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baebeyza · 3 years ago

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Unpopular Opinion: Optimus Prime isn't a very good person and that he's too glorified. (expect TFA Optimus)

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

What can I say except that there are many, many Optimus'/Convoy's out there and making a general opinion on them just doesn't work.

But I couldn't think of any Optimus I experienced who wasn't deep down a good person - lets make a roll call shall we? (includes all shows except RB and RBA + Bayverse)

G1 Optimus Prime - Good person, good leader, good father figure. Is forgiving towards wrong-doers without being a pushover. Couldn't think of anything he does that is sketchy

Beast Wars Optimus Primal - He has a harsh personality, hits Rattrap on the back of his head when the Rat talks bullshit and can get feral against his own teammates when they are being assholes like Depth Charge - but all in all, he is still a good leader and a good person. He simply has a more down-to-earth personality and a no-bullshit attitude.

He only ever reacts angrily because his team do stupid and jerkass stuff, but he is never unreasonable.

When he gets angry, you know why and you get why.

Also, he gave Dinobot a chance as a Maximal two times, so he too has a forgiving nature. And his dynamic with Depth Charge shows that he isn't petty either. ("I don't like him much either, but he's still a Maximal.")

He also had a nice moment with Blackarachnia in which he assures her they won't do anything about her coding against her will and that she is safe with them.

Beast Wars II Lio Convoy - The only thing you could call him out for is for refusing the father role when he found out he has a son. It took him half the show to actually call Lio Junior his son, but it made for a nice story! Also, he was willing to make peace with Galvatron in the show, showing his forgiving nature.

Beast Wars Neo Big Convoy - The shy and awkward one! He's a treat who learns to become a good teacher and leader with the help of his students, and he had this moment in which he tried to save Magmatron's life from Unicron. He is a hero with a strong sense of justice who needed to learn about proper teamwork and friendship and it's a really simple and sweet story.

Beast Machines Optimus Primal - This dude is such a trainwreck and I cannot in good conscious say he was always on the right side of things, I admit that.

The way the show treated the Vehicons was a little sketchy, because the Maximals technically became hypocrits, especially when it was about Silverbolt.

Forcing the "techno-organic is the real way to be" unto the non-organic characters feels a little weird, because the show never properly showed us why being without an organic side is supposed to be so bad. (And this matters because the good vs evil conflict isn't properly connected to the techno vs organic plot).

So this Oppy you can make the point that he isn't all that good as he pretends to be in his preachy cult leader role.

RiD01 Optimus Prime/Fire Convoy - Listen, this is the most naive and cute Optimus out there. This dude was willing to let Decepticons into their base just because they were like "We are good now :)" without even checking first.

His dynamic with his jerkass twin Magnus supports that - he doesn't want to fight his brother! The dude fucking pushes him off a cliff and he still tries to reason with him and doesn't fight back at all!

Don't you ever dare call this Prime a bad person, he's precious! xD

Armada Optimus Prime/Convoy - This is the dude who goes fucking feral at the end and shows just how much hatred and anger a Prime can store - but really just towards the end! The rest of the show he's your typical leader who doesn't do anything bad.

And when he made mistakes, he corrected them.

The fact that he always had this hatred and rage that he pushed aside all the time is the most interesting thing about this Prime, but even that doesn't make him a secretely bad person, because he still doesn't do anything bad. He's just an angry boi.

Energon Optimus Prime/Grand Convoy - This is technically the same Prime as Armada, and for once that shows - that anger Prime showed at the end of Armada is still present here and shows up a few times, especially when it's about Unicron.

But just like in Armada, he doesn't do anything bad.

He even tries to save Shockblast, the jerkiest jerk of the entire show, from Unicron's influence! And did just that with Galvatron at the end as well with the full intend to sacrifise himself to save everyone, including the Cons.

Cybertron Optimus Prime/Galaxy Convoy - My favourite Prime of them all - this Prime is just a damn Papa Bear! He will be considerate and loving towards his men, but if you bully his kids, you'll catch his hands bro.

He's bit a stoic dude, but shows compassion and kindness when he needs to.

He doesn't do anything sketchy either, and lets the few remaining Cons be part of the Transformers society in the end, despite their misdeeds before.

TFA Optimus Prime - The one you say is the only good Prime? Guess so, he's a good person as well! He makes mistakes (like insulting his team) but learns and grows from them.

But mate - he isn't a better person than any of the other Prime's I just listed. The only difference between TFA Prime and the other Primes so far is that TFA Prime is a narrative underdog who you are supposed to feel pity for.

All the other Prime's are leaders in a leader role, so just from a narrative standpoint, you don't feel the same sympathy for them as you do for TFA Prime.

But being an underdog doesn't translate to being a better person. The Joker in the Joker movie is also an underdog, but no one says he's a good person and that everything he does in this movie is justified.

TFA Prime just goes through more harsh shit that isn't Megatron and that's it. He isn't being a better hero or person for that.

TFP Optimus Prime - Yeah, I saw the opinion that him being too forgiving towards Megatron in the past is a flaw and that he cares more about this one silver shark more than about the safety of the universe - to which I say: WHEN???

This is a thing Ratchet accuses him off! But I couldn't remember a single scene in this show in which Optimus does, in fact, let Megatron go when he had the chance to kill him!

They always fought to the death when they did and Megatron surviving wasn't because Optimus was too nice. He's not Son Goku peeps.

And I have my issues with TFP Prime and how his characters is written, but being a secretely bad person aint it. He isn't a bad person.

If this is also about Starscream - he has every right to not trust Starscream. No one should trust Starscream! Starscream doesn't exist to be trusted by anyone.

You cannot call Prime a bad person because he elects to not trust the notorious backstabber, who, as Prime himself as pointed out, only does things for his own gain.

Also, he did try to make peace with Starscream after Megatron's "Death", and Starscream refused.

Is it about him destroying the Omega Lock? Nothing wrong with that! He chose to save Earth and all its Humanity over restoring a dead planet! Dead planet stays dead, alive planet stays alive. No one died by his decision to destroy the Omega Lock - but a whole ass planet would have died if he hadn't.

Like bro - I am not a big sucker for TFP Prime, but all these points I see floating around to prove that he is actually a bad person are kinda weird and biased.

Why should he have given Starscream a chance? To get backstabbed and used??? Which we know would have happened because this is fucking Starscream we are talking about??? A dude who doesn't care about Earth in the slightest and was happy about it being destroyed? Who only cares about power and winning this war, which is why he goes back to Megatron???

Should have sacrifised Earth? Would that have made him a true hero???

RiD15 Optimus Prime - This TFP Prime, just sterner, weaker and ready to start beef. But ultimately still a good guy.

Bayverse Optimus Prime - Here you got a Prime who kills his enemies! For anyone saying that TFP Prime is bad for not killing Megatron when he could, do you at least like Bayverse Prime for doing just that? Three times???

Even though he kills all his enemies, I never saw that as him being evil. He just doesn't give second chances. And it was refreshing to see a hero who actually does get rid of his enemies before they can do more shit.

He aint the nicest bot in town, but in the end he still did the heroic thing.

Movie 4 even gave him an arc about losing his faith in humanity and not wanting to help them anymore, but in the end he still does because his Barn Husband Cade convinces him to.

Good man I say, good man!

Prime Wars Optimus Prime - He tried to stop Windblade from making a mistake that would end in war with an emphasis on Windblade herself - saying that war is horrible and he doesn't want her to go through the same thing.

He then decides to help her anyway when he learns what the stakes are, is giving Megatron a second chance, keeps being on friendly footing with the dude and dies in an attempt to destroy the bad guy.

All in all, a good boy!

Cyberverse Optimus Prime - He forbids his soldiers from taking Energon from a foreign planet because the local fauna need it to survive - he constantly tries to do peace talks and doesn't give up on them - He dances in front of his crew to cheer them up - he shows remorse about what happened to Wild Wheel and tries to make things right again - he holds the dead Megatron in his arms and calls him his old friend-

Nothing bad about this home boy!

War for Cybertron Optimus Prime - he fucks up the whole damn time, but he has good intentions! He's a flawed individual who realises what his mistakes are!

Making mistakes, even as grand as his, doesn't make him a bad person!

So, no - I don't agree that Optimus is bad person and I also don't agree that TFA Prime is a better person than any other Prime.

Almost all these Prime's do good things, protect life, try to choose peace over conflict at least once and have a forgiving nature (even Bayverse Optimus, as he forgives humanity) - that all good guy qualities for me!

What more do you want from him to be a good person? Be nice to Starscream off all people???

Also, what do you even consider to be "too glorified"??? The newest media like WFC doesn't even depict him as a good leader because he fucks up so bad.

#transformer posting #transformer rant #bey's shit

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lesmond-sycamore · 3 years ago

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OH SHIT I FORGOT I FORGOT TO DUMP ABT MY S3 SOREN WHOOPS

OKAY SO first of all I want to say that the biggest reason I think he'd be the final boss is because of the fact that he's literally called the Builder of Worlds in the intro of "The Order of the Stone" like. hello? sounds a little more impressive than "The Redstone Engineer," "The Rougue," and "The Warrior" imo. also, he has a book in every world in the Portal Hall + Fred's Keep, meaning that he's been to all of these seemingly impossible places only available to powerrful people (the Old Builders and the Admins). how else in the world would he be able to get to these places without being powerful himself?

also, the command block. holy shit where did it come from? you can't craft one (there's no proof Ellegaard's would've actually been crafted), so where did it come from? my answer: Soren spawned it in as a way to show off his powers without seeming like he did it on purpose. he tells Jesse that initially, the Order did actually rough it out on adventures, but once they found the command block, they began to use it and rely on it more and more. this begs the question: if Soren's so powerful, why would he go through the trouble of using it? for that, let's look at his past

in my s3, it's explained that Soren created every world, and had 3 children who created the dimensions. "The Sun" created the overworld so that the inhabitants of the worlds could live happily in the day, "The Moon" created the Nether for the adventurers of the worlds, and "The Star" who created the End for ████████████████. these three were dubbed as "The Creators," and they worked together when creating the dimensions, and sprinkled in a litte bit of each other's dimensions in each other ("The Moon" made the nights filled with monsters and filled the End with loot to entice people to journey through the dimensions, "The Sun" made glowstone/shroom lights in the Nether and made end rods in the End to show that no matter the outlook, there's always light (they also made chorus fruit in the End so that people would have something to eat), and "The Star" made the Endermen available to every dimension so that way they'd ████████)

after that, he dedicated admins for every world who would use the dimensions to sculpt the worlds how they saw fit, make/remix mobs, and add their own blocks/mechanics/etc, but most of them became corrupted, ran away, or killed. because of this, he wanted to wipe everything and start again, but he wanted to give his worlds the benefit of the doubt and so, he decided to explore them, hidden amongst the common folk

in every world he traveled to, he was alone, scrounging for resources, not able to use his powers so that he could experience life the way the people who lived on the worlds did. it was... humbling, really. not using your powers is a nice way to really feel alive after getting what you wanted with the clap of your hands for thousands of years. he ended up running into the Old Builders soon after they had formed and joined them (hence the book A Man Voyaging Forever from his time alone). it was with them that he researched and created the redstone heart (hence The Redstone Heart in Harper's lab).

he actually watched The Games (and occssionally participated in them), but once Hadrian and Mevia began to become corrupted, he and Harper dipped to Crown Mesa, where after some time, PAMA happened, and he dipped because PAMA chipping him would be catastrophic. once reaching the world where "A Portal to Mystery" takes place, he began to occasionally study enderman and followed them around, observing them in their hauntings (hence Walking Among the Enderman). unfortunately that world was difficult to really observe them because the world prefered to spawn zombies at any given chance, so he dipped again.

when he made it to Sky City, Benedict was incredibly useful to his research. he befriended Isa and asked her only for the endermen spawn eggs, and in return, he would give her information about mobs that he had acquired over the years so she could know how to get/use the best drops mobs had to offer (hence Habits of the Endermen, whixh he gifted it to her once completed) the only issue was that he couldn't fully observe them in the overworld and thus, he dipped.

that brings us to the world of Fred, Xara, and Romeo. he had joined The Oasis and befriended the admins (although they didn't know who he actually was) and was actually very close friends with Fred. Fred inspired Soren to break the cycle and start a permanent life here (hence A Brave New Enderman), but after Fred died and the world was bedrocked over, he tried to dip again, but was horrified to find that the portal he used to get there was gone. turns out when the Old Builders got to that world to kidnap competitors, they broke and replaced the portal so that it would be on the surface. with this, Soren began a quest to find the portal.

however, once he got to the surface, he had nowhere to start, so he went adventuring again to search for clues. turns out that when you don't adventure for a while, you get rusty, and he almost got seriously injured during a fight with a hoard of spider jockeys. but just when he thought he was going to get seriously hurt, someone (or rather, some people) jumped in to help. these some people where Gabriel and Ivor. the two had become adventuring buddies because Gabriel was the perfect fighter and Ivor was the perfect brewer and enchanter, and they worked really well together. Soren was invited to join the two due to his extensive knowledge of the world, and because he had the ability to be a great member physically once he got back into the swing of things. soon, Ellegaard and Magnus joined the team, and they became the "Stone Age" (this name was changed after the Ender Dragon encounter because they needed something that sounded cooler). at this point, he was quite truthfully happy

but then came the command block. Soren had always carried it as a fail-safe, but when the group began to take on more dangerous challenges and almost fatally wound themselves, he began to use the command block. he had planted it so that it had seemed like it was discovered, but he knew the truth. and with that, he began to use it. not because he wanted the easy way out like Ivor believed, but because he didn't want lose any more of his friends.

that brings us to s1. with Soren losing Magnus/Ellegaard and seeing the destruction and pain he himself had caused because of his command block, he did what he knew best and ran away, leaving his only friends to fend for themselves.

now let's talk about season 2. Ivor doesn't know where he is, but my s3 explains that Soren's lack of an appearance in s2 is because of the fact he was once again trying to run away from his problems, but he still doesn't know where the portal to the portal hall is, and was just roughing it out once again by himself. that is, until he encountered a very particular enderman that doesn't seem to be under the control of the Ender Dragon. despite this new companion, once he's heard about what happened to jesse and the admins, he realizes just how badly he set up the worlds and is back to thinking about wiping the universes clean and starting over, and now, his plan is already underway (hence why the au Jesse shows up in the first place)

now, you may be wondering "how does that make him the final boss?" well, it's simple. before he becomes the last boss of the series, there's another adventure right before it that involves "The Sun," "The Moon," and "The Star" that takes place as the first arc of the game. by the time that arc is finished with, the universes that are being wiped are getting closer and closer to the world he inhabits, making Jesse the only one able to stop him and save the day

#mcsm #g's mcsm s3 #long post #IT'S A LOT. I KNOW. I'M SORRY.

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petitelepus · 3 years ago

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His Beloved And More, Part 9 FINAL

Brainstorm tries his last chance to unite with you.

Quick thank you for all you Readers who liked my dark love story! This was a pleasure to post and I’ll focus on my “Detroit Become Human” story, alongside with the requests!

Happy Midsummer everyone! <3

"Tell me Rodimus, why you wanted us to visit this trader comet?" Megatron asked from his co-captain who was munching on a rust stick. The bright red mech glanced at the former warlord and shrugged. "No clue. Brainstorm told us that he had to pick something up from there."

"He has been down lately. More than usual after the liaison's demise." Megatron pointed out and Rodimus picked another stick. "What do you want me to do about it, he hasn't left his habsuite other than to work, and even then he has been playing with lab rats."

"How do you know this and why wasn't I informed?"

Rodimus shrugged, "Didn't know you cared?"

"That I don't care about a mech who build a time machine in order to alter the timeline and possibly kill me in favor of saving a mech he had a crush on? Rodimus, what do you think he would do if he lost a lover, not a crush!"

Rodimus stared at Megatron quietly and after a minute he bit his rust stick. "Scrap. That didn't cross my mind."

"Of course it didn't..."

On the trader comet, Figaro 19-4, Brainstorm had left the crewmates and friends that had insisted on joining him on what appeared like any normal shopping spree, but it was more to the brilliant scientist. When Nautica and Rewind dragged others to look at the alien pets in the display window, Brainstorm left the group and sneaked into the dark alleys of the trader comet.

The flyer looked around, reading the virtual map he had gotten from the darknet, and followed the trail until he stood before a shady door. Brainstorm inserted the key chip he had gotten when he had first shown interest in making a deal with this mech and the door slid open, revealing a wine red con with yellow optics.

"You SpaceBrainiac?" The con asked and the scientist nodded. "That would be me. You must be CopperJack."

