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gcthvile · 10 months ago

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You're losing me.

Pairing: Cole Lensherr (OC) x Helmut Zemo

Fandom: Marvel

Warnings: angst

Summary: Cole and Zemo's love ends when Zemo leaves, despite Cole's desperation to stay connected. Alone and hollowed, Cole mourns what could have been as his broken heart surrenders to the loneliness.

Cole sat on the bench in the empty public park, Zemo's call haunting his thoughts. He wanted nothing more than to forget his partner's words, that it was over, they had to part ways. But Cole knew that moment would come, as Zemo's quest for vengeance against those who took his family consumed him.

Zemo approached quietly, as was his way. Cole didn't turn, didn't meet his eyes, afraid of what he might see - or not see - in their haunted gray depths. "You've said your piece. Now say what you really came to say."

Zemo sighed softly. "There is nothing more, you know my path. But know that what we had..." he trailed off, as if the words pained him. Cole wanted to beg, to plead, but his pride held fast.

"Will you not even look at me?" Zemo asked. Cole turned then, seeing the conflict, the regret, but also the resolve. He knew nothing would sway Zemo from the course he had set himself upon.

"Some days, it's like I'm someone else," Cole said bitterly. "I watch you walk away, leaving me out here on my own, and it feels like you're taking everything. Guess I didn't realize everything means you."

Zemo reached out a brief moment, fingers brushing Cole's cheek, before dropping his hand once more. "Perhaps...when this is over..." he suggested, though they both knew that was a promise neither could truly make. With a sad half-smile, Zemo turned and walked away, disappearing into the gathering dusk as Cole fought the tears threatening to fall, feeling as though his heart was being torn from his chest with each step Zemo took, knowing he may never see him again but unable to call out, to stop him, pride and pain holding his silence.

"We thought a cure would come through in time, now I fear it won't"

Cole watched Zemo walk away until his figure was lost to darkness. A solitary tear finally escaped, sliding slowly down his cheek. They had believed, somehow, that Zemo's quest could be sated, that vengeance would salve the wound in his soul and set him free to live again. But watching Zemo retreat into the night, Cole knew with sinking certainty that would never be the case. The pain and loss ran too deep, and Zemo was drowning in it, lost to the dark currents with no hope of surfacing again. This parting was no temporary one, but a final goodbye, as Zemo gave himself over fully to the shadows and Cole was left with only memories, and the knowledge that Zemo's cure had proven fictional - the damage was done, and nothing would heal the scars on both their hearts.

"Remember lookin' at this room, we loved it 'cause of the light

Now, I just sit in the dark and wonder if it's time"

Cole returned to the home he and Zemo had shared, now empty of all but memories. He sat in the darkness, not bearing to turn on the lights that had once illuminated their joy and intimacy. How many hours had they spent in this very room, talking late into the night by the fire or curled together on the couch, each taking solace in the other's embrace?

Now loneliness pressed down with suffocating weight. Cole glanced around at familiar furnishings that seemed foreign and cold without Zemo's vital presence to give them life and meaning. He thought of simpler times, not realizing back then how fleeting they truly were. Zemo had always kept his past and future close, sharing little of either, and Cole wondered now if some part of Zemo had known even then how brief their time together would be.

Was it time to let go, to accept it was over and face the empty house and hollow future alone? The shadows held no answers, only specters of the past that mocked his solitude. With a weary sigh Cole rose, unable to endure the ghosts of memory a moment more. He left the darkness behind, but it remained imprinted on his heart.

"Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?

I'm getting tired even for a phoenix

Always risin' from the ashes

Mendin' all her gashes

You might just have dealt the final blow"

Cole wandered the empty house once more, still unsure what to do with the remnants of his life with Zemo. So much of who he was had been entwined with the other man - should he simply purge it all, as if Zemo had never existed? But the thought of erasing their history together was its own anguish.

Yet staying here, surrounded daily by reminders of what was lost, threatened to break him further. Cole had risen from ashes before, reinvented himself when all seemed lost, but this loss cut deeper than any other. He was tired of fighting only to have hope ripped away yet again.

Zemo had done more than break his heart - he feared the other man may have destroyed Cole's very ability to heal and begin anew. Always before when battered and wounded, Cole had found resolve to fly once more. Now, he knew not if any power resided within him, any flames remained to be rekindled.

In the end, Cole decided to take one box of treasured memories, leaving the rest for another day. For now, survival would require distance from these rooms steeped in their shared history. Whether any ash-scattered phoenix could manage even that, Cole did not yet know.

"Stop, you're losin' me

Stop, you're losin' me

I can't find a pulse

My heart won't start anymore

For you

'Cause you're losin' me"

As Zemo spoke of leaving, Cole felt himself dying inside. He struggled to comprehend how the man before him, who had given Cole purpose and passion, could walk away as if what they shared meant nothing. Zemo met his gaze briefly but offered no true explanation or reassurance, only vague words that did little to quell Cole's rapidly intensifying terror.

Cole's heart pounded frantically, feeling as it if threatened to shatter within his chest. His pulse echoed in his ears, the only thing he could hear over the roar of blood and mounting panic. With eyes pleading, desperate to glimpse even a hint of doubt or regret in Zemo's cool gray stare, Cole reached out a trembling hand to grasp Zemo's wrist weakly.

"Please..." Cole whispered, his voice cracking. Zemo gently but firmly removed Cole's grasp, and Cole saw with crushing finality that nothing he said or did would change the inevitable. With that, the last flame within Cole's heart was snuffed out, leaving behind only the charred remains of what once beat strong and sure. Zemo was truly lost to him now.

"Every mornin', I glared at you with storms in my eyes

How can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dyin'?"

As Zemo turned to leave, Cole grasped his arm once more. "Say it," he begged brokenly, the pain and desperation in his eyes cutting deep.

Zemo hesitated, knowing the words were but bitter ash now. Yet he owed Cole this final kindness at least. "I loved you," Zemo said softly. "More than you knew."

Cole laughed mirthlessly. "No, you didn't. Not truly. If you had, you would see what this is doing to me. Every day I stared at you hoping, praying you would finally see. But you were always too busy planning your vengeance to notice me slowly dying inside from keeping this secret."

Tears glistened in those stormy eyes Zemo had always admired, the eyes that now saw him with such anguish and betrayal. Zemo had no defense, no explanation Cole would accept in his agony. Some pains were simply too deep for words to soothe.

With a heavy heart, Zemo gently released Cole's hand. "Farewell," he whispered, and was gone. Cole sank to his knees amid the wreckage, shattered beyond any hope of repair.

"And the air is thick with loss and indecision

I know my pain is such an imposition"

Cole sank down on the couch, his body heavy and aching as if every muscle had been pulled taut to the point of snapping. Grief and anguish swirled thickly around him, almost a tangible thing he could reach out and grasp in his fist.

He knew his turmoil and distress must be weighing on others as well. How selfish he was being, wallowing in his own pain without thought for how his suffering affected those around him. Zemo was gone - they all lost something with his departure, and yet here was Cole drowning in his private sorrow as if it was the only thing that mattered.

It was an imposition, he knew, to expect others to bear witness to his unraveling or pick up the pieces of his broken heart. He should be stronger than this, carry his grief silently as Zemo would rather than make a public spectacle of his despair. But strength had fled, leaving only hollowed-out ruin in its wake. All Cole could do was succumb to the darkness steadily strangling him from within.

"And you know what they all say

You don't know what you got until it's gone"

Cole sat alone in the silent darkness, memories of his time with Zemo drifting bittersweet through his mind. He recalled lazy mornings waking in Zemo's arms, feeling sheer contentment in those quiet stolen moments before the demands of the day. Nights spent pour over old books or discussing philosophy and history by firelight, Zemo's passion for knowledge kindling Cole's own intellect.

Small touches and gestures that had simply been part of their everyday before now seemed precious - a hand guiding Cole's in a dance, fingers threading through his hair, the warmth of Zemo's smile, rarely shared but capable of lighting Cole's world when it appeared. Only now, through the harsh lens of loss, did Cole truly grasp how much he had taken for granted. These days of intimacy and understanding were behind them now, the realization leaving only emptiness in its wake. You never do know what you had, Cole thought sadly, until you find yourself with nothing at all.

"How long could we be a sad song

'Til we were too far gone to bring back to life?"

Cole recalled the subtle shifts in Zemo in the weeks and months preceding their parting. There had been an increasing distance in Zemo's eyes, a hint of darkness creeping into his gaze that hadn't fully lifted even in their most intimate moments. His smiles came less easily, and he seemed to pull away emotionally when once they had been open books to one another.

At first Cole had tried to draw Zemo back out, concerned something weighed on his mind. But Zemo remained resignedly silent and aloof, no longer willing to share the thoughts that so obviously plagued him. As the distance between them stretched each day, Cole feared he was losing the man he loved to some interior abyss he could neither name nor navigate.

Each morning it took more effort to rouse even a glimmer of warmth from Zemo's cold exterior. Cole wondered how long they could continue like ghosts drifting past one another, until the sadness encircling them became something inescapable, and the men they used to be faded beyond any power to restore. It seemed Zemo had walked that line and crossed over, leaving Cole alone on the near side, grieving for what was lost.

"I gave you all my best me's, my endless empathy

And all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier"

Cole sat among the debris of his shattered world, exhaustion like lead in his bones. Though he tried to hide it, Zemo had always seen straight through to his core - and what had he found there? Only a man straining under the weight of another's burdens, doing all he could simply to keep standing as blow after blow fell.

He had spared nothing in caring for Zemo, holding his fractured soul in gentle hands and easing what pain he was able. In turn, Cole's own seams had slowly begun to tear under the pressure, leaked agony seeping through the cracks in his facade of strength. Always he strove to remain stalwart, a solid foundation for the other to lean on.

But foundations can crumble under enough strain, as Cole had finally at length done. Now surrounded by ruins, he questioned all that had come before - had he truly offered solace, or only served as another burden for Zemo to bear? Perhaps in caring so deeply for another, he had neglected his own wellbeing until there was nothing left to give. Cole wept now not only for their lost love, but for all the ways he may have failed the one person whose regard had meant most.

"And I wouldn't marry me either

A pathological people pleaser

Who only wanted you to see her"

Cole knew that if he were to look within himself with brutal honesty, he too would not have chosen such a broken mate. All his value had been placed in another's hands, leaving himself neglected and wanting. He knew now that his endless deference to Zemo's every pain and need, however well-intentioned, had been borne not from pure caring alone - there were uglier motives entwined.

In pleasing Zemo so completely, in making himself indispensable, had he simply sought validation and purpose? Had he wrapped his own insecure soul in the guise of selflessness, so that Zemo's favor became the lens through which he viewed his worth? No wonder such a foundation proved perilously unstable, cracking under the slightest pressure once Zemo's regard began to waver.

"And I'm fadin', thinkin'

"Do something, babe, say something" (say something)

"Lose something, babe, risk something" (you're losin' me)

"Choose something, babe, I got nothing (got nothing)

To believe"

Cole knew Zemo was resolved to leave, yet in his eyes he dared to hope that some part of the man he loved remained, a part that could feel Cole's pain and be swayed. As Zemo turned to go, Cole's gaze bored into him with exhausted desperation.

"Please," Cole whispered, voice cracked and fraying like his ravaged heart. "If there is any part of you that can be reached...do something. Say anything to make this agony stop. Or if you cannot stay your hand, at least grant me some small sign that what we had was real to you."

A tear broke free, tracing the exquisite torment on Cole's face. "I have nothing left to sustain me if you go like this, without a word of comfort or care for what becomes of me. One word is all I ask to ease this void threatening to swallow me whole. Then I can let you walk away in peace."

Zemo met his pleading eyes but a moment. Some words passed between them, unspoken yet understood, before Zemo turned once more toward the darkness and was gone.

"Stop (stop, stop), you're losin' me

I can't find a pulse

My heart won't start anymore"

His heart shattered beyond repair, Cole withdrew into a pain so profound he could no longer bear another's touch or kindness. While friends reached out in concern, their words and comforts seemed hollow echoes that could not carry through the dense fog enveloping his soul.

Each day Cole faded further, going through motions of living while inside he ceased to do more than merely exist. His vibrant spirit had been severed from this mortal shell it once animated; only an echo remained, drifting wraithlike through the ruins of what was.

No pulse of life or hope stirred in the ashen wasteland Cole had become. His heart, once so full of passion and longing, lay stilled; no force of will seemed capable of jolting it to beat again. And so Cole dwelt as one already dead, wandering a purgatory of his own shattered making, lost to all in this world and the next.

decided that one of our OG couples deserved a fanfic of how the things ended between them, so there you go!😁

tags: @missstrawbs2001 @jackiequick @blueboirick @cherrysft @meiramel @purpleprincessonfyre @ask-missparker @askstevella @therealdaydreamstark @rickb-chaos @luna-d-marsh @rooster-84 @gaminggirlsstuff

#oc post #oc rp #oc rpg #marvel #marvel roleplay #marvel oc #marvel x oc #cole lensherr #helmut zemo

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sbggarakungfood · 10 months ago

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Permission to save your tags, please, thank you and YES. I really hope the writers notice these traits, thus making Villain Jay without him being OOC or having another side/personality.

Also you're right. How can I forget about your skybound points (it's literally shoved into my face several times) and his little deal with Nadakhan. Of course he thought nothing bad going to happen but STILL. He did it. He made a deal with the villain for personal gain.

Still I'm not sure if Agent Walker will have an affiliate with the wolf clan. He's a manager playing video game, I think his wants already fulfilled. I don't find the reason for him to join them but well.. we've just seen 30 seconds of him so I can't say much either. I don't even know what's his motive to against the ninja. But who I can picture him having a grudge with would be Sora. Since she's the master of tech, and potentially can hijack the administration's entire system OR WORSE, Jay's inventions. When she does that Jay would freak out. so bad. Yeah, I can see his panicked face where I laugh at it while writing this *ahem can see him against the ninja for that. (Still trying to keep low expectations)

..he won't even threaten sometimes he just attacks.. if he will hurt them as his friends he will totally go all in as his enemies.

Agreed. "Tackling Cole 2x + kicked Kai across the room" It's either got threatened or get attacked. It's just.. It's always have something to do with Nya that made him jump up and goes berserk like that. Too bad. I wish I knew what else that could make him goes mad like that. That's less likely to happen in the Administration I think.

The worst case scenario maybe when he threatens someone who.. I don't know? Annoy him? Threatened or rather get shot. No, I don't think he'll shoot his own subordinates (as you said, he'd go all in his enemies). I like to think that he has a soft spot for them. Even though that agent who reported Arin seems to don't want to upset Jay neither he want to protest- It's just nice to see Jay's duality again. He's the smart AND dumb, sometimes cool sometimes pathetic, freaks a lot but hard to break, can be pessimist or optimist, as in often whine/complains/sarcasm while haha-laugh-at-least-to-see-what's-good, keep getting karma'd and couldn't die, expressive yet can you say masking is being expressive though?? That duality that Jay has.. like positive and negative charges to make a lightning (I don't know the right word to put this & Yes, I'm just trying to relate stuff here).

He might care about his subordinates, that's what makes them loyal to him I suppose. We already had a story about "People Fighting Against the System" with Empress Beatrix, I don't need this concept to be told TWICE. (It's just me wanting different approach for Jay's villain arc). I can picture him being the manager who shouts and could threaten anyone who also helps his underlings to escape in case there's emergency. He's the type who can change his face from anger to a smile in a second, still you're not sure what's on his mind.

I should be talking about his villain traits, not speculating on how Agent Walker would act. Sorry.

Getting possessive with Nya (Fandom theorize this as his insecurities (of being poor?)) and still want her to fall for him after she says "no". Both him & Nadakhan never accepts "No" as an answer. (Spotted another villain traits. Hooray!). The difference is one of them who "tried" to reason at least. ("Why don't you TAKE THE FLYER!!" or that one with Wu and video game. Though that was useless).

Jay's self-centeredness. Maybe that's part of his duality.. That's part of Cg's "charm".. I think I follow the idea too. Cg's charm that I know is whenever he pretends to not be himself. Cg is an actor after all. It has its good and bad. I mean, I enjoy watching the way Jay shot those nindroids in space with *style* (that was so cool). But In another occasions.. well.. you know.

This DR era and head writers change gives me much hope with his characterization. There was time when I wish they rewatch the pilots for characterization at least. Even if the jokes won't be that funny, as long his character is what he's supposed to be (salty at inventor side removal), I don't mind. I didn't even know his freaks out is supposed to be funny before. What hooked me in is his character. Like. He's.. interesting. Bastard n relatable. And can be also really cool. That's why I had a soft spot for Zane too. Interesting-- gestures and not trying to be cool but he is. (like c'mon his senses, the way his shuriken twirling in his hands, his calmness and voice! his voice was just soothing. His role was the one who has more wisdom among the ninja, and also can be so innocent too) Too bad, unlike you, my hopes are already high. I don't want to expect much but I don't want to be disappointed and I've prepared to be disappointed. But there's still hope.

*Forgot to add Jay stole Zane father's boxer in "against morals for personal gain" section. Thank you for your time.

Why Jay Deserves the Villain Arc (why it suits him)

His name is Jay Walker

He has Cliff Gordon's DNA. Cliff Gordon. The one who has the book of "wooing women", who of course targeted the master of lightning, and oh right! He's an actor, I'm sure it's easy for him to pretend to be someone else, being perceived as "cute" by Libber, to be able to get her, though I'm still wondering why's she suddenly being chased when Jay was still a baby, making her run away alone with baby Jay, who potentially has the elemental power of lightning, and putting him in the junkyard so that her baby can be safe, so then the former master of lightning FINALLY can DISAPPEAR. Jay isn't like Cg. because Ed n Edna raised him. But let's make a big deal out of it anyway. (he still has his charm though).

Jay planned to destroy the top floor of a building TWICE. And SUCCEEDED. He wasn't even a villain that time. Can’t wait to see how many buildings he'll destroy when he unlocks his villain true potential.

There's a possibility where Jay would throw away the moral values for a mission. This has been proven in s5 when he suggested thievery when he took the lead.

This post. (Not just about the biting thing) I know it's a tease but listen at how easy for him to threaten somebody. He threatens to zap Kai, next season, he threatens to bite Cole. Even though he didn't do it, threatening the main characters is supposed to be a villain thing.

There's a chance he'll laugh after he electrocutes somebody. Then electrocutes them again.

Experienced in having a cult.

#It really took me this long to collect my thoughts #nj

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suneatersupportsquad · 4 years ago

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red handed; colby brock

request: im not sure if you do requests or even any imagines for colby brock anymore but i was wondering if you cold make a exception, so basically the plot is that the reader met colby through kat and since then they hit it off, now their in a secretive relationship the only person who knows is kat but she only knows the reader has a crush on colby. one day everyones hanging out in the same room room and colby is sexting the reader, sams curious to whos hes texting and they find out their dating.

dedication: @whydontweanons

genre: fluff, subtle smut?

pairing: colby brock x gn!reader

characters: colby brock, sam golbach, katrina stuart, corey scherer, jake webber, kevin langue, brennen taylor, devyn lundy, tara yummy

word count: 1.8k

warnings: alcohol, what would probably be underage drinking, NSFW (barely), sexting (duh), mentions of COVID-19, quarantine

a/n: of course i’ll still write for sam and colby!! it’s just that, since i’m not as active of a follower of them as i used to be, my goal is to write for fandoms that i’m more invested in at the moment. but, honestly, i don’t think i could ever really stop writing for them. i love those boys so much. also this plot made me laugh so hard when i saw it in the best way possible. getting this request honestly made my day, so thank you for that!! anyways, i’m a little rusty, but here we go.

important links: masterlist

find more fics at my new blog @trapboysbunny

You and Colby had known each other for a long time - pretty much since he’d moved to LA with Sam - and you had been involved romantically just as long. You had met him and Sam through Kat on a boring Saturday night when all their friends flaked on coming to a little kickback they were hosting. Trying to be a good friend and cheer the boys up, Katrina had invited you to hopefully kickstart some emotional momentum. Your eyes met Colby’s for the first time and you clicked. Something in your gut had told you that the two of you would end up being close, and it was right. You had hit it off immediately, not taking very long to start laughing at one another’s corny jokes and telling stories over Smirnoff Ice while some random late night show played in the background. From that night on, it was history.

Since then, you two had been practically attached at the hip. If you weren’t sitting on the same room or facetiming, you were definitely texting one another. It became a running joke in your friend group that you two had evolved into a pair of siamese twins, or that being without you gave Colby separation anxiety. The two of you found it even more amusing when you actually began dating, not long after that fateful first night. It amazed the both of you that you were able to hide your relationship so well. No one had a clue. The two of you laughed about it quite often, actually, over late night phone calls and tipsy afternoons spent only with each other. No one knew, and nobody needed to know.

