#and yet they are not going to cross paths in doomsday?

[lobeliamaximoff]

they are THAT incredibly alike, they are paralleled even in the smallest details like these

I will not survive this movie

[thecreaturecodex]

Spawn of Rovagug, Xotani

Image © Paizo Publishing

{Sponsored by @tar-baphon​. Although I imagine that @monstersdownthepath​ will be happy to see it too, since they had to sort of average the 3.5 and PF2e statistics of Xotani. PF1e skipped it completely, maybe because it appeared in literally the last D&D 3.5 adventure Paizo published. I did run Legacy of Fire, and loved it. Personally, I made a few tweaks. Even if Jhavhul had succeeded, his consciousness was just going to be overwritten by Xotani; you don’t compromise with a Spawn of Rovagug. The sponsor asked me to adjust its CR up by 1, which was really only a matter of deciding how many HD to give it. Besides that, and the lava bombs borrowed from PF2e, this is a pretty straightforward conversion.]

Spawn of Rovagug, Xotani CR 21 CE Magical Beast This creature is a living magma flow, a cross between a wingless dragon and a centipede. It is the size of a building, jagged obsidian plates rising from its back and sides, and gouts of flames shooting from cracks in its surface and drool from its maw. It has eight empty eye sockets, but still seems able to see just fine. 

Xotani the Firebleeder is the weakest of the Spawn of Rovagug, but this still makes it one of the most deadly creatures in Garund. When Xotani is awake, it avoids the sun. It finds sunlight blindingly bright and surprisingly painful, and so remains underground by day, creating a network of tunnels from its own burrowing and from the lava that it spews and leaks. By night, it emerges, setting everything ablaze in its path. It has no desires or intentions other than pure destruction, although it will consume the ashes of what it destroys as a mockery of natural predation. It does take extra damage from the touch of cold, but cold damage enrages Xotani more than dissuades it.

Xotani is an unstoppable force in combat, moving like a lava flow over anything that stands in its path. Its very touch sets combustible objects ablaze, and weapons turned against it melt into slag. Xotani’s main strategies are either breathing a torrent of fire over clustered enemies, or grabbing and swallowing a single powerful foe. Wounds that open in Xotani’s flesh spew magma reflexively, and Xotani can fire lava bombs from its back. Xotani is barely sapient, but knows enough to avoid using its breath weapon against foes that are immune to fire: these it just eats after softening them up with claws and teeth.

The Firebleeder was “slain” by a powerful order of mages millennia ago, and is currently slumbering beneath Pale Mountain in Katapesh, where the color of the rock is said to come from the crushed bones of those who died in battle.  However, Xotani came very close to being awakened in the recent past. The lovesick Jhavhul, an efreet general, attempted to possess Xotani in order to have a form worthy of the object of his obsession, Ymeri the Queen of the Inferno. Without the twisted wishcraft used by Jhavhul, Xotani will not awaken for centuries. But it does now stir in his slumber, and droughts, wildfires and heat waves are more common around the Obari Ocean because of it. And plenty of other doomsday cults, misguided fire worshipers or simply bad actors may be able to wake Xotani yet. 

Xotani the Firebleeder       CR 21 XP 409,600 CE Colossal magical beast (fire, spawn of Rovagug) Init +8; Senses blindsight 120 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +26 Aura frightful presence (300 ft., Will DC 27) Defense AC 38, touch 6, flat-footed 34 (-8 size, +4 Dex, +32 natural) hp 403 (26d10+260); regeneration 30 Fort +25, Ref +21, Will +20 DR 15/epic; Immune ability damage, ability drain, bleed, disease, electricity, energy drain, fire, mind-influencing effects, paralysis, permanent wounds, petrifaction, poison, polymorph; SR  32 Defensive Abilities heat, hibernation, supreme regeneration; Weaknesses cold, sunlight blindness Offense Speed 60 feet, burrow 40 ft., climb 60 ft. Melee bite +32 (4d8+14 plus grab and 5d6 fire), 2 claws +32 (2d8+14 plus 5d6 fire) Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft. Special Abilities breath weapon (70 ft. cone, 1d4 rounds, 16d10 fire, Ref DC 33), firebleed, lava bomb, swallow whole (AC 26, 40 hp, 2d8+21 plus 20d6 fire), trample (2d8+21 plus 5d6 fire, Ref DC 37) Statistics Str 38, Dex 19, Con 30, Int 3, Wis 17, Cha 18 Base Atk +26; CMB +48 (+52 grapple, +68 overrun); CMD 62 (cannot be tripped) Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Greater Vital Strike, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Nimble Moves, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Stunning Critical, Vital Strike Skills Climb +27, Perception +26, Survival +23; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception, +8 Survival Languages Aklo (cannot speak) SQ unstoppable force Ecology Environment any land or underground Organization unique Treasure incidental Special Abilities Blindsight (Ex) Xotani’s blindsight is based on hearing. If it is deafened, Xotani cannot use its blindsight. Firebleed (Ex) As an immediate action upon taking at least 10 points of slashing or piercing damage, Xotani can spew lava from its wound in a 30 foot cone. All creatures in the area must succeed a DC 33 Reflex save or take 10d6 points of fire damage. Creatures that fail the save are coated in cooling sticky lava, being entangled and taking 5d6 points of fire damage for the next 1d3 rounds or until they spend a full round action to scrape the lava off. The save DC is Constitution based. Heat (Ex) All of Xotani’s attacks deal an additional 5d6 points of fire damage, and any creature touching or striking it with a unarmed strike or natural weapon take that damage. A manufactured weapon that strikes Xotani is incinerated and destroyed; a magical weapon may attempt a DC 33 Fortitude save in order to survive. The save DC is Constitution based. Hibernation (Ex) Spawn of Rovagug can sleep for years, decades, or even centuries and do not need to eat or breathe during these periods of dormancy, though they breathe normally and eat ravenously and almost constantly once they’ve been awakened. If a spawn of Rovagug is forced into an environment where it cannot breathe and would suffocate, it goes into hibernation until conditions are right for it to reawaken. Lava Bomb (Su) Once every 1d4 rounds, Xotani can create lava bombs as a standard action. Treat this as a supernatural version of the meteor swarm spell (ranged touch +22, Reflex DC 27) with a range of 400 feet. The save DC is Charisma based. Sunlight Blindness (Ex) Xotani’s light blindness is only activated by true sunlight. Supreme Regeneration (Ex) All spawn of Rovagug possess regeneration, and no form of attack can suppress this regeneration; they regenerate even if disintegrated or slain by a death effect. If a spawn of Rovagug fails a save against an effect that would kill it instantly, it rises from death 3 rounds later with 1 hit point if no further damage is dealt to its remains. It can be banished or otherwise transported as a means to save a region, but a method to kill Spawn of Rovagug has yet to be discovered. Unstoppable Force (Ex) A spawn of Rovagug can always charge, even if its movement is impeded or its path is blocked by another creature. It receives a +20 racial bonus on combat maneuver checks to overrun and Strength checks to break or destroy objects, and can make one such check as a free action as part of a charge. In addition, the natural weapons of a spawn of Rovagug ignore all forms of damage reduction and hardness.

[meatmechapilot]

Doomed to Love

Summary: Written for prompt number 21 on this page: write about a doomsday prepper who prepares for every eventuality…but this one.

Levi looked at his doomsday bunker proudly. It took a better part of ten years, but he has finally finished building the main structure. Levi built the bunker with his own two hands to withstand even a nuclear bomb, he also made a complicated water collection and purification system for it. He just needed to fill his bunker with provisions and other necessities, and he should be set for the apocalypse.

Speaking of the apocalypse, Levi noted that there were new neighbors moving in next door. "Next door" is of course relative, since Levi bought all of his neighboring lots so he has enough land to build his bunker. The new neighbors were moving into the house that's adjacent to his combined property.

Levi went to greet them, scoping them out just in case they were annoying. He spied a couple and their son, who appears to be in his late teens. The father and the son were attempting to move furniture from the moving truck into the house. The mother was trying to move lighter items.

Another car came barreling down the driveway and parked right on the road. A blond man with glasses came out of the car and Levi immediately disliked him. He just had a gut feeling that he would find the latest newcomer insufferable.

Levi observed the family a bit more, he noted that they also had a family dog that the younger son seemed to be responsible for. Levi was not particularly fond of animals, or rather he likes them from afar, but does not want to own pets himself since he did not want to deal with their messes. It would be a problem if the new neighbors’ dog came into his yard and started to muck things up. Levi also did not want the neighbors to find out about his bunker. He values his privacy too much.

The family finally unloaded the truck and dragged their furniture and luggage into their new house. Levi lost interest in watching them, and hoped that they would not be too nosy. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Levi thought that he should do the "good neighbor" thing and go greet them with a pie or something, but decided against it. He might run into the blond glasses wearer, and he had a feeling that they would not get along and did not want to antagonize the new neighbors.

Thankfully, the new neighbors were able to settle in their new house without incident and Levi forgot about them until one day, he crossed paths with a black cat. And the neighbors’ son.

===

Levi was getting his mail from the end of his long driveway when the black cat darted right in front of him and stopped. This caused Levi to also stop in his tracks. He didn't remember there were any neighbors with a cat. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a young man with a golden retriever on a leash.

"Crescent!" the young man called toward the cat, only for the cat to look at him imperiously and pay him no mind. Levi saw now that the cat does indeed have a collar on, so it too must also belong to the new neighbors, whom he still hasn't met yet.

The young man was getting closer to the cat and was within a distance to scoop it up when all of the sudden, the cat tried to make a run for it by darting up a tree. The cat would have succeeded too, if not for Levi, who caught it by reflex. The cat then proceeded to try to scratch Levi up while trying to escape.

"Crescent! Bad kitty!" The youth berated the yowling cat squirming in Levi's arms, holding up his own arms to take the critter while offering an apologetic smile to Levi. "I'm Eren, by the way. Thank you."

Levi shook his head and released Crescent into Eren's arms. Eren took the cat gratefully, while looking at Levi expectantly. Levi realized he just introduced himself and was waiting for Levi to do the same. "I'm Levi." He said, "I live in that house." He added, somewhat awkwardly while pointing to his property

"Nice to meet you Levi," Eren said, still struggling to hold the cat. "This is Crescent, and this," he tried to gesture at the dog, "is Sunny." Sunny barked at his name. "I guess we just moved in across the street."

Levi nodded at that, but he felt a bit of apprehension. He could tell that Eren is very extroverted and a talker. He himself is an introvert and extroverts sometimes wear him out. Levi thought that Eren was very cute, and that he didn't quit mind the prospect of Eren talking his ears off. However, to Levi's relief, Eren said his goodbyes and continued on his task of walking his dog. At least it was a relief at first, but Levi couldn't help be slightly disappointed that Eren didn't stay to talk more, like he thought he would.

===

If Levi had any regrets about not talking to Eren more, Crescent and Sunny made sure he got many other chances, since they constantly go over to his yard. Eren retrieved the wayward pets more often than not, and they did end up talking more, and got to know each other. Levi found out that the family next door is called the Jaegers, and that they moved because the father is a Doctor who took a job at the local hospital. Eren is a grad student at the local University, pursuing a masters degree in technical communication, and 23 years old.

A few times, the mother was the one who retrieved the pets. Levi found out that her name is Carla and that she's a housewife. Eren's father has another son from a previous marriage, named Zeke, who already graduated and has a job, and doesn't live with family anymore. Levi secretly thought Zeke looked like an asshole, and is glad that he did not have to deal with him.

Levi decided that the Jaegers were alright, and that he especially liked to spend time with Eren. The Jaeger family pets somehow adopted Levi as another human and Eren and Levi ended up creating a ritual of going on walks around the neighborhood with them. Although the ritual was really created when Levi changed his habits slightly so that he would always be "about to go on a walk" when Eren was going to take out the pets. Eren was happy that their schedules managed to sync up so nicely, and Levi was not going to tell him the truth.

Levi's property made up a big chunk of their daily walks, with Levi deftly guiding them away from his underground bunker. He was not quite ready to share yet, no matter how much he liked the neighbors. Good thing there were plenty of nice areas around Levi's considerable property and Levi proudly showed them off to Eren.

===

Levi is still trying to decide what he should do with Eren. On one hand, he quite liked the status quo. He and Eren had become fast friends, and they enjoy walking Eren's pets together. On the other hand, he's becoming more and more attracted to Eren everyday. Talking with Eren was way too easy and Levi can't help to notice how cute Eren looked when the younger laughs at his jokes.

One day, Levi was invited to the Jaegers for tea, and he noticed Eren fussing about, trying to neaten up the house. Eren's parents kept telling him to wait until later to clean, but Eren was apparently a very neat person, even when he was a child. Levi approved, and he told Grisha and Carla that it's rare for a young person to be so concerned about cleaning and other house chores, people Eren's age tend to be lazy slobs.

Levi's invited the Jaegers to his own home as well. Levi is glad that he is getting along quite well with Eren's whole family (minus the rarely around older brother). Levi was sure that Eren's parents would not object seriously if he and Eren actually started to date. Ironically, the only reason Levi is still hesitating about Eren is his lifework that consumed the past ten years of his life: his doomsday bunker.

He's learned that to most people, having a doomsday bunker is a sign of being a crazy conspiracy theorist, and they usually back away slowly from such people. He has a few friends who didn't think he was weird, but most of them live across the country, and he only get to see them a few times a year. At least one of them is building a doomsday bunker of their own. Too bad Hange lived the farthest away from him, and they managed to find a partner who shares their beliefs and is helping them to achieve their vision.

Levi thought about Eren wistfully. If only he was so lucky.

===

Ironically, Eren himself showed Levi a possible way out of his love dilemma. Eren invited Levi to his graduate school department's Christmas party. Levi nearly refused instinctively, but accepted instead. Eren was beaming sweetly when he asked, and Levi didn't want his cute expression to change to disappointment.

While on the way to the party, Eren kept on apologizing profusely to Levi about how boring the party is likely to be, and that he just really needed a friend to keep himself from dying from boredom. Levi assured him that as long as there was decent food and drinks, it shouldn't be too bad. Levi typically did not like socializing with strangers, but he thought he could handle it if Eren was there.

True to Eren's word, the party was a staid affair. The party goers immediately broke up into small groups and started to socialize among themselves. There were snacks and drinks, but neither were amazing, just serviceable. Eren went around the room greeting people and wishing them a happy holiday, while Levi was hanging out in a corner, bored.

This state of affair lasted until a pretty woman approached Levi and started to ask about him. Levi groaned at having to do the thing he was least looking forward to: socializing. He kept on smiling and nodding while giving non committal answers, hoping that the woman would get the hint, until it dawned on him that she was hitting on him.

Just as he was thinking up ways to get out of his predicament, a commotion caused him to look up. He saw Eren across the room, looking very uncomfortable. A pretty girl was with him, and she kept pointing up at the ceiling. Mistletoe. Levi jumped to his feet and marched up to Eren without thinking.

"Oh! You found the mistletoe!" Levi exclaimed, "how about a kiss for your date?"

Eren looked startled at first, then a look of relief and gratitude came over his face. "Levi!" he beamed, and placed a quick peck on Levi's lips. A small cheer went around the room, since nobody was expecting a mistletoe kiss would occur at the party. The girl who was hitting on Eren looked a bit disappointed, but otherwise bowed out gracefully. Levi glanced at the woman who was hitting on him and saw that she was already deep in talks with another guy.