"Yeah. You came alone, right?" Jack asked as he looked around the alley as he ushered Brainstorm inside before closing and locking the door.

~~~~~~~~~

Ultra Magnus, Rodimus, and Megatron stared at the scene unfolding before their optics at Swerve's bar. Everyone had gathered around this table in the middle of the room and they were shooting questions left and right at this new mysterious femme that none of them had seen before.

Rodimus blinked and rubbed his optics before taking another look like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. A sleek femme bot that had a black and lilac paint job, the yellow cockpit on her chest, wings sprouting from her back, and glasses close to Rung's own over her crimson optics. What Rodimus and others couldn't believe was the similarity.

"She is like a spitting image of liaison," Rodimus whispered, and Megatron and Ultra Magnus nodded beside him. The similarity was almost eery. Suddenly Brainstorm noticed the three mechs and excused him and the femme from the gawking Autobots and friends to bring her to captains and Ultra Magnus.

"Captains and Magnus, I would love to introduce Lunarwing to you!" Brainstorm cheered and pointed at you, "She would love to join our crew if that is okay with you captains!"

"Depends..!" Rodimus scowled and looked at her suspiciously. "Were you a Decepticon who had a change of Spark and are now looking for a meaning all around the universe?"

"Not as far as I can remember." You replied and the Autobots glanced at each other before looking at you again. "You don't know if you were Decepticon or Autobot?"

"Oh no, I remember being in war... I just can't recall my position..." You murmured but then you brightened up and wrapped your arms around Braintorm's arm. "But I remember Brainstorm and how he makes me feel safe!"

~~~~~~~~~

The flier followed the Decepticon into the dark halls until they came to an open space, filled with rows and rows of Cybertroanians' frames in comatose. Jack laughed and motioned the scientist to approach them. "You came for a living sex doll, didn't you? Well, here is my warehouse! Take a look if you want, they're all first-class frames!"

"So you said all these bots and cons are prisoners from the time during the war?" Brainstorm asked as he took in the frames frozen in time and tried one's servos. They showed no signs of being damaged or treated badly. They were as good as the day they were back then when they were shipped into front lines.

"Well, after my squad got there it became 'lost in war'." The con revealed and laughed, "They were captured by high ranking Decepticons and trusted my squad to take them to Grindcore. You know, the prison camp? Ever heard of it?"

How could he had not heard of it? It was the very same camp they took his beloved Quark to. Brainstorm grunted, memories of his beloved hunting him, just like memories of you did. The scientist nodded grimly. "I've heard of it."

"Honestly, I did these guys a favor! That camp was a deathtrap! Now they can live!"

"As someone's sex doll?" Brainstorm asked and glanced at the con. The violet mech shrugged and stopped smiling. "Life is tough. It doesn't matter if they are aware of it. Now, are you picking one or should I kick you out?"

There was a clear warning in the mech's tone that Brainstorm didn't miss. The flier shook his head and the con grinned again. "No harm, no foul. Pick one that pleases the optic most."

Brainstorm nodded and walked down the lines of war prisoners. He looked at each one carefully, but none were pleasing him as he would have liked to. Too tall, too small, too thin, too thick. Nothing pleased him enough to buy... Until he came upon this gorgeous femme's frame and when he looked at her face he saw you. The brilliant scientist blinked in shock and turned to look at the Decepticon selling the frames.

"How much is she?" He asked and the con chuckled. "Aah, the good old femme fatale. She costs 30 000 Shanix."

Just about how much Brainstorm had. The flier nodded and gave the seller a chip filled with the Shanix needed. The con checked the chip and nodded, pleased with the currency that switched owners. The purple mech flicked his hand and long needless that mnemosurgeons used to alter their patients' minds and more sprung out from the tips of his fingers. "Mind to give me info on what you want?"

Brainstorm nodded and picked up a little note that had everything he wanted from the shady Decepticon. The con took the note and read it over before giving hie looked at the scientist, "You seriously want your toy to have its own mind? They can go and fall for someone else than the master, aka you, if you let them wander."

"She." Brainstorm corrected the con with a weak glare, "And she has every right to do what she wants with the memories and personality I gave you."