Colby, due to the internet and his fanbase being the way it is, preferred to keep his personal (and especially romantic) relationships more on the private side. His intent wasn’t necessarily to hide his feelings and relationship with you from his friends, but that particular topic of conversation never really came up in your friend group. Everyone had just kind of figured that everyone single would simply date someone when they were ready and tell everybody about it when they felt the time was appropriate. It wasn’t that Colby didn’t want to tell them, he just didn’t see the point in going out of his way to tell all of his friends hey after God knows how long I finally have a partner. He just didn’t want to make a big deal out of your relationship. Knowing his friends, they would definitely make it into some type of big thing, not to mention that Jake would dub the occasion as “cause for celebration” (which was really just an excuse to drink more). So Colby preferred to keep things on the quieter side for you two; neither of you wanted to make your relationship into an object for speculation.

Kat was the only person out of all of your friends to have any knowledge of your feelings for Colby. And thank God for her; if you didn’t have her to gush about Colby to, you probably would have either exploded or died. Or both. And she was there for every single second of it. She loved hearing about your movie nights, your urban exploring adventures, the sweet yet mundane things he would do to make you happy, literally anything. She ate that shit up like a man starved, and you did the same for her and Sam (regardless of the fact that their relationship was public already). You hadn’t told her explicitly about the nature of your relationship with Colby, really just gushed about your ever-growing love for the boy. Unbeknownst to you, she firmly believed that you only had feelings for Colby, clueless to the fact that the two of you had actually been dating for quite a while now. With her “go get ‘em, tiger” comments, along with similar remarks, you assumed that she had some sort of idea about your relationship with Cole, hence why you had never explicitly told her about your secret boyfriend. Kat, being the good friend that she was, never spilled your “secret” feelings to anyone else. Not even her boyfriend.

Eventually, quarantine started up amidst the international COVID-19 pandemic and you had begun practically living with the trap boys. A day without you in the house was enough to prompt concern for the boys, minus Colby who always knew the real reason why you weren’t coming over. This soon became the new normal, you taking a “day off” every few weeks to get tested just in case. At this point, it was almost comical that no one had figured out you two were dating yet.

One particular weekend afternoon, everyone in your friend group was hanging out at the house. You and Colby were sitting on opposite sides of the room, you next to Kat and Colby seated beside Sam. It was particularly warm today seeing as this Saturday landed smack in the middle of the infamous August heat wave, so you had thrown on a tank top and some shorts, nothing to flashy. Colby had dressed similarly, wearing only a muscle tee and a pair of trunks.

You were sat beside Kat, the both of you trying to listen to the story Devyn was telling. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t ignore the way your boyfriend was staring at you from across the room. You looked away from Dev for just a second to shoot him a glare when you realize exactly why he’s looking at you. The speed at which the blood rushes to your face is dizzying, and you drop your head to stare at your lap. Motherfucker- You sigh as you pull your phone out of your pocket. “Quit it with the blowjob eyes asshole,” you type before pressing the blue send button.

You feel his gaze break as his phone vibrates. Trying to ignore him, you refuse to meet his gaze again, putting all of your effort into focusing on Devyn’s story. Seconds later your phone vibrates in your pocket. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the screen reads, and you shake your head.

��Uh huh sure ok.” You pressed send again.

Another few seconds passed and your phone vibrated again. “That shirt looks really good on you.”

You blushed as you read the message, flustered by the comment. Brows knitting together in confusion, you looked up to find him staring back at you with a dopey grin. You hunched over your phone and sent a message back. “You really think so?”

“Yeah, of course,” Colby replied, a gray typing bubble sitting under the message. “But you know how it would look cuter?”

You cocked your head to the side and typed out your response. “How?”

“On my bedroom floor.” You almost snorted at that, clamping a hand over your mouth to prevent any noise from escaping. Typical. Thankfully no one had been paying enough attention to you to notice that you were distracted.

Colby, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. “Give me this, dude,” Sam said, snatching the phone out of Colby’s hand and effectively bringing the conversation on their side of the room to a halt. “You haven’t been listening for like the past 20 minutes, dude. Now let’s see what’s got you so distracted.”

“You don’t need to look at that, Sam, it’s not that important-” The tall brunette sounded slightly panicky as he reached and grappled with Sam for his phone. Sam played around for a little bit before finally reading the screen, eyes widening in amusement.

Upon finishing his reading, Sam lowered the phone and Colby relaxed, already knowing that he was caught. “So who’s ‘angelcakes,’ huh Colbert?” Sam prodded teasingly.

Colby blushed ever so slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. “They’re just a friend-”

“Which friend, huh?” Sam continued his teasing, growing louder and louder with every response until all eyes were on the two boys.

Colby shrugged, trying to be nonchalant but looking more stressed than ever in actuality. “Just a friend.”

“What do you say we call this friend, huh boys?” Sam suggested.

Kevin nodded, agreeing. “I think we definitely should.” Brennen also nodded when Sam looked to him for approval, essentially finalizing the decision.

“Okay then, let’s do this thing!” Sam yelled, earning cheers from all the other curious folks in the room. The blonde boy pressed call and Colby simply held his face in his hands.

You jumped when your phone rang, honestly having forgotten that oh shit, I’m angelcakes. Everyone turned to look at you curiously, Colby even peeking through his fingers. You didn’t even pick up the device, already knowing whose name would be lighting up the screen. “You gonna pick that up or something?” Corey asked awkwardly.

You shook your head, leaving your phone face down in its spot beside your thigh. “No, it’s probably not important anyways.”

A beat of heavy silence passed before Tara spoke. “Gee, they sure aren’t giving up. Maybe you should answer it.”

“Nah, I’m sure it’s just-”

“Yeah, you should answer the phone, Y/N,” Jake agreed, the pieces seeming to click in his head.

You sighed, burning bright red to the tips of your ears. “Okay okay, fine.” You stood and clicked the answer button. “Hello?”

And there it was, your voice echoing from Colby’s phone. The room erupted in cheers of disbelief, the boys pouncing on Colby and the girls slapping you in playful excitement. “I knew there was something going on between you two!! There’s no way there couldn’t have been -- I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” Kat squealed, smushing you in a hug.

The rest of the girls echoed the sentiment, a chorus of ‘same’s and ‘I can’t believe you’s. It took a while for everyone to calm down but, once everyone settled, you and Cole managed to get some alone time. The two of you escaped out back, the less than mediocre breeze cooling the sweat that slicked your skin. You held each other, almost as though you were about to start slow dancing. “Damn, caught red handed, huh?”

You laughed breathily, leaning your forehead against his shoulder. “It was only a matter of time, ya know?”

“I know,” he agreed, cheek pressing against your hair. “I’m glad we don’t have to be weird around them anymore.”

“Me too,” you hummed.

Colby pulled away a little bit, just enough for him to look you in the eyes, your arms still around his neck. “Hey.”

You giggled, confused. “Hey.”

“I love you.”

You smiled your confirmation, eyes twinkling under the cheap backyard lights. “I love you.”

#colby brock #colby brock fanfiction #colby brock one shot #colby brock fanfic #colby brock imagine #fanfiction #the trap house #bug.oneshots

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viioletpixels · 4 years ago

Text

Eulogy [One Shot]

≫ Word Count: 1420

≫ Summary: Cole gives the eulogy at a funeral.

≫ Warnings: Mentions of death and loss. Maybe have some tissues on hand...

≫ Also posted on Ao3 and Wattpad

Cole has never been a funeral type of guy.

He's only been to two in his life. The first was for his Aunt Daisy, which he was too young to even remember. The second was for his father's father, who he felt bad about, but hadn't known well enough to really mourn over. As such, he's forgotten how uncomfortable it is to stand in a stuffy funeral home, trying (and failing) to not sweat through his suit. He's also forgotten how completely and utterly depressing it all is.

The few guests—a handful of relatives from both sides of the family—make idle conversation as they head to their seats. Does it make things a little less awkward? Sure. But it does nothing to dispel the aura of sadness that permeates the room. As much as everyone tries to remain positive, they all know they've lost someone, and that knowledge hovers over them like a thick, suffocating smog.

It's all the more depressing considering who they've lost.

Cole sighs. His eyes are already red and burning, and he blinks to keep a fresh wave of moisture from spilling. He's cried enough tears these past few weeks to last him a lifetime. A few escape anyway, forcing him to squint through them as he turns his head. Across the room, away from where the warm light of the windows can reach, sits his mother's casket. His feet feel like bricks as he moves toward it, each step heavy and painful.

She's wearing a simple dress the color of lilacs in the summer, a stark contrast from the plain nightgown he'd gotten used to seeing her in. Her raven hair is pinned in a neat updo, now secured by what must be a gallon of hairspray, and her skin is coated in a layer of airbrushed makeup. He isn't sure why. Maybe it's to make her look more lively and refreshed, as if she's only resting. If that's the case, he doesn't get why they'd bother with that, since everyone knows she'll never leave that casket again. All he knows is she never would've dressed up that much.

Even so, she's still the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Nothing in Ninjago could ever change that.

Cole sniffs, wiping harshly at his eyes with his sleeve, at the sound of light footsteps drawing near. A familiar presence appears by his side. He knows who it is, but he doesn't look up.

"She looks lovely, doesn't she?" Lou murmurs next to him.

His son's eyes remain trained on the casket. "When didn't she?"

There's a few beats of silence. The two of them stand there, side-by-side, as father and son. Neither dare to look each other in the eye, so instead they gaze downward, at the woman they've both lost. It feels like an eternity before Lou finally clears his throat. "I just wanted to say...thank you for planning the brunt of this, son. I know this hasn't been easy on you."

"You should've been there."

The older man's expression falters. "Cole..."

"You should have," his son repeats, more forcefully this time. He stares at his father, his gaze cold and unflinching. "She was my mother as much as she was your wife. You should've been at home with me, helping me plan this funeral. Not palling around with your dance buddies."

Lou winces, eyes glimmering with the faintest hint of tears. "People grieve in different ways, son. Maybe you'll understand when you're older." A strangled sigh escapes him and he averts his gaze. "But, for what it's worth...I am sorry."

Cole scoffs. Maybe it's just him, but singing and dancing doesn't seem like a proper way to mourn a loved one. Some choice words for his father sit on the tip of his tongue, but he bites them back. Lilly probably wouldn't appreciate her son and husband cursing each other out at her funeral. Instead, he gives a stiff nod before staring at his feet.

"Well," Lou says quietly. "Are you ready to speak?"

Cole straightens up. He reaches into his pocket, pulling out the small stack of note cards on which he'd written his speech. When his father asked him to give the eulogy all those weeks ago, he'd almost refused on the spot. After all, why do anything for the man who'd done nothing for him? It took some time, but the young Brookstone had ultimately agreed—not for his father's sake, but for his mother's. He chews his lip as he makes his way to the front of the room, moving to the podium and clearing his throat.

"Um, good evening."

The small crowd hushes at the sound of his voice. Cole's heart drops to his stomach, his chest constricting, as a dozen pairs of eyes focus on him. He's acutely aware of his father watching him from off to the side. The young man swallows, taking a deep breath, before continuing.

"My name is Cole. Cole Brookstone, but um, you probably knew that."

He coughs and grits his teeth. Keep going, Cole. Get it together.

"As you know, we're gathered here to celebrate the life of Lilly Brookstone. She went by a lot of titles...daughter, lover, wife...but I knew her as my mother. And she was the best mom in the world." He takes a scant breath before continuing. "She was sick almost my entire life. I never thought much of it when I was little...I thought it was something like the flu or a cold, something that would go away after a while. But as I grew up, I watched her get sicker and sicker, and there was nothing I could do about it."

His mind floods with childhood memories. Many of them are faint and fuzzy, sanded away over the years, but still very much there. Others have been lost to time, leaving nothing but bits and pieces in their place.

"I remember so much and so little about her at the same time," he says. "I remember how she and my Pop would dance in the moonlight in front of our old house, and how amazing it was to watch from my bedroom window as a kid. At the same time...I can't remember a time when her laugh wasn't tinged with pain, or when she didn't cough when she spoke to me. I can say, though...I do remember the promise I made her."

He pauses, his chest heaving as he takes a deep breath. Tears start to well along his lashes, burning like flames, but he pushes himself to keep going.

"I've never really believed in promises. After all, half the time they're not even kept." His mind wanders to the words his father used to tell him: "Don't worry, son. Your mother's going to be just fine, I promise." When that turned out to be a lie, he'd said, "We'll get through this together, I promise." So much for that.

Cole exhales. His mother's words come drifting back to him, whispering softly but clearly in his head. He swears he can still hear her voice, feel her strong yet gentle embrace. For a few moments, it fills him with fire, pulsing from his core through the rest of his body.

"But before my mother died, she asked me to promise that I would always stand up to those who are cruel and unjust. I told her I would." He swipes at his moistening eyes. "Sometimes, I wonder if I'm strong enough to keep that promise. But...well, for her, I have to try. So I'm gonna. And I ask all of you to do the same. Promise that, no matter what happens, you'll continue to do what's right. Always."

He sniffs as, just as quickly as it had been born, the fire within him dies. "Thank you."

Courteous applause fills the room as the speech draws to a close. Given the atmosphere, nobody cheers, but it's clear from everyone's expressions that they're impressed. Cole nods to his audience and makes his leave. Lou waits for him as he makes his way down from the podium. His eyes shine with pride through their sadness, a small smile on his face as he pats him on the back. "Well said, son.”

Cole can only nod with thanks. His gaze shifts back to his mother's casket, noticing how the glass shines in the dim light of the room.

He closes his eyes, hoping that even in the Departed Realm, she's proud of him.

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ninjaslegos · 3 years ago

Note

hey hey, it's me again. i realize that there's gonna be.. probably no one who knows what the fuck i'm talking about/know the context for this, but could i get a kai x reader for the last/3rd life based thing i talked about on your main? with the scenario of (reader) becoming a red life and kai having to.. idk, watch em or something?

it's fine if you can't, i just thought that it'd be fun 😭 /gen

— 🎸

YEAH I love minecraft this is so fun. ALSO there's gonna be angst in here cuz like...there's no returning from a red name I assume?

I'm gonna say Jay has dark green name because he's a hardcore gamer, Zane has dark green from pure dumb luck, also he just sits at home and does farming all day that's literally it. Cole and Nya have green names, Lloyd has a yellow name because he has trouble hearing creepers sneak up behind him, and Kai has a yellow name because he INSISTS on going mining and then he keeps suffocating under gravel or mining straight down into lava or falling in ravines.

Context here

/Gamerule KeepInventory False

You were a really good player. How did it come down to this? He worked hard to expand your home; gave you nice, small windows you couldn't fit through so you could see the sunlight, fed you your favorite foods by tossing them into your cage, and even gave you a bed to sleep in. You never used it; instead opting to pace around your cage endlessly, looking for any way to escape. There wasn't any, of course. You couldn't mine obsidian without the diamond pickaxe you lost.

He would sit there for hours, talking to you as if you were listening, and not staring angrily at him with intent to kill. "Lloyd's gotten better at making potions. Jay has to bring him ingredients, but he's been sitting in the library, studying and practicing. I think we can cure you soon." He smiled sadly at you. He wanted nothing more than to hold you, touch you, but he knew the second he put his arm within your reach, you'd tear it off his body without hesitation. But he believed you were in there somewhere; that the disease that had taken over your body only controlled your actions, not your thoughts.

You all started out with dark green names. Everyone in Ninjago did. Some players had better luck than others; those who didn't know what they were doing died off quickly, and started to spread a disease once they had died too many times. The green would fade to red and they would lose control, wanting to paint the world in that unsettling copper scent. Those who had seconds of control left after seeing their red names would set themselves on fire and hope that would kill them before they hurt anyone. Everyone had campfires next to their beds just in case.

You weren't as good as Jay, but you were the best at tedious work like mining and farming for supplies. When someone wanted wood or stone, or anything else, you would be back in an hour with a few stacks of it. The first accident was when you were caught by yourself surrounded by red players. They fought you, then fought each other once you died. It all went downhill from there.

The last time Kai saw you, you went out to get kelp. He doesn't know if you drowned or you were poisoned by a pufferfish or what happened out there, but he opened the door to your shared room to get something, when you appeared in front of him. Items missing and name red.

You just stood there in shock. He looked to the fire pit in your room, but wasn't ready to let you go. There wasn't much time to act, as the disease would take over soon. "Come on, come on!" He grabbed your wrist hard and yanked you outside, despite your protests. You had gathered obsidian a few hours ago, and he put one down. "Get on it, now!" He shouted. He'd never yelled at you before, and you flinched before stepping onto it. You tried to protest, but he wouldn't listen. "Shut up! I'm trying to fix this!" He was crying just as much as you were as he worked on the four walls first.

You twitched, then hunched over in pain, the first sign of take over. "Kai...I love you."

Then you went quiet as he put the ceiling on. Those were your last words to him. Once you were properly trapped, he sat down on the ground and processed everything. Nya came out to see her brother screaming and sobbing loudly, and tried desperately to calm him down. Nothing worked until Lloyd stepped up, promising to try and find a way to cure you.

It took him weeks to recover. He didn't do anything to help the team, which they didn't mind too much. They spent that time staying home and stocking resources while Kai grieved. Keeping you in your original cage, he built more obsidian around it, then stocked a chest with food and snowballs you could throw for fun in case you were bored, and put a bed in the middle for you to sleep on. There was no way for you to get any resources, and no way for you to get out. You were perfectly trapped and as safe from the outside as the outside was from you. When it came time to release you from the cage into the larger prison, he sat on the top block first, then got rid of the walls, allowing you to get out. You reached for him, but he was too high up for you. "I love you, (Y/N)." All he got was growling as you continued to fruitlessly grab for his ankles.

He climbed out of a hole in the ceiling and finally sealed you away. Days turned to weeks turned to months. Every time Lloyd seemed close to a cure, something would go wrong and he would have to start over. The potion would have the wrong effect, or an ingredient would be so scarce that other players had already gotten to and hoarded it first, or the ingredients wouldn't mix properly and make the potion useless, or something, or something, or something. Kai stopped counting the mistakes a long time ago.

"If I still had a green name, you bet I would waste it just to go in there and hold you, even if you would tear me apart. Even if it wouldn't last longer than a few seconds. To touch you and hold you again." He sighed to you. "Wouldn't you like that?"

You let out a low growl, then hissed at him viciously. He smiled and stared at you lovingly. "I know you would. Just a little longer, (Y/N). We'll fix this. We'll fix this." He repeated to himself.

#title is because when players die they don't keep their stuff #hence why reader doesn't have their diamond pickaxe or anything else on them when they die #ninjago #ninjago kai #kai x reader #death #death mention #blood #gore #injury #angst #oneshot #guitar anon

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razzle-zazzle · 3 years ago

Text

Whumptober Day 01: All trussed up & still nowhere to go

Bound + Barbed Wire

2338 Words; Sanctuary Island

TW for blood, mentions of slavery, and mild violence

This was not an ideal situation.

Not that Cole had really been in any ideal situations since being brought to this island, but this was more of a relative case. At least having allies nearby was better than being tied to a chair.

But, ideal or not, Cole was here, heavy metal collar held close to the back of the chair by a chain, and escape was not going to come as easily as the last time. The overseers were doing their best to make sure of that.

Really, all Cole had to do was stay alive and hope Artura didn’t attempt anything too reckless in his absence. All of the others had managed to disappear into the woods safely, and it’d be a while yet before their little makeshift fortress could be taken. He’d probably faced much worse odds on the mainland.

His restraints weren’t exactly uncomfortable, per se—he could do without having his arms pulled behind the chair over the back of it, elbows lashed tightly together with what had to be rope chosen deliberately for how rough and scratchy it was, his wrists similarly bound—his legs were tightly tied to the front legs of the chair, but the fabric of his pants prevented most of the friction currently chafing his arms.

He could definitely do without the ropes over his chest, and it would be very nice to get the metal collar off. But Cole refused to focus on the negatives here. He had to stay positive, and keep his eyes open for the opportunity to escape and rejoin the revolution.

So Cole waited, doing his level best to ignore the discomfort, flexing his arms to test the strength of the ropes.

He could snap them with his earth punch easily. That wouldn’t handle any of the other ropes, and he’d have to disconnect the metal collar from the chair if he wanted to lean down to pull the ropes on his legs apart, but it shouldn’t take too long to undo the lock fastening the chain to his collar.

The problem, however, was the collar. Cole wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not, but there were traces of vengestone in the metal—just enough to cut his strength in half, preventing him from actually snapping the rope.

