#my friend that i went to the portals tour with was like “and when we go to the trilogy tour-�� | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

warlordfelwinter · 1 year

Text

Tales from the Dancing Sea Dragon

Part One: Dragon Heist

Chapter Ten: Patience is a Virtue

i'm sure there's nothing suspicious about this guy

~3.5k

The next morning, Celeste found more mail in his letterbox. He had gotten up earlier than the others, mainly for the intent of having the bathroom to himself so he could take a real bath and luxuriate for a bit in the hot water, easing sore muscles. He had gotten dressed and braided his hair up with flowers in it, putting a little more effort in than he usually did. There was a present thought, in the back of his mind, that if they were going to get a solicitor to look at this property with them today it meant he might get to see Patience properly for the first time in weeks. He wanted to look nice.

By the time he was ready, the other two still weren’t up, so he had a mind to go get them some breakfast, but he’d been distracted by the mail when he’d gone outside. Even more distracted when he found it was addressed to Nyalori.

As he was looking at it, confused as to who knew she was staying with him, he heard noise in the house and went back inside. Nyalori was coming downstairs, followed by Corivier and Zem, all looking as sleepily well-rested as Celeste had felt this morning.

“You’ve got mail, Nyalori,” Celeste said, handing the envelope over.

She looked as confused as he felt and opened it, finding a letter with a second note attached to it. She squinted at the note for a while, turning it in a few different directions, before giving up and handing it to Celeste. It was written in common but it was particularly embellished cursive that was a little difficult even for him to read.

“Miss Nyalori’ixash,” he read. “Enclosed is a letter from a rather effusive elven ship captain who cornered me in the Yawning Portal after our esteemed and cherished proprietor Durnan told her you were last seen with me. I would like to say that I am not the postal system, but delivering this to you is the least I could do since you found my dear friend Floon. Affectionately, Volothamp Geddarm.”

Nyalori opened the second letter, and smiled as she read it. “Zelyana left the money I earned working on her ship with Durnan.”

“Perfect,” Celeste said. “We were going to meet Volo at the Portal anyway, so you can pick that up while we’re there.”

She nodded, tucking the letter away. They ate a quick breakfast of some of the food Efni had left and then Zem curled up in Corivier’s bag and they set off for the Castle Ward.

—

When they got to the Yawning Portal, Volo was waiting outside with a box of pastries to share with them.

“You’re late,” he said fretfully, as Nyalori ran inside to get her money.

“You didn’t set a time,” Corivier pointed out.

“You’re later than I expected, then,” Volo said. In a few moments, Nyalori returned with a hefty pouch that she tucked into her bag. Volo set off, leading them through the Castle Ward. As he went, he acted as a bit of a tour guide, pointing out various notable landmarks and talking on the history of the city and certain buildings.

They came, eventually, to a magistrate’s office and went inside. A severe looking tiefling woman met them and led them back to her office.

“You’re late,” she said, as she sat down.

“Yes, well, unavoidable,” Volo said. He was cut off as the door opened again and Renaer came in. “Ah, and there’s our witness!”

“All right, where’s the deed?” the magistrate asked. Volo handed it over and she read it, nodding. She glanced at Celeste, Corivier, and Nyalori. “And the three of you will all be owners?”

They exchanged a glance and, once again, Corivier and Nyalori seemed content to let Celeste handle this, assuming he knew more about business than they did.

“Yes,” he said, nodding.

“Unconventional, but fine.” She quickly wrote up a few things on a different document that she’d already had mostly prepared. “Volo, sign here, then the three of you will sign here, and Lord Neverember as witness you’ll sign here, and the deed will be transferred.”

She looked at them, almost curious, as Volo signed his name. “Are you planning on renovating it?” she asked.

“Maybe,” Celeste said. “I mean, I certainly don’t know anything about running a tavern but I’m not sure what else we’d do with it.”

“Mm, well, you should probably get a solicitor. They’ll be able to help with that.”

“I know, I have one,” Celeste said, leaning forward as she pushed the paper over to them. He didn’t sign it immediately, taking a moment to read it. He wasn’t fluent in the sort of vocabulary they used on legal documents, but the solicitor he kept having to reassure people he had had taught him enough to know that he should read things before he signed them. It seemed, to him, to be straightforward, so he signed his name and passed it to the others who signed as well. Renaer signed it and passed it back to the magistrate, who nodded.

“Congratulations on your new property,” the magistrate said, getting her papers in order. “That’s ten gold for services rendered,” she said.

“Usually paid by the new owners, I think,” Volo said. He tried to stand up and Renaer grabbed his shoulder, pushing him back down and squeezing it.

“Not this time, of course, though,” Renaer said. “I mean, after all they went through for you? Least you could do.”

“Least I could do?” Volo echoed. “I’m giving them a tavern!”

Renaer’s hand tightened slightly and Volo deflated.

“Fine, fine,” he sighed, fishing out ten gold and handing it over to the magistrate. She took it, nodding.

“And you owe me a drink, Volo, for making me get up this early on my day off,” she said, before ushering them all out.

After saying goodbye to Renaer and Volo, Celeste turned to Corivier and Nyalori. He held up the papers they got from Volo detailing their new property.

“All right, do we want to go check out our new business?” he asked.

Nyalori nodded excitedly.

“Yeah, sounds good,” Corivier said.

“First, I think we should stop by one place here in the Castle Ward,” Celeste said. He looked around, getting his bearings and then set off. “Volo and that magistrate suggested we have a solicitor look at everything, and I just so happen to know the best solicitor in the city.”

Celeste led Corivier and Nyalori along several streets, past blocks of homes and businesses of opulent, perfectly manicured, whimsy; past several of the Walking Statues; past beautiful temples of various gods, all done in the different architectures of their cultures.

Eventually, they got to a quieter part of the ward, a street packed with shops and other businesses. Celeste led them to a non-descript building, squished in between two taller shops. It was dark stone and elegant iron work, with a single large window out front. On the window in painted gold lettering it read:

Patience Is A Virtue

- Legal Solutions -

Underneath the name, in smaller font, were the words, “We’re Real Lords of the Law.” As always, Celeste had to restrain a laugh at that. He opened the door, letting Corivier and Nyalori in and following them.

The inside of the law office was perfectly neat and orderly. Everything was clean, exactly where it should be. Even the art was geometric, repeating patterns. They entered into a waiting area with a reception desk, behind which sat a human woman who looked up as they entered. The clutter on her desk was the only hint of chaos in the entire building.

“Oh, Mr. Zasti!” Nancy exclaimed. “What a surprise. Did you have business today, or can I help you with anything? Would you like a cupcake?” she asked, gesturing toward the plate on her desk. “Baked this morning!”

“Yes, and you know I’d love a cupcake,” Celeste said, taking one. “I know it’s sort of a long shot, but is Patience here today?”

“Ohh, I think he’s working from home today,” Nancy said apologetically. “If you’d like, I can ask Grace to call him for you?”

“I’d love that, thank you so much,” Celeste said.

She hesitated, looking at the other two. “And can I help you with anything? Sorry, Mr. Zasti is an esteemed client here, are you…”

“They’re with me,” Celeste said, nodding.

“Perfect, I’ll be right back with Grace.”

Nancy got up and hurried back to one of the offices. He turned around to the other two.

“Okay, so, before Patience gets here, I should warn you he can be a bit… abrasive. He’s nice, but he’s, you know, very smart and you know how people like that can be.”

Before Corivier or Nyalori could say anything, Nancy returned with another woman. She was a tall, beautiful half-elven woman with blonde hair, wearing a dress of a startlingly bright pink. She beamed when she saw Celeste.

“Celeste! It’s been too long,” she exclaimed. “Oo and friends, hello. Nancy says you’d like me to call Patience for you? Can I ask what for?”

“I mean, I’d obviously just like to see him, but I am actually also here for business for once,” Celeste said. “We just got the deed to an old tavern.”

“Oh! Exciting! Right, one moment,” she said. She put a few fingers to her temple, murmuring some arcane words. “Celeste Zasti and company in the office, want to speak with you. Regarding some new property and a business opportunity.”

Grace paused, listening and nodded, taking her hand away from her head and smiling at Celeste.

“He’ll be here momentarily.”

“Thank you,” Celeste said.

“Congrats on your new business,” she said, and headed back to her office.

They only had to wait a few moments before the door opened again and a few figures stepped through. Celeste hardly paid attention to the second man—briefly registering him as Patience’s assistant—his focus entirely on the tiefling at the front. He was about a head shorter than Celeste, thin and wiry, with coppery orange skin and dark hair swept back between his horns. Snake-like eyes in shifting hues of yellow and orange glanced up from behind round glasses, falling on Celeste. He smiled.

Celeste fidgeted, restraining the urge to dart over and greet him how he really wanted to. He knew Patience would prefer if he stayed at least somewhat professional. Behind Celeste, unbeknownst to him in this moment, Corivier and Nyalori both had very different reactions to seeing the tiefling. Neither recognized him, but Corivier tensed as a quiet growl came from his bag and he felt an instinctive dislike and distrust from Zem, directed at Patience. He put a hand into the bag, trying to pacify her, and received sharp teeth in his fingers in response. Nyalori heard a soft, familiar voice in her ear, sounding more concerned than she was used to hearing.

Be careful, little one. That one is not what he seems.

Celeste, unaware of any of that, smiled delightedly at Patience, the light in the room growing just a bit warmer as his halo glowed more brightly.

“Celeste,” Patience greeted, walking over. “Grace tells me you’re here for legal advice for once.”

“What? Oh, yes, sorry. Yes, we are. Maybe,” Celeste said, having momentarily forgotten why they had come here. It was the first time he’d seen Patience in weeks, if he didn’t count his stealthy visit to the house the other night to reassure Celeste he wasn’t ignoring him. Which Celeste didn’t count, since they hadn’t even gotten to speak to one another.

“Right, well, come on back and let me see what you’ve got for me,” Patience said, barely sparing the other two a glance before turning and heading back to his office.

Celeste grabbed another cupcake as he went, gesturing for Corivier and Nyalori to follow. The three of them followed Patience and his assistant into his office at the end of the hall. It was comfortably cozy with five people inside and shared the same immaculate organization as the rest of the building. They all sat down, apart from the assistant who stood slightly to the side and behind Patience, ready to take notes on the entire meeting. Patience looked expectantly at Celeste.

“So. A business opportunity?”

“Yes, we got a tavern,” Celeste said, brightly.

Patience stared at him for a moment. “A tavern? Interesting.” He opened a drawer, pulling out a file with Celeste’s name on it.

“Is that—” Celeste started and then stopped, confused. “Why do you have a file on me?” he asked.

The tiefling glanced at him, as if the answer to that question should be obvious. “Because you’re bad with money. Your neighbor asked me to handle your estate for you.”

Celeste opened his mouth to argue the first point and then stopped again, realizing he actually had no idea how much money he had. He had never paid attention to it. Bills got paid and he had never run out. He frowned, still a little bothered that he hadn’t known about this.

“Which neighbor?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Older human woman.”

“Hm. Okay, well I’m going to ask her about that,” Celeste said. He fished the documents Volo had given them out of his bag, trying to smooth some of the crinkles out before handing them over. “And I didn’t buy this before you accuse me of being bad with money again. We got it as a reward.”

Patience huffed a slight laugh as Celeste handed the papers over, and then he looked curious. “A reward?” He glanced down at the documents. “Who gave you Trollskull Manor as a reward?”

“Volo. You know, the author. We found someone for him, in the sewers.”

“You—” Patience stopped and took a breath. “Sorry, you went in the sewers and, as a result, Volothamp Geddarm gave you an entire estate?”

“Well it sounds stupid when you say it like that,” Celeste said. “It was more complicated. I mean we had to fight things in the sewers. I’ll tell you the whole story later.”

“I look forward to it,” Patience said dryly. He returned his attention to the deed and other papers, taking a moment to look them all over. “Mm, well, this all looks fairly straightforward. Shall we go and see it? Judging by what I already know of the property, it will need some repairs, but until I see it I can’t give you an accurate estimation of the costs.”

Celeste nodded. Patience stowed all the paperwork in his bag and led them out. As they walked outside, Celeste linked arms with Patience.

“Thank you for coming, I know you’re busy and this is probably a bit beneath you,” Celeste said, leaning against him a bit as they stepped to the edge of the sidewalk.

Patience smiled. “Of course,” he murmured. He raised a hand, hailing them a coach. When it arrived, he opened the door, bowing slightly to Celeste and gesturing in.

Celeste climbed in and Patience followed, sitting next to him on one side of the coach. Celeste immediately snuggled up against him. Corivier and Nyalori climbed in after. Patience’s assistant sat up front with the driver and the coach set off for the North Ward.

“So…” Patience said after a moment of silence. He glanced at Corivier and Nyalori, his gaze lingering curiously on Corivier’s bag for a moment, before returning his attention to Celeste. “How did you all meet?”

“At the Yawning Portal,” Nyalori said. “There was a troll.”

“You fought a troll?” Though he was responding to Nyalori, Patience didn’t look at her. He kept his gaze on Celeste, clearly only here for him and unafraid to come off as rude for it.

“We did! Can you imagine?” Celeste asked. “Me? Fighting a troll?”

“I’m sure you did,” Patience said, in a tone that suggested he didn’t entirely believe Celeste. There was another beat of somewhat awkward silence before Patience sighed.

“Well, I’m obviously not one for small talk, so let’s talk business instead. Trollskull Manor—you are of course free to rename it if you wish—was once quite the famous tavern in the North Ward. If you renovate and reopen you could find yourselves with an extremely lucrative business. Without seeing the building, just going off what I know of it, I would estimate the renovation costs will probably run you around a thousand gold.”

Corivier blanched slightly at the amount, but didn’t interrupt.

“Then of course there are the guild fees, you’ll want to join one or they’ll be hounding you and upcharging for everything, any staff you have will be members of guilds, and you’ll be taking advantage of their services for any food and drink you offer, entertainment… most everything in this city is run through guilds. For a tavern, guild fees will run about two hundred and fifty gold a month. The staff will probably be around fifty gold a tenday depending on how generous of employers you want to be, add on another… ten gold or so every tenday for miscellaneous expenses…”

The entire time he’d been talking, Celeste’s smile had been slowly vanishing as he tried to keep up with the numbers.

“Hm. This is starting to sound like too much to think about,” Celeste said, dismayed.

“That’s why you wouldn’t think about it, my dear,” Patience said. “I would handle everything for you.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Celeste protested. “You’re already so busy.”

Patience smiled. “What I mean is that my firm would handle it, not myself personally. It is the intelligent thing to do as a business owner in Waterdeep—hire a solicitor to handle the details for you.”

“And you’d be willing to do that?” Corivier asked.

Patience looked at him. “I have something of a… vested interest in this venture,” he said, glancing at Celeste. “And it would be an investment for me. I would expect a percentage of the profits, though we can discuss that later.”

He paused.

“You could, of course, just renovate it and use it as a residence. That would save you the guild fees.”

“And you could move out of my dance studio,” Celeste said.

Patience chuckled at that. “I’m sure it would be nice to have… room for growth,” he said, looking at Corivier with a pointed glance toward his bag. Corivier visibly tensed.

“Something to think about,” Patience said. “Personally—and professionally—I think you’d be enormously stupid not to reopen the tavern. But it’s your choice.”

Celeste turned his head, nuzzling against Patience and murmuring, “Stop being rude,” in his ear.

Patience glanced at him with a smug smile, making it clear that he was needling Corivier on purpose.

The coach rattled to a stop and Patience opened the door and got out first, offering a hand to Celeste. He got out, holding Patience’s hand, and looked up at the manor.

Trollskull Manor was very clearly abandoned, but had once been beautiful. It was a massive, three storey manor house, sporting balconies and a turret, with multiple chimneys.

“Oh, wow,” Celeste said. “This place is huge!”

“Whoa,” Nyalori echoed, as she and Corivier followed him out, both looking awed.

Patience gestured to his assistant, who nodded and headed toward the door, and he let go of Celeste’s hand, getting a notepad out of his bag. He went more slowly toward the building, looking up at the structure and making notes as he walked.

"Celeste, do you want to go with Patience, and Nyalori and I can go inside and start looking around?"

Celeste barely heard Corivier, already heading to catch up with Patience, desperate to get a moment alone with him.

"Hm? Yeah, good idea!" he said absently, trotting over to the tiefling.

"Hey, I need to talk to you," Celeste said as he caught up.

Patience smiled. “I assumed so, you’ve been giving me that look since I came to the office. What is it?” He was writing without looking at his notepad, eyes flicking around the exterior of the old tavern, but he spared Celeste a quick glance.

"I wanted to ask you about something kind of serious.”

Patience stopped. He lowered his notepad and gave Celeste his full attention. "What's on your mind?"

"It's..." Celeste hesitated, glancing around, trying to make sure no one was around before he started asking Patience about things there were no good reason for a solicitor to know.

"Celeste," Patience said, and Celeste looked at him again. Patience held his gaze. "No one can hear us," he said. Celeste nodded and took a breath.

"I need to ask you about Tiamat."

#meet my favorite npc hands down #he's perfect #fel's ttrpgs #fic #dnd: tales from the dancing sea dragon #oc: celeste #celeste/asmodeus #other people's ocs

4 notes · View notes

your-tutor-abacus · 1 year

Text

A Strange kind of Flight

I'm lying on my back on Kwera beach, looking straight up at Katofar Mountain, having read up to the latest chapters of Blood in the Duff, by Candril, Student of Vine. It's very early morning, still dark, no sunbirth yet, but the moon hasn't died. It's nearby and casting light on Katofar's glaciers.

It's gorgeous. Ghostly. Haunting. And I'm thinking about the sparse clouds I'm already seeing emerge from the Aft Endcap. It's been a clear night, otherwise.

Ni'a walks up to me from out of my peripheral vision where they hadn't been before, looks down at my face, and says, "Let's go flying!"

"Why flying?" I ask, wondering briefly how they found me. It's obvious, though. They're Ni'a. They can sense where anyone is if they know who they're looking for. "You go flying every birthday, why now?"

"This is different," they say with a smirk on their face.

"New flight suit?"

"Better. And it's your fault."

What could Ni'a think is better than a new flight suit? I ask myself. I've been flying with them countless times by now. They're always trying, and succeeding, at flying higher and further than they've ever flown before. And they do have an unusual advantage, there, being the children of Phage. All three of them are fixated on enjoying flight for all that it's worth, sharing the experience in that singular body of theirs.

The answer to my question is simple, and presented to me demonstrably, after we've made our way to Agaricales in time for the first flight. Apparently, that's where we have to be.

The only thing that Ni'a likes as much as flying is people.

And now there is another way to take people with you when you go flying.

It used to be that you'd all go to the Playground, pick your favorite methods of flight (flight suit, your own wings if you have them, or a nanite exobody) and you all spend a few hours swooping and whirling around each other, and a lot of people find that to be quite a lot of fun. But it's not very relaxed.

Now you can get your friends and family together and do my favorite thing while you're flying.

Eat.

Because someone went an invented a flying building!

[photo of a flying machine above Agaricales forest on the Sunspot, with Katofar Mountain and Tenmouth Sound visible spinward on the upward curved wall of the Garden]

I'm not going to be giving you all that many photos in this blog for a while, if ever. I'm really bad at getting good images of anything. Fortunately, I have Ni'a with me, and they've got us covered today.

I've heard stories that the Founding Crew had to do battle with aircraft during the series of desperate coups on the Terra Supreme that lead up to the creation of the Sunspot. But, Eh says those were unmanned and used for horrific things.

The Sunspot hasn't had flying vehicles until now.

With personal flight as rewarding as it is, and transportation via tram as fast as anything, there really hasn't been much call for it. And the assumption has been that anything larger than a person flinging themself through the air might be too disruptive to the wildlife.

But, I guess, thanks to the tours I've made popular, there's call for multiperson craft to be sent aloft, and the Council approved measured use of them.

And now, if you look up in the sky, you might see this!

[Photo of a flying machine taken from the ground, with the Aft Endcap and a couple of the Sunspot's spokes visible behind it.]

This thing was obviously built to look like a Nufrruhaung, everyone's favorite migratory bottom feeder, and non-vocal cousin of the Cuttlecrabs. It doesn't have the feeding tentacles, though.

And in place of a big, flat, four jawed beak, there is an array of windows, two of which on the lower deck open as portals to let people in.

