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torukmaktoskxawng · 1 year ago

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tsamsiyu ta'em - nothing is lost

Masterlist - part twelve

Summary: The Sky People make their move. The Metkayina rise up against the threat of their home.

Pairing: Ronal/Tonowari/Original Female Character

Tag: #tsamsiyu ta'em fic

posted on ao3

Word Count: 14k+

Warnings: canon-compliant, mature language, slow burn, polyamory, found family, cool aunt agenda, rushed, time skips, fluff, angst, major character death, child endangerment, etc.

Taglist (bold indicates "could not tag"): @motheroffae @undeniableadrenaline @mooniequeen @shit-i-say-shit-i-think @heart-an0n @amiets2 @slutforsmut4ever @yeosxxx @im-in-a-pansexual-panik @sucker4angstt @inolaphoenix @ilovechickenwings @tojisleftarm @andyfromku @ivysully

A/N: Thank you for your patience! At the very least, I'm not George R.R. Martin, who is 12 years late on the new book 🤣

This... is a very long chapter. Strap in. You guys deserve a treat for waiting for me 💕

The village was eerily quiet. Yes, it was raining and gloomy again, but something smelled off in the air when Kayla took a deep breath, her avatar nose smelling more than her human one could even dream of. It was an odd hour of the day for the Metkayina to be completely absent as she walked down the slippery pathways, her dog tags cold from the weather and clicking softly from where they dangled around her neck, the safari jacket she had thrown on that morning soaking through to her skin as the rain pressed on. Kayla scoffed to herself and wanted nothing more than to peel the useless piece of clothing off since it was now uncomfortable, but the rifle in her arms kept her from doing so. She intended to walk to the Sully marui that morning to ask Jake to borrow his cleaning supplies for his weapons, wishing to run maintenance on her own AK, but upon walking into her brother's home, she is surprised and confused to find all her nieces and nephews keeping warm inside but neither Jake nor Neytiri was around.

Tuk got up to greet her aunt with a hug around her waist, and as Kayla pat her back, Neteyam helpfully took the gun out of Kayla's arms while the older woman looked around, squinting her eyes, "Neteyam, where's your parents?"

"The tulkun returned again and they were afraid of something," the teenage boy lowered his head, ears drooping and voice laced with concern, "Mom and Dad went out with the clan leaders and a party to see what was wrong."

Kayla's eyes widen while looking around, now easily seeing the concern on all of the children's faces. Instinctively, she didn't want to assume any danger and immediately sought out to comfort her nieces and nephews, "Alright, well, maybe we should get some food going for when they get back. I'm sure it's nothing."

No one spoke as they got to work strengthening the embers of the hearth and preparing a meal. Kayla sat down with the teenagers while gathering Tuk in her lap, watching Kiri prepare some fish over the fire. Something hung heavy in the air. Perhaps it was the moisture or the thunder off in the distance, but no one bothered to speak up and question it. The mood was sour as the Sullys patiently waited for the patriarch and matriarch of the family to return. Kayla noticed that Lo'ak was the only one unable to look his aunt in the eyes as they all sat around, worried about whatever might be waiting for the party of Na'vi warriors, but she decided not to ask about it. She had a feeling that since this situation was tulkun-related, her youngest nephew was likely glum about yesterday's events involving Payakan.

Unaware of how much time had passed, all Sullys perked their heads up at the sound of crows and yips, indicating the Na'vi conversing with one another from a distance. The village began to stir with life once more, and before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Tsireya had run into the Sully marui, out of breath and hair drenched from the rain.

She looked frightened, appearing far younger than a thirteen-year-old girl, "The party has returned-- Your sa'sem are alright," she's quick to reassure Lo'ak and his siblings before her eyes darted back to Kayla, "But my father has just declared war on the Sky People!"

"What?" Kayla hastily stood up, dumping Tuk into Neteyam's lap when he wasn't as quick to stand. Kayla's heart had plummeted into her stomach, dread beginning to rise the little hairs running up and down her back, neck, and arms.

"They are gathering for a meeting right now!"

"Show me," Kayla ordered lowly, voice full of authority and determination setting in her gaze. Tsireya nods and runs back out of the pod. Kayla doesn't hesitate to follow.

Neteyam set his baby sister down in front of the fire as he and his other siblings stood to follow their aunt, "Tuk, stay here until someone comes back and gets you."

"But--"

"Stay here!"

Kayla could hear her older niece and nephews run out of the marui to join her, but her feet didn't slow as she walked with a destination in mind, unwilling to stop for anything. She followed Tsireya through the village. As they got closer to the communal canopy, more and more Metkayina emerged from their homes, and a growing crowd formed. It quickly became dense, the area full of Na'vi as Tsireya and Kayla drew closer, lightly scooting past other men and women to get to the center. Kayla spots something in the crowd and reaches out to grab Tsireya's shoulder, stopping both of them in their tracks. Kayla's eyes had narrowed in on the sight of Neytiri and Jake, standing at the front of the crowd and looking as though they had both seen ghosts. By the time Neteyam and his siblings joined Kayla, she already had a goal for them in mind.

"Get to your parents," she sternly told the teenagers, nodding in Jake and Neytiri's direction, "Tsireya, let's see if we can get closer. Break."

The small group scatters, going separate ways and weaving through the crowd. Tsireya and Kayla stick together until they find themselves standing at the very front of the gathering, apart from Rotxo and Ao'nung, who stand in front of them. The two young warriors didn't look very happy and while Kayla looked around, she finally spotted Tonowari and Ronal. They stood at the center of the crowd, standing over the rest. The tsahik appeared distraught and torn, streaks of rain and tears mixing while a hidden rage swam in her eyes. The olo'eyktan stood beside her, enraged, barely keeping in his anger while furiously gripping the spear in his hand. Jake has moved into Kayla's line of sight, right in front of Ronal. When the avatar woman looked around for the rest of her family, she spotted Kiri silently comforting Neytiri, the Na'vi woman looking distressed and welcoming her daughter's hand. Neteyam was off to the side of them, holding onto a device that drove Kayla's blood to freeze. She recognized the design of humans from anywhere, a long and large spear-like contraption with red, metal encasings to shield the mechanics inside from saltwater. A tracking device.

Ronal confirmed Kayla's suspicions while crying out in anger so that the entire village could hear, "My Spirit Sister and her baby have been murdered by the Sky People!"

A small sob can be heard off to the side of Kayla and when she looked down, she was quick to throw her arm around Tsireya while the girl wept for her mother's tulkun. Meanwhile, cries of anguish and rage emerged from the crowd, snarling and cursing the humans at the top of their lungs so they could be heard over the rain.

Tonowari exclaims angrily over their cries, "This war has come to us. We knew about this hunting of our tulkun people. But it was over the horizon, far away. Now it is here!"

They all respond to their chief with cries of war, snarling menacingly while baring their fangs and displaying their tongues as he did.

The crowd continues to rile themselves up for battle while Jake is desperate to calm them down, "No, you don't-- You gotta understand how the Sky People think! They don't care about the Great Balance!"

"We do not answer to Sky People!" One warrior shouted menacingly to Jake from the back of the crowd, and an encore of agreeing, snarling Metkayina responded in kind. Kayla flinched, ears lowering as the familiar whispers, snarls, and stares suddenly overwhelmed her. Jake's eyes flick drastically over the head of Na'vi and quickly lock onto hers, to which she silently says what she had been saying all along by gritting her teeth behind a closed mouth and narrowing her eyes at him.

'I told you so. Demon Siblings.'

Neteyam was desperate to control the crowd in his father's favor, waving the large, red tracking device in his hand while pleading, "Listen! Listen to him!"

"The Sky People are not gonna stop. This is only the beginning," Jake continues to try negotiating, directing his attention back to the clan leaders standing before him, "You gotta tell your tulkun to leave! You gotta tell them to go far away!"

"Leave?" Ronal echoed the word with a resounding scoff of sorrow and disbelief, "You live among us, and you learn nothing!"

"We will fight to protect our brothers and sisters!" Another warrior behind her exclaims and the Metkayina begin another wave of snarls and hisses.

"No, no, no, no... If you attack, if you fight, then they will destroy you!" Jake shouts over the crowd, "They will destroy everything that you love!" His voice cracks in desperation, angrily motioning to Ronal's baby bump while looking her dead in the eye. The tsahik instinctively placed a gentle hand on her stomach as all of her people began shouting angrily to Jake, all the while he kept trying to talk over them.

"We will fight!"

"No! You hear my words!"

"We will fight!"

"Hear my words!"

"Stay calm. Stay calm!" Neteyam pleads to those who stood closest to him. Meanwhile, over his shoulder, his mother remained eerily quiet. She glances around at all the angry Metkayina, all of them anxious for a fight, anxious to protect their home. It was all too familiar to Neytiri, overwhelmed with that familiar dread and grief for her Hometree. Her older son continues to try and negotiate alongside her husband, drowning out her thoughts as he shouts, "Listen to my father!"

"Damn it!" Jake was frantic when nothing he said appeared to slow the Na'vi down, desperate for leverage until his eyes zeroed in on the large tracking device in Neteyam's hands. Quickly, he dives forward.

"He speaks the truth!" Neteyam is unable to say more as his father snatches the device out of his hands, the fast movement driving Kayla to straighten in alarm as her brother races to the center of the crowd, stepping up over everyone and raising the device in the air, silencing the entire village with his act and grabbing their attention. The clambering died down and Kayla couldn't help but notice Ronal reach for Tonowari in the heavy silence, holding onto his arm out of fright until he opened his hand without looking back at his wife. Wordlessly, Ronal slips her hand in his, a perfect fit, their conjoined knuckles brushing against her baby bump as they stare at the device in Jake's hand with caution.

"You tell the tulkun that if they're hit by one of these, they're marked for death. And call for me or my sister, we'll silence it."

Eyes look between Jake and Kayla, and it took a lot of willpower for the sister not to curl in her shoulders and try to hide. It helped that Tsireya looked up at Kayla with hope in her eyes as if the avatar woman was capable of grabbing the stars. Kayla faintly smiles down at the girl but it disappears just as fast while Jake continues, "Saving their lives, that's all that matters. Right? Saving your family."

Tonowari peers around at all his people, cautious, his anger beginning to fade as he's left with begrudging acceptance. Looking down at Ronal last, his mate briefly flicks her eyes up to him before they close and she gives a brief nod, clutching his hand tightly for a moment to silently share her opinion.

Finally, the great olo'eyktan steps up to Jake, overlooking the crowd and raising his spear, speaking softer but with more weight in his words, "Tell the tulkun."

Ronal briefly lets go of his hand and turns to her people, "Go. Go!"

Shouts echo off one another as the chosen warriors leave the gathering and journey out into the reef, calling their respective ilu and tsurak. Tsireya turns to see where she had last seen Lo'ak in the crowd, only to find him already walking away. Neteyam also sees his brother exit and an all-knowing gaze washes over before he moves to stomp after Lo'ak. Tsireya had left Kayla's side amidst the chaos of people upon watching both Sully brothers disappear before she could get to them, sensing what was about to happen.

Kayla looks around as the crowd begins to disperse, and already her family has left her alone, moving in separate directions. Her head turns to each one, wondering which way to go first, and who to follow. Kiri had run off to get Tuk while Jake brought Neytiri away to talk privately. Her hesitance to choose where to go causes her to stall and she's suddenly aware of Tonowari and Ronal stepping down onto the pathway, beelining toward her.

Tonowari's solemn gaze keeps Kayla still in her tracks, unable to move. He stared down at her with purpose, voice low so that only they could hear, "Now it is our war."

Dread takes over Kayla once more, adding to the cold of the rain on her skin. Ears lowered under the chief's scrutiny, her eyes briefly turned to Ronal. The tsahik was still clearly devastated by the loss of her Spirit Sister, ears drooping and frown trembling. Kayla opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to find the right words to say, the only thing ever coming out in a hushed whisper, "I'm so sorry..."

She regrettably pulls away, knowing that she would not be good company while Ronal mourns. Kayla isn't able to look away from the clan leaders until she's forced to watch where she's going, turning to look ahead and find her brother. Jake and Neytiri were outside the communal canopy, off to the side to avoid any traffic going in and out. When Kayla approached them, Jake held out the tracking device to her.

"You can disarm these things, right?"

Kayla grabbed the tracker and inspected it, going back into marine mode, "Looks simple enough if we run into more. What happened out there?"

"Bad things. I'll tell you later," Jake shook his head, defeated, "RDA is definitely closing in. I need you to either break your link tonight or radio Norm. Let him know what's going on."

"You got it."

He looks around, "Where are the kids?"

Both Kayla and Neytiri look around while the former answers, "I saw them leave. I know at least one of them went to check on Tuk. We left her at home."

Neytiri didn't appear convinced when she turned her head back to Kayla, "They left without saying anything?"

"I assumed you knew where they were going. Tsireya seemed to know. She went after them."

All three adults fall into silence before they agree to go and find the children. They stick together while looking throughout the village, asking around. At first, no one seemed willing to help them, and the small glances at Jake and Kayla were the only indicator as to why, much to Jake's annoyance and Kayla's inner smugness toward proving her brother right. Neytiri hissed at those who were openly unhelpful and went her own way, down to the ilu pens. Jake and Kayla are quick to follow her, staying behind her so as to not get in her way as they search for the kids.

Eventually, they found a boy who occasionally hangs out with Ao'nung. Neytiri doesn't hesitate to question him, "Have you seen my children?"

The teenage boy looks up and his eyes widen at the sight that was Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite. He's quick to answer her, stumbling over his words, "I saw Ao'nung and Rotxo with them just a minute ago. They took off."

"Dad, I-- I mean Devil Dog. Do you read me?"

Kayla and Jake quickly pick up the sound of Lo'ak's voice coming from their respective earpieces and quickly grow concerned as to why he would call them. Neytiri is unaware of their sudden alertness as she continues to interrogate Ao'nung's friend, "Did you see where they went?"

"-- It's Eagle Eye, do you copy?"

"They went outside the reef." The boy responds, only to be ignored by Neytiri when Jake taps her arm to get her attention, still focused on his son's voice while reaching up to his throat mic to respond.

"Yeah, Lo'ak?"

"Dad!" Neytiri is quick to understand what's happening and pulls her own listening device back in her ear to hear the conversation. Lo'ak's voice was frantic and scared, "We're with a tulkun that's under attack. Killer ship's inbound. It's about two klicks out."

"Shit," Kayla muttered while Neytiri grabs Jake's arms, eyes widening in terror.

Jake's voice is laced with that same terror, "Who's with you?"

"It's all of us! Ao'nung and Tsireya, too." Neytiri gasps silently, visibly wincing at the idea of all of her children in danger, "We're at Three Brothers Rocks."

Neytiri's hand covers her mouth while Jake spouts instructions, "You get to cover, and you do not engage. All right? You hear me? Do not engage, we're comin'."

"Yes, sir."

Jake sprints back into the center of the village, his wife and his sister hot on his heels. Other warriors run with them when they sense their fear and alarm, all racing to get to the olo'eyktan's marui. They yip and call out to Tonowari as they draw closer, the chief looking up from where he sat inspecting a fishing net at the lip of the pod. He's instantly alert to see Toruk Makto racing to him, Ronal soon appears at the entrance to see what the commotion is about.

"The kids are under attack!" The chief immediately rises to his feet as Jake explains, "The kids are under attack. They were defending a tulkun. It's your kids, too."

The weight of the news causes Ronal to spin back around and immediately grab her weapons from within the marui. Tonowari tilts his head to Jake for clarification, "The demon ship?"

"Yes! We gotta go!" Jake yells back as he, Neytiri, and Kayla race off toward their own home.

"Weapons. Sound the alarm!"

The Metkayina warriors yip and runoff, spreading the news as they went, drawing more and more Na'vi to start yipping in unison, growing louder and louder in number. As they draw closer to the Sully marui, Neytiri and Kayla mimic bird sounds to call their respective ikran, seeing the familiar distant sight of wings flying toward them from the forest. They then follow Jake into the pod, gathering as many weapons as they can carry. Jake hands Kayla's rifle to her before grabbing his tomahawk and slipping it into the sheath on his back. He then grabs his arsenal vest and flings it over his shoulder, kneeling down and helping Kayla divide all the ammunition they have on them.

Neytiri grabs her father's bow and holds it to her, breathing in deeply and willing for Eywa to protect her children through her. She then grabs her sheath of arrows and turns around, briefly pausing as Jake catches her eye. The parents share a knowing look and a nod before sprinting back outside with Kayla closely following them. The rest of the village is alive with alarm, dozens and dozens of Metkayina with spears diving into the water below, summoning their tsurak and following their clan leaders out beyond the reef. Jake follows them into the water to grab his own tsurak while two ikran land on the pathways for Neytiri and Kayla to mount. Gracefully, both women take to the air as the banshees squawk, holding onto their reins with one hand and clutching their weapons in the other. They quickly swoop down to fly just above the army of tsurak as the skimwing slowly rise out of the water and fan out their gliding wings, one by one. Neytiri raises her bow up and gives her best war cry to which Jake echos back from below. Ronal looks up and sees Neytiri and Kayla astride their banshees and ululates, adjusting the spear in her hand to which her whole village responds behind her as their army takes off, ready to defend their children and their home.

"Kayla, Neytiri," both women focus on the voice in the earpiece. Jake gives them instructions when he has their attention, "I need you up top, using the clouds for cover. Be my eyes from above and wait for my signal."

"Copy that," Kayla presses her throat mic and then pulls up on her handlebar, making a demand in her head while Thena simply follows it. The ikran squawks and further rises into the sky, breaking away from the army of tsurak and Metkayina. Neytiri yips and pulls her ikran to follow them, the two women disappearing into the clouds until Jake is unable to see them.

They flew through the clouds for a while until they made it to their destination. Neither of them could see Three Brothers Rocks from this height, but they knew their whereabouts. Kayla had Thena slowly descend, just ever so slightly beneath the clouds so she could get a visual, looking through the scope of her rifle to look down toward the ocean with a bird's eye view. She saw the three large peaks of rocks sprouting out of the ocean that Lo'ak had described and once she got her bearings, she proceeded to look for anything else in the surrounding area.

It wasn't hard to spot the hunting ship, large enough for even larger prey, like whales, floating not too far away from where Lo'ak had pinged his location. Several speed boats armed to the teeth with harpoons and sound cannons lined up around the front of the ship, likely as the first line of defense, and it was hard to miss the submersibles diving down into the water, forming large splashes and ripples around the ship. Kayla recognized the two gunships sitting silently on the hunting ship's platform, and she silently thanked God that for now, the rotors didn't appear to be moving. What actually worried her, however, was the half a dozen ikran idly flying around or sitting idle on the ship, sporting modern-looking saddles and pouches. In her experience knowing the behavior behind these animals, they don't appear alert or battle-hungry for the time being. They were more or less bored looking and basking in the sun while waiting for their riders.

She leaned away from her scope to press her fingers into her throat mic, "Devil Dog, do you read me?"

Jake's voice soon answered her, "Go ahead, Desert Fox."

"I got eyes on the target. One WIGE ship, and several boats lined up in front. They have idle subs and SeaWasps on board. Can't get a headcount of personnel. There's about five or six banshees decked out in military gear, riderless."

"Copy that. Stay hidden with Clever Arrow for the time being."

"Lima Charlie."

"We're just approaching Eagle Eye's last location. Stand by."

Kayla doesn't respond, taking a deep breath instead and using the strap on her rifle to prop the weapon behind her back, letting it dangle. She looked over to Neytiri as the Na'vi woman and her ikran glided close beside her, "We stay up here."

"And what about my children?" Neytiri snapped, though Kayla didn't take it to heart, knowing the anger wasn't directed at her. She could only imagine what her sister-in-law was going through, stressed and worried sick for her babies.

Before she could answer or provide Neytiri with a form of comfort, a strange voice, much different from any voice Kayla knew, came in through her earpiece, addressing her brother, "Jake, tell your friends to stand down."

Kayla quickly held up one hand to let Neytiri know she was getting something, then cupped her other hand over her earpiece, trying to pinpoint the strange southern drawl that had intercepted their radio chatter, "You want your kids back, you come out alone. You know better than to test my resolve."

Kayla's blood began to freeze, her heart hammering in her chest to keep it all pumping. The voice had to have been Quaritch to address Jake as if they knew each other, and even if it wasn't the colonel, whoever it was had Kayla's nieces and nephews. Whoever it was had Lo'ak captured at the very least, considering he was the only one out of the Sully children to have a mic and earpiece. The suspected Quaritch continued to speak, "I took you under my wing, Jake. You betrayed me. You killed your own. Good men. Good women. I will not hesitate to execute your kid."

"Just wait one!" Jake finally responded, his voice deeply disturbed and desperate.

Silence fell over the radio chatter, and Kayla could only wait with bated breath. Neytiri and her ikran were visibly growing distressed and irritated, flying in short, unpredictable turns from left to right as if trying to burn off their pent-up energy. Kayla gave the other woman a wider berth while trying not to appear anxious herself, her quiet pants and rapid heartbeat pounding in her ears, along with the wind.

"Offer's fixin' to expire. What's it gonna be?" Quaritch asked after a short minute.

"Check your fire. I'm comin' out."

"Fuck," Kayla muttered, turning to Neytiri, "We should drop lower. Jake is approaching alone."

Neytiri barely gives Kayla enough time to finish her sentence as she leans forward and internally orders her banshee to dive. Kayla orders Thena to do the same, and together they lower through the clouds, trying to remain hidden while moving in for a closer look.

They lower a significant amount, flying out from behind a small mountain peak sticking out of the water, soft gray clouds drifting apart to reveal the battlefield site below. From this distance, it appears everything is at a standstill, and there weren't any indicators to suggest otherwise. Neytiri quickly presses into her throat mic, "Ma Jake, what is happening? Ma Jake?"

Kayla shifts her feet in the footholds of her ikran, Thena jerking her head to share the tension she felt in their bond. Jake didn't answer Neytiri, which worried both women further, unsure of how to proceed. Both looked at one another, thinking the same thing. Do they stay or attack? Does Jake have a plan?

The wait felt like ages, but eventually, movement could be seen down below, and it was so large that Neytiri and Makayla could clearly see what was happening. A large form erupted from below the waters, rising up and leaping over the hull of the WIGE ship, slamming down with a large bellow and jostling the entire ship along with its passengers. A tulkun bull, young and smaller than ones Kayla has seen, but still large enough to give those idle gunships a run for their money. As the tulkun wiggled around on deck, flailing his fins and tail around to knock over or crush any Sky People or Recom, Kayla finally managed to spot a missing fin among the chaos. From listening to Lo'ak and Neteyam's stories, she was able to identify who this fearsome creature was. Payakan.

For a moment, the Sky People and Recom avatars were distracted by the whale-like animal that had quite literally flopped up on deck, making the mistake of disengaging from the Na'vi as they turned their boats and guns around on the tulkun outcast. Rapid gunshots could be heard from all the way up in the sky, and Kayla and Neytiri could only look on in amazement. Payakan bellows again, louder, echoing in Kayla's ears even from this distance, startling the Recoms' idle ikran as they all spread their wings and took flight out of fear.

As the humans were too busy trying to defend themselves and deal with Payakan, Jake was finally pinpointed in the chaos. Kayla had only managed to see him when he drove his tsurak forward and the skimwing took flight, spreading its wide, orange gliders, charging for battle by his lonesome across a dark blue ocean. Suddenly, several other tsuraks took flight, spreading their wings out one by one until the battlefield below Kayla and Neytiri looked like flying ants charging toward a toy boat in the bathtub. Amidst the charge, Payakan was seen diving back into the water, using his fins as leverage to push his weight off the ship. With the tulkun out of sight, the Sky People had turned back around and found themselves fumbling to meet up against the Na'vi as the Metkayina came up behind them using the element of surprise. Rapid gunfire sounded out, now aimed at the army of skimwings, who responded by folding their wings back up and diving down into the water to escape the bullets.

With both sides now engaged in battle, Kayla turned to Neytiri and gestured with her arm, "Let's go!"

Neytiri screeches out a war cry and together they dive down to join the fight, their ikran crowing in response. The banshees fold in their wings to dive faster, the wind whipping wildly in Kayla's face and ears while she held on tight to Thena with one hand and gripped her AK in the other, primed and ready.

Two primary targets took to the sky around the same time Neytiri and Kayla reached the battle. The Recoms had mounted their ikran and were flying up to greet the enemy, with the gunships now following their example. Neytiri broke off from Kayla and flew to the gunship as it was shooting down into the water to get to the Metkayina, approaching fast on her target from above. She raised her bow and aimed, expertly shooting an arrow into the cockpit, shattering the glass while the arrow lodged into the pilot's chest. The gunship crashed into nearby rocks and blew up in a cloud of fire and smoke, Neytiri celebrating her small victory with chants of ululating as she flew by.