"Okay," The con nodded and sank the needless into the back of the femme's neck, "Just so you know, it's your funeral."

~~~~~~~~~

The captains accepted Brainstorm's story about you, though alarmed but the scientist knew they had no evidence about his plans, both failed and successed. As soon as they left you two alone you looked at your lover with your bright crimson optics gleaming behind your glasses.

"Brainstorm..."

"Yes my beloved?"

"I don't remember much... But I feel like I've always known you." You confessed to Brainstorm and the scientist smiled behind his mask as he took your hands into his, "I know and I just want you to know that I love you also."

You smiled and leaned in to kiss his mask's edge before pulling back with an honest and loving smile. "I really do love you." You confessed and Brainstorm smiled.

Deep down the brilliant scientist knew that he had to let you go... Or, your memories of Earth and everything that happened at least. He did donate your personality to the comatose femme and make you love him once again but this time he wouldn't let anything or anyone come between you two. After all, this was all for the sake of love.

#transformers mtmte #mtmte #transformers #Brainstorm #reader #yandere #reader insert #rodimus #Rodimus Prime #ultra magnus #megatron #writing #my writing #story #my story

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beholdme · 4 years ago

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All the Many Shades of Gerry - Chapter 9

Chapters: 9/19

Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Gerard Keay/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist

Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Gerard Keay, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Gertrude Robinson, Elias Bouchard

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Library AU, Librarian Jon, Artist Gerry, Trans Male Character, Trans Martin Blackwood, Canon Asexual Character, Asexual Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Ace Subtype - Sex Positive, Polyamory, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Romantic Fluff, Falling In Love, Boys in Skirts, Kissing, Demisexual Gerard Keay, Minor Character Death, Past Character Death, Canon-Typical Child Neglect, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Flirting, Minor Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist/Tim Stoker, Adventures in Hair Dying, Happy Ending, Banter, Gerry has a lot of sass, Gerard Keay is Morticia Adams, Jon is a very grumpy Librarian, Martin adores them anyway.

Summary: In which Gerry is a kaleidoscope and Jon and Martin can’t help falling in love with him.

He happens to love them back.

Find it on Ao3

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

On a Tuesday in the middle of November, not long after Gerry's 28th birthday, the three of them eat dinner at Gerry's flat, as they often do these days. Jon cooks for them and after, Martin and Gerry wash the dishes and debate the book they both just finished reading.

Jon has been twitchy all evening, so they leave him to read his own book in peace.

He wanders in at one point, leaning against the counter. "Gerry, do you know what day it is?"

Gerry looks over at him in such a way as to indicate that he really doesn't.

"Our six-month anniversary?" He tries.

"No," Martin pipes up, "That's not for weeks yet."

Jon and Gerry both look at him askance. "What? Your boyfriend starts dating another man, you remember the date. I can't believe you two don't know." Martin says as if that about covers it.

"Nevermind that." Jon snaps, and even with his previous moodiness, the others are taken aback at his blunt words and even harsher tone.

"Something wrong, Jon?" Gerry asks quietly, leaning against the opposite counter to Jon and crossing his arms. His tone suggests what he actually wanted to say was 'Do we have a problem here, bitch?' but he manages to reign the actual words in.

"I want to know why you left without saying goodbye." Jon's words are filled with a multitude of frustrations, none of which are actually conveyed in his limited words.

"Yesterday?" Gerry asks, incredulous. "You were asleep!"

"No! Not yesterday." Jon snaps back. "When we were younger. It's been ten years today since you disappeared off the face of the planet."

"Oh," Gerry responds quietly, his defensive posture dropping. He leans his hands back on the table behind him, bringing his shoulders up around his ears. It’s a rare display of confident, edgy Gerry trying to shrink himself.

"I thought we were, you know. Together. Then one day you were just gone! As if you had never existed. Your mother wouldn't tell me anything at all, just sat there smirking at me, said that you were gone and she didn't know when you were coming back, or if you were ever coming back. Which you never did, actually." Jon has been pacing, his voice rising with each new word until the final words are shouted accusatorily into the space between them.

Gerry knew Jon had wanted to talk about this since the day he walked in the library and back into his life. He had waited, been patient, and Gerry had put it off in the hopes that he would never have to choke the words out. Now, that patience was obviously over, and he knew he owed Jon this explanation.

"We were together Jon. I loved you."

"So why? What did I do so wrong, that I got to wake up one day and find you gone ?" Jon's voice has become desperate, and they can all hear the tears that he is trying to hold back.

"Don't say that. You didn't do anything wrong. We weren't perfect, but we were always so good together. I... I had to get out of there. And I couldn't leave any clues behind, so I couldn't tell you anything, because it wouldn't have been safe for either of us." Gerry reaches towards Jon to soothe him, but he flinches away and Gerry doesn't pursue him.

"I don't understand." The tears have come, and Gerry desperately tries to hold back his own when he sees them.

Martin had up until that point been standing resolutely in the corner, trying not to interfere in their pre-Martin argument. At the advent of tears, Martin moves to stand at Jon's back, gripping his shoulder for comfort. Gerry looks bereft and Martin holds out a hand to get him to come closer as well. They huddle all together, both Jon and Gerry taking comfort in Martin's steadiness.

Gerry leans into Jon, sliding his hand around his neck and pressing their foreheads together. "I'm so sorry, love. I've never forgiven myself for just disappearing on you. I thought about you every day."

"I love you," Jon whispers as Martin rocks them both gently. "But I need to know."

"I love you too." Gerry shuts his eyes and wishes more than ever to erase his shitty legacy of pain and blood.

Martin drags them to bed and offers to leave them alone to their talk.

"Please stay," Gerry says, grasping his hand. "You both need to know, and I don't want to have to talk through this twice."

So they all pile into Gerry's bed together, sitting in a vague circle like teenagers at a slumber party.

As Gerry starts to talk, Martin drags him over toward him and begins braiding his dark blue hair. It's both an offer of physical comfort and affection (easily Gerry's main love language) and a simple way of letting him off the hook for eye contact.

With Jon staring at him quite intently, Martin doesn't think he needs any further pressure.

"Jon, you-" He starts and then halts abruptly. Jon reaches over and grasps his hand, attempting to further ground him. "You remember my mother. I know you saw how, how just off she was. Manipulative and controlling. By turns demanding and completely uninterested in me. One day I would be free to run wild for weeks at a time, the next she would have a meltdown if I wasn't exactly where she wanted me, every second of the day and night." Gerry blows a breath out, shuddering at the memory of a particularly bad incident with a vase that had left him needing several stitches over his left eye.

"Well, she wasn't always like that. I remember her being a pretty good mom when I was young, if distant. She was always far more interested in being a wife than a mother, and she loved the way my father adored her.

“When I was 7, my father was blinded in an accident at work. I remember the day the phone call came. She spoke very calmly to the hospital, before hanging up the phone and shattering every picture frame in the house." Martin is finished with Gerry's hair and simply leans into him, offering silent comfort. "He coped okay with his new disability actually, and I liked helping him learn the world again with no sight. My mother never recovered from her initial breakdown though. She was angry and petulant that she needed to help and support him for the first time in their entire relationship and became more and more unhinged over the course of a year.

"One day I came home from school to find a puddle of blood soaked into the floor of the living room. She said there had been an accident and my father wasn't coming back. She hit me for the first time when I cried. She told me that I was a man now, and tears were for useless girls and disgusting… Well, you get the picture."

Gerry pauses and glances between them. A few tears have started to run down his face, but he doesn't seem to even notice them.

"We moved a few days later, and that was all I ever knew about my father's death until I was eighteen, almost ten years later. I'll spare you the horrid details, but as I'm sure you've already guessed, she murdered him. She explained very, very graphically what she had done with the body, and that she would never be caught, no one would ever think to blame her, even if anyone could ever prove that he was dead at all."

The words hang heavy in the air between the three of them. Gerry feels the comfort of their touches, but can hardly stand the affection anymore. He gets up off the bed and goes to look out the bedroom window, arms crossed and posture hard.

"Then she looked me right in the eye. And she told me that was exactly what would happen to Jon if she ever caught me with him again."

Dead, cold silence fills the room.

Gerry turns back around to find them both watching him. "So, I packed whatever I could fit into my duffle bag, and I got the hell out of dodge. I ran. I ran because I couldn't close my eyes at night with seeing your face white and cold and covered in blood and," he breaks off and takes a shuddering breath, covering his eyes and sinking to his knees. "And I couldn't stand that she would hurt you because of me. That all your light and potential would be ripped away from you in blood and pain and nothing I felt for you could make even the risk of that worthwhile."

He lifts his head to look up at them, where they’ve moved to the side of the bed towards him. “And do you want to know what the worst part is, actually? I can’t get over the idea that even though I haven’t seen Mary Keay in 10 years, the ghost of her demons lives inside of me. That I'm really just… Her. That one day my mind will snap and I'll be a danger to you both and I'll be the one hurting you, just like she hurt him. And then I'll just be the same monster who has always haunted my dreams."

Martin and Jon exchange a heavy look. They can scarcely believe that Gerry had endured so much and yet is still… Gerry. Happy, flirtatious, loving Gerry. Gerry, who fills their lives with colour and spontaneity, always showing up when they least expected him, pushing himself into their gravity and asking for space in their lives.

Despite the rather violent nature of Gerry's confession, it doesn't change anything for either of them. Things are not yet settled between them, but they curl around Gerry on the floor and they cry together over shattered innocence and sacrificed futures, and Jon promises himself that he will never let Mary Keay come between him and Gerry ever again.

#the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #gerry keay #jongerrymartin #fic #also on ao3

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ollieofthebeholder · 4 years ago

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leaves too high to touch (roots too strong to fall): a TMA fanfic

Read from the beginning on Tumblr || Also on AO3

Chapter 48: Sasha

“Yes, of course. I’ll—I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Sasha disconnects the call and stares at her cell phone for a long moment. She’s worked at the Magnus Institute for almost seven years now, been in the Archives for almost two. She honestly thought she’d lost the ability to be afraid of anything the mundane world could dish up anymore.

But that phone call…

“You okay, Sash?” Melanie’s voice seems to be coming from a long distance away.

With difficulty, Sasha pulls herself together and looks up. It’s just the two of them in the Archives right now, since Martin and Tim are both at lunch; Melanie’s already taken hers, and Sasha will go as soon as one of the others gets back. She’s not really hungry anymore, though.

“I’m fine,” she lies, then stops. They’re trying, they’re all making the effort not to lie to one another or downplay when things are bad. Tim and Martin both know her well enough to call her on it when she does it, and they’re also connected to the Eye well enough to be able to at least get a sense when she does. Melanie doesn’t and isn’t, and it’s not fair to her to keep her in the dark. “It’s my uncle.”

Something in Melanie’s face shifts, and she half-closes her laptop. “Is he sick?”

“No—I don’t know. He just said he has something he needs to talk to me about in person. They’re making an exception for me to come see him today.” Sasha rubs her forehead. “That’s not normal, Mel.”

“O…kay,” Melanie says slowly. “You usually…can’t visit him whenever you want? What, is it a prison or something?”

Sasha winces, remembering that Melanie wasn’t part of the team when she told them. “Yes, actually. He’s in HMP Pentonville.”

Melanie covers her mouth with a hand. “Oh, God, Sasha, why didn’t you shut me up? My big mouth—”

“It’s fine. You didn’t know.” Sasha manages a smile. “But yeah. I don’t know what he’s in for, but if he wants to see me today, and they’re letting me…whatever’s going on can’t be good.”

“Can you, like—” Melanie wiggles her fingers in the universal gesture of mystical bullshit. “—Know what it is?”

“I mean…maybe? I’m trying really hard not to use that outside of…you know, work. I don’t want to risk falling too deeply into it, or—or hurting myself, or someone else.” Sasha sighs. “I think it might be too far away, though. Honestly, I think the only way to find out what’s going on is to go out there myself.”

“Go out where?”

The voice makes both Sasha and Melanie jump. She looks up quickly to see Martin coming towards them, a bag of leftovers dangling from one hand. He looks about like he’s looked since Jon left—tired, worried, and faintly stressed. “Martin, Jesus. Heard from Jon yet?”

“Yeah, did you not see the text?” Martin frowns at her slightly. “I thought he sent it to the group chat.”

Now that she thinks about it, Sasha remembers hearing a slight beep while she was on her phone call, but she didn’t think about it twice. She checks her phone and sees two new texts—one from Jon saying he was changing buses, one from Tim asking what he was changing them into. Rolling her eyes fondly, she sets it down. “No, I—I was on the phone. My uncle called. He wants to see me today.”

“Oh.” Martin’s expression is one of mingled sympathy and concern. “Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know. That’s what we were talking about. I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t want to…you know.” Sasha makes the same gesture Melanie made a few moments ago.

Martin nods in understanding. “Did you have anything time-sensitive you were doing today?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Then I don’t think Jon would mind you taking the rest of the day off. I know you won’t be able to get to Pentonville and back in the span of your lunch break, and this seems…kind of important.” Martin reaches over and squeezes Sasha’s hand gently. “Let us know if you need anything.”

Sasha smiles and squeezes back. “Thanks, Martin. I’ll keep you all posted.”

An hour later, she’s seated in a room at the prison, jiggling her foot nervously and waiting. It’s one of the small, private rooms usually set aside for attorneys to consult with their clients, which is unusual; normally she has to conduct her visits in a loud, noisy room with a Plexiglas divider between them. A private conversation, on a weekday, out of the clear blue sky? Either something has gone terribly wrong or she’s been lied to.

There’s a familiar whirring sound, and Sasha reaches into her pocket to pull out the tape recorder. She very most definitely did not have this with her when she left; she shut it in her desk drawer before heading out, and it hadn’t been in her pocket when they searched her. She hopes she won’t get in trouble for having it.

As the thought crosses her mind, the door opens and, with a clank of chains, a figure is escorted in. A gruff voice instructs her to buzz for help if there’s an issue, and then the door closes and leaves the two of them alone together.

There’s another clank as the man leans forward, smiling hopefully. “Sasha.”

Sasha smiles back, genuinely pleased but worried at the same time. “Hello, Uncle Wade.”

The family resemblance between them is obvious. Both of them have the same facial structure, the same shape to their eyes, the same skin tone. They’d looked enough alike once to switch places, when Sasha was eighteen and going through a phase and shaved her head. Now, though, after almost a decade in prison, Wade Copper looks old enough to be her father—gaunt, thin, his once-dark hair almost solid grey despite the fact that he’s only in his mid-forties. Every time she’s seen him, he’s tried to smile for her, tried to stay cheerful as he asks about her work, tried to convince her things aren’t so bad for him, but she knows. She can see the weight of imprisonment bearing him down.

Today, though, is different. Today his eyes are sparkling, his smile seems real, and he seems to be barely keeping something contained. She has no idea what it is, but it seems like he’s…excited.

Sudden panic strikes her, and she very quickly throws up those mental blocks Jon Prime has been teaching them. The absolute last thing she wants is to take the surprise away from the man who’s had so few to give her over the years.

“Is everything okay?” she asks instead. “You said we needed to talk and—”

“No, no, everything’s fine. Everything’s fine,” Wade assures her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t—I wasn’t trying to scare you. I just had some news for you. It could have—are you on your lunch break? Do we need to—”

“I took the afternoon off. My boss is out of town at the moment, so the three—well, the four of us, we’ve got a new coworker—we’re sort of running things ourselves. When the others found out you wanted to talk to me, they suggested I just call it a day. We’ve got all the time in the world.” Sasha smiles. “What’s going on?”

Wade’s smile broadens. “I’m coming home.”

It takes Sasha a second to process that, and then she sits up straighter. “You’re getting released?”

“I heard back from the parole board this morning. I didn’t tell you I was going up because I didn’t want to get your hopes up, but I had the hearing a few weeks ago. Today I got word that they’ve decided I’m a good candidate for release.”

“That’s—that’s wonderful!” Sasha says.

Wade’s smile slips, just a little. “You don’t sound so sure about that. What’s the matter, Puddle-Duck?”

It’s been forever and a day since he called her that—an old family nickname bestowed on her after her favorite bedtime story, the one she used to beg to be read over and over. She’d trailed after her Uncle Wade “like a little duckling” from the time she could walk, and the “duckling” nickname had eventually morphed into Puddle-Duck. He hasn’t used it since she was about twelve, though, and hearing it now almost makes her cry.

“Nothing,” she says, unconvincingly. “It’s just—there’s a lot going on. That’s all.”

“I won’t be an imposition,” Wade says earnestly. “I’ve managed to save up a bit while I’ve been in here from the work I’ve been doing in the prison library. I should be able to get a place. I won’t be in your way—”

“No, it’s not that at all!” Sasha feels horribly guilty. “I’d be happy to have you stay with me. Of course I would. I’ve got loads of space and—and I’ve missed you so much. It’s just that…”

It’s just that the world might end in a year if they can’t stop it. It’s just that she’s trying to figure out a way to pretend to stop a ritual that she knows won’t succeed even if they do nothing without letting the man who does have a ritual that will work know she knows it. It’s just that she’s developing incredibly invasive psychic powers and doesn’t know if she can live with another person who doesn’t know about it. It’s just that the world is objectively terrifying and she doesn’t know if she can lie about it to the only family she has left or let him believe he’s safe.

“It’s just that there’s been a lot going on in the world since you’ve been in here,” she finally says. “I—I worry that you might—that it might be a lot for you to adjust to.”

“Hey, I raised you, didn’t I?” Wade teases. “If I can handle losing my sister and my parents in one fell swoop, especially to…that, and then turn a six-year-old into a relatively functional adult despite barely having passed my A-levels when I started, I think I can handle anything the world thinks it can throw at me. Bring it on.”

Sasha’s whole body tingles. She clasps her hands together tightly to hide the shaking and focuses very hard on that mental block. There’s something there. A secret. A story. Something in the way he said that has the Eye’s attention and it wants to use her. She can’t let it, she can’t…

“Sasha? Sasha, what’s wrong? Are you—Christ, I’m sorry.” Wade reaches for her hands, manacles jangling, then grunts as the chain binding him to the table stops them halfway. “I shouldn’t have brought that up, I shouldn’t have—are you still having that nightmare?”

Sasha can’t help the slightly brittle laugh that escapes her lips. “I don’t have room for my own nightmares anymore, Uncle Wade. Especially ones in red-on-black binary.”

Wade frowns at her in evident confusion. “What do you mean? Who else’s nightmares would you have?”

Shit, Sasha thinks. “It’s a long story. And I don’t think you’d believe it.”

“It’s you, Sash. I’d believe you if you said the sky was green. Anyway, after what I’ve seen, trust me, there’s not much that’s unbelievable.”

Sasha looks hard at her uncle, then glances at the recorder, spinning away. She should have known. Should have realized that if it’s turning on, there’s something he’s seen. He’s been touched by one of the Fears. And she can’t—she can’t—

“It’s got to do with work,” she finally says. “Part of the Archive job—when I, when I listen to people tell me about something they’ve encountered or seen or, or done, if it’s something that really happened…I end up dreaming about it. I’ve only got a couple, but…it does mean I haven’t had any dreams of my own since I started doing that.”

Wade blinks at her. Softly, he says, “So it is real. I knew it.”

“What, the paranormal?”

“Not just that.” Wade hesitates. “I never—I never told you how I wound up here, did I?”

“No, just—you said it was something to do with you hacking into something you shouldn’t have,” Sasha says slowly. “You never explained.”

“Truthfully, I never fully understood it much beyond what I told you. I don’t even know exactly what I did hack into,” Wade says, a bit ruefully. “I suppose it was the culmination of a project, in a sense, but—it wasn’t intentional.”

“What do you mean?”

