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phoenixyfriend · 4 years ago

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Rex and Anakin Raise a Family: Part Two

Part One

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Anakin takes the news with... not grace, really, but an odd sort of resignation.

"Room to fix things," he mutters to himself, eyes set unseeing on Luke's tiny form.

Twins are often born smaller than single births, Rex remembers hearing somewhere. He hopes that's the only reason these two are so small. Leia feels absolutely minuscule in his arms.

He wishes he could ask Kix.

"Do you want to find Jango?"

Rex lifts his head to find Anakin staring at him with an earnest kind of depression. It's strange, and sad, and not helping with the question. "What?"

"You... you grew up with a lot of family," Anakin mutters, eyes cutting away to the side. "Fett would be a kid right now, yeah? He's... young. And you don't have the family that you used to have, but--"

"I'm not going to go out and find Fett to adopt him," Rex says firmly. "He was a genetic donor and once or twice a teacher. I have no interest in forming any bonds there."

He hesitates, but that was--Anakin was trying. Not succeeding, but trying. "Thank you for asking. It's... maybe if my childhood had been a little different, I'd have wanted that. But I don't, here."

Anakin winces. "Right."

Rex watches his general bounce a newborn, and thinks this is my life now.

There is no GAR to fight for, no brothers to save, no Empire to fight against. They'd thought there would be, but there isn't, not yet. They could find and warn the Jedi, but none of them would know Anakin. Nobody is going to look at Rex and see a clone. He's older than Fett, now.

"We're staying here," Rex decides. Anakin looks up from Luke's little face. "I'll figure out how to get us some Republic Idents. We'll get the twins registered. This planet is safe and out of the way, and we can figure something out for the money. You're a good mechanic, that's honest work, and I'm... I don't know. We've got a ship, so I can maybe do what Fett did and take bounty work. We'll figure something out."

"I can't ask you to stay with me."

"You're not asking," Rex says firmly. "I'm telling you. You don't get to push me away, sir. We're all the other has left, and you're not getting rid of me that easily."

"Okay," Anakin says. "If that's what you want."

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

They don't have a whole lot of money personally, but this was Padme's ship. She'd been rich, and prone enough to danger to know the worth of hiding money where she could. They may not have more than a few weapons on here, but they have money.

For now.

Rex knows his general is itching to go to Tatooine, sees the man muttering and twitching about it, needing to do something, and that the something has to do with Tatooine.

"Can it wait?" Rex asks.

Anakin stares at him, uncomprehending.

"Your kids are only a week old," Rex tries to explain. "They need you right now. Is this something that can wait a few months, where I can watch them while you take a week or two to handle what you need to do?"

Anakin takes Leia from Rex, and doesn't bring it up again.

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

Rex goes with Anakin, when they visit the nurse. He catches gossip about the two of them, but people don't go out of their way to approach. Mostly, people are just repeating the 'died in childbirth' cover that he gave before, telling each other who the strangers are, and why they shouldn't try to get involved.

The nurse asks only enough questions to get a medical baseline established for the twins. Anakin doesn't volunteer much, and when the Twi'lek woman asks if they'd like her to set up medical files for either of them, Rex has to immediately decline.

He has no idea what his blood is going to turn up. Genetic fuckery and something to deal with the advanced aging, maybe. He's not sure he wants to know, but either way, it's probably not going to be something this small clinic can handle.

"I'll have to set one up if you want to take the lactation aid," she tells Anakin.

"Yeah, okay."

She takes blood. Almost everything is mostly normal, except.

"Your midichlo--"

"I know."

"Are you--"

"Jedi aren't allowed to marry."

She doesn't dig further, just glances at how Anakin's holding Luke, and nods.

"It doesn't seem like there are any complicating factors. I can write up a prescription right now and you should be able to get it filled same-day. There will be a list of instructions and side-effects on flimsi when you pick it up, but I'd like to go over it in person first. Do you want Mr. Torrent to stay here with you as we do that, or to wait in the hall?"

"Up to him."

"I'll stay," Rex promises.

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

Three pills a day, one with every meal. Tissue stimulation by massaging the pectoral area, and allowing the twins to suckle even before there's anything to actually drink. Expect soreness and increased appetite, don't drink caffeine or take any form of stimulant while nursing. Here's a list of possible side-effects, the best way to handle the minor ones, and which ones to contact a medical professional about.

All very normal.

Anakin's rarely ever done anything with less than his whole heart, and Rex isn't surprised to know that Anakin is this dedicated a parent as well. He's... he was proud to serve his general, but he thinks there's something just as fulfilling as being by his side here and now. There's something better about helping raise the little ones that would never be found on a battlefield.

"Do you want them to call you Uncle Rex?" Anakin asks during a feeding. "Or... ba'vodu? Or do you want to just..."

"Just what?"

"...we're going to be co-parenting," Anakin says, not meeting his eyes. "And every time I try to suggest you go and find something for yourself, something that doesn't revolve around me, a person you were literally tube-grown for, you say you don't want to leave. So if you're going to be sticking around, really staying for years and years... we could tell them to call you buir. If you want."

"Oh."

Oh.

It's a lot. It's something Rex has maybe fantasized about before, getting to be a parent instead of just a soldier, but he'd also resigned himself to the fact that it wasn't really an option. Even now, he'd just expected to be a friend of the father, maybe an honorary uncle if he was lucky, or--

"Are you sure?" Rex asks, before he can start to hope. "I don't--I don't want to take Padme's place."

"You're not," Anakin says, fierce as anything. "You won't--nobody can ever take her place, but there are people with five parents, or none, and I'm not going to--I don't want to--"

Anakin squeezes his eyes shut and breathes harshly for a few moments. Leia fusses, like she's seconds away from crying, and Rex watches as his general holds the child in his arms closer to his chest, visibly focusing on calming down in a way he rarely, if ever, had during the war.

"It's okay, Papa just got a little upset, it's fine, we're calm, I'm sorry I got sad, honey, I'm sorry you had to feel that," Anakin whispers under his breath as he bounces the baby.

(Raising Force-Sensitive children was never going to be easy anyway.)

"You're sure about this?" Rex asks again.

"You want to be involved in their lives," Anakin mutters. "So... yeah, you should get to be their dad in name, too. And if you use Mando'a, it'll be easier for them to have different names for us."

"People are going to think we're together."

Anakin shrugs. "People think a lot of things."

Rex wants this. He wants to imagine the twins toddling up to him, grins on their faces, calling him buir and meaning it. He wants to have what he saw at the Lawquane's, where a lack of blood connection and a half-sliced age hadn't stopped those children from claiming Cut as their father. He's only thirteen, technically, but he wants to have a family, even if it's as broken as what they've found here.

"I'd be honored, sir," Rex says. "I... thank you. I can't tell you how much this means to me."

"You don't have to," Anakin mutters, refusing to meet his eyes. "I can feel it."

Right.

"They already love you," Anakin continues, as if his goal today is to just smash Rex's decorum to pieces. "Part of that is just baby stuff, I think; they don't exactly know more than us yet, but you're around them all the time and are primary caregiver whenever I'm not... not okay. So they love you, so much, and I just... I'm not going to ignore that when you already love them too. So you should get to be their dad. If you want."

He does want.

"I'd like that," he says, and knows that he hasn't bothered shielding in days, so Anakin knows just how sincere that is.

Anakin hesitates, visibly so, and then stands and crosses the room to join Rex on the couch, each of them holding a twin.

A head rests lightly on Rex's shoulder. He lets it.

"There are rites," Anakin says quietly. "On Tatooine, for the slaves lost to the desert. People that died in search of their freedoms, where there's no body to bury but you still need to mourn."

Rex knows this. He says, "the clones had mourning traditions for the brothers who died in explosions or behind enemy lines, the ones we couldn't retrieve."

Anakin knows this as well. He nods.

They sit together, quietly, as calm as they can be for the too-perceptive children in their arms, and they know they need to mourn properly.

Rex can only hold his jagged edges in place for so long.

#Rexwalker #anakin skywalker #captain rex #star wars #the clone wars #time travel #Skywalker twins #male lactation #but otherwise rated T for teen #grief #depression #parenting #phoenix posts #Rex and Anakin Raise a Family #and yes this IS eventual rexwalker but right now it's just... a whole lot of grief #they'll get there eventually

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mxtantrights · 3 years ago

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past lives | 6

a/n: don’t you just love angst and drama???? I know I dooo. I hope y’all enjoy <3

tw: mentions of blood, death, and Ra’s manipulation games.

The microwave rang, your hot chocolate was ready. You got up from the couch, where your notes were all sprawled out. The recorder was still going. The Wayne family in deep conversation about what organizations they donate to.

You opened the microwave door to stop the beeping. You pick up the mug and place it on the counter. For this part of the recording you would just summarize briefly what they were talking about. You think that some of this information has been relayed before so there’s no use in stretching it out.

The mug is smoking a bit so you decide to bring it over to the coffee table near the couch. That way it can cool off and you won’t burn your taste buds. So you grabbed your laptop from beside you and pulled it into your lap.

You wrote a quick summary about their donations and opened another tab. Subconsciously you went to your Gmail to ask Kennedy, the photographer for the shoot to send over some photos of the family. That way you can get ahead of the layout for this piece. It was all in your control.

The voices on the recorder began to get louder. This must’ve been when you stepped out to use the bathroom. Even though that’s not what you were actually doing. You needed to talk to Damian about what was happening.

At first you can hear Damian excusing himself so that he can ‘show you’ where the bathroom was. You slide your computer over to the couch and begin to reach for the recorder to skip over this. Nothing important was probably said.

Just as you’re an inch away from the device you hear Dick’s voice.

“Did you think this was a good idea? A journal article?” He asks.

Bruce sighs, “I needed something. Anything.”

“Wait what’s going on here?” Jason asks.

“Tim got a letter, and within that letter was one addressed to me. A woman from my past claiming that I had a child.” Bruce answers.

Jason snickers.

“Woah that’s what was in the letter? Do you know who it is?” Tim asks.

Dick steps in for that answer, “As it so happens the deliverer of the letter.”

“What?!” Tim almost shouts.

“Okay I need more details.” Jason says.

“I don’t have any doubt in my mind that the letter is telling the truth. I just needed to be sure, that’s why we’re having an article written about us.” Bruce says.

“The same person who delivered the letter is the same person interviewing us.” Dick points out the door.

At the moment it opens. All the men think it’s you so they hush up. But it’s only Damian coming in.

“Father may I be excused, Titus needs to go for a walk.” He says.

Bruce nods his head, “You may.”

The youngest son says nothing else, except for a quick grimace at Jason when he exits.

“Did you tell the brat he’s got a sibling yet?” Jason asks.

“Not yet. I need to be sure.”

When you heard your voice come on the recording you finally reached out and stopped the recorder. There was a faint buzzing in your ears. You felt like you picked up on something- when he said your name, when he asked you to stay back at the meeting.

You just didn’t know that you were picking up on THAT.

There were certain things you knew. And certain things you put together. When you were growing up your mother didn’t talk much about who your father was. She talked about him, how he would treat her so kindly, how caring he was. But she never went into specifics.

And a part of you wasn’t ready to know. When she was the only one to care for you and love you. There was no ‘father’ to look for. All you saw was her. She was all you needed. Or that’s what you remember at least.

Nothing like Gotham to turn something good into something sour. One night you were held up in an alleyway. At gun point you gave away your valuables. But it wasn’t enough that night for the robber. So they decided to take your life.

Then you woke up in a place you did not recognize. Even though you could have sworn you felt your body go cold in that alleyway. You saw the blood, you saw everything fade to black.

Ra's al Ghul came face to face with you. He told you that you’d been given a second chance at his request. And that you owed him. If you didn’t comply you would die a second time. It confirmed the cold feeling in your chest and the suspicions you had before.

From there you didn’t question anything publicly. You did the training. You stood in seclusion away from everyone else. You listened to the words that came out of his mouth for months and months. It was only about a year into your training that you met everyone else. Or the people that mattered. Talia and Nyssa.

In some weird way you three became something like friends. They trained you. They told you about how much of an asset you could be for the league. And eventually they were the ones to convince Ra's that you could be loyal to him.

It was Nyssa that told you about the pit. About what it does to people, how it enhances their worst traits. She point blank asked you what you worst traits were and you couldn’t really tell her, because everything was a bit hazy pre-pit.

Then for some reason unbeknownst to you, Talia told you about her one-night stand. She confided in you that she was having a baby. You told her you would help her, because she had helped you.

And then a few months later when she was supposed to be showing, she showed you the incubator that held her child. It creeped you out for a while. That a baby was being genetically engineered but you trusted Talia.

When Damian al Ghul was born you really felt that pull. You knew in that moment you could care for him. Something connected you, you weren’t sure what, but it was a bond nonetheless.

At some point someone lower on the food chain said something about Talia and her son. You didn’t hesitate, you killed them. It wasn’t really a test, because Ra’s didn't give it to you. Yet you proved yourself to be loyal to him and his heir. Undoubtedly.

Damian was too young to be trained the way you were so you did your best with what you could. The young boy was the first one to touch the scar that lay between your collarbone and your chest. The scar that you knew at that point had been deadly.

The scar was was ugly and white. You did your best to cover it up when you could. But you were tending to the young boy in the middle of the night so that Talia might rest a bit. You slept with only a few layers.

He touched your scar and looked up at you with a kind of sparkle in his eyes.

That moment was one of the few that you would take with you when you finally left the island years later. Ra's said you were free to leave and you questioned it. You thought about if you had gone wrong somewhere. If he were to kill you the moment you breathed the air outside the door knowing you didn’t have to come back. If this was the ultimate test.

He didn't. It wasn’t. And you left.

So now as you sit on your couch you have more points to put together. Like the fact that you were the child of Bruce Wayne. And the fact that Talia’s one night stand had in fact seemed to be Bruce Wayne. Which means you and Damian were actually bonded. Half siblings. Blood.

Bruce Wayne knows this.

And for some sickening reason you think Ra's al Ghul knows this as well.

#dc x reader #batman x reader #batfam x reader #damian wayne x reader #Bruce Wayne x reader #Talia al Ghul x reader #Nyssa al Ghul x reader #Jason Todd x reader #PAST LIVES

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corvus--rex · 3 years ago

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Next in this bizarre collection of abandoned, semi-abandoned, and deeply sleeping wips is one that has more direct time travel. It's more in the deeply sleeping category as I'm still picking at it. It's also another Omegaverse, so if that's not your thing, feel free to skip it. Also, both Lance and Keith practice polytheistic religions that have been altered to fit an ABO setting

~*~*~*~*~

A few years after the war, the Paladins made the newly rebuilt Castle of Lions their home. Shiro and Adam retired from the Garrison and into diplomatic careers for the Coalition. Pidge’s parents were still with the organization, but she and Matt preferred to be more hands-on, maintaining the places on the castle and with the now-former rebellion. The still close-knit team were still recovering from the recent bonding ceremony for Hunk and Shay, who were also staying aboard the castle, although it was still uncertain as to whether or not human and Balmeran genetics were compatible; they were just waiting on genetic compatibility testing. Lance and Keith, however, were ahead of the game. They had gotten engaged while on the way back to Earth, announcing it to Lance’s family on their return. Not wanting to wait, and with no way of knowing what would happen in their war with Honerva, they’d held a small bonding ceremony the night before leaving Earth for the second time.

Keith had it the worst when it came to post-Hunk/Shay bonding recovery. He wasn’t going to miss Hunk and Shay’s bonding for anything, even if it meant dealing with Lance’s fussing. It had gotten bad enough during the reception that both Krolia and Lance’s mother Mariana told him to sit down and let his pregnant mate be. Keith could understand where Lance’s caution came from. While their little one was only one quarter Galra, and developing as a human child would, Keith’s half-Galra physiology had other ideas, his body and hormones changing like a shorter Galra pregnancy. It meant that he needed to be monitored more closely than he would if the pup’s development and his body’s lined up. It also meant that they didn’t have a concrete due date, and that it was entirely possible he could deliver a premature pup. But at sixteen weeks Earth time, there were still another two months until they needed to watch for their little one’s arrival. They had stayed behind on Earth an extra couple days after Hunk and Shay’s bonding ceremony for some of Lance’s extended family who wanted to see them both before the pup was born. Keith was exhausted from the three days of parties surrounding the ceremony and the event itself, but they were headed back to the castle after that and wouldn’t be back for another eight months, and by then the pup would be at least two months old.

Nadia and Sylvio were excited about their cousin, and had to be reminded that Keith was tired from everything going on. Right then, they wanted to see the inside of the Altean pod the matepair were taking back to the castle. Keith and Mariana burst out laughing when Lance appeared with his niece and nephew each tucked under an arm.

He “dropped” the giggling, squirming pups in front of his oldest brother. “I think you lost something.”

“Who, me? I haven’t lost anything,” Luis said, feigning ignorance.

Still laughing, Nadia and Sylvio began scaling their mountain of a father. Once they got to hip height, he grabbed them both the same way Lance had been carrying them and took off running while mock screaming, making his pups shriek with laughter. Lance just laughed to himself and shook his head at his brother and niblings.

“Like you can talk. You know damn well you're going to be just the same with ours,” Keith called.

“Yeah, probably,” Lance admitted, walking over.

“‘Probably’ nothing, mijo. I know you will,” Mariana said, “Just don’t forget to call when that little one arrives. We’ll be praying for a safe delivery.”

Lance’s parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles all practiced Santeria, and while Lance and his siblings had been raised in it and still believed, none of them actively practiced. His lack of participation didn’t lessen his appreciation of his mother’s intentions. He would have been worried when it came to telling Keith about his family’s practices if he didn’t already know about his Omega’s neo-paganism. Keith, likewise, had been relieved when Lance didn’t immediately declare him insane and instead explained about his own family.

“Thanks, Mami. So will we,” he said, hugging his mother.

“Doesn’t matter where you are in the universe, the Orisha will hear you,” she told him, then pulled Keith in, “And so will your gods, mijo.”

“I know. Thanks, Mami,” Keith answered.

