robs the audience of the chance to experience and internalize what they saw, and as a result, they are less able to connect emotionally to the film. That’s not to say people are not moved by the movie and empathize with the characters. I feel that it had more to do with the actors than the script though.

I think the cinematography was generally nice. I liked how they used the drone shots to film the beautiful Hiroshima scenery. The sunset scene was beautiful. The music did not seem intrusive. Other than that, I’m not sure I have more to say. (Fine. Yamada looked good in the plaid shirts and his hair was on point.)

Script vs Book: (Spoiler alert from here on!)

Kiokuya, the movie, was an adaptation of a “horror” novel of the same name. Although there were horror elements, mostly because Kiokuya was kind of a shadowy figure, even the novel itself was focused more on humanity. The original story was divided into 4 parts; the first 3 parts were really 3 separate short stories that explored different reasons people have for wanting their memories erased. The final part was about Kiokuya herself. The Ryoichi character simply served as a bridge between the stories. Here’s a brief description:

Kyoko - A while ago, she was attacked in a dark alley but was saved at the last minute. Even though she was unharmed, she developed a crippling phobia of the dark, so she locked herself inside her home at night and was not able to live a normal life. She and Ryoichi were kinda but not really dating, and Ryoichi, being a typical guy, figured he could fix her. Kyoko tried everything but as a last resort, she asked Kiokuya to erase her memory of the attack. Since her relation with Ryoichi was based almost entirely on overcoming the phobia, she forgot him too. Through this incident, Ryoichi remembered how Maki had her memory erased when she was 5 or 6 - she saw her mom confessing to her dad that she had an affair with her uncle. Kiokuya might have erased Maki’s memory a second time when she was 10-12. Finally, he realized he “forgot” about his year-long investigation of Kiokuya with Takahara & others. It seemed like he was doggedly pursuing Kiokuya because he felt violated more than his undying love for Kyoko. In his own words, he didn’t try to rebuild his relationship with Kyoko again after she forgot about him. There was nothing stopping him, so his feelings towards Kyoko were not that deep.

Takahara - He was a 30 year old ikemen lawyer, though like the movie, he was dying. The chapter focused on his touching friendship with his assistant. Takahara was also close with Nanami, a suicidal, 17-year-old daughter of a client who became very attached to him. When Takahara found out Nanami planned to kill herself after he died, he asked Kiokuya to erase her memory of him so that she would live on.

Misao & Kaname - They were childhood friends and Misao started crushing on Kaname. She confessed and was rejected, but after that, they were not able to be friends like before. She figured if she erased everything about Kaname, they may be able to start over and become friends again without the awkward feelings.

Maki - Ryoichi thought Maki was looking for Kiokuya to erase some unpleasant memories. Then he found out she was Kiokuya, who inherited her ability from her grandfather. In the end, Maki confessed to the burden of being Kiokuya and Ryoichi told her he would support her and that she didn’t have to do it alone. Maki decided to erase anything Kiokuya related in his memory, but their friendship remained intact. Oh, Maki was 17 in the book and also had a crush on Ryoichi. She erased his memories many times before. Like in the movie, she also would like Ryoichi to love her just once, although he never ever saw her as anyone other than his annoying little sister. 😅

The director of the movie, Hirakawa Yuichi, also wrote or co-wrote the script. While the movie stuck to the themes of the novel, the motivations were completely different. Kyoko and Misao were both rape victims, Takahara now wanted to protect his young daughter from the sadness of his death, and Maki was herself kidnapped by a psychopath when she was a kid. I guess Hirakawa needed to pump up the drama and felt the stakes were not high enough for a 2 hour movie? There is always some uneasiness with using rape and trauma to move the story along. I guess there is a difference between this and the usual example of “fridging a female character”, i.e. kill a love interest of the hero to motivate him on some journey. Ryoichi was motivated by being erased and he actually gradually realized he should not push for restoring Kyoko’s memories if it was her wish. He only found out what happened to her at the end of the movie. Considering their relationship in the movie was a lot more serious, they couldn’t really use the phobia of darkness reason. However, it would also take something really big for Kyoko to want her memory erased while not talking to Ryoichi beforehand. Anyway, I really don’t see a way out of this.

For Misao though, I didn’t think they needed to make her a victim of the same serial rapist, especially when they use the same reason as the book for erasing Kaname. I suppose they need to explain why Nanami (and later Ryoichi) was looking into them? But they could just have the doctor referred the case (who appeared to be breaking doctor-patient confidentiality?! Just me?) In fact, the whole Misao / Kaname storyline didn’t really do much other than allowing Ryoichi to find out from Kaname that Kiokuya was a young girl.

Maki’s childhood trauma was also a bit excessive. I can’t see it as anything other than to get Ryoichi out to Hiroshima to talk to Grandpa. While finding out mom was “dealing with” uncle would be traumatic for a young child, it might not be dramatic enough for a movie.

Ryoichi & Maki’s origins were also changed. They were now raised in Hiroshima and moved to Tokyo to attend university. The only reason was to place Grandpa-Kiokuya in Hiroshima after the bombing. While I liked the grandpa scene, was it necessary? They already covered the “Kiokuya after WWII” with the interview with the elderly woman. I think they could still keep Grandpa, since he was Kiokuya (and ironically suffering from Alzheimer’s) but maybe just skip the elderly woman part and use those minutes to build Ryoichi & Kyoko’s relationship!

Upgrading Ryoichi & Kyoko’s relationship to being engaged gave him more incentive to look for Kiokuya, but all we got to see was 1 proposal scene and some snapshots, which made it harder for us to understand the loss Ryoichi experienced when Kyoko forgot him. Ultimately, I feel that more time should be given to the “before” times. They don’t even need that much. If done effectively like the movie Searching with John Cho, 5 minutes or so of clips would be enough to get us to care more. I’m not saying people won’t care, but it’s true that there are people who didn’t quite feel it. Yamada basically had to sell it with longing looks at Renbutsu, so how deeply you feel for them depends on whether you buy it or not.

Takahara’s story might have been changed because of who they cast. Also, Takahara & Nanami’s relationship in the book was kinda weird, considering Nanami actually loved him and she was 17 while he was 30. I definitely cannot agree with how Movie Takahara wanted to erase his daughter’s memory to spare her the pain of losing him. It reminded me of that Black Mirror episode where the mom put in a blocker to shield her daughter from bad things. It ended up messing up the girl & broke their relationship. Young children are resilient and the sadness would eventually change into something else, which would shape their characters. Also, just because she forgot her birth father didn’t mean she would suddenly get along with her stepfather. I won’t even get into the whole consent thing. It was a good thing Maki did not follow through.

Less good was what Movie Maki did to Ryoichi & Kyoko though. When I found out Movie Ryoichi & Kyoko were engaged instead of “pre-dating” like in the book, I was quite worried they would have Movie Maki erase Ryoichi from Kyoko’s mind for selfish reasons. I was hoping that maybe he got erased by mistake, but unfortunately, the script did go with the jealousy angle, which made Maki extremely unsympathetic.

In the visual commentary, they said they rewrote the ending because it didn’t fit. Maki erased her entire existence from Ryoichi's mind as penance for what she did. (I think initially, they were going with the book ending where Maki just erased Kiokuya from his head.) In the end, the actual cut used in the movie was more ambiguous - they “left it to the audience” to decide how much Maki erased and whether Ryoichi & Kyoko got a second chance at happiness. (The director said it ended on a hopeful note. Take it how you want.)

It’s unclear if Movie Maki erased Ryoichi’s memories more than once, but Book Maki had done it many times. Even though Book Maki seemed more responsible with her powers and didn’t slip up like Movie Maki, she did wipe part of Ryoichi’s memories without his consent. Ryoichi said that she didn’t have to do this alone and she could lean on him, so why didn’t she? Also, losing all that memory got to have some long term effect on him, right? In the movie, it was worse because Maki took the “easy” way out by erasing herself. Yes, she was punishing herself, but shouldn’t the more courageous thing to do was to own up to what she had done and work for Ryoichi’s (& Kyoko’s) forgiveness?

Speaking of Ryoichi’s forgiveness, I actually saw some viewers calling Ryoichi a cad for telling Maki that he would always protect her and be by her side to protect her. Apparently they seemed to think he was in love with Maki and forgot all about Kyoko. Well, I think in that moment, there were 3 things going on: 1) Takahara told him that it was better to forgive and that there will be justice in other ways, 2) he understood why it was devastating to Kyoko to remember what happened and 3) Maki was like his little sister. His immediate desire to comfort his friend overrode the anger and betrayal he might have felt. Had Maki not erased his memory around 2 minutes after, who knew if they would have a more substantial talk? He didn’t even have a chance to talk to Kyoko. (I suspect Maki would have tried to “spare him” by erasing his relationship with Kyoko as well. He still ended up at the cafe because he could remember physically going there a lot.)

Overall, I think the movie was a bit unfocused due to some extraneous storylines and having too much exposition, which was a disservice to some of the characters. It failed to show how their relationships build, like Ryoichi & Takahara became buddies over what seemed like a week! I wish they trimmed a couple of the minor stories and used that time to go deeper on the main lines.

Characters / Actors:

Yoshimura Ryoichi (Yamada Ryosuke)

I was watching the movie and halfway through when it hit me… Yamada’s Ryoichi was… normal? I mean obviously quite good looking in the boy-next-door kind of way, but Ryoichi was a regular, run-of-the-mill university student, who was normally an optimistic and forgiving but happened to be dealing with heartbreak at the moment. Seriously, if you’ve watched Yamada’s other works, his characters are usually kind of comedic, sort of pathetic, occasionally brilliant, psychotic, or… non-human. (Very odd roles for a Johnny’s actor.) He probably has not been this normal since the 24Hr drama. He still cried a lot, so that’s familiar.

OK, let’s get back on topic. Since Book Ryoichi functioned more as a character that connects the short stories rather than a real character, I didn’t have hopes for the movie version. Surprisingly, Movie Ryoichi came across as a real person and I did care what happened to him. While we didn’t get to see how Ryoichi & Kyoko were in happier times, he was able to convey the longing and slight awkwardness in their interaction when he tried to talk to her after. Similarly, in the scene where he learned of Takahara’s death, you could tell what was going through his mind even though he said nothing. Same with the final “confrontation” with Maki. Even though he didn’t say much, his eyes conveyed the emotions subtly: the longing, shock, confusion, etc. Overall, he was quite subtle and natural. As the articles say, he managed to “suppress his aura” and played an average guy. I hope he can play more of these subtle types of roles in future. (It is unfortunate that a lot of people have preconceived notions about Johnny’s actors, to put it politely. It’s like the reverse of the “fan blinder” that we sometimes get accused of having.)

Now there are some discussions as to whether he overacted in the crying scenes. The main “crying” scenes were probably 1) confession to grandpa in Hiroshima, 2) in the rain, and 3) reading the letter. I’ve seen people say he overacted in either 1) or 2).

When I first watched the Hiroshima scene, I did feel that his crying may have been a bit much because I was watching the movie with just Japanese subtitles, so I missed an important detail: Ryoichi told his mom he was going to Hiroshima to confront his past. When you consider that Ryoichi had been carrying the guilt for “causing” Maki’s kidnapping for 15 years, it was totally reasonable for him to prostrate himself in front of Grandpa. He would also be relieved when Grandpa told him the statute of limitation was over and he should forgive himself. As an aside, according to the director in the visual commentary, Yamada cried in the first take of the scene. Hirakawa said “Aren’t you crying too much?” Yamada said “OK, I’ll do another take without crying.” However, when the Director was cutting the movie together, he suddenly saw Ryoichi’s mental journey and ended up using the first take because it was the logical conclusion to the closure he got.

In the rain scene, he just learned about Kyoko’s attack. Knowing how much hurt she endured and how he did nothing to support and comfort her, he was still in a state of shock when he got knocked down. Then the dam burst and he cried hysterically. That seemed quite reasonable to me. I was more shocked that nobody checked on the guy who fell on the pavement and was crying. Pedestrians were cold! So I don’t really understand the objection to that scene. Maybe they thought this was something that happened a while ago and/or he didn’t love Kyoko that much, so he wouldn’t be that emotional?

I don’t think people have issues with the letter scene? Narratively, it made the most sense since he was close with Takahara, who was literally speaking to him from the grave via the letter. Oh, they talked about filming the letter scene in the visual commentary. Yamada was just reading the letter in silence and they added in Takahara’s narration in post production. Since he wanted to save the emotional outburst for the real take, he did not dare to look at the letter during the rehearsal.

One last thing, Yamada and Yoshine spoke in Hiroshima-ben when they were talking amongst each other. I have horrible listening skills and while I think he used some slang or phrasing, his accent still seemed mostly Kanto. It’s like if I call a bunch of people “wankers” with a Canadian accent; it doesn’t make me sound English. Maybe someone can tell me just how well (or not) he did.

Kawai Maki (Yoshine Kyoko)

I have only watched Yoshine in the drama Stay Tuned and I liked her there. She played this airhead character who could be super annoying if the balance was off, yet she came across as likeable. I think she portrayed Maki very well in this movie. Of course, I knew she was Kiokuya going in, so even at the beginning, you could see some of her subtle reactions to the Kiokuya discussions. I really liked her chemistry with Yamada - they felt like they could have been lifelong friends. While she played the annoying little sister part quite well, you could also see the pain she felt when she had to make difficult choices like erasing Nanami’s memory. Throughout the movie, you could sense her regret for what she did to Ryoichi. Her emotions in the final scene were also very raw. While Maki’s characterization was problematic, Yoshine was really good at playing that character and you might even be sympathetic towards her. Also, I feel that her Hiroshima-ben might be more on point? Some people didn’t buy that she was in love with Ryoichi the whole time. I thought the flashbacks made it pretty clear but I’ve also read the book, so there’s that.

In the visual commentary, they were talking about their various acting styles. Yoshine said she carried her emotions with her even after the director shouted cut. So when she was shooting the last scene, she was still crying furiously afterwards. Yamada said she was like an acting monster - she could get right into the emotions even during the table read. It was funny how different she is from Yamada and Renbutsu. They are the flip-the-switch type - when the director yells cut, it was like they woke up from a dream into a different world. She also apologized to Yamada when they were watching the scene where she confessed to selfishly erasing Kyoko’s memory of Ryoichi.😅

Takahara Tomoaki (Sasaki Kuranosuke)

I have not seen Sasaki’s other projects, so I had no idea what to expect. His Takahara came across as pretty charming, easy going, and playful, though you could feel his love for his daughter and the hard decision he had to make. He also had a natural chemistry with the other cast and was very believable. While I disagree with what Takahara wanted, Sasaki’s acting as Takahara made sense. I don’t know what more to say. It is probably expected since he is a veteran and is generally well regarded as an actor.

Sawada Kyoko (Renbutsu Misako)

I have only seen Renbutsu in Hagaren. I liked her character there. I also liked how Yamada decided to break the ice with her back then by asking if she has any friends. (She had more friends than him. 😅) To be honest, there wasn’t much for her to do in this movie, although I think she was believable as the very confused Kyoko. She was apprehensive about Ryoichi in the “after” scenes, who was honestly coming across too strong. I don’t think Ryoichi & Kyoko really had crackling sexual chemistry based on the proposal scene, but they seemed like a cute couple. They were pretty cute together in the behind-the-scenes featurette when they took the “dating photos”. I wish those dates were included in the movie.

Conclusion:

As you can see above, I have some general issues about the script but I think the actors elevated the story. The movie could have been better if it streamlined some of the storylines. Right now, it was trying to go for a deeper message but the stories themselves were a bit too superficial to accomplish that. I suppose the problem was that the original novel was more like an anthology of short stories dealing with memory, so it was hard to create a through line for a movie.

#Kiokuya #anata ha wasurenai #yamada ryosuke #yoshine kyoko #sasaki kuranosuke #renbutsu misako #review #spoilers #the memory eraser

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erekiosuncreativeideas · 4 years ago

Text

Being Human - Chapter 18

<= Chapter 17

Summary : Snatcher is trying to summon his powers. Also available on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/24826561/chapters/69377466

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Merry Christmas and happy holidays !

I've been stuck on this chapter for a while, I hope you'll like it ! Thank you for your patience ! And thank you so much for all of your positive comments, I'm so glad you like this fanfiction !

