#but i mean really I take after the Scottish half of the family and work nights so literally don't go in the sun unless I have to

[freckleslikestars]

something I'll never not find hilarious is that my brother and I really don't look alike: he's got a much darker, olive skintone compared to my pasty white that looks like the time I tried to make gluten free vegan pastry and it, uhhh...it was colourless, we've got different face shapes, different eyes, different noses, different body types, just generally very different in appearance.

But for about a year when I was fourteen and he was twelve, we had the same shoulder-length dark, slightly wavy hair and were about the same height, and at least twice a month people would ask us if we were twins, which I think we both found equal parts hilarious and infuriating.

[sirenjose]

Analysis of the Prospector, Norton Campbell

This is a repost of my Norton Analysis.

Let’s start with where I think Norton was born.

Looking at his last name, Campbell is a surname that originated from the Scottish Gaelic word “Cam”, which meant “crooked”, and “Beul”, which meant “mouth”. It was used by Scottish people during the Victorian period, which is around the right time that Identity V takes place in.  If Norton were from Scotland, that could fit with how the name “Norton” means “North Settlement” (considering Scotland is north of England, which is where Oletus Manor is).

Further adding to this idea, Scotland is a coal-rich area, with Lanarkshire having a heavy concentration of collieries (coal mines) back in those days. Ayrshire, Fifeshire, and Stirlingshire are next in order of the number of collieries. Due to Lanarkshire being Scotland’s most populous county, this could be a good guess as to where Norton’s from.

There is also the theory that Norton is from Mexico, based on his S-Tier Soul Catcher being Day of the Dead themed, his provoke emote, Tune (as Season 18 Essence 2 is designed after a Spanish wedding and Spanish costumes), and potentially his connections to the story “The Transition of Juan Romero” (something I’ll discuss more later). 

Norton’s provoke emote is a gesture that means “Come and fight me” (info courtesy of @andrewkreiiss, which I’m going to just copy right here so I don’t mess anything up). First is him pointing at someone, that's just like pointing at the person he is addressing, it's something rude to do. Then the second gesture is Norton touching his cheek, this gesture means "come and punch me here on the cheek", it's just him mocking the other person inviting them to come and fight him, showing that he isn't afraid of them. Then the third one is him like thrusting his upper half with his chin, that's something men do when they wanna pick a fight with someone and they wanna look "intimidating". His whole emote is just him confidently picking a fight with someone and mocking them.

(As for Norton’s dance, it’s apparently actually a Columbian dance called “Mapale��.)

As to “The Transition of Juan Romero”, it’s a story by Lovecraft that involves an explosion at a mine called the “Norton” mine.

In the story, the narrator is a man of English origin, an ex-soldier with a penchant for the occult, wearing a ring he acquired in India. After an unhappy experience in India, he abandons his previous career and becomes a laborer at the Norton Mine. He’s living with a man named Juan Romero, who’s part of a group of Mexicans drawn from the nearby lands (to work in the mine), though likely not Mexican himself as he is apparently light-/fair-skinned.

Romero was born into extreme poverty and is the only surviving child of an epidemic that spread around (where he originally lived). He was found in a cabin with the relatively recent remains of his parents not far away from the hut. There was also an unusual looking crack in the rock near the corpse(s) apparently. After Romero is found, an avalanche buries the hut and cracks in the rock (making any clues on his background disappear). Also, apparently Romero doesn’t remember the names of his family or anything else. He was then picked up by a Mexican cattle thief, given a name, and raised by him.

When Romero sees the ring the narrator wears, he becomes really interested, as it seemingly awoke some memory in Romero’s mind (at this point, Romero becomes really adoring of the narrator, likely because the guy’s ring allowed him to get some clue about his parents).

Human error with dynamite causes a cave near the bottom of the mountain to blow up and cause a cave in. Neither Romero or the narrator were involved in the accident, and there were no casualties, but a deep crack was created. The mine foreman orders a survey, but everyone was too scared, so work stopped for the night because a storm was coming.

On the night of the explosion, Romero is asleep when he hears a drum beating an eerie rhythm. Romero seems to get excited or anticipated something because of it. The 2 head towards the mine, as if drawn against their will due to the rhythm (and the narrator’s ring begins glowing at some point as well). Romero reaches the abyss first, and runs off into the darkness, screaming “Huitzilopochtli” (which relates to the mention of Aztecs earlier with Romero in the story). The narrator peers into the abyss, and sees something (something too horrible for him to tell) before falling unconscious. The narrator wakes up the next morning, back in his bunk, but he also finds Romero’s dead body on the table. Everyone also says neither of the 2 left their cabin that night, and the chasm had vanished as well, along with the narrator’s ring.

So, about the important bits from this. There’s obviously the name of the mine, plus the fact a mine, mine workers, and an explosion caused by misuse of dynamite is involved. There’s how the Mexican and Aztec (Huitzilopochtli is the Aztec sun and war god) bits relate to Norton’s S-tier Soul Catcher, which has a Day of the Dead theme. Regarding the Cthulhu elements, we don’t know what entity was involved, but it’s obvious something was going on. Whatever it was, it may connect to the eye in Golden Cave and the meteorite (both of which I’ll discuss later).

As to my guess regarding when he was born, I assume it was around 1870. First off, we know Norton used dynamite according to his deductions, and dynamite wasn’t invented until 1867. Besides this, I’m in part basing my guess off of when Emma’s game was. We know her game was in 1898 by using when she was born, which we know due to Freddy’s deduction 6 (she was born on December 21st, 1876), and her canon age according to the official artbook, which is 22. Next, based on info from Time of Reunion that implies Norton was apart of the final game, that would mean his game took place at least by 1898 if not later. Since Norton is confirmed to be 28, 1870 is a good guess based on the info I listed, since if Norton was born in 1870, he’d be 28 the year Emma was 22 and had her game in 1898.

If Norton was born in 1870, that would mean he would’ve grown up under the recent Elementary Education Act of 1870 (or if he was born in Scotland, the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 would be the equivalent in this case, which funnily enough helped come about due to someone by the name of George Campbell). This law made education for children between the ages of 5 and 13 mandatory, and ensured each distract had a sufficient number of public schools. It didn’t make education free, but in cases of poverty help was given so they could attend. The education was basic, focusing on teaching children reading, writing, and arithmetic, so some poor children supplemented their education by reading the daily papers and other cheap publications.

The fact Norton is described as “full of curiosity” and “likes learning”, with the list of 13 mines, and how he likes “ore evaluation” (+ how he was able to become a geological prospector with his magnets) shows he did at least get a basic education. The BDuck x IDV quiz describes him this way if you get Norton as your final result, while Norton’s deduction 3 in other versions describes him as “diligent” and “studious”.

Speaking of this, it also describes Norton with “desire to act at MAX” or “highest level of execution. This means he’s the type of person to put all his effort into whatever he does. He never goes halfway with something. This thing also describes Norton with “believes action speaks louder than words”. This fits all his tweets as well as his background (which I discuss later, but it relates to how everyone avoids him, as well as how they mock him from trying to get out of poverty. The only way to prove to them that he’d succeed was with action rather than words), and why he’s so quiet.

I mentioned that poor children did receive help to attend public school. We know he was poor based on Norton’s father, who was a miner. We know this due to Benny (who I’ll get into shortly) stating he was a friend of Norton’s father, and Benny is a miner. Miners were part of the lowest class and social status, and typically lived in poverty.

As we’re talking about Norton’s father, let me talk about his parents a little more.

They’re never brought up except by Benny who calls himself a friend of Norton’s father. As such, the implication is that they died, likely when Norton was relatively young. His parents being dead can be backed up by Norton’s Ronald of Ness skin from Golden Rose Theater and Sparrow from Teahouse Tales. In Golden Rose Theater, Ronald’s father takes the blame for causing Lachesis’ death and dies from a “severe cold illness” shortly after being imprisoned. In Teahouse Tales, Lady 13 is Sparrow’s adopted mother. She’s betrayed and murdered by Flying Guillotine.

An interesting note, in both examples, Norton only has 1 parental figure. We know Norton knew his father to some extent based on Benny’s comment. Therefore, I wonder if that could mean Norton’s mother either died very young (like in childbirth) or she left Norton and his father at some point (like Martha Remington did to Leo and Emma).

Based on Benny having to tell Norton that he was a friend or coworker of his father, this makes me think Norton never worked with his father, otherwise he would’ve already known this. In which case, it’s possible this could imply his parents died before Norton turned 12 years old. I say this due to the Mines Regulation Act of 1860 which prevented children under the age of 12 from working in the mines. Also there’s how when a boy turns 12 and enters a coal pit, he’s attached to his father or some other man until he works long enough to become an actual miner. However, this law wasn’t always well-enforced, and there were provisions that allowed children between the age of 10 and 12 to work in the mines under certain conditions, so it’s still possible.

Considering Norton’s 2nd letter (which I’ll discuss later), he mentions how he’s been working for “20 years”. Since Norton is 28, this could mean he lost his parents and became a miner at 8 years old.

Either way, after losing both his parents, Norton ends up becoming an orphan at a young age and has to work to provide for himself. Due to who his father was and how poor they were, Norton likely became a coal miner, especially as coal was the primary source of energy at this time. As a rule, the sons of miners follow the occupation of their fathers, and begin to work when they reach twelve years of age.

Miners were expected to work at least a daily twelve-hour shift (though hours a miner had to work varied from mine to mine) on weekdays, reduced hours on Saturday and Sunday being the day of rest, with few breaks. They walked miles from their housing to the mines, and further still as they had to go down the mine shafts to where the ore/coal was being mined (mines got really deep in the 2nd half of the 19th century). Underground roadways were usually narrow, uneven, and low as owners didn’t want to increase their costs by making them bigger. All in all, it was incredibly cramped, and such conditions made accidents and injuries a common occurrence.

They also worked in complete darkness except for the candles or lighting they had to buy themselves.

Working in the mines was very dangerous & unhealthy and most miners who survived the physical dangers inherent in the working environment even succumbed to mine-related respiratory diseases such as silicosis in later life. Accidents were common, but compensation after an accident was very low. To make matters worse, mine owners didn’t care about the health and safety of their workers.

Beatings were also common. Sometimes for not being quick enough, sometimes for complaining, or sometimes simply just for making a mistake.

As to a number of hazards and risks miners had to face every time they went into the mines that could cause their death:

falling down a mine shaft on the way down to the coal face

falling out of the ‘bucket’ bringing you up after a shift

being hit by a ball of dug coal falling down a mine shaft as it was lifted up

flooding/drowning in the mine

collapsing roofs, shafts, and equipment/crushed to death

killed by explosions (fire damp)

suffocation by poisonous gas

being run over by a tram carrying dug coal in the mine itself

fires

ropes and chain breakages

trapped after a collapse

Additionally, underground mines were hot and damp. The air was musty and infested with coal which had the potential hazard of being flammable. This gas, also mixed with methane, had serious health effects, including: numbness, violent headaches, partial deafness, risk of choking on the thick dust, and black lung disease.

This would explain why Norton breathes so harshly in game. His lungs have likely been damaged from working so long and hard in the mines.

Regarding some statistics about the percentages of deaths from various methods according to 1 study:

Percentages of deaths caused by explosions from fire damp: 23-57%

Percentages of deaths caused by falls of roofs and sides: 40-77%

Percentages of deaths caused by misc. causes: 35-66%

As to the highest and lowest percentages of deaths for each method in this study:

Deaths by explosions: In 1878, the percentage of deaths was 41.6%. In 1884, it was 6.9%.

Deaths by falls of roof and sides, which was almost always higher than explosions: In 1881, the percentage of deaths was 47%, while in 1878, it was 33%.

Deaths by other causes: In 1878, it was 59%.

Finally, as to statistics regarding how many deaths occurred:

Between 1875-1885: 12.3k deaths, with at least 1k deaths per year.

Number of people employed in 1850, about 200,000 people employed, deaths exceeded 1k a year.

In 1877, when the number of people was employed was double that in 1850 (400,000), the deaths were a little over 1.2k a year

Safety lamps were invented eventually, which helped prevent explosions caused by the presence of methane in the pits. The flames of the lamp also helped notify miners of the invisible presence of flammable gases by burning brighter and with a tinge of blue when these flammable gases were present.

Despite how dangerous and risky it was to work in the mines, the wages were quite low. Mine owners even continued to refuse a wage increase for miners over the years.

Miners were paid by the amount and quality of the coal they produced, rather than simply by the hour. Of course this gave owners and managers plenty of ways to reduce how much they paid miners, such as claiming coal was of poor quality or rigging their scales, or by fining miners if there was too much “slack” (the smaller pieces).

The average wage of coal miners in the 1880s was somewhere between 3s (s = shillings) and 5s per day, with around 4s being closer to the normal, and 5 only if you were lucky. 4 shillings was about $1.20. Generally though wages varied greatly in different districts.  

Rent was either free or around 2s a week in a colliery village, which were settlements built by the owners of coal mines to house their workers. These homes were cramped, very basic, lacked adequate sanitation, and had poor drainage. Furniture was sparse and the low wages made it difficult to afford more than the basics. During bad weather, these homes suffered especially in damp weather due to poor construction, and puddles sometimes formed on the floor. Speaking of water, sometimes it was necessary to walk long distances to find water for cooking and cleaning, as not every colliery provided water for its homes. Collieries also provided a company store, which was normally a miners’ only option for buying groceries, mining tools, and other goods. As the only store in town, companies didn’t have to worry about competition, thus they typically charged exorbitant prices compared to what people in cities paid for the same items. In some cases, miners were compelled to use the company store by mine officials. Sometimes, miners were paid instead with something that could only be used at the company store.

As to potential costs of some other expenses:

Food: about 11s a week

Soap, starch, blue, and soda: 6p a week

1 pound of candles for coal pit: about 1s

1 pound of blasting powder: 1s

Fuel (coal and wood): 2s a week

Paraffin oil (for lamp and stove) and other sundries: 1 and a half shillings a week

Clothes, gloves, and shoes: no more than maybe 2s a week

Insurance (medical attendance, weekly doctor fee): between half a shilling and 1s a week

Sharpening work tools: half a shilling

Shovels: 2 shillings

Then there’s how even if a miner wanted to work harder and longer to earn more (up to a point, as there was a limit on hours they could work and how much they could produce), this meant they’d have to pay more for sharpening, oil, powder, and tools.

It was typical for miners to have their cost of living be about the same as their wages. Many ended up in deficit after all their expenses, which isn’t even mentioning how many suffered from malnutrition. If you were one of the lucky to have some left over, it was usually very little. Maybe no more than about 1s, which was all one would have for tools (like picks and shovels) contingencies, savings, or amusements.

This was just 1 estimate. As for another, you can read this link to get another idea regarding how much money a miner had (it’s the story of an American miner around the 1890s and 1900s): https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/gildedage/content/MinersStory. In other cases, a miner may receive a deceptively high basic wage, but a system of fines could quickly reduce their pay, and then there’s how they had to buy their own materials (like candles and stoppages for dust or gas).

Miners worked not because they wanted to, not because they wanted to be a miner, but because they had to in order to live, even though the wages were so low it was common to be in debt most of the time, especially if you got sick or hurt in an accident. Even after 15 years, a miner wasn’t much better than when they started. For the most part, miners don't want money for luxuries. They just want enough for a clean shirt or enough to keep them at school until they get a reasonable education.

Asking for a raise in wages also didn’t work. There were attempts to form unions and demand a raise from mine owners. Their demands were refused each time, at which point these men went on strike and refused to work until their demands were met. Owners retaliated by dismissing all the men involved, requiring workers to disclaim any association with the unions, recruiting strike-breakers, and eventually dissolved the union. Even when the owners had to dismiss the entire workforce, they were easily able to replace everyone. And when miners were dismissed, this also usually meant evicting the miners from their homes, as most men lived in housing (colliery villages) that the mine owner owned.

To summarize, Norton is very poor. Wages were low, and expenses (rent, food, tools, clothes, etc…) normally ended up using most of what he earned. Conditions were dangerous, with so many hazards that he was at risk of dying nearly every day, and owners treated their miners no better than slaves. Norton wants money to get out of poverty and to change his fate. He wanted to change his situation so he didn’t have to worry if he had enough money for food or if he’d live to see tomorrow.

This is backed up by a Famitsu article on his backstory (I’ll give the entire article later). The beginning of this article says:

“Norton Campbell in the eyes of others was always someone hard to deal with, whose emotions were as changeable as the weather. But all knew that he worked tirelessly to break free of his impoverished fate, and this intimidated them”.

Norton’s 2nd deduction proves that Norton was hardworking. He worked longer and harder than any of the other miners, meaning he probably worked the maximum hours allowed at the mine.

Deduction 2: Diligence

The more effort, the more rewards?

Work Record: Norton Campbell is always the first to go down into the mines and the last to leave it.

Despite his effort, as I mentioned earlier, things didn’t change much from when he had started. His fate still seemed to be to die poor, potentially to one of the hazards he faced every day, or due to some illness like many other miners did. He was getting desperate. So, he decided to try something different. This where Norton’s 1st deduction comes in. Norton decides to try to find gold, but he doesn’t know where to start looking. Therefore, he decides to ask the older miners due to all of their experience (as they’ve worked much longer than him and most other miners). To convince them to talk to him (since many only care about themselves and wouldn’t share knowledge about gold, which they could use themselves), as well as to have an excuse to be at hospice (as he might not be allowed there otherwise), he helps take care of the old miners.

Deduction 1: Kindness

Is that an Olive Branch you just threw, or...

A Good Deed: Norton, a miner, always visited the hospice and cared for the homeless old miners.

His 1st deduction mentions “throwing an olive branch”, which means to make peace or reconcile. In other words, this is a phrase that’s used when 2 people or groups who have fallen out attempt to forgive and get together again. This could potentially connect back to the Famitsu article. Remember how it said people were intimidated by how hard Norton worked to change his fate? What if those people included the old miners? What if they didn’t like him and/or basically have a bad relationship with him? What if that’s why Norton has to “act friendly” and do something nice like taking care of them just to convince them to talk to him and answer his question? Normally, these people wouldn’t want to talk to or help Norton out at all. Therefore, that could be why Norton has to offer an “olive branch”. Maybe Norton didn’t like them either, especially if they were avoiding him for being “intimidated” or did something else bad to him due to their negative feelings of him. That could be why Norton may only be “acting” friendly or why he also has to make peace with them (due to not liking them in return for their negative feelings and treatment of him).

Due to the environment he grew up in, especially after losing his parents and being all alone, he became a loner, quiet, and unsociable. He didn’t have any friends or anyone to care about him, and he didn’t have much time for anything beyond work. The fact he had to grow up and mature quickly worsened matters. From being a miner all his life, constantly seeing the ugly sides of people (especially the mine owners who treated him like a slave) and learning not to trust anyone but himself (so he never gets betrayed), he grew up in a world that taught him survival of the fittest. That’s why he tends to not let anyone get close to him, why he avoids forming relationships, and why he primarily cares about himself over others. It was the only way that let him live. But to change his fate, he has to stay on people’s good sides, especially the mine owners, but also with the people that don’t like him.

It’s because of this, plus how hard Norton works, that he receives so many recommendation letters from his employers in his deduction 3. The reason none of them could “keep him for long” was because Norton sought a wide variety of skills and as much experience as he could get. This was because more skills and experience would make him a more valuable worker, which would hopefully increase his pay and thus work towards his goal of changing his fate, but the other reason is, as I mentioned earlier, Norton is a curious person who enjoys learning.

Deduction 3: Efficiency

We need more trials.

A Stack of Recommendation Letters: It can be seen that every one of Norton’s previous employers appreciated his hard work and expressed their regret at being unable to keep him for long.

(Note: in other versions, it adds that Norton is “diligent” and “studious”)

In any case, what’s important to note from Norton helping the old miners is that this is when he meets Benny. He is another old, homeless miner mentioned in Norton’s 1st letter who claims to be a friend of Norton’s father. Benny is the one who ends up having the knowledge Norton wants and gives him a list of 13 mines.

The 13th mine is crossed out though.

Deduction 4: Persistence

People won’t be unlucky forever, right?

1-Page Note: There are 13 items listed. The first 12 appear to be names of places, and the last one is crossed out.

I think the reason is because Benny planned to betray Norton later because he wanted all the gold for himself. He just needed Norton’s help to actually get to and find the gold. Benny was in hospice, meaning he was weak, old, and dying. He didn’t have the strength to do all this on his own, thus why he needed someone young and strong like Norton. Especially since Norton was the one known to work extremely long and hard and was complimented by a lot of his employers. Of course Benny would want that person to be the one to help him out.

The 13th mine is Golden Cave. We know it has gold based on its backstory (and on the gold that we can see in the Golden Cave map at the bottom of the mine).

Golden Cave Backstory

No one knows who first found the gold.

Believing that there was wealth and riches to be found here, people rushed to this barren mountain.

After one miner after another found gold dust in the mountain stream, the owner of the mountain, Count Barriere, ordered the road to the mountain to be closed.

As soon as possible, a mining site was built in the mountain and a wooden shaft was erected.

Digging into the ground, they proceeded downward.

They were digging hundreds of meters deep until the cave-in accident

Benny had to know about the gold either from hearing the rumors or because he previously worked at Golden Cave. Due to how he says “I'm dreaming of returning to the mines day and night, looking for that sparkling gold ore”, we know he was obsessed with finding gold, backed up by how badly he wants to leave hospice, which he calls a “cesspit” and “waiting to die” in other versions. He attempted to convince Norton to help him and work with him by saying he was a friend of Norton’s father.

Norton’s 1st Birthday Letter (Pascal’s translation)

A letter that was not sent in time

To Norton:

You brat!

Why did you leave without even so much as a goodbye, and stop visiting me?

Staying in this cesspit is just like waiting to die; I can’t take it anymore.

Day and night I dream of returning to that mine and finding that glittering golden motherlode–

You wouldn’t!

You wouldn’t, right?

You wouldn’t, right?

You wouldn’t go first, alone, right?

If so, then you really are such a, such a…

Don’t abandon me, I beg of you.

Just what kind of heart lies hidden behind that face of yours; sometimes gloomy, at other times glittering with a brilliant smile?

Even an old man… You wouldn’t deceive an old miner who spent half his life toiling in the coal mines, would you?

Norton, my good boy, for your father’s sake.

Don’t abandon his old partner.

No!

No… Norton, damn it, you piece of fool’s gold.

Iron Chisel Benny

Benny also describes Norton as sometimes “gloomy” and other times smiling (which fits with how the Famitsu article describes Norton). As discussed before, Norton was gloomy over his current life and his inability to change it despite how long and hard he worked. He had to act “friendly” as part of getting on his employers’ good sides and attempting to earn more, but also from having to offer an “olive branch” to the old miners. The old miners likely were the ones “intimidated” by how hard Norton worked to change his fate and likely had other negative feelings of him or treated him badly (thus why Norton would need to throw an “olive branch” to get them to talk to him about gold mines).

Further evidence Benny likely planned to betray Norton comes from Norton’s Gold Digger and Ronald of Ness skins. I think Marshall from Season 10 Essence 1’s backstory parallels Benny, while for Ronald Benny should parallel Scrooge. With Marshall, he’s mentioned to be the reason for keeping Gold Digger from finding gold based on Gold Digger’s description in other versions.

Gold Digger

"The golden valley, the golden river, the wind blowing through my ears, the sweet smell of gold ore…this is what I dream of day after day! Seduced by Marshall, the simple gold prospector lost his chance to take advantage of the gold mines, and has been impoverished ever since."

With Scrooge, he was the reason Norton’s father got accused for Lachesis’ death after Scrooge faked Lachesis’ death to cheat her insurance policy due to his greed and desire for money.

Speaking of Benny planning to betray Norton, I think it’s possible Benny may have been involved in the death of Norton’s parents. I already discussed how Benny parallels Scrooge who contributed to the death of Ronald’s father. Besides Scrooge and Golden Rose Theater, there’s also Teahouse Tales and Norton’s Sparrow skin. During Teahouse Tales, Lady Thirteen, Sparrow’s adopted mother, is assassinated by Flying Guillotine. Both Scrooge and Flying Guillotine were the coworkers of Norton’s parental figures and essentially betray this parental figure, causing Norton to be all alone afterwards.

Besides Scrooge and Flying Guillotine, there’s Marshall from Season 10 Essence 1. I already said Marshall kept Norton as Gold Digger from looking for gold, but Marshall in that essence also killed anyone that actually attempted to find the gold. The reason for this was because there was no real gold. It was just fool’s gold, but they wanted people to think there was gold around, as they had built a town and casino which is how they earned most of their money. If people discovered the gold was fake, they’d lose all the money they were earning from the miners that came to the town, attending the casino, or buying the dynamite from Western Baron.

Norton takes the list without bringing Benny with him. As I said before, I believe Benny wanted all the gold for himself and planned to betray Norton in the end (this could be backed up by Benny’s obviously not great personality based on the letter, which depicts Benny as foul-mouthed, emotional, obsessed, petulant, selfish, etc…). It’s possible Norton suspected Benny might betray him and thus why he didn’t bring Benny along. There’s also what I said earlier about the olive branch and how Norton didn’t like all of these people because of how they potentially treated him and their negative feelings of him (due to being “intimidated” by how hard he worked).

Finally, the last reason Norton couldn’t bring Benny along even if he wanted to comes from Benny’s age and current condition. Hospice is care that focuses on comfort and quality of life for people who are terminally ill or dying. Benny was old and didn’t have the strength or health to mine anything anymore. Norton knew it was more effort than it was worth to bring Benny along, especially as once they were at the mine Norton would still have to do all the work himself. Norton likely knew Benny was close to death. It’s even implied by how Norton’s 1st letter is called an “Unsent Letter” or “a letter that was not sent in time”. The reason it never got sent is because Benny died before he could send it.

Anyways, Norton sets out to each of the 13 mines Benny gave him in the hopes of finding gold.

As we know from Norton’s deduction 5, we know he had no luck at any of these 12 mines. There’s a chance Benny only gave him these 12 mines to hide which one actually might have gold in it.

Deduction 5: Patience

Next time…

Diary: Tomorrow, I will go to the last place recorded by the old man. If there’s still nothing, then I hope he...

After going to 12 different mines and finding nothing, Norton’s desperation is growing, so he directs his frustration at Benny. Norton is patient and persistent, but it’s taken him so long to go through each mine. He’s losing hope. Unfortunately, the last mine he has to check is mine number 13, and this number lives up to its unlucky reputation.

The 13th mine is Golden Cave. This mine is different, and not just because of the gold inside. It was struck by a meteorite (the “unidentified object”), resulting in the mine becoming unstable.

Deduction 6: Courage

The more dangers, the more opportunities.

A Geological Report: Part of the tunnel had been blocked by an unidentified object. One small mistake could cause the inner structure of the mine to collapse.

After an amount of time, Norton’s desperation grows. Despite the blockage and instability of the mine, Norton decides to try to use dynamite to be able to search deeper inside the mine. The dynamite was likely to remove the “blockage” preventing them from going deeper into the mine. But it’s illegal to steal dynamite, so he recruits several other miners to help him and accomplish this without being caught. Norton isn’t the only one who wants to find gold and get out of poverty, which is why he managed to get others to help him out.

Deduction 7: Alert

You need to be more cautious.

News: Due to the use of gunpowder and detonators, the era of simple rock drilling is coming to an end.

Deduction 8: Share

You need more helpers.

Mining Precautions: Theft of explosives is illegal and will be reported to the police once discovered.

Unfortunately, as is warned in deduction 6, the mine collapses as a result of the explosion from the dynamite. We know not all of the miners caught in the accident were killed, based on the miner from Hastur’s 2nd letter who states “the nightmare from the mine and the explosion which took my legs and eyes”, but it’s likely a number of the others did die.

Deduction 9: Wisdom

Smart people know when to hold on and when to let go.

An Accident Report: An explosion collapsed a mine on the outskirts of the city. It’s suspected that the miners had mishandled the explosives, and the police expressed that there’s little chance for anyone to survive.

Norton was lucky enough to survive the accident, but the explosion left him severely burned and scarred. He was also left trapped in the mine for some time before he could be rescued. It was probably only for a couple days, if anything because I don’t think the police or other officials would care to keep looking for survivors after too much time. Fortunately, there commonly is water in mines, so he wouldn’t have died of thirst, and he wouldn’t have reached the point where starvation would’ve become an issue (aka, I don’t think he needed to resort to cannibalism. Even if he were that hungry, I think he was in a different section of the mine from the other miners that were trapped after the accident, since if he were with them, there’s a good chance he would’ve died with them. It makes sense considering mines in the latter half of the 19th century were required to have 2 shafts, and were also divided into different section. So even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t have been near any of the other miners to cannibalize).

Deduction 10: Luck

That’s only because the rest are just unlucky.

1-Page Case: Moderate 1burns to the face. Suspected to have been caused by direct exposure to excessive temperatures.

Regarding more specifics about Norton’s potential injuries, let me give a real life example of someone else who was in similar circumstances to Norton (from the link I gave earlier). After one accident led to an explosion and being trapped, the person was horribly burned over their whole body, while his coworkers died. This person, besides his burns, also had several broken limbs and internal injuries. He had to lay in bed for 14 weeks and couldn’t work for 7 more weeks after he got out of bed. He earned no money when he was hurt and had to have his expenses paid by his family to manage.

Going back to the accident, Norton is quite smart and should’ve been aware of the risks. Part of it was likely due to him having gotten used to the risks, as he’s had to deal with them all his life. But I wonder if the other part is if maybe he didn’t know about this report about the mine being unstable after being hit by a meteorite. The owner of this mine is Count Barriere, the same person who owns Moonlit River Park and contributed to/helped cause the Hullabaloo tragedy.

Moonlit River Park

Moonlit River Park was once a popular local attraction. Hosted by Count Barrier, the majestic city walls and roller coaster tracks across the Moon River were built in the Moon River area. The Moon River runs from south to north, passes through the track, flows in and out from under the city walls, which also creates a unique scene of this theme park, with the Moon River as the boundary line, and an approximately symmetrical pattern. In the early days of operation, this roller coaster track brought a steady stream of tourists to the Moon River. With the increase in income, Count Barrier has successively added haunted houses and merry-go-rounds, and signed a contract with the traveling circus called "Hullaballo", introducing malformed shows and circus performances. The bustling tourists made the Moon River Park famous, and the residents of the towns in the distance also came here.

Good revenues made Count Barrier decide to hold a grand event. Moon River Park will be open all night, closing the door. The closed park will allow people to temporarily be free from the uninteresting long night of curfew. The price is too high to stop the enthusiastic guests, and the tickets are sold out quickly. Laughter, fine wine, music, and tangy food aromas come as no surprise, this event will become a topic for the residents throughout the year. But no one expected that a crazy circus employee would turn the joyous carnival night into a nightmare. People cried and screamed, trying to escape the horrible figure wielding a chainsaw, but the locked gates and high walls cut off all the ways out. The only survivor was a young lady who jumped into the Moon River at the beginning of the chaos and escaped from the park under the wall following the current. People no longer talk about Moon River Park, it has become a secret that nearby residents cannot tell. It is said that even if these words are only spoken gently, a miserable cry will sound in the ear.

We know from Golden Cave’s backstory combined with the line for the map from in game and from the Little Girl’s comment about Golden Cave during the Time of Reunion event, that he apparently was desperately looking for something.

Despite that not a single piece of gold was ever found, Count Barriere still got what he wanted with this land.

I’ve also already discussed how bad mine owners typically were back in these days, what with treating miners as slaves, willing to dismiss and replace their entire workforce if they complained or asked for a raise in wages, not caring about health and safety just so they could save money, and so on. Especially with how Barriere is connected to and willing to help cause a massacre, I don’t think he would’ve cared enough to warn his workers about the mine being unstable. Maybe some of the miners that worked there when the meteorite first struck might know, but it’s been some time since then, and Norton, who is rather new to this mine, would definitely not have been told, either by Benny or Barriere. There’s a chance the 13th mine was crossed of due to Benny being aware that mine was dangerous, but I still don’t think it was the only reason, not with how obsessed he was with finding gold.

In which case, if Norton didn’t know about the mine being unstable, that could have contributed to his willingness to risk using dynamite in the mine.

While Norton was trapped in the mine, he never did find the gold. I believe the other miners trapped in a different part of the mine separate from where Norton was were with the gold. This comes from how, when Golden Cave was released, near the gold is where the ghouls could be found. These ghouls were likely the very miners that died in the accident, and are probably the very reason no one can get close to the gold now.

To be more specific, these ghouls are most likely to be “wendigos”. These monsters from folklore are affiliated with cannibalism, as any human who cannibalized to survive were said to turn into a wendigo. These creatures have an endless craving for human flesh, and whenever they ate another person, they supposedly grew in proportion to the meals they ate so they could never be full. They were cursed to wander, eternally seeking to sate their hunger until nothing was left and they starved to death. Wendigos are also associated with murder, greed, and gluttony. Some have even said that people overpowered by their greed could turn into wendigos. Regarding descriptions of wendigos, the most common include glowing eyes, long yellow fangs, long tongues, claws, tall (10-15 feet sometimes), were thin and emaciated (as a result of constantly starving), skin stretched so tight you could see their bones, sunken eyes, and looked skeletal with ashen and decaying skin.

To back up this idea, there’s how the word “starving” actually appears on the map for Golden Cave. This relates to how I was just explaining wendigos are associated with “starvation”.

Norton on the other hand ended up where the meteorite was. While he was trapped, Norton took a chunk of the meteorite with him. This is what he used to make his magnets, which are called “meteorite magnets”, and the rod in his nose.