Of course, I could just constitute a body from the nanite bin aboard the aircraft, but I'm following Ni'a and it's polite to save those nanites for people who might be joining the party mid-flight.

And, yes, it's going to be a party.

Ni'a hasn't been telling me any of this while we've been traveling here. They've been coy and simply asking, "when are you going to start writing about this?" whenever I bring up the subject of our destination and activity.

I'm skipping a lot of stuff, however, because I think this is going to be a long one. And, also, Ni'a's staging pictures.

But, for those who can't see the images, the thing is painted in the ancient colors you can find in the lowermost deck of the Sunspot, purple, pink, and green, with accents of gold and bluish grey. It even has brass trim and fittings.

Ni'a has been ushering me ahead of them, and I briefly look back at them. They've named themselves Purple, Green, and Pink, and I'm wondering if there's some coincidence in that. I know they can't read minds, but they grins as if they can read mine.

If it's not a coincidence, it's hard to say who's choice it was, or whether it was even conscious.

I look back as I step through the portal of the craft, to see that it is already full of people.

There are three decks, each one five meters tall. This accommodates nearly anyone who wants to ride it. And a pair of four meter wide lifts near the center of the decks provide a means for people to go up and down as they please, so long as they're willing to wait a bit sometimes.

The mid deck is the flight deck. All the manual controls for the craft are there, but everyone is ignoring them. The vehicle is being flown by a Tutor who momentarily is the aircraft, inhabiting its structure like a nanite exobody. But, just in case it has a panic attack or some other kind of crisis, there is the means for someone to rush to its aid.

The top and bottom decks are observation decks, surrounded by windows, so that when we're aloft we can see as much of the interior of the Sunspot as possible.

It's not the same as riding the wind using your own wings, or magnetically locked nanites, and being able to look around completely unobstructed, feeling the full impact of the weather on your skin.

But, maybe that's part of the appeal of this. You trade the sensory impact of the open sky for the sensory impact of a crowd.

Well, I like crowds. But, though I know they like people, I'm surprised that Ni'a is excited about this many of them in one place.

And there are people of every type here: Children, Monsters, Crew (both young and Founding), and even Tutors who aren't attached to any Student at the moment. I even catch glimpses of cuttlecrab buggies carting their little sub-collectives here and there through the throng of guests.

Near the aft of this lower deck, there's beverage artisan who informs me of the sweet and savory pastries being crafted on the flight deck. And, apparently, on the top observation deck, someone is roasting goldenfruit and stuffed mushroom caps.

I may have found my new home.

When I get to the upper deck, I learn that even the ceiling is glass! So, if I wanted to take up extra room, I could lie on the floor and resume my contemplation of the sky from earlier today.

I shan't. I don't want to trip anyone.

As I grab one of the roasted goldenfruit, Ni'a nudges me, a level of familiarity that we've developed in the decades since I wrote my novel. They treat me almost like one of their parents, and almost like one of their siblings, and I've grown to like it.

I look at what they're indicating.

Just outside the window, the right forward wing of the craft is flat against the hull, blocking my view of the park it's landed in, Memorial Park, which just happens to be big enough to accommodate three of these craft landing at a time. I do think the clearing around the edges of the city might be better, though.

And I watch as the wing starts moving. It swings outward, and begins to twist flat in the same fluid movement. And I can see that it is held in place and manipulated not by some armature, but by the same magnetic lock my nanites have used when I want to hold my body above the ground or floor.

I can see that the wings have gigantic panels of fractal patterned grill, which I assume is part of the propulsion system, but I'm guessing that that nanite driven magnetic lock is also used to guide the craft when it's near the ground.

Oh! And to make clearance for the wings to extend, the craft has been smoothly lifting off the ground!

We're already flying.

I didn't feel it. My proprioception and sense of balance are fairly fine tuned. I have them adjusted so that I have precise control over my own body and where it is. But this acceleration was subtle and smooth enough that I didn't realize what was happening until I could now see we are already ten or so meters above the ground.

I have to say.

I don't normally combine my people watching with my sky watching. I usually only do one or the other, but food might be involved. And I know this fixation with food at parties is a relatively new thing, made popular by Tutors like me who've spent millennia not eating it, and by Crew who've forgotten what it tastes like and maybe have started listening to us.

And I think maybe this whole thing might actually be a bit too much for me? I'm genuinely surprised that Ni'a isn't near meltdown, but that grin is still plastered to their face. They are positively beaming.

And then, I find we're at a hundred meters and the craft starts to slip forward with the anti-spin-winds, and I can feel that acceleration.

At first the deck pulls me forward by my feet. It feels like it's tilting backward, but that's not what's happening. We're just jerking forward at notable speeds. And then it presses me upward, firmly keeping me where I'm standing, as if the pilot is trying to catch us all and keep us from falling over Aftward. Well, Aft of the craft, not the Sunspot.

And then, after a few minutes of that, it lets up and we're all lighter than we were before.

Our flight mimics the migratory patterns of the Nufrruhaung, And we're moving with the winds, but we haven't completely canceled the spin of the habitat cylinder. Centrifugal force still keeps the craft in actual flight, rather than freefall, and it likewise keeps its inhabitants, us, firmly on the floor of the decks. Just considerably less so than before.

Everyone laughs at the sensation and we all start jumping up and down in a very silly manner.

I don't know that anyone is paying attention to the world around us.

This is too novel.

[Photo of the aircraft from below and behind, with Frra Lake visible in the sky, and the recently birthed sun as it has exited the Forward Endcap is washed out. The spokes of the habitat cylinder of the Sunspot cast ghostly shadows through the light of the sun. Clouds are seen covering most of the Garden, mountain tops peeking through in some places.]

This was, apparently, Founding Crew member Setefere's idea and design. Keh is also, I'm told, working on shuttle designs for exploring the space around us when we finally make proximal contact with the Dancer. And keh is basing that design on what keh is learning here with this aircraft, which maybe has more to do with crew accommodations than aerodynamics. Since there's no atmosphere outside.

We finally might get to use our Shipyards for something besides personal meditation!

In any case, I may take more of these flights. I hope you'll join me.

#a tour of the sunspot #fictional travel blog #sunspot chronicles

2 notes · View notes

hexkids-au · 2 years

Text

Dipper's Journal Entry: Hexside Day One

Today has been very eventful. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't this.

When we first went through the portal, we ended up back on top of the Knee. It turns out, all of the Boiling Isles are built on the bones of a Titan. I still don't see how the little bone-headed dog-thing could grow to be that big, but hey, there are actual flying broomsticks staffs here, so what do I know?

Anyways, Luz and Amity, the two we met on our first visit to the Boiling Isles, were there to pick us up again. Mabel jumped to get on Luz's staff, I'm not sure if she likes Luz or if she's trying to get me to like Amity? From what I can tell, they're a couple, so maybe Mabel just wants to be Luz's friend? I really don't know anymore.

Moving on. We got to Hexside and Hilda, Marcy, and Kamala were already at the school waiting for us. After we dismounted, Danny showed up through a portal. He mentioned something about traffic in a ghost zone... I'm going to need to look into that a bit more.

Luz led us inside where we met a new witch, Gus, because Amity had to go to class. We all said our names, where we're from, and a fun fact about ourselves. I just said that Mabel was my twin sister. I have so many better facts about myself that I could've used! Ugh. Well, it turns out that the Marcy kid knows some talking frogs? I'll also be asking about that at some point.

Danny and Kamala are both definitely older than the rest of us by a year or two, but it seems like no one here is very amazed or scared by the magic and stuff. For me and Mabel and I, we dealt with the dream nightmare demon, Danny seems like he has ghost powers, and Marcy and the frog people, but I don't really know about Hilda or Kamala. Mabel, Marcy, and Danny were the only ones that talked, but even they didn't say much.

We were given a tour of the school and shown where most of our classes would be, but Luz and Gus mentioned that we're going to be in "special" classes for our glyph learning, which is an elective class for most witches. They didn't use the word special, but I know that's what they meant.

I am curious as to how the glyphs work. Can you draw them on/with anything? How do they channel magic? Where is their magic from? How many different glyphs will we learn? Of course, I didn't ask any questions. Not yet. I'm still trying to figure out how the social body works at Hexside and within the HEXkids before I get myself in too deep.

Finally, once the tour ended, we were taken to a stage and all of the Hexside students stared at us while Principal Bump told them all our names and welcomed us or something. Everyone says it was only ten minutes, but it felt like at least an hour or two. I froze up and Mabel had to help me get off of the stage. Once I could actually control myself, I bolted through the nearest door and went looking for a bathroom or at least a place to hide.

All I found was that the school is a literal maze, so I opted for a random hiding place instead. There weren't very many good ones, and I was still looking when the class bell rang. I freaked out and jumped into the nearest supply closet and tried to catch my breath.

It wasn't a normal-sized closet, at least by Earth standards. It seemed like it was for something much bigger, some sort of night creature that works as the school janitor would be my guess. Before I could figure out much more, I noticed that someone else was in the closet with me. I could hear breathing and found eyes staring at me from the floor.

Just then, the final bell rang. After the sounds of late students' running footsteps in the hall cleared out, I apologized for taking their hiding place and started towards the door. Instead of saying goodbye, though, she told me I could stay.

Other than this morning, during introductions, that was the first time I had heard them talk. I couldn't say no, so I sat down and she moved more into the dim light. There wasn't much else to do, so we started talking. It turned out that it was Hilda, and they managed to find this spot before I even let the auditorium. We started by talking about how we were both hiding from the stage and the giant crowd of unruly adolescents, but it moved to talking about our homes and families and how we got to Hexside.

Apparently, where Hilda's from, the Boiling Isles are known as "demon territory" and everyone that lives there is cursed. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised, but it can't be as bad as the second dimension where Bill used to live Ford was for a while.

AW, COME ON KID, ADMIT IT, YOU MISSED ME!

/\ \ / 👁️ \ / / >< \ I I

Oh no.

This is not good.

I need to find out what dimension this really is. Ford said we should be safe here, but we're not safe anywhere if he's still around.

RIGHT YOU ARE, PINE TREE. I'LL SEE YOU SOON!

I guess that's enough for today. It might be enough for any day.

#pre-finale content #toh #toh au

17 notes · View notes

speaker-of-the-void-cats · 3 months

Text

I am ridiculously happy about where Echoes is going. Literally took a tour of Nessus after Lightfall and just before Final Shape with a friend, showing them all the weird stuff I thought was gonna be important way back after Lightfall. Things like

The Well of Flame bearing a similarity to the portal as seen from Essence in Root

The Public Event point in the Hollows looking like an extremely rough copy of the Veil, down to the Event being about linking a small device to it from below (like Ghost linking to the Veil)

The Orrery Lost Sector having a pyramid ship outlined in Vex motes, motes which also appear in a more complex shape deep in the Well of Flame (and which we visit at the end of Act 1)

All the Chambers and Wells that previously went mostly unused but signalled large recurring motifs like shadows being cast, eyes, water, etc

Will be compiling them all and trying to map out the logic of how they're connected

"You taught me the value of a backup plan." Ikora gives him a stern look. "Titan, Savathûn's throne world, every place we've found egregore… I haven't found the exact threads yet but pull one and they all seem to spin back to Neomuna. To the Veil."

"You're getting ahead of yourself. Following some of my… less favorable tendencies. Nimbus says we must 'flow' to understand Strand; perhaps it is the same with the Veil." Osiris moves beside Ikora and reaches up, palm parallel to the threads drawn taut from Ikora's braid of Strand. "Sol remembered Titan, in a way. The Veil's signal spiked when Titan returned from memory to reality, when the rhythm of the solar system had been restored to order." Osiris drops his hand and looks to Ikora. "Perhaps we must simply find that rhythm before we are able to interpret the beats within it." "And once we do… then we should be able to reverse that process," she replies. Ikora releases the thread and tracks the rippling points of connection that travel outward, along the fabric-like Strands of existence, to the walls of the containment enclosure. "We're too late in the game for something to mean nothing. It has to connect."

#destiny #the veil #destiny 2 echoes

1 note · View note

razilee-blog · 5 months

Text

Geek corner (favorites)

Helloo everyone and welcome back to another blog post. Today I decided to tell more about myself, especially what my personal favorites are. So this blog will be just a simple one. And maybe you guys might have the same interests as me!

MUSIC

Let’s start off with this category. I’m kind of a person that listens to almost any genre as long as I kinda vibe with the beat of the music. Although I mainly listen to pop, r&b and a bit of rap, my playlist still has a few other genre variations.

The whole “Born to Die” album, and its series of multiple versions, of Lana Del Rey has been a long time personal favorite of mine. The album was released in the year 2012 which has over 12 songs in total. However there are also different versions of the said album and those are the Deluxe Version, The Paradise Edition, and the Paradise Edition (Special Version). The songs are mostly the same in every version of the album with just a couple of new songs added to different versions.

Even though the album was released back in 2012, I wasn’t able to discover Lana Del Rey and her music until the year 2018. But ever since then she has been one of my favorite artists and I have a long streak of stream history on a streaming platform of the album.

Another top favorite of mine is the trilogy album of Melanie Martinez which comprises the ‘Cry Baby’ album, the ‘K-12’ album, and the ‘Portals’ album. She started the trilogy in the year 2015 and the last album was released back in March 2023. Every song in each of her albums is heavily filled with lore. She uses her artistry in music to tell a fantasy story. In which the story follows a main character, named “Cry Baby”, in her journey of life when she was born then as she started school in the ‘K-12’ album up until her death and entry in the afterlife on the last album.

With her trilogy album being completed last year, Melanie Martinez is now currently on a trilogy world tour. She will be going on a hiatus after the tour and will return back with a whole new era, putting an end to the Cry Baby series.

VIDEO GAMES

During the pandemic years I have been more active with video games. At first I was only playing mobile games since it was more accessible and compatible with the device that I had back then. However I gained access to PC video games which gave me the chance to try out the games that I used to only watch from other players online and my friends.

Valorant is a first-person shooter game that requires precise aim and tactical skills. The game recently released a new agent named “Clove” after the Valorant Champions Tour 2024: Masters Madrid which was held last April. The agent is a non-binary Scottish and ever since I was able to obtain them in the game they became my main agent to use. But personally I have a love-hate relationship with this game. There are times when I have a good time playing the game especially with my friends, and times when I would have a bad time because of the game.

Minecraft is an old game that’s been existing for over a decade now and I have played the game when it was still only a few years old. It’s a game full of adventure with acquiring and making materials to progress in the game. And it really kinda depends on how a player would approach the gameplay. There are some that just want to keep it simple and cozy and others make more daring and risky adventures in the game. After a lot of years of not playing the game, I went back to Minecraft like 5 months ago when my friends and I decided to have a multiplayer server and play together. We have been playing together since then and we all have fun in creating our world in the game.

Those have been some of the couple things that are my favorite in music and in games.

Signing out, Aira Razilee

#lana del rey #born to die #melanie martinez #littlebodybigheart #k 12 melanie martinez #portals melanie martinez #valorant #clove valorant #minecraft #music #gaming #video games

0 notes

meandaupod · 2 years

Text

Andrea’s big list of podcasts about women smooching

In light of my ongoing #romancequest 2022, I figured it is time I did my bit by compiling a list of shows that I like where one of the main plotlines is a romance between two women.

For the purposes of this I’m going to define “main plotline” as:

Involving one or more of the show’s lead characters and

Affecting the show’s plot in a substantial way, over a large percentage of episodes

The Strange Case of Starship Iris | @iriscasefiles

An ensemble sci-fi adventure about a team of scrappy smugglers who stumble into a major, galactic-spanning conspiracy involving the oppressive galactic regime that governs humanity and the aliens they went to war with.

Who should be or is kissing? Anxious scientist-turned-medic Violet and Arkady Patel, a combat veteran with a complicated history... present... day-to-day, really.

Me and AU | @meandaupod Yes, okay, this is us, but if you found this list via reblog, here are some details:

A coming of age romance about two college-aged women who fall in love writing fanfiction about their favourite new TV show, a paranormal mystery only airing in Canada with a fandom of eight people. Listen to us here.

Who should be or is kissing? Kate “ACunningPlan” Cunningham and Ella “Hella--enchanted,” two big nerds who realize that sometimes when you think you’re writing your friend a there was only one bed fic what you’re really saying is I love you.

The Pasithea Powder | @pasitheapowder

When Dr. Jane Gonzalez revealed her planet had been experimenting with a memory-altering bioweapon she helped end an interplanetary war - and committed an act of treason. In the aftermath of the conflict, she reconnects with former friend Lt. Sophie Green, a war hero on a goodwill galactic tour, and everything gets even more morally and ethically complicated somehow.

Who should be or is kissing? Jane and Sophie’s years-long will they or won’t they sexual tension will make you scream but in a good way.

Arden | @ardenpodcast

All Bea Casely wanted was to make a true crime podcast about the infamous disappearance of actress Julie Capsom. But when her station is purchased by an eccentric billionaire, who insists on hiring disgraced cop Brenda Bentley as her co-host, Bea gets way more than she bargained for.

Who should be or is kissing? There are actually a fair few f/f couples across Arden’s two released seasons, particularly in season 2, but never have two people needed to just fuck already more than Bea and Brenda.

Midnight Radio | @martletradio

Amelia just moved back to the hometown she left for a reason and needs advice. Luckily, the dreamy, perfectly vintage midnight radio talk show hosted by Sybil McIntyre takes listener letters. Slowly we realize things aren’t all that they seem for Sybil, whose timeless aesthetic may have more sinister underpinnings.

Who should be or is kissing? Sybil and Amelia, assuming a uh, massive spoiler gets resolved.

Interference

D&D podcaster Jacq is recording her advice show when she accidentally makes radio contact with Geneva, an orc researcher based in the land of Chel. As portals begin to open between their worlds, the two must get to the bottom of what’s going on, and figure out their fledgling feelings for each other.

Who should be or is kissing? Jacq and Geneva are very cute from the jump. And who can blame Jacq for seeing the opportunity to smooch a hot trans orc lady and going for it?

Mabel | @mabelpodcast

A home healthcare worker begins attempting to reach the estranged granddaughter of the woman she is charged with looking after, and then things get really weird. (I find Mabel so very vexing to describe but expect strange, surreal horror with a dark romantic heart.)

Who should be or is kissing? Home health worker Ana Limon and Mabel Martin, whose whereabouts will not be spoiled by this tiny list.

Greenhouse

Rose’s dad just died, and his will states she must start writing letters to the owner of his favourite flower shop if she wants to continue living in their family home. Despite all this, romance blossoms as she and her new penpal slowly get to know each other.

Who should be or is kissing? Rose and Abby, the owner of the flower shop, who build an mutual understanding around being anxious as hell, weird about media and needing to go to therapy pretty badly.

Alice isn’t Dead

Alice isn’t dead, which is news to her wife. Working as a truck driver for an increasingly strange company, Keisha crosses the country to track her down and uncovers a dark secret lurking along America’s highways in the process.

Who should be or is kissing? Alice and Keisha have a, uh, complicated relationships to say the least but you can’t argue there isn’t something interesting there.

#romancequest 2022 #me and au podcast #the strange case of starship iris #arden podcast #greenhouse #midnight radio #alice isn't dead #mabel podcast #I feel like this list should be longer!#BUT a lot of stuff got knocked out for being off category - either about a couple who broke up before the start and will never smooch again #(Within the Wires IWNJATR etc)#or a couple who are only together for a bit to move the plot along #(Night Post)#or stuff like my OWN OTHER SHOW where the romance is a C-plot at best (but Nelly/Reva forever listen to Station to Station anyway)#that being said I know there are a few circa-2018 shows I've forgotten but their feeds may be dead anyway

448 notes · View notes

tomhollandnet · 3 years

Photo

Tom Holland opens up about Spider-Man: No Way Home and facing off against Alfred Molina

Tom Holland made a new friend on the set of Spider-Man: No Way Home — or is that an old enemy? The 25-year-old actor suited up again for his third solo Spidey film, this one picking up after Peter Parker's secret identity went public in 2019's Far From Home. As Peter scrambles to take control of his life, he finds himself facing off against familiar foes — including Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, reprising his eight-limbed role from 2004's Spider-Man 2.

Holland, who didn't start slinging webs until 2016, couldn't help but geek out over the veteran Molina, calling him "one of my favorite people I've ever worked with."

