#my deities set off my smoke alarm

[apolloslyrics]

I expanded my deity space btw!!!! And I hand-sewed the cloth underneath it, as well :)

I still don't like to call this an altar!! For me, altars are more formal, more used. This is really just a place for decorations and offerings to my deities.

ISN'T IT SO GORGEOUS THOUGH???? AAAHHHHH

[amethyst-027028]

My Poseidon for my silly oddesuy au with an amigo 🤓☝🏻

[poppyco]

Mistakes I’ve Made In My Practice

Lets normalize the idiotic things we tend to do while learning! I don’t ever see this talked about so here are some of the mistakes I’ve made throughout nearly four years of practice.

Performed a general love spell with Aphrodite two months into spellwork whilst knowing nothing about the effects of a love spell! It worked, five people showed interest in me throughout the week but I would NOT recommend.

Did not put out Ares’ candle when the flame was giant and billowing with black smoke out of fear that I might offend him for snuffing it out- which then progressed into the fire alarm going off twice while my dad was on a business call. (And a lengthy conversation about fire safety from Ares later that day)

Left pink lemonade on Aphrodite’s altar and forgot about it so when I finally remembered to get it after two days it had molded :,)

Didn’t set boundaries with the spirit that used to live in my closet so one day during a tarot reading she touched me on the back and I got very scared lol (she’s gone now)

Constantly forgetting to honor my deities on their designated days.

Not letting new deity candles burn for long enough so I get that annoying ring of wax stuck there for eternity. (this one’s just a pet peeve tbh)

And finally- forgetting to collect moon water and let my crystals charge on a full moon.

[badassque]

An interesting spiritual experience to start my day with this morning. Listen, I'm not saying I'm the Gods' special perfect little angel, but I have been thinking A LOT about Eate lately, our God of storms who is known in certain parts of Euskal Herria. I've been wearing a little necklace to remind myself of him, and working on a drawing depicting him, not really expecting any sort of response or reward. He's just been in my thoughts lately.

But it was raining this morning, and has done all day. I wasn't necessarily dreaming before I woke up, I just felt cloaked in a comfortable darkness and I kept hearing a man's voice asking me, "What kind of storm would you like best?"

He asked a few times, over and over until eventually I answered and just kind of thought out into the nothingness in my hypnopompic state, "A little heavier and louder, please."

The storm, as if waiting for such a request, picked up. A flash of lightning caused me to open my eyes and the rain picked up loud enough that my deaf ass was able to hear the difference.

Could just be my imagination, but it felt like a genuine interaction. This would be the first time a God has ever genuinely spoken to me. At all, ever. Though, I have had a few non verbal interactions with Norse spirits and Deities I've called to, feeling a presence and the like (I had a very fun experience with Loki when I was doing a painting for a Lokean friend of mine, in which I found a rotten potato in my cupboard and he made my smoke alarm go off after I invited him to sit with me while I painted his children). That being said, I'm unsure what it means or how it feels that I've been working with Norse spirituality for over a decade and yet, the first time I spend any amount of time or energy devoting attention to a Basque Deity, I am overwhelmed with the depth of connection I experienced in that time.

It isn't as if I feel like I can't have both, or that I have to abandon what spirits I connected with in my recent practice in favor of chasing after this laser focused conversion over to a new set of Gods. But, I am definitely more invested than I've ever been in pursuing more contact with Eate, and I feel as if I'm being attracted to Akerbeltz as well. So, if you cared enough to read all the way through my spiritual ramblings, wish me luck, I suppose!

[heyheydidjaknow]

I do not have a decent title for this. I’m also not even going to bother with an image (even though I know it would generate more traffic) because I’m not going to steal someone’s shit. It’s about 3500 words, so have fun with that.

Chapter 1

Dying is not fun.

I do not know if you knew that until last night. Maybe you figured that since it was romanticized so much that it would not suck as much as it so clearly and obviously did. Maybe you dreamed of dying relatively peacefully, surrounded by your loved ones. Alas, those dreams were dashed last night when you, oh so wise Y/N, decided that you were going to try baking and forgot the most essential step; taking the thing out of the oven. You remember that night so clearly, the screams of your family begging for their lives still bouncing around in your ears like a torturous golf ball that made a habit of forcing itself into your throat, the feeling of your hair catching alight as your skin bubbled and charred, and rational thought became a foreign concept. You do not remember if you had died from a heart attack or hyperthermia or smoke inhalation, but you had a general idea that, yes, that night had been your last on Earth.

So, where the fuck are you?

You pull yourself into a sitting position, your back pressed against something hard as your eyes struggle to adjust to the darkness. The air smells like rotten food and exhaust engines as you pull yourself off the concrete, looking around the alleyway that you had found yourself in. It’s small, narrow, unremarkable in every way, with graffiti covered dumpsters near the entrance. Dazed, confused, generally out of sorts, you make your way to the entrance, patting yourself down for injuries you did not seem to have.

You rub the side of your face with your hand. ‘My head is killing me.’ You slip your hand into your jacket pocket, feeling a key and a piece of paper. ‘God damn it is cold in this alley.’ You zip up your jacket, walking out into the open as you pull the note out, beginning to read.

“Dear Y/N,” you mumble as you read, “we are pleased to inform you of your acceptance into our transference program, yadda yadda yadda, whoopdeedoo…” You skim ahead of some introductory jargon before getting near to the point of the note. “From this point forward, enjoy your permanent residence at ten West.. fifteenth street… apartment number six two two… New York, New York?” You blink. ‘I… that’s not my address.’ You pull out the key. ‘Wait, hold on.’ Your eyebrows furrowed. ‘New York? Wait, I was dead, wasn’t I?’ Your eyes become unfocused. ‘I don’t live anywhere near NYC. Where am I?’ You look around for some sort of landmark, street name, anything to give you some idea of where you are.

You hear a car squeal to a stop on the street corner in front of you, snapping you out of your stupor. As identical men start climbing out of the back of the vehicle, all marching deliberately towards you, a fifteen-year-old girl, your immediate reaction is to run like hell. Unfortunately for you, apparently your speed was not comparable to that of the men who quickly apprehend you, scooping you up and dragging you kicking and screaming into a van. You hear vaguely familiar voices outside, but your focus is less on the mayhem and more on the more pressing matter of getting yourself out of the van. You pound at the door, feel for any sort of locks on the inside, something, anything to get you out of the van, still screaming your head off as you hope whoever was outside had the common sense to call nine one one. You feel your eyelids droop as your breathing slows, your voice dying as your pounding becomes less intense. You slide to you knees, eyes closing even as you mentally scream at yourself to get up, keep at it. You passed out.

--

You wake up laid on the floor this time, the pulsing of electricity above your head almost soothing as you open your eyes. You stagger to your feet, looking around your well-lit enclosure, pink florescent lights lining the ceiling and walls like arteries. After taking note of your new bruises and checking to see if you still have your few personal belongings—you do—you ran over to the door, eyes fixated on the mind boggling, ridiculous scene taking place in front of you.

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake.’ You back away from the slot in the door, trying to process the blatant larping headassery. You had not thought that you would honestly be able to say that, apparently, you were kidnapped by the mother fucking Kraang, yet, in some stroke of tomfuckery on behalf of whatever deity controls your universe, you have, obviously, been kidnapped by some seriously hardcore cosplayers. If nothing else, you must admire the obviously advanced set up.

You run your fingers through your hair, chuckling almost manically. “So,” you say to yourself aloud, “I got kidnapped by TMNT fanboys. Great. Fantastic, even!” You pace around the room, throwing your hands up in exasperation. “I guess this makes me April O'Neil, then? Cool.” Your voice is extremely tight as you shake with intense, mostly negative emotions. “So, I’m somewhere in New York, kidnapped by the Kraang in the worst convention ever. Let me guess,” you laugh, losing your mind a little as you speak to nobody. “I’m gonna have a run in with the Teenage Fucking Ninja Turtles next, right?”

As if on que, you hear laser blasts and shinking metal. The high pitched beeping on an alarm sounded as you heard people—‘Male, teenagers… fuck my life,’— talking about power or something as their footsteps approach your room. You pound on the door. “Hey! Over here!”

You see a brown set of eyes look in through the window. Your suspicions are confirmed; ‘Definitely TMNT larping.’

“We found her,” the owner of said eyes, the one cosplaying as Donatello, calls to the others. Lasers shoot by his head as he turns to stare death in the eyes.

“We’ll hold them off. You pick the lock.” ‘Leonardo.’ You breathe a soft sigh of relief; if nothing else, you are apparently on the side of the people trying to get you out in this game. You hear footsteps going towards the firing.

“Don’t worry,” “Donatello” reassures you, voice tight with apparent anxiety, “I’ll have you out of there in a second!”

“Thanks, Donnie.” You give him a half-hearted thumbs up, trying to see what he was doing through the window. “Take your time.”

His eyebrows furrow. “Wait, how do you know my name?”

You sigh. “Look, man, I don’t know the script for the first episode by heart. You’re gonna have to cut me some slack for not being off-book.”

“Off—what?” He stares at you blankly.

You purse your lips. “I’ll explain if you let me out,” you promise. “Just pick the lock before the blue one gives you shit.”

“Oh, right! The lock!” He nods, grasping onto the logical thing you say and leaning down to start working on the alien technology. He pulls the cover off a control panel by your door, starting to fiddle with the wires.

You lean against the door, watching him work curiously. You hear the battle cries of “Michelangelo” and the toppling of robots as he works, clearly focused on his task. You zone out again. “This is some serious shit,” you mumble.

He mutters in frustration. The one dressed as Raph marches over, more impatient. “Oh for the love of—get out of my way,” he snarls, proceeding to take a very real looking sai out and stabbing the panel with a very in-character ferocity. You almost feel the urge to applaud the acting, and you might if this weren’t such a high stakes situation.

The door in front of you and behind you open at the same time and, deciding against getting captured again—you remember something about hanging from a helicopter in that scenario and you want nothing to do with that—you run alongside the turtles like your life depends on it, stumbling to a halt once you reach outside and slamming the doors closed behind you, blocking it with your back.

Your feet scramble to gain some traction on the cement. “Donnie,” you snap, almost impressed by the force used to pound against the doors, “put your staff in the handles of the door. We gotta go ASAP.”

“Wait, hold up.” The one dressed as Raph jabs his thumb towards you. “How do you know his name?”

You groan. “For fucks- it’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, not fucking Happy Sugar Life. Get the thing in the thing before the vine thing kills us!”

“The what?” Donnie and Raph seem much more confused than before, staring at you inquisitively and angrily respectively.

“Uh, guys?” Mikey pointed. “I think she means that vine thing.”

From the shadows emerges a towering creature made of plant life, its vinelike limbs draping across the ground like roots as it rears its ugly head. Its exposed, pulsating heart pressed against what remains of the creature’s ribcage. “You did this to me,” It growls. “Now you’re going to pay!”

“It’s-“

You cut Leo off. “Snake guy. Mutated into a weed. If you wanna kill it, go for the heart.”

He looked back at you, joining the other two pairs of piercing stares. “Cut that out.”

“Then don’t monologue and kill it before it has mobility!”

“On it.” Raph charges at its lumbering form, and within moments, it falls to the ground in a heap.

The pounding against the door is getting more intense. “Donnie! Staff!”

“Right!” He runs over, sliding his staff in between the door handles.

You stumble forward, the pounding already starting to crack the wood. “Alright, now we can leave.” Without waiting for the others, you sprint away from the building like your life depends on it. The others, clearly confused, follow.

You got a fair few city blocks away before you slow down, breathing heavy and palms stamped with the outline of the key you were holding desperately onto. “You run really fast for cosplayers,” you pant, “with all the- the paint and all.”

“Yeah, about that.” Donatello stops next to you, a thousand questions apparently swimming around in his head. “How do you know our names?” His mouth moves a mile a minute. “How did you know the weakness of that vine creature? What do you mean, cosplay? Who are you? Who were they?”

You cut him off. “One question at a time, hot stuff. Deep breathes.”

His pupils dilate. “H-hot stuff?”

Leo cuts in. “How did you know what we were—uh—cosplaying?” he asks tentatively.

“Odd time to cut the act, but alright.” Your heart rate lowers to a decent pace as your mind still struggles to comprehend what had just happened. You slow your breathing. “I mean,” you explain, gesturing with your hands, “it’s TMNT. It’s iconic.”

“Iconic?” He nods. “Well, since you know so much about it, then why don’t we test your knowledge? To see if you’re a real fan..”

“Y-you think I’m hot?”

“I don’t see the point, but I’m down.” You shrug, deciding to ignore the melting turtle for a second. “Shoot.”

He thinks for a moment. “Who’s the main character?”

You shrug. “You four, I guess.”

Mikey jumped in. “What’s the theme song?”

“Gonna have to be more specific there, buddy.”

“Is it really a great idea to just talk out here in the open?” Raph crossed his arms across his front.

“Probably not.” You look around. “Unless you have a map on you, I’d suggest we go back to your lair.”

“Our—what kind of stalker—”

“Look, honey,” you sigh, “if we’re going to go over every aspect of their lives that I know about we’re going to be here for a long time. For our purposes, just assume I know everything I need to know, and if you’re curious about specifics, we’ll go on a case-by-case basis.” You start walking down the sidewalk. “I’m guessing you guys hang out in the sewer, right?” You feel almost tempted to say that they’re just flat out psychotic, their blatant conviction in their own characters almost frightening. ‘I’ve heard of kinning,’ you think, pulling up a manhole cover you see at the end of an alley and wincing at the smell, ‘but this is ridiculous.’ You blink at the surprising lack of weight.

“Yeah.” Mikey—no, the Michelangelo cosplayer—walked over, already hopping in. “Our show must be super popular, right? Who’s the favorite character? How long have we been running?”

“Oh, you guys are—” You stop talking. “Wait, what year is it?” You start climbing down.

“Two thousand and twelve. Why?”

You step off the ladder, starting to walk behind him as he lead the way. “Well, it’s not tweny twelve where I’m from. It’s twenty twenty.”

“Wait, hold up.” He turns around to face you as he walks. “You’re from the future? That is so freakin awesome!”

You rub the back of your neck, trying to ignore the smell. “I mean,” you confess, “being from the future would be cooler if I was from a better time, I think.” ‘I wonder where they—’ You shake your head. “But, If we were running on the same time, I’d only be seven, I think, so it’s pretty cool I get to be here, I guess.”

“Dude, totally!” He turns a corner. “Our first day up top and we meet a time traveler?”

“Technically,” a voice from behind you makes you jump, “if what she’s saying is true, she somehow also knows interdimensional travel as well.”

‘Mother fucking ninj—cosplayers, focus. Don’t let them pull you in too.’ “Well, I really wouldn’t say—”

“Guys, is there not a clearly bigger concern on our hands?” You were already getting sick of not hearing footsteps. “Like, say, I don’t know, the fact she’s claiming we’re fictional characters?”

“Look, man,” you roll your eyes, “I already said I’m more than happy to answer any questions I can. In fact,” you continued, stopping in your tracks as you stared the red—clad turtle in the eye, “I’ll even stay put until we sort this whole situation out.”

“Fine by me.” Leo and Raph both face you, eyes boring into your soul as you stand there awkwardly.

“Let’s start off with the basics.” Leo’s tone is awfully light compared to his blatant skepticism. “What is everyone’s name?”

You force yourself not to roll your eyes again. “You’re all Hamatos.” You point at the tall one with the gap in his teeth. “That one’s Donatello, the yellow one next to him is Michelangelo, you,” you point at the red one with the broader shoulders, “are Raphael, and the sensei appointed leader is Leonardo. Easy.”

Leonardo nods. “Okay, you got the easy one.” It is at times like these when you wish you could read people. “What are we?”

“Teenage mutant ninja turtles.” You don’t have to hesitate.

“How did we become the way we are?”

“Splinter had a Kraang run in and you got ooze on you. Last thing you touched before you transformed was a person, so you became turtle/human hybrids.” You rest a hand on your hip. “Oh, happy birthday, by the way.”

A sea of blank faces face you. “Wait, you know who those things are?” Donatello is the first to speak after a pregnant pause.

“Well, yeah.” You shrug, the reality of the situation not yet dawning on you. “They almost take over the world in at least two season finales.

“They what?”

“Yeah.” You stick your hands in your pockets, fingering the key and note, confused by their apparent horror. “I mean, I’m still on the season three finale, but alien invasion is this show’s bread and butter for the most part.”

“I- what?” Raphael appears to be having a stroke. “What- bre- I- huh? What the-“

“Is he okay?” You look, completely unconcerned, at Donatello, who is swaying on his feet.

“Alien.. invasion…”

You blink, walking over to him and placing your hand on his cheek. You were surprised at the feeling of skin under your palm. ‘Not face paint..’ You look his incredibly pale face over curiously. ‘Not a mask…’ “Oh.” Your fingers slide down and off his jaw, falling slackly. “You weren’t joking, were you?”

If nothing else, he seems less concerned than he did a second ago.

Leonardo—‘The actual—hold on a minute.’—grabs your shoulder. “This isn’t a joke.” His face is stone. “You’re being serious, right?”

You felt blood drain out of your face. “Sadly? Yes.” You force yourself to take deep breaths so as to not pass out. “But, on the bright side,” you smiled weakly, “I can guarantee your survival for at least a few months.”

“What do you mean a few months?” Raphael is shaking as he yells, his voice roar echoing in the enclosed space. “How is it only—what the hell?”

“The show only ran over the course of an in-universe year.” You fight to keep your voice steady as dread seizes your throat. “I don’t know what happens after the year is up, or if it even lasts the whole year.”

“So we have less than twelve months to live?”

“This is so not cool.” Michelangelo is having a bit of a mental breakdown. “So, so not cool.”

“Hey, it’s not a guarantee!” You put your hands up reassuringly. “That’s just how long the show runs. Besides, it’s a kid’s show. There’s no way they’d kill off the main characters.”

“The hell they—who the hell is they?”

“Nickelodeon.”

“What the fuck is Nickelodeon?”

You groan. “Look, I’m just saying that you four are definitely going to survive the next few months!” Your voice rises easily to his volume. “I don’t know what happens after those months are up! I haven’t gotten to that point!”

“Why the hell not?”

You ran your fingers through your hair, laughing incredulously. “What, do you think I knew I was going to meet the IRL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and had a chance to plan accordingly? No!” You throw your hands up in the air. “I died last night and now I’m here! Hell, I don’t even know where the fuck I’m going to go, fuck knowing who’s going to get the fucking axe between now and the series finale!”

“Will you two both cut it out?” Leo snapped, shutting you two up.

You put your hands up, still fuming and glaring at Raphael. He responds in kind.

“What’s your name?” He looked at you.

“Y/N. Y/N L/N.” Your breathing slows slightly.

“Alright. Y/N, you said you’ve seen up to season three, right?”

“Yeah.” You nod.

“Meaning you know what’s going to happen in the next few months, right?”

You nod at the leader.

He thinks for a moment. “Then we need to stay in contact. If what you’re saying is true, your knowledge of our show could be extremely valuable to us.”

You rub your eyes with your hands, sighing, trying to cool down. “I can do that.” You put your hands down. “If nothing else, I’m more than happy to offer up emotional support. The next few months are going to be extremely physically and emotionally difficult for you guys.”

Donnie pipes up. “Do you have a place to stay?”

You pull out the piece of paper. “I have an address and key, but I don’t know my way around NYC.” You smile slightly at the unintentional rhyme. “Do you guys know where ten west fifteenth street—wait, it’s your guys’ first day.” You nod. “I forgot.”

“It’s alright.” Donatello is oddly quick saying that. “I-if you want, I—we can help you find it.”

You rub your arm, your previous indignance replaced with extreme embarrassment at your previous actions. “Nah, it’s alright,” you reassure him. “I’m sure I can find a map or something.”

“It’s really not safe to just wander around New York so late.”

You pause at that. “That is an extremely good point.” You nod. “Alright. But I owe you guys dinner or something for trusting me this far. Also,” you smile teasingly, “what you’re currently eating is legitimately revolting.”

