#but i would really like to see this trio in action. throw boat in with these two and he would crank up the chaotic energy to 11

[pankomako]

i would pay actual money to see these three on stream together. three new englander gamers with very little sanity left

[violettelueur]

— KUGISAKI NOBARA || MAYBE ANOTHER TIME

↳ featuring : kugisaki nobara from jujutsu kaisen

↳ warnings : grammar issues and spoilers for non-manga readers

↳ spoiler warnings : chapter 37-38

↳ form : imagine

↳ published : 20 january

↳ pronouns : she/her

↳ word count : 1.6k

↳ request : Hii!! May i request a Nobara Kugisaki x fem reader imagine, in which she has a crush on them and its obvious to everybody except her? Maybe throw in some angsttttt?? (This is the anon that requested smth similar to this)

↳ barista’s notes : let me admit, with the scenario i made, i don’t think i was able to put any angst into it ʕ ﾟ ● ﾟʔ but i hope you really like it! also the next imagine will be staring mr. gojo satoru - the man that has everyone leaving their significant others hehehe ʕ￫ᴥ￩　ʔ but other than that, i hope you enjoy you cup of classic black coffee (jujutsu kaisen request!) and please come to the cafe again soon ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ☆

“Itadori, Fushiguro, this is really important announcement that I have to make.”

Both of the mentioned sorcerers looked upon their classmate with utter confusion painted on their faces as they weren’t sure on the current reason why Kugisaki had commanded them to have a meeting together without you involved. However, Itadori and Fushiguro didn’t express any disagreements due to knowing how the female sorcerer could become when she got either annoyed or extremely irritated.

“I, Kugisaki Nobara, have a crush on L/N Y/N,” Kugisaki suddenly announced causing both of the boys to look at her with surprise before unexpectedly declaring to the weapons sorcerer, “we already knew that,” leading Kugisaki to look at Fushiguro and Itadori with widened eyes of utter shock before immediately slamming her hands on the table they were sitting at as she swiftly stood up.

“HUH?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ALREADY KNOW?” Kugisaki angrily shouted as she intensely eyed her two classmates trying to find the reason or reasons on how they already had knowledge of her unrequited feelings towards you.

“I can’t lie, your feelings are quite obvious Kugisaki,” Itadori carefully mentioned, as he didn’t want to anger the female sorcerer more to which he then continued by saying, “but I don’t think L/N knows about them at all,” leading Kugisaki to drop back into her chair as she then slumped on her chair in relief due to the salmon-haired boy’s comment.

While on one end, Kugisaki was extremely content on the fact that you have no acknowledgement of her feelings towards you but on the other hand, she was frustrated that her actions towards you weren’t getting through to you at all and that she was somewhat nervous to confess to you, leading to the orange-haired girl to groan in frustration to which was caught on by both Fushiguro and Itadori.

“I don’t think there is anything to be scared about,” Itadori quickly mentioned as he tried to calm his friend down before leading his statement with, “so what are you worried about?”.

“She’s worried that L/n is only attracted to men,” Fushiguro bluntly stated, causing Kugisaki to quickly look at the shikigami user with a death glare before instantly flopping back into the dis-hearted position she was in previously.

‘Don’t be too blunt, you idiot’

However, she couldn’t argue with Fushiguro, she was completely and extremely worried at the fact that you only were attracted to men. To be honest, your actions didn’t help either whenever the four of you were on missions together.

From what she could recall since the day she arrived at the capital, Kugisaki thought you were gorgeous the second she laid eyes on you when you stood between Fushiguro and Itadori in front of Harajuku Station and she wasn’t the only one. When everyone was making their way to Roppongi, you were stopped by quite a few modelling scouts along the way to which you, of course, rejected due to your occupation of being a first-year jujutsu sorcerer only for one of the scouts to become physical with his persuasion leading to your childhood friend Fushiguro to step in and help dissolve the situation.

‘Ugh, she probably likes Fushiguro’

However, other than your physical appearance, what Kugisaki loves about you the most was your determination and strength. She clearly remembered when you were with her and Panda during the Kyoto Sister School Goodwill Exchange event and you had somehow managed to defeat Muta so quickly despite being a grade lower than him causing her feelings towards you to only manifest even more than she had anticipated from the start.

“Fushiguro, what’s L/N type since you are her closest friend?” Itadori then curiously asked, as he wanted to help Kugisaki with the whole ‘feeling towards you but doesn’t know if you like females’ situation - but he also didn’t want to be a victim with her wrath like he had been many times before.

“She never really told me what her type was,” Fushiguro muttered as he continued reading his book that he had taken out in the middle of Kugisaki’s breakdown leading to Kugisaki to place her forehead on the table with shame as she began to recall that her two classmates right in front of her was no help at all - in fact, Itadori and Fushiguro were both useless when it came to the topic of you. 

“Ahhhh Fushiguro, she probably likes you,” Kugisaki muttered under her breath as she then lifted her head up to send other menacing death glare towards the sorcerer causing the shikigami user to somehow feel shivers as he felt the dark aura exhibiting from the girl’s body.

“Fushiguro is handsome, but that doesn’t make me like him at all.”

Suddenly, upon hearing that comment, Kugisaki shot straight up and quickly looked to the side, only to find you leaning forward across the table as you gape at your childhood friend before pulling the extra seat out that was next to your now flustered classmate leading to some questions to swim in your mind.

“What are you guys talking about now? I feel left out, to be honest,” you asked, as you took your seat leading to the trio to uncharacteristically become silent.

‘Now this is awkward….’

Breaking the silence, you couldn’t help but question your three classmates further since you managed to hear some parts of the conversation they were having when you were walking around. “Did I disrupt something, because I can leave if you want,” you kindly offered, as you began to lift yourself up from your seat as quickly as you sat down. However, before you could fully stand up, Itadori quickly exclaimed that you didn’t need to leave and that he actually wanted to ask a few questions to you.

“L/N, would you rather have a male or female as your significant other?” Itadori suddenly asked you, leading you to look at your friend with slight confusion displayed on your face before looking around the table only to find that everyone else was also interested in your anticipated answer - even Fushiguro seemed to be intrigued to your surprise.

“I don’t think that really matters, to be honest, I have no issue with gender at all,” you casually answered, leading to the trio internally sign in relief at your answer since Fushiguro and itadori didn’t want to see their friend disappointed, while Kugisaki realised that she still had a chance.

“Do you have a crush on someone right now?” Kugisaki questioned, trying to act natural and confident as she didn’t want to explicitly showcase any of her lingering anxiety in front of you.

“I do, but I’m scared that they might not even like me that way one single bit,” you replied with a light tone as you then playfully sighed in disappointment leading Kugisaki to counteract your statement in a frustrated tone, “what do you mean? I bet they really like you L/N a hell of a lot, it’s crazy to think otherwise!”.

“But what if she only likes guys though, ugh that’s such a drag,” you mentioned with extreme annoyance. However, this little statement of yours caused all three of the sorcerers with you right now to gape at you with broadened eyes.

‘Wait…’

‘She?’

‘ONLY LIKE GUYS?’

“L/N, YOU LIKE A GIRL?!” Itadori and Kugisaki screamed in shock, leading you to look at both of your energetic friends in extreme confusion before quietly commenting, “didn’t I just say that gender wasn’t an issue?”

“We can help if you want!” Itadori excitedly commented with a hint of shine in his eyes causing you to giggle slightly before saying, “thank you, but it’s fine, I’ll rather be friends with her than make things really awkward in the end,” leading to the lively duo to sit back down into their seats with a small pout on their faces.

“Why do you look so disappointed? That’s the reality of crushes you know, once you confess there is no going back no matter what answer you are given and it’s hella more awkward when they are the same gender as you when you get rejected,” you quickly explained as if you had experienced it - when in reality you haven’t at all.

“Yeah, but I like a girl as well, so we’re in the same boat,” Kugisaki confessed as she pointed at herself leading to you to look at her in shock as you didn’t accept your friend to be in the same situation as you. “I feel like she wouldn’t like me at all since I've given her some clues here and there but I do know that she likes girls, so I am kind of in the clear of that!” Kugisaki explained as she looked at you with hope in her eyes causing you to gently smile at her due to how cute she looked.

‘Ain’t she adorable?’

“Lucky you then,” you said with a small smile on your face as you turned to look at your other friends as they continued to ask questions about newly known crush leading you to answer them as briefly as possible since you didn’t want to reveal too much to them since you weren’t going to risk your secret to the girl that was next to you.

‘Maybe another time’ you and Kugisaki thought as you both continued to stare at the boys that were seated in front of you.

However, what they didn’t notice was how yours and Kugisaki’s hands were lightly brushing against each other under the table until you both unexpectedly linked your pinky fingers together causing a shy pale pink blush to appear on both your faces. 

‘Yeah, maybe another time’

© violettelueur 2021 : written and published by violettelueur - do not steal or repost

[skellebonez]

Smoke, Flasks, And Unfinished Tasks: Chapter 3

AO3 Link!

Chapter 1 Link!

Chapter 2 Link!

Summary: MK starts to realize things are a bit too familiar right now, an unspoken event is revealed, and someone else realizes other things. There is a lot to unpack.

Warnings: Mild violence and smoking at the tail end.

Chapter 3: Big Words Traveler, But Can You Back Them Up

Something felt... off. That's the only way MK could describe it. Off.

It reminded him of the Calabash when he thought about it, but was it even possible? When Jin and Yin had trapped him in that weird mechanical gourd thing they had tried to make everything perfect, barring those odd earthquakes and the glitches that his mind made excuses for ignoring at the time. Really, they were actually pretty bad at their scheme and he should have picked up on it a lot sooner. This time nothing felt perfect, however, everything felt... mostly normal.

The Monkey King kicked his butt in scheduled training and then lost matches in Monkey Mech and refused to stop until he had best out of 15. Mei and Red Son seemed to be acting like normal. No earthquakes. No glitches.

But his time in the Calabash had made him more observant of his surroundings and his mistake with Macaque had made him less trusting. The fact the weather station called for rain and it had not rained? That was just odd enough to catch his attention when the weather station hadn't messed up a forecast without someone attacking it or really messing something up, something that always got local news alerts sent to their phones and would have had Mei making fun of the poor sap who messed up by now, in the entire time he had a phone.

Something didn’t just feel off. Something was off. And just in case he was right he needed to play his cards carefully. Do something that wouldn’t raise suspicion.

“Hey, Monkey King?” He smiled, knowing that his expression was just fake enough that if the other were real he would call it in an instant. He would raise his eyebrow or ask him what was up or ask him what the look was for. “We have any snacks?”

“Yeah, bud, coming right up!” He just... smiled. Stood. Walked into the kitchen.

This was not The Great Sage Equal To Heaven.

This was not his mentor.

Well... Shit.

----------

“Wait, back up,” Mei turned from where she sat at the boat wheel. “What does that even mean?”

MK had gotten her to stop before they were nearly back to the City, feeling bad they stopped in such a poor spot for Red Son but determined to talk when they were seemingly alone. He’d played along and only grown more certain in his deduction that the person they were with was not the Monkey King. The more he paid attention the more certain he was that they weren’t on Flower Fruit Mountain either.

The mountain always smelled of four things. Flowers, peaches, dirt, and the slightest undertone of molten rock and ash from close by the Flaming Mountains. The more he tried to pick up the normal scents that would hit him they just seemed... muted, somehow. Like smelling them through a mask or like they were artificial. The rock and ash was nowhere to be found at all.

And there was more. He tried so hard to remember how he got to the mountain. Logically he knew they took a boat, they had to do that. There was a boat on the shore. But that was the first thing he remembered seeing. He could not remember the boat ride over, could not remember the walk to where they docked the boat at all, could barely remember anything past leaving Pigsy’s Noodles at all. Gaps in his memory were not an every day occurrence for him (despite Pigsy teasing him about forgetting to do his job, that was not the same thing).

The only things he knew for certain were real were Mei and Red Son. He’d almost let his anxiety get the better of him, memories of summoning monster trees with his stress being the thing that made him focus long enough to test the waters.

He knew that burying his face in their hair and smelling them was weird as hell, even given their close relationship that was pushing it way too far in comfort, but given scent was the most telling sense giving him pause he had to try once Monkey King was distracted. If it had been any other situation Mei and Red Son’s disturbed and confused faces (and the muffled “what the fuck dude” from Mei) would have been hilarious, but when he could clearly smell Mei’s tea tree shampoo mixed in with the ever present scent her bike’s motor oil he was certain she was real. He was almost certain when Red tensed up and flushed when he repeated the action, but the scent of slight burning and his overly expensive coconut oil and jasmine shampoo cemented the fact he was real as well.

He’d make up for making them uncomfortable after all this was over.

“Exactly what I said, that wasn’t Monkey King,” MK repeated, looking over the horizon at the city-scape. Still no rain. No clouds. It was half an hour until sundown. “I don’t... this is going to sound crazy... but I don’t think this is real.”

His companions looked at each other in clear concern and MK knew he would finally have to come clean. “MK, wh-”

“There’s something I never told any of you. Not even Monkey King. Just... promise you’ll listen to me?”

----------

When he finished recounting the long ago misadventure he had in Jin and Yin’s Calabash he couldn’t look Mei and Red Son in their eyes. Despite knowing he probably shouldn’t he felt guilty for keeping something that important a secret.

“Oh MK... That’s why you were so preoccupied with us not being perfect,” Mei said softly, standing to envelop her friend in a sudden hug that barely shook the boat. “I’m sorry for losing my cool with you back then.I should have known something was weird when you said that.”

A shaky breathe MK didn’t know he was holding escaped, grateful that they seemed to believe him immediately.

“No, I’m the one who should be sorry,” MK pulled away, giving Mei an awkward smile. Red Son had moved closer, and he shot him a smile as well when he placed a hand on his shoulder. “I should have told everyone when it happened, I just... I felt..” He trailed off, looking at the rainless city again. “We can unpack that later, right now we need to see if we’re really in another Calabash or if it’s something similar. If it is Jin and Yin again they’ve really stepped up their game.”

“I don’t think so...” Red Son said thoughtfully. He bit the end of his thumb nail, pacing the boat slowly in thought. “They seemed more preoccupied with just... having fun almost, last time. They didn’t seem to have an endgame past ‘capture the Monkie Kid’. What’s the end game? Why capture all three of us?”

“Yeah...” MK sighed, looking around carefully. “I dunno.. come to think of it, it all just feels different. This time it’s a lot closer and that is really scary if I’m being honest,” MK shuddered, not comfortable with how much better it was if he was really correct. “But it isn’t 100% accurate. Everything smells dull and Monkey King wasn’t picking up on things he normally would have.”

“Is that why you smelled o-”

“Unpacking later!”

“Why don’t we do what you did to get out last time?” Red Son interrupted, looking hopeful that he had solved the problem already. “We just have to find your staff.”

“Yeah that... that’s another problem...” MK bit his lip and held his hand up to his ear. The glow that lit from it illuminated the dawning horror on his friend’s faces as the staff materialized in his hand. They both seemed to regret not watching MK train that day when they realized what this meant. “That... may not work this time.”

----------

“You’re bleedin’ delusional!” The demon couldn’t help but groan out, pacing wildly in growing frustration. Before them both was a set of screens, watching the display of the trio’s conversation. The entire room looked like something right out of one of those American spy thrillers they’d seen, computers and monitors hooked up and showing a multitude of views. “I told you, you can’t just throw that many people in at once! It doesn’t matter how improved it is, it messes up, confuses the simulation! And-and you let ‘im keep the bloody staff! He’s-”

“Not getting out any time soon,” the other demon, seated comfortably in the only chair in the room, soothed. Their words were like poisoned honey and the first demon grimaced. How they let themselves be taken in by these words... they would never forgive themselves now, not after all of this. Not after what happened to- “Patience is what you and your brother lacked the first time. They don’t need to believe it, they just need to stay in it. Come now, you need to... relax.”

The first demon, the smaller demon, backed a step away as the seated one sat up straighter. They weren’t fast enough to get away from the clawed hand that gripped their throat, cutting off their air supply and pulling them far too close to the other’s face. No fight was given, they knew what would happen if they tried, and watched anxiously as the seated demon raised their forearm long smoking pipe to their lips to take a long drag on whatever foul concoction they had in it.

“Just rest Yin.” Their open mouth revealed colored smoke, sickeningly sweet and fruity smelling, swirling around inside before they loosened the grip on his throat to blow it directly into his face as he took a hasty breath of oxygen. "Perhaps you'll be more patient after a nice long nap."

The blue demon coughed when the other finally let him go, breathing deeply in the hopes he didn’t inhale as much smoke as he feared he did. As he tipped backward onto the ground he knew that was a fruitless thought. Now he laid on the ground with his head fuzzy and gaze filled with the equally unconscious visage of his elder brother.

The Gold and Silver demons... had really messed up...

[the-tiva-og]

His Ninjas

Final chapter of my fluffy fic for @talisbirthdaychallenge​!

Chapter 3: Like Ima Ninja, Like Daughter Ninja

“Cat town, cat town, cat town,” Tali sang, swinging her and her father’s joined hands as they departed the hotel. They set out toward Yanaka Ginza, a shopping street that Tony and Ziva wanted to visit to see the shrine and that they had lured Tali into agreeing by telling her that, on quiet mornings, there were sometimes stray cats roaming the streets.  Unfortunately, their first cat spotting took place as Tony was absorbed in reading his map and, not looking where he was going, trod on the tail of a black cat sunning himself on the sidewalk. The cat yowled and darted off and Tony jumped as though he had just stepped on a landmine.  “Daddy!” Tali cried out, “Did you hurt the kitty?!” “Not on purpose!” Tony insisted, looking for the cat. He spotted him, perched on a wall and watching Tony with a look that, Tony would insist, was pure hatred. “See,” he gestured toward the cat, who was now casually licking his tail, “he’s right over there, he’s fine.”

The rest of their visit to the neighborhood went smoothly, Tony was definitely more careful with where he placed his feet, but they spent most of the time looking at the traditional crafts and foods. They didn’t pass back by the wall for at least an hour. Tony initially sighed happily, seeing that the black cat had apparently found somewhere better to be. Then he heard Tali cooing, “Kitty, kitty, kitty.” Tony turned to see his daughter crouched and holding out her hand to the black cat, leaned cooly against a bicycle. It only took a few more coos from Tali before the cat was rubbing against her legs and purring happily while the girl giggled and gently pet his silky black fur. “Ima, look!” Tali called.  Ziva knelt beside her daughter and scratched the cat behind the ears, “He’s pretty, isn’t he, Tali?” “So cute!” Tali said with a smile, “Do you think he’s the same cat that Daddy stepped on?” Seeing how loving the cat was to his partner and daughter, Tony decided to kneel down and try giving the cat some attention. The cat walked toward him, sniffed, raised the hair on his back, and hissed at Tony before returning to Tali. “I would say that this is definitely the same cat your father stepped on,” Ziva said, fighting a laugh. Tony huffed and turned away, “We need to go so that we don’t miss our train.” Ziva rolled her eyes and stood, beckoning for Tali to follow.  “Bye, kitty!” she called, waving at the black cat and following her mother.  As the girl reached out to grab Ziva’s hand, she asked innocently, “Can we get a cat when we go home?” Tony could only grit his teeth.

