#dead hammerhead au

[dark-orca-dynasty]

Finally, my OG emo boy! I should have drawn him in a The Smiths t-shirt but NIN is sooo much easier. Yes I have drawn Alpheus in more or less this exact same outfit. Don't @ me, it's easy and I could not be bothered drawing a second pair of boots. Maybe both the Aronnax and Alpheus' squid sub just have floors designed for wetsuit boots, who knows! Also I didn't bother flipping his hair around like I did for Alpheus because at this point Cain does not care about how he looks. and I also just could not be bothered.

Cain: Yeah so I have a job now, but the bloke who arranged it for me warned me that my boss would absolutely feed me to the sharks if I did anything to her daughter Finn: lmao, what's your job anyway? Cain: I'm interning with Kaiko Nekton on the Aronnax Finn: [✓ seen]

Cain was the edgy bad-boy love interest in my favourite book series in high school, and much like with Tallulah, I have just been sticking him wherever he fits in everything else I've gotten into since then. I've even managed to fit the two of them in a HTTYD AU that I never got around to writing.

Anyway he's the other friend mentioned in Finn's bio, the one whose mother walked out on him. He's the youngest of three brothers, and about a year older than Finn. The two of them wavered between inseperable and estranged depending on how recently Finn had talked to his mother and therefore how jealous Cain was feeling about her continued if distant presence in the younger boy's life. Later, once Tallulah showed up and befriended Finn, Cain alternated between being jealous that she spent time with the younger boy and desperate for an in with her because he himself continually managed to offend her.

He eventually manages to win her over with Finn's help, as just a friend, but his ex takes offense to that and turns out to be a far better shot than her mother was when she was chasing after Cain. Finn had already made plans to leave Heckmondwhite at that point, but Tallulah gets pulled from school after being shot leaving Cain with no friends in town and only Finn messaging him. He is not doing so great emotionally at this point, and his father manages to get a friend (Tallulah's dad, who canonically is something of a naturalist and studies mollusks) to figure out a way to get him out of town. Cain does not realise his father's friend is Tallulah's dad because the man is built like comic book wolverine and Cain was picturing someone more along the lines of Loki.

Kaiko agrees to take on an intern because she could use some help keeping her workspace in order and doesn't want to force her kids to do it and end up making them hate the lab. Someone who signed up for it, however, is free game. She's not exactly happy that Liam told the kid about the assault charge, but she did kind of owe the man a favour after how often he covered for her in Uni.

[hiemaldesirae]

Swap nonny here: I have more thoughts:

So during the 7 years were avox is dead, Alastor readily began taking up tons of Soul contracts, again only sinners that fit Vox's theme or ones Al new Vox would like. (Or knew how to take care of Vox's sharks.OHH I hot something: those sharks in canon-- what if they were picked out on a date? Like Alastor took Vox out to get ingredients for a seafood dinner, and Vox found these 2 little guys...just tiny little babies and Alastor saw his lovely mate/muse (his deer instincts insist on mate, but his human side insists on muse ) and he can't help it. He buys these 2 tiny little goobers for Vox. Now Alastor looks at this huge Fishtank after his radio broadcast and see these proud sharks, doing their little heart trick, and bumps the little mantel that that just says the aquarium's name.

Vox's voice sounds out: "Welcome to Voxtech! As you can see, I'm very busy, but you must have taken delight in my friends Alastor Jr. And Bambi. They're a hammerhead and tiger shark respectively...." *Vox's prerecorded voice goes on for a bit, cheerfully informing Alastor about Sharks.* "...These two beauties were given to me by someone I love deeply, my friend Alastor."

this is horrible. i left this for today because i knew if i went off with it yesterday id cry myself to sleep what the FUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!

i saw a comic that may or may not hv inspired this by the way where al buys vox two little fishes that eventually grow into his sharks (not how fish work. but you know. its hell) and it was heartbreaking then but now, seeing it restructured into the swap au where alastor, who had given these as a gift to vox as a symbol of his own love.......... i m gonna be sick i think. do you think he just sometimes stays in that aquarium room and sleeps there with voxs old head by his side. do you ever think nifftys walked in on him there, asleep and hugging voxs head tightly to his side as he has a restless sleep and just. drapes a blanket over both of them? and when he wakes up in the morning alastor almost fools himself into believing that the warm blanket draped over him and the smell of baked goods left behind on the table is from vox, the blue light from his tv screen shining down on him as he greets alastor in the morning- but then when al looks behind him, he sees the blue lights emanating from the shark tank and the note on the plate from niffty and the head by his side, and he just-

he almost wishes that vox had managed to land a killing blow on him that day.

[sutxdreamwalker]

Avatar infection Au virus symptoms

Virus research: Symptoms

Symptoms for the virus (have to give it a name) that have been recorded and witnessed so far

Fever Cough Body aces Insomnia Hypersomnia Vomiting Dead skin/Flesh Appearance of scars/Open wounds Aggressive behavior Change in mood Intense hunger Scratchy throat Non Verbal Intense looking rash Change of the body Chills

It has been hard to tell the difference between the infected and the sick, but we manage to find some differences recently, we have been keeping the infected in our newly built containment area. We only have infected that do not look much like a threat, and na’vi who had been infected but haven’t fully transformed yet. So far what we learned it’s effecting na’vi, and some plants, but the plants aren’t hostile, they have been reduced to rotting and possibly sending out poisonous spores. It is also effecting creatures of Pandora, making them like infected na’vi, but some being a lot more dangerous such as Thanator’s and Hammerhead Titanothere’s. Feral's have shown to be even more stronger and dangerous then they were before when infected. Humans possibly don’t get effected, not sure about that since they have their breathing masks so they can’t breath in the smoke that started this, and no human as been reported to be infected, tho there have been humans from the RDA that have been attacked by the infected in their bases have all been mauled/eaten, but no signs of infection. We decided to not test that theory for now, to insure our safety. We continue to research this virus and try to find solutions to stop it, before it is too late for Pandora to be saved.

[emmacreatures]

Different introduction of AU with Ter'ran/LYLE

I dont have much energy but god I want to write all the time! Thought of this small bit for our au (made by and the fantasfic nina) of the time between Ter'ran and lyle seperated👁 bit how ter'ran processes.. and yes this AU is very new and a new 'era' for me and nina so hoopla! also a bit insight of how Ter'ran and ka'am become better friends, more like brothers. Having the same understanding

The years after the RDA left their world, both Ka'am and Ter'ran had more frequently started to hang around more. Their minds that at first seemed comparing two clmpletely different men, ended up being more similar than they thought. They both had a grudge against eywa, for nothing seemed to have worked out for them so far.

Ka'am's rightful place was taken away, everything he worked for, so he made his ways towards the shadows. And Ter'ran's love was crushed because of eywa's help? but most importantly, jake sully was the reason for the two not getting what they deserved. It was jake who took Ka'am's place.. It was jake who called eywa for help which resulted in Lyle having gotten smashed by a hammerhead titanothere.. It made them almost understand more than well how badly the humans wanted jake dead. He ruined everything for them too.. betrayed his own kind. And while being at it, crushed both Ka'am's and ter'ran's dreams.. Figuratively.. and well. we rather not talk about ter'ran's side of the party.

It took ka'am a while to realize what was ongoing between the two. Meaning the human and Ter'ran. Ter'ran even at times got rather angry if Ka'am referred to him as human.. Ter'ran saw the man as equal.. More than just that.. Was Ka'am surprised by the fact Ter'ran ended up falling in love with one of the sky people. absolutely.. Did it surprise him how close yhe two had gotten. Absolutely not.. But he could feel the pain Ter'ran had, something despite he was very well advanced, did not expect it to have such a massive impact. He saw a more mature Ter'ran all the sudden, someone who was dealing with an almost trauma.. heartloss.. Growing up from it and becoming more mature despite the man had his special ways of doing things. But how did Ka'am figure it out.. Well~

Often of times ka'am went to hunt on his own, especially after the way, not wanting anything to do much with Jake, considering he became olo'eyktan. but Ter'ran asked if he could join at a certain point, which the man allowed. As soon as they went on their hunt, Ka'am noticed a major anger in ter'ran's body, just growing worse and worse, something he didnt think could go so deep due to the man's nature. In his act, he killed way too many animals for what they needed.. Not even doing it the way eywa wanted to, whispering the animals their souls to the ground.. Telling them they went to eywa. No.. Ter'ran was in a terror mode, highly dangerous as he was so focused, nothing seemed to break his barrier. Ka'am had to approach him quick and powerful, knocking him down on the ground as he noticed the specific eyes. As if a prey was murdering their predator without remorse.

Ka'am had to shake the man out of it.. Noticing Ter'ran swallowed as his pupils had been decreased, like little spots that insane animals would have, hungry for kills that wouldnt fuel. "Whats wrong with you- TER'RAN" He said as he had his knife at Ter'ran's neck, threatening him to get out of it for the man was a danger to his surroundings.. seeing his eyes altered before he breathed in and out, getting back to reality.. As if his deep down.. Murderous ways from hundreds of years ago appeared all the sudden. It had to be a massive happening, since he could see the anger of Ter'ran seemed to be fresh, as he'd like to call it.

"You're going to explain to me why you behaved like that.. Or you'll become an even worse menace that even I would have troubles stopping" Ka'am said threatening, stepping away with his knife from Ter'ran who took some time to stand up and regroup himself. "Like you?" Ter'ran said, referring to Ka'am who was the most dangerous man he personally knew. Ka'am folded his ears in a threatening way, as a warning not to be so comfortable with words.. "What got into you.." Ka'am said after a while, his tail swishing like a snake on the ground, slow but steady. He wanted answers. Now.

"Why would you care how i'd hunt.. You and me both know we're not so fond of our deity" Ter'ran said as he felt himself come back out of the trance he was in.. Feeling this sour wound in his heart. "But this is a waste of food Ter'ran. I saw terror, fury.. A fire that cant be put out" Ka'am said in a low voice. "Sounds familair?" Ter'ran had the nerve to be like 'sounds familliar to you huh Ka'am.' being a bit sassy in his own way before he felt a knife back on his neck.. Sighing as he knew he at times went too far. He was surprised to still be alive around ka'am.. but he also knew they had a mutual understanding unlike all their other friends.. "You really want to know.." Ter'ran said as he tried to stand powerful, but he felt his heart ache.. Folding his ears.

"I lost.. The thing most dear to me that I didnt even know I could have, or deserved.. Or existed, because of our deity. and I cant just forget that." Ter'ran admitted, not going into much detail, but it gave Ka'am a better insight. He lost his partner that he wasnt aware off. He immediately wandered and tried to connect the dots on why he was hating their deity.. Who was that partner. But for now... He felt like he needed to teach the younger navi, even if they were only 3 years apart.. "you'll have to control that anger" Ka'am said as he pushed onto his chest, right at where his heart was, understanding this was tough, but that it shouldnt define him. "Put it to use. I'm not saying to forget, but if you wouldnt watch out, many more can get hurt, those that might not deserve it" Ka'am said trickily.. Not meaning that he shouldnt be killing, but be watchful of who.. "Lets continue.." Ka'am just said as a leader, making Ter'ran feel unjudged by the man's approach.. being thankful. Despite Ka'am wasnt aware of the details yet, he knew his friends seemed to understand him, giving it a soft spot..

From there on, Ter'ran slowly dared to explain he ended up being in love with one of the sky people. he was heartbroken over the fact he lost him.. But he did not mention the programme that Lyle explained to him. The so-called Recom project.. Ka'am was a listener, and noticed the two became more like brothers to each other rather than friends. They helped each other, relied.. Well, Ter'ran did more than ka'am, for the man stayed a loner in his own ways. Ter'ran just appreciated him a lot. He was dangerous, well thought to say the least, and someone that would promise and not break a word.. Ka'am ended up learning more about ter'ran and his ways. They sure were unhinged at times, but the man seemed genuine about his connection to this man called lyle. he just saved all info that he explained in his head..