Of course, the “Oh The Humanity” AU belongs to @doodledrawsthings ! (And Happy Birthday again ! :D )

The art in this drawing was made by @xxfaylinnxx ! I love it, thank you !

Happy reading !

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Chapter 18 - “ I… I did it... ”

Finding a way to use his powers was much easier said than done, just like Snatcher had feared. Of course, using human magic and soul-related magic... It was obvious there were going to be differences, whether it was on the way it functioned or just the energy it used. Thus, the former ghost had had no choice but to isolate himself to try to summon his old magic.

He still had no idea if this was going to work or not… And, well, after hours of trying, he was starting to get quite pessimistic. After a quick shower, a change of clothes and after telling Moonjumper and the girls he wanted to be alone to try, the brats had guided him to the gallery. He did remember his stay there with Cooking Cat, and he had to admit that the place was calm and more than suitable for focusing on hard-to-do stuff… Which, in that particular case, was exactly what magic was for him.

-“Come on…” he groaned, staring at the piece of paper he had been holding for a while now, a clear frown visible on his face. Why did this have to be so hard?! It shouldn’t be so difficult to light a single piece of paper on fire! It was one of the easiest thing there was for someone who could use magic! Even as a kid, he was able to summon small sparks!

So why, while being in his adult body, wasn’t he able to do at least that? This just made no sense to him. Another frustrated groan left his lips, and he let his head fall backwards, hitting the wall to which he was sitting against. With a sigh, he shut his eyes, his mind wandering to the possible reasons he couldn’t summon even the littlest spark.

Was it just a lack of practice, like he truly wanted to believe ? Or was it something darker…? Perhaps death had taken his powers away, for good, no matter what miracles (or disasters actually) a Time Piece could achieve. Rationally speaking, this didn’t make much sense, but his obvious lack of success was enough to hurt his hopes and ego. He, who had taken great pride in his magical abilities, was definitely challenged by the nonsensical difficulty of this task.

He sighed once more and eventually reopened his eyes, feeling more exhausted than ever.

The man knew the kids were working on their own, tinkering with the Time Piece that had caused all of this… But, deep inside, he was terribly aware that he was most likely the only one able to stop Vanessa. No matter how much he hated this, how much the whole ordeal scared him much past his comfort zone…

He was still the only person able to face her… And the only person she was really looking for, honestly. Whether she knew the Snatcher had been her lover all along or just wanted to destroy the rest of the forest to defy the entity that had taken control of it, he didn’t know. What he did know, however… Was that, no matter what obstacles she would encounter, she wouldn’t stop until she got what she wanted.

She might be unpredictable now that she had become a true monster, but this had stayed the same, even after death. Or, well, whatever had happened to her, really. Magic corruption, while he knew a bit on the topic, was not his forte. Fire was.

Fire was his forte and he was unable to light a single piece of paper on fire. That simple thought made Snatcher grit his teeth hard: this was just painfully humiliating. He shut his eyes again, clenching his fists around the paper, his muscles tensing up.

-“Come on…!” he repeated, more and more enraged by how useless he felt. Gods, he had been here for hours, now! Why couldn’t he do something that simple? He needed this! Maybe he had been wrong to repress his old human self, okay, sure, yeah, he could accept that it might have been a mistake, because he sure needed his old abilities now. For Gods’ sake, his insane fiancé was ready to destroy the entire forest, the kingdom he had worked so hard to restore, the children he had saved from oblivion… And all of this, everything that had taken him centuries to rebuild, was going to be wiped out by his crazy ex?

No.

No he would not accept that. Anger fuelled him again, his brow furrowing and his face getting redder as seconds passed. He would not allow that, he would not accept any of this, not now, not ever. After everything Vanessa had done to him, to his, no, their kingdom, its inhabitants…!

She didn’t deserve to win anything. And he would make sure of it, no matter how much time it would take. The former ghost couldn’t help but snicker bitterly. This shouldn’t be so hard, it was just a matter of focusing, concentrating his inner energy towards a single thought, one that would materialize in the form of heat radiating from his fingers… Then, it was just a matter of intensifying it until it-

Snatcher’s train of thought was interrupted as his nose caught a very peculiar smell, one that definitely forced him to come back to reality, wondering what could be the cause of it. Yet… Yet, he kind of already knew. He knew that smell.

The smell of something burning.

The man focused back on the small piece of paper he had been holding, his fingers trembling and feeling weaker. The former shade’s eyes widened as he saw the little black spot on the paper, slowly consuming it, little yellow sparks coming out of the tips of his fingers. Small crackling sounds could be heard as the fire was starting to develop, even if just a little. For a moment, he couldn’t move, his stare fixed on the paper as the sparks died down, surprise and bewilderment bothering the focus he desperately needed to keep them up.

He… He did it. Snatcher had just managed to summon his magic. His human magic, the one that ran through his family, the one he had pushed away all those years while trying to forget about his old self- It was there, literally at the tips of his fingers.

-“I…” His voice was low, like a whisper: “I did it,” he breathed out, his eyes unable to leave the burning paper. His mind was empty of thoughts, and it is only when the fire died down for good that he, once more, came back to reality.

He had done it! Soon, a small smile started to creep at his lips, while waves of relief were hitting him continuously: with this, he would be able to light the Subcon Fires back! Sure, he had only been able to summon sparks… But this was just the beginning! After all, he had just been proven that his human magic was still accessible! Who knew what he could still do after all of these centuries!

With a smile that was just getting wider and wider each new passing second, the former ghost stood up quickly, his body swaying a bit from how clumsy he still was. But he didn’t care, it was nothing compared to the feelings of relief, pride and satisfaction he was experiencing at this very moment. Subcon was saved! Once the fires would be back to their usual size, all he would have to do would be to wait in this human body until the girls figured out how to reverse the whole situation.

This was just perfect!

With a newfound and powerful determination, the young man stumbled to the door as fast as he could, excited to show this to the trio. He’d show them he was still the powerful ruler of Subcon, he’d show them how wrong they had been to pity him! And so, once the gallery door opened, the former shade climbed up the hallway slope and reached the machine room. As soon as the door opened, his eyes immediately fell onto the trio, who were all busy working, doing… Whatever was needed to make the Time Piece work in reverse. The hatted brat seemed to be pushing buttons on a large machine while the younger child was tinkering with another machine, the latter plugged onto the inside of the Time Piece, to which the top had been removed. Now, several long metal cables, all of them with different colours, were sitting inside the magical sand. As for Moonjumper, he was hovering over the two kids, glancing at what they were doing with a lot of attention.

All three of them turned their head to him when he entered the room. It wasn’t long before a look of confusion spread onto their features as they saw the big, wide and unusual smile on his face… Before their eyes moved to the burnt paper piece he was holding. Suddenly, all confusion was replaced by relief and exaltation.

-“You did it!” exclaimed the bow-wearing kid, running to him with a large grin. She was quickly followed by her older hatted friend, who smiled at him too:

-“Woah,” she said in a mocking tone : “You managed to burn a piece of paper, congrats,” she taunted him, though the former shade could see in her expression that the mockery wasn’t genuine. She was truly happy and visibly relieved, which definitely made sense in their current situation.

-“Oh, shut up,” he retorted, though it lacked his usual cutting tone. Instead, it was playful, entirely so. The little girl replied by a snort and patted him on the side of his arm as a congratulation gesture. Sure, Snatcher couldn’t help but flinch at the contact, but it meant nothing to him at the moment.

All he knew was that their situation would soon be fixed!

Moonjumper didn’t take long to float closer as well, an awkward smile visible on his mask of a face:

-“I must say,” he started, eyes glancing around as if he weren’t able to look at Snatcher directly: “I’m quite relieved you managed to summon our- your old powers,” he chuckled weakly, before his expression darkened, his eyes eventually settling back on Snatcher’s. His posture was much more tensed than before and a deep frown was visible on his face: “I’m sorry I pushed you out of your comfort zone. It was more than insensitive, and… While you did succeed, I wanted you to know that I’m truly sorry. I panicked and-”

But the young man lifted the piece of paper as a sign for the other to stop talking. When the latter did, Snatcher’s smile widened even more, clear glee on his features:

-“Doesn’t matter,” he replied with confidence as he held the blacked paper higher, waving it happily: “Now that I can access my old powers, it doesn’t matter anym-”

However, his words were cut short by a knocking sound on the machine room door, the one leading to the hub. Silence fell into the room as the entire team looked at each other in bewilderment and confusion. How…? They were the only people on the ship! Did someone enter the ship while no one was looking? Then again, the alarm should had been triggered by the intrusion… It had for Moonjumper, and Moonjumper wasn’t even alive to begin with!

It wasn’t long until the two kids took out their weapons, two umbrellas that Snatcher knew all too well, from their battle with him.

Nothing he wanted to remember, really.

Slowly and carefully, the little girls moved to the door, snaking to it while keeping their umbrellas up and ready to fight in case someone entered the machine room for a surprise attack. With a quick nod, the two children took a final step towards the door, making it open from the movement detection… But, when it did open, no one was standing there.

Snatcher’s confusion intensified, probably like all the others: if no one was there… Who had knocked on the doo- However, before he was even able to finish that thought, a series of high pitched sounds forced everyone to look to the floor… Only to see the little vacuum cleaner, visibly more than agitated.

-“Rumbi…?” murmured the hat wearing kid as she lowered her weapon, perplexity showing on her features. She was then imitated by her younger friend, who lowered her umbrella too.

-“What’s wrong, buddy?” she crouched down to the device’s level, as if she were talking to a pet rather than to a robot. She was ready to put her hand on it, to pet it most probably… But it quickly slid away from her, still making high-pitched sounds, sounds that seemed… Panicked, for as much panicked a machine could get.

-“What is he doing?” asked the bow-wearing kid to her friend, who just shrugged.

Something was wrong. Snatcher could feel it in the guts he didn’t have a week ago. He didn’t like this, and somehow, he couldn’t help but have a premonition for what it all meant. No, no, please, not this.

Not this. He wasn’t ready for it yet.

Not letting anyone else the time to move, the former ghost moved forward with quick and wobbly steps. He vaguely heard the trio calling out to him, then following him… But it didn’t matter anymore. When the young man’s eyes settled on the little vacuum cleaner at his feet, the machine turned to the large window and made alarmed beeping sounds.

It was trying to say something. Something that had to do with the window.

And Snatcher was so, so afraid to look. He didn’t want to know, he didn’t want to know, he didn’t want to kno-

-“Oh Gods, no… No…” Moonjumper’s voice gave him the feeling of a cold shower, an icy one even, and without actually wanting to, his eyes drifted to the window, not able to take the awful suspense anymore. However, what he saw… Made him freeze, his eyes widening, this time not from surprise, not from happiness… But from pure horror as his golden eyes stared at the planet they all could see from where they stood.

On the purple land of Subcon Forest… A white stain had progressed far beyond the Queen’s domain, and had been invading the first areas of his kingdom.

Vanessa was making her move…

And they were not ready for it.

Snatcher was not ready for it.

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:)c

=> Chapter 19

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lambourngb · 4 years ago

Note

Duty of Care and /or Gravedigger’s Union

I did Grave Dancer’s Union - a nod to my 90s love of Soul Asylum here.

Duty of Care was another torture Michael fic- I wrote it pre-season 2, when I thought the love triangle was going in a particular way. I don’t know if there’s still an appetite to season 1 au stories? There’s some season 1 characterization of Alex ahead, particularly in regards to Jesse.

Here’s what I had - some of which already appeared here before Last Year’s Wishes ate my brain.

****

“Can’t believe Maria is still wearing the pendant of alien poison around her neck while she dates your alien ass, Guerin..” Kyle commented watching the decay values multiply as Liz titrated pollen into the samples.

The current theory on alien resurrection, and it said a lot about his life that he had competing theories on alien-involved resurrection, was that their ability to manipulate energy changed based on their needed life skills at the time of adolescence. Michael had been separated from his siblings young, and needed to develop defensive skills. The defiant and pained look on his face when he explained stopping an item being hurled at his head at the age of 7 was a needed survival tactic courtesy of foster homes he had passed through kept Kyle from questioning any further.

Isobel had through her mother Ann’s never-ending dinner parties and charity benefits, found comfort in seeing and knowing what was meant under the sugary sweet words of adults around her. Being a small child paraded around adults who were charmed by her blonde hair and blue eyes meant she had the most exposure to social events while Max hid in his books.

Finally Max had anointed himself as a fixer early on in their life. He had taken responsibility for Michael being left behind, and had tasked himself to protect his sister afterward. The defensive use of healing fit with his offensive ability to kill in the service of keeping those he loved safe.

At the most basic level, it was all energy from synaptic responses in brain waves to manipulating molecules to move or stop an object. How a pollen interrupted that energy use could theoretically solve the problem of how to jump start an ability.

“You think you might get around to telling her the big secret anytime soon?”

The mask over his mouth and face did little to block the glare Michael shot at him. “Shut up Valenti.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s Maria. She is a card carrying member of the ACLU and the Nature Conservatory. I had to bail her out of jail last year during an ICE protest. She’s not going to turn you over to the government.”

“Kyle!” Liz scolded, “We talked about this. Agency. It’s up to Isobel and Michael who knows. I already broke that with you.”

Michael ran a gloved figure over the counter absently. “I hate secrets, okay. This isn’t any fun for me, especially considering how many people already know. I went from having just Max and Isobel, to basically the whole graduating class of New Roswell High in on it. A lot of loose lips.”

The habit of 20 years of paranoid silence was probably a lot to try and break with a new relationship if that was the basis of it. There was a good amount of slack that Kyle could extend to Michael, including trying to be understanding when he started up with Alex’s best friend in the wake of Max’s death, but exclusion of Maria from the secret felt wrong to him.

He couldn’t fathom the reasoning behind lying to someone that he wanted to be in a relationship with, and he had a feeling that it wasn’t because of worries that she would tell someone about the aliens living in Roswell. While he couldn’t outright call Michael an asshole on Alex’s behalf, he could poke and prod him when the opportunity surfaced.

“You should look at this way Guerin, that larger circle means if something does happen, you’ve got more back up than just Isobel, with Max being out of commission.”

“Oh yeah, so if the government disappears me to a black site, you’re going to ride to my rescue?”

“Yes.” Kyle replied seriously. “I wouldn’t be alone either.” The name Alex Manes went unsaid, but from the brief wince on Michael’s face, he knew exactly who was being referred to obliquely. Scored hit again.

“Well as fun as this discussion is, I’m going to take off. Iz and I have practice plans.” Michael slipped his hat on, and tucked the stool away. “Liz, call me if you have a breakthrough on nullifying this stuff. For a rare flower, there sure was a lot of it stockpiled in Noah’s cave.”

“Sure thing, Mikey.”

“Valenti, make sure she goes home to sleep and eat at some point. I don’t want to have to put her in a pod next.” He ducked out of reach of her hand, laughing at the offended look she sent his way.

“Far be it for me to agree with him, but he’s right. You’ve been burning the candle at both ends and the middle between rebuilding your lab, researching Max’s healing power, studying this pollen, not to mention working at the diner. We should make time for something else, like a drink or a movie. Recharge.” The past month since Max’s ‘death’ brought back the manic energy burst from solving the issues with the depowering serum. From one catastrophe to another, it was barely time to recover before the next happened.

“I know, I just. I need to stay busy. It’s so quiet without him.” Liz stretched and started to tuck her last slide away into the cooler. “But I think I am done today, if I work anymore, I’ll just be making mistakes.”

Kyle slipped on his coat and held the door. “Not that I don’t believe you leaving on your own volition, but let me walk you out.”

“Lucky for you, I’m too tired to be offended.”

Kyle kept his hand on her back gently steering her through the hallways. The third shift was on at the hospital, and he winced to think about his own upcoming shift at noon tomorrow. Balancing football, his pre-med studies and his social life in Michigan taught him valuable life skills in working on short sleep, but even the hours of residency had no competition on his current life of alien lab work and tracking down government funding of a black ops prison project with Alex. When he mentioned a night off, he wasn’t only including Liz in that need.

Inhaling the cool night air, he calculated if he made it home, heated up a meal, and fell asleep promptly there was the opportunity for 6 good hours of sleep before meeting up at the bunker to check in on the data mining project Alex was running.

“You know, you should go a little easier on Michael.”

“I thought everyone in this town was in love with Max Evans, but apparently it’s Guerin.” Kyle retorted sarcastically.

