#on a planet on which launching and landing should be much easier than here on earth

[dead-generations]

Another misconception, which I should roll into a wider "why the moon is harder than mars" essay, is that low gravity makes space travel easier. Low gravity actually makes landing on a body, and traveling to it, more energy intensive and more challenging - especially because lower gravity typically means less dense atmosphere or no atmosphere. Let me explain

High gravity is obviously a challenge for space travel, especially launching from a body with high gravity. I dont think this needs explaining - heavy thing hard go up, more gravity mean more heavy. but theres a bit of a bell curve here. Too low (moon) and it becomes quite challenging. Too high (a 'super earth') and it again becomes quite challenging.

This isn't a nice even curve though, the "ceiling" is relatively low as far as gravity for stellar bodies goes, and the lowest gravity possible is merely challenging while gravity above earth's rapidly becomes "impossible".

Specifically, to get to a stellar body you need to "intercept" it, which basically means getting to it and spending enough energy to be sharing an orbit with it/orbiting it. A low gravity stellar body has a weaker and smaller gravity well, which means you cannot simply rely on being 'captured' by the body when you arrive. You will need to expend energy to get there, and then you will need to expend almost as much energy when you arrive just to be captured by it!

Low gravity generally means its harder to land or orbit, and high gravity means its harder to launch. And high enough gravity also makes landing challenging as well, as the continual force upon the vehicle is high enough that small errors in the final landing sequence can become rapidly catastrophic. A little caveat here is that sufficiently low gravities enable SSTO vehicles, though they may not enter into the realm of "better than a two stage vehicle".

So there's a sweet spot here, clearly, but funnily enough the earth isn't in it. Our gravity is frustratingly high for takeoff and just a bit high for landing. In fact if it was just a bit higher, maybe 10%, a lot of things would become impossible, like reusable rockets. Mars is much closer to that sweet spot!

But the presence and density of atmosphere is another factor for space travel similar to gravity. It mainly effects landing/orbiting, similar to gravity. Atmosphere too dense/high, and lower orbits become problematic as they "drag" on the atmosphere. Worse, when landing/deorbiting, one cannot avoid aerobraking, and more challenging one cannot help but generate a lot of heat via atmospheric friction. Heat which requires fragile/expensive/high-mass shielding which is unproductive mass for 90% of the use of your vehicle. Heat which can blind instruments and communications equipment. And heat which is of course exceptionally good at destroying spacecraft and killing astronauts.

But too low is a more common problem which also makes landing quite challenging. You have less or, worse, (and commonly) no atmosphere on which to aerobrake. which means you are screaming towards the surface at an accelerating rate from whatever energy you spent getting to that stellar body. which means you need to expend energy, specifically fuel, to decelerate, or go splat. which means more propellant. You also cannot use control surfaces for navigation/control, you have to expend propellant for even minor adjustments, which means you need still more more propellant. which is a big no-no for the rocket equation - you will have less useful mass as a portion of your overall mass. which basically means less cool stuff and more boring stuff.

It seems youd have another sweet spot situation, and that perhaps earth has just the right amount of atmosphere. Crucially, however, atmospheric density greatly modifies the effects of high or low gravity, especially low gravity.

If you have no atmosphere or a very low density atmosphere on a very low gravity stellar body, you are looking at huge energy expenditures. You need to travel towards the body and then spend almost exactly as much energy when you arrive just to land on it. Probably in practice even more than you spent getting there because of maneuvering. Which means less useful mass and even more opportunities for errors to become quite severe, and a very real possibility of running out of propellant as you deorbit, meaning you will helplessly and lazily drift down uncontrolled into a splat which, even under lunar gravity, is likely to be sufficiently destructive. Or it just lands sideways which prevents functional operation (see: like three separate moon landing failures in the last couple years)

Energy expenditures in spaceflight are basically the biggest determinator for how difficult a mission is. It constrains your design space, it constrains how long a mission takes, and it constrains how much useful stuff you bring along (people, instrumentation, rovers, etc). Actually, it would be more accurate to say that energy expenditure is difficulty.

Additionally, and without going into too much detail on it, low density or no atmosphere means you also have to worry about kicking up particulates which will stay in the "air" for a very long time, and which are likely to be sharp or abrasive because of a lack of smoothing erosion by wind. This is a bigger issue than you might think.

Conversely, high density atmospheres, for all their faults, mean you can have reentry vehicles which require no propulsion, no active energy expenditure and thus no fuel, to safely deorbit and land. This is exactly what happens all the time. it is how capsules work, let the atmosphere bleed away your energy and use it for any maneuvering and then use parachutes for final descent, and a large body of water to ensure a soft landing. (this is why we call it spashdown). The space shuttle did something similar, except that it accomplished its final approach via controlled glide.

Here's the real trick though: if you have a sufficiently dense atmosphere on a lower gravity stellar body, you actually ameliorate almost all the downsides from the low gravity. You can use aerocapture instead of gravity capture to intercept a body, you can use control surfaces to manuever against the atmosphere, you can de orbit using aerobraking, and you can use aerobraking to perform most of the the work of landing. If the atmospheric density is low enough but not too low, you can even seriously reduce your need for heat shielding (and thus increase your useful mass) by simply making many many orbits while gently aerobraking, slowly bleeding away energy without generating significant heat via friction because the atmosphere just isn't very dense.

Unfortunately these circumstances will necessitate some propulsive landing on final descent. Parachutes are used on earth for that final bit of deceleration, but on a stellar body with lower atmospheric density, like mars, they simply are not fit for purpose. You have to put a lot of engineering into getting them to be just barely kinda good enough and still quite risky. It is better to just do propulsive landing in that sense, and the fuel expenditure will not be too great. You would need an atmosphere comparably dense to earths for a spaceplane like the shuttle to be a viable alternative method of landing.

There is however a problem with propulsive landing, which is that the payload of your lander is going to be significantly high above the surface. the engines and fuel tanks all need to be down the bottom and it has to land butt first, unlike a spaceplane. This is a design challenge, especially for deploying autonomous surface rovers.

You might well have guessed what I am getting at: in many ways mars is optimized for spaceflight. The moon presents significant challenges inherent to it, and the earth is at the upper end of comfortable/tolerable for spaceflight. If we had a much denser atmosphere or might higher gravity or both, spaceflight would be prohibitively challenging. Mars might even make SSTOs practical, though I am skeptical of that. The other thing I am getting at is that going to the moon is extremely challenging, and the thing that really makes it easier in any way over going to mars is that it is closer. Which matters of course, but it is not an inherent difficulty.

The last, petty point I am trying to make is that the space shuttle couldn't go to mars and it definitely super duper could not possibly be used to go to the moon.

[planned-planethood]

A list of things to be excited about in space exploration

In space science and exploration, things tend to move slowly. That is, until they don't. It is easy to lose perspective on exactly what is possible when the right people are providing the right support for exploration initiatives.

With significant advances in rocket technology, ambitious programs from one administration being continued by the next (THANK YOU, finally!) and funding for NASA at an all time high there are some exciting things coming up not just in our lifetimes, but possibly in the next few years for some of these. Here is a list of things that could actually happen which will make your imagination go wild:

- The Artemis program: the Artemis program was started in 2017. For years there has been intense debate about whether or not we should be returning to the Moon or sending astronauts to Mars. This debate, it seems, has finally ended. When President Biden determined to continue to support the previous administration's goals to return Americans to the Moon, all remaining opposition evaporated as the space-science community wants to simply conduct human exploration missions again regardless of the destination. Now, with essentially unified support and bipartisan political capital, the Artemis program looks extremely likely to survive.

It's more than just a return to the Moon though. We will be building a new space station called the Lunar Gateway. Gateway will orbit around the Moon and provide NASA with a way station from which SpaceX rocket ships will ferry astronauts to the Lunar surface. At this point, what happens next becomes a little more nebulous. NASA is currently researching the feasibility of founding a permanent colony on the Moon on the South Pole (I also have some things to say about this landing site in the future that I can't talk about right now, but resources could be slightly more plentiful than is known currently).

The target year for human feet to stand on the Moon again is no farther than the year 2024. This timeline can and probably will slip, but it's currently unlikely to slip significantly. Before the year 2030, we're highly likely to be inhabiting the Moon again, this time, with no intention of leaving. The Artemis program will aim to develop a lunar economy as a way of incentivizing both more public and private investing in lunar exploration.

One thing that I'm personally happy about is that with with rockets finally becoming cheaper to use, and spacecraft working autonomously now most of the time, it is predicted that the number of astronauts required to be experimental aircraft pilots from the military will probably go down. Let's send some more geologists to the Moon!

Oh and by the way, since I mentioned way stations earlier...

- Astronauts on Mars: This has been the holy grail-goal of space exploration since humanity has realized Mars was another planet. NASA's Artemis program is designed to not simply be a lunar program. The goal isn't just to create a lunar economy: the goal of the Artemis program is to create a sustainable lunar presence so that the Moon can be used as a way station for much deeper space exploration. The idea is that with easier access to the lunar surface, NASA will be able to rapidly run tests and develop technologies that we would need to embark on what could be the most treacherous and epic human exploration adventure in history. It would also be fantastic logistical support to a potential permanent or semi-permanent colony on Mars.

... and NASA may not even get there first.

SpaceX, eager to showcase their own Starship, is currently planning a human mission to Mars in 2026. Humans have never trod on another planet before. This event, whether done by SpaceX, NASA, or any other entity, would be one of the greatest accomplishments in human history. It would hopefully mark the dawning of a new era in human civilization, for the betterment of us all.

- Venus: It's been decades since NASA has sent a mission to Venus. The number of Venus experts has gradually dwindled, and now we are in danger of all of them retiring out of planetary science before their knowledge can actually be passed on. Thankfully, NASA just announced two separate missions to Venus to investigate basically everything you can possibly imagine. DAVINCI+ will send a lander to the surface and VERITAS will orbit the planet and map the surface in high resolution for the first time. We don't really know what sort of surprises this incredible world holds in store for us. It may be that we find a planet full of active volcanism, and evidence that long ago it was habitable for life as we know it.

Astrobiologists have recently begun paying even closer attention to this planet as there have been some interesting signs that, and I say this cautiously, Venus may have biosignatures. Ultimately, it's an entire planet, our neighbor, and we are going to see incredible images, and learn so much about planets, how they form, evolve, and improve our understanding of how easily a terrestrial world can become habitable. Both missions launch this decade.

- The Search for Life: There's been a veritable revolution in exoplanet hunting over the last decade. Missions like Kepler have provided us with mind-boggling amounts of data to go through, much of which has led to the discovery of so-called exoplanets, planets in other star systems. Right now we are closing in on approximately 5000 confirmed exoplanets.

It's almost impossible to mention exoplanets without immediately breaking into the subject of habitable zones. The fact of the matter is that we're well into the numbers game that one day, will turn up something stunning that will change humanity forever. In my opinion, it's a matter of time. With the rate of exoplanet detections growing rapidly, it seems like a matter of rapidly shrinking time before we come across a truth that, if it is out there, will reveal itself.

Scientists are currently studying a relativistic telescope concept which would make use of the light-bending properties of relativity, combined with the mass of the Sun, to warp light in such a way that it magnifies the image of whatever is in the warped light. Such a telescope could reveal surface details of an exoplanet: if there are oceans, we would be able to resolve them. Same to mountain ranges. City lights.

Whatever the truth is, it may be difficult to hide from the astronomers of Earth for much longer as our sight has officially pierced the interstellar veil and active searches for signs of life outside the Solar System have absolutely begun.

Breakthrough Starshot is a mission concept that would actually send a small spacecraft to our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri. Around this star is an exoplanet: Proxima Centauri b. What would a flyby mission see on this mystery planet? Right now, we have no idea. Proxima Centauri b orbits in its star's habitable zone. Unfortunately, if this mission ultimately makes it off the ground, it would take in the range of 30 years to reach its destination and send its photographs back. Fortunately, that's within most of our naturally remaining lifetimes. I think it's worth the wait.

We won't be waiting idly however. Right here in our very Solar System, we are closing in on a number of ways in which the idea of a habitable zone can be played around with. Icy moons around places like Jupiter and Saturn have seriously reopened questions of where life-as-we-know-it could live. Queue the discovery of the ecosystems living around hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the lightless oceans of Earth. Diverse communities of never-before-seen creatures were living entirely without sunlight being involved at any point in their ecosystem.

Scientists now believe hydrothermal vents exist on moons like Europa and Enceladus, inside liquid water oceans, hidden under the ice. In a few years, NASA is launching a mission to fly around Europa. Perhaps it well get a chance to fly through one of the erupting geysers and take a look around. A mission to land on the surface is being designed as we speak to be proposed to NASA.

Never in human history, written and unwritten, have we realistically had to contend with the idea of knowing the Truth (as Mulder puts it). Well, contend away folks. We might not be wondering for a whole lot longer. Things might move slowly, until they don't.

Space exploration has never been boring, but we are without a doubt entering a golden age for space science and exploration.

(Image credit: Steve Jurvetson~NASA~NASA/JPL-Caltech~ESO/M. Kornmesser respectively)

[chromium7sky]

The Devil wears Armani | chapter 12

A/n: I'm really sorry for the long hiatus of this au 😭. Finally got some spark about this update and I hope you guys enjoy it. Btw, guess who finally meet Raven? 😆😆

Raven finally reached her home after outing and small reunion with Karen. She remove her heels awkwardly as she yawned. It was a long night.

She tell Karen everything about what happen between her and Damian and of course minus the intimacy in his office.

-flash back-

Karen land her chin on her palm propped on the table as she listen to Raven's story. "You know, this is an interesting story though but did he knew about Melchior?"

Raven narrowed her eyes. " Why would I mention that jerk? Besides me and Damian still haven't declare about our relationship, I mean, he does flirt me back. Not to mention we did kiss..." Raven stop at the kissing part.

"Men can be complicated sometimes." She sighed as she take a bite from the cake she ordered.

"Couldn't agree more since I'm about to marry one." Karen wiggle her fingers that had betrothed ring on it.

Both designer and ex model giggled.

"I...I just hope Damian is serious about it. I'm quite invested my feeling for him." Raven chewed her lips.

"I hope so, Rachel. I hope he does." Karen smiled.

- end flashback-

Raven sighed on her bed after she change her clothes into night gown. "Gotta get some sleep because I'm going to meet him tomorrow. Should I ask again about us?"

Raven's mind wander about the golden question, her eyes start to droop as the cold night beckons her to the land of morpheus.

--------

Damian watched the E! Entertainment as he tidy up his studio to catch up any news on fashion industry then the anchorman, Josh Dirkmann said about a known designer from Europe came to town known as Melchior Draco.

"Melchior?" Damian arched his brows. Another designer in town? Maybe there's an event? And as soon as the reporter had some short interview with the silver hair gentlemen with black suit.

"So what makes you come to Gotham?" The reporter pointed the mic towards the designer.

"Well, a big company invited me to launched both of our collaboration and they said Gotham fit the aesthetic." He answered as he tug his silver hair behind his ears which earn a sneer from Damian as he watch the interview.

"Do you know Raven the designer?"

" Oh, yes. We did compete each other in Paris Fashion Show. She won first while I won second. It was a tough decision for the judges. Just so you know, between you and me, we kinda close during that time." Melchior slip out some interesting info towards the reporter.

The reporter almost gasped and demand for more answer but Melchior quickly waved away and walked towards the hotel lobby.

Damian quickly grab the remote control and closed the show.

" What do you mean close each other?" Both of his eyebrows knitted together. He closed his eyes and throw the remote at the couch. "It doesn't matter."

-------

Raven now in mess. The phone call came in nonstop just because of a statement when Melchior mention that both of them were close and the paparazzi possible sniffing out a scandal.

She sighed and landed her head on her desk. A hard knocking landed on her door makes her jolted. " Come in." As she turn her head towards the door.

Mona came in a hurry with an apologetic face. " Miss Rachel, I forgot to inform you that there will be a journalist came for your gala interview today. I'm really really sorry." Mona bow her head.

Raven stare blankly at Mona while her internal having conflict. 'First it's was Melchior statement and now interview? What...what should I do?'

Her palm start to sweat but quickly she fist up her hand. " When will be the journalist comes?"

The assistant girl check through her tablet. " In two hours."

"Who from where?"

"Jonathan Kent from Daily Planet, ma'am."

"Oh?" The same journalist who interview her winning success in fashion show. " Well, make sure escort him to my office and prepare our boarding room. Easier to execute it in there." Raven gives a stern order.

Mona nodded her head vigorously then quickly exit her room.

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

She straighten her back as she heard a knock. She breath in. "Come in."

"Ms. Rachel!"

"Mona."

"A journalist came to meet you for Wayne's Gala interview." She gesture her hands towards a young man with curly hair and those prominent square glasses. "Mr. Jonathan Kent."

"Ah, Jonathan. Hi! It's been a while." Raven stretch her hand towards him.

Jon adjust his specs then handshake with her. "Thank you for letting me interview again , Ms. Roth." His face display his friendliness towards her.

Mona bowed her heads and quickly went out of her office. "How about we bring this interview to boarding room? More comfy?" Raven suggest about changing place.

"Yeah, you're right." Jon nodded.

Raven stood up and escort Jon to the meeting room for more proper place to interview.

She open the light switch and pull out a chair. " You can sit here."

"Ah, right, thank you." Jon smiled sheepishly as he pull the leather chair and sit, opposite with the owner of AMZ company.

" So, how long does this interview lasting?" Raven asked him as soon as she's in her seat and lean on the table with both of her hands propped on her chin.

"Well, not long, more or less 10 minutes." The journalist smile sheepishly. "Anyway..." He pull out his notebook, voice recording and a pen."Let us start with, how long you know Damian Wayne?"

"Well...since I was freshly involved in this industry, Mr Wayne offered me to promote myself at Gala." Raven calmly answer as she tried to cover Damian from being involve with fashion drawing class back in those days.

Jon then stopped the voice recording which made her jolted then adjust his specs. "You are the one who have the same class with him right?"

Raven almost gasped but she quickly act nonchalant as she tried to deny it . "Are you try to dig something from me, Mr Kent?"

"Ah, yes. Such as wanted to know more about Dami's secret girl." He smiled.

Dami? Her eyebrow arched as she heard the name. Why in the world he would address Damian that way? "You must be mistaking. We were only in term of business."

"Seriously? I thought you guys were serious." He's moping. "He did ask me about how to flirt a girl too. Man, he's really an emotional constipated." He laughed. "Besides, Dami said he haven't meet her in 3 years after he's graduated."

Raven with her eyes wide as she heard it from him. "HOW DID YOU KNOW ALL THAT?!" She quickly rised from the desk.

Jon jolted as he seen her reaction. " Ah, I guess that's why he keep a secret about his girl." Sweat drop start to rolled down on his forehead. "I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable. Let me introduce myself again."

Jon straighten his back and stretch his hand. "Hi, I'm Jonathan Kent. Dami' s childhood friend and school mate, same goes with roommate at uni and currently, a journalist." He smiled.

Raven tried to process all the information at once and it takes a few moment. "So, you are Damian's close friend?" She point out with as she narrowed her eyes.

"That's right!" Jon's smile getting wider.

"Ah, hello." She slowly put her hands on him which Jon grab it and makes a several shake as he excited to met her.

"It's really pleasure to meet you by the way! For sure if Maya and Colin knew about you they will be screaming or teasing him saying Dami has finally grown up!" He laughed.

Raven sit on her chair with unsure feeling. First the confession, then his childhood friend meet her, and then what? A wedding? She press her lips into a thin line.

"You know, Dami is not that kind of guy when it comes to women. He always thought they were hyenas." Jon chuckled.

"Hyenas?" Raven puzzled. "What's with hyenas?"

"Ever since he lives in Gotham, he always seen his father been in and out with other women who prey for money. Still, poor him having lack of parent's love." Jon sighed.

That explain why he's being hard on anyone. Raven attentively listen to Jon's story. "You know, he has pets like a zoo at his house. From cow to snakes. I remember when I came, This Alfred the cat always sulking and threaten to scratch me."

"An animal lover? That much?" Both of Raven's eyebrow jumpy as she heard it. She could imagine if Damian standing on the field, as birds will land on him, it either makes him look like Disney princess or a scarecrow.

"Most of them are animal rescue." Jon nodded.

"I see..." Then Raven suddenly remember something. "How did Damian took fashion drawing class by the way?"

"Actually we suggested to him. I mean seriously, you haven't seen his potrait and figure drawing, Those are amazing! He most likely to observe the surrounding and draw on his sketch book while on his free time."

Wait. Does that means Damian has a secret sketch book like her? Raven unconsciously put her hands on her lips.

"Still, what makes you suspect it was me? I mean we haven't contact it for a while."

"Other than he told me that he haven't met her in three years, I've seen a drawing that looks just like you at his studio." Jon smiled.

There it is.

Raven sighed and there's a slightly red tint on her ears.

"Why you haven't contact him when he's in middle east?" Jon asked curious question.

"It was because when I know that he's Damian Wayne, I..I was screwed. I mean, Wayne as in Wayne Enterprise. The biggest contributor on east side. Me? I'm just, just an orphan girl who try to rise my own feet."

"Oh?"

"My mother died when I was 14. I still don't know who were my father is and all I got is this necklace from my mother." She showed the necklace to Jon.

The young journalist seems to be fasinating with it's design. "I wonder where did your mother got this?"

Raven sighed as she try to remember. " I'm not sure. All I remember that it's been in heritage for years."

"I see." Jon rubbed his chin. "Well, Maybe you should hang up with us sometimes. I'm sure Colin and Maya would love to see you." He smiled.

"The thing is, Jon. I'm still unclear about between us." Raven chewed her lips.

"Ah nonsense, he really likes you. I can see from the way he look at you."

"Is it? Wait, where did you saw him see me?"

"I think it was two day before?"

Raven slap both of her cheeks. OH MY GOD, HE SAW BOTH OF US KISSING.

"And don't worry. I won't tell a soul, though, I've been warn by him and probably will be dig out by Colin and Maya." Jon widen his smile as sweat start to rolled down on his cheek."Dami has been my friend of more than a decade. I understand the way he express himself."

Raven nodded slowly. " Jon, a question."

"Yeah?"

"Since you are a journalist, do you know anything about Melchior?" Raven voice change to serious tone.

"That Silver Blond guy?"

"Yeah."

" I heard he's having collaboration with a big company. However, another speculation I heard that he choose Gotham because of its mysterious aesthetic."

"Well, uh, there's something I heard during interview. He claimed that we were close during the fashion show competition."

Raven as stared at the desk.

"Been wondering myself too. Are you close to him?" Jon's curious eyes start to lit.

"We do only for a while but the thing is he stole my design during that time which I never forgive myself for letting me get fooled by him." Raven sighed then she looked at Jon. "Wait. Don't tell me you're going to put this on paper?"

"Wait, I get it." Jon again propped his hand on his chin. "No wonder I've seen familiarity design between both of you. Plus you're having a hard time too."

"Uh, Jon?"

"I think I found something to investigate." Jon's mischievous smiles start to paint on his face.

"Now you act like Damian."

"Damian is more hardcore. I'm still on the average level." Jon beamed his happy face on her.

"Well, I think our interview stopped here. Besides, I need to cover some story from Me Wayne itself about the gala."

"Dami?"

"Yep."

"So, nice to meet you, Ms. Rachel Roth. It's been a pleasure talking to you."

"It's been a pleasure to spill tea with you." Raven smug.

Jon blinked then put on his mischievous smile.

-------

Somewhere in his office, Damian sneezed for no reason. " Is it me or is this office are getting colder?" He looked at the air ventilation.

[fallingappleshurt]

Bouncing Through The Years

Helllloooooo, this fic is set in @antarctic-bay s fd au! Please keep in mind what I write might not be canon! (Sorry for the tag)

Skeppy and Techno friendship fic!! :DD

There are no real set ages in this fic, it’s just Skeppy and Techno from a young age bonding over Skeppys trampoline and being buddies!

Swearing but you probably already knew that

Hope you enjoy! (:

Techno had just finished the dishes when someone started pounding on their front door, he would have ignored it but he heard;

“Techno! Techno! Open the door!”

Techno dried off his hands and opened the door, Skeppy standing there panting, a hand on his chest.

“Techno- I got- I got a trampoline!” He wheezed.

“Really?”

“Yes! Come on, I wanna show you!” Skeppy grabbed his arm, Techno shook him off.

“Okay hang on,” Techno started pulling on his shoes while Skeppy bounced in the doorway.

“I’m going to Skeppy’s!” He yelled.

“Don’t care!” Tommy yelled back.

“Tell Wilbur, asshole!” He turned and followed Skeppy out of their apartment building and down the street while Skeppy babbled about how he got it.

“My neighbor had it for a few years so we got it second hand.” He explained.

“And it’s a birthday gift?”

“Yeah! An early one so I can still use it before it gets cold.”

They went around the side of Skeppy’s house and tugged the huge white plastic gate open and Techno saw the trampoline. It was huge with a sagging net and ripped foam around the edges but other than that it looked brand new.

They pulled off their shoes and climbed through the opening in the net, Skeppy zipped it back up, and they started bouncing.

“Wait wait wait, I saw this on TV- I can do a flip, back up.” Skeppy nudged Techno away.

“Oh here we go-”

“Shut up and let me do this!” Skeppy shuffled from foot to foot, Techno snorted.

“Are you trying to rev up?”

“No! I’m just hyping myself up!” Skeppy took a deep breath then launched himself forwards, tucking his head close to his chest with an outstretched arm, and actually managed to do a flip.

And also punch a hole in the net.

He had flipped with his arm out and was too close to the edge. Skeppy pulled his arm out and shrieked while Techno cackled.

“Well, you did a flip.” Techno said, biting his tongue through a grin.

“Shut up!” Techno laughed harder.

“Okay, okay it’s fine, this is fine. I can patch that up later- probably.”

“Good job Skeppy.”

“You’re such a jerk!” Skeppy snapped back with no heat, he perked up a minute later. “I know a game we can play!”

“What is it?”

“It’s called popcorn, one person sits in the middle and curls up and the other people bounce around them and just to get the person in the middle to lose their grip and- like open their arms! Like a popcorn kernel!”

Techno nodded, “Sounds interesting enough, who’s going first?”

“I’ll go first,” Skeppy sat down in the middle of the trampoline and crossed his legs then wrapped his arms around them. “Now you jump around me.”

Techno started jumping, even acting like he was going to land on Skeppy a few times just to sike him out, but couldn’t get him to pop.

“You’re bad at this,” Skeppy commented as he flopped onto his side, arms still wrapped tightly around his knees.

“Shut up,” Techno jumped close to his head, Skeppy shrieked.

Techno was about to give up when the back gate cracked open.

“Techno!” Wilbur poked his head through the gate, “Phil says it’s time- what the fuck? Since when did Skeppy have a trampoline?”

“Trampoline?” Wilbur yelped in protest as Tommy squeezed past him to get a better look.

“Perfect timing- come help me pop this bitch.” Techno walked over and unzipped the opening. Tommy didn’t question it and ran over, pulling off his shoes, grabbing Techno’s outstretched hand and was hauled up.

“Tommy Techno wait, Phil sent us to come get you.” Wilbur pointed out, walking over and resting his hands on the metal rim.

“Just this one round?” Tommy asked, “Please Wil?”

Wilbur bit his lip then sighed, “Okay fine, one round.” He took off his shoes and climbed up. “How do we play?”

Techno explained the rules and they started bouncing again this time with much more success, bouncing Skeppy higher and higher until he lost this grip and flopped on the rubber.

“Can I go next?” Tommy asked, already sitting down in the middle.

“We really should be going,” Wilbur trailed off and looked between his siblings. Tommy stared up at him and Techno smiled weakly, in hopes to persuade him, “One more?”

Wilbur bit the inside of his cheek then finally nodded, “One more.” Tommy cheered and they started up again.