“Amen to that.” Raphael, if nothing else, seems to have calmed down.

Mikey hopped in. “Oh, we just found this crazy awesome food—”

“I can order pizza,” you reassure him.

He punches the air excitedly. “Let’s go!”

“If you want, you can sleep on the couch for tonight,” Leonardo offers. “It’s going to get light pretty soon, and we really shouldn’t be seen.”

You shrug. “Works for me.

As you follow the teenagers down the sewer, conversating as you walk, you take a moment to reflect on all that has happened so far. A part of you, oddly enough, is almost excited by the prospect of spending time with these guys. But a stronger, darker part reminds you sweetly of the dangers you knew lay ahead.

You close your eyes. ‘I’m never going to see my family again, am I?’

How that is the least of your worries, you don’t know.

Table Of Contents

Chapter 2

[whitherliliesbloom]

“Ironic ain’t it? That the god of death is himself dyin’ a slow, painful death.”

Headcanons for my new au (that I have yet to come up with a name for so i’m just gonna call it the wozwald au because i made this while listening to the song on repeat!)... where the world’s become a dark, dystopian society where cults of minor, young gods run rampant and the sole surviving god of the original six pantheon of deities is slowly dying from obscurity. 

Long ago, while the world was ravaged by demons and monsters born from the negative emotions of humans, there was a pantheon of six gods and goddesses who lived and worked together to protect humanity.

Though each god had their own set of powers, their power and immortality was dictated by the worship of their followers. The more devoted a god’s followers were, and the more their believers worshipped them, the more powerful a god would be.

For a long while, the six gods lived harmoniously amongst their people, and had nothing but the purest intentions - to protect the humans and ensure the world stayed the utopia their followers deserved.

The balance fell apart however, when one of the gods became greedy. The god of wealth and fortune began to go behind the backs of his five comrades, ordering his followers in secret to perform rituals and offer him increasingly gruesome, unethical sacrifices in order to fuel his power. 

Alerted to the god of wealth’s actions, the other gods ordered the god of wealth’s older brother, the god of death, to slay him before he would grow too strong.

The death of one of the six gods alarmed the entire world, angered all of the god of fortune’s followers and also brought about a most startling revelation to the humans - that the gods were not in fact as all powerful as they appear to be, and that in theory, anybody who had a sizeable amount of worshippers could attain the power to become a god too.

Chaos ensued - the god of fortune’s worshippers hunted after the followers of the other five gods, humans began forming their own cults in order to attain the power to become minor gods, the reputation of the remaining five gods began to slip further and further as suspicion and in-fighting began to brew among them.

Each of the remaining original gods began to disappear or die off one by one in various ways - whether it was through having their worshippers taken away, or slain when they followed in the footsteps of the god of wealth.

When a god proved to be too much of a threat to humanity, the god of death would always be the one to slay them.

And thus, only one of the original six deities remained to the present day - kept alive only by his reputation as the god who killed half of the pantheon with his own bare hands and worse, his own brother. 

Now surrounded in a world of minor gods and cults that would go too horrendous lengths in order to fuel the power of their gods up however, the god of death, who has never asked for any form of sacrifice or offering from his dwindling number of followers, is beginning to feel his powers slowly draining away. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

God of Death Kaye headcanons

His real name is Lazala Tatozala.

Kaye’s true appearance is a mystery even to his followers. Most speculate that his true form is that of a tall skeleton covered in black mist. Other speculate that his true form is that of a wendigo. Nonetheless, in order to blend in with mortals, Kaye has switched his appearance up throughout his lifespan. In the present, Kaye takes on the appearance of a lalafell.

His reputation as the god who slays other gods alone is majority of the reason why he’s been able to stay alive for as long as he has, despite having a miniscule amount of believers and worshippers compared to other minor gods. He has never attempted to draw people into his religion, nor has he ever asked for any form of offerings from those who do believe in him. 

Karmic retribution from killing gods and earning the wrath of many of their followers causes Kaye to suffer from extreme pain that resembles the sensation of his skin being burned or hooks sinking into his flesh. He smokes and drinks quite a lot in order to dull his senses to cope with some of the pain.

As one of the original six gods who has lived since the beginning of time, he’s still considerably more powerful than most other minor gods. But he’s far from his prime and his power is dwindling with each passing day. 

He spends his days hunting after cult leaders who he deems to be taking things too far, still upholding his promise to protect others - but in his heart, he’s honestly given up on being able to make a difference anymore. 

Few, if any, of his followers know of his true identity. He introduces himself to others with his alias, ‘Kaye’. The only person who has ever called him ‘Laz’, was his long deceased brother. 

His original and signature weapon is a scythe. But he doesn’t have to necessarily use it to perform slayings. Most of the time now, you’ll find him with daggers and knives that are small enough to be hidden away.

He loves sweets, but hasn’t eaten anything sweet in a long, long time. 

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “This is War.”

This arc is going to be exciting, I hope you guys like it. 

“Commander, the Burg have broken through the defense Nexus and are making siege on the Gromm homeworld. We have sent ships to supplement them, but we won't be able to last much longer. How soon can you arrive.?”

“Immediately chairwoman. Give me the change to mobilize the fleet, and we will come  drop in to assist. Have some of your your cruisers sent in with shield generators. We would be more combat effective, if all our time was not spent in maneuvers.”

“It will be done commander.”

“One more thing, chairwoman.”

“Yes commander.” 

“Get me a forward report of battle progress, I want numbers, estimates, power outputs, weapons, anything you can give me, I want to know about it.”

“You will have it, Commander.”

The hologram disappeared, and Commander Vir pointed to one of the communications specialists, “You, get the fleet online, immediately.”

“Yes sir.” 

There was a moment of verbal silence as the room was filled with the distant clattering of feet thundering through the lower decks preparing for battle stations.

Four young soldiers sat in the corner of the room wide eyed and nervously watching the proceedings unfold as their insides churned. 

What a day to be a new recruit.

Bright blue light erupted around the room, and fifteen figures stepped out of the ether in various stages of wakefulness and or dress.

“Commander.” One of the men Said salluting, he was older maybe in his early to mid fifties though he looked better than a lot of men twice his age 

“Captain Eklend, Koslov, Ho, Silva, Bassi, you five are active?”

“Yes, Sir.” They chorused

“What this is about?”

“War, Captain, The Burg have perpetrated an act of war against the GA. You five are needed immediately with my ship on the front line. The rest of you, prepare yourselves for standby. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket.”

“An act of war!”

“Yes ,they are attempting to invade the Gromm homeworld.”

“What reason could they have-”

“Their reasons don’t matter for now. For the moment we focus on providing support to the Gromm and the GA. Have your crews ready as soon as possible, and initiate an instant warp. I know it will be rough on the coolant systems, but if you back charge that energy into the rail guns and cannons, that we should be able to arrive prepared. I want jets ready to provide in-atmosphere air support if necessary and as instantly as possible. Am I understood.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Alert me as soon as you are ready, and make it quick. My people will have the coordinates to yours immediately “

“Yes, Commander/” Fifteen salutes, and fifteen holograms gone dark.

Commander Vir turned to the bridge crew, “Prepare for an instant warp, like I was saying before, make sure you back charge the rail guns with the excess energy put off by the core. We don’t want to smoke ourselves out with the heat.”

Turning, he took a seat in his chair, and despite his clothing, a star-wars T-shirt and a pair of heelies, no one would have assumed he was anything other than the commander. A door clattered behind them, and the small blue Drev from earlier burst through the door and ran across the deck to her seat.

“Sunny-”

“Yes! Preparing to back charge the railguns, commander. Loading bunker busting rounds, and loading flairs.”

“Good.” He barked.

With one hand he reached over and toggled the Comm switch.

His voice once relegated to this room, now echoed down the halls with a commanding echo, “Crew of the harbinger, this is your Commander speaking. At this moment the Burg have declared war on the GA and are attempting to overtake the Gromm planet for its strategic location within the GA. All of you are to report to your battle stations immediately and prepare for war. All vehicles, flying or otherwise, should be ready for takeoff. I want marines prepared to to insert by drop ship at a moment’s notice. All non military personnel are to return to their quarters, or a safe room away from the outer hull of the ship. Please make sure to go over any and all escape pod procedures in case of an emergency…..”

There was a moment of solemn silence.

“I understand that this is our first military engagement, I understand that you may be frightened, angry or even shocked, but I make a promise to you now, that I will do whatever I can to keep all of you and every last member of earth, and the GA safe. If you follow me in this goal I guarantee, there is no army, no species, no force save deity who can stop us. My fellow humans, and my brothers and sisters Drev,... let us show them what it means to wage war.”

He shut off the comm jaw set face staring forward.

With one hand, he reached up and pulled off the eyepatch revealing an inhuman mechanical replacement underneath.

“Commander, Captain  Kozlov is ready for warp.”

“As is Captain Bassi.”

“Captains Eklend, and Ho. Have reported in.”

“Captain Silva is ready, Commander.”

“Than we warp in five, four, three, two, one….”

***

The burg Commander stood at the head of her ship pincers clicking in great pleasure as she watched another one of the GA ships fall under her onslaught. 

Their shields were powerful, but their weapons were measly.

Their scientists had known this for a while. The GA were soft creatures born of government and economics and not of chaos like her people . They would rather, sit back and defend themselves like a wounded Curdling licking its wounds tan to stand and fight, and now they had insulted her people one last tie. 

Her previous successor, had failed in his mission, one that should have been easy considering their ability to exploit the GA’s soft and trusting laws, but he had lost his temper and given himself away before the end.

However, the time for stealth was long past, now it was a time for war. For the past few years, since their withdrawal from GA peace talks )she chittered her mandibles disgusted at the very thought they had once been willing to parlay with such disgusting creatures) they had traveled the galaxy in search of greater resources, stocking themselves for ward, creating alliances with other entities in the vastness of space.

The GA would fall for their insolence against the Burg,, and she would be the one to usher them into a greater future.

Who knows, perhaps she might even become queen.

The thought of sitting, fat and happy at the center of the hive made her insides wriggle with pleasure.

Another GA ship fell breaking into pieces and falling towards the glittering surface of the Gromm planet. The shards sparked and sizzled as they were deflected away from the planet’s defence nexus. 

It didn’t matter though, it wouldn’t be here for long.

She planned for that.

And that is when her alarms began going off. She whirled in a circle towards the group of grumbs at her back. They pulsed and oozed in time with the engines of the ship controlling the interior mechanisms with their bodies, which had been fuzed into the mechanisms. When this ship died, they would die with it.

“What is happening.”

“Your glory, ships have appeared from warp, and they ae firing on us.”

“WHO.” She demanded, “I must see!” They gurgled and mumbled as they got to work scrambling to do their best and find a suitable answer for her. The ship drifted around so the viewing platform faced outwards.

Ans that is when she saw them.

Two strange ships on the horizon, and as she watched, three more followed in quick succession, flashing into existence against the black backdrop of the  expanse. 

She would know those ships anywhere.

Hard, brutal and malignant like their pilots, “Slimy Maggots!” She spat grinding her pincers together.

“What is it, your glory?”

The sound that came through her teeth was nothing more than a warbling hiss “Humans.” 

The air around her pulsed with the wave of an incoming transmission. She accepted with an angry flick, her legs chittering back and forth across the ground. And then she saw it, that ugly hideous thing with its bulging bulbous eyes and sofy maggoty flesh, rubbery like a worm.

It blinked at her revealing that mouth full of toxic venom which had been such  a hindrance to her people.

She knew this human well, if not from personal contact, than form the hostires.

For to forget a grudge was to forget one’s honor.

“Disgusting human, have you come to join your fellows as their dust is sprinkled by the solar wind.”

“Let's drop the niceties shall we.” The human responded it’s voice a horrible throbbing humm inside her head, “Now that we are here, You have two options you will surrender to the GA and live, or you will fight and you will die poorly. Which shall it be, this is your first and final warning.”

She chittered her mandibles together in laughter.

“You are mistaken human. For it is YOU who will die poorly, and there is no surrender.

“Is that a no than?”

She spat at the screen, “You will die screaming.”

“I said, is-that-a-no?”

“NO.”

“Very well.”

And then she …. She saw something, or she thought she saw something. 

A flash of light, like a fire ignited behind the slimy outer layer of the human Iris. It was both cold and hot burning and cold, chaotic and still. The longer she stared the hotter the little fire grew, until it felt as if she could feel tongues of flame licking at her shell,

“Do you have gods, burg.”

She wasn’t entirely sure where this was going but the mesmerizing nature of the eyes caused her to grow still, unable to be silent against the burning question.

“Yes.”

“Do you pray.”

“Only over the pyres of our dead.”

The human bared his teeth slimy coating of venom sparkling under the light.

“Then Pray.” 

[maximumninjavoid]

Mining for Unobtanium Chapter 23

It got eaten. Like the post was there but there was NO TEXT.

 I screamed. I really did.  This was a good chapter, I thought.

Well Feck. Good think I’m slightly compulsive.

Adults only 18 and over. Adult themes, teh secks and stuff.

Un Beta’d we die like my dreams ( too dark? )

At some point I , we must have passed out or fallen asleep. There he was, larger than life and in my bed, and I was surrounded by him. The perfect big spoon, arms wrapped around me, leg thrown over my hip,I felt petite, and I assure you, I am not. I could have stayed there forever. My bladder however had different ideas, and the lingerie, while beautiful, was not my first choice to sleep in. Extraction was going to be an interesting manoeuvre. If I wiggle too much, I risk alerting The Kraken. I didn't mind a second round, or a third of he wanted to go, but right this instant? Oh my gawd, I had to pee. I managed to slide myself out of his embrace and he rolled towards where I was just a minute ago. I wanted to stop and just look at him, sleeping, but, I suppose I could do that on the way back. Necessities taken care of, and a bit of freshening up while I was dishabille, at least this way, ~should~ one of his eyes inadvertently open, I looked 'artfully messy' as opposed to just fucked up. I'd settle for freshly fucked. Did you ever see "Torch Song Trilogy"? Oh my stars. Stop what you're doing and go watch that movie. There is a hole in your cultural education if you haven't. So, it's Harvey Firestein, it's autobiographical, and you're going to need tissues. Matthew Broderick is in it. But, there's this one scene where Harvey's character sets the alarm so he can get up before his boyfriend, brush his teeth, fix his face, do his morning routine so when the boyfriend wakes up, Harvey looks amazing. I have now reached the Harvey Firestein point of my life. Henry, of course, probably ,what was the expression? Woke up like that. I slid back into bed, using his shoulder to rest my head and curled my leg up over his hip. I kissed his neck lightly and whispered "sweet dreams". It was still dark out when round two began, he may have been half asleep. Well, parts of him were. Limbs were entangled, his head on my chest and his cock making its presence known. I stretched, and kissed his head, he curled his fingers into mine and in a fraction of a second he was above me, half smiling. "I thought I had dreamt you". "Oh, I'm certain you did" and I kissed his lips. I trailed my free hand down his back and kissed him more deeply. " I'm nothing but a figment of your imagination ". I could feel his erection at the juncture of my thighs and I rolled my hips up to try and slide him into my center. He was more entertained with sliding himself along my folds and driving me mad, taking his time. He bent his head to capture a nipple in his mouth and I rolled my eyes back in my head and shuddered. "Like that, do you?" " Oh God yes. . Umm you...uhh... Have no idea" and he took it in his teeth and tortured it with his tongue and I stopped speaking, I could just moan. The scoundrel looked up at me through his lashes and smirked. Then he went to work on the other one and I began to come undone. He could feel me getting wetter and then he went balls deep in one thrust, and I came. My pussy was clenching him and pulsing and he stroked slow and deep, bottoming out with every thrust. "Figments of my imagination don't come all over my cock like that". " They do when their nipples are hard wired to their clit". He arched an eyebrow at me and didn't miss a beat, slowly sliding in and out of me, feeling the aftershocks. "Oh at this pace, I can last forever"  "You really ARE competitive. I already told you, I will not break "  He leveraged himself up slightly on one elbow, and we were kissing, and well, I wouldn't call it fucking, but that sort of sweet sleepy sex, and he really was  relentless in his pursuit of we are going to do this forever. I raised one leg to slightly change the angle, I needed more, and a little to the, OH YES.....exactly there.....I purred like a satisfied panther.... " Happy, darling? " mmm mmm right there, that's the perfect spot.... " "You mean THIS spot? and he snapped his hips and it was like lightning crossed that bundle of nerves inside me. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. He did it again, and again until I had another orgasm and then he began to chase his own release. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and bit him as he sped up his thrusts. I had proof of his Godhood now. Even his O face is breathtakingly beautiful. Still joined together he rolled me on top of him, wrapped his arms around me and stroked my skin as I buried my face in his fur and we drifted back to sleep. I awoke to coffee. Oh. Thank every benevolent deity I could think of, no one will perish this morning. I stretched, and reveled in every ache; recalling how I had earned them. I scooted up to a sitting position, made quick work of eight ounces of coffee ( yes, it was gone in minutes) and went in search of my guest. I heard water running in the bathroom, and the door was ajar, so I looked in. Sweet baby Ganesha, there he stood, with his back to me, in the shower. Rivulets of water cascading down the planes and angles of his musculature, and I could see that I had left a mark of three of my own. With a very self satisfied smile I joined him in the shower and slid my arms around his waist, kissing his back. "Morning darling. Thank you for the magical bean juice".

He laughed and turned and kissed me. " Fey creatures surely live on potions".

I looked up at this God in human form " You're a fine one to talk about being imaginary. "

"Oh these marks aren't imaginary!" " Was that a complaint ? "

"Madam, I shall wear them as a badge of honor, for the favour of being yours". The shower rang with laughter and we washed and kissed and played probably longer than we would have had we not been in a hotel. Wrapped in a towel I offered him more coffee, poured my self some and excused myself to go out on the balcony and smoke. I know it was a smoking room, but I was working at being super considerate. He stuck his head out to ask what I was doing. "Smoking, darling boy. Smoking. So I don't inadvertently kill you."

" Come inside. It's too cold out. " 

" Darling I'm almost done and then you can warm me up. You radiate heat like a blast furnace". I put out my cigarette and as soon as I got back and closed the balcony door, I was engulfed by his warmth, and those muscles. A girl could get used to that. "So, what's on your busy schedule today mister international superstar?" He blushed. He ACTUALLY blushed. " Well, I'm going to put most of my suit back on and do the.... What's the term? Stride of pride? " I couldn't help myself. I laughed. No, scratch that. I howled. It was a belly laugh, holding my sides, I fell over on the bed, my face hurt, laughed. " God, Henry, someone has GOT to write you a fast paced comedy, you've got great comic timing!  And then? " " Well I do want to hear all about Kal's date, take him for a walk, I think I've got my cardio in, but, I'm always angling for more" and he arched that eyebrow again.

"Cheeky monkey!"

" And after that, I'm at your service. " "Have you a disguise?"

" What do you mean? "

I shook my head. " Henry, we talked about this. How in six hells are you going to explain me? It's not like we're going to go out and you're going to keep your hands off me, are you? I certainly don't want to have to keep my lips or my hands off of you.  You're in London, not Jersey."

" Look, if I can stand in Times fucking Square, in a Superman shirt and only two people stop.... "

"Darling.... That's New York. They give zero fucks. About anything. I do not want to be a cause for concern or a paparazzi problem. I don't want your PR team up my ass. We're creative. We'll figure it out. Now let me see that stride of pride. Work it! "

[tabletopjourneys]

Session 29 Notes

Completing fae deals and sailing out to sea with magic whales and a fortune in ambergris. Tags: @aradow @gher-bear @telurin @epimetal

On this day we successfully trick our way into completing Ixayl’anu’s bargain with Diem’s patron without having to fight anything. Said patron then immediately turns around to have Diem hold on to the item retrieved for awhile - the chaotic deck of many things. Diem and Ixayl’anu then deliver the fungus sample and make arrangements for possibly more samples and by-journal communications with the fungus expert, Professor Whitskey. Afterwards, we all set sail the next day for Anesh to continue our main quest. On the voyage, we encounter weirdness that includes a vanishing crew member and a group of whales doing ancient singing magics alongside and under the ship for a part of the voyage. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the meteors though. Ixayl’anu helps us discover and haul in some ambergris that’s gonna be worth tons of $$$$.   *Details below the “Keep Reading” break*

(Additional details noted before we knock on Dima’s door.) We agree that at some point while we’re all in the room, Phi found a good time  to tell us about Averni being run by vampires. This will possibly get threaded into a previous notes session if I find a good place. Either way, it happened.