"I've made sure the department heads saw that I showed up, so I think we can leave now, that is if you want to leave." Eren said, grabbing one last cookie from the table.

"Yeah, I'm good, we should leave," Levi said. Inwardly he thought, thank god we can finally leave!

===

On the drive back, Eren apologized about the crappy party, and thanked Levi for bailing him out, then apologized again about Levi having to rescue him from the girl, when they did not even go to the party as dates.

"But, we could go on a real date, if you want." Eren finished, not looking at Levi, his voice oddly quiet.

"That sounds a lot better than going to a party, especially since it would be just the two of us." Levi said.

"Are you saying…" Eren started to ask.

"Yes, I would like to go on a real date with you." Levi answered before Eren could finish the question. Lev’s heart was racing, but he was not letting this chance go to waste.

"How about tomorrow afternoon?" Eren asked, "I know a nice little coffee shop near my school, and they even serve tea!"

"Coffee and tea sound great," Levi said.

They finally arrived home, and Levi parked his car on the driveway. Eren got out of the car, telling Levi that he would come by the next day at noon so they could go to the coffee shop, and hang out around town afterwards. Levi grabbed Eren's hand impulsively and kissed him on the lips again, before releasing him. He can see Eren flushing in the dark.

They finally said their goodbyes for the night, and each went into their house. Levi felt amazing; he had finally made progress with Eren. He supposed that he should try the dating thing for a while before coming clean to Eren about his doomsday bunker, and hope he gets lucky like Hange did.

[bookdragonideas]

We stand now at the beginning of the end. The world is waiting, hesitating for one last time before it begins to fall, to rise, to change. Distant wars and dangerous storms and a political system built upon a house of cards that is beginning to crumble. A culture divided and yet never before more unified. An economy in shambles and a new generation coming of age in a world that has failed them. New technology advancing and beginning to take the first of several great leaps forward. Old technology being realized for the uses they hid from us. The powerful making too many small mistakes until the weak join forces and revival them for their evil at last. The lies told are being revealed by the persistent truth. The Doomsday they promised taking on a different face than the one we expected.

We stand now at the beginning of the end. And I can't help but think that it's a cursed blessing to be aware of one's own future. To see so clearly the patterns repeating, the old song playing once again, as nations rise and nations fall and history beats its inevitable drums. To be aware of the weight of history and to see it unfold before you once again is a difficult thing.

A beautiful thing.

Histroy repeats and old problems steal new faces and we think our culture is unique when it is but another color of the same rainbow. And yet.... history repeats. And we stand in the darkness now but the dawn is coming. In our lifetime we shall be forced to weather the worst of storms. But that's okay, for who could love the day more than one who has seen the night? Who can enjoy peace more than one who has bought it with war?

We stand at the beginning of the end. And I can't help but wish that I could change something, anything. That I could speak up and show the solutions that seem so apparent to me. That I could reach out and change one heart, one mind, show even one person that there's hope that we can change things and make things better.

I wish I could change the world.

Yet I am so incredibly thankful that I can not.

Because we stand at the beginning of the end of the world. And I stand on the cusp of history, seeing all to clearly the paths laid before us. The patterns that all lands and nations and cultures and peoples must eventually follow.

I stand at the beginning of the end of the world and I watch. Silently I watch. And I can't help but whisper warnings of what is to come. But I stand silent and I wait.

I sit with my friend as stars shoot across the sky and the northern lights preform their dance. She Whispers of how the "Heavens declare the Glory of God" and I realize in that second that this is going to be one of my most treasured memories.

I swallow coffee to stay awake and force a smile at my job, but the smile turns real as my coworker welcome me home, and I realize that I am missed when I am gone.

I stand on a mountain where the powerlines cross into the wilderness and my entire world is stretched beneath me as I squint to pick out each street of my small town. And the sunset is a bright orange glow that gives way to a sparkled canvas of the deepest blue and as I stare up at the stars I realize I'm not alone and I never will be.

I sit with my friend and we talk of our characters and the book we're almost done writing. And our conversation changes and rabbit trails and that's all right, because we'll have another day to write that one scene we're both struggling with.

We stand at the beginning of the end of the world and I can't help but feel excited for what the future will bring. The world is always ending. But the end of the world is no match for the beauty of life.

[anarchy-and-piglins]

Hello, may I ask if you mayhaps have any Peerpressure thoughts you’d like to share for I crave them? AUs, canon, any types of ideas? I miss them so much 😔

Anon I think about them all the time constantly. Tonight I’ve been thinking about how there’s something so incidentally perfect about Ranboo’s and Technoblade’s lives intertwining at what was really the ideal time for them to somehow have the most positive influence on each other possible, to be exactly what the other needed.

They met at the butcher army, which ironically was for both of these characters the start of a downward spiral. For Technoblade, his conviction that violence is the only language people understand from him was once again affirmed in his mind, he felt wronged and dehumanised, and the short-lived bedrockbros arc didn’t exactly help with that. Then there’s Ranboo, who is struggling with reconciling his own morals with the loyalty to his loved ones and the suffering of those same loved ones. This is the birth of Ranboo’s ‘people not sides’ mindset, and the start of the very negative effect L’Manberg as an institution has on Ranboo’s mental health.

But somehow they still keep crossing paths and what grows there is not friendship, not fondness quite yet. But maybe a sort of recognition, of kinship. And even though he shouldn’t, Ranboo gives Techno his armor back with only a token resistance against being convinced. And when the bombs start falling, Techno gives Ranboo his book back without question and wants him to be safe.

Doomsday was for both of them a low point. Technoblade wins, but it’s a hollow victory, and he admits later Doomsday made him reevaluate his entire approach to his convictions. Ranboo is left in the ruins with nothing, feeling more conflicted and prosecuted than ever.

Technoblade, who is thus at his most paranoid, who has decided that he won’t trust others anymore (except Phil, always Phil), offers Ranboo a home despite his own reluctance. Ranboo, who needs more than anything for somebody to say ‘you can make your own decisions’ is given a place to go without judgement, where he finds room to explore his own beliefs.

They both started a new chapter of their lives that day.

(”I have friends now.”)

(“they love me there.”)

What Ranboo and Technoblade found in each other made them both grow so much as people. And it wouldn’t have happened with any other person, and it probably wouldn’t even have happened if they’d met at any other time.

Whatever the (platonic) opposite is of star-crossed lovers? That’s what peerpressureduo had. Somehow, somewhere, things aligned. And they found each other when they most needed it.

(”And the universe said: you are not alone.”)

[ayamturd]

hiss│tommyinnit

summary: tommy comes across an injured, unknown being and tries to help; he’s intrigued, to say the least, about you

warnings: injury and blood descriptions, slight spoiler for dsmp, small angst to fluff (?)

pairing: (requested) in-game c!tommyinnit

a/n: this was honestly a challenging ask, so i tried to keep it as vague as possible as to leave more room for imagination. pls give feedback and any friendly criticism!

also i wrote this as gn! to be more inclusive since undisclosed :)

wc: (1.2k) - m.list

“H-hello?”

It had been a nice day out, the sun shining above to cast over the growing landscape. In spite of the devastation of the war that raged on mere days ago, slowly but surely, time began to move on once more. 

Searching through the wreckage of what L’manberg once was, Tommy had been dragging his most recent salvage when he found a trail of what looked to be a dark liquid. The glistening pool was a deep shade of purple, its hue practically glowing in its separate droplets scattered on the ground, over the prime path. 

He had become easily distracted and attempted to follow its path, finding its course to become thicker in its steady amount until winding himself in near the edge of the dark woods forest. As he approached what looked to be a handprint stain against an old trunk, a branch snapped from above him. 

Squinting to spot anything through the heavy shading of the over branching leaves, Tommy called out to them once more, his curiosity getting the better of him.

A sudden twig fell, and with that an entire person. 

Groaning, you were pathetically sprawled out on the soft, green grass with your head bowed down, your back arched as if you were in pain. 

Tommy had jumped back when you initially fell, but by your expression, you seemed defenseless and were in no state to attack. He cautiously stepped forward towards you with his hands out, reluctant to help. 

“Are you alright?”

Snapping your head up, Tommy shrieked in surprise when you hissed at him, your eyes an eccentric white that were both pale yet striking. While he lived in a world were hybrids existed, he was shocked to see the different pigments that colored your skin, something he had never seen before. 

Like scales that radiated in the sunlight, the light markings delicately bordered your eyes and features, outreaching from the hairline and encompassing your face angelically. Beyond that, he quickly noted how young you seemed, your characteristics youthful and seemingly younger than him. 

To say the least, Tommy was in awe of observing your attributes and struggled to say something for once. 

He was close to stating how he was no longer the youngest on the smp, but lost his voice once seeing your clear injury, hand hovering over the stain that tore through your outer layer coat. The trail he was following was your blood, he realized. 

“Shit.”

You tilted your head, intrigued by his language, but continued to glare at him defensively and started to crawl a distance away from him, eyes trained on him. Tommy reacted quickly to your scooting, fearful for your own sake that you could injure yourself more.

“Wait! Fuck, don’t- don’t do that.”

Freezing from his yell, you paused with wide eyes from his unexpected outburst, and closed in on yourself further with narrowed eyes. Sighing with a rub to his head, Tommy glanced around him for something he could do. 

“Just- just, here,” Tommy stammered. Slowly, he crouched in front of you with his hands held outward, steady eye contact to gain your trust. Although you hissed when he attempted to approach, you did not move when he continued to come closer.

By the time he sat barely a few feet away from you, you were calmer and didn’t react harshly as he pointed to the clear injury on your lower abdomen.  

“Can I…?”

Hesitantly, he gently pulled your hands away, grasping your wrists when allowing him to inspect the wound. By the looks of it, you clothes looked burned in the surrounding area as the gash itself was caused by something puncturing your skin. 

He winced when coming to the conclusion you were affected the most recent doomsday, and that a heated projectile must have stabbed you during the explosions. With the amount of ‘blood’ and how large the cut seemed, he also figured you must have pulled the object out on your own. 

In all honestly, he was perplexed on how you could survive such damage for days on end considering how fresh the wound still seemed to present itself. Moving to cover it with your coat, he pulled his satchel forward to find something to help. 

Your eyes widened from his unanticipated actions, and Tommy immediately noticed and tried to reassure you as you reacted. 

“Hey, hey hey hey, stop.” Freezing once more to his fast words, he breathed out to gather himself. “I’m not going to hurt you, I want to try and help.”

More slowly, he brought the bag in your vantage point and dug through it while continuous looking up at you, internally cheering when he found what he needed. 

With one of the last golden apples he was able to steal retrieve from Technoblade, he offered it to you with a small vial of his regeneration potion in his other hand. You looked between the two items, before staring at him. 

Like am encountered hurt animal, your defense facade faded as your true vulnerability and fear came through; you were weak and could only do so much against him injured. 

Tommy chewed the inner side of his cheek and sighed again, pushing them closer to you considering your resistance.  

“I’m only trynna help. Please, just take it.”

He nodded at you when you lifted your hands out to take it, and was patient with your measured speed before you snatched it out of his hands briskly. 

Sniffing the enhanced fruit, you bit into it swiftly and began to devour it while simultaneously drinking from the potion still in hand. He chuckled from your assumed hunger, and rubbed the back of his head in relief at knowing you knew what to do with the potion at least.

“You have a name?” he asked. You continued to eat as if you didn’t hear him, and Tommy crossed his legs and plopped down with his palm against his cheek in thought. “Can you even understand me?” he murmured. 

You paused abruptly, and turned your head to him with a most neutral expression he’d seen so far. Least it was better than your hissing. 

Staring at him for a few stand alone moments, he shifted his eyes when he could no longer match your intense gaze, almost missing your quiet voice.  

“Y/n.”

It was his turn to snap his head up in surprise as he didn’t expect you to suddenly talk, no matter if he could understand it or not. Unconsciously leaning forward in expectation, he furrowed his eye brows in question. 

“What?”

“Y/n,” you restated. Pointing to yourself, you continued your stare without breaking eye contact in the slightest, your eyes almost enamored with the sight of him. 

“I am Y/n.” Tommy grinned brightly from your introduction, raising his hand to shake without thinking of whether or not you understood. You instead grabbed one of his fingers with your entire hand, holding it tightly in an affectionate response. 

He laughed loudly from your endearing cluelessness. 

“Hello y/n. I’m Tommy.”

[thevindicativevordan]

On Kong Kenan/Super-Man

It should've been him. He should've been the Superman of 5G/Future State/right now not Jon, and he should be the one getting an HBO Max series not Val. Hell he should be getting a movie!

God this dude is literally the best legacy character Superman has ever gotten, wholly his own person with his own lore and status quo while still building on the idea of "Superman". I am so pissed at DC for essentially just dropping him after his ongoing ended, what the hell Lee? You keep trying to make the Wildstorm characters happen, I need you to get my man Yang another Kenan book.

Have to admit I was a bit nervous at first about whether or not Kenan would be a worthwhile character. Yang's New 52 Superman run had been a disappointment to me overall, with only the the arc where Superman has underground wrestling matches against forgotten gods really sticking with me. Now he was introducing a brand new Superman? Didn't feel like he had "earned" that yet. But from the first issue I was hooked on this new character.

Kenan was unlike any other member of the Superfamily. He wasn't kind or sweet, he was an asshole! He was a bully! He was fantastic! Right from the start Kenan was set up to undergo a very different kind of character journey than the other members of the Superfamily. Empathy, humility, respect for people weaker than himself, these are all traits most heroes wearing the S-shield already posses by the time they first don the crest, but not Kenan.

Like all bullies he was even a bit of a coward himself at first, trying to bail on the experiment meant to give him Superman's powers right as it begins. After "saving" Lixin (the kid he bullies and steals lunch from every day) from Blue Condor he demands all the money Lixin has on him as payment. He's not courageous or selfless either at the start, Kenan is as much of an opposite of Superman as you can get short of being Bizarro. Learning the appeal of these traits formed the basis for his growth over the course of his series.

Seeing Yang bring in a lot of recognizable "Superman" elements in the series, but with a twist, was also great. Kenan is the one who bullies "Luo Lixin" rather than the traditional Clark/Lex friendship of Pre-Crisis and Birthright. Initially Kenan develops a crush on intrepid reporter for Primetime Shanghai, Laney Lan, but she dismisses him as too young and Kenan eventually ends up pursuing Avery Ho (Flash) instead. Baxi the Bat-Man of China has a similar relationship with Kenan as the traditional Superman/Batman in terms of being vitriolic best buds, however Baxi is the one who has the most respect for authority while Kenan is the rebel. Kenan is a part of the "Justice League of China" which does not meet with the approval of the already established Chinese superheroes, the Great Ten. That contrasts nicely with the good relationship the Justice Society and Justice League have, as well as seeing Yang lampshade the "Chinese copy" trope and incorporate that into his storytelling.

One of the funniest differences is how Kenan chooses to immediately reveal his identity as Super-Man to the world by taking off the compliance visor he was forced to wear, contrasting with Clark's choice to hide his identity. He was so eager to impress people that he never gave any thought to the danger he could put himself or his family in by revealing his identity until it was too late, something Clark is well aware of and has taken great pains to keep his identity secret. Was a missed opportunity for DC to have Kenan comment on Clark copying him for once when he outed himself under Bendis.