The pod’s comms chirped, and Lance disentangled himself from his mate and his mother, disappearing into the small craft. Mariana wrapped an arm around Keith’s waist and he leaned into it, fully appreciating her maternal warmth. She was one of a very small number of people who had open permission to touch him. She understood that, especially after Lance had explained about Keith’s childhood in the foster care system and that he was largely touch-averse unless you were one of a select few who had earned his complete trust. She’d earned it through being the woman she was and treating Keith like one of her own children.

She reached over, resting a hand on his growing belly. “I pray for this pup every day. You two are going to be wonderful parents. And I know that you both will be safe up there – you and this little one.”

Keith breathed a laugh. “Altean technology makes humans look like we’re still playing with sticks and rocks. I mean, on an interstellar level, we kinda are. I’ve been thinking about that lately,” he admitted, “The ‘we’ part. I’m still half-Galra. Most of the time I feel like the only places on Earth I feel like I belong are out at my Dad’s place, and here.”

“Oh, mijo. It doesn’t at all matter that your wonderful mother isn’t human, or that you share her blood. What matters is what you do with it. And both of you used your heritage to do the right thing. And now she’s leading her – your – people to a new way of thinking. You both have done so much good. Never forget that. Or that you’re family. You’ll always belong here. And not just because you're carrying my grandpup.”

“We weren’t exactly planning on this.”

Mariana laughed. “Neither was I. For any of them. None of my five children were planned. We always wanted pups, but we decided to let it happen however it was going to happen. And we were blessed with five beautiful pups.” She nudged him gently. “Tell me, do you have any thoughts on what your pup might be? I knew for all of them, even when my mother was trying to tell me that I was wrong. Especially with Lance. She was convinced he was an Omega. And then he was born all Alpha.”

Keith nodded, understanding. “Yeah, that’s apparently not just a human thing. Mom said she knew I was an Omega before I was born. I think this one is too. I’m pretty sure it’s an Omega boy. Little brat keeps moving and won’t let us see, so we don’t know for certain yet, but I feel like it’s an Omega boy.”

“Oh, Veronica was the same. We didn’t know until she was an Alpha girl until she was born. And she’s still stubborn and independent.”

{What do you think, sweetheart? You an Omega boy?} she asked the unborn pup.

Her question was answered with a sharp kick.

“Is he always like that?” Mariana asked in surprise.

“Yes. Yes he is. I’ve been feeling him moving for almost two months, but it got more intense about three weeks ago. That, apparently, is a Galra thing.”

“What’s a Galra thing?” Lance asked, walking down the loading ramp.

“How hard the pup kicks,” Keith said.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “It really is that bad. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night before because of it.”

“Now imagine how I feel! Anyway, what was the comm call?”

“Oh, right. Just Allura asking when we were planning on going back up. I told her we were finishing getting the pod packed up and we’d be leaving within the hour. Varga. Whatever.”

Mariana hugged them both again. “Don’t forget. I want to know.”

Keith’s lips twisted in an amused smile. “As soon as we do,” he said.

Lance didn’t ask about it until they were settled in the pod’s cockpit and on their way to the wormhole point. “What are we telling my mother when we know it?”

“Huh? Oh, the pup’s primary and secondary sexes. I said that I feel like it’s an Omega boy, but that we haven’t been able to confirm it,” Keith explained.

“Yeah, he’s being a little brat about it,” Lance agreed, “We will find out eventually,” he added, poking the unborn pup only to be rewarded with another kick. “See? Brat.” He stood up, stretching hard enough to pop his spine. He let his arms drop and extended a hand to his mate. “Come on. Allura’s not opening a wormhole until we’re way out of system, and I want snuggles.”

When they first packed the pod to leave for Earth, Lance had shifted a few things around in the passenger compartment, making room for Keith to set up a nest. He was worried about their pup and was trying to just be a good Alpha for his Omega. Keith was particularly hormonal that day and broke down in tears when he saw the cleared space, his favorite nesting materials neatly sitting in the middle of it. Lance had been afraid he’d accidentally done something wrong until he found himself with his arms full of sobbing, pregnant Omega telling him how amazing he was through hiccupped tears. The nest was built and stayed there until they landed on Earth, where it was taken down and rebuilt in Lance’s old bedroom, right on top of his queen bed. Now it held their scents mixed with Lance’s family’s. Lance also knew about the sweater Krolia had given Keith for the express purpose of fitting it into his nest.

Keith let Lance lead them through to the rear of the pod and got settled into the nest. Leaning back against his Alpha, Keith reached into his shirt and pulled out the crystal he always wore. A clear quartz point, with a triple moon carved from rainbow moonstone woven into the silver wire wrapping the top of the crystal. He ran his fingers over the moonstone, feeling its carved lines and points, the smooth gem comforting. He was safe and comfortable in his Alpha’s arms, tucked into their temporary nest, but he still worried. He knew better than anyone that their pup could come earlier than anyone was comfortable with, especially him. He sighed, letting the quartz drop.

“What’s up?” Lance murmured sleepily into Keith’s neck.

“I’m just thinking again,” he said, the pad of his thumb following the back of his fingers in a small line on his belly.

Lance knew what he was thinking, read worrying, about, and wove their fingers together. “I know. But even worst case, even if he is three months early, he’ll be ok, and so will you. There is literally no one else like you in the entire universe, and all of this is new to everyone. Best we can do is take it one day at a time.” He grabbed the tablet from outside the nest, checking the autopilot. “We still have about an hour before we get to the wormhole point. Get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”

Keith yawned, curling up in the nest, Lance wrapping his arms around his Omega. “Nap sounds great,” he mumbled, half-asleep already.

Lance didn’t last much longer, drifting off the second Keith’s breathing evened out in sleep.

They were woken by alarms blaring throughout the pod. Keith shot up, startled and growling. Lance went for the tablet, checking the readings from the pod’s sensors. They should still have been twenty minutes out from the meeting point, but the star map showed them being in an entirely different galaxy, the familiar Milky Way nowhere in sight. He leapt from the nest, running for the cockpit. When Keith had calmed a bit and hauled himself out of his spot and to the cockpit, Lance was at the controls.

“Get yourself strapped in,” the Alpha said without looking up, “We’re headed straight for an asteroid field and there’s no time to change course.”

Lance changed the controls to manual and the front shielding changed from opaque to transparent, showing the looming ancient debris in stunning real time. Keith sat himself in the co-pilot’s seat, fastening the 4-point harness over his chest just in time for the first asteroid to go whipping past. He wanted to take the controls, but he knew that his awkward current shape made it nearly impossible for him to fly with the deftness an asteroid field required. Lance had no such problem, weaving through the asteroid field with his usual liquid grace.

When they finally broke through and into empty space, they still had no real idea of where they were. Keith brought up the galactic map. He noted several familiar planets and systems, realizing that they were on the far side of the Andromeda galaxy. As he was relaying all of that to his mate, the pod’s comm chirped with an incoming hail. It was the castle, but something was different and they couldn’t quite put their finger on it. Lance answered the hail, Allura’s face filling the screen.

“Hey, Allura. Do you have any idea what the fuck just happened? We were on our way to the rendezvous point for the wormhole and now we’re here,” Lance asked.

Allura stared at them in complete shock. “I – I don’t understand. How are you two there? You can’t be there. You’re both here on the castle.”

Lance and Keith shared a confused look. “No. We’re not,” Keith said slowly, “We just left Earth a couple hours ago and were on our way to the spot you designated for the wormhole back to the castle.”

“Earth?! What the quiznak are you talking about?! Stay there. I’m going to tow your pod into the castle and we’ll talk about whatever prank this is.” The shock was in her voice at first, before it became almost angry. She looked back at them from her projected control screen, and then looked at them both more carefully. “Lance, how in the quiznak do you have Altean marks?”

“From you?” he answered, now totally confused. Had she forgotten reviving him after he took the full damage of an energy attack meant for her? Did she not remember that he’d ended up with sky blue Altean marks as a result of the sheer amount of quintessence she poured into him?

“That’s impossible. I can’t give you our markings. And Keith, have you gained weight?” She was still confused, but turned it to the Red Paladin.

“Not in the last three days,” he said, then glanced down and back to her, “Not that way, anyway.”

They felt the pod guided into the pod bay and land softly. “Stay there, inside the pod,” Allura said, “I’ll be right there.” The screen cut out, leaving them alone again.

“What in the absolute fuck is going on?” Keith asked.

“I wish I fucking knew,” Lance answered. “Does she really think this is some kind of over-elaborate prank? She can’t. She knows us. Knows we’re mated. Knows you’re pregnant.”

“Yeah, that was weird. Asking me if I've gained weight. I mean, I know I've put on about fifteen pounds, but that’s almost completely directly related to him. I haven’t really changed anywhere else.”

Lance sighed. “Yeah. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out. But at least we’re back. We can get your nest rebuilt in our suite and take a fucking nap.”

Something told Keith to leave his nest as it was, and he told Lance as much. They also decided not to get back into it while they waited for Allura. The matepair waited in the open seating, Keith nuzzling into Lance’s scent gland. It was something they’d come to realize was a side-effect of his pregnancy. He couldn’t get enough of his Alpha’s scent and would use any and every excuse to get close and scent himself, not that Lance minded it at all. It always stroked his Alpha’s ego that their Omega was so devoted to them.

They both looked up when there was a failed attempt to open the rear door of the pod, which was followed by a polite knock. “Hang on a tick,” Lance called. He extracted himself from his snuggly koala of a mate with a soft kiss to his temple and a gentle hand on their pup.

Allura stood in the doorway, possibly even more shocked than she was on the call. He was still in the faded blue t-shirt and grey sweats he’d been wearing all day, not having been bothered to change. He was expecting an off-hand comment about not being up to his usual standard at most, but she just stood there, staring like he was a new race they’d never met before.

“Allura?” he asked.

“Lance, what the quiznak is going on here? Where’s Keith?” she asked when she found the words.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. And Keith’s right here. The kids were all over him this morning and he’s still pretty tired.”

He didn’t think it was possible for Allura to be any more confused or her eyebrows to arch higher, but she was and they did.

“What kids? Why should he be tired?”

Keith listened to the questions being fired back and forth. Something wasn’t adding up. Allura knew they’d been with Lance’s family. She’d met Nadia and Sylvio before and knew what kind of energy they had. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he was worn out after dealing with them. Keyword shouldn’t. But she was. He decided to see her for himself, or more to the point, for her to see him. He slid out from the seating area, turning the corner to where she and Lance were asking questions without answering any. He stepped up beside Lance, sliding an arm around his Alpha’s waist, his free hand resting on his pregnant belly.

Allura’s jaw dropped. He knew she could tell that he wasn’t faking, and that she somehow either didn’t know or had forgotten that he was four months pregnant, even if he looked farther along because of his body’s reaction.

“I – how?! How did this happen?! When?! What is happening?!”

“Allura,” Lance said softly, “Has anything happened in the last two or three quintants?”

“What? No. Nothing. And you two are here onboard the castle. Keith, you said you would be in the training deck for at least a few vargas, and Lance, you were helping Hunk in the kitchen. How did you two end up out there and in a pod I didn’t know had gone missing? And don’t tell me you were on Earth. That’s utterly impossible. We can’t go back without leading the Galra directly there, you both know that. And how have you been hiding not only your apparent relationship but also – Keith, you're pregnant! How do you expect to be able to fly the Red Lion in your condition?”

The feeling of something being fundamentally off continued to tickle Keith’s brain. An impossible thought hit him. “Allura, I need you to answer this question honestly. How long have we been out here with you?”

“What do you mean? It’s only been about three phoebs, but we’ve made good progress in the war effort. I really believe we’ll win. But you already knew that.”

Lance cut her off before she could voice a suspicion about them being spies. He realized as soon as Keith said it. “I think we somehow managed to go back in time. We really are who we say we are, and so are you. But you obviously don’t know anything about us as we are now. I can promise that we’re not hiding anything from you.”

“Well…I don’t know that we can really say that…” Keith said, trailing off. If the them that Allura knew had only been in space for a few months, then he and Lance were already seeing each other secretly. But then they decided that keeping it from their friends made absolutely no sense, even if it meant that Pidge lost her bet with Hunk.

“Ok, fair,” he said, then turned to Allura, “What was the last major event that happened related to the war? It’ll help us narrow down when exactly we are.”

“You two seem awfully accepting of this,” she said, a note of accusation in her voice.

“We – we’ve been through a lot,” Keith said, intentionally not elaborating. They had been through a lot – alternate reality, quantum abyss, the quintessence field, Bob, finding themselves inside Honerva’s mind – but they couldn’t tell Allura any of it.

“And if we tell you anything, we don’t know if or how it could affect anything,” Lance added.

“Hm, I suppose that’s true. The last major event? Well, we’ve only just found out about your Galra heritage, but after meeting with Kolivan and Antok, I have come to realize that your blood does not define you. You both have only just returned from separate missions. Keith, you and Hunk went to retrieve the Scaultrite from the Weblum-” Keith shuddered involuntarily at the memory “-and Lance, you, Shiro, and Pidge went to rescue Slav from Beta Traz. He’s still here on the castle with us.”

“Wait wait wait – Slav’s still here?” Lance asked. He turned to Keith. “If Slav’s still on board, then he would be able to help figure out what happened. Maybe find a way to get us back to our own time. And hopefully before…” he trailed off, giving Keith a look that the Omega understood. Before the pup comes.

Allura also understood what Lance hadn’t said. “Um, how – how far along are you, exactly?” she asked awkwardly.

“That’s a little complicated,” Keith answered. “The pup’s developing like a normal human, but because I’m half Galra, my body is changing and reacting as if I were completely Galra. Pregnancies are shorter. Six Earth months, or about four and a quarter phoebs, to a normal human ten months or just over seven phoebs.”

“So, you're saying that with how your body is reacting, your pup could be premature?”

“It’s a distinct possibility. But to actually answer your question, sixteen Earth weeks. Almost eleven and a half movements. It gives us no more than five movements to figure this out and get us back to our time.”

Allura nodded, making her decision. “All right. We’ll meet in the lounge first. Paladins and Coran only. Shiro…doesn’t exactly do well with Slav.”

Lance and Keith laughed. “That’s something we will never forget,” Lance said as they followed her out of the pod. Keith turned, locking it with their biometrics. Given the alteration to Lance’s DNA thanks to Allura’s quintessence infusion, they knew that it would stay locked. Their younger selves didn’t have a chance.

They walked in silence for a while, following Allura down lesser used corridors to the lounge entrance that was never used. “Is there anything you can tell me?” she asked, “About your time. How far into our future are you?”

“I don’t know that that’s a good idea, Princess,” Lance said, “You already know that we make it to Earth safely, and I don’t know how that might already be affecting our time. I understand that you want to know if it’s all worth it in the end, but I can’t tell you.”

Allura thought for a few seconds. “I understand. My knowing about the future could affect the present. It could change our decisions about things that will change the outcome of the war. And I take it that however the war does end, it’s the best possible outcome.”

“We think so. There’s a lot more going on than just Zarkon, but if you knew what, I don’t know – there are just too many variables.”

She paused in the doorway to the lounge. “I really do understand. There are more factors and facets to this war than I am currently aware of. Knowing about them now could upset the balance. Well,” she said, gesturing to the room, “Make yourselves comfortable. You already know where everything is.” Her smile was one of genuine affection for the Paladins in front of her.

“Thanks, Allura,” Keith said, maneuvering past her.

Once they were seated comfortably (“Comfort is a bit relative for me at the moment,” Keith told her with a laugh) she called for the Paladins and Coran, and them only, to come to the lounge.

Lance was the first to arrive, ready to drop onto the sunken sofa from the floor above, but stopped himself when he realized he was looking at something that looked like the back of his own head. He only knew what that looked like after a prank involving his siblings and every single mirror in the house. He saw Allura sitting at one end of the semicircle and slowed, turning to her.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Ah. We should wait for the others to arrive before we explain,” Allura said.

“Actually,” one of the unknown people said and Lance nearly choked at hearing his own voice. A little rougher and maybe older, but it was definitely his own voice. He realized the other owner of his voice was still speaking. “I think we should start now. I know we’ll have to repeat ourselves, but I know that you’re kinda nauseous right now,” a long, tan finger pointed in his direction, “And I really think this is the better solution.”

“If that’s what you –” Allura was cut off by the next arrival.

“Allura? Why are we meeting here?”

Pregnant Keith snorted at how young he sounded. His mate patted his head. “I know. We sound like babies.”

The younger Keith froze.

“Yes we’re real. No you're not hallucinating,” pregnant Keith said without moving. He knew what his younger self was thinking.

“Well, as long as we’re both here,” Lance said, “We should explain as much as we can.”

The younger Red and Blue Paladins walked around to the steps and froze again when they were suddenly face to face with themselves. Their older selves were snuggled together in the middle of the sofa horseshoe, not caring who saw them. There was too much for them to take in all at once, but they did notice Lance’s Altean marks and the undeniable fact that the older Keith was significantly pregnant.

“Yeah,” pregnant Keith agreed, “It’s a lot to unpack. We’ll tell you what we can.”

The younger Paladins sat together opposite Allura, not knowing what to say.

“As far as we can tell, we’re from your future. We don’t know how we got here. We were on our way back to the castle and decided to let the autopilot handle the flying while I had a nap and woke up to all the alarms going off about a half hour later. We realized that we weren’t where we should be and found the castle after clearing the asteroid field nearby.”

“And, I’m – or, you – I don’t even know how to phrase that,” the younger Keith stumbled through.

Older Keith just laughed. “We? Since we’re the same person, just at different ages. But yes, I’m pregnant. I'm due fairly soon, so we need to figure this out as quickly as possible.”

Both his mate and Allura noticed how he phrased himself, but said nothing, understanding why he had done it.

It was the younger Lance’s turn to stumble through a sentence. “So, you’re – and – is that –”

Older Lance snickered at his younger self. “Yes. Yes we are, and yes it is.”

“What?! But -”

“But nothing,” older Lance said, “Although that might have prevented this.”

“Yeah, sure. You try telling my heat brain that,” pregnant Keith said.

The younger Keith pointed at his older self. “That. But, how? I mean, I’ve always been so careful about taking it on time. Unless…”

Pregnant Keith shook his head. “No, that hasn’t changed. It failed. We weren’t planning on this. But it happened, and we wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“Ok, so I just need to know one thing. Not about the future, not that.” His hand went to his chest almost unconsciously. “Just so I know. That you’re really me.”

