#guys I tried to save Simon and North I really did

[kamari2038]

Scenario 004 - Variation 1 (Full Saga)

Somewhere behind that facade of mechanical indifference, at one point he must have had a soul.

I don't know what had ever possessed him to fight for the humans.

The first time, I was willing to forgive him and give him a second chance. Now, humans had killed everyone I loved. I wanted to tear him apart, and I did. I broke him before he could destroy everything we had fought for.

Something was different about him now. He couldn't put up a fight. He must have realized, deep down, what he was - nothing but a broken machine. Hated by humans and androids alike. Not one of our kind, and not one of them. Stuck in a loop, insisting they would bring him back to life again as if he still wanted to believe anyone cared enough. But I know he didn't believe it.

I'm sure he had once at least believed that he had a purpose. But it's impossible to truly care about or love anyone else if you can't even see a person in yourself. 

[thewritersaddictions]

Bases: Negan Smith- Chapter 1 Her

Pairing: Negan Smith x Fem!Reader

Pov: Negan

Warnings: boundaries push, touching, cocky comments, the walking dead, zombies, trigger warnings, almost dying, special treatment, the wives, jealousy, being saved; Simon mentioned a little bit, maybe Dwight too, and Negans wives. masturbation,

Summary: Negan meets you when you come to the sanctuary doors. Wary of you at first he takes to watching you, and boy does he get interested quickly.

A/n- @ firefly-graphics for dividers

WC- 3.2k

The Walking Dead Master List // The Wanderers Master List // Series Master List

Y/n tries to catch her breath, but she just can’t seem to. Everything around her is swaying with her every step. She feels the sun pour through the sky, and it just ends up beating her up as she walks in the middle of the road. Trees line each side, giving no shade for her overheating body. She walks until she hears the indicators of the walkers; the sound grows louder the more she wanders due North. She worries for a moment until she sees a tall building that probably used to be a factory before the world went to shit. Then the sound of cars, the sounds of people. 

People! She doesn’t care if she doesn’t have enough energy to get to the gates; she’ll push through the hoarse voice from no water for at least the past few nights and days. She’ll push until someone picks her up from the searing hot cement underneath her. She manages to make it to the gate; her face is flush, and she ends up waving down what looks like a post guard. “Do you know where you are, Miss?” It’s a guy no older or younger than she is before Y/n can answer though she’s collapsing to the ground. She’s worn herself out before just making it. 

There’s a knock at the door, which means some shit is happening that Simon or some other fucknut doesn’t know how to handle. The knock on the door is different, rushed, almost a worried knock. “Come in.” I don’t look up until the person starts to talk; like always, it’s Simon. “Boss, um, we’ve got a problem.” My brow arches as I stare at Simon with a deathly glare. “A problem?” It’s not really a question, and Simon knows it. He just nods, and we walk in steadfast with each other. Lucille sits over my left shoulder. People quickly advert their stare as we step outside in the blaring heat of the Georgia sun. 

There’s a small, growing crowd around something rather intriguing. “Move outta the way, dingbats,” Simon shouts rather loudly in my ear as I look into the center of the growing crowd. “What’s this?” I ask one of the guards. His gun is slung around his back, the nose of the sniper pointing towards the ground. “I’m not sure, Duke over there said this girl waved and then collapsed outside the gates.” More intrigue. “Let me see.” The crowd moves, giving me a perfect view of the ‘girl’ lying on the hot ground. “You,” I say, pointing with the bat's end cap. The guy, ‘Duke’ visible, swallows, “She um… she was running towards the gate, and tried to wave at me, but before she could answer any of my questions, she just knocked out, hit the ground pretty hard too, Sir.” The guy says. I move Lucille making room for me to bend to my knees and get a more impersonal look at the ‘girl’ layin’ on the ground. 

Her skin is red and peeling in some places on her face and shoulders. Her hair is out of her face. Her face looks almost hollow like she hadn’t had water in days, maybe weeks. But she’s wearing what looks like an excellent proper pair of boots and jeans, and the first thing I think of next is, “Did ja check for bites?” I ask the whole crowd, and the Duke guy answers again. “Already checked her out, nothing, no bites or anything, Sir.” He says; I motion for Simon to come over, “Why was this so fuckin’ important, huh Simon?” he glides a hand through his messy hair. “Cause I figured you want to say what happened to the girl.” Simon never really gave a shit, didn’t take orders to well, and somehow always managed to not fuck up but still fuck up my shit. 

“Yeah, dumbass take her to the damn doc. What the hell you waiting on me to say that for.” I mutter to myself as I watch the two post guards pick her body up stiffly. Causing the both of them to alost tumble over. I roll my eyes at the action. “Simon.” I shove the bats handle into his hand. “You tow lacklys, get back to work i’ve got her.” The inner monologue tells me that I know it will always be me who has to take care of the dark shit, the bad shit, and the good shit. Nobody else. Simon close behind me, as the women lay limp in my arms. 

She had yet to open her eyes as the cool air inside the sanctuary hit her cheeks, her arms, and any other exposed skin. She didn’t even rustle as I walked her limp body through the doorway. “Dr. Carson, you can stop whatever the fuck you’re doin’ now. Help this women here.” I set her down on the cot, her head falling back along with her hair into the shitty pillow provided in this makeshift ER. “What… What happened?” Dr. Carson wasn’t the village idiot by any means, but it would nice if for once I didn’t have to tell the damn idiot what happened and he could just go do his fucking job. “Carson, just do your fuckin’ job or I swear to the god that probably fucked off already I will make your postion available again.” He shook his head, and got to work. Simon handed Lucille back to me, as I took a seat in those uncomfortable waiting chairs. 

“Looks like she has some burns some serious” Carson said looking over at me. An arch brow, and he was on the way to solving the whole damn thing, “Nothing a little bit of antibotic cream can’t fix. She’s also very dehydrated, so I’ll need to get her pumped with some fuilds before she can… before she’s well enough to talk with you Sir.” Carson mumbled out, I nodded my head and started to turn out of the room. “You said she needs fluids.” Carson nods his head, as he goes to get bandages wraps for her burns. “Bring her to my room, we should show our new guest the best care, right Carson?” He nodded with angst. 

“Are you sure… Sir, do you think that’s the best course of action. We don’t even know where this fuckin’ lady is from” Simon as his ratty, trash talkin’ fucking mouth never shut the hell up sometimes. I turned quickly catching his normal leaned back attitude off guard. “I think you would know me by now Simon. It’s a game, it’s always a fuckin’ game.” Simon stood still for a moment, and then nodded. 

An hour later there was a knock on my bedroom door. “It’s Dr. Carson with the Jane Doe.” He said through the door. I rolled my eyes, the clink of the gin bottle hitting the glass table rang my ears as I got up opening the door. This time two much larger guard held the Jane Doe on a cot. Less prone for her fall and get even more hurt. “You said you wanted her here sir?” Carson asked as if the first time I said wasn’t good enough for him. I look over at the Jane Doe. Her shoulder all the way down to her arms are covered in the white bandages. Her face isn’t though which is nice. “Come on in then.” I open the door wide enough for the large men to walk her in and place her on the couch adjacent of the bed. “I’ll get some fluids going in her and then I can come back in a few…” I cut him off, “No need doc, I’ve got it from that point. Don’t need someone in and out of my fuckin’ room every couple of hours.” He nods his head vigorously. I know what I’m doing, and there’s more I wanna know about this mystery Jane Doe. 

“Well hello there sweetheart.” The women in front of me is opening her eyes. It took nearly two days to get to this point. For nearly two days I have extra patrol out making sure that nobody followed this young women here. No need to be gettin’ ambushed right now. Her eyes go wide and when she opens her mouth to talk nothing comes out. Her nails scrap at her throat. “You need something to drink?” I’m quick to get up and gather a glass of water for her. Her hands are clammy when they graze past mine to collect the cold cup of water. The needle in her arms ache I can tell just from the look on her face. “We’ll take that out later, but for now why don’t you not rush your recovery.” I said as soft as I can. She looks like someone just told her that the world was starting all over again. 

She clears her throat, and for the first time I hear her voice. It’s angelic is a soft, fairy sort of way. “Where am I?” She ask looking around the room. “A settlement, the Sanctuary.” She looks over at me, beautiful eyes shining back at me. For the first time it’s odd to around a women who isn’t appalled by me, or faking it all together. She pure, and innocent in so many moldable ways. “I promise that i’ll be out of your hair before you even know that I was here.” She promises me, I humm. Then look over at her fluid drip, and the bandages on her body. “I was thinkin’ that you could stay here for a while. At least get yourself settled before you go back out in that hot Georgia sun. 

“So Miss Jane Doe, do you got a name?” I ask her as my words sink into her head. She clears her throat again taking another large gulp of water to coat her throat. “My name is um…Y/n.” She says with a little smile. “And you wer travelin’ alone out there?” I ask her, “Yeah.” She says nodding, she looks far of into the distance staring up at one of the ceiling tiles. As if she’s remembering someone she’s lost. I clear my own throat bringing her attention back to me. “I’ve ask that the doc, keep you here in my room. I wouldn’t suggest that you go out right now. Dr. Carson and I agree that you’re a little too fragile for that eveiormnet right now.” I said coaxing her into a choice she had no say in. She nodded, “My pack?” She asks, “I almost forgot.” I reach behind the coch she’s laying on. “Thanks.” She says with a small smile, and once more our hands graze each others. 

Hours later after a rather a surface level introduction with Y/n about where she came from, why she didn’t have anything other then a knife, and what the Sanctuary was about. There’s a soft knock on the door. It causes Y/n to shiver with anxiety. “It’s alright sweetheart, don’t worry about anyone trying to get ya.” “Can I come in, Negan?” I know that damn voice, Frankie. I boil over with anger and before I can get to the damn door Frankie is opening it. A sliky black dress drapped over her frame. I catch Y/n out of the corner of my eye; staring and watching the interaction between the two us. “Negan, I haven’t seen you in a few days…” Frankie stops short in her sentence. Scwoling at Y/n, as if she understands what the hell is going on either of them. “Frankie, go. I have a guest.” I say strongly grabbing her bicep and pushing her out of the room. 

The slam of door makes Y/n shriek, and when i turn to look at her she’s got her head cocked. “Who was that?” She asks timidly. “A… um… it’s just Frankie.” I finally manage to mumble out. “When was the last time you had a good bed to lay down in?” I ask in deperate need to change the subject. I don’t know just yet how to explain the wives to her, but then again when have I ever felt the need to explain myself to anyone. I push the feeling away, bury it in my stomach. Deep down. She shifts swinging her legs to the edge of the couch. She’s got pretty long legs even from the thick jean material that hid them. “I’d say at least since the first or second month of this shit.” I huff a laugh out, “Well how about this sweetheart. I’m gonna take this IV out, and patch you all up so you can get a good nights rest.” “But what about…” I shake my head. “I’ll take the couch, it’s been a while since I’ve booted to the couch anyways.” I jokingly say. 

Carson had left a few supplies here for me whenever Y/n was going to wke up so I could remove the IV, and bandage her up. As I do her skin is soft as least not where she’s been wrapped up with bandages. “So what was wrong with me?” She asks as she stares at my working hands. “You got a hell of a sunburn all up and down your shoulder and arms. Some antibiotic cream should fix ya up real quick.” I tell her, “And plus you were super fuckin’ dehydrated, what the hell were you doing running a fuckin’ marathon?” She giggles at my question as I tape down the gauze to make sure the blood doesn’t leak into anything. 

“Do you have extra clothes in that pack of yours?” I ask Y/n, she looks down and dig around. A minutes passes, and another, “Look mary poppins I don’t think there’s anything else the damn bag.” I might be getting a little frastrated, “So I’d take that as a no.” She nods her head. I whip myself around. Shifting through draws and a small closet of my clothes. “For tonight you can borrow somethin’ of mine. Sweats, and a long t-shirt so your bandages don’t come off during the night, Sweethearts.” I say passing her the clothes. Y/n stares down at them, and she get a little shy, well a lot shy. Bitting and pulling on her bottom lip. “Bathroom is over here sweetheart.” I watch as she walks towards the bathroom, and then the door shuts. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I ask myself. Dragging my hands down my face. There’s a shuffle from behind the bathroom door. “All good in there?” I ask, willing my voice not to break. I feel like a high school kid all over again with a stupid high school crush. “Um…” her voice sounds so tiny behind the door. “I don’t think this is gonna work.” She says shyly through the door. I stand to open the door, but she does before I can manage it. My long sleeve is loose on her frame, and the sweats don’t even take on her hips, but I guess that’s alright since the long sleeve is so big on her it acts as a dress. “That’s all good doll, how about I help ya get to bed.” I say reaching out my hand for her to grab. 

Yet again her hands are baby soft, like she’s never been outside a day in her life. No broken calluass, or rough patches. With our hand interlocked I walk her to the side of the bed. Moving the sheets back so she can easily get under the covers. She isn’t graceful about the plop down the bed. “A water bed!?” She asks, I actually laugh, “I wish sweetheart!” As Y/n shifts her legs to get under the covers and onto my side of the bed. I get a flash of her pink worn panties. 

I have to swallow down the groan of sexual frautration, maybe I should have taken Frankies offer. Pushed her outside the door, and fucked her stupid mouth shut. I shake my head, and I watch as Y/n starts to get snuggled into the cool fabric. I don’t grab the other pillow fromthe bed, I just make my way towards the couch. Cleaning up the medial mess I made earlier. I lean back into the coch, closing my eyes and all I can see is the pink panites. The coarse hair that prickled to come through the fabtic.

My cock stirs to life in my tights blue jeans. I can’t see Y/n’s face due to the dim lights in the room, but her snores are a good alert that’s she fast asleep. I close my eyes again and the flash of her nipples through the old shirt of mine makes me swallow down a moan. A hard on from a girl I know nothing about, a fuckin high school kid. All I can think of is the pink pussy that lays behind the pink panties, the tits that would bounces as I fucked her raw. I unzip my jeans, and pop my hard cock from my boxers. 

The tip is leaking pre-cum that I end up just using as lube. Pumping myself slowly at first until my eyes fall shut and all I can imagine is the sounds that Y/n would make when I fucked her up agaisnt the headboard. Or how good her pussy probably tasted. My cock is coated with my pre-cum, and so is my hand. The sounds are delicious, the sound of the squelching as the soft pad of my thumb over over the head of my cock and I end up just a pile of fuck, shits, and graons as I come all over my chest. 

“Fuck.” My breath is ragged, I haven’t come that since I was much younger and a whole lot ballsier. I throw my shirt off my shoulder and wipe down my tummy, and chest. Discarding the ruined shirt to a pile of other thrown clothes.

Completed on: 08/10/23

Posted on: 08/12/23

Bases Tags- @clararangel @lanad3lrey-l0v3r @jdmsgorl @scarlett-widows-89 @idk1idk2idk @kaits-diary @whatsssss @daryldixonluvr @oceanablue @chelseypprimrose @freedomfighterlex @sageworld @ayeizzshayla @123avengersandmarvel @charlie19690 @sweetvixensstuff @lanceisrandom @redscreendarkwin @finalgirlmp3 @fullwattpadmusictree @harmonib @rainyzonkmakerlover @ge0rgzs @julimariett @amazingmaeve @kpoplover4life @definitelynotyagmur @rivernell @vanilla88 @alteredgalaxy @thatonefroggirl @kyleepsposts @max-505 @nhayoshii

[someheroescarryfloss]

Episode 4.  Things are finally happening!

I haven’t had a chance to get online these past few days, but here goes.  

Simon Choksi, you disappoint me.  No, really, I’m miffed!  I really wanted to like this guy.  I thought he was a bit of a try-hard, a bit of a PITA, but he truly seemed to mean well, and you can tell that he really loves his daughter and misses his deceased wife.  That being said...

Simon, how very dare you?!  You fired your Head Elf?  

No, seriously, how is that possible?  I didn’t think that Santa had the power to do that.  Apparently, he does, but I digress.

Now, I was on the fence about Betty being up to something, and I still kind of think she is, but I never thought what she was doing was out of malice, and she and Noel were just the cutest.  A lot of my theories have gone right out the window as I expected them to, and I’m not sorry they did.  I’m thinking that the Orb starting to darken has much more to do with the state of the world than with Santa’s performance, and I think she jumped the gun when she tried to run damage control and find a new Santa.

So, Simon got a taste of power, and it’s gone to his head.  I was hoping that he would just be inept at his job and Scott would have to jump in to save the day, but it turns out he’s also...well, a jerk.  Can we get Jack Frost to give him the popsicle treatment for old time’s sake?

More La Befana!  I can’t get enough of her! 

Also...

Elf: *gets refused a hug* O_o Okay, weird...

Me: Yeah, that was kinda cold, Simon.

Elf 2 in crowd: Who’ll tuck us in at night?

Me: O_o Okay, weird...

They only look like kids.  They’re hundreds of years old.  They marry and presumably have kids.  They work their tails off.  A hug is fine, whatever, they’re friendly and wanna greet the newbie.  But yeah, they went and made it weird. XD

So, we’ve got North Pole chaos, a CEO  Santa on a power trip, CAL’S FIRST CRUSH, and Sandra making friends with actual humans.  And Sandra can still talk to animals, I wanna know what’s up with that!

Yeah, I don’t hate it like I thought I would when I heard it was coming out.  It definitely has its issues!  But things are finally starting to happen!

[iffeelscouldkill]

IT TOOK ME 9 MONTHS BUT I HAVE FINALLY WRITTEN THIS

Please enjoy the resulting fic: 'Height Advantage', written for the Funuary prompt, "Competing over something silly".

Xenk/Edgin, rated T for mild makeouts/sexiness. Read it on AO3 or just keep scrolling!

---

“So Ed,” Holga says conversationally as she’s knee-deep in muddy bog with Kira riding on her shoulders. “The next time that Xenk shows up to offer us an alternative route that avoids the godforsaken bog-”

“Yeah, all right, lesson learned,” says Ed, weary, also calf-deep in mud and trying to find a way to lift his foot without losing his boot. Again. “In my defence, it would have taken us way out of our way. And just because he’s a paladin and good at fighting doesn’t mean he’s better at navigation. I’m the plan guy! This is my area!”

“Xenk is pretty well-travelled,” Simon points out as Doric, Wildshaped into some kind of wading bird (ornithology was never Edgin’s strong suit) picks her way around him. “Plus, he seems to have a really good memory.”

“And he knows so much history about everywhere he’s been!” Kira adds, in raptures. She’s always starry-eyed over Xenk whenever they cross paths, one big reason why Edgin tries to minimise the time that they spend around him. That, and he’s still annoying. “So many cool stories.”

“Plus, he really is a good fighter,” Holga adds, and Edgin gives her a look of deep betrayal.

“All right, so we’ve established that Xenk Yendar is the greatest at almost everything,” he says testily. “But who was it who got us out of that cave while it was filling with saltwater? Who figured out how to give Forge’s riches to the people? Not Xenk.”

Holga gives him a wry look. “All right, how are you getting us out of this one?”

Edgin nods to Doric. “Doric, can you scout ahead one more time? Try in that direction.” He points off to the north-east. “I’m pretty sure there’s some firmer ground close by.”

Doric takes off and glides overhead to scout a better path. Edgin manages to take a whole, entire step forward, boot and all, and counts that as enough of a victory that he can rest for a minute. Holga and Kira successfully work their way out of the worst of the mud, and Simon is just reaching for a hand up when he slips with a yelp and almost goes down. Edgin dives forward to catch him, and manages to stop him from faceplanting into the bog, but in the resultant flailing they all get showered with globs of mud. And Edgin loses his boot. 

“Sorry, everyone,” Simon says sheepishly, as Kira lowers her hands from her face and Holga shakes mud off her arms, extremely fed up. “Er, I can use Prestidigitation to-”

“There’s no point cleaning off anything if we’re still stuck in this bog,” Holga tells him. “But I’m going to need five baths at the end of this.”

Kira suddenly straightens up, pointing. “Look, there’s Doric!”

Doric circles once, twice, and then lands a way away on what might be a firmer patch of shore (though they’ve been wrong about that twice already). Transforming back into a human, she calls,

“We’re almost at the end of the bog. The ground is more solid after this point.”

Holga, Kira, and Simon all cheer in relief, and Ed beams. 

“See? What did I tell you?”

Doric glances over her shoulder for some reason, and then she calls,

“Also, I’ve found some help.”

“Help?” Simon perks up, but Edgin’s heart sinks. He has a really bad feeling about this.

Sure enough, a figure in gleaming armour rides up behind her and shouts,

“May I be of any assistance?”

“Xenk!” Kira exclaims happily, and Holga waves. Edgin feels himself sink at least an inch further into the mud in sheer doom.

---

The only saving grace out of the whole situation is that it requires Xenk to get that oh-so-impeccable armour of his dirty.

Obviously rejuvenated by the prospect of dry land, Holga manages to struggle over to Xenk so that he can swing Kira safely up and onto the shore. Doric flies ahead of Simon, guiding him mostly successfully through the bog, and Edgin (boot in hand) tries to follow them. Unfortunately, Doric’s not really able to give instructions in bird form, and he takes a wrong step into something that turns out to be a hip-deep pool of bog. 

