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walkerwords · 4 years ago

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“The Savior Sessions” Part 5 of 33 - Negan x GN!Reader

IMAGE CREDIT: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC

SERIES MASTERLIST

Summary: With a storm approaching, you offer to house Negan for the duration and maybe in the process deal with all the nagging thoughts that have come up during all the sessions so far.

Word Count: 2232

Warning: None

Song I Wrote To: “Keeping Your Head Up” by Birdy

Note: This one is more like an intro to the next one, but I thought I’d post it cause I’m posting these in between some angsty stories!

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The constant arguing was finally getting on your nerves.

Sitting in the meeting hall, you listened to the council and other key members of Alexandria argue about the same thing as always: Negan. This week’s issue was that there was a storm coming in that would most likely bring lots of rain, at least that’s what Eugene was thinking. Whether he was right or not, there was still the question of where they were putting their prisoner so he didn’t drown in his cell.

There were those such as Aaron and Rosita who couldn’t care less about what happened to the man, but then there were people like Gabriel who were still mildly concerned. They had locked him up, kept him fed, and Gabriel didn’t think it was fair to keep him in such a vulnerable position during the potential downpour.

Nobody wanted to leave him alone in an empty house and Aaron had even suggested tying him up in the watch post, but Michonne had shot that down immediately.

You sat in the back row of the hall, waiting for them to stop hollering at each other. The last conversation you had had with Negan hadn’t ended well. You were tired, he was curious, and you were not in the mood for his...negan-ness at all. The realization that you and the former leader were similar had rocked you a bit. You weren’t sure what to do with the information.

There was a part of you that wanted to just walk out the front gate and not look back. Running away had once been a pattern for you before the world had ended, but you had fought to break that streak once you joined up with this group of survivors. However, spending a few days in the woods alone seemed not too bad right now. Daryl did seem to have the right idea at times, you thought.

The hum of arguing continued and you fought against everything you had not to yell at them. If Alexandria didn't have strong walls, you were sure the Dead would have been called from miles away with this volume.

"I'll do it," you said, more to the wall than anyone. The yelling continued so you stood up and projected your voice louder, "I'll do it!"

Everyone in the room turned to look at you, Michonne pausing mid-sentence. "What?" Aaron asked.

"I said, I'll do it. Negan can stay with me at my place for the duration of the storm." Nobody knew what to say as you offered your home to be Negan’s temporary cell.

"(Y/N)," Gabriel began, unsure how to continue.

"I have an extra room," you explained, "my fireplace works, I live alone, and I'm already his therapist, might as well be his warden too."

"It's not your job to...house him," Rosita said.

"No, it's not," you agreed. "It's probably Michonne's considering she's head of security, but she has two little ones. Now, I doubt Judith and RJ would care if Negan stayed in their living room, but this way I keep him from all of you and y'all can stop bickering like a PTA meeting."

"And if he tries to leave?" Aaron asked, but you rolled your eyes.

"He won't," you assured him, "though, if he managed to sneak past me, all the other houses, and get over the walls in the storm, then hell, he would deserve the escape."

"Let's try not to let that happen," Michonne said and you nodded. "Are you going to need extra supplies?" She asked simply. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes at how easy it was to take on the responsibility. You knew it was just a matter of time before someone spoke up and you also knew that person was going to be you.

"I think we'll be okay. I'll wait until the sun goes down and then drag Alcatraz on over.”

You didn’t wait for a response before grabbing your jacket and exiting the hall. All around Alexandria, people were prepping for the storm. There wasn’t much they could do considering there was only a few hour warning. These were the days when you missed The Weather Channel the most. Since the world had ended, it was the small things that you missed about the old world rather than the big ones.

Waving to Gracie who was sitting on the steps of her house, you continued on your way to your small home near the South wall. It wasn’t much and it was smaller than the rest of the homes, but you preferred it. Rick had once called it your “crows nest” which was appropriate considering your time as a sniper.

Rosita’s house was locked up tight as you passed it and jogged up your front steps. There wasn’t much more to do as you tended to keep your house secure most of the time.

You spent the next couple of hours taping down the windows, grabbing firewood from the communal supply, and taking inventory of your food stock. The whole thing was becoming...odd. It was as if you were a kid again, making sure the house was clean for company so your parents didn’t feel embarrassed.

The thought alone made you chuckle as you finished off your chores by grabbing extra blankets from the hall closet. Glancing outside, the sun began to dip and droplets of rain were already spattering against the windows. With a sigh, you grabbed your coat and began the walk over to the cell.

There were very few people out on the streets and you had a feeling Gabriel and Michonne had spread the news that public enemy number one would be lead out on his leash tonight. Walking by the Grimes’ house, Judith looked at you through the window. You sent her a wink and she grinned back, giving you a thumbs up.

You often wondered where her constant optimism came from because it definitely didn’t come from being raised by Rick or by her biological father. Shane was never one to see the glass as half full for as long as you knew him. However, now that you were thinking about it, Lori did have that little spark deep down...very deep down. Perhaps Judith Grimes was one of a kind after all.

Pulling the keys from your belt, you shuffled down the steps and unlocked the large door. Stepping inside the cold room, you were surprised to be met with silence. You stepped closer to the bars and then you understood why.

Negan was fast asleep.

You took a moment to watch the sleeping man. There was something so innocent about the way a person slept. It was like a reset button for a night and right now he didn’t look like the monster Alexandria and others feared, he was just a man trying to get some rest in a screwed-up world. Rest that you felt bad about interrupting.

Pulling the right key, you inserted it into the cell door and pushed it open. Negan remained asleep as you crept forward. Leaning down, you gently shook his shoulder, trying to wake him. Negan’s eyes flew open and his hand tightly gripped the arm that was resting on him. “Ow,” you grunted at the pressure, trying to pull your hand back.

“What’s going on?” He muttered, blinking in the darkness.

“I’ll tell you if you let me go,” you hissed. Negan finally focused on you, his brows furrowed.

“(Y/N)?” he asked.

“Negan, hand,” you reminded him.

“Oh, right,” he said, releasing you from his grip. You stepped back, rubbing at the skin that was sure to be bruised later. He slowly sat up and glanced at the open cell door before looking back at you. “What? Has the Queen of Alexandria finally agreed to a public execution?” he asked bitterly.

With a roll of your eyes, you reached over and grabbed the thick jacket Gabriel had gotten for him a few weeks ago. You threw it at him.

“There’s a massive storm rolling through and Eugene thinks it’ll flood some areas. You’re staying with me until it passes. No more than two days,” you explained, crossing your arms. Negan was silent as his fingers played with the thick material of his jacket.

“Why?” he asked.

“Why what?” you asked, exasperated.

“Why would anyone care if I succumbed to the elements?” he asked with narrowed eyes.

“You don’t want to come? That’s fine. I don’t mind being alone,” you said with a challenge in your eyes. Negan quickly stood, shaking his head.

“No, no, a warm house sounds very nice,” he quickly said. “I’m a great house guest.”

“Right,” you said, still feeling the awkwardness that remained between the two of you from your last conversation. Negan shrugged on the jacket and then you walked to him, producing a pair of cuffs.

“Seriously?” he asked, staring at the chains with disdain.

“Either this or learn to swim,” you said, dangling the cuffs. Negan huffed but offered you his wrists anyway. You quickly fastened them and then took hold of his arm. “Come on, it’s already started to rain.

Negan followed you out of the cell, hesitating on the threshold for a moment. You squeezed his arm briefly and he kept walking. The two of you pushed out into the damp air and you let go of him for a second to close up the room tightly, trying to reduce the amount of water damage that was sure to come.

Turning back to Negan, his attention wasn’t on you, but on the overcast sky. His head was tilted back as he breathed in the night air. A look of content was on his face and you almost thought he was smiling slightly. It was then that you realized this was the first time he had been outside in...you didn’t know how long.

Taking his arm again, you pulled him away from his thoughts and tugged him after you. Negan kept pace with you as you began the walk home. The streets were completely empty now, but it didn’t stop Negan from looking around with those curious eyes of his.

You didn’t know what compelled you to do it, but you easily slowed your pace, letting the walk take twice as long as usual. Looking up at Negan who was completely focused on Alexandria, you let yourself feel a bit sorry for the man. Obviously, Michonne had her reasons for keeping him locked up. You knew them and so did Negan, but you thought that perhaps he should be let out a bit more often.

Michonne had asked you to start visiting him because she thought all the isolation was bad for him, but she also didn’t realize that it wasn’t just being alone that wasn’t good for him. He needed to be out and even if it was starting to pour, you were going to let him have this moment.

Sliding your arm off of his, you let him wander ahead of you a bit, keeping him close, but not so much him being a dog being lead on a leash. He took the paths with grass on them and ran his hands down light posts and across fences. It was like watching someone rediscover the world and it made you oddly happy.

“This way, genius,” you called when he began walking down another street. He quickly walked to your side with a grin on his face. “What?”

“I just never imagined you’d be taking me home so soon,” he joked and you rolled your eyes.

“Well, I didn’t think you would enjoy spending the night in the stables,” you explained, kicking at a loose stone on the road.

“And Michonne and Gabe probably told you that I needed a babysitter.”

“That too,” you agreed. You finished the walk in silence. There were moments when you had to steer Negan in the right direction, but overall, you let him walk on his own without a guard. Arriving at your house, you pulled him up the steps, ignoring Rosita who was glaring at him through her window. Negan didn’t seem to notice or if he did, he didn’t say anything.

“Home sweet home, huh?” Negan said as he stepped into your house. The fire was already burning as your pulled of your jacket and lay it across a chair near the flames. Negan was looking around at the warm room when you walked to him and grabbed his wrists, the key to the cuffs in your hand. “Really?” he asked, surprised.

“Did you expect me to keep them on?” you asked, removing the cuffs.

“Kind of, yeah,” he admitted.

“Well, this is not the cell, it’s my house. My house, my rules, and I say that nobody needs to wear handcuffs. So, here you go. Two days of whatever you want. The kitchen is stocked, there’s decently hot water, and the spare bedroom is the final door on the left. However, you touch my weapons and I will put the cuffs back on, deal?” Negan stared at you for a second before nodding.

“Yeah, no problem,” he said and you gave him an awkward thumbs up before leaving him be in your living room. Walking into your kitchen, you wished for whiskey, another small thing you missed from the old world.

“This is going to be a long two days.”

TAGS: @thanossexual @yes-sir-hotchner @boom-bunny @delusionalteenagewhispers @sophia-gwendolyn @ritajammer21

#walkerwords #savior sessions #twd fanfiction #twd #twd imagines #negan x reader #negan imagines #The Walking Dead #reader insert

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purplehairedwonder · 4 years ago

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Hearts With(out) Chains Chapter 15

Fandom: One Piece Rating: PG-13 Pairings: Gen (eventual Lawlu) Words: 4,006 Characters: Trafalgar Law, Bepo, Shachi, Penguin, Ikkaku, Jean Bart, Clione, Monkey D. Luffy Notes: I’m taking my turn at the Corazon!Law AU because my brain won’t leave me alone until this is written down. Tags will be updated as the chapters come out.

Summary: Law is reclaimed by the Family when he's 17 and, with Doflamingo holding the lives of his crew as collateral for his good behavior, eventually becomes the third Corazon. Years later, trapped by his impossible situation, Law finds a strange connection to Monkey D. Luffy, which offers a glimpse of something he's repeatedly had ripped away from him: hope.

Previous chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

Read also at AO3 / FF.N

Bepo started when the door at the top of the dungeon stairs banged open and was followed by an ugly thumping sound that made his ears twitch. After a moment, he placed the sound as that of a body being dragged down the stairs. His eyes widened in alarm. Had one of the others been caught?

Or—

“What—” Penguin started from the cell next to Bepo, but he fell silent just as Bepo’s stomach dropped.

A familiar pair of spotted jeans was dragged past Bepo’s cell door and into the cell across from his and next to Shachi’s. The dungeon was dimly lit by torches, and even Bepo’s mink vision couldn’t make out much as Trebol and Diamante dragged a limp form into the cell. There was a rattling of shackles before the two executives exited the cell with some choice words for the prisoner before slamming the door shut. They thumped up the stairs, and, a few moments later, the door banged shut. The dungeon was quiet once again.

Bepo could hear a light rustling coming from the newly occupied cell, so he called hesitantly, “Captain?”

“Bepo,” Law’s familiar voice rasped out after a painfully long moment.

Bepo swallowed, relief at war with worry in his chest. The last he’d heard from Law was two days earlier when he’d called in from his mission with a warning that Vergo had followed him. The crew had gone into high alert, but there had been no further news from their captain. They’d all heard he’d returned to Dressrosa earlier today—and Bepo had been admittedly disappointed Law hadn’t immediately come to see them, though he had been relieved to find the note Law had left on his desk—but all the Hearts had known was that Law was in some kind of trouble, which, by extension, put them in danger. They’d expected to find out what was going on when Law came to see them after dinner, but that was before…

Bepo swallowed, cutting off his own thought and turning his attention back to Law.

“Are you okay, Captain?” he asked. If Law was being forcibly dragged into the dungeon, he must have been overcome by Trebol and Diamante—and was now undoubtedly shackled with Seastone, considering the danger his Fruit posed.

“I’m…” Law started but trailed off as though he didn’t quite know how to respond. After a moment, Bepo heard him clear his throat before asking, “What happened?”

“Shouldn’t we be asking you that, Captain?”

“Penguin,” Law breathed worriedly. “Who else is in here?”

“Me.”

“Shachi. Anyone else?”

“We were the only ones captured,” Bepo said.

A brief hesitation then, “Where is everyone else?”

“Escaped,” Shachi said.

Law let out a relieved breath as Bepo belatedly realized Law had probably taken his words to mean the others had been killed. He tamped down on the urge to apologize, instead rubbing his face through his paws in embarrassment, glad none of his lesser mink friends could see him in the dimness.

“What’s going on, Law?” Penguin pressed. “We haven’t heard from you since you called Bepo, and then we’re being thrown in the dungeon.”

Law’s cell was silent for several moments, and Bepo wished he could make out more than the outline of Law’s shape across from him. Finally, Law said, “I’ll tell you everything. Just… First, I need to know. What happened here?”

He sounded more tired than Bepo had heard him in a long time, and it was that, more than anything, that caused Bepo to take pity on his best friend. “After reading your note, I got word to the others to meet up after dinner,” he explained. “We were gathering in the common area when…” Bepo swallowed.

“Pica and Machvise showed up,” Penguin picked up as Bepo faltered. Law cursed quietly. “They said Doflamingo wanted to see us.”

“After your call, we knew something was up,” Shachi added. “Other executives don’t just come to our wing of the palace.”

“So, we told them his royal featherness could come to us,” Penguin said, the smirk evident in his voice.

“They didn’t like that,” Shachi added.

“Idiots,” Law said, fond despite himself.

“They attacked then,” Bepo said, remembering the uncanny feeling of the world shaking as Pica had merged with the walls. It had reminded him of Zunesha’s daily showers for the briefest of moments before it had turned into a horror show. “Penguin, Shachi, and I tried to hold them off while the others got away.”

“Jean Bart wanted to stay behind,” Shachi said. “But we told him to take the others and get out.”

“We fought them off as long as we could,” Bepo said quietly, grimacing as he shifted. Even with his fortified mink body, he was still sporting bruises and probably some cracked ribs. Shachi and Penguin weren’t any better, fragile humans that they were.

They’d fought with everything they had—which was quite a bit, since, as the crew of Doflamingo’s second, there were high expectations of their capabilities—but none of them were Devil Fruit users, so they’d been taken down eventually. Neither Pica nor Machvise had been particularly gentle with their capture and imprisonment.

Bepo still hoped they’d done their captain proud.

“They must have all gotten out because we haven’t seen anyone but you,” Penguin said. “Hopefully, they’ve gone to ground.”

Doflamingo had eyes all over the city, but the Hearts had been in Dressrosa long enough to know it like the back of their own hands—or paws—in their own right; they’d made connections and were owed favors they could now call in.

“Good.”

“So, are you going to tell us what happened out there?” Shachi asked when it was clear Law wasn’t going to say anything else.

“Okay,” Law said at length. His shackles clanked as he shifted, and he let out a breath. “Doflamingo sent me to Punk Hazard to take out some intruders. It should have been a quick in and out.”

Bepo remembered meeting Law at the palace gates before he’d left, Law deflecting their attempts at joining him by claiming the mission was easy—the type he’d done countless times before with no complication. Briefly, Bepo felt a wave of frustration flow under his skin; if Law had taken them with him on this mission, maybe whatever had happened with Vergo wouldn’t have. They could have helped.

But that surge was as gone as quickly as it had arrived. What good did it do to worry about the past now? Plus, Law was opening up to them again, something he hadn’t done in two years.

“What went wrong?” Shachi asked quietly.

Law snorted, a hollow sound that made Bepo’s hackles raise. “Everything.”

“Captain?” Bepo prompted when Law fell silent once more. Law got like this sometimes, stuck in his own head as he turned his thoughts over endlessly, creating a spiral it sometimes took days to pull him from.

“There were two groups of intruders,” Law finally said. “Smoker was leading a group of hapless Marines from G-5.”

“And the other group?” Penguin asked. They all knew a group of Marines, even led by a vice admiral like Smoker, shouldn’t pose much of a threat to Law.

“Straw Hat-ya and his merry band of misfits.”

Bepo’s eyes widened. The Straw Hats were active again? And Law had been sent to kill the very person he’d risked everything to save two years earlier?

Of course he had. That was absolutely something Doflamingo would revel in. Law had taken a major risk by defying Doflamingo when he’d saved Straw Hat Luffy, and Shachi had lost his arm in the aftermath, causing Law to shut down completely in his guilt. Doflamingo would love pushing Law to see how he’d react to such an order after everything he and the Hearts had sacrificed in the wake of Marineford. The idea of rendering those sacrifices moot would amuse the bastard to no end. And to erase the living reminder of Law’s rebellion would only further cement his hold over his second.

If Law had gone through with it, Bepo could only wonder at what version of his friend would have returned from Punk Hazard.

“Captain,” Bepo said, nearly whining in a show of sympathy. He wished he could see his friend’s face, could offer more than just words of comfort.

With a heavy exhale, Law told them about fighting but losing when Smoker and the Straw Hats joined forces and being taken captive by the Straw Hats. Something warmed in Bepo’s chest as Law haltingly, disbelievingly, described Luffy’s unwavering determination that Law was a good person for no other reason than he felt it.

Something Law hadn’t understood had pushed him to save the boy that day—something Bepo, as a mink, considered a sign from the Earth herself, though he knew Law, man of science that he was, didn’t agree—and perhaps Luffy was similarly driven toward their captain. Bepo knew what it felt like to be drawn to Law, so nothing about the situation surprised him.

There were things even science couldn’t explain, after all.

That warmth in Bepo’s chest turned cold as Law described Vergo’s arrival on the Straw Hats’ ship with a fake accusation of Law’s treachery. So, that was what Law had meant by Vergo turning on him.

“What?!” Penguin demanded as Law continued speaking about the Straw Hats, clearly unable to believe what he’d just heard.

Law sighed and repeated himself. “We agreed to work together.”

“Like an alliance?” Shachi asked, tone rising slightly in disbelief. Bepo couldn’t blame him; Law didn’t typically play well with others, especially in his position as Corazon.

“I suppose,” Law allowed. Bepo knew by the tone of his voice that, had his hands been free, Law would have scrubbed a hand over his face—a frustrated gesture Bepo had seen countless times over the years. “I didn’t have much choice in the moment but to accept the help.”

“But Captain,” Bepo interrupted, “that’s great!”

After Law had saved Straw Hat Luffy for no other reason than a feeling, Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin had done some digging into the Straw Hat pirates and been astonished by the string of miracles they’d left in their wake, from Alabasta to Enies Lobby. If there was anyone the Hearts could want on their side in a confrontation with Doflamingo, it was a crew like that.

“Great?” Penguin echoed.

“It means we aren’t alone,” Bepo said, hope rising in his chest.

After Law had called with his warning about Vergo, Bepo couldn’t help but run the worst-case scenarios over and over in his mind, with Law not returning from his mission at the forefront. But when his captain had returned, those scenarios had turned into the crew facing Doflamingo’s wrath alone, perhaps even being forced to hurt and kill one another. Those scenarios had not seemed far-fetched once Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin had been locked in irons and thrown into separate cells in the dungeon. And when Law himself had arrived as a captive…

Well, having allies seemed a lot better than the alternative.

“What happened with Vergo?” Shachi asked, interrupting Bepo’s reverie.

“He’s dead,” Law said flatly.

“Good,” Bepo said without thinking.

“Bepo?”

Bepo pulled at his snout, a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry.”

Penguin snorted. “No, you’re not.”

Bepo blushed. “No, I’m not. It’s good that he’s dead,” he said firmly.

“He was a bastard,” Shachi agreed.

“Fuck that guy,” Penguin added.

Law huffed tiredly. It was small, but Bepo had heard enough of Law’s laughs over the years to know it was genuine. “Right. But he was always Doffy’s favorite.”

“Ah hell,” Shachi muttered.

“Exactly. And Doffy has more spies than just Vergo in the Marines, so at some point today he heard that Vergo was dead and Caesar-ya and Monet were arrested.”

“And that’s when…” Penguin said, trailing off as if he lacked an adequate way to refer to everything happening now.

Law grunted in response.

“Where are the Straw Hats now?” Bepo asked after a moment. Would it be possible for their free crewmates to find their allies and get their help?

“They should be on the Tang,” Law said, his tone implying that where the Straw Hats should be was not necessarily the same as where they actually were. “Waiting for me to check in.” (The irony, of course, was that Law currently wasn’t where he was supposed to be, though Bepo doubted his friend would appreciate him mentioning it, so he just suppressed a laugh.)

“Which you obviously can’t do from the dungeon,” Shachi noted.

“Indeed.”

-----

Ikkaku glanced at Jean Bart and raised a questioning eyebrow.

Jean Bart peered out of the window into the quiet night, clearly looking for any sign of pursuit, before turning back to Ikkaku and Clione. He nodded but put a finger to his lips. The streets might appear quiet, but that did not mean Doflamingo’s spies weren’t still looking for them. Ikkaku and Clione nodded.

Ikkaku turned back toward the storage room, where their hosts were watching them. Mateo, the shopkeeper, and his wife, Isabella, stood in the doorway. She approached them.

“We’ll be leaving now,” Ikkaku whispered, voice only loud enough to carry to them. “Thank you for hiding us.”

“Gladly, Miss Ikkaku. We are forever in your debt,” Mateo replied, voice equally quiet. The citizens of Dressrosa knew full well some walls had ears, after all.

After they’d fled the palace—Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin stupidly (bravely) staying behind to give them a chance—the Hearts had split into smaller groups before going to ground. When considering where to take cover, Ikkaku had decided to call in a favor owed to her by Mateo and Isabella, the owners of a textile shop.

Three years earlier, Ikkaku, who had been on a routine patrol around the city with Iruka, had found their toddler son, Alexander, wandering around the streets, lost and crying. Apparently, there had been a break-in at their shop, and his parents had been seriously injured. The boy had run off during the attack in fear. Ikkaku and Iruka had managed to make enough sense of the boy’s sob-stricken words to wind their way back to the shop, where they found his parents. Using medical care they’d learned from Law, they were able to stabilize them before summoning proper medics, who took them to the hospital.

Meanwhile, they’d gathered the Hearts to investigate, asking questions around the city until they found out who had attacked the shop and bringing them to justice—or Dressrosa’s version of justice, anyway; all three attackers would face the colosseum. Ikkaku had visited Mateo and Isabella in the hospital to tell them the news, and they had claimed they were in Ikkaku and her crew’s debt. Though Ikkaku had waved the debt off then, she took advantage of it now.

She, Jean Bart, and Clione had hid in their storeroom until night had fallen. Once the store closed, they gladly accepted food from Isabella and waited, plotting their next move. They’d decided that in the early hours of the morning, they would head for the Polar Tang when the watch was likely to be paying the least amount of attention. On the Tang, they could wait for the others and figure out what to do now that they were apparently wanted by the king.

That was something else they needed to figure out—what had happened with Law’s mission to cause this? Why were the Hearts—and presumably their captain—public enemy number one?

One problem at a time, Ikkaku reminded herself.

“Stay safe,” she told the shopkeepers.

“We have no worries,” Isabella replied. “After all, we haven’t seen any criminals tonight.” She turned back to the storeroom and grabbed some dark cloth. “Cloaks,” she said, offering them to Ikkaku.

Ikkaku gratefully accepted the proffered items—they’d been wearing light-colored clothing when they’d fled—and saluted before turning back to her crewmates. “Let’s go.”

The trio donned the cloaks then carefully exited the shop and, staying in the shadows, made for the harbor. Jean Bart took point, leaving Ikkaku and Clione in his shadow. As they moved through the quiet streets, the city’s clock rang out two o’clock. The bars would be closing, so they would need to keep an eye out for late-night patrons who might recognize them. There would also be parties going on for hours more in some areas of the city, but they avoided the more populous parts of the city.

As they approached the harbor entrance, Jean Bart paused, raising a hand in warning. Ikkaku and Clione came to a halt just behind him. The larger man nodded toward the watchtower. There was a single light in the small room at the top, meaning there was at least one guard watching over the harbor, as expected.

Ikkaku pointed to herself. She was the smallest so would be the quietest. Clione raised an eyebrow—Are you sure?—and Ikkaku nodded. Jean Bart and Clione stepped aside, and Ikkaku slid past them. She hadn’t been a fighter when she joined Law’s crew, but she was a quick study, and in the intervening years, she liked to think she’d picked up enough to hold her own against any of the others—except her captain, not that she’d admit it to his face. They hadn’t had a chance to grab any weapons when they’d fled from Pica and Machvise back at the palace, but Ikkaku didn’t need her staff to take on some low-level harbor guards.

Light on her feet, she soundlessly climbed the stairs that rounded the watchtower before coming to a stop just outside the door. It was cracked open, and inside, she could see two figures sitting at a table. They seemed to be playing cards. Assessing the situation quickly, Ikkaku knocked on the door then pressed her back against the wall and melted back into the shadows. A moment later, the door opened all the way and a head stuck out of the doorway.

“Hello?” the guard asked, looking around in confusion.

Ikkaku inched further back into the darkness, and the guard stepped out into the night. Ikkaku knocked lightly against the wall behind her, drawing the guard’s attention in her direction, though he couldn’t see her.

“Who’s there?”

The guard stepped toward the noise, and once he was out of sight of the doorway, Ikkaku struck—an elbow to the solar plexus had the man doubled over before he knew what hit him. She swept a foot at his ankles, knocking him off balance, then struck him in the back of the head twice more, once with her elbow and once with her balled hands. He went down in a heap, never making a sound other than a surprised gasp at the first strike.

Ikkaku then turned and rounded the tower, coming to a stop on the other side of the doorway, fading back into the darkness as she waited for the other guard to appear.

“Jax?” the other guard called, stepping out of the doorway after several moments. “What the hell?” he yelped when he saw his fallen friend. He hurried over to the other guard’s side and knelt next to him.

Ikkaku crept up behind him and took him out with two quick blows as he checked his companion’s vitals. She then pulled the limp forms into the watchtower (fine, she could have used Jean Bart or Clione for this part) and shoved them in the small closet, blocking the door handle with a chair.

Satisfied, Ikkaku headed back down the stairs to her crewmates.

“Well?” Clione asked quietly as she sauntered up.

Ikkaku put a hand to her breast. “I’m wounded you’d even ask me that.”

Clione snorted, and Jean Bart shook his head fondly before leading them toward the Polar Tang. Jean Bart kept an eye out as Ikkaku and Clione boarded the Tang before following them up the ladder and across the deck.

“Wait,” Jean Bart said as Clione reached for the door handle.

“What?” Clione asked.

“It sounds like someone is inside.”

“Doflamingo’s?” Clione asked, tensing.

“Or nakama?” Ikkaku suggested. Though there hadn’t been time to set a rendezvous point when they’d run, it would make sense for the crew to meet at the ship.

But the Family would know that as well.

“Only one way to find out,” Jean Bart said, sliding past Clione to take point once more. He opened the door lightly and moved inside with a quietness that belied his size. Clione nodded for Ikkaku to go next, and he followed her inside, lightly shutting the door behind them.

