#now i'm gonna work a bit on stasis in darkness

[trensu]

hawkins halfway house update!

Chapter 5 of Tradition has been completed and posted to ao3 FINALLY. here's an excerpt for you all.

--

Eddie shuddered, clutching the now cold mug. He tapped his finger against it, making the dregs of the hot chocolate ripple. Steve shifted on the couch next to him. He didn’t want to see Steve move away from him in disgust. Because Steve must be disgusted by him now that he knew how Eddie compromised his kids’ safety so readily.

“Billy started to gloat. He said some shit about how easy I was, called me desperate and clingy,” Eddie shrugged like it didn't hurt anymore. “He tried to get Max to go to him, but I shoved her behind me. I told El to take Dustin and Max upstairs. El was so brave. She pulled them under the couch with zero hesitation. Billy got pissed. He took his crossbow and shot me.”

“He what?” Steve asked aghast.

“He shot me. With an arrow. I had already been ducking down to make sure the kids were gone so it caught me on the shoulder. It hurt like hell. Like, way more than you’d think a shoulder wound would. I don’t really remember much after that,” Eddie’s tone had gone flat. Why did the memory still hurt after all these years? It was pathetic. “Billy really was aiming for the kill. Turns out the angle it hit me got it jammed into my ribcage, really close to the heart.”

“But…but you guys all were okay, right?” Steve asked. Eddie snorted at the question and Steve winced a second later as the absurdity of the question hit the both of them. “I mean, obviously, you’re all still here, so.”

[thevioletscout]

Got to see Sonic 3 early at a fan event! If you saw a brunette white girl in a black and white striped jacket who had keychains on her cat backpack of a dark chao and knockoff Shadow, that was probably me.

Gonna share my thoughts because I need to. Spoilers under the cut.

- I personally still like 2 the most. That doesn't mean 3's bad, it was great, but 2 just felt like a stronger film.

- I was honestly pretty wary about Keanu Reeves as Shadow, but I think he did excellent, and for a very peculiar reason that surprised myself; At certain points, he sounds like a teenager. Obviously its the kind of gruff Shadow voice we’re all used to, but there were times he would sound strangely youthful, and its a nice reminder that despite the 50 year stasis, despite the ultimate lifeform thing- Shadow's still a kid, just like Team Sonic.

- My brother even pointed out that Commander Walter objected to shooting the Robotniks and Shadow when they were escaping because "they're kids!" He said kids, plural.

- I think Jim Carrey did great as both Eggman and Gerald Robotnik. There was even a scene near the end where he was downright scary as the latter. That said, I wasn't a big fan of many of the scenes where they interacted. It kinda felt like the plot of the movie would get pulled to a grinding halt so we could just watch extended Jim Carrey comedy. I could probably be in the minority about this, and I can accept that, I just personally think cutting out some of the bits would have helped the movie flow a bit better.

- Fight scenes were so cool. It's not usually something I’d care that much about, but I think with Sonic in general getting the action right is a huge draw, and damn did this get it right.

- I'm not a big fan of Maria's illness not being referenced at all. I can kinda understand it because they're on Earth the whole time now, not in space, but it removes a lot of the important factors of Maria's character. It especially feels bad in the wake of Sonic x Shadow Generations, where the effects of her condition were actually shown, and when compared to the Wicked movie adaptation where they actually went out of their way to do a more respectful depiction of a wheelchair user.

- I like her using rollerskates though. That feels like a cute parallel between her and Shadow, and that could have been an interesting detail Robotnik worked into Shadow's design if he was actually made by him in this version.

- Sidenote, I swore that the whole Shadow was found in a meteor thing was a coverup for the real story, but no thats just his origin in the movies. That definitely carries some interesting implications for Shadow in the SCU.

- They kinda cutely referenced Sonic and Shadow looking alike, but otherwise it didn’t affect anything. G.U.N. didn't even try to use that to frame Sonic for what Shadow was doing. I kinda don't mind that though, I think there's enough retroactive implications to draw from.

- I wasn't sure they would actually use Live & Learn, but they did and holy shit it was so worth it! And Sonic and Shadow did the Adventure 2 pose!!! Theater went nuts, and I was going nuts with them.

- I'm once again probably going to be in the minority about this, but I kinda wish we got more Tom and Maddie. Like it or not, they were major characters in the previous movies, but in this one they just feel like they're there. I would say that it probably would have made Tom's near death experience more impactful, but to be fair my entire theater was in shock and scared out of their minds that they actually killed him so I think it was plenty impactful.

- They just straight up yeeted Gerald into incineration. I get it, there was no other neat way to take him out but damn. Tails and Knuckles killed a man.

- And finally the mid-credits scene holy shit.

- Okay so- I want you guys to know that I was a "Amy's secretly in the movie" truther. Every time Team Sonic was in trouble I was waiting for Amy to suddenly make her debut. I had this vision of her hammer being the first thing we see before Amy herself is slowly revealed. And yet, nothing. Every time they would find a different way out and around the G.U.N. infiltration I finally accepted that Amy wasn't going to appear.

- But then that scene during the credits. Sonic is confronted by Metal Sonic- who looks FANTASTIC btw. That's when I knew we were probably getting Amy next, but I wasn't sure when and how. Then Sonic gets surrounded by several of the metal copies, and like I predicted; first we see her hammer, flying through the air as it takes out several of the bots. Then we see her, dressed in a cloak to hide her features just a bit longer. Finally, she puts the hood down and- GOD SHE'S SO CUTE, I LOVE HER.

- I cannot impress upon you how crazy everyone in the theater went. We love this pink hedgehog.

- Wade only had one scene thank fuck.

There were probably a few other misc things I can talk about but I need more time to process it all. As I said to someone sitting in front of me; "How am I supposed to wait another two years???"

EDIT: ONE MORE THOUGHT

- One thing I find interesting is that after Shadow escapes, he just wants to be left alone. Most of what he's doing when Team Sonic finds him is just self defense from G.U.N. If I remember correctly he even tries to tell Sonic and the others to just walk away, and he dips on the motorcycle as soon as he's able to, once again warning them not to follow. He even spares Sonic and simply handcuffs him to something when the fight's over. It seems like it isn't until Gerald finds him that the revenge plan even gets started for him. He didn't want to go out of his way to hurt anyone, he just wanted to grieve in peace. Unironically, such a good understanding of Shadow's character.

[bonefall]

How are we feeling at the book finale? Because outside of the Sunbeam girlboss moment telling Berryheart just how bad of a family she was AND maybe possibly foreshadowing her rejecting Nightheart, I think we miiiight get some more Dark Forest cats than planned before :D (also I may be wrong but- didn't Podlight have children? Would he even be eligible as Medicine Cat in BB?)

Podlight's totally eligible in BB! He has no canon children and I didn't give him any. In BB there's also an interesting quirk in that Podlight is notoriously Mistystar's... not EXACTLY a good-for-nothing grandson, but a bit of a "fratboy" working through daddy issues. Is is extra funny for this cat to be a villain lmao.

Also: Better Bones RiverClan Family Tree

Anyway... my thoughts on the spoiler thread's ending. Mostly negative, unfortunately. I am really hoping that a lot of this is misrepresentation.

I've enjoyed every book of ASC that's come out so far, but if this thread is accurate, this is going to be the first one that I actively dislike. It sounds like there was a serious nosedive in quality.

ON THE ENDING; Park Cats, and The Berryheart Gathering.

Park Cats.

It is profoundly frustrating to me that we had TWO traveling books in this arc. Do they not know by now that traveling books are widely detested for a reason??

Frostpaw and Nightheart were AWAY FROM THE CONFLICT for most of this book, what the fuck?

The plot barely advanced at all. There's been one major conflict in this entire arc, the invasion of RiverClan, and we are 4/6ths of the way through without any other major battles. This is boring.

Riverstar is a major character through this bullshit, now with a magical perfect connection to Frostpaw through plot convenience so he can give her tutorial tips, because GOD FORBID we have a more grounded story for once. I'm so sick of DOTC fanservice. Was a super edition not enough?!