Phi would have also told us during fae deal planning that Dima is a follower of Selune the moon goddess and that he’s pretty much not very tolerant/caring about other religions/gods/goddesses

Together we all figure out what Selune’s about, slightly a trickster (but not really the aspect Dima follows), for sailors, the moon and the night, etc.

(The visit with Dima - ‘Waiting Room’)

Ixayl’anu walks up to the door, Alfred the butler opens the door and looks at our ragtag bunch, spotting Phi in the back. “Yes, can I help you?”

Phi: We were wanting to talk to Dima, something’s come up.

Butler: Mr. Lenkov is in a meeting with Aristin Pilwickin (cousin 2nd removed) currently, but you can certainly come in and wait until they are done.

Phi: Yes it’s that important, we can wait.

Rest of us: Yeah we’re okay with waiting.

Phi: How’s it going Alfred? 

Al: *steps back opens door, responds*

Phi continues making small talk.

As we walk past the doors down the long hallway, past the doubledoors Phi gets whispered what’s going on because she’s the only one with perception for it and on high alert.

The exterior walls are def stone, but interior walls are plastered wood slats (a note for Rana)

As we reach the room we’re ushered to we see a scholarly blue and white dragonborn and fucked up gnome chick, not related to Phi, def looks like she had a hard life, low London rough and tumble accent.

Phi parses this as odd because she doesn’t really ever see these two together and they were both doing whispery voiced arguing that clams up when we enter.

Gnome lady stays quiet

Payton (scholarly dragonborn): Ah, leaf pick, haven’t seen you in awhile.

Rana gives Phi a confused look because this is like name #15

He’s one of the more stable potion makers of the group (Payton) soooome minor enchantments

Phi: Hey! How ya doin, Payton?

Rana and Diem hug the wall together not feeling great about the group’s chances in this situation.

Phi and Payton have awkward chitchat.

Phi gives Bamfina Lockley (the rough and tumble London gnome) a nod: Hey.

Lockley gives her a cool look in response, something of a glare.

Payton glazes over that about how great it’s going, lots of shipments and good time for working on my projects.

Phi: Have you heard anything about the weird meteors we’ve been having, lots of sciencey people talking about that?

Payton: I have seen them but I’ve been really busy this past week so I haven’t been...why have you heard anything?

Phi: We were talking to some people at the university and it just sounded pretty crazy, right?

Payton: *quetioning look* I didn’t realize you were so interested in astronomy

Phi: New hobby of mine, been spending a lot of time outdoors looking up at the sky and it’s just become fascinating to me.

Neither Payton nor Bamfina look like they know what to do with that.

Payton takes interest in Phi’s friends, we briefly greet back.

Phi asks if they’re waiting to see Dima

No

Oh we’re just gonna go in then

Lockley stroms off

Rana: Bye!

Phi’s cousin walks out from a door in the side hall on the east wall. “Oh, Selphina! I haven’t seen you in forever!”

Phi: Oh, hey *nickname for level 2 familiarity* Small chitchat in the hall about wishing their loved ones well follows.

He gives the rest of us a wtf are these people doing here look as he goes by but Diem doesn’t even notice him until he’s already past them while Rana tries to start obviously awkward conversation with Payton after Phi dropped him like a hot potato. (The meeting with Dima)

Phi knocks on door where Dima is waiting.

Dima: Enter

Phi peeks in “I brought my friends with me this time, is it okay if they come in?”

Dima gives her a look: It’s better than having them in the hall.

It’s a cozy little office with french doors leading into a garden/well area. 20x30 office

Diem comes all the way in and crosses with Phi to the french door area to allow room for Rana and Ixayl’anu, then sits in the chair on that side of the office.

Dima thinks this is unusual that Phi’s brought people in, but she’s not in trouble for it. He casually closes his books and sets them aside as we come in.

Dima: Phi what is this about, I thought we’d spoken earlier?

Phi: Yeeeeah, but it turns out my friends realized they have something to talk to *you* about and so I brought them here to talk about it.

Dima: Interesting *makes go on hand gesture*

Ixayl’anu: (rolls a 10 on persuasion) and she says something to the effect of “I’m on a mission from Selune, and you have something she requires to complete my quest.” Dima is intrigued

Diem doesn’t think he looks intrigued enough and decides to use phantasmal force to convince Ixayl’anu Selune is now talking through her to tell this story, and hopefully Dima that it’s true/help really sell the story. Sleight of hand casting succeeds/Nobody notices Diem cast it, but Ixayl’anu makes her save enough to know what’s going on and let it happen.

Ixayl’anu then rolls a nat 20 on persuasion with the rest of the story, letting herself believe she’s possessed by Selune. Diem adds a little moonlight prestidigitation to Ixayl’anu’s eyes to really sell it. Both trickstery deities involved probably fully approved and thought this was great fun (Dima’s and Ixayl’anu’s)

Dima: Yes, Ixayl’anu, whatever you need, name it.

“Selune”: Ixayl’anu will know it when I see it through her eyes.

He leads us to the basement where there’s a sleeping black dragon it looks up and snorts.

Peace Antimony, (words I missed).

It hisses some toxic green gas and lays back down.

Dima leads us around. “This is just general storage, but I’ve got a vault down here.”

Rana and Phi have been flabbergasted. We all stand back and just act like we’re not interested in snooping. 

1st item: metal globe with protection runes “thaumaturge’s orb.”

2nd item: A staff with a golden hand at the end with one finger extended “Staff of Midas”

3rd item: Multi-faced star-shaped cut glass/shimmery crystal reflecting light in prismy way “The sky crystal focus” about the size of a basketball.

4th item: Beautiful finely made silver circlet with a large multi-faceted, mostly purple gemstone in the middle with 3 little motes of light that float around it in diff shifting colors “Arcanist’s Circlet”

5th item: A tiny hummingbird out of enamel or jade, in flight “Valonte’s vitalium”

6th item: Another orb, jet black with 2 copper bands runes carved into the orb. “Orb of passage”

7th item: A sword longsword with kind of twisted metal and hilt is standard wrapped hilt that merges into the base of the blade like grasping vines, cross blade is thorny “constrictor blade”

8th item: Just looks like a deck of fine playing cards, kinda plain. “The Deck of Many Things”

9th item: Amulet on a jeweler’s bust, inside is a beautiful topaz (yellow), large cut to shine brilliant, around it 2 sphinx’s and a four winged angel on top with sunrays behind it. It looks very ornate. “The Sunheart medallion.”

If Rana was looking she might be able to say more about it, but she isn’t.

Dima: I did just acquire this as well. 

*shows wine decanter sized crystal vial with a metallic, shimmering in all the colors kaleidoscopic liquid, I’m not exactly sure what this does yet, I haven’t had it identified, but it may also be what you seek.

Arcana check of 22 to see if I know any stories about the item names: Enough to Cross off staff of midas, volantes vitaleum, and constrictor blade.

Diem manages to sleight of hand cast message to share not these 3, but my patron said you would know it when you see it, so maybe...communicate with your god in front of each one or something? “You can respond to this message”

Ixie: Maaaybe.

Rolling a d6 at a 5 (for where she’s drawn): Ixie narrows it down to the skycrystal focus, the arcanist circlet, and the deck of many things.

Ixayl’anu tries to use divine sense in front of the 3. It doesn’t tell her any more.

She’s doing the slow loop around the room kinda thing, holding a hand out, dowsing rod kinda passing each one. Loops back around to the deck, decisively points at the deck “That one.”

Dima: Yeah, that completely makes sense, let me unlock that for you.

Phi rolls investigation to see if there’s a magic component to these keys or anything. As he puts in the key and turns it there’s a faint puff of coloured magic smoke that comes out, and she knows it’s just like a simple alarm spell - it would make a noise to alert something or someone elsewhere. Takes out the deck and hands it to Ixayl’anu.

Phi notices the back of these cards is an exact match to the card she’s been carrying. Dima’s deck is complete, Phi got it within a year, but not from Dima. Meta info none of us realize: Vizier: At any time you choose within one year of drawing this card, you can ask a question in meditation and mentally receive a truthful answer to that question. Besides information, the answer helps you solve a puzzling problem or other dilemma. In other words, the knowledge comes with Wisdom on how to apply it.

Ixayl’anu tries to give him a good faith I know it’s not enough token of 100gold

Dima: No, this is between us and the deities. (but he appreciates the gesture)

Ixayl’anu: May her light shine on you.

Dima: And you as well.

We don’t linger and follow Phi out.

He invites us to a drink after with some chitchat. With as little detail as possible and as much truth as possible (not sure what I meant by this statement lol). We get very good bourbon.

Charisma check for how Dima views each of us moving forward: Rana 15, Ixayl’anu 15, Diem: 10, Phi: nat 20 (22 total).

Level up!

We go back to the inn and Rana buys us dinner.

We talk about when we’re doing the professor meeting and will they meet us at night.

We both are like as soon as possible, but we’ll say it’s an emergency.

Rana exchanges a look with Phi.

Diem: What? Wait did you guys get message while I wasn’t paying attention?

Rana: Yes. Phi tells Diem the truth though (no, we didn’t)

Diem talks about maybe appearing on the boat after it’s already set sail - they don’t know how these things work.

Rana: Won’t the captain have questions?

Diem: Well we’re already paid for so it’s not like we’d be stowaways.

Rana and Phi talk about how mad her mentor might be, they talk about not knowing it wasn’t an actual message from Selune and what if Dima finds out. Rana doesn’t for a moment believe Selune was involved. 

Phi: That won’t be explained until the future either and if a catastrophe was averted by then it could make him less mad.

Rana: Let’s hope it was worth it.

Phi: Yeah, let’s take it one day at a time. Cross that bridge when we come to it.

Rana: Let’s just hope we don’t burn that bridge.

*cut to Diem and Ixayl’anu for a deal’s a deal scenes*

Diem does as last time, with the sense Ahrune heard.

Ahrune pops in “That was fast, what have you brought for me?”

Diem: We may have convinced him it was ordained by his goddess.

Ahrune: More interesting than what I had in mind.

Ixayl’anu *huffy*: It wasn’t exactly clear, but I brought you these.

Ahrune: *examines them* Yes, these will do quite nicely *hands them over to Diem* Why don’t you hold on to these for me.

Diem: *thanks in shock*

Ahrune makes us a door directly to the guy, and hands Diem a return portal orb to the inn when we’re done. “Forgive me if I don’t want to stick around for this part.” *disappears*

*Diem tucks the cards into their inner suit pocket before following Ixayl’anu through the door.*

As soon as we walk in he looks up: Oh! Hello I didn’t...office hours are closed!

Ixayl’anu: Forgive the intrusion but I need to talk to you.

Whitskey: You don’t look like one of my students…?

Ixayl’anu: No we haven’t met before, I have an unusual question...well...maybe *looks at all the vials of fungus and thinking maybe not* Wondering if maybe you can identify something for me.

I’m given to understand you’re professor Whitskey?

Whitskey: Yep that’s me.

Ixayl’anu: Do you...I think this question is self evident but do you happen to study lichen and fungus and things?

Whitskey: That is my specialty

Ixayl’anu: I have a substance that I - well a group of us found recently and I was hoping you’d know more about it.

Magical lichen - you understand magical lichen very well?

Whitskey: Yes do you have one you want me to identify?

Ixayl’anu digs in her pack and pulls out the vial to hand over

Diem: before you open this you should know *tells about it briefly and where it was sampled from*

Whitskey: Yeah I recognized it so I wasn’t going to throw magic at it but thanks for the warning.

You said you found this in the shadowood? You’re quite far from home.

One of us: We spoke to professor Leonis he wasn’t sure if it was native here or if they came with the meteors, he kind of led us to think it was native

Whitskey: Professor Leonis, I can’t say that I’m too familiar with him but I don’t get out much. I have heard all this hullabaloo about these meteors but I didn’t realize it would have anything to do with my work.

We talk about it growing directly on the meteor.

Diem illustrates it for him.

Whitskey: Hmmm *adjusts glasses* (has very large eyes behind the glasses)

Ixayl’anu brings up the dwarf too.

Whitskey: There was a dwarf? Tell me more about this.

Diem does a 22 on telling the story again and all the details they can remember.

Whitskey looks at the lichen in the jar and studies it. His excitement continues to grow as he looks up things in books and compares, etc. 

He keeps it in the jar and he brings the mage light closer to the vial. *Diem steps back*

The lichen grows toward the source of the magic with quite a speed, spindly bits and deeper colored. Whitskey quickly separates it out again.

Whitskey: This is quite a find! This is a very...I haven’t actually seen this before!

Diem would let him know what officials in Miova know, what little they don’t, or even the local Miovan professors about this fungus and that he might want to put a team together to stress the importance of this to his local magistrates/officials/etc, asks whether it might be wise to take a protected sample back there as well.

Whitskey: If I’m correct this line is very aggressive. Transporting it could be quite problematic, we’d have to set up a containment field, quite frankly I’m surprised it stayed in this method of containment.

Diem agrees on the point of transporting it back through another, different magical door and that it’s probably best to leave the whole sample with Whitskey after all.

Diem and Ixayl’anu talk about her mission and what they can do if they encounter more of it. Whitskey gets excited about the possibility of more samples then and happily gives us containers of his own.

Tips for future encounters: Bring someone who can create a null field, anti-magic area to contain it, and it is best you get the samples when they’re small, when they’re large they have a self-fulfilling mist about them and they become quite difficult to contain. At that point it can do certain things, take over other living organisms.

Diem: Like that dwarf - oh and maybe those gnolls.

*tells him about the gnolls now too*

Whitskey: Oh yeah some cults do use them to infect themselves with various forms of these lichens to become part of their deities. Usually those cults get found and irradicated. Some small discussion about that. We find out it’s common though with known species and not necessarily tied to this new one.

Diem asks about the care of the vessels

The containers are inert until you open them and put something inside, and once you shut them they become their magical versions and he wouldn’t recommend putting them in magic holding things like bags of holding or anything like that, but near those bags is fine.

(Rana:This guy is totally going to turn out to be evil

Leonis: "I can't just hand out University materials, I'd have to get permission."

This guy: "Take my personal vials.")

We get 3 containment units.

He goes around to the other side of his table and give us a small book of sending so we can keep in touch and we can coordinate how to get samples and such back and forth.

We verify we can send warnings through and not just notes, and he will contact us too about things he learns.

How durable are the contaminants?

More durable than glass, they can break, handle them with care, don’t smash them on the floor or throw them at things. They’re made of magical pyrex. Thick enough to drop from waist height and they’ll be fine.

Whitskey: You’ve made my whole night, my whole year, I have so many things to do!

Ixayl’anu has something else she wanted to ask but can’t think of it right now.

Diem makes sure it’s okay to ask him a question in the book later if she thinks of it.

Whitskey: Oh yes, so long as it pertains to all of this.

Diem: Can this book be stored in a bag of holding?

Whitskey: Yes absolutely.

Ixayl’anu: Anything else you can think of?

Diem: Nope I think we did a pretty good job.

Ixayl’anu smashes the portal and we go back to the room we were in, taking 45 minutes total.

Rana and Ixayl’anu played with their rats. *rewind a little (to prevent potential disaster lol)*

Before we left, Phi brought up that she had a similar card to the deck we got and she tells us it’s a deck of many things that have wildly varying effects that could be really good or really bad and she knows you have to declare how many cards you want to draw and select them. She has an enchanted card to be whatever card she needs and now that she knows this it’s revealed its true nature to her so now it probably doesn’t work as intended.

Phi asks if she can see the deck and Ixayl’anu hands it over (in the velvet bag Dima had tucked them in).

She puts them face down on the table “I have one of these cards that I thought was just a trick card. I use this to turn into a different card *she tells it to change by illustration* the fact my boss had cards like this tucked in his treasure room tells me this is more than just a simple trick.”

It’s def a trickster element to it. Diem realizes they know stories about these cards (21 arcana check), gives some examples of people dying, being lost, become more powerful or rich, getting wishes granted.

Rana makes a face when the wish spell is mentioned.

Phi: Sounds super dangerous but also kind of fun

Diem: Yeah, but also the epitome of fey fun, so it makes sense why you picked that one, Ixayl’anu.

Phi: *tucks her card away and talks about getting it identified*

*Phi and Rana time while Ixayl’anu and Diem are at Whitskey’s*

Rana: So how do you and Dima know each other?

Phi: He’s the head of an organization I used to be a part of.

My family is very involved still so I kinda don’t talk about being involved with it anymore so I kinda just go off and do my own thing but Dima is one of the people who knows I don’t wanna be a part of it anymore. He makes sure I don’t get any heat from not wanting to be part of it now.

Rana: Well your sister seems nice and he seems nice

Phi: He’s NOT nice, but my sister doesn’t know much about it, she’s just a family person, focuses on that. Her job’s not so intense (I have a lot of sisters though).

Rana: What do your other siblings do? *confused*

Phi: You know

Rana: No, I don’t.

Phi: Just stuff that isn’t necessarily on the up and up, you know, like...below the law things that you may not wanna do if you have kids you gotta feed. I don’t know, she’s just a different person.

Rana: Is that why she had so many kids?

Phi: Oh no that’s just normal and they’re not all hers.

Rana: Dima did help us. Well, we tricked him into it but he really did help us.

Phi: Yeah I was actually a little surprised by that. I think he’s just very devout so I don’t think he saw an option to not help if that makes any sense?

Rana: Either way if he’s been supporting you and he’s willing to help us out, he can’t be that bad right?

Phi: Sure. I mean he’s not supporting me out of the niceness of his heart, we made a deal.

*I missed Rana’s response, sorry*

Phi: It wasn’t like a favor it was a trade

Rana: At least we’re not making deals with the fae

Phi: That’s some crazy shit right? I’d never do something like that.

*Back to the present*

Diem stores coffee can sized containers in their bag with a tight fit and takes the sending book downstairs to meet the others after we decide to tell them about the deck in addition to the meeting with the prof.

They are cuddling very fat very happy rats right now when we find them.

Diem: Good news and...interesting news.

*we tell them*

*we go over our primary goal*

We decide to let the local lawmaster know our statement too and told the front desk lady. Rana didn’t come along, she went to bed.

Diem mentioned meeting them again for breakfast because they have last night of potential company.

Phi asks about that on the way and Diem dishes about the sexy librarian with his dark teal skin. 

Ixayl’anu got a 13 on her insight check to the first story she overheard.

Contested against 23, she believed it all, but it was definitely just singing the praises of Teagan and nothing revealing at all about Diem themselves. (Insight checks were arranged after, Phi’s is yet to be determined)

(Getting on the boat)

Next day Diem doesn’t make it to breakfast but they do make it just in time.

Rana on stone: I have your stuff and bringing it with me to the boat, be there.

Diem: I’m already on my way I promise, I’ll be there soon *flying clothes on totally not already on the way*  Diem also manages to get a pearl on the way for their new identify spell.

Rana is a bit grumpy as she eats her breakfast taco

Ixayl’anu tells Rana she has something that might help, even though she seems to have a handle on water forms now *hands over water walking ring*

Rana: If you don’t mind I would like to hold on to this for the journey.

Ixayl’anu: Sure

*brusquely nods*

Diem: Oh my pack is making up, you guys <3

Rana spent all night preparing all the water spells.

Ixayl’anu dumps 4 shark teeth

Phi: What’s with that?

Ixayl’anu: It’s so we have a safe trip?

Diem: What? What’s what about?

Ixayl’anu: Don’t you have anything to give too?

Phi and Diem: No, do we need to?

Ixayl’anu looks worried and gives us shark teeth and tells us to throw them in too.

