#everywhere around where i live is being evacuated for fires

[circesoracle]

wanting to finish and post the next chapter of Eternity's Embrace vs. knowing that poor engagement would only exacerbate my already critically damaged mental health

[trollprincess]

So I have a friend from high school who is a cop. (Yes, I KNOW.) I shared a photo on Facebook of a packed highway of people attempting to evacuate from Hurricane Milton, all while the lanes going in the opposite direction were open and empty. And my Facebook post was basically me screaming, “Open the other side of the highway and reverse it so that people can GET OUT.”

His response was essentially, “Yeah, that is *really* difficult for us to do.” Not in a condescending way, because he genuinely isn’t a huge asshole. (Yes, I KNOW.)

And then I may have vented in my response, in which I tried not to imply that the police were a problem. Because to be honest, I don’t see this as a police problem. I see this as how we have fucked ourselves as a nation by making ourselves so dependent on cars.

There is that poll on this site – or multiple polls, at this point – asking how long people can tolerate being in their cars. And the thing is, Americans (and Canadians as well, I am imagining) have almost no other options. We have to be used to spending a good 12 hours in a car without breaking a sweat. Everything in this country is built around being in a car. There’s a reason when you ask us how far away a place is from somewhere else, we normally give that distance in hours and not miles.

Air travel sucks. It sucks for a multitude of reasons – cost, the hassle of dealing with security, the time suck, etc. – and in an emergency, only a select few are going to be able to use it to get away from a hurricane. And that’s one of the few disasters where air travel is an optional escape.

Train travel sucks. Amtrak is not something you’re gonna be complaining about if you’re trying to get away from whatever disaster you need to evacuate from. But next to so many other countries, Amtrak looks like we’ve been receiving other countries’s leftover railway systems from the 70s. It also doesn’t go everywhere. I live in northeastern Pennsylvania near Scranton, which prides itself on its history in the train industry. We have a museum and everything. We have multiple things named after that museum, including the Steamtown marathon which is happening tomorrow.

Can you get on a passenger train in Scranton? Nope.

(The main argument against this always seems to be that people will come here from New York City and commit crimes, which is hilarious considering if somebody wanted to come here from New York City and commit crimes it’s only a 2.5-hour drive.)

Anyway, disasters.

If the only option you’re gonna give most people to get out of areas of Florida that are being targeted by hurricanes or areas of California that suffer from wildfires or places in the Midwest that face flooding are cars, then we need a better fucking emergency management system regarding transportation in this country. You can’t just sit there and mock people for not evacuating because they can’t or won’t when getting away from Milton meant sitting on highway for hours with absolutely no gas stations whatsoever nearby having any gas at all. (It just makes me think of those photos of people stranded on the highway in their cars in blizzards where people are like, “Now imagine imagine how bad it would be if all of those cars were electric!“ Well, all of those cars in that photo in that blizzard run on gas and they’re fucking stranded, sooooooo.)

Look, we can change the transportation system in this country. we did it before and we can do it again. We used to have more train options, fewer highways. My small hometown had a fucking trolley in the 40s. Now, if you don’t have a car here, you’re stuck. You can’t even get Uber here. if a wildfire started here and surrounded the town, it would be a clusterfuck.

Regardless of how you feel about the police, if police and fire departments in this country cannot organize an evacuation on a highway in a way that will reduce the backup so that tens of thousands of people aren’t sitting in their cars when a hurricane hits, that’s a problem – not just for those people, but for the police, and the fire department, and emergency management in general.

The people in charge of emergency management are just people, just human. I’m researching the Camp Fire in 2018 right now, and you had a bunch of people calling 911 saying, “I can see a huge fire off to the east. Are we safe? Should we evacuate?” The 911 operators could only work off the information they had. They could have told people to evacuate earlier, but Cal Fire didn’t anticipate the strength of the fire. Which is understandable. Nobody could anticipate the strength of that fire. But the 911 operators were sitting in an office with no windows, and they had no idea what was going on the east. They couldn’t look out and see exactly what was happening. If they could have, they probably would have told people to leave as soon as possible much sooner than they were told to. Instead, they waited for official confirmation, and when they did start telling people to evacuate, traffic managed to back up in a small town of 25,000 people until many of them were trapped in an unimaginable hellscape.

When people need to evacuate from a disaster, and they stay instead, far too many people - including those in positions of power – just kind of wave their hands and say, “Well, we tried.” No, we didn’t. This country made not trying its watchword, and now we’re at a point where unless you own a car, which is a luxury a lot of people cannot afford in this economy, escaping from disaster is impossible. So you can get in your car or somebody else’s car and go sit on a highway and hope your gas doesn’t run out, since none of the gas stations for 100 miles have any gas to give you, or you can stay in your house and hope you don’t die.

Sometimes, I really wish somebody would make me the head of the department of transportation. I would demand an absurd amount of money to build a better train system, to provide better transportation options for smaller towns, to provide extensive training for rescue personnel in managing evacuations like the clusterfuck in Florida this week. I would become an absolute fucking nuisance to Congress. I would be asking for money left and right to make it so that our only options as Americans weren’t to get into cars we can barely afford these days and attempt to organize our own evacuations from the growing number of natural disasters in this country.

Y’all keep posting these polls about how long you can tolerate being in a car at the same time that tens of thousands of Floridians were sitting on highways trying to get away from Tampa so they wouldn’t die in a hurricane.

We can tolerate being in a car all goddamn day. It’s because we don’t have a fucking choice, even when it’s life or death.

[4ng3l-shortc4k3]

Cw: yandere behavior, murder, cannibalism(?), mentions of mating

Okay enough Solomon talk I want to introduce a yandere who lives near the bottom of the ocean. Sounds crazy right? Yeah well so is he and his name is Nen. He's a sea serpent and he would most likely meet you on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere

He'll be mean to you at first mostly because he doesn't understand why you're being so awful to him. He literally saved you and you can't even thank him?? That's being selfish! At least to him it is. Then its only a matter of time where he softens you up with how nice he is that you'll end up wanting to stay

He's a yandere in the sense that he'll kidnap you thinking you're in trouble or something, drag you down in his underwater kingdom, and trap you there without a form of leaving. But its okay because he promises he'll help you!! And by helping he means distracting you with the tempting promises of what he has to offer so you'll never leave.

At least you're able to breathe underwater because of him draining all the water inside the castle so now everyone is forced to use their more humane forms rather than their animalistic ones they were used to. It doesn't help that you are the reason Nen starts changing the castle around to where it fits your mortal body's needs better than the rest. He'd neglect his people in order to make you happy which doesn't do wonders to your guilty conscience

Except he's also terribly clingy to you. You will be followed everywhere you go. You'll sit on his lap, you'll sleep in his bed, and he will get jealous of everyone and anyone who dares to talk to you. But here's the kicker he won't do anything about it because of how happy you are and he can't ruin that

So he'll bid his time mostly doing his best to keep you with him close by. He doesn't mind when you make friends with the servants just stop trying to flirt with them! He'll even let you have your own room if you at least stop your behavior before he ends up eating- I mean firing the staff members

When you start having feelings for Nen he would be overjoyed and he'll celebrate with you. Yet he doesn't understand how relationships work much less mating. He's been alive for thousands upon thousands of years ruling his precious kingdom yet never figured out how to have sex with someone so you're going to have to teach him yourself

He's also very capable of being aloof most of the time. He'd be so happy being in your arms despite quite literally being way taller than you that he'll forget vital information for when you two start properly courting. He'd forget so often about such important things that when you get upset with him he'll end up begging for your forgiveness. Its not easy especially when he gets too upset because he'll transform into this big and scary sea serpent just like when you first met him

When like this its best to evacuate with the others because he will start destroying the castle often times eating the unlucky servants and guards who weren't able to escape on time. He doesn't mean to make a mess but you simply wouldn't forgive him and he couldn't help it. It was a poor excuse especially when he tells you that he can't control himself when highly emotional but there was nothing you could do about it even if you did end up believing his ridiculous excuse

But in the end you'll forgive him anyways and he'll be back to his silly himbo nature of not understanding every innuendo you throw his way. Or how he doesn't understand modern things. Did I mention he's a very traditional guy? But he'll break the rules for you in a heartbeat so it really isn't all that bad. As long as you could handle the eating and the accidental tantrums then truly you're in a perfect undersea paradise where you are more of the king than the queen. Not like Nen would mind you taking his role in the first place when he's so busy idolizing you all the time

[adracat]

G Witch Ep 20 thoughts

WHOOO YEAH that was great. The show is always great but I greatly enjoyed the entangling of plot threads as the sidecast get to stretch their legs. It's not the reunion we were hoping for yet, but good things come to those who wait

First up we have a few establishing scenes to convey where our cast are in the aftermath of Quinharbor. A bit surprised we don't get another timeskip, but this ups the chance for Mio Earth shenanigans so I'm not complaining. Guel is hellbent on making Shaddiq answer for his sins. Coincidentally, Shaddiq is just as furious with Guel.

I was assuming from the preview that this demonic Haro would be an alarm, but no. Just some weird interrogation of Martin. That poor kid is so bullied. He does it to himself, but still. Super funny that he went to the lounge just to give Secilia an update on his relationship with Earth House. Does someone have a crush? Join the club, buddy. You have like half of gwitch twitter to contend with. I respect a man who wants a woman to dom him

OOF. We knew it would happen, but it still stings to see all of GUND-ARM and Miorine being held responsible for Earth. Miorine canonically a problematic fav 😔 It's ok girl, I'm a Fire Emblem and Gundam fan. War crimes are a plus!

It was nice to see the kids, while confused, not angry or throwing accusations around. And the verbal support from Lilique was very appreciated. While they don't have the context, they believe in Miorine. She would probably break down crying if she knew. Or allow herself to feel anything more than pitch black despair

New hazing technique just dropped. Text someone about their accused warcriminal ex murdering people and see how they react. We don't see who it might be, but Suletta is justifiably unnerved. Whoever they are, probably dead now *spoilers*

Interesting bit of lore in this segment though. They emphasize the push into space by the corps led to mass casualties and it's a bit eerie when we consider real world parallels. Gwitch's corporate space overlords could be a dark glimpse into our future.

Petra speaking to Suletta wasn't on my bingo card but I liked it. Suletta's line here conveys she's just continuing to go through the motions of a happy school life because it's all she has. Prospera told her it would fill her heart after all.

Lol right for the jugular. But her guileless question here is interesting because of the connection Suletta made. She recognizes the girl's feelings because Petra admits she'd be lost without Lauda. You can see Suletta linking her love for Miorine to Petra and Lauda, which is paralleled again later.

This episode went from 0 to 60 in like two seconds flat. Shaddiq finally takes Michaelis out for a stroll and is embroiled in a heated clash with Guel who wants answers for his father. And ofc Shaddiq is still on his princely BS trying to defend Mio's honor lol. You're looking at the wrong person buddy. And I don't mean Prospera 😉

Meanwhile, the school is put on red alert as Kenanji tries to evacuate the students. I may not trust him but at least he has good priorities. But this is futile since the most toxic room is the galaxy finally opens. Norea runs off, looking for blood and her gundam as 5lan follows. This will turn out amazingly. So funny how Nika just leaves without comment, poor girl gonna have nightmares from the 5nore gauntlet.

This scene was great. Norea is feeling so much and overflowing with grief for Sophie mingled with rage at Spacian oppression. She can't waste time listening to 5lan, only vent at this injustice and take as many spacians as possible.

The Sophie bracelet kills me so much. They were together for years under Naji, pledged their lives to this cause, and now Sophie is gone. More on this later, but I had goosebumps from Norea's scenes throughout the episode. So good

Warcrimes! Warcrimes everywhere!! Norea has officially gone apeshit and now the school will pay for it. Shouldn't have locked her in with the gremlin tbh. He did not help her state of mind. This shot with Earth House is striking though. God this show is a looker.

Again, we have Suletta relating to Petra with these words. You can see as they wash over Suletta. She too wants nothing more than to be with her precious person. Props to Petra for taking the initiatve to aid her fellow students btw. Suletta isn't a surprise since we know her history on Mercury, but an average spacian girl drives home these are normal kids. They might benefit from their parents wealth, yet they aren't combatants or the callous suit husks of Benerit.

Guel finally gained his answers during this power struggle, and I have to say I appreciate Shaddiq's candor. He isn't lying or twisting words, straight up I manipulated your father and did all these terrorist hijinks. Points for honesty. Guel isn't happy with that ofc but then Shaddiq throws his own actions at him. Due to his prior rash behavior, his father is dead. Not because of Shaddiq.

AND GUESS WHO'S LISTENING? 'Oops sry Lauda, didn't have the chance to tell you while I was off being Miorine's secretary. Oh and don't mind the gundam in the closet. Later bro.'

Welp, goodbye metephorical haven for Miorine and Suletta and the place when their bond was cemented. We'll miss you. I want to see Suletta return afterward and find Cool-san. She can't leave little buddy in the rubble and not return it to Mio! (But really? The left orb, like her left eye that she's totally gonna lose? Okouchi, plz)

I'm happy the animals were well looked after. That was honestly my major concern throughout this episode. Tycho especially is an icon and she's stolen my heart. Suletta's goat mom must live🥺 And Demi-barding reveal! I had a feeling it was a Chuchu suit from the name so that's very neat. She's an understated pilot compared to the witches/Guel etc but no less cool/competant.