And speaking of Riverstar's Home, they pretty clearly ripped a lot of inspiration out of it. Frostpaw and Nightheart go on a journey with random human-related shenanigans before finding a cardboard cutout of a culture

I'm not gonna lie guys. I do not like the Park Cats. I HAVE TO SAY; It's a step in the right direction

They are not demonized. They are treated as good and legitimate. They are seen as having wisdom and living peacefully.

This is Good. This is Fine.

(im still kind of mad they needed riverstar to come save them back in riverstar's home, like every non-clan culture does apparently, but HOKAY fine ok it's fine)

.....butt.

They're boring. guys, they have one thing that is unique to them, and it's meditation. They live in perfect peace and harmony. there's nothing there.

It's easy to be a perfect, peaceful society if you have no conflict ever.

IF THE SPOILER THREAD IS ACCURATE, we don't see them address strife, how they DO handle disputes, what DOES happen when a cat engages in "criminality," or even really see what their spiritual beliefs are besides "meditating"

And that's why the idea of Frostpaw taking away a good lesson from living with them strikes me as so hollow. WHAT is she taking from them? JUST vague, quiet meditation?? Why couldn't Riverstar just magically teach her that?

It also bothers me that this culture is exactly the same as it was in Riverstar's Home. It's in stasis. Nothing has changed, nothing has grown, they haven't picked up new customs. They don't even seem to have their own history besides remembering that Riverstar showed up generations ago.

It's not a culture, it's a plot device.

I swear, I'm really trying to like them, but RH left this really sour taste in my mouth and them showing up again in this book has only made me more frustrated.

I AM happy that we're going to maybe start trying to address the violence of Clan Culture, but it is coming in the middle of a book where nothing fucking happens, and they're starting to fumble the bag on the xenophobic radicalization that I'd been praising in the past few books

And by that, I'm referring to...

Berryheart's Gathering

through the books so far, I've been praising the slow rise of tension coming from the radicalized members of ShadowClan.

I think the way that Berryheart and her little Concern Club had been slowly escalating in their bigotry and violence was (and remains) unironically fantastic.

We had started off with it just being a group to "discuss the issues," which evolved into active bullying and harassment, progressed into attempted murder, and we left off on the idea that Berryheart's Hate Group was planning something with RiverClan's murder party.

And we are reaching a turning point in that arc, the payoff of a long and well-laid escalation, with...

normal democracy.

berryheart and her supporters approach puddleshine reasonably with their concerns and intent to call for a vote to depose tigerheartstar. doing the thing the fucking code addition was made for

This comes AFTER Sunbeam has a Girlboss Moment telling off Berryheart for being a bad mom in front of the whole gathering and everyone claps, mind you, so this is clearly supposed to be the narrative's big "oooo consequences for Berryheart" moment

So anyway Berryheart brings up that they want tigerHeartstar deposed, and then Puddleshine's like "haHA THIS WAS A ROUSE"

"Actually I only told you i agree to point out how this code addition can be exploited over a disagreement with ONE issue!!!!1"

i just...

im......

would Brokenstar training babies be One Issue? Would Bramblefake being a bully to his entire clan be One Issue? Would Leopardstar allowing Tigerstar to take over RiverClan be One Issue?

One Issue....

And MIND YOU I'm Pro-tigerHeartstar, actually, but the WHOLE fucking point of the rule is that you can depose someone who is not acting in the best interest of the Clans. Fym ONE ISSUE??

IT'S A BIG ASS ISSUE!

So anyway Berryheart is embarrassed in front of everyone, tigerHeartstar tells the group, "You're going to support me or get out of my Clan"

All of her supporters fall in line, but Berryheart chooses exile.

So Berryheart and her group isn't punished for the hate crimes, it didn't lead to anyone getting actually hurt, this faction of cats just settled back down and Berryheart alone was exiled for political opposition to occupation.

not the hate crimes

GOTTA STRESS

The hate crimes did not cause lasting damage, the radicalized group did not cause any violence at this gathering

Berryheart is exiled for political opposition to occupation.

The consequence she faces for the hate crimes was simply not having her son Spireclaw back her up because she caused trouble for Fringewhisker. Like it's on the same level as being a bad in-law and not ATTEMPTED MURDER BASED ON BIGOTRY

And tigerHeartstar, jesus christ

His consistent trait has been becoming unreasonable WHEN HIS FAMILY IS THREATENED. WHY are we tossing this out the window now?

I REALLY REALLY hope that the spoiler thread is misrepresentation, and tigerHeartstar didn't ACTUALLY exile her but said something like, "this is what we're doing. don't like it, leave. you don't have the votes"

SO FOR NOW; I'm going to reserve judgement on what the writers are doing with tigerHeartstar.

This seems like the exact sort of thing that may be worded in an inaccurate way

But that said,

I'm beside myself with disappointment in this turn of events. Why is this about legitimate political proceedings? Why did they make the CULMINATION of this arc about bigoted violence and radicalization a legitimate, peaceful attempt to use the process THEY JUST ADDED, FOR THIS EXACT PURPOSE?

Anyway, then it ends on a cliffhanger

Podlight claims to be the new medcat, pointed out as just being a political maneuver, to appoint Splashtail as the new leader.

Frostpaw watches on in shock and thinks about how bad it is that a murderer is now in charge of RiverClan, and how no one would believe her if she told them all now

I sure hope the next book contains something worth reading. like a fight or something. in the battle cat series. in the arc where theyre trying to say something about violence.

[transingthoseformers]

So, in RID15, a couple times we see mecha wishing to (and sometimes successfully) siphoning energon from other mecha (well typically the autobots in the show). Examples include Nightscream and Razorpaw. What I'm assuming is that the prey doesn't necessarily have to offline, as we see the autobots get weak from y'know energon loss but that seens to be a side effect rather than the goal. Now, sure sure fully draining the prey's energon would give a better payoff for the predator... but what stops them from leaning into the more typical vampiric route and just taking a little bit each time and letting the unlucky mecha leave? This logically would be a instant gratification vs delayed reward system, acting more like a large parasite rather than a full on predator. I'm gonna make an efficient and ideal character model for this process, as well what I've seen in the show so far in my rewatch chooses the predator route for this even though there's Nightscream the blatant dracula reference right there

Now, this character would likely not be able to handle the fast and frantic energy of the active part of the war thanks to energy constraints. Other mecha would be able to take advantage of their low stamina and prolong a fight just long enough for the character to go into critically low energon stasis. Nah this is someone who would set up traps and tends to end fights quickly, the less energon spent the better. This is someone who errs close enough to the war to encounter enough mecha to siphon off of, but not close enough to be on the deadly battlefield. Actually we see this in most depictions of vampires, striking exactly when prey would be least likely to fight and spending the majority of their time resting thanks to a low metabolism. The fact that siphoners can live a parasitic niche and not necessarily kill their hosts, they can afford to let mecha get away and refuel and potentially catch them later. Though, I'm pretty sure that in the time period of TFP it's unlikely that full on scavenging on the offlined is an efficient model as it seems like the autobots bury their dead and the Decepticons scrap their's fairly quickly. Though, it would be fairly easy to lure random vehicons and eradicons to and isolated place, strike quick, and leave them dazed but online. TFP Megatron uses the majority of his troops as cannon fodder, and the Autobots tend to treat them as such. He'd assume they got lost temporarily and that they expended the energon in a surprise fight with some autobots or the close answer of with a Decepticon rogue. They'd refuel, and share the funky experience with their friends, and nobody would believe them. Even if the fellow low ranks believe them, most of high command would just. Not care, considering the sheer energon advantage that the Decepticons have.

In TFP, it's actually likely that Arachnid engages in some of this behavior in the predator model, considering we see her easily luring folks to ambushes and she uses her webs as effective traps (aaaand well we DO see her feeding on Insecticons after she became a terrorcon and was bridged to a moon, though iicr she was just lining them up and draining them completely dry— eventually that energy source is gonna run out and she's gonna starve especially with the obvious energy inefficiency and increased metabolism caused by the Dark-Synthe. She's gonna drop at some point, unless the TFP insecticons work a little more like the G1 Insecticons and use a digestive process to turn select matter into energon) which is most definitely from her spider influence.