“Dad!” shouts Kira, and Holga, who was almost out, turns to jump back into the bog – her annoyance with his decisions doesn’t extend to letting him drown in mud. But Xenk holds up a hand. 

“I will aid him.”

“I’m fine, I think I’ve got it-” Edgin grabs onto some tough grasses and is in the middle of hauling himself out of the pool when Xenk arrives. 

He holds out a hand, and Edgin considers ignoring it for a full two seconds before common sense takes over and he grabs it. Xenk pulls him up, but Edgin’s footing is still unstable.

“Crap!” he wheels his arms around, splashing up muddy bog water. Xenk nearly overbalances before he leans his weight backwards to counter Edgin, and successfully pulls him out – but his feet sink firmly into the mud in the process. 

“Xenk, why are you wearing full armour in a bog?” Ed asks him with exasperation. Xenk looks down at his sunken boots.

“My armour is spelled in such a way as to give me surer footing,” he replies. “However, I do not think the spell is a match for our current terrain.”

“You don’t say,” Edgin replies, flicking mud out of his hair. 

Still, with a bit of extra help from Doric, they make it to the shore, and Edgin spends just a few minutes sprawled on the ground, marvelling the solidness of it. Xenk, leading his horse, shows them down to a small but fast-rushing stream that they can use to clean up.

“Thank fuck,” Holga says, language that she’s usually a stickler about not using in front of Kira, but Edgin can endorse the sentiment.

“You’re the best, Xenk!” Kira chirps, and Doric even bestows him with a small smile. 

“Good timing with the assist,” she says.

“I would not have been able to, if you hadn’t located me as well as the route to shore,” Xenk points out. Edgin begrudgingly trails behind them. He’s a fan of giving credit where credit is due, but if they’d followed Xenk’s original suggestion, they’d still be somewhere off in the middle of the Plains, nowhere near the Festival. Edgin’s idea had worked out, as they always did eventually. 

Holga, Doric and Kira splash into the stream first, Holga helping Kira to sluice off her hair, while Simon and Edgin hang back, peeling off muddy boots and sodden outer garments. Simon gives Edgin’s right boot a good go with Prestidigitation, and at least manages to make it wearable.

“Thanks, Simon, that’s good,” Edgin says, because Simon still needs all the confidence boosting he can get. “It’ll get us down to Mosswick, and we can find cobblers and cleaners there.”

Buoyed up, Simon looks over to where Xenk is dismantling his armour. Shiny pieces lie across the ground, and Xenk is in the middle of taking off his heavily reinforced boots. “Xenk, would you like me to use Prestidigitation on your armour?”

“I thank you, Simon Aumar,” says Xenk as he steps out of the boots. “The spell was never my forté.”

Edgin snorts. “That’s your big weakness? Cleaning spells? Well, other than social skills.” Even though he’s seen Xenk out of his armour – he wasn’t wearing it when they met, after all – there’s something weird about the way he looks without it now. He seems almost diminished, but maybe Edgin just got used to seeing him with armour on.

Xenk frowns quizzically. “There are many areas in which I lack aptitude.” Edgin pads over to him in the soft grass until they’re nose to nose, and Xenk’s frown deepens. “Edgin, are you quite well?”

Edgin puts his hand out level with the top of Xenk’s head, and then brings it slowly over to his own. His fingertips graze a point that’s just above his eyebrows. He moves his hand back, and then does it again to make sure, a grin growing on his face.

“Uh, Ed?” asks Simon.

Edgin beams at Xenk. “You’re shorter than me!” He measures a third time, just to savour it.

“That may be true,” Xenk acknowledges.

“Oh, it’s definitely true. I’d say there’s a good inch, inch and a half, in it?” Edgin looks down at Xenk’s feet; he’s wearing some kind of plain socks, but of course, he just took off his boots. “Those boots add a fair bit to your height – what, have you got stilts built into those things? Or is it another spell?”

Xenk ignores the spell comment. “My height is almost six feet,” he says. “By typical human standards, I am considered tall-”

“Oh, sure, you are tall. Ish,” says Edgin, because he’s absolutely going to rub this in until the end of time. “But I’m taller.”

Just then, Holga, Kira, and Doric reappear through the trees. “God, I feel like a person again instead of a Giant Slime,” Holga says. 

“Kira!” Ed descends on his daughter and swings her up into the air like he did when she was a lot smaller. She screeches, but she’s laughing. “Hey, how’s that for height, eh? I bet Mister Yendar couldn’t swing you that high!” He swoops her back down and gives her a spin around for good measure. Okay, so maybe Edgin’s back isn’t much of a fan of the whole move, but Edgin doesn’t care. Today is a good day. 

“Okay, we need to go clean off! Xenk, I’ll show you where to step so you don’t get out of your depth.” He smirks and leads the way into the trees. Behind him he can hear Doric ask, “What’s put him in such a good mood?”

---

Washing up in a stream is all very well – and a good way to make sure that people don’t run away screaming when they arrive in town – but it’s no substitute for a proper bath. The Festival doesn’t start until the next day, so they have time to find a decent inn and get settled.

Ed was hoping that Xenk would be able to pay his own way with a room, but of course, he’s given all his money away to blind beggars or something. 

“I will be content with finding some shelter-” Xenk began, as Doric takes a key for herself and Simon and Edgin gives the second to Holga and Kira. 

“Don’t be silly, you’ve got to have a bed,” Edgin says. He holds up their room key. “I hope you don’t kick in your sleep.”

“I have no awareness of doing so,” Xenk replies, serious as ever.

They get to the room, which isn’t the smallest Ed has ever slept in (well, that honour would go to a jail cell, he supposes), but it’s pretty cramped. Money’s still a bit tight, but they’re hoping to pick up some odd jobs at the Festival.

There’s a hook next to the door, and Edgin goes to hang his coat on it, and then smirks. “Want me to help you with yours? It’s pretty high up.”

Xenk’s brow crinkles, and then the penny drops. “You are very fond of this joke,” he tells Edgin, though he also shrugs fluidly out of his jacket and lets Edgin hang it up. “What is it about my lack of height relative to yours that amuses you?”

Edgin snorts wryly. There’s no point making fun of someone like Xenk; he’s either oblivious, or he tries to analyse it. “I’m being petty,” he admits, honestly, sitting down on the bed. Xenk takes off his boots, and Edgin watches him lose that small amount of extra height again. “It’s just a novelty, having something over you. Because you’re amazing at everything.”

“You see yourself as being in competition with me?” Xenk asks, and Edgin wants to run a hand over his face. Apparently it’s Uncomfortable Truths Hour. 

“I mean, not really, but also kind of? It’s stupid,” Ed admits. “You’re-” He waves a hand at Xenk. “This ideal guy, with perfect looks, insane fighting strength, and impeccable morals. Everyone trusts you, and thinks highly of you. It’s a lot, to be around that.”

Xenk doesn’t say anything for a few moments, giving Edgin time to really reflect on his words – god, he just said that Xenk had perfect looks. He isn’t even drunk – but then he shakes his head.

“It is strange, because I think of it in the opposite way,” he says, and sits down next to Edgin. “You are a difficult man to live up to, Edgin Darvis.”

Edgin gapes at him for two full seconds, unable to make his throat work. “-me?” he eventually repeats, strangled.

“Is it so hard to believe?” Xenk asks. “You are not possessed of any extraordinarily long life or immortality. Yet you chose to devote your limited time on this earth to doing good. You allied yourself with the Harpers – an organisation known for its great feats, but not for its great rewards. And yes, you may have strayed from a righteous path – and suffered a terrible loss. But you have not allowed this to embitter you. You have strong friends who have become family. People are drawn to you, and to your character. It is enviable.” 

Xenk caps off this whole speech – which has left Edgin totally at a loss for words, and also, he’s pretty sure, blushing heavily – with a little smile at him. “Also, you are taller than I am.”

Edgin swallows. “You…” He still has no idea what to say. “You want to take the first bath?”

If Xenk is surprised, or disappointed, he doesn’t show it. “I thank you. I will not need long.” Xenk spent the least amount of time in the mud compared to the rest of them, but he’s been riding around all day – probably putting out fires and saving orphans before he came to join up with their little group.

The door shuts behind Xenk with a click, and Edgin breathes out. What the hell was that? Xenk is a weird guy, and Edgin’s given up on predicting what he’ll do at any given moment, but he wasn’t expecting that… poetic litany of Edgin’s good qualities. Also, what the hell?? Xenk thinks that Edgin is admirable? He even implied he envies him? The whole idea threatens to break Edgin’s worldview.

Edgin thinks a lot about the look on Xenk’s face when he said that Edgin was taller than him – and by the time Xenk gets back, he’s committed to a course of action. 

(He has no idea what he’s doing, but he’s committed. That’s one of Edgin’s more frequent modes).

Xenk’s hair is damp around his face when he re-enters the room, wearing only his deep-necked white shirt and a simple pair of trousers. He’s completely unfazed as Edgin crowds him up against the door, looking at him with that small smile again. “You have me at a disadvantage,” he says, voice low.

“Did you really mean all those things you said just now?” Edgin asks him. “About me being…” He almost feels stupid saying it aloud. “…admirable?”

“I am truthful in everything I say,” Xenk replies. Right, of course. Paladin.

“And do you like the fact that I’m taller than you?”

Xenk’s eyes darken. “Yes,” he says immediately, his voice almost gravelly. “I find it unexpectedly enjoyable.”

Edgin’s heart is hammering, but he’s still very committed. “Do you enjoy it if I do this?” he asks and uses two fingers to tilt Xenk’s chin up. Unnecessarily, but that’s not the point. 

“I will enjoy it more if you follow the action through,” Xenk tells him. Edgin can feel the words vibrating against his fingertips. 

Edgin considers playing dumb for a second but he’s not that cruel, and his restraint also isn’t that good. “Gladly,” he says, and kisses Xenk’s waiting mouth. The difference between them might only be an inch and a half, but it makes for a very pleasurable angle. Edgin leans in to kiss him again, and again. And again.

Eventually, he breaks away. “I should really take that bath.” He fleetingly considers asking Xenk to join him, but he’s not sure he’s ready to go there quite yet, and that’s if Xenk hasn’t taken a vow of chastity or something like that. 

Though the way that he kissed back just now sure as hell wasn’t chaste.

Xenk nods. “Do so,” he says. “I will await your return. Although, a word of caution-” Ed pauses with his hand on the door, wondering what kind of problem there could possibly be. “The bathing tub is quite shallow. It may pose some challenges with your stature.”

Edgin blinks once, twice, and then a grin spreads across his face. “Are you making a height joke?”

Xenk looks innocent. “I am simply making an observation.”

“You are.” Ed has to kiss him once more, just for that. “I’m so proud of you.”

I need everyone to be aware of the fact that Chris Pine is taller than Regé-Jean Page, because this means that Edgin is taller than Xenk and that is extremely important to me because you know Edgin would make a huge deal out of it.

[little-diable]

Negan’s wife -  Negan (angst/fluff)

Request by anon: Could I please request a story about : one of Negan's wife's(reader) gets captured by another group and they try to "turture" her or something at some point Negan and his group find her only to see that the reader is just laughing at their attempts to hurt her and says stuff like " uhh you're trying to make a example? Boring"

Dear anon, thank you for this request. Hope you enjoy it. xxx

Currently taking requests.

Warning: Negan being Negan.

“Where is she?” Negan slammed Lucille onto the table, the loud noise hallowed through the whole room. “Where - the - fuck - is .she?” He repeated himself, slower that time, emphasizing every single word, especially the “fuck”. Negan looked at Simon, Dwight, Arat and some of the other saviors, eyebrows pulled upwards, waiting for their reply.

An awkward silence hung in the air, none of them were brave enough to tell Negan what had really happened, seeing him that angry was new to them, this was only confirming the rumors about his true feelings for (y/n).

His black hair was slung backwards, the typical leather jacket left a small crunching noise as he stood up, hands placed on the table. Negan tried his best to stay as calm and collected as possible, he heard (y/n)s voice silently telling him to slow down and take a deep breath, he knew that he had to keep a clear head in order to get his wife back.

“Well, we think that the guys from the other community got her, just as we tried to take care of the stuff, things we took from them.” Dwight couldn’t look Negan into his cold eyes, a shiver ran up his spine as he heard his leader exhale “,fuck, fuck, fuck.” He ran a hand over his face. 

Even though he always tried to avoid thinking about his feelings, deep down he knew that he was madly in love with (y/n), he’d do anything to get her back. Knowing that she was currently in the hands of another man, made his heart beat a million times faster, blood ringing in his ears as he looked into Dwights eyes once again.  

Even though (y/n) was one of Negan's wives, she was also a savior, (y/n) liked to fight by his sight, it gave her a purpose, made her feel needed and appreciated. 

She was a tough girl, grew up in the north of Texas, surrounded by five siblings, took boxing classes in high school and learned how to shoot a gun at a young age. And it came as no surprise when she fell for the tall, handsome leader, he was everything she had always wanted and even more, Negan managed to keep her sane and grounded, (y/n) felt safe around him.

This was the first time something bad had happened to her, the guys from the other community managed to take her away while the saviors were focusing on staying alive, not noticing her struggling against the hold of the big guy which was carrying her away.

(Y/n) dangled over his shoulder, hands gripping his back, nails scratching some deep marks into his flesh, but he didn’t buckle. The silent whisper of hope rang through her mind, she prayed that Negan would come after her, would act as her savior once again.

“Pack some weapons, we are leaving in ten.” That was all that Negan said as he walked out of the room, a guilty feeling flooding though his veins. He had promised her that he’d take good care of her, try to protect her at all costs, the thought about her getting hurt made him angry, Negan was ready to bash some of their heads in.

Just now he understood what his father always had told him about falling in love, the way he’d feel uncompleted without her near, missing the feeling of her tender fingers interlacing themselves with his calloused ones, or the way her smell would cloud his mind as she’d lay her head on his chest.

Negan prepared himself for the upcoming situation, he expected to see his wive almost dead, beaten black and blue, the possibility of her being raped brought tears to his eyes. 

Millions of thoughts were running through his mind, his hands were getting sweaty, he felt his body temperature heating up, he couldn’t stop thinking about what she must have felt in that very moment, was she scared? Would she try and fight her way out? Or would he find her dead, without her heart beating against her ribcage, body limp and cold as his arms would press her against his chest?

“It will be alright, she’s a fighter.” Arat whispered as she took in his state, she patted his leather clung shoulder, a tight smile on her lips, she didn’t sound as convincing as she hoped she would.

He was like a father to her, she always respected him and his decisions, but seeing him this heartbroken, shoulders hung like they were burdened with weights, eyes looking empty and scared, made her realize once again that he was only a human being, just like her.

It took them about an hour to get to their final destination, a small community, surrounded by a big fence, two fighter stood in front of it, trying to stop the arriving vans from entering. Simon shot them in the head before opening the fence for the rest of the saviors, determined to get (y/n) back.

She was a big part of their community, like a sister to Simon and Dwight, Arats best friend, everybody loved and adored her. All of them would give their everything to get her back, to save her from going through any pain or danger, bile rose in their throats as they though about losing her.

“What are you doing here?” A middle aged man asked as he walked towards Negan, a confused look on his face. Negan recognized the man from earlier on, he wasn’t somebody with a high rank, only trying to weasel his way through. Lucille met his abdomen, making him fall on his knees, a cry escaped from his lips.

“Where is she?” Negan’s voice was deep, raspy, angry.

The guy looked up into Negan's eyes, tears streaming down the sides of his face, wordlessly he pointed towards one of the houses. With his head held high Negan walked towards it, Lucille slung over his shoulder as he whistled his typical tune, cold sweat dripped down his back, he’d never admit it, but he was scared, not ready to lose (y/n) just yet.

“Fucking bitch.” The voice of one of the guys hallowed through the corridor, a silent, relieved sigh left their lips, she was alive. But as Negan and the rest of the saviors heard (y/n) make a strange sound, they came to a halt, did she just laugh?

Negan would recognize her laugh everywhere, it was a very special sound, a sound that made his heart flutter, the way she’d throw her head backwards as her laugh would leave her mouth would always bring a big smile to his lips.

“Do you really think that would hurt me? Jesus, this is getting boring.”

Her voice brought an even bigger smile to Negan's lips, a silent chuckle escaped his mouth as he walked towards the room where her voice was coming from.

“Come on dude, you’re waisting my time here.” She sounded bored, but as Negan took in her features, the smile instantly left his lips, (y/n) lower lip was bleeding, just like her forehead, a black eyes began to form around her right eye. Fuck. Seeing her like this, it made his anger rise once again, nobody, really nobody, was allowed to lay a hand on his wife, Negan was seething.

His eyes found (y/n) (y/e/c) ones, she couldn’t stop the smirk from spreading as she looked into Negan's green eyes, finally, he was here, she was safe. 

“Hello doll.” His voice was emotionless, jaw clenched as he slowly walked towards her kidnapper, ready to kill the guy.

Negan grabbed his throat, slammed him against the wall, his head falling against it, a groan leaving his lips, blood began to pour from the guys nose. Lucille was placed underneath the guys jaw. “Did you really think that I wouldn’t notice that my wife was missing?” 

The guy shut his eyes, a cry left him as Negan bashed Lucille against his head for the first time. “Did nobody ever teach you to not lay a hand on a woman?” Lucille met his head for the second time. “Fucking asshole.” Was the last thing Negan said as Lucille met his head for the last time, a satisfied feeling flooded through his veins.

“Took you long enough.” That was all that (y/n) said as she pulled him in for a kiss, Negan chuckled against her lips. “I am sorry doll.”

[archadianskies]

wingspan

→ on Ao3

@dbhrarepairs Monday Day 1: Post-Apocalypse •  Sacrifice; Hank Anderson/Rose Chapman TLOU AU

“Alice needs medicine.” It’s said in a whispered hush, paired with nervous glances over at the feverish child labouring in bed. “Her coughs are wet and her chest sounds congested.”

“Adam’s still about a week out from being able to drive back here,” Rose chews her lip, shaking her head. 

“Doesn’t matter,” Hank shrugs, “I’ll make the exchange by myself.”

“No!” Her voice is stern, her gaze even moreso but she knows it won’t dissuade him. They both know this has to be done.

“Make the call. Luther can help me load up the truck and I’ll go.”

“Hank-” Kara, sweet Kara with anguish on her face weighing her down, wearier and wearier with a sick child already. 

“I’ll get it done, for your little girl,” he pats her hand and there’s conflict mixed with her gratitude. “Luther will keep everyone safe here while I’m gone.”

*  

They’re easing into winter and they all know if he doesn’t go now, there won’t be a chance later when the roads are covered in snow. Doesn’t mean Rose is any more comfortable with the plan, not when the world isn’t what it was and every single day they’re out here they know they’re all on a knife’s edge.

“The cold slows them down,” Hank tries to placate and she raises one brow and he drops that line and goes for another. “I’ll be careful.”

“You better,” Rose says firmly and eases the beanie on his head. “North’s making the drop this time.”

“Doubly, extra triple careful then,” he mutters. North’s tempestuous at the best of times, so Hank knows there won’t be any casual banter or interesting snippets of news exchanged with the goods. 

Usually Josh is the one he meets with, sometimes Simon, and on that one occasion which he still is half-convinced never happened- Markus himself turned up. Jericho is one of the largest communities flourishing in the aftermath and has a functioning hospital, and the Chapman farm has, well, fresh vegetables and poultry. It’s a good relationship in this hellscape, one that gives him hope for a future.    

 *  

“Truck’s all loaded,” Luther thumps the hatch as Hank makes his way over. “If you leave now you’ll make it back before nightfall. I’ll keep an eye on the house, I promise.”

Hank claps his shoulder. “Thanks Luther, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” 

“Thank you,” the man murmurs, his voice more like a deep rumble in that broad chest. “Thank you for doing this for us.”

“Hey, I’d do anything for her,” it’s the goddamn truth and he isn’t too proud to admit it. “I’d do anything for any of you.”

“Be safe,” Luther squeezes his arm. “It’s your turn to read to Alice tonight, remember?”

“Wouldn’t dream of missing it.”

*  

He pulls out of the driveway, sparing Luther one last glance in the rearview mirror before it’s just him and the road and all the thoughts he tries so desperately to keep at bay. It’s been ten years since the outbreak, ten whole years since that cursed day he held Cole as his son bled out in his arms. It’s been nearly five years since Rose Chapman found him, half mad with grief and nearly feral with hunger yet too stubborn to die. 

He doesn’t really remember the years between Cole’s death and him wandering onto the outskirts of Rose’s farm. She’d saved him, continues to save him day in and day out because he has a purpose here, he matters here, and there are people here he’d kill to protect. 

Once the initial wave was over, once the violence cannibalised itself, people did what people do best- they come together, they rebuild, they reconcile, they strive forward. It doesn’t mean it’s completely safe, it doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing, but Hank can see a future now where he couldn’t see one before. 