Now that they were inside, Ikkaku could hear the unfamiliar sounds—footsteps, metal clanking, voices she didn’t recognize. Definitely not nakama then. Ikkaku swallowed. Dressrosans, even criminals, would know better than to mess with Corazon’s ship, so it had to be the Family.

“Should we get out?” Clione asked quietly, clearly thinking the same thing.

Ikkaku shook her head. “The Tang is ours,” she said fiercely, a rush of anger flooding through her at the thought. The Tang had brought her from her old, shitty life to the Hearts. It wasn’t a perfect life, but it was hers—the people in it were hers—and that was what mattered. “We can’t let them have her too.”

Jean Bart and Clione nodded in response; they understood exactly how she felt.

“So, what do we do?” Clione whispered.

“The noises seem to be coming from the mess,” Jean Bart replied, considering.

The mess had two doors, plus access to the kitchen, and the kitchen had a separate door of its own. That was three doors for three pirates.

“Split up?” she asked. “One of us for each door?”

“Is that a good idea?” Clione replied, looking between her and Jean Bart. Depending on which Family members were in there, spreading their fighting power out might be a big mistake. But at the same time…

“If we leave any doors uncovered, someone could get out and report our location back to the palace,” Jean Bart said. “Ikkaku’s right. We need to block all the exits.”

Clione chewed on his lip for a moment before nodding. “We can’t go in unarmed, though.”

Ikkaku nodded. Taking out two harbor guards barehanded one thing; fighting Donquixote Pirates was another. “Training room?”

Clione nodded. “I’ll go.”’

He disappeared back into the hallways toward the small training room that should have some weapons in storage. The Hearts usually took their favored weapons with them when they returned from missions, but they had additional arms on the ship. Ikkaku and Jean Bart waited, keeping an ear on the voices they didn’t recognize coming from the heart of their ship. The longer she waited, the angrier Ikkaku got at the invasion of her home—of her namaka’s home.

Clione eventually returned, a blade in hand. He handed a set of brass knuckles to Jean Bart and a bo staff to Ikkaku. Ikkaku immediately felt better, more able to defend the Tang, with the familiar weight of the staff in her hands.

“I’ll take the kitchen,” Clione murmured.

“I’ll take the back mess door,” Ikkaku said.

Jean Bart nodded. That left the front mess door for him. “I’ll give you five minutes to get into place. Then we go in together.”

Clione and Ikkaku nodded and turned in opposite directions, heading for their respective doors. Ikkaku found her place by the back door within three minutes, leaving two minutes to wait for Jean Bart’s signal. She could feel her heartrate speeding up as she thought about the impending fight. She took a few calming breaths. This was her home. This was her nakama’s home. She would fight for her home and her nakama.

She was in the middle of a steady exhale when the door in front of her slammed open. She yelped in surprise.

“Sanji, more mea— Huh?”

Ikkaku gaped as she came face to face with Straw Hat Luffy.

#Oh look an update #Trafalgar Law #Heart Pirates #One Piece fanfiction #One Piece fanfic #Caitlin's fic

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kellachfromthewoods · 3 years ago

Text

Devil's Advocate

Among those in the Resistance who'd captured enemies, especially in the Southern Sagolii and the Peaks, there was a tongue-in-cheek saying: "I'll play Diabolos' Rogues here and say we massacre their entire family for no reason."

Einrich didn't exactly care about the reputation his unit of ambushers. Unlike the Resistance, he knew the men and women under his care would be ready to do whatever was necessary to end the Garlean menace once and for all.

The only thing he cared about is that they'd been branded criminals for it.

The strategist did not take it personally - After all, they had to keep up appearances. The Resistance sought to win their lands back and eventually negotiate the Garlean surrender. The Diabolos' Rogues, as they called the unit, would put every Garlean citizen to the sword, with Einrich preparing an even worse fate for Garlean purebloods.

None of this was clearer than when the Diabolos' Rogues got wind of a provincial visit by a small-time noble's family. Barely anyone of note in Garlemald, but their daughter had enlisted and they wanted to see her.

None of them would see Garlemald again - Not that they would have, considering its current state, but that does not matter. It's how they met their end that mattered.

At first, the rogues weren't even seen as on the level of the Corpse Brigade when it came to nefarious acts, but after this operation, anyone in the Resistance who could bring the Diabolos' Rogues to justice would be commended.

The noble wanted to see if their daughter was doing well leading a bunch of savages into battle, and brought over their family so they could see their sister. Based out of Castrum Abania, their daughter patrolled the area in the southwest for rebel activity with a small detachment of troops, nothing major. They'd maneuver to the southwest, investigate, and then move back to the Castrum. This was the safest assignment for what was essentially a favored patrol group due to their leader's lineage.

Not to say they were not efficient, but that day, they had been read like a book. They marched with the exemplary discipline of the Garlean Army, until the troops fell into a spike pit dug by the Diabolos' Rogues, sparing the leader. Being surrounded, their leader sought to rescue as much as possible before whoever set this trap came around, but she saw firsthand the cruelty of this set-up. Garlean grunt fabrics stood no chance against gravity and spikes forged with the craftsmanship of pure vengeance.

Brought to her knees by her assailants after killing a few while defending herself, she saw a man with a plague mask order the group to dump barrels of something into the pit, and only when she started smelling the charred flesh of her comrades did she understand what that was. Even if some of her troops were still alive, after this bonfire, they would not be. Still, were they dumb? This would alert the Castrum! Perhaps she could be saved even if her fellow soldiers were dead.

That would not come to pass. The leader vanished alongside the ambushers, and she soon found herself tied up in a cave. It could be any of the mountainous caves - They didn't call this the Peaks for nothing.

The plague masked man was there as well. She immediately tried to make out any fixture other than his stupid plague mask. Before the day was done, she would see him dead.

Einrich, however, had other ideas.

"I want to state the following - no matter what happens here, you will die. There is no scenario where you can bargain for your life." The plague mask said.

"I will not talk. Not on my honor."

"Not that you have any, but as you wish. Remain silent then."

Einrich spoke to another person in the unit, and they left. He adjusted his gauntlets and the white glow they gave out soon turned a sickly green, a color most sinister.

The other person the plague masked man was talking to came back with three prisoners and just with their attires the leader knew exactly who they were. Her father, her mother, and her little brother. Why were they even here? They were safe in Garlemald! Why did they come here?

"Ahem.

To my dearest daughter,

We will be visiting in a few weeks to see how the army life is treating you. Hopefully you'll have crushed these rebels by then, especially with our emperor's son Zenos at the helm! Peterius has missed having you around, and I'm sure seeing you will cheer him up."

She'd never gotten that letter. It somehow had been intercepted before it made its way to her. The hope in her eyes was replaced with sheer horror as both father, mother and brother recognized their daughter, both in the same predicament.

"W-we'll get out of here, right Mecilia?" said the youngest.

"We have to." was her only answer.

Einrich interrupted the two camps.

"Allow me to repeat for those of you who were not here the first time around. No matter what happens here, you will die. You cannot bargain for your life. However, I will ask some questions and your answers will determine the order and method of executions."

"The Empire will never let your resistance get away with this!" the father yelled, amidst crying among his wife and son. Einrich's implacable plague mask simply turned towards the father, looked at him longly, and tapped his knee. The Au Ra man staring at them, and what seemed to be a Lalafellin woman approached him. The Au Ra man kept him standing while the Lalafellin woman took a massive swing right on the knee tapped by the plague mask. Crying out in agony, the noble was left crumpled on the floor.

"Interruptions aside, let's start the questions."

The plague mask asked for simple information which, if he was able to intercept a personal letter in the Castrum, he should already know. Of course, Mecilia forbade herself from answering. This simply made the plague masked man turn from her and go towards her younger brother. His gloves sprayed a mist on him, and immediately his skin started melting slowly, his nerves burning as the child cried out in sheer agony from the damp cave air interacting with his stripped flesh and the incredibly sensitive skin nerves being slowly eaten.

"No! What did you do to my brother!?"

"An experimental mixture of Gobbue phlegm and Bavarois remains. As I have said, your answers will determine the order and method of executions. This was an easy question to answer as you are of a certain rank within the Castrum, so you should have access to the head count. As you figured you could lie to me without consequences, I figured you could stand to see your brother digested in front of your very eyes."

A spoken being was melting before his very eyes and not only had he caused it, he had no sympathy for a child! A mere child! He had nothing to do with this war!

"You... monsters! Savages!" the noble's wife could only thrash about, her bonds far too secure for her to do much of anything.

The Lalafell rebel went to strike the wife, but Einrich put his hand up to stop her.

"Her being correct in this case won't change the outcome. Next question." Einrich moved behind the captured Garlean leader. "Assuming where I am standing is the center of the camp, and each of your family members are the warehouses, which of these contains your Ceruleum deposits?"

Thinking, maybe she could at least save her family, or buy them some time. Even if she told the truth, as ruthless and inhuman as these monsters were, they surely could not do anything about their Ceruleum deposits, right? She decided to tell the truth. Of course, her family had no way of knowing which answer was correct, but the behavior of her captor was a good indication.

"Very well. Do we need anything else?" He addressed his two accomplices. They shook their heads.

"All right, start with her. Throat, make sure the parents watch. The mist should finish with the child sooner than later, and then sell the parents to the Qiqirn of the ziggurat as a show of goodwill. We have a war to fund after all."

Days later, the Resistance soon found a locket belonging to the family while defending from a cannibalistic Qiqirn attack and following an investigation with a member of the so-called "Diabolos' Rogues" warning the Resistance about what had happened.

This horrific tale only helped the Resistance keep the high road as no one wanted to be compared to this sort of atrocity.

#ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2021 #einrich woods #cw: gore #cw: child death

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onebadwinter · 4 years ago

Photo

Name: Erik Magnus Lehnsherr

Meaning of Name: Erik: 'eternal ruler', Magnus: ‘great’, Lehnsherr: ‘feudal lord’

Nickname/Alias(s): Magneto, Max Eisenhardt (”Real Name”, Contestable), The Master of Magnetism, Prisoner #214782, The Creator, White Pilgrim, Erik the Red, Michael Xavier, Grey King, White King, The Devil, Auschwitz I.D. #24005(retcon from #214782), King Erik Magnus, The Leader,Magnus, Master (by Toad), Merciless Magneto, Miraculous Magneto, Mr. Sullivan, Phantom Saboteur, "Red,”, Henryk Gurzsky,

Age: Appearing in 30s-40s (Biologically: 92 or so, De-aged at two points)

Birthday/Place/Time: November 28, Nuremberg/Germany, 1928-30ish.

Species/Nationality: Mutant, German, Genoshan, Krakoan

Accent: Yes

Language spoken:

German, Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish,

Powers:

Magnetism Manipulation

Electromagnetism Manipulation

Metal Manipulation

Organic Manipulation

Light Manipulation

Immortality

Reality Warping

Matter Manipulation

Energy Manipulation

Psionics

Gravity Manipulation

Gadget Usage

Peak Human Intelligence/Enhanced

Invulnerability(Depending on variables)

Leadership Intuition

Longevity

Peak Human Stamina/Enhanced

Peak Human Strength/Enhanced

Enhanced Unarmed Combat

Indomitable Will

Elemental Manipulation

Wormhole Creation

Social Magnetism

Psychic Immunity (Partial, Resistance but not complete immunity)

Invisibility

Weaknesses/Illness/Allergies: Physical Condition: Magneto's ability to wield his superhuman powers effectively is dependent upon his physical condition. When severely injured, his body is unable to withstand the strain of manipulating magnetic energy. When his powers are not at their peak, he also appears to have greater difficulty utilizing his magnetism for great feats. He is also susceptible to physical and mental fatigue that can ultimately affect his ability to adequately use his powers, especially if he overuses or extends them in a short amount of time. Magnetic abilities affect his nervous system, Plagued by paranoia and possibly a subconscious realization that he doesn’t deserve to be victorious, PTSD, A need to have superiority over humans combined with his need to have no harm done to mutants,

Pet: He ain’t got time for pets...Nightcrawler.

Occupation(s): Adventurer, Mutant rights activist; Former would-be conqueror, Sovereign ruler of Genosha, Teacher of the New Mutants, Headmaster of Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Terrorist, Secret agent, Nazi-hunter, Volunteer hospital orderly, Carpenter, and other odd jobs, Geneticist,

Faceclaim: Michael Fassbender

Description: Black/Brown hair (Silver if your feeling extra spicy), Blue/Grey eyes. Has several’s scars. At least two of them are puncture wounds on his stomach. There’s a band around the entirety of his throat from once being decapitated by laser beams.

Outfit/Accessories/Jewelry: Helmet, Armour, Utility belt, Coin,

Height: 6′2″

Weight: 127

Body Build: Lean/Toned

Backstory/Background:

Past

Born into a middle class Jewish family, Erik was the second and youngest child of Jakob and Edie Lehnsherr. He had an older sister who was named Ruth. Born in Germany with the rise of the Nazi's extremism, Erik's family kept mostly to themselves to avoid the scornful eyes of their fellow German brother en. Erik had spent the first years of his life living in a world of constant turmoil and speculation of what horror was to come next as the Nazi party continued to grow more and more extreme as the years had gone by. By the time Erik had gotten into school there were Nazi rally's almost everywhere he went. As well as beatings of Jewish and Romani's people, and anyone else who did not fit under the Nazi umbrella of what was, or what was not acceptable to them. Erik mostly kept to himself however. As a young boy however he was prone to mischievous boyish behavior.

One day while attending school he met a young girl his age. Who he had immediately developed a crush on. Maybe even had fallen in love with her right then in their, if not for the fact that he did not entirely know what that kind of love truly was, yet. Erik learned her name, Magda. He then spent much of his time trying to impress the Romani girl. Who just so happened to be the daughter of the janitor that worked at their school, as well. Erik would make jewelry for Magda and gift them to her, in attempts to woo her. He had also entered himself into sports to gain Magda's attentions. Though one day after school Erik had happened upon yet another rally when he came to see that his Uncle, Enrich had been being beaten and tagged with a sign for shaming a German Woman in some way. Afraid to do anything Erik had decided to look the other way and flee from the scene.

Trying to look passed what he had witnessed Erik continued with school, and trying to win the affections of Magda. This all would lead to the day where he would enter himself into a javelin throwing competition for her attentions. Where he would win a medal for winning. However, he was not allowed to enjoy this win as he was accused of cheating. As well his Jewish heritage was brought up and how it was not right that a Jewish boy do better than his none-Jewish classmates. Erik was then demanded to return his medal for cheating, or to try throwing the javelin again. Erik took on the task a second time, refusing to return his medal. Again, he won the throw and again he was accused of cheating. Following this Erik had been expelled from school and beaten by his fellow classmates, while still accused of cheating, despite the second javelin being 'regulation'.

After this incident Erik had no where else to be so he spent much of his time wandering and learning other skills. Though his father, seeing that Erik had needed some where to be decided one day to bring his son along on a trip to meet a man he had once saved in World War I. That man's name was Major Scharf. While the two waited for Sharf to let them in his office, a troupe of Nazi's came by and beat Erik's father in front of him, accusing the pair of making trouble. By the time Scharf had finally let Jakob and Erik into his office, hours later, Scharf was unwelcoming and the meeting did not last very long. Scharf said he had re-payed his debt to Jakob for being there, and saved his life. Before kicking the two out of his office and sending them on their way, no more harm done. Not long after this things began growing worse in Germany. Jakob had taught his children to always fight back as he knew how bad things were going to become.

With his fathers words in his mind, Erik also took them to heart. But soon the family had to flee from Germany to Poland. Where they took refuge in a Warsaw ghetto, after the events of Reighskriskallnacht. Though it was not long after they got to Warsaw that Poland too was being invaded by Nazi soldiers. During his time in Poland, Erik picked up on smuggling skills in order to attained foods and other supplies for his family. In due time however the Warsaw ghetto was starting to be emptied as residents were removed and taken to the Treblinka Experimentation Camp, in the year 1942, of July. Jakob gathered his family up yet again and they fled from the Warsaw ghetto before they could also be taken to the camp. However, this attempt to escape did not last long and soon Erik and his family were betrayed and subsequently captured by the Nazi's. Erik's uncle and his uncles family were soon gunned down in front of him trying to make an escape.

Though it was not only his uncle Enrich's family that had been struck by the bullets. His sister Ruth had taken one to the back, ultimately being struck in the stomach and bled out as him and his mother and father were being dragged away from the scene. Erik often would wake up in the night hearing his mothers pain's screams and the memory reaching out for his sisters lifeless body. The family had been sent to Auschwitz.

Once the remaining three family members had arrived at Auschwitz, Erik was separated from his mother and father by soldiers. Erik struggled to break free of them, this is where his powers had at first showed some manifestation as the bars on the gates that separate him from his parents had bent to his will. But this did not stop the soldiers from taking Erik to his assigned camp. There Erik had become a teenager and spent his early teenage years in the Vernichtungslager Experimentation Camp. This is where he had first met the man called Mister Sinister and a geneticist by the name of Josef Mengele. He would also find out that the two had been conducting horrible experiments in the camp. In order to escape becoming one of their guinea pigs Erik bid to become a Sonderkommando to avoid being operated on by the two, since he did not trust either of them or their intentions. As a Sonderkommando Erik was forced to remove the bodies of victims that were in the gas chambers.

Unable to at this point in time, to use his power. Due to the fact that he had contracted a brief sickness with hepatitis at this time, along with his puberty being delayed because of his life up till this point in time had delayed the overall manifestation of his powers. However, despite this trying time, Erik is soon reunited with Magda. Who had also been captured and taken to the camp. After reuniting with her Erik again tries to win her affections, often in smuggling foods and other goods for her. As well, he saves her from the gas chambers and other execution attempts on her. But one day he is asked to go to the office of Sebastian Shaw. Where he see's his mother had also been brought. In that room Shaw demands for Erik to move the coin on his desk. As it would seem, word of the solders had spread of a boy who could bend metal. That boy being Erik, Shaw had come to find out. As Shaw again demands for Erik to move the coin, he shoots Edie in front of Erik.

In his rage Erik for another brief moment manages to tap into his powers, destroying things and taking the coin from Shaw’s desk. Shaw then has Erik returned to Auschwitz. There Erik reunites once more with his father and tells him of Edie's death. Saddened by the news of what happened to his wife on top of his sons inhuman abilities, Jakob promises his son he would get him out of there. Some time passed after this, and Erik and Jakob continue on trying to survive inside the camps. However, the pair are assigned to be executed by firing squad. Being lead to their death Jakob remained silent but close to his young son. Erik didn't notice this as he had been petrified of what he believed was going to happen during this time. He had been preparing to die while Jakob was looking for a way to save his life. Once lined up Jakob saw what he needed to do. As the guns were being aimed and loaded, Erik began to panic, feeling his breaths escaping him and shorting with each passing second. Then the shots rang out.

Everything had been dark for a long time. Laying along the bodies of the dead, with his fathers blood and corpse over him, Erik in time woke up in a mass grave, staring up at the face of his deceased father. He had been saved he quickly realizes. Dragging himself from the bodies of the dead and out of the blood, decaying matter filled pit, Erik sets to motion to finally escape that hell. As well, he was determined to take Magda with him. After leaving the grave he sneaked around the camp, until finally coming to where Magda was being kept. What he was vaguely aware of was that at that very same time, Auschwitz was being liberated. These two events would fall in line together as he and Magda escaped from the camp, avoiding being caught by either factions of soldiers. After their escape Magda and Erik make their way to a group of Romani people where Erik uses the name 'Magnus'. In time the pair eventually get married and some time after have a daughter, Anya.

For a while their lives are a happy one. Erik has taken up up career in carpentry, which is simple and he thinks will cause little or no attention to be brought to him and his family. As well, to further provide for his growing family Erik takes on the odd job here and there. Things are good. The small family soon moved into a home of their own and were living peacefully. That was until one day while Erik was walking home he had been attacked by a group of people. Out of instinct, defending himself Erik lashed out toward his attackers and his powers which had been dormant up to that point woke from their dormancy, killing his attackers. Those who had survived or witnessed the incident had later gone to attack his home and set it on fire. With Anya inside. Erik returned to see the fire raging and hearing Anya's screaming he, without a second though, ran into the burning home in an attempt to save his daughter, but had been unsuccessful. As she had been burned to death by the time he could reach her.

Holding the burned body of his daughter Erik, yet again lost control over himself and in his rage over Anya's death had again activated his powers and killed the surrounding members of the mob that had formed around his home. At this time Magda had by then returned home to the horror of both the death of their daughter and the slaughter of people by her husband. Horrified further by witnessing the latter part Magda fled from the place she once called home with her family and never seen Erik again. After Magda left she gave birth two twins and was soon committed to an asylum where she had later died.

Following this incident Erik had moved to the States where he started a new life under a new name and took on a job some time after that in Israel in a psychiatric hospital. This is where he would meet who would later become his best friend, the man named Charles Xavier. Here they would begin their years long friendship one another as they conducted research and played games of chess with one another. This would as well lead to the both having insightful conversations between one another about mutation and mankind. When one day a patient by the name of Gabrielle Haller was attacked and the two had to use their powers to attempt to save her, Charles and Erik discovered that their ideals were not quite exactly the same as they had originally believed them to be. However, Erik chose to remain with Charles and the pair worked on getting a team together, a team that would later be known as the X-Men. This would lead to other events in the downfall of Erik and Charles relationship.

Erik would become more and more aggressive after finding out about Sebastian Shaw’s involvements with things they were also involved in. Which would in turn lead Erik more and more astray from Charles. Erik had gone so far as to risk his own life trying to get revenge on Shaw for what Shaw had done to him in the past. Despite Charles attempts to sway Erik from his revenge Erik ignore the other and, taking the coin from so long ago send it through Shaw’s brain. Ultimately, finally, moving the coin. However, Charles had been connected to Shaw at this point in time, and felt and seen everything Erik did to Shaw. Even Shaw's death. It is also after this incident where they are attacked by missiles and other gun fire. In defense Erik accidentally misdirects a bullet meant for him, into Charles' spine as Charles is trying to run behind him, to,..uh,....somewhere... Where the fuck he was going? No one knows. But he sure as fuck didn't get there. Ultimately this would lead to the original time Charles is paralyzed.

After realizing what he's done, a guilt stricken Erik runs to try and help his friend, removing the bullet from their spine though it does very little to help the outcome overall. Erik then decides that he's done enough for one movie and decides to dip. He needs a break from all this hardship. Maybe killing a president will bring him some happiness. Who knows. Anyway, Charles and Beast fuck off for a bit and do whatever in gods name it is they do with each other. Erik is off probably killing a president. Who knows! Never really confirmed. But he was framed guys, he swears! Anyway, somehow he is captured and locked in a plastic cell. First of it's kind, come one, come all. See the man in the plastic bubble hidden under the pentagon for CRIMES. Because he's a crime man now. Anyway, Charles has had enough of this nonsense and decides to break his boyfriend out of prison because it's important. Logan says so. Charles wants his his brat back though, convince me otherwise. So the smart thing to do is recruit Quicksilver.

So they recruit Peter. Nothing bad will happen with that. Because it's the best thing that could have ever happened! Erik has no idea however that Peter is his son. Since everyone decides not to tell him. Even Peter, who believes he's the one that should. Learning that the current Logan they are dealing with is from the future Erik decides, yeah, he will help prevent Mystique from killing Trask. He does this by pulling a gun on her and trying to kill her as she gets in his sights. The two then have a little bit of a skirmish. Which looks pretty bad because it only serves to bring him and Charles father apart, further shoving a wedge in their friendship. On top of all the other things Erik had accidentally done to Charles, like paralyzing him. Oh, and the murders, supposed murders....-Points, nods-, Plus the Shaw thing. It's amazing Charles still likes his Brat this much, honestly. But Charles still in this shit to win this shit, he's getting his brat bitch one way or another. Dead or alive. Preferably in a cell.

However Erik's main focus, despite seemingly wanting to repair his friendship with Charles, is to stop Raven from further fucking up. But as he again attempts to kill Mystique he is stopped by Beast. Escaping from Beast after a moment Erik flees and soon takes control over the Sentinel prototypes that could potentially come to be the threat of the future, if future Logan is to believed that is. Erik Takes control of the prototype and uses it against the other only to have this plan foiled when Mystique knocks his ass the fuck out on live television. Significantly calming down all in all Erik corrects his behavior enough to help Charles and the rest later on when recruiting more mutants with Charles. Both coming to find Jean Grey, a young girl with extremely powerful abilities that had awakened and been causing difficulties. After a visit to her and her parents home the two help in teaching Jean to control her abilities. Charles of course being the one that actually does anything productive here. Of course. Jean would later go on to become on of the first X-Men of the Xavier Institute.

Though the moment of peace did not last between the two and Erik again decided to branch out from Charles, believing their ideals to be too different from one another. Erik proceeds to go on and join the CIA and hunt down Nazi's in the meantime. But when he learns that the CIA had been murdering mutants, after he had been befriending those they would find. After this incident Erik would disappear for some time only to later reappear once more, this time under the name of Magneto. At this point he has recruited Mystique along with several other mutants into his newly formed Brotherhood of Mutants. After he reappears he and his Brotherhood attack the Cape Citadel but are stopped by the now fully fledged out X-Men. Thus starting of the rivalry between him and the X-Men for the next several decades to come. Because why not. Along with Mystique, The Brotherhood also included Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, which had still not been revealed to be his children yet. Peter was still sitting on that knowledge. So it still one big secret!

One of The Brotherhoods demands were that mutants get equal rights. This eventually got the attention of Charles. Bald, Shiny head, Charles. Erik's bestest of friends. Because no way was Erik just acting up to get Charles's attention. So, now that he had it it wasn't long before the Brotherhood were defeated as the X-Men #HandledIt. This would follow many more fights with X-Men and The Avengers, and an array of other groups no one really cares about. Fuck you specifically The Fantastic Four and Defenders. Charles helped, his brain go brrr...Erik, eventually getting bored with all of that however when and just made himself an entirely new mutant entity called Alpha the Ultimate Mutant. Because why not just make people, right? Who is going to stop him? Erik creates this thing and it just betrays him and turns him and The Brotherhood members into infants. Charles then takes Erik into his care, for a minute. Only Erik, fuck the other baby's. He only wants the Erik baby. Charles then decides to abandon the de-aged Erik off at his ex's house for a couple of months.

Moira MacTaggert then raised Erik for a while. Anyway. Eventually Erik grows back up into his prime again. With the help of a Shi'Ar named Eric The Red. He had also retained his memories from the incident with Alpha and infancy. Which left him over all changed by the experience and made him decide to change his ways. Though it did not ultimately remove his desire to rage against the human race, either. Soon he was again battling against the X-Men before again disappearing because he just doesn't like humans at all, I guess. The X-Men won't let him kill them all, it's really just very rude of them. But soon enough the X-Men find him again and arrest him. As they are taking him into custody however Wolverine goes all Wolverine on him and stabs Erik, badly injuring him. Which allows Erik time to flee from the X-Men yet again. Again left to plan a way to get revenge on the X-Men.

His next plans however did not go exactly as he had wished for them to go. After healing from his wounds by Wolverine he again attacks the X-Men and in this exchange he nearly kills the fourteen year old, Kitty Pryde. Upon realizing what he's done he realizes his extremist behavior and that he had never intended to murder children. This shocked some sense into him. As Erik had never wanted blood just to gain freedom for Mutant kind. AT least, not the blood of a child. He did not sign up for child murder. After this incident Erik renounces his terrorist ways. With this renouncing he dedicates his time to reflect on his past deeds and locate Magda. However, he comes to find that she had died, sometime after giving birth to a pair of twins. Erik, still lost on what to do returns to The Brotherhood to take back up leadership with them and perhaps lead them to be less of a chaotic force. Peter and Wanda accepted them as the leader and continued to run with The Brotherhood, but overall did not care for him in any other aspect. As he had been abusive to them.

Though in time they did come to forgive him and accept him. The closer the three got. Though still they never told him about his being their father. Erik would then leave to go join the X-men, after some persuasion by Charles to do so. Though not long after joining them, Charles is grievously injured in a battle and Magneto has to take over leadership of the School for him. Erik was not welcomed warmly by the older Mutants in the school and had difficulty for some time being accepted. But, in time, he too was part of the team and proved to be a good teacher for the students at the school. Wolverine even grew to trust him. In time he was even willing to be tried for his crimes in France. Though during this trial was interrupted by an attack before it could be concluded. Following this battle, one of Erik's old creations, The Asteroid M Base, lost a piece of it that came hurtling down to earth. Erik went to the side of the crash and destroyed the part that had landed. Only to be be confronted by The Avengers.

