#but with nicky i was struggling sooo much. now to just figure out what to do with andy for most of the story.....

[non-un-topo]

Plot-hole #4 fixed ;w; I hope???

[avelera]

“Lights Out” Nicky/Joe Timeline

I did this a bit earlier in the fic writing process, but if anyone is curious about the Lights Out “official timeline” of how Nicky and Joe spent their first hundred years as immortals, you can find it below the cut.

- June, 1099 - Nicky and Joe first see each other from the walls of Jerusalem and both are intrigued and drawn to the person they see, hoping they’ll get a chance to encounter the other in battle. 

- July, 1099 - Nicky and Joe meet in battle, remaining outside the walls once the Crusaders break through, fighting each other until nightfall. Eventually, after killing each other 3 times, they realize they can’t get the other to stay dead and that the Crusaders have taken and burned the city of Jerusalem. Nicky urges Joe to run but prevents him from entering the city, as his mercy towards Joe does not extend towards allowing an enemy combatant back into the fray. Joe departs and heads for Ascalon to bring word of the fall of Jerusalem to the Fatimid Caliphate. 

- Late 1099-1105 - Joe and Nicky encounter one another regularly in military conflicts between the Fatimid Caliphate and the newly founded Christian Kingdoms. 

During this time, Nicky realizes that he does not die or age, and learns that his father has had a son with his second wife. He sends word back to Genova that his father’s eldest living son “Nicolo” has died in the Crusades. During this period, Nicky begins to struggle with feelings of guilt and penance over his role in the brutal sacking of Jerusalem. However, the damage is done and there’s no way to undo the conquest, so he sees it as his duty to shepherd the safety of pilgrims and to secure the Christian Kingdoms he fought to establish. 

Joe continues to fight on the losing and often disorganized Fatimid side, constantly frustrated by the loss of territory to both Christians and Seljuks, but mostly because Nicky just keeps finding him, even in unlikely places, like while Joe is spying on the Christian defenses in Jaffa while disguised as a merchant. 

That said, the two can’t forget each other and there is more than just hatred that exists between them, though they kill one another regularly whenever they meet. They have their first romantic encounter (if it can even be called that) outside Ramla while hiding from a storm that scattered both of their forces in the middle of a battle. Torn between killing each other and admitting that they both need shelter, the mood turns heated as frustrations boil over, and they kiss (and then some) for the first time while grappling in their latest fight. Startled by his own passion, Joe flees into the night back to his side. However, the pattern repeats itself over the next decades, when hatred and passion mingle and neither can get the other out of their mind. 

Their second sexual encounter is on another spying mission of Joe’s, this time in Jerusalem. His base of operations was a brothel in the city, where he hid out pretending to be a patron, figuring he’d be safe from the devout Christian knight who seemed to find him everywhere. Of course, Nicky appeared, looking for one of his fellow soldiers who was to be disciplined. 

However, Nicky surprised Joe by paying off the sex worker Joe had hired to shelter him that night, but telling Joe that it was late and as long as he left the city when the sun rose, Nicky could be merciful and allow him the comfort and safety of a bed that night. Significant looks were shared and they enjoyed their second encounter in a much more pleasant setting than their first. 

- 1105-1120 - The fighting continues. Joe and Nicky age into their 40s and 50s, gaining the military skill of experienced generals while still enjoying the fighting prowess of young men. Both see this supernatural ability as obviously a sign that it is their duty to take part in the military conflicts between their people (though the politics of the time are messy and occasionally alliances do exist between both their sides against the Turks. On these occasions they find more excuses than usual to spend their nights together even while spitting curses at each other the next day). 

When an order of monastic knights was founded known as the Knights Templar, Nicky reinvented himself for the first but not the last time to join their ranks. However, the concerns of the Christian kingdoms grew increasingly secular as time wore on, frustrating him as the politics of Jerusalem grew increasingly distant from the initial promise of the Crusades he signed up to participate in as a protector of pilgrims. 