It was just another night at pandora. the two were sitting. Ka'am was leaning high up in a tree.. Whereas Ter'ran, really sticking to what his name referred to, terrain, always likes to stay on the ground, as well against the same tree, but nice on the surface. Ka'am's eyes were shut, listening to the noises outside as Ter'ran kept on rambling..

"you'd think it would grow less... But I miss him, worse.. more each day. " Ter'ran said as he fiddled with the metal cross around his neck. sighing.. No one came close to what lyle was to him nor did he give it another chance.. Despite his heart was yearning for such closure. "i know you dont like to talk back and thats more than okay. Trust me, i just appreciate being able to talk about it and have someone who.. might be the only one understanding me" Ter'ran said as he let the necklace rest on his skin again, softly sitting more comfortably against the tree.. "I dont even know if you're asleep already, since no noises come from up there.. But. I can see why you'd distance yourself more from our own kind... I'm still sorry for that spot you didnt get ka'am" Ter'ran said as he understood Ka'am's fury as well, but he was a more closed off dangerous man in terms of expressing it. Ka'am sighed as he heard it. He appreciated his friend understanding.. But he had his ways of expressing. "do not expect me to get all emotional" He said as Ter'ran slowly hummed.. Slowly getting ready to sleep a bit as they were far away from the tribe, perhaps even at the other side of the whole forest.. It was the middle of the night.. For Ter'ran had fallen asleep, but for some reason, Ka'am's senses activated for he opened his eyes, looking around him before noticing.. a new star.. High up in the air. "Ter'ran." The man said strict for Ter'ran woke up from it. "What?.." He said before looking in which direction Ka'am looked into. "what is it.." He whispered, tilting his head before Ka'am jumped down.. Letting Ter'ran stand up next to him. "Sky people.. they're coming back" Ka'am said as Ter'ran's ears perked up. "the humans?..." "Come, we must go". Ka'am said, wanting to have a better look at what was happening, calling for his Thanator for Ter'ran grabbed his direhorse, having to get to a safe spot, seeing many of these alien ships land on the ground very soon... Full of fire...

[morororinnnn]

Since y’all wanted to hear abt the au, u shall be served 💁

// CBV lore dump — #1 \\

So basically the beginning of it starts a few weeks-to a month after the events of ROTM and Grizz is like “bro I gotta get back down I’m kinda bored and hungry” so he tries to get down via “swimming” through space to Earth. That doesn’t really work out bc he gets hit by debris from the rocket and is forced into orbit :)

Bro lands in the water near hammerhead bridge and swims over to this huge statue which is guess what NILSSSS

he’s gets inside the eye like “wth is this” and finds tartar just kinda in a corner like comatose dead state and so he like brings him to alterna to examine bc he doesn’t know wth he is or who he is and he like meets orca again like “heyyyy I’m back *legit weak as jinkles*” and orca patches the bear up and they examine the telephone

Then after a while they clean him up a bit bc the pink ink was clogging his gears and he wakes up and is like “OMG WHERE AM I WHO AM I WTH IS THAT GRT AWAY FRIM ME HISSSSSSS” and they’re like “chill bro 😰😭😭 omgggg we repaired u” they explain stuff and he agrees to let them give him a body since his pole part is frikkin broken

I’ll make a fic on here abt it if anyone would like to read it :3

[ffxvficrec]

by TheMaidofLight22 A woman with the face of their friend is captured after attempting a coup upon the future king and his guardians. Working alongside daemons, seemingly controlling them, she nearly struck down the team. Her power was subdued by their loyal Shield, who was able to knock her unconscious. They agreed to keep her, but contain her into a cage in the Hammerhead garage. While not the most civil way to handle her, it is the only solution they can fix up before she comes to. She is fierce, primal and raw. Shockingly, she is well read, educated and knows how to speak their language despite having an beastly complex. Gladio confides in her, showing her he is not afraid. She begrudgingly admits to him her name: Chrome Animalia. With that single gesture, her memories of a better life come back to her, before she was taken and tainted by Niflheim. As time passes in her cage, she slowly reveals her story to him. Together, they determine to unveil the secrets of her past. Riddled with guilt, trauma and grief, Chrome gradually warms up to the four. But can she be trusted? Will she continue her senseless violence against the four, to appeal to the Empire? Or will she break down and become their ally? Words: 3208, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Final Fantasy XV Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/F , F/M , M/M , Multi Characters: Gladiolus Amicitia , Noctis Lucis Caelum , Prompto Argentum , Ignis Scientia , Regis Lucis Caelum , Aulea Lucis Caelum , Verstael Besithia , Ardyn Izunia , Original Characters , Lunafreya Nox Fleuret , Ravus Nox Fleuret , Cindy Aurum , Cor Leonis , Iedolas Aldercapt , Dave Auburnbrie , Iris Amicitia , Astrals (Final Fantasy XV) , Loqi Tummelt Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia/Original Female Character(s) , Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Noctis Lucis Caelum , Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum Additional Tags: Ive been dead on this site for years , now im back with a vengence , OC X CANON , AU for my first OC fanfic , AU , im so excited to be back in this fandom , I love you guys , i hope you like enemies to lovers cause we're doing it this time!! , book/canon ending , Enemies to Lovers , cringe OC time!! , multiships and possible fluff/smut later

[37-children-of-the-dreams]

Oh, did you notice one thing - each of Misfits has bakugan from each of clans, - Dino Trox, Flying Ventri, Mammal Bruiser, Dragon Dragonoid and Aquantic Hammerhead. But no insect character. What if it means Backslash could join Misfits? I dont think it would be other dudes from their team cause come on, they dont have personalities, at least now.

And how Backslash behaves, maybe he really moved to Dom from Klipse and so he's becoming same in character as Dom? Cause it's kinda fits. Also, I searched and didnt found any main same dudes in Bakugan g3 and monsuno studios. Thats weird. So, it's animators? But no, wrong studio. Hmm. This cant be coincidence, right? Maybe one of designers is monsuno shipper, haha?) cause damn, Hargrave is veeery seen in Backslash, and that name, and whole character....

And with Beyal and Backslash, imagine if we think that they're both same character from other aus, and if we took 2) theory, then Beyal as newborn was taken to Master Ei and left there, and Backslash was thrown into other dimension.

Wait. What if.... Oh! If it was said that other siblings are dead(probably), I had joked once that Klipse fed them to his monsuno (really bad joke, but there were simmilar jokes in show), or if clones were turned into monsuno, so Backslash could be one who was eaten by Backslash or who is later was turned into monsuno?

Also, wish you luck with contest!

I’m not sure Backslash could try to be a member of the Misfits unless something like happens to either him or Kage. Like if something were to happen to Backslash, the only ways he might join them is if he was ousted as the leader of the Insect Clan or if something happened to Mantid that makes him join them. If Kage is involved and he’s in a bad situation, then he’d be willing to join the Misfit out of their friendship because unlike every other Clan leader who interacts with Kage, Kage and Backslash act like actual equals and not subordinates.

I’m sure someone in that production had to be a part of Monsuno, but considering there was a ton of people who worked on Monsuno since it was a joint project with Japan and America, it’d take some time for anyone to find a person who worked in both projects. Still, at least we can still the similarities amongst Backslash, Hargrave and Dom. Granted we theorize that Hargrave is the parent, and if they’re both Hargrave and Klipse’s creation, they’d be full brothers.

As for the Beyal and Backslash thing, I’m fine with Beyal going to Master Ey since he raised him right, but how does one chunk a child off to another universe? I mean, sure Klipse and Hargrave could make one, but sending one son to another universe is a bit much even if Backslash ended being a badass. I guess Hargrave just wants the best for the boys.

Also, I know the last is a joke, but that is dark! Like, sure we could see Klipse doing that, but I don’t think he’d actually go through with it because clones and children take a ton of time to ‘perfect’ and feeding to the Monsuno would be a waste. Also, do Monsuno’s even want to eat humans or do they even want to eat something because we’ve haven’t seen much on if a Monsuno wants to eat something. And turning the clones into Monsuno could also take a ton of experimenting and with a limited time and resources, could Klipse even go there? Lastly, maybe Backslash was named after Klipse’s Monsuno Backslash because he couldn’t think a good name and Hargrave was away when he named him. I mean, look at Six, the poor guy doesn’t even have an actual name, you think his younger brother had a better chance? Nope.

As for the first ask, give me a few days to give a picture of Braille. I have Braille’s first sketch I made from middle school and I have some of his current sketches somewhere else. And thank you for the luck!

[mooglecharm]

promptis hanahaki apocalypse AU

[originally on twitter. finally got around to writing this! this was supposed to be an apocalypse AU but really - all of WoR is an apocalypse AU. so i just set it there for funsies.

[including the meme photos here for attention. check my QRT in the twitter link for the source.]

For the most part, it was all right. Prompto could go for days without thinking of him. As long as no one mentioned him, Prompto could busy himself with other things and he'd be fine.

There was, after all, so much to do in the Dark. He had that chocobo shelter to help run. And the Lestallum armories to maintain. Not to mention dropping by Hammerhead every time Cindy said she needed a hand.

All this and more should have been enough to keep his mind off Noctis.

They almost were.

But now and then someone would say his name. Sometimes it would even be Gladio or Ignis, which made Prompto secretly glad that they rarely crossed paths anymore.

Those two had their own things going. And after years, they only got back together on Noct's birthday as a matter of ritual.

And then, inevitably, they would talk about Noct.

Or at least, Ignis and Gladio did. They never seemed to notice how Prompto would stay silent as they told their stories, and only made small sounds where appropriate.

They must have thought that it was just grief, and never faulted Prompto for it.

Whenever they caught Prompto coughing slightly, they would joke about how that cough seemed to be as old as the end of light.

Prompto only ever laughed along. He hid it well.

But once, Ignis caught him in a coughing fit. He was alarmed by the sound. It was as if Prompto was struggling for air.

Prompto was about to collapse forward, but Ignis caught him.

Flower petals fell on Ignis' bare hand and arm. Then he finally understood.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Prompto rasped.

More gently, Ignis asked, "Are you lying?"

Prompto answered with a small, miserable laugh.

Ignis sat Prompto down, and urged him to talk about his condition. After some reluctance, Prompto admitted that he believed it started when he was in Niflheim, after he fell from the train.

He didn't know WHY that was when it started, but he had a theory: it was being separated from Noct that did the trick.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder…that's what they say, right?" he lamely quipped. "So Aranea said she caught up with you guys and when she said 'princely pal', it just…happened." His hands formed into loose claws in front of his throat, as if Ignis could see them. "Like something wanted to burst out of my lungs."

"It must hurt," Ignis said sympathetically. He had read up on the disease. It was rare, but it was sometimes fatal, and it always caused pain.

"Buddy," Prompto bitterly chuckled, "you don't know the half of it."

"It doesn't help that while you feel this way, there's no known cure," Ignis sighed. "Except for your feelings being returned by the object of your affections."

"Yeah? When's THAT gonna happen?"

Ignis softened his voice again. "He's going to come back."

"He'd better!" Prompto sounded cheerful, in that forced way that had become familiar to Ignis. "Because if he's dead and I still have it, I'm probably going to have it forever, and…" He started to sob. "…and that's going to suck, right?"

Ignis didn't answer. He only laid a hand on Prompto's shoulder, kept it there as his younger friend's sobs quieted down and his breathing evened.

Besides fighting the dangers in the dark, Prompto had been suffering unspoken confessions, unreturned desires, choking him from inside, for years.

It was the first time for anyone else to know that he had been fighting the hardest to survive until Noctis' return.

[secret-engima]

i sent you an ask a while ago about cor vs nyx time traveling chaos and you mentioned them BOTH going back which immediately made me think of the possibility of them going back as like, twin LCs

No.

NO.

DON’T MAKE ME MAKE A NEW AU.

*screams off into the ether*

*comes back*

ALRIGHT FINE BUCKLE UP LADIES AND GENTS AND TUMBLR DENIZENS I HAVE A NEW TWIN AU AND I’M RAMBLING.

