#outside of 'she made a massive explosion happen and i swear i can sense her around but never found her body'

[rennorthernlights]

The World We Knew

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3: Past Catching Up, Chapter 4

Warnings: Zombie death, description of a child zombie, you unaliving zombies, violence and violence against our girl, Tell Me If I Miss Any

October-ish, 2023. Time??? Location: outskirts of Houston

It’s been a couple days since she last talked to Static and Electricity. Much to their worry but she told them. “I’m gonna be on the move for a couple days and I’ll need it to be quiet. I promise after 3 days I’ll contact you again.” To which Static made her triple-dog swear as she laughed at him being childish about her swearing to him. To which Electricity remarked that they were being extra serious even though his tone was playful. They also swore they’d come for her if anything bad happens to her. Nothing could go more wrong than a zombie virus… right?

“Just my fucking luck.” She sighs heavily as she wipes her sweat. Packs of zombies roaming the streets and on top of that she’s running out of food preserves. “I should’ve saved them raviolis…” her stomach grumbling as she presses her back against a brick wall of the library. God what she would give to read a hard back book again. Grumbling to herself about how she almost finished the Percy Jackson series.

Her thoughts momentarily stopped when she hears the groans of the dead and that’s her cue to get a move on. Carefully looking around and noticing how run down most of it is. Most likely when the virus really took hold of this town it became a buffet. Considering the dried bloody marks on the streets, broken windows, ripped doors, “Jesus,” she murmurs as she ducks behind a car.

A rasping growl snaps her attention as a lil kid stumbles and twitches down the sidewalk. Eyes milky and searching aimlessly, half their face bitten into that she can see the inside of their mouth. She shivers as she moves her rifle to the side and grabs her knife.

She’s noticed that the Z’s don’t see that well. They rely more on their other senses which normally isn’t a problem for her. But… she doesn’t like being out in the open like this. Usually she’d be in a building by now but most have broken down doors. Not safe enough. Maybe she should go find an office building.

She pauses and grumbles lowly “Okay maybe I am predictable.” Snorting as she thinks back to what Electricity was saying and the kid snaps their head towards the noise she made.

“Shit.”

The kid runs limply at her, their blood encrusted nails reaching out to swipe at her as she steps back. Her back against the abandoned car as she waits for the kid to get closer. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs as she kicks her boot against the kids stomach. The dead kid falls down and she’s quick to get on top and stab her knife into the kids head. The kid shakes on the ground for maybe a second before stilling. Her eyes soften as she breathes out slowly. Kneeling down and closing the kids eyes, “I’m sorry you got turned kid… I hope you can rest easier now.” Wiping the blood of the kids from her knife on the kids pants.

Standing back up and dusting herself off as she looks to her side when suddenly she hears a massive BOOM!! The sound making some of the cars blare their emergency sound.

“Fatherfucker!” She yells as another explosion goes off. The sounds riling up every zombie in the area their snarls heard as they immediately start searching in a frenzy. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she curses as she runs towards a building. Artys Arts and Crafts is what she barely saw before she runs in. Ducking behind the shelves as she almost didn’t see the 4 zombies in the room. She stills fast as her eyes widen. Her hand slamming against her mouth as she tries to control her breathing.

They groan and shove against the wall to get to the noise. Mindlessly moving and twitching at every sound. Yells are heard outside and whoever is out there is just attracting more and more attention. She knows she can’t just stay here unless she clears the building. At least the noise will make it easier for her to work around getting to them one by one.

Moving to the one that’s closest she slams the sharp point of her knife to the skull. Pulling her arm back as the sound of the body falling alerts the other 3. Their heads twisting towards the sound. Their arms reaching out as she ducks under one’s arm. Swiping a leg causing that one to fall. Sheathing her knife and grabbing her bat that’s attached to the strap of her backpack. She knows she’ll need range considering the three are coming at her. She can’t risk a bullet or the noise that comes with a bullet.

Yanking her bat free and swinging it hard at the small one that runs to her. “Asshole!” Slamming the bat on head like she would a baseball. Kicking at it as zombie doesn’t go down with that hit. It snarls at her and she pulls back and swings— THUNK!! She has to run back as the other one tries to lunge at her. She curses as it almost grabs her ankle. It crawls on the ground and she stomps her boot on it’s face. She repeats that again as she tries to keep and eye on the fourth that’s staggering to her slamming her bat down on the zombie and once satisfied she pays attention to the last one.

“3 down.” She murmurs as the last one swipes at her. Their veiny hands grasping at her bat and she yells as it snaps it’s teeth towards her. She jerks her bat back making it lean forward and punches the zombie. It lets go of her bat and she slams her bat upwards with her right hand gripping the handle. Breaking the jaw of the zombie as she wails on it again and again once it stumbles to the ground. Swiping her bat to the side to force the black blood off. Walking back to the other three, slamming the blunt of the bat against their heads to make sure they’re dead before she starts checking the rooms.

“Corners and windows.” She murmurs as she checks. Thankfully it’s clear. With a heavy sigh she sits on the table in what looks like the breakroom. She already has the door shut and barricaded. “Those four must’ve been a group.” She notices as some moldy food and wrappers are thrown haphazardly on the floor. Water bottles, some snacks, and some unused toiletries, “Thank god,” she laughs as she sits in the corner. Grabbing her backpack and pulling out a granola bar. Another explosion goes off and she flinches. More noises outside and it might be a fight that’s going off.

“Rival gangs probably,” she’s seen her fair share of warring gangs. Territory claims and all that jazz. “I’ve never been caught in the crossfire of it.” She huffs out as she munches. She pulls her backpack to her. “It’s been longer than 3 days…” she swallows thickly as she knows she’ll get an earful from the guys. Taking time to count and she realizes that it’s been 5 days in total… sighing, “let’s hope they won’t be mad.

Unknown to her as someone watches her closely through the scope of their rifle. Watching as she sits completely unaware that she’s being watched. “Well, well, well,” A grin stretching back as they mark where she is on the map before taking off. “He’s gonna love this.”

————————————————————

“It’s been 5 days!” Soap yells as he hovers over the radio. He and Gaz have been more stressed the last two days. “She said 3. What if she’s hurt or worse?!” His hand slams on the wall of the room he that everyone is hunkering in.

“That’s not helpin, Johnny.” Ghost snaps as his arms are crossed over his chest. Everyone’s been on edge since their girl hasn’t been talking on the radio. It’s become increasingly harder to deal with Soap’s outbursts and Gaz’s quiet glares and clenched hands. “She’s probably trying to get somewhere safe.”

He paces back and forth muttering words in Gaelic and he glared when Ghost tells him to speak English. “And that’s the problem! We told’er to tell us when she needed help!” The Scott growls out in frustration. Eyeing Gaz as he keeps staring at the radio. His thick hands gripping it as he mutters something. “What was that?” Soaps eyes narrows.

“I said..” Gaz flickers to him hesitantly. Biting his lip before he lets out a shaky response. “I said… She might not be al-“

“Don’t!”

“Johnny there’s a very real possibility that she mi-“

“Kyle.” Price cuts through the tension when he sees the radio’s dot blinking. “Look,” He says and Kyle immediately looks at it. His heart pounding as it buzzes.

“..yone hear me? Static? Electricity? Hello?” She calls out through the line. She sounds nervous and scared. Ghost and Price share a glance as they catch the tone of her voice.

“Sunshine? Hey, hey, it’s me,” he speaks back urgently. “We thought… god, love, we thought you were hurt or worse!”

“I… I know, I’m sorry. Is Static okay?” She asks and god love her Soap stumbles to him and he answers quickly. His hand on Kyle’s back as he unconsciously moves his thumb up and down. He speaks, letting her know that he’s there as well. “I’m glad you're both okay. I got into a couple rough patches. There are too many packs roaming.” The men freeze and Soap speaks first.

“You okay? Swear we’ll come for you, Bonnie. Are you hurt?”

“No, no, I’m fine, Static. Promise.”

“What’s going on, Sunshine? It’s not like you to miss out on our daily talks even with packs roaming.” Gaz says softly, all the men huddle around him as they listen for her reply. She takes a bit to respond so he says again, “Sunshine?”

The static from the radio crinkles and finally she speaks, “Got caught in a bit of a crossfire between gangs. At least I think they’re gangs.” She says and then says quickly right after “Nothing to worry about though!”

“Gangs? Oh lass,” The Scott says worriedly, “Are you safe? I thought you said you didn’t do groups?” A tease in his voice.

“Pft, I’m a free-range roamer, Static” joking back, the radio gets loud again, “I’m hunkered down in an arts and crafts store. Killed a couple Z’s but I’m safe. Promise.” Her voice is murmured into the radio like she’s trying to be quiet. “I can hear them outside. There’s been at least 3 explosions.”

Explosions? When Ghost was out checking the perimeter, he noticed an explosion a couple miles out… could they be close to her? “You need to stay in cover, Sunshine. Don’t go out unless you have to.” Kyle says urgently. His thumb cracking and popping the air between the bones. A tale tall sign that he’s nervous. Relaxing just a bit when John places a hand on his shoulder. “Listen… we uh… we saw an explosion from where we are a couple minutes ago. Estimate about 20 minutes ago. Are we?” He bites his lip before he speaks, “Are we close to you?”

The static gets loud as she doesn’t speak for a minute. Price looks a Ghost, a worried twitch of his eyes as Ghost tilts his head slowly. “I… Maybe I don’t know?” Her voice sounds nervous again. “I can’t give a location you kno-“

“Sunny,” Kyle says, his voice warm and understanding. His hand gripping the radio as he wishes he could ease her fear. He and the team speculated on why she’s so intent on hiding her name and location. Probably has something to do with her first group.

“I’m not gonna ask for your location. You know I wouldn’t but if they are using explosives along with fighting… you might get hurt.” She could get hurt, she could die, she could get burned from the explosive. When Ghost was describing it to them earlier when he saw the explosion in the distance Soap looked worried. Soap knows his bombs, he’s a demolitions expert Goddamnit. “Please… darling, you gotta tell us if it gets too hard and you’re not safe.” He says softly, using that pleading voice that gets even Price to stumble sometimes.

“I… Well, I’m safe for now, I guess. There’s a couple building near me that has some insignias on it. Most likely to mark territories.”

“What do they look like?”

“One has what looks like a black bird and the other looks like cross.”

“Bird and cross” Ghost murmurs beside Soap. They tense when she’s about to speak but they hear a faint crash on the line. It doesn’t sound like a radio crashing but something akin to glass. “Bonnie! What’s goin on?!”

————————————————————

Voices outside causes her to freeze. The hairs on her back standing up as she listens in to what they are saying. She… she recognizes those voices. Her focused snapped back to her radio as the Scott is still speaking to her. “Bonnie!” Static yells into the radio. She curses as she zips up her backpack and putting the sling of her rifle over her shoulder. “I��m fine, Static!” She tries to say more but the sound of something slamming against wood is heard from outside the breakroom she’s barricaded in.

There’s a voice yelling outside and they’re calling out to her. Calling out a name. A name that he gave her. A name that isn’t her own but forced on her. “No, no, no,” stammering as the men on the radio are still trying to figure out what’s wrong.

“I-I think I’ve been found.” She says weakly. That voice outside making her skin crawl, memories flashing through her as her heart pounds. She put so much space between her and that group. How did they find her? She’s been so careful and cautious these last 4 months. She needs to move; she needs to leave and go. God, why can’t she move?

“Sunny, wait, darling please.” Electricity says, he sounds nervous, scared even and her heart clenches at the sound. “What does that mean? Who found you?”

————————————————————

“Handmaidens Tale.” The men all tense when she says the name. She has only ever mentioned them briefly, Soap tried to get her to speak a bit more on it the second week in, but she shut it down fast. She’s more scared, more scared than shes ever sounded. Gaz and Soap look to Price as they don’t know what to do.

The man sighs and takes the radio. “Can you get somewhere safe? Do you have a weapon?” Price says, he was planning to speak to her when the time was right but now? Now he doesn’t have a choice. “Breath, love.”

A pregnant pause that has them all on edge, fearing the worst until she speaks. “Y-You're with Static and Electricity, right? The uh Captain?” She has overheard him before, faintly but she recognized him since Soap has said it before that the voice is owned by their Captain.

“Yes, love. Listen to me.” Experience in his voice, “Estimate up to 6 people, assume guns and weapons on hand with them. They’re most likely surveying the perimeter. You can hide or you can fight.” His eyebrows crease as he speaks.

He doesn’t like this. Doesn’t like the clench in his chest when he tries to imagine her, scared and fearful. He knows all too well what fear can do to a soldier, but she isn’t a soldier. A regular civilian and that makes this situation ten times worst. At least with soldiers they are trained to compartmentalize. To work through the adrenaline and fear. She doesn’t know how to.

“Okay, okay, I-I might be ab-” She gasps when they hear something breaking. Something loud enough that the radio catches it for all the men to hear.

————————————————————

“No, no, no, please,” The window in the room she’s barricaded in is shattered as her scream alerted the people that’s looking for her. The brick thrown in has a note attached that says in scrawled-out words. Found You, My Eve.

She can hear them just outside. “T-They found me. He found me. They broke the window.” She says to the radio as she clambers to get the barricade away from the door. Maybe she can run and get away? “Oh god, oh god, I-I can’t go back. I don’t want to go back.” Her blood runs cold as she tries to breathe deeply. The radio shaking as she talks to the Captain. “I-I don’t know what to do.”

The weapons she has are momentarily forgotten as she gets the barricades off and runs down the hall. Her backpack on as her bat swings back and forth almost like it’s trying to remind her that she has it. Her fathers rifle slung to her side from the strap on her shoulder as her hand grips her radio. She can hear the Captain speaking again. Trying to calm her down to get her to think but she’s in a blind panic. The fear of what she went through and what she’ll go through if that group takes her. She hears the shoutings. “Found her! She’s on the run!” And “Don’t let her escape! Grab her!”

Panting as she runs down the street. Weaving between cars and narrowly passing the dead as her heart pounds and slams against her chest. Running into a bank as she goes behind the couches there. Not even bothering to look for any deads that could be in there as she strains to hear for the voices outside. His voice.

The Captain on the radio still speaking. “We need a description, sweetheart. Can you give us a description? Look around you. Try to think. Don’t be scared, being scared is going to cause you to make mistakes.” Too late, far too late for that.

“Look…” the man pauses, “you’re going to get caught,” she whimpers and hits her head against the couch. Her knees tensing at the statement because as much as she wants to deny it, but she knows it’s going to happen. “I need you to focus and I need you to describe them to me. I need you to describe where you are? Can you do that for me?”

“Y-Yes, I.. I can,” She whispers as she speaks between breathes. Her eyes shut tight when the front door to the bank jingles open from the bell. Alerting her to the very real situation that is going to happen. So many memories flooding her brain as her boot taps nervously on the floor.

“I-I ran into a bank near Humble. There are birds and crosses spray painted on buildings and I-“ she bites her lip when she can hear the desks being tossed. She should’ve tried to hide somewhere else. Why didn’t she think to hide in one of the rooms? Why is it so hard for her to think straight? “I’m scared. I’m sorry, I’m sorry I never got to see you.”

“Don’t say that. You’re going to see us. I swear you will.”

She’s about to respond, her mouth parted when she hears a cruel laugh from where she’s hiding. Her hands shake as she finally grabs her knife. She knows that laugh, she hates it. Hates the man that laughs like that. Her hand grips her radio as she readies herself to try and work through the fear and describe the man to the Captain. The couch is forced aside as she screams and lurches forward.

Scrambling to get up as she clutches her knife and radio. “B-Brown hair, white skin, eye patch on left eye, green eye, tall,” she words off the man’s description as the man grins and licks his lips like a wolf would a cornered rabbit. “His name is Issac.” She breathes out shakily as she takes one last glance and speaks. “Don’t let him keep me again. Come find me.”

Holding her radio in hand as she backs up. She knows she’s cornered from the way the man is so calm. Someone breaking the glass window with the note was most likely to flush her out. Most likely to cause her to panic. She curses under her breath as she has to assume that there’s others around the building. A tilt of his head as he shows his teeth in his smile. “There you are, my Eve. I’ve missed you. Had me so, so worried.” He takes a step forward as she backs away. “Who were you talking to?” His voice colder as his eyes lock on the radio she has on hand.

The Captain talking urgently on the radio that she can’t even hear since she’s focusing on the man in front of her. He extends his hand, “You won’t be needing that anywhere. Give it.” Flight or fight kicks in as she bolts down the hall of the bank. The man follows after her with a yell. Rounding a corner as a hand grips the back of her shirt as she screams.

Swiping her knife at him as she turns and aims for his arm. He curses loudly, “You little!” His arm bleeding as he slams his hand against her head. Her head hitting the wall causing the wall to crack on impact. Head-shaped crater in the wall as she feels dizzy. Distorted as she stumbles back and crumbles to the floor.

The sound of the man on the radio still trying to talk, promising to find her, is just out of reach from when she fell. Issac walks to her, nearly infront of her as he’s speaking and saying something. Her ears still buzzing as she blinks. Her breath catching as she looks up at him. Scooting back as her blood is pumping fast, her pulse nearly jumping out her skin.

She looks to her radio, then towards her knife that fell out of her grip when she was slammed against the wall. She makes a split-second decision and lunges for her knife. He laughs at her feeble attempt. His boot slamming on her hand as she tries to grab her knife and she cries out.

He makes a disappointed tut, “A good husband never hurts his wife but…” he stares down at her as she tries to shove his boot off and he only presses more on her hand making her whimper. “A good husband also shows his wife her wrongs and how to be a good help meet again.” He lifts his boot and slams it on her face.