The Famitsu article even specifically states this is what happened. But that’s not the only thing it says. It also mentions that his magnets, the things made from the meteorite, “disturbed his brain” or that the accident “tangled him up inside”. This is important because it says right before this that “his personality became all the more extreme” after the accident, “at times gloomy and depressed, while at other times explosively hot tempered and avaricious”.

Famitsu Article (Prospector Profile)

Norton Campbell in the eyes of others was always someone hard to deal with, whose emotions were as changeable as the weather. But all knew that he worked tirelessly to break free of his impoverished fate, and this intimidated them. When he fortunately survived a terrible mining accident, nobody came to hear out his experiences during the time. All they did was give him a few token words of comfort, and then they gave him a wide, wide berth. Norton himself never once brought up the terrible experience again, only silently polishing the large chunk of magnetic ore he received in the accident into a tool for prospecting metals.

Eventually he gave up manual labor, and became a prospector. But his personality became all the more extreme, at times gloomy and depressed, while at times explosively hot tempered and avaricious. Rumor has it that the magnets disturbed his brain, or that that terrible mining incident tangled him up inside. But one thing never changed. He always sought out chances to change his fate. When the invitation to the Manor appeared before him, those incredible sums of wealth looked to him like his next stepping stone! Come on, how could a ‘game’ be any darker than that mining incident?

I think part of the reason Norton became “more extreme”, according to both the character relations page and the famitsu article, was because of the meteorite at Golden Cave.

Famitsu Article

But his personality became all the more extreme, at times gloomy and depressed, while at times explosively hot tempered and avaricious.

The meteorite seems to have an effect similar to the one described in the Season 19 Essence 1 design notes. Specifically, it says something is influencing the participants at the manor and drawing out their inner “ugliness and desires”, until it arouses the “evil” hidden in them. Similar to this, there was a fern from the 1st anniversary package that was labeled with “Know Thyself”. Ferns are all throughout the backstory trailers and skins for Season 18 Essence 3 (Source of Evil) and Season 19 Essence 1 (Hollow), which is why I’m saying this fern and its label relates to this same info from the design notes. We also know that Barriere wanted something besides the gold from Golden Cave, and he did get it. It’s possible he was after the meteorite, which might be the thing influencing the people at the manor, based on how Golden Cave is on the same mountain that Oletus Manor is, the mountain Barriere is stated to own in Golden Cave’s backstory.

We know this is the same mountain Oletus Manor is on because, in Golden Cave’s backstory it says, after gold dust was found, Barriere “ordered the road to the mountain to be closed”. This matches up with the “pallets” Bane is stated to have found in his deduction 2 that “blocked the road” (on the mountain to Oletus Manor).

Bane’s Deduction 2: Remove Obstacles

Someone has blocked the road with pallets. What are they trying to do?

This is still a peaceful forest, despite these unsightly pallets. They'll get caught in the antlers.

So, if Barriere managed to get the meteorite, which is possible considering we know after the accident Norton was trapped with it, and if Norton was rescued that means the way to the meteorite was also clear. So if Barriere owned the mountain Oletus Manor was on, and he could’ve occupied the manor after the tragedy that killed the DeRoss couple before Baron DeRoss becomes owner, maybe the meteorite was moved there. It’s also possible that the meteorite simply being in Golden Cave, which isn’t far from the manor, that was still close enough to affect everyone in the manor without being moved.

In any case, the point I’m trying to make is the meteorite may have the very effect described in the Season 19 Essence 1 design notes, which draws out a person’s “inner ugliness and desires” and arouses the “evil” hidden in them. In which case, that would affect and enhance Norton’s desperation and “desire” to change his fate and find gold. As a result, that’s why he was more willing to do something risky like use dynamite.

After he’s rescued from the mine, it takes a long time for him to recover. Based on that 1 example, Norton may have broken several bones after the collapse which, combined with being burned over most of his body, it likely took him several months to fully recover (similar to the man from the example I gave). This would have cost him greatly, probably using up a lot of what savings he had. As he’s recovering, he attempts to talk to people about “his experiences”, but everyone just kept avoiding him. From the Famitsu article, it says they “All they did was give him a few token words of comfort, and then they gave him a wide, wide berth”. As a result, Norton becomes quiet and even more unsociable than he was before, and apparently “never once brought up the terrible experience again”.

Norton was traumatized by the mine accident, and as we see from his biography on the character relations page: “he changed his profession and became a geological surveyor to make a better living and to get away from the darkness of the mines”. The Famitsu article mentions something similar, about him becoming a prospector instead after the accident.

Famitsu Article

Eventually he gave up manual labor, and became a prospector.

His dislikes also prove this, as he is listed as having a dislike of “dark and enclosed environments”.

This means Norton acquired a fear of the dark (nyctophobia) and confined spaces (claustrophobia) after his experience of the mine accident and his time being trapped until he was rescued. Obviously, he doesn’t want to go down into the mines anymore, but he especially doesn’t want to go anywhere near Golden Cave. Part of his trauma also likely comes from knowing and seeing how he hurt and killed people. Besides that, I wonder if more of his trauma comes from encountering any ghouls in Golden Cave or even something to do with either the meteorite or the large eye down in Golden Cave.

Speaking of the eye, there’s 1 theory that the eye belongs to Gla’aki.

He is a “Great Old One” that came to earth with (imprisoned in) a meteorite from space. When the meteor landed, Gla’aki was freed. The depression where the meteorite fell became a lake, and Gla’aki lived at the bottom of the lake.  He has countless metal spikes on his body (like a hedgehog) that he uses when he turns a human into one of his followers by piercing them with one of these spikes and injecting them with fluids that allow him control the person and their thoughts. Gradually, this person essentially turns into a living corpse or undead puppet (a process apparently called “The Green Decay”), and after a long enough time, if they are exposed to sunlight, they will turn to dust. Gla’aki’s followers can help this happen by holding down a person if they try to resist. New followers act almost just like a normal person (eating and drinking and working during the day with no problems), and they are independent and intelligent to some extent, but the older they get, the more zombie-like they become. Gla’aki is also apparently a telepathic creature, as he uses radio waves or a “magnetic force” generated by his brain to control a person.

Interesting coincidence, but the author of the story about Gla’aki was a man by the name of Ramsey Campbell.

The meteorite Gla’aki came from was said to have left a depression that became a lake. This can relate to Golden Cave as Golden Cave and Lakeside, which has a lake, are connected.

First, there’s the similar green lights (fireflies most likely) in both locations.

Then there’s how one of the exit gates in Lakeside leads to Golden Cave (it probably even connects with the exit gate on the bottom (3rd) level of Golden Cave).

Also, there’s all the green in Lakeside, including in the sky, connects with all the green in Golden Cave, including the eyeball in the mine and the little green fire things. (All the green makes me think of Gla’aki’s “green decay”).

The fact that there’s a mine near Lakeside Village comes from Fiona’s 1st letter (with the “mountain” it mentions relating to how the Golden Cave is located in a mountain owned by Count Barriere, based on the background for Golden Cave).

I’ve already explained that this “narrow mountain path” is the one that leads to Oletus Manor, the one referenced in Bane’s deduction 2.

This mine is also what the disciples call their “sanctuary”, the one according to Fiona’s 1st letter that the remains of their offerings are thrown into for the “last part of the ceremony”. Yidhra’s 1st letter confirms the sanctuary is the mine.

Considering what I said earlier about the ghouls and them potentially being wendigos, I wonder if all the food thrown into Golden Cave is going to them (and thus what if the remains of their sacrifices and the last part of their ceremony could be for Gla’aki?).

Going back to Norton after the accident, despite everything, Norton hasn’t given up on “changing his fate” and getting out of poverty. Maybe part of the reason is because he didn’t want the deaths of the miners at Golden Cave to go to waste. He couldn’t give up yet.

Famitsu Article

But one thing never changed. He always sought out chances to change his fate. When the invitation to the Manor appeared before him, those incredible sums of wealth looked to him like his next stepping stone!

After the accident, Norton became a geological prospector, which is how he is attempting to earn money rather than returning to being a miner and having to go back down into any mines. A prospector is someone who searches for mineral deposits, while geophysics applies physics to investigate and define objects or materials in the earth’s subsurface without direct contact.

Specifically, with his magnets, Norton is performing magnetic prospection.

The magnetic field of the Earth magnetizes rocks to a variable degree which is determined by their magnetic susceptibility, intensity, and magnetizing force.

A magnetic survey is one of the exploration tools used for measuring localized changes in the Earth’s magnetic field, caused by sedimentary rocks or mineral ore bodies. The magnetic properties of mineral ore bodies and igneous rocks allow them to be easily identified and mapped, via magnetic surveys. This survey involves mapping changes in the magnetic field to determine the shape, size, and location of such ore bodies. In other words, with this method, you examine magnetic anomalies in the field to find various minerals.

Magnetometers is a tool used when performing magnetic surveys to measure the strength and direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the instrument. This method can be used, not just to find magnetic deposits, but also to map archaeological structures or find things like iron artifacts (which explains some things like Norton’s small furnace accessory).

To go back to what magnetic susceptibility is, it is a measure of the ability of a substance to be magnetized in the presence of an external magnetic field. In principle, magnetic susceptibility measurement is based on the amount and type of magnetic minerals within the rocks. In cases of positive magnetic susceptibility, the material within the rock can be ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, or paramagnetic. The material is said to be diamagnetic if the magnetic susceptibility is negative. Depending on what the magnetic susceptibility is, you can identify what kind of mineral is nearby.

Based on the Famitsu article, Norton’s magnets apparently serve to help him perform this method. With everything involved and required for this, Norton is definitely quite smart and potentially ahead of his time. It fits considering Norton is “full of curiosity” and loves learning. He may not have been able to get or afford much of an education, but obviously he’s gotten to where he is by himself, likely by reading and studying on his own. Not to mention, I think while this is definitely an alternate way for him to earn money, I also think he’s doing it because he enjoys it more than being a miner. From his birthday info, we know he likes “ore evaluation”, “ore excavation”, and “ore collecting”, while the character relations page states he likes “precious metals” and “natural gems”.

Norton Campbell

Birthday: March 19

Occupation: Prospector

Hobbi(es): Ore Collecting

Good at: Ore Appraisal, Ore Excavation

Dislike(s): Dark & Closed Environments

Like(s): Precious Metals, Natural Gems

Moving on, the next thing that happens is Norton’s 2nd birthday letter.

According to the character relations page’s summary, someone has asked Norton to assassinate some woman at Oletus Manor, a woman Norton considers to potentially be “arrogant”. Based on the Time of Reunion event, it’s possible this woman may be Melly (who is shown with him in the animation videos and during the in-game event). This relates to how 1 of Norton’s dislikes is “arrogant rich people” according to the character relations page. Arrogant rich people like the mine owners who served as his employers. The 2nd half of the letter talks a lot about why he dislikes the rich, but especially when he says “The poor find it difficult to lead a comfortable life, while all the rich need to do is wave their banknotes around”.

It’s because of this job that Norton heads to Oletus manor.

But there’s something else about this letter that I want to discuss. In this letter, Norton is talking to himself. This letter really gets into how Norton has 2 sides. We’ve already seen this brought up by the Famtisu article and how he switches between 2 extremes: gloomy and depressed, and then hot-tempered and avaricious. This same article talked about how Norton’s brain is getting screwed up by the meteorite and how it’s influencing him, and I’ve explained earlier that the meteorite’s influence is to draw out a person’s inner “ugliness and desires”, until it arouses the “evil” hidden in them. We’ve already heard from Benny that Norton had a “polarized façade” even before the mine accident, but that was only because he had to act friendly to get the info he needed. He’s always been gloomy based on what Benny says, and the reason for that is because of his current “fate” and life (of hardship and poverty). But it’s not until after the mine accident and meteorite that I think Norton actually developed 2 sides. The “gloomy” side should be Norton’s real personality, while the greedy side is the one being influenced by the meteorite like the Famitsu article says.

The fact the character relations page describes Norton as “thrifty” rather than greedy helps prove Norton’s greedy side is not the real Norton, and is the one influenced by the meteorite.

This greedy side is the one in the letter trying to convince Norton to take the job and kill the woman so he can get all the money being offered. The fact this side of Norton is working so hard to convince Norton shows that Norton doesn’t want to kill the woman.

Norton having 2 sides also fits with how I mentioned the name Campbell means “crooked mouth”. This matches with how in official art and in-game half of Norton’s facial expression is smiling, while the other isn’t (something closer to a frown or unhappy).

From all this, especially the letter, it’s possible that Norton (at least due to the meteorite’s influence) has either dissociative identity disorder (aka split personality disorder) or bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, and a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. People with this have periods of unusually intense emotions, changes in sleep patterns, activity levels, and uncharacteristic behavior – often without recognizing their likely harmful or undesirable effects (mood episodes). Moods range from very “up”, elated, irritable, or energized behavior (known as manic episodes) to very “down”, sad, indifferent, or hopeless periods (known as depressive episodes).

Besides his personality, this letter also goes a bit into Norton’s life (at least from the perspective of the greedy side):

Over the last 20 years, I lived like a rat in the gutter. I spent days under the ground in the dark just so I could earn a minimal living. Scars from the blasts crawled all over my face like maggots. The constant scorn and ridicule... I endured it every time just so I'd get a chance to climb up the ladder.

It's ridiculous how much effort I put into this—anyway, I've finally managed to crawl out from the rat hole. I no longer have to pick and pull on the disgusting ash. Those who did nothing but laugh at me deserve to stay underground and be stepped on like maggots forever.

It confirms he earned very little and had a “minimal living”, or as the letter puts it “like a rat in the gutter”. Due to being a miner, he spent most of his days “under the ground in the dark”. He also mentions the “constant scorn and ridicule” that he had to “endure” every day just so he’d “get a chance to climb up the ladder”, which refers to Norton’s desire to change his fate and get out of poverty. This plus how he talks about “those who did nothing but laugh at me” is similar to the Famitsu article talking about people being “intimated” by how hard he worked. These things should go with the mention of having to offer an “olive branch” when he was acting friendly by caring for the old miners to get info about gold mines. This should prove that, the reason Norton had to offer an “olive branch” aka make peace or reconcile is because the very people he had to act friendly too, including these old miners, were the same ones Norton is saying gave him “constant scorn and ridicule” and “did nothing but laugh at me”. They laughed at how hard he worked because they didn’t understand why he did it. They laughed at his dream to get out of poverty, likely because they knew it would be essentially impossible for him to do. They thought he was just wasting his time and tiring himself out for nothing. This also explains why Norton didn’t think twice about leaving Benny behind. None of these people had ever treated him nicely or actually cared about him. They’d only ever treated him badly. So he decided not to care about them, to emotionally distance himself from all their insults so he wouldn’t be hurt by them.

Last thing about the letter is the very last part: “Such a simple ‘game’, such a generous employer. Clear an obstacle and you'll get a load of money. Isn't this much simpler than what you used to do?”. This parallels exactly what the Famitsu article said: “When the invitation to the Manor appeared before him, those incredible sums of wealth looked to him like his next stepping stone! Come on, how could a ‘game’ be any darker than that mining incident?”. What I find interesting is how both essentially state how they don’t think this “game” could be any harder than what he used to do or darker than the mine accident. He’s already always risking his life and has already been through a traumatizing experience. Any game, even a game that could include killing other people or potentially dying himself, doesn’t faze him at all. His life is already worse than anything this game could put him through.

I don’t think Norton at this point is even afraid of dying. This is proven by how Norton literally smiles when he gets downed in game. Part of it comes from his guilt from the mine accident. He made a huge mistake that cost some people their lives, and left him with lasting scars, both mental and physical. The other part comes from just how hard his life has been. That and the fact he’s had to face the risk of dying every day he works as a miner. This is nothing new for him.

[shion-yu]

Day 8: Hospital Bed (alt)

TW major angst warning and talk of chronic/terminal illness. We know Cliff gets his happy ending, but here’s a pre-transplant snapshot. 1,169 words, for @sicktember.

Unlike in the movies, there’s not really a sound as medication drips steadily into the half filled IV chamber. Maybe if it was totally, utterly silent, one could hear something. But in the hospital it’s never truly silent. There’s always the buzzes and beeps of machines, people’s voices near and far in the hallways and different rooms regardless of the time of day, the hiss of oxygen and SCD pumps. The staff never sleeps, and often neither can the patients. Cliff thinks he’s forgotten what real silence sounds like. 

He’s been here for two months now, give or take a few days. He’s honestly lost count. All he cares about is that the last time he saw his baby girl was on Christmas, and then it all goes dark for a few weeks. Elliot says it was sudden: he ran a fever that night at Christmas dinner and Elliot drove them home from his parents house in Long Island before desert came out. By midnight Cliff had had a seizure, and by the next morning he was so sick that Elliot thought he was going to die. Cliff nearly did die. 

Aspergillosis is the name of the fungal infection that threw their life into turmoil in the blink of an eye. It made its home in Cliff’s lungs, nestling itself in his already scarred lungs and then destroying what was left of them. They managed to get it under control - a miracle in itself, one doctor claimed - but Cliff would not be leaving the hospital without a new pair of lungs. It turns out that finding a match for a half-Japanese, half-Scottish, O-neg blood type was difficult even with a world famous doctor for a father.

Cliff FaceTimes Mia every day, but it’s not anywhere near the same as being at home with her. He knows she’s confused, she’s only just three after all and Cliff despises that he’s rocked her world more than anything else. He’s been her primary caretaker for her entire life, and now suddenly he’s not able to even give her a hug. 

Elliot tells her that daddy is sick, and she asks when will he get better? Elliot can’t bring himself to answer that. 

Lying in his hospital bed all day, staring blankly at the TV, Cliff often forgets what he’s waiting for. They might never find a donor for him, and in that case what was it all for? To be separated from his family for the last months of his life, filled with regret over time he didn’t get to spend with them? But Elliot reminds him finding a donor means it won’t be the last few months at all. Rather, it could be the beginning of a whole new chapter of their life. And sure, that’s true, Cliff thinks. He just can’t guarantee whether it will become a reality, and that’s the hard part.

He’s trying to keep his hopes up, though. He smiles for Mia and sings with her every night because she loves to sing, just like Elliot. He asks her everything she learned in preschool every day, keeps up with who her best friend is that week, and tells her she’s the most intelligent, funny, smart little girl in the world. When she asks him when he’s coming home, he always says, “Soon,” because he can’t break both of their hearts by saying ‘Someday, maybe, I don’t know.’ 

Elliot visits every other day, more or less. He’s busy  being a working single parent, unexpectedly nonetheless. He always looks exhausted, and although they don’t love each other any less Cliff knows it’s hard for Elliot to look at him sometimes. To see him wasting away, waiting; for the same reason, sometimes Elliot can’t seem to look away. No matter what he looks sad. Cliff hates himself for being the cause of that sadness. He doesn’t know what else to do though when he’s confined to this room and these halls which all look the same.

He does have one friend on the unit, Al. But Al’s not always there. Unlike Cliff, he comes in and out depending on how well he’s doing at the moment. Cliff selfishly wishes he was always there to be a familiar face, but if Al is lucky enough to be able to leave then Cliff will try to be happy for him. 

The nurses are nice, and really sharp for the most part. But it’s obviously not the same as having a life outside of this place. It’s not the same as being home with Mia and watching her grow, hugging her, feeling the spark of life emanate off her rather than the static of crappy WiFi in the hospital. He wants out. He wants out so badly.

When Elliot visits him that evening, Cliff is sullen and withdrawn. Elliot doesn’t try to cheer him up, instead simply sits on the bed and helps Cliff clean up a bit because he hasn’t been doing it himself all day. He brushes Cliff’s hair, untangling the little mats at the back that always form. He helps Cliff take a shower and brush his teeth, changes the sheets, tidies the supplies lying around, and then they settle onto the clean bed together and Elliot rests his head on Cliff’s shoulder. They don’t talk much. Cliff’s sad, Elliot’s tired. There’s no point in pretending it’s something different.

“I miss Mia,” Cliff whispers. “And Clover. I miss home.” 

“I know,” Elliot says. “I miss you being there, too.”

“I don’t know how much longer I can wait,” Cliff says. “I’m sorry.”

Elliot takes his hand and squeezes it. “You just have to,” he says simply. “For us.”

“This summer,” Cliff says. “I’m coming home this summer.”

It’s only February now. Summer seems like a long way away. Cliff doesn’t think it’s unreasonable. Six months of waiting, if he can last that long at all. If it doesn’t happen by then, he wants to spend the rest of the time at home with his family.

To Cliff’s surprise, Elliot says, “Okay. We’ll talk about it.”

He doesn’t cry, even though Elliot usually would. Maybe he’s too tired to cry, Cliff thinks. Maybe he’s thinking the same thing. They give it more than a good shot, but if it’s not going to happen, why stay here in isolation? It’d be like spending the last months of your life in jail.

Cliff feels guilty for bringing it up, but it’s been something he’s wanted to say for many days now. To make it feel just a bit more hopeful, he squeezes Elliot’s hand back and says, “Hopefully we won’t have to talk about it.” Elliot nods. Cliff kisses the top of his head. Elliot’s hair smells like Mia’s strawberry scented baby shampoo. He closes his eyes and imagines he was in his favorite place - in their bed, cuddling with both of them. One way or another, he tells himself, he’ll get that again. He has to.

Summer seems a long way away.

[thatndginger]

Actually @writeintrees I am not quite done with talking about the Shapeshifter Coffeeshop AU, because I can't just leave anything alone lol

Side note: the coffeeshop au world is just our world. No magic or shapeshifters or anything, just cute vibes

The shop is called Salty Dog Cafe. It started out as a joke because Carlisle was a sailor on cargo ships in his twenties, but everyone loves the name. It's near one of the city's piers, yet another reason to embrace the name. The staff refer to themselves collectively as the 'dog pack', and it's a tradition to write what kind of dog you think you'd be on your nametag - or other animal, if a dog doesn't quite fit.

The logo is a scottish deerhound wearing one of those sou'wester hats and sporting an exaggerated beard and a smoking pipe. Warrick likes to hide the logo somewhere in window murals. Currently, the Instagram-follower favorite is one he did of the hound - wearing the hat and a yellow rainslicker - standing in a little boat and facing down a kraken. Occasionally Warrick'll swap the deerhound for another type of dog (one that a staff member has claimed) to see who notices.

The Salty Dog opens at 6am and stays open until 10 at night, which is how they have such a diverse array of regulars and the whole morning/evening shift thing. Whoever is the designated baker for the day usually gets in at about 5am to start in on the morning's goodies. Kerr' schedule usually means he's working the morning baker shift the first half of the week, then flips to evenings for the second half. No one knows how he manages this but he actually get annoyed if you try and put him on all mornings.

When the second location opens, Reese calls it the Salty Cat Cafe, and has Warrick make a second logo that depicts a grizzled persian cat in sou'wester hat and pipe. A friendly 'rivalry' between the dogs and cats is born shortly after - no one takes it too seriously though, it's all for fun and publicity. The baked goods at the Salty Cat are a lot 'tamer' than the Dog, owing to the fact that Kerr mainly works at the Dog and his protege Aleksei isn't nearly as good at coming up with gross-sounding-but-tasty recipes. Yet.

Warrick and Kerr do manage to convince Carlisle to get a liquor license for the Salty Dog (it doesn't take much convincing, honestly) and create an entire menu for it over the course of a few very long, very tipsy weeks. The drinks aren't actually that boozy, just enough to get the flavor and kick from the alcohol. Jay and Portia refuse to sell more than two to a single customer, insisting that they're baristas not bartenders. The cafe only sell this 'hard coffee' option after 5pm, and usually only on nights when there's live music in house. It's more of a novelty thing, honestly, but it draws business all the same.

As for the regulars...

While everyone is convinced that Adrien Montrose is part of the mafia, he's not. The Montrose family are business tycoons, and they may have some cutthroat business tactics, but they're not criminals. Adrien starts coming to the Salty Dog because he's the manager of one of the family's businesses nearby, and one of his staff recommended the cafe. He keeps coming because the coffee is actually really good, and he secretly enjoys the way Kerr 'haggles' him into buying some of the baked goods in the mornings.

(They started dating when Adrien came in one evening on a live music night and Kerr used the opportunity of a full house to corner Adrien and ask him if he was actually part of the mafia or not. Adrien used that as an opportunity to take Kerr on a date disguised as a 'come to this address and find out' challenge. They just ended up hooking up in Adrien's office. The animals.)

No one is aware that Adrien is a Montrose at first, and they definitely don't know that he and Lucas are related. Lucas only appears occasionally, almost always when he's made it his goal to make Adrien's day difficult. He's set to inherit the CEO title for the Montrose Group, and likes to make sure his youngest brother knows his place as a simple manager.

Along that line, while most of the Salty Cat staff are pretty sure Luka Kovac is a mafia enforcer or something, he's actually a giant nerd working at the local planetarium. He just looks scary as hell. He likes the cafe because it's quiet and has a cozy atmosphere, and someone on the staff keeps stocking the 'take one, leave one' bookcase with vintage sci-fi. He starts leaving his own sci-fi books in exchange, and slowly everyone catches on to the fact that he's just a giant, soft dork.

Calypso de la Fuente is a nightclub owner, which is why she only ever shows up in the hour or so before the Salty Dog closes. She'll only come in when she's had to be awake during the day for something, which happens every couple of weeks. Whoever is stuck making her horrifying twelve-shot, amaretto-drizzled monstrosity usually also has to navigate her trying-to-be-nice-but-too-tired-for-niceties conversation. Then she'll down half the drink on her way out the door and head to her club until the wee hours of the morning. She and Jay have definitely flirted with each other, but Calypso already has a girlfriend and Jay just likes flirting with terrifying women.

[alighted-willow]

(I'm not fully awake right now so please correct me if I misspeak or say something wrong-headed.)

I'm from a rather mixed familial unit and, after having moved away from my family and to a place with a different flavour of diversity and overall different culture, I've learned that I have an unusual understanding of race and culture.

The township I'm from (in the U.S.,) is mostly Catholic, mostly alcoholic, and mostly third generation Irish and Mexican. My familial unit is Italian-Lebanese-Irish-Scottish-French, Italian-French-Mexican, and Black (unspecified) and White (unspecified). I have step siblings, half siblings, and fourth siblings. We're all white passing and have what a previous person called “conditional whiteness” but which I call “Bleached Culture”.

My family absolutely lost our culture before my generation and every time I try and practice my culture, this or that relative goes into a tissy. I inherited a gorgeous pentacle that had been hand carved in Bethlehem from mother of pearl from my great-grandmother and my grandma, her daughter, looked at the drawn out version of the pentacle and called it demonic.

This symbol? This one right here? It is harshed to hell and back by the media (as well as most people in general, hipsters, and hack creators who want an easy way of saying “Ooooh, it's spoookie”). It is literally a cultural symbol. Not even just from my Irish and Scottish predecessors, it's also an early Christianity symbol that got tossed to the waste-side— that's why my hyper Catholic double-grandma had it.

And to be clear, I'm the only person in my immediate family who practices (or tries to practice) non-white-standard activities. It's annoying, cause it means I don’t really have someone in the family to celebrate the solstices and equinoxes with but that's off-topic. I am also the single palest person in the entire family. I worked on a ranch for over a year and only barely gained some yellowish pigmentation. If my skin, hair, or eyes were darker, folks would probably be less amused by my exploration of cultural identity.

It makes for some awkward situations— I was at an Arabic cultural center at my university the other week and, while everyone there was lovely and being there was incredibly enriching, it was very clear that I wasn’t considered part of the group. Folks kept giving me odd glances, one person asked if I was there for a class assignment, it was- eh- it is what it is.

What was my point again? Oh, right, having pale-person-privilege is weird and creepy and creepy and weird. I was in late high school when I realized I had it. Let me rephrase, it is deeply upsetting that other people are disadvantaged. I have siblings who are white passing up until something goes wrong, at which point my sister is an angry Latino and my brother is a n-word. My little sister once joked to my step-mom that she wouldn’t go outside because the sun would “Take away [her] whiteness”. My Mom was told by my sister’s father that certain phrases she uses are slurs and she shrugged him off because “I carried a Mexican to term, how can I be racist?”

My view of whiteness vs non-whiteness falls under the “conditional whiteness” bit posited by a previous person. I agree with you. I also view that people's perceived “whiteness” is less about cultural identity and more of a privilege that can be removed whenever someone else deems it convenient.

Americans are strangely confident that their utterly bizarre ideas concerning ethnicity are universal, and then they get confused when that's not how things work.

Like apparently as far as they're concerned, the spanish are latino but italians are white, despite of ranging in the same colours and speaking languages so similar that I can vaguely make sense of italian by understanding the basics of french and spanish, and they're baffled when J.K. Rowling manages to be racist against white people.

[mermaidsirennikita]

So You Liked (Or Didn't Like) Bridgerton

So you've read the Bridgerton series and loved it--or, for whatever reason, you tried to read them, they didn't work for you, but you're interested in reading historical romcoms nonetheless.

Historical romance is a subgenre of romance, but in itself there are further subgenres. There are the gambling hell romances--think Dreaming of You, or the Rules of Scoundrels series; there are Scottish romances, along the lines of The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie; there are lighter romances, darker romances, and so on and so forth.

Bridgerton falls into the "family saga" subgenre. It's also a lot lighter than many historical series, and additionally does not dedicate much time to historical accuracy (which is fine! I personally don't care much for accuracy in my historical series). It could be categorized as a "wallpaper historical" but.... That term is understandably controversial as it can be considered a bit demeaning. A lot of what I read is wallpaper (the idea of historical accuracy being more important than the reality) and I tend to prefer more emphasis on the relationships than the accuracy.

Certainly, Bridgerton is more of a ballroom series--the characters are largely upper class, the stakes are relatively low, and we do indeed spend a fuckton of time with the ton.

If you're looking for something romcom-y, if you're looking for ballroom, it can be hard to sort through the genres. That's why I'm building a list of series to look for if you're seeking that Bridgerton vibe without it being Bridgerton.

Love by Numbers by Sarah MacLean. This trilogy does indeed focus on a family--specifically three siblings, including the Marquess of Ralston, his twin brother, and their half-sister. But where I feel this gives that Bridgerton feeling is the humor that MacLean tends to flavor her books with, as well as the frothy ballroom-y setting of the first and third book in particular. Fans of Penelope Featherington might like Callie, the heroine of the first book, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing A Rake--a plus size heroine who goes after what she wants (though in my humble opinion, her hero fuuuuuuuuuuuuucks a lot harder than Colin Bridgerton). While book two gives us something of a cozier romance, book genderflips typical class divides a bit--giving us a rakish, illegitimate heroine and the uptight duke who's obsessed with her (despite himself).

The Wallflowers by Lisa Kleypas. It doesn't get much more ballroom--or seemingly ballroom--than four wallflowers agreeing to help each other land eligible husbands. The marriage mart is on overdrive in this classic series. You get a little bit of everything here--self-made heroes, upper class peers, American heiresses seeking lords, marriages of convenience. The girls aren't family (well, two of them are related, actually) but they feel like four sisters. Keep in mind, though, as a general rule: Kleypas heroes tend to run a bit grittier and a bit more threatening than Quinn heroes. Featuring one of the most influential historical romances of the past couple of decades, Devil in Winter--but take it from me and read these in order.

Girl Meets Duke by Tessa Dare. If you love the humor in the Bridgerton books, you have to read Tessa Dare. Her books are undoubtedly the funniest historical romances I've read. This ongoing series in particular focuses on women who, yes, run into dukes. Whether it's a duke who needs an heir, or a guy named Duke--one way or the other, they are duke-adjacent. Dare's sex scenes tend to get a lot more graphic than Quinn's, but these books are nevertheless perfect for quick, light reading.

The Rogue Files by Sophie Jordan. Sophie Jordan has everything: romcom retellings (While The Duke Was Sleeping), rogues galore, SEX POTIONS??? There's a bit of wackiness to her books, and I can't help but appreciate her willingness to go for it all. Her Debutante Files duology is a good companion series, and while the books don't necessarily follow a single family to the letter, there is a stepsibling romance in that series. So.... points?

The Hathaways by Lisa Kleypas. While Kleypas does write another family series, The Ravenels, I find The Hathaways to be far superior. Following five siblings after they stumble into the upper class by means of an unexpected inheritance, this series blends humor and high drama for the sake of romance. You get a little bit of everything--rake romances, childhood friend romance, bad boy romance, epistolary romance. The sense of family is really strong in this series, and while not every hero is a conventional lord (Kleypas loves a self-made man) the sense of wish fulfillment in this one is strong.

The Bedwyn Saga by Mary Balogh. If you like your romances to focus on family while being a bit lighter on steam and a bit heavier on classic froth, the Bedwyn Saga is for you. While these books can be a bit too heavy on high society for me at times, I would call them one of the closest cousins to the Bridgerton books. I'd be a bit shocked if Balogh and Quinn didn't influence each other on some level.

Fairy Tales by Eloisa James. An Offer from a Gentleman is literally a straightforward Cinderella retelling, so why not pick one of these up? Although they aren't related to each other in plot or characters, these books are all fairy tale retellings by way of historical romance. Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling, and Rapunzel all get retold in this series. James is another one who I find really funny, while being something of a classic historical romance writer.

I plan on reading more and adding to this list as time goes on--but in general, I think these series kind of fall into some of the same general categories as Bridgerton. Happy reading!

[itsafanficthing]

My Sassenach - Said What? Seeing Who?

Obligatory - I’m not dead just bad at writing. I’m sure this is full of errors, grammar and spelling but.... hey it's an update.

A03 Link

“Geillis, you speak Gaelic right?”

Claire watched as the pen paused and hovered over the paperwork Geillis was filling out.

“Aye,” she said slowly.