Nika and Chuchu's moment was cute. Their trust and affection for each other is a nice reprieve from all this dire mess. It also shows Chuchu's emotional growth from a fist-first talk later girl to someone who is willing to listen.

Shaddiq's rant here is rather illuminating, because while his methods MAY have led to a Cold War ceasefire, terrorist violence upon civilians can't be excused. The next statement about Miorine and the repeated insistence HE would be the one to play hero without staining his prize makes his actions seem like a narcisictic bid rather than genuine. As Delling said, a throne is vested with power and an egotistic boy isn't a fitting king.

However, this bit here gives Shaddiq a sad bit of poignance. He's right. Benerit and the SAL didn't care when it was Earthian lives. Norea says as much earlier, too. But they finally act when Spacians are the one's dying. If it wasn't for his idealized view of himself/others, he just might have succeeded. We'll see if the cuffs stick but with multiple eps left there's a good chance he wriggles free. The Space Assembly League are backing him/Ochs Earth after all.

I'll be honest, this got to me. She's reaching for a ghost, who was paradoxically the most alive person she knew. Sophie was nothing like the dead things in Norea's book, her private altar where she feared and worshipped death. It became an obsession for her as 5lan alludes, but he tried to reach for her and offered a living hand instead. He says they can leave and live instead of dying pointlessly. And just when we think she's reaching for him too, Norea dies and Sophie's bracelet burns. Stunning artistry here. It just might be the blow that sends 5lan on a quest to destroy Peil and Elan prime. I sure hope so!

Similarly, we have Suletta witness Petra's body. She's reaching out a hand, and it's not hard to draw the lines between the last scene and this. They were both reaching for a loved one, dying in pursuit of it.

Now there's Suletta who sees the potential cost of hesitation. What if she, like Petra, never sees Miorine? What if Miorine dies before she can reach her? Delicious pain

In the aftermath of death, we have Suletta resolved. She tends to the rubble in search of wounded and spurs Earth House to help. Considering her time as a rescue worker on Mercury, she isn't a stranger to this sight but the context is different. This was a school, a supposedly safe and normal place. Her mother was wrong again.

Without the school, greenhouse, and the illusion of normality, Suletta must now confront where to go from here. I think we all know what that means. EARTH PLEASE, but grab the Schwarzette before you leave. Hope next episode is a Mio centric episode! Unless reunion~

[ideasarestuckinmyhead]

It would be so cool if you could do a Casper and Charlie zombie apocalypse au :] I hope your doing well and your posts make my day

BLUSHING I MAKE YOUR DAY⁉️

Zombie apocalypse Au

Casper and Charlie were at Casper's house when news spread about the zombies. So their main base of operation is Casper's house.

To be nice Charlie's parents were evacuated somewhere safe but they just don't know where bc everyone was separated for safety measures.

Charlie is the one who scouts ahead for things they need since as he said before "quiet as a mouse." So he mostly get supplies.

Casper is the defender when both have to go outside together. They know how to use a blade and a gun. Pretty sure chalice can use a gun too!

If they do end up finding people Casper is the one to interrogate them. Both of they survived so long bc of Casper's interrogating. And with Charlie checking them out to see what the people have.

You can think either other listeners and their boys are found by them or not (idk it's hot and my brain is FRIED.)

Charlie did try and compact Auron to see if he's okay but the call didn't go through Casper tried as well contacting friends and family but most calls didn't go through bc of the lines being torn down by holds of zombies.

All Casper could think about is the global announcement of telling everyone to stay inside and not go out. That was a month ago, where everyone stayed inside till some did bot giving a fuck about the global warning. This caused zombies to spring everywhere, so Casper and Charlie locked the house up and kept the lights off to preserve power incase they needed it.

First it was quiet that week some people leaving to visit realities or cities till the screams started. People breaking in because of the police not responding to calls about break ins. But the noises of the zombies tearing into people's flesh, that kept most people inside. Out of sight so they weren't targeted.

But after a month food was running low in the house. Charlie was skipping meals and Casper didn't want him to feel like he was taking too much. And here they were dressed in gear incase they were attacked and armed. Casper had their gun with them also their switchblade, Charlie got a spiked baseball bat.

They walked slowly and quietly down the block. Not using the car because it made too much noise. But Casper lived near a grocery store anyways, om the way there though. It was horrid, dead people om the floor, blood, and some fires. Casper had to keep Charlie by their side as he got distracted by all the chaos that was around them.

After seeing all of that Casper was doubtful if there was any supplies or food in the grocery store. There was but not a lot, as they were going down isles one by one, Casper heard something. Then they were grabbed harshly by a decaying hand, with a curse they stabbed the zombies head ad Charlie hit it's body to help.

When it was confirmed dead Charlie held onto Casper desperately. This pushed Casper to get stronger and Charlie to get smarter. That was a month ago. Crazy how time flies when no one is alive anymore to chat with you.

Unless you do meet other groups but they try and kill you for supplies. Casper still feels the tingle of blood on their hands. The guilt crawling up their back for protecting Charlie from someone who tried to kill him. The people they've killed added up as more time went by.

But they didn't talk about it. They needed to survive. To protect eachother so their sanity wouldn't be lost. Charlie was getting skittish, food from the grocery was going. The other stores were too broken or infested to go in.

They need to move "Charlie." The blond snapped his head to them "Y-yeah?" Casper held his face gently "We need to move. Somewhere where we can grow food or can be supplied easier." He nodded. But Casper can see the worry I'm his eyes.

"Where would we go? We don't really know if there shelters somewhere or..." Casper nodded then looked out the window to the car. "How about...we drive in one direction for as long as we can? Then walk the rest of the way?" Charlie nodded. It maybe not be a good idea. But it was the only one that seemed reasonable. They needed to get somewhere they can plant food.

Packing everything was silent, both go use to being quiet for patrols or scouting. Casper had to keep their head high for Charlie. He took the upbringing of the zombies harder than they did. Casper wish that they can stop this all, to give him a peace of mind. But for now, they'll protect him no matter what.

[meowww-ffxiv]

Dawntrail level 99 quests and thoughts.

Liios, the engineer.

...Honestly, Liios had been fascinated with "Cahciua" ever since the cave. He even pointed it out, in a fit of fascination -- the design was too simple, from form to screen interface, but the way Cahciua was able to so animatedly emote and how those emotes didn't have ANY lag between words and actions was fascinating. This meant, he said, she wasn't manually inputting the emotes. But how? What was the sender's end like?

But Liios had only wondered if she wasn't like an Omicron and had uploaded her consciousness into this form. He concluded that it couldn't be, because the design was too simple, but was ready to rescind that theory when he didn't see anything like the machine Cahciua was using in Solution Nine. Maybe her model really was highly advanced, and it was just scruffy-looking because it was old.

Cahciua nearly let Liios in on the secret about her being an Endless because she could tell he was inquisitive and unfortunately not that dim OR polite to not poke around.

He also wanted to take Otis apart to study the composition of his soul container once they met, but Alisaie was like. "That's messed up! >:(" because Gulool Ja was right there...

Liios: From the bottom of my heart. My bad.

.

But Otis, in friendliness, asked Liios if he was interested in becoming an Endless. And he was like... No. If I continue to exist after my death, others won't be able to let go of me. I'd rather be a story to them than a relic. Whatever once lived, must die -- but Liios also added that his thinking was derived from his own experience in a world where there was much death, but never total annihilation. He expected Otis's and Sphene's views would be different.

When asked about someone who wasn't blood but he loved as closely as flesh and blood family, Liios said, "My mother. The Miqo'te doctor whose name is my own. Rhaya Suvali."

He also had a long talk with Wuk Lamat on the way back, about grief and rage. Because he knew how it felt to lose your parent who you looked up to.

When Gulool Ja Ja first passed, because of shit on fire everywhere, Liios had been firm with Wuk Lamat so that she would get her bearing together and act. But now that there had been a little time between, and Liios was sure of Wuk Lamat's resolve about Zoraal Ja, he felt it was a good time to unpack that grief.

This and Liios's usual enthusiastic, kind personality and experience were the things that made Wuk Lamat ask him to stay in Tural. She felt like he was the perfect balance between her and Koana. He hadn't given an answer yet (it was going to be no), but it wasn't because she felt indebted to him like he believed.

.

Wow. The city of gold really be golden in color.

But Liios wasn't looking at the city. It called to mind what Emet-Selch had done in terms of Amaurot . Perhaps this had been the inspiration for him.

He was looking at the terminals, and the sheer amount of electropes everywhere.

And the black sky full of nothingness.

"This isn't a reflection," Liios said, "but rather the tiny, tiny piece of it that survived the Umbral Calamity. Unlike the First, though, I do not think there is anything physically there outside of this space anymore. If there's anyone still alive in this place that isn't already dead, they need to be evacuated to the Source. The same goes for souls, so they can at least return to the aetherial sea."

Alas, there were no souls.

[itswhumpday]

Hardened and no-nonsense (can come across as callous/exasperated) Medic + inexperienced and slightly terrified Whumpee, and Whumpee needs stitches or other painful field treatment without pain meds available?

I went with firemen, because they are a blast. Haha! Get it! Anyway, love this trope. Thanks for requesting it.

A building had collapsed. Again. 

Caretaker barely noticed it anymore. It was just a part of living in a world of superpeople. They broke things to “save the city”, then ran off when it was time to pay the bill. And today seemed to be some major battle because the earth had been shaking more than usual and calls had been coming in from everywhere. 

Before they left, the Caretaker saw the rookies getting ready. It would be their first mission. They looked so excited: eyes gleaming, hands nervously checking their equipment. Caretaker hoped they would get a good first run: something chill, to ease them onto the job. They would have many years like Caretaker had to regret going into this career. They could have a couple of days to believe they were heroes. 

The building was pretty standard. Most people were already outside. Caretaker stayed out to help with first aid. Some of their comrades went inside to search for the rest of the victims. Everything was running smoothly: people were being put into ambulances and evacuated, bit by bit. 

Which, of course, was when the world went to shit. Figures. 

The Caretaker’s walkie-talkie blared. Their team was going to be split in two because they were the closest location to the attack. Supervillains trying to destroy City Hall. Caretaker didn’t know why they kept building that place up since it got blown up all the time. 

“Some of ours were inside.” Said dispatch as the Caretaker got into the truck. “The rookies. They were picking up donations for last week’s victims.” 

Caretaker swore. The truck lit up its lights and sirens and they raced to city hall. Another truck had arrived and was already trying to put out the fire. Caretaker runs inside, with two others right behind them. One separates once they enter the hall. The ceiling has a gaping, flaming hole, which isn’t very encouraging. As they went from room to room, their colleague gathered the people who could walk and started walking them back to the entrance. Caretaker was alone. But that was fine. That had happened many times before. 

Caretaker helped a worker whose desk had fallen on her and handed her off through the window to a colleague. The rest of the floor was mostly evacuated. Then, as they walked past the elevator towards the stairs, they heard whimpering. 

“Hello?” They called out. 

“Here!” They heard, from below, through the elevator doors. Caretaker quickly took out the tool and got the doors opened. The elevator car was halfway here, halfway down. The cables were all twisted and it looked like it was the only thing holding it in place and keeping it from breaking down. “I- I’m here.” 

Called the person again. Caretaker carefully looked inside. At the bottom of the car, laid one of her rookies, Whumpee. Boxes and boxes of donations were around them on the floor under the little light coming from her flashlight. Their body however, was on the floor. An insane amount of blood covered the floor of the elevator. 

“They had—” They tried to say, eyes so pained they were unfocused. “They had donations— The… the elevator.” 

“Shh. It’s fine. I get it. Let’s get you out of here.” 

Caretaker assessed. Down was always better than up, especially in a flaming building. They raced down the stairs into the basement until they found the entrance to the elevator. Luckily, the doors were already opened there.

As soon as they arrived, they noticed the rookie was breathing too fast. “Stop that.” Caretaker said, drier than they meant to. “You’re going to hyperventilate.” 

The rookie looked at them with tears in their eyes. 

“I thought you’d left.” 

“Why would I leave? You’re stuck with me. Now, where are you hurt?” 

They pointed. 

“My leg. It’s pretty busted.” 

One look confirmed it. It was badly dislocated. But not broken. 

“We need to get you out of that elevator before it falls. Got that?” 

Rookie shook their head. 

“I don’t want to.” 

“I didn’t ask. Give me your arms.” 

Caretaker pushed the boxer aside and grabbed the Whumpee’s arms, slowly dragging them. Whumpee yelled, but didn’t squirm. Caretaker grabbed them by the shoulders and finally got them out of the elevator, grabbing their knees before they fell. 

That, of course, didn’t help their injury, and they yelled again, staring to hyperventilate again. 

“Hey, hey. No. None of that.” Caretaker placed them down on the floor. They took out the cylinder of oxygen at their back, opened it and placed the mask on their face. “This is a burning building and we have to get out of it, right?” 

