#how come no one's came back since the planet recovered?

[auradaparanormal]

Day 2- Discover

[itstimetojellyfish]

They all leave .( I’ll come back)Jing Yuan x reader.

Some more angst , yall , I need to balance all the fluff and angst.

They all left you .

It all started with Baiheng , when she died in the abundance war , it left all of you , devastated. As soon as you heard the news you dropped to your knees and cried your heart out .

Baiheng was one of your closest friends , aside from Jingliu , you just had that special connection with her since you’ve been with her since birth .

You took much longer than anyone in the High Cloud Quintet to recover from , a few months passed and you were still recovering when the news hit you .

Dan Feng had just broken one of the rules just to revive Baiheng.

While you were grateful for the attempt , you were also disappointed in you and Dan Feng , you , for being so weak and useless , and Dan Feng for latching on too hard and breaking the rules and potentially being sentenced to death .

You didn’t think anyone else was working with him since everyone had a sense of self-preservation, but you forgot .

When it includes loved ones , people will do anything.

Once you were told that Yingxing , one of the most reasonable ones in the group , helped Dan Feng in the attempt of reviving Baiheng and ended up getting Mara-struck thanks to Dan Feng you were in shock.

Everyone was dying…

You were kicked out of your residence under the false assumption that you helped Dan Feng and Yingxing too .

You didn’t mind as you stayed in Jingliu’s house because she was one of your friends and if you stayed at Jing Yuan’s house, rumors would occur .

But you soon noticed a difference in her , she started to behave more aggressively and went out often , she even began to cover her eyes with a blindfold .

You didn’t suspect she was Mara-struck too .

Soon a battle occurred between Jing Yuan and Jingliu , Jing Yuan being the winner .

You were in despair , in such a short time , the life you’ve worked so hard to build , was torn apart in less than a hundredth of how much time it took to make it .

And then Jing Yuan was promoted to one of the Arbiter Generals and became the leader of the cloud knights , which meant he cut off all communications with you since he was so busy.

That was the straw that broke the camels back.

They left you all alone on the Luofu, hated and alone , with nothing to your name to at least prove you weren’t part of the plan to revive Baiheng.

You didn’t have anything to prove you were trustworthy.

Loyal

honest

kind

not even a single scrap .

Your belongings were burned in a fire .

You found yourself dumped in some unknown planet , cold and miserable without any proper protection from the planets harsh temperatures.

How useless were you? You couldn’t help Dan Feng and Yingxing with reviving Baiheng , you couldn’t help Jingliu , and you left Jing Yuan alone to cope with everything all by himself without anyone to comfort him.

How useless.

You had to hunt for your resources, the clothing you had gotten only a thin layer of cotton against the wind .

Worst of all , you had no knowledge about this planet . All the basic travel and survival guides you’ve ever read useless.

Berries? Could be poisonous .

The cave that you thought was empty? The den of some gigantic scorpion monster .

The fabric you made from a plant? The equivalent of poison ivy .

Oh? Some water from a lake that you saw animals drinking from? Poison to humans .

You gave up entirely .

Every single day was met with a new challenge, either your water supply ran out or a rockslide occurred and you had to climb over that and broke a bone in the process or your food rotted and you had to eat it anyways because you were starving and now you had indigestion and cramps .

Life sucked .

Then the day came , the day where everything that could go wrong , went wrong.

The second you woke up , you had a blistering headache and suffered from heat exhaustion so you felt like you couldn’t get up but you had to if you wanted to live .

The berries that you thought were safe , actually was a literal blood-sucking parasite that gave diseases .

The herbs you tried to get for treatment , were above a stalagmite, so when you fell due to exhaustion thanks to the heat , your upper body got pierced near the shoulder and you were in excruciating pain for the remainder of the day .

Then a rockslide occurred thanks to your fall and your ankle got trapped under the rock .

Underneath all that pain and loneliness, you caved into the sweet embrace of nothingness and lost consciousness.