-Nyx and Cor don’t MEAN to time-travel. Either of them. They just kinda .... do?

-They both wake up in the same clearing, with the words of the Astral that dumped them here (Ramuh) in their ears, sit up and realize they aren’t alone.

-Things are ... kinda stiff between them at first. They don’t know what’s going on, or where they are. All they remember is their respective lives before getting snatched by Ramuh.

-They at least know who the other is, and compare notes on what happened as they wander the definitely-not-ravaged-by-the-Long-Night wilds. Nyx is more than a little surprised to realize that his mirror double is Cor the Immortal, but that’s not ... the WEIRDEST thing going on right now. So.

-No. The weirdest thing going on right now is that they are both like- SIX YEARS OLD. And that they now look identical. Both of them are blue-eyed (Cor’s shade of blue, which irritates Nyx because why couldn’t he keep his own eye color at least?), with wispy black hair that is 100% Nyx’s, and cheekbones that belong to neither of them.

-Also magic.

-Cor is already quietly hitting his head against a tree before Nyx figures out what the clues all add up to.

-Nyx is not a happy camper when he realizes what has happened (read: when Cor explains it in between blistering language a Furia would blush at).

-Also Nyx still has the scars from his Death-By-Ring. Rippling, branching scars  running up his arm and along his cheek and temple on that side of his face. They’re white and “old” but still very, very noticeable.

-Cor and Nyx exchange stories as they wander the wilds, murdering wildlife that tries to eat them and hiding from the daemons at night (they both don't sleep well, because they’re one, children, two, Nyx has night terrors of dying, and three, Cor is terrified that if he goes to sleep he’ll wake up to find the sun gone.

-They finally reach civilization after about a month of bonding in the wilds over Shared Trauma and plans to change fate (Nyx is NOT HAPPY about the Prophecy KTHANKS HE DIDN’T DIE JUST FOR BAHAMUT TO KILL THE YOUNG KING AND PRINCESS) depending on where they are in the past.

-The civilization they find is Hammerhead, and the newspaper they snitch and huddle over tells them the year is 728. One year before Mors dies.

-Nyx manages to hiss the “What the-” in a non-child friendly phrase right as Cid finds them and startles them by asking where their parents are. Since a Startled Nyx is a Warptastic Nyx, there goes the bloodline secret in 0.02 seconds.

-Cor could Strangle™ Nyx if he wasn’t already 120% done with the time-travel thing and already planning to be a tiny prophecy smashing gremlin. Getting a speed ticket to Citadel via Cid, who will take them to Regis rather than Mors, is the safest option he could hope for honestly.

-So yea Cid collars the scruffy, underweight, dressed-in-rags-and-animal-skins twins and calls Regis to yell at him and that’s how Regis learns he is a dad of two Smol Feral 6 year olds at age 22.

-Regis drives out to Hammerhead with Clarus and COR so that his father doesn’t learn about this JUST yet and Time!Cor has a long moment of dysphoria staring at his Angry Teenage Self. While the Cor’s hold a staring contest, Nyx is a mess because the king he saw die is THERE and thoroughly convinced he’s Nyx’s DAD and Nyx CANNOT DEAL kthanks. Regis asks for their names and Nyx blurts out the first ones he can think of that aren’t Obviously Owned Already (Romulus and Remus and no Cor is NEVER going to forgive Nyx for that) and Regis is just- Regis is an Overwhelmed Die inside because KIDS. HE HAS KIDS. TWO TINY FERAL SIX YEAR OLDS WEARING ANIMAL FUR. ONE OF THEM IS TRYING TO BITE COR (admittedly Cor started it, COR STOP THAT). A few questions reveals they’ve been on their own in the wilds for “a while” using their magic and Regis is even MORE of a die.

-The question of where their mother is, where their other relatives are, is answered by Romulus (Cor) shutting down entirely and Remus (Nyx) hunching and shivering and whispering one word.

-That word is “Nifs”.

-Regis has to turn around and go pace in the parking lot with heat waves shimmering off his shoulders before he stops seeing red.

-Regis takes them home, Cid goes with because he and Regis may be on rocky terms but Cid does love Regis, and he loves kids, and he doesn’t trust Mors to “take this well” as far as he can throw the adamantoise.

-Cid is right.

-Mors does not take it well At All.

-Mors says some ... things that horrify Regis, because he would NEVER have thought his father capable of sinking so low. Makes demands about the children Regis has “created out of wedlock”. One of those demands is that they cannot be heirs and they must never be revealed to the court, they must be taken away and hidden somewhere to preserve Regis’s image and the “public trust”. Regis has no intentions to do this, obviously but Romulus, who has been spacing into the distance trying to astral project as a means of not crying his eyes out at the sight of a living Regis and Clarus, senses Mors’ hands reaching for Remus (his-his-his his only friend his only companion who understands his only safety for the last month his BROTHER HIS TWIN) and

-Cold hands cold magic demands-demands-demands. A leash in another’s hands, the burning apathy of a blacksmith beating a living weapon into shape, the taste of his own blood in his mouth as he trains-trains-trains and is found wanting.

-Cold hands cold magic reaching reaching touching touching burning burning engraving knowledge into his being his core his SOUL

-The knowledge forged in his spine-heart-soul-mind written in his blood on the ground and his scars in the mirror.

-Better to die than be a failure.

-He

-S N A P S.

-By the time he comes back to himself, it’s to Remus holding him tight around the waist making shushing noises while Romulus presses them both into a corner, his back to Remus and the taste of blood (not his blood he knows what his blood tastes like this isn’t it who’s blood is this-) in his mouth as he clutches at a sword too big for his tiny body, a silver armiger bristling like spines. He has no memory of how he went from glaring at the wall while Regis and Mors argued to huddling here in the corner with his magic screaming around him in blades and spitting flakes of ice.

-There is no sign of Mors in the room.

-Regis is there. Regis and Clarus on the far side of the room, trying to talk to him, and something tells him they’ve been talking for a while.

-It’s Cor, his younger self, his previous self, that he locks eyes with from across the room, and it’s Cor who looks murderous in his understanding as he briskly orders Regis and Clarus and Cid out of the room.

-The silence when they leave is heavy.

-Cor settles down on the farthest side of the room, his sword propped on his shoulder and his shoulders intentionally relaxed. He’s treating Romulus like a frightened animal, an abused animal, and it’s working more than he wants it too.

-The adult part of Romulus curses his lack of control, how being in a younger body effects his actions so much more than he wants it to.

-The rest of him doesn’t care.

-It takes an hour for Romulus to finally drop the Armiger, but he doesn’t move from the corner, or acknowledge Remus trying to nudge his way free of the corner.

-It takes another 30 minutes for Cor to deem Romulus “present” enough to ask, “Is he still alive?” The man who hurt you. The man who Mors reminded you of.

-Romulus just laughs until his little body starts to cry. It’s answer enough.

-Cor becomes their only adult touchstone for a while. They stay in the massive royal suite (Regis’s suite, Romulus knows from years of experience and Remus from the occasional guard duty). Regis doesn’t come in, but Romulus can sense him at the door a few times, and Cor’s phone is constantly dinging with messages that are probably from Regis or Clarus.

-When Cor finally lets another adult into the suite again (bristling protectively the entire time), Romulus and Remus find out that their timeline? Yeah. It already got thrown out the window.

-Regis comes in.

-He’s wearing the Ring.

-Romulus stares, Remus doesn’t know better to realize what is wrong with that picture. There is something hard in the set of Regis’s shoulders, something weary and protective and ... jaded. Jaded like Regis hadn’t been until years after Mors death when Regis finally dug out the deepest, nastiest secrets of his father’s reign.

-”Is he dead?” Romulus asks numbly.

-Regis follows his gaze to the Ring, and his expression shifts to surprise, then a black sort of anger, then a careful, tired gentleness, “No. But his health was failing. So I ... convinced him ... to step down. He won’t be coming near you again. Not unless you ask.” Regis’s voice cracks and there is a love and a pain in his magic as it tentatively wraps around the twins that makes Romulus realize Just What Regis thinks is the source of Romulus’s violent panic attack, “No one will come near you or touch you unless you ask first.”

-And something in Romulus keens, just a little, at the reassurance of those words. His issues aren’t what Regis thinks they are but ... it’s a relief. Even though his time-table is now even shorter with Regis having put on the Ring and become king a year early .... it’s a relief. To know that Mors won’t come near him or Remus again.

-Romulus doesn’t bother to stop his tears (this is his king, his sword-brother, his best friend, his FATHER of both lifetimes even if this is the first one in blood) as he tentatively steps forward all the way to where Regis is kneeling.

-He can feel Regis shake with suppressed tears as he carefully wraps his arms around Regis’s waist and whispers thank you.

-He’s surprised when Remus joins him, because the glaive only knew Regis as king, but there is a loyalty, a grateful devotion in the man turned boy turned brother that is so deep and vibrant it rings in the air in his magic. A loyalty that could so easily turn into love just like the unconditional, all-powerful love settling on their shoulders like a blanket as Regis oh so tentatively rests a hand on their heads.

-Somewhere in the future that never will be again, the gears of prophecy groan and crack.

[thedarkrose17]

More southern/hammerhead Prom hcs: (mostly cause someone said they wanted more in tags and me seeing that was like holy shit someone likes these. Plus I was talking with friends about this au I guess thing again)

- Prom's littered with freckles since he's living in the sun a lot. (He has way more than canon)

- unfortunately cause he's so pale he burns a lot so cue Cindy reminding him to top up on suncream/sunscreen or just straight up calling him over and putting some on him

- Cid reminds him to hydrate and encourages the photography hobby when there's no work to be done (pry the photography stuff with Prom from my cold dead hands I love when characters do photography)

- Prom isn't complete anxiety. He still has it but not as bad

- If he gets flustered by an attractive customer he will go to Cindy for help

- He kind of lit up first time he saw Noct cause finally someone his age

- He'll hang out with Noct and the boys when he's free at night when they come to hammerhead

- Prom saying southern sayings/things and Noct's rich boy arse having no idea what he's saying

Prom: "Y'all'd've 'f I'd've."

Noct: *crying* "I don't know what the fuck you're saying."

Onto promptis stuff again apologies I have no access to read more:

- Noct can and will find ways to mess up the car and weapons just to go see Prom. Ignis will go off at him when he learns this

- Noct takes hunts around hammerhead with the guys hoping that if he gets some injuries Prom can heal him

- Prom is a disaster when it comes to Noct when he heard he was coming once he panicked cause his hair was a mess and just shoved his hat on and hoped he wouldn't notice

Cindy told him he had oil on his cheek and Prom just asked for the astrals to strike him down

- Prom was fixing up their car and basically this went down:

N: "Gods you're attractive."

P: "Hm? What was that?"

N: "It's attractive...The car."

P: "....She's awful purdy yeah."

N: *gay distress*

- Gladio just finds the whole thing hilarious and casually mutters to Ignis that the astrals can see them pining from here

[dark-orca-dynasty]

Alpheus! Something to keep in mind is that all that info next to him is from his point of view and he is not a reliable narrator. It's a little bit ego and a little bit misinformed, but he's also not entirely wrong about Nereus not liking him. The man remembers Lemuria falling, and that it was a Benthos who caused it.

I went for comfy minimal clothes instead of my original techwear inspired plans (it involved many extraneous buckles) because I thought he'd like something low effort when he's not expecting to be around people. Which is probably a lot of the time, unless Proteus is travelling with him.

[a-world-in-grey]

Hi! I love your new AU! Any headcanons on how the Lucis side of things are going while Sola is on her journey to cure Uncle? Especially Regis, Aulea, Cor and Noctis. Do they find out Sola = Alata after the Marilith?

Hi right back! I’m glad you’re loving the new au, it’s fun to write and see everyone’s reactions XD.