By now, the Metkayina have finally begun their assault, their tsurak springing out of the water and leaping above the smaller boats, the Na'vi riders spearing any Sky People on board before dragging them down into the depths of the ocean below. The skimwings themselves have attacked alongside their riders, opening their rows of teeth to any unsuspecting humans when they lept out of the water. Jake flew around and opened fire, emptying rounds of ammunition into a patrol boat until it burst into flames before swiftly turning his tsurak away from the explosion.

It was like the Sky People had finally woken up and begun to wreak havoc themselves, emptying bullets into any nearby Metkayina or tsurak and letting their bodies sink back into the waters. Rocket projectiles, machine guns, grenades, harpoons, and depth charges were used against spears and arrows, proven effective by the growing body count of Na'vi. It began to become an obstacle course for the tsurak as large plums of water sprang up all around them like erupting geysers, forcing the Na'vi to dodge and weave to avoid injury or worse. Jake managed to dodge the grenade launcher that formed these waves of geysers and took aim, shooting the driver of the patrol boat that the launcher was stationed on. With the driver dead, the boat sped into rocks and sent the rest of its crew flying before exploding. Jake took a minute to breathe and reload, grunting tiredly in his old age.

He was caught in a moment of weakness as a Recom dived down with their ikran from above, aiming their sights on his head, before a screech could be heard and the Recom avatar only managed to turn his head just in time to see Thena with her armed jaws spread wide before everything turned to black. Kayla grunts when her ikran makes an impact with the Recom's beast, holding tight as both banshees struggle and flap their wings against each other in the air. Kayla only heard the resounding crunch of the Recom's skull before Thena finally pushed away from the enemy ikran and disengaged. Jake had looked up just in time to see the Recom's headless body slide off its ikran's back and Kayla flew away above hers, a small smirk taking form on the proud brother's face. He looked away and brought his focus back into the fight, taking his tsurak and diving back down into the water.

Another gunship was about to take off from the platform of the hunting ship before Neytiri spotted it, swiftly taking it down and causing it to explode using only a single arrow. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees an enemy ikran pursuing her and she quickly turns her own banshee away. The Recom rider that followed her was none other than Quaritch, and like he had a score to settle, he began to open fire. Neytiri learned from past experience to have her ikran dodge and weave the bullets, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't scared. She knew she couldn't serpentine forever, and flashbacks of the last time she was shot out of the sky haunted the back of her mind, so she called out in short bursts of yips, yelping for assistance.

The backup came in the form of her husband, answering her distressed calls. Jake and his tsurak leap out of the water, flying right behind Quaritch, and roared as he began to open fire on the colonel. Quaritch takes evasive maneuvers, Neytiri forgotten, while he tries to avoid getting shot. He was only given a window of opportunity when Jake ran out of ammo and quickly had to stop and reload. Jake threw his empty clip over his shoulder and pats around his vest for more, only to come up empty aside from the dread now looming in his chest, "Oh, shit."

Meanwhile, Neytiri had flown back to aid Kayla in taking down the other Recoms flying around, the Forest woman using her ikran to make a large loop upside down as she aimed and fired an arrow into an enemy avatar. Kayla responded in kind by shooting down another Recom that was ready to go after Neytiri for killing his friend. Kayla looked around for more targets and saw another Recom shooting down into the water, presumable at a Metkayina and their tsurak. Kayla flew down to their aid, raining a hellfire of bullets into both the Recom and their ikran. The bodies of both banshee and avatar crashed into the water, and the Metkayina briefly turned around to glance at her pursuer's corpse.

It was Ronal, her spear missing and her heart skipping in her chest to see the demon that was trying to shoot her while she was helpless was now dead. Peering up through the ocean's surface, the tsahik could make out an image of Kayla and her ikran flying away with the enemy dead, distorted by the movement of water and unaware of Ronal's gratitude.

Kayla now turned to a particularly large shape forming in the water, deciding to finish off any survivors from the damage Payakan left in his wake. With the flick of his tail, he had sent a whole patrol boat into the propellor of the hunting ship, killing everyone on board the smaller boat as it burst into flames. Weirdly enough, the propellor fans began to kick into high gear, the flames of the explosion getting pulled through until the whole fan exploded as a result. Suddenly, the very large WIGE ship is pushed forward, going at high speed toward a scattering of rocks peeking out of the water as if the ship had been sabotaged from the inside. The vessel crashes, being thrown into the air while the rocks scrape along the underbelly, causing irreparable damage. The ship momentarily flies in the air before slowly crashing back down into the sea, worse for wear as it slows to a stop. Kayla noticed a surface boat with a harpoon holder welded into the bow of the vessel quickly picking up speed to avoid getting crushed by the large ship and decided to set her sights on its crewmembers. She leans forward as Thena picks up speed, flying toward the vessel at the same time Payakan appears to have noticed the small boat as well.

Elsewhere, Jake had to dive back into the water to avoid getting shot by Quaritch now that the colonel had the upper hand. When The Recom leader managed to lose sight of his target, Jake took the moment of opportunity to leap his tsurak out of the water and have the skimwing latch its razor-sharp teeth into the neck of Quaritch's ikran. Quaritch yells out, surprised and enraged as both tsurak and ikran struggle together, entangled while their riders shout out grunts and war cries, pushing and pulling to gain the upper hand with all their stubborn might. Quaritch is flung from his banshee, crashing into the water while Jake's tsurak drags the ikran into the depths before finally unlatching its teeth and letting go. The ikran swims then fly away upon surfacing, abandoning its master as Quaritch swims to the surface, gasping for air with his rifle in hand.

The harpoon vessel had begun to follow Payakan upon sighting him, and the tulkun swam alongside it until the harpoon was let loose. Payakan dove and shifted in the water, narrowly avoiding the harpoon before using the tusk-like structure on the bow of his head to spin and tangle the strong cable attached to the harpoon around him before further clamping his jaws around the cable for extra measure. He swims fast, faster than normal until he's dragging the whole boat behind him like an excited dog dragging his owner by the leash. The tulkun pulls the boat along for the ride until they get to another cluster of rocks poking out of the water, then swims around it until the boat is helplessly skimming toward its doom. The boat crashes and briefly floats in the air along with any crew member on board who had quickly grabbed a hold of something, before diving back into the water. The boat is miraculously still afloat, bobbing up and down in waves as the chaos subsides for now. The vessel looked as though it was floating dead in the water, with no engine or noise coming from its hull. The harpoon launcher was reloaded as they waited, looking around for any sight of the tulkun.

Payakan repeated his maneuver and breached the water, cable still in his mouth, as he lept over the small boat. The cable now wrapped securely around the boat, Payakan gave a quick tug until the cable dug into the metal of the boat and then began to sink deeper and deeper. The crew scrambles to duck down just as the cable comes crashing through, cutting everything in its path until it catches onto the harpoon launcher, a crewmate's arm caught right in between them.

