#connor x risa

[lei-lei-artz]

silly ConRisa thingy

[heliads]

everything is blue • conrisa space au • chapter three: some are taken away

Risa Ward escaped a shuttle destined for her certain, painful death. Connor Lassiter ran away from home before it was too late. Lev Calder was kidnapped. All of them were supposed to be dissected for parts, used to advance a declining galaxy, but as of right now, all of them are whole. Life will not stay the same way forever.

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Stars above, Connor Lassiter is so screwed. Just when things were starting to go his way, too. He’d actually managed to sort out the autopilot long enough to limp over to XXIII, not to mention conducted a fairly textbook landing. Sure, the only thing he’d really done to help with that was fight the urge to press random buttons, but, like, he’s in the pilot seat, isn’t he? That means he has to deserve at least a little of the credit.

Besides, he was the one who spotted that weird lights show going on in the space some distance away from his shuttle and managed to steer himself away before a collision. When he peered out the cockpit windows, Connor thought it might have been a meteor shower, but unreported– his nav system failed to pick up on it, which he definitely doesn’t like. Connor likes being aware of large chunks of rock whenever they’re directly in his flight path.

All in all, it had taken more energy than Connor had hoped just to straggle over to a small planet in the same star system. This makes it crystal clear to him, if it wasn’t obvious already, that he won’t be able to make a jump between systems by himself. Not without having a better idea what he’s doing. Once Connor had managed to get his stolen shuttle landed in a commercial spaceport, he’d collapsed in an untidy heap in his pilot’s chair. No wonder it’s so hard for AWOLs to get away. Surviving alone is damn near impossible even after you manage to shake the Juvey-cops, and Connor has no idea how long that will last. 

Once he’d recovered sufficiently, Connor had taken it upon himself to do a slow loop of the spaceport and see if there were any larger ships that might overlook a stowaway. Unfortunately, he’d had no luck in finding anything. Everyone was already gone for the morning, and Connor didn’t want to stay in one place long enough to wait for anything new to land. 

So he’d headed back to his shuttle, trying to figure out his next course of action, and that’s when he ran into trouble. Connor had left the shuttle ramp down, which is a terrible thing to do, but he couldn’t risk locking himself out accidentally. He knows next to nothing about Officer Nelson’s spacecraft anyway, there’s no point in taking stupid chances. 

Still, maybe he should have looked harder and tried to find an instruction manual or something before he left. Maybe then he wouldn’t have come back to his shuttle to find someone else on board. 

Now Connor stands in front of the escape ramp he barely remembered to close after him, staring at a strange girl staring back at him, and the only thought on his mind is that this can’t be how it ends. The girl has a wild, frightened look to her, like she might do anything at any moment. He can’t read her enough to tell if she’s aiming to turn him in or just kill him outright so she can steal the ship. He’s heard of worse things happening to lonesome travelers in the outer, darker stretches of the galaxy, anyway. 

She looks at him. He looks at her. Her spine straightens almost unconsciously, a silent message to back off:  she won’t be talking first, so he might as well set the scene for how this is going to go. Fine, then. Connor would prefer it if he was the one in control. This is his ship, after all. His stolen ship, yes, but his. At least until the Juveys track him down again to reclaim stolen property.

“Who are you,” he asks, as slowly and deliberately as his nerves will let him, “and what are you doing on this ship?”

Belatedly, he realizes that he should have said something like my ship. It’s all in the details now, how he protects himself. One little slip and everyone will know he’s an AWOL. Even a runaway like her could figure that out.

However, the girl seems less preoccupied in figuring him out and more in how to keep him from focusing on her story. She folds her arms across her chest and narrows her eyes at him. “How about you tell me about yourself first?”

He blinks at her in surprise. “You’re on my ship. You go first.”

She arches a dark brow. “Is it your ship?”

She’s onto him already. His poker face must be worse than he thought. “It’s certainly not yours.”

The girl can’t argue with that, although she looks as if she’d like to. “Fine. I’m Risa.”

Connor waits a beat for something else, maybe an explanation as to why Risa seems compelled to enter strange ships and demand answers from him, but she stays silent. He heaves a breath that, although more dramatic than strictly necessary, makes him feel substantially better.

“Fine, Risa,” he mimics, “I’m Connor. Lovely to meet you. Why are you on my ship?”

This, finally, makes her react. Sure, it would be fascinating to see how long they could continue this sort of stalemate, but Connor would like to take off before anyone can find him. After all, he’s still not one hundred percent certain that Officer Nelson wouldn’t have a tracker on this shuttle. That escape plan involves getting this strange girl out of here first.

“I need to go offworld,” she announces. “I needed a ship. Yours was here.”

It’s such a dumbfoundingly simple answer that he almost wants to laugh. “I assumed you wanted to leave this planet,” Connor remarks dryly, “That’s usually why people choose spacecraft as opposed to, say, running with their legs. That would be significantly slower, but far better for me. ”

“Depends on whose legs you use,” Risa shoots back, just as snide. He searches her face for some kind of sympathy for the distribution process but just finds bitterness. Good, that’s something they can finally agree on.

All of a sudden, an alarm starts blaring across the shipyard. It’s not super loud, probably just one of the few grounded cruisers in the area forgetting to turn off an entrance alarm overnight only to have their pilot trigger it by accident when they left for the morning, but it makes both of them jump. Risa looks even more stunned than Connor feels, and despite her attempt to seem casual, Connor can’t shake the feeling that she might be just as terrified of getting caught as him.

“Okay,” she says abruptly, voice high. “Fine. You got me. I’m on your ship and I shouldn’t be. What are you going to do about it? Turn me in?”

She juts her chin out as she says this, practically daring him to screw them both over by calling over a cop. It’s kind of cute, honestly, except Connor has no time to think about cute girls because he is a dead man walking so long as he sticks around on this planet. So he doesn’t. Or he tries not to, at least.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Connor asks, cool as a synth-cucumber, “You’re an intruder. That’s the reasonable thing to do.”

She scoffs. “You’re not reasonable. Or you wouldn’t be walking around like you don’t even know your own shuttle. How long have you had this thing, anyway? An hour?”

That makes his insides shut down. Connor can’t afford to be caught, and he senses that this girl is just as desperate as he is. Perhaps desperate enough to call the spaceport marshals on him if it lets her slip away unnoticed. The only way he can keep this situation under control is if he reminds her who’s in control, who has to be in control– him and him alone.

He stalks towards her. There isn’t a whole lot of room in the Juvey-cop’s narrow shuttle, so within a few footsteps Risa has her back to the wall and her eyes fixed on him. Her chin is up even more than before in an attempt to both seem taller and less afraid, but neither works on him.

“Listen,” he says slowly, “It doesn’t matter what you think about this ship. It doesn’t matter what you think about me. The only thing that’s important is when you get off of this shuttle and leave me the hell alone.”

“I’m not leaving,” she spits back, “so you better learn how to deal with that. You can’t get rid of me without outing yourself for whatever you’ve done wrong. We’re stuck together, Connor, so you might as well get used to it.”

Connor did not sign up for a traveling companion, and he’s about to tell her that in no uncertain terms when someone outside bangs on the wall of the shuttle, making the whole ship rattle with metallic drum beats. 

A man’s voice shouts from outside:  “This is Spaceport Security. In the name of the Collective, disembark from the shuttle. We’d like to talk to you about your authority to land here. Mind stepping out with your identification and cosmic license?”

Connor stares unthinkingly at Risa, and they may have been fighting since the second she turned up on the shuttle, but at this moment, they are exactly in unison. In a heartbeat, they turn and sprint to the cockpit. Connor throws himself into the pilot’s seat, Risa by his side strapping into the copilot’s chair. The shouting outside grows louder, but neither of them have any intention of meeting it.

He blanks for a moment, hands hovering over the controls, trying to remember what in the suns he did to make this thing airborne last time. A second later, the neurons in his brain finally piece themselves together and Connor toggles a few switches, presses a few buttons that may or may not be necessary until the autopilot kicks in and starts bringing them up more smoothly.

As they lift off, Connor can make out the silhouettes of the security officials like tiny insects on the ground. Within moments, they’re racing away again, hopefully towards a different target.

Connor breathes out a deep sigh of relief. “And we’re safe.”

“Not quite,” Risa replies, craning her neck to see out of the cockpit viewscreens even as they enter the atmosphere, “I think they’re following us.”

Connor nearly snaps his spine in half trying to jump up and see what she’s looking at. “What do you mean, they’re following us?”

Risa extends a slightly trembling finger to point at the two or three ships starting to take off beneath them. Connor shifts a few of the steering controls, but even after their path takes a drastic turn, the ships remain bent after them. Worse, too, the engines on those things are way better than Connor’s puttering piece of Juvey-crap, so the distance between them starts to shrink rapidly.

Connor swears terrifically under his breath. “What do we do?”

Risa vaguely moves her hands towards the equipment panel. “You’re the pilot. Can’t you get us into hyperspace or something? If we do it soon, they might not be able to mimic our jump.”

That’s a great idea. It would be even greater if Connor had any idea how to do that. He’s been relying on memories of an old friend to get him through the basic flight controls, but there was no way in all the worlds anyone in their right mind would let that hungover moon jockey do a hyperspace jump by himself, so Connor hadn’t been able to hear an anecdote involving that particular skill. Instead, he desperately scans the instrument panel, searching for something hopefully labeled.

Risa peers down at the avenging spacecraft behind them, then back at him. “Any day now would be nice. You’ll have to be careful, I think there’s a passenger ship in space near us, too. Make sure you don’t hit it when you get us out of here.”

“I’m trying.” Connor forces out through gritted teeth. There– a section of the instrument panel curves past his left and Connor can make out several switches with a label underneath. The printing is smudged, likely from repeat use. That’s promising, at least:  that Juvey-cop would have had to jump to hyperspace several times in his illustrious career hunting desperate kids, right? That’s the only way to get beyond the reaches of one’s own star system without spending years floating inside a tin can like this.

Blast it. Connor has no better options. He reaches forward and flicks a couple of the switches. Maybe that’ll do something to trigger the autopilot?

“You’ve locked onto the passenger ship,” Risa announces doubtfully.

Connor’s heart drops into his feet. “With missiles?”

“No,” she says, frowning at the nav readout, “With a tractor beam, I think. You’re drawing them towards us.”

Connor leans forward, staring out the main viewing window of the shuttle cockpit. Sure enough, the only other entity in the space around them other than the swiftly gaining ground security is smoothly pivoting its course to move towards Connor and Risa. A beeping light on the nav readout indicates that the locking mechanism was successful, whatever that means.

“Well,” Connor says feebly, “we can disengage it, can’t we?”

Risa fixes him with a judgmental, if not outright victorious, look. “This is your ship, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you know?”

He has to white-knuckle the armrests to keep from descending into fury, and it’s only partially successful. “Now is not the time.”

The passenger ship they’re currently towing seems to agree, because a warning light beeps to life on the communications viewport. Accept communication channel from: SS-Disciple?

Connor wrinkles his nose at it. “The Disciple?”

Risa shrugs, but she looks just as confused as he feels. “Maybe they’re religious. Who knows?”

Connor glances back towards the looming spaceship. It’s bigger than theirs, although that’s not a difficult feat to achieve. The strangest thing about it is the ship’s appearance. The edges are smooth, and gleam with the extra sort of shine anything gets when enough money and time are poured into it. It’s practically pearlescent, and definitely more expensive than anything should be out here. Connor can’t help but wonder why someone would go to the trouble of keeping such a thing so well maintained in OH-10 of all places. This isn’t exactly Centerworld, most of the elite don’t come out here that often. Obviously, someone wanted to be comfortable, but why here?

The comms channel beeps again, and Connor accepts before he thinks it through. A voice crackles to life over the intercom, the speaker shaky and uncertain. “Is this– is this a Juvey-cop shuttle?”