Turning on her side with a groan. Her hand covering her now bruising face as tears spill down her face. Coughing and hiccuping as she tries to think past the pain. The pain in her face throbbing as her nose bleeds. “N-No,” she begs as the man bends as he grabs the radio. The Captain getting louder and angrier as he tries to speak to her. Cruelly only able to listen and do nothing but hear what happened. A listening witness to the assault.

“And who has been keeping my wife company?” Issac speaks coldly, a possessiveness in his tone as he stares at the woman that looks up fearfully. A bruise already growing on her face.

“Captain John Price. Where is she? If you hur-“

“That’s none of your concern. She’s mine and she’ll stay mine, Captain.” He mocks. He looks down at her and then at the radio.

“You’ll never find her.” He laughs and throws the radio away. She yells “No!” as she watches as her radio thumps hard against the wall and breaks when it hits the floor. He goes to grab her but she kicks and tries to get up. Grabbing at her collar as her hands push and scratch against his face. Her fingers digging into his eye patch as he growls in pain. Finally having enough of her antics as he balls his fist and punches her hard at the side of her head.

Going limp at the impact, her hands falling to the side of her head. A tear rolling down her face as she tries to hear what he’s saying before blacking out. Dragging her body a lil before he finally picks her up. Whistling to his men and tossing her in a car.

Her arms and legs bound tightly with rope when she finally came to. Screaming and yelling as she tried to get out of the car and away. The rope digging into her skin almost as painfully as the throb from her face. Trying to bite until someone hits her in the back of the head with the butt of his gun. “Finally,” one of Issac’s men says as she’s now easier to handle with her being knocked out again.

————————————————————

“Fuck!” Price slams his fist against the wall. All of his boys are ready, Ghost already jumped up and started packing their car as soon as that Issac spoke to them. Gaz and Soap are standing up as Price looks at them. Both of them have murder on their mind and an itch to have blood spilled. For once Soap is quiet and Gaz looks volatile.

“Weapons free from this point on. Find any that are involved and get information out of them.” Price’s voice is rough, “Whatever means necessary.” Staring down at the radio, their only lifeline to their girl and now they won’t even be able to reach her. His hands fisted as he sees that it’s bloody from when he punched the wall. What he would give to have punched this Issac fellow. His chest heaving with anger as he steels himself. His men already moving with urgency to head out. Gaz grabbing the map so they can find Humble. And hopefully… find her.

“Let’s go get our girl.”

[inexplicably-spookified]

how the heck did misery end up dead in that au? (and can curly smooch a ghost...?)

in true misery fashion it's a spectacular backfire whilst trying to do something stupid

after miakid's death, she was so frustrated at (gestures vaguely) everything that had happened because of the crown as well as miakid's failure to attack the surface that she attempted to destroy the crown herself, unleashing her magic in a way similar to ballos, just on purpose.

it both worked and didn't - misery's body was destroyed, the crown was shattered to a couple pieces and currently can't reform without outside intervention, leaving the curse technically still intact, which means her 'ghost' is still stuck, albeit in a kind of stasis till a certain medical professional entered the tower a decade later and inadvertently woke her up.

at first nobody, not even the aforementioned medical professional can see or hear her, which frustrates her to no end lmao, though she figures out ways to affect the world around her and eventually make herself, uh, known

(and yes, definitely, absolutely)

[hikarimiyanaga]

the Dimitrescu's with their Titan s/o who protect them from the military force attacking the castle.

I'm assuming when you said Titan, you meant the greek mythology ones... not the anime ones.

Because as much as I love both... I can only focus on one. I hate my brain like that.

I'm adding up Donna too, hope you don't mind. From Ethan only.

Also, Reader can harness the respective Titans' powers.

Alcina Dimitrescu / Lady Dimitrescu

You heard a loud explosion from somewhere in the castle and quickly look at your wife and daughters in panic.

'Shit.' Was the first thought that came to mind. Then calm as you stand.

"Alcina. Take Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela in the basement." You growl as you harness your power.

"But Y/N I can help-"

"My love I know you can." You smile at Alcina then gently kiss her hand. "But I would rather you be safe."

Alcina sighs in defeat and leaves with the three girls. You crack your neck as you leave her room.

"Those assholes are going to get what they deserve." You close your eyes and hear their footsteps. They were everywhere. Even in the goddamn courtyard. You sigh as you activate your traps.

"Years of work, you fucking pieces of shits." You hear their terrified screams and hum. You love having Koios's powers coursing through you. You jump down then wink at a terrified soldier as you punch through his helmet. Everyone else looks at you and you just smile then wink as you begin punching through them.

"Fuck! Retreat! Now!" Chris says to his squad as he sees your figure making it's way towards him.

"REDFIELD!" You call as you drag a soldier's body with you. He stops then turns to you. "The fuck did you think would happen?" You toss him the body and he flinches as the body lands in front of him. "That I would leave my house? My wife's daughters?" You growl. "You should have known better than to attack this Castle, Chris."

"I know! But they insisted I swear! It was not me, Y/LN!" You growl.

"Dimitrescu. I married Alcina. Get. It. Right."

"Got it! Dimitrescu!" You groan. Then turn to the castle. You glare at Chris.

"This better not be repeated. Or else I will fucking leave this village." You take a step towards him. "And I-" Another step. "Will hunt-" Another step. "Everyone in BSAA." Chris falls as you tower over him. "Got that?" He nods without a sound and you leave without a word.

When you get back, you see the maids are cleaning up the bodies and collecting blood. At least, they were practical.

"Thank you, Y/N." The grand chambermaid says and you tilt your head. "You punched them in the head, it'll be a lot easier collecting their bloods." You hum then smile.

"Thanks for cleaning up after me."

"You're welcome, Lady Dimitrescu." You grin then get inside.

"Darling!" Alcina calls out to you but a blurb gets to you first. You grunt as Daniela collides with you.

"Mama! Are you alright!? Are you hurt anywhere!?" You chuckle as you pat her head.

"I'm alright, Dani. Really." You smirk. "I'm a Titan, remember?"

"Still, darling." Alcina raises your head so you would look at her. "We all worry." You look at your daughters then smile.

"I'm fine. Really." You notice the ring on Alcina's finger then grin. "I have everything I can ever need."

Donna Beneviento

In more than one way, you've always had Hyperion's power coursing through you. With observation, you knew exactly how everything worked around the Beneviento house.

So when Ethan came to the village, all of your senses just screamed at you. You knew he was dangerous. Before you knew it, your feet were moving and you were evacuating the citizens who didn't have the cadou in their body.

You wrestled down Alcina's daughters and even had to make Alcina unconscious. Her devotion to Miranda had always evaded you. Moreau was convinced easily because you were Donna's lover. Something that he also wishes for himself.

Karl just smirked at you as he went with his siblings, needing no convincing. Donna was worried as you prepare yourself for Ethan's arrival.

"Y/N, are you sure about this?" She asks in her own voice, worry lacing every word. You smile as you kiss her hand.

"I am, my love. Don't worry." You assure her with a wink and send her to Karl. He was the one who would evacuate everyone.

You wait for Ethan's arrival and even snicker as he walks around confused at the state of the Village.

You greet him as he comes to Castle Dimitrescu. Seeing as it was where Karl found him before getting him to Mother Miranda.

He tries to shoot you but you catch the bullet mid-air and smile.

"I mean no harm, Ethan. I actually want to help you."

"Why?" You shrug.

"For my love? The family that actually cares about each other? Not being alone... or dying by your hands?"

"What?" You hum then give him some guns.

"Just prepare. Mother Miranda won't go down without a fight."

And she didn't. She even screamed at you for betraying her but you remind her of one thing.

"I love Donna. Not you."

You and Ethan save Rose from Miranda and you make sure to push them away before detonating the bomb.

Donna was frantic when she sees both Ethan and Rose but you were nowhere to be seen. Then they heard the explosion and Donna's face falls. But just then a figure was coming from the sky then lands with a puff of smoke.

"Fucking underworld!" You shout as you stand and get rid of the remaining smoke surrounding you. You focus on Chris and lift him with his collar. "Did you really have to put up that much!? Fucking asshole!? If I wasn't a Titan, I would've died!"

"Y/N." You let him go in favor of turning to Donna with a smile. She cries and you panic.

"What's wrong, my love!? Are you hurt!? Did anybody hurt you!?" Donna just hugs you and you smile as you tighten the hug. "I'm okay, Donna."

It will take a long time to rebuild the village but you don't mind. As you long as you were with her.

Bela Dimitrescu

You were with Bela in the library when Daniela's scream pierced through your ears. You and Bela quickly went to her younger sister who pointed outside.

Soldiers are coming through and it made you angry.

"Bela. Can you take both Cassandra and Daniela somewhere safe? Since Lady Alcina is still out."

"But Y/N we can-"

"No. The cold is still prominent. You'll only put yourselves in danger. Go somewhere safe. I'll deal with these assholes."

You sigh as you feel Iapetus's powers coursing through you. There is a reason why you don't go to hunts with the Dimitrescu sisters.

Because if you did. You'll overdo it.

You were on the roof on the courtyard and you crack your neck as they arrive and point their guns at you. A golden spear appears as you hold out your hand.

"Deaths! For all of you!" Your eyes turn red and you start your onslaught.

In just minutes, they were all wiped out and you were standing over countless bodies. You sigh as you dismiss your spear. You get inside the castle and slide down the doors. Bela comes out of nowhere and you chuckle.

"I thought I told you to go somewhere safe." She nods then pulls you to stand. She hugs you and you sigh in relief.

"I am. I feel safer in your arms."

Cassandra Dimitrescu

It was night and all three of them were on a hunt. You were on the Castle's most highest point, just observing your love and her sisters. Then you heard massive vehicles and growl. You get down and go to Cassandra.

"Y/N! Are you-"

"No. The military is coming. Go back to the castle and warn Lady Alcina. Tell her to go somewhere safe with you guys."

"Their bullets won-"

"I know! But still. Cass. Please. I'll protect you so please." Cassandra sees the sorrow in your eyes then sigh in defeat. She pulls you then kisses you hard.

"Come back to me." You smile then nod.

"Always." You stretch your body as Oceanus's powers course through it. You hum then go greet the unwanted guests. It was a good thing that the Castle had it's own lake.

With a flick of your wrist, the vehicles were stopped by a massive wave of water. All of the soldiers got out and you hum.

Two dozens. You make quick work of them with your powers.

You look at their Captain.

"Chris Redfield. I would say it's nice to see you but then I'd be lying." You raise his body with water and your eyes take on a dangerous glint. "What are you doing here? Why are you targeting this castle?"

"There are reports. Of massive Bio Organic Weapons in this area."

"Oh."

"We were sent to kill them." You hum then smile.

"Tell the BSAA to leave this village alone. I'll deal with Miranda in due time."

"But-"

"Chris. Do you really want to drown right now?" He shakes his head and you smile. "Good. Now go. Tell them that Y/N, the titan of lost time shall take care of matters here."

"Of course. You won't attack us, right?" You smirk as you turn.

"As long as you leave us alone, I won't." You get back to the castle as Chris goes back.

You get inside and look blankly as Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela looked ready to kill whoever went through the door. You just hug Cassandra as Alcina looks at you.

"I assume the soldiers are taken care of." You nod and look at her.

"They're all disposed of. Lady Dimitrescu."

"And you? Any injuries at all?" You shake your head.

"Just tired." Cassandra drags you after saying goodnight to her mother. You were ready to fall asleep as she opens her door.

You plop down on her bed and was asleep in just mere seconds. She joins you after she fixes your position.

When you cuddle her, she hums in satisfaction.

Daniela Dimitrescu

It was supposed to be a peaceful day. But then a loud explosion can be heard on the gate. You and Daniela raced downstairs to see what it was. Alcina greeted you.

"What is it? Who is it?"

"Soldiers. The military seems to have gotten wind of us." You groan.

"Pain in the ass." You sigh. "Let me take care of them." Daniela pulls you.

"What? Y/N, no-"

"Dani. Daughter. I believe you are underestimating your lover." You smile at Daniela.

"She's right." You wink. "I'll just be 5 minutes, tops." You open the doors and the explosions stopped. Looks like they finally opened it. Mnemosyne's powers are coursing through you and you get a sword from the entrance. Your sword.

And despite not fighting for more than decades now, it seems that your enhanced memory comes in handy in times like this. You still remember every move. Every warrior you've defeated. Every single thing they did while they fought you.

When the battle ends, your sword is absolutely soaked in blood and your clothes are more than tainted. You sigh as you get back to the castle. You have to apologize to the maid because of your bloody clothes.

Daniela hugs you as you get inside and Alcina nods at you, a certain glint in her eyes.

You hug Daniela back and place your sword back to it's rightful place.

You get inside her room and take a shower before changing clothes, apologizing profusely to the amused grand chambermaid who thanks you for protecting the castle.

That night, as you slept through the night. Daniela thanks the stars that she met you.

A/N:

This took too long. Damn.

I still have requests to write then I'll get back to writing the Loving You sequel and other stuff that I'm working on.

Comments and thoughts are always welcome!

Thank you for reading!

[old-hyper-super-clover]

Obey me! x Avatar the last airbeder/ Avatar the legend of Korra

I thought about what elements the Obey me characters would be able to bend in the universe of ATLA/ ATLOK, so here´s a list of their elements, sub elements and their preferred fighting style!

If you don´t know the show, here´s a short list of the elements (although I highly recommend watching the series they´re amazing)

Fire bending (can be trained into lightning- & combustion-bending)

Water bending (can be trained into ice-, steam-, plant- and blood-bending)

Air bending (can be trained to fly or project your spirit)

Earth bending (can be trained into metal- or lava-bending and for seismic sense)

Have fun reading and let me know what you think!!

Lucifer

Element: Fire (white-blue flames)

Sub element: Lightning

Fighting style: mainly fighting with lightning, it's more elegant and deadly, and those words are basically the definition of papa Luci. Legends say that once when Lucifer was angered enough, he casted a whole storm to let lightning go down on the whole land.

His white-blue fire is known to be the hottest type of flames, with Lucifer being able to keep their heat on this level for as long as the flames are burning.

"Fire as well as lightning shall be treated with care and used with dignity. Also, if you keep your cool in battle, you can watch as your enemy gets toasted by your attacks, and I personally very much enjoy this satisfaction."

Mammon

Element: Air

Sub element: mild form of flight

Fighting style: "Korra style", basically the more modern way to airbend as shown in the legend of Korra: specifically more forward and for combat (attacking and approaching enemies), for dragging enemies through the air as Mammon pleases.

Although flight is an extremely rare and spiritual ability, somehow the goof Mammon is able to fly short distances without a glider or other tools.

"Livin' like a true air nomad? Nah, that ain't like me. How am I able to fly, then? Well, I'm THE great Mammon after all!"

Levi

Element: Water

Sub element: Ice, steam

Fighting style: prefers to attack with waves of pure water, but when his envy kicks in, he might switch to freezing it (when self-loathing) or boiling it (when angered in envy).

As he loves being engulfed in water, he has perfected moving and diving in the ocean.

"I like being in the ocean... The water wraps around you like a tight but soft hug... A-ah, n-nothing, I would never say anything cheesy like this...!!"

Satan

Element: Fire

Sub element: Combustion

Fighting style: much like his anger can occur in explosive rushes, so does his element as combustion bending shoots a beam of explosive energy at whoever Satan wants to see dead. The explosions become larger the angrier he is, but also harder to control.

Yes, he has this fancy third eye tattoo where he shoots the explosions out of, period.

Technically very skilled in bending fire but dislikes using it (as it reminds him of Lucifer)

"What are you staring at? Do I look this strange to you? Well, if it's that irritating to be near me, I could blast you into pieces."

Asmo

Element: Water

Sub element: Plant bending

Fighting style: not really into fighting, but if he does he uses vines with thorns to whip his enemies asses (preferably in the literal sense hehe). He keeps the vines entagled around his body to always have some with him, and let's them bloom to make it/ himself more beautiful.

Is actually better at bending plants than regular water, even though the pure element should be the easiest to bend.

"Water inside plants is sweeter, which is just like me!", is his explanation for this.

Beel

Element: Earth

Sub element: Seismic sense

Fighting style: Due to his physique he is able to bend massive amounts of stone at once, yeeting those at his enemies. His powers decrease the hungrier he is, but peak once he enters his hungered rage. God help the mountains around him if that happens, they might be pulled of the ground if they are in the way between Beel and his food.

As he is rather calm and dislikes initiating fights, he learned to listen to the earth, his seismic sense helping him detect objects connected to the ground through vibrations.

"If you stay calm and feel your surroundings, you'll find yourself with many advantages in life... For me, it's the ability to detect the nearest food, hehe..."

Belphie

Element: Earth

Sub element: Sand

Fighting style: likes the fast attacks that are possible when bending sand, it's lighter and better to form than solid ground.

Probably his favourite move is to swirl the sand up to disturb his opponents vision while he himself isn't hindered by it at all. If no sand around, he prefers to use smaller rocks and uses them as projectiles.

"Direct combat is too tiring... I'd rather annoy my enemies until they are sick of fighting me. Everyone hates sand in their eyes, right?"

Diavolo

Element: Earth

Sub element: Lava

Fighting style: In my personal AU that is currently forming in my head, Diavolo is the earth prince and thus rarely gets to fight, but oh boy can he beat you up if he wants to. For his size, he is surprisingly agile as he utilizes his earth bending to move. His attacks are mostly through lava bending, a technique which he came up with himself after thinking about how water benders can change their element's state of aggregation. With lava, he keeps his enemies where he wants them to be, to then bombard his enemies with lava projectiles.

"Don't be shy, come a little closer! I might be a prince, but there is no need to be afraid... If I wanted to battle you, you would have already found yourself in a pit of lava!"