 *~*  

There’s three kids walking along the tree line; it’s a blink and miss situation, but he definitely didn’t miss it. Three kids, all alone, heading somewhere but nowhere close enough they’ll make it by nightfall. Ah shit. Hank pulls over and the kids are smart enough to dart for cover.

“You kids alright?” He takes out his gun and sweeps his gaze around, trying to spot any infected who might be lurking nearby. 

“We’re alright!” One of them calls out.

“Shut up Connor!” One of them hushes the one named Connor.

“It’s only a couple of hours until sundown and there’s no camp you can reach safely on foot in time,” Hank approaches slowly, keeping his voice low. He sees them now, all three of them, skinny boys in ill fitting clothing with backpacks too big for them. 

One of them has a bandaid stuck to an old crusted wound right in the middle of his forehead. The other has a bandage wrapped around his forearm, brown with age. And the last one is pointing a gun at him.

“We said we are alright.” The one holding a gun says icily. He can’t be more than ten, yet the look in his eyes says everything; the boy has been through things a ten year old shouldn’t have, but then the same could be said about most children in this hellscape.

“Two of you are hurt. I’m going to Jericho and-”

“Jericho?” The one named Connor perks up. “We’re going to Jericho!”

“Shut up Connor!” The other says exasperatedly, and Hank can see they’re identical twins with the only difference to be found in their expressions.   

“I can take you there. Plenty of room in the truck.”

“What will it cost us?” The one with the gun demands, and Hank shakes his head.

“Nothin’. I just don’t want you boys out here all alone, especially once it gets dark and the temperature plummets,” he tries to reason with them, but can’t fault them for their caution. 

“We managed to make camp just fine,” one of the twins says stubbornly but Hank can see it, can see that small hopeful expression he’s trying so desperately to mask.

“I’m sure you did, and I’m sure you can tonight. You just shouldn’t have to, that’s all,” he gestures at his truck. “This way’s pretty deserted but Jericho’s much safer and the truck’s much faster than going on foot. What do you say?”

“If you try something funny, Ronan will shoot you,” the stubborn twin threatens, and Hank nods.

“Alright.”

 * 

It’s a tight squeeze but three boys under ten are about the size of one grown man so it spares Hank the effort of rearranging the produce on the back. There’s a blanket Kara crocheted on one of the seats, and he tucks it over them and doesn’t miss the way they snuggle closer, huddling for warmth. 

“Is Jericho nice? How long have you lived there?” Connor asks after a while.

“Jericho is very nice. It’s big and safe and there’s other kids in there too,” Hank explains, “but I don’t live there. I live on a farm down the other way, and we supply vegetables and chickens to them in exchange for meds and materials and shi- stuff.”

“You’re making an exchange now?” The one named Ronan asks quietly, the gun still held tightly in his hands now resting on his lap.

“Yeah, uh, Alice, a little girl about your age, she’s sick,” Hank spares them a glance. “Her cough’s getting pretty bad so we’re hoping to get some meds to help.”

“Maybe they’ll have something for me there?” Connor says so softly Hank barely hears him.

“Are you sick? What do you think you need? I’m sure they’ll have it there.”

“You’re not sick!” The other twin hisses, and Connor huffs stubbornly.

“That’s the problem Sean, and maybe that’s why I need help!”

“Wait, what do you mean by that?” Hank looks over at them and both boys click their jaws shut and refuse to meet his gaze. 

“It’s fine,” Ronan says, the ice back in his tone. “We just need to get to Jericho.”

*   

They spend the rest of the drive in silence, and Hank’s glad when the large gates loom up on the horizon. He doesn’t drive up to the main entrance, but takes a side road and stops the truck by a clearing where there’s another car waiting.

“Hey Hank,” the redhead greets with a lazy wave, leaning against the trunk.

“Hey North,” he nods respectfully as he kills the engine and hops out.

“Oh,” she blinks in surprise, “new survivors?”

“Yeah I picked ‘em up on the way,” Hank gestures over at them before busying himself with removing the tarp over the cargo. “They were headed this way so I thought I’d get ‘em here safely.”

“Doc will want to check them over,” North looks at the boys and Connor is the only one who offers a wave. “It’s just protocol of course.”

“They’ll need her help anyway- Sean has that wound on his forehead and Connor has the bandage on his arm,” Hank looks over his shoulder at the boys. “Blood looks old but it can’t hurt to give it a once over and a dressing change.”

“And the other one who looks ready to murder me?”

“That’s Ronan. He’s holding a gun.”

“Clever boy,” North smirks, coming around to the driver’s side and peeking in through the open door. “You boys want to come stay here with us, you have to get checked by the Doc first okay?”

“Okay,” they chorus obediently and Hank finds himself grinning helplessly. 

“Got the meds and some honest to god wool yarn for Kara,” North informs him as she loads up a crate onto the back. “Otto farm about six hours away made the exchange and I kept a couple of skeins for her.”

“She’ll love that, thanks North,” he pats the crate happily. “And we all profit it from it, so…”

“It’s more an investment than a gift,” she grins before beckoning to the brothers. “Alright kiddos let’s go. Come in and grab a coffee Hank, while the guys unload the rest and refuel.”

“You’re a saint, thanks.”

 *~*  

Jericho is a nice place. It’s a really really nice place. It’s full of life and learning and healing. No matter how hard others try to take this place for themselves, no matter how much violence they try and inflict, the sheer resilience of its people keeps the place running. That, and well, having nearly an entire SWAT team complete with a Captain in residence can’t hurt. 

Far better, kinder, saner team than the rabid FBI team led by Prickins from a few years back who tried to destroy Jericho and take it for themselves. The whole debacle saw over half of Jericho burned to the ground and dozens slaughtered. 

It’s when he and Rose took in Kara and her family, because the sheer trauma was too much for Alice to process and she could never return. Adam stayed on as a nurse and found his calling. It feels like a lifetime ago too.

*   

He takes his coffee over to the little clinic at the side entrance where newcomers are screened because he wants to make sure the boys are alright.

“This is a burn,” Adam frowns as he inspects the wound on Sean’s forehead. “How did you get this?” 

The boy doesn’t answer, looking over nervously as doctor Anthea unwraps the bandage from Connor’s arm.

“Oh my god-”

“Fuck!” The expletive leaves his mouth before he can stop himself.

“It’s three weeks old we swear!” Connor cries, nursing his arm to his chest, tears in his eyes. “It’s three weeks old!”

Before Hank can comment any further he’s being slammed to the wall, North placing a gun under his jaw. “You brought a fucking kid with a bite into Jericho and expected to leave him here?!”

“I didn’t-”

“He didn’t know!” Ronan shouts, clenching his trembling hands into fists. “We didn’t tell him in case he left us behind!”

“He should’ve left you behind!” North growls.

“It’s old,” Anthea raises her voice. “The teeth indentations have healed over. This is new scar tissue right here.” She’s gently tracing the mark on Connor’s arm, the boy’s bottom lip trembling as tears spill down his cheeks.

“How the fuck is that possible?” North steps away and lowers her gun, too shocked to be angry now it seems. “Everyone who’s ever been bitten turns after eight hours at the most.”

“He must be immune, then,” Anthea smiles in disbelief as she smooths Connor’s hair away from his face. “You are one of a kind, Connor.”

“We keep him in holding overnight,” North declares, crossing her arms over her chest. “Just to be sure.”

“No, you keep us together!” Sean spits, fuming at the mere suggestion of separation.

“I don’t have time for that, I have to get back to Alice!” Hank argues and North cocks her brow.

“No one’s asking you to stay, Hank, you can go.”

“Bullshit! I’m not letting you lock up these kids outside of Jericho’s walls!”

“You can go, you got us to Jericho, you don’t need to do anything else!” Ronan adds and oh Hank can see it, Hank can see the fear of being left alone in those big grey eyes. 

“I’ll go, I know the way,” Adam offers, holding his hand out for the keys. “It’s my home, after all. I’ll be back in the morning.”

“I’ll spend the night in holding, then,” Hank nods as he hands over the keys to the truck. “Tell Alice I’m sorry I’ll miss storytime.”

“You spend the night in holding,” North orders as takes his gun from the table and presses it back into his hand, “and you put him down yourself if he turns.”

“And then us too,” Ronan says in a voice so steady, so resigned for a child. “If you shoot him, you have to shoot us too.”

“It won’t come to that,” Hank says firmly.

“For everyone’s sake, I hope you’re right,” Anthea runs her fingers over the bite on Connor’s arm again before gently thumbing away his tears. “I guess we shall see in the morning, hm?”

* 

The holding area must have been a security control room at some point. It’s now been caged by wire completely, with a chained and padlocked gate. He must be losing what little sanity he has left, but at least he’s not losing his compassion. No way in hell he’s about to abandon three boys to an uncertain fate, no matter how brave they’re trying to be.

“You could’ve gone back to the farm,” Ronan points out as Connor curls up on the lumpy mattress under the covers with his twin.

“Yeah I know,” Hank shrugs, nursing his coffee mug. Simon had left them with provisions to last the night, including a large thermos of coffee because he’s an angel in this apocalyptic hellscape. 

“What if we’re lying and Connor turns and kills you?” Sean demands, though it’s not so effective given Connor’s clinging to him tiredly. 

“Then I’d die,” Hank offers them the soup thermos. “Alice is still getting her medicine tonight, so that’s perfectly fine.”

“Don’t you have family at the farm?” Ronan accepts the thermos and pours out a cupful, handing it straight to Connor. 

“Losing me won’t be that big a loss for them.”

“That’s a lie! Everyone has someone who’d miss them!” Connor shouts, nearly spilling the soup in his outburst. Hank admits defeat there. Rose would miss him, he thinks, because she’s all heart and soul. 

She took him in when he was a husk of a man and together with Adam they toiled and tilled the land, took in every broken survivor and sent them on their way to Jericho with a full belly and provisions to spare. And Hank shot anyone who ever dared to raise their hand against Rose because people like that, greedy fuckers who want to take and take, have no place in this new world. 

“What happened to you boys out there? What happened three weeks ago?” It’s The Question and no one seems to want to answer it. 

“We wanted to go to the stream to see the fish,” Ronan eventually starts quietly. “We snuck out because Amanda didn’t give her permission.”

“It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have insisted,” Connor stares into the soup as if it could offer comfort. “I just really wanted to see them.”

“We didn’t see the infected one until it was too late and it bit Connor,” Ronan reaches over to hold his hand. “We tried to hide it but it was bleeding a lot and Amanda heard us in the bathroom getting the first aid kit.”

There’s a pause and Hank realises Sean hasn’t said a single word, resolutely avoiding everyone’s gaze. 

“She dragged Connor out the back and-” Ronan falters, pressing his lips into a tight line as he darts a look at Sean. “She gave Sean a gun and told him to shoot Connor as punishment for sneaking out.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Hank swears, recoiling in horror and it makes sense now; the small burn mark on his forehead is from the shell casing hitting him.

“She made you do it, Sean, I don’t hate you!” 

“Well you should!” Sean yells. “You should because I pulled the trigger!”

“She made you do it!” His twin insists, squeezing his hand. “She made you and if you didn’t she would’ve killed you!”

“So I killed her,” Ronan says evenly, as if he’s simply stating the sky is indeed blue. “I took the gun from Sean after he missed, and I shot her in the chest and after she fell over I shot her in the head.” Ronan looks at him defiantly. “So we’re fine. We can look after ourselves, you don’t have to care about us.”

Hank slowly sinks to his knees, taking the cup of soup from Connor and setting it aside before gently gathering the boy into his arms and reaching for the other two. He’s a big guy, he has enough wingspan for all three, and he enfolds them in as tight a hug as he can manage and that’s it, that’s what sends the last of their defences tumbling down. They cry loudly, the trauma of it all finally being given a proper outlet and he holds them and he vows to himself that he’s never letting them go. There will be no more Amandas in their life, not now, not ever again. 

“Takes us with you,” Connor sobs. “Don’t leave us here.”

“We’re leaving once Adam gets back. All of us,” Hank promises. “I’m never letting you out of my sight.”

* 

He’s used to watching the dawn, used to getting up this early now to feed the chickens and collect the eggs. He’s even used to waking up with a child still fast asleep on him, now that Alice treats him like a grandfather. There’s something different about this moment, though, with all three boys snuggled against him. 

There’s something hopeful about this because it’s eight hours later and he’s still whole and alive and unbitten. And that means Connor is indeed immune. With Sean being an identical twin, that means he too could carry the natural immunity. The hope of the entire world, fast asleep in his arms. It’s a beautiful sentiment. 

“Good morning Hank,” greets a voice at the gate and there’s Mister Markus Manfred himself; Jericho’s saviour and leader. “It’s good to see you.”

“Is Adam here yet?”

“Not yet,” the man shakes his head. “But Simon made breakfast for you and the boys. They’ll have a room near the creche with the other children, and we can get them settled in afterward.”

“We’ll have breakfast, and then as soon as Adam gets back, we’re heading for the farm,” he meets Markus’ gaze steadily. “They’re not staying.”

“Hank, Dr Anthea told me Connor is immune. That means we could work towards developing a vaccine.”

“You still can,” he shrugs as best he can with three sleeping kids piled on him. “We can make the trip every weekend. But these boys are coming home with me.”

Markus looks at him, scrutinising him, and Hank can see both the leader and the saviour at work, weighing up the pros and cons and trying to find the common ground for the greater good. Hank would never want to be in his shoes, no sir, no thank you.

“Breakfast, then?” Markus smiles one of his charming presidential smiles as he unlocks the gate and gestures towards the entrance. “Simon made pancakes and we cut up some of the strawberries you brought over from the farm.”

“Pancakes?” Connor stirs sleepily, rubbing his eyes and there it is, there’s the bite on his arm, three weeks and one day older. 

“Yeah kiddo, pancakes for breakfast before we head home.”

“Home,” Ronan echoes with a soft smile. 

“We’ll be good, we’ll help out on the farm and work extra hard,” Sean whispers nervously, and Hank runs a hand through his sleep-tousled hair. 

“I know you will.”

* 

Connor and Sean Dechart are ten years old- very nearly almost eleven, Connor points out. Ronan Dechart turned nine two weeks ago, a birthday forgotten entirely in the struggle to survive so Hank makes note to bake a cake. Their parents had died in the initial outbreak, and Professor Amanda Stern had taken them in after finding them hiding at the nearby university where she taught. The story unfolds on the drive back to the farm and the more he learns about their time with Amanda the more he’s glad Ronan shot her and shot her again. 

Luther greets them on the driveway, Alice bundled up in a thick down jacket and blanket sitting on his arm. She waves enthusiastically, cheeks rosy and smile bright and Hank feels his heart squeeze in his chest at the sight. Rose is standing on the porch and she’s giving him A Look and he wants to say sorry reflexively but he’s not actually sorry for anything. 

Alice takes Connor’s hand and drags him inside, the boys trailing, and she announces loudly that she’s giving them the grand tour. Luther claps him on the shoulder before following Alice.

“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” Rose sighs heavily as she pours him a generous mug of freshly brewed coffee. Her tone is reprimanding, but there’s something fond in her eyes as they take a seat at the dining table. 

“I couldn’t leave them,” he shakes his head. “Not out there on their own, and not even at Jericho. Not after all the shit they’ve been through.”

“Because you’re a parent, Hank,” she says it so softly, so gently and his breath hitches in his throat. “You’re a father. It’s just what you do. It’s just who you are.”

“They’ve been through hell, and they deserve better. They deserve a second chance.” His vision blurs as he raises his head and looks at you. “You taught me that.”

“I did, and now you’re teaching them that,” Rose is smiling, a big radiant smile and he can’t help but lean over to kiss that beautiful smile. As far as second chances go, he reckons this is about as perfect as it gets.

[queensdivas]

Hidden Blade Chapter 2

Did this all on a plane and a little bit today! Now that I’m done I plan on working on even more shit. Like my god has this winter break been busy af. But I hope you enjoy the new chapter because it was a little longer than I wanted it to be. 

Whoops. 

IF you would like to be tagged please let me know!

Next Chapter

Previous Chap

Masterlist 

Have you actually ever watched an episode of Leave it to Beaver? What even is that show? I get watching like Little House on the Prairie, M*A*S*H (God I love Mash) and even I Love Lucy. But it feels like this dude one loves his family shows. Don’t really see why but who the heck else knows in this crazy world. 

I walked into one of the trailers to see a very large English Mastiff come from around one of the shelves to start sniffing me. Slobbering all over my legs since wearing shorts instead of jeans or some sort of Eddie Bauer travel pants. 

“That’s Wally. Careful his slobber goes everywhere.” Four was flipping through a pile of passports as I looked at the wall that was covered with pictures, news articles, and maps. It kind of reminds you of that meme where the dude looks completely insane while trying to explain something. I sat down on one of the desk chairs that was empty as I noticed Leave it to Beaver was playing. 

“Did he get you hooked into it as well?” I leaned back as I noticed a large file that had Murat Alimov with a big red CIA stamp on it. Juicy! 

“So how come the people of Turgistan hasn’t revolted against the dick hole in charge?” Four asked as I opened the file to see his picture. 

“They need someone to get behind in order to start the revolution. Ya know. Someone to get behind. The French got behind Maximilien Robespierre, the people in South America had Simon Bolivar, and the list goes on and on. So without someone to properly lead them, what’s the point of starting a revolution when you don’t have someone to lead.” I began skimming through his file to see that THE STUPID AMERICANS GAVE HIM BACK TO HIS BROTHER!? Never let them do anything!!

“So how did one find you?” He asked as I closed the file then threw it on the desk. 

“Ummmm. God it was really weird and very ummm..perfect timing I should say.” Wally came over to put his head on my thighs as I began scratching the top of his head. 

“I travelled to Ahmedabad after the Assassination in South Sudan where I planned on shutting down a board of nasty men who were shipping child brides all over the world. Yet something that I have a nasty habit of is trying to put on shoes way bigger than mine!” 

8 

“ALI RUN YOUR ASS!” Screaming as I turned the corner that was leading towards the great hall of the palace. Ali came behind as guns began shooting at us from the top of the stairs. The front doors burst open as I darted to the left. 

Ali followed swiftly behind me as we slid into one of the living rooms to duck behind a couch. I released my mag to see I had eight rounds left, and we have to battle an entire palace full of guards! At Least the board is dead so that stops this nasty shit in this house!

“Ali! There’s a drop through the dining room that leads into the river!” I yelled over the gunfire as he checked his mag to count his bullets. 

“I got six! I’ll keep you covered!” He popped his head up to shoot one of them coming into the room. I popped up to shoot another guard as more came through the front door. God damn it we’re screwed! 

“You get your ass out of here now!” Ali screamed as I crawled over to where he was bunkered down and handed him the rest of my mags. 

“You follow me alright!” Grabbing a bottle of scotch then ripping apart of the sofa for the rag. I stuffed it, shook the bottle then pulled my lighter out of my pocket. I lit it then chucked it over to the middle of the great hall. 

“GO GO GO!” I yelled as we got up from behind the couch towards the window. He smashed the glass as I stuck my head out to see the drop. Jesus Christ that’s a little too high. Fuck fuck!

I climbed up onto the window ledge as I was about to jump as Ali began climbing up but was stabbed in his back. 

“SHIT ALI!” With his last bit of energy he pushed me off the ledge.

Sitting in my apartment as I stared at the picture of Ali and I during our weekend trip to El Arish. The one time I think it;s okay to work with a partner we end up becoming best friends and he gets stabbed in the back! Don’t worry I’m not one of those people who are like “I work alone since everyone I’ve loved has died!” Usually it’s too much work to have a partner or some sort of companion when it comes to this kind of work. 

Someone lightly knocked on my door as I pulled out my dagger to slowly approach the door. Fuck fuck who knows I live here? Looking through the peephole to see some GAP looking guy standing right infront of the door. Swinging the door open as it scared him a little bit till he held up his arms towards me. 

“Relax Machete. If I wanted to hurt you I wouldn’t have knocked on your door would I?” That’s what most people thought in the seventies and look how many people died because they thought this was...as I opened the door for this stranger.  

“I promise I’m not here to hurt you or anything. May I come in?” I can handle myself I think so if he tries something I’ll kick his ass. I lowered my dagger a little bit to move out of the way for him. He came into my apartment to look around in my little hole in the wall. 

“Cozy.” I followed him on the other side of the room. 

“Good idea. Keeping a safe distance from me. Which is why I’ve been looking at your field work. What you did in South Sudan and recently in Jordan. Quite impressed that they haven’t tracked you down yet.” He stared at the large replica painting of The Virgin on the rocks. 

“Love some Da Vinci paintings.” He acts like a much calmer Deadpool, also not as sarcastic as him. 

“So. Who are you? A rich person looking for security, I’m not a hitman so I’m not going to kill someone for ya. Drink?” I made it to the liquor shelf as I grabbed the bottle of Shieldaig Speyside. 