One more turned into several more, each person getting a turn to be the kernel. After they got bored of that they started on trying to outdo each other with tricks.

Skeppy did another front flip and managed not to punch a hole in the net and Tommy also tried to but was stopped by Wilbur who ‘didn’t want to see Tommy break his neck’. Techno did help hold up his legs while Tommy tried to do a handstand.

“I bet I could do a backflip,” Skeppy said, Techno rolled his eyes.

“If you managed too you’d probably punch another hole in the net.”

“Shut up that was one time-”

“Like an hour ago!”

“Shut up!” Skeppy shoved his shoulder playfully.

“I’d like to see Skeppy try to do it.” Wilbur said, resting his chin in his palm. Techno laughed, trying to ignore the waxy feeling the trampoline left on his skin.

“Someone believe in me!” Skeppy said, standing up. He kept trying to figure out how he would do it. After multiple attempts of twisting around and bouncing around Tommy groaned.

“Do it already!”

“I was just about to but you messed up my concentration!”

“Yeah, ‘concentration’.” Techno air quoted.

“You’re a jerk!” Skeppy shot back while Techno laughed.

“What the hell is taking you guys so long?” Techno turned and saw Phil standing at the gate, looking annoyed.

“Uh- we got distracted,” Techno offered weakly, “We were trying to watch Skeppy do a backflip but he keeps chickening out.”

“Hey!”

“Uhuh,” Phil nodded, looking exasperated.

“Phil you should do one, you’ve talked about it before.” Wilbur said.

“I can but-” He started only to be interrupted.

“I bet you can’t!” Tommy said, pushing his face against the net.

“I bet he can,” Wilbur shot back.

“He can’t, he's too old!”

“Alright that’s it,” Phil climbed onto the trampoline, “I’m gonna prove you little shits wrong.” He pushed Tommy’s head, “Then we are going home.”

Techno backed up to the edge along with everyone else and watched as Phil jumped up, arms outstretched, then pulled his knees to his chest then landed the flip perfectly.

Tommy gasped while Wilbur clapped, elbowing Tommy.

“I told you he could do it!”

“That was so cool- can you teach me how to do that?” Skeppy asked, leaning forwards on his knees, Tommy jumped up.

“Teach me too!”

“Later, now let's get going, you guys were supposed to be back like an hour ago.”

Techno got off the trampoline and pulled on his shoes, waving bye to Skeppy.

Techno had been hanging out at Skeppy’s house, laying on the basement floor watching random youtube videos with him because it was too damn hot to do anything else.

“I don’t know how those guys do it.” Skeppy commented, pressing his face into the floor.

“It’s ‘cause of the Environmental Johnson Equation.” Techno said simply, Skeppy nodded.

“Which is based off of the Equilibrium Maintenance Feature.”

“Exactly!”

The sun was setting when Skeppy dragged Techno outside since fiery light was no longer trying to melt the Earth. They bounced on his trampoline for a while, taking breaks to look at sunset as it shifted through dripping vibrant orange to soft pink and blue and an inky purple.

Skeppy laid down and Techno laid next to him. The air was humid but dry and there were more stars out then Techno had seen in a long time.

He pointed out different constellations and planets to Skeppy until Phil texted him to come home.

“I’m going to Skeppy’s!” Techno yelled, tying his shoe.

“Take Tommy with you!” Phil called back, Techno’s head snapped up.

“What? No!”

“Yes! I’m going to work soon and Wilbur is out!”

“Can’t he just stay home alone?”

“Not after last time!”

Techno groaned, dragging his hands down his face, “Tommy! Get your shoes!”

They were headed towards Skeppy’s house, kicking a rock between each other, when they were intercepted by Dream.

“Oh hey Techno, I was just coming to see if you wanted to hang out.”

“Big man Dream!” Tommy yelled, Techno slapped a hand on Tommy’s face and pushed him back.

“I gotta watch my little brother and I’m heading to Skeppy’s,” He explained.

“Oh,” Dream paused, “Mind if I come with?”

Techno shrugged, “I don’t mind, you can ask Skeppy when we get there.”

Tommy bugged Dream the rest of the way there.

“Why is your name Dream?”

“Uh-”

“Why are the tips of your hair green?”

“Well I di-”

“Why are you wearing a hoodie? Do you not have elbows?”

“Oh my god, Tommy, leave the poor guy alone,” Techno said as they reached Skeppy’s house. Techno pushed open the front door and took his shoes off.

“Hey Skeppy, I have two nerds with me.”

Skeppy was laying on the couch, “Great, who is it?”

“Tommy and Dream.”

“Oh that should be interesting.”

They argued about what to play before settling on Mario Kart. Techno took every opportunity to attack Skeppy which distracted both of them enough to the point where they were both lagging behind so Dream and Tommy were constantly neck and neck to finish the race. Dream’s whooping cheer drowned out Tommy’s playful yells as he fell back onto the couch dramatically.

“Skeppy can we get on your trampoline?” Tommy asked, rolling over, cheek against the cushion.

“You just wanna do something else cause I beat you!” Dream teased.

“No! I’m just bored with Mario Kart!”

“I mean, we can but you have to be careful because the net is gone.” Skeppy said, standing up. He didn’t bother to put his shoes on as he walked towards the backdoor.

“What do you mean the net is gone? Did you punch too many holes in it?” Techno asked.

“Shut up shut up,” Skeppy bumped Techno, “The whole net was shredded and it was easier to just take it off.”

“Yeah, sure.” Techno teased, bumping Skeppy back.

They went outside and got on the trampoline, Dream grabbed onto one of the poles and started to climb on it, wrapping his legs around.

“Dream this is pretty old, I don’t think you should climb on that,” Techno pointed out.

“It’s fine,” Dream twisted around on the pole, “probably.” He continued to twist around, pulling off his hoodie and throwing it aside. Tommy gasped loudly.

“Oh my god Dream is stripping?”

Techno snorted and Skeppy burst out laughing. Dream wheezed, he would’ve fell off the trampoline if Techno didn’t grab him.

“Tommy- Tommy- you can’t just- you can’t just yell that,” Techno covered his eyes with his hands, “Where did you even learn that?”

Skeppy ignored them, “Dream is this your new career path?”

Dream twirled around again, “Yes, this is my new goal in life!”

“I wanna be there when you tell the career counselor!” Techno butted in.

Techno was laying on the couch reading when his phone started to buzz non stop. When he checked it he found multiple texts from Skeppy.

“HELPPPPPPP”

“HOW DO U BAKE?!??!”

“TECHNNNOOOOOOO”

“PLEASE THERE IS FLOUR EVERYWHERE”

“DUDE”

“ANSWER ME PLEASE I NEED HELP”

Techno sighed and texted back “What?”

“U KNOW HOW TO BAKE RIGHT?? I NEED UR HELP!!!”

Techno texted back, “Alright” and after telling Phil where he was going he headed towards Skeppy’s.

What he didn’t realize was that he was completely unprepared to see Skeppy standing in the middle of his kitchen with batter all over his shirt and oven, broken egg shells littering the floor along with the aforementioned flour.

He stood there, trying to take everything in. “What the fuck?”

Skeppy looked at him sheepishly, “I don’t know what I’m doing, I keep spilling and dropping everything!”

Techno sighed, taking off his glasses, “That’s it, I’m not wearing my glasses anymore, I’ve seen enough.”

“Techno!”

“Alright alright,” He put his glasses back on, “What are you trying to do?”

“I’m trying to make a cake for my sister's birthday and it’s not going too well,” He trailed off, Techno nodded.

“I see. Show me the recipe.”

Skeppy texted him the recipe, it looked pretty easy, just a two layer lemon cake. Techno rolled up his sleeves and preheated the oven then turned to the mess of a kitchen, sighing.

“You’ve lost cooking rights.”

Skeppy changed and they both started to clean up the kitchen, sweeping up flour and scrubbing down counters.

“How the hell did you get flour on top of the fridge?”

“I don’t know!”

After they finished cleaning up they started on the cake.

“Why do you have brown sugar out? We don’t need it.”

“We don’t?”

“Oh my god you’re so bad,”

Skeppy measured out most of the ingredients while Techno mixed them together. They divided the mix and put in different pans then put it in the oven.

“Okay so for the frosting we need a lot of butter,” Techno said, scrolling through the recipe.

“How much butter?” Skeppy asked, opening the fridge.

“Like three sticks.”

They creamed the butter together with sugar and milk while waiting for the cakes to bake.

Once Skeppy pulled them out and tested to make sure they were cooked all the way through they went set them out to cool then watched TV while they waited.

Frosting the cake was a whole new idea.

The frosting was good but kept ripping at the cake even though it was cool. They combated this by dumping the frosting in big globs on the cake, this had the side effect of getting it all over their hands.

“Oh Technoooo,” Techno looked over to see Skeppy holding a glob of frosting, a familiar glint in his eyes.

“Is this really a fight you wanna start?”

“Nope nope nope nevermind.”

They soon finished and examined their work.

“It’s not the prettiest cake but as long as it tastes good,” Techno shrugged, wiping frosting from his hands.

“Yeah, thanks for helping me out with it.”

“Of course nerd.”

Skeppy rocked back and forth on his feet.

“Do you wanna go out on the trampoline?”

“Eh, why not.”

So they went out and laid on the trampoline, talking about anything and everything. Techno talked about how he didn’t want to go back to school, how everything stressed him out. Skeppy talked about how he felt like the expectations were going to crush him.

They were in the middle of their conversation when a loud crackle pierced the air. Both boys jumped, looking around Techno spotted a gold streak against the deep blue sky then an explosion of orange and yellow.

“What the-”

“What the hell is wrong with my neighbor? It isn’t even July yet!” Skeppy squinted through the trees and over the fence.

“They’re just trying to be festive!”

“Yeah- ‘festive’!”

Techno was two seconds away from ripping his hair out, he was going to lose his mind. Every teacher had decided to dump extra work on him and by third period he already had at least 2 hours worth of homework. Everything was too loud and the crowds and hallways were smearing together like paint.

He had a nervous twitch in his hand again and every noise grated against his skull. He was just trying to make it through the day and almost had when he noticed it was raining. He'd have to walk home by himself since Wilbur was taking the car to work and Tommy had practice.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like the rain he just didn’t like the rain while he was carrying all of his school supplies.

“Hey Techno,” He heard Skeppy bounce up behind him, “Wanna hang out after school today?”

“Can’t, I have too much work.”

“Do you wanna come over and work on it together?”

Techno sighed, “Sure, why not?” He let himself get dragged over to Skeppy’s house, hoping they’d actually be able to get some work done. He climbed into the front seat Skeppy’s rickety old car and watched the raindrops slide down the window.

They made it to Skeppy’s house and sat in his basement, softly playing music in the background while they worked on history questions. They divided the work and actually managed to do it faster, giving each other answers and working together before splitting off to different assignments.

After a while Skeppy poked him with his pencil, “Do you wanna go on the trampoline?”

“Isn’t it still raining?” Techno didn’t look up from his math sheet.

“Probably, but that’s what’ll make it fun!”

“Can’t, still gotta finish-”

“Shut up, we have been working for like hours, just take a little break, calm down, and have fun in the rain!” Skeppy grabbed his hand before Techno could protest “The worksheets will still be there when we get back,” Then he dragged him up the stairs.

The rain was chilly, not cold but enough to wake Techno up. They left their shoes in the kitchen then went out and on the trampoline, which looked to be skin and bones, the foam ring and net being completely gone and the metal springs rusting.

Jumping in the rain was exhilarating, the rain soaked his hair and clothes and splattered against his glasses. Skeppy would push him and Techno would grab him and drag them both down, landing on the wet, waxy mat.

His chest felt looser, his body felt cold but his heart was alive and pounding. They had started trying to jump in sync, to see if it would bounce them higher.

“You know, even though I don’t use this as much as I used too, I’m glad I still have it.” Skeppy said, Techno nodded.

“Yeah this is pretty nice especially since it hasn’t broken yet.” Techno agreed.

“Yeah it-” Skeppy was cut off when the mat ripped under his feet and both he and Techno fell through. Techno slid on the dampened ground and landed on his back.

Techno looked up at the sky through the tear, Skeppy’s shouts seemed muffled as he watched the rain fall and dot the earth. Then he started chuckling which evolved into full laughter as he laid under a broken trampoline in the rain with his best friend.

“What are you laughing at?” Skeppy asked, sitting up, grinning faintly.

“I- it’s just that-” Techno broke off laughing, he couldn’t explain why because it really wasn’t that funny, it was just the fact that they were talking about how much they liked the trampoline and how long it held out only for it to break.

Skeppy laughed along with him, shaking his head, shifting to lay next to him.

They stayed there, looking up and watching the rain fall.

[shitty-marvel-fan732]

Is That...?

Title: Is That...?

Pairing: Loki x Avenger!Reader

Requested?: Yes! @wolfiegal98​ I hope you like it love!

Word Count: 6,200 ish

Warnings: Cursing, fighting, mentions of past death

Summary: Loosely follows the plot of Thor Ragnarok. What will happen when the reader finds out that Loki has actually been alive for the past 4 years? Angst and Fluff.

Author's Note: I sincerely hope this makes sense 😂 I picture the reader to be a mutant in this, capable of controlling the air, water, and fire around her, but it's not really explained well because this was already like 6k. P.s., its not my GIF!

“Stephen?” you called curiously, not moving to get up in the slightest. In all honesty, it baffled you that after almost a year of studying under him that you still had nearly no ability to navigate the Sanctum, but it felt like there was little you could do to change that. As much as you enjoyed spending time with the good Doctor, you absolutely loathed trying to find anything in this maze of a building -- you'd figured out pretty quickly that it was much easier to simply yell for him rather than attempt to find anything yourself. 

“In the front.”

You yelped as the disembodied head of your mentor popped momentarily through one of his glowy, orange portals before disappearing again. 

Forget trying to find your way around this place, you’d never get used to that. 

Rolling your eyes, a wave of your hand produced a gust of wind that weightlessly lifted you from your seat and carried you to the front. 

"You know you don't have to scare the shit out of me every time I--"

Your complaint died in your throat before you managed to finish your thought. The wind that’d been carrying you died down immediately and your feet landed on the floor with a light thump. 

Standing near Stephen was a certain blond-haired Asgardian. He was holding an umbrella, and wearing what you could only imagine was an outfit meant to help him blend in with human beings -- as if that were possible. You blinked, brain taking only a split-second to process the sight in front of you before your face cracked into a huge smile. 

"Thor!" you greeted happily before launching yourself into the god's already open arms. Thor chuckled amusedly as he embraced you tightly. 

"Hello to you as well Lady Y/N," he grinned, flashing his thousand-watt smile down towards you. You grinned as you pulled yourself out of his arms, feeling thoroughly surprised and delighted. 

"Where have you been? It's been, what like 2 years?" you questioned breathlessly as you punched him squarely on the arm in playful irritation. He only grinned wider, body not moving an inch as you hit him. 

“Eh you know, here and there,” he shrugged. “Saved a couple of planets from destruction, things like that.”

“Still modest as ever I see,” you giggled. 

“Yes, and I see you’ve been working on things since I've left,” Thor complimented. “Your control is quite impressive.”

“That’s not all I can do either,” you teased smugly. Thor chuckled amicably, one brow raised in interest. It was true, working closely with Stephen for the past year had not only massively helped you learn how to use your powers, but had led you to actually discovering some you’d never known you had. 

"Anyways. Thor is here to locate his father," Stephen interjected. "I was just about to send him on his way."

Your brows immediately dipped into a frown, eyes raking over the men in hopes that their faces would yield some sort of explanation. Though Strange's face remained impassive, Thor's expression at once became more solemn. 

"Odin's here? Like on Earth?" you questioned curiously. Thor merely nodded, eyes casting downwards as if to purposely avoid your gaze. As your mind ran wild with the new information, you internally wondered what the Asgardian king could possibly be doing on Earth. Moreover, you didn't understand why his presence would cause Thor to require Stephen's help. Eyebrow raised in suspicion, you crossed your arms and urged the men with a silent look to explain further. 

"Yes, in a place called Norway apparently. It's kind of a long story," Thor drawled. "One with many more questions than answers I'm afraid. I should probably be going to fetch him now."

Stephan nodded waving his arms nonchalantly and opening a portal, but you remained still, wondering what it was that they both knew that you were missing. 

"And I suppose I'll be needing my brother back," he finished, looking towards Stephen expectantly. 

"Your what now?" you choked. 

"Oh yeah, right," Stephen hummed.

He waved his hands above his head and another portal opened. You heard screaming coming from above, and not a second later a man fell straight out onto the Sanctum's floor with an echoing thud. Your jaw dropped.

It couldn't be. 

"I have been falling for thirty minutes!" the man roared from the ground, fists clenched and posture rigid.  

If you weren't so thoroughly consumed by your complete confusion and the small, futile feelings of hope growing within your chest, you might've laughed at the familiar voice's indignant cry.

"Is that…" you managed to ask weakly, your body completely frozen as your brain worked in overdrive trying to make sense of what you were seeing. The man stood slowly to his feet as you vaguely heard Thor and Stephen talking next to you. It felt like all the breath in your body had been stolen from you, unable to believe the sight before you. 

It was him. 

Loki, the god of mischief, stood just a few feet from you, huffing and dusting himself off. 

Loki who'd been dead for the better part of 4 years. 

Loki. 

"I-- he -- but he's -- what," you spluttered helplessly. Loki's eyes flashed to your face as you spoke. A look of utter shock filtered through his blue-green irises as he caught sight of your frozen form, and his pale face rapidly lost what little color it'd had to begin with. You whimpered pathetically. It felt like your brain might actually be imploding from its inability to process what was happening right now. "You--"

"Darling," Loki breathed, raising his hands in front of him in surrender. You gaped, mouth hanging wide open. 

"Uhm yes, quick update Loki is alive," Thor announced with a quick clap of his hands. "And while I'm sure the two of you have much to discuss we really need to be--" 

"You-- asshole."

"Y/N--"

"You absolute FUCKING ASSHOLE," you screeched, body suddenly erupting into a kind of fury the likes of which you'd never experienced. "YOU LET EVERYONE -- LET ME -- THINK THAT YOU WERE DEAD FOR FOUR FUCKING YEARS, AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO SHOW UP HERE NOW?"

You could feel your powers surging to the surface, the unbridled rage practically begging to be set free as you crossed the large gap between your bodies in mere seconds. Too livid to even let your natural instincts take over, you simply begin pounding your fists against every available inch of the now-cowering god's body. 

"What in FUCKS name are you even doing here, you lying, evil piece of SHIT?" your fists pounded relentlessly against Loki, primal screams of pure anger ripping from your throat as you did. Eventually, you felt your body being pulled away, a giant pair of hands gripping your waist tightly. 

"Alright now, that's probably enough," Thor's booming chuckle broke through the rhythmic, deafening pounding of your racing heartbeat in your ears. He caged your body against his with seemingly very little effort, expression wholly amused at your reaction. 

You thrashed wildly against his hold, rage still searing through your every pore like a wave of molten hot lava. Your irses began to turn red and your fingertips sparked with little bursts of flame. Falling still for only a moment, your hands darted out, grasping one of Thor’s forearms tightly as your palms glowed with a brilliant, vibrant blue. Thor growled in pain as your heated skin gripped his flesh, arms instantly releasing you as he cradled his burnt limb gingerly. 

"Since when can you do that?" Thor demanded, looking very much like he was in shock. 

Smiling smugly, your hands became engulfed in flames and you turned your attention back to Loki. 

"Told you I'd learned some new tricks," you growled before lunging towards Loki. You only made it a half a step before an invisible force held you in place. 

“How many times do I have to tell you Y/N, no fire in the Sanctum!” Stephen scolded sternly before a flick of his hand sent you, Thor, and Loki straight through the portal. 

You landed with a soft thump and found yourself rolling across grass, any sight of the Sanctum completely gone. Groaning a little at the pain in your side from the way you'd fallen, your eyes roamed over the field with confusion. 

“You can come back when you’re done with your little tantrum,” Strange’s voice echoed in your head from afar. You huffed in disbelief as your surroundings became clear. 

He’d sent you to fucking Norway. 

“Y/N,” Loki called quietly. 

Residual anger bubbled up in your chest once more at the sound of his voice. You turned to find him standing a few yards away, hands raised in surrender once more and handsome features cautiously scanning your face. 

“I must explai--,”

“Loki.” Thor cut his brother off sharply, staring towards the cliff. Loki’s eyes travelled to meet his brother’s gaze, breath catching in his throat once he noted Odin’s seated form on a large rock near the coastline. Thor began to walk purposefully over to his father, but Loki's attention turned back to you. You huffed loudly as you stared furiously into his pleading eyes, your body not moving an inch. After a few moments of intense eye contact you cocked your head towards Odin, indicating that he should proceed. Loki nodded tensely in thanks before striding off to where his father and brother sat. 

Letting out a massive sigh, you ran your fingers through your hair once you were left standing alone. A tiny flash of guilt started to fill your tummy as you watched the men murmur amongst themselves. Deciding it was probably best to give them a little privacy, you turned away, awkwardly fiddling with the rings on your fingers as you waited for them to finish speaking. 

Your mind felt like it was practically buzzing with thoughts as you tried to process everything that'd just happened. Thor's abrupt reappearance, the fact that your mentor had basically banished you to Norway, the nagging question of why Odin was even on this planet, and of course there was the small detail of Loki being back from the dead. 

Again. 

Though you probably should've been trying to figure out what kind of otherworldly threat could've brought the Asgardian king down from his golden palace, you found the majority of your thoughts turning to his adoptive son. 

Along with Thor, you'd been tasked with escorting Loki back to Asgard after the battle of New York to ensure his unhindered return. Finding yourself wholly fascinated by the entirely new and exciting planet, you'd stayed for much longer than anyone thought you would. You were so interested, in fact, that you ended up staying on Asgard for almost a year. The team back in Stark Tower thought you were crazy for staying as long as you did. 

If they only knew how you'd been occupying your time in Asgard. They'd probably would've had you committed. 

You wound up spending large portions of your time with a certain prisoner -- a fact that you hid from everyone for a long time. At first it was simply to ensure that it was indeed still Loki within his cell and not another illusion, but over time it evolved into something else entirely. Something more. 

He started to help you learn about your powers, even showing you that you could do more than just manipulate the air. Together you explored your control over fire and water in small doses, and in turn, you became someone he could talk to -- to pass the time with. The more you learned about Asgardian culture the more time you spent down with Loki, talking about anything and everything you could think of. It wasn’t long before you found yourself harboring a secret crush on the exiled prince, slowly but surely learning to trust him and him you. You were never truly sure if he felt the same -- true he referred to you as his "darling" or "pet" more than your own name, but you could never be sure he wasn't tricking you. As time passed you fell more deeply in love with the god, and you questioned his affections less and less. The two of you never discussed your relationship aloud, but something deep in his eyes told you he just might return your feelings.

You stayed in Asgard so long that you were still around when Jane became possessed by the Aether. You and Thor worked together to free Loki from his cell, and later you wound up on Svartalfheim in an attempt to save Jane’s life. 

You’d fought alongside them, and watched helplessly as Loki died right before your eyes. For all he taught you in the past months, your skills were just too weak still to stop the chaos that was raging around you.

 You weren’t strong enough to keep him safe. 

You’d clutched his hand as he groaned in pain, the cascade of tears falling from your eyes blurring the horrific sight. Even so, the image of his motionless, frail body lying on the ground had been burned into your memory ever since. 

You returned back to Earth immediately after that, all interest in Asgard gone. You’d spent the last few years trying futilely to distract yourself by working with the Avengers, which eventually led to you studying under Dr. Strange. You trained everyday, fighting to gain some semblance of control over your abilities and determined to never let anything like what happened in Svartalfheim happen again.

Your head began to ache from the seemingly constant torrent of questions flowing through your brain. How had he survived? Why had he tricked everyone into thinking he was dead? Where had he been all this time? And most importantly, why hadn’t he come to see you? 

A pang of rejection ripped through your chest as your brain fought to reconcile Loki’s actions with the sweet, caring man you came to know on Asgard. Surely you must have been mistaken-- a silly girl falling for the handsome god's tricks like a fool. No one who cared for you would leave you like that. 

The low, rumbling sounds of thunder booming overhead brought you out of your thoughts. You were on your feet in an instant, body tensing and eyes flashing over to the brothers. A fleeting rush of confusion washed over you as you noted Odin’s absence, but you weren't given much time to think about it. 

Thor and Loki stomped towards you with their gazes trained on something behind you. A bolt of lightning and a flash of green enveloping them respectively, the two of them simultaneously donned their battle gear. You rolled your eyes. 

"So dramatic," you mumbled to yourself as you turned to face whatever it was they were heading towards. 

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

"YOU TINY AVENGER!"

Your head snapped up instantly, body tensing as you were abruptly ripped out of your sleep by Hulk's roar. You groaned, rolling to your side and thrusting your sweaty face deeper into your pillow. Sleep had never come easy to you, and even though your dreams for the past 2 weeks had all been the same gut-wrenching memory, that didn't make your abrupt wake up call any more welcome. 

You'd found Bru-Hulk almost immediately after arriving on Sakaar, seeing as the bifrost had spit you out straight into the colosseum in the middle of one of his death matches. You, having very little knowledge of how the bifrost mechanics worked, had absolutely no clue where you were. 

To say you'd been confused was the understatement of the millennium. 

Disoriented and probably concussed from your not-so-graceful entrance, you weren't left with much time to acclimate yourself from your surroundings before two guards had tackled you to the ground and stuck some kind of taser in your neck. Terrified, you'd tried to fight back, but you were too weak; one press of button later and you were incapacitated in an instant.The pain that seared through you from that wretched torture machine left you unable to do anything other than writhe helplessly in the dirt. Your screams of utter agony were enough to finally pull Hulk's attention away from his fight. He'd gone into a rage as soon as he realized it was you, turning on the guards instantly. 

It'd been 2 weeks since then, and with no signs of either Thor or Loki you'd essentially turned into the Hulk's personal babysitter. Apparently he was too big to be fit with one of those taser-disc things and his tantrum didn't end after he'd dismembered those guards. Evidently Hulk had thrown a fit -- in the way only he really could-- and wouldn't stop until some man called the 'Grandmaster' allowed you to stay with him. In exchange for your new home, you'd been tasked with calming him down whenever necessary.

Which, you'd quickly learned, was pretty much a 24/7 job.

Grumbling and cursing under your breath, you flung your legs out of bed and stomped into the next room in a huff. You were fully prepared to give Hulk a piece of your mind, but the sight of another person in his massive room was enough to stop you dead in your tracks. Sitting next to Hulk on the steps that led up to his massive bed was a figure that made your stomach flutter with hope. Unsure and not trusting your eyes, you spoke up as you cautiously approached the pair. 

“Thor?”

He turned his head at your call, a look of utter shock taking over his features as he recognized you. 

"Y/N!"

He jumped to his feet, making quick work of the small space that separated the two of you and immediately pulling you into a bone-crushing hug. 

"I can't believe you're here, I was so worried when I saw that she-beast knock you out of the bifrost, you have no idea," he breathed, face buried deep into your neck. You could only squeak in reply. His arms were wrapped so tightly around you that speaking wasn't exactly possible.

"Thor," you wheezed. "Can't...breathe."

Thor let you go instantly, sending you a sheepish expression as you coughed and tried to catch your breath. You doubled over and put your hands on your knees as you fought to regulate your breathing. Thor apologized, clapping a hand on your back in an awkward attempt at comfort. After a moment or two you straightened up a little bit and opened your mouth to dismiss his apologies, but Hulk beat you to the punch. 

Literally. 

A single swing from him was all it took to send Thor careening into the far wall. He crashed into the structure so hard that you felt the floor rattle beneath you, before falling into a heap surrounded by chunks of the crumbling plaster. Your jaw dropped. 