Barbatos

Element: Earth

Sub element: Metal, truth seer

Fighting style: This sly mf keeps shreds of metal on his body at any time to be able to shoot them at enemies (kind of like Mai with her knifes). Not an aggressive fighter, rather he waits for the opponent's move, analysing them to then attack with whatever metal is around, or through earth bending, if more effective.

His truth seeing is a form of seismic sense that specialises in sensing another's breathing and heart rate, making him the perfect guard for the earth prince Diavolo.

"I seem to sense an increase in your heart rate... Are you lying or simply thrilled to see me, hm~?"

Simeon

Element: Water

Sub element: healing, spirit bending

Fighting style: Simeon barely ever has to fight, his role in the tribe is a spiritual, not a warrior one. He has magnificent healing skills and is highly spiritual, so fighting is just not his cup of tea. All techniques he is able to do are traditional figures that are passed over generations in the water tribes.

He uses the techniques for 'dances' rather than combat, when pacifying evil spirits or to communicate with and befriend good ones.

Sub element: mild form of spiritual projection

Is able to travel to the spirit world, helps keeping the balance between the human and spirit world.

"Bending is so much more than a weapon to hurt your enemies. Come, I will show you my favourite spiritual place and tell you about the beauty of elements and spirits."

Luke

Element: Air

Fighting style: "Aang style", defensive and keeping his distance. Dodging until finding a weak point, however if you annoy litte Luke, he might switch to a more direct fighting style. With this reckless fighting style, Luke likes to disturb his opponents balance, his satisfaction big when he, a tiny boy, can blow grown-ups off their feet.

Solomon

He loves spirits, so he had always given it his all to get into the spirit world, successfully. Now, he is working on a technique to move his soul unbound by his body. Up to now he can drastically increase his sense (see and hear) through sensing through the wind around him, but he couldn't give his spirit an intangible form yet.

"If you can exist outside your body in the spirit world, it has to be possible here, too! Watch me, I will figure out how to do it one day!!"

Element: Water

Sub element: blood

"You know, technically, air nomads could bend the air carried by your blood cells... Earth benders the minerals and ions in your blood... So basically, blood bending is a really... Huh? What do you mean you're scared of me? I'm harmless, I swear~"

Fighting style: Don't worry, I know blood bending is always treated as the worst thing ever, but Solomon rarely ever relies on his blood bending skill for combat, even though he is able to use it outside of full moon nights, too. He knows a lot about the human body, so he can actually use those skills to heal and help people! (Or well, potentially, he could cause all your blood vessels to burst, but... That is only an option... Maybe... Mostly...)

He is talented with water and ice enough to fight bending those, will use those in the most annoying ways he can.

Bonus: My two MCs Violet and Clover

Element: none

Clover

Weapon: Bow and arrows

Fighting style: Clover tought herself how to use the bow in her free time in case she ever needs to defend herself. Other than that, she wasn't born with any bending abilities, but is, just like Simeon, very spiritually talented and helps him with his work. Wishes to be able to travel to the spirit world one day.

She can hear and see spirits that have escaped into the human world and has made it her task to ensure they return to their home safely.

"H-huh? Ah, don't mind me, I'm not special at all... But wouldn't you like to meet my ghost friends? They have so many fascinating stories to tell."

Violet

Element (learned): fire (mastered), earth (only a little)

Element (yet to learn/ master): water, air, earth

Fighting style: Avatar alerrrt. Yes, this amazing lady would be the avatar of this generation. Born in the fire nation, she has mastered bending fire at young age. Given the right ground (e.g. volcanic stone), Violet has a unique technique of colouring her flames as the bends tiniest fragments of metals and minerals along with the flames. For that she lets the fire touch the ground and burns the metals in her motion. The minerals cause the different flame colorations and showed that she is indeed the avatar. Has yet to learn bending the three other elements.

Lucifer was her teacher for mastering fire bending, and she was taught to fight with a sword, too.

"I may be capable of bending every element, but I still have a long way to go. My homeland has taught me the arts of fire and the sword, but now it is time for me to learn the arts of the rest of the world."

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

Thank you so much for reading!! If you´d like to hear more about this concept I can come up with backstories for each character! Just let me know if you´d be interested~

[pterodactylterrace]

Title: Guys Like You

Chapter: 3

Chapter Summary: You’re late for tea

Rating: 18+ for later chapters

Warning: Possible swear words, dirty thoughts, nudity

Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Friday had been a strange day for Faye.  First, Henry wasn't on set. It took an embarrassingly long time for her to remember being told he had a few days off of filming.

Then, Mrs. Anderson sent her a strange series of texts asking about him. Sure, Faye had mentioned him a few times. Also, Briar was constantly going on about the man with the fluffy dog, so it made some sort of sense that she would ask about him. Not to mention Mrs. Anderson was always trying to find her a 'nice young man' to settle down with, so fixating on the one man she had mentioned wasn't that odd in retrospect.

Then, as she was pulling her beat up car into her driveway, she noticed an unfamiliar, shiny vehicle already parked outside. Maybe that was the new car Mr. Anderson had been dying for? Why would he park at her house instead of in his own drive a few doors down, though? Was it a surprise for Mrs. Anderson?

Now, she was walking into her house only to be greeted by a very excited, very large fluffball at the door.

"Kal?" That was definitely Kal. He was the only black and white Akita she knew with the habit of knocking his rear into her leg for attention, although his getup was rather strange. Why was Henry's dog in her house, and why was he wearing fairy wings, her daughter's dress up fairy tutu and at least a dozen mardi gras necklaces? Also, the floppy sun hat on his head was a nice touch. He seemed to enjoy having it on as well. That, or it was tied on too well for him to get off.

The dog's attire should have prepared her for when she looked into the living room. There sat Mrs. Anderson, her sun hat on along with one of Briar's scarfs and glow in the dark glasses perched above her regular seeing glasses. Next to her was Briar, her full fairy princess costume on, complete with wings, crown and a scepter, pouring pretend tea into the strangest guest's cup.

There sat Henry Cavill, cross legged on her living room floor, tiny plastic tea cup in his massive hand. On his head was perched a plastic crown, a feather boa wrapped around his thick neck, and if the sparkles were anything to go by, Briar had attacked him with her glitter body spray.

"Mommy!" Briar gasped, dropping her plastic tea pot and racing over to her mother, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"Hi, sweetie. What's going on?" Faye asked cautiously.

"You're late for tea." Henry replied, taking a pretend sip from his cup.

"I hope it's alright, dear. You did say he was a friend, and Briar seemed so fond of his dog, I didn't have the heart to turn him away." Mrs. Anderson explained.

"Uhh... yeah, it's fine." Faye mumbled, still taking in the sight before her, Kal and Briar rejoining the tea party as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

"My mistake. I thought we agreed on Friday." Henry apologized, pushing himself up. "We've only been here a little while. We can leave if you'd like."

"Oh, no. That's ok." Faye assured, finally setting her bag down, hastily turning over her sketch pad on the entrance table. Some things weren't meant for anyone other herself to see.

"I'll just be heading off then, Miss Warren." Mrs. Anderson excused herself, taking off her borrowed accessories and gathering her things. "You all have fun."

"So, uhh... how... how long have you been here?" Faye asked once she closed the door behind the older woman, quickly scanning the room to make sure nothing difficult to explain was in plain sight.

"Not long." Henry assured, sitting back down at Briar's insistent tugging, folding his long muscular legs back up as he settled on the floor in front of the coffee table.

"More tea!" Briar demanded, holding the cup up to his mouth, prompting him to take another pretend sip.

"You make wonderful tea, miss." Henry complimented, Briar preening in response.

"Mommy, you want tea?" Briar asked, a wide yawn cracking her little face.

"I would love some, sweetheart, but it's time for your nap." Faye pointed out.

"No! I wanna play tea!" Briar whined, plopping back on her backside in a pout.

"Briar." Faye warned, raising a brow at her.

"But... but... tea party!" Briar insisted.

"We can play more tea party after your nap. You're getting grumpy."

"No I'm not!" Briar insisted, her chubby face drawn into a scowl.

"That was grump right there." Faye pointed out, gently scooping up her cranky daughter. "Now let's go lay you down for a nap, and then we can play more tea party when you wake up."

"I don't wanna nap!" Briar yawned, rubbing her hazel eyes in an attempt to stay awake.

"You need one."

"I don't wanna nap, I'm tired!"

"Sound logic, my love." Faye sighed, settling her daughter into her bed, tucking her in with her favorite stuffed unicorn. The little girl was asleep before Faye even reached the door, curled up around her stuffie with her little tush up in the air.

"Sorry you had to see that. She really hates going down for a nap when she's having fun."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to get her wound up." Henry apologized, removing the plastic crown from his head.

"Don't worry about it, she's just happy to have more guests at her tea party." Faye assured, picking up the plastic dishes and putting them back in the toy box.

"She was quite insistent we join, though I do think Kal enjoyed getting dressed up." Henry chuckled, beginning to remove the dog's costume.

"Good thing you agreed, otherwise you would have faced the wrath of Briar." Faye giggled, noticing the unicorn and rainbow stickers all over Henry's back.

"It was a pleasure attending her party. She is quite a wonderful host." Henry laughed, stowing the costumes back in the toy box. "Now, I do believe you requested help with a cake for our little party host."

"Yes, right this way." Faye waved, heading off to her tiny eat in kitchen. "What do we need?"

"Well... you have an oven, so that's a start. I brought the ingredients with me. Do you happen to have a cake pan?" Henry listed, opening the fridge and removing the bag he'd brought along.

"I have a glass baking pan." Faye offered.

"We will work with that." Henry agreed. "Now, measuring cups?"

"They are around here somewhere."

"Do you know how to use them?" Henry teased, setting the ingredients from the bag onto the counter.

"Vaguely. I just usually eyeball everything when I cook." Faye admitted.

"That won't work with baking. It's a science and the measurements have to be exact." Henry explained. "So, we'll start with the dry ingredients. Can you measure out two cups of flour?"

"I have no idea where the cup is. I have half a cup."

"Four of those, then." Henry absently mumbled, scanning over his mother's recipe card again. He glanced over to see her attacking the bag of flour with the measuring cup, wincing to himself as he watched. "Faye?"

"Mmhmm?"

"Forgive me for asking, but do you know how to measure flour?" Henry asked, cringing when she tried to smooth the top down with her hand, causing a flour explosion in her face.

"I'm guessing what I just did wasn't right."

"Not quite." Henry chuckled, stepping behind her, taking her hand in his and dumping the flour back into the bag. "You can use a spoon to sift it. Packed flour and unpacked flour are two totally different measurements." He explained, handing her a spoon and taking her other hand in his, showing her how to sift the flour into the measuring cup.

Faye tried to keep her cool and ignore the fact that Henry Cavill was pressed up behind her, holding her hands and showing her how to measure flour like it was the most natural thing in the world. Surely this was just some dream and if it was, no one had better wake her up.

"Got it?" Henry asked, turning his head to look at her, snapping her from her thoughts. Faye did her best not to stare at his lips, so close and yet so far away. She could just lean in...

"Yeah, got it." She quickly confirmed, forcing her attention back to the task at hand.

And so it went, Henry leading the way through the mysterious land of baking, Faye following blindly behind. He even let her lick the spoon when he was done with it, and he in no way stared in awe at the way her tongue moved around it. He was a gentleman, after all, and imagining what else that tongue could do would be highly inappropriate.

It wasn't until after the cake had been pulled from the oven to cool that Briar woke up, wandering into the kitchen with her now disheveled princess costume still on, her hair sticking out in strange angles as she rubbed her eyes.

"You're here!" Briar gasped, taking notice of the giant in the room and scurrying over to him, throwing her arms around his legs.

"Nice to know where I stand." Faye pouted as Henry scooped the girl up, her daughter not even glancing her way in favor of talking to Henry.

"Can we play dollies?" Briar asked, batting her thick dark lashes at him, her chubby lip sticking out in a pout.

"I've never played before, you'll have to show me how." Henry agreed, smiling down at the little girl held securely in his arm.

"Mommy, you look silly!" Briar giggled, finally looking over at her mother.

"That's not nice." Faye gently scolded.

"What on your face?" Briar asked.

"Mommy had an incident with the flour." Henry explained. Shit. Had she really spent the last hour, practically drooling over her guest with flour all over her face? She really should write a book on how to flirt. No doubt, it would be a best seller.

"I'm gonna go get cleaned up." Faye mumbled, her face heating up beneath the flour coating as she ducked her head and beelined down the hall.

"I'll be learning how to play dolls." Henry chuckled after her, carrying the toddler back to the living room so her mother could shower in peace.

Fifteen minutes later, Briar was still explaining the different names of her dolls and stuffed animals, piling each on top of Henry and resorting to stuffing them under Kal's paws when she ran out of room on her semi-willing captive. Faye cracked the bathroom door open and glanced to the living room to make sure her guest was thoroughly distracted before she slipped out of the bathroom, towel wrapped tightly around herself as she snuck down the hall to her bedroom, breathing a sigh of relief when she closed the door behind herself. She could almost convince herself he was interested in her with the couple times she'd caught him looking her way when he thought she wouldn't notice. No need to scare him off with her mom-bod now.

Sure, it hadn't been that hard on her figure. She wasn't left with the same saggy stomach her mother had after her pregnancies, but then again, her mother had carried two sets of twins almost to term. Talk about a superwoman. Though she did decide no more children after her younger brother and sister had been born.

"You keep giving me a two for one deal, I'm not doing this again!"

Good times. Good times. The wonders of having twins running strongly in your family. Faye had only given birth to one, but she still bore the stretch marks on her stomach and breasts, and the loose skin on her stomach had never really gone back to the way it was before.

Faye was shaken from her thoughts by her daughter's all too familiar exclamation coming from behind her. "Mommy, you're nakie!" She would never understand her daughter's near obsession with pointing out the fact that she was in fact, naked during and directly after showers, but it was without a doubt one of her favorite hobbies. Right behind tea parties if she had to guess.

"Wait, what? Oh!" That was not her daughter's voice. Faye's head snapped up to find Briar's chubby hand wrapped tightly around Henry's little finger, his other hand clapped firmly over his eyes. "I am so sorry! She wanted to get her stuffed dragon, I did not know this was your room!"

Faye snatched her towel off the bed and wrapped it around herself again, grabbing the dragon from the pillow and handing it off to Briar. The little girl happily took her dragon and led Henry back down the hall, not bothering with the door. The wonders of being young and innocent. She had no clue what she had just done.

Faye quickly shut the door herself, remembering to turn the lock this time, though it was a moot point by then. She threw on a tank top, leggings and her fluffy socks before forcing herself to venture back out. Henry was actually sitting on the couch this time, doing his best to focus on what the little girl was saying, though truth be told, his mind kept wandering back to the quick glimpse he had gotten of Faye's backside before he registered what was going on. It was even better than the glances he had gotten when she bent over in front of him to rummage through her make up bag. Nice and round, plump yet firm. The kind of ass you just want to squeeze as you're-

"So... " Faye started awkwardly, quickly breaking Henry out of his own head. "Lunch sound good?"

"Chocolate sandwiches!" Briar quickly suggested, hugging her stuffed bunny to her chest as she bounced around.

"It looks like I'm making chocolate sandwiches, though I could probably also manage a peanut butter and jelly."

"I wouldn't want to impose, though I did want to apologize again-"

"Accident's happen, but we are going to pretend that one didn't, ok?" Faye interjected. "So nutella or peanut butter and jelly?"

"Umm... either is fine."

"Briar, keep them company while mommy makes lunch, ok?" Faye suggested, going back to the kitchen before her false confidence faded. If he was on board with repressing and denying, so was she.

Now, only one questioned remained: Would Henry prefer his sandwiches cut into dinosaurs or puzzle pieces?

[yoongi-sugaglider]

Daegu Quarantine

Jungkook x reader

Gang/ zombie apocalypse au

Warnings:

Gore, violence, zombies, mention of drugs and drug dealing, weapons discharge in self defense, main character death, zombies, course language, zombies, drinking, did I mention zombies?

Summary:

They were the top of their game, known throughout the city as the smartest and most dangerous crew to ever hit the Daegu streets. But what’s going to happen when this group of young men encounter something right out of a horror film?

Word count:2325

Part 12===Part 13===Part 14

The moment we pushed into the hotel hallway it was all gunfire and falling bodies. Seokjin made quick work of the men, pushing ever forward in a hail of bullets that pierce the walls and floor with a merciless bite.

Room doors opened with a crash but the bodies only appeared for a moment before crashing backwards into more darkly clad bodies. I couldn’t help but be impressed, the forward push of Seokjin’s wide shoulders a reassuring reminder why we’d kept him around for so long despite the epic cringe that was his dad jokes.

The one moment there was a break in the gun fire Hoseok and I began scouting out the rooms, reassuring ourselves that nobody was hiding in the shadows for our eventual retreat back to the stairwell.

The first few rooms were empty thankfully but the third we tried was a different story. A dark shadowed blur dashed out of the dark bathroom, catching me off guard and slamming me into the wall so hard it knocked the wind out of me and almost caused me to lose my grip on my weapon.

Hoseok acted quickly though, wrapping his arm around the man’s throat and pinning his arm up in the air in a choke hold so fierce it caused his grip to loosen on me instantly. The two fell backwards, fighting for control as I recovered enough to smash the butt of my gun into my former assailant’s temple so hard he went limp in Hoseok’s arms instantly.

We gave each other a nod of thanks, both glad to have the other as backup in this life or death situation.