--------------------

After a trip to an arcade and filling their bellies with gyoza, they arrived at an aquarium. Ever the animal lover, Tali always begged to visit zoos and aquariums. Tony always tried to sway her to pick an aquarium since they tended to be indoors and, in his opinion, didn’t smell like a county fair. The excited little girl pinballed from one exhibit to another, calling to her parents anytime she saw something notable.  “Daddy! Look! Stingrays!” she called out, watching with awe as a massive ray gracefully swam through the tank. Before Tony really had a chance to respond, she was at the next exhibit, calling, “Ima! An octopus! A real octopus!” The tank of reef sharks held her attention long enough for her parents to actually get to look around, but once she spotted a tunnel of jellyfish, they were back on their trek.

“Where does she get the energy?” Tony sighed, throwing his head back as Tali oohed at a tank of piranhas before trotting off to look at some salamanders. “You were an athlete,” Ziva commented while Tali called for her parents to hurry because she had found the seals, “are you telling me that you were not an energetic child?” “Look at the seals, you guys!” Tali insisted as they stood in front of the large icy tank, “Aren’t they cool?” “I had plenty of energy,” Tony quipped, Tali too absorbed in the animals to realize that her parents had not responded, “but this feels more like a Ziva trait.” “Ha!” Ziva laughed, “Of course you would say that.” Tony didn’t have a chance to ask her what she meant because Tali grabbed his arm, calling, “Daddy! Daddy! Look! It’s Dory and Nemo!” The final area of the aquarium was almost more excitement than Tali could handle. Between the otters and penguins, jumping fish and sea lions, the little girl was practically buzzing with excitement. 

This excitement only built as they went to the mall next door to get a snack and ended up finding a Snoopy store, Disney store, and something called the “Pokemon Center MEGA TOKYO,” that Tony never thought they would drag Tali out of. “How about we go to a park?” Tony offered as they left the mall, desperate to go somewhere that wouldn’t have Tali insisting on buying more souvenirs. Ziva, who was now holding the energetic child’s hand, quickly agreed and mentioned a park that they had found in the city guide. Tony found the dog-eared page and the trio set out for their next destination.

The park Tali and Ziva picked out turned out to be, essentially, a massive obstacle course.  “Perfect place for my ninja duo,” Tony joked, standing to the side while Ziva led Tali across a balance beam.  After a seemingly endless string of rope ladders, rope bridges, climbing walls, and rope nets, they reached a bridge made of a series of log platforms. Watching several people ahead of them wobble on the platforms, linger for too long, and begin to sink into the shallow pond, Tony shook his head. “Nope, I’m out,” he said. “I’ll wait for you guys here.” “Scared of a little water, Tony?” Ziva teased.  “I just don’t want to spend the rest of the day walking around in wet socks, Zee-vah,” he replied, “but if you think you’re so graceful, go right ahead.” Her eyes lit up with the challenge and she completed the obstacle with ease, Tali following a bit more clumsily behind her.  Next came a log bridge and a zipline, which Tony observed from the ground, teasing Ziva anytime she gave an indication of frustration. “Our little ninja’s got some skills,” Tony quipped as they watched Tali paddle a round wooden boat through the next obstacle, “still not wanting to admit that she gets that energy from you?” Ziva grinned, looking at their daughter with so much pride, “She does get that from me.” Tony laughed a little, wrapping his arm around Ziva’s shoulder and giving her a little squeeze as Tali clambered out of her boat and ran to the next obstacle. 

Another rope ladder, another zipline, another log bridge, and a rope swing led to a bathroom break. Tali came charging out of the bathroom, intent on finishing the course. She made it through most of the remaining obstacles only taking help from her parents with great reluctance. As she slid off the log slide at the end of the course, she made a running jump at Tony who reacted just in time to catch her. “I did it! Daddy, I did it!” she shouted, “I finished the ninja path!” “Hey, yeah, you did,” he said, squeezing her, “Great job, T-Bird, I’m proud of you.” “Does this make me a real ninja now?” Tali asked excitedly. Tony smiled and nodded, “Yeah, you’re a real ninja, just like Ima.” He tossed a wink at Ziva who smiled and rolled her eyes. “Just like Ima,” Tali said proudly, raising her head from her father’s chest. 

They took the train to Odaiba and spent the late afternoon playing in arcades and browsing in a retro candy store with Tony just as eager as Tali to buy all sorts of mysterious snacks and sweets. Ziva, however, insisted that this would not be eaten instead of a meal, leading Tony to snark, “You’re such a mom, David.” Which, between any other two people might have been an insult, but the smile shared between the couple made it clear that Tony was using the lighthearted jab to continue his assurance of Ziva’s role in their solidifying family.  The family ended up in a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, which Tony had spotted in the city guide and insisted that he had to see it in action. Like her father, the little plates crawling along the counter fascinated Tali. She wanted to grab the first one that she saw, but with a parent positioned on each side, her picks were a bit more policed.  They were cautious with her at first, letting her take egg, shrimp, and grilled pork nigiri, as well as a cucumber roll. Anything she didn’t finish was finished by either Tony or Ziva, but there wasn’t much of that. Despite being a picky baby, Tali had grown to be an adventurous eater, another thing that each parent would insist was a trait inherited from the other. She swiped a tuna nigiri from Tony’s plate and a salmon nigiri from Ziva’s. They began offering her half of everything that they took from the conveyor belt and were happily surprised to see how much of it Tali enjoyed. She barely even flinched at the heat of the wasabi on a piece of squid nigiri. However, she almost spat a piece of eel back onto the plate. Tony laughed a little at the disgusted face that she made while he ate the other piece. Fortunately, the only other similar incident took place when she excitedly grabbed a roll from the belt before Tony or Ziva could stop her. She smelled the sushi and tried to refuse to eat it. Ziva insisted that, since she took it off of the belt, she needed to be responsible and eat at least one piece of it. Tali whined and pouted for a while, but Ziva did not relent and eventually the little girl managed to eat the natto maki. Tony volunteered to eat the remaining pieces from the plate and they wore matching grimaces until they were able to wash the taste out of their mouths.  As they left the restaurant, Ziva praised their daughter for being such an adventurous eater with Tony adding that she even ate the “stinky bean thing.” Proud of herself, Tali puffed out her chest and walked with a purpose. 

“We’ve got some surprises for you when we get back to the hotel room,” Tony told Tali as they left the train station in Asakusa and began walking back to their hotel. Tali gasped, “More surprises?!” Tony held his hands up in a defensive pose, “Now, I can’t promise that they’ll be as good as a trip to Disneyland, but I think you’ll like them.” Ziva smiled at him, knowing what he had planned and also knowing that her morning run had taken her past a bakery today and that there was a small strawberry shortcake currently stashed away in the room’s refrigerator.  Tali skipped the rest of the way to the hotel and waited impatiently for the elevator. “Your surprise won’t be there until we are, kiddo,” Tony laughed, watching the little girl shift her weight from one foot to the other, a spitting image of her mother. Tali huffed as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. 

Once they got up to the room, Tony went to his computer to set up the surprise while Tali opened up a coloring book she had gotten at one of the plethora of shops they had visited on this trip. “Okay,” he called out, gesturing for the little girl to join him, “come sit in the chair and close your eyes.” Tali hopped off of the bed and rushed over to the desk. She clambered into the chair and squeezed her eyes shut tight.  “No peeking, okay?” Tony said, lightly, starting a program on the laptop.  The little girl clapped her hands over her eyes and nodded. “Alright, just give me a second, okay?” he said.  “Okay,” she agreed.  Familiar voices called out, “Happy birthday, Tali!” and her hands flew from her face and her eyes opened wide. “Uncle Tim! Uncle Jimmy!” she shouted, looking at the faces of her parents’ friends on the laptop in front of her, “Hi!” “Hey, kiddo, how’s Tokyo?” McGee asked. “Your dad said that you went to a ninja restaurant, that’s so cool,” Palmer added.  Tony smiled in the background, happy to see his friends, but also happy to let Tali have some time with her unofficial uncles. He could tell from the background that they were huddled around the computer in Palmer’s office in the basement. It was just a bit past seven a.m. in Washington, so he wasn’t exceptionally surprised that they were both there and looking wide awake.  Tali was regaling them with stories of their trip and all the places that they had gone and about the surprise trip to Disneyland they were taking tomorrow for her birthday. The men listened in rapt attention as she told them about the souvenirs she had bought for Victoria, Johnny, and Morgan and how she couldn’t wait to meet them in person so that she could give them their gifts. As McGee was promising to come visit Tali and her parents really soon, Ziva called out to tell Tali that they had one more surprise for her. Her head whipped around to her mother and her eyes widened, “Is that cake?!” “I know that today is not actually your birthday and I am sure that you will have many treats in Disneyland tomorrow, but since we are having your birthday with family tonight” Ziva said, eyes twinkling and smile brightening when she said ‘family’, “your father and I thought that we should have a birthday cake.” The cake was small, but still large enough that they would probably each get to have another slice or two before it was gone. It was iced with whipped cream and topped with florets of cream and slices of strawberries. Tony had poked six small candles into the icing and they were currently burning with little, dancing flames. “Go on and blow out your candles,” McGee encouraged.  Tali nodded excitedly as her mother placed the cake between the little girl and the computer. “Don’t forget to make a wish!” Palmer added. Tali nodded again, closing her eyes for just a second before dramatically blowing out the candles.  Her family clapped and cheered, then Tony wiped the computer screen and Ziva set to cutting slices of the cake for the three family members currently sharing a room. They talked for a while longer, long enough for Tali to finish her slice of cake, but her eyes soon began to droop. “Hey, kiddo,” Tony said, putting a hand on her shoulder, “why don’t you say bye to your uncles and start getting ready for bed?” Tali nodded sleepily and exchanged goodbyes and good nights with Palmer and McGee before sliding out of the chair and heading toward her pajamas. 

“So, everything good with you guys?” McGee asked, once Tali had left the area. Tony looked at Ziva and smiled, “Yeah, things are great.” Jimmy’s face somehow grew even brighter, “It's so great to see you guys together, I mean, really together together. You’re just… so damn cute!” Ziva chuckled and Tony rolled his eyes, “Slap him for me, McGee.” McGee rolled his eyes back at Tony and said, “I agree with him.” “I didn’t ask if you agreed, McCupid,” Tony snarked, hiding a smile. McGee chortled and gave Jimmy a light smack to the back of the head. Tony smiled and nodded, “You’ve all gone soft. I never got such a gentle hand when I was there.” “And that explains so much about you, mon cher,” Ziva teased, taking the seat vacated by Tali. She leaned over and pressed a light kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Eww! Cut it out!” McGee teased, “Gross!” “You know that we made a child together, right McGeek?” Tony said as Ziva leaned back, smirking. McGee grimaced, “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I have to think about how you made one.” Tony continued teasing, “You see, when a mommy loves a daddy very much--” “Hey!” McGee called out, “Everyone here has been involved in the baby-making process. We are all very much aware of how it happens.” “Oh wow,” Palmer interrupted, “We’re all parents.” There was a moment of silence as the former coworkers let that sink in, as they all took in how much their lives had changed since they met. “We are,” Ziva said, voice full of the emotions that they all felt. “That’s crazy, isn’t it?” McGee vocalized, “I mean, did you ever imagine that happening?” Tony shrugged, “I mean, I certainly didn’t.” “We’ve gotta get all the kids together sometime soon,” Palmer said.  They all nodded or voiced their agreement. 

In the silence that followed, Tony spoke up, “Uh, so… we’re engaged.” “What?!” Palmer and McGee shrieked. “When?!” McGee asked while Palmer shouted, “Really?!” over him. “Yeah, last night at the Skytree tower thing, I just sort of… asked if Ziva would marry me,” Tony shrugged. “Well, you first asked, hypothetically, if you proposed, would I say yes,” Ziva corrected. “And you told me that I should ask,” Tony replied, “and I did.” Ziva smirked, “He didn’t have a ring.” Tony smirked back, “You still said yes.” “He’s had a ring for ages, Ziva,” McGee said, smiling from ear to ear, “Trust me, I’ve seen it. It’s perfect for you.” Palmer nodded in agreement.  “So everyone knew about the ring except me?” Ziva asked, shocked. Tony shrugged, “Well, I had to get the approval of my council of men.” Ziva gestured at the screen, “Your ‘council of men.’” Tony chuckled, “I said what I said.” Before the bickering could continue, Tali called out for them from the other room. “Ah, duty calls,” Tony said, turning to the screen. A faint buzzing sounded through the speakers and McGee pulled out his phone, “Yeah, that’s Gibbs. Looks like we’ve got a case.” “Give the best to the old man for us,” Tony said. “Will do,” McGee responded with a little salute. “Take care of yourselves,” Ziva called. “We will,” Jimmy responded, “Congratulations!” The call ended and Tony and Ziva were left looking at their reflections in the blank computer screen. Reflections of the people they had became-- parents, partners, fiances, civilians.  “Did you ever think we’d get here?” Tony asked, standing and offering a hand to Ziva. She shook her head, “I never imagined it. Never let myself imagine it.” He pressed a kiss to her temple, “And now?” She smiled, leaning against him, “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

[the-big-nope]

Mighty Nein vs. Ripley Swap

Soldiering on through the Vox Machina rewatch, and thanks to @damienchickenspawn, I’ve spent the entirety of “Cloak and Dagger” taking notes for another Party-swap What-If comparison, with the Mighty Nein vs. the Ripley encounter this time. Same rules apply: setting the M9 at an equivalent level (15), ignoring the variability of dice rolls, and accounting for the fact that they had time to prepare spells in advance of the encounter, although less was known about the situation this time, so the spell choice couldn’t be as specific as it was with the Kevdak fight. Fair warning: it gets very long under the cut. Ready? Let’s go.

First off, I have to admit this encounter comparison is much harder to map, because it had two minor combat sections leading up to it (sinking Ripley’s ship and the air elementals on the Glintshore beach). I’m going to assume a similar outcome in combat time and hit points lost, but the resources spent on them is harder to predict due to the differences in characters. At the very least, I’ll assume either Jester, Caduceus, or Caleb has spent their eighth level slot to cast Control Weather like Keyleth did to speed up the airship’s travel, and since they wouldn’t have access to the Keyteor option, the M9 might have just left it up to the airship and basic ranged attacks (maybe a Fireball or two) to take out the boat. However, I will note that following these encounters, since Caduceus often has Prayer of Healing prepped, the M9 would have been able to get a quick bit of healing in with only ten minutes spent. If they aren’t in an immediate chase scenario, this is what they often do between a chain of encounters. 

Now, the meat of this episode is the skirmish with Ripley and her crew on the island. From what I remembered of this fight from the first time I watched it, I recall it being messy as hell and very rough, especially with the giant burst of damage at the start and Ripley popping in and out of combat for most of it. That memory wasn’t incorrect, and I’d forgotten a few elements, like the high level wizard henchman and Orthax joining the fight near the end. With VM, BY FAR the biggest MVPs in this fight were Keyleth and Scanlan. They were the most able to spread damage across multiple targets, Keyleth did some significant damage to the enemy wizard, Scanlan fucked up the whole enemy side with a Reverse Gravity, and they were responsible for keeping their teammates awake and in the fight. The DPSers did their best, but they weren’t focusing fire enough to whittle the numbers down, and Ripley was off the field the majority of the battle and so couldn’t be taken out in order to break the ranks like with Kevdak. Keeping that in mind, let’s first take a look at what the M9 would bring to this encounter as a 15th level party, ranked in order of “Here To Fuck Up Anna Ripley’s Shit.”

1) HOLY SHIT Y’ALL, THE CLERICS. If VM had had their cleric available, it probably would have meant a significant tide turn. The M9 have two, and at 15th level they have so much available to them. At their level, Battle Mercy Jester has access to some wicked damage spells like Blade Barrier, Harm, and Fire Storm, and they both have access to some very powerful support spells: Heal, Heroes’ Feast, Antimagic Field, and (this one I think is particularly up Caduceus/Taliesin’s alley, since it provides major buff and debuff benefits, as well as being one of those spells that would particularly piss off the DM) Holy Aura. Advantage on all saving throws to party members, disadvantage on all attacks against affected party members, and if any fiend or undead (like say, Orthax) hits an affected target, they have to make a Con save or be blinded until the spell ends. Yikes. Even if it was one of the clerics who expended their eighth level slot for Control Weather, they still have a spare who can pull out some powerful tricks along with everything else they already have access to, and thus would probably end up carrying this fight the most.

2) Caleb. While not quite as pivotal as the clerics in terms of MVPing this battle, ol’ Widogast is still scraping in at only two levels below archmage at this point, and he could have some nasty shit available to him, depending on what he takes. 15th level wizards could pick such beauties as Delayed Blast Fireball, Crown of Stars, Prismatic Spray, Reverse Gravity, Forcecage, Antimagic Field, Feeblemind, and Sunburst. Again, accounting for those possible options alongside everything else he already has access to, he could do some absolutely monstrous damage to the enemy team. Of course, aside from all of the fancy new toys, the other part that puts Caleb at second place in terms of enemy hazard is the good old classic, Counterspell. I’ll get into more detail below, but that’s a big one. 

3) Fjord. Our sailor boy will be nine levels into warlock and six levels into paladin at this point, with a paladin oath picked out, Aura of Protection (both Fjord and any ally within 10 feet automatically gains a bonus to a saving throw equal to Fjord’s CHA modifier, which would be a big help against that gunpowder trap at the start), and access to second level paladin spells. Like I said in my last party-swap, Fjord’s just super unpredictable as a fighter. He’s got melee capabilities, arcane spells from both himself and Star Razor, and now a fair reserve of divine casting as well. He’ll have a good bit more Lay on Hands to spread around (30 hp!) as a backup to the clerics, as well as proper healing spells if needed, AND he’ll have access to two Channel Divinity options once he picks an oath. He’s going to have a lot of tools at his disposal to attack or support in whatever way is needed.

4) While the spellcasters really were the pillars of this battle for VM and that would probably hold true for the M9, our DPS girls still deserve some love. Veth would be dealing a Fireball’s worth of sneak attack damage, would have access to 3rd level spells, and could use her mage hand to give herself advantage against a target (if Sam remembers it XD). Beau will have proficiency in ALL saving throws and will likely have bumped up her WIS to boost her Stunning Strike DC. And at this point, Yasha will basically be unkillable; with access to Relentless Rage, Persistent Rage, and Rage Beyond Death, she would need to take her hit point maximum worth of damage in a single hit to be killed outright even at 0 hp. If it’s true that she has recently won her wings back as well, Yasha is going to be a terrifying Valkyrie of unstoppable force.

So, with that summed up, let’s take all that and measure it against the primary factors that made this fight so challenging and memorable for Vox Machina. 