"THOR NO HURT FRIEND," Hulk roared, stepping in front of you protectively. You quickly sidestepped his giant frame and ran to Thor before crouching down. 

"Hulk no," you scolded. "He wasn't hurting me on purpose, he was just surprised! Are you okay Thor?"

"Perfectly fine," he groaned, standing quickly while swiping some of the remaining wall debris from his shoulders and stretching out his neck. "Unfortunately that's not the first time he's done that today."

"Hrrmph," Hulk pouted, stomping his foot. "Thor no hurt friend."

"It's okay buddy, I'm okay," you soothed, hand rubbing small circles on one of his massive arms. 

"Yes, well," Thor grumbled, clearly miffed that your attention and sympathy had been stolen from him so quickly. "Regardless, Y/N we have to get back to Asgard as soon as possible. Hela will destroy everything if we don't stop her."

You nodded tensely. A shiver ran its course down the entire length of your spine at the mention of his demonic sister. 

"Obviously, but I have absolutely no idea how we're gonna do that," you replied solemnly, crossing your arms. "My knowledge of inter-world travel begins and ends with the bifrost, and since I'm assuming that's out I have absolutely no suggestions."

Thor grinned. 

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

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” you mumbled to yourself as you fiddled around with the controls of the ship that Valkyrie told you to get. You'd been sitting in the cockpit for an insane amount of time waiting for Thor. You'd gotten separated from him and Bruce in the massive parade after the whole Quinjet fiasco, but thankfully Valkyrie had found you later and given you the rundown of their plan. 

A plan which seemed questionable at best, seeing as you'd been waiting for the past hour for a certain blond-haired god to show up. 

Huffing in irritation, you poised your fingers above the controls and started the massive engines. You were about to fly off in search of your moron friends when you heard a commotion down below. 

"Get help please!" 

Your brows furrowed in confusion at the sound of the familiar voice’s cry. 

"Thor?" you questioned to yourself quietly, heart rate picking up speed as you anxiously darted off the ship. "Thor? Is that you, what's happening?"

"Ahhh Y/N!" he grinned widely as you approached. "Perfect timing, I see Valkyrie has given us the same task."

You rolled your eyes.

"Actually I've been here a while now, what took you so lo--," you cut yourself off as you noticed Loki sprawled out on the ground behind Thor, paralyzed as one of the obedience disks tased him constantly. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me."

Thor followed your gaze to his brother curiously, as if he'd forgotten he was even there. 

"Ah, yes. I found out Loki is also here. Surprise?" he ventured chuckling. "However since he seems to only wish to do us harm, I've elected to leave him here." 

You glanced down, a pang of guilt striking you deep in your stomach at the look of pure agony etched across Loki's handsome features. You'd be lying if you didn't also feel a little bit smug at his evident discomfort, but even with all the pain he'd put you through you couldn't help but feel a tiny twinge of sympathy. His eyes locked onto your face, the blue-green orbs teaming with shock and a glimmer of an emotion you couldn’t quite place. He rolled his head desperately towards your frozen body as a wave of deja vu overcame your already overloaded mind. You stared deeply into his pain-ravaged expression, a single thought piercing through your chest as you studied his eyes. 

He hadn't known you were here. 

"At any rate, I imagine now would be as good a time as any to take our leave," Thor interrupted your mental musings. "Which was the ship she told us to get?"

You numbly pointed to the ship behind you, unable to tear your eyes away from the face of the man you'd thought dead for the second time in less than a month. Thor looked between you and his adoptive brother thoughtfully for a beat before comfortingly clapping a massive hand on your shoulder. The kind gesture was enough to snap you out of the daze you'd been in, and you shook your head to try and clear the tyranny of thoughts rumbling around in your brain. 

You began walking robotically towards the ship, but Thor's hand gripped your shoulder harder, forcing you to stop. You looked up at him with a questioning glance, confused. 

"I know we aren't exactly the closest of friends," he started, awkwardly clearing his throat. "But, as someone who's a bit too familiar with loss, I think some closure is in order here, hmm?"

You opened your mouth, eager to refute the insinuation, but Thor raised his hand to stop you before the words could come out. 

“I’ve seen the way you two look at one another. Please, for your sake, say your piece now because it's the last chance you may ever get.”

Your mouth clamped shut. Swallowing thickly, your eyes darted from Thor's stern yet compassionate face to Loki's paralyzed form and back. You nodded once. 

Thor smiled softly at the two of you, rubbing a small circle against your shoulder with his hand before jogging away. You took a deep breath and crouched down beside Loki's still twitching body. 

"There's so much to say," you started, looking off into the distance. You knew the moment you looked at him that it’d all be over, and so you stubbornly turned your face away from him and fixed your gaze on the far wall. "I honestly don't even know where to begin. Mostly I have a lot of questions. How could you forget me so easily? Why would you just let me think that you were dead? D-did you ever care about me?"

Though his body was still completely immobilized, Loki's eyes were locked onto your face with rapt attention as you spoke. With each pained word and crack in your voice a sharp pain like a knife stabbed through his heart and drove itself deeper and deeper. 

"Even if you could answer I doubt it'd mean anything," you continued, swiping a lone tear from your cheek. "I spent 4 years thinking you were gone. 4 years of grief and misery that I thought would be the worst pain I'd ever feel. But I was wrong -- knowing now that you were out there all that time, and that you didn't care enough about me to stick around? That's the worst kind of pain. The gnawing, hollowing ache of knowing that you love someone who's never going to love you back."

His eyes had never been wider as you paused briefly and let out a sob. Tears slipped down his cheeks in a mirror image of yours, and his body began twisting, desperately trying to get closer to you. You couldn’t see, but his fingers were twitching and clawing at the ground in a futile effort to connect his skin to yours. You sniffled and wiped your nose as you shakily stood to your feet, completely oblivious to his desperation. You started to walk back to the ship, pausing only for a moment to turn and make one last statement. 

"I'm not going to wait, and I'm not going to wonder why anymore. Because the truth of it is, I'm just a stupid girl who fell in love with a liar. And I know I’m always going to love you, but I refuse to let you define me any longer." 

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

You grunted in pain as the sword of one of the many undead Asgardian warriors sliced through your arm. Scoffing, you thrust your flaming fist straight into its stupid, skeletal face and sent it flying off of the bridge. Gently touching your fingertips to your bicep and grimacing when you pulled them back bloody, you turned to face Heimdal. 

“There’s too many of them,” you cried, conjuring a gust of wind that knocked a group of the soldiers flying into the water below. Heimdal didn’t answer, too busy fighting to keep some distance between the Asgardian crowd and the army. Wiping a bloody hand across your forehead, you noticed the soldiers that you’d knocked into the water starting to claw their way back up into the fray. Groaning, you closed your eyes and concentrated until the water below became wild. The waves began thrashing around furiously, the tallest one knocking the skeletal bodies back down into the storm below. 

Exhausted, you fell to your knees. You weren’t used to using your powers on this kind of scale, and you hardly ever exercised your control over water. Much preferring to use fire or wind, you'd never tried to manipulate an amount of water so large before. Stars danced in front of your eyes and you felt weaker than you had in years. The thudding vibrations of running boots and the clanging of swords filled your ears as you panted, and for a moment you lost all hope.

Until a firm, yet gentle hand placed itself under your chin, forcing you to look up. 

"Now, now sweetling," a low voice practically purred in your ear, and you felt yourself being lifted up from the ground. "This is no place to rest." 

You looked up to find the blueish-greenish eyes that'd haunted your dreams for the past 5 years staring down at you. 

Loki. 

Your breath hitched in your throat at the sight, a shiver running through your entire body at the sensation of being in his arms. The way his eyes bored into yours, it felt like you couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. You were locked into place, utterly mesmerized by the intensity of his gaze. He raised a hand, fingers hesitating for only a split second before they nimbly swept a piece of your hair off of your face. You couldn't help but lean your face into his palm that rested on your cheek, allowing yourself to forget everything else that wasn't the feel of his skin on yours for just a moment. 

But only for a moment. 

You were abruptly brought back down to earth-- or rather Asgard you supposed-- with a sensation like an earthquake vibrating upwards from your boots and the low-rumbling sound of thunder filling your ears. You straightened up in just enough time to see Thor launch himself into the fray, massive surges of lightning engulfing him. You grinned, the sight of your blonde friend looking more god-like than he had in weeks caused a surge of energy to roll through your body like one of his bolts of electricity. Suddenly re-energized and ready to fight alongside your blonde companion, you hopped to your feet. Sending Loki one last determined look, you ran head first into the battle, fists ablaze. 

Savagely ripping through soldier after soldier, your red eyes were focused completely on the fight all around you. You almost didn't hear Loki as he yelled over the din of the battle.  

"I did it for you, you know," he grunted as he too slashed through the seemingly never-ending torrent of Hela's army. "Staying away. It was what I thought was best."

"Seriously? We're going to do this now?" came your incredulous reply, reducing two of the soldiers into balls of flame before gaping at Loki. He kicked another off of the bridge before shrugging. 

"The last two times haven't exactly been ideal either."

Humming angrily, you turned away from him and continued your attack, intent on blocking him out. Loki clearly had other plans, inching his way forward until the two of you were practically back to back as you fought. 

"I was a war criminal, a prisoner and helping that mortal wasn't going to change anything. What sort of life was I to offer you had I stayed?" he reasoned before turning you forcibly around to face him. 

Despite the fight still raging all around you, you paused and looked at the god in front of you. You were staring each other down, your glare meeting his distressed and pleading gaze as if the two of you were the only ones in the world. 

"You expect me to believe that? That you lied to me, that you left me because you cared?" you spit out, hot tears spilling from your eyes as you spoke. Expression crumbling, Loki reached out and tried to connect your hands, but you jerked yours away before he could, your palm instantly erupting into flames. 

"You deserved better than that, better than me. You still do," he murmured. "I destroy everything, everyone around me. I couldn't bear the thought of bringing another person I care for so dearly down with me." 

You tried with every fiber of your being not to let him get to you. You reminded yourself of all the pain and misery he'd caused you -- futilely dredging up memories of all the nights you'd spent crying yourself to sleep. You squeezed your eyes shut as if not seeing his face would make it easier to resist. Your hands slowly started to extinguish as they shook, your anger fading to sadness that rolled into a tight ball in your chest that felt like it was going to suffocate you. 

"I ca-can't...you--," you blubbered incoherently. "I can't do this now." 

You turned away once more, but this time Loki stopped you by grabbing your hand desperately. The icy temperature of his skin caused what little flame was left behind to fizzle out with a small cloud of smoke. You gasped at the feeling, but didn't make any moves to remove your hand from his. 

"You asked how I could forget about you so easily, and the answer is really quite simple: I didn't," he continued breathlessly. "I couldn't. You filled my mind each and every day that we were apart, and it was only the thought of you that made the days bearable. I checked on you, often. I needed to know that you were doing alright, needed to prove myself right-- that you were, and will always be, better off without me. I know I’ve given you absolutely no reason to believe me, but if you come away from this embarrassingly honest conversation knowing only one thing, I need it to be this: I do love you, my dearest Y/N. I love you more than I can rightly express aloud, and I’ll spend the rest of my miserable existance ensuring that you never question that again if you’ll allow me. ” 

You couldn’t help the gasp that escaped you at his admission, and the hand that wasn’t currently entwined firmly within his flew to cover your mouth. As soon as the words left his lips you felt all of your anger, all your stubborn resolve vanish from your chest in an instant, the feelings quickly replaced by a wave of love the likes of which you’d never felt before. A choked sob left you as you searched his face frantically, looking for any twinkle of mischief or the slightest indication that he could be lying. 

His expression was firm, mouth drawn in a sort of dazed smile as he gazed down at you, lovingly. Brows raised and forehead adorably wrinkled with anxiety, he waited patiently for you to respond. You searched his eyes with your own, almost getting lost in the sea of emotion that ran through them and idly wondered if yours looked the same. He looked so hopeful, so sincere, and you felt the warm feelings of your chest expand and grow at an incredible rate. 

“Y-you...you love me?” you managed to murmur, gaze still locked firmly on his face as you worked intently to memorize his features. His lips quirked into what was quite possibly the most beautiful and honest smile you’d ever seen, and his hand gently lifted to your face. Rubbing soft circles into your cheek with the pad of his thumb, he answered so quietly you almost missed it. 

“More than I ever thought possible.”

Unable to physically stand the distance between you for another second, you carelessly crashed your body into his. Arms winding their way around his shoulders to anchor themselves, you connected your mouth to his, desperate to feel his skin against yours. He responded just as quickly, both hands now cupping your face as his smooth lips worked fervently over yours. The two of you were pressed together so tightly it was almost painful, but you couldn’t bring yourself to focus on anything outside of the feeling of his kiss. After wondering for so long, the feeling of his skin on yours was indescribable. Your fingers threaded through his dark, curly locks as you struggled to pull him impossibly closer to you, and you shivered in pleasure at the low growl your actions seemed to pull from his throat. 

After an indefinite, but altogether too brief length of time, you were forced to pull away from him -- panting and working intently to catch your breath, you settled for leaning your forehead against his as he did the same. For all the time you’d spent manipulating the wind to carry you around, you swore you’d never felt more weightless than you did in this moment. You couldn’t erase the dopey smile that you were sure was stretched across your face right now, but you didn’t care. Especially once you opened your eyes to find the same, love-struck grin plastered across Loki’s handsome features. 

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited to do that,” he chuckled breathlessly. His voice was lower than you’d ever heard, and he sounded so uncharacteristically shy that you couldn’t help but lift yourself on your tiptoes to press a chaste kiss to his cheek. 

“Not sure if it really needs saying at this point, but I love y--,” 

“Oi, lovebirds!,” Valkyrie interrupted, shouting from across the bridge. “If it pleases the two of you, perhaps you could come help now?”

Loki cleared his throat, a pink tinge dusting across his cheeks as he noticed his brother and Valkyrie looking at the pair of you with teasing expressions. You couldn’t help but giggle at his evident embarrassment, gazing adoringly at his reddened-features for a split second. Threading your fingers through his confidently, you tugged him along and the two of you left to join your group for what you hoped would be the final battle. 

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Recruits.”

Wanted to do a little peace about what it would be like to join the crew of the harbinger. I hope you guys all enjoy :) 

“Alright maggots! Hurry up, hurry up, stop screwing off  and get our asses over here. This is the Space Core not a damned dog show. You there, yes you right there, stop staring gaped mouth at me like a beached fish, and get over here.” 

The young recruits hurried across the tarmac at Fort Landing.The massive interspace launch field was a good five mile square of landing pads and supply chains surrounding massive interstellar battleships resupplying and rotating troops on and off. Boots thudded against concrete as troops of marines and army grunts walked past in their differing shades of camouflage.

The young group of soldiers hurried up to the officer nervously glancing around at the ships most of them had never been aboard a ship before, and some of them had never even been out of the region much less into space.

A couple of nervous recruits stepped to the front of the line two in flight suits and another group of young soldiers being transferred in to augment one of the fleet. They had been told they would be placed on one of the outgoing intergalactic units, but none of them had any idea WHICH one they wanted. Of course they had read through the suggestions given to them by other crew members aboard the different ships, and byar the Harbinger was the most recommended, but it was also the most competitive, sought after, and most people who joined didn’t decide to leave any time soon, and so there weren’t often many openings.

Now none of them were exactly sure why the Harbinger was so great, aside from being at the forefront of intergalactic travel, and run by Commander Vir of the UNSC who was a little more than legend and just slightly less than myth. 

Otherwise it was also considered to be one of the most dangerous positions considering what they were doing out there. The crew was supposed to be interspecies with Delta units (also known as drev) on board.

There were rumors going around that the commander had managed to win himself the position of clan leader in a Drev contest of armed combat. Some said that he had defeated five armed Drev soldiers with his bare hands, though that thought was little more than conjecture and made anyone with a reasonable understanding of Drev just a bit skeptical.

Of course a few of them had been lucky enough to see an alien, though there were also some of them who hadn’t”

“Recruits Kimber, Alvarez, Han and McCaster!” The group of four recruits hurried forward, two young pilots one army engineer and one marine.

The officer eyed them up and down and shook his head, “Where the hell are they finding you guys these days scraping you off the back of a wet rock.” He flipped through the hologram on the flat of his hand, “Ah, here we go-” THey watched as his eyes widened a bit, and he stopped insulting them for long enough to look interested. He glanced up from his clipboard, “Well look at the four of you being all special. You’ve been requisitioned for the harbinger gonna go into deep space.” They glanced at each other in surprise, shock and excitement, “Hear they have some pretty freaky ass aliens on that ship, one bastard who can float and read minds or some shit, anyway get on the lot of you. They docked at landing pad A1 because they get special treatment, now GET GOING!”

With a muttering of surprise, they hurried off heading down towards the troop transports.

One of the young pilots leaned forward as they drove down the tarmac wind whipping past them as the sound of engines shook the ground below.

“Do you guys believe everything they say?”

The engineer turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, “Everything about what?”

“Everything about the Commander? Everything about the Harbinger.”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific, there is a ton of shit they say.”

The young pilot rolled his eyes, “Take your pick. That he ran a marathon on an A-1 death planet, that he's a telepath that can speak to aliens, that their doctor is an alien, that half the ship is drev, that he's mostly a cyborg, that they have alien pets, that he stopped an intergalactic war.”

Someone waved him off, “Obviously false.”

Another one of the recruits leaned in closer, “I heard the guy’s a extrial.”

“The fuck is an extrial.”

“You know one of those people who screws aliens.” 

“ fucking disgusting.”

“Dude, you serious?  leave them alone there is nothing wrong with that?”

“What ISN’T wrong with that?”

“Both parties agree besides I bet you screw your cousin so-”

“BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP.” They did as the marine turned around the glower at them, “Doesn't matter what they are or are not. We have to make a good impression. So shut up we’re almost there.” 

The troop transport came to a stop, and the four of them stepped out onto the tarmac looking up at the ship. It was big, blocky and dark looked like a much older model than some of the others sitting on the launch field, but what it lacked in beauty, it held in reputation.

At the moment it was busy being stocked by the people on the ground, though they did notice a group of people lounging around on some of the crates outside.

Staring at the ship, they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, no aliens or anything… so far.

Awkwardly they walked towards the ship not sure where to go or what to do seeing as there were no officers to greet them. They were just heading past the crates and their lounging occupants when someone whistled.

“FRESH MEAT!” They were followed by heckling from the group sitting on the crates. They could have been marines or army grunts, but it was hard to tell. The group of them sat up both men and women.

One man in the middle slowly chewing n a piece of gum and wearing aviators making him look like he was trying to hard, “Hey, you four c’mere.”

With nowhere else to go, they approached slowly.

The group moved from lounging to sitting atop their crates.

“What are you recruits here for.”

They shuffled a little, “Two pilots a marine and an army engineer uh…. Sir?”

THe gum chewer grinned slowly nodding at one of the other guys, “Sir…. I like that makes me sound special.” He leaned forward, “Well they won't have anything for you to do until they are done loading the ship with cargo, so come on sit down and let's take a look at you.” 

All together, they were rather nervous, but they still came up and sat on the crates with who they learned to be were a group of marines.

A younger, tan young man leaned over and held out a hand, “Ramirez.” They shook the man’s hand nervously glancing towards the gum chewer behind his dark sunglasses who was grinning knowingly at them.“So two pilots, an engineer and a marine.” He glanced up at the sky, “Well go on let’s hear a little about you.”

Most of them didn’t really intend to say anything, but somehow Sunglasses managed to draw it out of them, had them talking until he had practically unraveled their life stories. It was almost disconcerting how the man could do that, and the  group of them were rather nonplussed by the time the conversation began to die away not entirely sure how they had gotten here.

“So, is there anything you want to know about the ship, the people, the perks etc etc.”

“Is it true that you have an entire Drev clan on the ship?”

Sunglasses grinned, “A good half of one at least maybe a dozen or so. An entire clan can be up to five hundred in one population, as many people as we have on the crew. So really I should restate and say that we only have a teth of a clan.” 

The group glanced between each other.

“What other aliens do you have on the ship?”

Sunglasses leaned back against the crate hands behind his head, “Oh well we have a few. There is Convict of course, he’s a starborn, watch out for that asshole, he can read minds. Don’t plan on having any sort of privacy. Than we have Krill, he's our surgeon, ask him and he will tell you he's the best in the galaxy maybe the universe. Then after that we have the spiderlings.”

“The what?”

“Well technically their presence is classified, but you will find out. Type of alien can incorporate the DNA of other animals into their own offspring, some asshole got himself stuck with an alien egg sack and now we have alien hybrids on the ship.”

“No shit.:”

“Yeah shit, not kidding with you. Watch out for the one named Glados, she's a real jerk sometimes, to everyone accept the Commander of course.”

“Tell us about him.”

There was a shifting among the marines as they looked between each other. Sunglasses glanced back at them grinning before, “That asshole, yeah don’t get your hopes up, he’s a tool at best and an idiot at worse. I mean the guy wears an eyepatch, like he thinks he's some sort of space pirate.”

The marines slowly began to grin, “yeah he has some idiotic idea that the crew are his friends or some bullshit. We let him think that because it makes him easier to deal with.”

“Uglier than sin too.”

The group looked around at each other in confusion and concern not exactly sure why the crew was acting the way they were, “Are you guys serious, or just screwing with us.”

Sunglasses didn’t crack a smile, “Very serious.

Still skeptical, they looked around at each other, “I thought I heard he was a good pilot.”

Sunglasses waved a hand, ‘Never said he wasn’t a good pilot, I said he was a tool who doesn't know how to take anything seriously/”

Another marine shrugged, “Yeah, I mean they promoted him super early on in his career, guy isn't even past his dumbass twenties faze yet.”

“You make that sound like he will ever get past his dumbass twenties phase. I honestly think this is his last evolution.” More shifting form the nervous new cremembers but sunglasses stood, “Might as well show you newbies around the ship, let you get to know things before we take off.” He pointed to the marines, don’t do any dumbass shit while I am gone.” 

Moe dumb jokes followed as he left, and the young group hurried to catch up, “So uh…. You a marine then?” The young marine asked glancing downwards at his clothes that did nothing to hit at what his job aboard the ship was, “Not exactly.”

The man answered.

“Than what do you do?”

“I’m their CO.”

“So you are a marine?”

“I didn’t say that.” They followed him up the long ramp and into the belly of the ship where cargo crates were being stacked. Men and women in various stages of work hurried past them greeting sunglasses with a nod and a salute.

“So you’re pretty high up?” One of the pilot’s asked

Sunglasses shrugged, “You could say that.”

“So you spend a lot of time with the commander than?”

The man sighed, “Unfortunately yes…. Too much time.”

They made their way around a corner and nearly ran face first into a massive shape. The young recruits yelped in surprise, one of them making an extremely girlish squeal as they realized what they had run into. The form was absolutely massive, nine feet tall or more with six limbs and a head that was vaguely reminiscent of a bird. It thrust its head down at them with a critical eye and the hard light on the ship rolled over its bloody red carapace.

“Cannon.”

The massive Drev inclined it’s head, “ Lod dazha tadazh? Zhe dazha nehjakazi.” 

They blinked in confusion for a long moment all feeling the strange sensation as the translation software booted up, and a moment later, a very human voice. “Who are these, I don’t recognize them”. The voice was pleasant enough, a deep rumble.

“Who the hell names their kid Cannon?” One of the pilots said  realizing to late that he had probably just insulted a massive ass alien that looked like it could kick his ass.

Sunglasses turned to look at him, “It’s actually a word in his language, should be pronounced Kanan. It means `noble.” He got a pat on the shoulder, “Try not to be a dickhead alright. Most of the Drev have names like that, usually after an attribute or a force of nature.” 

“What’s your name.” The Drev asked, the translation so smooth it was almost seamless integration over his real voice.

The young man stammered, “R-richard.”

The alien looked at him for a long contemplative moment, “Isn’t the nickname that goes along with richard….. Dick?”

That made the other four laugh as the large alien trundled past to show, to their surprise, he was wearing a bionic brace around one of his legs.

“Damn Cannon, they should have called you savage instead, DAMN!” He turned back, “Anyway, keeping the tour moving, try not to insult anyone else alright. Cannon is relatively good humored, but I can’t guarantee the other Drev won’t challenge you to a duel for their honor.”

There was a soft murmuring among the men, but they followed awkwardly behind as the CO led them through the ship showing them to the rec room, the mess hall, engineering and so on. They began to see ore evidence of alien activity, mostly those huge Drev things who were, surprisingly colorful, as compared to the pictures the media tended to release them. They greeted the CO with traditional muttering in their own language which he returned in kind. The translation generally just ut it as good morning though there were multiple versions.

They were walking down one long corridor when one of the recruits yelped and cursed looking as if he was about to piss himself. The others followed his gaze upwards where a face leered down at them from the piping and ductwork.

The man stopped a few feet ahead not bothering to look up, “Stop being an asshole convict, come and show yourself.” The strange alien creature did as told floating down like some ethereal sort of space angel, all white and surrounded in billowing ribbons. He wore an anti-gravity belt and a strange set of gloves.

The CO turned, “Well everyone, this is Conn, he is our ship’s resident telepath. Yes He can read minds, no I can’t make him stop, but yes he will generally keep all your deep dark secrets for his entertainment. No, you won’t be able to tell when he’s invading your minds, only the Commander can talk to him that way .”

The alien waved at them with a malicious grin on his strangely humanoid lips.

“But that's ok because killing him is easy. If he ever gives you trouble just threaten to take off that gravity belt of his. He was born in zero Gs so it will snap his spine like an uncooked spaghetti noodle.”

“Convict’ raised a hand and made a move to flip the CO off, an effect somewhat damaged by the fact that he only had four fingers.

Nervously, they walked past, and the alien grinned malevolently at them. Unfortunately with the way the human mind worked all of their deepest darkest secrets seemed to be at the forefront from their heads as they did so.

THey took a walk up another few decks, and into what appeared to be the med bay, which hissed open as they stepped in. Inside they were surprised to find another strange alien creature directing the placement of some new medical equipment, “And ry not to drop it on yourselves, I have gone almost a month without any major accidents aboard this ship, and I intend to keep it going.”  The spiderly little creature turned in a broad circle its unblinking orange prismatic eyes falling on them.

“Dr. These are our new recruits, Kimber, Han McCaster and Alvarez. Just giving them the grand tour.”

They stared on in awe and wonder as the little alien moved closer.

“Are you really a doctor.”

The creature stared at them looking almost offended, “Are you really a pilot?”

He stood back in shock, he had not expected the aliens to be so aggressively sassy, or even know how to use sarcasm. A had fell on his shoulder, “Forgive McCaster, he seems to have a bit of a pension for running his mouth. Anyway, I’m just taking them the last few decks up to the bridge, is there anything you want to warn them about?”

The doctor looked at them with a critical eye before, “If you are going to stick anything up your ass, just make sure it has a base otherwise it’s going to get stuck, and I am going to have to either A get someone to stick their hand up there or B do surgery,”

The CO laughed, “Always good advice doctor.”

With faces scrunched with confusion, the group followed the CO back into the hallway and up the stairs the last few decks and onto the bridge . The bridge crew was already hard at work on systems checks barely noticing as the group of them entered.

Looking to the right they saw another one of the Drev sitting in a chair just to the side of the captain’s seat. 

“Oh, everyone meet, Sunny our Chief Weapons Specialist.” The bright blue Drev turned around in her seat looking them over with a critical gold eye. She was actually pretty short compared to the massive male they had met earlier. 

“So what does her name mean?”

The Co looked at the kid with a raised eyebrow, “It means involving or having to do with large amounts of light produced by a star onto the planet’s surface, sometimes known as the sun.”