They accused him of doing something devious with the piece that had fallen to earth. Erik had attempted to explain himself but The Avengers attacked him. The situation only had been made worse when the X-Men showed up to help him. Which made even worse still when the Soviet Super Soldiers also joined in on the situation. As The soldiers were seeking to arrest Erik causing a volcano eruption in Russia in a prior incident. This information had caused the X-Men to also turn on Erik. Which all of this going on had driven Erik slightly over the edge as he looked toward the wreckage of the fragment where he spotted his old helmet, a taste of temptation to revert to his old ways striking him in this moment as his fate was argued over. In a bit of instability Erik suggested that he use the helmets mind control mechanics to brainwash the world to forget the things he had done in the past. Though Captain America had told him when he asked about it that it wasn't ethical, and would be taking away people's freedoms.

So, instead, Erik decides to surrender to The Avengers instead. Seeing what Steve had meant in the end. Then, Erik went to trial. Where his judge had proven to be bigoted toward Mutants. Using the helmet on the judge Erik changes his judges mind about mutants. After this Magneto proceeds to destroy his helmet and is then found innocent of his past crimes. He was a free man once more. He was going to try and be a source for good now...Or you would like to think. This is not possible though. Erik can never be happy. Remember that. It'll save you a lot of troubles in the future. So anyway shit happens. More attacks. Mutants are killed. Mutants are Hunted, Erik is getting madder and madder about it. Months pass since his trial. In his time as trying to be a good man, Magneto grows attached to one of his students by the code name Cypher, whom has become his star pupil. This boy, however, is eventually also murdered and Erik feels guilty for not being able to protect him. This is one final straw. In his sadness over Cypher's murder his stability yet again begins to show cracks in it.

Despite all these events going on and mutants being murdered, the X-Men go to Australia and Erik cuts ties with them. Reverting in part to his old ways of hating humans once more. He takes the New Mutants with him to join the Hellfire Club. Wishing to protect them from also being killed. However, the New Mutants have also abandon Erik, no longer feeling loyal to him. Erik, Feeling betrayed by the X-Men and New Mutants on top of abandoned, leaves. He starts to yet again hate humans for what they have done and views his experience with the New Mutants and X-Men as a failure. Erik moves back to Asteroid M and goes into isolation in the end, for some time. Before being approached by another group of mutants. Which was lead by Fabian Cortez, called The Acolytes. Sought Erik out to make him their new leader. Erik, thinking that there might be something to them decides that he will make the base into a save haven for Mutants. With this he decides to try and make better defenses for the base.

However this involved resurfacing a submarine with missiles on it that he sunk years before that had been forgotten, or so it seemed. The X-Men become aware of what Erik is doing and attack the base, which was far out of their jurisdiction, but whatever. We need a story line. Rogue attempted to have the two sides be peaceful. But Erik, too far gone by that point attacked Rogue, stubbing whatever chance for peace they had. In time Fabian also betrays Erik while the X-Men continue their assault on Asteroid M. Injured and defeated Erik flees to his back op station called Avalon. Only becoming more bitter toward the X-Men after this incident. Not too long after the X-Men also find Avalon and attack it, too. Because Erik cannot have anything nice! Not even peace to stew in his bitterness. Though during these attacks Erik had been holding back as he did not want to hurt his former ally's. With his inability to completely wipe the floor with his former ally's Erik hesitated and is again attacked by Wolverine.

Wovlerine again tries to impale Erik, who retaliated by ripping Logan's Adamantium out of his body. All of it. Nearly killing Wolverine, but he got him to stop at least. But because of this situation, Charles shows up, now completely angered by what Erik has done, he invades Erik's mind and incapacitates him completely. Then, Charles puts Erik in a catatonic state, trapping him in his own mind. This action however turns Colossus gainst the X-Men, deciding to help Erik and fled with the other from Avalon, returning again to Asteroid M. Erik is set upon his throne back at the base where he sits as Colossuss does whatever Colossus does at this point. Erik sits upon that throne for who knows how long, completely catatonic and served only by the remaining Acolytes. Though things do change when Age Of Apocalypse starts. Someone named Holocaust soon entered the base with full intent to destroy it. Erik had been defenseless while this was happening, until Colossus managed to rescue him and take him back to earth.

On earth Erik still remains in his catatonic state, unable to communicate. After a time another mutant approaches him called Astra. She restores his memories as well as steals his DNA in order to create the clone of him, named Joseph. Once she had gotten Erik's DNA she had intended to kill Erik. However, her plans are put off when Joseph decides to to go out of control and cause enough of a distraction that the now, more or less mobile Erik, can move enough to escape from Astra and Joseph. In the months that followed Erik spent his time regaining control over his body and breaking free of any remaining effects of his catatonic state, seemingly so. While he is regaining autonomy, Joseph takes on Erik's identity and disguises himself as Magneto, then Joseph also becomes and ally to the X-Men. Erik meanwhile, near the end of these several months pretends to be an average human and comes in contact with a man he uses to decided the fate of human kind. The man does not pass Erik's test.

After the failed test Erik goes to the north pole and threatens to use magnetism to change the magnetic fields if he doesn't get his demands met. Though, again, as is always the case, the X-Men show up and defeat him. But in this attack on him Joseph is killed. Which solves that problem. As well, Erik's demands are met and he is given an entire Island to rule over for mutant-kind. This island is called Genosha. While Mutants and Humans are having a civil war with one another. Erik is transforming his island into a mutant safe haven. Priorities, man. He recruits his son and daughters to help him create his Utopian island as well. But Erik just cannot leave well enough alone. So he abducts Charles Xavier to show his friend what all he has done for Genosha and mutant kind. And just like clock work, the X-Men show up again to take Charles back as the play date is now ever. Wolverine also manages to again impal Erik. Seriously injured, Erik is left to tend to his wounds and the X-Men leave with Charles.

Healing after being stabbed again Erik spends the next few weeks not causing any trouble what so ever. As he is spending most of his time helping the mutants of Genosha, instead. Though, Erik can never be happy, or at peace. A Giant Sentinel soon attacks Genosha, which is being controlled by someone named Cassandra Nova. Erik is apparently one of the first to die as the building he was in is hit by a ship that looks like a fist. Following this the city is mostly destroyed and most of the mutants living there are murdered. The X-Men come to see what has happened, finding the destruction and death. While they searched the ruins they had found a video of Erik made moments before he seemed to have died. However, jokes on you, Erik's not dead. But someone's pretending to be him for a bit. By the time Charles finds out that the real Erik is in fact not the person they believed to be Erik, and is still alive on Genosha he goes to visit the other. There he wished to find out what Erik had planned to do next, now that he was the most hated man on earth due to mistaken identity.

Even though he was not at fault for any of what he was hated for at this time, the accusation had upset and angered Erik, greatly. But instead of exacting some kind of revenge or trying to redeem himself, Erik decides instead to find any survivors of Genosha. Charles joins him in this task and the two reignite their tattered friendship once more over the course of this time together. During this time Erik again rejects his violent ways. Though this peace does not last for long as Wanda had come to have a nervous breakdown, where she attacked and killed many of The Avengers. Erik left the island to go retrieve her and bring her back to be protected in Genosha, and attempt to help her. Once she is brought to the island Charles helps by keeping her unconscious while they figure out the best way to help her. Though The Avengers and others demand that Erik release her to them so she could face judgment. Erik refuses to release her and ultimately the Island is attacked once more. Before they could retrieve Wanda, however, a flash changed everything.

By the time they all woke up again they were in a new world. One that seemed to be ruled by Mutants and humankind had been in a state of decline. As well, it seemed that Erik had sovereignty over the world. With his head base being Genosha, the now superpower of the world of Mutants. In this new reality mutants mistreat humans instead of the other way around. Mutants in this reality wait for the day humans go completely extinct. However, Wolverine and a young girl by the name Layla Miller are aware things aren't quite right. So they set out to restore the memories of everyone else. Soon attacking the Genosha Headquarters with those they restore the memory of. Where it is quickly discovered that it's not Erik who was ruler, but Peter. Peter had manipulated Wanda into having a breakdown, and then convinced her to change reality. After this reveal Wanda again remakes the world, changing reality yet again.

With the change she makes it so that mutants do not exist, for the most part. That includes her own fathers powers being removed. But most of the rest of the world returns completely back to normal. After things are changed back Erik spends the next several months aimlessly walking the earth before finally he contacts Charles. Only for them to then be attacked by Erik's former Acolytes who tried to kill Charles and now ignore Erik for not having his powers. The two are captured by the Acolytes but eventually break free of them and stop them from capturing them again. With this latest incident Charles and Erik decided to separate again. Erik again goes back to wandering before he comes in contact with High Evolutionary, which returns Erik's powers to him. Only discovering this fact after he attacks the X-Men...again...But it doesn't last too long. And with Erik being one of very few mutants left that have their powers after M-Day, Caused by Wanda, Erik has a decision to make. Return to his old way, or Join the X-Men.

Joining the X-Men Erik goes to their home base. Charles is not happy to see Erik turn up and tells him to go away. But Scott decides to give Erik the change and in the end tells Charles to go away since Charles is being really suspicious of Erik. Which of course, why wouldn't he be. Oh, and Charles also telepathically attacks Erik. So Erik stays and tries to make up for the wrongs of his past, often lamenting of the Mutant future. Scott assures him that they have Mutant Jesus and that they can do anything apparently as long as they have Hope Summers on their side. They can move mountains bro. As Erik is trying to find ways to make life better on the base he realizes that he had to bring Kitty Pryde back, as she has been trapped by the High Evolutionary ever since she made contact with it. After he succeeds in getting her back however, he succumbs to a coma. Where he is placed in Hanks care for that time being. During his coma things continue to happen.

Things that eventually lead to Hope Summers leaving the island base the X-Men call home now. But then being brought back by the dying Nightcrawler some time later. After this Nimrod Sentinels attack the island where a comatose Erik has begun to wake up. Helping Hank to protect the other patients as he did not want to abandon them, Erik eventually moves on to hel protect the entirety of Utopia, which is the name of the Island base. After doing so he gives a speech which endears him to the many young mutants inhabiting the island. After these events there is some downtime before yet again, another situation comes up where Erik learns from Dr. Nemesis about one of his old Nazi tormentors making waves, again. Which Erik then brings up to Wolverine as he asks Logan to take the X-Force and handle the Nazi. Logan decides to do this mission solely on his own and succeeds, of course. While that is going on Scott has Erik and the others of the Execution team that Erik is a part of make a public appearance.

During this appearance the group is attacked by the Hellfire Club, where each member of the team is taken down by a strange form of technology each specifically engineered for hurting the exact mutant that it was aimed at. Erik had ended up being shot by a miniaturized neutron star. Then the Hellfire Club, taking advantage of the incapacitated heroes set slugs upon them to keep them all unconscious. Thankfully Idie, whoever that is turns up and saves the day, killing all of the Hellfire Club. Erik is then placed on a team not long after that involves Storm, it's not important. We just really love Storm. And you should know she was there. Though Erik has also come to a conclusion to leave Peter out of things because of what Peter did to Wanda in the past, that caused her breakdown and all that followed it. He's grounded, essentially, for...um...forever. So anyway, Joseph returns. But it's a NEW Joseph, and he starts killing people and The Avengers get BIG mad about it and go back on thier bullshit.

But because Erik is clearly smarter than pretty much everyone, he realize, hey. That's not me. I'm me, and tells everyone what's really going on. Which circles us back to Astra who has been free this entire time? Despite what she's done? That's just okay with everyone? Stealing DNA from a defenseless man, AND plotting to kill that man? So, anyway, Erik kicks her ass, BEGONE THOT! Joseph gets imprisoned. Erik, does not live happily ever after, but thank god that's over. Then Captain America shows up because he's bored, there's not been enough drama for him lately. Erik and him have a chat. Everyone hates each other now. But they need drama, guys! The fans are gonna leave! So some unimportant fighting breaks out because why not. Erik tries to help both sides but then Hope goes missing and needs to be found. Phoenix bestows powers on some X-Men. Look. A lot of shit happens okay. Scott his arrested. Erik Breaks him out. They all go wrong from the X-Men. The Phoenix Force Breaks the rogue teams powers. They gotta save the mutant Gene it don't work no more. There's no mutant babies. Fix it.

Erik decides to fix it by fuc- So anyway, Erik joins SHEILD for a hot minute. He then plays double agent. Scot gets pissy. How dare, how dare. Erik goes "Ey man it's nothing personal. I was doing it for you guys" Then he fucks off to go build another school in Charles name, a new Xavier Institute. Because everyone's getting a school these days...Then he steals some of Jean Grey's students, he calls is recruiting. Potato/Potatoes. He fights Dormammu and his demons. His side wins. Scott's big mad because Erik was being pretty sketch to him, I guess? But they work it out with a big boy chat, it's all good. Erik helps some new mutants with their powers. Then they gotta save some douche named Fabio from SHEILD where Maria Hill goes "Come talk to me in private." But then she won't share much else and tells him to meet someone who is named Dazzler instead. Dazzler got them deets yo. Erik goes back to the X-Men Hideout, watches some pro-mutant stuff. Arrives fashionably late to a Blockbuster Sentinel fight--Whatever! WE DON'T CARE!

Dazzler is Raven, that's all you need to know. It's Mystique! Anyway, Raven and Erik go to Madripoor and fuck around and find out for ab it. It's a new safe haven for Mutants and the drug Kick is there, which we found out about during the whole Xorn thing. I did. You didn't. I didn't tell you about it. It's a thing. But it's not important. This is the last time it will be brought up. You're welcome. Anyway! Raven, get to the point. She's getting the old gang back together. The OG squad. Sabertooth, Toad, Glob, others....What the fuck is going on. Who knows. Because Erik has a crisis and he's gotta dip. So he leaves after attacking them all and knocking over a skyscraper in his rage. Then he fucks off for a bit with no one hearing from him for some time. Erik needed some me time and WE can forgive him FOR that.

Erik shows back up though when Red Skull starts using a now DEAD Charles Xaviers brain for his nefarious deeds. Because Erik ain't gonna be havin' none of that now. So he sets out to avenge Charles. Red Skull has also decided, in his infinant wisdom to just go ahead and make some Concentration camps again and starts locking mutants up in them. And what better place to do this on, than...the island of GENOSHA! Erik is not happy, as you can assume. So Erik and the X-Men go to beat Red Skulls ass, and the X-Men get their shit handed to them. Which leaves it all up to Erik in the end. Who beats the ever loving shit out of Red Skull, I guess. Then he takes his island back and starts another group of villains. Because Erik is unstable, remember that. AND he doesn't need to make sane decisions. Fuck Mystique trying to reform the OG gang, Erik does whatever Erik wants to do.

Even if that means being so CHANGEABLE! That's how he defeats Red Skull though, ultimately. Just throw some villains at the man. Good play, sir. Good play. Soon enough the remaining superheroes get enough strength to help out here, too and they manage to defeat Red Skull for good. Or at least till Marvel gets bored again and brings him back. Now back in complete control over Genosha again, Erik tries to live in peace. But how many damn times do I gotta tell you. This man does not deserve happiness. OR to know any peace. Or that's what one should expect from now on. Because the peace does not last. As the universe just starts to ...do stuff. Mmmhm. You read that right. Universal Incursion, baby! The Multiverse starts unraveling even as attempts to stop it are implemented. Even Erik's efforts to stop it does nothing for it. Nothing will ever be the same guys. Ever again.

During this trying time the Secret Wars happens. Erik becomes leaders of the X-men for a bit. There's a cure they need for Terrigen Mist. Healers are wanted, but not appreciated enough. Something about The Dark Riders, which, ugh. We honestly, don't care. Don't have time to get into that. Erik didn't even bother, he sleep. But hey, someones probably controlling them. So let someone else deal with it for a change. Damn. During ALL this crazy shit however Erik and Rogue hook up, you know, totally over that one time he fucking attacked her when she was trying to be nice. They fuck. Have a son, Erik names that son Charles. Who is still dead by the way. Sad. Apocalypse comes back and starts raising more hell. Apocalypse also thinks it's a good idea to just kill Wanda off. Then he proceeds to capture Erik and Charles. Approaching Erik with a proposal, follow him, or he kills the boy. Erik, takes the offer in his rage, as well as prior traumas in losing his family members being a source of manipulating him.

Thus Erik becomes one of Apocalypses Horsemen. Apocalypse unlocks Erik's true potential, which grants Erik the ability to move earths core. While Apocalypse mind fucks Erik, Charles Xavier is brought back to life and finds out what's going on with Erik and Apocalypse. Charles attempts to reach Erik who believes that his son, Charles, is dead, and that he is alone again at this point time. Charles tries to convince Erik otherwise but ultimately fails to bring Erik to reasoning and turn against Apocalypse. Erik being to lost in his grief and overcome by his rage once more refuses to believe in anything Charles has to say, claiming it's all too late for them. Erik believes Apocalypse is the only way to get revenge for all that had been done to him, against the humans. Later, as Erik is attempting to finally destroy the earth, he is momentarily stopped by Peter, as Wanda had been dead at this time.

Peter tries talk Erik out of destroying earth. Confronting Erik on several things, trying to convince Erik that he isn't alone. That he has family he can still protect. A confused Erik grows frustrated with Peter, and just before Erik is about to attack and Peter hesitates, he blurts out that he is Erik's son, and Wanda is Erik's daughter. The twins he heard about all those years ago, it had been them all along. They had been adopted by the Maximoff family as infants when their mother, Magda had become too unstable to care for them. At this revelation, Erik stops his attack on earth, and turns his power against Apocalypse. Then, Apocalypse is finally defeated, for now. His loyalist are also tracked down and taken care of as well. While Erik and the X-Men are fighting with Apocalypse, Rogue manages to make it to where Charles, their son, is being held captive and rescues the boy from his prison. Which also results in humanity being saved from a bomb, I guess. After this incident Erik is globally named a hero.

As most believe it was him that saved them from the bomb, Erik, knowing full well it wasn't, accepts this claim anyway. Since he has no idea who it was, yet. A year later Erik has created the Bureau for Mutant Affairs to capture those still alive and loyal to Apocalypse. He also comes to figure out it was in fact, Jean Grey who is the one that saved humanity from the bomb. Erik keeps it a secret though since he likes the attention it brings him, as well as Jeans a bit...well...She's a bit sus. And she becomes even more sus when she shows up with the Sinister Six. They reveal what actually happened a year ago. Erik happens to be able to free Jean from her hold by Sinister’s power after this and then Erik straight up KILLS Sinister. Though because he lied he is later imprisoned. Since, hahah....WE arrest liars, I guess. Erik spends much of his time in prison doing fuck all in his plastic cell. That is until Weapon X kills him and becomes the New Apocalypse.

Some time passes before Erik is revived to help with a fight and again starts up his relationship with Rogue once more. They have another son together, Magnus. Who has inherited both Rogue and Erik's powers. And seems like one day he will eventually be better at them than his parents. Because that's how genetics fucking work. So, anyway, Magnus grows up. Nothing bad happens for a while. I know. Shocker. Then one day he just straight up disappears for a bit. Only for his burned corpse to be returned with a letter talking about how he was a hero, in some other dimension. He is given a proper funeral by his parents who for the most part ain't got shit to say about it. As they can't travel through time and space, now can they. Though it is still quite devastating, as you can imagine, for Erik, as well as Rogue. After this Erik's grief and anger builds up and soon he reforms The Brotherhood again, with a new team, and is working with villains now. Which in time leads him into attempting to kill Reed Richards, but The Avengers stop him.

Grief stricken and angered still, Erik continues to act up and during one of these incidents he is directly to blame for the accidental death of Hawkeye. Who is then avenged when Mockingjay kills Erik in kind. Erik again remains dead for quite some time before his remains are stolen and used to create a new mutant with combining his body with several other mutants. This new mutants name would be known as Brother Mutant. Who had possessed Erik's powers, along side all of those whose other bodies he had absorbed into his own. Eventually however, Brother Mutant was defeated by a team created by Wolverine and everyone was split apart once more, as well, Erik was once again alive but bound to a wheel chair after this incident. He was then taken to yet another Concentration Camp that had been built and overseen by Sentinels. Though with Frank Richards help, Erik helped to free the captured mutants. Though sacrificed his own life to make sure the mutants weren't stopped by the Sentinels.

Dead again, Erik remained dead for a long time. Though was, yet again, needed and revived as well as partially de-aged by an unknown person. Erik gets back on his feet, now once more in the prime of his life, he wanders for a while trying to learn more about what was going on while he had been dead, and again hears about the project with Weapon X. At this time it's a little more than familiar. Something he had heard once or twice in his childhood, he had remembered. While investigating he comes to learn that his mother, Edie had been involved with the research and projects for the initial trials of the Weapon X Program. As well as been a supporter of trying to find and 'cure' the mutant gene. He had also learned about what she had done to Erik. Which brought a brief memory back to him of his childhood yet again, one that he had locked away and forgotten do to only being just barely a toddler at the time. But, reading further into his beloved mothers background. He read she had also wished to 'cure' him after finding he had the mutant gene.

All of thus heart breaking news did not go over well for the unstable Erik. Who could not cope with the idea that his beloved mother had tried to potentially kill him for being a mutant. Erik eventually becomes consumed by his anger and confusion that he has a mental breakdown and starts to revert to something even worse than who he had ever been in the past. Becoming for a time someone more ruthless and sadistic. This results in several attacks on the US government and yet again, crippling Charles when Charles tried to talk Erik down. Though at this situation, Erik showed an opening, reliving the horrible things he had done to Charles in the past, with the first time Charles was paralyze because of him. Taking his moment, Charles attacks Erik and brainwashes him to forget his former life. While giving him new memories and making Erik believe he had lived a normal life. After, Charles leaves Erik in an attempt to let him live a normal life.

However, this is Marvel guys, Erik does not get a happy ending. Erik eventually regains his memories of his former life when The Brotherhood frees him of Charles brainwashing. Which brings all the instability that was yet to be resolved before. Erik again attacks the X-Men in his rage, and takes out Peters kneecaps in the process, since he finds out that Peter is working for those disgusting humans. Gross. Then, yet again, in his madness, Erik decides to again threatened to change earths magnetic fields and gets a machine built to amplify his powers. However, eventually, he is again defeated by the X-Men and imprisoned by SHIELD where he remains for some time. While their, Erik plots to frame his daughter Polaris for a crime and get her imprisoned there as well. During this, another machine is created that will mimic both his powers, and Polaris'. Mystique then comes to visit him and takes on his appearance. She then uses that machine to fool everyone into thinking that she is in fact Erik, by using his powers from the machine.

After a fight with the X-Men Mystique is then arrested and sent to prison which allow, in some way for Erik to escape. Not that he's not off his fucking rocker, he's able to think more clearly. But is still grief stricken by the death of his daughter Wanda, and his mothers evil. Erik eventually also learns of the death of Polaris, too. Which sends him spiraling further into madness. He manages to keep it together long enough however to make his way back to the machine and without much warning, reverses the magnetic poles which also causes a great flood that kills millions of people. Following this incident Erik then proceeds to also kill Charles as well. The X-Men fight him once again, and in the end Scott is able to decapitate Erik with his eye beams.

It is believed that Erik is dead for good, this time. Though when other mutants are brought back to life, so too was Erik. As the X-Men, yet again, needed his help. Significantly chilled the fuck out now, Erik attempts to help. But as everyone else, is unable to prevent the next event from happening. A disease spreads over the world after contact with a space entity. Erik is eventually the only mutant left to defend the remainder of Mankind from the disease that has taken over the rest of the heroes and humans alike. Then one day, Wanda shows up from a different timeline, needing to cut the links between their worlds. While she's there, she reverts time back to before the disease came into contact with anyone, and helps the people of Erik's dimension prevent the disease from reaching earth and so destroying mankind. However, all the good Erik tried to do is also reverted and he is sentenced back to prison.

Present

Though Erik would not stay long in prison as Jean Grey has finally lost complete control over her abilities when she comes into contact with yet another space entity of some sort, by some means. Erik doesn't know how, because he wasn't there when it happened. Jean however has gone mad and started destroying anything in her path however which causes the remaining mutants that she did not kill, the deaths including that of Mystique and Scott. Erik is allowed to go free in order to help. Though his ultimate solution for the problem is to have Jean killed. Which is okay in Beast's book because of Raven's death. Erik finds himself wondering just why no one would just revive her. But doesn't bring the subject up. Overall they managed to defeat Jean and save her.

Following this event Erik tries to again set off on a path for good. Though finds it at times to be a difficult one. Instead he decides to keep with The Brotherhood and make it more of an anti-hero faction, that is not a source for good nor evil at any given time. Following the events of Thanos' snap, Erik does not get snapped. Instead he remains and tries help those that remained. When the avengers also get their shit together, he offers to help them with their time traveling adventures to recover the infinity stones and prevent the snap. Erik then joins everyone at the scene of the fight where he is, as one can imagine, a capable fighter and one of the most powerful people there.

Future

Many years down the line Erik and Charles, have, once again, in their old age, become good friends and spend much of their time together teaching newer generations of mutants how to control their abilities as well as live among humans peacefully. Erik however still suffers from moments of evil despite his attempts to teach otherwise and eventually ends up in yet another plastic cell, where he and Charles will often converse for long periods of time, and play chess. However, as always, there seems to be something sinister lurking around the corner. This peace will not last...

(Work In Progress)

Personality: Magneto personality Stats

Extremism, Prejudiced (Toward humans), Repressed, Traumatized, Unstable, Calculating, Well spoken, Intense, Good intentions, Vengeful, Cultured, Stylish, Irrational, Fanatical, Ruthless, Powermad, Aggressive, Arrogant, Corrupted, Tense, Protective, Verbally Abusive, Defensive, Guilt Stricken, Hopeful, Idealistic, Radical, Complex, Changeable, Opinionated, Unpredictable, Deceptive, Manipulative, Cunning, Temper Mental, Morally Grey, Sophisticated, Precise, Compassionate, Dedicated, Courteous, Elegant, Responsive, Extraordinary, Scholarly, High-minded, Experimental, Emotional, Paternalistic, Sarcastic, Proud, Familial, Misguided, Self-indulgent, Aloof, Cynical, Intolerant, Boisterous, Condemnatory, Vague, Confused,

Quirks/Savvies/Other: Some public schooling, unspecified advanced training in genetic engineering and robotics, Publicly known, Married, Widowed, Ashkenazi jew (Does not practice), Adores everything about tadpoles, Can wield Thor’s Hammer (Did this because Wanda and Peter were killed by Ultron)(Through his powers, he is not worth, Maybe, -smirks-), Had a mental breakdown over a wooden gun, Ripped Apocalypse in half to prove a point, Is stronger than Apocalypse (NO ONES TALKING TO YOU JEAN! CLOUT STEALER. lol), Gives speeches, Was the Physics teacher at Xavier Institute, Is a mass murderer, Once greeted the X-Men with “Welcome, TO DIE!” because he’s a fucking dork, Sometimes refereed to as one of Four gods (Don’t ask, it’s not important, just a fun fact.), Met Captain America and Wolverine as a child, Is a closet fanfiction author with a hundred stories under their belt, Was potentially going to be Charles Xavier’s brother (But Stan Lee changed his mind, we’ll trust him, for now.), Will literally fucking just abandoned all his plans to go help Charles out, Has a tendency of laughing at the most inappropriate times, Got his solo movie stolen from him and it was made into a three part movie series about Jean Grey(And look how THAT turned out overall, lol), Immune to Rogues powers, Can use Cerebro effectively, Uses electromagnetism to induce mental effects, Inhuman reaction time, Expert at hand to hand combat, Loves bands that wear costumes on stage, Doesn’t prefer guns over his powers, But is not unlikely to use them for serving his purposes if need be, Knife fanatic, Detect and read micro expressions, Genius level polyglot, Genius in the field of genetics, He is an Omega level mutant, Wolverine’s afraid of him, Has an island that’s HP Lovecraftian, Is convinced they know the truth about who shot JFK,

Likes: Chess, Being difficult, Fighting the X-Men, Bugging Charles Xavier, Rogue, Wolverine, Being Dramatic, Mystique, His idiot son: Peter, Being the smartest person in the room, Being heroic, Theater, Painting, Milkshakes, Donuts, Video games, Camping, Podcasting, Golf, Javelin throwing, Sports, Puzzles, Birdwatching, Traveling, Oranges, Soup, Hunting, Birdhouses, Rocks, Folklore, Tadpoles, Turtles, Outer space, Engineering,

Dislikes: Wooden guns, X-Men, Wolverine, Charles Xavier, Being wrong, Not being forgiven (Come on guys, it was only a million people he’s killed, at least! Give a guy a break.), Being anti-hero, Sharks, Bowties, Renaissance music,

Fears: Losing his family, Being alone(Outside Isolating himself), Abandonment, Betrayal, Being held captive/against his will, The deaths of his children,

Personality Tests: ENTJ-A/INTJ-A, Enneagram 6/8, Slytherin, Slytherdor, Horned Serpent, Thunderbird/Pukwudgie, Choleric, (Alt:Chaotic)Lawful Good/(Lawful)Neutral Evil,

Other: Sagittarius, Tropes,

Parent(s):

-> Father: Jacob Lehnsherr

-> Mother: Edie Lehnsherr

Sibling(s): Ruth (sister, deceased),

Children: Anya (deceased), Zala Dane (alleged daughter, presumed deceased), Lorna Dane (Polaris), Wanda (Scarlet Witch) and Peter/Pietro (Quicksilver)(Shhh,... Shut up. Just shut the fuck up. You’re not the boss of me. I know what I am doing.), Charles(Son with Rogue), Magnus(Son with Rogue), Plague, Alpha, NIGHTCRAWLER?!, Probably countless more, One specifically that I am NOT going to mention,

Wife: Magda (wife, deceased),

Significant Others: Rogue(Bizarre Love Affair, not serious),

Other Relatives: Erich (uncle, deceased), Joseph (clone), Enrique(Ancestor), William “Billy” Kaplan (Wiccan, alleged grandson), Thomas “Tommy” Shepherd (Speed, alleged grandson), Luna Maximoff (granddaughter),

Starters

Chat’s

Para’s

Face

Stuff

Information

Asks

All

Alternate Universes

Brothers with Charles Xavier AU

AUs

#MagnetoBio #Bios #SemiCanonMagneto #Magneto #Indie Magneto

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writing-yj · 6 years ago

Text

Nightwing x Reader: Mockingbird’s Betrayal (Part Four)

Summary: Dick Grayson and Mockingbird’s last meeting ended in a heated argument, seemingly snapping every connection they ever had. He was Mockingbird’s last light to cling onto, but now, her sanity is left in the dark. After capturing Avia, Mockingbird exposed everything the Justice League and her former team had been hiding from the rookie. It almost instantly turned Avia against them, and the plan was set in motion. Nightwing isn’t prepared to face Mockingbird again, especially not after their last encounter. How much did she change since then?