But one of the most poignant differences between Clark and Kenan is the gulf in separation between their relationship with their parents. Clark has a loving relationship with Ma and Pa Kent, trying to live up to their lessons as best he can. In contrast Kenan's mom was believed to have died in an airplane crash when he was just a child, and he never really knew her. His father was distant from him after that and the two weren't really close despite Kenan's attempts to impress him. So Kenan lacks that strong connection while still clearly loving both of them.

Pa Kent's death is one of the most tragic examples of Clark's love for his parents, and I've always been a fan of takes where Clark promises his father to fight for the powerless on Pa's deathbed. Kenan gets a similar scene at the start of his career, his dad "dies" (after being exposed as Flying General Dragon, a pro-democracy "supervillain" from the Chinese authorities perspective) and wants Kenan to promise he'll fight for Truth, Justice, and Democracy. But because Kenan's dad never really bonded with him, Kenan doesn't know what those mean, and can only promise that he never wants to see people die, something his father takes comfort in at least. In classic comic book fashion it's revealed that Dr. Omen, Kenan's "boss" and the one who gave him his powers, saved Kenan's father, because she is Kenan's mother! Kenan's relationship with his parents forms a lot of the crux of his character arc, and seeing how Yang utilizes the classic Superman concept of family kept the storytelling exciting.

Yang's brilliant exploration of the concept of "Superman" through the prism of Chinese culture was a great way to differentiate Kenan as well.

I absolutely freaking love how he tied to the concept of Qi to the S-shield in particular. Connecting the shape of the shield with the way Kenan has acquired his powers along the path of the Bagua (eight trigrams used in Taoism that represent the fundamental principles of reality), with his octagon S-shield outline representing all eight principles together, was mindblowing! So was the idea of restricting Kenan's access to his powers unless he was actually acting in a Superman manner, that tied his character growth to his power growth in an entertaining manner. There were so many characters and concepts that meshed Chinese and DC lore together, like how Emperor Super-Man was Kenan's "Doomsday", they even recreated that iconic dual kill shot! The Chinese Wonder Woman Peng Deilan, being based on the Chinese Legend of the White Snake! There was even some Korean mythology referenced with the Aqua-Man member of the JLC "Dragonson".

Yang also managed to do a Superman Blue/Superman Red story with Super-Man Yin/Super-Man Yang!

Shameful that it took me a while to realize what Gene Yang was doing but once I caught on I was touched. You can tell how much Yang loved Superman and his mythology, and how he was excited to incorporate as much from Clark as he could, while still using it in a way that was solidly Kenan's. And not just Superman's mythology, but the history and lore of the entire DC Universe. I-Ching got to be brought in, fleshed out, and used as Kenan's mentor! The "Yellow Peril" villain from Detective Comics #1, the comic DC gets its name from was brought in and revamped as I-Ching's twin brother All-Yang! Hats off to Yang for taking a racist caricature and attempting to make him into something more.

This series was a beautiful attempt by Gene Yang to build a space for Asian heroes and villains where they could be more than stereotypes, Kenan himself being a defiant mold-breaker in every regard as the complete opposite of most Asian characters in Western media (a jock, a bully, loves his dad but not on great terms with him, a powerhouse as a hero, etc). So much thought and hard work was poured into this by Yang and his team of artist collaborators.

Especially the costumes, man Kenan had so many great looks. From his starting outfit (which is my favorite Superman variant not worn by Clark himself), to the one with the Yin/Yang shield he acquired later on, to his Super-Man Yin & Super-Man Yang outfits, Kenan looked damn cool. Part of me is bummed they didn't go with the Chinese character shield they toyed around with, but I loved how Yang used the "s-shield" as a plot point, so I'm not too broken up over it.

All that great work Yang did to build that space up has been more or less forgotten sadly. It was nice to see Kenan in the DC Asian Month Celebration issue. Avery is going to be in Justice Incarnate at least (unsurprising considering she was created by Williamson). So fucking bummed that Superman Family Adventures cartoon didn't happen, they were going to have Kenan and John Henry Irons in it! Would've been a dream come true for me to see Irons in animation again, and Kenan making the jump to outside media! Maybe that would've encouraged DC to let Yang keep writing New Super-Man, or at least encouraged them to use him elsewhere instead of allowing him fall into Limbo.

Unfortunately I'm not sure what the future holds for Kenan. Jon is being pushed as Clark's replacement in the comics, with DC keeping all the other contenders such as Kon benched. Calvin is leading the Justice Incarnate team likely due to the upcoming Coates reboot that will make Clark black. Val will probably get something once Taylor leaves Jon's book or once they officially announce the HBO Max show is happening. So where does that leave Kenan, my new favorite PoC legacy hero? Currently my only hope is that Yang is working on something for DC involving him. Yang left Batman/Superman, where I was hoping to see a Baxi/Kenan team up, to go work on "exciting other opportunities" per his Twitter. So fingers crossed that there's something in the works for Kenan!

One day I hope he gets his day in the sun again.

[shroomtalker]

the potential c!sapnap has for lore

a majority of the dream smp fandom do want c!sapnap to have some sort of lore or have the potential of creating a foundation to set up for his character, yeah? well, he holds a much larger bucket of what i personally believe is a grand tie to a good handful of the main plot points occurring right now in this timeline. so in this post, i’ll mostly cover what could happen concerning c!sapnap and what his role in everything could mean for the future of the dream smp!

all of this is /dsmp and /rp!

__________________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

the fiancés

if you haven’t caught up with the lore right now, please know this is NOT spoiler free! 

as of right now according to the dream team wiki, c!sapnap has BOTH positive relationships with c!quackity and c!karl. however, after learning from c!quackity’s pov and his lore streams, he as resentment against both karl and sapnap for leaving him behind during the beginnings of kinoko kingdom. right now, we do not know the official reason as to why karl and sapnap excluded their fiancé from the build of their country (note: i might make a theory on this), although it is presented that quackity doesn’t like the mention of them. 

c!karl is going through his time travel situation with the other side being yet explored, along with the situation of his memory becoming worse through the duration of his travelling. c!quackity is going through his las nevadas arc, creating a casino in order to use the sin of gambling addiction to his advantage. with two of his fiancés going through tremendous (character developing) plotlines that are fated to cross paths, it is no question that c!sapnap will be caught in the crossfire of it. perhaps he’ll be forced to side with one or the other? face his true self which ends up fighting against the two? or will it all come down to something far worse?

tommy

it’s difficult to say if c!sapnap has the same respect or positive attitude towards c!tommy as time has changed, nevertheless their relationship is quite interesting. after the confrontation with mars and the teaming up on doomsday and THEN the disc confrontation (c!sapnap being among the many that stood up to protect c!tommy and c!tubbo), their relationship outcome has been positive. we all are very aware that c!tommy is the “main” character right now (i say main because i know a majority of people follow his pov). as wilbur is coming into play after being revived, c!dream still locked away in prison, and c!tommy having to pick a side, c!sapnap would in some regard have to consult c!tommy in one way or the other about the situation concerning c!dream.

ranboo

there isn’t much to base off of their relationship besides a couple of key points, but i still think it’s worth noting because of how much c!ranboo is playing a role as an important character. now, when sapnap visited c!dream in prison, dream gave sapnap a note with a smiley face on it, which was meant for ranboo. this triggered the enderwalk state, causing ranboo to flee quickly, only making c!sapnap confused. later, c!ranboo (still in his enderwalk) gave a message to sapnap in enderman, which only confused him more. 

i think this could really open a new door for sapnap to walk into which could further explore the relationship between c!ranboo and c!dream. we all know that sapnap is very close to dream, as he told him in pandora’s vault, 

“Dream if you try and break out early- you, you know that you only have one life left. Okay? And- you know, I don't think its gonna be Tommy, its not gonna be Techno, Dream. If you break out of this prison, its gonna be, its gonna be- me who takes your final life... and that's not because I have any resentment towards you or anything, it's because this is where you need to be, dude. You HAVE to stay here, okay?”

there is a lot to explore here with just c!ranboo, but as connected as he is to others (tommy, tubbo, philza), it could bring c!sapnap more ingrained within the lore.

badboyhalo

canonically, c!bbh is sapnap’s father. they both fought alongside each other during the battle of the lake, which strengthen their bond. however, it is unclear whether or not c!sapnap is aware with c!bbh’s corruption and connection toward the egg, which i could only assume will be showed throughout its course soon enough. c!sapnap doesn’t like the egg -- he’s made that very clear about wanting to kill said egg -- and bbh has protested this. 

with their relationship status being father and son, there is so much to build off of! i also really would like to see how c!sapnap would react to his own dad being corrupted by the red vines alongside punz, antfrost and ponk(?) who he seemingly has good relationships with.

dream

i don’t want to dedicate an entire paragraph to this of course since i know everyone is already familiar with their relationship, but i feel like there is so much that could truly be done to show their strong bond. i have a feeling we’ll be getting something from this as well which only makes me curious to see what’ll happen next!

there is a lot i could also cover, such as george, but i want to save that for an entire different post. i really do hope something will happen with how amazing c!sapnap’s character is, because there is so much potential there! he feels more as an anti-hero which could really be interesting to different storylines such as las nevadas, the prison arc, c!wilbur’s revival and of course, c!karl’s time traveling adventures.

[flamedoesart]

Hi there! I saw your take on Techno's seemingly hypocritical philosophy and I just wanted to comment something interesting I noticed. As much as he touts his slogan of "absolute reciprocity", Techno demonstrates a surprisingly small amount of actual anger at the people who he sees as enemies. It always reads like he expects violence and only expresses real annoyance in situations where there's confusion over loyalty. Like, the 16th was raw, but aside from with Tommy, Doomsday was just business.

I mean yes, it is true that a lot of c!Techno's ideals are for (seemingly) just business.

But there are two issues with that.

The first being that c!Techno was already planning on destroying L'manburg even before him and c!Tommy's alliance. He already had that vault of Wither skulls which begs the question of whether or not he fully meant to stay in retirement. Now you could make the argument that all those skulls were for security purposes just in case people did come after him (which they did) but c!Techno never seems to ask himself why they retaliate when he attacked them first. I remember he would say "I'm in retirement, I am peaceful now." And it's like no you're not? And it's very clear that isn't the case based on both the Wither skull vault and also how little he was willing to actually compromise with c!Tommy. He pulled the same schtick he did during Nov. 16th which was "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it" as a possible means to avoid the fact that almost nobody was in on his plan. Like c!Tommy made it incredibly clear that he didn't want to hurt L'manburg, and yet c!Techno just acted So Shocked when c!Tommy realized that he was going down the wrong path and decided to fight for L'manburg and not against it.

The second issue is that even if it is all just for business, it doesn't make anything he does any less bad. He is pro-anarchy, and yet freed the one true tyrant on the server. And ignorance is not an excuse either, c!Techno had all the time in the world to ask why the entire server is against c!Dream but did not do that. I get that c!Techno believes in returning the favor, but it ended up coming at the cost of the entire server's safety, specifically c!Bench Trio's safety. (And c!Ranboo is dead now anyways.)

I personally do not care if c!Techno is going to help the server fight c!Dream, the damage has been done. Favor or not, his actions resulted in a child abuser escaping prison and now everyone is at risk.

[quentinbecks]

Summary: Charlie left Hope County years ago hoping never to come back. But when she learns of her parents involvement with the local doomsday cult, she finds herself heading back to a life she thought she left behind. (Begins two years before the reaping/events of the game)

Words: 5 k

Warnings: The typical lack of boundaries from the Seeds, slight use of violence, mentions of violence and death, peer pressure to use drugs (bliss), and this is a big one, lots of talk of anxiety/ build up to a panic attack.

A/N: Thank you so much to @adelaidedrubman and @johnnycranes for being my betas/second and third eyes on this! And to @smut-goblin for hitting me with the writing stick! You have no idea how much I appreciate you guys 💕 Since the atonement process begins now, hopefully I can start putting these out in a timely manner from here on out.

Chapter 4: Snakes in the Garden

“We’ll begin the process of atonement immediately.”

Charlie glances up at the man through her lashes. She should be trying to run away; pushing his hands off of her face, but she can’t. Frozen in place with John’s hands cupping her cheeks; their foreheads pressed together. From this angle she can see all the freckles that adorn his neck and collarbone. It almost makes him seem human.

“I thought,” she stammers, “I thought I was just getting baptized. That’s what we agreed to.”

John sighs, pulling away to look down at her; hands still gripping her face. “You will be cleansed, you will confess all of your sins, and then you will atone. That’s the only way you can reach true salvation. And you did just promise me you would allow me the gift of saving you,” he grits out, the hold on her face getting tighter as he goes on.

Charlie squirms away, attempting to free herself without making matters worse. “You’re hurting me,” she hisses as she grabs a hold of his hands. She may be willing to play along with his mind games; keep up whatever foolish charade she needs to to stay safe, but she draws the line at having pain inflicted on her.

The Baptist just nods as he backs away, hands held up as if to show her he won’t touch her.

Too fucking late.

But there was no apology, and Charlie can’t really say she’s surprised. “Listen,” she says as she leans against the brick wall, fingers rubbing the spots where her face was held, “you can have my soul or my salvation or whatever the fuck it is you want. But what happens to me afterwards?”

If she’s being honest, Charlie is afraid of the answer. Does she get to have a normal life? Just one within the parameters of the cult’s rules? Will they force her to marry another member of the project in one of those giant, mass weddings like the Moonies? Or will they just kill her? It’s selfish and would be a great betrayal to her friends, but she would marry The Father himself if it meant keeping them safe.

John sighs, sitting on the couch, legs crossed and arms spread across the back; posture too casual for such a tense environment. “I think it’s best we take the process day by day.”

Charlie glares at the man, only receiving a chuckle in return as he notices her olive eyes fill with rage. “Relax, sweetheart. I won’t send you back up to the mountains; back up to my big, bad, brother.”

Sitting down in the chair across from him, Charlie wills herself to calm down. The shock of the situation is starting to wear off rapidly and she can feel the panic inside her start to rise just as fast.

“Can we at least discuss the immediate future? Like, me going home?”

“What,” John teases, a hint of faux sadness in his voice, “you don’t like it here?”

Not really she thinks. But she would rather not vocalize her thoughts; too tired from all of the youngest Seed’s threats and games. She’s pretty sure she’ll combust from stress if she has to stay at the ranch a moment longer.

“Haven’t you had enough fun tormenting me for one day. I’m just,” her voice shakes and she can feel her heart start to pound; her anxiety starting to make itself known, “not in the mood for this shit. Please. Just let me go home.”

Charlie wishes she could kick her own ass at this very moment. Uncomfortable with becoming so emotional in front of John, but there was only so long that false sense of bravado and heroism could last. But the sight of his guest on the verge of a nervous breakdown does seem to have an effect on the man.

“Wait here.” He says, standing up and heading towards the door. He turns back before stepping out to look at her. “Don’t leave before I get back.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

John just gives her a smirk before leaving. Flopping back onto the chair with a sigh, Charlie closes her eyes. She’s sure trying to take a power nap in a herald’s house is just asking for trouble, but she’s too exhausted to care.

She’s barely relaxed for more than thirty seconds when the door bursts open causing her to jump.

“Charlene, this is Deanna. She’ll be taking you back.”

“What about you?” Charlie cringes inwardly at herself. Now she knows she really needs to get out of here, the environment is clearly taking a toll on her sanity quicker than she anticipated.

A faint smile creeps across John’s lips before he rights himself. “Don’t worry. Deanna is one of my most trusted chosen.”