Cole was stuck waiting until an actual opportunity presented itself, and the longer he waited, the more uncomfortable his position became.

First Master, his arms were aching. The back of the chair was digging into his back, and he couldn’t pull his arms up to alleviate the situation. His elbows being lashed so tightly together was starting to become a problem for his shoulders, too.

But Cole was tougher than that. He had to be. He was the rock of the ninja, so he could be the rock here, too. It was just like Jay said: the power of positive thinking.

Time passed. It probably felt longer than it was—Cole couldn't exactly tell; there wasn’t any way to tell the time. Just a small, windowless room dimly lit by an oil lamp on a table in the corner.

Honestly, the room felt more like a shed than anything. Maybe Cole was locked up in some kind of fortress, and maybe he wasn’t. It was hard to tell, but Cole was leaning towards torture room based on the tools hanging on the wall to his right.

Fuck, now his back was starting to ache, and he was losing feeling in his fingers. Grunting a little, Cole shifted as much as his restraints would allow—not much, but it’d have to do—in an effort to alleviate some of the pain.

Fortunately—or unfortunately, it depended on how one looked at it—the door opened at that moment, heralding the arrival of one of the overseers.

Cole recognized this man. The shiny badge on his top hat gave him away as one of the people enforcing the messed-up system on the island, but Cole recognized the man’s face from the few weeks Cole had been put to work in the fields.

The man opened his mouth to say something, but Cole cut him off.

“Oh good,” he snarked, “I was starting to think I’d been forgotten here.”

The man’s expression changed immediately, shifting from merely dismissive contempt to fury. He crossed the room in two steps and slapped Cole, hard. His head jolted to the side from the force of it.

“Hold your tongue, boy.” Venom dripped from the overseer’s voice, enough to kill a man. “Do not speak unless spoken to.”

Cole grinned. “So I can speak now that you’ve said something to me?” He got another smack in return, his head jolting to the other side this time. Cole tasted copper—he’d bit his tongue twice now.

"You have caused more than enough trouble here, on our fair island.” The overseer stated, adjusting his gloves.

Cole shrugged as much as his restraints would allow, swallowing the blood in his mouth. “Yeah, I kinda specialize in that.” He only got a sharp look at that remark, thankfully enough.

“And what, pray tell," the overseer snarled, reaching back to grip Cole’s hair harshly, "Makes you so special, dirt boy?"

"I'm a ninja." Cole said tersely. He flexed against the restraints. "Protecting people is what I do." Just grin and bear it. That should be easy enough.

He grinned again, past the taste of copper in his mouth, making sure to bare his teeth. "Of course, you wouldn't understand that, would you, slave-driver?"

He got a third smack for his sass. The overseer’s grip on his hair kept Cole’s head from jolting to the side again, but the tradeoff was a harsh yank on his hair.

The overseer huffed, letting go of Cole’s hair. “Well then.” He hissed, walking over to open one of the drawers to Cole’s left. “We’ll see about correcting this little… discipline issue. This little ‘revolution’ of yours ends here, boy.” The overseer held up a spool of barbed wire, face oddly impassive for such a pompous man.

Cole stilled. This was not something he’d seen before.

The overseer opened another drawer, digging through it before pulling out some cloth.

Cole wasn’t sure where this was going, but he was pretty sure it was going to hurt.

“I was going to ask if you’d learned your lesson,” the overseer began, closing the drawers. “But clearly you haven’t.”

“You say that like there’s a lesson to be learned, here.” Cole shot back as the overseer approached. Any further retort was cut off as—rather predictably, Cole would later reflect—the overseer shoved the cloth in his mouth.

It wasn’t a lot, certainly not enough to make his jaw ache any time soon, but it did muffle and garble his words.

Before Cole could spit the cloth out, the overseer was there, securing it in place with a length of barbed wire. Cole glared as the overseer looped the wire twice more around his head before calmly fastening it behind Cole’s head with a metal clip.

None of the spikes were directly digging into Cole’s flesh, but he could feel the edges of the points threateningly close to his skin, close enough to cut into it if he moved too much.

Cole growled through the cloth. He couldn’t actually reduce the man to ash with just a look, but damn if he wasn’t trying.

“Since you fail to understand simple instructions,” The overseer hissed, beginning to wrap more barbed wire around Cole’s chest and arms, “You will have to be educated in proper behavior.” The wire was dangerously tight around Cole, to the point where he could feel some of the spikes through his shirt. His bare arms were spared slightly by the width of the chair, but that didn’t mean much when what was touching his arms was forcing them tighter against the back of the chair.

“You refuse to hold your tongue,” the overseer continued, “so you will not be allowed to speak for the time being. He pulled the wires tighter, cinching the two ends together behind Cole… somehow. It wasn’t like Cole could really see behind himself. “And since you continue to be bullheaded,” the overseer spat the word bullheaded like a curse, “some long-term negative reinforcement is in order.”

Cole huffed, the sound muffled by the gag. Unlike the wire used to gag him, the wire looping around him was digging into his flesh at several points. He couldn’t feel any blood, though, so he supposed there were still small mercies.

Not that those small mercies really made the situation ideal.

The overseer, satisfied with his work—and with the way Cole was glaring at him, curses muffled by the gag—nodded, and then left, the click of a lock finalizing his departure.

Cole groaned. If it had just been some light torture or the whip again, Cole could have handled that. But barbed wire? Being left alone with the barbed wire to suffer for a while? In what basically amounted to solitary confinement?

You can bear this, Cole. Cole reminded himself, staring at the small crack where the door met the floor. You’re too tough to be broken by something so small as this. It didn’t make the situation less painful, but it did give Cole some confidence.

He was going to be aching for weeks after this, he just knew it.

There was something weird about the barbed wire, though. It felt like the spikes all had sharp edges along their lengths, instead of just a sharp point at the end. It was like being held in place by a bunch of tiny little knives—

Cole’s eyes widened. Of course! He’d have grinned were it not for the barbed wire against his cheek. The overseer had left him with exactly what he needed to get free.

Carefully, trying not to cut into himself further, Cole shifted so the ropes around his elbows and wrists were as close to the spikes as he could manage. He couldn’t see what he was doing, having to feel it out, and he could definitely feel one or two of the barbs digging in deeper, but he could also, if he strained his ears enough, hear the faint sound of metal cutting through fiber.

It took some more experimenting before Cole could build up a proper rhythm, but eventually he’d managed to free his elbows, with a lot of little cuts up and down his arms for his efforts. The wire was still pinning his arms against the chair, but it wasn’t holding his arms together.

A little more wriggling—there was definitely blood starting to bead up on his arms now—and Cole’s wrists were free of the rope, allowing Cole to separate his arms. It took some shimmying, and the barbs sliced through his flesh as he did so, but he managed to get his arms to the sides of his chest. This gave the wire enough slack for it to start to fall a bit, and a little more shaking and wiggling got it all the way down, the wire lying in several loops at his waist.

Carefully, avoiding the barbs, Cole twisted the coils around until he could get at whatever was fastening the ends. A little jiggling, and the metal clip came loose, allowing Cole to move the wire where he pleased.

Carefully, trying not to cut up his wrists, Cole lifted his arms out of the wire, freeing them up. Immediately, he used that newfound freedom to fiddle with the clip fastening the wire behind his head.

Cole spat out the cloth, tossing the wire that had held it in place to the side.

Of course, that still left the ropes around his chest and legs, and the collar—

The next step was the collar. Cole wasn’t strong enough to break it without his powers, but he couldn’t access his powers with it on. So he reached back, feeling around the collar for where the chain fastened to it for a weak point.

Blood had dripped down onto his hands while he’d been working his arms free, though, and it was making fiddling with the lock difficult. But dammit, Cole was not sticking around long enough to find out what else the overseer had in store for him, so he grabbed one of the ends of the wire in his lap and jammed it into the lock.

A click signaled the chain was detached from the collar, even if it was still on. Whatever. Cole would deal with that later. Preferably far away from this place.

Of course, he wasn’t home free just yet. There was still the matter of the ropes around his legs.

But Cole also had several coils of barbed wire.

After that, it was a simple matter to cut through the rest of the ropes. Cole was still bleeding, but he’d handle that once he could stand.

Finally free, Cole stood up. His joints creaked in protest after spending so long so tightly bound, but Cole pushed on anyway. He went to the drawers first—he’d need to grab a few things before he could make his daring escape.

First step: the cuts on his arms. They were starting to scab over, not that they’d been that big in the first place, but there was still blood dripping languidly down his arms. So he dug through the drawers for some bandages, and, failing that, some cloth that would serve the same purpose. There wasn’t really anything in the room Cole could use to clean the wounds, so he’d worry about that once he got back to Artura and Laina and the others.

Arms now wrapped with something resembling bandages, Cole moved on to the tool board on the wall, searching for a weapon. His hand-to-hand was usually good, but “usually” didn’t apply to arms covered in cuts and still aching from his bonds. So really, it was a question of which “tool” would serve him best here.

Cole grabbed a knife, examining the blade.

Yeah, this would do.

#whumptober2021 #no.1 #bound #barbed wire #ninjago #lego ninjago #zaz writes #blood #mild violence #slavery mention #cole ninjago #sanctuary island #the overseer #there's not enough cole whump in this sad sad world #kicking off whumptober with a bang!#and a 2000+ word piece #also; for organization within my blog:#tw blood #tw mild violence #tw slavery #yeah that's why i've been putting off doing anything substantial with sanctuary island #the fact that the plot is ''cole arrives on island at just the right time to spark the kindling for a slave revolution''#but hey i might as well just write the damn thing #as long as i tag it all thoroughly i should be fine #also damn cole's so sassy here #gotta get all that vitriol out while he can ig #this would be about midway through the story i think?#it's late enough that there's an actual revolution going on but early enough that the villains aren't taking it seriously just yet #the overseer doesn't get a name bc i refuse to give him one 😊

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szynkaaa · 4 years ago

Photo

I more or less watched The Boy!!! And by watching, I mean I skipped more or less through the jump scare parts because I cannot do horror movies at all. I haven’t watched one since 2015 and The Boy was like the first horror movie after five years

Full disclosure, the ONLY reason I started watching the movie was because someone posted a gif of Greta standing close to Brahms who was all sweaty and breathing heavily n I was like “oh shit who dat he hot” and here I am

Can anyone explain the sandwich scene to me? So Greta was scared shitless and locked herself in her room, but why did Brahms make her favorite sandwich for her?

I did some digging for interviews and generally what people have been saying about the movie, took some screenshots from youtube to put my thoughts and musing together too!

Can anyone explain the sandwich scene to me? So Greta was scared shitless and locked herself in her room, but why did Brahms make her favorite sandwich for her?

So first of all, let’s start with a low resolution photo I found on IG of James Russell without mask:

which brings me to my first musing/thought/question?

It’s all under the cut, very screenshot and text heavy, you can find more Brahms drawing at the bottom though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So at the end of the movie, we are shown a Brahms with a broken mask and his face being burned, indicating that he was in fact in the fire.

I assumed first that the fire was created by the parents to fake their sons death and then he had to live hidden inside the walls?

But I’ve also heard apparently it was Brahms who set the fire to fake his own death or maybe an eight years old kid really was trying to burn himself down??

My other theory is that his parents made the fire and tried to kill Brahms and it did burn him but he survived, and the parents didn’t wanna go to jail sooo to hide everything they made their son live in the walls

i mean the responsible thing would be to turn their kid in and have him treated and stuff;;; listened to a murder podcast about two cases where kids murdered enough kids and how they are doing now interesting read Brahms made me think of those two cases

I also do not think that the previous nannies were killed. Like, c’mon. You’d report a person missing and sooner or later it would go back to the Heelshire mansion and if the body counts piles up? Can’t look good and I doubt that the Heelshire wants the police investigating them close up.

Also, when the mom was like “He’s chosen you if you’ll have him” to Greta? Is it just me or the wording or does it sound like a marriage proposal/arrangement xD

Brahms is a brat and he sees the people around him as his possession or to toy around. But I also do think that he has some abandonment issues but not in the sad tragic kind of way lmao. Even if he was the one controlling and manipulating his parents from behind-the-scene (quite literally I suppose?), he was still told as a kid to live in hiding and that no one can know he is alive. I don’t know much about the human brain, but I can imagine how damaging that must be to his mental growth and set him back in some way? We don’t know too much about his relationship with his parents - but I assume that he must have still loved them in his own twisted way. Can’t imagine that he would have been indifferent about his parents suicide.

The scene before Greta manages to back out - first he uses the child voice to beg her to come back and promises he will be good. That’s his manipulating Greta, but when that doesn’t work and she tries harder to open the door, he becomes more desperate to keep her there and then completely loses his temper and threatens to kill Malcolm if she doesn’t return. I’m pretty sure homeboy would have killed him anyway. And then later when she returns and he is all heavy breathing and smelling her hair and then jumps up when she shouts Brahms? Idk I def think there is some sort of abandonment issue going on.

I don’t think he is a child stuck in a man’s body or manchild or whatever. I think that he does know how to take care of himself - but he just chooses to manipulate people with the facade of a kid to do his bidding and cater to his needs.

Anywhomst, but clearly Brahms is also a very manipulative and controlling person based, based on how the mother was reacting on the destroyed bedroom, she really seemed to be at the end of her wits and just breaking down with her “you promised you’d be good”. It was very heartbreaking to watch and also scary because it really makes you realize just how much power Brahms holds over them?? idk maybe it was just me.

Next point: the CGI mask + the burns

So according to some interviews with the director stated that at the first test streaming, people weren’t really scared of Brahms because he was too handsome so they had to slap a mask over his face. The face was done after everything was filmed. I’m thinking the face burns were also added post-production when they were adding the cgi mask. Otherwise, James would have needed to go through the makeup department for some wicked face burns and it would have been visible during the filming and test screening too? Which would imply that at first the fire was supposed to be just a cover story that their son is dead and it was changed later

Observation/thoughts on Brahms Heelshire

Love how he stands there with his hands behind his back and then nods when Greta tells him to go under the cover

James Russell is 191cm tall. So like. Brahms is really fucking tall. But I notice that most of the time he stands with a slight hunch. Could be due to him crawling through the walls and crawling out of places that requires him to do a lot of crouching. His bed in his hideout made me really sad, I’ll get to it later.

Since James didn’t get many lines in the ten minutes that he appeared, I do think that his eyes did all the acting. They stand out even more with the mask on, there is just this crazy look on it. I also noticed during my rewatch that he doesn’t seem to blink much or at all.

Oh yeah, he also peeped on Greta and Malcolm making out on the bed and then cockblocked them. We been knowing that he made a Greta doll and very likely jerked off to it. We also been knowing that he very very very likely wanted to bone Greta at the goodnight kiss scene still waiting for the maskeless kiss scene gimme gimme. I also highly doubt that Brahms has much first-hand experience with kissing n stuff. High key thinking he was trying to do copy Malcolm and do what he observed lmao

When I first watched the scene, I assumed that the hole behind the mirror has always been and it’s just another one of the hidden passages Brahms to slip in and out, but now that I’m looking at the shape of the holes, it seems to me more like the mirror and brick wall were broken at the same time?? If that is the case holy shit boy is s t r o n g. I mean, he also punched through the closet door like no big deal so really what have the parents been feeding him.

I’m also leaning toward the fact that he ran there because Greta screamed loudly. I don’t think he was in the room as them when everything went down there, it seemed more like he heard the scream and had to nyoomed over and then punched a way through to get out of the wall. And then went on to attack Cole. He must have known that Greta wanted Cole gone, since that what she whispered to the doll before going to bed.

Tbh, I fully expected him to murder Cole in his sleep, but Brahms wrote a warning message in blood to tell him to get out soooooo like. Cole you were warned and now you gotta live with the consequences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Brahm’s sleeping corner

This scene was shown at the end after Greta and Malcolm escaped. We also see them briefly during the part where Greta and Malcolm are trying to find a way out and stumbled into Brahms’ hideout. I’m not sure why the rules are slapped on the walls. It seems to me that Brahms is very very very set on that the rules / routine should be followed. In the movie, he called Greta and suggested to her that she should follow the rules, to which she then started doing it.

I headcanon that that’s the routine that he grew up with as a kid and it’s just very very very very very hard to break out of it - not that he is trying to break the routine.

I’m failing to find a good way to put my thoughts into words, but I guess the rules and routine is sort of his coping mechanism?

I suppose if you had an OC that you ship Brahms with and want to change stuff around the house, the OC would have to very slowly introduce new rules and routines. Baby steps, yknow.

Brahms has a violin hanging there! Honestly I would be surprised if Brahms didn’t know how to play at least one instrument. The family also has an old ass piano/clavichord (?) and Brahms loves classical music soo yeah. Love me a boy who appreciates classical musical hehe

I suppose the egg boxes are there to soundproof the room more - maybe so he can play the violin?

There’s also music sheets hung around his attics, it’s not clear on the screenshots but when you rewatch the scene and shove your face close to the screen. Some are hanging next to the violin and there are some taped on the wall next to his bed and porn too

nice to see he has a fridge and microwave, I was concerned that he wasn’t well fed and that leftovers might not be enough, but then again. Dude is 191 cm so clearly he has been drinking his milk

Didn’t take a screenshot of his vanity, but there is a crocodile magnet stuck to the mirror hehe. I do think that he shaves and stuff, otherwise his beard would be much longer??

We can see more music sheets stuck to a pillar on the right.

Loving the christmas lights that he has hanging there above his bed. It’s cute.

On the shelf he has a bunch of tupperware and empty bowls. Most of hte things are neatly organized. We can also see some books and a pen

There’s some sunlight streaming inside - I do hope that Brahmsy stays warm during winters.

Here we can see more of the food that he has there - there is also a sink but I didn’t snatch a screenshot of it. I think those are potatoes in the pot? Maybe he does know how to cook some basic stuff, I do wonder if he has a functioning kitchen up there. Probably not for fire safety reasons lol

Yall see that thing on the note sheet covered pillar? Ngl, that’s a whole ass aesthetic right there.

He got a few potted plants up there. Took a closer look at them and it seems like they were healthy. So he knows how to take care of plants, which is nice to know I suppose?

Yes, we all know what he was doing with the doll and what the tissue balled up tissue implies. However, has anyone noticed the size of the bed???

If you scroll up a bit to the screenshot of Greta seeing the doll, it looks t i n y. The make shift doll takes up more than half of the space.

Yall. this breaks my heart. Dude is a beanstalk. I’m pretty sure the bed is from when he was a kid shoved by his parents to live inside the wall, does he have to sleep there in his adulthood too???

Even though Brahms strikes me as someone who probably doesn’t sleep much or during normal times, that bed must be so tiny for him. He must be sleeping with his knees bend and shit unable to stretch out :(((

Brahms: is a psychopath that smashed the skull of a girl and very abusive tormented his parents and then Greta Me: omg he needs a bigger bed that poor thing :(((

Brahms’ DIY corner

Ah yes, Brahm’s little DIY/creative corner.

Homeboy got lot of animal traps, cages and taxidermies hanging around, pointing strongly toward that it’s a hobby of it?

Also at the end where we see him fixing up the doll, we can get a better shot at his desk, and I gotta say the threads and stuff are all very nicely organized. Brahms’s table looks more organized than mine does lmao.

So we know he is a crafty boy. Not sure how difficult taxidermy is but I imagine it does take a lot of time to learn? Well he had all the time in the world anyway.

So yeah, that’s a wrap. Congrats if you made it to the bottom of my incoherent thoughts and ramblings, have a bonus drawing of Brahms wearing different masks:

#the ham talks #brahms heelshire #the boy #the boy 2016 #brahms #brahmbling

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mooncustafer · 3 years ago

Text

Recover, Regroup, Roadtrip

Agent Dale Cooper disappeared in March 1989. The case is still open. Agent Dale Cooper disappeared in October 2016. The case is still open.

for @laughingpinecone /

/ @countdowntotwinpeaks‘ WONDERFULXSTRANGE 2021

“Diane, I am uncertain of the date and time, or indeed if such concepts have any meaning in this place. Nor do I have my recorder, but I find verbalizing my thoughts helps me to resist the confusion and lethargy. As for addressing my words to you, even though you’ll never hear them— well, old habits die hard.”

It pleased Wally Brando on a profound level to discover that a few pay-phones remained in Philadelphia, that reaching out was not yet the prerogative only of those who could afford a landline or a mobile. He could also have checked his email on a terminal at one of the city’s Public Libraries, and indeed, made a note to do so within the day so that he might catch up on the news of parents and former school friends. The pay phone was also blessed with both the yellow and the white pages, and the number he sought appeared under “F.” Getting transferred to Dr. Albert Rosenfield was a more complex quest, but he was persistent as well as polite, and after a few minutes he was able to speak to Dr. Rosenfield’s voice mail, if not the man himself.