Liz bit her lip at the mention of Max before sighing softly. “I’m serious, Kyle. He’s really messed up right now. I was actually shocked he was somewhat sober tonight.”

“I’m not going to be petty here Liz, and mention the obvious that we are all really messed up right now. I get where you’re coming from about their need for secrecy, but Maria really deserves better. I’m not her best friend like you are and Alex was, but I’ve been here in this town with her. She was there for me after my dad died, and she supported my mom’s election for sheriff. With Mimi getting worse, she deserves to have someone to count on, not someone who is lying to her, and by extension, making all of us lie to her as well.”

“Alex was? Past tense?”

He arched his eyebrow in disbelief, “I guess I am going to be petty tonight, but seriously Liz? Have you talked to Alex lately? Every time Maria comes up in conversation he puts his best ‘Baghdad was a little warm and I was just doing a job’ face on and repeats to anyone listening how happy he is for them. Guerin messed him up, and worse, took away from him one of the few people he lets himself drop that soldier bullshit front he has.”

Liz sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I know the history with Michael is a little complicated, but we don’t always get to choose who we fall for and who we don’t. Love is messy. It doesn’t color inside the lines and follow any of the rules.”

“Maybe you’re right about that, and maybe there’s no avoiding the heartache. I do believe though that you can choose whether or not to be a dick about things, and Guerin not telling Maria is a dick move and it’s got consequences.” Kyle unlocked his car, and opened the passenger side with a gesture. “Our sister doesn’t have many friends, and he’s robbing her of one right now. Rosa lost ten years because of aliens, don’t you think that’s enough loss for all of us?”

“Do you know how annoying you are when you’re right? I’ll talk to Michael, better yet, I’ll talk to Isobel about letting Maria in on the secret.”

He slid into the driver’s seat, smiling across to her. “Tomorrow. Tonight, what’s left of it, is for sleeping.” He turned the ignition, and stopped, as the headlights came up illuminating the familiar green Chevy sitting across the lot from them. “That’s Guerin’s truck.”

“He left before we did, what’s it still doing here?” Liz ducked out of the passenger seat and ran toward the truck without waiting for an answer. Kyle swore softly, untangling his hand from the ignition to follow her. The truck looked undisturbed, no sign of the occupant. Liz reached for the driver’s side door, testing it, and gasped as the door swung open. The ever present black hat slipped off the dash into the floorboards.

There were three things Michael prized above all others, his truck, his cowboy hat, and his sister. To leave two out of three unprotected was highly out of character for him. Kyle turned around the parking lot, scanning for signs of him.

“Kyle, look,” Liz grabbed his arm and pulled him down toward the wheel well of the truck. Gleaming silver in the light , tucked on top of the tire tread, was a syringe needle with a depressed plunger.

“That’s not good.”

She stuffed her hand into her pocket and withdrew a spare latex glove to wrap around her fingers as she lifted the syringe from the tire. She peered closely at the vial, a sickly yellow liquid film thinly coated the inside. “I think someone took him, and without testing it, I’m guessing this is some sort of knock out drug based on the pollen.”

Kyle reached for his phone, mentally saying goodbye to the idea of sleep anytime soon. “I’ll call Alex, you call Isobel. And I don’t know, I guess call my mom? I mean, we usually call the police when someone gets abducted.”

Liz thinned her lips, holding the needle with one hand as she dug out her phone with the other. “I don’t think you can call the cops on the government, which I’m guessing that’s what we are dealing with since they knew how to knock out Michael.”

The government, or more specially it was probably someone related to Project Shepherd. Kyle sighed, holding his phone to his ear. It rang once, before he heard, “What’s wrong?”

He pulled the phone away from his ear to make sure he had called Alex and not the psychic alien sister, “How did you know something was wrong?”

“You’ve called me twice in the last three months, once to tell me you put my dad in a coma and once to tell me about Max. You’re a texter, even though I explained it’s easier to keep things secret if you call. So again, what’s wrong?”

Kyle slowly walked back toward the hospital. He should have volunteered to call Isobel, because this was not going to be easy. “It’s Guerin.”

“Is he okay?”

“We don’t know. We think someone took him. Liz and I found his truck at the hospital, unlocked. It looks like he got jumped by someone who knows how to incapicitate him.”

“I’ll be there in 20 minutes.”

Kyle wasn’t surprised to see the call disconnected. It was a forty minute drive from the cabin to the hospital if someone followed the speed limits.

***

“It’s Guerin.”

Alex was somewhat aware that he must have replied. He was in his SUV and away from the bunker, before he’d registered that the call had ended. He could only be thankful that today had been a ‘pull day’, rather than a ‘push day.’

Alex could divide his days into two motivations, he either wanted to be as far from town and the chance of running into someone he knew (Michael) or he wanted to be close in case something happened that he could help fix (for Michael). The cabin was isolated enough that only Kyle made the trip from Roswell, but not in recent memory with the pace of lab work and hospital hours. Alex could comfortably avoid reality with his laptop until the second feeling took hold. The Project Shepherd bunker was an easier location to reach Isobel or Liz from when the inviatble call for assisting an intoxicated Michael came.

Seeing Maria meant seeing Michael in the evening hours, and it was strange to resort to in his post-service life the habit of a decade before; lying and hiding himself in every interaction. His calendar had a weekly reminder to join Liz and Maria at the Wild Pony for a beer, usually scheduled early enough that Michael was still at Sanders working, but late enough that the automated work emergency text to his phone could reliably give him cover for an exit.

Psychic as she was, Maria always let him go with a pained but relieved look. It wasn’t her fault that he was still in love with Michael. It wasn’t her fault that Michael wasn’t in love with him. Neither he nor Maria had so many friends that they could afford to lose one, but neither was fooling the other that the relationship hadn’t changed in the aftermath of her dating Michael.

This wasn’t his first go around with unrequited love.

He’d survived Brendon Urie, and he wasn’t ashamed to have been a sixteen year old pouring over fan meet and greets on livejournal before hitting the road with Rosa to see Panic at the Disco in Albuquerque just after school let for the summer. He might have mapped out Los Angeles coffee shops to busk at after he turned legal and could escape west to be a musician, coffee shops close to Silver Lakes and Encino neighborhoods to be organically discovered by his crush.

He had survived his fourteen year old obsession with Kyle, that lasted until it was safer to love unattainable rockstars versus the childhood friend now high school bully. He could laugh at himself for thinking that Kyle had turned on him because he felt the same way but just didn’t know how to articulate it outside of shoving him against the lockers and jeering at him in gym class.

Unrequited love that had once been returned was a higher bar to clear than a fan fantasy or a childhood crush, but then the sins Alex carried were deeper and more lasting as well. More than a ruined but now healed hand and a discarded scholarship, he had the murder of Michael’s mother to carry. He would survive Michael not loving him, he was reasonably sure of it. He wasn’t sure if he would survive something happening to Michael because of the Manes family legacy.

Someone knowing how to subdue and take Michael pointed to his family’s involvement.

He didn’t bother with the visitor’s desk at the hospital foyer this time, walking purposefully toward the elevator and wing where Liz’s new lab resided. The door opened to his touch, revealing Isobel hovering anxiously near Liz’s shoulder as she swabbed a syringe.

“You made good time.” Isobel greeted.

“I hacked the traffic lights.” Alex informed, setting his laptop case on the lab table, and popping the case open. A few keystrokes and he was inside the hospital network and probably breaking a dozen federal laws of privacy.

Kyle closed the door, and shook his head, “Seriously?”

“No. I was at the bunker.” He brought up the internal security logs, noting visitors and elevator access. “So what do we know?”

“Not a lot,” Liz replied, her gaze fixed on a spread of swabs and slides. “I’m trying to pull as many samples as I can from this syringe so I can analyze it. There looks to be a reservoir of 3 CCs. My original serum required a dose of at least 6 CCs to incapacitate, so whatever they used was more concentrated.”

“Hopefully less lethal,” Isobel observed. “Are you in the hospital network already?”

“Just what’s linked to the internal wifi signals. I’m going to need access to their security office since it appears the actual camera footage is on a closed circuit.”

Kyle pulled out his ID badge, “I can take you there, but how are you going to get the guards to let you look at the footage? I can still call my mom and make this an official police investigation.”

Alex dug into his pockets for a thumb drive, and then turned to Isobel, “I’m hoping you can influence the guard into letting me download the footage. If you can’t, then we will need to bring the sheriff into this.”

Isobel tapped her forehead knowingly, “If I can’t influence the guards to let you in, I can at least make one of them think he left his car unlocked or his coffee pot plugged in.”

“Let’s go then. Michael has been missing for at least an hour.”

Kyle tapped his badge at certain checkpoints, opening the electronic doors as they headed down to the security room. Alex made a mental note to scrub the ID tags once they were done, on the off chance someone was curious about the movements of a doctor who should have been long off duty.

The windowless room was covered in screens and held one guard boredly sipping his coffee while he watched a television show on his phone. There was a chance they didn’t need a psychic to gain access, but it was probably better safe than sorry.

Alex moved quickly after Isobel held the security guard’s mind in hers and slide behind the desk to call up the footage on the parking garage. Mindful of time, he plugged in his drive and started transferring all the raw data from the camera recordings. The antiquated hospital computing system did nothing to soothe the anxiety.

Long experience working with poor computing power and broken infrastructure while deployed in Iraq was the only thing that kept his inner impatience off his face. Touching the mouse or tapping his fingers never moved data faster.

Finally the file clicked over complete, he slid back from the bank of monitors, and nodded to Isobel. The security guard took a deep breath and look around briefly before picking up his phone and restarting the television show on his app.

The door clicked shut as the three of them hastened back to Liz’s lab. His hip barked at the hurried extension he placed on his body. With the clock ticking, the discomfort slipped into the box marked ‘to deal with later’. Once the drive was inserted, it was a matter of minutes to set up a scan for vehcile traffic entering and exiting the hospital parking lot.

Liz dug out a bottle of acetone for Isobel, who accepted it with a small smile and then nodded over to the laptop. “I hope you are having more luck with the security footage, than I am having with this drug.”

“I grabbed everything from the last 72 hours, just in case. It’s possible someone followed Michael to the hospital,” Alex balanced carefully onto the stool, keeping the weight off his prostetic. “I would have found a less populated area for a snatch and grab, but maybe they were worried about Michael’s powers and if so, then likely they scouted the view points of the cameras before they made their move to minimize their exposure. At least that’s what I would have done, if I had discarded the open road or home as possible targets.”

“Well we all know what a paranoid and careful asshole you are, Alex.” Kyle observed, working on a second set of samples.

“I try not to repeat my mistakes.”

“Like Caulfield?” Isobel asked pointed.

A sharp stab of pain went through him at the reminder. As if the prison ever left his mind for a moment these days. “Yes, like Caulfield. I should have found a more covert way to gain information than assume it was abandoned. I should have realized my dad had more going on than surveillance on Roswell.”

Kyle touched Alex’s shoulder with a comforting clasp, “At least we know he’s not personally behind this. Master Sergeant's main nurse likes me, she would have called if something had changed.”

Alex stayed silent, knowing that his next task would be gaining access to the long term rest home in Santa Fe where they had transferred his comatose father after he had attacked Kyle. There had been initial protests regarding the forged records until he had pointed out the other option had been to kill Jesse.

The classic body Chevy truck flashed on the screen with the timecode marking it as Michael’s arrival at the hospital. Alex paused and marked the frame for reference, then eased through the later clips watching for his exit. There were two cameras concentrated on the parking lot, one at the entrance/exit, and one with a long panoramic view of the lot, primarily to ward off a car thief or would-be mugger. It was grainy in grey scale, but at least he could be thankful that Michael drove such a distinctive truck. The task of finding an unremarkable Honda Prisius would have been daunting.

His hand stilled as he paused the footage on the slow but unmistakable swagger of a figure striding away from the hospital entrance toward the parked Chevy. Michael’s black cowboy hat hid his face but even absent such an identifiable marker Alex was sure could have picked out his body in a sea of others without question.

Michael reached his truck with no issue, unlocking the driver’s side door. His hand swept off his hat and casually tossed it into the front seat of the cab. Behind him, in the next parking aisle a nondescript panel van, a door opened slid open and a glint peeked out. Michael reached behind his neck, his body half in the truck and slapping at the skin there.

Alex inhaled sharply, fear and dread rising. It was a terrible thing to watch knowing it had already happened. Two figures dressed in plain dark clothing emerged from the van, and started toward the truck. Michael’s body half fell from the cab, and curled around the front wheel. Alex watched as the two effortlessly brushed off the weak struggles to fight their grasp of Michael’s shoulders, tugging him backward to the waiting van.

His body was tossed without care into the back, the door sliding shut blocking the last view of Michael. The two men split up from the van, circling around to the front doors. Alex numbly clicked on the frame, saving it, and switched over to the second camera focused on the entrance.

Watching his brother Flint calmly pay the ticket machine was not much of a surprise at this point.

“Kyle, I’m going to need you to call your nurse friend to check on my father.” He was proud that his voice was calm and even, despite the rising sickness within. “The good news is, this wasn’t a government issued black ops team that took Michael.”

“And the bad news?” Isobel prompted.

“It was personal, which means they aren’t as invested in keeping him alive.”

* * * *

[Isobel details their mental bond. That it feels blank]

“I was always closer with Max. I don’t know if it was a twin thing or being raised together, but Michael was always harder to connect with until recently. We’ve been practicing so much together, he started to take up a bit of space here, “ she patted her chest. “Not enough to fill the void where Max was, but enough that I could tell if he was happy or if he was angry. Strong emotions only came through. Lately it was a lot of anger but he wouldn’t tell me what was going on… “

“And now? Do you feel him now?”

Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head. “It’s empty. Blank. Like it was when we kids before he moved back to Roswell. I think he’s still alive, but he feels very far away, or very weak.”

[Alex waits patiently for the call. He thinks this is going to be an exchange of Michael for his dad, until he realizes his dad is not at the long-term care facility any more]

[Round table discussion at Max’s house to figure out what Jesse wants. Isobel finds out more about the shared past of Michael and Alex- and Maria shows up at the end looking for Michael]

“It’s been 2 days, why hasn’t your dad called with his demands? Is he not reading from the classic villain script this time?” Isobel wondered bitterly. “What is with your family, Alex?”

Kyle injected, “We don’t know that Sergant Manes is involved.”

“Don’t we? He disappeared from the nursing home just before Michael was taken. It seems pretty convenient timing to me.”

Alex pressed his fingers under his eyelids to relieve the building pressure. It had been a long two days of nothing after he received the call that the psuedonmyn he had checked his dad in unrder was no longer a patient in the long-term coma ward in Sante Fe. The staff was calling it a miracle that just after a devoted son had prayed at his bedside, he had woken up. Alex knew it was anything but divine intervention to have Jesse awake and free in the world.

“Isobel is right, this has Dad written all over it. Somehow Flint found out what had happened and woke him up. It’s been two days because I’m guessing he is still weak from the inactivity.”

Liz stirred from her claimed spot on the couch, cracking an eyelid. “What makes you think there’s going to be a demand, Isobel? Manes has what he wants, a new alien to test and torture. If you look at the research side of things, the aliens in Caulfield were all weak and elderly, and Michael’s a healthy 28 year old. Whatever fucked up weapon he was developing might need a younger test subject.”

“Now there’s a comforting thought.” Kyle muttered.

“I don’t think it’s research. This still feels personal to me. Michael still has an offensive power to defend himself with, the softer target would have been Isobel if he just wanted an alien to grab.”

“Gee, thanks Alex. Come closer and I’ll show you what I’ve been working on and see if you think I’m still a soft target after I turn your skull into crushed bone.”

***

Alex’s fingers were numb, as he pressed in his code to access his Whatsapp account. Waiting in his inbox was an unknown number and a video attachment. He abruptly dropped into the deck chair as the video opened to his worst fear made real.

Michael’s left eye was swollen shut, blood staining from the corner of his forehead, dripping down his cheek bone. His arms were stretched high above his head, disappearing out of frame. His shirt was missing, and there were sluggishly wounds striping over his shoulder and licking across his collar bone.

The camera turned, Michael blurring out of view. The monster that starred in seventy percent of his nightmares filled the screen. “Hello, Alex. I was hoping to keep you out of this, son, but this creature is being very uncooperative.”