Out in the hall Jungkook was in a fight of his own, two men having made the mistake of trying to take him on at once. Jungkook’s leg darted out, taking one man out at the knee by snapping it painfully backwards. The fool landed with a scream, clutching his leg as his partner came at Jungkook with an ill placed fist towards Jungkook’s temple. Kook’s reflexes were far too quick though, grabbing the man’s wrist and twisting it sharply in the opposite direction. The man screamed out, high pitched and aching as Kook wrenched his arm behind his back and kicked the back of his knee so that he dropped down to the floor. Jungkook pulled upwards hard, dislocating his opponent’s shoulder with another well placed kick.

A single gunshot rang out, ending the man’s suffering instantly. Jungkook glanced back at me, a manic grin lighting up his face as he watched me eject my clip and slam another home.

“That’s my girl.” He cheered and I couldn’t help but swell a bit with pride as the three of us turned to race down the hall to Seokjin and Yoongi.

The two had already cleared the rooms ahead of us and now stood side by side with Rose. Seokjin was arguing with her as Yoongi glared with a mix of displeasure and what I could only describe as awe at the strange machine she had wrapped in her arms.

“There is no fucking way I’m leaving it behind.” She whined, clutching it tighter and almost seeming to want to stamp her foot like a petulant child.

“We can’t possibly make it all the way back home with you carrying that monstrosity and be expected to protect you AND stay alive.” Seokjin turned to me, his eyes filled with pleading for me to try and talk some sense into her. 

“I take it that’s the machine Tae made for you?” I asked. I couldn’t help but stare at the thing, wondering what had possessed her to think to even grab it in the chaos of escaping her room.

“It is. It’s the most important thing in my life besides what’s in my bag. You can’t possibly ask me to leave it behind.” She pouted, fluttering her lashes at me in an attempt to garner a bit of sympathy.

“I’m sorry. But it’s just too much. I mean, yeah you could try….but by the time you got half way down the street you’d be forced to drop it and make a run for it. Those….things won’t care that you’re carrying precious cargo, they’re more interested in your insides anyway.”

She stared down at it, heaving a sigh before turning and gently leaning it on the ground against the elevator doors. “One day...I’ll come back for you…” She stroked the gleaming metal and I could swear she shed a tear.

Turning back to us she hitched up her bag, glancing warily down at the pistol Jungkook was offering her.

“You really don’t expect me to take that do you?” She asked, her voice filled with doubt at the situation.

Yoongi sighed, grabbing the gun and forcing it into her hands. “Listen sweetheart. It’s kill or be killed. We risked our asses to come out here and get you for Taehyung’s sake, the least you can do is cover us.”

She winced and sighed as her fingers wrapped around the cold steel. “Alright...yeah no that’s fair.”

“You’ve got 15 rounds, one in the chamber. Make them count.” Jungkook turned to each of us, eyeing us up and down to check for injuries before glancing down the hall.

“There’s gonna be more in the stairwell, we can’t count on our way in to get back down which means clearing the lobby before we’re out the back way. Tae you still with us?”

“On it boss, back alley is clear for the moment, no activity on the streets. I’ll lose you in the stairwell for a moment but once you’re back to ground floor I’ll be sure to update you if anything changes.”

“Easiest way to the back door?”

Rose chirped up at this. “There’s a hall directly outside of the stairwell, leads to the front lobby. Head straight down the middle towards the back. There’s a kitchen that should be pretty easy to get through. It’s basically a straight shot to the alley from there.”

Jungkook nodded, checking the chamber on his gun to make sure it was clear before nodding once again. “Alright. Head out. Keep your heads down as best you can and your eyes open.”

We each signed off in agreement and began making our way down the hall. 

There was an unnerving silence once we were back in the stairwell, each of us trying our best to keep our footsteps quiet as we followed behind Seokjin who once again led the press onward. The silence was shattered quickly though by the sound of gunfire echoing up the center shaft of the stairwell.

I pressed my back as best I could into the wall, arms pulled into my chest and my weapon at the ready as bullets flew by before me. At a break in the firing Seokjin leaned over the railing, spraying a hail of gunfire of his own into the landings below as the rest of us pressed on in an attempt to gain ground on those beneath us.

“Get down!”

My eyes widened when I spotted Hoseok, tiny metal pin in hand as he lobbed a black object into the abyss below. I grabbed Rose who’d been pressed in close behind me, ducking both our heads down as a massive explosion rocked the stairwell and caused all matter of dust and debris to rain down on our heads.

My ears rang, a screaming high pitch tone filling my head with an ache unlike anything I’d ever felt as Yoongi tugged Rose and I to our feet and shoved us down the stairs.

“Christ Hoseok, really?” I muttered, smacking my palm several times into the side of my head as my hearing slowly returned. He only glanced back to me with a grin, fingers deftly rezipping Seokjin’s bag and throwing it over his shoulders.

We made it two more landings down before the gunfire began again, this time aimed far more sporadically and far less in number than before. Our next landing saw the effects of Hoseok’s grenade, bodies hanging limp over the railing and blasted out into the corridor beyond. We stepped over them with zero remorse and continued to dodge the gunfire as we moved on. 

Seokjin leaned over the railing once more as the firing slowed, allowing his AK to do the talking as the firing slowed and then ceased all together. We managed to make it down to the ground floor, arms and legs burning from the mad dash down the stairs and ears ringing in the silence following our assailants’ last shots.

Rose leaned against the wall, breath heavy as she clutched at her chest and coughed around her lungs’ desperate attempt at re oxygenating her body. “Fucking hell...being a computer nerd does NOT come in handy in the apocalypse.” She shook her head, knees bent as she coughed a few more times before straightening with a grimace. “Remind me to take up some cardio if we make it out of this alive.”

“We will. And I will don’t worry.” I smiled, patting her on the shoulder and turning to Seokjin who’d taken his bag from Hoseok.

“She’s been a good girl, not gonna lie. But there’s only so much ammo I brought for her.” He sighed sadly, tucking the pink monster away and pulling out two of his favorite pistols.

“Alright boys, final push. Down the hall and through the lobby. Get to that kitchen and push for home. Tae’ll have eyes on us so no worries alright?” Jungkook waited as we all whispered our affirmatives.

On a three count we were out the door and into the thankfully empty hallway. Yoongi covered our rear, steps clipped and sure as he moved backwards with a guiding hand from Hoseok gripping his shoulder. Jungkook had point, weapon moving ever watchful with his eyesight as we made our way to the corner that turned into the lobby.

I could see rubble littering the ground from the explosion that’d taken out the large glass front doors and a massive portion of the cinder block of the ceiling. Bodies were scattered throughout, probably from the chatterers that’d been milling the lobby and had been caught in the blast.

I couldn’t help but wince at the sight of one dragging itself across the floor. There was no lower body to speak of, just a trail of viscera leading from it back to a pile of rubble that it’d surely dragged itself from.

“Fucking gross dude…” Hoseok muttered from behind me, attempting to stave off a gag as we moved into the rays of light cast from the holes in the rubble outside. Our movements were quick after that, rushing past the chattering mass on the ground and into the dark hall that would hopefully lead us to open air and a path out.

***

The kitchen was just as dark as everything else. Thankfully we’d reached it without incident but this cesspool of darkness could very well be our undoing if we weren’t careful.

I closed my eyes, squeezing them tight and opening them to blink rapidly in an attempt to adjust my eyes to the gloom beyond but it wasn’t much help. The murky darkness was basically impenetrable beyond the dim light cast by the hallway door that Yoongi held open for the moment.

My eyes glanced back to the dark silhouette that was Jungkook and his outstretched fist indicating us to hold our positions. He motioned to Seokjin who reached into his bag and after digging around for a moment he tossed a large black mass to Jungkook. The mass was caught with ease and I barely managed to suppress my impressed snort in time as Jungkook pulled what were clearly a pair of night vision goggles over his head.

Seokin really thought of everything, I have to say I was pretty damn impressed.

We all linked up, fingers entwined in the tails of the shirt of the person who walked before  us as Yoongi slowly closed the door behind us. The room plunged into darkness and I could feel Hoseok tense up behind me before all thought was on Rose who walked before me being led by Seokjin.

I strained my ears, listening for Jungkook’s footsteps in the lead and trying to match my steps with his.

“Get down!” Jungkook’s voice rang out at the same time as a muzzle flash blinded me from further in the room.

I dragged Rose down with me as gunshots rang through the air, straining to keep her body covered with my own as Hoseok cursed on the ground behind me.

All went silent after a dozen or more shots had gone off and I sighed in relief as Jungkook’s dusky voice muttered out the all clear. But the relief came all too soon.

As I stood, arm wrapped in Rose’s elbow, one more shot rang out, instantly followed by another as I shouted out in pain.

A piercing white hot pain burned through me. Jungkook roared with rage at the front of the line as I went down, dropping to my knees with a whimper as stars exploded before my eyes.

There was no escaping the screaming in my head as bright light flooded the kitchen, illuminating the horror on Jungkook’s face as I reached for him. But it was just too much.

I’d been shot. In some stupid fucking hotel in the middle of a goddamn apocalypse.

I caught the sight of Yoongi, wrapping me in his arms and lifting me from the floor as chaos erupted around me.

The light began to fade as my eyelids grew heavier and heavier. The last thing I could hear as my mind shut down from the pain was Taehyung’s voice in my ear, filled with regret and fear, and one last bellow of anger from Jungkook before I lost consciousness and said goodnight to the world.

[whatcouldgowrong-ohthat]

There is an explanation (Bucky X Reader)

This is one of the projects I picked for Sea’s 2k milestone challenge. I just had to, guys. XD And while the other one I picked is probably going to be leaning more towards angst, this one is meant to be fluff. We all need the fluff and kindness - there’s no denying it.

Also - the end is inspiration from Sebastian Stan’s instagram story, sooo I hope you guys like it.

Prompt: “Okay, look, I know this looks weird, but I have a perfectly good explanation for this.” “Alright, what is it?” “Uhhhhh”

@geosaurusrrex​ - one down, one to go XD

I can explain!

How often had he heard some variation of those words?

The first time he remembers oh so vividly. They had visited Wakanda. Shuri was adamant about meeting the woman that had Bucky eager to use updated tech instead of something as “ridiculous” as a flip phone. He remembered hearing the explosion. T’Challa and him had raced to Shuri’s lab, more concerned that the worst had happened and that Shuri’s craziness had finally caught up with her brilliance.

Instead - what were they greeted with?

Shuri had been working on something new and asked for Y/N’s help. The project had exploded, sending a white powder into the air. Once it had settled, bits and pieces of themselves, and the objects in the room, were left invisible to the naked eye. Y/N looked at him, innocently batting her eyes as she told him, “ I can explain! Shuri - she -”

“You are not putting all the blame on me,” the princess argued. Shuri pulled away from T’Challa’s scolding, deciding that her honor was on the line and she would be damned if Y/N made it sound like it was entirely her fault. “You are the one who came up with the idea of adding liquid nitrogen to the mix.”

Bucky rubbed his temples as he listened to the two women fall into an argument, though not a very serious one judging by their smiles. He knew it would be chaos to introduce them to each other, but...Should he have expected this? Judging by the look from T’Challa, he should have considered just about anything possible.

Knowing that, perhaps he should have been mad. They could have injured themselves! But no, he couldn’t stay mad at her. Nothing had made Bucky smile more than seeing a beaming Y/N whose excitement couldn’t be contained. He knew in that moment that she was the only thing that mattered.

And that was just the first time.

-----

It only looks bad. I swear.

One of the other memorable moments was when she had come back from a mission. She had been gone for longer than they had expected and Bucky hated every moment. However, the day she was supposed to come back, Sam had kept him as far away from the base as possible. 

It had scared him. Had he done something wrong? Did you come to your senses and realize you deserved better than him? 

What had happened on that damn mission?

Only when nightfall fell was he allowed back ini the compound. He immediately went to your room and found it empty. No one would tell him where you were. Except Friday.

“I’m afraid Miss Y/L/N has been in the med bay all day.”

Bucky couldn’t have moved faster. Everything was a blur to him as he ran down to the med bay. There, he found her being tended to by the Avenger’s physician. She was sitting on the table, busted lip and black eye marring your beautiful face. Her left arm was in a cast and sling, the right leg being prepped for a similar situation.

He stood in the doorway, chest heaving as he watched with utter fear in his eyes. She hadn’t noticed him at first. Instead, she was talking to the doctor. But it didn’t take long for her to shift her gaze to him. Eyes growing wide, mouth gaping like a fish - it was clear Y/N was attempting to put together some sort of explanation. 

“Were you planning on keeping me out of here?” he asked, voice rough as he came to her side. He didn’t pay any attention to the doctor. Instead, his hand came to rest on her uninjured arm. Bucky traced gently, as if worried that he could somehow break her as easily as the mission had. 

“No, I just...” She faltered, glancing down at his hand and intertwining it with her own. She traced the back with her thumb and looked up at him, offering a reassuring smile. “It only looks bad, Bucky. I swear.”

Bucky chuckled, shaking his head as he leaned forward. His scruffy beard gently pressed against her forehead before he pressed a small kiss to the top of her head. His voice was barely above a whisper as he told her, “I swear you’ll be the death of me, Y/N.”

But he didn’t mind. He should, he knew that. But he couldn’t bring himself to argue with her about her safety. All he could think about was how her hand so perfectly fit in his.

------

I really wish I knew how this happened.

Bucky was amazed at the trouble Y/N could get herself into. It was remarkable really. The only person he had met who managed to find themselves in so much chaos was Steve back in the 40′s. 

Maybe that was why he just couldn’t bring himself to be mad at her?

However, this little predicament was something else entirely.

Peter had said he wanted help on a new suit and knew that Y/N was obsessed with technology. Who better to see about making a new model than her? So after locking themselves for a couple hours, Bucky paid it no mind. They were brainstorming and he knew how Y/N was when she got a new idea in her head.

But twenty hours, twelve minutes and four...five...six seconds?!

Bucky was a bit concerned.

That’s how he found himself outside of the old Stark lab. It was now for Peter and Y/N’s use, but no one wanted to change the name. “Friday? Are they still in there?”

“Yes, Miss Y/L/N and Mr. Parker are...hard at work.” The amusement was clear in the AI’s voice and Bucky found himself wondering what it was that made her sound such a way. What were those two up to? 

A clatter of metal against metal earned his attention. He looked up at the door and it seemed Friday already knew his request. The doors opened with a hiss and Bucky stepped inside. Immediately, he was greeted by a spectacle.

Peter was currently clinging to the ceiling, mask forgotten on the nearby table. He didn’t seem entirely too eager to return to the floor, instead staring at the sight in the middle of the room.

And Bucky could understand why.

In front of him was Y/N with half an Ironman and half a Spiderman suit on. The legs poking out of her back had her lifted off the air. One leg was from the iron suit, the other the spider. The same for the arms. It was a combination if clunky and sleek that made an odd sort of appearance. And while the chest was that of the nano spidersuit, the actual head was the Ironmask. It was open, revealing her very confused face. 

Bucky raised an eyebrow as Y/N’s cheeks turned a dark red, matching the two suits. “Y/N,” he started, interrupted by the gears of the machines.

Her voice came out rushed, as if trying to argue with the thoughts Bucky had yet to think. “Please, don’t be upset! I’m stuck and I really wish I knew how this happened, but...”

Peter grinned apologetically, ears tinted pink. “After hour seventeen everything’s become a bit of a blur. We don’t know how we got here.”

Bucky sighed, his shoulders relaxing as he walked over to Y/N. The spider legs seemed to anticipate her thoughts, taking a couple steps back as she raised her hands. “I’m sorry, Buck, please don’t be mad. I really am sorry! I just don’t know how to get out of this thing and -” 

Bucky gently pushed her hands down, pressing her against the wall. The machine’s gears whined a sort of argument neither could understand as he took her face in his hands. He gently traced her cheeks and shook his head. This remarkable, stubborn, amazing, baffling, mind-blowing woman...always left him on his toes. 

“Bucky?”

He pulled her towards him, kissing her gently and keeping her as close to him as possible. Though he surprised her, she eagerly kissed him back, metal arms wrapping around his shoulders.

“Uh...guys?”

Bucky groaned against her mouth. Whether it was from irritation or pleasure Y/N couldn’t tell, but he pulled back and pressed his forehead against hers. “What, spiderboy?” he asked, his rough voice earning a giggle from Y/N.

“It’s sweet and all,” Peter’s voice squeaked. He was still scared of Bucky. “But could we focus on getting Y/N out of the Frankenstein suit?”

Bucky laughed, taking a step back and crossing his arms. Y/N pouted at the new distance, but quickly looked away when she noticed the way he took in her appearance. “Alright, let’s see what we can do to get you out of that thing.”

-----

However, Bucky’s favorite recollection was that one Christmas. Everyone had parted ways after giving gifts, leaving just the two of them. She was curled in his arms, the Grinch playing in the background, but he couldn’t bring himself to pay attention. Instead, he was playing with the tendrils of her hair, cheek pressed against the top of her head. She was so warm, a perfect fit as she curled into his side.

But Y/N always had a way of getting excited around Christmas.

“Oh!” She jumped up, running to the massive tree that had been decorated by the team. It was mismatched with all colored and white lights because Y/N insisted that people had preferences. Hanging from the branches were multiple ornaments of all shapes, sizes, and designs. But she wasn’t paying attention to those. Instead, she reached inside the middle of the tree, digging around the branches and causing the ornaments to rattle against one another. She seemed to grab what she was going for because she turned around.

In her hands was a small box and as she shifted from one foot to the other, Bucky noticed she was extremely nervous. “Y/N, you okay?” he asked, offering a small smile as she walked towards him. When she was close enough, he gently pulled her onto his lap.

She straddled him, her eyes focused intently on the little box in her hands. “Okay, look, I know this looks weird, but I have a perfectly good explanation for this.” 

Bucky raised an eyebrow, glancing from her down to the box. He took it, shaking it and hearing the small clink of...jewelry? “Alright,” he chuckled. “What is it?”