The Gunpowder Trap

Before initiative even started, VM took a big chunk of damage from the gunpowder trap, which I don’t think the M9 would have been able to see coming either. Alarm spells were set up so there would have been no surprising them except on the off chance Caduceus popped a Detect Magic on approach and noticed them; possible, but unlikely. So odds are placed on the M9 taking the initial damage as well. Beau and Nott have a good chance of escaping with no damage, since they have Evasion, Caleb can automatically halve damage with his Ring of Evasion, and Yasha has advantage on Dex saves so she has a better chance as well. However, Fjord, Jester, and Caduceus have no benefits in this situation and aren’t particularly dextrous, so they’re likely taking full damage at the outset. Fjord has Aura of Protection which would give him a +5 bonus to any save, as well as any allies within 10ft, but this trio is still the most likely to get hit hardest. Luckily, they’re on the upper half of the M9′s hardiness scale, so while the damage isn’t small, it doesn’t put them in danger yet. Then combat begins properly.

Ripley

Probably the most problematic feature of this combat was Ripley’s Blink spell and VM’s inability to pin her down or figure out what was going on with her. Her crew were mercenaries, so if Ripley had gone down they likely wouldn’t have continued to fight, but as long as she was up, the fight continued. Watching the episode again, it seems like Matt lingered over the moment where Ripley cast the spell, as if waiting to see if someone was going to counter it. Scanlan was the only one capable of doing it in VM, and whether Sam was distracted, Scanlan didn’t want to burn the spell slot, or some other reason, he didn’t counter it. I feel like the M9 is more trigger happy with the counterspells; they can afford to be, since both Caleb and Fjord can do it, and potentially even Veth if she takes it as one of her 3rd level spells, making the chance of the Blink getting countered much higher. However, even if Ripley had managed to get it off, the M9 have knowledge VM didn’t. Both Jester and Fjord can cast Blink themselves and might be able to recognize it much sooner. That would mean fewer turns wasted hunting for an invisible Ripley and more time concentrating on her allies, or else clustering up near where she would reappear and holding actions ala the Inevitable End fight. Still a difficult element to work around, but better for their action economy and it makes Ripley more predictable. She does have Cabal’s Ruin (the awakened version I think), so she would be able to halve damage on one spell and boost her damage, but that’s only once per short rest. She could manage one huge damage burst if she used her turn, action surge, and the cloak charges all in one go, which could be pretty bad for a single party member. 

The Adds

There aren’t nearly as many mooks involved in this fight as in the Kevdak one, but they pack plenty of punch to make up for it. The mage was by far the biggest threat out of all of them, being capable of casting up to 7th level spells. Both his Prismatic Spray and Chain Lightning did significant damage to Scanlan, Percy, and Keyleth, making the situation more frantic with VM constantly trying to stay on top of their low HP. The Goliath fighter ended up being a non-entity because she didn’t even get a hit off. The gunners did their share of damage, but were probably the lowest threat on the field. As with the Kevdak fight, Caleb would be highly beneficial in doing collective damage to groups at a time (Fireball, Web of Fire, maybe a high level spell like Prismatic Spray or Delayed Blast Fireball if he wanted to clear them quick), similar to how Scanlan used his wand of fireballs to hit the gunners. The ability to counterspell or otherwise incapacitate the mage is also vital, since he dealt out a good portion of the damage, so I could see Caleb’s attention being split there. The big damage spells the mage dished out did require Dex saves though, so the same likelihood of success rules from the gunpowder trap still apply. Like Grog, I could see Yasha focusing on the goliath fighter, while Beau and Nott could get up on the gunners. How well this all goes depends on how well they can shrink the damage from the mage, while making sure the clerics are up and in the right position to heal and support.

Kynan

Kynan is a unique but significant factor in this fight. He did a fair bit of damage, knocked out Keyleth once, and kept Vax distracted for a number of rounds trying to talk to him. In the big picture, I question whether Kynan would have become a factor at all if this was the M9. He ended up with Ripley because Vox Machina, or primarily Vax, rejected him, a little harshly but not maliciously or without reason. The M9 can be blunt and even rude with NPCs, but I don’t see any of them taking a similar approach in that situation. They toted baby Kiri around with them through several dangerous locations and gave her a knife. They had Calianna sign a gag waiver and said they weren’t responsible for her dying if she tagged along with them, and generally they’re inclined to make friends at the drop of a hat. Even if someone like Kynan did approach them, they probably wouldn’t respond in the same way Vax did. However, since I’m using the battle scenario as it happened, we’ll say Kynan is there regardless. Of all the M9, Caleb or Jester seem like the most likely people to pause and try to talk him down. On the one hand, Caleb has a higher charisma than Vax and Jester is Jester, so they’re more likely to persuade him sooner to stand down. On the other hand, they’re also less likely to sacrifice their whole turns to devote their attention to him, so that might hurt their chances. If they fail, he plays the same role in the fight, with perhaps a higher chance of being more ruthlessly targeted by Yasha and Fjord, who don’t think favorably of betrayal. 

The Terrain

This was a relatively minor factor in comparison to those above, but the rough terrain, the big crater, and the damage taken from the glass did eat through movement and HP. Unavoidable in most cases, but can be mitigated by most of the members to whom it would matter. Beau’s a zippy girl, so she can reach any point on the battlefield at the cost of some HP. If Yasha has her wings, it becomes almost a non-factor for her. Poor Veth is the only one really stuck with it, but she’s ranged, so even then it wouldn’t hamper her too much. 

Orthax

Funnily enough, Orthax was probably the least significant factor in this fight, at least on a broad scale. He came out a few rounds in, the sunlight lowered his AC and put his attacks at disadvantage, and he didn’t get many shots in at VM. He has the ability to cause PCs to attack each other, but it’s a rechargeable ability, seems to only affect melee attacks, and doesn’t sustain. He did take two death saves off of Percy and made him waste his last bullet on friendly fire that might otherwise have gone to Ripley, but in a macro scale he wasn’t much of a threat. Against a party with two clerics and a padlock, he’d probably have an even harder time. Just flick a Banishment his way, or a solid 5th level divine smite, and he ceases to be a problem. 

Conclusion

I think the most important factor of the M9 coming off well in this fight would be the ability to focus fire in the right places, ensure the mage can’t deal major group damage, and to protect their clerics. They’ve shown a reasonable ability to pull that off if they’re on a straight battlefield and all together, and as long as their rolls for saves and counters aren’t abysmal, I could again see the M9 coming out of this encounter much more smoothly than VM, their higher percentage of spellcasters being the biggest factor in tipping the scales. Not to mention, even if someone dies, the M9 are almost always ready for that situation. VM had just come from Ank’Harel, a large city, and the M9 make it a point to get stocked on diamonds whenever they have some downtime. Plus, at this level, they would have three party members capable of resurrecting a fallen teammate, with Caleb using his 14th level Transmuter’s Stone ability. The fight against Ripley and her crew would definitely require more brainpower, and depending on their luck could be just as difficult if not more so than it was for VM, but with the right rolls on their side, their wide variety of unpredictable tools, and plenty of healing available to keep the team up, the M9 would probably have this fight in the bag too. 

(Side note: I wonder if the outcomes of these two party-swaps I’ve done have more to do with the players being more experienced and accustomed to working as a unit after all their time playing together, or if it has to do with party composition and how Matt constructs the encounters to challenge them personally. I’m sure both factor in at least a little, but I might have to do VM in one of the M9′s fights at some point just to see. There’s a lot fewer to pick from, since the M9 are still just catching up to the levels we met VM in, and projecting forward is easier than taking levels off of the characters, but I guess we’ll see. If you read through this chonk, I hope it was worth it!)

[ohvalleyofplentyyy]

request

I was wondering if I could make a request with jaskier and geralt?

I really love the innocent shy reader stories and I wanted to request something maybe where the reader is a very sensitive person emotionally and the boys freak out slightly and make a super harsh comment after reader screws up during a hunt, maybe they accidentally blow up on her for putting herself in danger and getting hurt, but they end up making her cry or hurt her feelings in the end then end up feeling really bad when she starts to distant herself, not really talking to them on they’re trips and ignoring them

A/N: What a fantastic prompt, this really gets the writing juices going!

She always put her heart before her head, feelings and emotions seem to overrule and logical ideas and sense that came to mind because if she felt in her heart it was the right thing to do– she was damn well gonna do it.

The boys knew this as her nature and always took it with a grain of salt, knowing to not press certain buttons that could result in catastrophic results. But one night, Geralt just snapped.

It had been an easy mission really. A small village that sat near a lake had been experiencing ‘problems’ with fishermen going missing and the occasional child taking a dip to cool off but never coming back. The trio had been passing through when Jaskier overheard a group of drunken men exclaiming, “I’m not gonna catch me one more bloody fish until that thing is gone!”

After a bit of asking around, the Witcher deduced that a Vodnik, or Drowner, was the reason for these killings. Y/N made quick work with the pub owner that if they killed the water creature they would be rewarded. The group set out that night to take a “lovely boat ride in the moonlight while awaiting our doom,” as Jaskier grumbled on the walk to the water’s edge.

The huntress-in-training chuckled at the bard’s statement and turned to Geralt. “So how are we going to do this?” She asked, pulling her cloak tighter around her. He grunted, “There’s not a we in this situation Y/N, I’m just going be in and out as fast as possible.” Y/N lower her eyes and hummed, “Look Geralt, I know I’m not as experienced with this species of monster as you are, but this of it this way, it could be another lesson?”

Y/N had joined the two after a horrific war broke out between two mages in her town. Her mother and younger brother were in the market square when the first spells had been fired, and well, Y/N didn’t make it in time. With no one and nowhere to go, she somehow convinced the ‘Great Geralt of Rivia’ to take her under his wing as a sort of apprentice, given that she didn’t get in the way. (Also, Jaskier had been very excited from the idea of a girl accompanying them.)

Training had been going very smoothly for the past 6 months and Y/N was itching to get some action in the field, but Geralt didn’t seem to think her mind-set was ready for it yet as she acted mainly from impulse and not strategy. “I won’t have you die from a snide comment inside your head tell you it’s time to be a martyr Y/N, it’s not sensible.” Geralt had said a while back. Still, she wanted to help and it was starting to get to her that the only thing she’d killed or used her sword for was hunting game.

Geralt shook his head at her question, “Not a chance, you’ve only been practicing on land and now I’ll be in the water at night, I can only focus on so many problems—” “Hey!” ���—in the moment.”

The conversation subsided and they reached the lake. It was beautiful at night, the moon glistened off the surface and a gust of wind made ripples in the water, making it seem like the reflection was dancing.

There was a long dock that stretched out into the water, boats hooked to the right side of it in the water, leaving the left stretch of wood for fun times in the summer heat. It creaked underneath their shoes as they came to a stop.

The Witcher started taking off pieces of armor and items that would only weigh him down in the dark liquid of night. Soon all he had on was his billowy grey tunic and the black trousers and boots that he always wore. Tying his hair into a small bun, he turned and said, “Hopefully I can lure it to the coastline so at least I won’t be underwater the whole time.” With one quick swig of his potion, the hunter’s eyes turned black, grabbed his sword and dove into the water.

The bard tsked and muttered something along the lines of ‘of course his dive is effortlessly perfect’ and leaned down against one the wood poles, strumming his lute and listening to Geralt’s movement in the water every so often.

Y/N stared out at the lake when it seemed like nothing was happening any time soon, she took her cloak and travel pieces as well, not wanting to carry the weight while she waited. She dropped the satchel and co. deciding to take a walk along the beachline where this fight was hopefully about to take place.

All of a sudden, Geralt emerged from the water with the Drowner in a chokehold. It was a slippery battle between the two as they sloshed in the water, Y/N was frozen on the bank watching this happen, she could hear Jaskier in the distance running over across the sandy ground.

But then the Drowner somehow got a hold of Geralt’s shirt and flung him over into the liquid below. She acted in an instant, running out into the water and holding her sword ready to strike.

Sloshing towards the creature ready to drown the Witcher, she called out, “Just because you’re constantly pruney doesn’t mean you need to take it out on others!” The monster turned at the noise and grinned, deciding that this smaller person would probably be a good appetizer before the main course.

Y/N swung her sword down across it’s legs, dodging it’s arms that tried to wrap around her. The long gash now to Y/N’s surprise didn’t bleed at all. But then the upper hand was lost when the monster reached out and snatched the sword right from her hand, grabbing the blade like it wasn’t cutting into its palm. The Drowner grabbed Y/N by the throat and shoved her underwater, holding her to the soft sand below.

Y/N struggled, hands around the arm holding her down. This is it, she thought, the moment I die by trying to prove myself, gods what an idiot I am. But then the hand was ripped away from her neck as something above had taken the Drowner by surprise.

She pushed up out of the water immediately, gasping in desperately needed gulps of air. She was able to see Geralt with one fast chop, cut the head off the monster, letting the body go limp and fall into the water. He wadded over to her, scooping her up effortlessly and walked back to shore. Jaskier was there pacing on the beach line.

“Y/N? Geralt is she breathing?!” The bard worried, racing to the Witcher’s side as soon as possible. “She’s fine,” he huffed and dropped her on the sand, now with a glare on the drenched girl before him.

“What were you even thinking?! I told you I would handle it, and you go and get yourself almost killed?!” The Witcher shouted, jabbing a finger into her face to emphasize the situation. “Geralt, I’m sorry— it’s just it looked like you needed help and—“ “Sorry? Sorry doesn’t cover it!” The monster hunter laughed, throwing his head back and then turned, a look on his face that seemed, dangerous.

“I can’t believe I was stupid enough to think a person like you would amount to anything, let alone be a logical hunter.”

Hurt flashed through her eyes, and she shrank into herself. “You don’t think Y/N, and I can’t waste my time on someone who’s just going to get themselves killed on their first hunt.” The girl turned to the bard, who had been quiet during the argument at hand.

Shakingly, she stood up, “Do you agree, Jaskier?” She said with a small voice. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, looked down at his hands a mumbled, “It’s not that you don’t mean well, it’s just sometimes your decisions affect us as well and mostly in a bad way.”

Y/N stumbled back, her bottom lip quivering slightly. They don’t trust me, they never did.

…

The next few days went by in slow motion, Y/N hadn’t spoken to the two boys since their declaration.

The trip through the dense forest almost seemed too silent, usually Jaskier and Y/N would be dancing around the large burly man they both adored, singing all the bard’s song until Geralt threatened to snap his lute and use the pieces as fire kindling. Every twig break under one of their shoes seemed to make the tension worse.

Geralt had made no move to try and apologize and deep down, Y/N knew he never would. And that in itself made her swallow into herself more.

Jaskier had been trying to talk a bit to her, any time a conversation was had about other kills, he tried to look to her for feedback, but all he got was a blank stare.

Only one thing kept repeating in her mind.

They don’t trust me, they never did.

And they never will.

A/N: I didn’t know if you wanted a happy ending or not so I chose to leave it and could add to it if you want a redemption part added! thanks for the idea!

master list

join my taglist here! (its a google form)

[incandescent-eden]

STORY MASTERLIST

A (not so) comprehensive list of all the things I write about, all of which are subject to change at any given time because I do a lot of refactoring!

LOOOOONG POST INCOMING I write... a LOT, and I have... MANY projects :) Feel free to ask me about any of them! :)

With love <3 Continue reading below the cutoff if you want to know the basic rundown of my worlds and works!

ANGELVERSE:

This universe encompasses all of the angels and demons I like to focus on. Works in the angelverse will likely be about Faraday (formerly known as Efrem), a demon lieutenant, Ezekiel, a young angel, the archangel Uriel, or angel Raguel / angel Sophia (their stories are intertwined).

The main concept I have on Angelverse surrounds Faraday, who has grown into himself as a demon and made something of himself. He finds it impossible to shake who he was before. The question comes up during an important meeting between Heaven and Hell of whether he is truly Faraday or Efrem, his own self that he has shakily become, or the self he inherited from being his father’s son. There’s also brotherly angst between Faraday and Ezekiel, who refuses to let go of the past. (If you look at my old works tagged ‘ezekiel,’ you’ll see Ezekiel used to be a part of Faraday/his ‘ideal’ self, which is why new Ezekiel, separate from Faraday, reads so differently.)

The Raguel and Sophia stories are also closely linked to characters Andromeda and possibly Zachariah. Andromeda’s father runs a cult and has captured an angel in his attic. When Andromeda finds the angel (Sophia), her otherwise “normal” life is thrown into disarray as she starts unraveling threads about her father’s actions as a cult leader. If Zachariah is to be a part of it, he would be living with Andromeda’s family, having run away from his past.

Prominent characters in Angelverse include: Faraday, Uriel, Ezekiel, Stena, Michael, Ramiel, Raguel, Sophia, Zachariah, Ambriel, Ruhiel, Gabriel, Raphael, Luci, Bee, Sasha, Saoirse, and Heather. With the exception of Sophia, all names ending with “el” are angels, while the rest are demons. Also, I say prominent, but like half of these characters are from a bygone era (2018 when I first created them).

TW/CW for heavy religious (Christian) imagery, emotional abuse, violence, transphobia mentions and cult talk. Additional content warning because I tend to write angels as LGBT, but I recognize that some people are not comfortable with this affiliation with Christianity.

LUXTRURA (NOTE: LUXTRURA IS ON PERMANENT HIATUS):

Luxtrura is the name of a fictional country in ye olde European fantasy style, and I haven’t thought of a title for the WIP yet, so I mainly tag it ‘luxtrura’ or ‘luxtruran trio.’ This WIP is a fantasy / dystopian / political intrigue about an uprising in the kingdom of Luxtrura run by an inexperienced king and corrupt nobles all vying for the crown.

Luxtrura (at the current moment) follows the life of His Majesty Devron Fharren, the Eighth Fharren King, who inherited the crown by kingdom decrees at the age of 21. Unlike most kings, Devron has only had seven years of proper royal tutelage on statecraft, having only been named heir to the throne when he was 14. He soon finds he has inherited a kingdom that has been deeply wounded, that his people hate him, and that he has few allies among his own country’s nobles, his friends, and neighboring royalty. Revolution is brewing, and he has a choice to make: to claim his birthright or to help his people.

Prominent characters include: Devron Fharren, Eden Barison, Mili Starr, Plumeria Rwalke, Lilia Tao, Rassaya Tao, Andrea (a mysterious stranger who gives only her first name), Jakob Fiyre, Cordelia Fiyre, Liseline Fiyre, Sonja, and Orange and Rouse (the dragons).

TW/CW for violence, sexual assault mentions, transphobia mentions, political talk, blatant classism, and death.

GLOWING EYES:

A “what-if” scenario where Victor Frankenstein and Dorian Gray had met and become friends and also Frankenstein wasn’t a man and was named Viola and was not a pleb weakling like Victor. Also Dorian Gray is fat because I said so.

This story reimagines the Frankenstein and Dorian Gray cast as students in their final year of the prestigious University of Ingolstadt, with Frankenstein having returned from a year off during which she was suspended for [redacted] reasons. The vibe we’re going for is dark academia, but I don’t think they ever actually do any learning?

Prominent characters include: Viola Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Elizabeth Lavenza, Henry Clerval, Basil Hallward, Deukalion, and special shoutout to Justine Moritz and Sibyl Vane because I didn’t want to put them in, but they definitely deserved better in the source material.

TW/CW for death, violence, toxic/obsessive relationships, grave-robbing, body part mentions (eyes, limbs, etc), and mentions of the Devil. Basically, if it was a concerning part of either the Frankenstein or Dorian Gray stories, it will still be concerning.