Off screen, he heard a weak, “Go fuck yourself, Manes. I keep telling you, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jesse nodded to someone out of frame, and Michael screamed in agonizing pain. Long hiccuping gasps for air puncuated another softer, “fuck you.”

“Like I said, uncooperative. When we last saw each other, you had something that belonged to me. Jim Valenti stole it from our base, and refused to tell me what he had done with it despite my best efforts at persuading him.”

Michael cried out again, choking on a soft sob. Alex forced himself to watch, drinking in every detail for his later plans.

“With N-38 gone, I can’t hurt this thing the same way I did dear old Jim so I’ve had to get creative. Electricity just makes some of them stronger, but good old heat and sharp still work on them. We both know you can break its bones with enough force.” Jesse turned, pointing the camera toward Michael again, focusing on the dangling bare feet. “There are more bones per square inch in the foot, than anywhere else in the body. I am telling you this so you don’t doubt my resolve. This thing is relatively harmless for its kind, and I’m willing to return it to you in more or less good condition, if you bring me what Valenti stole. Let me know what you decide to do.”

The video cut off.

****

There was an expected role to play, like there always was when Jesse Manes was involved. Once it meant peppering his speech with ‘yes sir’ and ‘sorry sir’ and toning down his clothing in hopes of escaping his fists, and when that proved futile, it went in the opposite direction with makeup, nail polish, and piercings.

For all of his proud talk about the service, his father never served anywhere but stateside. His knowledge of tactical defense and enemy counter measures were likely twenty years of date, and Alex was counting on his father’s pride from keeping him unaware of the technology shift. The set up of the Project Shepherd bunker confirmed that.

He tucked his personal side arm into his thigh holster, securing to his left leg and reached for his secondary weapon to slip into his boot strapped to his prosthetic. The weight of the kevlar and vest registered briefly on his shoulders before it slipped into the blank shroud that had enveloped him as soon as he heard Michael’s cries. Knives and a pair of percussive grenades weighed down each side of his pockets.

A floorboard behind him creaked, his gun cleared the holster before his mind caught up on who would have followed him to his cabin. It was a little concerning that the sound of a vehicle hadn’t registered until now.

“Whoa, don’t shoot.” Kyle lifted his hands, halting abruptly. He took in the dark clothing, combat hardware and the array of weapons spread on the cabin’s table. “I guess we are going full cliche today, good to know.”

Alex dropped his arm away, resecuring his gun. “Then you know what I’m going to say already.”

“Humor me, then. This is a trap, Alex.”

“I’m well aware.” Alex flipped open a black case and pulled out his phone and laptop. Carefully he pulled out three silver discs, and a pair of jeweler’s glasses. He sat down in the chair, slipping the glasses on to peer down at the discs. “I’m going anyway.”

Kyle sighed, aggrieved. “Well I did promise Guerin if he got his ass kidnapped by the government, I would come to his rescue.”

Alex didn’t look up from his work, pressing a small pin on each disc. “You’re not going with me, Kyle.”

“I know this face is distractingly handsome, but tell me you remember all the time we spent on the range together as kids. I can shoot a gun.”

“Shooting a paper target is different from shooting at a human being.” Each disc beeped softly, then went silent. He pulled the glasses off with a satisfied smirk, “Besides, I need you to come with the cavalry. These are military grade GPS trackers that I’ve linked to my laptop and my phone. Once my father sees I’m there without the piece of the ship, he’ll take me to Michael so he can teach me a lesson.”

“What makes you think your dad won’t find these trackers?”

“I’m sure he will, but I’ve got a back up plan on that as well. My father has underestimated me my entire life. He thinks I am weak, that my emotions and desires cloud my judgment. He’s going to see he was wrong.”

“Alex.” Kyle hesitated, struggling for a moment before taking a seat at the table. He gently laid his hand on Alex’s wrist, stilling the other man. “We all want Guerin back safe but I want you to consider for a moment that your father is right, that your emotions are clouding your judgment. Because what I’m seeing right now is kind of freaking me out, dude. You’re dressed from head to toe in black ops murder gear with GPS trackers, which I didn’t even know you could buy, talking about going in alone, guns blazing, against your dad.”

“I got them on Ebay.”

“That’s what you’re choosing to focus on?”

“What are my other options, Kyle? He’s got Michael. He’s had him for two days, and there is exactly zero chance he doesn’t want both the UFO fragment and Michael.” Alex wrenched his hand away,. He inhaled deeply and pushed down the swell of thoughts of what had already happened to Michael in two days.

“I agree, but back when I laid him out with barbiturates in our bunker, you and I had a discussion about killing him. I seem to remember we decided against that.”

“No, Kyle, you decided against it and I went along with it. Which was clearly a mistake. This has been a long time coming, okay? He brought this on himself when he took Michael.”

“I knew there was no talking you out of this. I just don’t want you to do this alone.”

* * *

The lights were all on at the formerly known as Evans-Bracken residence, now just Evans.

“You look like you’re ready to storm the castle.” Isobel commented, before pushing the door open and turning back into the house. “I still haven’t felt anything from Michael. He could be dead, and all of this would be pointless.”

Alex winced and acknowledged the point before pushing the thought down. “He’s not dead.”

“How do you know? Your so-called cosmic connection?” She sipped from the glass in her hand, the scent of chemicals wafted to him. It was clearly not water.

Gently he wrapped his fingers around her hand, guiding the glass away before resting it on the table next to him. “Maybe, but in reality, if he was dead, my father would have taken someone else as leverage and he would have taunted me with my failure to protect Michael.”

****

[ So as you can see it needs a massive rewrite to fix my characterization- but I still like the plot of Jesse taking Michael for the ship piece- especially since the show fumbled on this so badly in 2x10-2x11. ]

#oh man early hiatus fic has a feel don't it?#Anonymous

8 notes · View notes

deiaiko · 5 years ago

Photo

Alternate timeline where —- dies, leaving —- to live with that bitter reality as he tries to get better over time

Really really long story under the cut (also excuse my crappy grammar and the rushed ending :”3)

- - - - -

“Bam, don’t cry”.

“…”, how could he not cry at a time like this?!

Their teammates already left the place, leaving all the remaining time that the two have to bid their last farewell.

Bam is holding Khun in his arms, letting him leans heavily on his chest while trying to warm his starting-to-get-cold body. One hand to hold him and the other to try to stop the bleeding.

“there must be a way to—”

“no”, the bleeding is too severe to be treated. Besides, there’s no one nearby that has the ability to help, “it’s too late…you know that”.

Bam keeps pressing the wound, but no matter how hard he tries, the warm blood keeps flowing out, it hurts him to being so helpless. What’s the point of being strong if he failed to protect him? What’s the point to spend many years training? Isn’t it his fault that Khun became like this in the first place? Because of his wish to save others? And then a dark thought came into his mind, Khun doesn’t need to suffer alone.

“I’ll go with you!”, Bam cried in a verge of desperation.

“don’t do that”.

“then…then tell me, what’s the point for me to keep living?”

“to enjoy what life offers you”.

“I…I don’t understand”.

“It’s always been…for other people’s sake, so how about…you do things for yourself once?”, Khun looks at Bam with the softest look he ever gave him, “be what you want to be…and live happily”.

“without you?”

Khun hesitated before answering, “without me”.

“how can I be happy without you?”

“…I know you can”.

“…”

Khun is trying his best to endure the pain so Bam would be less worried about him, at least he felt more numb on every second passed as more blood poured out.

“hey Khun, have you…live happily?”, Bam suddenly asked.

“yes,…cause you’re with me”.

“have you be what you want to be?”

“yes. All I want…is to be with you”.

Bam gave him a sad smile that quickly fell from his face, “I’m sorry”.

“it’s not your fault…things happen. When I chose to follow you…this is the risk that I took”, Khun smiled, “it’s worth it”.

Bam doesn’t know what to say, he just gave Khun his best smile even though his heart breaking inside.

Khun starting to feel lightheaded and his ears began to ring, he knew he didn’t have much time left.

“Bam”, Khun sighed and closed his eyes, “thank you…for everything”.

“Khun wait—”

“all I want now…is for you to be happy, even without me”.

“please”, Bam’s eyes began to water, “don’t say that”.

“I don’t know what…will happen, but…stay alive…for me”.

“Khun…please”.

But Khun didn’t respond anymore as he had fallen into a very deep sleep.

“Khun?”, Bam tighten his grip, “Khun! Answer me!”

But there’s no answer.

“say something, please”.

“…”

“anything is fine”.

“…”

“I beg you”.

“…”

“Khun…please”, he sobbed, “wake up”.

“…”

Bam doesn’t know what else to say, he hugged Khun tighter and cried silently with a deep sorrow. He cried until there’s no more tear left for him to shed.

- - - - -

Khun is gone now. He’s gone forever and he won’t come back anytime soon. But Bam is yet come to realized it.

“Bam stop it!”, Shibisu stopped Bam before he had a chance to hurt himself.

“why?!”, Bam cried in desperation, “why can’t I wake up from this nightmare?!?”

“because you’re not dreaming”.

“no! You’re lying!”, Bam covered his ears, “I don’t want to hear it!”

“it’s the truth”.

“no! It’s just a dream!”

Rak slapped him hard, leaving a red mark on his cheek.

Bam’s hand quickly went to cover it, looking surprised.

Rak cupped his cheeks and locked their eyes, “listen black turtle! This is the reality, you must face it no matter how bitter it is. Don’t hide in your shell forever!”. Rak took his hands off and walked away, “it’s not like you to act like this”.

Bam was left speechless, his sore cheek is a constant reminder that he wasn’t dreaming. But it’s still too much for him to take, he needs time for himself.

- - - - -

Bam is doing a little better, he’s finally returned after locking himself in his room for two weeks straight. He’s lucky to have his friends to watch over him and keep him grounded while recovering from the grief.

But anyone can tell that he’s…different. He becomes slightly distant and a little bit colder. Though no one can blame him, he didn’t wish for it either.

Months later they left the floor to continue their journey, because Bam still has a mission to accomplish.

He promised himself to come back to Khun once it’s over.

- - - - -

After defeating Zahard in the 133rd floor, the name Jue Viole Grace becomes one of the legends, a monster, the feared one that nobody dares to say out loud.

Rumors said that he’s taking over the 134th floor and rules there, or maybe even already outside the tower. Though it’s just a false rumors, only his close friends who knows where he is now.

Because as promised, he cut his hair and came back to where Khun is, the 53rd floor. He bought a small house not far from the cemetery and lives there using his original name, the 25th Bam, though only a few people know his other identity.

Now that Bam has all the time in the world, he tries to do many things to spend it. From reading to cooking, learning new techniques and skills, and also tries to socialize out of his friends advice. But nothing seems to be able to make him happy as it can only distract him from his feelings.

Once in a while, his friends came to visit him, to keep him company while making sure he’ll stay sane throughout the years.

Every other day he also bought flowers for Khun, one crimson rose (sadness, mourning, death, rebirth, love) with a variation from pink camellia (longing) and pink carnation (remembrance) to chrysanthemum (grief) and purple hyacinth (sorrow, deep regret, asking forgiveness).

Soon he became a close friend with the shopkeeper, (she has the ability to instantly grow seed into plants, so she doesn’t need much space in her flower shop).

“you always come here, who is this someone?”

“he’s…my best friend”.

“I see”.

She wants to ask more, but she respects his privacy.

- - - - -

Thousand years passed. Although Bam doesn’t age, he isn’t immortal, (he won’t make the same mistake like his mother did. He can still be killed of course, but that is, if anyone can).

Until one day, Shibisu suddenly gave him a surprising news that makes his broken heart thumping in his chest. A picture from the floor of test, taken just a few days ago, a group of people with a blue haired boy among them.

Bam stared at the picture for a full minute straight because he couldn’t believe what he just saw.

The person in the photo looks eerily similar. With the same smug smile on his face and a sharp look in his eyes, but with a slightly different hair hue.

“I’ll go check on him”, Bam decided without thinking and quickly packed his things.

“hey hey, wait. Are you sure?”

“yes”.

“then I’ll go as well, you might need the company”.

“thanks Isu”.

Bam visited Khun again to say a temporary farewell before he left the 53rd floor.

- - - - -

Along the way Bam has inner conflicts.

His mind told him that “he’s not him, he won’t know you and you’ll only get hurt if he doesn’t match your expectations. You should get back”.

But his heart already took full control of his body as it says “what’s wrong with it? I’ll only live on regrets if I don’t come. Besides, I just want to talk to him”.

“then are you ready for the consequences? You’re a stranger to him, remember that”.

“…yes, I’m aware”.

Bam prepares himself.

- - - - -

But he was unable to approach him.

“you can come back whenever you want you know? And that includes now”.

“but I’m already here, let me just. . .watch over him for a while”.

- - - - -

“why did you help me?”, the blue haired boy pointing a knife at him.

Bam knew ‘this Khun’ teammates were plotting a treason against him, but he couldn’t stop himself to intervene with the situation. He regretted it.

Khun knows that he’s no match to the stranger after he saw him beat his ex-teammates in a blink of an eye, but he also wants to know why the stranger helped him, “answer me!”

Bam still can’t bring himself to look at him in the eye, no matter how long he prepares, he’s not ready to face him yet. “because I want to”, Bam answered.

“that’s not an answer. What do you want from me?”

“Khun”, the name slipped out from his mouth.

“of course I’m a Khun, so what? I got kicked out of my family, you won’t get anything by kidnapping me”.

Bam turned around to finally look at him. Now that he’s quite close to him, he could see him clearer. Pale skin with shoulder length blue hair and the same sharp cobalt blue eyes, “you look just like him”.

“…who?”

“…”

Khun lowered his weapon when he saw the man’s eyes, the dull golden eyes filled with sorrow. Khun felt an indescribable feeling, a sympathy maybe. He set aside his suspicion for a while, “I’m not him, you know that”.

Bam heartache hearing the undeniable truth came straight from his mouth. He broke their eye contact and spoke softly as if he were trying not to break down, “yeah, I know”, he’s fully aware of it, “you’re not him and you’ll never be”.

“then what do you want from me?”

“nothing”, Bam turned around and walked away, “nothing at all”.

“is that why you were stalking me this past few months?”

Bam heart skipped a beat, ‘oh, so he knew’, he thought. “I’m sorry if I bothered you, I’ll go now”.

“wait!”, after being betrayed by his teammates Khun knew he has to rebuild his team from the start. He thought it’ll be very beneficial to have someone as strong as him on his party, it’ll definitely raise his position among a low-class regular and reduce the possibility to be betrayed again. He can take advantage of him without anything to lose, a great chance like this won’t came twice.

“please let me be your apprentice”.

- - - - -

The first week had been rough for Bam as he was intentionally avoiding Khun. Shibisu asked him to stay on the floor that he’s now and wait until he comes, Bam couldn’t say no to him. So there he is, locking himself in his room again like a coward.

Looking at the new Khun only reminds Bam that his Khun was gone and how much he misses him. Just like adding salt to his wound.

So Bam closes his heart to avoid getting hurt more than he already is, just like the days when he first met Sweet and Sour team, cold and distant.

But this Khun is determined to be his apprentice (or rather to make him on his side), he keep insisting until Bam finally give in, it took him a week to get to talk to him and another week to get his name.

- - - - -

Shibisu and his team finally arrived at the floor where Bam and Khun are staying to check on them.

“so you’re Mr.Bam’s friend?”, asked Khun.

“y-yeah”, Shibisu decided not to comment on how he calls Bam. “I’m Shibisu, you can call me Isu”, he offered a hand to shake.

“Khun”, he returned the gesture.

The boy is a little bit shorter than him, but his height is almost the same as Khun on the floor of test a really long time ago. His hair color is more saturated than him and his voice is a little bit different, but everything else are the same. It felt really weird to talk to a person with his late friend’s face, Bam must be really…distressed.

“so…how’s Bam doing?”, Shibisu decided to ask.

“I’m not sure”, Khun scratches his head, “he rarely talks to me, so I don’t know. Is he really a quiet type or…?”

“no. He used to be really enthusiastic, he was the heart of our team after all”.

“was? What changed? Is it because of. . .him?”

“so he told you about it?”

“not the details, mostly just my hunch”.

“let’s have a short talk somewhere else”. Shibisu went to sat on the sitting place nearby and motioned Khun to follow.

Khun obeyed, he may get a valuable information that can help him get close to Mr.Bam, so why not.