Without moving from his spot snuggled into Lance’s side, Keith reached into his t-shirt and pulled the quartz and moonstone pendant out, letting it fall to his chest. “It was the first thing I ever bought for myself after Dad died. He taught me the basics of the Craft and I've kept it up ever since. Helps me feel connected to him even though it represents Omegas.”

Younger Keith nodded, holding his own crystal. “Yeah. It does.”

Looking from his not-so-secret boyfriend, the younger Lance turned to his own older self. “And he knows about…”

Older Lance cracked an amused smile. “Yeah, he does. But wait, haven’t you already told him about us?”

“Oh, well, yeah. I guess that didn’t really make sense, did it?”

“No, not really. But the last thing Mami said to me when we left her last was that it doesn’t matter where in the universe we are, the Orisha will hear us.”

“That – that’s –”

“What Mami said when I left for the Garrison. Yeah, she still says it.”

Pidge was next to arrive, and stopped when she saw the two older versions of her friends.

“No, you haven’t been up long enough to hallucinate yet,” pregnant Keith said through laughing.

“Come sit down, Pigeon. We’ll explain once everyone’s here,” Lance said, waving her forward.

They were all surprised that it hadn’t been Shiro to appear first, but he and Hunk were next, walking in together. If they thought that Pidge had been surprised, it was nothing compared to the double take from the Black and Yellow Paladins. Allura had yet to say anything once her Paladins began filtering in, and she still didn’t, letting the two older Paladins take the lead.

“Hi, Shiro,” pregnant Keith said. He still hadn’t moved from his mate’s side, enjoying the warmth and safety of his Alpha’s touch.

“What in the almighty fuck is going on?” Shiro asked, stunned.

“We’re just waiting for Coran, and then we’ll explain.”

Shiro and Hunk sat down, among the other Paladins. Hunk seemed to look for some kind of comfort from the familiarity of Pidge, and Shiro sat himself between his Lance and the older Keith with an expression told them that he was trying very hard to wrap his head around the idea of Keith being pregnant. Coran came running in a few minutes later.

“Oh, my apologies, Princess. The scanners went all wiffeley for a few ticks. They’re perfectly fine now.” He noticed the two new additions for the first time. “Erm, Princess…” he started, scratching his cheek with one gloved finger.

“Yes. It’s why I’ve called you all here,” Allura said, “When I was alone on the bridge briefly, scans picked up a single Altean pod. When I hailed it, well…”

“It was us,” the older Lance finished, “We seem to be from your future.”

Everyone stopped, if only briefly, before exploding into questions and demands. Questions about what happened, how they got here from their own time, how did the war end, what’s it like now, did everyone survive…

Lance put a hand up, silencing the onslaught. “We can’t answer most of those questions. Anything we tell you could possibly alter the timeline, and I can’t risk that.”

Pidge pouted, her curiosity getting the better of her. “Well, we already know you two end up together. And if you're here, then you guys obviously made it out.”

Pregnant Keith shifted, sitting up but not leaving his Lance’s personal bubble. “Yes, we did make it out. And yes, we know what it’s like now. But is it worth it to know about our future when it could change your own?”

For maybe the first time in her life, Pidge didn’t have an immediate answer. Her natural curiosity demanded to be sated. The older versions of two of her best friends were sitting in front of her with the answers to so many questions. So much of her own personal stress could be relieved just by knowing if she ever found Matt and Sam. She could know the outcome of the war. But thinking about those things, she realized that Keith was right. If she did know, it would change what she did, how she could react to things. The butterfly effect wasn’t real, or, if it was, it didn’t quite work that way, but a change to a major event could lead to a cascade of differences. And there was no way to know if those would be good changes or bad. But she didn’t get to answer the semi-rhetorical question because Slav walked in at that exact moment.

“So we’re in this reality,” he said, seeing the future Lance and Keith. He narrowed his eyes at them. “You haven’t told anyone anything, have you?”

“Nothing that wasn’t immediately obvious,” Keith answered, settling back against his mate.

“Ah. Right. I need to confirm things about you two before I can recalculate probabilities, but we should discuss this –” His owlish eyes narrowed again as he looked around the room. “- privately.”

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

#my writing #abandoned wips #klance #omegaverse #abo #omega keith kogane #alpha lance mcclain #mpreg #vld #voltron #voltron legendary defender #keith x lance

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mckinlily · 4 years ago

Text

.match

Alteans marks are the source and subject of many legends. Cellica, they are called. Babies are born with skin entirely unadorned; the cheek marks are the first to appear about the same time the babies begin to sit up. They start as lighter patches of skin that quickly develop the stiffer, smoother texture of cellica. When the cellica develop to their full fledged color, the baby is taken to the local Priestess for their Naming Ceremony, where they are officially recognized as part of Altea. Throughout childhood and into the beginning of puberty, other marks appear. Along their arms, down their back, over their legs and hips. Although most cheek marks look the same from Altean to Altean, the others vary. The general placement and symmetry remains the same, but some are rounder, some more angular. Some come in continuous lines while others are broken up in patterns.

There’s a lot of superstition about cellica. Only those found on the cheeks are shown to the public--the rest are reserved for partners, family members, and very close friends. There is an old superstition that the shape of your cellica reflect the shape of your soul; to see one’s cellica is to see the essence their soul. Old wives tales and folk lore talk of evil alchemists using the shapes of one’s cellica to cast spells on them. Those tales are considered works of fictions these days, but the general belief--that these are something personal, private, to be shared only under the conditions of greatest trust--remains. The most personal marks are considered to be those that reside on the inside of one’s wrist. These marks tend to be slimmer, more delicate and intricate, and even the most brazen Altean who many be willing to walk with both their arms bare for the viewing will cover their wrists with bands or bangles. Hands are no longer so very scandalous as they once were, but most Alteans will still wear gloves. Even Allura’s fingerless gloves were considered risqué by certain members of the court when she first donned them, but she considered them quite old fashioned.

But other superstitions are more fun. There is a whole market of books and holo-vids and lectures claiming to “interpret” cellica ranging from personality to romance and destiny. The scientific community agrees that cellica are merely the result of random genetic variation and seem to serve a purpose in channelling and keeping one’s quintessence at a healthy level. While this is generally known by the public, is has done nothing to stop the public interest in cellica readings, rather like the Altean equivalent of horoscopes. Sure, everyone knows it’s basically nonsense, but it’s fun to imagine, is it not?

And the most persistent and enticing superstition is that the shape of your cellica will match those of your soulmate. Skeptics will point out that the definition of a match is left so vague and the variation between marks so common, that it is possible to claim any two people’s cellica “match.” Which, indeed, is exactly what happens. Some poor souls spend their whole lives chasing the perfect match or believing they match anyone they come in contact with. But most often, partners choose each other first and then find the similarities that “prove” their cellica compatibility later, thus perpetuating the legend. There are a multiple schools of thought theorizing which marking styles are compatible, which complement each other, which ones should never go together. And thus it is entirely possible for any combination of partners to confidently claim they were “fated.”

Like most children, Allura grew up imagining of the day she would share her cellica marks with someone special. She had little interest in courting and romance now, caught up as she was in studying and training and all the other duties that came with being a princess, but later (whenever later happened to be) she dreamed of baring her arms to someone she loved while they did the same and tracing out the similarities drawn in their skin.

But then there was the Galra and the war--even if she had wanted to court, she didn’t have the time--and then waking up ten thousand years later to a people who were gone and a war that was still waging. Any thoughts of soulmates and romance were completely wiped from her mind, replaced by righteous fury, vengeance, and the need to survive.

Allura keeps busy: planning battles, training the paladins, and most of all, trying to develop her new skills with quintessence. Alchemy had always been something other people did. Allura was more interested in fighting or flying or even law and diplomacy. But now her magic is essential to their survival and all she has to go off of are vague memories and Haggar. She is determined and desperate, racing to learn as much as she can because what she doesn’t know could be what gets someone killed.

(...one of the paladins killed. Allura had never thought of finding family outside the one her blood gave her, never thought she’d need to, but they wormed their way in and they can’t--she can not lose them now.)

Allura may not know much about alchemy and magic, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize one of her cellica have changed. Where once was a delicate half-moon of shimmery pink inside her wrist is now a disfigured blob, duller and smeared like spilled oil. Horror strikes sharp pain in her sternum that works its way into something heavier and colder as she remembers Haggar’s red and jagged marks. In a sick way, it makes sense. Cellica have always been connected to quintessence, and she has been using more and in ways she had never imagined. Perhaps if she had someone older, someone knowledgeable and experienced to guide her, she could learn the tricks or skills or whatever it is to avoid it. But she doesn’t. She’s completely alone, the only other alchemist being Haggar, and she has to learn because otherwise innocent people will die.

Allura will never run away from the people who need her. Not again.

So she fights, and she learns. She battles Haggar to a standstill and tries so, so hard not to look at her arms. But sometimes she can’t avoid it, and she can hardly bare what she finds. The delicate, intricate cellica on the insides of her wrists are shattered now. Some splatter like spilled numvil, others have gone dull and sickly grey. New marks, disfigured and without symmetry smear over her arms and into her palms. They look like dead things, pressed into her skin and now a part of her. Some marks start out pink but turn grey-white and misshapen, and that’s somehow worse.

Allura tells no one. She knows that cellica are simply a quirk of genetics, that they have no bearing on the worth or character of a person, and that there had been those when Altea was still alive with disfigured or missing cellica who lived perfectly happy, valuable lives. It doesn’t change how she feels. Tainted, defiled, broken. She can’t even bring it up to Coran, the shame too much for her to bear. It was well known that when an Altean loved someone, truly loved them, and in moments of greatest intimacy, their cellica could light up like a personal galaxy. Allura has known since she first woke up that she will likely never have someone to glow for her, but she must now face the fact that she will never be able to glow for anyone else. Not without looking more patchy than starry and highlighting the broken and dead places where her cellica should be. The idea of it repulses her. She’s incapable of love like she wants--like she should--and she feels so broken, tainted and alone.

But she can’t stop. Whatever she does, she won’t stop until the Galra are defeated and the universe is free again. If the personal cost is her marks and her soul, so be it. It is no one’s burden but hers. She wears her sleeves long and tight, says nothing, and carries on because that was what she was built to do.

Or, at least, that was what she meant to do. But the paladins are nothing if not unpredictable and perhaps no one more so than Shiro. He’s patient and thoughtful. Strong enough to survive the arena, the Galra, and everything they throw at him. And stronger still to remain kind through it all. He’s her strongest ally (tied with Coran), and over time becomes her closest confidant. They discuss the war and the strategies they need to survive, but their conversations frequently turn to something more. Shiro is curious about Altean history and culture and willing to listen no matter how long she babbles on. And although he doesn’t ask and she certainly doesn’t mean to tell, she ends up retelling old folk tales which leads to myths and cellica.

“There’s this old superstition that your cellica will match those of your soul mate,” she says.

“Is it rude to ask someone what their cellica look like?”

“Yes,” says Allura. She remembers her own cellica, damaged and meaningless now. She sighs.“Though perhaps not in my case.”

“Because you’re the princess?” says Shiro, looking adorably earnest and confused.

Allura almost laughs at him, but she can’t. Instead, she wraps a hand around the wrist where the damage is greatest. “No,” she says. “Because they won't match anyone anymore. Even if I did find more Alteans. They’re--they’re ruined.”

“Oh,” says Shiro. He doesn’t quite reach out for her, but his face emotes empathy.

And Allura doesn’t know why she does it, but she removes her gloves and pushes her sleeves up. The sleeves are too tight to get past her elbow, but it’s enough. Her ugly, shattered and disfigured cellica are on display. She holds them out to Shiro saying, “They’re supposed to be pink. And symmetric--” symmetry had always been important, no matter who you asked “--and not like this.”

Shiro takes her hands, eyebrows pulling together as he scans over her arms and then back to her face. “Is this from the war?”

“Fighting Haggar,” Allura confirms. “The damage has stopped spreading mostly, but...” But it was there, irreversible, the price paid.

Shiro’s expression is sad but too deep to be pity. And he doesn’t tell her she shouldn’t have done it: he as well as anyone knows the costs of war. “I’m so sorry,” he said softly instead.

“It’s...” Allura means to say “it’s fine,” but Shiro is gentle and here, and it all comes tumbling out. The stories and the fear, the superstitions, the glowing and how she will never be able to show someone her love without also reminding them of how she was broken, and the way she feels tarnished, less of a person.

Shiro listens through all of this, his eyes moving between her face and her arms and back again. He’d asked if it was all right for him to touch her marks, and Allura hadn’t said no, but she hadn’t quite said yes either, so he remained, only holding her hands and gently squeezing her fingers.

Eventually, Allura removes one of her hands to wipe at her eyes. She feels exhausted and heavy, and while sharing has lifted some of the burden, it’s also opened wounds she had been trying so hard to ignore.

Shiro hasn’t spoken in a while. Finally, he gets up, and Allura has the sudden, irrational fear that he’s leaving.

“Close your eyes,” he says. “Or just...” he hitches his shoulders uncomfortably, “don’t look.”

He turns his back on her, but then Allura realizes he’s messing with the hem of his shirt and she immediately looks away, cheeks hot. The idea of Shiro taking off his shirt, even if she isn’t looking, even if humans have very different standards of privacy is horribly embarrassing. She can hardly bare to hear the rustle of his clothes.

Shiro huffs a soft laugh. “Okay, you can look now.”

He’s sitting in front of her again. His shirt is off, but he still has on the vest he normally wears on top of it, thank the Ancients. Allura is in no way ready to see all the skin of his chest right now.

Allura is so distracted by her embarrassment, it takes her a minute to notice that Shiro is holding out his hands to her the same way she had to him earlier.

“I know it’s not the same, but...” He trails off, his lip caught between his teeth like he’s nervous.

It occurs to Allura that she’s never seen Shiro’s bare arms. She never questioned it before. He was the oldest of the paladins, and though Allura now knows that humans don’t have marks or any reason to cover their arms as they get older, it simply made sense to her that Shiro’s would be covered. But they’re bare now, and Allura is looking. Most noticeable, of course, is the Galra arm, the silver metal that she had seen before, though now she could also seen the red, scarred, and puffy skin where the metal meets flesh. The sight pains her.

But the other arm is possibly worse. There are scars running from a shiny welt behind his thumb to the gnarled knot over his shoulder. They come in all shapes and sizes, some patterned like claw marks, others smears as if entire chunks got melted or burned away. Still others arc and fracture like electricity. There’s a whole world of pain and endurance and torture in just one arm, and Allura has to be mindful of her strength so that she doesn’t crush his hands in her fury.

“Just...” says Shiro when she doesn’t respond. He shrugs uncomfortably, looking both nervous and tentatively hopeful. “I’m not symmetric either. We match.”

We match. Allura’s eyes meet his. His smile is nervous--no, embarrassed. His shoulders hunch in even as he holds his arms out to her, and Allura realizes he keeps his scars covered for the same reason she hides hers. Because they feel shameful, tainted, and reminders of pain and trauma.

And yet Allura doesn’t see Shiro as broken. She can’t. He is the strongest person she has ever known, and she takes a certain, vicious pride in knowing he was strong enough survive this--that he came back to them and leads and fights with them now. The scars are proof that the Galra tried to destroy him. But they didn’t. Shiro is still here, noble and determined as ever, and lending his strength to keep them going every day.

Allura looks down at where their hands rest between them, both covered in random, ugly and disfigured marks. Shiro is right: they do match. Not because of any lore, but because they have both fought--and lost and suffered and picked themselves up and kept fighting because they refuse to be defeated. These are marks they wear so that others won’t have to. Marks of sacrifice, of love and determination.

Both of them would die to save the universe. But they haven’t. They have lived.

Allura gently squeezes Shiro’s fingers. She doesn’t have words, but she doesn’t have to because Shiro understands. For the first time since her first cellica changed, she doesn’t feel so very alone.

“Thank you,” she says softly.

“You don’t need to thank me.” Shiro takes his arms back, tucking them against his chest. His cheeks are red, and he ducks his head. “I know it isn’t pretty.”

Allura places her hand on his shoulder. Seeing the same emotions in Shiro and reflected back at her is strange but also freeing. “Shiro,” she says. “Nothing about you is ugly or shameful. I promise you.”

Shiro’s eyes look over-bright for a moment, but he still smiles. “The same is true of you, Allura. A million times over. We are so incredibly lucky to have you.”

It’s Allura’s turn to blush, and a few spots among her ruined cellica lighten, a disjointed attempt to glow. But this time, next to Shiro who has scars and loss of his own, she doesn’t feel so very broken.

Allura still wears her sleeves long. She will probably never show her cellica to anyone, even though Coran and the paladins are as good as family. The loss is still deep. But when she looks across the bridge, Shiro is there, with his own dark sleeves and hidden pain, and when he catches her looking, his eyes gleam with determination.

They may not both be Altean, but they have clearly been marked by the universe in their unique ways. They match, and perhaps that’s all cellica and soulmates are about in the end: a promise neither one of them is alone.

#voltron #shiro #allura #headcanon?#ficlet?#this sort of got away from me #shallura implied #platonic or romantic whatever you like #i don't care #mckinlily writes: vld fic

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amor-immortalem · 3 years ago

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My Adoring Fan Chapter 6

Chapter 5

Before he knew it, a week had passed. It was the start of a new school term. As Aurelius rolled out of bed, he shut off the alarm so it wouldn’t go off at its normal time. He didn’t sleep well the night before, not because he was excited to return to his studies but more like he was debating if he should really betray his parents’ trust when it came to meeting with this girl who’d sent him the letter. If he was being honest, the half demon was hoping that the letter was forged.

Ever since he’d met her that night, Aurelius often found his thoughts wandering back to her. He wasn’t lying when he told his sister that he thought she was pretty. No one had ever had this effect on the sixteen-year-old before so why was she so different?

“I don’t have time to think on this any longer.” He sighed. “Maybe some tea will take my mind off things?” The half-demon makes his way out to the kitchen and is only slightly surprised to see his mother in the kitchen already making herself some tea. He doesn’t know why, but he still figured she’d be asleep at four a.m. like a normal person.