Whumpee was looking at Caretaker as if they were speaking Greek. 

“Right?!” They pushed. 

“Right.” Rookie said in a small voice. 

“And what to we need to make that happen?” 

Rookie blinked and then looked at themselves. 

“For me to walk?” 

“Fantastic. And how do we do that?” 

Caretaker placed themselves in front of their dislocated knee.

“No.” 

“Yes. Count to three.” 

“No! You’re going to do it on two!” 

“They give you too much training on that school! One!” 

“No, no, no, no!” Rookie cried, hiding their face, but otherwise firmly secure by Caretaker’s experienced hands. 

“Two!” 

“Just go already!” Whumpee yelled, read in the face!” 

“Three!”

“You’re supposed to go on two!” 

“Four!” Caretaker pulled the leg back in its place and Rookie screamed in pain. Whumpee slumped back, their eyes rolling back, their body covered in sweat, breathing heavily. 

Caretaker slapped their face lightly. 

“Hey. Wake up. This is still a burning building. We have to get out.” Whumpee blinked, in pain, their breathing difficult. Caretaker held the mask closer to their face. “Deep breaths, rookie. You can do it. I’m right here.” 

Caretaker sat them down. Whumpee slumped, looking like they would fall. Their hand grabbed the mask and they took two deep breaths before nodding they were ready. 

Caretaker stood them up, one of their arms around their shoulders. They were carrying the Rookie more than helping them, but it was alright. They stepped once. Then twice and Caretaker had to use their injured knee. They gritted their teeth and gave another step. 

Together, they would make it out of this burning building.

Thank you for reading all the way here! Reminder I take requests, I just take a VERY long time to get through them.

[ultyso]

Updates

Video at Source (Bisan goes over what is currently happening and what carpet bombing is)

Video at Source (Explaining they are told to go more South but are being bombed where they were told are “safe zones”)

Source

Translated Text: It's about life or death now I did what I could We are surrounded by the Israeli tanks PRESS Hello DE, the stage of risking transferring the picture has ended and the stage of trying to survive has begun. I have transferred enough and I bear witness to God that it was for his sake and for the service of my country. Israeli tanks are surrounding the central region from the north and south. We are now living under the beginning of an internal siege We can't go out either north or south Our situation is more dire than you can imagine Remember that we are not content for sharing. We are a people who kill and a cause that we try not to erase from existence, alone!

Video at Source (Shows strikes with fire and smoke erupting from buildings)

Video at Source (Panicked screams as a strike appears close to their window)

Video at Source (Vehicles driving on street)

Source

Videos at Source (Various videos of people evacuating)

Videos at Source (1st: Ambulance driving around crowd, 2nd: Ambulance carrying out a body fully covered with blankets)

Video at Source (Building struck, smoke everywhere)

[elysianmadness]

To all of the Americans shitting on Canadians for the smoke in NYC right now or acting like we aren't suffering as much as you guys are:

We are on fucking fire. Our homes are getting burned down. We are being evacuated from the cities that we live in because we are at risk of being caught in a wildfire.

Look, I get it. The smoke in NYC is absolutely horrible. I'm not denying that or saying that we shouldn't be worrying about that. But compared to the people who have to deal with shitty air quality from smoke as well as getting their homes burned down? Why is the country that's literally on fire right now getting blamed for this?Why is the country that's having to deal with smoke AND fire not the center of attention right now? It's like you guys only started caring when it actually affected you.

You all didn't see us shitting on you when the California fires made our air quality suck. For the most part, we were more worried about the people that were made homeless, injured, or even killed by the fires. You want to know what I, a Canadian, am seeing when I literally Google "Canada wildfires?"

What a fucking sight to see, that a place with horrible air quality is taking priority over the place that's ACTUALLY ON FIRE. You think our air quality doesn't suck? You think that we don't have smoke in the air every year?

Think again.

Like sure, you can laugh about the "Ehpocalypse" memes or whatever. But at the end of the day, we are still suffering from the same air quality problems AS WELL as being evacuated from our homes due to being too close to one of the around 430 wildfires that are currently burning in Canada as I'm typing this. Out of those 430 wildfires, more than half of them are considered out of control. And you want to know what the cherry on top is?

This is just the beginning of Canada's wildfire season.

Isn't that terrifying? You have to worry about the air quality getting even worse there. I and other Canadians have to worry about that and being evacuated from our homes at any second. All. Over. The. Country. This isn't just a Quebec thing, though that's absolutely where the worst of it is. Alberta is on fire, Nova Scotia is on fire, British Columbia is on fire, Ontario is on fire, everywhere is on fire.

I get it. It sucks to have your air quality that bad. It sucks to have to breathe in smoke. Especially if you're pregnant and/or have breathing problems. I really do get it. But please, can we try and focus a little more on the people who are actually dealing with the fires?

Here's a couple ways to help:

Support The Donate A Mask Charity

Donate A Mask is a charity that ships free N95 respiratory masks to any Canadians who request them. Every $1.25 donated is another free mask for a Canadian. Though originally intended for COVID, it also serves the same purpose for the wildfires.

Support Firefighters Without Borders

These fires would be much worse if it weren't for the firefighters, both native and foreign, who are coming to try and contain all of these fires. FWB gives equipment and training to firefighters all over the country.

Other funds (feel free to add more):

Alberta

British Columbia

Nova Scotia + Atlantic Canada

Canadian Wildfire Relief Fund

Halifax

Northwest Territories

Canadian Red Cross

And most importantly,

This is a result of climate change.

This is yet another part of climate change that we're seeing. The planet is dying and we know who's killing it. Fires are NOT usually this bad in Canada in early June. This is not a coincidence, this is not just bad luck, this is proof that every year we waste twiddling our thumbs and panicking over gay people, we're a year closer to being wiped out because the planet can't sustain life anymore.

Wake. Up.

[friedaaaaaaargh]

Another phobia ramble

I’m typing this for one day in the near of distant future some person experiencing similar issues will see this (as I get increasingly terrified by even the thought of an alarm, the English gets more illegible).

I have igniterroremophobia (ligyrophobia/phonophobia) which basically for me is a completely bizarre fear of alarms (mainly fire alarms).

As I’ve moved to an environment where the need to have millions of alarms for various health and safety reasons (this is the UK of course) is required, I’ve noticed this fear has escalated massively. It’s been on my mind a lot this week after an incident on Tuesday where now my entire workplace knows I was outside shaking like a leaf on a bench for an hour to avoid a fire test at a conference (I walked out of someone’s talk which was very rude of me, but good job I did as they tested the alarm early). I’ve spent the week ashamed and hiding from people as I’m aware of how ridiculous I must look, and also know that my lab group probably want to know why they tell me I need to help them with an alarm-triggering procedure and suddenly I’m nowhere to be found.

I’m not sure when my fear started exactly, but it did. Initially, I used to spend the entire end of the school year dreading class allocations as I didn’t want to be in the classroom that had an alarm in it. At the beginning of school year was fire drill season and they’d tell us at the beginning of a certain week we’d be having one and I could never focus. In sixth form I had to be excused from a lesson as i overheard a teacher talking about a fire drill that afternoon and was so embarrassed and my teacher suggested exposure therapy.

I barely slept for a year at uni because I was so terrified of being woken by the fire alarm (not a nice experience I’ll tell you) making me exhausted. I used to be terrified to take showers, to walk around without headphones (still the case) and have the toilet with a fire alarm in the room (trust me I do seem to always be on the toilet when an alarm goes off.) I thought during lockdown it got better, afterwards I went back to uni and deliberately chose my desk to be under the fire alarm as an act of defiance to myself but it wasn’t to be.

Currently, I can’t work with liquid nitrogen, I do not work with cryo-EM either for fear of the alarms going off. Everytime they do engineering work I get stressed. I hate level crossings, I hate my smoke alarm but I’m coming to peace slowly with that one. I currently can’t work in my office on Monday afternoons as they test the fire alarm at SOME point (depends when they feel like it) that day, but sometimes they just move it to Tuesday for the lols. I can’t visit the school of medicine on a Wednesday morning, biology on a Thursday morning or lecture on a Thursday morning. I know exposure therapy will help but the alarms are loud and everywhere and I can’t find a place to slowly expose myself. I missed my first year PhD taught lectures due to them always being when the fire alarm went off, in the end I had to confess my fear before I got a bad reputation and they moved the lectures! But the other students started complaining how ridiculous it was .

When I travel for conferences I stay up all night because I’m terrified I’ll have to evacuate. I moved out of my flat after one month because the students above kept setting off the fire alarm. I refuse to live in high rise tower blocks so live miles away from my workplace so the only person I know whose gonna be setting off any alarms is me.

For me, the worst part of my fear is the fear of it suddenly happening, or knowing it’s going to happen at some point that day but not exactly when. If and when it happens, I feel sick for the rest of the day. If alone when it happens there’ll be crying and screaming.

On Tuesday I was scheduled to present at a conference and I’ve got a reputation as quite a good speaker. Last year I had an awful time at the conference as I was really unwell and nearly didn’t go this year cos of memories but thought I’d suck it up and deal with it. When we turned up, they announced we were expecting a fire alarm in the afternoon. I was in the middle of the room completely unable to get out. There was no guarantee it’d go off at said time, I was terrified. My speech was a mess, I sat quietly during lunch and excused myself in the afternoon by leaving the talks to lots of stares. I sat by the river crying for an hour and was so angry at myself. I’d told a friend where I was and she later coaxed me back in saying the alarm was finished. It was not, but she wanted to make sure I was in the room for the next session. As I was walking to the building it went off again. I walked into the next session and the organiser looks at me and warned me they were probably not finished testing (in front of the whole room) I ran out crying whoops and was also embarrassed and saw the friend outside who had lured me back in (and was now tryna stop me from bolting out the door home) who then angrily told me the alarm was actually quite nice (NICE?) but that she’d go and ask them to stop. I didn’t pay attention to the rest of the conference and I didn’t go to the after party, instead going home and laying in bed humiliated and angry. I haven’t spoken to anyone from the conference since out of pure shame.

I’m tryna work out how to help myself but the thought of exposure therapy makes me feel a tiny bit sick. This kinda just turned into me dumping all my thoughts from the week on as I’ve been very angry at my phobia and really want to stop it as to be fair it’s ruining my work performance. Also our annual fire drill is this month so he he he.

[daylights-nightlights]

That's what you get for following the safety guidelines

(Inspired by @aterfish's containment breach au)

ao3 link

It started, as most things in the Fenton household tended to, with an accident. More specifically, a lab accident. Even more specifically, a living room accident.

See, the thing about eccentric basement scientists was that they kinda just left things laying around. Everywhere. No one can tell you what to do if you’re stitching together spare parts from your busted up old washing machine and faulty toaster, a la Victor Frankenstein, to create ray guns, ghost shields, and whatever the hell the Fenton Weasel qualified as. For Danny's parents, that manifested in the persistent and incorrect assumption that any space could be a lab as long as it had a scientist in it at any given time.

Unfortunately, if you’re like Danny’s parents, and you don’t have anyone telling you not to leave volatile prototypes on coffee tables, then you probably also don’t have anyone telling you not to open fire in the living room. And, if you happen to be like Danny’s parents, when you open fire in your living room, then you’re probably going to land a pretty solid hit on that volatile prototype.

It was only a lifetime of specially honed reflexes that allowed Danny to evacuate them all before Fenton Works blew sky high.

For a few moments after he lowered them all to the pavement - Jazz tucked under one arm like a football and his parents shocked into allowing a ghost to touch them - all four of them just stared into the gaping crater where their house had once stood. Whatever had detonated had done so in by far the weirdest way Danny had ever seen, obliterating the concrete foundation and even the soil beneath the lab. It had sent a column of ominous green fire arcing into the sky, and even after the flames had dispersed, there had been a perfectly circular hole burned into the clouds overhead. The whole neighborhood stank of ozone and sulfur, but hey, glass half full, Fenton Works had taken the full force of the explosion, so at least there was still a neighborhood to stink up!

It was so surreal. Danny set Jazz back on the ground and drifted over to the edge of the newly made chasm to peer in. That had been his house. He had been watching cartoons on the tv not even five minutes ago. And it was gone. Just completely vaporized.

And just because the fleeting thought crossed Danny’s mind that surely, surely nothing could make this situation any worse, he thought he could see something moving in the darkness at the bottom of the pit.

There was a click, followed by the whine of charging machinery, and Danny stiffened as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Slowly, he turned around - and came nose to nose with the barrel of an ecto-blaster. His parents were champs at the first two stages of grief, but it seemed like they had decided to forego denial this time.

“You,” said his mom, shaking with rage and knuckles surely white around the blaster beneath her gloves.

“Did you do this?” asked his dad, when Maddie seemed unable to continue. His voice was barely more than a furious whisper, and if Danny hadn’t still been in shock, he might have been terrified.

But the fact of the matter was, that had been Danny’s house, too - even if they didn’t technically know that. And they weren’t the only ones pissed about it being blown to smithereens.

“Did I do this,” Danny repeated flatly. “This?” He flung an arm out wide, encompassing the still smoking chasm, the distant wailing of sirens, and the small posse of rubber-neck spectators beginning to form a safe distance down the street. “You’re asking if I did this?”