Connor’s eyes widen. Suns, he forgot about that. This thing must still be transmitting Juvey-cop identification. Risa stares at him, making Connor wince. He’ll have to cook up a good explanation for that later.

Not right now, though. The other line crackles and hisses expectantly. Connor takes a second to locate the comms button and speaks as deliberately as he can, intentionally pitching his voice lower so he sounds older. “Yes. This is, uh–” What was the guy’s name again? “Officer Nelson.”

A large gush of static; on the other end, someone must be sighing. In relief or despair, Connor can’t quite tell. Juveys elicit startlingly different reactions from a lot of people. “Excellent. You’re here for Lev, then?”

“Yes,” Connor says instinctively, then mouths what?? To Risa, who just raises her hands, having no more clue what’s going on than him.

“Alright,” the speaker says. “We thought you’d show up closer to the colony, but oh, well. We’ll open up once we dock.”

With that, the comms channel is unceremoniously severed. Connor almost misses the background din of static. At least he didn’t have to think about what he’s going to do when that ridiculously overpriced shuttle ducks onto theirs while it was humming in the background.

Risa leans back in her seat, fingers steepled together. “Why–”

“I don’t know,” Connor says, when it’s clear that her questions are far too numerous and all-encompassing to even begin to voice. 

“And you–” Another interjection, another weighty pause.

“Yeah,” Connor replies, hoping he’s not agreeing to anything too terrible. It’s not like it matters, anyway. The worst she can guess is the truth.

Silently, they watch the pearl of the Disciple drift towards them. The ground security ships are just moments away, but for some reason Connor can’t think about them, not now, not when this gaudy ship is locking onto them with a gentle hiss and click of machinery.

Slowly, almost in unison, Connor and Risa turn to stare at the awaiting hatch on the side of their cruiser. He’ll have to unlock it, Connor realizes, and then it will dawn on whoever is on the Disciple in need of Juvey-cops that they have only two feral teenagers for help. Stars, he hopes it isn’t a rogue groundless kid who’s getting turned in. This shuttle doesn’t have room for three runaways butting heads, but how could Connor leave someone like that behind?

His decision is made by another comms channel sounding off in a tumult of static. “This is the security force of OH-10 XXIII Spaceport C. Cease your flight attempt and turn yourselves in at once.”

Connor can’t see whatever is happening on the other side of the hatch, but he assumes that whoever had prevailed upon the nonexistent Juvey-cops is probably freaking out just as much as he is. Connor can’t turn himself in. Not yet. They’ll have to force him out.

He glances over his shoulder at Risa, who sets her jaw determinedly. She’s not going down easily either. At least he has that.

A sudden idea occurs to him as he glances back at the awaiting hatch. Stars above, it’s stupid, and probably going to get himself killed even more than he is already. Connor’s already rock bottom though, right? There’s nothing worse than distribution.

So, as if in slow motion, Connor presses the button for the hatch and watches as it whooshes open to reveal what he assumes is a family standing there, frozen in shock. There are many younger siblings and two parents all standing in a semicircle around the youngest kid of all, who’s probably not more than thirteen. 

Another man stands somewhat uncomfortably to the side, dressed in a pastor’s usual formal attire. Unlike the rest of the family, who are just now starting to look alarmed, the furrows in this man’s brow tell Connor that the pastor has been unhappy for quite some time. The pastor catches him looking, glances towards the young blond boy at the center then back towards Connor, and, steeling himself, nods. Just a small incline of the head. Just enough to know that somehow he’s guessed at Connor’s terrible plan, and against all odds, agrees with it.

Connor looks at the blond kid in earnest. He’s wearing these strangely formal clothes, like he’s going to a recital or legislative function. They look weird on a kid that young, especially since they’re all white, kind of like– oh. Connor gets it.

Sometimes, your parents decide that they’re going to have you distributed even before you’re born. It’s a practice called tithing, mainly used by the more religious families. Apparently there’s some belief dating back to old-Earth times that the universe was made not by rogue explosions of stardust but a god, and a God who expects that his people will give back to him after he gave so much to them. 

The beliefs change from system to system. Some think that the idea of distribution is divine work but don’t attach the name of any particular religion to it. They like that there are grander forces at work than just them, forces who compel the constant circulation of life around the galaxy. Others prefer something a little more concrete. And then there are the tithing families, who would take their dedication to their religion so seriously that they would give up a child just to say that they’d held up their idea of the bargain.

The kid, strangely enough, looks totally chill with the idea. If it had been Connor in his polished white shoes, he would have sprinted for their shuttle the second an escape route opened itself up. Instead, this kid curls back towards his parents, the ones giving him away, as if to hide from Connor and Risa.

It won’t do him much good, though. Connor is already moving, throwing himself out of his pilot’s seat and towards the hatch, then grabbing hold of the blond tithe before anyone knows what he’s doing. Even Risa looks stunned. Connor yanks the kid over the threshold into their shuttle, then slams his hand onto the button to seal off the hatch.

The tithe looks furious, but Connor quickly disengages the other ship before he can try to open the hatch again. Leaning over the pilot’s seat and reaching for the comms channel, Connor addresses the spaceport security ship. “Attention, ground control. We have a hostage on board. Return to your port at once or–” Or what? Is he going to kill this kid here and now? “Or the kid gets it,” he finishes somewhat lamely. They already think he’s an unwind, don’t they? They wouldn’t put anything past him.

The voice that answers him seems furious. “Put the hostage back. Land without any more trouble and we’ll take that into consideration.”

“Consider this,” Connor says, and pokes the tithe sharply in the side. Not expecting it, the kid cries out in surprise. He isn’t hurt, but the ground-sec has no idea of knowing that.

This little action is greeted by a quick rush of words and static. “We’re going to retreat. Put the kid back.”

“You move first,” Connor tells them, and waits until the sec-ships start to back off.

He locks eyes with Risa, and whispers to her while keeping the comms channel off. “Plot a hyperspace jump. The autopilot will help you.”

She nods, eyeing the tithe for a lengthy moment before shaking her head and turning towards the instrument panel. So she gets it, then. She’s like him. They would both do anything to survive.

The comms channel crackles to life again, this time more demanding than before. “Return the hostage immediately.”

Connor scoffs. “What, so you can shoot us out of the sky? No thanks.”

Risa winces as she peers over the instrumentation, and yeah, Connor probably shouldn’t have revealed himself so fast, but he’s running on adrenaline right now. In all the times he lay awake at night wondering what he’d do if something so crazy happened as his parents revoking his grounds license, Connor never made a plan for when he inevitably took a tithe captive miles above the atmosphere of the closest planet.

He peeks at the buttons under her fingers. “Any luck?” He hisses.

She’s about to shake her head, and then her eyes light up and she dives forward to snap on a few switches. The nav readout whirs to life, asking Risa where she wants to jump. She picks one at random. For a moment, nothing happens at all, and Connor watches, panic mounting, as the ground-sec ships start slicing through space towards them once again.

He feels it before he sees it. It’s like the air in Connor’s chest has been punched out of him, and when he sucks in a fresh lungful, the stars are melting together, swimming and elongating until they are no longer in the space outside OH-10 XXIII, they’re hurtling through a place Connor can only recognize from grainy snapshots in school textbooks.

Hyperspace.

He lets out a loud whoop. Risa’s face cracks into a wide grin, the flashing lights from the quickly speeding stars outside reflecting on her teeth. “We did it,” she blurts out, astounded.

Beside them, the tithe crosses his white-clothed arms dolefully. “We did? You kidnapped me. You’ll get in trouble for that.”

Oh, stars above. Connor is so past the threat of vague trouble. He ran away from home. He’s come to terms with his own looming distribution and chased it off. He shot a Juvey-cop and stole a ship and yes, kidnapped a tithe, and the fact that this kid thinks a little bit of trouble will straighten him out is so ludicrous that Connor genuinely bursts out laughing.

Once he starts, he can’t stop. A heartbeat later, Risa joins in, and then the two of them are practically doubled over, gasping for air in between bouts of laughter. The silver threads of stars shoot by outside, and Connor’s stomach aches for laughing, and although he is most certainly a dead man flying, he can’t help but think that just now, just this once, he has never been more alive.

a/n: smh lev. he just doesn't get it!! (he will)

unwind tag list: @schroedingers-kater, @locke-writes, @sirofreak

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[bug-with-rabies]

Never before have I had to actively take a break from a book for my own emotional wellbeing before, I'll pick up Unwholly probably in a few days, I have about 1/3 of it left so I'll definitely keep everyone updated but I temporarily damaged my psyche and need a break to heal it

[canonically47]

also i HATE when fandoms make up ships just for the sake of making them up. the biggest example i know is reed900, those guys never interacted and barely had ten minutes of screentime combined (and that's being generous), why do we have one fan-created full-length movie and multiple fanmade spin-offs based on them?

or in the TADC fandom, everyone immediately started saying "pomni and ragatha are in love" or "jax and gangle/jax and zooble enemies to lovers" or "caine x kinger >>>" or literally ANY PAIRING YOU CAN THINK OF. just for the sake of shipping. (for the record, i ship royalteeth; these are just examples)

now, am i saying i am against shipping culture altogether? absolutely not. i love shipping my silly fictional couples, often they are a source of comfort for me. but you cannot deny that some ships are made just for the sake of having characters in relationships - as if they wouldn't be good or even better off without one! who the hell came up with pomni x jax? they don't even have chemistry, are you just shipping them because main girl + main boy = love? is that really a good base for your ship?

this may just be because the concept of romance is beyond me as an aromantic person, but i swear, i am so tired of some of these ships. i do love a good crackship (lord knows what i've done with yansim, you would call me a hypocrite if you saw my fics) and main boy x main girl can always be done correctly (mostly if it's canon though, and not just for the sake of having the two main people in a straight ship) - conrisa (connor x risa from the unwind dystology) for example is an amazing protag x protag ship, but where conrisa excels, miracolev (miracolina x lev from the same books) falls flat for me;

but sometimes i do feel like shipping is done just for the sake of having a character in a romantic relationship, and not because the ship makes sense, has chemistry or interest in one another - just because romance is the way to go, i guess. another example is hank x connor from D:BH, my god, where the fuck did that one come from? it ruins the aspect of both characters as their stories have nothing to do with romance and they even have a father-son-like relationship! jeez people

and especially in media like TADC or hitman, which do not focus on romance at all but on existential crisises (TADC) and murder and moral questions (hitman), we do not need all the pomni x jax, gangle x jax, diana x 47, diana x lucas etc. nonsense. just enjoy the thing. just enjoy the individual character.

if this comes off wrong, i'm sorry - i have a lot of thoughts about this, and i cannot word it better <//3 i don't mean disrespect as, as i've said, i love a good crackship or just ship in general... it's just... why do we always have to ship everything and everyone?

[lazysailor]

Unwind x Hello Kitty

I felt like doing this with the main characters in Unwind (Connor, Risa, and Lev).

Feel free to request characters for me to do because these are fun and easy for me to make!

[avatarskywalker78]

How are your OCs' relationships with their mothers?

Oho, this is a good question because it varies from OC to OC - so I'll group similar ones together (and I'm putting them under the cut because I have a lot of OCs)

Several do not have great relationships with their mothers - Nicky's parents left her behind with relatives when she was six and she's very bitter about this, and still doesn't entirely believe that her aunt won't one day do the same. Sophie Sloan (Diagnosis Murder OC) was abandoned by her mother when she was two years old - she doesn't remember enough to miss her, but part of her can't help but feel it was a judgement on her. My X-Men OCs Alex, Rosa, and Kate left their respective homes because of their mothers' anti-mutant sentiments and there's no reconciliation on the horizon because unfortunately, that hasn't changed in the years since. Marie Douglas (The Professionals) and Brianna Louise Wilson (NCIS) left home at thirteen and eighteen respectively because they were unwanted compared to thier siblings and damn well knew it.