“Could you… I don’t know the spelling. What does “Mo khiddle” mean?” Claire was certain she had botched the word and it sounded nothing like how Jamie said it. It was much breathier, but rougher (and about a thousand times sexier) when he said it.

“Mo khiddle?” Geillis repeated with her eyebrows scrunched over her forehead.

“It’s something like that. More... I don’t know… more air in it,” Claire answered, her inflection rising at the end as if it was a question.

“Well,” Geillis paused, “‘Mo’ means ‘My’ and ‘khiddle’ is’na a word.” Geillis looked at her paperwork again starting to fill in the details on her patients file. She bit her lip as she tried to think.

Claire rehearsed the word in her head. Jamie has said it to her several times in the night. A few of those times had been when he was deep asleep and her name was in the mix of the words she didn’t understand.

Claire clicked her pen nervously. Jamie had said that he “thought” he was “falling” in love with her. Not that he “was already in” love with her. In all honesty Claire thought that she was in love with him as well but she had repeatedly told herself that it was much too soon for that and she was probably just infatuated.

“Khreah,” Claire said under her breath. She was trying to get it to sound the same way that Jamie said it and she knew that she was falling short.

“Khreach?” Geillis repeated as the scratching of her pen stopped abruptly.

Claire looked up hopefully, maybe she hadn’t got it as wrong as she thought.

“What does that mean?”

“Absolutely nothin’, Love,” Claire looked downcast as Geillis continued, “but ‘Chridle’ does.”

“That sounds exactly the same to me,” Claire shrugged. “What does it mean?”

“Where did ye hear it?” Geillis asked cautiously.

“Is it something bad?”

“No, not at all, it’s just uhhh it’s quite erm, personal.”

“Personal?” Claire asked in confusion.  

“Aye, ye ken in French ye say ‘j’aime’ when ye like something, ‘j’adore’ when ye love something. But when ye… ye have that feeling about someone, ye truly love someone ye say somethin’ like ‘je suis amoureux’, it’s similar in Gaelic. The word ‘heart’ in a medical sense is ‘Cridhe’, but then when ye want to express to someone, erm, the proverbial heart it changes to ‘Chridle’. So, it would mean ‘My Heart’ but not in the sense of ‘I’m having a heart attack’, but more like… ‘you are my heart’. Does that make sense?”

Claire swallowed a few times before she could respond and nodded weakly.

“More to the point,” Geillis continued in a businesslike fashion, “where did ye hear it?”

“Oh, just… around. A movie, I think.” Claire lied quickly- aiming for nonchalance but missed the mark by a mile as her voice shook and her cheeks flushed red.

“A movie?” Geillis repeated, clearly unconvinced. “Someone said it to ye?” Geillis guessed as her pen slammed down on top of her paperwork. “Jamie said it to ye?” She guessed again, her voice rising an octave.

“He might have mentioned it,” Claire all but whispered, concentrating very heavily on the file in front of her, pretending to be absorbed while also trying to hide her flaming face.

“What did he say!” Geillis demanded, turning her body fully toward Claire.

“Well,” Claire paused, taking a steadying breath. “He said that, and uh… that he wanted to see me again, and uhh…”

“I mean, in what context did he say it,” Geillis interrupted.

“Oh, uh, he said it in his sleep.”

“So he slept over,” Geillis grinned.

“Well, yeah, and uh, he said it another time, when we were… you know… together.”

Geillis almost shrieked with laughter, “In the throws of passion then! What a poet!”

“Shhh!” Claire hissed as one of the Senior Nurses passed them with a disappointed glare.

“Ye have to tell me everything!”

“I just have,” Claire disagreed as she closed her completed patient file and picked up the next.

“Ye’ve barely told me anything at all.” Geillis looked back at her file and started to write hastily. “Don’t walk away from me Beauchamp! I want more details.” Claire shook her head at her friend, smiling, and made her way back to triage.

It made sense, Claire supposed, that Jamie would say something like that. Hadn’t she stayed awake with anxiety for an hour after Jamie had said that he thought he was falling in love with her as he was drifting off? They’d only slept together twice. Granted, she was Jamie’s first, so it would be a fair assumption that he would be confusing the feelings of lust and love, but that didn’t really explain how Claire was feeling. She knew that felt something for him, but to say it was love? Well, it was much, much too soon for that.

It all felt too difficult, too confusing, too much. And she was definitely over thinking things again. Classic Claire. She didn’t need to worry about these things; their relationship was still so new, and all things going well, it would continue to progress. She just needed to be sure that she didn’t screw things up before then.

—

-I’ve cooked dinner and I have to say, I’ve very much outdone myself. What time do you finish work?-

The message came from Jamie as Claire was opening her front door. Her stomach was entering the painful stage of hunger, it had moved beyond rumbling and was starting to feel like it was eating itself.

-I’ve just got home. I’ll have a shower and come by?-

Claire didn’t wait for a response before she was hurriedly trying to get out of her sweaty, dirty scrubs and into the shower.

-See you soon.-

—

They were dating now. It was official. Monogamous dating. It felt like it had been far too long since Claire had been in a proper relationship. She had been on so many single dates that entering a proper relationship felt foreign. At what point did it feel like they weren’t “dating” but they were a “couple”? Wasn’t that supposed to happen over several months? Maybe even a year? So why then, when Claire arrived at Jamie’s apartment and he kissed her quickly before ushering her inside to a steaming plate of delicious smelling food, did it feel like a practised routine she’d been doing her whole life? The only thing about it that had felt even remotely off was the time lapse between Claire leaving her apartment and arriving at Jamie’s. That felt wrong. It felt like she was just supposed to come home to him.

And that was - Fucking - insane.

She had known Jamie for all of a month. His apartment shouldn’t feel more like home to her than hers did. HE shouldn’t feel more like home to her then he did.

But it did and he did.

“Honeymoon phase,” Claire reminded herself. They were in the honeymoon phase where everything was still bright, fresh and new. There would be a turning point where the routine would become mundane, and there would be something about him that would piss her off to no end, but she would be in love with him and so it wouldn’t actually bother her. Like right now, he had a bit of sauce on the corner of his mouth, stuck in his stubble. She had tried to get him to lick, wipe, wash- anything- something to get rid of it, and for reasons unknown to anyone, he consistently missed before giving up and just leaving it there. He wouldn’t let her remove it either. When she reached out to wipe his mouth he dodged out of her way while laughing. “Saving it for later,” he said as he stopped her hands.

Jamie was stubborn. Stubborn about the smallest, stupidest things. Maybe one day Claire would be beyond annoyed by this. But today, she found it endearing. There were probably a thousand things about Jamie that she would find annoying in time, but right now she was looking through rose coloured glasses. And things looked good.

—

They were sitting on the couch together, the tv playing in front of them, though neither one was watching, when Jamie brought up the topic of family.

“I was wondering,” he said before pausing for a moment. “At what point in us being an item,” he exaggerated, “do we introduce each other to our respective families?”

“I don’t have any family,” Claire shot back automatically. It was an emotionless reply that she had given hundreds of times. She waited for the soft pitying voice that everyone gave her. “Poor orphaned Claire.”

“Ye might not, but I do, and I’d like ye to meet them,” Jamie said unperturbed by her abrupt response.

“Them?” Claire had to clear her throat before she continued. She was surprised by  how he had breezed past her rebuttal, though she shouldn’t have been. He never reacted the way she expected. “How many people are we talking about?”

“My sister to start with,” Jamie said. “Her husband and my nephew. Once ye get past that hurdle ye’ll be more than ready to face the rest of the Fraser/McKenzie clan.”

“Clan?” Claire repeated dubiously.

“I can trace back my family for generations, near on- Adam and Eve- ye ken they were Scottish?”

Claire snorted with laughter. “Sure they were.”

“I have a large family, I won’t lie to ye, but I’m really only close with my sister, Jenny and her husband- Ian. Ian was one of my best friends growing up.”

“Bit weird that he married your sister, isn’t it?” Claire asked. She didn’t have any siblings but surely that dynamic wasn’t usual.

Jamie shrugged half heartedly. “When ye see them together, they just make sense. I don’t think that they even had a chance to see it any other way.”

Claire nodded in response, not really sure what to say. Was meeting Jamie’s family really that big of a deal? The same woman that she had mistaken for a potential love interest for Jamie. Laughable now of course, but in the moment- guttering. Did she know that Claire thought that she was the “other woman”? How embarrassing if she did! How close were Jamie and his sister? Would he have told her? Maybe not. They’d only just started seeing each other. Why would they talk about Jamie’s dating life? That wasn’t a sibling conversation! Or was it? Claire had no point of reference.

“What’s wrong? Ye look like yer brain’s going about a thousand miles a second,” Jamie chuckled casually as he squeezed her shoulder in comfort.

“Oh, nothing, just… thoughts… thinking…” Claire trailed off.

“But yer ok to meet Jenny and Ian? It would mean a lot to me.”

“I-uh,” Claire hesitated before asking Jamie what she was thinking. “Are you close with your sister? I mean you said Ian was your best friend growing up. Are you still that close?”

“Aye, I think so,” Jamie said through a stretch. “They probably ken the most about me than anyone I know.”

Claire nodded in response, that’s what she was worried about.

“They, um, they know about us? Dating?”

Jamie nodded, “Aye.”

Claire tried to unsuccessfully swallow the lump that had somehow lodged itself quite firmly in her throat. She hadn’t met someone’s family since… well since Geillis she supposed. Nothing ever really lasted long enough or was serious enough to warrant meeting the family.

“I can feel ye trembling, mo nighean donn,” Jamie laughed lightly. “If ye’re no’ ready that’s ok. Just have a think about it.”

“I’m not trembling,” Claire retorted. “It’s just been a while since I’ve met someone’s family. I’m not really sure… what… what it entails.”

“Oh, the usual. I imagine some sort of arm wrestling, they’ll take yer measurements,” Jamie said as he took a generous squeeze of her arse. “Probably grill ye about yer past relationships and what yer plans are with me. Just normal things.”

Claire smacked Jamie lightly on his chest. “Very helpful. Thank you. Can't wait now.”

“I could introduce ye some of my mates first, but that would just be Ian and why no’ rip off the plaster off all at once and get Jenny over and done with at the same time?”

“Why indeed,” Claire mumbled.

“If ye really dinna want to, ye dinna have to. But it’s something that I would like to happen… at some time… in our future,” Jamie hesitated over the words, trying to gauge her reaction.

Claire worked to keep her face calm while her heart just about leapt out of her chest at the mention of “their shared future”. When did she become such a commit-a-phobe?

“Fine. Fine. Rip the bloody plaster off then. Yes, I’ll meet them.”

“Only because ye seem so thrilled about it,” Jamie laughed. “I’ll ask Jen when she’ll be in town next.”

—

Meeting Jenny Fraser- now Murray- was, to put it lightly, an experience. Claire was already nervous but watching the tiny woman who was at least a foot shorter than her, come barrelling down the street toward her and Jamie, husband in tow was positively frightening. The fact that Jenny Murray could command an entire restaurant into an almost revered silence by her very presence alone was, frankly, terrifying.

She pulled Jamie in for a hug before turning to Claire and, (Claire looked for a better word but couldn’t think of one) inspected her. Jenny’s face was polite of course, a warm smile on her mouth, but it was the dark blue cat eyes, so similar to her brothers but about four times darker, that, also like Jamie, were the true tell of what she was thinking. Initially Janet Murray was not impressed.

Ian on the other hand held a completely different impression than his other half. Still shorter than Jamie (though that wasn’t exactly hard, the man seemed like a giant sometimes) he was about Claire’s height with sandy brown hair and kind brown eyes. He greeted Jamie with a hug, much less forceful than Jenny’s, and Claire with a smile and handshake.

Once they had settled at their assigned table, with appetisers, meals and drinks ordered, that’s when the real awkwardness started for Claire.

Jenny updated Jamie on the comings and going’s of the village that they had grown up in. Mrs McKinnely had finally had that knee operation and was in a worse mood than usual. Alexander Poole had sold off the back half of his fathers property to a residential developer and the whole town was furious with him. Mrs McKimme (the name said with obvious clues to Jamie and a quick side eye to Claire) and her daughter were doing well and asking after him at every chance they could.

Ian managed to have a small side conversation with Claire to stop her from nodding along to news about people she had never met before.

Jamie took hold of Claire’s hand at some point and it took her several moments to realise that she was clinging to it for dear life when Jenny started to throw rapid fire questions at her.

“What do you do for a living?”

“A nurse? For how long?”

“Why scotland?”

“How long have you been here?”

“Where’s your family?”

“No siblings?”

“How do you enjoy your work?”

“Any plans for travel in the future?”

Claire felt like she was on a game show as the clock was counting down and one wrong answer would disqualify her from future dates with Jamie. She’d barely answered the last question before Jenny was asking the next.

Finally the entrees came out and Jenny had to take a break so that she could eat. Probably summoning the strength for the next round of the Spanish Inquisition.

“So Claire,” Ian said gently, “what got ye into nursing?”

“My uncle,” Claire answered quickly, afraid that Jenny would start up again. “We travelled a lot growing up and he always managed to injure himself in one way or another. It seemed like I was always patching him up.”

“Yer Uncle?” Jenny interrupted. “What does he do?”

“He was an Archeologist. A professor later in life. Wrote a few books here and there,” Claire answered quietly.

“Well known then, was he?” Jenny continued relentlessly.

“Not particularly. Unless you have a specific interest in Neolithic Mesopotamia,” Claire answered bluntly.

“And where we’re yer parents in all of this? Surely they didn’t relish ye travelling about the globe with yer uncle?” There truly was no stopping Jenny.

“Janet!” Jamie hissed at his sister as she shrugged back at him.

“I wouldn’t think that they care all that much being that they’re dead.” Was what Claire wanted to say. Instead she swallowed the retort and answered quietly. “They passed when I was a child. My Uncle raised me.”

“Oh,” Jenny paused, her eyes finally leaving Claire’s face, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Claire nodded mutely, wondering where the next onslaught of questions was going to come from. She was saved by Jamie taking the lead in the conversation now that it seemed like Jenny had run out of speed.

“Did ye watch the Wales game? I did’na think we were going to pull it outta the bag after that dodgy first half.”

—

It was sometime around when their main meals were almost finished that it seemed that Jenny had finally warmed to Claire. Claire didn’t know what had changed but it was a welcome relief after Jenny’s interrogation. Ian and Jamie were arguing over the merits of some Rugby Centre that Claire had never heard of before in her life when Jenny drew her attention.

“I- ah I wanted to say that I’m sorry about earlier,” she said quietly. “It’s just… my Braither has always seemed to jump in head first to everything he does. He’s no’ had a lot of relationships, and he’s only brought a few lasses around to meet the family, so I ken ye’re special to him, it’s just that,” Jenny paused as she tried to think of the right words. “Ian and I, we’re protective of him. Probably too much if ye ask him. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry if it seemed like I was puttin’ ye under the furnace.”

Claire smiled tentatively at Jenny. “I can understand that.” She desperately wanted Jenny to like her, if nothing else than for Jamie’s sake.

“Aye, ye’re gracious.” Jenny blushed slightly. “Truly though.”

“I mean I didn’t say that I’d like to experience another interrogation again anytime soon,” Claire smiled shyly.

“I suppose no’,” Jenny grinned in return. “Feel free to giv’ it back to me all ye like. I’ll happily give ye all the dirt on this wee lad, including’ the time he jumped butt naked into the Broch in the middle of winter and nearly froze his bollocks off because Lisa Annister said that she’d lay one on him if he did.”

“Oi,” Jamie grumbled, his and Ians’ conversation momentarily abandoned as Claire laughed.

It wasn’t instantaneous, and it took most of dessert and a few glasses of wine, but it was there- the beginning of a friendship. Claire didn’t have a lot of friends, she didn’t need to surround herself with people, she preferred her relative solitude, but there was something about Jenny Fraser. It sort of seemed like Claire didn’t really have a choice on whether they were going to be friends or not. Jenny had already decided and Claire found that she didn’t mind that much after all.

If it was for Jamie, she wondered what she wouldn’t do.

[writing-for-me-at-this-point]

ii. Fun Facts About The Cast | Actor Au | Obey Me

Request: Its not, I love this AU tho

Word Count: 2303 words

Page Count: 6.5 pages

A.N. Hope you guys all like this! Fun facts about the cast lmao

[ Actor AU Masterlist ]

Fun Facts

Benjamin ( Lucifer )

- Is the dad of the cast.

- In any scenes with Dmitri ( Luke ), he makes sure to know if he is alright, and often will stop scenes to ask.

- He also is an overall joker, so he has trouble filming most of his scenes, will often start laughing in the middle of filming and can break character the easiest.

- Best with kids overall, probably due to having his own, keeps their lives private tho.

- His hair was white for a past show, but the directors liked the look, so that's why he has white tips.

- One of the few male characters who cannot do those diets to accentuate his abs- so that's why his character is always covered up.

- He's in shape! But, he likes the fat that protects his muscle, he says he needs to stay soft to hug his kids.

- Known diabetic, so there's a table full of foods so his sugars are stable, the cast has glucagon shots all over the sets to be safe.

- Is in his early thirties, but people say he can pull off early twenties- he just snorts at this.

Avery ( Mammon ) 

- Takes the job seriously, and his scenes are easiest to film.

- Dark humor and often is the "Lucifer" of the cast.

- Seeing him switch from Avery to Mammon leaves the rest of the cast and crew fucking s h o o k.

- Will always be seen looking his finest.

- No, no one has seen him in public in sweatpants or anything like that. His image is very serious.

- Is a sweetheart when with the rest of the cast tho.

- His eyes are actually that blue.

- No one is sure if his hair is actually white or not, the way he speaks about it is vague, and fans are always theorizing.

- Watching over Benji ( Lucifer ), and is usually the one to tell him to check his sugars, since the other is quite forgetful.

- Is an immigrant from Turkey, so he has an accent, makes people thirst for him more.

- Helps aspiring actors and directors get into the field, and goes on hard work and talent, not who tries to pay him off.

Jackson ( Leviathan )

- Is the resident fuckboi.

- Always with males and females hanging off him, at this point the pop gave up, no- they aren't his partner.

- Flexes a shit ton.

- Wearing chains, a Rolex, and anything designer.

- Donates half of his salary to ocean reserves and protection funds, he has the money for it, and the show pays him well.

- Always at the beach, or near lake houses and shit, the one ( 1 ) thing he likes about his character.

- Hates the fringe he wears with a passion.

- His hair is actually a light shade of brown, his eyes are a darker shade, but still pretty light.

- First generation, his parents are Korean, so you can pick up hints of their accent in his speech patterns. Gets heavy when he's sleepy. 

Ross ( Satan )

- Is a stoner.

- Goes on Instagram lives with either MC and gets high, talking about the dumbest shit or he's alone in his room and his cats join in.

- "So, if you think about- oH MY GOD PRINCESS. YES, COME TO DADDY."

- Has a kitten curled up on him, purrs loud as hell because mf is so warm, and the lives turn into purring ASMR sessions.

- Into self care, has a line of vitamins, face masks, and everything you can think of.

- Calls his fans his SaStans.

- Dmitri ( Luke ) is his younger brother.

- Will never let him out of his sight, and they love to be as mean as they can to each other, they love each other but love to bully one another.

- Is from the Bronx, so his accent is what Avery ( Mammon ) mimics for his character, often just records Avery's lines and sends them to him so he can practice.

- Owns an animal shelter he funds.

- "Carol Baskin? Who's that?"

- The REAL tiger king.

- Gets all his cats dyed to look like tigers.

Micheal ( Asmodeus )

- Chill as fuck.

- Has like 5+ kids, so the role fits him perfectly, and now it's an on running joke among fans that they are all his illegitimate children.

- You know why Asmodeus on the show wears so much makeup? 

- His eldest daughter is one of the makeup artists, and she loves to try new looks on him, and the producers think it would fit the character well.

- People speculate his age, looks young but is in his late 30's.

- His first child was born when he was 16, so he likes to support safe heavens and things like that for struggling youths- from being kicked out to needing assistance with mental health.

- Tired af.

- Always in sweatpants, him and Ross ( Satan ) are the trademark bums of the cast.

- Thinks it would be hilarious that when Micheal is revealed, in the show, that he plays the character.

- Is a writer as well, TSL is a real series and he writes it, so they let him use it in the show.

- Vlogs in his car, in a Wendy's parking lot, eating a shit ton of food and talking about the most random shit.

- Half asleep in all interviews, wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, it's gotten to the point where everyone memes it too.

James ( Beelzebub )

- Himbo.

- One of the few cast members closest to their character.

- Absolute sweetheart.

- He's 20 years old.

- But how is he so fucking big???

- Comes from a big ass family, the middle child, he's baby 4 out of 9.

- All his siblings are redheads too.

- Very playful tho, with the cast always going along with his antics, making for the best bloopers.

- The contacts he wears make him blind af, which doesn't help since he's so tall, and will bump his head on the doorways and such.

- Can speak Scottish-Gaelic, and even has an accent to top it off.

- He is an absolute unit, and one of the characters who does the stupid diet to show off his form.

- Literally on the verge of passing out sometimes, so he needs to rest with Benjamin ( Lucifer ).

- All pictures, shirtless scenes, and such are filmed first so he can rest after and go back to a normal diet.

- Quiet guy, but loves talking about sports and his siblings tho.

- Is always carrying MC and Dmitri ( Luke ) around, now there are many off-guard photos posted to the casts shared twitter+instagram accounts

- Still pretty new to acting, but is amazing at emotional scenes, to the point fans actually think he's having a breakdown.

- Nah, he's just thinking about being alone, without his family- and it gets him bawling for said scenes.

Conner ( Belphegor )

- Crackhead 

- Will not stay still, either for filming or just when everyone is chilling.

- Scenes where he's asleep? He's usually turned away from the camera, cause the idiot is smiling and giggling.

- Has tripped over his tail multiple times.

- Comes from a farm-life, literal cowboy, his southern accent just hits hard.

- He hides it very well, but it comes out at times or with certain words.

- Sees Benjamin ( Lucifer ) as a mentor, he's in his early twenties and new to the scene, but they are best friends.

- Benjamin ( Lucifer ) has now acquired a new child.

- A living meme.

- You know how Tom Holland can't keep a secret?

- Yeah, he's worse.

- Rest of the cast have all had to physically stop him from talking at one point.

- The cow pillow? It's actually his, when he got the role his father has sewn it himself, so he will bring it with him.

- It's basically free promo for the show and comforts him in the city space.

- Gets overwhelmed in large crowds, so he usually makes sure to have another cast member close by, or he will literally leave to a less crowded place to take a breath.

- Apologized to MC after the scene in which he kills them.

- His mama raised him right, so he takes MC to his house for a movie, in which they cuddle and relax for the night.

- Felt really bad for like... a whole week.

- "Country boy I love you~"

Thomas ( Barbatos )

- Brat.

- This is one cocky man, he's smooth as hell, and one whisper can make you weak in the knees.

- Grew out the one side of his hair, but he slicks his hair back or will pin it back, dyes it himself when it's time to film.

- Loves to piss Alex ( Simeon ) off.

- Has a true crime podcast with Roman ( Diavolo ), Alex ( Simeon ), and Benjamin ( Lucifer ), because they're all old friends.

- Donates to the cold case foundation because he knows what it's like to lose someone and not know what happened to them.

- He has a twin who is his stunt double, they love to fuck with the rest of the cast, both of them are little shits.

- Is the motherfucker who makes a channel and reads the crackhead fanfics

- Loves every word of it tho.

- Responds to every fans dms. Every. One. As a whole account for this shit.

- Walks with a bit of a limp, so he wears a brace to help even himself, but during wide-shot scenes you can catch it sometimes.

- Took actual classes to be a butler for the role.

Roman ( Diavolo )

- Himbo 2.0

- Catch this man tweeting what he's trying to search up at 2 in the morning.

- Leaves them because it's hilarious, makes videos where he reads them out sometimes, it's all in good fun.

- He has a set of triplets at home, so that dad energy radiates into the show too.

- You know how Diavolo seems sus at points of the game? Yeah, he's still like that IRL.

- The rest of the cast was put off at first, but that's how he is, and everyone eased up pretty quickly.

- Makes jokes that he has family in the Italian mob, but needed to stop once his father called him, saying that there were too many eyes on the family now.

- Man was s h o o k.

- Has sensitive skin, so all his makeup and body paints need to be specially made, made with all natural products.

- The bags under his eyes are baby bags.

- Will bring his kids on set, to which everyone will gush over, and watch them when they aren't filming.

- Very private with his kids ( to the public ), doesn't post about them much, and only the cast really sees them.

- Wine dad.

- Catch him bringing the whole cast out for "family trips"

- People nicknamed him Caesar

- So many JoJo references now

- "SHHHHIIIIIZZZAAAAAAAA"

- "Please, no."

Dmitri ( Luke )

- Is actually 12.

- Quotes vines, tiktoks, and other memes.

- Is one of the few people that Alex ( Simeon ) is openly nice too.

- Also has an accent, but since he's young and is learning, can now mimic every other cast member's accent.

- Wear earplugs for certain scenes, because of how raunchy and dark the scenes can get, so Simeon and Barbatos are always conveniently in the way, hiding the plugs.

- Is Ross' ( Satan ) younger brother, and if he isn't hanging off of him he's with James ( Beelzebub ), Benjamin ( Lucifer ), or MC.

- They know there are some sick fucks in Hollywood so he has an adult with him at all times.

- Posts pictures of him cuddling up to his brother and the kittens, new foods he is trying, and some pictures with family.

- He often is considered the new Gordon Ramsay.

- Had a collaboration with him.

- It was amazing.

- Best boy, catch him taking a nap in his ( and Ross' ) trailer, surrounded by tiger kittens.

- The TIGER PRINCE.

Alex ( Simeon )

- Avatar of wrath who?

- The embodiment of "No talk me, I angy"

- Jkjk, though he does have a temper, he only loses it with Benjamin ( Lucifer ), Roman ( Diavolo ), and Thomas ( Barbatos ).

- A sweetheart with all children though, like you know Simeon on the show? 

- Yeah, he's only like that with kids.

- And respectable adults.

- Mama raised him well 2.0

- Grew up in NY

- Born in Gucci and Balenciaga.

- Was a child model and slowly expanded to acting.

- Dark humor galore.

- If Simeon met Alex, he'd probably have a stroke, cause THOSE WORDS are coming out of HIS mouth.

- Says the weirdest shit too.

- "Put your hand on my ass and call me a virgin."

- Bro are you okay???

- He is fluent in five languages and has a high IQ.

- Speaks: English, French, Italian, Arabic, and Mandarin

- Has a support system for children who struggle to learn conventionally, with trained tutors who are affordable, he knows what it's like to need certain needs met to learn, and he wants every kid to get that chance.

- Rough around the edges but has a heart of gold.

Derek ( Solomon )

- Loves to smoke with Ross ( Satan )

- He is more aloof than chill.

- One of the more awkward members, doesn't know how to socialize well, and is very shy.

- Watch out for Dmitri ( Luke ) on the down low.

- Didn't have the best life growing up, so he is a lot more street smart than book smart.

- Doesn't have a big social media influence.

- Very nice to fans, gives full hugs to them, and everyone feels so appreciated.

- Has a husky named Blue.

- Also has an owl, who he took in when he found it on his porch with a broken wing, and nursed it to health.

- He set it free, but she comes back often, and has a nest in the tree closest to his house.

- Named her Lovely.

- Animal person, so he helps Ross out with his animal shelters.

- Uses Blue as a living pillow, and only sleeps in his boxers when Blue is on his bed, because goddamn does that dog radiate heat.

- Him and MC live together, having grown up together, and made their livings together. 

[ka-writes]

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Notes: I had already started on the second chapter before I posted the first one, so don’t expect updates every day... I also had to do a lot of googling for this chapter.

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Chapter 1 in case you missed it:

——————

Inspired by:

Humans are Space Velociraptors

By:FreshRoses_InMyGarden_NeedTheRain

Some kids come from storks, others come from crashed spaceships

By: mmmajora

Home Again, Home Again

By: teeth_eater

All works can be found on Ao3

——————

Warnings: Cussing, needles, character conflicts, intentional poisoning, poisoning, Jaws reference

——————

“Humans are [and text here]”

Chapter 2: What is this, an interview?

Tommy was now restrained to a chair six feet away from the weird scientist alien. He had a dark brown lab coat with a fuzzy yellow sweater underneath, matched with black pants and black leather boots. His gold rimmed Harry Potter glasses slipped down his nose bridge a bit before he pushed it up and shuffled through papers. He wore a red beanie with a big whiff of his curly chocolate hair. His skin was a weird translucent grayish color with blue speckles decorating it. He had deep brown eyes with an odd electric blue circle outlining the pupil.

His tongue licked his finger as he turned the page. This was a habit that most of the weird teachers and counselors did. It always annoyed Tommy. This time fear was also mixed into that annoyance. His saliva was tinted blue and he had sharp teeth which immediately reminded him of a shark.

“You have shark teeth.” Tommy stated absentmindedly. Clearly, this caught the scientist alien off guard.

“I have what?” The alien asked, confused.

“Shark teeth.. ya know like the weird fish creatures that eat people.” Tommy started rambling causing the shark-alien to become even more confused and slightly alarmed. “I mean I think they eat people. That’s what the shark movie showed… what was its name, Jaws I think? I dunno, my foster mom freaked out in the middle of it and we went home. That lady was weird.. She made us wear itchy clothes and take weird photos before she sent me back to the group home.”

“What?..” The shark-alien asked. Tommy jumped a bit. He forgot he was rambling to a stranger. Alien stranger at that.

“Doesn’t matter.. What's the first question bitch-boy?” Tommy liked the way the alien jumped at the randomly timed insults.

“Er- right.. First off, what’s your name?” The shark-alien asked after collecting himself.

“Tommy Innit. Yours bitch-boy?” Tommy replied.

“Wilbur Soot. Stop calling me bitch-boy!” Wilbur huffed.

“Next question, bitch-boy!” Tommy emphasized the name, getting an even angrier expression in return. Wilbur’s weird blue circle flashed red for a second which caught Tommy off guard.

Wilbur took a shaky breath before asking the next question. “How old are you?”

“Old enough! I am a big man!” Tommy stated. Yet another thing that pissed him off.

“Age?” Wilbur asked, clearly irritated.

“18.” Wilbur raised a brow, “14.” Tommy huffed. His age should only be his business not some alien-bitch who didn’t even have his file.

“If you keep lying, I may have to get the truth serum from the back.” Wilbur half-heartedly threatened. Tommy, the big man that he is, did not get scared at that statement, only slightly unsettled which clearly showed on his face.

“Now, do you have a family?” Tommy tensed at the question. It was a touchy question and was not one that was asked often especially with his reputation.

“I am a big man. I don’t need a family to be great.” Tommy stated, happy with the answer. The alien-bitch shifted awkwardly.

“Right… What is your diet?”

“Umm.. I dunno, whatever I can find. I am allergic to nuts though..” Wilbur nodded in understanding and wrote things down in his notepad.

“What plants are poisonous to you?” Wilbur asked without looking up from his notes.

“Ermm, poison Ivy, poison oak… uh I think parts of rhubarb, and most wild berries. I am not sure other than that.” Wilbur nodded while adding bits to his notes.

“What was the place you lived like?” This time Wilbur glanced up to look at Tommy. This was again another touchy subject… How many times would this alien bitch get into the sad background?

“Shitty.” Tommy snapped. That was the only response the bitch was gonna get.

“Right.. Do you have music on Earth?”

Tommy scoffed, “Of course we have music, dumbass!”

“Can you tell me about the animals there?” Wilbur asked, almost hopeful.. which was weird. What was he hoping for?

“Erm I guess..” Tommy mumbled, trying to figure out where to start, “There’s a bunch of animals. Mainly on land. My favorite would be the cow.”

“What’s that?” Curiosity stained Wilbur’s face. This got Tommy excited; he was practically beaming as he started talking.

“Well they are these big ruminants that make milk and have horns. There are a bunch of types too like the highland cow, which obviously is the most poggers one. They are a Scottish breed with really long hair. I met one once, on a field trip his name was Henry.” Tommy rambled on for the next two and a half hours, jumping from topic to topic and explaining anything that wasn’t personal. He usually ended those paths with short insults.

——————

Wilbur hated to stop the kids' detailed story, but two and a half celestial hours had already passed, and Dream would be coming to check soon. Luckily, he had a couple new poisons that could pass off as a research development. He had even managed to send the distressed signal and no doubt Phil would already be there with the SBI craft ready to fly at any given moment.

“Alright Tommy.” His voice dropped to a serious tone causing the kid to stop his story of how he got poisoned by mushrooms on a camping trip. “You’re gonna have to trust me just for a bit. I am going to get you off the ship at the next stop but in the meantime I need you to tell me how allergic you’re to nuts.” The kid immediately tensed at the question.

“I am mainly allergic to tree nuts.. almonds being the worst. After a few minutes I can’t breathe properly and I usually pass out. The doctor said if I don’t get it treated within 15 minutes, death is most likely.” He took a moment to go through the information. The kid most likely has an anaphylaxis reaction to tree nuts. Meaning either he would have to know the exact time of landing and exactly where Phil was or he needed another poison that was less severe.

“Alright, here is what we’re gonna do. I have a chemical mixture that is similar to that of rattlesnake venom. I also have a chemical substance that numbs any pain you may feel. Side effects would include being very very tired and delirious over the next few days. Along with being knocked out for a good ten hours. To put it simply I am gonna fake poison you, in order to get you off the ship. It’s your choice if you’re willing to do it.” Wilbur paused to study the kid still restrained in front of him. It was odd how relaxed the kid seemed to be in a situation like this. He had no urge as far as Wilbur was aware, to fight against anything that happened. His complaints only being those that touched on personal matters. It was unsettling to say the least, and intrigued Wilbur. He really wanted to unravel the life the kid had lived before this and how he was actually dealing with the situation.