- 1122 - Nicky and Joe speak for the first time without once drawing their swords. On the banks of a river on the day before a battle between their people, Joe realizes at age 56 that he is feeling ever more distant from the men he serves beside and that Nicky is the only peer he has who was there at Jerusalem. He and Nicky speak for an hour, getting to know each other, which marks the beginning of a tentative friendship. While their duels and mutual murder of one another do continue to take place regularly (as well as moments stolen away in each other’s beds when the occasion allows) their duels lose their initial hatred and become almost playful at times. 

- 1122-1144/1147 - The conflicts between Fatimids and Christians slow somewhat as the Seljuks rise as the more dominant regional Muslim power. Joe and Nicky begin to lose their sense of wonder at their own immortality as they age past their 50s and 60s into their 70s, feeling increasingly alienated from their fellow soldiers as the political landscape shifts and the causes they initially fought for begin to warp beyond recognition as a new generation rises. 

It becomes increasingly difficult for them to feel connected to the urgency of the fight, as the Christian kingdoms adapt to the area and begin to be absorbed politically into the conflicts of the Levant region, no longer an ideological enemy but simply another force. Their sense of isolation is exacerbated by their independent realizations that they need to “die” and reinvent themselves every decade or so to hide from suspicion of their lack of aging, which cuts them off from past companions and family members and often bars them from cities and social circles they’d grown to know and love. They become one another’s only constant. 

Joe watches the rise of Imad al-Din Zengi with consternation and a trace of envy as the Fatimids wain in effectiveness and the Seljuk warlord takes up the mantel of the champion of Islam to drive the Christians from the region. Zengi eventually succeeds in recapturing the now-Christian kingdom of Edessa, prompting the Pope in Europe to call for a Second Crusade. 

Nicky, upon hearing a Second Crusade is to be called and a the cycle of violence will inevitably begin again with a new wave of clueless Europeans charging into a delicate region they don’t understand, inevitably spreading bloodshed and terror, finally gives up on the Templars and the Christian kingdoms now known as Outremer. He came to the Holy Land to protect pilgrims, not to prop up European princes at the expense of the common people. He flees into the wilderness outside Jerusalem to become a hermit, of sorts, protecting pilgrims on the road during these dangerous times, regardless of their faith, as his ultimate act of penance for his role in the brutal sacking of Jerusalem decades before.

Joe around the same time realizes he hasn’t seen Nicky in a while, begins to worry, realizes how much has changed that he does worry. Eventually he tracks Nicky down to his hermit cave and brings him home with him. Their time together as enemies ends officially and their time as friends and lovers begins, never to end.

- 1147- 1171 - While not finding Zengi terribly inspiring, Joe does find his more scholarly son Nur ad-Din a more palatable leader and joins his side as a soldier the next time he needs to “die” and reinvent himself. Nicky, however, abstains from the fighting except as a freelance guard to protect pilgrims. While he has disavowed the politics of the Crusader states, he is not yet at the point of fully turning on them to join the other side. 

- 1171-1193 - Fighting for Nur al-Din brings Joe into contact Salah ad-Din (Saladin) who he and eventually Nicky find to be the sort of inspiring leader they’ve been looking for. Nicky and Joe partake in the Third Crusade and the “Fall of Jerusalem”, this time in Nicky’s case from the other side as he becomes a vassal of Saladin’s alongside Joe. However, the brief spark of Saladin’s leadership is the last gasp of their emotional investment of what feels like an endless conflict in the Holy Land that bears little resemblance to the war they first fought in on opposite sides. (Little do they know, this is only the Third of what will be more than Seven Crusades.) 

After Saladin’s death from illness in 1193, they lose their last connection to the region and are too heartsick to continue the fight. They travel to Genova to make Nicky’s peace with a homeland he hasn’t seen in almost a century, then pass through Al-Andalus and then decide to try to find the women in their dreams who are currently moving west, shadowing a great horde of horse-riding warriors (the Mongol Invasion). Nicky and Joe in the mid 13th century end up in Baghdad, where they eventually encounter Andy and Quynh when the Mongol army arrives there and the city falls. 