Steph Taylor and Brianna Thawne get along with their mothers but it is somewhat distant - Steph's worked a lot during her childhood and while she doesn't exactly begrudge her that there's still a little bit of resentment there, and they only tend to talk on holidays and birthdays. Brianna's loves her, but unintentionally put pressure on her by talking about the high achieving relatives, which made Brianna push herself and push herself until she burnt out, and then she left home at seventeen to find herself (and became a Blue Flame Wielder), and has hardly talked to her since. Risa Redlark (Superman Returns) talks to her mother but struggles to connect with her as she doesn't understand why Risa wants to be a journalist. Áine (The Witcher) doesn't see her mother much because she travels a lot, but still tries to make time to see her when she can.

Some of them had positive relationships with their mothers but are missing them for one reason or another. Meri Solo, Isla Tinero-Antilles and Ashley Tanner (my Krypton OC) loved their mothers, but lost them at a young age - out of the three, Ashley has more memories as she was ten (compared to Isla at 4 and Meri at 5), but sometimes suffers doubt about whether her mother would've accepted her gender identity had she lived, and that unanswered question colours things a bit.

Eliana's mother Lana Lang is presumed dead - nothing's ever been confirmed, as there's no way to contact her Earth, but Eliana is mostly convinced that she's dead, because there's no way that her mother wouldn't have been helping more metas and aliens get off-world and she would be killed if caught, and Eliana misses her so much but hardly allows herself to think of any possibility she might be alive because it's too painful (but nonetheless, a small part of her hopes.) Nellith does think her mother is dead because of the severed Force Bond and this devastates her and she struggles to talk about it with anyone - even Meri, the person who ends up looking after her for the next fourteen years.

Emile Brooke has been mostly raised by her grandparents and doesn't see her mother often - as of the start of the story it's been two years since she last saw her - but she doesn't doubt that she loves her, even with the complicated circumstances. Lissa Blackwood has not contacted her mother in fifteen years and although she feels so very guilty about this, is nonetheless convinced it is for the best.

The rest have pretty solid relationships with their mothers. The Barnes children all adore Leah, and look up to her a lot, Gemma Laura McKinney still regularly visits both her parents, and James Connors thinks Nicky is the best mom ever and he's so happy to have been adopted by her. Maia Curry only knows the one parent but that's enough for her and she's never felt unloved or been bothered by the lack of a father. Sophia Reynolds has been raised only by her mom for the last eleven years (because they had to flee their home planet and have no way of contacting Mal Reynolds to let him know they're alright), and is very protective of her mom.

Theo Thawne loves his mom Laura to pieces and even started studying to become a social worker like her. Sarah Thompson got along very well with her mother, and Alex always tried to find a way to talk to her mom when she could, unless she was on an undercover mission - even though there was still some disagreement over Alex joining SHIELD in the first place. Hannah Edwards is happy to be Jane's kid, and though she has a desire to find her birth father, she is not so bothered about finding out about her birth mother (she does eventually get to meet Bobbi, but it takes some time for the relationship to become cordial). Caitlin Sherwood (Buffyverse) speaks to her mother once a week and sees her when she can and gets along with her well, she's just often very busy. Niamh (OUAT) lives with both parents and is the light of their lives, Joanna (Uncharted) was mostly raised by her mother and maternal aunt and considers them as the most important people in the life, and Mel Hathaway (Star Trek) has a somewhat strained but mostly loving mother (she just disagreed with Mel joining Starfleet after she was nearly killed while on a routine trip to Vulcan).

As for the others I just haven't got that far.

Tagging (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @shrinkthisviolet @starstruckpurpledragon @vexic929 @negative-speedforce @lady-of-the-spirit

@fezwearingjellybananas @daughter-of-melpomene @forchrissy

[julysn]

scary? my god, you’re divine!

ship: connor lassiter x reader

includes: pre-unwholly post-unwind, friends to lovers, pov second person, it’s CORNY. it’s HORRENDOUS. but i’m starving. so here u go fuckers. not beta’d

song rec: diet mountain dew (demo) - lana del rey

wc: 1150

a/n: yeah he might be slightly ooc dunno who cares i felt motivated to write be proud 😔

a lil rushed bc all of my writing tends to be.. was listening to the dt mt dew demo and felt inspired so here we go

also its not mentioned but connor didnt date risa in my fic. because I SAID SO

It was a quiet yet peaceful evening in the deserts of Southwest Arizona, the blazing heat contrasting the softly-lit moon raised high in the glittery night sky.

Life had truly taken a wild turn for you—in just under a year, you were no longer under your parents’ watchful eyes, checking for deceit and harm, but you had landed up in an isolated airplane graveyard with a new life ahead of you (mainly because your parents wanted to toss you away once they had signed the unwind order).

Throughout your rough and stressful escape from the juvey-cops, you also had your best friend, Connor Lassiter.

From the moment you met, the connection between you both was like lightning. He became your closest friend; your partner in crime. He was one of the only people you felt like you could truly be yourself with, and your walls of facade would immediately crumble once he was around. 

As time passed, you witnessed Connor's transformation firsthand—his short temper and impulsiveness guided into rationality and intelligence. Though others saw him as merely the legend of the 'Akron AWOL,' you knew the true Connor. He wasn’t like the rumors, no, he was different. He was special.

Throughout the chaos and drama, you stood by his side, no matter what. He was your light in the darkness, the blossoming flower to your stem. You could never admit it to him, but your heart knew; he meant everything to you.

You were with him every second of the journey, no matter how tough and complicated it was. He meant the world to you, even if he was unaware of how you felt.

Completely lost in thought, you were sitting on the grass near the planes, stargazing and letting the peaceful silence fill your ears when a familiar pair of footsteps approached. You yawned and looked up, seeing Connor sit beside you and tilt his head upwards to look at the sky.

The both of you sat in peaceful silence, just watching the stars glimmer in the dark sky, until Connor spoke his thoughts. 

“Do I look scary?”

His question caught you completely off guard. Scary? Why would he ask that? You glanced over and scanned his appearance, and oh god.

Connor Lassiter was absolutely perfect.

His soft, caramel-tinted skin looked beautiful underneath the moonlight, and you saw freckles scattered across his bare arms and cheeks like the stars blanketing the night sky. He had deep, tired brown eyes that made him look as attractive as ever. His tousled and messy curls sat prettily on his head, the tangled and sleepy mess more adorable than you’d like to admit. You could see why all of the other ‘whollies’ (as Hayden would call them) would throw themselves at Connor’s feet, because you would too. You’d do anything for him.

And the best part? His ass was fat. Massive. Colossal. Astronomically huge. 

I’m gonna forget I even thought about that last part, you mused as you looked back up at the stars and let a soft sigh escape your lips, the warm breeze tickling your cheeks. “You look fine. Why?”

“I feel like people are scared of me.” Connor confided, leaning back on his hands as his eyes wandered across the clear night sky. “Not just because I'm the Akron AWOL, but.. I think it’s because I have all of these scars from the explosion.”

“You don’t look scary to me.” You shrugged, looking up at him and catching his gaze before the both of you looked away and back up to the star-filled canvas in front of you. You felt his hand come down to absentmindedly play with your hair, and your breath hitched. You weren’t.. falling in love, right?

Right?

“I mean, you’ve seen the way people look at me.” Connor sighed gently, his other hand coming up to ruffle his curls. As his fingers ran through his hair, you noticed the light scarring around his cheeks and temple, and it made him look more adorable.

He wasn’t frightening in your eyes, no, he looked divine. But he didn’t know that yet.

“From what I’ve seen, the kids here worship you.” You shrugged once again, yawning and stretching your arms out. The peaceful quiet of the night was almost eerie, and you shook away the thoughts of potentially getting caught. It wouldn’t happen. Not now, at least.

“I know, but some of them look at me like I’d shoot them with a tranq too.” Connor muttered, his other hand coming down to play with your hair too. He was no longer admiring the night sky or gazing at the glimmering stars, his attention was purely on you now. You felt your heart flutter as you felt those cold, calloused fingers stroke your hair with a gentleness you've never felt before.

“Seriously? You don’t look that scary.” You chuckled quietly, leaning your head into his hands as your eyes met his. You noticed a spark of something unfamiliar in his star-filled gaze, and you had to fight the urge to not pull him into a tight hug. There’s something special about him. You just didn’t know what.

“.. You know, I had a dream about you last night.” Connor blurted out absentmindedly, his rosy cheeks flaring up as his eyes darted away from you. You looked up at him in shock, eyes widening as your vision laid upon his features. His expression was no longer relaxed, it was more nervous and embarrassed. You had never seen him like this before, and it was quite endearing to see.

“Really?” You asked, your smile almost giddy as you slowly sat up from the grass, propping your hands behind you and leaning back slightly. You felt Connor’s smooth, cold hands continue to run through and play with your locs, and it was a comforting sensation. You were feeling head over heels, and there was a flame of hope burning within you that he would reciprocate. 

“No, I-” Connor stammered out, avoiding your eyes. “Alright, fine. I think I’ve fallen for you.”

The two of you sat in silence for a few moments, unaware of what to do or say. The situation was extremely delicate and fragile, and you were worried you’d ruin everything by letting your thoughts escape your lips.

So, instead, you gently raised a hand to cup his cheek, as his hand laid on the back of your neck, and you both leaned in to close the distance between your lips. The kiss was soft and gentle, nothing too passionate as having sex in an airplane in the middle of a southwestern Arizona desert didn’t sound too enticing. 

He pulled away first with a grin, his smile melting your heart as his hands gripped your shoulders gently. “Does that mean you love me back?”

“No.” You replied, although the bright smile and the pure happiness in your eyes said otherwise.

[thefoxtrot008]

The Reader's Blog

Me, trying to convince you guys to read The Unwind series (by Neal Shusterman) based on the playlist I made for it and this meme alone;

Something Real (Post Malone) "So tell me how the fuck am I still alive, it's a miracle" "I would trade my life just to be at peace" "It's a double-edged sword cutting' off ties with the ones I know" I feel like this one would be good if they made like a movie/tv show about it, and they pan to different point of views at the very end of it. I think it would be cool.

2. Litlost (X Ambassadors) Um... literally the entire song is lit and a vibe. It's pretty sad though, which fits the whole series. (fair bit of warning: you might need tissues) "And your grandfather clock is still ticking, but the chime never rings" "And I'll never be whole again" "What have I done? With my heart on the floor, I must be out of my mind."

3. The Phoenix (Fall Out Boy) "So, we can take the world back from a heart attack one maniac at a time we will take it back." "Doesn't it feel like our time is running out?" For this one, (I'm not gonna be specific because of spoilers) but that whole fight scene in book 2, would be great. Or in book 3, when they start to take over the camps.

4. The Kids Aren't Alright (Fall Out Boy) "blessed be the boys time can't capture" "I'm not passive but aggressive, and I still feel that rush in my veins. All the people in those old photographs I've seen are dead." This could be the theme song. For reals.

5. Clocks (Coldplay) "The lights go out and I can't be saved, tides that I tried to swim against, have brought me down upon my knees" "Cursed missed opportunities, am I part of the cure, or am I a part of the disease? Singin'"

6. Devil I Know (Allie X) "I want to, wanna get free" "But you bring me down to my knees when push comes to shove" Could be used when kids get rounded up by the police and they try to fight or run.

7. Hopeless Opus (Imagine Dragons) "It's not a picture perfect life, not what I had in mind" "Let me write my own line, I've got this place that I've filled with empty space"

8. Paradise (Coldplay) "In the night, the stormy night, away she'd fly; and dream of para-para paradise" For this one, again, perhaps another theme song? Maybe it's what every AWOL kid secretly wishes for.