The last thing you saw was black armored boots and someone kneeling down .

~~~~~~~~🪼

You awoke to being swathed in soft buttery linens as the bright morning sun shined through the translucent curtains and into your eyes .

You turned over only to have a searing pain go through you and tears begin to pour down your cheeks and you start to whimper .

Before the pain can get worse someone gently holds your mouth open and pours some water and medicine down your throat and coaxes you to swallow down the bitter medicine.

It takes a while for the medicine to finally kick in before you open your eyes and see a white fluffy looking head with honey yellow eyes look at you, worry evident in their eyes .

They gather up in their arms , taking care of not to disturb your wounds .It takes a while to put two and two together and then you realize who it is holding you with the same amount of tenderness a lover would to their partner.

It’s Jing Yuan.

You stare at him like a deer in headlights before he gently pulls you towards his chest and coddles you gently .

No words are needed

You begin to tear up as you cling to him and sob , your heart worn and tired from all those nights of staying in an unfamiliar place with no sense of safety.

Jing Yuan simply just pats your back and cries silent tears , he’s missed you quite terribly often.

After a whole 30 minutes of crying your eyes out , your tear ducts or dry and you begin to tire , your head to hazy since your body is using up all its energy to recuperate.

Soon enough , you fall asleep against his broad chest and lay there , encased in soft blankets .

Jing Yuan stares at you with adoration in his eyes as he praises your ability to survive in harsh circumstances. But that doesn’t soften the fact that the people he cared for , had thrown you out without his knowledge or permission for the past four years.

He makes a vow to you within the walls of his bedroom where no one can hear him .

“ No one,will ever hurt you again,my dear lioness.”

[sunandsstars]

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Recombinants x Medic!Reader

Summary: An unlikely group of people find a home in their cute little human doctor.

Warnings: Swearing, Mentions of wounds/death/hurting animals

Word count: 1.6k

“Ouch!”

“Sorry! I did tell you it would burn” ___ swiped the alcohol wipe across Lopez’s blue arm, cleaning the deep wound from dirt and bacteria. She grabbed a needle and thread out of the medkit on the floor and carefully stitched him up.

“Don’t be a pussy Lp” Brown stuck his tongue out, tail flicking every which way, hitting Mansk behind him who swatted at the appendage and rolled his eyes, not that anyone could see them under the shades.

“Hey! This is a crazy ass gash on my arm! Let me cry dickface” Lopez stuck up the middle finger of the hand that wasn’t getting treated and ___ slapped it, instructing him not to get into petty fights until after she’s done.

“Will you lot stop pulling each others cocks for one minute?” their colonel strolled into the med bay with Wainfleet right behind him, both ducking under the small doorway to get into the room. “How’s it looking doc?”

“He’ll be ok, it shouldn’t get infected if treated correctly, just make sure to change the bandages every once in a while” ___ finished the last of the stitches she sewed, putting away her equipment. Being a doctor on Pandora had its pros, her income was higher than any other job on Earth, she got to be the first of the human race to live on another planet, she also got to have free roam of Bridgehead since she was highly ranked which was cool.

The cons however, were that she had to be apart of Project Phoenix. Assisting the recombinant squad, ‘deja blu’ was not what she signed up for and at first she was very reluctant, until she actually spent time with them. They were sweet and gentle with her, knowing that she was physically much weaker than them, they took care of her and also each other. Somewhat, they were a family.

Also the soldiers were fucking hot.

“Good. Lopez that was some stupid shit you pulled back there. Could’ve gotten us killed” Quaritch’s heavy steps stomped over to the two and flicked the mans pointed ear, Lopez winced and ___ huffed a laugh.

“Sorry colonel, just got too excited”

“If you want to be excited again, you have the opportunity to get out once you’re done here” General Ardmore made herself known, glaring at every person in the room “I need you on the front lines, take on those big ass animals that are blocking our train lines, they haven’t moved for days so we’re gonna amp up the pressure”

Some of the squad quietly sighed, they just came back from a mission, one that almost got them eaten by a giant black cat, not to mention one of them is injured enough as is.

“General, Lopez here needs to rest, he’s hurt enough as is” ___ intervened, holding the man’s massive hand and squeezing it in reassurance, she knew by the way his ears pointed down that he didn’t want to go out so soon, especially after almost getting his arm hacked off. Ardmore only directed her glare to the woman, making her freeze and look down.

She was one intimidating lady.

“General, we’ll be out there as soon as my guys are rested, it shouldn’t take long” Quaritch piped up, not wanting their doctor to face the older ladies rath of judgement.

Ardmore nodded sharply and sighed heavily, not liking the delay but this wasn’t her team to command… well it was…but Quaritch was a man that she didn’t want to get on the bad side of. Recom or human. She briskly turned and marched out but not before giving them three days rest to recover and gather supplies. She’d just have to send some Bulldogs instead.

Lopez sighed and squeezed ___’s hand in thanks for sticking up for him, he released it and stood up from his chair, Brown coming over and clapping him on the back “you guys wanna go to the rec room? Ja and Zhang are waiting for us”, many agreed and followed suit, Wainfleet and Quaritch sticking behind for ___.

The doctor packed her equipment away and took off her lab coat off, nodding to the two as they filed out. “So.. what exactly happened out there?” she usually was on these missions with them, but she had to tend to some paperwork with the bio scientists.

“We ran into one of those.. what are they called, thanators? Nasty fuckers” Wainfleet strolled up next to her, tail flicking and sending her hair up a little, he grinned and messed with her more, using his tail to flick more of her neatly kept hair.

___ turned and slapped his leg, smoothing her hair down and jogged a little further to get away from him. “Yeah, they’re not very nice. You must’ve been in their hunting zone - stop that!” she grinned as Lyle followed her around “just because I have hair and you don’t!”

Quaritch snorted “docs got a point corporal, but that burn runs deeper than Lp’s kitty scratches, how you gonna take that?” he was a few ways back from them, ears pointed up and grin on his face at their silliness. He could hear more of his team in one of the rooms further up laughing and chatting, Prager had a secret lover? Now that is something he’d need to find out.

“Well for one, sleep with both eyes open and a nightlight, for two-” The soldier grabbed ___ by the waist and hoisted her up over his shoulder, slapping her ass and barging into the recom’s rec room shouting “this little lady has been bullying me about my hair! We needa teach her a lesson”

Zdinarsk sharply turned at the loud noise and saw the predicament the two were in, ___ was dangling with her face barely reaching Lyle’s lower back, her tiny fists hitting the muscle as she shouted for mercy. The soldier hollered “what hair?!” and the rest followed with shouts of their own, oh the agony.

Wainfleet pointed his middle finger at every single one of them, including Quaritch behind him who was chuckling loudly. He placed the human in his arms onto one of the couches and forced her onto her back, easily pinning her with just one hand. His yellow eyes met hers and she instantly tensed up “no! NO! Lyle please don’t!” the man only grinned devilishly and raised his other hand slowly “Lyle I promise I’ll do anything!”

“Anything?”

“Yes anything! I’ll bake you those brownies you like!” Man did he love those brownies.

“Hmm, what do you think people?” Lyle glanced at everyone in the room to see their opinions.

Zhang twisted around and raised his brows “I dunno corp, she disrespected you and your lack of hair, she deserved what’s coming to her”

“Zhang!”

“Yea give it to her!” Fike pumped a fist into the air and Mansk nodded cooly.

“The people have spoken darlin’ you could still make me those sweets anyway” ___ screeched as the solder brought the hand down and tickled at her skin, going across the stomach, under the pits, under her chin. Her greatest weakness is that she’s ticklish, ever since they found that out she’s been exploited to the harsh fingers of the recombinants.

The doctor had tears going out of her eyes as she laughed at the feeling “I-I’m sorry! ahaha! I did- I didn’t mean to!” she felt Wainfleet slow down to a stop, nodding and patting her head as she breathed heavily. A flicker appeared in his eyes and she instantly put her hands up, knowing he would probably do it again.

Prager strolled by and rugby tackled Lyle to the floor, taking him down and wrestling him. All ___ could see from her position was tails swinging and legs flailing, she breathed heavily and sat up, carefully avoiding the almost ten foot men.

She strolled over to Quaritch who engaged himself in a game of cards with Ja, Zdinarsk and Fike. She examined the A4 cards he held then the ones on the table and plucked one from his fingers, placing it down. “Fuck” Zdinarsk swore, cursing whatever god was out there for this treachery, she was losing. Z-Dog never loses. “You know, I thought I liked you sweetness” ___ just stuck her tongue out in retaliation. Fike urged the doctor to help him out too, only to get a card thrown at him by Zdinarsk.

“How are you doing Lopez?” ___ strolled over to the man who was watching T.V with Zhang and Brown, he grabbed the little lady and perched her onto his lap.

“Good mami. It’s gonna take more than a fat cat to tear me down”

“Oorah!”

___ glanced over the man’s shoulder at Wainfleet who agreed and flexed his muscles, marines will be marines, she laughed.

“Don’t act like you weren’t crying earlier because of the pain” Brown chimed in, eyes glancing at the two next to him, he reached a hand over to rest it on ___’s calf, rubbing circles on it.

“I didn’t cry”

“Yes you did, whining like Prager when he got dumped by his secret lover”

‘Prager had a secret lover?’ ___ wondered. Tea is brewing, she had a feeling it was gonna be good.

“I’ll stick my tail in your ass if you don’t shut your fucking mouth”

“I’m counting on it”

“Cut it out!”

[supercorpkid]

Ace Reporter

Supergirl, Kara Danvers x Reader!, Lena Luthor x Reader!

Word Count: 2030

More to come!

“Miss Luthor, Miss Y/L/N is here from the Daily Planet for the interview.” You hear Lena Luthor’s assistant on the phone, and look back at your hands clenching into your purse. 

You never got nervous interviewing before. But now, you came to National City to talk to Lena Luthor and try to get something out of her brother’s latest jailbreak. You are aware that the chances of Lena actually telling you anything about Lex are pretty slim. But there’s nothing you can do about it. If they sent you all the way from Metropolis to get a quote from her, you might as well work for it.

It’s not that you’re scared of her. No, that would be absurd. Yes, her brother is a borderline maniac and even though he is just a man he is a worthy opponent for Superman himself, so his mind is both amazing and bizarre. And yes, you’ve heard all Luthors have the same brain. But you’re not scared. No. You just think you should be careful with your approach.

“You can go in, Miss Y/L/N.” Her assistant signals for you to follow her, and takes you to Lena’s office. “Please.” She gestures for you to walk inside.

“Thank you.” You nod at her while she closes the door. You look to the other side of the big, fancy office to find the person you’re looking for. “Miss Luthor.”

“Hello, Miss Y/L/N.” Lena points to the chair before her desk. And you promptly make your way there. “Haven’t heard from the Daily Planet in a while.”

“Oh, yeah.” You smile, swallowing your insecurities while you’re in front of her. The fact that she was beautiful you already knew, but holy damn, you were not prepared for this gorgeous woman in front of you. You must look like a total loser while you stare at her at a loss for words. “I bet you only hear from CatCo now.”

She smiles, agreeing. CatCo is a pain in the ass of the Daily Planet. Actually, that’s not true. CatCo is a pain in your ass. Or rather one reporter named Kara Danvers. You push your reservations against CatCo and Kara aside, coming back to what it matters.

“I’m glad you said yes to sitting down with the Daily Planet today, Miss Luthor. We’ve lost touch now that you moved to National City. But you’re always out doing interesting things.” You try to butter her up a little to see if she’ll be more inclined to give you the information. “And rebranding Luthor Corp! That’s worth publishing about.”

“Oh.” Lena furrows her brows. She looks directly at your eyes, narrowing hers, clearly confused with your approach. “If you are actually here to talk about L Corp, I’d love to chat. But,” She raises her eyebrow at you and you know exactly what is coming next. “If you're here to ask about Lex, then I’m sorry but we have nothing to talk about.”

You give her a patient smile. “I’m here to hear about you, Miss Luthor.” Liar. Liar. Pants on fire. “Of course Lex’s name might come up since you took over his company, but I don’t think there’s anything more interesting than you.”

It’s a lie, but it also isn’t. You, as a person, are super interested in Lena. The Daily Planet, however…

The interview went well. As well as it could go with Lena purposely dodging all the questions about Lex, and you trying to be sneaky enough and get a quote on something about him. In the end you got a shabby quote about how she has no idea what he’s been up to, because she has much to do to recover the company since he left it in a horrible state. 

There were far more important things to talk about, and her mind is just as amazing as his for what you could see, but you did what you could in your limited time with her.

“Well, it was great to talk to you, Miss Luthor.” You stand up, showing her your hand. Lena looks at it with a smirk before taking into hers, and shaking it strongly.

“Hope I was worth the commute.” She tries to be funny, but it comes out a little flirty. With the eyebrow raised, the raspy tone both followed by a little smirk, you have a really hard time making your brain function properly. But that’s insane, Lena Luthor wouldn’t flirt with a simple reporter such as you.

“National City has its charms.” You smile, clearly talking about something other than National City. Because, honestly, this city has got nothing on Metropolis. Maybe the Super. You love Superman, obviously, but Supergirl is just as powerful and also a snack. "I guess I can see why it was appealing to some people."

“I hope you’re sticking around longer, there is much to see here.” She adds, and you furrow your brows confused to what she might be talking about. There’s literally nothing to see in National City. 

“Really? And here I was thinking nothing could beat this view." Your mind finally catches up to your brain when you realize you've been staring at her directly while saying that. "I mean, we're so high up." You point to the windows behind her.

Lena Luthor is a professional so she obviously wouldn't laugh right at your face, but she totally could after this. Ugh.

Instead, she smiles with a little nod. She rounds the table taking you to her office door, clearly telling you it’s time for you to leave without being indelicate.

“I hope to see you around, Miss Y/L/N.”

“She has given us nothing.” You hear on the phone, and breathe deep, knowing this would be the reaction from your editor.

“She doesn’t trust me. You know how hard it is to approach Luthors, especially in a situation like this. Just let me go back to Metropolis and help Clark with the investigation about Lex.”

“Clark doesn’t need any help, and we need at least a serious quote from someone in the family. Lena is our safest bet.” You can hear him shuffling with some papers. “Clark told me his cousin works for CatCo and she’ll be happy to help. She and Lena have a good relationship you can exploit. Look for her, her name is Kara Danvers.”

“What?”

“Kara Danvers.” He repeats as if you hadn’t heard him. “You can come back when you give me an actual quote I can use.” He hangs up right after.

UGH! You throw your phone in the hotel bed, pissed. Not only you have to stay in National City for God only knows how long, now you also have to work with Kara fucking Danvers? This is your worst nightmare. 

You open your laptop, looking her up on Google. It isn’t the first time you’ve done this and it probably won’t be the last. You can’t believe you have yet to read her piece that won the award. The award that was supposed to be yours. It was so close, you were sure you were going to win, then Kara swooped in at the last second and took it from you. She must be a real dick. You can’t believe she is Clark’s cousin. He’s so nice and she is… ugh. Just the worst.

You don’t want to know if her article was actually better than yours. So you close your laptop, and throw yourself back in bed, looking at the hotel walls and imagining different ways you can be passive-aggressive with Kara Danvers.

Yet, you swallow your pride and make your way to CatCo first thing in the morning. You might not want to work with Kara, but you do want to go back home, and if this is the only way, then so be it.

“Hi, I’m Y/N from the Daily Planet. I was told to look for Kara Danvers. We are going to be working together.” You give the brunette in front of you your best fake smile. Even though she looks adorable and worth much more than that.

“Oh, that’s so cool. I’m Nia Nal. Come on, I’ll take you to her desk.” You follow her, heart beating fast in anticipation, you’re about to meet the woman that took your best chance to have a better career. 

“Kara, this is Y/N from the Daily Planet.” You stop behind Nia, looking at Kara and her button up shirt and stupid cardigan. She adjusts her glasses while looking at you. You can’t believe you lost your prize to this fucking nerd.

“Hi,” She stands up, showing you her hand. “I’m Kara. It’s nice to meet you. My cousin Clark texted me you’re coming. Hopefully I’ll be able to help you.”

Yeah, right. You hold her hand, forcing a smile. “I’m sure you will.”

Nia excuses herself, and Kara shows you to a desk in front of her where you can set up your things. “So, what brings the Daily Planet to National City?”

“Lex Luthor.” Kara’s eyebrows are pinched together when she hears his name. “His latest jailbreak.”

“Oh.” She adjusts her glasses on her face one more time, then smooths her hand over her stupid cardigan. 

“You look surprised, Danvers.” You smirk, glad to know something the prize-awardee doesn’t seem to know.

“No, no.” But she clearly is still processing the information. “I’m just confused as to why you’re here. Wasn’t he in a Metropolis jail? Seems you’d get more information there.”

“Clark is looking into it.” You breathe out. “We had to look for other sources.” 

She immediately puts two and two together. “Lena.” It’s merely a whisper, but you can hear her just fine.

“She agreed to an interview, but obviously wouldn’t talk about Lex.” You raise an eyebrow at her. “With me, at least.”

"She's nothing like her brother. I thought the Daily Planet would’ve figured that out by now.” Kara crosses her arms, defensively. Looking like she won’t want to help you. Which you can’t really blame her, but still can hate her for it.

“Of course I know that.” You don’t know it for sure, but your intuition tells you so. You were only with Lena for 20 minutes, but you already know she is different from all the other Luthors. “But we have nothing on him. Even Superman is worried. I know Lena is trying to reverse her brother’s evil schemes, and moving to National City was an excellent idea, because people in Metropolis hate the Luthor name even more than they do here. But still, Danvers, if she has anything on her brother, it would help a lot.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it.” Kara looks back on her phone, and you dare a glance at it. She is texting Clark. 

Kara: What's up with Y/N?

Clark: Best reporter I know. Great at finding people's secrets.

You smile at the compliment. Even Clark knows you're a better reporter than prize-awardee over here. You stop looking at her phone and focus back on her face. She gives an annoyed sigh, clearly not wanting to help, but finding it impossible to say no. 

Come on, Kara Danvers. She owes you one.

“Look, I get it. You don’t want to help. Trust me, if I could, I wouldn’t be here either. But I need a quote from Lena to leave, and God, I really want to leave.” You show her your hand. “You help me, and I get out of your hair as soon as possible.”

“I can try, but I don’t think Lena knows anything.” 

“Well, that's an easy fix, isn't it? We're reporters, we just need to find something for her to learn. What do you say, Danvers?” You show her your hand one more time. “Your name can be the first one in the byline.”

Kara rolls her eyes, but shakes your hand in agreement. This fucking nerd. You can’t believe you came all the way from Metropolis to interview a Luthor and were paired up with the only reporter you cannot stand. Honestly, when did your career get so side-tracked?

[skylarmoon71]

Human Optimus Prime (Transformers) - (AU) Oneshot

"The war is over, you don't have to keep looking out for me." 

You watched the Autobot above you, his optics blinked, and he shifted on his feet. Not sure how to respond to your words. 

"You can't be certain the danger is over." 

Through all the battles, life was finally settling down.

Most of the Decepticons were gone, the ones that survived were in hiding. Far too smart to try and plan another attack. Some of the Autobots that were still alive were doing the same. You felt like you'd watch so much of them die. Jazz, Ratchet, you never really recovered. 

You suppose that was the reason Optimus felt the need to be constantly with you. Bumblebee was with Sam, enjoying his life. Peacefully. The remainder of Autobots were all leading very different lives from when they first started. Whenever there was a threat, they lend a hand to the government, but in the meantime, they were just relaxing. Something they hadn't gotten a chance to do fully since they crashed to earth that night. 