We do so and I’m totally interested in the story behind it. Tell me Ixayl’anu, pretty please!

Ixayl’anu: You just do it for safe passage from the spirits.

Clearly the guardian spirits of the ocean are the sharks. This just insures nothing that’s beyond the sailors skills will happen on this journey.

Diem talks about that being fair - no shark teeth is probably why they ended up overboard in a barrel their last trip to sea.

*Ixayl’anu hands Diem a small bag of shark teeth just in case.*

Diem: Do I dump all these in now or for later?

Ixayl’anu: Later, you shipwrecked seems you’ll need them. Diem gives a fair point shrug and happily holds on to them.

During all this talk, Rana has tossed in one of the prettier stones from her pocket and while stressing out, is looking to spot it in the water. Rana manages to spot her offering.

Phi tries to distract by asking Rana about her homeland.

Diem internally pouts over not hearing Ixayl’anu’s story about how she lost her body guards the first time around that didn’t go so well, but is also interested in stories about Rana’s homeland (and distracting her). (I think I missed some of the initial talk)

Rana: Don’t wanna be caught out in the desert without protection either from the sun, cold at night, etc.

Phi: Well you just have to trust the experts that know about the place we’re in, like we trust these experts in the ship we’re in.

Rana looks over like “I know what you’re doing” Yes we do don’t we, let’s get on this boat before I change my mind. *Throws in all her shark teeth too*

When we get on, we mostly get ignored by the crew.

(Aboard the ship, talking about Anesh, Rana sees a new animal form!)

Phi does 14 perception, few new faces, mostly the same crew. “Hey how many shark teeth did you throw in the water today?” to the one she knows to be the nicest/most tolerant.

Person looks at her with sheer incredulity “what are you talking about?” and walks away.

Phi 11 retro-active perception checks superstitious stuff among this crew, but hasn’t noticed any.

When shown their rooms, Diem asks Rana if she wants to share a room since there are only 3.

Ixayl’anu attempts to bring her elk aboard and gets a few looks from the crew, but they don’t deny her. The captain is nowhere to be seen. It can roam around 9 or put it in 12 (the actual hold). She bought elk supplies bedding/food for the trip.

On their rush to the boat, I did manage to buy a pearl because my patron tipped me off to check my spell book.

We all hang out on deck, Diem tries and fails to come up with positive ship stories to distract Rana.

Ixayl’anu asks Rana about where they’re going.

Rana rolls 14 history check: She knows it’s a port town (Farford), they do a lot of the trade that comes in from Petarus rather than overland - specialty seeds, various animals (not the metals which come from Bouldergap). She didn’t stick around too much. Before she met us she didn’t stick around anywhere very much, sold her goods and moved on.

Ixayl’anu: What’s it like in Anesh?

Rana: It’s pretty dry, it’s a desert - most of it, near the mountains you have more brushy cover. You don’t wanna go to Lake Nitron.

Phi: Why not?

Diem: What’s wrong with Lake Nitron?

Rana: It’s pretty deadly, only a few birds can survive out there it’s not really a place that you’d want to live. Sunhame is right in the middle of it all but most of the towns are either on the coastline or nearer the mountains where there’s cover.

Ixayl’anu: And that’s where your home is, up in the mountains?

Rana: Yeah, that’s where I learned all my druid craft at too

Ixayl’anu: What do your parents do?

Rana: It’s just my mom, she’s a tailor. My dad died before I was born so I can’t really tell you much about him. My brother is a blacksmith.

Sunhame is not as large as Miova but the rest of the towns are about the size of Budelia.

I’ve been to Sunhame a few times, it’s heavily religious. I spent a lot of time traveling between them all between my mom’s business and my brother’s blacksmithing. We don’t have anything like the shadowood where we’re from though, that’s a you guys thing.

Ixayl’anu: Do you have trees?

Rana: Some, a few up in the mountains scattered near them, but not a lot of them. It’s not as green, you guys have a very green country

Diem: Do you prefer it that way?

Rana: I like both places, nature exists (I missed the rest of this) yeah it’s not as green as Rethwellian but I think you guys will like it, it’s a nice place.

Ixayl’anu: I get the impression it’s really hot though

Rana: Yeah, it’s warm. It’s a desert.

(Established that Rana’s staff is made of hazel, found in the mountains.)

(I may have missed some more things. You’ve probably guessed but even when I don’t note this, it’s probably true even for conversations that seem whole.)

Rana talks until someone stops her, but we’re all on team distract Rana, so we encourage it.

We have occasionally seen the captain if we notice.

Calm sailing so far.

Ixayl’anu rolls a d20 for us for mysterious reasons.

About 3 hours into the day, noonish, we see a pod of killer whales hanging out with the boat. 

Rana ventures closer to the rail by then and adds it to her animals seen list.

Diem asks how her animal form hunting went.

Rana: I found a loud seal.

Diem: Did you try swimming?

Rana: No I just transformed into one so I know I can do it and watched them swimming so I’m sure they can. It’ll be fine.

Diem: Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be just fine. (As text this sounds like sarcasm but it wasn’t lol)

Rana: Yeah we’ll be okay.

Diem: We will absolutely be okay. (Also not sarcasm, but let’s not point out she didn’t try swimming in that form)

(Aboard the ship, Diem has identify now!) 

Before the end of the day, Diem picks a time when everyone’s near enough to hear them to tell Phi “guess what I learned how to do?”

Phi: What?

Diem: *brandishes pearl* I can identify things now!

Phi: And what’s that?

Diem: Oh the pearl I need to cast it.

Phi: So does that mean you could find out what this card can do?

Diem: Maybe, wanna try?

Phi: Yeah *hands it over*

Diem starts trying 

Phi: Oh but I also wanted to ask you how your night went.

Diem: *tries to concentrate on ritual but gives up to just answer the question* do you want to know that now or after I cast the ritual?

Phi: Oh later is fine.

Phi leaves so they can concentrate.

Diem finds it out after 15 minutes instead of just 10 and tells Phi it is the vizier and what it does.

Phi looks disappointed (I think because the card also lost its ability to be any card she wanted at a thought but all I literally wrote here is “Phi looks disappointed scene” and then failed to remember details I was so sure I could fill in later :P) (Aboard the ship: Keeping company with spiderwalking elks, Phi and Diem have a talk)

Ixyal’anu goes to keep her elk company after awhile.

Before the end of the night, Diem and Phi go to Phi’s room to dish the details on Diem’s last night with Teagan. By the time they get there, however, Diem has a more serious, related topic on their mind that alters this discussion (Sorry at the time I was stuck in the “no live awkward rated R details” mode and forgot something happened that would give Diem pause over the “after hours” story time).

Rana casts spider climb on the elk again to make herself feel better.

Ixayl’anu, confused, asks it “did you do this? How do you do this?”

Elk: I’m on the ceiling, it’s great!

Unfortunately realizes he can’t swallow upside down so comes down to swallow his food.

Ixayl’anu: You need to teach me this trick

Elk: I don’t know how I do it, it just happens.

Ixayl’anu insight checks 18 *stares down the elk*

Elk: Sometimes when your friend comes around I can do this.

Ixayl’anu: Which One?

Elk: The copper one

(Aboard the ship - next day shenanigans, I think? Day 3 shenanigans? I didn’t make the timeline very clear in these notes) At some point during the day, Diem snuck in Phi’s room to take back the doll from her packs, then tried to sneak it into her arms that night 20 stealth vs 25 perception, Phi wakes to see Diem looming over her, reaching out. 

Diem quickly hides doll behind their back and is very awkward about this. Rana doesn’t cuddle and I wanted to see if you would.

Phi wants to know what they were doing, why they were reaching out for her face though.

They awkwardly try to explain that there was something on her face.

Phi tells them they’re being creepy. Diem: Oh, and who snuck into my room in Budelia just sitting on the end of my bed watching me? That wasn’t creepy? Deflection fails so Diem shows her the doll and pretends they were trying to get rid of it for her before she woke up and freaked out.  This backfires as Phi gets really really freaked out and Diem decides they can’t go through with that either and admits that they did it, they were actually trying to *leave the doll in her arms* to find later and it’s just one of those normal dolls of the queen they were handing out at the festival.

Phi: I changed my mind, you’re not getting cuddles tonight.

Diem *crushed to lose cuddles*: I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were that scared of it - What if I throw it overboard right now - an offering to the sharks?

Phi agrees to cuddle after all if Diem throws the doll overboard. We do so and then go sleep in the same room with Rana. Note: I think I forgot to note the passage of some uneventful days mixed up in this trip somewhere because otherwise we’d have only 2 full days out to sea, arriving in the morning of day 3. As such, I went back through the notes to note when an (the?) uneventful day(s?) might’ve occurred. (Ocean Voyage Day ?: What happened to Kelly?)

By the time the rest of us wake up, Rana is probably already on deck sitting miserably.

Diem tries to cheer her up but it’s mostly cause she’s not feeling well.

Ixayl’anu begins to notice how weird it is that this crew is quiet and antisocial

Diem doesn’t really notice but tries to encourage sea shanties. A few look my way (19 persuasion) and catch themselves humming before quickly cutting off and going silent again.

Ixayl’anu starts talking to phi about how strange this is

Diem agrees, noting how the ships they’ve been on always sing shanties and clearly some of this crew knows them…

Ixayl’anu: and they’re usually shouting back and forth about things they’re doing/seeing.

Phi: Maybe they don’t need to communicate like that?

Diem: Yeah maybe they all follow old ones...? Wait that sounded way more ominous out loud than in my head.

Rana is glaring at us.

Ixayl’anu: *Grumbling* it’s usually more lively than this, I just don’t like it.

Phi realizes something about something Tel whispered her: Wait a second guys, I wanna go ask somebody something *goes to find the guy who thought the whole shark teeth thing was weird*

Phi makes a 17 investigation roll, she does not see the person she was looking for, but she had seen him since launch.

Phi returns and tells us she can’t find the guy she spoke to yesterday when we set out.

Diem: Are all the little boats still here?

Ixayl’anu casts divine sense but doesn’t sense any celestial, fiends, or undead: Do you know his name? Maybe you could ask about him?

Phi doesn’t know why we’re worried, but she knows his name (Sean something I missed) and could go asking even though she’s not worried.

Diem messages: Are you really not worried or are you saying that for Rana’s benefit, you can respond to this message.

Phi: Well I’m not worried but I’m getting worried that you’re worried. You can respond to this message.

Phi goes off to ask the captain and knocks, hears sigh.

Cpn: What can I do for you Selphina?

Phi: I was gonna ask Kelly a question but I can’t find him, do you know where he is?

Peter gets quiet and then says “Oh no, Mr Kelly had other engagements and didn’t join us this go around.”

Phi: But I saw him yesterday…?

Cpn: You must’ve been mistaken.

Insight check 10. She knows he’s lying but doesn’t know anything else about it, only that something about this is not right. It’s also suddenly degrees colder in this room.

Phi: I guess I was mistaken.

Cpn: No worries it happens to everyone

Phi: How’s the trip going, are we on schedule?

Cpn: Oh we’re making excellent time, we should be there by morning.

Phi: Excellent

Upon returning to us, Phi: Guys I don’t think we should be talking near the captain’s door in the future, but I was clearly mistaken

Phi actively tries to get out of the conversation and drop it.

Diem suggests maybe it’s this crew’s own superstitions like “quiet passage for quiet passage.”

Ixayl’anu says maybe she’ll be be less worried about it then. (Aboard the ship: Ambergris!)

At some point during the day we see a lump of grey goo overboard about the size of 2 milk crates. Definitely smaller than a chair.

Ixayl’anu notices it first, rolls a 12 on nature check, it’s not something her culture uses but it’s whale vomit and worth its weight in gold.

She points it out, gives fancy ambergris name to us and looks for a bucket, Phi tries to help.

We found a bucket, it’s probably not big enough for this. Ixayl’anu hits the thing, but realizes the bucket is too small.

Rana casts control water to keep it with the ship. Diem runs to get their special rope. 

When they return with rope, it ties off successfully and Ixayl’anu manages to get it up to the boat, with all four of us pulling we successfully get it on board (mostly Rana’s 21 and no thanks to my 2 lol).

It smells not great.

Diem: Oh that’s awful *prestidigitations it to smell like flowers* (Except it’s old enough to be hard and not smell too awful anymore)

We talk about getting it in the black of holding and breaking it in pieces so we don’t rip our bag.

Rana asks about what it’s for, is it part of the meteor?

Ixie: No, it’s...well it’s whale vomit.

Diem: Oh, gross... *looks at their hands and casts prestidigitation*

Rana goes back over to sit where she was before like oh my god as the rest of us talk about it being valuable. She leaves the bag of holding with us to break it and stick it in the bag.

Phi: This is awesome, the best day ever, I’m going to throw shark teeth in the water every time!

Ixayl’anu: *excited* yeah the teeth just show up on the beach it’s so easy to find them. (not knowing if that’s true everywhere).

Diem: Or maybe the whale just saw that doll (as an aside to Phi)? 

Phi laughs.

We have a pleasant evening, no plans.

Ixayl’anu gives a heads up to the elk: Watch listen tonight so you can stay up. Keep your ears open.

Evening perception checks: me (literal 0), Ixayl’anu: (nat 20), Rana: 21, Selphina: 10. (Ancient Whalesong Magic!)

Rana can’t sleep tonight. She hears a low wailing that goes into a series of clicks. She hears it all night long.

Rana goes to Ixayl’anu’s room and asks “What is that?” It sounds like they’re following the boat or just all around us.  A lot of them and very close.

Ixayl’anu: It’s whale song

Rana: Why are they so loud?

Ixayl’anu: Well it’s...I don’t know what they use it for, but it’s communication

Rana: But why are they so loud?

Ixayl’anu: I don’t know *both go above deck to check it out*

Rana makes 7 perception, Ixayl’anu a 14. She knows what to look for - occasionally she sees a spout but they’re not hanging out at the surface, only coming up to breathe and going back down, unlike what she’s used to.

Looking out over the water for a little bit they speak with animals at about the same time. About 10-14 whales.

Rana or Ixayl’anu: What are you singing about?

A whale: We’re working

Another whale: We’re busy

Now that they can hear what they’re saying, it doesn’t make sense at first, it has a weird strange poetic cadence to it, it kinda sounds like chanting or a ritual spell.

Ixayl’anu makes an 8 on arcana check

Rana wants to see if this is natural and rolls an 18 nature check. It seems like a natural thing, these are natural whales.

Ixayl’anu: What’s the song about?

There are words they can recognize, but she didn’t pre-arrange the song (Bless you if you know what I meant at the end of this statement).

19 perception from Ixayl’anu to get the meaning through the overlapping song. It’s about wrapping something around things and tying things together and binding something, repetitive in the round song way (row row row your boat lol) about keeping something together, apart from everything else.

Rana is leaning over the railing intrigued by all this.

Ixayl’anu is looking for any visual signs, 14, little waves, but not enough to disturb the pretty view of moonlight on the water. She doesn’t hear any birds or any other splashing. Very quiet other than the whale song.

Rana excitedly runs below deck to wake Phi and Diem up to experience the whales too! Diem actually does manage to perceive whales. It is very cool.

Rana (to whales): Are you coming with us?

A Whale: No we have our own business to attend to

Rana: Where are you going?

Whale: Here

Ixayl’anu: Are you hunting?

Whale: No, we are not hunting. We are very busy.

Rana: Do you need help?

One of the whales spy hops, large whale between humpback and blue whale (fin whale).

Diem: Wow that is so cool.

Rana gets the sense it’s looking at her and comes back down with a snort: I don’t think you could.

Rana: You’d be surprised. I might be able to help if you need help, but what’re you doing?

Whale: It is old magic for our kind.

Ixayl’anu and Rana ask them more about it, find out they’re doing some kind of binding ritual.

Rana casts locate object looking for pieces of the meteor.

She does not sense anything within a thousand feet of her. 

Rana: Is it about a rock?

Whale: It is about the project

Rana looks at Ixayl’anu with an unspoken question.

Ixayl’anu shrugs.

Whale clarifies: The Great Project

Rana: Good luck!

One whale acknowledges with a little fin wave

Rana: They clarified it wasn’t about a rock

Diem knows of sailors telling a few tales of whales helping shipwrecked people and other species and some people say the whales seem to be very benevolent forces, not really heard of magic, just weird sailor tales.

Diem suggests maybe the great project has to do with the sharks teeth thing.

Eventually over the next half hour we get out of immediate range, but we hear them for the rest of the night.

Phi dozed off leaning against something.

We go back to bed and the whole thing puts us at a later rising time. (Farford on the horizon!)

When we wake up we see Farford in the distance.

We’re gonna get 30k platinum for the amber gris (7500 each)

Next session: Jan 14th 5pm. (But really...tomorrow, it’s tomorrow!)

We don’t need to rp out selling whale vomit.

Phi kept a little jar of amber gris for future trade options.

Ixayl’anu tries to find more shark teeth.

(Omitted notes to self with note of omission so I remember to reference them for establishing some previous details)

Diem promises when they receive their cut of the amber gris, to name their firstborn after Ixayl’anu lol.

[sublimediscord]

Prompt: [Text] Come get Taco Bell with me. No, I don't care that it's three in the morning, I'm already outside your place. (Roliver) changing Taco Bell to Big Belly Burger because why not

(Set around...idk, the early seasons, after Roy becomes Arsenal, but before he leaves in season....eh, whatever season that was. I’m not at all caught up.)

He's not sure whether it’s the fact that his phone is vibrating or  that it’s doing it in the preset pattern assigned to only one person that wakes him up. 

“You gotta be f’ck’n kidd’n me,” Roy mumbles to himself, reaching over towards the coffee table from where he’d apparently collapsed on his couch. He scowls at the too-bright numbers cheerfully telling him the time. “Better be godd’mn ‘mport’nt.”

“Hey, are you hungry?”

Oliver’s voice is alert, and more than a little breathless. If Roy had to guess, he’s either just finished a patrol or is in the middle of one. 

“It’s three ten in the goddamn morning,” Roy half-growls at the phone, putting it on speaker so he doesn’t have to exert the effort of actually holding it to his face, “on my night off.”

There’s a gentle rush of air and several metallic zip sounds in the background of the call—a grapnel arrow and Oliver swinging somewhere, probably—before there’s an unmistakable sound just outside Roy’s front door. Not over the call. It’s the sound of something human-sized hitting his landing, most likely in heavy boots. 

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Oliver’s voice is echoing slightly through his wall, and Roy briefly closes his eyes and prays to any deity that might be listening that he doesn’t murder someone in the next two minutes, “but I didn’t really want to eat alone, and—” 

His voice trails off, quiet for a moment, before he adds, so softly Roy almost misses it, “I thought you might want some company.”

Roy clamps his teeth over the “What I wanted was some sleep, asshole,” trying to claw its way up his throat. Swallows it down with a small force of will. Instead, he crawls out from under the hoodie he’d apparently been using as a blanket and pulls it on. Cracks his jaw on a soundless yawn that reduces his vision to slits as he scoops up his phone and plods through the front room on still-socked feet.

Oliver is standing on his stoop in full Arrow gear, phone to his ear, and looks almost startled when Roy actually opens the door. 

“Come in before the neighbors notice,” is all Roy tells him, tapping the End Call button and turning away from the door by way of invitation. When Oliver doesn’t move at first, Roy rolls his eyes and says, more forcefully, “In, Ollie. And shut the door behind you. I need to get pants."

The soft click of latch on frame is accompanied by silence. Oliver doesn't comment on the nickname, just like every other time Roy has let it slip out. Instead, he waits a beat before asking, “Does Big Belly Burger sound okay to you?”

~~

It takes Roy only a handful of moments to locate the collapsible bow he keeps hidden in his bedroom, right beside the bracer with a handful of arrows, grapnels, and flechettes hidden within. It takes him only a further moment to dig for a spare mask, in case they run into trouble and need the voice modulation tech Felicity had managed to cram into the mask’s lower rim. He still has no idea how that works, but he’s not about to question it. 