He didn’t give them the chance to so much as open their mouths to reply.

“Would it kill you to admit to your own mistakes instead of blaming me? You're the ones who leave your stupid dangerous weapons laying all over your death trap of a house! It's a miracle that it's taken this long for one of them to blow up in your faces! In fact, you know what? Forget about me causing this, I’m the only reason you’re still alive right now!”

Danny’s feet started to lift off the ground.

“All you ever think about is hunting me down, blaming me for random destruction, ripping me apart molecule by molecule, and nothing is ever going to change that, is it? No matter how many times I save this whole town, or you, or your family, I can do no right, just because I’m a ghost. You think I’m some sort of- of- monster! A freak! Evil! Even though I’ve only ever tried to help!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny could see Jazz frantically motioning for him to stop, to be quiet, or to just leave, but he was too upset to care. Even when Jack blinked a couple times, head swiveling and eyebrows furrowing together, Danny ignored him. Looks couldn’t kill, and ghosts couldn’t die, but Danny’s mom was trying her hardest anyways, and Danny was determined to give as good as he got.

“I don’t know what you have against me,” he hissed, now looming over the elder Fentons from mid-air, “But it’s going to get you hurt. What happens if one of your inventions malfunctions again when I’m not there? What if—“

The rubble shifted, and Danny’s ears pricked up. His next breath escaped as a frozen blue fog.

Figured.

Danny barely had time to throw up a wobbly ghost shield before something rammed into his back, knocking the air out of him on impact. Whatever it was crashed through the shield as if it were tissue paper, and as both of them went careening into the side of the building, Danny couldn’t help but think that surely, surely, nothing could make this situation any worse.

-

Maddie leapt out of the path of the two howling ghosts, blaster still at the ready, absolutely seething. Phantom thought he could lecture her? The useless apparition was clearly laboring under the delusion that he had any right to haunt this city - a delusion she would be all too happy to disabuse him of.

Before she could give chase to the two ghosts, though, a large hand closed around her arm. All of the sharp words poised on the top of her tongue died the moment she saw the look in Jack’s eyes.

In a voice filled with dread, he said, “Where’s Danny?”

-

Danny was no stranger to having his nose shoved into brick walls, and unlike Dash, there was nothing stopping him from holding back against this thing. The moment he was close enough, he went intangible, wiggling out of the thing’s vice-like grip, and dove through the wall.

Then it occurred to him that whatever this ghost was, it might not have any qualms about blasting straight into what appeared to be someone’s dining room, and he screeched to a stop.

Oddly enough, Danny couldn’t make out any of the tell-tale sounds of pursuit; even the expected crash from impact with the wall - and as heavy as this thing was, there would have been an impact - was absent. Cautiously, Danny floated up through the ceiling and attic of the house and back into the open air.

It was gone.

Now, he hadn’t gotten a good look at it, what with being tackled from behind and all, but he was fairly sure this thing was large. Not rampaging-ghost-chicken-weasel-leveling-the-Nasty-Burger large, but definitely bigger than him. Maybe about the size of Skulker.

Could it have been Skulker? Danny frowned as he raked his eyes over the suspiciously quiet rooflines. It didn’t seem quite like his style. Plus, Skulker had whatever creepy amount of experience hunting ghosts - he would have no trouble hiding the fact that he was still hanging around after an attack, and right now Danny could tell as clear as day that he was being watched.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Danny muttered, eyes darting warily from side to side. “You’re new around here, aren’t you? If you want, we can talk this over and I can send you right back to the Ghost Zone—“

The attack came out of nowhere. One second he was floating, semi-concealed in the shadow of a chimney stack, and the next he was halfway across the city. Danny blinked spots of green and the afterimage of the insanely strong energy blast from his vision, finding himself elbow deep in the hole he’d plowed into the dirt.

Every bone in his body felt bruised, and his brain almost seemed to slosh around in his skull when he groaned and let his head fall back, but there was no time to recover. He had landed in the park, and already he could hear approaching footsteps.

It was a steady rhythm, a heavy clunking that somehow managed to echo as the ghost crossed the cobblestone path and the soft mossy underbrush. The boots, when they finally came to a stop less than a foot away from Danny, looked like bricks. In fact, the entire ghost, when Danny craned his neck back to look up at it, was built like a tank. This close, there was no mistaking it for Skulker - unless Skulker had suddenly decided to swap the buzz lightyear wings and ray guns for a suit that looked kinda like the heavy duty Hazmats Danny’s parents kept in storage.

The ghost’s suit was black with white highlights, its zippers and buckles melted into bubbling lumps. Pulsing, acidic green goo dripped from a crack in its otherwise blank and empty faceplate and snaked up its left arm from a passive rip in the palm of its glove. From behind those fissures, an incongruous shadow moved, just slightly out of sync with the crinkling of the suit's material: the barest suggestion of something else moving inside the suit.

“So I guess that’s a no on the going back to the Ghost Zone thing,” Danny quipped weakly. The suit did not respond. Its shadow fell over his face, and the sunlight that caught its edges flickered almost imperceptibly with minute distortions of the air, like arcs of electricity or flares on the surface of the sun.

“Not much of a talker, huh?” Danny discreetly braced his arms against the ground and shifted his weight. “That’s alright. I can say your lines for you.”

They both sprang into action at the same moment - but Danny was just a bit faster. He dodged the suit’s lunge and zipped around to aim an ecto-blast at its back. It barely seemed to notice the attack, and Danny had to swerve mid-air to remain in its blind spot as it swung around to grab at him. The suit moved with surprising speed for something so clunky.

“Hey, get back here!” Danny said in a comically deep and slightly stupid voice that seemed to fit the suit, darting under a frighteningly fast swipe. Then, in his normal voice, “No, sorry, I’m good. I’d rather not get blasted into next week again. That blast was crazy strong, man, could you teach me how to do that?”

Predictably, this garnered no response, but the suit did catch Danny off guard when it feinted right and caught him with a kick that landed solidly in his gut and sent him flying.

Something snapped in Danny’s ankle, and he ground his teeth to keep from shouting. He fused his legs into a tail and sighed when the pain diminished slightly; he would just have to deal with that later.

“Wow,” Danny gritted out, “talk about giving someone the boot.”

“Yeah, I got a real kick out of that,” he said in the suit’s voice, darting off into the trees to buy himself a few moments to think. The heavy footsteps were loud behind him as he flew.

Ectoblasts were clearly not the way to go if he wanted to beat this ghost. Forget about not being hurt by the blasts, the thing had almost seemed to be absorbing them, and the last thing Danny wanted to do was give it even more of an energy boost. So if ectoblasts were out, what did that leave him?

Shields, duplication if he wanted to try scaring the ghost into submission - his last attempt had produced two separate bodies and there had technically been the right number of limbs and eyes between them - ice powers he still wasn’t great at controlling, a little bit of electricity, and the ghostly wail. He could also try punching it, but somehow, he doubted that would be very effective.

What he really needed was a way to contain it. Unfortunately, the Thermos had been sitting on his desk at home - which meant he would never see it again - and while Tucker and Sam each had backups, he had no way of finding them, and no interest in leading the suit anywhere near them. That left only the other ghost hunters. Assuming Danny could stall the suit until Valerie arrived, the knock-off Thermos Vlad had given her would be the best option of containment. Once the suit was captured, he could worry about getting it back from Valerie without also getting caught, and return it to the GZ, hopefully never to be seen again.

Decided, Danny nodded to himself - and was just about to change direction when it dawned on him that he could no longer hear the thundering footsteps. Had he lost it?

The answer to that, as it became apparent not seconds later, was a resounding no.

The suit lurched out from behind the trunk of a towering oak tree, palm raised and glowing. Danny yelped and banked hard left just in time to avoid getting a face full of toxic green sludge. He zig-zagged between the trees in an attempt to make himself a harder target to hit, but when he glanced back over his shoulder, the suit was gone.

It popped out from behind another tree in Danny’s path, and once again he barely evaded the stream of goo that erupted from its hand. Twice more this happened, the suit disappearing from behind him only to emerge ahead of him before Danny finally got the message.

The ghost didn’t seem to be able to fly. What other way could it get around other than teleportation?

Even on high alert, Danny couldn’t avoid the sudden attacks forever, and eventually, the suit caught him. “Uh oh,” was all he managed as a gloved hand closed around the end of his spectral tail; then he was being swung around too fast for anything other than just, “AAAHHHH!”

When the suit finally got tired of playing spinning top, it leaned forward and heaved Danny, still hollering at the top of his lungs, over its shoulder and into the ground. At this point, Danny did what he probably should have done to begin with: he turned intangible and slipped free of its grasp, twisting in the air to latch onto the domed helmet of the Hazmat and anchoring his tail around its upper torso to keep it from throwing him off.

“Dude,” he said, still winded from however many G’s of force that thing had had him under, “I think you need to chill out.”

Frost began to creep across the scratchy fabric of the hazmat, and Danny grinned as the suit’s movements went from aggressive to almost panicky. When the frost reached the warped zippers and buckles, slowly encrusting the fissure in the faceplate, the suit began thrashing frantically. It staggered around, arms beating ineffectively at nothing, and the strangest sort of noise started to rise from inside it. It was at once a high-pitched whining and a low, groaning rumble; caught somewhere in the middle, drowned out by the rest of the noise, was a sound what carried the faintest trace of human speech.

“Are you… trying to say something?” Danny asked, expression tightening with confusion and attention slipping just slightly. That was all the opening the suit needed to toss him off its back and into a nearby tree. Danny would be picking splinters out of his butt for days, and that wasn’t even the most of his problems.

The suit’s joints creaked with cold, and more glowing green cracks were beginning to spread through the fabric and plastic. The tiny energy flares he had seen before were much larger now, and carried the slightest tint of color. Angry green energy swirled around the savaged palm, and Danny was sure that if it had had a face, the ghost would have been glaring daggers at him.

Danny tried to call a beam of ice, like Frostbite had shown him, but apparently his core had had enough; it spluttered and coughed pitifully in his chest, and all that Danny could manage was a handful of shards of what could generously be called ice. They dropped into the grass several feet short of the looming suit, which actually stopped and tilted its head down to stare at them.

“Oh yeah?” Danny could practically hear it saying, and didn’t bother to translate that out loud. Once it finally decided to stop being a comedian, the suit continued its slow advance. Danny knew it could move faster than that. The stupid ghost was doing this purely for the drama of it.

The green goop started to get thicker, and a drop of it popped and hissed out of its glove and landed on Danny’s foot. Yelping at the cold sensation, followed rapidly by pins and needles, and finally a slowly spreading numbness, Danny ducked around to the other side of the tree - where the suit was once again already waiting for him.

He couldn’t outrun it. He couldn’t trap it. He couldn’t even seem to slow it down. With no sign of backup on the way, that left Danny with one option. Casting his eyes around for any other way out of this, he missed the first glob of goop flying towards his shoulder. The white-hot chill that began to radiate out of the suddenly unresponsive arm made up his mind for him. Screwing his eyes shut, Danny dug his fingers into the dirt, sucked in a breath, and—

The trees bowed low to the ground as birds, squirrels, and insects of all types flurried madly out of the park and away to safety. The suit’s heavy boots dug into the ground, its arms lifting as if to shield itself. It held out for an admirable amount of time - long enough that Danny’s vision started to go gray around the edges - but even it was not immune to the Ghostly Wail.

The last thing Danny saw before he passed out was the starburst of cracks that was beginning to appear along the seams of the Hazmat suit.

-

Jack and Maddie had almost made it downtown - reduced to running in the direction the ghosts had gone, as all of their vehicles had gone up in smoke with the house - when the sound of Phantom’s newest and most devastating power split the air. Maddie pressed her lips into a thin line. The fight was not going well, then.

“Come on, Jack,” she urged, lengthening her strides, and he grunted in acknowledgment. The park was a five minute walk from central downtown, and they were flat-out sprinting.

They made it just in time to be just barely too late.

Past a certain point, the entire park looked like it had been hit with an industrial leaf blower, and as Jack and Maddie crept cautiously across the divide from normal to abnormal, all the sound in the world seemed to disappear. Only the line blaring of a car alarm somewhere in the distance broke the silence; it felt oppressive. Watchful. The sick curdle of fear, rage, and worry in Maddie’s gut intensified.

They had not been able to find Danny.

When they finally make it to the epicenter of the destruction, where the force of Phantom’s attack had ripped several full-grown trees out of the ground by their roots, Maddie’s hand flew to cover her mouth, and the arm holding her blaster sagged. Jack wasn’t quick enough to stifle his cry of alarm, and the… thing jerked around to look at them both.

It was like no ghost Maddie had ever seen. Stars - honest-to-goodness constellations - flickered inside a distinct, if completely lifeless, void in the shape of a human being. When it moved, the stars remain fixed in place, as if the ghost’s body did not so much contain them as provide a window into some other plane of reality where they glimmered unknowably. Only the ghost’s eyes, twin swirling vortexes of white and silver, and the ends of its limbs, encased in ghostly green resin-like structures that looked almost like the claws of a wild animal, signaled the ghost’s true inner evil. Its appearance was simple, and without the claws, unthreatening. But Maddie knew the reality of it, it and every other ghost just like it. That knowledge was a burden, and one which she bore with a heavy heart and steadfast determination.