[titanicfreija]

Face It

"Do you like sitting on the cracks like this for any particular reason? You’ve gone out of your way to open them and then sit there until the new monsters come in. Especially in that spot where you were born."

"I feel you relax. I want you to work as little as possible, keep your Light flowing for you, and the Light cracks are good for it. I can feel it, too. I think maybe Caiatl was right and my Light hurts, too. Our Light. Meditating on it, I definitely feel the difference. And the leyline is… soothing.”

The little vent barely stretched as long as Freija was tall, but it was under some convenient hands that held her tent perfectly, dangling from the fingers.

“This is a good spot,” Sunny promised. “Thank you.”

“I wish I could help more. Loreley's is helping keep the workload down, I know."

"Yeah. It's giving you back your fire, too."

"It's not the same. I'm gonna go back home, soon."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Because I'm your Sunbreaker."

"We have to keep going," Sunny said. 

"Not tonight."

"I mean. We can't back down from the fight."

"I didn't say anything to the contrary," Freija said simply. "Leaving you behind wouldn't help. Staying back won't help. This is like Stasis again– I have to master it to stop it. Only this time it has to die."

Sunny offered a soft chirp and Freija felt her tremble. She took in a long breath, then released it.

"Don't say you're sorry."

"I didn't. I know I didn't do anything wrong."

"You don't believe you."

Freija couldn't answer.

"Freija, you can't blame yourself. It comes down to this for everyone. Even for me."

Freija's breathing paused for several long moments. "No," she said. 

"It's my purpose as a Ghost to help the Traveler. Cayde's vision was a reminder."

"No, your job is to resurrect me, to heal me and teach me. My guiding Sunbeam. You weren't made to die, I was made to die."

Sunny lifted off her Guardian's chest and hovered into view. "Most people get around to it. Even Ghosts."

"No."

"You can't just–"

"Stop!" 

Sunny bobbed forcefully, accidentally hitting Freija's chest. "You stop! It's going to come down to me or everything! It's been like this over and over! And now there's no getting around it."

The Titan fell silent and bit her bottom lip.

"So I know what I have to do."

"Please don't say that," whispered Freija. 

"I know what I have to do," Sunny repeated firmly. "And you know what you have to do, too. If it's let me die, if it's kill me yourself, no matter what. You have to let me go."

Freija nodded and Sunny returned to the cupped hands waiting over the beating heart.

The Titan lay frozen on her hammock and stared into the dark. She remembered from time to time that if Sunny died, she would be Lightless, but that could hardly make it through the part still screaming in terror of losing the most important person in her entire life. 

"So… you're going to die?" Freija could hardly say it.

"I think so," Sunny said. “I'm going to hang on until this is done. I'm going to. But I don't know if I'll have it in me after that, and Cayde's vision was a reminder. We all have to die eventually. Even you. Even me. Yes, my job was to get you up and grow your Light. That was also to help the Traveler. Helping the people it loves, that helped the Traveler. We've done a great job. But I'm… really hurt, Freija."

"I know. It's okay. I'll… haha. I'll live."

[caliginous-is-confused]

Having a day where I am just thinking about how my Destiny Ocs think about death so I am gonna word vomit here.

Fallon my Young Wolf very much takes "you don't understand death" personally. Because the /do/ understand death. As a Guardian they've died in every way imaginable and will be the first one to point it out and describe in detail how the most commonly way to die feels (aside sickness...I'm not sure if Lightbearers can get sick I'm going to say no.) They then circle around and say "What I don't have as much experience in is the permanent death." They understand dying but they don't really understand is the fear and loss of having someone ripped from their life. They've only really lost Cayde, they're holding out that an echo (heh) of Amanda will show up if she's chosen. They still felt the loss of Amanda but there's a spark of hope that a form of Amanda will be back, much like how we saw a little bit of Uldren in Crow before Crow knew he was Uldren in a past life. That.

And I find their gut response of "hey shut up I understand death more than you, it's loss and the fear of not coming back I don't know" very interesting as a character. Because I do think deeeep down Guardians do know that fear of "if I die here that's it" they just don't pay attention to it. The "darkness zones" in dungeons and raids where we only have so many rezes that's their "if you die in the game you die in real life" zones, and even then it's dependent on everyone dying/extending the group's light so thin that they all die. So that kind of dampens the fear.

They're the typical "death means nothing to me until it does" Guardian which compared to their partner is the complete opposite on how he sees things.

Ediz on the other hand goes on a different tirade. He's old. He's seen the Dark Ages. He's so old he takes a page of Drifter's book and refuses to attach himself to one of the classes (if you wanna get down to it, He'd mostly fit in the Warlock bucket but he's learned void techniques of all the classes which is his main subclass. If you ask him to use solar or Stasis the only other subclasses he'd comfortable using you get Warlock powers only I get a little loose and wild with canon with Ediz).

His response to "you don't understand death" is to go "I dont?" Then go into a lecture on how though he wasn't on the receiving end of a final death he has watched both Lightbearers and Lightless die. He's seen Lighless die for others the same as Guardians do now, how he's seen Guardians be loud and cocky only to see their Ghost pop and immediately their bravado is snuffed out as the fear sets in. Those don't last. The /only/ thing he doesn't understand is being scared for himself and only himself dying. He's scared for his Ghost meeting her end, when working with Fallon he's always prepared to see their Ghost meet his end and how he's going to pull them out. If a Lightless person is nearby, if he close enough to them he is already mentally mourning them.

He's seen so much death that he knows with confidence that everyone meets their end eventually. He's not looking for his own but he's come to peace that it'll eventually come.

I just find it interesting to think about how these functionally immortal beings think about it.

[l0vegl0wsinthedark]

Soup.

The first thing Draco noticed was that Harry hadn't shaved that morning. Harry shaved every morning. It was only on vacation that he would let his stubble grow out a bit - his own way of relaxing, Draco supposed.

But then Draco saw the way Harry rubbed his eyes, bloodshot and heavy, and pinched the bridge of his nose, glasses pushed up to his forehead.

When, ten minutes later, Harry still hadn't touched his breakfast, instead just sitting hunched while steadily sipping hot tea, Draco lowered the month's copy of Up Your Sleeve with a small frown.

"All right?" he asked.

Harry looked up, eyes wide, steam from the tea fogging his glasses. "Yeah," he said, and Draco decided that he was simply imagining the slight hoarseness in his voice.

"Not hungry?"

"Not really. Tummy feels weird."

"Weird, how?"

"Just queasy." Harry drained his mug and got to his feet, swinging on his maroon cloak. "Must be the takeout last night."

"I did advise you not to get overzealous with the chilly sauce," Draco turned the page, looking back down at the article about how talking brooches were back in fashion now, "You need to listen to me sometimes."

"Whatever, Malfoy," Harry said, and simply marched out of the kitchen.

Draco listened to the Floo flare and then go out, his gaze on Harry's plate, breakfast cold and untouched. Ten minutes later as he left for work, Harry and his reddened eyes had slipped out of his mind.

He should have known when, four and a half hours later, Harry didn't show up for lunch at the boutique. Draco ordered Greek from Melina's and the tzatziki looked incredible and smelled delicately of garlic and Draco ended up eating all of it along with warm pita. He had robes to finish hemming and ironing and so he left the rest of the food under a Stasis and went back to his sewing machine. Maybe Harry wouldn't mind some Greek at dinner.

But by five o'clock that evening, when Draco finally had a moment to sit down with a cup of tea, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. It wasn't like Harry to just not show up to lunch. He missed lunch all the time, but never without owling Draco about it.

Leaving his assistant to lock up after their last customer (who was trying on robes in increasingly dark shades of green and getting more and more flustered and confused) Draco Floo'ed home.

"Harry?" he called out, even before he was completely out of the Floo, even though Harry never got home before him.

There was a grunt from the sofa. Draco went and looked over the backrest to find Harry, still in full Auror uniform, curled up tightly with his head on two cushions.

"What are you-- What's happened to you?" Draco demanded, a tad bit louder than he'd intended, but then he was suddenly worried and Draco could never handle being worried.

Harry didn't answer and so Draco strode around the sofa, thumped the lunch leftovers on the coffee table next to Harry's glasses, and shook Harry lightly by the shoulder.