After that, his gear on and his hood up, it only takes them a few minutes to get to the nearest BBB. They touch down at the back of the building, carefully avoiding the man on a smoke break by the dumpster, and Oliver dutifully hands Roy a wad of cash. 

He stows his gear in his pockets, leaving the bow with Oliver, and walks around the building without asking for an order. Not like he needs to, anyway. Walks back out five minutes later carrying a bag with the Big Double, extra bacon, no ketchup or mayo, and extra fries. He has a milkshake sweating in his other hand, sucking on the straw with minimal results. 

“Did you get—” Oliver starts, before Roy digs into his hoodie pocket and pulls out a handful of mustard packets, dumping them into Oliver's palm.

Mustard. With fries. Roy almost shudders at the thought.

Five minutes grapneling finds them back at Roy's place. The couch he'd been using as a bed is serving its intended purpose, the two of them shoulder to shoulder as they eat. Their masks lie in a small pile of two on the coffee table, Oliver respectfully not putting his feet up even as Roy demonstrates no such compunctions. He's already shucked the jeans he'd pulled on, tossing them under the table.

Oliver lets Roy steal half his fries, and hasn't said a word as Roy dips then in the milkshake he'd gotten for himself. Roy, meanwhile, carefully does not say anything as Oliver rips open the mustard packets, adding one to his burger, and using the others to build a small mountain on the corner of his burger wrapper for dipping his fries.

They don't speak. There's a kind of silence that's descended over them that's not uncomfortable, but is instead familiar. Hundreds—if not thousands—of hours patrolling together mean that Roy can tell what Oliver's thinking just by the way he breathes, by the pattern his eyes make as they trace from one thing to the next. Just as many hours spent together outside of patrol—sparring, meditating, training, or otherwise—mean that Roy recognizes the little hitch to Oliver's breathing as meaning he's about to speak.

"Thank you."

It shouldn't surprise Roy. And yet, somehow, it does. Maybe it's the warm flutter in his chest. Or maybe it's the brush of knuckles against his own where he's holding the remenants of his shake.

"Are you going back out?" Roy asks, instead of saying all the other things scratching at his throat. He maybe feels a twinge at how needy the question had sounded, but the ache of weariness behind his eyelids is growing a bit too strong for him to truly give a shit. Besides, it's Ollie.

Roy watches as Oliver balls up his foil wrapper, carefully making sure the pieces of mustard packets are safely contained. He feels Oliver's shrug against his own shoulder.

"Probably. The city is never really safe."

"Right," Roy breathes, sighing through his nose. "Always more to do, right?"

Roy just hmmms in answer, fiddling with the zipper on his hoodie, before he sits up and tugs the red garment off. When he lays back, he twists until his feet are up on the couch, wrapping the hoodie around his shoulders as a blanket and using the hood as a pillow against Oliver's shoulder. If Oliver has any objections to the new position, he doesn't say them.

"Then I'm gonna try to get some actual goddamn sleep."

Roy huffs to himself. Tells himself he's probably imagining the fond-sounding, basso huh he hears through the ear in contact with Oliver.

"Goodnight, Ollie."

"Goodnight, Roy."

Just before falling asleep, Roy could swear he feels fingers carding through his short hair.

~~

When his phone alarm wakes him in the morning, Oliver is gone, and his place still smells like Big Belly Burger. But, Roy wakes covered, not in his hoodie, but in an actual blanket that smells faintly of Oliver. And, when he reaches for his phone to silence the screeching alarm, Roy finds a single green flechette, pointedly left on his coffee table.

He might be imagining it, but he could swear it's warm to the touch. Or, well. Maybe that's just him.

[shadylikeatree]

Intro & Chapter 1

Intro:

We are a ragtag group of misfits all from different places and champions of different deities. I, Corbin Falcres, am a musician and storyteller from a small village, saved by the Everlight. Buttons is a green goblin that wore bright pinks and blues and praised Lady Firehair, Nia is an elven forest warrior blessed by a trio of gods with incredible strength and speed, and Thordan, the big man, talks to bears in between bouts of anger and smashing things with his giant axe.

We came together by pure accident, were bonded by our adventures and now we stared down someone who might as well be a god. We could run, but why run when you’ve got music, tricks, swords and a guy who talks to bears at your side?

I thought for a second about where we all had come from and how this all started. It's a strange set of circumstances.

Chapter 1.

My journey began in a small town in a valley surrounded by beautiful fields of lilies that were often replaced in late summer by the crop harvests, for miles with the mountains peaking out of the grounds in the northeastern distance like a child’s first tooth. With the breeze it’s a very temperate place for most of the year but winters can be harsh on the plains. However being at the crossroads to three major cities supplies were not hard to come by, especially with each city roughly a three day journey away.

My entire life I was caught between two worlds. My mother, Delilah is a fair elvish woman tall and lanky with blonde locks from a family of royals that disowned her for choosing a human husband and owning a tavern. It’s her that I found music. For years she ran a nightclub, which is actually how she met my father. My father, Herbert, is where I get my half-Elven nature. He’s a human man of slightly above average height with black hair and blue eyes. He is a baker and restaurateur and makes pastries people travel days to come eat. His restaurant happened to be butted up against the back of mom’s bar.

As the stories go they met one night, or morning depending on who you ask, as she was closing up shop at the bar and he was going in to start baking and she quite literally ran into him and his cart as he unloaded supplies from his trip yesterday to the market.

He invited her to try his new creation; he called it a pasta pocket in which pasta in sauce was served inside one of his famous pastries. She turned him down at first, put on guard by his ocean colored eyes. It wasn’t until the next day, as he was nearing the end of his hours that she stopped in and took him up on that offer.

Too hungover to make it home, Delilah fell asleep at a table. Herbert gently woke her and let her sleep in the office. After resting most of the day, waking just before Herbert closed up shop, Delilah watched him work diligently, kindly and with a warmth she'd not known from her own family. As he locked the door to close up shop, Delilah asked if he would like to watch her show. Knowing he needed sleep he agreed but said he wouldn't stay long as he had work the next morning.

Well he didn't keep his word and stayed for the whole show entranced with her performance. She was incredible, alive with intensity, passion and beauty. Tired from a long day he approached her after the show and thanked her for a wonderful performance. No ulterior motive he told her any time she wanted a treat to stop by the bakery and he'd make her something special, like his families secret recipe sausage and gravy pastry.

She asked him if he meant something of a sexual nature, which caused Herbert to blush. He explained how it was his families crown jewel and only available to those that ask for it.

Surprised by his genuine care, eye contact and lack of objectification she curtsied and said she'd take him up on it.

The very next day, just about closing time, Delilah stopped by. Herbert was dirty with flower, sweat and crumbs but she'd never seen a more impressive looking man.

She would always tell me that's when she fell in love with him.

He invited her behind the counter and they talked while he whipped up the special baked good asking her to look away when he made the dough. She smiled and thought it was adorable. They sat down to eat and talked for hours causing Delilah to nearly miss the start of her shift at the bar. She bid him adieu and hurried off for her shift making plans to see him again in a couple of days. She kept his promise to him

Their romance was a whirlwind. After a few weeks, he asked to meet her family. However Delilah deflected and mumbled. He would ask again for several weeks, growing more discouraged during their mid-day dates. She finally relented and told him the truth. Her family was of nobility and that they would not approve.

Saddened and thinking this was the end of their relationship, he thanked her for her honesty as he watched her start her shift at the tavern. On his long, lonely walk home he heard her voice in his head. You can meet them. Only if you promise to not leave me after.

He agreed. As expected, the meeting didn't go well. Racist jokes, being talked down too and general unpleasantness all of which he ignored. After dinner Delilah's father approached him in private and offered him a large sum of money, enough to expand his shop and bring on more business.

Never once tempted, he declined and told him he was not in this for money or power or glory. He loved Delilah and asked for his blessing in asking her to marry him. He couldn't provide a life of nobility but he could provide all the love he had to give.

Delilah's father immediately shouted in anger, calling for guards and pulling a dagger. Slashing Herbert across the neck, wounding him.

Hearing the commotion Delilah happened upon the site and tended to Herbert. Angry at her father she shouted at him. He told her she was not to marry Herbert. Shocked by the thought and piecing it all together she took Hertbert and left.

For the first time she saw his place, it was meager but nice. Homey. It lacked the grandeur of her parents castle but was enough for her.

After helping Herbert recover from his wounds. She asked him to marry him. He agreed and they were married in the courtyard of the temple.

Delilah joined Herbert at the bakery and played music there in mornings before she went to sleep to help motivate those starting their day as she ended hers. They combined their efforts and named it Yeast of Love, a fitting name for such a strange place.

It wasn't long after that that I, Corbin and their only child, was born. This isn't something we talk about but I can feel both their love for me. People tell me I'm a hearty empathetic boy like my father and an insightful charismatic performer like my mother, becoming the best of both of my parents. As the years went by Yeast of Love did expand. As if two worlds met, one side a bakery that operated by day and the other a tavern that operated by night.

This went on for years. I would spend my mornings with my father, mid-day in my studies and nights with my mother. I did this for many years with joy and eagerness. I figured the business might fall to me one day so I better be ready. I learned the magic and power of music, as my mother had practiced for so many years. I learned the magic and power of a good meal and kind ear, as my father practiced for so many years.

With my mother’s hair and my father’s eyes, people told me I looked like a perfect blend between the two. I always thought I looked like both of them and yet at the same time neither of them.

Despite being caught between two worlds and never really feeling like I belonged in either of them outside my immediate family, growing up I had a pretty good life.

I had my best friend, Layla, who always had my back. We would go on adventures together and look for creatures in the woods. I've never told her this but I always had a bit of a crush on her. It was always adorable how we'd stalk in the tall grass watching birds and other small animals live their lives.

On the flip side, there was this terrible person, Elluin, who teased me constantly and tried to show me up from the time we both could pretty much talk. I went to Elven School, something my father insisted on despite the teasing I received. He knew an education would be my way to bigger and better things. He was like mom's family and hated me for not being of pure Elven blood.

My adventuring days were not something I had planned, yet were thrust upon me. One early spring morning I was at the market picking up an order for my father when smoke arose in the distance from the other side of town.  

This was an unusual sight but not something that was immediately alarming, sure enough the town guard would squelch the fire and business would return to normal. The smoke was near the temple district not too far from where the bakery and pub were located. I figured once I got back I'd learn more from the town criers and if they needed any more help I could jump in if I was needed. I was not one to rush to aid when I felt I'd be in the way and with no water abilities or control I'd be more hindrance here than help.

I finished my business at the market, paying Shopkeep Regional Sellers and I walked more swiftly than usual back to the Yeast of Love. The streets were especially bare for this time of day which was usually shoulder to shoulder in much of this part of the town. I heard shouting and screaming from the area of the fire but again that didn't seem too out of place at the time.  

Not long after I returned to Yeast, the smell of rotting flesh filled the air which certainly piqued my curiosity. I was expecting an ashy smell like every fire. That's when the screaming grew louder and louder still.

I dashed out the front door and that’s when I saw it. A wave of people…or rather skeletons. Hundreds of them, black, frail, slow moving. I'd never seen a site like this. These bones were surely dead, long time dead.  heading in my directions down the main thoroughfare behind them, seemingly in command a man was floating in the air as the skeletons tore people apart limb by limb.

It seemed as all hell broke loose, well not hell exactly but something I'm sure would be hell adjacent. T as citizens came running from the temple district down past the bakery and into the market district to the east.

I ran up the street towards the temple of the Everlight following a crowd of two dozen people into the temple. Some of these people I recognized, some of them I didn't. Everyone seemed just as scared as I was. I wondered where my parents were, if they were safe and no more did that thought cross my mind when I felt a hand on my shoulder and it was my father.

He didn't talk much of the days of his youth or the trophies he kept in storage but something told me this was a bit of his element. I saw him, Layla and mother there in the temple. Laylay\ armed to the teeth with her bow and her city watch garb. I'd have complimented her uniform if not for the direness of the situation.  

I helped Father Cyran and my father block the door and tried my best to keep people calm even though that was far from what I felt on the inside.

That's when a large impact struck the outside of the temple door. Then another. And another. The fourth loud thud caused the door to start to buckle as whatever was outside tried to breach the door.

We turned over a couple pews and waited for whatever might come through the door next. We pushed the offering table into the isle for additional cover and to make a makeshift wall. The same second the table was put in place the door was breached by what appeared to be dozens of skeletons and people in various states of decay. I'd read of zombies and skeletons returning to life but that was always in ancient lands far away.

I jumped on the table and started throwing what limited magic I had at my disposal not even a second passed before Layla joined me. I tried my best to keep them out as long as I could and once they breached it those of us able bodied enough tried to defend the others. It was a blur of undead rushing through the door and screaming people in the church. We fought valiantly striking them down and cutting off body parts. I think I might have recognized one or two of them bit I tried not to think about it.

After a minute or so they just kept coming even with the door piled high with bodies. I was tiring and no more than the thought crossed my mind before I took a nasty wound to a shoulder. Ask me about my scar and if I'm feeling up to it, I'll show you. Layla didn't look much better.

Fearing the worst with several people down and more undead flooding the temple and just as all appeared to be lost, I said a silent prayer to the Everlight. Suddenly I was hit with a beam of light that descended from above. It should have hurt but it didn't. It was warm but comforting and all of a sudden I felt refreshed and empowered. I felt imbued with more magic than I ever had before.

For what seemed like hours but was more likely only a few minutes I slung spells some that seemed innate to me that I'd never practiced before, and protected those people until the skeletons stopped. Breathing heavy I waited for more to come but they never did. I eventually passed out from exhaustion. My last conscious thought was that it looked like a bone yard in the front of the vestibule.

As I slipped away there was darkness. Then a calm voice entered my head followed by how I'd pictured the Everlight. "Arise, my child. For I have a mission for you. I've given you a small piece of me and I need you to take on a great evil in time. But first you have some things you need to do. You'll need help in this task. Seek out other champions." I wondered who this voice was and no more did the thought clear my conscious when she appeared before me in a brightly lit and empty church except for the two of us. I'd never spoken with a god before especially not in person and face to face. Sure I'd been a semi-regular at the temple often bringing food from the bakery for those in need but I'd never been the most devout person to enter it's doors.

She continued, "There are three others that will help you in this task. You must find them and together you'll save the world. Go for the time is now to begin." With that I awoke in the temple face down with an ache to my body I'd not felt before. I felt called to the west, towards the crossroads. It was a strange feeling but not an uncomfortable one.

Standing up my legs felt like the blackberry filling we put in the pastries but I was alive and very much okay. My wounds had sealed. My parents hugged me, nearly hard enough to make me pass out again. They both had a worried look in their eyes. Layla was heavily wounded but gave me a wordless nod. Father said he'd be heading back to Yeast because there would be people there that would need them. I wanted to help but he argued that I should go home. So that's where mother took me. The next morning I awoke to both of them gone but a note saying they were pitching in at Yeast prepping food for those displaced by the terrible events of the day before.

I gathered my things and started for Yeast, in an effort to help. I get there to see my father with a familiar but even more set in tired in his eyes. He'd been there all night. I rushed to his side and threw on my apron. After all I am the best at crimping the pastries.

We'd spend the rest of the day making and delivering pastries and helping where we could as best we could. Yeast was fine and much of the town was still standing and in good shape, except for the temple district and the outlying homes on the perimeter of the western portion of the city. There it was wrecked beyond belief. I checked in on Layla and although she was wounded she was back at work keeping the piece and helping where she could. I offered her a pastry, cheese and sausage, her favorite. And told her to stop by Yeast when she needed more food.

Not unlike us, almost immediately the townspeople got to work. It was at least two hours before I noticed mother had turned the bar into a makeshift shelter.  It wasn't the first time Yeast had been a temporary shelter and I was sure in that moment it wouldn't be the last. I ran errands and took deliveries well into the night. I ended up passing out after a full day and night on top of the sacks of flower. It wasn't the most comfy bed but it worked for a few days.

For several days this went on. Working until exhaustion making food and deliveries. We were running low on supplies but I managed to grab a caravan that was on the way out of town and purchase what they had. My father worked non stop before finally sleeping on the third night, confident that I could handle the bakery with the help of mother. I never stopped thinking about what the Everlight said and it weighed on my mind.

After a couple of weeks, the town returned to relative normal. Many of the structures were repaired and usable and people had be re-homed in more permanent temporary shelter until the rest were finished. I decided that now I should take heed of the Everlight's message. I asked Layla if she wanted to come with me but she turned me down to look after the town. I felt better knowing this and asked her to look after my folks. She agreed and we hugged and parted ways.

The next morning I packed my things for the long journey and headed off on my mission from the Everlight. As much as I felt called to stay just in case an attack happened again, I knew I couldn't stay.

Not to be outdone on my way out my parents both gave me a gift. It was my 21st birthday after all, although that thought had gotten away from me due to the excitement of the last few weeks.

It was there I got my two most prized possessions, a replica of my father's delivery pouch that kept pastries warm and fresh and a new lute, imbued with my mother's love and magic. I thanked them both for their gifts, snuck off to the bakery to stuff my pouch with supplies and made my way towards the temple district and eventually out of town. I wanted one last reminder of what happened so I'd never forget. I'd use it for fuel and inspiration to stay on the right path and find my way. I didn't know it then, but it would take me the better part of two years to find my way and end up face to face with what caused the terrible events of that day.

I just had hope that I would be ready.

[thelamppoststation]

Future’s Past by TheLampPost

In 2008, a year after James managed to get off that godforsaken rock, he receives a visit from a young woman with blue eyes and blonde hair. She hands him a locket and a letter, then demands answers to questions that he didn’t even know existed. Post season 6 (Suliet) - This story is also partly set during the DHARMA days.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: The Plan             

       DHARMA Initiative: Sonar Fence, July 1975      

She started across the field at a brisk pace, but by the time she got to the path beyond the bushes she'd broken into a run. A sudden wave of nausea twisted her insides into knots, and she couldn't help but wonder if it was due to her newly discovered condition or genuine nerves. This could not be happening. Not to her. Not after all she'd done to prevent exactly this type of scenario from coming to pass. Hell if she'd ever deliver a baby on this island again. Hell if it ever be her own.

When the pylons sprung into view, she stopped. The giant misshapen percussion bells on concrete sticks of terror stood tall and proud across the field in all of their youthful glory, not quite made for musical bliss, but blissfully fulfilling a purpose that kept people as arrested as would a theatre filled audience. Different purpose, same effect.

She crouched down, and flipped the lid on the data pad. Funny how the code was always the same, no matter what decade: 1623.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She whirled around. What the–?

"Miles!"

Where in the hell had he come from? He looked straight at her, narrowed eyes darkening the core of his black pupils, he looked almost threatening, and a familiar tightness settled in her chest, spread all the way down to her spine and back up her arms. She hadn't been on the receiving end of this much blatant mistrust in a long time.

"You scared me," she said, and smiled.

"Where are you going, Juliet?" he wasted no time.

She shrugged, hoping for it to come across as casual.

"I thought I saw something on the security monitors, figured I'd check it out. You know how Horace gets if we sound the alarm prematurely."

"Does LaFleur know you're out here?"

"Of course James knows."

Miles narrowed his eyes even further, causing for his already impossibly narrow slits to turn into even sharper ones; it almost reminded her of dark light peeping through the cracks of a badly insulated shed. He wasn't buying it. Damn him for tempting her into playing so much late night Poker. Miles was good at deception, but he was even better at recognising it. He'd been able to figure out all of her tells straight off the bat, and now she didn't have many, if any, left.

"Why are you lying to me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I saw you," he took a step closer, and she had to suppress the urge to take a step back. "You were nowhere near the observation deck. I only followed you out here because I saw you flail out of the infirmary like a possessed madwoman. What's going on?"

She bit her lip.

"Look Miles, even if I told you; you wouldn't understand."

"Well," Miles crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Let's see what LaFleur'll have to say about that then."

He reached for his walkie, but before he could so much as pull the device from his pocket she'd already launched herself at him, pinning him to the ground with two hands above his head.