-To answer your last part first, no they don’t realize that Sola is Alata yet. Because Sola comes blazing in, blinds everyone present when she creates an explosion of sunlight to kill the Marilith, and Warps back to Loqi with a fatally injured Noctis before anyone finishes blinking away blindspots because she doesn’t want to deal with distractions while trying to heal a fatal wound on her brother’s spine.

-But Regis knows that magic searing across his senses. That’s. That’s his little girl. And he’s so relieved to know for certain that Sola lives and yet grieving all over again because he was too late (but that’s the theme isn’t it? always too late-) and now Sola and Noctis are gone.

-Then Cid calls him, calls him and tells him that his son is on his couch, that Sola brought Noctis to Hammerhead, and Regis doesn’t so much as break the speed limit as leave it in the dust.

-It doesn’t make a difference. Sola is gone by the time he arrives.

-(Too late.)

-As far as Lucis during the years before she shows back up to save Noctis - well, it’s a lot less Power of Stubborn and Cute and far more Angst.

-No one knows who took Sola or even how. Especially because they took all of her things as well and Niflheim is denying anything to do with Sola’s disappearance, and no one’s stepping forward for a ransom.

-They find the note Sola left, and Regis wants to murder whoever took Sola, because he knows his little girl. So fiercely protective of her family and they had used that.

-It’s a year before Regis even thinks about having another child. Because having another child while Sola is still missing feels like replacing her, feels like giving up and accepting that she’s dead. And Regis... he can’t bear the thought of his little girl, his little Sun never coming back.

-Cor throws himself into his work as Marshal. Every possible lead for Sola’s whereabouts is exhausted, even if it takes Cor infiltrating Niflheim himself.

-He doesn’t find Sola. But he finds another child, and Cor cannot let himself fail another child. He rescues the babe and refuses to give him up no matter how difficult being a single parent is.

-Cor almost names the child Elianus, for the sunshine smiles and bright laughter. But it’s too close of a reminder of the child he failed, of his goddaughter who he fails everyday she remains missing, and so instead he names his son Prompto.

-Prompto and Noctis are the bright spots in Cor, Regis, and Aulea’s lives. They keep Cor from taking suicide mission after suicide mission, keep Regis from fading under the demands of the Crystal, and gives Aulea the little extra strength she needs to struggle through the illness doctors thought would kill her, only two years after Noctis’ birth.

-“I want to see my son grow up,” Aulea says, “I want to see my daughter come home.”

-Then Regis learns that Noctis is to be the Chosen King. Bringer of the Dawn.

-And Last of his Line.

-Regis cries.

-And then he Refuses. He’s already lost one child. He Refuses to lose another. If Noctis is to die curing the Starscourge, Regis will make sure there is no Starscourge left to cure.

-And he will end this damn war so Noctis doesn’t have to.

-It’s two months later that Aulea - who took the lead into researching the Scourge when he told her of Noctis’ fate - tells him of the newest research out of Niflheim. Of Alata Mederi, the twelve year old niece to the High Chancellor who has not only researched the Scourge’s weakness, but is also one of the pioneering minds behind the first-ever treatment for Scourge-sickness.

-Regis immediately orders verification and possible implementation of the treatments, and Aulea directs another team to verifying and reproducing Mederi’s research. Because this is more than anyone has had in two thousand years, and unlike the Oracles, Aulea’s family cannot use their magic to cure the Scourge.

-But perhaps it’s time they reached out to the Oracles for help.

-Noctis doesn’t know a lot about Sola. He knows that he has a big sister, has seen the pictures of the little girl who looks so much like Mom and shares his blue eyes. He knows that Sola was kidnapped two years before Noctis was born and that Uncle Cor is still looking for his godsdaughter. He knows that Sola’s disappearance is the reason for the heightened security around him and Prompto and Gladio and Ignis and later little Iris. 

-But it doesn’t really affect him that much. He’s eight. His days consist of lessons and playdates with Prompto and Ignis and learning how to use a sword beside Gladio from Uncle Cor.

-Noctis knows he has a big sister. But he doesn’t usually think about her because Sola’s not there.

-And then she is.

[sparklecryptid]

secret-engima replied to your post: hmmmm thinkin bout- thinking about crossing over...

*exctiedly* If you’re crossing over your own AUs- Aquilo meeting Aeon or Aquilo meeting Ace? Alternatively, Aquilo and Aeon busting out of Gilgamesh’s training grounds together and being found by Ace???

OHHHH THOSE ARE INTERESTING IDEAS!! i was going with anything but i like these suggestions!

how about.....Aquilo meeting Aeon.

-Gilgamesh gets his hands on Aquilo first and when Aeon gets tossed into the Crag he doesnt think much of the what he assumes is a dead body over in the corner.

-Aeon leaves. Then Ardyn comes and finds Aquilo there and things proceed as in Canon Aquilo verse. Aquilo stays at hammerhead, heals Noctis and gets taken to Insomnia and revealed as a Prince.

-But the difference is that he has vague memories of someone else in the tempering grounds with him, and when he hears Aeon’s voice he knows that this is the one that was in Gilgamesh’s lair with him

-cue Aquilo going ‘my little brother now’ and becoming the Biggest Mama Bear. Luche stop him. Luche curb your brothers adoption tendencies. Luche no dont fall for those big mismatched eyes that are narrowed in distrust. Luche.

-Luche now has three younger brothers.

-Cor is a confused when he sees how Aeon and Aquilo interact. they interact like they’ve been through the same things. like they’ve seen the same horrors and it doesnt sit well with Cor.

-of course when news gets out that both aquilo and aeon had horrible experiences at the hand of gilgamesh hell breaks loose.

[dragons-bones]

4, 15, 20, 28, 33, 35, 41 for the domesticity meme? it's a lot i'm very sorry i just Hunger For Domesticity

Domesticity is Good And Wonderful, I don’t blame you a bit, Cyan. :P Also tagging @smira-asah-xiv and @tehjai who both asked for number #15.

4. How did they start living together? Do they move? How do they choose the place?

Living arrangements were something that Synnove and Aymeric actively sat down and discussed very early on; they both had a very good sense that their relationship was It for them. Synnove was actually a little nervous about how the talk would go because she was very reluctant to sell her house; she’s owned the plot since about two or three years after the Calamity and had the house built to her specifications. It is very much her home. She loves Borel Manor, too, but she deeply loves La Noscea.

Aymeric, thankfully, was appalled at the very idea of her selling her own just to accommodate himself. Now, Ishgardian inheritance and property laws being the Byzantine headaches they are, he couldn’t sell the Manor even if he wanted to.

The compromise they hit upon was essentially splitting their time between homes. Their work being what it is, it’s easier for Synnove to still primarily live at the La Noscea house, and Aymeric at the Manor, but they will frequently come to stay with the other as time and work permits (and their friends/colleagues threaten them to take vacations). Synnove frequently shows up at the Manor during the semester to take a break from Guild nonsense or grade somewhere much quieter (while also sneaking in a cuddle or six), and Aymeric is absolutely blatant about using the La Noscea house as an escape during Parliament recesses so he isn’t ambushed at home by politicians.

15. What habits of the other drives them crazy?

The workaholism. Yes, they are incredibly aware of the hypocrisy of such, though their habits manifest in different ways: Aymeric of course hates how much Synnove mangles her sleep schedule (that he’s actually relieved when Scion business calls her away is awful, because it means she’s about to sleep like a normal person), and Synnove hates how Aymeric will get up in the middle of night to do work, or bring paperwork to bed with him.

In non-workaholic related annoyances:

Aymeric would not mind Synnove’s coffee addiction near as much if she would just use the same mug instead of constantly leaving them around the house and getting a fresh one for another cup. She is good about reusing her mugs when she’s reminded to do so, but she has to be reminded. (He is, perhaps, a little smug when she grumbles doing the evening round up of dishes and it takes her two or three trips to get all the used mugs into the kitchen to be washed.)

Synnove loves Aymeric’s voice, but he has a habit when it’s quiet enough to read his paperwork aloud, as the sound helps him concentrate. It’s not enough to be discernible, however; it’s a murmur, at best. Aymeric has no idea when he began doing it, but the lack of understandable words grates on Synnove’s nerves. Keeping the orchestrion on actually helps, since Aymeric only begins doing it during dead silence in the house, but Synnove will retreat to another room when Aymeric does paperwork and neither are in the mood to listen to music.

20. What do they watch on TV and do they fight for the remote?

(*dusts off Modern Eorzea AU ideas*)

They tend to enjoy a lot of documentaries: science (particularly fields Synnove doesn’t work with), nature, history, and certain niche interests. Cooking shows, mysteries, some comedies (they have a mutual fondness for Ul’dah 99), and historical dramas are also fun. Political dramas and a lot of action/sci-fi movies are off on the table as the former remind Aymeric too much of work and the latter Synnove frequently nitpicks for bad science. (She gives certain shows and movies a pass if they’re very blatant about Rule of Cool being the primary physical force at work.)

But there are two times of the year when the remote will be fought over: the spring and autumn months when the baseball and hockey seasons overlap. Synnove, math nerd that she is, is a huge baseball fan (and also plays on the faculty softball team at the University of Limsa Lominsa); Aymeric, as any good son of Coerthas, was born and raised playing hockey (and curling). Aymeric usually only cares about Ishgard Knights games (though Synnove can be wheedled into watching with him if they’re playing the Ala Mhigo Griffins, as the Limsa Lominsa Corsairs are, uh, kind of a joke), whereas Synnove is a devout fan of both the Limsa Lominsa Hammerheads and the Ala Mhigo Revolution. (The Ishgard Bishops are about the only Coerthan team worth a damn, but Aymeric still can’t bring himself to cheer for them after the Dragoons moved to Tailfeather.)

28. What kind of stuff can be found around their place?

Books of all kinds (science journals, political treatises, military history, fiction, cookbooks, etc.). Lots of loose leaf paper and quills (Aymeric) and chalk and graphite sticks (Synnove). Assorted mechanical contraptions Aymeric refuses to touch until Synnove confirms they aren’t explosive. The carbuncles’ toys (they are very good at putting them away at the end of the day, but please do watch your step when visiting at either home). Synnove’s goldsmithing tools and carbuncle-quality gems she cuts for the Guild. Coffee mugs. (”Synnove! Use the one in your hand for Halone’s sake!”) Feathers for fletching arrows and bottles of oil with rubbing rags for Naegling and Aymeric’s bow. A stack of grimoires wherein any of one of which could probably be used to beat someone to death (and one looks suspiciously dented already). A growing pile of unopened letters on the table next to the front door with the wax seals of various Ishgardian houses.

...I’m going to stop there because if I don’t we will be here all night.

33. How do they refer to the other in public? How do other people refer to the other? (i.e. “my partner”, “ask your father”, "dad and papa", "how’s your wife?“, etc)

Synnove and Aymeric will generally refer to one another as either “my beloved” or “my lover,” when speaking of the other; Aymeric will also refer to Synnove as “his lady.” The Ishgardian nobility will refer to Synnove as simply “the Warrior of Light” (with context making it obvious they mean Synnove specifically) for politeness’s sake; Count Edmont and the Temple Knights are the only ones who will refer to Synnove as “his lady.” The Squad will just flat out call Aymeric “her boyfriend,” even if Synnove herself thinks that terminology is too juvenile. Synnove’s co-workers at the Guild call him “her beau” or “that knight of yours.”

35. How often do they go on dates?

Not very; with how often they’re consumed by work, staying in tends to be their preferred way of spending time with one another. That being said, sometimes they both get antsy to do something; even if they’re in Ishgard when that happens, they’ll more than likely teleport to Limsa Lominsa, as it has a much livelier night life, and Lominsans are more likely to mind their own business when one of their resident Warriors of Life is meandering through the city with a handsome man on her arm.

Depending on their mood, dinner will be either at the Bismarck if they’d like something a little fancier to eat, the Drowning Wench if they’re more interested in good whiskey with their fish stew, or one of the myriad cafes for Ala Mhigan or Gridanian or Thavnairian. Afterwards, it would either be stay at the Wench to people watch and enjoy the open stage Baderon keeps for performance-minded adventurers to show off; head over to a free play or concert at the Aftcastle or Anchor Yard put on by one of the theater companies; or, if they really need the laugh, a show at one of the bawdy houses.