9. Can't Feel My Face (The Weeknd) "And I know she'll be the death of me, at least, we'll both be numb" I think this one is kinda funny to add. I think it would be good to use it, because it would sort of show the opposite side of the problem, those that think unwinding is good. Maybe if they show the adds like they do in the books, then this song could be a background song to it. Who knows.

10.. Eat Your Young (Hozier) "There's money to be made, whatever's still to come." "Come and get some, skinning the children for a war drum." "It's quicker and easier to eat your young." For some reason, this song makes me think of the fancy parts-pirate in book 5.

11. Ends and Begins (Labrinth) "I hear your name, I hear a melody, I'll never forget, ah. 'Cause it's carved in my memory. Ah, forevermore. And infinity, ah." "Like a brand-new start, baby" So, this one would be PERFECT for the end scene in book 5. I also think that it's perfect for all the main characters. Lev, Risa, Connor, and Hayden. Their names will go down in history. Especially after everything they've all been through. That'll all I've got to say.

AND THAT'S ALL FOLKS! Let me know if you do end up reading this series, it's amazing! Or if you have any thoughts on any of these artists!

[luvvsoft]

THANK U SM FOR THAT CONNOR FIC it made my whole month fr now i feel complete.

anyways i’m here to suggest another idea 😝😝 enemies to lovers somehow. ur writing style could make it work it’s just too good

pairing: connor lassiter x reader

contains: angst + fluff, enemies to lovers, rivalries, some violence, jealousy, mutual pining but you’re both too stubborn to admit it

word count: 2.9k

author’s notes: tysm for the request<3 i hope its what you wanted !

also, thank you to ml @salaimoi for helping me write the kissing scene ! <3

You were simple, as simple as a teenager could get. You liked going outside, drawing, reading, all things people around your age did. Maybe you were too simple sometimes but it wasn’t a bad thing.

Your parents thought otherwise though. Costs of living were going up: food, clothing, housing, everything. They were forced to make hard choices, and when push came to shove, they signed your unwind order. An order that would take away all your rights — primarily your right to live as a whole human being.

Cry as you tried, scream as you tried, nothing would get them to change their mind. In the end, they stayed firm on their decision, deciding you out of all your 6 siblings, were to go.

You were forced to bow your head and accept your fate. There was nothing you could do but give in, or at least that’s what you thought until Roland convinced you otherwise. Roland, who was one of your closest friends, was also sent to be unwind when he retaliated against his mother’s boyfriend.

At least you wouldn’t be alone in your final moments. Your final moments wouldn’t come as fast as you thought though.

“Roland, what are you doing?” you asked as you saw him packing a bag.

“Changing my fate. Now, come with me.”

Roland had made the rash decision to run from his fate, and you, scared of being alone, went with him. You would face all that was to come together. You just weren’t ready for what that meant.

Your “small” detour brought you to Sonia’s basement, a kind old lady who took in AWOLs. For her you were glad; she sheltered and fed you, what more could you ask for?

It would seem Roland wasn’t satisfied with that. He thirsted for more, never being satisfied with what he had. You didn’t always understand his motives, but you stayed by his side, acting as a right hand for him.

He slowly rose up, being a voice for the kids and taking control of the situation. No one challenged it, they simply didn’t care enough or were too scared. Of course they would be, Roland was big, buff, scary: a person someone rational wouldn’t mess with. But, the coming of a girl and a boy changed that.

The boy dared to challenge Roland, starting a rivalry that seemed to heat up the room whenever they were near each other. Connor, as you learned, was impulsive, worse than Roland, and seemed to care too much about the girl who came with him. The girl, Risa, was someone Roland used to toy with Connor. Roland tried pinning her in the restroom once, flirting with her, trying to get close to her, all in order to get Connor angry and irrational. It worked sometimes, other times it didn’t.

Roland was difficult, wanting full influence over the basement kids. Connor, on the other hand, wanted Roland to back off. This power struggle between them erupted in many ways, oftentimes leading you to intervene, and others to get caught in the crossfire.

It was late, too late to deal with Roland being a pain in the ass. You should have expected this, of course he would pull something deep in the night. He was messing with Risa, and now, Connor was pissed off, leading them into a stand off.

You only came to know of this when one of the little kids woke you up, whispering “Roland and Connor are at it again.” You were forced to get up after that, once again having to settle their nonsense.

It was definitely too late to be dealing with Roland. You didn’t get paid enough for this (or at all).

When you arrived at where they were in the kitchen, you saw Connor hiding Rida behind him, while Roland stood across from him with his arms crossed and a smirk lining his lips. You could see Connor’s rage boiling in his eyes, threatening to erupt and burn everything around him, including his friend. You took that as your cue to intervene.

As Connor was about to open his mouth, you stepped in, “Do you guys really have to do this so late?”

All three of them turned, not even surprised at your appearance. They knew this would happen, it was a routine at this point.

“I didn’t do anything, simply wanted something to eat,” Roland said, keeping the smug look on his face, which only seemed to irritate Connor more.

You sighed, you didn’t get enough sleep to deal with this. “Come on, Roland,” you said as you walked over to him and pulled him by his arm, walking away.

You shot Risa a look on your way out, silently telling her to deal with Connor and calm him down before he scared the other kids.

“You need to learn to leave them alone, it’s annoying dealing with this drama this late at night,” you scolded Roland as you left the kitchen, heading to the sleeping area.

Roland didn’t say much at first, settling with an “I barely touched her.”

“You know anything you do sets him off, he’s like a fuse waiting to blow, and you’re not helping.”

Back in the kitchen, while Risa tried to calm Connor down, he thought about you — about how you chose to involve yourself with someone like Roland. He was sure you were no better than him, maybe worse than Roland, as you tried to act sweet.

Sweet you were, he was sure you made cavities grow on everyone’s teeth. He saw how you tended to the kids, how you patched up people when needed, how you made new kids feel welcomed and at home. It led him to wonder how you ended up at Roland’s side, highly treasured by him. He could understand why Roland kept you close, you were like caramel, sweet and inviting, even your lips were inviting him to press a soft kiss on them.

Connor shook his head, he shouldn’t be thinking of you that way. You were someone to be thought of as an enemy, someone he couldn’t align himself with. He had to hate you.

Time passed, and you all stayed the same. Roland and Connor squabbled, while Risa and you tried to stop them. The kids were lively, not as much as before though.

Soon enough, you’d end up stuffed in boxes, being shipped somewhere no one knew. It was a long trip, and your circumstances didn’t help. You were, unluckily, forced into a box with Connor and 2 other boys.

It was dark inside the box, but someone kept their gaze on you, staring daggers through you. You were sure it was Connor, why wouldn’t it be? You knew being friends with Roland would lead you two to be enemies by association.

You sighed, it would be a long trip after all.

Connor, on the other hand, tried to distract himself from your presence by talking to the other boys in the box. It was always nice to make friends, especially if they’re be in there for however long. They’d try to involve you in the conversation, but you didn’t respond much, opting to keep to yourself.

You were strange, Connor thought. He didn’t understand you try as he might, which only led him to more questions about you and your motives. How’d you end up here? How’d you end up stuck to Roland’s side? How’d someone like you be sent to be unwind?

As much as Connor wanted to voice these questions outside of his head, he knew he couldn’t. It was strange to talk to you, you only gave short answers to anyone but Roland. He wondered if you and Roland had something else going on.

Thinking of Roland only seemed to make him tense and anger to vibrate inside the box. He was losing himself in his thoughts about Roland till he felt a hand on his arm. A soft, warm hand that interrupted his thoughts, and made his mind dizzy and his head cloudy.

“Calm down,” he heard from a voice in the dark: your voice. The voice he longed to hear. Connor settled his thoughts and tried to turn to you, sitting across from him. He couldn’t see you in the darkness, but he could feel your warmth. It was comforting.

“Thank you,” Connor whispered, as he felt your hand retreat back into yourself. He was weirdly disappointed by it, though he tried not to show it.

It was only hours later that movement stopped and someone opened the crate they were in, letting sunlight in and rushing them to get out. It was chaotic and loud, airplanes could be heard and seen everywhere, along with tons of kids.

Connor learned later on they were in the Graveyard, and were to reside there until they turned 17 or they managed to get them fake identities. It was a new setting, but they didn’t have to live in fear of being unwound and think out their next plan to survive.

After, Connor looked for Risa, instead finding you and Roland alone. He didn’t know why, but his blood boiled at the sight of you and Roland hugging. He could hear you asking him if he was okay and if he was injured.

Connor hated you. He was sure he did, yet why did this feeling arise when you were near Roland? Why did he feel like he was suffocating when you got too close and clutched onto Roland like your life depended on it?

He couldn’t be jealous, no. He couldn’t bring himself to admit that he was actually jealous of Roland. He couldn’t admit that he wished you were hugging him and not Roland. Connor, not knowing how to deal with these feelings, instead chose to distract himself with other things, like helping kids around the Graveyard and being the Admiral’s helper.

Eventually, everyone got acclimated to their new environment. Every kid had a job to do, with you being in the infirmary. It seemed like the best option since you were used to patching up your siblings and kids in Sonia’s basement. It wasn’t everyday Connor came though.

“Alright, all you needed was some alcohol and a bandage. Don’t worry dear, you’ll be fine to play, just be careful,” you said as you finished tending to a little girl who scraped her knees. She got up, thanking you and then leaving.

You looked at the time, lunch was soon and you were starving. You had no time to eat this morning, and your mouth threatened to water at the thought of food.

As you were tidying up and getting ready to leave, the door slammed open and revealed Connor, an injured Connor, to be precise.

“Connor?? What happened, are you okay? Come and sit here,” you said as you hurried to get supplies for him.

The injury looked deep and was bleeding a lot, you definitely wouldn’t be eating any time soon.

Connor looked out of it, so you grabbed him and sat him down, pressing a warm cloth to the wound. He hissed, murmuring a small ow before settling.

“I’m sorry, bear with it for now while I try to find some stitches,” you whispered to him.

You found them, taking a small second to “Aha!” yourself before returning to his side. You took the cloth, and instead tried to disinfect the area around the wound, “How did this happen?”

“I wasn’t careful enough, I got distracted by someone else and dropped a part of the airplane on my arm,” Connor whispered, opening his eyes and staring straight at you.

“Hm, be more careful. I’m gonna try to stitch it now.”

Connor looked at you while you worked; you looked focused, your eyebrows furrowed as you worked to stitch up his wound. He liked your facial expressions, they were full of life. He saw a piece of your hair slide down and cover one of your eyes, moving it with his other hand.

“Thank you,” you murmured, continuing on with what you were doing.

Once you were done, you stood up straight, and looked right into his eyes, “You’re done now, good job. Try not to strain that arm and don’t put pressure on it okay?”

He nodded, thanking you. You moved away so he could stand up, but he stayed. Connor grabbed your arm, pulling you back in front of him and almost making you fall on him in the process.

“What are you doin—“ he cut you off in the middle of your sentence and brought you closer.

“I like your eyes. They shine like the sun, so bright and glowy,” Connor said before getting up and leaving. Leaving you with your swirling thoughts. He was confusing.

What he said stayed in your head, leading to many thoughts you knew you shouldn’t have.

His eyes had stared deep into you, making you feel like he could see into your soul. His hands were calloused, yet soft at the same time. You wondered what it would be like to hold them close to your face at night.

You knew you shouldn’t think of him that way, but you couldn’t stop it. The little acts he did tricked your mind into thinking what it would be like to be his.

You used the newly brought piano as a way to distract your mind from Connor. You played a few tunes when you were a normal kid, and not an AWOL.

The piano keys felt familiar under the pads of your fingers, inviting you to play. It was dark and everyone was asleep, so you saw no harm in losing yourself in the music.