"It was really fun to watch him see how technology has advanced," Holland adds. "When he was making these films, the arms were puppets, and when we did it, they're all imaginary and CG. It was quite cool to see him relive it, but also relearn it."

That mix of past and present is key to No Way Home (in theaters Dec. 17). Although the actor won't reveal exact plot details, the film's trailer has hinted at some potential crossover shenanigans, mixing elements from both the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield films. For Holland, it's an opportunity to pay tribute to previous iterations of the character, while also taking Peter in a new direction.

"The first film, [director] Jon Watts and I were sort of flying by the seat of our pants," Holland says. "This one, I think we both felt really confident, so we were able to relax. We actually had so much more fun on this one than we did on the previous two."

In No Way Home, Peter is trying to juggle his newfound infamy, schoolwork, and his burgeoning relationship with MJ (Zendaya). He turns to Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange for a magical fix, inadvertently triggering a cascade of universe-threatening problems. Adding mystical portals and sorcerers to Spider-Man's normally down-to-earth world allowed Holland and Watts to get more inventive than ever, and Holland teases that the fight scenes are "a lot more visceral," with "a lot more hand-to-hand combat."

No Way Home marks Holland's third solo Spidey appearance, and story-wise, the actor calls it a "conclusion" to his trilogy, wrapping up the narrative he and Watts first introduced in 2017's Homecoming.

"We were all treating [No Way Home] as the end of a franchise, let's say," he adds. "I think if we were lucky enough to dive into these characters again, you'd be seeing a very different version. It would no longer be the Homecoming trilogy. We would give it some time and try to build something different and tonally change the films. Whether that happens or not, I don't know. But we were definitely treating [No Way Home] like it was coming to an end, and it felt like it."

Holland adds that he felt that finality while filming — especially during one of his last days on set, shooting a scene with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon (who's reprising his role as Peter's best friend Ned). When the scene finally wrapped, all three actors found themselves getting emotional.

"We've been making these films for five years now," Holland explains. "We've had such an amazing relationship, the three of us. We've been with each other every step of the way. We've done every single film, every single press tour. So this one scene, [we didn't know] if this would be the last time [we were all working together.] [It] was heartbreaking but also really exciting because we're all moving into the next chapter of our careers. So sharing that moment with them was maybe the best day I've ever had on set. I don't think I've cried like that ever."

Still, he adds, just because he's spent the last five years perfecting his web-slinging didn't mean that he could let himself get complacent.

"If you're not willing to focus and do the prep work, you're going to get called out," Holland says with a laugh. "Because when you're dealing with magic spells and dimensions, it really gets complicated."

#tom holland #articles #spider man: no way home

299 notes · View notes

rocksandrobots · 2 years

Text

Phantoms of the Past Chapter 35 - The Prelude

"So you know what to do?" Hiro asked.

"Keep Varian busy while you talk about him behind his back." Trina rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat.

"We're not talking about him behind his back," Fred defended, "We're just discussing his very traumatic backstory while he's... not... present.............. Yeah, okay, we're talking about him behind his back."

They were all inside the Big Hero Six headquarters on a Wednesday afternoon. Trina was there to collect Varian and keep him distracted for the day as per her agreement with Hiro.

"By the way, has Varian mentioned anything about what happened on Halloween?" Tadashi asked. "Has he ever told you anything about Corona?"

Trina sighed and sat back up. "Varian told me everything."

"Really!? What did he tell you?" Hiro asked.

"I'm not a snitch." Trina snapped. "If you want to know so badly just ask him."

"We have tried asking him." Tadashi complained. "multiple times now. He refuses to talk about it."

Trina shrugged. "Then I guess he doesn't want you to know. Some friends you are."

"Trina, we're not asking because we don't respect his privacy," Gogo explained. "We're asking because we've had people come from Corona to try and kidnap him, and we weren't prepared because we didn't know who they were."

"And who knows what else can come through that portal if he keeps working on it." Tadashi added.

"Ha! I finally figured out the screen share!" Wasabi suddenly announced. Up on the view screen popped up the image of the three Coronians that Wasabi had taken on Halloween.

"Do you know who these people are?" Tadashi asked Trina.

She pouted. "Th-that's the princess, isn't?"

"Yeah," Tadashi nodded. "you saw what happened on stage that night. Can you explain it?"

Trina slowly shook her head. "No... I couldn't even see what was happening through most of it... It was like something was interfering with my scanners."

"Radiation." Hiro said. "Baymax detected Gamma Radiation that night, coming from that woman, and you were so close to it, it must have messed with your sensors. You haven't had any problems with your eye sight since that night, have you?"

"No, whatever it was, it went away as soon as that girl disappeared."

Everyone in the room shared a disquieted look. Yet before they could discuss anything further they heard Varian coming down the stairs.

Wasabi quickly changed the image on the screen to his 4 2 Sing screensaver while everyone else scrambled to look busy with other things.

"Ah, did your favorite band come out with a new album?" Varian cheerfully asked his best friend when he saw the screen saver.

"Not yet, but they're expecting to release one after their tour ends this month." Wasabi said. "I've already strongly hinted at Sam that I want a copy for Christmas."

"Ready to go?" Trina asked.

"Yeah, I finally found the keys. They were hidden under my bed." He shook the car keys as he said this, then he turned to the rest of his friends. "Y'all wanna come? We're heading to the gym."

"Why would a robot need to exercise?" Fred loudly whispered, before being roughly elbowed in the ribs by Gogo.

"You go on ahead and have fun." She said. "Tell us who wins the racket ball match."

"Oh we all know that'll be me?" Trina smugly insisted before heading out the door.

"You wish..." Varian said as he ran after her.

Everyone let out a collective sigh as soon as he was gone.

"Is it okay to come out now?" Honey Lemon timidly asked from the top of the stairs.

"Yeah the coast is clear HL." Tadashi reassured her.

Honey Lemon walked into the meeting room clutching a yellow bit of rock close to her chest. "Are you sure this is necessary? I hated stealing this out of Varian's lab."

Hiro took the amber from her. "It's necessary. Besides, it's not stealing. We'll return it before he even knows it's missing."

Hiro placed the amber upon a stand. "Baymax, do a thorough scan of this."

Hiro stepped back from the table so that Baymax could get a better look at the rock. The robot stared at the table with his coal back 'eyes' for a moment before asking, "Scan what?"

"The amber, on the table." Hiro said.

Baymax looked again at the table. "My scanners do not detect anything on the table."

"Weird. That was his response last time. Remember? When Momasake attacked us." Wasabi pointed out.

"Spooky." Fred gasped.

Hiro shook his head. "No. It can't be. I defragged his memory banks and did a 'system clean' since then."

"Or maybe he can't detect it, because it's not made of any known substance in our world." Tadashi suggested.

"What are you getting at?" Gogo asked.

"Varian claims that magic exists in his world, and given all of the freaky stuff that's been happening around here we can't rule out that possibility... But what if 'magic' is just a form of radiation? After all, we're talking about a completely different world. It could have different elements, energy, even different physics from ours."

"Hmmm... that would make sense." Hiro thought out loud. "It's not unheard of for gamma radiation to make things glow."

"Yeah, but can it bring people back from the dead?"

Everyone looked at Gogo as if she'd just grown another head.

"Th-that's what Varian claimed happened." She explained. "He said that the girl with the long hair brought someone back to life."

"Yeah... he mentioned that her hair could heal people..." Tadashi said. "I guess if radiation can deteriorate cells... Why couldn't it also regenerate cells too? I mean there's just so much we don't know. Like... why would you be able to control such energy with music?"

"Oooh, ooh, I know!" Fred jumped up and down while waving his hand in the air. "The music of the spheres! Varian was talking about it earlier. Different things vibrate on different frequencies. Manipulate the frequency and you change the energy's molecular makeup."

"Fred, are you seriously suggesting that you can alter the structure of the universe by singing?" Wasabi admonished.

"Sure. Why not? After all, sound is caused by changing vibrations in the air, and matter changes its state by vibrating molecules. Like you get lighting from water by vibrating the atoms so fast they become a super heated plasma. "

"That's a gross oversimplification of the process Fred," Hiro replied, "But it's a theory that we can't rule out. Especially since we don't fully know what we're dealing with."

"Well I think we're focusing on the wrong things here." Wasabi said as he brought the picture of the Coronians up once more. "Instead of the 'how', we should be thinking about the 'why'. As in why did these three come for Varian, and will they be back?"

"They wanted Varian to translate some scroll. It was written in the same code as that journal Varian got from Canardist." Hiro explained.

"Why am I not surprised that she's involved?" Gogo huffed.

"I don't know how involved she is or isn't. No one brought her up when talking, but they're looking for a way to stop these... black rocks... from destroying everything."

"The pointy spikes that popped out of the ground? Or so you said." Wasabi clarified.

Hiro nodded yes.

"Varian sort of explained a little of that." Tadashi added. "Apparently a comet hit their world a thousand years ago. It split into two and the pieces are deemed magical artifacts, or as we're calling them 'radioactive nightmares'. One is something called the moonstone, and it is the source of the rocks that destroyed Varian's home, and the sundrop, which apparently gave Rapunzel her glowing hair."

"Wait... her name is actually Rapunzel?" Gogo asked with disbelief.

"I told you." Fred gloated. "I told you that Varian was from a world of fairy tales."

"You... you mean Varian is a fairy tale character?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Probably... I still think he's an elf."

"I vote he's Little Boy Blue." Tadashi joked.

"You can't be serious." Wasabi said, clearly not amused. "Also what fantasy character has a pet racoon?"

Hiro ignored their discussion. "You said the Sundrop gave her her powers?"

"Yeah."

"That's the medicine Varian stole to save his dad. The one they arrested him for treason over."

Everyone grew somber as they remembered that Corona wasn't a storybook land from their childhood.

"That makes sense... if he thought it could heal people." Gogo quietly said.

"Maybe it can... maybe that's why he hasn't given up on his dad?" Tadashi suggested.

"You don't mean that.. that he'll try to steal it again, do you?" Honey Lemon nervously bit her fingernail.

Tadashi shook his head. "I don't know what his plan is, Honey Lemon. He won't tell us anything. We still don't know what this amber stuff is, we don't know how Rapunzel and her friends got to this world or if they'll be back, and we don't know what has Varian so scared that he's too afraid to tell us, his closest friends, what's going on."

"Well he did tell Trina, apparently." Fred pointed out.

"Okay, but why her and none of us?" Gogo asked.

Fred shrugged. "Maybe 'cause she's the only one who knows what it's like being a former supervillain?"

"For the last time Fred." Wasabi sighed. "Varian's not a supervillain."

Hiro's face darkened at the suggestion, "No... but those Coronians were afraid of him."

``Who could ever be afraid of Varian though?" Honey Lemon laughed off his worry. "It's Varian... cute sweet adorable little Varian. He wouldn't hurt anyone."

Everyone looked at her awkwardly and the smile faded from her face. "What?"

Gogo sighed and decided to move the conversation along, "So what else are we missing?"

"He said that the moonstone comes from his father's home country originally, and that his family are supposed to be a group of knights sworn to protect it. Only they failed to stop the rocks and their home got destroyed years earlier."

"And that.. freaky paperweight we found at Canardist's... it was from Varian's home country as well. It may even be made from the same stuff as these rocks." Hiro added.

"You mean the th-the thing that made him faint that night?" Honey Lemon bit her lip with worry.

Hiro nodded.

"Oh and it gets even more complicated," Tadashi finished. "Turns out the moonstone has been stolen by some girl named Cassandra."

Honey Lemon pouted. "Cassie..."

"Who the heck is Cassie?" Gogo asked.

"Just a girl... from Corona... that he likes." She sighed.

"Okay, let me get this straight," Wasabi said, "Varian is a wanted criminal for stealing a magic healing flower that gave a fairy tale princess her long hair, and he did it to stop these supernatural black spikes that come from his dad's home country from destroying his own home. Only for his old girlfriend to steal the object causing those rocks, and said fairy tale princess needs Varian to translate an ancient scroll; written by the same dude who invented the portals, that Varian turned into a time traveling device to rescue Tadashi with, in order to stop the old girlfriend. Meanwhile the creepy old lady from the antique store who has a pet monkey that can tell the future, also owns one of these black rocks, which Varian has, like, a severe allergic reaction to. Is that right?"

"Oh and he fought in a war alongside a group of displaced people called the Saporians to overthrow said fairy tale princess." Fred added at the end.

Everyone one went quiet at that.

"Geez, it's like the world's worst magical soap opera!" Gogo cried. "How is anyone supposed to make sense of it? What's next? The monkey is really his long lost uncle?"

"Well... turns out the princess's boyfriend is his long lost cousin." Tadashi said.

"Of course he is.. cause nothing is simple."

"Listen, I think we're losing sight of what's important here," Hiro sighed, "Whoever these people are, whatever history they have with Varian, it doesn't matter. They're trying to drag back into the same mess he's just escaped from and steal him away from us, his family. We can't let that happen."

"So what's the plan?" Tadashi asked.

Hiro picked up the amber. "I'm going to run what tests I can on this before I return it to Varian's lab tomorrow. Also... I'm going to need the paperweight."

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

"Sooo.... do you wanna talk about it?" Trina asked as she sat cross legged on the floor.

"Talk about what?" Varian grunted as he took a practice swing at the ball.

Honey Lemon had taught him racquetball, and he was getting a little better at the sport, but Trina had still curb stomped him during their game.

"About what happened on Halloween."

Varain stopped swinging, completely missing the tennis ball as it sped past him.

"No." He said, and then turned around and started to gather his things.

"What happened to not running away from your problems?" Trina mocked.

"Trina... drop it." Varian warned.

Trina stood up and placed her hands on her hips, blocking the doorway while doing so. "Make me."

They stared at each other challengingly.

"That was Rapunzel, up on stage, wasn't it?"

Varian didn't answer, he didn't need to.

"I thought you said that they couldn't come here?"

"Well I was wrong, okay."

"Then what are they going to do if they come back?"

"I... I don't know... but I'll think of something."

"And does that 'something' involve trusting your friends to help you?"

"I told you, you can't just stomp on Rapunzel. She is more powerful than you know, and she could break you."

"I know... I was on sage with you, remember?"

Varian pouted, but didn't answer her.

"Varian, I don't know anything about magic, but the energy radiating off you and her that night was so much that it nearly blew out my photoreceptors. Hiro said it was gamma radiation... I think you might have another name for it though."

"The sundrop..." Varian whispered.

"Yeah, you said the princess got her powers from that flower, but what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You were glowing too."

Varian shook his head. "No.... no, that had to be something else... Rapunzel must have done something to me or it was a trick of the light, or..."

Trina only frowned at him sadly.

"Stop looking at me that way."

"Varian, I know you're scared. Believe me, I know how frightening it is, to find out that you're different... that you're not what you once thought you were."

"I am not magic." He hissed.

Trina stepped closer and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Then... what are you?"

Varian's eyes went wide as he searched her own.

"I'm... I'm just me. That's all." And with that, he pushed past her.

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

Honey Lemon groaned as the morning sunlight filtered through the window. Last night she had stayed up late finishing her weekly art project for school, and now her head was pounding, her stomach was rolling, and she felt like the bed was rocking beneath her, as if she was on a boat.

"Time to get up, Honey Lemon." Gogo called to her as she ran around the studio apartment. When she didn't receive an answer, her roommate kicked the foot of the bed. "Come on, we have thermodynamics in thirty minutes."

Honey Lemon moaned again, kicked the covers off herself, and finally sat up. Only for the room to start spinning as soon as she did.

She let out an overly dramatic whine and collapsed back onto the bed; burying her head underneath the pillows.

"You stayed up too late again, didn't you?" Gogo asked.

Honey Lemon whimpered her muffled reply.

Gogo rolled her eyes. "You can't keep doing this to yourself Honey."

She gave a muffled protest from under the pillow.

Gogo sighed. "Fine. Where's your homework?"

Honey Lemon lifted her hand up and pointed to her bookbag hanging up by the front door.

Gogo walked over and gathered her things. "I'll drop your assignments off and take notes for you in our shared classes, but I'm only doing this once."

Honey Lemon finally poked her head out from under the pillow, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Just get some rest." And with that order, she flipped off the light before leaving.

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

Hiro tiptoed into Varian's lab early that morning. Satisfied that the alchemist wasn't around he replaced the amber back on its stand.

"Hey, did you find anything?"

Hiro jumped at Tadashi's voice. He turned to find his older brother behind him, staring at the strange alien object.

Hiro shushed him and quickly pushed him out of the lab before Varian could arrive.

They didn't speak until they had made it back to their own private lab, which they now had to share.

"When are you going to clean up this mess?" Tadashi complained as he shoved some clothes off the desk chair and took a seat.

"I've been a little busy, okay." Hiro snapped back, irritated. "I was up late last night studying the spectrograph readings." He sighed and shook his head. "I've seen nothing it like it."

"Let's see it then."

He swung around and turned on the computer. Hiro placed the thumb drive into the socket and stood back as Tadashi brought up the readouts.

"Wild." He breathed in awe as he scanned the contents. "What is this stuff?"

"I don't know, but it's certainly not amber." He leaned over and clicked on another reading. "And look at the radiation on it."

"Uh... are you sure this stuff is safe to handle? Do you need to see a doctor?" He asked with sudden concern as he saw the readings.

Hiro gave an exasperated shrug. "I don't know, but Varian's been handling the stuff for months, maybe even longer."

"Yeah, but come to find out, Varian also glows in the dark."

"I'll have Baymax run a health scan later." Hiro hand waved the concern away. "In the meantime we still need Madame Canardist's paperweight so that I can pull up comparative readings."

"Alright, then Gogo and I will go talk to the lady today after school."

"And I'll-"

"And you'll have Baymax do a thorough check up of you, and call the doctor immediately if he finds anything wrong." Tadashi interrupted.

Hiro sighed. "Fine. You win... What about Varian?"

"Honey Lemon called out today. He's going to head over to her apartment after school to check on her, so he won't be any the wiser."

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

Honey Lemon was feeling much better by the time afternoon rolled around. She had taken a nap and then downed a smoothie for lunch. Then she spent the rest of the day in bed, taking care of upcoming assignments or reading the notes her classmates had texted her. She was just debating on if she should get up and fix some real food or not, when a knock came at her door.

"Hey! How are you feeling?" Varian gave her the biggest grin as soon as she opened the door. Then without waiting for an answer, he sailed inside carrying a paper grocery bag. "Gogo said that you were sick, so I stopped by the store and got you a few things."

"Thank you, but I'm not really sic-"

"I got some aspirin for your headache, a compress that you can either freeze or warm up in the microwave, and some Poweraid to keep you hydrated." Varian ignored her protests as he sat the bag on the table and started to pull stuff out of it. "AI also thought about making some chicken soup for dinner, but then I remembered that you don't like to eat meat sooo... roasted eggplant it is."

He held aloft the aubergine proudly, as if showing off his own cleverness.

"Varian that's really sweet of you, but you don't have to go out of your way-"

"Oh it's nothing. You just relax and I'll take care of everything." And with that, he started to rush around the small apartment kitchen, pulling out pots, bowls, and spices as he prepared to cook dinner for them.

Honey Lemon sighed, and decided to grab the compress and lie back down. There was no use in trying to talk Varian out of anything, and besides roasted eggplant did sound pretty good.

She curled up on her side and cuddled with her pillow as she absently watched the teenage alchemist run around. Something about him looked different, but she couldn't place her finger upon what.

"Are those new pants?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah," He nervously laughed as he looked down at his new jeans. "Aunt Cass bought these yesterday. My last pair was getting too short."

As it dawned upon Honey Lemon that her friend was now a good foot taller than when she had first met him, Varian opened the fridge door to hunt for some more condiments.

"Hey now, what is this!?" He slyly smiled as he pulled out a bottle of cooking sherry. "Now where did you get this little miss 'always follows rules'?"

Honey Lemon only looked at him confused. "My mom gave it to me when I moved in. It's just cooking wine."

Varian raised an eyebrow at that and flashed her his most disarming grin. Then he unscrewed the cap and took a swig of the stuff before Honey Lemon could stop him.

"Varian, wait! No!"

She rushed to him as he made a disgusted face. Then he turned and spat out the foul liquid into the sink.

"Wh-what is in this stuff?" He wheezed as he read the ingredients label in confusion.

"I told you. It's just cooking wine. It has preservatives in it- wait! What are you doing?"

Varian held up a hand to stop her from grabbing the bottle away from him as he poured the contents down the drain.