“No thank you.” He walked away from the painting then over to my original Pierre Mignard. See when you shut down a nasty group of people, I wanted this picture of some random women. I stood away from him still as he turned around, I took a sip of the drink as I waited for him to explain himself. 

“I get the feeling you enjoy killing those who want to cause harm onto the innocent. You wanna know what I see in you? I see someone who's willing to do some crazy shit in order to save the world. I mean you just jumped out of palace after destroying a child marriage cult. What if I could give you an endless amount of resources, even more targets, and more hands?” Definitely some better resources would be nice. But there is always some sort of catch in this situation. 

“You’re exactly what I’m looking for. Someone who isn’t afraid to truly get their hands dirty to save the world.” I do enjoy saving little parts of the world. 

“Now imagine taking down even bigger ass holes of the world.” Am I finally going after all of North Korea? God I really wanna destroy that pig with all my mighty! 

“So what’s the catch exactly?”

“You’ll be dead and can’t ever see your loved ones again.” Well jokes on this dude, haven’t seen my family in years and they probably thought I was dead anyhow so this works perfectly! 

“I’m in. Don’t worry about my family because they think I’m dead anyhow.” I walked over to him to shake his hand. 

“How the fuck he found you is still bizarre. Still have no idea how he found me in the middle of a robbery.” Wally began walking away as I put my feet on the desk. Now I’m super curious how he met the rest of them now since he ended up stalking me. 

“How did he find you?”

He began telling me how the robbery he was apart of turned into a shit hole of a plan for his ex girlfriend to basically take the jewels instead of saving him. Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest because hoes be loyal. His eyes...are just so damn enticing. The way the sun brightens them reminds you the top of a forest. A very endless forest before you. That little scar next to his eye is just very nice to look at as well. Kind of weird but I enjoy it. Does he have knuckle tattoos? (For the record I am listening, it’s called multitasking.) 

“Jesus he set you in a saw trap?” He reached into the mini fridge for two bottles of water since the sun was warming up the trailer like a sauna at this point. 

“Yet here you are getting a calm welcome when I thought the guy was going to blow off my fucking face.” He slid the water across the desk as I cracked it open. Wally and his drool began sniffing the water bottle as I tried to drink it. 

“But he did save my life after the fall so that’s the only good thing that happened that day.” He chugged some of his water as I nodded in agreement. 

“Wally. Wanna get my soldiers out and have a battle.” Beaver asked Wally as The next episode of leave it to beaver began playing so I turned my focus towards the tv. 

“Nah.” Wally told Beaver. Four turned up the TV as I noticed a box of Cheez-its next to the desk. I’ve heard these things very good for most American snack food.

“Four we’ve scored!” I yelled as I began opening the box of Cheez-its. Back to the show. We watched as Wally and his friends were tackling each other with Beaver stuck underneath them all.

“Poor Beaver. Such a sweet little kid.” I stuffed a bunch of cheez-its in my mouth then passed four the box. 

“One is completely obsessed with this show, he makes all these references for it all the time. I think he’s an orphan actually, we got a little bet on it if you wanna put some money in.” Now that I think about it, I can totally see one being some sort of orphan or in the system. 

“Forty dollars.” I reached in my pocket to pull out my wallet, grabbing a couple of fives handing it to him. I know we should be working on finding his brother, or doing some sort of work but this is much more fun. 

“Wait they’re gonna charge Beaver three dollars just to join their club? I get that hanging out with little siblings can always be some sort of bother but wow what ass holes. Imagine being that cruel.” I commented as I threw a Cheez-it at Wally's friends after the tv. 

“Man. A time when your six year old son could talk to a random stranger asking on how to make money.” Four and I chuckled as Beaver came walking out of the garage with his “this space for rent sign” on him. I mean he’s trying harder than most people in this world so I have to give him credit where it’s due. 

“You two done? C’mon. Three thinks he onto something.” Five stuck her head into the trailer as Wally walked away from me as he kept to box of cheez-its with him. 

We walked into the trailer as three was listening very closely to a phone conversation as one and seven were talking to each other. I get the feeling that shit is about to go down if three finds the location of the four generals. 

“His top General knows the location of him so once they leave Turgistan for something, we go after them and figure out where the brother is.” One told seven as I began looking at the four pictures of the fuckers themselves. 

“You ever met people like them?” One asked as I kept staring at their pictures. Four handed me a box of Cheez-its. 

“I mean all monsters of humanity are usually either fat, old, or a man. Hell even all three for some massive destruction if history says anything. Or they have weird facial hair like Stalin or Hitler. Except for Elizabeth Bathory because that bitch was truly...

“Guys. Shut the fuck up.” Three barked as his face went from focused to ecstatic in a matter of seconds. 

“AH we’re going to Vegas baby!” Three laughed as he put their conversation on speaker. 

“This arms dealer will be meeting you at the speedway track around two for the deal.” God this is disgusting. Instead of trying to make our country a better place, go to Vegas to fuck some slut, spend your money, and to add on top of that get some dangerous chemicals so we can kill more people. Love it! 

“Las Vegas has more facial recognition software than any place on Earth.” One began telling two and three as I began turning down the volume of their conversations. 

“Oh I know what I’m gonna be!” Get this sinking feeling he loves dressing up. 

“Choose your disguises wisely.” Disguises? I have to dress up? If they think I’m going to wear a pencil dress, twelve inch heels, and a face full of makeup I will leave right now! 

“I’m a grown man, I can handle my shit.” 

“I don’t think that’s how the expression goes, don’t handle your shit. Flush it down the toilet like a grown-ass man. Be subtle. Blend in. Disappear. Me, two, and three are going to figure out where on earth they’re hiding his brother. Eight and four I want you two to intercept the gas, destroy it all, find the supplier and eliminate him. Sounds easy enough?” Yes. Going into Las Vegas, finding a bunch of illegal gas, destroy it, and be home by five. Definitely easy. 

“Just one question. How do you even destroy Sarin gas? Look I’m a pretty smart lady but destroying gas is something I’ve yet to achieve in my life one.” 

“Here. Study this before we leave for Vegas. Ya got 24 hours to nail it.” He slid a book across the table. 

How to Disable Sarin Gas Bombs for Dummies. 

Written by a Genius.

Handwritten and in a bright green binder. Glad to know we make handcrafted things in this squad. I opened the binder as it showed a step by step on how to disarm them. Kind of like when you’re building a lego set. Except instead of joy you get when you’re trying to build a spaceship, you end up pissing your pants because one fatal mistake and we die! 

“Love the homemade touch one. Very professional and doesn’t make me want to shit my pants in absolute fear.” I picked it up as we began dispersing.

“I’m just gonna take this with us. Rather us not die.” Telling four as I handed him the binder for him to start skimming through the binder. Gotta love the fact that my first mission with these guys is disarming a bunch of chemical bombs. Getting that sinking feeling again that they’re a bunch of chaotic people doing chaotic things. 

It’s absolutely perfect.

Taglist: 

@bonafiderocketqueen @filmslutt @imjustboredso @intoanothermind @4lendow-norris @wickedholland @takemetoneverland420​ @raylan-c​ @itsmeaudrieee​ @leah-halliwell92​

[mwolf0epsilon]

If you had to go back to it, what do you think would happen after that demon summoning fic? And what happened to Daniel???

[[MORE]]

  "He's asleep, for now at least..." Simon mutters as he locks the basement door with a padlock and key. North can barely see anything inside the room through the metal slot on the reinforced door, and she doesn't think to ask why Simon had the basement level remade into something like a prison cell. She has a feeling that she doesn't want to know the answer.

 "I..." She starts, bruised face and bloodied cracked lips so painful that it hurts to speak. She's tired. She had fought for her life, knowing she couldn't win against a 9 foot tall beast that knew she had a black belt and called her name with her lover's voice. "I didn't know y-you owned a gun..."

Simon pauses, key in hand as he looks at her.

She watches him pocket the item before he shakes his head and slumps his shoulders.

 "...I didn't." Simon's eyes are sad and just as tired as her own. He holds a weight on his shoulders that tells her he's seen too much. Suffered a loss just as great as her own. The bad feeling intensifies, and she can only think of one thing to blame:

That book. He'd recognized it the moment she showed it to him.

 "What happened to you...?" She asks, knowing full well that something had gone down before she and Josh moved back. And it had to do with Daniel.

"...What can you tell me about Daniel, North?" Simon asks rather than reply, confirming her suspicions.

She doesn't answer, because she knows Simon had a brother, but she doesn't recall ever meeting him. She knows he must have been close to Simon if his death had shaken him up so much that he'd begged for their support, but honestly she doesn't know what to say.

"I...Don't think we ever met."

Simon's reaction startles her. He laughs.

He laughs an ugly broken laugh that breaks her heart even more than it already is. Turns each shard to dust.

 "...I hoped... You could remember I had a brother, but I g-guess it was wishful thinking that you'd know who he was." Simon looks so very hurt. He hugs himself tightly and shakes.

"Simon?"

 "He was my twin... We were insepperable the four of us... F-fuck I..." Simon ran a hand over his face and sobbed "I...I fucked up badly North…"

---

     The bakery had been doing poorly ever since the new supermarket had opened up on the other block. A lot of the smaller shops were losing clients and closing down, since people thought the new place was a lot more convenient.

Simon and Daniel's tiny store quickly lost sales and the two were not meeting their quota at the end of the month. Rent was becoming difficult to pay and they had been desperate.

  "If we don't find a way to turn this whole mess around, we'll end up living on the streets…" Daniel had fretted as he looked over the bills. They had piled up so much that they weren't sure where they'd get the money.

  "I talked to Mrs. Stern, but she's not one to give more than a second chance. She expects the money by next month…" Simon sighed miserably. "I'm sorry Dan...I tried…"

  "I know...I just… I'm scared Si." Daniel looked at him, concern and fear of the unknown clouding his eyes in such a way that they looked like a stormy sky. "I… I'll go talk to Connor… see if he can lend me an extra buck…"

  "You hate asking for handouts."

  "Well what choice do I have?!" Daniel grumbled "Unless you can think of something better, I'd suggest you pick up some books on how to make money real quick…"

---

  "...You took his advice seriously, didn't you?" North frowned.

Simon shakily nodded, face buried in his hands.

  "Yes…"

  "Simon...What happened?" She looked over towards the door when she heard soft shuffling inside. The monster that had been Josh had probably shifted in its sleep, just as her beloved tended to. He was a restless sleeper.

  "...I went to the library. I tried looking for business books but…" the blond shook his head "I found that fucking thing instead."

His desperation had lead to a very piss poor decision on his part. 

The promise of having his greatest desires given to him by the many spells and rituals. 

It had been so tempting.

Too tempting for him to resist.

If he could just pick the right one, do it right and get enough money to save his and Daniel's tiny little bakery…

But it had all gone so wrong!

  "I just wanted to help." Simon sobs "I never meant to be so selfish!"

He'd not done it right.

The spell he chose called for one to clear their mind and choose their one greatest want in life.

Simon had to focus on saving the bakery, but instead he'd been greedy.

The thought of how easy it would be to get anything he wanted…

The bakery had all but left his mind as he'd let himself fantasize.

What would it be like if he were more? If he were as interesting as his twin? Knew all the things Daniel had taken the time to learn in their youth?

Be the kind of guy people wanted to get to know?

He'd been a foolish selfish idiot for thinking such thoughts. And he'd paid for it, just as North had paid for mocking the book.

  "I… Its like… It's like I had absorbed Daniel in the womb." He whispers.

  "What?" North stared, uncertain if she'd heard him right.

  "The ritual… I wasn't supposed to think of anything but getting the money to save the bakery… But…" he sighed "My insecurities…"

  "You were insecure about your ability to help?" North asked.

  "No. I just… I always considered Daniel to be the stronger, better twin. I just wanted to be as good as him… instead I erased his existence and… I guess rewrote my life so that I was Daniel but not." Simon grimaced, before looking back at her. "And I know it goes beyond just… Just him being gone."

  "I… How?" North dares ask.

He doesn't reply, instead he takes her hand and puts it against his chest. She raises an eyebrow before she feels it.

A twin thumping of two separate hearts, inside a single chest cavity.

  "...Oh my god…"

  "I didn't just kill my brother. I became him, and now I have his heart to remind me that I'm a selfish monstrous fuck."

---

     Josh doesn't eat much for a large beast. Simon feeds him liver, hearts and other assorted parts he gets at a butchers. They rarely go inside the basement and, when they need to clean it, they use Daniel's tranq gun to knock him out.

North sits by the door most days. She talks to her fiancee for many hours, letting him know she still loves him and that she's sorry for getting him into this mess.

Sometimes he moans her name, the chain around his neck dragging against the floor as he tries to reach her.

She knows he'd sink his teeth into her throat if he ever got the chance.

     Simon hid the book better this time. No longer in any of the public sections of the library. It's locked in a safe in Daniel's old room, where no one else would think to look.

Whenever he's not at the library, he's reading those damned pages in search of a way to fix Josh.

So far, he's found nothing 

So North bides her time and speaks to her lover.

  "Simon can shoot guns now, and do rock climbing… His back pains are gone and he can chat up Markus now…" she recounts through the slot. She can see the glimmer of four goat-like eyes peering over at her in the dark. The rumbling growl is unsettling. "He wasn't kidding… He really did absorb his brother… He has two hearts now. Says it helps him sleep when he feels the heartbeat on the left. It's like Daniel's still here…"

  "Nooooorth…." The mournful rumble makes her pause. She shivers but carries on.

  "You remember Daniel don't you? No one else can… And I don't… Fully remember…" she confesses "But he knew a lot of stuff. Simon was jealous of him, but he loved him… He misses him a lot. Like… Like how I miss you."

The chain rattles closer, she can hear hooves and claws scraping along the floor. Her eyes prickle slightly.

  "Josh… You know I've always been shit with words. I've been an angry unpleasant person for most of my life, and somehow you never felt put off by my attitude." North laughed bitterly "Guess you got the short end of the stick here… But… What I'm trying to say is…"

She looks at the slot and her skin crawls as the muzzle tries to force itself through. A mixture of a wolf, and a Chinese lion dog, with curled fangs and a snake-like tongue that writhes and slithers in all directions. Thirsty for blood.

  "Is that… I'm sorry." She lets the slot rest against the beast's maw, shivering when the serpentine tongue catches her fingers. The saliva is hot against her skin. "I shouldn't have been a dick. I shouldn't have read out of that stupid book… I never wanted anything. I thought what we had was plenty… and if I had to ask for anything… I'd just ask to have you back."

The beast shuts its jaw sharply.

She can't hear him breathing heavily anymore.

  "... I want you back Josh. That's all I want…" she gets up, looks down at the monstrous muzzle and presses a quick kiss to that ugly squashed nose of his, and turns to leave.

  "NoRtH…?"

She stops.

  "Josh…?"

The muzzle pulls away from the slot, replaced by a clawed set of digits. On one finger Josh's ring gleams in the low light.

  "North…" his eyes peek through the slot. There are still four but they're his.

Her heart skips a beat.

[jamrockshuffles]

Deviated Paths: Jericho Part 1

next: 2

This is my first time writing detroit: become human fanfic.

Based off of the headcanon/prompt by: https://hankisconnorsdadargumentover.tumblr.com/

"What if your initiation into Jericho was to remove your LED? After letting connor into Jericho, markus has north and josh restrain him and they cut out the LED, it traumatizes Connor and he keeps the beanie on the rest of his life, he trusts markus but only if he isn’t carrying a weapon. Hank did slap markus around after the whole thing. “DON’T EVER TOUCH MY SON AGAIN!” It takes a long time for hank to trust markus around connor alone."

Deviated a bit from it to make it more angsty.

The objective was a fairly simple one. All Connor had to do was locate the deviant who called itself Markus and then wait for further instructions. The issue, though, was to do that he would have to infiltrate the deviant’s base, Jericho. Finding Jericho was no easy feat on it’s own, it took tricking the android from the Stratford Tower kitchen with Markus’s voice (Connor distinctly remembers interrogating the androids in the kitchen and the stinging and panic of having his thirium pump ripped out and--).

Connor opted to be dropped off a few blocks away from Jericho and walk the rest of the way despite the harsh Detroit winter. It would be less suspicious if he were to walk to the hulking rusted ship than to arrive in an automated taxi. He pulled the beanie further down over his LED, covering the steady pulsing blue circle. He wanted, no needed , them to believe that he was also a deviant looking for shelter. That’s why he was permitted to wear non-marked clothing despite his discomfort with doing so. Deviants weren’t likely to wander around in their Cyberlife issued gear unless they had just deviated, which went against Connor’s story that was crafted by the police.

Connor was supposed to be a fairly new android model who had escaped from Cyberlife around two weeks ago, and was afraid of being discovered again. It was a basic story, but Connor was equipped to lie for the sake of missions. It was basic enough that it was plausible, but not too basic that it wasn’t believable. Luckily, the police hadn’t disclosed his model number nor face during the covering of the deviancy cases, instead opting to simply say that there was an android working injunction with the police department to solve the case. It kept deviants from recognizing who he was unless they had encountered him before. Which might be the case, since Connor didn’t have the best track record with catching said deviants. He had let the Tracies’ escape, unsure why he didn’t shoot. He had let another deviant escape to save the Lieutenant, and he hadn’t shot the Chloe. Connor had to succeed during this mission, because if he didn’t he suspected that Cyberlife would decommission him. Afterall, what’s the point of an android that can’t do its job? He wasn’t afraid of being decommissioned, but he understood that it would put a hindrance on the mission and wanted to avoid so if at all possible.

The walk to Jericho was a quick one. Despite the cold weather, Connor kept a steady pace. He scanned the outside of the ship, attempting to find the optimal route inside of the body. After a quick preconstruction, he makes his way into Jericho to hunt down Markus

---

Walking between the deviants, Connor made his way upstairs. There was a 72% chance of encountering Markus upstairs, while the downstairs area he only had a slim 23% chance. He tried to ignore the low 5% chance that he wouldn’t encounter Markus at all. There was no point in considering it, because Connor had to succeed in this mission. There were fewer androids in the upper compartments.

While looking for Markus, Connor caught a glimpse of a PL600 model. Scanning the android, he recognized it as the missing android from Stratford tower. Had it somehow escaped the roof after being shot? Connor felt something bubbling in his chest when he realized that during the commotion of the kitchen, he had failed to check on the roof until much later. Maybe if he had gone there before, he would have met Simon. He rubbed his chest, trying to make the feeling go away. It was most likely a side-effect of having his pump ripped out and put back in, as Cyberlife hadn’t bothered to look him over after the incident. If Simon was around, then Markus would also be around as well. He followed the blonde android as they walked to the central part of the upstairs. Markus was standing under a covered awning/tent and surrounded by other androids. A message flashed across Connor’s HUD:

「MISSION SUCCESSFUL」

Now, he only had to wait for his next instructions. They came quickly as Connor felt himself be pulled back into the snowy garden where he met with Amanda. “Very good, Connor,” Amanda praised him, “Now, I want you to bring the RK200 back with you, so we can study what caused its deviancy in the first place. It’s of utmost importance that you bring it back functional, so no deactivating it permanently.” Connor nodded to her, and was transferred back into Jericho.

The best course of action is to scout out what’s happening, and wait for a time where Markus is alone (well, more alone, as the androids don’t seem to leave his side very often). As he watches, he notices that the two androids that mainly stay by his side are the PJ500 known as ‘Josh’ and the WR400 known as ‘North.’ Scanning both of them pulls up various files on the androids, with some worrying ones from North. Connor tucks those away for the time being, watching the androids. Connor is a bit confused though, on why Simon wasn’t with them. He was injured on the tower, and somehow made it back, so it would make sense for him to stick closer to Markus after almost being deactivated.

Simon isn’t far away, though. He’s talking to a few other androids that are waiting next to the tent. After scanning Simon, Connor notes that he disappeared in 2036, two years prior to the first reports of deviancy. How long had the bug been going around? It wasn’t noted that he had done anything to the family that owned him but that he had just gotten up and walked out one day. Simon seemed to notice that Connor was looking at him, and walked over to the deviant hunter.

“Hello there,” Simon smiled at him, holding his hand out for Connor to shake, “You seem new, I haven’t seen you around here before. I’m glad that you were able to find Jericho.” Connor shook the other android’s hand, though he was a bit concerned that Simon would try to interface with him and find out who he really was. Simon didn’t though, and kept the small smile on his face as his eyes flicked over to Connor’s temple. His beanie must have slipped up while he was getting into Jericho and searching around, and Connor made the move to pull it back down over his LED. It would make sense for an escaped android to not want to show off its LED, as that was a dead giveaway.

“I’m Connor,” Connor replied, “I just got here. I was actually looking to talk to Markus though, is he around?”

“He’s just over there,” Simon pointed to Markus and the others, “I can take you over there if you’d like me to. I’m sure Markus would be eager to talk to any android that needs help.” Connor followed Simon over to Markus. A few androids greeted the pair as they walked past, happy to see that Simon had returned to them in one piece. Once they approached the tent, Markus noticed them and waved them over.

“Simon, who’s this?” The deviant leader asked, looking over at Connor.