The other three laughed at him and he wilted,” I thought, with the other…”

“With the other guy, his real name just so happens to sound like an english word, her name does not, so we call her Sunny. Sunny and Cannon are brother and sister from the same clan.”  The Blue Drev stood and walked over to look them over. Though she was short for a Drev she towered more than a foot over some of them.

“Scraping the bottom of the barrel with these four.” She said, her voice over the translation was obviously female but not entirely feminine if that made sense. Somehow it suited her.

There was a sharp squeal from somewhere and the group of them turned, shrieking again and backing away as a group of the most HORRIFIC creatures came scuttling across the floor. About as big as medium dogs, and with similar heads, they skittered across the floor on spider bodies. One of the recruits leaped back into a chair picking his feet up off the floor, the other three went into defensive posturing.

Most of the creatures ignored them entirely, one of them making a B-line for the CO Crawling up his back and locking it’s strange feet over his shoulders like the most grotesque backpack ever. One contented itself by lying on his feet, and the other woman began sniffing at them. After a moment a very miffed looking German Shepherd appeared following them and collapsed by the Captain’s chair with a grumble.

The one on the man’s shoulders glowered at them, it’s strange humanoid eyes bright green with anger and intensity. It opened its mouth wide and a strange robotic sound came forth, “Go…. away.” They stepped back even further in shock. The voice was strange, like that of a talking bird, not entirely human at all.

The man turned his head and frowned at the spidery creature reaching up to pat her hairless dog-like head with one hand, “Oh Stop that Glados.”

“No.”

He rolled his eyes, “Manners.”

“No.” 

“You know ever since you learned that word, it's been the bane of my existence.” 

“W-what the hell are those things.”

The Co looked up at them, “These guys are the spiderlings ⅔ s adaptid ⅓ human. This Is Glados,” He pointed down, “That is Hal and the one sniffing at you guys is Cortona. The commander named them, they are technically his after all.”

The recruits started on in awe and disgust, “You mean he like DID IT with an alien.”

The man grimaced, “More like he got roped into incubating an alien egg sack against his will. I hear the process was rather unpleasant.”’

They collectively made a face as the CO scratched the spiderling under the chin, “he says its not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Besides, the adaptids were just doing what adaptids do, and that is borrow DNA from other creatures.”

“Where IS the Commander anyway.”

The Blue Drev looked over at them with some interest before growing bored and looking away 

The man shrugged, “Who the hell knows.”

And then an officer ran onto the deck, “Sir, Transmission from the GA.”

At that moment the CO stopped smiling, and pulled off his sunglasses. The group of them were stunned into silence as he pulled an eyepatch from his pocket and slipped it over his missing eye. The other one was a bright green, not dissimilar to that of the adaptid. With the sharp clatter of boots on metal he walked back to sit in the Captain’s chair dropping the adaptid  to the floor with a growl of protest.

He pressed something on the side of the chair, and a hologram leaped up in front of his face.

“Greetings commander.”

“Chairwoman.” 

The group looked at each other with miffed expressions.

“How the hell did we not see that coming.”

“Because you’re a dumbass.”

“Like you knew, asshole.”

The other one stopped them with a raised hand, “Is he wearing heelies?”

The group of them turned their heads to the side and confirmed that the man was, in fact, wearing a pair of heelies this entire time.

There was a soft snort from behind them, and they turned to see the Drev ‘Sunny’ sitting at her station.

“Welcome to the crew of the Harbinger.” 

[outerloop]

Anatomy of a Falcon

We recently announced Falcon Age, a game about nurturing a falcon from a baby, bonding with them, and together resisting the forces that colonise your planet. Falcon Age will be out in 2019 for PS4 and PS VR.

We showed off the game at PAX last week, got a great response, especially on the falcon. Let’s do a deep dive of the design of the falcon, animation and rig setup, AI and navigation, feather tech, and raptor sounds.

Falcon Design

Chandana Ekanayake and Darran Hurlbut

Our falcon design combines multiple raptor types. She is big as a golden eagle, fights like a hawk, has some eagle-hawk resemblance, some owl-like tufts, and falcon tendancies. She’s one of the last of her kind left in our world and we wanted to make her unique visually for the story and also visually stand out during gameplay against the sky and desert like environments.

One of the early inspirations for Falcon Age came from videos of golden eagles hunting large mountain goats. That led to some research on falconry and the idea of having a falcon as a pet and designing mechanics and gameplay around that core idea. We made a rough prototype early on to test out the ideas. The first time we successfully whistled for the bird in VR and saw the scale change from it approaching from a distance to landing on our hand, we knew we were on to something that could serve as the core of a unique game.  

Animation and Rig

Aung Zaw Oo

FALCON FEET TRACKING

There are lots of animation options out there, but none of them would easily solve our specific falcon feet tracking needs. Inverse kinematic setups, root motion and other complex plugins could do the job if we had a bigger team and more time to dedicate to it. We wanted a more predictable outcome so we went with a multiple pose based solution made in 3dsmax.  

However, the biggest reason for not using IK, is that this is the best way I could come up within a couple of days. We were building the prototype so fast back at the beginning of the project that we didn’t have time to look at what other solutions are available. This is the most reliable and least ugly way I found and we’ve stuck with it since. If it's not broken, don’t fix it.

Here is how I imagined the bird claws blending IRL. The ball is the fist that is attached to the VR motion controls.There are limits to this method. The claws needs to be able to wrap around a fair chunk of the fist and the fist pose needs to be as spherical as possible.

Note that head and legs are siblings of the pelvis. This makes the bone masking and making separate blend trees easier. Ignore the word ‘eagle’ in the naming. That was just a temp asset name before we figured out the bird design.

Short version of how its done; the fist is a ball and the bird’s feet rotate around the ball using 30 blend poses and shuffle animation to get the feet back to center when the ball(motion hand) has rotated too far.

30 Blend Poses on a ball

A shuffle animation let feet recenter

And the the blends start again after that quick shuffle animation from the new rotation of the hand. According to our programmer Justin, he is doing some regular old quaternion and linear algebra math. And I’m using 3 float values that he’s giving me and feeding them into those anim blend states.

For baby bird, the 2nd knuckle on the index finger is treated like a ball. 

The one edge case where the ball concept doesn’t work is when the glove is pointed directly down. Pictured below.

We had several ways we could’ve dealt with that case. One solution was to have a collider on the forearm part of the glove and have the bird fly away if bird’s collision intersects with it. Ultimately we decided to let it be as is. It’s more player friendly that way since it lets you scratch your left hip while in VR without having the bird leave you. Also most people would never have their hands positioned that way in normal play. 

Unless they’re playing in a headstand for some reason. All kinds of animation features would look wrong or broken in a headstand.

FALCON HEAD TRACKING

Short version of how its done; the head (bone_Head) is a direct child of the highest object in the bird skeletal hierarchy ( bone_Root ).

Bone_Root’s position(not rotation) follows the position of the motion controller and bone_Head counters that motion. Basically a 2-object hierarchy where a positional blend is used to counter motion of the parent object to keep the child object in same global position. The rest of the bird body uses a blend of 27 poses to try its best to keep the bird looking natural.

With the size of the adult bird we have, a 12 cm translation in all axis(24x24x24 cube) seemed ideal for getting the stabilizer effect without stretching the neck too much. The head will also move at the edge of that range and when the motion hand stops moving, that new position is now the new center and another 24cm cube is formed there.  Math wise, headlock is mostly just a vector transform with a lot of extra 'fluff' for limiting speed, transitioning in and out, and moving the lock point when it gets too far from the body but the bird is still in the area.

Bird Navigation and AI

Justin LaLone

BIRD BOREDOM

For the most part, the falcon obeys Ara’s commands and follows her around.  If you stand around long enough in one area while the bird is just circling or if you launch her with no orders, she will start looking for something else in the area to do - usually hunting or landing on a point of interest.  She will also take some initiative when perched on Ara if anything else tries to grab her (she’s possessive like that), and likes to help lead Ara to the next hole in lightning golf.

SUN BLINDING PREY

Some of the prey, such as the rabbits, are very skittish and as soon as they notice a falcon diving towards them they will take off for the nearest bolthole.  They have a more difficult time seeing Ara’s bird if she approaches with the sun behind her, so paying attention to where the light is coming from and sending the bird from that direction can make catching prey easier and more reliable.  On the other hand, simply diving from higher up can be good too, as the bird can pick up more speed before being noticed, giving her prey less time to dodge out of the way.

Coming in fast and and from the sun, for a guaranteed hit.

FALCON 3D NAVIGATION

Getting a flying animal to reliably traverse a 3D space in a somewhat natural looking way isn’t something you typically find out of the box in a game engine.  We have roughly three levels of bird-navigation logic going on to get the bird from point A to point B without running into too many things or getting stuck in a corner.

For high-level navigation to find its way through the world, we build a 3D navigation graph and use A* to find a path.  What’s probably somewhat unique in our implementation is that we are using the fairly new Unity job system to do all our A* pathfinding, giving us fast searches that stay off the main thread, allowing more time for other AI, physics, and more stuff in general.  Most of the graph is generated automatically, with manually placed connections for flying through narrow gaps like windows that are small or require an approach from a good angle.

The purple line is a rough path for it to follow to get around the big rocks in between where the falcon started and where Ara is standing.  The bird doesn’t try to follow this line very closely; it would be trying to make some pretty strange and sharp turns if it tried, so as soon as it has a clear shot to the next part of the path it heads there instead.

Sometimes smaller objects or moving objects can get in the way.  The falcon looks ahead and goes over or around these objects.  This rock is actually just big enough that it would normally navigate around it with A*, but I forced it to “forget” about that for now.  Here, it’s turning left to go around the rock - the red lines show where it has been looking for the past few frames.  It usually won’t try to go under things in this way, but the A* navigation can direct it to go under arches or walkways.

The last level of bird flight logic is the actual maneuvering logic, or how the bird decides how fast it wants to go, how much to ascend or descend, how quickly to turn, and how it applies physics accelerations, limited by what it is allowed to do, to get there.  This feeds into the animation system telling it how hard the bird is working, what sort of pose it should be in, if it should be banking, etc.  The object avoidance is tied in somewhat strongly with this, but all the A* navigation is completely separate.  It is also a big pile of math and logic.

Feathers and Rendering

Ben Golus

The small body feathers, or contour feathers, on our birds flutter in the wind, and react to the player’s hands brushing against them to give a greater sense of tactile interactivity. The way this was done for the PAX demo is a bit of a hack which I hope to replace before we ship. (This of course means it’s the solution that will ship with the game.) The short description is each small feather on the bird is a treated like many grass or vegetation shaders. Several overlapping sine waves are used to calculate some simple noise used to flutter the feathers and give them some life. Their timing is offset by a random value per feather stored in the vertex color, and the flutter movement is scaled also using the vertex color. This means the base of the feathers don’t move, but the tips do. It also means longer feathers move more than shorter ones.

Unlike most grass shaders, we need the feathers to not move in random directions, so we can’t use world or local space directions. Plus this is on a skinned mesh which makes the direction even more dynamic. Instead I use a combination of the feather’s vertex normal and tangent so the feathers flutter in and out and side to side relative to their orientation. This isn’t strictly accurate, but for small movements like this it won’t be obviously wrong.

To handle hand interactions, the player’s hand has a script which tracks the bones and creates a list of capsules that follow the shape of each finger, and a sphere for the palm. If the hand is in range, the vertex shader iterates over the list of capsules to find closest distance to one and softly scales down the flutter if a capsule one is overlapping it. The feathers are also squished down towards the body. The capsules are oversized as the overlapping tests are soft, so this isn’t an instant on-off, but a gradual change. It’s roughly tuned so that once the visible finger is touching the feather it has stopped moving entirely and will push down.

Here’s an early test of this system in action. You can see how the feathers react to the sphere before it actually touches it, but the interaction is still convincing.

For the final release of the game I’d like to move to a geometry shader or compute shader approach which would solve some of the issues the effect currently has when only one vertex of a feather is being overlapped, and the fact the feathers light normals don’t change when being touched.

FALCON DAMAGE FEEDBACK

We needed some way to show when the bird is hurt, and we wanted to avoid using a health bar or similar mechanic as much as possible. Animation is used to make the bird look tired, and in pain, but we still didn’t find that it was clear enough to users that she had taken damage. We decided we wanted her to look physically damaged with blood and frayed feathers to really strongly communicate her state. The obvious answer was to do a material swap. However we also wanted to show a gradual increase in damage rather than a hard on / off, and did not want to have to have a lot of different maps. There was also the issue that most feathers shared the same UVs, which meant blood spots would be repeated all over the bird.

The solution we ended up with was done in two parts. First was feather damage and fraying. The alpha channel of each feather is setup in a special way so that both an undamaged and damaged version exist in the alpha at different opacities. The feathers are using alpha test cutout (actually alpha to coverage) at 50% opacity when at normal health, and 25% opacity when damaged to switch between the two states.

For blood splatter the bird has a second UV for the blood texture so we don’t have to reuse the original feather texture UVs, and then we blend in the blood on top of the base texture. The result is we only need one base texture set, and one blood splatter texture set for the bird and we can get variable damage effects on the bird.

Raptor Sounds

Rob Pearsall

The bird wasn’t designed to be different - futuristic or magical - from any bird in our world, just an amalgam of several flying raptors (except for wearing hats); so, it didn’t make any sense to create a voice for it that might sound ‘cinematically awesome’ - it just had to work and be believable.

That said, I did have the choice of “borrowing” the calls of any raptor I thought would communicate to the player the various moods, feelings, and responses of the bird.  So, I listened to the sounds that raptors make; and to my surprise, the biggest, most impressive bird - the eagle - was absolutely the worst sounding predator of them all.  First place for “don’t use this”.

The hawk is always a great choice.  Everybody loves the screech of a hawk.  I used to think that there was only one good recording of a hawk screech and every sound designer owned it and that’s why all hawks in all shows and movies sound the same.  Not true.  It turns out, all hawks sound the same.  Not much variation at all.  Now, don’t get me wrong, it sounds awesome, so yea… we’ve got that sound on our bird too.  But that’s not all.

The best thing I had going for me was that I didn’t have to limit our falcon voice to one specific kind of falcon; and there are many kinds.  Because of this, I could liberally choose any sound any falcon produces that makes sense as a kind of emotional statement from the bird.  

Conveniently, the emotions were limited; I name them as statements from the bird:

All is calm, all is well

I hear you call me

I’m attacking

I’m hurt, but I’m still flying

That hurts

Getting a recording of a raptor that’s annoyed is really easy; show up with a bunch of recording gear, get into it’s space, and it’s already annoyed.  So, there’s a lot of material of raptors sounding negative and mad.  This works for ‘pain’.  The hawk’s sounds work for flying responses and attack calls.  The “all is calm” sounds were the difficult ones.  There were several chirps that worked, but then I had to edit a lot of different kind of calls to get partial, short squawks that fit with the chirps, and it worked.

Keeping track of the bird sonically while in game… well, that’s another story for later.

Thank you!

Thanks for reading. For more info and latest updates follow @outerloopgames

[ckret2]

Nausea & Numbness (and the Slim Possibility of Happiness)

“hey you literally posted a rodorah fic two hours ago shouldn’t you wait a while before posting another” uhhhhhhh no

Asks and replies from when I asked on the 17th for Ghidorah-centric writing prompts:

Anonymous said: How about, Rodan coming to help and when he got stabbed from Mothra? Their reactions perhaps? And if they did care for Rodan, going to him rather than fighting Godzilla?

@corruptapostasy said: Ok, since I can’t decide which Ghidorah fic I want to request, I’m gonna suggest both and you pick which one suits your fancy. 1. A (possibly) saucy rivalry/hate romance between Ghidorah and Godzilla, the kind where they want to kill each other but really don’t because that would ruin the fun, 2. A sliiiight redemption arc, if only slightly, where Ghidorah contemplates that maybe destroying planets into ash and rubble may not be what he wants and that endless destruction won’t bring him joy.

@sandiiblu replied: What about Ghidorah being nice to Rodan for awhile simply because Rodan was so loyal to them from the start. Maybe Rodan got hurt and Ghidorah help him aid or rescue him.?????????

This is the fourth in an accidental series of Rodorah fics. If you haven’t read the others, all you need to know is “Ichi is the only head with a crush on Rodan; Ni is furious because Ichi banned crushes eons ago; and San/Kevin is neutral on Rodan but willing to give him a shot.” Also, due to things from different Godzilla movies, Mothra is a telepath, Ghidorah is a (crappy) empath, and at some point aliens mind-controlled Ghidorah. That’s it you’re all caught up! If you wanna read the other fics, link’s at the bottom of this post.

This is the first fic that actually diverges from canon—because Ghidorah checks on Rodan rather than fight Mothra & Godzilla, they don’t die. From here on out it’s all AU, babey!

Bittersweet ending but there’s more fics coming, so that’s not the ending-ending. Anyway angst is delicious.

###

They could take out both of them in one shot.

Here they were, the little king crumpled to the ground, and the bug that just wouldn't die atop him with tattered wings. In one shot, they could incinerate her like she was nothing but a thin carpet of dry leaves and fry what was left of him. The bug had her wings raised like she was preparing to launch herself at their faces.

Try it, they would tell her if they were capable of understanding each other. Try it, and see what happens to you both. Perhaps she could tell what they were thinking. They hoped so.

Lightning prickled up their throats.

A weak cry drifted from across the city.

The lightning died in one of their throats. First whipped around to face the noise, wing dropping to clear the view.

Where was their red sprite?

They remembered him breaking off to distract the unkillable bug so they could focus on the little king. And they could see how the bug was battered and burned now; but she was still flying.

The red sprite had been willing to fight an alien that was triple his size, triple his weight, and triple his heads, and carrying around their own hurricane, and didn’t stop until he physically could not fight anymore; he wouldn't have yielded to an insect. So what had happened to him?

It didn't matter what had happened to him! Focus! The enemy is right here!

First snapped to face forward as the bug flew at them, but they weren't prepared to incinerate her now. They raised a wing to block her, wincing when her stinger pierced the membrane. They didn't know what effect her venom had on the beasts of this planet; but it made them nauseous and clouded their thoughts. They flung her off and slammed her to the ground with their other wing so they could lean forward and snarl at her. The little king tried to get up, but his bellow was more of a wheeze, and he collapsed again. They could bite off the bug's head and turn next on the little king; they could end this now.

And still they hesitated.

What about—they weren't quite thinking clearly from the venom, the present danger slipping in and out of their minds and their thoughts sliding away—what about the red sprite? Where was he?

Second hissed. The red sprite had served his purpose and was unnecessary. The world was going to end—soon—and the red sprite was going to end with it. It was inevitable. They couldn't get attached to him. They were going to lose him. They had to lose him.

But not so soon. First's head sank lower, forehead pressing into the curl of their wing. (The bug stilled under the weight of his head; they were woozy enough not to realize that, this close to First's forehead, the little mindreader would have an even easier time than usual pricking into their thoughts.) Please—not so soon. Not now. In another month, they could lose him. In another day. But not now.

If not now—would they have the strength to later? They had to give up the red sprite. They had no other option. First had taught them that! It was abhorrent that he needed Second to remind him! If they tried to keep the red sprite, then when they inevitably lost him, they would be miserable.  They'd have to carry that misery forward with them, forever—

Well, what did that matter, when they were miserable anyway?

Two of their heads snapped up at the Third's thought. But he was right, wasn't he? World after world after world, they kept themselves apart from everything they saw, refused to let themselves enjoy it, refused to glory in it, simply because it would be gone eventually, and that would make them miserable. They were miserable anyway! They were miserable because they didn't enjoy or glory in anything! They let themselves enjoy nothing except the precise moment of destruction and triumph. Those moments ended, and they were left with nothing. So weren't they already always miserable? What different did it make, then, if they possessed the red sprite for a moment and then lost him?

They didn't know what difference it made. They didn't remember. The thought of losing something seemed somehow so much more terrifying than the thought of simply never having anything, but... but now, world after world after world of living like this, they didn't know what it was that made it terrifying. It just was.

It was terrifying because of the depth of the misery, perhaps— A misery they couldn't recover from. They knew they could live through their current form of misery—the misery of nothingness—because they had lived through it their whole lives. But the misery of having-and-then-losing was different. That one was unknown. They didn’t know if they could survive it.

The little king had forced himself to his feet. The plates on his back glowed blue. They jerked back just soon enough to dodge a weak blast, and in the process let up the bug. No. They were going to finish this battle, finish this world, and go. As they always had and always would.

Go back into the yawning black abyss.

Go back to the void between stars, which swallowed them up like they were nothing.

Go back to ending alien world after alien world after world after world after world...

For what? What were they going to get for it? If they kept the promise they'd made to each other an eon ago to never get attached to anyone or anything, who was going to give them a prize for good behavior? If they reduced enough worlds to ash were they suddenly going to become happy? How many more was it going to take?

The bug was struggling to get to her feet. The little king bellowed, charging again at them, jaw stretched open wide; they rose into the air, spun to slam their barbed tails into his face, dropped out of the air to land on him feet first while he was unsteady. They stumbled back as he fell again, fighting to still themselves so their nausea wouldn't get worse.

Wrathful joy rose in their throats as they saw him fall; then fizzled and faded again.

Third reminded them that that was the only kind of joy they ever felt. First turned to him and hissed, but quietly.

Didn't they know by now that if they kept living the way they always had then they were never going to be happy? If they were going to spend the rest of their eons miserable no matter what—couldn't they try to be actually happy for just one millennium? A century? A day? Maybe one day of happiness would be worth it—because the alternative they were currently living wasn't worth anything.

Why now, though? Second snarled at First—how many millions of possibilities for happiness, big and little and tantalizing and beautiful, had they passed up before now? Why did they deserve to have it now when they'd never deserved it before? Why did First deserve that happiness when he'd forbidden Second and Third from following it?

The red sprite keened again.

Nothing else mattered.

They slammed a foot on one of the bug's tattered wings and twisted, crushing it. Two heads bit at the little king, tearing gashes in his throat and abdomen, so roughly and carelessly that they lost a couple of fangs in his hard hide. All they had to do was slow the king and bug down. These two were already defeated, they'd finish them off later!

Tornadoes sprang up in the wake of their wings as they soared toward the red sprite's voice.

They loathed themselves for it. They loathed each other for it. But they could deal with that later, because the sight of their red sprite crumpled on the ground made their tails lash and the membrane of their wings prickle.

They landed, crouching on their wings, leaning over him to shield him from the rain with their body. He raised his head with difficulty, looking up at them. They knew so little about the people and creatures on this planet, and had put so little effort into trying to learn—they studied his face from three different angles and still couldn't tell if the way his expression was twisted was from pain or something else.

He tried to get up, supporting himself on trembling wings. For the first time, they saw the glowing gash in his chest, and hissed. Oh, they should have ripped that stinger off the bug when they had the chance. What had her venom done to him? First ducked toward the wound, hesitated, drew back. Third completed the motion instead, leaning forward to sniff the hot edges of the wound, and then to press his forehead directly over it, trying to measure how much it hurt. The red sprite chirped weakly.

The pain was weak. The red sprite felt numb, his body unresponsive. His numbness counteracted their own nausea and started clearing their thoughts. Was that what the bug's venom did to creatures on this world? Paralysis? They preferred the nausea.

They were glad he wasn't suffering, but the numbness meant he might not be able to feel his own injuries. Third pulled back and they stretched their heads out, looking over him from all sides, searching for any further signs of damage.

All they could see was wings and a beak and jagged stone skin and wild unreadable alien eyes. From a distance his shape looked so much like a parody of their own species, but up close...

Did they still want to keep him? Seeing like this how strange he was?  Knowing they might never understand each other? Knowing he might not be something that could be kept?

The warm rain beating on their back felt cold compared to the heat the red sprite was radiating. Each time he shifted his head, trying to see all of their faces at once, knots tied and untied in their throats. They thought of how viciously, courageously he'd fought against them, how he'd bowed to them, how he'd followed them into battle. Yes. They wanted him. This precious, fierce little warrior.

They tensed at a cracking sound, and Second whipped around to look in the direction they'd come from. The little king, with the bug clinging to his back, was crushing half-fallen buildings under him as he trudged closer. They curled their wings protectively around their red sprite; then uncurled again and stepped away to stand between him and the little king. They spread their wings wide, tails raised and rattling, hissing.

The little king hesitated for a moment, but then let out a hoarse roar. Fine. They lowered their heads, preparing to strike. If he didn't know when to stay down and take an undeserved mercy...

The bug butted her head on the little king's jowl, pricking one of her scythe-like legs in the crevasses of his neck armor. Oh, they hated that little bug. She was too much like them in a way that wasn't appealing—her mind could touch other minds, like theirs could—they'd felt her brushing up at the edges of their minds before, even from a distance. They feared that she was better at it than they were; they were far weaker at it than they used to be. They wondered what she was slipping now into the little king's mind.

His head jerked down, looking toward their feet under their wings. They crouched, trying harder to block their red sprite. This time, their hisses crackled with the threat of lightning. Of course the bug knew what they were trying to protect; she'd put the glowing wound in his chest. What were she and her thrall thinking now? Did they want to take out the red sprite while he was weak? Did the bug think her little king would stand a better chance against them if they had one less ally? Did she just want to spite them before dying? If either of them even tried to move toward their red sprite...

But they didn't.

The little king stared at the bottom of their wings, like he thought he could still see the red sprite behind them; and then looked up to stare in their faces. Stupid animal. What was it that he wanted? They couldn't read his eyes, couldn't read his face. There was no chance that they could focus well enough or get close enough to read his emotions. What was he going to do?

He widened his stance. They prepared themselves for an attack.

He lifted his head and roared at the sky.

They froze.

They recognized that roar—that specific, high, carrying roar. He'd made it to them, only once, a very long time ago, when they'd been new to this world and he hadn't known what to expect of them and they hadn't yet known what he was trying to convey. They'd heard him make it countless times to the other creatures of this world, as they argued or sparred or tried to kill each other. They didn't know what it said, but they knew what it meant. It meant, yield now, and the battle is over. It meant, I will spare you if you acknowledge me the winner.

Who did this insignificant brat think he was? How dare he?!

Second lunged for the little king's face.

First lunged for Second's throat.

Second screamed, as much from shock as pain, and Third echoed it. First spat and dragged his tongue on the ground to get rid of the taste of his own scales.

Snarling, the little king lurched forward; but the bug butted his head again, and he settled back, waiting.

No. Stop. They could kill the little king later. Eventually, this world would burn, and no one in the galaxy would know of their humiliation. But they could kill the little king at any time. If they tried now, it would only take one stray attack to kill the red sprite. They only had this one chance to save him.

Awkward, off-balance, they tried to copy the gesture their red sprite had performed when he'd bowed to them at the base of his own volcano. They bent forward, trying to contort their wings to stretch out to the sides and lie horizontal over the ground at the same time. Their tails stretched behind them over the red sprite in a futile attempt to maintain their center of balance. They had to pull their heads close to their chest to keep from losing their balance and toppling forward, necks arched up painfully—but even though it would be easier to hang their heads upside-down and stare at the ground, they never looked down. They all glared up at the little king.

They yielded. But only this time.

The little king looked down at them, snorted, and roared. Weak blue lights ran up his back plates, but none came from his mouth; it was just to remind them that he could. His victory was confirmed. The battle was over.

He turned away, already trudging tiredly toward the ocean. The bug picked her way over his back plates to turn and watch them as he retreated.

They lost their balance and landed on their knees. Their wings flopped to the ground, followed by Third's head.

Surrender.

They'd surrendered.

They hadn't surrendered since...

(Eons-old memories floated like pale ghosts up and down their spines: cages and airless moons and commands inserted in their heads that they could not refuse to obey.)

They felt nauseous again. Nauseous and furious. Second ground his forehead and nose into the rubble to try to muffle a scream of frustration.

But the red sprite hopped stiffly around in front of them, surveyed the two heads on the ground, then looked up at First and chirped.

First looked back at him tiredly. They wondered when the happiness would begin.