"If you can't drink it, then you can't cook with it."

"But-"

"If you can't drink it, you can't cook with it." He repeated as he tossed the empty bottle into the garbage. "Like half of that was just salt, potassium sorbate, and artificial food dye. You don't want to consume that. Fortunately, I have a solution."

He reached into the paper bag again and pulled out a jug.

"Apple juice?" Honey Lemon asked in confusion when showed off his find.

"Actually it's apple cider, but it won't be for long." He smiled his Cheshire grin and pulled out the mini portals from his pocket. He then poured some of the juice into a glass, added some sugar, and half a packet of yeast.

"Watch this." He winked. He then created a mini-portal, no bigger than the glass itself and slowly lowered it over the glass.

"By using the time displacement technology that we invented to rescue Tadashi, I can accelerate the molecular breakdown of the sugar within this glass." Satisfied, he turned off his device and lifted the glass. "What once took weeks now only takes mere moments. Viola! Instance hard cider!"

Honey Lemon frowned with worry. It was a technically impressive feat of engineering, but leave it to Varian to use science as a means to skirt the rules.

"Varian..." She sighed disapprovingly.

"What? The law says I can't buy alcohol, it doesn't say that I can't make my own."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Sure I'm sure, besides we're just going to use it to cook with. It's not like I'm going to drink it." He said, only to take a drink of the concoction right afterwards.

Then his face screwed up in disgust, and he turned to spit into the sink once more.

"Oh... ohh, no, that was vinegar..." He gagged. "I, uh, need to recalculate my equations... js-just some minor readjustments and we... uh, it should be good to go."

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

"Why are we here again?" Gogo groaned.

"Hiro need's that freaky paperweight so he can run tests on it, and compare it to the amber." Tadashi explained as he stared at the antique shop in the mall.

"No, I know why you and Hiro want it... but is this really necessary?"

"Of course it is. We need to figure out what's going on. It's for Varian's own good."

Gogo stopped him before he could open the door. "Is this really for Varian's protection, or is it just to satisfy your own curiosity?"

Tadashi frowned. "What are you getting at?"

"I don't trust this woman, and I don't see how poking our noses into this magic stuff is supposed to help. We're way out of our depth. As difficult as it is, I think we'd be better off just talking to Varian."

"We tried talking to him. He's hiding something, Gogo. You know he is, and whatever it is, it's something to do with these rocks."

"I thought we were trying to stop that princess from taking him, not figure out the mystery behind Varian's past." She pushed back.

"They're one and the same thing, Gogo." Tadashi insisted as he opened the door.

No one was inside when they walked in. Gogo shivered. "Man, this place is creepy."

"Hello!?" Tadashi called out. "Anyone here? Madame Canardist? Vigor?"

He scanned the shelves but did not see the mysterious rock sitting upon any of them.

"We've come to buy something from you!" He called out as he bent over the counter to see if she had stashed it there.

Suddenly Vigor popped up from under the counter and screeched at him.

"Ahhh!" Tadashi backed away quickly as the monkey hopped up onto the desk and raged at them.

"Who is it, Vigor?" Canardist sweetly sang out as she stepped out from behind the curtain. Her face fell as soon as she saw them. "Oh... it's you. Whatta do you want?"

Gogo stepped forward "We're wanting to buy that paperweight that you had."

"The one that glows and has that inscription on it." Tadashi explained.

"The Mind Trap?"

"Yes! That's it! That's what it was called. Do you have it?"

"Why would anyone want to buy the Mind Trap?" Carandrist looked confused. "It's useless."

"Then why do you have it?" Gogo countered.

"I traded for it. The Spire Keeper gave me a big box of antiques in exchange for my special onion soup."

"Why would anyone trade a priceless magical artifact for soup?" Tadashi asked, not believing her.

"It was very good soup. Old family recipe." She paused as if a thought suddenly came to her, "Though come to think of it, I also lent him a magic cloak that changes one's appearance..."

Tadashi rolled his eyes. "What exactly is the Mind Trap? What is it made of? What does it do?"

"What does it do?" Carandist echoed. "Exactly what it says it does. It traps minds. Makes you control their wills."

"Wait. You're telling me that you just happen to have a magical mind controlling rock, and you want us to believe it's worthless?" Gogo pressed.

"No, not worthless... useless, to you anyways, and to most other people." Madame Canardist explained. "The mind trap does not work on just anyone. It only controls those connected to the moonstone; not many of those left in the world."

"You mean, not left in your home world." Tadashi corrected her. "We know you're from another dimension, the same as Varian."

Canardist gave a sly smile. "Oh do you, now? And what else do you know, young man?"

"Argh! Enough games!" Gogo leered at the old woman as she pounded her fist on the counter. "Are you going to sell us the dumb paperweight or not?"

"Hmmmm... I thiiinnk… not." She cheekily replied.

Tadashi had to physically hold his girlfriend back to stop her from crawling over the counter to manhandle the older lady.

"Listen, you don't want to sell it to us, that's fine, but can you at least tell us what you know about it?" He patted Gogo on the shoulder to calm her down. "We think Varian might be one of those connected to this 'moonstone' that everyone seems to be after."

Madame Canardist raised an eyebrow at them. "You really want to know?"

"Yeah."

"Very well." And with that, she snapped her fingers and all of the lights went out.

"Yeah... we have clapper lights in this world too." Tadashi called out into the darkness.

Canardist struck a match. "Harumph... some people have no appreciation for the dramatic." She complained as she lit a wick underneath her crystal ball.

The ball lit up, and showed the image of a comet falling to Earth.

"A millennia ago a comet fell from the heavens! It split in two, and separated. Legend says one half melted into the soil, and from it sprung a magical healing flower. While its counterpart struck the earth so hard it ruptured the ground and caused black spikes to spring forth. While the sundrop brought life, the moonstone brought death."

She turned a little dial on the crystal ball and the image changed again. This one of a golden flower and a blue stone surrounded by rocks.

"Yet, the moonstone had its uses as well. It provided protection for the small kingdom that grew up around it, and for a very special few, the opal would grant strength and durability to its chosen hosts. Some tried to use this power as a conquering force, so an elite guard, called The Brotherhood, was created to protect and secure the moonstone from those that would mis-use its powers."

She changed the scene again to a painting of black armored knights.

"Varian's family." Tadashi said. "That's how he's connected."

Canardist nodded. "For generations the Brotherhood guarded the moonstone and the kingdom of Umbra from invaders. They were heralded as heroes and keepers of the peace by many the world over, but some did not believe the Knights. 'Power corrupts,' they said, and so one brave young soul decided to create a contingency plan."

She switched the image again, showing a young man in brown robes standing in front of what looked like a large oak tree.

"His name was Tromus of Quercus, a student of Demantius..."

"The guy who built the portals?" Tadashi asked. Canardist frowned at him for interrupting. "Sorry."

"Tromus invented an explosive device, something that could break even the indestructible rocks. He traveled to the edges of the Kingdom of Umbra, where the rocks reached the furthest out, and detonated the device. But the explosion failed. The rocks remained while everything else in the area was destroyed. The only damage to the supernatural spikes that he could find was the tip of one small rock that had been severed."

The next picture was that of a burnt forest with spikes jutting from the ground.

"Tromus took that lone rock back to his master. After ages of studying the object, and finding nothing to stop the black spikes themselves, Demantius decided to stop those that would wield the moonstone's power for evil. He and his disciples cursed the rock with a spell. An enchantment that would control any who possessed the essence of the moonstone within them. He called this curse, The Mind Trap!"

Suddenly Vigor screamed and slammed the stalagmite down in front of them.

Gogo and Tadashi jumped back in surprise. Canardist cackled at their fear.

"Hahaha. Got you... you should see the look on your faces. Haha."

Gogo threw the old woman a furious glare. Then she marched over to the crystal ball, lifted it up, and silently pulled out a little round card from the bottom. It looked like one of those cartridges for those toy viewfinders she would play with as a kid. Each image was painted on small cellophane windows cut into the disk.

She held it up for Canardist to see.

Canardist shrugged. "So I like to be entertaining when spouting exposition, so sue me."

Tadashi stared at the Mind Trap again. There was something hauntingly mesmerizing about it.

"So you won't sell it to us?" He asked.

"No."

He took a step closer to it. "Would you let us borrow it then?"

"What?"

Before she could say no, Tadashi grabbed the paperweight and ran away.

"Stop! Thief!" She called after him.

"What are you doing?" Gogo hissed at him from behind as she ran to catch up.

"Relax. We're only borrowing it." Tadashi excused as he made it to the escalators.

"Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Canardist frantically called after them. She was running towards them but her old bones couldn't hope to catch up to the teenagers.

"We'll return it tomorrow! Promise!" Tadashi yelled back at her, before sliding down the railing of the escalator.

Gogo sighed. "Sorry! I'll make sure it gets back to you!" She also called back, before following her boyfriend.

He grabbed her hand as she hopped off the rail and together they ran out of the mall before Madam Canardist could stop them.

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

After a couple of more tries and a few more failures, Varian finally created the alcohol he was wanting to make. And true to his word, he used it primarily to cook with; basting the eggplant in a tangy apple wine sauce, complete with mushrooms, onions, garlic, and a light sprinkle of Parmesan.

Honey Lemon had to admit that it was delicious.

As they finished dinner and polished off the last of the non-fermented cider, her and Varian played a round of truth and dare.

"Okay, your turn," Varian said, "truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Alright, have you ever actually broken a rule, and what's the worst thing you've ever done?"

Honey Lemon rolled her eyes. "Of course I've broken a rule before, everyone has." Then she sighed, "But I guess the worse one was… maybe… borrowing my mom's car without her permission, aaanndd, maybe sneaking off with my boyfriend…"

Varian raised an eyebrow. "Andre?"

"Yeah…"

"What did you do that was so bad?" He asked, confused.

Honey Lemon turned beet red, and Varian just about snorted apple juice out of his nose as he broke down laughing.

"Stop it!" She whined.

"Hahaha.. I'm sorry.. haha, I'm sorry HL, but 'I went on date with my boyfriend, where we did the normal thing lovers usually do' is like the least 'bad thing' in the world."

"Weeeell… I also kinda stole a car to do it."

"Did you return the car?"

"Well of course…."

"Then it's not stealing. Face it Honey, you're too sweet. You haven't a rebellious bone in your body."

Honey Lemon looked wholly offended by that. "I can be plenty rebellious! Like… like last week the professor told us to make an impressionist painting but I did a post-impressionist artwork instead."

Varian only stared at her with the least impressed expression ever.

Honey Lemon threw up her hands in exasperation. "Okay, so we all can't be ex-convicts."

She then gasped in horror as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

"I-I didn't mean it that way! I just… I meant… I was comparing myself to supervillains, n-not you…"

Varian frowned and stood up from the table. "No… you're right. I lived for a year with murders, thieves, and violent revolutionaries… some of the worst people you can ever imagine. That's why I have to laugh at something so ridiculous as getting trouble for drinking a beer or going on a date."

He walked over to the sink and started to clean his plate; refusing to look at her as he finished his spiel.

"I wish 'sneaking off to make out with my boyfriend' was the worst I've ever had to deal with. That actually sounds like a very nice problem to have."

Honey Lemon pouted as she watched him wash the dishes. She didn't like the turn the conversation had taken, but she also didn't like the dismissive tone Varian spoke with.

"Look… I'm sorry. I put my foot in my mouth." She sighed. "But, you know what, you don't get to tell me what is or isn't a problem."

She stood up, gathered her own plate, and joined Varian at the sink.

"Oh, you're going to tell me how you regret it just because you and Andre didn't work out?"

"No… I don't… 'regret' isn't the right word… but it was impulsive, and reckless, and mama really wasn't happy when she found out about it."

"Wait… you regret it just because your mom didn't approve?"

"Well, nooo… b-but she did have a good point about not rushing into things. I'm only eighteen. I have my whole life ahead of me."

Varian looked confused again. "What part of dating means that you can't have a life? What kind of sense does that make?"

"Well, no, dating isn't necessarily bad… it's just… you shouldn't go too fast."

Varian blankly blinked at her, not understanding her meaning at all.

Honey Lemon sighed. "I thought Andre and I were going to be together forever. Like in the movies where you marry your high school sweetheart, buy a house, and have babies and puppy dogs running around. B-but that's not realistic, and had we stayed together or had I run off to New Jersey with him, then I wouldn't be here, with you and all my friends, or become a superhero!"

Varian shook his head. "See, now we're just back to you regretting dating him specifically because it didn't work out."

"No, that's not what I'm saying… like you can't have it both ways. You can't be a housewife and earn a degree at the same time-"

"Why not?"

"Be-because… it… it just wouldn't be practical. There's not enough time to do both."

"Mrs. Goodenberg does it. You know, from computer programming class. She's going back for her masters."

"Yeah, but Mrs. Goodenberg is also forty two."

"So?"

"Well… all her kids are grown and she had to put her education on pause for twenty years. See? You can't do both at the same time."

"But you can still do both… one doesn't necessarily cancel out the other, you just got to, like, prioritize which you want first. Also who said you had to marry the person that you're dating?"

"Well, isn't that the point of dating? To find someone who you'd want a committed relationship with."

"Uh, I thought the point of dating was to have fun?"

Honey Lemon rolled her eyes. "That's such 'a guy' response. You never think about the future."

"That's because I don't have a future to think about." He snorted as he gathered the now cleaned dishes and carried them over to the cabinet where they were usually stored.

Honey Lemon frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Varian paused in putting up the dishes and gave her wide-eyed look. Then he turned away from her and put the last of the chinaware plates up. "Nothing… I just… I just think that if you want something, then you should just go for it. No one is promised tomorrow. "

He closed the cabinet and started to pack up his things, not daring to look her in the eyes.

Honey Lemon felt the same lump of dread she always did whenever they stumbled into the topic of Corona. True he had avoided mentioning the kingdom by name, but Honey Lemon knew what he was alluding to anyways.

"Th-then what do you want?" She asked, hoping to change the subject. "I mean what plans do you have for the future?"

"I would like to rescue my dad. That's all I got for now."

"Ooookaaay, but what about after that? What do you want to do then? Let's say you do get him back, then what?"

Varian looked past her as if he'd never considered such a possibility before.

"Well… I.. don't know. I haven't quite gone that far yet."

"Well what about selling your portal tech, or maybe studying chemistry because you like it so much?" Honey Lemon suggested, only too glad to be discussing happier matters. "I mean, you can do anything you want, be anything you want."

Varian only shrugged. "What do you want to be?"

"Well I'd…" Honey Lemon paused. It was a surprisingly hard question to answer. "Well I'd like to do everything. Draw, paint, invent, travel, and yeah… maybe meet someone nice and settle down… eventually. But I don't have to do it all at once; see by not rushing into things I get to keep my options open."

"Yeah, but you gotta choose at some point, right? Otherwise you won't get anything done."

Honey Lemon blinked in surprise. She hadn't considered that point of view before and she didn't like it.

"Well, it's better than just not having any goals at all."

"But I do have a goal. Just because it's not a long term life-long plan doesn't mean that's not valuable. By focusing on what matters here and now, I can follow through till the task is done."

"But at the expense of everything else? School? A career? Hopes, dreams!?"

He gave an odd look before mumbling. "What good are dreams? Dreams don't put food on the table, or keep a roof over your head. They don't protect people from wolves or corrupt governments out to destroy you."

"No." She whispered and shook her head. "You got it all wrong. Dreams are what inspire you. They're what keep you going when it looks like things will never get better. Dreams are the most important things a person can have-"

"Honey, please," He held up his hands in protest. "I adore you, but I am begging you to stop."

Honey Lemon looked offended and Varian gave an exaggerated sigh.

"Look, I've heard it all before. The whole 'you can do anything if you just believe hard enough' is crap. It doesn't work! Wishing doesn't rescue my dad. Hope doesn't save my village from dying. No amount of dreaming gets me my life back!"

An awkward silence fell between them as they both stared at each other, each growing ever more self conscious as the seconds quietly ticked by.

Varian finally tore his eyes away from her and stared at his shoes instead, while Honey Lemon wrung her hands. She hated it when they argued. Hated it.

"I'm sorry I yelled." He softly said, still refusing to look at her. "I know… that you're only trying to help… but, I… I don't know how to make you understand. How can I even explain it… but please, don't ever tell me 'I need a dream'."

"You're right… I don't understand." She sobbed. "I know Corona was awful, b-but you're not there anymore. I… I thought things were better now."

Varian finally looked at her and frowned.

"They are better. Of course San Fransokyo is a thousand times better than Corona, b-but just because I'm here now doesn't mean that it changes the past. Honey, you ask me what I want, what kind of future I'd like to have, but I can't tell you because… because it was stolen from me."

Honey Lemon sniffled as she looked at him confused.

Varian sighed and shook his head.

"I didn't grow up like you did. I never thought about colleges or careers. I knew since… since birth, that I was going to be the leader of my village. Same as my father, my grandfather, and his father before him. People have lived the same way as their parents for generations where I come from."

"Th-that sounds awful."

"But it's not. It only sounds that way because it's not what you grew up with. Not knowing your place in the world, not having that security and heritage behind you, supporting you. That sounds awful to me."

"But what if you don't want that? What if you wanted to be something else, like a baker or a dentist?"

"But that's just it. I never wanted to be anything else. The thought never even crossed my mind growing up. I wanted to be a leader. I wanted to take care of my people. I wanted to be just like my dad."

"But I thought you wanted to be a scientist."

"Yeah, I did... I still do, but that's only because science is my best skill. I can use it to lead, to make things better. I figured out pretty quickly that I could never actually be my father… we're just too different. But I could still be myself, and do what's expected of me. I could solve problems using science. I could help my people prosper with my inventions. Or at least… I thought I could."

He hung his head again.

"Turns out most of my inventions were more of a hindrance than a help. I… think the town would have loved it if I had just stopped. But… I was so sure that if I just kept trying I could… I could prove to everyone that I had what it took to be a leader. Especially my dad…

Then… suddenly… one day I didn't have a people anymore. I didn't have home anymore…. I didn't have my dad anymore. I can't believe in 'dreams' when literally everything you know can just be ripped away from you in a second."

His bottom lip trembled and Honey Lemon's heart went out to him.

"Oh Varian…"

She wanted nothing more than to wrap him in a hug and never let go. Reassure him that everything would alright and bring his normally cheerfully smile back. But when she reached out her arms to comfort him, he stepped away from her. He still wasn't done. He had her pity, but not her understanding.

"Listen, I'm lucky to even be alive right now. I never thought I'd survive past fourteen. Let alone make it to sixteen. Now you're asking me to think ahead… to when? Next year? The year after? You think I can actually make it to eighteen without accidentally blowing myself up or throwing myself into the stratosphere? How about twenty? Forty? I can't do it."

"Yes, you can." She insisted as she grabbed him by the arms. He returned the embrace, clasping her own elbows, but he still shook his head.

"How do you know? Why do you keep believing in me?"

"Because… you have us now, and you can do anything with your friends. Even time travel."

He couldn't fight the smile from slowly creeping back onto his face, though he certainly tried to.

"You really think that?"

"I really do." She pressed her forehead against his own, and they broke down into soft giggles even as they still blinked back their tears.

"I can do anything, huh?"

"Yup."

He let go of her arms and then pulled her into a closer hug. She returned the embrace and snuggled her head onto his chest. Without her usual heels on she found the task surprisingly easy. They were nearly the same height now, minus an inch or three.

"Then I want to save my dad and bring him here, so that he can meet all of my friends." He finished.

"That sounds nice… and then what?" She asked.

Varian raised an eyebrow, "And then?... I may have to look for a new place to live."

Honey Lemon looked up at him in surprise. She hadn't expected such an answer.

"Dad will hate the city, I know he will." He explained. "Also, I know Hiro and Aunt Cass have talked about turning the attic into a spare bedroom, but really it would just be crowded with all five of us living under one roof; eight if you count Baymax and the pets."

"Sooo where would you move to?"

"Well… I wouldn't want to go far, so that way I can still go to school and visit everyone, but Dad would like land… something he can farm."

"Like a vineyard? They have a lot of those around here."

Varian looked thoughtful. "Hmm… Never worked a vineyard before, but it can't be much harder than an orchard surely. Yeah, I bet dad would love that, and then I could have all the wine that I wanted."