Word Count: 3156

Warnings: Angst (duh), swearing, fighting, i think some blood mention? But no one dies; I would have killed someone this time, but I wanted to get this out ASAP for y’all. I’ve kept y’all waiting for too long!

A/n: Oh boy. I started this really early, but we’ll have to see if it takes months again.

UPDATE: Lol it did, my bad

Avia stared up at her bedroom ceiling, thinking about everything that went down in the past seven days. Getting captured by you, learning that everything everyone told her was a lie, planning to turn on them like you did.

“Mockingbird is a cursed name.” Avia thought. First you, now her. Your name became hers, and your name brought betrayal.

Every movement made her wince. You knew how to cover up your tracks well; they had no idea they were being tricked. However, Avia didn’t like that you had to rough her up a bit to make it look convincing, and she especially regretted letting you break a rib.

Due to your brief observation lessons, Avia slightly noticed that Batman was keeping a very close eye on her. Avia acted just like she did before, but that was a misstep. At her age, she should be at least traumatized or have nightmares. She should be wary, have some sort of fear or should be avoiding certain things. But none of that happened. It was like you never touched her.

Batman knew this and caught onto it fast. When he wasn’t protecting Gotham, he was constantly trying to figure out your course of action. It didn’t take him long to know Avia was going to join you, but he couldn’t bring her in or detain her just yet. Batman needed to find out when and how it was going to happen, first. Thinking about it so much almost got him punched in the face while fighting criminals.

He would never admit it out loud, but you specifically always had him alert and on his toes. You always left him one step behind, with one puzzle piece missing, not knowing what was going to happen next. More often than not, it infuriated him. At any point in time, you could start attacking the citizens if you couldn’t get to any of the heroes and their “sidekicks”.

On top of that, Batman had no doubts that the reason you turned so violent and angry was because of the wild animal DNA. It changed the color of your eyes for Christ’s sake, nothing else could do that unless you became a witch when no one was looking.

Previously, Justice League members made various suggestions on how to stop you. Imprisonment wasn’t a simple task and any normal prison wouldn’t keep you in for long. Arkham, maybe, but not forever. Keeping you in suspended animation would work, but it was more difficult that it sounded.

But, no matter how permanent the solution was, Batman refused to let them kill you. He immediately shut the idea down. “No. Under no circumstances are we going to kill her.”

“Look, Batman. I don’t want to kill her either, but do you really think she’s going to stop until she’s killed multiple teens? And I have no doubt that she will, at some point, go after Black Canary,” Superman argued, “Mockingbird has already confronted and attacked the team, and even took down Superboy with Kryptonite she stole from your safe. What is stopping her from hacking into it again? What if she finds another way to hack into Mount Justice and the Watchtower? The last thing I want is for her to be dead, but what if that is the only way to stop her? We need to be prepared for the worst.”

Batman refused still, “The only conclusion I can come to as to why she is still in this state is because of her wild animal DNA. The sheer rage has clearly been preventing her body’s trances that control the DNA, judging by how the last trance she had in Mount Justice lasted for two hours. I have gotten it back under control before, and I can do it again. The formula is still in my possession.”

“How the hell are we supposed to inject her with it?” Black Canary asked urgently, “It’s not like we can just knock her out! She knows how to avoid all of us and finding her is nearly impossible.”

Before Batman could respond, Green Arrow spoke up, “Nightwing was really close with her, right?” His observation was correct. The Justice League went silent and he continued, “Maybe Mockingbird will trust him enough to give him the chance to inject her with it?”

Batman agreed; Green Arrow’s idea was sound, and Batman already knew you had visited Nightwing. How else would he have known where Avia was? And he knew the bruise Nightwing got just after you disappeared wasn’t from crime fighting. He didn’t doubt that it was from you, but he had yet to confront Nightwing about it. The real question was why you hit him.

Batman took a moment to ponder, as did the other heroes in the room. It was a plausible idea, and was better than any other plan they attempted to come up with. It would end with you not getting hurt in the process, and would stop you from harming anyone else. There was an actual chance for the plan to be executed successfully.

“That seems to be our only option.” Zatanna said with a forlorn expression. “We will need that formula as soon as possible, Batman.” Her heart was heavy for the whole meeting. You didn’t hold her as close as you did with your original friends, but you still spent a few years on the team with her. Whether you would harm her was questionable.

“This is best best we can do without casualties. We will meet again once I finish the formula.” Batman said, and the meeting was done.

The heroes dispersed soundlessly, all of them with troubled looks on their faces. Dinah, however, looked broken and she moved the slowest. Oliver stayed by her side.

“Look at what I’ve done,” Dinah whimpered, “this is my fault. Everyone was right. I shouldn’t have done this.”

“It’s not entirely your fault, pretty bird,” Oliver used the endearing petname to comfort her. “We’ll get through this. We’ll stop (Y/n) and help her be okay again.”

Dinah shook her head and tears welled up in her eyes. “You know how violent the DNA can get. Avia told us how bad it is now; I’m positive that she isn’t in control anymore,” the first sob escaped. “If we can’t help her regain control of it, someone is going to die. And it might not be her.”

Everything was ripping her apart all at once, and she all but collapsed in Oliver’s arms. They sunk to the floor as she cried and cried. She took you in as her own when you were 12, traumatized and given powers you never wanted in the first place.

You learned to embrace and love your powers under her watchful eye and guidance as her first protege, the daughter she never had. It seemed like saving you and preventing casualties was merely wishful thinking.

You moved your hideout back into the basement of your childhood home. You found a way to make it easier to move all of your tech back and forth, and you had a few duplicates in your other hideout in Minnesota. You observed Avia in the Cave closely, and you also caught on to her behavior. You understood why she messed up--she was only 13 and had hardly any practice--but that made things a lot harder.

You spent half of your nights holding your head in yours hands, sometimes screaming and crying at the mental torture the wild mockingbird DNA was inflicting on you. You knew what was happening, but that consciousness was held back, almost permanently. Almost. The other half of your nights were for planning, preparing, and training. You thought of tons of different obstacles and events you would need to escape, avoid, or fight. You trained until you were sore, studied battle styles until your eyes burned in need of sleep, and you allowed yourself to fall into trances that were far too brief.

Your old team had little to no hope left for you. They held on for so long, but they realized that you were more than likely too far gone to help. They could barely remember the (Y/n) (L/n) they met so long ago. Happy, determined, devoted to the team, inspiring, and a dear friend. Now you were almost completely the exact opposite. They feared you--feared for their lives if they ever came to face you in combat. Many of them were terrified to confront you.

You still didn’t know Artemis wasn’t dead, but she heard about everything. After a certain amount of time, she became numb to everything related to you. Your name fell on deaf ears, both hers and Kaldur’ahm’s. Out of everyone, surprisingly, they had the least amount of hope. They didn’t believe there was anything anyone could do to help you. The only solution they believed in was to capture you and keep you contained, even if it meant suspended animation on the moon. Yes, you were a dear friend, but an even bigger threat to everyone.

Wally was just done. If anyone had anything to say about you, he wouldn’t hear it. He wanted nothing to do with you or the situation as a whole. If Dick even so much as spoke your name, Wally would tell him to stop talking or get out. He didn’t want to hear about the Mockingbird who was broken down to an evil, ruthless individual. He wanted to remember you as the old (Y/n). He wanted to remember your smile, your shenanigans, your kindness, and the hero you used to be.

You stared at the monitor with gritted teeth. After hardly any time, you knew Batman noticed how Avia was acting, too. You chucked a knife across the room with a shout and a curse. The blade pierced the wall, so only the handle was visible. The time window got a hell of a lot smaller, possibly forcing Avia to make her decision sooner than you told her to. It made you angry at her, but more angry at yourself. You should have told her to act the part of a traumatized 13-year-old girl, but you forgot. You originally thought it was common sense, but you knew that wasn’t fair.

“God damn it!” You snapped at no one and started to attach gadgets and weapons to your utility belt and back. You needed to go talk to her, let her know what happened, and ask her to make her choice right then and there. You watched the cameras until you saw her go home, so that became your destination.

But you didn’t see that Arsenal followed her.

You were one with the shadows of Star City, where you spent a great majority of your time being Mockingbird--back when you were good--and when you first became a hero. Dinah and Oliver hadn’t moved in more than a decade, so you knew the address by heart.

In no time at all, you were perched on the roof; a mere few feet away from Avia’s open window. Half a second before you stepped forward, you heard another voice, not Avia’s. Arsenal.

You quirked an eyebrow and got onto your stomach to blend in with the dark roof. You tuned out all other noises and instead focused on their conversation.

“Avia, I can’t take this,” Roy sounded so conflicted. “I haven’t felt this way and I hate it, but I can’t just push you away.”

Oh.

“I-I have feelings- wait, no, I-” he couldn’t find the right words, and you felt sympathetic. You were in a similar situation not too long ago: Being in love with someone you might betray.

Avia shushed him. “Roy...”

He sighed. “I know you don’t feel the same way, I don’t know why I even said it-”

“Shut your mouth and let me talk, redhead!” Avia got his attention and he did what she said. “I have feelings for you, too,”

You cringed hardcore when you heard them kiss. You were convinced that it was an awkward kiss, but that wasn’t what you focused on.

Your eventual protege pulled away from Roy with a small and bittersweet smile. There was a sad and apologetic look in her eyes; it concerned him. She had to tell him. She had to tell Roy about you and what she was going to do--what her reason was for leaving.

“Avia, what’s wrong?” Roy asked, completely out of character. “Did you change your mind? Am I not good enough?”

She looked even more sad after his questions. “No. You’re more than good enough, and I haven’t changed my mind... But you’ll change yours.”

Your eyes narrowed on something you saw in the distance. Way in the distance. You touched an almost invisible button on the side of your mask and used it to zoom in drastically. After many attempts, you focused on the approaching figure. Then you almost broke your mask.

Batman. And he was headed your way. He had a gut feeling that it was going to happen that night, and he was correct.

“Why would I change my mind?”

“Because I’m leaving!” Avia had to get it out before it was too late. “Everyone lied to me! Mockingbird didn’t leave for power!” She turned away from him and punched the drywall, her fist going straight through it. “She told me everything. She has proof, she uncovered all of their lies! I can’t be with the people I was supposed to trust!” Avia clenched her jaw as guilt started to choke her. “Mockingbird understands me and what I feel. She was treated like shit and lied to, too.”

It took a moment, but then Roy understood what she said. He took a step back in disbelief and his heart shattered. “You mean you’re betraying us?” Roy wanted to wake up from that nightmare. “You’re going with Mock-”

You chose that moment to swing into the window and you landed on your feet with a loud bang, not bothering with subtlety. “Is she going with Mockingbird? Yes, she is,” you stood to your full height with a face of stone. You looked menacing and it scared Roy, not that he would ever admit it. “because you all lied about me. Do you regret it yet?”

“I’m sorry, Roy,” Avia’s heart was hurting terribly. “I’m so sorry.”

You heard the woosh of a cape and your irritation spiked. “We need to go!”

Batman came through the same window you did, ready to fight. he wasted no time in going after you, and he was ready to take on Avia as well. He knew Roy wasn’t going to be able to do it because of how strong his feelings were for her.

You dodged one of Batman’s punches and you hissed, “Avia! Knock him out, now!” You hoped your sheer fury behind it would prompt her to get her ass moving, and it did.

Batman was barely landing any hits; the team wasn’t the only ones you studied. While he had more experience and more fighting tactics, there was hardly a move you missed. However, you weren’t perfect. The occasional punch to the jaw left you a little disoriented and getting punched in the stomach tended to knock the wind out of you.

You then elbowed Batman’s face and then kicked him square in the chest. It briefly knocked him off balance, giving you time to choose a voice--someone close to him. Alfred.

Before talking, you looked back at Avia and Roy. Sure enough, Roy was out cold, but Avia was sitting against the wall, completely distraught, but understandably so. You were definitely going to discuss that with her later on.

Batman wound up to deliver a brutal hit, but he froze when you shouted, “Bruce, no! Please don’t do this, this isn’t you!” in Alfred’s voice. Bruce knew full well that it wasn’t actually Alfred, and that it was actually you manipulating him, but you still got to him. Alfred practically raised him and had been by his side for everything. Just the thought of hurting him-

That moment of hesitation was what gave you and Avia the chance to get out of there, leaving two unconscious heroes on her old bedroom floor.

Days passed after Dick got the news that Avia left with you. Of course you convinced her to betray the team, too. He honestly wasn’t surprised. He knew Avia was being lied to, and he didn’t want any part of it.

“Mockingbird is a cursed name.” Dick thought solemnly. Both Mockingbirds turned their backs on the team, but somewhat rightfully so. He wasn’t going to allow another hero have the name “Mockingbird” ever again, no matter who wanted it.

Dick simmered for hours and hours, angry that you took Avia, angry that she left, angry that everyone let it happen. He once again didn’t interfere, and look at where that got him. He was angry at you, Avia, the Justice League, himself, the team, and the world. No one deserved any of that to happen.

After a certain amount of time, he had enough. Dick knew you were occasionally in Bludhaven, so he was going to find you. He was too furious and hurt not to. That feeling didn’t fade as he put on his suit and his utility belt. He clenched his jaw so much that it hurt. His knuckles were white from how hard he was gripping his escrima sticks.

Dick traveled from roof to roof, trying to catch a glimpse of you somewhere. It wasn’t shocking that you were practically impossible to find; you were nowhere in sight. But Dick searched and prowled the city, turning over every stone and checking every shadowed corner. Nothing. No one.

He let out an anger-fueled roar, “Come out, Mockingbird! I know you’re there! Stop hiding and face me!” Dick probably looked like a crazed man on an acid trip, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was finding you and knocking you onto your ass.

You didn’t show.

#nightwing x reader #nightwing imagine #nightwing #Young Justice #young justice season 2 #mockingbird #young justice x reader #dick grayson #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson imagine #I am so sorry #angst

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doctorgerth · 6 years ago

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More angst! How about some h/c of Lucci, Law, Basil, Katakuri, and Marco's respective girlfriends being framed by the World Government for something she didn't do and is subsequently executed for it.

Ok, imma be honest and say that this one was tough? It was much easier to write the other similar angst HCs before, but I was stuck on this one for days! I hope it turned out how you wanted. Thank you for this request, dear. Have a lovely day. x

A Wrongful Execution (Lucci, Law, Hawkins, Katakuri, Marco)

(Angst HCs)

Lucci

- Lucci, the follower of Dark Justice, accepted his lover’s death easily; he’s a firm believer that if you go against the World Government, you deserve every consequence handed to you

- therefore he was completely apathetic when he found out about her death in the papers, the words depicting her sinister plan against the WG and her resulting demise

- part of him wished he could have been the one to deal with her, to take her out of this world for being a forsaken backstabber

- how could she? go against everything he’s ever known? everything he’s ever fought for? she’s always known what his duty meant to him, and she knew the consequences of going against it, what possessed her to commit such treason?

- these lingering questions kept Lucci up at night, much to his dismay, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her and how empty the bed felt without her presence

- he tended to blame the general stress of work for his lack of sleep, when in reality he forgot what it was like to sleep without her

- he became snarkier, practically intolerable due to the countless nights without good sleep; plus, he’d grown tired of his colleagues pitying him, as if he was mourning her

- how low did they think of him? to be mourning a clear traitor? he would never subjugate himself to such petty, useless emotions

- he had loved her, deeply, he wouldn’t ever waste his time on someone he didn’t care for; but ultimately, his passion for Dark Justice reigned over all, which was his driving force to what he believed was acceptance over the whole ordeal

- when he found out that she was not guilty, wrongly framed by the World Government, he was in complete denial

- a part of him knew the system was a bit corrupt, but it was always to the misfortune of others, the ones who surely deserved such repercussions; however he never realized such corruption, his own sworn lifestyle, would come to haunt his own life

- Lucci became a mad man, some say even madder than before, he did everything he could to force himself to believe that she deserved to die; surely she was guilty of some wrongdoing? it was just Karma making her rounds, and his lover just happened to be in the war path

- time and time again he found himself at the edge of the cliff, staring down into the abyss, his foot hovering out as if he could jump any second into pure misery

- but he was a believer that everything happened for a reason; he was a strong man and he was mighty good at playing pretend

- he spent the rest of his years pretending everything was okay, forcibly erasing every trace of his former lover from his memory; anyone who muttered her name was never safe

- though he managed to fool everyone else, and as hard as he tried to deny it, Lucci knew no part of him would ever truly be okay again; he punished himself relentlessly for it, begging for the memory of her to just leave him

Law

- Law never thought he’d fall for another person, but he found himself unconditionally in love with (Name); it took everything in him to let down his walls for her, and the way she welcomed him so lovingly, he knew she was special

- Law was in constant protection mode, though she could handle her own, he just couldn’t fathom the idea of losing arguably the most important person in his life

- it was a rare occasion for Law to not be around her, or at least somewhere nearby where he/a fellow crew member could keep an eye on her, so of course the day she accidentally slipped off on her own was the day she was gone forever

- he arrived at the scene of arrest too late, his ‘room’ not quite capable of bringing her back to him; instead, he could only watch as the Marines took his lover away, her squeals of terror and confusion ringing in his ears like the tolling of funeral bells

- the crew knew instantly how their captain would react, quick to board the Polar Tang and head straight for war, desperate to get his love back; they tried everything to calm him down, urging him to think logically, a war between the Heart Pirates and the World Government wouldn’t exactly bear a happy ending for the pirates

- he would have none of it though, as he forced them to board and they began their anxious path towards battle

- Law counted every passing second, the fear of being too late again made him sick to his stomach, worried to death of what they planned to do with (Name)

- over and over again in his head he formed strategies: prison break, fighting the bastards that took her, stealing and torturing the hearts of every single one who hurt her, completely obliterating the World Government as a whole…

- in the midst of the brink of insanity, Law hadn’t realized his crew was taking him nowhere near (Name) as they found out a day later of her execution in the papers; they spent an entire day trying to figure out how to tell their captain, it being proving to be more difficult as they were having to mourn in secret

- Bepo was the one to tell their captain, forcing himself into the office with the tear-stained newspaper in hand; Law seemed eager, expecting that they had arrived, until Bepo handed over the news story

- Law didn’t even take the paper, knowing instantly what was amiss with the way Bepo was looking at him so painfully

- solitude was all Law needed, to think, to mourn, to cry, to curse, he needed to let out everything alone; he couldn’t have his entire crew seeing him so weak, though they could hear his desperate cries through the halls of the submarine

- his strange way of coping was through sleep; Law was one to lose many hours of sleep on the regular, but he found himself so exhausted from the overflow of emotions that he just needed rest

- sleep reminded him of (Name) whether through the dreams (even nightmares) he had of her or just the reminiscence of what it was like to hold her at night; he embraced the hazy visions he had left of her, desperately trying to focus on all of their good memories together

- the crew grew impatient, it had been weeks since Law allowed anyone to see him; they forced themselves into his room, piling on top of a sleeping Law, reminding him that it’s okay to mourn right now and that they were there to mourn with him

- for the rest of that night the whole Heart Pirate crew cried together, Law not caring anymore if they saw him so vulnerable, failing to realize his crew would love him no matter what

- with the help of his crew, Law was able to move on from the death, encouraged to keep living on for her; he wasn’t perfect as he shamelessly killed innocent Marines, however

- nevertheless, the crew always found ways to celebrate her life; a piece of Law would always be missing, but the remnants of her love and the love from his crew helps keep him steady; maybe she and Rosi were waiting and watching him from above

Hawkins

- A rather enigmatic man, he could never properly express his emotions on his lover’s sudden death; his crew grew worried because he remained as stoic as ever, but was it all a front?

- Hawkins is usually pretty in tune with himself and his emotions, but the treachery and demise of his lover truly threw him for a loop, confused on just how he was supposed to feel about it

- did he know about her impending death? of course he did, but he never quite could bring himself to believe it…

- after meeting his lover, he knew they were going to fall in love, it was all in the cards for them; of course, he was a little hesitant at first, not usually one for romance and commitment, yet he was never one to fight fate

- so he allowed himself to fall for her, diving in headfirst, and when he realized just how deep his feelings were becoming for her, he knew he had to check her fate

- how long would he have with her? this was a question that haunted his mind since he met her, being the girlfriend of a Worst Generation pirate certainly wasn’t the safest choice for her, especially now that they were in the infamous New World

- he tried to suppress the aching desire to know her fate for a while, trying to just enjoy the here and now with her for as long as possible, but he couldn’t take it anymore; he couldn’t shake the bad feeling that clouded his mind when he thought about the rest of his life with her

- when he pulled the death card, it was as if he had pulled his own death card, as if he was the one predicted to die soon

- Hawkins wasn’t a very 'hopeful’ man as he knew fate would always take her course, but he had been wrong about his predictions once or twice before, and he hoped to whatever god there was above that this would be another one of those misreadings

- the rest of the time he had with her, he was extra protective, almost risking both his crew’s and even his own life to protect her time and time again, trying helplessly to fight against destiny

- they had gotten separated on an island, Hawkins remembers desperately trying to find her, knowing that the moment he wasn’t around would be the moment leading up to her death

- for days on end he searched for her, refusing to leave the island until she was by his side again; that was until a crew member brought the newspaper to him, revealing her arrest and ultimate death by the World Government

- this was a reminder, what he believed to be a warning, as a follower of fate to never question it again; they left the island immediately and continued on their journey through the New World, Hawkins managing to pretend as if she never existed

- but in the darkness of his room he sits up at night, staring at her side of the bed, a single life card in the empty space; he doesn’t touch them for a while, partially blaming them for her death and knowing love would never be in the cards for him ever again

Katakuri

- being part of the Charlotte family, under the Yonko Big Mom, Katakuri hardly worried about any harm coming his lover’s way, especially considering his own sole strength

- the family was not to be harmed by the World Government unless they were threatened, so Katakuri could not believe it when his lover was captured by the World Government, painted to be some kind of villain of the world

- how could his loving (Name) ever be evil? she was kind, loving beyond measure, hardly capable to hurt a fly! how could she ever be accused of such evil deeds?

- something was wrong, he just knew it; (Name) was out in the town when he got his vision, but he was too far away, too late to do anything to prevent her arrest

- to say he was enraged would be an understatement, no longer able to control himself many items and people fell victim to his rampage

- his siblings grew worried, trying to retain him was nearly impossible as he was blinded by pure rage, wanting to destroy everything in his path, wanting to obliterate the monsters that took his lover; it took his entire family to stop him from boarding a ship to murder every last member of the World Government

- to their dismay, they physically had to lock Kata up to prevent him from causing any more damage to the cities or worse to the World Government

- when the newspaper arrived, displaying the execution of his lover, the family was disheartened, unsure of what to do or say; some were willing to join Kata to fight the World Government, but they knew they needed to tell him first and foremost

- Brulee was the one chosen to break the news that his lover had been executed, seeing as she and Kata had a really close relationship; she was always good at calming him down

- the family was prepared for the worst, cities were on lock down so as to keep safe if Kata went on another emotional rampage

- however, with the news of her death, all burning fires in Kata’s heart extinguished, replaced by a dark, empty void; lifeless, all light completely vanished

- Brulee welcomed his tired head collapsing into her lap while he wept loudly, her soft hands rubbing at his hair; she remained in that position for as long as he needed her, allowing her big brother to cry as much as he wished

- Kata didn’t show his face for days; he couldn’t even look into a mirror at his own self, disgusted with how worthless he was, appalled by the fact he couldn’t protect his love; could he even protect anyone now?

- his family tried desperately to reach out to him, some with care, some with tough love, some just wanting to shake some sense into the guy, but he would have none of it, as he chose to cope with his feelings alone, isolating himself from his loved ones

- no merienda was the same without her, the one and only that he’d allow to join him during his special meal; the once delicious donuts were now replaced with tears, desperate prayers, and aching questions, wondering what he did to deserve this, why it had to be her

- he had lost motivation to eat, to sleep, even to enact revenge on the murderers, how could he do anything now without her by his side?

- Brulee was constantly on watch, practically forcing her brother to eat or rubbing his head until he fell asleep; he never told her properly, but he was always thankful for his sister’s help, without her, he was terrified to know where he might be

- after months of mourning and recovery, Kata was finally able to return to his duties, yet everyone knew no part of him would ever be the same again; he begged to not be treated differently, asking his siblings to continue on as he had so desperately wanted to

- he’s always been told to avoid reminders of her, but he can’t help himself to hold and cry into her shirts, the ones that somehow still smell just like her, at late hours of the night, completely disregarding his much needed sleep

Marco

- falling for his lover after the death of his captain and one of his best friends was a godsend, she was his saving grace during that wretched time of his life

- he was scared to fall, sure, after having three loved ones ripped away from him, he couldn’t possibly handle another

- nevertheless, her loving personality made him fall hard, and he found solace in her care and adoration for him; they had settled down in Sphinx together, Marco continuing to be a doctor while she continued her own duties

- she was at peace now, living with Marco happily in their cute little home in the village; the two never once causing trouble, only offering to help their fellow neighbors!

- so the day that she went to town to get groceries and never returned, Marco of course grew completely worried

- when a neighbor had rushed to his door, exclaiming how (Name) was kidnapped by the World Government and was being taken away, Marco rushed to the scene, watching helplessly as they boarded her onto the ship

- trying to remain out of trouble himself for the sake of the townspeople, Marco had no choice but to retreat; seeing her terrified eyes, even from such a distance, shattered his heart

- many lonely nights he spent his hours wracking his brain for just how to save his lover; sleep was long lost as he played out every possibility in his head over and over again

- he had finally found peace in his life, why was he cursed to feel pain again? (Name) was innocent! why was she being forced to suffer?

- he never believed anything in the papers about her treachery or evil plans against the World Government; he knew her, and if they would take the time to listen to her they’d see just how compassionate and innocent she was!