###

(Replies/reblogs are welcome! Check the “source” link below for my masterlist of Ghidorah-centric and Rodorah fics, as well as my AO3 and Ko-fi links.)

[tintinwrites]

nothing can harm you | Poe Dameron x Reader | Part Two

A/N: You guys liked this! So yay! I had it in mind for so long, but wasn’t sure if people would enjoy it. But you do and thank you

Rating: T but maybe M for subject matter

Warning: Implications of abuse because reader spent probably all or most of her life being trained to be a slave, and those conditions are going to be strict and likely violent. She’s very restricted and quite timid. Legit her first instinct when in a bedroom is to give Poe a blowjob (she doesn’t) even though she probably has never given one before, but she’s been well-trained in how to do so. Naughty words.

Word count: 1,924, apparently!!

Summary: Poe’s figured out what to do with you, and he’s gonna try his hardest to do good by you. Even though you’re terrified of him. And he’s never actually been responsible for someone before. But he feels driven to show you the kindness and happiness you evidently never experienced before, because you need this and maybe some part of him that longs to make a real difference needs it, too.

Part One

GIF credit: No idea, but it’s not mine.

Tags: @writingwithadinosaur @labrujaprincess @that-girl-named-alex @thalia-prior-of-ravenclaw

"Poe, when I said to always keep an eye out for new recruits, this isn't what I meant."

He usually liked it when Leia's sense of humor came out, but with you cowering next to him, Poe wasn't all that into it at the moment. "What am I supposed to do now?"

She gave him an all too familiar look that told him that he never thought anything through and did things on the fly. It briefly changed to sympathy as she eyed your trembling form, then she looked at Poe again. "Get her some clothes," she said in a tone and with a look that made him think that should have been obvious.

It didn't take too much coaxing to get you to follow him out of the room, which was pretty nice.

When he'd landed at the base and told you it was time to get out, you launched out of his lap and onto the dashboard of his ship. He told you about four hundred times that you were okay and that no one was going to hurt you, before you reluctantly got out with him and walked with him to the command center.

Probably because you were scared he'd hurt you if you didn't.

He brought you down a corridor where a supply closet full of perfectly folded clothing sat, waiting to be needed by somebody. He took out a simple shirt and pants, and held them out for you to take. "So you can change in— what the—"

You immediately stripped off what little you already had on. Poe dropped the clothing in his haste to make himself as big as possible, to make sure that if anyone would come down the hallway, they wouldn't be able to see you.

Unless they came from the other end of the hall, in which case they wouldn't get too much of a view.

"What are you doing?" He kept his gaze on your face. All you did was stare at him, before picking the clothes up and pulling them on. "I was gonna say that you could change in your temporary quarters."

You stared at him. He gave up and guided you a few doors down, to a vacant room you could stay in until they got you set up.

Assuming you stayed, anyway.

You looked around the room, at the bed and then at him, and then you moved to your knees.

He wasn't sure what the hell was going on until you reached for his pants.

"Nope! No!" He grabbed onto your upper arms and hauled you back to your feet. You looked terrified and he felt like a dick, but he wasn't about to let you try to please him. "What did they do to you? Huh?"

You didn't answer him.

"Can you even talk?" He watched you bite your lip, before you nodded. "Did they hurt you when you tried to talk?" Another nod made him want to go to that planet and do things he would probably regret. "I'm not gonna hurt you for talking. I'm serious. Why don't you tell me your name? It's okay."

You seemed to be in a war with yourself for a long moment. "I don't have one," you finally spoke softly, flinching back in case there was any retaliation.

If his heart hadn't broken for you before, it definitely did now.

"Okay. You're okay. We'll figure something out." He ran a hand over his face, looking at you thoughtfully. "Why don't we get you a little to eat?"

Poe had to make the whole dining hall clear out just to get you to go in; you were overwhelmed and terrified by the bustle that he became used to. He let you pick out whatever table you wanted to sit at, which you did so tentatively before watching him as he gathered food for you.

Ever since he set the plate in front of you no more than two minutes before, he'd been staring in wonder as you devoured the food like he would take it away at any moment.

It occurred to him that since you were clearly well-groomed into being a slave, you probably barely got a thing to eat.

He wondered why the First Order couldn't just destroy planets like that, then berated himself for his cruelty.

Though they sure as shit deserved it.

They were probably aligned with the First Order, so it didn't matter anyway.

He watched you pause your feast to gulp down an entire cup of water, which he took to refill just in case those assholes deprived you of the life-sustaining liquid, too.

You were halfway done with your plate when he sat back down. "Don't eat too fast."

"I'm sorry." You stopped eating immediately, pushing your plate away and lowering your gaze to your lap. "I didn't mean to...upset you." Your words came out slow and clipped from apparently being hurt every time you tried to talk before.

"You didn't upset me," he spoke as gently as he could because he didn't want you to be afraid of him. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

The moment was ruined, though, and you made no move to start eating again. He was happy that he got some food in you, since it was probably more than you'd had in weeks.

He guessed he was going to have to lead the way until you came into your own. You would likely be all too happy to curl in a ball, and you had way too much potential for him to let you sit around in fear.

"So you're free now. What do you wanna do?" He watched as you blinked, then you gave a small shrug. "You didn't dream about doing anything other than what they made you do?"

"I was under the impression that other things weren't meant for me," you said, your voice getting progressively smaller as your explanation went on.

He smiled. "You can do anything you want now. What do you want?"

Absolute shame crossed your face and you looked as if you were about to cry. "I don't know what there is." You gave a soft whine that nearly turned into a sob, but you quickly stopped yourself.

"—we'll figure that out." He'd be lying if he said your fear and sadness weren't getting his emotions worked up. He grabbed your plate and ignored your flinch with a clenched jaw, moving to dispose of it.

"What is there...sir?"

He paused for a short moment. "You call me Poe."

Your quick correction of "Yes, Poe," had him realizing his tone.

"Fuck, I didn't mean to say it like that." He moved back to the table and sat down. "You and me...we're equals. I don't want you to call me anything but my name."

"I understand."

He watched you nod, then focused on the question you had asked him. "You want me to tell you what there is to do?" Another nod. "There's a lot you can do. We have a lot of technicians that would love to have you."

"Have me?"

"No, not like that! Have you around to train you, get you repairing some of our ships. Or I could teach you how to fly, maybe? We can always use more pilots." He watched you as you furrowed your brow in thought. "Or, uh...there's plenty you can do here, and a lot more you can do outside of the Resistance. We just gotta take care of the First Order so you can be safe out there. Let's make this easier. What can you do?" He could see the concentration that came into your eyes as you tried to think of all your skills.

"Cook. Clean. Garden. Fuck."

"—I'm sure we can find something for you." His voice was slightly low, holding back anger and sadness because you were a being with as much potential as anyone else, and the monsters on that planet took it away from you; you never even had a chance, from what he could tell based on how 'well-trained' you were.

He was going to make sure you had every opportunity you could dream of. If the only real good he ever did was give a terrified, abused girl the life she should have, before he would inevitably die at the hand of Kylo Ren or some random stormtrooper, that would be more than good enough for him.

Even if all he managed was to get you off that planet, and the hands of the First Order would get him on his next mission, that would be okay too, because at least someone more capable than him could send you off into a happy life.

But you experiencing such difference and him meeting Kylo Ren's lightsaber were far off, as you gave a yawn that you quickly tried to hide in shame.

He didn't reprimand you for it because he was smart enough to know it would take time to break the habits that were drilled into you.

"When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?"

"Not ever."

"Come on." He stood up and held out his hand, and lowered it when you cringed away out of instinct. "You can just walk beside me."

"I would like that."

He lead you to the corridor that held the base's temporary quarters, opening the door to the room he showed you before. "It's time for you to get to bed, sweetheart. The mattresses are firm and the sheets are like leaves, but you don't really mind when you're exhausted."

You looked into the room, then confusedly at Poe. "I just go in and go to sleep?"

"That's your room for right now. You can do anything you want in there." He nodded at the doorway encouragingly, and you carefully stepped inside of it.

"You've had a long day and a long...everything, actually. Try to get a little sleep."

"Yes, Poe." You turned to look at him.

He gave you a smile and reached up to close the door, letting his shoulders droop with a sigh once he was out of your view.

He wasn't sure if he preferred having no idea what the hell to do with you, or knowing he needed to show you what life had to offer beyond what you were aware of.

They were equally terrifying. On the one hand, he didn't like not knowing what to do, and on the other, it was a big responsibility to make sure another person was happy and taken care of.

He could handle it, though, and you didn't deserve to have him quit on you because he didn't want to deal with it.

He did want to deal with it and he did want to see you happy. He was kind of hoping the First Order wouldn't kill him so he could be sure everything was good for you.

Big responsibility or not, it would be worth it.

It would be worth it in the morning, after he got his own much needed sleep. After being on that terrible planet and then doing his best to tend to you, he was even more excited for his uncomfortable bed with his stiff sheets. There were no missions from General Organa, so he could spend the day focusing on warming you up to him and looking for normal jobs you might enjoy doing.

As he practically fell onto his bed, he really hoped you wouldn't be afraid of him in the morning.

[starsword-library]

Verona landed the ship on a deserted beach close to the coordinates she had of Staph’s hometown. Not that they were expecting to see it. Asterozone’s inhabitants were aquatic and needed extra equipment to be able to breathe out of water. Few of them would go through such hassle if they didn’t have any intergalactic business to conduct, and this town looked very far from any bustling metropolis.

“Makes you wonder what kind of kid Staph was to sneak out up here of all places,” Verona pointed out as they walked through the grey sand, looking for signs of the so-called Jellyfish Graveyard which, according to what they researched before leaving, was supposed to be on the surface. “I mean, sure, I’ve done my share of stupid escapades as a kid, but I didn’t steal diving gear for it at least.”

“Well, we know what kind of adult Staph is now,” Cheryl laughed. “Always thought they were too spunky to be just on the maintenance side of things.”

“Yeah I dunno, I don’t actually know them much. Or Vinessa too,” Verona  added.

As they went further, the sand gave place to purple rocky terrain with the  occasional patch of dark grass. The few animals on the way would quickly flee, probably not used to strangers walking around. But the team’s eyes weren’t so much on that as they were on the dark blue mountain peak that could be seen in the distance. That was their destination. It reminded Mag of home, of Curit’s giant buildings made to absorb and conduct Star Beating. She wondered if the material was really similar. Staph had mentioned the cave glowed, and Curit’s metal did no such thing.

As they got near, they were greeted by a huge wall of purple bricks.

“Yeah, this should be it,” said Verona, looking on her phone, “seems like the wall was built to discourage people from going in, but it’s not even guarded? I guess it’s a hassle to put people here when you all live underwater.”

“Still, it’s awful that a historical site is treated this way!” Mag pouted. “I should report that to the responsible authorities.”

Verona sighed, not taking her eyes off her phone. “What makes you think they don’t know already, they’ve dealt with the planet longer than us. Let’s just be grateful it makes it easier for us to sneak in, there’s should be a gate somewhere around according to this.”

“If it was being overseen properly we wouldn’t need to sneak in!” Mag rebutted as they started to go around the wall, “we could just ask for permission, we’re researching the place after all.”

“That really works for you every time?”

“Mostly, it’s impossible to get isolated planets to cooperate, unfortunately, but we get clearance from the majority of the integrated ones. Professor Wiz and the rest of university staff deal with the paperwork so I don’t know the details, but who would want to hamper the progress of healing technology, we do provide it to the whole galaxy in return!”

“That’s a fair point,” Cheryl said, joining the conversation, “we all own Curit more than we realize, don’t we? Guess that explains why the boss accepted you coming over so quickly, he must really respect your work.”

“That’s good to know,” Mag smiled, “I was surprised too, I never heard of any other student who got to work with the Defense Force, they say you usually stay out of public view unless there’s danger around. I expected to go my whole life without meeting you.”

“So I gotta know,” Chrys chimed in, grinning as usual, “are we worth getting shot by robots? I’m gonna hear ‘yes’ no matter what you say because I know we’re great, I just wanna see if you know it too.” Verona and Cheryl were both snickering at that.

“Uh, I,” Mag stuttered, her hands shaking in the air, “I don’t think there’s a good answer to this, I won’t celebrate that a crisis happened, but I don’t regret anything from that time either, I guess I’m just glad you saved us, and now I know firsthand how important your job is, so I just want to get good results for you all as soon as possible.”

“Then guess you’re in luck, ‘cause I think I see the gate right there,” Verona said, pointing ahead, and she was right.

It was a gate made of rusty blue bars, locked with a padlock and chain that looked just as old and worn out. That wasn’t the part that got their attention though. Behind the gate was a huge lake surrounded by lush grass, and on the other side they could finally see the base of the dark mountain they were chasing so far. Mag saw from the corner of her eye that Chrys already had got their camera out, already taking shots.

“Sure hope the entrance has a solid path to it somewhere, I’d hate to swim through all that,” said Verona, one foot already in the gate’s bars. “Anyone’s gonna need help climbing this?”

“Thank you, but I can fly over it just fine,” Mag said.

“Hey, that’s right,” Verona turned to her, “you could have flown over the wall all this time, couldn’t you? Not that it’d be too helpful if you can’t carry people. Can you?”

Mag shook her head. “I don’t think so, our flight ability is magical so we can move with little effort, but that don’t apply to moving other things. That requires much more strength.”

“Yeah, I thought that would be too absurd.”

“Indeed, I guess those of us in need will have to stick to the ladyknight and no one else, right?” Cheryl winked at Verona, but she seemed to ignore it, already starting to climb.

“No you won’t, you have a lot more limbs than me and I know you can put them to use.”

Chrys raised their hand. “So, what would happen if I tried to take on the offer?”

“I’ve seen you climb straight walls, you can do this!” she shouted exasperately, already on top of the gate.

“Okay Verona so for who, exactly, were you offering help?” Chrys asked, a arm vaguely gesturing to the rest of the team.

Verona landed on the other side with a jump, and turned back to them, waving her arms in Mag’s direction.

“I forgot Mag flies, okay? She’s always on our height so I, it just slipped my mind! She’s the newbie so she gets the help, you two just like playing dumb and I’m not helping, I’m having a lazy loop this time!”

“This wounds me,” Cheryl pouted. “But I suppose a bit of exercise is fine,” and she began climbing, slower than Verona. Meanwhile, Chrys took off their boots and launched themself on the wall, somehow clinging to it and moving up. It took Mag a moment to remember they had claws, that was probably how they were doing it.

Thus they all got to the other side, Verona gently helping Cheryl to come down despite their early banter. Mag carried Chrys’ boots with her, though they didn’t put them back on.

“Thanks Mag, but just leave them around here, I’ll pick them when we come back, don’t wanna them getting dirty or ripped with all this.”

Verona stared at them, raising an eyebrow. “What’s this now, you never cared before. Given everything they go through I’d guess they are sturdy enough for you.”

Chrys shrugged. “I guess.”

<prev   next> read from the start

[otterandterrierwrites]

{Hungry hearts} X. Sahbiye

A/N: Happy May the Fourth and Scoundress Saturday, and welcome new followers! Like I mentioned in the snippet I posted last week, this story it’s set right before the start of the Annual #3 comic. I’m not crazy about how it turned out, but I’ve been wanting to use this dish from “Honour among thieves” almost since the beginning for reasons, and sadly, it also turned into a bit of an homage to Peter Mayhew and our beloved Chewie. We’re getting closer to ESB so things are turning undefinably weird between Han and Leia!

‘So this,’ Leia said, opening her arms to encompass the desolate landscape before them, ‘is your brilliant secret lair?’

‘It’s not “my lair”?’ Han grunted, coming down from the Millennium Falcon’s ramp behind her. ‘Welcome to Odona, Princess.’

Leia threw him a wary look before stepping down into the dusty land and examining their surroundings. Here and there, crumbling stone structures rose from the ground, looking even older than the Massassi temples on Yavin IV. Massive pillars and half-standing statues guarded the dark mouths of the caves Han had pointed out as one of the key features that made Odona the ideal planet for a new military base.

It hadn't been easy to relocate after Yavin. Dantooine had been the Alliance’s first headquarters, and they had lasted a whole two years there. On Yavin IV, it had been a year and a couple of months. Afterwards, they had split and moved between their other, smaller bases, but this arrangement kept their forces too scattered across the galaxy to launch any major attacks. Leia had hoped that destroying the Death Star had been an opening, a victory important enough to let them strike at a weakened Empire until it fell---but while they’d had a few more wins, they seemed to never make much of a dent. She hoped that would change if they could find a base large and isolated enough to safely concentrate a large number of troops.

Han had mentioned that one of Odona’s polar continents was an abandoned rock with a maze of caves favored by pirates and smugglers to escape Imperial detection, and that it was big enough to establish a new base. The only problem, he’d said, was its extreme weather.

Leia and the rest of High Command had decided it was worth checking out, and that it would be more practical if it was just a small team going in and out quietly. If it was risky, it would be easier to get out. The idea had been to have a commander accompany Han and Chewbacca to Odona. Han had insisted he wouldn’t take any other rebels on his ship but Luke or Leia---and Luke had been away on a different recon mission. When she walked into the Falcon, Leia passed Chewie on his way out. For some reason, the Wookiee was not going with them.

‘The weather is nice,’ Leia commented. The pale blue sky was mostly clear but for wispy clouds, and the morning breeze was pleasant. Nothing seemed to hint at a treacherous climate.

‘Yeah, for now,’ Han warned. ‘You got layers?’

Leia assented; he had insisted on the vitality of wearing layered clothes and carrying warm coats besides.

‘Let's go,’ Han said, and closed down the Falcon before they set out towards the nearest cave, rucksacks on their backs.

They did the trek in silence. Things had been strained lately, more so than usual. Generally, she and Han had a disagreement that became a loud blowout, they spent a few days avoiding each other, then she’d go and ask him to run a mission or he’d invite her and Luke to his ship after dinner and things would go back to normal. For some time, they hadn’t even fought, only bickered, which often turned into friendly banter. Han made her laugh---genuinely laugh---and, surprisingly, he could keep his mouth shut when she just wanted to share a drink with someone and not talk about anything---although they often ended up talking anyway. He was also one of the best partners she’d ever had in the field.

Something had shifted recently, though, and she couldn’t put her finger on what or when it had happened. It was closer to the way they were in the beginning, except back then, she hadn’t cared much whether he stayed or left for good. Now, there was a tension between them while they fought, as if there was something fragile on the line, ready to come crashing down at the slightest wrong maneuver.

The last time they fought, Leia was so angry afterwards. They had been cooking together, talking---she was sure he’d even shared something very private with her---and suddenly he was getting up in her space, acting like he was trying to pick someone up in a bar. When she had pulled back from whatever the hell he had in mind, he’d walked away from her and left her with half a dozen star fritters to finish and a kitchen to clean.

‘Are you sure these structures won’t fall down over our heads the minute we step in?’ she asked as they stood on the threshold of the cave, dark and jagged like the maw of a waiting beast.

‘If they ain’t fallen down in a snow storm, they won’t fall down now,’ Han said, surveying the antechamber-like space that narrowed down into a tunnel. He took his blaster from its holder and turned on his flashlight, then motioned for her to follow. ‘C’mon, get yours.’

Alarmed, Leia drew her blaster and asked, ‘Already?’

‘Just in case we need to clear this out.’

‘I was under the impression there were no living beings in this continent.’

‘Well, you know what happens when you assume things,’ Han said in a tone too flippant to be genuine. Without waiting for her, he crossed the chamber and stepped into the tunnel.

Leia hurried to follow, annoyed.

‘So just to be clear, what kind of beings can we expect to run into?’

‘Hopefully none.’

‘Will you cut out the crap?’ she snapped with an angry huff, tugging at the collar of her shirt. It was no wonder she’d started to feel hot: besides the flush her irritation at Han induced, she was wearing a jacket, a long-sleeved shirt and a tank top underneath.

Han stopped and turned to give her a tired look.

‘Look, Princess, we can stand here fightin’ about what hypothetical creatures might live here or we can get on with the recon and worry about them when we have to. If we have to,’ he added.

‘You should know by now that the way we operate is, we lay down all the intel we have on a planet before we get there,’ Leia retorted, glaring at him.

‘I don't have any intel!’ Han raised his arms in exasperation. ‘It's just stupid rumours!’

He glared back, his jaw tight, and then he breathed out forcefully.

‘It’s been years since anyone’s seen them---no one I talked to was sure they even exist. If you gotta know, some folks talk about big blobs covered in eyes and teeth lurkin’ in these caves. Never met ‘em myself. See why I didn't think to mention ‘em? They're probably a myth, no more’n that.’

It was hard to decide whether she was relieved by Han’s assessment that the creatures were likely to be a fantasy, or worried by their description in case they were real, but at least he was being honest.

‘Let’s move,’ she said, with a nod, and began to walk.

The deeper they went into the cave, the hotter it felt. If Leia didn’t know better, she would have believed they were walking straight into the planet’s core.

‘Are there… thermal pools nearby or something?’ she asked, taking off her jacket. Han did the same.

‘No, this ball’s just starting to heat up.’

Less than twenty minutes later, the cave felt like a furnace.

‘Kriff,’ Han said, wiping off his sweaty brow with the back of his wrist. He stopped and took off his vest, then pulled his shirt over his head and stuffed both of them inside his rucksack. ‘You’ll wanna lose some layers.’

Silently, Leia thanked the heat for justifying her blush. After stripping off, Han was left wearing a plain white vest that clung to his skin in all the right places. She’d seen him wearing less, but that didn’t mean she underrated the image in front of her. And just like she was watching him, wouldn’t he watch her if she took off her shirt? Leia wasn’t vain, but she wasn’t oblivious to her features, either.

‘I’m fine,’ she said, and kept moving forward, pointing her flashlight at crevices she feigned interest in.

It was far from fine. Her clothes stuck to her armpits, her back and belly, and she felt as if even her hair was starting to sweat. They were rationing their water: she couldn’t afford to dehydrate just for the sake of her… modesty or whatever ridiculous nonsense was keeping her fully clothed.

Slowing down discreetly to fall behind Han, she dumped her rucksack to the ground and stripped off her shirt, tying it around her waist. It was inevitable that Han turned to check on her when he noticed she was lagging behind, but Leia looked straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge his expression.

The cave seemed all right... at first. Her instruments didn't register radiation or poisoning elements. If Han was right about them being frequently beaten up by storms, then he also had to be right in thinking they were solid enough to not crumble down on them. It seemed that the weather (or perhaps something else) did take its toll on them, however: here are there they began to find sections where the roof had caved in and huge rocks blocked the passages, forcing them to take a different route.

Leia was growing concerned. The cave was more labyrinthine than either of them had prepared for. Han kept insisting that he would not get them lost, and she wanted to believe him, but they’d had to stray off the main tunnel and had taken so many twists and turns, she couldn’t be sure she’d know which way they had come. She’d taken out her handheld navcomp, but it was having trouble reading the complex terrain. On top of it, the heat was almost suffocating. It was getting on both their nerves.

‘It gotta be that way,’ Han said.

‘Why? Because that rock seems more promising than this one?’ Leia snapped as they stood at a crossroads.

‘Because we don’t know which one to take so we might as well go that way and see!’

‘So if I say let’s take this tunnel instead, you’ll follow?’ she asked, raising her eyebrows.

‘No, ‘cos you’re just bein’ difficult.’

‘Oh, really? I’m being difficult just for suggesting a different route than the one you pulled out of your ass? How manly of you.’

‘I'm just sayin’ that's not what you want!’ he said, refuting her accusation with a raised finger.

‘What do you know about what I really want, Han?’ she spat out. She knew she was blowing things out of proportion, but she was tired of the encompassing darkness of the cave, of its confusing bowels, of the perspiration that covered her head to toes, and she was tired of letting Han lead this dance around each other.

‘Guess I don’t have a kriffin’ clue!’ Han groaned in frustration and turned around. The tired sigh that followed seemed to discharge him of his anger, and when he spoke, it was in a measured tone. ‘Alright, why don’t we stop for a bit? Let’s take a breather and have a bite, and then we’ll discuss which way to go.’

She resented that his alternative to taking her route was basically to let her cool off so that they could go the way he wanted. She wanted to keep yelling at him even if she wasn't very clear on what exactly to yell at him about. The diplomat in her reasoned that she couldn't know that was his plan, and that he was proposing a truce, so she should meet him halfway.

Taking a deep breath, she slid her rucksack off her shoulders and sat down without a word.

‘You said you’d pack lunch for both of us,’ she said dryly. ‘I hope you remembered, or else---Force help you.’

Han snorted. ‘Some faith you have in me, Your Worshipfulness.’

He sat down on the ground next to her, their bare arms brushing. Leia bit down on her lower lip to keep a shiver at bay while Han took out a portable cooler out of his bag, and retrieved a smaller container.

‘Sahbiye,’ he told her, pointing at a mix of soft green leaves and meat bathed in a golden sauce. ‘Chewie made it. Haven’t been cookin’ much myself ‘cos the thermpad’s been actin’ up more’n usual and it drives me crazy, but he said he’d make this for us---uh, well, actually for you.’

‘For me?’

‘You hadn’t tried his sahbiye yet, he said. He doesn’t make it very often. He must like you, Princess.’

‘That’s very kind of him,’ Leia said, taking the fork he offered her. She speared a piece of meat and scooped up some greens, and took a bite. The flavours were rich and comforting, making her tension ease up a little.

‘That’s Chewie. Can’t shake ‘im off once he’s decided to look after you,’ Han told her. ‘Even though you weren’t very kind to him, in the beginning,’ he added.

Leia frowned in confusion. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘You called him a walking carpet. When we were tryin’ to get outta the Death Star.’ Han looked at her. ‘You don’t remember?’

She shook her head, then raised an eyebrow at him. ‘I was a bit too preoccupied with other things at the time as to remember everything I said to anyone.’ Leia looked away for a moment. ‘It wasn’t anything personal. I didn’t expect to get out of there alive, and when the possibility seemed real, I wanted to get back to the Rebellion at any cost, because maybe---maybe I could help them when I---’

When I couldn’t help Alderaan, she thought, but she couldn’t say it out loud. She looked at him again. ‘So I’m sorry if I was a bit---’

‘Pain in the ass?’ Han asked through a mouthful of sahbiye.

She made a face that meant “don’t push it”, but nodded. They’d never talked about it, about what had happened in the Death Star (except for Ben Kenobi’s mysterious, sudden death) and about those less than ideal first impressions. The day had seemed a blur to her afterwards, an overwhelming, deafening whirlwind of experiences, most of which she wanted to forget.

‘Even if I don’t remember what I said, I am sorry to have treated him badly. There’s no excuse,’ she said.

Han shook his head. ‘Not me you have to apologise to. Chewie’s probably forgotten, anyway.’

‘Maybe, but I hope he knows how much I appreciate him. He’s a good fighter… and a better friend.’

‘And a great cook,’ Han added.

‘I wholeheartedly agree.’

A chilly breeze swept through the cave, and she put her fork down to rub her arms. ‘Is it cooling down or am I imagining it?’

‘Weather's turnin’ fast. That's how it is around here.’ Han put on his shirt again and set his jacket and parka out next to him in preparation.

Leia looked at him in disbelief, but she too re-dressed herself as the gust of cool wind on her damp skin had given her goosebumps.

‘We should get outta here in case there’s a snowstorm,’ Han suggested, standing up and packing their things.

The crossroads still lay before them, two different paths to choose from, each with their own undiscovered possibilities.

‘So, which way?’ Leia asked, turning to look up at Han.

‘Back the way we came,’ Han said gruffly. ‘Can’t be worse than anything else.’