“so Khun…how long have you met him?”, Shibisu started the conversation.

“not long, it’s only been two weeks”.

“what do you think about him so far?”

“err, he’s strong, honestly I was a bit wary of him because he followed me for weeks and then suddenly came out to fight my traitors”.

“not surprised”.

“eh?”

“well, he’s the type to not remain silent when someone is in need”.

“then my decision to be his apprentice wasn’t wrong”.

“apprentice huh? Nice”.

“but he still hasn’t given me an answer”.

“don’t worry, I’ll help you”, Shibisu gave him a thumb-up, “what else do you think of him?”

“uhm, he’s also…quiet and mysterious, he rarely talks and he won’t even look at me. I think he’s avoiding me”.

“no wonder”.

“it’s because of him right? His 'Khun’?”

“yeah, you guessed it”.

“what happened?”

“you should ask him yourself”, Shibisu smiled and patted his head.

Khun looked a bit dissapointed, but it must be really personal, so that’s reasonable.

Honestly right now Shibisu is trying his best to keep his amusement inside. He never had a chance to pat Khun’s head before, he’d be killed if he did, and turns out it doesn’t feel so bad. He smiled with satisfaction.

Shibisu then looks up at the sky and sighed deeply to relax himself before he continues, “Bam is a really great person, I give you my words. But the thing is, he has been suffering for too long”. He looks at Khun and smiled, “I hope you can bring him back to what he used to be. Please don’t give up on him”.

Khun is amazed on how much Mr.Isu cares about Mr.Bam, he must be a really great person after all, “…okay”.

“thanks”, Shibisu stood up, “anyways, do you know where Bam is? I need to make sure he’s alright”.

“he’s usually in his room”, Khun pointed him the direction.

- - - - -

Bam is standing on the balcony looking at the sky, like he always does.

“hey there”, Shibisu greeted him.

Bam quickly wiped his eyes, “oh! Isu, long time no see”, he forced a smile.

“you don’t need to do that”.

“…”, his smile fell and quickly replaced by sorrow. Bam wanted to be strong, for Isu, for both Khuns and for his friends. He doesn’t want anyone to worry, but the last few days are just too overwhelming for him. He snivelled, his tears started to fall again and his hands went to cover his face, “I-I can’t do this, Isu”.

Shibisu approached him slowly and wrapped his arm around him to comfort his friend.

“It’s a mistake that I went here in the first place”, Bam sobbed, “it hurts”.

“shh”, Shibisu patted his back a few times.

“he’s different, he’s not Khun, I know, I really do”.

Shibisu hummed.

“though there’s a naive part of me that really want to believe that it was wrong, that he’s him. But he’s not!”

“I know. But you can’t blame him because he didn’t match your expectations”.

“should I go back then? there’s no point for me to be here”.

“how about you give him a chance first?”, honestly Shibisu couldn’t stand seeing his friend suffering like this, but if this Khun can make Bam feels better, then so be it. “just one month. After that you can decide whether to go back or to stay with him”.

- - - - -

“Mr.Bam, Mr.Bam”.

“?”

“how long have you been in this tower?”

Bam thinks, “over one millennium”.

“wha-?! That’s really long. Are you immortal?”

“no”.

“why not?”

“I’m…not ready for the consequences”.

- - - - -

“aren’t you busy, Mr.Bam?”

“no, I’m quite free”.

“then you’re okay to be my mentor right?”

“…”

- - - - -

“Mr.Bam, can I ask where are you going after this?”

“home”.

“are you going to take me?”

“…depends”.

- - - - -

After two weeks, Bam finally gathered enough courage to start a conversation.

“what do you seek in the tower?”

“I’m not sure. My mother doesn’t want me and my father doesn’t care, why I was born then? I think I’m seeking for a 'purpose’. Climbing the tower sounds fun, though I don’t know what I wanted when I reached the top yet”.

“I see”, Bam changes the subject. “then what do you seek in me?”

“huh?”

“you said you want to be my apprentice right? Why?”

“uh, that’s…because you’re strong, I want to be like you”.

“following me doesn’t guarantee you to be strong, you must train really hard to get it”.

“I know, I’ll do my best!”

- - - - -

“so you knew I’m Viole”.

“I’m a light bearer remember?”

“took you long enough”, Bam teased.

“the information was buried quite deep”, Khun defended.

“then…are you afraid of me?”

“no, why should I?”, Khun quickly replied, “you, a really great person and also one of the legends, watching over me from all people? I couldn’t think of anything better!”

- - - - -

“Mr.Bam!”, Khun is determined, “please be my mentor!”

“even when you’re aware that we’re in a different class? I’m a wave controller, I can’t teach you much about being a lightbearer, you know that”.

“but they’re a perfect combination right? Besides, you have the experiences and acquaintances”.

“I also have enemies you know?”

“that’s why I want to be stronger and fight with you!”

“…”, this Khun looks just like the younger him, full of passion and spirit. He can’t refuse that look, can he?, “it’ll be a very long path, are you sure?”

“yes!”

- - - - -

“did you make this yourself, Mr.Bam?!”, Khun exclaimed after tasting his pasta.

Bam nods.

“it’s so good! The best one I’ve ever tasted. Can you teach me?”

“sure”.

- - - - -

Bam uses his ability to heal Khun’s injury that he got on the training.

“oww”.

“when I said train really hard, I don’t mean this hard”, Bam can’t help but smile remembering his own training days when he passed out from exhaustion at least once a week, what an irony. Luckily Khun only got a few light scratches, so it’ll only take a few minutes to heal, “be careful next time”.

“…okay”.

- - - - -

Bam starting to get used to Khun and without realizing, their bond is getting stronger.

They’ve been together for almost 7 years and now on their way to the 23rd floor.

“you did a good job”, Bam patted his head.

“I’m not a kid!”

“but you like it, don’t you?”

“s-shut up!”, Khun blushed out of embarrassment because he’s being watched by his teammates right now, “don’t do that in front of them!”, Khun whisper-shouted at Bam.

Bam chuckled, “too late, they’ve seen it”.

Bam is close to all of his team members as well, seems like Bam slowly becomes not only their mentor but also a father figure, though none of them think of it that way…yet.

- - - - -

“Mr.Bam, I have a question”, Khun asked him.

“what is it?”

“the blue thing you always bring, what’s that?”

Bam gingerly took out the blue fabric from his pocket and unfolded it, “it’s…his. He once wore it as a hair tie”.

“oh…I see”, Khun recognized the pattern, “He must be really important to you”.

“yeah, he is”.

- - - - -

“I just realized you never called me by name, Mr.Bam”.

Bam just realized it as well, “uh…”

“that’s okay, you don’t need to”.

- - - - -

One of Khun’s teammates died on the test, Khun was quite close to her and he’s getting a bit down because of it.

Khun sat beside Bam and curled himself up. It’s not like him to be sad about it, but at the moment, he just needs someone to guide him through this new emotion.

“Mr.Bam, how does it feel to lost someone?”

“depends. If you don’t really know them, you might only be upset for awhile. But if you deeply care for them, it may feel even worse than the death itself”.

“you’ve experienced it right? the second one”.

“…yeah”.

“will the feeling ever go away?”

“I don’t know, I guess it won’t”, Bam confessed, “you just have to get used to it”.

“…I’m sorry. It must be hard for you too”.

They sat in silence. Khun is mourning for his late friend while Bam reminiscing about his own past.

They said death give meaning to life. By knowing everything didn’t last forever, Bam has came to appreciate every moments that he had experienced.

The happy and exciting moments, the harsh and tense moments, every laugh, every tears, every fight, every wounds that he shared, with them, with his friends and with both Khuns. Every one of them are precious, even the most painful one.

Now it’s time for him to reconcile with the past so he could live in the present.

“you know?”, Bam broke the silence, “it’s okay to be upset, you can mourn over her for as long as it takes and in any way you like. But remember to cherish every moments that life gives, don’t let your grief hold you back from the world around you”.

Khun processed the words for a moment, but he has yet to understand it. Even so, he smiled to appreciate Mr.Bam’s efforts.

Bam smiled back.

A moment passed.

“Mr.Bam”.

“hm?”

“may I ask what happened to. . .him?”

“…”

“I-I’m sorry, just forget it. You don’t have to answer—”.

“no, it’s okay. You deserve to know”, Bam prepares himself for the inevitable. “that time we were in the middle of a fight, the enemies were tough and we went on our separate ways. Then he…got hit pretty bad. I got his message and immediately went to his place, there’s blood everywhere, from both him and the enemies. He’d lost too much of his own that there’s no chance that he would survived, I was a little too late”. Bam went quiet for a moment as his vision began to blur.

Khun listened intently.

“we had a short talk, and that time I just realized how much he cared for me. Everything that he did since the beginning was all for me, to be with me, even when we disagreed on each other plan, in the end he always went with mine and did his best to make it succeed. I…regret that I realized his feeling far too late”, Bam looked away so Khun won’t see the tears that threatening to spill from his eyes. “I was too focused on gathering power to protect others that I forgot I also dragged my friends into the danger. I asked for too much that I ended up losing mine”.

A moment of silence before Khun finally decided to say something to ease the awkwardness.

“Mr.Bam, what was he like?”

“he’s…”, Bam stared at the distance, trying to remember his happy moments with him. “he’s smart but also cunning, a perfectionist and a bit manipulative when it came into planning. He always went with the most rational ways, really the opposite of me”, Bam smiled, “people might say he’s cold and heartless, but once you know him, you’d know that he cared. He’s my most trusted someone, my best friend”, Bam looks at Khun warmly, “he was just like you”.

“I remember Mr.Isu said you used to be the heart of your team, is that means he’s the brain?”, Khun joked.

Bam chuckled, “you could say that”.

- - - - -

They met Shibisu’s team on the way to the 36th floor, Rak is there too.

“it’s black turtle!”, cheered Rak.

“Bam!”, Shibisu greeted him, “you look…different, but in a good way”.

“really?”

“yes. Glad everything went well”, Shibisu smiled and gave him a few pats on the shoulder.

While Bam get to greet the others, Shibisu approached Khun who’s gathering with his teammates, “hey there”.

“oh, Mr.Isu, long time no see”, Khun greeted.

“I just want to thank you, for not giving up on him”.

“there’s no need, I’m the one who should thank you for helping me”.

“you’re welcome all the same”, Shibisu patted his head. “anyways, I heard from Bam that you’re all getting promoted to D-class regulars yesterday, how about I treat you guys tonight to celebrate it?”

- - - - -

“so he’s the new blue turtle?”

“turtle??”, Khun raised an eyebrow.

“he’s his own person, Rak”, Bam objected.

“I’ll still call him blue turtle though”.

- - - - -

“so Mr.Rak, are you a crocodile or an alligator?”, Khun asked him.

“…”, Rak stared at him in astonishment, “it’s really weird on how different and similar you turtles are”.

- - - - -

“let me get this straight. You’re not only knew Ms.Endorsi but you guys are also friends with her?!?”, said one of Khun’s teammates who’s a big fan of her, “my goodness, I’m so lucky to be here”.

“you want me to introduce you to her?”, Shibisu offered.

“yes please!!”

“don’t get your hopes too high tho, she might be different than what you think”.

- - - - -

“oh my! It’s-it’s really you!!”, he cheered, “m-may I get your sign p-please?”

“no”, Endorsi replied coldly.

“but—”

“when I said no then it’s a no”.

They can somehow hear his heart shattered.

Endorsi glanced around after finding no more interest on him, and Khun immediately caught her attention, “hm?”, she observed him more carefully, “wait, you seem familiar”, and then she looked at Bam, “ah!!”

“yeah, I get that a lot”, Khun chuckled, he’s starting to get used to it.

Bam covered his mouth to hide his amusement.

- - - - -

They continue their journey. While Rak stays with Bam, Khun and the others, they parted with Shibisu’s team because they have another business to attend.

Years passed, Khun and his team has grown stronger. Now they’re on their way to the 50th floor, just a few more floors left to where Bam once lived.

“Mr.Bam, we’re almost there right?”

“yeah”.

“are you…going to stay there once we arrived?”

“I guess so”.

“won’t you come with us?”

“you’re not kids anymore, you don’t need me to watch over you everytime”.

Khun couldn’t argue if Mr.Bam already made up his mind. And he’s also right, he can’t depend on him forever. Though he’s hoping that Mr.Bam can watch over him for a little longer.

- - - - -

“so this is it?”

Khun and the team arrived at the 53rd floor, along with Bam and Rak.

“Rak, could you show them where I live?”, Bam asked, “I have something to do”.

Rak understands. He knew that Bam needs some time for himself after years away from his 'home’, so he’ll help him to buy some time. “come, turtles! The leader Rak will show you the way!”

They all followed Rak. Well, except for Khun of course, who’s secretly following Bam out of his curiosity.

“you don’t need to hide”, Bam easily caught his act.

“sorry”, Khun came to walk alongside him, “so where are you going?”

Bam doesn’t need to answer him as they have reached the destination and entered a flower shop.

“welcome! Oh it’s you, long time no see”, the shopkeeper greeted him. “and who’s this?”

“I’m his apprentice”, Khun answered proudly.

“I see”, the shopkeeper smiled at Khun, she picked up a book called 'the language of flowers’ from the counter and handed it to him, “here, maybe you’ll be interested”. She returned her attention to Bam, “so what can I get you?”

“may I have a white stargazer lily with daffodils, a red rose and a sweet pea, please?”

“that’s new”.

“also, do you have pink tulips?”

“yes, let me pick them up”.

- - - - -

Such a peaceful face, as if he were sleeping. Mr.Bam was right, he looks just like him.

They stood in front of a grave which surface is covered with glass that allows them to see the inside quite clearly.

Bam kneels, he took the withered flowers off the nearby vase and replaced it with the one he bought. One red rose (love), a sweet pea (thank you, farewell/see you again) and daffodils (rebirth, new beginning).

Khun stays quiet and let Bam mourn for his late friend.

“I’m back. Thanks for waiting”, Bam whispered to himself. He could sit there all day, talking about the last few years when he was away, there’s so much he wants to tell him, but he decided to do it next time as right now Khun is with him.

Bam handed Khun a white stargazer lily (sympathy) for him to place it himself, “here, if you want to”.

Khun gladly took the lily and place it in the vase.

- - - - -

They went back to where his team were waiting. Rak was trying to make them busy and relieved when Bam came back.

“here, I bought you something”, Bam took the pink tulips and gave one to each of them, “it stands for good wishes”.

“so you really are staying Mr.Bam?”, they look dissapointed.

“yeah”, he’s also not willing to let them go, but “don’t worry, you’re welcome here anytime”.

- - - - -

The day before his team went to take the exam to the next floor, Khun came back to the flower shop.

“may I borrow the book you show me that day?”

“sure, go ahead”.

Khun picked up the book and began reading, he searched for the meaning he’s looking for and decided which flower he wants to buy. “do you have azalea?”

- - - - -

After they departed, Bam came back to his house and noticed the small new flower tree in his backyard, there’s also a note beside it that reads 'take care’. He smiled warmly.

Rak apparently, had gone with them as their guardian. Cause without realizing, he’s been attached to them as well.

Bam admits that he misses them already, but right now he needs some time for himself.

- - - - -

It’s indeed different without Mr.Bam, everyone in the team thinks so too.

Normally, after they successfully passed a test, Mr.Bam would gave every one of them a pat on the head and said “good job guys!”. Even if they can call him, it just doesn’t feel the same.

They also miss his cooking, nobody in the team can make dinner as good as him. Eating them after a hard day training has become their routine, it’s always boosted up their mood.

When there’s doubt, Mr.Bam always there to help them, even only to gave them company. They realized that he’s become the heart of their team as well.

And now everything’s different, but they can’t depend on Mr.Bam forever, it’s their chance to proof that they can stand on their own feets.

- - - - -

Bam spend his first few weeks mostly in the cemetery, he has a lot to talk about with.

Khun and the team call him once in a while, usually just to inform him on how they’re doing.

About one year later Shibisu and his team arrived at 53rd floor, they paid Bam a visit. They had a small party in his house, the first party after…well, after they got Bam back thousand years ago from workshop battle. Nothing much to mention though, mostly just absurdity, but at least they had fun. They stayed there for a month before leaving.

And Bam is back to his routine.

- - - - -

Khun and the others are on video call, “Mr.Bam, how are you?”

“I’m fine”.