Fun fact, there is a Glowing Eyes playlist that I am NOT too ashamed to share with the public! :D

HELEN OF LEGEND:

A retelling of the Helen of Sparta story that explores Helen’s thoughts and motivations. Who was the woman behind the face that launched a thousand ships? And did she ever even want those ships to be launched? (Spoiler alert: the answer is no.)

Helen of Legend gets pretty heavy handed because I get really mad about people lauding the Greeks as the end all be all of culture, and I’m still really mad about how people dress Millie Bobby Brown up like she’s 25-40, so make of that what you will.

On the bright side, Helen of Legend is a sapphic retelling!

Prominent characters include: Helen, Leda, Menelaus, Clytemnestra, Penelope, Theseus, Aphrodite, Paris, Cassandra, Hector, and Hecuba.

TW/CW for misogyny, implied past sexual assault, sexual assault mentions, mentions of spousal and emotional abuse, people being generally creepy about bodies, people being creepy toward children (Theseus), cities burning, subtle classism, and death.

OF DANCERS AND DREAMERS:

A musical about Anne-Marie, a non-binary Vietnamese lesbian born into a wealthy family, and Jules, a Tunisian baker’s daughter who is working her way into the Paris ballet. Anne-Marie wants to be a designer, but their mother, Mme Trinh, has other plans. The year is 1884, and it was hard for the Trinh family, as immigrants, to establish their foothold in society, and Mme Trinh will not have her child throw away the family’s hard work. One day, while at the ballet, Anne-Marie becomes smitten with Jules, a ballerina with the most dazzling smile. They find solace in sharing their passions with one another and become friends, each eventually realizing they have fallen for the other in a time that is unfriendly to both of them.

Prominent characters include: Anne-Marie, Jules, Victor, Mme Trinh, and Amandine.

TW/CW for subtle homophobia, classism, mental illness, and parental guilt tripping/emotional toxicity.

THE LYRE EFFECT:

A play about life after death, and what it means to live and love. This play follows Patroclus upon his death, desperate to return to Achilles. He meets the reluctant Eurydice, embittered by decades alone in limbo halfway between life and death. Together, they almost throw someone off a boat (is it really murder if they’re already dead?) and have a chance to tell their stories, stepping out from the shadows of their more famous lovers.

I took a lot of liberties with this, so Orpheus is a woman (wlw OrphEurydice), and I would like for both Achilles and Patroclus to be played by trans men, and for all of the characters to be played by non-white actors.

Prominent characters include: Patroclus, Eurydice, Achilles, Orpheus, Apollo, Hades, Charon

TW/CW for talk about death

SPEED ROUND (OR: THINGS I WRITE ABOUT THAT AREN’T AS AMBITIOUS JUST YET/AT THE CURRENT MOMENT):

Here Lies Forever - a story focusing around two young people, Medb Flaherty and Virgil Sutherland, growing up at an orphanage amid war, abandonment, and sickness. Medb is a blind writer who dreams of traveling the world with Virgil, her best friend since their teen years, but when the war strikes too close to home, Virgil leaves Medb and their peaceful student life behind to join the army. Unwilling to let go, and recognizing the pain Virgil is in, Medb takes it upon herself to save Virgil, the both of them haunted by the ghosts of their pasts.

On the Corner of Maple Street - short stories about the lives of Sarah and Evangeline together, two lesbian women who met when Sarah was 28 and Evangeline was 31. Sarah was a toy maker and Evangeline was an actress. They have a son named Oliver, who’s now in his forties, and they’re grandmas to all the neighborhood children. They live on the corner of Maple Street :)

Partager Un Reve - short stories, often romantic, about two circus performers, Alyona Ledbedeva (who does aerial silks) and Li Mey Ri (an acrobat). They’re cute together, there’s not really much to say here.

Claire  - there’s a really old novelette floating around on my account and you can find it if you search Claire, but like it’s OLD. An 18th century French lady who contracted TB and died but was brought back by a necromancer named Cecil (Cecil is the character of my friend @sinnabon-cosplay !) and is now immortal. Fun times with Claire and Anthony usually involve lamenting the fact that they’re stuck as teenagers.

Miscellaneous - miscellaneous demon and monster characters like Alexander, Felicity (both vampires), Sparrow (succubus/Heather’s youngest sister), Zephyr (fae, husband of Spar), Lycan (she’s... a werewolf), and so on. Not really connected to a plot

Performing Possumhood - uh this was a play I wrote with my friend @holdingonmyheartlikeahandgrenade for a 24 hour play festival, it’s about a guy named Thomas who becomes herald for a kingdom and then on his first day of work, the king dies, and his son becomes king, except the new king??? is a possum???? and like no one does anything about it, so Thomas just feels like he’s going insane, poor guy (also everyone else is named Thomas except the king, whose name is His Majesty King Parthur Pencildragon of Alpacalot)

Nordic questing team - I’ve literally written nothing for these fools, but I’m tempted to make it into a dnd campaign! The characters I have are Val (short for Valnotte) (she’s a nokke), Hanne (human poison seller who wears an eyepatch just because), Fur (short for Bjorgolfur, he’s a werewolf who left his pack because he was too good at being alpha wolf but he didn’t want to be alpha, he wanted to press flowers and have a cute little cottage by a cliffside with a pretty garden damn it), and Bo (full name: Boscobel Blue, he’s a cow boy. Literally. He has cow ears and a big septum piercing and a tail. Also he’s a shepherd. His sheep are carnivorous :))) Make of that what you will)

Alice x Secret Garden - another play but where Alice Liddell and Mary Lennox are 18 years old and find themselves in Wonderland, after Mary is jaded from the end of WW1 and is frustrated at her friend Dickon’s marriage proposal, and Alice runs away, trying to retain her childhood as best she can

Retellings - I do myth and fairy tale and folk retellings! :) You can search ‘Tithonia’ for my sleeping beauty retelling, and I wrote Orpheus and Eurydice a while back. Still working my way through Icarus :’) Also ‘Mermaids Can’t See’ is a retelling of the classic mermaid story but written as a ??? field guide? journal entry? notes about mermaids?

If there’s a work you want specifically about a character, I always tag characters, and I also will tag character introductions and pictures/references of them as “beanpuff char[]”!

[thesinglesjukebox]

DIXIE CHICKS - GASLIGHTER

[7.67]

Well, we're ready to make nice...

Jessica Doyle: I made the mistake of reading some of the hell-hath-no-fury-like-Natalie-Maines-on-vocals early publicity, and ended up expecting something a lot less jaunty. If you played "Gaslighter" for a non-English speaker, I'm not sure they'd hear the angry breakup from the music and vocals alone. That stray "Look out you little--" heading into the chorus at 2:05 sounds downright affectionate. This makes for a less emotionally clean song, and the video feels like overcompensation (was the "Daisy" ad really necessary?). But it makes a certain sense. This isn't a fictional story à la "Before He Cheats"; the Chicks chose to eschew the luxury of marinating in two-dimensional righteousness. Adrian Pasdar, as much as he will now forever be known as That Guy Who Did Something on Natalie Maines's Boat, is also presumably tied up irrevocably with Maines's two sons and a couple decades' worth of her memories; she's allowed to refrain from hating him straightforwardly. "Gaslighter" is less cathartic than it could have been -- it might get bellowed into karaoke mics less often than it could have been -- but truer. [6]

Katie Gill: Someone please just tell me what Adrian Pasdar did! I suspect that part of my love of this song is sheer nostalgia. I adore the Dixie Chicks and I'm so happy to see them make a comeback now, even if I worry that, with the current state of country music, it won't go anywhere. And I am here for the big divorce energy this single has. It's wonderful to see that the Dixie Chicks can summon up the beautiful cathartic anger that made their last album, Taking the Long Way, so good even over ten years later. And that anger is matched with gorgeous harmonies (that, granted, are a little bit too hidden by the arrangement), a cathartic chorus, and a brief moment of wonderful vulnerability from Maines near the end. Top that off with one of the best lyrics in 2020 in "you're sorry but where's my apology" and, look, I just can't wait for this dang album to come out already. [8]

Alex Clifton: "Gaslighter, you broke me/You're sorry, but where's my apology?" has rung in my ears for nearly two weeks. I wrote a boatload of bad poetry for years around that sentiment, and the Dixie Chicks sing ten words what I couldn't do in a thousand, and I love them for it. [10]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: "You're sorry, but where's my apology?" So many lines in "Gaslighter" speak truth to my experience of being emotionally and psychologically manipulated, but every time I hear this one in particular, several things happen. First, my blood starts to boil and race and I feel my hands get clammy. Then, I instinctively clench my teeth and get the urge to pump my fists in the air. Finally, I remind myself that if the Dixie Chicks can get through the past decades, I can too -- and my anger dissipates like air from a balloon. That's the argument the Dixie Chicks are making here: winning the argument means not letting anyone else's actions consume your emotional state. [7]

Tobi Tella: "Repeating all of the mistakes of your father" cuts like a knife, the harmonies are tight, and the lightness of the production makes it clear that they can still do fun. If there's any justice in this world, this would be a hit on country radio. [7]

Michael Hong: "Gaslighter" is the Dixie Chicks' first single in fourteen years, and by virtue of being that, is interwoven with each thread its own narrative: 1) the story of the Dixie Chicks -- the rise, the fall, the good, the bad, all of it always culminating in the idea that the women had something to prove. 2) Jack Antonoff on writing and production, straying into bold country territory, furthering his influence in modern music. 3) The rampant use, and in some cases, overuse, of the term "gaslighting," and how it's already led to thinkpieces on whether or not Natalie Maines was actually gaslit. And finally, 4) the politicization of the Dixie Chicks, broadcasting the political as a mirror of the personal. All of these narratives matter, and yet, none are necessary to understand "Gaslighter." The track is compact in all the right ways, with tight harmonies on top of fiddle and banjo arrangements and verses that pick up right where the chorus lets off. The Dixie Chicks package the gleeful realization of the truth into a chorus so jovial you can't help but sing along. All that's to say, even divorced from every narrative that you can throw at "Gaslighter," "Gaslighter" still demands you turn the volume up when you hear it through your car stereo. [7]

Alfred Soto: The inevitable emphasis on the dropped hook is purest Jack Antonoff, not Dixie Chicks, but the best of their tunes relied on outside help anyway. "Gaslighter" squeaks by on chutzpah, skill, and nostalgia from the silent minority of lib country listeners. But Antonoff's infatuation with percussion gives the Chicks the gaslighting urgency necessary to sell the songs in Labelle, Lynchburg, and Mena. They're still not ready to make nice -- except with Taylor Swift's producer's platinum cred. [7]

Joshua Lu: Jack Antonoff is perhaps the last producer I'd expect or want to produce a Dixie Chicks comeback song, largely because his limited palette of plinky pianos and muted synths isn't something I'd think I'd like to hear in country music. To Jack's credit, though, "Gaslighter" is a veritable romp, even in spite of how unfulfilled some of the instruments are and how the chorus sounds like it's coming from a couple of rooms over. The real charm, though, is in the lyrics, so full of the charm and wit that really signify that this is a Dixie Chicks song -- "you know exactly what you did on my boat" alone makes the song a perfect addition to the sizable "My Partner Cheated on Me and Now I Must Destroy the World" section of the country music canon. Fourteen years might've been a long wait, but at least it was worth it. [8]

Jackie Powell: So while 2020 has absolutely been an abysmal year, here's it's one redeeming quality: it set up an absolute glorious return for the Dixie Chicks. Their new single "Gaslighter" comes in at the right place at the right time. So do we have Taylor Swift to thank for this? Is it fair to assume that their vocals on "Soon You'll Get Better" (which might be the most beautiful song on Lover) were an introduction to Jack Antonoff? His signature drums on the second chorus and beyond provide the track with the train that will entice stans of Spacey Kacey Musgraves. A divorce anthem that is also reflexive to frustration with the world in 2020 is so on brand I want to cry. But tears of joy this time. The Dixie Chicks were some of the original victims of cancel culture. But really they were gaslit by their entire genre. Tomato-gate didn't happen until 2015, but the sexism the Dixie Chicks faced preceded the incident. What's fascinating about their return is they won't be in this fight with their genre and the country music establishment alone. Since the Dixie Chicks' hiatus, Musgraves, Maren Morris, The Highwomen and others have taken a spot on the no bullshit mantel next to the trio. It's refreshing. In classic Natalie Maines fashion, she regrets nothing, calling the repercussions of "Not Ready to Make Nice" a "blessing." But really, in 2020, we are the ones who are really truly blessed. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: "Gaslighter" is triumphant both in its specificity ("you know exactly what you did on my boat"!!!) and its broadness (the harmonies, Jack Antonoff's shiny-as-hell production.) Despite that glory, though, "Gaslighter" feels a little empty at its core. It's the rush of the breakup without the consideration of the fallout, the thrill without any crash. [8]

Edward Okulicz: On first listen, this sounded too small, too restrained, too modest for its concept. These aren't things that you would expect from the big ambitions and big voices of the Dixie Chicks. But when the chorus comes in a second time with the drumbeat, it works as a mantra for a protagonist no more ready to forgive than she is to forget. And, as if you needed to be told, their voices still sound gorgeous together. [8]

Oliver Maier: A tumbling boulder of rage for a chorus and Jack Antonoff graciously refraining from turning "Gaslighter" into a big echoey 80s-inflected synth pop confection. "We moved to California and we followed your dreams" is such a great opening line for the verse, charging the events of the song with a mythological, Dust Bowl-era resonance and signalling the relationship's disintegration before it even occurs, like something out of a Steinbeck novel. Maines rattles off each charge against her ex just vividly enough to get the raw emotional beats across, without fixating long enough to stall the song's momentum. A relationship is cremated and catharsis is achieved; no need for an autopsy when there's no ambiguity left. [8]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[riseandshinecutiepie]

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

I do not own any of the gifs used, so credits to the awesome owners!

Before I start you should know that if you are looking for flaws or whatever you won’t find that here woops. I’ve done a few of these and I’ve noticed that I mostly focus on what I liked. However if you are looking for flaws or mistakes in movies you can check out Cinema Sins on youtube :)))

OKAY SO LETS TALK ABOUT THIS MOVIE YA’LL It was one of those times where my sister wanted to show me a movie and I wasn’t up for it. I have this weird thing where I’m not excited about a movie unless I  find it myself or I’ve seen something about it online or on tv. So I’m gonna be honest and say I wasn’t really paying attention in the beginning. But later after we’d shared a few laughs I decided to put my phone down and actually watch it. And guess what? I FREAKING LOVED IT!

Okay so for those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s an American action spy comedy film direction by Guy Ritchie. It’s also based on a tv series with the same name. It stars actors such as Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander and many others (Like Hugh Grant yo yo). It’s 1963, the height of the Cold War and America and Russia are forced to work together in order to stop Alexander and Victoria Vinciguerra, a wealthy Nazi-sympathizing couple from building a nuclear weapon. Napoleon Solo, played by Henry Cavill, extracts Gaby Teller from East Berlin, evading KGB operative Illya Kuryakin. It laters turns out that Gaby’s uncle Rudi works in a shipping company owned by Alexander and Victoria Vincigearra, and is forced to built their nuclear divice. The trio travels to Rome, where Gaby and Kuryakin reluctanly pose as an engaged couple, and Solo pretends to be an antiquities dealer.

What I loved about this movie is the fact that they took a serious subject (I’ve learned all about the Cold War, that shit was serious yo) and made it light and funny to watch. I’m not quite sure how to explain it but I don’t think I’d be laughing my ass off in any other movie about the Cold War.

This movie also renewed my love for Henry Cavill. Because let’s face it, that man is amazing. I first saw him in Man Of Steel and honestly I wasn’t fond of that. Could be because I’m a major Marvel fan or the fact that there’d literally been about ten Superman’s. However I did love him in The Tudors, I never finished the series but I might just do that after seeing this movie. I absolutely loved Henry’s acting in this movie. He gave me this nonchalant, funny, James Bond vibe. And I’m not lying when I say that Henry Cavill sitting in a truck, casually enjoying a sandwich while Armie Hammer is busy fighting off bad guys on boats, is the reason why I’m alive. AND WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT THIS MAN HE IS NOT REAL I SWEAR TO GOD. Is he sculpted by Gods? I need to know for science.

Okay and what about the precious beautiful angelic specimen that is Armie Hammer. I’m gonna be honest with ya, Armie Hammer is a name I’d heard a lot before but I’d never been able to put a face on it. Now I can. And I don’t know how to feel about it. I’ve literally watched this movie twice, and two other movie with him, all in the time span of one week. Is that bad? Nah, probably isn’t. If you watch this movie, The Lone Ranger, and Mirror Mirror in a row, you will notice what a great actor this man is. And his Russian accent in the movie was SPOT ON. Little fun fact for ya, did you know Henry was actually supposed to play Illya? But blonde Henry didn’t quite work out. I’m also not sure but I also think Tom Cruise was supposed to play Napoleon, now I love Tom Cruise but I’m not sure if I would’ve loved the movie as much. NOW LET’S TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE THIS ANGEL

The relationship between Napoleon and Illya in this movie is too precious for my heart to handle. And throw an amazing actress like Alicia Vikander in the mix and you have the recepy for a great movie. And I mean, I just love Hugh Grant. It was a great story and I really, really love these kind of movies so this was a major win for me. So forgiveme  but my tumblr is going to be a mess the next few weeks hahahah

SO YES I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU WATCH THIS MOVIE! FIVE STARS YA’LL! AND AND AND ACCORDING TO MR. HAMMER A SEQUEL IS IN THE MAKING SO BE EXCITED YA’LL!!

What are your thoughts on the movie? :)

[ghostmartyr]

Hi ghost! Im going to gush for a minute and say your metas make me so happy. Thank you so much for writing them. My question for you is: Do you think Annie is currently/will end up working with Paradis? And if so how do you think they'd initiate working with her given the not-so-excellent history? Also how do you think the remaining 104th and SC (and hitch) would handle it? I love Annie so much, I really want her to make it to the end!

Hi, thanks! It makes me happy to see you in my notifications. :)

It is one of my dearest wishes for canon to bring Annie over to the Paradis side. She knows how much Marley sucks, knows how much her compliance sucks, and doesn’t have high hopes for the rest of humanity in general. She’s not in this for anyone’s grand design. She’s a small boat in a giant river that’s going straight over a waterfall, and as far as she’s concerned, not capsizing is about as positive an outcome as she can get.

Waking up in Paradis, and being approached as an asset, rather than a traitor, throws her into an entirely different channel. With people she respects. Maybe even likes.

Realistically, the only way Zackly isn’t petitioning for someone to nom her 24/7 is if Annie proves herself useful as more than just the Female Titan. If she can’t do that, the only thing keeping her from getting nommed would be the kindness of all the friends she betrayed.

From her perspective, working with them keeps her alive, and keeps the dream of making it back to her father breathing.

From Paradis’ perspective, they have someone who can tell them about how modern day Marley functions, and they’ll want to pump every source of that knowledge for all they’re worth.

Annie has no love for Marley. She loves her father. War’s coming, and she’s been involved in enough to know what her odds are of ever seeing her father again if no one but her cares about him. Helping Paradis makes the most sense, and it isn’t like they’ll trust her enough to give her a seriously active role.