For some reason, Optimus took it upon himself to look out for you. So every once in a while he'd stop by to see how you were going, what you were up to. Being a sophomore in college, you were thankful that you were spending more time now on your studies to pursue your profession. In high school it was just one disaster after the next. Now, you could unravel and focus on regular things that college students stressed over, like midterms.

"I think I can handle any danger that comes, I've made it this far haven't I." You were sitting at the edge of the hill, just looking down at the city. When he buzzed by to check on you, he'd ride you to this spot, and the both of you would chat about everything.

You used to look forward to it, but now it was just an unwanted reminder. The main reason behind your refusal for his protection was the fact that your feelings for him had never gone away. In high school, you always thought it was a little crush. 

He was a giant robot who came from another planet and lived for who knows how long. You had no idea why you even fell for him. But the more you were around him, the deeper your feelings got. 

Two years of knowing him you finally confessed exactly how you felt, and his response was that although he was flattered, he could not return them. You cried for a week, but eventually got over it. Surprisingly you were able to salvage a friendship.

That was years ago though. You were on your way to start a life, one that obviously he didn't want to be a part of, at least not the way you wanted. You figured if you were ever to move on, you needed to start making an effort to get some distance. His constant visits weren't making it any easier.

"Is that the true reason you wish for me to stop watching over you?" 

His statement made your shoulder tense slightly. 

"What other reason would there be? " 

You needed to change the subject quickly.

"You can have a life here Optimus. All the other Autobots have, so can you. How are you going to do that if you're always around me."

"You are a part of my life." 

You clench your fists, refusing to let those words play with your heart.

"I can't be, at least not anymore." 

When you looked back at him, he looked a bit sullen at what you said.

"Optimus I..I lied all those years ago. I-I haven't gotten over what you said, or how I feel about you. I think it just got worse as the years went by. I'm in love with you Optimus..." 

You swallowed, because you knew for a fact that you were about to be rejected for the second time. 

"But I think if you just give me space...I'll find a way to stop feeling this way. So please just..don't come by anymore. For your sake, and mine." 

You stood from your spot, and Optimus was just staring at you. He didn't speak, didn't say anything. You didn't need words though. It was clear how he felt. 

"I want to go home." 

You didn't look him in the eyes, you really couldn't. He must have realized that you didn't want to talk about it any longer. With a short nod, he shifted back into a semi. You opened the door, hopping in and closing the door. 

As you sat there, you forced yourself not to cry. When he was gone, and you were back at your apartment, you would have plenty of time to do that. So you stayed silent, watching the trees and buildings as Optimus took off.

~~

"Optimus, are you alright. You look a bit distracted. " 

Sam's words caught him off guard, and he lowered his head at the male. The other autobots in the area stared. Even Bumblebee looked curious. It wasn't often that they saw their leader that way. He'd always been the one with a solution for every problem. Yet he looked like he was struggling with whatever issue he was going through.

"I believe I have...gained feelings for a human." 

Sam's eyes popped open, and from the side he could see Ironhide and Sideswipe high five. Crosshairs just sighed, running a hand over his face.

"Aww you sad sap, I knew that chick was bad news. "

Bumblebee's optics glowed. A song blasting from his speakers.

"Can you feel the love tonight."

Optimus just sighed, and Bumblebee titled his head. 

"What's up doc, you look a bit under the weather."

Sam could only manage a small smile. No matter how many years pass, Bumblebee's use of the radio always amused him.

"I'm a little surprised, I guess I always knew there was something between you two. I see the way she looks at you when she thinks no one is watching." 

Sam's comment gained a look from Optimus Prime.

"How long has she been giving me those looks?"

Sam now looked a bit nervous. 

"Uhh, I'm not sure if I'm the right person to ask about this stuff. Maybe you should just tell her how you feel and.."

"It's pointless. A relationship with a human, with (Y/N), it's impossible. She's a child and I'm a soldier. "

"She's not a child." Sam said it with so much defiance. "She's not a kid anymore, maybe that's why you're so blind. You're still treating her like a kid. She's a woman, Optimus. She should have a say, it shouldn't just be your decision."

"And as for your other problem, I think I have a solution for that as well." Ironhide pipped in.

"A solution.." 

Optimus asked with uncertainty. Ironhide didn't say much more, in seconds he was reverting back to a car. "Let's go, I've been waiting years to show you this!" It didn't take much convincing, they were all interested now.

*****

"A new professor in the department?" 

You nod at your friend, sipping from your coffee.

"Staff has been a bit overpowered. I only heard because I tutor in the evenings. The guy is starting today. Hope he isn't a douchebag like Mr. Renaldo. " 

You mutter.

"I hope he's a hottie, bet you I'd get an A on every assignment." 

You giggle, nodding your head. As strong as you were trying to appear, your conversation was still running over in your head. It irked you more that he just left, you weren't rejected this time, but you might as well have been, his inability to say anything felt far worse. 

"Did he really think I was gonna sit around waiting for him forever." 

He must have known deep down that you never got over him. This whole time it felt like he was unintentionally manipulating you. He didn't want a relationship, but you couldn't be with anyone else with how much you felt for him. Both options left you alone, unhappy.

As you stepped into your class, your new professor was already there. His back was turned, and he was scribbling his name on the board. You could see some of the females in your class swooning. You weren't blind, even from the back you could tell he was probably attractive.

You took a seat, watching the name he wrote out.

"Orion Pax. "

Kind of strange, but who were you to judge. It sounded a bit familiar though, like you'd heard it somewhere before.

When he turned, he was sporting a broad smile, that probably gave a few of the women a heart defect. All he was doing was smiling and you could physically feel the charm sparking off him. Dirty blond hair, emerald eyes, strong jaw, broad shoulders. The guy was a freaking thirst trap.

"You all can call me Mr. Pax. I'll be the substitute Anthropology professor. This department has been under a lot of strain, I'll be lending a hand. Please feel free to ask me any questions." When the girl behind you raised her hands, you could already anticipate the question she was about to ask. She crossed her legs, batting her lashes seductively. 

"Mr. Pax, just wondering, I've been falling behind and it would mean a lot  if I could maybe work it off with some.." 

She paused, licking her lips and leaning forward, purposely pushing her cleavage together. 

"Extra credit." 

You rolled your eyes, and your friend at the side of you sent a small snicker, making kissy faces.

"Why of course, Mr. Renaldo told me all about you." 

He reached over, picking up a thick stack of sheets, dropping it on the desk in front of her. 

"These practice tests should help get you up to speed. Anyone else?" you almost burst out laughing at the bewildered look on her face.

"Well if they aren't anymore questions, let's begin." 

You kind of liked his style. He was a thot destroyer, you could respect that.

With a disgruntled huff, she pulled out her books and you giggled, reaching a taking out your own as Mr. Pax started up the projector. 

"Open your books to page 51, Folklore. This is a topic that I think some of you may enjoy. We've all heard stories of Bigfoot, or the Lochness monster. These may be theories created by very creative minds, but there are some things out there that we may not all understand. Possibly even beings from another earth, wouldn't that be interesting." 

When he said it, you could have imagined it, but his eyes seem to land right on you. 

You shifted a little in your seat, dropping your eyes to your book. You could still feel it, his green eyes boring into you. Your grip tightened on your pen, and you released a shaky breath.

"What the hell.." 

Optimus was the only one who'd ever made you breathless with just one look. So why was this stranger emitting the same energy of the Autobot you were so hopelessly in love with.

For the remainder of the class, you tried not to react. At certain points he'd walk down the aisle when he was making a point. You kept your head down, eyes on the page. For a moment, he stopped, leaning over to see your notes.

"What language is that?" 

Your head raised slowly, and you cursed when you realized what he was staring at. Through the days you spent with the Autobots, you picked up on some Cybertronian. Optimus even taught you some words and a few letters. Unintentionally, you'd scribbled out Optimus's name on the side of your notes. You flipped the page, letting out a nervous laugh. 

"N-Nothing it's just a little doddle. S-Sorry about that. I-I have a really short attention span. "

"Are you implying that my class is boring?"

"N-No! Of course not I was just-"

"I guess since it's so boring, you won't mind staying back to do a little extra work." 

You could hear the little laughs from some of the students behind you.

"Am I clear?"

You nod. "Yes sir." So maybe you were wrong, he was a douche after all. You hated the smug smile he was now wearing as he looked at you.

"Mothertrucker."

So the class pushed on. Thankfully, this was your only class for the day. Unfortunately, you would have to spend it with Mr. Douche.

"I'll text you later, let me know how it goes with Mr. Pax." 

Your friend winked at you as she left, and all you could manage was a groan. He was gathering his files. "I have to drop these into my office, care to join?"

It wasn't a request, you knew that. So you just picked up your bag and followed him down the hall. 

The entire time you stayed behind him, determined to avoid eye contact or conversation. When you got to the door, he opened it. 

"After you." 

With a fake smile, you entered, and He followed right after. The clicking of his lock is what made your eyes narrow. You turned to him in question.

"I apologize for embarrassing you in front of the class, but I needed to ensure that we were alone. "

Just great, not only was he a douche, but he was a freaking creep too.

"Listen, you're cute and all, but I'm not interested. Don't even try blackmailing me. My grades are spotless. I'm not gonna be some booty call. If that's all I'll just be going." 

You gripped your bag on your shoulder, heading for the door. His arm took your wrist, and you dropped your bag, ready to fight if necessary.

"You don't understand." 

The blue light that circled around his eyes made your own grow wide. You clenched your fists. 

"Decepticon!!" 

Yanking your hand back, you raised your fists, firing a punch at his face. He jumped back in surprise, and you used the distraction to grab something to chug at him. 

The lamp on his desk seemed like a good choice. You ripped it off the desk, throwing it, and he dodged, raising his hands as you tried to run for the door. All you had a chance to do was place them on the lock, somehow he was behind you, and your breath quickened in fear. His hands came down on the door, caging you there, and you froze.

"I suppose I should be proud, you do handle yourself very fairly well." 

The change of his voice made you shiver. He sounded strangely like...

"Optimus..." 

You whisper. He just let out a soft chuckle, and when your eyes connected, that's when you knew. His orbs were still glowing a brilliant blue, the same sapphire light you'd seen for years.

"How...what..why are you..you're voice is.." 

You could barely get an actual sentence out, and he smiled at you. 

No wonder the name sounded so familiar, he'd told you about it once. He still had you pressed into the door. His hand came down, resting on your cheek.

"It seems even in death, Ratchet has been looking out for us. When he was still with us, he was looking into getting us to blend in with humans. He wanted us to be protected, especially when we were being hunted by the government."

"So he..he found a way to turn you human?"

"Yes, with the help of my lifeforce, Ratchet has modified a device to assist us. Ironhide had kept it for this very moment. He wanted us to use it when the war was finally over. So we could live in peace. "

He gestured to the watch on his wrist, and you blinked. Up close it seemed like a regular accessory, but as you leaned in closer, you could make out the blue light that mirrored the one in his eyes. The watch seems to be almost fused with his skin.

"Woah..." 

It was crazy, you would have never guessed.

"That's amazing, e-even your voice sounds different. You sound so..so.."

"American." 

He smirked.

"I suppose that was another advantage to his technology. "

"But how come you're teaching here! You need a degree and references and college."

"I'm very versed at manipulating data (Y/N)."

Right, he was an alien robot after all.

"Anthropology, it's a topic that mirrors the studies I did back on Cybertron. It reminds a little of my home. I downloaded everything on the subject into my drive so I could teach efficiently."

There was still the most glaring question.

"Why do all this. I-I thought I was pretty clear yesterday Optimus. I-I can't move on if you're always here. I'm done chasing after you. Now you're here at my college. Are you really that heartless! Why can't you just let me-" 

He leaned in, and you gaped when his lips pressed to your own. You struggled for a moment, trying to push him off, but he was stronger. You hated this, how easily he was able to make you feel so much. Closing your eyes, you gave in.

When you felt his tongue parting your lips, you responded, leaning tentatively into his body. He sighed, tightening his grip on your wrist as he kept your bound to the door. How do you walk away when his kiss felt like your own personal heaven. 

The minute his tongue touched yours, your knees almost buckled. Gosh, how many times did you imagine kissing Optimus. Who were you kidding, there was absolutely no way you could forget about him. Your free hand slipped into his hair, and you tugged, earning an appreciative groan from him. When he finally retracted, you were panting, and a bit confused.

Why did he even kiss you?

"I realized that up until now I've been doing what I can to keep you at a distance. It wasn't because I didn't return your feelings (Y/N). Through our years together, I've always felt drawn to you. I choose to ignore it because I know that I could not have a future with you. As an autobot, I cannot give you what you deserve. "

So this whole time he was just scared.

"It may be hard for you to accept my apology, even after I've hurt you so much for so long, but I would like a chance to be a part of your life (Y/N). I'd like to be in your future, if you'll have me."

He didn't even have to ask.

"Of course I'll have you Optimus, that's all I've ever wanted. " 

He caresses your cheek, and you're smiling a bit bashfully.

"How did you learn to you know..kiss like that.." 

He's now wearing a sly grin. 

"Instinct I suppose." 

When his thumb brushes your lower lip, you quiver, closing your eyes. You want nothing more than his lips back on your own. 

"Back in class, I was sure you'd figure me out. When our eyes connected you gave me that look, one I've seen you wear many times. I finally understand what it means. How foolish that I didn't realize sooner." 

You blush. So you weren't imagining that either. It's almost like you felt him way before you put the pieces together.

"W-We're going to have to be careful at school though. It'll be bad if someone caught us like this." 

You're saying this in hopes that he'll let you go so you can get your heart to stop racing. If he kisses you again, you might not have the will to stop.

"I'm a very careful person," He says smoothly.

"Optimus we-"

"It's Mr. Pax." 

You glare at him, and he's still smirking at you.

"Please, there's no way you're getting me to say that. "

"Really?" 

He says that it's almost like a challenge. This time when he moves in, his lips rest on neck, you pull in a breath, a bit surprised at the move.

"O-O-Optimus I'm serious we can't.." 

He nibbles at your skin, and you can't even bring yourself to finish the sentence. Now he's leaving open mouth kisses, and you're trembling.

"You smell amazing, taste even better.." 

He mumbles on your flesh. 

Your chest is rising with every quick strum of your heartbeat, and you try pushing your thighs together to elevate the pressure. But that just encourages him to lean closer, pushing his leg between your thighs. Where the hell did this side of him come from. He uses his hand to tilt your head to gain better access to your neck, and you moan when his kisses become a bit more determined. There will definitely be marks when he's done. 

"M-Mr. Pax.." 

You stammer out. He stops, pulling back with a grin.

"Was that so hard?" 

You're about to yell at him for his recklessness, but he kisses you once again. With a sigh of defeat, you fold. There's no use pretending you don't love everything he's doing. That's how it's always been.

A future with Optimus, you can't wait. 

[wooahaeruby]

Chapter 14: Rose Tinted Glasses

Chapter Word Count: 5,447

TW

None

Master List | Prev | Next

“Wait wait wait-” Mouse shook her hands out in front of her, trying to take in Seungkwan’s words. 

“I’ve explained it four times, Mouse.” He groaned.

“And I’m higher than the Empire State Building and still not understanding-” She ran a hand through her hair. “Jeonghan, the guy that has been flirting with me since day one of meeting me, likes me?” 

“Yes,” Seungkwan rolled his eyes back, “Jeonghan, one of the SVT leaders, trickster supreme, likes you! How did you literally not know?” 

She opened her mouth to answer but closed it, eyes moving around rapidly in thought. “I…I thought he was just being like Seokmin! I didn’t think it was actually flirting!” 

“Wow you are dumb.” Vernon gaped, wide eyes focused hard on the ceiling. “Everyone could see it. I think everyone knows honestly.” 

“Not everyone.” Seungkwan said under his breath.

Mouse was silent, she looked nearly alarmed at the news coming from him and Vernon. 

Really, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise, or to the guys it didn’t seem so surprising. If Jeonghan wasn’t talking about work or dumb things he heard through the grapevine, he was talking about Mouse. What she was doing, what happened at work, and while it was heartwarming to have the flirtatious man liking someone, it was getting old to hear about it since they weren’t even together. 

Jeonghan had come to him asking for advice of all things recently and all Seungkwan could say was to grow a pair and tell her, but Jeonghan didn’t think it was a good idea. Something stupid about Mouse not knowing he was actually flirting, then something about rejection was said when Jeonghan walked away. 

Seungkwan, personally, thought Jeonghan was the dumbest guy on the planet at that time, but now…Now Mouse seemed like the dumbest person on the planet. 

“Hey Seungkwan…” Mouse spoke up, “I think I wanna go home now.” 

Have you been ignoring everyone’s text messages aside from simple yes or no answers and telling them you were okay? Yes. 

Was Seokmin hounding you every time you walked into work, wondering why you haven’t been hanging out with them? Also yes. 

Was Mingyu guilting you over text since he was recovering and he couldn’t see ‘his designated short person ’ (which only came because you were shorter than Jihoon)? Yeah. 

This was the second weekend since learning that Jeonghan liked you and you’d been hiding in your apartment, telling them you were just busy with some things and couldn’t hang out. If the group knew you were lying, they didn’t tell, not even Wonwoo, surprisingly. 

All weekend you either sat on the couch watching dramas or playing video games. Between those activities, you were still in awe that Jeonghan had a fucking crush on you . 

The more you thought about it though, it did make sense. 

While the flirting was playful, it was still flirting. The constant texting, wondering how you were doing, the subtle gazes, you couldn’t even forget about the necklace he got for your birthday and that you stupidly chalked it up to it being about the dress- but he also mentioned that you looked good in dark blues. 

You felt like an idiot. A big stupid idiot that took so long to realize that someone liked you. 

And as you were laying in bed, staring up at your ceiling, hearing the sounds of the city forever moving, maybe…just maybe…you might like him to. 

“Oh my god.” You grabbed a pillow and covered your face with it. Holding the cushion there, you let out a very muffled and very discontent yell. 

You spread your limbs out and starfished on the bed, not bothering to remove the pillow to figuratively hide your ignorance from the world. Somewhere beside you, your phone was buzzing for a call but you didn’t bother to move and answer it. There was enough mental gymnastics going on to just ignore the device and the world if you really tried. 

Jeonghan was so- God, what would you call it? Unattainable? Out of your league? He was pretty and funny, a little out there and flirty, yet he was so kind and soft when he wanted to be. You thought back to the day Mingyu was hurt and how he was so caring when helping you and worried. When he had held your face, he was so warm and comforting, even making you eat and just sat all cuddled up next to you until Mingyu- 

You yelled again into the pillow before sitting up quickly, taking deep breaths because holy shit you really did like Jeonghan and you are just now realizing that fact.  