He introduced himself with salutations, and was about the explain the nature of his request when a beep signalled that the allotted time had run out.

“To listen to your message, press one. To re-record your message, press two,” said the voice of the machine.

Silently cursing his volubility, Wally pressed two. This time he simplified the introduction, and asked if Dr. Rosenfield would be good enough to meet him that evening at the Morimoto Japanese restaurant not far from the FBI offices, to discuss a matter of deep concern connected, he believed, with the little town of Twin Peaks. When the beep came this time, he listened to his message and then, satisfied, hung up. The restaurant he’d named was slightly above his means, but he was meeting a friend of his godfather, and wanted to do justice to the occasion, even if the reason for it was one of peculiar anxiety to himself.

“Diane, I have tried so many times to escape— on the last attempt I really did get out into the world, but my plans, I fear, had dire repercussions for you, and to no end— my course still led me back to the Black Lodge. Some flaw in my own nature keeps trapping me in this loop; perhaps it’s what they sometimes call Sa��sāra.”

It was Agent Tammy Preston’s custom, when scraping the internet for information relevant to one or more recent cases, to check her email inbox every seven minutes— to do so every five minutes would disrupt the flow of her work, but ten-minute gaps might let something important go unanswered for too long. Just now the inbox was due another glance, and switching tabs she saw that two minutes earlier Director Bryson had replied to Tammy’s email of that morning with an invitation to come by her desk at her earliest possible convenience.

Tammy locked her screen, paused ‘Soft Fuzzy Man’ on her playlist and removed her headphones. Picking up the folder marked Missing Persons, 1989– Palmer, she slipped back into her pumps and made for Bryson’s office. The door was open but Tammy stopped at the threshold and rapped on the wall.

“Come in,” said Director Bryson, looking up from a folder. Bossa nova music played softly in the background as Tammy entered and pulled up a chair. It sometimes puzzled Tammy that apart from herself and Director Gordon Cole, no one in this particular division of the FBI seemed to have any interest in music recorded after 1979. (The first few times she’d heard ‘Du Hast’ pounding through the walls of Cole’s office, she’d wondered if this taste for metal was the result, or perhaps the cause, of his hearing loss; but after he’d joked to an unamused Agent Rosenfield about how these were difficult times and difficult times called for Dave Brubeck, she’d looked up the reference in case it was a coded message, and then the next day had overheard Gordon whistling ‘Mister Sandman,’ a song she knew primarily from an internet meme, at which point she concluded that the ear wants what it wants, regardless of demographic.)

“You told me you’d found some serious inconsistencies in the records surrounding Twin Peaks and the Palmer case?”

Tammy nodded, hesitated:

“I believe there may be inconsistencies as well in my own perceptions of the case.”

“Well now, that I find a little harder to believe.” Bryson smiled, but then her voice grew serious: “I’ve looked over the notes you made, and it confirms my own doubts about events.”

“Worse yet— the fact that I truly left the Lodge and then returned to it, will enable the beings that inhabit this place to take another twenty-five year turn in my likeness, unleashing even more evil on the world. The only thing stalling them is the doppelgänger I had MIKE make for the Jones family, but I don’t know if he’s still under the White Lodge’s protection.”

After all these months it still surprised Harry Truman there was so little physical pain, and so much boredom, to dying. Oh there’d been pain at the beginning, when he’d started treatment and had had to stop drinking; the memory of detoxing still made him shudder. But now he only felt a tiredness too huge for sleep to make any dent in it; and since he couldn’t sleep all the time, there were a great many hours during which all he could do was lie in the hospice bed or sit in one of the hospice chairs, and think.

At this point dying didn’t even sound so bad— it wasn’t like the past three decades had been all that great. He imagined going to sleep, just filling up a big bowl of silence and darkness and sinking into it, and then he felt bad for thinking that because Frank had already lost enough people without Harry lighting out too. Anyways, with the things he’d seen over the years he’d be a damn fool to think there was anything peaceful about death and whatever came after. So he’d lie awake trying to find some other topic to ponder, and that’s generally when the boredom set in.

Right now, courtesy of the nap he’d had in the afternoon after today’s treatment had left him especially exhausted, he was lying awake in the wee small hours. 3:52 am, said the clock on his bedside table beside the stack of paperbacks Frank had brought him on his visits— Harry wasn’t afraid of e-readers the way Lucy was of cellular phones, but he found the smell of paper comforting. It reminded him of the Bookhouse. The hospice tended to smell of disinfectants and sweat and soup. The food actually wasn’t as bad as the food at the hospital in Twin Peaks used to be, not that any food could be as bad as the hospital food in Twin Peaks used to be, but it made no difference to Harry, whose appetite had been gone for months. Frank always brought a slice of Norma’s pie too, carefully sealed in an old cookie tin to keep it fresh, but Harry could never manage more than a couple of bites, and they didn’t always stay down.

Being awake in the middle of the night in a hospice wasn’t as bad as being awake in the middle of the night when you were alone at home— the occasional voices or footsteps from the corridors beyond were reminders that whatever might be happening to Harry, life went on for the staff; and the lights from the city outside showed that life went on for others outside the hospice walls. When he’d first arrived, those city lights had made it hard to sleep, but now they substituted for the starry sky above Twin Peaks. There were fewer birds to watch in the city, though sparrows, pigeons or a starling sometimes lit on the ledge outside his window and peered in at him, or maybe at their own reflections. The frequent rain pattering against the glass— well, that sounded the same here as it did in a cabin.

Frank had called to tell him about Margaret Lanterman. Harry sometimes wondered if he should have stayed in Twin Peaks and died in his own home like her, instead of lingering in this hospice like the doomed heroine of some nineteenth-century novel. Or like Annie Blackburn. Or Audrey Horne.

The rain was spattering now against Harry’s window, bending the light from the Japanese stone lantern in the pocket-sized garden below. Harry couldn’t remember what the hospice building looked like from the outside, but he guessed it was similar in style to the mid-century one next door where the day-patients came for their treatments. A flash silhouetted the roofline; five seconds later came the thunder-crack. Harry settled back and closed his eyes.

Sleep pulled him into dreams of an espresso machine, like the one in the coffee place down in the lobby next to the gift shop for visitors. This machine filled a whole room, metal pipes feeding back on themselves like some kind of espressouroboros, neither steam nor coffee escaping from the grotesque contraption. Agent Cooper stood wearily before it with two empty coffee-cups. Harry was just wondering who the second cup was for, when Coop looked up and met his eyes:

“What year is this?!”

Harry sat up in bed, listened intently for two full minutes, but he didn’t hear Coop’s voice again. He sighed. Sometimes the mind pulls imaginary sounds out of the background noise. False pattern recognition or something— Coop would have known a word for it. Harry had little hope left they’d ever find Cooper, or if they did, that he’d still be the man he’d known. Yet he’d carried on, more (he told himself) out of habit than any real hope. He’d kept in touch with Agent Rosenfield, even when it meant letting him know about the cancer— not that Albert would blab the secret to anyone in Twin Peaks.

“Hello?”

“Good, you’re still alive.” Albert’s personality hadn’t mellowed with the years, exactly, but familiarity had worn the edges off his jibes.

“Shut up, Albert. So what have you found?” Albert’s calls generally came every three months, but never at nine in the morning, and he’d last spoken to Harry only two weeks back. Something important must have happened.

“Actually, Sheriff Truman, I’m the one coming to you for information.”

“If you hadn’t noticed, it’s not easy to do investigations from a hospital bed. What can I tell you that you can’t get from other sources?”

“I need you to summarize the Laura Palmer case back in 1989, and the actions of Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks at that time.”

“Albert, is this one of your damn cognitive tests? You already know—”

“We’re both too tired to argue, just humor me.”

“How detailed do you want?”

“An outline will suffice.”

Harry took a deep breath and briefly listed the finding of Laura’s body, and the living but dazed and injured Ronnette, and the arrival of Agent Dale Cooper to lead the investigation. He skimmed over the crimes of Jacques Reneault and some of the other peripheral drama that had occurred in the town around that time, noted that Leland Palmer had murdered his own daughter, albeit while not fully himself, and was beginning to recount Cooper’s temporary suspension and Windom Earle’s campaign of terror, when Albert interrupted:

“You’ve still got the unofficial version, then.”

“Unofficial?”

“According to FBI records and your colleagues at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Office, Laura Palmer is an unsolved missing-person case.”

Harry began to feel sick.

“Goddammit, Albert, you did the autopsy. I punched you and you fell across her body. You found a broken poker chip in her stomach—” Albert broke in:

“I hadn’t disclosed that detail to anybody I’ve questioned about this.” His voice was a little shaky. “Listen, Harry,” he continued. “Last Friday I was contacted by a young man wearing motorcycle leathers and talking like Jack Kerouac on quaaludes.”

“Wally.”

“Naturally I supposed him to be from your iodine-deficient neck of the woods even before he introduced himself as your godson and the offspring of those lieutenants of yours. He told me he’d come because he wasn’t sure where else to turn. Apparently he keeps in touch with his parents as he rides across the continent, but in their most recent conversation he’d noticed their memories of certain events had become confused. I was about to tell him I wasn’t the least bit surprised, when he added that he’d checked with other townsfolk, including your brother, and they all seemed to have had the same— how’d he put it? ‘The walls of their memory painted over like a childhood bedroom converted to a study.’”

”That sounds like Wally, all right.”

”Eventually he got round to explaining why he’d come to me. The message that had prompted him to call home was from Lucy; she said she’d shot a suspect who was attacking your brother Frank. She’d also mentioned some FBI agents arriving a few minutes later.”

Harry swallowed. He tried to imagine Lucy shooting anyone:

“Frank never said anything about this.”

“And when Wally called home, Andy and Lucy not only denied it had happened, they had no idea what he was talking about, not that I’d guess that to be an unusual state of affairs. Anyway, after I sent your godson away, I began to have contradictory memories myself of what Cooper had told me about the case. I remembered the poker chip after waking in the middle of the night from the worst dreams I’d had since medical school. I’ve been telling myself it was a false memory, maybe a composite of all the young female murder victims I’ve had to examine in my career, but I told myself I’d make one more phone call, just to check. And now you confirm it. Also, in my recall you knocked me across Leo Johnson’s body. Thanks for the correction. Are you still there?”

“Yes,” Harry answered, glad he was already sitting on his bed.

“Now that that’s established,” said Albert’s voice on the other end of the phone: “here’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question: when do you remember Agent Cooper disappearing?”

“March 1989.” Harry tried to keep his voice steady, as though he was giving evidence in court. He briefly explained about the Black Lodge and Coop’s reappearance and unsettling behaviour and how he’d checked himself out of the hospital and was never heard from again. There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. “Are you still there, Albert?”

“According to FBI records and, up until two days ago, my own memories: Coop disappeared this past October while driving to Odessa, Texas for a case. The last record of him was a credit-card charge at a motel just outside the city.”

“What was he investigating in Odessa?”

“Missing person. I’ve tried looking into that case, but it seems to be a dead end, especially since Coop never seems to have arrived at the diner where the man he was looking for had allegedly been running drugs.”

“Sounds like the kind of establishment where nobody’d admit anything. Maybe Coop did get to the diner.”

“Gee, you’ve cracked it Sheriff, we would never have thought of that. The diner was old-school, but not so old-school they didn’t have a security camera trained on the front counter. We went over three days worth of footage. I admit we can’t be sure he didn’t slip in through the back for some reason; but you knew Coop— can you honestly picture him entering a diner and not ordering a coffee?”

“Not the Coop I knew, but— I already told you he was acting pretty erratically just before he took off.”

Harry heard Albert sigh.

“I’ve been checking with a few of my colleagues who were involved in the original Palmer investigation. I think Gordon knows something, but being Gordon he’s saying nothing, and as loudly as possible. Denise— Director Bryson, now— remembers the unofficial version, and according to her so does Agent Preston— oh right, you never met Agent Tammy Preston, the poker-faced glamazon computer hacker— I’m not sure she was even born yet in 1989, but she was on a case in Twin Peaks in October 2016, and during the course of the subsequent paperwork, she started noticing a lot of records and statements didn’t match up, and then she realized her own memories didn’t match up. Which brings up another problem with trying to reason this out by conventional methods: something in that Salem’s Pacific-Northwest Lot of yours is rewriting memories, documents, maybe the facts themselves. But so far it’s predominantly affected the people who were on the spot this past October.” Albert’s voice rasped a little from the long phone call, and he paused to clear his throat. “Unfortunately, that also means the people most likely to remember the original version of events are people who weren’t in the Sheriff’s Office during the incident that seems to have triggered the change. At the risk of sounding like one of those bullshit shows on the History Channel, we may never know exactly what happened that night.”

“Wait, what even was the case that brought you all back in 2016?”

“That’s the problem— I’m one of the people who was there, and I only have vague and disconnected memories of a British man with a gardening glove, the chorus of Guys and Dolls, Agent Cooper leaving the room with Diane, his secretary who quit the FBI decades ago, and Gordon, and only Gordon coming back.” Albert paused again. “It goes against my personal feelings and medical opinions, but would you be willing to let me visit you in person? I’ve some vacation time and enough frequent-flyer miles that the trip will probably cost less than the long-distance charges if we continue this conversation.”

Harry opened the drawer of his bedside table and took out the key to Coop’s old hotel room:

“Yeah, come by.”

“Diane, I am currently alone. I realize that statement implies that I’m not always alone here, and indeed I sometimes have a companion, who I still think of as Laura Palmer, though I don’t know if that’s her identity anymore; I’d hoped, after my last attempt, that Laura would no longer be in this place at all. She comes and goes, or perhaps we both come and go and our orbits occasionally intersect. I’ve tried to find some pattern to it, but with no reliable way to measure time, I’ve had little success.

The last time we met she told me about a room she hadn’t seen before, all white walls, in which a dark-haired woman was contemplating a mirror with a puzzled look. I can’t help but feel this parallels my own situation.”

“Frank sent me this last month. But when I thanked him the next time he called, he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about.” Albert hesitated before taking the room key:

“Great Northern Hotel,” he read, turning it over. “Twin Peaks. Isn’t the front desk going to want this back?”

“Unless I miss my guess, it’s from 1989 when Coop was staying there.”

Albert’s ears stuck out more noticeably, or perhaps it was his face that was thinner. He’d spent the first part of his visit scrutinizing Harry and questioning him about his case and what the doctors were doing for it, until Harry told him to quit it or he’d run out of time to discuss Coop’s disappearance before visiting hours ended, and anyway weren’t Albert’s patients usually dead to begin with?

The trouble with the subsequent discussion was that it went in a circle— the people who’d been present for the 2016 Unknown Event had uncertain memories of what had actually happened; and the people who clearly recalled the 1989 Palmer case as a murder hadn’t been present for the Unknown Event. The one thing that seemed likely was that there was some connection between the 1989 case and the 2016 case, particularly since both had been followed by the unsolved disappearance of one Agent Dale Cooper.

“I hate to say it, Albert, but I’ve given up hope on ever finding Coop.”

“What’s hope got to do with it?” Albert asked. His tone was not sarcastic.

“Diane, I’ve decided that, if only to keep my mind occupied, I will go looking for the white room and the woman with the mirror. I’d feel happier if I had a ball of twine or some breadcrumbs to leave as a trail back to the waiting room, but I’m coming to terms with the idea that’s there’s no advantage to remaining or returning here— it’s not as if I need food or drink in this place, and I cannot be any more lost than I already am.

So far, I believe I’ve walked down five identical red-curtained hallways, and turned left five times. It therefore seems likely that I’m following a counterclockwise, roughly spiral path, although I’m uncertain if I’m proceeding inwards or outwards.”

“If this search is going to require juggling two sets of memories, then I’d better come along so you don’t get brainwashed again.”

“Sheriff Truman, if you haven’t noticed by now, you’re in a cancer hospice.”

“I just finished a round of treatments, I’ve got a couple of weeks free.” Albert snorted and Harry added: “You can monitor my health while we’re on the road.”

“I’m already thinking of your health. You’re immunocompromised, travel is too risky.”

“We’re crossing a few state lines, not going to the other side of the world.”

Albert pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Fine. I’m driving. Which also means I get to choose the music.”

In fact, they went most of the way by plane, after Albert weighed the odds and decided five hours in a tube of recycled air would still be easier on Harry than a two-day road trip. Some of the passengers threw suspicious looks at Harry’s N95 mask, but they’d cleared it in advance with the airline, and Harry had briefly removed it when he went through TSA, and Albert was prepared to flash his FBI badge, but the flight crew were understanding.

They picked up a car at Midland International. Someone, presumably an employee of the car-rental company, had left a bundle of tourist-attraction pamphlets on the front passenger seat.

“According to these, Odessa has replicas of the Globe Theatre and Stonehenge,” Harry observed once he’d got himself settled.

“Why?” Albert asked.

“Got me there. The pamphlets don’t explain the motivation.”

Albert reached up and pulled down the car’s sunshade on Harry’s side, though the Sheriff insisted his cowboy hat was protection enough for his pale scalp:

“We’re not in the northwest where it rains every fifteen minutes,” he muttered, “and I’ve been looking up the side effects of your meds— you sunburn easily now.” Albert’s driving skirted the city, and they did not pass the Globe or Stonehenge.

The Pearblossom Motel, last recorded location of Agent Cooper, proved to be closed down. They’d noticed the papered-over windows as they pulled up, the sign unlit, not even to say NO VACANCY, but Albert got out to knock anyway. Harry watched him from the car; eventually he clambered out and slowly walked over to join him.

Albert was peering through a spot where the paper had torn away behind the window-glass. He stepped aside for Harry, and the sheriff took a look into the motel’s dim interior. He saw an ordinary, rather old-fashioned registration office, wood-grain panelling on the walls along with a few faded posters for local attractions. Rows of keys still hung on a board behind the desk, and a daily calendar read October 15, presumably the date the motel had closed, or the approximate date— Harry could imagine a concierge might not bother to keep tearing off the pages if they knew it was their last week on the job.

“I now realize that despite everything, I’ve still been harbouring hopes of finding my way back to the waiting room, hence my continual choosing of left-hand turns, as if attempting to mathematically navigate a maze. I must make a true leap of faith if intuition is to guide me, so I’ve closed my eyes and spun around several times in this corridor, first clockwise and then counterclockwise.

Now that I no longer can tell which direction I’ve come from… Diane, can you hear that? Of course you can’t, I don’t really have my tape recorder. I’m going to fall silent and listen for a bit.”

There seemed little else of interest at the motel (Harry, feeling a bit silly, had even tried the Great Northern’s room key on all the doors), so they turned back towards Odessa to look for the diner Cooper had been investigating. The motel was only a mile behind when they saw, ahead of them, a tall woman walking along the highway, her fire-engine-red hair, black t-shirt and pencil skirt out of place in a locale that was rural to the point of emptiness. Albert swore under his breath.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” he told Harry. “Roll down your window, I’m pulling over.” But the woman only threw a glance at the car as it slowed, flipped them the bird, and kept walking, though she stepped gingerly and Harry noticed she was barefoot on the asphalt. Albert leant across him and stuck his head out the window:

“Diane!”

“Fuck off, guys. I’m not Diane, and whoever she is I bet she’d tell you the same.” Harry gently pushed Albert back and leant out the window himself:

“Sorry, ma’am, mistaken identity. Are you all right though? I see you’ve mislaid your shoes.”

“Looks like somebody ran off with them,” the woman answered, her tone mocking despite the tired set of her shoulders. “I haven’t been up to anything illegal, officer. Just a bit of fooling around.”

“We can give you a ride into town,” Harry offered. “If it helps, you’ll be alone in the back seat— means you can get the drop on us if you start to feel nervous.”

The woman narrowed her eyes at the offer, then abruptly barked out a laugh and opened the back door of the car, took a seat and folded her long legs in after her. “Only because I need a lift,” she insisted, rubbing her bare feet. “I knew office romances were a bad idea, but he didn’t have to be a dick about it. Nothing to do now but go home and drown my sorrows in Hallowe’en candy.”

“You’ve still got candy left over from Hallowe’en?” In the mirror above the dashboard, Harry saw Albert raise an eyebrow and the woman in the back seat frowned, insulted:

“No! I may not have a maternal bone in my body, but I’m not going to give the trick-or-treaters candy that’s a year old.”

“Ma’am,” Harry asked, thinking about the calendar back in the Pearblossom Motel office, “what date d’you think it is?”