"Potter!"

Harry just sighed and blinked open tired, very, very red eyes. "Don't feel good," he said in a hoarse whisper, and then shut his eyes again.

Draco pushed thick, unruly black hair off Harry's forehead and pressed his palm to it.

"You're burning up," he said shortly. "When did you get home?"

"Dunno." A pause, then, "They sent me home at the eleven o'clock meeting."

"You've been home all day, feeling sick, and you didn't bother owling?"

"Couldn't find Hera."

"Have you forgotten you're a wizard? Why didn't you send me a patronus?"

"Nnngblr," replied Harry.

"Have you eaten something?"

Harry shook his head.

"I'm gonna make you soup." Draco was already on his way to the kitchen, kicking off his shoes on the way.

"I'll throw up."

"You will drink it and you will like it. And then you'll get in the bath." He put the kettle on and went rummaging for chicken stock cubes.

"Want to sleep."

"While you're in the bath, I'll go buy a few vials of Fever Fixer."

"Head hurts."

"We have pain potions for that. I'll give you one of those too."

Twenty minutes later, Harry was sat in their bed, wrapped in two blankets, his uniform in a heap on the floor. In the en suite, Draco drew him a bath, poured in some muscle relaxant, and dimmed the lights.

Harry was obediently eating his soup when Draco went back out. His glasses were perched on his head now. Every other minute he'd sneeze and they'd slip down only to be pushed back up. He wore only his boxer shorts and socks and had a light sheen of sweat on his face from the hot soup.

"It's good," he said sincerely.

Draco sat down next to him, mouth turned down at the corners. "Why didn't you inform me that you're ill?"

Harry just blinked. "It's not such a big deal."

"It is. You're ill. You're properly ill. You can't be lying alone on the sofa, without potions or food for a whole day without informing someone." Draco sighed irritably through his nose. "Without informing me."

Harry smiled, set his empty bowl on the bedside table and pulled the blankets tighter around himself. "You look like you're going to cry, Malfoy."

"Harry, I'm being bloody serious right now."

Harry immediately stopped smiling. "It's just the flu or something? I dunno. You don't have to worry."

"Look at you!" Draco said, his voice rising again. "If you'd come home to me looking like this, I'd be in the VIP Emergency Ward at Mungo's right now! Don't deny it."

Harry licked his lips, smiled again, hands held up in surrender. "I'm not denying anything."

"You've never been ill before."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"We've been together three years and you've never been ill." Draco swallowed hard. "It's scary and I don't like it."

"I'm...sorry?"

"Shut it. I'm sorry I let you go to work looking like shit. And I'm sorry I didn't check on you when you didn't show up to lunch."

"What'd you get?"

"Melina's."

"Nice."

"I brought leftovers. They're in the fridge."

"Sounds good." Harry smiled again and reached out, gripping Draco by the wrist and pulling him closer.

"Don't give me your germs," Draco said, letting Harry kiss him wetly on the cheek. "Go get in the bath. I'll be back in a few."

"You're very handsome when you're worried," Harry said, and with his voice so distractingly hoarse and his grip so much warmer than usual, Draco thought that even when ill and red-nosed, Harry Potter had his entire heart - and with good reason. Draco wouldn't bother making soup for anybody else.

[thefirstknife]

Since I'm malding about no season finale, I'll talk about some new stuff we learned from the new trailer and an article that popped up on GameInformer.

A reflection of Savathûn’s mind, the Throne World is an old Hive Realm that is being remade and blessed by the Light that Savathûn has stolen. “She has the Light, so she has this opulent, well-manicured castle. Cool sculptures, courtyards. It’s not the typical Hive area. Then you have this swampier, bayou kind of area that she has not yet rebuilt with the Light. And then there’s this underworld section as well.

This bit made us consider that Savathun is still decorating her Throne World with the Light which is why some parts look better than others. She's actively still working on now that she has the Light. Some of the pictures of the Bowl (TM) made me think though.

Enhance:

This is the bell that we see in the other trailer from the other day. But we see this structure and this bell in other pictures and trailers, including WQ reveal trailer where ... it looks different:

Rest below:

This made us search for more images of the Bowl (TM). We assumed that maybe the current image is the more accurate one as the reveal trailer was shown to have "pre-alpha" footage so the design may have changed, however:

Both of these come from recent trailers. The surrounding area of the Bowl also looks different. At this point, I assumed there's two different Bell Structures (TM). Artist rendition:

Then it was pointed out that the first image from above has another Bell Structure visible to the left of the Bowl, which updated the possible look of the Bowl to this:

But then we found this image:

The building on the left is also visible in one of the pictures above, but the Bell Structure is different again. So either there are inconsistencies with the images, which isn't very likely considering most of these are gameplay footage and seem to correlate otherwise. Or the Bowl is ever-changing as Savathun is live-decorating. Final artist rendition:

I made another proposition: the Bowl mimics a clock and rotates/changes hourly/daily. This would fit with Savathun's love for cycles and trickery. We did see a statue of a thrall shift in front of our eyes in another trailer and Savathun saying that her Throne World is "twisted" and that things are never what they seem. A bell tolling and marking the new shift in environment would be really cool and creepy.

I doubt there will be too much "shifting" of scenery as that would be way too confusing and impossible to have a map of, but will some pieces be tricking our minds? For sure. We've already seen the thrall statue. I would like to also see the Bowl rotate, but that may be too much of a mechanical problem to execute so I'm not gonna bet my life on it. But it's definitely strange that the Bell Structures don't look the same in all photos and seem to be not in the right places in different images.

Some other stuff I like:

The new Warlock exotic name. "Osmiomancy" would roughly translate as "osmium used for divination." Osmium being a cool name to use here, given Osmium Court and Osmium King of the Krill and ancient family of the Hive siblings. I am wondering what will be the lore tab on this. Also interesting that it's a dedicated Stasis exotic.

Tumblr isn't letting me upload more images, but there's a cool shot of Savathun about to Nova bomb the hell out of the fireteam attacking her. And when I looked at it a few times, I also noticed that one of the Guardians is SHOOTING A WORM AT HER. LMFAO.

"What is the Relic on Mars? The power to create your own weapon."

This bit from the beginning of the trailer is also interesting. This "Relic" seems to be something that will pop up on Mars after it leaves the anomaly and since it looks very Pyramidal in aesthetic, it seems like something Darkness left behind from the anomaly. Reminds me of the Ziggurat on Europa: a piece of Darkness left behind on a planet to give us powers and connect us to itself.

Anyway, that's Tuesday update when no Exorcism.

[ignisnocturnalia]

Variks x Reader Relationship HC's

Gonna write you as a new light, apologies my God-slaying siblings

News of the Pyramids over Europa reaches far and wide, as does stasis

With this discovery, relayed by a veteran guardian, also reveals news of the Eliksni who instigated the riot at the Prison of Elders

Being freshly revived, there's not much you can make out of the hostility the other Guardians offer the alien

Curious about him, you make a bold request to be stationed on Europa to "monitor" him

Of course, Zavala denies your request and speaks of how important your guns would be here at home

While you say you understand, you're secretly trying to find your way around it

The Drifter

You heard about his escapades to the frozen planet, reasons unknown, but still able to slip through Vanguard sanctions

As usual, a Guardian siding with the Vanguard approaching you with a purpose usually isn't a good thing

"Somethin' you want, kid?"

His tone is carefully jovial, bordering neutral, but you're not foolish enough to think he actually trusts you

"I need to get to Europa."

He stares at you for a solid minute before sizing you up, an inquisitive glare settling on his face

"What's in it for me?"

Having been on Strike detail for months on end, you've got a sweet heap of glimmer and nothing to use it on; you know he doesn't care a lot for the currency, so you offer up your weapons alongside it

He gives you a lopsided grin as he takes the arsenal, waving off the glimmer and taking you to his ramshackle ship

Unsurprisingly, it's a quiet ride, your own Ghost unsure of your actions

Drifter gives you little warning before transmitting you off the ship, leaving you to fall flat on your ass in the deep snow

Despite being a little upset about this, you finally see your goal, the very Eliskni that brought new questions to the ice planet

Every step you take lands your foot in a fluffy sheet of snow, sounding out with a crunch you had never heard before

Soon enough, you've completely deviated from the reason you came to the planet, completely obsessed with the snow under you

The entire time, Variks has been watching you from the window of his base making a fool of yourself

Distantly, he realizes that he thinks you're cute like that

"Here to help, yes?"