That’s the pragmatic approach. But I’d like to think that there’s room for her to sincerely defect. She does genuinely respect people fighting for a better world. She just doesn’t think the average person will ever be one of them, and lumps herself into that category.

And the reason for that is really very fascinating: Out of the Warrior Trio, Annie is the only one who still believes in her ability to make choices. Even when no good ones are available, she always thinks of herself as the driving force of what she’s done.

She’s the responsible party in her life.

That means that, unlike Reiner (who has been brainwashed into the damn ground) the fact that there are people whose ideals and fight she can appreciate opens the door to maybe, possibly, choosing to join them. Not because she has to or it’s the only option available, but because she wants to.

As for her interpersonal relationships... Eren might not be very nice to Reiner, but he’s grown into a very tired sympathy. And that’s with Reiner. Annie’s involvement in his nightmare was well enough in the shadows that he’s always had trouble just hating her.

She still slaughters a lot of soldiers.

A lot.

I wouldn’t expect Levi to forget that any time soon, and I’m sure the failure’s close to Hange’s mind as well. But they’re also professionals, and have a good idea of what their fate will be if they turn down help. They would make it work.

The rest of the 104th is tricky, because most of them aren’t shown having initial reactions to Annie’s true identity. Still, going by how their fights with Reiner and Bertolt trend, I think if they had the chance to not murder her, they would accept it pretty easily. Actually working with her might set off more pain than anyone’s really ready for, though.

Some of it depends on when she gets out of the crystal. If it’s a more recent thing, not only has everyone had more time to adjust to the world her actions have helped create, the people closest to her will have grown enough to realize that a fifteen-year-old is a child. Hating children doesn’t come as easily when you’re an adult.

Hitch, I have no idea on. Her most recent appearances have shown a lot of stress and few indications of how she’ll ultimately cope. I could see her throwing a punch and having a speech full of tears, but it’s all sort of vague.

Thanks for the ask! I hope Annie makes it, too.

[darkspine10]

GF Fanfic - A New Course

A New Course (1829 words) by darkspine10

Chapters: 1/6 Fandom: Gravity Falls Rating: Teen and Up Additional Tags: Beach City, Sea Monsters, Maps, Monster hunting, Twins, Aged-Up Character(s), Reunions, Missing Persons, Dipper and Mabel solving mysteries, Bows & Arrows

Summary:

People are going missing from the beach town of Sapphire Bay. College students vanishing by the dozen with no obvious cause. Dark spectres haunt the forests and beaches, but no-one in town wants to talk about it.

May Pines, renowned activist and trouble-maker, has made it her mission to save the town. Calling on the help of her brother, the twins must reunite to work together to solve the mysteries of Sapphire Bay.

*

The small beachfront house stood alone at the barrier between forest and sand. Waves lazily sprayed against the beach out below the house which hung over a small slope. From behind, the leaves of the trees rustled, a soft wind blowing in from the sea. Stepping out into the sunset light, Dipper Pines shielded his eyes and spotted a reclining figure on the wooden balcony.

Shutting the car door, he gave a deep sigh. This was still something he wasn’t yet fully used to. Meeting up with his sister as a regular thing, rather than it being an aberration. Time and new perspectives had healed the cracks that had led to their separation, but it still took some adjustments to his mindset.

Forgetting his initial wariness, he strode over and yelled out. “Mabel! I’m round the front!”

Out on the balcony her saw her stir – or fumble to get up rather – and disappear inside. He took a last look at the surroundings, building up a picture of where he’d be based for the foreseeable future. It would help to know every little detail, so any differences would stand out all the more clearly.

The wall of dark trees inland was much like what he knew from Gravity Falls, but the unmistakeable tang of salt ever-present in the air made him aware of the Pacific just a stone’s throw away. Dipper sensed this was a different kind of forest entirely. The chances of running into a cryptid were almost certainly lower for one thing.

A muttered cursing from behind the front door was followed by the sound of locks being unhinged. A single heft and the door was pulled away, leaving a grinning Mabel, sunglasses perched on her forehead, leaning against the frame affecting a cool air. “Yo yo yo, welcome.” She wrapped herself around Dipper in a side-hug, then gestured him inside. “Come on, park your keister, bro. I bet you’re tired from the drive. It’s great to see you.”

All his concerns from before melted away. There divide he feared between them was nothing but a bout of undue anxiety. Mabel was happy to see him, as she’d always be from now on. “Great to see you too,” he said with a grin. “So, this is where you’ve been chilling out for the last few weeks.”

Mabel had a habit of moving around a lot, never in one place for long. Often his attempts to contact her would fail, his letters arriving after she’s already left or spotty connections keeping them apart. The only constant was that she’d always call from someplace else than before, some new exotic locale where she’d parked her special brand of troublemaking.

In the past he’d resented her for this. In his eyes she was just running away from any kind of responsibility. Now he sympathised more with that wanderlust. To simply take what you could carry and head off into the unknown.

Mabel’s newest abode was hard to make out with the sunlight glinting through the wide bay windows. Squinting, he saw the interior of the rustic cabin. It was airy, with an open sitting area dotted with pillows and comfy sofas abutting a kitchen with cabinets of painted wood.

Donning her sunglasses, Mabel grabbed a bottle of beer from the counter took a deep swill, before guiding Dipper out onto the balcony. “This is the life, eh.”

He sat down on a chair overlooking the sea and slowly nodded. “Yeah, I could get used to this. Not quite got the same…” He drifted off, an expression of warm remembrance on his face.

“Same what?” Mabel asked.

“Not got that same thrill as home though, does it.”

Mabel leant over the balcony as memories of the hundreds of adventures they’d gone on as a pair or trio with Pacifica. Her smile grew into a smirk, something Dipper didn’t fail to notice. “Well… you might be surprised.” As he raised an eyebrow, Mabel’s tone grew serious. “Let’s talk.”

With the sun now long set over the distant horizon and reheated pizza scattered around the living room, Mabel spread a bunch of papers across her kitchen table. She tapped a basic map of the coastline. “Nearest town, that’s Sapphire Bay. About 20 minutes on foot. They got beaches, boardwalk, carnival stuff. Perfect place for a getaway.”

“Is that the reason you brought me out here?” Dipper crossed his arms sceptically. “To unwind?”

“Hold your horses, I’m getting to the important stuff.” Mabel sifted through the documents and grabbed a pamphlet of local hotspots. “Most tourists that pass through are college kids, visiting for their spring breaks or whatever.”

“Lemme guess, lots of young adults getting wasted and partying all day and night.”

“Not all of us go on boring walking vacations like you.” Then she shrugged. “But yeah, you’re not far off.” With her black crop-top and colourful tattoos Mabel looked every bit the part of a small-town rebel, sticking it to the man and living life to the full on the beach. She fit in perfectly.

“That why you’re here then? A rest.”

“You could put it like that.” Mabel lent back in her beanbag, oddly pensive. “Needed a break from all the travelling. Last year was totally intense, as you well know. And with Zera off in space with that budding phase of her lifecycle, I thought I’d take some Mabel time to myself.”

Dipper detected a hint of reticence. Mabel’s relationships had never been easy to define – let alone when her partner wasn’t even from Earth. “You two still all good?” he asked gingerly.

“Oh yeah yeah, fine. This is something she’s gotta do, I understand. She’ll be back in a month or two.” Mabel sipped from another bottle of beer. “Anyway, how about you? Pacifica really chose to stay home watching the kids? Don’t tell me she’s gone all maternal at last?”

Dipper snorted with laughter. “You really think? No, she just doesn’t care to drive all this way on a whim.”

“Ha, that sounds like her. When you get home tell her she missed out on all the fun.”

“You bet. I gotta say, moving back to the Falls permanently was a great idea.” It had been a hectic few months deciding to finally return to the West Coast. The work of moving had left little time for their traditional Mystery Hunts or journal time. But Dipper wouldn’t have given up one second with his new family for the world.

“Pacifica’s certainly got her hands full. Merrise is struggling a little; still a new environment for her and all. Plus someone’s gotta look after the baby.” He set down his own drink and bent over the table. “Anyway, enough about me. I know you; we could be stuck on gossip all evening. Tell me why you need my help.”

Mabel leant back, melting into the beanbag, puffing out her cheeks. She was deep in thought about where to start. Stretching up out of her cocoon, she grabbed a single sheet off the pile strewn on the table.

“I got here a few weeks ago. My last protest kinda went south, you know, the one in Paris, with the unions, and I wanted somewhere to crash.” Dipper nodded. He remembered seeing his sister’s face on a news channel, though thankfully only in passing as part of a crowd. Mabel was getting better at keeping a low profile these days. To minimise the consequences should her actions suffer repercussions that might affect him and his family. Still utterly devoted to the cause, but mindful of getting others caught in the crossfire.

Mabel turned the sheet around to show Dipper. There was a grainy shot of a young man with name and identifying features beside it. Traditional chiselled features of your average jock visiting the beach. At the top of the poster was a single word, underlined in red:

Missing.

Dipper felt a pit of dread in his stomach. He knew where this was going.

“Spotted this on the boardwalk,” Mabel continued. At first I thought it was nothing. One lost kid, what can you do? Then more people started disappearing. Almost all the cases have been tourists. Like I said, lots of college kids passing through, having fun… and never going home.”

“And you think there’s something linking them?” Dipper cautiously asked.

“Lotsa kids vanishing, all recently, within the last few months as far as I can reckon. Normally I wouldn’t call you for something like this, but there’s something else on top.”

Her next document was a blurry polaroid. Dipper could make out crashing waves and a bulky shape in the water, but it was vague enough that it could have been anything, a boat, driftwood. Seemed to him that most cryptids were naturally camera shy.

Mabel was deadly serious however, and he was there right along with her. “You took this?” he asked, but she shook her head.

“Local paper. Last Tuesday. And there’s more.” She rifled around for a list of witness testimonies, but Dipper held up a hand.

“I get it. This is more than a simple missing persons case.”

Dipper pondered the facts. There was something oddly haunting about unsolved mysteries quite like this. Mundane in some ways, but the thought of people just disappearing off the map without a trace still gnawed at the back of his mind. Maybe, he considered, it was parenthood. Being responsible for his own kids, imagining a myriad of potential fates for these lost youths got to him.

Mabel tossed the paper down, her face contorting into an angry scowl. “I’ve tried figuring out what’s going on, but nobody likes talking about it. The cops certainly don’t care; to them it’s just a bunch of out-of-towners getting overwhelmed partying. ‘Can’t handle the lifestyle’, that’s what they say, before dropping all investigations.”

From her tone, Dipper could guess this was a common point of contention for her. She’d probably attended a number of riots protesting against the very corruption she was outlining right now. As a whole, she preferred relying on herself to sort things out.

“I know it’s not some grand conspiracy to solve or anything big like that. But it’s real, Dipper, and it’s happening to innocent people.”

Immediately he assuaged her doubts. “You don’t have to worry. I know how important this is. Besides, after everything we’ve been through in our lives we deserve to take it small-scale. Do some practical good.”

Mabel’s resulting grin was infectious. The spark of adventure was already spreading. “Right then!” She stood up decisively and tucked away her messy pile of collected evidence. “Tomorrow morning we can head into town. I’m already friends with a bunch of the locals, we can work on getting some pointers.”

“I’m sure once the Mystery Twins set up in town we’ll have this cracked in no time.”

“Cheers to that.” They clinked their bottles together, ready to solve this thing as soon as the sun rose.

[pearlsplaidspistols]

Chapter Four: Loch Ashie

Jamie sends Claire thru the circle of standing stones atop Craigh na Dun. The Catch? Jamie somehow manages to go with her. The Double Catch? They find themselves in 1543, not 1948.

You can find previous chapters here.

Late May 1543; Loch Ashie, Just South of Inverness, Scotland. Claire.

We had left Marcus’ croft equipped with clothing, provisions, and a small purse of coins yesterday morning. Traveling overland by foot was slow going, but Jamie thought we’d reach Inverness within a few hours, well before nightfall. Our plan was to make a few connections within the city, find a decent horse to purchase with our meager gold, and then make our way to Broch Mordha.

I tossed a small pebble into the still waters of the loch, watching the surface ripple and settle back into complacency. It was warm for May and the sun was hot on my back. Lifting the thick plait off my neck, I let the gentle breeze refresh me.

Jamie seized the opportunity to place a kiss at the nape of my neck, his small scruff of a beard tickling the tender skin. I smiled as he murmured something in Gaelic in my ear. “I haven’t the slightest idea of what you just said, you know.”

“‘Tis easier to show ye than translate, Sassenach,” his voice was low as he pulled me onto his lap.

Movement on the loch caught my eye, and I spotted a distant boat. It was a small, rickety sort of thing. Two boys were fishing aboard it and one pointed in our direction.

“We have an audience,” I warned, not really wanting him to stop.

“Oh, aye,” he nibbled at my ear, apparently of the same mind. “Maybe we can teach them a trick or two.”

My lips found his as a giant splash sounded from the waters in front of us. One of the boys had gone overboard, judging by the solo voice taunting his friend. I paid them little heed and brought my arms around Jamie’s neck.

He suddenly tensed and pulled away as the voice’s tone changed from that of teasing to one of alarm. The boy was speaking in Gaelic, but a cry for help was universal. Jamie eased me off his lap, going to stand by the edge of the water.

A concerned question came from my husband and the answer made him hurriedly shed his kilt and boots.

“He can’t swim?” I asked as I stood and came beside him.

Jamie didn’t answer but plunged into the water. It was cold, judging by his reaction. The skiff was a good distance from the shore and it took Jamie longer than I liked for him to reach it.

What’s the fool doing on a boat in the middle of the loch if he couldn’t swim?

The boy had fallen off the far side of the boat and was hidden from view. Jamie rounded the bow of it, the sound of his movements masking those of the floundering boy’s. A few terse words were exchanged, presumably as they tried to decide if they could get the boy into the boat or if Jamie would need to swim back with him.  An attempt was made to hoist the boy back into the boat, but it resulted in the other boy joining Jamie in the water and the boat flipping over on top of the trio.

A cry of concern escaped my lips. What if the other boy couldn’t swim as well? Jamie couldn’t possibly haul the both of them back to shore without drowning himself.

The thought had me tearing off my shoes and wading into the water as three heads came into view, this side of the boat. One was Jamie’s. I mentally let out a sigh with relief as I propelled myself towards them, hip deep in the freezing water.

Jesus H Roosevelt Christ, it was cold.

Considerably taller than the Other Boy, Jamie’s feet hit the bottom of the loch first as they made their way towards me. He lifted The Boy into a better position and I could tell he was unconscious. Jamie’s eyes met mine, alarm shouting at me across the water.

Finally within reach, I grabbed hold of the Other Boy, shoving him towards the shore. Jamie was wading now and had The Boy cradled in his arms. His head hung limp, eyes wide and unseeing.

I raced to keep up with Jamie’s long strides, my sodden layers of skirts weighing me down.

“Lay him down on the shore, Jamie.” I instructed, just behind him.

He did so as Other Boy and I crowded around him. My fingers searched for a pulse in The Boy’s neck. It was there, weak and thready, but he wasn’t breathing. I tilted his chin up and forced my own breath into his lungs. I lurched back, hoping for an immediate response and not wanting to be in the way of the flow of his stomach contents.

He remained still and lifeless.

Again and again I repeated the action.

“Breathe, damn it.” I muttered under my breath.

With a jerk, The Boy came to life. I turned him onto his side as he vomited and coughed.

Other Boy pulled him into a sitting position and hugged him fiercely.

“We need to get him warm,” I turned to Jamie, who was panting beside me.

He nodded, squeezing my hand as he was unable to speak just yet. His eyes communicated his words as loudly as though he had spoken them aloud.

Well done, Sassenach.

I could catch snippets of the boys’ conversation as Jamie set about to make a fire, my Gaelic rudimentary at best.

Bràthair. Brother. Alasdair. Alexander. Uilleachan. Willie.

So, the two were brothers. Now that they were in front of me, I could see the resemblance. The older of the two, Other Boy as I had dubbed him, was apparently Alexander and the younger, Willie.

Willie was getting an earful as to what his mother would have done to Alexander if something should have happened to him. That much was clear and needed no translation.

Jamie returned and spoke to the boys in Gaelic, urging the two to sit near the fire.

He guided me to my feet and gathered me into his arms.

“Christ, Sassenach, yer hands are as cold as ice!” he exclaimed after I reached up to brush a wet curl out of his eyes.

My teeth clattered as I retorted, “You aren’t any warmer.”

He pulled me towards the now raging fire and started to unfasten my skirts. I grabbed at his hands, looking around him towards the boys who were definitely watching this interplay. They’re eyes were huge and mouths slightly agape.

Jamie followed my gaze and gave the boys an order. The two grinned, but eventually turned around, their backs towards us.

He cocked an eyebrow, nodding towards my sodden skirts. I rolled my eyes heavenward and grabbed my airisaid off the pile of packs and discarded clothing beside me. Offering it to my husband, I stammered, “H-hold this up.”

Dutifully obliging, he held did so as I tried to undress with trembling fingers.

“Having trouble, mo chridhe?” Jamie’s eyes twinkled as he peeked over my privacy screen. I glared at him and dropped my wool skirt to the ground with a loud squish. He nodded towards my pack, asking “Can ye reach yer other dress or should I move?”

“If you so much as move an inch, James Fraser,” I muttered, my lips thawed enough to speak coherently, “I just might throw you back into the loch.”

Marcus had given me his wife’s clothing, having been carefully packed away in a wooden chest after her death. They were too large about the waist, but were a decent fit.

They won’t be for long, I thought wryly. My layers of skirts and petticoats hid the small bump of our growing child, but soon it would be evident to all. Come autumn, the gifted wardrobe would be too small.

Jamie lowered the airisaid as I tied my bodice into place, leaning over to give me a kiss on the cheek. I took his face in my hands and kissed him right back. “Go sit by the fire, mo nighean donn. Yer still freezing,” he grinned.

I lowered myself onto a fallen log near the fire and basked in its warmth. Willie and Alexander turned to look at me, their eyes wary but filled with curiosity.

“Feeling better?” I asked Willie, smiling at him.

He returned the smile, glancing at Jamie and then back at me.

“He’s my husband.” I explained, not sure why I felt I needed to. “I’m Claire, by the way, what are your names?”

I already knew the answer to the question, having eavesdropped, but felt it was a good place to start a conversation.

The boys just stared at me.

Jamie spoke to them from where he was getting dressed. It was a question and both boys shook their heads.

“They dinna ken English, Sassenach,” he explained.

“Really?”

He shrugged, “The further we get into the Highlands, the more it will be so.”

“Any idea who they are?” I asked and sighed with fatigue.

Jamie made, what sounded like, a round of introductions. I caught the words bean-chèile, which I knew meant wife, and my name, followed by his.

James Fraser.

It was the surname we had agreed to go with. We were on Fraser lands, after all.

The name lit a torch of recognition in the boy’s eyes and I felt my heartbeat quicken. They hastily introduced themselves, Alexander and William. The name Fraser was tossed around between all three of them and finally Jamie turned to me in astonishment.