“Mid-October,” she began. Harry saw her reach into her purse with her black-and-white nails and pull out a mobile phone. Her eyes widened at the date: “No, it’s March. The fuck?—” She ran a hand through her scarlet hair. Harry wondered if it was dyed or a wig. Perhaps she was bald too. “Must be losing it. I was so sure it was October. And it’s not like I’ve could’ve been wandering around this desert for five months.” She tapped her phone screen. “5,230 messages?!” She looked frightened now, raising her head to meet their gaze in the mirror. “Where the hell have I been? And you guys— you’re feds, aren’t you?”

“No,” Harry began.

“I am,” said Albert. “He’s not.”

“Well, can you tell me what’s going on? Or is it classified? God, it’s not aliens, is it? I always assumed alien conspiracies were bullshit to cover up real conspiracies.”

“It’s probably not aliens,” Harry answered, unable to keep doubt from his voice as he remembered Major Briggs, “but I afraid it’s not going to sound any less weird.”

“To start with, we’re in the area investigating a colleague who disappeared in October,” began Albert, “and then you turn up, apparently amnesiac since that date.”

“And with my messages unchecked since then.”

“Yes, but there’s another detail— you look exactly like a former colleague of mine who was close to our missing man. That’s why I called you Diane when I slowed down.”

“I need a smoke.”

“No.”

“Albert,” Harry interrupted, “I’ve already got cancer, what’s the worst that can happen?”

“Do you want me to answer that in detail?”

“No I don’t.” Harry turned to look over his shoulder at the woman in the back: “Just roll down your window first.”

“We’ll pull over and she can step away from the car,” said Albert.

He stopped on a shoulder, and their passenger got out and lit a cigarette. Examining the packet, she called to them:

“Three left. That’s fewer than I remember having on me in October, but not by much.” Albert, meanwhile, had pulled a shopping bag from the back seat:

“You should eat something,” he said to Harry, producing a sealed cup of applesauce and a box of plastic spoons. Between rounds of treatment, Harry’s nausea receded, but his appetite was still pretty weak. “There’s saltine crackers, too.” Harry chuckled in spite of himself as he tore the foil off the applesauce:

“This all makes me feel like I’m home from school with the ‘flu.”

“You’ll have to watch Roadrunner cartoons on your own phone, I’m not paying for the data,” Albert snapped.

“I’m surprised we even get reception out here.” The red-haired woman had strolled back to the car with her cigarette, though she took care to stay downwind from Harry’s rolled-down window. “Guys, is it just me or is this highway really deserted— like, Rod-Serling-voiceover deserted?”

“We were just thinking Roadrunner cartoons.”

“Can’t be, there’s no weird rocks.” She flicked ash onto the pavement, “Though it does feel like if someone painted a tunnel entrance on a wall around here, you might be able to drive into it. If you weren’t a coyote.” She took another drag and glanced at the power lines humming above their heads. “Maybe it’s the hum from those wires that’s giving us brain cancer— oh sorry, dude.” She broke off and looked at Harry in apology.

“It’s all right, ma’am,” he said when he’d finished swallowing his mouthful of applesauce. “I’ve got leukaemia, not brain cancer. And the sound from those lines is unpleasant. Like the whine of mosquitoes in the woods.” As he spoke the hum intensified, becoming a loud crackle. Albert glanced up as a shadow fell over the three travellers and their car.

In the sky a dark, nebulous shape twisted, circled, formed a comma or an apostrophe, and dove towards them.

The first few grackles, out of thousands, came down on the roof and hood of the car. Harry could see one pecking at the windscreen and glaring at him with hard yellow eyes. He suddenly remembered Coop had been afraid of birds; until now, he’d never been able to imagine why. He turned and pushed open the back door as the woman dove inside the vehicle. Around them, the flock blotted out the landscape.

“Hope they don’t scratch up the finish,” Albert shouted over the sound of wing-beats, “or I’m not getting my deposit back.”

“Is this nesting season? I mean, are the grackles round here normally this—”

“Oh fuck, one got in!” came a yell from the back seat. Eardrums ringing, Harry turned to see a small black shape ricocheting around the car’s interior as the woman flailed her long, bare arms. The grackle made for the gap between Albert’s seat and headrest.

And got stuck, its beak not quite touching the back of Albert’s neck.

Harry reached for the little feathered body, thinking of how to pin the wings against the bird’s sides to avoid injury to it or the surrounding humans, but the moment his fingers touched it, it crumbled. At the same time the din outside the car ceased.

“That— that’s not natural.” Their passenger was covering her mouth with her hand. Even Albert looked shocked. Harry stared at the palmful of ash that was all that was left of the grackle.

“Let me get a sample bag,” Albert muttered. He pulled out a small clear plastic bag, and held it out while Harry poured the remains in. Then he handed him a packet of wet wipes. “You all right, Diane?” The woman in the back seat did not correct him on the name this time.

“Couple of scratches,” she said, examining her right arm. Albert passed her a mini first-aid kit. Got to give him his dues, he prepares for everything, thought Harry, adjusting the brim of his cowboy hat.

“Y’know,” he said, “This could be a good sign. In that it’s any kind of sign. There’s nothing worse than working in the dark, waiting for some hint you’re getting warmer or colder— that’s the kind of thing makes you wonder if the thing you’re looking for is even out there at all. But this—”

“Someone tipped their hand, you mean, when they tried throwing a Hitchcock movie in our faces,” Albert cut in. “But what exactly did we do to worry them?” His glance, and Harry’s, moved to the dashboard mirror’s reflection of their passenger.

“You think the birds were after me, or wanted to break up our merry band?” She raised an eyebrow. “Trouble is I know a token effort when I see one.”

“Or a warning.”

“We found the Pearblossom Motel;” Harry thought he saw the woman flinch at the name. “And then left it, to head for Odessa.”

“Are you suggesting we drive around in circles and see if they attack again?” Albert muttered.

“I think that’d be a little unfair to our passenger.” Harry turned to her: “Ma’am, I believe Albert when he says he knows you; but I also believe you when you say you don’t remember him. We can drop you anywhere you like— your call.”

“Give me a few minutes, fellas. Given all the weird shit I’ve just been through, I’ve got to think about whether I’m safer away from you two, or sticking close by. Plus I’ve got messages to check.” She took her phone out again. Without taking his eyes off the road, Albert pulled his own phone from his suit jacket, passing it to Harry:

“You’d better check mine. Maybe Tammy’s got some news—she’s been looking up everyone connected with events in Twin Peaks, but not living in the area. She even emailed some couple in Japan, though I’m still not sure what they’ve got to do with this.”

Harry peered at Albert’s phone screen, occasionally commenting if something looked to be of interest:

“Gordon’s sent a grudging OK, tells you to be careful. Also tells you to look after me. I’d always imagined he’d type in uppercase— didn’t realize it was him at first. Hm. Do you know a coroner?”

“I know lots of coroners, we get together for an annual poker tournament and lucky draw. And when I say draw…”

“Do you know a Dr. Talbot in Buckhorn?” Harry interrupted. “Autopsied a headless body last September that turned out to be Major— wait, he— is this one of those revised timeline things?”

“Not exactly.” Albert brought Harry up to date as best he could on Major Briggs’ disappearance and decades-later reappearance. “I certainly remember meeting Constance,” he added, after a pause, and cleared his throat again. “According to Tammy, I made a favourable impression on her, which is… unusual among my acquaintances, even those who share my profession. So what does she have to say?”

“Something about a wedding ring and Schrödinger’s Cat?” Harry looked at the message again. “She says Tammy spoke to her, and was going to contact you too… a gold ring they found on Briggs… sorry, in Briggs… keeps disappearing from her office’s records and the FBI’s evidence files, then coming back again?”

Albert frowned in thought as he drove: “Does it have anything engraved on it?” Harry tapped a message on the phone screen, CC-ing Constance and Tammy.

Outside the car, suburbs, or at least car dealerships and big-box stores, were beginning to sprout up along the highway.

Albert’s phone pinged and Harry read the message from Constance:

“Yes, scribbled it down last time I could find the record. This ring any (wedding) bells? TO DOUGIE, WITH LOVE, JANEY-E”

“Janey-E,” said Diane from the back seat, and Harry heard her drop her phone. Turning around he saw her wringing her hands, the nails now robin’s-egg blue. “Albert,” she gasped, “Oh, Albert, I was almost lost again.”

“I believe the change in method may have led to a breakthrough: I haven’t found any rooms leading off of the corridor I’m following, but the decor has gradually changed from black-and-white flooring and red curtains, to dark brown linoleum flooring and institutional green walls hung with large relief maps of different parts of the world. The maps appear to have been manufactured some time between 1954 and 1965, as they show North and South Vietnam as separate nations. I’m just passing the continent of Antarctica, now, and… oh. I think there might be…

Diane, I found the white room, and when I call it that, I’m not simply echoing Laura’s name for it. It was like a cross between a sanatorium and a snow cave, if a snow cave had furniture. There was a bed with white blankets and a white metal frame like a hospital bed. Audrey was sitting on one end of it, wrapped in a white bathrobe and looking at a round mirror that stood on a little white table. She turned as I entered, and her face was older, drawn and, for a moment, frightened. Then she looked at me again and relaxed, saying ‘Oh, it’s really you.’ I fear she must have met one of my nastier doppelgängers at some point.”

At Diane’s request, they stopped to eat at a fast-food chain before approaching the diner Coop had been investigating in at least one timeline.

“I’m hungry, but I’d be too nervous to eat at the place where Dale might have… well, if they’re a front for something, then the food’s either spectacular or terrible, and I’m not feeling lucky right now. I want to be someplace as bland and mundane as possible for a while, so I can regroup.”

“Well this place has a twenty-minute limit.” Albert jerked his thumb at the sign.

“That’ll do.” Diane curled up beside Harry in the booth as Albert went up to the counter to place their orders. She still wore her pencil skirt, but on on of their stops she’d purchased tennis shoes and a couple of fresh t-shirts— the one she was wearing at the moment read NOT TODAY in flowery letters. “Now he’s got two of us to worry about,” she said under her breath. Harry decided to reply:

“Someone needs to worry about him.” Diane nodded, and Harry offered his hand: “Sorry, we never did the proper introductions did we? Harry S. Truman.”

“I know.” Her expression relaxed slightly. “I see why he likes you.”

“Not sure Albert likes anybody, exactly—”

“That’s not who I was talking about.”

Albert returned with a eye-searingly-orange plastic tray:

“Mushroom burger, cheeseburger, buttered biscuit for you, Harry, because they can’t just serve toast like a real restaurant and those things they claim are bagels are made out of lies.”

“Don’t worry Albert, I’ll survive a biscuit.” Harry picked up one half of the baked item and took a bite. It wasn’t too bad, actually.

“Diane, the ring that jogged your memory—”

“My half-sister and her husband. Don’t ask me how they’d be mixed up in this though, Janey-E’s aggressively normal.”

“And her husband?”

“Never actually met him. Janey-E and I don’t talk much,” she explained. “But from her comments he’s… passively normal. Works for an insurance company, drinks too much sometimes, the whole man-in-the-gray-flannel-suit thing.”

“I’ve been talking with Audrey, or the version of her that existed in the white room. You’ll notice I use the past tense. Still sitting on the bed, she raised a finger and pointed to the mirror in front of her, saying:

‘The other me— she ran away from home, like she thought Laura had done. I’m amazed she survived her first year in the big city, but look:’

Diane, I saw Audrey searching records online, tailing suspects, testifying in civil and sometimes criminal courts. It’s a life that can make a cynic of the kindest soul, but there are situations the police don’t or can’t investigate, and those were— are, I suppose— Audrey’s bread and butter, in that mirror world. And they seem to pay well enough she can afford to do some pro bono cases.

‘I wish I were out there,’ she said, and the mirror clouded and shifted. She patted the bedspread, and I sat down beside her. ‘You know how,’ she began, ‘when you’re a kid, and you’re reading your favourite book, and a little after the halfway point, you start to think ‘I’m getting near the end of the book?’ And really, you’re not— there are pages and pages left of scenes and pictures. You’re always surprised just how much more there is. But it’s not enough to shake the feeling it’s putting off the inevitable. Dawdling before bedtime.’ She stood up suddenly, bent and kissed me on the brow. ‘Say hello to the other me, if you ever run into her.’ And then she was gone, Diane. Not in flame or fadeout, just gone.”

I look up, and Laura is beside me.

The diner, when they found it, was not what Harry’d pictured. Instead of a lonely Edward Hopper tableau, or a grimy spoon where toughs whispered to each other along the lunch counter and cast knowing glances in the direction of the men’s room, “Wispy Dreams Cafe” was a blandly cheerful donut shop, the logo rather obviously altered from that of a national chain.

“Looks like they’re under new management.” Diane observed as they got out of the car. “Or else they got tired of paying for the franchise?” The three of them made their way across the parking lot the cafe shared with the landscaping company next door. Inside, the sound of chattering customers and a hum from the coffee machine both soothed and overwhelmed. Harry steadied himself against a gleaming, cream-colored formica counter. The woman on the other side— not a fresh-faced high-school senior or a kindly-faced matron, just a woman with her hair in a ponytail and circles under her eyes, doing her best to smile— threw him a glance and Harry nodded.

“I’m ok. Albert, Diane, what do you two want?”

A couple of minutes later, they sat by the window, feigning interest in their donuts and coffee.

“Well, we’re living the cop cliché,” whispered Albert. “So, what do you think? Soulless suburban hangout, or den of villainy?”

Harry gingerly sipped the brew in his cardboard cup and eyed the other customers. You couldn’t say the place wasn’t busy; the woman at the counter had already served a family of four in the time it had taken Harry, Albert and Diane to seat themselves with their coffees, and another customer had just come in the door.

“That counter’s been installed recently. Deep-fat fryer’s been replaced too.”

“And they don’t know how to use it yet. You could wax skis with these donuts. That’s hardly a crime, though.” Diane looked around at the blue and yellow walls painted with large trompe l’oeil sprinkles. “Doesn’t seem to be anything else funny about the place— I hate to say it but this place might be legit.”

Harry watched the new customer lean in to the counter. Harry couldn’t quite make out what he was saying— presumably the man was placing his order, but it seemed to be taking a while and there was something tense in the woman’s expression. Beside him he heard Diane swear under her breath, and faster than he could turn his head, his peripheral vision took in that she was getting up. She strode towards the counter and Harry had a glimpse of the angry red scratch on her arm as he struggled to his feet.

Diane was leaning on the counter now, trying to insert herself between the customer and the worker.

“What did you just say to her?” she was asking.

“Look, I come in here all the time, we joke around. What makes you think it’s your fucking business?”

“What seems to be the trouble?” Harry loomed up behind the customer— he might have only half his usual strength but he was still a good six inches taller than the other man. Behind him, he guessed, Albert was approaching. Harry knew the agent was unwilling to use physical force and not exactly skilled at defusing situations through diplomacy, so he turned his gaze on the customer with all the quiet confidence he’d used as Sheriff. In his ear Diane hissed:

“It’s nothing to do with the case, this asshole’s just creeping on the staff.” She must’ve locked eyes with the man too, for he was staring at her now, his bland pink features shifting expression from anger to terrified fascination.

Rather an unimpressive face, thought Harry, and then, what’s Diane doing? He turned to look at her sharp, smiling profile, and saw a tear slide from her eye.

“No,” she said loudly and abruptly, and blinked hard. “Do you want us to escort him out?” she asked the woman behind the counter; but the man was already out the door and running for his car.

“Diane,” Harry whispered.

“Diane,” whispered Albert. Diane was passing one hand across her eyes.

“I could have fried him. Just now. Something wanted me to; but I just wanted him to back off.” She beamed at them as Albert held out an arm for her to steady herself. “I think I’m back to normal. Well, normal for me.”

“Are we the only two left here now?”

“I’m not even here anymore.”

“I don’t know how to get back to the waiting room.”

“It doesn’t matter, the coffee’s cold.”

Somehow, the white room has become even more featureless, despite that being both a logical and a grammatical impossibility. Only the bed, the table and Audrey’s mirror remain. A moment in the glass catches my eye, and I look to see— oh Diane, I’m so glad you escaped! I see you travelling with Albert, and… oh, Harry…

…the cafe’s fluorescent lights flickered as the background hum, noticeable since their arrival, now rose to an ear-splitting volume then died away just as suddenly. As the three of them looked on, an old-fashioned hospital bed, its steel frame painted white, materialized between the counter and the booths, replacing two unoccupied tables. At one end of it sat Agent Dale Cooper, fully dressed in his suit and tie, a look on his face of mild surprise that turned to the familiar joy as his gaze met theirs. Coop had grown older like the rest of them, sharper angles in his face, but he looked hale and well, and his eyes did not have the cruel gleam that chilled Harry’s memories of their last meeting.

“Harry,” he said, as though a quarter-century hadn’t passed. In response Harry silently doffed his cowboy hat, revealing his pallor, his naked scalp. Coop’s smiled wavered a little. “I’m sorry I was gone so long,” he whispered, and rose from the white bed. In the background, the cafe staff and patrons continued to chat and serve and drink and eat coffee and donuts as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on right in front of them. Albert made a hesitant noise in his throat and Coop raised his hand in that just a moment gesture he always used to make, and in that moment Harry knew his friend really was back from wherever he’d been all those years.

“Apologies for being brusque,” Coop said, “but there’s a family in Las Vegas who I’ve reason to believe are in danger right now—”

“Janey-E?” Diane asked.

“Right on the button. For personal reasons which I’ll explain later, I can’t get in touch with them myself. The Mitchell brothers might be able to help, but I don’t know how much they’ll be able to recall of our last meeting.”

“Tammy and Constance are already on it.”

“Good,” Coop looked relieved, and Harry stepped forward, shaking a little in spite of himself, and as if the motion had at last given him permission, Coop sailed forward and embraced him— very gently, as if he feared Harry might break. He’s gauging by touch how much weight I’ve lost, thought Harry, but it’s all right. He’d forgotten how warm Coop was. He became aware of Albert and Diane joining in, arms circling his shoulders and Coop’s. If I died right here and now, it’d be all right.

But this embrace was not an epitaph, or an epilogue. Outside, somewhere else in the city, was an imitation of an ancient stone monument; and a copy of an old theatre where real audiences watched real actors. Somewhere the forces that had sent the dark cloud of grackles prepared another attack, and somewhere Tammy Preston was moving to protect Janey-E and Dougie Jones. Elsewhere Audrey Horne walked the mean streets and was not herself mean. This was an interlude, but let them have it for a while.

A couple of patrons turned their heads to smile at the reunion going in their midst.

#wonderfulxstrange #@laughingpineapple #twin peaks #@laughingpinecone

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chidoroki · 4 years ago

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In Defense of TPN S2

Okay, so before y’all start throwing your salt shakers at me, let me explain. Yes, I’m just as upset and annoyed with how the second season decided to cut out so much content that us manga readers were finally hoping to see: no Yuugo, Goldy Pond arc or GP Resistance, Lucas or Glory Bell escapees, Adam, poachers, or Cuvitidala Search. Since this season also (sort of) reached the 2047 time skip, we were also denied of the Paradise Hideout, Jin, Hayato, Ayshe, the Seven Walls & Imperial Capital Battle arcs and Alex due to the anime’s so-called “original story” idea. While some manga events still took place (B06-32 getting blown up, the trio’s reunion, Norman’s time at Lambda, the cursed blood and the Grace Field raid), they were all significantly changed and barely held the same emotional impact, as we see very little to no build up to these moments. Several volumes were skipped completely and despite others being touched lightly, we unfortunately missed out on major character development for everyone, most notably for Emma, but also the lighter side of things such as chef Ray, medic Anna, Rossi learning morse code, Minerva!Norman, etc. There’s honestly so much of the main story to talk about and I totally understand why we’re all so ticked off, especially since that darn slideshow did absolutely nothing to calm our hearts at the end of ep11.

However.. I’m not gonna stand by and say this season was worthless. Highly disappointing given everything I just mentioned of course, I get it, so don’t curse me out just yet. People can trash talk it all they want and I’ll sympathize 110%, but I personally won’t do so. I love this series too much and that’s a huge reason as to why I didn’t drop this season. Usually whenever I start a new series, it’s because I become interested in a character or two. I find that no matter what happens in that series, whether the story intrigues me or not, I’ll continue it if only to see more of that character. If the story is good, it’s just another plus for me to stay addicted, so while this season totally missed their chance to adapt the wonderful source material of my favorite series, I stayed to watch Emma, Ray and all the other children I’ve grown to love over the past two years. Another reason why I stayed on this train wreck was because of how thought provoking it became as turned into yet another guessing game for me. After first watching the OP and even more after ep3 aired, I kept wondering what would they include or leave out. How would they handle this scene if this and that were already changed? How would they fix this problem if so and so isn’t here? It felt like I was watching season one blind all over again; seeing all these little clues sprinkled everywhere and yet not having any idea on how the story was going to continue or end got me excited. That’s why I came to love this story in the first place, so having the chance to feel that again alongside characters I love so dearly.. it was fun for me (until the slideshow punched me in the face). While many people will look at this season and declare the manga and first season are both superior (which they are, I agree), I’m still sitting over here like “oh look, more content!”