Alright, mental recap, you thought, rubbing a hand over your face then through your hair. Number one, Jeonghan likes you. Yep, that was solidified because of a very high Vernon and a sober Seungkwan. Thanks. Number two, taking another deep breath, focusing on nothing specific really, I. Like. Jeonghan. Alright, now say it out loud and accept this fact. Put on your big girl pants and take your phone and call Jeonghan and ask him to come over. Perfect plan, make it simple, just tell him you like him too, but don’t mention Seungkwan or Vernon because they will in fact get their ass beat by Jeonghan if he found that they told you, but that is a worry for another day- 

It took a moment a moment to even muster the courage to open your mouth and another to try and vocalize the thoughts you were having. Just as you finished mentally hyping yourself up to say it, a knock was heard from your front door.

“Mouse?” The nickname sounded muffled behind the door to your apartment but it was undoubtedly the one person you didn’t want to face right now. 

Please leave, please do not- 

“I know you are in there, Mouse. Wonwoo said that all you have been doing is playing video games.” 

You knew it was a bad idea to add Wonwoo on any game platform…

Slowly you rose from bed and trudged your way towards the door. Jeonghan knocked again and you internally groaned, flicking on the living room lights. “I’m coming, stop knocking.” The knocking, in fact, did not stop. Now he was just being annoying. 

As you opened the door, you didn’t expect Jeonghan to be dressed so…casually. He wasn’t in his typical attire of dress pants and a button up, instead he was in a baggy t-shirt and basketball shorts, half his hair tied up to most likely combat the blistering heat outside. You’ve never seen Jeonghan dressed as such outside of the house, let alone outside of your apartment. 

Meeting his eye, Jeonghan was staring at you, a smile on his face, hands now settling in his pockets. “Hi.” 

“...Hi.” 

“Can I come in?” 

“...You won’t leave until I let you in…” 

“Correct!” And he basically pushed past you, letting himself into your apartment. “Ohhh, nice place.” 

Staring out your doorway, you slow-blinked and sighed. Why did you have to like this man? You closed the door and turned to follow him, watching as he took in the space around him. 

Your apartment wasn’t much; a one bedroom, one bath place in a building that wasn’t older than ass. Decorations were minimal, the walls were a little scuffed from a few years of living here but the white paint didn’t add much. Really, you wished it was more, but you were just happy to have a place to call your home after all these years. 

“Why are you here?” You finally asked, standing behind the couch. 

Jeonghan huffed a laugh under his breath, turning to face you from beside your coffee table. “I think we both know why I’m here, Mouse.” 

“If it’s because I haven’t been hanging out with you everyone as much, I’ve been socially drained-” 

“Seungkwan and Vernon told me, Mouse.” 

“I- Huh?”

“After Seungkwan very abruptly took you home, Vernon was eating in the kitchen, very very high if I may add, I’m surprised you were even alive after the shit he smokes. When Seungkwan came back, Vernon was mumbling something about being in trouble with me and then I had to pry it from both of them.” Jeonghan explained, “Very easy to get them to fold actually, I just threatened them with Cheol and suddenly they were putty.” 

If you weren’t staring before, you were staring now. You tried to set your expression to neutral but the nerves that crawled under your skin were making your hands sweat. He held your gaze, raising an eyebrow. Jeonghan was better at masking what he was feeling, that was one thing about all of them you gathered, but he was especially good at it. 

“You- Wait.” You broke from your stare to shake your head and frowned. “You’ve known for almost two weeks and are just telling me now?” 

“Now Mouse, why would I just bombard you with feelings ? Clearly you needed to figure some things out.” There was sarcasm threaded in with each word and it kinda ticked you off. 

“Don’t joke right now, Jeonghan.” You were serious, you didn’t want him playing whatever game he wanted at this moment.

Jeonghan was quick to drop the act and sagged his shoulders. “Listen I might be an asshole, but I’m at least considerate about people I care about, okay? Yes, I did annoy the hell out of you over text, but that was more for the fun of it than actually bothering you. Truth be told, Mouse, I missed having you around. Seungkwan and Joshua had to stop me from showing up here days ago because I wanted to be around you, see you…” 

Were those butterflies fluttering in your stomach? Nope, totally not, what are you talking about. 

You gave a nervous swallow and combed your fingers through your hair. Your hands were shaking and you prayed that he didn’t notice. 

Slowly, Jeonghan rounded the couch, saying your name so soft that you nearly missed it. You turned your head and your heart jumped in your chest.

Standing beside you now, you have never seen him like this. For once, Jeonghan was nervous, even a bit timid. His eyes were open wide, looking down at you like you were something to be taken in, someone that caught his eye out of all the other stars in the universe.

“Can I actually take you out? On a proper date? I want to do this right.” 

Hope was held behind his eyes, it was clear as the bright sky outside. You didn’t know if it was the lights of the living room, but his eyes were nearly glimmering. He wanted you to say yes.

“I-” Pausing for a moment, you swallowed down the nerves and nodded. “Yeah, Yeah, that would be nice.” 

The smile that spread wide on his features was giddy and excited, his nose even scrunched up. “Can we- Is it okay I take you out tonight? I can come back and pick you up and-” 

“Jeonghan-” You cut him off, laughing at the excitement he displayed. “If I say yes again, promise me we won't go somewhere really fancy. Please?” 

“I can do that, nothing fancy. Promise.” He nodded quickly, stepping awake and closer to your door. “I’ll- Fuck-” He ran his side into the wall and got to the door. “I’ll pick you up at seven!” 

Then he was gone, leaving you standing in your apartment, a little dumbfounded but definitely excited. 

Jeonghan was right on time, maybe a little early if he was keeping track. 

Earlier, he quickly – totally didn’t speed – all the way back to the house out of the city to get ready, knowing he didn’t have anything clean back at the penthouse.

He had pushed the garage door open, all smiles and dreamy, practically floating through the house. 

“I never want to see him like that again- Why does he look like that?” He could hear Chan speak from the couch, curled up in a blanket beside Joshua. 

“Today, my dear Chan, Jeonghan grew a pair.” Was all he heard the other respond before he stepped into his room and closed the door. 

He could do something not fancy, totally. He didn’t need to wear something really expensive or flashy, just something nice and appropriate for a date with Mouse. The thought had him skipping towards his closet to pull clothes out.

“Nothing fancy, nothing fancy…” He said his thoughts out loud, scanning all his clothes that could satisfy the idea. “T-shirts out of the question, Jeans? Maybe jeans.” 

“You are like a teenage girl.” Joshua’s voice rang through the small room and Jeonghan whipped his head towards the other. “Kind of sickening if you ask me.” 

“I’m sorry, Shua, do you have a nice date tonight? No? Well, I do.” Jeonghan bit back but there was no malice in his words. “And I’m trying to find an outfit that is nice but not fancy because Mouse made me promise not to go to a fancy, flashy place.” 

“And I’ll repeat myself, you are like a teenage girl.” He stepped into the room, looking over the plethora of clothes Jeonghan had. “How about you figure out where you are going, then pick based on that, and tell Mouse if it's casual or not.”

Jeonghan scoffed, waving him off. “I was thinking of the little Italian bistro, not the one we always go to.” He clarified, “Not too fancy but still good food and definitely good wine.” 

Joshua nodded and tugged out a pair of dark blue jeans and pointed to a gray button up. “Simple. Still looks nice, maybe do something about your hair.” He waved his hand in the direction of Jeonghan’s face. “And shower.” 

“No shit, dick.” He took the clothes and pulled his phone from his pocket, sending Mouse a text that it was a nice place but nothing too fancy and definitely a little more casual. “Thank you, now get out.” 

Ushering Joshua out of his room, Jeonghan took no time to start getting ready. His heart was beating a little fast, but he was happy, more happy than he had been in a long time. 

“Seokmin, where are you?” You said into the phone, pacing in your bedroom, half your closet on the floor and even more on your bed. 

“ Hi to you too, I’m at the penthouse, why?” He snickered. 

“Is anyone with you?” 

“ No? Cheol is knocked out in a room but that’s about it.” 

“ Can you come over? I need your help with something-.” 

He hung up on you and was knocking on your door in twenty minutes. 

When you opened the door he was a little out of breath but smiling bright. Seokmin gave you a quick hug before you stepped aside to let him in. 

“Alright, I’m here to help. Why do you need help?” 

“Promise me you won’t have a stroke when I say this.” 

“I can half promise unless that is my natural response to the information I will be giving.” 

“I’m going on a date with Jeonghan and I don’t know what to wear.” 

Seokmin blinked, then blinked again, “You’re doing what?!” 

Taking the time to explain everything to Seokmin, which he wasn’t too pleased about learning second hand and almost last. 

“So you like Jeonghan.” 

“Yes, I like Jeonghan.”

“And you are going on a date with him tonight .”

“Yes.” 

“Well,” He started, clearing his throat. “I’d like for our relationship of husband and wife to be brought into consideration.” 

You deadpanned at him. “Really?” 

“If you just wanted an open relationship, you should have told me.” He continued to joke. “But I have the best idea.” 

“And that is?” 

“We tell everyone not to tell Soonyoung.” 

Confused, you raised a brow, trying to understand what was going on. “Why?” 

“Because he actually thinks we are dating and I just want to fuck with him.” 

“Deal, can you help me find an outfit now?” 

Sitting on your bed, you let Seokmin go through all the clothes that were scattered around the floor and mattress, taking into account the information Jeonghan provided not long ago over text. He picked up some items and placed them aside, sorting through the clothes. 

“I’m putting you in a dress.” He finally determined, “I feel like it’s going to be the best option with everything you have.” 

You stood and started to grab all your dresses, tossing them on the bed to better get a visual of what the two of you were working with. 

“You have a lot of dark colors. Do you have anything lighter?” 

“I might have a few lighter sundresses.” You stepped over clothes to your closet and pulled out a handful of dresses stored in the back. 

Seokmin took them from you and held up each individually, humming quietly to himself in thought. “This one.” 

The one that he handed over still had the tag on it. It was pale pink, complimenting your skin tone well which was the main reason you bought it. The sleeves were sheer pink, cuffed at your wrists, but the rest of the dress was opaque. It was loose around your waist and went down just below your knees. Overall it was pretty modest, nothing too extravagant but pretty for a date. The material was soft and you had a pair of wedges you could wear with it.

“If you wanna keep your hair down, go for it, maybe some neutral makeup too.” Seokmin looked a little proud of himself, starting to take the clothes off the floor and just piling them neatly on your bed to be cleaned later. “Is he going to pick you up?” 

“Yeah, at seven, I have some time to get ready.” You hung the dress on the door and gave Seokmin a hug, who tightly hugged you back, wiggling you both side to side. “Thank you for all the help, I don’t think I would have picked something without you.” 

“Ah~ No problem, Honey. But just remember, I’m always your husband first.” 

Seokmin made his exit relatively quick, giving you one last hug at the door and telling you to give details later. He wanted all the juice to spill later, obviously. 

You took the last of the time to shower and freshen up, drying and styling your hair so it was down but out of your face, makeup was light overall and a little shimmer you put on went a long way. You felt cute, you looked cute, or at least you thought you did. It had been a while since you wore a sundress, let alone went on a date with someone you actually like. 

Pacing around your living room, the soft thunk of your wedges hitting the hard wood floor was heard. You tossed a small white purse on the couch earlier which held your keys, wallet, and lipgloss, and you waited. Your phone was in your hand, waiting for a text or call from Jeonghan that he was here. The nerves were starting to build up in your chest, but you shook out your limbs, hurrying back to your bathroom to check yourself out in the mirror for the tenth time in the last twenty minutes. Checking the time, it was fifteen minutes until seven o’clock.

Breathe, there is nothing to worry about. Looking at yourself in the mirror, you straightened up and rolled your shoulders back. It’s just a date, he promised nothing too fancy. Yes you haven’t been on a date in a while but that’s okay. Last date was a bust and this date shouldn’t be. It’s just Jeonghan. You’ve spent plenty of time with Jeonghan. 

You walked back to the living room and huffed out a breath, flattening down the skirt of your dress. You’ve never been this twitchy for a date before, you thought you were being a little ridiculous. The only thing you needed to worry about was being yourself and enjoying the time you’d be spending with Jeonghan. That’s all. Nothing scary. 

A knock to the door made you flinch. With relative haste you stepped towards the door and pulled it open, a smile spreading on your face. 

Jeonghan stood on the other side of the door, dressed neatly in jeans and a gray button-down, holding something behind his back. When his gaze met yours, he beamed, eyes bright and smiling wide as he pulled a bouquet of flowers from behind him. The flowers nearly matched your dress; dusty pink carnations wrapped in white tissue paper and a shiny ribbon holding it together. 

The gesture had you shaking your shoulders in a quiet laugh and taking the bouquet into your hands, taking in the soft, sweet scent of the flowers. “They are beautiful, Jeonghan.” 

“Not as beautiful as you.” He winked at you but you stepped back to let him inside. 

“Let me put these in some water then we can go.” You hurried off, looking through a cabinet for the only vase you owned. 

You heard Jeonghan close the door and step into the kitchen, leaning himself against one of the counters. Once the flowers were unwrapped and placed in a vase full of water, you placed them on your small kitchen table, moving some of the carnations around so they looked better. Taking a step back to admire them, you glanced back towards Jeonghan whose eyes were only on you. 

“You do look really pretty, Mouse.” Jeonghan complimented, taking you in from his place. 

A flush crept up from your neck and your face flared with heat. “I- Thank you. I can’t place all of it on me…Seokmin came over and helped me pick something out…” 

He gave a quiet chuckle. “That would explain the call I got from him then.” 

Cringing, a sigh was pushed out of you, “I’m not even surprised. He is like an overprotective sibling. Let me just grab my purse and we can go.” 

Jeonghan once more stood near the door, waiting patiently for you to collect your things. With one last check of the contents inside, you stepped towards the door, watching as he opened it and ushered you to walk out before him. Once the door was locked, he held his hand out for you to take which you did easily, sliding your hand into his. His hands were cold but it didn’t matter as he used the connection between you to lead the way downstairs and to his car. 

When you reached for the passenger door, he whined and quickly opened it for you, giving a huffy pout that had your nose scrunching up in a smile. He was really going all out for this. It was cute. 

The restaurant, thankfully, wasn’t fancy. It was homey if you had to place a word to it, small but bustling. The hostess had seated you quickly once Jeonghan gave a name for the reservation. 

“I hope this meets the not fancy requirement you’ve imposed.” He smirked across the table, opening the menu. 

And there was his personality again. You could play ball. 

“Hmm, I didn’t think you had it in you with the Louis Vuitton and Dior I’ve seen you wear. Is the shirt Calvin Klein?” 

“No but the jeans are.” 

You didn’t try to suppress the roll of your eyes, crossing your legs and opening the menu. “I’m curious though, who gave the idea for flowers? You don’t seem like a flower guy.” 

Jeonghan shot you a glare but the smirk was still on his face. “If you must know, it was Minghao. He said I couldn't just show up empty handed.” 

“Ah, I’ll have to thank him for suggesting it then, shouldn’t I?” 

It felt like the normal bantering that the two of you always fell into; teasing jabs and flirting that actually meant something now. Sitting across from one another, you didn’t feel uncomfortable or awkward. You were thankful it didn’t feel like that.

You were both on your second glasses of wine, food half eaten, laughing at a story Jeonghan was telling. With this date, you did learn more about who Jeonghan was outside of his work. 

The Club as he called it out in public, started as a joke between him, Wonwoo, and Mingyu, but it made good money and even better thrills. If he wasn’t working for the business , he was working for the shipping company, Pledis Shipping. When there was no work for him, Jeonghan was back at the house sleeping and actually doing nothing . He loved going out to new restaurants with the youngest three, but couldn’t cook if his life depended on it, but he wasn’t as bad as Wonwoo, the nerd could burn water. 

The one unsurprising thing was his fondness of teasing the guys and sabotaging every single game they play together so he can almost always win. You’ve seen it once when they were playing Uno and he was hiding extras of plus fours and skips but you didn’t care to say a word, wanting to know if anyone would notice or if they would care. (Note: surprisingly, no one noticed and it did end up with Cheol, Hoshi, and Mingyu getting mad. They ended up switching games to Mario Kart, which made the events so much worse for them but funnier for you.) 

“No no, it gets worse !” He was curled up on himself a bit, wheezing in a breath and wiping the tears away that gathered in his eyes. “Shua and I didn’t tell anyone in the house that we burned Mingyu’s favorite pan. It was an accident but Cheol being angry is one thing, but break something of Gyu’s that he loves and bought for himself? God we’d never hear the end of it- When he found out it was ruined, he thought it was Wonu and they were fighting for a week-”

“He didn’t deserve that!” You threw your head back in a fit of laughter. “He might be an ass but letting him take the blame?!” 

“ Jihoon knew the entire time-” 

You covered your face with both hands, gasping each breath to not absolutely lose it. 

“ And he didn’t say a word for a week- He threatened us when Gyu and Wonu wouldn’t even work together!” 

“What the hell-” 

“ I made Shua take all the blame-” 

“Han!” You gaped at him, “That is horrible!” 

“It’s okay, I got him something he wanted from overseas and called it even.” Jeonghan waved you off and downed the rest of his glass, smiling at the memory. “You should hear the stuff I’ve got for Soonyoung every time he takes the blame for stuff.” 

“You are horrible, absolutely horrible. I can’t believe you’d make him take any blame, he is just a pure, innocent baby.” You dramatically, knowing he wasn’t pure or innocent , but he was also soft and clingy when around you. 

“What can I say, I’m just like Loki .” 

Faking a gag, you rolled your eyes and groaned. “I hate you. Officially.” 

“Hm.. You can’t hate me, Mouse. You’re on a date with me~” 

“I’d like to formally retract my dating intentions with you.” 

That had him scoffing and laughing, happiness spreading across his face and the softest gaze landing on you. In the chatter filled space of the restaurant, the two of you sat in the quiet company of one another. 

Dinner was finished not long after, Jeonghan insisting you try some of his dish, not even placing it on your plate but holding it fork out, pasta wrapped around the utensil to eat from. You were hesitant but his persistence was never ending until you indeed ate from his fork. He was grinning, you were rolling your eyes. Ridiculous.

Jeonghan was quick to slide his card to the waitress, not leaving you room to argue even if you did want to at least split it, but it was also nice to have someone pay for you…(but he didn’t need to know that).

The drive home was quiet, both enjoying the rush of the city passing by and the satisfying hum of the car’s engine. Once Jeonghan parked outside of your apartment building, he made no move to get out and simply shut the car off and relaxed back in his seat. 

“Mouse,” he turned his head towards you, a soft grin spread on his lips, eyes tired but still bright. “I really enjoyed our time out together.” 

“I did too, Jeonghan.”  Answering softly, you smiled, meeting his tired gaze with a similar look. 

Tonight was nice, one of the best dates despite it being so minimal. You weren’t someone that needed much to enjoy time spent with others, it’s why you were fond of the family dinners at the house on weekends. 

“I’d like to do this again sometime.” He sounded hopeful and you were glad to satisfy that desire.

“I’d love to go on another date with you, Jeonghan.” 

Though he was beaming, Jeonghan kept his excitement at bay, nodding a few times and moved to get out. You watched through the windshield as he quickly rounded the car and opened your door, holding a hand out to help you out. Humoring him, you took his hand and stepped out, sliding your purse over your shoulder and letting him close the door. He walked you all the way to your apartment door, holding your hand, standing close while taking the elevator up and when waiting for you to unlock the door. Turning to him, you felt his thumb run over your knuckles and he gazed at you fondly. 

“Thank you for tonight, Jeonghan.” 