“They’re the Lord of Lovat’s sons, Claire.”

[sssolaine]

Tit for Tat

Rating: M (for suggestive sexual themes)

Prompt: “I won’t give you roses,  Granger, cliché isn’t my thing.”

Synopsis: His life as a Ministry head was all fine and dandy until a sexy wrench called Granger was thrown in the mix. What’s a hot blooded wizard to do?

A/N: I’d like to thank stellagammadraconis and DayDreamer1123 for beta-ing this and I apologize for such a short notice (a girl loves to cram)! The premise was provided by Di and I just toyed with it. Hope y'all enjoy what we came up with!

Draco must’ve been dreaming. That’s it. It had been five years since he’d last seen Granger, and to say she’d changed a lot would be an understatement. Last he’d heard, she’d moved to Australia to be with her parents. He never did find out why they left Britain, but he assumed it had a lot to do with their daughter’s involvement in the war.

From where he was seated, Draco had a good view of the Muggle-born. He could tell she’d grown taller, her hair was now tamer, and the tight black blouse she wore was pretty distracting, especially since it emphasized the curve of her bosom. He’d surveyed her with a keen eye when she’d entered, her hips swaying as she walked. If someone used a legilimens spell on him right now, they’d be in for a pleasant surprise. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine having a raging hard-on because of Hermione Granger.

The sound of Shacklebolt’s baritone wrenched Draco out of his lustful thoughts and back into the department head meeting.

“As you are all aware, with Mulberry’s retirement, the Magical Law Enforcement Department is currently without a head. Ms. Granger here has worked in the same capacity at the Australian Ministry. She comes to us highly recommended by the Australian Minister himself. I trust that there will be no problems as she transitions into her new role.”

Granger smiled, exchanged pleasantries with her soon-to-be staff and headed out for a meeting with the Minister without even acknowledging Draco’s presence. She looked delightful and he’d be damned if he’d let her escape his grasp before he sampled that fine arse. No one could resist a Malfoy’s charm if he put his mind to it. Draco smirked to himself. Yeah, they would certainly have a great “working relationship.”

oOo

Or so he thought. The minx was difficult to get a hold of. When she wasn’t attending meetings, she was busy shirking his advances. Draco started to make a move on her in the ministry cafeteria’s secluded area three days after she assumed the position. He’d subtly complimented her hot ensemble coupled with fuck-me heels that day, he just couldn’t help himself. Hermione stared at him for a whole minute, obviously dumbfounded, before her face scrunched up as if her coffee tasted awful. Murmuring a quick “Excuse me” she left in haste as if Snatchers were hot on her heels. Their succeeding encounters were all similar, always ending with her fleeing the scene from his constant stares and “accidental” touches. Draco was going easy on her, convinced subtlety was the key, but it was all for naught. If witches weren’t throwing sultry glances his way, he would have doubted his Malfoy charisma by now. It was downright insulting, to say the least, but he wasn’t a quitter. Draco would win her soon, he was sure of it. But perhaps a change of strategy was in order.

oOo

Hermione Granger, department head of MLE, sighed and leaned back in her comfortable chair. Being back in Britain was helping to slowly mend the gap that had formed between her and her friends while she’d lived in Australia for a few years following the defeat of Voldemort. The kiss she and Ron had shared in the Chamber should have given way to a budding romance, but her heart couldn’t take the separation from her parents, so she’d made up her mind and took a step back. After the battle, Hermione had decided to lift the obliviate spell she’d placed on them before it became irreversible. She hadn’t bothered asking Ron to come with her because she knew he was still grieving the loss of his brother, and his family needed him. It had been painful, though, that he hadn’t offered to accompany her, or just to see her off - even Ginny, who had been in the same boat as him, had the time to spare. Hermione knew dwelling on it was childish, so she’d moved on after some time.

But that wasn’t what had really hurt their friendship. No, what caused the rift was the fact that he carried on with his life as the Keeper of the Chudley Cannons. That, and being a member of the Golden Trio, had catapulted him to stardom. And with fame came parties, social events…and women. She shouldn’t be affected by all of this — they’d never really talked about where they stood, but it hurt her nonetheless.

Her return sparked a change in Ron. It was as if a memory charm had been reversed, and he started thinking about picking up where they’d left of. No longer was he seen out with various witches, as he only pursued her since the day she got back. He sent her roses every day, as if he’d forgotten that she was allergic to them, and chocolates, for which she’d never had a liking. She sighed. After all these years, it was as if he didn’t know her.

And then there was Malfoy, head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Malfoy, who was constantly on the lookout for her like a wolf to his prey, giving her compliments out of nowhere, watching her like he’d devour her. Those eyes, oh those eyes! They made her quiver with want, left her hot and bothered. It was a feeling Hermione was no longer familiar with, having less time for love and the physical needs of her body.

She was unnerved.

This was the same man who, five years ago, had called her a vicious slur she ought not to mention even in her mind. He’d sneered at her, hexed her and thought her way beneath the dirt on his dragon-hide boots. What made him interested, all of a sudden? She wondered. It wasn’t as if he was out of witches. She had seen a couple of them eyeing him like he was sex on legs. The fact that he’d gone from a pointy-faced git to a heartthrob in a span of a few years made her suspicious he had an ulterior motive behind his actions. Oh, she won’t think of him. Not anymore! She had Ron to think about. She wouldn’t picture Draco’s strong arms..arms that could easily hoist her up and fu—

“Ugh! No! Stop it!” She banged her head on her table, hissing at the pain that made her forget her momentary lapse of sanity. She didn’t even hear her door open.

“Hermione? What’s wrong?” Ron entered hesitantly and sauntered close to her.

“N-nothing!”she stuttered, caught in the act having lurid thoughts about Malfoy. “I’ve got a headache, nothing serious.”

“Reckon what you’re doing doesn’t help. Are we still on for later?”  Ron gave Hermione the boyish smile that used to make her heart flutter. Gone was his lanky frame, replaced by muscles from his line of work. He looked handsomer than before. There was no spark, though. It was like the years apart had snuffed the attraction from her.

“Yeah, it doesn’t. I have a potion for it, so I should be okay later.”

He seemed satisfied with her answer and slowly leaned down to kiss her lips. Alarmed and unsure of how she should respond, she moved her face just in time, and his lips landed on her cheek instead. She leaned back, and an awkward silence filled the room.

“Uhm, I’ll see you later then?”

“Yeah, later.” Ron tucked his hands in his robe’s pockets and walked to the door, but he suddenly stopped before leaving her office.

“What the hell are you doing here Malfoy?”

“In case you’ve forgotten, Weasley, I work here,” Malfoy snapped back, his voice laced with venom. “Also, if you can kindly move your arse out of the way, I have confidential things to discuss with Granger. You’re wasting my time.”

Ron’s hands tightened to fists, seemingly ready to wipe the sneer off Malfoy’s face.

“Ron, I’ll see you later. Please,” she pleaded. “I have a case I need to run through with Malfoy.”

Ron faced her, gave a curt nod and left in a huff.

Malfoy closed the door behind him and prowled toward her. Hermione was taken aback by the anger she saw in his eyes and carefully backed away into the corner.

“What is it, Malfoy?” She heard her voice falter.

“You’ve been avoiding me, Granger, and I don’t like it. Why?” he snarled.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You know damn well what I’m talking about.” He placed his hands on the wall, effectively locking her in.

She tried to pry his arms off, but he won’t budge. “Get away, Malfoy! What do you want?”

He turned his grey eyes on her and, in that husky drawl of his, uttered the words that shattered her resolve. “You. I want you, Granger.”  

She gasped. Seeing his chance to silence her, Malfoy leaned in and closed the gap between them. His tongue plundered her mouth. Teasing. Caressing. A startled cry escaped her lips and, knees weak from the onslaught of his advances, her hands braced his shoulders out of instinct to keep from falling. Shock turned to arousal, shutting down her sense of right and wrong, and she returned his fervent kisses with the same intensity.

Hermione mewled against Malfoy’s mouth when his hips ground against hers. He did it repeatedly and roughly, seeming completely consumed with need and fueled by the noises she made.

Groaning into her mouth, Draco quickly reached down and lifted her hips to his, hiking her skirt up in the process.

His mouth found her neck and opened hotly to suck at her delicate skin. He tasted her while his hands caressed her arse, still grinding his hips, letting her feel his hard length on her wet heat. This was all unplanned, but he wasn’t about to complain. When he’d seen Weasley try to kiss her, he’d been consumed by a feeling foreign to him. There’s no way he was letting that oaf have his little minx after this. He’d make sure she’d be his. Her lips were plump and red from their passionate snogging, and her eyes were shut tight, lost in the throes of passion.

“Granger, look at me.” She slowly opened her honeyed orbs and couldn’t seem to focus because of his ministrations. “Don’t go with him. This, whatever this is that we have between us, you can’t deny it. Not anymore.”

As if to prove his point, Draco pressed featherlight kisses on her mouth again. She readily parted for him, savoring his taste. Carrying her to a chair, he leaned back and tipped up her chin.

“I won’t give you roses, Granger, cliché isn’t my thing, but I sure as hell won’t leave you hesitating when I give you my attention.” He gazed into her eyes, hoping he’d be able to convey his thoughts. “Let’s give this thing a chance. I saw how you evaded Weasley’s kiss. Say yes.”

In a moment of clarity, she tried to move, but Draco held her hips firmly.

“Let me up, Malfoy. How can we talk properly when you’re holding me hostage?” She pouted those sumptuous lips.

“I think you’re right where you’re supposed to be.” He gave her a cheeky grin. “So? What do you think?”

“Let me up, and I’ll tell you.”

He sighed and gave in, allowing her to stand.

Granger looked away and closed her eyes. “I’m dating Ron. I can’t just up and cancel on him. He’s my friend.” She let out an exasperated sigh. She knew she should feel guilty, but his lips on hers felt so right.

Standing up and feeling incensed by her answer—something he should have expected from this stubborn witch—he marched to the door. Before he grasped the knob, he turned to her.

“We’re not done here, Granger. Think about it. Will you settle for a man you no longer feel like giving a proper snog? I saw you. And I felt how you responded to me.” He scanned her brazenly from head to foot. “You can tell me you don’t want me, but your body sings a different tune. You know where to find me when you change your mind.” He slammed the door on his way out, rattling its frame.

Hermione dropped into her chair when he left.  Now there was no faking it, she could really feel a headache coming.

oOo

Fidgeting, Hermione arranged her skirt under the table. She didn’t know how she’d be able to break it to Ron while he was yammering on about the latest Quidditch scores and the proper feints.

“Mione?”

Startled out of her reverie, she sipped her wine before she said, “Yes?”

“Did you even hear what I said?” Ron frowned, irked that she wasn’t paying attention.

“I’m sorry, Ron, it’s been a long day and I’m tired.”

“'Are you sure that’s the only reason?” He eyed her pensively.

This was it, she thought. That was the opening she was looking for. She hesitated a little too long and, when she faced him, he was looking at her intently.

“I’m sorry.” She took another sip of her merlot for liquid courage and placed her glass on the table. “I don’t think this is working, Ron. We tried. I know we did, but…I think it’s too late for us. I…I no longer feel the same way before I left for Australia.”

Silence.

All she could hear were the sounds of the neighboring table’s cutlery. Confused by the lack of his legendary outbursts, she looked up. Ron was blinking and swiped an arm over his eyes.

“'Ron? Are you—”

“I know.” He breathed heavily, regret marring his voice. “I just thought, if we tried, we could go back to what we were before this. I should not have allowed you to go alone. I should have been there for you, too. If I was, then maybe, just maybe, we’d be together and happily married like Harry and Ginny.”

Stunned by his admission, she stood up and moved in front of her best friend. This was the man she’d thought she’d spend her life with. Grasping his hand, she pulled him up and hugged him fiercely. People were probably staring, but she didn’t care. Her sobs were muffled by his shirt. She cried for the love they’d lost, for the chance they would no longer get back.

When she was able to get her bearings, she peered at him, eyes puffy from crying. “I love you, you know? You’ll always have a piece of my heart Ron. I know you’ll find someone who will be worthy of your affection someday. I’m sure of it.”

He patted her back and murmured his acquiescence. They returned to their places and continued eating, foregoing any personal conversation and settling on safer topics like their work and their friends. After settling their bill, he took her home and dropped a chaste kiss on her forehead.

Hermione looked around and when she didn’t see anyone, she whispered a few spells to drop her wards. Letting herself in, she did her nightly rituals and prepared for bed. When her head hit the pillow, her mind traitorously reviewed everything that had transpired during her dinner with Ron, and she felt a stray tear escape her eye. She rubbed her cheek to remove the liquid. There was no use thinking about it. They’d made peace with each other.

She only had Malfoy to deal with now.

Malfoy.

The git was still as arrogant as ever. When he’d started flirting with her, she’d decided to investigate what the rotten ferret was up to. What she found out was astonishing. He donated a hefty sum each year to war reparations, funded a muggle-born orphanage for those who’d lost their parents in the second wizarding war and other charity work. It seemed he had also left his prejudiced beliefs behind from what she observed in the office. He was chummy with muggle-born wizards and witches, even trusted by Kingsley. And if those sexy intense looks were a promise of what’s to come, hell, she would be coming alright.

Oh well, it seemed a dreamless sleep potion was in order.

oOo

He sought her out every chance he got, even though he said she should be the one to approach him when she’s ready. The witch in question was always nowhere in sight. She should have been sorted into Slytherin with all the tactics she employed to avoid his presence. When he was finally able to see her, in her office nonetheless, she disappeared before he even got the chance to talk to her, leaving via portkey for an international magical conference. He was at his wit’s end.

oOo

1 week later

February 12

Draco was shuffling papers at his desk, pretending to be busy despite finishing all of his tasks before lunch time. According to his sources, the conference had been extended from a three day event to a week. He was frustrated, irate and terribly missing the wily witch. He thought about giving up, but changed his mind at the last minute. A Malfoy always gets what they want. He huffed. Fat chance that would come true this time. The witch seemed to have forgotten everything they shared for a few minutes in her office.

A knock on his door pulled him out of his brooding. “Come in,” he called out without looking up. His new secretary had been quite outrageous with her propositions recently and if it was her, he had to appear busy or else she’d try to molest him again. Not that the lady wasn’t pretty, quite the contrary, but ever since that encounter with Granger he couldn’t seem to get it up for anyone else.

“What is it, Ms. Hollingsworth?”

“Last I’ve heard it’s Ms. Granger,” a female said with a teasing lilt in her voice.

Malfoy’s head snapped up immediately when he heard her. It couldn’t be. He almost believed he was hallucinating from his constant thoughts about her, but this seemed to be real. There she was, wearing that tight skirt and shirt he fancied so much. Keep your cool, Malfoy. You don’t want her thinking you’re too excited to see her. To cover his shock, he dropped his gaze and perused the documents in front of him.

“How can I help you, Granger?” he uttered nonchalantly.

She sashayed unhurriedly toward him, and he saw her dainty hands grip the edge of his desk.

“Well, you did say I could come here when I changed my mind. You can stop acting like you don’t care Malfoy.” He looked up the saw those plump lips he’d been dreaming about curl into a smile. “Caught how your eyes almost fell out of their sockets when you saw me.”

The cheeky minx. He was about to stand up and face her when she dropped a piece of folded parchment on his table.

“See you on the fourteenth, Malfoy. It’s a date. Don’t be late.” Granger winked, turned on her heel, and left a gaping Malfoy behind.

Hermione walked briskly to her office, trying to calm her beating heart. She knew it was a bold move, what she’d done. But her mind was made up. The entire week in Paris and the weeks she’d constantly pulled a disappearing act on him had given her ample time to think everything through. Although still a bit unsure, there was no denying the physical attraction she felt for him. The magnetic pull was inevitable, and she knew it was only a matter of time before she caved. Hermione preferred to do it on her own terms rather than his. Feeling confident she’d done the right thing, she slowed her pace and grinned. Oh, Malfoy, you’ll absolutely get it, just you wait.

oOo

The parchment held an old brass key and instructions to touch it by 8:00 PM on Valentine’s Day, no less. Figured Granger was a romantic. This was the first time he had no idea what to look forward to, no clue what to even wear on this momentous occasion. Not wanting to come unprepared, he wore a three piece suit, just to be sure. She had said it was a date. Satisfied with his appearance in the mirror, he checked the grandfather clock in his room and when the bell tolled, he gripped the key and felt the tugging sensation always accompanied by portkey travel.

He was whisked to an unfamiliar place, and when he turned, he saw a quaint house with a beautiful lawn. It was filled with orchids of various colors and sizes, the grass leading to the house’s entrance was trimmed short and obviously well kept. Not bad. He trudged toward the door and tried to turn the knob, but it was locked. Remembering the key, he fished it out of his pocket and inserted it into the keyhole. The door slowly opened to reveal a modern looking household filled with muggle contraptions. Did Granger just invited him into her home? Curious.

He called out for her, but when no one answered, he slowly let himself in, hoping against all hope that there were no hexes in place for intruders. He stood in shock when he got to the dining area. There was a table for two, a bottle of wine chilling not too far from it, and a sweet melody playing in the background.

”Like it? Have a seat, Malfoy.”

He saw her, then, coming out of what seemed to be the kitchen. His eyes traveled from her gorgeous face, sporting a pretty smirk that rivaled his signature one, down to her body encased in a little black dress that hugged her curves and flared at the bottom, to the creamy expanse of her legs that went on forever. On her feet were open toed pumps. Draco almost broke a sweat. It seemed he had a foot fetish with the way his breath caught upon seeing her in those.

He coughed to hide his minute ogling, and took a seat.

“This is unexpected, Granger, but definitely welcome. So you and Weasley?”

“What about Ron?”

“You know what, Granger, don’t play games with me.” He narrowed his eyes at her, jealousy flaring up his mood.

She openly laughed, walked toward him and, to his surprise, sat her firm arse on his lap, her arms encircling his neck.

“No need to get all fired up, Malfoy. Ron and I have settled on being friends. Things weren’t looking up on the dating front, and it’s better this way than to ruin years of friendship. Plus, I don’t think we’d be here if I was still into him.” Mischief filled her hazel eyes.

Unable to keep the happiness out of his face, he flashed her an endearing smile, baring that perfect set of pearly whites. The git really was handsome. “So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, what we’re doing right now…we’re sort of dating, right?”

“Believe you me, Granger, if I had my way, that’s not the only thing we’d be doing tonight.” He waggled his eyebrows meaningfully and proceeded to snog her senseless.

Only their moans could be heard in the room, dinner all but forgotten.

Fin.

[nicolamalfi]

“The Long Road Home: A Survival Story”

// After three years, here is the thorough 3,889 word summary of my magnum opus story. Parts I - III are completed and can be found here: I, II, III. I feel that this definitely isn’t the same quality as the actual story, but at least it conveys everything! There is a TL;DR at the very bottom.

Part I: Survival

After throwing himself between a dear friend and the blade of an enemy, Nicol is presumed dead and the broken Blitz is left half-submerged off an island near Orb, fodder for scavengers. Three brothers under the guise of a fishing crew find the mobile suit a few days later. They eagerly cut into the cockpit—the Blue Cosmos chapter in the Equatorial Union capital of New Delhi offers a fine reward for any ranking ZAFT soldiers taken alive—and attempt to strip the mobile suit of whatever materials they can.