“Aurelius, good morning. Why’re you up so early?” Arella asks as she sets the kettle on the stove. “You should go back to sleep for a bit.”

“No, I’m good, Mum. I can’t really sleep all that well anyway. Can I have some tea?”

“Sure. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Yeah, I guess that couldn’t hurt...” He lays his arms on the counter as he’s leaning against it, chin resting on top of his arms. “Or maybe this is something I should talk to Dad about? I don’t know...”

“Oh, I didn’t realize it was one of those things...”

“No, no, no,” He waves his hands about as a blush covers his cheeks, reaching down to his neck and up to his ears, “It’s not about that kind of thing. More like... relationship advice? Girls in general? I don’t know.” Arella only laughed softly as her son let out a groan. “Please don’t laugh, Mum.”

“I’m sorry, Sweetheart.” Arella sighed as she pulled the kettle off the stove and got two cups down for them, “I wasn’t laughing at you, more like the misunderstanding. If you feel more comfortable talking to Dad about this then that’s fine, but you know you can talk to me about relationships or girls too as well, right? I’ve had more than my fair share of relationships with women as well so I think I can provide some helpful insight too.”

“Yeah... It’s about that girl I met the other day. You know, the one who I can’t be sure sent me that letter?”

“Yes. She hasn’t tried to contact you again, has she?”

“No, but it’s just.... I can’t stop thinking about that little bit of time we interacted. I’ve never really given much thought to anyone I’ve ever met before but she still sticks in my mind for some reason. Is there something wrong with me?”

“No, not at all. It’s perfectly normal to have someone on your mind at this age.”

“So... there was something wrong with me before then?”

“No, that’s not true either. You’re perfectly normal, Son. Some people just aren’t interested in things like that and that’s okay too. What worries me is who this girl is. You don’t know all that much about her and the fact that she may have sent you that letter doesn’t bode very well. It makes me worried for you.”

“If we have classes together at RAD, I’ll have to talk to her since she’ll likely take a seat next to me at some point and I have a reputation to uphold- well more like I don’t want to be rude. And I kind of want to talk to her too. If she was a fan, she pretended not to be and it makes me wonder if she was being considerate since I nearly trampled her trying to get away from ‘Zalea. She was... normal. I’ve never gotten that from someone outside of our family.”

“Well,” Arella slid the teacup toward Aurelius. “I can’t stop you from talking to this girl. You seem rather dead set on it too. But please, for the love of your grandfather, don’t go off with her alone.

“’for the love of my grandfather,’ why do you guys always say that? It’s not just you and dad but my uncles too. What’s with that? I’ve always thought it was a weird saying. And Max says something similar. Are they related?”

“Yeah, they are. You see, your Father and Uncles- save for Uncle Satan- were once angels a long, long time ago. All angels are “created” by God so technically he would be considered your grandfather as everyone in our family still refers to him as ‘Father’.”

Aurelius nods, “Oh, Alright. I always just thought Dad had always been a demon... but wait don’t you have distant heritage from the Celestial Realm too? That’s where you and I get our magic from, right?”

“It’s… messy. Technically, the angel I’m descended from was reincarnated into a human and Angels aren’t actually related by blood to begin with in the way you’re related to your siblings so really, it was anything goes when it came to me- genetically speaking that is.” Arella was skirting around her connection to Lilith as much as she could as they hadn’t yet told any of the kids in the family about this kind of thing. “I really wouldn’t think too hard on it if I were you. It’ll give you a headache.” The boy only nodded as he sipped on his tea. He had never seen his mother trying so hard to skirt around something she didn’t want him to know. “Anywho, are you hungry? I can start on breakfast.

“Yeah, thanks. I can help if you want.”

“Thank you, that sounds lovely.”

“Also... Can I have that letter back...”

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Getting up and dressed for school was difficult for Persephone. Ever since she’d overheard her dormmates snickering about the letter they’d forged and sent to Aurelius, she’d been dreading the idea of seeing him at school. She wanted to get to know him but now he was probably going to avoid her at all costs. As she looked herself over in the mirror, she hoped he hadn’t put two and two together yet or that the impression she made on him that day would be enough to tip him off that something was wrong.

Instead of having breakfast with her dormmates, the succubus just headed out for school. She was too nervous to actually keep anything down. She kept looking around, Persephone was hoping to spot the object of her affections. And then she saw them, the three girls that he lived with at the House of Lamentation: his sister, cousin, and a sorcerer-in-training that had come to stay with them. But Aurelius was nowhere to be seen.

Persephone moved to trail just behind them, just far enough away to not look like she was eavesdropping but close enough to be able to hear their conversation.

“A new term, a new start!” Zulima smiles as she stretches. “It sucks that I’m grounded. What I wouldn’t kill to go out shopping after school for skin care products. There’s a new line I’ve been interested in trying that comes out today.”

“Hey, that’s all on you, Missy!” Azalea grumbled. “And what’s worse ya got my brother booted out of the dorm and grounded too for doin’ your dirty work.”

Zulima squawked at that as she threw her arms around her cousin. “That wasn’t my intention though! I said I was sowwy.”

“Hey, hey, hey none of that cutesy shit, got it? Cut it out.”

Zulima pouted at that as Max laughed softly.

“Come on, Zulima, you have to admit that you were in the wrong even though it all panned out in the end.” The human smiles.

“MAX!”

“Huh? Oh shit- Sorry, Sunshine, it slipped.”

“Wait... Wait did my plan actually work?” The silver-haired girl’s eyes lit up. “It did, didn’t it?! Stars, I have to tell Daddy.” The sixteen-year-old dashed off.

“Zulima stop! Don’t- aaaaand she’s gone...” The half-demon only sighs,” Damn, what are we gonna do with her...? You know we’ve just unleashed a monster, right? She’s gonna tell everyone.”

“Yeah, I mean we could just go public with it ourselves. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?”

“Well, no, under normal circumstances it wouldn’t, but I still have enemies at school. Sure, it's no secret that you’re important ta me but if our classmates knew we were datin’, they’d go after you ta get ta me. I know you’ve been workin’ on improvin’ your magic and Solomon even gave ya that charm that’ll mostly protect ya from most attacks from demons but it still makes me nervous since I take advanced courses while the rest of y’all take regular classes and I can’t be with ya ‘cept for homeroom and lunch. I mean my family can know, that’s all well ‘n good. They all like ya anyway but the reason I didn’t want Zulima knowin’ is that when it comes to secrets, she’s got the loosest set of lips this side of the human world...”

“Aww thanks for being worried about me,” She slung an arm around Azalea as they walked.

The white and black-haired girl stiffened slightly. Even after a year, she still wasn’t really used to someone outside of the family showing her any kind of public displays of affection, platonic or otherwise.

“Sorry, are you uncomfortable?”

“N-no. I like it. Don’t stop. Anyway, love, we should go. Aurelius is waitin’ for us.” The half-demon’s voice was quiet as they kept going.

Watching from a safe distance, Persephone laughed softly. Azalea had a reputation for being an unapproachable tough girl so to see her being so soft with a human was interesting. She wondered if she could manage to get close to his older sister and her girlfriend, she might be able to get close to Aurelius. Was it wrong to use Azalea for her own purposes? Yes, and Persephone knew that but if the letter was still a factor, she had to prove that she didn't mean him any harm.

Hurrying to school, she thought of a way to introduce herself to the girls ahead of her. What she wasn’t expecting was to bump into Azalea and fall on her face.

“Hey, watch where yer goin’!” Azalea growled as she puffed out her chest, that tough girl front making its first appearance for the day. “Ya almost knocked me over.”

“Azalea, be nice. Are you okay, Miss?”

“Sorry, I thought I had more room. I didn’t mean to bump into you and yeah, I’m alright. Thanks for asking.”

“Whatever, just make sure it don’t happen again, got it?” Azalea's blue to gold gradient eyes studied her appearance. “You go to RAD? I ain’t never seen ya around before. You new here?”

“Ah, yes. I just transferred here. Today’s my first day.” Persephone smiled as she held out her hand.

Max reached out to shake her hand and Azalea thought about stopping her but that might not be a good idea. As she regarded Persephone, an eyebrow raised slowly, remembering what her brother told her about the girl he was unsure had sent that letter.

“What’s yer name, girly? I heard about a transfer student from my brother. That you?”

Persephone’s eyes widened. He talked about her? How does she answer? Does she tell the truth or does she lie? Ultimately, the succubus nodded deciding the truth was best.

“Stay away from my brother, got it? Yer gonna regret it if I find out about ya harassin’ him. He already gets enough of that and you don’t need to addin’ to that. He’s already thinkin’ about quittin’ the one thing he loves ‘cuz of crazy fans like you.”

Max could sense that Azalea was getting more and more worked up. Before the situation could get out of hand, she grabbed her girlfriend’s hand and drug her off so she didn’t do something she’d regret later.

Well that option was out. As they walked off, Azalea turned her head back toward Persephone with a warning glare. The former idol knew now she had to set things straight. She knew what it was like to have crazy fans too.

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Homeroom was the first class of the day, having been dropped off by his mother, Aurelius was able to get prime seating at the back of the class where the teacher could hardly see him and therefore wouldn’t call on him if they thought he wasn’t paying attention. He pulled out that letter, waiting for Persephone to show up. They were all in the same year and there was only one homeroom teacher for their year so every student in their year- advance courses included- had the same homeroom hour.

The teen watches the door with baited breath.

“I hope this is the right room.” She mumbled. When her eyes met his she looked away. They were the only two in the class room.

“Hey again.” He smiled, using his charm to his advantage. “Come here, I’d like to speak with you.” She was a little hesitant to begin with but ultimately, she decided to sit with him. “So...” Aurelius slides the letter over to her. “I want you to tell me the truth. Did you actually lie to me when we met last week? Did you really know who I was all along and still chose to lie to me?”

Persephone stared at the letter with horror. “Y-Yeah. I just didn’t want you to feel bad about knocking over a fan of yours...”

“Thought so, well thanks for thinking of my feelings. That was considerate of you. And by the look on your face, I take it you recognize what on the table.”

“I didn’t send this letter. It was forged by a dormmate of mine.” The former idol panicked about losing her one chance at getting closer to him.

“Mhm... Well, I’d believe it. And I think I know who sent it. Would you like to read it and tell me if anything in it is actually true?”

“Your sister told me you’re getting harassed.... I’m sorry you have to go through that.” she said as she nodded.

“You’ve already run in to ‘Zalea, huh? She didn’t say anything or threaten you, did she?”

“She told me to stay away from you or I’d regret it. Should I move before she gets here?”

“No don’t. I called you over here because I wanted you to sit with me. You’re going to end up with a few of my self-proclaimed ‘super fans’ nipping at your heels though. Just ignore them, alright? And if my sister tries to start anything, let me handle her.”

“Okay, also... this letter is really creepy but a couple things are true... I do have all of your issues of DevilStyle Teen and I am a big fan. But I want to get to know you. I know there’s more to a person than what you see in a magazine. Would that be alright?”

He’s surprised at this, but it was a welcome surprise. “Yeah sure. I’m kind of grounded at the moment, but we can hang out here in the morning and talk. The teacher unlocks it at 6 a.m. so meet me then. After I’m out of punishment, we can hang out outside of school too. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in getting to know you as well. Also, stop trying to charm me. It’s not going to work. Like my mother, charms don’t work on me.”

The succubus blushed as she sputtered apologies and a deep embarrassed blush covered her cheeks. She hadn’t even realized she was using her powers on him- the same powers that skyrocketed her to fame as an idol.

He only chuckled at that. “If you really want to earn my affections, you’re going to have to put in the hard work.” He teased.

“G-Good to know.” She squeaked as other students began to enter and she and Aurelius began to chat casually.

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Find more on my masterlist

#obey me next gen #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me swd #obey me! shall we date?#obey me oc #arella #aurelius #azalea #max #zulima

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huffpuffgirl18 · 4 years ago

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So because I stumbled upon a video talking about magic as a gene (which I firmly believe) and because YouTube won’t let me post my full theory (which it is driving me INSANE) I’d thought I’d post it here. I’m but a wee baby biologist learning her craft so be kind. 🥰

Anyways on to the theory

I LOVE the thought of magic being a gene that because I've been saying this for years. As a biology major it makes a lot of sense. Note, I think that magic is a dominate gene and non-magicalness is a recessive gene and that it probably is a series of genes (each with two alleles) and not just one gene. So you have to have all genes possessing the dominate alleles for you to possess magic, and not just one gene possessing the dominate allele.

I'll touch on the allele reasoning first because its something that maybe a not a lot of people know of since genetics is tricky and I won't go too into depth but when we look at things like eye color, hair color, skin color and other phenotypical expressions the genes that dictate these outcomes usually are more than one. Eye color specifically has about 16 genes (i'll have to double check) that dictate what color you will have (and that's not going into things like incomplete dominance or co-dominace, we'll leave those out for the discussion of magic). So say magic has like three genes, and for each gene you have two allele one you get from each parent. You would need all three of the dominate pair of this allele in order for you to possess magic. So if you have a pair of alleles, they can be as follows hetero-dominate, homo-dominate, homo-recessive. This is crucial for when you think about how muggleborns come into play, and when you think about the inheritance of magic, think of it like this you need at least all three functioning (dominate) alleles in order for you to get magic.

When squibs are born, they are born from magical parents who are hetero-dominate, meaning one of the alleles is recessive from both ends of that parent on the same gene. Which is then passed on to their child who now has a gene with only homo-recessive on it, and since that child doesn't have all three dominate genes for magic they are born a squib. Remember, there are six alleles since there are three genes and since alleles come in pairs they need 3+ dominate ones. If they have a gene that has alleles that are homo-recessive (two recessive alleles) they will not have magic. So in order to have magic they can be as follows on any of the three genes, hetero-dominate or homo-dominate. They cannot possess homo-recessive alleles on a gene because if they do they will be a squib and won't have magic.

They (squibs) still carry within them two out of three genes (because remember there are three genes for magic in this scenario) for magic but they are missing one. So they can pass on those two out of three genes (with dominate alleles) to their children but until they meet someone who has that allele they are missing their kids will also be muggles or without magic. But once their descendants meet another group of muggles who also has the allele that they are missing (the dominate version of that allele because they have the recessive version) a muggleborn child is born. (pictures would be so helpful, i know).

The reason that I believe that magic is dominate and not recessive is because we see muggle parents get together with a wizard or a witch, it almost always results in a magical child. Which is an indicator that magic is technically the dominate gene. However, just because a gene is dominate does not mean that it is going to be more prominent in the population. For example, dwarfism and having six fingers are both dominate genes however in most populations average height and having five fingers are more prevalent. The same can be thought of with magic. While it is the dominate gene, it is not the most prevalent in the population which has lead to the pure blood people believing that it must be preserved which is far from the case. In fact one can argue that they are effectively harming their genetic pool and creating the possibility of mutations and more damage to the genetic line due to inbreeding which can cause insanity, physical deformities, and infertility. Inbreeding which is what most pure blood families practice, causes harm to the genome or essentially damaged it.

Evidence of how magic is a dominate trait is the black family tree, where we see a lot of squibs in the family line although they only marry pure bloods or inbreed within the family tree. That tells you that the magic gene is heterozygous or else squibs wouldn’t arise and if they did arise its from a mutation of the dominate allele due to inbreeding

The more frequent inbreeding occurs the more damaged genes are introduced to the genetic line without a chance to introduce new genes to “repair” the genetic line. Thinking like this, Tom Riddle (Voldemort) own genetic line was “repaired” by his muggle father who potentially introduced new genes into the Guant family line which was plagued with problems due to inbreeding. So while he inherited the dominate alleles for magic from his mother, he probably also inherited more stable genes from his father.

And if we go off of the premise in the last few lines concerning inbreeding, the best way for magic to live on and thrive would be to have a more diverse gene pool and that would be essentially mixing with muggles more often. If magic is indeed the dominate gene, more half blood or muggle born children would increase the gene pool and stave off things like insanity, infertility, and other genetic mutations that arise from having genes that are too close together. Long story short, the pure bloods are essentially killing their own community when they think they are preserving it because they are creating a more harmful genetic pool and as nature shows us diversity is what helps populations thrive (in terms of genetics).

Thinking about magic this way, germ-line editing could potentially be used to turn the future offspring of muggles into wizards by editing their germ-line. Or for squibs the CRISPR-Cas method of gene editing could potentially work for them if they are missing one allele pair (I don’t know about two) to potentially give them magic.

I know this post was rather long and probably really confusing for some. So I made pictures to illustrate my point since I love applying science to fantasy.

These are punnet squares to demonstrate my point.

So in photo one labeled P1 this is the parent generation and as you can see they are heterozygous dominate wizards. The white is all their wizarding children. The pink is all the possible squib children (the possible genotype outcomes) that are just missing one gene (they have a gene with Homozygous recessive alleles) and the orange is the possible squib children missing two genes (they have two genes with homozygous recessive alleles). The blue in the corner is the chance they get a squib child with all homozygous recessive alleles for all three genes. Which means that child in blue will have ZERO chances of passing on magic to their children.

Now in the second picture, should’ve been labeled G1 for generation 1 but that got cut off anyways, the squib goes off and gets together with a muggle this is generation 1 (G1) and as you can see all their offspring are carriers for the magic gene but none of them have magic. The pink is missing one gene (has one gene with homozygous recessive alleles) and the orange is missing two genes (has two genes with homozygous recessive alleles). None of their children will have magic, but all of them will be carriers for the gene.

In the third picture (labeled G2 in the corner) this is generation 2. The squibs offspring goes off and has children with another muggle. Some of these children are carriers while others do not carry any genes for magic. The pink is missing one gene (has one gene with homozygous recessive alleles) and the orange is missing two genes (has two genes with homozygous recessive alleles). None of them will have magic but all of them will be carriers. The blue highlights the potential that none of them carry the genes for magic and thus cannot possess magic nor pass on the potential to possess magic.