You pressed one key, then another and another, till you started remembering a tune you played frequently for your friends. You vividly started to remember when you played for a school concert, in front of your mother and father for the first time, and when you played just for Roland.

You missed your old life. It was a life full of love and friends. It might have been mundane, but it was something you grew accustomed to — something that comforted you. Now your life was full of fear and paranoia, impeded by that Unwind Order. You longed for times to return to how they were, simple yet fun.

While you played and thought about your old life, Connor thought about you. He was laying in bed when he heard the piano. He thought it was Risa at first, but he knew she’d be asleep at this time. Regardless, there could be a chance that it was, so he got up and went to the courtyard.

There Connor didn’t see Risa, instead he saw you, playing the piano with tears streaming down your eyes. He stayed there, waiting for you to finish. He busied himself with admiring you, taking a moment to look at all your features from the shadows of your face to the curve of your lips while you played.

You suddenly stopped, spotting him, “Connor?” You wiped your tears and stood up, getting ready to apologize for waking him.

“I like when you play; it’s like listening to an angel’s melody. You should play more often,” he said, stepping closer to you.

“Ah, thank you, and I’m sorry for waking you up.”

“Dance with me if you’re really sorry.” Connor held out his hand, waiting for you to take it.

You didn’t deny him that, and took his hand. He immediately pulled you closer, while his other arm came and wrapped around your waist. He then started swaying with you despite there being no music.

Connor could feel your breath on his, it intoxicated him. He was sure your presence was his drug. He could feel the way your hand grabbed onto his shoulder, while the other was intertwined with his own hand.

“Why are you doing this?” you took a moment to ask Connor as he spun you around.

“Doing what?”

“Dancing with me, telling me these things, complimenting me; it messes with my brain.”

“Because I like you.”

You pulled away from him, flashing him a shocked face, “What?”

“I mean it, I really do feel something for you. Even if you’re friends with Roland, I don’t care. It makes me feel jealous and angry when you’re close to him. I want to be the one you hug and patch up, not him,” Connor said as he pulled you closer to him and cupped your face in his hands.

“Really? You mean it? Tell me you mean it please, Connor,” you said as you brought your hand up to his, and caressed his hand.

“I mean it, I promise. Let me prove to you I do.”

The room was devoid of sound, but when his lips finally met yours at last, you swore you could hear a million different melodies being sung. An angelic tune rang in your ear, erasing the uncertainness that plagued your minds beforehand.

His lips latched onto yours, his tongue seeking entry almost immediately in a desperate search. Your tongues danced to a certain rhythm, a perfect translation from your dance movements from a moment ago.

You were finally his, and he was finally yours.

[wonder-womans-neko-husband]

Update F/O List

(All depicted as 18+)

Romantic F/O’S

DC comics

- Wonder Woman Ship Name: The warriors fool (hint: i’m the fool)

- Black Canary Ship Name: Benary, my Canary, sing of my love

- Big Barda Ship Name: Benarda, Big heart for me

- Supergirl Ship Name: My superb girl

- Hippolyta Ship Name: Hibenyta, Benyta,

- Catwoman Ship Name: Benselina, Selen, clawed your way to my heart

- Starfire Ship Name: fire of my heart, your my star

- Batgirl Ship Name: my bat

- Harley Quinn Ship Name: Benarley, Benley, Harlen, mischievous romance

- Zatanna Ship Name: Zatannen, Bennana , Betanna, worked your magic on me

- Hawkgirl Ship Name: My darling Hawk

- Giganta Ship Name: Bengal, Giganen

- Huntress Ship Name: My huntress, hunted hearts

- Killer Frost Ship Name: pleasant chills in my heart

- Lady Shiva Ship Name: Beniva

- Talia al Ghul Ship Name: Talia all mine

- Vicki Vale Ship Name: tbb

- Lois Lane Ship Name: tbd

- Lady Blackhawk Ship Name: tbd

 Marvel

- Captain Marvel Ship Name: Captain of my heart, marvelous lovers

- She-Hulk Ship Name: she-mine

- Emma Frost Ship Name: Bemma, Benma

- X-23 Ship Name: BenX-23, Benura (Laura used here)

- Magick Ship Name: Under your spell, Benick

- Mystique Ship Name: Benstique, Mystien

- Black Widow Ship Name: Benidow

- Shuri Ship Name: shuri she is mine

- Gamora Ship Name: Gamoren, Benora

- Amora Ship Name: Amoren

- Scarlet Witch Ship Name: Scarlet kiss

- Spider-gwen Ship Name: She caught my heart

- Black Cat Ship Name: benlicia

- Rogue Ship Name: Benogue, Roben

- Storm Ship Name: brewin’ a storm in my heart

- Thor Ship Name: worthy to hold his hand, Lightning lover

- Valkyrie Ship Name: Benkyrie, Valken

- Sif Ship Name: sifen, Benif

- Hela Ship Name: Benla, Helen

- Silver Sable Ship Name: Benable

- Hawkeye Ship Name: caught my eye, prey to your love

- Captain America Ship Name: Captain of my love

- T'challa Ship Name: Benchalla T'benlla

- Psylocke Ship Name: tbd

- Jean Grey Ship Name: tbd

- Kitty Pryde Ship Name: tbd

- Abigail Brand Ship Name: tbd

 Fate

- Astolfo Ship Name: Benolfo, Astbeno

- Saber Ship Name: Saben, Bener

- Saber Alter Ship Name: Alter bener

- Jeanne Ship Name: Benne,Jeaner

- Jalter Ship Name: Benter,Jalten

- Mordred Ship Name: Mordoren,Bendred

 Zelda

- Link Ship Name: Benk, Linen

- Urbosa Ship Name: Urbosen,Benbosa

- Zelda Ship Name: Zelden, Benda

- Mipha Ship Name: Benpha, Miben

- Shiek Ship Name: Shien, Benek

- Midna Ship Name: Midnen, Bena

 Star Wars

- Ahsoka Tano Ship Name: Ahsoken, Bensoka

- Sabine Wren Ship Name: Sabene, Benine

- Hera Syndulla Ship Name: Heren, benra

- General Grievous Ship Name: four armed hug

- Aayla Secura Ship Name: Aaylen, secura in my heart

- Shaak Ti Ship Name: Shaen, Benti

- Obi-Wan Kenobi Ship Name: only one Kenobi

- Jaina Solo Ship Name: Janen

- Mara Jade Ship Name: Maren, Jaden

- Luke Skywalker Ship Name: Luken Skyben

- Captain Phasma Ship Name: Bensma, Phaben, command my heart

- Padme Amidala Ship Name: Queen of my heart, Bename

- Mon Mothma Ship Name: Mon lovema , Mon lover

- Jyn Erso Ship Name: Jynen, Benyn

- Iden Versio Ship Name: Idenen

- Leia Organa Ship Name: Lenen, Benia

- Cassian Andor Ship Name: Cassien, Benian

- L3-37 Ship Name: L<3-<37

- Wilhuff Tarkin Ship Name: Wilhufen, Benhuff

 Voltron

- Shiro Ship Name: Shirnen, Henri, Beniro

- Allura Ship Name: Alluring Allura

- Pidge/Katie Ship Name: Katien, Benidge

- Axca Ship Name: Benca, Axen

- Krolia Ship Name: Krolien, Benrolia

 Persona

- Tae Takemi Ship Name: Tae Taken my heart!

- Sae Niijima Ship Name: Seanen, Benae

- Sadayo Kawakami Ship Name: Sadayonen, Benyo

- Ann Takamaki Ship name: tbd

- Akira Kusuru Ship Name: tbd

 Mario

- Daisy Ship Name: my flower, my delightful, Dainen

- Peach Ship Name: she’s a peach 💙

- Rosalina Ship Name: Rosalina is my rosey girl

- Pauline Ship Name: 1UP boy & 1UP girl

 Fire Emblem

- Lucina Ship Name: Lucinen,Benina

- Lyn Ship Name: Beyn, Lynen

- Male Robin & Female Robin Ship Name: Robins love

- Male & Female Grima Ship Name: Grimen, Benma

 Bayonetta

- Bayonetta Ship Name: Benyonetta, Babe-o-mine-o, She’s my bit-witch!

 Metroid

- Samus Ship Name: The Hunters Bounty

- Dark Samus Ship Name: Dark lovers, Benus, Samen

 Nier

- 2B Ship Name: 2B URS

- A2 Ship Name: 2 lovers

- Yorha Commander Ship Name: YORmy Commander 💙, Commanded love

 Rainbow Six Siege

- Frost Ship Name: Operation: Loving you , Strategic loving

- Buck Ship Name: Buck of my heart, shoot your love my way

- Ash Ship Name: Ashen

- Thermite Ship Name: TherMINE

- Castle Ship Name: Guard my heart

- Pulse Ship Name: my pulse

- Twitch Ship Name: benitch

- Montagne Ship Name: Benagne

- Rook Ship Name: Benook

- Doc Ship Name: Heal my heart

- Dokkaebi Ship Name: Benbi, Dokken

- Finka Ship Name: I Finka I love you

- Ela Ship Name: Elen, Benla

- Zofia Ship Name: Zofien, Benia

- IQ Ship Name: I think your Qute

- Jager Ship Name: Janer, Janen

- Caveira Ship Name: Caveiren, Benira

- Valkyrie Ship Name: Valkyrien, Benrie

- Vigil Ship Name: Vigilen, Vigilance

- Kaid Ship Name: Kaiden, Benid

- Nomad Ship Name: Nomaden, Benad

- Lion Ship Name: Lionen, Beion

- Hibana Ship Name: Hibena,Benana

 RWBY

- Ruby Rose Ship Name: Ruby lovers, my ruby rose

- Yang Xiao Long Ship Name: Gauntlet Love

- Blake Belladonna Ship Name: Belladonnen

- Weiss Schnee Ship Name: Weissen

- Pyrrha Nikos Ship Name: Pyrrhaen

- Roman Torchwick Ship Name: Romen, Benan

- Winter Schnee Ship Name: My eternal Winter

- Emerald Sustrai Ship Name: Emeralden

- Coco Adel Ship Name: Cocoen, Benco

- Velvet Scarlatina Ship Name: Velvet kisses

- Arslan Altan Ship Name: Arslen

- Nora Valkyrie Ship Name: Noranen

- Cinder Fall Ship Name: fallen for you

- Glynda Goodwitch Ship Name: Benda, Bewitched

 Metal Gear Solid

- The Boss/The Joy Ship Name: joy of mine

- Quiet Ship Name: hushed sweet nothings, Quieten, Benet

- Meryl Silverburgh Ship Name: Meren, Benyl

- Sniper Wolf Ship Name: TARGET: My heart

 Full Metal Alchemist

- Olivier Mira Armstrong Ship Name: Benvier, strong love

- Riza Hawkeye Ship Name: Risa caught my eye

- Izumi Curtis Ship Name: Izubenmi

- Lust Ship Name: lusting after you

- Greed Ship Name: greedy for your love

 Overwatch

- Mercy Ship Name: Bency, Merben

- Pharah Ship Name: Pharen, Benarah

- D.VA Ship Name: D<3.va

- Widowmaker Ship Name: widow no longer, caught my heart

- Sombra Ship Name: Somben

- Ana Ship Name: Anaen, Bena

- Ashe Ship Name: outlawed love

- Mcree Ship Name: fastest heart stealer in the wild west 🔫

- Moira Ship Name: Moira O'mine

- Mei Ship Name: Mei cutie, Benei

- Zarya Ship Name: Zaren

- Reaper Ship Name: death’s embrace is sweet

- Baptiste Ship Name: tbd

 Kid Icarus

- Palutena Ship Name: Palunten, Goddess of my heart

 Legend of Korra

- Korra Ship Name: Koren

- Asami Ship Name: Asamien

 Disney

- Ariel Ship Name: I wanna be part of your world

- Jasmine Ship Name: a whole new love

- Elsa Ship Name: Frozen Heart

- Moana Ship Name: voyage to the heart

- Sergeant Calhoun Ship Name: Lover’s duty

 Harry Potter

- Hermione Ship Name: Benione, HerMINE

- Fleur Ship Name: my pretty Fleur

- Narcissa Ship Name: Narcissen

- Tonks Ship Name: Benks

 Transformers

- Arcee Ship Name: Acreen

- Optimus Prime Ship Name: Prime hearts

- Windblade Ship Name: Windenlade, Bende

- Shockwave Ship Name: Heart shocker!