With all that nonsense out of the way, I thought I would go ahead and ramble about everything I believe the second season did well enough, because if I can take any heat off this adaptation then you’re damn right I’m gonna try. So if you’re wondering why on earth a manga reader even mildly enjoyed this season, it’s honestly just the little things such as a decently adapted or improved panel/scene, any new, interesting elements the anime may have included, or other personal favorite moments of mine.. which there were a lot of.

So no negativity past here kiddos, we’re gonna be as optimistic and lively as an orange antenna.

(mild manga spoiler warning, I guess? but I’m sure it’s nothing y’all haven’t heard us readers mention/complain about already)

- If you’ve read any of my reactions to this season, you would know how much love I have for “Identity.” Not only is the song still an absolute banger, but the opening sequence itself is fantastic. From the contrast between human vs demon, the cameos, the symbolism, the match cuts, the build up to the chorus.. just everything. I could talk about it endlessly and watch it several times over and still be impressed.

- Lani’s stupid fall.

- How clearly it shows Emma’s condition becoming progressively worse.

- Her scream.

- Ray’s apology, especially how soft his voice was when saying “sorry, Emma,” and the smile he gives after she tells him not to worry about it.

- And his entire promise to keep everyone in their family safe. Oh I was so happy to finally hear him say that.

- This exchange between Don and Gilda.

- Rossi and those darn faces he gives us. This boy is such a mood.

- How involved the younger kids were so they don’t feel like they were just.. there, which served as a reminder that everyone from Grace Field is smart, not just Emma and Ray.

- How pretty the demon forest looked at night when all those odd creatures started glowing (even those darn goowee).

- So happy with how this panel was adapted. That smirk of his is everything.

- The fact they remembered a small detail such as the bell.

- Knowing now that they cut so much out of the manga, I’m glad we at least got the hug.

- The ending sequence gave us a small look at Sonja and Mujika’s travels by themselves. “Magic” is also so very calming to listen to.

- How the children hug both Emma and Ray, as manga only had our girl receiving the hugs.

- Sonju & Mujika’s voice actors fit them perfectly.

- How impressed Ray was when he first tried their cooking. No wonder he was so eager to learn how to cook.

- Sonju’s story about the demon world from ch46-47 practically adapted word for word.

- While the manga also shows us how frighted the duo is upon learning they’re living in the worst case scenario, it’s seeing them and their hands physically shake that help push this scene a little bit more (not that you can tell this by a still frame but trust me).

- Their synchronized smirks and how well their excitement was not only animated but how genuine and real it sounds too. Emma’s laugh and the fact they made Ray of all people sound hopeful is fantastic.

- They kept the small Ray from this panel and made him better.

- I just love seeing him be optimistic.

- The entire scene when Emma & Ray are both scolded by the younger kids for acting so recklessly is perfect.

- They kept this tiny comment of Nat’s.

- Finally getting chef Ray and hearing how confident he is with his cooking skills already.

- Seeing other children like Dominic pick up archery and be surprisingly good at it.

- Anime pushed Emma’s quick learning ability further with archery by showing us how easily she could land a bullseye even after hitting something midair.

- How well they animated Emma’s first kill, from following the arrow as she pulls it back to when she releases it as it flies towards the bird’s eye.

- The fact that this scene and the next both used a water droplet to symbolize death just like we saw during season one with Conny and Norman’s shipments are so satisfying.

- The gupna scene and how well it emphasized Emma’s reaction to taking a life and how upset/bothered she was in doing so. The addition of a butterfly helps as well, as it’s another way this series tends to convey the idea of death. (you remember how many the OP had, right? tons.)

- I only just noticed that Ray is seen looking at a similar butterfly in the following scene as well.

- The anime doing this panel justice. Ep2 is probably the episode that follows the manga the closest and did real well in regards to that.

- Ray beating Sonju at chess.

- Chris knowing exactly which way to go without using the compass, which makes sense as he was seen mapping out the surrounding area in the previous episode.

- The kid’s adorable little freak out.-

- Giving us a better idea on how large the reference room of the B06-32 shelter truly is.

- Finally being able to hear our boy Nat play the piano. The fact that his first song is named “Nat King Cool” as a possible reference to Nat King Cole is also great.

- Rossi being an accurate representation of the manga readers while watching this episode.

- Chris being his cute self.

- Seeing Ray’s sleeping face after the manga denied us so many times by hiding it.

- It’s.. close enough. We love our chef.

- I love the idea that Nat plays a couple songs before everyone goes to sleep. That’s so precious.

- SHE!! With her hair down!

- Rossi teasing Don and the fact that just mentioning Gilda is enough to scare him.

- It remembered that Gilda has a tendency to count all the children.

- The level of confidence Isabella has in her kids.

- Ray being oh so close to shooting a human with an arrow.

- This hug.

- Chris leading the group through the underground tunnels, which he also does in manga but we learn earlier in this ep it’s due to all the time he’s played down here.

- Because of his extensive knowledge of the shelter’s layout, Chris also guides everyone to one of the secret entrances to escape after he realizes the intruders are only stationed at the main two.

- Ray’s first demon kill is smooth as hell.

- Curse this scene for being so dark because that damn smile Isabella gives us is amazing.

- Since Andrew was cut, Chris and Dominic survive the aftermath of the shelter’s destruction without any injuries.

- Although we weren’t expecting to see their older 2047 selves this soon, they look good okay?

- The emotion in her voice throughout this entire scene (probably the closest we were ever gonna get to Emma doubting herself in ch109/114 too).

- Please just let me enjoy this moment when Ray noticed her negative thoughts and stepped in to help just as I expected.

- Vylk and that goofy smile of his.

- Watching the duo communicate without words during the chase through the demon town.

- Our girl clearing this jump effortlessly.

- Norman’s squishy cheeks.

- Ray’s slap could’ve been better, I know, but at this point I’m happy they still included it.

- The fact we can see Ray’s face during the reunion hug this time.

- And this hug.

- Remembering the small panel of Ray noticing Emma’s bluff.

- Finally hearing this conversation because both voice actors do a wonderful job with it and thankfully the dialogue is on par with the manga as well. Also that one moment when the shadow falls across Emma’s face like that.

- Gilda comforting Alicia after her nightmare.

- The scene is very dear to me so of course I appreciate every little panel we can get.

- How carefree Ray sounded with his “Nopes.”

- How I only realized just now that this panel was also adapted.

- Okay so who’s brilliant idea was it to have the sun rise towards the end of this conversation as Ray helps Emma regain her confidence? I just wanna personally thank them because it was a genius move and I’ll treasure it forever.

- They kept Barbara’s slip-up.

- Like our demon friends, I think the Lambda crew’s voices fit them rather well, although Zazie’s was totally unexpected, like dude you’re 5, why is your voice so low?

- Another “it could’ve been better but at least they included it” moment.

- Vincent’s smile here cracks me up and I don’t know why.

- Barbara’s anger.

- The short snippet we get of the ch126 conversation when the duo was visiting Chris.

- The table from Barbara’s outrage was never magically fixed like it was in manga, so we get this nice shot of Norman reflected in the broken surface.

- The trio’s conversation about the royals and cursed blood follows manga relatively well.

- Anime did this panel better, I’m sorry. Thank you for showing my girl getting angry.

- This frame of Ray.

- This comment of Norman’s that made me wanna slap him.

- How Norman’s face is constantly in the shadows during this scene, which is something his office at the Paradise hideout probably wouldn’t have given us, so hurray for this location instead.

- How he and Emma bicker over how many days their deal should last.

- When the camera shifts in and out of focus during Barbara’s seizure.

- How this scene hid Norman’s face until they revealed the demon the crew killed.

- It really is the small details that make me happy.

- This smile of Don’s.

- I’ll take all the hugs I can get.

- Emma and Gilda’s little headbutt.

- Why does my boy look so grown up and handsome here? Hello??

- I suppose I have to give credit for Peter’s voice actor too hm?

- Actually making Smee a bit more relevant.

- Since the fight against Legravalima was cut, this shot of Zazie is the closest we’re gonna get to seeing him without his paper bag, but it does improve on that one panel of him at the start of ch153.

- Seeing more of Norman’s time at Lambda as well as the aftermath of the explosion.

- While this scene pales in comparison to its manga counterpart, having the sun set behind him while Norman delivers his famous line was still a decent touch. It’s a nice contrast to the sunrise in ep6 and I enjoy it very much.

- Wild demons managing to somehow successful jump scare me not once, not twice, but three times in a single episode.

- Emma getting back up to protect her family despite her injury. (i mean, it’s no ch93 comeback but oh well)

- Ray getting in another decent shot at a demon.

- This face of his.

- Seeing just how quickly the drug causes the demons to degenerate and all the chaos it causes.

- Actually showing Norman attacking a demon rather than just saying he killed Yverk off panel in ch153.

- Hate me all you want but the anime did this panel better too.

- The ch153 discussion is more or less the same but the fact they added in Norman looking to Ray for help and just having him snap back instead was priceless.

- Sonju’s grin.

- The scene when Norman stops Zazie’s attack may only last like five seconds but it’s wonderfully animated and I find myself replaying it countless times.

- How to make the manga readers and anime-onlys panic with just one sentence:

- Isabella being clever as ever by leaking false info into the radio the escapees have to lure them back to Grace Field.

- I just think Emma looks so mature and pretty here?

- Had Norman actually apologize to the demons.. or was just about to anyways.

- Demon Emma is precious and must be protected.

- The adorable mixup between both Emmas.

- I haven’t a clue on where or how the kids managed to gather all the supplies to create several hot air balloons and explosives.. but they did, somehow, and I’m impressed because I’m assuming that all happened within a day.

- Ma’am, could you be any more smug?

- Simon! And he ends up surviving!

- Having Sonju fight alongside the Lambda crew.

- Which reminds me that this is possible since the Imperial Capital battle didn’t happen (yet, in this timeline), so the three of them never received their injuries from Legravalima either.

- The smoke bombs, only because I remembered how Sonju used them back in ep1 while rescuing Ray so it’s nice to see them being used again.

- Showing Norman actually use a bow and arrow this time. He also hits his target on the first try through a smokescreen.

- Ray having enough strength to knock out two demons with a simple metal pipe. In ch169 he’s seen holding down a grown man so yeah, I can believe this as well.

- Having Jemima, Yvette, Rossi & Mark disguises themselves as shipments in order to rally up the other Grace Field kids. Mark’s face and the noise he makes upon seeing Naila again is also precious.

- Peter actually falling for Vincent’s trap.

- Getting one young child to listen to you is hard enough, but Emma manages to get about 183 of them (yes I counted, give or take the four who also disguised themselves) to follow her orders in no time flat.

- Phil helping with the plan to lead all the children to the elevator.

- It made me nervous upon seeing it but they made the Day & Night ceiling real pretty.

- I knew the reunion was coming and still cried.

- Take all my hell yeahs.

- I could listen to her say this on repeat and be overjoyed every single time.

- She’s beauty, she’s grace, she’ll point at gun in your face.

- Getting to witness someone shoot at Peter since no one did so in the manga? Wonderful. Having that person be Isabella who literally lands a perfect shot not even a full second after he pulls out that disc? Perfection.

- Mujika and Vylk bringing in hundreds of civilian demons as reinforcements.

- James!

- Those real quick shots of the ancestors because I had given up on thinking we would’ve seen them at all since the Seven Walls arc was skipped.

- I’m actually surprised they kept his death in and it’s as harsh as the manga.

- Ray confronting Isabella with the addition of this line.

- This panel being animated along with Emma’s thoughts from ch177 towards Isabella even though that chapter’s major event didn’t happen.

- I certainly can not forget about this hug.

- At least anime!Emma told the boys her plan before reaching the door, or didn’t keep it a total secret? If not then I’ll praise the boys for accepting her crazy idea regardless.

- Boy, do you know how much I love you and your smirks?

- SHE. STAYS. ALIVE!!!

- Vincent and Norman’s little fist bump.

- Different but close enough. Still cute though.

- The amount of emotions this one shot makes me feel is limitless. Catch me crying tears of joy over it for the rest of my life.

- Having Phil not only getting the chance to see a train but to ride one as well.

- This pretty shot of Gilda.

- As well as this beautiful one with Emma and Mujika.

- They gave us older Phil. Not sure how much older but he’s still adorable.

- Lastly, the goddamn soundtrack! Of course we heard a bunch of the songs from season one, but the new ones such as “The Evil-Blooded Girl” and the Arabic version of “Isabella’s Lullaby” are absolutely fantastic. I still have to listen to full soundtrack but from what little bit I heard of such songs such as “Nat King Ballade,” “Crisis,” “Norman’s Lament,” and “The Temple Ruins,” I’m sure every track is an absolute joy. I’m so happy we had Obata back for this season.

And that’s the end of it, I guess? Of course it’s not a perfect list, as the majority of it was just personal favorites of mine but oh well. (this is just as long as ray’s birthday post too, oh lord)

I’m not gonna be one of those manga readers who continuously nag people to go read the original source material, because that’s annoying and I understand that some people just might not be up for it. They might watch a series, take it all in and then move on to the next one. Others might want to find out about every little detail and invest more time into the story. It’s totally fine to enjoy a series your own way and you shouldn’t feel pressured to continue something you’re only mildly interested in or feel bad that you love something others might despise. Just do whatever makes you happy. If you wanna check out the manga and see why us readers love it to pieces, then I promise it’s worth it, especially if you enjoyed the anime or wish to see more of any character.. or the entire story. If the manga ain’t for you, then I hope the anime did something for you. It definitely could have been better though, I can��t argue with that.

Whether you’re anime-only or manga reader, can we all still hope for a remake? This season had more flaws than any amount of praise I could give, but if years down the line we get the FMA: Brotherhood or Hellsing: Ultimate treatment where the next anime adaptation follows the manga perfectly, you know I’ll be all for it. I’m too deep in this TPN hole and I’ll probably never leave.

#the promised neverland #tpn anime #chidoroki used chatter #dont worry.. im still sad as hell about this adaptation.. this season just gave me a little excitement.. thats all #hey i re-watched this season so you wouldnt have to #..not like that says much considering ill probably go ahead and watch the dub too.. ah something is seriously wrong with me

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fanfalc-616 · 4 years ago

Text

The Rights Of A Nindroid

Chapter Fifteen

(Prevoius Chapter Here)

(Discord Here)

Been a while since I’ve posted, sorry about that-

I’m supposed to be in school rn lol

When finally taken back to the lockers, after thirty exhausting hours, Cryptor feels as though he’s on the verge of a forced shutdown.

The damn brat had switched out with someone else, claiming something about an internship. And that had at least meant that the one hurting him no longer had a personal vendetta, but it was still painful.

Cryptor hates how close he had come to actually asking them to hurt Zane instead, but he didn’t. Though judging by the way the other looks when the two of them are put in the locker, they hurt him anyway.

DID THEY GIVE YOU A CHOICE TOO?

Zane doesn’t answer for a moment, likely out of surprise or maybe exhaustion.

I DIDNT GIVE IN

Cryptor snorts. Of course he didn’t. He’s a self-sacrificing dumbass, and it had been that knowledge that had allowed Cryptor to hang on himself.

HOW LONG A BREAK DO YOU THINK WELL GET?

It’s a morbid game, really, but the two of them had taken to guessing how long they would get before dragged out for testing or torture.

AT LEAST SIX HOURS WE WERE THERE FOR OVER A DAY

Mulls over the words, Cryptor considers the idea. Zane’s probably right, but he feels like arguing.

OR THEYLL WANT TO BEAT IT INTO US WITH A SHORTER ONE

There’s a pause, and Cryptor takes a moment to hate himself. Yes, start an argument with his one friend, that’s a wonderful idea.

IS SOMEONE HAVING A BAD DAY?

Cryptor snorts. Good, Zane can tell when he’s only pretending to argue. Probably picked that up from his teammates.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The friendly banter continues for a while, but Cryptor can eventually feel himself shutting down from exhaustion.

He taps out a goodbye and a quick explanation before falling asleep, hoping- but not expecting- that they’ll get today off.

{ { { { { { { { { { ~ } } } } } } } } } }

Jay is starting to lose his grip.

Kai had gotten himself under house arrest by breaking into the government building- which he neglected to tell them the location of before doing so- and since they live on the Bounty, they’re stuck grounded so that the police can make sure that Kai’s not leaving.

Also he’s been sulking the whole time.

It’s already been almost two months, but he still has another four left, and everyone on the ship is going crazy from it.

“I am this close to renting a hotel until his house arrest is over.” Nya holds up her hand so that her pointer finger and thumb are almost touching.

Cole sighs, shaking his head. “I’d join you, but at this point I’m scared of leaving him unsupervised.”

Jay laughs a little. “Honestly, what could he do that’s worse than what he’s already done?”

The two immediately snap over to looking at him.

“Are you trying to jinx it?!” Cole groans. “You know full well how crazy he can get when it comes to protecting us.”

Wincing, Jay accepts the point. “That’s fair. But I doubt he would-“

Lloyd comes running into the room. “Kai left the ship. He tied his house arrest bracelet to the roomba so it would move, and I don’t know where he went.”

Jay blinks. “I stand corrected.”

Then they’re all scrambling to their feet, rushing off to try and find the dumbass hot head that is Kai.

Cole runs outside, probably off to go look at his usual hiding places- he’s run off before, but never under house arrest.

Nya goes to her computer, most likely going to try and track his phone- that’s her usual go-to for when one of them goes off to do something stupid.

He’s not entirely sure where Lloyd’s going, but he probably has some kind of plan.

But before Jay has the chance to come up with his own, his BorgPhone rings with a number that he doesn’t recognize.

A flash of fear takes over him. Oh, Kai better not have gotten captured. What happens if he has? They might hurt him, he might go to prison, he could get into all kinds of trouble!

With shaky hands, Jay hits accept and holds the phone up to his ear.

“Hey, this is Jay Walker. Who is this and how have I ruined your life?” Somehow, he manages to keep his voice from shaking.

“It’s more of your boyfriend who’s doing that.” Sentry grumbles. “I found Kai sneaking into Borg Tower- he was trying to find more hints of ways to rescue Zane. Please come and get him before he gets caught- I shoved him in a back room to keep people from finding him, but he’ll probably find a way out pretty soon.”

Jay curses softly. “Of course he did. Okay, I’m on my way.” He starts to head out even as he speaks, silently complaining about how reckless his boyfriend can be. He loves him, he really does, but sometimes- like now- he really wants to slap him.

It takes him around fifteen minutes to make it to Borg Tower, and when he steps inside, Sentry is standing right next to the door.

“He escapes from the room, so I put him in the timeout corner. He’s handcuffed to the wall, but I’m pretty sure that-“

Jay blinks a few times. “Wh- why do you have a timeout corner? And why does it have handcuffs?”

Sighing, Sentry shakes his head. “The white nindroids were created recently and are pretty immature,” he explains, “so a timeout is a pretty effective way to get them to behave. The handcuffs are for when they still don’t listen- now come on, we should hurry before he finds a way out.”

So Jay lets the nindroid lead him through the tower, trying to stop the way he’s nervously jittering. It- it’ll be fine, it’ll be totally and completely fi-

They come into a back room where Kai is in a chair and in handcuffs that are attached to the wall, forcing his hands above his head.

Jay glances over at Sentry. “Uh-“

“We have two timeout corners. This one is for the nindroids who cause trouble repeatedly. Or in this case, the ninja who does that.” He glares at Kai, but the red ninja looks utterly unapologetic.

“I need to rescue Zane. And you didn’t have to call someone to pick me up, I’m not some child in a school’s principal’s office.” Kai huffs, shifting in his bonds.

Jay starts to try and tell him that he’s totally acting like he’s just got his parents called in an office, but Sentry shakes his head, and speaks up.

“There’s a back door you can take him out so that he doesn’t get caught, but keep a better handle on him next time. We really don’t need him getting an actual prison sentence.”

Glancing at his boyfriend, Jay thinks for a moment, trying to figure out if he’d actually be able to get Kai out of here without being seen.

“I’m going to call Cole,” he decides, “he’ll be able to carry him out of here.”