And the last picture... *drum roll please* is our generation 3 or G3! aka Hermione and Lily generation 🤩🥳 Both parents are carriers for the magic gene but neither one of them posses magic. The pink is missing one gene (has one gene with homozygous recessive alleles) and the orange is missing two genes (has two genes with homozygous recessive alleles). These potential offspring will carry the gene but will not possess the ability to do magic. The blue highlights the potential that none of them carry the genes for magic and thus cannot possess magic nor pass on the potential to possess magic. And lastly the green highlights are our Muggleborns! Where they possess magic and have at least one dominate allele in the pair so that they can do magic.

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cottoncandyreaper · 3 years ago

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(A story that I've been working on for a month now! I present to you: Heisenberg's Child)

She couldn't be fucking serious; she couldn't be absolutely fucking serious!? Years of pain, fears and dealing with this bullshit family as I'm standing here staring her right in the eyes and she's telling me that she created another near perfect vessel...with my fucking dna!? Not some cadou filled corpse but personally, my blood, my semen...she stole from me and I never even fucking knew it. It could have been a plan from the very beginning for all I knew; no other explanation worked in my mind.

"The child is being transported here to Romania thanks to Umbrella themselves, they are to hand deliver her to us."

"Why would we trust those, dogs mother Miranda? When they have only proven to want to kill you."

Alcina's voice held annoyance of the topic being about something regarding myself but she hid it well. Almost.

"Humans are frail of mind child, if you promise them anything worth gold they will bend to any request."

Her words no matter how she put them held a secretive meaning behind them; she had more planned then what she was leading on about and that's what I hated the most about her was all the damn secerts.

"Now why would this giant monster of a company need this...kid as a trump card?"

"Because the child has gained your ability through genetics my son and it seems they are very good at using it. You, dear Heisenberg have a unique and strong gift that has sparked fear in the eyes of many. Although given to you, seeing that a child can be born from you possessing the same gift only bods destruction once they are here with us."

Experimentation gave me this 'gift' oh so graciously without my want for it; hearing that it seeped so low as to embedding itself into my genes pissed me the fuck off more then I thought anything else in the world could. And hearing that it passed down to the unwanted next generation was even more then I couldn't have hoped for.

"Within a few days she will be in our arms, so ready yourselves to greet our new member."

She was dismissing us so soon after gathering us without even going over the finer details of whatever needed to happen or any info on this brat. Was there some mother out there with a broken heart of having a child ripped away from them? A step father that took my place to help raise it? Or was the kid going to be just as mentally jacked like I was? I hated waiting to find out standing from the couch and left without a word. But that didn't mean I wouldn't be harassed.

"You should feel some joy Heisenberg; a illegitimate child will be joining our family and their connection with you will be a wonderful parental bonding moment for you both."

For once I was speechless to the mega bitch choosing to let my mind wonder to more important topics then listening to her irritating voice. The next few days would be the longest I've ever dealt with.

The next few days had been nothing but beauty and eventful sight seeing. Uncle Chris had explained to me that the new factory I would be working in was state of the art and fully up to date on all the information about myself. But that conversation was now long gone since the helicopter had been shot down sending us into a whirling spin with fire on the tail.

"TUVA!"

My hand just barely brushed against uncle Chris's until the helicopter hit the ground jolting me back as it broke almost perfectly down the middle. It jarred my body sending waves of pain through out my limbs as my eyes, hazy still, focused on the movement and sound coming from Uncle Chris as he tried to reassure me.

"Tuva, Tuva don't move..."

"I...can try to move the plane, I can move it up..."

"Don't...its too heavy...you'll send your half down."

"...down?"

Risking it I turned my head ever so slowly even scared to do that simple movement to see that with just the right amount of luck my half of the plane was starting to tip over the edge.

"C-chris..."

"Hold on I'll get you, just stay still."

Breathing was a labored task as seconds turned into hours watching him inch his way towards me when another solid hit smacked into the plane.

"There's lycans out here sir!"

"Hurry up and kill them!"

Lycans? Like...werewolves? Where the fuck were we!? Even though my mind was trying to piece something rational together that all slipped away seeing the final pieces holding the two halves together break. It was a last ditch effort trying to use my power to stay afloat but Chris was right, it was too much for me; the sun greeted my eyes shining down its light while the echos of Chris's last call of my name faded away, all I could manage was a metal cocoon that I hoped would save my life.

The landing was hard almost sending me into unconsciousness with how badly it rattled my bones and brain. I waited a few minutes to listen and just settle down as the fact that something destroyed the plane and successfully separated me from the crew whirled uncontrolled in my mind. I wasn't going to lie but I knew that there was at least some kind of weird cult here in the area that weren't big fans of Umbrella corporation. All that information was supposed to stay buried but I was more clever then they thought I was. But that's what scared me the most; why did they hate us? The question swimmed mildly through my restless mind as I released my hold on the metal letting it fall around me yet immediately regretted it. Those...lycans, they had me surrounded so fast even though I never heard a sound. But what they didn't know was that I had a arsenal on my side as the pieces of metal from the cocoon unraveled as well as some from the other half of the plane began floating around me.

"Back off freaks! I'm alot more of a threat then I look!"

Some of them were fazed by my words backing off but others, bigger ones, were not. Just as I was seconds away from throwing what I had it was like thousands of pounds were added to the scrap pieces breaking my hold on them embedding them into the ground below.

"Now now kid~ no need to be so hostile. These guys are like giant...angry puppies."

A strange man walked out from somewhere in the back; a cigar on his lips, a wide brimmed hat and glasses covering most of his features besides his graying beard. Adorned in a trench coat, old looking tan shirt, pants and boots...he had a major western vibe going on. But was he...the one that forced me to release the metal?

"Who are you!? Where are the others!?"

"My job was to separate and gather you up so that's all I got for ya for now, we'll make introductions later."

"Hell no! Stranger danger dude."

Grabbing ahold of the metal again I was able to throw it this time aiming straight for western man; I knew it would hit with how much practice I had done. Yet as it floated in mid air not moving a inch infront of him...I knew that it I wasn't controlling it anymore.

"What the fuck...?"

"Good throw there kiddo, but it doesn't work if the target can do the same thing."

Western man walked out from behind it waving his hand off to the side sending the metal away.

"Wouldn't it be much better to talk maybe somewhere not absolutely filled with creepy ass lycans?"

"Who are you!? Why can you that!? Why can you do what I do?"

He stood there thinking for a moment or two in pure silence until his hand shifted gripping the cigar between gloved fingers throwing it to the ground stomping out the embers.

"What can I say kid...its in the genes."

I could just see his eyes peak up at me from beneath his sunglasses before he lifted his head back up wearing a grin.

"You think you were lucky enough to be born like that without a little help from your good ol' dad?"

He was insane wasn't he!? Full of shit speaking crazy literally seconds after meeting me. My dad was dead from war, my mom died giving birth to me. That's what I knew for a fact and I was in no mood to argue those facts.

"Fuck...you."

#lord heisenberg #resident evil 8 #alcina dimitrescu #heisenberg #writerslife #female writers #writers on tumblr

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argyle-s · 3 years ago

Link

Hello,

My name is Molly Bragg. I’m a bi trans gender author who has writing for almost three decades. I’m passionate about creating the kind of content I enjoy, which means stories that center around queer women, I’ve recently completed a original queer genre romance novel and I’m looking for help covering the cost of having it professionally edited.

To give you a preview of what you would be supporting, here’s Chapter 1:

***

Beth watched the buildings pass as the air cab carried her over Los Angeles taking in the changes the last ten years had wrought on the city. Most of the low-income areas had been bulldozed, and those areas were now filled with alien arcologies. Massive buildings that stretched kilometers into the sky, each one a city unto itself, and in their shadows, the skyscrapers that had once been incredible achievements of human architecture and engineering. The buildings which had been hubs of human industry and centers of financial empires were now reduced to little more than playhouses for the backwards primitives who had the misfortune to be born natives of the Galactic Hegemony’s latest colony world. If they’d had another century or two things might have been different. Humanity had been advancing quickly. They wouldn’t have been on par with the technology of the Hegemony by any stretch, but they might have been able to dictate better terms. The Gatekeepers hadn’t cared. The gate had drifted into a stable orbit in the outer system, and the Gatekeepers had announced that, like it or not, the Sol system was being added to their vast network of space fold gates. The first ships from the Hegemony had arrived just a month later, and ever since, Earth had been on the road to becoming the galactic equivalent of a banana republic. So far, her job and her savings had let her avoid the worst of what was happening, but unemployment was at a record high as alien automation systems replaced human labor in almost every sector. The company she worked for had shifted gears from research and development to reverse engineering alien tech and had seen a short windfall in profits, but that was starting to vanish as the inevitable inflation drove prices up and the people they had been selling reverse engineered tech could no longer afford it. Beth wasn’t really that worried for herself. She’d been poor before, and however much she might hate the idea she could survive being poor again. What brought her to LA today was Sam. Sam was getting close to graduation, and she had acceptance letters from every college that could afford postage. A 4.0 unweighted GPA, high SAT scores, and a couple of impressive summer internships meant that schools were falling all over themselves to offer her full rides. Ten years ago, that would have all but ensured her a bright future. These days a PhD from Harvard, Yale, or MIT wasn’t worth the cost of paper to print the degree. People still made noise about human exceptionalism and about taking humanity’s place in the larger galactic community, but Beth had spent a lot of time over the last decade studying the history of colonization on Earth, and it never once ended well for the people being colonized.Regardless of what happened to the colonized peoples as a whole, there were always individual exceptions... people who avoided the fate of their brethren. It was her determination to ensure her daughter’s future that brought her to LA today. While billionaires had started buying their kids spots in alien schools the moment they were allowed out of the Sol System, Beth didn’t have that option. She was well off enough that she and Sam weren’t feeling the effects of the colonization yet, but nowhere near rich enough to buy a ticket off-world for Sam, much less pay for an off-world education. Instead, she’d spent years looking into other options. So far, none of her work had paid off, but she hadn’t given up hope. She was headed to a meeting with a broker who helped place kids into programs that offered grants, scholarships and all expenses paid exchange programs. She was going to find a way to offer her daughter a better future than most of Earth’s children could look forward to. No matter what it took. *** “Ms. Murray, it’s so nice to meet you,” the man said as he held out his hand. Beth took it and gave it a quick shake while trying her best not to let on that he reminded her of a used car salesman. She needed his help, and it wouldn’t do to offend him. “Nice to meet you too, Mr. Cooper.” “Please, call me Owen,” he said. “Right this way.” He led her out of the small, brightly decorated waiting room and into a small, neat office. He gestured to a chair in front of his desk as he walked around behind it and took his seat. “So, I just want to make sure we’re on the same page here Ms. Murray. You are looking for an opportunity for your daughter to continue her education off-world, is that correct?” “Yes,” Beth said. “Okay. I just wanted to make sure that we’re both looking for the same outcome. Now, I’ve gone through Samantha’s records. Academically, she’s in great shape, and the extra-curriculars are good too. I’ve been able to find at least twenty different programs that will accept her.” “That’s great,” Beth said, though she didn’t believe it. She’d heard the exact same thing from more than a dozen other brokers, and she suspected she wasn’t going to hear anything new. “What are the terms?” “It varies from program to program. All of them require a period of indenture, but some are as low as eight years.” Beth tried to hide her disappointment. She wanted to give her daughter a better future, not sell her into virtual slavery for almost a decade. “Owen, I’m looking for a program without any period of indenture. I know they exist, but you’re the fifteenth broker I’ve talked to and none of them have offered even an application to an indenture free program.” “They do exist, but Ms. Murray, you must understand. There are a lot of people who want their children to receive an off-world education, and slots which don’t require a period of indentured service are in especially high demand.” “I understand that, but I haven’t gotten high demand, I’ve gotten completely unavailable. I’d like to know why no one will even consider letting her apply.” Owen looked at her for almost a minute, not saying anything, before he finally leaned back in his chair and let out a weary sigh. “Honestly, Ms. Murray?” “Please.” “Those slots go to the kids of billionaires, presidents, CEO’s, ambassadors, kings and other high level government types. Each year, a handful will go to some poor kids from the ghetto so that they can parade them around as part of a puff piece about how generous the aliens are, but that’s just window dressing. The truth is, your daughter is neither rich enough, nor poor enough to ever get one of those slots.” Beth had to bite her tongue to keep from swearing. She wasn’t surprised at all, but she was angry and frustrated. She’d half suspected something like that was going on, but hearing it spelled out so clearly was still enough to make her blood boil. “Isn’t there anything, any way that I can get her off-world without selling her into slavery?” “Ms. Murray, Indentured Service is hardly slavery.” “It’s close enough.” Owen stared at her for a moment, and then shook his head. “What?” “It’s nothing.” “It’s something,” she said. “Please.” He sighed. “It’s not something I would normally offer to someone of your background.” “What does that mean?” “It means that some aliens have cultural practices that people of Western European descent find unpalatable, while those from other cultures would find those practices perfectly normal.” “I’m not sure I follow.” “Ms. Murray, you are aware that, much to the surprise of every biologist on the planet, there are a number of species with whom humanity shares a degree of reproductive compatibility?” “I am,” she said. “Well, there is a species called the Sionnach. They’re native to a planet called Talamh in the Grian system, and they bear a rather striking resemblance to humans. There are differences of course, but the basic morphology is the same. The reason I bring this up is that about eighty years ago, Talamh suffered an environmental catastrophe that wiped out nearly ninety-five percent of their population in the span of a few weeks. Because of their reproductive practices prior to the incident, the Sionnach found themselves facing a sort of genetic bottleneck, and they decided that the best way to alleviate this was to seek an outside infusion of genetic material.” “They’re looking for breeding stock,” Beth said. “Yes.” “You can’t be serious.” “And this is why I don’t offer this option to white people,” Owen said. “Ms. Murray, I’m not suggesting you sell your daughter off as some kind of brood mare. The Sionnach take selection of their mates very, very seriously. They gather applications from a number of candidates, and the Sionnach in question reviews them, and selects the ones they like. Then, their family reviews their choices, and select a candidate. The candidate is then brought to the house of their prospective spouse, and they spend a period of time together. Roughly five hours. During that time they talk, get to know each other, and decide if they want to proceed. If both parties agree, they enter a five year engagement. During those five years, the candidate is treated as a member of the house. They are given a stipend, they’re educated, they’re housed, fed, provided with medical care, and they undergo medical procedures which allow them to survive on Talamh without special equipment.” “What sort of medical procedures?” “Talamh is a high gravity world with a higher-than-normal concentration of heavy metals in the environment. Your daughter would need procedures to be able to stand up to the local gravity, and to be able to filter out metals she would not normally be able to purge from her system. She would also undergo a type of gene therapy which would make her more resistant to radiation and give her the ability to see parts of the infrared spectrum and hear sounds normally outside of the range of human hearing.” “That sounds dangerous.” “The Sionnach are one of the founding species of the Hegemony. Their technology is thousands of years more advanced than ours, and they’ve been doing these procedures since before humans built their first cities.” Beth shook her head. “An arranged marriage… I don’t know.” “If I’m honest, it’s a long shot. You would have to take your daughter for a screening. She’d have to pass the screening for any sort of genetic issues that would eliminate her, then she would have to be selected by one of the Sionnach. If that happens, you and your family would have to travel to Talamh at the expense of the Sionnach house that selected her, and your daughter would have to get through the initial interview. But if she does, she would get the education you want for her.” “And what happens at the end of the five years if she decides she doesn’t want to marry the person who selected her.” “Then she’s free to walk away. She’d be given a small amount of money, and passage to anywhere within the Hegemony, but she’d be free to do what she wants.” “No indenture? No repayment of expenses?” Beth asked. “No,” Owen said. “But again, it’s a long shot, and I take my normal fee just to put you through the application process, whether she gets selected or not.” “How many humans get selected?” Beth asked. “She’d be the first,” Owen said. “What’s your fee?” Beth asked. “Five hundred Hegemony credits.” Beth winced. Given current exchange rates, that was almost ten thousand dollars. “How quickly would we know?” Beth asked. Owen turned and woke up his computer. She watched as he pulled up a page and scrolled through before clicking on a link. “There’s only one family looking right now. Applications are due by the end of next week. You’d know in a month, tops.” Beth thought about it for a moment. It was a longshot, and she wasn’t entirely sure it was a good idea, but it was better than an indenture, so she reached for her credit card. *** Sam looked up from her homework at the sound of a light knock on her bedroom door. The door was wide open, and her mother was standing there looking at her. Sam couldn’t quite place the expression on her face but given the appointment she had earlier, Sam didn’t have any doubt about what it meant. “No luck, huh?” she asked, trying not to let the relief she felt creep into her voice. She knew an off-world education would open a lot of doors for her and give her opportunities that she wouldn’t have otherwise, and she really did want to go off-world, travel in space and see other planets someday, but the idea of living on another planet for four or more years was both frightening and overwhelming. “Not much,” her mom said. “He did have one program you could apply for that doesn’t include an indenture period. I emailed you the link to the application. I need you to fill it out today, because I made an appointment for tomorrow for you to go for the physical and psych scan that’s required.” “Tomorrow? Mom, tomorrow’s Jenny’s birthday party.” “I know, sweetie, and I’m sorry. I know you were looking forward to the party, but you might have to miss it. I’ve already got us portal tokens, and tomorrow is the only day we can go before the deadline without you missing school. I made the appointment for as early as I could, so you should get home in time to go.” Sam wanted to argue, but she already knew it was useless. She hadn’t missed a day of school since halfway through the eighth grade, and she knew her mom wasn’t going to let her start less than a month before graduation. She also knew her mom wasn’t going to let her pass up a chance at an off-world scholarship just to go to a birthday party. Even if the birthday girl was her best friend who she’d been crushing on since Kindergarten. Of course, her mom didn’t exactly know that last part because she hadn’t told her she liked girls. She’d considered telling her a few times, but she’d always changed her mind at the last minute, because if her mom knew she liked girls, she might decide that Jenny was a distraction that Sam didn’t need in her life and that wasn’t a battle she wanted to fight. “Fine,” she said, reaching for her laptop. “I’ll do the application now.” “Thank you. And Sam, I love you.” “I love you too, mom,” she said. Her mom left and Sam opened up the email link, which took her to a form that asked her for an invite code. She checked the email and sure enough, there was a code for her. She copied it and pasted it into the form, and when she did, it took her to the next page, and a lot of the information was prepopulated, including her latest ID card photo, name and age, along with her school transcripts and medical records. The stuff that was left for her to fill out read more like a dating profile than a college application. The first section was hobbies and interests and activities. She thought about it for a minute and decided to just be honest instead of going through all the BS she usually did for the college apps. She put down soccer, swimming, surfing, electronics, robotics, reading, martial arts, camping and motocross. She attached pictures of herself in her soccer uniform, along with a couple of video clips from some of the team’s games, then she added a few videos of her swim meets, and a couple of pictures and some videos of her surfing. She pulled up her YouTube folder and attached a few build videos for some of her robotics projects, along with the parts lists, schematics, models for the 3D printed parts, and the source code for the micro-controllers she’d written. She added a picture of her holding two trophies from a local Karate tournament where she’d placed second in sparring, and third in bo staff, and added a few videos of her matches. She also added a few pictures from her camping trips and a picture of her sitting on a dirt bike, along with a video Jenny had taken of her running one of the beginner courses, then pulled up her ebook library and dumped the list of all her books, listed her favorite movies and attached all her playlists from her music library. The next section was a little weird. It asked about what sort of foods she liked, so she gave a list. Then is asked whether she enjoyed various activities. Most of them were fairly common things. Theater, music, art. A couple she had to check the cultural database link. She was surprised and excited when she found out that whoever was sponsoring this program apparently considered dragon racing important enough to put on the questionnaire. All in all, she spent about two hours filling out the application, and once she was done, she hit submit, and then pulled out her cell phone and opened up her text messages with Jenny. Sam: ‘Bad news. I might miss your party.’ Jenny: ‘What?!!!’ Sam: ‘Mom’s dragging me to New York in the morning for a physical and a psych scan for a scholarship.’ Jenny: ‘She’s still on that off-world college kick?’ Sam: ‘Yeah.’ Jenny: ‘Girl, you don’t want to go to college with ET’s’ Sam: ‘I’ve got to get accepted before I have to worry about it.’ Jenny: ‘Come by my place when you’re done. Even if you miss the party, I want to see you.’ Sam: ‘Will do. See you tomorrow.’ Jenny; ‘Night.’ Sam sat down her phone and looked at her homework. She’d wanted to finish before dinner, but there was no way that was happening now. She grabbed it anyway and went back to work, trying to get as much done as possible before her mom called her downstairs.