You are COMPLETELY caught off guard, turning quickly on your heel before slipping on the ice and landing flat on your ass

A shadow falls over you as you look up to see the well spoken Eliksni towering over you, and you're immensely thankful for the helmet hiding your blush

He offers you one of his real hands, helping you up and you can't help but notice how his hunched form is hiding a solid 8" from his height

Bringing you inside, you slowly decompress from the outside chill and Variks formally introduces himself

You quickly take note of how each of his sentences are punctuated by insect noises, which are quite fun to hear

You explain your circumstances and even though you can only see his eyes, you can feel the confusion in the air

"You left the Tower.. to see me? Variks does not know who you are; you do not know Variks, yes?"

You're slightly disappointed but not surprised by his suspicious behavior, after seeing how other Guardians harped about him

You then remember something very important

"I don't have a ship to get back."

Your ship still sat in the Hangar, locked down until it was needed for use

Variks stood in front of you quietly before also noticing something unusual about you; your weapons were missing

"Stay. I will contact your Commander."

You immediately spring from your seated position, grabbing at his shoulder before he can reach the comms

He seems to understand your plead

You spend the next few days eating freeze dried food, along with MRE's supplied by another curious party on Europa

Variks doesn't join you until he's finished eating in another room, and the conversations you can strike up are limited

You ask him to teach you Eliksni

He appears shocked at first but eagerly obliges, now showing up to eat with you

It's been a good couple of weeks, and you've got a few phrases and words under your belt

Nothing translates directly, everything is interpreted based on the small word choice

Variks didn't know, but you had spent the last 3 days trying to figure out what the closest thing to "I love you" was in Eliksni

That night, when you both settle down to eat, you eye Variks with a renewed purpose

The fuzz in your brain dissipates as, astoundingly, he moves to take off his mouth cover

You can't help but stare at his revealed face not noticing how he fidgets a bit under your intense stare

"Apologies, (y/n). I did not mean to ruin your appetite."

It was now or never

Moving over to sit next to him, you shyly looked up to see he had yet to put the mask back on, instead looking at you with uncertainty

"Yu ne ze." You are my gift. I love you.

The Eliksni's eyes widen and his body stiffens and you worry for a second that you've made a mistake before he turns fully and leans into your face

"Ma yun ne."

His mandibles are often used to caress your face

You find yourself with gifts and trinkets waiting in your small room in the base

He has you spot check his weapons, testing them out and generally having a blast with them

Other Guardians have seen you on occasion, but very few have approached you to ask questions about the mysterious Eliksni

Variks loves it when you hold his hands, even more so when you pet his face

When you find out he can purr, it's one of the most sought after sounds during your intimate moments, and sometimes he will purr simply to indulge you

Even if you're an undead warrior, Variks still piles furs on to your shoulders to make sure you don't get cold during outings

You have had to fend off assassins, often at the cost of your life

This pushes you to accept the deceptive whispers of the Pyramid, carrying you all the way to the Exo Stranger's den

She reluctantly agrees to teach you because of your inexperience, and although neither of you say anything, you and Drifter make quick eye contact

Variks can smell the Darkness on you and is very disappointed, but he doesn't tip off that he knows

Instead, he uses it as an excuse to put you under house arrest

He catalogues every single symptom you have that could barely begin to resemble a sickness, encouraging you to stay inside until you're better

During the nights, you notice he holds you much more tightly against his body

You apologize for your zealousness regarding his safety

Your lessons in Eliksni continue, and soon enough you can hold your own in small conversations with him

Whenever you or Variks look at each other trying to figure something out, you both always ask about the question in your mind

Whoever is asked ends up sitting in the other's lap, but you've found that it's much more convenient to sit in his own

This exploration leads to daily petting or grooming sessions, giving way for more risque activity to take place

Nsfw 👁👄👁

Variks orients himself as a switch, but you can tell he enjoys being on the bottom a little more if his rapid breaths are anything to go by

Brushing and lightly scratching segments on his exoskeleton are immense green lights for him, especially adding just enough force to push into the seams between his limbs

He's very gentle with his teeth, but the red marks he leaves on your body are generous from the amount of fondling he carries out

He's perfectly fine with both of you being bare, so long as a heat source is nearby

This level of exposure allows you to feel every rumble, trill, and moan straight from his chest and you can't deny just how hot it is to have an entire alien making these noises because of you

He delivers plenty of foreplay, always giving you the option to back out of it

With your size difference, you have to work to move up and down his body when you're both laying down

One of his favorite things is when you drag your teeth along his neck or chest, no real threat of harm but an undeniable thrill for him

He may start slow, but towards the end? You're better off simply letting him take care of you the next day

Fluff

After particularly tedious days, you will pull him into your shared room and pepper his face with kisses

Whenever he wants to nap, he selectively chooses your lap so you can massage his back or his forehead

Following the official announcement of your relationship, Zavala finally submits and gives you full permission to stay stationed on Europa, at the price of lengthy field reports at the beginning of every month

Variks, of course, teases you while writing these papers

He'll correct a mistake you made way back in the paper, laughing quietly in the back of his throat as you fume at the obvious inaccuracy

Besides Vanguard papers, you've taken it upon yourself to make him a new arm

You decide to gift it to him once the Dawning starts

Note: I leave some of my handcanons open ended for more ideas, and yes, I am aware they are more like one shot/hc hybrids, but hey, take it as an invitation to ask me to actually write out the whole thing. I will not write out explicit nsfw unless asked, and if I am asked, it will always be gratuitous and extremely detailed ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Finals are eating my timbs tho, so I'm currently attempting to study for these hellspawn

[nothingbutfangirlsmut]

The Girl Out of Time

Pairing: Bucky x Reader and Sam x Reader

Background: Willow Roffe was born and raised in Brooklyn. She lived her life as happily as she could with her two childhood best friends Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers. When they both left her to join the military she tried to continue with life but that didn't get to happen for her for the simple fact that she meant something to James Buchanan Barnes.

Rating: Story will be overall MATURE but not every chapter. There will be strong language, talk of both mental and physical abuse, some good ole angst, and smut. There will be a warning at the beginning of the chapter when it includes smut.

Chapter 32

Tony had started to shake next to me. He was livid and I couldn't blame him. I would be too if I was him. He lunged for James but Steve was quick to grab him. I just stood staring at the now blank screen.

"No, Tony" Steve whispered.

"Did you know?" Tony asked quietly turning to face Steve.

"I didn't know it was him." Steve said simply.

I could see the lie in Steve's eyes. Apparently so could Tony.

"Don't bullshit me, Rogers! Did you know?" He shouted in Steve's face.

"Yes" Steve sighed.

Tony took a shocked step back. I knew right before it happened that this was going to be bad. I could see the crazed look in Tony's eyes. The next second he hit Steve so hard it sent him flying backwards. I knew that he had turned to James but I kept my focus on Steve. I ran to him dropping to my knees in front of him.

"What do we do?" I whispered.

"Don't let him get Bucky." Steve groaned as he got to his feet.

Steve didn't hesitate to throw his shield hitting Tony in the back of the Iron Man suit. Tony knock Steve back again then pushed a button on his suit causing a device to come out and wrap around Steve's ankles. I was frozen in shock as Tony grabbed James and lifted him into the air.

"He didn't have control. It wasn't him." I told myself harshly.

I knew that fact but watching him do it with my own eyes was something I will never erase. Just as Steve breaks his shackles a shot is fire that causes part of the building to start collapsing. Steve runs trying to get to James as the crumbling building separates the three men.

"Get out of here! Willow! Go with him!" Steve shouts at the two of us.

I force my legs to move. I jumped over the rubble landing right behind James as he turned to corner. I was hot on his heals. We run into another large room where James punches a button on the wall. The ceiling all the way at the top of the room started to open revealing a snowy blue sky.