“Uhhhh...” Y/N blushed, scratching the back of her neck. “Just open it, okay? I’ll explain after.”

Bucky furrowed his brow, but did as she asked. His calloused hands gently opened the package, revealing a small brown box. He glanced up at her, raising an eyebrow. She was hiding behind her hands, peeking between her fingers. The anticipation was killing her. Deciding not to keep her waiting, he looked down at the box and plucked the lid off, wondering what the big deal was.

Until he saw what was inside.

“How...How did you?” Bucky looked from the contents to her, his eyes brimming with tears. Sitting inside the box was something he believed he lost a long time ago.

His army tags.

“Okay, so you know how I went on that mission and came back all beat up? I...” She huffed and leaned back. “It was Zemo. Okay, don’t give me that look! I insisted on going and this was why. He was...he was obsessed with you, Buck. And I thought that maybe -”

Bucky pulled her into a rough kiss, free hand setting the present aside. This woman was full of so many surprises. He never knew what to expect, but this? This was the biggest surprise she could have ever pulled. Tangling his hands in her hair, he tugged and pulled her impossibly closer. Y/N moaned as he delved his tongue into her mouth, not sure what she had expected, but this definitely not being it.

Not that she was complaining.

“B-Buck,” she murmured against his lips, slowly pulling away for some much needed air. “Are you okay?”

He leaned back, watching her intently. This crazy, beautiful woman somehow managed to get into the craziest situations. She was ridiculous and an absolute wonder that left him completely breathless. There was no explanation for his feelings for her. She would send him to a grave with the consistent level of worry and heart attacks she gave him.

There was absolutely no explanation. Well...except for -

“I love you, Y/N.”

“Wait, what?” Her voice cracked, surprise evident. 

Bucky’s heart beat so loud in his chest, he could hear it in his ears, feel it in his legs. Shifting in his seat, he couldn’t hold back his smile as he traced her cheeks with his thumbs. “You are...insane, immature,” he started, kissing her cheek. “Drink too much coffee, and sleep too little.” 

“Hey!”

He kissed her chin then her nose. “You argue about anything if I give you the chance and you are obsessed with the little details about Christmas.” He kissed her forehead, her eyelids. “You are passionate and driven, dedicated about just about everything. And I find you absolutely incredible.”

Y/N blushed and Bucky shifted nervously. The confidence he had was slowly shifting into nervousness and unease. “So...I...I love you.”

Y/N leaned forward, kissing him lightly. “I love you too, Bucky.”

He grinned from ear to ear, the nervousness he once felt being replaced by a completely different feeling. Something he hadn’t felt since he was a boy. 

Giddiness.

Y/N reached for the tags, slipping them around Bucky’s neck. She leaned forward, fingers curled around the chain as she kissed him once again. “So does this mean I’m off the hook for all the accidents?”

He laughed, the tags falling from her grip and landing on his chest. “Absolutely not!”

[fandom-imagines-stories]

Interrupting ‘I Do’

Tony Stark x Reader

Words: 2602

Summary: When your wedding day is under attack, you have a little more to worry about than the reception. Tony and you are separated when a bomb goes off and have to find a way back to each other. 

Notes: Yes, Tony Stark has taken over my Tumblr, why do you ask?

-

It was the biggest event of the season. Tony Stark’s wedding. Well, it was your wedding too, but you were often left out of the headlines. Not that you cared. The journalists and magazines were more Tony’s thing. You were just a lawyer from Brooklyn that he’d met at a fundraiser event four years ago. 

The mimosa in your hand was meant to calm your nerves, but everything still set you on edge. It was all still pretty surreal, from the gorgeous ring on your finger to the beautiful venue. It was a large tent looking over the Hamptons. A part of you still dreamed of the church around the corner from your childhood home. But you couldn’t complain. 

“Earth to Y/N?” Your maid of honor Kat waved her hand in front of your face. “What do you think?” You looked in the mirror at your hair that she’d been styling for the past two hours. One more weight lifted off your shoulders and you checked off hair and makeup on your mental checklist. Taking another sip of the mimosa, you paced to the hotel suite window. Behind, your bridesmaids chatted and laughed as they did their own makeup. 

Your cell phone began to ring and kat snatched it off of the table before you could see who it was. 

“Gold Diggers Incorporated, this is Katherine speaking.” She snickered. You shot her a death glare. “Oh hey, Tony!” 

“Kat, can I please speak to my fiance?” Tony asked patiently on the other end. She gave you a mischievous smirk. 

“I don’t know… she’s still a little busy with her bachelorette party gift. He’s- oops-” She giggled, “I mean it’s a blast.” You pried your phone away rolling your eyes. 

“Hey,” You greeted. You felt like a high school girl with butterflies stirring in your stomach. “She’s kidding.” You clarified and he chuckled. 

“You mean you don’t have a male stripper hiding in your closet?” He teased. “Damn, I was hoping for a lap dance.” Just hearing his voice made your nerves fade if only a little. “Come out to the balcony.” 

You could sense his cheeky grin and you smiled, stepping out onto the balcony as he said. You expected a note or something, but nothing was there. 

“Okay, I’m out here.” You shrugged, looking around. There was a loud sound and a flash of red and gold scooped you off the ground, causing you to let out a surprised yelp. 

“If you mess up her hair Tony, I swear to God, I’m going to kill you!” Kat shouted after you as he launched off of the balcony, lifting you into the air. You soared over the beach as workers bustled around below you. You landed on a cliff down the beach from the tent and saw a picnic blanket folded beside a basket and a bottle of wine. A car was parked just down the hill. 

“It’s a little early, don’t you think.” You motioned to the wine as he set you on your feet. 

“I figured this could be an exception.” He said through the helmet. “I’ll be right back.” He trekked down to the car, going in one door and coming out on the other side, the suit stripped away, revealing dark jeans and an old rock band t-shirt. As much as you loved seeing him in a tux, it was his casual, more at home attire you like best. 

“Morning.” You raised an eyebrow, earning a wink. “What’s all this about?” 

“Is it a crime to want breakfast with my soon to be wife?” He asked with his usual level of snark. 

“You know it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.” You pointed out as he laid out the blanket. 

“I don’t believe in bad luck.” Tony shrugged. He sat down and poured you a glass of wine. “97 Pinot Noir. It’s the wine-”

“We had on our first date.” You finished with a smile. “I can’t believe you remembered.” You sat beside him and looked at the horizon. 

“This still seems kind of unreal.” He admitted, pulling out a package of strawberries and some muffins. “Not in a bad way, obviously.”

“I know what you mean.” You laid your head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around you. “By the end of today… I'll be Mrs. Stark.” He pressed a kiss to the side of your face. 

“I like the sound of that.” 

-

After breakfast, the two of you drove back to the hotel and finished getting ready. Rhodey made sure Tony didn’t wander around and cause any mischief, taking him back to his room so he could put on his tux. You made another mental note to thank him for his help. 

By noon, it was time to head over the ceremony, spiking your nerves all over again. You were marrying Tony Stark. Pictures would be in every tabloid in New York, flattering or not. Basically, every woman over the age of twenty would build an opinion on the woman who tamed America’s Number One Bachelor, and they would not be afraid to voice it on all media platforms. 

As the limo neared, photographers stood in line, anxiously awaiting to take the photo that would define your stance in the public eye. You put a hand on Kat’s arm. 

“I can’t do this.” You gasped, all of the breath leaving your lungs. Before she could respond, the photographers switched their focus to the sky. The flashes of their cameras reflected against the gold and hot-rod-red metal as Iron Man landed before them in a dramatic hero pose. 

It was then you remembered that you weren’t just marrying Tony- you were also marrying the suit. You were marrying Iron Man and all the worry that comes with him. Even when you were dating, you constantly wondered if Tony would come home every time he flew off. 

Tony stepped out of the suit with his classically recognizable smile on his face. You let out a breath of awe. He knew how to work a crowd. He held up his hands. 

“Alright guys, this isn’t another fundraiser gala. I’m going to have to ask all of you to wait until after the wedding to get more pictures.” Everyone tried to object as security ushered them away. Tony turned to the limo and gave the driver a thumbs up. 

“He had to make his entrance.” Kat snorted. You felt yourself blush and watched him disappear into the tent. 

“He knew.” You beamed. He knew how much you hated the press, so he gave them a taste with his entrance so they would leave you alone. You couldn’t imagine a better man to marry. 

You stood outside as the groomsmen and bridesmaids entered, ending with Rhodey and Kat. Then was Pepper, without whom this day wouldn’t have happened. You had insisted that she enter with the rest of the wedding party and be recognized for everything she had done for the two of you. 

“You look amazing.” Happy grinned at you as you took his arm. When you’d asked Happy to give you away, he’d never looked so, well, happy. “Are you ready?” 

“As I’ll ever be.” The opening of the tent was drawn back and the music swelled, lights twinkling all around you. All of the guests stood- all close friends of either you or Tony. Neither of you really had any family left. But none of them mattered, at least not in that moment. 

All that mattered was him as he turned around to see you. Tony’s eyes filled with more light than you’d ever seen before and there was no smugness or playboy charm in his smile. It was just complete and utter joy. 

“Wow.” He gasped breathlessly. Every discovery, every invention, every flight in the suit paled in comparison to how he felt in that moment. 

You were halfway down the aisle when you heard it. It was faint and barely noticeable below the music. Rhodey shifted uncomfortably as unfamiliar faces stood moved from the seats. He put a hand on Tony’s shoulder and his expression said more than words could have. Tony turned back to you and his eyes held something else entirely: fear. As he reached his hand out to you, he shouted:

“Y/N!” 

The first explosion took out the far left wooden beam holding up the tent, causing the entire side to collapse in on itself. The blast left a ringing in your ear, consuming all other sounds. You couldn’t even hear yourself screaming. 

Happy acted quickly, pulling you through the frantic crowd. With the smoke and fire and hoard of running guests, you’d lost sight of Tony. You were a few feet away from the exit when the second bomb went off. The impact knocked you away from Happy and into another post, and you were quickly buried in a pile of wood and rubble. 

-

When you woke up, you could hardly breathe. A cloth sack had been placed over your head and your ears were still ringing. You could just make out the voices around you as the vehicle you were in continued down a bumpy road. What cut through the most was the voice on the radio, broadcasting the latest events. 

“It’s just in, owner of Stark Industries and famed face of Iron Man, Tony Stark’s wedding has been the subject of a massive terrorist attack. Mere hours ago, three bombs detonated in the canopy where the ceremony was being held. While Mr. Stark was able to escape the wreckage in the Iron Man suit, his bride-to-be Y/F/N Y/L/N has not yet been found.” 

“How much traffic can there possibly be in the goddamn city?” Someone, presumably the driver, exclaimed. 

“Relax, we’re almost there.” Another voice growled. The van came to a stop and you were dragged out and forced into a chair. Finally, the sack was removed and you observed your captures and your surroundings. 

“Welcome, Mrs. Stark.” One sneered. His accent was thick and you recognized it as Russian. 

“Well, not yet.” You corrected bitterly. “You made sure of that.” He smirked, narrowing his eyes. 

“You’re very pretty. I can see why he likes you.”

“You really think so?” You said with sarcastic flattery. He placed a toothpick in his mouth and couched in front of you. 

“Tony Stark stole everything from me.” He hissed. “I saved you from marrying him, little bird.” You pouted your lips. 

“But he’s got such a nice ass.” You snarked, earning a hard slap. You ignored the sting in your cheek and looked at the man more closely. “Wait a second, I know you. You’re the guy who attacked Tony on the racetrack three months ago. Ivan… something.” 

“Ivan Vanko.” His demeanor was calm and that’s what scared you. If he was screaming and cursing, you could use his own anger as a distraction. But his collected manner meant that he already had what he wanted. 

“What do you want?” You finally let the fear set in and Ivan could see it. 

“An acquaintance wants the suit,” He began, “He suggested that you may have answers. After that, he says that I may exact my revenge on Stark.”

“So you’re just the lackey.” You snickered, pretending that you felt less threatened. You looked around at his fellow goons. One of them had his arms crossed, but you could just see the watch on his wrist. A certain familiar logo decorated its face. 

“Hammertech?” You snorted. “You’re working for Hammertech?” The other men shifted a sudden look of panic on their faces. “You know that Justin Hammer is an idiot, right?” 

“Hammer helped me get here, but I do not work for him.” Ivan picked up a blow torch, lighting it far too near your face. “You are going to burn, little bird.” You closed your eyes, waiting for the white-hot pain… but none came. Instead, there was a loud crash. 

“Hold it, Korshunov.” When you opened your eyes, there was Iron Man, slowly looking up at Ivan from his crouched landing position.

  “Tony,” You gasped with joyous relief.

“The Metal Man,” Ivan growled. Tony blasted the other men before they could even raise their weapons. Ivan stood behind you, lifting your face up by your hair and putting the blow torch next to your eye. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Tony warned. 

“Why’s that?” Ivan laughed. “As you say, I am holding the cards.” Removing his mask, Tony sucked air between his teeth in a snarky cringe. 

“Yeah, but I didn’t come alone.” 

“Drop the blow torch or we blow the building.” Rhodey threatened a missile loaded arm aim Ivan’s skull. He just smiled and grabbed another device from his pocket. 

“Too late.” He pressed the button on the device and ran, dodging Rhodey’s shots and vanishing. 

“Uh… Tony,” Rhodey looked down at the chair you were strapped to. “We’ve got a problem.” Tony rushed over and the two examined the bomb. 

“Okay honey, don’t panic,” Tony said slowly as the two quickly tried to undo your restraints. 

“How much time is there?” You asked, hearing the dreadful tick of the explosive. Neither man responded. “Tony!”

“As of now… 40 seconds, but don’t worry, I’m getting you out.” He carefully used the repulsors to seer through the ropes. You could feel the heat nearly graze your skin. You tried to keep yourself from counting down the seconds. 

“Tony,” Rhodey urged nervously. 

“Go after Vanko, I’ll get her,” Tony ordered. Rhodey launched out of the warehouse to get a better view. 

“Got it!” Tony exclaimed, quickly taking you in his arms. “Hold on tight.” His mask closed and he took off just in time for the explosion. 

Tony landed on a nearby rooftop and couldn’t bring himself to let you go. He just held onto you and your now singed dress like he would never let you go for as long as you lived. 

“Now what?” You muttered breathlessly. As you collected your bearings, you could see the neighborhood around you now cast into chaos. It was the neighborhood that you grew up in. And a few blocks away was the little white chapel. Tony followed your gaze a smiled. 

“I mean…” He gave you a smirk with the ‘I have an idea’ look in his eyes. “I don’t know about you, but this has got to be fate.” 

“What about the big white wedding with the tuxes and the dress and the crowds of people.” You stuttered. “I thought that’s what you wanted.” Tony just chuckled. And pushed your wild, messy hair out of your face. 

“Y/N, I don’t care about any of that.” He pressed a sweet kiss to your forehead. “I just want to marry you.” You smiled brighter than you ever had before. 

“Then let’s do this.” 

-

There were no journalists this time. No photographers calling out your name or disapproving groupies to worry about. Beside you stood only Pepper and Rhodey as witnesses- Rhodey having turned Vanko into custody and Pepper looking happy, but not surprised in how everything turned out. 

And then there was Tony. Your wonderful, brilliant Tony, standing in front of you in the Iron Man suit. He looked at you like you were the sun even as you stood there in your tattered and charred dress. For that moment, there was no one else in the world. 

And as Tony said those famous two words, despite the bombs and the kidnapping, you couldn’t imagine a better way to say “I do.”

[pris-writing-blog]

Blank Slates

Summary: She remembers nothing, not even her own name. She woke up in the middle of a war, chaos raining down upon her. Amid all this, she struggles to bring order while also seeking her lost memories. She does not know if she is innocent or guilty, or if she will succeed or fail. But she will try, and she will survive. Fandom: Dragon Age Inquisition

Pairing: Solas and Nadiya, an original character not related to any of the canon Inquisitors’ backgrounds.

Word Count: 11.8k

Warnings: Manipulation, amnesia, past abuse.

A/N: So this... this is fun. I can’t say a lot about this work yet, besides that it’s core idea is “what if the Inquisitor had full-on amnesia from the explosion at the Conclave?” There’s some other stuff in the works with this, and I promise you it’ll be one hell of a ride.

An explosion, then darkness, until she awoke to find herself in a strange place, veiled in shadow and smoke. An eerie green light was cast over her surroundings, similar to the light coming from a mark on her palm. The woman sat up first, glancing at her surroundings, before standing and looking around to see a blinding golden light coming from a woman’s figure atop a hill.

Slowly, she made her way up the hill, pausing when she heard noises behind her. Looking back, she saw shadows of men in armor, their eyes glowing a sickly green from the slits in their helmets, running after her. She took off then, struggling up the steep incline of the hill. Looking up, she saw the woman of light hold out a hand to her, and reaching out, she took it.

Darkness, once more. Later she awoke, her hands chained and the mark of green light sparking and shooting off small bolts of energy that caused her to gasp and shout out in surprise and pain. She only got a brief, glancing look at the room around her- some sort of dungeon perhaps, with guards brandishing swords at her- before a door slammed open in front of her slammed open and two human women walked in.

The first, dressed in a breastplate with an image of an eye embellished upon it, approached her first, circling around her like a lioness stalking her prey. The second, a hooded woman dressed in chainmail and leathers, stopped in front of her to glare down at her while the armored woman leaned down to say to her, “Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you now.”

She walked around her, continuing on, “The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you.”

Conclave? What conclave? And what- what was going on here? The woman felt her mind race suddenly, coming upon the slow realization that she lacked any memories of a conclave… or anything at all. Before she could voice her questions, the armored woman snatched her hands up and demanded as her mark sparked with energy, “Explain this.”