They cut open the hatch and find Nicol alive but barely conscious. He's up to his waist in water and pinned in where the cockpit has crushed inward around his right leg. They're not sure what a red suit means but it's out of the ordinary, so after a brief moment’s consideration they use the same power saw to cut through his leg, just above the knee, and pull him free.

Nicol survives the journey west and is taken to the brothers’ home in the Equatorial Union. There he is allowed to begin recovering under the pretence that the brothers had rescued him from the goodness of their hearts. The eldest, Bayani, is the only one who ever speaks to him. Nicol doesn’t remember their first encounter, but he still doesn’t trust these strangers.

His suspicions are confirmed one afternoon when the brothers take him to a beach to supposedly practice walking with a new crutch. Their behavior becomes increasingly erratic until, at the sound of an approaching boat, they admit their true motives. Nicol manages to escape before the boat arrives to take him away, killing Bayani and wounding the other two in the process. He retreats into a jungle and begins walking south, towards the PLANT-aligned Oceania Union.

Nicol stows away aboard ships heading south. He lives on produce swiped from markets and the donations of curious children who see him as a poor young vagabond. Despite keeping the hood of a stolen jacket drawn up at almost all times, Nicol decides that it’s best to cut his obvious Coordinator hair short.

A captain named Isko spots Nicol in Luwuk and offers him a small cabin and passage as far south as Dili, in the state of East Timor. Nicol is suspicious, but he accepts the offer. He later realises that the captain and his wife are simply good-hearted people and regrets his initial wariness.

Alone in his cabin, Nicol faces a mirror and feels disconnected from the unfamiliar reflection. Gaunt, deeply tanned, hair cut short…When he looks down to inspect his healing leg, the physical and emotional toll of the past few weeks causes him to black out and fall into the shower. He strikes the shower lever on the way down, and the water that hits his unconscious body inspires dreams of dark waves and dead faces.

Eventually he wakes and finds that he is still on the ship.

Part II: The Twins

Captain Isko drops Nicol off in Dili with a few kind words and a bag of food. It has been roughly one month since the battle, and Nicol feels almost peaceful as he eats his warm lunch in a shady spot across from a beach dotted with happy families. The war doesn’t seem to exist in this place.

A group of locals walk past, but a young man a few years older than Nicol pauses and catches his gaze. Nicol quickly prepares to leave, but the stranger has already hopped into the street and offered assistance. The cheerful man takes Nicol’s silence as an invitation to keep talking. His ready smile and memories of Captain Isko’s kindness convince Nicol to go against his instinct to run.

The stranger introduces himself as Alan. He leads Nicol to a dirt car park where his twin sister Ain is waiting in an old truck. The twins banter for a bit before they set off for their house. The radio is broken, so they talk to pass the time. About the island, the earth, themselves.

Nicol tells his story for the first time. The twins are surprisingly unbothered by his past as a soldier, and a ZAFT one at that. They’re mostly curious about life in space, and as Equatorial Union citizens they provide additional context for the actions of Bayani and his brothers.

They arrive at a white house set between two green hills. There are signs of disrepair and neglect; Ain later reveals that their mother has passed away and their father is away caring for family on another island. The twins insist that Nicol should receive some medical attention, but because the local clinic has already closed for the day they make do with what they have at the house.

Ain takes care of checking on Nicol’s leg and gives him some of Alan’s clothes to wear. She then starts preparing some chicken soup, but Alan keeps making innocent jokes about Coordinators so she throws a chunk of raw chicken that hits him square in the mouth. Nicol retreats to the back yard as they begin to fight, though he soon hears the tension dissolve into laughter.

After a while, Ain pokes her head out the back door and announces that dinner is ready. The table is set, the food is hot. Nicol is struck by how ordinary it all looks, and how deprived he has felt of such simple things. Alan misinterprets Nicol’s expression as one of judgement, because surely someone from space is used to fancier displays. Suddenly embarrassed by their home, Alan quietly asks if it isn’t too bad. Nicol smiles and tells him that it’s perfect.

Part III: Firelight

Four months have now passed since the battle. The trio spends an afternoon at the beach, and as the sun sets they build a fire to cook some dinner. Ain has to return to the truck for supplies, leaving the boys alone for a while. Alan is a bit unnerved when he sees Nicol looking up at the sky, as he fears that Nicol is unhappy or wants to leave them. Over the past three months the twins—and their community—have come to see the erstwhile soldier as part of the family.

Nicol says that he's not sure why he looks up anymore, since the PLANTs (he doesn't say “home”) feel farther away each day.

Ain returns with a plate stacked with foil-wrapped sweet potatoes. She asks if everything is alright, to which Alan responds with a snort and a string of Portuguese. This doesn’t fool Nicol anymore. After three months in Dili he is nearly fluent in Portuguese and has working knowledge of Tetun-Prasa. There are other languages on the island as well, especially after the creation of the Equatorial Union, so he also knows a word of Tetun-Terik here and Indonesian there, and enough Galoli to order breakfast.

They talk a bit more, but Alan is soon distracted by a seagull that alights nearby. He scrambles up and chases it down the beach. With Alan gone, Ain gives Nicol a stern yet maternal glare until he admits what’s really bothering him. He reveals his fear of no longer hurting enough at the separation, of becoming complacent and losing touch with his past self.

“I can’t give up on everyone, but short of rowing myself to Carpentaria, which is impossible, I can’t think of what to do. And I think about it every day.” He paused. “Or at least I used to. It’s so easy to live like the war doesn’t even exist here. And that’s what scares me. Am I…” He looked back up to Ain as his voice tightened. “Am I giving up on everyone?” 

“You can’t live torn in two,” she tells him. Maybe what he feels is a sense of closure, growing slowly and tenderly like scar tissue across a wound. If his life has led him to Dili, then maybe he should accept that. “And if the people in our pasts truly loved us, they would want us to be happy and continue on. Even if it’s without them.”

He can’t help but feel that she’s right. Everyone he knew must be coming to terms with his absence, so maybe he should accept theirs and continue along his new path. For so long it felt more like a dark river, pushing him along and under until he suddenly found solid ground on a small island. That was when Alan appeared, there under the blazing blue sky, hand outstretched.

Ain gives Nicol’s hands a squeeze to draw him back from his thoughts as Alan returns. The sky has fallen into night by now, and their small campfire is the only light between them and the constellations. The three friends laugh and eat and talk long into the night. The waves come and go in the darkness, eroding and rebuilding.

Part IV: Event Horizon

The trio spends one Saturday morning working for a local farm by making deliveries to restaurants and an outdoor market. When they reach the market square Ain runs ahead to get them breakfast, leaving the boys to do the heavy lifting. By now Nicol has a 3D printed prosthesis (with custom decorations by Alan) and putting it on is beginning to feel as normal as dressing in his ZAFT uniform once did. They pass familiar faces in the crowded market, though the appearance of an old friend of the twins throws the day into disarray. Alan is ecstatic; Ain is furious.

Later that evening, the twins’ friend Yasir appears at the door bearing a peace offering: brownies, Ain’s favourite dessert. It doesn’t go over well, but he is eventually allowed in the door. Alan properly introduces him to Nicol while Ain putters around angrily in the next room. Yasir is the tallest of them, with a gentle demeanour and a habit of gesturing as he speaks. Nicol learns that he used to live nearby, but he left at the start of the war to join a water rescue group called the Cormorants.

The group originally saved fishermen and boaters, but with the onset of war they began plucking soldiers from ships, planes, and mobile suits downed in the waters around the Equatorial Union. They are non-aligned, with Coordinators working alongside Naturals to save lives. Yasir reveals that he himself is a Coordinator.

Nicol retells his story, which comes more easily now. After a moment of silence Yasir offhandedly states that the Cormorants would have been able to get him into the Oceania Union with little difficulty. The conversation quickly moves on to other topics, but Nicol remains silent, confused at how deeply Yasir’s words struck him. He’s happy here. These are his friends—truer than the members of the Le Creuset Team ever were. This place feels like home. So what is the painful flicker of hope in his chest?

As Yasir leaves, Nicol catches him at the door and quietly asks what he meant about getting into the Oceania Union. Unfortunately, that is no longer an option, as the Cormorant leadership recently underwent a shakeup and their contacts are gone. The revelation that crossing into the Oceania Union was once possible eats at Nicol for days, and his mind once again turns to thoughts of reaching Carpentaria.

Alan and Ain notice that he has become distracted and seems burdened, despite the cheerful face he wears for them. They confront Yasir to find out what he told Nicol that night.

On September 20, Nicol comes home from his part-time job at a restaurant and finds Alan, Ain, and Yasir sitting at the kitchen table waiting for him. As he sits, Ain confidently says that they’re going to get him home. They can tell that he’s in pain, and as his adopted earth family it’s their duty to do what’s best for him, even if it means that their paths will diverge.

Yasir explains how he was able to re-establish contact with one of their contacts in the Oceania Union—a member of the Junk Guild. But there’s a catch: their window of opportunity is in four days. He also shares news that the ZAFT base of Carpentaria fell to the Earth Alliance more than a month earlier.

The plan is for them to travel on a boat operated by Yasir’s Cormorant team and meet up with their contact at the border. From there Nicol will be taken into the Oceania Union and dropped off at a PLANT embassy.

Nicol immediately refuses.

The twins ignore him. They will stick together and see the mission through. The fact that they casually call it a ‘mission’ makes Nicol stand and leave the table. It could be dangerous. They aren’t soldiers. But Alan insists that they’re family, and there’s nothing he can do to stop them. Yasir says that he’s against it, but the crossing is calm at the moment so it shouldn’t be too dangerous.

Yasir gives them one day to decide. After many tears and hours spent sitting on the bench where Nicol and Alan first met months before, they agree to attempt it. The next two days are spent preparing and saying goodbye to the island. As the morning of the fourth day arrives, Nicol feels ill as they hurry out the door. His life is still neatly organised in the spare bedroom, as if he’ll return to it that afternoon.

Part V: Dark Water

The boat is manned by two additional Cormorant members who cheerfully greet the trio and assure them that the route is calm. It’s just another day of work for them. One attempts to make conversation by asking Nicol if he’s heard about what happened at Boaz the day before. The ZAFT base was destroyed, and the prevailing rumour is that the attack was nuclear.

After a few uneventful hours, one of the Cormorants spots an EA plane coming from the east. Its presence is troubling; the crew talk amongst themselves while their passengers stare up at the sky. It’s decided that they should stop at an uninhabited atoll known as Bedwell Island until the scout returns to the captured Carpentaria base. The Cormorants are generally allowed to travel unmolested, but they don’t want to risk being caught in anything.  

They wait on the island for an hour then set out again. Words are lost and nerves are taut as their destination takes shape on the horizon. Then from the west, with the sunset spilling red behind it, appears an Oceania Union flotilla accompanied by at least one Vosgulov-class submarine that slips below the water before Nicol can be sure he truly saw it.

OMNI ships begin to take shape off to the east.

There is nowhere to go but forward. The Cormorants’ small boat speeds across water limned in vivid sunset orange, racing towards the coastline and out of the line of fire. Suddenly the ocean in front of them erupts as the Vosgulov-class launches an aerial mobile suit with a roar that sends everyone to their knees. Stinging sea spray rains down and agitated waves push the boat back towards the impending conflict.

The Cormorants fight for control, but they are caught in the battle and capsized by the wake of an Oceania Union warship. As the last light fades, Nicol sees Alan go under. Ain is clinging to hull and shouting something. Yasir is swimming towards her. Where are the other Cormorants—they don’t matter, he has to find Alan. The deafening cannonade continues. Another DINN swoops low overhead and the gale drags Nicol farther away. He swims. He swims. The wake of another warship sends more dark water crashing down, and from beneath its surface he can see the flash of violent lights in the sky.

A lifetime ago dark water crept into the Blitz’s cockpit, cold and inescapable, and from there it swept into his dreams. But his friends burned that darkness away. Now they are gone and the waves are back. Nicol can’t move, can’t fight the ocean.

Part VI: Gravity

He’s moving, but no longer weightless in the water. Before he can think, the sensation of being dragged triggers some deeply guarded memory and he panics, flailing at the hands that grip his shoulders. The stranger, a woman, drops him roughly and delivers a hard slap to his face. Nicol goes still and attempts to gather his wits. While hurrying him to a nearby car, she impatiently confirms that her name is Ellis and she’s a friend of Yasir’s from the Junk Guild.

As she begins to drive away from the shore Nicol demands that they go back and look for everyone else. Ellis nonchalantly says that the Cormorants will take care of them, and that everything they did was to get him there, so to go back and miss his opportunity would make it all in vain. They had a deadline. It was a small miracle that he had drifted somewhat close to their meeting point. Nicol stares out the window as it begins to rain.

Ellis explains that they first thought of going to the PLANT embassy, but after recent events in Carpentaria they decided to take him to the Giga-Float mass driver, which is only nearby for another day. She passes him off to another contact in the town of Carnarvon, but before she leaves she softens for a moment to say that she’ll contact Yasir to make sure that they’re alright, though she can’t guarantee anything. In a moment of desperation Nicol gives her his aunt’s contact information in Quintilis Two. Hopefully she won’t connect Ciana Amalfi to his father on the Supreme Council.

The new Junk Guild member is much friendlier and buys them both sandwiches  before they grab a quick RIB to the Giga Float. He escorts Nicol onto the mass driver, introducing him to staff as a nephew going to visit family in Copernicus.

Nicol has never been on a mass driver before. There are rows of sturdy seats with seven-point harnesses and small windows; it’s thoroughly utilitarian, more reminiscent of something military than civilian. He takes a seat and stares out a window, feeling hollow and beyond tired.

He seems to hallucinate a journey back to the house in Dili, where he finds Ain alone. He follows her as she walks to a room that he never saw opened—it belonged to her parents. Alan is nowhere to be seen, and it slowly dawns upon Nicol that Alan didn’t make it back from the crossing. Ain can’t hear Nicol as he calls out to her, can’t feel him as he tries to grab her arm when she lifts a canister of gasoline. She lights a match and Nicol is thrown back into his body as the vehicle hurtles along the length of the electromagnetic catapult.

Copernicus is neutral, so he seeks out a representative office and frankly states who he is and how he came to be there. They don’t believe him at first, but his biometric identifiers match their records. This earns him a quick shuttle to Aprilius One, which is cancelled due to the outbreak of the Second Battle of Jachin Due on September 26th. He’s stranded in Copernicus as the war reaches its climax. He attempts to contact his parents but no one answers and he fears the worst. Eventually the messages are checked by his mother, who immediately goes to where Yuri is at the Supreme Council and tells him.

Part VII: Endings and Beginnings

Due to the recent cessation of hostilities, it takes a few days before they can arrange a shuttle. He doesn’t know how to feel—space no longer feels like home in his heart. He betrayed his friends to get there. What if they died for his selfish wish? His parents usher him into a car and go straight to their home, though after a few days it’s decided that their estate on Maius Three would be a more restorative setting.

Doctors come and go. They diagnose him with PTSD and quickly get to work using biological 3D printing technology to generate a new limb without even asking if he wants the procedure. Nicol goes through with it, more to make his parents happy than for himself. Days pass slowly until he gets a call from his aunt on Quintilis Two about a message. He’s suddenly full of energy and begs to be allowed on a shuttle to visit his aunt. His parents agree hesitantly, though they contact his aunt Ciana to let her know their interpretations of what he’s been through.

After he arrives, Ciana leaves him alone in her living room to watch the video message from earth. Already aware of the video’s content, she returns a short while later with a pair of mugs filled with hot chocolate and finds Nicol kneeling on the floor, bent close to his legs with his arms drawn in, trying to disappear and shaking softly.

She sets the tray down on the floor and sits down a safe distance away. After a period of silence, she begins to talk wistfully about what she misses most about earth: the sky. You never see the same clouds, the same colours. Does he remember when she taught him about the different types of clouds? There is a faint nod. Does he remember her favourite kind? He clears his throat and answers, “the night ones,” his voice tight.

She nods and shifts closer. “That’s right,” she says while gently stroking his shoulders. “Noctilucent clouds, some of the rarest and highest there are, and also the most beautiful. But they’re brief, and you can only see them after the sun sets. Sometimes that’s how life is—when things turn dark, something bright and beautiful appears. But they’re fleeting and not meant for us to hold on to. I don’t know where you went, what you experienced, but you found your light in the dark and now that it’s gone-”

Nicol interrupts her to miserably point out that his friends weren’t clouds. His aunt chuckles softly and pats his head; at least he was talking now. He ends up staying with her for several weeks. At one point he is finally required to submit a statement to ZAFT officials about his whereabouts for the six months between his presumed death and sudden return. The story feels like a physical thing unfurling from his chest, too large for the room.

He returns home in December, emotionally sore but well on his way to healing. The light given by his friends had never disappeared, it was there glowing warmly in his heart, illuminating a new path.

He re-establishes contact with remaining members of the Le Creuset Team, though he carries himself with more confidence than before. In CE 73 he works as a liaison between the Equatorial Union and the PLANT Supreme Council and promotes an improved relationship between the two.

One suggested therapy method was to compose music inspired by his experiences, and after two years he finally feels that it’s complete.

He finally has a proper concert.

Epilogue: Destiny

After the fall of Junius Seven, Nicol returns to earth as a member of the humanitarian envoy to the Equatorial Union. He remains there for the duration of the war. 

TL;DR

Nicol is literally cut from the Blitz by human traffickers but he escapes and makes his way to East Timor, where he befriends two siblings and starts a new life. Five months later a new way home appears and the twins insist that he go for it. They try to help but they’re caught in a battle and separated. One twin is killed and the other is so distraught that she commits suicide. The Junk Guild helps Nicol get on a mass driver and return to space. Long emotional recovery. Gets better, has a proper concert, returns to earth to help after Junius Seven falls.

[pineapplekeith]

House Cat - Pt. 8

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Pairing: Klance

Universe: Modern Earth/Fantasy

Rating: T (language/sensitive material)

Word Count: 3K+

Part: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]

Summary:  Werecats are hard to find outside of lab facilities now-a-days and Lance has had a suspicion that a small stray that comes by his house now and then is one when he noticed a new face around town around the same time. / Modern AU setting with werecats for fun and seriousness now and then. Klance heavy with Garrison Trio and maybe some more ships making an appearance later on.

A/N: So far, this has been well liked on AO3 and FF so I decided to post the full parts on here. Links to AO3 and FF are on my story blog @kal-i-ka-stories 

“Don’t argue! We are having a movie marathon whether you like it or not!” Lance argued back, very determined with his mission. “I would be a bad friend if I let tonight end with you not seeing at least Jaws!”

“Are you insane? It’s the middle of the night! I’m not going to your place this late.” Keith argued back, pointing out how crazy the plan was.

“Yes, you are! Now come on!” Lance demanded again, refusing to back down on the plan.

..::::..::::..::::..