“by the way, we’ve made it to 57th floor!”

“oh! congrats!”

“and the food here is quite good, I suppose you’ve tried it already but let’s eat together some time”.

“sure thing”.

- - - - -

Wangnan suddenly contacted Bam. He sent him a photo of Khun and his team with Rak nearby that he took secretly.

“V-viole, am I seeing this right?!”

“huh?”, Bam takes a closer look at the picture, “yeah”.

“b-but—, wha—?, how?! I thought—”

“no, he’s not him, if that’s what you’re asking”.

“huh??…hmm…ohh!”, it clicked, “that means you know them right?”

“yes”, Bam said somehow proudly.

“then I’ll go greet them”.

- - - - -

“Mr.Bam, can you please tell Mr.Rak not to be lazy?”, Khun complained.

“I’m not!”

“you eat bananas all day and always wake up really late, how’s that not lazy?!”

“you’re the one who should take it easy, you damn blue turtle! Don’t overwork yourself”.

“guys, come on”, Bam shook his head in amusement.

- - - - -

“I heard the floor you’re staying now isn’t really safe”, Bam contacted them, “be careful okay?”

“got it!”

- - - - -

“uhh Mr.Bam”, they’re on the call, “we met this strange ranker that you might know”, said one of them, “he also called you by your other name”, Khun added.

“I’m not strange”, Jinsung ha took over the call, “I’m just asking on how’s my Viole doing”.

“your Viole?”, they raised their eyebrows.

“a high ranker talking to us regulars is already strange, how did you know that we know Mr.Bam?”, one of them retorted.

“he’s my disciple, of course I know”.

“is that true Mr.Bam?”

“well, yea”.

“Viole never told you about me?!”, Jinsung looks dissapointed.

“uhh”, they try to avoid eye contact.

- - - - -

How long has it been? 3 years maybe. Khun and his team has reached 64th floor, time sure flies really fast.

“M-Mr.Bam!”, one of Khun’s teammates calls him in distress.

Bam quickly senses something’s wrong, “what is it?”

“it’s Khun—”

- - - - -

Bam didn’t think twice and immediately went to their place, it took him only 2 days to arrive.

Khun is lying on the bed, bandages covering all over his torso. His friends were also there, one in the room with Rak and the rest of them are on the balcony.

Bam slammed open the door, “Khun!”

“Mr.Bam?!?”, Khun didn’t expect him to be there.

Bam is thankful just to know Khun is alive, he sighed with relief. But still, “you scared me”.

“sorry”.

Bam uses his skill to heal him, but because his wound is quite severe, it’ll still needs time to heal.

Meanwhile, Khun wants to yell at whoever called Mr.Bam with 'didn’t I tell you not to call him?!’, but he keeps it to himself. Because since Mr.Bam is already here, he can’t ask him to go back, there’s no need for him to be mad anymore.

The room is quiet, Khun tries to think of something else to preoccupied his mind so that the pain won’t hurt too much.

Khun suddenly realized something, “by the way, Mr.Bam”.

“hm?”

“that’s the first time you called my name”.

- - - - -

“don’t move too much”, Bam warned Khun, “your wound hasn’t healed yet”.

But Khun is itching to move from his boring bed, he sighed and gave Bam a pleading stare.

“don’t give me that look, you know it’s for the best”.

- - - - -

“Mr.Bam, do I need to add the salt or the pepper first?”

“it doesn’t matter, the point is to make it tasty”.

“but I thought cooking has rules”, Khun is confused.

“it does. But it’s not as complicated as you think”.

- - - - -

Urek is with them, wearing a formal clothes with a bouquet of flowers on his hand, “how do I look?”

“great”.

“then, wish me luck, baby~!”

After he left, Rak whispered to Bam, “I bet ten bananas that the hopeless turtle gonna get rejected”.

Bam facepalmed internally, “are we seriously going with this again?”

- - - - -

“Bam!!”, Yuri approached him with outstretched arms, “how are you?”

“ah, Miss.Yuri”, Bam returned the hug, “I’m fine”.

Meanwhile in the distance, Evan has his attention on Khun, “huh? Aren’t you—”

“dead? Nope”, Khun quickly answered him, “did I know you?”

- - - - -

“so, what have you learned from Mr.Evan?”, Bam asked.

“should I explain it or demonstrate them instead?”, Khun said with a smug.

- - - - -

One day Bam suddenly had a weird feeling. It’s really rare for him to feel so…insecure, probably because he misses 'him’. He decided to have a short talk with Khun.

“what is it, Mr.Bam?”

“are you going to be okay on your own?”

“why did you ask? Are you feeling homesick?”

“not exactly, but you could say that”.

Khun gave him a smile, “I can take care of myself, don’t worry about me”.

- - - - -

Bam came back from his walk, he opened the door and shouted, “I’m back!”, like always. But no one answered, that’s odd. He took a few steps forward, “Rak?”, he shouted again, still no answer, “Khun? Everyone?”, the room is still quiet.

Then he stepped on something, a paper with an address written on it, there’s also a message on the back that make his stomach dropped. “meet me at the place I mentioned tomorrow unless you want them dead”.

- - - - -

Khun and his team were being kidnapped by someone who holds a grudge against Bam. After a long talk, they finally settled on a deal. In exchange for their lives, Bam took an unknown curse that condemned him to die in a few weeks.

Everyone hardly slept for days to find the cure. If they can’t find it soon, Bam has no other choice. He’s almost at his limit.

Unfortunately, despite how much time they spent, they still found nothing. Let alone on how to get rid of the curse, there’s not even a single mention about it.

“that’s enough guys, thank you for your hard work”, Bam spoke up, “there’s no need for that anymore”.

“are you giving up black turtle!?”, Rak couldn’t believe what he had just heard, “it’s not like you to give up that easily”.

“what can I say?”, Bam gave a halfhearted laugh as he rolled up his sleeve to reveal his arm, everyone who saw it could tell that they’re running out of time.

“I don’t want it to end like this!”, one of them cried.

“it’s not the end”, Bam reassured.

“there must be a way!”

Bam felt some kind of deja vu.

“Bam…”, Shibisu called him.

“?”

Shibisu turned his head to look at Khun who’s sitting in the corner, still fixed up on his lighthouse. Typing, searching, reading, anything to keep himself busy and pretend all of the conversations that he heard isn’t real.

Bam realized that Khun has been very silent for a long time, though he can understand what Khun might feel right now, it must be the same feeling of helplessness, just like that day.

Bam approached him and spoke softly, “you can stop now”.

Khun’s hands halted, he didn’t move an inch and keep staring at the screen.

“I’m sorry”, Bam apologized.

Khun’s eyes watered, he placed his clenched fists on his lap and bowed his head, trying not to breakdown.

“are you mad at me?”

Khun quickly shook his head. He isn’t mad at Bam, he’s mad at himself who can’t find a way to help him. He’s a lightbearer damn it, it’s his job to find informations to help his team. But he failed. His tears started falling down one after another.

Bam took a step forward and held him closer in an embrace. Khun quickly wrapped his arms tightly around him and started sobbing into his clothes.

“don’t cry”.

Khun shook his head again, how can he not cry at a time like this?! Khun hugs him tighter and buried his face deeper into him.

The room is quiet, Bam keep stroking his hair until he calmed down.

“I don’t mind dying as long as you’re safe”, Bam tries to reassure him.

“but I don’t want it if it means you won’t be here!”, Khun shouted his pent up frustration.

Bam is at a loss for words because he knew the feeling too well.

His teammates approached them one by one and Bam pulled them into a group hug.

“don’t leave us, Mr.Bam”, one of them cried.

“Mr.Bam… ”, they sobbed.

Bam closes his eyes and appreciate their warmth for the last time, “that day, I never thought that I’ll get the chance to experience happiness again. But you proved that I was wrong. The time that I spent with you are one of the best gift that life ever gave to me”, Bam smiled, “thank you”.

All of them breaking into tears, they hug Bam tighter and no one wants to let go.

They stay like that for a while before Bam pulled away from the hug and patted their heads, “take care, okay?”

“no, please don’t leave us”.

“Mr.Bam…”

Bam approached Rak and paused before him.

“black turtle…”, Rak is filled with so much emotions, he doesn’t know what else to say.

Bam kneels and pulled Rak into a hug, Rak immediately returned the gesture.

“don’t be sad, Rak. It’s fine”, but a tear trickled down his cheek because it hurts him to say goodbye. He felt his heart crumbles into pieces as he said, “it’s fine”, but even so, he smiles, “because, I can finally see him again”.

Rak tighten his hug.

“oh Bam…”, Shibisu instinctively went to comfort him.

They eventually pulled out from the hug. Rak didn’t say anything but anyone can tell that he’s upset, and so does Shibisu. They want to cry, to scream, anything that can prevent Bam to leave, but they know it won’t, so they hold their feeling back and keep themselves strong, for Bam and everyone else’s sake.

“Rak, Isu, take care. I’ll leave them to you”.

“of course!”

“you don’t have to ask”.

- - - - -

They were devastated. Not only Khun and his teammates, but also all of Bam’s close friends who’s got the unexpected news.

Meanwhile, Khun accidentally found an unfinished photo album in Bam’s work desk when he’s about to clean his room. He opened it out of curiosity.

Inside, there’s a photo when he and his team finally got promoted into D-class regulars, with a handwritten 'I’m proud of you!’ on the corner. A photo of them lying around on the ground full of sweat after a hard day training, with a handwritten 'keep it up!’

There’s also photos of them on their first cooking lesson, when they accidentally set the kitchen on fire. A photo when they had a sleepover after an exhausting day. Also a photo when they had a fight against each other over a silly thing. There’s even a photo of his late friend’s funeral.

Khun can’t help the tears that already streaming down on his face. He remembered that Mr.Bam once told him to cherish every moments that he experienced, because now he finally understood how valuable those moments are.

- - - - -

“Bam!”, a familiar blue haired man waved his hand in the distance.

Bam turned to look at him. Realizing who it is, he smiles brightly and came running to get him, almost knocking him off with a hug.

“I missed you!”, Bam burst into happy tears, “I missed you so much!”

Khun chuckled, “I missed you more”.

#tower of god #tog #bam #baam #khun #koon #25th bam #25th baam #khun aguero agnis #shibisu #ship leesoo #rak #rak wraithraiser #khunbam #koonbaam #bamxkhun #my art #fanfic #my fanfic

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phasediamond · 4 years ago

Text

More Horizon Zero Dawn AUs

NOTE: IDK why but I just really like making Aloy powerful and giving the world the knowledge it deserves. Well I do know the reason why I do the second one because fuck Ted Faro

ROYAL GODS AU

Took some inspiration from Warhammer (the god emperor part), I don't know much about it though.

In this AU Ted didn't fuck everyone over (he tried and failed). APOLLO did malfunction for some cradles, however. The parts of the world that are technologically advanced have already colonized other planets and solar systems by the time HZD happens. Rost was the previous 'God Emperor' of the Twilight empire (known to his people as Rost the Great; If you can't already tell the moon is an important part of the empire's culture and I thought it be cool to see a society worship mainly the moon and view the moon as more important than the sun) and took Aloy from the Nora when he discovered them attempting to kill her as an infant. He still dies protecting Aloy however, only Aloy is much younger (age 7) and everything happens much faster because she has an entire empire that wants the people responsible for their beloved emperor dead. When Rost dies he transfers all of his godly abilities to Aloy but wishes for her to become an eternal empress which comes true. By doing this he made Aloy immortal. She can also give the gift of immortality to whoever she pleases and can give them powers as well. During her first visit to GAIA Prime Aloy wakes up the Alpha's and they help put a stop to HADES.

Since she is too young to take the throne, her Aunt Minerva becomes the Empress. She continues to teach Aloy about their empire and how to be a leader so Aloy can take the throne once she steps down. A few years after defeating HADES, Aloy being Rost's only child and heir, Aloy is crowned the 'God Empress' of the Twilight Empire and becomes the most powerful woman not only on the planet but all of the Earth colonies across the galaxy (aged 17). Around this time is when GAIA is rebuilt. To her people, she is known as Empress Aloy Kassandra Sobeck or Aloy the Just among other nicknames. Because Elisabet is her 'mother' she is known as Duchess Elisabet Sobeck . The other Alpha's have been given the titles such as duchess/duke as well. GAIA also has the title duchess because fuck it why not. Shortly after getting GAIA back to full strength, Aloy and Varl get married (they had been betrothed since before they could even walk and yes Varl is a prince in this AU; aged 18). Varl has a head full of dreads along with a stubble beard. Also, Aloy has a slight accent (she has the same accent as the natives in the game GreedFall) that becomes more noticeable the more excited she gets because why not and also the seat of the empire is in modern-day Ireland.(May come back and add some more stuff)

AU WHERE ELISABET ADOPTES ALOY'S 5 FRIENDS AND A TODDLER THAT ALOY STOLE OR HZD WITH SOME HARRY POTTER ELEMENTS

Aloy was kidnapped when she was a baby because the Sobeck's of this earth are an ancient and extremely powerful line of Oscoris ( sco-ris ; multiversal magic) users before the events leading up to HZD (she was born when Lis was in her early twenties/late teens) by the mysterious company [I really need to come up with a name for them] and was experimented on. Later she returned to her home universe (for her it was only six years, not the twenty-seven years it was for Elisabet), along with her teammates and a toddler she stole. Elisabet never had to sacrifice herself for everyone's safety because she used her oscoris to seal the doors and then everyone was put in cryostasis. Nearly 1000 years later, THEEYANA (a powerful multiversal AI; kinda like a goddess) wakes Elisabet and the alpha's up when Aloy is unable to. Together they all stop HADES and rebuild GAIA with THEEYANA's help. THEEYANA starts taking large groups of humans and educating them on their past and more on magic and on oscoris. Eventually, after pulling some strings The Citadel agreed to help the people of this earth get to the point they should have been at. Aloy's teammates don't actually have real names; they go by code names or nicknames so Elisabet names them all. It should be noted that in this AU it's a tradition for a Sobeck to be named after a famous person from any mythology really or a celestial body. Example: Elisabet's middle name is Andromeda. (Yes the Sobeck's are kinda like the Black's from Harry Potter but they're not pureblood supremacists. Yes, they practice dark magic, but they practice all kinds of magic). Ted is still alive, but older now and was charged for his crimes against humanity. (Yes, I got inspiration from A Lightkeeper in The Dark)

THE KIDS NICKNAMES AND REAL NAMES, AGES, NOTES ABOUT THEM (3 girls and 3 boys):

Aloy- Atalanta Cassiopeia Sobeck, 7 yrs old; Aloy is just a nickname along with little huntress, little wolf ( only her mother can call her that), little duck (her grandma would call her that when she was still alive, sometimes Lis calls her it too but rarely), and a few others. She and her mother are the most powerful pureblooded oscoris users and the reason their oscoris is so powerful is because they are Vehreapollmen ( veh-ra-e-po-le-men; hellbeast ) hybrids and not totally human (Elisabet is something like one 15th human and Aloy is like one 20th human).

Bomber- Achilles Rigel Sobeck, 8 yrs old; he's known for making bombs and breaking into things. He mostly goes by Rigel.

Huey- Leo Endymion Sobeck, 5 yrs old; the shyest out of all them.

Mini Gaia- Bellatrix (Bella) Cyrene Sobeck, 6 yrs old; third oldest behind Aloy and Achilles, was called Mini Gaia as a joke because she looks so much like GAIA the AI and she absolutely hates it. She was actually given the name Bellatrix by Aloy and then the name Cyrene by Elisabet after Aloy introduced Bella to her mother.