Charlie takes in the woman she’s being handed off to. She’s not much older than her, tall, tan, and athletic. She can tell by the excited grin on the chosen’s face that the other woman will most likely get on her nerves.

“Hello, sister,” Deanna says with a wave.

“We’re not quite there yet.”

“Here,” John drops a white hardcover on her lap. “Try to read this before your baptism.”

Charlie thumbs through the book curiously. She may not have had any sort of religious education, but she’s pretty sure this isn’t the traditional Christian text.

“Is this a bible?”

“It’s the Book of Joseph.” The chosen chirps from across the room. “It shows us the hardships the Father went through and how God spoke to him and showed him the path; the path that would save us all from the Collapse.”

“Sounds enlightening.”

“It is.” John is behind her now, hands on her shoulders. “But as much as I would love to keep you here to continue this conversation, I thought you wanted to leave.”

Charlie recoils at his usage of the word “keep”. She can’t see the man, but she’s sure he’s wearing an arrogant smirk; a smirk that she would happily slap off of his face if she wasn’t trying to behave.

Nodding, she gets up. “Thank you for the talk. It’s been… eye-opening.”

John leans over the chair as he beams at her. “I’m just glad you agreed to let me,” he pauses as if he’s contemplating his words, “work with you.”

“Well, you didn’t leave me with much of a choice. Certain death or,” she gestures towards him, “you. And I like being alive, thank you very much.”

Charlie doesn’t bother to wait for a response, pushing past the chosen and out the door to wait on the steps. She doesn’t need to wait very long as Deanna follows after her almost immediately. “My truck’s down there,” the woman points down the driveway to an old, white pickup with a black Eden’s Gate sigil on the hood.

Following silently behind the other woman, she tries to catch her breath. Relax, she chants to herself internally. In only twenty minutes you’ll be safe. Charlie tells herself she can do this as she gets in the car. All she has to do is wait a few, short minutes and she can scream and cry as much as she wants to.

The car ride is silent for the most part and Charlie is glad for it. Until about halfway to her parent’s house when the chosen turns to look at her nervously. “So,” she pauses, chewing on her lip, “are you excited to be joining the project?”

Charlie gives her a snort in response. Leaning her head against the glass, she closes her eyes. “That’s an overstatement.”

“Well, I’m thrilled to have you here. I really like your mom.” Deanna gives her a grin before turning back to the road. “And besides, we don’t have many young women. It’ll be nice to have a friend.”

Friend Charlie scoffs. “Let’s just take this day by day,” she says, repeating the exact phrase John used on her earlier.

She’s relieved to see her parent’s house come into view as they turn the bend. Grabbing onto the handle, the young woman prepares to jump out the minute the truck pulls into the drive.

Charlie goes to shut the door when Deanna calls out to her. “I know you’re scared or angry or whatever it is you’re feeling, but I’m happy you’re here. Maybe we’ll even get to work at the ranch together.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” Slamming the door closed, Charlie heads towards the house. She looks back to watch the chosen back out. Once she’s absolutely sure she’s gone, Charlie heads to the bunker in the backyard.

Clutching The Book of Joseph that hasn’t left her hands since she left John’s house, she climbs down the ladder. Charlie gags once she’s inside the bunker, the musty air that hits her makes her think that it’s been years since anyone has been down there.

She barely makes it to the couch before her breath becomes labored, adding to her already rising blood pressure. Tossing the book on the sofa she begins to pace around the room. What is she supposed to do? How is she supposed to explain this to Eli? Will Mary May even trust her again after this?

Letting out a frustrated cry, Charlie slinks to the floor. She has to make them understand she’s doing this for them.

But are you really? Pops into her mind. She offered to join the project the moment she felt her life was in danger, not her friends. Protection for her friends only came as part of the bargain after she agreed to have her soul saved.

But is it really wrong to want to save yourself? To value your own life? Not really, she thinks. Trying not to dwell too hard on the guilt that’s eating at her, Charlie goes to pick up the radio she notices lying dusty and dormant on the desk.

Blowing the dust off, she turns the dials until she finds the channel that would reach Eli and the Wolf’s Den.

Pausing to sniffle, she presses down on the button to talk. “Hello? Eli? Tammy? Anyone? It’s Charlie.” She clears her throat awkwardly as she waits for a response. “Um, over?” She adds.

“Ya know, it’s not really necessary to say over.”

“I know, Wheaty, but no one was answering.”

Charlie can hear the younger man laugh into the microphone. “Well, ya gotta give us more than ten seconds to get to the radio, Charlie.”

“Patience has never been my strong suit.” Sighing, she bites her lip. Not sure of how to go about relaying the message about the mole in the militia; not even sure she should be telling them this. But, it’s the right thing to do. And it’s not like she made a promise to John about what she would do with the information either way.

“Is Eli around?”

“He’s out scoutin’ right now. Whatcha need?”

Charlie knows it’s not Wheaty who’s the betrayer, but she has a bad feeling about repeating the news over the airwaves.

“Is anyone else from the militia there?”

There’s a long pause over the line as she waits for the young militiaman’s answer.

“It’s just me and Tammy here. Why what’s wrong?”

Picking up the radio, Charlie goes to sit on the dilapidated couch. She takes in a deep breath, trying to quell the feeling in her gut that’s telling her she’s making a mistake.

“Tell them that there’s a snake in the garden. They snitched on me to the Seeds. They know I killed one of Jacob’s hunters and I-”

“Who is it? Are you at The Veteran’s Center?” Wheaty interrupts her. There’s a hitch in his breath as he asks his next question. “Did they take you?”

“No,” Charlie can feel tears start to fall and she digs her nails into her thigh to stop herself from openly showing her distress, “but I can’t come back to the Wolf’s Den anymore. That’s why I need you to report back to Eli, shit even Tammy, what I just told you.”

“But why-”

She lets out a deep sigh before cutting him off. “Can you just trust me? I’m trying to protect you. All I ask in return is you get rid of your rat infestation.”

Charlie waits, the static of the radio the only response.

“You got it.”

“Thanks, kid. I’ll see ya when I see ya.”

And with that she flicks off the power, unable to continue the conversation; unable to accept her newly minted fate.

Tossing the machine onto the ground, Charlie falls back onto the couch. She decides to spend the rest of her day inside the bunker, certain her parents won’t come searching for her here. She isn’t ready to hear the exuberance of her mother when she tells her the news of her joining the cult; if it was up to her she would have offered Charlie’s hand in marriage the moment she had stepped foot onto the compound.

Though, Christine has probably already found out if John was actually telling the truth about there being a meeting. She can’t bear to think about the two of them conspiring about her; about her future. It’s too much to deal with. The whole day has been too emotionally taxing for the young woman.

Charlie reaches behind her, picking up the stray Book of Joseph; her curiosity getting the better of her. She’s pretty sure the whole book will be monotonous; mundane monologues about their terrible childhoods. It’s the same bullshit with every cult leader. Regardless, she wants to find the juicy bits for future ammunition for the next time John Seed wants to throw jabs at her about her own youth. They’re alike, her ass.

Opening the book to a random page, Charlie settles in. Admittedly, the book is a hard read, both from Joseph’s unreliable narration and the abuse the two eldest Seeds regularly suffered. What catches her eye, though, are the bits of a young, barely more than a toddler, John being beaten; abuse so bad it forced the brothers into foster homes.

The new information forces Charlie to slam the book shut. She can’t help but feel guilt and pity for the man, all of them if she’s being honest, but especially John. She doesn’t know if these feelings are stemming from the parental neglect she suffered as a kid or if it’s because of her own desperate desire to become a mother; to be able to give a child a life she was deprived of. She doesn’t even know if any of this is actually; maybe it’s all a ploy for people like her to feel empathy for them.

Shaking her head, Charlie closes her eyes. Do not think of them as anything more than the monsters they are, she chides herself.

Curling up into a ball on the couch, she tries to relax; tries to clear her mind of all the dizzying emotions that came from today. After what feels like hours of breathing exercises and mantras to shut her brain off, she finally falls asleep.

The nightmare is the same as it is every night. Charlie finds herself being hunted through the Whitetails by one of Jacob’s red camo clad chosen. And just like always she kills them; just as it happened in real life. But this time, the outcome has changed.

It’s still her blood splattered face that’s exposed after the ski mask is ripped off, but the eyes staring back at her are no longer the hazel eyes of the recently deceased hunter. This time they’re sky blue; blue like the eye color shared by all of the male Seeds.

Charlie wakes up with a start. Heart racing wildly, she puts her palm over her chest in a vain attempt to calm it down.

“Fuck me.”

She’s no dream interpreter, but Charlie is definitely concerned this means something. Means that she’s become prey to the Seeds; that she’s become some sort of toy for them to play with at will. It’s distressing, especially since she’s worked for years to ensure she would never be in such a vulnerable position with men again. And now here she is; in the belly of the beast, but this time it’s worse. This time it’s with cult leaders rather than a gaslighting husband.

“I need a drink,” she mutters to herself as she sits up.

Charlie heads up to her parents house, the early summer sun blinding her as she exits the bunker. “Mom? Daddy?” she calls out once she’s made it back inside. The calls for her parents are met with dead silence.

Searching through rooms gives her no leads on where they could be until she finds a note plastered to the refrigerator.

“Princess,

Mammon and I will be out for most of the day. You can find your mother up at Black Horse Peak if there’s an emergency. I’ll be out fishing on the bay with a few friends from church. Both of us should be back by dinner time. Don’t get into any trouble while we’re gone, ma fille.

Love,

Papa”

Charlie sighs. She was hoping to not be alone after the nightmare she had, let alone the day she had previously. But, on the bright side now she has time to come up with a way to explain to her parents about her change of heart towards Eden’s Gate.

Deciding the best course of action would be to tell them over dinner; a dinner where she can spike her own drink to take the edge off. There’s no worries about them being disappointed or angry with her. No, she needs to drink to hide the disappointment in her own mother who will be delighted that her boss managed to break down her daughter into joining his family’s cult. In one day too. What a feat!

A couple hours pass with Charlie trying and failing to concoct a meal when there’s a knock at the door. Immediately going on guard since she wasn’t expecting any guests, she grabs a kitchen knife off the counter.

As she heads over to the door she peeks outside the window to see who her surprise visitor is. None other John Seed is standing there on her porch; a look of fury written all over his face.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she says, slamming the knife down on the entrance table.

Opening the door with a bit of trepidation, Charlie begins to panic. Why would he come here when he could have just had her brought to him? Why come when she’s all alone? The normally well-coiffed Seed looks frazzled; his usual slick backed hair falling loosely in his face.

“What do you want?” she asks through the crack in the door. Instead of giving her a response, John pushes his way into the house.

“Oh, okay. Please, come inside,” Charlie grumbles as she slams the door shut.

She watches as John paces through the living room; watching as he runs a hand through his hair, letting out a dark chuckle as he does so. The situation started out unsettling and now it’s just flat out creeping her out.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” John asks, finally looking up at her.

Charlie blinks at him trying to understand what she could have possibly done in the last twenty four hours to anger him this badly. And then it dawns on her. She told the Whitetails about the mole amongst them and she’s guessing Eli handled the problem.

Oops.

“What exactly did you expect me to do? Allow your brother to keep getting intel on my friends? So he could, what, pounce on them when the timing was right? I don’t think so.”

“No, you’re right.” He clears his throat before leaning against the wall, no longer manically pacing around the room, but calm and collected. “I trusted you too early; had hoped you would be grateful for the gift I’ve given you, but I see now I was mistaken. Instead, you would rather squander it and try and pull off these childish antics of yours.”

John pushes himself off the wall, slowly making his way towards her; the action preemptively making her back herself against the counter.

“But I’m not worried about it. And you know why?” He knocks on the table as he continues on.

Charlie shakes her head “no”, uncertainty over whether that was the right answer setting in.

“Because Joseph saw you walk through the Gates of Eden with us; with me. So, I know all of the trouble you’re putting us through will be worth it in the end. I just need you to recognize your purpose and start behaving.”

They’re so close now; too close for Charlie’s comfort. She puts a hand between them; her fingers lightly touching his torso. The touch makes her flinch, but after he put her face in a vice-like grip just the day before, she’s not letting him get that close again.

“Walking through the Gates of Eden? What does that even mean?” She furrows her brow, she’s pretty certain Joseph is just making up visions to have his brother keep her in line, nevertheless the possible euphemism unnerves her. “Is that like heaven? Are you here to commit a murder suicide?”

Charlie quickly realizes that that may be the wrong thing to say when she sees the scowl cross John’s face.

He leans in closer to her, forcing her makeshift barrier of her wrist to drop. “You are in no position to be making jokes, sweetheart”, the Baptist glares down at her. “Because you, Charlene, in less than three weeks have managed to get two of our chosen killed. One by your own hand and,” John looks down towards her lips, “and one by your big fucking mouth,” he hisses at her.

“Good.” Charlie shoves him away, trying to reclaim some of her personal space. “That last one snitched on me; took my life away from me. So I guess we’re even now. Eye for an eye. Isn’t that what you people believe in?”

“You know, you’re not nearly as clever as you think you are.” Sitting on their loveseat, John splays himself out as if he owns the place; the overly cocky attitude in full swing again.

Admittedly, Charlie does feel some guilt over the news of another chosen dead. There’s a part of her that’s curious about who they were in the militia, but the other part doesn’t need that on her conscience; not when the first death has been haunting her dreams nightly.

“Joseph entrusted me with your atonement; he still has faith that you’ll come around. Jacob still believes you deserve to be punished. Now I’m of two sides,” he says, leaning forward. “I believe you need to be reprimanded for this; for making some of the project’s best hunters spend their morning burying their friend. But death is too harsh.”

“What – what were you thinking of doin’?” Charlie stutters, her drawl starting to slip out.

“I was thinking of moving up your baptism. To tonight.”

“No!” Charlie all but yells as she marches over to where John is perched. “I – I haven’t even read your brother’s book yet! I don’t know what I’m getting myself into! I don’t even have anything to wear!”

She’s practically in between the man’s legs and she’s half tempted to bend down and scream in his face; make him feel as small as he constantly makes her feel. But it’s inappropriate and she immediately rights herself of the urge.

“None of that matters. All that matters to me is that you start the process soon.”

It dawns on Charlie that she should be questioning John on why he is so insistent on keeping her alive; what he meant by her walking through the Gates of Eden with him specifically. But a voice inside of her tells that she’s certain to find out sooner rather than later; and she might not like the answers she gets.

“Can I at least find something decent here to wear?”

“Yes, but,” John shifts uncomfortably, “I need you to keep the door open. I can’t trust you to not try and run.”

Charlie laughs as she heads into her parent’s room. “Where could I run to that you wouldn’t find me?”

She shuts the door a crack, partly out of habit, partly because she doesn’t want John watching her undress. The thought of him seeing her naked alone makes her grimace.

It takes her a few minutes, but she’s able to find something buried in the closet. It's pink and floral, not her usual color, but it’s a sundress and that’s all that matters to her. Pulling her shorts and cropped top off she watches in the mirror as John loiters around her family’s dining room.

Uncomfortable with the Baptist going through their belongings, she quickly pulls the dress on; tossing her honey brown hair into a ponytail.

“Excuse me?”

“Ah, you’re ready,” he says as he comes and leans on the doorframe to the bedroom. “Like I said earlier, I can’t trust you. So I need you to do me a favor before we can leave.” John pulls a flask from his jacket pocket, handing it over to her as if she’s just supposed to accept a drink from him.