Wade takes a deep breath. “The short version? I was hunting a computer virus, trying to trace where it came from. I suppose the path led through something I shouldn’t have been looking at and I got arrested. It fell enough under the Official Secrets Act that they could justify locking me up for it. But I swear, Sash, just like I’ve been telling everyone for years, I wasn’t hacking for secrets. I was trying to save lives.”

“I believe you,” Sasha says, because she does. If there’s anyone in the world she trusts completely, it’s her uncle. And really, this is the most mundane thing she’s been asked to believe in ages. “I just don’t—I don’t understand how tracing a computer virus can save lives. Unless it was infecting hospital computers or something like that.”

“No, that would have made sense.” Wade sighs. “Computer viruses aren’t supposed to be able to infect humans, but…this one did. O-or something like that. I honestly don’t know how to explain it, but…well, if working at that institute of yours is giving you other people’s nightmares, maybe you’ll know better than I do.” He ponders for a moment. “That’s probably a big part of why I got locked up, honestly. I couldn’t explain why I was hunting the computer virus without sounding insane, so I didn’t try. I mean, what was I supposed to say? ‘Yes, Your Honor, I wasn’t even aware of what system I was in, I was just looking for the origin of a bit of coding that killed my entire family’?”

Sasha freezes. The static in her mind gets louder and more insistent. “I don’t understand,” she says with difficulty, rather afraid that she does. He’s right, computer viruses aren’t supposed to infect humans, so if one did…it must belong to one of the Fears. She just can’t imagine which one.

Wade hesitates. “I—I don’t—Sasha, Puddle-Duck, if you don’t—you don’t remember what happened, do you?”

“To Mum and Dad? No.” The doctor said it was to be expected; she was six years old at the time, and it had been a rough experience. She had blacked out most of it, and honestly a lot of her memories from before that point as well. She remembers huddling in a closet with her teddy bear clutched tightly to her chest, hearing her uncle screaming her name, clinging to him tightly after he found her, both of them sobbing as he promised over and over that he would protect her, that he would never leave her, but for the life of her, she can’t remember what she was hiding from. The nightmare she had for years, one that made her wake up screaming almost until she left for uni, hadn’t been specific. She just remembers strings of ones and zeros in constantly shifting columns, blood-red on a black background, scrolling past her vision, but something in the code is terrifying and wrong…

“I don’t want you to have those nightmares.” Wade reaches for her hands again, looking conflicted. “You deserve to know, but…but if your job means that if people tell you those stories, you’ll dream about them too—I’ve had to train myself out of waking up screaming. It’s bad. I don’t want to do that to you, too.”

“It’s not—it’s not exactly like that.” Sasha wonders how to phrase it, then decides, to hell with it. He says he’ll believe her. She might as well tell the truth. It’s not like they’re being recorded by anything other than the spooling tapes, and there aren’t exactly eyes around for Elias to watch through, as far as she knows. She takes her uncle’s hands. “There’s a being…a thing that thrives on fear. I mean, there are a lot of them, but there’s one in particular that lives off of the fear of—of knowledge and secrets being exposed and being watched and all that.”

Wade gives a bitter laugh. “It must love prisons then.”

“In fact, the Institute is built over the remains of the old Millbank Prison, probably right where Smirke was testing out the panopticon design. And that’s the thing. The Institute…kind of belongs to that being. Which means I do, too.” Sasha takes a deep breath. “Sometimes I can—I can tell secrets without trying. I’m not right now,” she adds hastily. “I’ve been working on not…accidentally reading people’s minds or whatever. But the other part of it is the statements. When people tell us their stories and we dream about them? We’re not taking the place of the person dreaming about them. We’re…watching, I guess. Observing. We’re just…there.” She squeezes Wade’s hands. “So if you tell me, Uncle Wade, and I do end up sharing your nightmares, maybe it’ll be better. Because then you won’t have to look at them alone.”

Wade stares at her for a long moment, then nods slowly. “Okay,” he whispers. “Okay. I’ll tell you. You need to know, anyway.”

Sasha smiles, as reassuringly as she can, and glances at the tape recorder. “Do you want to make this…official? I can do, um, I can do the whole spiel we do at the Institute. Put it on the record. We can do some research, maybe.”

“Will it help?”

“It might.”

“Then…okay. Lay it on me.”

Sasha puts the tape recorder between them and takes her uncle’s hands again. Clearly, she says, “Statement of Wade Copper, regarding a murderous computer virus. Recorded direct from subject, twenty-first March, 2017.” She nods at her uncle. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Wade swallows. “Right. Well, you know I’ve always been into computers. I loved coding and programming and seeing what I could do. One of my favorite things to code up were the games, especially interactive fiction. I subscribed to a couple magazines where people would publish the codes for games they’d developed, and I would put them in and play them. I owned a couple that I bought commercially, too. One of the ones I had that I was most excited about was The Hound of Shadows. The story sounded right up my alley—a proper creepy one—but it turned out to have one of the worst parsers I’ve ever seen, and I struggled to finish it. I was crushed.

“I was looking around for something that was like that but…better? Tried my hand at coding it myself, but you know me, I’ve never been all that at coming up with a story of my own. Did a couple reasonably decent games based on a few of the stories I liked, but it wasn’t the same. Around the time I was finishing up my A-levels, some classmates and I were talking about interactive fiction, and I was complaining about Hound. That’s when one of my mates told me about a game he’d recently come across. He said he couldn’t finish it because it was too scary for him, but he thought I’d like it. It was called The Conqueror Worm.”

As he talks, Wade’s eyes go vacant and his shoulders slack; it’s like the words are pouring out of him independent of his will. Sasha never takes her eyes off him. The story fills her the same way Basira’s did, the same way Tim and Martin’s tale of the Not-Them did, the same way that man with the dog’s story did last week. She’s just aware enough of the situation to feel guilty about it, but she can’t stop him now if she tries.

“I managed to get my hands on a copy,” Wade continues. “As soon as I’d finished my exams, but while I was still waiting for the results to come back, I loaded it up on our computer. My friend was right—it was exactly what I was looking for. Interactive fiction. According to the cover, it was ‘loosely’ based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem, which I’d never heard at that point, but if it was Poe I knew it’d be spooky. The story was wonderful, the parser was the best I’d ever seen. Sometimes it was like talking to a real person—like that one Sergey Ushanka bot you and I spent the evening with when you were eight, you remember?” Sasha nods. “Anyway, I was really into it. The idea was that you were the manager of a theater that was putting on a new play, but something was trying to sabotage it, something inhuman and unholy. Started off normal enough, got creepy right fast. I had this constant sense of creeping dread. I loved it.

“The weird thing about this one, though, was that every so often you’d start to do something and suddenly three pixels would turn red. Always three, two in one row and one in between them in the row immediately above or below, and then they’d switch places a few times before disappearing. At first I thought it was a glitch. Then I realized it was intentional, that it was something to do with commands. I finally figured out that if the pixels appeared, you’d done something right.

“I started tracking the commands and decisions that got the wiggling pixels to appear, then started doing them more. Better. Started getting two, three, four at a time. I was sure it meant I was going to win. By the time I got to ‘opening night’ of the play, I could generally make upwards of ten appear every time I made the right choices. The thing is that ‘opening night’ was the big climax of the game, and there was only one command you could type: ‘The Show Must Go On’. Once you typed that, the play started and you watched to see if you got it right. You wanted to see the ‘play’, but I knew it was a horror game, so I told you to let me watch it first, and if it wasn’t too scary, you and I would play on Saturday. You pretended to accept that, but I knew you were angry. I could hear you yelling halfway across the house. At the time, I kind of thought it was funny, actually.”

Sasha vaguely remembers this now. She was bitterly disappointed—Uncle Wade always let her “help” with his games—so she waited until she was out of the room, then stomped off to the living room where her parents and grandparents were playing a card game and loudly declared that he was the meanest meanie to ever mean. Her mother laughed and said he was always like that, and her grandfather swept her onto his lap and offered to let her be his partner, until…

“What happened then?” she asks.

Wade takes a deep, shuddering breath. “I typed in the command, and I watched. The ‘play’ started, and…there was a voice. Reciting a poem. I guess it was the Poe poem. The ‘actors’ were performing along to the words, but then I noticed the wiggling pixels. One by one, slowly at first, then more and more. They started in the corners, then gradually started moving inwards. But see, amid the mimic rout, a crawling shape intrude. While I was watching, the wiggling pixels crept in an ever-increasing wave towards the ‘stage.’ That’s when I realized it was all the ones I’d been rewarded with for making the right choices. The voice got louder and more desperate-sounding, and then the pixels—I finally realized they were supposed to be worms—swarmed the ‘actors’ and…the screen went red, and then it went black. All the while the voice was still talking. And then it was just the black screen, with the text in blood red, appearing as the voice spoke the words.”

He swallows hard. “I—I looked up the poem. Later. It’s a real poem, ‘The Conqueror Worm’. The plot does follow the…events of the final scene of the game, up to a point. It’s a play, and then a worm—or in the game’s case, many worms—shows up and eats all the actors. The last four lines are…chilling.” He closes his eyes and recites, “And the angels, all pallid and wan, / Uprising, unveiling, affirm / That the play is the tragedy ‘Man,’ / And its hero the Conqueror Worm.”

A chill runs up Sasha’s spine. “I know that poem. He used it in ‘Ligeia’.”

“Maybe. But what got me…what really spooked me at the time, was that the words on the screen weren’t…right. I didn’t know that at the time. I thought it odd. But the voice spoke them, exactly as they appeared on the screen. Instead of ‘The play is the tragedy “Man”’…it said, ‘The play is the tragedy “Guy Copper.”’ The voice even said Dad’s name. I remember thinking that was a creepy coincidence. And then…” Wade takes another deep breath, and there are tears in his eyes. “I heard a noise from another room, like someone shouting. I turned to look, and when I turned back, the words were changing, morphing almost. Computers didn’t work like that back then, Sash, the graphics weren’t—I know you know that. But it was like the name blurred. And then the voice said those four lines again, but with the new name. And the angels, all pallid and wan, / Uprising, unveiling, affirm / That the play is the tragedy ‘Mary Copper,’ / And its hero the Conqueror Worm.”

The memories are starting to come back. A red wash fills her mind, then the screaming, then her mother pushing her away…oh, God. “And the next name—the next name was ‘Marjorie James’?”

“Yes,” Wade whispers. “And that’s when the screaming started. I was screaming, too. I was—I was convinced it was the game, that it was—I kept hitting keys, backspacing over and over, typing EXIT and hitting the Escape key and—nothing worked. It shifted from Margie’s name to Hugh’s, and…I thought about how many worms had been on the screen, how many ‘successes’ I thought I’d had, and I was suddenly terrified. It started to change again, and I—I dove under the table and I pulled the plug. The sound died. The light died. The screaming stopped, all at once.

“I went running and—and I found them. Mum and Dad, Margie and Hugh, all sprawled around the card table. They were all dead. They were—they were full of worms, Sasha. Blood-red ones. I didn’t know if they’d been red before they…” Wade inhales shakily and looks away. The tears are rolling down his face now. “I called 999, I was trying to tell them what had happened, but—but then I realized I couldn’t find you. I shouted at the poor woman to hurry and I dropped the phone and went looking for you. I was terrified that I’d been too late…but there you were, hiding in my closet with your teddy bear. You had blood on your arms and chest, but you weren’t hurt, and I—oh, God, Sasha. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sasha whispers. “It’s not. I wish—I’m so sorry, Uncle Wade.”

They both cling to each other’s hands for a moment, crying silently. Finally, Wade takes a deep breath and frees one hand to wipe his eyes. “Anyway, that’s…I couldn’t really explain it to people when they showed up. Just that I’d heard screaming and…the worms were gone by then, but it was obvious. I told a few lies about how old I was and managed to get them to let me take care of you instead of putting you in a home, and for a while everything was fine. Then…just after you left for uni, I was debugging a computer for someone who’d downloaded a game off an FTP server and picked up some sort of virus. When I went into the code, I discovered a secondary virus underneath the main one and went to dig it out. I thought it was a dead-man switch of some kind—you know, remove the main virus, trigger the second one—so I was going to take that one out first. But then I realized it was just some metadata. I would have just deleted it without a second thought, except that I recognized the words. It was those same four lines, the last lines of ‘The Conqueror Worm’, except that it had a name I didn’t know as the name of the ‘play’.”

Another chill runs up Sasha’s spine. “You’re sure you didn’t know it?”

“I didn’t, but my client did. I asked him about it when I gave him his computer back, and he said it was his girlfriend’s name, she was out of town on a trip. I told him to give her a call, and he looked at me kind of funny, but said he would.” Wade sighs. “I looked her up a couple times. Two days later her obituary popped up.”

“You’re saying—”

“I’m saying that once is happenstance, twice is coincidence. But I kept my eyes open, and a few months later, I saw the words again. Different computer, different name, same results,” Wade tells her. “I started tracing it. It’s a—well, it’s a worm, in the truest sense of the word, but I was sure if I could trace its path, figure out where it came from, I could stop it from spreading. Seven or eight years ago, though, I…guess I went through something I wasn’t supposed to, got caught, and wound up here.” He sighs heavily and sits back, blinking. “And…that’s it. I still call it the Conqueror Worm, but…I couldn’t stop it. It’s still out there.”

“I don’t think you can stop it,” Sasha says slowly. Several things slot into place in her mind. When Tim looked at all of them and described the colors he saw on them, he’d mentioned that Sasha had the same sick yellow-green as Martin and Jon Prime faintly woven over her upper torso, but she had just assumed it was from her encounter with Timothy Hodge, the first night she met Michael. Now she realizes the mark he described is too big to be from a single worm, and that the Corruption marked her much more thoroughly than that. She might have to get Tim to take a look at the tape now that she’s made it, but…she’s pretty sure she’s right. “I think this thing came from—from one of the other fear beings. I’d have to look in the Archives to see if there’s a way to destroy it. There might be, I don’t know. But I do know that you wouldn’t have been able to destroy it on your own. Not without succumbing to the power that it fuels.”

“Sash.” Wade grips her hand tightly. “Are you in danger? If you…belong to one of these powers. Will it hurt you?”

“Maybe. Probably,” Sasha admits. “Someday. I don’t know. It’s—it’s all a bit complicated. I don’t know for sure.” She pauses and reconsiders. “I don’t think it will actively hurt me. But I don’t think it cares if I live or die, in the long run.”

Wade’s face was a study in fear and sorrow. “And it’s from working at the Magnus Institute,” he says. It’s not really a question. “You never would have done that if it wasn’t for me. I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t know about that,” Sasha says. “Maybe. Maybe not. My project with the EPCC was shutting down anyway, so I don’t know where I would have ended up, but the Magnus Institute was hiring. Maybe I wouldn’t have stayed as long as I did, maybe I’d have looked for another job outside of London eventually, but…honestly, Uncle Wade, as much as I’ve always loved snooping and ferreting out secrets? I think I would have ended up bound to it anyway. At least this way I kind of know what’s going on enough to mitigate the damage.”

Wade shakes his head slowly. “I just…don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t,” Sasha promises, even though she knows she can’t really promise that. But he’s all the family she has left, he gave up his future so that she could have one, and she’ll do anything she can to make sure she doesn’t waste that. “I’ll tell you everything when you come home. When will that be?”

“Two weeks. The first of April. Is that enough time for—I mean, will you be okay if I—”

“Yes,” Sasha interrupts him. “Of course. Tell me what you need and I’ll get it all set up.”

Wade smiles slowly, the hopeful look back in his eyes. He laces his fingers through hers and squeezes.

“We’ll be all right,” he tells her. “Family looks out for each other. I promise, Puddle-Duck, I will do anything I can to protect you.”

Sasha smiles back and returns the squeeze. She doesn’t tell her uncle that she’s grown up a little beyond his ability to protect her, or that she might need to be the one protecting him. Right about now, she really wants to let him wrap her in a blanket and a hug and promise her that everything will be all right again.

She might even let herself believe him.

#leaves too high to touch (roots too strong to fall)#ollie writes fanfic #tma #the magnus archives #Sasha James #gore tw #worms tw #prison tw #death tw #slight misuse of beholding powers

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the-gayest-tree-you-ever-did-see · 3 years ago

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most of my relatives in India aren’t aware donlile how grading or scores work here and don’t rlly care too much, so i’m safe there. they do like talking skit about my parents sometimes like in front of me??? (explain the thinking there lmao). they do have like higher expectations for me than my cousins and stuff which sucks.

ooh i didn’t know it’s got like a fifth book now?! i didn’t even know there was a sequel lmao- i guess it’s a big franchise! i haven’t even read the books, but i hope they end up together too 😌

absolutely screaming- that was me age 11 or 12. i swear all queer people start out as over enthusiastic allies. it wasn’t until BiG and then the pandemic forced me to come to terms with my identity. tbh i’m still not rlly there, but i’m advertising myself as queer so there’s that.

(get your emotionally unavailable queer desi here!)

ahhh the first book felt like i was reading malec fanfic! (also my favorite malec fanfic writer is lecrit- and she’s amazing). oh my god, they are the dnp of the shadow world. i guess that would make alec dan and phil would be magnus lmao. although a clumsy warlock would be a nightmare

when the were caught trying to hide the body in the car AHHHH or when the guy kept calling his girlfriend!!!! tbh best telugu movie i’ve seen in a while.

you can wear your rainbow tuxedo if and only if i can wear an equally hideous rainbow tutu- and the maga hat ofc (can’t have people getting ideas)

well, i was the one who started this whole wedding!!! *sets the venue on fire*

so... when’s the honeymoon?

ily tree

- indi <3

(also i’m currently rewatching phil’s video and freaking out AAHHHHH)

no exactly, they always try to make me hate my parents which is ??? first off, if only you knew buddy, i am Gay, and second, literally how does that help you? v confusing

yep, theres a fifth book!! its not out yet though, only the first four are out, but its really good and im really excited!! brynne is actually my favorite character so i want her to have a happy ending.

mhm 😌 i was SUCH an obnoxious ally and then i was like. hol up and panicked for a few years. tbh i honestly dont really know my identity either, i just know what im not, and that works for me. thats honestly why i just say im queer and dont really specify, bc i genuinely dont know, but luckily, at this point in life, i dont care either.

(PLEASE thats so fucking funny lmaooo. half off with a purchase of therapy!)

i actually... dont read malec fics 😔 idk why exactly, maybe i should? ill definitely look into lecrit though, theres definitely a lot of scenes i want to see malec in, idk why i havent read their fics before. i guess it just never even crossed my mind lmao, what even goes on up here?

really? i honestly feel like magnus would be dan and alec would be phil. i guess both personalities overlap a lot, so either work, but yeah <3 theres a dnp in every universe huh

i NEED to watch it again, i only vaguely remember it lmao. its super funny so that wont be hard, i just need to find time

thats quite an outfit indi, but only the weirdest for us *fond look* (ofc, we're the straightest people to exist)

IM THE ONE WHO... Who.... who..... what did i do??

idk when, but it'll be here:

its a toilet museum <3

ily too indi <3

(gods yes its Such A Video, 99% sure its gonna be a comfort video. stereos walked so post-stereo content could run 😌 king shits, both of them)

#this is littered with hearts indi i had to cut down on it but it means im in love with you #also i hope you know youre actually hilarious 😭✋🏽#asks #indiphannon #the tree speaks

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if-i-could-grow-wings · 4 years ago

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Best Quotes of 2020

For the past two years I've listed my favorite quotes of the year and I'm doing it again! Here is the best quote (or sometimes a few...) of each book I read this year, in the order I read the books.

1. "Ugh, human emotions were like barbed wire. There are just no safe way to grab hold of them or get through them." - The Tyrant's Tomb by Rick Riordan

2. "If I were a tree, I would have no reason to love a human." - The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

3. "While I'm gone, dream me the world. Something new for every night." - The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

4. "Honey, you're only twenty-five. You don't need to have it all figured out." - Roomies by Christina Lauren (note: I really felt this, especially being 25 at the time)

5. "Maybe it was good that the world forgot every lesson, every good and bad memory, every triumph and failure, all of it dying with each generation. Perhaps this cultural amnesia spared them all. Perhaps if they remembered everything, hope would die instead." - Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