There was a long pause before the kid spoke, “I wouldn’t mind getting away from the weird smiley bitch.. plus you seem nice and to know what you’re doing so sure. Poison me bitch.” He said the last sentence with an enthusiasm Wilbur wasn’t expecting. He took a moment to rethink his plan, which was interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Dream says you better have advanced in your stupid testing. Otherwise he’s gonna kick you off the ship at the next stop.” Stated the rather rude blazeling, Sapnap. The blazeling never liked Wilbur and made a point to argue against any advancements at meals. That led to Dream installing a new system of emails and Wilbur eating meals alone.

“Yea yea, it’s going!” He yelled through the metal door.

“Better be.” The blazeling snapped before making a non quiet track back to his quarters.

“Stupid blazeling.” Wilbur grumbled as he sorted through vials and picked up new needles and measured out the substances. “We are going to start with the anesthetic then move onto the poison.” He softly addressed Tommy.

Wilbur swiftly disinfected Tommy’s shoulder and gave the needle. He then gave the second needle. Immediately Tommy slumped over. Wilbur swiftly took off Tommy’s restraints and moved him on to the patient bed in the back corner of the room. After the transfer was done he clipped the body restraints around Tommy and waited for the alert signaling landing.

After about five minutes the light next to the door turned blue. He moved over to his seat and clipped on the safety belts. The light turned green and the ship shook momentarily before a thud could be felt. Quickly as Wilbur could, he emptied the needles into the waste bin and waited for his soon-to-be-ex-boss to arrive.

Dream stepped through the door and glanced around the room before heading to Wilbur for his report.

“Report.” The dreamon commanded.

“The subject's body would have gone through a painfully slow death and have multiple organ failures if I did not intervene. The chemical mixes used created a conflict in the patient’s body which resulted in the patient falling into exhaustion as they recovered.” He responded in a monotone tone. Dream looked over Tommy. He flinched back in disgust as Tommy grunted in his sleep.

“Is that all?” The dreamon questioned.

“No.” Wilbur swallowed down his panic, “This is the last testing I will be doing with this crew.” The dreamon scoffed.

“I am assuming you’re getting off at this planet?” Dream spit. Wilbur knew he absolutely hated when people left his crew as he saw it as a direct violation of his loyalty.

“Yes.” The phantom stated, keeping his even tone apparent. With that Dream stormed out cursing in Siestian. Somewhere in the mess of words he told Wilbur to get his things.

Without hesitation he grabbed his bag from his quarters, which was held in a small room that branches off the lab. He half sprinted down the short hallway and straight to the bed Tommy was on. He swiftly unrestrained the human and sat him up. He slipped on boots and gloves then tied a cloak around the kid. He pulled the hood up and carried him off of the closest exit. There were faint yells from Dream down the hallway and reassurances from the only two beings that put up with him. And with that Wilbur was off to find the only craft he had ever called home. The SBI ship.

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Chapter 2- End

Words~ 1774

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End Notes: ‘‘twas to lazy to reread... sorry for minor mistakes. Also suggestions are always appreciated!! Please reblog...

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Chapter 3:

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Wilbur:

[allstarsstorymode867]

ALL-STARS -STORY MODE- CHAPTER 19

Heya everyone!

Sorry for the absence of chapters, there are things good and bad in my life but that is not important right now.

The OC belongs to @mortal-kombattore-115

I like to thank @this-person-is-slowly-dying and her friend, AlphaKing and @sampoststuff for providing me artwork for this so give them credit guys. ^^

That being said, enjoy reading the chapter you are waiting for while I work on the 20th chapter.

-Chapter 19-

-Back to the All-Stars Group…-

“So there will be a great conflict in the future, eh?” Bruno had asked this while he fed the fire with the wood leftover after others had barricaded the house. “To hell and back it will be to your dimension eventually.” Dempsey said as he helped a captive Helghast making a grate to hang the skinned bear over the fire.

“Still, too much hell for what the Germans had done to us.”

“Can you explain what had happened in that war?” as the large Frenchman helps out Heavy with the creature over to the fire to tie it on a grate.

“To make a long ass story short,” Dempsey apperaded, as he and the Helghast managed to get the grate made from scrapped metal and pipes from the shed with the help of Ratchet who set it in the ground with rocks. “Blame the Germans.” with Ultimis Richtofen giving him a glare from the background with Primis Jin shaking her head.

Demoman walked over with a knife from a kitchen as the smell of sizzling meat and hearing bubbles erupting from the flames crisping on the skinned bear creature. Soldier had to pull the Scottish man back and whispered “You think you can prepare dinner for us?” with a little concern for him. “I mean, Engie and Pyro can cook good meals…”

“I can cook, Jane, I have cooked a lot of food for me ma, remember?” Tavlish smiled with his one good brown eye, looked at it, and the Soldier patted his back and said “Just remember to put spice on each piece if someone wants one.” and Demo nodded.

The meat was grilled by the fire on a grate, was curved and cut onto a plate and served to the people around the bonfire. Spice and salt was provided to several others who wanted it and they ate it with ease.

Some laughed and made jokes, others were keeping watch for any familiar or the unfamiliar threats as Demoman looked a little proud of himself, an friendly atmosphere with little laughter and he thought “All of this needs to have a piano music.” rather joking in his head with a chuckle.

Door opened slightly from beyond the group and they jumped a little as Bruno looked at the door better than anyone and said “Erron is awake.”

Frisk had led the patched up Erron to the bonfire and had him rested at a spot with Mugman looking at them, “Thanks, kiddo.” Erron muttered under his breath as Cuphead looked at Erron and said “Amazing that you had survived that-”

“A Panzer Soldat,” Erron interrupted, “That’s what I learned from an ugly ass octo-” he noticed Jin finally who was looking at him with an eyebrow, “...pus, hello.” he greeted, he seemingly… looked similar to a marine in the group but Jin simply shrugged it off as she then introduced herself “My name is Jin Huang, you’re Erron, if I am correct.”

“Erron Black, Jin.” Erron confirmed, holding his newly bandaged side, “I see you’re here in a tournament too?”

This confused everyone around him as Primis Dempsey asked “What tournament? What’s it about?”

“To think you would know about it by now,” Erron begins to explain, “from where I am from, there was a battle-to-the-death tournament event known as Mortal Kombat. The winner will be the last one standing to decide the fate of the earth realm. But in order to win, is to off the other.``

Others were confused but Frisk looked fairly worried and Primis Dempsey figured it out what it meant as he said “Do we have to…” to Erron who is dead serious about this.

“Yep.” he responded, as Jin was perplexed with a thought of the tournament, “Mortal Kombat…” as Erron looked at her with little interest. “I had heard from Frisk that you are a damned good fighter, right? In the earth- In my universe, we had those there in the other realm. But they are not the only ones, there are tough-ass fighters out there as well and I won’t be surprised that we are meeting one of them from the realms I belong to.”

“I am not but I have been taught to defend myself.” Jin said as she looked at him, “Yet, I can’t die without a fight if it does happen.”

“Oi reckon that and the reason our own had been kidnapped.” Sniper added with a nod, “Yet, so far, it worked for a while so far?”

“Fighting a giant flower, then extraterrisory soldiers, our teammates taken to another world and now this.” P!Dempsey recounted the events from before, “So that could be the theory for this shitshow happening.”

“Could be…” Radec had remained silent until this point, “A strange entity had somewhat cause us to be here, our leader had sent us here to investigate the power and to harness it-”

“Before the shitshow hits the fan with war following suit!” Soldier jabbed, pointing a finger at him as if he was the only one who has authority over their captives. “You pushed first and we pushed back!”

“Stand down, son.” Dempsey said loudly as the Soldier looked at him, grumbling something under his breath as he sat down. “Yet,” Erron broke the ice as he looked at him, “You guys are going to leave me to die here once you guys leave.” in an accusatory tone. Radec nodded and said “But it all went wrong and no hope of leaving this planet as the carrier was destroyed, we are all trapped here together all thanks to you.” as Everyone looked at him until Mugman piped up.

“Not entirely.” he said, Cuphead and Frisk looked at him and said “What do you mean, Mugs?” with an eyebrow.

“Rachet, Clank.” he called to them, “You had said you two came here by a ship of your own, right?”

“Of course, we did but why did you ask?” Clank asked as Ratchet simply tilted his head to this. “You must have a radio on it, you can contact anyone far away from here, does it still work?”

“It does,” Ratchet answered as he simply shrugged but had a disappointed look on his face, “But the galaxy we are from is too far away from here, this is a Milky Way Galaxy afterall, there's a bunch of other galaxies in the universe.” as he stretched his arms.

“Or the next,” Clank added as he stood up and then chuckled when Ratchet turned to glare at him, “Mr. Masaki and Erron had said that this realm is what we are currently living in right now.” he further explained. “As for our ship, we can overlook the city, be your eyes and ears for any zombie coming your way.” Ratchet offered as Clank sat back on three bricks stacked on top of another.

“I agree with the strange talking cat lion alien,” Ultimis Nikolai interjected with a little sober voice even as it was slurred, “On the bright side, they can find Nikolai more vodka in this sh!t hole!” He raised the bottle and then drank it as the scarf Mugman was holding to patch the crack glowed cyan softly as he looked at him before looking away.

*You had no idea why this scarf was connected to Ultimis Nikolai…

A text hangs below his head as he looked at it before he looked at Frisk, who patted his shoulder in comfort. The look they had as if they knew whatever the newer text will explain, they would tell them about it.

Demoman yawned as he looked up the nighttime skies, the stars could hardly be seen because of the city’s lights but in this one, electricity that powered the city was all but gone after something had happened to it and the beauty of the stars and dust sparkled and smudged to regin the skies once more.

The moon is glowing softly with a few stars around it, a night silver ring of rainbow around it as the nearly glassy clouds covering it. “Demo?” Scout asked as he looked at him who got up and said “We should all get sleep, we can talk more in the morning, Lads.”

“I will take the first shift, then Bendy soon Richtofen.” Bruno had stated as he raised the hammer and placed onto his shoulder, resting it in place. “That’s a good idea,” Bendy walked with him to the captive Helghasts, “in case they had any funny ideas.”

“Oh ja,” Ultimis Richtofen said this with rather a sinister venom as he looked at the Helshasts with a wicked smile, “I vill gut zhem if zhey tried to escape.”

As the moon slowly sails in the clouded skies, everyone has made the parts of the backyard and the house itself as their spots for them to live temporarily. Half of them had set up tents in the backyard while U!Richtofen already had the shed to call his ‘cottage’ of his own.

Rest are resting in each rooms of the house 1145, Ratchet and Clank has the couch, Erron and Scout has the room with a bunk bed at the end of the hall in the upstairs, corporal had the master bedroom, Frisk had the side room with two bunk beds as it seemingly possible and sharing it with Cuphead and Mugman and lastly, the rest of the RED Team had the downstairs family room with one room but not the rest of them at the least, Sniper is at on the roof with a lantern on watch duty.

“Do you think that we have to fight each other?” It was Mugman who asked Jin that with a worried look on his face while Jin helped him onto the top bunk, with a blanket he had caught and wrapped himself with.

“Erron had said that as a theory, we don’t know about it yet.” Jin said as she adjusted the blanket he had and tried to be careful not to press the cracks and make them worse. “We need to know the reasons why we are here for a tournament.”

“And if it was the way to-”

“Mugman,” Jin had insisted, looking at him as she had a bit of a parental tone in her voice. “I will not let it happen if it is the only way, I promise you that I will protect you.”

“Really?”

“Do I ever lie to you? I am a fighter afterall.” she softly smiled as she lifted his chin up to face her, “Please get some sleep, Mugman, tomorrow will be better.”

Mugman slightly nodded and then laid down to get comfortable as Jin exited the room to find something to lay down to rest when she noticed something from the master bedroom that caught her eye before she could.

It was Primis Dempsey, he wasn’t wearing his coat and the boiler as they rested on a folding table close to him, sitting on a chair and holding a colt revolver in his hand as he stared at it. He looked at the window and then he rested his forehead on the cylinder and the rear sight with his eyes closed.

Something about this scene had her worried for the marine. She watched him raise his head back up to the window and he appeared to notice something on the window. Then he looked at the doorway, raised an eyebrow at the fortune sight before him.

“Jin? What are you doing over there?”

“I…” She said shyly as she walked in, “I wanted to make sure that you are alright, Dempsey.” she excused as she made her way to the dirty yet faintly clean mattress with a few blankets on it. He sighed as he walked over to the bed to sit down beside him.

“Thanks for doing that,” he said as he looked at the colt in his hand, “But ya really don’t have too, Jin, I am fine.” it was a lie and he and Jin knew that just the way he was holding the weapon. She reached out and then held the hand holding the gun, making him look at her.

“Mind if I ask why are you holding a revolver?” she asked as she and him looked at each other.

Dempsey knew that he wanted to do it with a weapon such as a colt revolver, that one thought, an idea, just swimming in the back of his mind for quite a little while but he couldn't let that side of himself show, not by a long shot and too stubborn to admit it. He simply shrugged and said “Just wanted to make sure those Lickers don't eat us in our sleep,” he excused, “You could never be safer than being ripped to shreds.”

Jin looked at him a bit more now and then she said softly, “I’ll stay.”

“Run that by me again, Jin?”

“I’ll stay with you.” in repeated herself, letting go him hand, she intended to stay with him to make sure that he doesn’t do anything too stupid, possibly to his own life, “I will let you be on watch if you want, do wake me up if you do see something.”

Tank looked down to face the revolver from Jin, looking a bit confused yet vacated from the conversion they had before he looked at her and nodded “Yeah, sure.”

Jin nodded as Dempsey got up to let Jin get into bed, she stretched her arms to prepare for the night as she pulled the sheets over her with P!Dempsey sat down on the bed again as he looked at her. She does have a nice…

“Not now, Tank.” his subconscious told him as he shook his head, “No time for feelings, lover boy.”

Jin fell asleep quickly after finding comfort in the blankets as Dempsey watched, letting out a soft sigh as he looked at the revolver again. He wasn’t the one to admit it but she had stopped him, he’ll give her that but he is a little worried about the Lickers he encountered however so it is a reason for him to keep watch.

He looked at the window again as the fire in the backyard had dimmed and smoke rising from where the bear was cooked. He has watched the window like a hawk for anything with a long tongue and teeth for an hour or two when Jin woke up with a sketch and got out of bed.

“Sleep well?” he asked as she sat down beside him, “Yes I have.” she answered as she immediately prepared to take the night watch, “It’s now your turn to get some rest and me taking watch.”

Dempsey looked at her and then looked at the revolver in his hands, he then looked at her again and said “Do you know how to use it?”

Jin simply nodded as she took it from his hand gently before he had got up to lay down the bed with the blanket over her, she looked over to the corporal and responded nicely “Sleep well, Dempsey.”

Dempsey softly smiled with tired eyes and then started to fight his way to get some sleep. A few minutes of this, his eyelids closed tightly, soon softened and he fell asleep soon...

The sound of gunfire and chains flying through the air, his boots were dusted in dirt as his two feet crashed onto the ground as he ran away from whoever it was he was running from.

“Sh!t sh!t Sh!t SH!T….!” he cursed loudly under his breath as he was losing air from his lungs, the sounds of the gun firing and chains flying in the air are consent; whenever he had to stop to catch his breath, the sounds returned and making him turn tail and running through an old western town that seemed abandoned since the 1800’s or after that century.

He skidded on the ground to turn the corner and then made it inside an nearby building that seemed like a shack. He hid inside the shack, on the wall and remained silent and watched a figure walking by: the one with a cowboy hat, a trench coat and weiding what appears to be a gun of a strange kind.

The pursuer walked by the marine without even noticing him being inside, Tank had sighed in relief softly and he got off the wall. “Thank god…”

He then walked towards the way he came in but chains suddenly appeared and stretched across the doorless frame, wrapping and blocking off his exit as he yelled out a curse word.

He feared that the man chasing had heard it happened too so he had to find another way out of the building as he turned to notice something that he didn’t see in this shack before he entered. A staircase that leads down, he softly breathed in and out before looking at the blocked off exit, then he shook his head at this.

With no other choice on the matter, he descends downstairs with slow steps on the steps as the setting sunlight creeps through the walls made from wood boards. He then turned to see what was in the basement itself of the shack. He muttered “Oh no…” as he got a look of what was in the room.

It was a stake in the center of the basement and on it were four rusted hooks, but they looked like they were sharpened to a fine point and crusted with blood, like it was used countless times with an animal of kind that had been hoisted onto it.

He had stood there to take in what he was seeing until the chains upstairs had been taken down and someone walked in. He cursed under his breath and looked for a way to hide which he eventually did through a hole wide enough for him to fit inside.

Footsteps were descending down the stairs and came upon the landing as he could see through the cracks to see who it was: The man with the gun came inside the basement and began to look around, finding someone inside.

“Where are you…?” an old voice called out from the man, banging on the creaking walls and pounding, “I know you’re in here!” He said as he used the bunt of the rifle to bash through the wall on the right of the basement, the sound had revirabated to Tank as he flinched but didn’t make noise, he was not going to give away his location.

After a long time, the man seemed to give up as he said “Well said… Have it your way then.” as Dempsey sees him going back upstairs with the shadow stretching out on the wall where the sun was shining before it had settled over the entrance.

Dempsey carefully slid out of the hole and looked around as he saw the hole the man in the trench coat had made with his coat. The chips and splinters were on the inside of the wall and some of it was hanging off the craves.

He slowly had put his hand into the hole his purser had made, feeling another wall from within, feeling cobwebs and wood from inside. The bunt of the rifle had made a bend on the wooden plank wall when he had his fingers to feel the bump the man had made out of anger and frustration.

“Jesus…” he muttered as he placed his hand through it, “at least have an therapist…” he sarcastically jabbed as he pulled his hand out of the hole but then jumped when an one claw wrenched out of the hole the man had made, it was pitch black and it had a tinge of orange on the tip as it had a bit of fur of the same color when it came out and made him yell in shock.

The claw happened to try to slash at him but he missed it just in time just narrowingly avoiding its attack, then he witnessed its shell cracked and then crumbed away, transforming it into… Chains.

It was a flash as the chains behaved like snakes controlled by their master and it shot forward towards as he turned to try to run but these metal linked strings had latched onto his right arm and coiled around it in a tight grip. “What the hell…?!” He pulled at the chains as he tried to break it but then he spotted another same claw came out of the first hole he was hiding in and it, like the claw, changed into chains and lashed out.

His left arm was grabbed and coiled by the chains behaving like a predatory snake and the next thing he knew, they pulled and his arms were stretched about as he screamed. The footsteps returned and there was the cowboy on the landing. Dempsey pulled desperately to get them to let go his arms but their grip was death-like as they were rattled and clacked.

“So that’s where you were boy,” the man then lifted his head up to reveal the rest of his face, Caleb the Deathslinger, his white and black eyes locked onto his target as he had lifted his jawbone upward, reconnected it to his skull with a crack that made Tank cringed at the sound of it. “Nowhere to run this time.” he muttered as he stood where he was as he lifted his rifle upwards him as he gotten a good look at it:

[Digitally drawn by Meaghan “Icefir” Halter]

The rifle had a reel with chains attached to it, with a lever to pull it and lastly, it had a very defining feature to it as the chains are connected to it: Some type of harpoon or a spear and it was aimed at him.

The hammer was heard smashing onto the barrel and the next thing he felt was a spear piercing through his abdomen and out his back as the pain was unbearable-

He jumped out of his sleep with a yell, eyes wide open and panting as if he was seeing hell far beyond him. He quickly checked his abdomen with his eyes locked onto it as he placed his hand on where the spear surpassingly made its mark.

No blood, no sign of t-shirt torn or penetrated the skin, flesh and bone. “Dempsey?” a soft voice had questioned worryingly, he turned to face Jin, she was looking at him with an unsettled yet concerned look in her eyes.

He looked at her for a good minute before closing his eyes and placing his hand on his forehead as sweat trailed down. “Are you okay, Dempsey?”

“I’m alright, it’s just a nightmare… that’s gotten worse.” he muttered as he looked in the other direction, Jin was a bit puzzled of what she could understand him saying under his breath. “Nightmare?” she said as she lowered her hand as he looked at something else in the room, an old pile of junk that is drawers filled with beads, strings, scissors and paint brushes with painting of any kind and other things. Like he had never said that but he did say “What time is it?”

“It was only 3 o’clock in the morning, Dempsey.” Jin responded as she looked at him a bit more, studying his movements, “Damn…” he sighed, “Just when I was getting some good night sleep too.” as he rubbed his eyes with his shaking hand with a soft groan.

Jin was worried for his mental health as she continued to look at him for a bit longer and said “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling fine, Jin.” he lied as he looked at her now with tired eyes as he let out a dry chuckle. But she refused to believe him as she saw through that sentence; a lie. A lie to keep his pride up.

“Are you sure about that?” she responded as she crawled onto Dempsey’s side, sitting next to him as he had his hands on the bed, planted onto the sheets as he was baffled by this. “I can see it in your eyes that you are… Distressed.”

Tank looked at the window to avoid but then in defeat, he let go of the breath from his mouth. “Like I had said, it’s a nightmare.” he confessed finally, Jin listened closely to what he had to say more. “It was me being chased and eventually being killed by a creepy-ass cowboy that looked like a zombie but smarter than that.” he then looked down from the window. “And he had a gun with a spear that killed me with…”

“If it’s connected to the war,” Jin rationalized as she had placed her hand on his cheek and had him turn to look at her, “If so, it could be understandable.”

His eyebrows furrowed upward and as he had his arm rested on one of his knees, “But something about it felt so real.” he mumbled softly to himself. Jin then said “There is no need to worry.” before wrapping her arms around the American. He was a little flustered when she did this but he found comfort in this and held her arm with one hand as he closed his eyes.

“Thanks.” he said, showing gratitude.

“No worries.” Jin replied with a gentle smile.

He was smiling softly himself but then they both flinched when they heard the door open, they were both ready to face whatever it was until they saw who it was: It was Erron who yawned as he rubbed his eyes.

“Hey Erron,” Dempsey sneered tiredly, “You almost scared us.”

“Evenin’, Tank,” Erron stopped to see Jin with him, he had dark circles around his eyes like he hadn't slept for a while but he had brushed it off and asked “Mind if I ask you two what you are talking about?”

“Nothing important, Erron.” Dempsey responded as he looked at him carefully, “Speaking of which, ya’ll looked like crap, Erron.”

“It was Scout’s fault for talking.” Erron complained as he had his thumb pointed at the closed door on his left as it left him and the Shaolin woman confused by what Erron meant by that. “But wasn’t Scout asleep on the top bunk above you?” Jin responded with a raised brow as Erron looked like he had run out of many cares to give anyway.

“Oh, don’t worry, he is asleep,” he answered as he grabbed the doorknob, opened it just a crack and what they were hearing was kinda humorous. “Heeeey, Pauling…. Do ya want to go on a date?” Scout murmured from the darkened bedroom with Erron holding the door open just a small wedge as he concluded “But he’s like a radio that can’t shut up.”

Jin giggled and face palmed as Dempsey smirked “Poor you” he joked as the Outworlder glared at them as he pulled the door close just as Scout mumbled out “Oh no, the dog has wings….!”

“Anyway, I was going to take a leak in the middle of the night anyway.” Erron explained as he let go of the knob and waved this off with his hand before he wrapped his arms together, trying to warm up as he walked into the darkened hallways.

“You should’ve got a blanket with you, dumba$$.” Dempsey sassily remarks as the man was fading into darkness as he replied “Yeah, whatever.” his response echoing in the halls.

The corporal smiled as he shook his head while Jin looked sighed and held her forehead, but then he looked solemn again as he looked down again as she noticed.

He looked aloof with himself, “Dempsey,” she responded as she placed her hand on her shoulder. He looked at her again then responded “It’s only a nightmare, I know-” but he was cut off.

“If you want more sleep then you would,” she offered, Dempsey’s mouth was aigbe a little bit upon hearing that, “if you had another nightmare, I’m here, understand?'' She sounded like a mother figure for someone that’s broken, broken nearly beyond repair but he had said nothing but nodded. “We have to do work at sunrise, try to get some sleep.” she said as Dempsey laid back down and fell asleep with Jin beside him, sitting upright on the bed.

Yet, Erron had lied about going to the restroom but instead had his hand over his mouth as his eyes locked onto the ground with furrowed brows. What he had overheard, he hardly ignored what Tank experienced in that nightmare.

He muttered “That can’t be Caleb…”

-In the morning light.-

Sun rose over the mountains that seemed to be close to the neighborhood in ruins and dominated by the forest trees as dawn bleeds anew with colors of purple, orange and sky blue dancing in the sky.

Primis Takeo placed the pieces of firewood into the dying campfire to warm up Heavy, and Sniper.

Bendy had to share a blanket with seemingly tired Bruno who was barely awake as they had been watching their prisoners, the Ink Demon looked concerned for the giant Frenchman as he had him wrapped in the blanket to get him warmth.

Scout was on look out of Ultimis Richtofen’s “Cottage” with Ultimis Nikolai was slubbed down, back on it and drunk as ever, vodka in hand as he hiccup. Ratchet and Clank are with Frank West, Raiden and Erron with the digitized map of Salt Lake City in ruins but it is now named Fallen City due to it’s population of the undead roaming in its streets.

“Hard to believe that they could do this much damage.” Erron muttered under his breath as he looked at the map, Raiden interjected “In most cases, an outbreak like this is common since the COVID-19 pandemic.” as he looked at him while pointing at where they were right now on the map.

“Actually, Raiden,” Clank intervened, “It’s only Utah that’s populated with the infected.” as the cyborg and kombatiant were confused by what the small robot had said. “How is that?” Raiden responds in confusion, “It should be an epidemic by now.”

“It could be but the place where I am from, something similar happened to Willamette is that the national guard had roped and blocked off every road leading into the town where the outbreak started.” Frank rationized, motioning Rachet to zoom out the city and they watched as the city was zoomed out to view the state.

It was Utah in nearly red color but it remained in its shape of that state, not once are any signs of the infection leaving it. “But this was unheard off, they said that it could stay in one city but not the whole state itself.”

“No sh!t, Frank.” Erron said as he looked closer at the map, small red dots were going close to the border of Utah but they disappeared upon reaching the line, “Whatever’s keeping the dead inside the state is not going to let them out.”

“Almost like a force field.” Raiden added. Clank nodded as Ratchet added “Still, it’s something to think about but keep in mind though…” as he pointed at a few blue dots leaving the state and a couple more dots entering it. “I am guessing those who are not infected are allowed to leave and go inside Utah as much as they want.”

“Almost like it was a strange type of spell quarantining the state.” Erron said as he watched the two different colored circles moving around in a few cities of the Beehive state. “With us survivors, it’s good that we don't have to worry about the dead coming out but if you’re a zombie, being trapped here will suck so much.”

“Frank,” Raiden said as he looked at him, “Do you remember how you got here?”

“Not too sure but I was outside the city before I met you guys, plus the way out of it was blocked off but there are other roads out of it if you’re asking.” he replied as he looked at the map once again. Having Ratchet zoom in again on the city.

[Map of Utah, from Google Search]

Raiden looked at the one lone black dot on Orem and pointed at it with a sharp metalized index finger, “That’s where we are right now but if we go along the line,” he said as he had his finger follow the line towards Cedar city. “It could have a road leading out of the state, then we could get out of this hellhole.”

Erron looked at Raiden and insisted “But to travel that far, we need supplies to last us about three days to get there. We need to find as much as we can carry on us.”

Frank West internally groans, again with the three day mark like the same scenes before. He face-plamed at this and said “Is there a train that can get us there?”

Erron looked at Frank West and said “There is one, but it’s in Provo and there’s all of them all over the place.” he then looked at Raiden, “Do you think you can clean that town up?”

Raiden remained silent for a moment but then he responded “You’ll leave them to me.” as he turned away and said “Find anyone that will scout the area, we’ll be leaving at sunset.”

“With pleasure, Raiden.” Erron nodded as he turned to walk away from the map as well with Raiden, leaving Frank West with the lombax and a small robot companion.

“Mr. West.”

“Hm?” he turned to face Clank as he was looking back at him. “You wanted to scout the area as well?” Clank offered as well, “You are a reporter-”

“As well as a freelance photojournalist and a teacher in a local college, Clank.” Frank added as he pointed at the camera, hanging around by an landrid around his neck and hasn’t been used in a while since he met the group of people from different worlds.

“Yeah, that, something like that is useful.” Ratchet said this as he crossed his arms, “Dempsey did say that there are mutations of those zombies like Lickers. If there are more, we need pictures of them.”

“Sounds like a scoop you wanted me to look into.” Frank smiled, liking this idea already but then he said “What if I accidentally ran into one of them if they heard me?”

“Hey Frank, that’s what our arteries are for.” Ratchet responded, “Most of us are armed to the teeth and neck deep in these infected people.”

“As for Lickers,” Clank added as he justered his finger upward, “Mr. Dempsey had said on the note he found that they will attack anything that makes noise so best to remain quiet when they are in an area with you.”

“Gotcha, Clank.” Frank said as he nodded, he then looked at the barbed-wire bat he had rested on an overgrown oak tree with vines draggling off the branches. He walked over to it and then picked it up and threw it over his shoulder and landed. “Right, I’m heading out first before anyone could scout out. Make sure they will bring back any stuff and food we could need.” Frank responded as he headed to the east gate that leads out of the backyard, opened it and then went out of it as it closed behind him.

Erron then turned to Ratchet and Clank then said “As for you guys, best to find the best scouts that can do this.”

They nodded as the map was turned off and then he helped Clank onto his back with a click before walking off as he placed his hands on his hips.

-Later on that morning-

There are a few willing volunteers willing to savage the area; Scout of course, Erron, Gordon Freeman, Soldier, Demoman, and Jin Huang. They are given a brief rundown on how they will be leaving soon but warn them about the mutations.

“So, we will have to find other resources for the journey ahead,” Erron explained to the group, Scout had swung his bat onto his shoulder and asked “And where are we going?”

“Cedar City is far from this city,” Erron answered, “Hopefully less zombies, the better.”

“Aren’t we going to wait for the others?” Soldier asked as he adjusted his helmet a little as Demoman looked at the Outworlder. “The Knight said that they are in another world,” as he places his hat back on and it is shadowed over his eyes, “Besides, he has an artifact that allows him to go from one realm to the next so they will be able to catch up to us.”

“Seems possible?” Jin commented as she raised a brow, “And I had to ask, what artifact is it?”

“I don’t know to be truthful,” Erron responded, “Most of us don't tell me about it but best have good faith that he still has it.”

“Plus, we are armed to the teeth,” Scout strugged, “we can take on those lickers.”

“I didn’t say there will just be Lickers, they could have other mutations.” Erron interjected that poke a hole in the young man’s bubble. “The science experts had said that zombies with parasites or viruses can mutate overtime, judging on how long this city had gone through over the years or so.”

Scout gulped with the thought, Erron then shook his hand to dismiss the conversion as he said “Very well, then, we haven’t got time to waste away. We gotta find something to survive on for the next few days or die stravin’.”

“Understood, Erron.” Jin nodded as Demoman looked at her but then nodded. Soldier then salutes this, “Remember before you're a$$es left; be careful out there.”

They nod to acknowledge before heading toward two different gates and going out back into the woodland neighbor and into the infested busy streets.

Jin, however, still struggled to comprehend how different characters could coexist with each other but she had to push aside her new questions and continued on forward. As they go on, she learns more about Gordon, Demoman and Soldier.

Gorden Freeman is truly a man with a few words, he had helped people in an accident as he had referred to as The Black Mesa Incident and led a rebellion against an enemy known as the Combine.

Demoman and Soldier are quite good friends and teammates actually, despite the American being obsessed with wars and bloodshed while the latter is working two jobs, one being a house cleaner and a flipping demolitions expert as a mercenary for hire.

They are quite smart to stay in groups as new breeds of infection are now more presentable, not just 115 zombies.

One infection had visible black veins, rarely ones without injuries but others are most bitemarks and scratches where the virus had spread. Another was riddled with worms, strange worms of alien origin and mutated into special types as their green vomiting counterparts had different yet same parts when it came to mutating.

The zombies, the non-eyes-glowing ones had eyes almost white yet they stumbled slowly, they will be resistant towards being shot in the head surprisingly but it will take 4 or more bullets or even stabs to bring it down.

They had gotten into stores and located non perishable items that strangely haven’t yet been perished yet despite how much time had passed by since what happened to this state in the U.S.

To cover more ground and to get more, they split up and told to keep an eye out for threats around the corners. Jin entered a community hospital and she had found modern medical equipment with an umbrella logo on each of them. The scene seemed to have a group of people researching brain samples before they were interrupted by something that she already knew what it was.

“We better need medicine for our journey ahead of us.” she whispered as she had a sack to stuff them in but when she’s all done doing so, Jin had found notes on a pharmacy desk, curious on what they would say, she picked them up and read them.

Umbrella Corps. Research Notes

The T-Virus had appeared when we had gotten here, it was thought to be destroyed yet we are trying to come up with the theory for its continued existence.

The virus that mutated white and red blood cells causing them to go black colored, the origin is unknown but it is referred to as The Black Plague Virus.

The parasitic worms, a neurological alien of unknown origin, can take over the host and control it. These “Devil Worms” as we call it and it is rather shocking they can merge together as they mutate.

The victims had similar symptoms to the rabies yet it appears that it had been weaponized, the virus of this type had been nicknamed the Green Flu due to it showing signs of a flu but soon they will become rapid overtime.