Kayla was flying around Payakan's whereabouts and winced just as the cable cut through the man's arm and harpoon launcher, sending both flying and then crashing into the ocean below along with the severed arm. Kayla then dives down to finish off the survivors, aiming then firing at any humans that pose a threat. She spares one man among the wreckage, however, as he clearly appears to be a scientist, not a soldier. She could afford to spare one man to go crawling back to Ardmore and relay his horrific stories... but she wouldn't feel the loss if another Na'vi decided to finish him off instead.

~~~~~~~~~

The sky slowly turned dark as eclipse rolled around, the fires from prior explosives the only thing lighting up the war zone that transpired, turning everything red and orange in its wake. It was like a waking nightmare, a sky full of smoke and pollution, taken out of a dystopian novel. The eery silence was only filled by flickering fire, with no signs of Na'vi or man in sight. Both had mysteriously disappeared.

Kayla had looped around the battlefield several times already, trying to pinpoint any danger or sign of a familiar face. There were a lot of floating bodies and debris, empty boats with blood dripping down. It looked unnerving as they began to float away, with no sign of life on board.

There's a distance splash and Kayla reflectively turned in the direction she heard it. There's an outline of a Na'vi jumping off the back of his tsurak and walking along a face of rocks, soft waves of water lapping over the surface and giving off the illusion that he was walking on water. Thena lowered from the sky until Kayla managed to depict certain characteristics and instantly recognized the Na'vi man, "Jake!"

Jake looked up at the sound of his name and noticed an ikran land on the rocks, huffing from exhaustion as its rider disengaged, running toward him. A small wave of relief encompasses Toruk Makto at the sight of his sister, "Kayla! Hey--"

"'You alright?" She immediately asked upon reaching him, her eyes briefly looking for any injuries.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah."

There's a distant splash resembling a breach in the water, causing the older Sully siblings to turn at the noise. Immediately, Kayla's stomach falls at the sight. It was like a waking nightmare for Jake, watching a small group of teenagers come rolling onto the shore of the rock face he and Kayla had landed on. Quickly, he noticed something was wrong, running over as Lo'ak waved him down.

"Dad! Dad, help! It's Neteyam!"

Tsireya briefly closes her eyes as a harsh wave smacks her in the face, ears drooping when listening to the sounds of Neteyam's rugged coughs. He was weak, and short of breath even though he had been an excellent student in her lessons on how to take large gulps of air for deep diving. It scared her, "Hurry!"

Lo'ak peers back at his brother before sinking into the water, dismounting his ilu and handing his brother to Tsireya, "Here, take him!"

Jake and Kayla proceed to rush over, eyes widening at the sight of the teens holding Neteyam above water as he sputters and coughs, one of which was not like the others and was the very same teenage boy Kayla had spent a long time searching for. The gasp she let out at the sight of a human boy among the Na'vi teens was from pure shock, "Spider?"

"Oh, no," Jake gasped as he took in the horrific sight of the half-drowned kids trying to pull his wounded firstborn to shore, blood pouring from his chest like the water he was floating in.

Lo'ak keeps repeating the same words through his fear, "It's Neteyam! He's hurt!"

Spider reaches out for Toruk Makto's arm as he grasps Neteyam's body, "Jake, come on! Come on!"

"Hurry, please!" Lo'ak begs.

Jake finally snaps out of his daze and grabs Spider's arm, trying to help drag all the connected teenagers to shore, "Pull!"

Kayla shakes herself from her shock and steps up to help, also grabbing onto Spider's arm and assisting her brother in pulling them all up out of the water.

"Bro, watch his head, watch his head!" Lo'ak instructs Spider, panic beginning to set in as he watches Neteyam's eyes begin to roll back, the older boy still coughing and otherwise unaware of his surroundings.

"Pull! Come on!" Jake grunts, finally getting all the kids out of the water. He grabs Neteyam's torso, lifting him in the air while Lo'ak and Spider have his sides and Tsireya has his legs, Kayla's hands hovering around the wounded boy's neck in case it rolls. Jake has them bring Neteyam to more solid ground before lowering him, "Just watch his head. Okay--"

Neteyam shallowly breathes as he feels the cold and wet rock surface underneath him, unable to suck in more air as Lo'ak grasps one of his hands, squeezing hard in comfort, "It's okay, bro. We got you."

Jake pushes Neteyam onto his side, immediately clocking the exit wound bleeding profusely with the help of Spider's flashlight, "Oh, no," looking around, frantic, he instead grabs Lo'ak's hands and presses it harshly against Neteyam's bleeding chest, "Put pressure-- put pressure on it!"

Neteyam stifles a grunt at the pressure against his chest, trying to get a word out, "Dad, I--"

"It's okay, I'm here!"

Kayla thinks quickly and rationally, stripping off her jacket, "Jake, the exit--"

"I know, I know!"

Without another word, Kayla has Lo'ak help her lift Neteyam until she has her rolled-up jacket pressed up against the exit wound behind him then lays him back down, helping Lo'ak continue putting pressure on the profusely bleeding hole in the older boy's chest. But she couldn't know how long Neteyam had been bleeding out. It was impossible to determine and her attempt to save him might be in vain. Kayla remains hovering over him, trying her best to conjure up a smile, "Hey, kiddo... it's alright, just take it easy. Remember to breathe..."

Neytiri lands her ikran when she spotted a few members of her family, barely pulling her braid from her mount before running over to the scene, muttering in fear and denial, "No, no, no, no, no!"

Kayla moves out of the way the moment Neteyam's mother arrives, surrendering her spot next to Lo'ak for Neytiri, and backs up, hovering over her brother's family and unable to look away.

"It's okay. It's okay, son, I gotcha." Jake comforted.

Lo'ak tries the same, "It's okay..."

Neteyam's eyes wildly looked around, unfocused and frightened, even when directed at Jake. It was like his son couldn't hear him, the shock setting Neteyam into panic mode as Jake tried to firmly reassure him.

Neteyam briefly looked relieved before tears started to gather in his eyes. Just this once, he allows himself to be a little boy again, tearful and sad, "I want to go home..." he grunts out his small plea before gasping rapidly, the words exhausting him.

Jake's voice quivers, holding his son's shoulder, "I know. I know. It's okay, we're goin' home. We're goin' home."

He softens his voice, pushing the desperation away to try and calm his son, as if he was still an infant he was soothing to sleep, "We're going home. It's okay, it's okay."

Neteyam gulps and tries to force the words out of his mouth, "Dad, I..."

His words are abruptly cut off, fading into the wind. The boy's eyes begin to unfocus and his body goes unnaturally stiff, rid of all muscle movement and heartbeat. Silence lingers over the Sully family as they wait for their son and brother to catch his breath, Neytiri gripping his hand tighter to get him to focus, "Neteyam..."

But there was no response. No breath, no words... nothing. Complete silence while Neteyam's eyes are permanently stuck watching the sky, unblinking and unfocused. Jake's heart plummets to his stomach, his breath escaping his lungs as he bows his head in distress. Neytiri's eyes flicker over her firstborn's face, over and over, frantic as she begins to rant, "No. No, no, no, Neteyam!"

She begins to scream in anguish and denial, her voice shattering everyone's ears and hearts. Tsireya couldn't bear to look at her friend's body anymore and had to look away to cry, flinching at the sound of Neytiri's screams. Jake shushes his wife softly, reaching out to her but his touch goes unnoticed, as the mother desperately clings to any part of her dead son's body, trying to shake him awake. A single tear slips down Spider's face, collecting at the bottom of his mask, while Lo'ak begins to quietly sob, staring down at his hands, covered in his brother's blood.

"Neteyam!" Neytiri sobs while leaning over her boy, holding his head close to hers as she wails, "Oh, Great Mother. No, Great Mother! Please! Oh, my son! My son... No!"

Jake had gone completely numb, leaning back with his hands in his lap, eyes drifting off to somewhere distant while unable to comprehend the sight in front of him. Neytiri continues to sob and plead to anyone who will listen, her voice growing hoarse over time, "My son! No! No!"

Kayla silently stood over the Sully family, tears running down her face, but otherwise quiet to the world. Initially, she wanted to clench her hands into fists but immediately unfurled them again when she felt the squish and stick of her nephew's blood, to which she refused to look down and see for herself. She didn't want to see the color, nor what it represented... a young life taken from his family far too soon.

"Can you hear me, Corporal?" Kayla's ears perk up to the southern drawl in her earpiece, and when her eyes flick to Jake, she notices his ears move to attention as well. Both Sully siblings felt cold as the voice dragged on, "Yeah, yeah, I think you can. I got your daughters. Same deal as before. You for them."

At the mention of the girls, Jake appears to wake out of his trance, turning his head to the direction of the hunting ship, then realization begins to creep in. His head slowly turns back to Lo'ak, his voice quiet as terror begins to settle in his chest, "Where are your sisters?"

His remaining son slowly peers up at him, eyes rimmed pink from crying, and his silence only angered Jake as he snapped his demands, "Your sisters. Where are they?"

"I don't know," Lo'ak whispered.

"Where are they?!" Jake shouts.

"They're on the ship," Tsireya sobs quietly, her bottom lip quivering as Toruk Makto turns to her, "They are tied up on the ship."

"They're-- They're at the moon pool," whether it was out of grief, shock, or fear of Jake, Spider continued to stutter while the older man turned to him, holding onto the boy's arm as he spoke, "At-- A-At the well deck. Midships."

"What?" Jake asked, unable to make sense of the human boy's rambling.

Spider sighs in defeat and then rises to his feet, grabbing onto Jake's arm and helping him stand up, "Come on. I'll show you. Come on. I'll show you."

Jake stumbled initially, the shock and adrenaline still coursing through him as Quaritch continued to speak through the radio, "Talk to me, Corporal. I need somethin', Jake or there's gonna be consequences."

"Yeah, I hear you," Jake responded as he pressed into the throat, sounding a little out of breath. He stumbles over to Kayla, ignoring the blood on her hands and gripping both of her arms as he speaks to her, his voice like gravel scrapping together, "Fly up ahead. Don't engage until I get into position. Lure the hostiles away while I grab the girls. Wait for my signal."

Kayla forced herself to nod, swallowing whatever broken cry threatened to come out as she whispered, "All right."

She forces herself to break out of Jake's hold, forcing herself to turn and walk away from the others, Neytiri's cries following her as she went. There's a small pool of water that collects on the rock surface and Kayla briefly kneels down to clean herself up, tears beginning to well up in her eyes again when she finally sees all the blood. She quickly stands back up, forming tsaheylu with Thena while hopping up onto her back, barely glancing back at what she assumes is the top of Neteyam's head of braids before rising into the sky and flying away.

Even though she could no longer hear Neytiri's cries from this distance, Kayla could still hear the horrific sounds in her head, following her as she rose higher into the sky. She uses the clouds and smoke for cover as she silently looms over what she knows is the location of the WIGE ship, using the scope of her rifle again to look down below to see what she is dealing with. The ship was slowly but surely beginning to sink, slightly tilted in the water, but the remaining Recoms and human soldiers on board were trying to balance out the weight but positioning themselves on one end, gathering their weapons and anxiously waiting for Jake's arrival.

As she's waiting above, alone in her grieving silence, she's suddenly startled out of her daze when the earpiece kicks on again, and Quaritch's voice seeps through, "Talk to me, Corporal. This ship's going down and your girls with it... Your boy didn't have to die. You brought that on yourself. You thought you could keep your family safe, but you can't. Only one way to keep them safe. So let's get this over with before you lose another kid."

Thena mewls quietly when feeling the blood-boiling rage through her bond with Kayla, the avatar's grip tightening on the reins of her ikran. Flashes of the many ways she could kill Quaritch play in Kayla's head like a movie, deep and dark thoughts she would never voice out loud unless she'd risk scaring the people she loved around her. Back on Earth, she would've immediately been sent to a shrink or a psychiatric hospital for voicing her murderous thoughts and she didn't want to risk finding out what would happen if she did so here on Pandora.

Her thoughts are abruptly cut off, however, by the loud sound of an explosion going off on the upper decks of the WIGE ship. While Kayla was waiting in her dark mind, Jake was below, sneaking onto the ship along with Spider. As Quaritch was monologuing, Jake had taken a grenade and lodged it into a gunship that Neytiri had shot down earlier, the wreckage now resting on the top of the WIGE ship. Jake quickly ran back to Spider and shouted for him to take cover, right before the gunship exploded into fire and debris.

Kayla watched the explosion bloom into smoke before she finally flew down, knowing that was the signal. She uses that smoke as cover, flying down through it to remain unseen to the RDA goons. The fires were blinding the humans, scrambling away from the flames or diving in to save anyone who survived the initial explosion. At the moment, everyone was distracted, and it was this perfect distraction that the Sully adults used to their advantage, striking the Sky People while they were down. Jake leaped in and immediately took out a human and a Recom by impaling them with a Metkayina spear. He wasn't able to take the weapon with him as it lodged completely through the body of the Recom, so Jake quickly took his AK out and began firing at nearby soldiers once they began to notice his presence.

At the sound of gunfire, Kayla and Neytiri swoop into action, flying down from opposite ends of the ship, and surrounding the Sky People. Neytiri lands in a front-ward roll before skilfully aiming and firing her bow and arrow, immediately lodging said arrow into the leg of a female Recom. While the enemy avatar is distracted, Neytiri picks off the two humans who were covering the Recom's six. Neytiri raises the last human male up and shoots an arrow through his body and into the female Recom's skull before she can further react. Neytiri scrambles to retrieve her arrows once all immediate enemies are dead just as Jake approaches with his gun in his arms, keeping an eye out while his wife collects her ammunition.

"Clear," he announces to her, expertly looking around to spot more enemies.

Meanwhile, Kayla has landed on a different end of the ship, and Thena flies away. One Recom, bald and sporting tattoos with a patch on his vest that read L. WAINFLEET, immediately noticed her and shouted to the top of his lungs while aiming his gun in her direction, "We got another avatar!"

He and other humans begin to open fire, while Kayla immediately ducks for cover. Jake had climbed up onto the upper levels of the ship as this began to transpire and used the distraction to attack the RDA soldiers who were firing down at his sister from their high ground. He killed and flung their bodies down from the catwalk, the height surely killing their small and frail bodies. Wainfleet noticed the sky was raining bodies and briefly stopped firing to look up before his eyes widened and he immediately moved his gun sights onto Jake, "Eyes up!"

The human soldiers follow his order and begin to raise and fire up at Jake. Kayla uses this distraction to come back out of hiding and, with their backs turned, she immediately begins to open fire on the Sky People, expertly shooting most of them in the back of the head or top of the spine.

Neytiri throws herself into the fray, leaping down the flight of stairs leading down to the lower deck of the ship. She dives for cover as Quaritch and other Sky People take notice of her and open fire. Wainfleet and any Sky People that managed to escape Kayla's cascade of bullets try to surround Neytiri, moving up slowly to her hiding place as she continues through her murder spree. She manages to get above and behind the humans trying to get around and corner her, jumping down behind Wainfleet before disarming him and knocking him out when she swings her bow into his face. Out of arrows, Neytiri readies her bow to swing again and hides, waiting for the remaining soldiers to come find her.

Jake continued to be her eyes from above, shooting down at the soldiers below once they got too close to Neytiri's hiding spot. She comes out of hiding once her husband kills her remaining pursuers and rushes to grab any nearby stray arrows. Meanwhile, Kayla is pushing the remaining soldiers forward, shooting her AK into the fray and drawing them back. Little did the humans realize that Kayla had pushed them toward Jake and Neytiri in their rush to fall back away from Kayla's barrage of attacks. Jake jumps down once Kayla has their prey clustered close together and begins picking them off one by one. He lifts humans into the air and throws them into Recoms. He chucks empty rifles into RDA masks, causing the masks to shatter and the humans to suffocate while he moves forward with his tomahawk in hand. Kayla appears on the other side of the surrounded Sky People, completely cornering them into the blood bath. Once her section was cleared of hostiles, she moved further up to the highest point of the ship to provide support for Jake and Neytiri from above.

Neytiri shoots arrows at those who manage to break off and run away from Jake. Once out of arrows once more, she dives for one that was lodged into a dead body nearby, struggling with it as it got stuck. Meanwhile, Wainfleet had woken up behind her, face bleeding as he scrambled to reload his rifle. Neytiri had managed to get her arrow loose of the body and was about to aim and finish the Recom off before Jake appeared out of nowhere, attacking Wainfleet head-on and obstructing a clear shot for Neytiri to take.

"Ma Jake!"

While the two male avatars fight in close combat, more soldiers try to get around them. With her husband preoccupied, Neytiri covers him and fires her already-loaded arrow into one of the soldiers, killing him instantly. Behind the body was a clear view of Kiri and Tuk, cuffed to the center railing of the ship, just like what Spider had said.

With their daughters close at hand, Jake and Neytiri move in, now acting like a frantic couple of animals as the threat of their young is further imminent. Kayla provides backup support, knowing better to stay out of the parents' way, and empties her AK onto anyone below who is trying to subdue Jake and Neytiri, but through the smoke and flashes of gunfire, Kayla quickly loses sight of Na'vi pair, and the ground level grows eerily silent once there are no more soldiers to kill. Deciding to get closer to Kiri and Tuk's position, Kayla slowly and quietly makes her way back down, not wanting to make her presence known. She climbs down onto some gunship wreckage, not yet on the ground level once she spots the back of Jake's head. Getting a closer look, she realized Jake was weaponless, hands open in defeat.

Little Tuk was standing behind her father, shivering in fear, while in front of them stood Quaritch, his knife pressed tightly against Kiri's throat. At least, Kayla could only assume it was Quaritch, faintly seeing his name on the patch of his vest. They were all at a standstill, and when Kayla immediately jumped down to help, Jake threw his arm out for her to stay back, "Don't move!" He begged.

Quaritch keeps Kiri in front of him, using the teenager as a shield as he bares his fangs at Kayla upon her arrival, "Weapons down, now!"

"Do what he says." Jake sternly tells his sister. Kayla hesitates, eyes flicking between him and Kiri, then at Quaritch's knife that had already made small red cuts into her older niece's neck. Slowly, the female avatar sets down her gun and kicks it away, tossing her remaining ammunition over her shoulder before raising her arms up where the colonel can see them.

Satisfied, Quaritch quickly digs into his vest pocket and pulls out orange slap cuffs, tossing them onto the ground at Jake's feet as he snarls, "Cuff yourself."

"No!" A voice from behind Quaritch begged just as Jake was kneeling down to grab the cuffs. Everyone looked up to notice that the voice belonged to Spider, the human teen running around to get into Quaritch's line of sight, "No, don't hurt her, okay? Don't--"

"Stand there!" Quaritch roared, pointing a threatening finger at the boy while he kept Kiri in place with the knife against her neck.

"Spider, stay back!" Kayla yells out of fear, surprising even herself when her voice sounds stern.

Tuk softly cried while leaning back into her aunt's legs when Kayla drew close to the child, Jake firmly keeping his sister and his youngest child behind him, "Don't..."

"Don't. Move. Not a step," Quaritch threatens Spider before turning back to Jake, "Cuffs. On. Now!"

"You son of a bitch." Jake forces out through his anger and fear, slapping one side of the cuffs onto his wrist.

"Please, don't hurt her." Spider continues to beg.

Out of nowhere, Neytiri creeps up behind the human boy and retrieves her knife, grabbing hold of Spider and pressing her knife against his own neck with a snarl. Quaritch is startled at the sight, proceeding to hold Kiri tighter while looking between the boy and Neytiri.

The Na'vi woman's voice sounded so unlike her, hoarse and breathless, "Release. Or I cut."

Quaritch paused before trying to play off the threat, shaking his head, "What, you think I care about some kid? He's not mine. We're not even the same species."

"Just please don't-- don't hurt her," Spider continues to beg, ignoring his own life in exchange for Kiri's as he continues to plead to the man who holds the memories of his father, "Just please let her go."

"Don't!" Tuk continues to cry quietly, while Kayla holds the little girl's head against her. Both hers and Jake's ears and eyes flicked to whoever talked during the whole hostage situation, unable to move and feeling helpless.

"Please!"

"Don't kill him--" Kiri had begun to beg as well.

"Listen to me! Let her go. Don't hurt her."

"Mom, don't kill him."

"A son for a son." Neytiri shakily growls, tilting her head in Quaritch's direction as if studying him. She looked completely unhinged, sweat and human blood scattered all around her face and body, shrunken yellow eyes staring only at Quaritch.

"Neytiri, don't!" Kayla begs, holding Tuk close for protection and comfort, "Please!"

"Please don't hurt her," Spider continues to ramble until Neytiri takes her knife and slices the blade tightly over his chest, drawing small beads of blood, "Ah!"

"I cut," Neytiri hissed, flashing the blood on her knife to let Quaritch know she meant business.

Spider huffs in pain and grits his teeth, but he goes right back to begging, "Please just let her go, okay? Just let her go."

Quaritch and Neytiri stare down at one another, unblinking until Neytiri screams in rage and raises her knife up to cut down Spider. Barely anyone had time to react, apart from Quaritch, as he quickly pulled his knife away from Kiri, "NO!"

Kiri gasped only to realize that she wasn't in any more danger, calming her heartbeat as the relieved tears began to well up. A scream that threatened to climb out of Kayla's throat suddenly subsided, and she held her breath while waiting for Neytiri's reaction. The air is thick and tense, both knives raised in the air either to destroy or spare. Neytiri slowly looks back at Quaritch, breathing heavily as she waits, keeping her knife posed and her grip on Spider. Quaritch grunts in defeat, pushing Kiri away and stepping back. Kiri immediately gets to her feet as Jake, Kayla, and Tuk inch closer to her, the younger girl whispering reassurances for herself and her sister, "Kiri... Kiri. Kiri."

Neytiri watches her family reunite with one another before slowly lowering the knife back down, then pointedly shoves Spider behind her, away from Quaritch.

"Spider!" Kiri exclaims as she, Tuk, and Kayla run to him.

Jake slowly approaches Neytiri while they're occupied, taking the knife out of his wife's hand and keeping an eye on Quaritch, "Spider, get 'em outta here."

Without hesitation, Spider began to tug on Kiri's arm, pulling her toward the ocean that was slowly creeping onto the tilting ship, "Come on. Guys-- Tuk."

"I owe you a death," Quaritch points directly at Neytiri, who snarls ferociously back at him with pure hatred in her eyes.

"Mom," Kiri calls out, while Tuk begins to tug on her mother's arm.

"Mama."

"Come."

"Come on. Please, Mama."

Neytiri finally relents with her daughters' pleading, slowly backing up, inching toward the water. Jake keeps himself between Quaritch and his family, Kayla standing dutifully at his side while the children and Neytiri sink into the water. Quaritch keeps his knife in front of him, at the ready, acting like a cornered tiger while trying to bait Jake into staying, "You're not leaving, are you, Jake?"

"It's okay--" Kiri reassures Tuk as she and Neytiri draw closer.

"Knowin' I'm out there?" Quaritch continues.

"Kayla, back up," Jake muttered warningly, and his sister slowly sank into the water to join the others behind him.

"Knowin' that I'll never stop?" Quaritch seethed, his voice lowering now that it was only him and Jake still standing on the sinking deck of the ship, "I'm comin' for you. And when I do, I'll kill your whole family."

The water laps at Kiri's face as she sinks into the water, worry in her eyes while watching Jake stand still, no longer moving to join them, "Dad..."

Jake's body stiffens as if his mind had been made up about something, eyes focused only on Quaritch as he stands up straighter, "Then let's get it done."

"Jake, no!" Kayla yells just as Jake leaps for a nearby medkit at the same time Quaritch dives toward him. Jake swings the medkit and hits the Recom with it, momentarily stunning the colonel as he goes in for another attack, this time with the knife he took from Neytiri. He swings at Quaritch several times, closely missing his neck before finally getting a slice at his vest. As the ship continues to tilt and sink, crates and other debris slide down toward the fighting pair and both Jake and Quaritch have to move out of the way to avoid getting hit before moving back in for the kill. They grapple and wrestle for each other's knives, trying to shove the sharp tip into each other's skulls.

"Jake!" Neytiri calls out to her mate just as a burst of flame begins to spread over the water where coolant and oil had spilled into the ocean. The wall of flame grows and begins to inch closer toward the Na'vi and the human boy floating just above the water's surface.

"It's coming!" Tuk cries.

"Back. Back!" Spider orders to the girls, beginning to tread water back the way they came, "Get back to the ship! Go!"

"Tuk, swim. Swim!" Kiri instructs hurriedly.

Kayla, who was the last to get into the water, was now the first one out, grabbing onto the others one by one and pulling them back up onto the deck, starting with Tuk and ending with Spider as he made sure the others made it on first. Kayla continued to push the whole group ahead of her, occasionally looking around to see if Jake and Quaritch were still nearby, but she had lost sight of them.

And she wasn't the only one. Neytiri was also frantically looking around, fear in her eyes while clinging on tightly to Tuk's hand, "Jake--"

"I'll get him, go!" Kayla exclaims in a last-second decision, backing away from the group and breaking off while shouting at Neytiri from over her shoulder, "Get the kids outta here, we'll come find ya!"

Kayla then turns to look ahead of her as she runs, determination setting in as she goes over to where she last saw her brother. She hears grunts and growls in the distance and doesn't hesitate to sprint over just in time to see Quaritch kick Jake in the gut to disengage from their knife wrestle. Jake doesn't have time to react as a motor or a generator of some sort comes sliding down toward him and shoves him into the water.

Quaritch stalks over to the place Jake disappeared, knife glinting off of the flames of destruction around him. The Recom's muscles flex as he pants heavily with adrenaline, and with his back turned to Kayla, she makes a split and reckless decision. Unarmed, she leaps over sliding debris and then uses that momentum to jump up onto Quaritch's back with a small war cry, the both of them grunting at the impact while Kayla doesn't waste time to reach for and grapple for the knife in the colonel's hand. Quaritch growls and pitches Kayla forward off of his back, only for his grip to loosen around his knife and fall right into her hand. The female avatar stands up straight, quickly repositioning the blade more securely in her grip before charging forward, swinging in the air in front of Quaritch as he continuously dodges and leans away from the knife.

Eventually, he sidesteps and grabs her swinging arm, stopping the blade in its tracks before twisting her arm into an uncomfortable position. She cries out, forced to drop the blade before taking her other arm and elbowing Quaritch in the face. He staggers back with a pained grunt, then reaches for her arm again. He slams her against the rigging, driving her to take a gasp of air and regain her footing. A feat that was proven useless when Quaritch quickly grabbed the knife on the ground and reached forward, grabbing Kayla's kuru braid at the very base, connected to her skull. He yanked, hard, driving Kayla to scream in pain, the action rendering her immobile. He keeps her braid tight in one hand while the other retrieves his knife and is sure to let her know he means business when he presses the sharp blade to her throat. Kayla reduced her struggle to a minimum as she felt a small trickle of blood run down her long neck along with her sweat.

Quaritch grits his teeth and through the struggle, manages a small, gritted smile, "You're a newer model. You must be the little missing guinea pig the General was talking about."

She hissed, baring her fangs to the best of her ability, making the intimidating sound from the back of her throat, only cutting the sound off when Quaritch tugged painfully against her braid. Kayla gulped back air and frantically reached back for her queue at the base, trying to relieve his grip on such a sensitive part, following the motion to be sure the kuru wasn't torn from her skull. The movement brings Quaritch's attention to a certain item dangling from her neck.

Her RDA military tags, clinked softly together, proudly bearing her rank and station. Quaritch sees the name, so familiar that causes both dread and rage to eat him up from the inside out. He snarls, the fangs forming a cold, threatening smile, "Well I'll be damned... betrayal must run in the family."

Kayla nearly lunged at him before she felt a twitch in the knife and her body immediately stiffened, the cold blade digging further into her skin. She could see the male avatar's whole form tightening, preparing to use his strength to give the killing the blow. Quaritch's grip on her braid and his knife tighten and he's ready to just end her with the flick of his wrist.

"NO!" Is the only gutwrenching warning Jake gives either of them before he tackles Quaritch, shoving his whole body into the colonel's torso like a football player. The impact drives the older man to grunt in pain and also let go of Kayla, but the force of the tackle sends her falling backward, stumbling over the railing. Kayla is thrown overboard and sent falling into the ocean, where her screams forming her brother's name are drowned out by the water consuming her.

Unable to take a breath in before she hit the water, Kayla struggled to get air. She quickly swims up to the surface and manages to gulp out a breath or two when she breaches, but the moment is cut short when she realizes that the tipping ship was throwing debris off the side of the hull down into the ocean and onto her. Kayla instinctively holds her breath, properly this time, and dives back down into the water in an attempt to avoid the collision. Heavy machinery and other objects from the ship are falling quickly through the water around her like a knife through butter, too heavy to stay afloat. She narrowly misses as much debris as possible, trying to swim away as fast as she can, but she gets caught but a large piece of shipwreck that had broken off from the initial boat. It's heavy enough to drag her down, deep into the dark depths until the bioluminescent lights of the coral reef below light her surroundings, the glow of the fire and eclipse above the ocean's surface faintly disappearing the deeper she got dragged down. Her arms burned in exhaustion as she tried her best to pull and swim herself out from under the debris, but it was too heavy and sinking too fast, and her foot and gotten caught in a shredded hole wedged inside the metal.

Against all that she had learned, Kayla began to panic, her heart racing while she frantically looked around to the best of her ability. Because of this, the need for air came quicker, and her lungs began to burn and try to constrict. Pressure began to build in her skull and chest, and dark spots started to form in the corners of her vision. The creaking of metal fills her ears as Kayla's arms finally stop fighting, too tired and weak to continue to try. With her mind now foggy and devoid of logic due to lack of oxygen, Kayla opened her mouth and took in a breath.

Just as the water rushed through her mouth and entered her lungs, a sharp tug on her foot had wrenched her free. Whatever was wrapped around her ankle now rose to wrap around her waist, and distantly, Kayla felt herself being pulled against a solid form as they swam through the water. Barely gaining the strength to look up, she faintly realized she was quickly rising to the surface.

The moment her face is free from the water, she takes big gulps of air, coughing seaspray from her lungs as she's pulled up onto a tsurak without much of a struggle, laying across its strong back and part of its head as she catches her breath. The strong arm secure around her torso was heavily tattooed and clearly Metkayina, the limb letting her go once she remembered to hold herself up out of the water. Between breaths, she takes a moment to glance up and lets her body relax at the sight of Tonowari, sitting calmly on the saddle of the skimwing.

The olo'eyktan appeared grim at the sight of her, silently urging her to cough up the water with a hand gently placed on the back of her neck. Kayla winced when the initial touch was sore from where her queue braid had been tugged, and so Tonowari drew his hand away, instead tilting her chin up to inspect the cut on her neck, small trickles of blood flowing down her skin.

"Are you injured?"

"I'm fine." Kayla managed to spit out as she pulled her chin from his grasp, ignoring the sharp pain in her foot. She began wildly looking around and immediately spotted Ronal and her tsurak floating beside them. Closely watching Kayla, the tsahik's big eyes briefly glanced down at the neck wound her mate was inspecting on the avatar.

Satisfied by the answer, Tonowari instructs Kayla to lean against him so he can reach the handlebar of his tsurak, adjusting her until she's properly straddling the back of the powerful lungfish. Still a little dazed and recovering, Kayla doesn't fight being puppeteered as the tsurak begins to move in the direction its rider wanted to go. Kayla tiredly looked around, freezing in fear when she noticed the WIGE ship was barely peeking out of the water now, and she could do nothing but watch as it slowly disappeared, into the ocean, leaving nothing behind but large bubbles and ripples along with the groaning of metal.

It was only when Kayla realized that she was being led away from the location of the sunken ship did she begin to struggle, startling the skimwing and irritating the chieftain. Tonowari grips the handle of the tsurak with one hand but makes a point to restrain Kayla with the other, wrapping his whole arm around her torso again as she starts to protest loudly, "No! NO! My family's still in there! They're still down there, stop!"

"You will do them no good if you drown before you can get to them!" Tonowari snapped.

Ronal blocked the path of her husband's tsurak with her own, looking dead in Kayla's eyes with ferocious determination and fear, not willing to look away, "My daughter-- where is she?!"

Briefly stunned with the adrenaline slowly wearing off, Kayla sputtered for a moment, catching her breath while stuttering out, "On... On that rock face over there."