“I thought you guys banned this shit? Too good for a stiff drink or two.”

“It’s not alcohol.”

Charlie scoffs. He wants to roofie her so she’ll behave; be a good girl for the Seeds. And he thinks she’s going to consent to this? Fuck that.

“Then I’m not drinking it. Not until you tell me what’s in it.” She has spent way too many years practicing drink safety to just take a drugged drink, even if the man giving it to her is warning her in advance.

“It’s bliss,” John says as if she would understand what that means. But he sees the confusion written all over her face. “It’s safe. You’ll be fine. It’ll keep you calm for a couple of hours. Enough to get you through the cleansing . And after that,” he smiles down at her, “we can work on building trust.”

“What if I say no?”

John’s smile turns sour suddenly, stepping forward to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Like I said earlier, I’ll be forced to take your sins out the people you love the-“

“Okay, enough with the threats,” Charlie groans as she snatches the flask from his hands. “You’re a huge dick, ya know that?” She shoves past him, “a real pushy asshole.”

Uncapping the flask, she takes a sniff. It’s oddly sweet smelling. Maybe it won’t be so bad? She thinks to herself. John watches her intently as she puts the container to her lips. She can’t help but feel that he’s enjoying this too much.

The drink itself is bitter in spite of its fragrant scent. The taste makes her want to throw the flask across the room; then maybe projectile vomit afterwards. She manages to get a bit down before handing it off to John.

“I think I’m ready,” she says, trying to hold the bile in her throat down.

John nods, heading out the door. Charlie starts to feel nervous as she follows suite; afraid that she may pass out and be taken to God knows where to have God knows what done to her.

“Don’t worry about the door. I’ll have one of my chosen let your family know where you are so they can join us.”

“Okay,” she mumbles, allowing John to open the car door for her to get in.

Eli and the Whitetails will come for you soon. They know you’re in trouble now and he’ll come and save you. They have to. She thinks as she watches the youngest Seed walk around the vehicle to get in as well. And she wants his head on a platter when they do.

There’s not much time to dwell on thoughts of being rescued. John has barely backed out of the driveway by the time Charlie has started seeing green and feeling dizzy. Her head drops back to fall against the cool leather of the headrest.

“I’m just gonna rest my eyes for a moment,” she slurs; eyes drooping shut. Before she knows it, she’s out cold; on the way to start the most interesting chapter of her life thus far.

[shinydelirium]

Kiro’s R&S: Lonely (Season 2 Chapters, 2-5) Translation [CN]

***WARNING!!! THIS POST CONTAINS CONTENT THAT HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED YET ON EN SERVER!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!***

This is a translation from Kiro’s R&S for Season 2, Chapters 2-5. Just to let everyone know, I do not know any Chinese but I have taken an interest in learning it because of this game. Therefore, I’m learning the language as I go. Everything has been done using Google Translate so do expect some errors and mistranslations. I’ve tried my best to make it flow well. Also, shout out to @link4eva for walking me through this process. I’m not gonna hide the fact that I hate technology and technology hates me so this is my first time posting something so monstrous, lol. Without further ado, please enjoy! 

***Some context before reading. The events of this R&S takes place towards the end of Season 1 when an impending comet is about to hit Earth. MC spends what little time she has left with the guys until she is summoned to some unknown place and gets set back in time.***

Even if the world fusion collapses, it cannot stop a firm heart.

[Chapter 1]

*Click, click*

The sound of the gear turning stopped again and behind the door that was slowly opened, a calm voice sounded.

“She has gone.”

Drifting light spots lingered in the endless darkness and the stairs slowly retreated to its origin. Everything seems to have not happened and it seems to be silently waiting for some tomorrow to come.  

“The future is far away, but it will come.”

Helios didn’t speak, but stood still, looking towards the end of the stairs.

“Are you scared?”

The person in the dark tempted again, and he smiled after listening.

“No matter how difficult it is, she will definitely find a way so that everyone can meet tomorrow. What is there to be afraid of?”

At the end of the speech, his voice became very soft, containing some fear hidden in his heart.

The girl’s face slowly appeared in front of Helios’ eyes. He suddenly remembered that in the world of Eternal Winter, she kept approaching bravely, gritted her teeth to face all the unknowns, remembering every moment she had illuminated. He always believed that she would be able to make the most correct choice and let the doomsday meet the future. It’s just...

There was a seemingly silent laugh from the darkness. Helios released the palm he had just unintentionally clenched, and turned to look at the scattered light spots, “I just want to know one thing.” His hand gently lifted. The light spot swayed at his fingertips, like stars hanging in the dark, losing their orbit. “That uncontrollable future is the future of this world?”

The distant voice seemed to sigh, “What do you think the world is like?”

Helios did not speak.

“The countless choices of mankind have gathered into all nets of the world. It is infinitely extended and leads to the future.” He paused. “But the future will end. This is countless civilizations relying on the destruction, over and over. The conclusion drawn again. Although it is moving forward slowly, it seems to return to a certain point of origin.”

“Destruction.” Helios raised his head and said this word in disbelief.

“This world should have stopped today, but a possibility has arisen.” While Helios was still speculating on the deep meaning behind this, the voice did not stop. “This possibility gives her the ability to choose the most correct one. The path leads the world to a distant place beyond truth and common sense.”

Helios frowned slightly and caught the core part of the words in an instant. “You mean, there will be even more incredible changes in the future?”

“This is not a question I can answer.”  

The sound of the gear turning sounded again, and the person’s voice seemed a little tired, and finally slowly disappeared in the darkness, like the last hint.

“This world has completed its choice, and it will not stay. It will continue to move forward to witness the arrival of tomorrow, no matter what posture or form this tomorrow is presented to humanity...It belongs to the tomorrow of this world, and you...” The voice faintly revealed the meaning of expectation and scrutiny, “Tomorrow you will naturally be the same as her, you will be the way you crossed from today to tomorrow.”

[Chapter 2]

From the dome of the hall, one can see the lights of comets approaching from the sky. The people around the round table appear to be extremely silent. They all looked at Helios who walked in, seeming to be waiting for his final answer.

“It’s too early to prepare for the end.” Helios walked to the front of the main seat, but did not sit down. He gently propped his hands on the round table, and there seemed to be sparks jumping in his eyes. “Everything went according to the original plan. In time, we have a lot to do.” When everyone dispersed, Helios stood alone in the hall, looking to the sky through the dome, and muttered, “It seems that the secret that I can’t tell you is still valuable.”

No one can be seen on the street where the end is coming, not to mention such remote alleys. At the end, there is only the rustle of stray cats eating garbage.

Kiro pressed the brim of his hat, turning around in the scattered alleys in a familiar way, until a faint yellow light slowly hit his eyes. A little “Mondlicht” was written on the side of the door, like the spell of an ancient magician. He glanced at the end of the sky one last time, took a deep breath, and opened the door with firm eyes.

“Welcome.”

The man standing behind the bar didn’t seem to be surprised by the visitor who appeared suddenly. He gracefully wiped the wine glasses and greeted Kiro with a smile. Kiro quietly looked around and sat at the bar expertly.

“The end is two hours away. Do you want something to drink?” The man smiled and shook the wine bottle in his hand.

“It’s almost the end and you’re still opening the shop?” Kiro put his hat on the bar, ignoring the man’s invitation.  

“My life creed is, I’d rather stand earning money and die than to lie down bored.” The man seemed to be indifferent to Kiro’s refusal, still mastering the bottle with skillful control.

“I’m not here to drink.”

“You have tried so many times, don’t you ever give up?”

Kiro’s eyes flashed with a hint of anger but only for a moment. He slowly smiled.

“I have no reason to give up.”  

The man neatly put down the cup in his hand and took a breath: “Well, since you’re so insistent, I won’t stop you. The name is Drey.” ***Don’t know if this will be the name used for this character in EN server but it’s what Google Translate gave me, so we’ll go with it***

He put the wine in front of Kiro, the bright red liquid filled the man’s eyes with a smile, but seemed a little ruthless and indifferent.  

“Thank you for the business and support.”

[Chapter 3]

Kiro found Drey a month ago. Seeing Drey again, he still couldn’t control the urge to retch inside. Kiro sat on the sofa, clenched his palms fiercely, and like a constant trance in his heart, forced himself to give priority to the task at hand. In a daze, he saw the girl standing under the soft light and shadow, her face radiating with warm light. She reached out to him and called his name. “You are the best Kiro in the world.”

The slight pain in the palm of his hand slowly pierced all consciousness along his fingertips. He barely raised his eyes and calmly looked at the man Drey, who was standing not far from him, the first assistant of the experiment.  

Many years have passed since that distant and dark memory. He was also much older. Drey threw himself down in front of Kiro in a panic, “Please, don’t kill me...!!!”  

Kiro looked coldly at the man who was kneeling in front of him, his whole body shaking. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have let you escape that time.”

Trembling, he took the box thrown by Kiro and saw the glinting “S” on it. He was so scared that he almost dropped it to the ground.  

“How did you get this? No, you don’t need to answer me...” Drey shook his head and firmly gripped the box in his hand. He realized that Kiro who was cooperating with him now is no longer the advanced experiment: number 3684. Drey looked down at the box in his hand, “What do want me to do? Could it be...!!!”

Kiro knew from a long time ago that Drey was the person who knew his body data the best during that experiment, and naturally had enough ability to be the first assistant. “This is impossible!”

“I’m not here to listen to your nonsense.” Kiro interrupted him coldly, “You just have to work for me, right Dr. Drey “the current boss?”

Drey rubbed the box in his hand, gritted his teeth and finally let out a sigh of relief, “...I see, can the operating table on floor B4 be used?”

Even in the colorful laboratory covered with floral wallpaper, Kiro still had a serious mental rebuke. It took him a lot of effort to force himself to lie down on the experimental table. Since then, he can’t remember how many times he vomited and how many tubes of medicine he took.  

Drey frowned, “I said it’s going to be difficult for you to become stronger.” He lowered his head. “Your experimental success is not universal. Considering the collective interference of many micro-factors, your body may not be able to withstand the second experiment. The experiment made your genes, under the catalysis of a special substance, form their own unique irregular structure, which is absolutely different from ordinary people.” He pursed his mouth and paused, his expression stricken, and looked at Kiro. “And we are not sure whether this reaction will continue, and all the side effects can’t be estimated. Why should you take such a big risk!?! You are fully capable now...”

“It’s okay, let’s just get there first today.” Kiro wiped the blood from his mouth, barely propped himself up and sat on the experimental table. The night fog filled him countless times, tying him into the abyss in the dark night. There are countless ferocious and scrutinizing gazes. He is standing in the bloody prison, but now, he is no longer afraid.  

“I said that you aren’t too tired to go home and eat dessert?” Since Kiro accidentally missed the dessert date, this person always used it to tease him from time to time. Kiro didn’t answer him. He walked around the store several times, slowing down his trembling footsteps, “Is it natural?” ***Don’t really understand what's going here in this scene, lol***

The boss nodded, “It’s okay. You guys finished so early today?”

“It’s because there is a special performance today.” Kiro put on his hat, blocking most of his face, “It’s very important.”

Kiro walked towards floor B4 step by step. When he arrived at the entrance of the laboratory, Drey was already there waiting for him. “We’ve tried numerous times and if you continue like this, your body may...”  

“It’s fine.” He unwaveringly interrupted Drey’s unfinished words. “There has been progress last time, hasn’t there? Let’s keep going.”

Kiro’s footsteps towards the laboratory were extremely firm. The whole world seemed to be only a piece of endless white, with the girl’s back at the end. He kept ordering himself to run towards her. This has always been the case. Although there is not much time to download this voice, he will never give up even if it is the end.  

[Chapter 4]

When Kiro opened his eyes again, he knew that he had won the bet. Even if he didn’t have the strength to lift a finger, he raised a satisfied and happy smile for the first time. He couldn’t remember how long he laid until he could finally and slowly prop up his arm to support himself. He sat on the operating table panting and wanted to pull out the infusion affixed to his arm in disgust.  

“it’s better not to pull that one out.”

Kiro raised his eyes in warning. The boss leaned against the door holding a hot cup of coffee along with a smile that has remained unchanged for years. Kiro blinked and tilted his head, “The time...”

“Don’t worry. It seems that the comet hasn’t hit yet.” The man stretched out his index finger and pulled Drey over who happened to be passing by and came back to check the situation. “Look at him.”

Kiro breathed a sigh of relief and covered his head with a bit of pain. Drey hurried over and said, “You’ve just woke up now, don’t be so anxious. You need to be observed again.”

Kiro snorted coldly. With a sound, the microcomputer he had been carrying around suddenly rang. He grabbed his head and pulled off the infusion from his body. He stood, limping hurriedly and almost fell to the ground due to the excessive movement.

“You can’t move right now!” Drey stopped him in a rush.

“Let go!” Kiro waved Drey’s hand away, reluctantly pressing it against the wall. He turned on the computer, tapping the keyboard intermittently with stiff fingers, looking at the screen with a heavy expression. “You guys leave.”

“You can’t use your abilities now!” Drey still insisted on explaining to Kiro, “We are not yet sure about their stability. Your current body is too weak. If you use your enhanced abilities immediately, you will...”

“Get out.” Kiro’s voice did not have a hint of warmth or room for argument.  

“But your body...!!!”

“Excuse me.” The man drinking coffee beside him smiled and shook the syringe that came out of nowhere. “You will not be charged for the gift.” Kiro stretched out his pinhole arm without hesitation, “Thank you.”

Kiro recovered some strength after the drug injection. He leaned in the corner of the laboratory and gently closed his eyes.  

“Ki...mmph!”

“.....If I said I might know a way, would you believe me?”

“It’s okay, you’re already amazing and you’re still my superhero!”

“Will you leave again this time too...?”

“I believe that no matter who you are, you will not change...”

“No matter what decision you make, I’ll support it.”

“All this time, you have always been illuminating me.”

He can always hear her voice. Kiro gently opened his eyes and saw himself in the mirror. He raised his mouth unconsciously, without a trace of hesitation. Since this world will not end, no matter what happens, it will become the future of tomorrow. He has to be prepared for this unknown future.  

The golden light in the pupils of his eyes danced in the mirror but at this time, it was like a gentle and powerful blessing, giving strength to those who can cross all obstacles to reach hope. Even if it may be temporarily silent in time because of the drastically changing world, one day it will become a milestone to guide the future, pointing to the end in its heart, and meeting the long-awaited person.

“I command you to always be the one and only brightly shining Kiro--to be brave and to keep getting stronger.”

“I command you to never forget her.”

“She is MC, your Miss Chips.”

“She is your most favorite person.”

The golden light diffused through the pupils into every nerve ending and blood, melting into the grand and brilliant white snow at the end of the world to form the final agreement. The world was slowly shrouded by the seemingly gentle but unbreakable water mist. It was born from the bright white light and permeated the earth, extending in countless directions. On the note-filled recording paper in the notebook, the notes on the staff seemed to be placed upside down, disappearing one by one on the paper. And all this is just a moment.  

End

[skiller0dani]

Heart | Five Hargreeves

M A S T E R L I S T TUA Masterlist

angst/fluff requests info

yes I know this wasn’t requested but I have so many requests I just wanted to write my own thing. Working on one of the Diego smuts, expect that tomorrow. Also if you guys have any other comments/concerns about the Five discussion we had today, feel free to send me a message here. 