The unknown element had reanimated dead cells in the human body, making them, like the four other deadly pathogens, into literal zombies, finding documents of the same thing happening in the late 40’s as this element is referred to as 115 discovered by an organization called Group 935.

They were theories on how they are contained inside the state of Utah due to them unable to go outside as something is keeping them inside. It is unknown what is happening could be good or bad yet we could not know for now.

Further research is needed.

Jin was confused by the notes provided such similar information yet it is useful that it showed strange yet same symptoms of the zombification process. Violet behavior, headaches, sensitive to light and such more.

“This is strange…” she muttered as she folds the notes and placed them in her pocket for later, to show the others of her discovery. She was about to leave when she noticed something that caught her eye.

A mysterious hooded figure walked away from the mirror hanging above and walked out of the door calmly like it was a normal day. She turned to see the backdoor closing in time. “Wait…!” she said as she walked fastly towards it and then pushed it open and she found herself in an alley away that’s rotten away and nature crawling upward on the walls.

She looked on the left side, the end of the alley way leading towards the more heavily woods and on the right she saw the Ridden and Black Plague zombies, they were not looking in her direction but hissing and screeched at one another over a kill the other claimed. Similar to a pack of wolves when the alpha is defending its meal.

Jin covered her mouth to prevent the sound from coming out, deciding that she needs to leave and leave now. Moving slowly, she walked back to the door and tried pulling it open but it wouldn't bulge. She tried again but harder yet it still couldn't open from the second attempt. She was locked outside.

She turned to pay attention in the right direction, one of the Plagues seemed to sniff the air and then turned to the alley, its face was half-way ripped off, flesh and teeth showing as black veins sprawled across its features. It snurled upon seeing her as her thoughts were racing but she remained calm, not showing fear from what her masters taught her. “Looks like I am taking an alternate route…” she thought as she turned on her heels and then ran as she heard the screeches from the damned reined in the air. She ran into the forested area to lose them as both Ridden and Black Plague are flooding in the alley and making their way to the heavily wooded area but not without killing each other to get to it first.

They bite and scratch each other as some of them are overwhelming them and then devouring their flesh and organs that have been tainted with the virus or a parasite as the rest had managed to make it through the alley way and proceeded to chase her.

She was like a monkey on the loose upon release, she ran and avoided logs and used branches to swing over the terrain to outrun the dead. The sound of something else is hopping with her at the same pace as her but she was confused when she heard at least six pairs of feet on the ground or the branches.

Before she could turn her head to face whatever it was, that couplet had hopped into her vision, right in front of her. It was human but it lacked of hair on it’s head, it had four arms, two small as the other limbs are longer and it had a red pulsating organ on the bottom of its throat and collarbone as it has been missing a jaw to begin with and replaced with a lower part of the mouth with small sharp teeth.

Red eyes glowed as it snarled and crawled like an animal one side to the left then to the right a little. A worm with mandible spurts out of it’s one eye socket and into another as they bleed crimson tears down from its eyes as Jin cringed at that sight when she looked at the creature in the eye.

“Did the worms do that?” she thought as she pulled her hair ornament out, prepared to fight what this monstrosity is but it seems to know what it is doing. Getting on two feet and then doing something peculiar with it’s four hands as if it was a normal day of folding clothes but something was slimy and drooling in them then suddenly, it tossed the “ball” at her and it exploded.

She exclaimed as she tried to get away but her legs were caught in the mucky projectile and it climbed up to her stomach, pinning her in place while she stood. “What the hell…?!” she tried to pull at the clammy slime but it was like rubber and it stood on her while the screeching had reached her ears.

She looked up just in time to find the worm-ridden creature leaping at her, the two hands wrapped around her throat and neck as the other two are holding on her shoulders as she is doing the same with her own arms to push or try to push it away from her as she was choking, fighting for air.

It roared at her as worms fell out of it’s eye sockets and onto the ground, missing her face as she was losing consciousness but then, its side of its head had exploded with blood and brain matter spewed out. It stopped then fell with Jin in its arms as by now the slime had expired.

She gasped in for air as she heard a familiar voice calling out to her, “Jin!” and feet running over to her and then her arm was grabbed and being pulled up onto her feet. It was P!Dempsey.

“Are ya alright!?”

“Yeah, I am fine…” she rubbed her bruised neck as she looked at the creature, “It’s true what Erron has said about the mutations.”

The marine was looking at the corpse then shrugged a little, “A stinger like this one must be Licker’s second cousin, an ugly b@#$ too.” he sass-talked before the ‘Stinger” was slowly getting back up but was quickly shot down with another bullet with a gun.

Head was clearly devastated from the second bullet discharge, several worms crawled out and went into the ground as they groaned in disgust. “F*#$ing gross…”

Jin thought back about the notes she found and then worried that the others might catch up from the alley after their fight with each other. “Corporal,” she spoke up as he was going to leave, P!Dempsey looked at Jin with a raised eyebrow as she held up the papers and landed them on him. “I had found this from the hospital before I fled, I think there are not just two viruses here in this state.” she explained.

“Could be worth the trouble you’ve gotten yourself into.” he said softly but then he heard faint growls from the tree lines. He gestures with his hand to get her moving as he muttered “We have to get the f#$% out of here…”

They turned and fled the area where the Stinger had appeared as the Ridden and the Plague were coming in.

-Suncrest-

From a frying pan and into an oven, that is what Jin could hear him mutter under his breath as he read one page after another. Apparently the deadly pathogens that can create the dead walked this earth and had each section separately after research on them.

“What is the matter, Tank?” she asked softly as the corporal placed the notes in his pouch and said “First 115 and now four more?” sounded angry, “Talk about dinner for the worms after they can…” he then shook his head. He wasn’t sure if this was even more worse than the previous universe they belonged in.

“Dempsey,”

“Yeah, Jin?” he asked, annoyed as he looked at her now.

“That Stinger, it had..” she was interrupted with the marine’s hand placed onto her shoulder and said “I know…” softly, “It’s one hell of a way to die.” and Jin looked down with her brows furrowed. She then looked at him and nodded wordlessly. He smiled softly and then looked around.

Yet, she can’t let go of the feeling peculiarly on how he was at the wrong place yet the right time, so she needs to ask while they are now continuing to walk down the street that is now halfway covered by dirt forming a path.

“Dempsey?”

“What’s up?”

“I like to know, how did you find me in trouble?”

He was usually loud enough to verbally question Richtofen or someone else loudly but he was oddly quiet but then he answered “Don’t like to copy Tak but I had a stinking feeling when you left. " as he scratched the back of his head."

Jin cocked her head to the side with little confusion yet interested, “You had sensed that I’d be in danger.” she said as she and him continued walking down the path. “You could say that.” he nodded as he looked at the tall trees, pine trees and oak trees that grew to climb the skies upon the ground and dirt.

“I like to call it a “gut feeling” in situations like that one back at the house.”

“Well, I am glad you listened to that “gut” feeling.”

Dempsey chuckled softly as he closed his eyes and turned his head away from the trees, “Yeah, this tank sure did.”

Jin softly smiled at this man as she had a tint of pink on her cheeks as birds above them chirped above them. This is a peaceful walk in the woods that is once a town before the walking dead of all five kinds showed up.

Yet, the feeling hasn’t shown up until when they are deeper into the forest and the air has gotten… colder?

Jin had felt the familiar temperature and held her arms together as Dempsey looked around as soon as he felt the wind had gotten colder than usual, “What the hell?” he muttered as they walked along but more aware of their surroundings.

Their feet crunched onto something soft, they looked down and saw they had walked into a bed of snow. “Why is there snow in the middle of summer?”

“The hell I know,” Dempsey had spoken the thought out loud, those the only thoughts he could think to say as he was caught off guard with what appears to be the change of the session. “Whatever’s happening is not a part of mother nature’s to-do list.”

He continued onward into the slowly falling snowflakes before a blizzard hit them both, “Holy sh!t!”

“Tank!”

The snowstorm had come along and the environment had transformed into a winter hell, Dempsey calls out to Jin ``Jin! Are you there?!”

He felt a hand grabbing hold of his own, he flinched and was going to get a knife out, believing it was another zombie but then heard her voice “Wait, I have you!”

He felt himself relaxed a little when he heard Jin, they sheided their eyes from the shooting snowflakes as they continued forward, “It is almost like that winter from the 1900’s!” he bellowed out as he was trying to find a sight or a road for them to go on. “It was colder than Northern France!”

“And it still is!” Jin stated as she too was trying as the corporal marine, “Do you think what might cause this, Tank?!”

“How the hell should I know-” they then bumped into something that caused them to fell backwards from, they looked up and saw a buff towering figure over them, it was frozen but it’s features are still visible; it was missing a jawbone and a tongue dangling out, its fists are too big for the normal human fingers to curl into one.

They both yelled and Dempsey got out his revolver to fire but then noticed the big hulk-like zombie was indeed turned into an icy statue as it appeared it was about to smash onto something or someone it was targeted.

“Hold on…” he got up on his feet as Jin stumbled onto hers as well, and as they looked around the area, they were barely able to see what else was around them; a horde of zombies, frozen into light blue statues as they appeared to have green vomit leaking from their lips. They way they are posed as if they were after something or someone they were chasing.

More of them are several common yet some are special, one of them had a long tongue as it looked like a frog trying to catch a fly almost similar trait to the Lickers, the other had claws and bleeding from the eyes as the hood had covered its head but its face where it was features shown and it was even being hold up by the ice sickle attached to a nearby building as if it was jumping towards something.

The other looked like it had been crying for a long time judging by the trail of tears on a creature’s features with long nails, long blooded sharp claw-like nails up into the air, ready to strike and like others around her, it was also frozen solid.

“They are…” Jin is finding the courage to speak up in silence besides the noise of the snowstorm, “They are all frozen.”

“You said it, Jin.” Dempsey nodded, zombies frozen in places that reminded him of the time that Nikolai had tried out the Staff of Ice for the first time back in France and it had frozen one of the 115 zombies. “It’s like back in Northern France, Jin.”

“Shh… Something is coming.” footsteps crunching in the snow from the south direction, they turned and ready to confront whatever’s the one responsible. The crunching snow made by two pairs of feet came closer as the figure had formed a shadow from the blizzard. It was the shape of a man and this human had glowing icy blue eyes peering from the hail of snow before stopping in front of them.

Dempsey said “Whoever you are, f*#$er, show yourself.'' With a threatening tone in his voice, the figure responded by raising his hand and then in one smooth motion, his hand traveled to the right shoulder and then washed it back down.

As if on command, the storm driddled and hastily stopped as light from the sun shined through once more, revealing the figure that dwindled in the blizzard. As the snow settles around them, the sun reveals this stranger quickly, he is wearing a blue zukin mask, a hooded cowl with a hat and blue ribbon flowing in the wind yet soon slowly handing it as it dies down. The jacket he was wearing had no sleeves and both of his arms are ice colored unnaturally but they moved just fine with no issue as blue and silver arm guards are strapped to them as well with fingerless gloves, blue wrap around his torso and black boots buried in the snow.

Jin looked at this man as he was staring at them with one scar over one of the eyes, his breath breathed through the mask as it provided four retringle holes as it was seen in the frost.

She walked beside the tensed man before her and then gently rested her hand over the barrel of the revolver then lowered it slowly down as he looked at her in confusion. Jin was certain that the situation would continue negatively.

“We mean no harm, sir, we are not one of them.” She spoke in a calm yet professional manner as she looked him in the eye as they changed colors; from icy blue to normal brown as their glow was lost.

“State your business then.” a deep male voice responded from the man as he stood down as a sign of being less of a threat. “We are only salvagers, looking for supplies to get the hell out of this sh!t.” Dempsey responded with his eyebrow raised.

The man responded “Then we are in the same scerno.” as he had his hand reached his zukin mask and then with little work, he removed it, revealing a beard that is black as a raven’s feathers. “I am Sub-Zero.”

“Sub-Zero, huh?” Dempsey is a little intrigued by the name this man had, “Mind saying why they call ya that?” Yet before anyone could say anything, a loud screech was heard and the couple spotted one of the zombies frozen running towards Sub-Zero. It was one of those hooded special zombies as its teeth are sharped and bared like a rabid dog.

“Watch out!”

Sub-Zero said nothing as the screeching zombie acting like a wild animal was running towards him and ready to strike but they seemed aware of what was happening as he turned and then grabbed this “Hunter” by the head.

It attempted to scratch his arm to break free but very quickly, the frost and ice spread all over it as it stopped moving due to cryo-hibernation the Shinobi had performed upon it as P!Dempsey and P!Jin watched on with astonishment.

And then in one go, Sub-Zero threw it onto the snow-covered road, upon impact, its body, head, arms, legs, hands, and feet had exploded into pieces all over. The head rolled over to Dempsey’s feet as he said “Holy sh!t…!”

Jin was a little shocked to see this happen but they now know why he is called “Sub-Zero.”

“Is this why, Sub-Zero?”

The man only nodded before putting his mask back on, and saying “There are much more things than this.”

“Still freezing the crap out of that freakbag!” Dempsey finally laughed a little, “How did you do that?”

Sub-Zero looked at him and answered “I and my brother were born with these,” as he shook his head at the marine, but then took a moment to examine the duo. They are from a different realm, in a past somewhere from what he could think of.

“Do you two know where you are from?”

“From ours?”

Sub-Zero nodded as he crossed his arms as he looked at them both while the two were standing there, recovering from what had transpired.

“We are from…” P!Dempsey wanted to say what dimension they are from, “1918. We’re from the first world war.”

He looked a little surprised, “We are from different realms, whoever did this must have a purpose for us being here..” he stated, Jin looked at Sub-Zero as her eyes narrowed, “Do you believe this might be a Mortal Kombat tournament?”

“Yes, I do.” Sub-Zero nodded as he turned around then walked away, Dempsey then followed behind him with Jin doing the same. “Hey, we have theories about this bullsh!t too.” he said as their feet were crunching upon the snow passing by the horde of frozen statues with the Green Flu.

“And they might be?”

“It could be the octopus-things called Apothicons that Doc called them, or that some kind of an experiment gone wrong the worst way possible.”

“Or could be Shao Khan or Shang Tsung.” Sub-Zero poked the holes, as he looked down at the ground slowly changing from snow to the dirt ground. “The latter could have done this.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Time to count the suffering.”

“I am sorry, Sub-Zero.” Jin apologized as Dempsey looked ahead as he asked “So, you stated you are born like this, is there any training for that?”

Sub-Zero slowed down a minute and turned his head facing the corporal, “If you are ever born a cryomancer, the clan, Lin Kuei, will train you yet I train you how to use winter’s power, and to control and tame it.”

Jin nodded understandingly, as a shaolin monk, she understood the warrior.

Sub-Zero then stopped himself, which made others stop in their tracks, “Stay quiet.” Sub-Zero’s instincts were quite right, Jin took note and got her hairpin out as Dempsey looked at them in confusion but soon heard voices faintly as he muttered “What the hell is that?” as he held up the revolver once more.

Sub-Zero shushed him and they slowly stepped over to the source of the voices and then kneeled down into the tall grass with P!Dempsey and Jin behind him. The tall grass are yellowish green and the height of grass itself goes up to an average human’s wrist but it was tall enough for an animal to hide, the grass was parted halfway for them to see who was talking, much to Tank’s confusion, and Sub-Zero’s surprise, there were Hyenas standing on their hind legs, holding sharpen boomerangs, bows and arrows, and other weapons that the humans would use. They are dressed in tribal african clothing that seemed to be a mix of 1920’s and medieval age.

They are speaking in an unknown language, a mix of Zulu and strange gibberish pouring from their mouths as they surround carcasses with arrows in them, bleeding from the open wounds. Upon closer look, Dempsey and Jin had realized that those were the strange bears Takeo had slain, faces that looked like tigers but had bodies of normal bears with long tails. patterns of tiger stripes placed upon their dark brown and white fur they bore. Then the other spoke in english “Do you think she will approve of the fest of living Tears?”

“The queen will,” the other Hyena responded as he gently kicked the tiger-bear’s head that had been called Tear. “She had said this once and not twice, the Untotens’ flesh is far too rotten and unsafe to eat.”

“Due to the five plagues they had within.” the other one said with a female voice as she had taken a rag that was used too many times to the point it was just a dark crimson fabric. “Humans weren’t prepared for the All-Five Outbreak 500 years ago.”

“Neither the same with Monsters.” their leader added as gotten a knife out, the one that appears to be made from bone and wood, walking over to one of the Tears’ corpses, “Yet, all five Untoten Hordes were stopped by the Tree of Life.” He spoke as he kneeled down and then stabbed the carcass.

Tree of Life?

Primis Dempsey had heard them wrong or… he had recalled a myth that his mother had recalled when he was a boy, he showed a little interest in his Irish heritage and Celtic religion his mother had tried to force upon.

Crann Bethadn is referred to as the Tree of Life by the Celtics in Ancient Times as they believed that the trees on Earth had several powers and were sources of all life we breathed into our lungs.

The symbol is preserved well for so many centuries by our people of Ireland.

We carry our deep roots of our heritage.

Primis Dempsey had averted his eyes away from the Hyenas to focus fighting that memory in his mind, bad timing to recall the past, bad timing he thought.

“Still, do you remember what our elders had told us over and over?” as several other Hyenas looked at the female hunter in their group, “About the forbidden water that was left behind after Humans and Monsters ascended.”

“Ah yes, Femina, we remembered.” the pack leader answered as he pulled out meat and muscle from a Tear and put it into a sack as blood dripped from the bottom. “Gods of the Old World had accidentally let the forbidden water fall down from the skies, our past elders drank from it and soon, knowledge had changed them the way we are now.”

The trio listened to them as the story behind the ordeal was unfolding, yet it was sickening: an zombie outbreak had happened with all five dangerous biohazards and it had been 500 years later afterwards but what caused it to happen? Then a thought came in Dempsey’s head: Broken, the one that Knight had talked about, might have something to do with it.

Something had done something unforgiving and appealing towards humanity and monsters had made his blood boil but he can’t let it burst out of him, not here, not now.

“The day that world has fallen, the Incident, Humans, Monsters, fled into the stars to flee the terrors.” the other Hyena nodded to the conversion, “Yet, from the previous animal kingdom, Gods of The Old World had given birth to us, Furthers, to watch over the world to wait for their return.”

“Yet, the queen is here so we will have no fear if they will attack or not.”

“I agree now, help me skin them.”

They watched in silence as Hyena Furthers had gotten out similar knives and started skinning the Tears, taking organs and flesh covered in blood as they were placed in sacks as blood dripped and poured from the bottom of the sacks and onto the ground.

All that is left of the Tears now were skinless, fleshly yet bones exposing carcasses. They then got up on their hind legs again like they were human beings and then walked away from the bloody scene.

They waited until the voices and footsteps had vanished in the distance, “We are safe now.” Sub-Zero was the first one to speak up as he and others got up from the grass as Dempsey looked to where the hunter Furthers had gone.

“What the f#$% is a Further?” P!Dempsey asked as he is now the one questioning this reality as Jin seems hinged by this discovery. “Do you remember that I said I had woken up in a house with talking animals, Dempsey?” she asked as he placed her hand on his shoulder, making him look at her with doubt for his sanity and Jin knew it.

“Those talking animals were Furthers as well,” she responded, “They had the bare intelligence of a regular human being yet they had developed their own language and cultures. They had worshipped the ‘’Gods of the Old World'' as their religion.” she explained as P!Dempsey stared at her.

“Holy sh!t..” he said with disdain, “Richtofen wasn’t kidding about different realities, wasn’t he?”

“Who?” Sub-Zero was confused about who Dempsey was talking about.

Jin looked at Dempsey and then rubbed his shoulder a little, he loosened up a little when he felt it with comfort. “Thanks, Jin.” he sputtered nervously aas he looked at her with comfort in his eyes.

Jin smiled softly but then heard Sub-Zero calling out softly to them, “You two, come over here.” as they turned to notice that he was kneeling on the ground, picking something from it, something glowing faintly of soft blue.

The duo walked over to the Cryomancer as he stood back on his feet while looking at the object in his hand. Without a word, he showed them both of what he had found on the ground. They looked to see that it’s a gem, an ocean blue crystal that is about the size of a quarter.

“I had found this crystal on the ground.” Sub-Zero said as he was looking at the crystal with wariness in his voice. “It was glowing faintly, I am sensing strange energy coming out of it.”

“Do you think this is nuts, Sub-Zero?” Dempsey asked out of disbelief and ignorance at first but the look in Sub-Zero’s eyes had told the different answer. “Oh, right.” he responded under his breath as he looked back down at the crystal once again.

Jin was looking at the inscallfincent crystal, resting in Sub-Zero’s palm as she felt like she needed to take a closer look, as if it was holding a secret that none of them don’t know yet. “Sub-Zero,” she spoke softly as her hand had started to lift upwards and going towards a crystal slowly, “Can I see it please?”

Sub-Zero was weary of what she was doing and was trying to get his hand from hers but she had managed to get the crystal away from the palm of his hand and it was a bit fuzzy soon afterwards.

One moment, she was with the two men in a forest with a small crystal in her hands but the other minute later, she was somewhere else entirely and laying on the ground. The day was nighttime as a hand came into her line of sight yet this hand is not her own.

This hand was wearing a violet purple glove with metallic claw armor on it as it was placed onto her forehead, it took a moment to realize that what is happening is that she is in a memory of someone and she is watching this from their point of view.

Flashback of Blood

The person she was witnessing had then got onto their feet as she had gotten a look of their attire. The ninja yoroi was pink colored with slight cleavage showing as this person is a female.

“Hmmm…” a woman’s voice groaned as it sounded like it was an echo, and looked around “The earthrealm is different now, must to find a few souls…~” she purred that made Jin feel on edge just by hearing this from her as she walked ahead from where she has woken up.

As the moon floated over the bloodbath and nearing those hours of sunlight rising, this woman had performed onto the undead yet she often let out a groan or a moan of disdain when she sniffed or looked at them as if they were not the one that she was hoping to find. What was she trying to find?

“Most of these mortals are undead… I wonder if this realm has warriors left?” she purred in strange interest as she dropped the Black Plague zombie onto the ground as a dark red pool formed from its devastated head.

She then heard twig snapped and she turned to see a Hyena Further with an arrow pointed at her, the moment she saw him and the next thing she heard was a dark giggle coming from the woman, the type was feral but with ill-intent and sounded like her prayer had been answered.

“You dare to raise your weapon to your ruler of Outworld?”

The Hyena Further looked a bit shock at first but didn’t have time to react when the woman lunged out at the helpless hunter with her claws out and Jin haven’t seen what had happened next but she did heard the hunter screaming that soon heard a gurgle as well as with crunching of teeth and flesh tearing apart that made her recoiled.

Soon afterwards, she saw two more Hyena hunters with bows and arrows on their person. One of them is a man and a woman hyenas as the female hunter looked concerned.

“Juju?” she asked, “What is wrong, we heard screaming.”

[Two comic strips are drawn by SamPostStuff on Tumblr]

A crunch only answered them, Jin turned to see what it was as they stopped and the other readied the arrow, willing to fight but they both froze in horror. Jin cringed at the sight before her.

The same hand was holding the corpse of their comrade before dropping it onto the ground with blood on its palm as Jin had gotten a good look at the woman’s face; it looked like something that any child would scream in terror in their dreams.

Her face was drizzled in blood as sharp needle teeth were on the outside of her lips and cheeks, forming a mouth, her eyes a golden yellow with short black hair flowing freely.

“She really is real…” she heard a male hyena mumble to his friend in pure shock, “Our queen.” is the only thing that he finished the sentence with.

The woman- no, this creature smiled grisly, “Ah yes, I am your ruler.” she spoke with such atrocious tempting bliss, “Your Queen Mileena.” as Hyenas are trembling in fear.

“W-We…” the lady hyena began to explain themselves with a catch of breath, “We are so sorry, we… We have no idea it’s you.”

“Or even say that it’s-” the lady hyena immediately covered her friend’s mouth before he could finish.

“It is only a shock,” She said as she understood yet the look of her eyes can seem like they would hold potential, “I will let this mistake go for now.” Mileena responded as she lifted up what looked like a windpipe and with one chomb, she ate it, blood flowed through her mouth and dropped onto the ground.

“But for now, I have something for you to do.”

That was the last thing she heard before everything around her had gone into white.

“Jin? Jin!”

A familiar voice had ringed in her eyes, Jin was on the ground and being held by a man wearing a familiar jacket, it’s Dempsey.

She was being held in his arms as she, Primis Tank and Sub-Zero as the sun was over them and in noon time. “T-Tank?” she spoke up in pure confusion as she placed a hand on her forehead, “What happened?”

“After ya took that crystal,” Dempsey started to explain the situation, “you just collapsed when it glowed for a little bit.” as Sub-Zero had removed his mask once again and held the crystal yet he’s making sure that it's as far from her as possible this time.

Jin seemed lost for a moment when she looked at them both, but then remembered back the dream she had for a short time with the woman, Mileena, and Hyena Furthers worshipped her as their ruler- a goddess even. As if she was the one they were waiting for god only knows how long.

But she has to know how long she was out like a light, how long was she dreaming exactly before that first, she turned over to Sub-Zero and questioned him, “how long was I out?”

“Only nearly an hour, Jin,” he answered.

“Yeah, while you were asleep. We had to pray it out of your hand since you were holding onto it tight.” P!Dempsey added further.

“I see…” she muttered softly as she looked at the ground again, the two men looked concerned now for Jin as the birds were chirping sweetly in the green and yellow trees around them as the wind danced smooth as butter.

“Let me guess for you,” Dempsey responded a bit more gently than usual, “You had a hell of a dream when you passed out.”

Jin looked at him with a slight jump from her stupor yet nodded, “How did you see?” Sub-Zero questioned her, “From the start of it, how much did this crystal have foretold to you?”

Jin with what little strength she had in her gut, she told them about it in little detail of the dream regarding the comprehensiveness of itself to them but she had noticed that Sub-Zero looked troubled when she had mentioned Mileena’s name, in fact, he looked like he never wanted to hear this name from someone else, ever.

Dempsey took notice of them as well as Sub-Zero had stood up and then walked from them a bit, giving them some space between himself and the two. “Hey, ya alright there?”

“I am fine, marine.” was Sub-Zero’s response.

“Ya sure, you seemed like you know this Mileena chick.”

Sub-Zero turned to look at them with his eyes glowing again but calmed down right away when he drew in a breath and exhaled it. “She was the creation of Shang Tsung, who was an ally to the former Emperor of Outworld itself.”

“Outworld? The one where Erron was from?”

“Erron Black?” Sub-Zero was surprised to hear that, “He was here as well?”

“Of course.”

Sub-Zero looks down for a moment, thinking of what is happening and how much of this revelation has unraveled itself. “There is going to be another tournament,” he thought without doubt but he is quite skeptical of what Mileena’s intentions are. He doubts she could be capable of doing this; kidnapping people from their own realms and into this one, unknown as uncharted.

“...Does anyone but us here?”

“I dunno.” Dempsey said uncertianingly, “All we know, that there most of us are from our universes alone or in a group that’s brought in this hellhole, Sub-Zero.”

Sub-Zero then turned his body to them both and responded “Mileena will be my responsibility to take care of, you two need to get back to your camp right away.” he then started to travel to the direction where he believed the Hyenas had gone too.

“Hey, where the f$%^ are you going?” he yelled after the shinobi who doesn't stopped walking, “I’m going to find their queen.’” as his arms are covered in frost.

Primis Dempsey was watching him go when he noticed that Jin was trying to stand up, “Ya think you can still walk?” he asked while he stood up, helping her onto her feet. “I think so, Tank.” she simply answered from her dizziness from the crystal's influence, legs wobbling like jelly.

She stumbled but she was grabbed by Dempsey when she nearly fell over, “Hey,” he said, “Don’t push yourself too much.”

“I wasn’t trying too.” she replied, holding on her arm while she’s trying to adjust her balance. When she got hold of her footing, she let go of the marine and then tried walking again but this time, one step at a time.

Still, Dempsey is walking beside her in case of her falling again while she was walking as they went through the way they came in, they walked past the tree line and back to the frozen graveyard of the green flu zombies.

They kept an eye out for anything that moved as they carefully walked past them as Dempsey noticed something that made him realize; the sun was hot enough to melt the ice on a hot summer day and the ones that had been turned into frozen statues were dripping water.

“They’re melting…” he muttered, catching Jin’s attention. “What?”

“These freakbags.”

Jin looked around and saw the ice that jailed them was melting into slush, even the big one, a hulking muscle with normal human legs and big arms that nearly overgrown its fingers. They noticed it was moving a bit by the minute soon afterwards a second.

They walked fastly past the major zombie as the ice was cracking as its arms were vibrating, it was going to break away from the ice in a moment and they both knew it just by looking at it. The popping and snapping of the cryogenic ice getting louder, before they knew it, Tank had said “MOVE!”

He pushed Jin forward as the ice finally gave way, soon afterwards a roar from the creature as its hands, now freed, smashes onto the ground, making the ground rumble under them and they stumble from the impact.

P!Dempsey got out his assault rifle and then immediately opened fire on the giant thing but as blood sprayed off of it’s pale too-much built body, it had no effect and that seemed to enraged the creature.

[Drawn by This-Person-is-slowly-dying and AlphaKing]

“Dempsey, get away from that thing!” Jin yelled as the big fella began to charge at the two on it’s knuckles and feet, similar to an angry gorilla ready to destroy whatever had tried to kill its mate and his kid.

He let out a curse and then turned to run from the beast, while they heard it growling. Soon, they heard the ground rumble behind them, Tank turned to see what was going on but soon regretted doing so because this thing had pulled a rock from the ground, hanging it over its head.

“Jin, incoming!” He ran faster and tackled Jin to the ground just as the big boulder was thrown and went over them, smashing onto a nearby car, even though it had aged over 500 years but it is shocking part of this is that its siren had sounded as they looked up. As if it does it despite the age of time.

Soon afterwards, the screeching of the damned was heard from a distance faintly but grew louder as they got back up and soon after he aimed at the incoming horde infected by the Green Flu Virus as he asked Jin “Run or fight?”

She looked at him confused but soon she was brought back by the big creature’s roaring as it was powering through the horde to get to them first before they did.

Dempsey repeated himself loudly.

“Run or fight?”

Jin has already decided on the answer already; she responded “Both.”

He had no time to argue with her so he and she turned to run towards a road, heading towards a hospital while an army of Green Flu zombies closed in the gap as they ran while Tank turned to open fire on them, splitting their heads open, painting the ground in red before turning to keep running.

“F#%^ off, you maggot-asses! Along with that Tank too!” He taunted them, but he is mostly taunting towards the now nicknamed big beast that’s catching up to them more than the horde.

Jin shook her head with raised brow as they reached the hospital, the glass of the doors was long since broken down long ago so they are able to get through them with no trouble but with each answers, it has pros and cons to solve any problems; the con was that there is no barricade to keep the riff-raff out.

Jin had got out her hair ornament from her hair but then she felt a nudge on her arm, she turned to see Dempsey holding a revolver, “Take this!” he ordered her as Jin used her other hand to take it.

“Ever use that gun?”

“I had never used it on a person!”

He fired on a couple of zombies coming closer, he turned his head to her and responded “Well, the best thing to do is to aim for the head.” he then looked at them, he had often felt safe with barricades but he knew that this time it's the opposite, the doors without wood boards and he does not like it.

“Sh!t… What should we do now?”

“I am working on it…”

Just when the horde and the Tank are coming closer, the intercom had rung to life and a new voice came through, it was a different male Australian accent like Sniper’s.

“Oi!” the voice called out, making them look at the intercom with shock and confusion, “Ya two are not one of the Green Flu bastards, are ya?” Then they heard a ding, they turned to look at an elevator opening up with the dimmed light glowing from its ceiling. “Come in the elevator if ya want to live!”

They looked at each other, then they turned to look at the incoming horde and the Tank that is posing through it like a runaway bull attacking anything that has red all over a group of people.

The choices were: Either be killed by the rabid horde and eaten or get in the elevator to where this voice is in one of the five floors.

They looked at each other again and then at the horde before they decided the latter: they ran in the elevator and Dempsey slammed the filth floor button and they readied themselves as the common infected ran inside as the doors hastily closed in.

They are watching them heading towards them as the moving doors closed up and hearing them banging on the doors as they go upward. They ascended upwards as the arrow slowly moved towards and crossed each number as the little moment of relief washed over them, “Holy sh!t….” he muttered, “Never seen anything like that…”

“The horde of the undead or that big creature that could rival a Panzer Soldat?”

“The big guy.” he answered, placing the revolver back in his Back-Pit device and holding his head a little.

“Still, do ya see what it has been doing?”

Jin nodded as she looked down at the ground. “It had thrown the zombies out of the way to get to us,” she softly said, “I can not imagine what it will do if it got to us.”

“Properly literally crush us with those arms,” he halfry joked, crossing his arms as he looks at the arrow going over to the number five, indeciting they are getting closer to the floor he selected. “Besides, we’re gonna be alright now.” he said it too soon the moment the elevator dings upon their arrival on the filth floor.

The elevator doors opened up to reveal their “savor”; a cyborg Carcassian man with device over his right eye or at least acted as his eye, a beard, wore no shirt but a strap that form an X across his chest with the device with glowing red glass, army green cargo pants and boots as he appears to be holding something behind his back.

With a smug smirk, he said in the same accent “Ya made the right choice.” before they heard what sounded like a pin being pulled and then he threw a container at them in the elevator before he had put on a gas mask.

The container they were looking at had exploded and a pretuid smell came from before them as they were trying to get away. “Dempsey watch...ou…” Jin had started to say but the smell had gotten to her that caused her to slur her speech and she fell onto the floor.