She points in the general direction where the dreading idea of Neteyam's body now lay, but neither Ronal nor Tonowari notice the look of defeat and grief on her face. Looking back at the ship, she couldn't help the tears falling down her face as she quietly whispered, "I'll take you to her."

They idly swam in silence, and it felt as though the world was ending. They swam past floating bodies and debris, empty boats, and life jackets. The sky was still red along with the scattering ocean of flames and smoke. The smell was almost unbearable. It was the longest silence in Kayla's life, her only thoughts on the whereabouts of her brother and his family. Had they gotten off the ship? Are they safe? Where was Quaritch?

Tsireya had spotted them in the water before the three Na'vi adults spotted her, crying and waving them over to the stranded rock fixture she stood on, her knees covered in blood, but not her own, "Sa'nok! Sempul!"

Kayla was immediately forgotten as both Ronal and Tonowari hopped off their skimwings and scrambled up onto the rock fixture, rushing toward their daughter. Ronal instantly gathered the crying girl in her arms, a little difficult with her rounded belly, but she had managed while whispering into her hair with relief in her voice, "Tsireya... Thank you, Great Mother, thank you."

Tonowari joins the embrace, wrapping his long arms around his wife and child. A soft yip in the wind draws the olo'eyktan's attention away, and upon looking around, he catches sight of two reef boys astride ilu. The boys call out again before jumping up onto the rock face. It was Ao'nung and Rotxo, both unharmed and a little frazzled. Ao'nung raced to his family and his father pulled him into their group embrace, relief now fully flooding the family's veins.

Rotxo stood just outside of the family, his eyes only set on one thing lying on the ground, dread seeping into his skin as his breath was taken from him, "Neteyam...?"

Tsireya only cried harder at the sound of his name, and when her parents and brother turned to what Rotxo was looking at, they came across a horrific sight. Their joy and relief were shortly outlived and exchanged for sorrow as they observed Neteyam's corpse, unmoving and now cradled in Kayla's arms. She was kneeling before her nephew's body, holding his torso up on her lap with her arms wrapped protectively around his head. She was crying silently to herself, sobbing so softly that none of the Metkayina standing before her could hear it over the wind and waves. Kayla was short of breath for an entirely different reason, her body shaking as the shock wore off and the realization sunk in.

Her nephew was dead, and for all she knew, so was the rest of her family.

The sunlight finally reemerged beyond the eclipse, the fires no longer setting a dreadful horizon. Kayla didn't care for the sunlight, her stomach turning when Neteyam's blood only became more noticeable. She was cold, wet, and exhausted, the adrenaline turned to full-body shakes up and down her spine. She didn't want to move, keeping her eyes shut so she could pretend that she was simply hugging Neteyam, but it was hard to do so when Neteyam felt so cold and stiff.

A large bellow is heard from the water as something big swims up to the rock fixture. Kayla remembers Payakan and looks up, tear tracks marking down both of her cheeks. Another wave of emotions took over her when she noticed that the rest of the Sullys were all hanging onto Payakan's fin, climbing tiredly up the rock fixture once they got close enough.

"Auntie!" Tuk cried when she first spotted Kayla, rushing over to her aunt. Kayla immediately set Neteyam down and tried her best to shield the girl from such a sight as she gathered the child up in her arms.

Kayla cried loudly, out of relief, holding onto Tuk tightly as if there was no tomorrow. Taking deep breaths through her sobs, she quickly looks around to take a headcount, quickly finding the remaining of the Sullys standing around her. Jake, Neytiri, Kiri, Lo'ak, and Tuk. All safe, all unharmed. Kiri runs up to join the group hug while Tsireya breaks away from her family to run into Lo'ak's arms. Jake and Neytiri pay no mind to anyone else, tired and distant both physically and emotionally. Neytiri simply walked back over to Neteyam, kneeling down and pulling her child into her arms as fresh tears began to cut down her face. Kayla finally lets her nieces go and gently leads them over to Neteyam, stepping away so the girls have their own time to grieve. After a while, Jake takes out a knife and goes around cutting away any remnants of orange slap cuffs still hanging off of anyone's arms and wrists. He cuts them off of himself, then Lo'ak, then Tsireya, and begins to cut the cuffs off both of Kiri's wrists. He doesn't want to take Tuk away from her big brother just yet, as the little girl cries into Neteyam's hand, holding the limb to her chest for just a little bit of comfort.

Another figure approaches, seemingly out of thin air, but only because he had just swam up to them. Kiri is the first to spot him, a relieved smile spreading over her face, "Monkey Boy!"

For the most part, everyone looks up to notice Spider, walking up to them unharmed apart from the long, thin cut across his chest. Jake stands up and puts his knife away, while Kayla watches the boy closely, looking for any signs of distress. But Spider was breathing perfectly through the mask, tired but otherwise intact.

Lo'ak gently breaks away from Tsireya to further observe his friend, likely also trying to see if he was injured, "Spider."

Ronal and Tonowari catch the name and glance at one another. So this was the sky demon boy affiliated with the Sullys. Kiri reached up to him from where she was sitting once he got close enough, placing her hand over Spider's heart. He looked down at her, equally solemn and relieved, reaching up to gently hold her hand. They smile faintly at one another before Jake interrupts to inspect the boy himself, placing his hands on Spider's shoulders.

"You all right?"

"Yeah."

Jake believes him and brings the human boy close in an embrace, looking around and then over to Lo'ak, seeing his son standing alone and looking ashamed. Immediately, Jake reaches an arm out and pulls Lo'ak into their group embrace, "Come here."

For the most part, Jake looked the worst out of all of them, bruised and slowly bleeding through small cuts and scrapes. They all stand or sit around, quietly taking in each other's presence and everything that just happened. Kayla finally felt as though she could sit down, slowly sinking to the ground until she was leaning back on her hands, properly regaining her breath, and trying to elevate her injured foot. Sighing now that pressure had been taken off her ankle, she looked around at everyone, the threat of danger still in the back of her mind, all the horror they had dealt with today now fully being comprehended in her mind. Looking over at Spider, she knows that she and Jake will have to question the boy and have him tell them everything that happened to him and how RDA had managed to find the Sullys. At the same time, they'll have to explain why they never went looking for him and offer their sincerest apologies. But for now, it'll have to wait. For now...

A son for a son.

A/N: Kinda not sorry. I love angst... no matter how much it hurts to write it. I definitely cried while writing this, but I really needed it cuz I haven't had a good cry in a while.

THERE'S GONNA BE MORE CHAPTERS AFTER THIS. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE FIC. I have future chapters already written out so keep an eye out for an update! I intend to stretch this fic out until the next film, but let's see how it goes lol. Lemme know if you want a request or want to be added to the taglist!

Rip Matthew Perry

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nalyra-dreaming · 6 months ago

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There's something about how we are collectively digesting the supposedly Armand messing with Louis and Daniel's memories reveal/confirmation that rubs me the wrong way. It's not that I'm not convinced that he was responsible for (at least) part of the tinkering (although I have the feeling that there was *someone else* who did it). It is that most of the discourse I see makes it sound as something kind of forced from Armand when imo the key to all of it it is precisely the fact that it is all a barter between Louis and Armand.

From Armand's traumatic past as a sex slave and his life with Marius to Armand letting Daniel live in exchange for Louis's companionship. Armand says to Daniel "Bartering with desire. Is that what makes you fascinating?" And that's exactly what his relationship with Louis is about cause this is the only way Armand understands love, as a transaction. And Louis happens to be an art dealer who's very good at running things.

Among all the relationships in the show, I think Loumand is probably the least wholesome (sorry Naomi but you were so wrong). And that's what makes it the most fascinating imo. Loumand is the most messed up relationship in the show not because of power imbalance like Armand Marius or Devil's Minion but because there is an agreement between them. I think that robbing Louis of his agency in the deal would be missing the point of both the novel and the show

Mhhhh. I know what you're getting at. I mean, you probably know I am of the opinion that Louis did invite Armand to secure Claudia's and his own safety (at first at least), and he certainly behaves as if this relationship protects him from the pressures of the rules (and coven).

So there is a certain level of... assumed control. But... There was this post a few days back, comparing Armand to a willingly leashed tiger, and I think that fits very well.

Because even though you know that I still think that there might be more to it all (especially wrt Daniel's memories if the 12 years DM truly happened), and though I do think that Louis might even have asked Armand for a reprieve... I do not think Louis would consent to an intrusion like this. Armand is still very much in control, and Assad put it very precisely I think, when he said that he just cannot relax with the truth... Armand is the only one who knows the truth, and who... has Louis under "maintenance". He "protects Louis from himself".

In fact I think this, and the missing pages, and a lot of other little things will come to a head now in Dubai. Probably will facilitate that "cataclysmic event" that I've been talking about...

I... do think there was a lot more to the relationship before San Francisco than there is after SF. Because Armand literally controls Louis after. He says that the name "Lestat" had not been uttered in their relationship for 23 years, but it's still a trigger for them both, leading to catastrophic results in a single session. Oh, the other "tri-annual" events and kills were bad enough, but this... this was new. And Armand went and made sure it wouldn't happen again.

You are right that Loumand is among the least healthy relationships... I would argue even canonically so, though of course the show has dialed it up to 99. (And god, I wished Naomi/her guest had never said that, the drama this statement caused, seriously). But I... I mean, it is more interesting in Paris and up to San Francisco, definitely. Or, at least in Paris. Because I think... I think whatever happens after the trial will already shift their relationship. Because why would Louis, this Louis stay with Armand? Why does he? What exactly makes him stay with Armand. (I think that will be a really interesting aspect in the show!)

For ME((!!!!))... that is why Loumand is not fascinating (Though I get it if it is for you^^💕). Because Louis is not well... and Armand... Armand tags along, they foreshadowed that on the walk along the Seine - and then Louis tags along, later. Or exists.

(*by a companion.)

Armand tries to salvage what he can while groveling for what he did in Paris. And that is precisely where their "agreement" stops, for me. Because if your mind is tinkered with... you cannot consent.

It's like being under drugs - you cannot consent.

And Armand has never been much about consent... unfortunately.

So yeah, that's ... my two cents on this^^.

It definitely is one of the most difficult relationships at this point.

We'll see in the next episodes where Louis' "agreement" with Armand stops, I think. Because if I'm right and Louis did not see this as part of the "agreement"? Then this will hit the fan in Dubai - and personally I expect it to (and I think, going by Jacob's statement - it will).

#chicalepidoptera #ask nalyra #iwtv s2 #iwtv #amc iwtv #interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire s2 #amc interview with the vampire #louis de pointe du lac #armand #loumand #consent

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hadesknockedupintheunderworld · 7 months ago

Text

Bout to muse about something that is part headcanon part canon events

ㅤ

Tails is finally saved from his bullies by the (currently) small time hero he admires

Tails stalks follows his hero, uses his mechanical knowledge to improve Sonic's plane

While Tails follows Sonic around, even on dangerous journeys, the hedgehog keeps an eye out for the younger fox behind him, keeping him from being in too much danger

Sonic leads by example, demonstrating to Tails how to fight, and Tails runs maintenance on Sonic's plane and teaches him how to read

Soon enough, they become softly inseparable. Even if they can't adventure side by side (although they do more often than not), Sonic keeps contact with Tails whenever he can.

They strengthen each other's weak points. Where Tails lacks in raw strength, Sonic makes up for it with experience and speed. Where Sonic lacks in firepower, Tails has a machine, a gadget, or the technical know-how to take one. Sonic often rushes into danger, fighting without thinking too hard, but Tails' specialty is strategizing or making plans, and he's one of the few who can slow Sonic down enough to make sure he's prepared. And where Sonic supports Tails by being a force of nature, someone who can roll with the punches and execute one of Tails' plans with complete trust or faith, Tails also supports Sonic by understanding what he cannot, by crafting plans when Sonic is at a loss for how to proceed. They have such unwavering faith and trust in each other's abilities now.

Where Sonic is a hero, Tails is his own kind of hero, saving the people only he can save, helping in the ways only he can help. They support each other. They look out for each other. Even if Sonic is a force on his own, or Tails can go on solo adventures, they're more effective when they're together.

And no matter how things change as they grow, the people who come and go, the two of them are a constant. Sonic and Tails, ever at each other's sides.

#sonic the hedgehog #sontails #unbreakable bond #miles tails prower #tails the fox #i just be ramblin #Sorry they just make me emotional and insane #Although really the only thing that's solidly a headcanon and not either canon or my reading of them is that Tails teaches Sonic how to read #Despite them being 'hero and sidekick' I always like to think that as they grew (both up and closer to each other) and as time passed #they maintained this push and pull. They slotted into place as partners that support each other and help where the other falters #And really no matter what happens relationship wise or life wise with the two of them‚ I can only imagine that they still live and fight #together #Tails could get married and Sonic would still crash at his place and Tails would still keep food for him #Sonic could get married and/or have a kid with someone and Tails would move right in with them (if they don't just straight up stay with #Tails)#No matter what happens I can never see them not at each other's sides #And of course I like the idea of Tails starting out a bit more codependent but ultimately someone who works to support Sonic so he can #continue to be needed/wanted and be at his side‚ while Sonic‚ who initially believes that he let Tails into his life and is protecting him‚#grows more secretly codependent. I think Tails is aware of how important Sonic is in his life (even if Tails has interests and wants and #whatnot outside of him)#while Sonic is...the kind of guy who believes that he chooses to keep Tails by his side‚ but whose world would also begin to crumble if #Tails disappeared (and I think Sonic Prime gives me pretty good ammo with that)#Gaaaaaah they just fascinate me. they fascinate me🥺😭💖

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leonstamatis · 1 year ago

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hello leon stamatis (my favorite stamatis)! i do not know anything about the state of blaseball right now, i think it was a randomly generated baseball-like a while back? my understanding was that most of the content was fan generated to begin with, being what it was and all that. is it too late to get into it? if not, i would love to hear some starter recs

what a coincidence, he is also my favorite stamatis! and blaseball is one of my favorite things. this, however, is a complicated question, so i'm gonna go ahead and apologize for what will surely be a much longer answer than you anticipated by asking this. sorry!

we're gonna start from the beginning. what is blaseball?

well, you're right. it's a randomly-generated baseball simulator. that's the general idea of it. there were 20-24 teams (sometimes more, depending on what else was happening), and they played games against each other. while it initially started as a basic baseball game -- with some absurd names and very simple mechanics -- it later evolved to include more complex mechanics, including player death, modifications to the stadiums, and other statuses that could impact and change gameplay at random (or under specific and nonsensical conditions).

blaseball started in late 2020 and had a sort of on/off cycle. during an on cycle, there would be games every hour on the hour for 99 hours over a week. then there would be a post-season to determine a champion, and the season would end. these on cycles were often divided into eras, and had larger plots and storylines forming connective tissue through the elections and special events.

during an off cycle, also known as a siesta, the devs would take some time to patch bugs, develop new features, and plan for the future. some of these siestas were a week or two; some were several months or over a year.

the unfortunate news here is that blaseball just recently... ended. the games won't be happening anymore, the site isn't active, and there's no new content coming down the pipe. the devs said it wasn't sustainable to keep doing it -- a thing that makes a lot of sense, because one thing blaseball certainly could be was overwhelming and time-consuming. and that's coming from me, as a fan who didn't have to actually do any of the coding or community maintenance.

however. onto the second part of your question. can you still get into blaseball even now that it's over?

[takes a deep breath.] YES. please do, in fact!

it's fair to say most of the content was fan-generated, i think, depending on what you define as "content." the games and the website were fairly minimalist; they gave us major events, but the characters were just names and a few lines of stats, so it's not like you're missing out on key character moments or quotes or anything with blaseball being done. all the identifying characteristics, the personality and appearance and emotional response? that's fans, baby!

this is one of the things that's cool about blaseball. i've heard it said that writing for the fandom is more in line with original fiction because so much of it is created by and dependent on the individual, as opposed to a centralized canon. which means a lot of the time, there's more effort in a fic to introduce you to someone -- something fanfic doesn't typically do! and because so much was happening in blaseball all the time, people do make an effort to explain events and canon occurrences either in author notes or in the story itself.

(unless, that is, it's a major event everyone was largely aware of. these were few and far between, but they were such a big deal that they make up a lot of the fic content. if you have questions about any of those events, i would recommend the blaseball wiki, where election results, modifications to specific players, and other significant canon events are recorded. there's lore there, too, but i can pretty much guarantee that whatever lore is there won't match up directly with any of the fic you read; blb authors tend to take the wiki and widely-accepted fanon lore more as a suggestion than as a rule.)

the long and the short of it is, you can absolutely still get involved. there are just under 3,000 fics, last time i checked, so it's not big enough that you'll be drowning. my honest recommendation is to pick a team based on who you vibe with -- the blaseball wiki has team overview pages, too -- and then see who is writing for that team. there are collections for a lot of them, and they'll focus on a specific set of characters most of the time depending on who had the most significance on the roster.

(my actual recommendation is to start with the earlier fics. the discipline era -- the first eleven seasons -- was a very tightly told story without a lot of bells and whistles. players had a normal season in season one, and then in season two everyone started dying, and then in season seven the fans messed with the mechanics and did a necromancy and the necromanced player started murdering people until we all banded together to defeat the god that was giving them the ability to do that. that's pretty easy to follow, especially compared to later eras when the entire point was adding as many new mechanics as possible or testing out new features. it got confusing, even for people keeping a close eye on all of it.)

if you find something that confuses you, that's okay! it might take some effort/research to understand these storylines, but the wiki is pretty good at explaining mechanics and events. just look up whatever is getting you and it should make some more sense. or you can use Before, an archival tool that lets you watch old games and fandom events in real time. (and if it still doesn't make sense... well. that's blaseball, baby! you kind of get used to rolling with nonsense, honestly.)

okay. that's all very long-winded, because of course it is. sorry, again. but... recommendations!

i think, often, that blaseball fic would be aided by the inclusion of a sort of "Weeb Ass Shit" scale. some of it is going to be very embedded in the nonsense of blaseball and hard to get through, especially if you're new to the team, specific player, or even blaseball in general.

hen fourteenfifteen and i had some friends who had never engaged with blaseball read a few fics of ours a couple months back as an experiment, and it shocked me to learn that the concept of an incineration -- a player being set on fire and killed by a "rogue" umpire, one of the earliest and most basic mechanics in the game -- was unfamiliar and a stopping point for the readers, because they'd never heard about that happening. and certainly not in such a nonchalant way. these kinds of terms are everywhere in blaseball fic, but if you can find the ones that focus more on a character than a game or a modification, then you've got a starting point and you can build out from there.

that being said, there's always going to be blaseball, so there are definitely still going to be moments where you end up scratching your head. it is simply impossible not to. if you're cool with that, here's a brief collection of some blaseball fics i would say have a lower blaseball-ass shit rating:

when winter turns to spring by waveridden, a love story between two co-captains from around season seven to season eight. (also, it's one of my favorite ships and it's my team. go flowers.) honestly, hayden does an excellent job of explaining everything in very simple and understandable ways. so if you want to just poke around on their page, you'll have an excellent time. there's a whole run of things from mid-2021 that is literally just character studies written for other people, and they're all great.

the things we take off for each other by bloodsweatspit is less about blaseball itself and more about one of the teams, the canada moist talkers. it looks at a handful of the key dynamics and is, in my opinion, one of the best fics for providing insight into a team and the people on it -- especially in so few words.

speaking of the moist talkers. it's hard to recommend just one of cyndakip's fics, but they all tend to exist in a similar timeline and universe and there's a lot of continuity that makes it easy to follow once you've gotten started. if you're looking for some very well-done, very lengthy character work, cynda does great things.

there's this fun trend that hit during the first lengthy break in blaseball colloquially known as the 12x100, or twelve scenes of 100 words. the idea is to give a series of short scenes that highlight a character or storyline without committing to a whole lengthy thing. i'd recommend checking out the 12x100 tag and clicking through a few to see what characters you like. (more specifically, babytriumphant's chicago, in brief series is a bunch of them specifically focused on the chicago firefighters team, and they're all lovely!)

another flowers fic. i'm not sorry. oxicleanmoron's it's my own damn fault is more recent, and set in the late expansion era. but it's not about blaseball. it's about a road trip. so you're in good hands if you want some fun character dynamics and minimal blaseball.

lift your head (and look out the window) by baliset is a nice little window into the baltimore crabs. marn also is one who does a really good job of explaining things from the beginning, so there are a few fics of hers i would recommend. but start with this one, and then maybe check out your sinking ship (is big enough for two) if you want to meet some more of her beloved little guys.

another sort of love story without the focus on game mechanics: you're at the party (you're not invited) by impernia. this one i include in part because i think it leans into some of the stranger aspects of blaseball lore without getting into the game itself; a lot of characters are strange or unusual in some way, and this fic conveys that beautifully.

take the bullet by waltztangocache is a great example of something you'll find a lot in this fandom, which is... character death stories! if there's one thing blaseball gave us a lot of fodder for, it's people dying and people grieving. if that's your thing, wonderful! you've found your people! hen does a great job showing the ripple effects that i would say are common in fanon lore -- esp on the firefighters -- regarding incinerations. i love this fic. it pains me.

i have written a lot of blaseball fic in my time, but i tend to think i fall pretty high on the blaseball-ass shit scale. there are others like me. however, if you do not mind me shilling for just a moment, i would recommend to you inside your blinding light. it's not about blaseball, as much. it's about a carpenter and a tree, and they fall in love. welcome to blaseball lore! it's fun here.

i... hope you were not overwhelmed by all of this. thank you for asking about this, and for being willing to dig deeper into this fandom and what it has to offer! i'm barely scratching the surface here, but all of the authors i've listed have plenty of fics worth reading, and there are tons of authors i love who i didn't have a specific pull from for this list but who i would nevertheless recommend once you're a little more familiar with how this fandom writes.

blaseball is over, but the fic's still around. and it's pretty fucking good fic, i'd say. <3

#thank you thank you!!!#ardentumbra #tam.ask #i am... so sorry #but like. yaaaaay long post #blaseball #blaseball fic rec #fic recs #long post //#VERY LONG POST...

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n7punk · 9 months ago

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“Make Me a Monster” Fic Notes

MMaM was pretty short and this will be too but this fic has some Backstory and I wanna talk about it lmao.

Playlist:

Warriors (AJ Michalka version)

heavy. — Au/Ra

The Creeps — Garbage

LIFE AFTER SALEM — Lil Nas X

The Heartless (original rock version) — PVRIS (kind of hard to get. Was only available on their PARIS EP which isn’t available for streaming last I checked)

Waking Up (Acoustic) — PVRIS (from the acoustic version of the PARIS EP, which is available on youtube)

chaotic — Tate McRae

Hate myself — Tate McRae

R.E.M. — Mothica

Shatter — Against The Current

Frankenstein — Rina Sawayama

My Limb — Hayley Williams

Epilogue Life:

It takes awhile and I could never write this fic in a timespan where it’s complete, but Adora does come to accept her new prosthetics. After the revelations about She-ra and the Heart, she comes to realize this version of them is the most ideal she could get purely because they don’t need maintenance, removal, cleaning etc and she can care for them the exact way she can the rest of her body, which makes them feel a lot more like her body. Her sense of touch isn’t 100%, still losing some texture differentiation and the ability to really feel light touches (she wouldn’t feel a bug walking on her arm for example), but as shown in the epilogue she learns to adapt, and eventually she stops covering up so much either. When she starts to wear her jacket less is when Catra knows she has made real progress. Her prosthetics are magic and never need intervention, which helps.

On Catra’s part, her guilt also takes a lot to process, as does her trauma from her time chipped, which only feeds into her guilt because she feels like she inflicted that same dehumanization on Adora. She comes to focus her energy on “fixing” things instead though, which does lead to some unhealthy burnout, but the worry her friends show for her then does a lot to help her internalize that no, they really don’t hate her.

It’s one of those cases where they take longer to get to a healthy place than in canon, but they do eventually reach it. They get through the worst of it early on, but those effects echo for a long time.

Chapter 1:

⦁ I was pretty worried going into this how people would feel about this, mostly because it’s an incredibly complex situation. Prosthetics are often helpful, but they tend to not be as effective as people hope and even when they are, that still doesn’t mean people don’t look at them and see what they lost sometimes. This situation in particular, where the prosthetics were largely unnecessary and completely forced on her, was painful. Adora is struggling not just with that, but with the very familiar process of trying to get back where she was before an injury/disability, but sometimes that’s just not possible. She’s seeking every piece of functionality and feeling she gets with her prosthetics, but that doesn’t mean she is less for having lost something either. I was worried about people thinking that attitude she has is ableist, when it’s really just a part of the disabled experience. Some people never have it, but I’m definitely someone who has struggled with trying to get things back while knowing I’ll never get it all. It… really sucks, and even when things seem good, there can be a bittersweetness to them. That’s the kind of attitude I was approaching this fic with. There was also the medical abuse angle with her prosthetics. Despite her impossibly advanced prosthetics, this is a very real thing I actually saw conversations about when TotK came out, which is what gave me of the exact phrase for that trigger because I was having trouble naming/describing it in the content warning before that.

⦁ Hordak was working on prosthetic limbs in the event that his deteriorating state made it impossible for him to keep working, using Adora as his guinea pig to test their effectiveness. Shadow Weaver kind of thought there was a chance She-ra could regrow them entirely even if that wasn’t what she was banking on. She actually thought the second accident was a mercy, because Hordak already wanted to test out the set on Adora at that point, so making it “necessary” was supposed to be easier on Adora. Her empathy meter is broken.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Catra just can’t “get” why Adora stayed, but it was kind of impossible for her to leave before that. Part of her already knew Shadow Weaver would be back for more, but she couldn’t let herself do it because it was the “wrong” thing to leave Etheria to the princesses. When she realized the Rebellion wasn’t actually monsters, it was all so much worse because she realized everything — her arms, Catra’s punishments, the horrible way they grew up that she didn’t even really have perspective for — had been for nothing. Catra was right all along. They should have runaway. So she did

⦁ I didn’t intend to title the chapters of this fic since it was so short, but then the “You promise?” line came up and I wanted to make that the chapter title for clarification purposes if nothing else, so I added them in.

Chapter 3:

⦁ I know I’m kind of the “let’s talk about traumatized Catra” person but tbh I still don’t think we give enough weight to having your body literally puppeted while you watch and undergo nightmare hallucinations. Like how the fuck was she functioning after that. So yeah on top of Adora being extra traumatized in this (and Catra additionally having extra trauma from watching that happen), I wanted to go a bit into the echoes of having been under Horde Prime’s control for Catra too. (Other members of the Princess Alliance who were chipped definitely deal with nightmares from this too, but I have a feeling the nightmare scenarios were mostly unique to Catra, especially considering the green pool wasn’t used on the others and by the time Prime had the others under his control he was dealing with a lot of chips and conjuring up nightmare scenarios for them all doesn’t make sense.)

⦁ In this AU there was a lot more immediately obvious awfulness from Shadow Weaver, so even after the portal Glimmer did keep her confined to her room, not that it helped Adora’s mental state much. She was a lot more hated and shunned in Bright Moon and when they were on the run. Catra and Adora still cried watching her die, but after the fact their general attitude is a mixture of “good riddance” and “how could she do all that to us and then just die without ever acknowledging it?” They take her sacrifice as the closest thing they’ll ever guilt to an admission of feeling guilt.

⦁ The thing about Adora never being able to tell if her sensation is back to “normal” is a very real thing when it comes to disability. I remember at one point telling a friend that I couldn’t tell if I wasn’t in pain or was just shouldering it because I didn’t remember what not being in pain felt like anymore.

⦁ If you know my poll, this was “in the engine room.”

Chapter 4:

⦁ In this AU, they have no idea the First Ones Virus could infect She-ra with just the sword since it seemed “obvious” it spread from the robots, to the sword, to her prosthetics, which somehow caused everything to go haywire. Because she was working with her original set that was less advanced, the virus was legitimately latched onto She-ra itself, which also explains why it went away with she reverted the transformation. They just thought changing “bodies” let her purge the virus when she transformed back. The corruption from the First Ones… worm, thing, corrupted Adora’s limbs similarly to how the virus took over her, only with green instead of red, completely changing the colors of her arms and legs and then slowly creeping up her veins. It was gnarly.

⦁ Entrapta just has a better connection with Catra and was looking to her for an answer, but a small incline of the head was their signal back in the Horde that she should really just agree with whoever she’s talking with. She almost never paused to notice it, but Catra was trying her best (and failing) to keep her out of trouble.

Original Outline:

Originally this AU was supposed to be longer, starting when Adora first lost her limbs, then skimming through scenes throughout the series, until finally landing on Darla. That was just an extra 2-3 chapters probably, but 1) god that’s too much angst. It kept me from writing it for like 9 months because I didn’t want to do it, 2) the balance just wasn’t there? Everything got “minute-to-minute” once they were on Darla, with entire chapters dedicated to it, where as the previous chapters were scattered moments taking place over literal years. This did mean I lost some ideas that were supposed to take place in the war and such (the princess prom scene, for example), but it’s still better for it.

I started to write that longer version of it back in 2022(!) but only worked on it for two days to about 2k before I was like this is not vibing and dropped it. When I picked it back up with the shorter timeline in mind, I wrote 70% of this fic in one sitting back in September, but then I got kind of stuck on their reconciling conversation and I think it was just a little too much angst for me then so I didn’t come back to it the next day. I’ve opened it occasionally since then to glance over but it just wasn’t clicking until this week. I edited what I had and wrote the rest of the fic in two days once I was there, though. I am proud of this fic but it’s definitely a very emotional one so it kind of has to happen in bursts like that. I’m glad to have finally gotten it out now, as rocky as getting from idea to completion was. I had the idea November 14th 2022, wrote most of it September 4th 2023, and finally finished it March 9th 2024.