“I… I can’t. I don’t know what this is, what happened to the conclave, or even… or even who I am. Please, I don’t-” She started to explain, when the woman suddenly pounced on her, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders as she exclaimed, “You’re lying! ”

The hooded woman quickly stepped in quickly, pulling the woman away as she said, “We need her, Cassandra.”

She thought then, having a second to, trying to remember anything. What had happened, how she had acquired this mark, who she was. But nothing came to her; no memories at all, not even a name. The hooded woman turned to her and asked her, “Do you truly remember nothing? Not even who you are, or what happened at the Conclave?”

“No, no I don’t. I swear to you, it’s the truth.” She explained, then a thought came to her, a memory.

“Wait. Wait, I do remember something. I was… I was running. There were things chasing me, men made of shadows, and then… a woman? Yes, a woman was holding her hand out to me, and then… nothing. That’s all I remember, I swear.” The woman insisted. The hooded woman seemed fascinated by that, questioning, “A woman?”

But the other woman, Cassandra, ushered her away from their prisoner and told her, “Go to the forward camp Leliana. I will take her to the rift.”

After Leliana left, Cassandra came to kneel in front of her, unlocking her chains and replacing them with ropes instead. As she did, the woman asked, “What did happen?”

“It will… be easier to show you.” Cassandra answered as she helped her up, before leading her through the dungeon or basement of a building and up into the ground floor, then outside. There, blinking in the sudden harsh light, she looked up at the sky and saw a massive tear in the sky, green light and comets pouring out of it. Even with no memories of the world, she was fairly sure that wasn’t normal.

“We call it “The Breach.” It is a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour.” Cassandra explained to her, having seen her shocked expression. She blinked a bit, then asked, confused, “The world of demons?”

“Yes, the Fade,” Cassandra said with a scowl that suggested she still didn’t believe the whole amnesia thing, then continued, “The Breach is not the only such rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave.”

“An explosion can do that?” She asked, incredulous. Cassandra turned from where she had been looking up at the Breach and replied, “This one did. Unless we act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world.”

Before she could continue, the Breach crackled, an impossibly loud boom rumbling across the valley as arcs of light or energy lit up the sky. Simultaneously, the mark sparked and intense pain shot up her arm, white-hot and agonizing. Letting out a shout of pain, the woman dropped to her knees against the snow and dirt, grasping her arm tightly. Cassandra knelt down beside her, explaining calmly, “Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads… and it is killing you. It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn’t much time.”

“No memories, a hole in the sky, and a glowing mark on my hand that’s killing me. All in all, not the best day I think.” The woman responded sarcastically. It appeared she had a bit of a morbid humor. Cassandra glared more at her- she didn’t even know it was possible for her to look even meaner- so she quickly added, “I-I’m more than willing to help. A hole into the world of demons doesn’t sound very good for one’s health after all. I’m just not sure what I can do, what this can do.”

She gestured with the mark, and Cassandra responded, looking slightly less mad, “It may be able to close the Breach, and the rifts like it. Whether that is true or not is something we will discover shortly. It is our only chance, however. And yours.”

With that, she helped her up, and together they started to head out of the village. As they went, she saw dozens of angry and frightened men and women, all staring at her with either rage or fear. Cassandra explained as they walked, “They have decided your guilt. They need it. The people mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry. The Conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between mages and templars. She brought their leaders together. Now, they are dead.”

Mages? Templars? Chantry? The words seemed foreign and familiar all at once like her ears and tongue were used to hearing or saying them, but her mind could not recall what they were. It was a strange feeling, to say the least. But instead of voicing these things to Cassandra, the woman stayed silent, seeing as she didn’t believe her anyway.

They eventually reached a gatehouse, and a guard pushed open the gates as soon as Cassandra and she approached, revealing a bridge leading out to the rest of the mountain. As they walked through, Cassandra continued, “We lash out, like the sky. But we must beyond ourselves, as she did, until the Breach is sealed.”

Suddenly she raised her arm in front of the woman, stopping her as she drew a knife from her belt. She became worried until Cassandra cut the ropes binding her wrists, freeing her as she said, “There will be a trial. I can promise no more. Come, it is not far.”

“What’s not far?” She asked as she rubbed her wrists where the rope had been, confused. Cassandra turned away to face forward, then replied, “Your mark must be tested on something smaller than the Breach.”

“Right…” She murmured as they walked across the bridge, full of soldiers and panicking villagers, as well as… corpses. Many corpses. As they passed the gates, the woman asked Cassandra, “So… you mentioned a trial? Does that mean that everyone thinks I caused the explosion?”

“Most likely. The ones who do not have likely not heard yet.” Cassandra answered tersely. Well, that was just wonderful, wasn’t it?

“Does that mean you think I’m guilty too?” She questioned. Cassandra shot her a glare over her shoulder, then responded, “I do, yes. Why? Have I not made that perfectly clear?”

Gulping quietly, she murmured, “No, no, you have. Just… checking.”

They remained silent for the rest of the way mostly, apart from the occasional comment about the Breach or the fight up ahead, until they reached another bridge. Just as they stepped on it, a comet from the Breach came rocketing down, destroying the bridge and sending Cassandra and her prisoner falling onto the frozen lake below. As she began to regain her senses, she looked up to see another comet fall, and from where it dissipated, some… thing emerged. It was hideous, a monstrous thing with an unnatural frame and hood that seemed connected to its flesh, it’s one eye burning with malice as it clawed the air.

Cassandra immediately lept into action, attacking the monster with her sword while simultaneously keeping it back with her shield. The woman, meanwhile, was content to let her fight, but saw the ground near her start to glow, like before the first monster appeared. Frantically, she looked around for some kind of weapon, and upon spotting a long, wooden staff with a curved blade on the end, something clicked inside her mind. Acting on instincts alone, she leaped to grab the staff as a monster appeared before her, twirling the staff just in time to produce a ball of flame that knocked the creature back. After a few more bursts of fire, the creature died, falling to the ground as it evaporated into smoke.

Right as her opponent fell, Cassandra’s did as well, and she started to approach when Cassandra suddenly turned on her, aiming her blade at her chest as she ordered, “Drop your weapon. Now.”

Frightened and unsure of what else to do, she quickly dropped the staff, saying, “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t- something in me just knew to grab it. I-I didn’t know it could shoot fire, I swear!”

Cassandra looked confused for a second, then frowned and huffed quietly as she sheaved her sword, saying, “It did not shoot fire. You did. You merely cast your mana through the staff to focus it into a specific attack. Something all mages can do.”

“I… I’m a mage?” She asked, shocked. She was learning more and more about herself with every passing moment. Cassandra made a disgusted noise, then exclaimed, “Yes, you are! Stop acting like a fool! You know who and what you are, so act like it!”

“I-I don’t, really! I swear, before now I had no idea I could do any of that! I don’t know who I am, or what happened at the Conclave, or if I’m actually innocent or not!” She shouted. She stopped, then, processing what she said. She… she really wasn’t sure if she was innocent or not. For all she knew, she planned this all and all of this chaos… the deaths… they were her fault. As her mind reeled with this new information, Cassandra seemed to see what she was saying was true, at least somewhat. After hesitating for a moment, she said, “Pick up the staff. You’re going to need it if we’re to survive the hike up the mountain.”

She was surprised and hesitated for a moment before picking up the staff. It felt… odd, but right at the same time. With a slight smile and a nod to Cassandra, they continued on, fighting a number of different creatures. Cassandra explained that the more solid ones were demons, while the ones made of light were wisps of spirits. After trekking up a large hill, the duo came upon a larger fight up ahead, with several soldiers fighting off a host of demons surrounding a crystalline structure floating in the air, the sunlight glinting off its dark green surface. She and Cassandra quickly joined the fray, with the warrior rushing in while she stayed back, providing support from afar. Soon the demons fell, and a bald elf- she wasn’t sure how her brain knew what he was- suddenly ran up to her and shouted, “Quickly, before more come through!”

With that, he grabbed her wrist and thrust it upwards towards the crystal, which shattered and produced a shimmering portal of light. Then, the mark shot out an arc of green lightning, connecting with the portal and somehow sealing it. Amazed, she blinked in shock as the elf released her hand and she asked, “What did you do?”

“I did nothing. The credit is yours.” The elf said simply. Glancing down at the mark, she said, “... Huh. Well, at least it’s good for something.”

“Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach’s wake- and it seems I was correct.” The elf explained. Cassandra approached them and said, “Meaning it could also close the Breach itself.”

“Possibly,” the elf said, then looked to the woman and said, “It seems you hold the key to our salvation.”

Oh great. No pressure at all, nope. Before she could dive into an existential crisis, another voice spoke up from behind them, “Good to know!”

Turning, she saw the voice belonged to a dwarf- seriously, how does she know these things- wielding a crossbow who approached as he continued, “I thought we’d be ass-deep in demons forever. Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and occasional unwelcome tagalong.”

He winked at Cassandra after that last bit, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw her sneer at the dwarf, who simply smiled charmingly.

“Um- pleased to meet you, Tethras. I’m uh… well, I don’t actually know.” He said with an awkward shrug. Varric raised an eyebrow and asked with an incredulous chuckle, “I’m sorry, what?”

The elf, as well, seemed surprised, then frowned a bit as he asked, “Could you clarify, please?”

“The prisoner claims to have no memories. At all. Nothing before she woke up in the dungeon of Haven.” Cassandra explained for her as she looked away, holding her staff tightly while rubbing a worry groove into the wood. Varric whistled lowly and said, “Well… shit. Is that true kid?”

“Yeah, yeah it is. I really don’t remember anything, honest. So I, uh, don’t really have a name you can call me by.” She said with a shrug. The elf seemed to think for a moment, then said, “Well, perhaps we could… name you, I suppose. Give you a temporary name until your memories return. Would you like that?”

Before she could respond, Cassandra interrupted, “We can do this later, can’t we? The Breach-”

“The Breach can wait, Seeker, this kid needs a name! Now, I’ve got a few ones. How about something like Joyce, or Rose? How about Violet, you seem like a Violet sort of girl.” Varric supplied. While Cassandra glared daggers at Varric, the elf suggested, “If you will, Master Tethras, perhaps she would prefer an elven name? She is an elf after all.”

“I’m an elf?” She blurted out suddenly in surprise. The group went silent for a moment, staring at her in shock before Varric burst out in laughter he tried and failed to keep in.

“Andraste's dimpled buttcheeks- shit, sorry- oh Maker that’s not funny at all but holy nugshit-” Varric coughed out in between his laughs. She felt her cheeks reddened, as well as her pointed ears- ah, well there they are.

“I-in my defense, I thought I was short and it’s so cold I can’t feel my ears.” She explained, which only made Varric laugh harder until Cassandra swung a fist at him, which he dodged quickly. As they bickered, the other elf got her attention and said, “If I may, Lethallan, I believe you may like the name Varla. In elvhen, it means, “our hope.” Or perhaps Ashara, “she who is on a great journey,””

He trailed off, frowning for a moment with an unreadable expression in his eyes. Before she could ask, he spoke up again, “Nadiya. It… well, it does not mean anything in elven, but it is a fairly common name in alienages, I’ve heard.”

Nadiya… Na-di-ya… Nadiya. Something about the name… it seemed right. After a moment, she- Nadiya nodded and said, “Yes, yes I think that will do. Thank you…?”

“Solas. You may call me Solas.” He supplied with an easy smile.

“Thank you, Solas.” Nadiya said, smiling back at Solas. She turned to look at Cassandra and Varric, who were still bickering, and said, “I’ve picked a name now. You can call me Nadiya.”

Varric stopped mid snark and turned to smile at Nadiya, saying, “Well that’s great, right Seeker? Means we can get going now.”

Casting one last glare at Varric, Cassandra let out a sigh and said, “Yes, it does. Come, we still have a ways until the temple.”

Find the rest of the story on my ao3 here!

[bilgesnipebitch]

BkDk Flower Exchange

Title: Humility

Author: @bilgesnipebitch

Ship: Katsuki Bakugou x Izuku Midoriya (aged up pro heroes)

Prompt: Hydrangea (symbolizes pride and apology)

Warnings: male x male, kinda angst and fluff?, a bit of swearing, some injury and fighting at the beginning

Giftee: Dukes (bakudekudukes on twitter)

Word Count: 2,152

Hope you like it, Dukes!! And thank you @bakudekuflowerexchange for hosting this great event!

He let out a cry of pain that rang through the heavy night air. It made my stomach churn, but I just couldn’t leave. I had to hold the front line. I had to keep them from reaching the warehouse. I had to trust Deku. A loud crack soon followed, and I dreaded all the possibilities of what it could have been. I gritted my teeth, resolve wearing thin.

Trust Deku. It’s alright. He can take care of himself.

Another heart-wrenching scream.

That’s it, I can’t take it anymore.

I ran as fast as I could into the rickety old building, ignoring the protests and cries of the other heroes still holding the front line.

“Deku!” I cried, examining the scene before me.

There he stood, toe to toe with the villain, a bit worse for the wear, but determined as ever.

“Kacchan! What on earth are you doing?” he cried.

The villain took advantage of Izuku’s distractedness and knocked him back a good few feet.

“I’m here to help you, dumbass!” I entered the fray, standing between Izuku and the giant, grotesque thing that could hardly be called a person at this point.

“I told you I can take care of this myself! Why aren’t you helping the others?”

I opened my mouth to answer when I suddenly found myself flung sideways into the far wall of the building. My heart immediately dropped into my stomach as I realized whatever it was came from outside the warehouse’s open doors.

Shit. The villains got through.

“Master, it’s time to go!” one of the villains held out a hand to the beast of a man, and before we could make sense of what was happening, the entire legion was gone. Every last person.

“Damn it, Ground Zero!” I heard a hero cry from outside.

He stomped toward me, fury burning in his eyes, and favoring a limp, bloodied arm.

I heaved myself onto my feet, ready to give this man a piece of my mind, when Izuku wedged himself between us, “Listen, I’m really sorry, but–”

“No, you’ve made enough excuses for Ground Zero,” the hero pushed Izuku aside, eyes still fixed with mine. “But this is the final straw. We won’t tolerate this kind of behavior anymore, newbie.”

I clenched my fists so hard they must have gone white, desperately resisting the urge to punch this loser’s nose in.

“Oh yeah? And–” Izuku quickly clasped his hand over my mouth and looked up at me with those big sad eyes, silently begging me not to get myself in any more trouble.

I finally relented, ripping his hand off me and walking away with a scoff.

We eventually got back to the agency and took off all our gear, showered, etc. Izuku might not have shown it in front of the other heroes, but I could tell he was not at all pleased with me either. It was strange and honestly heartbreaking to see him acting so coldly. We were walking to the train station together when I finally decided to speak up about the incident.

“So, that warehouse...”

“Not now, Kacchan.”

My heart writhed in my chest, and I didn’t dare speak about it again the rest of the train ride home.

At the apartment, we both went through our usual nightly routines in complete silence, and every second of it weighed my heart down until I could’ve sworn I could feel it beating away in the soles of my feet.

“Deku, just say something damn it!” I snapped at the green-haired man, who only looked at me with a vague sense of disappointment.

“What is there to say?”

“I– I don’t know. Anything. Are you seriously still mad about the warehouse?”

Izuku scoffed and shook his head, “I can’t believe you.”

I blinked at him and knitted my brows, “so you are?”

“Yes, Katsuki! I’m still mad about the warehouse!”

Katsuki. I hadn’t heard him use that name in––well––since we were little kids. My heart felt like it had shattered into a million pieces right then and there.

“But you needed my help. You’re lucky I intervened, or–”

“No I didn’t! I was perfectly fine without you!” I had never imagined just how disarming Izuku raising his voice could be.

“You abandoned the other heroes holding back the villains from the warehouse! We needed their leader alive! You knew that if the one with a teleportation quirk got a hold of their leader, we would all be done for! But you just couldn’t see over that huge ego of yours, huh? You always have to play the knight in shining armor and save the day!”

“I–”

“You what? Ran out of excuses? God, you’re so frustrating sometimes!”

“Deku, listen–” I growled.

“Don’t you ‘Deku’ me, I stand up for you every single time you let your massive ego take control because I know you’re a good person deep down, and I know you can change, but honestly, I don’t know what to do with you anymore! If you keep this up, they’re going to kick us both out of the agency!”

I opened my mouth, but not a single word that ran through my head seemed to be right.

“You know what, I’m going to bed. You can tell me your excuse in the morning,” Izuku sighed and walked off into the bedroom.

I could hardly believe what had just happened, but the more I dwelled on it, the more I felt my eyes begin to well up painfully.

Without another word, I stormed out the door, furiously wiping at my eyes. I could feel all the anger and pain inside of me, swirling and melding and starting to froth up into an all-too-familiar rage.

“I was helping him. He could’ve been killed without me there. It’s not my fault those other heroes couldn’t hold the villains back,” I muttered.

But then that miserable little voice in the back of my mind came rearing its ugly head like it always does.

You didn’t help at all. The mission failed all because of you. You’re pathetic. Worthless.

“No I’m not,” I growled under my breath.

Yes you are. And even your own boyfriend hates you now. Maybe it would be better if you just–

“SHUT UP,” I howled and let out an involuntary explosion from my palm.

I heard one of our neighbors cautiously peek out his door behind me, but I didn’t bother looking. I just hurried down the stairs and out of the building, hoping a little fresh air would help me clear my thoughts. The night sky was pale, though I couldn’t see whether the sun was peeking over the horizon quite yet. It had been a long night, that’s for sure, though strangely enough, I didn’t feel tired at all. Frustrated, yes. Heartbroken? Absolutely. It was probably just all the adrenaline in my system.