“It’s my pleasure.”

There was a small internal battle going on within you. The idea was tempting and you didn’t know if you would let it win…. but… 

Leaning up the best you could in your wedged heels, you placed a chaste kiss on Jeonghan's cheek. His hand tensed in your hold but it quickly subsided and you pulled back, your own cheeks matching the deep flush that spread on his face. 

“Goodnight, Mouse.” He hasn’t stopped smiling at you.

You gave a quick nod of your head and a small step back. Jeonghan was hesitant to let go of your hand but as you reached and pushed the door open, his hands easily slipped out of the hold. 

Another step back into your apartment has your heart feeling just the slightest bit heavier. “Goodnight, Jeonghan.” 

He stayed until the door was fully shut and you waited a few moments before sprinting full speed to your room and jumping into bed, wiggling around like a teenager after their very first date. You floated around your apartment when getting ready to bed and drifted to sleep with a new found fondness that continued to grow. 

When Jeonghan got home, it wasn’t too late but a majority of the lights in the house were off. He was quiet as he entered from the garage but Joshua was sitting on an armchair, a book held open in his hand while a lamp was the only light illuminating a corner of the living room. 

Hearing him enter, Joshua dropped the book to his lap, placing a bookmark to hold his place and raised a brow curiously at the daydreamy look on Jeonghan’s face. 

“Good date?” 

“One of the best I’ve ever been on.” Jeonghan shuffled over and collapsed on a couch near his friend, puffing out a sigh while smiling. “She agreed we should go out again. We talked so much at dinner and I walked with her to his apartment door.” He raised his arms to the ceiling like the structure above could help him comprehend everything. “Then she kissed my cheek! I felt like I could have exploded.” 

Joshua listened to him ramble, resting his elbow on the armrest and his cheek on his hand. He had never heard Jeonghan speak so animatedly about anything outside of his SVT activities; he liked the change. It gave Jeonghan more human aspects. 

“I’m glad you had a good time. She seems to bring out a different version of you.” 

Jeonghan let his arms fall to his stomach. “That’s the thing, Shua…I don’t feel like I have to put on a show for her. I feel normal for one of the first times in nearly ten years.” 

“I think we can all use a little bit of normality.” 

“I hope we can all find our own versions of normal sooner or later, Shua.” 

Tag List is Open! Comment on the BSH Master List to get added!

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@unlikelysublimekryptonite @iiaweirdo @aurorajoye @gaslysainz

[goosewriting]

Why? Because.

summary: reader gets trapped with an injured Zeb in a cave, and they come clean about their feelings.

relationship: Zeb Orellios x GN reader

warnings: mention of injury, blood, age gap i guess?

word count: 3.6k

A/N: i loved zeb in rebels and lost my marbles when he appeared in the mandalorian. and statistically speaking i can’t be the only zeb girlie (gender neutral), right? so this one goes to all of you out there, wherever you may be <3

(english is not my first language. constructive criticism and grammar corrections are very appreciated!)

— — —

It has been some time since you joined the Ghost crew, and you’re happy to say that you get along with everyone (except maybe Chopper at times). They had kinda taken you in like they ended up letting Ezra stay, though you were no Jedi. So the running joke was that Kanan brought “strays” on board. But you did and still do try your best to pull your weight around. You’re extremely thankful they decided to let you stay and considered you skilled enough to keep around. 

Your homeworld had been brought to near extinction, similar to how Zeb’s planet got destroyed, so now you have no place to go back home to either. Hence why you got along with him from the start. He seemed gruff on the outside but you could see through it; that was the façade of a man who lived through pain and regret. But you know beneath it lies a rather charming personality and a caring friend. 

A friend you like a little bit too much perhaps. A friend you find yourself drawn to constantly, torn between pushing your feelings aside and letting them out into the world. 

That’s a problem for later though, because right now, you find yourself running for your life next to Zeb. 

The latest mission brought the team to a wild jungle on some desolate planet, and you and Zeb got separated from the group. With the Empire hot on your trails, no less, because why would you have a normal, relaxing day? That would be boring.

You trip over a root peeking out from the ground littered in leaves, but catch your step just in time to keep running. The vegetation is dense, and you can’t really see much ahead of you except for splotches in several shades of green. Your legs are carrying you as fast as they can, but you can feel their stamina draining rapidly as your lungs burn, begging for a break.

From somewhere above you, you can hear the unequivocal engine of a TIE fighter, and you instinctively duck. You call out to Zeb, who’s a couple of metres ahead of you.

“They’re getting closer!” you scream at him.

“Then run faster!” he retorts over his shoulder.

“Well that’s easy for you to say!” you tell him between your breaths. “Look at your legs compared to mine!”

Suddenly, Zeb disappears from your view, swallowed by a dense bush. You do hear him cry out in surprise though.

“Zeb!” you call for him, worried.

Without lowering your speed, you take the last couple of steps to reach the point where he was, pushing the leaves out of your way, when your foot suddenly lands on air instead of the ground. Imitating the Lasat’s earlier scream, you also fall, as the vegetation had hidden away the very abrupt stop the cliff came to, the edge ending at a nearly perfect 90 degree angle, which sent you tumbling downwards.

On the way down, you feel yourself hit the side of the hill with an “oomph!”, then continue rolling down, protectively holding your arms over your head however you can, given the speed you’re spinning at. 

When you finally make it to the ground, you hit a dead trunk with your back. For a second all air is knocked out of your lungs as you come to a sudden stop, and you need a second to recover your breath. Everything is still spinning, you hold your head, and all you can see are blurs of greens, yellows and browns.

After taking a moment to reorient yourself, you call out to Zeb. The only response you get is a pained groan from a little further away. You get to your feet, ignoring the pain that shoots up from your knee to your hip. The contents of your backpack got strewn around, so you go around hurriedly collecting everything before looking for Zeb. Following the sound of his grunts and heavy breaths, you find him leaning on a rock. You almost drop your pack when you notice the thick branch impaled in his side. He must have hit a tree on the way down.

You approach him quickly, kneeling down at his side.

“Hey, hey,” you say, waving your hand in front of his face. “Stay with me!”

��Ugh…” is all the response he can muster. 

You check your comm; it’s busted. 

“Where’s your comm, Zeb?” you ask. He paws at his leg with a groan. 

You rummage through his pockets and take out the device, which is all but flattened. Great.

“We have to find shelter somewhere,” you say, getting up to your feet. 

Taking a look around, you realise it all looks the same. The trees are so dense that you can’t even properly see the sky. Turning back to Zeb, you catch him just in time how he’s about to pull out the branch stuck in his abdomen. You fall back to your knees and swat away his hand.

“Leave it!” you order. “If you pull it out now you’ll bleed out.”

He growls, but doesn’t fight you. Taking in his state, you suddenly feel lost and small and helpless.

“Don’t you dare die on me, Zeb!” You try to sound threatening.

“‘Tis but a flesh wound,” he says with a chuckle that quickly turns into unpleasant sounding coughs.

Great, he's delusional. 

“Did you break anything?” you ask him, checking for injuries. “Can you move your arms, legs, fingers?”

He first moves his ankles around, then slightly lifts one leg. With the other one he inhales sharply as it is the one on the side where he got hit. 

“How about your hands?” you continue. 

You talk to him in an attempt to keep him conscious. Meanwhile you rummage through your backpack for a rope. Zeb tries moving his arms but with his right one he groans in pain.

“Think i’s broken,” he says through gritted teeth, then his face starts relaxing, his eyes about to close shut.

“Hey, no no no. Look at me,” you demand, waving your hand in front of his face again; no response. “Hey!” 

You slightly slap his cheeks, and his eyes snap open to shoot you a half-glare. Then you look down and see he’s losing blood, fast.

“Dank farrik, Zeb!” you curse, looking around again. Your gaze falls on the Lasat one last time before you run in the opposite direction you fell from, looking for some sort of shelter. Not far, you luckily find a cave.

Running back to him, you fall to your knees at his side once again.

“Wake up! I can’t carry you alone!” you demand, desperation starting to creep into your voice.

But he’s too weak to stand up, so you pass the rope you had under his armpits and back, throwing the ends over your shoulder, and pulling with all your might to drag him. He drifts in and out of consciousness but tries helping you with his legs and good arm.

It takes you what feels like an eternity and a full workout to drag him into the cave, and just in time. Of course, it has to start raining. You wonder how the water even gets down here when the trees seem to have built a solid roof over the whole place.

Once you have Zeb in the cave, you take a moment to shake some life back into your limbs. Don’t fail me now! you plead with your arms and legs, and you get to work. Using some wood you found on the way here you build a makeshift splint for his broken arm. Then you prepare some bandages, bacta patches and bacta gel. You’re glad that you weren’t carrying anything in glass vials in your backpack that could have broken; all supplies survived the fall.

You kneel at Zeb's side, whose forehead is now covered in a thin layer of sweat; he’s probably running a fever. You exhale slowly through your nose, trying to calm yourself for what you’re about to do.

“Zeb, I’m gonna take it out now, okay?” you warn him, pointing to the branch he got impaled with. “This is gonna hurt… I’m sorry.”

“Ugh… Just- just do it,” he replies with shallow breaths. 

“Okay,” you say more to yourself than him, and place your hands around the splintered branch. “One, two, three!”

As you pull out the piece of wood, Zeb clenches his teeth with a groan, and blood comes gurgling out of the wound. You’re quick to generously apply the bacta gel to disinfect the area, put a bacta patch on top and some gauze over it all to stop the bleeding. It takes a little bit of effort on both sides to get Zeb to lift his back enough so you can wrap the bandage around him, but it works. 

Now that the most critical part is taken care of, you inspect him further. He’s got a couple of scratches on his arms and face. You take a clean piece of gauze and step to the cave entrance to dampen it in the rain, then come back inside and start cleaning the dried blood and grime off him as best as you can. He tries swatting you away with his good arm a couple of times.

“‘S okay. Take care of yourself first,” he speaks through heavy breaths. But you insist.

Once you're sure you cleaned him up to the best of your abilities and minimised the risk of something getting infected given your precarious situation, only then do you repeat the process for yourself. You also got a couple scratches all over you, and you're sure your back and hip are gonna bruise because of that rock earlier. 

Once you're done cleaning yourself up, you sit back and heave a deep sigh. For a moment, the cave is silent save for Zeb’s laboured breathing and the patter of the rain. You take a moment to think about what the next best course of action is. You need water, food, and you have to find a way to contact the Ghost.

From your backpack you take out your busted comm. Zeb’s one got absolutely obliterated, but yours seems in better condition. 

“Hey, do you think that we could fix this and send some message to Hera at all?” you ask.

Zeb is struggling to keep his eyes open, trying to focus on the device you’re holding in front of him.

“Do- d’you know how to… rewire?”, he asks.

“Not really… but you can talk me through it?” you offer. 

It takes several attempts, but through broken sentences and you having to shake Zeb awake a couple of times, you actually do it. You manage to more or less recall your coordinates given your last known position before the fall, and send that plus the fact that Zeb is hurt. You couldn't fix it enough to know if it actually got through or if you received a response. But you hope and pray to the Force and every other deity out there that Hera and Kanan got the message and come to find you soon.

Now that that is taken care of, you go through your mental list again. Next up: water and food. 

You give your past self a pat on the back for packing so much stuff when everyone said the weight would just slow you down. You could really never know when you’d need all this. 

You find your emergency light; it's like a bag filled with gel that emits both light and warmth. You hit it in the right spot to activate it and place it next to Zeb, who’s starting to tremble slightly, you now notice. 

Your water canteen is a bit banged up but still usable, so you step to the cave entrance to collect some rainwater. While you're here you focus on any sounds of ships or blasters, but you only hear the jungle around you.

You take a couple of swigs from the bottle, then fill it back up. With a sigh, you go back into the cave and take out one last thing from your backpack: ration bars. Not the yummiest but enough to get out of a pinch.

You offer Zeb some water, which he accepts. After he’s done drinking, he leans his head back down with a groan. It must be uncomfortable. Unfortunately, you didn't bring any shock blankets or anything. In fact you don't even have a jacket because of the planet’s tropical weather. 

You look up at the cave’s roof again, ticking off the items from your mental list. Now that everything is taken care of, there’s only one thing to do: wait. And hope for the best. Your nose crinkles at the thought. Waiting is the worst part. 

Zeb’s shuffling as he moves around trying to find a comfortable position to lie in catches your attention. You grab your blaster and move in between him and the cave wall.

“Here,” you say softly and carefully lift his head to sit down, so he can use your lap as a pillow while you lean back onto the cave wall. You prop up your hand with the blaster on your other leg, aiming at the cave entrance. “You rest up now. I’ll wake you up if anything happens.”

He groans, trying to get comfortable, and then silence surrounds you two. 

You’re trying to keep watch but your eyes keep drifting back to the Lasat on your lap. His breathing is evening out, so you assume he’s trying to fall asleep. You take a moment to roam over his face, his meiloorun shaped head, his big ears, his beard. You notice the wrinkles between his brows, a testament to his almost constant scowl, and you have to gather every ounce of self control in your body not to smooth out the skin with your fingers. 

“I can feel you staring,” he remarked suddenly, startling you. He opens his eyes and looks up at you.

“Sorry…” you apologise with a sheepish smile. 

He holds your gaze for a second longer than you’d have deemed necessary, then closes his eyes again and turns his head slightly away from you.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he says, softer this time.

“Huh? Like what?” you ask. 

“Like a sad, lovestruck Loth-pup.”

Heat rises up to your cheeks, and you turn your face away as well, but then realise that you don’t care anymore if he sees you. You knew that at some point you had developed a crush for the guy but you’ve been trying your hardest to push the feelings down, and evidently failed. It did occur to you that lately things seemed to have changed; but you didn’t want to get your hopes up. So you weren’t imagining it after all, the lingering looks and quick glances your way when he thought you weren’t looking.

And if he really decides to bring this up in a cave in who knows where, then so be it. You might as well have the conversation you’ve been procrastinating on right here and now, since he can’t really run away either. 

“That’s not how I would describe it,” you start. “But I can’t help it…”

“You can do better,” he says, still not looking at you. 

“Try me,” you retort. 

He hesitates for a second, considering if he should give in to this or not. For an instant you think that’s it, and are about to keep watch again, but then he speaks. 

“I’m old, and scarred,” he tries to convince you.

“You’ve lived through a lot of things, and yet you kept your kind soul,” you counter, ready to disarm any argument he gives you.

“I get angry easily.”

“You have a strong sense of justice.”

“I’m stubborn.”

“So am I,” you say with a chuckle. 

He sighs deeply, and finally turns to face you.

“Why? Why me?” he asks and you can tell he’s genuinely wondering.

“Do I need a reason?” you ask, slightly shrugging your shoulders. “When I’m with you, I feel safe, and understood.”

“Who knew the bar was so low,” he teases, and you playfully nudge his shoulder.

“I’m serious. You’re someone I know I can confide in, someone who can read the room and differentiate playtime from ‘time to be serious’. You get things done. You’re loyal. You know what you want and what you fight for,” you recount. Then with a smile and a poke to his cheek, you add, “And for all it’s worth, I do think you’re rather handsome.”

Zeb makes a sound between a snort and a mock-offended gasp, averting his eyes from yours. You could swear his ear just twitched as well. Is that his tell-tale sign for when he’s flustered? Cute.

He remains silent, looking back to you with a soft gaze that holds something else, maybe resignation, or a little bit of sadness. 

“But, you know, now that we’ve established how I feel, I do wonder about you,” you point out. “You don’t have to answer now, though. In fact, you don’t have to answer at all if you don’t want to–”

“That wouldn’t be fair, now would it?” he cuts you short. 

“Then, do you have anything you want to add?” you ask, hopeful.

He thinks about it for a moment, then gives you an apologetic look.

“Whatever it is I want to say, I don’t think I could properly put it into words right now,” he says, gesturing to himself. “Let’s continue this conversation when I’m… not on the possible brink of death?”

“Right,” you answer, only slightly disappointed, but you try not to show it. 

“And hey,” he calls for your attention, and you look back at him. “Thank you.”

“You would have done the same thing for me,” you smile back at him, thinking he means treating his wound.

“Not just for patching me up”, he remarks. “Also for… For your words. And honesty. I can’t deny it’s nice to have someone like you looking at me the way you do. Hopefully I can be half as eloquent as you.”

He then takes your hand with his good one, bringing it to his chest. Once again, you feel your face burn. Zeb Orellios is holding your hand. While his head rests on your lap no less. With that little spurt of courage you just got from his gesture, you lean down and place a gentle kiss on his forehead. He squeezes your hand lightly at that, sighs, and closes his eyes. 

You lean back up, resting your head on the hard cave wall behind you, but you don’t mind. You’re on cloud nine right now.

Just as you remind yourself that you’re supposed to be on watch, you hear some rustling from outside. Quickly you lift the blaster, pointing at the entrance. It sounds like someone is approaching. You aim, and–

“Found them!”

It’s Sabine.

You slump back onto the wall, lowering your weapon, letting go of the breath you were holding. 

“Are you guys okay?” she asks as she approaches you.

“I got away with just a couple bruises, but Zeb got essentially skewered, and I think his arm is broken,” you explain, turning to show her the wound on his abdomen and tell her how it happened, when you realise Zeb is still holding your hand. 

You stop mid-sentence, your eyes meeting Zeb’s, who’s looking at you with a cheeky smirk. That little–

“What happened? Are you okay?” Now it’s Ezra’s turn to step into the cave.

You let go of Zeb’s hand to carefully remove yourself from under him and stand up. You manage to get up but are a little wobbly on your legs, since you’ve been sitting for so long. Sabine quickly helps to support you and guides you outside.

Kanan is the last to get into the cave. With Ezra they try their best to support Zeb to walk but he’s still too weak to get up, so they decide to essentially fly him just outside of the cave by means of the Force, where the Phantom is parked. Zeb did not like that one bit.

– – – – –

Bonus: 

Once Zeb is in his bunk on the Ghost with fresh bacta patches and bandages, you give him one last once-over to check if he’s comfortable.

“Anything else you need?” you ask him, packing the remaining gauze and bacta you didn’t use into the first aid kit.

“I think a ‘get better kiss’ would help,” he says matter-of-factly. 

You jump a little, his comment having taken you off-guard.

“Well I’m no doctor, but let’s see what I can do,” you try saying as nonchalantly as possible, but your flustered cheeks betray you.

You gently hold his face as you kiss the bridge of his nose, right between his eyes.

“Uhm?!” comes a startled noise from Ezra who’s standing at the now open door. Oh right, for a second there you forgot they shared the room.

“Is this gonna be a thing from now on?” the boy asks, pointing between you and Zeb.

You don’t really know how to answer because you haven’t had the second part of your conversation yet, but the Lasat chuckles and folds his good arm under his head. 

“You better knock from now on,” is all he says and proceeds to close his eyes to nap.

“But it’s my room too?” Ezra looks at you for help, but you just shrug with an apologetic smile.

Walking past him, you go to your own bunk, trying to calm your pounding heart on the way.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

Director's Cut of "Good Rich Earth" please?