[virmillion]

Ibytm - T minus 10 seconds

Masterpost - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter - ao3

Words: 2,102

Logan sifts through his notecard stack again, wishing (not for the first time) that he would’ve had the foresight to holepunch them and run a string through to maintain some semblance of organization. But no, no, past Logan decided that present-Logan should agonize over minute fears while sweating bullets in an empty conference room. He just about screams his lungs to shreds when the door swings open, but it’s only Roman, who displays an encouraging smile and a double thumbs-up. “Am I late?”

“The opposite, war funce—er, for once. I, uh, I start in efflen—eleven nim—minutes. Eleven minutes. Until I start.”

“Why are you so nervous?”

“Because of how many things that can go wrong. Just ask Murphy, I’m basically guaranteed to fail by his logic. Where’s notecard seven?” Logan places the stack of notecards on the table as gingerly as possible, perfectly parallel with the edge as he kneels to search the floor. “I lost the seventh card, what if I forget what’s on it? What if I don’t—”

“Logan, do me a favor and remind me when NASA was founded,” Roman says nonchalantly, taking a seat at the closest chair.

“July twenty-ninth, nineteen eighty—no, nineteen fifty-eight. Where did I put—”

“And how long after that did they reach the moon?”

“July sixteenth, nineteen sixty-nine. I swear, all the information for slide eighteen was on that—”

Logan glances up as Roman swats his head with the missing notecard. “Logan, those questions aren’t even important ones that you have to put any effort into, and you’ve got them down . The stuff you’ve actually been trying with is all just concrete, and you don’t just misplace concrete. You do not need these notecards, okay? You’re gonna crush this presentation, and if you get nervous, just look at me, yeah?”

“How on Earth would looking at you be in any way helpful to me?”

“How on Earth would it not be?”

Logan slumps his shoulders and takes the notecard, reading over it. Well, he was right—it does correspond to slide eighteen. That’s something, at least. “I don’t know.”

“And you don’t need to. You’ve got this.”

“This is literally the single largest—”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“But it does, though. If I don’t completely nail this presentation, I might never move on to the space exploration research tier, much less the actual doing the stuff tier. I’ll just be doing busy work for forever, and all that rides on how well I do today.”

Roman slides down in his chair until he’s sitting on his back and kicks his foot out, rolling the chair in front of Logan aside. “Sit down.”

“But I have to—”

“Siddown.”

He does.

Roman sits back up in his chair and raises his hands as if anticipating a punch Logan certainly isn’t about to throw. “You’ve been working on this presentation for months—”

“A week.”

“Don’t interrupt me. You’ve been working on things that led to you working on this for ages, and you’ve put your entire soul into it—yes you do so have one, don’t even try me—and you are going to crush it. This whole deal is just a formality, yeah? Everyone here knows how good you can do at any job they give you, and even Katie-Lee knows you’d give her a run for her money if given half a chance.”

“Well.”

“What?”

“How well I can do at any job. You said ‘good,’ which is wrong.”

“Seem but on your little grammar tirade, you didn’t correct me not using Katie-Lee’s honorific, which means some part of your subconscious acknowledges that you’re at least on her level, if not above it.”

“Or it just means I’m extremely nervous.”

“That is also a valid possibility.” Roman glances to the door as a cluster of people in very professional looking suits shuffles in. Shooting Logan a quick wink and nod, he stands and moves to a chair at the back corner of the room, where he pulls out a small notepad from his pocket. Logan lurches to his feet, suddenly all too aware of how underdressed he feels in comparison to these newcomers.

He offers nods and smiles to everyone that files in, wondering whether they know how off-putting their cool demeanors are. They probably do. It’s probably on purpose. They’ve probably already written him off as a waste of their time. At the back of the room, Roman crosses one ankle over the other knee and starts taking notes, poking his tongue out as he bends his head over the pad. Taking a few centered breaths, Logan faces the projector screen and closes his eyes.

Roman is right there if you need anything. He has your back. Virgil has your back from a distance. You can do this. You did presentations all the time in school, no problem. You don’t need the notecards, but they’re there if you need a parachute. Everyone in this room is just a human. If you mess up, they’ll understand. There’s always tomorrow. Hearing the voice in his head giving these reassurances to himself, Logan realizes why Virgil always gets annoyed when he hears them. Logan is, in fact, much more agitated now than he was before.

“You ready?” It is extremely difficult for Logan to fight off the urge to launch himself through the ceiling at the sudden sound of Miss Katie-Lee’s voice. He turns and smiles and nods and pretends his legs aren’t still trembling with adrenaline—‘pretends’ being the operative word. “Good, then go ahead and get started.” Miss Katie-Lee takes a seat near the head of the table—stage right, if Logan’s limited theater knowledge serves him correctly. Directly across from her is pretty much the most important person to have ever stepped foot in this building. ( Aside from Virgil, says a cutesy voice in Logan’s head, which he ignores.)

Robin P. Gazebo, director of the Kennedy Space Center. If it weren’t for him, Logan would absolutely still be toiling away in computer engineering classes and looking at the stars with something akin to vague disinterest. He’s never been this freaking close to the guy before.

For those of you keeping score at home, Logan’s heart is hovering somewhere around the planet’s mantle right now.

“Ah, Mr. Walders, is it?” Director Gazebo says, glancing over his clipboard. Undoubtedly full of information that very well might decide how Logan’s entire life plays out from here.

“Actually, I recently got married, so my surname is now Sanders, Director Gazebo, but, um, yes, that’s me,” Logan says, his voice about as panicky as he would expect it to be. He sincerely might just flat out collapse, right here, right now. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

“And you as well. Congratulations on your nuptials, by the way.” The director sticks out a hand, and Logan isn’t sure whether it’s a good or bad thing that it’s warm when he shakes it. Good, because the director is warm and inviting? Or bad, because it means Logan’s hand is cold, which could be off-putting to the most important person in the building? Or worse, because maybe the director peed on his hand to get it that warm? Do people do that? Should Logan start doing that? “And you can just call me Robin.”

“Right, yes, thank you, sorry, and you me Logan—er, you can call me Logan, I mean. If you want to.” Logan is all too aware that he sounds like a preteen meeting their pop star idol right now, but he is also aware that he will never in his life call the director anything less official than ‘the director.’ Take a wild guess which thought is occupying more space in his mind. “Shall we get started?”

“Whenever you’re ready, Logan.” Director Gazebo leans back in his chair and takes out a pen, and Logan debates the merits of sticking his head out the window for some air. Perhaps not the smartest move, but what if he really, really wants to? He doesn’t do it, of course, but the idea is quite appealing. Instead, he flicks on the projector, inhaling confidence and exhaling nerves. Seriously, how has Virgil not just up and smacked him for these inane little positivity slogans?

It takes a solid eighty-seven percent of Logan’s willpower not to glance down at his notecards before he opens his mouth. “Hello, everyone. I’d like to start by thanking you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to meet me here today. My name is Logan Sanders, and I would like to discuss why we as a species need to turn our attention to the stars, not for any sort of escapism, but to advance our understanding of the planet beneath us.”

Partial disclosure, Logan spent the better part of two days coming up with that intro.

Full disclosure, he has absolutely no idea what happens next, and certainly has no hope of translating that into legible words. A cop-out, to be sure, but he can’t help it, so suck it up, buttercup.

Yeah, he gets through the presentation with only a few mistakes (in his defense, ‘faster than light drive’ is much easier to say at a normal speaking rate than a high-on-terror-and-adrenaline speaking rate). He doesn’t forget any crucial information, nor does he need to peek at notecard seven, and he manages to make eye contact with everyone, and he even cracks a few jokes that seem to land well enough. He only has to look at Roman a couple times (whereupon he sees him holding up his phone with a picture of Virgil’s face edited onto the moon, which admittedly does make him smile), but that’s about all Logan can say for sure.

The moment it’s over—finished, done, complete, well and truly over, a wave of relief that Logan is certain his audience can see—he exhales and smiles and powers off the projector. Nothing has ever felt better than the resounding silence in the space now devoid of the projector’s humming.

Well, nothing aside from what happens next.

“That was very intriguing, Logan,” Director Gazebo says, giving him a warm smile and a firm handshake. “I suspect there will be much to discuss tonight.”

“I, um, thank you, direc—sir.” Logan swallows around a tight lump in his throat as the director, along with everyone that followed him in, exits the room, comparing and exchanging notes. Once only Miss Katie-Lee and Roman remain, Logan perches on the sole chair that was empty for the whole presentation.

“That was quite impressive,” Miss Katie-Lee says. “Not to mention how quickly you managed to pull it off, too, even with all those extra assignments I needed from you. You certainly have a keen eye for quality.” Leaving Logan stunned into silence there at the table, Miss Katie-Lee takes her leave. Down to just Logan and Roman.

Logan lets out a long, anguished groan and drops his forehead to the table with a thunk , watching his hands tremble against his thighs. “That could not possibly have gone any—”

“Better? You’re right, you did fantabulous,” Roman cuts in, scraping his chair across the room to Logan’s side. “Man, they loved you. Bet they fast track you to the top after that one. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a solid breakdown of the velocities of space-time travel before, and I’ve certainly never cared about them before.”

Logan allows himself a small laugh through his nose and tries to smile, wondering whether now would be an acceptable time to run amok in the streets, screaming his head off.

“Hey, Logan, buddy?”

“Mmn.”

“You wanna look at me?”

Logan shakes his head, expecting to be left alone, so perhaps you can imagine and understand his surprise when he feels his hair being yanked upward. “Ow!”

Roman laughs and retracts his hand, leaving Logan rubbing at the freshly sore spot at the crown of his head. “What? I needed you to look at me!”

“Why did you need to physically harm the literal hairs on my head to accomplish that?”

“Because it’s important to me that you get how sincere I am when I say what I’m about to say.” The look of unabashed sincerity in Roman’s face is more than a little disquieting, as Logan is far more used to Roman having at least a little humor in his expression. “You did good. You did really, really good.”

Logan looks back down at the table, at the notecards still perfectly parallel to the edge. “Huh. I guess I did, didn’t I?”

[starboundfic]

Chapter 16

Silence

Chapter 15 - Interlude 1

Gonna say this upfront, this chapter’s a doozy, in terms of things that happen in it.

A huge thanks goes out to my beta for this, because I’d still be stuck on this without them. This chapter is something of a milestone for me, too, as it's one I've had planned out since I first started the fic back in ye olde days of '17.

PLEASE DO REREAD CHAPTER 15 IF YOU READ IT ONLY WITHIN THE FIRST THREE DAYS OF ME POSTING IT. YOU’LL BE EXTREMELY CONFUSED OTHERWISE.

“We’ll provide support from orbit,” Allura said over the comm. “And let you know if anything changes.”

“Thanks for that,” Stan replied, while Jordan focused on taking a few deep breaths. He thought Eva had seemed a bit distracted earlier, but now he knew why. Rick’s down there.

“So we know what to do, right?” Eva asked.

“Yeah,” Jordan replied. They’d spent almost an hour coming up with the plan, and while it was on the simpler end of the scale, he had a good feeling about it.

First, they’d all take out any fighters the base might have. Then, they’d all go on foot into the base—he and Koji would handle one half of the building, while Eva and Stan would look through the other, with all four of them freeing anyone and everyone on the way.

After that, it’d just be a matter of getting everyone to the castleship.

She’d also mentioned having seen two actual-Galra guards there, with a third named Lirax supposedly in charge of the place. Which meant looking before shooting.

Jordan knew that…well, that it was unavoidable whenever it came to Lions-against-battlecruiser, but he wasn’t too keen on the idea of actually taking anyone out himself. I’ll just…try to knock ‘em out if I see ‘em. Yeah, that’ll work.

Unlike the time on the Balmera, there was no fanfare to the four Lions launching, aside from a small reassuring purr from Blue. The sun was already up, so they had a clear view of the base itself—and they had a clear view of them in return, if how fast a swarm of fighters swarmed out of an opening in the cliff face below was anything to go on.

“Okay, so the building goes underground too,” Jordan noted.

“There has to be a map in the system,” Koji said. “I should be able to get in after a few minutes.” Rover was in the Green Lion with him—they didn’t have Shiro to get directly into any computers, so the drone was the next best bet.

The Red Lion moved first, a red-hued beam sweeping across in an arc and melting one-fourth of the fighter swarm in seconds. Jordan’s surprise at the speed of it didn’t keep him from having Blue freeze another portion, while the other two took care of the rest.

Then again, Rick was at stake here.

“Was that it?” Eva asked after a few minutes, suspicion tinging her voice, as the last of the smaller ships had been sent plunging toward the bottom of the canyon.

“I think so,” Jordan replied, looking at a side-screen—Blue running a scan wasn’t showing anything else. “Talk about bad security.”

“I don’t like this,” Stan muttered. “You sure they didn’t know you and Shiro were here?”

“I’m sure,” Eva replied, the Red Lion moving forward to blast down part of the wall surrounding the base, otherwise forming a nice landing area for the four Lions by the edge of the cliff.

There was no one and nothing on the outside of the base, and the front door couldn’t hold up against the explosive charges Coran had been very clear in explaining to Jordan in terms of how they worked. “That tower on the right side looks like it might have a control room,” Stan pointed out.

“Then we’ll take that side,” Jordan said. “There’s probably gonna be a lot of robots in here.” And then some. And speaking of robots, there was ten of them right behind the door, which all immediately started shooting, which meant three of them were ducking behind the wall again while Jordan shot back at them with his bayard.

They managed to bring the number down to four; the leftover sentries were steadily making their way toward them, once they’d found a gap in his shooting. Then he heard a loud bang, followed by the sentries falling back with holes burnt into them. A sideways look confirmed that yes, it was Stan’s bayard that did that. A shotgun? Huh.

Nice.

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

They decided to split up after that, with Jordan taking the lead. Koji had no complaints about that, looking back over his shoulder every thirty seconds or so. Given the alarm droning on, they definitely weren’t here unnoticed.

There was a total of two patrols they ran into on the way, both consisting of three sentries, but they went down fast.

Something felt weird about that, but it could also just be that most of the sentries had been in the fighters. This wasn’t a very large base, either—and it was the only Galran establishment on the whole planet.

Green was assuring that it would go fine. And then they reached the control room, which had two Galrans in it, who both froze and turned when they heard the door.

So much for fine.

Jordan moved first—the alien might not have registered it until it was about to happen, with how fast he’d moved in and punched him in the face. The other moved then, rushing at him, though he stopped when he saw the blue bayard pointed at him, slowly putting his hands up with a nervous smile.

It was over faster than Koji expected it to be, and it didn’t go down like…well, like part of him was thinking it would, which he was glad for.

“We got the control room taken care of,” Jordan reported, glancing at the two now-tied-up (the next room over happened to be a storeroom with some rope in it) Galrans before adding “It wasn’t that hard, either.”

“Well, that’s one good thing,” Stan said. “This side of the building’s like a maze.”

“Just give me a minute or two,” Koji muttered, attaching a cable between his tablet and Rover. “Have you found him yet?”

“Not yet, no. We just—” There was a pause, with blaster fire being heard. “We just found some more sentries, though.”

“Do you guys need backup?” Jordan asked.

A minute dragged by, before “We got it. There’s…really not as many of these things around as I thought there would be, though.”

“It could be that you took out most of them with the fighters,” Allura suggested. “But that is strange. A prison base wouldn’t usually be so lightly-guarded.”

“How’re things looking from up there?” Jordan asked.

“The alarm you’re hearing now is only for the base, and you got there before anyone could send out a distress signal, so it should be all clear.”

“Great, that just makes it easier for us,” Eva said. “C’mon!”

“H-Hey, Eva! Wait up!”

Jordan let out an exasperated sigh, rolling his eyes a bit, running a hand down his face while looking upwards as if asking Why?

Koji bit down a smile—it was a little piece of normalcy in the midst of all of this.

He still handled the tech.

Jordan was still their gunner.

Stan was trying to be the voice of reason.

And Eva keeps running off and doing whatever she wanted to.

The translation program missed a few symbols, but an otherwise-still-legible map came up on the screen. “It looks like there’s three floors to the building, not counting the hangar,” he reported. “I’m sending the map to you now.”

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

There was a stark difference between seeing the inside of the base and seeing it from ventilation grates.

For one, when they did find the cells, they were seen by some of the prisoners. Some of whom obviously recognized them, with all the gasps and whispers and staring.

“How are these things even supposed to open?” Stan muttered, glaring at one of the doors.

“There’s a code,” the alien inside whispered. Eva didn’t recognize her, and was pretty sure she wasn’t from Alwas. “I don’t know what it is, though.”

“Of course…” Stan paused, glare being directed to the corresponding keypad to the door, and his bayard flickered into form. “Gonna try something. You might want to stand back.”

The alien did as such, and one shot later, the keypad on the door was very broken, and the door slowly slid open.

If you can’t work with it, break it. A motto she lived by, so she approved of the action.

The alien inside came out hesitantly, wariness all over her features. She was humanoid, aside from having four pupilless blue eyes and gold-colored scales, long rabbit-like ears, a crest of white feathers on top of her head, and six-fingered clawed hands.

“Thank you,” she said finally, voice still quiet. “I was beginning to give up hope that we’d ever be free from here.”

“It’s nothing.” Eva said, not exactly paying attention. “There’s someone else like us here. Do you know where he is?”

The alien tilted her head to one side slightly, before replying “There is, yes. He’s not on this floor, though I think—”

Eva didn’t wait to hear the rest, instead turning on her heel to bolt toward the stairs, though she remained near enough for long enough to hear a startled curse come from Stan. Whoops.

She was halfway down the wide hallway that made up the first floor down when she heard a low “Just what is going on up there?” The volume by itself indicated that it was someone asking their neighbor, but it was the fact that she knew the voice that had her skidding to a halt.

“Rush?” she asked, happily surprised. There was a pause, before she heard a shuffling from one of the nearby cells, and then saw a glimmer through the space on the door.

“Is that Molly?” He sounded halfway between surprised, startled, and disbelieving, before laughing. “It is! How in Byrus’ name did you even get out here?”

“Long story,” she replied, smile just a tad wobbly, before glaring at the keypad, and then at her bayard—which she hadn’t realized she was holding until then. Okay seriously, how is this thing supposed to work? Red did something of a mental sigh, before pushing an idea that vaguely translating as imagining the arrow was there.

Well…it was something, at least. The object took its bow-shape seconds later, and she took a few steps back from the door. “I’m gonna try something,” she warned, before thinking back on how Prince Aikka used his bow. She felt a little silly in just pretending the arrow was there—but only for a second, because the next thing she knew, she felt a slight weight on her hand, in the form of a plasmatic red arrow. Huh.

Pulling it back took a little more effort than she thought it would, but there wasn’t much time between figuring that out and a broken console.

The door was practically thrown sideways, which didn’t match up with how nonchalantly Rush stepped out, stretching. “Ahh…it was pretty cramped in there, so it’s nice to be able to get out of it!”

Eva gave him a small chuckle but otherwise didn’t reply, her eyes wandering to the other doors. There were others from Alwas here too, and then some. So many racers...so many broken dreams and wishes. She felt a pang of sorrow, and her heart went out for them and their lost opportunities.

She may have wanted to win, and was more than willing to take them out to do it, but…it all got ripped away from them, and now they were impossibly-far from home to boot.

She almost didn’t notice that Stan had come after her as she was musing to herself, until she’d heard him saying “Think there’d be some sort of override switch up there?”

“Maybe?” Koji sounded dubious. “I’ll check. In the meantime—he should be at the end of the hall on the next floor down.”

“Jailbreak and a rescue mission rolled into one thing, eh?” Rush nodded. “I’ll get everyone else out. You two go find your friend. But just so you know, I think the warden’s down there.” His tone lowered toward the end. “I think he knew you were coming.”

“There it is,” Stan muttered, coinciding with a “Oh great,” from Jordan.

“I think we can handle one guy,” Eva said, turning toward the stairway.

The last floor was lit in the same purple as the other floors, moreso given the lack of skylights, but the first thing she heard was “So, the prestigious paladins finally grace me with their presence.” The source of the voice was at the end of the hall, with two sentries. “You’ve all caused a lot of trouble for me.”

“Have we?” Stan sounded partway between confused and disinterested. “I’m pretty sure we haven’t met.”

The Galran sputtered a bit angrily, while Eva stared hard at him for a few seconds. Then it hit her. “He was there when we left Alwas the first time,” she hissed. Stan glanced sideways at her, then at him again, simultaneously with Red providing a name—and the Galran lunging at them, while both sentries fired their blasters.

They both ducked out the way in time, with Eva focusing on the two robots. The first shot blew an arm clean off of one of them, and the second sent it down. The other robot went down on the first shot.

As for Lirax, he went down in maybe seven seconds after Stan hit him over the head with his bayard. Eva winced at the sound, though the low groan that followed indicated that the Galra was otherwise okay, if maybe unconscious.

“Well, that was sad,” Stan muttered, before asking “Koji, any luck with that override switch?”

“Uh, just one second…there!”

An alarm went off for three seconds before every door in the hallway slid open, and an even shorter pause before there was a veritable stampede of the now-former captives rushing to get out. Eva didn’t waste any time in going against the tide, ignoring Stan’s protest. “Rick? Rick, we’re…here?” She trailed off in a whisper at seeing the empty cell.

“He’s not in there?” Stan sounded confused.

“No, he’s—is there anywhere else in the building they might be?”

“There isn’t.” Koji’s words were clipped. “E-Eva, I think—I think Rick might’ve been part of the group that was moved out of this base before we got here. We missed them by ten minutes.”

“What?” she exclaimed, voice cracking slightly. “But that’s not—he was right here…”

There was a small, forced-sounding cough from somewhere behind her. “Eva, c’mon,” Stan said. “We better make sure everyone else gets out of here okay.”

She looked back at the empty cell for a few seconds longer, before sighing. “Okay…but do we know where he might be now?” she asked.

“I’ll check, but—”

She didn’t think much when she heard the footsteps behind her, first thinking it was just a prisoner who came back to see why they were still there.

She turned to direct whoever it was to follow the others; they were on a time limit, no matter how easy this was—and promptly felt her heart shoot up into her throat from sheer fear.

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

He hadn’t noticed the last remaining prisoner there, since they blended into the shadows. He was too preoccupied making sure there was no sentries coming to hurt and/or wrangle the released prisoners.

What Stan did notice was how fast Eva had gone blank-faced at seeing them. It was downright scary how all the emotion just slid off her expression. But only for a few seconds, because then something in her expression twitched—and then she lunged, swinging the bayard like it was a hammer instead of a bow.

The suddenness of it almost didn’t leave Stan enough time to react, moving to get between them. “Eva, what the hell are you doing that for?!” She didn’t answer, instead shooting an arrow off this time. The alien was able to get out of the way, thankfully. Whoever they were, their reflexes were insanely fast.

Completely matte-black save for a white mask-like face, Stan vaguely recognized them, so they had to be from Alwas. Creepy fellow, but who was Stan to judge? The outfit they were wearing though…it didn’t look like the one they were wearing while in the races. Stan shoved the thought to the back of his head as Eva got off another shot.

Creepy or not, it didn’t explain why Eva suddenly seemed hellbent on trying to kill them. He grabbed her by the arm, but all that got as a response was for her to shove him hard enough to make him stumble. “Stay out of my way!” she spat, the sheer hatred in her voice catching Stan off-guard. “I have to get rid of that thing!”

Well that’s never a good thing to hear.

The alien was making some arm movements as they dodged, and even Stan can recognize the universal signs for ‘Stop’ and…‘behind you?’

He didn’t even register what happened until a few seconds after it happened, only that he heard an abrupt choked sound from Eva, as well as something wet  that did not sound good—and then the Galra saying “And that’s why you don’t take your eyes off your opponent,” as the purple-colored, blood-streaked blade vanished.

To the side, the Phil (now he recognized him) went completely rigid, hands reaching out as if to catch Eva despite that fact she was trying to hurt him. Numb horror now radiating from Yellow snapping Stan out of it to go to do something.

His first instinct was to check on Eva, who’d dropped like a rock now, but he had to dive out of the way of a sideways sweep of the sword.

“What did I just say?” the Galran taunted, lunging again. “I was expecting you to be smarter, or at least have more fight in you than whatever that pathetic display was.” The swing coupled with the emphasized word was way too close for comfort, enough for him to notice a few strands of hair spiraling away.

Stan tried using his bayard—but all that got was an elbow to the face that sent him reeling. This guy was fast! Stan could hardly defend himself, let alone fight back. He was being overwhelmed and while the Phil had moved Eva away, he had the feeling this bastard wasn’t above going after them again.

They moved about the hallway, Stan trying keep himself between the Galra and Eva at all times while he tried to figure out how to get them away.

Eva was groaning in pain, he could hear it even over the clash of weapons. A swift turn that made the Galra trip a little let him see the Phil racer trying to put pressure on the heavily-bleeding wound.

Engine oil—a woman saluting goodbye—an explosion—

Stan gasped, stumbling in an attempt to stay standing as he was kneed in the diaphragm, but another hit, this time on the back, sent him sprawling on the floor, black spots flitting across his vision now. (What had that been?)

Dimly, he could hear worried voices over the comm, but it was all under the following “At least I’ll have you and the other two to deliver to Lord Zarkon. The brat’s better off dead anyways. Lord Zarkon was more than a little upset with her performance at Central Command.”

He was grabbed by the collar of his uniform and brought face level with the Galra scum preventing him and his team from leaving. The bastard that was the catalyst for them all being in this situation.

The one who hurt Eva.

“Consider it a mercy that she is dying by my hand. If anything, you’ll be thanking me—”

Stan didn’t remember what exactly happened after that. Or couldn’t, maybe. Just that some small part of him completely and utterly snapped right then.

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

“What’s going on down there?” Allura asked, voice tense. “Neither Stan or Eva are responding!”

“I have no idea but I’m going down there,” Jordan replied, tone icy, and Koji nodded stiltedly. What they both heard over the comms simply could not be good.

The fact that the impending-doom feeling he recognized from Sendak’s siege of the castleship had reappeared cemented that.

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

The first alien they’d freed had come downstairs to check on them, and had only looked for a second before rushing to a room at the end of the hall and coming back with an armful of bandages in hand.

Yellow was a distant, vague sense of something between hurry and slow the bleeding, to which Stan returned a semi-hysterical no kidding.

He couldn’t be entirely sure but he was pretty sure being impaled wasn’t good for one’s health, and Eva looked like she was halfway to being unconscious already, despite the alien’s urging to stay awake.

The amount of blood covering the floor definitely did not bode well.

He didn’t know what to do anymore at this point. Despite the Phil’s obviously-rising panic, despite the other aliens hurried whispers and glances at him to give direction, he didn’t know what to do.

The bandages were soaking through and Stan went to touch the wound and saw a small splotch of orange liquid splattered on his hands.

He was staring and—

SMACK.

Stan blinked in shock as his head was bent downward from the slap he received from the Phil, who was clearly at the end of his patience.

“The Lion—we need to go to the Red Lion,” He was able to blurt that out, and with quick nod the tall racer picked up Eva keeping her close to them as they quickly walked off.

(Eva was staying quiet; was that shock? Never mind the fact that she just looked confused by all of this.)

(He was pretty sure that wasn’t a good sign.)

The visible and audible shock/horror from the ex-prisoners was something half-lost in the haze, superseded by a blazing sort of fear that wasn’t, couldn’t be from the Yellow Lion.

The Byrusian went right to clearing a path for them, shouting for everyone else to clear a path to let them outside—and that was when the other two found them.

Jordan screamed something incomprehensible, running after the Phil, who was heading right for where Red was crouched with his ramp down already.

A touch on his shoulder made him jump, and he looked up to see Koji looking at him, face ashen with a look that was a clear-enough question in itself. The stare was returned, for a few drawn-out moments, and he thought he saw a morbid sort of recognition cross Koji’s face before he looked away.

Stan couldn’t remember what he did, but he was able to remember the sound.

And the should’ve-been-inconsequential detail that Galran blood was orange in color.