***

End Chapter 1

***

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phcking-detective · 5 years ago

Text

Not Alone

Nines decides if he gets put on hold one more time, he's violating the Geneva Convention.

"Hello, are you still there?"

"Yes."

The PACU nurse audibly sighs in disappointment. "I spoke with our Chief of Staff, and he has given me permission to reiterate to you that a work partner does not count as family. Our policy is—"

Nines involuntarily reviews the Post Anesthesia Care Unit's visitation policy for the sixty-seventh time.

Visitation in the PACU is at the discretion of the nurse and physician caring for you and varies depending upon your procedure. Once the nurse taking care of you is happy with your vital signs and other post surgical requirements, they will contact the waiting area and will let your family member see you. Our policy at this time is legal family members only.

Which is a currently-still-legal method of barring androids.

Never mind that this policy also has significant human collateral damage: adoptees, divorcees, mixed race families …

The end result is that Nines cannot produce a marriage certificate and he obviously is not related by blood, so no one will be there to greet Gavin when he wakes up from his surgery.

And that is unacceptable. The detective has enough abandonment issues already.

Connor cannot hear the internal phone call Nines is engaged in, but he has a social module and must somehow be reading the results from his body language or facial expression.

"Hank could pretend to be his dad," he offers.

The PACU nurse is still reading the visitation policy in full. She's clearly determined to make this as difficult as possible, and showing up with a random human male with pale skin and fair hair who shares nothing in common with Gavin's olive skin tone, dark hair, or facial features is not going to cut it.

Nines searches through every single scan and PDF of paperwork Detective Gavin Reed has ever submitted to the DPD. Finally, all the way back to carry-over paperwork from the police academy he attended, Nines discovers a phone number he's never seen before listed as Gavin's emergency contact.

And it says brother.

Nines uses the phone at Gavin's desk to call this number without mentally disconnecting from the PACU nurse. Normally, he would be more than capable of processing infinite phone calls, but he does not have a social module and his stress levels are climbing into the high eightieth percentile.

"Gav, you better be dying because otherwise—"

"Is that Elijah Kamski?" Connor blurts out in the middle of the precinct.

"—just fucking text me, bro."

"Well shit," Hank says. "Talk about can I speak to a manager. You think he'd be willing to fix—"

Nines holds up a hand. He does not have a social module and cannot possibly process three conversations at once.

"You are listed as Detective Reed's emergency contact," he says into the phone.

"Is he hurt or dead?" Kamski immediately asks.

Nines cannot reply for nearly a full second. He spent three seconds thinking his partner was dead. It was not enough for Detective Gavin Alexander Reed to merely get shot, no. He also had to fall off the roof of a building, and the impact from the landing was enough to briefly stop his heart, which registered to Nines's scanners that—

"Hurt. Surgery." That is all he can say at first. "Successful. He is out of intensive care and has been transferred to the PACU."

In the background, Nines can still hear the others in the bullpen gossiping. He did not mean to make Gavin's familial relationship public. He assumed the phone number for one "Eli Reed" would simply be a regular, non-famous human of no particular importance except to get someone into the hospital to reassure Gavin he is not alone.

"What does he need now?" Kamski asks. "Will he be released soon and need a ride or in-home monitoring?"

Those are [logical] questions. Nines supposes he should not have expected anything less from the man who is technically his creator. Even if he only wrote the code and was not personally involved in the android's construction or testing phase.

"I have already made those arrangements during his surgery," Nines reports. "His apartment is prepped for his return, and my lieutenant has put together a … care package."

"Is that the old guy, husky, beard? With that Connor I liked?"

Across the bullpen, Connor's advanced hearing picks that up, and he visibly preens. Nines practices making a facial expression by sneering and rolling his eyes at him.

"Yes."

"OK, cool," Kamski says. "So, do you need me to cover the cost of surgery or is he asking for me …?"

"I have been unable to contact Detective Reed," Nines admits. "The hospital's visitation policy specifies 'legal' family members only as a method of anti-android discrimination. You are the only family member I have been able to locate."

If you do not visit him, he will be alone.

Nines cannot say this dialogue option. He cannot—refuses to—preconstruct how [bad] it will be if Gavin wakes up alone. His human has a deep, psychological fear of being abandoned, and even if Nines is able to see him immediately upon release and explain the situation, the emotional damage will have already been done.

"Yeah, our parents are dicks, and he doesn't want any famous media bullshit, so we keep the half-brothers thing on the downlow," Kamski says. "Do you need me to be your way in?"

"Yes," Nines says, almost before he finishes offering.

"I'm just kind of assuming here that you're his partner, and he'll want to see you, right?"

"As I am assuming that he accepts you as his brother, and he will want to see you."

Kamski snorts. "I told them stripping out your social module wouldn't stop the deviant problem—or make you any less sassy. That's an inherent RK feature."

"Should I meet you at the hospital," Nines asks.

As much as he may be [curious] about his creator in another situation, this is not another situation. And the situation at hand requires getting to his partner's location immediately.

"Yeah, just send me the address and let me do the talking. See you there."

As soon as he hangs up, Nines is bombarded with [questions] from Connor, Miller, and Collins. Thankfully, Hank stands up and makes a pushing-hands motion to signal to them to be quiet.

"I know we're all real fucking shooketh about this," he says, like the millennial dinosaur he is. "But we can save all the questions and gossip for after Reed gets out of the hospital, all right?"

The humans both grumble, but they let it go. Even Connor stops and sits back down at his own desk.

Hank turns back to Nines. "I'll text Tina and let her know what's up. You just go get your man, kid."

Connor visibly restrains himself from commenting on what an apt descriptor "man-kid" is for Gavin. At least, that's what Nines assumes, considering it is the commentary he himself would normally make.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," he says instead.

He turns and leaves before the "goodbyes" can take any longer. Either whatever Kamski plans will work or … Well. He is the most advanced military android model ever created.

Nothing will keep him from his partner.

***

By the time Nines arrives at the hospital, Kamski is already utilizing his social module. And billions of dollars. The Chief of Staff [Thomas Carrado, unmarried, no arrest record] would wouldn't deign to speak to Nines over the phone is now vigorously shaking Kamski's hand while thanking him for his "generous donation."

"—also, I'm sure you'll want to see your brother too."

"Yes, and—" Kamski turns and [smiles] at Nines. "Ah, my assistant is here. What room should we go to?"

Carrado's own smile freezes on his face when he sees Nines. Even without the LED, there couldn't be any mistaking the android for what he is.

Kamski keeps smiling as well, the sort Connor does when he's about to verbally destroy someone.

"Right this way, Mr. Kamski," Carrado says.

The Chief of Staff turns on his heel without any acknowledgement that Nines follows them. In turn, Nines also does not acknowledge the glances Kamski keeps making at him. His vision is just as accurate in his "peripherals" as it is directly in front of him, so he has no need to turn his head or rotate his optical units to observe the human in turn.

Gavin's [brother].

"—in the nation, but with your esteemed patronage, I'm sure we can rise to first. And of course Mr. Reed will—"

"Detective," Nines corrects.

"—receive the best—"

"Detective."

"—care possible here—"

"Detective."

"—while—"

"Detective."

Carrado stops and whirls around. "Is your … assistant … experiencing a malfunction, Mr. Kamski?"

"No," Nines answers for himself. "You will refer to Detective Reed by his title."

"Oh, is he still pissy about that?" Kamski asks before Carrado can respond. "I swear, every single family dinner for a fucking decade, we had to call him Officer, Detective—he'll be insufferable when he finally makes Captain."

Bold of him to assume Gavin isn't insufferable now.

But Nines does not know the state of Gavin's relationship with his brother, and if the lack of contact is due to mistreatment. He will not risk "making fun of" his partner to a toxic family member.

"Will you be staying long?" Carrado asks Kamski.

"Nines, what does my schedule look like today?"

Nines may not have a social module, but Gavin has forced him to sit through watching enough daytime television to be able to parrot simple lines commonly said by ST300s.

"I have rescheduled your meetings and cleared the remainder of your afternoon and evening, Mr. Kamski."

As Gavin would say, [Like hell] he's going to call the billionaire "sir."

"Excellent." Kamski reaches out to shake hands again, and Carrado is forced to reciprocate. "Thank you so much for your assistance, Dr. Carrado. Now, I promise not to take up any more of your valuable time."

"Well, I'm not—"

Kamski gestures down the hallway, still smiling mildly as if he isn't "politely" telling the good Chief of Staff to [fuck off]. He maintains eye contact with the other human until Carrado slinks away.

It seems Gavin and Kamksi share more than just genetics and a similar facial structure then. Although Gavin would have squeezed the other man's hand hard enough to induce pain, and likely told him literally to fuck off as well.

"Well." Kamski claps his hands together once Carrado is gone. "Let's go see my baby brother!"

***

Gavin is dying. He's alone and he's dying. He's dying and he's alooone.

"Detective."

Person? People??

Hands touch him and it's the best thing ever. There's a person here, he has a person, he's not alone. He's not going to die alone because everyone hates him and it's all his fault for being a huge asshole in the first place.

"Please lie down, Detective."

Gavin stops struggling to sit up when he realizes the person is his person. His favorite person. He collapses back down in the bed, which hurts a lot more than it should. Probably because he fell off a fucking building and messed up the whole left side of his body and—oh yeah, also got shot too. That sucks.

It doesn't stop him from whining and making grabby hands—hand? his left arm and leg are both in casts, boo—until Nines bends over at the waist, and Gavin can drag his face close enough for kisses.

"Wooow." His brother says. "This is blackmail material forever, I hope you know that, Gav."

Wait, his brother? Eli??

"I will remove you from the premises," Nines tells him.

Eli scoffs. "My donation got you in here. Nines."

"And there is nothing on this earth that can remove me."

God, his partner is so hot and mean and cool. And he has a mouth! Gavin has a mouth too. They should … look into that. You know. Investigate.

"Hmm, and here I thought you didn't like my 'stupid toys,' bro."

Gavin stops trying to wrestle his mouth against his partner's mouth and looks at his brother, who is also in the same room as his partner, at the same time.

"Oh, shit," he says.

"Uh huh, uh huh." Eli nods and waves his hand in a sideways-circle. "Keep going. Either with an apology, or you can keep it up about how only a loser needs to build an android to have a girlfriend."

"This is different," Gavin says, very seriously while still leaning to the side to keep as much contact between his back and Nines's chest as possible.

Eli scoffs and gestures at the two of them.

"I don't keep him in my basement," Gavin argues.

"I didn't lock Chloe in mine either," Eli snaps back. "She's free to go where she pleases."

"Her and all her clones?"

"Oh, please. If I never invented her, you wouldn't have—"

"—lab is in your basement though, and that's—"

"Gavin," Nines says, voice right next to his ear. "Is your lack of contact with your brother due to this level of typical sibling fighting—"

"We're not fighting," Gavin says. "We're just talking and he's losing."

"You're the one dumb enough to get shot," Eli adds.

Nines straightens up. "Do not mock Detective Reed for being injured in the line of—"

"Whoa, whoa, hey." Gavin pats behind himself with his good hand as much as he's able. "Easy, babe. No combat protocols, OK? He's my brother."

"Hmm," Nines says.

"So he's like, super fucking annoying and all, but no one beats his face in except me." Gavin doesn't even pause before he turns back to Eli, who's already opening his mouth to bring up— "And you only got lucky with the water hose that one time, I can still kick your ass in any other fight."

Eli scowls, but he looks away instead of bringing it up. He still feels guilty about it. Goddamn genius, and he "didn't know" smacking Gavin in the face with the metal end of a water hose would bust his nose open like that.

Dipshit.

"You said you received your facial scar in a bar fight," Nines says.

Eli blinks, looks back over, then bursts out laughing.

"Shut up," Gavin groans. "You weren't supposed to meet like this, it's not fair!"

"How exactly did you plan on us meeting, Detective?" Nines asks.

Gavin keeps his right hand covering as much of his face as it can and doesn't answer. He hadn't really thought about it beyond how much Elijah was going to fucking gloat when he found out. And as much as he loves his partner, Nines is android-brothers with Connor, and they do android-mind-linking, and Connor is a horrible gossip, and Gavin does not need the entire precinct and/or world to know his brother is possibly the most famous man alive, thanks.

They have a whole arrangement about it. Maybe if he wasn't still feeling the effects of so much morphine, he'd be able to articulate that, and how he wants to be absolutely certain his career really advances on his own merit, and maybe even some other stuff about Eli getting way more attention than him and growing up in the shadow of his cooler, smarter, more popular half-brother …

Ugh.

"Ughhh," Gavin groans again.

"And when were you planning on finally texting me, huh?" Eli asks.

Gavin looks up so he can scoff. "You fucking text me, asshole."

Eli inspects his probably-already-perfect nails. "I've been busy."

"So have I!"

"Getting shot?"

Nines interrupts. "That reminds me." He leans down to growl close in Gavin's ear, "You will never do this again."

Gavin swallows back a moan. "Babe, please don't make me horny while my brother is in the room."

Nines rolls his eyes. "There is no other recourse for me to leave then."

He knows his partner is joking. He knows that. But between the morphine and the exhaustion and now the pain in his side slowly seeping back into his body—Gavin grabs onto Nines and clings to him.

Nines immediately bends back down and wraps his arms around him as best he's able. "Shhh. I will not. I am here, and I have you secure. Shhh."

He makes the shushing noises more like a stern librarian than a comforting boyfriend, but it's ironically comforting after all because Gavin knows no one else would literally say "shhh" like it's a word. So this must be his Nines, his boyfriend, his partner.

"Wow, this is really touching."

Gavin lets go just to flip Eli off.

"Can I get in on this snuggle fest? I haven't seen you in what, a fucking year now, and you get your dumbass shot."

Gavin grumbles about it, but he holds out his good arm for Elijah. The dumb asshole comes over and gives him a one-armed hug, careful not to wrap around too far and touch his side. Or his broken left arm. Broken left leg. Goddamn, he really did it this time, huh?

Once they've hugged it out, he pulls back and says, "Since I built your Nines, when he uses his combat protocols to kick your ass for this, that's basically like me kicking your ass."

"No way," Gavin immediately replies. "You haven't been able to kick my ass since we were ten, and don't—god. Don't phcking, say it like he's you about my ass. That's weird, bro."

Eli grins at him. "Oh, so you two are already doing butt stuff, huh? That's pretty serious, like third base."

"Anal is only second," Gavin tells him.

On his other side, Nines blinks red. "Then what … do you consider first?"

"Uh, a blowjob, duh."

"Wait, what's a handjob?" Eli asks.

"Nothing, between friends."

Nines blinks. "Then thank god Tina is not here."

Gavin looks back down at the bed. "I guess she's busy, huh?"

"No," Nines says as if that's reassuring. But he continues, "She is not allowed to see you. The hospital's visitation policy allows for 'legal' family visitors only."

Gavin looks back up at him. "Then how'd you get in?"

Nines scowls. It's one of the few facial expressions he's mastered. "I searched through every form you have ever submitted to the Detroit Police Department, found an emergency contact number listed for your brother from nearly fifteen years ago, called it, spoke to Elijah Kamski, and then pretended to be his assistant."

"But hey," Eli says. "After the amount of money I just donated, I could wheel in a giant birthday cake filled with Traci strippers, so I'm sure I can get Tina in whenever you're ready."

Gavin smiles weakly, but now he's thinking …

"Is that why you weren't there when I woke up?" he asks Nines quietly.

"It is the only reason," Nines assures him. "My next option after calling your emergency contact was to simply walk inside and see what they thought they could do to remove me."

He looks absolutely serious about it too. Gavin's smile breaks out into a grin, just imagining some poor fucking GS200 security guard nervously asking the most advanced military model ever made to p-p-please leave … sir? Wh-whenever you're ready though, no rush!