6. "What a strange constellation they all were." / "If you can't be unafraid, be afraid and happy." / "I'm not asking him to stay. Only to come back." - The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

7. "It didn't seem right to me that his weakest self got to decide how my life was going to turn out, what my family was going to look like." / "Women will crush you, you know? I suppose everybody hurts everybody, but women always seem to get back up, you ever notice that? Women are always still standing." - Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

8. "In what universe is our compensation comparable? Because he's a man? Who knew a penis was worth so much?" - Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren

9. "Life is often simple, but you don’t notice how simple it was until it gets incredibly complicated" - The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

10. "Dreams are not the safest thing to build a life on." / "This wasn't living, it was just giving up while still breathing." - Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

11. "I don't want them to change me in there, turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not." - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (note: this was my 6th time reading the book)

12. "I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion." - Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (note: this was my 6th time reading the book)

13. "What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that." - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (note: this was my 6th time reading the book)

14. "I don't care if I'm called Prince or Starborn or the Chosen One or any of that. The only thing I want to be called right now is your brother. If you'll have me." - House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

15. "You’ve no right to starve people, to punish them for no reason. No right to take away their life and freedom. Those are things everyone is born with, and they’re not yours for the taking. Winning a war doesn’t give you that right. Having more weapons doesn’t give you that right. Being from the Capitol doesn’t give you that right. Nothing does." - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (note: I read this book twice back to back, first in Finnish and then in English)

16. "Just because it could be worse doesn't mean you don't get to acknowledge how much it sucks, you know." - You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

17. "Do not let those who cannot see the truth tell you who you are. You are the flame that cannot be put out. You are the star that cannot be lost. You are who you have always been, and that is enough and more than enough. Anyone who looks at you and sees darkness is blind." - Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare

18. "Sometimes a girl must make her own magic." / "I imagine it would be freeing to care only about oneself. Alas, I am not a man." - The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

19. "You raised me to fight monsters. It took me far too long to understand that the real monster was you." - Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

20. "I can't wait to forget what missing you feels like." - Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli

21. "As much as I hate him... I think I'm starting to like us." - The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

22. "You know every time I called you 'bestest' that I really meant 'sister', right?" / "It's hard to drown your sorrows when the little bastards can swim." - Truel1f3 by Jay Kristoff

23. “You survived the Raid. The guards. You survived the wrath of a king. You’re not a victim, Zélie. You’re a survivor! Stop running away!” - Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

24. "You don't have to act cool with me. I'm the person you don't ever have to act cool with." / "You remember what the note said when we found Max? 'Who could ever love it?' We could, Magnus. We could love him. We do love him." / "You're my heart, Magnus Bane. Stay unbroken, for me." - The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu (note: all from Alec "I-changed-the-world-for-the-love-of-my-life" Lightwood(-Bane), how is he like this? 🥺)

25. "Those who truly know us see the whole, never just a part." - Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

26. "I decided as long as I'm going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly." - Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer (note: I pretty much laughed through this whole book...)

27. "No one or nothing can deny you your dreams or your goals. They can try, but they have no right. Fight it. Put everything in the game and never let them put you down." - Samu Haber - Forever Yours by Tuomas Nyholm (note: I translated the quote myself from Finnish, I don't know if this has been translated to English yet? This was also the only non-fiction book of the bunch)

28. "To be human is to move forward, to adapt, to believe in your ability to make things better." - The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan

29. "Perhaps all the hatred in his heart was good for something after all." - How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black

Which one is your favorite? I have to say a love a lot of these, especially anything by Maghie Stiefvater and Cassandra Clare! Have a great reading year in 2021!

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greekgeek21 · 4 years ago

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Percy Jackson & The Avengers: Convergence - percy is taken by the men (women) in black

Ok, so by what I've been hearing,��there has been some confusion regarding the timeline, so here's the full explanation: figure it out for yourselves. My beta reader and I have already discussed this (MONTHS AGO IN FACT!) and we ultimately decided to not go into any specifics because it wasn't important to the story and the only thing you guys needed to know was that Percy and Annabeth were 18 now, and it's after the first Avengers movie and that Thor's not there. Got it? Ok, now to the real good stuff!

Thank you to all the people who have responded kindly to this story. Honestly, it made my day to find that I had already received 3 reviews on ff before it had even been out an hour. So, thanks so much guys.

THIS IS STILL CANON I JUST HAVEN'T HAD THE CHARACTERS MENTION MAGNUS CHASE OR THE KANES YET YOU MONGRELS!!! Ok. I think I covered everything. Stay safe and happy reading!

- your author

PS hopefully these will start to get shorter cuz I hate reading long A/Ns on other fanfics so I don't want to be THAT person.

Ω ♆ Ω

Knock Knock

"Come in, Hill," Fury said, already knowing it would be his second-in-command.

As she entered, Fury noticed a slight change in her attitude. It wasn't large, but it was noticeable to the experienced spy's eyes. It was almost- confusion? What could she have discovered that caused her to be confused?

"Sir, I found a possible suspect. He's...not what we expected," Hill told him, placing a file on his desk.

The file included a single piece of paper. A SINGLE PIECE OF PAPER!!! Who was this guy that could evade SHIELD's suspicion for so long? Surely, someone smart. Very smart.

"What do you mean, Hill?" he asked, picking up the paper.

The woman in question cleared her throat before responding, "See for yourself. He's just a kid."

Not displaying any surprise, though there was some going through his head, Fury read the information on the sheet:

Name: PERSEUS "PERCY" JACKSON

Gender: MALE

Age/DOB: 18; AUGUST 18, 1993

Status: ALIVE

Last Known Location: MANHATTAN, NY

Place of Birth: MANHATTAN, NY

Race: CAUCASIAN

Height: 6'1"

Hair: BLACK

Eyes: GREEN

Disabilities: DYSLEXIA, ADHD

Family: Sally Blofis (Formerly Jackson), Mother - ALIVE

Paul Blofis, Step Father - ALIVE

Estelle Blofis, Maternal Half Sister - ALIVE

Gabe Ugliano, Step Father - MISSING

BIOLOGICAL FATHER UNKNOWN

Education: GOODE HIGH SCHOOL - EXPELLED

YANCY ACADEMY - EXPELLED

...6 OTHER EXPULSIONS

Abilities/Weapons: CLASSIFIED

Other Info: Was involved in a nation-wide manhunt at 12 years old; Pushed class into shark tank; Blew up school bus with colonial cannon; Flooded an Aquarium; Seen traveling Greece with six other teens after missing three months of school (wasn't reported missing by parents);Suspected abilities; Was seen at Brooklyn Bridge explosion

Fury sighed. Just great. Another troublemaker to give him a headache. And what was with the Classified stamp? Nothing is classified to the director of the company who created the file, so why was this?

Deciding to put it off for further thought, and steeling himself over again, Fury gave his orders to Agent Hill, "Find him. Bring him in for questioning. Don't make a scene."

They were simple orders in themselves, but Fury knew better than to expect everything to go smoothly. Any second grader could figure out that Perseus Jackson was not one to do things smoothly. Hell, it would be a miracle if they even got the chance to talk to the kid before he did some crazy stunt that would most likely get someone hurt. That's just how Fury's luck was.

"Understood, sir. I'll let you know when we have him in custody," Hill answered before briskly striding out the office door.

Fury sighed once she was gone, running a hand over his face. With nobody watching, he could truly let the stress on the inside seep into the outside. It wasn't just this one case either, there had been a couple other bombings popping up around the US, and they weren't any closer to finding the source. All they knew about them was that they were connected and that they were seemingly random attacks. Add finding Jackson to the mix and his mind was about ready to implode.

But unfortunately, the director of SHIELD didn't have time for breaks, so he went back to work on the multitude of information residing on his desk.

Ω ♆ Ω

Percy and Annabeth were back at home, which was currently the Blofis apartment, and they were enjoying every minute of it. With his sister Estelle around, there was always something to do. Percy absolutely adored his sister. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her. Just another side effect of his fatal flaw.

He hadn't told his mother or Paul what had happened during their trip, not wanting to worry them, but he had given Annabeth the simple explanation when he got back. He made sure to stress that he had been discreet, so she had eventually given up the interrogation. That's why it was such a surprise when they were sent a visitor not a week later.

When it happened, Percy was playing with Estelle in the living room while Annabeth studied in their room. Even though she had graduated from high school early, and they weren't due to start at New Rome University for several months, she insisted on keeping up with her studies. He, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less about school. The only reason he was going to college was so he could stay near Annabeth.

Sally was cooking lunch in the kitchen, and Paul was at work. There wasn't much the man could do for the case of Percy's expulsion from Goode, but he still worked there as an English teacher. And Percy used the powers of being a savior of Olympus to get a diploma for himself from the gods anyway. Annabeth still made him study sometimes, but he figured it was the least he could do after practically giving his girlfriend a heart attack when he announced he wasn't planning on finishing mortal high school.

Just as he was about to let Estelle win their game of cars, there was a knock at the door. Since his mother was closer to it, Percy didn't feel the need to interrupt his playtime with his baby sister. A year ago, Percy would have bolted to the door to make sure it wasn't a monster, but ever since the end of the Giant War, monsters tended to steer clear of the smell of the sea. Besides Kelli, of course. She was a perpetual nuisance for Percy.

And just as he was about to make his car lose, his mother called him, "Percy! There's someone at the door for you."

He was immediately on alert. The way his mom's voice sounded made it seem like she was trying to warn him, so his mind went straight down monster lane. Gripping Riptide in his pocket, Percy made his way to the front door, trying to act casual, but his muscles were tensed for battle.

"Coming, Mom!" he answered.

What he found was certainly not what he was expecting. Sure, it wouldn't have been a surprise to find that it wasn't obviously a monster, but his eyes weren't completely masked by the Mist. He could still tell when in the presence of something related to the divine, and he most-certainly was not in that moment.

As he got to the door, he noticed that his mom had positioned her body to block the entrance to the apartment. So not a monster, but possibly a threat, he concluded.

"Who's this?" he asked his mom, taking her place in front of the doorway.

"I'm Agent Hill with the FBI, and I have a few questions to ask. Would it be alright if we stepped inside?" the woman introduced herself, flashing a badge.

Percy wished he could have checked the badge's authentication, but his dyslexia prohibited that. He did his best to keep a cool persona as he acted like he could actually read what was on the badge. Given that his mother hadn't made any protests, he passed it off as good enough.

He narrowed his eyes at the agent, assessing her threat level quickly before deciding that saying 'no' would cause more trouble than saying 'yes' and answering with a simple, "Sure."

He and his mom backed away and let the women enter before shutting the door behind them. As the woman walked inside, Percy and his mom shared a silent conversation. He told her to take Estelle to her room and stay with her after alerting Annabeth of their visitor. He was sure that his girlfriend had already figured it out, but better to be safe than sorry.

"Take a seat. Do you want anything to drink?" Percy gestured to the kitchen table and went to grab glasses out of the cupboard.

The woman took a seat before saying, "Some water would be great, thank you."

Percy mentally noted that the woman was keeping a professional front while trying to still be friendly.

After he had gotten the water and sat himself down across from Agent Hill, he said, "You said you wanted to ask some questions. I'm not sure why, though. I haven't done anything."

Hill took a sip of her water before responding, "Well, we are just going over some of our older files and wanted to fill in some blanks on yours. For instance, where were you when you disappeared? We have a record saying you were spotted in Greece."

Percy had been prepared for this question. Annabeth had ingrained it in his head after he had run into his old swim team and had fumbled over an answer. After that, Annabeth had come up with a whole explanation for what seemed like every possible question out there.

So, he quickly answered, "I was with my dad."

He had been told that it was best to answer with short sentences. That way there was less room for confusion. Honestly, he was surprising himself with the calmness he exhibited. Annabeth had suspected he would end up needing her to rescue him if the need for these explanations ever arose.

"I thought you didn't know who your dad was," Hill countered smoothly, gaze becoming almost snake-like.

"We recently connected. He lives in Greece," Percy said.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could make out some blond curls peeking out from the edge of the hallway leading to the bedrooms. His mind let out a sigh at the knowledge that his Wise Girl was here to save him from whatever inevitable mistake he made.

"Ok, then could you please inform me of his name?" Hill asked, "And then maybe we could travel somewhere more private for the rest of my questions."

She could tell that they were being spied on, then. That seemed like a little above the average skill-level of an FBI agent to Percy, but he was just basing his thoughts off of movies, so he wasn't too sure.

Whatever the case, there was no way that he was going to go anywhere with Agent Hill. Here at home, he was on his turf. Wherever he was taken would be unknown territory, and it was common sense to not go into there.

Trying to dodge the name question, he said, "I'm not going anywhere with you without a warrant. I have rights, you know."

He was just saying what sounded right. Honestly, he had slept through US History. He barely knew who the first president was, let alone his constitutional rights.

"Those are irrelevant with probable cause, and we're only going to ask some more questions. I promise that if you come calmly, there will be no record of it anywhere," Hill said, standing up and brushing off invisible dirt from her clothes.

Percy thought about it, he really did...for a whole three seconds. I mean, what would one expect from the most irrational person on the planet?

"Yeah...sorry but I'm not going anywhere with you, especially not calmly," he said, standing up and reaching into his pocket again.

Even though he knew that the Agent was a mortal, and that Riptide would be useless in a fight against her, he still had an instinct to go for his most-trusted weapon when endangered. And in the moment, he felt extremely endangered.

Hill seemed to be trying to inconspicuously reach for her gun, but he saw it. His ADHD had kicked into overdrive, and he was noticing every little movement the woman made. ADHD could come in handy sometimes.

"Mr. Jackson, I highly suggest you stand down and let me take you in. I don't want this to get messy," Hill said smoothly, holding a hand out in a placating gesture.

"Too bad everything I do gets messy," Percy said, trying to simply swipe Agent Hill's legs out from under her, but she jumped over it and threw a punch to his temple, which is swiftly dodged.

Percy may have been taught to never hit girls when he was younger, but when he became a demigod, he learned that a threat could come from anywhere, and more often than not, it came from the female gender (or something resembling a female).

His signature troublemaker smirk made its way onto his face when he realized that this fight was actually something he had to work for. He wasn't arrogant persay, but he knew what he had defeated before, and a simple mortal isn't usually a comparison to them. But he knew better than to underestimate any opponent. Annabeth taught him that one. Speaking of Annabeth, she was still hiding behind the wall, probably waiting until the prime moment to strike. Always the strategist!

Hill and Percy's fight become a fluid motion. Sometimes they got a hit in, but most of the time it was a game of defend and retaliate. Nobody had the upper hand...yet.

Percy may be better at swordsmanship, but it wasn't like he was completely ignorant to hand-to-hand combat. He knew some stuff, including how to feint and attack. Blame Luke for that one.

So, Percy used the technique. He wasn't actually expecting it to work, considering the obvious skill level of the agent he was fighting, but maybe a simple trick was just the thing he needed to knock her off her game. Even so, when he feinted a punch to her temple, just to pull back and knee her in the stomach, he didn't stop in shock. He let his adrenaline guide him into pulling the woman into a headlock that even Tyson, with all his cyclops strength, would have trouble getting out of.

Hill pulled at his arm a couple times before giving up on that strategy and trying another one: talking, "You know, Perseus, this little display makes it really hard for me to believe you're innocent. In case you haven't noticed, you're holding a federal agent in a headlock."

Percy grip barely loosened, but his determination to defy the agent's questions lessened. She was right. What makes her think that he's one of the good guys if he fought another one of them? Nothing, that's what. Because of this, he let out a large sigh, making eye contact with Annabeth (who's eyes widened in realization and shock), and released Agent Hill. He knew that she had manipulated her, but he also knew that what she had said was true.

As soon as Hill was out of his hold, she turned around while simultaneously pulling her gun out and pointing it at Percy, chest heaving for breath, "Don't move! Get on your knees and put your hands behind your head."

Percy complied, but he could see Annabeth finally slipping into the light, ready to fight off the woman arresting her boyfriend. He met her eyes and tried to convey his thoughts, but she ignored him, instead opting to go ballistic on Agent Hill.

"What do you think you're doing?! Let him go!" she yelled and grabbed Percy as Hill cuffed Percy with some seriously high-tech handcuffs and tried to pull him to his feet.

Hill kept a steel face as she shoved Percy towards the door, "He assaulted a federal agent. I have probable cause."

All of the noise had pulled Sally out of her hiding spot in her daughter's room. Once she saw what was happening, she joined Annabeth in protest. Percy just really wanted them to let it happen. Better it be him than anyone else.

"Mom, Annabeth, let me go. I'll be fine, I promise." Percy said, eyes pleading as they reached the front door.

Annabeth scoffed, eyebrows furrowing, "Like that means anything!"

"Mom, let me go. I'll be fine," After saying that to his mother, Percy turned to Annabeth, "Tell my cousins what's going on. They can help."

He prayed that she understood what he was trying to say. He wanted her to tell their demigod friend's what happened to him, and then they could help her with whatever plan she comes up with. Knowing Annabeth, she already had a plan, though, so there was no doubt in his mind that she had understood what he was insinuating.

Annabeth hesitated before giving him a curt nod. Hill took that as her signal to tug him out the door, but before he was completely gone, Annabeth grabbed his face in her hands and gave him a kiss. They were deepening it as the Agent once again pulled him away. Annabeth and his mom's worried faces followed him until he was inside the elevator, heading down to the lobby.

On the ride down, his entire body tensed up as flashbacks from the Doors of Death shot through his mind. Usually, he could push them away when Annabeth was there with him, but the stress of the previous hour was weighing on his mind, so it became difficult. Hill seemed to think that he was going to try to resist again, so she pulled out her gun again, aiming at his side. For the first time, Percy noticed that the gun looked a little odd; it was glowing blue. Then, before he could react, Hill pulled the trigger and the last thing Percy saw before he blacked out was blue liquid seeping out of his side.

Ω ♆ Ω

How was it? Let me know in the comments! As always, like, follow, and reblog pls!! Thank you to my amazing beta reader, nightskywithrainbows on Ao3! This would suck without you! Go check out their writing!

- your author

other chapters :)

#pjo #heroes of olympus #the avengers #mcu #percy jackson and the olympians #fanfic #writing #superheroes #team up #I don't know what other tags to put so here is a super long one

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fictionalrambles · 5 years ago

Text

Shadowhunters Fandom Story - Part Nine

Submitted by Mary Kate

Sanctuary by @sfjessii

Why I love this story:

If i have a bad day, i download this, log off and escape into this wonderful world. This is my comfort fic. I adored the way Magnus and Alec had this instant connection. Never too shy to tell the other how beautiful they are, and described so beautifully. Nala, Alec’s dog was such a vital part of this story, i really loved the way the animals were involved, especially the way Nala and Chairman Meow turned into these wonderful characters of theor own. Nala's bond with Alec was beautiful, how she reacted to his feelings, and was a support for him. This story has little bit of everything, fluff, pining, loving, makes your heart burst with love. We had Magnus' family welcoming Alec, then Alec's also welcoming Magnus! Domestic moments, mornings together at the loft, cuddling, making risotto - What’s not to love.