“I can walk!” Kai protests, looking betrayed. “I don’t need to be carried-“

Sentry nods. “Probably a good idea. He might put up a fight on the way out.”

“I can hear you, you know! I’m right here.” Kai sounds annoyed and frustrated, and Jay sighs, feeling himself cave a little.

“It’s okay, Fire-Hazard. I’ll talk Nya out of murdering you, so long as you promise to actually stay on the ship this time.”

At his words, Kai pales a little. It’s clear he hadn’t thought about how his sister would react to him running off.

“I’ll behave.” He grumbles, clearly unhappy about it. “But I can’t just do nothing.”

With a start, Jay realizes that he’s right. The reason that he keeps doing stupid things is because he needs to be doing something to help- if he doesn’t, he’s going to feel like he’s failing Zane.

So they need to come up with something that he could work on, some way he could get them closer to freeing him.

Maybe if he was working on part of the plan…

Jay looks over at Sentry. “We’re looking for legal loopholes right now, right? Could he help you try and find some? From the computer on the ship, I mean.”

Kai perks up a little, and Sentry looks like he’s considering the idea.

“Will that keep him out of trouble?” He sounds hesitant, but Jay quickly nods.

“He just wants to help, give him a way to do that and he’ll be fine.”

The nindroid looks over at Kai. “Is he seriously going to be able to look through legal documents for longer than thirty seconds?” He sounds unamused, but he pauses again when he sees Kai’s determined expression.

“I looked through a ton of them to break in. I’ll do whatever it takes to get him out.”

After hesitating for only a moment longer, Sentry nods. “Alright,” he agrees, “I’ll send over some I haven’t gotten to yet.”

So Jay ends up only calling Cole so that he can let the others know that Jay found him, and Kai actually walks back without putting up a fuss.

It takes a bit of work to get him on the ship stealthily enough so that any potential cameras couldn’t see, but they manage it.

However, when they step onto the bridge, the three others look annoyed beyond belief.

After a pause, Kai chuckles nervously. “On a scale of one to ten, how much trouble am I in?”

“Eleven.” Nya’s smile expresses anything but happiness, and Cole and Lloyd look only slightly less upset.

Somehow, Jay manages to uphold his promise, talking Nya out of giving Kai some five hour lecture that would probably make him regret existing.

Lloyd grabs Stabby and re-attaches the house arrest bracelet, and it’s not long after that the red ninja is in front of the computer, having about seven files open that he’s comparing and researching.

Later, Cole comes up to him. “The research thing was good thinking; it’ll keep him distracted while still allowing him to help.”

Jay flashes him a smile. “What can I say? I actually have good ideas sometimes.”

Cole smirks. “That’s debatable.”

“You literally just told me that I had a good idea.” Jay reminds with his own grin.

With an overly thoughtful expression, Cole strokes his chin. “Did I? I don’t remember that.”

“Wow, and here I was with the idea that elephants never forget.” Jay snarks back, barely containing his snickers.

Mock gasping, Cole puts a hand over his chest. But as he starts to teasingly reply, his smile fades, and he looks down.

“... Zane loved mock arguments.” He murmurs softly, pain suddenly written on his face.

Jay feels his own cheerfulness drain a little. “It took a while to teach him how, but he got pretty good at them.” He quietly agrees as he remembers the difficulty Zane had used to have with humor.

“He got pretty good at them though.” Cole’s smile is more pained now, but it’s there.

With a soft chuckle, Jay nods. “Absolutely trashed us with them.”

But then the emotions are over taking him, and Jay feels himself shaking at the thought of his titanium boyfriend. Who knows what they’re doing to him, from Kai’s recount they’ve been outright torturing him, he-

Cole puts a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay.” He speaks softly, and his voice is uncertain, as though he’s not really sure of himself, even though it sounds like he’s trying to keep it steady.

Jay nods weakly, feeling tears burn at the back of his eyes. “It’ll be okay.” He repeats softly, desperately trying to believe the words.

In the end, Cole has to coax both him and Kai into bed with gentle reassurances and promises that he sounds slightly unsure of, but at this point, Jay’s too desperate to think about how he might be wrong.

He just wants Zane back… is that really too much to ask for?

Apparently, because it doesn’t seem that they’ll be getting him back anytime soon.

That night, even when cuddled in the arms of his other boyfriends, he cries himself to sleep.

Zane will be okay. He has to be okay.

Jay won’t be able to take it if he’s not.

#the rights of a nindroid #ninjago zangst #zangst #ninjago fanfiction #psychological torture #torture #trauma

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lloydshoulddyehishair · 4 years ago

Text

Paint Fight | Ninjago Calendar, June

Summary: In which Jay starts a paint fight with his friends because why not.

Sometimes Lloyd asked himself what he had done to deserve everything life threw at him.

As if it wasn’t enough to have his first love turn out to be a manipulative psychopath and have his dad resurrected from the dead as a soulless shell of who he once was, Cloud Kingdom had decided to top it of and throw a demon-invasion and a near-death experience at him.

And Lloyd Garmadon definitely wouldn’t be Lloyd Garmadon if he didn’t isolate himself from everyone close to him after a, yet another, traumatic event.

It was like a routine at this point. Everytime they got back from an adventure Lloyd would usually lock himself up in his room for a few days and then come back like nothing ever happened. He knew it wasn’t healthy - ignoring your emotions and stuffing them into a little box, hoping that they’ll never make it to the light of day, that no one would ever notice how much he really struggled. But there really wasn’t any other alternative for him, it was the only way he knew to cope and the others had stopped trying to get him to talk a long time ago.

Or at least so he thought, because right now the leader's door was being opened and revealed frizzy red hair and nervous blue eyes staring at him.

“Hey Lloyd, uhm, could I ask you something?”

“If this is about my Starfarer Video Game you can just take it-”

“N, no, no!”, his smaller friend interrupted him and sat down on his bed, playing with his fingers in an anxious manner, avoiding his gaze.

"You know, you've been isolating yourself and- I mean I totally get that, I get why, but- I miss doing stuff with y'all.", Lloyd blinked, trying to process what Jay was telling him. Jay usually wasn’t one to reach out like that, normally he’d keep to himself and just spend even more time with Cole and Nya, while being sad about the fact that he missed the others.

“But if you don’t want to, that’s fine of course! Don’t feel pressured, especially since you’re still recovering.”, the blond winced.

If there was one thing he hated most in the world it was his friends’ pity.

“It’s fine. I’ll join y’all.”, the redheads eyes lit up as that stupid grin - that was just so jay - appeared on his face.

“Great, I already got something planned!”

------

Surprisingly Lloyd wishes he had never agreed to Jay's offer.

It wasn't that he didn't like spending time with his family, it was just that he didn't really know how to talk to them anymore. As a matter of fact it seemed like no one really did. The silence between them as they cleaned the dust off of the walls, like Jay had told them to, was almost suffocating.

“Why are we even doing this?”, Kai spoke up as he rolled his eyes in frustration. “Has Jay turned into Sensei Wu now and makes us do chores?”, Lloyd couldn’t help but chuckle.

Zane eyed them with a tiny smirk before continuing the task. “Well, I personally find cleaning to be very calming.”

“If that’s the case I’ll gladly have you clean my room!”, Jay called out as he stumbled outside with multiple buckets of paint, which sooner than later found themselves tumbling to the floor. “Now that didn’t go to plan.”, he muttered. “Ayways! Everyone come get their bucket!”

The others started walking up to him, taking the bucket of their respective colour.

“I don’t mean to sound like I’m judging or something but what exactly is your plan?”

“Oh Lloyd, isn’t it obvious? We’re going to paint the walls!”

All eyes fell on Jay in absolute disbelief.

“Sensei Wu will kill us! We can’t just paint the walls!”

“Going after our reputation this monastery won’t stand for long anyways. I give it 6 months before it is destroyed again.”, Nya sighed as she went to grab a paintbrush out of a bag Jay had brought with him.

Cole winced. He was more than familiar with the fate their homes usually faced. “I mean, you’re not wrong but still, you know? I don’t think Sensei is going to be too pleased.”

“Good thing he isn’t supposed to be back before tomorrow, so we got enough time to plan our escape.”, the Blue Ninja grinned, giving everyone a brush to paint with.

Maybe he didn’t regret this too much after all.

------

“Nya, if I was a worm, would you still love me?”

“I swear if you don’t shut your mouth-”

------

“Should I go inside and get us some ice cream?”, Zane asked, interrupting the silence that had once again fallen between them after they had started their paintings on the walls.

Cole’s eyes practically begged his friend to do what he had just offered. “Please, it’s so hot!”

“It’s not, it’s… rather mild, I guess.”

“Kai, no offence but you are literally the Master of Fire.”, Lloyd smirked slightly. “But yes Zane, it would be really nice if you could do that.”, he gave his nindroid friend one more smile before he stepped inside, making his way to the kitchen.

“You know, Cole, I think paint is fairly cold.”

“What are you hinting at, Bluebell-”, next thing they knew chaos erupted.

Cole watched the blue paint dripping from his face to the ground with a shocked expression.

“Any cooler?”, the Master of Lightning grinned at him.

“I’ll show you ‘cooler’!”, Cole yelled out, grabbing his own bucket and running after his best friend.

“Nya, save me!”, she couldn’t help but laugh at her boyfriend’ childishness.

“Coming!”, she calls, grabbing a bucket, as did her brother.

Sometimes Lloyd loved his family for being so stupid.

------

And sometimes Lloyd hated himself for being stupid.

You would think that after near-death experience number 37 and just barely getting away with a concussion and multiple bruises that he would start to pay more attention to his surroundings and be more careful.

You would also think wrong because as it turns out “careful” was something that just didn’t suit the blond.

And before he knew it he slipped on a puddle of paint and landed head first on the ground.

A pained moan escaped his mouth as his vision darkened for a second, everything started spinning.

Lloyd didn’t even get to sit up before Kai was already crouching down next to him, eyeing him in worry and grabbing his arm.

“Gosh Lloyd, you need to watch out, you’re still hurt!”, the younger tried to rid himself of his brother's grip, in vain. He rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Kai, I'm okay! Can you please just-"

"You need to be more careful! I always tell you that and you never listen! When will you start listening to me? When it’s too late?", suddenly everything around Lloyd seemed to come to an halt.

He knew Kai meant well, he always did, but he hated it more than anything when his brothers babyed him.

"Kai, I absolutely do not want your pity.", he spoke more harshly than he wanted to, pulling away from the brunette and standing up again.

“I’m not pitying you, I’m watching out for you-”

“Well you’re most certainly not doing a good job at it then.”, Lloyd had regretted many things in his life so far, releasing the Serpentine, banishing his father to the Departed Realm, but this - this was probably one of the actions he regretted most in his life so far.

Kai’s eyes widened in shock.

“This isn’t fair.”

“Life hasn’t been fair to us for a long while now Kai and you know tha-”, the teens sentence died in his throat as a loud noise interrupted them.

The elder gasped as he put his hand on his - now pink stained - hair. “Hey, watch the hair!”

"Where the hell did you get that from?!", Lloyd yells, hiding himself behind his big brother

Nya simply grinned, pointing the paint-gun in their direction once again.

"I have my ways."

------

“I say we all team up on Jay!”, Cole calls out across the yard.

“What?! 5 against 1? That’s unfair!”,

“Fair?”, Lloyd yells as he grabbed another bucket filled with red paint. “Fair isn’t a word where I come from!”, he screams, running after Jay, eventually cornering him with the help of the others.

“Oh come on guys.”, the lightning ninja laughs nervously. “It doesn’t have to end like this.”

“It started with you, it will end with you.”, Kai smirks.

They were ready to empty their paint buckets over his head, that was until they heard someone clear their throat behind them.

In shock they turned around, just to meet stern yellow eyes.

“What’s the matter of this.”

“Sensei Wu! I thought you weren’t supposed to be back until-”

“Tomorrow, yes.”, the old sensei cut Nya off. “But my trip was cut short, so I went home just to be greeted by-”, he looked around himself, at the stained floor, puddles of now half dried paint and empty metal buckets. “-this.”

“I promise Sensei, we will clean everything up!”, the blond reassured his uncle.

“Lloyd?”, he looked at the others in disbelief. “You let my nephew join in on this? You know he is still recovering! As are you Cole!”

“I swear Sensei, I’m feeling way better-”

“No. I don’t want to hear it. Starting tomorrow you will clean this mess up and we will start training again. Every day you will have-”

Jay gasped. “Sensei, no! Please!”

“-Sunrise training.”, this six groaned in unison. “Except for Cole and Lloyd, you’ll join when I tell you to, until then you’ll stay in bed.”

“Yes, Sensei.”, they bowed slightly, waiting for Wu to leave.

Just as Sensei stepped inside the monastery, Zane stepped back outside in the yard, ice cream in hand. His face as he tried to understand what had caused the chaos and the stains on his friends’ clothes made them all start to laugh.

Maybe today hadn’t been as bad as Lloyd thought it would be.

------

Once again the part-human found himself alone, this time though not in his room but watching the sunset on the stairs in front of the monastery and eating the ice cream Zane had brought them. His thoughts remained the same however. Guilt was slowly starting to consume his mind, especially after the short interaction he had shared with Kai during the paint fight.

He smiled slightly. The childish fight was probably the most fun he had had since everything with the Sons of Garmadon started to unravel.

He didn’t like to think about it. It made him sad, thinking about how broken and alone he had felt, still did at sometimes.

He also didn’t like to think about all the sleepless nights he had spent, wondering why his friends had to die. Of course they hadn’t actually been dead, but sometimes - just sometimes - Lloyd was scared that if he closed his eyes for too long that they would slip away again.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a red figure approaching and sitting down next to him, interrupting his thoughts.

He said nothing, did nothing, simply staring ahead - waiting for Lloyd to make the first move.

“You know.”, the blond said, staring forward, just like his brother did. “I didn’t want to snap at you like that. Earlier today, I mean.”, he sighed as he placed his chin in his palm. "None of it was your fault..", Kai winced.

"I know you didn't want to.", he felt a hand being put on his shoulder. "I just wish you wouldn't always throw yourself into danger. I know it's hypocritical of me to say this but-", the elder paused and took his hand. "You need to start thinking things through.", Lloyd laughed.

"You're one to talk."

Kai's face softened. "I know, I haven't been the best example but that's why I want you to be better, you know?”

Lloyd just nodded, leaning his head against his brother's shoulder.

“I don’t want to someday wait for you to come back from a mission and have you-”, he let out a heavy sigh as he squeezed the smaller’s shoulder. “Never return.”

“I get that, I feel the same about you guys.”

“I’d sure hope so. I mean who else could you have paint fights with if not for us.”, the Master of Fire chuckles slightly before standing up again. “But we should probably head inside before Sensei beats our asses, especially yours.”, he pauses as he runs his hand through his messed up hair. “Also should probably wash that out.”

“I don’t know.”,the younger grins as he walks towards the monastery. “Pink suits you.”

“Please, Zane has already claimed pink, thanks to you.”, Kai laughs. “Maybe I’ll go orange.”

“Don’t give me ideas because I absolutely will dye your hair in your sleep.”

“Oh, I don’t think so, Green Machine!”, he calls out sprinting towards him, making Lloyd run from him in a laughing fit.

Yeah, today was definitely not as bad as he had thought it would be.

#ninjago #ninjago calendar 2021 june #ninjago fanfiction #ninjago lloyd #ninjago kai #saga writes

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crystalgirl259 · 4 years ago

Text

The Flame and the Dragon Ch19

Chapter 19: The Gift

The cold wind bit mercilessly at Kai's exposed neck and cheeks. It had been snowing heavily for almost a week and snow blanketed the landscape once the blizzard ceased. Thick icicles hung from the balconies and roofs of the castle, and snow caked the roofs and towers. But the frosted surface, open fields of white hills, and frosted trees created the perfect environment for the playful staff. White, fluffy snow crunched loudly beneath his fur-lined paddock boots.

Harumi gave Kai a new pair of thick leather riding breeches and a long-sleeved, form-fitting, dark crimson turtleneck.

Over the outfit, he wore a long, red fur coat that covered most of his skinny frame. Soft fur tickled his skin and snuggly hugged the warmth to his body while the leather exterior managed to block any wind that dared try and penetrate it. Kai spun around a couple of times admiring the new coat from all angles and wondering what Cole would think if he saw him in it. Flame trotted beside him, overjoyed to see his master again. Nelson was running around the castle grounds with them, excited to see and touch a real-life horse for the first time in over a century.

The stallion was happy to let the boy pet him and ride on his back.

He always loved attention, just like his owner. The horse suddenly snorted into Kai's spikey hair and rubbed against his arms. He sniffed Kai's jacket and started digging through it Kai laughed at the treatment and pulled a juicy red apple from his pocket. He grinned as Flame's dark eyes lit up and he carefully snatched the apple from his master's hand and devoured the tasty treat. When he was finished he licked Kai's cheek, making the teen laugh loudly.

None of them noticed Cole admiring them from the balcony, watching the stallion triumphantly gallop across the snow-covered plains.

A small smile was on Cole's face when he watched Flame play with Kai and Nelson. His main focus was on his captive, though once in his thoughts the word no longer seemed appropriate. He felt a small jump in his chest when Kai smiled and laugh when Nelson tried racing Flame. Cole realized that was the first time he'd ever truly seen Kai smile or laugh. The teenager smiled brilliantly and laughed alongside Nelson as he had never before experienced something so enjoyable in his life.

It was a stark contrast to the feisty character he'd become accustomed to.

Just the sight of Kai's warm smile he'd kept hidden from him melted Cole's frozen heart. His breath hitched being suddenly exposed to the most innocent and blissful side of the otherwise resolute and world-hardened young man. For a brief moment, Cole would've given anything to have Kai smile at him like that. Subconsciously, his hand touched his bandaged torso beneath his opened coat. He hadn't bothered wearing a shirt under it, in case Kai insisted he changes the bandages again.

The wound had fully healed by now.

It had taken much longer than he thought it would have, and had no doubt it could've been a lot worse, had it not been for the teen's persistence. Cole had never felt this way before. His claws subconsciously moved to his chest as if feeling his heartbeat for the first time as it thundered in his chest. He sighed in frustration and started back towards his room, and down the stairs. Cole collapsed into his favorite chair at the head of the dining room table and sank to the seat.

His hands started massaging his temples in a desperate act to help him think but it did little to help.

His attention turned to the wide window, the curtains were drawn open. He could only faintly see the dots of his captive and his servants, but that perfect smile Kai had worn so effortlessly burned vividly in his mind. He sighed and collapsed his upper body against the table. A small stab of pain filled his chest at the realization that he was probably the only one who hadn't had the honor of seeing Kai smile like that. Or maybe he had and didn't realize it.

He had felt this foreign emotion for reasons he assumed was simply because he hadn't had time to focus on them.

When he saw Kai today, playing in the snow with Nelson he'd normally just think it was childish or idiotic when the only thing they'll do is get cold and wet, but he'd never felt this way before. Like he'd do anything to him smile like that all the time. With that thought, Cole rose to his feet, eyes bright with determination. He wanted to do something for him and not as a thank you or a repayment, just for the hell of it. He'd heard through the grapevine that Kai loved books, though the statement didn't surprise him.

It seemed natural that Kai would possess an artistic soul.

An idea formed in Cole's mind, forming a grin. With that, he turned around and burst from the room, radiating an aura that could rival the people playing outside in the snow...

****************

After putting Flame back in the stables and Nelson had said goodbye because he had some chores to do, Kai had intended to go and find someplace to get warmed up again and rid the cold from his bones. That is until Cole suddenly pulled him aside and said that he had something to show the teen. Kai was confused by that, but his curiosity won and he followed close behind the Dragon Lord as they walked to his surprise. Neither of them said anything.

It was like when Kai first arrived at the castle, but there was now hardly any tension between them.

Kai recognized the way to the ballroom, only instead of entering, Cole continued walking, so Kai followed him. The brunette looked around at the area of the castle he had yet to explore. Large curtains pooled like waterfalls of gold and silver around the enormous windows. The pale moonlight poured through them illuminating the different posed dragon statues standing in between each window. The hallway ended in front of two curved-shaped ivory doors outlined in gold, beneath a glittering emerald tapestry embroidered with a huge silver tree.

Cole suddenly came to a stop and Kai barely managed to stop walking straight into the hybrid's back.

He opened his mouth to speak, but again was cut off, this time by a sudden blackness wrapping around his eyes.

"Cole, what are you doing?" He asked as his hands instinctively moved to remove the blindfold, but Cole stopped him.

"It's a surprise, and I can't have you spoiling it by peeking." He said, loosely tying the cloth securely around Kai's eyes. He kept his paw on Kai's hands. Kai sighed and let Cole guide him.