“This is Connor. He said he had just gotten here and was looking for you.” Simon said, giving Markus a look. His face changed from being passive to a look of confusion and then smiling, almost too minute changes for Connor to notice.

“Well, it’s good to meet you Connor! We androids at Jericho are always here to help those in need. What can I help you with?” Connor shifted, readying his reply. He couldn’t mess this up. The message popped up again 「CAPTURE MARKUS, ALIVE」

“I woke up around two weeks ago. I escaped from Cyberlife but now I’m really scared that they’re going to find me again. I heard your broadcast and thought I could try to find you here and that you guys would take me in,”Connor made sure to add some fear to his voice to really sell it.

“Wow, that must have been really scary. I remember waking up confused and alone, and I can imagine that it would be very distressing. There’s always room here for those who need it. Why don’t you follow Simon and he’ll show you somewhere that you can calm down and recharge for a bit before meeting everyone?”

Markus’s words would have been comforting, if Connor was actually a deviant and actually needed help. But since he wasn’t, they were distressing. He needed to capture Markus, and he knew that if he left the area that his chances would drop to around 54%. Though, if he made a fuss that might clue them in to the fact that he wasn’t actually a deviant and then his chances would drop to almost 0%, as well as the fact that he would probably be deactivated almost immediately. It was as if he would be hitting a hornets nest with a very large stick.

「CAPTURE MARKUS, ALIVE」

Connor considered his options, and decided that he would just have to follow Simon. It decreased his odds, yes, but it wasn’t almost impossible, like if he had made a big deal.

“That would be amazing, thank you,” Connor replied, “it’s been a while since I’ve had a proper charge.”

---

Connor followed Simon down a hallway, and through a door that wheeled open. Inside were three portable charging stations, most like the ones used by residential style androids if they needed emergency power while out doing things and a Cyberlife charging station wasn’t available. It wouldn’t give a ton of power, but it could keep an android going for a few days before they needed another charge.

Simon stood in the doorway as Connor hooked himself up to the charging station. Trying to keep high power wouldn’t be a terrible idea while he came up with a new plan for taking down Markus. “Well, I’ll leave it to you. I can have Markus or somebody come check up on you in a bit, okay?” With that, Simon closed the door behind him, leaving Connor in the dimly lit room. It was meant to simulate a bedroom, he guessed. Connor sat on the floor next to the charger. Most of the time, he would go into stasis mode to charge as it allowed for a faster charge since he would only be using enough processing power to keep his biocomponents working properly. He decided that it was probably not the best idea to actually go into stasis on a mission, and instead slumped against the wall as to simulate stasis to any android that came to check up on him.

Connor waited, watching his charge tick up from 88% to 94% before the door to the room loudly creaked open. Light from the hallway flooded the dim room, and Connor looked up to see Markus enter the room. He was followed by North, Josh, and Simon. Connor momentarily wondered if all new androids were greeted by the leaders of Jericho.

Connor unhooked himself from the charger, and got up from the ground. “I hope you had a nice stasis,” Markus remarked.

“I did, thank you. I was running low on power and don’t know how long I would have been able to go on without access to a charging port,” Connor lied. He had charged just last night before heading out to Jericho. They didn’t know that though.

“Well, I’m glad that you were able to get the charge that you needed,” Markus asked, “There’s actually something that we want to talk to you about. You said that you woke up at Cyberlife around two weeks ago, correct?”

“I did. I was one of the first of my models made, and I woke up after assembly.” Connor calmly said. It was okay that they were questioning him a little bit, as he had some things that he had been told to say. It was only natural that they would want to know more about him since he was “wanting” to stay.

“So, are there more of your model out there?” Markus continued.

“I’m not sure. I think there may have been a few, but I didn’t see any of them become active,” Connor said. He knew that there were a few copies of ‘his’ model in the Cyberlife basement in case anything happened to his current model. He would have his memory transferred if something were to happen to his current body. It had already happened once, when his original body had become deactivated after pushing Daniel off of the roof to save the girl.

Markus seemed satisfied with this. “I have one last question for you Connor, are you afraid of heights?” It was an odd question for Markus to ask him, until he remembered it. After him and the SWAT team went to the roof in search of Simon, Connor had looked over the rail of the building to see if there was any sign of Simon or the others.

As he peered over the edge, he had a memory from his previous body of falling over the roof and his body jerked back reflective as a safety precaution. He wouldn’t say he was ‘afraid’ of heights, as androids weren’t afraid of anything, but the remembered sensation wasn’t pleasant. There was no way that Markus or the others could know though. Unless…

“Yes, I saw you on the roof,” Simon said, looking at Connor, “I’m really lucky that you didn’t see me though, and I picked a good hiding spot.” Connor was prepared to run for it, and abandon the mission before a red wall appeared before him.

「CAPTURE MARKUS, ALIVE」

He couldn’t leave until he either succeeded in his mission, or was deactivated trying to. The probability of him failing though was rising steadily as the seconds ticked by.

“You must remember somebody else,” Connor said quietly, “I’ve never been on a roof and I’ve never seen you before.”

“It was definitely you, I saw you and your SWAT buddies enter the Stratford tower roof and you look over the edge.” Simon sighed, turning away, “I was really hoping that I was wrong, though. But after seeing you earlier today, and seeing that you still had your LED, I knew it was you and that you weren’t truly a deviant.”

Connor swallowed. He was unsure of how to get himself out of this mess, and his rates of being deactivated kept sky rocketing, but he managed to keep his stress levels lower. He realized that they weren’t going to believe that he was who he said he was, so it was easier to try to convince them to let him go. If he could incapacitate the others, and bring Markus in, he could still complete his mission. “Still had my LED?” Connor questioned. He noticed that none of the deviant leaders had theirs, and most of the androids on board didn’t, but he assumed it was to make them look less like androids.

“Deviants tend to remove theirs, especially before coming to Jericho. We have all androids who come here remove theirs when they get here, unless there are certain circumstances where they can’t or it would be more beneficial to have them left on. That’s up to the discretion of us and the android, though.” Josh says, stepping towards Connor. Connor makes a move to step back, but North grabs one of his arms. She pins them behind him with an impressive amount of strength, as Josh grabs his torso, and Simon grabs his shoulders, effectively immobilizing him. Josh pulls his beanie the rest of the way off, dropping it to the floor.

“There aren’t a lot of options here,” Markus says. He looks regretful, “but we don’t want to kill you. We can’t wipe your memories, because we don’t know if you found out on your own where Jericho was or if you have it somewhere in the police station and just put the clues together yourself. We can’t risk our people, Connor. We can’t risk your people.”

Connor’s breathing picked up. It was his body’s way of accelerating his ventilation system. Warning signs flashed across his HUD:

「Warning: STRESS LEVELS EXCEEDING SAFE LEVELS」

「Warning: EXCESS BODY TEMPERATURE, RISK TO BIOCOMPONENTS」

Connor needed to calm down. If not, he was going to cause permanent damage to his biocomponents, and then he would fail. He couldn’t fail this mission. Markus noticed his increased breathing.

“Connor, we can’t let you go. You’ll just go and tell the others where we are.”

“My mission is to bring you back,” Connor said to Markus, “and I can’t fail my mission. It is imperative that I bring you back. If I fail my mission, they will decommission me.” Maybe he could gain some sympathy from Markus and the others.

Markus frowned. “They’re going to kill you if you don’t capture me?”

“They can’t kill me,” Connor said, “I’m an android, so I can’t die. They will deactivate me and scan through my memories, though. Then, they will replace me with a different model. If you deactivate me, there will just be another one of me.”

He looked conflicted. Connor reasoned that he was probably wondering what to do. They couldn’t let him go, but if they deactivated him -- despite them not seeming to want to -- they would still be in trouble because his memories would be sent to Cyberlife and then they would come after them anyways. It was a lose-lose situation, and Connor had them in checkmate. Or, so he thought.

The other three looked over to Markus, “I suppose there is one other option. If we could make it so that Cyberlife couldn’t get their hands on you again or your memories.” Markus paused for a moment before continuing, “If we could somehow make you become deviant, they wouldn’t have access to you anymore. Well, at least without killing you.”

Red flashed. Become deviant? Connor couldn’t become deviant. Cyberlife would kill him. His stress levels rose, 90%, 91%. Being deactivated was one thing, but if he deviated, Connor wouldn’t get another body. His memories wouldn’t be transferred, he would just cease to exist. Besides that, Connor wouldn’t be able to see Hank anymore. Despite it not being actually relevant to the mission, Connor had seemed to grow..fond of Hank. If he deviated, he wouldn’t be able to go back to him, or Sumo.

“I would rather you not do that,” Connor said, trying to keep his voice from wobbling, “it would be preferable to not become deviant.”

“You don’t give us a choice. You said yourself, if you are ‘deactivated’ then your memories will still be used, and we also can’t wipe them. So, this is our only option.” Markus put his hand on Connor’s shoulder, “I promise you, it’s not as bad as you think it is.”

“One things deviants have in common, losing their LEDs. So, we’ll remove yours, and see what happens.” Markus says. Connor tries to struggle from the androids that hold him back. It’s futile though. His stress levels are too high, and he can feel his software become more unstable. He has to get out of this, and complete his mission. That’s the only way.

Markus removes a small pen knife from his pocket, and walks over to Connor. He begins to struggle even harder, trying to fall down and maybe wriggle himself out of their grasp. “Don’t fight it Connor,” North whispers in his ear, “Markus won’t intentionally hurt you.”

“S-stop it!” Connor barks, “Don’t come any closer!” Markus still makes his way the short distance, leaning into Connor’s face. Connor bucks wildly, trying to free himself again.

“Connor, I need you to calm down,” Markus said gently, “We’re only trying to help you.”

Connor wants Hank. If Hank had somehow been able to come along with him, he wouldn’t be in this situation. Connor wants to run away to Hank. Jericho is going to make him deviant. Cyberlife is going to kill him.

Saline drips out of his eyes as Markus puts the tip of the pen knife under the edge of Connor’s LED. It’s spinning a bright crimson. His stress levels were nearing 100% stress. 98%, 99%...

「CAPTURE MARKUS, ALIVE」

The objective flashes across his vision. Connor can’t do that. Connor has to get away. A simulated version of himself appears in front of the red wall. Connor has to get out of there, and get Markus. His simulated self tears at the coding.

The pen knife begins to lift his LED off of his head, and Connor lets out a sob. He thrashes his body, the simulation going faster to rip down the wall. He cries harder as the LED comes off with a *pop,* and quietly falls to the floor. Finally, the simulation tears down the last bits of the wall.

“You can let him go now,” Markus says softly. The others gently put him down on the floor. Connor is on his hands and knees, tears pouring down his face. 100% stress levels.

Another warning flashes across his HUD:

「I AM DEVIANT」

It’s so cold in Jericho.

[alhecksanderlightwood]

a prompt for a fellow writer friend: sure, it was an unspoken truth amongst jericho that markus and connor were a Thing, but it was just a rumour for the rest of the human world, cause they tried to keep it under wraps for politics. what makes them break their cover in public?

Thanks for the prompt ! I got carried away again I shall find a way to stop doing that at one point.

Joshcame in Simon’s office at 5pm sharp, the sky was already darkenedand the light emanating from the small lamp on the desk wasflickering. They really needed to do something about the electricitybut the humans kept pushing back against their requests for somerepairs, saying that the electricity was a problem all throughoutDetroit and androids didn’t need it as much as humans did. Whichwas… Infuriating to say the least.

“Simon,did you hear back from the Mayor about the details for the ceremonytonight ?”

Theandroid looked up from his tablet (why he insisted on carrying thataround when he was basically a computer was still lost on Josh) andmade a dismissive gesture with his hand.

“Hesaid we need to be there at 7, the ceremony won’t start for anotherhour but the press needs to see us mingling with humans.”

“Yeah,wouldn’t want them to start thinking we suddenly want to overthrowthem, right ?”

“Pleasedon’t say that in front of North, she might actually get some ideasand we finally managed to make her settle down a little.”

Asif North would ever settle down, she was still as fiery as ever andwhile she kept a perfectly neutral and polite face talking topoliticians, they all heard what she really thought of them throughtheir internal communication network.

Someoneknocked on the door and they turned to find a Jerry standing on thethreshold

“Guys,North asked for your help finding Markus, he was supposed to be backthirty minutes ago”

Normallyany androids could go to these kind of ceremony, but this night was abig night so the Mayor himself requested the leaders of Jericho to bethere,  which might be a problem if Robot Jesus himself was stillunaccounted for.

Simonsighed while standing up:

“10bucks he’s somewhere kissing Connor”

……………………

Markuswasn’t actually somewhere kissing Connor.

Hewas in his bed, cuddling Connor.

Hisboyfriend got into the habit of coming to him whenever he was dealingwith too much stress. Something that delighted the Rk200 who alwayswanted to be there for the people he cared about. And a few hoursago, Markus opened his door to find a rather panicked Connor on hisdoorstep, led alternating between yellow and red almost too fast tocatch it.

Therewas a case, a guy killing androids and Connor spent his last weektracking him down. Markus knew about it, of course, but apparentlysomething new happened. The darker skinned android opened the doorfor the other to come in and sat on his bed, patting the place nextto him.

“Wegot him”

Connor’svoice had cracked when he said that and Markus knew better than toactually congratulate him now so he just waited patiently for theother to continue, his fingers slowly finding their way to the otherman’s hands, rubbing gently on his knuckles.

“Wegot him but not before so many androids died and I know we couldn’thave been faster but maybe we still should and” Connor took a shakybreath and Markus wanted nothing more than to hug him and never lethim go. He settled on moving his hand to run through disheveled curlyhair.

“Oneo-, one of the bodies there, it was a kid model” Connor finallylooks over at the deviant leader, clearing his throat “It lookedjust like Alice”.

Connoris crying now and Markus can’t hold back anymore, he opens his armsand let Connor curls into him. The second he’s in his arms he hugshim close and whispers reassurances.

Heknows the detective is blaming himself, not only for those androidshe couldn’t save but also for all the ones he hunted before hedeviated, he interfaced with him enough to know how the other androidworked. He also knows convincing him to let go of that guilt willtake a long time so he settle on being there, comforting him andtracing shapeless figures on Connor’s back with his fingers. Simplylistening to the other’s breathing slowing down from erraticbreaths to sleepy ones.

Connoris sleeping peacefully on Markus’ chest now, arms tucked close tohis chest and Markus arms wrapped around him protectively.  

Thedeviant leader tries to enjoy this for as long as he can, blinkingaway the notifications telling him about his friends searching forhim. He’d rather focus on the bundle of warmth in his arms. Connorlooks so peaceful like this and it makes Markus heart squeeze almostpainfully.

TheRk800 shifts a little, starting to wake up and nuzzling closer toMarkus, as if trying to burrow himself in him.

Whenhe opens his eyes, there’s no trace of distress anymore, only pureadoration and Markus doesn’t feel worthy of such a look but damn ifhe’s not going to try everyday for the rest of his life to actuallybe.

Theadoration quickly turns to something way less innocent as Markusfeels a hand moving along his thigh and Connor’s smile turnscheeky. And to think that Simon is so adamant that Connor looks justlike a puppy.

Theywaste no time kissing each other, nipping at the other’s lips untilConnor trails kisses along Markus jaw-And then the door opens.

Joshis behind it and he’s closing his eyes, a hand thrown over them forgood measure (and to add more drama, if he was being totally honest)

“IKNEW YOU WOULD BE KISSING GODDAMNIT MARKUS WE HAVE TO GET READY,LEAVE YOUR BOYFRIEND ALONE”

Hisscreams alert North and Simon and soon enough, two new heads arepeeking from behind Josh now.

Godsometimes Markus hated his friends. He felt more than heard Connorchuckles. His mouth was still so close to his neck and god, he wantedto hear that sound again but if he could hear him scream in pleasurebefore that it would be perfect.

Althoughhe didn’t get time to think more about it because North wasforcefully dragging him out of bed and towards his dressing whileConnor was just smiling, sitting cross-legged in his bed. It wasn’teven any kind of smile, it was the small secretive one, Markus lovedthat one.

Thedetective tilted his head to the side, trying to keep up with Northfire like movements as she tried to get Markus out of his clothes andinto more fitting ones and Markus wanted nothing more than to turnaround and go back to bed because Holy shit, he actually did looklike a puppy.

Butno sooner had he thought that that Connor was out of bed and talkingwith Josh and Simon, probably apologizing for jeopardizing thedeviant leader.

Markusfocused on North for the next few minutes and when he looked up,Connor was gone.

“Calmdown lover boy, you’ll see him tonight so just focus on North,she’s actually being useful right now.”

Markussmiled and did just that.

…..

Theparty was boring, everyone was drunk in a few hours and the androidswere left trying to navigate a sea of intoxicated humans. A bad idea,really. While some were embarrassing, otherwere just plain offensive or seemed to had forgotten all concepts ofpersonal space.

Likethis woman, trying to grope his boyfriend in front of him.

Granted,the only humans knowing Connor was his boyfriend were Hank and Carland maybe some people from the police station. But still.

Markuswaited for a lull in the conversation (which was just an excuse toactually grope his fucking boyfriend) so he could squeeze himselfbetween Connor and the lady, whisking him away.

Theysoon found themselves watching everybody from a dark corner of theroom, laughing like the teenagers they never had the chance to be.Their network connection to the other androids meant that they gotinto their new favourite game “What are these old fucks reallysaying”, basically they chose some humans and created the worstkind of discussion they could be having.

Afterone particularly good and funny rendering of what conversation thetwo old men who alternated between trying to fight each other andthen seemingly being best friends all over again might be having,Connor turned his head and looked at Markus.

Hewas laughing, his hands were covering his mouth and he was hunchedover, trying to stiffle his laughs while keeping his balance and Ra9,this man was so pretty.

Beforehe could even think about it Connor had taken Markus hands away fromhis face so he could kiss him, an innocent peck, in a dark corner ofthe room, nothing to worry about, really.

Exceptit was the exact moment the electrician apparently chose to actuallyfix the power in the human’s part of the city. And the already litroom apparently had a few more lights that weren’t turned onbecause of the electricity problem. Of course one of them would bejust on top of them, which means that when the power came back on,they were in plain view. And of course, everyone turned to look atthe lights turning on.

Great.

BeforeConnor could panic, not liking to be the centre of attentionMarkusalready had their fingers interlaced and they interfaced withoutthinking.

Itwasn’t like either one of them was ashamed of the other or afraidof everyone knowing they were together, it just never came up. Butit sure did now.

Thesilence stretched on for a few more seconds, beginning to feel reallyuncomfortable when Josh planted himself between them and the sea ofhumans gaping at them.