"Come on doll we gotta climb." James says as he grabs onto the closest ledge.

I don't hesitate to follow him. He's climbing fast trying to reach the top and I'm right behind him following his lead.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." James says as we climb.

"Not your fault" I tell him.

"No, but still. I coulda went a millenium without you ever seeing that." He spoke in a strained voice.

We climbed another ledge. This time he stopped and waited for me to be beside him before he spoke again.

"You probably think horribly of me now. I don't blame ya but all I ever did was try to protect you." The look in his eyes was enough to shatter my heart.

I leaned forward grabbing his face then pulled him to me. His lips crashed against mine in a desperate, panicked kiss.

"Nothing would ever make me look at you horribly." I whispered.

"We should keep moving." He said softly.

I nodded as he started to reach up to the next ledge. Before I even touched the metal Tony came out of no where kicking James hard. He fell down several ledges landing with a thud.

"Jamie!" I scream about to jump down to him.

Tony moves to blast James but Steve is between them with his shield. A breath a quick sigh of relief as I move to help James back up.

"He's not gonna stop. Go. Both of you." Steve said glancing between us.

Steve moved to keep Tony busy as the two of us continued upwards towards the opened ceiling. I could hear the fight below us but I forced myself to keep my eyes forward. Keep moving. Keep climbing.

"Almost there doll." James panted.

He was one ledge ahead of me. He grabbed the top of the opening starting to pull himself out as an explosion went off to his right. The opened part of the ceiling groaned then fell back down with a crash and a strong gust of wind that knocked both of us back down all those ledges. I hear James land with a thud and a groan but I'm still falling. When I do land everything goes black.

Every bone in my body feels broken when I come to. I groan forcing my eyes open. The sight in front of me has me Sitting up straight instantly. All thought of pain and injury gone. James is on the ground several feet away from me. His metal arm blown off. Steve and Tony are throwing punches at each other. This is insane.

Tony lands a nasty punch sending Steve to the ground. I try to pull myself to my feet but I only fall back down. Steve sets up on his knees between Tony and James. His face is bloody and he's panting.

"He's my friend." Steve says in exasperation.

"So was I." Tony said coldly.

I force myself to my feet as Tony picks Steve up then throws him against the wall. The captain groans as he body crumbles to the floor.

"Stay down. Final Warning." Tony warns him.

I take a step forward but my legs go wobbly and my vision blurs. I drop to my hands and knees. I blink barely making out the blue outline staggering to his feet.

"I can do this all day." Steve says weakly.

Tony steps back putting his red metal covered foot right in front of my blurry eyes. I reach out and grab him then give a hard tug. He's distracted turning around to look between me and James trying to figure out which one did it. Steve lunges grabbing Tony then throwing him hard to the ground. I crawl over to James' blurry figure on the ground.

"You alright?" I ask softly.

"Could be better." He hisses.

I hear a loud breaking noise then a grunt and a groan. I turn my head trying to blink away my blurry vision. It doesn't work. From what I can tell the fighting stopped. A few seconds later a dark blue figure rose to his feet. The scraping of metal told me he had picked up his shield. He stepped over to us. He helped James and me to our feet grabbing both of us around the waist. He started to walk away guiding both of us with him.

"That shield doesn't belong to you. You don't deserve it. My father made that shield!" Tony shouted from behind us.

Steve stopped walking. There was a sound of metal clattering to the ground then we were walking again. He had dropped the shield. He gave it up. What has happened to us?

Steve gets us back to our seats on the jet as my eyes finally start to clear. I keep blinking over and over trying to clear them. When they are clear again Steve is kneeling in front of me.

"There's something I gotta do real quick then we will find a place to get you two patched up." Steve told me softly.

"I'm fine Steve but he definitely needs it." I said nodding to James.

There were light footsteps then Steve was on his feet.

"I might know a place." A familiar thick accent said.

I turned in my seat to see T'challa in his Black Panther suit, all but the mask.

"I heard you inside. I know your friend didn't kill my father. I can help him. My people can help him." T'challa explained.

Steve and T'challa shook hands before the king departed out jet. He was waiting on us to clear out so he could inform Ross he'd caught the real bad guy. Steve didn't tell me where we were going until we had been flying over nothing but ocean for several minutes.

"Sam and the others are locked up out here. We gotta get them out." He said softly.

I immediately agreed with him. He had me take control so he could slip in and out of the prison as quick as possible. I kept the jet running and ready to go. When he returned he had Sam and Wanda. I didn't question him about the others. I knew there had to be a good reason he'd leave them behind.

When we entered Wakanda I was in total shock. This was nothing like what we'd been told. It was just suppose to be a country of farmers but clearly there was a bit more going on. Steve landed the jet right outside what looked like a palace.

"You two stay here. We won't be long." Steve ordered Sam and Wanda.

They both nodded. I stepped over to Sam then hugged him tightly.

"God, its good to see you." I smiled up at him.

"You too beautiful." He said with a charming smile.

"We'll be back." I told him then ran off to catch up with Steve.

I accompanied James into the room to see the doctor while Steve waited in the hall. James sat on the table while that man looked over everything, not just her metal arm.

"Doc, could I ask you something?" James asked suddenly.

"Sure" the man said nodding.

"Do you have the technology to put me back under? Freeze me?" He asked glancing over at me nervously.

A young woman suddenly appeared next to me making me jump.

"Why would you want to do that Sergeant Barnes?" She asked him.

"Give you time to figure how to get this Hydra shit outta my head." He said with a pained expression.

The woman shrugged.

"We can put you back in stasis if that's what you wish. I can work on some brain technology to help you when you next come out." She told him with a told.

"Good, do it" he nodded at her.

"Wait, are you serious?" I asked him stepping forward.

"Sorry doll, but I think we both know it's for the best." He said softly.

I didn't know what to say so instead I left the room. Out in the hall I told Steve what had just happened. He hugged me tightly but I wasn't as upset as I thought I would be. I already knew what I was going to do. What I had to do. This time everything would be different. The two of us walked back into the room just as the doctor and the young woman walked away from James.

"You sure about this?" Steve asked James.

"I can't trust my own mind. So, until they figure out how to get this stuff out of my head, I think going back under is the best thing. For everybody." James explained.

"You want to go tell the others? I'll be right behind you." Steve suggested.

I chuckled softly making both men look at me in confusion.

"Sorry Stevie, I'm not going anywhere." I told him shaking my head.

"What are you talking about?" James asked.

"I'm not leaving you. I don't care how long it takes. I'm gonna stay right here. I'll help them if I can but I'll be here by your side. I'll be here when you wake up. I'm not gonna let you be alone. Not again. Not ever again." I told him grabbing his hands and squeezing reassuringly.

The small smile that appeared on James' face warmed my soul. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. I stood next to Steve as they put him inside the chamber. We watched through thick glass.

"Will you tell Sam I'm sorry?" I asked Steve softly.

"You know I will." He nodded.

"Call me when you can. I'll keep you updating on everything." I told him.

He nodded then kissed the top of my head. A few seconds later he was gone. I was left standing in front of the glass watching James be frozen once again. But it's okay. This is not the end. When he wakes up we'll have his fix for the brain washing and I'll be here to help him through it. This time we can do things right. Live out a peaceful life here. A peaceful life with James Barnes.

—

[yuvon-writes-letters]

Hey guys,

Yu, Rai and both Jakes.

Actually..If I talk about my feelings I'm pretty well. Don't tell Jake I said that, but I couldn't be happier about our situation. I mean, we can talk again. Without me being kidnapped and finding a weird Tumblr profile of him. (Which we think was a set up by one of the entities of my world since he obviously doesn't have one. Jake thinks it was goldies doing, I on the other hand don't believe that. Don't ask me why, but it feels like goldie wouldn't do that. And it didn't help me either but only made problems. I was distracted because I was writing the profile (you read it, right Yu? I don't know about the others) and angry. Like, really angry.)

Putting that aside, Jake called me, like he promised :) And it was the longest phone call I had for some time. Most of the time I talked and he didn't get distracted once, just listened to me and everything that happened. And then he started cursing, which is kind of understandable. He apologised for being into stasis. And for this other version from before the 'time setting back' thing. Because I don't find a name I'll call it TSB from now on.