"Good Rich Earth" is one of the easiest writing experiences I've ever hand. This one just flowed. No hesitation. No laboring over words. I don't know if I've ever had a story come this easily.

I had zero intentions of writing a retelling of "The Secret Garden". Then you mentioned the potential for a fantasy retelling, and I instantly started wondering how such a thing could be done.

You taught me that a proper Secret Garden retelling has to center around childhood emotional neglect, so it quickly turned to sci-fi, because the first line that came to me was, "Raised practically by robots, the poor thing!"

With that, I had my premise. Mary was raised on a military space station by parents who left her in the care of robot nannies. She'd never been on a planet. (I've long wanted to write a story involving space-raised children who have culture shock when they come to a planet, and this fit perfectly.) The story would involve her coming to appreciate the wonders of nature.

Then I just started writing. Instantly. (This was much more appealing than the Chesterton Challenge idea I had originally sat down to write).

When writing about the bleak landscape of Mary's new home, I decided that this would be a ruined post-apocalyptic Earth, to make the landscape seem bleaker and more hateful to the newly-arrived Mary, and the Secret Garden seem more wondrous by comparison. I sometimes wonder if that was the right choice, because I put zero thought into what kind of apocalypse it was, beyond giving it the appallingly generic label of "The Disasters", and this layer might interfere too much with the rest of the story. But it does tie in with the original's themes of recovering from neglect and learning to care for others--the entire planet has been neglected and needs care to come back to life.

I just love how that paragraph about Mary hating everything about Earth allowed me to provide so much worldbuilding and characterization so easily.

I share Ben's disdain for hydroponics.

(Once I finished the draft, I skimmed it in search of ideas for titles. I was surprised to find that Ben's rant contained the perfect one--he's talking about dirt and gardening, but it also works in reference to Mary coming to appreciate the goodness of the planet Earth.)

It's interesting how I was able to keep the story and exposition flowing by just bringing in character voices (like Martha's explanation about the garden) without giving them actual scenes. It's something I didn't even think about--it just happened, and I don't know how, since it's not my usual style. It probably only works because this is a fanfic one-shot where you're expected to know the characters already.

And then I just kind of dither along, stretching out a story with Mary doing nothing but walking outside. I probably leaned too much on the robin finding things. After describing the way the door appears, I have a tough time believing Mary didn't find it on her own--why does a robin's wing set it off and not Mary walking around the wall?

You can probably see me flailing to find ways to make this sci-fi, making up tech on the fly. I mostly justified it, I think--the hologram roof's a bit of a stretch. Maybe the door, too. But that seems like something that would be good to have if you could pull it off (though I really hope there are safety features that keep people from being locked inside without a key). I do love that Mary's space station experience gives her the knowledge to open the Secret Garden's door.

I do like that description of the Secret Garden. I tried not to draw too much from any previous description/depiction of it, and I was careful not to use plant names, because Mary wouldn't know any of them. I think it managed to show the garden without getting too long-winded/flowery.

Of course I had to end by describing the garden as magical.

[chronosh0t]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ꒱˚.*ೃ 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒: male skk x Lee, canon-divergence （ NO BETA ）

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: something went wrong and now Gray Raven had three feathers left.

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 1.9k

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈

Finally, it was over.

What it felt it was going to last forever ended in the blink of an eye. The once raging Hetero-Creatures now lying on the dusty floor, scattered all over the place. The same could be said of the different Constructs and Commandants, their bodies resting full of scars and blood after such an intense and senseless fight caused by the Tower. But those who were still standing and didn't get affected didn't look in better condition either, one could see in their faces how tired they were, both mentally and physically which was understandable.

However, it was over. That crimson red that once decorated the sky, giving such an ominous feeling, was replaced by a warm blue light. Instead of making everyone feel as tiny as ants now, the Tower represented humanity's hope, taking away the uneasiness of the upcoming future and giving Earth more time.

The Gray Ravens, despite the state in which they were after giving their best, were now waiting for their missing teammate. Whilst Lucia and Liv were helping those conscious by giving proper treatment to their wound, the Commandant was patiently waiting.

Sitting on a rock, the human's body was clearly at his limit. His mind, after connecting with a considerable amount of Constructs to keep them safe from the previous thread, was a complete mess. He could feel the heaviness of his eyelid, trying to shut down and put his body to sleep but he refused to. Not yet, when the reason for that blue light didn't come back from the battlefield.

A few minutes more, that felt like years, and his com device rang a few times. Without thinking it twice he picked up the call, expecting to see his friend and having a nice conversation. However, the only thing he could see was the bare land and the Tower quite far but the boy couldn't be seen.

ㅤㅤㅤ Lee?— the Commandant asked, there was a hint of concern in his voice. Did something bad happen? thought to himself. — Where are you? We are waiting for you to come back.

ㅤㅤㅤ Zenas… — there was a pause, static filled the awkward silence but after a few seconds, he talked again. — I am sorry.

The call ended.

……

Heart beating rapidly, his body was falling into an abyss, completely dark and there was nothing he could do. Far away, he could see a familiar silhouette so he started running but instead of getting closer the distance was becoming considerably worse. Suddenly the Tower was red again, the world was engulfed in that crimson blood.

Zenas woke up. It was a nightmare, the same nightmare he had been having since they came back from Earth after the Tower incident. It has been two years since then and, even though they were still fighting the virus as usual, trying to retake the blue planet from the hands of the Red Tide and Ascendants, even when it seemed like nothing much changed, something actually did.

Instead of four, now three feathers were left. His name wasn't in the memorial wall but the absence of his peculiar presence was unbearable. After that call two years ago, none of the Gray Raven saw Lee again. They searched nonstop day after day, refusing to give up, refusing to let him go to no avail. It was as if he disappeared without leaving any trace. But that was something he was capable of doing, indeed.

The team was given a few weeks to properly recover, not only from the physical wear but also emotionally after missing such an important part of them. The three of them knew, however, that no matter how much time they were given, it would've taken forever to come in terms with such a fact.

In any case, Gray Raven even opted for more work.

He took as many missions as possible, he even took care of all the paperwork, and decided to give a hand to other teams as well. He was trying to keep his mind as busy as possible to avoid any intrusive thoughts. Regardless, when night fell, it was hard to keep a good mood. Again, the absence was killing him. The guilt of not being able to help Lee, of letting him go alone to climb up that Tower, the regrets of giving up on his search. He felt he didn't give the very best to search for Lee. So he would opt to sleep when he felt tears making its way. Crying wouldn't help.

Today wasn't diferente. Woken up by the same nightmare, buried himself with paperwork and took missions to keep themselves busy. This time it was just a scout mission, nothing too complicated, but served its purpose. And after getting ready they flew straight to Earth. Safely landing, they stepped out of the transport craft and quickly did a sum of what they were supposed to do. Again, nothing out of the ordinary and the idea was to finish it off in a few hours, go back, and repeat the process.

ㅤㅤㅤ “Commandant, I will check the surroundings just in case before starting.” — said Lucia, she looked as determined as ever.

ㅤㅤㅤ “Alright. Liv and I will talk with the people and see if we can get anything useful. Take care.” — replied, after what happened back then, he became even more worried about the two of them. The feeling was reciprocal, too.

After Lucia left, the two of them went straight to the scavengers resting. Apparently the Ascendants started to be more active in that specific zone or that's what they kept on saying, mentioning a peculiar “agent” that would wander around, just observing the surroundings. Once Liv did a full body scan and made sure their vital signs were good, with the help of some Constructs stationed in that area since a couple of weeks earlier, started to accommodate some supplies they had brought from Babylonia.

Everything seemed good. Once Lucia came and reported back the situation, they ought to make an early report and send it to Babylonia. Nevertheless, Zenas decided it was still better to check once again, and going even a bit further, he didn't want to miss anything. And so they started to walk away from the safe zone.

The sun was shining as bright as ever, there was a cold breeze that gently played with the dry leaves resting on the ground, birds could be heard not too far. At that specific moment it felt like a normal autumn day, as if the punishing virus didn't exist and Earth was as peaceful as ever. He stopped in his tracks, the Tower was still standing, the blue halo was brighter than ever.

He could feel how the guilt and sadness was taking over him. That was a novice mistake. Too absorbed in his mind, reviving some memories he didn't see the threat that was observing them, nor did he realise he was the target of a gun. The blood was rapidly leaving his body, soaking his exosuit. He remembers seeing Liv running to his aid, Lucia was fighting someone, but they were too far and the Red Tide was, somehow, getting close. He lost consciousness after that.

….

A loud bang woke him up from his slumber. A door had been closed, was he in a basement? How about Lucia and Liv? Were they fine? He tried to get up but the pain was actually pretty bad and every single movement made him dizzy.

He heavily breathed and, with the little strength he had, forced his body to a sitting position. The room was completely dark but there was a small window, letting some light in, however it was far from enough but at least he could see some pieces of clothes soaked in blood, a few blankets beside his bed and a rusty night table. That's all. Except him, there was no one else. It was obvious that he got separated from his teammates. Again. A rush of anxiety was building up in his chest and cold sweat was starting to form on his forehead.

He heard steps. Someone was coming. A door opened and a figure appeared. The person was wearing a big and worn out cloak, covering the face and part of the body. Whoever it was, it didn't want for their identity to be known. Either way, he still tried to ask and see if he could get some answers…

ㅤㅤㅤ “Where am I?” — his voice was hoarse. As expected, no answer. But considering how hard that person was trying to hide from them, it would've been stupid to actually answer. He tried again.

ㅤㅤㅤ “Who are you? and why did you save me?” No answer. That only confirmed the obvious: whoever that person was, he knew them.

He tried to move closer, trying to reach the hoodie of the cloak but a hand stopped him midway. It was a robotic arm, no synthetic skin, just the white metal could be seen. A construct? But.. who? He couldn't remember someone with that aspect. That simple movement put him in pain, was his injury that bad?

He winced but tried his best to not lose the attention to the one in front of him. At that time an alarm rang, his exosuit was telling him that the punishing virus was high enough. His eyes widened at that fact, it only made him more confused because whoever saved him, it was an Ascendant. Out of the blue, he remembered that last conversation he had with Lee. How he apologised and disappeared. But why was he thinking about that now? Anxiety was again filling every inch of his body; if it was indeed an ascendant then he wasn't sure that he was saved for good reasons.

While he was lost in thoughts, and even getting nostalgic over some memories, the person in front of him turned to face him, and unexpectedly, handed him a bowl of… food. It smelled good, he had to admit. Yet he refused to eat it.

ㅤㅤㅤ “What do you want?” Are you the Ascendant that has been observing those humans?” — he knew by now that the percentage of getting an answer was below zero. It was getting on his nerves. “I am not in the best mood so stop acting like a mighty being and answer me”

Silence filled the room but it was quickly broken by a chuckle. Did the bastard just laugh at me? Zenas was ready to ignore the risk of fighting off a corrupted, his anger was building up pretty fast at that point.

The Ascendant let out a sight. With a swift movement the hoodie wasn't hiding the face, and even if the light that entered from the window was the same as nothing, he could still see it.

ㅤㅤㅤ “Why do you always end up in such state?”

His heart was beating so fast, he felt like it was just a matter of seconds before his ribcage was broken into pieces. There was a faint feeling of dizziness, his mind was a complete chaos and it was hard to swallow. His throat was dry. Time stopped.

He inhaled and breathed out. Zenas repeated the process many times and after his mind finally became just a white page, he did answer.

ㅤㅤㅤ “Lee…”

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈

🎐 I hope you enjoyed this.

🎐if you have any questions, ask me.

[hrodvitnon]

Combining The Battra Headcanons

I’ve been toying with this one ever since tosho89 started talking about Battra and his relationship with other Titans, and then I remembered the older posts about Battra not necessarily being a species exactly but being a collective of entities born as vessels of the Planet’s will and I thought about how they could be combined together to give a deeper and more comprehensive look at how Abraxas Battra functions.

Namely, Battra did start out as essentially just one from a wide number of identical ‘Battras’ - just beings born to represent the Will of the Planet, no different from drones in a hive. If you met one 'Battra’, then you met them all. They were basically mechanical and monotone, referring to fellow Titans by their designated function in the eyes of the Planet and not as actual individuals (for instance, any given Battra would just refer to Mothra as something like “Light Bringer” rather than her name or Ozymandias as “Chosen Scion” or something equally elaborate). Similarly, they themselves just referred to other Battras as 'vessels’ and never anything more - because that’s what they were. Nothing more, nothing less.

It’s only after some unholy cataclysm that ended up wiping out the entire collective that things started to change. Very few can say for certain what the cataclysm was (it was probably Bagan), but it not only destroyed the Battra collective but damaged the Planet so deeply that it was crippled in its ability to create new vessels for its will. It was only via sheer luck that a single vessel survived, and even then said vessel was heavily damaged and on the brink of death. 

It was then that the then-current Alpha, Shimo, alongside Ozymandias came to the vessel’s aid. Mothra likewise probably followed soon after.

It took a very long time for the vessel - now christened solely as 'Battra’ - to understand and come to terms with things after it was recovered and nursed back to health. At first, it still thought purely in terms of the almost-mechanical terminology that the Planet conveyed itself through. The Planet still only treated Battra as a vessel to convey its intent, not as a person or an actual Titan in and of itself. But purely by exposure to Mothra, Shimo, and Ozy over time, Battra started to develop a personality of it - his own. Still a voice for The Planet’s Will, but with his own thoughts and opinions on things now that he realized there was more to being the Planet’s defender than just tending to it and ignoring all else - and the Planet came to understand the same.

Battra also probably at first found it odd that Mothra decided to pretty much adopt and christen him her “big brother”. Yes, Battra and his fellow vessels technically predate Mothra’s earliest known physical incarnation, but as a a spiritual existence, Mothra would far predate them as a whole. He got used to it once he developed his current personality, but it still feels a bit strange - even if he’s gotten VERY defensive of Mothra despite the fact she’s more than capable of protecting herself (though realistically, only Mothra, Shimo, Ozy, Battra himself, and Megalon would really know the truth of this since most might just see the similarities between the two and assume they’re actually related beyond just looking alike, not that any of them would ever explain what’s really going on if you ask). 

From that perspective, having people to care for and who care for him in turn, a family, is likely still new to Battra and is something that’s hard for him to really process. Which no doubt made Ozy’s capture even worse for him and Shimo’s disappearance on top of that would have all but broke him. It makes sense then that nobody has seen Abraxasverse Battra for so long if the sudden loss of those two made him just return to his solemn duty and he distanced himself from everyone else, with Mothra simply never bringing him up because she didn’t know where he actually was in all that time.

---

Ooh, interesting. The idea that Battra goes from a collective to a single individual who slowly becomes his own individual is a fun thought exercise that can lead to its own brand of Angst and Drama on top of plot-related shenanigans.

[dirtytransmasc]

Making more of these cause the idea has been stewing all day and I need to get it out for the love of everything good or I might just loose my shit.

when peter has his "I'm so proud of you" moment with Miles, he of course announces it like Peter B. had in the movie, but the first chance he gets he grabs Miles, holding his head in his hands, smiling with his whole face, staring at him for a moment, before doing the dad "kiss your forehead, ruffle your hair, hug you till your ribs hurt, and then shake you around for some reason" combo that almost every dad on this planet has done.

Miles is such a little shadow to him, copying his every move, and Peter finds it so amusing. Definitely uses it to get Miles to take better care of himself, like he takes more breaks/breathers, drinks more water, etc.

when he was recovering from closing the collider and he was still in the hospital, the first thing he said when he woke up was "Miles" because he was all he was worried about, he just wanted to know his kid was ok, everything came after that.

when Miles was at his bedside, Peter would hold hand and just repeat "I'm so proud of you" over and over, not quite able to say much else.

MJ is like a second mom, making sure Miles eats and sleeps, trying to help him with letting go of his emotional load. she rubs his back and tosses blankets on him, giving him those mom eyes, listening when he tries to open up to her.

Peter B. is defiantly the one to talk to the kids parents, trying to keep him from getting grounded till his in his 80s. he assure them that he would never let miles do anything too unsafe, and that its better if he learns to use his abilities now so they don't invade his personal life.

he also helps explain Miles's abilities, how his bite happened, what happened to his uncle, etc. so Miles doesn't have t.

he doesn't let Miles fight any bad guys, but will let him help out on patrol and stopping petty crime like purse snatchers. he knows he's gonna try and do it on his own anyway, so he might as well give him a taste and pray it keeps the kid from doing anything too stupid.

helps him with his physics studies.

always compliments his art, even his graffiti.

makes sure to spend the day with Miles on Aarons birthday and anniversary, even if only for a little while (if he's already spending it with his mom and dad, since he doesn't want to intrude) cause he knows its hard for him to process.

he becomes a part of the Morales family. Rio loves him and MJ and treats them like one of her own, cause that's just how she is. Jeff can be a bit touchy, especially at first, since he is spiderman after all, but, he trusts him with his kid and his city, and eventually comes around to him.

him and miles will race through the city, trying to see who can go the highest or the fastest or pull off the coolest stunt.

Peter, much like Peter B., cause Miles just has that effect on Peter Parkers, has a kid because of him. Miles is automatically the kids uncle, and Peter Insists on having him actually holding the baby. the kids middle name is in some way related to Miles.

since he's a part-time photographer, he takes pictures of Miles's art, with permission, and enters him into contests. they always celebrate when he wins.

[raccoon-crown]

DREAM LAND AU: The knight betrayed by the stars.

"Long time Ago in the Land of the Dreams, there used to be peace, a peace so lasting that everyone thought it would last forever.

Under the light of the stars, everyone felt safe...

... And so, everyone forgot that in the starry universe there was also an infinite darkness that covered everything.

Dark beings that saw in the time of peace the perfect opportunity to get out of their lair and take the lead into conquer the universe protected by the stars.

Planets, comets, whole worlds were affected by this invasion, and much more lives were taken in a single moment. It was then, and only then, that the stars had to intervene once more.