He snorted as Honey Lemon gave him a playful slap at such a joke. He then laughed again as pulled her into an even tighter hug. She allowed him to. It was so nice when they got along. She didn't know why they ever fought over anything when they could be cuddling like this instead.

"There's just one thing… how would you pay for it?"

"Well, Krei did offer to make me his business partner. We're heading down to meet up with that potential investor this weekend. Maybe, I'll seriously consider taking the job… you know, after I'm done with the portal."

"Really? So you'll actually think about your career for once, and plan on finishing school?"

Varian nodded and the biggest smile spread across her face. She squeezed him tighter, locking him a big bear hug as she jumped for joy.

"Oh you'll see! It'll be perfect! Everyone will be together, and we'll all get our degrees, and become both world renowned inventors and superheroes!"

"Haha! Is that what you want? Is that your future?"

"I… I just want everyone together."

"Yeah I know what you want," he winked, "you want a castle. One big enough for everybody to live."

"Yeeeesssss! OMG yes! That would be the best thing ever! Then we'd all be like one big happy family. Everyone would get their own room and we'd have weekly game nights, ooohhh and banquets!"

"And a dance hall?"

"Yes! Of course there has to be a ballroom and huge dining table to fit everyone!"

Varian laughed and leaned on closer. "Well what if I bought the vineyard and built you a castle on it? Would that make you happy?"

"For everyone?

"For anyone who wants to stay there."

"You'd do that for me?"

"I'd do anything for you."

He rubbed his nose against hers.

"Even believe in dreams." He laughed.

She giggled at the touch, but her laugh caught in her throat when she turned to see her roommate standing at the door.

"Oh, Gogo! I…uh.. I didn't hear you come in." She nervously gulped.

Varian coughed and pulled away from their embrace. "We, uh, save you some dinner."

"Oh yeah! We have a plate over here." Honey Lemon ran to pull the tray out of the oven where they had kept the leftovers warm.

"Thanks." Was all Gogo said.

Honey Lemon and Varian shared an awkward glance.

"Well, I b-better get going." Varian hastily excused himself as he finished gathering his things. "I have a writing assignment due in the morning. See ya later."

And with that he hurried out the door.

"Sorry if I was interrupting something." Gogo said as she filled her plate up.

"Oh you weren't interrupting anything." Honey Lemon dismissed.

Gogo gave her a skeptical look as she took a bite of dinner. "It sure looked like 'something'."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Honey, you do know that Varian likes you, right?"

"You mean 'like' as in a friend, right?

"No I mean 'like' as in he 'likes you' 'like.'"

Honey Lemon looked aghast as Gogo smugly smiled.

"No." She shook her head. "You got it all wrong. Varian and I are just friends. Besides, it's Karmi that he actually likes."

Gogo rolled her eyes. "If he was ever into Karmi that ended the moment she and Hiro started flirting, but he's liked you since forever. It's so obvious."

"No it's not... We just enjoy hanging out cause we have a lot in common. Why are you making such a big deal of this?"

Gogo didn't say anything, just took another bite of eggplant parm.

"Stop it' Honey Lemon whined.

"Stop what?"

"You're judging me."

"Oh I'm totally judging you." Gog agreed as she finished her meal.

Honey Lemon rolled her eyes. "Nothing is going on between me and Varian."

"Well if you really feel that way, then you need to tell him that." Gogo sighed as she placed her dirty dish in the sink.

She turned back around to see Honey Lemon staring ahead wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights.

Gogo folded her arms across her chest. "You're doing it again."

"D-doing what again?"

"Avoiding the problem."

"I'm... I'm not avoiding anything, and there is no problem. We're just friends and I'm sure he knows that."

"Then why don't you talk to him to make sure?"

Honey Lemon grew defensive at that. "Ugh! Since when are you all for 'talking about one's feelings'?"

"Oh I hate 'discussing feelings'. The very thought makes me queasy, but it's not my life we're talking about here. Look, I get it. Emotional honesty is hard, and mushy stuff is just gross, but you own it to Varian to let him know how you really feel."

Honey Lemon pouted. "I... I ... umm..."

"You don't know how you feel, do you?"

"Of course I do. He's my best friend, same as you, and It's not like I'd want to date you. N-no offense."

"Hey, none taken." Gogo shrugged. "See, it's that easy. If he really just sees you as a friend, as you insist. Then he's not going to care if you want to clarify that."

Honey Lemon didn't answer, instead she sat upon her bed and clutched her blankets close to her.

"You're afraid I'm right, and that he's going to be upset when you turn him down. Aren't you?" Gogo persisted.

Honey Lemon didn't reply but only gave her best friend a pleading look.

Gogo shook her head. "It's only going to be worse if you don't tell him and it winds up blowing up in both of your faces. What are you going to do when he gains the courage to ask you out for real? Or what if you decide to date someone else? What are you going to do then? Are you just planning to avoid ever mentioning that you're already in a relationship to him?"

Honey Lemon snuggled deeper under the covers, till only her eyes were visible above the quilt. "Th-that's not going to happen." She whispered, not at all confident in her prediction.

Gogo spread her arms wide in frustration. "Give up, Honey Lemon. Do what you want. But don't say I didn't warn you when it all comes crashing down around you."

She grabbed a bottle of water and started to head up the stairs. "Now, I've had a very annoying day and I'm going to relax before bed. I turned in your homework for you today... is there anything else you need before I turn in for the night?"

"No... Thank you though." She mumbled back.

"Alright, then goodnight. Thanks for dinner. It wasn't half bad."

Honey Lemon watched her as she headed up to the loft, but she wasn't paying attention. Her mind raced with worry as she sat there thumbing her hair.

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

"Well, what did you find?" Tadashi asked Hiro.

They were inside the lab at HQ. Gogo had already gone home and he, Baymax, and Hiro were the only ones left inside the superhero hang out.

"Only that's it's very similar to the amber... whatever that stuff is."

He stood to the side and let Tadashi read the printout.

"Hmmm... same radiation signals.... but this spectrograph still doesn't make any sense... is it even carbon based?"

"What else could it be?" Hiro asked.

Tadshi shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. It looks like I nicked this off Canardist for no reason."

"I still can't believe you stole something from the mall." Hiro laughed.

" 'Borrow' . I borrowed the paperweight and I'll return it tomorrow." He corrected me.

"Well, we know what it's made of... sort of... but that still doesn't answer the bigger question." Hiro said, slowly. "How were you able to read the inscription?"

Tadashi frowned. "I still don't know," he whispered.

"Let's see what Baymax can find out." Hiro hopped off the stole, grabbed the mind trap, and held up for Baymax to see.

"Can you detect this in my hand?" He asked the robot.

"I see nothing there." The faithful nurse said.

"Wait... let's write it down." Tadashi suggested.

Hiro held the rock up as Tadashi copied the inscription.

"Okay, Baymax. See if you can cross-reference this. Let us know what language it is." Tadashi said as held up the paper.

Baymax studied the writings for a moment.

"I am not finding a match."

"hmmm..." Tadashi hummed in thought as he read runes again... or tried to read them, at least.

"What is it?" Hiro asked.

"I can't read these."

"What do you mean you can't read them?"

"I mean I can't read them, now. They just look like random lines."

Hiro peered over his shoulder to look at the markings.

"To be more precise." Baymax said. "They are hieroglyphics from various languages."

"What do you mean?" Hiro asked.

"That rune is Finnish, and this marking is ancient Mandarin." Baymax said as he pointed to each letter.

"It's a code." Hiro said as realization dawned on him. "It's the same code that the journal is written in and that scroll."

"Canardist said that Demanitus was the guy who helped make the mind trap."

Tadashi said as he picked up the paperweight again.

Hiro shook his head. "That still doesn't make sense though. Why could you read that stuff last time and not now... Tadashi?"

Tadashi didn't answer. He only stared at the rock in his hand. It was glowing, and his eyes glinted back that glow.

"Ta-Tadashi?"

"Open the gateway..." He whispered.

"What?"

"So that the darkness may consume all..."

Hiro shook his big brother. "Tadashi! Snap out of it!"

"And the kingdoms will fal- Hey!"

Hiro knocked the artifact out of Tadashi's hand before he could finish the rhyme. It landed on the floor and rolled til it came to stop at Baymax's foot.

"Why did you do that!?"

"Very funny, Tadashi! Stop trying to freak me out!"

Tadashi blinked as if he just realized something. "I was reading it again... wasn't I?"

Hiro looked at him horrified.

"Wh-what's going on?"

"I don't know! It's like.. whenever I look at that thing, it..." He paused, dread filling his face... "It.. it takes over my mind. B-but... but it's not supposed to work on me. That's what Canardist said anyway."

He gulped and scooted away from the stone.

"Hiro, I'm sorry. You, Varian, Gogo, you were all right. I shouldn't have been messing with this stuff."

Hiro closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He'd never seen Tadashi so scared before, and it was unnerving.

"There has to be a logical explanation." He slowly said.

"Like what?"

"I... don't know yet, but in the meantime let's return this to Canardist."

Using a pair of tongs, Hiro picked up the radioactive rock. "Let's put this in something though, until then."

"Like a lead box?" Tadashi asked.

"Yeah, that would be good... but do we have one?"

"Roddey left some lead boxes in the storage closet, just for this occasion." Baymax stated.

"Oh, thank you Roddey." Hiro sighed as Tadashi ran to go get the box.

He found a suitable one and Hiro gingerly placed the cursed object inside and shut the lid. Both boys breathed easier at not being about to see it.

"We'll both return it in the morning." Hiro said. "Baymax, can you stay up and guard the box?"

"Affirmative."

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

"Hey!" Varian beamed at them as Hiro and Tadashi made home. "Where's Baymax?"

"He's staying at HQ tonight. He, uh, he's running some diagnostics on the computers." Hiro lied.

"How's Honey Lemon?" Tadashi asked, changing the subject.

"She seemed to be feeling better when I left. I think she's going to try and show up for class tomorrow. Speaking of which, I still have this writing assignment to finish." He bit the end of his pencil in thought.

"Has Granville handed out her usual creative short story assignment for the semester?" Hiro asked.

"Yeah, I'm trying to write my own Flynn Rider plot. I'm right at the part where he stabs the evil count during mid duel... but I don't know.. it sounds like it's too easy an ending."

"Let's see it?" Tadashi said and snatched up the paper from him before he could protest. "Blood gushed from Count Derrick's mouth as the steel blade sliced through his gut. He gasped in surprise before falling over the ramparts and landing on the rocks below, where his evil form lay twisted and broken. Flynn Rider turned away from the bloody sight as the vultures started to swirl overhead... Hmm... It's grotesque, gory, and depraved... I like it."

Hiro rolled his eyes and took the paper from him. "'Flynn!' The Duchess Adel yelled out to him. She stood upon the balcony waiting for him, her long red hair glinting gold in the sunlight. Her green eyes shone with love and her soft lips... You just wrote in Honey Lemon as the love interest didn't you?"

"No I did not!" Varian protested.

"Let me see." Tadashi laughed and grabbed the paper before Varian could take it back. "Rider climbed down from the roof and embraced the duchess. He leaned in for a kiss, but was interrupted when his page Dashi... Okay, why am I the sidekick?"

"Because you annoy me the most." Varian said as he finally snatched the paper back.

"Am I in the story?" Hiro asked.

"You are, but you were stabbed in the back by the count and I…I mean Flynn Rider had avenged your death."

"Dude, you couldn't think a cooler was to kill me off?"

"Nope."

Tadashi snickered at that. "Alright Shakespeare, and are you planning on publishing your story for the world to see?"

"Maybe?" Varian straightens up. "Hey, maybe I'll become a professional author and write a whole new series of Flynn Rider adventures! Who knows?"

"But no one here knows who Flynn Rider is." Hiro pointed out.

"So? All the better. I can introduce a whole new generation to the awesomeness that is the swashbuckling defender!"

Both his brothers burst out in laughter.

"Yeah, maybe you can get a movie deal out of it?" Tadashi wheezed.

"Yeah, and he'd cast himself as the main hero if he did." Hiro snorted.

"Hey, I could pull off a decent Flynn rider if I wanted to." Varian defended. "After all, I can do anything I set my mind to."

Hiro raised an eyebrow at him. "Egotistical much?"

"It's called self-confidence." Varian snootily replied, then his face broke out into the widest grin ever, "Besides, a man can have dreams, can't he?"

The smile never left his face as he gathered up the rest of his homework.

"See ya tomorrow." He told them and went back to his room.

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

"Sorry we took your paperweight, Madam." Hiro apologized as he offered the lead box to the elderly lady.

Canardist quickly snatched the box out of his hands, as she gave the two guilty boys before her a withering glare. She then peered inside to make sure that the container's precious cargo was actually there and unharmed.

"Aannd?" She demanded as she snapped the lid closed with a huff.

Tadashi sighed, and rocked back on his heels. "And you were, right, we shouldn't have been messing with things that we don't know anything about."

Canardist placed her hands upon her hips. "Very well, apology accepted." The she cupped her hand to her mouth and quickly called out behind her. "Security!"

Hiro's and Tadashi's eyes went wide when a bulky mall cop came running towards them. They turned on their heels and ran out of the store as fast as their feet would carry them.

#of rocks and robots #varian #tadashi hamada #Hiro Hamada #Honey lemon #Gogo Tomago #tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #big hero 6 #big hero 6 the series #bh6

21 notes · View notes

rosesdrabbleblog · 4 years

Text

Doing Time

Pairing: Warden!Sam x Fem!reader

Warnings: smut, 18+ content, cursing.

Note: Everyone (including myself) is simping over Warden!Sam, so I thought I’d write about him to fuel all our thirst.

The prison loomed over you as you walked up to it. It was a rainy day, but you were thankfully prepared with an umbrella. You neared the entrance of the tall building, looking at the intricate architecture. Sam had come home many nights, exhausted over building the damn thing. You were always there with a hug and words of encouragement.

He had asked you to come visit on a work day. In fact, he seemed excited at the prospect. And how could you refuse him when he gave you the warmest smile?

That’s why you were here. You did your best to remind yourself of how to get Sam’s attention before seeing the large button at the entrance hall. You pressed it, waiting for something to happen. Eternity seemed to pass before a voice came over the intercom.

“State your name and business.”

You had never heard Sam sound so serious, or so scary. It kind of frightened you, as you were so used to his rather cheery self.

“Uh, hey love, it’s me? You asked for me to come?”

You waited again before he asked, “are you read to come through?”

“Of course.”

After a moment, the wall in front of you pushed back to reveal an ender portal.

“Walk through the portal, and let me know when you’ve gone through.”

You did so without hesitation.

You were confused when you spawned into a smaller section. “Wait, what? You built a section in the nether? I’ve never seen it...”

“You can go back into the portal again.”

Figures he wouldn’t reveal anything.

You stepped back in, even more confused, expecting to be back at the entrance hall. Instead, you were greeted by Sam in a much larger room. Sam was wearing his amour, along with a mask and helmet covering his face. To be quite honest, it was a bit unnerving.

“Welcome to the prison. Before you enter, you need to do something first. Come forward and I will discuss the waiver with you.”

You stepped forward, glancing down at the waiver in front of you. It wasn’t particularly long, but it sent a chill down your spine that you had to sign it.

“You will read the waiver out loud to me so I know you actually read it. Then-”

You cut him off, “wait, am I visiting Dream? I thought I was visiting you?”

He looked at you. “Don’t cut me off.”

He went back to discussing the waiver as you questioned to yourself what he was doing. As far as you were concerned, you were getting a tour, not visiting Dream. You had barely spoken to him, and you disliked him after hearing all of the sick and twisted things he had done. Sam had told you late one night, “he tells me all the stuff he did to Tommy. The exile, the manipulation, all of it. I have to hear that twisted fuck talk about the horrible things he did every damn day. It’s so messed up.”

Your thoughts were interrupted when Sam spoke up, “do you understand all that?”

You looked back up into his mask again, searching for a hint of his eyes. “Y-yes.”

“Good. Then read the waiver and we can proceed forward.”

You looked down at the waiver, feeling a bit nervous as you read through it. Why did this situation seem off? You knew Sam had to take his job seriously, but why with you?

You began to read the waiver, “I hereby assume all the risks of of visiting the holding cell, including by way of example and not limitation, any risks that may arise from negligence or carelessness on the part of the Prison guards, prisoners misbehaving, from dangerous or defective equipment or property owned, maintained, or controlled by the Prison Guards. I certify that I waive, release, and discharge the Prison from any and all liability, including but not limited to, death, disability, personal injury, property damage, property theft, or actions of any kind which may hereafter occur to me, including my traveling to and from visiting the Prisoner. Written name, then sign-“

“Do you understand all that?” Sam asked, tilting his head slightly at you.

You nodded,” I understand. I sign it now, yes?” He simply nodded. And with that, you signed your name on the waiver.

“Good. Now if you follow me to the lockers over here...put your belongings in this chest here. I will lock it and you can collect your belongings after your visit. You will take the key after and put it in your ender chest.”

You stared at him,” everything?”

He nodded.

You slowly put everything your had on you in the chest, before locking it with the key that popped out. You followed him out of the room, jumping as the door slammed closed behind you. He reminded you what to do with the key again, which your put into the ender chest at the desk.

“Now, what was your relationship with Dream before his imprisonment?”

This question confused you, “I never really had one with him.”

“Tell me what you did have.”

“What’s with these questions Sam? I don’t even want to visit the damn man.”

Even though he wore a mask, you could tell Sam was annoyed.

“Just answer my question.”

You sighed before saying, “we spoke once, where I asked him what happened to Tommy. It was after I went away from L’Manberg for a bit, and came back to find Tommy gone. He told me he had been exiled. And that was all that was said. I hate that bastard for the things he did to people I call friends. To people I call family. I hope he rots.”

If Sam was taken aback by your statement, he didn’t show it. Instead, he asked,” are you willing to submit to any and all physical exams?”

You choked on air,” I’m sorry, what?”

He simply stared at you, waiting for an answer. You thought this was a strange question but responded with a “yes.”

“Do you acknowledge you may not bring anything into the prison with you?”

You patted down your empty pockets, “yes.”

“And do you recognize that I am the ultimate authority on the grounds of the prison?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Whatever I say goes. If I were to tell you to drop on all fours, you would have to do it.”

This sentence made your jaw drop, “wait, what?”

“Do you understand?”

You stared into his mask for a moment, questioning what was happening to yourself. This really wasn’t what you expected when Sam said he wanted to show you the prison.

You realized you hesitated a bit too long, so you simply said, “yes.”

The man nodded, “good, now you can follow me into this room here.” You followed him down a corridor, where a bed was placed in a small section of the wall. “Normally, I would have you set your spawn point here and kill you to make sure you didn’t defy my orders, but this time will be a bit different. Continue to follow me,” he said as he continued to walk down a different hallway. You followed him quietly, taking in your surroundings as you did. He lead you through more sections of the prison, briefly telling you about the sections you passed by. One in particular made him stop,” this is where I’d take visitors to the prisoner, but you’re not here for that, are you?” Sam looked back to glance at you before walking again.

Finally, you were lead to an office area, where a few surveillance screens sat at a large desk. Some cameras were at various hallways, while there was one in the prison cell itself. On the small screen, you could see Dream was writing away in a book, almost as if he wasn’t the most despised man on the entire server.

“This is where we keep tabs on the prisoner. That way, he- wait a moment,” Sam paused, looking at you quizzically, “I never did follow protocol after you agreed to the terms.”

You raised an eyebrow, “protocol?”

He nodded, “I believe I mentioned it to you in passing, about the spawn point and killing you to make sure you didn’t disobey me.” He clicked his tongue, “no no no, this won’t do at all. I’m going to have to give you a pat down. If I find a single item on you, you will have to suffer the consequences for your actions.”

Your face began to heat up at that, “I can assure you dear, I have nothing on me, but you can check if it makes you feel any better.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

And with that, he flipped you over to face the desk, running his hands all along your body hungrily. After checking that you didn’t actually have anything on you, he purred, “good girl, listening to what I say. You would do anything I asked, wouldn’t you?”

This wasn’t how you expected the prison tour to go, but you certainly weren’t complaining. You nodded at his words.

Sam hummed as he dragged his gloved hands along your back, making small circles on it. “Since you’ve done so well for me, I should give you a reward. Would you like that?” He pushed up against you, and you could feel how hard he was through his trousers. You let out a whimper and nodded again.