- but he also knew how damaged and unjust the World Government truly was; they didn’t care to listen, they were always in the right

- Marco knew no one would want this, not Whitebeard, not Thatch, not Ace, not even (Name), nevertheless, he went to fight for her anyway, determined to get her back so they could return to their normal lives together; he needed her

- but it was far too late; by the time he had arrived, her corpse laid before him, her lifeless body limp on the cold ground

- Marco had always been a rational guy, but this event was the final leap off the precipice he had been dangling from for years now; another loved one, gone forever…

- he stole her body and brought her back with him; he was a doctor, he could save her, right?

- the town wept and grew worried as Marco tried desperately to bring her back to life, his own health deteriorating in the process as he stopped eating and sleeping, punishing and cursing himself for being so weak and unable to help her

- it took a few friends to bring him back to his senses, telling him this is not what (Name) would have wanted, that he needed to live for her

- after some convincing, Marco, with the help of the town, finally lowered her body into the ground, the backyard of their home where she belonged

- he never would recover from this death, but he lived on, knowing that’s what she would have wanted and knowing he’d return to her someday wherever she was

#doctorgerth #doc writes #headcanons #hcs #angst #one piece x reader #lucci x reader #law x reader #hawkins x reader #katakuri x reader #marco x reader #f!reader #anon

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kylo-ren-has-an-8pack · 5 years ago

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reyux pretty please?

A/n: Written for this as well as two other Reyux prompts I’ve gotten recently. I’m just combining them all into one. Forgive my current fascination with Resistance prisoner!Hux. I love anything where he either fakes defecting or is a prisoner. It’s such an interesting concept to see him totally out of his element.

AO3 Link

Rey’s hands don’t tremble as she grips the container of rations firmly between her hands, but uncomfortable flutters make her feel less stoic than she looks. He deserves to be here. He deserves far more than what he’s getting actually, of this she is quite sure, yet this is easily the least favorite part of her day. It gives her this squirmy, uncomfortable feeling in her belly, being here. The few dank cells where the Resistance keeps the rare prisoner are cold and feel so different than the warmth that she experienced minutes earlier at the dinner table with Poe and Finn. It’s like a different world here in the dark and he deserves to be here. That doesn’t mean she has to enjoy it.

Wordlessly, she slides open a small panel on the translucent door that keeps the prisoner well in view. She pushes a container of food into it, waiting for the panel to hiss and lock back into place. She’s just about to turn to leave, eager to shake off the chills this place gives her, when she’s interrupted.

“If it’s the same pitiful excuse for a meal that it was yesterday, you may as well keep it.” A weak, bored sounding voice echoes from the far end of the chamber.

A haggard looking Hux sits in the corner of his cell, even paler than he was the day they captured him. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but his beard and even his hair have begun to grow noticeably. Probably only because he’s the type to keep it trimmed perfectly within regulation. Any difference is a big difference.

“Well, it’s all that you’re getting, so if I were you, I’d eat it.”

The entitlement in his voice strikes a nerve in her. He’s a prisoner. Would he prefer alternative options? They’ve certainly been discussed by General Organa and the few Resistance leaders left. He’s fortunate to be alive.

“Countless people on any number of planets are starving. You’re lucky you’re getting anything at all,” she goes on, her tone clipped and cold.

She’s quite ready to leave now, to flee the darkness emanating off of this man. But no, it’s not darkness she feels, not just darkness anyway. That much, she had sensed the day he arrived. It’s another emotion she feels penetrating her whenever she walks down to this cell block. It’s the reason she’s come to dislike coming down here when it’s her turn to do so. She can feel it seep into her soul, the same way that she can sense fear or joy in her friends. It’s not just evil she feels from this General who has caused so much harm. It’s hopelessness. She realizes it with a start and immediately, she understands. She’s never been able to abide the feeling. Life without hope, well, it’s not much of a life, is it?

Again, Rey turns to leave.

Again, she’s interrupted.

“What’s taking so long?”

“I’ve just put it in. Your food is right th-”

“I’m not talking about the damned food,” he sneers. “Is the Resistance honestly so ill functioning that it can’t execute its prisoners in a timely manner?”

“Execute?” Rey tips her head to the side, eyes widening slightly. What had he heard? Or maybe he’s heard nothing and that’s just how they work. “Why would you-”

“It’s hardly surprising,” he goes on without giving the food a glance.

Rey doesn’t blame him for that this time. It’s not particularly good food, but none of their food is at the moment. The First Order is squarely to blame for their lack in numbers and resources, as far as she’s concerned, so she can’t find it in her heart to feel sorry about it if he doesn’t like what he’s given. She can think of more days than not that she’s eaten out of pure necessity with no pleasure involved in the process. He can do the same. Or is that only what people with hope do? The bad feeling sits heavily in her gut, no matter how much she tells herself that she shouldn’t care how he feels after Hosnian Prime, after what he’s been a part of, after everything. The longer she spends down here, the more she senses.

“I imagine that’s more of an issue of backbone than actual functional concerns. It’s a simple enough task,” he continues, as if genuinely mulling it over.

“We managed to capture you,” she retorts. Their eyes meet then, and he actually looks slightly taken aback by that. It’s as if he had somehow forgotten the vital fact that any fraction of pride that he had left in him and his position is now misplaced. “I could take two steps out of this cell block and see more than a dozen people who would literally pay to be the one to end your life. You’re worth more alive than dead, at least at the moment. Backbone isn’t the problem.”

Rey turns on her heel for a third time, when a long sigh escapes the prisoner.

“Then just tell me. What’s going to happen to me?”

“Oh? Is being a prisoner of war too boring for you?"

"Yes."

Rey pauses. “…I don’t know.”

“Well, lie to me then.”

Her hesitance is rewarded by another dramatic sigh and roll of his eyes, and another tug in her gut. It’s that awful feeling again. Why won’t it leave her? His hopelessness and apathy aren’t her fault, but it’s so strong it chokes her. All at once, she finds herself talking without recognizing the words coming out of her mouth.

“Fine then. You’ll turn to our side.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll what?” He nearly laughs, incredulity dripping from his tone.

“You’ll stay here as long it takes. You’ll realize that the First Order is evil and you’ll tell us everything you know and then you’ll be one of us. You’ll live here, safe, happy…it will probably be the same food for a while though.”

Hux stares at her for a long moment, then he does laugh, a short, sharp sound that sounds unnatural falling from his lips, but it’s a little bit of a laugh nonetheless. Shaking his head, he leans forward and takes the container of food, inching it closer by his fingertips. His expression still tells her that he’s unconvinced, but that isn’t what matters. The bad feeling in her gut has lessened ever so slightly as she watches him start to pick at the food.

“I might prefer execution.” A sarcastic smirk still tugs at the corner of his mouth.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure that’s still an option,” she replies, her voice softer this time. “…I’ll see you tomorrow, Hux.”

Send me a Star Wars rare pair, The Mandalorian, or a Ben Mendelsohn character/pairing prompt from any of his movies and I’ll write you at least 100 words of fic. Specify fluff, smut, AU etc! Minimum 100 words, maximum none, just depends on inspiration

Buy me a Ko-fi if the spirit moves you!

#reyux #rey of jakku #armitage hux #general hux #star wars #post tlj #sw fic #sw au #i write stuff #Anonymous #longagoitwastuesday

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spacechild-glitchypix · 5 years ago

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A Mirror in a Locket

It used to be like looking in a mirror.

The picture in Willow’s locket was that of a woman with pale, fair skin, rose-pink eyes and bright orange hair, freckles splattered on her face in the exact same spots that Willow’s own were. The woman’s hair is down with two parts windowing her face, one of those parts in a braid. Willow used to have her hair like that at one point, an attempt to copy the woman in the locket. She never knew why she did it, maybe some force of nature just guided her hand or maybe she subconsciously hoped that copying her appearance would get the woman to reveal herself somehow.

Willow had this locket when she was found unconscious at the steps of the orphanage at the age of five. She didn’t know where she’d gotten it or who the woman within the picture inside of it was. Admittedly though, she didn’t know much of anything really, she couldn’t remember anything except her name, birthday and age. An amnesiac five-year-old, certainly an unusual addition to the orphanage’s already diverse roster of children but she managed to fit in with the other kids all the same. Maybe a bit too much as it turned out as she was never adopted, always overlooked for all the other kids. Not that she really cared, she had all the family she needed, not only in the woman in her locket but also in Endric.

Endric, her childhood friend.

She and Endric had left the orphanage at the age of 15 with enough money to buy a cottage and a stand to sell flowers that Willow would grow and tend to. By the time she was 18, she had fled from her hometown. She’d left behind almost everything. The locket was one of the only things she took with her, kept in her pocket and out of sight most of the time. Every so often, she would take it out and stare at what used to be like looking in a mirror. At the woman with the pale white skin, the pink eyes and the ginger hair. The only family she had.

She’d always assumed this woman had been her mother, not like there were many other people it could be. It was also the only thing Willow had to tell her she had any kind of family before the orphanage. She had dreamed of going looking for her when she was younger and that never really faded, even as she tried to convince herself that it was pure fantasy, that she didn’t even know if the woman in the locket was her mother and that she was probably dead anyway. Besides, she had Endric and he was like her cool brother who she was going to run a flower shop with, where would she even find the time to go looking for some woman in a locket when she had flowers to tend to and Endric. Endric, who had parents that he knew were dead and gone because he witnessed their deaths. Endric, who was the only person to approach her when she first joined the orphanage. Endric, who had been completely alone before she came to the orphanage. Endric, who she’d promised she’d stay beside and start a flower shop with.

Endric, who she started that flower shop with. Endric, who she had almost up and abandoned without a word to go chasing after the woman in the locket. Endric, who had caught her just after she’d finished packing and started arguing with her, begging her to stay. Endric, who reached out towards the locket.

She panicked. She reached her hand up towards him- no idea why, she just did. There was a bright light and she was knocked backwards into a wall. She couldn't see for a second. Then she could.

Endric was lying motionless, his chest completely still and facing away from her. There wasn’t an obvious wound, she didn’t even really know what she’d hit him with but it didn’t take long for her to process what had happened. She had shot off some kind of spell in a panic and had hit Endric. She started hyperventilating as she managed to rush to his side, shaking him lightly as if trying to wake him up, punching him gently on the arm, grabbing a vase from the window sile and pouring the contents on his face and hoping for something, anything to prove that she didn’t just do what she thought she did! When none of that worked, she shakily placed her hand to where his pulse would be.

She couldn’t feel it. She shifted the placement of her fingers all over his wrist and then his neck but still, she couldn’t find it. Then she placed her head to his chest, hoping that maybe she would feel it if she went directly to the source. She lay there for a few seconds. Then a minute. Then five. Nothing happened. There was nothing there. Willow choked back a sob as she lifted her head.

She did this. She’d done this to him. She had done this to Endric, her best friend, her brother! She tried to break her promise to him and then she-

It was at that point she realised the very real, very serious repercussions of her actions. If people had found out what she’d done, she could be sentenced to prison, maybe worse! She was going to be executed for this, what had she done?! She couldn’t stay here anymore, she had to go! She needed to run!

So she did. Willow grabbed her locket, the money that Endric had stowed away in a safe and left in the register and a bag before bolting it out of town in the middle of the night, crying and trying to forget the sight of Endric laying on the floor of her bedroom. Eventually, she made it to the other town over and had spent some of the money she had buying new clothes, replacing her pink overall dress and gardening apron for a blue dress with purple sleeve ruffles and a pink corset. She replaced her blue wellington boots (that Endric had bought for her as a gift for her birthday) with a pair of brown lace-ups. For a final touch, she had bought a dark purple hooded cloak and a pair of fake glasses. Looking in the mirror, she thought it looked perfect save for one thing. Her hair.

She stared at the obvious orange locks, left down with one part in a braid and felt her ears fall as she realised that she was probably going to have to change it somehow.

She immediately decided against changing its length or colour leaving only the hairstyle left and, even then, she was hesitant. She looked back at her locket again, feeling her stomach turn as she thought about changing her hair at all. But she needed to, she needed to look different enough that she couldn’t be recognised if someone went looking for her. She looked at the different features of the woman before fixing her eyes on the braid. A braid. She could put her hair in a braid- no, two braids! Willow immediately pulled at the ribbon keeping her own miniature braid in-tact and looked at it before using her magic to turn the purple ribbon into two small purple hair ties and got to work, rearranging her hair and putting it into two braids.

She stared into her reflection from a nearby river, admiring her work as she placed the fake glasses in place and lifted the hood over her head. It was then she vowed that she’d find the woman in the locket at any and all cost. Even if the locket wasn’t a mirror anymore, she’d find the woman it depicted, her mother, no matter what.

She’d made that vow seven years ago, a broken yet resilient 18-year-old girl who placed way too much value in a woman in a locket she knew nothing about, so much value that she had accidentally murdered the only real family she actually had. Now, as a 25-year-old woman, Willow took one last glance at the locket.

It wasn’t a mirror anymore, she had changed drastically in appearance with her fair skin now an almost sickly white, her rose-pink eyes now a sharp and frightening red, her bright orange her turned dark and dull and cut to shoulder length and her freckles having all but disappeared. She hadn’t meant to change so much, it hadn’t even been that long ago that the change had happened but change she did, it was either her looks or the memories of a member of her new family and she’d happily change her appearance all over again if it meant protecting that new family.

There was a vat of acid in front of her now, her two teammates dangling from a rope above it. It was either them or her locket the judge had said from beside her. She looked back up at her teammates, her family. River was staring at her sympathetically and something told Willow that he’d likely have completely understood if she decided to choose the locket which kind of pissed her off. She almost wanted to yell at him to put more worth in his own life goddamn it! Beau was reacting with an appropriate amount of concern and, honestly, Willow was just glad that at least one of her team members valued nis own life more than her stupid locket. Speaking of which.

Willow glanced at the judge beside her, a smirk on her lips as she casually tossed the locket into the acid with nary a care in the world. Deep inside of herself, Willow could hear something break, could feel a small part of her wanting to reach out towards the locket as it flew towards the acid but she suppressed it. She wasn’t losing her family over that stupid thing ever again.

As the locket sunk into the vat, it all disappeared in a magical puff of smoke with River and Beau safely back on the ground. Willow looked towards them and let out a laugh. “You didn’t seriously think I’d actually kill you over a locket, right?”

“Considering how long you took to actually toss it, I honestly was,” Beau responded, wiping the nonexistent dust from nis labcoat while River rushed forward to pull Willow into a crushing hug.

“I never doubted you for a second,” Willow didn’t believe that for a second but she let it slide as River put her down and the three saw an entryway open up from the wall of the room they were in. Beau was quick to make nis way towards it while River hung back for a second to pat Willow on the shoulder before rushing forward himself. Willow looked back at the stone judge and the empty space where the vat had been and shook her head before following her family to the next room.

She didn’t need mirrors anymore.

#ocs #willow evergreen #river duskspark #beau clearshard #a honeysuckle family

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inu-jiru · 5 years ago

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Tomoe, The Eastern Tigress - Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen - To Shiga!