41. What would they do if the other was hurt?

Well, as we know on two separate occasions, when Aymeric gets hurt, Synnove gets angry. Usually at whomever hurt him, sometimes also at him if he was being “a fucking moron” about it. If it’s a combat situation, well, the enemy had better start running, because it is Dreadwyrm Protocols time.

(Raubahn is exceedingly grateful, after the first time he sees Synnove Greywolfe turn her ruby carbuncle into Demi-Bahamut during the Battle of Ala Mhigo, that she couldn’t do that during the Grand Melee.)

If it’s not a combat situation, however, Synnove is likely to fretting mother hen. Aymeric, too, though with less clucking and more soothing humming if it was something like a kitchen accident. (He is likely to be less sympathetic if it’s an injury related to an experiment, because Synnove is supposed to be smarter than that.)

For a combat-related injury, Aymeric is generally going to be less, ah, violent than Synnove and more deeply concerned, as Synnove is more than capable of holding her own in combat and has her three sisters-by-choice at her side. Most often, if her injuries are more related to aether shock and having to go all out in combat, he’ll assist in ensuring she drinks her aether syrup and recovers from depleting her aether reserves so thoroughly.

Of course, there was his reaction to hearing about Synnove’s injuries from the Battle of Rhalgr’s Reach. Lucia and Handeloup do not talk about it. Not even Rereha could get the details out of them; all she knows is that the two managed to get Aymeric to an empty salle, locked the door, and stood guard to make sure no one tried to get in, and that the repair bill was enormous.

--

(Big Fat Domesticity Meme for Aymeric & Synnove)

[aboyandhisstarship]

Tinder AU David on Deployment

Tinder AU: David on deployment, Gwen makes a choice.

TW: suicide vest, Dear John, Torture, guns, blood, just general violence

 A/N Well my post about cutting some content from this chapter only got likes so i assume you all want to see it...as such head the trigger warnings...and be aware my Davids tend to be less happy go lucky, espiecally when he is working so bear that in mind...and dont yell at me 

 Gwen and David were in a very fancy Restaurant; across from the couple was Gwen’s parents they were asking him “so David…you have to travel a lot for your job?”

David nodded “I Go where I’m sent…”

Gwen’s mom asked “so you can be called away at short notice?”

David sighed “That depends…”

Gwen’s dad accused “so you are not here When Gwen needs you!?”

Gwen demanded “Dad!”

David smiled “it’s ok Gwen…it is a fair question…your right I will not always be here…but when I am Gwen is the most important Person.”

Gwen’s mom was about to respond when David’s phone started to beep, He answered it as Gwen’s parents glared saying “Go for Greenwood…”

David nodded “yes Sir…be there soon.”

Gwen said quietly “you have to go?”

David nodded sadly “Yea there is a…situation…”

David turned to Gwen’s parent’s “It was nice to meet you…”

Gwen’s dad sneered  “I’m sure it was.”

David kissed Gwen’s cheek before leaving, as soon as he was gone The Santos parent’s sighed and said “Gwen we want to talk to you about this relationship…”

 Chicago Illinois:

The plane landed as the team stepped onto the runway where a Detective was waiting saying “You the folks from the Army?”

David’s CO Smiled as she pointed everyone in turn starting with herself “Hammerhead, Whipperwell, Nomad, Cool Breeze.”

The Detective sighed “right no names…look we have no idea if this is legit or some gang banger trying to talk themselves up.”

Hammerhead said casually as the team loaded there bags “they sent us Detective…someone thinks it is legit.”

Fort Bragg, North Carolina:

Gwen slammed her door yelling to the couple on the other side “I am not giving up my future for him!”

Gwen’s mom said “Gwen you need to focus on you…you should finish this experiment and date a nice young man…your father and I have some ideas…”

Gwen groaned “are you really trying to get me to dump David so you can set me up with someone your more comfortable being seen with!?”

Gwen’s dad sighed “there are 3 doctors in this family! Do you really want to drag us down by including a Solider?” he spoke the last word as if it had personally kicked his dog.

Gwen groaned “Go away!”

Her parent’s walked away saying “this conversation is not over young Lady!”

Gwen plucked onto the couch laying her head in Lilly’s lap who was pretending to not hear the whole thing Gwen grumbled “Kill me.”

Lilly chuckled “I’m not exactly qualified…but I can always ask one of David’s coworkers.” She teased

Gwen grumbled “don’t say things like that…They already hate him…”

Lilly sighed “right, sorry.”

Gwen sighed “what am I going to do…I wish I could talk to David he always has the right thing to say.”

Lilly stroked her hair saying “Just relax…maybe watch some TV?”

Chicago Illinois:

David sighed as they drove through the snow saying “nice place…”

The detective chuckled “yea we just got over a blizzard.”

Hammerhead sighed dramatically saying “Great…our briefing was a bit Vague on the situation on the ground here…just some group of hoods are telling anyone who will listen they got their hands on a chemical weapon.”

The detective nodded “the Attica 99, they are mostly in Drug running and have been fighting another gang for years.”

Jasper asked “tell us about them…there leader.”

The detective sighed “Carlos Mendoza, classic piece of work thinks he is the next Al Copone.”

David shook his head “that’s always a good sign…”

The detective nodded “he was the one that started bragging about how they get something big from overseas  at first we figured it was some new drug shipment, then we started picking up chatter that they got there hands on  a chemical weapon that they want to use to send a Message.”

Hammerhead nodded “where do they hang out, we need to take the temperature.”

The Detective sighed “they own a night club on the east side…”

David asked “you got anyone in custody we can talk to?”

The Detective nodded “a couple…”

Hammerhead smiled “good thinking Nomad, you would stand out in the club anyway.”

Jasper said “I will tag along.”

Hammerhead smiled “right then me and Wipperwell will check out the club.”

The car pulled up to their Safe house.

 Police station:

David and Jasper arrived wearing suits at the station walking up to reception David smiled saying “hello, I have an appointment.”

The desk officer asked “can I have your name?”

David smiled “Nomad and Cool Breeze.”

The desk officer chuckled saying “is this a prank.”

Jasper looked at her saying “humor us.”

The officer typed before looking up “uhh the bullpen is that way.”

David smiled at her “thank you Ma’am.”

Jasper shot the officer a wink as they entered the bull pen, David saying “so who exactly do we talk to?”

A detective walked up to them saying “so your…the guys…” she looked around before saying “from the Army?”

Jasper smiled “that’s us.”

David shook his head “Nomad and Cool Breeze Ma’am.”

The detective said “Sasha Daniels.” holding out her hand which was quickly shook.

Jasper said “so if there someone we can talk to?”

Sasha nodded leading them towards the cell “yep I need to be in there to make sure you don’t…”

David blinked “what start waterboarding him?…we don’t do that…”

Jasper added “usually.” With a playful smile

Tabii muttered “sure.”

David opened the door and inside was a rather burley looking man  who simply said “I’m not telling you anything fuzz.”

David sat down across from him with jasper leaning on the table as David smiled “Fuzz now I have not been called that before.”

Jasper nodded “nether have I.”

David shrugged “it helps that we are not cops.”

The guy asked “what?”

David reached onto his jacket pocket pulling out a large folder saying “today is your lucky day friend.”

Jasper smiled “you see we are salesman, we sell vacations.”

The man said louder “what the…”

David nodded “that’s right we sell vacations to unpleasant folks such as yourself and today we are having a fire sale, an all-expense paid trip to Cuba.”

Jasper nodded saying “yep a nice free trip to beautiful Guantanamo Bay Cuba.”

David smiled “and you are likely wondering what you did to earn such a wonderful trip to what do the kids call it?”

Jasper adds helpfully “Gitmo I think?”

David snapped his fingers “that’s right…” placing a badge on the table

The guy said “This a trick?” looking at the badge then at Tabii

Tabii shook her head saying “there for real.”

The guy blinked saying “department of defense…”

David smiled “you’re playing with the big kids now.”

The guy sighed “look maybe I dealt some drugs…”

Jasper clicked his tongue “Nomad do we care about drugs?”

David said “drugs are bad, but that’s not why we are here.”

Jasper nods “no it is not…you see the reason you’re not already on a plane to your new vacation home is because you can maybe tell us something useful.”

The guy bulked up “I aint no snitch.”

David sighed “you and your friends caught our attention when you started telling anyone who would listen that you have a chemical weapon and plan to use it…not the greatest idea.”

Jasper nodded “you see now you and your buddies are on a watch list… And Nomad what do we do to people on watch lists?”

David leaned back saying “well Cool Breeze…we don’t do a lot of watching,” The subtext being conveyed easily.

The guy eyes went wide as Jasper said “that’s right, you see all of your other crimes are thoroughly none of our business but chemical weapons…” Jasper Whistled

David shook his head “it is not a good look for you…and your buddies…but if you talk to us about the weapons maybe the locals deal with you and not us.”

The guy sighed “how do I know you’re legit and won’t send me to Gitmo or worse?”

Jasper smiled “that’s easy we release to the capable hands of Sasha here who sends you to normal prison.”

The guy sighed “alright here is what I know.”

  Safehouse:

David finished briefing saying “that’s what our new friend told us…”

Hammerhead nodded “that lines up with what we saw in the club, lots of guards well-armed but badly trained, we can take em easy but there are Civs around.”

Jasper shrugged “they should make a B line for the exits as soon as the flashes go off.”

David sighed “what about the weapons we will be wearing Hazmats but if they go off it would be bad for the neighborhood.”

Hammerhead smiled “Skylight…Nomad you take the boss as we breach the bottom floor and move for the weapons.”

Wipper well asked “Level of force?”

Hammer head nodded “we have been given the nod, no kid gloves, lethal force that said the DOD does not want any Civ bodies”

David chuckled “so check our shots.”

 Next night:

David adjusted his hazmat Suit a gasmask resting on his forehead as he stood on the roof top next to the club an Mp5 hanging over his chest, Sasha sighed “wow I always thought you guys only dress like that in the movies.”

David chuckled with a shrug “nothing wrong with living up to some stereotype’s, listen this will be loud and they are going to be rather panicked People running out of that building.”

Sasha nodded “we can handle that.”

David’s radio cracked to life as Hammerhead said “Nomad we are on approach.”

David fired Sasha a smile before pulling down his gas mask saying “On my way.” David picked up a breach charge jumping to the next building as Tabii Climbed down from the building.

The Bass of the music pounded in David’s ears as he said “Green,” Placing the breach charge on the skylight after securing his rappel lines.

Hammerhead said “On my count…3, 2, 1 Execute Execute Execute.”

David blew the charge throwing a flashbang into the room as he rappelled into the VIP area of the club, he landed staring down the boss he saw a goon coming from his left and shoot him dead before pointing his gun back at the boss saying “Hands in the Air now!”

David heard gunshots screaming and more flashbangs going off and a woman to his left came into view he scanned ready to shoot her but saw she was only holding a phone he switched back to the boss saying “get those hands up!” his voice muffled by the gas mask.

The boss pulled out a small device and David didn’t Hesitate shooting the boss dead, he detached himself from his rope reloading his Magazine before walked up to the dead man flipping him over before he looking at the picture of Mendoza before saying “Hammerhead, Dry hole…I repeat Mendoza is not on site.”

He saw the woman clearly filming him saying with a sigh “Ma’am you need to vacate,” Before saying on his radio “Hammer head I’m moving your way.”

David moved down the stairs shooting some gang members that tried to get the drop on him before approaching basement calling “coming in!”

Hammerhead turned around Gasmask on her forehead “come on in.”

David entered seeing the “chemical weapon” David pulled up his Gas mask “this a joke ma’am?”

In front of them was pallet of Axe body spray, Jasper sighed “unless they planned to Axe bomb that enemy crew then maybe they moved it.”