- Soundwave Ship Name: your music to my ears

- Shatter Ship Name: don’t shatter my heart!

 Final Fantasy

- Lunafreya Ship Name: Oracle of Love

- Cindy Aurum Ship Name: Garage beauty, Cinen

- Aranea Highwind Ship Name: protector of mine

- Tifa Lockhart Ship Name: Fast, Furious and all mine

- Terra Branford Ship Name: Esper of my heart

 Mass Effect

- Jane Shepard Ship Name: Bane

- Tali'Zorah Ship Name: Zoran mine

- Vetra Nyx Ship Name: Vetranen, Benyx

- Liara T'soni Ship Name: Liaren, Benara

- Sara Ryder Ship Name: Ryder of mine

- Miranda Lawson Ship Name: Miranden, Lawnen

 League of Legends

- Akali Ship Name: Akalien

- Ahri Ship Name: Ahrien

- Katarina Ship Name: Kataben

- Sona Ship Name: Sonaben

 Doctor Who

- 13th Doctor Ship Name: 13th times the charm

- 10th Doctor Ship Name: intergalactic love

  Assassin’s Creed

- Kassandra Ship Name: fierce lover, tiger heart

- Evie Frye Ship Name: Sophisticated love

- Aya of Siwa Ship Name: Ayen

 My Hero Academia

- Rumi Usagiyama(Mirko) Ship Name: Usagiyen

- Nemuri Kayama(Midnight) Ship Name: kayaen

- Yu Takeyama(Mt. Lady) Ship Name: Takeyen

- Ryuko Tatsuma(Ryukyu) Ship Name: Ryukoen

 Borderlands

- Maya Ship Name: Maya Girl, perfectly calculated love

- Lilith Ship Name: Lithen

- Mad Moxxi Ship Name: Madly in love

- Athena Ship Name: Athen

 Halo

- Kelly 087 Ship Name: Kellen

- Linda 058 Ship Name:Linaben

- John 117 Ship Name: Johnen

- Cortana Ship Name: Cortanen

- Thel ‘Vadam Ship Name: tbd

 X-Files

- Dana Scully Ship Name: Not so mysterious love

 The Witcher

- Ciri Ship Name: Burning Emerald

- Yennefer Ship Name: raven haired beauty

- Triss Merigold Ship Name: My gold

 Red Dead Redemption

- Arthur Morgan Ship Name: Arthen, Morganen

- Sadie Adler Ship Name: Sadien

 Detroit Become Human

- Kara Ship Name: Karaen

- North Ship Name: Noren

- Connor Ship Name: Conen, Connoren

- Markus Ship Name: Markusen, Marken

 Resident Evil

- Ada Wong Ship Name: love in the red dress

- Claire Redfield Ship Name: Clairen, Benire

- Jill Valentine Ship Name: Jillen, my valentine (or sandwich)

- Leon S Kennedy Ship Name: not a rookie at love

- Rebecca Chambers Ship Name: healthy loving, refreshing love

 Kingdom Hearts

- Aqua Ship Name: Aquen, Benua

 Just Cause

- Rico Rodriguez Ship Name: Ricen, Chaos filled love

- Mira Morales Ship Name: Mien

- Gabriela Morales Ship Name: Gaben, Moralen

 Titanfall (including apex legends)

- Jack Cooper Ship Name: tbd

- Bangalore Ship Name: tbd

- Gibraltar Ship Name: tbd

- Mirage Ship Name: tbd

- Bloodhound Ship Name: tbd

- Caustic Ship Name: Tbd

Call of Duty

- Gideon (Advanced Warfare) Ship Name: tbd

- Ilona (Advanced Warfare) Ship Name: tbd

- Salen Kotch (Infinite Warfare) Ship Name: tbd

- Robert Zussman (COD WW2) Ship Name: tbd

- Joseph Turner (COD WW2) Ship Name:

- John “Soap” Mactavish (MW2/MW3) Ship Name: tbd

- Spectre (Black Ops 3) Ship Name: tbd

- Battery (Black Ops ¾) Ship Name: tbd

- Ruin (Black Ops ¾) Ship Name: tbd

 Red vs Blue

- Agent Carolina Ship Name: tbd

- Agent Texas Ship Name: tbd

Girls Frontline

- M16A1 Ship Name: tbd

- AUG Ship Name: tbd

- CZ-805 Ship Name: tbd

- Grizzly Mk V Ship Name: tbd

- KSG Ship Name: tbd

- AK-12 Ship Name: tbd

- M4A1 Ship Name: tbd

- M4 SOPMOD II Ship Name: tbd

- UMP40 Ship Name: tbd

- UMP45 Ship Name: tbd

- UMP9 Ship Name: tbd

- Python Ship Name: tbd

- TAC-50 Ship Name:  tbd

- Springfield Ship Name: tbd

Warhammer 40K

- Saint Celestine Ship Name: tbd

The Dragon Prince

- Amaya Ship Name: tbd

- Sarai Ship Name: tbd

- Claudia Ship Name: tbd

Pokemon

- Cynthia Ship Name: tbd

Attack on Titan

- Annie leonhart Ship Name: cats and crystals

- Mikasa Ackerman Ship Name: benkasa

Prey

- Morgan Yu (male) Ship Name: tbd

- Morgan Yu (Female) Ship Name: tbd

[lei-lei-artz]

STAR LIGHT- Unwind Animation/PV

[heliads]

everything is blue • conrisa space au • Chapter Twenty: The Final Call

Risa Ward escaped a shuttle destined for her certain, painful death. Connor Lassiter ran away from home before it was too late. Lev Calder was kidnapped. All of them were supposed to be dissected for parts, used to advance a declining galaxy, but as of right now, all of them are whole. Life will not stay the same way forever.

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The nurse in charge of Risa’s last rites is surprisingly cavalier about the whole affair. Probably because she’s been too busy flirting with one of the guards outside to really care about Risa’s personal feelings regarding her own imminent demise. Once the nurse got over the lingering remains of a boy named Starkey still encrusted on Risa’s skin and clothes, she started ignoring Risa entirely. It’s as if Risa is nothing more than a beating heart and breathing lungs.

Then again, to the workers of the Proactive Citizenry, that’s all she’s ever been, ever since her distribution order was signed by the OH-10 State Home. More than a year ago, Risa Ward was marked for death, and now she’s finally about to face her fate. Funny, she really thought she could escape it. Guess it just goes to show that no one can avoid their path, not forever. Not Starkey. Not even Risa.

The nurse cranes her neck to glance at the soldier standing guard just outside the door of Risa’s holding room, and blushes saccharinely. Risa fights the urge to roll her eyes and asks dourly, “How’s the sweetheart?”

“Charming,” the nurse gushes, then remembers that she probably isn’t supposed to be talking to the sacrificial lamb and shuts up.

Risa snorts. “Yeah, I just love it when my future boyfriends are supportive of killing kids. It really brings out the best in both of us.”

The nurse’s eyes narrow, and she deliberately wraps the cuff too tightly around Risa’s arm when checking her blood pressure. “It’s not murder,” she says, “Murder is what you just did to that boy. This is distribution. It’s different.”

Usually, Risa would like nothing better than to engage in a fascinating debate on the true meanings of distribution, but all of a sudden it strikes her that the whole thing would be pointless. Risa is going to be dismembered regardless of whether or not she can argue with one of the Proactive Citizenry’s many nameless nurses. She’d just be wasting her breath, as if that isn’t also going to be taken away from her in a matter of hours.

The nurse smirks slightly when Risa goes silent, evidently assuming that she’s won. In a way, Risa supposes she has. Everyone in the PC has won. All this time, Risa’s been running around the galaxy in an attempt to escape this, yet here she is, having her vitals checked in preparation for the one problem she couldn’t solve, the one trap she couldn’t help but fall for.

The nurse enters something into the records, then unwraps the cuff from Risa’s arm and places it back in her basket of essentials. Her hand moves towards another device, but stalls halfway there when she gets a message, no doubt from her complicit boyfriend out in the hall. The nurse’s face flushes a happy pink when she opens the message, but quickly her smile fades, replaced by an unnerved, tight-lipped stare.

“What is it?” Risa asks, unable to resist.

The nurse shakes her head tightly. “Nothing you’ll have to be concerned with, I can assure you. Your operation will continue as scheduled.”

Risa groans. “Just tell me what’s going on. Like you said, I’ll be distributed anyway. What if my cranial matter is damaged because I’m dying of curiosity when you slice me up?”

She’s not entirely sure if that’s a thing or not, but evidently the nurse isn’t willing to risk her job like that, so the woman sighs and answers Risa. “Apparently, some contraband radio broadcast went out a few hours ago while that boy was being distributed. It told all listeners to meet up here to protest distribution. Ridiculous, I can assure you, but it’s got some of the stockholders worried. The guards have all been placed on high alert, so be confident in the fact that the PC will hold strong.”

Inside, Risa’s heart leaps. The broadcast the nurse was talking about has to be Radio Free Hayden, which means that Connor is still alive and somehow managed to get the Graveyard AWOLs to safety. No one else would have the means of uniting that many people.

If Hayden’s calling the galaxy to arms, that means they must have a plan. Admittedly, Risa would have appreciated it if they could have rescued her first, then maybe sent out the broadcast later, but perhaps it’s harder to break into the PC headquarters than she thinks. Or maybe that’s just the terror in her talking, trying to dissuade her from thinking that Connor and her friends will have enough time to break her out before Risa gets split into a thousand different vials. If they fail, this time there will be no one there to shatter the pieces and put her to rest.

Risa’s lip curls. “I don’t know. I’d tell your little boyfriend that he’ll get slaughtered with the rest when they come to save me. Don’t you know what the Akron AWOL does to Juvey-cops?”

The nurse rears back. “Don’t talk like that, young lady.”

Risa eyes her maniacally. “You already know it’s true,” she says in a sing-song voice. “Even if we lose, they’ll still get to him. Do you think you could still love your boyfriend if he had unwind parts?”

The nurse jams a syringe into Risa’s arm. Risa hisses in pain, but the nurse doesn’t seem particularly bothered by it. Suns, the nurse is even pleased by prospect of throwing Risa off. “Nothing will happen to Heyward. Don’t be absurd.”

“Tell Heyward to watch his back, or we’ll take it back,” Risa grins.

“Sick, all of you,” the nurse spits. “This is why we distribute kids.”

Risa’s stomach twists. “Every one of us is more deserving to live than you.”

The nurse’s lips thin to the point where they look as if they’ve been stitched shut. She doesn’t answer Risa, instead opting to tighten the restraints keeping her in place, just in case. The nurse takes a few more readings, all the while glancing frantically towards her small holo display whenever a new message from Heyward pings in. For someone who insists that Hayden’s broadcast was nothing more than a scare tactic, the nurse looks awfully worried.

As if catching her looking, the nurse grits her teeth and mutters again, “Nothing is going to happen.”

Just as she says this, Risa starts to hear voices out in the hall, shouts of surprise and confusion. Around the same time, the ground shakes. Risa lurches forward in her seat, kept in place by the restraints and only able to loll around like a doll with its strings cut.