“Ahh…!” Reika sat up, her heart fluttering in her chest as she caught John’s scent. “Hiro…! Hiro, it’s John!” “John?” Hiro forced himself up, his eye wide. The other dogs perked, smelling the combined scents of Tomoe, Ken, Kagetora, a few strangers, and, most importantly, blood. Quickly, the soldiers began piling outside to see what was going on. Hiro got to his paws, grunting a bit from his wounds. Reika, of course, stuck to his side, providing whatever support she could. Once outside, everyone joined Weed and Jerome as the small party arrived. The Ohu soldiers gasped at the sight of John, who, despite his tattered and torn body, stood tall. A body rested on his back, Tommy’s. Hook carried Lefty while Ken carried Rossi. The group stopped before their comrades, John looking down at Weed. His eyes widened slightly. His resemblance to Gin was remarkable… “General!” both Reika and Hiro cried joyously, making their way to the front of the group. A smirk appeared on the old Shepherd’s face. “What?” he scoffed. “You two still haven’t figured it out? A guy like me wouldn’t just die, heh.” “We’re so glad you’re alright, sir,” Reika cooed, her tail wagging. Taking notice of Tommy’s body, Reika’s tail then slowed to a stop. “They didn’t…?” “No…” Hiro said, his heart sinking as he looked between the three dogs who’d selflessly died to aid in their escape. He hung his head, his teeth gritting tightly. “Dammit. Godammit…” “Those were friends of yours…?” Weed spoke up, looking at Hiro and Reika. “They helped us,” Reika explained, tears flowing from her eyes. “Without them, Hougen’s dogs would’ve followed us here…” “Hougen…” Rocket growled to himself, his eyes clamping shut as he remembered his past loyalties to the tyrant. Had it not been for his and his brothers’ efforts, no one would’ve had to sacrifice themselves in order to help Hougen’s prisoners escape. He spoke again, this time, loud enough for the others to hear him. “We need to bury them. It’s the least we could do.” “You’re right,” John agreed, looking over at the Borzoi. Lowering his body, he allowed Tommy to slide gently onto the soft, white snow. “Tommy, Rossi and Lefty were loyal Ohu soldiers. They deserve a proper send off.” There was a silent agreement. The following 30 minutes or so were devoted to the digging of three large graves. Everyone chipped in, clearing away the snow, dirt and rocks. When each hole was deep enough, Tommy, Lefty and Rossi were each laid to rest, soil being placed over them. Tears flowed during the burial. Though the three males hadn’t been known by any of them for very long, no one could deny the tragedy of the situation. Hougen’s cruelty took the lives of the three males, and he had to pay. “You were a spy in Hougen’s ranks, right…?” Rocket quietly asked Hook, who sobbed beside him. The Labrador mix sniffed, blinking away his tears as he nodded in reply. “My brothers...Jet and Missile...are they alright…?” “They were your brothers…!?” Hook’s eyes widened in horror. Immediately, Rocket began to feel the icy sting of dread. “What happened…?” The Borzoi dared to ask, though he already knew the answer. “Hougen had them executed…” Though Rocket should’ve been prepared for the news, he still felt his legs grow weak. His heart ached, and his breath caught in his throat. As grief took over, the male felt himself stagger. This caught the attention of the dogs nearest to him. “Rocket?” Jerome began. “Are you alright?” “...I knew that Hougen was cruel,” Rocket responded slowly. “...But to think he’d go so far as to punish them for my actions…! Jet...Missile…! I’m so sorry!” Rocket had suddenly taken off for the nearby ledge. Everyone turned towards him in surprise. Upon reaching the ledge, Rocket threw back his head, unleashing a mournful howl into the mountains. His heart and soul were poured into it, and it reached the heavens. Gritting his teeth, Hook followed suit, joining the howl. One by one, the dogs of Ohu came to the cliff, lending their voices to the sky. It was a requiem for the dogs who’d fallen to Hougen’s selfish desires. It was a battle cry, ensuring that justice would come and that Ohu wouldn’t fall. Lastly, it was a reminder to each other that they had a bond as warriors. Tomoe stood at her father’s side, secretly hoping that her voice reached Hougen’s ears. Before spring came, Hougen would die by her fangs. That was a promise. What little remained of Hougen’s army had regrouped at the base. Once having a hundred soldiers at his command, the tyrant now had thirty-one tired, wounded, and defeated males. The Great Dane hobbled up the steps of his hut, the remainder of his sliced hind leg dangling in the air. The six dogs who’d joined Matsu whispered to each other, staring at the injury in shock. As if feeling their eyes, Hougen stopped, glaring over his shoulder. The soldiers looked away immediately. Feeling a surge of bitterness course through him, Hougen threw himself down the steps, sprinting at the males as best as he could. Even with his new handicap, his rage fueled his movements. He bit down on the first dog he’d gotten close to, his fangs locked on the base of his neck. With a sharp twist of his head, he ripped open the unfortunate soldier’s throat, blood spraying all over his body. The other five dogs backed away, throwing themselves on their bellies and begging for forgiveness. “Anyone else wanna stare at me?” Hougen demanded madly, allowing the dead soldier to fall, pitifully, onto the ground. The Dane’s soldiers shook their heads quickly.Kicking away the carcass, Hougen spat irritably. “This isn’t over. Those Ohu shitheads haven’t won yet. My brother still has his own troops. One of you bastards go and tell him that I want him to claim Gajou. Now!” “Sir…!” replied a male, quickly rushing off to do as the tyrant ordered. With that, Hougen returned to the hut, making his way inside and slamming the door shut. His nostrils flared, catching the fading scents of John and Reika. How he longed to tear those two apart. He didn’t give a damn about Reika anymore. As far as he was concerned, the bitch was just as worthless to him as any other pathetic Ohu dog. The rage Hougen felt against Gin far outranked what he felt for Reika and John, though. That technique...that motherfucking technique…! “HRAAAAAAAAAH!” Hougen’s demonic yell shook the walls of the hut. His eyes turned bloodshot, crimson tears flowing from them. Outside, Hougen’s followers took to the woods, hiding themselves in case the tyrant reemerged. Despite their terror at the monster that lay behind those wooden walls, they were all incredibly grateful that none of them were the ones Hougen truly wanted to kill. When the time was right, the forest would echo with the screams of the righteous. SPLASH! Julius lifted himself from the stream’s waters, the scruff of Gin’s neck gripped tightly in his jaws. With a grunt of effort, the young Shepherd dragged both himself and the Ohu Leader out onto the bank. The mountains loomed behind them; they’d successfully reached the base of the Alps. Setting Gin down onto his paws, Julius shook out his fur, gritting his teeth against the cold. “W-We made it…” the youngster gasped. “Shit...we really made it…” “Did you have any doubts?” asked Gin, running his tongue along his coats in hopes of drying it somewhat. “Maybe a little, heh,” Julius admitted. “That water’s freezing. I dunno how I managed to keep our heads up for that long.” “You have a lot of willpower,” the Akita looked at him with a small smile. “The will to not submit and die, no matter what situation you’re in. All great dogs have that kind of strength. It’s what makes Ohu soldiers Ohu soldiers.” “Boss…?” Julius’ eyes widened in disbelief. Ever since he was a puppy, he’d dreamed of becoming an official soldier of Ohu. For Gin to say that...could it really mean…? “You’re saying I’m...an Ohu soldier?” “Well, not officially.” Gin’s smile grew a bit. “You haven’t leapt across the gorge yet, if I’m correct. But there’ll be plenty of time for that when all of this is over.” Julius' eyes began burning with a newfound inspiration. “Heh, I bet I’ll jump farther than Uncle John did.” “Hahaha, perhaps.” Gin gave Julius a playful bump with his flank. “But now, we need to head to Shiga and meet with the others. We need to go to the Kouga Village. There’s hot springs there that should heal my wounds in about three days.” “Mmm,” said Julius with a nod. “Alright, let’s get going.” Together, the two males began their journey. The sky was brightening as dawn approached. The sun slowly appeared behind the peaks of the mountains, bringing warmth after a long night of wind and snow. Far from Gin and Julius’ location, back at the abandoned shed, the Ohu Army had gathered together near the graves, silently reflecting over the night’s events. No one had really gotten any sleep; their souls blazed with too much passion. Weed gazed up at the sky, watching morning approach. He stood, looking around at his comrades. Noticing his moments, Jerome sat up. “Weed?” he barked. “What’s going on?” “I think we should start moving,” replied the Akita mix. “If we’re going to stop Hougen, then we need to find Kyoushiro and Tesshin and convince the two of them to join us.” “Tesshin’ll be easy,” John spoke up. “He’s like family; of course he’ll help us take Hougen down. Not sure about this Kyoushiro, though.” “I’m sure he’ll help if we explain the situation to him,” Rocket said. “From what I hear, Kyoushiro’s one of the few dogs who’s resisted Hougen’s recruitment strategies. Even when being threatened with Hougen’s entire army, that guy never submitted.” “What a guy…” Kagetora murmured in awe. “Sounds like a bit of a hardass. Will talking even work on a guy like that?” “Maybe I should give him a good whack on the head,” John offered jokingly. “That should make him listen.” “We’re not going to fight him,” Weed reprimanded, flashing John a serious stare. Tomoe began snarling. “It’s just a joke, you little pipsqueak,” the bitch spat. “Get the stick out of your ass.” “Watch your mouth,” Jerome warned. “Who said you could talk to my daughter that way?” John suddenly stood, glaring daggers at the other Shepherd. All harmony that had been felt between the dogs was shattered in that instant. “Oi, oi!” Ken tossed himself between the small feud. “What’s going on? We shouldn’t be fighting each other like this! If we keep butting heads, then we’ll never beat Hougen.” There was a silence. Tomoe and John both tried their hardest to glare through Ken’s body at the two males, to no avail. During their journey back to the shed, Tomoe had vented a bit about Weed’s soft nature and general naiveté. John had figured it was because Weed was still growing, after all, Gin didn’t start off as some great leader, either. But Gin was never this sensitive. Perhaps last night’s grief was still getting to him. It was the only thing John could think of, anyway. But Ken was right; Hougen was the one who needed to be fought. He was a lot like his father, that Dane. “Whatever,” Tomoe broke the silence, her tail lashing as she turned away. “Let’s just get to Shiga already.” “Mmph,” John agreed with a nod. “There’s nothing left for us here.” “Sheesh…” GB whispered to Hook. “One of these days, I think Tomoe’s really gonna knock Weed’s head off.” “Right…” Weed continued, before lifting his muzzle to address the entire group. “If everyone’s ready, let’s get going. To Shiga!” A cry of agreement filled the air as the soldiers got to their paws. Weed gave Rocket a nod, and the Borzoi began taking the lead, guiding the pack in the direction of Kyoushiro Shirogane’s territory. Tomoe, like always, kept her distance from Weed and his self-proclaimed bodyguard. John ran alongside her, keeping a decent pace despite the state of his body. “I can’t stand that brat,” Tomoe muttered under her breath. Her father laughed. “Funny,” John replied. “I remember thinking that exact same thing about Gin when he was a kid.” “But Uncle Gin was a natural born badass. Weed? Tsk, I’m surprised he hasn’t banned hunting because…” Here, Tomoe put on a whiny, falsetto voice. ““The poor animals are soooo scared of us dogs!”” “I doubt he’s that’s clueless, kiddo,” said John. “And don’t forget; the war’s just begun. He’ll understand soon enough.” “And if he doesn’t?” “Then I’ll hold him down while you beat him. That Jerome bastard, too.” As the father and daughter Shepherd shared a laugh, further back in the group, Hiro leaned a bit closer to Reika. “Reika,” he whispered to her. “You don’t have to come with us, you know. You’re safe now; you can head back home.” “No,” Reika replied with a shake of her head. “I’d like to keep traveling with the army. I might not be a fighter like the rest of you, but I’m just as angry as Hougen as you are. I’d like to help stop him however I can.” “Reika…” Hiro felt his heart flutter. He couldn’t explain the effect Reika was having on him. He’d known her for about half a day and yet he could already feel a strong connection with her, one that was, perhaps, even stronger than the bond he’d formed with the rest of the Ohu males. His eye grew gentle the longer he gazed at the female. Even with the wounds Hougen had given her before, Hiro had to admit: Reika was still quite pretty. “I’d...er...we’d like that a lot.” “Then it’s settled,” the bitch chuckled, a smile stretching across her muzzle. She suddenly sped up a bit, flicking the Pyrenees’ muzzle with her tail. Hiro grunted in surprise, his cheeks blazing beneath his thick, tan coat. He heard a light snickering beside him. Turning, Hiro could see some of the other dogs staring at him, giving him knowing looks. His blush deepened as he barked at them. “What are you punks looking at?” “Attack of the Serpent! Ran Daryushin-Battōga!” Ohu’s six remaining young Kais soared across the Ohu Army base, their bodies moving about wildly like the heads of an orochi. A few yards away from where they were once standing, Smith and Wilson were keeping a large, hollow log in place. The wood was old, aged to the point where no normal fangs could cut it easily. That made it the perfect tool for training the techniques of the Hakkenshi. The six youngsters each landed their mark, their fangs boring into the wood and shattering it. Their bodies began rotating, a standard technique for taking down bears and other large enemies. With the added power to their fangs, the log was quickly reduced to strips of bark. “Well done, boys!” Kurotora called, having watched from Gajou’s maw. Some of the other Veterans, like Ben and a fully recovered Akame, were also observing the progress of the young fighters. Ben’s ears flicked at the sound of splintering wood; he nodded his approval. “You’ve trained them well, Kurotora,” Ben said. “Of course,” replied the Kai, licking his chops. “There’s no way in Hell I’d let any of them go into battle without being at their best.” The dark male paused for a moment, before speaking again in a softer tone. “Chutora wouldn’t appreciate it if those boys of his died because I didn’t teach them well enough…” “Kurotora…” Akame murmured, recalling the Kai’s middle brother. While everyone knew the story of Akatora’s bravery against Akakabuto five years ago, only a few were told the story of what happened to Chutora. The brown Kai and his mate had returned to the land of Kai in order to start their family. Things were fine, until a horrible accident occured. Kurotora had come to visit with his own sons, only to find the dead bodies of Chutora and his wife, alongside the boar they’d dragged down with them. Shouji, Shigure, Buru and Dodo were alone, surviving on the boar’s flesh, but unable to understand why their parents wouldn’t wake up. They were only a few months old; their ignorance was to be expected. Since then, Kurotora raised his nephews as if they were his own. Every day that passed, he could see more of his brother’s likeness in the four of them. “He’d be proud of you,” Ben assured his friend. “Akatora, too.” “Mmph…” the black Kai grunted, sniffing a bit. Kurotora was one of those males who hated letting himself appear vulnerable, but when it came to his brothers, he just couldn’t help himself. As a tear ran down his cheek, Kurotora lifted his muzzle, barking towards Moss and Musashi. “Find another log, you two. They’re gonna try again!” “Later,” Smith grumbled, yawning to get the feeling back in his jaw. “We’ve been dragging logs up here for hours, Kuro. With no help from you, I might add.” “We’ll take a break for now and get back to this later, alright, Kurotora?” Wilson added in a far politer tone. “Your boys could use a rest, too.” “Tsk, fine.” Kurotora snorted in annoyance, though as he looked at his boys, he could see them sitting and panting, The ground was also littered with the remains of logs that’d been broken before. Kurotora sighed; maybe a break wouldn’t hurt. “Oi, boys. Go on; take an hour or two and cool off. You all deserve it.” “You meant it, Uncle?” Shigure asked hopefully. Kurotora chuckled slightly and nodded. The Kais all smiled at each other, and eagerly headed off to go and get a well-deserved meal. Not long after they’d entered the woods, young Mel arrived at the base, his tail wagging and his eyes bright with excitement. “Sergeant Ben!” the Golden Retriever puppy chirped. “Uh?” Ben perked, looking in Mel’s direction. “What’s going on, youngster? Danger?” “No, no! Ms. Jiyū’s come back with the dogs from Mutsu!” “Oho!” Kurotora’s tail wagged slightly. “Been a while since I’ve seen those bastards. I hear Kisaragi’s had nineteen kids. Sheesh!” “I doubt they’re all his…” Akame murmured. “I never even took Kisaragi to be that sort of male…” Not long after Mel’s announcement, Jiyū arrived at the scene, followed by what had to be fifty-seven dogs. At the front was Kisaragi himself, though neither Kurotora nor Akame could see his brothers. There were six other Huskies with him. “Oi,” Kisaragi called. “Long time no see, uh?” “Kisaragi, you old shithead,” Kurotora chided playfully. He leapt down to meet the old Husky. “Heh, so,where’s the rest of the crotch dumplings, eh? “Kuro!” Jiyū scolded. Ben rubbed at his face with a paw. “The first time you see Kisaragi in years and you say that?” “Tch, lighten up, Jiyū. What’s a little playful banter between old comrades, eh?” Kurotora threw a foreleg around Kisaragi’s shoulders. The Husky, meanwhile, was rolling his eyes. “Ok, let me explain this,” he began bluntly. “They’re not all mine. I don’t know why everyone thinks they are.” Akame couldn’t hold back a smirk at being right. “I have six boys: Izou, Shūsaku, Shinsaku, Kogorō, Kichinosuke, and Shintarō.” Each of Kisaragi’s sons bowed their heads as their names were spoken.” The other thirteen are at home. With their fathers.” “Tch,” Kurotora scoffed. “Well that’s not very exciting.” “Anyway,” Kisaragi said, shoving the Kai off him with a paw. “I figured that this Hougen guy wouldn’t be nearly as difficult to beat as Akakabuto, so I brought half of the Mutsu pack to help defend Gajou. I hope that’s enough.” “Of course, Kisaragi,” replied Ben with a dip of his head. “We really appreciate your help. We’ll have other reinforcements soon. For now, make yourselves at home.” “Mmm,” the old Husky grunted with a nod. Turning to his dogs, he barked to them. “You all take a load off, but be ready. If any of my old comrades ask you to do something, do it, understand?” “SIR!” the soldiers responded obediently. Jiyū padded to Gajou, hopping up on one of the bottom stones and lying down with a sigh of content. After several days of traveling, it was nice to rest her paws. Gazing up at the sky, her thoughts traveled to Tomoe. How was she? Were she and the others alright? Had they found John and Gin? The panda Shepherd couldn’t be sure. But her hopes were high. She believed in all her heart that peace would return to Japan, and that her family would be together again. The day carried on, morning fading into noon. Weed and his group of travelers had reached the Gifu mountains in Shiga. The faded scent of dogs lingered throughout the snow-covered forest they were currently traveling in. Rocket was certain that this was the territory of the infamous Kyoushiro Shirogane. All they had to do now was find him. “Stop it, Daddy! Please! I’m sorry!” The sudden screaming of a young dog cut through the silence of the forest. It caught the attention of the Ohu Army, and quickly, they came to a stop. John looked around quickly. “What the hell…?” he muttered. “I’m sorry, Daddy!” the voice wailed again. “Please!” “That’s not something you hear everyday,” an unnerved GB murmured. “It sounds like it’s coming from that way,” Weed said, looking up towards a snowy slope. He ran to it, beginning to climb up to the higher stretch of land. “All of you! This way!” “Not so suddenly, Weed!” GB cried. The rest of the army were quick to follow the Akita mix, following the yelling and screaming. Not too far away, a shed lay abandoned in a snowy clearing. Inside, a young puppy, no older than three months, was thrown into the wall. The puppy squealed in pain, feeling the splintering wood piece at his shoulder. He slid down onto the floor pitifully. “You stupid, little shit!” the puppy’s father, a brown, floppy-eared mongrel with a scarred face, spat. “Daddy, please stop…” a pain-filled choke escaped the youngster’s maw. “Shut the fuck up!” The puppy flinched as his father stepped over him, the light pouring into the shed making him look more like a monstrous, dog-shaped shadow. “Saying sorry won’t fix anything! I told you to watch my food, and you say someone stole it!? I’ll bash your fucking brains in!” “He was so big and scary…” the puppy tried to explain as tears formed in his eyes. “I didn’t want him to hurt me…!” The older mutt narrowed his eyes, studying his son for a moment, before snarling violently. “You little liar! You ate it, didn’t you!? You’re just trying to pass the blame on someone else, aren’t you!?” He raised a paw to smack the pup again, but was stopped by a voice. “Oi.” The mongrel glanced over his shoulder, seeing a white Kishu Inu covered from head to tail in old scars. “What kind of parent just blames his problems on his son?” the Kishu scolded coldly. “Are you really that pathetic?” “Who the hell are you?” the mutt demanded. Seconds later, a new scream had filled the air, not of the young puppy, but of his father. The Ohu soldiers, were were quickly approaching the scene, could spot the mutt racing towards them. Weed skidded to a stop, his eyes wide in surprise. “He’s gonna kill me!” the male was crying. “Help me! Please help me!” Behind him, a white figure shot into the air, sailing down towards him with his fangs ready. The mongrel forced himself into Weed’s pack, hiding himself behind Tomoe. The scarred Kishu landed in front of Weed, snarling in frustration. “Don’t let him touch me! Please!” “Get your flea-bitten hide away from my daughter, asshole,” John barked. “Please!” The mutt whined, clinging onto Tomoe for dear life. Feeling the clearly older male’s paws against her, Tomoe reached back, grasping the mutt by the scruff and slamming him down on the ground in front of her. “Don’t fucking touch me,” she warned. “Or I’ll be the one killing you.” The Kishu was trying to push his way past Weed and get at the mutt, but Weed kept stepping in front of him. Finally, the Akita mix pushed against him roughly, knocking him into the snow. The Kishu lied still for a moment before slowly sitting up, giving Weed a hard stare. “You’re going way too far,” said Weed firmly. “What gives you the right to try and hurt him?” “Weed,” Rocket warned. “We don’t wanna get on this guy’s bad side, remember…? This is Kyoushiro.” In reality, Rocket couldn’t say he was surprised that Weed would do this sort of thing. So much for just explaining the situation… “He tried to hurt someone,” Weed shot back. “I need to know why.” “Oi, Weed,” John called with a frown. “Try to have some respect when you're in some other dog’s territory. You’re lucky that guy hasn’t tried to rip your throat out yet.” Kyoushiro had slowly stood up, glancing between the faces of each of the Ohu dogs. It seemed he’d calmed down enough to properly assess the situation. Clearing his throat, he spoke somewhat calmly. “You all are travelers?” he barked. “Didn’t mean to drag you into this. When I get angry, I don’t really care about what’s in my way. That guy really pissed me off.” The mutt whimpered as he was referred to. Tomoe shot down a glare at him, forcing him to hide his head under his paws like the sniveling cowards he really was. The bitch was a bit surprised, though. One second, Kyoushiro was dead set on murdering the bastard. Now, it was as if he was chatting about the weather. “Talk to me, then,” Weed then suggested, a little softer in tone, though his body was still prepared in case the Kishu tried to act violently again. “The best way to solve a fight is by talking. You and that dog back there can easily work things out.” “Tch…” Kyoushiro’s nose scrunched in annoyance. “You don’t even know what’s going on, yet you think you can tell me how to deal with things? Get real, kid.” “This kid’s got spunk, I’ll give him that,” Ken observed. “Yeah,” Kagetora agreed. “And he kinda reminds me of someone.” At the same time, both males looked at Tomoe, who was studying Kyoushiro with interest. “If you’re gonna come here and tell me what to do,” Kyoushiro was continuing. “Then I won’t show you any mercy. Watch!” HOOOOOWL! Kyoushiro’s voice echoed to the farthest corners of his territory. Everyone looked around, hearing a low, rumbling sound. It grew louder, and Rocket soon noticed movement on the mountain ledges looming over both sides of the snowy path. “Shit!” he cried in alarm. It was Kyoushiro’s pack! They ran along both ledges, howling fiercely, ready to protect their leader. When they reached the scene, they began rushing down the slope, towards the much smaller Ohu Army. “Goddammit, Weed!” John shouted angrily. “What the fuck were you thinking!?” “Calm down, old man,” Jerome said fiercely. “Weed’ll handle this. You’ll see.” “Don’t “calm down” me, you jackass! Weed caused this fucking mess!” “See what the rest of us had to deal with…?” Tomoe sighed. “Hiro…!” Reika cried, pressing herself against the Pyrenees. “Just stay beside me,” Hiro told her gently. The cowardly mutt saw this as his chance to get away. He tried sneaking off, stepping quietly against the snow to avoid catching anyone’s attention. Noticing his movements, however, Tomoe looked down at him. “Where the fuck are you going?” she demanded. Kyoushiro glanced around Weed. Putting two and two together, he growled. “Don’t let that old shit get away!” The mutt, squealing with terror, began sprinting away as fast as he could. The Ohu Army looked back to see some of Kyoushiro’s dogs pursuing him. He didn’t get very far; three young dogs pounced on him, dragging down. “Christ…!” Ken exclaimed. “Rocket was right. These guys don’t fuck around.” “Stop it!” Weed tried to order. He raced past his allies, trying to insert himself into the situation. With an irritated growl, Tomoe reached out, catching his scruff and holding him still. “You’ve done enough, you idiot,” Tomoe spat, though she wasn’t sure the puppy had heard her, as he was struggling and ordering for her to let him go. Jerome advanced towards Tomoe, but was quickly stopped when John stood in front of him, his fangs bared in warning. Seeing that the interfering Weed had been stopped, Kyoushiro slowly joined his comrades. “All of these males are only a year old,” the Kishu explained. “But they’re all as strong as five year olds. None of us have ever felt the love of a parent, and we have no mercy for those who hurt their children.” “So that’s it…” Reika murmured. Her ear then flicked. She could hear the pitter-patter of tiny paws. Turning, she could see the small, bleeding puppy who’d been screaming and crying before. He padded between the paws of the Ohu soldiers, shying away whenever anyone looked down at him. “Oh, Hiro…! Look!” “Eh?” Hiro obeyed, also seeing the little one. His eyes widened. “Ah...so that’s…” “Come here, sweetheart,” Reika called to the puppy, beckoning with her paw. Though the puppy continued to shiver, he slowly did as he was told, his nose quivering and taking in the bitch’s scent. Reika leaned forward, licking the top of his head. “Oh, you poor, little thing…” Kyoushiro watched the interaction for a moment, blinking, almost as if such a display of affection was foreign to him. “Hey, boy,” the Kishu then spoke. The puppy looked up at him with wide, curious eyes. “Come over here. Let me talk to you.” “You wanna let him get near that bastard?” said Hiro, cocking a brow. “He’s restrained,” Kyoushiro assured. “If he even thinks of trying to move, I’ll tear him apart.” “It’ll be alright,” Reika said, nuzzling the puppy. “They may be rough, but they have good intentions. I don’t think Kyoushiro would do anything to hurt the boy.” Hiro grunted, though he said nothing more. The puppy gulped, before taking a few steps towards Kyoushiro and his group. “Teru…” the mutt wailed his son’s name. “I’m sorry! Please say that you’ll forgive me!” “Fuck off,” Kyoushiro snapped at him. “You’re only saying that to get out of trouble, you piece of shit. You lie there and take your punishment.” Hearing his father being held accountable for his horrible behavior, Teru felt a bit of confidence. He approached Kyoushiro a bit faster. The Kishu, meanwhile, turned towards the Ohu soldiers, explaining the situation. “The bastard accused his son of stealing food, and beat him. The boy would probably be dead if I hadn’t stepped in. This guy...he did something a father should never do.” I get it… Tomoe thought. She’d tuned Weed out by now, and she was certain everyone else had done the same. Sheesh...what kind of guy does that to a little puppy? I wish I’d killed that bastard myself. “Teru,” said Kyoushiro as the puppy finally reached him. “Do you still accept that guy as your dad?” Teru hesitated to answer, stealing a glance at her father. The pathetic male looked at him with pleading eyes, but there was no sign of remorse. There was only the fear of being pushed. Teru narrowed his eyes. “No…” he answered. The mutt began glaring at him, but Teru continued. “That guy...that guy’s not my dad…! He’s not my dad!” “Mmm.” Kyoushiro nodded, before signaling his dogs to act. Teru’s ex-father screamed as he was lifted by his legs, four dogs carrying him off. The Kishu joined them to oversee the punishment. The mutt continued begging for help, but was ignored as he was brought to the edge of a cliff. He was thrown off, crying as he fell into the river below. SPLASH! “You’re not Teru’s father anymore!” Kyoushiro shouted down once he saw the mutt reemerge from the water. “Get out of this territory! If I see you again, I’ll kill you! You hear me! I will KILL you!” A silence fell over the land. The Kishu, feeling calm now that justice had been served, returned his attention towards his guests. They’d all been watching in silence. Even Weed had finally shut his mouth, dangling from Tomoe’s maw in defeat. It wasn’t their place to interfere, and even if it was, no one aside from Weed really had any objections. “As for all of you,” he began. “I’ll ignore that brat’s disrespect. You’re all free to pass through my territory if you wish, but if any of you bother my packmates, I won’t forgive you. Got it?” No one responded, not that the Kishu waited for an answer. With a nod to his allies, Kyoushiro Shirogane was off, his pack of fifty males close behind him. Teru wanted on, gazing after the white male in awe. Kyoushiro looked back at him over his shoulder, giving him a smile. “Come with us, kid,” he offered. “We’ll take care of you.” “Ah…!” Teru chirped, before eagerly taking up the offer. He followed Kyoushiro’s packmates, and soon, they had all vanished into the distance. The Ohu dogs were left alone in the silence. “Well that could’ve been handled better,” Kagetora grunted, to which several other dogs nodded in agreement. Tomoe finally released Weed, tossing him carelessly towards the ground. Landing on his paws, the Akita mix suddenly launched himself at Tomoe. This had completely caught the bitch off guard. She’d been prepared for a lecture, but not this. Tomoe felt herself being pushed onto her back with a grunt, Weed’s fangs at her throat. Everyone else froze in shock. “Why would you do that!?” Weed angrily demanded. “He was hurting that dog for no reason! I was going to stop him!” “No reason!?” Tomoe echoed in disbelief. “Get off her, you brat!” John ordered. “Weed, have you lost your mind!?” asked GB frantically. This was far different from the puppy who’d selflessly tried to save him long ago… “You braindead idiot!” Tomoe pulled in her hind legs, aiming kicks at Weed’s face. She heard a sharp whine as one of her claws poked his eye. Weed backed off, pawing at his eye as Tomoe got to her paws. Her eyes had grown bloodshot from the rage burning within her. She couldn’t take it anymore. With a monstrous roar, Tomoe leapt at the puppy. “I’ll fucking KILL YOU!”

#ginga densetsu weed #ginga densetsu weed fanfiction

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nomnomzombies · 6 years ago

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8x05: Dany’s Inferno, fulfilling the YMBQ, the Fall of the Golden Queen

> Part 2 < “Two Graves, The Pale Mare”

> Part 3 < “Going Forward”

This is probably going to be the longest of the analyses. Also on the docket is “Two Graves and The Pale Mare,” and “Going Forward, Political Jon.” I still have a final to finish today, so I’ll be updating this post with links as I get the other pieces posted.

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to format this, since I have a handful of quotes from A Storm of Swords to contrast to the sack of King’s Landing, so we might have a point of reference when we look at the series of events. So I have them at the top, numbered, and I’ll be referring back to their number as they become relevant.

These chapters are quotes that involved the overthrowing of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen. I’m going to be using these (9) quotes as points of reference throughout my analysis, in reference to Daenerys, to compare the four instances in which Dany has sacked a city.

ASOS Daenerys III

(1) “Unsullied!’ Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying behind her, her bell chiming with every stride. “Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see.” She raised the hapry’s fingers in the air.... and then she flung the scourge aside. “Freedom!” she sang out. “Dracarys! Dracarys!”

“Dracarys!” they shouted back, the sweetest word she’d ever heard. “Dracarys! Dracarys!”

ASOS Daenerys IV

(2) “When he was gone, Dany threw herself down on her pillows beside her dragons. She had not meant to be so sharp with Ser Jorah, but his endless suspicion had finally awoken her dragon. ‘He will forgive me,’ she told herself. ‘I am his liege.’ ….. She felt very lonely all of a sudden.”

(3) “On the morning of the third day, the city gates swung open and a line of slaves began to emerge. Dany mounted her silver to greet them. As they passed, little Missandei told them that they owed their freedom to Daenerys Stormborn [titles, titles] ….

“Mhysa!’ a brown-skinned man shouted at her. He had a child on his shoulder, a little girl, and she screamed the same word in her thin voice. ‘Mhysa! Mhysa!’ …..

Dany felt a lightness in her chest. ‘I will never bear a living child,’ she remembered. Her hand trembled as she raised it. Perhaps she smiled.”

Daenerys V

(4) “I am the blood of the dragon,’ Dany reminded herself. Her thoughts were spinning in circles, like a rat chasing its tail.”

(5) Inside Meereen the slavers would soon be reclining on their fringed tokars to feast... whilst outside her children went hungry. A sudden wild anger filled her. ‘I will bring you down,’ she swore.

(6) “How could you? What did the Usurper promise you? Gold, was it gold?” The undying said that she would be betrayed twice more, once for gold and once for love. “Tell me what you were promised.”

“Varys said... I might go home.” He bowed his head.

‘I was going to take you home!’ Her dragons sensed her fury. Viserion roared, and smoke rose grey from his snout. Drogon beat the air with black wings, and Rhaegal twisted his head back and belched flame. ‘I should say the word and burn the two of them.’ Was there no one she could trust, no one to keep her safe? “Are all the knights of Westeros so false as you two? Get out, before my dragons roast you both. What does a roast liar smell like? As foul as Brown Ben’s sewers? Go!”

Daenerys VI

(7) Dany broke her fast under the persimmon tree that grew in the terrace garden, watching her dragons chase each other about the apex of the Great Pyramid..... From here she could see the whole city... And beyond the walls...

‘Do all gods feel so lonely?’

(8) “This one is content to stay with you, Your Grace. Naath will be there, always. You are good to this—to me.”

“And you to me.” Dany took the girl by the hand. “Come help me dress.”

(9) “I want your leaders,” Dany told them. “Give them up, and the rest of you shall be spared.”

“How many?” one old woman had asked, sobbing. “How many must you have to spare us?”

“One hundred and sixty-three,” she answered.

She had them nailed to wooden posts around the plaza, each man pointing at the next. The anger was fierce and hot inside her when she gave the command; it made her feel like an avenging dragon. But later, when she passed the men dying on the posts, when she heard their moans and smelled their bowels and blood..... Dany put the glass aside, frowning. ‘It was just. It was. I did it for the children.’

For the first time since the season premiere, I actually found myself wishing that we’d gotten a little bit more of Dan’s POV last episode—not a lot! (she’s eaten up enough of the season as it is) But there’s a real difficulty in trying to understand what was going on through the character’s head. Because, as it is, we don’t even get the chance to see how she’s engaging with the smallfolk. When I was writing out my initial outline, I’d entertained the idea that part of the reason that she burned the city was because she hadn’t been engaged by the smallfolk as she had in the past. In Yunkai (3) when Dany is greeted by the slaves, she describes a wholesome feeling—one that contrasts the feelings of emptiness and loneliness she experienced earlier in the chapter (2). It would make a lot of sense if we were seeing her saviour complex roaring its ugly head. She goes to the North and feels as though she should be heralded because she put her conquest on hold, but when the people don’t love her, she’ll accept their fear.

So what happens when she comes south, again? We hear the conversation between Dany and Tyrion.

Interestingly, when he enters the tactical room to tell her of Varys’ betrayal, he’s quite perfectly framed to be standing in front of the dragon’s maw. Now, “Three Heads” tinfoilers may feel a sense of foreshadowing and absolution, but I think it’s more likely to either be alluding to 1) Tyrion’s possible execution or 2) a reference to the fact that Dany is no longer herself, but she is the dragon now. In their conversation, she’s overtaken with paranoia and grief... just because she happened to be right about the fact that she was betrayed doesn’t take away the fact that she was waiting to be betrayed.

This may be a bit of a sidenote, but the first thing that I actually started analyzing about GoT was the music, all the way back in 2016—I picked up on the fact that, in season 5, Jon had gotten his own character theme, and this is how I knew that he wasn’t actually dead. Fast forward to season 6? When Dany is burning the Khals, you hear the scary dragon theme (not the inspiring one). In this scene, when Dany turns back to stare out over the Blackwater, we hear the scary dragon theme again—I'd guess it was played by a single bass or cello.. Certainly not an orchestra. There is no unification; there’s no chorus of people heralding the might of the dragon. It is only the dragon.

Then we hear the conversation between her and Jon

but the most important part, here, is the piece where she simultaneously threatens Sansa and attempts to bring Jon back into her bed. Immediately before Jon enters the room, we see Dany and Grey Worm saying their goodbyes to Missandei in the form of tossing her collar into the fireplace. This moment is emphasizing the state of Dany in mourning the last person who provided a barrier between Dany and her worst impulses. I mentioned in my 804 analysis that Missandei has given awful advice, but the presence of Missandei was enough to remind Dany of how loved she was. Dany understands that the situation between her and Jon is not the loving connection she wishes it was. In the 804 bedroom scene, she acknowledges that fact when she says that Jorah loves her—this is contrasts to the dynamic between her and Jon.

When Jon stands before her, he looks terrified. He just saw Dany burning Varys alive without so much as a trial—the complication of this interaction may have to do with Jon’s beheading of Janos Slynt at the Night’s Watch (there wasn’t a trial for that, either, but the circumstances were entirely different, as Janos was speaking out against him in a room full of people rather than conspiring behind Jon’s back). Conversely, however, Jon is probably also scared shitless because he knows that all of this is coming about because of his decision to tell Sansa and he’s worried that he will also be burned. This interaction begins to feel as though Jon is on trial.

The reason that none of this is just, however, is that neither Jon nor Varys have done anything that they didn’t tell Dany they would do. Varys told Dany that he would first confront her before conspiring, which he did. Jon told Dany that he was going to tell Sansa and Arya, which he did. As demonstrated in quote (6), Dany is very quick to perceive things as betrayals, despite knowing that the situation is just more complicated than that. In (6), she demands to hear Ser Barriston’s reasoning for going undercover as Arstan Whitebeard, and in the end, she sends him to go into the city with Ser Jorah anyway. She still denounces him. Jon’s ‘trial’ and Varys’ execution is not madness. It is Dany’s flawed reasoning in action. Just as Ser Barriston’s quote demonstrates, “Your father gave people the justice he thought they deserved.”

At the end of it all, Dany concedes “Let it be fear, then.” aka if I can’t manipulate you into loving me, then I will accept your servitude through fearing me.

We have the scene in the Throne room, Tyrion negotiating with her to surrender at the sounds of the bells. The most important part about this scene, however, is when Dany tells Tyrion that Jaime’s been taken prisoner and then tells Tyrion that “The next time you fail me will be the last time.” As we saw in 804, Dany is understanding how to be clever. And like she was not very clever in having a prisoner to manipulate Cersei, she now has a prisoner to manipulate Tyrion. The only reason that Jaime is still alive is because Dany needs to manipulate Tyrion into continuing to do her bidding. Varys had no one to use as leverage, and he was not useful as leverage against anyone. So here, we once again see the value of political prisoners. Dany doesn’t have access to Sansa right now, so she uses her words to constantly remind Jon about Sansa; Dany takes Jaime prisoner and reminds Tyrion what happens to people that she believes betrayed her.

Once we see Dany’s Inferno begin by destroying the Iron Fleet and taking out the scorpions, we (as the audience) are at an impasse because, so far, what we see Dany doing is very reasonable war tactics. She’s disarming the enemy and providing an avenue for her ground forces to neutralize the opposing forces. She lands Drogon on the battlements, and we see how fucking terrified the people are of her. This is, not only, because of the fact that Drogon is the equivalent of WWII bombers, but also because Cersei has invested a lot of time into brainwashing the smallfolk into associating Dany with a blood thirsty conqueror. This is the point that I’m wishing that we’d had a moment of Dany taking in the townfolk, because I do want to have at least a modicum of reference to how she’s dealing with their reaction to her. However, based on the knowledge that we have from Jon’s ‘trial,’ it’s fair to assume that she’s embraced the fact that she will be ruling through fear. This plays into the conversation that Cersei and Sansa had at the siege at Blackwater when Cersei says, infamously, “make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy.”

I don’t think that Dany burned the smallfolk because she wanted them to fear her, however. As I established in my “Gold and Silver” analysis; Drogon is Dany’s ‘throne.’ She feels the most powerful when she’s on his back, and the two have merged into a singular identity.

In quote (7), we are illustrated with a direct comparison to what Dany was seeing on the back of Drogon as she was staring down the Red Keep,

“Do all gods feel so lonely?”

Dany (in the books) is as obsessed with prophecy as Rhaegar was, and she’s seeking men to fulfill the ‘three heads of the dragon’ prophecy, as she fancies herself to be Aegon she needs men to be Rhaenys and Visenya.

In quote (9) we see Dany has an anger problem. Quote (8) illustrates that when Dany is angry, her dragons respond in kind. So, as Dany is isolated atop Drogon (and I brought up in a little vent that every time Dany climbs on top of Drogon, she is escaping reality), staring down the Red Keep, she starts to get angry that Cersei isn’t ringing the bells. And since she has no one to check those impulses, and is instead in her own little world, her and Drogon begin reciprocating rage.

Missandei’s last words were, “Dracarys!” as quote (1) provides that it’s Dany’s favourite word when she’s feeling angry and powerful. On top of the world, she’s always loved to watch people burn and die. And here she is, on top of the world, staring down the Red Keep and seeing the entire symbol of her family’s dynasty in the hands of Cersei Lannister. It doesn’t matter that they’re surrendering, because she’s already angry. She’s already seething and ready to burn Cersei to the ground.