I trudged along the empty street, hands buried deep in my pockets, when I heard some shuffling and a delicate ringing up ahead. Looking up from the dreary pavement, my eyes found a vibrant medley of colors and a small, silver-haired woman crouched and arranging it with care.

“Oh, hello there! What are you doing out so early?” She smiled warmly at me, standing up with an ornate, blue flower in hand.

“Just... clearing my head,” I said flatly.

She nodded pensively for a second before it looked like she remembered something, “Say, you wouldn’t have anywhere in particular to be right now, would you?”

I shook my head, and the lady’s face lit up.

“Perfect! Then a strong young boy like you wouldn’t mind helping me move some flower pots, would you?”

“Oh, um, sure,” I didn’t exactly have anything else to do at the moment.

The lady led me inside her shop, door closing with a jingle behind us. I had to admit, it looked lovely inside with all the vibrant flowers neatly and artfully arranged––and smelled just as delightful as it seemed.

“They’re right back here… oh, I don’t believe I ever caught your name.”

“Um, Katsuki.”

“Then right this way, Katsuki!”

The lady was friendly enough, maybe a bit too friendly, but I supposed helping her out might keep me occupied enough to silence that bitter voice in my head. When all the moving was done, she insisted that I try one of her homemade cookies, which was surprisingly delicious, and we got to chatting. Well, it was mostly her talking about how her youngest son was getting married this spring and she’d been looking for just the right flowers for the reception’s centerpieces.

“You know, you remind me a lot of my son. He used to come help me set up the shop every morning. Well, not since he moved away to his fiancee’s city, but he still calls every now and then.”

I simply nodded and took another bite of the cookie.

“Do you have anybody special?”

I nearly choked on the shortbread, surprised at the lady’s bluntness.

“Um, yeah, I’ve got… someone.”

She nodded in satisfaction, “are they good to you?”

“Yeah,” I paused, my head flooding with the events of last night once more. “Though I’m not sure I can say I’m very ‘good’ to him…”

“Why do you say that?” She wrinkled her brows in concern.

I let loose a heavy sigh, “Well, I– I messed up. And... it’s not the first time.”

She nodded, urging me to go on.

“I just–” I rubbed my face in frustration, “I don’t know what to do anymore. I trust him, but… God, why am I like this??”

“So you two are having a lovers’ spat, eh?”

I nodded.

“I thought so. I could tell from the way you were walking down the street, all sulky and lovesick.”

“Hey–” The lady held up a finger to silence me.

“And I could also tell that you’re the prideful type. Always letting your bravado get the better of you, am I right?”

I growled and nodded again.

The lady just grinned and whirled around wordlessly, fiddling with some things behind the counter. When she turned back to me, she presented a bouquet of beautiful purple and white flowers.

“Here. You’ll be needing these.”

I took the flowers into my hand and examined them carefully. There were only four flowers, but they seemed to be made up of dozens of smaller blossoms, making the little bouquet look quite full, yet still trim and neat.

“They’re hydrangeas,” she explained, seeing my blank stare. “They symbolize pride and apology, which I think fits our little predicament quite nicely.”

I still looked from her to the flowers and back dumbly.

“Give them to your special someone, numbskull. You’re gonna go apologize, right?”

I nodded again.

“Then give him these. And tell him how sorry you are for being a dimwit. And treat him like a king from now on, you hear me?”

“Oh, how much are they?”

“Free of charge. Consider it payment for helping me move those pots.”

A faint smile crept up my face as I looked at the simple bouquet.

“Thank you.”

“Any time. I’ve got to admit, I’m a sucker for young love,” the lady chuckled and shooed me out the door to go apologize with another shortbread cookie and flowers in hand.

I stepped into the apartment as quietly as I could, relieved to find Izuku was still asleep, and got to work. It was well after dawn now, partly because I took a little detour to the grocery store to pick up a couple ingredients. But I knew Izuku was an early riser, so I set to work quickly.

I had just finished when I heard Izuku’s alarm go off, and a short while later, his sleepy footsteps come padding into the kitchen.

“Kacchan, why are you up so earl–“ Izuku stopped mid-yawn and stared at the table.

“Deku, I know this doesn’t even come close to making up for last night, and I know you probably don’t believe me at this point, but I’m sorry. I really, truly am. And I can’t tell you how much I–” Izuku put a finger on my lips to stop my rambling.

“How long have you been up?”

I paused, a bit unsure whether I should tell him the truth.

“All night…” I finally admitted.

“Babe, why did you–”

“Because I can’t sleep knowing how much I’ve hurt you,” I took hold of his hand and kissed it softly, running my calloused finger over his scarred knuckles. “And pancakes and flowers aren’t nearly enough to express how sorry I am—for everything—but it’s a start.”

Izuku looked up at me with that soft little smile of his that just melted my heart every time and reminded me that everything was going to be alright.

“Well, the pancakes aren’t going to eat themselves,” he laughed, and I ruffled his wild mop of bedhead.

[sylvasthesnowfox]

20. malevolence

Not Rei, nor Gwen, nor the holo display in the tower, none of them are first to notice the attacker. First is Parias.

"Something is here," they say, their voices alarmed and hollow and faint, a hand rising to cover a mouth that cannot be seen. "Aplistia, do you know what that is? Can you feel it?"

"It's very strong," Aplistia gasps, mimicking Parias' gesture. "Oh no. What is something like that doing here?!"

W-what?! Phobos' legs tremble as she 'speaks'. What is happening? I can't - what's going on?

"You're smaller," Parias says swiftly, "you probably can't feel - there's something exerting some kind of influence on the seed - an Outsider, it has to be an Outsider, Aplistia - "

"But such a strong presence!" Aplistia cries in dismay. "Can you see it? Where is it?"

"Phobos," Parias adds, their voices urgent, "if you can help us understand what's happening - "

"Are you sure that's - ?" Aplistia cuts short her protest, but the question is still very clear to Phobos. And she appreciates that concern. She is afraid. But she is always afraid. Being here or there won't change that. But it might change things for the others.

I'll check the islands, she says first, and it turns out that was a very good guess.

Rei and her friends arrive there only shortly after. As soon as their feet touch the earth it lashes out at them - tendrils of cracking rock and roots that latch onto their feet, curl swiftly around their ankles and legs. Rei quickly jumps off of the ground and into the void between the islands, standing on nothingness as her will dictates; the Spark jolts out of orbit and rests in the palm of her hand, but she pauses, hoping to take in the situation more completely before acting.

Eliza and Naomi are not as fast. Eliza screams, trying to reach into her pocket for her lighter, but she's late and the grabbing earth has ensnared her before she can act. Beneath her the ground rumbles audibly. It's growling. Or perhaps even laughing. Naomi too is slow, but she is more agile and thinks swiftly; her handgun is already in her hand, and she doesn't even need to think about what she wants to fire. She points at the ground and shoots, and the earth explodes violently apart beneath her feet, freeing her. Eliza is able to scramble herself free of the damaged roots that had nearly trapped her before, but the ground quickly begins to reform, new limbs reaching out. They're better defined now. They look like hands.

The islands are no longer separate; they have melded together, colliding at a central point that is glowing hot like a planet's core might. She thinks she can see a figure there, and as she tries to take in its shape, white flames like eyes glare hatefully back.

Rei has never seen this before. She has never locked eyes with an Outsider. The experience is shocking and bizarre. Even for her senses, even with her mind trained to process this kind of sight, it's too much to take in. Her eyes start to sting, searing pain spreads through her head, and she has to tear her eyes away.

But Phobos, looking on below them, doesn't.

stop! she tries to shout, but even without the deafening cracking and crumbling of rock and stone at the maelstrom's center, the constant movement of the earth makes it hard for her to raise the full volume of her "voice". The thing ignores her, its attention focused wholly on Rei. Phobos hears it snarl. She hears it chuckle sinisterly.

"Help help help," Eliza is shouting, crawling backwards hastily, "help, save me, Naomi, Rei, hello!?" Naomi lifts her up bodily and all but tosses her into the sky - she yelps because she doesn't really know how to right herself without the ground beneath her, but gravity doesn't force her in any particular direction; she's no longer within reach of the tendrils, and as they try to stretch out towards her Naomi imposes herself in the way.

"Send Eliza back," Naomi shouts. "I don't think she can fight here!"

"I can too!" Eliza snaps, whirling around as best she can, lighter in her fist; she gestures at the tendrils reaching towards Naomi, and a series of fiery explosions from within reduce them and the island beneath to rubble and splinters. "Hah!"

A tongue of flame erupts from the central core, quickly condensing into a stream of magma flowing as freely as water - it engulfs the debris created by Eliza's explosion, and altogether hardens and forms into a single enormous arm, now towering over all three of them and more than large enough to grab them all at once. Naomi is fastest on the draw; she loads her weapon with a new concept, and rather than destroying the earthen hand as it swipes at them, she turns it to dust that passes through and over them harmlessly, albeit quite messily.

Another huge swiping hand comes at them from the opposite side, but Rei is prepared for this one - directing her Spark to its center and ordering it to pulse with a shout; for a split-second its maw widens, a massive dark sphere engulfing the entire mass at once before reverting to its original size, leaving nothing at all behind in its wake. Rei turns back to the mass controlling the attack, who is gathering itself for another attempt. "What have you done with the Spirits?!"

The response is a deafening symphony of rumbling and crackling rock, like two landslides overlapping one another, carried underneath by a rumbling like a volcano's warning growl. The girls can't understand it, but Phobos can: 

C o m e    a n d    s e e .

"I'm gonna hit it with more erosion," Naomi growls, leveling her firearm again. Rei nods understanding.

"Erosion," Eliza whispers to herself, swearing under her breath.

As the Outsider attempts to form new attacking limbs, Naomi fires into the mass of each, crumbling them into dust with a single shot; Rei positions herself apart from Naomi and directs her Spark as though it were on the end of a string, swiping it through the crumbled rock. It gathers in a trail behind, and Rei imagines that she's made a comet - a hailstorm of ice and rock - which she fires like a bullet from a sling at the central mass, and in time with the impact Naomi fires at the core for good measure. They see cracks spread through the core as though it were made of glass...

But from within the cracks comes an ominous red-orange glow; Phobos, scrambling through the web of crevices, finds herself assailed with a blinding heat, some kind of liquid spreading through the debris, binding it together and worming into the larger rocks and masses - it stops short of her, surrounding her, cornering her, and she quivers as she asks, What are you?!

What are you doing here? thrums the liquid, the rumbling undercurrent of hate reduced to a simmer. This thing - in a way unlike anything Phobos can remember, this thing wants to destroy her. It is only by some semblance of mercy it hasn't done so already. She wants to protect these humans, but in so doing, she is opposing this - whatever this is. Can she stand against it? Not alone - but she isn't alone, and that knowledge the only thing she can draw on for courage.

Around her the earth is splitting apart; the Spirits' ghastly recreations of Rei's soul are bursting through, as their captor is preoccupied. Above and all around, Phobos can hear them shouting, but their voices blend into an earsplitting chorus. There is only word she can make out above any others, and that is Invoke, and she is sure the humans can hear it too. Presently Phobos tries to scramble through newly opened tunnels through the splitting rock, but the liquid is following, setting everything aflame in its path, faster and more agile than she, circling around her - she is trapped, she cannot outrun it, and soon she will be alone - !

There is - there is an alcove somewhere - but there isn't, this is not her cavern; she would have to manifest for that to happen, but with the humans close by...! What to do, what to do...?!

You're helping them, aren't you, the mass growls, its heat growing more intense. Phobos isn't used to feeling pain! She hates it, it makes her want to scream - every instinct she has wants her to scuttle away somewhere smaller but the liquid monster can follow her through any cracks she can fit through. But they are your enemies, little spiders. Let me show you.

All at once the molten substance closes in on her, but before it can touch her Phobos panics and manifests.

This happens as Rei and Naomi have cried out in alarm, reaching for the spirits to try to free them from the convergent islands' mass, as it seems they have become trapped in it; but suddenly where the islands were instead is a rocky opening that fades into void like a wormhole, an unfathomable darkness lying beyond; the molten outsider is swirling around the cavern's edge as though threatening to flood it, and Phobos is screaming into her own heart, THERE IS A TINY SCREEN IN AN ALCOVE SOMEWHERE - 

"What the fuck!?" Naomi screams, raising her gun, but where even to start with this!? Rei grabs her shoulder and pulls back, directing gravity backwards, falling away from the mass - the Spirits are trapped inside the cave now, but still they are shouting at her: Invoke the Spark! Invoke the Spark!

"We have to stop them!" Naomi is shouting.

"I don't know if we can," Eliza cries back, hoarse, shaking her head. "I don't know if you'll ever come back if you try to fight them in there!"

"We have to!" Naomi roars, throwing Rei's hand off of her shoulder - for a moment, their eyes meet, and it dawns on Rei what Naomi is about to do. "I'll free the spirits," Naomi is saying, "so you and Eliza finish things here!" But Rei is not listening.

Rei is trying to fathom an eternity as a Curator without Naomi next to her.

It is not something she's ever thought about. It is not a possibility she ever considered. Naomi has always talked about protecting her, ensuring she could do her job, but Rei has never thought it would actually be necessary. Rei has always thought that she would protect Naomi, as silently as she could, so that Naomi doesn't have to know. This has just been the way things will be.

But Naomi is falling forward now. She will fall into the twisting, fractal caves that are opening up before them, threatening to consume the whole of the sky. Something strange is forming just beyond the edge of the darkness within - something difficult to make out, between the webs and the eyes and the hairy jointed legs, between the chains and the metal hatches crossing their vision, something sparking and vibrant, a rising distorted voice echoing from within -

"Oh god," Eliza whispers beside her, covering her mouth. Eliza does not know if Naomi is going to be able to do this. Naomi is descending into hell, and may not come back. She might not even succeed.

Rei makes an executive decision. She invokes the spark.

[preservationandruin]

Oathbringer Liveblog, Part Five: Chapters 119-120

I know these are only covering a few chapters at a time, but listen. Its the end of a Sanderson book. Literally everything is happening all the time. 

Dalinar tells god to fuck off, Ultimate Unity Is Achieved (Temporarily), Radiants Do Cool Shit Constantly,  Adolin learns the name of an old friend, Amaram Vored A Rock And You Can Guess How That Went For Him, and--as always--FUCK YEAH, BRIDGE FOUR. 

The epigraphs change, to the postscript of The Way of Kings. The chapter is called Unity. 

“Dalinar? What is this?”  “You cannot have my pain.”  “Dalinar--”  Dalinar forced himself to his feet. “You. Cannot. Have. My. Pain.”  “Be sensible.”  “I killed those children,” Dalinar said.  “No, it--”  “I burned the people of Rathalas.”  “I was there, influencing you--”  “YOU CANNOT HAVE MY PAIN!” Dalinar bellowed, stepping toward Odium. The god frowned. 

Dalinar is LITERALLY GIVING OFF GLORYSPREN. Amaram has to shield his SHITTY RED EYES from it. 

“I did kill the people of Rathalas,” Dalinar shouted. “You might have been there, but I made the choice. I decided!” He stilled. “I killed her. It hurts so much, but I did it. I accept that. You cannot have her. You cannot take her from me again.” 

YEAH! SHUT THE FUCK UP, RAYSE. YOU  DIDN’T KNOW DALINAR KHOLIN LIKE YOU THOUGHT YOU DID. 

“Journey before destination,” Dalinar said. “it cannot be a journey if it doesn’t have a beginning.”  A thunderclap sounded in his mind. Suddenly, awareness poured back into him. The Stormfather, distant, feeling frightened--but also surprised.  Dalinar?  “I will take responsibility for what I’ve done,” Dalinar whispered. “If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” 

I LOVE DALINAR SO MUCH. 

Renarin and Jasnah are sprinting through the ward, Renarin struggling to keep up. An entire stream of gloryspren flows by them. 

“I know what you are,” Jasnah said. “You’re my cousin. Family, Renarin. Hold my hand. Run with me.” 

And they head down, down to the glowing light. 

And with all the gloryspren glowing around him, Dalinar notices--Odium looks small. 

Syl looks over to the sea of beads. She pulls Kaladin tight. 

“Maybe you don’t have to save anyone, Kaladin. Maybe it’s time for someone to save you.” 

Dalinar reaches through the worlds. He reaches into the spiritual realm. And he hears Evi’s voice, forgiving him. Venli asks what he is. 

He says he’s Unity. 

And he fucking combines all three realms into one holy FUCK, Dalinar. 

OH MY GOD, HE OPENED HONOR’S PERPENDICULARITY. THAT’S WHAT IT IS. THAT--IT ALL MAKES SENSE. ONLY DALINAR HAS THE REMNANTS OF HONOR’S POWER. ONLY HE COULD DO THIS. 

UNITE THEM. PEOPLE, YES, BUT ALSO THE REALMS. FUCK!

Taln grips onto Ash’s hand. And he says her name. 

“How long?” He asked.  “Taln,” She gripped his hand in both of hers. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” 

He goes outside, and sees Thaylen City. The wall, the soldiers in breastplates and chain. 

And he thanks Ash. Because , in leaving him, they gave humanity four thousand years of progress. She begs him to hate her. He doesn’t. 

Teft gasps. His spren asks him--can he feel the words? He says he’s broken. And...he swears the second ideal, in the most heartwrenching form: 

“I will protect those I hate. Even...even if the one I hate most...is...myself.” 

Renarin and Jasnah reach the last level of the city. Renarin warns Jasnah about Amaram’s soldiers--and she runs straight towards them and wrecks them, soulcasting people and swiping with a Shardblade. Fuck yeah, Jasnah!

And then he looks up, and sees a column of light piercing the sky. 