He gets the giggles, but then that really makes his side hurt. Nines helps him lie back down before he even realizes he's too tired to sit up anymore. He also gets petted through his hair and that's nice, that's sooo nice.

"I'm … love you," he mumbles.

"I know." Nines smooths his hair back one last time and kisses his forehead. "Rest now. You can talk to your brother more when you wake up. We'll both be here."

Gavin still clutches at him though. "And Tina?"

"Yes," Nines says. "And Tina. Hank too, although he will likely bring Connor."

"Ugh, Connor."

"Yes."

A yawn catches him before he can complain any more about that, and having a nap does sound really good right now.

"Eli, tell me what you're working on," he says, blinking repeatedly to try to keep his eyes open. "S'boring."

Elijah takes a seat next to the bed. "You mispronounced boyfriend, but OK."

"He's boring too," Gavin says, but like, in a loving way. "He filed my ta-a-haaaxes."

After that last yawn, he loses the blinking battle. Eli starts explaining something about a new form of titanium, and Nines keeps one hand resting solidly on the center of his chest, so Gavin knows he's there.

They're both right here.

***

this was a commission! my rates are $10 for 1k / $25 for 3k / or $40 for 5k, and you can also check out my patreon for my main reed900 series here ^^

#reed900 #gavin reed #dbh #dbh fic #dbh fanfic #my writing

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xenbiology · 4 years ago

Note

I work with a rescue as a foster caretaker, and we recently got in a bunch of Silkies removed from an unlicensed mill, so I'll be taking in a few soon. This is the first time I've had one that wasn't already socialized (ie. turned over from a wealthy family that didn't know what they were getting into), and in that case, the Silky was old enough that they didn't get up to much mischief, and only wound up staying with me for a few days. Do you have any advice for handling them safely? I've got plenty of experience with general Headcrab care, but, y'know, this is a special case.

Oh boy... the poor guys. Silkies are a pain and a half to care for, especially an unsocialized one.

Below the cut once more, since this got long!

I’m sure you’ve already done some research, but the most important thing to watch for with silkies is injury. Even something as simple as the corner of furniture can cut them pretty bad, because of the thinness of their skin. Because they get injuries so easily, and injuries are usually worse than normal, silkies are very prone to infections (and worse case scenarios, blood loss from even ‘minor’ injuries).

Young, rowdy, or otherwise skittish silkies can easily hurt themselves on simple furniture, or even on themselves. If they’re not already, you must file their claws and put beak caps on them.

Abscesses can become a problem if small injuries aren’t treated, or their environment isn’t clean. Keeping a clean, safe, soft environment is key with silkies- especially the clean part. Not only are they more prone to infections, inbreeding in the population has led to immunodeficiencies (as well as a whole host of other problems), meaning that they can get sick quite easily. Making sure everything is sanitary and their space is nice and clean is very important!

The issue then arises with the fact that, if they’re unsocialized and skittish, it can be very, very hard to properly file, trim, treat, and clean them and their space.

As much as I hate to say it- if they’re not already filed and capped, I would recommend finding a gentle way to capture and restrain them, and do it immediately. With any luck, they will find the process uncomfortable at best, and not downright terrifying. They certainly won’t like it, but it’ll keep them safe enough until you can properly socialize them, and make the process much, much easier.

As far as physically handling a silky- it’s the same as with any other crab, but try to be as gentle as possible, since they bruise very easily. If possible, try to use a blanket or towel instead of your bare hands, as even a very firm or tight grip can bruise them.

Once they are trimmed and capped, I recommend keeping them together in a single room with any dangerous objects removed, lots of soft toys, bedding, and hiding places. They need all the same thing as other breeds, but extra bedding, since they can get cold a bit easier.

Silkies don’t do well with other crabs, as other crabs can easily injure their castmates on accident, even while just playing. Keeping silkies with other silkies is a much better option, and keeping silkies alone with just people is the best. But considering they seem to have been raised together, keeping them together will make them much less stressed.

Another thing to note is the room should have lots of dark places to hide, and if there’s any windows, some curtains will do wonders. Though any crab can get sunburn, it’s especially nasty on these guys.

While they’re in their room, you can work on gaining their trust first and foremost to make the care process much easier. Same process as any other crab- time, treats, and exposure!

Hopefully by the time they’re properly used to you, they’re probably old enough not to get into too much trouble if you let them wander the rest of the house. Start with removing anything particularly sharp just in case, and keep some supervision on them until you’re sure they won’t find a way to hurt themselves, hah. They’re quite good at that.

If you plan on rehoming them, it’s important to get them used to other people. Their socialization is the same as any other skittish crab- start small with just friends and family visitors, and work up to their comfort level. The only difference is, again, a silkie’s aversion to sun and sharp objects. They should never be let outside, even on walks, as just sticks and concrete can hurt their feet and skin. The best way I’ve found to get them used to new sights and smells and sounds is one of those screened-in baby/pet strollers and carriers. It’s soft, provides comfort, shade, and keeps them from getting out. Honestly? I use this method for all of my crabs starting out. The only difference is that silkies don’t ever graduate to ‘walking on their own not in a carrier’... usually.

If they’re comfortable with it, it’s also possible to put little outfits on them to keep them warm, safe from the sun, and greatly reduce their risk of injury- including little boots to keep their feet safe if you think they would benefit from going on a real walk. Just make sure the fabric is soft and comfortable!

Other than the obvious, it’s important to just... keep an eye on them. All purebred crabs have an increased risk of health complications, but unfortunately, silkies have it bad. Bad immune systems, skin problems, infections, heart problems, and even complete blindness are all relatively common due to low genetic diversity. It’s doubly important to get them regularly checked out by a veterinarian to catch things while they’re early and treatable.

Aside from all of that- a silkie’s behavior is almost identical to that of any other crab. They might need slightly more protein and fats in their diet to keep them warm, but if you’re keeping them in a heated environment, it’s not a huge issue. They don’t require any other special foods, enrichment, or sociological treatment. They’re simply crabs who have a bad habit of getting hurt and sick, so you have to keep an extra eye on them!

Best of luck, and if you have any more complications, feel free to ask me (right after you consult your vet, of course).

#ic #headcrab facts #silky

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phoenixyfriend · 4 years ago

Text

The “Momma Sturmvoraus was Literally Satan” AU

As requested by @spazzbot. This AU was initially brainstormed on the GG fanworks server almost a year ago. Specifically, on the first day of 2020.

[ID: a truncated discord message by “Miss Nixy, Gay for RoboLadies” posted 01/01/2020. The message reads “I need to sleep but please for the moment consider:” and ends there.]

So. Let’s get to it.

Satan took a human form because why not see what's going on topside, live like a human, and “Oh shit is this pregnancy? This is pregnancy. Fuck, that's a tiny human. Which is now half demon. Am I supposed to take care it? Wonder if retconing this form into that Valois family was a bad idea. They do have SO much money though, I get to live like a queen. I suppose another child shouldn't hurt, it wasn't that bad. Oh, he's cute, this is actually making sense, why humans do all the sinning. Not counting dear Aaronev's murders, of course, those are just evil, but I did search out the worst of the humans to pair myself to...”

This is literally just "Tarvek and Anevka's mom was low-key Satan on a bored “let's be human for a decade or two to see what happens” jaunt, consequences happen because these kids are LITERALLY half-demon and arguably anti-Christs."

Also it's just Very Funny for Tarvek, ineffectual sexy lamp fashion twunk extraordinaire, to be an antichrist

Jeff thinks he’s pretty. Jeff keeps describing features that don’t entirely make sense. (Jeff’s canon name is Karl Thotep but they spent so long unnamed that the server collectively named them Jeff.)

This is not a crossover with anything, btw. Ambiguously Pop Culture Satan just got bored and went to have babies with a serial killer.

They’re just kids! That are vaguely demonic. So. Moreso than the rest of the Valois.

Sometimes "mom" comes back from the dead and visits Anevka and Tarvek to impart Wisdom and possibly magic lessons The rooms always smell faintly of sulfur after that...

They try to put Anevka in the machine but SHE isn't hurt and the MACHINE just melts

So that's the end of that.

It's very awkward for everyone, but the paperwork isn't too bad. It's very easy to write "incidental fire began during late-fugue experimentation, resulted in fire spreading through six rooms and several casualties, including Prince Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus."

As per @atagotiak, “I feel like if we’re going in any way dimensional weirdness with thing, Tarvek got so good at exploring bc he could just clip through walls.”

With image provided by @thisarenotarealblog:

Tarvek in Paris: My dead mother keeps showing up in my dreams to tell me I need to seduce my way out of my problems and also she looks like Satan. Tarvek's Voltaire-Appointed Therapist: I still don't know what that means. Just like the last five times. Tarvek: I keep telling her that I can’t seduce Colette, if seduction is that important she should get Anevka to do it.

Like he probably wouldn’t say most of that in front of any Voltaire-approved individual, but still.

Tarvek is still very good at self control but there's a Special Edge to his rants.

(Derailed in the moment to me thinking about Anevka in a sfw-but-concerningly-deadly succubus getup, because... yeah.)

Aaronev dies and goes to hell and his dead wife is just there like "hi! Time to be tortured for eternity!" He wasn't a good husband so. He can't exactly sentimentalize his way out.

“In the sexy way?” “... not for you, no.”

Mostly I just want the BULLSHIT that is "Storm Mom was actually just Satan getting bored and going on vacation as a retconned Valois girl, the kids are half-demons and sometimes it Shows."

To clarify: the Satan bit isn't the retcon. Grandma used to have one daughter. Now there are two. (Seffie and Martellus's mother doesn't remember being an only child, but sometimes...)

Satan retconned a new daughter in, which included a Valid Valois Venusian Vestment, so the blood tests play out.

The subtle signs of wrongness would be fun too. Anevka tends to smile a bit too wide and sharp for a human face. Inexplicable uneasiness, here you can’t point at any specific thing that’s wrong but it’s uncomfortable. Uncanny valley prettiness, almost like the porcelain she became in other timelines. Skin isn’t supposed to be that smooth.

My brain's pre-nap contribution at that point was "Satan's pronouns when not pretending to Human are sin/sinself" which is! Certainly a thing.

Tarvek, at some nebulous future point: I mean, your ancestors were monsters, but my dad was a serial killer and my mom was literally Satan, instead of just figuratively like Lucrezia, so. I mean. I kind of get what you're going through.

Per @firebirdeternal: Tarvek and Anevka growing up with "you're allergic to holy water" and not questioning it until a little later because What.

And then they test it and it's like "yeah, no, there's a rash now. That stung. What the fuck."

It INFURIATES Gil in Paris when Tarvek tells him that's a thing, because there's nothing chemically different about Holy water and regular water. But no, this is somehow happening.

It gets logged in medical journals as a Valois genetic thing because, well, Mom was like that too, right?

One time they both go into a church for an Adventure and Gil is very annoyed to find that Tarvek is like. Faintly smoking. It smells like burnt hair in here.

Gil: What smells like burnt hairgel? Tarvek: [glares]

Gil decides that it must be something particular to the church, like a fungus or something in the stone, contaminating the air and water so it only LOOKS like the holiness is what's setting off reactions.

It is not.

Tarvek once got into an argument with someone and ate a slab of raw, completely uncooked meat as a power move.

SVV seems to work perfectly. Everyone is fine. We get the ‘you fight like ducks’ moment.

And then Tarvek bursts into flames, and everyone panics because no they fixed this what the fuck is he still infected with Hogfarb’s oh my god... and then everything settles down and he's perfectly fine. Not a scratch on him, no longer turning funny colors. Completely unharmed. He's in a nicely tailored suit and looks faintly stunned

"I just met my dead mom, who's apparently Satan. She told me that after I died the first time just now, I should be harder to kill later, especially with fire, because now there's more demon and less mortal and guys I think I'm going crazy." "Is that a martini?" Tarvek looks down. "Apparently."

Tarvek starts just. Randomly setting things on fire by glaring too hard and has to tone it down. Meanwhile, Agatha and Gil are having crises about how he's somehow getting PRETTIER.

Is he faintly glowing? Maybe!

Gil handles it by angrily sniping at Tarvek about how of COURSE he's an evil little rat with a background like that.

Tarvek just wants a nap and to forget this ever happened. Many people are sworn to secrecy. It's very awkward.

Still, SVV did something, for handwave-y reasons, and so they're linked now. Gil and Agatha both getting tiny flashes of the same shenanigans.

They get none of the powers. They just keep getting Weird Shit.

Other characters with divine influence are like "Did you.... did you make a pact with a demon?" "What no that's our boyfriend."

Tho tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if a Heterodyne did sign a contract with a demon at some point in exchange for like. Materials. A hundred souls sacrificed in exchange for some succubus blood. Thanks!

Tarvek and Othar: Falling out of CW as in canon. Tarvek: WHAT THE HELL SINCE WHEN DO I HAVE WINGS HIDE THIS BEFORE I GET BOOTED FROM THE LINE FOR THE THRONE

IDK where Anevka is during all this. I think she might have decided to go sleep her way through the courts of the Ice Tsars. Vacation, y'know?

Othar after he's decided to make Tarvek his new Heroic Apprentice: AH, my poor afflicted young friend, it's noble of you to go against the dark nature of your tragic heritage like this. Tarvek: I hate you. I wish I could hate you to death. But you have a point. I shouldn't let my father's blood limit what I strive for in life. Othar: I... I thought your mother was... Tarvek: I know what I said.

Tarvek: Also you can't tell ANYONE about that, I can't have them thinking I'm not actually in line for the Storm King's throne.

He does admittedly have to like. Explain things to Grandma.

Terabithia is Tarvek’s maternal grandmother so this is supremely awkward. That said...

Grandma fondly remembers her pregnancy cravings; bone marrow and sulfur.

"Yeah so, my mother, your daughter, was... maybe actually Satan? But retconned into your life?" "Tarvek, darling, please. I figured that out half a century ago."

TARVEK ACCIDENTALLY FINDS HIM HIMSELF WEIRDLY INTENSE AT CONTRACTS

I mean that honestly just Tracks about Tarvek anyways? But like moreso.

He just. Writes something up and there's things getting signed or shook on and then the person tries to break the contract and either suddenly catch fire or are deeply unlucky for a set amount of time.

And Tarvek's just standing there like "how in the FUCK did I do that?"

Severity of infernal punishment depends on the severity of the breach of contract.

Tarvek finds out that Anevka's been convincing rich people to sign their souls over to her. It's a fun challenge. She keeps them in jars.

They can still remotely pilot their bodies but like. They can't TELL anyone what happened.

Satan: I'm going to go make babies and now everyone else has to deal with the consequences.

Anevka's living up to that whole "princess of hell" vibe. Tarvek's just like "nope nope nope I want the storm throne, not the hell throne, BYE MOM."

Satan's just feeling sinself down in hell like "awwww look at my babies go, aren't they adorable?"

Tarvek: Anevka, what... first off, how did you figure it out? Anevka: Well, I temporarily died when father put me in the machine, and... I can't say that hell kicked me out because they were afraid I'd take over, but mother DID say she'd rather I play about with human governments instead of Hell's. Tarvek: Okay, cool cool cool. What after you planning to DO with all these souls? Anevka: They make for some lovely reading lamps, don't they?

(Anevka absolutely sets herself the goal of acquiring new titles that rival her old ones, or even surpass them. She just black widows her way through Europa.)

I just want someone (probably Snackleford) to ascend, take one look at Tarvek, and run SCREAMING.

Tarvek still needed to be anchored to Higgs, because Tarvek is Baby.

Gil is eventually in a relationship with an Eternal God Queen and the Literal Son of Satan.

Family dinners can include ALL the in-laws if you duck down to hell! - You borrow Bill from... probably heaven, maybe purgatory. - You have Lu and Aaronev and Satan already there, though the first two... well. Aaronev and Lu get invited to dinner but they have to eat by themselves at the kiddy table and nobody talks to them or acknowledges their presence. After all, this is hell, and what better punishment for Lu than to be completely ignored, and for Aaronev to see Lu at her worst and be reminded that he gave everything for this horrible, horrible person who isn't even pretending to care about him anymore. - Zanta and Klaus get invited via portal. - Anevka saunters in with a blood-soaked dress and a complaint about militant demon-hunters refusing to let her go shopping for a new pair of shoes. - Zeetha tagged along with the OT3. (She can't wait to see this situation explode.)

Oh God, Satan is actually second place as far as good parenting goes.

Well, actually, fourth. Because Adam and Lilith. But second as far as bio parents go. 1. Zanta 2. Satan 3. Klaus 4/5. Lu and Aaronev N/A. Bill

Someone (Anevka) decides to stir the pot and invites Von Pinn, Terabithia, Bang.

Bang is basically Gil’s older sister, right? Right.

This is Zanta meeting Bang for the first time! Zanta is just: "It's so nice to meet my husband's adopted daughter." Klaus freezes. Bang freezes. Gil is the only one who is just. "Yeah." Meanwhile Zeetha is crying with laughter off to the side because both of them deserve this. (Zanta would legit love Bang though.)

Agatha: Tarvek, I think DuPree is-- Tarvek: Hitting on my sister? I know. Agatha: On your mom, actually. Tarvek: NO!

Also I do love the idea of like. Nobody tells Bang they're inviting her. She just wakes up in Hell like. "Ah. Yes. Fair enough."

Satan: Oh no no no my dear, you're here as a guest. Besides as well as you'd fit you're not one of mine, you've got other things waiting for you. Bang: Okay, but I love the decor. And is that Cheesecake?

Bang’s family has their own evil god in the novels, but! Bang DID pick on Tarvek a lot in Paris. Satan cares more than Anevka does. Bang might get the sexy punishment.

I feel like the fact that no permanent damage was done and it taught Tarvek a lot of things means Satan isn't gonna be all that upset about it.

And let's be real, if there's a character in GG who could look the literal Christian devil in the eye and be like "Yeah I tortured your kid, what're you going to do about it?" it's Bang.

Even Satan doesn't know what to do or think about Othar.

He sure is here! As Anevka’s arm candy! Nobody knows what to do except Anevka herself, who just wants to be Smug.

(What's that scene from Phineas and Ferb that's the mad scientist trapping the platypus within the rules of polite dining at a fine restaurant? Like he can't make a scene because that would be rude?) (That. Othar would dearly love to start a fight, but it's a Family Dinner. You're only allowed to fight verbally at those.)