“That doesn’t feel like nothing, does it?” Risa asks, pushing herself back into a sitting position.

The door flies open. A young man in soldier’s fatigues stands in the door, eyes wide like a startled synth-rabbit. “Time to go,” he shouts to the nurse, who wastes no time in abandoning Risa to run to the guard. 

This must be the illustrious Heyward of the nurse’s giggles and blushes, but Risa quickly realizes that he isn’t here on official business. “Wait!” She shouts desperately as the pair head to the door, “Aren’t you going to take me with you?”

The nurse doesn’t spare so much as a backward glance towards Risa, shutting the door behind her with a loud click. Risa screams again, a guttural, twisting yell, and thrashes against her restraints to no avail. The building rocks again. Risa doesn’t know what’s going on out there, but it feels as if the whole PC complex is about to be ripped from its foundations. Normally, Risa would have no problem with this, but there is the small issue that she’s still inside it, and if Connor is coming to get her, she would like him to retrieve her, not just her corpse.

The door flies open again. Risa looks to it eagerly– could the AWOLs be inside already, are the defenses here that bad– but instead, she’s just greeted by the sight of four armed guards. They undo the restraints on her chair and start to yank her into the hallway. Risa’s feet give out beneath her when the walls shake again, but other than a slight stumble, the soldiers carry on.

“Wait,” Risa says, suddenly frantic, “Where are you taking me?”

“Last minute distribution,” one of the guards grunts out. “Orders from higher up.”

No. Risa puts her entire body weight into the sole task of trying to get free. She twists and writhes and claws at the guards, hoping to slow them down or otherwise break away, but their grip remains firm. She is carried down the corridor regardless of her attempts.

When they turn around a corner, Risa realizes that she remembers this particular hallway from earlier that day. The door at the far end is marred slightly, its surface blotted by bloody handprints. Risa’s handprints. This is the room where Starkey was distributed, and soon, Risa will face that same fate within those same walls.

As they draw closer, Risa starts screaming again, the words scraping her throat as they’re forced out. No, no, NO, NO. Vividly, forcefully, Risa cannot help but remember Starkey’s last moments outside of the machine, how he had begged and pleaded with her to kill him or otherwise save him from distribution, how his words had lost all sense at the end until the only thing out of his mouth was loud, horrified gibberish. She’s there now, fully mad, absolutely terrified of what is about to befall her.

The force of her screams brings tears to Risa’s eyes, and then she’s sobbing in earnest, tripping over the sound of her begging for her own life. She doesn’t want to die. She doesn’t want to die.

(No one listens).

They’re at the door now. One of the guards pauses, reaching in his pocket for the key. Risa stares at the dried blood and gore on the surface before her. They’re here. Connor is too late. Stars, she hopes he forgives himself for it, that he won’t spend the rest of his life wondering if there were moments he wasted that, if used properly, would have led him to her in time. She’s wondering this now, and remembering a long-ago conversation with a blond boy named Hayden Upchurch, back when she was safe with friends and thought she might live to die of natural causes, if she would ever die at all.

The boy had asked her a question.

Which is better?

In front of her, the key clicks in the lock.

Death?

The guards ready themselves to pull her inside. She’s screaming again.

Or distribution?

Risa makes a choice right now. Dying is better than this. Dying is better than this. She screams once again, gutturally, and stamps her foot down hard on the shoe of the guard who’s attempting to open the door. Risa’s ears are ringing to the point where she can’t hear anything but the tumultuous beat of her heart against her temples.

And– it’s funny, really, what the power of a stressful situation can do to you. Risa didn’t think she was that strong, but the second she slams her foot against the guard’s ankle, he crumples and falls like a stone. He doesn’t move, just lies there on the ground, pulling Risa down somewhat with him. The guard doesn’t land on the ground immediately, supported as he is by the dense web of arms of the other soldiers. Risa pauses in her escape efforts momentarily, staring with confusion at why this guard has suddenly gone silent. The soldier’s head lolls to the side, and then she sees his empty eyes, the perfect circle of red leaking out from the back of his neck.

The other guards see it at the same time, and start shouting in surprise. They wheel around, dragging Risa with them. She blinks stupidly at the people rushing towards her down the hallway. They’re too young to be soldiers, but they’ve got guns, big ones. They aim at the soldiers around Risa. She flings her hands in front of her face instinctively, as if that’ll do any good to stop real bullets, but she isn’t hurt. The other guards either get killed or take off running, leaving Risa’s attackers to run after them, all except one, who takes her in his arms like she’s a dying synth-dove, and whispers tenderly, “Risa?”

She blinks, and then the face comes into focus. Connor. Suns. Risa chokes and flings her arms around him. Connor holds her close, tighter than he ever has before. She thinks it’s a better embrace even than when they had been separated across the worlds and he had found her in the avenging path of an angry cyborg. One of his hands rises to cradle her head all too carefully, and when he finally leans away, he can’t stop looking at her, eyes raking her body over and over again. There’s a horrified expression on his face, a sick and twisted guilt, and it takes Risa a moment to realize why before she remembers that she’s still covered with the debris of a boy named Mason Michael Starkey.

“No,” she says quickly, “It’s not my blood, Connor. I’m fine, I promise. Look at me. I’m fine.”

Connor breathes out slowly. “But– there’s so much of it–”

He raises a shaking hand to trace at Risa’s cheek, her throat. Risa can feel the uneven stickiness of dried blood on her skin. She must look a fright, but the only thing that matters now is convincing Connor that she’s still alive.

“They unwound Starkey,” she chokes out. “I smashed the pieces so they couldn’t use him. I killed him, Connor. I killed him. Starkey wanted me to save him and I couldn’t.”

It’s strange. Risa hasn’t cried about Starkey since he came out of the distribution machine. When the nurse had expressed discomfort about Risa’s condition, Risa had been proud of what she had done. Once she’s face to face with Connor again, though, all Risa can think about is the horrible, horrible thing she had been forced to do. Sunfire, it must be all he can see when he looks at her. There is no Risa anymore, just some creature in her skin, covered in the gore of what had once been a living, breathing boy.

She waits for him to let go, to take several steps back, to run from her as you would any other monster. Instead, Connor holds her close again, and whispers against her ear, “It wasn’t your fault. None of this was your fault.”

Risa is shaking and she can’t seem to stop. “No, you don’t understand. I pressed the button. I did it. All Heartland had to do was stand there and watch. Starkey was begging me to help, and I couldn’t do it.”

If she tries hard enough, Risa thinks that she might be able to float away into the vast and unknowable sky. Her soul could leave this terrible, exhausted frame and find somewhere else to stay, somewhere she wouldn’t have to think about everything that she has done. She could, maybe, except Connor is holding on to her tight, keeping her back on the ground like a tether. She couldn’t leave him if she tried.

“I know you, Risa,” Connor says softly. “I know that you’ve saved my life about a thousand times. I know that I fell in love with the kindest girl I ever met. I know that girl wouldn’t do something like that unless she had no choice. I know that this wasn’t your fault, and I know that we’re going to get out of here now. Is that okay with you?”

Slowly, carefully, Risa pieces herself back together enough to answer in a shallow voice, “Yes.”

Connor smiles. “That’s my girl. Come on, the others will help us out.”

Risa lets Connor lead her carefully back the way they’d come. “I’m confused. How were you possibly able to get in here? Heartland must have a small army of Juvey-cops just in case you tried something like this.”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Connor says. For some reason, he’s grinning. “I had to get a large army, just in case.”

Risa frowns at him. “You have an army?”

Connor’s grin broadens. “Wait and see.”

He pulls her to a stop in front of a large window. They look out at the chaos surrounding the PC complex. At first, Risa doesn’t understand what she’s looking at. She can see the Juvey-cops immersed in fights across the area around them, but she doesn’t recognize any of their opponents at first glance.

“Who are those people?” She asks, craning her neck to see farther.

“Everybody,” Connor answers, a trace of raw wonder in his voice. “Bankers and scientists and regular, ordinary, every-day people from across the galaxy. They all heard Hayden’s distress call and showed up. There are hundreds of them, and more show up by the minute. Some of them you might recognize, though. Sonia from the boundary checkpoint. Your best friend Cam from Molokai. Suns, even Lev.”

Risa’s jaw actually drops. “You can’t be serious. Lev Calder is here? The tithe?”

“The tithe,” Connor confirms, halfway to a laugh. “Trust me, I had the exact same reaction.”

Risa shakes her head in disbelief. “I can’t imagine how he found you again.”

“You can ask him once we get out of here,” Connor promises her. “My plan was just to get you and then leave.”

Risa nods, but before she can say anything, a voice from down the hall tells them, “You won’t be doing either of those things, Lassiter.”

Risa bites back a scream. Slowly, they both turn around to see Dorian Heartland walking towards them. How is it that he always shows up when they least want to see him?

Connor grabs her arm, tugging her back down the corridor and away from Heartland. She follows him, but the door slams shut in front of their faces before they can make it out. When they pivot and try a different direction, the doors shut again.

Behind them, Heartland clicks his tongue disapprovingly. He holds up a small remote in his hand. “Security systems. You have to love them. When you run a building full of AWOLs, you have to be able to shut down sections of the complex whenever you want.”

Connor pushes Risa behind him. “Let us go, Heartland. You’ve lost.”

Heartland cocks his head to the side. “Have I? Yes, you’ve amassed quite a cult following, but those always die down over time. They’ll lose interest and we’ll be right back where we started.”

“They won’t forget this,” Connor vows. “Look around you. The galaxy is up in arms because of who you are and what you’ve done to us. No one is willing to settle anymore.”

Heartland sighs. “Yes, I must admit that your little exposé of my true identity was vexing, but I can come up with a suitable lie to hide it again. Do you think you’re the only people to attempt to reveal me over the years? I’ve had plenty of practice with making ends meet. I’ll get a new face and it’ll be like none of this ever matters.”

Risa actually snarls at him, her anger coiling white-hot in her throat. “No, you won’t. The hounds are at your door, Heartland. Your time is up.”

Heartland sniffs. “Is it?”

He pulls a gun from his waistband and aims it at Risa. His grip is perfectly steady, and Risa has no doubt that he has centuries of experience that would give him impeccable aim. She drops to the floor at once, tugging Connor down with her. The shot goes right over her ear, cracking the glass of the window. It’s a long drop down to the ground, where the only salvation would be Juvey-cops frothing at the mouth at the thought of re-capturing them.

Not a good end for Risa, then. But– an idea occurs to her. She locks eyes with Connor. “The window,” she says unsteadily.

His eyebrows lift, and she sees that he understands. They stand up shakily, each drifting slightly to the side such that their shadows seem to cut off Heartland like dark pincers.

Heartland laughs bitterly. “You won’t get another window escape, Connor Lassiter. I’ll shoot you before you manage to get that thing open, and there’s nothing to throw and break the glass here.”

“You’re right,” Connor drawls. “The only thing to break the glass is you.”

Heartland’s eyes widen. For a moment, Risa looks into the gaze of an old-Earth man and she swears she sees fear, real fear. It takes a lot to shatter a monument, to reintroduce terror into a man who thinks he’s past such base humanity.

When she and Connor lunge at Heartland, she sees it again. Heartland fires blindly at both of them, but his aim is off when he’s no longer careful and assured of himself. The bullet pings uselessly against the glass, fracturing it further. Risa’s hands connect with the man’s torso and she digs her fingers into the fabric of his clothes. His gun is next to her, and she rips it out of his hand with such brutal force that she thinks she takes some skin off his palm with it. The gun clatters to the ground behind the downed Heartland.

Risa’s fingernails are tinged with blood. Not hers. Not Starkey’s, either. Heartland’s head hits the floor with an audible thunk, but he doesn’t stay there for long. Risa and Connor force him up again, dragging the man down the hall and towards the window. He fights against their hold, but this time the momentum is in their favor, and they make traction before Heartland can shake them.