(It was a lot brighter than the red smeared over his wrists—)

He at least made it to the edge of the cliff the three Lions were on before being sick.

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

She should have seen it coming. It had been too easy, all of them coming back together again, Shiro’s druid-wound notwithstanding. Allura had felt her blood freeze when Red himself had all but voicelessly screamed at her to have a pod ready for his Paladin.

Though she hadn’t seen why herself yet, she could tell by the Red Lion’s hollow relief that they’d nearly been too late.

Allura took a deep, shuddering breath, banishing those thoughts. What matters is that she’s alive. She’ll be alright.

Coran was working with a few of the more knowledgeable freed captives to work out just what they were going to do with all of them. They didn’t have nearly enough shuttles to send all of them home, after all—and a majority of them had no knowledge of anything outside of their own galaxy.

Of course, that was saying nothing about how much of a headache getting through the blockade on their galaxy would be.

If anything, it would likely be phoebs before they could even start going through, if the restrictions were still as tight as they had been ten-thousand decaphoebs ago.

Allura looked up slightly when she heard a small cough from behind her. “Some good news, princess,” Coran started. “The Pokitaran—Aihe? A cousin of hers has some connections that can help the ones whose homeworlds are behind the blockade get home. It would seem that there are some gaps in the system.” He chuckled faintly, humorlessly. Those same gaps were how this all began, no doubt. “We just have to bring them to a drop point not too far from here.”

She sighed. “That’s a relief.” As heartening as it was for the castle to have some life to it again, even with their new supplies, they wouldn’t have enough to support an extended population for more than two phoebs. Then she frowned. “Have you seen Stan or Koji anywhere?”

“Well…” Coran hesitated, before saying “Last I knew, Stan was still holed up in his room. I think Koji might’ve gone to check on him again.”

There was a lengthy pause. “Coran, would it be possible to shift the infirmary’s priority to Eva?”

“Well, yes, though it’d mean Shiro won’t be back up for another quintant…” Realization crossed his face then. “Ah, you have a point there. The main console should have the option in there.”

“Thank you. I’ll do that—and I know this is a lot to ask, but I think it’s been a while since any of our guests had a decent meal.”

Coran grinned, saluting. “Leave that to me, princess!”

Jordan was there, sitting on the floor and looking blankly at one of the two active pods, but that didn’t surprise Allura much; he’d been beside himself with worry last she’d seen him. He didn’t seem to notice her come into the room, either—not until she heard herself gasp with dismay at seeing Eva.

She had been left in the armor’s undersuit, only because there simply hadn’t been time, and while the fabric hid the injury itself from view, she could see the tear in it. The armored pieces were scattered loosely around the pod. She’d been painfully aware that their Red Paladin was young, but this just made it even more obvious.

She looked smaller in there, somehow, especially compared to Shiro, who was in the next one over.

Then Allura heard a quiet, dazed-sounding “When’s she gonna be up?” from Jordan.

“By tonight, likely after dinner,” she replied, forcing her gaze to turn to him. At seeing his startled expression, she added “I thought it might do us all some good to have her awake again sooner than later.”

The gaze was kept steady for a few long ticks, before he looked away, with a muttered “Thanks.” Allura felt the Blue Lion paying some mind to the exchange, mostly uncertain, but also thankful.

Now for the reason she was somewhat glad he was still here. “Have you seen Stan at all?”

“No.” Jordan tensed slightly, before quietly adding “I dunno what happened down there, but…whatever it is, he’s been holed up in his room for a few hours now. I think—I know Koji’s gone to check on him twice already, but…”

Aihe had explained some of their former situation as well, and it just so happened to tie into that of the Paladins’, in that the warden, Lirax, was not only formerly a commander, but had also been the one to raid Alwas in search of the Red Lion in the first place.

The Pokitaran’s use of past-tense, alongside the Yellow Lion’s uncertain brevity regarding the situation, had been enough of an explanation as to what had happened. But when Coran had gone back there to ensure no one had been left behind, he’d reported injuries not matching up with the form the yellow bayard took—a mixture of blunt and cutting.

And that just didn’t make any sense.

Allura felt a slight mental nudge from the Blue Lion, allowing her to notice the sideways questioning look Jordan was giving her now. “Mind if I join you for a while?” she asked.

“Not at all,” he replied, turning back to the pods while she sat down. Then he said “I think—I don’t think it really hit me until now. How dangerous this all is for us.” It was Allura’s turn to look sideways at him, while he went on “I mean, the closest me and M—Eva got to getting hurt was when we had to go up against the Crog during the race, but this…” He stopped, taking a deep breath. “We didn’t get actually hurt then. Or at all, during the whole thing.”

It was after briefly wondering what in the world a Crog was that Allura suddenly felt startled, a realization hitting her with the force of a charging klanmürl.

Jordan didn’t look much older than Eva.

She’d always overlooked it somehow—perhaps it was simply that he had some military training that made him seem older—but seeing him like this? So vulnerable and open? It was like a mask had been ripped off.

Allura looked down, unsure what to say in response to that. It never failed to hurt her heart seeing children forced into war.

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

Everything had started blurring together maybe an hour ago, but only because there had been so much to do, and it was only now that Koji found himself with some free time.

The first thing he’d done was stop by the infirmary, and he’d immediately had to force away the memory of seeing the injury. It was an ugly reminder that the situation they were in meant people were going to go out of their way in trying to kill them, and being a kid didn’t exclude Eva from it.

Jordan hadn’t moved from his spot, though Koji had sort of expected that. What he hadn’t expected was for there to be someone else in there. More specifically, the last person they raced on Alwas. “This is some impressive technology you have here,” he was saying. “I daresay it puts what they have on Alwas to shame.” The large alien was subdued in his admiration, though.

Koji, despite having never actually met him, felt that was not a normal state for him. It just felt...wrong, somehow, for him to be subdued and quiet, compared to the first impression they’d gotten of him during their team’s race against him.

“Yeah,” Jordan muttered, noticing Koji standing in the doorway after a moment and adding “There’s still another hour or two.”

Koji nodded, hesitating before asking “You don’t—know what happened down there, do you?”

The pilot, Rush if he remembered right, sighed. “I wasn’t there. You might have better luck trying to ask Spirit. He was still down there when it happened.”

“Okay…do you know where he is?”

“The last I saw, he was heading down one of halls away from where everyone is staying. I’m not familiar with this ship’s layout.”

“It’s alright. We’re still learning it too.” The guest wing they were using was right between the hangars for the Red and Green Lions. Green herself had been somewhat of a background presence since they came back to the ship, at least until now; she pushed the idea of checking Red’s hangar.

It was when he got there that the detail of Spirit being the Phil racer came up. On one hand, it meant he didn’t have to worry, since they were friendly to humans. On the other, it meant communication might be a problem. But he wouldn’t know until he tried.

He was maybe halfway to the Lion when he saw that one of Spirit’s hands was against one of Red’s paws, and that the metal under it seemed to be shimmering slightly. There was some surprised realization from Green, implying some sort of telepathy. Well, that…might make things easier.

(Koji tried not to stare at the blood staining Spirit’s clothes, and tried not to think that the Phil was not looking too friendly at the moment; his feathers were standing on end and rustling slightly, reminding Koji of a cornered bird.)

“Uh, excuse me?” he started, which had Spirit turn to look at him, the feathers smoothing out just a bit once he saw Koji. “If—if you don’t mind me asking, what happened back there in the base? Or—what happened to Eva?”

The most Koji had gotten out of Stan earlier, before he’d stopped answering anything he said, was that she’d sort of…freaked out, and attacked Spirit.

For a few moments, Spirit stared at him, before looking up at the Red Lion, and then slowly holding a hand out.

In retrospect, Koji really hadn’t been too sure how the explanation would work, given that his only example of telepathy was the Green Lion.

One second he was feeling something that could’ve maybe been described as a mental numbness, and then it was like he was both somewhere and someone else altogether. Specifically, like he was looking through Spirit’s own eyes.

The fear crossing Eva’s face before it became worryingly blank. Her ferocious attempts at attacking Spirit, and Stan trying to stop her.

Her only stopping as Lirax stabbed her through.

Spirit desperately trying to stop the bleeding. Sounds of fighting in the background.

Recognition, fear, and guilt saturated the memories so strongly that it almost had Koji being sick then, with Green then providing a thin barrier with a faint, worried growl.

“B-But—why would she do that?” he managed to ask. Another load of memories came after another hesitant pause, somehow worse than the last, even with Green stifling the emotions this time.

It started as rushing over a star-racing track, definitely on Earth somewhere, with a star-racer just ahead—blinking in reflex when a few drops of oil flashed by, having come from the star-racer—and then the pilot frantically waving at him to get away.

The feelings of genuine confusion morphing into fearful panic, before finally settling into sorrow and regret.

Koji flinched as he recognized the pilot, too. Hollow realization came over from Green, as a memory of his own was brought to the forefront of his mind: two preteens watching a TV screen at home with awe, with Miguel cursing as he fiddled with the connection. Awe turning to horror, and the live broadcast cutting to a technical difficulties screen.

Something colder settled in him, witnessing someone’s death up close and personal. It wasn’t like Haxus—he wasn’t able to keep back the shudder at that comparison—because that…that had been a fight. What happened at the end of it had been unintentional, yes, but still a fight.

This had been nothing more than a horrible coincidence. One that Spirit still felt raw over.

He remembered to stutter out a thanks, before backing away and starting back down the hallway, Spirit’s gaze feeling heavy on the back of his head.

Eva had mentioned before they’d left Arus that Don was her father, but none of them had thought then to bring up the question of who her mother was.

Now Koji was just wondering how in the world he hadn’t even started to think that the one pilot who shared the surname could’ve been her.

First, there was something else he had to do. Or at least attempt…again.

The door didn’t budge this time either, so he just opted for sitting down and leaning back against it. “Hey, Stan?” he started. “You don’t have to talk, but I need to talk to you. This—this is major. And suddenly a lot of things make sense now and I have no idea why we hadn't made this connection sooner—and I’m rambling.” Koji brought his head into his hands and sighed, taking a breath to try calming down. The emotions of today mixing with Spirit’s was making him feel ill.

“Eva Wei, Don Wei, Maya Wei—Stan, she’s Maya’s daughter.” Shaky breath and continue, and don’t forget to breathe. “That’s why she went nuts down there. I think she blames Spirit for her mom dying. I can see how too, from our perspective it looked like sabotage a-and it wasn’t! That scandal that came from that all boiling down to an engine leak.

“Eva—she must have spent all the time thinking that…” He trailed off when Green prickled, voicelessly imparting a thought of her own on it all.

(The amount of sense it would make was chilling.)

There was a ten-second silence before a strangled “Oh,” came from the other side of the door, which was what prompted Koji to find the willpower to keep going.

“And do you want to know the worst part? I think she might’ve been there when it happened, too.” What felt like a few minutes dragged by, before Koji sighed, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. He added with a little forced hope in his voice, “Eva should be up soon. And…and you can’t stay in there forever, either. It doesn’t work.”

There was a quiet shuffling sound, followed by the door opening. “I guess you’d know that, huh,” Stan muttered, voice quiet and rough-sounding. His eyes were slightly red and he overall looked disheveled, but given everything, Koji couldn’t blame him.

“Kind of,” he replied, standing up. “Look, I don’t—I don’t know what happened down there, but whatever it was…she’s gonna be okay. There’s still at least another hour, and we’re definitely going to reach the drop point for everyone else first. But—but she’ll be okay.”

We’ll be okay, he wanted to add, but the words didn’t come. Stan gave him a long look, before saying “At least that makes one of us,” and looking down again.

Koji almost hadn’t heard him with how quietly he’d said it, and carefully replied with “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“I should’ve paid more attention to Lirax.” For a moment, Stan looked like he was going to duck into his room again, but he didn’t. “If I hadn’t—”

“Hold on,” Koji interrupted, moving to put a hand on his shoulder. This was…familiar, in a way not entirely unwelcome. “I don’t—I don’t think there was anything you could’ve done to keep that from happening. If you’d done that, who knows what she would’ve done to Spirit?”

Stan froze for a few seconds, before sighing shakily. “As…as much as I hate calling that a good point…”

“Yeah,” Koji mumbled, before coming up with a subject-change. “C’mon—we should figure out where Coran put our tools from Alwas.”

“Good idea.” Stan paused, face darkening a fraction again, before saying “The orange needs to go too.”

What? “Okay, the purple’s a given , but why the—?”

“It needs to go.”

The intensity with which he’d said that made Koji flinch a little, and he nodded a few times. “Okay, okay. Complete re-painting. Maybe…red and blue?”

“Red and—” Stan stopped, blinking a few times, before smiling, alongside an amused ah-ha feeling from Green. “Yeah. I think that’d work.”

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

Coran paused to crack his back a bit as he finished cleaning up what was left of the dishes. Many of their previous guests had been grateful for the food and had happily thanked him. It was nice to be thanked once in a while, made everything worth it. No gift, no favor, no debt repaid could ever measure up to a genuine thank-you.

Putting the last of the dishes away, he went to start on making dinner for his Princess and her Paladins. Today had been…exhausting, to put it mildly. Coran was sure everyone would be famished and need a hardy meal to get some of their stamina back and rest well for the cycle.

One would think that, after all these years of war, he would have grown immune to seeing his friends hurt, but it seems that every new grievous injury just makes his heart seize more.

It seemed they got younger every time.

Humming to himself he didn’t pay much mind to the footsteps entering the kitchen until he heard someone clearing their throat.

He paused, turning to see Koji and Stan (part of the lingering tenseness wore away at seeing the latter) their armor since exchanged for nightwear.

“Good evening to you lads, what bring you to my corner of the castle?” he greeted.

“Well, we were hoping you knew where you put some of the things you got from Alwas,” Koji explained. “Me and Stan were hoping to take a crack at the Arrow again tomorrow.”

Coran thought on that for a moment. “Most of the things from the first floor are on the floor, though the box of…paints, I think? Those should be next to the wooden box with the broken latch. We didn’t get much of a chance to organize it all very much.” Coran smiled sheepishly at the boys.

“…box?” Stan sounded confused.

“Oh yes, a strange little thing. Reminded me of Allura’s jewelry box, only it had no jewelry, just a photo.” Coran turned back to his tasks, deciding on some of the spices acquired from their brief stop on Alwas. He hoped they would enjoy dinner tonight. Tonight’s dinner would likely be some trial-and-error on his part, but they deserved something at least somewhat familiar.

Another recollection on the photo came to him, having him add, “Now, I might be wrong, but I think Eva’s in it.”

A beat of silence, before Stan asked “Is the photo still in there?”

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

The first thing she felt was cold. Not the winter-night type of cold, either—more like an all-encompassing cold that superseded everything else.

Then she heard a hissing sound, followed by her ears popping, and then the next thing she knew someone had caught her when she’d slumped forward. “E-Eva?” she heard Jordan ask tentatively.

“Jordan?” she mumbled, blinking a few times before backing out of the grip, stumbling a bit when she bumped into something. “What…what happened?”

Jordan stared at her, face slightly pale, before asking “You don’t remember?” instead of answering the question. Remember? Remember what?

Her head felt fuzzy, and her whole body was sore, like she’d slept for too long and still woke up sleepy. A chinking sound reached her ears and she looked down to pieces of her armor littering the floor around…one of the healing pods?

Then it came back like a slap to the head, at the same time as Red mentally tackling her.

The attempted rescue mission. Rick not being there. Spirit. And—

“Wh-Whoa, hey! They’re—they’re not here. We dropped them off on some outpost on…well, the outpost was named Astera. They’re all gonna get home. Maybe not soon, but eventually.”

Eva stared at him for a few seconds, before saying “Oh.” On one hand, she was relieved on a deeper level than she thought humanly possible. On the other…the guilt was something between uncalled-for and wholly-expected.

Spirit had nothing to do with her mother’s crash.

It had been an engine leak.

That something so small had been what had done in such a famous star-racer pilot was almost unbelievable. Almost too cruel to be true, and yet it was.

Eva numbly recognized the room’s layout once she started to come back to herself, made note of Shiro still being in a pod, and…and the second pod slipping back into its hatch in the floor, now that she wasn’t standing in it. Why had she been in it?

“Jordan, what—did something else happen?”

“I…uh…”

He didn’t get to answer, since Allura walked by then and saw her. “Oh, you’re awake!” she exclaimed, her shoulders slumping slightly in a way that enunciated the pure relief in her voice.

“Well, yeah, but what—”

Allura didn’t let her finish, coming forward to grab her by the arm and start leading her down the hall, saying “Come with me for a dobosh. There’s something I wanted to give you.”

“Okay,” she muttered, now directing a blatant feeling of confusion at Red.

The Lion’s presence went stilted, hovering between uncertainty and sheer relief, before suggesting that they go for a flight tomorrow and going distant, otherwise also not answering her question.

The hallway they ended up in wasn’t one Eva had been down before, ending with a bedroom that was definitely bigger than the ones she and the others had. It didn’t really occur to her that it was Allura’s until the princess opened a closet and started rifling through it, throwing various articles of clothing onto the bed while muttering “Now where did I put it?”

There was a vanity up against one wall, and the bed was definitely a lot bigger. The whole room was a weird shade of iridescent blue, and there was a mirror just like the one in Eva’s own room. That was as much as she got to look around before she heard a “Here it is!” from Allura; the princess was holding something sunset-hued in color with a gold trim, definitely clothing of some variety. “I wasn’t sure if you had anything like this in your closet, and I know this is too small for me now. Why don’t you try it on?”

“Um—okay but—what happened?” Allura froze, smile slowly vanishing. “I mean…why was I in there?” she asked, suddenly feeling uncertain.

“You were...injured rather severely,” was the response given. “You were in there for a few vargas. I don’t know what exactly happened, though.”

And that would explain why both Jordan and Red were acting the way they were. She took the piece of clothing—a nightgown by the look of it—before glancing at Allura again, who promptly turned around.

It was in working to get the top half of the undersuit off that Eva noticed the two parallel holes in it, one in the front and one in the back, but she didn’t think too much of it. Not until she saw the definitive cause for the holes.

She heard a sharp “Oh,” and didn’t realize that she’d been the one to say it until she heard Allura saying “Those are there to stay, unfortunately.” Her eyes were still averted, but she’d turned her head enough for Eva to see that she was biting her lip. “The pods can only do so much.”

It wasn’t even that big of a scar, being maybe an inch-and-a-half long, and she knew for a fact that she had one on her back too.

Looking at it made her feel nauseous.

How everyone was acting made way too much sense now.

Eva quickly put on the nightgown to hide the scar from herself if for a little while…and ended up getting tangled in the fabric in her haste, to the point where Allura had to help her remove it and put it back on.

The nightgown was a little too big, in that it was loose around her shoulders and went all the way to her ankles, but whatever it was made of was soft. “I-It’s—this is nice,” she managed to say, prompting Allura to look.

The princess looked solemn for a moment, before a genuine smile replaced it. “It does look nice,” she agreed, smiling gently. “Now, come on. I’m sure the others will be happy to see you.”

Jordan was in the dining hall with Coran, with the former poking at a plate of what was probably the last of the preserved fish and vegetables from Arus. Coran saw them first, with a greeting of “There you are, Number Five!” which had the added effect of making Jordan jump straight into standing, almost falling over with how fast he turned.

“Uh—Eva, you look—nice?” he stuttered out, face flushing slightly. There was a stifled chuckle from Allura, while Eva gave him a flat look.

Allura looked around, frowning slightly, before asking “Where are the other two?”

“Right here,” Koji replied, with both him and Stan coming from one of the other halls. Koji promptly stopped mid-step, stammering out “O-Oh, Eva! You’re—you’re up!” He took a few steps forward before stopping again, looking uncertain all of a sudden, before asking “H-How are you feeling?”

“A bit numb,” she replied, though the words came out more tonelessly than she wanted them to. Koji bit his lip, looking sideways for a second at Stan, who’d gone completely stiff.

He’d been there when it happened, and Eva looked at the floor when that memory came back up. Now that the shock of seeing the aftermath of it was starting to wear out, it was finally hitting her that she almost died back there.

“Guys, I—I’m sorry,” she mumbled, voice hitching slightly. “I just—if I hadn’t—”

“H-Hey,” Jordan stuttered slightly. “Eva, it’s not—it wasn’t your fault th-that…” He trailed off, alongside Eva hearing approaching footsteps.

Stan looked like he was going to say something before looking nothing short of uncertain, before glancing at something he was holding in his hand that looked like a photograph. “You should have this,” he said, holding it out to her face-down. She took it almost hesitantly, and turned it over.

Eva wasn’t sure how long she stared at the photo, just that it was long enough for her chest to start protesting with a lack-of-oxygen ache. It wasn’t the photo she’d held onto for so long, because that never left her room.

Couldn’t be, because this one had her mother in it. And there was only one other person who could possibly have had this in the first place. Which would mean…

He didn’t forget.

She heard voices, from both sides and from behind her, but nothing registered, not until she suddenly felt something warm around her, and it took her a few seconds to realize that someone was hugging her. When was the last time someone had done that…?

She may as well have physically felt something in her break then, because then it felt like she just couldn’t get herself to not cry at that point. It was all she could do to make sure she kept holding the photograph so that it wouldn’t be damaged now—and then she heard a voice from right over her head.

“I got you, d-don’t worry.” Stan, Stan was the one hugging her, and he sounded like he was crying too. “I’m sorry I couldn’t—I didn’t—do much before. Today…it’s not gonna happen again. Alright?”

Slowly she felt other arms wrap around her. “We’re here for you partner, you…you don’t have to hide anything anymore.” Jordan, he sounded like he was getting emotional now too.

And a third. “We’re here for each other now, like we should’ve been during the race. Like a team. We aren’t going anywhere.” Koji.

Slimmer hands covered the one she had over the photo.

“I know it’s hard to grieve, especially when you want everything to go back to how it used to be. But some things…some things, there’s no going back from. But that doesn’t mean our future is hopeless. We will make a better future. For all our families.” Allura.

A hand on her head, firm and gentle. “We may not have all wanted each other around in the beginning, but we’re learning the ropes. We will pull through, and we are not leaving anyone behind!” Coran.

Red was a solid mental presence through it all, and beyond him was nothing but sincerity from the three she was tied to now that were here—the fourth was there, beyond a haze, but she had no doubt that Shiro would be with them all the way through this too.

She finally knew the truth behind what had happened, and while she wasn’t ready to sort through that tangle of emotions just yet…she wasn’t alone this time.

It was all she could do to say “Thank you.”

[lagrima-salada]

Woobox Vs ClickFunnels Which Is Better ClickFunnels Or Woobox?

Woobox Vs ClickFunnels Which Is Better ClickFunnels Or Woobox? Woobox is an internet based web and website builder platform you should utilize to build web sites, responsive blogs, sales funnels (product launch, sales pages, webinar pages and membership websites), create shows, animated videos and much more. Woobox is ideal for beginner marketers, online business house owners, and bloggers who're finances aware and wish an all-in-one resolution for website constructing, sales funnels, electronic mail advertising and marketing, webinars, and many others. Woobox launched as a decrease priced competitor to Clickfunnels, and claims to provide you the whole lot it's good to launch an internet business for a fraction of the cost of costlier touchdown page tools. Thanks for trying out my Woobox Review When you have ever wanted to start your own enterprise on-line, and you have started to research the entire tools and platforms you require to successfully run a enterprise, you then quickly notice the costs related to operating such an operation. When presented with the selection of signing up for more expensive platforms the place or one like WordPress that's free but comes with myriad prices versus Woobox with free design templates, website builder, hosting, SSL and all the advertising tools, it should not be tough to persuade many individuals to go for the latter. Woobox launched officially and everyone within the web advertising world is speaking about it. Woobox is an all-in-one promotional platform comprising of multiple totally different advertising tools which are usually provided as single companies, together with limitless email sender, multi website builder, Android and iOS utility creator, weblog builder, sales web page generator, video creator, SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING tracker and plenty of more. Woobox is an All-In-One advertising platform wil=th all of the tools that you're going to need to run a sustainable on-line business without the necessity to spend a lot money on third-social gathering tools. Creating knowledgeable email advertising automation could be very frustrating and time intensive, however using Woobox , the task becomes means easier, and simply with a number of clicks right here and there, you'd be good to go. Leveraging Bulderall's impressive drag and drop system, you may virtually produce seamless sales machines with multiple triggers and likewise import and export the tools amongst other platform users. Far more than a landing web page builder, Woobox is a whole digital advertising platform that provides you the whole lot from constructing pages or sales funnels via the Pixel Perfect Builder, to knowledgeable e-mail advertising system, to the flexibility to create an entire Shopify store and easily integrate with credit score card processors with little or no work. If you're looking for The Most Full & Easy to Use Digital Advertising and marketing Platform on the Planet that may allow you to Collect and Manage Extra Leads, Send Limitless Emails, Build Amazing Websites, Blogs, Sales Pages, Membership Web sites, Videos and APPS, then Woobox will be your highly really helpful choice. Woobox gives devoted local servers to host your web sites , sales funnels, videos, webinars, and all different components you create and publish. Clickfunnels is an internet sales funnel builder that helps companies market, promote, and deliver their products online. ClickFunnels is a reliable software that allows you create touchdown pages, sales pages inside the sales funnels that people have to navigate through so to a take the desired motion, similar to buy products. With a mix of high quality software and schooling, Clickfunnels lets you choose to create choose-in sales pages, develop membership web sites for a web-based occasion, sell merchandise on subscription and plenty more.

It was one of the first landing web page builders to return out with straightforward drag and drop features that made it easy for folks to make sales funnels rapidly. ClickFunnels makes it simple for folks to take an amazing thought, a new product they wish to sell, or a dream enterprise and turn it right into a properly-designed sales funnel that may convert your website guests into prospects. It would not matter if you're an affiliate marketer, blogger, creator, publisher, or somebody selling bodily merchandise, as a result of ClickFunnels has a large array of landing page choices, and sales funnels that can match your small business no matter the way you want to work together, and what you need to sell. When you have been working a web based business, chances are you'll face many problems in growing and designing an amazing sales funnel for your business and in this specific situation, ClickFunnels could be a wonderful assist for you as you possibly can rapidly create great sales funnels inside a very short span of time with this software. ClickFunnels will let you create all your optin pages, sales pages, email sequences, membership areas, online training courses and so forth, and link them collectively to build your funnel — multi functional, simple to use software. With its capability to create full sales funnels and simple to make use of and highly effective editor, ClickFunnels gives a clear challenge to LeadPages' place as the best touchdown page builder. ClickFunnels is likely one of the most outstanding online resolution to design, plan, assemble, analysis, test, observe and create form of the art marketing funnels and sales funnels that features lead seize net pages, sales webinar registrations, video pages, replay techniques, product demonstrations, product launch sequences website and product delivery internet portals and web sites. Clickfunnels could be very helpful Software for advertising and marketing, selling and deliver services and products on-line efficiently.

[ramheavenandhell]

Rick and Morty Forever and One Hundred Years – Chapter 3: Coming over for Dinner

Warnings: still keeping the Rick/Morty slow burn going, also some dissing Jerry (but who likes him anyway?) Summary: High school AU in which Rick and Morty are not related, but classmates in the same grade. Rick is the super popular kid in school. Morty is the kid that no one wants anything to do with. So how did they end up becoming friends? And is it actually a good or a bad thing that they are? However, the most important question is, could they maybe be more?