Favourite lines:

[“You buy pumpkins, all kinds, from me, though you’re allergic, you run after me in slippers, you are... really special.” He grins so wonderfully, Magnus can’t but smile, his cheeks suddenly heating up.]

[Magnus adores the way Alec kisses him after a long day. As if he had missed him every minute he was gone, as if he can only wholly breathe, and be at ease, once he’s with him again, as if Magnus is the reason for his happiness, his sanctuary].

[“It’s not to prove our love, or anything like that. You’re right, we don’t need that, and this won’t change anything, except that this is a once in lifetime experience - well, for us anyway - and I want to have that with you, because you’re the one, the only one, and I... really want to see that glorious wedding you planned, and you outshining everyone in your wedding tux when you bawl your eyes out," he smiles, close to tears, and takes a shuddery breath. "But most of all I want to call you my husband].

In the Sin Bin by @otppurefuckingmagic

Why I love this story:

This fic was my introduction to hockey, i knew absolutely nothing about the sport before this and you really don’t need to, because it’s so well explained in the story. I love the torture of the slow burn before Malec’s first kiss, it was so intense as there was so much anticipation and neither wanted to cross a line but also really knowing that it would eventually happen. Some of the lines in here are absolutely beautiful, and also painfully beautiful like their break-up because the break-up was because the loved the other so much they were trying to protect them which made it even harder and makes it so easy to get lost in this work. There are so many character developments here too but they happen over a period of time and not rushed which i liked and made it feel real and natural. And our protangonists work things out but there are many twist and turns along the way, and a beautiful friendship between Magnus and Max.

Favourite lines:

[“This is crossing another line, Magnus"

"I don't even know what a line is"]

[You know,” Max called out as he approached Magnus, “it’s a pretty well established superstition that if you sit on the Raziel statue that you’re doomed to an eternity of forced abstinence.”

Magnus practically flew off the base of the statue in front of the Angels’ arena at Max’s words].

[Because there’s someone I’m involved with and I can’t deny his importance in my life—no matter what the consequences are. The blackmail, my parents.... I can let all of that shit go on the ice if he’s at my side. He and hockey are the most important things to me right now. I’m fighting for my pride as a gay man and an Angel, Coach. It’s not an either-or scenario for me—it’s both.”]

Power Play by @bbmonarch

Why I love this story:

I had originally seen Art for this story on twitter and i was so intrigued that i had to read the story. The content in this story is heavy and at times quite dark and normally content i hide away from but this one i just couldnt stay away, it’s just so well written with complex yet well-rounded characters & i when i started reading it, i couldn’t put it down, there are two parts to this and i read it all as one and have a sob-fest. But amongst all the darkness there is enough happy/fluffy moments to keep a balance to the story and the deep love that Magnus and Alec have in this universe is one of the strongest i have seen in any other story, part of what drew me to it and why i love it so much. Another thing i liked is the friendship between Jace and Magnus and that is something i always love in a story, like when Jace was there to look after Magnus, making sure he got back back safe and took care of Magnus so he was there and well when Alec woke up in a certain scene. We get loads of fluffy moments and cute when it was just them, the normally fearsome Alec a blushing mess when Magnus calls him everything from, pup, puppy, munchkin etc. Lastly i loved the way they cared/looked after each other when they were hurt/sick and magnus looking after Alec when he went off the rails and helping him through his addiction was amazingly sweet, even when they had broken up at the time summed them up to me.

Favourite lines:

[Magnus smiled and looked down to where Alec was ripping the label into small pieces “Sexually frustrated?” Alec snapped out of his thoughts and stiffened in his seat, Magnus laughed softly “It’s what they say you are if you play with the labels on your bottles”. “I don’t.. I didn’t know” Alec said and pushed the bottle away. “You didn’t know that what it meant or you don’t know if you are sexually frustrated?”]

[“I love your eyes” He let out before he had a chance to think about what he was actually saying. “Thank you”. Alec could see in his eyes that he was smiling, not needing to take his focus away from them. “Do you wear contact lenses or something?” he asked and tipped his head slightly to the side, shivering a little as Magnus hand moved around to the back of his neck and his fingers played with the shorter hairs, like he was trying to twirl it around his fingertips. “No” Magnus was still smiling “I am just a little special”]

[‘Magnus’s eyes were filled with love as he cupped his face, leaned down over him and kissing away his tears. Closing his eyes, Alec felt Magnus’ lips against his eyelids so softly it was barely a kiss. Alec moved his hands to rest against Magnus’ knees, feel his own heartbeat echo off Magnus’ palms as Magnus pressed his hands against his chest.”]

[Alec reached for his hand and brought it up to his face and gently places a kiss against the back of it. “I love you just the same. There may be a little bit less of you but that just means the left-over love I have is spread out equally amongst the rest of you” he said, sounding adorably cheesy.

“I can’t with you” Magnus laughed, feeling better about himself than he had in a long time, maybe even before everything with Jonathan happened. “I love you so much, puppy”. Seeing Alec’s eyes light up at the nickname, Magnus regretted not using it more frequently].

Love Is Not a Victory March by j__writes and @lecrit

Why I love this story:

Tried hard to choose my fave stories for this TOP 5 Favourite's and these two writer have some amazing ones and were so difficult to choose from. I planned to have 'Bright Light's Small Town' and 'Take Me To Church' but this collab had such a huge effect that i couldn’t possibly leave it out. Honestly, one of the most beautiful, deep, meaningful stories I ever read about Alec and Magnus because the raw content and these two writers are hard-hitters when it comes to writing angst. Watching these characters pour their hearts out, falling apart, nearly breaking up and divorcing and then realizing their love was stronger than any of it and starting from scratch, building themselves up again, such an amazing thing to see and also is so very real-life. So many things (and people) had got in their way but they finally managed to communicate and begin again. Watching them fall in love all over again was such a pleasure and so beautifully written.

Favourite lines:

[He wonders how he could have ever forgotten how it felt to fall in love with the wonder and light that is Magnus Bane. He can’t believe he ever let Magnus spend so many days in sadness. That he was the cause of that sadness. There’s so much he needs to make right]

[“There is the rawness of an open wound in their cries, their embrace certainly the only thing keeping them from completely falling apart. The distance between has been washed away,”]

[There is nothing left but the blunt honesty on his features, the same that always leads one of Alec’s earth-shattering declarations. He never seems to realize how the words he utters so candidly can throw Magnus’ whole world off balance while at the same time grounding him to the reality of Alec’s love for him. It is, quite possibly, Magnus’ favorite feeling. “Every time I think I can’t possibly love you more you just–” he shakes his head with a sense of fatality that he seems to welcome gratefully, “– God, I love you so much.”]

[‘Carefully, he disentangles her fingers from the chain, pressing a quick kiss against her tiny hands. When he is done, he slips the necklaces off his neck and tucks them away in the top drawer, smiling down at her.]

[Three years ago, Magnus had a grim, morose thought that perhaps it had been the universe’s way of telling him that this isn’t what he should have, that this life he had dreamed of was but a dream, meant to remain unreachable like the stars. He has to believe now, no matter how foolish, that there is a star out there, far away from his reach perhaps but forever embedded in his heart, that is looking over him, over them. He hopes she can feel it, the love he had for her, and he hopes she will forgive him, for failing to protect her.]

Set Me in Motion by lemonoclefox

Why I love this story:

Such a wonderful story. It’s different from the others i have listed as in this story, we start off with Alec having a boyfriend before anything happened between him and Magnus but its made very clear that this relationship is at times very one-sided and that this Raj is not the right person for Alec and he didn’t seem to have any interest in Alec’s life outside their relationship and hadn’t even met his family. The relationship with Alec and Magnus was so natural, realistic and mature, it was obvious from the start they had chemistry but with Alec in a relationship, nothing was ever going to happen between them and they had this lovely charming friendship. And which moved forward after the break-up primarily thorough Alec looking after Magnus and making sure he was eating when he was working too hard, how sweet is that? The communication between the two is something i really love about this too and you always get the impression they’re both on the same page. There’s wonderful fun and humour between the two and even on the business side, in their jobs , they are each other’s biggest supporter, lastly the story has another thing i love in fic, a friendship between Magnus and Jace.

Favourite lines:

[‘You don't have to sit here and wait for him," he remembers Magnus saying, that first night theytalked. "And if that's what he expects, he's probably not worth it, they never are."]

[“In more ways than one. Even when other stuff was a mess, being with you always just..."He tries to find the words, shakes his head, and Magnus finds the words for him "Made sense," he suggests gently. He turns his head, and he and Alec just gaze at each other for a few moments, the two of them suspended in time].

[I like you," Jace proclaims loudly, throwing his arm over Magnus's shoulders as they end up sitting next to each other in the far back, once the car starts moving. Magnus is squeezed in between him and Alec, and Alec is just gazing happily at his brother and his boyfriend, a drunk smile on his face. "I mean, you're a bit―" Jace gestures exaggeratedly with his hand. "But it's all good. You're alright”]

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfiction blog

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nctasja · 4 years ago

Photo

introducing.... THE ICELANDIC ROYAL FAMILY

Geraint Win Davies as King Magnus Karlsson (b. 1957)

Carole Bouquet as Queen Consort Ros Petursdottir (1960 - 1995)

MAGNUS KARLSSON is the eldest of a set of brothers, born just four years before egills. he was relentlessly prepared from a very young age for his life as a future monarch of iceland. his childhood was filled with training, instilling in him a sense of duty that would prevail above all else. when it came to what he wanted: he could never show who he truly was or admit what he needed, while his younger brother was allowed all the freedoms he was never given. they grew into enemies, eventually, and the two brothers would never reconcile before egills’ death in 2010. once, magnus was a man who never allowed himself anything, all in the same of duty. that all changed somewhere down the line.

if there was one thing he allowed himself, it was affairs. women were easy to find, easy to waste his time with. he met ROS PETURSDOTTIR in reyjavik, just outside the palace grounds. she was the first person who he had the urge to spend time with, to chase. and so he married her, as quickly as he could. it wasn’t difficult, ros’ already well-off family singing his praises as the future king and magnus throwing his considerable wealth around to try and convince her. she was headstrong, yet still kind. the exact kind of woman you wanted to sit on the throne.and things were well enough for a while, the two liked each other, but the love that you want in a marriage was never truly there, no matter how much they pretended.

even if he’d found the perfect queen, the desire for her faded as quickly as it did for the others. by the time natasja was born, ros and magnus were not even on speaking terms, and they rarely shared a room. she always knew, somewhere deep inside, that there was someone else. someone not fit to be queen but fit to be the one who held magnus’ affections. ros stayed because she adored her children, and she protected natasja to her last breath, bracing the four year old princess from impact in a car accident. magnus played the part of the grieving husband in the public, but aleksander watched his father turn it on and off at will, and his image of the king was irreparably shattered when he was very small.

Kit Harington as Crown Prince Aleksander Magnusson (b. 1988)

Alicia Vikander as Princess Natasja Magnusdottir (b. 1991)

ALEKSANDER MAGNUSSON was their perfect miracle, the child they’d tried for since the moment they were married. and perfect he was, a little boy to carry his father’s name and keep iceland safe from all enemies. and while he was a perfect prince for the photographers when he was a child, he grew into a person that magnus could never hope to control. maybe magnus saw a little too much of himself in aleks, gave him a bit too much room to grow into his own person. whereas magnus had been molded into the perfect child, he’d accidentally created his own worst nightmare in aleksander, and there was only one way to make up for it.

NATASJA MAGNUSDOTTIR wasn’t so much of a miracle as she was their saving grace. when she was young, she was easily manipulated, easy to make into exactly the image that magnus wanted in a princess. ros hated the idea, but she was gone before the plan truly came to fruition. natasja grew up in the shadow of her mother and under the thumb of her father, never allowed to have her own opinions or feelings before she moved off to boarding school. her entire life had a point: she was meant to be the best iceland had to offer. but there was a downside: she’d only meet her potential through a marriage. a childhood betrothal that failed led to a string of engagements that made her famous. and when worst came to worst, natasja finally decided to flip the script and be her own kind of princess.

the two siblings have a relationship based on competition. every moment of their life was a race to see who could do things first, do them better, make a bigger scene. while they like to pretend they’ve grown up, the two of them still bicker like children constantly. deep down, though, it all comes from a place of love. from the moment aleksander announced he didn’t actually want the throne, they have both mellowed out considerably, especially now that natasja will do anything to keep her half-sister out of the family’s affairs.

Jodie Foster as Queen Consort Kristin Bjornsdottir (b. 1963)

Brie Larson as Duchess Talia Kristinsdottir of Kopavogur (b. 1991)

magnus met KRISTIN BJORNSDOTTIR two years into his marriage. he only wished he’d met her first before ros. but that hope passed when he realized they never would have been allowed to marry. still, they fell deeply in love. she wasn’t fit for rule, no matter how much he loved her. his people never would have approved of him marrying a random woman from eskifjörður, a fisherman’s daughter without anything to her name. no, ros was perfect for being the queen, but kristin was perfect for magnus himself. it was a real love, not like the fleeting love he felt for ros, or the relief he felt when she gave him a son. but things went downhill faster than he’d expected. when kristin told him she was pregnant after a visit to the north, magnus panicked and disappeared from her life.

TALIA KRISTINSDOTTIR was born in reykjavik, just ten days before natasja would be born in the same hospital. magnus didn’t know until after the fact, was never involved in talia’s upbringing. talia grew into everything natasja wasn’t allowed to be: a free spirit, someone who chased happiness more than anything else. and she never knew that royal blood was in her veins, had no idea that she was different from the other kids in her neighborhood. she thought the idea of royalty was vain, even a little stupid in the modern age. when she turned five, magnus began to pay for them to live comfortably in kopavogur, but that was the extent of their contact until talia was nineteen.

with aleksander and natasja out of the palace, magnus felt like he could reconcile with kristin. he still kept it as quiet as possible, but he was comfortable with the way that people seemed to pay more attention to his children than him. and it had been so long since ros died, since he’d had anyone near him. the reasons to actually just marry kristin won him over after years of talking about it, and they were wed on a cold october weekend with talia as their witness. his children were, naturally, pissed. but there was nothing that could be done about it. all natasja could do was worry about her own place in the line of succession, and aleksander to support his neurotic sister through the worst of it. the thing is: even if talia were a legitimate heir (which natasja claims she is not), there is no universe where she could see herself as the queen of iceland. not that natasja or aleksander would know that, they simply assumed her motives and never bothered to ask.

Ethan Hawke as Prince Egills Karlsson, Duke of Akureyri (1961-2010)

Uma Thurman as Duchess Eyja Sigmundsdottir of Akureyri (1960-2010)

Maya Hawke as Duchess Ripley Egillsdottir of Akureyri (b. 1993)

Jade Bird as Duchess Randy Egillsdottir of Husavik (b. 1996)

when they were little, magnus and EGILLS KARLSSON got along like a house on fire. they were children, then, still allowed to truly be kids. but then their father chose magnus and never gave any attention to his spare and egills never truly forgave either of them for it. he met EYJA SIGMUNDSDOTTIR in downtown reykjavik, while he was drowning his sorrows at the nearest bar. she was everything, offering him a love that his family had convinced him he didn’t deserve. he married her, even if his father hated the idea. and then he moved to his duchy in akureyri, and never looked back. when the two died in a boating accident in 2010, they left behind two young daughters who had to figure out their own way in the world of politics they were unprepared for.

RIPLEY EGILLSDOTTIR is the eldest, the very definition of a spitfire. everything about her can be boiled down to the raw aggression that she approaches each situation with. while the nation had hoped that someone who was two deaths away from being queen might have a better temperament, ripley didn’t care to please the people around her. she approached her critics with the same attitude: a middle finger up to show that she didn’t care one bit about what anyone had to say about her life. and maybe she was raised like that, with a father who always felt he was never allowed to be his own person. she was seventeen when their parents died, and she had to harden her heart even further to hold onto her place as the rightful heir to the duchy of akureyri, while also securing the duchy of husavik for her sister. it’s the fire that runs in her veins that made any of that possible.

RANDY EGILLSDOTTIR, on the other hand, is her sister’s antithesis. she’s prim and proper, the duchess of husavik who represents her duchy with pride. she was always soft, always a little bit too much like her mother in every way. while many would expect the two to butt heads over it: they both understand each other. they were born to parents who told them to be themselves first and foremost, and to quit caring for the product of appearances and worrying about titles. it’s their loving upbringing that keeps them together, and the two are still very close, even if they make an unlikely pair. they are also very close with natasja and aleksander, their cousins, because all four of them don’t wish to repeat the mistakes of their parents.

#NOT me making manips for natasja's parents out of pictures taken 30 years ago #hshqtask011 #anyways this took 5ever and i got lazy and just went w maya's actual parents for her parents JFSKLDFJ #also shoutout eliza for proofreading this bc i cannot . spell #task

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andersunmenschlich · 4 years ago

Text

Episode 13: Alone

All right! Finally I've managed to make time for another episode.

The title is promising. But... uh. We're getting another person talking now. Yeah, I'm not entirely comfortable with this. Bad enough there were all those background characters hanging around the archive, now we're hearing other people direct? And on an episode with a title like this, too!

I'm annoyed. This isn't what I was looking forward to. And Naomi Herne doesn't strike me as particularly polite, either. What, may I ask, is wrong with tape recorders? I quite liked recording things on tape when I was growing up.

...Ooh, interesting.

Looks like they started off trying to do the recording on something a bit more up to date than a tape recorder, and it didn't work.

I like that. I like that very much.

And it's fascinating that the head archivist is taking her statement himself! "I can have it transcribed later"? How very odd. Why not just have her write it down? Isn't that what they've been doing for decades? And even now: the statement-givers write things down, the assistants research and verify, the archivist makes an audio recording and files everything neatly. At least, I got the impression that that's how it's supposed to be done. So what is this? Surely nothing could possibly have been confirmed yet—the statement hasn't even been given!

It's untidy. I don't like it. Naomi Herne shouldn't be talking to Jonathan Sims, it doesn't make sense. Shouldn't she be talking to the receptionist, what's the name... Rosie? Isn't Rosie the one who takes the statements in usually?

I feel like we're missing a buffer, and it's both unsettling and extremely interesting.

So.

Naomi Herne is here to tell the Magnus Institute about something that happened after her husband's funeral. And aha! Finally!

It's about time we learned when this podcast is happening. That's been niggling at me for twelve whole episodes now. "The date is the thirteenth of January, 2016." Awesome. So the first statement was transferred to tape at the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016. I wonder how many they do a day, and whether they work weekends. It'd be pleasantly tidy if they recorded one statement to tape a day, every day. I'd like that.

Naomi Herne says the thing that happened was weird and inexplicable given her current knowledge of the world she lives in, and that she probably imagined the whole thing. Somehow I suspect she doesn't believe that at all, but would like to make herself believe it if she can.