Upcoming:

Start Your Engine ;)

#MMaM #fic notes #ficmeta

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beautifulsnake2162020 · 2 months ago

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We have it all (Hualian adopted daughter fanfic) Chapter 7

Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I only do this for fun.

Premise: Not long after comforting a bullied girl named Meng Ai, Hua Cheng and Xie Lian find themselves adopting her and together they form a family they didn't know they had needed for awhile.

Story/Genre tags: Slice of life-ish (mainly), Family focused, Hua Cheng's houses finally become homes, there may be an overarching story but that's not the focus, Hualian being parents, Fengqing being uncles, Lang Qianqiu falling in love with someone who was raised by the Xianle squad, technically post-canon (though I haven't read the books so if there are some ooc moments please forgive me).

AO3 Link

Chapter 1, Chapter 2 , Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

Follower tags: @anonimgato1507 @fd139 (I tagged you just in case - Lang Qianqiu makes his first appearance in this chapter)

AN: In honor of Meng Ai's birthday here is Chapter 7 - which is either posted before, on, or after, September 21. Yes this chapter will be mainly focused on her birthday celebration (the preparations leading up to it and the celebration itself). I couldn't help myself - I love the song so much.

Chapter 7

"When exactly are we meeting Chenxi?"

"We'll meet in a mutual event for our first meeting. She wants to ask a few questions. Probably to check what our intentions are in asking her about that part of her life. She told me through her oracle that I'm the first person in heaven to actually be interested in knowing anything about her imprisonment. Or at least the first person who wasn't directly related to her. Then she released her oracle and he then told me that if she has any more messages for us she'll send her oracle to either one of our temples."

They arrive in the semi-secluded residence of the now mortal Shi Qingxuan. Unsurprisingly it was located on a windy location. Shi Qingxuan's new residence was on a coastal region in a more secluded part of the beach. The winds were too strong for the anyone else. But the former Windmaster felt right at home, even when the winds no longer followed their will. When they were certain that no other mortals were nearby they rid themselves of their disguises as Nan Feng and Fu Yao and turned into their regular forms with a finishing touch of glamour to conceal their divine aura.

"Finally! I thought I would have to do something drastic to make you both return." Shi Qingxuan says as Mu Qing and Feng Xin approach their home.

"We've been busy." Feng Xin says as they enter Shi Qingxuan's home. A modest structure compared to their residence that they used to have. Well ventilated to allow the wind in what may have been a hot indoor dwelling. Spacious enough to allow room to move and to entertain a fair number of guests. But it was small enough to not be a headache when it comes to cleaning and maintenance.

"Doing what? Let me guess; sparring, dates, making sure Xie Lian is happy and martial God duties?"

"The job that you were supposed to do but you were ill."

"Speaking of which - here." Mu Qing shoves a brown bottle to them.

"Here's the second to the last dosage. Same instructions as before; half a cup once a day after a meal."

"Do I have to?" They whined.

"I already feel better."

"Then throw it in the sea. It's not my problem that you're still lacking in energy. Come to think of it I think I should be thanking you." They sighed and immediately began to drink their medicine as prescribed.

"Thanking me for getting sick? You can start by giving me these cosmetics-"

"Not happening." The three of them settles on the dining room as the winds grow stronger at midday time. Midday is when they typically visit since mortals don't like being in this spot at midday because the winds were too harsh. That way they can take a break from their mortal guises while checking up on a slowly recovering Shi Qingxuan.

"What job was I supposed to do?"

"Babysit Xie Lian and Hua Cheng's little girl."

"What?!" Mu Qing and Feng Xin couldn't help but chuckle a little at their surprised look.

"How - What?!"

"Technically she isn't officially their daughter yet. They and her parents want to ask her first before officially adopting her."

"Have you seen the way she called out for them when her father was in danger?" Feng Xin asks Mu Qing in disbelief.

"I know we haven't seen the three of them talk much but something tells me she wouldn't mind being adopted by them."

"Woah, woah, Nan Yang, wait, care to explain everything to the should have been babysitter - is she cute?"

"Her name is Meng Ai, she turns seven years old on the 21st night of September -"

"How did you know the details of her birth?"

"Jing Mei told me - she gave birth to her just after sunset."

"More details for the next babysitter please!"

"Hey I was interrupted."

"I was curious."

"You were saying Xuan Zhen?"

"She could detect the presences of the otherworldly, she got that from her father and her mother is an oracle of Xiwangmu."

"Let me guess, she could sense your divine aura?"

"A lot more than that." Feng Xin adds.

"She could sense that Xuan Zhen, Xie Lian, and I are the same type of spirit and could feel the differences from our divine aura to the ghostly aura of Hua Cheng." Shi Qingxuan's eyes grow bigger.

"At six years old!? I wasn't able to do that till I was 15! And I was only able to be good at it at 19!"

"Yes, it's impressive that she could do it without realizing it. What a talent she has." Feng Xin says with a smiles as he takes a drink from his tea.

"But she wasn't able to tell that you were Gods?"

"She hasn't had much exposure to divine presences and the three of us are probably the first beings she has interacted with long enough for her to make those observations. Interacting with ghosts on the other hand are an almost daily experience for her. It makes sense that she could tell that we are a different being from ghosts but not know that we are Gods."

"...I hate it when you are right."

"You also love it. Why else are we together now?"

"Wait -" Shi Qingxuan interrupts before they could continue flirting. As happy as they are that these two former enemies are now a couple, they were more interested in knowing more about the new little girl in their lives.

"If her parents are still alive then why are they adopting her?" Both of them shares a look before facing back at them.

"Long story short: They are the loophole and the key to giving Meng Ai a good life. I've mentioned that her mother, Jing Mei is an oracle and she receives visions."

"Just after giving birth to her, she received a vision of Meng Ai dying as a sacrifice to Xiwangmu at the hands of her relative while her parents were already dead."

"They asked Xiwangmu for a loophole and she told them that as long as she had one parent who is dead and one parent who is alive she'll be safe from those who want to sacrifice her. And so Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are that loophole."

"Hmm? How are they sure that Hua Cheng and Xie Lian counts as a loophole?"

"Chenxi clarified her mother's solution. A parent doesn't need to be blood related to count - uh - are you okay?" Mu Qing asks as shock is shown in their face.

"Chenxi - Xiwangmu's daughter - she's back? She's freed?"

"You know her Shi Qingxuan?" Feng Xin asks in interest.

"Yes - it's...it's been so long." A smile slowly emerges in their face.

"Chenxi is one of my professors when I ascended. She helped guide me in learning about my domain and how it serves the world. She's one of the best teachers I've ever had." Shi Qingxuan pours themself another cup of tea.

"When she disappeared I had thought at first that maybe she's just in her family's mountain. I couldn't blame her - I loved it there when she brought her students there to have a rest from our studies and heavenly duties. She's one of those teachers who genuinely cares about her students. She knows when to push us and when to make us laugh at ourselves and to rest from work." Then their face becomes darker.

"When I learnt that she was imprisoned...I tried to help. I secretly went against orders against getting involved."

"What happened?" Shi Qingxuan looks at them with a dark look.

"I don't know how, but they managed to use my powers against me. One of the men - I can't remember his face, just that he had green eyes - managed to somehow choke me the more winds I made and the more air I controlled." They take a moment to breathe and to calm themself. But to Mu Qing and Feng Xin it was clear that this was a traumatic experience for them.

"When I managed to somehow escape from that man, Chenxi sent a telepathic message to me to escape. I tried to tell her that I came here to free her. She rebutted and told me that just because I controlled the winds didn't mean that I had enough strategic experience to rescue her." They couldn't help but shed a tear.

"Her last message to me was that she was proud of me - but I was not meant to rescue her. And if I wanted to honor her I should live my life to bring joy and use my domain to serve. Wasting my life away for a task I wasn't meant for is a disservice to myself and others. After that I never heard from her again." They wipe the tears that they had shed and a small smile begins to emerge as they look at the martial Gods.

"Now you know one of the reasons why I am the way that I am. Even though I was immortal, life is too short to let it slip through your fingers. Professor Chenxi was right, she almost always is."

Should we tell them?

Probably - Chenxi might want to see them again

"How was she freed? How did you contact her?"

"We don't know the exact details but Meng Ai's father, Ji Huifan was the one who freed her and her mother, Jing Mei nursed her back to health. I'm sure she would love to see you again. We're going to meet with her in some sort of mutual event. She didn't specify what yet." Shi Qingxuan couldn't help but giggle at Mu Qing's brief flash of annoyance at the Chenxi's somewhat vague instructions.

"Yup, that sounds like her. Enough instructions to know what's going on but no further questions till she thinks you're ready for more or you need it."

"Xuan Zhen was able to contact her through her oracle. Maybe she'll make an exception for you since you were her student." They let out a sad sigh.

"I'm not immortal anymore. Her nearest temple is going to take me at least an entire month to get there. I don't mind the long journey but I guess I'm still recovering on how to function as a mortal. Aging and work and all."

General Nan Yang, an oracle of Chenxi is in the temple. She says that she has a message from Chenxi and requests permission to communicate with you through the spiritual channel.

"Well it seems we're in luck, one of her oracles is in my temple now."

"Then what are you waiting for? Another war? Give the oracle your password already."

"Hmph and you call me impatient."

Granted, give her the password. Tell her that General Xuan Zhen will also be joining us.

Feng Xin glances at Mu Qing and gives a small nod. Mu Qing puts his finger on their temple and enters their joint telepathic communication. In their mind's eye they appear in their respective places as they look down on a woman with bright orange and black robes. She was kneeling down with her head down as she waits for them to speak.

Rise oracle of Chenxi.

She keeps her head down as she stands up in the center platform of the spiritual array.

You have a message for us from Chenxi?

I do General Nan Yang.

Why do you keep your head down? General Nan Yang has already asked for the message.

The Goddess Chenxi is actually asking permission if she could speak through me. She instructed that I am not allowed to look at either one of you until you have granted her permission to do so.

This was new. They glance at each other in the spiritual array. Mu Qing shrugs before nodding.

Granted.

Immediately the oracle looks up and her golden glowing eyes looks at both of them. Her back straightened and her stance now more fitting of a dignified Goddess than a follower of hers. What followed was a voice that was drastically different than hers but one Mu Qing is familiar with. Only now he realizes that what he had heard was the dulled version of her voice. It was expected since she was speaking through her oracle's body. Just like whenever her mother possessed one of her priests or priestesses, her voice blended with her mortal follower's.

Good day Generals Nan Yang and Xuan Zhen.

Chenxi, this is quite the unusual method of reaching out to us. You could have just contacted either one of us directly.

I assure you Nan Yang that there is a reason why I'm doing it this way. The short answer is that we could be eavesdropped and I'm not taking any chances.

Eavesdropped in Nan Yang's mind? I didn't know that such a thing was possible.

You also didn't know it was possible to contact me through my oracle and yet you did. But enough of that. Please tell Shi Qingxuan that I will see all three of you in Meng Ai's birthday on the 21st night of September. It will be in Paradise Manor for obvious reasons.

Understood.

And speaking of Meng Ai, the little girl has been wondering where you both disappeared to. I personally recommend visiting her before then. She's already figured out that you two and Xie Lian are Gods and is currently trying to guess which ones are you.

Well it's nice to know we've made an impression on her considering who will be adopting her...It was also nice seeing her beat Nan Yang in Go.

You were coaching her!

She's still learning the game.

Chenxi chuckles a bit.

I'll see you in her birthday celebration. Don't forget to bring a gift for her. Till then, good bye General Nan Yang, General Xuan Zhen.

She then releases her oracle who immediately brings her head down and her posture now back to a humble follower.

Thank you for your service to us. Some of my followers will escort you back to your temple for your protection.

Thank you as well General Nan Yang. And thank you as well General Xuan Zhen for your presence.

You're welcome oracle of Chenxi, depart with Heaven's blessings.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing leaves the spiritual array. Both of them grin at Shi Qingxuan.

"It seems like your old teacher has heard you. She now expects to see you in Meng Ai's birthday in Paradise Manor. Which means Nan Yang and I will have to introduce you to her before then."

"Oh gre- AH CHOO!" Horror and denial is on their face as Mu Qing gives them a pointed look as Feng Xin sends a telepathic command to some of his followers to protect the oracle.

"Which means you need to get better before going anywhere near her. Rest I'll make dinner and herbal tea tonight."

______________________________________________________________

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

He feels himself scurry along the once familiar rooms as he hides himself in plain sight.

"What are the chances that they are no longer in these lands?" A figure asks briefly looking towards his direction which frightened him that he might be caught. He made himself relax despite his fear. He cannot afford to waste any opportunity to learn more about their plans.

"If they had gone to other areas of the silk road we would have known. Our network of contacts are too vast and prominent for us to not know."

"They could have gone through sea."

"Or to the archipelagic region with several islands."

"Again, we would have known if they had fled to those lands. We have spies in the Southern coastal area and they have been closely watching every single family who consists of a father, a mother, and a daughter. So far every batch of them is not them. I still believe they are still within these lands."

"Or they could have been transported to another world entirely." A figure with green eyes say as nearly everyone groaned.

"For that to be possible they'll need a lot of energy. And no unusual power surges among mortals have been detected."

"Stop all this worrying." A figure steps in. To anyone who didn't know or look closely, the man looked to be in his early fourties. Never knowing that he, like the rest of his relatives gathered within this room was several centuries old.

"Ji Huifen and his family cannot escape forever. We can take as much time as we'd like. What's important is that his daughter is sacrificed on Xiwangmu's altar. It doesn't matter if she's a little girl or an old lady, all we need is to take her before death claims her. Are we understood?"

"Yes Zufu Bocheng." They all reply as they settle themselves in their respective seats as Ji Bocheng takes his seat.

"Tell Ji Lihua to take her time. I trust in her abilities to track Ji Huifan. But she could be impulsive and impatient. Remind her that we have all the time in the world as long as the little girl is alive."

"We will Zufu." Ji Bocheng then gives the signal to their servants. It was when he heard the incoming groans and screams of pain that was getting louder just outside of the door that Ji Huifan decided that he has seen enough. He closes his eyes as he lets go of the mouse that he has possessed. He's had enough experiences of the blood feeding rituals and he doesn't want to add more memories to the mix.

We've got you Ji Huifen

Xie Lian's telepathic presence gently guides him back to his body. He awakens in the presence of Hua Cheng and Xie Lian. All of them seated under a tree that he had felt the most calm. Both of them had leant him enough power to allow them to telepathically see and hear what he has learnt.

"Hmph if they think they have contacts everywhere then it's a good thing that I have my own network."

"Still, I believe that it is best for you and Jing Mei to stay here for a little bit more."

"Thank you Dianxia. Mei mei Lihua is probably one of the best choices they have of tracking us down."

"Why? Does she have any special abilities?"

"It's because you're siblings isn't it?"

"Correct, Lihua and I are full blooded siblings. While our forms are quite different she could easily track me down because we share the same parents. Our other siblings are only half and if only one parent is shared, there's a large number of guesswork since the identity of our blood could also be shared by distant relatives with a common ancestor. But if both parents are the same, all she has to do is to track down anyone whose blood is the closest to hers." He sighs as they stand up and start heading back towards the manor.

"Having said that while she may be good at tracking me down, she isn't the best fighter compared to our other relatives. Knowing her she probably thinks this is more of a chore."

"What do you suggest?" Xie Lian asks.

"Keep her bored. Or make sure that nothing peaks her interest while staying on the task. If she's bored enough she'll move on to something else."

"On the contrary I suggest we keep her on the task." Hua Cheng says as they stop for awhile after all three sees Meng Ai and Jing Mei entering the gardens. This was a discussion that Meng Ai doesn't have to hear.

"You've mentioned that she's not the best fighter among them but she's the best choice to track you down. What if we finally eliminate her?"

"That...may work. But I'm not entirely sure if she will become mortal once again just by being drained of her blood till she passes out or if she also needs to accompany it with grief."

"Let's continue this at another time." Xie Lian says as they enter within earshot of Meng Ai and Jing Mei.

"Baba, Xie Lian, San Lang, I need your help -"

"They are not going to help you Aiai."

"But-"

"You're not old enough for a puppy."

"But mama the puppy and it's mama doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"Aiai - I know you love animals. But you cannot adopt every single puppy and mama dog that you see."

"Hmm? Where did you see a puppy Xiao Ai?"

"Mama was doing her water ritual San Lang, it's where she sees things through water. And she was just checking on the areas just outside of ghost city and in one of the nearby cities there's a puppy with it's mother and both of them looked alone -"

"And you are not yet old enough to take care of them."

"But mama their round green eyes looked so sad."

And that caught everyone's attention.

"Xiao Ai how would you describe the type of green eyes the puppy and its mother have?"

"They were beautiful bright green Xie Lian. Like jade if it managed to glow."

"They were glowing Aiai. But you are still too young." To everyone else it became clear why Jing Mei was refusing to allow Meng Ai to get anywhere close to them. Dogs typically didn't have eyes that had the color of bright glowing jade green. It was definitely something else that was in the guise of a puppy and its mother trying to lure innocent victims like Meng Ai who wasn't aware of the dangerous trap she was being lured into. Probably a couple of demons who was using glowing jade green eyes to lure victims into their trap.

Though that didn't mean Jing Mei was wrong in saying that Meng Ai was too young and not ready to take care of a pet.

Then Ji Huifan fortunately remembered something.

"Mei, doesn't Chenxi and Xiwangmu raise animals as a community pet?"

"Those animals are technically pets which belong to the Goddesses; which is why with a few exceptions they stay inside temple grounds and are never slaughtered or killed."

"I have an idea."

"I'm not taking one of their pets and gifting it to Aiai."

"No no, what if Aiai raises one and offers it on her birthday? Then we could see how ready she is for a pet of her own."

"Hmm that could work. It could show Xiao Ai here what it means to take care of another life who depends on her."

"And every week we check their progress. Her birthday is only a few weeks away and it would be a valuable experience for her."

"And how are we supposed to remain hidden while offering the future pet to Xiwangmu?"

"Xiao Ai doesn't have to actually leave here. Something tells me they'll send someone here for her birthday. What do you think little one? Are you up for the challenge your parents gave you?" Hua Cheng asks with a teasing tone.

"Yes please, pretty please."

"I'll be choosing what you'll be raising. And I will tell you now it's not a puppy. Xiwangmu already has plenty of dogs that play around in her temples."

"Okay."

"Don't worry Aiai we'll guide you. But it's still you who will be taking up the responsibility of raising the animal whom you will offer to Xiwangmu."

"Yes, baba." Meng Ai nods eagerly as she waits for more reminders from her new parents.

"Xiao Ai why don't you play with Ruoye for awhile." Xie Lian allows Ruoye to fly towards Meng Ai as it wraps itself around her hands while a part of it rubs itself against Meng Ai's cheek in their mutual delight.

"While you're at it, take E-ming with you. Just don't take E-ming out of it's sheath." The sentient scimitar coos in delight as Hua Cheng carefully gives it to Meng Ai with a subtle but noticeable glance to Yin Yu to watch over her while she plays with their spiritual tools. Once Yin Yu leads Meng Ai to a safe distance away from the four of them while still being within their vision, the discussion becomes serious.

"I'm going to investigate the hidden demon nearby."

"I'll come with you San Lang."

"How sure are you that it's just a demon? What if it's a demon summoned by one of the mage mercenaries to try to lure us out - or even worse lure Aiai out."

"That's even better Jing Mei, getting information will be easier. If you need anything Yin Yu will know what to do." In the distance they hear Meng Ai laughing as she was chasing Ruoye who was carrying a sheathed E-ming around a field of Asters.

"Please you two, let San Lang and I handle this." Ji Huifan sighs, shares a look with Jing Mei before they both nod.

"You probably already know this but from my experience these demons are the most likely ones that they've summoned." They listen intently before making their way to where the disguised demons were located.

The couple lands a short distance away from where the hidden demons disguised as a puppy and its mother were. Standing near them made their demonic aura more obvious to them.

"They don't seem to be puppets. But that might just be because whomever created them is highly skilled."

"Hmm my bet is that they themselves are demons since if they were just puppets they would need some external power source to do that level of deception while still keeping itself intact." The sun begins to set and children begin staying indoors or staying in areas that are more crowded than the sparse field where they are in now.

"How do you want to do this San Lang?"

"We go together but you could approach it first. You'll ask the easy questions." He turns to Xie Lian with a dangerous glint in his eyes that Xie Lian couldn't help but be drawn to even after seven years of marriage.

"While I ask the difficult questions."

"Do you think they'll be truthful?" Xie Lian quickly asks to try to ignore his blush. Though he knows that Hua Cheng had already noticed.

"We'll know, and we'll have our ways to finding out the truth." They share a nod as they make their way to the hidden demons. The one disguised as a puppy starts whimpering and making pitiful sounds as it looks at Xie Lian's figure approaching.

"Whomever you are go to your true form. There are questions that you need to answer - both of you." Xie Lian says with a serious but still approachable tone. But the once seemingly innocent look of both demons are now glazed over with darkness and anger.

"Don't make us force you." Xie Lian warns as he prepares himself for any possible attack. The demon in the form of a puppy launches itself at him but its demonic face with a mouth full of sharp teeth emerged. Xie Lian quickly moved away with ease and dodged an attack from the demon in the form of the mother dog. As he bent down Hua Cheng managed to grab their throats in each hand and both demons began choking with fear.

"Go to your true forms or I will make you." He throws both demons on front of them and they immediately go to their shadowy forms with reluctance and fear of the Crimson Rain Sought Flower.

"Now." Hua Cheng continues as he holds their jade green glowing gazes.

"We'll ask some questions and you are going to answer them. Lie and we will know."

"Hrraah...Fine...Graah."

"Why are you here?" Xie Lian begins.

"Krrah ... Krraah...to...Krraah...lure..."

"Lure who?"

"Hrrah...Graaah...a...krraah...little girl...KraAAh..."

"Do you know her name?"

"GrraAWAah...Hrraah...No...Krrraah..."

"How about what she looks like?" Hua Cheng asks in an intimidating tone.

"Krraah...Hrraaah...No...Krraah...GrAaAh!" They share a look.

Shall I make them show us?

Go ahead, you did warn them earlier.

"Hmph why don't we see for ourselves." Xie Lian slips his hand in Hua Chengs and intertwine their fingers while Hua Cheng with his other hand now outstretched reaches into the memories of both demons. He quickly found the memory he was looking for and projected them telepathically to Xie Lian's mind so they may both uncover them together.

"WE SUMMON YOU!" Cried a group of hooded and masked mages in a dark night without moonlight. The only light present was the candles arranged in a summoning formation.

"KRAahAHaha...GrahaAh...who summons...HrahaAah?"

"We do, youth devourers."

"We have a task for you."

"GRAhahaKraah...Offerring...HraAah...first." One of the mages lead two children who were in a trance to each demon. Xie Lian couldn't help but wince in horror as the youth devouring demons take their souls and devours them.

Gege?

I'm fine...its just awful

I know

"Satisfied?"

"Grahakraah...Yes...Grahaaah."

"We need you to capture a little girl."

"Her left eye is blue and her right eye is amber brown. She would be about six years old. By the end of September she will be seven years old."

"HRAAH...Krahaagh...why...Graaahk...us...kraaAAagh?"

"You youth devouring demons specialize in luring and hunting down children. Even in areas where mortals cannot easily go."

"We have prepared other offerings which you will recieve when you bring us the girl alive and with her soul intact."

"GraAAAahhk...krAaAh...her...KRaAaAhk...name?"

"She is known as Meng Ai, and her presence was felt in Jingdezhen before we lost track of her."

"Bring her to us and you will recieve the rest of your offerings."

"GRAaAh!" "HraAAaAghk!"

The memory ends but Hua Cheng keeps his control over the two demons.

"Should we ask them to lead us to them?"

"No need. I already know where those mages are, even if they travel around." Hua Cheng then summons E-ming out of its sheath.

"GrAAH krAAaAh - you liars! HraAahk!"

"We never promised your safety and continued existence." These were Hua Cheng's last words to them before E-mind destroyed them.

"Good job E-ming." Xie Lian says as the scimitar's eye looked to him for approval. Having received it, E-ming coos of soft delight.

"Hmm they're getting desperate. Something tells me that this won't be the last thing they summon to hunt or lure Xiao Ai to them."

"I'll increase the security measures when it comes to her safety. And when all else fails she still has our silver butterfly pendant on her. Our combined powers in that pendant should be able to protect her and send a message to anyone who dares harm her." Xie Lian couldn't help but smile as he notices how Hua Cheng is already thinking of her safety.

"What amuses Gege so?"

"I like this side of you. Being protective over our daughter. I don't mind seeing this more often." Xie Lian couldn't help but tease a bit as he brings himself closer to Hua Cheng's look of surprise.

"Is...is that so?"

"Mmhmm" He sighs as he embraces him with his arms around Hua Cheng's neck.

"Let's visit Puqi Shrine for awhile. Since Meng Ai couldn't be there for the meantime we'll have the bed to ourselves." Hua Cheng quickly takes out the dice and tosses it but barely looks at the number that will inevitably lead to Puqi Shrine. His gaze instead was focused on his husband as he feels his desire for him increase as he feels himself share an expression of lust with him.

"We're here Gege." He bends down to kiss him and to carry him as a groom would carry his bride. Never breaking the kiss he enters the living quarters and gently placed him on the bed.

"San Lang mmm" Xie Lian moans as he keeps Hua Cheng close to his lips with one hand while undressing him and teasing him with the other.

"Mmm Gege mmm."

They would deal with the damage left by the previous battle once morning arrives. For now they were savoring being united in their love.

______________________________________________________________

"White Lotus is clearly the better mooncake filling." Mu Qing argues as he, Feng Xin, and Shi Qingxuan went to the nearby town. It was their promised reward to Shi Qingxuan for taking care of themself to recover quicker and thus meeting Meng Ai earlier before her birthday.

"Its too subtle for a little girl's birthday."

"Well clearly not for Meng Ai since she loves it."

"She also loves the Red bean filling. The popular choice."

"Hey you two why don't you just go for the third option? You both mentioned you liked how her mom mixed both fillings together, why not go with that? Also," Shi Qingxuan browses the fabric on display.

"What do you think her favorite color is? Or or what colors do you think looks good with her?"

"The four of us secretly decided to give all three to her. We'll give her an official answer so that she won't suspect and so her mother could begin making it, Nan Feng and I will buy one mooncake with either White Lotus paste or Red bean filling and her new parents will buy the other."

"Red bean filling is easier to find and it easily sells out. Oh and I think you should just ask her since we'll be going there once we finish up here."

"Which is why we should buy the White Lotus one so that it's easier to get."

"Do you know how easy it is to screw up White Lotus mooncake?"

"Any mooncake made by an idiot will be screwed up. Why do you think we'll be tasting them first before giving it to her?" Sighing as they hear the argument continue Shi Qingxuan decides to ask the store owner if they had some fabric samples they could show. They couldn't help but laugh at both of them remaining firm in their arguments.

"Here you go sir, a book sewn with a small piece of all the fabrics we have in our store."

"Thank you so much. Come on you two, you can continue arguing outside." They say with a laugh as both of them follow them out.

"Is that your only gift to her?"

"Of course not, we're also giving her a Go set." Feng Xin says as Mu Qing enters the first store selling mooncakes. The Mid Autumn Festival was only a few weeks away and this year Meng Ai's birthday would be in the week after that. Stores were now selling their mooncakes as a form of advertising their products. By selling them now the public could gauge which stores would sell the mooncakes that appealed to their taste and stores themselves could gauge how many orders to prepare as the Mid Autumn Festival came nearer.

"Did you check with Hua Cheng and Xie Lian if they already have a Go set in Paradise Manor? I find it hard to believe that Hua Chengzhu wouldn't already have one."

"Well another one wouldn't hurt."

"Because he already bought it." Mu Qing says as he emerged with six small mooncakes. Three of the White Lotus Paste filling and three of the Red bean filling.

"I didn't buy it! It wasn't used and was just collecting dust in one of my temples and I compensated my priest with blessings in exchange for offering it to me."

"In other words - you bought it from your priest." Mu Qing rebuts as he eats his share with the red bean filling. While the taste itself was not bad it had a strangely sour after taste that he isn't sure that Meng Ai would enjoy. Jing Mei's remarkable mooncakes were smooth, flavorful and did not have any of the aftertaste he was currently experiencing now.

Perhaps it was just the red bean flavor.

He eats the White Lotus paste flavor filling and while the flavor was better than the previous mooncake, it still had that sour aftertaste.

It must be the dough.

"Uhm Xuan Zhen, I don't think a little girl is going to like this." Shi Qingxuan says as he swallows only out of politeness. But it was clear from their and Feng Xin's expressions that none of them were fans of the sour aftertaste.

"I know, this is a far cry from her mother's version."

"I honestly doubt we'll be able to find someone who could match hers."

"Describe how her mother does it. Maybe I know a place that will have something similar."

"Smooth, flavorful, concentrated in its flavor that just complements the egg inside it, sweet but not overwhelmingly so. Just enough to make you want more."

"It's almost like there is a subtle burst of it in every bite you take and because of its smoothness the flavors becomes more intense." Feng Xin adds as they begin making their way in a secluded area after they notice that it was late in the night and it was time for them to make their way to Paradise Manor. Mu Qing begins drawing a teleportation portal to get them close enough to the entrance of Ghost City.

"If she's willing to make us some, you'll understand what we mean."

"Are you sure Xiwangmu wouldn't let me borrow her for her visions and her amazing food? She's got plenty of other oracles." At this Mu Qing couldn't help but laugh.

"We've already talked about this, I highly doubt she would lend her to you just for those reasons."

"What if I send some of my followers to protect her and Chenxi's temples?"

"You don't need to request for her specifically! You can get anyone else to cook for you or to give you visions."

"Okay what if I teach Meng Ai how to fight?" Mu Qing pinches the bridge of his nose in both annoyance and amusement.

"Go ahead, try your best to convince one of the most powerful primordial Goddesses if you can borrow one of her most active oracles. I'm going to enjoy watching her kick your sorry butt." Now it was Feng Xin's turn to laugh.

"Hmph please, we both know you wouldn't let that happen."

"Well it looks like the portal is ready! Enough stalling let's go." Shi Qingxuan says quickly before Mu Qing could respond with what seemed to be a more teasing and flirtatious reply based on the expression on his face. Their flirting was often more confusing to the former Wind Master. At least whenever Hua Cheng and Xie Lian would flirt, their flirtations were more obvious and Shi Qingxuan knew to ignore it and give the married couple privacy. But with Nan Yang and Xuan Zhen being a relatively new couple (in public at least, they knew that the Generals were together a little longer before that) their flirtations with each other were a sometimes not so obvious and it was difficult to tell if the new couple were seriously arguing or if they were simply teasing and goading each other into initiating more physical forms of affection.

They emerge out of the portal and make a final check to see if their divine aura was obvious or not. Then they join the ghosts entering Ghost City.

When they enter the actual city they were greeted by Yin Yu.

"Welcome back to Ghost City. Just follow me to Paradise Manor."