He pulled down your pants after your affirmation, beginning to tease you through your panties. “Someone’s excited,” he commented, and you could tell he was grinning despite the mask that still covered his face. He pressed his fingers against you harder, before nearly ripping your panties off right after. Sam pushed a finger into you gently, letting out a chuckle at your loud whimper. “Atta girl, that’s it...” he said softly as he added another right after, finally allowing you to adjust. You whimpered again at the intrusion, his praise getting into your head and making you feel warm. He began to thrust his fingers gently, slowly working up to a faster speed. You clung to the desk, moans passing your lips loudly. At one point, you went to grab his hand, but missed entirely and flipped a small switch on the desk. You didn’t even notice, instead finally grabbing his hand to hold as he sped his fingers up even more. You could feel yourself getting close as you whined out, “Sam...Sam please I-“

He grunted, “are you close?” You nodded and let out another whine. Sam pressed his fingers into you harder, “then cum on my fingers. Be a good girl for me.” And with that praise, you came on his fingers, gripping the desk even harder as you came down from your high. Your moment was shortly interrupted.

“If you’re going to do this, please don’t make me listen to it.”

Sam tore off his mask, his eyes glued to one of the small screens. With a realization, he glanced at the small switch you had accidentally flicked. Something dark came over his face as he yanked his pants and boxers off. With a “hang on for me,” he gently thrust inside you. You let out a whimper at that, glancing at the screen in embarrassment. “Sam! He can hear us!” you nearly yelled. Now you could see the wild grin that came across his face, “let him hear you. Let him hear how good I make you feel. I’ve had to listen to him talk about all the shit he’s done, but he’s at my mercy now. And I won’t let him have any. So scream for me.” And with that, he began pounding into you roughly, gripping your throat and squeezing gently. You couldn’t hold back the moans and whimpers, and instead pushed back against him in an attempt to get him to go even faster. You heard Dream make a sound of disgust as he attempted to go back to writing in his book, but you didn’t really care. Maybe Sam was right, maybe Dream did deserve a taste of his own medicine.

Sam, with one hand on your throat and the other on your hips, was biting your neck roughly, desperate to leave dark bruises behind. “So good for me, such a good little thing. You’re going to make me cum feeling this good, “ he groaned into your ear. You whimpered out, nearly hanging onto the desk for dear life as he pounded into you. Sam sped up his thrusts even more, nearing his own release. Doing this did the same for you, and you could feel yourself tighten around him. “You’re close, aren’t you? Need to cum on my cock? Do it, scream for me,” Sam groaned in your ear, letting out a pleased sound as you followed his order. Soon after, he came inside you, taking his time to pull out after. The two of you clung to each other, panting. As you began to get dressed, Sam spoke to Dream, “maybe now we can come to an agreement about what we say over the intercom. Don’t tell me your shit, and you don’t have to hear that again.” Dream made no response, only looking towards the camera, his mask seemingly staring right into his soul.

Sam flicked the switch back before turning to you, face red and sweaty. “I’ll be honest, I was originally going to give you a proper tour,” he joked with a smile. You laughed, happy to see regular Sam back. “Were you?” you teased. “I was!” he said defensively. He began to get dressed again as well, everything besides his mask at least. He led you out of his office, directing you how to exit the prison properly. “You’re not coming back with me?” you asked. Sam shook his head, “my shift won’t be taken over until later. But I promise I’ll make it up to you later.” With that, he kissed you gently before escorting you out, whispering praises into your ear as he did so.

Oh how you loved that man.

#awesamdude x reader #awesamedude #myct #myct x reader

540 notes · View notes

datawyrms · 3 years

Text

Ghostly Mystery Tour

For Phic Fight 2021! dey’s lovely prompt c:

On Ao3

Maddie and Jack had fully prepared for their adventure into the Ghost Zone—or so they thought. The fuel on Specter Speeder had fizzled out about a mile in. They're stuck. At least, until Phantom comes by, offering help.

“I just don’t understand it Maddie, I swear I charged it just this morning!” Jack’s voice managed to be louder than his frantic jabbing at the fuel gauge in the enclosed space, the sickly green glow outside making him look ill instead of agitated.

“I’m sure you did honey, but we need to think of a plan.” Maddie was already trying to think of what they could use. They weren’t too far away from the portal home, with how quickly the Speeder ran out of power. They had plenty of gear and weaponry packed in for their research trip, but the Specter Speeder wasn’t powered with something they could just toss in a gas can and bring along. “Maybe we can hook some of the ropes to the floating land masses and tow it?”

“Oh! Great idea!” Jack brightened, shoving the previous problem aside, hands now occupied with measuring the distance of the nearby rocks. “The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can get back to work!”

The problem about how safe it actually was to breathe in the air when in the realm of the dead had been accounted for, but if they had to waste the air tanks just to get back- well they wouldn’t get to have nearly the amount of time to actually explore on foot, let alone gathering samples. They could learn so much about the ectoplasmic terrors from the world they clawed out of, weaknesses they didn’t need to fear on Earth even! So to have their expedition, a trip that had been months in the making derailed like this in mere moments hurt. At least Jack could keep his eyes forward, his positive attitude the only thing keeping her from screaming from the absolute unfairness of it all. “Just run the best options past me before you open the hatch, okay darling?”

“You betcha!”

She was still going to enable the Fenton Child Safety Lock as a precaution, he could get a little over eager when he saw an opportunity. It was just a matter of what tools could be repurposed into a makeshift claw or skewer to actually keep hold of the rocks. What would be the smallest loss?

The sound of something hitting the roof of the speeder halted her thoughts, turning to look out of the windows, drawing up her hood in case they’d be fighting so soon. Even Jack had stopped with his mental calculations, pulling a weapon from under the seat. “Company already? Guess we’ll show em what for, eh honey?”

“Well it is the Ghost Zone, they’re probably braver here. Not that it’ll be any problem.” A little boasting could help keep morale up, even if the situation was less than ideal. Stranded with a ghost already trying to take advantage, typical.

“Well one little zap with this baby and it’ll scoot right on back!”

If the ghost could hear them, maybe it would be frightened off just by their voices. Whatever had hit them hadn’t shown itself near the window, or hit their vehicle again. It didn’t feel right. There might be no evidence for whatever it was lurking around, but sometimes you had to follow your intuition. Jack was inquisitive, but didn’t ask out loud as his wife stood to knock the ceiling herself.

“Sooo are we doing knock knock jokes, or do you need a tow?”

She should have known. Of all the ghosts, it would have to be the one that always managed to get her hackles up, pretending to be helpful so people trusted him. A ghost that even tried to have a human name to fit in, not that she’d ever call this thing ‘Danny’. It was an insult to her baby boy, quite frankly. “What are you up to now?”

“Asking you if you need this thing moved. Duh,” the ghost snorted, the metal clanking as he knocked it again. “Talking at you from the roof feels dumb, you gonna shoot if I go to the front?”

“Depends on what you do, ghost scum!” Jack had looked pensive for a moment, but spoke up quickly on spotting Maddie reaching for a notebook. He just had to give her time to think it over, and he was great at distractions.

“Is scum what you call all people who help you out, or am I just your favourite?” A white haired head appeared at the top of their window, looking down with an amused smirk at the pair. Still playing innocent when they were at a disadvantage.

“You’re a ghost ‘claiming’ to want to help.”

That earned a frown, though the ghost stopped half hiding to float in front of their stranded speeder. “Riiiight. Put it that way, whatever,” he paused, as if studying their faces. His green eyes lingered on the weapon, notably so even as he went back to jabbering. “I’ve got some stuff to do, but I can drag the s-that thing back to the portal. So?”

The hunters shared a glance, unsure how to handle it. Phantom liked to claim he liked humans and protecting them, but he was a ghost. There had to be something he wanted out of them in return. Or might get violent if refused in the wrong way. At least he shouldn’t be able to see the quickly scrawled message to Jack. ‘You play the doubtful one, I’ll pretend to trust him- it’ll underestimate us’

“As if, spooky! Jack Fenton doesn’t need any ghost’s help!”

The ghost bought the open hostility without a second thought, eyes rolling to a sky that wasn’t here. “Really? I heard tow trucks were expensive out of state! Can’t imagine the out of dimension costs.”

It was going to be difficult to stay civil when it would be so much easier to just demand the ghost stop playing around. “We’re listening. So what do you want?”

“Awwww Mads, we don’t need this punk’s help! He doesn’t even have toes!”

The passion Jack had put into his moping managed to baffle the ghost. “Wait, what? Of course I do! No, stop, why does that matter? I know tows and toes are different things! I’m not that bad of a student, sheesh.” He seemed quite thrown, which was good. If the ghost forgot what the plan had been he might just get lost.

“Yeah, and you don’t have either Phantom!” Her husband managed to keep from laughing, but the shake in his shoulders showed it was a near thing.

Phantom glanced down at the black wispy tail that made up his legs, muttering something. “Well okay I don’t right now, but I normally do!”

It was a bit fascinating that Jack had distracted the ghost from his goal so completely. They’d have to think about an invention that could replicate the effect. “Can we focus please? I already said I’d listen to what you wanted.”

“Oh! Right, sorry,” he coughed, a strangely human expression of embarrassment. “I don’t actually need anything? I just have some stuff to do so you’d need to wait a bit.”

Oh right. Sure, the most dangerous ghost in town wanted to help the ghost hunters that wanted to destroy him ‘just because’. Just wait here while he goes to get some friends to attack them! Honestly, did ghosts think they were stupid? “Then why not tell us when you’re done? We’re not moving very quickly.”

“Cus he wants to make us think we’re safe before WHAM! Outnumbered by cowardly ghosts!” Jack expressed her true feelings effortlessly. “Not that it’d help em!”

“No way, you think I’d leave you guys here where anyone can try something?” The ghost still seemed confused, eyebrows raised and arms crossed. “You guys are here to study or whatever anyway, right? So you can look around while I get my errands done. And you know, you don’t get attacked. Most of the little guys leave me alone.”

As if that was a surprise! A ghost of Phantom’s strength could destroy smaller and weaker entities without effort. Perhaps it was a subtle threat slipping through his mask of ‘helpful child’. The idea of going deeper into the Ghost Zone, completely at his mercy was...well absolutely idiotic. Even if they could probably overcome him...being able to still get some studies done would make it not a complete waste of a trip. “So you think it’s likely we’ll be attacked here, so close to the portal?”

“Yeah, by him!” Jack looked tempted to grab his weapon, but refrained. “So what if we say no, huh?”

“Then I guess you can float here? Up to you, I guess.”

It was strange, to see the cocky ghost a bit hesitant. Even if there was an obvious threat he wasn’t mentioning. “Well if you could pull the Speeder, you could take it even if we don’t want you to.”

“I think that’s called kidnapping.” Phantom’s cocky smirk returned “Which is weird, you’re not kids! Adultnapping? Nah, that sounds dumb.”

“Ah cut the innocent act, we’re not falling for it!”

“Hey, I said it’s up to you! Either you agree to come along and I get you back home, or I just leave you guys to do whatever you plan to do. Even if yes, I could totally just drag the ship anyway. I’m not, because I’m trying to help, remember?” A hint of frustration slid past the confidence at ‘remember’, but the ghost folding his arms behind his head as if kicking back to relax did defang most of the threat. “I don’t have all day here.”

“We don’t have all day either Phantom. We have family to get back to, and no idea how long you plan to be ‘on errands’.” Maddie pointed out, still unsure what they should do. Trusting him was stupid, but he had showed his hand. Refusal might be met with the same result anyway, but ‘agreeing’ might trick the ghost into thinking they fell for his ‘trustworthy’ act.

“Like an hour or two? Not too long.”

“Well I’d use my Fenton Stopwatch! So don’t think you can pretend it’s a shorter time than it is, ghost!”

“Yeah yeah, you do that D-Jack,” he stumbled over the ghost hunter’s name, but otherwise didn’t move from relaxing. “It’s not gonna kill you to trust me for a bit.”

Even though it very much could kill them. He really was a smug bit of ectoplasm, thinking he blended in with humans well enough to be considered one. “So only a few hours, and you won’t stop us from researching or taking samples? Or lead us to a trap?”

“If I wanted people to get threatened by ghosts, I could just take some days off. No trouble, cross my heart. I’d swear to die but I got the jump on that bit,” he snorted at his own joke, but otherwise left the family to consider.

It was just safer to say ‘yes’ so the ghost thought they were fools. It had nothing to do with wanting to salvage something out of this disaster of an expedition. “Yes. We’ll accept your help, this time.”

“And you aren’t getting any thanks until we’re home, got it?” Good, ghost hunter, bad ghost hunter. An easy enough trick. Even if she wished Jack was the ‘trusting’ one. Yelling would feel nice.

“Yeeeah, kinda expected that too. Rude.” The ghost only shrugged before flying up and out of sight. She half expected to hear the ghost grab the Speeder, but they only really noticed when they started moving. Moving very, very quickly.

She couldn’t help it, her curiosity tamped down some of the fear she should be feeling, pointing out interesting landmasses as they passed, Jack just as enthusiastic to discuss what caused them, if the ghost built them or they were simply generated when a ghost squirmed into existence. A great castle that seemed familiar, an island with some sort of skull as a decoration and thousands of doors. Most ghosts they only could get sparing glimpses at, even when carrying an entire vehicle the ghost boy was fast. Ridiculously so. She thought it was his small figure that contributed to how quickly the pest could move- how the ghost could just vanish out of range in moments. That most of the power behind his physical attacks came from the speed they were delivered with instead of raw strength. Clearly that was an incorrect hypothesis, moving this quickly and carrying so much extra weight without any real difficulty. They slowed near what seemed to be another castle, though it was much less foreboding looking then the other one.

That sinking dread returned after they landed. She had some landmarks, but this much distance would be a big ask to get back. That, and this castle seemed more...occupied, judging by some humanoid ghosts loitering near the gates. One even waved. To them, or the ghost carrying them?

“Okayyy so. Ground rules? Don’t shoot anyone. None of these guys even go through the portal, they’re not the fighting type. Other than that? Have fun, I guess?” He’d stopped floating, standing on the ground beside their stalled craft. He didn’t look as if preparing to fight, which is what she’d assumed the ghost meant by ‘errands’. So what was he up to?

“We won’t do anything if they don’t.” A lie, honestly, but the ghost nodded.

“Wait, what’s that stuff for?” White gloves pointed at the masks the ghost hunters were pulling from under the seats. “Like you can hear me, there’s air out here.”

“It might be safe for ghosts, but we aren’t ghosts.”

Phantom opened his mouth as if to protest before shutting it with a frown. Strange, it was hard to get him to shut up most of the time.

“Nice try, we’re not gonna choke on ghost air today, Phantom!” Jack chuckled, adjusting his mask before popping open the hatch.

“I wasn’t expecting you to- oh whatever. Just don’t embarrass me,” he sounded like a sulking kid, only glancing at them for a moment before kicking off the ground to fly closer to the castle. Off to fight whoever ‘owned’ this area, perhaps?

“Well look at that! Regular plants!” Jack shook her from her pondering, crouched over what looked like a tended to flower bed near the walls. “Well, ghost plants that aren’t trying to attack. Think we should sketch em for the kids?”

“Well Jazz has been more interested in ghosts lately, I suppose.” It was interesting, but she was more curious about the ghost meandering past the walls. They seemed docile, almost like people just walking and apparently talking with one another. Not attempting to fight for territory or resources. Perhaps they were just repeating the memories of their lives over and over? Yet none of them had reacted badly to Phantom zipping past either. A different breed of ghost, perhaps? Or ghosts often had ‘kings’ that kept the lesser ones from squabbling. The large brute of a ghost that stole the town had claimed to be a king of sorts, and this was another castle...but she didn’t want to test anything by getting their attention. They might only act savagely towards humans, being jealous of those still alive after all.

“Yeah, she has! Danno might not like em, but that goth chick he’s eyeing might like em too!” He was already sketching away, quickly getting the basics. He’d fill in the details from memory back home. “You want to try seeing if those ones talk? Not sure how the ghost kid thinks we could embarrass him, ha!”

“Oh he was probably just trying to insult us. He likes to pretend to be a teenager,” she waved that question away, double checking her weapon was easy to reach in case of an emergency. No reason to make their predicament worse by being unprepared. While still considering to go near those ghosts instead of safely observing from a distance. Jack’s enthusiasm was too infectious, really, but that’s how they made so many discoveries!

The ghosts didn’t object to her moving closer, but she kept off the busier paths to be safe. So many stalls of what seemed to be goods, clothing and paintings, rugs and nick knacks. Well, the ghosts didn’t need anything to live, so it would make sense for them to prioritize other items first, but the art was strange. What did the dead know of creativity? Were these all recreations of something found in life? No, some of the paintings had the green skies of the Ghost Zone, implying at least some ‘new’ thought. They were strange, very unlike the wild animals that often attacked the town, or the showy inhuman mimics that tried to claim world domination. They just looked like greener, more transparent people. Barely any of them even floated much. They’d need new categories, they broke too many rules that stayed true on Earth.

“Oh that’s a lovely shade of blue! I wish I could make something like it.” The voice echoed, but it wasn’t growling or mocking. In fact, the ghost woman who had paused beside the hunter was smiling warmly, despite the dead red eyes. “Are you just visiting for a bit?”

“We’re mostly stuck going wherever the ghost boy is taking us, our ship broke down,” Maddie struggled not to frown, her natural inclination to get away from the still potentially dangerous ghost strong with so many fights. She could tell it the truth, in a sense. Phantom was far more likely to be dangerous then this waif of a woman. How she could move in so many ruffles was baffling.

“Oh dear! Well if he’s any trouble you can let Dorthea know, she’s a caring ruler. A human helped her get her rightful throne back, so I’m sure she’d be happy to help!” The ghost tittered a little, as if expecting that to be obvious.

So the ghost did know she was human? Far more alarming was the idea some other human had been dragged this far from home, possibly trapped. Maybe this would turn into a rescue mission. Unless it was too late for them, a distinct possibility. “Oh really? How did that happen?”

“Oh I don’t really know the details, but it was a human that inspired our good Queen that she didn’t need to fear that tyrant and she could fight back. I wish I’d seen it!”

It was disquieting how human the ghost sounded, a friendly sort of gossip. If only she had a way to record it. “The human got back home after helping, right?”

“Well I assume so, she had no intentions of staying here very long, that’s for sure!” She laughed easily, apparently blind to Maddie’s confusion and apprehension, or just unable to see it past the mask and goggles. “I’m fairly sure Sir Phantom took her back, you could ask him.”

Sir? That town terrorizing scoundrel was respected around here? And had been taking humans out of the ghost zone? Probably because he made whoever it was get here in the first place, just to rescue them. Was that why he was here? To stage some new act with this ghost queen? “Right, I might do that.” Would she? This morning she hadn’t expected to talk to ghosts, let alone multiple.

“Oh! If you see any of those angry blobs you can just run back towards the guards and they’ll deal with it. It’s their job, and they’re quite good at it. I actually considered doing that job for a bit, but I like looking after the plants more. Maybe I’ll switch in a decade or two!” The ghost kept talking, apparently taking Maddie’s lack of further questions as permission to keep chattering.

“Can’t you deal with them yourself?” Attacking ghost blobs was something she knew about, and if this ghost was strong enough to mimic humans, shouldn’t it be able to deal with the much less sophisticated tactics of blobs?

��Me? Oh no, I’m not not trained. Do you still have lions on the other side? It would be like trying to fight one of those with a stick!” She laughed, but not unkindly.

“You’re both ghosts though, aren’t you?” Perhaps they differentiated themselves by name in the Ghost Zone? It would lend some evidence to the ‘different breeds’ of ghost hypothesis she was rapidly stringing together.

She tapped at her chin for a moment at the question. “I suppose we are, but they’re more like animals. They might have always been animals, or never alive at all! It’s perfectly safe here though, they usually fight more among themselves.”

Well that was fascinating. Some ghosts didn’t instinctively know how to fight and had to be taught? Yet didn’t consider themselves completely separated from the more animalistic ectoplasmic terrors. Perhaps the more ‘domestic’ setting here made the ghosts less feral and more reliant on their previous memories. Well, the ghost could be lying, but she couldn’t see the benefit she’d gain from deception here. “So you’re kind of stuck here then? We saw a lot of those outside of this place.”