Whipper well held up a tester saying “it was here, who knows how long ago.”

Jasper made an over here whistle, David shook his head “how about that.”

Inside were a lot of weapons, ranging from Glocks to AK’s

Hammerhead sighed “The locals can handle these weapons; we need to fall back and figure out our next move.” The team pulled on the gas masks before leaving the building.

 North Carolina:

Gwen was sitting in her dorm before her phone started to light up with crazy amount of messages all having variations on the question “is that David?”

Gwen chuckled “this should be dumb.” She clicked the link and was sent to YouTube video titled “No police raid I ever saw.” With 8 million views, Gwen sighed “I swear if I get rick rolled.”

Gwen clicked Play and was treated to a typical club video of some kind with people dancing to some music about thirty seconds passed before there was an explosion glass rained from the ceiling as people started screaming the camera person saw a cylinder hit the ground before there was a flash  the Person holding the camera was clearly blinded as a man in all black wearing a gasmask dropped from the ceiling, the Camera watched him scan firing his weapon and the camera followed someone who fell against the wall dead blood flying everywhere before the man in the gasmask turned on a man in the middle room calling “Hands in the air Now!”

The camera stepped forward and the man in the gasmask pointed there weapon at them briefly before turning back to the man in the center of the room “Get those hands up!” his voice muffled by the gas mask.

The man looked to be holding something and without a second of pause the guy in the gasmask shot hit dead the weapon was so loud Gwen almost gasped as it was finished with the light Klink of the shell casings hit the floor. The Gasmask wearing man unclipped himself from his ropes reloading  his weapon flipping over the body and looking at a picture shaking his head he said something that Gwen could not hear over the chaos before turning around  looking directly at the person filming saying voice muffled by the gas mask  “you need to vacate ma’am.”

Gwen watched the Green eyes behind the gas mask and the way the guy wearing the mask said ma’am Gwen mouth opened “Holy fuck…”

The video kept filming all through the evacuation before ending. Gwen sent back her mouth wide open as she paused “I knew what he does…but seeing it…”

Gwen stood up walking over to the trashcan before vomiting.

Chicago Illinois:

David sat on a chair still in full gear his eyes closed as he napped, they were waiting for their local contacts to tell them if they heard anything when they heard coming to the door there was a knock and David pulled out his Glock as he nodded to Jasper who opened the door, Sasha walked in seeing the armed David who lowered his gun saying “Should I come back later?” food in her hand.

Hammerhead smiled saying “come on in Detective.”

Sasha entered and saw the inside of the safe house covered in photos and other documents about the team’s target.  Sasha smiled carefully “nice place…”

Whipper well laughed “better than our normal safe houses.”

Sasha chuckled “somehow I believe it…”

David asked “what do you have for us?”

Sasha smiled putting down the subs saying “your raid has had the desired effect, Attica 99 have gone to ground, and we have rounded up the majority of their leadership from the club.”

Jasper asked “and the Weapon?”

Sasha sighed “most of the guys we grabbed said the same thing, it should have been in the basement of the club, and they are just as shocked as we are that it wasn’t there.”

David asked “we believe them?”

Sasha paused “some BS’ing us I buy…but all of them…especially after what they saw I don’t buy it you put the fear of god into them…”

Hammerhead sighed “did we learn anything.”

Sasha nodded “Mustard gas…what they stole us 800 metric liters of mustard gas.”

South Carolina:

Gwen tossed and turned as she watched the assault over and over again, the brutality the coldness of it was getting to her…and just for a second she started to wonder…maybe my folks are right about him.

Chicago:

David sat in a car with Sasha looking at an apartment around the corner from him, David was in passenger with Sasha behind the wheel, and David had his eyes closed as Sasha cleared her throat “soo Nomad…”

David opened his eyes “Target sighted?”

Sasha asked “Target?”

David frowned before slapping his head “sorry old habits…”

Sasha frowned “I think it is telling…”

David sighed “do I want to…”

Sasha interrupted saying “Judging from your assault you’re not big on taking people alive.”

David countered “I am trained to fight wars Detective not fight crime.” Peering through binoculars

Sasha nodded “right…so is there a Miss Nomad?”

David dodged saying “do you see a ring?”

Sasha countered “I don’t know your name; I don’t think it is a stretch for you not wearing your ring.”

David lied unconvincingly “I am an only child, with no family, no friends and no romantic attachments.”

Sasha laughed “they really make you say that?”

David chuckled “no names, we really going to talk about my personal life?”

Sasha said with triumph “You do have a personal life.”

David sighed “the life I have is the Mission, it comes first…always does…”

South Carolina:

Gwen was starting to question her relationship, as she looked at her phone all of her texts to David un answered as he deployed…somewhere, Gwen opened to email again looking at it…unsure what to do, it was a big chance but then again she would have to leave David…she began to look it over again.”

 Chicago, safe house:

David briefed “we have been sitting on the girlfriend’s house for almost two weeks, but we finally got a sighting of him…”

Showing a photo of Mendoza taking out the trash, Hammer head said “the Pentagon give us the go, we want him alive to have a long chat…we move in tonight.”

 South Carolina:

Gwen had mauled it over before she hit the call button “Miss Santo’s have you considered our offer?”

Gwen nodded “yes I have decided to accept it.”

The voice sounded happy “glad to hear it Professor, you will need to move here…will that be an issue?”

Gwen paused before saying “Not at all.”  Gwen ended the call and sat back.

Gwen quickly put her stuff in a truck heading for Seattle, before she clutched the key heading for David’s apartment.

David’s apartment Fort Bragg:

Gwen let herself in seeing that the home had not been occupied in some time, she took the case she brought carefully putting away all of her stuff, she placed a note on the kitchen table before saying out loud “sorry David.”  Leaving her key on the table she locked the door and walked away not looking back.

 Chicago:

David lowered his night vision goggles over his gasmask as they crept towards the apartment, the team carefully opened the lobby quickly clearing the darked building as they advanced up the stairs, coming to apartment 27, the one owned by Mendoza’s Girlfriend, they stacked up on the door as Hammer head counted down with her fingers “3,2,1.”

At one Whipperwell used a breaching hammer bashing open the door, the team flew in shouting “on the floor!”

A baby cried as David and Jasper wrestled the surprised Mendoza to the ground David demanded “where is it!”

Mendoza responded “you’re too late.”

Hammerhead sighed “Whipper well let’s check on the girl friend.”

David and Jasper lifted there masks with David asking “what are you smiling about?”

David was answered with the yell of one word “avalanche!”

University of Seattle:

Gwen shook hands with the English department head saying “happy you were able to join us on such short notice Professor.”

Gwen smiled “happy to be here.”

The department head “lets show you to your office.”

 Chicago:

Sasha saw David and jasper drag Mendoza out of the smoking apartment, Sasha Asked “nomad…what happened?”

David pulled out a sat phone as Jasper growled “this son of a bitch rigged up his girlfriend with an S vest…clacked it off.”

Sasha blinked “are you saying…”

Jasper nodded “turned his Girlfriend into a suicide bomber, took out herself, her baby, Hammer head and Whipper well.”

Jasper adding“and apparently he already planted the gas.”

Sasha swore “that sick fuck!”

David nodded “yes sir…I understand what the president is authorizing…no sir…no qualms about it…yes sir the Mission comes first,”  

Sasha paused “Nomad…”

David stated “pentagon have told us the gloves are off He has been declared an enemy combatant…”

Sasha asked “what are you saying?”

David said simply “Take a walk…”

Mendoza smile faded “wait, I’m not going into police custody?”

Jasper opened the van back doors as David repeated “take a walk.”

Sasha asked “what are you going to do to him?”

David clenched his fists “nothing we have not done before.”

Mendoza said “wait you can’t, I killed some of them…there is no telling what they do to me.”

Sasha paused before nodding saying “right…”

David threw him into the van saying coldly “enjoy your walk.”

Warehouse: TW torture

David dragged Mendoza to a chair in the middle of the warehouse, where surrounding them where a variety of tools, David said coldly “Tell us where the gas is.”   Jasper picked up a wretch.

Mendoza said “I want a lawyer!”

David sighed “wrong answer” Nodding at jasper, who swung the wrench at Mendoza’s left pointer finger breaking it the blow causing to man scream in pain.

David said again “where is the gas Mendoza? You have 9 more fingers.”

Mendoza breathed out “I am not telling you anything!”

David nodded again and jasper broke his middle finger as Mendoza screamed “Fuck Fuck stop stop!”

David glared “this ends as soon as you tell me what I want to know.”

Mendoza sighed “fine…your mom is a whore!”

David sighed “do the entire hand.”

Jasper swung wretch breaking the entirety of his left hand, David said “you want to survive this you piece of garbage? Then tell us!”

Mendoza groaned “I won’t tell you anything!”

David grabbed a car battery and jumper cables sparking the object, as jasper throw a bucket of water on him “tell us and this ends.”

Mendoza groaned as David touched his body with the cables delivering a severe shock the man swore “fuck ok…wiggly alright the baseball game…those punks from fifth street have their meetings there, we are going to take them out in the game.”

Jasper groaned “along with thousands of others!”

Mendoza groaned “that’s war…”

Jasper looked like he was going to hit him again  but David stopped him “Cool Breeze…The Mission isn’t over…we need to call Sasha.”

Mendoza groaned “you can’t stop it.”

David ignored him as he called Sasha saying “wiggly stadium, and send an ambulance to the following address…”

Station:

David signed the paperwork to get his team released from the morgue as Sasha said “so I visited Mendoza in the hospital…well as much as I could considering the Feds waiting to ship him off.”

David put down the clip board “oh what did you learn?”

Sasha paused “he must have fallen down one hell of a flight of stairs” she half joked

David responded coldly “whatever the mission allows.”

Sasha nodded “the pentagon…they told you to do that?”

David answered “they wanted the gloves off…that’s what it looks like have a nice life detective.”

David left the station and never looked back

Fort Bragg:

David sighed as Miller debriefed saying “Master Sargent…you did good work.”

David shook his head “we took casualties sir…the mission was off from day one.”

Miller nodded “indeed, but you are Sargent Fronds managed ok, you have been given the command, of the team.”

David paused before saying “thank you sir…”

Miller Smiled “you have to new members joining you soon, the first is your tech expert, Warrant officer Tabii Gordon, Her call sign is Redcap,” Sliding over a file before adding “and fresh out of selection, Corporal Gaylord Nurfington his call sign is Dirt Diver”

David crocked an eyebrow “Gaylord?”

Miller smiled “his friends call him Nurf.”

David took the files “thank you sir.”

Miller reinterred “You did good work son…go home and get some rest.”

David nodding grabbing his files and going home.

 David’s apartment:

David opened the door, sighing as he entered trying to put on a smile not let the mission get to him he put his key in the dish saying aloud “Gwen you home?...it’s me David…”

David then said aloud “well I guess you would figure that…considering this is my apartment.”

David felt his hair stand up on the back of his neck, his Instinct’s saying there was something wrong, he reached for his gun moving for the bedroom, taking a deep breath he threw the door open quickly clearing the empty room, David moved quickly clearing the bathroom. Before lowering his weapon his heart pounding before he saw it, the note and the key on the table.

David put his weapon away picking up the note feeling his stomach turn as he recognized Gwen’s handwriting.

David opened the note reading:

 David…I’m sorry that I can’t do this in person, but with you being sent away right in the middle of that dinner, forced me to come to a conclusion that maybe I am not cut for this life…being with you, watching the news every night wondering if I will see your face as a casualty in some country, or get a knock on my door or a call saying that you died and they can’t tell me where or how just that you are a hero.  And they are right you are a hero David…but your also in a messy business…I saw a video from your recent deployment…I saw you kill two people with no mercy not hesitation. That is the type of person you are, I guess I always knew after our first when you shot that man, but I didn’t want to read that writing on the wall…I know who you are David I know you would never hurt anyone who was not trying to hurt you, but frankly it all comes down to one question, and I decided not to give you a chance to answer it, the question is what do you love more your job or me…and I already know the answer…the mission always comes first  for you David…so I took a job somewhere else…you will never see me again…goodbye David…stay safe

 -Gwen

 David dropped the note holding his head in his hands before reaching over to this phone to call Gwen before met with a simple “the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected.”  