"Thank you Yin Yu. What are they doing?" Shi Qingxuan asks in curiosity.

"It's going to be your first time meeting her, correct?"

"Oh yes! And might I just say I would have jumped at the chance of babysitting her if only I wasn't sick. But unfortunately I'm now mortal and I'm now more prone to illnesses." Shi Qingxuan gives a chuckle at the end. They decided that it was best that they take over the conversation since they aren't exactly sure what type of dynamic the other two have with Yin Yu. They are at least confident that Yin Yu and they can have an easy conversation. Or Yin Yu willingly listened to Shi Qingxuan's thoughts about almost anything.

"It is understandable, let's just say her mother has found her an animal that she will raise for the next few weeks and she will offer it to Xiwangmu on the day of her birthday." Yin Yu let's out a small chuckle.

"All because Xiao Ai wanted to adopt a puppy and its mother which turned out to be a couple of youth devourers in disguise."

"So she's taking care of a dog?" Feng Xin asks as they reach the entrance of Paradise Manor.

"Not exactly." Yin Yu says with amusement, when they reach the entrance of the building and before Yin Yu makes his leave he gives them one last hint.

"I hope you won't mind a certain meat being absent in your meals here - or at least whenever Meng Ai is present while eating. She's that committed." He then takes his leave and the three of them enter the manor. What greeted them was an amusing sight.

It seems that their presence was not yet noticed since Hua Cheng and Xie Lian had their backs to them while to their side was another couple who was looking down at what Shi Qingxuan presumed to be Meng Ai who was currently hidden by them.

"You know she can also eat bugs Aiai."

"No! Baba she'll be vegetarian."

"But you'll deprive her of nutritition and she's already the runt of the litter." Jing Mei says amusingly.

"But mushrooms are also protein!"

"I hate to agree Xiao Ai but plenty of mushrooms are toxic to both humans and animals." Xie Lian adds in a light tone.

"Aw." Hua Cheng chuckles in a way that they've only heard him do around Xie Lian. And now this little girl had the power to bring that out from him. Much to their astonishment. Mostly of Shi Qingxuan, but also to Feng Xin and Mu Qing.

"Xiao Ai don't worry, she's not going to be slaughtered. You're raising her to be Xiwangmu's pet."

"I know San Lang." They then hear a little squeal and what emerged was Meng Ai craddling a swaddled little piglet.

"Oh I'm so sorry we didn't notice your arrival." Xie Lian immediately says as he approaches the trio. It was then that Meng Ai noticed two familiar faces and one new one.

"Nan Feng! Fu Yao! Meet Chang-Chang." She holds up the little swaddled piglet as she eagerly runs to them. The piglet blinks innocently at them and as the three of them kneels down to her level to take a closer look.

"She's my birthday gift to Xiwangmu so she's actually her pet."

"Hello there." Shi Qingxuan says as they reach out and pet Chang-Chang on the head. Turns out the little piglet loves cuddles and immediately leans in on their hand.

"You know what - surprisingly cute." Mu Qing says as he gives a little pet to Chang-Chang on the head while Feng Xin pets her from underneath her chin. The little piglet, much like Meng Ai was happily soaking up all the positive attention from her new audience.

"Mama chose her for me because she couldn't get milk from her mama."

"Not enough nipples and too many piglets." Jing Mei clarifies from where she was standing.

"Is this why you don't want to eat pork until after she goes to Xiwangmu?" Shi Qingxuan asks and she nods vigorously.

"I didn't want to offend her. But don't worry since she'll be going to Xiwangmu in the morning, in my birthday party in the evening we'll be eating pork again." Feng Xin took the moment to carry Chang-Chang while Xie Lian formally introduced Shi Qingxuan and Meng Ai. After a few minutes he felt dampness in the swaddled cloth accompanied by Hua Cheng's laughter.

"Chang-Chang!" One of the servants accompanied Jing Mei in helping Meng Ai in cleaning the little piglet whose pee soaked through the swaddling cloth and dripped a bit on Feng Xin.

"I'm so sorry Nan Feng - if it makes you feel better Chang-Chang also peed on me when I was carrying her yesterday." Mu Qing laughs as he hands a handkerchief to Feng Xin.

"Don't worry Meng Ai, let's just say Nan Feng is used to fluids being dripped his way." Before she could ask further Jing Mei and the female servant ushers her out to clean Chang-Chang.

"Well would you look at that - it's nice to know that even Chang-Chang has taste in companions." Hua Cheng says as he joins Xie Lian's side.

"Hey! At least she's comfortable around me."

"Aw you two were right, she is adorable. Congratulations on your new little girl you two." Shi Qingxuan immediately says to quickly dissipate any incoming argument between Hua Cheng and Feng Xin. Even though they knew that these three couldn't help but bicker, they didn't want to start their visit with them bickering among each other (though it was still entertaining from their point of view). Xie Lian gives them a thankful glance and guides them to the dining room and takes advantage of Meng Ai being absent for a little while.

"Chenxi has contacted you?" Ji Huifan asks them as they enter.

"Yes, you knew?" Mu Qing asks.

"No, but she did send a message to Mei and I that she will be attending Meng Ai's birthday party."

"Huh interesting." Shi Qingxuan says as female servants begin placing food on the dining table. They couldn't help but wink at a few of them while also giving a sympathetic look. They recalled the time when they were going undercover and had to blend in among Hua Cheng's female servants.

"Any ideas on what are their next moves?" Mu Qing asks when they all settle down.

"Considering that they ventured into summoning youth devourers they would probably start summoning other demonic creatures." Hua Cheng says seriously. Xie Lian slip his hand into Hua Cheng's for their mutual comfort.

"Based on their last movements the entire group is mainly headed towards the southern areas. Probably to investigate if they had left or if their contacts have seen the three of them leave through the southern coastal areas. I'd like to request if you two could keep an eye on them."

"Of course." They then sense that Meng Ai and Jing Mei were coming. This time Chang-Chang was swaddled in a new cloth and was now laying inside a basket whose walls were high enough that the little piglet couldn't escape even if she jumped.

"Chang-Chang is not sitting on your lap."

"But my eyes are not leaving Chang-Chang."

"Chang-Chang already ate, she'll be more comfortable in your room."

"But I haven't yet and I need to see her at all times."

"Xiao - Ai would you like to put Chang-Chang nearby?" Xie Lian asks in a gentle persuasive tone and trying to find an approach that would help Jing Mei and Meng Ai have a compromise.

"She could be within your view."

"Okay Xie Lian." Xie Lian then takes the basket holding Chang-Chang on the seat in front of Meng Ai which was in between Shi Qingxuan and and Mu Qing.

"Don't worry, she's sleeping now so I don't think she'll relieve herself again. I just want to make sure I know where she is." With everyone complete they begin eating their meal.

"Say Jing Mei, by any chance do you still have any of those sample mooncakes? You know just so Shi Qingxuan here could understand Meng Ai's dilemma."

"Oh yes, I just made a new batch this morning - and no Aiai you're not getting any until your birthday."

"I was wondering if Chang-Chang could have some."

"I know what you're trying to do but the answer is still no."

"Meng Ai, think of it this way - once you get your mooncake on your birthday it will be much sweeter." Shi Qingxuan says now excited at finally tasting the coveted mooncakes of Jing Mei.

"That's true, but by then Chang-Chang will be with Xiwangmu."

"Don't worry Aiai, I'll make a pig friendly version to accompany Chang-Chang on the morning of your birthday when you offer her as a pet to Xiwangmu."

"Oh why didn't you say so mama!?" Finally satisfied the rest of the meal went on and by the end of it Shi Qingxuan now understands why Feng Xin and Mu Qing were no longer satisfied with just any mooncakes and why Feng Xin wants to borrow Jing Mei for her cooking skills.

"How do you like things so far Meng Ai?"

"Oh I love it Fu Yao. Everything is so red and warm and cozy."

"Ah so is red your favorite color? Oh and before I forget you can call me A-xuan. I give you my full permission." Shi Qingxuan says with enthusiasm. Meng Ai couldn't help but giggle as she shakes her head.

"Red is beautiful but blue is actually my favorite color."

"Oh why is that?" Feng Xin asks amused.

"Because whenever blue shows up in nature, it is always a work of art. That's why you don't see many things in nature that are blue."

"Hmm? But the sky is blue." Shi Qingxuan points out.

"And so is the sea." Added Mu Qing.

"The sky is up there, and the waters only reflect it, that's why they are blue. But there aren't many species of animals that are blue. There's no blue dog, blue cat or blue horses. But peacocks have beautiful iridiscent patterns on their feathers and the most beautiful butterfly in nature is the blue butterfly." At this she excitedly turns to Hua Cheng.

"San Lang, did you know that somewhere beyond our lands is the most beautiful blue butterfly? One of Baba's friends summoned some through a portal and it was the most beautiful butterfly in nature. And Baba explained that the reason why its so vibrant is because the butterflies are not using pigment, they use some sort of structure that is too small for us to see to make their wings blue. Since they live in a part of the world that rains a lot so they need to keep their wings vibrant even when they are wet."

"How interesting Xiao Ai." He says with interest as he listens to her.

"Oh yes and it's also why when you look at it in different angles sometimes it shifts in color - Baba what do you call it?"

"Iridesence."

"Iridesence! And it's the same method that Peacocks use for their feathers. That's why their feathers are so beautiful." By the end of the meal, the new people in Meng Ai's life have a good grasp on what gifts she would love and appreciate.

______________________________________________________________

"Thank you for visiting scrap collector gege!"

"You're welcome Gu Zi." Xie Lian says as the little boy is escorted to have his formal lessons by a teacher whom Lang Qianqiu personally checked would be good for Gu Zi's temperament and would be considerate of his background. Now he and his former Guo Shi were alone ever since the battle of the heavens against Jun Wu.

"Lang Qianqiu? Is there something in your mind?" Xie Lian asks as he hears Lang Qianqiu sigh.

"Am I fighting a losing battle...Guo Shi?" Lang Qianqiu turns to face him with uncertainty in his eyes.

"He still awaits for his father's return. I don't know if that's his original father or that monster anymore. No matter how much I try and attempt to explain things to him he rejects it. What if...what if this means I'm not ready to take care of him? Or worse, what if I mess things up?" Lang Qianqiu then realizes that as much as he tries...he needs his Guo Shi.

The man who willingly painted himself as the villain in his life so that peace would prevail and so that he could be the ruler who listens to the needs of his people.

"Qianqiu." Xie Lian starts with a gentle tone. Gentler than when he was Fang Xin Guoshi, but nevertheless it was still sincere.

"I also wasn't ready when I came into your life." Lang Qianqiu nods solemnly.

"But you managed to do it so well."

"But I wasn't perfect." The stillness yet cooling air of the heavens only emphasized that there was nowhere to run. Deep inside both of them they longed to be able to form a bond, even though it will never be like how it was. One of them believed he was undeserving and it was all a wishful dream but Xie Lian couldn't help but hope. Lang Qianqiu didn't know how to reforge it, but he had to try. To try his best even though it made him uncomfortable right now.

He misses him.

But he also knows that the wounds from the recent revelations were still too fresh. And he could see that his Guo Shi knows that some things take time to heal.

"Qianqiu, there is no such thing as a perfect parent or guardian." Xie Lian couldn't help but place his hands on Qianqiu's shoulders to reassure his former student.

"But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do your best. And I know you enough that you will." Lang Qianqiu's eyes become watery as he allows the words of his Guo Shi to sink in.

Somehow, even till now...he knew just what he needs to hear.

And he couldn't help but smile in thanks to him.

"I have an idea, why don't I introduce you and Gu Zi to someone. She's six years old but it would be nice for Gu Zi to be with children around his age."

"Ugh, I've tried Guo Shi. But he refuses to interact with them whenever Mengyou and I take him to the mortal realm. I'm trying not to force things on him. He's so obsessed with his father and Qi Rong that I'm afraid that he will miss out on living life."

"Don't worry. You still have time. And I have faith in you."

______________________________________________________________

"Chang - Chang, sit." The little piglet lay down instead of sitting. Taking a deep breath Meng Ai tries again.

"Chang - Chang, stand." Mu Qing, Feng Xin, and Shi Qingxuan watches her squeal in delight as they watch the piglet stand up. The three of them have decided to take her to Shi Qingxuan's new residence with permission from Hua Cheng and Xie Lian. Since those hunting her were specifically looking for a family of three - a mother, a father, and a daughter, they tended to ignore groups that didn't meet this description. As expected Hua Cheng initially refused until Xie Lian convinced him that Meng Ai needs to take trips outside of Ghost City since she was still mortal. Even if the powers they bestowed on her butterfly pendant was more than enough to allow her to live everyday in Ghost City, Meng Ai did miss being around regular people. It was only when Hua Cheng made a special kind of illusion on her so that anyone who wasn't taking care of her couldn't see what she actually looks like.

This also gave a chance for all of her parents to rest from taking care of her while Shi Qingxuan is making up for lost time by showing that they can be relied on as her babysitter.

After all there were at least twenty hidden wraith butterflies watching over her and their treatment of her. These hidden twenty were only visible to the trio of babysitters. Threatening them by their mere presence and proximity should any harm fall on Meng Ai while she is under their watch. Meanwhile there were another ten wraith butterflies playing with her and Chang-Chang.

"You know for someone who recently became a father, Hua Chengzhou is quite protective over little Aiai." Shi Qingxuan says as they fan themself to keep cool. While it wasn't a hot day, it wasn't cool enough to be comfortable either.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but I don't blame him. Qingxuan if only you knew what these cursed immortals had sent to hunt her down you too would be concerned over her safety." Feng Xin says as he takes a bite of the latest sample of mooncakes that Shi Qingxuan bought from the capital city of this area. It was definitely better but still not as smooth as how Jing Mei makes hers.

"Hmph, never thought the day would come when Hua Cheng would be protective over someone other than Dianxia." Mu Qing says as he puts a black stone on the Go board before turning to watch Meng Ai play and teach Chang-Chang basic commands.

"Chang-Chang, down." The piglet lies down and an enthusiastic Meng Ai gives her a treat. Even from where they were sitting they could see that the butterflies were being very gentle and playful with her. Some of them have began attaching themselves on her hair, keeping some of the stray strands from flying into her face.

"Chang-Chang, stand." The piglet stands and was rewarded with another treat.

"By the way, has she guessed your identities yet?"

"She already knows Xie Lian is the Crown Prince of Xianle when she asked him last dinner and said why she thinks so. He didn't have the heart to not answer her." Feng Xin places a white stone on the Go board before once again facing the direction where Meng Ai and Chang-Chang was.

"Well to be fair Nan Yang he is going to be her new father. If there's anyone whose identity she should know its him and Hua Cheng. She's quick so it won't be long till she guesses our own identites."

"Chang-Chang, walk." Happily trotting beside her and some of the wraith butterflies trailing along behind them they go back to where the trio were seated at the outer porch area of Shi Qingxuan's home.

"General Nan Yang! General Xuan Zhen! A-Xuan! Look what I taught Chang-Chang!" She doesn't notice the look of surprise when she immediately turns and commands Chang-Chang to sit, lie down, and stand. Shi Qingxuan couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh that's brilliant Meng Ai!"

"I know A-xuan! I can't believe she finally learnt my commands now." After Chang-Chang consistently follows Meng Ai's commands she picks her up and carries her as she settles herself beside Shi Qingxuan so that she may watch the Go game.

"Meng Ai what did you call Nan Feng and Fu Yao just now?"

"General Nan Yang and General Xuan Zhen. Xie Lian said that they've been bickering ever since their early days with him. And since Xie Lian is the Crown Prince of Xianle and since they have the same type of spirit as Xie Lian the only two Gods I know who like to compete with each other are Generals Nan Yang and Xuan Zhen." She turns to look at their Go game to see if she could recognize any patterns from their first lesson with her. As she was looking she hears both of them chuckle above her.

"You just had to predict it don't you Xuan Zhen?" Mu Qing only gives him a smug look in return.

"Oh but I do have some questions - what does Ju Yang mean? Did you have to become a giant in a famous battle? Why do some of the villagers and ghosts laugh whenever they say it?"

"Well-"

"You're not ready to know yet!" Feng Xin quickly says as he cuts off Mu Qing from explaining any further. This only lead Mu Qing to laugh at his expense

"Huh? Why not? Why is your facing becoming red?" She innocently asks confused.

"Meng Ai let's just say it was an embarrassing incident for Nan Yang here and that's why he doesn't like to say it."

"But I will."

"Because you're enjoying it."

"Why do you think I have all the poems memorized Qingxuan?"

"Oh I'm sorry Nan Yang - I could tell you an embarrassing memory of mine. Would that make you feel better?"

"Oh there's no need for that Meng Ai." Feng Xin quickly says but from her expression she was going to tell them anyway.

"One time somebody ask me to do the story of the butterfly lovers ten times. But I was confused because I don't know what they mean, and because this man wanted me to do it and not one of my parents. I didn't want to ask them what he meant so I just guessed. So I made ten different drawings of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. It turned out that he wanted me to write it down. But for some reason mama and baba said that it was good that I didn't do it because that man wanted to get a sample of my calligraphy." Unbeknownst to her all three of them were alarmed.

"What did he look like?"

"I didn't see his face, but I remember he was wearing a hood and a mask. But it was during one of the village festivals when plenty of people were wearing masks."

The air became chilled at this new revelation. With the butterflies still on her hair at least they know that they wouldn't need to tell Hua Cheng of their new discovery. Feng Xin and Mu Qing share a look as the memories of their clones escaping the camp full of the hooded masked mages and the cursed immortal who was Meng Ai's aunt. What she almost did.

And now they learn that a mage mercenary had interacted with Meng Ai hoping to get a sample of her calligraphy. While they aren't entirely sure what that man was going to do with it, all three of them knew nothing good could come out of it.

"What happened to the drawings?"

"Oh I didn't like my drawings so Baba set them on fire so that the ashes could be used as a fertilizer."

They all breathed out a sigh of relief.

______________________________________________________________

"What do you think?" Hua Cheng asks as he shows Xie Lian the new modifications he made to their cottage. The cottage where they spent many of their passionate nights after their wedding. Now they both stand at the entrance of what would now be Meng Ai's room. A bed by the window since she loved waking up to the view. A desk to practice her calligraphy in and for her to read. Several stacks of blank notebooks and books on the shelves that she had always wanted to read.

And of course it was a tasteful blend of blue, Meng Ai's favorite color.

Xie Lian couldn't help but chuckle as he notices the paintings of blue butterflies and peacocks that decorate her walls.

"You really searched for and studied the blue butterfly she was talking about." Hua Cheng smiles at him with a knowing look.

"I couldn't make an accurate painting if I didn't examine the specimen itself. Fortunately I was able to get a sample of it and made some here." Xie Lian embraces him. Knowing that despite all his work he could still sense that Hua Cheng was nervous on whether Meng Ai would actually love it. But knowing her and knowing how she actually is when she is safe and happy, deep down Xie Lian knows Meng Ai would love it because Hua Cheng made it for her.

"San Lang, do you want to give it to her before her birthday in a few days? That way she could move in and if there are any changes she'd like you would know right away?" Hua Cheng couldn't help but gaze lovingly at him. Xie Lian always seemed to know what to say to relieve his worries.

"I would love that Gege." He bends down and they share a chaste but sweet kiss as their foreheads press against each other.

"Let's reinforce the wards so that we won't have to worry about any of them finding her and taking her away."

"I couldn't agree more Gege."

Three days before her actual birthday, while the rest of the world was in the midst of the week long Mid Autumn Festival, they lead her to the cottage. Ruoye once again acting as a blindfold. This time on Meng Ai whose hands were held by Xie Lian and Hua Cheng.

"I thought we would be staying in Paradise Manor?"

"We are still staying there. But you need to also be within the mortal world since its not good for a mortal to stay in Ghost City for too long." Hua Cheng explains as they guide her.

"Even when you and Xie Lian placed power on my necklace?"

"Even the powers of your necklace needs to rest and replenish every once in a while Meng Ai." Xie Lian says as they stop on front of the cottage and Ruoye unwinds itself as it goes back inside Xie Lian's sleeve.

When her eyes opened she couldn't contain her delight and hugged both of them.

"Can we go inside please?" They both laugh as she pulls them both to the door. Someone else would think that she was trying to convince them to buy the cottage.

"We have a few more surprises for you." Hua Cheng says as Xie Lian holds his hand to help with his nervousness.

Only for a few minutes as they here squeals of delight as she enters her room.

"Is - is this really for me? THANK YOU SO MUCH!" She drags them both inside as she jumps on the bed.

"Of course this is for you little one." Hua Cheng chuckles as he finds himself laying down on one side of the bed, Xie Lian on the other and Meng Ai laying down in between them with her facing him.

"Does this mean you wouldn't mind if I'm your daughter? Is it okay if I call you two Baba Lian and Baba Lang?" She asks nervously. A part of her is scared at still being rejected. But the love on both of their faces made her feel happy and safe.

She wasn't losing anyone, she's gaining more people who will love her.

"You are our daughter Xiao Ai." Xie Lian says as he leans on one arm.

"We both want you to be our daughter." After he said this Hua Cheng felt his anxiety fade away as their daughter, their Xiao Ai laughed with joy.

______________________________________________________________

The morning of the 21st of September had finally arrived.

Chenxi in disguise as one of her mother's priestesses arrives at the entrance of Paradise Manor. At the entrance was Meng Ai holding Chang-Chang who now had a blue collar around her neck. Behind her were her four parents and her three baby sitters. Everyone except Meng Ai instantly knew who she was. Meng Ai could sense she was a God but couldn't tell which one.

"Are you Xiwangmu?" She asks as she held Chang-Chang back.

"No, but she's very important to me. And I believe you have a pet offering for her."

"Will Chang-Chang be safe?" Chenxi smiles as she nods.

"I will personally make sure she is. Xiwangmu will love her. She knows you've been working hard on raising Chang-Chang." Meng Ai nods and makes Chang-Chang face her.

"You be good okay? I'll visit you if I can." She couldn't help but cry as she embraces Chang-Chang one last time. All the sleepless nights, all the time spent raising and loving her and training her...it will be over now but she knows it's because the priests and priestesses of Xiwangmu could better take care of Chang-Chang than she could.

Is that why it still hurts?

Chang-Chang sensing her sadness nuzzles her one last time as she gives her to Xiwangmu's priestess who now also carries treats and food for Chang-Chang.

"I'll be back later for your party tonight little Meng Ai. I'll just make sure Chang-Chang is safe." Chenxi smiles reassuringly as she escorts Chang-Chang to her mother's temple. There she will join all of her other pets offered to live a natural life.

"Mama it hurts." Chenxi smiles as she overhears her. Ji Huifen and Jing Mei did a great job at showing her that even they are going to be grieving. Grieving at the chance of not being the ones who will raise her. Even though they all know this is for the best, it doesn't mean that it didn't hurt.

A lesson that she herself had to learn the hard way.

She tucks that in the corner of her mind as she makes her way to the temple. There will be plenty of that when Nan Yang and Xuan Zhen ask her about that time in her life. Today was a day of celebration and she intends to keep it that way.

Once the sun had set Meng Ai's birthday celebration has begun. The guests being restricted to those she has already met but it was still more than just her parents.

While there were games that entertained her if you were to ask Meng Ai what the highlight of the night would be, it's that she got to eat all three flavors of mooncake.

"We didn't want to keep fighting what was the best flavor so we decided to give you all three." Hua Cheng couldn't help but rebut this as Feng Xin and Mu Qing gives Meng Ai their Go set gift.

"You're right, you and Nan Yang would prefer to fight over more petty things for the fun of it now."

"Pardon me!"

"Now now it's Xiao Ai's birthday."

"Hey Meng Ai, I've got you something!" Sensing another argument may happen Shi Qingxuan immediately interrupts by giving Meng Ai their present.

"Shi Qingxuan how were you able to bring a Guquin here without us noticing?" Feng Xin asks suspiciously and Shi Qingxuan couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Hey I still know and use magic, it's just not the same as before but obviously I am still highly capable for your information."

"And speaking of musical instruments." Ji Huifan and Jing Mei present their own gift, the Guzheng.

"I can finally learn the Guzheng and the Guquin. Oh it's so beautiful."

"This is the Guzheng I was playing when your father first met me." Jing Mei says as she begins playing a simple tune that gradually began to become more and more complex.

"It was once my mother's, and now it is yours Aiai."

"But-but how did you get it here?"

"We had some help." Ji Huifan says as he bends down and kisses Meng Ai's forehead.

"Remember, never stop learning. We will always be with you no matter what." She smiles as she embraces them.

"Thank you mama, thank you baba."

Now having experienced a pain similar to theirs she kisses both of them on the cheek.

And for the rest of the night, there was lively music heard in Paradise Manor celebrating the latest member of Hua Cheng and Xie Lian's family.

AN: I had to end it there for now because Chenxi's assessment and conversation with Fengqing would take place as everyone else is busy.

Zufu - Formal way of saying grandfather (at least according to google)

Mei mei - little sister

Ji - Hope, Lihua - Pear blossom

Chang-Chang - Flourishing (I found this in a site for chinese names for female dogs [ https://www.pupnames.com/dog-names/chinese/female ] )

I wanted to give Chang-Chang more scenes but I'm not too experienced with pigs as pets to contribute specific scenes.

I was so inspired and guided by the reconciliation scene in the story "A Splinter in the Heart" by theearlymorningmist (read here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54114421/chapters/137010871) although I will be approaching Lang Qianqiu reconciling with Xie Lian more gradually in this story. They'll still have the big heart to heart reconciliation talk but I feel Lang Qianqiu has to gradually be ready for it and needs to understand what it's like raising a kid first. Also just to make things clear - Lang Qianqiu is Meng Ai's love interest but I won't let them meet till after she grows up.

#We have it all #Chapter 7 #Hualian #hua cheng x xie lian #xie lian x hua cheng #Fengqing #Feng Xin #Mu Qing #feng xin x mu qing #Hua Cheng #Xie Lian #tgcf #heaven official's blessing #fanfiction #fanfic #shi qingxuan

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usafphantom2 · 10 months ago

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B-52 bombers arrive in the Pacific to provide strategic deterrence

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 02/05/2024 - 19:39in Military

A B-52H Stratofortress, assigned to the 23º Expeditionary Bomber Squadron, taxis on the flight line at Andersen Air Base, Guam, on January 30, 2024. (Photo: U.S. Air Force / Airman 1st Class Alyssa Bankston)

Four B-52 Stratofortress bombers designated for the 5ª Bomber Wing of Minot Air Base, North Dakota, landed at Andersen Air Base, Guam, in late January, as part of a Bomber Task Force (BTF) to support strategic deterrent missions aimed at strengthening international order rules based on the Indo-Pacific region.

While deployed in Guam, B-52 operations and support personnel are assigned to the 23º Expeditionary Bomber Squadron. The 23º EBS will integrate alongside the Allies and partners to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to security and stability throughout the region.

Designed to show the U.S. ability to deter, deny and dominate, BTF missions aim to influence and deter the aggression of opponents or competitors.

While in Guam, the bombers will also support the largest multilateral exercise of the Pacific Air Forces, the Cope North. The exercise, scheduled from February 5 to 23, will be co-led by the Australian Royal Air Force (RAAF) and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF).

Cope North 24 kicks off with ?? ?? integration#CopeNorth24 enhances US relationships & interoperability w/Allies & partners by providing the opportunity to exchange info & improve shared tactics to better integrate multilateral defense capabilities. #CN24pic.twitter.com/99T0YKsspb

— PACAF (@PACAF) February 4, 2024

Reacting to the arrival of the aircraft, Captain Zachary "Smash" Holmes, arms officer of the 23º EBS, said it was great "finally to have some iron on the ground".

"It's great to finally receive our crews, so we're ready to leave and participate in the mission, as well as prepare our maintenance staff to support where necessary," Holmes said. "We are ready to go."

Air crews and support personnel are looking for every opportunity to train alongside our allies and partners to build interoperability and strengthen our collective capacity to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Tags: Military AviationBoeing B-52H StratofortressBTFUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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villain-in-love · 16 days ago

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2 and 7 for the ask game?? (: [giving you more attention] [giving you more attention]

(@strawberryona)

Great, more attention!

All right, I guess I'll be talking about Ciel again, huh?

2. Two headcanons/facts-- one from your newest F/O and one from the oldest.

Okay, so about my favourite chihuahuas:

Thistle: This one is a headcanon based on canon, but I think he’s quite a fashionista. He was always dressed in a fancy way in the past, even after being promoted from the jester to the court magician, and was only wearing plain clothes when doing dungeon maintenance (but even those looked good on him, at least in my opinion, and he changes outfits often). Also it seems logical that someone who takes care of his hair and constantly styles it in different ways would be invested in the rest of his appearance as well.

Ciel Phantomhive: Fun canon fact is that Ciel is a fan of the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. Ciel is also the one who invited Arthur into his mansion for a banquet, just to drag the poor guy into the murder mystery, and later reveal all the hellish bullshit he and Sebastian got up to while orchestrating this whole event, consequentially traumatizing the author for life and inspiring him to write further. Which means that Ciel is partially responsible for the creation of Sherlock Holmes.

7. What's something you feel is uncommon that you do with/for/about/etc your F/O(s)?

Well, the fact that my go-to way of expressing affection is being mean and harshly critical of my f/os. It’s not often that I see other people that prefer to focus more on their f/os' bad traits.

I mean, I can praise them, but it’s much easier and much more fun to point out everything that is wrong with them. It’s pretty simple – I find flaws to be the most interesting part of the character. I don’t just fall in love with the good qualities of my f/os, I fall in love with their bad traits as well.

I love Thistle’s anger issues and how much of a paranoid control freak he is. I love Jamil for being a manipulative backstabber (though he is 100% justified in being one, I would have done worse in his situation). I love Xerxes for being so prideful that it starts to become a problem not only for everyone else, but for him as well.

That’s what makes them worth loving, in my eyes. Otherwise, it would have been boring… And I myself would feel inadequate in comparison.

Xerxes himself said it best:

#Fun fact: one time I wrote an entire essay fully dedicated to dragging Break through the dirt for his shitty life (and fashion) choices #f/o: the mad hatter #f/o: the mad mage #It's been a while since I read B.lack B.utler so I don't remember any headcanons I had about C.iel...#It was alsready hard to remember any peculiar facts that wouldn't be a common knowledge!#That won't do. He's still my favourite character so I really need to reread the manga to remember more...#Also. To be fair most of the headcanons I have about my f/os are based on canon in one way or another.#By which I mean: I notice a detail and simply extend a possible conclusion.#It is VERY rare for me to just come up with headcanons out of nowhere simply because they seem fitting.

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partyanimal167 · 6 months ago

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Greatness in the Making PT 2- Crocodile x GN!Reader

X 1

Welcome back!

CW: gn reader, canon typical violence, swearing, slightly older reader, possible ooc Crocodile due to age, mdni, pre canon, some ocs for plot building

PT Two: Absolutely Not.

The captain was impulsive. extreme. followed her own tune. But this? Oh no, this didn't sit right with you at all.

You were against it. When you got back on the boat and noticed that the captain and first mate weren't drinking and singing on deck, you knew something was up. The rest of the crew didn't seem to notice or care, but you knew there was something going on.

So when a roughed up lean boy was grumbling and scrubbing the deck the next morning, your suspicions were somewhat confirmed.

"Captain, please!" you called out after your new "crew member" was so casually introduced after last night's events explained. Everyone else went on about their day, but you couldn't let it go.

"Y/n, drop it!" your captain's first mate sent a glare in your direction. And while that would normally be enough to set you straight, you didn't back down so easily this time.

"I can't allow it! This child threatened the captain's life! And we're supposed to be okay with them onboard?"

"Oi! I'm not a child! I'm going to be a great pirate one day!" the young man called out to you, but you paid him no mind.

You huffed as your captain laughed before plowing her smoke out. "My life was never in danger to begin with. You know that." she ignored your mutterings. "You were a bit of a rascal when you came aboard. So don't be so tough. That's your new junior; show him the ropes. Those me orders."

You grumbled in agreement, but there was no way you'd go against those words. You'd just have to keep watch for now.