"What the actual fuck, Juliet!" he trashed against her, but she had a good grip on him, her weight pressing down hard on his lower abdomen. Maybe, if he had been a little heavier, or more muscular like James, he would have been able to break free, but Miles was about as scrawny as a malnourished field mouse.

"Get off me!"

"You don't want to do this, Miles!"

She gave him a hard look.

"They'll have seen you on the monitors by now anyway," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if LaFleur is already on his way!"

She tightened her grip on his wrists.

"It would take them at least five more minutes to get here," she said. "Look, Miles, you're my friend and I really, really do not want to hurt you, but if you don't let this go, you'll leave me no choice."

He stopped, and stared, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull.

"You're serious?!"

She gave a curt nod.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me! Fine!" he slackened. "Go, then! You fucking Hilary Swank wannabe. See if I care."

She pulled his walkie from his pocket, and slipped it into her own jumpsuit before rolling off of him. He let out a loud, ever so exaggerated, cry.

"Why are you doing this?" he demanded, rubbing his wrists where red marks had already formed around them. She bit her lip.

"I'm sorry about that."

"Oh really? You're sorry?!" he spat. "LaFleur'll have a field day when you get back!"

"Please, don't tell him."

"You expect me to lie after you nearly broke my neck just now?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Hardly."

He let out a derisive snort.

"Yeah? Well, tell that to my impending hernia!"

Leave it up to Miles to add a side dish of drama to an already tense situation.

"If I'd wanted to break your neck, I would have."

"Well, THAT," he pointed at her. "That's a real comfort, thanks Juliet! I'll be sure to pass that along to the DHARMA folks at the next town meeting."

For all of his sarcasm she did feel guilty. Over the past year they'd become allies, friends even. Jin, Miles and James, the most unlikely group of people to have ever met and band together. Yet, over time, they'd all turned into more than just collateral casualties of time travel. If there was anyone she could trust it should be Miles, but there was just too much at stake. If she told him about her plans, then he'd tell James, and that would lead to more questions, and then accusations. She might even have time to stop and think, rethink. She couldn't risk that.

But then, maybe; she could throw him some breadcrumbs, some food for thought to chew on. It would give her a reasonable head start.

"Come," she said, holding out her hand. He took it, albeit reluctantly; she pulled him to his feet.

"I'm going out there to find Richard."

"Eyeliner Tarzan?"

She shook her head, that was almost amusing.

"You've been spending too much time with James."

"Says you."

"Excuse me?"

"You think that Jin and I would think that all of those bumps in the night we hear is just your furniture coming to life and humping itself? Which by the way–" He froze, catching her impending look of doom.

"One more word, just one more", her eyes threatened.

He cleared his throat, inching a calculated step backward.

"Why do you need to talk to Richard?" he changed the subject.

"Miles," the threat not completely gone from her eyes. "Just make sure that James doesn't follow me."

"Can't stop that guy from doing anything he doesn't want to do. Or, well… technically, wants to do."

He sniggered, amused by his own disaster of a joke, and she took that opportunity to slip between the pillars; as expected the pylons remained compliantly oblivious to her frame. Thank God for small mercies.

"Then stall him!" she threw over her shoulder.

"Whatever!" he yelled after her.

No matter his tone, she trusted Miles to be discreet. None of them should want to be stupid enough to ever risk their cover being blown, and besides where else could they go? Everything depended upon them keeping up appearances. Miles would reactivate the fence the moment she'd gone, and even though he denied it now, he would lie for her; if only for a couple of hours.

She sprinted down the overgrown path, twigs and leaves already sticking to her jumpsuit.

She'd better find Richard soon.

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       The Jungle, July 1975      

When James had first asked her about eyeliner Benjamin Button, she hadn't quite known how to respond. Before the 815 crash, Ben had only ever referred to Richard as his advisor, or the island's intermediator.

To her, Richard had simply been the mysterious man who'd first recruited her, and then delivered her to Ben as would a postman a package. Afterwards she only ever saw him sporadically. He preferred to live with another group at the Temple, a remote place in the jungle that even the D.I. had had a hard time locating in their day. But whenever he wasn't at the Temple he would intermittently show up at the barracks carrying perfectly symmetrically folded pieces of parchment paper; "Orders from Jacob", Ben would say.

The first time she heard that name, she'd asked:

"Jacob? Who's Jacob?" Ben had been evasive at first, but clear in his reply "Jacob protects the island; he protects us."

What Jacob was protecting them from, he wouldn't say. Instead, Ben would often talk about vague miracles and electromagnetic energy. She soon found out that they all looked to Jacob as worshippers would to a deity. She looked to Ben a lot back then, as he seemed to hold most of the answers in that regard, but after a while he started to misinterpret her intentions, invading her privacy in a manner that reminded her of how Edmund used to corner her out of nowhere.

Alarm bells screeched ear damagingly loud; she distanced herself from Ben, and turned to the others instead. She asked Amelia about the DHARMA stations, Harper about the Initiative, Ethan about the Sonar Fence and the submarine, but it wasn't until she asked Goodwin about the strange noises in the night that she finally received a truthful answer. "I'll show you," he said. The following day he took her out into the jungle, where they both silently watched an immense pillar of black smoke rise up and down into the air, moving about like a creature out of a horror movie.

She stopped asking questions after that, realizing that whatever was going on on the island didn't abide by any of the natural laws of the universe that she'd been taught to acknowledge rationally. The revelation didn't deter her inquisitive mind, though. So, without permission, she started looking for answers elsewhere. She rummaged through poorly conserved documents, discovered secret underground passageways, and abandoned DHARMA stations; still, whatever had happened to the D.I. remained a mystery that even she couldn't solve on her own. It wasn't until Alex took her out into the jungle, after a particularly heated argument with her father, that Juliet was finally able to lay that question to rest. Against Ben's explicit orders, Alex had shown her a pit filled with twisted curiosities that turned out to be decomposing bodies in faded navy colored jumpsuits. With a start she realized that it was them, that they'd never left, and had been there all along, so close to the barracks.

Horrified she asked what had happened, Alex replied:

"My father."

Like a homesick child Juliet'd crawled into bed that night, craving her sister's comfort more than ever. As she closed her eyes, she imagined that melodic voice soothing her; the feel of familial arms protecting her from the monsters that used to live in her bedroom closet when she was a little girl. For a moment she was eight again, and her sister her protector.

For months, she'd clung to those memories like a drowning woman to air, and with each new burning breath she watched herself drift further from the shores of that longed for existence, until one day, the image on the horizon curved and her sister dropped from view completely.

By 2002, Ben had her bound to an unbreakable promise, a chain and ball shackled to her soul. Goodwin taught her how to mask her longings, tempering her burning desire for home. And while, like a parasite, Ben continued to try to worm his way into her heart, (often dropping by unannounced with wild flower bouquets and Belgium chocolate) she taught herself to carefully stave off his advances, until she could stave them off no more.

Between 2001 and 2004, she lost nine women to a nameless invader that dragged her to the edge of insanity. It left no traceable data for her to analyse, and for months, she ploughed waist deep through a disease filled swamp of misery and despair. She located its entrance into the body, she watched how it tore through her patients, and she knew when it killed, but she remained blind to where it housed. All she could determine with absolute certainty was that it was happening, and that there was nothing she could do about it. And while over time, the memories of those nine wounds turned into rough skinned scars, any thoughts that she might have had of Richard slipped through the cracks of her subconscious, not to resurface until 1974.

Who was eyeliner Benjamin Button? James's guess was as good as hers.

She returned her attention to the road ahead, where she'd been trampling through bramble bushes, and wadding through clear water brooks for the past hour. She made sure to keep her estimated guess of the Temple's location on her right, while taking careful stock of her surroundings on her left, moving about with extreme stealth; the way she'd been taught to move about by them. It had become second nature to her now, like falling down and standing back up. But then, so had lying, cheating and manipulating her way out of impossible situations. There were moments, like these, when that realization hit her hard. She hadn't always been like this. In fact, she wasn't anything like the woman she used to know. That person had had morals, integrity, and no backbone whatsoever. It seemed like decades ago, but it had only been four short years since she'd last behaved like Edmund's string puppet, a lapdog with no discernible purpose. Not anymore. She'd learned her lessons the hard way: to lead or to be led, to harm or to be harmed, and to kill or to be killed.

She looked up, the wind had changed; she was close now. As another minute past she caught soft whispers, the kind that used to include hers. Pots clinging together, the crackle of a midday fire, the swishing of fabric, hands clapping, laughter. She stepped closer: shouting, more laughter; the careless rustle and bustle of people living their lives.

She could see them now, and for a moment she watched them from behind overgrown bushes. She crouched closer, twigs bending under the weight of her fingertips, but not snapping. She was more careful than that.

To her surprise, she recognized a lone woman next to a boiling cauldron that stood perched in the middle of the camp. A young Amelia. Pensively, she stirred the pot, cooking what smelled like a mixture of island vegetables and boar meat. A little to her left a young girl sat crossed legged in front of a boy, playing a clapping game. She couldn't quite make out their faces, but she briefly wondered about their names, if she knew them –would know them. There were more people, young and old. Some she recognised, others that had either died or left long before her arrival. Also, more children that would grow up to be vague acquaintances or book club participants.

She suppressed the urge to flee, deterring the heart racing expectation that foreshadowed her presence; the image powerful enough to change her mind. She rose slowly, then stepped out into the open with bold determination, her hands held high up above her head, one foot in front of the other. It was a stupid move. They were unpredictable and much more dangerous than their future counterparts.

She took another step closer, a branch snapped in two. Their reaction immediate: eyes turned on her at an inhuman speed, silence muzzled the buoyant atmosphere. Various threatening clicks snapped into place, weapons balanced high upon army trained arms. She counted five men swiftly closing in on her.

"Who are you?!" one yelled.

Why are you breaking the truce?" another demanded.

She turned to look at each of them, he wasn't among them.

"I need to speak to the person in charge."

They laughed; the echoes of their derisive mirth pressing down on her courage.

"I don't think you're in any position to be making demands, lady."

She really wasn't, but that didn't stop her from staring down a very young Tom Friendly. He couldn't be much older than twenty-five. Once, her superior in age and status, now her junior in years as well as knowledge. This was strange. Would he recognise her 26 years from now? Was that why he'd always been so nice to her? Because he knew?

"Stand down!" a rough accented voice suddenly cut through the group. Every face in the clearing turned, but Juliet had a hard time tearing her eyes away from Tom.

She'd never meant for him to die. If only she could warn him somehow, forge a connection through time and prevent a bad future outcome from coming to pass. "Whatever happened, happened", Daniel's voice thundered through her mind. Did her Tom know that she was the one who would end up digging his grave? Young Tom's riffle pointed straight at her, would he be the one digging hers? Would it come full circle, right here? Right now?

"What have we here?"

She forced her eyes away. A woman, roughly her own age and similar in looks, approached the group.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

Juliet blinked, confused, her mind half on Tom still.

"Where's Richard?" she blurt out.

The woman sniggered.

"Richard? What makes you think he'd want to speak to the likes of you?" affirming whispers, and nodding figures stepped up behind the woman.

"He'd want to know I'm here."

"He'd want to know you are here?"

Their amusement peaked.

"And what, pray tell, makes a DHARMA puppet such as yourself so special that Richard'd want to know?"

DHARMA puppet? She hadn't heard that one before. But if evidence was what they wanted, then she had nothing to worry about. They seared it onto her skin for a reason, after all.

"Check my back," she said.

"What?"

"My lower back, check it."

The woman's expression shifted, a concoction of amusement and disdain spawning forth some mild interest that stretched to the curving of her brows.

She looked at Tom.

"You heard the woman,"she shrugged. "Check her back, Tom."

Tom nodded.

"Unzip," he demanded.

Juliet compliantly pulled her jumpsuit down to her waist, revealing a white tank top underneath; with the barrel of his rifle Tom pushed the fabric up, and as the mark that lay seared upon her skin sprung into view, the tension in the air shifted once more.

Sharp intakes of breath seemed to suck the oxygen straight from the surrounding trees, travelling all around and down the wide clearing.

"Who gave that to you?" the woman asked, turning a whiter shade of pale as her eyes darted from Tom to the others.

"Let me talk to Richard first," Juliet repeated.

"Who gave you that mark?!"

"I'll tell Richard!" she countered.

"Tell me!"

"No!"

Her eyes darkened, and before Juliet could comprehend what happened next Tom had already slammed the butt of his rifle into her lower back. With a loud cry she crashed to her knees, rough hands pulled her up by her hair, and as the pain shot through her head and down her back it was hard to focus; the feeling similar to that of hundred needles sticking through her skull all at once. She looked up, the butt of another riffle hanging suspended in mid-air, aimed straight at her stomach. Reflexively she put her arms out, protecting that which she couldn't stand to lose.

"No! Stop!" she begged, her voice hoarse. "I'm pregnant!"

The man hesitated, his rifle poised, held back only by sheer doubt. He looked to the woman in charge.

"I'm one of you!" Juliet cried out, anger temporarily casting out all rational thought.

The woman motioned for the others to stand down, and Juliet heavily dropped to the ground, her heart hammering against her ribcage at a painful speed. She couldn't be sure of what she would have done if the man hadn't hesitated, but she sure as hell knew that the outcome wouldn't have been in his favor.

"You're no more one of us than any traitor who bears that mark will ever be again."

"At least it shows that at some point, I was one of you," she wheezed.

"A fleur-de-lis is hardly an original mark."

"Yet," she took in a painfully slow, but controlled breath. "This design is unique, and you know it."

The woman's upper lip quivered, extreme agitation forming around the corners of her mouth.

"Richard!" she called, never breaking eye-contact.

It was then that Juliet recognised her, the intense icy blues, the thick British accent. This had to be the famed Eloise Hawking. For some reason she'd always pictured her to be taller, and broader. The type of woman who enjoyed deer hunting and hammer throwing on early Sunday mornings right before dawn broke through the night. She'd imagined a wild tempered shark. But this? No. Not this. Eloise was slim, petite even, moving about with the same grace as a proud lioness. A hunter by nature, always with her pride in mind, nothing like a shark. Yet, the lines about her eyes mirrored Juliet's own mask, hiding an intense past filled with contradictions. Maybe, in another life, they would have been friends.

"Who's this?"

Richard appeared as summoned, popping into view like a genie out of a bottle. He looked exactly the same. He always looked the same. They locked eyes, and Juliet felt a shiver run down her spine. Bizarre, just bizarre.

"She bears the mark," Eloise barked. "How can she bear the mark?"

Richard looked confused, not quite comprehending what Eloise was referring to, but as he studied Juliet there lay sudden recognition in his eyes. It betrayed a thought, as though he'd been waiting for something like this to happen.

"What mark?"

"Our fleur-de-lis."

He stepped closer, Tom lifted Juliet's top again, stepping even closer Richard bend down, lightly touching the mark, his fingers cold on her skin.

"How is this possible?" he asked, looking up at Tom.

The young man stammered, but Richard shook his head, and waved him away.

"Where did you get this?" he said, for the first time really looking at her. "This is a very particular mark. Who gave this to you?"

"Jacob," she lied.

"What did you say?" a slow staccato punctuated each word.

"I want to talk to Jacob."

He studied her closely, his eyes burning holes into her skin. He knew more, much, much more.

"Take her to my tent," he ordered.

"What are you doing?" Eloise demanded.

"I need to talk to this woman in private."

"That's against the rules of the truce!"

"Jacob wants it so."

"How in the hell–"

"Eloise!" Richard cut off. "Trust me."

Juliet was sure that if Eloise had had fangs Richard surely would have fallen victim to her seething rage by now. But she stood her ground, respecting the wishes of a deity whose existence she probably had to take on faith as much as Ben had had to.

Firm hands guided her past Eloise, and the woman gave her one last foul look in passing.

Once inside Richard motioned for her to sit, then turned to the men behind her.

"Leave us," he ordered.

"I don't think–"

"I really don't care what you think, Brian. Leave us, now!"

Brian muttered something incomprehensible under his breath, but did as told, motioning for the other man to follow suit.

"What's your name?" Richard asked, once they'd left.

"My name?"

"Yes, you have one, I trust?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well?"

"Juliet."

"Last name?"

"Carlson."

"Carlson?" he frowned.

"Burke," she corrected. "Look, I–"

"Juliet Burke," Richard continued.

She stopped, rendered somewhat speechless by the interruption and this strange obsession with her name.

"You know what's funny, Juliet?"

Richard turned around, and sat down on the cot in front of her; the bed creaking beneath his weight as he pensively leaned forward on his arms.

"Two days ago, Jacob appeared to me," she sat up straighter; a pounding pain shooting through her back; she ignored it.

"He told me the strangest thing. Jacob said, that in a couple of days time, I should expect a woman by the name of Juliet Burke to come striding straight through the jungle into our camp, demanding to see him."

She stared, unmoved.

"Exactly, like you did just now," he paused. "Isn't that a funny coincidence?"

"I don't know what to tell you," she said, chilled by the thought of predestination. Although, by now she'd learned that there really was no such thing as a linear passage of time. She was living proof of that.

"No, I didn't think you would. But Jacob gave me a note," from his chest pocket he pulled a perfectly symmetrically folded piece of parchment paper, her name written in the centre in indelible ink, Jacob's ink.

She reached for it, but Richard held onto it, forcing her to look up to where his eyes met hers.

"I'm to go with you," he said.

"Go where?"

"Wherever it is you plan on going."

He let go of the note.

With trembling fingers, she unfolded it.

Jacob's message was short, poetic even:

"You may leave, But only once.     Return,     and you are     to stay.     

Choose wisely, Juliet.     

Richard will show you the way."      

        - Jacob     

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A/N: I know it took me a while to get this chapter up! I'm sorry! I always try to be as detailed and coherent as possible in my writing, and this one took a lot of time to figure out. I love writing from Juliet's POV, though! She's so incredibly complex, and I wanted to bring that to live more in this chapter. Hope it shows!

I decided to change the title of the story, because I just wasn't happy with it. I personally think that this new title does the story more justice; I just hope that changing it didn't make it too hard for you guys to find the story again. I promise, the title won't change again. This is it.

I also wanted to respond to the Guest who left a review on this story on ff.

First of all, thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words. I hope you'll continue to enjoy this story, and I truly appreciate the kind of detailed review that you left! I always love to hear what goes on in the minds of those who read my stories. Thank you for that! And also, yes the summary might give away a bit much, but it also only reveals the tip of the iceberg of what I've got in mind for this story! The true purpose of the summary was to create an expectation. I'm actually very curious to know what you think it means! But all in all, even if it means what you think it means, there's a lot more to it than just that one storyline/chapter. Ha! I hope I'm making sense!

Anyway, thank you all for reading this story. Hope to see you again in the next chapter!