Risa sees the scene as if in slow motion. One of her hands is behind Heartland’s skull, digging into the snug skin with such force that she can feel the seams of different forced donors beneath her fingertips. The other is on his arm, pulling him forward even as he attempts to fight his way free of them. Connor’s stance mimics hers, except his hand is on Heartland’s throat instead, leaving bloody red crescents as Heartland’s diaphragm rattles for breath. Around them, soldiers and AWOLs streak past, fighting battles intense and totally independent of their own. Somehow, the three of them traverse on, interfered by no one. For Heartland’s claims of a loyal workforce, none of his guards stop to help their boss.

Or perhaps they simply don’t care. Right now, there are no age-old monoliths of distribution glory to be seen. Only an old man forced to his knees by two kids. They say the passage of the torch from generation to generation isn’t always easy. Sometimes, the old ones don’t want to give up control. Sometimes, the kids have to force the change themselves.

Heartland’s breath is fogging up the glass before Risa even knows what’s happening. His mismatched forehead leans against the window. “Please,” he says unsteadily. “You don’t know what you’re doing. We can reach an agreement.”

“No more agreements,” Connor hisses.

“Please,” Heartland insists. “You don’t– you can’t–”

A sick sense of victory taints Risa’s tongue. “Every AWOL begs for life before you unwind them. You never listened to them, why should we listen to you?”

“You children,” Heartland says, licking cracked and bloody lips, “So uncivilized.”

Risa and Connor shove in unison. The window has taken several bullet beatings by now. It doesn’t take much for the glass to break, and the full weight of Dorian Heartland is enough by far. The panes shatter around him as he falls through space. For a moment, he hangs there effortlessly, twisting midair to reach back to them for any sort of salvation, diamonds of glass collapsing around him like the rings of a planet.

Then he falls, and falls ugly and beaten. His body crumples on the ground below. Everyone fighting outside turns to stop and stare. Heartland starts to claw his way up, gaze still fixed single-mindedly on Risa and Connor up above him like a wounded synth-dog.

The first AWOL to reach him steps down hard on Heartland’s hand, sending him back down to the ground once more. Another teenager joins in, then another, then another. Heartland is engulfed in a swarm of tearing, kicking, beating AWOLs in a matter of moments. Risa catches one last glimpse of Heartland’s asymmetrical eyes glaring hatefully up at her, and then even that sliver of skin is gone, replaced instead by the mass of people. There’s one low, choking scream of agony, and then Dorian Heartland goes silent.

The teenagers don’t clear out for a while, and when they do, the lump of flesh on the ground is unrecognizable as a man, let alone a distribution magnate.

“They took back their pieces,” Connor says under his breath.

Risa feels a twisted sort of satisfaction cloud her judgment. “Good,” she says.

Turning away from the grisly scene below them, Risa notices that some of the doors have opened up again. “Guess Heartland’s remote got damaged in the fall. I think we can leave now.”

Connor sighs, an exhalation of something far more grave and terrible than just breath. “I would like to leave.”

They depart together. They’ve collected injuries throughout this whole affair, and limping slightly, they emerge into the bright sunlight of their long-awaited freedom. Risa lets her eyes close against the harsh glare, and when she opens them, a blond boy is walking towards her.

“Hayden,” Risa says gratefully.

Hayden extends an arm, pulling her in for a quick hug before releasing her to Connor’s waiting hand again. “It’s good to see you, Risa. Glad you haven’t been distributed.”

“Right back at you,” Risa says. “Thanks for calling up an army for my rescue mission.”

“Connor insisted,” Hayden replies gallantly. “But of course, I could hardly pass up a chance to do another good speech.”

“I’m sure you couldn’t,” Risa says fondly.

Hayden cracks a grin, then turns upon hearing his name called and heads over to a girl several paces away. She’s got a deep glower, but it fades slightly when Hayden says something to her, probably one of his classic jokes.

“That’s Bam,” Connor supplies. “They’re hitting it off, actually.”

“Are they, or is Hayden just wearing her down with bad jokes and sentimentality until she caves?” Risa asks doubtfully.

Connor chuckles quietly. “Hey, it’s been known to pay off before.”

She looks over at him and smiles. “I suppose it has.”

Risa leans against Connor, resting her head against his shoulder. For the first time in a very long time, she realizes that she’s got nothing more to fear, no immediate concerns.

“What happens to us?” She asks.

Connor hums slightly, thinking. “I don’t know. That’s the best part, I guess. We get to decide.”

Risa likes the idea of that. As it turns out, they’ve got plenty of time to decide. 

The fight is not over. It never will be. No one will ever stop looking for reasons to provoke each other, not until the last of the stars burn out, not until all of the ships and outposts and starfights are gone. First blood will continue to be drawn, but for once, it will not be the problem of two runaways from the OH-10 sector. Wars will be waged, and they will be safe. Those battles are not their story. They’re finally out of the books, but not for terrible reasons. Just because they’ve finally found peace.

Some people would say that peace doesn’t make for good stories. Connor and Risa would disagree. For once, their worries will be mundane. If a day goes badly, it’ll be because of something small. Maybe the galaxy doesn’t want to hear about the pitfalls of normalcy anymore, but Connor and Risa do. And they’ll do it as they have done everything since their lives started over again, how they’ll go on living for years and years to come:  together.

With Dorian Heartland out of the picture, the Proactive Citizenry lost momentum, and, over time, significant chunks of its influence. Legislators across the galaxy were severely pressured to do something about distribution, and although the Collective initially didn’t seem inclined to change it, the sheer force of the galaxy is something no one anticipated. Laws were passed dropping the age of distribution, and then, eventually, it fell off the map altogether.

This is significantly helped by one formerly contraband and now supposedly historical broadcast entitled Radio Free Hayden. Hayden and Bam poked around the PC complex after Heartland’s death and ended up finding evidence of the Proactive Citizenry working in concert with the Collective to hide scientific progress regarding organ synthesis technology. Turns out, there actually isn’t a need for distribution outside of political control, and hasn’t been for a while.

Once that information was leaked, and a subsequent uproar was kicked up, distribution was obsolete almost immediately. Information never passes quickly through space when you want it, but the universe made an exception this time. Some things are important, like our children. When they’ve gone this far for their right to live, who are we to take it away again?

The galaxy is changing. The Chancefolk are returning to their homes in greater numbers. The veil of Collective propaganda is starting to slip from our eyes, and soon, it will disappear entirely. We have a lot to learn as a species. The galaxy holds many secrets that we’ve overlooked in our mad spree to conquer all of it. Slowly, carefully, we must retrace our steps, and look for the small details that hold the greatest of importance, the most enchanting of lessons.

As for Connor and Risa? Well. Their story is over. It’s a good thing, for once. They’re free. Free of the Proactive Citizenry, free of distribution, free of Dorian Heartland. Free of fear.

And, also, free of us.

a/n: the space au has ended!! thank you all so so much for reading, this ended up being wayyyy longer than i expected but i truly had so much fun writing it + interacting with everybody about it. please feel free to ask questions about worldbuilding/yell at me for creating too much drama, i would be delighted to hear from you. over 103,000 words later, it's been a lovely time. xoxo lisa

unwind tags: @reinekes-fox, @sirofreak, @locke-writes

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[kincalling]

Heyy, I'm kin of Hayden from the Unwind dystology. I'm looking for Connor, Risa, the whole gang tbh, I'm even fine with Starkey, and doubles are super cool so like or reblog and I'll shoot you a message!

x

[leakedinlondon]

Hey Courtney I'm going on my first over seas flight in 5 days time (like 20 hours or something with a brief lay over???) and I'm in desperate need of book recs. 21 year old female I like Harry Potter, dystopian future stuff, gay stuff especially wlw and also really love shitty cheesey light hearted stuff like Janet Evanovich. Would love your opinion!

tragically, i hav not read a lot of wlw books bc i’m a picky bitch about genres and a lot of the ones i know about are realistic fiction which i ain’t big on but i do recommend checking out Malinda Lo i rly like Adaptation which features a bi love triangle and aliens and has a part where some dude is talking about aliens and just starts humming the x files theme and that dude is me also i have heard v good things about Ash and Huntress but my bookstore doesn’t sell them and i’m like???? why

ok SO i hav a v v long dystopian masterpost if ur down to go through it but i’ll give u my faves from it here!!!!

Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

these books!!!! are everything!!!!! if you haven’t read them u 100% should i swear they’re so fkn good

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

i would die for Lev literally die for him at any given second this is also a very good series

The Passage by Justin Cronin

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.

haven’t gotten around to reading the last book in this series yet but they are seriously epic like i swear this series is something else entirely

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

What if the football hadn’t gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn’t want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell — who has different-colored eyes, who can’t read, can’t write, Standish Treadwell isn’t bright — sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it’s big...One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.

this book broke my damn heart and ruined my life but oh my god it’s so good also a lil gay but like i said sad but it’s more 2 do with the setting like.... it doens’t have a happy ending but it felt right like that?????

More Than This by Patrick Ness

A boy drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. He dies.Then he wakes, naked and bruised and thirsty, but alive.How can this be? And what is this strange deserted place?As he struggles to understand what is happening, the boy dares to hope. Might this not be the end? Might there be more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife?

this is my favorite book!!!!!! i would die for it!!!! i want to buy enough copies to fill an entire room of my house so i can just sit in it and cry!!!! this book is literally everything!!!! also gay!!!! she’s also sad but like...... i cannot express in words how much u need to read this damn book 

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat--blindfolded--with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

another one of my all time faves!!!!!! i don’t even know what to say this is a masterpiece

ok so here we move on to the more fantasy and gay stuff these are less sad 

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...A convict with a thirst for revengeA sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wagerA runaway with a privileged pastA spy known as the WraithA Heartrender using her magic to survive the slumsA thief with a gift for unlikely escapes Kaz's crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

this is.... so good.... also a little gay... hav heard the second book in the series is gayer but i haven’t read her yet

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. Half the time Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here - it's their last year at Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up. Carry On is a love letter to love stories and the power of words - to every 'chosen one' who ever had more on their mind than saving the world...

this book is literally just harry potter but gay and i’m still laughing i love it

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.It wants the truth.

can u tell i’m a fan of patrick ness i’m going to fucking fist fight him for this piece of shit like.... this book.... is about a little kid..... whose mother has cancer....... like u know it’s gonna be a fucking bad time but u read it anyway and u cry like a fucking baby but u enjoy the whole damn thing because u hate urself.... it’s a beautiful read but it hurts (((also yes there is a Literal Monster hanging around))

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.But Gansey is different. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.For as long as she can remember, Blue has been told by her psychic family that she will kill her true love. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

the description of this book doesn’t do it justice and i hate it i love these books i love my stupid raven kids i mainly love adam parrish who i would die for in a second ((also gay)) ((please read them if u haven’t i love adam so much he’s worth it)) ((the other characters are also amazing and i lov them too))

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.Until one day, he does…As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

Hazel is literally me okay there is a scene in this book where she’s at a fairy party and u kno how ur not meant to eat or drink anything fairies give u or ur fucked???? hazel ingests fucking fairy wine bc it was in the mouth of some fairy girl she was making out with and if that isn’t me i don’t know what is (((also that’s the only scene that she shows any interest in girls i am very sorry i don’t want to get ur hopes up))) ((ben on the other hand he is very gay and is also me they are both me i love these two idiots this book just makes me really happy)) 

[brighterthangods]

"Connor smiles, and Risa takes a moment to look down at the shark on his wrist. It holds no fear for her now, because the shark has been tamed by the soul of a boy. No - the soul of a man.”

[lei-lei-artz]

I’m cooking rn! 🔥🔥