~~~

The boy named Crocodile did not make your teaching duties easy at all. In fact, while it was noted that he had some working experience on boat maintenance, he seemed to not want to interact with anyone who wasn't the Captain or first mate. He'd only grunt when given his tasks for the day and took his meals away in a corner while everyone else laughed and chatted.

You kept an eye on him through it all. Despite his stubbornness, you were close by to inspect his work and make sure he wasn't sneaking around at night. You understood that no one was really threatened; this was a seasoned pirate crew to be fair. But that didn't mean Crocodile could go doing whatever he wanted. You'd make sure of it.

And soon enough, you realized that the boy was up late at night because he couldn't sleep well. If he did sleep, there was a lot of tossing and movements you heard. Yet somehow, he was up just before you already checking the sail lines and other little things.

When the marines attacked, you were sure you'd need to rescue the boy, but he held his own for a bit. He was only a little roughed up, but he seemed to try to wear his knife prosthetic more. After that successful raid, he even partook in a cheers. He softened a bit.

But you weren't convinced.

...

You yawned as you caught the knife that was aimed for your head. “What’s got you so stressed out, lizard-boy? It’s not even 8 in the mornin’?” you went over and took a seat at the kitchen table very unbothered.

The man sent daggers your way, but you didn’t care to feel threatened. He turned away and continued to scrub at the dishes in the sink. “Tch, why are you up? It’s not your turn to make breakfast.” he grunted out.

You leaned back in your chair and shrugged as the morning light started to pour in. “Someone’s gotta make sure you’re not snaking around tryna steal. Cap'n might’ve let you on board, but that doesn’t mean you’re part of the crew.” Crocodile cussed to himself when another dish fell and shattered on the floor. “Tch, how about you find yerself a better prosthetic? No point walking around with that damn thing if you can’t even use it.”

“It’s how I protect myself.” Crocodile argued back. You rolled your eyes before standing up to sweep the mess. “I don’t need your help!”

“Never said you did, kid. But if you’re going to be staying around then someone’s gotta make sure you don’t go making a mess.”

“I can take care of myself.”

You flicked the other’s forehead. “Yeah, but you’re on a crew now, so it’s not just about yourself! There’s other to look after, and they’ll look after you. If you’re just gonna be a selfish brat, then I’ll haul you off this damn boat myself!” you barked before dumping the shards away.

Crocodile didn’t say anything and turned back to continue cleaning.

“You talked a lot of shit about wanting to be a great pirate, but you got a long way to go, kid.” you started washing the dishes so the man could start drying.

“Oh, and you’re gonna show me?”

You looked up at him with a mischievous grin and winked. “Well maybe if you shut up and just watch you’ll learn a thing of two.”

And soon, you could tell he was paying a little more attention. After the chores were done, he usually lurked away to his corner, but you quickly noted the new face in the crowd when you sparred your peers. You didn't say anything when Crocodile's head turned quickly away once you looked in his direction. You even noticed another presence in the library skimming maps and stories of weapons.

You grunted to yourself when you saw his foot tapping while the crew sung.

Seems things were looking a little better...

#one piece #one piece x reader #sir crocodile #crocodile #gn reader #pre canon #greatness in the making #pre canon au #GIM #one piece ocs #one piece fanfiction #mine #partyanimal167 #crocodile x reader

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zahri-melitor · 7 months ago

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we need to bring back phillip WAYNE and mrs chilton. this is the easiest way to fix everything about Kate

I mean, I don't think that changes anything about Jacob and Kate actually?

Kate being one of the many Kanes running around DC named after Bob Kane but not confirmed as Bruce's first cousin would make some things easier (in that you wouldn't have people pushing to write cute kid scenes of Bruce and Kate as children together, allowing the maintenance of their clear age gap), but it's not like people wouldn't still assume/pretend they were related (like they do for Adeline Kane. Or for that matter, the theory all the Drakes are related). But exactly how Philip, Jacob, and any other siblings of Martha or Thomas were related to them doesn't actually affect the fact that Kate has an important, real life event anchoring part of her story. It's like how Steve Rogers or the JSA always have to have served in WWII. There's only so many ways you can work around it.

In terms of Mrs Chilton, I think at this point the storytelling position of Joe Chill is such that if you brought her back she'd make an awful lot of existing current canon incoherent. Plus Leslie Thompkins has taken on a good chunk of the same position in storytelling since 1976.

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sunflowergem · 9 hours ago

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37, 38, 41, 44, and 55 for sunflower and valora! :3

[37] How would they spend a lazy day when they have nothing specific to do?

🌻 as long as it's raining and she doesn't have to tend to the garden sleep in as much as she'd like, so probably waking up around noon. Making some kind of fancier breakfast than usual, really takes the time to cook something interesting. Clean up afterwards just to make sure there's nothing to deal with later. After that. Probably spend the day reading.

🩸 Pre tadpole probably going out killing folks with Orin and trying on new bodies like it's a shopping trip. Post tadpole dramatic romance novel readings with Wyll, not even spicy, just extremely over the top. Probably dancing with them a bit too. Just a lazy day with their partner.

[38] What do they usually do or where do they go when they need to feel comfortable and safe?

🌻 they still keep some of the fragrances they remember their sister and mother wearing, between that and bringing in some of the herbs from the garden. They can recreate the smell of their family and they'll crawl under a heavy cover for some extra pressure, similar to a weighted blanket probably a cup of tea and maybe some sweets to the side.

🩸 Okay so this came to me out of a bolt in the blue but I kind of love it. There's a drawing on here that I did of BB inside a little jar. I think that's there safe spot. They like the enclosure, I would think it would be like a sensory isolation tank in real life.

[41] What’s their usual morning routine?

🌻 Free and post tadpole since it would be varied on the road on what would happen in the morning. up around 6:00 a.m., cup of tea and a simple toast for breakfast. Check the garden. Make sure everything's watered prune a few things if they need it. Usually the maintenance takes about an hour. Then it's on the paperwork for the rest of the morning, kind of boring to be honest. They also do their laundry weekly as weather allows for drying. After the tadpole adventure, they probably have about the same morning routine, although they might go for a walk after a morning of paperwork.

🩸 if It's the blob acting as they wish. I literally can't see them waking up before noon. However, their life before being tadpoled as Velora they probably got up pretty early to go head to work at the bank. I can see them having a nice little breakfast with Klarvox where he is completely confused but delighted by the sudden change in attitude from his wife... Now I'm pitching her leaving for her bank job like she's husband in a 50 sitcom or something. Kiss on the cheek and everything. I might have to draw that eventually (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

[44] On a party, where would you find them?

I did a simmilar ask for this so imma just link that

https://www.tumblr.com/sunflowergem/766585003215831040/for-sunflower-and-valora?source=share

[55] How long does it take for them to make a new place feel like home, and what do they need for it?

🌻hmmm 🤔 they really don't end up with a new place to call home funny enough. I will say it lost a lot of the homie feeling after their family was completely gone from the mansion. But after the tadpole event in the best ending that I consider Canon for her, she has at least two of the companions stick around to hang out regular visitors and a whole host of gnomes and or orphans hanging out so she stops being lonely pretty fast after that. It's a different home but it's just right for her. So in short I guess it's all about who's there with her.

🩸 This one's going to take a while! Like I'm not even sure if they'll be able to find a place that they can truly call home. Part of their reason for murdering is they were trying to find a place that actually fit and made it feel like home I think. It was part of them exploring other identities through their body snatching.There's some damage inside them that's going to take a long time to undo and there's some identities that need to be explored properly. I honestly haven't figured out a lot of post game vibes for BB yet. I'm still cooking on what's happening with them after they refuse Bhaal. But between lacking and identity in a million different ways for most of their existence, it's going to take a while for them to even realize what a home feels like. But at least they've got people there with them who care about them while they're searching.

#tav sunflower #durge valora #bg3 oc #bg3 #sorry it took so long to get to this one #I had to sit with some of these and think about them for a while

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choco-cherry-chunk · 10 days ago

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BBC Ghosts comfort downfall because I’m still down and stressed and anxious and I wish to direct my attention to an AU that will allow me to include mpreg, a staple of this blog.

Making it modern and one in which all of the ghosts experienced near death events instead of actually dying. I think Button House would be something of a boarding house or collection of apartments/flats instead of being inherited, though maybe Allison is pulled in that way due to Fanny looking into the matter of an “heir”, in terms of planning ahead.

All of the characters would be living in Button House or in some version of the property. Hell, maybe part of the affordability of it comes with everyone sharing in the upkeep. It seems like something risky, but they all know Fanny would never actually make anyone leave, and is more understanding than she would admit about the likes of financial hardship and difficult periods.

With that in mind, characters: Allison and Mike would be largely the same. Maybe their decision to stay comes with the fact that Fanny doesn’t expect rent, but instead direct involvement in the maintenance and beautification of the property, knowing Allison is her only heir. They start to get on well with the other “tenants” after Allison nearly dies falling out a window and all of them do their best to help her heal.

Robin: I saw someone’s head canon about him having autism as a reason for speaking the way he does, in that he didn’t learn to speak for some time and most of his pronunciation and knowledge comes from reading words before he’s said them, and I jive with that. I think he serves as something of the groundskeeper and electrician for the property. He’s the only one aside from Allison and Mike who doesn’t pay for his flat, as Fanny hates the idea of having to seek out an electrician and would rather just keep Robin on since he knows the house so well. He tells so many stories about his life that people often don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. The lightning strike he survived did happen, though.

Humphrey: Living in Button House following his divorce (marriage was heinous, divorce slightly less so). He has the finances to live on his own, but after his marriage, he feels like being actions people. Despite how tall and imposing he is, he has an accidental habit of sneaking up and startling people. He and Robin actually bond over developing language skills, as he himself enjoys trying to learn a new language but totally sucks at it. Loves to paint, and a number of his pieces are hung about the house.

Mary: Mary lived in a tight knit rural community that ended up ousting and abandoning her when they felt she didn’t belong following her husband’s death. Her friend, Annie, ended up leaving with her, and they eventually ended up as more than friends. Part of the Button House land has been dedicated to their gardening and crops, and so the pair run a market stall for much of the year in which they sell the produce and wares they make. They don’t lease the land, but they do pay to use one of the house’s larger kitchens for their work. Pat often comes by to “help out”, though really just get a little taste of their preserves and brine.

Kitty: Flat is paid for by her father, though her relationship with him and her sister is contemptuous at best. She works in a dress store which caters to significant events - weddings, dances, etc. - but she dreams of becoming a designer herself, and often draws all sorts of ideas in her off time. People tend to assume that maybe she isn’t very good at her job, but her whimsy and eagerness actually earns her the most commission out of anyone in the store. She loves helping people fulfill dreams of beauty and is so fast to point out how stunning strangers are. She and the Captain have something of a father-daughter relationship, though they wouldn’t think to call it that. He has her over for dinner at least once a week. She and Thomas seem to have something of a will they-won’t that dynamic that everyone but the two of them recognize.

Thomas: Bohemian poet, as Julian says. Perpetual student, either due to constantly finishing and starting new degrees, or changing fields at random. Constantly writing and settling himself in common areas of the house, looking pensive so people ask what he’s working on. Loves female music artists - “they speak to me more intimately” - and will often blast music from his flat indicative of his mood. Many of his finances are covered by Humphrey, the man approving of Thomas’ artistic pursuits, and Thomas insists he will repay him once he is published (though that has still yet to happen).

Fanny: Was screwed out of Button House in her divorce, but when her ex-husband died, she inherited it because he never adjusted his will. She took it over and elected to turn it into a boarding space so she could handle the immensity of the estate on her own. Old school in her perceptions of what is and isn’t appropriate, but is learning, especially with Allison’s help. Tends to align with The Captain much of the time. Hates her neighbors in other properties, but thinks she hides it well (she doesn’t).

The Captain: Retired from the military, married to Havers (because I want them happy, damn it). He’s very hush-hush about his departure from the service, and I love one user’s post about him suffering a knee injury after he fell during a mild heart attack. Works in a mid-size history of war museum and loves doing research on anything connected to the topic (I see a man I relate to, I get him pregnant and give him an autism diagnosis). Still challenges himself in the manner of the military, such as running when he feels up for it and keeps his and Havers’ flat startlingly clean.

Pat: Divorced but insists he’s fine about it. His son is there every other weekend and all through holidays. He loves all things camping and he and the Captain tend to bond on that activity. He works as a local radio host and is actually something of a minor celebrity in their community as a result. His fashion sense is deeply locked into the eighties and he loves all things football. He occasionally “hosts” parties to watch matches in common spaces, but they have to be on nights Fanny is out so she doesn’t complain.

Julian: Disgraced former politician. Wife left with daughter and he doesn’t see them much, though he’s working up at least salvage his relationship with the latter. When he failed to even be elected for local government, he left politics and became a lawyer, mostly taking cases he knows will get him a lot of money and maybe one case a year for some pro bono sob story to ease his conscious. Tried to have a sauna installed in the house without Fanny’s knowledge.

Please lmk if y’all wanna hear or talk more about this because I’m in the zone!

#bbc ghosts #ghosts bbc #ghosts show #mpreg

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darthkvznblogs · 1 month ago

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The answer varies from canon to canon, so how long have the Autobots and Decepticons been fighting in the K-Verse?

I’m still tweaking that particular timeline, but I’m handling the Autobot-Decepticon war in terms of centuries-thousands of years, and definitely not millions of years like some continuities. Cybertronians may be capable of living that long, in theory (and with a lot of repairs, replacement parts, and constant maintenance), but I feel like even a Cybertronian mind wouldn’t be able to process that kind of lifespan, especially in a state of constant warfare and scarcity.

It also just makes the conflict a lot more relevant to modern galactic society, as opposed to being this background event that’s barely worth thinking about. Like Thanos’ crusade, it’s a (relatively) recent conflict, within the lifetimes of some of the more long-lived races even, and the races of the galaxy aren’t sure yet of exactly how to handle it. If the war were to reignite and escalate, spilling outside Cybertronian territory, it very well could upset the balance of power in the Milky Way.

#ask box #anon ask #kryptonverse #it’s the messiest family feud in galactic history probably

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summercourtship · 1 year ago

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stay to burn (only to drown instead): chapter four: thirteen floors [part I]

masterpost | ao3 link

jonathan crane x reader; bruce wayne x reader; edward nashton x reader | warnings: canon typical violence, sexual content | word count: 6063 words

DISCLAIMER: these chapters are not meant to be read alone. not every chapter has content for one of the three pairings listed. this is an ongoing fanfiction that I am cross-posting here on tumblr, not a series of one-shots.

chapter one

November fifth. Gotham Square Garden.

You held a notepad- the kind that detectives in movies used, the flip kind. You’d felt so cool and professional when you picked it up at a stationery store in the Midtown, so ready to take on this project.

You couldn’t remember, now, if you had gotten the notebook before or after the Riddler showed up in the city. You can’t imagine having been excited for the assignment otherwise, just some boring paper on the current mayoral race.

No, the Riddler made it important. So you must have bought it after he killed the Mayor. Maybe after he killed the Police Commissioner, when he was fully revealed to the public.

Even though it had only been a week since the murders began, it felt like a year had passed. You’d traveled all over downtown Gotham, going to events you normally wouldn’t have bothered with.

Your excitement for the assignment had dwindled a bit since the mayor’s funeral, since witnessing the large SUV crash through the wall of City Hall, since seeing Gil Coulson stumble out with a collar bomb strapped around his neck. You’d been escorted out in a hurry, but you craned your neck over the railing anyway, trying to get a better view before they took you out.

Your phone buzzed from inside your pocket, a notification from your friend’s group chat popping up on your screen. You scrolled back through the conversation, returning to the last message you’d read.

Gotham Girlies Marie: Hey what are you guys doing your final project on for the History of Gotham class? I need to have my proposal in by like last week and I’ve been obvi putting it off. Lisa: I’m doing mine of the history of women’s rights in the city Bridgit: Sick Bridgit: I’m doing some light research into the history of the mob in the city Bridgit: Gotta be careful tho, you know? Bridgit: can’t let them know im looking into them lol

You began typing out your response, tucking your notebook under your arm.