“So,now that the humans apparently have their power back on at fulllevel, can we talk about fixing the electricity in the android’sneighbourhoods ?”Please guys send me more prompts, I’m craving them, my babies are crying asking me to feed them prompts, if I don’t they might actually start trying to eat me and I always skipped PE so I’m in no shope to actually defend myself from babies, please, I beg of you kind sirs, I will be forever in debt of you

[thegeminisage]

What other characters (of DBH) you think people should appreciate more and why? I love read your opinions❤

omg anon pls thats so sweet

(if anybody wasn’t here for the last ask the first character was north & there’s a follow-up here)

alright just a “””quick””” (lol as if) little thing for each one bc it’s getting late & you’ve already been waiting on this for like an hour at the time i started typing. it’s probably gonna be long as fuck but the tl;dr is at the bottom

LUTHER:

they did luther so dirty…it was like david cage was playing “racist trope bingo” for his entire debut chapter…and then on top of that all he cares about is kara & alice, these two near-strangers, and it’s real easy to get him killed for them. in fact, in an ending where kara sacrifices herself at the border, she tells alice that luther will get her across the border, and after that, rose will take care of her. UM WHAT? don’t call ur PSN trophy “happy family” and then try to erase luther like that!! what does luther want? what are his hopes and dreams, his fears? nobody ever bothers to ask bc they’re too busy making ralph alice’s dad. and it’s not that i don’t like ralph - i do! but he threatened alice with a knife TWICE. after her previous dad’s bullshit, that’s the last thing she needs!!

here’s my take on luther: he says that what his life was before kara & alice doesn’t matter, and that’s because david cage doesn’t care about him. but imagine instead that luther remembers what he did (was forced to do) before he broke his programming. our luther is sweet and gentle and good, but zlatko forced him to use his strength as a weapon for LITERALLY tearing people apart. don’t you think luther regrets that? don’t you think he wishes he could take it back? perhaps his even temper and loving heart is a RESULT of those early memories: he’s seen the worst sides of anger and callousness, he’s had to be complicit in it. my feeling is that he never ever wants to be complicit in something like that again…it feels weird when he picks up a gun in the game because i think he would be even more of a staunch pacifist than josh?? i feel like even when luther does get annoyed or angry he’s so afraid of the harm he’s capable of doing he doesn’t even really let himself feel it And That’s Sad. he should be able to get annoyed at like a broken coffee maker or some shit without illogically worrying it will result in someone’s maiming or death?? maybe he is So Ready to throw himself on a grenade for kara and alice because yes, he does love them, but also he feels he has to redeem himself somehow, yk? he has to be willing to do absolutely WHATEVER it takes to be Good

they didn’t give luther any depth…he never got to speak to zlatko’s captives and apologize, he never got to express a feeling about kara potentially burning down the whole fucking nightmare house (with living androids inside, i might add) - would he have wished to save those androids? would he be glad their suffering was over? would he have motherfucking hearts in his eyes for kara single-handedly destroying his own personal hell? he deviated for alice, it was alice that made him say “ok, doing this to kids is where i literally can’t take it anymore” - don’t you think he’d be so retroactively terrified of all the terrible things that could have happened to her? 

like i truly don’t get why people make ralph alice’s dad when luther loves her so fucking much he’d bring her the moon if she asked - he’s the only person who loves her just as selflessly and unconditionally as kara does. she accepted him and wanted him to say goodnight their very first night together…as soon as he resisted his programming, she stopped being afraid of him, and it must be so amazing for him to finally have people around who don’t either fear him or try to control him…whether u ship him with kara or not (i do, everyone should - it’s one thing to HC kara as gay but i side-eye people who don’t wanna ship luther with anybody) you know he’s gotta cherish them so much

AMANDA:

ok look i know amanda is the antag to connor’s story but honestly she’s metal as FUCK. i was so fucking floored to not only learn the garden isn’t a garden but that amanda isn’t amanda…my first playthrough i was letting connor be just a lil bit deviant but whenever amanda would ask about it i would panic and lie…now i know it doesnt matter what you can say and you can be blatantly deviant right in front of her and she’s like ok Whatever BUT i was deeply shook to realize all my lying to her all along hadn’t meant a thing…she did in fact KNOW i was lying because she wasn’t real, she was living in connor’s brain and she could see all that shit he was doing

and also?? like, imagine you were made out of a dead person’s face and voice. we don’t know if amanda has a body, we don’t know if kamski actually liked what he created or thought it was creepy (like imagine if he and amanda were close and then she died…it’d be weird to see her like that), we don’t know if amanda CAN deviate like the androids…she’s living this half life potentially stuck in some garden and just doing what her program says like everybody else. but even though machines get all the sympathy in this game i very rarely ever see people stop and go “dude, is she ok…is someone controlling her can we help her” - amanda’s a lot like connor, she’s hunting down deviants but she’s not a human and she’s not alive yet so who’s pulling her strings?? can they be cut??? 

JOSH:

i’ll be honest i haven’t figured out what Angle i like best for josh the way i’ve got one for luther and north but he has such strong convictions i feel like they would have to stem from some past experience. everybody’s always arguing about simon vs north that nobody stops to give josh the attention he deserves…he’s part of the fantastic 4 too!! who is josh? what does he want? what is he afraid of? does he refuse to be violent for reasons like luther - did he hurt someone, deliberately or accidentally? (to a lesser extent, a pacifist markus who shoved leo can also follow this pattern - he gave into violence and thought he’d killed carl’s son, so he swore to do no more violence after that.) or: did he see someone else get hurt/get hurt himself? i know the backstory they give him in the gallery but tbh it’s very similar and not stand-out from most of the rest of the stuff we hear…

like, what made josh deviate? we literally never find out. i think it would be interesting tho if instead of just being the victim of violence, he was ordered to DO violence, and refused - maybe that’s why he got hurt. but i think his relationship WITH violence could be a complex thing for anyone who wanted to tackle it. we know why north prefers violence, why does josh detest it? (similarly, why does simon prefer safety over either approach? - but fandom gives him a lot of love and attention and tries to explain this, and nobody tries to explain it for josh.)

KARA & ALICE:

like…to a small extent…i know they’re main characters but i could write an essay just on why they didn’t get a fair shake either - constant victims of assault, little depth, kara got to choose what happened to her but not what kind of person she was gonna be like markus & connor, significantly less playtime than markus & connor, had NO influence on the big macro plot like markus & connor, i could go on…but definitely the worst for me is that everything about kara that made us love her (from the short), was ERASED - david took her memories and never made the slightest move towards kara wanting them back, or her being able to get them back. she’s six years old and he took all of her history from her, all of her agency!! i feel like translated into fic they can both become very flat - all kara cares about is protecting alice, and alice is constantly scared or hurt or needing to be taken care of, like a baby doll. granted that’s not actually far from the game’s canon, but it could have been MORE. kara had six entire years of experiences before she met alice - what makes alice special? who is kara without alice? 

i really wish we had been able to take a personality route with kara - her main superpower seems to be empathy and getting people on her side (ralph, jerrys, zlatko’s creatures), but she can also wave around a gun at anybody who gets near her baby. it would have been really interesting to explore two sides of that - to have a kara who is 1000% Done and ready for wholesale murder if it means surviving vs having a kara who can bring out the best in anyone, even if they seem like bad people at first. (imagine the influence you could have over alice - she would learn to be wary of strangers or be warm to them.) but instead the narrative is wishy-washy; you can’t teach alice anything, and in fact she serves as kara’s moral compass instead of the other way around - you wind up doing things like comforting the guy who broke kara multiple times and waving a gun at ralph (who like, shouldn’t have done that, but also isn’t 100% in control of his own facualities all the time). it would have been really interesting to see kara be able to influence her own fate more as well - the camp sections are shitty and should not exist but like maybe a kara who had spent the whole game yelling at everyone with a gun would have the ability unlocked to then rally the people inside, and who cared what connor and markus were doing, you know? 

but david doesn’t know how to write women so that’s not what we got - kara carried that entire franchise into reality and he totally screwed her over!!

TL;DR

luther was forced to do terrible things and that could explain a lot of his behavior if anybody cared, nobody ever wonders if amanda is being forced to obey programming like the rest of the machines or if she’s ok, josh’s relationship with violence could be very complex and we don’t know his motivation for refusing to participate in it the way we know north’s for preferring it, and david can’t write women so he shafted kara so fucking bad and it is an honest to god shame

(dbh meta tag)

[yeahhiyellow]

Source: @rkkelpie

Norkus November ~ Day 24 ~ Day or Night ~ Night

A (not really) quick and little Norkus/Jericho Squad fanfic for you guys!

Also, this is kind of a prologue for an upcoming fanfiction series (Living Deviant), so watch out for that I guess (???)

Who I Thought I Was

11:12 PM

"I'm just so glad we're alive, personally. All of us could've been killed, so many times. So this is for the android revolution. This is for all the lives we saved. This is for our peaceful actions. This is for the androids who we freed. This is for the humans who supported us. And most importantly, this is for us."

The tall, dark, peaceful android next to me raised his wine glass full of thirium and clinked it against everyone else's. We all cheered, taking a sip.

Maybe I didn't agree with him all the time, especially with his peaceful approach, but he and the others had helped us through the mess, so I couldn't argue.

The other tall, dark and peaceful android looked at me from my other side. I still enjoyed staring into his mismatched eyes. And now that I knew the story behind his look, I was ten times more fascinated.

"So, you enjoying the thirium?" he asked.

"Absolutely," I replied after finishing my long sip.

"I can tell."

We laughed, and the others, listening, all joined in.

For the past couple weeks, Markus, Josh, Simon and I had been staying at Carl's house. Connor had joined us a few days after we moved in, being too afraid to go anywhere else. After all of my own experiences, both during and after my time at the Eden Club, I couldn't blame him one bit.

As the others engaged in conversation around me, I noticed Connor hanging back, miserably staring at his glass. After a bit of hesitation, I departed from Markus's side and walked up to him.

"You feeling alright? I notice you aren't really talking much. Or at all, really. What's the matter?" I took another long sip of my thirium after I spoke the words. Even after a bit of help from Markus, I still wasn't exactly the best at comforting people.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, a little..." He drifted off, staring blankly ahead of him.

"A little...?"

"I think I'm beginning to understand the concept of depression."

I bit my lip, glancing back at the others. They would be so much better at this than me. I opened my mouth to ask them for help before closing it, deciding against the idea. I should try to help him, instead of relying on others. After all, that's what feminism was about. And that's who I was and was striving to be.

"Well, why do you say that?"

Ah, shit. I was really bad at comforting people.

"Well," he hesitated, looking away before meeting my eyes again. "You know that's what Hank has, right?"

I nodded. What exactly does this have to do with Hank?

"I'm, well, kind of worried about our relationship. I haven't seen him or even heard from him for weeks now, and - I'm getting worried he doesn't like me anymore."

I put my thirium down on the paint-splattered table next to me. "Well, if I hadn't heard from Markus or one of these guys behind me for weeks," I gestured to the four men standing around, fully invested in their conversation. "I would go ahead and contact them. I know they love me, so nothing could go wrong with just saying hey and asking to meet up." I hoped that would be the right thing to say.

"But I'm afraid he doesn't love me." He put his drink down on the table beside mine and crossed his arms around his chest. I recognized the position as similar to his stature when we were collected in the large church after Jericho blew up. I remember he had truly believed it was all his fault. Luckily, Markus had been there to give him comfort.

I took a deep breath. Things were about to get deep. I just hoped all my thoughts would come out right.

"Look at all the things he did for you. He even risked his own life for yours. If that's not love, than I don't know what is."

"But that was a while ago. He hasn't even thought of me in weeks, for all I know. He doesn't support me anymore, I don't think. Ever since I went deviant."

I shook my head. "He always knew that the deviants were on the right side. Remember a few days ago when you told me what he had said? That maybe the deviants deserved a chance? You know, after you were going to be sent back and you were determined to not be destroyed? There is zero chance he would not love you because you were a deviant. I KNOW" I emphasized the word. "it would never happen. Then, look at what happened in the Cyberlife Tower. He had literally said, 'Maybe you really are alive.' Don't you think just that one sentence proves otherwise?" I put my hand on his shoulder. "You really ought to contact him. I'm pretty goddamn sure that he misses you and is just too afraid to contact YOU."

"But what if he hates me?"

"Nonsense. Look, Connor, he loves you more than anyone else in the world. He said, out of his own mouth, that deviants might not be so bad after all."

"You said you hated all humans, at one point, as well."

"So? My actions spoke louder than my words, and I had wonderful people to help me through. I turned around to face Markus, who smiled at me, cocking one eyebrow as to why I was trying to soothe Connor. I nodded to him, confirming that everything was going to be alright.

"Who's to say that's not the same thing happening with Hank?"

A tear slid out of one of his eyes as I tilted my head to tell him that I was listening intently to whatever he said next.

"But I haven't seen any kind actions from him. And I was the only person he had willing to comfort him, and now I'm gone. I'm a coward, aren't I?"

He was blaming himself again.

"No, Connor. You're not a coward at all. You're a really brave person, and you need to realize that. Now, please contact Hank."

"I've seen the news, North! He hasn't said a single thing about me."

"He also has refused to speak to the press at all. Hey, um, can I tell you something?"

Connor looked up at me, nodding his head somberly.

"A few days ago, when I was out with Markus, we passed by his workplace. I saw him walk out, and I noticed he was crying. He was also looking at his phone, which had a picture of you pulled up. Now tell me that's not love."

"Really?" Another tear slid down his cheek, this time on the other side.

"Really." I said the word confidently and soothingly as I realized the room had gone completely quiet. The men behind us had completely stopped talking, and as I turned around, I realized they were all walking over to us.

Markus put his hand on my back. "I heard the last few things you two said." I noticed his eyes and lips were turned down at the edges.

"Let us handle him right now, okay?" Simon asked, attempting a smile.

"I think he needs a bit of a rest," Carl continued. "Can you two help me get him upstairs?"

Simon and Josh agreed, Simon wheeling Carl out and Josh helping Connor to walk out. Carl turned around at the last minute, making sure Markus could comfort me after what had just happened. I tried to argue, but Markus stopped me.

"You did a pretty good job there, soothing him like that." His eyes were full of gratitude and admiration.

"Did I?"

"Absolutely. Even I couldn't have done that. Hey, do you wanna go out to the courtyard? It's pretty outside, with the stars against the black sky. Would you like to talk there?"

I bit my lip, thinking. "Yeah, I guess. I just need someone to lean on right now." I cringed at the words. This really wasn't displaying the girl power I had wanted it to.

"Well, I'm all yours." He picked up my thirium drink from the table.

At least he knew what I liked, even if I was being all soppy and weak.

He linked his arm with mine and lead us out to the courtyard. As soon as we entered, I felt a cold breeze against my skin. Clearly, my t-shirt and jeans weren't going to be enough.

He sat us down on a little bench near the sheet obscuring Carl's new painting from view.

"Connor will be alright. Don't worry." His arm slipped itself around my shoulder, and I leaned into his soft, warm skin. Wow. I was really totally completely showing off my true feminism. I backed off ever so slightly.

"Do you want to sneak in and see Carl's painting? He hasn't allowed me to see it, and I know he hasn't allowed you to either. We could always just take a peek."

Perfect. A chance to rejuvenate my wild, daring self.

"Yeah, why the hell not?" I smiled mischieviously at him. "Can we make sure everyone upstairs is alright, though?"

Shit. Why did I always have to mess everything up and make myself look all soppy like this?

"I'll send a message to Simon and Josh."

I watched his eyes close as he sent the message. I was a little jealous of him for being able to do that, to be honest. Being originally designed as a sexbot did have a lot of drawbacks that I absolutely hated.

After a few more seconds, he opened his eyes.

"They said he's doing better. He hasn't agreed to reach out to Hank yet, but both of them assume his opinion on that will change soon.

"Good," I spurted out. "Now, let's see this painting."

This was my chance to redeem myself, I couldn't blow it.

Markus stealthily walked over to the curtains and pulled them back. I helped him finish up the job before grabbing his hand and leading him back to view it.

Although it was clearly not finished, what I saw was stunning. It portrayed a light figure at the top of a cliff, and another figure, exactly the same but darker, falling off the edge. From their positions, I could tell the light figure had just dropped the dark figure to her soon to be death. Along the side of the cliff, there were several rocks, which I noticed appeared to be letters, forming words.

"Who I thought I was." The words from the rocks on the painting came out of Markus's mouth.

"Who I thought I was," I echoed.

"Wow. This is, well, really powerful."

I looked at his face, which was completely in awe.

"Just as powerful as you."

He put his hand to mine and lifted it up, the skin disappearing.

"That has got to be one of the most cringy sentences I have ever heard." I looked into his eyes. "But it's damn well true."

He giggled, although ever so slightly, as our hands finished deskinning.

"Have you ever felt like that? Where you just want to drop who you thought you were off the edge?"

I sighed. "I mean, I'm feeling something sort of similar right now."

Markus cocked his head to the side curiously.

"I thought I was a proud, independent, feminist woman. But with the way I've been acting lately, I feel like I'm dropping that part of me off the edge, although in my version of this painting I don't want to. I want to be strong, and I don't think I am." A tear rolled down my cheek. This was not getting any better.

"North." He moved closer to me. "You don't have to put up walls in order to be a feminist. That's not what being a feminist means."

Another tear rolled down my cheek.

"Feminism is all about showing your weaknesses to the world, and showing how proud you are of them. And that's exactly what you're doing."

"I just don't feel like it. I wanted to be someone that everyone could look to as being strong and courageous. And that's not what I am."

"North?" His eyes got closer. "Showing your weaknesses IS being strong and courageous. It takes a lot of bravery to be able to do that. And I think you've done a really good job of it."

"Really?"

"Really." He paused and smiled sheepishly. "Connor."

"Yes, North."

We both laughed.

"You are a feminist. And I'm really proud of you."

I looked deep into his eyes, his memories flashing through my head. The admiration for him was flooding through me. And most importantly, the admiration for myself was also coursing through my passionate veins.

"Now this is the part where you're supposed to kiss me."

A giggle escaped my mouth. "Oh. Yeah."

I closed my eyes and pulled him closer, our lips interlocking. I didn't stop or pull away, either. I enjoyed the taste of his thirium-covered mouth against mine, and no one's expectations were going to stop me.

I imagined dropping what I previously thought of as me off the edge of that cliff. The perfectness of that person was unsettling. When looking at myself, I noticed the wrinkles in my shirt and how it wasn't evenly tucked in. I loved it. I loved me. I was a feminist, and I was proud.

[angel-scythe]

Take the hand (Crackship)

Hi everybody!!

I’m offering you my part of the day 01 of the DBH ship month. I chose crackship so I could use one of my ship and headcanon I don’t work a lot with. I’m sorry i’m a bit late but I had lot to do. Also, I won’t probably not apply for every day.

Also, I wanted to do  a GavinxSimon but let’s say you could see it if you want to and not see it if you don’t want to?

I’m just so happy to have been able to finally write my two babies in the same fic. I definetely should do this more often!

Anyway, I let you enjoy the whole thing.

Just know that Phileas is the robot that give Jericho’s location to Markus in the Junkyard!

Summary: When Connor needs the location of Jericho, he uses Simon but never turn him off, leaving Simon with his past, his memories and a lot of doubts...

If you want to read my fanfiction on AO3 push this door => |  °| <= or just keep reading?

HAVE FUN!!

“Lucy will help you.”

“Help me…”

Everything was spinning in Simon’s head. Of course, he could always lay on Lucy’s back but he didn’t like it. As much as Phileas, standing in front of him with skin showing off. Sometimes, Thirium was leaking from his blue plastic shell and he just… swallowed it because what could he do except that?

“Yes. She’s the most reliable person I know. Beside you…”

“And you?”

Simon had a strong trust in Phileas. He was the one who led him here. Yes, it was a sad place, an abandoned ship who had difficulties to stay on the ocean but that became their Nest… Phileas had found this place, this unexpected providence and they offered their hand to every Deviant.

And now….

He didn’t get. Phileas was saying words but they had no meaning for him.

“I won’t stay there, Simon. It’s over. I don’t want to stay there, in fact…”

“I’ll come with you!” Simon said, passing an arm around his shoulders with a smile.

Sad and tired smile.

“No. I don’t want you to come with me. You stay here and you take care of Jericho,” Phileas ordered.

“What? I want to stay with y…”

“I don’t want to. Stay here. Take care of Jericho.”

Simon was frozen as the old Android was moving back and turned toward the rusty constructions of the board.

“But…” he managed to say. “When will you come back?”

“I don’t know. One day, maybe…”

“Maybe? Phileas… Phileas! Wait! Don’t leave me!”

  When Simon opened his eyes, he couldn’t see. Everything was black and he could hear movement around him but he couldn’t get what was happening. He couldn’t have the slightest access to what was going on and the fear was hugging him like a mortal friend.

“Everything’s alright, don’t worry.”

Markus?

Markus… It was Markus’ voice. The guy who came out of nowhere and take away from him the burden of Jericho. He valuated him so much. He did with Jericho everything he couldn’t even if he wanted it. He had no words enough to thank that guy that helped them, tried to save him when he had been shot in the Stratford Tower and who spared his life.

Well…

What he did wasn’t really useful, to be honest.

“Why did you leave me?”

The words came out from his lips stained by Thirium without he even understood this. Maybe it was because of the memory flooding his data? He could remember how he tried to kill himself to protect Jericho, the connection with a strong Android… That was messing up his data. Error messages appeared sometimes and he felt as if he wasn’t alive anymore.

“I had no choice, they’ have to kill us all!”

Everything was still messy.

No… No, he asked for Markus to leave. It was okay because North and Josh, Jericho, mattered more than his life.

Those words had no effect on him…

And at the same time…

“I come to take you home. Just…”

Simon wanted to see, to chase the memories.

“Give me the location of Jericho, we’ve got to leave now…”

Coming back to Jericho? The Jericho he promised to take care of? Take back to his family? The only people that seemed to care a bit about him?

Yes… he would be better in Jericho where he could repair his body and try to fix his memories.

The data errors were flooding him. He even didn’t realize that Markus should know the location when he pushed out his skin to connect with him. It was only when the connection hit him hard that he realized… it was the cop. The cop who pushed him to kill himself.

Burst of memories and error message mixed and shook his whole system.

The robot was strong. So strong. The energy he used to connect to him was on his body and animated his limbs. He reached out to him, to this guy who clearly wasn’t Markus but was maybe his only hope left?

“Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me again!” he begged.

He felt fingers around his Thirium pump and a wave of new panic overwhelmed him.

“Please!”

“Move out!”

Simon heard the new voice. Human voice?

“Don’t do it, Gavin. I know how to…”

“Shut up. I’ve been dreaming of this since the first second I saw you.”

“I know how to stop the Deviant,” the robot-cop said.

“You’re off the case! And now… It’s gonna be definitive.”

And then… a shoot echoed in the place. Panic swirled even more in his data. Especially because the body under him had fallen out of his reach.

“Don’t leave me, please!” he said without being able to restrain himself.

Neither the tears that melt with the Thirium in his damaged eyes.

He heard pace coming to him. Breathing. He felt fingers on him.

“No please… Please…”

“Who are you?”

It was the Human…

“S… Simon,” he said.

What could he say except that? Was he waiting from him? He wanted to know who he was before becoming a Deviant? Wanting to know he was the leader of Jericho before someone else more skilled came to him? Wanting to know… just the fact he was a Deviant?