[kikuism]

get to know my ocs

so here’s some stuff about my ocs. a more or less comprehensive guide. if you’re curious about them, you’re welcome to check this out!!

vatra / 12 (16 after timeskip)

she’s on the left here and the second one here!! pinterest board 

about: hot-headed ball of rage!! will not pass up any opportunity to kick your ass. hordes gold. she’s just as bad as smaug. 

she and her twin sister aralu were taken in by fumio (who becomes their adoptive older brother) when their parents abandoned them because uh, twins = bad omen? early on she discovers she has fire powaaas! it’s like firebending except it takes a toll on her body; her fire is a living writhing thing inside her stomach, and if she gets agitated to an extreme level (extreme anger, happiness, sadness, etc), it will react badly. usually in the form of smoke creeping up her throat. and that’s not comfortable, so she figured out early on to channel it to come out of her palms instead. it pisses vatra off a lot because she’s actually a walking time bomb, she can’t not control herself, so it’s a real test to her patience and a real exercise to keep herself (and her fire) in check. 

she also clips her vowels and basically speaks like someone on the streets, because that’s who she hangs around all the time,much to the worry of her sister. she loves picking out fights and setting bets. she always comes home bloody and smelling awful. 

she also has a huge, very fragile ego, and will literally beat herself up to prove that she’s right in any given situation. she also doesn’t ask for help, thinking she can carry everything on her own shoulders. she has a lot of pride and that ... y’know ... that isn’t a good thing. the smallest grievance will make her snap.

she’s a mischievous little shit at times, but mostly she’s just. angry. like she’s always pissed about something. but really, she’s just impatient and tired with her life at home; she wants to go out and explore. she wants to use all the coiled energy in her joints and just go outside. 

but she is fiercely protective of her little family, even though she’d lick the soles of her shoes than admit that to them. she also believes in merit and hard work, and scoffs at things like lucky charms and miracles.

fun facts: has all the social grace of a stumbling cow, oh no bby what is u doin

aralu / 12 (16 after timeskip)

she’s on the right here and the first one here!! pinterest board

about: sweetheart, mom friend, wouldn’t hurt a fly!! she’s so gentle and soft and so unlike vatra that fumio can’t believe they’re even related. 

early on, when she’s just a smol thing, she wanders too deep into a mysterious forest trying to catch butterflies -- or, they look like butterflies. the ball of light she’s reaching for is actually an ancient guardian deity. it decides to take refuge inside her, to escape its fate of having to watch over the forest for eternity. when she reaches out to touch one, there’s a flash of light, and the next thing she remembers is being shaken awake by an alarmed fumio and an angry vatra demanding where she’d been; she doesn’t remember anything, and eventually they all just forget about it. 

when she’s 12, the spirit decides to make itself known to her. she freaks out, she thinks she’s been cursed, but despite its appearance (blue grayish wisps that congeal to make the shape of an eye) it’s actually friendly and curious and a little sassy and just wants to experience the mortal world the way a mortal would. aralu and the spirit soon become fast friends. when it wants to come out, it does so through her palm, so whenever she leaves the house, aralu wraps some gauze around her hand so as not to draw attention to the shadowy slit. 

besides that, she’s the mom of the house, keeps it clean and livable, makes the meals, paints and decorates. she’s the Voice of Reason and is always trying to control vatra’s shit (and it works, because she’s the only person who can keep her in check), though it’s one helluva job.

fun facts: she can get just as annoyed and angry as her sister!! takes a lot to push her there, but if you do, well good luck son

fumio / 23

ahhhh i haven’t gotten him commissioned yet, but!! he has medium brown hair which he pulls back in a scruffy tail, bangs he’s constantly blowing off his forehead, worry lines on his forehead, and the warmest green eyes that hold the entire world. pinterest board

about: fumio is the twins’ adoptive older brother! he found them in a box in some abandoned alley/part of town and was horrified that someone would just leave two babies out in the cold. 

he’s only 13 when he takes them in, and since his own parents couldn’t afford to take care of so many mouths, he decided to move out and do it himself. he loves the twins with his whole life and does everything to make sure they are well taken care of. 

fumio is naturally prone to anxiety, and because of his jangled nerves he has a lot of ticks -- tapping fingers, pushing his spectacles up his nose when they don’t need to be, moving his foot, etc. by trade, he’s an artisan, and while he does love building and taking apart things to see how they work, his true passion is reading and scholarship. in their little house, they have a whole room dedicated to his big dusty tomes which he and aralu love to pore over together and discuss. 

he’s constantly fascinated with the world around him, especially with the advent of european traders that are coming into japan. he and aralu are very curious about ‘the outside world’, and always talk about how different it might be from their own land. 

fumio has a lot of self-esteem issues; he thinks he isn’t doing enough for the twins, he thinks he isn’t doing enough in his job, etc, and that stresses him out a lot; in truth, he doesn’t know how much he’s loved!! and how much his customers love his products. he oughta have more faith in himself!!

fun facts: can play instruments really well!! aralu dances, and vatra glares from the corner the nights they decide to put on a show after supper.

jin / 23

ahhhhh, my fave? i have written 200k words about her so uh, she’s the third one here!! mostly androgynous, but slightly feminine eyes. she’s also hella toned!! vatra is jealous. pinterest board 

about: hoooo boy, so she’s a wandering genderfluid ex-samurai who left her old life in europe for a fresh start in japan. jin is a quiet, reserved soul who comes off as polite but really is a little anti social and prefers to observe from the distance. occasionally spouts philosophical wisdom. 

she ran away when she was 14 and had it pretty rough because of her red hair; japan was very superstitious and skeptical about foreigners, so they hated her for her hair color and it basically very hard for her to come out of that mindset where she flinches every time someone looks at her. she slept on the ground and ate scraps and tried rubbing dirt and mud onto her scalp to hide the red. 

eventually she learns to boil walnuts to make a black dye, and she uses that to this day. she decided to join the samurai ranks to start her new life, but after a few months of service, when her master is killed, she runs for it again and decides it’s not for her. so she takes her horse and they just .... wander. village to village. that becomes her life. eventually, she hears word of a serial killer, someone from the yakuza, and they’re paying a handsome reward to whoever can bring him down and bring him to the town square. she takes it upon herself to do it, because her money is dwindling. she almost dies and he leaves her to bleed on the grass. 

she’s saved by an old man who kicks her out as soon as she wakes up, so, injured and aching and hungry, she decides that another night on the ground is going to kill her. she makes it to yoshiwara, the red light district, and even though sex repulses her, she spends whatever last bit of money she has on a brothel just for the extra comfort that is known over there. the manager chooses a prostitute her age to entertain her; kamiko leads her to her room and she’s sweating buckets. long story short, she and kamiko become friends, and kamiko asks her all about her home and in turn tells her all about how to get around here in japan. 

kamiko becomes her first friend, even though kamiko herself starts developing feelings for her. eventually, two years pass, and jin decides to leave, because she can’t stay there forever, and she wants to go out into the world again, yearning for adventure. kamiko is upset, but she makes her promise to come back every year. jin doesn’t -- she comes back five years later, and hoo boy there is some tension between her and kamiko now.

i like to think she’s very reserved, mostly due to the fact that she was--and still is--largely by herself. she had to teach herself everything she knows about survival, and she hasn’t had the best experience with people because of their stigma toward outsiders--so she generally keeps out of their way and keeps to herself, and only engages when necessary. t

hat’s not to say she’s completely cut-off … i imagine her as being naturally curious, and thus observant, of the people around her. she has a soft spot for children, and is endlessly fascinated by their innocence and lack of awareness of the reality of maneuvering the world independently. 

she learned the language largely through observation, and since she realized talking like a commoner was going to harm the way people looked at her even more, she went the extra mile to learn the nuances and polite form of speaking, to better her chances of getting somewhat accepted into society. so when she speaks, it’s formal and concise. and so are her mannerisms.

her morality is a grey area. i feel like she tries her best to stay her hand to avoid unnecessary attention, but if an insult hits close to home, she won’t hesitate to draw her blade. she’s kept up a steady ego throughout her tumultuous time in japan, but she’s unaware of how little it can take to pierce through its cracks. i also think that in dire situations, she won’t think twice about doing whatever is necessary to ensure her survival.

fun facts: she dresses in male clothing, and has had to put up a male front for so many years that she takes the male pronouns without batting an eye. internally, though, she is always aware of her female sex, and she clings to it. 

kamiko / 23

she’s the last one here!! pinterest board 

about: kamiko!! is an absolute flirt and will stop at nothing to get in your kimono. she lives to tease people and find what makes them tick. in that way, she’s a little bit cunning, but honestly, she thrives off being around other people and can literally talk to anybody and talk her way out of any situation. she also has a dominating personality, so it’s hard to persuade her to do something, or make her see things from your perspective.

her parents sold her into the yoshiwara when she was just a little girl (a very common thing in edo period japan) to become a ‘refined’ prostitute (because they were also trained in the arts of calligraphy, singing, dancing, etc) and she’s basically never been outside its walled gate. that’s perfectly fine with her though, because when jin basically tells her ‘damn u live like this’ she scoffs and goes, ‘i’m insured a roof over my head, an education, fresh food and clothes so stfu.’ she really doesn’t feel as though she’s trapped and does not yearn to go out into the great outdoors at all; she excels at her job and steadily climbs the ranks to become a very high level courtesan, whose fees are exuberant and whom clients have to visit three times before being either accepted or rejected. 

kamiko is a very blunt person and doesn’t sugarcoat her words, so it can seem like she’s kind of a bitch, but when she gets close to someone (which doesn’t happen a lot, since her whole life is basically one client after the other, coming and going just as quickly), maternal instincts start to surface.

when she gets to know someone, and becomes closer to them, her usually larger-than-life persona dims down to someone who’ll listen and offer advice, and extend a helping hand if need be. but because she gives so much of herself to others, kamiko doesn’t really know how to process her own emotions when she’s sad or scared, so that is kind of a sticky thing for her. 

fun facts: absolutely terrified of heights, secretly wants to go see mt. fuji

kikuhiko / 16 (18-19 after timeskip)

call him kiku! that’s what everyone else does. softer and more diminutive than other boys his age. has feminine features, especially in the eyes and in the way he dresses (patterned, bright kimono with long billowy sleeves as opposed to the solid dark ones guys usually wear). he has this luxurious silky black hair parted to the side (i think??) and brown eyes. (here he is on the left)

about: kiku is one of the children of the emperor, so that means he’s a prince (right??). he doesn’t really relish this title, though. kiku couldn’t care less about politics and power -- he’d rather walk around the palace gardens and feel the breeze on his face and the grass beneath his feet. 

he’s always been a soft, shy, sensitive boy and i think he’s ashamed that he doesn’t have steely nerves like his older sister, naomi, does. he also likes boys, and that’s another reason he leaves any chance he gets, because his mother is always trying to pair him up with someone or the other, and it frustrates kiku because he doesn’t know how to tell anyone any of it. that’s why he uses every chance he gets to go outside and just -- think. get away from the stuffiness of the palace. 

kiku longs to know what it’s like to be outside, to leave what he calls a ‘real’ life. he’s very empathetic and hence cries easily. he’s always kind of conflicted about himself -- about the person he is and the person he wants to be. 

his brows are always a little furrowed, and he’s always sort of twiddling his thumbs; he’s a very inward person. on the outside, he’s a stumbling, blushing mess, but on the inside, he’s always imagining and dreaming and wondering and his mind is a very loud place. 

fun facts: he can make his origami come to life! any paper he folds into whatever animal, he can breathe life into it. he loves to prank his sister like this; it scares her to death when she sees a paper crab crawling toward her.

kouhaku / 16 (18-19 after timeskip)

“call me kou,” he says quietly, to literally everyone. this boy is such an enigma ... is he just like that or does he do it on purpose? maybe we shall never know. he has brown hair which is pulled back into a small tail, and pale eyes because he is blind. (here he is on the right)

about: kou is one of the healers at the palace. because he uses magic in his work, patients are only sent to him in special situations. he has his own special chamber underground, and kiku comes to see him nearly everyday because the sweet boy is in love with him and crushing so hard that kou can’t help but tease him a little about it, because his aura flares and zaps and sings so much -- kou can see auras, that’s how he ‘sees’ the world around him. everything gives off auras, even furniture; those are static and dim, so they’re a little harder to make out, but kou can immediately sense when someone is in a room with him, because the aura of a person is so much more vivid and complex and louder. 

kou is generally a quiet, thoughtful person, and there’s this ancient quality about him, especially in his voice; it’s somber with a lilt. a kind of heaviness, wariness to it. he’s always mixing vials and potions in his chamber, but that doesn’t mean he’s some old geezer with a love for chemistry. also has an inflated sense of self sometimes :’))

kou actually loves teasing people any chance he gets, finding their ticks and exploiting them and watching their auras react. he teases kiku endlessly about his crush on him, toes the line and leaves him with these accidentally-on-purpose fleeting touches that make kiku lose his mind, poor boy. but kou does have some feelings as well -- he finds it endearing how kiku is so fascinated with his work, and that he spends all the time with him that he does. 

fun facts: pads around barefoot all the time, because he’s a nerd and also to feel closer to the earth 

[renegadesrpg]

Soulmates, Part 8. Interludes. Layla and Sean

Sean: *wraps my arms around you and buries my face in your hair* It's been a rough day. *sighs*

Layla: I'm sorry love. How can I help?

Sean: Just be here. It's just discouraging to be faced with the reality that there are so many among us who are self-serving. Well... *sighs* Sin will take care of that in the end.

 Layla: Yes he will and you all will be there to aid him as needed. I'm always here for you. *pulls you close*

Sean: *The love she has for me flows over me like a warm blanket of comfort. Sighing...* It's not like it was unexpected. Adrian and I already pretty much knew who could be trusted, but it's still dam....darned exhausting to be right.

 Layla: I can only imagine.

 Sean: *heaving another sigh, I put it behind me. Adrian's in the half-world, keeping guard outside of the cottage but he won't pay any attention to what goes on in here unless I sound an alarm. Knowing he's watching my six, I can let it go. Kissing the top of her head, I hold her for a moment before stepping back and looking down at her.*

So how was your day? What did you do?

 Layla: I crocheted some owls and just put stuff away since I still had boxed things.

Sean: *raising an eyebrow* Some owls? You can crochet owls? I want a' see 'em.*Laugh as she shows me and picking up the blue one* Hey, these are sorta' awesome. I can't believe you just took some yarn and made something like this. I bet Bryn would like one. Owls kinda play into the whole witchy thing.

Layla: Take them to her. They are hers then. I made something for Sin too. Think he'll like it? His heart is heavy, thought he could use a lift.

Sean: Really? I can give them to her? She'll love 'em. I know a couple of goddesses that these would probably make smile too. I might split up the set. *smiles down at her* It always pays to be on the good side of deities. *setting the blue one down with the others as she brings out the painting. A low whistle escapes me*

Wow... that's beautiful. He'll love it. *tilting my head as I look at it* You know, I bet he'd do a showing for you if you decided you wanted one and had a few of these. Or get his gallery manager to. One of his business interests is a gallery Miami. He's got another in San Francisco, but the Miami one specializes in promoting unknown artists. This is pretty awesome.

  Layla: Oh I don't know about that. *bites lip nervously* I started this last week, took me a bit to get the colors just right. Oh and if you know females who would like the owls go ahead and share. I can make more. I like making them. They are easy and cute whether knitted or crocheted.

 Sean: *nods* Thank you, baby. I will. Owls are associated with a few of them. Occasional thoughtful gifts like this make them welcome our presence. But the art...if you decide to do it for more than your own enjoyment, Sin would be the one to talk to. Me, I'm just glad our home will be filled with things as beautiful as you are.

Layla: *smiles and blushes* it will be love.

 Sean: I'm tired baby. *smiles* Are you hungry? I could call up something to eat?

 Layla: A little.

 Sean: What do you feel like? I can get it for you

.

Layla: Something light. A sandwich?

 Sean: What do you like on it?

 Layla: Mmmm roast beef, mayo, and horseradish mustard (a little), and smoked gouda cheese.

Sean: Now that does sound good. With a thought I materialize the sandwiches on china plates, putting them on the kitchen table. I took them from Katz's Deli in NYC. Only Sin can create things out of thin air. The rest of us just move things from one place to another.* Two roast beefs sandwiches with smoked gouda, mayo and light horseradish mustard. With a side of coleslaw and a bag of chips. *grins* I live to serve my female.

 Layla: Mmmm looks almost as scrumptious as you. *takes a big bite of the sandwich* Oh this is yummy!

 Sean: *sitting down, I smile at her enthusiasm. Taking a bite of my own sandwich, then set it down. I gotta admit its good, but I'm not really hungry. Sitting back in my chair I watch her eat, pleased I was able to do something for her.*

 Layla: Been a long day for you, huh love?

 Sean: *smiles tiredly* Yeah it was. Actually, I'm ready to crash. I just like watching you eat.

Layla: *giggles* Come on love....bedtime. *I get up, wipe crumbs off hands, and pull you from seat*

 Sean: *willingly I stand and follow her down the hall. Once in the door I demat my clothes down to boxers and fall into bed, pulling her with me.* Come snuggle.

 Layla: *I strip and lay down in your arms, snuggling close*

 Sean: *naked in my arms, just the way I like her* Night baby. *kisses her gently*

 Layla: Goodnight love. Sleep well.

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Sean: *Mists into the cottage looking for Layla-mine after a long and difficult day with the reaper corps.*

 Layla: Hello my Love

 Sean: *smiles a little tiredly, but damn, it’s good to see a friendly face besides Adrian's after the day I've had.* Hey baby. *pulls you onto my lap* How was your day?

 Layla: *kisses your temple as I land in your lap* It was good. I started something special and got you a present. You look so tired mo chridhe, would you like me to make you food?

 Sean: *leans my head into her kiss and sighs* In a little bit. I'm not really hungry but you should eat sweetheart. But *Tilting my head up and raising my eyebrow* I thought you couldn't cook?

 Layla: I've been practicing. I found these recipe guides on that YouTube. I'm not great but I've learned a couple things that were easy.

 Sean: You have huh? *Smiles* That wouldn't be because you have a male around would it. *teasing, 'cause, I kind of like that.*

 Layla: Well, I kind of like you. Plus, I like learning new stuff. *shrugs my shoulders*

 Sean: *reaches up and kisses you gently* I know you do. It's one of the things I love about you. So what have you learned to cook?

 Layla: Cheesy French bread pizza and cheesy meatloaf.

 Sean: Now you're making my mouth water. *grins, letting the stress channel off of me as I relax with her* Both sound pretty damned good.

 Layla: Good cuz I put the meatloaf in the oven 20 minutes ago. *giggles*

 Sean: *Tease you* Well aren't you a prescient chosen, knowing I'd be home soon. *laughs* Tell me about your day baby.

 Layla: I knitted on a blanket, I read over recipes I want to try and made a grocery list, and I got a delivery. How about you?

 Sean: *My smile fades a little as I think about the day* It went. *sighs* We knew we had disloyal reapers and that's why Adrian and I are going through the corps, so I can probe with my empathy while he talks to them. It's just discouraging to have it confirmed so...clearly.

 Layla: Ah Love, I'm sorry. It must discourage you all too much though. That is what your enemy hopes for.

 Sean: *shakes my head* We already had a pretty good idea of how many and who they were. We've used the recent attack on one of the other lieutenants as a reason to have reapers working in pairs and we've matched them up with people we know are loyal. When the time comes, we've got a plan to neutralize them until the fighting is done. It's just ...*Shaking my head* Sin would never have allowed them into the corps in the first place. He left because he had to, but I don't think he understood the difference having him in charge made. But he does now.

 Layla: I'm sad it went down as it did but glad you have answers now. Would you like your present? It might make you feel better.

 Sean: A present? *the delight is evident on my face* I don't really ever get presents. What did you do Layla-mine?

 Layla: I asked a favor of a Brother. It's small, for boots he said. *I give you the wrapped box and wait for you to open it*

Sean: *ripping away at the wrapping paper like a kid at Christmas, until I get to a polished wooden box. Opening the lid of the box a finely made dagger with a black sheath is revealed. My eyes widen as I take it out of the box. The hilt is an intricate Celtic design and I draw it from the sheath, the razor sharp edge gleams in the light*

 Layla... this is beautiful. *holding it to the light, entranced by the workmanship* And it's deadly. *And will be even more so as a reapers weapon once it’s enchanted. Looking at her as I lay the blade back in the box, I lean forward and kiss her* Thank you. I'll carry it always.

 Layla: I had him add in some of my blood to the metal. No idea how that works but apparently it was doable. And if you look in the hilt....that's a braided lock of my hair. That way I'm always with you. *leans in and kisses you gently* Ohhh the meatloaf is done. Be right back!

  Sean: *continues to examine the blade, touched more than she can possibly understand that she accepts my job so much and loves me enough to make sure a part of her is always with me. She doesn't understand that her blood gives this blade special properties but I do. And I'll have to thank the Brother that did this for her, because I'm pretty sure he knew.*

 Layla: Dinners ready Love. *I place two plates full off meatloaf and veggies on the table.*

 Sean: *carefully laying the dagger aside, I whistle appreciatively* That looks amazing!

 Layla: Hope it tastes good. That's the real test. *chuckles*

 Sean: *cuts into the meatloaf and takes a hot, steaming bite as cheese oozes out* Oh, damn baby, this is awesome. You are amazing at everything you do!