The only problem I have now is going to work, I guess I'll take me some vacation...But at least I'm not as scared of the raven-ass anymore. I mean, I still am, but in the moment I know his steps. And I am not alone.

Jake, I intentionally write the next part in red, please don't read it. That's for Yu.

I know you think that Jake sees you as a threat. If it still is like you wrote in the letter. Jake knows that, too and he doesn't like it. You know him better than I do, of course, but without saying too much...I think it's quite the opposite. Talk to him about that. Even though it's probably not the best circumstances I think he enjoys being with you :)

The next part, purple (damn, I need more coloured pens), is for you Jake.

You already told me that you don't like that Yu thinks you see her as a threat. I only have to say one thing, if it still is like that, talk to her about it. Earlier than later.

The new thoughts about the blood ritual are really interesting. But please don't put yourself in this danger (or not, but I think it's understandable what I mean?) if it isn't necessary. But I also agree with Rai, I thought the same thing for a while. That you desired having someone, Jake, with you. It sounds plausible.

What more was there...Wait, let me reread the letters.

Oh yeah, Rai! One, till now my crow crew seems to still be in stasis (Jake realised that now, too) and two..Please try to take care of your health, yeah? I'm worried for you.

Lis🐾🔥

Ps. Damn...I'm writing this exactly when I wanted to leave the house (I mean, I sadly cannot hide my face forever).

Two new things...I got a message. I mean, it was a threat (because I am the obviously the bad girl that kidnapped Hannah), but I don't care. Maybe that means the stasis is slowly dissolving!

But number 2...I didn't get the vacation. My boss called me almost immediatly. "Under no circumstances [a word is blacked out] Liska. We have July and Alice, Tim and Jenny all want to take free time, too. You are one of our best workers and we can't afford you leaving now. You have no children so you have to wait. Also Max told me that you don't have any problems in family."

So long story short: He wants me to be there tomorrow. Argh, if he would pay me like he's talking that would awesome. And I'll kill Max when I see him next time. (My cousin that thought it was fun to try and steal my work so we both got the rank of 'one of the best workers'. The only problem: Max' title is official. -.- Overall, I'm so much more annoyed than some time earlier. Maybe I should ask Jake for help

Lis,

Okay, the Crow Crew drama is fading a bit, so I'll answer this now. Sorry if I seem disjointed at all, I'm probably going to be going back and forth from conversations to this letter a lot. I can't afford to have them all think I'm compromised, I need to focus on getting out of here and I don't want to deal with their pressure on top of everything else.

Yeah, I don't think the Tumblr profile was Goldie either. Goldie seems to try to be very much a "hands off" sort of entity, like my own. The Tumblr profile thing seems a little out of character for at least my Jake. At least, publicly answering your submission certainly was, though he may have panicked since you sent it in on anon and answered publicly without really thinking about it. I guess I could see him having a Tumblr profile for purposes of following people on social media and watching what they post, though. And then deciding he likes the media and posting a little bit of impersonal things that can't lead back to him. Probably my Jake will say something about that when I hand this letter over to him, stay tuned.

Yeah, I at least read some of the things you sent that profile, and I showed what I had to my Jake too. I'm not sure if I read all of it, since it was a bunch of printed-out screenshots in an envelope, but I read the ask where you told him you hated him (fair at that point but ouch that's got to have hurt) up to when you said you'd found Hannah. After that you sent me your letter telling me time had turned back and the Tumblr screenshots ended.

I'm glad you and Jake managed to talk things out. I was sort of worried about how he'd react, but it sounds like he took it pretty well, considering. I'm... not exactly sure he should be apologizing for the stasis, though. Or the TSB!Jake. Maybe especially not the TSB!Jake. Jakes seem to be oddly different from timeline to timeline, just based on what I've seen of them. TSB has been one of the most different so far.

Oh. One thing I should mention that you might not have seen from the profile: The MWAF used your phone to mock the TSB account, and mentioned that TSB wasn't the only person who could hack, and the MWAF blocked TSB from finding your location. Might want to warn your Jake about that.

A vacation sounds like a good idea :/ It's really hard to go back to normal life right after tragedies or trauma. It feels like the world keeps moving on and you're still stuck in place, and you just want to scream at them that they need to slow down, can't they see that the world is

Good. I'm glad you don't feel alone. It's easier to deal with this stuff when you're with someone else, even if it's not physically.

(Jake, my Jake I mean, if you're reading over my parts of these letters skip to the ||| now please.) I'm not saying he doesn't also enjoy my company. I can tell he does. That doesn't make me not a threat. Like how early on I suspected Thomas, but still thought he was a nice guy and enjoyed talking to him. (Obviously I don't suspect him any more XD ) Still, if you think I should talk with him about it, I'll try to find a tactful way to bring it up.

Yes, because obviously tact is my greatest strength. Sigh.

Like I said to Rai, the underlying desire thing is definitely possible. That'd either mean I'm more obvious about how I feel for Jake than I think I am (very possible, I'm not great at hiding how I feel in person) or the entity has some level of telepathy/mind reading. The reason is that chessboard. Since Jake likes chess, it's clear at least to me the entity expected him to come here at some point. I THINK, if the underlying desire thing is true, I can manipulate myself into wanting specific things by doing things like writing it over and over and repeating it out loud when doing the ritual, but I'm not sure.

|||

It's probably good that your Crow Crew is in stasis, like how it's objectively probably good my outside life is going on without me. Less drama, less pressure.

Huh. The harassment is definitely a promising sign. Maybe you should try contacting Darkness again, same way as I suggested near the beginning? That feels so long ago, but it really can't have been much more than a week, can it?

You... didn't get the vacation. Fucking hell. Is there ANY way you can convince your boss? You really should have time off. Maybe your Jake can help you come up with ideas.

Or at least maybe he can come up with a way to have your boss give you a bonus for your trouble -_-

Oh shit Cleo's interrogating me I'm gonna hand this to Jake now

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hello, Lis.

I agree with Yuvon: "TSB" acts markedly different from myself. There would be no benefit from me promising to be there to find you in the moment, and indeed I would have been falling for a very transparent trap. Even in my possible state of panic, I cannot see myself being there physically, much less revealing myself physically to authorities in the process, unless I was playing the role of bait in a counter-trap. While it is plausible that this was TSB's plan, TSB gave no indication that Yuvon or I could tell that this was the case. Of course, I would have done my best to be there physically in the aftermath of the kidnapping, but not in the moment.

I also agree that the Tumblr profile seems to be out of character for both myself and for "Goldie", though I hesitate to judge TSB's actions by what I myself would do. I seem to vary in surprising ways across universes and even from timeline to timeline, based solely on your current Jake's reactions thus far. I do actually own a Tumblr profile for the exclusive purpose of following social medias I wish to track, but I used a random username generator website for the username and not my own name, and I certainly never posted anything.

The news about the MWAF being able to hack is new to me; I must have missed that the first time I read through the screenshots. That is quite troubling. I suppose I will need to be more careful in future.

I am sincerely sorry your request for a vacation was rejected. I do not know how much you intend to separate your personal life and the Duskwood case, but if your stasis is truly wavering, you may be able to reveal some measure of the danger you are in to convince him to let you flee the area for a small while. Especially since you mentioned in your Tumblr post that you saw a raven note in your wor

Oh.

You need to leave that place. Now. Do not inform your employer of the danger you are in, reveal nothing to him or to anyone, take unpaid time off if you need to. Get your cousin and anyone else you care overly much about out of there too. Invalidate any information you can your employer or coworkers knows about you. Do not tell the truth to anyone, even your cousin. Make up any excuses you need to, ask your Jake for help with ideas if you need to. You may also wish to check that the coworkers your boss listed who are going on vacation are ACTUALLY going on vacation.

This is a priority, Liska. You need to tell your Jake all of this too, especially the part with the note in your workplace. You need to get out of there.

Good luck.

—Jake & Yuvon

(The letter tucks itself into the paper clip with the others.)

[azraels-hand]

This is Chapter 9 for my Trollhunter Tales of Arcadia The Arcane's sister

Chapter 9 History in the Making

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I heard a horse neigh as we where now serounded by knights.