“Jin!” He ran over to her but his body started to get heavy but his mind was ordering it to keep going as he stumbled towards her as he was trying not to inhale the stench before he too fell down just inches to her.

The world around him had begun to spin as hearing had started to rung in his ears as the man walked over to them then knelt down while Dempsey watched. He chuckled while he looked at the marine as his eyelids were getting more and more heavy and soon, the world had been drowned in darkness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A soft moan left his lips as he suffered a suffocating headache, he felt like he had drunk too many beers while he had his hand stretched the back of his head as he muttered “Argh…. My head…”

He groggily turned his head over to look around as his mind wondered where he was right now and he saw Jin sleeping by his side, sleeping softly with her head on his shoulder. “J-Jin…?” he mumbled as his mind was swimming from whatever happened to him.

Inspecting her closer, her coat was missing as well with her hair pin and her hair was let down and flowed down her back.

As he tried to remember what had been transferred, he looked down to see that his coat and boiler were missing, as he was in his gray t-shirt.

The feeling had come back to him and came with it was metal and rust, at the base of his neck as he raised an eyebrow at this and had his hand reached to what it was and whatever it was it was around his neck.

He then had another hand on it as it dawned on him with distress; he had a collar around his neck. He turned his head at the wall and saw that he was chained to a wall before he looked at Jin and saw that she was collared as well.

He was on his knees and then grabbed her shoulders. “Jin! Jin! Wake up!” he said as he shook her by the shoulders as her sleep was disturbed, her head swayed as she groaned in strained breath as she opened her eyes and looked at Dempsey in confusion.

“Dempsey?” she groaned as her head was throbbing in pain as she held her head, “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” he said as he noticed that her coat was gone as well. “But it has something to do with that guy, I think we have been ambushed.”

“What?”

“We have been ambushed.” he repeated himself, “Have we been captured?” she asked to which he nodded.

They looked around the room they are in, it was dark but the light is peering through the bars above them and only them, but it did luminated what room it is; the ceiling, the walls and floor are made from stone, with reddish brown and moss on the wall but they hardly could see through the darkness.

“I believe we were in a cell.” Jin stated as she looked at Dempsey. He said nothing but then he sat down beside her again and looked down, “In all honesty,” he started to say, “I had gotten myself into worse sh!t like this.”

“You’d been captured?”

“That and many things that I wished could be a nightmare.”

Jin sighed lightly as she lowered her head, “So do I.” as she held her forehead. “I wished the same as you.” while Dempsey looked at her again. He said nothing but looked at her. He looked at the chains and by the look of them, they haven’t been properly clean for a good long while.

There is something moving from in front of them, the peek through hole opened up and the eyes are peering inside looking at them with a contented look in their eyes.

“They’re awake.” The voice echoed softly in the chamber, those familiar, different eyes of a hyena is no mistake for the two to recognize, they heard the clanking of boots is heard from outside the cell and a voice, a distorted woman’s voice speaking to the Further as he looked at whoever she was. “Open the door please.”

“Yes, your highness.” the hyena complied as he hopped down from the hole, letting a bit of light flowing in for a moment as they heard something unlatching on the other side of the door.

The metal door scraped across the stone floor as the rusted yellow light poured in the room as a figure entered and the cell door closed behind her. The clicking of heels returned once more but this time towards them.

Soon, Mileena came into the light of the barred off hole in the ceiling yet she was noticeably different with a zukin mask as Jin had noticed. The corporal sighed and said “Let me guess, you must be Mileena, right?”

“Of course, you had it right.” she confirmed as he and Jin had backed up to the wall a little bit, leaving space between them and her. “Do you know where you are now, kombatants?”

[Drawn by Meaghan “Icefir” Halter]

“Your boyfriend, Mileena?” he answered sarcastically, as the chains rattled a little bit behind him with his hand fumbling on the floor for a stone piece that he could use as a weapon in case things could get messy once she got closer.

“Not quite.”

“Hyenas are your army now?”

A giggle as two out of five of her fingers rested on her mask, it was not a good sign as she continued.

“Much so, fair lady.” Mileena responded, “In fact, I am really joyful that they made me their ruler yet honored to have you both here. Even though what I am going to do next may seem… horrible.” she sounded a bit sad when she said this, the marine could mentally roll his eyes at this.

“Must’ve been one hell of an honor to be here, mind telling us what are you about to do to us?”

“Kano had brought this up, I figured that I could at least try-” Mileena had stopped herself when she looked over to him, hesitancy in her eyes when she noticed quite prequitrity.

“Hold a minute,” she started to say, “You looked familiar to me.” She leaned closer to him as he tried to back up but he went into a wall so he was trapped between it and her. “Did I see you before?”

Jin looked over in confusion towards Dempsey as he muttered “I am just one of those faces that just don't like being in a sh!t hole situation like this…!”

Mileena didn't seem to believe but she pulled herself away from him as she shook that thought away, “It doesn’t matter,” she simply replied to his statement, even if it’s barely audible from a man.

“In the next few hours, one will be taken and the other to the tournament.” Mileena explained, “One out of two of you here.”

Dempsey spat out “Like hell that we are going to,” as he gritted his teeth, keeping his eyes trained on Mileena, “You’re stuck here the same as us in this world.”

Another giggle from the deranged woman before this, he had enough of this and he said loudly “What’s so god damned funny?”

“Not too familiar with Mortal Kombat, have you yet?” she asked as her hands reached the back of her head and then began to untie the straps that are holding the zukin mask itself.

“Yeah, someone had told us about it.”

“Oh.” she said as she managed to untie the straps and then took it off. Tank’s eyes grew in shock and disgust but his voice didn’t go out of his mouth as usual, only silence rained down on him as he looked at Mileena before himself and Jin.

“Then you knew how it would end, didn't you?~” she spoke coldly as a tongue slithered out similar to a snake’s as the door opened once again behind her.

-Back at the camp-

Erron glanced over his shoulder for the group of savagers as they are arriving back but yet, he was a little concerned that Jin isn’t with them.

“Where’s-”

“It was a nightmare!” Soldier cuts Erron off, “Gordon had scared off all of the strange-looking deer!” as Gordon had an annoyed expression on his face along with Demoman as the Outworlder can clearly see.

Erron lets out a sigh, “What exactly happened?” to the only two men of the hunting group that are sanerer than this man with low intelligence.

“Gordon was being a quiet boy the whole time when he was hunting the deer. That's clearly different from normal but Soldier is the one who scared them off.” Demoman explained briefly while Gordon Freeman nodded at the end of it.

Another sigh, “I thought so.”

“But cowboy, have you seen Jin anywhere?” Soldier asked as he looked around the front yard, Erron was going to ask them that question in all honesty before he was interrupted.

“I thought that she was with you boys.”

“The lass was with us but we couldn’t find her.”

“Do you know where you last saw her?” Erron asked more.

“We had split up to salvage more items,” Gordon once again said, “I think she went inside a local pharmacy.”

Erron crosses his arms as Ultimis Richtofen came out of the background with Frisk in tow and loudly asked “Have you all seen zhe marine anyvhere?!”

“Wasn’t he here?” he asked with his hand on his forehead once again.

“I had sent Frisk to go find him but zhey couldn’t find him.” he informed them.

“Two people had gone missing.” Erron groaned in frustration, “Last thing anyone wants.”

“Zhen ve have to find zhem!” Ultimis Richtofen announced with pride, sounded less concerned, “Ve can’t leave zhis city of zhe undead vithout zhem, I cannot imagine zhe fates zhey are going through.”

“And we are coming too!” Cuphead said this as he ran out but was stopped at the last minute by Demoman as he picked him up by the handle of his head and turned him around towards the house as he said “No more getting into troubles, and more staying put where it is safe.” as he points at the opened door as Cuphead moaned in disappointment and walked back while Demoman and others watched.

Soldier looked over to his friend and said “You are much more different than you usually are.”

Demoman only chuckled as he shook his head.

No one had failed to notice but the air had gotten cold all of suddenly as they felt it. “Hm?” U!Richtofen muttered as he looked around, “Zhe air is getting colder all of sudden?”

“Doc, it’s impossible,” Demoman stated, “This city was once a desert, ya know.”

“Oh blah blah blah, zhis place can have winters as vell.”

Erron somewhat remained quiet as he was staring something before them, “Frisk, get behind me and into the house.” he commanded, as he shushered them to go inside as others had begun to notice.

“Kuai Liang.” Erron said as he watched Sub-Zero walk over to the group as his eyes were trained on Erron Black. “Erron Black.”

They both stare at each other, Erron had his hand on the handle of his revolver, ready to pull it out of the hoister as frost is visible on the shinobi's hands. “You do understand that I didn’t come here to fight, Erron.”

“I do know that fact,” Erron said as he had his hand up to stop the others from advancing further, “And let me guess this, you don’t remember how you got here too?

“Yes.” Kuai bows as Frisk, Cuphead, Mugman and Bendy are watching the encounter from inside the house, looking worried and concerned of what’s to come.

“Hallo uh, Kuai Liang, is it?” Ultimis Richtofen had spoke up as he walked to stand by Erron for a moment as he looked at Sub-Zero, “You must’ve seen a man und woman by zhis point before you came here, am I right?” he questioned, “One vith brown hair und jacket, zhe other with black hair, fairly pretty skin?”

“You must be speaking of Dempsey and Jin.” Kuai Liang answered as he looked at the German, “I assume they are with you?”

“Oh ja!~” he happily said, “Zhose two teammates of ours, do you seen them?”

“I had left them behind in Suncrest when I had to follow a group of Further Hyenas to see if Mileena was truly here.”

“Mileena is here too?” Erron looked at Sub-Zero who had dropped that bombshell on him, hoping this was just a joke but it’s true as he nodded. “And she leads the what?”

“Further Hyenas.” Kuai answered, “And appearty, it's not just hyenas that are affected by this “Forbidden Water.” they spoke off. They became somewhat an intelligent animal humanoid species after something horrible befell onto the earthrealm or this earthrealm is what they had made their home now.”

“Do they know what caused this?”

“The Incident, involving all five different plagues that includes the one you are currently facing and an entity they called “The Broken.””

“Oh!” U!Richtofen chimed in, “A woman had told about zhis lady but not in full detail about her.” as Sub-Zero looked at him once again. “Has she said anything about the Broken.”

“If she had- Haha!” the Doctor triumphed with delight, “She had taken at least 12 of us avay into another plane of existence or in your vords, another “Earthrealm '' you called it. Und zhis Broken vould drive zhem into insanity or death if I had to put in more details.”

“I will share what I have learned later,” Sub-Zero looked at Erron once again “Are there other warriors here?”

“A bunch,” Erron shrugged, “All of them are different worlds and timelines but it could be enough to bring this bloodthirsty daughter of Shao Kahn down.”

“Und most of us were from our own universes ve called home,” Ultimis Richtofen as Erron raised the revolver a little threateningly but it does seem to silence the Doctor by this much.

“I see.” Kuai nodded, “we must need a plan before we could jump into battle.”

“Ya know, for once, you could be right.”

As being said, Kuai was led into the backyard as others were getting ready to leave the city as the kids were peeking outside to watch others meeting the newcomer. “So, you had met them after encountering a different infection type?”

“But of course,” Kuai answered Bruno’s question, “But I wanted them to be out of harm's way when I did find her.”

“Can you take us to the last spot you left them at, at least?” Scout said with chagrin, “We just lost enough already.”

Sub-Zero made an ickle in response and spoke in a threatening tone “We are getting to that point, young man. Show patience.”

“Are you saying that one of your- their own were captured?” Radec asked as he and his remaining men were being watched over by Takeo while he was keeping a close eye on them while he was cleaning his sword.

“I fear so.” Kuai responded as he crushed the ickle into small pieces, “And you must be Mael Radec from what I am told of.”

“Colonel Mael Radec,” Radec corrected, as he stood up and he was a little bit intrigued that this ninja could barely reached his height, “Our homeworld is Helghan and as off right now-”

“They are trapped here with us,” Takeo interrupted as he had a rag that seemed to be used multiple times to count as he cleaned off the blood crusted onto the blade. Sub-Zero looked at the samurai and he somewhat resembled Hanzo in a way but in World War I form.

Takeo continued “And yet, we had a solution to escape this hell together, uninfected and unharmed.”

“Tak’s right about that.” Frank added “Since for some reason, these zombies can’t literally get out of the state of Utah, as if something is keeping them inside.”

“A tree’s spell…” Sub-Zero muttered as he looked down at the ground and yet, it was audible barely for Frank West to hear.

“What’s that?”

“It is nothing.” he shook his head, as Ultimis Richtofen walked over to him, “I am zhe most curious of you, Mr. Liang,” he said as he looked at the man of ice as he looked at him with an raised brow.

“From vhat I see from you, zhe frost on your arms und hands vithout any trouble at all!” he exclaimed as he took a hold of his arm to get a better look as if he was inspecting a snore or something else that could be intriguing.

“How do your arms vere at normal temperatures instead of breaking apart?” Ultimis Richtofen squeezed his bicep a little to feel the difference, the muscle felt soft yet it is the normal type of soft when you could feel when you squeeze the skin and muscle on your forearm.

“It is only magic, Doctor Richtofen.” Sub-Zero only answered as he pulled his arm away, “I am a cryomancer as I had trained to control the ice magic.”

“I see.” Ultimis Richtofen placed a finger under his chin, he now looked more fascinated by this fact. “Und how do you train?”

“I was the student before I became the grandmaster of the Lin Kuei.” he replied as he turned away and then walked away from the German as he felt like he needed to get a healthy distance away from that man as far as possible.

Something about him was.. Unhinged, he thought.

Others had gathered, talking about something to do after they rescued their allies and escaping Fallen City as they are getting their weapons while Erron is discussing the plan as Kuai will lead them to where he had met Dempsey and Jin.

Sniper and Demoman are talking about what they should do with their prisoners if they make it out of the city infested with the walking dead, then something else that caught his attention however.

“Did ya notice that one of them was missing, laddie?”

“One was missing?” Sniper looked up to have his eyes facing Demo’s only one with stupefaction.

“There were seven of them last night when Bruno took over Bendy’s nightwatch.”

Sniper raised a brow and looked over the Demolimation’s Expert to look at the giant Frenchman and then looked back to Demoman.

“Did one of them escape while on his watch, Talvish?”

“I doubt that, Snipe.” Demoman answered, “Jin had said that she found him slowly regaining consciousness when she found this.”

“Regaining his nongs?” Sniper quizzed, as he tilted his hat a little to rub his fingers on his forehead, “Was his noggin hit by one of them?”

“Ah no,” Talvish shook his head no, “No bruise or a cut on his head whatsoever when she checked on him. Whatever happened to him must’ve been slippery like Spy was.”

“Mate, that is impossible,” the Australian refused to believe his teammate. “If he was knocked out, there could be a-”

“No no no, Sniper,” Demo shook his hand to halt him from speaking his thoughts out, “He had recalled he felt something plunging into his back before he blacked out.”

Kuai Liang didn’t hear the rest as he was already going to find Bruno as he is peculiar about it. He didn’t have to waste time to find him to see if it is true, he may not be with them on the night it happened but he needs to check on what he believed to be an injury. It didn't take him too long to find him when he checked at the withering apple tree and found him sharpening the knife.

“Bruno.” he got his attention as the large man looked at him, the carasian raised a brow and said “Oui, Kuai Liang?”

“Please understand that I am only curious but I heard you’re knocked out while on watch but you were not hit in the head.”

Bruno said nothing but he did nod that confirmed Sub-Zero’s suspicion, the cryomancer walked over to the giant with the understanding look on his face and went behind him as the Frenchman looked at him with further confusion.

“What are you doing-?”

“Do you remember what you felt before you passed out?”

Bruno only responded by looking down, “It felt like something had stabbed me in the back. Like a bee sting.”

“A bee sting, you say?” he said as he pulled the collar of his shirt down a bit as the Frenchman tried to look over his shoulder.

“I do not give you permission to search me.” Bruno interjects but Sub-Zero relents as he pulls it down a bit more and he sees something on the bottom of his neck, near the right shoulder on the tanned skin: It’s a small red dot. It was small enough as if a syringe had poked through and into the flesh.

“What are you looking at?”

“A sting dot,” Kauai answered as he looked at him, “A stab wound small enough to be an injection.”

“I was injected?” Bruno turned to look at him, “With what, exactly, Kauai Liang?”

“Possibly a drug enough to knock a person out yet only someone could be quiet and quick enough to plunge a syringe into you without ease.”

Kuai then had his fingers on his chin, the stable hair brushing against them gingerly, “It could be one of these ‘’Helghast” prisoners you captured.”

“It’s impossible, Kauai Liang.” Bruno denied, “All of them were asleep when I took a watch after the dinner last night.”

Kuai raised an eyebrow at this, looking at the giant before him and asked “If it is not one of them, then who?”

A raven cawed from behind them as they turned to see it flew over to a shed with the old wooden double doors as they were opened just a crack yet the raven was able to wedge between and go inside with no trouble.

Kuai signed Bruno into staying quiet as they unhurriedly walked over the shed on alert as each step drew them closer before they could know it but they stopped when a smell of death hit them both.

Bruno reinched from it, he knew what he was smelling, he was too familiar with the death before and after his time with a gang of thugs and this was a smell of the recently deceased, not the rotting decayed corpse of a zombie.

Kuai knew what Bruno believed to be too as he saw his hand stretched out and then grabbed one of the doors and then pulled it towards them, letting light flood inside the interior of the shed and the sight that greeted them was desolate and horrid.

It was one of the prisoners but what happened is just a grim death. Nothing to say but they noticed the man was stripped of the chest plate and cut open in the chest. Bruno gagged from the sight and turned from it as Kuai did the same with his eyes closed in uncanny disgust.

Bruno looked at him with hairs on the back of his neck raised and said “I think we now know what happened to him.”

Kuai nodded as he said nothing, something like this had the part of him believing it could be one of a Tarkatan or Mileena would do but the other part of himself had believed it could be someone else. Before the latter would say anything, U!Richtofen yelled for anyone to hear.

“Come on now! Ve are now going to get zhem!”

The two men looked at each other, not saying anything but exchanged looks before they walked away from the shed, silent after what they found. It’s going to take a good courage to tell others what they have discovered yet they are worried whoever disembowled him will be still with them as they know.

[mymelodyheart]

All I Want For Christmas Is You Chapter 3 ~A Christmas Request~

Previously in It's her Cue ...

 A tiny fraction of the playfulness displayed on his face was replaced by uncertainty ...and Claire's stomach coiled at the proof he wasn't prepared to act on the attraction between them. Whatever his reason was, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know as her guard began to scramble back into place. Oh, God, how could I be so dim? Maybe he's got a girlfriend or a wife ...

"Arbroath Smokies."

Stunned, she looked at him. "Wot?"

"Have ye eaten?"

"Uh, um ...not since midday."

"Weel, hard to fall in love with ..." He took a huge deep breath. "...Broch Mordha on an empty stomach."

"Huh?"

That playful smile was back on his face. "Have ye tried Arbroath Smokies?"

"No. I don't even know what that is."

"Ye have to try it. I know just the place." Jamie glanced over his shoulder. "Come on, let's have a quick drink with Willie and Annalise so we can get out of here." 

And then just like that, he wove his fingers through hers and tugged her towards the bar.

If you wish to read this on AO3, here is the link.

If you wish to read this from the beginning:

AO3 link

Tumblr link

 Jamie stiffened and stopped in his tracks when he felt a slight hesitation in Claire's movement. Is she having second thoughts? He glanced back at her and saw her eyes dropped to their intertwined hands and chewed her lower lip. "Changed yer mind?" he asked softly, his thumb caressing the knuckles of her hand without conscious volition. "I ken Arbroath smokies is not everyone's cuppa tea. We can have something else if ye wish."

She shook her head. "No. It's not that." She took a step closer, and he caught a whiff of her floral scent. Her nearness made the tension in his chest become like a drawn bow like there was an arrow precariously pointing into his heart. But the feel of her skin beneath his fingers was potent enough to mute the warning voices in his head. 

"What is it then, Sassenach?"

"I have something to ask you," she whispered, her eyes darting sideways, seemingly conscious of the watchful eyes around them. 

When she drew her hand from his hold, the loss of touching her skin made a hollow yawn at the pit of his belly.

He ignored the uneasiness he felt and swallowed hard. "Ye can ask me anything."

 Her cheeks blossomed into a pretty shade of scarlet. "I just want to make sure there's no misunderstanding." 

"What's on yer mind?"

"This is a small village, and I understand how everyone talks about everyone's business here. I ...um, don't want to step on anyone's toes while I'm here on holiday. You're not married or involve with anyone by any chance, are you?"

He felt the tension on his back ease, and he leaned back to look at her beautiful face. He wondered what it would be like to have her as his. Would a lass like her be content living in a hamlet like Broch Mordha, where the terrain, although naturally beautiful often described as a dismal place to live in because of the weather and remoteness? "No." A city girl like her would probably have a difficult time settling in the Highlands. "There's nae lass in my life." He forced a smile. "And never been married. How about ye?"

Her mouth opened then closed, and her brow wrinkled. "No. No boyfriend. I haven't been out with anyone for a long time."

He arched an eyebrow. "Really?" Were the men in London blind or what? "Why is that? Too focused on yer career to let anyone in yer life?"

"No. It's not that." Her eyes lowered to half-mast and settled on his chin. He almost lost it right there and then. Ah, Christ! If she's going to keep staring at him like that, he'd probably end up throwing her over his shoulders and taking her home. "I just haven't met anyone who..." her voice trailed off.

"...took yer breath away?" he finished the sentence off for her.

A slow smile spread across her face, making her eyes bright and opalescent. "Something like that," she replied.

He stared at her for a while, and a silent understanding passed between them, one that made him realised that she was very aware of their connection.

Jamie laughed inwardly but without humour. Everything about this lass so far lined her up as the perfect woman for him. How was that even possible that he felt the way he did after only a short period? He pressed his lips tight together, knowing that kind of thinking would only bring him grief.

She'd agreed to go out with him, and he would enjoy her company for what it was. It was a fruitless endeavour worrying about what he would do when it was time for her to go, and he would rather die before pressuring someone like her to stay. He'd done that before, and all it brought him was heartache and distress. She'd said she wanted to be a writer, but she wasn't ready to give up London just yet. This vibrant and intelligent lass had the fucking world at her disposal and her pick of better suited men who could give her the life she's used to, and he wasn't about to be the one to get in the way of those possibilities.

But it was too late to distance himself from this attraction, so Jamie made a deal with himself. One that made his throat contract and dread of the unknown take root. He'd allow himself to enjoy whatever time he had with Claire and be a perfect host and show her the best of what living in Broch Mordha had to offer. If she decided that it wasn't enough to make her stay to explore this connection between them, he'd force himself to accept it. Going to the city and living in one was no option for him, no matter how much he wanted the lass. He tried it before, but ever since he returned from his deployment in Iraq, he couldn't handle the big crowd and loud noises in the city. It made him freeze on the spot and brought back the nightmares and horrors of the Middle East war. He was more at peace here in the Highlands, where he'd already made a life for himself.

Reluctantly, he took a step back away from her. He had to. Otherwise, he'd end up kissing her in front of these people. "So ye're still in for that Arbroath smokies?"

"Of course," she murmured, visibly shaking herself. "I'd love that."

He laced their fingers together once more, unable to stop himself from brushing his lips against her knuckles and uncaring of the gossips he was sure was already spreading like wildfire. When she squeezed his hand in response, he felt weightlessness for the first time in a long time in the depths of his soul. That's when he knew he had his work cut out ahead of him. He cleared the sudden clutter in his throat and gave her his best smile. "Let's go then, Sassenach."

..........

After a round of drinks, Jamie and Claire left Annalise and Willie in the pub to their game of pool and darts. And Jamie was more than happy with the arrangement as he wanted to be alone with Claire.

His steps were light as he led her down the cobbled street, pointing out numerous historic residences and structures on the way. She listened intently, her inquisitive nature surprising him with her enthusiasm to learn more about his birthplace. But as soon as she heard the holiday jingle streaming in the background, her eyes lit up like a child, and she stared straight ahead. Right before them, at the town centre, was Broch Mordha's famous Christmas fair, festively illuminated and a sea of red, green and gold.

To Jamie's amusement, Claire tugged his hand, urging him to walk faster. When they finally got there, the quaint Church Street was bustling with activity. While vendors busily sold their goods, families strolled together, some pushing prams and some walking their dogs. Teenagers walked in groups, laughing and singing at the top of their lungs. Elderly couples wandered hand in hand, stopping now and again to admire the colourful goods on display. The booths bordering the road showed off their fares from patisseries, cheeses and charcuterie to chocolates, tablets and preserves. Beyond the food stalls, there was a whole range of crafted goods, from jewellery to tweed accessories, clothing and photography to candles and ceramic and stoneware.

Jamie had been to the Christmas fair every year of his life, but tonight with Claire, everything seemed more vivid, and he wanted to commit each moment and the sound of her laughter to memory.

He watched her nibble a Crowdie which the cheesemonger offered for her to try after they stopped by his stall. A few samples later, Jamie could tell, the older man was taken by her. It was no wonder as her zest for life was contagious, and she was willing to try anything, undeterred by the unfamiliar names and labels. Looking at her, he glimpsed a faint smattering of freckles across her nose, and he knew she didn't have a trace of make-up on except for the hint of mascara which he thought was totally unnecessary.

She glanced over to him, and her amber eyes widened. "Why are you looking at me like that for?"

He winked at her and lowered his voice. "I dare ye to ask me what I'm thinking."

She wrinkled her nose and snorted. "I don't think so. When men say those sort of things, it usually means there's filth involved. I'll pass, thank you very much."

He laughed out loud, enjoying the way she kept him off balance. Teasing her and watching the colour infused her face was endearing to watch and something he could quickly get used to if he wasn't too careful.

In the next hour, as they toured the Christmas market, he discovered she loved historical books, scented candles, colourful scarves, a sugary Scottish confection called tablet, and her dislike for Haggis. Despite her objections, he couldn't stop himself buying things for her.

When she'd tried to swipe the items she wanted to purchase from his hands, he held them above his head, out of her reach. He laughed when she jumped and attempted to grab them. 

"You can't do that," she protested when he signalled the vendor to wrap up the pendant she was admiring. It was a Sterling silver, with an amber stone set in a Celtic dragonfly design. 

"Ye said ye like it."

"Just because I like something, it doesn't mean I'll go off buying things on a whim. In real life, that's not how it works." 

"But it's Christmas, and I'm the one buying," he reasoned, grinning at her as he pushed some pound notes into the seller's hand. "Besides, I like the necklace on you. The stone reminds me of the colour of yer eyes."

"But Jamie ..."

"No buts. I really want to do this. Just let me."

When she stubbornly glared at him, he took a step closer and caressed her cheek with the pad of his thumb. He heard the hitch in her voice, the deep furrows on her brows slowly dissolving, but not quite totally.

"Please?" he whispered.

She looked at him, and after a few seconds, her features relaxed. "Very well," she conceded, eventually looking anywhere but into his eyes. "I'll pay for dinner then,"

He grinned and gave her a victorious look. "We'll see about that. Come on, Sassenach, I want to eat." He grabbed her wrist before she could object while he held gift bags on his other hand. They walked side by side, meandering through the market until they reached their destination. 

After ordering two paper plates of Arbroath smokies served with new potatoes and peas, they found a secluded area with a wooden table and bench to enjoy their meal and watch people go about their holiday season business.

Her face softened as she ate, looking comfortable in her surroundings as if she felt right at home here. Her eyes radiated with satisfaction, as she savoured every tiny morsel of the smoked fish, her tongue flicking out to catch every bit. A low moan slipped through her mouth with every bite, her head nodding and her eyes widening, when there were no words, reassuring Jamie with facial gestures how much she was enjoying herself. He watched every precious, gut-wrenching, sensual moment of the experience and wondered if he would ever be the same again. And when they finished their meal, washed down with a glass of cider, she let out a soft, sated sigh that slammed straight to his chest, squeezing his heart. 

 If he accomplished one bloody thing over the holiday season, it would be to show this lass how special she was and every second they spent together was a gift he would always treasure.

He opened a small parcel of chocolate truffles they'd bought in the market earlier and pushed it towards her. "Ready for dessert?" he offered, realising how much he loved feeding her.

"Mmmm, yes, please." She popped the sweet treat into her mouth and smiled. "This has been so much fun. I've loved every minute of tonight, Jamie. Thank you."

He had too. He'd never experienced such a powerful bond with a lass on both a mental and physical level, and he tried not to think of the day when she'd go back to London. When the time came, he'd deal with it. "Who said the night is over?" he teased.

"Is it not?"

"Far from it." He got up, dropped their plates and cups in the recycling bin and then offered his hand to her. "Come, Sassenach ... we're off to our next destination," he said, grabbing their bags.

"Where to now? More food?" she groaned, clutching her stomach.

"If it's food ye want, there are still a lot of things ye haven't tried yet." He laughed, taking her hand in his as he tugged her towards the direction where they came from. "But first caffeine. We're going to need it."

"Oooh, are we doing an all-nighter now, are we?" she breathed, almost skipping beside him, trying to keep up with his long stride.

"It's a surprise, Sassenach but I promise ye, ye're going to love the entertainment factor in the next phase of this date," Jamie said as he pushed the door to a coffee shop. "Come, let's go inside and get some heat first."

He ordered two Dutch coffee from the counter and settled them by the window overlooking the street market that was beginning to thin out. When Claire took a sip of the frothy hot beverage, she sighed in pleasure and smiled.

"Ye like?"

"Uh-huh, this is like caffeinated eggnog. Never had it before. I love it!"

"Dinnae tell me, ye don't have them in London."

"They probably do, but I've never had the pleasure of seeing it in a drink menu."

He noticed a residue of cream lodged in the corner of her mouth. Unable to help himself, Jamie reached over slowly, wiping it off with his thumb. Staring into her eyes, he deliberately put his thumb into his mouth and sucked. 

An invisible firework suddenly erupted between them, the sights and sounds of their immediate surrounding fading in a blurred haze, becoming meaningless in the perfect connection of those precious seconds.

"Claire?"

"Hmmm?" Her voice was like a breathless whisper, and he wasn't sure if he imagined the yearning look in her eyes. It took all his self-control to keep from kissing her right there and then. Instead, he locked down all his muscles and willed himself to think of animals that start with the letter D. And all his damn brain could summon was the word dragonfly.

"May I ask ye a favour?"

"I don't kiss on the first date," she said too quickly, but her words contradicted her manner as she stared at his lips.

"That wasn't what I was gonnae ask ye."

"Oh!" Her eyes flew to his, and she blushed profusely. "Oh, well, that depends on the favour then."

He swallowed hard and leaned forward, taking her hands in his. "Will ye spend the rest of yer holiday with me?" He cleared his throat. "What I'm trying to ask of ye is, will ye stay here until the Three Kings ...until it's time for ye to go back to London?"

She blinked thrice. 

It was a request straight from his heart, and he listened to it, unheeding of the alarm bells that started to reverberate in his brain. He needed more time with Claire to see this through and to find out what this was between them. He waited for laughter, a dismissive wave of her hand, a playful joke or a roll of her eyes as he held his breath.

"Alright."

"Alright?" A lungful of air whooshed out of him.

"Yes, I'd love to stay."

Something shifted and awakened. 

He didn't know what it was, but he also knew it would never be the same between them.

Suddenly, he realised the simple request took a lot out of him because all he could muster at that moment were his heartfelt words, "Thank you, Sassenach."

Dear Readers,

Here it is, the third chapter of my Christmas story. I'm super thrilled you're enjoying this so far if the feedback and kudos is anything to go by from the previous instalment. Thank you so much for the generous response and your continuous readership. I hope you're all having a fabulous week. Keep up the good vibes and faith and keep passing that on because even if we can't change what's going on in the world, a healthy amount of positivity will see us all through this strange time. Take care of your health and safety and much love to all. x

[tomtenadia]

Island dream - chapter 24

Chapter 24 has finally landed. It took me a while but it's here. Sorry it took me ages, life happens.

but now it's here and something big happens.

Have fun and enjoy <3

--------

The holidays had passed and Aedion and Lysandra had gone back to London but Aelin knew this time it was not for long. Her friends were coming back for good and that had been the most perfect present, Rowan’s proposal aside. That had been her most treasured memory of the holidays and probably of her entire life. Malcolm had thrown a Hogmanay party and the four of them had all been invited and they had great fun and welcomed the new year together knowing it was going to be a new year full of future great moments.