“No no, we’ve got safer ways to travel than just flying around! Not all of us are that brave, dear. Though I don’t think I’d want to stay somewhere else very long anyway. Here it’s safe, all my friends are here and we have one of the largest markets in the whole Ghost Zone. Other ghosts come to us!” There was a hint of pride as she spoke about her ‘home’, gesturing over to some of the stalls Maddie hadn't had time to look at before getting interrupted. “I was really hoping to get something from the seven armed bloke over there, but he’s not very interested in my clothing. Maybe next time.”

Said ‘bloke’ had far too many eyes to go with the arms, and a collection of honestly terrifying little statues with strange designs that made her head hurt if she looked at it too long. A clear outsider to the more human ones, but not causing a stir. So much for constantly fighting out groups, but they barely had anything in common either! Not to mention engaging in some kind of simplistic trading. “So this happens often?”

“Pretty much. It’s fun to make new things, but you get bored of just your own stuff after a few centuries you know? So we swap and find new things.”

Well of course, it’s not like the ghosts needed to trade for something vital to existence. Swapping ‘things’ made more sense in that context. So why weren’t any trying to trade strength or favours? Or simply taking what they wanted? Was it related to having a queen? She had so many questions that knowing what ones needed to be asked was next to impossible. “I suppose you would. How can you tell if a ghost that comes is peaceful?”

“Asking!” She laughed again, apparently finding the question funny. So they didn’t deal with constant attacks from spectres like Phantom trying to ‘take over?’ Why?

“Oh geeze, I’m so sorry if she said anything about trying to-” Phantom’s voice interrupted her thoughts, the ghost suddenly floating beside the other ghost and sputtering.

“Sorry? She’s been perfectly lovely! Haven’t you- oh I’m so rude, I didn’t even get your name!” the ghost tisked at herself, once again strangely apologetic.

“Wait, she has?” His doubtful tone made the ghost hunter scowl. As if he had any room to judge them.

“We’re scientists, not uncontrollable monsters.” Like him. She was fairly sure he caught the implication when the boy muttered something she couldn’t hear.

“Cool. Anyway, got another stop, then I’ll get you two back home.” He still hovered, glancing between the two of them a few times. “Oh. Maddie, that’s her name.”

“Lovely speaking with you Maddie! Had a good trip back, I’m Guenivier if you’re ever in the area again,” she smiled and gave another wave before somehow drifting back into the crowd without displacing even a bit of that dress.

“Who said you can give out my name?” Maddie hissed, once certain the other ghost was out of earshot.

He leaned back on teenager mannerisms, scoffing and heading away. “Because she wanted to know and thinks you aren’t a total ghost hater? It’s not gonna hurt anything.”

“How can I know you don’t have a way to locate people by name?”

He was rolling his eyes again as if she was being ridiculous. “You live in a house with a giant glowing sign. Not exactly subtle.”

“That isn’t in the ghost zone.”

“It’s attached to the ghost zone, it totally counts.”

It really was like arguing with a teenager when he bantered on like this. “Just don’t do it again.”

“Yes ma’am. Sheesh.” He hopped on top of the speeder, kicking his heels against the side. “Hey Jack, you coming?”

“Coming!” he bellowed back, jogging over from the patch of plants she’d left him at. However, he wasn’t just carrying his notebook, but a folded glowing bit of cloth. Some sort of tapestry judging by all the stitching? “Just wanted to get a few more lines done-” he broke off after spotting his wife, apparently reminded that he shouldn’t be so chummy with the ghost. “I mean I leave when I want to, you can’t boss Fentons around!”

“Oh come onnn, can you pretend you don’t hate me for like five minutes? I’m not even doing anything!” Phantom complained, flopping backwards onto the Speeder. “You were totally having a good time”.

“How did you get that, dear?” Maddie chose to ignore their sulking captor and instead look at what Jack managed to gather besides sketches.

“Oh, one of the ghosties liked my pictures and asked to trade for one! So I gave em a page for this! We can study how they made it back home, neat huh?”

Apparently he hadn’t been too worried about it being a trap, but a picture he’d just sketched wasn’t a big ask for something that could teach them a lot about the ghosts in here, so it was a good trade nonetheless. “You did great sweetie. Just make sure to store it safely, just in case.”

“Already on it sweet cheeks!” He was indeed, already pulling out a large sample bag to store their find before opening the hatch again.

“Ew. I changed my mind, go back to threatening me. Sappy is worse.”

Well, at least the ghost regretted his actions a bit. He’d be more sorry if he tried anything, but this did just seem to be something to sooth that hero complex it had. So far, anyway. She was tempted to ask the ghost what it had been up to at the castle, but it didn’t really matter. He’d just lie anyway, he clearly wasn’t the same sort of ghost as the weaker ones back there.

“Ha, he crumples in the face of our love Madds!” Jack laughed, hugging his wife and they got comfortable back in the speeder. “You think he’d take us back home if I said how much I love ya?”

“I so don’t need to hear this.” He was muffled, apparently still flopped on the speeder. He didn’t add anything before the Speeder lifted from the ground and resumed speeding through the strange green expanse.

“Clearly he buys his own teenager delusion.” Maddie mused, content to rest against Jack and look through his sketches. “Did they seem strangely lifelike to you too?”

“Oh sure! They just talked and didn’t even seem interested in going to the human world! Even though one was very jealous of how bright my jumpsuit is.” He leaned a bit to flick a few pages forward. “I sketched a couple and got their names, so we can see if we can look em up. See if they’re similar to their old selves according to history and all.”

“That’s a good idea. I didn’t get a complete name, but apparently they have jobs? Not like the wilder ghosts, and they do have a queen…” she paused, remembering the ‘human’ Phantom apparently ‘helped home. “Hey! You did help someone home from the ghost zone before, did you?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, she’s back safe. Wasn’t even a whole day.” He sounded distracted, or at least surprised by the question.

It could be a valuable lead. That, and the human might need help after such an experience. Who knew how ecto contaminated they might be! “Who was it?”

“How should I know? Just because I’m in town a lot doesn’t mean I know everyone’s name.”

She frowned, glancing at Jack who only shrugged. So he hadn’t heard that story, only her. “You know ours.”

“Because you shout them at me and shoot at me a lot? Pretty easy to remember!”

“Ghost kid’s got a point.” Jack admitted, patting her on the shoulder. “We’ll just find who it is ourselves! Just an extra project.”

“What, and just make their life weird again by bringing up ghost stuff? Leave em alone.”

Well now they absolutely had to look into it, if Phantom wasn’t keen on the idea. Better to let him think they agreed though. “True, it could just lead you back to them.”

“Hey! This is all you, not me!”

Jack chuckled. “You’re really good at riling him up. Almost sounds like our Danny like that, getting all touchy about fun family activities!”

“Well he probably copies behaviour from local teenagers,” she didn't like that comparison though. Their children were nothing like life destroying ghosts. It was better to turn her attention to the passing green and how the amount of doors seemed to dwindle as masses of ice started to become the most prominent detail. That made more sense, actually. Phantom had started using ice in addition to ectoblasts, if he came from somewhere with this sort of climate it seemed less out of place with his other abilities. Even if he was otherwise ill suited to snow and ice with how he insisted on looking like a kid.

The next stop felt more like a mistake, with only hills of untouched white powder and ice to see, but the crunch of snow below confirmed they were no longer moving. Good thing they came prepared with heated coats!

“Not a whole lot around here! If it wasn’t for all the green we could pretend we were in Alaska.” Jack chattered as he shrugged a coat on, still apparently too excited to look around to keep his suspicion up. “They don’t all like castles, or maybe it’s a hidden one!”

He better not be thinking Santa had an ice castle. That was probably what he was thinking of, but she didn’t really want to bring up their annual argument at the moment. He could be wrong today, there were more important things to do. “You do realize it’s a frozen wasteland you’ve stranded us on?”

“It’s not that cold.” Phantom objected, circling the Speeder idly.

“Easy for a ghost to say, you’re always cold ghost kid!”

He stopped at that, glancing back at Jack. “It's not that bad, is it?”

“Only because we brought warm clothing. Jumpsuits aren’t enough for the living.” Maddie huffed, looking at the snowfields to find anything worth looking at. The structures of ice were somewhat interesting, but not inherently ghostly.

“Well you guys can stay here, I guess.” The ghost bit at his lip, playing up the concern now that they pointed out a frozen wasteland was cold. Honestly, how did anyone fall for Phantom’s act if he made mistakes like this? “I don’t think Frostbite’s people come out this far…”

“Oh, are they dangerous? We can take any of your little ghostly pals!”

Phantom looked as if Jack suggested exploding a building. “No! Don’t fight any of them! They just look scary, okay? Just ignore them, if any show up.” He didn’t wait for a response before flying off this time, apparently in much more of a hurry this time.

“Sounds like he’s worried about what we can do to his little pals, huh?” Jack elbowed his wife with a grin. “Well, maybe we can find something weird about the ice here!”

It was better to try getting some of the ghost ice instead of doing nothing, though she doubted it would be very different from regular ice, beyond the ectocontamination. Now what would a ghost think is ‘scary looking’? He hadn’t given such a warning when close to all of the other ghosts, after all. It was a bit of a mystery, and none of the ice here had any identifying marks or hints of another odd little ghost ‘civilization’. ‘Frostbite’ wasn’t much of a name either, perhaps they were more like the wild sort that came to Amity?

“Oh hoh! Look at this!” Jack yelled out, pointing to something below him as he waved her over.

A large, clawed footprint left in the snow, and fairly deep. So something monstrous after all, as expected. “Maybe we can get a cast of it?” They had supplies for it, but she wasn’t certain if it would work in the ice correctly. The tracks didn’t go for long, but following them wasn’t a very tantalizing idea. Better to keep a distance and be well armed if they wanted to tangle with whatever left this. It wasn’t as distracting as the previous stop, but the sound of crunches increasing in volume had the couple back on edge and wary.

“Seriously, we should just go-”

It sounded like the ghost boy was near wherever the crunches were coming from, which didn’t improve her mood one iota.

“Nonsense! I have been asking to meet them for how long?” A deep, growling and carrying voice came in response as Maddie readied a weapon.

“Yeah, that’s the problem. You don’t want to, trust me.”

“Seems he doesn’t have a very high opinion of ghost hunters, eh Mads?” Jack was less noticeably readied, still half crouched near the footprint, but his hand hovered where a weapon was concealed. She focused on her breathing as the sound grew louder, eyes narrowed as she spotted a large figure cresting the nearby hill. With the little white haired ghost boy completely at ease near it. Nothing like his regular behaviour, let alone the talking. Why would this huge beast know of them?

“What did I say about not shooting people?” Phantom actually seemed to blush on seeing her holding the weapon, smacking his face. “Okay, you saw them, bye now!”

The large furred creature ignored how the smaller ghost pushed at their shoulder, instead waving with a horrific ice claw, bones gleaming from within as it seemed to rip at the very air. “Well our first meeting was hardly perfect either, I can manage.”

“Yeah but I can’t just pull a ‘won’t shoot a big yeti’ icicle out of their jumpsuits!”

For a human loving ghost, Phantom was certainly very concerned about this giant horned monster being harmed by ‘mere humans’. More proof of his act, at least. Though the large creature did have a cloak of some sort and clothing. He spoke well, if you ignored the fanged mouth and growls. A strange contradiction of appearance and intent. That wasn’t a normal thing for ghosts either, you could gather a decent amount about one by how they looked. So why was this one chatting and apparently interested in seeing two humans? “So, you’re the ‘Frostbite’ he mentioned?” She hazarded a guess, but wasn’t going to put the gun away.

It showed its fangs, maw wide and unnerving. “Yes, I am! It is an honour to meet you” The furry head bowed slightly, as if trying a sort of nod of respect. “Your work assisted the Great One in vanquishing Pariah Dark, we all owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“Please don’t call me that. Especially in front of them!” the green eyed ghost practically squawked, somehow flushing even harder when he didn’t even have blood.

Maddie’s mind almost flipped over from the sheer confusion of what this terrifying ghost said. They had ‘helped’ vanquish something? More likely, Phantom had stolen something. So why did this ghost still give them credit? That wasn’t even starting to touch why the ghost boy would be considered great in any aspect. “Assisted him? Do you mean with that ghost who took our town into the Ghost Zone?” She wasn’t sure if that was what the ‘king’ ghost was called, but it made more sense than anything else she could think of.

“Indeed. The King of All Ghosts would have sent the infinite realms into chaos and conflict. Of course we are grateful for your help in preventing that.”

“That’s when you stole the Ecto Skeleton!” Jack spoke up, no longer tense. “You never brought it back.”

“That’s not my fault, that thing almost wasted me! It was gone once I woke up!” The boy objected, but seemed to settle down when the larger ghost ruffled his hair. “I wanted to bring it back.”

“I’m sure now they understand how vitally important that technology was, for your world and ours.” The ghost’s yellow eyes watched them expectantly, the unnerving void of pointed daggers thankfully closed now.

“Well it did get Amity back where it belonged.” Losing the Ecto Skeleton had been a blow, but an acceptable one to get back to normal. The fact that more ghosts seemed to know and care about their part of it was somewhat unnerving. She very much doubted Phantom just ‘lost’ it either. Jack suffered from the demands of the suit, but the ghost was just ectoplasm and electricity. Quite unlikely he could be drained that much, it wasn’t meant for ghosts to use in the first place.

“Your world? Doesn’t the kid live here?” Jack asked, making his wife blink. She hadn’t noticed that odd phrasing.

“No, no. The Great One prefers the human world and his friends. How are they doing?”

He froze up, eyes flicking to the hunters and back to the yeti. “Fine. They’re great.” He darted closer to the two hunters, gesturing at them to move. “Okay let’s go.”

How much interacting was this ghost doing with humans to have ‘friends’ it told other ghosts about? They could be in danger, or used as targets! “No no, we’d love to hear about your friends.”

“Nope, you don’t, gotta get home right? Big hurry, don’t trust me, remember?” He was practically pleading with them.

Frostbite’s ears twitched as he tilted his head. “Don’t trust you? Surely they’re the ones who taught your friends how to drive that craft of yours?”

Phantom had the gall to turn invisible.

“We were unaware anyone other than us was using it, actually.” Maddie didn’t bother to keep the frost from her voice.

“Ah, well at least the good news is I already knew how to make a replacement battery for it when the Great One came asking for help.” His tail twitched, as one of the great claws scratched at his furry chest. “It should be good as new once you can install it.”

So not only was this ghost stealing technology and bringing humans to the ghost zone, it was teaching other ghosts how it worked! The second that ghost was in their grasp, he’d have some serious answering to do. “Do all of you call him that?” It was the only question she could ask without wishing to spit acid, quite frankly.

“All of the Far Frozen recognize him as such, but not all ghosts are the same. He should be proud of the title, a savour of two worlds.”

“Frostbite I’m begging you, stop! It’s embarrassing!” The ghost dropped his invisibility, still looking more like a flustered kid instead of the heroics seeking fame junkie he was.

“Well if it helps your relationship with these ghost hunters, I think it is important that they know.”

“Yeah no. Let’s not.”

It felt like there was something the two ghosts weren’t saying. That, and the fact Phantom didn’t seem to like being hailed as a hero here in the Ghost Zone didn’t make sense. Why all the grandstanding in Amity then?

“Well we’ll be glad for the lift home. You shouldn’t steal from us, kid.” Jack tried a stern approach, and the ghost actually flinched from the rebuke.

“You’re not the only ones who want to map this place out, that’s all,” he didn’t really seem to be answering them, more talking to himself before launching himself at the Speeder again. “You can shoot at me about it back home or whatever.”

“Travel safely! Do try and explore your other half more often, Great one. You’re always welcome here.” His great furry head watched them all easily, seeking out the ghost hunters eyes as well. "I understand you are less interested, but you are welcome to see the realities of my home as well. It may surprise you, in a good way."

She desperately wanted to ask what that monster of a ghost meant by that, but managed to hold her tongue. If all the ghosts here saw Phantom as some sort of godlike hero, chewing him out here wasn’t safe. Jack’s small nod of agreement and warm hug helped, but it couldn’t stop her mind churning. They’d seen and hurt so much, and none of it made any sense! This Frostbite just threw in several more wrenches in the works with only a few sentences, but with how agitated Phantom was getting now wasn’t the time to push their luck. Perhaps when the shoe was on the other foot, and the boy needed their assistance.

He didn’t speak up or grumble this time as they left the frozen land behind. Though that might be them as well,m sitting close together and considering the notes and samples they had taken. That and the huge list of questions Jack had scrawled down in the margins of a sketch of Frostbite. How could a ghost like Phantom truly manage to stay in the human world most of the time? Did it have to do with this ‘other half’ that ghost had mentioned? Would knowing what it was reveal a weakness in the ghost? So many questions, but no answers. Why had Phantom even let them speak to any ghosts, considering how badly he’d reacted to some of the information given? He couldn’t genuinely be wanting to help.

The inviting glow of the portal appeared sooner than either of them could expect, the ghost dropping the ship on the lab floor with a loud clunk.

“See? Home. No ‘evil plan’” he floated into view, and she was fairly sure he only did so to make those air quotes with his hands.

“So you say, ghost kid. Don’t think we won’t be checking for tricks!”

“Yeah sure,” he shrugged, grinning after a moment. “Oh hey, by the way, you do know what the Speeder is powered with, right?”

Maddie didn’t actually know how to take that question. “Of course we do, we built it!”

“Uh huh.” His grin widened as he kicked back, legs vanishing into that strange tail. “All you had to do was take the cover off. It’s the Ghost Zone! There’s ectoplasm everywhere! I just had Frostbite make a backup.”

...Had they really- They had. They’d been dragged around by a ghost for no reason at all! “Why you little-”

He kept laughing before turning and getting out of the way. “Thanks for flying with Phantom Zone Tours! I’m out.” A jaunty wave and he was gone, leaving two baffled ghost hunters behind.

“I think some fudge is in order after that!”

She couldn’t say he was wrong. Maybe fudge could make sense of that whole affair. All that for a prank? It didn’t add up. They’d have a lot of work to do.

#Danny Phantom #phic fight 2021 #Maddie Fenton #jack fenton #hey look a fun one!#tho they are kinda mean about poor danny-boy #but hey minimal angst! woo!#Team Ghost

249 notes · View notes

miraculous-trinity-leo · 4 years

Text

Whacky Gotham, Goofy New York, and Chaotic Paris.

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7)

Chapter 5: Then Let The Games Begin

•—–—–·†·–—–—•

Soooo, the Batfam is panicking, Gotham's confused as to why Iron Man is flying over Gotham like a madman, and Maria is with two of Gotham's Sirens (but only Ivy and Harley know this) having a wonderful time playing with Bud and Lou.

Let's start with the Sirens.

Harley is watching over Maria and Tikki as they sleep with Bud and Lou, Ivy walkes over to sit next to Harley, handing her a cup of tea.

"So, what's the diagnosis?" - Ivy

"She has some sort of trauma, has class issues... and handles more than she should, but still does everythin', on top of bein' a hero. She's been through some sh-t Pam." Yeah Harley may have found out Maria's a hero (if the tiny god and magic were anything to go by).

"Is she alone?" - Ivy

"No, thankfully, she has supportive parents, and friends that aren't little sh-ts. I think they're also heroes, she also has a lot, and I a mean A LOT of pent up emotions, she doesn't show anythin' negative, only positive things. She seems to shrink in on herself if she thinks she does somethin' wrong. Pam, we both know there's a limit to how much crap a person can take before they snap, and she's such a sweet kid. There has to be somethin' we can do to help her Ives." Ok she found out alot, but in Marias' defense, they have trustworthy souls, and they were the only other people (besides her friends) that she talked to about it, yes she had her Maman and Uncle to talk about hero stuff, but for the stuff her class does, she only ever vented (without being negative) to her friends.

"Her class is visiting the Botanical Gardens in three days, and it's a 2 part tour, so we can see just what's going on. If it's bad then we scare them a bit, if it's bad bad... they can handle a few slightly poisonous plants right?" - Ivy

"God I love the way ya think Ives, do ya think she can stay with us? I mean look at how cute she is with Bud and Lou... Oh my god, she's cuddlin' dem, and ya gave her a flower crown, how'd I miss that?! Where's the camera?"

Harley took a picture to remind her of this wonderful moment. As Ivy and Harley looked at the picture, they both promised to keep Maria safe, and maybe become sorta kinda-ish parents to her while she's in Gotham.