"What manner of sorcery is this?" Some one said in front of us as Douxie is to the left of me and Claire is to the right While Steve is to the right of her.

"Wow." Steve says under his breath as he stare's at the knight in front of us.

"Sir Lancelot, um--." Douxie try's to explain.

"He's so handsome." Steve mermers.

I just scoffed.

"I--We--." Douxie trys explaing but starts stuttering.

"Wait! Aren't you Merlins errand boy?" Lancelot said.

"Apprentice." Douxie corected.

"He's like an angel-man. Whoa!" Steve says but whimpers as a knight moves there sword toward his neck.

A knight then gasps and a horse neighs.

Lancelot clears his throat. "The devil--?" But he was cut off by Jim's stasis cryistel being craked open.

Jim groans as he's out of stasis. "What? How did I--."

"Jim! Are you okay?" Claire says as she goes over to where Jim is as I'm now by Steve's left side as he is still stareing at Lancelot.

But I was just thinking about other things like how to get back and how I could slap Merlin but not hurt him. And how I'm gonna get them back to see reason.

"Troll! Troll! To arms!" Lancelot yells to the other knights.

Douxie runs in front of us and says."Wait! Chill out, lads!"

"Chill? Out?" Lancelot questioned.

"Take a breath, all right? He's one of the good ones." Douxie explans.

"There are no good ones." Lanceolt says as he pushs Douxie out of the way. Douxie then grunts from how he was pushed.

"Monsters are forbidden in Arthur's lands. You'll hang before the king for your insolence." Lancelot says.

My face as he said "Monsters" morfhed into and sneer but it was just in my eyes.

"Whoa, he even talks like an angel. Wait, what's an 'insolence'?" Steve questioned before he grunts as where all picked up by the arms by the knights.

The last thing I heard was a horse neigh before we where moved out of the woods.

We where walking up to camelot as Steve was yelling about something.

"Let go of me! I want my one phone call!" Steve yells but grunts as a knight hit his back so he would move faster.

"This place was cooler flying." Steve mumbels.

As we walked up to the gates I could here the towns people talking amungst each other.

"Claire? What happened? What are we doing at a Renn faire?" Jim askes as he trys reaching for Claire but pulls back as his hand sizzles in the sunlight. "Aah!"

"Jim!" Claire yells as she runs to Jim as hes in a cage.

"We're prisoners in the, uh, Dark Ages. I'd say Mid 12th century, with no way home." Douxie answers Jim's questions.

"And my calmness is a little bit thin with Merlin at the moment…." I say under my breath.

Steve yelps as I say that.

"It's not the ideal situation." Douxie says with a srug.

"Ideal? Jim has a shard of evil magic in his chest!" Claire exclaims.

"Actually, I'm still hurt, but it feels different somehow." Jim says.

"Mordrax's miracles, he's right! When we jumped back in time, it must have frozen the corruption in place." Douxie says.

"Uh, seems I missed a lot. Don't you work at the cafe?" Jim questioned.

"Part time. And thanks for always tipping, by the way." Douxie shrugs.

"He's Merlin's apprentice. It's a long story." Claire explains.

"Hey Jim…" I say as I walk closer to the cage-cart thing hes in.

"Open the gate! We have foreigners awaiting judgment for King Arthur." Lancelot yells to a guard at the top of the gate as we all stop.

It then opens as douxie continue's talking. "Nah, no worries. Camelot's my old turf. Just follow my lead."

The guards are shouting things I can't hear clearly.

"Be inconspicuous." Douxie whispers to us all.

"Done." I say back as I have a calm but serious look in my eyes.

"Aye for prisoners! Coming!" A guard yells as we come to a stop at the castle doors.

Once where in the throne room

Jim grunts as he is pushed to the ground.

"Gunmar's threatening our borders. Double our patrols."

"Here are the trespassers, my lord." Lancelot bows.

"A troll? I thought I made it clear, your kind are unwelcome when I banished you all from the realm." Arthur spat at Jim.

"Don't you mean 'betrayed'?" Morgana says as she walks into the room.

Claire huffs next to me and Douxie and says as she steps abit. "Morgana!" Claire whispers but only me and Douxie could hear her.

"Inconspicuous, remember?" Douxie says from right next to me as he clears his throat as some knights look at us.

"You gave the woods to enchanted creatures like these. You'd break that vow?" Morgana says.

"These beasts care not, especially not this spy of Gunmar's!" Arthur says irritated.

I don't know for sure but I think my eye twiched at that.

"Stop calling me a beast!" Jim yells as he trys to get up but gets pushed to the ground with a grunt. "Wait. Gunmar?" Jim mumbels confused.

Douxie's voice squeks as he specks. "Your Highness, ahem, it's good to see you again." He says.

"And you are?" Arthur questioned.

"Hisirdoux, Merlin's apprentice. I assure you he is no threat." Douxie says as he bows.

"That's my judgement to make, boy." Arthur spat.

"Trolls are born of magic…' Morgana steps up and makes a flower with her magic as people in the room gasp.

'as you are of blood. How is their nature a crime?" Morgana questioned.

"When they ravage our lands, take our loved ones from us. I made these laws to hold this fragile land together, and they will be abided! Leave the wood, the penalty is death." Arthur says as he stands up.

'But we didn't leave the wood….and some trolls aren't like that some are peacefull not mean like Gunmar…..' I thought as I glared at Arthur but quikly stoped and calmed down a bit as I started to feel my hands tingile with energy that was purple and gold.

"Wait? No! Wait, wait! I'm not a troll!" Jim trys to break from the knights grasp on his arms as he is draged closer to Arthur.

"Whoa, hold on! Isn't this a bit hasty?" Douxie questioned paniced.

I try to walk forward but a knight holds me back along with douxie.

"Bring him to the sunlight." Arthur commands.

Jim grunts as he is brought to the edge of the shadows in the room from two knights.

"Jim! No!" Claire excaliamed but is held back by a knight.

Jim grunts again as he is pushed to the ground by the knights and starts screaming as the sun starts to turn him into stone.

"Stop!" Claire yells as the room gets darker and from the cornner of my eye I could see her eyes turn blackish-purple. 'Claire….' I thought.

Morgana gasps and says something nobody else could hear exept me.

"Morgana… is this your witchery? Cease it at once!" Arthur commends.

"Just because you're scared of him doesn't mean he shouldn't exist! It doesn't make him evil." Claire says as she breaks from the kinghts hold on her and runs to Jim's side and stands up.

"But it makes him dangerous. I will not fail to protect my kingdom!" Arthur says as he is getting angry with Claire.

"If you give into fear, that is failing." Claire says.

"The girl speaks truth. Please listen to her." Morgana says.

"Hmm…" Arthur mumbles before he sighs and sits back down and says. "Fine. I will show the troll mercy. He will live… in the dungeon."

Jim grunts as he is taken away.

"Jim--." Claire mumbles as Douxie holds her back as she reaches for Jim.

"He's alive. We'll get him out eventually. Just trust me." Douxie says from beside me as I'm on Claires right.(Douxie is on the left)

"As for you, Hisirdoux, shouldn't you be with Merlin?" Arthur questions.

"Uh, yes. Well, I was busy recruiting these three. They're here to help in the-- in the war! This is Claire of the House of Nunez. And… well, this is the village idiot."Douxie says as he points to Claire as she bows her head and the he points to Steve who was behind him.

"Oh, me? I'm just an 'in-so-lent' knight. All-state champ! Sir Steve of Palchukia!" Steve says as he trys to show his musles.

"And this is-." Douxie is cut of by me.

"My name is Isabella Crane your magistey." I say as I bow my head in show of respect that I only slightly ment but he didn't have to know that.

"Hmm, if you truly be friends of Camelot, then prove your worth. Hisirdoux, rejoin Merlin. Sir Steve, to Lancelot in the barracks. As for you, Mistress Isabella and Mistress Claire--." Arthur says his command but is cut of by his sister.

"I'll take the girl's. I could use new handmaidens." Morgana speaks.

"It is done. Now, out! I have a kingdom to protect." Arthur commands.