How did she know, with such terrible certainty, that the ghost was malicious?

Because it stood over the limp body of her son, who looked very small indeed curled on the ground as shivers wracked his body.

“Danny!” The shout ripped from her throat, and the strange ghost flinched. It bobbed unsteadily in the air for only as long as it too Jack and Maddie to train their blasters on it, at which point it lunged faster than thought - at Danny.

“No!” chorused the Fentons, but it was already too late to stop it. The moment the ghost’s clawed hand closed around her son’s arm, both he and it vanished in a spinning torrent of ectoplasm.

-

Danny woke up to a stabbing pain behind his eyes and a scratchy feeling in his throat - the memory of using the Wail followed shortly after. He tried to bolt upright, and he would have managed it, too, if not for the fact that the ceiling was right there to meet him.

With a yelp - more startled than pained - Danny flopped back down, resigned for the moment to just blink confusedly at what looked to be the underside of a riveted steel beam.

“What,” he muttered, and jumped again when there was a pointed cough from somewhere off to the side.

“Actually,” said a voice. His voice. “I have the same question.”

Danny rolled into his side - noting that he must have de-transformed after the Wail - just in time to see… himself, possibly… gesture frustratedly at him, at himself, and at the bridge that they were apparently hiding under. Weird.

Really weird.

“What is happening?” demanded the ghost, and Danny dropped his head onto his arms in despair. It wasn’t just the recordings, then. His voice really did sound like that. What a nightmare this day was turning out to be.

“I have a concussion,” Danny mumbled.

“Sorry about that,” said the ghost sheepishly, wince audible in its voice. His voice?

Really, really, really weird.

“Who are you?” The ghost finally asked, when Danny continued to lay there like a slug. Reluctantly, Danny lifted his head to squint at him.

“I’m Danny Fenton,” he said, and the ghost shook his head slowly.

“No, you can’t be.”

The sunlight was too strong. Danny closed his eyes. “Why not,” he snapped, annoyed and trying to ignore how the adrenaline from the fight was finally working its way out of his sore joints.

There was a flash of white light, blinding even behind closed eyelids, and when Danny finally opened his eyes, he found that he was actually, truly staring at a perfect double of himself.

“Amorpho, if this is some sort of sick joke, I’m going to beat your ass,” Danny said wearily.

“Even if I was Amorpho, I don’t think you could,” the double said matter of fact-ly, which, alright, might have been true. Danny scowled and tossed an arm over his eyes.

“I really am sorry about beating you up so much,” said the double after a moment. “I swear, one minute I was minding my own business, trying to toss Youngblood back into the Ghost Zone, the next I was in a pile of rubble and it looked like you were about to attack my parents. I sort of freaked out.”

Danny held up a finger.

“Okay, first of all, you didn’t beat me up that much, I’m perfectly fine.” He lifted his arm and caught the other Danny’s skeptical look. “I’ve had worse.”

“I’m never this bad after a fight,” commented Other Danny.

“Yeah, well, you also had that stupid giant indestructible suit.” Danny paused. “Uh… I guess it’s my turn to apologize. I’m sorry, man, I didn’t mean to total it like that, I guess I freaked out, too.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was starting to fall apart anyway.” Other Danny waited until Danny’s eyes were covered before going ghost again. “This is going to take some getting used to, though.”

“Honestly I’m kinda jealous.”

Other Danny looked at him with mute surprise. “Jealous?”

“Yeah. I wish my ghost form looked that cool.”

Other Danny’s hands dropped into his lap, and he stared at them - and the wickedly curved claws at their ends - with narrowed eyes. Then,

“I’ll always look like a monster, no matter what,” he spat, and even though he had no distinct facial features besides eyes, Danny could hear how he was scowling.

A monster, huh?

“You aren’t a monster,” Danny said, feeling like a little bit of a hypocrite, and received an angry glare in return.

“That’s easy for you to say,” seethed Other Danny, “You look practically normal! I bet no one has thrown crosses at you or tried to hunt you down with actual pitchforks.”

Danny winced.

“…Really?”

“Some things never change, I guess.” Still, as disheartening as that was, Danny chose to find the silver lining. “But think of it this way: it has nothing to do with how we look or how we fight. They’re always going to find something wrong with us.”

Other Danny’s gaze was still trained on his claws, but Danny could tell he was listening. It was a bit weird, this whole ‘talking to himself’ thing, but it was strangely therapeutic. Jazz was going to have a field day with this when he told her.

“If they’re always going to assume the worst, then all we can do is prove them wrong,” Danny said. “Besides, I don’t know about you, but I don’t do this so they’ll love me. It would be nice if they did, but just them being safe is enough for me.”

Other Danny nodded thoughtfully.

“I guess you’re right,” he said. “And I guess as long as Sam and Tucker don’t think I’m a monster, that’s what really matters.”

“Jazz, too. And…” Danny hesitated. “And it also matters what you think. Ghosts are different than people. You are what you think you are. The more like a monster you think you are, the more like a monster you’ll look. And, if Vlad is any indication, you’ll start to act that way, too.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.” Other Danny scratched one claw tip in the dust that coated the ledge they were hiding on, delicately etching a picture of a spider lily into the grime. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Okay, good.” Danny’s head ached fiercely as he struggled to regather what he had been trying to say earlier. “Then going back to the original point, with what you said about how you got here. I wasn’t attacking Mom and Dad, I’m just annoyed at them, and… I’m sorry, but I'm pretty sure they’re my parents. You said the last thing you remember was tossing Youngblood back into the Zone, but I remember everything leading up to the explosion. One of us reality hopped, and dude, I don’t think it was me.”

Other Danny let out an explosive sigh that trailed off into a frustrated groan at the end.

“This is like the third time this has happened,” he complained, and Danny nodded sympathetically. Must be part of the whole ‘ghost superhero’ thing.

“Alright, so are we going to Clockwork or Frostbite for this one?” Danny asked. The double raised his hands in surrender.

“It’s your reality, you decide.”

“Gee thanks.”

Both options presented their own problems, even discounting travel distance. If they went to Clockwork, there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t laugh them right out of his lair, or worse yet, help them and wrap it up in yet another deeply traumatic lesson about the fragile nature of time and free will.

Pass.

The Far Frozen was more likely to be welcoming, but the Infini-Map was not quite a perfect trump card of a solution. If there was a doorway for Other Danny to get back home through, it would find it, but if there wasn’t, they were out of luck.

On the other hand…

The Frostbite could probably help Danny recover from this godawful concussion and maybe help with his definitely sprained ankle. Plus, it was always nice to see him. Yeti hugs were the best thing in any of the infinite realms.

If they happened to catch Clockwork in one of his rare and unpredictable helpful moods, the time ghost might be willing to do a total reset for them. Slim as the possibility was, it was a tantalizing one.

No more destroyed house, no more upset parents, no more totaled city park…

No change to the status quo. Normalcy.

But was that really what he wanted?

Danny’s excuse had always been, “I’m waiting for the right time to tell them,” but when it came to his parents and ghosts, there was no right time. They had made it very clear that they would not be willing to reframe their views on ghosts - unless he forced them to.

And with the house totaled, practically all of their tech gone, years of work and the Portal itself literally reduced to smoking ruins, there would never be a better time for them to salt the earth and start to move on. It could be a fresh start, if only Danny could gather the courage to give them a nudge in the right direction. They would love him no matter what. He knew that.

Even if it took them a while to come to terms with things, they would still love him.

Danny weighed his options one last time, then sighed.

“Can you teleport us to the Far Frozen?” he asked heavily. “The Portal is history. Its implosion in the chain reaction is probably what brought you here in the first place.”

“Yeah, alright.” Other Danny shuffled around a bit for a second - when Danny peered out from under his arm, he had to snort at the sight of the other ghost trying and failing to float over from across the ledge. It looked like he was trying to doggy paddle in the air.

“First time flying?” Danny snickered, and a gap appeared in Other Danny’s featureless face just wide enough for him to stick his tongue out at Danny.

“That’s the price I pay for wearing the proper safety equipment,” muttered Other Danny, digging his claws into the steel in an attempt to find purchase. “Stupid heavy junk.”

Danny snorted. “You’ll love flying, once you get the hang of it. Until then, I think I’ll take a nap.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Other Danny did eventually manage to grab hold of him, and in the space of a blink, they were floating above the densely packed snow of Frostbite’s domain. The chill ripped right through Danny, and with a grimace, he transformed back into his ghost form. They made their way to the gates of the city, where he was instantly recognized and herded into Frostbite’s office post-haste. Danny waved hi to some of the yeti he recognized; they all went a bit stiff and hurried out of accidental blasting range before waving back.

Steaming mugs of hot cocoa were pressed into their hands as soon as they were seated, and Frostbite listened with interest as Danny and Other Danny took turns explaining what had happened. The reality jumping was not new. But Frostbite seemed fascinated by Other Danny’s detailing of his emergence from the suit.

“Incredible,” Frostbite murmured, a considering look on his face. “I have heard of this before, but never had the chance to study it firsthand. Would you mind if I run some tests on you both before sending you back home? Having a baseline as well as a record of your peculiarities would be most enlightening.”

Both Dannys looked at each other and shrugged in sync. It was a small price to pay for use of the Infini-Map; Danny was fine with it as long as he didn’t have to be naked in any more vats of mystery healing liquid.

-

Danny’s watch read nearly eight in the evening, Amity Park time, when Frostbite finally declared them both sound and ready to use the Map.

They both held their breath as the murky ink stains on the parchment began to bleed into recognizable patterns and formations.

“Thank goodness,” said Other Danny, when the image of a slightly lopsided portal solidified on the paper. “Could I use the Map to teleport there and back quickly? Once I’ve been somewhere once, I can go back anytime I want.”

“I suppose so,” Frostbite said, reluctant to part with the Map but allowing it anyway. As soon as Other Danny had it in his hands, he disappeared with a pop.

He was back just as quickly, and handed the Map back over with a crinkle in his eyes that suggested a smile. Frostbite returned the smile with a gusty sigh, as though it had been gone for hours instead of mere seconds.

Other Danny turned back to Danny. “When your house exploded, do you think it destroyed the other side of the portal, too?”

That was a good question. Danny frowned, wishing he understood the science behind his parents’ weird genius tech a bit better, and tried to think about it logically.

In conventional physics, when one side of a doorway is destroyed, so is the other side. In ghost physics though? Who knew. The other side of the portal might still be fixed in its spot in the wastes, just hovering and swirling on as if nothing had happened at all.

But that didn’t necessarily mean it still let out to the same place.

Danny shuddered as his mind immediately supplied all of the most horrible and horrifying possibilities for a portal that itself was already an abomination rip in the fabric of reality. He was going to have to worry about that eventually, he could already tell, but not right now. He was too tired to deal with that right now.

“It better have,” Danny said, feeling a little bit sick. “Please just teleport me home.”

-

Other Danny dropped him off in the park - where his phone immediately got service and just about spontaneously combusted in his pocket.

“Good luck,” Other Danny said with a sympathetic wince. “Do you… want me to stick around? In case they take it really badly?”

“No,” Danny shook his head and powered down his phone. “They’ll be fine. Besides, that portal didn’t look super stable, so you’d better hurry. Good luck to you too.”

Other Danny nodded, waved goodbye, and disappeared. All things considered, Danny had had to corral worse things back into their own realities, but he still hoped he never saw Other Danny ever again. With luck, that whole situation would resolve itself and he would have one less thing to worry about.

-

Maddie Fenton startled awake from her doze on the motel sofa. For a moment, she wasn’t sure what had woken her - then there was another clink of metal on ceramic and what sounded like the crunching of cornflakes.

Slowly, hardly daring to breathe, she turned her head.

Danny was sitting calmly at the cheap laminate board table on a rickety old dining chair, shoveling cereal into his mouth and looking absolutely none the worse for wear. Maddie had to pinch herself. Was this a hallucination? Stress from the hours of frantically combing the city and raging at the vanished Portal combined with the horrible gas station burrito she’d had for dinner?

Danny looked up from his cereal and met her gaze levelly.

“Hi Mom,” he said, perfectly serene, “Could you get Dad, please? There’s something I need to tell you...”

[dancing-in-a-yellow-dress]

Trapped Little Angel (part 1)

Welcome to the first part of the first fanfic on this account.

Child!reader x the Avengers

Word count: 2900

Trigger warning: Imprisonment, nightmares, non graphic descriptions of violence and injuries, possible trigger for eating disorders

--

You were a 14-year-old orphan living alone in New York, since your family had died in the explosion that gave you your powers. Your powers were similar to Wanda’s (telekinesis and all that jazz). You got them when you were 7, but for whatever reason they hadn’t been active before that day.

It was a basic September day with all of its rain and fog and clouds. You were walking on the street when suddenly you blacked out and your powers exploded out of you destroying property and hurting people everywhere around you. The Avengers were called to action and they evacuated the block and when you’d cooled off a little they took you into custody and to the Avengers tower.