David look down feeling the tears welling on his face before his phone buzzed, he reeled himself in saying with a simple “go for Greenwood…Yes sir, not an issue at all.”

David placed the note on the table grabbing his go bag and left the apartment.

A/N: 

So Gwen dumped David after his team died and he is now in charge...will they stay apart...Not sure...maybe, maybe some thing will happen at her old school, what i do know is that there will be some Jaspvid Brotp and David driving into his work until his team pulls him out...but no need to worry about that, the next chapter will probably be tamer, but i debated showing Jasper and David torturing that guy for a long time, they was build up with the waterboarding joke, but considered just not showing it cutting to the scene after, but decided to make the audience have conflicted feelings about David, possibly  even Side with Gwen who just dumped him...but i don’t want David to be a crazy guy so i wrote in The Pentagon Ordering it clearly, but enough talk...tell me what you thought of this chapter, and of that scene, weather it was done well, or felt gratuitous...this chapter has been done for like a week before i decided to publish, anyway stay safe   

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 6, Number 4

Guided by Voices just dropped record #30!

We enter April wishing all of you good health and financial solvency, though we know that many of the musicians and artists and appreciators that visit our site are in very dire circumstances. Our own crew is, so far, not infected, though we are coping with varying degrees of success to the new normal. Some are writing more. Others are struggling. Almost all of us are listening hard to the music that sustains us, and hope that you are likewise finding some solace. This edition of Dust is a big one, as a lot of us have the attention span for shorter, but not longer pieces. Enjoy it in good health. Contributors included Bill Meyer, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Ian Mathers, Andrew Forell and Tim Clarke.

Aara — En Ergô Einai (Debemur Morti Productions)

En Ergô Einai by Aara

Swiss black metal band Aara offers a very high-concept LP, investigating the European Enlightenment, and the period’s complex and conflicting discourses on human rationality. In some ways, the historical period was enormously optimistic, featuring thinkers like Ben Franklin and Rousseau, who were committed to modes of thought that were scientifically rigorous and grounded in egalitarian ethics. But at the same time, European coloniality ramped up significantly, and capital became a rapacious, world consuming engine, churning out massive wealth and even more massive human suffering. Aara investigate that — or anyways that’s their claim. They haven’t published the lyrics to these songs, and the vocal stylings of singer Fluss are so brittle, so horrendously shrieked, that it’s impossible to decipher the words. The music is suggestive, however. It’s infused with a grand sensibility, and also charged with black metal’s negative intensities. The influence of Blut Aus Nord’s romantic Memoria Vetusta records is strongly present — and Vindsval, Blut Aus Nord’s principal composer, plays guitar on “Arkanum,” first track on this record. Its grandiosity is in tune with the philosophical enthusiasms of the Enlightenment. But it’s pretty cold stuff, like rationality itself.

Jonathan Shaw

 Ryoko Akama / Apartment House — Dial 45-21-95 (2019) (Another Timbre)

Dial 45-21-95 by Ryoko Akama

The one time I saw Ryoko Akama’s music performed, the visual poetry of the concert was at least as compelling as the music that was made. During one piece she, Joseph Clayton Mills and Adam Sonderberg walked calmly up and down a line of tables loaded with instruments and knick-knacks she picked up during her visit to Chicago, making timely sounds that seemed to accent their movements rather than issue from them. While it sounded nothing like the music on Dial 45-21-95 (2019), this album is likewise the work of sympathetic musicians expressing a composer’s impressions of a place and all that comes with it. The source material this time comes from Akama’s visit to the archive of filmmaker Krzystof Kieslowski. Objects she saw, words that she read, and the episodic pacing of his works all became part of this cycle of leisurely, gentle movements of music that is small in scale, but not exactly minimalist. The musicians, in this case the English new music ensemble Apartment House, often seem to be passing phrases from one to another, each recipient conveying a reaction to what they’ve heard rather than the same information. In this way they impart the experience of a story without telling one.

Bill Meyer

 Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis — Invisible Cities II (Karlrecords)

Invisible Cities II by Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis

What better time than when we’re all forbidden by pandemic to spend time in the company of others to listen to some quality sonic landscaping instead? Nadja’s ever-prolific Aidan Baker second duo collaboration with bass clarinetist Gareth Davis follows on the first Invisible Cities with a similar structure; Baker, credited on that first LP with just “guitar”, somehow summons up vast or subtle cloudbanks of hissing ambience, covert drones, even sometimes harsh blares (check out “The Dead” here) while Davis plays his clarinet like he’s carefully picking his way across a perilous set of ruins. Whether elegiac like the opening “Hidden” or more mysterious like the fading pulses threading around Davis’s work on “Eyes”, the result is a vividly evocative set of involving ambient music made using slightly unusual materials. Even though Baker and Davis fall into a set of background/foreground roles, both clearly contribute equally to what makes Invisible Cities II work so well (honestly, a little better than their fine debut as a duo), and although unintentional, the result can serve to give us temporary shut ins plenty of mental fodder as well.  

Ian Mathers  

 The Bobby Lees — Skin Suit (Alive)

The Bobby Lees may be from Woodstock, but they definitely do not have flowers in their hair. Skin Suit, the band’s second album, is a blistering onslaught of garage rock fury, at least as heated as last year’s Hank Wood and the Hammerheads S-T, but tighter, nearly surgically precise. Singer/guitarist Sam Quartin has a magnetic, unflappable presence, whether issuing threats sotto voce (“Coin”), insinuating sexual heat (“Redroom”) or crooning the blues. But everyone in the band is more than up to the job, whether Macky Bowman knocking the kit sidewise in the most disciplined way, Kendall Windall jacking the pressure with thundering bass or Nick Casa lighting off Molotov cocktails of guitar sound. Video (above) suggests that the record isn’t the half of it, but the record is pretty damned good. Jon Spencer produced and makes a characteristically unhinged cameo in “Ranch Baby.” Two covers ought to be a misfire—can anybody improve on Richard Hell’s “Blank Generation,” or add anything further to the Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man”? — but instead bring the fire. Helluva a band, probably even better live.

Jennifer Kelly

 Rob Clutton with Tony Malaby — Offering (Snailbongbong Records)

Offering by Rob Clutton with Tony Malaby

Sometimes when one musician gets top billing, that just means they ponied up for the session fees. But on Offering, the words “Rob Clutton with” signal that the Canadian double bassist conceived of a sound situation and procured material suited to that concept. Clutton is well acquainted with the American soprano and tenor saxophonist, Tony Malaby. Their association dates back two decades, when both men were resident artists at the Banff Centre For Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada, and they’re both members of drummer Nick Fraser’s band. That common ground gets the nod on “Sketch #11,” a Fraser tune that occasions some of the most swinging music on this wide-ranging and thoroughly satisfying session. But elsewhere the genesis of the material lies in Clutton’s own improvisations, which he recorded, transcribed and analyzed in order to locate nuggets of musical intelligence worth developing into discreet melodies — or further improvisations. Either way, Malaby isn’t just the guy on hand to play the horn parts, but a known musical quantity to be either be written for or set up to set loose. Clutton must have had his tone, alternately ample and pungent on soprano, and his imaginative responsiveness to the melodic, rhythmic, and emotional implications of a theme in mind, for his own purposeful perambulations seem designed to give Malaby plenty to wrap around and climb upon. While the music is ever spare, it’s never wanting.

Bill Meyer

 Pia Fraus — Empty Parks (Seksound)

Empty Parks by Pia Fraus

Empty Parks, the latest album from Estonian neo-shoegazers Pia Fraus, deftly soundtracks crisp, blue-skied, late winter days when buds are emerging on bare trees and the promise of warmer days beckons. The Tallinn based band comprising Eve Komp (vocals, synth), Kärt Ojavee (synth), Rein Fuks (guitar, vocals, synth, percussion), Reijo Tagapere (bass), Joosep Volk (drums, electronic percussion) and Kristel Eplik (backing vocals) traffics in layered harmonies, swathes of synth and roving guitar lines over a solid, propulsive rhythm section. Most of the songs move along at a good clip with a great sense of dynamics and a focus on atmospherics. Sometimes one wishes they would let go a little and explore the hints of noise on standout tracks “Mr. Land Freezer,” “Nice And Clever” and “Australian Boots” which have traces of grit that, if given more prominence, may have elevated Empty Parks as a whole from enjoyable to compelling.  

Andrew Forell  

 Stephen Gauci / Sandy Ewen / Adam Lane / Kevin Shea — Live at the Bushwick Series (Gaucimusic)

Gauci/Ewen/Lane/Shea, Live at the Bushwick Series by gaucimusic

The cultural losses inflicted by the current pandemic situation are so immense that no record review is going to hold the whole story. But this one might clue you in to one culture under unique threat, and also shine a light on the spirit that may bring it back again. Since the summer of 2017, tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci has been organizing a concert series at the Bushwick Public House in Brooklyn, NY. Each Monday starting at 7 PM up to half a dozen individuals or ensembles will play some variant of jazz or improvised music. This album is the first in a series of five titles, all released as either downloads or CDRs with nicely done sleeves, and each documenting a set that was part of the series. Live at the Bushwick Series is a forceful argument for the mixing of aesthetics. You might know drummer Kevin Shea from the conceptually comedic jazz band, Mostly Other People Do The Killing, or Gauci and Lane from the many recordings that showcase each man’s impassioned playing and rigorous compositions. Maybe you know guitarist Sandy Ewen as a started-from-scratch free improviser. But when you hear this recording, you’ll know that they are a band, one that makes cohesive and ferocious music on full of tectonic friction and fluid role-swapping on the fly. When the quarantines expire, there may or may not be a concert series, or a Bushwick Public House to host it. But it’ll take the kind of commitment and invention heard here to get things rolling again.

Bill Meyer

 Vincent Glanzmann / Gerry Hemingway — Composition O (Fundacja Sluchaj)

Composition O by Vincent Glanzmann / Gerry Hemingway

A composition is both an ending and a beginning. It establishes some parameters, however specifically, to guide musicians’ interactions. But the publishing of a piece can also provoke many different interpretations, especially when the composition itself is designed to be a work in progress. Percussionists Vincent Glanzmann and Gerry Hemingway developed Composition O with the intent to revise each time they play it, so that while there is a graphic score guiding them, it is subject to change. So, don’t expect this music to have the locked-in quality of, say, Steve Reich’s Music for Eighteen Musicians, any more than you might expect it to evince the self-creating form of a free improvisation. It proceeds quite deliberately through sections of athletic stick-craft, sonorous rubbing, and eerie extensions beyond the percussive realm enabled by the distorting properties of microphones and the deeply human communication of Hemingway’s vocalizations, which are filtered by a harmonica. The score keeps things organized; the concept means that this music will evolve and change.

Bill Meyer

 Magnus Granberg / Insub Meta Orchestra — Als alle Vögel sangen mein Sehnen und Verlangen (Insub)

Als alle Vögel sangen mein Sehnen und Verlangen by MAGNUS GRANBERG / INSUB META ORCHESTRA

In a previous review for Dusted, I characterized Magnus Grandberg’s sound world as “unemphatic.” The same applies here, and the accomplishment of that effect is in direct inverse to the size of the ensemble playing this album-length piece. For this performance, the Insub Meta Orchestra numbers 27 musicians, but it rarely sounds like more than four or five of them are playing at any time. The ensemble is well equipped to represent whatever Granberg suggests. In addition to conventional orchestra instrumentation, you’ll find antique instruments such as spinet, traverso and viola da gamba, as well as newcomers like the analog synthesizer and laptop computer. Granberg selects discerningly from centuries of compositional and performative approaches. The piece’s title, which translates to “When all the birds sang my longing and desire,” tips the hat to Schubert, but the way that timbres offset one another shows a working knowledge with contemporary free improvisation. It takes restraint on the part of the players as well as the composer to make a group this big sound so small in contrast to the silence that contains its music.