Daisy- Pandora Lyra Sobeck, 2 yrs old; she's the youngest and most well behaved out of all of them,

Delta - Draco Oisín (oh-SHEEN ) Sobek, 4 yrs old; second youngest out of all of them and by far the most talkative

All of them are insanely protective of their mother. Basically, this AU is just Elisabet Sobeck adopts 5 homicidal former child soldiers who have never been shown any affection, then proceeds to give them all the love in the world. That being said she is not fazed one bit when she finds out that one of her kids tried to kill somebody because she expects it to happen. She would be surprised if they didn't try and kill someone. When this happens Lis gets this deadpan look and just goes "Again? It's not even lunch yet!" Later on Elisabet would go on to have twin boys when Aloy is 14 and the kids are really protective of their new baby brothers. (I may come back and add some more stuff)

#phase's absolutely massive mutliverse #phase's ocs #horizon zero dawn #horizon zero dawn elisabet #horizon zero dawn au #horizon zero dawn aloy #aloy hzd #Aloy Sobeck #elisabet sobeck

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vesuvian-sunsets · 4 years ago

Note

3 and 10 for apprentice questions? 🥰

Thank you so much for the ask! 😊 Sorry that they got a little long... I've thought a lot about these particular topics 😅

3. Do they have a familiar? Why did you choose that animal? How did they meet?

For Merin:

Merin's familiar is a spotted hyena named Finley. Finley is a very friendly, very enthusiastic, very gentle little bean. To her, everyone is a friend until proven otherwise. Quite the opposite of Merin, who is a lot more reserved and guarded around people she doesn't know. But! Finley brings out Merin's soft side like no one else but Asra and Muriel can.

I picked a hyena because a large predator seemed appropriate for Merin. People look at Finley and treat her with caution, just as they look at Merin, with her scars and magic, and do the same. And, honestly, Merin's about as likely to actually hurt someone as sweet lil Finley is, even if they can both be rather intimidating when pressed.

Merin first saw Finley while exploring the Red Market about a year before the game begins. Finley was being sold by one of the exotic animal traders down there. And, because Finely's so friendly and energetic, she was pretty miserable cooped up in a cage- not because of mistreatment or anything, just because she wanted to be running around and interacting with people. Of course, Merin didn't know that, and just saw this sad little hyena pup, looking at her with biggest, saddest puppy dog eyes you could imagine.

And she tried to just ignore the hyena. She really did. She certainly didn't have money to buy her.

But seeing the poor thing that sad and in a cage... she couldn't just sit by and do nothing. So... she waited until the trader was distracted, popped the lock open with a quick spell, and scooped Finely out and into her bag (it was a good sized bag don't worry). Then she got out of there FAST. And... then had to come to terms with the fact that she now had a hyena. And had to figure out what to tell Asra...

She doesn't regret it for a moment though. Finley's one of her best friends, and is QUITE a lot happier trotting along at Merin's side and napping in the shop's many pillow piles than she would've been in some noble's private zoo or whatever.

For Xori:

Xori's familiar is a red tailed hawk named Panrell. He's a grumpy, ill tempered bird who dislikes pretty much everyone but Xori. He does come to begrudgingly like Portia and Julian on their routes though. He loves Xori dearly and is fiercely protective of her.

Originally, when I had started the game knowing very little about it, I'd wanted her to have a crow familiar. But then I found out that Julian had a raven, and that was too similar so I switched it. Honestly, I like having Panrell as a hawk more. It better fits a druid, and it better fits her personality before her death. Fierce and proud. A true creature of the wilds.

She met Panrell when she was a child. She found him tangled in a hunter's snare after trying to get at a caught rabbit. She'd cut him free and healed him up, and then he flew off. She thought that was the last she'd see of him. But he kept coming back, and she started leaving out scraps of meat for him. Eventually he decided to trust her enough to land on her shoulder. And then they were inseparable.

At least... until Xori died.

Panrell stayed around the Lazaret for a while after her death- not wanting to leave her alone. But eventually he'd had to leave for the forest.

Asra looked for him once he returned, and still more once he'd brought Xori back. To no avail.

But in Xori's dreams, she was often guided from danger by a hawk. The same hawk every time.

During the events of the game, Panrell does find her again. But their connection had frayed with her death. They couldn't talk to each other, and for a while Xori was just very confused as to why this hawk had just... befriended her for some reason??? Even more confused as to why there was a strange sense of completion, of coming home, whenever he perched on her shoulder.

But she finds out the truth and rebuilds their connection over time.

10) Describe their magical abilities. What are they best at? Worst?

For Merin:

Merin's specialty is pyromancy. To her, her magic feels like fire just beneath her skin. It's not painful. It feels warm and comforting. It feels powerful. In times of stress or when she has little time to think, fire always jumps quickest to her palms to defend herself with. She also can't really be burned by fire. So when she needs light she just summons a flame to her palm, letting it dance across her skin.

She's also pretty good at using magic to bypass locks, at forming shield spells and wards, and also sensing things with magic- like illusions, portals, etc.

What she struggles with most is healing. It's so different from the natural state of her magic- hot and bright and burning- that it's quite a struggle to force it to soften, cool, and turn soothing. It takes a lot of work, and for years she couldn't do it at all. It's pretty fitting that she passed out after healing Muriel in his first chapter- because that really would've taken a lot out of her to accomplish.

For Xori:

Xori's specialty is nature magic. Her magic is soft and green and blooming. It feels like sunlight dappling on leaves. Like rich dark soil that's full of life. She doesn't remember it, but she was born to a tribe of nomadic druids. Nature magic is in her blood, and not even amnesia and death were able to take that from her. Her favorite defensive spell is to conjure vines and roots from the earth to ensnare her foes. And, unlike Merin, she's very good at healing magic. She's a very nurturing person, and so soothing pain and healing wounds is practically second nature.

What she struggles with the most is any sort of illusion magic, any sort of spell that requires trickery. She's a terrible, terrible liar who wears her heart on her sleeve. And you can generally tell what she's feeling just by looking at her face. So, obviously, her magic simply isn't built for deception.

#the arcana #the arcana game #fan apprentice #xori #merin #asks #cyberbeardbouquetblog

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lexosaurus · 5 years ago

Link

And in today’s rendition of “lexx literally wtf” I had this sitting in my drive for so long lexx wtf.

Thank you Rev for calling me out today and @imperfection-at-itsfinest here is your Truce gift!!!

Summary: There was no way her son was dead. She would have known. Oh god, she had to have known if he was. There was just...this couldn’t be possible...it wasn’t possible…

---

“I won’t let a halfa like you best me, the ghost zone’s greatest hunter!” the metal ghost yelled, jabbing a thumb at its chest.

The teenage ghost let a stream of bright ectoplasm fly from its fist. It grinned when the shot met its mark. “Better a halfa than a tin can!”

There was that word again. Halfa. Maddie didn’t know what it meant, but then again it didn’t particularly matter. These were ghosts, not humans. Whatever capacity for language they had were mere imprints of their language production as humans. They weren’t really forming sentences themselves, they were just regurgitating the basic phrases and insults that they remembered from their previous lives. That was all.

The metal ghost narrowed its eyes. “You would be wise to shut your mouth now, ghost child. ”

“You would like that, wouldn’t you?”

Although Phantom was rather peculiar as a ghost, it was still just that: a ghost. Everything it spoke reeked of teenage arrogance and was filled with silly puns and ridiculous slang. It was obviously recently deceased, possibly from this city, and if its fighting style was anything to show, it was likely from the streets.

It was quick on its feet, and begrudgingly successful in combat, but its fighting style was sloppy. Immature. Phantom used too much energy for his movements, and its punches and kicks left Maddie cringing from afar.

Yes, it had likely lived among the homeless population of Amity Park at some point. Between its fighting style and the fact that none of the obituaries or missing children reports in the last year matched for a short teenage boy of Phantom’s appearance, Maddie could almost be certain that this child died alone, surrounded by no one, with only a knowledge of hardship and fighting in its ectoplasm. And although Maddie should feel sorrow for this painful truth, she was now left with a rather destructive ghost to deal with.

Maddie squinted up at the night sky. The two ghosts were really going at it, and their light show was beginning to pick up speed. If this didn’t end soon, it could start causing property damage.

Instincts begged Maddie to jump out from the bushes she was hiding in, brandish her gun, and shoot both of them down. But she resisted. She couldn’t afford to let them know she was here. It would ruin her plans.

There was a loud bang, and Maddie tightened her grip on her ecto-gun. It would appear that Phantom landed a high powered ecto-blast at its opponent, causing it to come crashing to the ground. It slammed against the pavement, sending chunks of rock into the air.

“That’s what you get for breaking my model rocket!” Phantom shouted.

Huh, interesting. So the ghost owned worldly possessions. Maddie shouldn’t be surprised, considering how much time it spent on Earth.

Which, in fact, was the whole reason she was out here.

A ghost that attacked humans was worrying. Even more worrying was Phantom, a ghost who spent so much time amongst humans, Maddie was beginning to question where the ghost considered home.

Because what was the ghost’s reason for playing hero to the humans? Why was it spotted longing around Amity Park when it wasn’t actively looking for another one of its kind to fight? Phantom seemed desperate for approval— human approval. While Maddie had previously chalked it up to an extreme case of narcissism, now, after months of studying the ghost, she couldn’t be so sure.

Going off Maddie’s almost certain theory that this ghost didn’t have family or friends to speak of as its time as a human, that meant that it died alone, completely and utterly alone. It had no one who accepted it as a child, who loved and nurtured it as a parent should, and who gave it the attention that any child needs. It had no community with humans as a human, which makes for wonderful obsessive tendencies as a ghost.

Where was this ghost’s lair?

Maddie had a hypothesis that this ghost, while it originally had a liar in the Ghost Zone as all ghosts do, has an obsession that is so strong that its lair is actively moving to Earth.

When Phantom first appeared in Amity, it was sporadic. It would appear every once in a while, engage in sloppy combat with a ghost, and then disappear. It didn’t have ecto-blasts, it seemed to hardly have a grasp on its intangibility, and overall it seemed more like a frightened child than a cocky ghost.

It was painfully obvious Phantom was a recently-born ghost.

But then it started coming back more often. Maddie didn’t know how, but she theorized that part of Phantom’s powers were the ability to locate natural portals. Regardless, Phantom was fighting ghosts in Amity more often, it was gaining new powers, it was talking more both to the ghosts and to the citizens.

This was when both her and Jack moved capturing Phantom to the top of their priority lists. Phantom was quickly becoming more powerful, and they couldn’t allow him to put the citizens of Amity in more danger than they already were.

Soon after this shift in personality, Phantom took a turn for the worse: it started lounging in Amity when there were no ghosts to be found.

At first, Maddie and her husband were stumped as to why. Surely the ghost would need to go back to the Ghost Zone to recharge after its obsession was fulfilled, right? Every ghost did, so why was Phantom seemingly different?

But then it clicked. He was no different from the other ghosts, he was just adapting his haunt to fit his obsession. And so his lair was becoming Amity Park itself.

While there were ghosts that haunted on Earth, they were rare, weak due to the little ectoplasm in the Earth’s air, and their haunts usually consisted of single rooms or small homes that the ghosts could never leave. These types of ghosts were created through an especially tragic event, and their obsession was tied down to the building itself.

So then, if Phantom was creating a new lair in Amity, but he was also gaining —not losing—power by the day, he was more dangerous than Maddie and Jack could have imagined.

Phantom needed to be stopped. But Maddie was no idiot; she knew she would not be able to face him head-on.

She had a plan.

It was quite simple, and would weaken Phantom just enough to contain it. If her theory was correct, then after this fight was over, it would go back to its lair in Amity, wherever that may be. All Maddie had to do was follow him there, destroy the haunt—triggering its obsession and causing it to become fixated on rebuilding the haunt—and then capture the ghost right then and there.

While no plan was perfect, this was the closest to perfect Maddie could get.

There was another bang to her right, and Maddie’s head snapped up to see the metal ghost being thrown into a tree. The tree splintered, and both the tree and the ghost fell to the ground. Phantom landed beside him, arms crossed, looking as smug as ever.

The ghost spit out a leaf. “You are insufferable.”

“Good. Maybe if I annoy you to death squared, you’ll actually leaf me alone this time.” Phantom smirked. “Get it? ‘Cause you have leaves all over you. Because you landed on a tree.”

The metal ghost glared. “You will not make a fool of me, whelp.”

“Ah, it’s a little too late for that one! Sorry about that, Skulker!”

“What are you…” The metal ghost squirmed, attempting to push itself off the ground, and then stopped. “What did you do to me?”

Phantom held up a glowing blue hand with an ice crystal twirling between its fingers. His eyes let out a burst of blue light. “Oh, you know, the usual.” It reached into its belt and pulled out a Fenton Thermos.

Maddie had known about the stolen technology for a few months now, ever since she saw Phantom using it on the news one night. The fact that Phantom had managed to bypass both her and Jack’s ecto-security alarms, break into their basement, and steal the tech right under their noses was chilling.

“Say goodnight, Skulker!”

Phantom flicked a switch on the device and it activated, spilling blue light in its path. The metal ghost was ripped from the ground and suctioned into the device, disappearing from sight. Phantom capped the device, and just like that, the air was still.

Phantom sighed, rolling its shoulders and stretching its neck. It pulled out a cell phone and tapped away at the device.

Maddie didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. She stared at Phantom from behind the bush like a predator stalking its prey.

This was it. Everything she had worked so hard for was about to pay off. All the hard, long months of research, the tired nights spent conducting experiments, the back and forth with Jack over possible theories and new weapons—it was all going to be over soon.

All she had to do was wait for Phantom to make its next move.

Phantom tapped at the screen for another second—the fact that the ghost seemed to be communicating with someone else on the device was revolting enough—before locking the phone and storing it away. It glanced around, as if searching for something, before shrugging and closing its eyes.

A blinding flash of light overtook its body.

Maddie squinted. She had never seen this before from Phantom. Was this some sort of ritual the ghost undertook after fulfilling its obsession? Was this how it gained power?

But before she could dwell on the light might longer, it formed a ring and separated, traveling up and down the ghost’s body until—

Maddie jolted upright and started to move forward before freezing in her tracks. She inhaled sharply.

No...no...this couldn’t be happening.

Danny— her Danny—stiffened.

He had noticed her. He knew he was being watched. He was going to see that she was there, and then what? He was dead. He was her son and she must have killed him there was simply no other way this could have happened how did this happen and what the hell was he?

There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. She couldn’t move, her feet wouldn’t let her anyway, and it was all over now.

Danny whirled around, and his eyes doubled in size at the sight of her. “Mom,” he gasped. His mouth opened, then slammed shut.

Maddie remained a statue, unblinking as she tried to remember how to breathe.

It was possible that this wasn’t even her son. It could be that Phantom had captured her son, and was just pretending to be him. Or maybe her son was safely tucked in bed, and Phantom was just using his image to walk around town unnoticed. That was a better answer than the one she was thinking of, right? There was no way her son was dead. She would have known. Oh god, she had to have known if he was. There was just...this couldn’t be possible...it wasn’t possible…

But as they stared into each others eyes for an agonizingly long moment, and she saw the myriad of emotions flickering through his face, she knew deep down that this was her Danny.

“Mom…”

Maddie shook her head. “You’re not...not Danny…”

Hurt flashed through his eyes. “I’m sorry. I am.”

She knew that. She already knew that.

“Impossible.”

“Mom, you have to believe me. I’m sorry.”

Maddie swallowed. It was so obvious now— everything was. The late nights, broken curfew, aversions to their inventions, the lies, the bad grades, detentions, mood swings, the random injuries she always saw and wrote off as just teenage boys being boys. It was like a fog had lifted in her mind, and now suddenly everything was clear. It all made sense.

But it was impossible.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. I just...you know, the portal accident happened and—and then things just kept going wrong, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me and I’m sorry I’m so sorry, I didn’t know how to get it out and I was afraid—oh god, I thought you were going to hurt me and I’m so—I’m sorry I know I should have trusted you, but please, Mom, you have to believe me I—I tried so hard to tell you and do the right...the right thing... please .” Danny’s voice cracked, and he lifted a hand to his eyes. “ Please .”

A voice in the back of her mind told her that she was still gripping her ecto-gun with white knuckles, and the same voice insisted she at least lower the gun.

But she didn’t.

Instead, her feet took a step back, and then another.

“ Mom… ”

Because the realization of who he was in relation to who she was hit her all at once, and suddenly she felt sick. This was her son, and she’d spent the last year hunting him with the intent of eliminating him from this plane of existence. Hell, her entire goal tonight was to capture and eliminate her own child.

For months she’d spent her time shooting at her son.

And he was scared of her now. Terrified. This was her son and he couldn’t trust her enough to tell him the biggest change he’d ever experience in his life—whatever that word meant now. Oh god, she’d tried to kill her son. What mother mercilessly hunts her own child?

Another step backwards. A shaky breath out.

This was her own child and she dedicated her life to ending his.

“Mom!”

She couldn’t do this. She didn’t deserve to be called his mother. She was a monster.

She had to get out of here.