It was now January and life had slowly gone back to normality. That morning Aelin woke up and again she felt like death. She had been feeling like that for a while now and she just blamed it to work. She rolled over in bed and slammed the alarm off, then realised that Rowan’s side was empty. He was probably up already as his usual. Slowly she forced herself to roll out of bed and walked to the kitchen in nothing but one of his t-shirts. Rowan was preparing breakfast and packing her lunch as well. He had decided that cafeteria food was not healthy so he had taken upon himself to pack her some Rowan approved lunch. She complained for the first two days then she gave up. The food had been amazing and he actually loved doing it, so she let him fuss. She hugged him from behind and leaned her head against his back and groaned. She would have gladly slept for another week. “You look terrible again. Are you sure you should go to work?” He turned in her arms and faced her. Aelin let out another savage groan “I feel like I was at a party and I got pished pretty hard last night.” Rowan roared with laughter “That’s a very Scottish word.” “Aye, I am surrounded, of course I pick up things. And Malcolm is a bad influence.” She tried to smile but noticed his worried expression “I’ll get better in a few days. Stop being a worrywart.” “You have been saying that for a while now.” He pressed his hand on her forehead followed by his lips “you definitely are not running a fever.” He passed her a mug of coffee and a plate with bacon and eggs, their Saturday treat. Aelin took a bite of bacon but put the fork down when her stomach protested quite aggressively and she ran for the toilet where she felt sick. Rowan was behind her a moment later. Worry deep in his features. Aelin managed to get up and went to brush her teeth “It’s just a stomach bug. I will be fine.” “You should not go to work.” She ignored him and went back to the bedroom to grab some clean clothes “I am going for a shower and I am going to work wether you approve or not.” Rowan sighed “At least have one of your colleagues have a look at you. This is not normal.” “Fine.” She brushed him off irritated “As long as you shut up about it.” And she slammed the bathroom door in his face. Rowan sighed and went back to the kitchen. She had been very irritable as well during the last week and they fought more than they normally did and she had been constantly exhausted for a while now. He had bought her vitamins hoping it would help but it did not. And now she was sick as well. There was something going on and he was really getting worried. But she was not listening to him and kept telling him that it was just an innocent bug. Half an hour later Aelin reappeared again all ready to go. Rowan handed her the thermos bag with her lunch. Her arms went around his neck “I am sorry.” She said, burying her face in his neck “I didn’t mean to…” she sniffled. “Shh… I know, mo chridhe, we are good.” He kissed her head in reassurance “Just get checked, please.” Aelin nodded and lifted her head to kiss him. He pretended to refuse the kiss for a moment then lifted her in his arms and his mouth crushed on hers. “I love you.” “Go, I’ll se you tonight.” She left and he sighed.

It was an half hour later when she reached the hospital and went quickly to her office. She was in charge of the A&E and she went to get the roster for the day and started making plans where to place the two new intern who joined the team two days before. She loved her job. The pace was different from London but it allowed her to actually have a life outside work and she was happy for that. She was flipping through her diary looking for something else, when she noticed something amiss and everything all of a sudden made sense. She flipped a bit more pages and panic rose swiftly in her. “Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.” She ran out of the office and back into the pit where she saw Malcolm, grabbed him and pulled him to an empty bed, then closed the curtains. “What’s happening?” Aelin grabbed one of the carts in the corridor and took out a syringe and a vial and homeostatic elastic “Fill this up for me, please.” “Are you okay?” He asked while donning his gloves before proceeding to draw blood from her. Once he was done Aelin looked at him “No. Yes. Maybe.” She needed to calm down “I was flipping through my diary to look for something when I noticed something peculiar.” “How peculiar are we talking about?” “I missed my period. Then I went back another month and I realised I missed two.” “Oh.” Was Malcolm first reaction “Not to be judgmental, but how can you miss it? I have a sister and I am told it’s quite difficult to miss.” Aelin sighed “I was on the pill. Then I stopped because it was giving me issues. After quitting the pill it goes off kilter for a while so I was not too bothered about not having it.” she explained “Then once I saw the diary it all clicked. All of it. I have been moody. I have been constantly tired and now sick as well and my boobs are killing me. I did not miss my period because I got off the pill.” She explained frantically. “You and that man you yours have been naughty?” His smile was wicked. Aelin folder her arms at her chest and stared at him sideways. “I am just saying…Now, do you need a sex-ed lesson?” He joked, while sealing the vial with her blood. Aelin blushed savagely “a few times Rowan and I might not have been… careful.” “Oh, the savage passion… I hope the wall is still standing.” She and Malcolm had developed a wonderful relationship and they could talk about anything “The house is still standing.” “Good,” he gave her a wide smile and his dimple made an appearance. Malcolm was good looking. There was a high number of nurses who were crazy about him. He was tall, blonde and with beautiful grey eyes. A heart attack on two legs. The first time she saw him she was the one who had almost smashed into the glass door. “I guess you want me to take this to the lab and check for the p word?” Aelin sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder and his hand was on her hair “You are panicking.” “I will be fine.” She took a deep breath and jumped off the bed. “I will take this to the lab and I will let you know as soon as I know something.” She kissed him on the cheek and disappeared back to work.

Aelin tried to go back to her job to keep her mind occupied. She knew the answer already but she had to wait for the test. All the signs had been there for a while now. She was just worried how Rowan would react to the news. She knew he wanted kids, but perhaps this was a bit too early. She sighed and responded to the page and went to help her intern.

It was in the afternoon when Malcolm pushed her into her office and closed the door. He waved a piece of paper in front of her. “Is that it?” The man nodded and Aelin sat on the edge of the desk, her heart hammering “It’s positive, isn’t it?” “It is.” Malcolm gave her the paper with the results and then studied her “You don’t seem happy, I thought you and Rowan wanted a family.” He sat beside her. Aelin started pacing “We do. I do. Mal, we got engaged two weeks ago, we have been together less than a year. I just wan’t expecting it this soon.” “Are you afraid he will be mad?” Aelin scoffed “No. No, knowing him, he will be ecstatic and then probably put me under house arrest to prevent me to overwork myself.” “If he is a bit overprotective it’s just because he loves you and wants to look after you.” She turned to him. His gaze had gone sad all of a sudden “You are quite the protective type as well.” His face went dark and she felt as if she had said something wrong. Shit. “Mal…” “It’s okay.” He said, placing a hand on her knee “you could not know.” Mal took a deep sigh “He was a pilot. I was on an aircraft carrier. I was the medical officer. He was the commander of the air group. We started it off a bit rocky but then we began to get along quite well. Later on in our deployment, I realised I had feelings for him. Then I discovered he felt the same. After a while we got together and we were an item for a while.” He explained “I knew he was good at his job, but as a doctor, well, I had seen my share of accidents and I used to worry about him every time he would go out with his squadron. If I had an empty med bay I would go on deck and wait until he landed back. He would joke saying that I fussed too much.” He tries to laugh a bit “Things got serious between us. Sometimes we were lucky to be together but quite a lot we were posted in different locations. We always worried when one of us would go on tour without the other. Eventually we had decided to deploy one more and then both retire. He never made it back. After his death I went on one last deployment. ” he sighed heavily. Aelin gasped “Mal, I am so, so, so sorry.” “What I wanted to say is let him fuss over you. That man is madly in love with you. I wish Matthew was still here for me to fuss over him for being late or being ill. I miss it. And I miss him.” She turned and hugged him fiercely and he hugged her back. “Nurse Helen and I will look after you. We will find you a hot sexy man.” Malcolm laughed “Yeah she has been trying to set me up on dates for a while.” Then turned to her “No one knows about Matthew, a part from some of my ex Navy colleagues. I don’t want anyone’s pity. You can set me up on all the dates you want not because I am alone but because I am still here, still alive and I can’t waste such gift by wallowing forever, he would not want that. I will always remember him but life goes on.” Aelin nodded “So tall and dark-haired? Muscles? Rowan might have some swimming buddies available.” Malcolm stood “I am very picky.” “I will keep that in mind.” “Good. Now I best go back to my patients before they start to feel abandoned.” He took a step to the door the turned to her “Aelin, thank you for being my friend” and he left.

A few hours later Aelin was on her way to Yrene for her ob/gyn appointment. After the results she had phoned the ward and asked to book an appointment. She had been feeling nervous all day and still coming to terms with the fact that she and Rowan were going to have a kid. She had no idea if she felt ready or not. Once at the reception she told the secretary she was there for her appointment and she was invited to take a seat. She lasted five minutes before she had to dash to the bathroom and be sick. She felt like death. It took her ten minutes to get out of the toilet. When she got back Yrene was waiting for her “You look terrible.” “And I feel even worse.” Yrene invited her in in her office and told Aelin to lie down on the bed. Yrene smiled and pulled the ultrasound machine closer. Aelin lifted the bottom of her scrubs exposing her belly and Yrene spread gel on it. “Take a deep breath.” Aelin was getting more nervous by the minute which was not working well for her already upset stomach. “Let’s see…” Yrene placed the scanning wand on her tummy and looked at the screen. A very strange sound came from the machine. “That is not a regular heartbeat.” Said Aelin terrified, but Yrene smiled. “It’s not because it’s two heartbeats.” “Twins.” Yrene nodded. Aelin let out a ragged breath. “Are they okay?” “Both foetuses look fine and the right size for now. You are about eight weeks pregnant.” Aelin did the math. The getaway. She laughed. “Something funny?” “Yes,” Aelin said brushing her hand in her hair again, she was so nervous “I did the math and it was the first time Rowan and I had sex. And considering the amount of times, well… I am not surprised.” Yrene grinned. “We got… carried away.” Yrene’s hand was on her shoulder “I have seen him. It’s perfectly understandable.” The Yrene’s tone changed “You know the risks with multiple pregnancies.” Aelin nodded . “Hypertension, Preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, intense sickness.” “Definitely the last one is starting to appear.” Said Aelin leaning back on the bed. “I want to follow you.” Aelin nodded. She had worked with Yrene and really liked the woman and had discovered she had an amazing experience. “Good.” She cleaned Aelin’s belly and covered her back. “I will see you in three weeks. I want to run some tests. Just to check how you are doing.” “Thank you.” Said Aelin getting up and then she felt sick again and ran for the bathroom.

Going back to work had been tragic. She had spent a good twenty minutes in Yrene’s office bathroom. And left on very shaky legs. “What did Yrene do to you? You look like death.” Malcolm’s voice welcomed her back to the A&E. He gave her a ginger biscuit “This should help.” “Thank you.” Thanks to Malcolm’s ginger biscuits she did manage to finish her shift and she was now on her way home. Her mind kept thinking about ways to tell Rowan. Then an idea hit her. Before heading home she took a detour to the bookshop. Luckily it was closed already and she could get in and grab the book she needed for her surprise to Rowan. She would pay for it but she had to acquire it first without him knowing. Once she was done she drove home and a sense of happiness finally settled in her. The panic had finally dissolved. It would be okay. They would be okay. When she got home she noticed Rowan was not in the living room, and when she heard the shower, Aelin smiled. Perfect timing for her to quickly wrap the book and prepare the present. Ten minutes later he emerged with just a towel around his waist and she almost fainted. No matter how many times she had seen him like that, the vision had the power to kill her every single time. “You should stop showing off.” “Says the one who wanders around the house in super tiny nightgowns.” She grinned and closed the distance to him. Her arms went around his waist and pinched his butt in reply. “Come and sit.” “I should go and change.” “No way…” he sat on the sofa and she straddled him and kissed him, brushing her hands in his wet hair. She could not get distracted. She had to tell him first, then they could indulge in other activities. She pulled back a bit and grabbed the wrapped gift on the table “Very late Yule present.” She joked. “You already gave me my present.” He told her while grabbing the packet. “Just open it and shush.” Rowan did that and his face was puzzled when he noticed the book “What to expect when you are expecting…” Aelin grinned savagely when his smile morphed into understanding. “We are pregnant.” She whispered placing a gentle kiss on his mouth then she opened the book and showed him the picture of her ultrasound “Baby A and baby B.” She explained pointing at the two blobs. “Twins? We are having twins?” There was utter joy in his voice and her heart seemed to finally relax. “Is that why you were not well?” His arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Aelin nodded. He pulled her close to him “I love you so much.” “You are not scared or worried?” He kissed her “not in the least. I…” he took a breath “I want kids in my life, Aelin. I never brought up the subject because I wanted to give you the time to make up your mind on the topic and enjoy your career.” He looked her in the eyes “Truth is… I have been brooding for a while now.” Her hands were in his hair again “I was terrified when I realised I was pregnant.” Her forehead leaned against “Until I saw the ultrasound and I saw the twins on the screen I was panicking. Then something clicked in me and I stopped being nervous.” “We’ll do this together. I will be at your side, I will support you and do all I could for the three of you.” Aelin leaned forward and kissed Rowan’s head. She knew he was going to be the most amazing dad ever. “Guess when it happened?” “I don’t know, considering how active we have been…” Aelin smiled. That they had. After they got back from the getaway, they had troubles keeping their hands off each other. They had tried every possible surface in their house that could hold them. And she discovered that Rowan was creative too. She kissed his nose “The getaway.” Rowan laughed “we are going to have a big family,” he leaned against her, their foreheads touching. And for a while they just hugged in silence and all the fears Aelin had during the day had melted away once and for all. “I got the book from our shop. I will pay for it. I swear.” She broke the silence. Rowan laughed “It’s okay, Fireheart, for such an amazing gift, I will forgive you.” He grabbed the book and pushed her off her lap and started reading but Aelin had another idea in mind. The book disappeared form his hands and ended up back on the table and she straddled him again. Then she grabbed the hem of her scrubs and remained in her bra in front of him. “We’ll read later, Buzzard.” she kissed him while her hand travelled south. “We shouldn’t” he said pulling back from her. Aelin rolled her eyes “we have been doing it for two months now. No issues. It won’t hurt the babies. Believe me.” And went back kissing him to try and convince him. His hands trailed up her sides, brushing the band of her bra. Aelin’s arms went behind her back and freed herself. She felt his hands palm her breasts and leaned into the touch. With a swift motion she pulled away his towel, leaving him naked and a smile appeared on her face when she noticed him ready for her. His mouth locked on hers and her hand trailed south, grabbing him. Rowan gasped against her lips. “I thought—“ he stopped after her hand did something wicked to him “You feeling better, I reckon?” “I have to apologise for the past few days.” She breathed against his lips. “Do you?” “Stop talking Buzzard and use your mouth in the wicked way of yours.” Rowan did not complain. He lifted her in his arms as he stood. Her hand reached for him again and this time he moaned as his lips met hers again. “I can’t deny a pregnant woman her wish, can I?”

The next morning Aelin had started the day with her head in the toilet. She had been there for a good twenty minutes when Rowan finally walked in and sat beside her. She leaned against him exhausted. “Are you sure you have to go to work?” “Yeah,” she breathed getting up. His arms went around her to help her stand. “There are loads of ginger biscuits ready. I have packed some in your lunch. A very light one with vegetables and other ingredients that should not make you sick. There are a couple of bits of fresh ginger that you can use for your tea. Apparently it works. I read it in the book you gave me.” She leaned against him. “How did I end up with such an amazing man?” “You came into my shop and stole my heart.” He kissed her head. “Gee, Whitethorn, you can be so damn cheesy sometimes.” His nose scrunched up “All your fault. I was leading the charts for most unpleasant man in Stornoway and then you came along.” They reached the breakfast table and they sat down. Rowan had prepared a strawberry milkshake for her. He was planning on keeping track of all the food she did manage to eat and the one that caused discomfort. “Let’s try with toast with jam this morning and see if you can keep it down.” He offered her the food and Aelin made an attempt at eating. “You should discuss with Malcolm the possibility of him having to take most of your night shifts.” Aelin stopped eating and stared at him in disbelief “I can’t do that.” “You are pregnant.” “So what? It does not mean I can’t do my job. I sleep during the day like I usually do and do it. We have on-call rooms. I can still sleep and rest.” He was not convinced and glared at her. “Eventually you will have to go on maternity leave. Someone will have to cover for you. They can easily start doing it now.” His tone had turned to annoyance and Aelin braced for a fight. “That is months away. I can work now.” She shouted “Being pregnant does not mean I can’t do my job.” “If you can keep your head out of the toilet long enough.” He fired back “and if you can manage to reach the patient while your big bump is in the way. Or spend the entire day running around the A&E while your ankles double in size. Sure, go ahead. Be my guest.” Aelin scoffed “I can do all those things.” She snarled back. “You are carrying twins.” He added through gritted teeth “Do you have any idea of all the possible issues you might encounter?” He crossed his arms at his chest in defiance. “I am a doctor, of course I know.” She shouted back not willing to lose that battle. He grabbed the plates and started washing them ignoring her on purpose. She stood and slammed her fork on the table “This is why…” she shouted, but then she stopped. No, she could not say what she had just thought aloud. Rowan was not Chaol. She could not go down that road of hate and resentment again. Not with him. “I need to go to work.” She said much more calmly. She gathered the food containers he had prepared for her and all the biscuits. Then took a step to him and kissed him “Thank you.” She was a weakling but she could not stand the idea of fighting with him, of being mad at him. He grabbed her arm gently “Take it easy, please.” Aelin rolled her eyes and left the kitchen in silence. Rowan sighed and went back washing all the dishes.

Rowan had a quiet morning in the shop. He had changed the main display in the window and had gone for a winter theme and had selected books that had a wintery theme or were set in that season. He had added a few props and he was quite satisfied. Then he had taken some pictures and shared them as Aelin had showed him. His social media accounts were working and, especially on Facebook, people were engaging with him. Aelin was still the admin of the page and she would still manage most of the content for him. He browsed through the page and marvelled at the amazing job she had done. Then he looked at his followers and found her, Lysandra and Aedion and smiled. Out of curiosity he clicked on her profile and studied it a bit and the first imagine that appeared made him smile. It was a picture of her holding her ultrasound scan of their babies. He read the comments and laughed, although he assumed Lysandra had found out a moment later after he did. Scrolling a bit more he saw a picture of her bragging about her engagement ring and her upcoming pagan wedding. She was always smiling in her photos and he could not keep his eyes off her. Her smile was the first thing that had floored him the day she walked into the shop. He sighed. It felt such a long time ago and he could not believe how much it had happened already. He kept scrolling through her profile and noticed she had been sharing a lot of her life in the islands and also a lot of the posts he had made from the bookshop profile. And then a wild idea hit him. His hand clicked on create profile and step by step he created his profile. As a photo he used the one of a buzzard he found online. A joke that only Aelin would get. Then he went on her profile and added her, Lysandra and Aedion as friends. And that was it for him. He was not interested in more. A moment later a notification appeared saying that Aelin had accepted his friendship and at the same time his phone went off. “Hey.” “Did you just joined Facebook? Did I create a monster?” On the other side Aelin sounded shocked. “I was posting my new display on the bookshop page. Then I saw that you follow the page and had a nosey at your profile and got curious and created one myself. But I am only having you three as friends. I am not sure I will like it.” “I love the profile photo by the way. You two look very alike.” “How are you feeling?” He changed the subject. “Your biscuits are helping a lot and I made the tea as well. I haven’t had nausea since. And don’t worry. Malcolm has been fussing like a mother hen.” Rowan laughed and decided to thank the man next time he saw him. “I got to go. Sorry. Love you.” Rowan hang up and went back playing with Facebook. The store was quiet and all the paperwork was done. He could indulge in a bit of silliness. He had noticed that both Lysandra and Aedion had accepted his friendship and Aedion had also messaged him. They had started chatting and found out that he and Lysandra were working hard on their plan to move to the islands. He had applied to some jobs and was waiting for a reply. He did not realise how much he had spent talking to Aedion until the door opened and Aelin appeared. “Hello you.” He said, coming out from behind the counter. She slammed into him for a hug with just one arm. The other one was holding a bag full of food. He frowned. He took the bag and placed it on the counter and went back to Aelin. “Hi you.” His voice was soft as he cupped her face with one hand. “I brought cake as a peace offering.” “Why?” Aelin sighed “I was not nice this morning. You were just looking after me and I shouted and I almost said things that I would have regretted forever. It’s just…” she looked away for a moment “The hormones. I realise I have been moody lately. We haven’t fought as much as in the past few weeks. But I still need to apologise.” “We are fine.” Rowan kissed her “I am not worried about our fights. They are more spats because we are both stubborn. They are not out of hate and we are not trying to hurt each other with words.” Aelin looked down “I almost did this morning.” Her hands gripped his t-shirt and tears started to flow “I thought something horrible but I stopped because I can’t hurt you.” Her tears became sobs and Rowan’s arms tightened. “I had enough of those fights with Chaol.” “Shhh… “ Aelin kept crying and he rocked her gently. “I am a mess. A patient gave me a hug because I helped her dad and I cried. I am happy, then sad then angry, then back to sad. I am going insane.” Rowan held her tight “then I hid in my office sobbing when I realised we can’t get married on Beltaine.” He looked down at her “Why?” “Have you ever seen a woman pregnant with twins at five months? I’ll get huge. I will not fit in the dress and will not be able to dance with you at the ceilidh.” Her sobs intensified “And I want to do all those things.” “Hey, we can wait.” His hand caressed her head “we’ll get married whenever you feel ready.” She finally stopped crying and looked up at him “but our kids will be there too.” Finally a smile. “We are a scandalous couple.” He joked and she looked at him puzzled “kids out of wedlock? You ruined me miss Galathynius.”

***

Slowly the winter months had passed and spring knocked at the door and March arrived. Rowan was on its way to the hospital to meet Aelin. On that day they had and appointment with Yrene and they hoped to be able to find out the sex of their kids. They had tried on a few previous appointments but the babies were never in a favourable positions. He hoped this time was the right time. Especially because they had a bet going on. Rowan was sure it was one of each, Aelin was positive it was two girls. If Rowan won, he would eat two slices of one of Aelin’s favourite super sugary cakes, whether if Aelin was the winner he had promised a sexy massage with oils. Aelin really wanted to win. He got to Yrene’s office and noticed the woman was alone. “Hi Rowan, Aelin has been held up. She will be here soon.” Rowan sighed and used that occasion to talk with Yrene. “I have some questions.” “Absolutely. Ask away.” Rowan nodded “I have been reading some books on childbirth and I read that multi pregnancies can be a bit more challenging, which makes sense. But I am worried about some of the things I read.” “That is normal. And I know it can be scary. I am planning on testing Aelin today for pre-eclampsia. Aelin’s babies share a single placenta, so you will have identical twins. This means her scans will be more frequent as there are other issues that might arise.” Yrene explained “Chances are they will be premature, but we can discuss a planned delivery as well when Aelin comes back.” “Is that the safest options?” “Yes. It’s the one I’d recommend.”Yrene suggested “but if she doesn’t want she can try and deliver naturally. I will try to get her as close as possible to term, but her body will decided when it’s time. There is a possibility that she will be confined to bed rest.” “She will not like that.” Added Rowan, worried “Is there anything I can do to help?” “Be supportive. Make sure she doesn’t tire too much and that she eats healthy. She is her second trimester so her hormones are probably running wild. Just don’t take it personally if she shouts at you. The more the pregnancy progress the more uncomfortable she will be.” Another question popped in his head and he felt embarrassment rise “Aelin wants to… do stuff. I am just nervous that it might not be a good idea.” Yrene nodded and smiled “that is up to you two. Right now it is still possible but soon it will be quite difficult for Aelin. There are no risks for now but I will not exclude a no sex policy later on, it all depends on her health. Always let her decide, see what she is comfortable with.” “But it’s not dangerous for the babies… I mean my…” he was now red with embarrassment. Yrene laughed out loud “I will be frank, Rowan. Now matter how well equipped you are, there is no chance you’ll get that far up.” His blush was now savage. “Just wanted to be sure.” “Of course.” In that moment Aelin joined them and laughed at Rowan’s state “why is Rowan blushing?” Yrene laughed “he asked if his downstairs friend can hurt the babies during sex.” Aelin roared in laughter “You are perfect, but let’s be realistic.” And the two women laughed. “So, are you ready for the big reveal?” Yrene announced changing the subject and giving a chance to Rowan to recover. Aelin smiled and slowly dragged herself to the bed, and Rowan helped her when he saw her struggle. “Hopefully they are in a good position.” “I hope so, I have a bet to win.” Aelin grinned laying down and exposing her swollen stomach. Yrene spread the gel and began her job. Aelin stared at the screen and tried to brush up her skill from her ob/gyn rotation to remember how to spot the sex. She sat on her elbows and gasped “Is that a girl?” “Well spotted. She is very clear.” Rowan stared at the screen and felt stupid when all he could see were blobs. He trusted them. “The second is hiding,” said Aelin caressing one side of her belly “come on darling, mama wants to know.” Rowan moved at her side and placed a hand on hers on her stomach “dad too.” They waited for a while but it looked like the second baby had no intention of moving. Yrene was about to call it quits when Aelin shifted and the baby shifted as well and in that second it revealed itself. Aelin screamed in delight “Two girls! I win.” “Yrene hasn’t confirmed it yet.” Said Rowan. The doctor laughed “It’s two girls, Rowan.” He had a massive grin. He lowered and kissed Aelin. “I want my prize tonight.” “Yes, my Queen.”

“Twin girls,” said Aelin dreamingly while they were both walking back to the A&E. “And Yrene said they are identical as well.” Aelin nodded “I knew that.” She turned to him and smiled “we’ll have to find a way to tell them apart.” He kissed her head. They reached the pit and Malcolm was walking to them “so, who won the bet?” “This girl here is having a sexy massage tonight.” Malcolm smiled “so it’s two girls.” Rowan and Aelin nodded proudly. “Congratulations, guys.” And he hugged them both. “Aelin, patient in bed 4 needs your care again.” Aelin swore and turned to Rowan “I have to go.” She kissed him and Rowan placed a hand on her belly. “I love you. And I’ll see you three tonight.” She waved at him and left, leaving Rowan with Malcolm. “Look after my girls, please.” Rowan asked to the man “Asking Aelin to slow down seem to be an impossible challenge.” Malcolm patted his shoulder “I have a plan. I will keep an eye on her while she is here.” “Thank you.” Then Rowan said goodbye and went back to work at the bookshop.

Aelin came home at a decent time and Rowan was in the living room reading a book while waiting for her. Aelin noticed his wicked smile and walked to him. “Someone looks naughty.” He kissed her in response and she straddled him. His hands went on the bump and lifted her scrub to reveal the swollen belly. He leaned forward and placed his hands on the side. Aelin had felt the girls move but he hand’t been able yet and he was dying to feel them kick for the first time. “My three girls are finally home.” And kissed the belly. Aelin stood and smiled at him and then disappeared in their room. A moment later she called him and he followed. Once in the room he noticed she was wearing a long blue gown. She took a step to him “I am very tired.” She undid the sash of the gown “I won a massage…”slowly she lowered one side of the gown, exposing her right shoulder and the top of her breast “A sexy one if I remember correctly.” Another step and now the gown was low on her arms, exposing her upper body “I am so very tired.” She repeated letting the gown pool at her feet standing in front of him naked. Rowan went to his drawer and took out something, then pointed to Aelin to get on the bed. She sat on her knees and he took position behind her. He undid her braid and took in her scent of jasmine and lavender. He pushed the hair on one side and kissed her neck and she leaned back into him. “You are gorgeous.” “I am a whale.” She replied stretching her hands behind her to touch him. “You are stunning.” His hands traced her arms up and down, then took her hands and placed them on her bump with his, his mouth kept tormenting her neck. Then he removed the hands and grabbed the small bottle at his side. He dropped some of the liquid in his hands and began his massage from her shoulders. “Is that pine scent I smell?” Rowan nibbled her ear “correct.” “Are you marking the territory?” She joked. “Of course.” He licked her neck “you are my woman and now carry my offspring. It’s my role as alpha male to mark what is mine,” he laughed. “Territorial bastard.” Rowan kept massaging her shoulders and back kneading the sore spots and Aelin moaned “oh yes,” she exclaimed when he hit a spot on her lower back “your hands are amazing.” “I was thinking…” he said while his hands moved lower “what about names?” Aelin’s eyes were closed and she was enjoying his treatment “Do you have ideas?” His mouth was on her neck again “I thought about it, today at work.” He grabbed a bit more oil and moved to her arms and her sides, with fingers brushing her breasts. “Tell me,” she sounded breathless. “Freyja.” “The goddess of love and fertility. She is quite badass.” His hands finally found their target on her breasts and Aelin moaned. She was hypersensitive and his touch sent her reeling “I love it.” She managed in the end. He continued his massage. “What’s the second?” He palmed her breasts one more time and Aelin moaned throwing her head back on his shoulder. “Don’t get mad. I just really adore the name.” “What is it?” “Morrigan.” Aelin chuckled “the goddess of war.” Her hands covered his “big expectations for our daughters, I see?” “I just like the names very much, but we will look for others if you don’t like them. They are just ideas.” “I love them.” She half turned her head to meet his eyes “They are epic. I adore them.” “Are you sure?” “Positive.” “Sit against the head of the bed.” She did that and he stood on his knees between her legs. He smiled tenderly at the image in front of him. To him it did not matter if Aelin called herself ugly because of her big bump, she was beautiful in his eyes. He grabbed a bit more oil and continued his massage at her sides down to her hips and then back up moving then on her bump. He concentrated on the bump for a while. “The girls are loving it.” “Are they moving?” Aelin nodded. He touched the bump but felt nothing. He continued his work along her legs, brushing gently her inner thighs and Aelin’s legs jerked at the touch. “I think you missed a spot.” She laughed and a wicked smile appeared on Rowan’s face. “Saving the best for last.” He leaned forward and kissed her. In that instant his hand went between her legs and Aelin moaned “about friggin time.” He was busy teasing her when Aelin stiffened and he stopped. “What?” She grabbed his hands and placed them on one side of her belly. Rowan waited for a moment and then he felt it. A kick. A powerful kick against his hand. “Guess our girls approve of their dad giving their mum a good time.” Rowan glared at her, then lowered on the bump, his hands still on the spot where the kicks were and he kissed it as well “Your mum is very naughty.” “And you haven’t finished worshipping me,” and Aelin spread her legs but Rowan was far too busy feeling his daughters. “This is amazing.” He whispered, caressing the bump. Aelin’s hand twined in his hair “Come here.” Rowan leaned forward to her while his hand was firmly on the bump. Feeling his girls kick was an incredible feeling and he didn’t want to miss a single moment of it. He kissed her deeply “Did I tell you how happy am I?’ She shook her head and he kissed her again. Then he moved at her side and leaned against her shoulder, with his hand still on the bump “A part of me was for a moment terrified when you told me we were having twins. I was elated at first but the next day all the panic started to hit me. What if I was not ready? what if it was too soon? What if I was not going to be a good dad?” He let his feelings go “And I am terrified. I read all about how multiple pregnancies can be dangerous. That’s why I am fussing. I want to make sure you three are okay. I can’t wait to meet our girls but I am terrified at the same time.” He looked up at her. “I am scared too.” She admitted brushing his hair “I spoke to one of the nurses who had twins a year ago and now I am just as terrified as you are.” She kissed his forehead “and we will be fine and I know you will be the most amazing, most caring dad our girls could have.” He kissed her shoulder “I have an idea to run past you.” He confessed and she nodded. “I was thinking about our housing situation.” He started and grabbed her hand “As soon as the twins arrive, the house might become a bit too small. We can use your old room for them until they are little and sleep in a crib but after that, the room might be a bit too small for two people.” He explained “So I did some research and I found a great place. A lovely croft in great conditions just outside Stornoway. It has four bedrooms, a kitchen that is huge, two floors and a bathroom on each level, and on the ground floor there is a massive room that can easily become our own library. It comes with a nice whack of land that we can use for planting veggies and fruits or for animals if we want a wee farm.” He told her and saw Aelin’s face lit up in joy “There is plenty of space and nature.” Aelin was now in tears which he hoped were tears of joy “I love it.” She whispered. “I can sell my house and I have savings too. We can buy it and renovate it to our liking.” Aelin nodded ���I have saving too and I can help. This is something we do together. It’s not all on you.” “I went to see the other day while you were at work and I took some pictures” and he took his phone from his pocket and began showing her the images of the place. “It’s perfect.” “Are you sure? We can look for something else. I went to see it because I was curious. It seemed like a good deal. I didn’t tell you anything because I wanted it to be a surprise.” She brushed his hair again “It’s perfect. And I love the idea of having a library.” “Oh yeah.” He kissed her “we have a book problem and when I saw the gigantic room on the ground floor I knew it was the perfect place.” “Can you take me there?” Rowan nodded “Next time you have a day off we’ll go and see it.” “Good.” And she kissed him “now go back to your job, Buzzard. You haven’t finished your massage and definitely missed a spot.” And Rowan eventually finished his massage leaving Aelin very happy she had won the bet.

Tag:

@rowaelinismyotp sorry it’s a day late. I forgot.

[hiccanna-tidbits]

Do you maybe have some headcanons or Au or something for Moana x Merida? I really like that ship! 🤗and I like your moodboards with moanida! ^^

Anon I need you to know I am literally crying TEARS OF JOY because I have FINALLY received an Ask on this humble little blog and I am OVERJOYED

Yes, I would love to talk about Moanida!!!

I’ve got a few AUs I kinda play around with for them--might make moodboards of them one of these days! A couple I really like are a Mermaid AU and a Selkie AU, probably with Moana as the mermaid/selkie because of her ocean connection??? But I really like the idea of Selkie!Merida too, since it would go so nicely with selkies in Scottish folklore and all that. Either way it solves the geographical issue because they can just swim to each other!!! Also yes, these gay girls crossing literal oceans for each other is absolutely the hill I’m going to die on. I’m also a fan of a sort of Mythology/Goddess AU where like Moana is an ocean goddess and Merida is a volcano goddess of sorts akin to Te Ka with cool lava hair and scary volcanic rock skin and only Moana’s soothing ocean waters can calm her eruptive (heh, get it?) rage. And this also means FORBIDDEN SAPPHIC LOVE FORBIDDEN SAPPHIC LOVE FORBIDDEN SAPPHIC LOVE

Also MOANIDA HEADCANONS YESSSS

I thought up some just for you <3 Some are more general and some are more specific AU-focused so I tried to sort them by AU but there’s probably gonna be some overlap.