At the time, he really thought he made the right choice. Logically it made sense, he had people after him. The Handler, plus 3 very large Swedish men. It wasn’t safe, you weren’t safe. So he broke up with you, and he didn’t even explain why. He couldn’t, you weren’t from his time and you belonged here in 1963. If he were to tell you the truth about who he was, where he was from, or rather when he was from- you wouldn’t hesitate to join him. According to you, there was nothing in Dallas for you, but he didn’t think that was true. You had more here than you thought, you had a chance to have a normal life. To find someone who you could actually be with, being with him is damning yourself to a life of running. You would be damning yourself to an early death, or a life of heartbreak if someone manages to kill him. That’s only a few of the concerns he has. 

What if you get stranded somewhere in time? Without him? Anything could happen to you, and if you were to get stranded, The Commission would most definitely come after you. You would have trained assassins after you, and you would be by yourself. The thought makes him nauseous. 

What if you died? If he had to watch you die right in front of him, he’d probably lose his mind. He wouldn’t hesitate to rip another hole in time to go back and save you, which would probably cause an entire domino effect of problems to ensue afterwords. Possibly another doomsday. 

Letting you go was the logical option. It made sense, it would avoid all of the things he was worried about. It should have been a simple choice, but it wasn’t. He tormented himself for days about it, both before he broke up with you and after. Did he do the right thing? It removes so many problems, but then why does he feel so damn bad? Why does his chest tighten when he thinks about you? Why do tears push at the backs of his eyes if someone says your name? Why can’t he sleep without you laying next to him? What is happening? 

There was a lot of coffee consumption in the days after he broke both yours and his heart. The bed was too cold, too big, and too empty. He spent most of the evenings tossing and turning, and those were precious hours wasted if he wasn’t going to sleep. So he didn’t, he slammed a quadruple espresso and forged on through the day. There was work to be done, and even though the fate of everything rested on his shoulders yet again- Five couldn’t concentrate. His hand hovered over the chalkboard, his mind drawing blanks. What was he even working on again? The numbers written before him looked unfamiliar, shit. Running a nervous hand through his hair, his throat closed as he remembered you tugging at his hair on the back of his head when you wanted a kiss. You always said he was an ‘old soul’, you hit the nail on the head you just didn’t know it. 

Five wasn’t the tallest person around, but you were positively tiny. Compared to you, Five may as well have been average sized. You stood a few inches shorter than him and your small, delicate hand fit with his so perfectly. One of Five’s hands was slid in his pocket but his right hand hung loosely at his side as he read over the chalkboard once more. He didn’t know what to do with his right hand anymore, that’s the hand you always held. And squeezed whenever you noticed the stressed expression cross onto his face- which was quite often. He didn’t know then how badly he would miss your little hand squeezes. Five throws the chalk across the room before he spacial jumps to the roof, he needs air. 

This entire thing was his fault, he knew he shouldn’t involve himself with anybody. He knew how it would end, he knew it wouldn’t last, that it couldn’t last. Five knew he would have to leave, and attaching himself to somebody else was just unnecessary pain. He knew it was doomed to fail, destined to end the very second he laid eyes on you. Wiping down tables at that damn diner Klaus got thrown out of, your hair in a ponytail and a bright smile on your face. He knew he would have to do this. Five told himself to keep walking, even when he turned his head and saw some kid flirting with you. He told himself to let it go, that he couldn’t care about anybody. He had come to a halt, his palms twitching as he watched you smile at the boy sitting at the breakfast bar. Why would someone as gorgeous as you be giving that scumbag the time of day? He’s obviously staring at your cleavage. The annoyance grew when he saw you scribbling something down on a napkin. Why are you still giving him your attention? 

The second your eyes met his through the window, Five knew he was done for. 

The two of you were inseparable since that day. Five had stormed inside the diner, embarrassed the poor kid by revealing how much smarter Five was. At the same time, Five was impressing you with his intelligence and making you laugh with his witty comebacks. Maybe you thought that other kid was cute for a second, but the minute you saw Five strolling up to the bar, with a tense smile on his face, your heart belonged to him. The poor kid ended up scrambling away with heated cheeks, and the napkin you’d written your address on was slid over to Five. The next 10 minutes were spent chatting, and when you saw the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his brothers and sisters, you knew that you had to have him. The heavy remorse in his tone when he spoke of his brother Ben had you reaching across the bar to take his hand in yours. 

Five knew your relationship would be challenging, given who he was. He really tried to talk himself out of it, but eventually he found himself on your porch, in the pouring rain, with his lips pressed to yours. How cliche. He was a goner from the second he met you, and he loved it. When the days ticked away and it drew closer to the upcoming end of the world, Five knew it was time to do the thing he never wanted to do. He needed to let you go. He cared for you in a way he’d never cared for anybody, the emotions stirring in his stomach were so intense, and strong, and complicated, he almost didn’t have a word for it. He doesn’t understand it, and frankly, that scares him. 

Five had shifted from foot to foot on your porch, his heart beating like wild in his chest. He dreaded this, he really did but he needed to do this. He was doing it for you after all. When you answered the door, the sight of you took his breath away. You were just so damn beautiful, why do you have to make this so hard on him? You had leaned up to kiss him, but Five turned his head and your lips landed on his cheek. If he felt his lips against yours, he’d lose the nerve to do this. This needs to be done. “What’s wrong?” There was so much concern in your voice, you must have seen the distressed look on his face. Five couldn’t bare to look in your eyes, so he kept his gaze pointed straight ahead. He was a trained assassin for God sakes, he was trained not to give a shit about other people. So why was this so hard? “I can’t see you anymore.” Five says dismissively, trying to make it appear as though it’s not a big deal to him. You froze, all the air having been pulled from your lungs the second the words left his lips. It knocked the wind out of you. 

“Why?” Your heart was broken into tiny pieces, and you tried to be strong because clearly this didn’t bother him. Did Five ever really care about you? You thought he did, but right now you’re not so sure he ever did. If he cared about you then how could he be so casual about this? So unaffected? “You wouldn’t understand Y/N, I just can’t.” His answer is vague, but you wanted more. No, you needed more of an explanation than that. He doesn’t get to break your heart and walk away with it without giving a decent explanation first. “Tell me why Five.” Your voice is trembling as you desperately try to find somewhere on the door to hold onto. It feels like your entire world has shifted, like it’s all fallen out from under you. “Is it because of me?” Your voice is broken and hearing you immediately blame yourself nearly sends him across the porch to press his lips against yours and whisper how perfect you are. Do you not understand that Five does not deserve you? 

But Five shoves his heart back inside his chest and nods curtly, “yeah. It’s because of you.” The soft cry that escapes your mouth has Five clenching his jaw, if he doesn’t walk away right now he’ll take it all back and beg for your forgiveness. Five doesn’t even bother glancing at you as he turns and walks down your porch steps. As soon as you see him heading down the dirt path you collapse to your knees in tears. Five hears your crying get louder and nearly comes to a halt but he pushes himself forward. He’s doing this to protect you, he can’t take you with him. It’s too dangerous. He forces himself to keep walking, to leave you there crying and alone. Five never thought someone like you would ever come into his life, but now that you’re gone, he doesn’t want to live without you. 

Allison could tell something was wrong with her brother the second he came up the stairs. A forlorn expression was strewn on his face, and for the last few days he’d been gloomy. She watched him head to the back of the apartment, straight towards the bedroom. He didn’t glance at her, no snarky comment, didn’t even glance at the equations on the chalkboard. Allison’s eyebrows furrowed as she turned to face him, “what’s up with you?” She asked before he could close the door. Five pauses, he misses you so much it’s hard for him to even breathe without you next to him. How he supposed to live the rest of his life feeling this way? He wishes he could just forget you...Allison. Five turns with a solemn look on his face, “I need you to do me a favor.” 

Allison crosses her arms and raises a brow, “I need you to help me forget somebody.” Both of her eyebrows fly up at his request. Looking into his eyes, she can tell that he’s serious. “Explain.” Is the only word Allison can manage through the shock. Five groans with an eye roll but begins to explain anyway. “I met somebody, and I was seeing her for a little while. Seeing as we’re going to be leaving soon, I knew I needed to end it with her. Nothing feels the same, I’m not hungry, I can’t sleep. I can’t think about anything but her, it’s like my chest is being crushed with a cinder block every time I even hear her name. I don’t know what’s happening but I want it to stop.” Five says and Allison has a small smile spread across her face. 

“You’re in love with her Five, that’s why you feel like this.” Allison says and Five’s eyes widen. He’s in love with you. That’s why he can’t function unless you’re next to him. “You shouldn’t let that go.” Five squeezes his fists closed upon hearing her statement. As if that’s something he never considered, “you think I want to? I can’t Allison, I can’t take her with us!” He snaps and Allison rolls her eyes while placing a hand on her hip. Five tugs anxiously at his hair, turning away from Allison. “Maybe you should just tell her the truth, and let her decide. Loving someone like this doesn’t happen very often, you shouldn’t let her go.” She says with a shrug before walking past him and right out of the apartment. Five places both palms flat against the table, his heart and his head conflicted. 

After a few minutes of tormenting himself, Five stands straight up and nearly runs out the door. His heart is beating wildly in his chest as he sprints the entire way to your house. Allison is right, even if you can’t come with him he needs to tell you the truth. About who he is, about everything. You deserve the truth, and he can’t leave knowing how badly he broke you. He would never forgive himself, and he would spend the rest of his life regretting how he left you without telling you how he feels. Five is panting when he makes it to your house, his hand reaching up to slam against the door. When you swing the door open, his cheeks are red and he’s heaving for breath but he smiles upon seeing you. Your heart warms at the sight of him standing on your porch, “I love you-” are the first words out of his mouth. You freeze, does he really mean that? You stand apprehensively in the doorway, waiting for him to explain. 

“I haven’t been truthful with you, and you deserve to know the truth.” Five says, his hands in his pockets and after a minute or so you sigh before swinging the door open. The two of you sit down on the couch, but you keep your distance from him. Five looks at you with an unreadable expression on his face, and you stay silent, waiting for him to speak first. And he does, he starts at the beginning and tells you everything. 

[juniaships]

After being reminded of how awful canon film is I wrote my own self indulgent version of Batman Vs. Superman. I want the story to be self contained, so no Doomsday or Darkseid forewarning. Warning: Rambling, me being butthurt while high on sugar, really trying to make this a coherent storyline with genuine development, some Bruce x OC moments shut up you demon!

The beginning is the same as in canon with Lois in Africa???Middle East??? With her partner James Olsen trying to resolve a hostage situation. James gets killed trying to protect a hostage, but before anymore are killed Superman comes in and rescues them. He subdues not kill the terrorists but gets into trouble with the intelligence agency for interrupting their mission. This incident reaches the ears of Helen Hunt's character the no-nonsense Senator. However Superman is more concerned for the deceased James and the unharmed hostages than getting in trouble with the government, he feels guilty being unable to save James in time.

After James Olsen's funeral Clark and Lois are unsure what to do next. They decide the best way to honor his memory is continuing their line of working bringing light to troubling issues as well as a troubling rose of villains. They also find out that the terrorists had weapons given to them by Luthor (to protect interests in that region).

Meanwhile, Lex decides to capitalize on the post destruction of Metropolis by launching a smear campaign. He also starts pursuing charitable events to make himself look good in front of the masses. Because of growing negativity towards Supes, Clark starts feeling a lack of confidence but from reassurance from his mom he redirects his focus hero by doing small stuff around Smallville. Gradually the town starts to see him in a far better light but there's still Metropolis and the larger world. Clark goes there to help rebuild. At his job at DP, he gets the chance to interview visiting millionaire Bruce Wayne in Whatever City (not the actual name but a totally different city from Metropolis and Gotham). At the press meeting Bruce is rather cold & not as Clark expected. He's even working with Lex Luthor as part of a business deal, which makes Clark wary as he knows about Luthor's criminal activity.

Superman goes out in a flight to clear his head. While flying around he sees a kid walking on the railroad tracks hy himself with a pair of headphones....and a train steadily approaching! Supes swoops in and saves the kod from being nuked and chastises him for being so reckless. The teenager apologies and introduces himself as Jimmy Olsen (a nephew of the deceased James). He had been listening to music as a way to cope with his uncle's death. They talk for a while and Superman brings Jimmy back home. Several weeks later Clark ends up mentoring Jimmy as a school project.

Back in Whatever City we're introduced to one of Lex's assistants Nicola. She's a former Holliday Girl who had overheard Lex's plan and vowed to stop him. She managed to get in contact with an old friend: Diana Prince. Nicola brings up Lex's plan and hidden research of metahumans. The Amazon surmises that such a scheme could result in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people. Diana decides to bring her agency to stop him & asks Nicola to stay low. Diana gathers her old armor and prays to the Gods for luck.

Lex apparently likes Nicola enough to send her an invite to a charity ball, where she crosses paths with Bruce for the first time. They talk for a while only to be interrupted by Clark.

After a meeting with Luthor to discuss a merger with their companies, and seeing hints of Luthor's true selfishness, Bruce grows suspicious of him and started to dig around. We see through memorabilia that his initial coldness towards Clark and other people wasn't out of spite but of grief: Jason Todd's death some years ago.

Clark continues his good deeds and is slowly regaining his respect. He even makes plan to visit a children's hospital but is forced to cancel when Superman gets called to show up for a Congress hearing. At the meeting Superman admits his guilt but tells about James and how he died a hero. The Senator doesn't know where Superman is going with this but is listening. Then Superman's voice trails of as he hears a beeping noise and shocked he leaves the room in a hurry. He briefly searches the place and finds a bomb strapped in a closet. He carries the bomb out and throws it as high into the sky as possible Back inside the audience and senator are bewildered by his absence then hear a loud booming noise outside. There's shock as a bright light flashes in the sky...

Superman legit rejected their hearing to save them from a bomb. A bomb planted there by Tess on the instructions of Luthor...a plan she was willing to sacrifice her own life for.

This leaves the senator reconsidering her stance: if he really was as bad as people say then he wouldn't have saved them.

After the incident the entire country begins to have a more positive opinion of Superman while the government launches a search for possible terrorists. Bruce hears about what happened and after sneaking around as Batman, finds out about Luthor being the one responsible for the attempted terror attack. Later on he (as civilian) makes an announcement that he is not going to go through with the merger with LexCorp.

Hearing the news that Superman foiled his attempted assassination (and losing out on Wayne Enterprises), Lex gets very pissed off and threatens to fire Tess. She tries to save face by reminding Lex of his contingency plan...making Lex calm down and grin as he begins to remake his plan.

Nicola agrees to a date with Bruce and prepares. Meanwhile Lois and Jimmy are enjoying a night on the town while Clark stays behind to work on a news story. The two friends were about ti make it back to their hotel before being accosted by some men who force them into a car and takes them to Lex Corp.

At the HQ Lois calls him out that his plan could spell doom for the world. Surprisingly Luthor agrees but makes it clear he doesn't care. He orders his men to capture her, but Jimmy manages to escape and goes off to find Clark (who is writing a story to expose Luthor's actions). Jimmy tells him learns from him that Lois is in trouble Superman tells him to stay as he fetches the police. In reality he jas gone to find her as his hero alias. He finds her but just as he's about to rescue her Lex threatens that he also has another certain someone (Martha Kent ) captured if he doesn't comply, seeing that Supes was often seen visiting her. Reluctantly Superman complies and Lois is freed from her bonds, yet Lex takes them as hostages to a room lined with Green Kryptonite. He leaves to his warehouse to check on progress of his prototype. Jimmy wonders where Clark has gone and goes to the police station himself.