 Layla: *smiles at the praise and love I hear in his voice* Glad you like it. I'm happy it turned out nummy.

 Sean: Baby, *swallowing another bite* I think you should experiment more often. You might not have cooked much but I think you've got a gift. *a little more seriously* You know that reapers don't need to eat or sleep to survive, right? But doing those things is important to us. It keeps our humanity with us. You, whether you’re in my arms at night letting me dream with you, or making things like this that are just amazing, you help me be better. Help me to do my job the way it needs to be done. You make me a better male. And I love you even more for it.

 Layla: *His words tattoo themselves on my heart. I smile even as a tear falls* I love you so much. Thank you for loving me and sharing this all with me even though you don't have to.

 Sean: *brushing her tear away with my thumb* Don't cry Nalla... *smiles, because yes, I've been learning the old language of your people* You're wrong though. I /do/ have to. You're my heart and soul. Now that I've found you, I need you to survive. If I were to lose you...*shaking my head* I wouldn't live through it. I wouldn't want to.

 Layla: Never. You will never lose me. *I grab your face in my hands* We have both been through enough, it will not end. What we have is eternal. That much, I know.

 Sean: * Smiles and leans in to catch her lips, placing one hand atop of one of hers* It is. When we win this, I'll find a way for us to be together through eternity. I promise.

 Layla: I know you will. Now finish your food then I'll show you the blanket I'm working on.

 Sean: *taking another bite and then practically licking the plate* What, a blanket? Knitting? Sure, I want to see it.

 Layla: It's not done yet....

 Sean: *wipes my hands on my napkin and puts my plate in the sink before touching the blanket* Wow. That's beautiful babe. The design is so intricate. How in the hell do you do that, get all the colors like that?

 Layla: I follow the pattern. This one is called Scottish Thistle.

 Sean: *smiles softly* I know. I wasn't sure if you picked it for me or just because you liked it. The pattern is so intricate though. This much must have taken you weeks.

 Layla: Of course I picked it for you. I like making special things for you. I've been working on it for a couple weeks.

 Sean: *cocks an eyebrow...and yes, thanks Sin for passing on that mannerism* Just two weeks? You got all this done in that little time with everything else you do? That's... baby, that's amazing. You do this stuff so well. *smiles* I want this on our bed when we're mated.

 Layla: I can have it done by then. And there are 12 hours, at least, where I have time to do many things. I just give myself time limits is all. *smiles*

 Sean: *kisses you gently* Anyone ever tell you that you're a very efficient and organized Chosen? *sighs* I'm beat babe. I need to recharge.

 Layla: Alright Love. Let's go lay down. *takes your hand and leads you to the bedroom.*

Sean: *closes the door behind us and pulls you to the bed to lay in my arms for the night.*

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Sean: How's my female today? I'm sorry I haven't been around babe.

 Layla: You are busy, I understand, you don't have to apologize love. I'm feeling, what humans call, blah today.

 Sean: *frowns* I'm sorry sweetheart. *slides my arms around you and gives you a soft kiss* How can I make it better?

 Layla: Oh I don't know Love. I'm not sure why I feel this way. I started a new drawing and worked more on the blanket but now...blah. Want to see the new drawing?

 Sean: I'd love to see them. Maybe it'll help chase the blues away.

 Layla: It’s you in wolf form.

 Sean: What I'd look like if I could shift? * tilts my head as I look at the drawing.* I see it around the eyes and face shape. *looks back at you* That's kind of amazing that you can do that.

 Layla: Well, not necessarily as a shifter. But you said you liked wolves so I drew a wolf that I tried to put your personality in and did the same for me in Cheetah form.

 Sean: You did a good job. Aren't pencil sketches a new thing for you?

 Layla: Yes. I was doing charcoal but I didn't like the dirt all over my hands and getting everywhere. *laughs* So, I did a pencil one day instead and it was less messy and gave me the control over smaller details like charcoal did.

 Sean: *snickers* I can see that. But this is a good medium for you. You like the details in things.

 Layla: Yes, I like detail. I like it to mean something when I do it (whatever it may be).

 Sean: I get that. Everything a person does has meaning, causes a ripple that the Fates have to consider. Paying attention to the details gives you a little control over that ripple and what they do with it and the choices they offer you.

 Layla: *nods* That makes sense.

 Sean: For instance, somewhere, some when you created a ripple that caused the Fates to allow us to meet. *smiles* To give you a choice about what to do about it. I'm glad I was your choice.

 Layla: *smiles* I'm sure choices Sin and you made brought you to me, in order for me to have the choice. You and I are forever.

 Sean: *smiles and kisses you lightly* I'm don't know if the Fates write choices for immortals or if they're a "mortals only" thing, baby. *scrunching up my forehead*. I'll have to ask Sin. He's on good terms with them. *grins* They like him.

 Layla: *grins* You've said that before. He must be a wonder with words and deeds. *giggles* He's a good male. *kisses you*

Sean: *Mutters as you reach up for the kiss* That's not all he's a "wonder" with, apparently. *lingers over the kiss before saying more loudly,* Yeah, he was a good man in life and 35,000 years as a reaper hasn't changed it.

 Layla: *I reach between your eyes and whip away the wrinkles that formed there.* He is a good male, true but he does not have my love or my heart as you do. Never worry mo chridhe. *I kiss you again*

 Sean: *Deepens the kiss momentarily, then pulls back* That's a good thing baby. 'Cause I'd hate to have to punch him. He's my captain and besides, I'm pretty sure he could take me.

 Layla: No need to get physical with anyone, well except me. *I grin and wink*

 Sean: *grins back* I'm all for getting physical with you Layla-mine just as often as possible. I'm pretty sure I can "take" you.*winks back*.

 Layla: *laughs* Very often if I have my way Love. I'm sure you can 'take' me too.

 Sean: Baby you can "have your way" with me anytime night or day. Several times.

 Layla: Challenge accepted.

#TBC

[paintingwithwords]

A Working Birthday (Day 7: Romantic Birthday #yurribirthdayweek)

Author(s): paintingwithwords.tumblr.com

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences (to be on the safe side)

Yuuri got off the elevator and walked down the hall, Viktor at his side, as they made their way back to their room.  It had been a long day, and he was in a close second place behind Phichit after the short program.  He thought he might be able to close the gap with his free skate tomorrow, but he was still feeling the lingering effects of jetlag, and he wanted to get a good night’s sleep.  He knew he needed all the help he could get.

“Have you talked to your family yet?” Viktor asked as they neared their room.  He sounded as tired as Yuuri felt.  Coaching and competing was taking its toll on him, and Yuuri wondered how much longer he could keep it up.

Yuuri nodded, pushing the thought aside.  “I talked to them this morning while you were in the shower, just before we called the kennel and facetimed with Makkachin.  They wished me a happy birthday and good luck.”

“I’m glad,” Viktor murmured, “but I’m sorry I missed talking to them.”  He slipped their room key into the lock, opened the door, and motioned for Yuuri to enter in front of him.

Yuuri looked over at the neatly made king-sized bed and smiled as he unlaced his track shoes and left them by the door.  Long gone were the days of pushing beds together.  It had been fun in a way, but it was much more comfortable, and satisfying, to sleep next to Viktor without having to worry if one of them was going to wake up wedged in the crack between two beds in the morning.

“Why don’t you go ahead and take a shower,” Viktor said, helping Yuuri out of his team jacket.  “It’s got a pretty good massage setting.  Not as good as the one we have at home, of course, but it’s decent.”

“Okay,” Yuuri answered.  A shower sounded absolutely wonderful, especially with its endless amounts of hot water.  He felt Viktor’s hands settle on his spine, going straight for the well-hidden closure hidden in the sequins.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go out for your birthday?” Viktor asked, slowly unzipping the back of Yuuri’s costume.  “As your fiancé, I feel remiss not taking you out tonight to celebrate.”  

“As my coach,” Yuuri replied, looking over his shoulder at Viktor, “you would be remiss if you didn’t make sure I got enough sleep during a major competition.  We can celebrate tomorrow.  It won’t matter if it’s a day late.”

Viktor huffed and looked at him through the fall of his bangs.  “Fine then,” he pouted, feigning disappointment. “Don’t let me spoil you on your birthday.  I’ll just order room service for us and we’ll just have dinner here like a couple of boring people.”  

“We’re not boring, we’re sensible,” Yuuri answered as he took off his costume and deposited it on the counter next to the sink.  As he closed the bathroom door, Viktor called out to him, “Take your time, you know how slow room service can be.”

Yuuri was all too happy to take Viktor’s advice and and take his time in the shower.  The warm water did wonders for his sore muscles and he felt like he could’ve stayed there forever under the pulsing massage.  He felt better than he had all day and he began to wonder if Viktor really did want to go out.  Did Viktor really think he was being boring?  Maybe they could go out, just for a little bit.  He felt better now, and if they only went out for dinner, a couple of hours at the most, it wouldn’t really hurt anything, right? Determined, he shut off the water and wrapped a towel around his waist.  He took the other towel, threw it over his shoulders, and opened the door.

“Viktor, I was thinking that maybe-” Yuuri began, only to fall silent at the sight before him.

The lights had been turned off, but the room was dimly lit with the flickering glow of candlelight.  Yuuri could see tealight candles placed across the dresser and the nightstands. On the floor, a trail of red and pink rose petals led from the bathroom door to the small table by the window, and another trail led from the table to the bed.  On the table, two places were set, unopened room service cartons in place of plates. A bottle was nestled in the room’s standard plastic ice bucket, with a pair of champagne flutes next to it.  A single red rose in a vase had been placed in the middle of the table.

Pressing his hand to his chest, Yuuri looked over at the bed. Rose petals were sprinkled over the pillows and across the turned-back covers.  Yuuri was pretty sure there would be rose petals in the sheets as well. Viktor had done all of this, just for him?  

He looked at Viktor, standing silently beside the table, a shy half-smile on his face.  What had he done to deserve such a wonderful man?

“Happy birthday, Yuuri,” Viktor said, walking towards Yuuri.

Yuuri’s vision began to cloud with unshed tears.  He was so moved by what Viktor had done, the lengths he had gone to just to make his birthday special…  He pulled in a shaky breath, feeling overcome with love and joy and surprise and gratitude-

“The candles aren’t real,” Viktor murmured as he took Yuuri in his arms. “I was afraid smoke might set off the alarm, so these are little battery powered candles.   I know you don’t like to drink before a competition, so I ordered mineral water.  I had the flowers delivered to the front desk during the competition and they brought them up with dinner.”  Viktor looked down, fighting a frown, clearly uncertain with himself.  “I know it’s not much, but I hope this will be okay.  I’ll take you out for a proper dinner tomorrow night.”

Yuuri felt tears being to slip down his cheeks, but before he could do anything about them, Viktor sighed and wiped them away with his thumb.  He looked up into Viktor’s face and saw sadness in his eyes.  

“It’s terrible, isn’t it?” Viktor whispered.  “I’m sorry, Yuuri, I didn’t mean to upset-”

Yuuri reached up, took Viktor’s face in both of his hands, and pulled him down into a kiss, silencing him.  How could Viktor doubt that what he’d done was anything but wonderful?  He could feel hot tears spilling down his cheeks and he knew he needed to make Viktor understand that he was crying because he was happy, so very happy…

“This is beautiful, Viktor,” Yuuri whispered against Viktor’s lips, letting his hands rest at the nape of Viktor’s neck.  “So very beautiful and thoughtful.  What you’ve done…  I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

“So, these,” Viktor breathed, wiping fresh tears from Yuuri’s cheeks, “are happy tears?”

Yuuri nodded, smiling as he closed his eyes.  “Yes.  These are happy tears.  You make me happy, Viktor.  Every single day.”

He felt Viktor’s fingers slide under his jaw and tilt his head up for a soft and fleeting kiss.  

“Happy birthday, my Yuuri,” Viktor purred, brushing Yuuri’s hair back from his face.  “Would you please join me for dinner?”

“It would be my pleasure,” he replied , thanking whatever deities were listening that he had Viktor in his life.

[klainebowsanddramioneflies]

“we’re both in a hostage situation and i know now isn’t the time, but what product do you use in your hair, because wow, it looks super soft. RIGHT. SORRY. NO TALKING. DON’T EVEN WORRY ABOUT IT MR. HOSTAGE CRIMINAL GUY. AHAHAHAHA. *whispering* if we survive please let me know. i need to know. thanks.” AU. You know the pairing 😉

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS! Left my original note to start as well… Here ya go!

Rating: T, Pairing: Klaine

Note:So, I’m doing this one a little… different thanwould be expected. I hope you all enjoy, though! Without further ado…

Looking over the group of would-be-hostages, ifthe Warblers actually did that sort of thing, Blaine couldn’t keep his gazefrom catching on one man in particular. His hair seemed to defy gravity, and hedidn’t seem all that terrified as the other bank patrons did. No, actually, theman seemed mostly curious, if a bit annoyed. Blaine figured the annoyance wasprobably due to the interruption to his normal daily routine, though.

The Bluetooth piece in his ear buzzed irritatinglywhile Blaine spaced out, making him jerk his head and mutter an “ow” under hisbreath as Wes’s voice crackled over the radio at him. “Blackbird- get into formation! You need to be calming down the patronsand setting off the signal blockers before anyone gets around the general blockerMagpie set off!” We-Oriole’sinstructions were harsh and clear. Blaine needed to get his head in the gamebefore he jeopardized all the Warblers.

With a simple check that his masquerade-styleblack mask was still in place over his very distinguishable brows and, ratheraverage to be quite honest, nose, Blaine hopped from his perch along a railingin the shadows down onto the main floor amongst the frightened bank patrols. Hesmiled at them, but they didn’t seem to want to smile back. Even the attractiveman with the perfect hair wouldn’t grace him with any level of a grin. Helooked… bored.

Blaine wondered what had happened to that littlespark of curiosity from earlier, but the muttering of his code-name in his earreminded him that he didn’t really have time for that right now. “Uh, right…”he mumbled, sticking a hand in the pocket of sleek black skinnies and pressinga button that would ensure no technology came back to life on them. They didn’tneed anyone calling the cops or texting a friend about this.

“Now, um, there’s no need to panic,” Blainestarted, smiling at the people who looked ready to either hit him or pass out.It was a pretty even mixture this time. He inwardly cursed at being the one whohad to do all the schmoozing. Why couldn’t one of the other guys do this part?He was positive that Trent- Canary-would have hearts melting in no time. He was positively lovable! Blaine couldn’teven use his puppy eyes effectively without his oddly triangular brows!

He didn’t have to do his whole routine this time,however, as the man who had been so interested in the situation earlier- theone who had been so bored with Blaine’s entrance- suddenly spoke up, cuttinghim off completely. “Yes, no need to worry because you,” he motioned to Blaine,then around the bank as if there were more people who were currently unseen-which was scarily accurate in Blaine’s opinion. “-are the Warblers. And you arenot interested in hurting anyone, orin our money. You just want what’s in the vault. Am I right?”

So the guy knew about them. He had his brow cockedat Blaine, his useless phone twirling between his fingers as if to give himsomething to fidget with while he waited for the criminal’s response. Blainewas simply dumbfounded. He didn’t know what the hell to do. How was he supposedto respond to that? The guy was right- they were going to take the cash from acorrupt politician’s vault- the head of the Smythe foundation, to be precise-and they would discreetly distribute it to the organizations he’d hurt most.Namely, the man had been boycotting LGBT support groups and Women’s Healthorganizations all over Ohio. He’d even recently disowned his only son due tohis being gay. The Warblers were working on how to help the boy, but that mighttake a bit more time to figure out…

The thing was, nobody cared to know what theWarblers did or why they did it. All anyone cared about was that they werecriminals and needed to be behind bars. It seemed this man was different,though.

“Blackbird,what the hell is going on out there?!” Jef- er, Mockingbird’s voice came across the Bluetooth and Blaine jumpedslightly, having forgotten that his friends might try to talk to him duringthis whole fiasco. And what did they expect him to say anyway? It wasn’texactly like he could answer while he stood in front of the would-be-hostages,now could he?

Rolling his eyes at the stupidity of the people hecalled friends, Blaine actually smiled brightly at the man who still had hisbrows raised in question. “You are exactly right, good sir! The Warblers do notbelieve in violence,” he looked the man up and down, then said in more of amutter, “We do believe in amazing hair care products, however.”

“Blai-“the sound of someone getting elbowed in the gut was loud in Blaine’s ear, and hementally cursed Thad for being so stupid and almost saying his damn name. Healso cursed whoever elbowed him for doing it while he was still pressing thetransmit button on his radio. “Blackbird.Did I just hear something about hair care products?!”

Wait. What the hell? How did they even hear that?He shouldn’t be transmitting unless… “Oh, fucking hell. Oriole, Magpie, do youhave me on constant transmit?” he asked, the bank patrons looking ratherconfused. The man who had been shaking his head in disbelief after hearingBlaine’s comment about his hair now gaped at him for the sudden swearing. Itseemed Blaine was a bit unexpected. Yeah, he got that a lot.

He could practically hear them smiling as Davidand Wes answered him as one. “Yep!”

“Oh my god, can you guys just hurry up already?”Blaine hissed, looking a little crazy to the patrons, he was sure. It seemed hewas amusing to the guy with the perfect hair, though, as he seemed to be barelyholding back laughter. “Er, right. So, you’re all perfectly safe. Your phoneswill be in working order again very shortly and we will be out of your…”

He swallowed thickly, glancing at the head of thegorgeous man. “Hair?” the man supplied with a quirked smile, and Blainesqueaked. He actually squeaked. Laughter erupted in his ear and he had toclench his jaw to keep from cursing his friends.

“Right. Yes. That,” Blaine was fumbling for wordsat this point and it was getting ridiculous. If he didn’t get the-

“Alright,Blackbird, finish things up down there. Finch and Mockingbird have the goodsand are on their way out and Sparrow is locking things back up tight.” Oh.Good. Nick and Jeff got the cash and Thad was on lock up duty. That must meanthat either Nick or Jeff had done the elbowing earlier. He’d have to thank themand remind them to stop the transmit first in the future…

That also meant that he needed to get everybodycalm and collected so that David- er- Magpiecould finish all the alarms and tech blockers and all that crap. And Wes wouldstill be watching him on the security cameras so he’d probably be radioingagain soon if Blaine didn’t do something quickly.

Shooting all the patrons another big smile, Blainespoke to them again in what he hoped was a happy and calming tone. “Okay! We’rejust about finished here, so you all can go back to your banking needs shortly.Um, unless they decide to close the bank now, which may happen, in which case,um, I apologize for this inconvenience?” He winced a little at that faux paus.Shouldn’t have mentioned the possible upset to their errands. Blaine reallywasn’t on his game today.

He hadn’t even noticed the great-hair-guy gettingcloser until he felt a tug at his belt loop. Blaine jolted a little and yelped,causing a response in his earpiece.

“Blackbird?You okay?”

He was saved the need to reply when he heard Weschuckling over the radio. “Don’t worryMockingbird. He’s just getting a little interest from the hair care deity. Betterwrap things up quick there, Blackbird. We’re ready to go!”

Blaine swallowed thickly as the gorgeous manleaned close enough to practically purr into his ear. “You know, I definitelyhave some suggestions to take better care of those beautiful curls you haveplastered to your head,” he murmured, and Blaine felt himself blushing to hisover-gelled roots. “I also really believe in what you Warblers are doing. I’vealways rather thought ‘Nightingale’ suited me quite well…” the man winked at Blaineas he leaned back a little.

When Blaine explained that it was time for him todepart and threw a little smoke bomb that would simply give him a way outwithout anyone seeing him, he quickly grabbed the curious man’s hand and pulledhim along behind him, through the shortcut to the getaway car, knowing the othershad heard everything he had thanks to his radio.

“I’m Kurt, by the way,” the man said as theyreached the car and he climbed in amongst the Warblers.

“From now on, you’re Nightingale,” the AsianWarbler stated with a smirk. And the car peeled away without a trace.