(Othar isn't even fighting Satan, he just wants to argue with Klaus.) (And maybe fanboy in Bill's direction a bit).

#Girl Genius #Phoenix Posts #Anevka Sturmvoraus #Tarvek Sturmvoraus #Aaronev Sturmvoraus #Gilgamesh Wulfenbach #Agatha Heterodyne #Lucrezia Mongfish #Othar Tryggvassen #Bangladesh DuPree #Otharnevka #GG OT3

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shypotato-translations · 4 years ago

Text

QTVW Chapter 12

The Future* President's Fiancee (XII)

----

Early the next morning, the An family's living room was filled with visitors.

Sitting at the head of the table is the current head of the An family, Father An; while sitting on the left side of him are his sons and his daughter, and the guests from outside; and sitting on his right side are a dozen of the actual elders of the An family, who look the youngest to be over 60 years old, a genuine group of seniors and elders of the An family.

In the future world, a thousand-year-old family like the An family would normally have a family head who made external decisions, while internally, there would be a group of elders who acted as guides to the whole family, and even the family head could not disobey their orders.

This time, Father An had called these elders in order to silence these elders, so that they would give up for the time being and expel the An family oldest son from the An family's circle of power.

Father An looked at the elders sitting on his right and sneered in his heart, but said calmly on the surface,

"I have convened this clan assembly to make an announcement, and that is to temporarily hand over the affairs of the An family to my daughter, An Mu Lan, who has been acting as the assistant to the president of Ling Xihan for all these years. I wonder if the elders have any objections to this proposal of mine?"

The elders of the An family did not move, and a relatively young elder, speaking slowly and with a trifle of dissatisfaction in his voice, said,

"Clan head, we acknowledge that you are a capable and qualified clan head, but that doesn't mean that we, the elders, all have to listen to you. You previously allowed your rotten sons to manage the affairs of the family, and what happened? You recall how much trouble they have caused our An Family over the past few years, and how much they have disgraced our An Family. The An family's reputation is in tatters, and they continue to do as they please."

He cursed first, and when he saw that Father An's face remained unchanged, he coughed twice in defiance, then sat back sarcastically.

The eyes of the group of elders fell on the eldest of them all, and the old man narrowed his eyes and said,

"For the An family, back then I chose you as the head of the family so that you could lead our An family to glory, and over the years, you've always done a good job, but this time, you've crossed the line!

The so-called patriarch's first priority is to put the legacy and development of the An family as a top priority, but look at how you've done it, pushing your childish son into the acting patriarch position, then letting him cause trouble, and now trying to push your daughter out, don't think that because we old men have aged, we're really deaf and blind, we admit that Mu Lan is capable, but how old is Mu Lan this year, she's only just graduated from university a few days ago? Are you going to use the An family as a toy for you to raise your children?"

He spoke in an unhurried manner, and after he had finished, he even gave a light glance at Father An, causing his face to flush red at once, hurriedly explaining that,

"Second Uncle, you misunderstand. I ......"

Father An struggled to explain, but the elders just sat on the sofa without moving. Father An hadn't had anyone disrespect him like this since he became the patriarch, and today these people were acting like a straight-up slap in his face, and it was all because of his four unworthy sons.

This made him stand up in anger and yell at his sons, who were sitting to his left,

"Oldest! I've already negotiated a marriage with the Li family, you get this lowly woman out of here now, I don't want to see her in front of me again."

Father An had originally intended to retreat as an advance to satisfy the Elders first and to plan things afterwards, but he had overestimated his son.

Only to see that the oldest clenched his fist on his knee, he gritted his teeth and looked at Father An as if he were dead, then looked at Ye Zixuan with a sad, grieved face, Ye Zixuan had long been frightened by this serious environment at this time and was now teary-eyed, which made the oldest very impatient.

He retorted regardless,

"Father, I really love Ye Zixuan, please don't break us up, she is a good girl, I have been such a jerk all these years because I didn't have her by my side to support me, but now that she is back, she will become my wife and be a qualified matriarch's wife, she is so gentle and kind, she will definitely be able to carry our An family forward. "

Father An was dumbfounded!

The second one, who was better at reading people's faces than the older one, just raised his glasses on the bridge of his nose calmly and said,

"Big brother, I know you love Ye Zixuan, but you can't be capricious and put the An family out of your mind,"

When Father An heard these words, his face finally looked better, but what the second one said next almost made Father An faint with anger.

The second continued,

"I love Zixuan too, we both can't live without her, but the An family is equally inseparable from you, so it's better for me to marry her, I don't want to be the patriarch anyway, as long as big brother marries Miss Li, we can continue to be together."

When An Mu Lan heard this, her eyes glazed out of their sockets. Father An was even worse, he could no longer stand and his figure was wobbly.

Ah, how pathetic, thought An Mu Lan, sitting on the sidelines, gloating.

Father An was simply furious, his fingers trembling as he pointed at the second oldest, unable to utter a word in anger.

At this moment, Lao San added to the chaos and stood up, his teary-eyed eyes extended his arm towards Ye Zixuan in a gesture similar to a call. He said,

"Brothers, I love Zixuan, I would give everything I have for her, my heart, my liver, my life and my love!"

He twisted his face, as if wiping away tears, and then said righteously,

"So, it's better for me to marry Zixuan. Brothers, you must do what father says properly, the An family is fine without me, but without you, it's like a flying bird leaving its wings, a soaring fish leaving the sea, a house losing its pillars, how can you be so unreasonable. The An family will have no future without you, so you must be good.

Even if Zixuan and I get married, we can still be together forever as we remember, and I won't get in the way of you communicating your feelings."

When An Mulan heard this, the five features on her face completely shifted and a mouthful of old blood stuck in her throat, she raised her eyes and carefully looked at Father An, seeing that his expression at this moment was not much different from her own.

An Mu Lan's heart tsked and sighed: worthy of being a heroine with a Mary Sue aura over her body, even though so many years had passed, even though the weather had changed her initial appearance, the true love between them would never change!

What's with the QY vibe?

At that moment, a slightly cool palm landed on her hand, An Mu Lan turned her head to look over and saw a smiling Ling Xihan, who, in a rare moment of disregard for the scene, came close to her ear and whispered,

"It's a good thing you're genetically mutated or I would have returned you."

An Mu Lan nodded, yes, she was excluded from the core of the An family, and now it seemed fortunate that this was the case, or else there would have been another brain dead.

The scene became entertaining as Father An collapsed unsteadily onto the sofa, his face had an expression of irony as he gritted his teeth and looked at Ye Zixuan, that look, as if he saw Ye Zixuan as the culprit.

The elders of the clan, worthy of being elites who had lived half a lifetime, remained lofty and calm even under such circumstances, handsome and very dashing!

At this time, the grumpy fourth son rose to his feet, his gaze sweeping coldly over the crowd present, and said,

"Isn't it just a patriarchship? Why can't I be the head of the clan? Do you all have to hold on to us and force us to death before you are satisfied? Father, I think you are also old and it is time for you to retire from the stage of history, after this, I will be the one to carry the An family forward, and as for you old and immortal people, I will be the first to clean you up."

Father An covered his heart with a broken expression of "You're heartless, you're shameless, you're unreasonable".

The fourth son spun around in a dashing manner and cursed everyone present, one by one, without repeating the words, fully enriching An Mu Lan's vocabulary and thinking: I am impressed.

He paced slowly to Father An's side, picked up the cup of tea that was sitting next to him and played with it, saying viciously,

"I have put the □ in today's tea, none of you can escape today."

The crowd looked at him with a what's-his-name expression, which gave him great satisfaction, and lifting his head, he said,

"Go to hell."

The crowd still looked at him with that what's-his-name expression, which was, how shall I say, complicated. But simply put, it's the look of looking at an idiot.

An Mu Lan couldn't look anymore, she reminded kindly and in a whisper,

"But, Fourth Brother, none of us, apart from Father and our three brothers, have ever had tea?"

The Elders, Ling Xihan and Zhang Yao: "Yes."

Fourth: "......"

Oldest, second and third: "......"

Father An: "You brat!"

With that, a mouthful of old blood spurted out and he collapsed on the ground.

The image of blood splattering three feet is what An Mu Lan has now seen.

The scene rose in confusion as the oldest of the Elders spoke into his personal terminal,

"Come in, you guys."

The door opened forcibly from the outside and a large group of people poured in. Police officers in green uniforms tied up the fourth son and took him away; doctors in long white coats carried away the eldest, the second and the third, as well as Father An; maids in pink dresses cleaned up the blood on the floor of the room.

It all happened so fast and so suddenly that it was all resolved before An Mu Lan could get back to her senses.

The old man looked unchanged, only holding his cane, and with the help of those beside him, he walked up to An Mu Lan and held out his hand.

An Mu Lan was quick to reach out for a handshake, but his dry, thin hand turned in the direction of a fair-complexioned, sharply boned hand, and he said in a respectful tone,

"President Ling, I've made you laugh, but it's all going according to our plan, and I hope you won't forget our agreement."

Ling Xihan smiled lightly and said gently,

"Naturally, I won't forget, but Elder, there's one more thing you haven't said, right?"

The elder came to his senses and said to An Mu Lan,

"After this, the patriarch of the An family who is in charge is yours, so marry and have children with President Ling and live a good life, do you hear me?"

An Mu Lan made an out-of-sorts "Huh? Ah! Ah ......" a few times, then watched the group of elders leave.

It was only when Ling Xihan took her hand and walked outside the An residence that she came back to her senses and said with a surprised look on her face,

"You did this, didn't you? How did you do it? How did you get so clever? Here, give me a kiss."

And with that, she kissed her forcibly.

The corners of Ling Xihan's mouth curled up slightly and she wrapped an emotional An Mu Lan in her arms as she said,

"I said I would settle this matter, I just spoke to the elders of your An family about something that solved your An family's immediate problem. After that, I ordered a few more people to get in your brothers' heads and whisper on their ears a bit. I didn't expect things to go so well either, it's been a long time since I've met an opponent like this, other than being a bit disgusting, it's not bad."

That said, there was a bit of lamentation, because such a brain-dead opponent will really never be seen again.

An Mu Lan snickered, a light shone in her eyes, and with a big smile on her face, she said,

"I love you! You're a brilliant woman!"

"Well, you're getting all worked up over a little thing, lets go home, I'm hungry."

Ling Xihan rubbed her long hair and said dotingly.

An Mu Lan stood obediently with her head bowed, allowing her to be rubbed and pinched.

Suddenly, a white light flashed before her eyes.

An Mu Lan's gaze glinted and she vigorously pushed Ling Xihan aside before a violent collision came to her body and she felt the wind and pain. Her body landed on the ground with a "thud".

She collapsed in a pool of blood, and felt the blood inside her body as it trickled out, what a familiar sight, it reminded her of when she had died.

With a pale face, Ling Xihan stood up and walked over to pick up An Mu Lan.

Then without the slightest emotion, as if looking at a dead man, she glanced at Zhang Yao who was sitting in the flying car laughing maniacally, before turning around and entering a flying car and heading to the hospital.

In the white corridor, Ling Xihan lit a cigarette and smoked it slowly; she hadn't smoked in a long time. She had always been a heavy smoker and couldn't quit, but then how did she quit?

Thoughts drifted through her mind as a familiar girl, pouting, put her arm around her and wrinkled her nose,

"Don't smoke, they say that's bad, it affects the quality of kissing."

Ling Xihan extinguished her cigarette, then turned around and left the hospital.

The doctor's words** echoed in her mind,

"The Miss An Mu Lan, who has suffered a severe trauma to the back of her head, has affected the nerves in her brain and may become a vegetable, but President Ling, please rest assured that our hospital will do our best to treat your fiancée."

A vegetable?!

No matter what, before that happens, she needs to find a person and get it off her chest.

#shypotato #yuri #transmigration #world hopping #QTVW12

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aleniksimmer · 4 years ago

Text

Hi, as I mentioned in my last post, here is an update regarding everything. I was planning to post it earlier but it took me several days to complete.

First of all, thanks to all the people who reached out during this rough time and thanks to everyone who follows my work for the patience. I needed some time for myself and my mental health and now I’m slowly going back on track. I’ll try to organize this post as much as possible so you don’t need to read everything if you’re not interested to.

My pets

The lab result about the autopsy on my dog were sent to us recently. The official cause of death has been heart-respiratory failure due to a malformation of the heart no one knew about. This disease had already started affecting other organs before the heart failure but it couldn’t have been detacted without specific exams. Due to a twist of fate, this is the same genetical issue that affect my father, brother and myself. We could have probably been preventing the heart attack if we knew this when she was a puppy, she loved to run chasing the ball or simply wandering around in our garden and field. Maybe we could have tried to make her take it easier, but no one has been the wiser. I don’t believe in paradise but I like to imagine her soul being around and running happily.

On another note, Stige is doing as “best as she can”. The left ear is completely healed in terms of operation wound and tissue since the tumor has been completely removed. The right ear is “stable”. There she rejected the surgical thread and the metal pins that we tried to put later to close the remaining skin. This caused the wound to enlarge (it’s around 7cm large, from the top of the eye to what’s left of the ear) but now it seems to have stopped (notice that this is a result of months). After all the necrotic tissue “broke off” along with some cartilage, the remaining one started creating mass. In most points it’s almost at the same level as the skin, but the vet can’t say if it’s scar tissue or neoplastic, the only sure thing is that the edges are slightly better than before. This growth is also affecting the internal ear, meaning that if she isn’t already due to the damage, she will certainly become deaf from that ear. The worst case scenario is the neoplastic tissue (that attacks only soft tissues) is going to spread to the pharynx and esophagus, making difficult for her to breath and eat. I talked to the vet about possible therapies against the cancer, but the only option to block it (still not 100% sure) is radiations, which are extremely expensive and aren’t done in my region. They aren’t something me and my family can afford, due to economic and transport reasons, not to mention the lockdown forbid us to go out of our region. She also have fragile skin and I’m slowly finding out wounds beneath the fur (she’s way fluffier than my cat), I was able to heal 3 of her paws, one is still healing cause it somehow regressed open. Last week I also find a bad wound on the tip of her tail, I cut off the fur but the wound is expanding and covers more than half of the skin, I tried to treat it as I treat the others but the scab is extremely hard and only today I was able to create a small opening to drain part of the blood and fluid, even if it’s extremely painful for her. I also have some small good news, she’s been very curious about my cat lately. She can’t stay out of the cage or without the cone unsupervised cause she can hurt herself with my dad’s tools and she tends to self harm on the wound, but I noticed she’s always looking for my cat (who’s free to roam around) and, I know it sound strange, after she saw her sharping her claws she started doing that too. She was also extremely afraid of jumping down the table cause she never tried after the operation months ago, but after she saw my cat do it easily, she keeps doing it every time I put her out of the cage (before I had to pick her up myself). She’s not the best with balance due to her right ear, but she still manages to land on her feet. She also restarted meowing when she knows it’s time for her treat after I medicate her cause it’s what my cat does when it’s time to go into the cage at evening, and I also think she is starting to like being taken in arm (I usually do this to help her get comfortable with human contact). I hope with all of my heart she can recover from this and beat the cancer. She started as a stray but I consider her my pet now and I love her as much as my cat.

Speaking of my cat, she seems to have completely recovered and doesn’t give signs of the illness coming back. She spends the afternoon out, but before it’s dark she comes back inside the garage cause it’s cold and the past winters she used to sleep with my dog for warmth. She seems to have been adapted well to this new routine. In the evening, when I medicate Stige, she usually runs around the garage or play with her stuffed toy by herself, she throw it around, pretend to hide (she’s gained weight as Stige so she’s not very good at hiding behind things) and then attack it like a T-rex. It’s a great distraction both for me and Stige while dealing with cleaning the wound. She also reduced a lot the hissing towards Stige, but is still wary (even if the only one to ever hiss or show claws was her, Stige or doesn’t care or looks at her like “wtf is wrong with you”). I’m so so glad she recovered well, and being able to spend so much time with her due to the new routine is amazing since my family has the policy “no animals inside the house”.

Miraculous

Uhm. It’s kinda hard to admit this and I hope you don’t get mad at me for this, but I paused any miraculous project and I don’t know when I’m going to restart. I know I left with Nino incomplete and still haven’t finished my second wave of sets, and I feel guilty for it, but, as I said several times, if I’m not feeling it I’m not going to work on it to avoid making things poorly. For weeks I was afraid to ask myself if I don’t like the show anymore, since I don’t even “consume” fanart now, but I’m pretty sure I still love it. I guess I became so detached from it due to several reasons, like I’m wating for the new season as everyone and when I looked for fanfics to “fill” the wait months ago I didn’t quite find what I was looking for, so I stopped reading them too. I’m also trying to not guilt my mother for this, cause in the end is my decision, but I kinda had to also stop rewatching old seasons for example during breakfast cause if she notices it she becomes super "bad mood” and I don’t like the sensation of her being a ticking bomb. My brother’s phylosophy is do what you like and ignore her, but I would rather avoid any possible conflict cause she tends to backstab you with wath you love till she destroys it if she doesn’t like it. So, uhm, in conclusion at the moment I feel like is better if I put miraculous in a drawer till I feel like I can handle it with the same enthusiasm as before. I’m really sorry for this.

Other CCs and Sets

At the moment I don’t plan on working on any other set (KDA included). I don’t feel like I can handle it in terms of focusing my mind on big projects. On the other hand I’m (slowly) making some random things, especially accessories, if I feel particularly inspired. I hope you can still like some of them.

I wanted to apologize for my last post about the paranormal SP and other things I posted on other socials in the whim of my negative emotions. I’ve realized I’m being particularly “salty/bitchy/killjoy” how you want to call it. I’m not proud of it and I’m sorry if it felt off. I feel like I have so much negativity/anger hidden behind the surface and I’m looking for a way to release this energy without any damage. In the meantime I’ll do my best to try to avoid posting while I don’t have a clear mind.

Thanks again to all the people who have been here despite everything. Your support means everything to me ❤ hope you are all good and safe ❤❤

#faq #mandorla #ecliss #stige #long post

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