On their date Bruce mentions to Nicola that he knows what she's up to. Nicola coldly replies what was he talking about and he mentions Lex's actions and her possible status as an accomplice This starts a spat leading to Nicola spilling that she is working against Lex (making her a foil to the blindly loyal Tess) and that her goal was to stop Lex from unleashing his plan. She already called a friend to help them yet when Bruce presses forward they see a kid (Jimmy) wandering around and concerned asks what's wrong. Jimmy replies that his friend was kidnapped and doesn't know what to do. Bruce leaves to find Clark while Nicola stays with Jimmy.

Nicole & Jimmy arrives back at the hotel and sees Tess Mercer waiting for them. She had been sent by Luthor to eliminate the witness. Nicola tries to talk her coworker out of harming an innocent kid but Tess refuses. They duel but Tess proves to be a surprisingly stronger fighter. Before Tess could come in for the kill a frightened Jimmy knocks her out cold from behind.

At HQ Lois & a weakened Superman attempt an escape. Lois believes its hopeless but Clark reminds her that Lex won't put them down for long. Batman arrives at the HQ and stealthily avoids the guards. He deduces the room Lois and Supes are locked up in and free them. Batman says thay a little birdie told him everything Lois and Clark grinning that it's Jimmy and the two superheroes decide to work together to bring down Lex.

Batman goes to save Martha (the warehouse fight) while Superman goes to confront Lex, dropping Lois off at the hotel where rhe police are waiting (Tess apprehended). Nicola researcher offers to take the reporter home but she declines, not wanting to sit back and watch Lex try to destroy the world. After giving her report to the police she and Nicole meet Steven Trevor (a descendant of Steve Trevor and an agent). Steven says he already sent his men to arrest Lex as they found that he waa behind the bombing. Lois sneaks away to see if she can help Clark.

Clark manages to catch uo to Lex at his lab and tries to reason with him. Lex says that he already unleashed his prototype as a test to see how many lives Superman is able to save. Superman argues that Lex has gone mad trying to play god, which he disagrees: "I'm not playing god I'm only playing favorites is all." Disgusted, Superman leaves and goes off to fight the prototype. As he does an entire line of trucks arrive...led by Nicola's special friend...

Lex realizes he has been found out and tries to destroy the evidence. Lois realize that the monster was made of Kryptonian DNA so she looks around for the spare Kryptonite and manages to grab a considerable long piece. Just as she does the place starts flooding and she runs. However she nearly drown. Fortunately she gets pulled out by a woman wearing armor. Lois doesn't even ask her name as she recognizes the W shaped emblem and blue&red color scheme. Lois gives the heroine the spear and tells her that she says she loves Clark. Wonder Woman nods and heads towards the direction of Superman.

Superman draws the monster out away from the city and is helped by Batman. Wonder Woman arrives with the spear. The final battles commences with Batman providing a distraction to lead the prototype away. Diana and Superman fight the beast but is soon overpowered. Clark takes the makeshift spear and goes off and manages to subdue the creature rather unwilling to kill it. However he gets blown up by a missile sent by the US military and everyone thinks he is dead.

To his he walks out of the smoke, banged up but alive, having narrowly escaped the blast. The monster has died, leaving Clark to wonders sadly if the monster could have been saved as it had no control over its actions. A relieved Lois embraces him as the other two supers look on in bittersweet triumph.

Several days later, the President, on the behest of the Helen Hunt Senator, gives Superman a full pardon. The world also starts to see rising of actual superheroes to take in the increase of villains having been inspired by the actions of the newly dubbed Trinity. The ending shows that long term exposure to Kryptonite left Lex without any hair, cementing his iconic look. He had also beem arrested and tried and ends up locked up at a mental institution on an insanity plea. His other henchmen & Tess are jailed and Luthor's company scrambles to do damage control. Bruce catches up to Clark and apologizes for being cold. They part ways on better terms before musing at the similarities between their alter egos. Diana teases that they make a great team and returns to the capital with her team. Bruce returns to Gotham and stops at the cemetery to place flowers on Jason Todd's grave, showing that he moved to the acceptance stage of grief. Jimmy also ends up getting a job as an intern for Daily Planet with Lois as his mentor this time. And Nicola goes to Gotham to work as a social worker and takes up a case: Cassandra Cain.

The final scene ends with Clark as Superman dressed up in Metropolis visiting a local orphanage/foster home, showing that at his core he truly does care about humanity despite all them haters. 👏👏 👏 happy ending everyone!!!

The movie ends with a montage of

- Cyborg walking around aimlessly in his hometown and finding a discarded newspaper highlighting the heroes' exploits and getting the idea to try becoming a hero himself

- Aquaman in his kingdom catching up with the surface world and becoming curious, and wonders about an alliance

- Barry standing in a hill in his city in costume. He grins and smiles, before pulling over his cowl and racing off

- And Lex, plotting an escape from his cell, suddenly sees a peculiarly tall guard looming over him. He makes a digging comment that the guard shrugs off. To his surprise the guard unlocks the cell and leads Lex out. Lex asks who the guard is; the guard slips off his disguises revealing a sapient Gorilla...Gorilla Grodd!

All This sets up a future plot point that wouldn't be explored until after Justice League where we're introduced to the cinematic LEGION OF DOOM!!! The prototype they fight is not doomsday but foreshadows the creation of Bizarro (who was one of the original members of the LoD).

With the actual Justice League movie we continue with the formation of the team through several subplots converging into one major story arc. The Helen Hunt Senator plays a huge role being their ally and influence on building the Hall of Justice. Plus more Brucola stuff because we need fun stuff in Batman, Tom King.

[kazbrkker]

Chapter 9: A Witness and Witless

Chapter summary: A realisation for Alexis, kindly dished by Captain Price. Meanwhile, danger is the gift that keeps on giving. (3284 words).

Warnings: N/A. 

29 October 2019, 0500 "Alexis" and "Alex" | Codename Aces CIA with SAS and Urzik militia Sakhra, Urzikstan

   Having her forehead split open had its benefit. Okay, maybe that was arguable, but Alexis was mildly grateful that the unbearable stings stirred her awake. It saved from her reliving a gauche situation: sleeping limbs entangled with her best friend, who she almost kissed, again.

They were practically squashed together, her head pillowed against his firm chest. Seeing how paranoid and sharp to his surroundings Alex was, his iron grips were challenging to snake out of it, good thing she had practice.

Here, at 5 am, while others were desperately chasing some sleep, Alexis was too engrossed in her own thoughts. The past 24 hours happened like a flash, and the Wolf was her highlight, making her fidget uncomfortably just at the thought.

You should have fought harder, been stronger, not falter at his baseless threats. Alexis had no one but herself to blame for allowing the Wolf to escape. The guilt her mistake carried fuelled the fire inside her, with revenge as additional gasoline to the mix.

The Chinese had a saying: "for what you do upon me, I'd unleash it ten times worse." Omar Sulaman would regret ever threatening her.

Seeking refuge under a dying tree at the residence's courtyard, she brooded in reflection. At least she figured out an end goal for the Wolf, but the friendship between Alex and her was shaky, at best. Alexis released an exhale of pent-up frustration, fingers weaving her chocolate locks into a braid. So immersed with overthinking, she almost failed to catch Price's approaching footsteps.

"No rest for the wicked, eh?" He arched a concerned brow at her stitches.

Alexis cracked a smile, "'Course." Patting beside her, she gestured for Price to take a seat with her on the patch of dried grass. "Please, don't be a nanny. Just sit down."

"Fantastic. I'm in no mood for that either," Price replied. His face briefly caught silvers of golden rays, accentuating the eye bags and fine lines that revealed just how much Price had aged since their last encounter. Even without the combat vest, his broad shoulders remained permanently slouched.

Alexis smelled smoke before the wisps floated past her. Witnessing how it relaxed Price, she shuts her mouth. "Something wrong?" she guessed, feeling the passing smoke layer her tongue with a woody fragrance, suddenly feeling the need to spit.

"The Butcher... Bastard didn't even spare a kid." Price took another deep inhale.

Alexis sighed, "We'll make him pay."

"Damn right." The price of war was a hefty one. And Alexis idolised John Price for his unwavering tenacity. By far, he was the most unbreakable person she'd ever met.

"So..." Alexis steered the topic, "What cover story did you tell Maddox and Forbes this time?"

Price scoffed lightly, a light-hearted undertone in his words, "Ah, I didn't bother. Bloody bitch about it, is all they do." Though Price, Maddox and Forbes all knew each other, Alexis always questioned what kind of Doomsday loomed over the world for a SAS Captain, Task Force Black's commander and a CIA handler to cross paths. Candidly, it made her excited to know why.

"Something going on between you and Alex?" Price questioned abruptly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She confidently lied, ignoring the tingling sensation on her lips.

"For your sake, I hope you lie better when you're on the job," he mocked. Did she develop a tell? How did Price always know?

"Ah, it's just a bunch of gossips, don't feed into it."

"It's a reliable source," that piqued her curiosity.

"Kyle," she deadpanned, twisting her body towards Price. "Call MacTavish, I'm gonna skin Kyle alive."

Price hummed, giving her an amused look, "That'd be a waste of talent. So it's true, you two dating?"

She didn't even know the answer herself, so she replied with something safe, "We're friends, always have been." Her gaze averted to the small wildflowers blossoming under the base of the tree she leaned on. Chrysanthemums, its deep red petals swaying gently against the wind currents, almost like a greeting wave. Alexis scratched her head at the timely symbolism.

"Don't get stupid, you know better than most that nothing lasts forever," Price chided with a distant look in his eyes. "That boy looks at you like there isn't a war waging on."

Alexis sighed, twirling the stalks of red chrysanthemum hesitantly, "That's the problem. Wars are happening, it's selfish."

The Captain huffed almost disappointedly, "There's always a war. You see something you want, you best hold onto it before something blows it up."

"Shouldn't you advise me against fraternisation, Captain?" She smiled.

Staggered smokes escaped when Price let out a short laugh, "Whoever tries to boss you around is an idiot. Do I look like one?"

"No, no you're not," she chuckled, always finding wisdom in Price's words. So when he told her the way Alex looked at her wasn't platonic, she believed him. Not like it was unbelievable or anything. The way he tirelessly searched for her in a crowd every few moments—then smile when their gaze meets. With ample practices over the years, she'd successfully ignored how much he burned her insides with a simple look.

Now, maybe she didn't need to.

Alexis was always more of a spy than a soldier—at least, that was what Maddox always said about her. A natural God instinct to read the room, practically able to smell the changes like a bloodhound. Yet she was slow to pick up on the change in their friendship.

Slow, and a little reluctant. Now that she opened the floodgates that she guarded for so long, every possible feeling punched their way to her heart.

She was still in love with Alex. A chilling sensation ran over her spine when she inwardly admitted that. It puzzled her if it was relief or nerves? Either way, it jolted a new kind of excitement in her. Every exhale felt lighter.

"And what about you and Laswell?" Alexis retorted smugly, enjoying the rare stunned expression that slipped onto her mentor's face. "C'mon, give me some credit. The most impressive agent you've ever come across, right? I read your debrief about me from the Caucasus mission."

At his threatening frown, she held up surrendering hands, "Alright, alright! I'm done here."

Price ignored her teases, stubbing out his cigar at the base of the tree. "The Caucasus... That's what, 7 years ago? You just made JSOC back then."

Alexis cackled at the memory, "Back then you didn't have this glorious moustache. Remember when I pulled a knife on Mactavish?"

"Scared the lad shitless. Didn't show it, but sure as well saw it," Price continued, a smirk present on his face.

"I sure as hell felt it. Mactavish's pulse was jumping." Then she paused, realising Price purposely dodged her questions. So she tried again, "Don't avoid my questions, I'm a great matchmaker!"

He shot her a look, "Says the oblivious fool."

"Touche. But still-"

Luckily, Hadir spotted them, sliding open the residence's glass door and jogged up to them. "Oh, Hadir! Thank goodness you're here, Price was about to murder me."

Hadir squinted in confusion. "Ignore her," Price got to his feet and dusted the grass off his camo pants, sending the gleeful agent a hard glare. "Lass hit her head too hard, she's spewing rubbish. Careful, Hadir." He patted Hadir's back and started to head back to the house.

"C'mon mate!" Alexis yelled after him with a butchered English accent. "I said I'm sorry!" She laughed at Price's slightly gapped mouth.

"Did I mention?" His hands steadied against the sliding door, "You're benched!"

With that, Price slid the glass door closed, wearing an amused expression as she yelled pleads after him with no avail. "Petty old fellow."

Hadir sat on Price's previous spot, gracing her with a chocolate bar. Unlike commercial ones, military chocolate hardly tasted edible—for somebody who hated chocolates, it was a torture to sink her teeth into the hard cocoa blocks. "Hadir, you couldn't find anything else?"

"It's chocolate!"

"You think."

His enthusiasm didn't die down as he chowed down his own energy bar, but after a few chews, Hadir promptly stuck out his tongue in disgust, earning a burst of hearty laughter from Alexis, "People eat this?"

"Dumb soldiers do. But the smart ones..." Alexis pulled out a packet of biscuits from the side pocket of her pants, wiggling in front of Hadir. She snatched the cup of hot water from him and dunked the biscuits in, much to his protests. Seconds later, the biscuit softened to a texture that resembled a sponge cake. Alexis urged the wide-eyed Hadir to take a bite.

Hadir was sceptical until he tried it, pleasantly surprised. He praised, "Finally, some food fit for humans!"

"Genius, right?" He nodded in agreement, passing her the cup to share. "And I can see that look in your eyes that you want to ask if I'm okay, so answer your question: I'm fine, although I'm sick of people asking me that. Thinking about tattooing the answer across my forehead, wanna help?"

"Horrible idea... Count me in. But no, not your injuries, here," he pointed at his heart. "You feel bad for letting the Wolf go, I know. It's not your fault, Alena– Alexis," he corrected. "Your names are confusing."

The smirk on her face faltered slightly. Though it quickly returned, Hadir already saw the cracks in her smile. Then she decided not to bother with the facade. "I should have fought harder. I imagine there are people who should be alive right now if not for me."

"Like I said, not your fault. In all my years, you got my sister and me closer than we've ever been to end this war... We've lost many brothers and sisters to get to this point. Between Barkov and the Wolf, I'm not sure which of these dogs are worse." His words had a certain edge in them, reminding her how much this war changed Hadir. "But they are not careless men. Why did the Wolf keep you alive?"

"Said he wanted to watch me suffer," Alexis answered honestly, hesitantly taking another bite of her dessert. "Jokes on him. I'm gonna crush him. We're gonna fucking crush them."

Hadir pulled his legs closer to his chest, returning a small smile when she rested a comforting hand on his knees, "With a big enough stone, right?"

"Damn right."

━━━━━━

Even with the miraculous arrival of a second chance, it doesn't mean Alexis made it easy. Now was the perfect example for his argument.

"Maybe you did hit your head too hard—look in the mirror and tell me if you see a large cut across your forehead, because I might be seeing things." He pinched his nose bridge in distress. Price had tasked the very injured Alexis to sweep houses with Bravo Team, take it easy and all.