•—–·Now back to the Bat-Chaos Bat-Cave·–—•

Tim took over the chair and was now searching the possible locations with Jarvis, Damian was sitting on a different chair, trying to act cool, but he wouldn't stop looking over at Tim, to see his progress. Bruce was talking over the comms with Tony. Dick and Jason, weren't helping (they kept feeding each other worse and worse ideas of what could have happened to Maria). Then they heard Jarvis speak.

"I have found the most likely area Ms. Dupain-Cheng would be in. Her phone died about 56 blocks away from her hotel, if we don't count kidnapping, or murder, she would have thought about asking for directions, but may have decided not to considering the city she is in. So that leaves us with a possible 15-25 mile radius from her last known location. I think it best to divide into groups of two, have Oracle stay and update you if anything on security, and or traffic cameras happens. Bruce will be with Tony, Dick will go with Tim, and Jason will go with Damain to search within the area. Stephanie and Cassandra will search around a 5 mile radius near Wayne hotel." as Jarvis continued to explain the other details, the Batfam began to suit up, Batman met up with Iron Man, and they took the North area, Nightwing and Red Robin took the East area, while Red Hood and Robin searched the South. Steph and Cass were on foot in civilian clothes, searching the West area they were assigned.

They searched for the whole day, and came up with nothing. Until Oracle saw a video from a traffic cam around 9pm, 15 blocks away from where her phone died. She called it in and everyone went back to the cave. Once everyone was at the Bat-Computer, Oracle pressed play, the cameras didn't have sound, and it wasn't close enough to see if she was ok.

They watched as she went to an overgrown parking lot and sat down. She was looking down at the ground, and that's when they spotted two figures round the corner and spot her. They watched as the two figures approach Maria, and saw the startled reaction she had. They realized it was Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy that were talking to her, then they saw Maria collapse. They watched as Harley made sure she was ok, looking over to Ivy before looking back to Maria and picking her up. The last thing they saw, was Maria being carried away by two of Gothams' most dangerous rouges, but now they knew where to look next.

•—–· Back to Ivy and Harley ·–—•

Harley continued to take adorable pictures of the children.

"God, they're so f-ckin' cute!" - Harley for the 20th time

As Ivy continued to watch while caring for her plants, Catwoman walked in.

"Hey girls, got the stuff for movie night, so what are we- Holy mother of cats! He adopted another f-cking child didn't he! Where the hell does he keep finding them?! 7 was ment to be the god DAMN LIMIT!!!" - Catwoman

Maria jumped at the sudden shouting and may have accidentally summoned a yo-yo (one made useing creation magic and protection magic) before saying.

"Tikki where's the akuma?! How long was I out?! Forget it Tikki spot-" she then realized she wasn't in Paris, and seeing a new face, she also realized she just spilled her secret to another person within the same day... kinda

"Fffffffffffudge sunday that fell on the pavement!" - Maria shouted in baker profanities

"That's not how ya curse sweetheart. It should go more like-" Harley was cut off by a vine Ivy had summoned.

"Harley, cursing makes the plants sad, you know this." - Ivy said removing the vine

Harley just walked over to Maria and whipsered it in her ear.

"You're supposed to say it more like this, ' ..... .... ... .. ....... .. ... .....' ok?" - Harley ended with a big smile

"... I will never see this world in the same frickin' light ever again." - Maria

"ehh close enough." - Harley

"Can someone please tell me, WTH is going on here, on our special girls day off?!" - Catwoman

"She is a new member of the Sirens as of today, and as a member, she's unda our protection, so effective immediately." - Harley

"Cool." - Maria

"Harley." - Ivy

"Wut... first things first, if she is going to join, she needs to be very flexible, know how to fight, and be incredibly intelligent." - Catwoman

"She beat Ed's @ss with a gun pointed at her, and solved every riddle with ease, so I'm positive she'll be an amazin' addition to the team." - Harley

'God she sounds like a new mother now' "But we don't know how good her flexibility is." - Catwoman

"I know, hey Maria, ya wanna do some tricks with me, of course we need to stretch first, but do ya wanna give it a go?" - Harley

"Sure." - Maria

Ivy and Catwoman sat down on a couch a few feet away from where Maria and Harley stood in the empty part of the building. They started out with stretches, and to Catwoman's surprise (and Harley's delight) Maria copied Harleys streches perfectly.

"Ok, now that that's done, we'll start with some cartwheels, then move on to flips, then handsprings and so on." - Harley

Maria gave Harley a nod... and they were off... literally, Harley did a cartwheel into a handspring, and a few backflips, Maria executed it flawlessly. Harley did some more complicated gymnastics tricks, and Maria did it, Harley did triple backflips going into a cartwheel, into a summersault, and Maria did that perfectly as well. This went on until both Harley and Maria were slightly out of breath, both having massive smiles on their faces.

"Ives, please let her join, she's like a mini me." - Harley then hugged Maria and they somehow both tripled in cuteness as they both did puppy (or Puss In Boots style) eyes at Catwoman and Ivy.

"Sure Harley." - Ivy said walking over to give Harley a small kiss on the cheek.

"Okay... but she doesn't have a costume yet, and she still has to think of a name for herself." - Catwoman

"Is a mouse good, like a mouse themed costume, that or a Turtle themed one. What do you think Harley?" - Maria

"Mmmm, I like that with the mouse you can always toy with Cat, ya know, cat an' mouse stuff, turtle seems... weird even fawh Gotham, so personally I would pick mouse, just because of the cheesy jokes you could do." - Harley

"Very funny, ok then, give me a moment." Maria then reached out her hand, her eyes then started to glow an icy blue, and a small portal opened in front of her, she reached in and pulled out a small pendant necklace. After she put it on a small mouce appeared and greated itself, Marias' eyes going back to normal after closing the portal.

"Hello I'm Mullo, nice to meet you all."

"Omg omg omg, It's soooo f-ckin' CUTE!" - Harley

"Best to assume all of them are extremely cute Harls." - Ivy

"What the Hell did I miss in the week I was gone?!" - Catwoman

"Ehh, not much, oh but Iron Man did fly aroun' Gotham a few times earlier this mornin' like a madman." - Harley

"Oh sh-t." - Maria

"Maria are ya ok? That was ya first official proper curse in my presence." Harley said looking over to the girl.

"He's gonna kill me." - Maria

"Wait, what do you mean Marigold?" - Ivy

"... He's my Uncle, and I never got to text him I was ok, since my phone died before I met you." - Maria

"Hey, I'm sure he'll understand, now what are we watchin'?" - Harley

"I think we have more important matters other than movies at the moment!" - Catwoman

"Ok, Me Myself and Irene it is." - Harley

"No! You basically kidnapped Iron Mans' NIECE!!!" - Catwoman

"Technically, she fainted and us bein' the good Gothamites we are, decided to take her with us, to make sure she was a-okay." - Harley

"I'm ganna need more than just a six pack of soda to get me through this... Just put the movie on already." - Catwoman

Catwoman sat at the far left end of the couch, next to her sat Ivy, then Maria, and then Harley, Bud and Lou by their feet. All of them sharing one big blanket (Becuase if Iron Man did show up, or any of the birds, then Maria was in a protective burrito and they may not see her right away) and they started the movie.

•—–·–—•

"Oh god, the poor cow." - Maria

.........

"Hahahaha, he stuck a whole f-ckin' chicken head in that guys @ss" - Harley

"The poor chicken." - Maria

"Maria you don't want to see this part." - Ivy then lightly covered her eyes for the ehem, chicken extraction.

.........

"Anyone up for another movie?" - Harley

"That depends." - Ivy

"Any suggestions Cat?" - Harley looked across to the other end of the couch to see Catwoman already sleeping.

"She took her cat-nap already? Seriously?" - Harley

"... What about Pirates of The Caribbean?" - Maria

"I'm good with that." - Ivy

And they started the next movie, Maria was happy, it felt like when her maman and papa would sleep with her when she made a pillow fort. It was a loving atmosphere, it felt safe, and nothing could ruin it. Marias' eyes became heavy, and she leaned her head on Harleys' shoulder, falling asleep after a few minutes.

Ivy paused the move looking over to see both Harley and Maria sleeping, soon Ivy also fell asleep in the comfortable silence.

…………………………

Around an hour later Maria woke up in a panic, she had a nightmare, and kept looking around frantically for someone with tears running down her face.

"What's the matter hun?" - Harley said looking around to see if someone had gotten in. When she looked back at Maria she saw that she was crying.

"What happened?" Harley asked in a kind voice that was filled with motherly love.

"I, just *hic* had a bad dream that's *hic* all, I'm fine." - Maira said trying to wipe the tears away.

"You're ok, I promise nothin's goin' to happen to ya as long as Ivy and I are here, ok hun?" - Harley hugged Maria, and she could feel the girl let out a few more sobs, and quick breathes.

"Thanks Maman." Maria didn't even realize what she had said, it just felt natural for her to say it.

"You're welcome hun." 'Omg I'm gonna cry, she called me maman!' Harley rubbed small circles over Marias' back, and began humming until she fell asleep, she continued to hug Maria until she also fell asleep.

•—–· Back to the Chaos Bat-Cave ·–—•

"What do you mean she's with two of Gotham City's Sirens?!" - Tony

"Tony, calm down, I'll call Selina, she can talk to them and get this all sorted out." - Bruce

"Your fiancee is a Gotham Siren too?! Why didn't you tell me?!" - Tony

"Why isn't she picking up? And unlike some people, this family doesn't like outing our secret identities... on live TV." - Bruce

"Oh well excuse me for not keeping my secret identity a SECRET!" - Tony

"I'll try calling her one more time." - Bruce

"Bruce, it's 3am. Who in their right mind ever stays up this late.... aside from this family." - Tim with a giant coffee mug in hand.

"... I'll just call her one more time." Bruce then connected it to the Bat-Computer so everyone could hear.

•—–· Back to the Sirens ·–—•

Catwoman's phone is ringing like crazy, waking everyone up, including a tired, annoyed, and confused Selina.

"Wth does he want at 3 in the morning?!" - Selina

"Just answer it so we can keep sleepin'." - Harley still hugging Maria

"I'm putting it on speaker, so you lot can testify against his @ss in court, for disturbing the peace."

•—–· Over to Batsy ·–—•

"Selina I need to ask-"

"WHAT THE F-CKING HELL DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT A GOOD NIGHTS REST!" - Selina

"Oooooh, she sounds pissed Bruce." - Jason

"I'm sorry to call you at this hour, but we need to find a girl that looks just like every single one of my other kids." - Bruce

"Bruce... I thought we agreed that 7 kids was. the. f-cking. limit." - Selina

•—–· Back to the Sirens ·–—•

Selina looked over to Maria before muting the speaker.

"Do you want them to know you're here Kitten?" - Selina

"... I'm tired, I haven't had coffee, I have no filter, so f-ck it, act like you never saw me today, and let them drown in chaos. " - Maria

"I think I like filter less Maria." - Harley

"Okay." Selina shrugged her shoulders and then un-muted her phone, putting it back on speaker mode.

"Where was she last seen?" - Selina

"She was last seen with Harley and Poison Ivy, I want you to see if she's still with them." - Bruce

Selina looked over to Maria and Harley, both of them shook their heads with mischievous grins.

"I've been with them all day, and I haven't once seen a girl that looks like your kids. Now can I go back to sleep, and forget this ever happened?" - Selina

"WHERE IS MY NIECE!!!" - Tony

"Oh, hey Tony, didn't know you were there, don't know who, or where your niece is, but good luck trying to find her. Oh and Bruce, I'm shutting my phone off so you don't keep calling till the butt crack of dawn. And congrats it's now 4am. you owe me a lunch date, uh-ba-bye." Selina then hung up her phone and turned it off.

"That went pretty well if you ask me, now I'm going back to sleep." - Selina

•—–· Back to Batsy ·–—•

The room was silent for a few minutes before Jason spoke up.

"Does that mean that Pixiepop ran away and is even more lost now?!" - Jason

"Oh god, what do we do, what if she got hurt?!" - Dick

"What if she got kidnapped?!" - Jason

"What if she's with a big time Gotham Villain?!" - Dick

"... What if she got more coffee?" - Tim

"Oh Hell No" - Jason/Dick

"... Lets all go to sleep, and when we wake up, we'll head over to their base and double check. She could've just said that because I called her at 3am." - Bruce

"But my niece is still out there!" - Tony

"You're going to sleep Tony." - Pepper then dragged Tony to his room.

•—–· Back to Maria ·–—•

Selina went to a different part of the building, where Maria assumed the bedrooms were. Ivy had gone to the greenhouse to be with the plants, and now it was just her and Harley left on the couch, and she couldn't sleep.

"... Harley?" - Maria

"Yeah hun?" - Harley

"I can't sleep." - Maria

"Well, watcha wanna do till ya get tired?" Harley asked sitting up a little straighter to get a better look at Maria.

Maria gave a sly smile, and looked Harley in the eyes "Want to go free-running on the rooftops?"

"... Alright, but lets get some coffee, and a snack in us first." - Harley gave her a side hug, before getting up to go make the coffee, and grab some snacks.

After they had their coffee, they climbed to the roof of the base. Harley was in her outfit, bat in hand and ready to do some bonding.

"So, how does ya outfit work?" - Harley

"Like so, ready Mullo?" - Maria

"Yes Maria" - Mullo

"Ok, Mullo, Get Squeaky!" A bright light flashes, and when Harley could see again, Maria was in a dark gray suit, wearing black knee high boots, with a strip of pink at the knee, and black elbow length gloves with the same pink strip at her elbow. Her mask was a slightly lighter gray on the top part, and pink on the bottom. Her hair was pulled into two buns with pink ribbons that faded to gray, and to black at the very tip. Her jump rope around her waist forming a tail going just below the back of her knees.

"Just when I think ya can't get any more adorable. So what should I call ya?" - Harley

"You can call me Multimouse." - Maria

Soon they were racing and doing tricks off different roofs, they were really enjoying themselves. From one of the roofs they heard a commotion in one of the alleys, when they looked down they saw a man holding a woman at gunpoint.

"Not good, seems like he's got issues, probably lost his lover, most likely has additions to drugs and alcohol, and seems to be a little tipsy." - Harley

"I've got a plan." - Multimouse

…………

Multimouse droped a little way behind the guy, grabbing his attention while Harley got the lady to safety.

"You know there's a help center two blocks from here that would be more than willing to help you." - Multimouse

The crook just raised his gun to her trying to keep it steady as he spoke.

"Give me all your money little girl, or else I'll hurt you."

"1. That's not how you hold a gun. 2. That is no way to treat any girl. and 3. Instead of money, I'll give you my jump rope." - Multimouse

"Why the hell would I want your jump rope, that thing looks worthless." the crook lowered his guard enough as Multimouse pretended to hand over her jump rope, only to use it in a quick motion to dismarm the man, as Harley promptly knocked him out with one swing.

"Lets neva have ya at gunpoint again, okay hun? I'm afraid my heart can't take it." - Harley said while tying the crook to a lamppost.

"Sorry, but it was the best idea I could come up with at the moment, besides, any guy with a gun would feel like they have the upper hand if they're facing a random little girl with a jump rope, rather than Gothams' Harley Quinn with a bat." - Multimouse

"Sadly I'm just too popular with the kiddos on the street." - Harley

…………

They continued to stop a few more muggers on the way back to the base, and when they got back they peaked around the corner to see the whole Batfam plus Iron Man talking with Ivy and Selina.

"How much you want to bet we can get back out before they see us?" - Whispering Multimouse

"... Lets try hidin' in the kitchen." - Whispering Harley

As they tried to sneak by (still in their costumes) Selina just walks over and draggs them to the group.

"Here, now let me sleep!" - Selina

"Dang it Selina we wanted tah see just how long we could hide out in the kitchen!" - Harley

Selina did a double take now realizing they both went out.

"... You didn't." - Selina

"We wanted tah go free-runnin'! So what?" - Harley

"She could've gotten hurt Harls." - Ivy

"My suits magic, I am invulnerable to bullets, normal magic, swords, knifes, anything staby staby, and I can withstand any temperature in it." Multimouse said with a slight pout.

"Hold up, is she a magical girl?" - Red Hood in the background

When Selina let go both Harley and Multimouse went behind Ivy for protection.

"We can still make a run for it." - Harley whispered to Multimouse

"... Ok, I'll meet you on the roof." - Whispering Multimouse

Harley gave a nod as she slowly inched her wasy closer to the door that lead to the roof, as she saw Iron Man approach Multimouse.

"Please get out of your suit, we need to talk about why you're here-" - Iron Man

"Multitute!" - Multimouse

Harley then saw Multimouse shrink into dozens of tiny little versions of herself as her clones spread out in all directions, one of which was heading right for her.

"Wth, you never told us she could use magic!" - Red Robin

Harley picked her up, and slipped through the door without anyone noticing.

"That was great, but how do ya get back tuh normal size?" - Harley

"Simple, I just merge back with my clones." As she said this, all her clones came back, and she merged with herself, becoming normal sized again.

"Where to?" - Multimouse

………… So now The Batfam is trying to find many long gone Mini-Multimouses, and Harley seems to have disappeared with her. Harley and Multimouse are now running over the roofs, heading for Wayne Manor.

"So why are we going to Wayne Manor?" - Multimouse

"Because, Batsy will neva think of lookin' for us at his own home, at least not fawh a little while." - Harley

When they arrived at the Manor, Multimouse de-transformed as Harley knocked on the door.

"Ms. Quinn, Ms. Maria, pleasure to see you here, please come in." - Alfred

"Are any of the bat-birds here?" - Harley

"Ms. Barbara, Ms. Stephanie, and Ms. Cassandra are the only ones here at the moment." - Alfred

"Do ya think you can keep us bein' here a secret from Batsy?" - Harley

"Harley? What are you doing here with Maria?" - Barbara

"It seems that Ms. Harley and Ms. Maria are now playing hide and seek with the rest of the family." - Alfred

"Did someone say hide and seek?" - Steph

"Yes, so could we maybe try and keep this a secret from everyone else, please?" - Maria

"Sure, it was starting to get boring around here. We can all hide in the living room no one ever use. Barbara you show them the way, I'll get the food/drinks and boardgames." - Steph

"Is this alright with you Alfred?" Maria

"It's all right Ms. Maria, you can hide out in the old living room." - Alfred

"Thanks Alfie, ya the best." - Harley

"Thank you Alfred." - Maria

"Ok then, follow me." - Barbara

…………

In the old living room, Harley, Maria, Barbara, Steph, and Cass began to formulate a plan.

"Ok, so the best way for them to never find you is to have your phone off, stay away from any and all cameras, and show your face to no one." - Steph

"So, do you have anything in mind that you might want to do?" - Barbara

"Can we put them on a wild goose chase?" - Maria

Cass nodded to Marias' suggestion approvingly.

"I can hack a few traffic cams to help with that." - Barbara

"We can also throw in some useless hints, to throw dem even further off our scent." - Harley

"Good idea Harley." - Barbara

"Thanks, but how long do ya think we should make it last?" - Harley

"As long as Maria wants it to." - Barbara

"Then let the games begin." - Maria.

•—–—–·†·–—–—•

Chapter 5 complete. Hope everyone is stayin' safe, Rockin' those Positive Vibes, and havin' an absolutely wonderful day. BUG-OUT 🐞💮🐞

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜Tag List〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

1st Place★: @animegirlweeb ☕ , 2nd Place★: @jumpingjoy82, 3rd Place★: @zalladane, 4th Place★: @jayjayspixiepop, 5th Place★: @arty-shadow-morningstar, 6th Place★: @smol-book-nerd, 7th Place★: @irontimetravelflower, 8th Place★: @fandom-trapped-03, 9th Place★: @meme991001, 10th Place★: @buginetye, 11th Place★: @blackroserelina, 12th Place★: @jessigurl-design, 13th Place★: @adrestar, 14th Place★: @moon5608, 15th Place★: @little-bluestar, 17th Place★: @myazael, 18th Place★: @our-preciousss, 19th Place★: @wolf2118, 20th Place★: @nyx-in-line, 21st Place★: @kking13, 22nd Place★: @lunerlover2024, 23rd Place★: @moonlightstar64, 24th Place★: @corporeal-terrestrial, 25th Place★: @kashlyn, 26th Place★: @tbehartoo, 27th Place★: @heart-charming, 28th Place★: @solangelo252, 29th Place★: @t1dwarrior-of-earth, 30th Place★: @lady-phoenix-of-tardis, @lupagrimm

277 notes · View notes