Grey Worm is angry, too. The whole point of Grey Worm’s arc is not that “he’s a ruthless killing machine,” but the fact that he can once again feel. The Unsullied go through a process of dulling their physical and mental/emotional sensations. The fact that Grey Worm threw the spear without command, but rather precedent, from Daenerys illustrates how much he loved and cares for someone (“Love is the death of duty”). Grey Worm is in pain.

Dany is the YMBQ

We see Cersei standing at the same balcony that she observed the Baelor explosion. While it can be easily explained as “that’s just the best balcony to look over the city,” we can’t deny the fact that this symmetry gives us (the audience) the idea that Cersei has a plan. We are expecting her to pop off some grandiose, Machiavellian scheme that proves that Cersei was baiting Dany into. Instead, we find Cersei regressing into a Janos Slynt.

GOT 409 (sidenote: I’m trying to type up this dialogue but both Janos and Jon are JS so fml)

Slynt: “Bars of those gates are four inches of cold rolled steel.”

Snow: “THOSE ARE GIANTS RIDING MAMMOTHS!”

Slynt: “There’s no such thing as giants... stories for the children...”

GOT 805

C: “All we need is one good shot.”

Q: “All the scorpions have been destroyed...”

C: “The Red Keep has never fallen.”

Q: bitch it’s falling rn

And let me say. Cersei. Deserved. Better. If we look at everything that Janos Slynt was: King’s Landing trash. And upjumped.... whatever he was—I don’t even remember if he was a sellsword or what before he was commander of the City Watch. Cersei Fucking Lannister deserved better than to be equated to Janos Slynt on her failure. /rant

So how does this make Dany the YMBQ? (Younger, more beautiful Queen)

The YMBQ is meant to “cast [Cersei] down and take all that [she] hold dear.”

Once Dany goes on to assault the Red Keep after burning the Western half of King’s Landing, we have a distinct shot of Drogon blasting out the Lion sigil on the stained glass window. All throughout the series, Cersei has never stopped referring to herself as “The Queen,” even when she had moved on to being Queen Regent/Dowager Queen/Queen Mother. Cersei has insisted that King’s Landing is her home, twice, when Tywin tried to have her marry Loras and move to Highgarden and again when Tommen tried to convince her to move back to Casterly Rock. Cersei’s core identity is derived from the Iron Throne. In the siege at Blackwater, when Cersei thought the battle was lost, she was ready to meet her end via suicide sitting on the Iron Throne. She was ready to kill herself and Tommen. Now, though, she wants to live and attempts to flee to save her unborn child. And instead of meeting death on the Iron Throne, she meets it in the basement. So, all that Cersei holds dear: “The Queen” title, King’s Landing/The Red Keep, the Iron Throne, Cersei’s unborn child’s life. In one afternoon, Dany takes it all. And casts Cersei down (into the basement, specifically)

#game of thrones #got #got spoilers #got s8 #got s8e5 #8x05 #the bells #analysis #got meta #my meta #daenerys targaryen #cersei lannister #jon snow #tyrion lannister #drogon #ymbq #asoiaf

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parasite-core · 5 years ago

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So I’m playing Skyrim for the umpeenth time. Normally I play one of my D&D characters, but inevitably get bored when I can’t really act out everything they’d do. So this time I decided to actually make a character from Tamriel to play. Thus I created a former Thalmor mage, a traitor to the Dominion on the run. I have no idea what his real name is, when he was asked for his name in Helgen he told them it was none of their business (they were going to execute him anyways and he’d rather die fast by Imperial headsman than be tortured and killed by the Thalmor) His in game name just says “None”, and I’ve been calling him Nonni so we’ll go with that.

Anyways after Helgen he followed the main story up through Whiterun because he felt honorbound to at least warn the Jarl about the danger to Riverwood since Ralof helped him to escape. He even agreed to help get the Dragon Stone because it wasn’t like he had anything better to do, and running around in an old tomb could help any trail on him from Helgen hopefully go cold.

During the dragon attack on the Whiterun Watchtower, Nonni slayed the beast with a frost enchanted sword he’d found in Bleakfalls Barrow—the first time he’d used a sword, his preferred weapon, since leaving the Thalmor.

Nonni said ‘fuck this’ to the entire situation. He’s no dragon fighting hero, and suddenly all the Nords in town are treating him like some legendary savior, and a voice from the sky called him to the highest mountain in the realm. No way. He just wanted to lay low somewhere, not get roped into Skyrim’s issues. And definitely not draw attention to himself by playing hero. So Nonni made his way south to Falkreach, intending to slip through the southern border and make his way towards Hammerfell. This didn’t work out, the southern border was blocked off and he found the mountains nearby too treacherous to climb to try to circumvent them. Worse, another dragon swooped down near the border, and he had to slay it by himself. Cold and wet from a rainstorm starting, and despondent at the realization that these dragon’s would just keep coming, he made his way to some nearby ruins to get out of the elements. He decided to take the time while he waited out the weather to explore the old ruins, in the hope of finding some treasure to fund his unwilling but necessary travels to High Hrothgar.

The place was infested with skeletons and two vampires. The first he met just inside, she was weak and starving and was easy to take out. The second, in the deepest chambers of the ruins, was a much stronger master vampire who nearly managed to kill Nonni. After a difficult struggle Nonni managed to limp his way to the top of the ruins, where he unwillingly found another word of power and an exit high in the mountains.

As he left the ruins he began to feel a nagging hunger that his rations didn’t seem to quench, but he shrugged it off as having just dealt with a long and frustrating day. He took some time to climb down the mountain and began a long journey back to Falkreach.

Along the way he ran into a hunter from Falkreach whose companions had been killed by Spriggans. Nonni healed him and helped to avenge his companions, with the promise from the hunter that he could keep the alchemical pieces of the Spriggans for himself. He had no problem with the Spriggans, but was badly hurt by a bear that was also in the cave and began to feel feverish. The nagging hunger had gotten sharper as well. Something about being around the injured hunter made it worse, but Nonni still shrugged it off as the effects of fatigue.

After this he did a few favors for people in Falkreach, including getting a lost journal for their local priest of Arkay. He was a bit nosey and read some of they journal entries, which seemed to say that the priest had a vision of Nonni and the return of the dragons. More importantly, in Nonni’s mind, he found the sword of a deceased member of the Blades. Being former Thalmor he didn’t feel comfortable using it, but kept it as a reminder and to possibly return it should he stumble on any other surviving members someday.

Once he had money and supplies, Nonni began his trek back to Whiterun, intending to get a carriage to somewhere closer to High Hrothgar. After about a day’s journey, he accidentally stumbled on a bandit camp. They attacked without question, so he defended himself. As he faced the final bandit, the strange hunger that had been eating at him for days came to a head. When he killed the bandit, his vision went red, and he fed on him, becoming a fully fledged vampire himself.

Nonni was initially horrified. He’d just gone into all of this intending to keep his head down and just avoid the Thalmor for the rest of his days, but now he was some dragon magnet undead bloodsucker. Worse, he remembered that he’d been hearing rumors of vampire hunters in town recently, so he had even more need than ever to keep his head down.

Still, the dragons were attacking, and he wouldn’t be able to get a moment of peace to figure out his new situation until something was done about that. So he continued to Whiterun, and took a carriage to Windhelm, which seemed to be closest to High Hrothgar on his map.

Outside of Windhelm another dragon attacked. Backed into a corner, weak to fire, and badly hurt, Nonni fought back with everything he had. In a moment of desperation he was forced to use the blade he’d found earlier in a last ditch effort to save himself. He managed to slay the dragon with the Oathblade, and limped his way into Windhelm to rest.

He made his way to High Hrothgar, and began his training as the Greybeards insisted. Then he went to procure the horn at their request, and instead found nothing at the end of the path, only a letter leading him back to Riverwood.

Here he met Delphine, whose connection to the blade he immediately suspected given the armor she donned. He decided to play along for now, to join her in going the Kynsgrove and seeing the dragon burial mound for himself.

There he witnessed Alduin resurrecting a dragon, and was forced once again to play the role of dragon slayer. This earned Delphine’s trust, and she confirmed Nonni’s suspicions that she was one of the few remaining members of the Blades.

Nonni was not keen to help infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy. He doubted that the Thalmor were behind the dragon’s returning, although he didn’t doubt they might be keeping tabs on whoever or whatever the real cause was. Regardless, he had been avoiding them for so long, he feared placing himself right into their hands more than anything else. He finally convinced himself that between the time in hiding, the tattoos he’d had added to his face to make himself harder to recognize, and the changes becoming a vampire had made to his skin and eyes, surely he wouldn’t be recognized even if by some coincidence someone he’d once known was there.

So he handed off his best equipment (and a few bottles of resist fire) to Malborn and dressed in some gaudy Skyrim finery.

When the Thalmor ambassador singled him out to speak to almost immediately he was certain he’d been caught, but between answering her questions in a circular manner and Malborn interrupting and redirecting her attention, he managed to avoid such a confrontation. He egged on a drunkard to make a scene and get attention off of him, then slipped into the back with Malborn.

He immediately snuck up on and took out a Thalmor soldier, swapping clothes with him in an attempt to blend in and to mask his features. This worked part of the way, but as he approached his goal a mage stopped him. The Thalmor recognized him, he raised the alarm that a traitor was in their midst, and a fight ensued.

He managed to slip in and steal a number of papers that proved the Thalmor don’t know who caused the dragon uprising (as well as some incriminating documents about Ulfric Stormcloak that he intends to hold onto for later). After learning about Esbern and freeing the Thalmor’s prisoner, Nonni made to escape. Unfortunately the Thalmor has caught on that Malborn had let him in. Malborn came running into the room chased by mages. Nonni tried to kill them before they could kill Malborn, but he wasn’t strong enough, and only managed to escape with the released prisoner.

After that he’s continued with the main story with few other incidents at the moment. After freeing Esbern from Riften and meeting up with Delphine he agreed to go with them to Sky Haven Temple—he’s less of a reluctant hero now that he knows the literal apocalypse is going to happen if he runs and the Thalmor know he’s here anyways so hiding’s not such an option anymore. On their way they ran into two dragons. One was named and swooped out of nowhere. The other was a blood dragon and was another desperate and close fight that he only survived with Delphine and Esbern’s assistance.

And that’s Nonni’s adventures so far. Most recently he met Paarthurnax, he respects the dragon for his choice to side against his own kind when he saw something was wrong. He has lost any respect he has for the Greybeards however, after Arngeir decided that helping the Dragonborn to destroy Alduin would be a worse sin than letting the world die. We’ll see where those feelings go later. Somewhere along the way he also found Merida’s beacon and accidentally became her champion.

He’s too scared of being smote on the spot to tell her that he’s a vampire and that her making him her champion of light is incredibly ironic.

#long post #sorry I’m on mobile and can’t put a read more #skyrim #skyrim oc #Nonni the Altmer

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nemossubmarine · 5 years ago

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Warhammer 40k: Wrath & Glory RP #21

Playing all conversations sessions? Great, love it! Doing write-ups of said sessions? Ugh. Anyway, let’s do this! Last session of adventure number four is a go!

We pick up from the the medbay where we left Gimlet and Gorm off in the last session.

As Andrew Andrés is being prepped for Konstantine’s mind invasion psyker thing, someone comes to talk with Tabasco.

Tabasco tells Gorm that apparently they have been allotted a tech priest already, so Gorm can go ahead and get himself new legs.

Gorm wants to be wheeled there with a wheelchair, so Tabasco provides one for him and takes him to Eden.

Eden’s new place is just across the hallway.

A room for patients has been transformed into his new prison.

There’s again some kind of force field, but this time Gorm can pass through it.

Eden looks well enough, having received most of his arms and clothes back.

There’s some kind of thing lodged into his chest, but that’s neither here nor there.

So, a new leg?

Gorm has a picture of the design for his new leg courtesy of Layla.

It’s a paw, because of course it is.

Eden says he sees what he can do.

They talk a bit about Jennifer’s need of legs as well, and Gorm says he should probably get paws as well, because those are cool.

Eden is a bit doubtful, because Jennifer would need less heavy legs than Gorm, plus she would have to be properly wired anyway.

He’ll bring it up, when discussing it with Jennifer.

Saef goes to visit Inpax.

Before he can reach her room, he notices her talking with someone outside of it.

That someone turns out to be Inquisitior Corrida, and a stranger, also in Inquisitor clothing.

They finish their conversation, and the two leave arm-in-arm.

The stranger gives Saef a long look.

Inpax invites Saef to her room.

Saef asks if he would be able to see one of the people Inpax has arrested, named Ahram.

Inpax asks Saef to elaborate, and when he does, she notes she wasn’t quite aware that Saef was this connected to the situation.

She then shows Saef a picture of a man, asking if he’s ever seen him.

Saef says yes, that’s the Inquisitor dude that caught him and his friends when they were kids, and who seemed to know Ahram.

Inpax tells him that the man in the picture is Inquisitor Tanner, the man that raised Inpax, and who Inpax had executed.

Well that’s that, Inpax says she’s personally leaving with Bullard and co, so if there’s nothing else Saef should probably talk with Ahram now.

Well, there is something, and that is a severed head.

Would Inpax like it, since she appears to have another chunk of body meat in a tank.

Inpax is a bit grossed out, but takes the head.

Then off they go to meet with Ahram!

But first, Gimlet, Konstantine and Tabasco have taken Andrew Andrés to a separate room for some good ol’ mind probing.

Konstantine warns that doing too much of it will cause Andrew to die, and it’s not a pleasant death, so Gimlet will have to tell Konstantine when to spot.

Gimlet says he understands, and he seems determined to give Andrew at least a semi-pleasant death.

Konstantine turns off his mechanical eye and dips inside Andrew’s head, looking for Cara and Tanner.

First trip yields very little, as Andrew was not physically present when Cara was killed.

But there are connections that Konstantine can follow, and so he does.

Second trip finds a memory of a conversation between Andrew and his husband Otto, where Andrew was very bitter that he couldn’t go with Otto, who, among with rest of Cara’s group had to go into hiding because for some reason Tanner was after them.

Anything more? Konstantine goes for a third time, and gets back with one word.

Navigators. Altered humans with a gene that allows them to see into the Warp, and thus help with navigating ships.

Navigator families mostly preside on Terra, and are generally above the law, being the ruling class.

But sometimes Navigator families have gotten into trouble with the Inquisition, and that appears to be the case with Cara’s group.

Konstantine can offer no more without going back in, and Gimlet doesn’t want to risk Andrew’s death, so he thanks Konstantine for his help.

Konstantine says he can see if he could be able to locate what the original crime was that caused Tanner to go after this particular family.

Gorm wakes up from his leg surgery, and notices that Eden has a visitor, namely Jennifer.

Eden is explaining the procedure for getting new legs for her.

Gorm gets up, and asks whether Jennifer will be getting some cool-ass paws as well.

When Jennifer waffles, saying that obviously she’d want to take her daughter’s input into account, but her son needs to have say as well, Gorm asks what she would like.

What does she like to do anyway?

Jennifer seems genuinely taken aback by the question, but finally admits that she used to do some pottery back when.

When Gorm says maybe something from that can be put into the legs, Jennifer seems not too keen about the idea, since it was merely a hobby.

Anyway, Eden says Gorm could take Jennifer back to the medbay, as he needs to prep for her surgery still.

So Gorm takes Jennifer out, but not to medbay but to look for her kids, who are eating at the mesh hall.

Gorm says he has a surpise for all of them, but Jennifer stops him before they can get to the kids and asks Gorm to elaborate.

Gorm tells that he has been called back to Fenris, and as they had discussed with Jennifer, Layla as well as Jennifer and Laurel would be coming with.

Jennifer wants to know what will happen to Layla once there, and Gorm gives few options; she’ll be taken in immediately, she’ll be taken in after she has trained with Gorm a bit more or she will be rejected.

Jennifer says it’s best they not give her false hope, by telling her she’ll get in of course, and they’ll see to it when they get there.

Gorm says that even if Layla is not taken in, he’ll continue to train her, and Jennifer seems genuinely grateful for that.

Jennifer also wants to thank Gorm for saving her life, as well as apologize for the way she had treated Gorm.

She admits that she thought that she was going to die, and there was some comfort in knowing that Gorm would look after Layla if that happened.

Gorm takes the thanks, but says Jennifer has no need to apologize, as he understands that he had not considered things outside his own point of view a lot when it came to Layla.

Having said her piece, Jennifer and Gorm go to Layla and Laurel and break the news of the trip.

Layla is of course overjoyed, and once mom has told her that they can go, she takes Laurel to get some winter clothes and pack their stuff.

Saef and Inpax go to the shuttle bay hangar where Inpax’s people are packing up the people who have been arrested.

Inpax has Ahram brought to a separate room so Saef can talk with him in private.

Ahram is not impressed with this Inquisition interrogation tactic.

He looks exactly like Saef’s Ahram, but there’s no recognition in his eyes.

Saef questions him about the gangs of Civitas A, but Ahram gives vague answers and refuses to acknowledge anything about Cat Pack.

Saef asks to see Ahram’s back, as there was a cut down it when Saef found Ahram’s body.

Ahram has had enough at that and turns to knock on the door to get him away from there.

Saef attempts to take a look himself, and gets a slap across the face for that.

Ahram is taken away, and Saef is none the wiser.

Inpax says she should be receiving background info on the people arrested soon, and she’ll text them to Saef.

Gimlet goes visit Molly at her place.

She’s there, the birds are there, she’s glad to see Gimlet is alright, since last she saw him he was in bad shape.

She admits she wouldn’t have wanted to let Gimlet go back down on the ground, but she’s afraid to say no to the Wolf, because, and I quote, ”he’d punt me into the sun”.

She has chatted with the birds a bit.

She tries to give the birds to Gimlet, but Gimlet doesn’t really want the birds?

Molly says she doesn’t know how to take care of the birds, but she guesses she could ask around if any of the engineers can help her. Gimlet seems cool with that.

After dropping Jennifer off at Eden’s for some new legs, Gorm goes to look for Olga. He finds her and her daughter Frita helping with clearing the Arboretum.

They gonk heads as greetings (also Gorm and Frita, which aww). Gorm says he is glad that Olga is alive.

Olga shows him the notches on her harpoon for all the cultists she’s killed (27).

She also boasts how her White Scar related partner Erdene killed more than her with their bike.

Gorm asks where Olga and her family are heading next.

Olga says she’s not sure yet.

Even though Gorm says they’ll have a place at the ship for as long as they need, the thought doesn’t really endear Olga.

Not many places for driving.

Gorm asks whether Erdene is good with driving other stuff.

Olga says they used to drive their fishing boat, so yeah.

Gorm is in need of a driver, as he is going to Fenris, and would like to invite Olga, Erdene and Frita on board.

Olga says she’ll discuss it with her partner.

Later she texts Gorm that yeah, they’re coming.

Saef goes to find his family at the mesh hall.

He wants to see if everything is alright, and his mother says that yeah.

Saef says they can stay here as long as they want, as he knows the captain so it’ll be no trouble.

Analyn says they’d wish to be useful, to earn their keep, but are not sure if there’s anything on the ship they can really help with.

Saef says he’ll bring that up, maybe he can work something out with the captain.

He also mentions that he’ll be going to a surgery, you know the one he needed his parents’ blood for?

But it’s going to be alright, so no biggie.

Saef bids his family farewell and leaves.

Gimlet goes to visit Eden in his room.

He notices Layla’s drawing on the wall and comments on how he didn’t know Eden could draw.

Eden says he doesn’t.

Gimlet asks if Eden has ever worked with memories.

Eden says that well, all upgrading people into Mechanicum soldiers entails some memory dabbling, and obviously he took Kuru’s memories into a disk.

Gimlet asks specifically about taking memories out, and Eden says, yeah he is theoretically capable of that.

Gimlet then asks if he has ever met Tanner, even shows him a picture.

Eden does recognize Tanner, as far as Tanner being a public figure, but says he’s never met him.

Gimlet finds that hard to believe, because he remembers hearing Tanner’s voice and Eden’s voice speaking to each other.

Eden thinks about it a bit, and then notes that just because he doesn’t remember, doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.

His mentor never meant to make him quite as self-aware as he became, so a lot of his early memories have been removed for space purposes and to make space for when his mentor was planning on moving into his body.

Gimlet appears to find this quite frustrating, as Eden can’t really help him.

Eden does say that if Gimlet remembers some things, that means all of the memories were not removed completely, just locked away, and there may be some signs of that in his brain.

That of course would require Gimlet to trust Eden enough to let him tamper with his brain.

Gimlet says he’ll think about it.

Gorm receives a text from Carl of Sable Swords saying that they’re honoring the memories of our fallen comrades today on Dew Mountain, and would like Gorm to join. Gorm of course does so.

Carl has been promoted to sergeant, as Gorm had predicted.

Gorm congratulates Carl on the promotion, and tells him that Tabasco complimented his chopping-off-limbs skills.

Gorm has a favor to ask of Carl, and Carl is all ears.

Gorm explains that his situation with his pack is complicated, and he is now called back to Fenris, and would like if Carl could give some documentation on how Gorm did on battle field.

Carl is more than happy to provide.

As he says, Stuart would have died if it weren’t for Gorm. (Stuart only lost an arm) (he’s alright you guys) (everyone’s fave NPC)

Plus Carl really enjoyed co-operation with a Wolf, it’s something they should do more often, he thinks.

Gorm then asks how the honoring will proceed.

Carl says there will be some prayer and then reminiscence about fallen comrades.

Carl has a real fun story about sergeant Revan, who was apparently was very liked with children.

But that’s off-screen so now you just have to imagine that yourself.

Saef goes to Eden for his surgery.

With him is Felis Catus, who immediately clings to Eden.

Eden thanks Saef for taking care of Felis Catus, and bringing her to him.

Saef wants to ask about something before the surgery, namely Eden’s involvement with Kane Bullard.

Eden says that his mentor had some dealings with Kane Bullard, and after his death Eden continued with helping Bullard.

Saef asks what exactly. Eden says reviewing blue prints for power stations / grids for the metro.

This will probably be enough for Inpax.

Eden says he finds it curious that Saef talks with Inpax.

Saef says he just tries to get along with her, as it will be easier to get stuff out of her that way.

Eden says he would have told the same exact thing to Inpax if she had asked, but he suspects she finds it hard to talk with him, because she doesn’t consider him a person.

Saef says he has no trouble thinking Eden as a person, as far as he is considered all things with feelings and thoughts and stuff are people.

Eden wonders if he feels.

Saef says he is doing good enough, for Saef at least.

Then it’s time for a surgery.

While Saef is in surgery, Gimlet invites Gorm to go to a bar with him.

Gorm asks the bartender if there’s any mead from Fenris.

Bartender says they did receive a shipment but some of it broke during the genestealer attack, but there was enough for at least a drink.

Gimlet has something sweet (Long Island Ice Tea, is that sweet, who even knows).

They go to a booth, and Gimlet says he has something for Gorm.

This something turns out to be a book, a book of Gorm’s saga so far, that Gimlet is gifting to Gorm.

Gorm is incredibly touched.

Gimlet wants to thank Gorm for not killing Inpax on sight.

Gorm says it was not easy, but he knew Gimlet wouldn’t like it.

Gimlet says he’s apologizing for not explaining anything when they went down to Civitas A.

Gorm says he’s used to it from Gimlet at this point.

And Gorm considers Gimlet a friend, perhaps among the first friends he’s ever had, since all the Wolves are his brothers.

The thing about Inpax is, Gimlet ratted Saef out to her, so while she is alright, Saef is alright. But don’t tell Saef that! Gorm says, he won’t.

Gimlet explains that Lu Yan wanted Gimlet to go find Inpax.

Gorm asks why it was so.

Gimlet says he can’t say, which Gorm counters by saying he knows Gimlet is a nosy bastard.

Gimlet corrects himself, saying he does know, but it’s not his place to say.

Gimlet and Gorm decide to go visit Saef as he should be waking up from the surgery and he’s be happy to see his pals.

There’s someone else already in the room, aside from Eden and sleeping Saef.

That is a strange girl dressed in clothing that covers most of her.

She seems quite jumpy, and tries to hide upon seeing Gimlet and Gorm.

Gimlet wonders if he’s seen her before, and the girl vehemently denies it.

Gorm introduces himself to the girl, who says she is Rat.

The duo finds the name a bit odd, but Rat says it’s her name, so her name it is.

Saef starts waking up, and does recognize Rat.

Gimlet asks Saef if Rat was with them in the bomb shelter.

Rat says no.

Saef says if Rat says no, no it is.

Rat excuses herself, telling Saef she is needed with the tall dude.

Eden tells Saef that the surgery was a success, or at least hopefully, they’ll have to re-check after a week or so.

Gorm says Saef should stick to chocolate from now on, no more fruits for him.

Saef agrees.

Gimlet weakly protests.

Gorm tells Saef that he is going to be going on Fenris, and when Saef asks for ever or for a bit, Gorm admits he doesn’t know. But if he can, he’ll be back.

While Saef was out, he received a text from Inpax saying that Ahram’s full name is Ahram Demirci, and he’s originally from Triplex Phall.

When Gimlet and Gorm are gone, Saef asks Eden about the name, and Eden says someone by the name of Ramazan Demirci works under him.

That is Demir of course, so Saef texts him and asks if Ahram Demirci is someone who Demir knows.

Apparently Ahram was Demir’s dad.

Keyword being was, as he died some years ago.

Well that’s just great, so there has been at least three Ahrams, two of whom are dead?

Saef says he’ll continue to look into it, and will text Demir if anything interesting happens.

At some point where Gorm wasn’t doing anything special, he called Vivek and told him to hand the phone over to Uffe.

As Uffe doesn’t have a phone of his own, it’s up to Gorm to inform him about the call back to Fenris.

Gorm asks when they can meet up, and Uffe says half a day.

Would Uffe’s ship be good enough to take them to Fenris? Yes.

That’s good, because Gorm has a pilot planned.

Uffe asks how many people Gorm is planning to take with, and Gorm says not to worry, even if Uffe protests they only have two beds on the ship.

Is Vivek coming with btw? Uffe consults Vivek, and says no.

So they agree to meet up at Dew Mtn.

Gimlet and Saef come to see Gorm off, even though Gimlet is not wanting to see either Uffe or Vivek (mostly Vivek). Saef pushes him into the teleporter anyway.

The three go in first, and the remaining two families will teleport in after.

Uffe comes to greet Gorm immediately and questions about his new leg.

Vivek walks up to Saef and hugs him.

He also greets Gimlet, but calls him Gimli.

At some point Uffe notices the six extra people teleporting in.

As he tries to protest, Gorms just tells him to introduce himself, which he does, grumbling only a bit.

Vivek says he’d like a teleport to Dew Mtn, but soon learns that’s not maybe a great idea. (re: whole Genestealer attack)

Saef suggests that Vivek come on board Santa Maria, now that the Inquisitor is gone too.

Vivek says sure.

And oh right, before he leaves he hands over a data chip to Uffe for safe-keeping.

There’s a bit of doubt whether Vivek and Gimlet can get along.

Vivek apologizes for calling Gimlet Gimli and says he can work with him, if need be.

Gimlet just says ”let’s go”.

Gorm says he’ll beat up Gimlet when he gets back if he misbehaves.

But now it’s time for parting.

Saef and Gimlet say goodbye to Gorm and tell him that they’ll miss them.

Gorm shares the sentiment.

And then pokes Uffe and tells him to say the same to Vivek.

Vivek laughs and says Uffe doesn’t need to if he doesn’t mean it.

Uffe tells Vivek to ”keep safe” and Vivek tells him he’ll miss him too.

And that’s that for that! Next campaign Gorm will be replaced with Vivek and Gorm’s player will do a little bit of GM’ing, so I can get an off-week or two. Looking forward to that!

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zeciex · 6 years ago

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Obsidian & Angelite Ch. 16 part I

Oya has spend centuries bound to one single plot of land when one day a stranger with a voice of velvet and presence that can only be described as dark and outmost interesting. He comes with an offer she can’t refuse and suddenly her entire world changes, both for better and worse.

But what does Langdon need of her? And how can she use him to get what she want? Maybe they’re bound by something bigger than fate.

Warning: Dark themes,

A/N: Since tumblr kills everything with links, I’ll reblog this post with the links to previous chapters and archive link

Apocalypse Now Part I

The first week of the apocalypse she had spend in a concrete bunker with some of Michaels ‘associates’ that was really just a nice word for servants or followers. Michael himself had kissed her goodbye for the next three months and sent her away to that cold little grey prison. If he had been there she might have slapped him for not warning her.