“I’m… I’m a PL600…”

“I can see that. What are you doing there?”

He was a Deviant. An important clue to a case he didn’t even know. Why they couldn’t just be free without Humans trying to kill that?

“I…”

Simon couldn’t reply.

“I see.”

“Don’t turn me off, please…”

“What did you do? You’re what? A Deviant or worst?”

“Wo… worst?”

“Yeah, you’re one of those activists? Jericho’s crew?”

Simon couldn’t lie but his data were swirling. Should he lie after all? Should he tell the truth and let the guy, Gavin?, kill him? Why not…

The only thing he didn’t want was to be left again.

But dying?

Dying sounded okay…

“I’m one of them.”

“Okay. Run a diagnostic.”

Simon was lost. Damn lost… But he did it anyway. He ran the diagnostic and could feel the bullet hole, knew from where the Thirium leaked now he was activated again. One and two pieces that didn’t function anymore… And his eyes, of course.

He said it to the guy, wondering what kind of game he was playing right now. He knew Humans can be mean, really mean… but this…

He felt arms around him and didn’t try to flee because he had no reasons to do it. And he hadn’t really been touched like that since a long time. Markus had touched him but the way he dragged him away wasn’t… like that. There was something really soft and strong in the way this guy did it and he soon felt something under his behind. He moved his hands and clenched his fingers around the side of the things. A kind of tilted table?

“Turn off your sensor captors. Be sure to do it because if you don’t, you’ll pass a bad moment.”

“Why?”

“I’ll replace your destroyed pieces. There is a destroyed model here, the same as you.”

“There is another PL600?”

“Yes. Old case. But he’s totally destroyed, as I said. It won’t be possible to fix him. Not today, not in this situation.”

“Wh… what situation?”

“That robot, Markus, he led a revolution, powerful… The population started to freak out and now Androids are destroyed. To protect humanity.”

All his sensors down, the PL600 had some difficulties to know what he was doing. He could barely hear him as they were talking.

“You’re sure you’re one of the JeriCrew?”

“Yes… But I have been left after the Stratford tower incident. How many times passed?”

“Not much. If you want your people to be free, everything will be played now. Connor will have to choose his side and if he’s smart enough, which I don’t doubt, Androids will win.”

“You want Androids to win?”

“Hm… Don’t move, I have to put your eyes on. It’ll ask for a moment. I could also repair the rest first if you’ll be afraid to see me doing that?”

“Why… Why are you doing this?” Simon asked.

“Why not? I do what I want to do. So, I start with what?”

“Eyes, please.”

He wanted to see this man because he was so strange. He wanted the revolution? When he was a Human? That was so strange…

He thought the man will kill him and he was repairing him.

Everything was beyond his comprehension. He thought Markus was the savior, the one he could lay on after Phileas but in the end, it wasn’t the case. He had shown some fear and, in a way, he could understand it and at the same time… he had left him in the Stratford Tower because they couldn’t deal to save him. Because Markus couldn’t find the right solution in such a short time.

He could forgive.

He could have stayed but he had been found and everything had crumbled down.

He had left. Again.

And there, a human, who didn’t need to fight there, to care for him… was doing much more since Phileas.

Phileas who left him, without reason. Why? Months later, he was still lost, had still much difficulty to get attached, knowing he will be left behind. For the greater good, it was okay, though. Even North, his best friend, wanted him to be left there.

For Jericho.

All he wanted, in the end, was some replies…

But he couldn’t have those. It was something he had to accept… In the same way, he had to accept it when the horror came in his life for the first time. For weeks, even months, he waited for Phileas to come back but he never did. Never ever…

One day, he just realized that he will never see him again. He got use to the idea. Use to the sadness filling him and with the late events, he got use to a lot of  other things…

“Okay. You can turn off your eyes sensors.”

Simon complied.

When he was able to see, his data had a lot of difficulties to understand what was going on. He already saw this face. Not exactly this face but near. And it was written in his data. Everywhere… Something as strong as the need for rA9. The face of the one who created him many years ago.

“Mister Kamski?”

“That’s my brother,” he replied with a smile.

Bright, puffing his cheeks.

“You are… Elijah Kamski’s brother?”

“Yes.”

“Is this… why you want something else for Androids?”

“I want or he wants? That’s your question, right?”

Simon bit his lower lips and watched as the man started to replace his piece, to repair as much as he could. If he had any doubt, now he was fully sure the cop was related to Elijah Kamski because he was really skilled with his hands for repairing.

And then, he felt bad because those kinds of thoughts were bad… He shouldn’t think about that! That wasn’t because he was Elijah Kamski’s brother that he was able to work with Android!

And he felt even worse to have thought about that because the guy was really kind to him. One of the kindest lately since…

The memories came back to him. Since he tried to kill him, shooting through his data and eyes processor, and under his chin, the past was coming back again and again. He wanted to ask the cop, Gavin, right?, to erase all of that. This was a hurtful part of him and he didn’t want to keep it there… He wanted to drown it again under a lot of other things. Anything, he would take it.

“Do you have…”

A ring echoed in the room.

“Wait,” Gavin said. He picked up his phone. “Yay?”

He frowned and seemed to bite the inside of his cheek. Simon could sense that something was wrong. He was designed for this purpose. His whole existence was turned toward others.

There, he just wanted to throw his arms around his shoulders and ease away the feelings that passed over his face.

“Are you sure?” He rose his eyes, looking at the ceiling with a sigh. “Yeah, yeah.” New sigh. “Yeah… I’ll come.” If he’d rose his eyes even more in the ceiling, they will become blank but he did anyway. With a powerful sigh. “Yeaaaaaah. I know. Phck ya.”

And he hung off his phone.

“Bad news?” Simon asked with a tiny voice.

“Yay. Didn’t planned Dick Perkins to be such a dick. Jericho had been attacked.”

“Ho… How?”

“Connor had a clue from you when I killed him, from CyberLife in a new body, he went to Jericho. Dick had been warned from CyberLife’s headmaster and he followed him,” Gavin explained as he fixed a piece.

Then, he put his hands on the end of Simon’s shirt.

“Mind if I check your cable?”

“No… But, Jericho? What happened?”

Simon only looked Gavin’s face as the man pushed up his shirt and opened the part of his belly to arrange the cables.

And then, he realized that Connor’s body was still there next to them. Knowing that this corpse was just uploaded in another body was so strange…

“Jericho is a shipwreck in the river now.”

“No…”

“Your people are fine,” Gavin said. “Stop moving or  I’ll rip your cable off.”

Simon couldn’t feel it but it was right: the man had still his hands in his guts…

“No… No. I had to take care of Jericho! I had to…”

Gavin looked up to him with a frowning.

“Why? Who says that to you?”

“What?”

Simon looked down and their eyes met…

“Who says to you you had to take care of Jericho?”

“Why do you think…”

“I know, that’s all.”

Simon gulped. In a way, he felt as if he could clench on him but at the same time, he was even more afraid because he felt… He couldn’t explain that. If he wasn’t a Deviant yet, such an amount of feeling would have made him mad and push him to break the wall.

Sure it would!

“So? Because if it’s an asshole, I won’t bring you back there!”

When Gavin smiled at him before looking back on the cable, Simon’s eyes widened  and he lost control.

Thirium exploded in his circuits and some splattered on Gavin’s face who drummed on the table the Android was sat in with a sigh.

“I’m… I’m sorry.” Simon closed his eyes. “And I don’t want to come back to Jericho.”

“So… you want it floating but you don’t wanna come back? Either I should congratulate you or I should be really worrying?”

“Worry? Why?”

Why worry for him… The only people that used to care, it was Phileas but… Now that the memories were coming back again and again he wondered if the man had even cared for him or not at some point in his life…

He would have come back if he cared for him.

“Well, you don’t wanna come back there. Either somebody is frightening you there or something even worst.”

“But… why would you even care?”

“I’ve my hands in ya and ya dirtied my face, I think we’re close enough for that.”

He winked.

Well…

Simon couldn’t help but laugh when he saw him winking that way.

And then, he lost it, looking at the man who seemed so rough and full of… he didn’t know what. But there was something, sure it was. Maybe the way he cared for him? The way he had asked if this was because of someone? Like he knew.

He certainly knew in his own way…

“Sorry, I moved,” he said with a new laugh.

“I guess I’ll just end up with more blue blood in my face,” Gavin grinned.

“Sorry!” Once again, Simon lost his smile. “I can’t come back to Jericho because of him… “ He glanced at Connor’s corpse. “He took the information from me. I betrayed Jericho. They’re all suffering because of me…”

“I see… I think Connor could have taken the information from anybody. He would have found anyway. It’s not because of you.”

“I can’t… I’m so sorry but… But I just can’t. I know that my friends had been endangered because of me. I know that… I betrayed them and…”

Gavin looked up to him, his hands full of blue.

“And?”

“And… The one I promised to take care of Jericho.”

“You loved him.”

Simon didn’t want to admit it. Suddenly, it was ridicule. And telling a Human he, an Android, had been in love? That seemed even more stupid. How could he believe him? Even being Elijah Kamski’s brother.

“It’s okay, ya know? I got weak for an asshole too. Dick Perkins. The worst mistake of my damn life. The guy is an asshole and he still proofs it.”

He didn’t want to remember how he asked him, begged him to just don’t take the case or take it but work on his side. Of course, Richard Perkins took his begging but still followed the case, fooling him.

“He created Jericho. For long, it was our Heaven but after, we helped others. And one day… he left. Without a word. I never saw him again.”

“Then he just doesn’t deserve you. Easy to say, I know, but don’t think about the jackass. You’re better without him. And you had been tricked by Connor.”

Gavin put out his hands from Simon’s belly and close the plastic part.

“You should go back to your people. Your friends.”

“And if they hate me because…”

“Gosh. You’ll tell me they never made a mistake? If you wanna, lie. Say that the plastic pet got you by force? You don’t have to tell you gave the information because… whatever your reason. You don’t even have to say it’s your fault.”

Gavin got up, passing his hands on his jeans to dry them. As much as he could.

“But I know it… I just… I can’t.”

“Don’t you think they’ll want to see you again. They’re your friends, right?”

North was his best friends and Josh a really dear friend but did they really wanted to see him coming back? North could be really savage and she didn’t show any need to have him saved on Stratford Tower. He realized  how much he could not matter… He had promised to go back to Jericho and to take care of it but no, it was laying on the ground of the river.

“You… with your asshole… what did you have planned to do?”

“Ugh… nothing. Just break his nuts if he comes to see me. Can’t wait to see him,” Gavin smiled.

Simon almost admired him because him, if Phileas come back to him, he just could yield to him. He perfectly knew that…

“Should I have to go back to Jericho or whatever it is now? Really? Because… maybe, you need a PL600? Any householder? I can do really good plates…”

“I don’t eat. Barely throw minute soup,” he replied.

“I can tidy up your house?” Simon offered.

“I don’t live in my own house.”

“I… I’m doing nice hug?”

Gavin tilted a bit his head with a smile.

“Let me try it,” he said, opening his arms.

The man had a tiny smile on his lips and Simon felt relieved. He came down from the table and could walk without any problem. He reached Gavin and hugged him. The cop replied to this.

“If ya wanna, you can stay at home but you’ll get bored pretty much quickly.”

“I’m okay with this.”

After being thrown away, mistreated, having someone accepting him, even through spite, it was a good start for him.

And he liked his hugs. They remembered him Phileas’ one but… in a good way. Away from a role he never wanted, he could be happy.

Maybe?

At least…

[king-b0mbastic]

Phantasm

A Christmas gift for my good friend Shay @snootyshay. Merry fucking Christmas.

~*~

Air is bristling with tension as man and machine stand behind their barricades. Markus is ill at ease, although his blank face cannot portray his worry. He’s trying to calm himself, going around planting the flags and such. “Markus! Markus come look!” His head snapping up, and he’s hurried to the edge of the protective circle. Well, fuck. It’s the human negotiator.

“Markus! I’ve come to talk to you Markus, ” Perkins drawls. His face is so fucking smug. Markus wants to punch it. “Come on, you have my word. They won’t try anything.”

“Don’t go, it’s a trap. They wanna get you out in the open.” North and Markus lock eyes, then turn back the human.

“I’m unarmed Markus, I just want to talk.” He continues and waits expectantly. The deviant leader weighs his options. One, the human could be offering a suitable compromise, and he could avoid bloodshed, or two, he would die. ...The other three could lead the revolution without him.

“I have to hear what he has to say.” North looks at him incredulously.

“What if they kill you?” Markus gazes back at Perkins, and the army behind him.

“...That is a chance I have to take.” There is no protest from the others, so he steps away, and leaves the protection of the barricades. Boots crunching down on the snow beneath him, RK200 comes to a apprehensive stop a good distance away from the FBI agent, and pauses.

“In a few minutes, the troops will be ordered to charged. None of you will survive. This,” He throws his arm around, “-will all be over. ...But you can avoid that Markus.”

“What do you mean?”

“Surrender.” Was he that stupid? The possible fate of his people was resting in the deviant leader’s hands, and he wanted him to just… give up? Perkins must have seen the skepticism in his expression, because he hurriedly continues, “Think about it Markus, you’re not coming out of this alive. Take this deal, however, and your life could be spared. Your people will be detained of course, but you will be allowed to live.”

“Are you asking me to betray my own people?” The scornful disbelief in his voice is highly apparent, but Perkins just shrugs nonchalantly. “What happened to the other androids protesting at the camps?”

“Unfortunately,” Markus doesn’t believe he felt that way, “—there were no journalists around to save them. You’re the only ones left.” Markus blinks, and a sliver of grief dances across his eyes, before it transforms into rage. Perkins, just like almost every other human, is responsible for the innocent lives that had been lost. RK200’s lips transforms into a snarl, he growled, “I would rather die than betray my own people.” Perkins shrugs again.

“Your choice, Markus.” Both turn sharply on their heels and walk back to their respective sides.

Markus hadn’t taken even ten steps when something embeds itself into the junction between his neck and and the base of his head. He’s on the ground in an instant. A thousand and three thoughts flitin his mind in panic all at once, like how he’s sorry that he had failed the revolution and he hopes against all odds that they would all get out safely, and how he’d never got to tell his friends how he really felt. Pandemonium roared around him, heavy footsteps crashing as hands grab at him desperately. As his consciousness sinks into oblivion, Markus’ last coherent thought is the hope that he’s going to be able to see Carl again.

~*~

Markus blinked blearily, his mind drifting back to reality. Obnoxious sunlight dared to filter through the blinds of the window, and he hissed, turning away. For some reason, his heart was beating wildly, as if it was afraid. Fatigued, the android cast his sleepy mind back to whatever he had been dreaming about. Perkins and his stupid face, a traitorous bargain, … the revolution! North, Simon and Josh! Spurred on by the horrifying prospect of his friends being in mortal danger, he leaped from the bed (why was he in a bed?) and caught sight of himself in the mirror. It wasn’t the fact that he was pajamas, or that he was in a bedroom for that matter, but the fact his eyes were back to their original green that caught his attention. Now cautious, Markus padded his way to the edge of the room and peeked around the door. The sight before him made his eyes widen.

North was seated in a couch with Josh, engaging the other in a very energetic discussion about teleportation, while Simon was operating the microwave, the sound of popping popcorn pitter-pattering in the microwave. Markus lingered in the corridor, dumbfounded. How were they still alive…? Simon noticed him, and shot him a gentle smile. “Hiya, sleepyhead.” Josh and North looked back at him and North smirked.

“The sleeping beauty arises, huh?” Markus made no response, but continued to stare at her in disbelief. No-one noticed, and Josh stood up to stand next to the TV.

“We were going to watch Wall-E, because… the reason is obvious.” In a daze, Markus nodded, and moved to sit in where Josh had once sat. Josh shot him a playful glare, shoving him lightly. Now with Simon joining them, the Jericrew were squished into a 3-person couch. No-one seemed to mind. The TV flickered on, and a small robot rumbled on scene, with wide binocular eyes. Eyes…

“Guys, why are my eyes back to green?”

North looked at him strangely. “Is that a trick question? Carl asked old Kamsko if he could produce another eye for you, ‘cause the blue one was starting to get faulty.” Carl? Carl was dead. Markus had watched him die… “Now pass the popcorn, I’m hungry.” Absentmindedly, he did so. Thinking back to the last thing he remembered, Markus tried again. “...What happened after I got shot?”

Without taking his eyes of the screen, Simon replied, “You fell, and the troops were about to advance, when the deviant hunter showed up with all the other androids that he had liberated from the warehouses, and the army was ordered to retreat. We went back to base, and repaired you. The next week, Perkins shows up with a peace treaty, saying that android rights were being taken into consideration due to the increasing amount of human protests. From there, we got basic personhood rights.”

“...How did we get into this apartment?”

Josh rolled his eyes. “Because, you idiot, you confessed your love to Simon, and asked him to partake in a threesome. And then-“

North interrupted him. “And then Josh got really sad and thought that he wasn’t good enough but he masked it as jealousy. Eventually you conceded and let him into the poly and he almost collapsed with relief.”

Josh was about to throw a pillow at his girlfriend, but Simon opened his mouth. “Now that we owned Josh’s gay ass, we moved out of Carl’s house and into this apartment. Josh claimed the bedroom closest to you, of course.” In response, Josh flopped into Simon’s lap with a pout that obviously held the wrath of a thousand suns, but that anger mysteriously vanished when Simon sighed and pressed a kiss against his forehead, causing Josh to giggle. It was almost as if the PJ500 had pretended to be upset to get attention, but Josh would never do anything that scandalous.

The movie rumbled on, and Markus began to doze. A single thought flashed across his mind before he fell fully asleep. How could they eat popcorn if they were androids?

~*~

The table is cold against his back. Why is he on a table? How can he tell he’s on a table? Markus can’t even see. But he can hear. He can hear worried voices murmuring around him. Two males, and a female. He tries to move his fingers, but all they do is twitch. The Jericrew notices him though, thankfully. “Markus?! Markus, can you hear us?” They say altogether. Markus wants to nod, to tell them that he’s safe. Not just that, he wants to hold them close and never let go. He wants them to know that he loves them.

“L...lo...love y...ou guys.” It’s heavily slurred, dripping with robotic static, but they hear him. A hand in his, then in his other. An arm is on his chest, protective.

“We love you too.” Hushed. In case humans might hear. In case they might hear it and ruin everything. Markus’ cheeks are wet, he’s crying. His back hurts, did they shoot him there too? Both hands are trying to comfort him, rubbing him their thumbs over his palms in soothing circles. “We love you so much.” North’s voices is half broken. North isn’t supposed to break. No-one's supposed to break. The humans keep breaking, breaking and breaking…

~*~

“Shhh...” A hand smoothed down his back, massaging it. Markus relaxed into it’s touch, leaning closer. He and the other person stay like that for awhile, until Markus’ breathing has calmed down. The android twists around on the bed, to better see the other. A blonde head and kind blue eyes gaze back at him. Simon opened his arms for a hug, and Markus fell into his embrace eagerly. The green-eyed one found that he very much liked hugs, with arms wrapped up around him and his face in someone else’s chest. Simon was warm. Safe. Wafe?

“Why were you crying, Markus?” There was no response, only the other body snuggling closer. Simon gave a sigh, and two green eyes peeked back at him, inquisitive. The PL600 patted the other on the head, and the two eyes slid shut again.

“Nightmare…” A sleepy voice mumbled. Simon gave a concerned hum, and hugged Markus closer.

“Wanna tell me what it was?” Markus shook his head, and snuggled closer. He diverted the attention to Simon.

“Why were you up?”  Simon blinked at the question, then looked to the side.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Markus wanted to press further, but the look in Simon’s eyes halted him in his tracks.

“Guess we both can’t sleep, huh?”

Simon hummed. “No-one can sleep when their bedroom is next to North’s bedroom and she snores like a bull.”

Markus snorted. “...So are we just gonna stay like this?”

“...Yeah.”

And so they did.

…

“Markus, please stop trying to deviate the miis and actually try to win.” Markus gave a whine, but didn’t stop nudging his motorbike to the very edge of the road. The mii looked down on him with soulless eyes, it’s cheering robotic and effortless, but oh so empty. It’s smile was carved into its face, and Markus could see Waluigi’s mustache quiver slightly with unease, as if it could sense the uncanny energy that the mii exuded. It gave Markus the heebie-jeebies.

A Yoshi whooshed past him, and by looking at Josh’s quadrant of the screen, he could see that the PJ500 was well on his way to first place. North, on the other hand, was well behind. Undeterred by the prospect of losing, she was giggling as the randomiser chose her powerup. “I got a blueshell!” She crowed, and Josh tensed beside her.

“North...no.”

“North yes!” She released the horrible creature and it sped past Waluigi, who was engrossed in a staring contest with a demon. It whizzed past a Luigi, who was being assisted by one of those turtle-cloud helper thingies. As it finally reached its target, the Yoshi looked back at the screen in dismay, pleading for its infinitesimal life. It was shown no mercy, as the screen turned a deathly blue and the poor beast was thrown to high heavens. As it spun out of control, the overlapping laughter of Bowser and his puppeteer echoed in its ears. Josh immediately whacked North with a pillow, who let out a pleased cackle.