Sooo.... as you can see, there’s a lot there @_@ some of it is very sketchy and back of the envelope, I steer clear a bit from Joe’s side because the Fatimids are a bit hard to trace in this era (they keep getting conflated with the Seljuks, who were also their enemies, so I’m hesitant to say exactly when and if Joe would develop sympathy for or join the Seljuk side. It was a messy time, politically). I’m interested in doing some sort of 5+1 E-rated fic about some of their first encounters eventually. But in the meantime, this is the timeline I’ve worked out with my VERY amateur scholarship. 

[writethehousedown]

Steady by your side, keep me in the light (Jaida x Nicky)

A/N: Jaida and Nicky hold eachother up through the worse of senior year

Nicky was not stupid. Jaida knew that, their friends knew that, and, at a rational level, Nicky herself knew that too. It was just their teachers who seemed to disagree.

Since moving to the States, she had been struggling with most subjects. Studying in her second language took her twice as long and left her exhausted, and sometimes she gave up halfway through the unit and researched the topic in online French textbooks, hoping they covered everything her teachers would ask from her. Her grades had taken a nosedive and her current GPA was barely hanging above the 3.63 required by her first choice college.

Jaida did her best to help her, but between basketball practice, her internship and her own load of high school work, they barely had enough time for two study dates a week. Nevermind actual dates. Senior year was riding them hard and there was no break in sight. On the rare moments of peace (about five minutes long each), Jaida daydreamed about the summer she would spend with her girlfriend. Two months of getting drunk with their friends and laying next to the pool without moving a muscle to recover from the mental wreckage of senior year, before everyone packed up their whole lives and moved away.

But first, they had finals to pass.

Jaida sat on her bedroom desk, with her laptop open to a new document and a copy of The Old Man and the Sea, which she was coloring with annotated post-its. Every couple of minutes, she glanced at her phone. Nicky was supposed to have joined her half an hour ago, and she hadn’t even texted. Jaida forced herself not to worry; she knew Nicky had stayed after class to talk to her civics teacher about an assignment for extra credit.

If she doesn’t show signs of life in the next fifteen minutes, I’m calling her.

She didn’t have to, because just a few minutes later, she heard the front door opening and the voices of her mom and her girlfriend talking, followed by steps approaching her room.

The door flew open and Nicky dragged her feet to the bed, where she flopped face down. Jaida watched her dramatics, amused.

“Sooo, how did it go?”

“Hmhht mhmhnt,” said Nicky, face buried into the mattress.

“Come again? Maybe lift your head.”

“I got the assignment.”

“Why so down, then?”

Nicky rolled onto her back and faced her girlfriend. “He wants me to write about threats to democracy, which sounds extremely depressing. And we’re both getting fashion bachelors! Why do we need to understand gerrymandering?”

“Because we live in Missouri. Why did you even take AP government?”

“I freaked out about the GPA, because I’m dumb.”

Jaida raised an eyebrow at her. “Nicolette.”

Nicky closed her eyes and breathed out.

“I’m not dumb. I’m smart. I’m just stressed, and that’s okay.”

Jaida’s expression softened as she walked towards the bed. “That’s better,” she praised, sitting next to her. “Let’s get the lit essay over with, then I’ll help you with civics.”

Nicky sat up and collapsed against Jaida. “D’accord. Hemingway can suck a dick, though.”

Jaida smiled and pressed her lips against Nicky’s temple. “On that, we can agree.”

____________________________________________________

Two thousand words each and a coffee break later, the girls sat on the bed, facing the laptop.

“You misspelled ‘onomatopoeia’, here,” said Jaida, pointing at the screen. Nicky leaned forward to fix it.

backspace backspace backspace

“You also used ‘allusion’ instead of ‘allegory’.”

Nicky frowned.

“Allusions describe ideas through characters and storylines, no?”

“No, that’s allegories. Allusions are just references to important people or events.”

backspace backspace backspace

“And you listed foreshadowing under figures of speech, but it isn’t.”

“Why did I… oh,” said Nicky, closing her fists and rubbing her eyes. “It’s préfiguration in French. I got confused. I hate this fucking language.”