...And Mr. Sims interrupts.

You know, I really don't like having more than one person here. It's an innovation I’m not particularly enjoying.

In any case, Jonathan Sims tries to leave, Naomi Herne wants him to stay... I don't understand either person here. Is there really a point to giving someone privacy while they make a statement that's going to be listened to and copied down and researched and so on by a whole team of people? What's the reasoning behind that thought? And, on the other hand, why would you not want to be alone?

Maybe it's growing up in a house with thirteen other people (nine siblings, two parents, two grandparents), but it seems to me that being alone is a rare and wonderful thing. You know I didn't even have my own bedroom until my late teens?

If someone is willing to leave you alone, in my opinion, you should be delighted.

Jonathan agrees to stay while Naomi gives her statement. Hopefully this won't lead to more conversation. I suppose we'll see.

Apparently Naomi Herne, like me, works at being a bit of a blender. Average, unnoticeable, overlooked—like the paint on a wall, something nobody really looks at or thinks about. A good choice if you want to get things done without being constantly interrupted by people wanting to chat or hang out or party or know what you're doing in a restricted area or who knows what all else.

Unlike me, however, she says she "did get a bit lonely sometimes," which I can't say I ever have. While it might seem useful to have friends as a sort of social camouflage, they're such a demanding form of camouflage that in practice it isn't actually worth it.

She says a Pastor David seemed worried about her comfort with her own company. Well, at least he was the only one.

Honestly, who worries about a thing like that?

[sarcastically] Ooh, it's not natural for people to live in isolation, humans are creatures of community by nature. Next I'll be hearing how I'm not human and don't really count as a person (again). Perhaps the definition of "human" ought to be expanded, hmm? Include some of those sentient, human-shaped beings who aren't, by nature, what people like Pastor David insist all humans are.

Well. Pastor David, according to Naomi Herne, was worried she might "get lost," whatever that means. Naomi says she thinks she knows what he meant by it—but for some reason she doesn't tell us! Inconsiderate. Eh, perhaps she'll do it later.

Naomi graduated from Leeds in 2013 with the highest possible honors degree in Chemistry.

I like chemistry. Seems like the closest you can get to alchemy in real life.

Anyway, she got a job as a science technician in Woking, near London, which is where she was applying for a better job—lab assistant in a biochemistry department at University College London—when she met someone named Evan, who was also applying for that job. Apparently she clicked with him. Got along with him so well, in fact, that she was happy to see him waiting for her outside the building after their interviews.

Of course, it couldn't stay this good. No. They had to start dating, and then living together, and then they got married, because everyone knows that's the natural progression when you actually get along with someone. No other flavors of relationship are valid (maybe not even possible).

Annoyance aside, Naomi Herne doesn't usually do relationships of this type. She says her past boyfriends left when they realized she wasn't all that thrilled about having them around, which seems like the polite thing to do, really.

This Evan, though, is basically her soulmate.

Despite the fact that he has a battalion of friends, and this ends up pulling her into having "what could perhaps be called a social life."

Doesn't sound particularly pleasant, but she says she didn't hate it, which I suppose I can almost see; it is easier to be around people when you have a trusted human buffer. And after Evan dies from a congenital heart problem, she stops hanging out with his friends and goes back to comfortably familiar solitude, which makes sense to me.

She did attend the funeral, though. It seems Evans had a very rich family, with their own personal mausoleum out at their mansion, Moorland House.

It was a very quiet funeral, and not a particularly friendly one.

Naomi says everyone there was wearing the same expression. Even the corpse. She doesn't say what expression specifically, though—just that it's hard and possibly angry. Oh, and finally we get a last name for her husband: he's Evan Lucas.

Huh.

They send her away to do the burial. That doesn't seem usual.

So she drives off in the pouring rain in the middle of a storm, which doesn't seem safe, and naturally enough she crashes.

It's not a melodramatic crash, though. She just plows off the road into a field and then sits there with her engine smoking and definitely not running, and realizes it's been five hours since she arrived at the Lucas place... oh, and she has no cell service (or GPS functionality) out there.

This means she has to walk. In the storm.

She gets so wet it wrecks her phone, which she finds infuriating, so she throws the useless thing onto the ground, where it breaks further, then bounces off the road and buries itself completely in the mud. She walks and walks and walks, crying and soaked through and very cold, until finally she collapses, at which point she notices that the rain has stopped and now she's surrounded by fog.

...Fog that seems to be following her. And gives her the feeling that it's malicious. And wants something from her. Well, now. That's interesting.

Uh.

And then she makes a point of saying there's no presence to it. Yeah, that makes no sense at all. Malice and desire aren't properties of nothingness! There has to be something present in order for it to want something from you.

"It made me feel utterly forsaken," she says, and in my experience it's always people who do that.

In any case, she gets up and starts to run down the road, hoping to reach the end. Instead she loses the path. It takes her a little while to notice that she's running on dirt and grass instead of tarmac. Once she does, she tries to backtrack, but can't find the road at all. So for some reason she decides to kneel down and check out the dirt, which is mist-damp but not rain-wet.

Ahaha, she went sideways, didn't she? This is delightful.

Whatever new dimension she's found herself in, it sounds most agreeable to me. No stars, no moon, no artificial lights, a night so dark you shouldn't be able to see—but you can. A shifting, slate-grey fog, skeletal trees, grass, dirt, old, abandoned gravestones....

If there were a sign saying "Stay, Wander Awhile," it couldn't be more welcoming than this.

In the center of the graveyard is a small chapel. According to Naomi Herne's description, "The top of its steeple was lost in the gloom and the windows were dark. There was stained glass in the windows, but without any light from inside I couldn't make out the design. Wrapped around the handles of the entrance was a sturdy iron chain."

At this point, for some reason, she starts shouting and screaming for help. I was prepared to be annoyed by this, but (wonder of wonders!) it's a sound-muffling fog. Oh, I like this place so much.

Naomi Herne, on the other hand....

This obnoxious individual continues yelling even after it's clear no one can hear her but herself, just to hear the noise. And then she goes looking for something to break a church window with because, inexplicably, she's decided being inside the church will keep the fog away from her. "Anything to get out of the fog"? Pardon me, Ms. Herne, but you're breaking a window, correct? It's just going to follow you in!

She also says "I was sure that eventually someone would find me," which isn't at all the impression I'm receiving from this dimension a step or two sideways from our own. Surely a place like this would keep you safe from everyone forever?

Whatever the case, she goes for a piece of stone that's fallen from one of the grave markers.

As she bends over to pick it up, though, she notices that the grave is empty.

"The hole was neat, square and deep, as though ready for a burial. At the bottom was a coffin. It was open, and there was nothing inside. I backed away and almost fell into another open grave behind me. I started to look around the cemetery with increasing panic. Every grave was open, and they were all empty."

Ha. Well, it looks like someone missed the Rapture.

You know, if it weren't for the danger of being buried by sliding earth, I'd be tempted to climb into one of those empty coffins and take a bit of a nap.

—Oh. How prescient of me.

The fog starts pulling Naomi Herne, our statement giver, into that first grave. She says it began to weigh her down: "It coiled about me, its formless damp clung to me and began to drag me gently, slowly, towards the waiting pit."

Backing away, she slips on the damp ground and falls. Sliding towards the grave, she uses that heavy piece of stone as an anchor to keep herself out.

Hey, and she gets away! Well done, Naomi Herne.

Struggling to her feet, she suddenly notices that the chapel's doors are open now. The chain's just lying on the steps. Huh. Well, who or what did that? Hmm. Whatever the case, this looks like an invitation to me. But how inviting is the inside of this church? I practically grew up in churches, so they're as familiar to me as libraries (oh, all right: even more so). In my opinion, the least inviting church tends to be the one with the most worshipers in it.

Oh, but this church is very welcoming! It looks as though she's being invited to go deeper, further sideways, farther away from the world we know.

"Through that door, where the inside of the chapel should be, was a field. It was bathed in sickly moonlight, and the fog rolled close to the ground. It seemed to stretch for miles, and I knew that I could wander there for years, and never meet another."

Ahh, that's beautiful.

This is the kind of thing I take my midnight walks for. Hours alone in the mountains under the moon, while the wolves howl in the distance and the lights of the city fade....

Naomi Herne, however, doesn't seem drawn to it.

She turns away from the door—and nearly cries when she sees that beyond the graveyard's edge is that same field. You know, some people have all the luck and just don't appreciate it at all. Of course, I could be mistaken about this place. But I have the feeling a person wouldn't need to eat or sleep here; that physical needs would be optional. I could use that. I'm always acting as though I think they are, and then my body stops working properly. It's annoying.

Anyway, our statement-giver runs away from the field beyond the door and into the field beyond the cemetery.

It beats me why she's running.

Apparently this place doesn't see why she should run, either. "The fog seemed to be getting thicker, and moving through it was getting harder. It was like I was running against the wind, except the air was completely still. I could hardly breathe as I inhaled it."

Yes; that's because you're running. Slow down and everything should be perfectly fine.

Oh. How unexpected.

As Naomi Herne is running through this endless field in a world two steps to the side of our own, her dead husband's voice calls to her. "Turn left," he says. And she does.

Turning sharply to the left, she keeps on running. She runs out into the middle of a road in our world, and wham! gets hit by a car. "I remember a second of headlights, and then nothing until I woke up in the hospital."

...Wait. "I would suggest you leave the stone with us so we can study it"?

What stone?

Don't tell me she was running around carrying that heavy piece of headstone? Surely not. And then, what, whoever hit her decided to take the rock to the hospital as well? That doesn't make a great deal of sense. But I'm pretty sure that's the only stone that's been mentioned this entire statement which she could possibly have brought to the institute, so....

Mr. Sims suggests that Ms. Herne see a psychologist. Ms. Herne is offended. The tape recorder gets turned off.

See? There's a definite click when that happens. We'd know if Mr. Sims took a break to do research. ...Not that I've ever heard him recite any incantations either, though. Maybe it's his research assistants who can do the beholding spell.

They certainly seem uncannily good at getting their hands on information.

Whatever the case, Mr. Sims says research was done while the tape recorder was stopped. Evan Lucas died from heart failure 3-22-15 and his family handled the burial.

"All requests to the Lucas family for information or interviews have been very firmly rebuffed," which is impressive given how much data these archival assistants have been able to dig out of everybody else in the past twelve episodes. It's rare for people to refuse to talk to them, which I could put down to the use of some sort of magic—but won't, because I'm fairly certain I'm not magical and yet people are always telling me things about themselves even when I didn't ask.

Not that I'm not interested!

I'm always interested when a stranger comes up to me and strikes up a somewhat one-sided conversation which evolves into them telling me about their childhood, or fear of Alzheimer's so desperate they'd rather die than have their mind slip away from them, or why they decided to become whatever they are, or some such thing.

If I have to interact with people, well—I think listening to their deeply personal information is one of the best flavors of human interaction.

...Though I will admit that having people talk to me like this all the time has kind of confused my understanding of what things are supposed to be private.

In any case.

Naomi Herne got hit by a car at about one am March 31. The funeral was a week after the death, so that means Ms. Herne slipped sideways on the 29th, which means she was in that otherworld for a full day and change?

The person who hit her was named Michael Getty, and the place was "Wormshill in the Kent Downs," wherever that is. Her car was in a field five miles away.

She was concussed and dehydrated, but there's no mention of her having not eaten for a full day and then some, so either they're ignoring that or food really isn't necessary in fairyland. Though apparently liquids are, which is strange since she was surrounded by fog the whole time! Hmm. You don't think the moisture was coming from her own body, do you? Amplified, yes, enhanced somehow, but... the non-presence in the fog... it could have been her.

That would make a kind of sense.

You can't have things like malice or desire without something present to be malicious or desirous, yet she said "it wasn't as though there was another person there...." Yes, yes, that makes sense!

I hypothesize that, somehow, the part of Naomi Herne that likes being alone manifested semi-separately from the rest of her, sucking moisture from her body to surround her as a thick fog and guide her off at an other-dimensional angle into a world where she could be alone forever. The part of her that doesn't want to be alone was terrified by this, and that's why she ran.

That doesn't explain her dead husband's voice, though. What kind of solitary fairyland has the ghosts of other people in it?

Also, her husband had plenty of friends and was apparently just fine with people—I somehow doubt his heaven would look like that. So what the hey. I can't make sense of that at all.

Well. Back to Jonathan Sims.

Mr. Sims would like to dismiss the whole thing as a hallucination, but unfortunately for him, Naomi Herne was clutching a chunk of carved granite when Michael Getty hit her, and the unfortunate near-perpetrator of vehicular manslaughter apparently decided the woman and the rock were a set, so she was able to bring it to the Magnus Institute and show it to him.

It's got an engraved cross design, looks like it came off a headstone, and has one word on it that's probably from the marker: "Forgotten."

Jonathan Sims says it's going to artifact storage. You know, the Magnus Institute's artifact storage must be an interesting place full of some very weird things. I wouldn't half mind taking a look.

And the recording ends.

This is probably the last episode I'll be listening to for a while, since once I've got this piece of commentary saved in my Tumblr queue I'll need to box my laptop up and ship it across the country to myself. I've never moved my entire life quite this far before. It's proving to be a bit of an undertaking. Once I'm settled in, though, I want to come back to this.

The Magnus Archives is an excellent podcast. I very much want to hear more.

#The Magnus Archives #episode 13 #commentary #late to the party #5-28-20

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tinknevertalks · 5 years ago

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Teslen + Star Trek AU

Right then, third time's a charm? Gah, at least I've saved my edits onto my GDocs file this time, rather than try to remember wtf I wrote. Anyways, this has taken a Long Time (soz) but here it is, five things from how I'd do a Teslen Trek AU. (Except it's not super heavy on the Teslen. Eek.)

Helen Magnus commands a little known outpost on the edge of Federation space. No-one's really sure when she took the posting, or who gave her her orders (some whispers say it was Admiral Pike, way back when, but she's only human, right?), but anyone who knows of her knows they're safe aboard her station. And she has a steady stream of visitors aboard the Sanctuary.

Her crew is small, but well formed. Henry Foss is her chief engineer, although he tends to mostly putter around with tech than anything else, whilst her daughter, Ashley, is training under The Big Guy to take over Security. Henry dubbed him The Big Guy as the Universal Translators don't work for his species main language, or his dialect (he, however, learnt Federation Standard as a youngling, and Helen knows enough of his language that they can converse for more than a greeting). Their CMO is James Watson, one of Helen's contemporaries, living far beyond his human span of years by the use of nanotechnology.

Recently, she'd taken on a new senior staff member, Will Zimmerman. He's nominally her First Officer, but has taken on the unofficial job of counsellor and general busybody. It gives Helen breathing room on days when everyone and their brother wants to throw someone or something out the nearest airlock.

Along with Henry as her Chief Engineer, Helen also has a chief science officer for the research they conduct onboard the Sanctuary. He's another of her contemporaries, a fact Nikola Tesla loves to lord over young Will. Will, however, can't figure out if his new commanding officer is in some form of romantic entanglement with the guy, or just happy to let him be exceedingly flirty with her in front of the crew. Either way, Will hasn't the inclination (or really, the balls) to ask.

But they do good in their tiny part of the galaxy, on the outskirts of the Federation. Helen saves more lives than any other commanding officer Will has served under, and seems to be some sort of Renaissance woman when it comes to… well, anything. "When you've lived as long as I have, Will, it pays to have different skills." She says this with a wink and a wave every time, before fixing whatever problem they had onboard the station (usually caused by Nikola or Henry (or both) experimenting).

The worst problem* (in Will's era) was when Helen and Nikola got stuck in the really good holodeck** with Jekyll, Hyde and Jack the Ripper. Both Hyde and Jack seemed super fixated on Helen (Jekyll sorta just left them to it), and whilst Helen would sometimes fall under Jack's hypnotic spell, she always retained her sense of self preservation and would fight back. Nikola, feeling kinda crummy and underpowered, got help from the Invisible Man, and with his assistance he and Helen beat the game. When the holodeck doors finally opened Ashley and Henry both groaned in disgust - Helen and Nikola were kissing, with tongues and everything, and really, who wants to see that before dinner? - whilst Will just stood there, mouth agape.

When did they get a 19th century holonovel?!

* It didn't even rank in either Helen or Nikola's top ten worst problems.

** The really good holodeck is the one that's actually a decent size and has the least amount of damaged holo emitters. Henry's been meaning to get round to those last two but other things got put in front - fixing the runabout, writing reports, showing Nikola the two emitters he broke the last time he used the holodeck and could he please tidy up his own mess? Helen finally fixes it herself so she and Ashley can visit Rome.

#ask meme answered #viennainspringtime #sanctuary #teslen #(kinda)#how i'd write an au #i hope this works #will scream if it doesn't

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tvdversefanfiction · 4 years ago

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Origins of Magic

“The Originals” Fanfiction Series

Warnings: I do not own the rights to the television series “The Originals”, “Vampire Diaries”, or “Legacies” and do not own any of the characters within the TVD universe, I am making no profit from this and have no intention for this fanfiction series except for readers to enjoy.

15+ Mild to Strong Violence, Strong Language, Witchcraft, sexual scenes, and sexual references.

F/F, F/M, M/M, Other.

CHAPTER TWO HERE

Chapter Three – The Castle in the Woods

MANY YEARS AGO…in what feels like several lifetimes ago for Kayne Black, he found himself stuck within a castle him and his sisters had taken over in their hopes of making it their home, having had to leave their homeland due to a falling out with their brother Magnus. Although, this damp, cold and dark castle in the middle of nowhere felt like anything but home for Kayne. He loved his homeland, he wanted to stay there and continue to live the life he had loved but after what Kayne and his sisters did to take their brother Magnus out of the picture they had no choice but to flee, taking on different identities as they did and live a life Kayne referred to as luxury to live in the middle of nowhere, in a damp, cold and dark castle until the day the world forgot him and his sisters ever existed. Kayne loathed the existence he was forced to endure and blamed his older sister Annabella for his and Primrose’s misfortunes and as the years went by in this lost castle his hatred towards her only grew until one day, decades after their disappearances, the three siblings were greeted by guests, a family of guests to be precise, the Mikaelson’s. The brief time in which the Mikaelson siblings; Niklaus, Rebekah, Elijah and Kol stayed with Kayne and his sisters changed everything for the male witch, as he began to love the fact that they were all alone in the world, specifically he loved the idea of himself being completely alone with Niklaus, a man he quickly found himself becoming infatuated with Klaus. “Tell me what exactly brings a man to the middle of nowhere with his siblings?” Kayne asked Klaus after walking into Klaus’ room within the castle, a room not far from his which he had strategically picked out for his guest. “I could ask the same to you, but I doubt you would give me an honest answer and I can promise you I would not give you honesty either.” Klaus answered him with a wicked smile on his face. “You are clearly running from something or someone if you’ve taken to these dangerous woods in hopes of seeking refuge, it is just a case of what that remains to be seen but do not worry Niklaus I do quite enjoy a mystery.” Kayne replied with a sinister smirk to match Klaus’. “And you, why are you here?” Klaus asked the male witch, eager to deflect Kayne’s questions. “Believe it or not but I am waiting for the world to forget me so I can start anew and hopefully I will never again have to hide away.” Kayne answered honestly. “I do not seek out questions as leverage, I seek out you because you fascinate and nothing in this whole world has ever fascinated me until now.” “I would be careful about getting too fascinated with me it never ends well for anyone involved.” Klaus warned him, trying to mask the fact he was equally fascinated by the young male witch in front of him. “I look forward to being the one to defy the odds,” Kayne said in a flirtatious manner, making it clear to Klaus he wanted him.