"Can't you trust me by now? What if I promise not to open my eyes?"

"I do trust you, but I also know your curiosity has a nasty little habit of always getting the better of you." He admitted. The scream of wooden doors opening filled Kai's ears. Temporarily blinded, he let Cole guide him inside the mysterious room. They stopped in the middle of the room, and Cole let go of his hands.

"Can I take this thing off now?" Kai said more impatiently than he meant to sound, but there was anxiousness that didn't go unnoticed by Cole.

"Not yet." He whispered. A swoop sound and a gust of wind was his only warning, followed by the screech of reeling curtain holders. The light brightened the darkness covering his eyes and Kai wondered if that was moonlight.

"Now?" He asked with the anticipation of a child waiting for a birthday present. A loud thump was his answer.

"Now," Cole said as he carefully cut the blindfold and moved so he could see Kai's reaction. Kai kept his eyes closed for a second, momentarily fearing what he was going to see but his enthusiasm won and they slowly opened, then bulged with joy. A gasp of delight escaped his mouth and his cheeks flushed with happiness. He spun around taking in the wonder around him and resisted the urge to pinch himself in case he was dreaming all of this.

"This is incredible!" Kai breathed, his amber eyes alive and bright with childish wonder as they took in his special surprise. He was in the largest, most magnificent library he had ever seen. The room was enormous and rectangular with a roof that curved to a slope. Books lined all four of the walls so tall ladders were placed on them in intervals. The shelves were separated only by two enormous stained glass windows stretching all the way to the ceiling.

The moonlight illuminating them in a way the sunlight never could.

In the corner, an elegant golden staircase with spiral patterns carved into the wooden banisters spiraled to a second floor, an entire open circle overlooking the first floor. The bookcases on the second level, looped together like a giant circle stopping just at the base of a huge mural painted in rich detail upon the ceiling. A midnight blue dotted with silver stars with bigger ones forming constellations, whose true forms were painted in brilliant gold lines.

On the ground floor, globes were dotted around as well as several couches and chairs.

Two or three large desks made from giant smoothed slabs of stone made a suitable workstation on either side of the room. Two bookcases stretched from the walls stood on either side of an enormous white marble fireplace trimmed with gold and interline with black onyx. Just above it behind the banister of the second floor rested another huge stain glass window. Only this one was arched and was decorated with the symbol for the Tree of Knowledge.

But what stunned Kai the most were the books.

They were different from the ones he was used to. Each book was an antique, bound in velvet, leather, or hardcovers with thick hinges. Some had locks while others had jewels embedded in the cover. Older volumes had simple plain leather or velvet coverings with only the title on the side. Others were painted a vibrant blue, red or green. Age had dulled the colors, but none of them lost their wisdom. Upon closer inspection, he noticed each elegantly carved bookcase had a sliding glass cover protecting the books from air and moisture.

Even the second floor has multiple glass doors despite the circular shape, showing him these books had not just been well-used but loved and cared for.

Kai practically jumped with excitement, before bolting around and pouncing on Cole in a hug so sudden he almost fell over.

"I take it you like it?" He laughed.

"I love it! I've never seen so many books in my life, or such an amazing place, I mean look at this!" The teen beamed as he raced around like a kid in a candy store, admiring each shelf, each globe, each desk, the fireplace, then bolting up the spiral staircase and exploring the entire top section. He moved so fast Cole got dizzy following him.

"Thank you!" Kai smiled when he came back downstairs, and hugged him tightly. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"I'm glad you enjoy it." Cole's smile brightened. Kai's face was almost an exact mirror of the one he'd seen earlier. "Because it's yours." He added and Kai gasped in shock. He examined the hybrid's face for any hint of lies, but when he saw none, the brunette squealed in delight as he wrapped Cole in a tight hug.

"Oh, thank you so much!"...

#The Flame and the Dragon #beauty and the beast #ninjago #lavashipping #ninjago cole #ninjago kai #ninjago jay #ninjago zane #ninjago lloyd #ninjago nya #ninjago nelson #ninjago tox #ninjago shade #ninjago neuro #ninjago echo #ninjago harumi #ninjago morro

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virlath · 4 years ago

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Analysing the implications of the Horror of Hormak

**Tevinter Nights spoilers**

The Horror of Hormak was one of the most interesting stories to me because it highly suggests that at least one of the evanuris, Ghilan’nain, is currently active.

Active in the sense that she now seems to be directing darkspawn to re-open her underground horror chambers and create armies of monsters as they “wait for her". This implies it is very likely Ghilan’nain is corrupted with the taint herself and is further evidence (imo) that she is likely imprisoned in the Black City.

===

In the story, Friedl, a warden-recruit, tells of her escape from Ghilan’nain’s chamber of horrors:

We went too far. Too deep. Something’s down there, something bad. We thought it was darkspawn but it’s worse. Because it’s different, you see? Not the same at all. Not twisted but made—created. Three died. They were lucky. I wasn’t. Escaped. But not really.

...

Don’t make me go back. Not there, not where they are. I will not. I cannot. We must leave. This place to her, to them!” She began to hit the ground; sobs turned to screams that grew louder and louder. “They build it for her! They wait for her! I am free—I paid the price!”

Further into the story as the warden party led by Ramesh delve into Hormak, they discover some old lyrium charges that are possibly as “old as the dwarves”.

Something drew his eye—a half dozen or so small drums, bearing an unknown dwarven mark, were piled at a comfortable distance from the fires. They seemed old—perhaps as old as the dwarves—but they were in remarkably good condition....

“Lyrium charges. The dwarves use them to remove obstacles, open up passages. I’ve seen them before, though none of this make.”

This suggests darkspawn willingly and knowingly dragged these charges here to uncover the brine pool horror chamber hiding behind a secret door.

This also reveals elves and dwarves have a significant intertwining history we have yet to learn about.

She pointed at the bottom of the section of wall. There, almost imperceptible, were a series of grooves. Handholds, barely visible.

As they descend past the secret door into the chamber of horrors, they notice carvings on the wall:

The creature changed a bit each time, as did the figure, but the priestess remained the same. Or at least, almost the same. It was perhaps the oppressive nature of the place acting upon his worst fears, but it seemed to him that the priestess’s smile grew a little wider, and a little crueler, with each subsequent image.

Finally, they enter the final chamber, where they discover a chamber of created darkspawn monstrosities.

The entire room was a menagerie of horror, each creature worse than the last. This was an army. Not darkspawn, though—something worse.

Just as the group are about to be decimated by the “darkspawn” army, an alpha creature-centipede writhes and turns to reveal itself as one half of their friend, Warden Jovis. Somehow, grey warden blood reacts differently when in contact with the brine pool, and Jovis was able to retain a part of himself at least until they arrived.

We drank. Works differently for us. Can’t just touch it, we need it inside. Takes a while. They turned us. Two halves, two wholes. Trying to be two ones. But I stayed me, and it hates that

I theorise this is because grey wardens have a “mans soul ...which is not so malleable” as a darkspawn’s (who are believed to be soulless, but I think there must a more complex explanation considering the sentient darkspawn in Awakening).

Jovis struggles to retain his human reasoning with his “other half”:

The buzz returned to the voice, insistent. “And we waited for you! Oh, yes! Now you come.” The creature screamed, and Jovis’s voice came back.

“Can’t let this out. Got to . . . bury it. Bury me.” The words came even more slowly, each one being forced through whatever will battled Jovis’s for control of the creature. “She cannot have it. Not again. Locked for a reason.”

And as if all of this wasn’t horrific enough, the end of the story reveals there are eleven more chambers like this scattered underneath mountains in Thedas.

===

While it’s pretty clear the conspirator behind this operation is very likely Ghilan’nain, the question of how she is currently directing the darkspawn remains.

The only possible way she could speak to darkspawn and get them to do her bidding is if she herself is tainted. And as we know, the Black City likely houses the taint and is ground zero for the blight as we currently know it. This leads me to believe she and the other evanuris are likely imprisoned there in the Fade.

The brine pools are also implied to have only recently been purposefully uncovered, as this “variance” of darkspawn has never been seen before.

All of this begs the question, how is Ghilan’nain able to speak to these creatures if she was supposedly imprisoned by Solas, and why now? The fact that the darkspawn are actively creating an army and waiting for her implies she knows it is only a matter of time before she is free. Who is she planning on fighting? Solas? Or Mythal? Or...the whole world in an attempt to reclaim her godhood?

In DAO, Tamlen was infamously tainted through an eluvian which seemingly led to a city underground - a place of blackness (which I believe to be the Black City). Furthermore, Tamlen says “it” saw him through the eluvian, and it was likely what tainted him.

Could Tamlen have been tainted by one of the evanuris, or one of their monster minions? Note the whispers as Tamlen is thrown back from the eluvian...

The Horror of Hormak also makes me question what Cole is talking about when he says they sleep, masked in a mirror, hiding, hurting, and to wake them....

I initially thought this referred to the imprisoned evanuris but now I’m not so certain. Could he instead be referring to the old gods- the two dragons yet to rise as archdemons (who may already be corrupted by the taint)?

For the record I don’t think it was just Ghilan’nain that was creating monstrosities, after all Dirthamen created the varterral, and Andruil turned Ghilan’nain into the first halla. Mythal also seems to hold the golden halla in high regard...and I theorise this is because Ghilan’nain created it for use in one of the many ancient elven wars. Ghilan’nain certainly seems to have had a large part to play in creating monsters for warfare.

We also know red lyrium carries the taint but it predates the first blight for ages. And Solas also says to us “the fools who unleashed the blight thought they were unlocking the ultimate power”. His double-speak is interesting to analyse because he could really be referring to the magisters, or the evanuris, or even some other group here.

Whichever the case, it was the magister’s entry into the Fade and Black city physically that preempted the first blight. I think this is significant.

Perhaps it was in fact the veil that allowed the darkspawn to reproduce for themselves. The darkspawn are different in the Horror of Hormak because they were created, but what if the darkspawn as we know it “evolved” and became broodmothers etc. because the taint affects the unchanging world in a more destructive and permanent way?

Remember, back in Solas�� time, magic and form was directed by will alone. Imshael is seemingly able to reverse the effects of red lyrium, and Mythal was able to nullify the “madness” in Andruil.

In any case, I think all of this supports the theory that it was in fact the evanuris who manipulated the magisters and lured them to the Black City so they could inadvertently spread the taint. This would inevitably lead to their freedom as well as give them an army they could control through the power of the taint.

I still have many questions about how they could pull this off though. How did they access the magister’s dreams in the first place? Are the old gods aspects of the evanuris? Were dragons purposely corrupted and bound just like Corypheus and his red lyrium dragon? He had to have gotten the idea from somewhere and at this point, the evanuris are looking like likely culprits...but I supposed we’ll just have to wait and find out.

#dragon age #da4 #da theories #drabble #ghilan'nain #the horror of hormak #tevinter nights

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itsadamcole · 4 years ago

Text

caught

fem!reader x finn balor

Reader and Finn are best friends. Reader begins to think about Finn in a different way, thinking of him as she relieves herself. She thought she could get away with it ....

word count: 2.1k+

warnings: (some) dirty talking, smut

— enjoy this. it’s something i wrote a while ago but never actually posted or published —

masterlist

~ 18+ content below - read at your own risk ~

You sit in the hotel room and wait for your roommate and best friend Finn to come back from getting something to eat. You decide to watch some highlights from that day's NXT.

Finn had one of the most important matches of his life today. He was in a number one contenders fatal 4-way match against Johnny Gargano, Dexter Lumis, and Adam Cole to find out who gets to fight Keith Lee for his NXT championship. Finn won the match and you want to watch some highlights.

You watch the highlights on your phone.

You always thought Finn looked nice in his ring gear. It was something about it. You didn't know what. Maybe it was the fact that he's an attractive man and he's wearing tights. Tights that accentuate him in places that make you ache between your legs when you see him in ring gear.

After watching the highlights, you find yourself biting your lip and a small throbbing feeling coming from between your legs. You have never thought about Finn as more than your best friend but recently, you've been imagining yourself getting with Finn. Seeing him in his ring gear did not help these thoughts either.

You put your phone down and lay on your back. You need to relieve this feeling you have between your legs. Your thighs rub together for friction.

Fuck it, you think. He doesn't have to know.

You slowly slide a hand down into your sweatpants, rubbing yourself over your underwear. You close your eyes and bite your lip.

As you do this, you think of Finn. This is the first time you've ever done this. This is the first time you've thought about Finn while you pleasure yourself. You've never thought about Finn in a sexual way. You've always had a little crush on him but you never imagined being with him sexually.

Meanwhile, Finn is driving in his car. He's on his way back to the hotel he's staying at with you. He grabbed your favorite meal from McDonald's. He sends you a text while he's stopped at a red light.

He's surprised when you don't reply back to him.

Finn pulls into the hotel parking lot. He grabs the two bags and gets out of his rental car. He locks the car and checks his phone. Still nothing from you.

He walks into the lobby, saying hi to the receptionist at the desk. Finn caught her staring at him as he walked in.

Finn steps onto the elevator, pressing the number 4 button. The doors close and he checks his phone again. Still nothing.

He finds this very unusual. Usually when Finn says that he had food, you ask him every other minute if he's there yet. He thinks that you're probably sleeping.

The elevator dings and Finn steps off. He grabs the keycard out of the back pocket of his jeans. He hears something behind the door as he unlocks it. He thinks it's something you're watching. He slowly opens the door in case your asleep. He steps into the room and gently closes the door. He finally looks over at you on the bed.

Finn's jaw drops at the sight. He finds you with two fingers inside yourself. Your eyes are closed and you're letting soft moans escape.

Your best friend has no idea what to do. He doesn't know if he should leave or make his presence known.

Your back arches off the bed a bit and you let out a soft moan. Finn freezes when he hears it.

"Fuck, Finn."

Finn drops the McDonalds on the floor accidentally. Your eyes fly open and you gasp. "Finn," you says. "I can explain."

Finn points at you. "Were you just-"

You sit up and you say, "I can explain, Finn."

Finn stands there in shock. His jaw is practically on the floor. You say, "I just needed some help, you know, and I've always thought that you looked good so I kind of was thinking of you?"

He picks up the McDonalds bags and sets them on the little table in the corner. "You were thinking of me?" Finn asks. "How often do you do this?"

You move so you're sitting on the edge of the bed. "That was the first time," you say. Your cheeks heat up in embarrassment. You can't believe that Finn walked in on you doing that.

As soon as Finn turns around, you see a slight bulge in his jeans. Your eyes widen a bit and you press your lips into a line. Finn says, "Since we're admitting things now, I'd like to admit that I've occasionally thought of us, you know, while I've relieved myself."

You blink at Finn and he walks closer to you. "Oh really?" you ask.

Finn nods a bit. He leans over, pressing his hands on the bed. His face is in front of yours. "Sometimes," he says. "I'd also like to admit that I've had feelings for you for the past few months. I've been scared to tell you how I feel because I'm scared that me telling you would ruin our friendship."

You smile a bit and say, "And you catching me moaning your name while I'm touching myself won't?"

Finn's face gets a little close to yours and he says, "You moaning my name turned me on, Y/n."

Your heart is racing. You have no idea what is about to happen next. Will he kiss you? Will he start taking off your clothes?

"What are you gonna do about it?" you ask, your voice a soft whisper.

Finn finally finishes the space between your lips and kisses you. It starts as soft and gentle but quickly turns into a heated kiss. Your hands are on the back of Finn's neck, holding him close to you as the kiss continues.

He gently begins to push you back on the bed, crawling on top of you and hovering over you. The kiss doesn't break.

The two of you move back a bit toward the pillows and you wrap your legs around Finn's waist. You feel the bulge pressed against your sensitive and clothed area. You let out a little gasp as you feel it. You grind against the bulge a bit, earning a little groan from Finn.

You grab the collar of Finn's shirt and pull it over his head. Your eyes wander down to his abs. They have never looked better than they do right now. Finn chuckles a bit and asks, "See something you like, love?"

Your eyes shoot up to Finn's face at the nickname. "I like everything I see right now," you say, smirking. "I just wish that it was a little less clothed."

Finn smiles and gets off the bed. He fumbles with his belt on his jeans and pulls it off. He unbuttons his jeans and pulls them off, leaving him in his boxers. You see his erect member straining to get out of his boxers.

"Take off your clothes, love," Finn says. "It's a little bit unfair that I'm standing in front of you almost naked and you're still dressed."

You sit up and pull off the t-shirt you're wearing, completely forgetting that you forgot to put on a bra. Your chest is exposed as you begin to pull off your sweatpants, leaving you in your soaked underwear. You weren't able to release before Finn came in, leaving you soaked.

Finn grabs your ankles and pulls you to the foot of the bed. Your legs hang over the bed and Finn gets down on his knees in front of you. He runs his fingertips up and down your inner thighs for a second before he leans down and kisses them.

You let out a soft sigh as you watch Finn. "Finn, please," you say, almost whining. "Do something. Anything."

He smirks a bit as he runs a finger over your covered heat. He lifts your legs and puts them over his shoulders. You let out a soft sigh. Finn says, "So wet for me and I've barely touched you, love."

You're laying flat on your back at this point with your eyes closed, waiting in anticipation. You feel Finn hook his fingers into the sides of your underwear, pulling them down slowly. Your heart races with excitement as Finn tosses the piece of clothing to the floor. Finn runs his finger between your folds and you let out a soft moan. "Finn," you say. "Don't tease."

Finn leans in and attaches his lips to your soaked core. Your back arches off the bed. He begins to suck gently and you let out several soft moans. His tongue plays with your clit and you bite your lip.

After a few seconds of sucking, Finn slips two fingers slowly into you. A knot immediately forms in your stomach. You're already close and Finn has barely done anything.

He begins to move his fingers and you grip the bedsheets, needing something to hold onto. You're already a moaning mess.

"Damn, love," Finn says. "I'm making you go crazy with just my fingers."

You can't speak. Finn adds a third finger and you almost lose it right there.

The knot in your stomach is about to come undone and you moan loudly. "Fuck, Finn," you moan. "I'm so close."

Finn smirks and says, "Come for me, princess." He then begins to suck gently on your sensitive bud. You moan several profanities as you come all over his fingers.

You breathe heavily, looking down at Finn. He pulls his fingers out, making you whimper. He stands up, licking his lips. "I've imagined how you tasted before and that exceeded all my expectations," he says.

You sit up and look up at him. You grab ahold of his boxers and begin to tug them down. His hard member pops out, hitting his stomach. Your eyes almost bug out of your head.

The tights he wore for wrestling could barely contain him but you didn't think he was going to be this huge. The sight makes you wet all over again.

Finn pushes you down onto the bed and crawls onto you. He kisses you gently. You can taste a bit of yourself on his lips. As you kiss him, you reach down and grab his erect member. You pump it a few times. This earns several moans from Finn. "Love, if you keep doing that then I won't be able to last as long as we both want," he says against your lips.

You pull back and say, "Then fuck me already."

Those words make Finn's eyes darken. Something you've never see before. He smirks a bit and lines himself up with your entrance. You wrap your legs around his waist and he slides into you slowly, letting you adjust as he goes. Your head pushes back against the mattress and you let out a groan.

Finn doesn't move when he gets all of him into you. "Tell me when to move, princess," he says.

After a second, you nod, not being able to speak. You couldn't believe that this is happening.

He begins to move slowly and gently. You let out soft sighs. Finn's lips attach to your neck. He kisses it and bites at it, leaving a mark. You moan softly as your hands slide up into Finn's hair.

Finn's movements get a little harder and rougher. You moan louder. "Fuck," you say. "Faster, Finn."

He listens to you and begins to move faster and rougher. A second knot forms in your stomach and your walls clench around Finn, who has begun to twitch inside of you.

As Finn moves, you get closer to your orgasm. Your hands have found their way to Finn's back and you scratch a bit.

Finn says, "I'm so fucking close, princess." He movements begin to get sloppy as he gets closer to releasing.

"M-me too," you manage to get out.

Finn moves deeper, hitting your g-spot. You immediately lose it, coming all over Finn's member. You feel him fill you up. Finn collapses onto you. Both of you breathe heavily and you stare up at the dark ceiling.

He eventually pulls out and lays beside you, pulling the covers over both of you.

You pant, "Did that actually just happen?" You look over at Finn, who you find is already looking over at you.

"You don't sound too happy about it," he says.

You smile and say, "Are you kidding? I'm so happy that happened."

Finn smiles cutely at you.

"I know I should have asked you a very long time ago but will you be mine?" Finn asks. You can hear the nervousness in his voice.

You say, "I thought I already was."

Finn laughs and leans into you, kissing you softly.

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