Nicky fell onto Jaida and buried her face on her neck. Jaida started playing with Nicky’s hair with one hand and kept marking the essay with the other. She corrected one, two, three misspellings before she felt kisses along her neck clouding her judgement.

“Baby, focus, come on,” she said, jolting her shoulder. Nicky persisted.

“Nooo. You’re much more interesting than Hemingway.”

“Girl, the bar is so low…”

“Five minute break?” asked Nicky, and grazed Jaida’s skin with her teeth.

That was a step too far, because Jaida pulled away and grabbed Nicky’s face in her hands.

“Nicolette. Behave.”

Nicky huffed and fell face down on the bed, screaming into the pillow. Jaida rolled her eyes and poked her side.

“Get up, drama club. We’re not done.” Jaida slapped Nicky’s thigh, expecting her to sit up and retaliate.

Instead, Jaida noticed, her back started shaking.

“Nicks?” she said, laying down next to her.

The only response was a sob.

“Oh, baby, no, come here…” Jaida pulled Nicky close, until she could press kisses all over her face.

They stayed like that, with Jaida rubbing circles on Nicky’s back, until the sobs subsided and Nicky could speak again.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m acting like a brat,” she said, wiping her eyes forcefully.

“You’re not a brat, you’re a senior in finals,” said Jaida, kissing her hairline. “I cried in the gym showers twice this week; you’re doing just fine. What’s going on?”

“I’m scared about this class. It took me forever to read that stupid book, I even had to read a summary in French because I kept getting lost. And I still have to memorize the forty fucking words there are to say ‘metaphor’ and I’m already getting a headache.”

Jaida laughed and rolled onto her back, dragging Nicky with her.

“There’s only five, we’ll go over them later.” Nicky hummed in agreement and settled on her girlfriend’s chest.

A few moments later, she broke the silence.

“So… why were you crying?”

Nicky felt Jaida’s breathing stutter under her cheek. She ran her nails between Jaida’s clavicles and waited.

Jadia took a moment to answer.

“Bio’s kicking my ass,” she sighed. “Mrs. Jensen’s been lenient, but…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “She’s not gonna bump up my grade just ‘cause I ask her. I either do well in the final, or I kiss you and our college goodbye.”

Nicky propped herself up and looked at Jaida, who wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“What did you say?”

Jaida stared at the wall and shrugged dismissively.

“We never discussed long-distance. All of our plans assume we’ll be living on the same campus, but if I don’t get in and you do, I don’t- I’m not sure what that’s gonna look like.”

Jaida feels Nicky’s hand on her cheek, tilting her face forward.

“First of all, I’ve seen your grades. You just need an eight. You’re getting an eight, Jaida, it’s you. And second of all,” she dropped ‘till their noses were touching, “it’s cute how you think that long distance is enough to get rid of me,” Nicky said, poking her tongue out and licking Jaida’s lips.

Jaida grinned, big and toothy, and pushed Nicky off. Her girlfriend fell on her back, laughing.

“Fuck off, I’m trying to open up, bitch.”

Nicky took her hand and smiled at her “I know. I love you.” She turned to face her. “I’m going to be serious, now.”

“Oh, no…”

Nicky lightly bumped Jaida’s chin with her knuckles. “Whatever the next years will look like, here, in Missouri, in fucking Antartica, I don’t see a life without you in it. I love my family, and our friends, but you’re the person who’s made these past years bearable.”

Jaida smiled and squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to get emotional at the memory of little fifteen-year-old Nicky. Jaida had seen her all lonely and lost that first week of class and sauntered into her life, and they just hadn’t parted ways since.

“Remember when you first moved here? You were so quiet and shy, it was adorable. Now I can never get you to shut up.”

“You have your methods,” Nicky smirked. “Speaking of which…”

“We’re not done with your essay, Nicks.”

Nicky pouted and put on her best puppy eyes. Jaida could feel her resolve slipping.

“Don’t give me those eyes, that’s not fair…”

Nicky leaned in to kiss Jaida’s nose, her cheek, the corner of her mouth.

“Break now?”

Jaida moved on top of Nicky and kissed her back, slow and sweet.

“You get ten minutes.”

“Fine by me.”