Bill Meyer    

 Ivar Grydeland / Henry Kaiser — In The Arctic Dreamtime (Rune Grammofon)

If Ivar Gyrdeland (Danes les Arbres, Huntsville) and Henry Kaiser had first met in an airport lounge or a green room somewhere, you might not be able to hold this CD in your hands. They’d have sat down, started talking about strings or pick-ups or their favorite Terje Rypdal records, and who knows where that might have led. But they met in an Oslo studio, and one of them had some means of projecting Roald Amundsen — Lincoln Ellsworth’s Flyveekspedisjon 1925, a documentary of an unsuccessful and nearly fatal attempt to fly two airplanes over the North Pole. So, they set up their guitars and improvised a soundtrack to the film on the spot, which became the contents of this CD. Neither man regards the guitar’s conventional sounds as obligatory boundaries, and much of the music here delves into other available options. Resonant swells, looped harmonics, and flickering backwards sounds alternate with shimmering strums, skeins of feedback, and unabashed shredding, radiating with an icy brightness that corresponds to the unending polar sunlight that shone down on the expeditionaries as they hand-carved a runway out of the ice.

Bill Meyer

 Guided By Voices — ‘Surrender Your Poppy Field’ (GBV, Inc.)

Surrender Your Poppy Field by Guided By Voices

The ever productive Robert Pollard kicks off a new decade with a louder, more distorted brand of rock, his characteristic hooky melodies buzzing with guitar feedback. He’s supported by the same band as on last year’s Sweating the Plague— Doug Gillard, Kevin March, Bobby Bare, Jr. and Mark Shue, who like Pollard are lifers to a man. Songs run short and feverish with only a couple breaking the three- minute mark and the chamber-pop “Whoa Nelly,” clocking in at 61 seconds. And yet, who can pack more into a couple of minutes than the godfather of lofi? “Queen Parking Lot” ramps up the dissonance around the most fetching sort of melody, which curves organically around modal curves. “Steely Dodger,” layers rattling textures of percussive sound (drums, strummed guitars) around a dreaming psychedelic tune. The words make no sense, but tap into subconscious fancies. This is Guided by Voices 30th album. Here’s to the next 30.

Jennifer Kelly

 Zachary Hay — Zachary Hay (Scissor Tail)

Zachary Hay by Zachary Hay

Zachary Hay is an American acoustic guitarist, but please, put aside the associative baggage that comes with those words. If you do so, that’ll put you closer to the spirit that informed the making of this LP’s ten un-named tracks. Like Jon Collin, Hay seems to be intent upon capturing the mood and environment of a particular moment. The sound of the room, or someone turning on a tap while he’s recording — these become elements of the music every bit as much as his patient note choices. Hay likes melodies, but he doesn’t feel bound to repeat them, which imparts a sense of motion to the music. Things change a bit towards the end, when he puts down his guitar and stretches out for a spell on banjo and squeezebox, humming along with the latter like a man who knows that he must be his own company.

Bill Meyer  

 Egil Kalman & Fredrik Rasten — Weaving a Fabric of Winds (Shhpuma)

Weaving a Fabric of Winds by Egil Kalman & Fredrik Rasten

Some music is born out of commercial or communicative aspirations, or philosophical structural prescriptions. One suspects that this music originates from some agreement about what sounds good, compounded by other ideas about the right way to do things. Fredrik Rasten is a guitarist who splits his time between Berlin and Oslo, shuttling between improvised and composed musical situations; he has an album out on Wandelweiser, which should tell you a bit about his aesthetics. Egil Kalman plays modular synthesizer on this record, but he is also a double bassist from Sweden who lives in Copenhagen, and he keeps busy playing in folk, jazz and free improv settings; one hopes that someday, we’ll hear some recordings by his touring project, Alasdair Roberts & Völvur. But in the meantime, give a listen to this record, which patiently scrutinizes a space bounded by string harmonics and electronic resonance. Rasten uses just intonation to maximize the radiance of his sounds and re-tunes while playing to subtly manage the harmonic proximity between his vibrations and Kalman’s long tones. The synth supplies a bit of slow-motion melody. The album’s two pieces were performed in real time, and the effort involved in maintaining precise harmonic distance gives the music a subtle but undeniable charge. The title mentions winds, but this music feels more like a sonic representation of slight but steady breezes.

Bill Meyer

Matt Karmil — STS371 (Smalltown Supersound)

STS371 by Matt Karmil

UK producer Matt Karmil’s latest release STS371 mines a lode of straight ahead acid house and techno laced with enough glitch and twitch to appeal to the head as much as the body. Lead single “PB” is a maximalist concoction of ricocheting hi-hat, blurting bass, the panting of the short distance runner and an undercurrent of soft white noise. Karmil uses just a few simple elements to build his tracks which foreground the beats. Hi-hat and kick drums drop on tracks like “SR/WB” to highlight woozy synth washes. It’s just enough to let you breathe before the high energy tempos return and the strobes flash once more. STS371 touches on Force Inc clicks and cuts and ~scape minimalism beneath the rhythms but most of all Karmil is interested in keeping you on your feet. Mission accomplished.  

Andrew Forell

 Kevin Krauter — Full Hand (Bayonet Records)

Full Hand by Kevin Krauter

Indiana musician Kevin Krauter’s sophomore album Full Hand floats by like a summer breeze. The Hoops bassist plumbs 1980s AOR and coats it in an agreeable fuzz to produce 12 tracks of gossamer dream pop heavy on atmosphere if not always individually memorable. Lyrically Krauter mines his memories and experiences growing up in a religious household, self-discovery and coming of age with poetic grace that his delivers over drum machines, hazy synths, delicate layers of guitar, and low-key yearning vocals.

At his most direct on the title track and “Pretty Boy”, Krauter explores queer identity and his wish to be himself and express his desire. “Green Eyes” and “How” confront the dilemmas of doing just that. The songs are less confessional or revelatory than the sound of Krauter working things out in real time, allowing his audience the privilege of listening as he does so. There are no “big” moments but one comes away inspired by his words and warmed by his music.

Andrew Forell

 Nap Eyes — Snapshot of a Beginner (Jagjaguwar)

Album number four sees Nap Eyes open up to take in broader, sleeker vistas. For the most part, lackadaisical country-rock’n’roll is nudged towards expansiveness by spacey guitars borrowed from My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything. Nigel Chapman steps forward into his front man role with more aplomb than on preceding albums, marshalling his bandmates around him to explore more colorful musical territories. Most successful are the singles, especially opener “So Tired,” plus the canny repurposing of the “Paint It Black” riff on “Real Thoughts,” and the deft guitar work on “Dark Link.” Sometimes there’s a loss of focus, a feeling of stretching for something just beyond reach. But that’s OK; after all, the shrugging acceptance of their shortcomings is right there in the album title.

Tim Clarke

 Peel Dream Magazine — Agitprop Alterna (Slumberland / Tough Love)

Agitprop Alterna by Peel Dream Magazine

On second album Agitprop Alterna, Peel Dream Magazine sound just like early Stereolab, with occasional blasts of shoe-gazey guitar thrown in for good measure. It may come across as reductive, even dismissive, to make such an overt comparison, but there’s no getting round it. With Stereolab’s comeback reminding everyone how beloved the band is, it’s heartening that there are new bands carrying the torch of their glorious aesthetic. To anyone who grew up in the 1990s listening to this stuff, it’ll no doubt be startling how well Joe Stevens has pulled this off. It’s a love letter to the sound of droning organs, guitars hammering away at major sevenths, driving rhythms and zoned-out but tuneful vocals. It’s derivative, sure, but it’s so well done, and the song writing is so solid that the appeal is undeniable. A recording of John Peel’s reassuringly deadpan radio patter even makes an appearance on “Wood Paneling Pt 2,” midway through the album, as if posthumously giving the band his blessing. I can’t argue with that.  

Tim Clarke

 Sign of Evil — Psychodelic Horror (Caligari Records)

Psychodelic Horror by SIGN OF EVIL

Maybe music this astoundingly stupid shouldn’t be quite so fun. But Sign of Evil, a one-man-black-metal-psychobilly-mash-up from Chile, makes a racket that’s so oddly deranged that it’s hard not to be charmed. Imagine if Link Wray somehow managed to walk into a Dark Throne practice session, c. 1995, and decided to jam, and you might conjure some of the strangeness you’ll encounter on the doltishly titled Psychodelic Horror. It’s fitting that the best song on the tape is simply called “Horror.” Nuff said. But check out the whacko piano that Witchfucker (yep) gamely pounds through the song’s first 30 seconds, and then the wheezy guitar tone he abuses your ear with when the metal portion of the song starts. These are not the sounds of a well-adjusted intelligence. Nor are they the sorts of sounds made by jackasses that cynically profess misanthropic allegiance to Satan, even as they enjoy decades-long careers in the music industry. Watain and Gorgoroth and Dark Funeral only wish they could be this legitimately unhinged. It helps that Witchfucker isn’t a loathsome racist. Rock on, you weirdo.

Jonathan Shaw

 Tré Burt — Caught It From the Rye (Oh Boy)

Caught It From The Rye by Tre Burt

Tré Burt has a rough-edged voice and fiery way with the harmonica that can’t help but remind of a certain Nobel Prize winning songwriter, though his words are less oblique. This debut album has a raspy, down-home charm, framed by raucous acoustic strumming and forthright Americana melodies. The winner here is the title track, which glancingly references the J.D. Salinger classic, but mostly reflects a soulful, restless search for meaning in art and life and music. “All my favorite paintings/ they keep on fallin' down/And I need savin' by the grace of god/But I know he's off creatin' /another one like me,” croons Burt with sandy sincerity. It’s a resilient sort of music, where Burt’s yowling voice plumbs emotional depths, but his rambling guitar line maintains a steady cheer. Burt got his big chance from John Prine’s Oh Boy Records, and as that songwriter hovers near death, it’s a good time to celebrate his legacy of leaving the ladder up.

Jennifer Kelly

 Michael Vallera — Window In (Denovali)

Window In by Michael Vallera

Chicago photographer, musician and composer Michael Vallera releases Window In, a four-track album of ambient manipulated guitar and electronic drone. Vallera works in a liminal space between actuality and potential, with continual, albeit almost imperceptible, shifts from the general and the hyper-specific. He brings a photographic eye to his compositions. They are the aural equivalent of seascapes in which one basks before one is drawn to details and the secrets beneath. Vallera’s tracks float by on luxurious oceanic swells with undercurrents of hiss, subaquatic rumbles, the blips and bleeps of luminescent trench dwellers. In the process the source, the guitar, is rendered unrecognizable, erased from the results leaving only disembodied sounds that ironically feel anchored in the real. Fans of Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas project, Fennesz’ guitar based ambient music or Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops will find much to appreciate here. Window In is a meditation on stillness and calm in the eye of powerful natural forces, something we always need but more so now.

Andrew Forell

 Windy & Carl — Allegiance and Conviction (Kranky)

Allegiance and Conviction by Windy & Carl

Windy Weber and Carl Hultgren have been creating ambient space-rock for nearly 30 years now. The couple’s cosmic yet intimate output may have slowed — this is their first album since 2012’s We Will Always Be — but their sound possesses a timeless resonance. Stepping into their river of watery guitar and bass drones in 2020 feels like little has changed since we last left them — and yet, strangely, everything is new. Windy’s voice makes tentative yet emotionally insistent appearances on five of these six tracks, her words hinting at small-scale revolutions (“In the underground, we’ve got a job to do” — “The Stranger”). “Will I See the Dawn” is the only wordless piece, where electric piano and tape hiss manage to speak volumes. At only 38 minutes, this is a short album for Windy & Carl, but one that has enough shadowy depths to qualify as a worthwhile addition to their intimidating discography.  

Tim Clarke