I guess mine is more current events but I’m doing it on the current election.

You paused, staring at the message, realizing that saying it was about the current election was kinda a misnomer. Because it wasn’t really about that anymore, was it?

Tho I guess it’s more about the Riddler now, right? Kinda changed the trajectory of the paper but oh well.

You hit send before sliding your phone back into your pocket. The reception wasn’t good at all in the Garden, and you didn't want to bother watching the message try to send for the next minute before it gave up and said it would try again later.

Instead, you looked around the space, your eyes eventually landing on the lighting fixture in the middle of the room. The large screens replayed the same few slides of messages, congratulating Bella for her win (as they should), advertising a pizza place, showing events coming to the Garden. Then your eyes slid upwards from the screen, attention caught by a small flicker of movement. Narrowing your eyes, you tried to figure out what you were seeing.

Huh.

Interesting.

There were people up there.

You couldn’t really make out their features, just their silhouettes and a glint as their outfits reflected the lights in the way that wet waterproof material does.

You remembered wondering if they were part of some maintenance crew, but what kind of maintenance crew would do work on election night or any other big event at the Garden? Shouldn’t that work be reserved for the times where the venue was empty? How unfortunate for them, to need to be all the way up there and doing god-knows-what when there’s a huge crowd below them-

You forget exactly when it truly began. You knew that you were looking up at them, trying to figure out what they were doing, but you had no idea what was going on down below at that moment. What you did remember next was the anarchy after the sharp pop-pop-popping sound began.

The first gunshot, aimed at Real herself, set off the expected chain reaction in the crowd.

Pushing, shoving. The very definition of chaos.

Bodies shoving themselves against you, everyone in FLIGHT mode and making a break for the exits. There was no way to fight it.

Everyone was trying to leave, trying desperately to blend in with the crowd, like they could meld their bodies together and become indestructible. Or at least unnoticeable. The goal was now to not make yourself an easy target to the shooters but there were so many men up there with so few places for you to hide.

You were fish in a barrel.

Glass shattered somewhere above you and you snapped your head backwards, trying to keep an eye on the gunmen while doing your best to remain safe, two seemingly impossible tasks. The large windows at the top of the venue had broken, shards of glass raining down like glittering meteors, but you couldn’t see how it had shattered. Maybe a bullet had ricocheted through the window. Why not, what else could make the night more terrifying?

“Get out of the way!” A man pushed you out of his path, causing you to lose your balance and stagger down a few steps before you completely fell down when you were pushed again by someone else. You caught yourself on your hands, rising up to a kneeling position.

People surrounded you on all sides, yet no one stopped to help you get back up. No one even looked at you on the floor, trying to find a way to stand in the claustrophobic conditions that refused to give way. Whenever you grabbed someone to try and pull yourself up, they yanked their hand back like your touch was a bullet from above.

A horrifying thought crossed your mind, then: what if you didn’t even die due to a gunshot but instead suffocated under the weight of all these bodies?

Somehow, through all of the chaos, you still held your stupid notebook, like it was your lifeline, like it would stop a bullet from piercing through your skin. But what good would a stack of paper do in a human crush? You didn’t know much about them so you had no idea if the crowd was too dense yet. Either way, you didn’t want to find out.

You’ve heard that in an emergency situation your body goes into autopilot, the primal instincts in your brain bypassing any logic and control you had, taking over to take you where you needed to go.

You didn’t feel that here. You felt completely in control and with that you felt completely powerless. You couldn’t pierce through the crowd of panicked people (an emergency pro-tip no one followed: stay calm) and you couldn’t squeeze yourself away from the crowd either (another emergency pro-tip: don’t make yourself an easy target).

You were stuck, kneeling on the floor as the crowd moved around you like a fluid. Eyes sliding closed, you figured that it wouldn’t be that bad to just stay here, right? Maybe you should just drown in the crowd, get it over with. You could allow your breath to be taken away from you, not worry about being shot anymore. Just keep your eyes closed and-

Two hands hooked under your armpits, yanking you back to your feet. Your eyes snapped open and you tried to look around you but whoever deemed you worthy of helping was gone, whisked away by the crowd.

You’d been on the floor for maybe a maximum of thirty seconds but it had seemed like an eternity and now you were back in the sea, moving where you were moved, jostling where you were jostled.

You were able to advance only a few steps when a low groaning reverberated through the Garden.

“Shit, it’s coming down!” A panicked voice hissed from behind you, and you spun around to look back up to the giant display screens. Which were now hanging on by a few (figurative) threads. But it was teetering, hanging at an angle that was certainly not meant to be. A few bodies were hanging from the catwalk, but distantly you could see the silhouette of someone… fighting.

The last thing you really remembered from the night was finally escaping the Garden, bursting through the doors and gasping in the chilly night air, gulping down breaths of it. Emergency vehicles lined the streets around the Garden, their swiveling lights casting blue and red shadows over the street. Blockades had been set up on every intersection around the Garden, crowds of worried citizens and shouting reporters huddled behind them. Police were shouting back, trying to maintain some sense of order.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket. Swiping past the few Breaking News notifications and campus alerts about the situation you’d just escaped were more texts from your group chat.

Gotham Girlies Marie: Yeah, this riddle shit is too much right now. Marie: *riddle Marie: *RIDDLER damn it Bridgit: omg Bridgit: there’s a shooting down at the garden rn Lisa: No way (Lisa tagged you in a text.) Lisa: Wait aren’t you down there right now?!

You closed the notifications after that, the blaise way Bridgit had delivered the news rubbing you the wrong way. Yeah, it had been a weird week, crime wise. At least Lisa remembered you’d been there in the first place. But you could respond in a few minutes, once you’d started to feel more like yourself again. They could handle that if their reaction to the news was equivalent to seeing a minor celebrity from a distance.

You managed to slip away from the Garden without being seen by any of the medics called to the scene. From later pictures of the exterior, you saw that Batman had helped some of the victims, but he mostly helped with hauling the perpetrators out. And they were all dressed eerily similar.

The news the next day confirmed what you had already suspected. The Riddler had planned the attack in Gotham Square Garden. Not just that, but he’d planned to flood the city- and he almost did it. But the Batman had stopped it, and had kept the bombs from blowing up the sea-wall and drowning Gotham.

The image your mind supplied you of water rushing through the streets, overpowering everything in its wake, chilled you to your core.

You had your first nightmare that night- you had none the night it had actually happened. Your body was floating in murky water, the flood pressing against you on all sides, a constant overwhelming pressure. You tried to breathe but the water filled your lungs instead and now you couldn’t even scream out for help.

And you were drowning

By the time the EMTs had cleared you to be taken home and the police were done with whatever needed to be done, it was well into the next morning, the sun hidden behind the clouds as it rose, starting to color the sky a dull gray. Snow had started to accumulate on the ground but it hadn’t even lasted until the morning without being trodden on, the once white sheet mussed and colored gray from dirt. A snow plow had clearly already been through here.

The cop driving looked at you through the rearview mirror, his warm brown eyes concerned.

“You sure you don’t want to talk about what happened? It would be helpful-”

“You got the guys, right?” You asked, your voice like sandpaper after using it all night. But it wasn’t like you had anything new to say, just answering the same questions that every victim is asked. Are you okay? Are you sure? Do you need anything? Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital? How many fingers am I holding up?

The only person who seemed content to allow you to sit in silence unless it was absolutely necessary for you to talk was the Batman. His cape had remained wrapped around you, heavy and comforter over your shoulders, until twenty minutes ago, when he took his leave. You’d been the one to hand it back to him, not allowing him to use it as an excuse to come find you to get it back later. He accepted it wordlessly, giving you over to the Police Commissioner, whose face you recognized from the news. He’d mentioned earlier that the cop would give you a ride home once everything was taken care of. He’d assured you, in his own way, that the Commissioner could be trusted.

And you trusted his judgment, at least.

“Yeah, but-”

“Then I’m good. I just want to get home and go to sleep.” The cop sighed, watching you as you leaned against the window, closing your eyes at the sensation of the cold glass on your skin. It would numb your forehead, soon, but for now it was blissful.

“How do you know the Batman?”

“I don’t, not really. He’s just… found his way into my life a few times.” That’s one way of putting it.

“I understand that feeling.” He smiled. You returned it, though your smile was strained.

Small talk filled the rest of your ride, and you found that the police officer wasn’t bad company, all things considered. You certainly could’ve been put with a much more awkward conversation partner. But he laughed at the right moments, seemed morose at others. He mentioned that his daughter was a few years younger than you herself, just started college, which explained it to you.

“Maybe you should meet her sometime, you’d probably like her.”

“Yeah, maybe.” You didn’t have the heart to tell him it most likely wouldn’t happen, but the offer was nice anyway.

Morning traffic hadn’t begun to congest the streets yet (even though it was Sunday, it still got pretty bad in certain parts of the city) and the Commissioner pulled up in front of your building within twenty minutes. You thanked him quietly before climbing out, wincing as you put weight on your sore feet again.

You were definitely throwing these shoes in the back of your closet later.

With a final wave behind you, you made your way to the front door, knowing that he was going to watch and make sure you entered the building safely. Maybe after this he would head to wherever the Bat Signal was to share information with Batman. Or maybe he was just going home to his wife and daughter after a long night dealing with Gotham City.

An average Saturday night in the city, really.

If there was one thing you were satisfied with in your building, it was the heating system. Walking through the front door was like walking into a warm hug, the yellow lights of the hallway adding to the illusion of stepping into a toaster oven. But a nice toaster oven. One that evenly toasted both sides of the bread.

As you walked up the stairs, you pulled your phone out (which had been kicked under a table during the scuffle of the night, miraculously intact with the exception of a single crack along the top of the screen but that was fine, as long as it worked), finding Dr. Crane’s contact information and hitting the CALL button before you could chicken out and tell yourself you’d do it later. By the time it finished ringing and told you to leave a message, you were at your door.

You tried calling again as you unlocked your apartment. Your door stuck, because of course it did, but with a single slam of your body against the wood it broke free, swinging open into your dim apartment.

Putting the phone to your cheek, you shrugged your heels off and sighed in relief when your bare feet touched the hardwood floor. How you couldn’t wait to climb into bed. The phone rang and rang until the automated response played again, telling you to leave a message. Maybe he’s asleep.

Sighing, you waited for the message tone to begin speaking. Although, the moment it chimed you froze, all of the things you had been planning to say leaving your mind. It took you a solid second to regain your thoughts, blinking into the darkness as you began speaking.

“Hey, it’s me. I just got home, I’m all good! Just a few scrapes and bruises and maybe some trauma but it’s okay. Um, I just thought I’d call because it felt really weird to say over text! Okay, text me or call when you get this. I wanna make sure you got home safe too… Okay, bye!”

Did you always say okay this much?

As you left the message to Dr. Crane, you stripped yourself of your dress and underwear, moving through your apartment and not caring about the trail of clothes you left all the way to the bathroom. Turning the shower all the way to the hottest setting, you faced the mirror to take care of your hair. You yanked every single one of the pins out, letting them clatter onto the floor when they missed the sink. You could pick them up later, when you didn’t feel like your skin was covered in grime or like your head was going to fall off your head from exhaustion.

That’s a job for future-you to worry about. Present-you just wanted to be blissfully clean, not worrying about anything else except when to rinse your hair.

You gently clambered into the shower, your muscles aching and ready to rest. But you needed to clean the stink of the night off.

You’d scrub your skin raw if you had to.

The water burned your skin but you sighed in relief anyway, the scalding water bringing blood back to your veins. You could worry about how hot it was and how long the shower you were planning to take was going to be when your water bill arrived.

And then… you started to crave another form of relief. Like it hadn’t gone away but had instead been hibernating through the last few hours, your body started to remember Dr. Crane’s touch, the way he had whispered into your ear. How close he had been to reaching your core, how he knew that you weren’t very experienced and how that didn’t seem to deter him in his pursuit.

If you hadn’t heard those footsteps, if you hadn't freaked out and pushed him away, how far would it have gone until you stopped it? Would you have let him go all the way, there in that hallway?

You ducked your head back under the spray of water, rubbing your hands over your face and groaning, the tell tale twinge of a headache forming in your temple.

Standing in the shower, you couldn’t fathom any realistic way that your heavy petting session with Dr. Crane could’ve escalated into… if not sex, at least an orgasm for one of you. No, all of the scenarios you thought about while washing your body were too fake, too scripted. Like something out of a bad pornographic video.

Oh, yes, Dr. Crane, please- ah- fuck me so hard right here in this hallway where anyone can see us! Let them enjoy the show, ahh.

Yeah, no.

You rolled your eyes at yourself for even thinking that up. It was decidedly un-sexy. Dr. Crane was not the kind of man to elicit such a response. Even in the brief touches he’d bestowed upon you, he was an all-consuming presence, a hurricane that causes you to take shelter within yourself instead of crying out for others to enjoy the sight of your drowning.

Besides, you had been way too drunk to properly consent to anything. And he was, at least, a good enough man to not take advantage of your obvious inebriated state, right? Even though he had said that he was taking advantage of you, that was just tongue in cheek, right? A callback to your conversation in the cafe?

(But, thinking back on the moment now that you were sober, you couldn’t find it in yourself to care either way. Sure, in a few years maybe you’d say this was all a mistake but everyone needs to have a messy relationship once in their life. Yours might just end up being with your psychology professor. Super messy. You’re in your twenties, you’re allowed to be reckless!)

(But, in the same vein, you did have a desire for it to not be a messy relationship at all. For him to sweep you away, invite you to a world you’d never seen before and not leave you stranded. Not marriage, of course, but a happy moment in your life that you could look back on with fondness when you’re older. The kind of reckless relationship that defines your life for a season and becomes nothing more than a hazy memory of joy later on.)

You shut the shower off, yanking the curtains back a bit too forcefully, staring at your bathroom as you dried off. The tiles on the floor and walls could use a deep clean, their grout dark with grime. You’d done your best to cover a portion of the floor with a brightly colored rug, fluffy under your feet as you stepped out of the shower. The steam had clouded the mirror, a steamy haze lingering in the air until you opened the door and it spilled out into the rest of your apartment. It wasn’t like the building didn’t have water damage already, a few droplets from the steam wouldn’t hurt it.

You crossed the small hall right into your bedroom, immediately shutting the door behind you and dropping the towel. You didn’t even bother finding any pajamas, simply throwing on the nearest oversized t-shirt that was laying on the floor. Digging through your underwear drawer (you really needed to do laundry) you found a pair you rarely wore and pulled it over your legs.

And then you promptly collapsed onto your bed, climbing under your duvet cover. You could worry about putting your dirty clothes into your overflowing hamper tomorrow (maybe you should also do laundry tomorrow). Right now, what you wanted to do was sleep.

But as you closed your eyes, taking a few deep breaths while trying to calm your mind down, you found that sleep was evading you. Despite the exhaustion in your bones, you could not lull yourself into sleep.

Turning onto your other side, you squeezed your eyes shut, shifting your legs around to find the position that your body would decide was good enough to sleep in.

Nothing.

No arrangement of your limbs was good enough.

Sighing, you fell onto your back, staring up at the street light’s shadows on the ceiling.

“And what do you think about, when you touch yourself?” Dr. Crane’s voice rang in your ears, the lingering echoes of his touch burning on your skin.

Slowly, like you couldn’t decide if you actually wanted to yet, your hand moved down your body, skimming over your t-shirt and the skin underneath it, toying with the hem of your shirt before lifting it. You didn’t want to bother with anything fancy, your body simply craving release after being wound up and left unsatisfied earlier. You slipped into your underwear, your fingers parting your lower lips with ease.

You began circling your clit gently with your fingers at first, the sensitive nerves responding like they were set on fire by your touch. You couldn’t remember the last time you had taken time to relieve yourself in this way, your schedule was so busy with TA’ing and your normal work that sometimes it was all you could do to remember to eat and drink water.

Naturally, as it often did when you did take the time to indulge yourself, your mind stumbled its way back to Dr. Crane.

His eyes, following you as you moved through a room with you only becoming aware of it when you catch him in the act.

His fingers, brushing against your skin last night and lingering there, pulling you towards him with a single touch like he’d sunk a hook into your flesh.

His lips, parted in surprise and quirking in a smile, moving against your skin and whispering in your ear.

But most of all, you think about how he was able to get straight to the crux of your problems, solving them with ease and guiding you to the correct answer with a gentle but firm and (sometimes) intimidating hand. How he saw right through you, even before you knew you were being untruthful.

And how, for some reason, he wanted you, as carnally as you wanted him.

You didn’t even feel guilty anymore about touching yourself to thoughts of Dr. Crane. You couldn’t, not after he touched you like that, when he’d talked to you like that.

Pretty, he’d called you, his voice growling against your neck.

You thought back to his breath fanning over your skin, his touch dragging itself to your underwear and resting there, hovering over the place you needed him the most.

Slowly, you began to construct a continuation of the scene, choppy scenes flitting through your mind, disconnected from one another as you chased your climax. But these weren’t like the ones you had conjured earlier, the ones that were out of some harlequin novel or X-rated film they showed in the back of those sketchy shops you passed by on the way home from work.

His fingers slipped under the hem of your dress, pressing against your skin. Touching your clit with no barriers between his skin and the bundle of nerves, his movements in your mind mimicking the movements you made now in real life with your eyes closed.

Now you were pressed against the wall with your legs wrapped around his hips as he thrust into you. His cock was filling you completely even though you didn’t like to imagine what it looked like (that, evidently, was a step too far for your fantasy, too much of a breach of his privacy).

And then his mouth was open against your own, a sloppy kiss that resembled breathing against one another more than actually kissing. With a few last thrusts, he finished inside of you, your combined spend spilling out of you when he finally pulled out.

It was this final image that pushed you over the edge, your mouth open in a silent gasp as you came.

Legs shaking you pulled your hand out of your underwear, the exhaustion you had pushed away to deal with your other needs returning with a vengeance. You kicked the offending panties off and tossed them across the room, adding them to the pile of clothes strewn about your apartment.

You’re not sure exactly when you fell asleep (as is the nature of falling asleep) but when you woke up halfway through the next afternoon, you immediately checked your phone, your thoughts only on Dr. Crane.

Nothing.

No calls, not even a text acknowledging that he’d received your voicemail. In fact, your only notification was an automated text from your bank informing you that your balance was low.

Sighing, you threw your phone down onto the duvet, watching as the fabric poofed up and deflated. Much like you at this moment.

Through the rest of your day, you continued checking your phone even though you had your sound on and it certainly would’ve chimed loud enough for you to hear if someone called or texted you. For the few brief moments where you were switching your laundry around or putting it away, you worried constantly that he was going to try to call while you were temporarily away from your phone. You even took to obsessively checking your email, because maybe Dr. Crane forgot you had his phone number.

The first explanation you thought of for his radio silence was that he was dead and no one thought to inform you. It would make sense, you were just a TA and no one else knew about your moment in the hallway. But it also seemed highly unlikely. You’re certain that you would’ve found out somehow and it would be very unfair of the world for Dr. Crane to die so suddenly when he’d just reciprocated your attraction.

The second explanation was that he, too, had become embroiled in a hostage situation. But you definitely would’ve heard about that.

So, the next most likely explanation was that he was simply… not calling you. Or texting. Not even a simple “ok” to let you know that he was alive and not a captive. But then the question turned from what happened into why was he not calling?

And for that, there were only two options and both sucked. Either he forgot about you or he was… ignoring you. But unless he had been struck by a sudden, unexplained bout of amnesia, it wasn’t likely he had forgotten about you.

You looked back down at your phone, frowning when no texts popped up from the man your thoughts had been on all day. He couldn’t be ignoring you, right? Even though it was the most plausible option, you refused to consider it.

It would be much easier to think he was dead.

Unlike the last time you’d been attacked, you had little to no physical evidence of it on your body. Which was good, because before, you’d hated how long it had taken everyone- professors, peers, coworkers, strangers- to get used to your swollen face and stop asking stupid questions. This time, you were able to walk through the crowds and keep your head low, feeling everyone’s eyes gloss over you like you were just another street sign to ignore.

Were you nervous to get to Psychology of Fear? Absolutely. But you had a job to do and couldn’t just call out when you felt like it.

Especially not when you had at least six texts in a row that Dr. Crane had left unresponded. And he, of course, didn’t have read receipts on so you didn’t even know if he’d seen your messages at all. Maybe you’d been texting out into a void the entire weekend, maybe his number had changed itself without your permission.

Gotham was cold, overcast clouds drizzling onto the snow that had accumulated over the past day. Winter in Gotham was generally miserable, the snow always lingering too long after it had turned from pristine white to dusty gray before turning into a slush that swirled on the streets and froze over at night into black ice.

Your winter boots (not cute at all but simply a necessity) were heavy on your feet and you couldn’t help but picture Frankenstein lumbering about in his own clunky shoes. (Of course, you’d prefer to compare yourself to the creature in the book but no. You were the avocado green bolt monster today.) Stomping down the front steps of your building, you wrapped your scarf tighter around your neck, tucking it further into your coat.

Your earphones were snug in your ears and you couldn’t even be bothered to leave one out in the name of safety. The anxiety stuffing itself into your throat needed to be relieved through loud music and fast walking.

Lucky for you, you were really into the playlist you’d made yesterday while trying to ignore your texting app. It was angry but you’re not sure if you were more angry at Dr. Crane or Gotham itself when you picked the songs.

Probably both.

The song that started playing was an old familiar favorite, a steady beat in the background to keep pace with.

You crossed into campus, sighing as you passed a tour group. How many of them were from the city? The university was lucky enough to have a few renowned programs (not yours, of course). They were the ones that would lead to careers at Wayne Enterprises, the ones funded by Bruce Wayne and his company. All the other programs had to constantly gasp for breath as they drowned in the sea of low budgets.

You wondered how often the tour guides had to answer questions about the crime rate from out-of-towners. Or maybe about the Batman.

You turned your music up even louder, until you’re sure your eardrums would throb in pain later.

Every step closer to the Psychology building built up a new layer of anxiety. It was bottled up in your chest and you’d never missed your old friends as much as you did in that moment. You needed someone to reassure you that everything would be fine but you had no one. Your mom, maybe, but anytime you brought up your mental health she asked you to return home. Dr. Crane, you supposed, was the closest person you had to talk about.

But you couldn’t exactly tell him about it when he was the reason you were so anxious.

Stepping back into the classroom after the whirlwind of a weekend was like landing back on Earth after a year in space.

You settled in for the class, pulling out the book Dr. Crane had assigned for that week’s reading. You’d read it back in late December, but your notes were thorough and you didn't exactly need to contribute to the discussion. In fact, your job was to just note down who was contributing and how much to make sure they got credit for the discussion.

You thumbed through it, skimming over a few of the passages that Dr. Crane had mentioned he would point out, ignoring the students as they streamed into the classroom. You still had an earphone in one ear, but you were only really listening for one thing: Dr. Crane’s entrance into the room, his confident yet hurried gait, the slight hush that would sweep over the room when he entered.

And when you heard it, you snapped your head up to watch him, yanking the earphone out of your ear. Ready for him to give you his usual nod and slight smile of greeting before getting his lecture prepared, ready for him to prove to you that everything was normal.

But he didn’t spare you a glance. Didn’t even look your way.

He walked in, started up his presentation, and began his lecture without even acknowledging your presence in the room. Did anyone else notice this? Probably not. The other students could barely spare you the time of day.

He left almost as soon as class was done, not even staying behind to speak to the few students who were sticking behind, leaving you to handle it on your own. Which you did, perhaps a bit more distracted than you normally would be, answering questions in a haze.

At least you knew Dr. Crane was alive.

But now you had devastating confirmation that he was, in fact, ignoring you.

You left the building dazed, taking slow steps down the street as you tried to wrap your mind around the revelation.

You desperately wanted to follow him, find where he went, and beg him to talk to you, tell you why he hadn’t responded, why he didn’t look your way.

A fat raindrop splattered on your head, icy cold and shocking you back into your body.

As you walked to your next class, you didn’t bother putting your hood up. Who cared, right? Maybe if you were wet enough, you could stand outside of Dr. Crane’s office and garner some sympathy, just so he would speak to you.

At the same time, your cheeks were hot with embarrassment. He’d felt you up at a formal event and probably would’ve gone farther but you’d chickened out and ran away. You couldn’t help but think he was right to just drop you after that. You had shown you had no use to him.

Wait, no. That’s stupid. If that’s what he wanted from you, you were better off without him. If he didn’t want to respect your boundaries, he would have to deal with it himself.

It didn’t make the cold shoulder sting any less, though.

That night, you sit staring outside at your balcony, hoping that someone would come save you from this torture.

No one did.

part II

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