Primrose Black had always loved nature and being in the woods that was until being in the woods was where she always was trapped within a castle she loved but learned to loathe the surroundings that came with the property. The castle was a thing of beauty, a work of art, made to be appreciated and Rose did just that, however she was growing tired of being stuck away from the rest of the world with no form of entertainment and the only companionship being her forever warring siblings Annabella and Kayne and even when they were not fighting they were far from her ideal company. She deemed her sister too practical and dull to have fun with and she had found her brother too whiny which only made their entrapment within the woods away from the real world even more torturous for the youngest sibling until she found the perfect companion in one of the castle’s new guests, the guest in question being none other than Kol Mikaelson. “So, what exactly is a girl like you hiding a way in a castle?” Kol asked Rose as he let himself into her room to find her on the edge of her bed reading a book. “If you are trying to flirt, I am far from interested,” Rose replied before closing her book and placing onto her bed. “Well maybe just some fondling but only because it has been so long and I’m up for any source of amusement right.” “I will take you up on that offer soon do not worry but right now I seek company as I plan to go to a nearby village and seek whatever delights it may offer.” Kol informed her. “My sister would not be happy if I left my prison, however, it has been a long time and you look like the opposite of a perfect gentleman, so I am highly considering obliging.” Rose told him, trying to work out whether to break her sister’s rules. “How long have you been here for exactly?” Kol wondered, intrigued by why such a beautiful woman would be hiding away in the middle of nowhere. “I am not invested in you enough to share my story nor do I care about yours, however, you seem like you may amuse me and I am so tired of being bored.” Rose answered the original male vampire. “I will challenge you to create as much debauchery as possible, I am very intrigued to see if you can keep up with me!” “Something tells me I am going to like you!” Kol replied with a genuine sense of excitement for what awaited the original vampire and the bewitching beauty.

NEVER EVER…did Annabella Black ever think that after years of solitude with her sister Primrose and their brother Kayne that she would be the first one to break the rules of which all three siblings had lived by since coming to the castle in the woods. Bella loved the home her and her siblings had come to known, she love the wild and often brutal woods that was her garden, the castle which had become a home and the peace she would only hear when her siblings were fast asleep. The only thing Bella did not enjoy about living in the castle in the woods was having to share her home with her two younger siblings who did not only refuse to appreciate the extents she had gone to ensure their safety but continued to complain repeatedly about the decisions they made together as well as both of them blaming her solely for every little bad thing that had ever happened to them all. Bella had no choice but to remain hidden with her siblings knowing they would have to stay in that castle with no other visitors for a very long time, long enough for the world to forgot they either existed and Bella followed the rules she created with an iron fist determined to protect her family at any cost, until she found herself lovestruck upon first sight of the undeniable beauty that was Rebekah Mikaelson. “If my brothers have not yet offered their many thanks for granting us shelter then please allow me to be the first.” Rebekah thanked Bella after walking into the library to find the witch putting books away into their rightful places within the large display of bookcases within the beautifully gothic library within the castle. “Your eldest brother was very grateful, and it was appreciated the same regards go to you.” Bella said as she placed the last book away, before turning to give the female Mikaelson all her attention. “I know you are not human, I sensed it the moment I opened the door to you and your siblings…I also know you are not a werewolf because I have known many in my lifetime but I cannot fathom as to what you are…nor do I care…just know that whatever you and your brothers need refuge from I am more than happy to help.” “Such kindness,” Rebekah replied with a soft smile that Bella could not help but get lost within. “It has been a while since I’ve seen kindness from anyone other than my brother Elijah, but it is not quite the same as having a friend.” “I understand that feeling all too well being held up in this castle with only my constantly angry brother and my deceitful sister as company, I can honestly say kindness is a rare thing around here.” Bella admitted the original female vampire. “Well I guess we can gather together while my brothers and I remain here to complain about our blood ties and seek refuge in each other’s company.” Rebekah suggested, happy to have made a friend after feeling alone for quite some time. If only either Black or Mikaelson knew how this unexpected meeting between two families would go from a cosmic connection between witches and vampires to a grizzly end that would spark centuries of ill will between them all.

Klaus Mikaelson was a talented, complicated and beautiful man and Kayne Black enjoyed every moment he spent with the original male vampire/werewolf hybrid over the course of the weeks him and his family spent within the castle, as the male witch found himself quickly falling head over heels for the mysterious man who both thrilled him and made him feel safe in his touch. They spent every waking hour together talking endlessly into the night, making passionate love with each other and on the rare moments when inspiration hit Klaus, Kayne would watch as he painted onto a blank canvas, watching Klaus lose himself within his art and at the same time Kayne losing himself in the art that was the man he loved. Kayne Black had never dreamed of ever getting this close to another person but upon meeting Klaus Mikaelson he knew something was different about him and before the witch knew it he was besotted with the hybrid, sharing everything with him, including his blood. The only problem this witch and vampire has was although Kayne was all in, ready to be with his true love for all eternity he knew Klaus was holding back from giving the witch his all, whether it be his own paranoia or the secrets of the past which still weighed heavy on him, Kayne knew they could never truly be happy until Klaus let him all the way in. “What do you mean you are leaving? Where are you going to go?” Kayne asked as he and Klaus stood in Kayne’s bedroom, a room which had become theirs in recent weeks. “It is what my siblings and I do, we keep moving onto the next place because if we stop for too long well…it gets rather unfortunate for all involved.” Klaus revealed to him, shocking the witch by his sudden plans to departure. “Then I will go with you, I am tired of this bloody castle anyway and I want to go with you…I would go anywhere with you!” Kayne offered himself to the hybrid, eager for Klaus to accept his offer. “That is the thing love,” Klaus replied as he placed his hand softly onto Kayne’s face, stroking it briefly. “I do not want you to come with me!” “You cannot be serious Niklaus,” Kayne snapped, as he brushed Klaus’ hand away from his face. “I love you, I love you with all my heart, I love you more than I ever thought possible and I know you feel the same for me too, I know it!” “It’s only been a few weeks and yes we have both had fun, but I never claimed to love you.” Klaus said with a cruel laugh, knowing fine well his words were breaking Kayne’s heart. “Nor do I claim to love you now.” “I see,” Kayne struggled to say with his voice beginning to break, as tears formed in his eyes, completely devastated by Klaus’ rejection of his love. “I did warn you that people tend to get hurt around me, do not say I did not warn you!” Klaus told Kayne, brushing off the tears the witch cried for him. “You sure did!” Kayne admitted, as he attempted to wipe the tears from his eyes, attempting and failing to hide the pain that Klaus had just inflicted on him.

“Mikael?” Rose said out loud as she and Kol laid down on the floor within the library side by side, both looking rather comfortable with each other. “I just cannot believe a foursome with such power is running from a man named Mikael it is hardly the name of a great hunter…no offense to the father who intends to kill you all…I am sure he has his reasons.” “Oh, I am sure going to miss you Primrose, you have been the first bit of fun I have experienced since becoming what I am now.” Kol admitted to his bewitching friend. “Draining bar wenches and ending tavern brawls with a bloody feast will just not be the same without you by my side to soak in all the debauchery and challenge me to be even more wicked than I thought possible.” “You are the only thing in this world that does not bore me it will be a shame to see you go but who knows we may meet again,” Rose replied to her vampire companion. “I intend to leave this place soon myself, you have shown me the chaos that awaits me out there and I have grown tired of hiding…I wish I could break you free from your chains, if only you would let me take down Niklaus…” “Oh I fully intend to return the favour to my bastard brother for daggering his siblings as he sees fit but I need to be tactical about it or I will wind up with a dagger in my chest with no chance of being woken up before the next century.” Kol confided in Primrose, like he had done many times throughout the weeks he and his siblings stayed within the castle. “I understand when it comes to betraying brothers it is best to keep it a family affair instead of bringing in the outsiders,” Rose responded to the Mikaelson sibling she had considered her only true friend. “Besides, I already got rid of one brother and that proved to be rather bothersome, however, my offer still stands if you change your mind.” “So, where are you going to go? I would love the choice of choosing where my siblings and I will go next, but my opinion will only ever be met with finding myself in a coffin.” Kol wondered, eager to live through his friend’s plans, plans he knew he could never make for himself.” “As far away from my siblings as possible!” Rose revealed to him, as the two shared a knowing smile, one which revealed to the other that they both knew they would unlikely ever see each other again.

Rebekah Mikaelson had given in too love many times in her life but there was one time when the girl who often was considered too easy to fall in love made a choice with her head instead of her heart and it was a choice she would forever regret. The one time in question when Rebekah chose not to put love before all else was when her brothers planned to leave the castle and the Black siblings behind, choosing not to attempt to live a life with the witch Annabella Black who she had found herself falling in love, knowing Klaus would more than likely kill Bella if she tried and dagger her in the process. The original female vampire wanted nothing more to have her happy ending and she believed she could have it with Bella, a belief that only grew as the weeks went by in the castle in the woods but eventually reality hit Rebekah hard and as her and her brothers prepared to leave she knew she had to let this love go. “I do not understand why you have to go Rebekah; you are safe here from whatever you are running from you are safe with me.” Bella pleaded with the female vampire. “It is not as simple as that my brothers Niklaus and Elijah believe if we stay put we would only be putting ourselves and you and your siblings in danger and I cannot have anymore deaths because of me.” Rebekah explained to her bewitching lover. “If I do not go with them then Niklaus will seek out revenge on me by hurting you and I cannot have that Annabella because I love you!” “Then stay with me and we will stand tall against him…together, he cannot hurt us if we stay together.” Bella attempted to persuade the woman she loved, desperate for her to stay. “You do not understand neither Klaus nor I can die but you can!” Rebekah warned her, knowing all too well Klaus would not hesitate to kill someone she loved, as he had done before. “I have loved and lost before, and I do not want to have to watch somebody else suffer because of their feelings towards me.” “Then we will run, and we will keep running so that Klaus will never find us.” Bella argued with Rebekah. “He would find us, and I cannot risk it,” Rebekah cried. “I cannot be the reason for your death so please do not try to make me say otherwise because this is my choice and I refuse to change it!” Rebekah loved Bella far too greatly to be swayed in her decision, refusing for the bewitching beauty to suffer the same fate as her previous love Alexander although admittedly the hunter Alexander deserved his fate, she knew Bella did not and was determined to not have to see Klaus kill another person she loved, not knowing then that although Bella would escape Klaus’ wrath many of her future loves would not.

Centuries later…the three Black siblings; Kayne, Bella and Rose stood within the streets of New Orleans in the French Quarter all looking at each other in shock while remaining to hold each other’s hands as a unconscious Rebekah lay unconscious beneath their feet within a circle they had created with their hands. “There is definitely no going back now!” Rose stated with a devilish grin on her face, excited for what lay ahead like only she would be. “Klaus and Elijah are once again amongst the living…let the games begin!”

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fromthemouthofkings · 5 years ago

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10 Favorite Characters

Thank you @wisteria-lodge for tagging me!!

1. Grand Admiral Thrawn (the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn)

I stan 1 (one) blue alien Sherlock Holmes

[image description: the cover of The Last Command by Timothy Zahn, showing Thrawn as a blue-skinned humanoid with blue-black hair and glowing red eyes, wearing a white Imperial uniform. end id]

So I’m specifically talking about the book character here; I have no idea what’s going on in the Star Wars TV shows. But Thrawn of the Star Wars Legends universe (and the newer canon book, Thrawn) is hands-down one of the best and most interesting characters I’ve ever seen. He’s brilliant, creating battle strategies by studying his opponents’ cultural art to understand their cultural psychology and look for weaknesses in their thinking. And despite being a morally grey character, he’s not unduly arrogant and is actually extremely likeable--he has to work hard to get into the Imperial command structure that heavily discriminates against non-humans, his motivation is the best interest of his people, the Chiss, and he is always willing to explain his thinking to his close allies and friends. And who else would respond to being stabbed by smiling and saying, “But it was so artistically done?”

2. Beren (specifically, from Philosopher-At-Large’s script/screenplay adaptation of Tolkien’s story of Beren and Luthien, A Boy, A Girl, & A Dog: The Lay of Leithian Dramatic Script Project, which can be read in full here: https://rustbucket.net/leithian/index.html)

Do we not all want to yell at the gods about theodicy until they answer our questions to our satisfaction? I specifically pick Beren not from the original Silmarillion, as much as I love Tolkien’s work, but from Philosopher-At-Large’s script retelling, because A Boy, A Girl, & A Dog might just be my favorite work of literature of all time--fanwork, original fiction, or otherwise. I stumbled across it via a fanart of Beren on DeviantArt, like, six or seven years ago that referenced it, and my life has never been the same. It was hard to pick a favorite character, since literally all of the Script’s characters hold a special place in my heart, but I love Beren’s gentle, dry humor and his grim, determined, reckless stubbornness. His relationship with Luthien is of course the driving point of the story, but I thought that his relationships with Finrod and the other members of their company, and his backstory in Dorthonian and his interactions with the Valar were spectacularly done as well. This story is full of the grim determination to at least try and keep loving people, to keep throwing yourself at a problem and refuse to back down until you find a satisfactory solution, and Beren is right there at the heart of that, and I think that makes him pretty hopepunk.

3. Hamlet (Hamlet by William Shakespeare)

What is there to say about Hamlet that hasn’t already been said a thousand times by people significantly more learned and eloquent than me? I love him. He’s a genre-savvy protagonist trapped in a world where nothing! Fucking! Makes! Sense! My poor emo boy. I feel so much for him, being trapped in a situation where he needs to learn the truth in order to move forward and finally act, but there’s no way for him to get at the truth, so instead he just spirals further and further into fey, frustrated, erratic “madness.” Such a disaster bi. Definitely in love with his tired functional gay bf Horatio. Drama queen and Pretentious Asshole TM. In any decent modern au, he loves Hot Topic and gets all his clothes from there. I don’t even really do theater, but I’d love to have a chance to play him onstage.

4. James Dunworthy (the Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis)

The Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis ranges from hilarious (To Say Nothing of the Dog) to heartbreaking (Doomsday Book) and Mr. Dunworthy is right in the middle of all of it. For those who haven’t read it, the premise of the series is that time travel has been discovered, but we can’t use it to change the past, so instead it’s mainly just used by historians going back in time to study history, and Mr. Dunworthy is the head of the history department at Oxford University in the year 2060. He might be strict, but he has strong dad vibes, and, just, cares so much for all of his historians. He basically adopts Colin when Colin is stranded in Oxford over Christmas during an epidemic, he regularly puts himself in danger to look for lost historians, he helped invent time travel, and he knows that the point of studying the past is caring about the people who lived there. I want him to be my dad.

5. The 9th Doctor (Doctor Who)

Okay, I love 10 and 12 and 13 almost as much as I love 9, but 9 has to be my favorite Doctor. He was my first doctor, and what really got me hooked on the series was his kindness--hard-won and hard-clung to after the trauma of the time war. It isn’t always easy for him--the time war took everything away from him, and you can see how he’s tempted to be angry and bitter and harsh--but even so, he insists on helping people, on atoning for his mistakes, on nonviolence and using kindness and cleverness to fix things instead of violence and hate. He says, guns are bad and bananas are good, and every person is important, and when asked if he’s a coward or a killer, he says, “Coward. Any day.” And that philosophy, that choice, has left a deep impact on me.

[image description: gif of the 9th doctor saying “Who said you’re not important?” from New Who Season 1 episode 8, “Father’s Day.” end id]

6. Eliot Spencer (Leverage)

The whole premise of a group of thieves, criminals and con artists getting together to take down corrupt people in power is great, and Eliot is my favorite. He may have done some seriously bad shit in the past, but now he’s just devoted to taking care of the team, and particularly his hacker and his thief. I don’t know that he believes he’s worthy of their love, but he’s still somehow the most mature and emotionally stable member of the team; he knows how to control his anger and live alongside his regrets, and despite his grumbling, he dives headfirst into protecting the rest of the team and keeping them safe. Bonus points for being in an almost-canon ot3, and for the passion that he brings to his cooking. Also, I headcanon him as gray aro and transmasc, because I can.

[image description: gif of Eliot standing back-to-back with Parker and Hardison. end id]

7. Jon Sims (The Magnus Archives)

I’m only on season 3 of TMA so far, but I love Jon with all my heart. Working at a supernatural research institute, after having had a supernatural encounter of your own, and still choosing not to really believe in the supernatural until it knocks down the door to your office and riddles you with worms? Big mood. He’s a stubborn workaholic disaster ace, and I relate because I too struggle to interact with people and tend to get lost in obscure research projects for hours at a time. Somebody give this boy a hug and then a nap.

8. River Taam (Firefly)

Once again, there are a lot of good characters in Firefly, and I was hard-pressed to pick just one of them to put on this list. But River is a sweet summer child slowly overcoming trauma to find the joy and delight in the world around her that she had before the Academy, and I want all the best things for her. Bonus points go to Simon, who gave up everything he knew to save his sister, and Mal, who stubbornly sticks to his own code of honor even after loosing the war and much of his faith.

9. Lancelot (The Once and Future King by T. H. White)

A splendidly complex and morally grey take on our favorite legendary hero. T. H. White writes a Lancelot who struggles deeply with guilt and pride and imposter syndrome--who struggles desperately to do what is right and to channel the traits he finds in himself--both strengths and flaws--into doing the right thing. His scrupulosity is sadly relatable, and the lines “It is so fatally easy to make young children believe that they are horrible” and “ You could not give up a human heart as you could give up drinking. The drink was yours, and you could give it up: but your lover’s soul was not your own: it was not at your disposal; you had a duty towards it” are both absolutely haunting. It’s only implied in the book, but T. H. White admitted in letters that Lancelot enjoys pain, and is probably bi as well, and a bit in love with Arthur, and that he feels very guilty about it, and I just want a fluffy modern adaptation where Arthur and Guenevere and Lancelot can be in the kinky ployamarous triad that they deserve and just be happy together.

10. Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling)

While I have some problems these days with the Harry Potter series and the transphobia of its author, it’s possible to like something without minimizing its flaws, and this list would not be complete without Luna Lovegood. I spent significant portions of middle school pretending to be her. She taught me how to embrace my own unabashed weirdness, and I wouldn't be the same without her.

@a-nerdy-shade-of-purple @conan-concocting-chaos @one-supportive-august @the-lyra-cal-trans @the-eleftheria @dumpstertrash

#quinn speaks #thank you so much for the tag! I had a lot of fun doing this #my taste in characters is apparently Ravenclaws and Huffledors haha #thrawn #beren #hamlet #dunworthy #9th doctor #eliot spencer #jon sims #river taam #lancelot #luna lovegood

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