You had passed out and they didn`t really know what to do with you, so they laid you down on the couch and began a debate about the subject.

Tony believed firmly that you were dangerous to the team and the best thing for everyone would be to lock you up isolated and unstimulated to avoid new outbursts until a better option would be available. Steve backed Tony up to an extent, although he did believe the isolation to be unnecessary. Bruce didn’t really voice his opinion on confinement that much, instead focusing on the medical aspect of the situation.

Clint doesn’t really say much during the argument, before Tony raises the possibility of indefinite imprisonment in isolation. That is what finally gets to him, since you are just a kid and remind him of his own daughter. Wanda argues firmly against any form of forced imprisonment. In her opinion you needed medical attention, after which instead of locking you up the team should be focused on helping you control and develop your powers in a beneficial way.

Natasha is uncharacteristically quiet for the whole debate. Something about you had got to her and she found it hard to think of the situation objectively without a massive bias. Peter was on ‘your side’ for sure. To him you were a troubled kid who just happened to need some help. In a way he saw himself in you.

You start to regain consciousness about halfway through the argument. The Avengers are taken back at first, but when you are very confused and scared, Nat and Clint (who are the most ‘neutral’ participants) tell you what happened. When you have gotten the big picture you ask shakily: “How many people did I hurt? What’s the damage?” The others are hesitant to tell you, but Tony is highly pissed at you, so he takes his tablet and shows you some pics of the place where the accident happened. Wanda shoots him a death glare, but he continues and reads the statistics to you: “At this exact moment there are 9 people dead, 27 in critical condition and 56 with milder injuries. All because of your little stunt.” At this point you have pulled your knees to your chest and are struggling to breathe. Steve and Clint look at Tony like he has lost his mind and Nat tries to calm you down. You are repeating the same things over and over again: “I didn’t mean to- It’s all my fault… I don’t know how- What- I didn’t mean to…” Nat was approaching you, her hand reached out ready to stroke your back and pull you into a hug. She says: “We know. Everything will be alright, it’ll be alright. It wasn’t your fault, we’ll sort this out. It’s okay, you’re okay. We don’t blame you, but right now you need to calm down.” You flinch away from her, panic shining in your eyes: “No! Don’t touch me! I don’t want to hurt you. I can’t control it… I don’t understand- I didn’t mean to…” Suddenly you look desperately at Tony “You have to lock me up. I’m dangerous. I can’t be trusted. I have to be put away. Please”, you beg, surprising all of the other people in the room. Peter is about to say something, but Tony cuts him off.

You stand up and Clint shows you the way to a quite big cell. You step in and he shuts the door behind you. You sit on the floor in the corner and pull your knees to your chest. You just blankly stare at the wall. You noticed that there was a camera in corner of the room near the roof as you stepped inside, but you didn’t care. What did it matter. As you stayed on the floor the team was reheating the discussion whilst keeping an eye on the monitor that showed footage from your cell.

Wanda and Peter were shouting at Tony for locking you up in an isolation cell. Natasha and Clint were a bit calmer, but they were backing Wanda and Peter up. At some point Tony says: “You heard the kid. She wanted to be locked up. Even she thought it would be the best option”. And that sets Natasha off: “Yeah, after you had scared the poor thing on the verge of a panic attack. That wasn’t fair play. You drove her to that decision and you know it.” Then Peter fires: “Besides the whole ‘she decided herself’ excuse is bullshit. She’s a kid. SHE’S 14. I’m 17 and you don’t trust me to do anything yet, so how again is she any different?” That shuts Tony up.

In the end the team comes to the conclusion, that they will be monitoring you strictly and willing people will be allowed to go talk to you. All except Peter (just for the first few days) who is infuriated to no end by the decision.

The first person to come talk to you is Wanda. She comes and talks for a while, but you can’t make any sense of what she’s saying. After a while she leaves shutting the door behind her. Steve also comes to question you, and even though this time you understand what he is saying you can’t find the energy to answer him in you. Clint brings you something to eat and drink, but you don’t move a muscle to acknowledge the act. Time sort of looses its meaning to you as you sit on the floor and stare into nothing, alone with your thoughts, the same thoughts over and over and over again.

Nevertheless, you know some time has passed when Natasha comes through the door with another tray filled with food. She places it carefully on her untouched bed and sighs deeply before speaking: “You should really start eating on your own. It’s been two whole days and you haven’t taken a bite. I get that its hard, but you’ve got to try. Otherwise we’ll have no choice but to put a feeding tube down your throat and trust me kid, that does not feel good.” She gives you another look, then turns around and walks out. Slowly you straighten your legs on the floor.

You hadn’t really noticed how much your muscles were hurting for being in the same position for so long before someone pointed it out. You stretched your legs first and then stood up slowly. You went through your body, stretching every muscle one at a time and then sat down beside the bed to eat. You weren’t really hungry, but the threat of getting a feeding tube stuffed down your throat was enough to get you eating.

After you were done with the meal you went back to your corner and sat back down, leaving your legs laying on the floor instead of curling up to a tight bundle. After a few minutes there was a knock at the door and Wanda walked in. She picked the tray up and looked down at you, clearly assessing the situation before finally saying: ”Hey, I was wondering if you needed to use the bathroom.” You didn’t answer her but stood up and stepped timidly few steps forward so that she knew you’d be coming along. She guided you through the hallways and into a bathroom. “There is a towel on the counter and shampoo on a shelf in the shower. Take as long as you need. I’ll pick up some clean clothes for you and bring them here. Okay?” You didn’t say a word but nodded and opened the door to the bathroom. After half an hour you were back in your cell but feeling significantly cleaner and comfier.

Instead of sitting back in the corner on the floor you sat on your bed and crossed your legs. You didn’t know why, but you felt like it, so you started singing, first just humming quietly, then adding the words to the song. It was an old lullaby your mom had sang to you more than once. Some things just had a way of sticking with you.

`Hyvin hiljaa, hyvin hiljaa

nyt kuuluu keijujen äänet

Ne tanssivat taas koko yön laulaen

koko yön laulaen.

Hyvin hiljaa, hyvin hiljaa

taas syttyy tähtöset pienet

Ne oottavat taas läpi yön loistaen

läpi yön loistaen.

Hyvin hiljaa, hyvin hiljaa

nyt sammuu keijujen äänet

Ne liitävät taas ylös luo tähtien

ylös luo tähtien`

Then you sang it over again, this time in English

If your quiet, very quiet,

you can hear sound of the fairies

They’re dancing again through the night until day

through the night until day

Very quiet, almost silent

the stars are lighting the sky

they’re waiting again till the night fades away

till the night fades away

If you’re quiet, very quiet

you can hear sound the fairies

they race through the sky so they’ll be near the stars

so they’ll be near the stars

You sang the song a couple times over and finally you got to the last part you had made up on your own. You always ended it there, since you could never continue singing after that.

Hyvin hiljaa, hyvin hiljaa

ei kuulu keijujen äänet

Ne lähtivät taas minut yksin jättäen

minut yksin jättäen

Even if you’re very quiet

you won’t hear sound of the fairies

they flew up the sky leaving me alone behind

leaving me alone behind.

You broke down sobbing. Clint was sitting at the monitor, and he thought it’d be best not to disturb you, so you were left alone as you start humming another melody your mom taught you.

Joka ilta kun lamppu sammuu ja saapuu oikea yö Niin Nukku-Matti nousee ja ovehen hiljaa lyö On sillä uniset tossut ja niillä se sipsuttaa Se hiipii ovesta sisään ja hyppää kaapin taa

”I didn’t know she was finnish” Nastasha said to clint as she sat next to him with two cups of tea. “Finnish?” Clint asked as they listened to the beautiful melody coming from the lonely cell. Nat was quiet for a while before saying “Yeah. The language is absolutely bizarre.” They sat in silence for another while, until Clint said: “She sounds miserable” “Yeah, but who wouldn’t. I’m guessing she has no family, since no one has come asking for her.”

Ja pieni sateenvarjo on aivan kallellaan Ja sinistä unien kirjaa se kantaa kainalossaan Ja unien sinimaahan se lapset autolla vie Surrur, surrur ja sinne on sininen, uninen tie

Ja siellä on kultainen metsä, ja metsässä kultainen puu Ja unien sinilintu ja linnulla kultainen suu Ja se unien sinilintu se lapsia tuudittaa Se laulaa unisen laulun joka mielen uneen saa

Your mum never taught you that song in English. You had tried translating it, but it always turned out so peculiar you had eventually given up.

When you felt like you had cried enough you stopped with the finnish and started going through songs you had heard somewhere else, altering the lyrics as you went.

You hadn’t sung anything in weeks and now you just couldn’t stop. It felt good. You went over your favorites altering lyrics and making up new verses, not wanting the song to end. As you sang you thought about mum and home. In the outside world they were forbidden things, because they made it hard to focus on surviving. But here she had all the time in the world to think. After hours and hours she finally laid down on the mattress and drifted to sleep

Tony had just started his shift watching you through the monitor and you were having a nightmare. You were curled up in a ball and whimpered and muttered quietly, as tears ran down your face. You dug your nails into your back and started scratching leaving bloody red marks behind. Then you started screaming. The sound echoed through the halls, but Tony didn’t know what to do, so he ended up doing nothing, just staring at the screen paralyzed. It went on for a while, until you finally flinched so violently you woke up.

You were in a state of panic, but as you realized where you were it started to wear off. Little by little you started to feel the pain from the bloody scratch marks on your back and arms. You examined your injuries to the best of your abilities and then looked at the floor while talking sheepishly at the camera in the corner of the room: “If you don’t mind I’d like to have something to wrap these cuts with. I might also need some help with the ones in my back. Its not a big deal, but I don’t want them to get infected.”

The screaming had woken up Natasha and Steve who were now standing behind Tony, looking at the screen over his shoulders. Tony cleared his throat before turning around in his chair and facing the other two. They both had their arms crossed on their chest. Steve looked surprised as hell, but Natasha was quick to recover. She threw Tony an icy stare before saying: “Should we think the imprisonment over again, or is she still too dangerous for you to handle?” Tony raised his hands before saying: “Let’s think that over in the morning, when the whole team is up. Now, would you mind going to help her with the injuries?” Natasha threw Tony another dirty look, before grabbing the first aid kit and heading to your cell.

Nat came, and you laid on the bed on your stomach. She lifted your shirt, poured antiseptic solution on a cloth and warned you: “I’m sorry, but this is gonna hurt like a bitch.” She pressed the cloth gently on your back and you shrug. “It’s not that bad. You get used to pain as a homeless kid. Once I had to remove a bullet from my own shoulder.” There Nat saw an opportunity get little bit more information of you and continued the conversation: “Must be tough. I suppose you don’t have any family left?” “Yeah, mum and dad and Tom died… in an accident” you tensed up visibly. Nat continued unbothered but didn’t bring up the deaths again. “I heard you sing the other day. Didn’t know you were finnish.” “Oh, I’m not. My mom was.” “So, can you speak finnish or what?” “Nah, not anymore anyways. I used to, but I haven’t used it in a long time. Some things just stuck with me, like the songs, or silly pet names mum used to call us.” For some reason you felt really safe with Natasha. Her touch reminded you of home as she worked to clean your wounds and then wrap them with clean gauze. You knew it was silly, but it just felt so good to finally talk to someone, so you kept answering her as she continued asking questions. “Pet names, huh. What did she call you?” “She used to call me Lumikki. It’s the finnish for snow white. It’s cheesy as hell, I know but we lived in a little cottage in the woods, and I was obsessed with Disney.” Natasha smiled at you. “Do you remember anything else about your mum.” “She had the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard. She sounded like an angel. Sometimes I hear her in the wind.” You pause for a minute “And she was a dancer. She used to be a ballerina, but then she had us and her career ended. She never quit dancing though. Once in a while she’d put on her slippers and go through some old routine, like she had never stopped. She even taught me some basics.” Natasha was quiet for a moment. Then she cleared her throat and continued: “Did you have any siblings?” “Yeah”, you were quiet for a moment, not rushing to continue “One brother. His name was Tuomas, but we all called him Tom. Three years older than me. He was my best friend.” A tear fell down your cheek. Natasha was almost done with wrapping your back so she asked one more question. “How about your dad” You shrugged. “He was a hunter. Spent most of his time with Tom out in the forest when I stayed in with mum.” Nat packed the medical supplies back to the first aid kit and pulled your shirt down so that it covered your back. Then she helped you sit up and said: “I can’t promise anything yet, but we’re having another meeting with the team about your… condition and I believe you might get out of here.” She saw the unsure look you gave her. “Don’t worry” she said as she took your hand “Everything will be alright. I promise”

--

Sorry, I have absolutely no idea what is going on with the spacing, tried to fix it but it wont budge... Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

[justnerdthings]

Frigid Heart Ch. 5

F!Reader x Bi-Han

Surprise!

A little short. But here you go.