Alexis wore a polite smile and calmly said, "Fuck you."

"How eager," he retorted, knowing just the way to irk her.

She threw up her trusty middle finger, "Hard pass."

Really? She thought, playing hard to get is so 2002, Alexis.

"Really?" He moved closer, and except for a hardened face, Alexis did nothing to stop him. Trapped between Alex and a table, she breathily observed the blue flecks in his irises, avoiding his alluring pink lips that was definitely calling to her. "Trouble breathing?"

Alexis swallowed her nerves, "The only trouble I'm having is my lack of personal space."

"Ouch..." His head fell defeatedly on her shoulder, chuckling. "Lexi, honey..." he gilded, eyes boring into her own. She kept still and bit her tongue at the pet name, watching his gaze travel down her face, maybe her lips.

Alex pressed more of his weight against her, "Be a good girl for me. Consider I said please."

Her heart quickened, sparing a quick glance at the wide-open door full of Marines who stood oblivious to their actions, but if they continued standing in this position, it was just a matter of time. "You're adding to the rumours..."

"So everybody thinks we're dating, big deal." He slammed the door shut to prove a point.

Are we? What is this between us?

She tasted the words on the tip of her tongue. Alex's flirting had become painfully obvious that she wasn't the sole player of this game anymore. And instead of addressing it, her wickedness took over—lightly chewing down her lips just to confirm her suspicions again.

A knowing smile slowly builds when he took the bait.

Alex blinked rapidly, retreating instantly. His attempt to clear his throat was pathetic, voice throaty as he said, "You're going with Bravo, no arguments."

"Like hell. The medic cleared me!"

Alex paused thoughtfully, rolling up his sleeves up his forearm. If this was his sly attempt to distract her, it worked. Reasons beyond her, his tattooed arms were incredibly attractive. "Was that before or after you threaten him?"

He didn't... Alexis recalled the easily convinced medic. Sue her for having a way with words. She smiled sweetly, refocusing on packing her combat bag, "You have no proof."

"Tell that to your face," he rolled his eyes. "Babe, come on, there's not enough time for me to tie you to a bed."

She'd admit to almost choking at his unexpected comment. Like a good spy, she hung a scowl at his charming smirk—refusing to play into his trap. Then, she internalised his appearance, styled hair, in the middle of a war. Still so vain. Probably trying to impress her, cute.

"Number one, you're god damn shameless–"

"I call it honesty," he shrugged.

"Outrageous, not to mention scandalous-" she corrected.

Alex huffed, throwing his head back briefly.

"Number two, I'm pretty sure Wade outside there, who was shot in the thigh is still on the mission. Talk about a double standard."

Usually, this danger zone was when Alex would back off. But today, she was convinced he had an intensified case of a stick up his ass. Still, he brazenly took the loaded magazines off her hands. "I'm trying to not treat you any differently from the boys, if that's what you're implying. I just don't want anything else to happen to you, Alexis."

"But I am different, Alex! I'm not the boys," the menace in her voice was hard to miss, a stark juxtaposition to the playfulness, "I don't want to be one of the boys. Read my damn resume, you really think this injury will be the one to do me in?" Her neck craned upwards to meet him, "I'm still standing. I can do this."

Alex finally uncrossed his arms and nodded, "Okay."

She cast a suspicious sideways glance, "That's it?"

Alex hummed– actually hummed this time. Her eyebrows shot heavenward, which amused him. "You expected a few more rounds, didn't you?" At her nod, "I trust you, that's all."

"Huh... Usually, you'd try harder. Say something melodramatic like: No, Alexis! You'll quite possibly die, bleed out to death–"

"Defamatory, I do not sound like that," he insisted upon her dramatic pause and casual dismissal of hands.

Alexis poked accusingly into his chest, "Something's wrong with you." He smirked like he knew something she didn't, and ironically, she did. You're not that slick, Romeo. Two can play this game.

"Funny. Here I thought a master profiler like yourself had better skills."

Part of her questioned if it was a double meaning, but shook it off. Grabbing her stolen magazines from his grasp, "Come on, we have a war to fight."

She wondered if Alex's blood had always run so hot when she reached over to grab his arm, surely she wasn't the only one who felt that. But Alex remained silent and allowed her to push him towards the door. They were about to step out until her satellite phone sounded. The two shared looks of caution at the odd notion, her phone hardly rang. Alex was the designated communication channel, and with Price's arrival, he carried that responsibility.

Unless it was an emergency... She quickly accepted the call. "This is a secured line, identify yourself and how you got this number."

"I have my ways. Good to hear you're still breathing."

Her shoulders relaxed, "Ruddiger. Why wouldn't I– Did something happen?"

"Saint, listen carefully, I don't have much time."  She mumbled a quick apology before kicking him out the room.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"After you left, we got a tip about Valhalla's safe house. It was a scam to draw our attention away from Boucher." Her stomach clenched at the ominous feeling. "He's dead. Someone got to him."

"In the Hostel? That's not possible." The whole point of a Blacksite was that it didn't exist.

"It's true, Saint. I saw his body with my own eyes. We found a tracker—plastic polymer, explains why it didn't show up when we wanded him." He continued when Alexis didn't reply, "This shit gets worse. They got a list... Of everybody who's on the op."

Her heart stopped right then, "No fucking way. Where are you now? And wait, this is high-level intel, how do you-"

"I'm officially CIA, thanks to your glowing recommendation. So technically, I'm also here to say I owe you one. The welcoming committee sucks, they're putting us in safe houses. All except you."

Then Alex burst through the doors, signalling it was time to move, but paused at her ghastly face. She held up a shaky hand, "Well, fuck, mon sauveur, huh? Thanks for the intel, but you do know you just broke protocol?"

From the anxious rubs on her face, Alex knew something was really wrong.

Ruddiger laughed on the other line, "Consider it my gratitude for your olive branch. I gotta go. Stay safe, Saint. You'll never know how far Valhalla can reach."

"I'm in the middle of a war. He'll never find me here," she braved through the unsteadiness in her voice. When the call ended, she remained on the chair, still profoundly dumbstruck. She didn't know which was worse: that someone managed to infiltrate a Level 10 CIA blacksite, spooking Valhalla, or that her name was sitting somewhere on a hit list.

Another question bagged her, was it her real name? A thousand worries crashed down onto her. Why haven't Forbes or Maddox called?

"Hey," Alexis jumped at the touch, instilling more fret in Alex, who kneeled before her chair. "You're shaking. You okay?"

Alexis knew Alex wouldn't stop until he got an answer. Yet she couldn't give it to him, she'd put him in danger.

"Always," she mustered the biggest smile she could. And because of that, Alex saw right through her. But there wasn't time to dig further, they had a war to fight. Besides, for all she knew, she was safe, for now.

If Forbes or Maddox haven't called, it meant she was still safe. She'd focus on that.

When she wordlessly slung her rifle and holstered her guns, there was a heavier feeling bubbling inside her. Alexis didn't have a good omen, but she couldn't pinpoint if her gut was referring to today's war, or the brewing one.

Ah fuck, is there a difference? War is war.

War is war, was her final thought as she got ready to start a day full of tragedies.

Alexis should have listened to her gut.

‧͙⁺˚*·༓

a/n: taking a minute to say thank you to all of you!! i never thought Killer Instinct would receive so much love, but here we are, thank you lovers!!

taglist: @flyboidameron @wanderlustgiant @captain-pikas-world​ (wanna be tagged? lmk!)

[seven-oomen]

Love and Monsters Lore/Meta/Headcanons

Spoilers ahead!!!! I feel like I shouldn’t have to say it but obviously this will have spoilers for the movie.

Okay so strap in kiddos because I have spend my entire day rewatching the film, writing down all the little lines I could find and I think I’ve build a pretty decent understanding of its lore despite not having much information to fall back onto from other sources. (I don’t think it’s an easily accessible movie and there’s no wikis or whatever yet.)

Alright so here we go:

Part 1: The apocalypse

The apocalypse in this universe started 7 years before the story starts. An asteroid called Agatha 616 was headed for Earth. And in response Earth send up a bunch of chemical bombs to break up the asteroid.

It worked, a little too well. And those chemicals came back down on Earth and mutated all Cold-blooded animals. (Insects, fish, arachnids, reptiles, amphibians) From what we can tell, that’s all the chemicals affected. Warm blooded animals like Mammals and Birds  don’t seem to be affected. But the source material isn’t very definitive on this.

In the opening story Joel talks about how 95% of humanity basically got eaten to death by the mutated creatures. Even Clyde alludes to humanity being unaffected by referring to a line said by the governments/scientists at the time; “We’re the lucky ones, or so they said.”

To me that makes sense, insects in particular are so vast and so well adapted that if they ever got to the size of a truck, they would dominate pretty much all other species around them. That might also explain why we don’t see many mammals or birds around. I’ve been looking, haven’t found them just yet. Aside from Gertie the cow and Boy the dog.

One of the places were the apocalypse seems to have kicked off is in Fairfield, California. Clyde calls it ‘basically ground zero’ and is amazed that Joel (and Aimee by extension) even made it out of there. Although a part of that may be because I believe the whole “cast” is from the area between Sacramento California and San Fransicsco. I have my reasons for that, which I will explain in headcanons.

Another, based on a news clip in the beginning might be Washington DC and I think it slowly escalated from there, going Global in a matter of days. I think the highest concentration of humanity fell first (cities), which would make sense as more humans generally also means a lot of insects and other scavengers. Conflict would be high in these areas and a lot of people would die at once.

Joel also talks about how the military and the ‘big ones’ basically cancelled each other out and died out after another. Which again makes sense to me, you’d want the most dangerous creatures to be taken out first. A cockroach the size of a tank is definitely a priority. Although how one would kill a cockroach that size is also very questionable, considering what they can survive.

I think humanity held out for several months before they were forced into hiding by the mutated creatures and the news articles that seem to be around throughout the world and in the beginning seem to suggest that as well.

Part 2: Joel’s Journey

Now I am not an American and a lot of places have names that I know nothing about. So I had to Google it, rehear it and figure it out. But Joel’s journey takes him to Jenner Beach, we know based on a sign post that he passes Fulton and is headed off towards Sonoma Coast State Park. Based on those signs I have a made a trajectory of about 85 miles and approximately located Joel’s colony.

I’ve also circled Fairfield here to indicate where he started out. Now as I said, this is guess work based on what the movie gave me from the sign post.

Sonoma Coast state Park (30 miles), Fulton (6 Miles)

And from what the characters in the movie have been saying; Jenner Beach. So yeah, it’s guess work and I might be a couple of miles off, but I like to think this gives a good perspective.

7 days seems to sort of check out though, considering the terrain is rough and hilly/mountainy, you’d constantly have to hide, and you’d need to sleep/forage. But you’d be walking pretty slow still. I think you could make the journey in 5-6 days as well on foot.

Part 3: Clyde and Minnow’s Journey

Now these two are far more difficult to figure out because we don’t know much about them. Wikipedia indicates Clyde is a survival expert, so that’s the official title that I went with as well. He says he had a son named Elliott and that he was in a colony with Elliot, Minnow, and Minnow’s dad. Minnow also indicates that their colony was in a subway station. They were mostly headed North.

I think the most likely candidates for their ‘home base’ were Sacremento, but then why did they cross Joel’s path and didn’t head for Yosemite/ Mt. Whitney if they wanted to go to the mountains?

Or another likely candidate was Richmond. Which is what I went with. This is more headcanony though. Only because they mentioned going to the North as opposed to going East, towards Mt. Whitney. Maybe Sacremento and it’s valley are a no-go zone? That would sense, large open spaces are probably where larger creatures reside.

Part 4: Headcanons

Okay this last section is purely headcanon material and not at based on facts. So please don’t shoot me. (Yes, you may copy the headcanons if you like, I don’t mind.)

Clyde is a survival expert, hunter, and doomsday prepper in the city. He used to lead rich tourist/people onto expeditions into the wilderness of California.

His son Elliott was a State Ranger in one of the local wildlife parks/reservations. He was also very gay,

Clyde is a simple but open minded man who loved his son/family. He really didn’t care his son was gay and supported him.

They lived just outside of Richmond.

Their neighbors was an Indian Transman (as in his ancestors were from India). This was Minnow’s father.

Minnow was one when the Apocalypse hit. (This is somewhat canon actually.)

Her father carried her and gave birth to her, getting a hysterectomy a few months after.

Her father was also a great archer and used to teach people how to use a bow and arrow. He was also a great horseback rider.

When the apocalypse hit they tried to sit it out in Clyde’s shelter but due to circumstance were forced to leave and eventually ended up in a colony in Richmond. Which operated from a subway station. 

Elliott and Minnow’s father fell in love and paired up, raising Minnow together. Clyde became her grandfather figure.

They stayed there for about 4-5 years until an attack decimated the colony, including Minnow’s father and Elliott.

Clyde and Minnow have been surviving out on there own ever since and were slowly traveling up North until they found Joel in a Sandgobblers hole.

Part 5: Creatures

We know the following about the categories of creatures:

Insects: Have terrible peripheral vision

Lizards: Can’t climb for shit

Amphibians: Like to hide and lure in their prey

Sandgobblers: Bad asses, find prey by sound and vibration, their queen is bad news and has a fin.

You can tell if a creature is kind by looking into its eyes.

Bouldersnails are friendly, sensitive, but can crush your ass in a heartbeat.

-

And that’s what I have so far. Feel free to reblog and add to it if you’ve found more or want to enter a counter to some of the things I’ve found.

[thevindicativevordan]

Do hellgrammite

He is such a deep cut yet he has a fun design

I have never had any deep thoughts about this character ever. Had to go look up his background because I genuiely did not know anything about him. Think the key to turning him into a serious foe is to play up the insectoid attributes.

Design him so that there's barely anything human about him anymore, like the pic I found, and deploy him as the Xenomorph of Superman's world. Other Superman Rogues, such as Lex, Brainiac, and Mongul, might increase their threat level by employing their intellect, but Hellgramite went in the opposite direction. Roderick Rose was forced to undergo a mutagenic process in order to pay off his debt to one of the Metropolis megacorps. Said process transformed him into the monstrous Hellgramite, an entity whose only drives in life are the urges to kill or reproduce. Animal intelligence and cunning are what Hellgramite thrives on, and it can recognize Superman as the biggest threat it has, instincts mandating that Hellgramite avoid Superman wherever possible. Hellgramite should be one of the boogeymen of Metropolis, the monster in the sewers, or the shadow in the back alleys, grabbing unlucky loners who cross it's path. Sometimes it just eats people, and those ones should count themselves fortunate. Otherwise it plants a larvae into the unfortunate host, which will eventually grow into lesser Helldrones, killing their host when they are fully mature.

For Superman, Hellgramite poses a moral dilemma. Because Hellgramite doesn't seem to be sentient, there's no real chance of reforming it unless they can figure out a way of reversing the process that created it in the first place. Is killing a murderous animal, one which is never going to stop trying to kill and reproduce, the same as killing a sentient being? Using Hellgramite to explore the morality of Superman's oath against killing could be interesting, how far does said rule extend? All forms of life no matter how hostile? Doomsday was a creature Superman decided he had to kill, is his reluctance to kill Hellgramite merely because there's a tiny chance that they could revert it back to Roderick one day? Does that chance balance out all of the lives Hellgramite has taken and will take? That's the internal character conflict I'd explore with Hellgramite.