Rick and Morty Forever and One Hundred Years – Chapter 3: Coming over for Dinner They were still inside the garage and Morty was still wandering around with a big trash bag in his hand, filling it with the empty beer cans that were strewn all over the floor. By now he had his emotions back under control and Rick had probably also calmed down again – or, at least, Morty hoped that he did. It was hard to tell with the other being so silent and busy tinkering with his portal gun. He looked over to the teen who was leaning over his workbench and staring down as the pulled apart gadget while also double-checking with his blueprints to search for the mistake. "Hey, Rick." Morty started. "Why don't you just let the portal gun be for now and work on something else instead? I mean, what about the space car. Don't you want to finish that one first?" The brunet's eyes drifted to the piece of machinery that was the leftover of a car that Rick had picked up from some scrapyard. This one had been already in the garage long before Morty had even met Rick and was one of his longest lasting projects yet. The first time that he had seen the car, which's model couldn't really be identified anymore, he had thought that it maybe was a DeLorean and Rick was trying to build a time machine. As Morty had told the other his thoughts though, he had commented, "This isn't "Back to the Future", Morty!" Rick didn't really see the point in building a time machine – though, he said that he probably could, if he really wanted to – and revealed that he was actually planning to convert this piece of scrap metal into a space cruiser. While a time machine would have been cool, Morty also realized that time travel came with all sorts of risks. Travelling through space – while also considered dangerous – sounded exciting, too, and the brunet had actually started to look forward to the completion of the space ship…uh, car. "I would continue to build the cruiser, but I started with the portal gun and had hoped to complete it so I can get the materials that I would need for the car easier." Rick began to explain. "You know, that I can't just use any material for it, right Morty? It would need to endure really high temperatures for the start but also for returning into the planet's atmosphere and I also don't want to have to build a new one after every landing, so it also needs to withstand the impact of that. But in truth that isn't even the biggest problem that I have. I mean, I know how to get those materials. At this point it just takes a lot of time and money…" He sighed deeply and threw the screwdriver that he held in his hand hard on the work surface before he turned in his swivel chair around to Morty. "You do know how NASA is sending their rockets into space, right Morty?" The boy nodded at that, having watched quite a few launches on TV or videos of it on the internet. "The method that they're using is just is-it-it's archaic!" The blue-haired teen sounded offended. "And do you know how long it takes for them to get to mars, Morty? It's taking them around 7 years! Seven long fucking years, Morty!! And that is when they time it with mars being in its closest position to earth. Mars! A directly neighboring planet!!" Rick stood up from his chair and began to walk around as he began to wildly gesture with his hands. To anyone, he would have looked like a madman now and would probably freak people out, but Morty was already used to his best friends antics and was only mildly worried. "You know, Morty, when I go out ther-to—into space, I don't plan to hang around on just a planet in the-the-the neighborhood. I want to be able to travel through our solar system and get to the next one over in no more than a single day." Rick continued and his eyes looked as if he was currently not in the garage but with his thoughts far, far away. "So the crucial thing that I need for the space cruiser is a new fuel. One that hasn't been invented on earth yet, that-that no human had even thought about yet!" He suddenly stopped pacing and looked at the ground. "But I'm afraid that there might not even be materials on earth that I could use to create such super fuel… So maybe, I need to focus on something else that allows me to travel off-planet—or, no! Even further than that! Maybe something li-like—that allows me to create a rip in space and time so that I can go to different dimensions…?" "Holy crap! How late is it?!" Morty's sudden yell completely ripped Rick out of his current train of thoughts. "What? Why do you need to know?" "'Cause I need to g-go—get home a-a-as soon as school's out, so my parents won't know that I skipped again. I-I-I'm still grounded, too, o-or have you forgotten that?" The brunet turned into full-on panic mode as his eyes fell on the clock that hung on the wall. "W-wa-wait! What if the principal called my parents again? I-I-I'm sure he called them again since I was skipping classes!!" "Calm down, Morty. I fixed the phone and also rigged Vag's mobile. His call went through the call divert earlier and I reprogrammed the AI to imitate your dad, so chill out. Here, take a—listen to that." With those words, Rick pulled out his mobile and dialed a number. He put it on speaker and held it up so Morty could listen with no problem as well. After a few rings, the receiver picked up and a voice that sounded like his father suddenly spoke. "Hello? Jerry Smith here. Who is calling?" "Hi. Am I talking to Morty's dad?" Rick asked. "Yes, I'm Morty's father. Jerry Smith. And I looove sucking biiiig, sweaty boners and licking disgusting, furry testicle sacks." Came the natural-sounding reply. Rick laughed loudly and hung up again. "See?" "That doesn't really sound like my dad! I mean, it's his voice but he would never talk like that!" Morty protested with a frown. "What? I think that this totally sounds like him." Rick argued back. "How can you say that, Rick? You haven't even met my dad yet." "Yeah, not in person…" the other drawled off. What was that supposed to mean? Could it actually be that Rick had…? Morty got a bad feeling as a certain suspicion was dawning on him. It couldn't really be that Rick had installed cameras and microphones in his house, or could it? Why would his best friend do something like that? And when should he have done that? Rick had never actually been over to his house…other than that one time when Summer had thrown a party on that weekend when their parents were gone, much to Morty's dismay who had to help cleaning the mess up again to avoid them both getting into trouble. However, it was impossible to think that his best friend had wandered through the house and planted this stuff without anyone else noticing. Also, he was pretty damn sure that his best friend had been too busy partying. No, it was impossible to think that Rick had bugged his house somehow. While it was technically possible for him to do something like that, it made no sense. Rick couldn't have done that! Morty hastily shook his head to get rid of his paranoid thoughts. "Anyways. When did you even do that?" "Last night, after we came back from watching the meteor shower." Last night? When had Rick slept then when he had been doing all that stuff last night? "I know that I messed up that one time. Even though that usually never happens. But I rectified it and I sure as hell won't make the same mistake twice, so stop looking at me like that, Morty!" The brunet shook his head again. "Still, I need to get home really quick or I get in more trouble than I already am!" "What can your parents actually do to you at this point? Lock you up in the basement that you don't have?" Rick joked. The humor was lost on the yellow-shirted boy and even if his friend might have a point, he still frowned deeply at the other. "Okay, okay. I'll give you a lift." Rick said and went to grab their helmets. The prospect of getting a quick ride home finally calmed Morty down and he accepted the helmet with a small smile on his face. Sometimes Rick was really a great friend…even though Rick was the reason why he was in all this trouble to begin with.

The drive towards Morty's home was a silent but not an uncomfortable one. "Rick? Please drop me off here. I'll walk the rest home." Morty suddenly spoke up when they were just a few streets away from his house. Rick stopped his vehicle as requested, but asked. "What? Why? I can drive you to your front door. This isn't like last night when you snuck out." "It's so my parents don't see you. I'm not supposed to hang out with you anymore." The brunet took off the helmet and stood up from the motorbike. "They think that you're a bad influence on me." Rick scoffed at that after he had also slipped his helmet off. "As if." However, his face said the opposite as if he knew exactly that he was not good for Morty. That being around the innocent boy was tainting him and Rick would eventually destroy him because he was toxic… "Hey! How about I ask my parents to invite you over for dinner on weekend or something, so that they can see that you're not so bad?" Morty tried to lighten the mood with this ingenious offer. "What good would that do?" Rick didn't see the point. "I doubt that your parents are going to agree to that." At Morty's crestfallen expression, he quickly added, "But if they're okay with it, sure. I'll show up." The brunet smiled brightly at that answer and maybe it was just a trick of the light, but it looked like Rick was blushing. "Great! I'll ask my parents and let you know when to come over. I'm sure when they see what a good guy you are, they'll let me hang out with you again. I'll still be grounded though, but at least you can come over to visit me or something." Rick looked a bit skeptical and if Morty was honest, he wasn't quite so convinced either. He knew that Rick wasn't really such a good guy – he was sometimes, but that was it. This would only work if Rick presented himself from his best side. But surely, he would manage to do that for one evening, wouldn't he? Well, Morty hoped at least that he would. He bid his best friend goodbye and hurried home, careful to get his timing right so to not arise suspicion. Apparently, that didn't matter though because shortly after he entered, his dad called him over into the parlor. Both of his parents were sitting on the couch and watching TV and they were miraculously not arguing with each other. "Morty? Have you hung out with your friend Rick again today?" Jerry asked skeptically. The question made Morty nervous. Did Rick's invention fail again and the principal had called even if his friend claimed that it worked perfectly earlier? Deciding that this might just be a trick question to make him confess something that they didn't know about, the brunet put on his best poker face and answered. "Well, we're in almost all the same classes, so I can't really avoid him at school, Dad." Jerry still bore with his eyes into him as if he was trying to poke hole in his son's logic. "He's got a point, Jerry." Beth spoke up. "We can't make Morty avoid his friend at school. That's ridiculous." "Sorry, that I don't want our son to hang out with that hooligan and end up becoming a criminal." The older brunet fired back. "Rick isn't a hooligan!" Morty protested before his mother even had the chance to reply something. Having his parents' eyes completely focused on him again made nervousness flare up in his gut once more, but now that he had their attention, he needed to pull through. "He-he really isn't such a bad guy. And you can't judge him because you don't know him. You've never even met him, Dad." "Well, I can't see how that's going to change." Jerry protested back. This was the perfect prompt that Morty had been waiting for. "Then how about we invite him over for dinner on weekend?" Beth was the one who was quicker to answer now. "Oh, that's a great idea, Sweetie! It would be nice to meet your friend Rick in person for once." "Beth!" Jerry protested and looked anything but happy at the prospect of inviting a potential criminal inside his house. "Oh, c'mon, Jerry. Morty had never a friend over at our house. And this also a good chance to see with who our son is hanging out with." She tried to give her husband an encouraging smile. Jerry only sighed and gave in. "Fine." Morty was glad that his parents had actually accepted his idea. And all of that without even breaking out into one of their big arguments like so often, which usually ended in both of them ignoring their son completely and leaving the issue that he brought up unresolved. "Great! I'll tell Rick! Uh, tomorrow at school!" He quickly caught himself on that one. If he let them knew that he got a new phone from Rick, they would immediately confiscate it again. After he hurried up to his room, he immediately texted his best friend the good news. The response he got didn't sound as enthusiastic as he felt right now, but it was good enough. Rick promised him that he would show up. Okay. Fine. I'll come over for dinner then.

On Saturday evening, Morty was so nervous and excited that he wasn't even sure that he could eat dinner without throwing up. Honestly, he felt like he might barf right now. He constantly glanced at the clock. Rick was supposed to be here any moment now and he hoped that he wouldn't give his parents a bad first impression by being late – because his parents didn't care if it was "fashionable" or not. Morty paced through the parlor and was driving his sister, who was sitting on the couch and trying to watch TV, almost insane. "God, Morty, calm down. This is just Rick who's coming over and not your girlfriend or something like that." The notion of a girlfriend threw Morty so out of his loop that he stumbled over his feet. Luckily, he still caught himself before crashing head first into the couch table. He didn't need another scar on his head or Rick making fun of him for it again. Before Morty could comment on what his sister just said, he was interrupted by the sound of a familiar engine roaring right in front of their house. It was Rick! Forgetting everything else, he stormed to the front door and swung it open to greet his friend. Rick just got off his motorcycle and pulled the helmet off, then ran a hand through his spiky hair to fix it, before he ventured over the brunet who was waiting for him like a puppy that had waited for his owner to come home. Morty noticed that the other hadn't bothered with dressing up. He wore basically the same blue t-shirt and khakis that he wore every other day. It made Morty feel a little silly, since he had actually pulled out one of his better dress shirts – a yellow button up shirt with the top two buttons undone – for the occasion. Thankfully, he had decided to stick to his simple jeans, or he would have felt completely overdressed now. "Hey." The other greeted him casually as he finally reached the front door. "Hi, Rick. C-come in." Morty invited overeagerly. "What's with the outfit? You're having a date after this dinner thing?" Rick snickered a little. A blush immediately worked itself up on Morty's face. God, he did feel overdressed now! "U-uh, no. Ju-just thought since you see me ina-in my plain boring t-shirt ea-every day that I could wear sum-something different for yo—for once." He quickly caught himself at the end there. "Looks good on you." Rick commented as he obediently followed the other teen into the parlor. "Tha-thanks, Rick." Morty stuttered to the obvious compliment and turned a tiny bit redder. No one had ever complimented him on his looks before… "Hey, Rick." The redhead that was still lazing on the couch greeted casually. Rick took a seat right next to her and they fist bumped. "Hey, Sum-Sum. What's up?" "Nothing much right now." Obviously, Summer and Rick already knew each other from school. While Morty's sister was usually someone who fawned about all the hot guys in school, Rick had been an exception to the rule. Or, maybe she had had a small crush on him and was over it already. Whatever the case, since he was one of the popular kids, she tried to stay in his good favors and they could probably consider each other as friends. At least they were cool with each other. It was at least one thing that Morty didn't need to worry about. His entire worries were focused on how his parents would think of Rick. "Wasn't there supposed to be dinner?" Rick asked, but looked like he already made himself feel at home in front of the TV. "My mo-mom and dad are still in the kitchen, but it should be done pretty soon." Morty hastily explained. "I-I-I should probably check up on them and see if they need any help." Without waiting for a response, he already made a beeline straight for the mentioned room. Both of his parents were indeed still standing at the stove and adding some last spices to the food – or rather discussing if and what spices should be added to it. In all truth, the sight of his mother cooking was such a rare one. Usually she was too busy with work and when she did cook something, it was always something microwaved or warmed up frozen food. Cooking wasn't her strength, but thankfully his father was pretty decent at it. This made Morty occasionally wonder if it was the reason why his mother had actually married him, so she wouldn't need to worry about that anymore. "I'm telling you, there needs to be more salt in the sauce." Beth argued. "Believe me, Beth, there doesn't. The roast is already plenty salted, so if you add anymore to the sauce, it would be too much." Jerry argued back. "Yeah, but if you eat the sauce together just with the potatoes and vegetables, it tastes too stale." "No one eats it that way!" "Um—" Morty dared interrupting his parents who were already salty enough from their discussion that no spice would be needed for dinner anymore. "R-Rick's here." "Where is he right now?" His father asked, not looking happy about the news at all. "H-he-he's in the den. Watching TV with Summer." Morty quickly added the last part before his dad would come down on him for leaving his friend unattended in their house. "This is great, Sweetie. Dinner is almost ready." Beth smiled, though it did look a little forced. "Be a darling and set up the table, will you?" "S-sure." The small brunet went over to the cupboard and got out the plates. "And be careful not to drop the plates." The blonde added in a chastising tone. She acted as if he let plates drop every day or something. Which was of course not the case! Even if he was a little clumsy sometimes, he wasn't a little kid!! "I won't drop them, okay?" He replied in a slightly annoyed voice. However, just after he said that, the tableware almost slipped from his fingers. He barely managed to catch the dishes again before they crashed on the floor. …that was a close one. Deciding to be a bit more careful and acting as if that hadn't just happened, he proceeded with setting up the table. After all the tableware and the food was placed and everyone was called to the table and seated, Rick was the one who began with the conversation. "I knew from Morty that you are a very intelligent woman, but he never mentioned that you are such a beauty, too, Beth." He directed at the blonde. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't even ask if first name basis is okay with you. I can call you Mrs. S. if you prefer that." "It's okay. You can call me Beth, Rick." Morty's mother giggled, obviously flattered by the compliment. Jerry looked horrified between his wife and the guest, not believing that this was happening. "Hmm. The food's delicious. Did you cook it?" Rick asked after he took a first bite. "I'm the one, who cooked it." Jerry interrupted rudely. "It was a combined effort." Beth said and threw her husband a warning glare for that. "Well, I can certainly taste your love in it, Beth." The blonde giggled again. "Oh, you." Morty swallowed nervously as he could feel the tension rising in the air around him like thunderclouds that were gathering overhead. Just what was Rick doing? It was nice that he got along with his mother, but his dad was throwing glances at his best friend that could potentially kill. "Hey, Morty. Could you please hand me the salt?" Rick suddenly asked. Morty's mother threw another glance over at her husband as she said. "I'm sorry, Rick, that the sauce is a little stale. I wanted to add some more salt to it, but someone else wouldn't let me." The yellow-shirted teen's mouth dropped and he stared in disbelieve at his best friend, who only grinned. Had Rick somehow overheard that conversation in the kitchen and did this purposely? But how could he have overheard that? Summer would have surely caught him if he would have gotten up from the couch to eavesdrop on them. Again, Morty felt paranoia settle in as he had the suspicion that Rick might have planted microphones inside the house. While he had no reason to do that, he certainly had the means… Despite the bad feeling in his stomach, the brunet followed the request and passed him the saltshaker. "Thanks." For a moment, there was silence around the table and only the typical noises that accompanied the devouring of a meal could be heard before Jerry finally decided to land his first strike against their guest. "So, Rick. I've been wondering what you have actually planned for your future? With skipping school all the time, the goals can't be really that high, right?" "What the hell, Jerry?" Beth hissed. "Dad?!" Even Morty was shocked at that direct approach of his father. "That's a low blow, Dad." Summer, who had been silent until now, threw in. "Nah, it's okay." Rick assured the people, who were clearly on his side here. "I know that I'm not attending school very often, but that's because I think it's stupid. As for what I'm planning to do in the future, I'll be a scientist. In fact, I already am one, which is also the reason why I'm so frequently absent from high school." "Morty mentioned that he's helping you with some projects." Beth's friendly demeanor was back. "Any breakthroughs yet." "A few, but nothing that I'm too proud of." "So, what? You've been winning a few school science fairs? What are the prizes for those? Hundred dollar or something?" The older brunet still sounded unimpressed. "Oh, I'm not wasting my time with science fairs. However, I do sell my inventions or the patents to them, so I make quite a sum on the side." The blue-haired teen was smug now. "I'm sure, I earn more with that then you do, Jerry. Oh, wait! You're unemployed, so that doesn't really sound like such a big feat. In comparison to you everyone makes more money." Jerry's facial features derailed, but the statement made Beth laugh loudly while Summer whooped at the comeback. Even Morty couldn't quite hide the smile at his father's epic defeat even if this was not how the evening was supposed to go and he should be rightfully worried now. The family patriarch shut up after that, however, he still threw occasional angered glances at the spiky-haired teen, who entertained the rest of the family during dinner with his charm, wit and funny jokes.

After Rick had left and Morty fell into his bed, completely exhausted from the events today, he thought that maybe it hadn't gone that bad. At least his mom seemed to like Rick and his sister had always been cool with him. Just his dad seemed to have a dislike for the teen, but that was also not completely unexpected after what had occurred. Deciding that it was more important to him what his mom thought about Rick, since she was always the one who had the last word, Morty decided that it was a success. However, as the voices of his arguing parents reached his ears, he sighed. It didn't particularly mean that they were quarreling about Rick right now. They always found something to argue about, but it was most likely that their current fight was related to the events of this evening. Morty decided that he didn't want to give a fuck about it this time and pulled his pillow over his head so that he could sleep in peace. This was how he dealt more and more often with his parents' arguing lately. Not that there was anything that he could do about it. He tried, he honestly did, by helping around the house, trying to be a good boy and acting responsible, but it didn't help. Summer kept saying that it would only stop once they would finally divorced, and while Morty did see her point, he didn't want that. He just wanted for his parents to make up and love each other as they used to in the past…they surely still did. They just needed to see past their disagreements and learn to be happy with their lives again. Morty didn't really know how his sister was able to be so calm about it. She didn't particularly care if they argued unless it involved her, which led to an even bigger argument that always ended with Summer storming to her room crying and claiming that she would leave – but she thankfully never did, because Morty could stop her every time – and their parents continuing to fight. She certainly didn't seem scared by the prospect that they might eventually "walk different ways". With uneasy thoughts and the dull voices of his parents in the background, Morty eventually fell asleep. Just across the hall, Beth and Jerry Smith were still in a heated discussion. And unsurprisingly it was about none other than Rick Sanchez. "I don't know what your problem is, Jerry! Rick is a decent kid. He's smart and he's already earning money and not by delivering newspapers. He's good for Morty and you should be proud of our son that he managed to find a friend like that." Beth was currently busy taking out her earrings as she looked angrily back at her husband through a small mirror. "I don't know, Beth! Is he really such a good friend?!" Jerry argued back. "Because if I were a decent teenager, I wouldn't be openly flirting with my friend's mother!!" "He wasn't flirting!!" "Oh, let's see here! Calling you by your first name. Making you compliments. To me that certainly sounded like flirting! And you were flirting right back at him!" "No, I wasn't! What are you even saying?!" "You were!! You were acting like a panther!" "Excuse me?" "I mean, uh…what are they called again…?" Jerry looked lost for a moment. "A cougar, I mean!" "You're being ridiculous, Jerry!" "Am I, Beth?! Am I really?!" The blonde huffed, crawled under the covers on her side of the bed, turned off the light and laid on her side, her back facing the brunet. For her this conversation was over. Jerry also laid down, but the male was still brooding. For him this conversation was far from over yet.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

[madefate-a]

you fight a war at home. 

she never fucking knows where anyone is. 

there might be something funny about the fact that it takes being relegated to a series of ancient ass tunnels and encampments the size of a single room to make the world feel way too large, but camila soltero’s going to wait until the shitstorm’s over to laugh about it, and then by god she will. when she finds lucas and adam and shit, even shiro apparently, and they’re sitting on the roof of the garrison like they’re seventeen again and drinking shitty beer and looking at skies that aren’t clouded over by endless, endless, endless purple alien UFOs. 

but right now, the sky is clouded over with endless purple alien UFOs and if she keeps getting distracted by the way things are definitely going to work just fine in the end she’s going to turn into that overconfident fucker that gets himself blown up three quarters of the way through the action movie. camila’s smarter than that. she’s a goddamn rocket scientist, basically. so she keeps her mouth shut and her breathing slowed down and has had the safety off her gun for the last fifteen minutes because she’s not going to get herself killed following a safety protocol. 

she takes a second to feel vindicated that she waited for the rain for this particular mission. every footfall that’s not her own is telegraphed by the thin reservoir of water that’s built up along the belly of the passage and now she can wait out behind a rusted over train car as she triangulates the relative position of whoever the hell it is that’s in with her by the way the uneven splashes echo from the water to the walls. 

uneven. so -- not a droid. camila’s not sure if that’s better or worse. droids have a nasty habit of sending out those distress beacon things when they’re demolished and she’s not willing to give up this particular passage, not when it’s proven to be closer to safe than most of the others. but it’s also kind of easier fighting an enemy that can’t really think for itself and also doesn’t bleed when you kill it. --- a decision on the margin if there ever was one, and not hers to make. 

--- yeah, they’re coming her way. 

( she doesn’t mean to count off her friends again. but she’s already doing it as she breathes in time with each uneven splash -- lucas was in switzerland when the particle barrier went up, which is far from the garrison and far from camila who was almost at the research facility on the pacific coast. adam was home -- not home, home. garrison home. shiro is fucking alive somewhere up in a solar system far, far away. keith’s with him. moira, kennedy, ryuu. garrison, hopefully. dad -- home -- ) 

shoot first and run. before the last footstep falls camila’s up with two rounds locked dead on where the alien head should be -- maybe a foot up from her own, approximating what would be critical mass on a human. she doesn’t wait to hear the body hit the ground before she’s running, but then she’s stopping because she doesn’t hear the body. what she hears is two shells hitting the water and a voice echoing off the walls, ❛ jesus christ, ❜ and camila knows that voice and camila stops. 

❛ --- moira ? ❜ 

because it is moira, taking a knee in the barely flooded tunnel, shorter than camila and full heads shorter than the aliens and you know what? thank god for small miracles. blowing off the head of one of her best friends wouldn’t make for a banner day. ( ha -- ha. ) 

moira is looking up at her now, glaring, accusatory. 

❛ -- you tried to shoot my head off, ❜ she accuses. glaring. -- fair. 

❛ well, ❜ camila says, breathing heavy, her pointer finger resting on the guard instead of the trigger. the safety’s still off. ❛ I thought you were an alien. ❜ 

❛ yeah, because I look like an alien. ❜ 

they stare at each other for a few long moments, then moira is surging to her feet and camila is running to her and with her free hand she throws an arm around her shoulders and okay, maybe her throat is burning and okay, maybe she feels moira shaking a little bit. adrenalin can do that to you -- but camila kind of understands that there are some things that shake you more than a near miss between a bullet and your brain. 

like getting a little proof, physical, that someone you love is alive. 

it lasts, what, a second? before they pull apart. camila’s armed hand remains perfectly tensed, and moira looks ready to run at a moment’s notice, even with her usually perfectly coiffed braids pulled hastily behind her head and fraying with flyaways. camila’s a little entranced by all of it. 

❛ you’re alive, ❜ moira breathes. camila remembers for a flashbulb second the first time they ran a simulation together, moira’s quiet determination behind the simulator’s controls and how camila decided to trust her directions. how they landed successfully and had lunch together after. she doesn’t mean to, but she updates her mental list. ( moira, supply tunnels, middle of nowhere. ) 

❛ basically, ❜ camila replies. ❛ what are you doing here? ❜ 

❛ scouting -- enemy troops, supplies, survivors. ❜ 

❛ there’s a bunch of us -- fighting the good fight, saving who we can pluck out of the ranks when the aliens aren’t looking. ❜ 

❛ galra, ❜ moira says, like it matters. but then, that’s moira. 

❛ sure. ❜ she doesn’t plan on remembering galra when purple aliens works just as well -- it’s not like it really matters who they are when they’re invading her planet, y’know ? camila feels the ticking clock of it all like a second heartbeat, and when she looks at moira’s face, she sees it there, too. ❛ we only have enough rations this way for who we’ve got camped out -- all civilians. if you guys have a database or something I’ll give you the names. ❜ 

moira’s expression twitches. camila knows what that means. ( when you’re fighting imminent planet-wide destruction -- well, something has to fall through the cracks. ) 

❛ or not, ❜ she adds to save moira the trouble of having to explain something that’s not her fault. ❛ bear southeast and try those tunnels -- I haven’t scouted them. I don’t know if they’re safe, but you’ll have a better chance at finding something. ❜

❛ okay. ❜ moira’s voice is heavy. their time is up. but it’s still silent in the tunnel and neither of them leave. ❛ -- come back with me. ❜ 

the conviction in moira’s tone makes camila’s throat burn for a hot second before she soldiers right through a surge of emotion she can’t afford. 

❛ -- I have to check back with the group. ❜ 

❛ I’ll come with you. ❜ 

❛ they need information. we have to plan. ❜ 

❛ I’ll wait. ❜ 

( she is struck, in that moment, with the sensation of playfully grabbing onto the end of moira’s hoodie when she’s sixteen and laughing about how she doesn’t want her friend to leave so soon, but her knuckles are pearlier white than they should be and she doesn’t want her friend to leave. ) 

her throat sticks. 

❛ --- -- we’ve managed to save a few people. a handful -- every so often we can get one or two away from those marches in and out of the camps. they’re as safe as they can be. and there’s -- a lot more out there. ❜ 

moira doesn’t take a second to hesitate before throwing both of her arms around camila’s neck and camila breathes in sweat and clinging rainwater and still, despite everything, that same something flowery clinging to moira’s hair. 

❛ then tell me what you need. I’ll get it to you. ❜ 

practically speaking, they need plenty -- food, water, safety. the garrison’s particle barrier. a canon big and bright enough to blast through the enemy in the skies. home, whatever and wherever that is. 

❛ weapons that work, ❜ she whispers, rough and quick. ❛ anything you have that puts a dent in the drones that you can spare. and -- if you can get any information on where everyone is -- anything. ❜ 

it feels as frivolous as it does fundamentally important. camila doesn’t chastise herself for needing to know, not if they want to go on living once they survive all of this. 

❛ okay, ❜ moira says and pulls back and camila doesn’t grab the edge of her jacket but she hopes, for a split second, that one day she’ll be able to hold her hand and laugh about how much moira doesn’t need to leave so fast. 

( she sees moira once more before the tunnels grow too patrolled to risk. she gets a few blasters and a few more shells for her gun because why not. she gets a report that lucas last checked in months ago at a safehouse in europe but hasn’t been heard of since. no sign of shirogane and the kids that launched themselves into space. no word on adam. 

camila clings to her list and fights and survives. )