@poor-unfortunate-soul-85 @whitelotusfighter @icy-spicy @crazytxgradstudent @d-taslim @bihansthot @legends-of-apex @lillikue @missroro @shang-hung

To say the Grandmaster was impressed with you would have been an understatement. You could feel Lily’s eyes bore into the back of your head as she followed you and the Grandmaster through the halls. You had been cleaned up and given a clean hanfu--a nicer one. You were beyond thankful for the gift, but the Grandmaster was wise. He could see the worry behind your eyes. And he could sense Lily’s hostility. She had begun to grate against his nerves… But he understood her frustration. Who were you to come in and turn out be so full of surprises. He’d surely rile up Lily later on. He may have enjoyed her a being a tad jealous. But for now, he would ignore her behavior. You were much easier to look at anyway.

“Were all Snow Ninja servants as loyal as you?” he asked you.

You glanced up to him, then quickly looked away. “We’re raised to be loyal. If we aren’t loyal, we’re disposed of. I’m sure it’s the same here, Grandmaster.”

“Ah. Yes, we do expect loyalty. But such loyalty--to protect their masters? That is a rare treat for the Lin Kuei. Only a handful of girls have ever wielded our blades.”

“There is no use in weak servants,” You repeated the old mantra your former masters had taught you.

The Grandmaster rose his brows at your words, considering them for a moment before giving a single nod. “I suppose that is correct. To an extent.”

You sucked in a deep breath. You couldn’t help it anymore. This was eating away at you. “What happens to me if Sub-Zero dies?” You asked.

He chuckled and waved his hand dismissively. “Who said Sub-Zero will die?”

“Those injuries—”

“I assure you, dear. He has endured much worse.”

You stiffened being called ‘dear.’ You heard a noise of displeasure behind you. Lily didn’t seem to like it either. “But, if he does, Grandmaster…” you cautiously pressed.

“If he does die, then I’m sure you’ll be picked up by another Lin Kuei assassin.”

“I won’t be sold, will I?”

He chuckled. “Perhaps. Though I imagine Tundra would offer to take you. He would have first rights to Sub-Zero’s belongings.”

That was right. That’s what you were. You were one of Sub-Zero’s belongings. You were just a piece of property.

“Though, I wouldn’t mind having you for myself,” the Grandmaster said. Your jaw stiffened and he had noticed. His brows rose. “That does not please you?”

You weren’t sure what to say, so you kept your mouth shut.

“Ah, so you’ve already heard about my girls.” He nodded “I am not unkind to my girls, I assure you. But they are mine. I do what I will with them. I have the means to offer them any pleasures they wish. I only ask for loyalty in return… and one other thing.”

You glanced to him. Once he noticed he’d piqued your interest, he’d smirked.

“A son,” he answered your curiosity. “Throughout the years, I have been given nothing but daughters. God seems to mock me. He denies me a rightful heir. Try as I might, I have not one son to speak of. Perhaps it’s a curse for the horrible things I have done in my life. But I will keep trying until my death.”

Well, now that just made sense. He had so many breeding women because he was trying desperately to have a son. But was it true that he was kind to them? And what of all these daughters?

You were suddenly reminded of Snowflake. She had been raised in the palace, but she didn’t know who her parents were… Was she one of the Grandmaster’s daughters? Did he… Did he just give them away? Your jaw hardened more.

“You wonder where all my daughters are,” the Grandmaster said with an understanding nod. “Dead.”

Your heart skipped a beat. Dead? All of them?

“But, that is a story for another day. You’re worried for Sub-Zero.” He stopped at a door which Lily moved to open. He motioned for you to go on ahead, then followed you into the large room.

It was full of injured assassins. Those knowledgeable in medicine were helping whoever they could. Servants were running back and forth, desperately trying to keep up with demand. Lily pushed herself towards the back of the room and you followed.

Bi-Han was laid out on a bedroll. His robes had been removed so his wounds could be properly assessed. A sheet had been draped over him for his own decency. Kuai was seated next to his brother and looked up as you appeared. He stiffened as he noticed the Grandmaster follow you. He bowed his head respectfully. “Grandmaster.”

“Tundra. How is Sub-Zero?” The Grandmaster asked, stepping closer.

“He’s lost a lot of blood. But he will live,” Kuai answered, then watched as you sat on the other side of Bi-Han.

“Very good. I had faith he would pull through.”

“Yes, Grandmaster.” Kuai nodded.

“I trust until he recovers, you will take responsibility for…” He suddenly became aware that you had not told him your name. He looked to you for it.

You frowned and looked away with a shake of your head. You were still nameless.

“Ah. Well, no matter.” He dismissed it with a wave and looked back to Kuai, who had turned his attention back to you. Kuai heaved a sigh, but nodded.

“Yes, Grandmaster,” he agreed.

“Good. And do tell me when he wakes. I would like to speak with him.”

Kuai bowed his head respectfully. You did the same. The Grandmaster smirked at both of your obedience before turning to leave, Lily at his heels.

_________

Bi-Han’s eyes shot open. His vision was horribly distorted. His lungs were burning. Where was he? Why couldn’t he breathe? Why was it so hot?

It took so much effort to even lift his head, never mind pulling at the chains around his wrists and ankles. He opened his mouth to speak… his throat felt as though he’d swallowed jagged rocks. A grunt escaped him.

As his vision began clearing, he could make out the figure of someone--someTHING standing several feet away. It was blacker than any black he’d ever seen with just as dark wisps dancing over it. Glowing white eyes were locked on him. “Who… Where am I?” Bi-Han managed to choke out.

The figure chuckled and caused Bi-Han’s chest to rumble with the deep resonance. “Home,” it answered.

Bi-Han’s brows knotted. He glanced around at the vast wasteland. No matter how hard he tried to suck in air, nothing soothed the empty burning in his chest. He wouldn’t have been able to describe it if anyone asked. It was like suffocating, but to no end. Death would not come. Even his heart had stopped beating. Agonizing pain radiated through his body as his muscles and organs were denied blood… What was this icy burn that washed over him? Was it… Panic?

“This… is not home,” he forced out, voice shredded.

“Oh. But it will be. Soon.”

“You speak in riddles.”

The figure chuckled again and disappeared from Bi-han’s view. Bi-Han was suddenly hoisted up by the chains and slammed back against a wall of black fire. He cried out as the flames burned his skin, blistering it instantly. And just as with the pain in his chest, relief would not come… And neither would ice as he tried to will it in an effort to protect himself.

Panicked voices soon filled his ears. Opening his eyes, he was faced with the Lin Kuei village in chaos, the palace and surrounding homes burning to the ground. No one seemed to notice him as he struggled against the chains. Smoke now filled his aching lungs, making them burn more. Trying to shout just made it worse. What was going on? Who had attacked them? Who had set fire to the village?

Kuai had run past him, into the blazes, summoning ice in attempts to combat the flames. Sektor and Cyrax were trying to evacuate the assassins and servants. Tomas was nowhere to be seen--he may have just blended in with the rest of the smoke. The Grandmaster collapsed as the smoke overwhelmed him. Lily laid lifeless on the ground next to him. Burned bodies laid everywhere. But you… Where were you? His eyes desperately searched the scene for you.

That demonic chuckle muted the sounds of the chaos around him before it all faded away. No. Wait. He hadn’t spotted you yet!

“She will perish just as the others,” that voice told him.

Bi-Han’s eyes snapped over to the figure. He choked on his words. “What is this?”

“This is where you become your true self.”

“What?”

“Do you not recognize yourself?”

Bi-Han’s brows knotted and the figure appeared in front of him, face only inches from his.

Those eyes… Those were… his.

“Don’t look so surprised. You knew you would end up here someday.”

Bi-Han’s jaw hardened.

“Welcome to Hell.”

No…

“Too bad you can’t stick around. This would have been fun. But, you’re not quite ready.”

“For what?” He hissed.

“To conquer Netherrealm.”

“What?”

The figure--a twisted version of himself--had chuckled again before everything faded away.

[birlarks]

OH? DID I HEAR DND OC? curious about class and race ofc but also like what kind of area are they from? :O -mare

WOOO!! ty mare you are a life saver. They are a rogue bronze half dragon!! He originates from a large(30k+) coastal city named Windrose. There's a pretty prevalent thieves guild there that he accidentally got wrapped up in at 15,indebting him to them till he's payed off his debt(payed off in their eyes is basically never but. Ya gotta keep hoping.)because of this he distanced himself from his family to keep them safe and is basically always travelling doing tasks for the guild anyways.

More abt the town:

More about the town: the name originates from the dragon who founded it, someone many claim to be descended from. Windrose, a bronze dragon with shifting abilities. Her being bronze is important because they alone have the ability to breath underwater and stuff(coastal town) she's worshipped as a deity now, a couple thousand years after the towns conception. Most of the market and trade is propelled by the fishing industry and the show bizz that comes with high population. One of the biggest tourist attractions is professional fire dancing shows on the black sand beaches of the southern coast, where luminescent algae provides a perfect late night backdrop. The theatre scene in the inner city, where naefthren grew up, is huge. Children participate in school musicals multiple times a year, street performers everywhere, etc. It's a generally well balanced and run place. The symbol is a red rose in full bloom held by a reptiltian claw.

The fashion industry is fascinating to outsiders a lot of the time, and has influence on surrounding areas. Most people that live on the beach/close to it don't wear a top or just sheer fabric regardless of gender due to the heat, and skirts with separate shorts underneath(for quick changing as many people work with water) are the most popular bottoms. But as you go further inland the clothing gets more modest. Wrap around sheer fabric used in many ways (around the waist, in the hair, layered to opaqueness as a shirt) and neutral cotton under clothing(like that one white european shirt everyone draws cranboo in)is the most seen style. Children wear light pastel gowns till their 7th birthday. Special occasions call for very light gowns or just general airy clothing most of the time, many thin layers, and softly curving monochromatic body paint. Tattoos are encouraged once someone hits 20. Jewelry is often pearl adorned or glass made from the black sand, gold is rare and highly valued.

The population is majority humans, half elves, and half dragons, though obviously that's not all there is. (Many influential figures are rumored to be full dragons shifted, but only like 2/300 celebrities slash political figures actually are)

The thieves guild there is unnamed to the public, so most hear whispers of them just as 'the bramble' and if you ever wake up with a wilting rose on your knightstand you know you either need to evacuate or prepare your funeral. It's an underlying sickness in the bright and salt smelling town. But, they have so much influence that you can't really get rid of them.

The government is a democratic oligarchy, with a representative house that actually passes or vetos the laws.

[pirate-kwazii]

Watching Ring Of Fire now so here’s more of my thoughts

Is that a fence in the water

Is everyone groaning about the sea urchin and crab or yawning? I can’t tell

Okay I’ve had the Vegimals song stuck in my head for awhile now

Kwazii’s alarm clock shoots tennis balls at him- same

And Dashi starts the day with yoga

Tweaks fell asleep playing video games mood

Shellington what the fUCK

Tf is that- is that lava?!?

Oh ring of fire like the volcanoes- I feel stupid now

They’re doing their role call out of order

What the fuck Kwazii why did you eat 17 kelp cakes

Is the only thing you eat is seaweed

VIDEO TRAINING VIDEO TRAINING

*terrible accordion playing* *everyone winces*

How many cousins do you have peso?!?!

Kwazii: I’m going out and FAST!!!!

Captain: *eyebrow raise*

Kwazii: I mean I’m checking the engine

MORE GUPS?!?!

“Don’t push the Z button” Kwazii is definitely going to press it I bet all 3 of my dollars

Wait why did Peso and Barnacles need a Gup if they were taking the octopod?!

How much time does Tweak have to keep making all these gups?!

Aw Kwazii loves that Gup so much

WHAT IS BARNACLES WEARING WHAT THE HELL NO

Kwazii’s copying it omg-

Shellington and Dashi are such nerd friends it’s actually adorable

Tremors those are probably important

Ring-shape? Like the ring of fire-

Oh no comms are down

A TSUNAMI?!?!

Mateys you should’ve stayed at the Octopod

Kwazii saved Tweak’s life and now it’s flooding

Why don’t they know about the Ring of Fire if they LIVE in the ocean

Oh no the comms are down they can’t reach them!!!!

Damn at least no one is alone...

Of course the Chinstrap Penguins live on a volcano

Well at least Shellington and Dashi are alright and above water so there’s a lower chance of drowning

“How does he know I’m an octonaut?” Maybe it’s because you’re wearing the octonauts colors and the logo all over it

Wow itd be faster to push the stupid thing

Last time you guys followed the screaming sound there was a tsunami

Well at least you found the whales you wanted to find

“I’ve always wanted to see a whale but not like this!” I’d sure hope so Shellington

Of course the volcano erupts

Tweak Kwazii are ya okay?!

THEY DONT HAVE AIR TANKS ON THEM OH NO

TWEAK!!!

Now is not the time to copy Barnacles- holy shit it worked

She just noticed that?!

Shit you guys are stuck

Kwazii beggars can’t be choosers

Why is that the only way to get across Tweak

No Tweak pay attention

ITS ON FIRE

I really hope you guys can hold your breath

She’s pulling a Ladybug and the things she looks at glow now

Improvised fire extinguisher

WHY IS EVERYTHING ON FIRE ARENT YOU UNDERWATER

Eww they landed in seaweed and a banana peel

Why does everyone end in the garbage disposal- sorry compost

Oh he almost fell in-

*opens door and floods room* Guess we’re swimming after all

Tunip leave him it’s natural selection

Grouber just sits and eats during a panic- same

“Lesson Nine- dealing with disasters” what

Why is the background of those videos so bad

I mean it’s rad but also bad

Tunip: *hands the Vegimals a bunch of shovels* good luck

Mateys how did that dirt pile work-

*quickly unplants all the seaweed*

*vacuums the animals*

LEAVE THE SEAWEED YOU HAVE ENOUGH

“You gotta save us!” Why didn’t you get their attention sooner?