The night was still and the only thing that brought a bit of life to the streets were the lamps that dotted the roads and walkways. Lance’s home street was dim with very little lights coming from the homes with a few still having their porch lights on or a window would dot every other building. Lance’s home was completely dark like most of his neighbors. The toys that his twin siblings would usually leave in the yard became invisible in the front gate’s shadow and turned the whole yard into a big mine field of unknowns. The front porch light was turned off, which made sense since everyone that lived there was accounted for when Lance’s parents last checked, but the inconvenience made unlocking the front door a tedious job.

Right as Lance was able to get his house key into the door, a loud ‘moo’ sound called out from behind him and echoed through the street. He snapped his head around and looked behind him and at the stray he brought home. “Will you be quiet?”

Keith looked up at Lance, his stance stiff and defensive after the shock of hearing the toy he stepped on make a noise. “It’s not my fault you never clean your yard!” Keith snapped in a hushed tone. “Why are we going this way anyway? Can’t we just use your window?”

“Because one: the window only unlocks on the inside, and two: thanks to complaints about the cat colony in the ally, they cleared the trash and boxes back there so there’s no way we could climb through without one of us going through the front anyway.” Lance explained, getting irritated with Keith’s complaining. “Now be quiet. If we wake up my parents we’re both dead.”

“Can’t I just go home? I didn’t want to come here in the first place!”

“Then why are you here?” Lance asked with a smirk as he slowly started to open the front door.

“Because you wouldn’t let go of my arm and literally dragged me here!”

Lance quickly shushed Keith once the door was opened enough to walk through. “Come on,” said as he started to walk inside. “Oh, but grab Kaltenecker first and bring it with you.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Grab what?”

“Kaltenecker. The toy cow you stepped on. It’s Lilly-Bean’s favorite and she’ll get really upset if she sees that she left it outside in the morning.”

Keith rolled his eyes at Lance’s explanation and quickly snatched the plush cow up from the ground, making it ‘moo’ loudly again.

Lance harshly hushed Keith. “Don’t squeeze it,” he snapped.

“This is stupid,” Keith snapped. “I want to go home!”

“Well, you can’t. Now come on.” Lance then walked down the steps and grabbed Keith’s arm and pulled him in the house.

Once inside, Keith was taken aback at how Lance’s home looked. He had only seen the inside of Lance’s room, but never ventured out when visiting. Just staring into the cozy and inviting living room made Keith’s apartment look cold and empty. The room was about the same size of his apartment, but it was like a completely different would with all the family photos on the walls and lived-in nature of the room. The vast differences Keith continued to spot made him more and more uncomfortable with his surroundings that he unconsciously backed himself in a corner near the door.

“My mom’s a big movie person,” Lance explained quietly as he walked over to his family’s entertainment center to look through his mother’s massive collection. “It started out as my dad just getting her all the movies they saw together on their dates, but now she has such a big collection that we rarely watch actual television. We even have duplicates of some of the movies on VHS and DVD so we can keep watching them.” Lance dug through the layers of movies till he finally found what he was looking for. “Here it is,” he cheered as he held up the shark themed thriller from the 1970’s. “Now just to decide whether if I should grab the sequels or something else.”

Keith wasn’t paying attention to what Lance was rambling on about. He kept scanning the foreign looking room, getting more and more defensive as the surrounding continued to overstimulate him. He soon focused on a family portrait that was hanging near him in the foyer. It was a massive family photo of Lance with his entire family. It was hard to tell who was who in the photo with there being so many people. The only people Keith could recognize in the photo besides Lance were his younger siblings because in the photo there were two toddlers in matching outfits. From what he could remember from Lance’s talks, the twins were the youngest in the massive family and they were a bit older now than what they are in the photo. A family photo seemed foreign to Keith. The only kind of photos that were taken of him growing up were ones taken at the lab for his records to document his examinations and growth. He’s never seen a picture with so many smiling faces before and found it a bit uncomforting.

“Hey Keith, you ok?” Lance asked, snapping Keith out of his discomfort.

Keith looked over at Lance and then down at the stack of movies in his hands. “I thought you were only going to make me watch one?”

Lance smiled. “No way man! This is going to be a marathon remember?” He then took the stuff cow out from Keith’s hand and walked over to put it on the couch. “Come on.” Lance walked back and grabbed Keith’s arm and dragged him back to his room.

Lance’s room hadn’t changed much since the last time Keith was in there. His bed was unmade like usual, his desk was disheveled, and there were some clothes on the floor. Once inside, Lance went to work to set up the movie night. He dug out his laptop from his bookbag and tried to cleanup some areas of his room. Keith stayed by the door, not really knowing what to do since this was the first time he was in Lance’s room as a human. He felt more comfortable with being there when he was a cat because he could do what he wanted, but now that he’s there in his human form, his actions are a bit more restricted.

“You want to sit on the bed or the floor?” Lance asked once he was done waking up his computer.

“What?”

“Do you want to sit on the floor and watch the movie, or sit on the bed?” Lance asked again, trying to figure out whether he should put his laptop on the floor or leave it on his desk.

“With what happened last time, I think the floor is the better option.” Keith answered, still staying next to the door.

Lance looked at him confused but then quickly realized what he meant. “Oh! Yeah, right,” he agreed with a slight blush of embarrassment on his face when he remember the last time Keith was in his room. Lance then put his laptop on the floor, giving enough space for the two of them sit down in front of it and watch the movie. He then took the pillows and comforter off his bed and put them on the floor along with an extra blanket he grabbed from his closet. “We’ll start with Jaws like I promised. I grabbed the sequels too in case you wanted to see more but I also grabbed some of my favorite movies if thrillers turn out to not be your thing. My mom has all kinds of genres so if you end not liking anything we can always grab more.”

“Can’t I just watch the one and leave?” Keith asked, not wanting to spend a whole night questioning something he knew nothing about.

“No way! This is your first movie marathon! We’re going all out and finding your kink!”

“My what?”

“Your kink. You know, something you’re interested in? We’re going to find yours for the kind of movies you’ll like. Everyone has one so you should too.” Lance explained as he finished setting everything up. He then sat down in front of his laptop and inserted the DVD into the drive. “Now turn off the lights and come sit down.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but willingly complied. After turning the lights off, he walked over and sat next to Lance, keeping the same amount of distance from him as he did when they were sitting on the shore. He looked at the computer screen and wasn’t really impressed with the short clips of the movie that the menu was playing.

This is going to be a long night. Keith thought to himself.

..::::..::::..::::..

“Yeah you heard him! Slow ahead,” Brody yelled at Hooper before he started to throw chum over the edge of the boat. “Slow ahead,” he mumbled to himself out of frustration, “I can go slow ahead! C’mon down and chum some of this shit!”

Behind him, the water started to swell and breaking the surface for a moment a massive great white shark chomped at the bloody chum in the water.

Catching the giant monster’s final moments, Brody jumped up and stared at the water before he slowly started to walk backwards toward the boat’s cabin. Still reeling from what he saw, he slowed himself once he reached the cabin and scanned the rest of the water through the windows. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” he muttered out to Quint.

“This scared you?” Keith asked as the action picked up in the movie, not really understanding how an obviously fake shark would be scary.

“Well, obviously not now, but when you’re seven and have assholes for brothers this is scary! I couldn’t go to a beach for like a year because of that thing.” Lance admitted as he continued to watch the movie.

The two teens have relaxed a bit more throughout the movie. Lance had wrapped himself up with his comforter while Keith leaned back against one of the pillows and had taken off his red jacket.

“But how are you not scared or freaking out right now? I thought this was your first movie?!” Lance asked, completely disappointed with Keith’s next-to-nothing reactions to the film.

Keith shrugged his shoulders. “I may have never seen a movie before, but that doesn’t compare to what I’ve already experienced. I may have been isolated growing up, but I didn’t live under a rock.”

Lance pouted, growing frustrated with how nothing he does phases Keith.

“But this is pretty interesting,” Keith admitted after a moment of silence to watch to movie more. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to go on one of the fishing boats now and then. Working in a shop where most of the customers are old salts, I hear a lot of interesting stories of when they would go out on the water and work.”

“So you’ve never been on a boat before? No offense, but I would’ve thought you hated water.” Lance said, a bit surprised by Keith’s curiosity with the ocean.

“No, why would I?”

“Because of that whole cats hate water thing,” Lance explained. “I think it’s because it messes with their whiskers or something? But anyway, you’re part cat, so shouldn’t you hate water or something because of that?”

Keith looked at Lance for a bit, completely confused on where his logic came from. “Just because I’m a werecat doesn’t mean I am a cat.” Keith was growing a bit frustrated with Lance’s assumptions. Lance was the first person that would ask him questions about how he lived the way he did. Keith had always lived with people who were the same as him or understood what he was for most of his life. After breaking out of the lab, he was left alone and felt sort of free with being able to forget that part of his life. But Lance ruined that for him now and then with his questioning. He knew that the questions came from a good place, but it was a bit much for him sometimes. Even when some of Lance’s questions made it seem like he still thought of him as a cat and not as a person.

Lance could sense Keith’s slight irritation in his response. “Sorry.” He then turned to continue to watch the movie, sinking a bit in his blanket. Lance always had a bad habit of asking too many questions when he gets excited about something – and learning more about Keith was something he was excited about. He had never met a werecat in person before. Lance had only heard about them in school and wondered if animals he saw in zoos were ones in hiding. But now he’s in a position where he’s sitting in his room and watching an old movie with a real werecat. Questions kept bouncing in his head since he found out about Keith’s secret, but he learned very quickly that talking about himself was something that he didn’t like doing. When Keith finally opened up when they were on the beach, Lance thought he had finally broken down his wall and was able to learn more. But now, he seemed to have taken a huge step backwards.

Lance sat silently, letting the movie continue through different scenes as he thought about what to say. “You know, my Pops knows someone with a boat and I know how to work it,” Lance started, breaking the silence between them. After thinking about their past conversations, he realized that Keith liked being treated as a normal person. He probably would never admit it, but it seemed to relax him to a point that he would talk to Lance, whether he was arguing with him or just having a small conversation. In the end, it seemed to make him as comfortable as he would let himself be.

Keith looked over at Lance confused. He was becoming more interested in the movie as it played out and forgot what exactly they talked about last.

Lance looked over and saw his confusion. “You said you would like to go out on the water sometime. If you want, I can ask him if we can borrow it for a day next week or whenever and go out on the water. My friends can join us too, if you’re ok with that. If not, it can just be the two of us.”

Keith looked at Lance for a bit, remembering what he said earlier about being envious of the customers from the shop. “I’ll think about it,” he said as he turned back to watch the movie.

Lance turned back to the movie as well. That wasn’t a no. He thought to himself, feeling a bit happier than how he felt before.

A/N: Want to keep reading? Jump over to my [ AO3 ] or [ FF ] page and continue the fun with 3 more chapters!

[sayonaralullaby-a]

★ JANUARY, WEEK 2 • P L A N S Title: Plan A Is Cancelled, A Is For “A Lame Way” ¦ 1,586 words ¦ TW: Brief violence

Being held in as a hostage meant nothing to Conrad if you ask him. An individual who was willing to accept and take the position of an Agent, which is the lowest rank under the Espionage branch, would ( and should ) be aware of the risks they have to handle—one of them getting slapped with a label, captive, in this case. He fell into that risk multiple times throughout his life, even prior to joining Catching Fallen Stars.

Therefore, this? This was nothing.

However, if one were to say this as in getting taken hostage and was told to drop everything they were carrying, leading to what felt like at least an hour of a person just dropping everything they had, that… now, that was something Conrad had never ever experienced watching one of his co-workers doing that before in his whole life until recently, he was on a mission with the said person and their other co-worker to gather what were the trouble-making trio planning to with the money they stole in the future.

Well, attempted to, of course, should he correct himself.

　　　Being held in as a hostage meant nothing to Conrad if you ask him. An individual who was willing to accept and take the position of an Agent, which is the lowest rank under the Espionage branch, would ( and should ) be aware of the risks they have to handle—one of them getting slapped with a label, captive, in this case. He fell into that risk multiple times throughout his life, even prior to joining Catching Fallen Stars.

　　　Therefore, this? This was nothing.

　　　However, if one were to say this as in getting taken hostage and was told to drop everything they were carrying, leading to what felt like at least an hour of a person just dropping everything they had, that… now, that was something Conrad had never ever experienced watching one of his co-workers doing that before in his whole life until recently, he was on a mission with the said person and their other co-worker to gather what were the trouble-making trio planning to with the money they stole in the future.

　　　Well, attempted to, of course, should he correct himself.

　　　“Stay right where you fucking are and put your hands up!”

　　　‘Oh fuck,’ cursed Conrad. ‘What the Hell happened with Marcus and Athanasios?’

　　　Marcus and Athanasios were supposed to be outside distracting the thieves while Conrad would be in a room he managed to get through the security locks where the thieves stored their plans in.

　　　Conrad huffed and turned away from the computer, his hands raised above his head, now facing one of the thieves at the doorway.

　　　The thief with a long beard gestured him to follow. “Now, get the Hell out of the room and come with me. If you try to pull any damn shit on me, I’ll shoot you.”

　　　Conrad simply obeyed ( he just couldn’t bother to when this moment was similar to any others he had gone through—here comes a yawn ) and was taken straight to the basement. By the time he arrived, he met his friends with two other thieves. They looked like they were brought in just before he arrived. Conrad was shoved towards Marcus and Athanasios before they had the thieve’ guns pointed at them.

　　　“Put everything you have on the table over there, one person at a time,” ordered the thief, notably for being the shortest of the trio, nodding at the table beside where Conrad and the others were cornered to.

　　　Conrad was the first, assuming by the looks of the thieves he was given directly. He shot his friends a look that would say, “what the absolute fuck happened on you two idiots’ ends”, as he took his own daggers from his pockets and placed them on the table in distaste.

　　　Athanasios was next, casually throwing his stun guns over.

　　　Marcus was then the final person. For some reason, the atmosphere Conrad was getting from him since he met him in the basement was… highly odd, and yet, this confirmed the thought; his expression was blank while he struggled to take his stuff out from his pockets ( which to Conrad, that seemed out of character—Marcus could’ve been laughing or making some dumb and rude comments but unlike the usual, he didn’t, and Conrad didn’t like that at all ).

　　　After what felt it was taking forever in the end, Marcus finally had his pistol gun out and placed them on the tables. However, his hand reached back into his pockets before he took out two extra pistol guns—but were mini ones this time—and repeated the previous action. It was done several more times, much to everyone’s confusion, and they watched in dismay at the table getting piled up with various of weapons just from a being themself. At some point, the bearded thief had to get Conrad and Athanasios tied up on chairs without Marcus once he checked their clothes.

　　　In Conrad’s point of view, he was both baffled and starting to become amused at the dumb bullshit Marcus was pulling the longer it was taking. This sort of shenanigans was definitely something the Marcus Stone himself would do, he thought. Though he was curious how could the Werewolf be able to hold that amount of weapons on his person. He wasn’t temporarily on a spell or had a power to conjure items, no?

　　　He glanced at Athanasios then back at Marcus, squinting suspiciously and noted his surprise wasn’t genuine after all. The Demon was catching on to Marcus’ plan, he could begin to tell by the quick glints of amusement in his eyes with his hands fidgeting together with enthusiasm at what he was seeing. Quite frankly, if Conrad were to ever admit out loud, he was upset he didn’t know about this.

　　　Nevertheless, Marcus was making a wonderful show out of this usual boring scenario, and you know what? If that’s what Conrad want to take so his boredom could be executed, then so be it.

　　　“Hey jackass, are you done?! We’ve been standing around for fucking what was like close to an hour, you may as well take out some chairs for us to sit at the meantime. Now that would be a sight,” yelled one of the thieves with a glasses, snickering at the end.

　　　Marcus immediately stopped what he was doing and rolled his shoulders to release the tension from them—cracks. His eyes now revealed deep sapphire blues the moment he looked at the speaking thief, though a wide grin was in display, his tone said otherwise. A bite to the throat. “Well, you did say to put everything I have on the table,” coldly chuckled the Werewolf, his voice nearly shifted to what sounded like the short thief as if he was mocking him. “Now,”  he continued, “Since you lazy fuckers are exhausted as you all are standing there like motherfucking fools for a while, how about you take some rest instead then, hm?”

　　　Before any of the thieves could react to the Werewolf’s sneer, the short one was thrown over to Marcus’ chair, destroying it and left him slowly slipping out of strength, the bearded one was struck at the back of his head with a bat and was knocked out, and lastly, the distracted glasses-wearing thief was tackled down by Marcus who threw punches across his face until his own knuckles started to bruise badly and decided to quit. Athanasios was cheering and laughter at the top of his lungs through taunts to the defeated thieves. Conrad only watched with widened eyes, amazed to see Marcus’ plan actually worked well.

　　　Holy shit.

　　　Conrad then looked at a masked figure who had a bat and nodded at him.

　　　“You alright?” calmly inquired the Demigod of Anubis—Maple.

　　　He realized she was asking only him and attempted to stand up. He remembered he was still tied up when he couldn’t make the ropes to free him, so he only scoffed at Marcus and Athanasios to express how offended he was. Though rather jokingly, as much as he enjoyed the show, regardless, he was kicked out of the boat the moment everyone else decided to go with Marcus’ plan and not his own. Not that he was actually upset, but you know. “You two set all of this up.” More was it a statement than a question.

　　　Marcus laughed, “Actually, I did. Athanasios and Maple just got dragged into the fun by me.” He grabbed Conrad’s dagger from the table and used it to cut the ropes that were tightened around Conrad’s and Anthanasios’ wrists.

　　　“But why am I the only one not knowing about this plan until now?”

　　　Yeah, Conrad was aware he was acting like a five years child who was getting upset over not being able to get his chicken nuggets, but he thought it was unfair based on what he just asked. Hell, even Maple was brought into this without him actually knowing she would until the very last minute of Marcus’ plan.

　　　“Because it’s fun seeing you like this,” snickered Athanasios.

　　　When Conrad was no longer tied up, he stood at last and shook his head in amusement. He rubbed his wrists and arms to shake off the numbness. “You really are something, Marcus Stone,” he said, watching Athanasios giving Maple a high-five in the corner of his eyes. “I gotta say, even though you ignored the plan I told you as I was supposed to be in charge doing so for this mission, I’m impressed with what you had in mind.”

　　　Marcus gave up a little sarcastic bow to Conrad, having a smile so innocent, but knowing him just at a slightest details, it was full of shit. “Why thank you, Conrad Godfrey!” chirped the Werewolf, his words painted with bright pride. “Not that I’m saying it is, but, uuuhhh, your plan was honestly boring as fuck, so I was like, ‘eh, why not toss in the plan B from my side when Athanasios and I do our parts distracting the assholes’.”

　　　Conrad rolled his eyes, though his gaze were full of understanding. If you ask him, he didn’t mind Marcus’ attitude at all. It was just Marcus being Marcus; he was used to him. “Well, at least it leads us to here and not anything worse,” he said.

　　　Marcus nodded in agreement and glanced at Anthanasios and Maple then back at Conrad, his eyes gleaming with eagerness. “Alright, shall we continue with our work?”

　　　Conrad smiled softly, enjoying the Werewolf’s enthusiasm.

　　　“I’m glad you asked.”