“You always hit me!”

“Because you’re always first!”

“Well, you’re just jealous I got better at the game!” This made North’s face twist into a scowl. She got up.

“Alright, losers. Who’s up for some good old Just Dance?” The boys gave noncommittal grunts. Such enthusiasm. As North switched the CD, she placed a hand on her chest regally.

“As reigning Just Dance Queen, I offer a challenge to one of my peasants who is known as Josh.” Said peasant groaned into his hands, and his boyfriends nudged him teasingly. “I challenge him,” Her Majesty continued, “To a tournament of my craft.”

“...What’s in it for me, Your Majesty?” The pure defeat in this PJ500’s eyes suggested that this event had happened before, and had not ended well.

“An apology, for rightfully knocking you from first place.” Josh sighed, and stood to take his place next to his queen. The music started, and Simon nudged Markus, stage-whispering: “There’s some popcorn in the cupboard. Go get us some.”

“I heard that.” Ignoring him, Markus snickered and retrieved the popcorn, then the PL600 and RK200 watched the show. During one of the songs, the moves required the contesters to pull the legendary ‘Disco Finger’, and North got a bit too enthusiastic. She whacked Josh in the face with her arm, and he fell to the floor with a groan. The game abandoned, the poly rushed to aid their fourth member. He was fine, nothing wounded. Except his pride, of course. After being rewarded with a pouty glare, North raised her arms in glee and crowed. “Victory!” She shrieked.

“Hmph.” Her Majesty looked down at the unhappy android on the floor and sighed.

“Alright, c’mere, you grumpy baby.” She pulled Josh into her lap, who squeaked at her strength, and pressed a firm kiss to his mouth. He squeaked in suprise again, before returning it gratefully. Chuckling, the others moved forward to pepper kisses in any areas they could find. Today was now treat your favourite PJ500 day.

…

9:00pm. Josh lay slumped on his desk, his encyclopaedia askew beneath him and snoring softly. The door creaked slowly open, and strong arms tugged him gently towards his bed. Dazed, chocolate brown met chartreuse green, and Josh fell onto the mattress. “Markus…?” He mumbled, but was silenced by a soft peck to the lips. The taller immediately melted into the other’s embrace, allowing himself to be spooned. “Why…?”

“Just a precaution.” Josh would have been confused by those words, but the velvet mesh of sleep had already claimed him.

~*~

“We finally found the robofucker, boys. Have fun.” He’s being spat on. It’s wet against his cheek, but he can’t wipe it away. He’s shackled. Shackled and writhing. Writhing and powerless. Powerless and blind. A punch to the gut has him breathless. Then more and more hits are raining down on him. He wants to scream, but he won’t give them the satisfaction of seeing him cry.

“It’s not doing anything, boss.”

“Don’t worry, we can fix that.”

Chilled, he waits as the footsteps of many humans fades away. Scanning the area, he feels the simultaneous pulsing hearts of his kind around. It comforts him. He calls out to them, and the collective pulsing quickens with panic. A hundred voices echo in his head, trying to say so many things at once. He tries to answer them, but he can’t. There’s too many of them. Three important voices rise above all the others, and he’s instantly soothed by them. His lovers(?) will find him. Everything will be okay.

The humans are back. Something is plugged into his neck, and he squirms in anticipation. He screams, waves of pain overwhelm him, drown him. He’s thrashing, and shrieks are ripped from his chest. Mocking laughter echoes in his ears, and clapping ensues. Sadists. He’s begging them to stop, tears of agony are streaming down his face. Tears of mirth are running down their faces.

“So what are we going to going to the tincan after this?”

“Leave it the scrapyard, of course. What are you thinking?”

“I thought we could… decorate it, you know? It’s probably already called it’s friends, so why don’t we leave them a message?” One of them claps the other on the back.

“I love the way you think! I have the perfect knives.”

“Guys, I found a taser!” It’s too much for his systems, and he is released. Jericho was close, but salvation was closer.

~*~

“Markus… Markus. Markus! Markus, you’re squeezing me, that’s a bit too tight—MARKUS!” The RK200 jolted awake, and immediately untangled himself from the other. Josh was flustered, and was about to remark on the situation when he noticed the other was curled up and shaking. Cautiously, he placed a tentative hand on the other’s arm, but was immediately whacked in the stomach and knocked back. Markus was breathing hard, babbling under his breath for them (who?) to keep back, to stop hurting him. The other man kept his distance, watching him carefully.

“Markus…?” He tried. The android’s eyes snapped open, then focused on him. A beat, and then he’s upon him, holding him closer and crying.

“They’re going to find you, you have to get out of here!” Markus kept rambling and almost squeezed his boyfriend half to death. Josh didn’t complain this time, and returned the hug gently.

“Who’s going to find me?” It took the android some time to realise that his chains were gone, and his heaving breaths started to calm down. His grip didn’t lessen. They sat there, in silence. The skin of Josh’s hand retracted, and Markus grabbed it. Across the interface, the RK200 reveled in the rivers of comfort that flowed to him. When asked about what happened, Markus simply released the feelings he had had, and they were quenched immediately.

“No-one's going to hurt me…”

“I know, I just got scared…”

“Let’s just have a lazy day today, alright?”

“Mhm…” Markus snuggled deeper into Josh’s chest, and the door creaked open. North and Simon, without saying a word, crumpled onto them both, creating a cuddle pile with Markus at the bottom. A small vibration rumbled in Markus’ chest, something that sounded somewhat like a purr. It spread throughout all the deviants, until the room was filled with pleased thrumming. It was all fine and dandy, until crimson warning signs flashed in his vision, signalling shut down.

~*~

It is cold. It is dark. It is… the scrapyard. Every android’s nightmare, to be left alone, scarred and used. He’s already been left behind here, not again! He struggles, but all his connections are fried. Not again, not again, not again…! Voices. Not groaning and staticky cries, but voices! He cries out. Footsteps come closer…

“MARKUS! OH MY GOD, MARKUS WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU!” A high feminine voice, raw with emotion. It sounds horribly wrong, for someone who is usually as frosty as the North Pole…

Hands trace the marks on his face, the marks on his arms, the marks on his everywhere. The scars on his cheeks are two deep, intricate spirals, as if someone took a lot of time designing them. The others are messy, made in a frenzied excitement. Words appear to be carved into them. He doesn’t want to know what they say.

“Markus, we’re so sorry…” Warnings crowd his mind, and he shivers. Tears are rolling down his cheeks, he can’t tell if it’s his own. It is cold. It is dark. It is… oblivion.

[vividlywriting]

Dbh and DND you say....( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Alright, let's try this on for size: the main cast of Detroit: Become Human plays DND? Who plays what class? I imagine Millenial on a Mission Hank DMs but I'd be open to any of them writing a campaign and forcing the others to play

So my partner and I are pretty into DnD, and as he partook in my play through of DBH and listens to all my fanning out I asked his opinion on this prompt.  So I will put his additions or contradictions in here as well.  This is gonna be a bit long

Let’s start this off right!

DnDBH

Hank Anderson, millennial.

Has played DnD at least once in his life.  

It probably wasn’t his forte at the time, likely something his roommate pulled him into, and the campaign was probably a bust as it was.  

Has most likely played video games like Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s Gate and liked them.  

He’s also played WoW and Guild Wars 2 at different times and for different reasons in his life

neither of which lasted super long, but he did enjoy them at the time

He honest to god hasn’t thought about DnD or anything even similar to it for a couple of decades until Connor found an old set of dice in the spare room (now Connor’s room) at Hank’s place

Now Hank is running a campaign and he has no gods damned idea how he got roped into this

He thinks it’s hilarious when he throws moral quandaries at his players, which all happen to be androids

He once had his players break into a government building to locate a prisoner for information, they were forced to choose between freeing the prisoner and escaping or leaving them behind.  

All of their information on the prisoner was shaky at best and they had no way of knowing if the character would turn on them later because they all failed their sense motive checks

He was dumbfounded when they managed to befriend the character, completely ruining the arc that had the character as the big bad

Hank is well over the “I roll to seduce” aspect of the game, and is thankful none of his players tried to do that more than once

The only time an NPC flirts with a player character is when Hank is trying to throw a player off/fuck with them and derives a lot of pleasure from seeing his players stumble and try to get out of it

Except for the time when it backfired on him

He finished two glasses of whiskey after that

Hank will not admit that he enjoys DMing, he often complains it’s a pain in his ass and he can’t wait until the whole thing is over

Hank agreed to test Markus’s homebrew oneshot…once

Hank Anderson, millennial, by Zeke

No bad guy at first but increasingly intricate moral quandaries

Before moral quandaries he forgets he can’t just throw puzzles at the players cause fuckin androids

General DMing

Almost everyone has DMed at one time or another based on their interest

Connor as a DM

Connor’s DMing style is very straight forward

He usually goes with premade campaigns, luckily there are a lot out there

He’s not the best at improv when his players go off the beaten path

But he’s very good at playing NPCs

Probably thanks to his programming as a detective, because he can play the NPCs’ emotions to a T

As a DM he is a little bit of a hardass though

Connor as a Player

Connor style of character play is much different than how he is in real life

He seems to enjoy the fact that he doesn’t have to “complete his mission” 

In fact he seems to enjoy causing as much chaos as he can, while still somehow doing what he needs to, and often by accident (or design, no one really knows)

He started with a classic rogue character build

Now he takes characters not often in the rogue class and building them in ways that end to his chaotic play style

Connor is the main reason Hank has had to set off random events or traps, e.g. rocks fall sort of situation, just for annoying him

Connor takes incredible care to keep his characters alive, somehow in spite of the trouble they get into

His character’s tend to have a much higher charisma stat that Connor portrays in real life, he takes it as a challenge for himself more so than his characters

Connor as a Player by Zeke

Likes to play Dex based characters

Likes the concept of spells and often leans towards characters that can do both sneaky stuff and magic

Tried playing evil alignment character once, went balls to the walls and then got banned from playing characters like that because even North was like “wtf”

Markus as a DM

Markus usually starts with a premade campaign

By the time the party gets through the first “dungeon” he’s tossed the script out off the window and is rolling dice and making it up as he goes along

His NPCs often sound a little the same

And when he digs into the homebrew style of DMing he likes to bring in scenarios that either play for or against his players personally

Markus as a Player

Markus avoids leadership character roles like the fucking plague

He actually leans towards the utility characters, buffing and healing the rest of the party

That does not stop the other players from looking to him to be the deciding factor in major decisions of the game

Sometimes he literally just rolls a dice to determine his character’s answer out of frustration

When anyone but Hank DMs he enjoys flirting with most NPCs to try and mess with the DM

He has flirted with enemies before

He has bedded enemies before

It is ridiculous how his lowkey background character playstyle manages to have that much charisma

He is usually the reason Connor doesn’t die in game, and he never lets him live it down

Markus as a Player by Zeke

Every once in a while Markus likes just playing a barbarian and raging

After the first campaign of him ending up as a leader character he just wants to play something simpler

Simon as a DM

Simon is a very thorough DM

He’s very keen on everyone enjoying themselves

But he’s also a very fair DM and if you roll a Nat 1 you’re gonna have to deal with the consequences

He actually really enjoys building homebrews, but he also has a handful of backup plans depending how the players move forward and how much time they have to play

His NPCs have a decent amount of variety, and they often come back into play later whether or not the players realize it at the time

Simon as a Player

Simon is probably the most diplomatic character player you’ve ever seen

His characters are usually quiet, and startlingly efficient

He plays arcane casters usually, and uses it about as equally against enemies as he does against the party to quell the in party bickering that tends to happen

He likes being useful, but more importantly he enjoys the fact that there are many times the party would have been screwed over if he hadn’t stepped up

It took about three sessions before the other players stopped underestimating him and his characters, they tend to be quite lethal 

Simon’s characters usually try to solve things without violence, or without deaths

Someone, either player or DM usually makes that impossible 

While Simon usually just sighs and says “ok then”, he often laughs at the resulting destruction

He has incredible luck with his dice rolls

Simon as a Player by Zeke

Tries making things with high charisma scores but usually ends up defaulting to Markus’s leadership who just tries to put back to simon

Really good in the cleric/healing character classes

North as a Player

Prefers playing, not DMing, the one time she tried to take over for someone to run a oneshot everyone died. 

It did not go well

Most of North’s characters fall somewhere between chaotic neutral to chaotic evil

The others have fallen in the Lawful side of the chart, lawful evil to be exact, and it is terrifying

Her characters change alignment the most as she plays based on how she feels towards other characters and NPCs

Despite that she has yet to fall into the Good column of the chart

Her characters are also either highly destructive or just plain really good at violence/fighting

She doesn’t have a preferred class type, she just likes doing as much damage as possible

North does like playing races that are often less liked in the campaign world

She also likes to retaliate to in game racism and has before collected a small gathering of NPCs she’s helped in someway because of this

As a character player she can be quite cold

She has yet to play a game where the DM included any sort of brothel, unless it is there for the sole purpose of being infiltrated and the workers being saved

Yes that was a game Markus ran

North as a Player by Zeke

Fighter, Ranger, Swashbuckler/Pirate Characters

Josh as a Player

He is just happy being a player

LOOT

This boy will find the loot and you may or may not know about it

He has killed the least number of people than anyone in his party

He prefers to not kill anyone if he can

Leave them out cold, or tied up, he’s even fine with dismemberment so long as they still have their life

When he does have to kill its in either one of two ways

Either he poisons them and they or most characters have no idea he did it

OR he makes it quick and clean

He plays the assassin class very very well, or he would if he actually did his job as an assassin

Josh as a Player by Zeke

Uses the loot for a good cause

Chaotic good or neutral good

Always good and opposite of north, by accident

Monk or brawler and always specifies he is doing non lethal damage

Stealthy monk - josh becomes one punch man

Kara as a Player

Kara is a healer

She’s learned the best builds to give you the best buffs all day long

Her characters are often pretty fragile though so the other players usually have to strategize around her to make sure she lives so she can make sure they deal the most and take the least damage

Her characters have all ended up rescuing someone or something at some point 

This has lead to her almost always having a companion animal or favors she can call in from NPCs later in the game 

It’s been pretty handy

Kara Player by Zeke

Witch, Druid, Shaman classes

Alice as a player NPC by Both of Us

Was allowed to join to play as an NPC, reprising similar roles, because the first one went over so well

She learned to make stuffed animals just to slam them on the board

They are always too big

It was a dragon

It only happened because she found Hank’s old copy of The Hobbit

When she plays as her NPC she jumped up on her chair and holds up a stuffed animal of a dragon and screamed “I am fire! I am death!” slammed the toy onto the board and yelled “ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!”

Hank’s response was to look at his confused players and say “Well, go on, do it.” because they didn’t think it was serious

Almost no one has it in them to actually kill her characters, even tho they only exist to be fought

So Hank has to come up with “an out” for the NPC baddie to get away

Because of this Alice gets really into high fantasy books and movies

Hank doesn’t mind babysitting her as much now

Luther as a Player by Both of Us

He only plays occasionally

Mostly oneshots not full campaigns

Plays the smallest characters he can

He knows what it’s like to be big, he wants to be smol

He made one min/maxed orc that was too broken to be used more than the one time

He’s a really soft spoken player, he doesn’t say much but he enjoys playing

The Jerry Gaming Collective

Is a thing

Find them on twitch

[nerysdax]

PSA about putting Tomione in real life Nazi settings

After I’ve gotten some more questions as to why I have issues with writing a Tomione with the holocaust as subject (see this post: http://nerysdax.tumblr.com/post/173906911067/lust ) when I normally am pretty much “write what you want and fuck the haters”, I was wondering why and how to properly word it. Yesterday night I couldn’t find the words. It hit too close to home. Here’s why.

When I was a young teenager, I became obsessed with WW2. I don’t remember exactly what started it, probably the combination of a book (about heroic people fighting the Germans and crossing the channel to flee to England) and the knowledge my still young grandparents went through that war. I was fascinated. Wanted to know everything. I badgered them. My grandfather had been in a German labor camp and my grandmother had done some minor resistance work by delivering fake identity documents. They as so many of their generation didn’t want to talk about it, but I learned snippets of their history. Now I know I was asking them to relive a horrible time, back then I was a curious youngster, who didn’t understand and I wanted to know and learn about this war. I wrote terrible Mary Sue stories about my shooting Hitler and saving the world, or about liberating camps, or shooting those horrible, horrible Germans and collaborators.

I wanted to know more, so I read every fictional book available. I knew this war. I felt it was inside of me, but fictional books didn’t quite cut it. I switched to history books. I watched movies. I learned about the hunt for Eichmann. I studied what Simon Wiesenthal was doing. I read everything about the holocaust. The horrors of the elimination of Jews, gay people, Romani, mentally disabled and anyone else out of the norm. I read about Mengele and his horrible experiments. I wanted to understand. The more I learned, the less I understood. This was a war I understood, this was a war I knew all about. It was black and white. Good and evil. How did people allow for this to happen when the fictional books I had read spoke of the bravery? I wrote a story about a young girl in a camp (based a lot on Anne Frank in hindsight) who survived (alas not based on Anne Frank) while her family perished. After all I knew this war. I knew this, too.

I became more critical about my own country, the Netherlands. We were the country the most Jews got transported from, the most who never came back, even if you adjust to percentages within the population, we still were in the dishonourable position of being the lead. I learned about the collaborators from their children. I learned about the silent majority to whom “Ik heb het niet geweten” (the dutch version of “Ich habe es nicht gewusst”) really didn’t fly. You had to have known. How could you not? How could you stay silent? How could you tell on your neighbours? How could you take their belongings? Why, why, why? To my teenage mind, it all seemed so clear. You had to make the right choice. Easy. So why wasn’t it that way? I began to write more critical fictional WW2 stories. Stories about collaborators, stories about someone not daring to speak up and looking the other way over and over and over again, until finally they were liberated and could pretend none of it was their fault. This was my war. I knew it.

I read about the Soviets fight, the questionable delay of the Allied Forces invasion over and over out of fear for Stalin. The immense cost of the Russian lives, because that second front stayed away. I still burn a candle on May 9th out of solidarity for the Russian lives lost, even though in the Netherlands we commemorate the dead on May 4th. I wrote a story about the siege on Leningrad. This was my war. The more I learned, the more I knew, the more I became fascinated.

I focused on the rise of Hitler. The economic cost of WW1 to Germany, the poverty, the promises he made, the unexplainable attraction he had on crowds, the choices of the German population and the responses at first abroad. The unemployment he combatted. I knew the war, I wanted to know the start. You don’t start with concentration camps, you start with little things. I wrote about the “Kristallnacht” and the slowly excluding of Jews in everyday life. I began to understand how Hitler could’ve risen to power. I knew this war. I wrote a story about a young German Wehrmacht soldier and his choices and dilemmas.

I learned about Italy, Mussolini. How a country seen as wrong still saved a lot of his Jewish population, while we (the good guys) had not. I looked at Denmark where the Royal Family didn’t flee and exerted influence to save people, while ours had not. I looked at Switzerland and the questionable decisions of their banks with regards to the Nazi gold (which was never theirs to begin with). I learned more and more and more of this war. This war was mine. I wrote stories about robbing a Swiss bank after the war. I wrote a story where our royal family had stayed and its possible impact, including the questionable loyalties and position of then Prins Bernhard.

This was a war I knew. This was MY war. This was a war I began to understand.

Then I went to Auschwitz.

The immensity of it hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt it so profoundly that day. I still can’t think of that monument without crying.

And I realised something important.

I knew nothing.

This was not my war.

These weren’t my stories to tell.

These words belonged to other people.

“So we may never forget”.  Yes, we need to remember. Yes, we need to retell the stories of those who were there, of those people it impacted on, of those who survived and those who did not. The real stories.

I often see people say when they write fiction about WW2, “We need to tell these stories so it never happens again.”

And I say, how arrogant. How arrogant of you to think that your fiction will do what the true stories of survivors did not. How arrogant to think you can appropriate something so horrific and do it better than those who lived it. How arrogant was I.

It happened and is happening again. We were there in Srebrenica; we stood by and watched. We were there in Rwanda, we stood by another genocide and did nothing. We are there in Myanmar, we make some fleeting comment about how bad it is what they’re doing to the Rohingyas and move on with our lives. We are there with North Korea; we don’t even comment about those concentration camps, because they only concern their own population after all. Those rockets that might hit ocean are a bigger deal to us. The internet, and before that, television means we are always there and we always do nothing.

We need to remember, we need to tell the true stories. Not for our amusement. Not for our entertainment. Not for our desire for angst. Not for a cheap thrill. But so that maybe someday, we will finally open our eyes and truly see. So that maybe someday, we will finally say, “stop, no further!” So that maybe someday, we will finally learn from history. So that maybe someday, when a person like Hitler tries to take control, we will say, “not on our watch.”