“Mom, please! You have to—to listen! I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The dark sky were too open, as if it were trying to swallow her whole. The moon cast a glow down, breaking up the darkness with a spotlight directed at her. Shame on you, it seemed to say. You monster. Look at you. You hunted your son. You killed your child. Shame, shame, shame.

It was all her fault he was like this now.

It was her neglect that caused this.

It was her anger, her malignity, that allowed this game of cat and mouse to continue.

Her fault.

She took another step back, and her foot caught on a rock. She stumbled, nearly dropping the ecto-weapon, before steadying herself. Her eyes readjusted, and once again she saw her son standing beneath the stars, his face shining with tears and unspoken truths, and she couldn’t say a thing.

“ Please… ” he whispered.

Maddie shook her head.

Her son was dead and it was her fault.

“Well, that’s it then.” Danny ended their staring contest, turning his head up at the stars. “That’s it. I guess it’s my fault for thinking you and Dad would accept me, even after everything. I was stupid, I know. I’m sorry. I won’t...if this is what you—you want. I can...I’ll just...I—I can go.”

Before Maddie could react, bright rings appeared around Danny, turning him back into Phantom—no, he was still Danny .

Electric green eyes shifted over to her one last time, and Maddie flinched. It was still Danny, still her son.

So why did she keep reminding herself?

A flash of anger overtook his face before he leapt into the sky and disappeared into the night.

And she just stood there. Allowing it to happen.

The ecto-gun fell to the ground. Suddenly it was like she was breathing through a straw. She let out a shuddering breath, but it wasn’t enough. She needed air.

She frantically searched her pockets, ripping out ecto-weapon after ecto-weapon, hurling them against the ground like they were parasites. How could one person have this many collapsible weapons on their person at one time, anyway? It was unsightly. No wonder why Danny didn’t want to hug her anymore.

Her hand brushed against something smooth, and she desperately clawed the object from her pocket.

Her cellphone. This was what she needed.

The phone unlocked with a click, and she wasted no time pressing the home button and demanding the phone to, “Call Jack.”

The few bouts of rings while she waited for her husband to pick up were agonizing. What would he say, knowing that she was the reason why their son ran off tonight? What would he think when she told him it was their invention that killed him? How would he react knowing their son was the object of their despise for so long?

“Maddie?” Jack’s voice crackled through the speaker. “What’s going on, did you find his haunt?”

She shook her head, not caring if he couldn’t see her. “No—no, Jack! I—”

“Where are you?”

“Jack, it’s Danny!”

“Danny?” Jack’s voice raised in alarm. “What about him? What happened?”

“He—he ran off! He’s gone!”

She could hear his thundering footsteps through the speaker.

“He’s gone!” she repeated. Her voice cracked.

“What—he’s not in his room. Where is he? Why didn’t you tell me you went out to find him? Mads, I could have helped! What’s going on?”

“No, it’s not—”

“Where is he?”

“Jack, I was just with him! He ran off!”

There was a slight pause. “What are you talking about?” he asked, his voice laced with confusion.

“He—Jack, Danny is Phantom!”

“What…? Maddie, you’re not making sense.”

Maddie pressed her fist against her forehead. “The portal, Jack! The accident last year! Danny was killed in our portal, and he’s Phantom! He’s been—oh, Jack. Danny’s been Phantom this whole time. He’s—”

“No.” Jack’s sharp voice cut in. “No, Maddie. That’s not true. Come on, that’s ridiculous. Danny as Phantom? Babe, our boy couldn’t hurt a fly! He’s not Phantom .”

Maddie shook her head again. “But I just saw him transform out of his ghost personna in the park. He—he saw me. I wasn’t quiet enough and he tried to explain himself but I couldn’t—”

“Maddie, we would know if our son was a ghost . We’re ecto-scientists! And ghost hunters! It was just Phantom playing tricks on you. He probably has Danny kidnapped in his haunt too. Come home, we need to get this spook once and for all.”

“No, Jack, you’re not—I saw him, okay? I saw him! That was Danny. ”

“No, you’re not being rational.” Jack insisted. “We would know if that thing was—”

“Jack, listen to me! Please! I need you to trust me.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. Maddie could almost see the tense muscles in her husband’s jaw, his teeth grinding ever so slightly in frustration.

But he was quiet, which meant he was listening.

She exhaled and started speaking. “I know it’s hard to believe. Impossible, even. But that thing was Danny. Jack, you should have seen him when he saw me. He looked... afraid . He was scared of me, of us . Terrified. I’ve never seen a ghost look that way before.”

“He could have just been putting on an act, you know.”

“No, I would have known if he was being manipulative. Besides, he ran from me . He could have stayed and knocked me down where I stood. He could have tortured me with memories of this past year—that’s what any ghost would have done. But he didn’t . He flew off. He was scared, apologetic, and then just vanished. I’ve never seen that behavior from a ghost before.”

Jack sighed. “We always did say he was a strange ghost.”

“He did act different around us. We’ve talked about it before. You know he always seemed off whenever he called one of us by our names.”

“If you think it’s him,” Jack said carefully. “If you truly believe it’s him, then you have to find him. Ghost or not, he’s a child and he’s not in his room. And if that ghost is Danny, then we need to talk. All of us. I’m gonna go out there and look for the human Danny, but you have to tell me if you find him, okay? Please, Mads, I’ll leave the blasters at home if I need to. I just need to know he’s okay.”

“Okay,” Maddie agreed. She glanced down at the pile of ecto-weapons at her feet. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything.”

“Good.” Jack’s voice sounded relieved. “I’ll talk to you soon. By the way, do you have any idea where he might be?”

“No...I...he disappeared. I don’t...I might know. One place. Maybe.”

“Oh, where?”

Maddie turned away from her weapons and headed for the road. The building was less than a mile away. It would be faster by car, but she could make good time on foot if she hurried. “I...you take the GAV and go out looking for him. It’ll be easier if we split up, we can cover more ground. I’m gonna try this one location, and if it’s a bust I’ll tell you.”

“Okay.” Jack said.

In the background, Maddie could hear the jingling of car keys.

“Okay,” Jack repeated. “I love you. Bye, talk soon.”

“You too.”

The phone went silent between them.

---

Maddie was still a good distance from the Nasty Burger when she saw the faint glow outlined on the roof. She let out a breath of relief. He was there, exactly where she thought he would be, at his favorite hangout spot in Amity Park.

If that wasn’t telling that Phantom was her son, then she didn’t know what was.

Maddie crept around the back of the building, vaguely aware that she would have to reveal her presence soon. It was really just luck that Danny hadn’t noticed her yet, even with his heightened ghost senses. Though, judging by his hunched posture as well as the quiet sniffles sounding from his direction, Maddie knew just why that was.

She stopped in her tracks. She was finally close enough to call out to Danny, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out. It was as if someone pressed the mute button on her voice. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t say anything.

She brought her arms in close to her chest, hugging her body with gloved hands. Her fingers trembled. It was too warm a night for her to be shivering like this.

After this, it would all be over between them. The secrets, the lies, the twisted half-truths and layers upon layers of false assumptions. Every wall they had unknowingly built up between them would be torn down.

And where would their relationship be at the end of this? Once their metaphorical bunker was broken into, what would be on the inside? Would they at least get a flashlight to navigate the dusty room, or would she be forced to reach out blindly for support?

Everything was about to change.

She took a deep breath. “Danny?”

The sniffling stopped. Maddie strained her ear for footsteps, a whoosh of wind, anything to tell her that Danny had ran away again, but she didn’t hear anything.

“Don’t go. Please,” she said.

She listened, but there was still no movement from the roof.

It was now or never.

“I know it’s you. I know you’re not just Phantom. I know you’re Danny, my kid. I—I don’t…” Tears blurred her vision, and she pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “I don’t understand. What’s happening. I, um, one minute I think my son’s just a regular boy, and the next I find out he’s not, and I don’t know…”

There was still no sound from above her. But Maddie had the distinct feeling he was still there, listening, most likely terrified of what she was going to say.

Her arm fell limp at her side. “Danny, I want you to know that I’m sorry. I’m just...I’m so sorry.”

Tears spilled onto her cheeks, and she took a shuddering breath. She opened her mouth to say more, but all that came out were choked sobs.

She tried to wipe the tears off her face with her hands, but the rubber material of her gloves only served to smear the liquid around her skin. It wasn’t working, and the rubber texture was too smooth, too slippery, too…

Ghost hunter.

Trembling fingers tore off the gloves and threw them on the ground. Finally, her hands were free of their rubber constraints. But when she glanced down at her fingers, she instantly regretted taking off the gloves. Because now there was nothing to protect her from the sight of the very hands that killed her son, and tormented him after death.

A fresh wave of tears clouded her vision. “Oh god, I’m so sorry, Danny. I did this. I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I knew building the portal in our house was dangerous, especially after what happened to Vlad. I never could have imagined a worse outcome. But it did happened and now you’re...you’re...”

She sniffed. “I’m just so proud of you. Even after the accident, I can’t imagine what this has been like and I—I’m so sorry. I never meant to—to make you feel unsafe. I just love you so much and I’m—”

“Mom.” A clipped voice cut through her thoughts.

She heard a scuffling sound from the roof, and then before she could blink, Phantom appeared standing before her, his glow encasing his body like a protective blanket.

His electric green eyes stared wide up at her.

Even now, after everything, his eyes still held his innocence. How had she not made this connection before? Those were clearly Danny’s eyes, even if they were green.

“Mom. It’s not—I’m okay.”

She looked away. “No, Danny. Stop, you don’t have to—”

“No! You don’t understand,” he protested. “I’m not...dead.”

Her eyes snapped back to him. Not dead? “What do you mean?”

“The accident—the portal—it didn’t kill me all the way. I’m still alive, you see?”

There was a blinding flash of light, the same one as in the park, and suddenly Phantom was morphing into the image of Danny. Her Danny.

The same Danny that recently brought home an A in chemistry after finally admitting he needed help and signing up for the school tutoring service. He had been so proud, and so had Maddie. She always knew he was capable of more than he thought, and to see his own face of realization that no, he wasn’t stupid meant the world to her.

“Look,” he said, holding out his wrist to her. “Feel my pulse. I still have one.”

She reached down and touched his arm with delicate movements. His skin was cool to the touch, as it always had been since the accident. Before, she could blame that on a simple case of raynaud’s, where his blood circulation was simply just slightly off from the norm. But now she knew that was a farce.

“Do you feel it?”

She brushed her fingers along his wrist, stopping where she knew his pulse should be. But she couldn’t...

“Press down. It’s there, I promise.”

Her trembling fingers pushed against his skin—his human skin—and suddenly she felt it: the steady beat of his pulse.

She gasped, her eyes widening.

“Yeah, right? It’s a little slow, but it’s there. You see? I’m okay. I’m fine.”

Her eyes stung. She grasped onto his arm. “Oh, Danny.”

“I know.” He smiled up at her with shiny blue eyes. “I’m sorry I never told you. I just, I didn’t know how.”

“Danny, stop. Please.” Maddie dropped his arm. “I just...how? What—how are you…?”

He looked down at his feet. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “We think the electricity and ectoplasm in the portal combined with me, um, nearly dying just...turned me like this. We don’t know how or why, though. But I’m not dead. I’m just...I don’t really know.”

“I’m sorry, we?”

“Sam and Tucker,” Danny said. “They were there. Jazz knows, too. She found out later.”

“Oh.” Maddie’s eyebrows shot up. “Of course.”

Jazz knew? And she didn’t share it with her parents?

Well, in her defense, had Maddie and Jack ever given her a reason to? She had always been so vocal about her disapproval of their profession. Maddie had never chalked it up to anything other than the normal, “my parents are so embarrassing” phase that every teenager went through. But looking back, was this really it? Or were all the gruesome weapons, the talks of dissection, their insidious planning and plotting at the dinner table about what they would do to Phantom if they ever caught him—could those be the reasons why Jazz would tell her about Danny?

God, even thinking about that made Maddie nauseous. How could Danny even look her in the eye after all this? He must have been so scared. He was probably waiting for the day Jack and Maddie would see Phantom as a “good ghost” like Danny and Jazz had always argued he was, but they never came around.

How would he ever forgive her for this?

“Danny?” Maddie found herself saying.

His eyes shifted up to her. “Yeah?”

“I’m…” Maddie reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

He didn’t flinch at her contact, his eyes didn’t waver.

After everything, he wasn’t scared of her. He didn’t look at her like she was a monster, he looked at her like he was her child.

Maddie wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close. She felt for his reaction, any sign of stiffness or even a slight flinch that would indicate his fear to her, but she felt none of that. Despite everything she had done to him, his first instinct was to place his arms around her back and lean into her shoulder.

He wasn’t afraid of her. He should have been terrified, but he wasn’t. He just wanted her support. Her love.

He just wanted to be accepted.

That realization hit Maddie like a ton of bricks, and she found herself squeezing Danny closer to her, putting her hand against his scalp and running her fingers through his hair.

I do love you, Danny, she wanted to say, but her voice

“I love you so much.” Maddie squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m so sorry, I love you more than you’ll ever know.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

“And I can’t imagine how hard this has been for you. You’ve done so well, Danny. Your father and I are so proud of you. All we ever wanted was for you and Jazz to be happy and healthy, no matter where you ended up in life. Nothing has changed from this. I still want only for you to be happy and healthy, and I will do everything in my power to support you in this.”

“Thank you,” he whispered. “That’s...that means a lot.”

Danny pulled back and looked up at her, his eyes cautious. “Can you promise me something?”

“Of course. Anything.”

“Promise me—” Danny shifted, tugging his hoodie over his hands. “Promise me you won’t try any experiments on me. Like, to try to tear the ghost out of me or something crazy like that. I know you would mean well but...this is permanent, you know? I have...there’s another...there’s someone like me out there. You don’t know them—they live in the Ghost Zone—but there’s someone else. And that person is very gifted with technology too, and they researched half ghost biology for decades and it’s—uh—it’s permanent. There’s no cure. And honestly…”

He looked down shyly. Pink dotted his cheeks. “Honestly, if given the choice, I don’t think I would reverse this. I know that sounds insane, but I finally feel like I have a purpose. For years I was just...I felt lost. I’m not a good student like you or Jazz, I’m not creative like Dad, I’m not good at sports and I don’t know...I felt useless. I always wanted to work for NASA, but I never thought I was smart enough. But now…”

He stared at her with a determined expression she recognized as one of Phantom’s signature looks. “Now I know what I want in life. I want to help people, to protect people. There are a thousand different ways to do that, and I’m meeting so many new people through Phantom and talking to so many different types of people and ghosts and I feel good. I don’t know, I just...I need this.”

“Oh, Danny.” Maddie smiled down at him. “I never pulled you into my lab as a test bunny when you were human, didn’t I? Of course I’m not going to now. I would never do that. And I’ll pass the message to Jack, alright?”

“Okay. Thank you. A lot.”

She shook her head. “No need to thank me. You’re my son, and I would do anything for you.”

Maddie bent down and wrapped her arms around Danny one last time. He was still short for his age, but she noticed that she didn’t have to bend down as far to hug him as she normally did. She tightened her fingers around his back, and through his clothes she could feel the firm skin on his shoulders.

Her little boy was growing up. He was maturing into his own person. His own wonderful, independent, person.

She pulled back. “Now let’s go home, yeah? Your father’s worried sick, and it’s late. It’s—oh goodness, it’s nearly midnight! Come on, I’ll call your father. He can pick us up.”

“Okay, okay. Jeez, Mom, don’t you know that high schoolers are all sleep deprived anyways?”

She ruffled Danny’s hair, much to his visible irritation and hand-swatting.

There it was. Even though he was getting older, she was still his mother. She knew how to get under his skin better than anyone.

Her son.

Her half ghost, half human, ectoplasm-powered son.

“I love you.”

---

I hope you enjoyed!

#my writing #phicc #quality content #lexx is the WORST #because she finished this at like 3am and then FELL ASLEEP #and didn't go on tumblr again for DAYS #like an IDIOT #ahhhh #regardless #i had a lot of fun writing this #your prompt was amazing #also i realized i've never written a reveal fic before #which is wild because i've read like all of them #like you know that 'reveal fic' folder on ffn?#yeah i've read every single one on there probably #so thank you!!!#i tried to tone down the angst here #and keep it just hurt/comfort #but i apologize if i let any straight angst slip in!

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