They shined and gave their power to people of flesh, beings selected to protect the life and bring back the light to the space the darkness already covered.

That was the story of the first star guardians, so singular as every star in the night, and also the only hope for the people of the Land of the Dreams..."

-... Since they casted the nightmares away! - pronounced the tinny pup with a huge smile while waving his hand.

-Seems like someone has the story memorized by now! - said the blue hedgehog who was at the hedge of the bed.

-How could I not to?! The star guardians are Soo cool! - shouted the blue ball of spikes almost getting out of his bed - and I'm gonna be one of them when I grow up, you'll see!!

-Hey!, calm down little knight or you'll wake up everyone around! - the hedgehog cover in armor took the furball with care and barely managed to put some blanked on its place again.

-Hum! I bet the Star Guardians doesn't have a bed time... - The small pup mumbled indignant.

-Oh, you bet they do! After all they won't be able to fight without the proper sleep, just thing about it! - he pronounced while feigning concern - A honorable star guardian defeated just for being drowsy in the middle of the battle ground! What a disgrace!!!

After a small silence, the room finally exploded into thousands of laughs. As both of the hedgehogs tried to recover their breath, the youngest of the took the silver mask that was over the blankets.

-Oh no, not today, you know I'll need it tomorrow so give it back...

-But dad, I only want to keep it tonight! - Claimed the blue spiky pup - if I don't have it with me how can the stars know where to find me to make me a guardian?!

The hedgehog in shiny armor let go a sigh.

-Sonic, you don't need this for that - passing a hand over the spikes of the pup's head - you have the biggest heart I know, big enough for all the star in the sky to notice, you don't need an old man's mask for them to notice it.

-But, it's not a common mask, it's the strongest king's knight mask!

-He, come on, those sweet words won't get you this mask and you know it!

-Hey!

-But - interrupted the old hedgehog - the day the stars acknowledge you and you became stronger than your old man, then you can keep it.

-Wait, are you serious dad?!

-Why shouldn't I? Do ya think a knight could lie to a furball like you?? - enveloping his son in a huge the knight concluded - You'll be the bravest Star Guardian one day my son, I'm sure of it.

Returning the gesture, the little hedgehog smiled widely with a pair of shinny brown eyes.

-Thanks dad, you're the best!

.................

His heart was running nonstop, faster than ever before, and inside of it he still could feel it: a roaring power that burned inside, the very one that used to inhabit the sword the sword that was given to him just a moment ago.

But there was something different, he couldn't put a finger on it till looking at the dark aura that covered him from top to toe. It was something different from the burst of light that came with the sword.

It was pestilent and scary.

He looked at the sky by mere reflex, or maybe just because looking at the ground right now just felt unreal, he didn't have a way to know if all battlegrounds were like that. Deep within himself he firmly believed that if he managed to look at the starry sky he could feel at least some peace.

...

But the sky, for first time since he could remember, was empty. As if the stars refused to see him anymore, as if the very same ones that gave him the power to defend everything he once loved turned their backs on him.

"Why?"

Lost, he was completely lost, not only because of the fact that he literally couldn't control his body for a moment that seemed like an eternity, but also because he couldn't understand what was wrong with him for the stars to look away from him even after being able to defeat their enemies.

"This wasn't supposed to happen..."

Returning the gaze at the ground, he felt the shake of everything he had just went through.

How his homeworld and home was invaded by the same creatures they only feared in the fairy tales, how he saw his dad fighting till his last breath to protect it, the unforgettable sound of his body falling on the ground after his sword broke into pieces and the yelling his heart let go when it happened.

His hands, sticky and covered into something hideous and dark enough of to hide his blue fur and spikes, were a reminder of the things that the very same pain caused.

It was the closest thing those creatures had to the blood inside his veins. The proof that told him over and over that the scenery and the nightmares he just lived weren't just bad dreams, it was indeed the scariest scenery he ever saw in his life.

BADDUMM BADDUMM

But what actually scared him the most was not the scenery nor the smell or the fact that he was alone.

BADDUMM BADDUMM BADDUMM

It was the fact that a part of him felt wrong, like something huge changed, as if he still wanted to keep going, keep FIGHTING...

It was then, when a little shine of moonlight captured his attention, in the distance he barely managed to recognize something reflecting the light in its direction, awaking his instincts enough for him to move.

Feeling a painful weight on his back, he forced himself to keep walking in the mud and soot to reach the shinny object. As if it was the only thread that tied him to sanity.

The lonely child barely managed to pick the object from under some debris, trembling as he recognized the precious object before trying to clean it with the remaining of his cloth.

Raising it to give it a better look, the hedgehog felt something humid Rolling over his muzzle.

-When you said that you were gonna give this to me if I became a star guardian... - his eyes fixated over his own reflection in the silver mask, as his now golden eyes cried silently the pain in his chest - ... I didn't mean for it to be like this...

Leaving his sword in the ground, the blue hedgehog pressed his forehead onto the mask as he silently let go the last family he had left for good.

-Young sir! - the echo of a voice in the distance brought him to reality for a second, causing for him to turn around - Young sir Sonic! Where are you?!

His heart longed for someone finding him, for a warm embrace before being took to a safe place, far from that calamity and pain. But the reflection on the mask and the bleeding pain her perceived coming from his scapulas remembered that he no longer was who they were looking for.

"What exactly I'm now dad...?!"

The sound of an armour coming alerted him and by mere reflex he took a ripped flag to cover himself seconds before the knight could be close enough.

-Young Sir, thanks the stars that you are...

-Don't come any closer!! - insisted the hedgehog startling the knight a few steps from him.

-Sir?

-I... - without having a single word to describe his situation, the young hedgehog felt like his heart was about to scape his chest, barely able to hold himself he expressed - I need for you to look for anyone that survived while I check if this place is safe again.

Refusing to look at the knight in his state, he simply took the sword from the ground barely avoiding to start shaking.

-Sir... You-you have to come with me, this place is not safe, there are...! - the knight slipped to his location, almost reaching him.

-I gave you an order! - said the little hedgehog desperately before looking at the knight, who suddenly stopped stunned, before recovering his hand from touching him.

He could even swore that he trembled for a second, completely scared and confused. But how could he blame him, he came all the way looking for a little and defenseless child only to find a MONSTER like him in his place.

-I... - regretting his words, he only managed to look away so the poor guy could breath - I need to go secure the zone, you should go too.

The knight remained silent for a second, he didn't know if he was still in shock from seeing him or if he actually was concerned for him.

He wasn't even sure that he wanted to know.

-As you order sir... But ... there's also something else you must know - the knight doubted for a moment before retiring his helmet, leaving it under his arm - the captain, we lost him in the battle... My condolen-

-I know - the hedgehog cut, and lifting the mask again as he cleaned the tears over his muzzle - I was there when it happened...

Looking at the eyes that were now his in the mask, he closed his eyes for a last farewell.

A farewell to Sonic, the son of the greatest Knight in the world.

-But if we want to honor him, we must protect those who are left, so go find those survivors...

It was at that moment, that not even the weight on his back mattered for him, for an instant the burning sensation in his heart consumed him while he put the mask over his face.

-Sir, Wait!! - exclaimed the knight right before the hedgehog ran in a different direction at an unnatural speed.

It didn't mattered if the stars abandoned him because of that hate, or if his desire of vengeance was too much for them to accept. He needed power, one strong enough to avoid that from repeating again.

It didn't mattered for him if it had to be light or darkness.

Holding his sword, he retired his improvised cape without stopping and gave a deep breath before extending the wings that he now carried on his back as the fire in his veins took control again before he left the ground.

His dad was right after all, his heart was really big and strong, it didn't matter if the darkness inside him was enough to make the star repent of choosing him. As long as it kept beating, he was going to make sure no one could stop him.

He was ready to take the Mantle as the next Meta Knight.

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond! Scripting: Expanded Shatterverse

In One More Hero, after OMT!Tails had recovered from the crash-landing in Boscage Maze (Dimension PR-GRO-2023), he and Nine were walking through the expanded jungle.

Nine: You know, Boscage Maze wasn't always like it is today.

OMT!Tails: It got expanded?

Nine: A lot of the Shatterspaces have, Tails. Funnily enough, me and Thorn are really the only two that actually remember what transpired in the past, and yet no-one else does.

OMT!Tails: Oh? How so?

(Logmill Marshland sprites by DanielMania123)

Nine: Well, after Sonic and Shadow were forced to leave to protect our realm, it made the Shatterverse expand beyond what I knew before. It even caused Shatterverse counterparts of them both to come into existence, alongside three sets of people I never knew prior. Over in New Yolk, for instance, Sonic's counterpart is Enforcer Sonic, who was said to have traded his freedom for the safety of the critters in the city before we kicked the Chaos Council out, Shadow's is Prism, but made by me from abandoned blueprints the Council left, and there are three more named Crème Brûlée, Nitroxide and Lodestar Nova.

Nine passed Tails a sheet listing all the major ones between dimensions. (Sonic and Shadow ones (alongside the Temperature Split bunch) are owned by @son1c)

New Yolk City: - Myself (Tails) - Renegade Knuckles - Rebel Rouge - Rusty Rose - Denizen 1998 (Big) - Enforcer Sonic - Prism (Shadow) - Crème Brûlée (Cream) - Nitroxide (???) - Lodestar Nova (???) - The Chaos Council (Eggman) Boscage Maze: - Thorn Rose Scavengers - Prim (Rouge) - Gnarly (Knuckles) - Hangry (Big) - Mangey (Tails) - Halcyon (Shadow) Newer Residents - Windthrow (Sonic) - Shroomik (Eggman) - Hoodie and Topian (Cream and Cheese) - Wildcard Nitro (Is that second word the name of the yellow hedgehog? Odd...) - Hostas (???) No Place: - Knuckles the Dread Dread's Crew - Sails (Tails) - Black Rose - Batten (Rouge) - Catfish (Big) Neutrals and Other Crews - Gale (Sonic) - Bermuda (Shadow) - Sailor Cream and Seadog (Cream and Cheese) - Skipper Nitro - Rogue Nova - Captain Robotskis (Eggman) Temperature Split: Freeze Team (Deepfreeze Domain) - Alabaster (Rouge and a Pink Wisp) - Hatchet (Tails and two Yellow Wisps) - Rocketeer (Nitro and an Orange Wisp) Burn Team (Heatwave Hearth) - Roundgear (Eggman and a Cyan Wisp) - Blister (Knuckles and a Black Wisp) - Ardent Rose (Amy and a Blue Wisp) - Aquatic (Big and a Green Wisp) - Constellation (Nova and an Indigo Wisp) Neutrals - Syzygy (Sonic) - Callisto and Jupiter (Shadow and Maria) - Star and Power (Cream and Cheese, a Heart Wisp)

(What the four Nitro Shatterverse counterparts look like, in the order mentioned in that list:)

OMT!Tails: A whole book about them? Hmm... Let's see...

OMT!Tails had a flick through, finding it pretty interesting.

Nine: Some of their stories are quite interesting and shaped who they are today. Lodestar saved Nitroxide from being turned entirely robot, Shroomik is one of the few humans here in Boscage and has been helping out on terra-firma, Gale's been one of THE strongest versions of Sonic I've seen, and Callisto's essentially a Shadow-Wisp fusion that's a friend to all Wisps.

One of the points in the book caught OMT!Tails's attention.

OMT!Tails: Wait, Star lost her mother?

Nine: Yeah, I'm afraid so... Thankfully, Syzygy took her in with some other younger companions away from Temperature Split's main planet, in hopes of trying to end the Wisp Races for good.

OMT!Tails: Honestly? I can relate to Star's pain.

Nine: You... You can?

OMT!Tails nodded.

OMT!Tails: Before we met back at New Yolk, a monster known as OMT attacked my world, and... left some nasty scars on me... Vanilla, my Cream's mom, never came back from that, so I had since adopted Cream as my little sister. It's been a year since then, and I still haven't been able to move on...

Nine: Hey, Tails. You're a strong guy, I know you are. I mean, come on! You made it out of that crash-landing practically in one piece AND fought off "Agen" or whatever his name was, so that deserves credit!

OMT!Tails: Heh, thanks, Nine.

Nine: But, you know... For both of us, I guess it just isn't the same without the Sonics we knew...

OMT!Tails: Hey, Nine? I know I'm not the best with advice, but I know neither of our Sonics would want us dwelling on the past and what happened before. He always told me that if I want to do something, that I do it right away and when I can.

Nine: Heh, I get what you mean, buddy. Even then, it's a shame the grown-up Sonic couldn't be here to hear this.

OMT!Tails: And he wasn't even the best mentor, either... When do I know if I'm ready?

Nine: You're not meant to by normal means, Tails. The way you know you're ready is to find that courage in yourself. And to do that, all you need is the will to take that first step.

OMT!Tails: "Take that first step"... Honestly, I never heard that advice before, but it can work! Thanks, Nine.

Nine: You're welcome.

Nine noticed a small canister Tails had.

Nine: What's that you got there?

OMT!Tails: Oh, this? They're the remaining particles from OMT.

Nine: Once we get back, I'm gonna put some study into them. I might have something to invent that can give you a helping hand back home.

OMT!Tails: Awesome! Well, here you go.

He passed the canister to Nine.

Nine: Well, we should go get you some practice around here.

OMT!Tails: Ah, yeah! Thorn said she'd be setting up some targets around the jungle for me to work with, right?

Nine: Mhm.

OMT!Tails: Then let's do it to it!

He raced off, ready for his target practice, as Nine followed.

[kenobireads]

Vader's Fortress

Today's the dayyy! I posted the first chapter of Vader's Fortress to Wattpad! (Starting to put it on AO3 now!)

Since there are two prologues, one for Anakin and one for our MC, I went ahead and posted both of them! Here's Anakin's introduction into this SW parallel universe! It's a short one, enjoy!

And you can find the story here!

Anakin Skywalker was dead. He died with Padmé. With the Jedi. With the Republic. In his place was...me.

Darth Vader.

When Obi-Wan Kenobi turned his back on me, I gathered the last of my strength and dragged myself two, maybe three meters. According to Darth Sidious, if I had not done this, I would have caught aflame. I'd be unrecognizable—that is, if I survived at all.

I did not believe him. Didn't believe I saved myself.

I still needed the suit. It kept me alive, so long as I did not go long without it. I lost my left leg and my one real hand. The leg had melted, and I felt everything. Sometimes I still did. Multiple organs were damaged.

I still had pain. Saved myself?

No. I saved nothing.

Twelve hours. Max. That was how much time I could safely go without the suit or a special bacta chamber.

I tried to push it, of course. The longest I lasted was eleven hours and thirty-seven minutes before I could no longer breathe, my lungs unable to continue on their own. It felt as if they were collapsing.

At first, I despised the suit. Uncomfortable. Hot. Clunky. Restrictive.

Until I started realizing my strength within it—and my weakness outside it.

After recovering, I spent the first few weeks doing my master's bidding. Each task seemed to require more recovery, starting with Jedi Master Kirak Infil'a for his lightsaber.

I killed the self-exiled Jedi and bled his kyber crystal. I met the Inquisitors and put the 'Grand' Inquisitor in his place. I put in endless orders to the Kuat Drive Yards.

I bowed. Constantly. Palpatine had me on my knees each time we met, and then on my back in agony. Force lightning—worse than I remembered.

Not that it mattered. I deserved every moment of pain, every second of misery.

Why? Because I killed Padmé. My wife. The mother of my unborn child.

I don't know the details, the how or the when. It doesn't matter.

She is dead. And she took me with her. Whatever remained in this broken organic form...it was but a shell, fit only to hold the rage. There was no room for anything else.

I was a masochist. Proven by the red planet coming into view before me: Mustafar. The planet where I lost everything.

This was my second visit since Kenobi left me to die. Palpatine was rapidly building his palace over the fallen Jedi Temple, but Coruscant would never be my home. I needed a sanctuary, and I knew just where to build it.

I didn't know what I wanted, but I was beginning to know the dark side. And it was there on Mustafar.

So, maybe I enjoyed the pain. Maybe I simply felt I deserved it. Honestly, I didn't bother looking too deeply. At anything.

Skipping the cracked landing pad, I lowered my newly modified Actis starfighter to a patch of dried, cooled magma next to the wrecked mining facility. As the ship began to quiet, the sounds of the planet grew louder.

The pop of lava. The swoosh of high winds. Even a far-off roar of some hungry, pissed-off beast.

Eventually, I stalked off the ramp, only to be bombarded with heat, even in my suit. I pulled my hood over my helmet because, as always, I felt like I was being watched. Friend or foe was no longer a question I asked—everyone was an enemy.

I worked my way up a ridge just above the old mining complex until I found a spot that provided a complete view of the surrounding lands. The destruction from my duel with Obi-Wan was beginning to look like a part of the planet as the lava took the area back.

My mask let out two quiet beeps. I shifted to the direction it indicated and waited three full seconds before the reading came up.

A camera eye was following me from the complex walls.

Curious. There wasn't supposed to be anything in this area, not for miles. Nothing else was happening in the ruins, though there was another camera further down on the opposite side.

I shifted slowly, taking in every angle, working in a circle. My back was to the mining complex when I saw it: the very top of a permacrete entry, the kinds the Techno Union used all over Mustafar. I couldn't see the building beyond it, but I recalled a science laboratory being the closest facility.

There was too much distance to get any readings from it. I knew it was unlikely I would find anything there. It was probably Palpatine watching me.

And yet...There was a pull to the place. It didn't feel like the dark side. Nothing was calling out to me. It wasn't a nudge in the Force. No, it felt more real, as if my physical body was being gently tugged toward it.

But my body was my enemy, too. It was barely my own. So as my body felt the need to cooly approach the place, I treated it as I would any other unknown risk.

I took control and approached on my terms.

[autistic-crypt1d]

Season 5 SGA live blogging:

S1, S2, S3, S4

Big ass cliffhanger, Teyla is still being held captive by Michael and the team is racing against the clock to find her before she gives birth only to have a damn building fall on them!

Updates:

- Ronon calling Sheppard buddy 😭

- good lord that was a long ass zoom out

- Ronon and Teyla love eachother so much dude

- "you don't have to do everything yourself" facts Ronon, facts

- awww Rodneyyyyy

- Ronon carrying Teyla and her baby is just so AHHHHH

- HOW DARE YOU REPLACE SAM

- OH NO, THE SEED

- I don't remember how Keller got infected in the first place, during the rescue op for Sheppard, Ronon, Rodney, and Lorne?

- Carson!!

- ahhhhh yeah it was that planet

- I missed Teyla so muchhhh

- poor Sheppard y'all

- it always gets me watching Ronon pace around aggressively when something is hurting people that he can't fight. You can literally see him wanting to punch whatever it is no matter what it is or the fact that it is unpunchable

- of course Rodney stays with Sheppard ♡

- also, does this mean that all wraith hive ships are people??

- love how Woolsey is immediately and very rudely awakened to the reason why "going by the book" on Atlantis does not work

- shouldn't the stuff be attacking Sheppard now that he's cured?

- well, now it is

- did the vine stab Sheppard or just break a rib or something?

- Broken Ties, if this is the episode I think it is I'm about to be very sad

- I love seeing Ronon and Teyla together so much

- Ronon's jacket is so cool

- wait no I think the episode I'm thinking of is one of the last 2

- for all of his faults, I really so love how understanding Woolsey is when it comes to Teyla and her baby

- oof ok I remember what this episode is now and while it isn't the one that I thought it was, I will still be very sad

- Tyre you're a back stabbing little shit and I hate you

- DAMN IT TYRE

- Woolsey really does become quite sweet in SGA

- Rononnnnn AHHHHHHH

- of course Sheppard is the person Rodney goes to when he gets stuck

- Lorne!!!

- Ronon's voice on the verge of tears, BRO

- Kanaan, supportive husband of the year

- WOOLSEY WITH THE BABY PFFFT

- Tyre gets points for helping them get Ronon back but I still hate him for everything else