General ~Merida is THE most overprotective girlfriend. Like she knows Moana’s independent and can take care of herself, but she absolutely will not tolerate slander of or threats to her girlfriend of any kind. If Merida were to meet Maui at any period in the timeline where he and Moana weren’t really cool yet and he was still being kind of a dick to Moana, Merida would try to fight a literal demigod. She doesn’t give a single fuck. ~Once Merida hears about the Tamatoa Incident, she wants to fight every crab she sees. She also develops a taste for crabcakes and crab rangoons because she starts eating lots of crabmeat solely out of spite. Moana finds this endlessly amusing. ~Moana definitely has the braincell between them. She’s constantly having to hold Mer back and talk her down from starting shit. Merida would unleash the Rage of a Thousand Suns upon her enemies if given half the chance. ~Merida is very physically active and loves working out--she would work out twice a day if given the chance. She’s just really about those exercise endorphins. Moana makes her fresh tropical fruit bowls and tropical fruit smoothies for after her workouts. Merida adores these and eventually she absolutely refuses to drink any smoothies not made by her girlfriend. ~They’re both lowkey caffeine addicts. Merida usually loathes getting up early (unless it’s to work out or go riding with Angus) and will snap at anyone and everyone until she’s had coffee. Moana knows how to get her hands on these really amazing-tasting, obscure types of Polynesian coffee, so she hooks them up with The Good Stuff. After tasting the coffee Moana gets, Merida honestly never wants any other B-tier type of coffee again. ~They love to go sailing in Moana’s boat. In a modern AU where the boat has a motor, Merida likes to make them go really fast for the adrenaline rush and the feeling of wind in her hair. It kinda freaks Moana out to go that fast, but it’s honestly worth it for the look of absolute elation on Merida’s face, and the way she laughs and cheers the whole time. ~Sometimes they like to go out on more calm, tranquil night sails. Once they’re a ways out, they just lie on the deck and stargaze. Moana points out all the constellations to Merida and rambles about how to navigate with them. Merida just turns and watches her with this super-smitten look the entire time. ~Moana teaches Merida some Maori. She teachers her how to say “I love you,” and, at Merida’s request, how to swear. ~Sometimes Moana calls Merida Maori words Mer doesn’t understand. Merida gets mad because she thinks Moana’s insulting her. It turns out she’s just calling Merida a bunch of super sappy Maori pet names. ~Sometimes Merida and Moana just like to talk shit about people who are pissing them off IN Maori, so they don’t understand. ~Whenever Merida absolutely goes OFF on someone for saying something homophobic or sexist or whatever, Moana just stands back and crosses her arms and smirks, and says “Thaaaat’s my girl!” It absolutely never fails to make Merida blush like a madwoman and start blubbering like an idiot and lose her original point completely. ~When they fight, they are SO stubborn, petty, and dramatic about it that they can stay mad at each other for DAYS. For really bad fights, they usually end up needing a mediator (in a RotBTD+ AU, I imagine this would be Rapunzel, Anna, or Hiccup). ~Angus and Pua are best friends. No, I will not be accepting criticism at this time. They get into lots of hijinks and shenanigans, and sometimes they sneak out together and Pua likes to ride around on Angus’s back. When Pua and Angus go missing, Mer and Mo just kind of sigh like “Oh, they’re out adventuring again, aren’t they?” ~Angus also always protects Pua so he never has to be scared of adventuring again!!! Pua still remembers his and Moana’s disastrous first sailing attempt, and Angus makes sure little Pua never gets into danger like that again. ~Hamish, Harris, and Hubert ship it SO hard! Moana turns out to be really good with kids, and has even been known to assist with the boys’ mischief from time to time. They definitely think Moana’s a good person to keep their sister’s chaos in check while not being TOO much of a boring wet blanket stifling her fun. ~Sina absolutely ADORES Merida and basically adopts her and treats her like a second daughter. After hearing Merida doesn’t have the best relationship with her own mom and feels like her mom doesn’t try to understand her or respect that she’s different from her, Sina gets like...SUPER angry and and starts doting on Merida to an almost annoying extent. She never wants Merida to have to feel forced into being someone she’s not, since she saw that with Moana and how much it absolutely KILLED her to be kept away from the ocean. ~Tui is leery of Merida at first, mainly because she seems like she’s going to be a bad influence on his daughter. However, he eventually comes around to her once he sees how much she loves his daughter, and they bond over both being ridiculously overprotective of Moana. ~Fergus also adores Moana, and basically knew Merida was gay from the jump--them dating is 0% a surprise to him. He’s honestly just glad that his daughter has someone more rational and down-to-earth to prevent her from doing anything TOO stupid. ~Elinor meanwhile, traditionalist that she is, is NOT about this whole lesbian thing and would probably be pretty homophobic...at least at first (steaming hot take, I know, she’s just got tradition so far up her ass I don’t know if she’d EVER be okay with her daughter choosing not only to forego marriage to man COMPLETELY--not just delay it--but marry a woman instead, who she couldn’t produce an heir with. Also sorry but I do not like her and probably will not portray her particularly favorably in my HCs sorry not sorry lmao) Maybe she comes around, maybe she doesn’t. I’ll leave that up to your imagination. Although I am not an Elinor fan so I think you already know my take XD ~Moana is grey-asexual grey-aromantic, so she CAN be sexually and romantically interested in people, it’s just...very rare. Merida is basically the only person she’s ever wanted to legit date. Maybe she likes boys too, but she wouldn’t know--she hasn’t found any she’s into thus far. Merida, meanwhile, has always been a raging lesbian, and has had lots of crushes on girls over the years (in an AU where she has the opportunity to, anyhow--ARE there even any girls her age in Dunbroch??? XD). When her parents would read storybooks to her as a kid, she’d always finding herself getting doe-eyed over the “fair maidens” rather than the fearless, ripped warriors who saved them from danger.  No crush ever hit her quite as hard as Moana did, though. But Merida knows for a damn fact she isn’t into men--90% of the time she can’t stand them and their antics, and the only men she’s ever really felt any kind of affection for are ones in her family or ones who remind her of one or more of her family members. ~Moana makes Merida flower crowns. Merida grumbles endlessly about how “girly” they are, so Moana hunts down some black flowers to make one with so it’ll look a bit more badass and intimidating. Merida absolutely LOVES it and wears it everywhere. ~Merida teaches Moana how to horseback ride and how to shoot a bow and arrow. She’s pretty not great at either at first, but Merida is incredibly patient with her. This shocks everyone around them, because since when is Merida patient with anyone? ~Merida also teaches Moana swordplay, and they LOVE to spar with each other. Agressive flirting during sparring sessions is very commonplace. If anyone attacks either Dunbroch or Motunui, Merida and Moana are a force to be reckoned with. ~Likewise, Moana teaches Merida how to sail and some kinda basic naval combat skills (i.e. how to shoot that harpoon gun or whatever it was she used to fight the kikimora off). ~They don’t have sex that often because neither of them has that high of a sex drive, but when they do, Merida tops if a strap-on is used. ~Moana is the kind of person who just kinda sings songs to herself as she goes about her daily routine and her chores. Merida loves to listen in because she thinks Moana has the prettiest singing voice on earth. That doesn’t stop her from teasing Moana about “singing all the got dam time,” though. ~Literally ALWAYS cuddling and kissing when they’re watching something together or just doing any kinda idle activity at home together. These girls cannot keep their hands off of each other. They hold hands in public pretty much everywhere they go, and Merida yells at anyone who makes a fuss about it.

Modern AU ~They meet while Merida is studying abroad in Tahiti. Maybe because Maui (who’s Moana’s cousin or older brother or something) has a tattoo parlor, and of COURSE Merida goes in to get some edgy bow and arrow tattoo to piss her mom off. Or maybe Merida is just snorkeling in one of the coves on one of her days off, and she runs into Moana and they just Vibe. ~I also like the idea of them meeting at a bar/nightclub type place in Papeete--like maybe Maui owns the nightclub because he just likes to party like that, and he lets his little sis Moana poke around in there because he’s lowkey a terrible influence XD And maybe one night Moana’s bartending to make a little extra cash and Merida comes in and gets really drunk on like a huge Sex on the Beach or something and starts really clumsily hitting on Moana and Moana gets SUCH a kick out of it. Merida can’t remember much of the flirting the next day, but she and Moana still become fast friends. ~Merida is constantly ditching class to sneak off and go see Moana. Her grades are plummeting. ~When the semester abroad is over, they promise to keep in touch over the internet--although Moana also wants to write letters because she loves the idea of having a pen pal. Merida teases her mercilessly for being so “old-fashioned” but also doesn’t have the heart to say no. ~They end up confessing they like each other over internet chat. Merida damn well knows she’s gay and has for a while now, but she’s terrified of telling Moana she’s into her because she’s really scared Moana’s straight. So when Moana is the one who ends up confessing to Merida, Merida has literally never been happier in her entire life. ~Once Merida graduates, they decide to just say “fuck it” and move to some big seaside city together (for some reason I really like the idea of them living in Los Angeles???). Merida needs to get away from her overbearing mom and Moana just really wants to see more of the world besides the South Pacific, so away they go! ~BROADWAY MUSICAL NERDS BROADWAY MUSICAL NERDS BROADWAY MUSICAL NERDS! They both fucking LOVE musicals, especially those with sapphic undertones (Wicked, anyone?), and will loudly and obnoxiously sing along to the soundtracks, much to the chagrin of all their neighbors. They’re also pretty big theater fans in general--especially Merida, always rather the dramatic type. ~At some point they save up and go to see Wicked on Broadway together. The trip ends up being one of their all-time favorites, and their fridge is covered in goofy, dumb selfies of them in New York. ~Moana goes to every SINGLE one of Merida’s archery tournaments, and every single game of any other sport she plays. Literally no one cheers more boisterously or enthusiastically than Moana does. Whenever Merida hits a bullseye or scores a goal, Moana grins and nudges the people next to her (even if they’re complete fucking strangers) and goes “That’s my girlfriend!!!” ~Merida is a goddamn punk, and is always walking around in spiked jackets, combat boots, and basically any other clothing that says “don’t fuck with me.” She tried to start a punk rock band once, but it ended up falling through because no one would sponsor Merida’s angry screamo songs about smashing the patriarchy. Moana still went to all of their tiny-ass, tacky concerts though, for the few months they were “touring” the city. ~Merida taught herself how to play electric guitar because she thinks it’s Edgy and Cool. Moana really likes to dance, and knows a fair number of traditional Polynesian dances and has even taught a class or two. Merida learns how to play some traditional Polynesian music on the electric guitar so she can play while Moana dances. The combination of hard rock-esque shredding and a very mellow island dance looks extremely bizarre to anyone watching, but the girls absolutely do not care.

@takaraphoenix I said I’d tag you in Moanida content I made and I am a woman of my word!!! Enjoy!!!

Please y’all, send me more asks about my ships!!! I love to talk about them!!!

[sevenkittensinatrenchcoat]

1998 Film Mungojerrie Rewatch Part 3

I’ve had the pictures saved for this for almost a week now, but if you’ve followed the other recent posts on this blog, you can see that I’ve gotten very sidetracked. I’ll probably continue to get sidetracked a lot, but the rewatches will continue.

Now, it’s time once again for The Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles and The Rest of the Absurdly Long Full Title Rumpus Cat!

But, the twins skipped rehearsals and Jerrie is about to reach peak Doesn’t Know What’s Going On. While Rumpleteazer seems to be able to awkwardly improvise through it with cues from Munkustrap, her brother, with the smaller half of the braincell, is hopelessly lost the entire time. 

As everyone gets into place, Jerrie talks to Jemima, asking what’s going on now. She can’t help him now, since there’s no time to explain. He’ll just have to go to stage right and try his best.

And that’s who Mungojerrie ended up with a shoe on his head, boxes on his paws, an no time to change out of his crop top before it got covered in even more garbage, with absolutely no idea why any of this is happening. Jerrie’s probably had weirder nights out than this, but at least he thought he did something cool in all those stories.

We’ve already gone over the routine of Jerrie messing up his barks, but, not only did Munkustrap point to each twin when it was their turn, not only did Teazer also start pointing to help Jerrie out when he messed up, Jerrie points to Teazer on her first turn, demonstrating some comprehension of how this is supposed to work. And he still doesn’t get it.

He barks twice again, despite everyone, himself included, being aware that this wasn’t right.

Munkustrap can’t figure out if Jerrie’s doing it on purpose or if he’s just that stupid. Really, it could be either one. If he is doing this to troll, Teazer wasn’t in on it and is ashamed to have been involved at all.

Munkustrap suggests that Jerrie should just forget it and go get in line with the other toms. There’s no line forming at the moment, so Jerrie still doesn’t get it and conditions are not about to improve. Teazer laments her existence. 

While Munkustrap prays to every possible feline deity for strength, Jerrie decides to let Pouncival go ahead of him in the line. He assumes that Pouncival was at the rehearsals and knows what they’re supposed to do, so he’ll just follow him. As a kitten, with parents that would care if he skipped rehearsals, Pouncival probably did attend them. He just really wasn’t paying attention. He also never realized that his costume didn’t quite fit and he couldn’t see out of his shoebox. But, Pouncival always likes to be the first to show up to everything, so he’s the one who volunteered to take the lead. You can see Responsible Adults in the line. Asparagus knows what he’s doing. Even Alonzo or Coricopat probably know, but Pouncival went first in rehearsals because Mungojerrie wasn’t there, so they’re used to it by now.

After a lot of nearly crashing into things and going the wrong way, Munkustrap decides that Pouncival needs to be stopped. Jerrie Doesn’t Know What’s Going On. Why are they stopping? How was he supposed to know that Pouncival was leading them the wrong way? Why can’t they just keep going?

After that fiasco, Asparagus gives Jerrie a talking-to. Jerrie wonders why he’s in more trouble than Pouncival is. All of this is very hard to see because the Scottish Pollicles are hard to ignore. Skimble’s a cat who cannot be ignored by his admission and the camera thinks Misto’s the main character.

Enter Tugger on the bagpipes. Jerrie Doesn’t Know What’s Going On. But, this time, nobody does, except for Tugger himself and Pouncival who was in on it. It’s why he didn’t pay attention during rehearsals. He was starstruck that Tugger wanted to conspire with him of all people.

When everyone gets caught up barking, Jerrie Doesn’t Know What’s Going On, so he’s the only one who’s actually behaving himself. That literally never happens, so the idea that he’s become the well-behaved one probably sends him spiraling into an existential crisis.

Coricopat and Jerrie, apparently independently of one another, because they’re looking opposite directions, both decide that since Doggo Go Pant they should have their tonbues out like panting dogs.

And as everyone cowers in fear of the Great Rumpus Cat, Jerrie Doesn’t Know What’s Going On and just points.

Everything I have to say about Jerrie during the Song of the Jellicles basically applies to Teazer as well. But, the two eventually separate and while Teazer stays up front with the her queen friends, Jerrie wanders off and ends up hanging out with Tantomile. It’s really hard to tell Coricopat and Tantomile appear from a distance, but I’m pretty sure it’s her, because throughout the first part of the Jellicle Ball, Jerrie and Tantomile are consistently right next to each other.

You can see that when everyone gathers together to watch a plane go by and then hiss at the camera, Mungojerrie is between Teazer and Tantomile, because she was who he was standing closest to when they flocked together.

You might be wondering why I keep pointing this out, because two character happening to be standing next to one another for a while doesn’t really mean anything, but I think that this might’ve been supposed to mean something and I’ll explain why.

So, we have this Big Sexy Dance where the younger adult queens (and Etcetera) dance and Tugger leads a group of toms to join them. Jerrie is not one of those toms. He spends the scene sitting on the car, watching from a distance. Jenny’s there too, so I guess he’s taking time to say hi to his mom. What a nice young man!

Skimbledad comes along to join the family as the toms and queens pair off. Alonzo dances with Etcetera and George with Cassandra, though they switch partners for the Can’t Believe It’s a Mating Dance. Since Alonzo and Cassandra already appear to be a thing, I don’t know why they didn’t do this before. Etcetera isn’t supposed to be here and Alonzo just decides that since this dance is already becoming an inappropriate disaster, he might as well make a contribution.

Tugger is with Bomba, which is to be expected. They’re basically Friends With Benefits. Plato and Demeter is a bit random, but since Victoria’s not an option Plato has to go with someone else. Why her and not Tantomile? I mean, that’s left poor Coricopat dancing with his sister while most of the other guys are getting to sexy dance with women they’re not related to.

Well, I think this is because, for whatever reason, whether in-universe or out, Coricopat wasn’t actually supposed to be part of this dance at all. Mungojerrie was. If he’d been cozying up to Tantomile before, he’d obviously pair off with her, leaving Plato and Demeter as the only two left.

Tugger leads a group of toms in another dance later, and it’s all the same toms that he leads here: George, Plato, and Alonzo. But, Coricopat is swapped out for Mungojerrie. What if Mungojerrie was supposed to be one of Tugger’s Boys in both dances? Putting him close to Tantomile earlier in the ball would build up to that and since this particular dance is a bit more sexualized than some of the other dances, having two siblings together wouldn’t have fit the pattern.

During the whole Jellicle Ball, Mungojerrie ends up in the back of the crowd quite a bit with Rumpleteazer is usually right up front, on of the more featured dancers. Since we’ve already seen Jerrie and Teazer’s number, they’re equally skilled dancers, so it’s not like they were trying to hide Drew Varley because he wasn’t good enough. But, combined with his absence from Tugger’s number, I think something was going on there. Varley was playing Mungojerrie on stage during this time, so maybe he was getting tired out from doing the show at night and they decided to lighten the load for him during the filming, but he wasn’t the only one in this situation. Jo Gibb, who played Rumpleteazer was in the exact same situation. This whole thing might just be a bunch of really weird coincidences, for all I know. I don’t doubt the qualifications of anyone involved, but this is odd.

So, pretty that Jerrie dances with Tantomile instead of Coricopat. It makes more sense that way.

Mungojerrie’s back for the ballet, but ballet’s not his style, so He Doesn’t Know What’s Going On. Teazer, on the other hand, appears to be hard at work to impress Victoria, the Ballet Queen of the Jellicles.

Okay, Not Mating Dance Time. All pairs of twin siblings end up together for this bit. Coricopat and Tantomile sit next to each other and stare out into space. Meanwhile, Rumpleteazer is really into watching the Platoria action while Mungojerrie is pretty much already asleep, only looking up occasionally. Both Plato and Jerrie are in the club of Tugger’s Boys and both Victoria and Teazer are part of the Hormonal Trio, so they’re both watching their friends hook up here, which has to an interesting experience.

This bit should’ve been in the Teazer rewatch, but I didn’t catch it until later. When everyone falls asleep in the Cuddle Pile, Tugger wraps his arm around a nearby leg. The lighting at this angle made it hard to see whose leg it was, so I, because I have no life, went frame by frame through this portion of the Jellicle Ball and watched the Cuddle Pile form to see where limbs were ending up. I took a bunch of screenshots of everyone’s journey from pairing off to the Cuddle Pile, because why not do that while I was there. But, I eventually figured out that The Leg is Rumpleteazer’s. She tried to cozy up to Tugger when everyone was pairing off and he appeared to turn her down, but I guess he’s humoring her a bit by cuddling with her in the Cuddle Pile.

Jerrie doesn’t acknowledge Grizabella at all, so I’ll just end on this picture of Tugger’s Boys because of my previous claims. George is hiding, but Coricopat and Jerrie definitely swapped out.

[cursebreaker-lilith]

I said I was gonna do this like a month ago and I’m late as usual lolol Anyways, have Fiona~

BASICS

Name: Fiona Fraser

Nicknames: TBD

Name Meaning: Anglicization of the Gaelic word meaning white or fair.

Gender: Cis Female

Pronouns: She/her

Age: 15

Birthday: August 20, 1875 (? Year depending on when the game is set)

Zodiac: Leo

Blood Status: Half-blood

Ethnicity/Nationality: Brazilian-Scottish

Sexuality: TBD

Appearance

Body:

Height: 158cm / 5′2

Build: Lean with light muscles

Eyes: Dark brown

Hair: Dark brown, slightly curly. Long and usually held back in a messy braid.

Skin: Light brown with freckles

Misc: Several small and mostly unnoticeable scars across her hands and ankles from dealing with animals

Material Items:

Clothing: Generally wears clothing meant for sports or plain trousers. Uncaring of most conventions for women’s clothing, considers them more guidelines than rules. Really only wears them because she’ll get in trouble with the school or because her sister wants her to.

Accessories: Not fond of wearing anything that could be easily yanked off of her body.

In their school bag: Wand, journal, animal treats, encyclopedia of common Scottish plants, another journal, textbooks, medical book, some rocks that she thinks are cool, at least have a dozen quills (she loses them frequently)

Reference:

Face Claim: TBD

Voice Claim: TBD

Personality

Traits:

+  friendly, observant, quick learner, athletic, extroverted, courteous

+/— independent, curious, quirky, blunt, impulsive, idealistic

— selfish, withdrawn, thoughtless, unreliable, flighty, forgetful

Description:

Fiona has always wanted to do things her way, and clashed with her grandfather because of this. Loves to go off on her own.

Loves learning. Mainly of the natural world, but she loves any fun trivia. Not great at learning in the usual classroom setting however.

She may not be the best at making friends, but she definitely puts her all into being cheerful and courteous.

Other:

Likes: Animals, nature, exploring, puzzles and logic, cool rocks or leaves or bugs

Dislikes: Being told what to do, sitting still, being inside, not receiving an explanation for why she can or can’t do something

MBTI: ENTP

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Hogwarts

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

OWL Classes:

Astronomy: 4/10 (A)

Charms: 7/10 (E)

DADA: 5/10 (A)

Flying: 5/10 (A)

Herbology: 8/10 (O)

History of Magic: 2/10 (P)

Potions: 6/10 (P)

Transfiguration: 6/10 (E)

OWL Electives:

Care of Magical Creatures: 10/10 (O)

Divination: 2/10 (P)

NEWT Classes:

Care of Magical Creatures: 10/10 (O)

Charms: 8/10 (E)

Herbology: 9/10 (O)

Extracurriculars:

Clubs: TBD

Quidditch: Doesn’t play Quidditch, but thinks it looks fun

Prefect or Head Boy/Girl: TBD

Best Classes:

Care of Magical Creatures Fiona has always had a fascination for the natural world and a gift in dealing with it, so it’s no surprise she immediately takes to the class.

Herbology See above. She also would frequently help her sister with gardening.

Worst Classes:

History of Magic Anything with book learning is hard for her.

Astronomy See above. She thinks it’s much more interesting than History of Magic though and at least tries to do well.

Divination She thought it would be fun but turned out to be about as poor of a Seer as possible.

Favorite Professors:

TBD

Least Favorite Professors:

TBD

Magic

1st Wand: Chestnut, Phoenix feather, 11 �� in, springy

This is a most curious, multi-faceted wood, which varies greatly in its character depending on the wand core, and takes a great deal of colour from the personality that possesses it. The wand of chestnut is attracted to witches and wizards who are skilled tamers of magical beasts, those who possess great gifts in Herbology, and those who are natural fliers. However, when paired with dragon heartstring, it may find its best match among those who are overfond of luxury and material things, and less scrupulous than they should be about how they are obtained. Conversely, three successive heads of the Wizengamot have possessed chestnut and unicorn wands, for this combination shows a predilection for those concerned with all manner of justice.

Special Abilities: Able to see Ancient Magic

Boggart

Form: Herself, stuck to the floor and unable to move (representing being stuck in one place and unable to explore)

Riddikulus: Her plain gown turns into something ridiculous and she unsticks a foot only to fall on her butt

Amortentia

What they smell: TBD

What they smell like to others: Citrus, petrichor, lavender

Patronus

Form: Leopard

Memory: The first time she successfully healed a wounded animal and released it into the wild.

What they see in the Mirror of Erised: Her with her mother, father, and sister travelling the world

FAMILY

Sister: Fenella Fraser

Her identical twin sister. The two are very different, but very close due to the fact that they only had each other growing up. Fiona is very protective of her sister, but is also interested in seeing how things will go now that they don’t live in the same room anymore.

Grandfather: Alasdair Fraser

Fenella and Fiona were raised by their grandfather on a rural and isolated farm in Scotland since they were a baby. He was very strict and very paranoid and refused to let the girls go to Hogwarts, homeschooling them with help from Isla, who their grandfather barely tolerated. He died suddenly from illness when they were 15.

Father:  Thiago Gonçalves

A Brazilian Muggle-born who was fond of travelling and adventure. Went to Castelobruxo and was an eager student. Currently missing.

Mother: Catrìona Fraser

A Scottish pureblood raised by her strict father. Never went to Hogwarts and homeschooled by him. Left his house the second she was old enough and ran off to find an adventure. Currently missing.

Guardian: Isla MacLean

A pureblood witch who lives nearby to the Fraser farm and one of the few aware of its location. Alasdair would (begrudgingly) invite her over every two weeks or so to help teach Fenella and Fiona as Isla worked as a tutor to younger wizarding children at the nearby town. Not knowing anyone else, when their grandfather died, the two girls went to her to help deal with his death and what comes after. She has reluctantly become their caretaker/guardian for when they aren’t at Hogwarts.

Pets:

Angel An angry old tomcat that they used as a rat catcher on their farm.

Has always been fond of taking care of wounded animals, or any that live on her grandfather’s farm and considered all of them her pets too.

FRIENDS

Best Friends:

Fenella Fraser Her sister, see above.

Good Friends:

TBD

Friends:

TBD

It’s Complicated:

TBD

Love Interests:

TBD

Dormmates:

TBD

Doesn’t Interact:

TBD

Enemies:

TBD

Story

Childhood:

Homeschooled by her strict grandfather and a neighbour before his death. After that, they went to live with the neighbour for several months and she became Fenella and Fiona’s caretaker and guardian before shuffling them off to Hogwarts.

Fiona was always in trouble with her grandfather. She didn’t like being told no without a reason why and frequently broke his rules to go off exploring on her own. She still loved him and was sad when he died, but was excited to be able to properly learn things at a school.

Hogwarts:

Was also quite shocked to be separated from her sister when they were Sorted into different Houses. She took it much better than Fenella however and quickly tried to make friends in Ravenclaw. Turned out to be not great at school, but always had fun with the Ravenclaw door’s riddles.

Adulthood:

TBD

Miscellaneous

Has ADHD but it’s undiagnosed because 1800s

Decent at art, at least when it comes to drawing animals or plants.

Has her own family curse related to Ancient Magic that I will probably expand more on when the games comes out lol

[indigobackfire]

HPHM OC Profile ✧

Phoenix Nobleworth

" You're like a poisonous flower, Phoenix. Beautiful and inviting with all your colors and aromas and deadly force. "

Full Name: Phoenix Lazar Nobleworth Silverwood

Nicknames: Pheny. Birdy (by some of his Hufflepuff friends). Nobleworth. Silverwood (by Snape out of spite).

Gender: Male.

Birthday: 12th of May, 1973.

Born: Deva, Transylvania, Romania.

Mother: Biological: Antonia Lazar, full Veela. Adoptive: Clarin (née Tramer) Silverwood.

Father: Biological: Emilian Nobleworth, Scottish, Half-Veela, Gryffindor. Adoptive: Palmer Silverwood.

Siblings: Jacob Silverwood (b. 1968), Indigo Silverwood (b. 1973).

Ethnicity: Romanian, Scottish.

Species: Veela.

Sexuality: Heterosexual.

MBTI Type: IN(TorF)P-T (I can't decide, so he's both).

Blood Status: Half-blood (I think.)

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff.

Appearance

Eyes: His eyes are a shade between green and blue with very light tones of lilac depending on the light. But due to his Veela powers he can change them into an shape or color he likes.

Hair: A light shade of golden blonde, wavy, usually grown below his chin. (At some point, he dyed a strand turquoise to impress his crush, I know, wild.)

Height: He's reasonably tall usually towering by little other boys, with long legs.

• He's got those handsome looks expected from a full Veela, structural face but round features give him a soft look. He's very strong despite his slim figure. His skin is pretty fair but he has a myriad of scars from past transformations.

• He's told he's a perfect mixture of his parents which gives him a friendly and suave look that easily turns authoritative and seductive when he uses his Veela powers of seduction.

Veela Form: Different from what's described in canon, I like to imagine Veelas having feathers that differ from people to people. Phoenix's feathers are fair golden with the inner side of his wing in shades of red, the feathers go up to the knees and elbows while hands and feet become bird-like with long black talons. His features and ears become sharper, and his teeth, fangs. His eyes turn silver-white when he turns by his will and bright yellow when forced to turn.

Transformation is hardly ever painless and he often hurts himself and takes longer to heal because of the Veela blood. Both spells and potions don't work as effectively, which is why he fights to control his temper, beyond the fact he can end up hurting somebody else.

Transformation occurs when he's either angry, instigated or when someone pulls out a string of his hair. Unless for the latter, he has partial control over his transformation/consciousness (nevertheless requiring practice and focus).

Magical Aspects

Wand: Pearwood with Veela hair core and an amber stone for stability, 14'' and flexibility. "Pearwood produces wands of splendid magical powers, which give of their best in the hands of the warm-hearted, the generous, and the wise, also among the most resilient." Veela's hair core is known to be temperamental — which is why Olivander had trouble making Phoenix's wand, having to insert molten amber to the torn wand for stability. The hair came from one shed by his mother which they used to keep stored for such use.

Patronus: Thunderbird. The Thunderbird is a large, magical avian beast native to North America. A close relative of the Phoenix. They can create storms as it flies and is highly sensitive to danger. They possess three pairs of powerful wings and have feathers that shimmer with cloud-like patterns.

Patronus memory: The day his wizard powers started presenting themselves — he stopped a sculpture from falling on his dad's head within a beat of his heart — and they had a real feast that night.

Veela Abilities: Beyond the popular ability to seduce - which really began when he turned 14 -, Veelas can also dwell and create fire from their hands in human form but requires training to control.

Boggart:

Penny (in specific because he hates to see her cry) holding his dead sister, hurt and bleeding, and hearing Penny say how could he have done that, because he's terribly afraid of losing his control and hurting Indigo.

Riddikulus: Penny tuns into Tonks and Indigo wakes up saying it was ketchup and makeup all along.

Amortentia: Regular burning candles, purple passionfruit, the smell of the house/apartment he lives in with his family, Peppermint tea, and the smell of fresh clay.

Once he gets over the fear of losing control somewhere around the end of his 4th year, his boggart in year 5 turns into Inferius versions of his parents after he learns about them in DADA, but even worse than described in the textbooks, with bugs crawling out of their mouths, a half-rotten dragon head on their lap and clothes stained with nearly black blood.

He has a hard time using Riddikulus on that one.

Miscellaneous

Pets: A Flama Squirrel (I made up from a real one), a magical squirrel that sets itself on fire when threatened, mostly predated by smaller breeds of dragons and Chimeras. The Flama's liver is commonly used in Erumpent potion with the intention of increasing its property but its lack doesn't spoil the potion, and their glands used to be common in perfumes for aphrodisiac fragrances until they started going extinct from excessive hunting.

Things he always carries with him: His wand, a chocolate bar, his favorite quill, a flask of water, and his class schedule cause he forgets them very often.

Lucky Amulets: A feather from his mom and another from his dad that he can wear on his hair and does on special occasions.

Best Friends

His sister, but as I did for her, I want to write their relationship in another post.

Aspen: Not only his cousin but also one of his best friends. Their personalities clash, her being outspoken and feral, and him being softer and more collected, yet they can't live without each other. He considers himself her protector, but from how savvy she is, it's her who ends up protecting him most times.

Boy!Rowan: His first Hufflepuff friend having met at the Hogwarts Express on their first ride. Rowan is his best friend and partner in crime. They usually spend time reading, walking open fields, and helping his sister with her plans of finding the cursed vault. Rowan supports him with tests and homework when his personal life gets overwhelming.

Chiara: They easily bond after he finds out her secret about being a werewolf, and they share support and help in times of instability. They like going out on picnics and to watch the creatures in the reserve. They actually enjoy dueling each other for fun, it's cute.

Penny: His first crush while still a boy in Hogwarts, he enjoys her company from her confidence and overall bright personality. Despite growing out of his affection for her, they're still good friends and enjoy each other's company. He offers a comforting shoulder when her relationship with her sister gets tricky.

Diego: He and Diego take a long time until they officially hit it off. Diego's personality being too grandiose and extroverted for Phoenix's taste. But as soon as he discovers that Aspen has a mad crush on him, goes out of his way to find out more about him, not trusting him to be a proper suitor for her. Despite his opinions, with time, their relationship evolves into a sincere friendship from Diego's good humor and adventurous heart.

Badeea: The one person he never thought he'd be friends with considering her intellectual (Ravenclaw-like) demeanor and collected attitude. But one day, when she gathers the courage to call him to pose for one of her paintings, he finds out she shared the exact same thoughts about him. Their friendship is quiet-like and profound, they share their thoughts about recent reads and go stargazing.

Orion: He first interacts with Orion when his sister joins the Gryffindor quidditch team and never he would've guessed how much Orion would mean to him. But with time he learns that Orion's presence is a suave and soothing one, and when he confronts Orion about how he can be that way, he decides to guide him into spiritual and mental balance. They meditate, chill and bond over shared experiences -- both being orphans, cool-headed, and deeply compassionate people.

Dormmates: It's him, Rowan, Diego, and two muggle-born boys, Lance and Edward, through which they learn a lot from the muggle world.

Academics

Favorite Classes:

History of Magic (when his friends are teaching)

Herbology

Ancient Runes*

Divination

Least Favorite:

Potions

Arithmancy

Favorite Professor: Minerva McGonagall. She's just so thoughtful and poise, the coolest animagus and the most powerful witch he knows.

Least Favorite: Snape for obvious reasons. He doesn't hate Snape but he also rather not be in his presence in potions class.

Quidditch: He cheers for Gryffindor when his sister is playing against the other houses, but his allegiance is to Hufflepuff. Imagine his excitement when Cedric Diggory joined the team and came down slaying with his abilities.

Yum,yum my Hufflepuffy boy, I love him. Can't wait to get into more detail about his past and romantic relationships.