Why do none of them notice the volcanoes that they live on/near

We’ve seen the rafts it won’t work

How the hell did you think of that

Is that even possible

They only leave Inkling in charge when legit no one else is there

Kwazii and Tweak: *mimic pirates, rabbits and Barnacles*

Peso and Barnacles: *mimic penguins*

How was the lava that aLMOST COOKED YOUR EGGS NOT A WARNING SIGN

Wow Inkling is not good at this I see why he’s never in charge

Even Kwazii and the Vegimals have managed the octopod better than that

Why is there is Disco Ball

Why does it always switch to the training videos

“Dashi’s so good at this” yeah it’s almost like it’s her JOB

There was a BUTTON FOR THAT EXACT REASON AND YOU DIDNT THINK TO PRESS IT FIRST?!?!?!

Took you long enough jeez

What is they fall off of the “slide”

“Mothers and babies first” anyone else can perish

Well that egg is dead

Oh never mind he got it

WHY DIDNT YOU TWO GET ON THE SIDE TOO TWEAK WOULD UNDERSTAND

I mean she and Kwazii are trying not to be set on fire so I’m sure she’d get it

“I just hope everyone else is okay” well shellington and Dashi are stuck on a volcano that’s exploding trying to get a beached whale out on a very slow Gup, the Vegimals are trying to evacuate the garden, and Tweak and Kwazii are trying to get out of the burning and flooding repair area so no I don’t think anyone else is okay

“This isn’t working” no really Dashi

Oh the crabs know Kwazii that explains so much

Another Training Video?!

The crew all look so nervous when they appear in a training videos

Oh now Dashi and Shellington are mimicking Tweak

Poor Shellington he’s clumsy

“I have to say I.. really like that plan” yea cuz it’s the one that doesn’t involve you burning in the lava

Shellingtons getting a workout in oof

He’s about to fall into the lava

Now the crabs about to fall into the water

Oh god he’s screwed

Crab jump on the whale- now he’s flying

Shellington get out of the lava!!!

Alright some people are safe

Oh never mind the other volcanoes are erupting too

That water level is dangerously high are they gonna be okay

Kwazii don’t phrase it like that it sounds like you’ll die

KWAZII!!!!!

Oh god oh no his tail

Mimicking Barnacles saved the day

TWEAK!!! KWAZII!!!

Oh they are alright thank god

They’re gonna be traumatized from this- *angst time*

“And how will we get up there” Kwazii making good points again

Kwazii with a grappling hook is a terrifying idea please get one

And now they find out the comms are down

Kwazii trying to be helpful

WHY DOES SHE HAVE AN EMERGENCY CARROT STASH

KWAZII GOT ONE TOO

Another video but this ones useless-

TWEAK YOU TURNED OFF THE POWER

They sounded the octo alert together!!!

Babies

EVERYONES OKAY!!!!

OF COURSE THERES ANOTHER ONE

Kwazii and Tweak: ya we’re good

Also them: *trying to not to drown or burn*

They are all gonna connect to each other like Voltron aren’t they

KWAZII DID PRESS IT IM NOT LOSING MY $3 TODAY!!!

Tweak: I got a plan

*crashes through the hatch*

Kwazii: *excited cat sounds*

Yeah they’re going together naturally

“Mega Gup Z” epic naming skills Tweak

“Seat swap” “wait a minute- WHOA”

“It’s completely covered in sea creatures” there’s no way you get all of them

Oh good some are swimming away

“Sit tight” they can’t really do anything else Captain

Do we know where they go after being S U C C E D into the mega Gup z?

And now rocks are everywhere

Kwazii’s excited cat noises are giving me life

Couldn’t the crabs walk away?

Oh no they’re getting stuck in the volcano-

Oh they’re good thank Neptune

Dashi: yea it’s bout to erupt we gotta go

Peso: I saw something inside there we gotta go look

Does Peso want them to die

Of course the animals sound snobby

“Why ever would we do that” CUZ ITS ERUPTING i swear all the creatures have the IQ of a walnut

“I didn’t even make a button for it” bruh

Yeah just like Voltron

Kwazii: *even more excited cat noises cuz he gets to destroy things*

Why do you all name the moves with the word “mantis” in front of them?

They all share one braincell and Barnacles and Peso have it 90% of the time

Tweak gets the other 10%

Everyone else runs on pure chaotic energy

“Tweak Status Report!” Tweak: WE ARE FUCKED

Let Tweak say “Fuck” 2k21

Kwazii: *e x c i t e d c a t n o i s e s*

*throws sea creatures at whale*

*blows up into five gups in massive explosion in front of erupting volcano*

Is all that sea urchin thinks about is food

“You know what I’d like? Dinner” “you know what pal, that sounds great”

“Have the eruptions stopped” “yea but that’s not what I called about”

Is Inkling trying to be more than that guy who sits in his library all day?

Yea it’s not hatching because of the bandage all around it

Please say the egg doesn’t die

Oh it’s alive good

Octonauts: remember that island that got destroyed by a volcano? Would you like to live on an island that volcano created?

Penguins: not really

Octonauts: too bad

Vegitoa? Wow

ITS THAT STUPID SONG AGAIN LAST TIME IT WAS IT MY HEAD FOR TWO WEEKS

“It still felt like we were working as a team” maybe cuz you were all copying each other the whole time

“You really, really need to update those training videos” yeah fair enough

Of course the Vegimals still remember the dance

I see what the hype was about that was a fantastic movie mateys... though everyone’s probably gonna have some problems after that

[lolathepeacocklord]

Chapter 1 – Unlucky Circumstances   It all happened so fast. Way too fast. Maybe there was a window open at some point where he could have saved himself? But by now that window was long gone. He knew he was sick. Just not… That sick. And of course he only found out when it was too late. He never thought it would escalate so quickly. Everyone just said it was a really bad flu. If you got sick just stay home a few days, and if it got worse head on over to the hospital.    And then the one thing he remembered before… It all begun. Or ended, actually. There was an emergency broadcast urging people to get to an evacuation center as soon as possible. Something was happening, and the city suddenly needed to get into quarantine immediately. CEDA was going to take the mess into their own hands, because the Green Flu apparently was a lot more dangerous then people thought. Or more dangerous then they told the public it was.   But after looking back at all of this… Even with all the best teams of scientists in the whole world, did they ever even stand a chance in the first place?

  Rain poured down the gray skies, slowly getting heavier, though never got heavy enough to put out most of the fires in the streets. It helped flush some blood down the drains throughout the city, but could do nothing about the endless mangled corpses lying about. All of these used to be people- either dead or wandering the streets as brainless entities. Feral animals that attacked anything that moved, including their own kind. And those weren’t even the worse ones. These ones were referred to as common infected. Just people that naturally fell victim to the rabies-like virus. Some people were worse. Far worse. This horrid virus made ordinary people turn into true monstrosities. How did it happen? It was far beyond our understanding how a rabies disease could turn out into one of those… Things.   Some people turned out lucky though. They would turn out lucky enough to not fall ill from the virus. Their minds were never altered, they never transformed. But they were a target. Infected could always seem to tell somehow that these survivors weren’t like them. They were more hostile towards them then with anybody else. Why is it like this? Who knows. Maybe the virus alters your mind and makes you think you need to spread the illness. Maybe when you see people with guns, walk with purpose, and talk normally you think they are a threat by default. The gun is reasonable under any regular circumstances, but these were not normal circumstances.    This was the end of the world as we knew it. Even with all the firearms in the world, how long would you really be able to hold out in this chaos? You’re just a simple survivor, against true monstrosities. But… Where were we.    The rain continued to beat down onto the rooftops and down all the dirtied up streets in town. It’s been a while since there was a good long rainstorm, so this was wonderful. Some of the smaller fires were getting put out completely, while bigger ones were just stabilized a little more.    Between two three-story building was a bit of a gnarled up alleyway. Some walls were stained deeply enough that simple rain wouldn’t do much about it. Most of the stains originally were just from garbage and occasional drunks stumbling in to vomit. But now it was mostly painted over with a fresh coat of blood. Really fresh- A common somewhere in there was having itself a meal with this man it managed to maul to death. The zombie didn’t even acknowledge a guy walk past him, resting a shotgun on his shoulder. The man’s smell was so putrid anyone would have reacted in some way. Even the man himself hated the stench he just couldn’t get rid of. But now it was just a normal thing, so he didn’t think too much into it.    He turned around a corner over to a door he quickly went through and locked behind him- hiding away from the storm in this little… ‘Home’ he made for himself. It was originally just some storage closet or something, and someone may have lived here before- hence the mattress lying in there. Nobody ever returned here so he just decided to make himself at home. After setting the shotgun against the wall he plopped down onto the mattress, reached into a pocket inside of the camouflage vest and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and proceeded to destroy his body even further while staring blankly into the dark room he was in. Just… Thinking. About everything that’s happened in the previous weeks.   He just felt really, really sick. Nothing ever gave him the hint something worse was happening. It was just a really bad version of the common flu. Not something that changed average humans into feral monsters. Not something that made them mutate so horribly they couldn’t even recognize themselves as actual people. Not something that would make the entire world collapse and just leave you and your new body in shambles- fearing every single day that something even more horrible looking would maybe take your life. Pretty much what he was thinking about.    The man’s name was Noah Smith. Preferably just Smith. He wasn’t your run of the mill survivor or special infected. But have you ever considered the fact a person could stand a chance of being… Both?    Smith flicked the cigarette away and stared at the dying embers for a few moments before using the heel of his shoe to put it out. Then he reached to grab it and shoved it in his pocket. He didn’t necessarily feel great about leaving trash on the floor like that. He listened to the rain beating down outside the building, just trying to calm his nerves. He heard something very… Unnerving, not too long ago. Gunshots. Survivors. Real survivors. Not local infected that somehow managed to keep their sanity enough to be able to hold a gun. Survivors, resistant to the green flu, targets of all the normal feral infected- not nice to people like him.    Survivors being in the area was really freaking him out. He had weapons to protect himself in general, but whenever he sees those people they’re usually in a group of three or four people. So in the long run he was outnumbered, they were probably really overpowered- having literal grenade launchers sometimes. Who the hell just find one of those!? All he had was a switchblade, a shotgun, and a revolver. He was running low on shotgun ammo too. It was scary to think about this, yeah, but he also knew he couldn’t just hide in this same city forever. I mean he probably could for a while. But there are so many things out to get him. So many odds against him. And if survivors were coming here now, more may come in the future. He would be found eventually. He would get killed if he stayed in one place. It made him just wanna curl up in a ball and succumb to the horrible wheeze fits he had sometimes. Or just stop breathing in his sleep and have an easy, painless death.    Quickly Smith rose up to his feet, stretched his arms for a second, and went to go look at his supplies. He had… 30 shotgun shells, around 45 bullets for the revolver, and the trusty stabber he always kept in case his upgraded ‘tongues’ decided to get out of control.    He wasn’t the type of person to think about suicide. He’s thought about It being an easy way out, yeah, but it was a dumb decision to make. With the virus in him he could die any day now. His lungs sometimes felt like they would just close up on him. Or the tumors would proceed to cover his entire face. They already covered his left eye completely. And most of his arms. And neck. Almost everywhere you could imagine, was a growth or something in that spot.    Even with everything against him like this… He still felt the need to try. Why though? There wasn’t anything to look forward to. Nobody was going to save him. He would always have to be the one to save himself. Nobody was like him- infected but at the same time sane. Nobody would believe him either. He had nightmares where no matter how much he screamed and begged for mercy, he would always be shot down. Massacred. Maimed. There was no escape. So why did he keep trying? Because he had hope.    Hope was rare to come by nowadays. But he still felt it- deep down inside this decaying sack of flesh and bones, a little spark. Maybe there were people like him. Maybe he won’t be murdered on sight. Maybe there was still hope. Maybe… His best friend was still alive. Somewhere, out in the world… Maybe he hadn’t become a mindless zombie. The chances for that sadly were so, so low. He knew he was changing. He saw it in his eyes. His behavior. His roommate, his friend- his best friend, was most probably dead somewhere. Or he was ripping people to shreds and eating their flesh down to the bone. But the chance was still there. It existed. Rare doesn’t mean nonexistent.    After checking everything he had he heard something outside. It was very distant, but it sounded like… Gunshots, again. And lots of them. He tensed up slightly at the thought of… No, It would be alright. Just listen for where they’re coming from, keep a long distance, and you’ll be alright. He made sure he had everything on him real fast, took a peek outside… Nobody there. He slipped out and continued down the alleyway, closing the door behind him with the tentacle that permanently hung out of the back of his neck. Smith was in for a really long day. He didn’t know it yet, but there was a lot in store.