- let's go Rononnnnn

- Ronon truly looks very coo coo bananas here

- god the acting is so good

- Rodney talking to Ronon while he's unconscious recovering 😭

- Ronon holding the sword after Sheppard gave it to him, AHHHHHH

- ah crap, The Daedalus Variations, this is one of the few episodes that I immediately know by title

- I always wanna yell "DON'T GET ON THAT SHIP!!!"

- The duplicate bodies, AHHHHH

- is Ronon wearing a cardigan? It's fantastic regardless

- I love Rodney's little rectangle backpack so much

- the alternate reality drive is reminding me of the spore drive from Star Trek: Discovery, I still need to finish that

- ok it's not a cardigan but the cut is very similar and I dig it

- Ronon is so good at talking Teyla through stuff

- this other alien race intrigues me so much

- how tf did that dart just zoop through the shield??

-poor Sheppard being the only one who actually knows how to operate the ship in any significant way, Teyla knows a bit but that's it

- Ronon really has a 6th sense y'all

- good lord it takes a lot to down those aliens!

- I wish we got to see more of them so badly. Maybe if we'd gotten another season?

- ahhhh Ronon and Sheppard are the most badass duo ever istg

- poor Ronon y'all, he is not prepared for operating this shit

- since when does Atlantis have F-302s? I mean I know this is an alternate reality but like, you'd assume they'd be jumpers

- alternate reality Atlantis came in clutch tho

- not Sheppard basically flirting with himself XD

- Sheppard and his ds, I love it

- the way Rodney absolutely adores Torren even though he's simatioualy terrified of him is so cute

- I wish we got to see more of the alien fauna so badddd

- Ghost in the Machine, oh boy

- Atlantis going dark is always so freaky and cool

- AHHHHH the Elizabeth episodes always hurt so bad y'all

- I really don't understand why replicators want to ascend so bad, they can live forever, why not just go explore the galaxy now? Why do they need to do it as energy?

- I hate that Elizabeth has this arc

- YOU TELL EM WOOLSEY

- ouch ouch ouch

- The Shrine, ouch ouch ouch

- y'all this episode breaks my heart

- Rodney calling for John, OUCH

- AHHH you can see the organism in the water!!!!

- I know the water would've come through too, but couldn't they have just gotten back into the water and they open the shield just long enough for them to swim through???

- Rononnnnnn, he's so caring and sweet and AHHHH

- the whole thing with Jennifer hurts, Rodney tells her he loves her and she has to watch him fade away

- I don't really understand why the jumpers can't be cloaked while going through the gate, the only reason I can think of is that they made it up to make it difficult

- y'all Rodney coming to John on the verge of tears, desperately coming to him for comfort breaks my heart

- GIVING HIM HIS JACKET

- "you're stuck with me Rodney" HELP

- Sheppard loves that arrogant, whiney man so much

- "I keep seeing a face, everytime I close my eyes. I think it's my mother" BRO

- Keller has come such a long way, I mean she went from a flailing mess on the Bola Kai episode to proposing brain surgery in a damp cave to remove an alien parasite

- Whispers is so cool, it freaks me the hell out, but still cool af. Everytime I see the intro though I think of the SG-1 episode where they can't sleep or they die

- also, love seeing Carson again

- Porter and Mehra irritate me so much though. When characters are supposed to be tough but are either written badly, acted badly, or both, it's just so bad. Same thing with characters that are supposed to be hot, like, yuck.

- pfffft, Sheppard and Carson bonding over being in stasis pods

- I really like Vega though, and Teldy is cool

- I also desperately hate the weird thing between Porter and Carson, like, it makes me WILDLY uncomfortable

- god damn that was a clean ass transition

- VEGA DIES???? BRO

- Mirellus I swear to god

- THE CRAWLING ON THE WALL, HELL NO

- these things are so scary y'all, I love it

- honestly Mirellus, you deserved that. Not only did you release these things but you started screaming about them, like, wtf

- he really could've just grabbed the rope to bring up the bucket instead of using the crank, then used it to lower it the rest of the way

- poor Carson, his first mission back and he gets this

- see Mehra is great when she's being a bit goofy, but the whole dead pan serious tough as nails thing is so bad. I've never once enjoyed a character like that unless they had something else going on. Like, Teal'c and Ronon have personalities on top of that. I just think she was written badly honestly.

- The Queen, oh boy this episode is wild

- I truly do not understand the whole surgery thing. What exactly are they doing to her and how tf is it not permanent or leaving any lasting effects???

- Ronon's little smile at saying they were getting their asses kicked is so cute

- at least they finally got a new actor to play the Primary wraith queen

- ahhhh Ronon loves her so muchhhh

- oooo and new actors to play the wraith dudes too! Let's goooooo

- nice work Teyla, god damn

- Todd, buddy, you're really pushing it rn

- it will never stop being hilarious that Ronon has to get stunned like 8 times to go down

- Teyla is the tiniest wraith I've ever seen and it's so funny

- Tracker, very exciting, I kinda love this eoisode

- Sheppard is so totally jealous about Rodney and Keller

- AH I hate the awkward tension between the 3 sooooo much

- Rodney, Ronon, please be normal for like t seconds please

- the thing I hate about this episode is that they suddenly bring back the thing between Ronon and Keller. They don't mention it for a long ass time and their interactions don't hint to it whatsoever and now all the sudden he's into her again

- also the fact that it's so obvious Ronon loves Teyla so the whole Keller thing is just super weird

- it's weird they don't have a life signs detector with them, or maybe Keller has it

- Ronon and Rodney are both like obsessed with Sheppard (for different reasons), but it's hilarious that when they're without Sheppard, they're just a mess of a duo. Like they cannot agree on anything, they're constantly bickering, it's a mess

- idk about y'all, but I ship Keller with Kyrik more than anyone else

- GET HIS ASS KELLER

- Kyrik is awesome man, I'm really sad we never see him again

- ahhh I hate the awkward love triangle shitttt

- DANIEL!!! First Contact is one of my favorite episodes, I'm so excitedddd

- Daniel and Rodney are so funny together, I love it

- pfffft, Rodney telling him to push against the wall as hard as he could XD

- good lord that attempted speech interaction was awkward as hell

- poor Woolsey XD

- god damn the hyperspace window opening over the water is SO COOL

- I may not like these Asgaurd but they are so damn cool, the way they just completely ignore every effort Atlantis tries to stop them is wild. Shield? Ignored, floors between them and their goal? Going through them. Gun fire? Shields.

- THEY'RE SO BADASS

- the way that the 3rd just no hesitation sacrifices itself so the other 2 can get away with the guys and the device???

- poor Sheppard man, he's been in charge for only like a couple hours and they've been invaded and 2 of their people are taken

- god those two are so sassy I love it

- AHHHH Sheppard and Rodney thinking the same thing is so gay I love it

- the self destruct feature so that no one can find out what they really are??? AHHHH

- y'all, the existential crisis Todd has thinking about who the wraith would be without the war is devastatinggggg

- pfffft Daniel and his immediate urge to talk it out with his kidnappers

- those knockout sticks Todd has are so cool wtf

- the power spike, AHHHH CHILLS

- Sheppard staying with Radek no matter what, he's such a good leader y'all

- the explosion FX is not great lol

- oh shit I forgot this was a 2 parter

- I recognize the travers lady from somewhere

- omfg Rodney stepping between Daniel and the gun, BRO

- oh right she was on One Tree Hill!!

- yeah idk how anyone could ship Ronon and Keller in my opinion, they clash so badly personally wise

- good lord that engineering room gives me and Zelenka anxiety

- PFFFT THE SASSY HEAD BOB RONON GIVES WHEN HE SAYS NO

- THE ASGARD REVEAL

- I can't help but wonder if the war would've ended differently if instead of hiding, the Asgard had helped the Ancients

- man Daniel is really getting tossed around today

- ahhhh I missed Daniel's silly little mannerisms so much

- Keller with a P-90 is dope af, way to go doc

- I'm like 90% sure those "empty suits" had people in them cuz I could kinda see them swaying a bit and I think that's hilarious

- Daniel looks cool af in that suit

- pffft Daniel's little shrug

- Daniel please stop standing right by the damn antenna you're giving me anxiety

- LET'S GO SHEPPARD AND TRAVELER'S

- Daniel you really cannot die again

- "wanna unzip me?" "I'll look for a can opener" PFFFFT

- Ronon may be very emotionally intelligent when it comes to other people's feelings, but when it comes to his own, NOPE

- of course Rodney and Daniel are immediately sassy with eachother now that they're not about to die

- Rodney, please

- Outsiders is such an infuriating episode y'all, the way the villagers turn against these innocent people is just so AHHH

- Jervis I hate you so much, please shut up

- Jervis you are actually like, the worst

- the fact that he thinks that there is even a chance the wraith will keep their word and not destroy their village anyway means he is a damn fool

- Safaris you are also the worst and a fool and I hate you too

- Todd is literally the only wraith we've seen to my knowledge that's actually ever kept his word but even then he steals shit or throws wrenches in the plan every single time

- ok Rodney left out the time they did in fact escape from one of those cells but Ronon had like 80 knives on him that allowed that to happen sooooo

- wraith facial hair is so scrungly looking

- LET'S GO CARSON

- dude has become such a badass since he came back to life

- "you're gonna have to hold them off" "am I now?" PFFFT

- PFFFFT Carson and Rodney shoved into the dart is hilarious

- oh damn

- way to go Rodneyyyyy

- awww, Carson realizing Rodney misses him and taking a break for him 😭

- Inquisition, I have no recollection of this episode so far

- oh wait, oh yeah no I remember this

- honestly the counsel isn't entirely wrong, but they've been trying their best to fix their mistake and they're the best hope this galaxy has of defeating the wraith

- plus the fact that they woke them up early led to the infighting which gave them the advantage to defeat them

- why're they showing clips of the wraith that was converted long after Michael with the consent of the queen instead of Michael's transformation when that's what they were talking about?

- y'all they are fully tripping if they think the Genii's nuclear plan was going to defeat the wraith, there are far too many for them to have succeeded with a plan like that. Working with Atlantis there could've been a really helpful alliance but instead they decided to betray them again and again

- Atlantis has been making a lot of unilateral decisions yes, but like they said, they're the only ones out there fighting them. The ancients failed and there was no one left with the tech or numbers to stand up to them until the expedition showed up

- a lot of their plans have made things worse in some ways, but that's what happens when you're taking action, you can't be sure how things will turn out most of the time but you have to do something

- SG-1 got shit for this too about how they went about fighting the Goa'uld, but again, they were trying. Granted so were the Tok'ra, but they were also letting people die, leaving worlds enslaved, and had completely written off the Jaffa

- not to mention the fact that they've been expending countless resources giving aid to every society in need they come across, most of the time with zero in return

- these people revere the ancients as gods even though they were quite literally the cause of the wraith and replicators existing and abandoned the pegasus galaxy when they realized they couldn't atop the wraith, but now they put the expedition on trial for accidentally stumbling across what they left??? It's not their fault that the ancients left a damn minefield of awful shit across the whole damn galaxy

- I just noticed that Ronon had to physically drag Sheppard away when Elizabeth was sacrificing themselves

- I know that these people are upset but if they didn't wake them and they had those 50 years to prepare, the lives would've been lost anyway, different lives but lives nonetheless. At least with Atlantis here they have the chance to win and save future generations from this ever happening again

- Woolsey you sly dog

- LET'S GO WOOLSEYYYY

- Pfffft wtf was that swivel John XD

- The Prodigal, oh shit here we go

- see, Rodney and Sheppard are literally always spending time together

- I feel for Rodney with the stairs y'all, they are my sworn enemy

- Teyla is so pretty

- god damn it Michael

- damn that door lowering shot was pretty sick gotta say

- Lorne!!!

- Michael's obsession with Teyla is horrifying, he truly does not understand why she won't just go with him

- LET'S GO BANKS

- we don't get a lot of Chuck and Banks but I ADORE THEM, especially her

- YOU GET THEIR ASSES RONON

- Ronon may have technically lost that fight but he gave Teyla the opportunity to run and that's a win in this situation, especially given the fact that that buys them all time

- god I love Sheppard and Rodney during these situations "what do you need? 15 minutes?" And Rodney just rolls his eyes and does it

- Teyla is so resourceful and smart, she can't fight because she's holding a baby but you bet your ass she can kick that mf down the stairs

- the jumpers chairs look so comfy, I want one

- MICHAEL YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, TEYLA IS A WONDERFUL MOTHER

- YOU STEP AWAY FROM RONON RIGHT NOW

- yessss let's go Radek!!!

- ooooo the fight scene is coming!!!!

- it's soooo over for you Michael

- Sheppard what did I say about hanging off of towers

- MY GOD THIS SCENE IS SO COOL

- YES TEYLA BEAT HIS ASS

- you tried to hurt her baby, you were never getting out of here alive

- god Teyla is so cool help

- Ronon's mission report is so cute

- Remnants, poor Sheppard man, I'm stressed and it's been 2 seconds, I just knw what's about to happen to this man

- also, Rodney's immediate flustered reaction as to why Sheppard would volunteer to spend a night away from Atlantis (him) is so gay I love it

- y'all watching this episode knowing what's actually going on from the start is wild, especially from Sheppard's pov. Bro really just could not help torturing himself

- poor Chuck

- also, have the uniform colors changed a bit? Chuck's looks like a weird dark green and Rodney's is a different blue than I remember. I feel like this must have happened when they changed the uniform style but idk why I'm just noticing.

- are Amelia and Chuck both military???

- ugh, Brain Storm. Malcolm is the worst.

- I hate that they did Bill Nye so dirtyyyy

- the fact that Keller doesn't trust Rodney's instincts that this is a horrible idea is WILD

- "you're smarter than me" "I know" DAMN RIGHT RODNEY

- PFFFFT the Bill Nye slap

- LET'S GO RODNEY

- "I love you. Have for some time now." CALLBACK LET'S GOOOO

- Infection, see now this is the episode I though Spoils of War was initially. This episode is so freaky I love it

- I originally was remembering it as being caused by the Hoffan virus but it's Keller's treatment, I remember now

- the wall melting, SO COOL

- THE MASKLESS WRAITH WARRIORS

- I still ship Rodney and Sheppard, but I will still admit that Rodney and Keller are sweet

- my god the wraith eating people is just such a new horrific thing

- SO FREAKY AHHH

- the massive crater in the ship is so cool

- THE SHIP BEING INFECTED, AHHH SO COOL!!!

- I love wraith shit so much, it's so unique and so cool and freaky

- "we're too late, the pods are opened" AHHHH

- oh my god I love this scene, the hive tearing in half, Rodney freaking out, they're going down y'all!!!

- "impact in 15 seconds" "not if I can help it" AHHHHH

- THE SHIP ENTERING THE ATMOSPHERE, THE TENSION!!!!

- the cgi of the shop landing in the water is rough af but still

- Identity, ah hell I hate this episode

- poor Radek, he was just trying to help

- Vegas is such a weird episode

- Vegas feels like such a random place for them to be, the wraith being there I can understand, but why are John and Keller?

- man I remember watching this episode for the firs time so vividly

- the scene where the wraith is disguising himself is so cool, but also like totally confirmation that wraith would be emo, punk, or goth if they were on earth lmao

- a wraith playing poker will never not be funny

- and the damn finger conversation

- god this chase is so cool, taking the gunfire like it was nothing, leaping down the stairs, thr wall vault, and god damn that no hesitation leap off the roof only to stand back up after slamming into the pavement, AHHHHHH

- SHEPPARD'S FACE

- there is not a single reality where this mf doesn't get dragged into this shit somehow is there

- Rodney!!!!

- alternate reality Todddddd

- I guess Keller was there cuz the government sent her and she was brought back from Atlantis too? Idk

- I'm sorry but an emo wraith wielding dual machine guns is so cool

- rip John

- wait stop this is sad I hate it, his face when he lies down just broke my heart

- ENEMY AT THE GATE, LET'S GOOOOO

- I'm so excited, I may hate that the show ends like this, but my god are these episodes so cool

- I'm honestly shocked the finale isn't a 2 parter

- pfffft Todd in a Deadalus jump suit is so silly, they unfashioned him

- LET'S GO DAEDALUS

- Sam!!!!

- Atlantis is leaving the Pegasus Galaxy y'all!!!

- Davis!! Loved that guy in SG-1

- ah hell the converstaion between Woolsey, Teyla, and Ronon makes me tear up

- one would think they would've adapted some of the shield technology they've come across and used it to defend where the chair was being held in case of something like this. I get they can't protect the whole planet with it but they could at least cover that

- rip chair and area 51

- Sheppard's on yet another suicide mission

- oh shit this is the episode with Ronon that makes me cry

- RONON 😭

- Teyla and Rodney's yells for him break my heart y'all

- I love you random ass wraith for saving Ronon ♡♡♡

- Lorne supporting Ronon, ahhhhhh

- ATLANTIS LET'S GOOOOOO

- KICK THAT HIVES ASS CARSON!!!

- "it's Atlantis, they're engaging the hive!" CHILLS

- AHHHHH

- y'all I'm tearing up this is so cool

- "This is my home" AHHHH

- Ronon is so awkward when he thinks someone is cute I love it

- if it has to be someone other than Teyla, I'm glad it's Banks

- I'm gonna cry, I love this show so much 😭

I hope you enjoyed reading these live blogs, it made me really happy to do it 💛

[sellensand]

The Eclipse and the Battle of Aeonia

So, the Battle of Aeonia. The moment when Malenia and Radahn "locked horns in combat" (in Ranni's words). We know their dispute ended in the devastation of Caelid, but... why did Malenia fight Radahn? And what was she doing in Caelid in the first place? I'd like to share my own answers to those questions.

ELDEN RING SPOILERS BELOW

The way I see it, in the early years of the Shattering war, the demigod Miquella was in the process of either resurrecting his brother Godwyn's soul or granting him a "true death" via a dark ritual involving an Eclipse (a solar eclipse, judging by the Castle Sol sigil and the Eclipse Shotel). But there was a small problem.

His half-brother, General Radahn, was a master of gravity sorcery, a knowledge he had gained while studying in the town of Sellia, in Caelid, in his youth. Allegedly wanting to prevent a meteorite from destroying his beloved alma mater (as per one of the Sword Monuments is Caelid), he managed to combine his knowledge of gravity with his demigod might to indefinitely halt the natural course of the celestial bodies, a feat that earned him the title of "Conqueror of the Stars". And while this exploit had succesfully managed to prevent the destruction of Sellia, Radahn's actions had... other consequences. When the stars stopped moving, the destiny of the Carian Royal family also came to a standstill (whether this was intentional or just a collateral effect is a matter for another post). And, most importantly, with the celestial bodies stopped in place... the Eclipse could never happen.

(I can't help but think about that ghost in Castle Sol that laments that the Eclipse never occured because their "prayers were lacking", tragically oblivious to the truth of the matter.)

Wanting to restart the ritual, Miquella sent Malenia and her knights to Caelid to kill Radahn... but that didn't go according to plan. While his Blade was away, Mohg entered the Haligtree and abducted Miquella in his coccoon. Meanwhile, Malenia struggled to defeat the powerful Radahn, and when he finally managed to mortally wound her, Malenia's rot flower blossomed in Caelid. Radahn was then turned into a witless rot-monster, the whole region was consumed by the scarlet rot, and the brave knight Finlay had to carry Malenia all the way back to the Haligtree, where she slowly recovered from her wounds in a slumber, eternally awaiting her brother's return.

That folks is my understanding of the events surrounding the Battle of Aeonia.

A couple of FAQs to wrap things up:

- If Radahn was preventing the Eclipse from happening with his powers, why doesn't it take place after we kill him in the game? I think we can safely assume that, in Elden Ring's world, a solar eclipse is a particularly rare event (we do not know how the Two Moons Situation works in this planet), and maybe not entirely natural, since it needs to be summoned somehow. Radahn's death makes the eclipse possible again, but whatever Miquella and his followers were doing to bring it forth is no longer being done, so...

- How come there is a night and day cycle in the game before we kill Radahn? Because, even though the moons may not be in motion, the planet is still rotating on its own axis. If the part of the world you're in stops receiving solar light, it gets dark and you can see the moon(s), simple as that.

Does any of this make any sense? I hope so.

As always, please let me know if this has already been theorised by someone else before. I mainly use this blog to vent about my own theories and, while I do follow a few Elden Ring blogs, I don't really keep up-to-date with the latest lore trends.