And then she was taken away, wrapped in a strange plastic suit that should stand as a protection against the radioactive outside. They drow for what felt like hours and without the sun upon the ever grey sky it was hard to tell how much time really did pass. Everything was burned to a crisp. Ash and bones and remnants of what was before standing as a solome graveyard. In some areas, there was nothing, just dust, while in others the skillet of buildings tumbling down served as society headstones in a world that tried to forget what was before.

They came to an area where burned bushes and trees begged for the sun to shine through the massive layer of dust that encapsulated the world. By the time the sun was to show its face once more, the plants would be long dead and gone. It saddened her, to see nature well past its breaking point.

They drow through black gates and guided her off the car before leaving her in the middle of nowhere alone. And for a few moments, she was alone, completely, with the destruction weighing in on her.

From within a strange sculpture of sort appeared two black dressed figures with masks that resembled plague doctors. At first, they sized her up with unreadable faces hidden by the mask, the next they mentioned for her to follow. They took an elevator down into the ground.

After she had been disinfected and cleared she was allowed to take off the suffocating space suit she had come to find both all too hot and cold at the same time. She was lead out into the hallway and found the tiles were all the same, lighted up by candles that cast a warm glow along with deep shadows. It was strange to be underground, a place where the dead had been buried for millenniums, now a place protection.

“I am Wilhelmina Venable and welcome to Outpost 3.” Her voice travelled along the stones, cold and distant. Venable looked gothic, to say the least, controlled in every aspect of her, with dark lips and even darker eyes. So this was the woman Michael had chosen to run the outpost. Oya couldn’t exactly say she agreed with his decision but of course, like with everything else Michael had a plan and if that plan had her playing someone smaller than who she really was, then so be it.

As she followed the gothic woman through the bunker she began talking. Telling Oya of the sorting of Purples, the elite as she called them, and the Greys. Then about the rules, the strict no sex policy that’d end with a bullet between your eyes were you not to follow it and the schedule. The apocalypse had given Venable the chance to remake this tiny little world inside the safety of these walls in her image.

Oya could already tell that it was going to be a long 3 months.

After changing her comfortable clothing into a tight corset and purple victorian dress, she joined the rest of the inhabitants in Outpost 3 in the library. The woman with dark short hair and round figure she had come to know as Mrs. Mead introduced her to everyone else with a cold disinterested voice Venable would have been proud of.

“This is our newest arrival, Oya Jeon.”

“Did you pay your way to get in here too?” A blond ask with a stringy and obnoxious voice. Before Oya could answer Mrs. Mead did it for her. “Not everyone paid their way into the new world.”

“Then what, huh?” All attention was now on Oya, immediately labelled as someone not like them.

“She has a PhD in botany. Someone has to be able to grow the new world,” Mrs. Mead bit back and left her to the wolves. Oya looked over them, one by one. They were a pathetic gathering in her opinion. Why Michael decided to give her a degree in botany of all the things she could have been given were beyond her. He could have made her a doctor or engineer, something more impressive than plants.

“I would have thought they’d have Mexicans with their skills in gardening and not some china-doll,” the oldest woman spoke before throwing back her drink. The causality of her racism seemed to make everyone in the room roll their eyes and even made the obvious gay man with short blond hair visibly uncomfortable.

“I’m Korean and if you want anything to eat whenever the radiation is gone you’ll need a person with knowledge of plants and a greenthumb,” Oya spoke not stumbling the slightest under the narrow glare the old bitch send her. The blond man laughed uncomfortably and approached Oya, reaching out to touch her hair. She couldn’t help but frown and lean back as he took a strand of her hair between her fingers, looking over it with interest.

“My god, you do have beautiful hair! I would love to set it some time,” he spoke, walking behind her to lift up the rest as if he was already starting to piece together what to do with it. A blond woman abruptly stood up, fist in balls at her sides, while her pink lips were cast downwards. She glared intensely at the two of them.

“You’re my hairdresser! Without me and my ticket you’d be dead by now!” She exclaimed childishly. “Her hair is not even that great.”

And so life in the bunker began, wrapped in torturous corsets, outdated dresses and lace while being fed the most boring meal of all time in the form of a tiny little cube. Michael was going to pay for this.

The old hag Evie proved to be the most annoying of all. She was a relic of a time long past even before the apocalypse, cast in old time glamour and venomous intent. Then there was her grandson, Mr. Gallant, whom Oya found one of the better of the survivors. Dinah Steven she found to be one of the quiet ones, yes she took part in the conversation but whatever she truly thought never came through. There was something about her, a shadow that lingered, one none of the others had. Oya couldn’t help but think that she was a woman that’d do anything to survive, to get ahead in life. Quite opposite to his mother, Andre Stevens and his boyfriend, were weak and dramatic, neither of them carried the shadow, the promise of teeth and claws.

And then there was Coco. Never before had Oya met anyone as shallow and superficial as her, which was the reason she sometimes bit her tongue to get along with the woman. No one could possibly be as fake in personality as her, which only made Oya feel a sense of… forgery. And in turn, there was Mallory, the quiet little mouse that followed Coco around and did everything she was told. The grey was so tiny, both physically and in personality, easily overshadowed by Coco’s sense of self. Because of that and her status as a grey, the group that was overlooked and lingered in the shadows, Oya used her as an opportunity to keep her ear to the floor so to speak. If anything were to happen in the outpost a grey would know about it. Mallory was a sweet girl who wanted nothing but acceptance and kindness in return. So Oya gave her that.

The person Michael had told would protect her, was still in the unknown and the treats were many. There were days where it felt like the whole place could collapse into insanity, the human psyche was not meant to be trapped like this day in and day out, with no stimulus and no new impressions. Once she saw Stu cry over the song that played over and over again.

And then there was Mrs. Venable. The cold shadow, the now familiar click of her cane sending shivers down one's back and striking fear into hearts. There was no other word to describe her than cold. And along with her were Mrs. Mead, the loyal guard dog.

If Oya hadn't promised Michael not to kill any of them, they’d all be dead. Even the newest arrivals, Timothy and Emily, bleak as they were. That day two greys had been executed for their indiscretions. The two newcomers were teenagers said to have the perfect DNA and as soon as Oya heard that she wanted to throw a book at Michaels' head. Perfect DNA? Ridiculous. They were normal hormonal teens bound to fall in love when trapped with the most horrid people left on earth.

Of course, marking their arrival the tension had grown within the outpost and during dinner it simmered over with Coco standing up and demanding answers, demanding better treatment for the 100 of millions that had gotten her in here. Like clockwork, Mrs. Venable rained down on it, hard. Stu was the price for disturbance, the price for the growing tension. Killed with the excuse of radiation and by doing so Venable maintained power.

Oya had a hunch it would happen but she never imagined being feed Stu on a silver platter, literally. Even if Mrs. Venable denied that it was an act of cannibalism, the suspicion of it was enough to fast that day and enough to keep the people on their knees, just as she wanted them.

When the three months had passed Oya began to feel a sense of dread and hopelessness set in. She tried to fill her day with books, finding solace in written words rather than unintelligible conversation. By that time she knew more about the others that she cared for.

When 6 months had passed anger began to set in, along with the annoying need for skinship, the ache that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times she masturbated. Her body, mind and soul had grown accustomed to Michaels and when faced with lasting separation, it seemed too long for his company. So instead of focusing on longing, she focused on anger.

Where the fuck was he? Who the fuck was he to abandon her here with these people?... Was he hurt? Was he dead?

And if he wasn’t fucking dead he was sure to be when she got her hands on him. She’d ring him like a fucking dinner bell, wrap her hands around his throat and squeeze until his eyes popped out. Or maybe stab him, over and over and over. Poison him. Kill him with a dull spoon. When there were all the time in the world you’d think a whole lot of things.

18 months. From what she counted it was 18 months after the end of the world. That was 15 months more than what was expected. After a year she had begun to falter, to think that something had happened and she could do nothing about it. With her powers locked away and Michael in the possession of what could release them she was unable to tap into the energy. Within the prison of her body were her magic, her body within the prison of the outpost and Mrs. Venable, and all of that within the prison of radiation. To be kept from her full potential and to look eternity in the face with these people was painful to say the least.

If he came he better carry a fucking crown for her.

The day had been the same as every other day, but this time there were entertainment at dinner. Mr. Gallant boiling over with anger and hopelessness, throwing a tantrum as soon as they were told of the decision to cut back another meal. Everyone was starving and desperate.

Hiding behind a glass of water, Oya allowed herself a tiny smile at the entertainment. If she were honest she’d pay to see Gallant shove a fork into Dinah for her endless positivity blabber. She’d pay even more if he were to do it to his grandmother. Gallant was in an uprise, ready to rebel against the dictators and create a revolution, all he really needed was the rest of them on his side. It could happen. It was a possibility.

But this revolution they had seen happen all too many times. And the fires were to be extinguished or else it might just actually change things.

“What is the point of all of this? Starving? Killing each other? Getting shot?!” Coco exclaimed over the others. Her nose flared, breath quickened in anger. “-All we’re doing is waiting around finding out how we die.”

“I say we take out chances outside,” Mallory commented with strange confidence, breaking the trusted mouse position she was always in. It happened every once in a while, that something broke through the insecure mask of hers. While Coco was extravagant and dramatic, it felt as though Mallory was created to be overshadowed by her. While Coco was hostile, Mallory was docile. But sometimes she wasn't.

“She’s right!” Gallant agreed loudly, his voice rising into a yell. Oya put down her cup of water and nibbled at the half a square jelly on her plate. The sight of it managed to make her sad. Maybe a revolution was really what was best for them. No one was coming after all and Mrs. Venable grasped the reigns of power all too tightly.

“We have to get out of here,” He continued.

“Nobody is going anywhere,” Mrs. Mead spoke in a cold and controlled tone. This seemed to be Gallants last straw, the passiveness becoming too much. He threw his plate to the floor in anger, shattering it into pieces that scattered across the tiles.

“What are you gonna do?! Shoot me?!” He yelled loudly and restlessly, squaring up for a fight. If anything, the mountain of a woman, the one called ‘Fist’ as if it were any better, began to prepare herself for a fight, waiting for the order to rain down on the smaller man. “Huh! What are you gonna do? Shoot us all? Huh? What’re you gonna do!”

In a flash the room was cast in red light, swallowing up all colours and shadows. It wasn’t long after the alarm began, the deafening noise travelling through the halls, cast over the stones in a never-ending loop. Oya’s eyes went to Mrs. Venable who hadn’t yet masked her surprise, nor the glimpse of panic.

What this it? Did this mean that the outside had finally broken in. Everyone was aware of the death that lurked outside and wishing to enter. Had death finally arrived?

A silent confused panic spread through the room, laced with worry and fear. Oya couldn't help for join in, feeling her heart pick up speed and adrenaline spiking through her veins. She was after all human, just like the rest of them. She had asked Michael what would happen if she die, where she’d go, maybe now she’ll find out. If I die now, Michael, I swear to everything I will make your existence worse than what hell offers. She thought.

“Perimeter alert, there’s been a breach,” Fist spoke over the alarm. Mrs. Mead quickly followed Fist while the other survivors were sent to our rooms for the time being. Oya followed Timothy and Emily up, her room further down the hall to theirs. Everyone knew and if they didn’t know they suspected that they were together. Love at the end of the world.

“What do you think it is? A carrier pigeon?” Emily asked with the sprinkle of hope in her voice.

“Or death has come knocking,” Oya spoke behind her, receiving a worried glance and a sour glare from her boyfriend.

“It’s properly nothing,” Timothy said with faux hope, trying to appease his counterpart. His arm wrapped around her waist as they went up the stairs and pulled her aside as soon as they reached her door. Oya looked away when they kissed, giving them the minimal opportunity of intimacy and privacy, both which seemed long gone.

“Oya could you help me get out of this dress?” The two entered the room, one that was familiar and standard. Instead of a zipper that was usually used on the dresses, there were buttons, small fabric buttons. Oya’s fingers were nimble and quick, they wrapped around them and forced them through the hoop with ease.

“Do you really think it’s death?”

Oya looked up after having pulled the dress down the smaller girls form, letting it pool on the floor for her to step out of. If she spoke the truth or told a lie it wouldn't make a difference. In the past she might have gone with the truth, that death was out there and breathing down their necks, but after spending a year with them she had grown fond of some of them, fond in a way that they stood between her and insanity, between her and utter boredom. She was fond of them the same way she was fond of her bed, she could live without it, it wouldn’t make a huge difference, but it was nice to have. Emily, Timothy, Mallory, Dinah and Gallant were all nice to have, and sometimes Coco.

For a while, she had wondered if the knowledge of their possible deaths and Michael’s return to her, affected the way she thought of them. If the possibility of getting out of here without them stood as a roadblock to develop affections towards them further than acquaintances. Or if it was just her preferring the company of a few with actual intelligence were just how she was.

She did always prefer plants over people.

“No,” She spoke, watching Emily pick up her dress and place it on the bed while she rolled her neck. The corset looked too old on her, like a child playing dress up of a time that should have been forgotten. Oya fucking hate the Victorian gothic theme Mrs. Venable had decided on and from what she knew Emily agreed. “I don’t think it’s death. Mrs. Mead and Fist are here to protect us, they have weapons. Beside, remember last time? It was The Cooperative with its messenger pigeon and before that, it was you and Timothy.”

“You don’t think it’s people, do you?”

She felt herself falter, brows furrowing at the question and the strange pang that tugged in her chest. “No, I don’t think it’s people either.”

Oya left but only reached the end of the hall before a scream tore through the air, repelling against the stone and carrying through the outpost. Before she knew of it, Oya was running back towards Emily’s room intent to know what had caused the disturbance and more so because curiosity was one of her biggest adversaries. Not much happened in the outpost so when anything did happen she wanted front row seats.

Timothy had reached Emily before her, holding her against his firm chest, with arms wrapped around her protectively while they stumbled back onto the bed, feet up. Twisting and turning on the floor were snakes, most of them dark but a few white.They slithered across the floor in a clove. Unafraid, she walked into the room and bend down to grasp the snake that slithered along her skirt. Her grip was firm and unrelenting, no matter how much it hissed and how hard it twisted around her wrist, she would not let go.

Fist burst into the room only to take a few steps back as she discovered the snakes, followed by Mrs. Mead and her bellowing voice. “What the hell is going on in-,” her question was answered by hisses. Her eyes landed on Oya with a snake in her grip, confusion eating at her features.

“I thought everything outside was dead,” Fist said eyes raking over the snakes only for them to land on Mrs. Mead.

“God knows how deep they went after the blast,” Mrs. Mead answered taking the axe from Fist. “Maybe they came through the sewage or ventilation system.”

“If anything were to survive the blast and radiation it would have been cockroaches, not snakes,” Oya mumbled, looking at the black snake hissing at her. Its scales reflected the candlelight.

“H-how did you do that?” Emily stuttered and let out a squeal when Fist picked up a thin grey snake that came all too close for her liking. Mrs. Mead looked up at Oya interested in her answer, as she should be. It’s not every day a botanist picks up a snake as if it were nothing.

“I had a pet snake once,” Oya shrugged, sticking closer to the truth to make the lie more believable. Just like Michael had done her botany. “And every once in awhile you come across snakes when working in nature. Be careful, they’re poisonous.”

The head of the axe cut through the snake, partening its head from its body. This were to be the fate of most of them, hacked to pieces, while a few lucky ones were thrown in a pillowcase and taken somewhere else. It wasn’t until there were no snake alive or in the pillowcase before the greys were sent in to clean up.

“Pet snake?” Mrs. Mead spoke with skepticism.

“Yes.” With that Mrs. Mead and Fist walked away. Oya was left starring after them. Indeed if there were anything to survive it was cockroaches not snakes. This was equally concerning as it was interesting. Snakes had always been a symbol of cycles and rebirth as well as balance and danger, but most of all they were her symbol. Whatever they were doing there it meant something, something she was soon to find out.

They gathered around the dinner table as usual but this time snake was on the menu and even though Oya cared for snakes she wasn’t going to turn down a proper meal for the first time in ages. There were a restlessness lurking over them, hanging in the air. Of course Venable remained tightliped about what happened earlier but ensured their safety.

“I have a rule against eating things with no legs or too many legs,” Coco complained loudly sitting light a pouting child. Andre was quick to rebuke but by that time Oya had already tuned out. It was dull, the conversation, the constant nagging and going in circles. Honestly now that there were snakes here she might just up and poison all of them. She might hear what they say but it was only on the surface, instead she was going over possible ways for the snakes to have gotten in or even survived.

“So who’s in your office?” Emily asked. The air was sucked out of the room, eggshells laid out on the floor waiting to be crushed under someone's heel, this time Emily's. It caught everyone's attention including Oya’s. So it was a person.

Mrs. Venable narrowed her eyes, stare cold as ice and threatening. “I beg your pardon?”

“The alarms went off before and someone came inside,” Emily continued. How she obtained that information eluded Oya but it seemed like she wasn’t the only one hiding in the shadows and obtaining information. Venable glared through the room with her mask of superiority, grasping at the reigns of control and order. A match could light the room ablaze, the fire of change hidden behind an unlit match, one each of them were holding. But with the match came the chance of a bullet hole.

“Who else is here?” Timothy asked with a voice filled with persistence. The boy had balls, now we just had to wait and see if he got to keep them.

“All questions will be answered in due course,” Venable slickly averted, her cane tapping against the floor as it always did, sending a wave of chills down each of their spines. Tap! “Eat.”

Collectively they all removed the lit from the plates, the expected sight of snake soup turned into a literal living nightmare. The snakes that had once been bits and pieces were somehow now slithering over the dinner table followed by a corus of skittering chairs and squeals, not all coming from the women. The snake that coiled in her soup hissed and made attempt to skitter across the table but Oya caught it by the head as she had done earlier before rising from the table and stepping back. The snake wrapped around her wrist. Dead snakes don't just come back to life.

He was here, he had to be here.

Gathered in the library, everyone waited in quiet anticipation so thick you could cut it straight out of the air. Oya was placed between the loud and annoyed Coco and the failed revolutionist Gallant. Even the greys that were usually shuffling around in the shadows now stood gathered along the walls of the room, waiting for what came next. Overlooking all of this were Venable herself, of course, eyes ice and stone set in the mask of superiority.

Her fingers tickled with adrenalin, heart pumping profusely as the seconds drawed out feeling like ages. She knew, even before he ever stepped in the room, that he was there, the one she wanted to strangle for making her wait at the same time wanting to just bury her face in his chest and draw in the familiar scent of allspice. Most of all she looked forward to watching how the others would react to his presence.

The echoes of footsteps rang out, creeping along the floor of the hall and ending in the middle of the room. When his presence caught up with the sounds of his steps her heart stopped within her chest. Her mask of stone and mild indifference hiding her thoughts from the world around them.

All eyes followed him while his eyes remained on Mrs. Venable whose expression remained closed of and cold until he was standing right beside her. It was strange to see her falter, to see her mask crumble under his unwavering gaze.

Michael’s aura was predatory, dominant. It demanded respect and attention. His hair was longer, much longer, and more golden that she remembered. It was as if during the time from where he send her away he had fallen into who he was, he seemed more comfortable.

“My name is Langdon and I represent the Cooperative,” he spoke calmly with the same drawl she had missed. Hearing his voice made it all reality, she had imagined this for so fucking long and now when it happened it ignited the anger that burned within her for so long. Still she remained perfectly in place, not storming up to push in into the fire or break the glass vase on the table to cut him up with, no for he had given her a task, a role to play and she damn well were going to play it to the fullest.

“I won’t sugarcoat the situation,” he continued, passing his eyes slowly over each person. Andre looked positively starving and Michael would be the one snack in the room. It didn’t go unnoticed that every single person seemed drawn by him, some more than others. His beauty was after all one of the greatest weapons. “Humanity is on the brink of failure. My arrival here was crucial to the survival of civilised life on earth.”

The air seemed to still, become colder at his words despite the fire burning behind him. It cast an orange aura around him lighting him up in either hellfire or a halo depending on one's point of view.

“The three other compounds in Syracuse, New York, Beckley, West Virginia and San Angelo, Texas, has been overrun and destroyed.” Oya glanced at Venable who looked troubled at the information and of course she would. It have her a bitter sadisfaction to see the glimpse of panic on her face. Shivers went through the room. “We’ve had no contact from the 6 international outposts but we are assuming that they too have been eliminated.”

“What happened to the people inside?” Timothy asked suspiciously.

Michael rolled his head towards him, drawing out the tension before answering. “Massacred.”

For a moment it was as if every single person within the room had been douched in ice water, frozen at Michael’s disturbing words and the realization that it could every well be them next. Oya couldn’t blame them, his words even made her feel the shiver.

“The same fate that would befall all most all of you.”

“Almost all?” Mallory asked with raspy voice and faltered under the gaze of the others. Once more she proved herself to me more than what she presented.

“In the knowledge that this very moment might occur we build a failsafe, The Sanctuary,” Michael answered calmly.

“The Sanctuary?” Coco said not masking her skepticism.

“The Sanctuary is unique,” Michael elaborated. “It has certain security measures that will prevent overrun.”

“Excuse me, Sir, but why weren't we given them?” Mrs. Mead asked worry painting her features while Venable looked positively furious. As well as the mask of superiority fit Venable every once in a while her eyes gave her away.

“That’s classified,” Michael shut her question down with the wave of his hand that elegantly raised through the air. Movements were like a cat or a trained ballerina, it was elegant and polished. “All that matters is that The Sanctuary will survive so that the people populating it will survive so humanity will survive.” He made it seem so normal and that was possibly what disturbed the others so much, how he seemed almost indifferent to annihilation.

“Who are the people who are populating it?” Now it was Andre’s turn to ask a question, his eyes no longer eating Michael up now that the realisation of the severity of the situation had come.

“Also classified,” Michael answered with annoyance. “However, I’ve been sent to determine if any of you are worthy and fit to join us.”

Hope bloomed like a flower and spread like wildfire. It rippled through the room transformed into small whispers. Like birds they chippered and Oya participated in the role she had created for herself.

“The Cooperative has developed a particular and rigorous questioning teknike we like to call -cooroperating. I will then use the information gained to determine if you belong.” His eyes traveled through the room drinking in every expression. Every one of them but hers. Not once had he looked at her and it only made the fire within her chest burn more wild. It was irrational of her, she knew his plan, she knew her part, but after being deprived for so long irrationality became rational.

“What is this, the hunger games?” Coco began, her voice sounding like nails on a blackboard. Oya breathed out and leaned back, knowing exactly what was going to happen. Coco was shallow, superficial and downright childish. Somehow her ego was bigger than her dead father's bankbook. “This is bullshit!”

Michael lifted his eyebrows and glared at her with utter indifference while she continued her tantrum. “I paid my way in here and that is the only cooperating I plan on doing.”

“You don’t have to sit for questioning,” Michael simply answered with a nonchalant like none other. He couldn’t care less, she could drop dead right in front of him and he’d simply walk over her body on the way out.

“What happens if we don’t?” Andre braved to question.

“Then you stay here and die.” Nonchalance turned to annoyance once more. It was made obvious that if they wanted to survive they didn’t have a choice. He could walk out of here with all of them or none of them and from what he must think by now, the former were the prefered choice.

With minimal hesitation Gallant almost exclaimed, “I volunteer to go first.” And efficiently beat everyone to the punch. The bleached blond looked wide eyed at Michael.

“And so you shall.” The air in the room had become tense again, if it had ever chanced. The usual tension had been swallowed up by impending doom sprinkled with bits of hope. Oya dried her sweaty palms on the purple fabric and swallowed, annoyed with every single person in the room, most of them for falling into what Coco had once taught her ‘a thirst trap’, what she herself would have called desire for someone who stood as a gatekeeper between life and death. She was annoyed at their simplicity, human stupidity, but most of all for feeling it herself. “Process should only take me a couple of days, so…-you won't be kept in suspense forever.”

It happened then, their eyes met and she felt electricity shoot through her. It was but a moment, a leaf in the wind, but it made her feel all the more solid and less invisible. It was a simple acknowledgement that she was here and not a specter trapped in hell with these people. These people, she was part of them for now she realised and that was the reason why he had glanced her, just like he had done everyone else.

She got one look and no more.

Bastard.

“For those of you who don’t make the cut,” Michael spoke with ease, shaking his head slightly. “All is not lost.” Slowly he pulled a vile from within his sleeve. “If it were to happen that feral cannibals were to come knocking…” Now the vile filled with tiny little white capsules were on full display. She recognizes them as one of her own product, made to kill without pain, they were always good to have, pop it into someones wine or food and they’d drop dead. Did he ransack her medicine box?

A hint of a smirk formed on his face, smug in the face of death. “Down one of these. One minute later you fall asleep and never wake up.” Now that the severity of the situation had fully formed in their minds, the hint became but a memory when the smirk fully bloomed on his lips, eyes gleaming with power and mischief. He knew he had them right in his palm. “I look forward to meeting each and every one of you.”

With that Michael left the room, leaving them all to down in their own thoughts. Venable looked troubled, unhappy that someone had come into her territory and was now fighting to keep what power she had. She tapped her cane on the floor harshly, the anger apparent, simmering beneath calm exterior.

In silence the world began to spin again. The grey’s were sent away to whatever work they had while the purples remained. Oya rose from her seat feeling smothered by Gallant and Coco. She found her way to the other side of the room, wanting to look over the books once more as if it would magically make a new one appear.

“Pet snake?” Venable spoke with a hard tone. Oya blinked at her confused for a moment.

“Yes.” Venable didn’t spare her a glance and instead walked away, her posse of trusted guarddogs following.

“Well, smooth move asking to go first,” Coco was the first one to break the silence, turning her anger and discomfort towards Gallant who looked almost innocent. Oya picked out a book with black leather and golden trimms, skimming through the old pages. This one was written in latin.

“It’s an old actors attage, either go first or go last,” Evie commented, her voice somehow more cutting that Coco’s.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Coco bit at the much older lady and thereby stepping into the battlegrounds. Oya rolled her eyes, hidden by shadows and leather, and she knew she wasn’t the only one.

“Are you suggesting that he’s going to pass me up?” Evie broke out offended. Oya had been wrong earlier, the biggest ego within these wretched walls was Evie. Apparently there were nothing she hadn’t done, no one famous she didn’t know and everyone was subjected to listening to her endless stories of hollywood grandeur. She was a Diva with a major D and she let everyone know it. Which was what had made it hard for Oya not to concoct something to slip into her many drinks or even that ugly lipstick the hag maganged to abuse. Sometimes she had even planned how to make her death look like divine intervention or fucking suicide.

“You’re ancient!” Coco barked back, body hopping a little on the plush pillows. If Evie was ancient what was she? “He’s looking for people to repopulate the earth not fill a bingohall.”

“You know, for someone with a mental capacity of a 3 year old I suppose 52 might seem ancient.” At this Oya couldn’t help but snort, trying to keep her laugh hidden. From the look of it they all heard, most of them agreeing with her sentiment. 52? 52?!

“You were 52 when Elvis took his last shit,” Coco snickered. Apparently this became too much for Gallant as he breathed out, “That’s enough.”

“No no, dear, let her spout. I remember…” Evie began her tale and Oya immediately shot her out. Coco and Oya made eye contact and there were a brief moment of understanding, acknowledgement of the others pain where both of them rolled their eyes at the hag continuing her story.

She put the book back and left the room, wanting to remove herself from the hassle of other humans. The halls were quiet, lit dimly by the candles that cast an orange glow on everything while managing to make every shadow darker and more sinister. She rolled her neck, trying to work out the tension that had build up there, while trying to calm the fire that burned within her. If she had run into Michael right then and there, she’d have dragged him by the hair to the staircase and pushed him over. Or that was what she would like to think happen, reality would most likely be much different.

It was strange being angry to the very bone, the fire burning through her chest and into her bloodstream, but also relieved. He as here, it was finally happening, but he was here and it was finally happening. The feelings were two very distinct ones, a mix of happiness and hatred, relief and disdain. The thought of being in a room with him brought a thrill tearing through her soul, but it also made it clear how abandoned she really felt.

Anything could happen during their impending interview. Only time would tell which feeling would win the battle.

#michael langdon #michael langdon fic #michael langdon imagine #obsidian & angelite

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