Navani leans into the light,  laughing like a fool, gloryspren flying around her, brushing her hair. 

“No!” Odium screamed. He stepped forward. “No, we killed you. WE KILLED YOU.” 

And Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin split out of the pillar of light, just as Amaram was about to fight Dalinar. The explosion of Stormlight from Dalinar also sated Nightblood, meaning Lift and Szeth are alright, although their skin is stained-grey from Nightblood’s hunger. 

Dalinar realizes--Elhokar is not coming through the column of light. He grieves, for a moment. He accepts that grief. And he stands up. And he does better. 

Kaladin Stormblessed stepped up beside Dalinar before the rubble of the wall, and Shallan Davar stood on the other side. Jasnah emerged from the city and surveyed the scene with a critical air, while Renarin popped out behind her, then cried out and ran for Adolin. He grabbed his older brother in an embrace, then gasped. Adolin was wounded?  Good lad, Dalinar thought as Renarin immediately set to healing his brother.  Two more people crossed the battlefield. Lift he had anticipated. But the assassin? Szeth scooped the silvery sheath off the sword and slammed his black shardblade into it, before stepping up to join Dalinar.  Skybreaker, Dalinar thought, counting them off. Edgedancer. That was seven.  He would have expected three more.  There, the Stormfather said. Behind your niece.  Two more people appeared in the shadow of the wall. A large, powerful man with an impressive physique, and a woman with long, dark hair. Their dark skin marked them as Makabaki, perhaps Azish, but their eyes were wrong. 

The heralds, the Radiants--Dalinar did unite them. Odium is gone, fled into nothing. Dalinar is thinking--you know, there should be one more--but oh well. Stormy notes that the last might not have been found yet. 

Oh no, Dalinar’s watch got broken! He starts sending out orders. Renarin, to the Oathgate--and to stop the thunderclast from destroying it, and opening the portal so reinforcements can come. 

Shallan needs to lightweave an army--the Thrill will make the men easier to distract. Jasnah is holding the giant fucking hold in the wall--THAT’S THE COVER OF THE BOOK--Kaladin is guarding Dalinar. And settling a score with Amaram. Lift and Szeth are getting that FUCKING RUBY--although Lift needs food. 

Dalinar heads toward the water, to try to deal with the Thrill. 

Kaladin, of course, shoots into the sky immediately. Of course, he can’t stop being down on himself, because he’s Kaladin. Still. he does get to fight Amaram. 

...who immediately falls to his knees. And just when I think this will be a very, very boring fight--Kaladin notices that Amaram is coughing. Like he’d just...swallowed...something....

Over to Adolin, who is completely healed. His first complaint, when Shallan asks how he’s doing, is that he really liked this jacket! 

...Oh. She made an illusory version of him that was a windrunner. Given his self-esteem issues and feeling inadequate compared to Kaladin, that...can’t be great. 

He summons his shardblade--braces for a scream, although there is none--says he’s sorry, thanks her, and goes into battle. 

Lift and Szeth head off to try to get that GODDAMN ruby, Nightblood humming all the way. And Amaram gets up and INSTANTLY makes me furious again: 

Those red eyes cast a crimson glow through the helm’s slit. “You should thank me, boy,” 

SOMEHOW Amaram has decided that he is the SOLE EVENT that FORGED KALADIN, that MADE HIM INTO THE MAN HE IS NOW. Bull fucking shit. That same self-important assholery that makes Amaram so hateable is coming through again. 

And he’s dual-wielding Shardblades, of course. because why not. Syl is just like “don’t worry, he’s only human!” and that’s when Yelig-nar’s smoke starts to envelop him. 

Dalinar is heading towards the Thrill. He says “hello, old friend,” and then he walks into it. 

Shallan pours out stormlight, creating every person she’s ever sketched. Pattern is humming, louder and louder. All of her drawings--everyone she’s Connected to, because that’s what her drawing is. Her father and mother step from the illusion, and Shallan freezes and starts to fail--

--and then Veil takes her left hand, and Radiant in garnet Shardplate takes her right. Others try to crawl up--but no. That’s enough. They retreat into Stormlight, and hundreds and hundreds more soldiers surge up from the light. 

Adolin sees Jasnah basically toss men around like toys and is like, alright, Jasnah doesn’t need help. He runs off to help Queen Fen and her husband. 

Jasnah, meanwhile,  is abusing the closeness of the three realms to make her Soulcasting much, much easier.

Lift swears as the Fused with the ruby takes it into the sky, and Nightblood wants her to teach him swear words. 

LET! NIGHTBLOOD! SAY! FUCK!

Szeth takes to the air and takes her down, grabbing the ruby--and then three more Fused head toward him. Whoops. 

Back over to Adolin, who’s met up with Navani! She asks about Elhokar--Adolin says he’s sorry, and holds her while she cries. 

Jasnah mends the entire breach in the wall with her Soulcasting. And then just dusts her hands off. Adolin starts working on putting a stable defense together. And Adolin heads off to help the soldiers fighting one of the thunderclasts. 

Back to the Kaladin vs Amaram duel! Amaram is fighting, dual-wielding swords--the one bought with the blood of Kaladin’s men, the other given as payment for Bridgeman lives. A crystal just fucking SPROUTED FROM HIS ELBOW. Kal’s also running interference for Dalinar from the other Fused, too. 

It’s actually really handy for the Radiants that the thunderclast tore the Gem Reserve asunder--because now there are all these infused Gemstones all over the battlefield. Nice. 

Oh, shit, Amaram has pulled out one of those Shardbows. 

Amaram stood near his horse, where he’d unhooked a massive Shardbow that used arrows as thick as a spear’s haft. Amaram raised it to loose again, and a line of crystals jutted out along his arm, cracking his Shardplate. Storms, what was happening to that man? 

He sold his soul for power, and now it’s taken his body, too. Kal dives Amaram, summoning Syl as a short spear--how appropriate--and charges Amaram. 

Dalinar is in the thrill, and it’s happy to see him. I guess Nergaoul, despite being “mindless,” apparently, can still recognize people. 

He had imagined it as some evil force, malignant and insidious, like Odium or Sadeas. 

ODIUM OR SADEAS. I love how those two are put on the same level here. 

Nergaoul remembers the times that the Thrill receded from Dalinar as times it was abandoned. Oh, Nergaoul. What was it, I wonder, before Odium grabbed it and twisted it? 

Jasnah, meanwhile, cuts through a Fused’s head without even turning to look at it. She says she’s gonna do her best to stop Shallan from getting herself killed, given the rate at which Shallan is eating through Stormlight. 

Lift and Szeth (and Nightblood) are just a great comic dynamic, especially now Lift can hear Nightblood. Lift has an idea for how to steal the ruby. 

Shallan is still holding onto Veil and Radiant, and she’s burning herself out. Somehow, she’s managed to make her illusions actually fight, a little. She thinks she might be using Soulcasting as well as Lightweaving. She’s getting drawn more and more into it--

And then someone--probably Lift--asks if she could, uh, stop hugging herself for a minute to help. 

Back to Kal v Amaram! Amaram is still talking like himself--this weird hybrid-monster kept the most monstrous part of Amaram, his mind. 

FUCK, whatever Amaram is now can change stone into liquid. He traps Kaladin’s feet and snaps both of his ankles--fuck. And then he starts gliding across the ground. 

is that...abrasion and friction? Does Yelig-nar mimic dustbringer powers? I don’t know. Kaladin chucks a rock at a Fused getting too close to Dalinar, and throws another rock at Amaram’s horse to get the Shardbow away, too. 

Well, he’s fought people in Shardplate before. Syl suggests he try stabbing Amaram in the face as well. 

And then Kal is up against a Fused and Amaram. Fuck. 

Back over to Adolin! He is looking up at the thunderclast,  summoning his Blade. 

He felt something. A stirring on the wind.  “You want to fight it, don’t you?” Adolin asked. “It reminds you of when you were alive.”  Something tickled his mind, very faint, like a sigh. A single word: Mayalaran. A...name?  “Right, Maya,” Adolin said. “Let’s bring that thing down.” 

SHE TOLD HIM HER NAME. AHHHHHHHHHH IM SO GLAD THAT THIS IS HAPPENING IM SO GLAD THAT ADOLIN’S KINDNESS HAS RESULTS IM SO GLAD THAT, EVEN IN A SMALL WAY, MAYALARAN GETS TO DO THINGS THAT SHE WANTS AND CONVEY HER EMOTIONS, I’M SO HAPPY

Adolin finds a small boy huddled in the house, and gets him out of there, trying to distract the thunderclast, jumping through windows and running. 

A hand in Shardplate reached out of a building nearby, grabbed Adolin, and pulled him inside. 

WHAT

Back to Dalinar. He talks to the thrill, accepting what he was. Thanking it for giving him strength, sometimes--and it makes a happy sound, it crowds closer to him. Nergaoul almost reminds me of an animal of some sort, reacting to someone being nice to it. Dalinar admits--he understands Nergaoul. 

Venli is creeping away, feeling sick, the rhythms going crazy in her, fighting. She manages to grab onto one. The Rhythm of the Lost. The only one of the old rhythms she heard. Timbre thrums to the same rhythm, vibrating through Venli. 

Lost. What had Venli lost?  Venli missed being someone who cared about something other than power. Knowledge, favoritism, forms, wealth--it was all the same to her. Where had she gone wrong?  Timbre pulsed. Venli dropped to her knees. Cold stone reflected lightning from above, red and garish. 

Her eyes aren’t red at all. And she starts. She starts swearing the words. She gets almost through them--to Journey--and then a Fused crashes into her. But Timbre isn’t in her pouch. 

Instead, she’s in her gemheart. She’s keeping the Voidspren in there captive. Venli storms into the cabin of the ship, grabs a sphere. Ruby, glowing. 

She finishes swearing the first Ideal. Odium, you thought you killed the problem sister. But by doing that, you made the other one a problem too. 

Fortunately, the dude who grabbed Adolin was one of the Thaylen Shardbearers. They are teaming up, now--Adolin can hit, while the man--Hrdalm--has Plate and can take hits. Unfortunately, the Fused pounce for Hrdalm. 

And Adolin throws his Shardblade to kill one of the fused. “Alright, Maya. We’ve practiced this.” 

Unfortunately, he’s cornered now with the thunderclast. He summons Maya back, hits again--but it flicks him against a wall, and he definitely broke a rib. He starts counting again. 

AND MAYA COMES ON SEVEN, BECAUSE HE NEEDS HER. AHHHH. 

Maya’s also started bugging him in his mind--he gets knocked through a roof and is picking himself up, and she’s brushing against his mind to do it faster. 

Fortunately, before Adolin does anything else stupid, Renarin runs up. He reminds Adolin that, uh, he can’t heal and HAS NO ARMOR and then charges the thunderclast. Renarin’s healing is so fast that, apparently, being crushed can’t slow him down for very long. 

Adolin gives Maya to Hrdalm so that he can use her, and Hrdalm’s response is great in respect to their various religions: 

“Great Honor in you, Prince Adolin,” he said. “Great Passion in me at this aid.” 

Szeth notes that the Fused don’t expect him to have trained, when learning to use the Honorblade, with all of the Surges. And he and Lift pull a switch--one pouch with a fake gemstone, the other with the real one. With the help of Shallan and an illusory rock, of course. 

I can’t believe the Fused thought they could out-steal Lift. 

Szeth notes that the closer he gets to Nergaoul/the mist, the louder the whispers in his head become. And Lift goes into the mist to help Dalinar. 

Amaram is screaming in pain. Kaladin’s fighting the other Fused and doing his level best not to let it distract him. 

Well, there are amethysts growing out of his face, I think that might be part of why he’s screaming. He’s leaving flaming tracks--that seems to support my claim about Yelig-nar imitating Dustbringers’ powers. Dalinar is in trouble--meanwhile, Amaram is hiking off to get his fucking bow. 

There’s something weirdly funny about this human-parshman hybrid screaming in pain, and then his opponent flies off and he’s just like. welp. gotta go get my bow. Oh well. 

Oh, shit, Amaram can superjump. Not sure what’s letting him do that, but I think a good bet would be “Yelig-nar, obviously.” 

Shit, he can do Lashings too. Clearly, paying attention to which surges he’s using isn’t going to do me much good. 

Also, for fuck’s sake, Amaram still is going on about honor: 

Amaram grinned. “Odium promised me something grand, and that promise has been kept. With honor.”  “You still pretend to speak of honor?”  “Everything I do is for honor.” Amaram swept with a single Blade, making Kaladin dodge. “It was honor that drove me to seek the return of the Heralds, of powers, and our god.”  “So you could join the other side?” 

Amaram admits that he hurt, after he killed Kaladin’s men--but then he realized, it wasn’t his fault,  was it? Nothing was his fault. 

Same as Moash. Same as he tried to do to Dalinar. Nothing’s your fault, give me your pain. And give me your responsibility, your morals too. 

“I made you, Kaladin!” Amaram’s red eyes lit the crystals that rimmed his face. “I gave you that granite will, that warrior’s poise. This, the person you’ve become, was my gift!”  “A gift at the expense of everyone I loved?”  “What do you care? It made you strong! Your men died in the name of battle, so that the strongest man would have the weapon. Anyone would have done what I did, even Dalinar himself.”  “Didn’t you tell me that you’d given up that grief?”  “Yes! I’m beyond guilt!”  “Then why do you still hurt?”  Amaram flinched. 

Eat shit, Amaram. 

Nice try, manipulating Kaladin, but you protested too much. You spent so much time spouting justifications. How long have you rehearsed those? Could you even convince yourself? 

Kaladin points it out--Odium will never, never give Amaram peace. There is no absolution to be found there. Just the illusion. 

The highprince’s entire chest had collapsed inward. There was no sign of ribs or internal organs. Instead, a large violet crystal pulsed inside his chest cavity, overgrown with dark veins. If he’d been wearing a uniform of padding beneath the armor, it had been consumed.  He turned toward Kaladin, heart and lungs replaced by a gemstone that glowed with Odium’s dark light. 

How does that power feel, Amaram? Kaladin keeps pointing it out--if you’re truly guiltless, if you truly believe the sanctimony you spit, why do you still  hurt? 

And Amaram is furious. 

And he makes a mistake--he jumps into the air. And if you’re fighting Kaladin? You never go into the air. He manages--he slams Syl, a spear, against the gemstone at the heart of whatever Amaram turned himself into. And it cracks. 

Kaladin floated downward toward him. “Ten spears go to battle,” he whispered, “and nine shatter. Did that war forge  the one that remained? No, Amaram. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break.” 

Amaram is howling, clutching his gemheart--which goes out. And the area goes down into darkness. 

Unfortunately, the Fused are still coming. 

Meanwhile, the thunderclast is collapsing. Renarin and the Thaylen Shardbearer have cut off its legs and one arm--that’s good. Glys is trying to give Renarin advice--- Light. You will make it go with light. 

He summons stormlight, and the thunderclast’s eyes fade and it settles, dying back down. Renarin’s still worried--he saw himself dying on this day. But he’s alive. 

Shallan, Veil, and Radiant are losing their army. But one figure doesn’t vanish like the others. Long black hair blown free of braids, she steps in between the trio of Shallans and the enemy. 

Jasnah Kholin has arrived. 

Also, at that moment, Shallan--the one who looked like Shallan-Shallan--was a fake, and Radiant was the real one, which alarms Jasnah for a moment. We’re cycling through names for Shallan with incredible speed. They finally, finally reach the top of the wall. 

Renarin is heading for the Oathgate. He notes that while his fits seem to have stopped, he still sees the world differently--in our terms, Stormlight doesn’t heal autism because why the fuck would it? It’s not an illness. 

Twelve Fused are hovering over the Oathgate. Renarin heads into the spanreed room, and reports that Urithiru has also been attacked. Strangely, the Kharbranth faction has fallen completely silent. Unsurprising. 

So he turns to go open it himself--and is startled and surprised when nobody tells him not to. Renarin gets new fits, now--ones where it looks like stained glass spreads around him, forming panels of images. What he sees...it makes him smile. 

“You’re wondering why I’m smiling,” Renarin said.  They didn’t respond.  “Don’t worry,” Renarin said. “You didn’t miss something funny. I...well, I doubt you’ll find it amusing.”  Light exploded from the Oathgate platform in a wave. 

I’m gonna take a wild shot in the dark, here, and say: FUCK YEAH, BRIDGE FOUR. 

YEP Bridge Four has come through, let by a Knight Radiant with a Shardspear. 

Teft. 

Shallan is still lost in all three of her, but she says that after she rests, she thinks she can settle down to being one. Rock starts nagging Renarin about getting his uniform ruined, Lyn rats out the fact that Rock got hurt when he tries to pretend it’s nothing. Fortunately, they’re near Kal--they’re getting stormlight again. 

“Kaladin is close,” Rock agreed. “Ha! I feed him. But here, today, he fed me. With light!”  Lyn eyed Rock. “Storming Horneater weighs as much as a chull...” She shook her head. “Kara will fight with the others--don’t tell anyone, but she’s been practicing with a spear since childhood, the little cheater.” 

I love all the little ways people--Renarin, Kara, Lyn herself, everyone really--violates gender norms. 

Rock hugs Renarin--Ren is a little uncomfortable, as this was not a time he was okay with just being...randomly grabbed for a hug (big mood, Renarin), but he’s so, so glad Bridge Four has arrived. 

Dalinar is drifting in the Thrill. And Lift comes in, pressing the ruby into his hand. Dalinar remembers what Taravangian said about luring in spren, trapping them. 

And, for the last time in his life, he embraces the Thrill. He embraces Nergaoul. He thanks it, and it is so, so happy to be praised. 

“Now, old friend, it is time to rest.” 

Kal is fighting like eight-on-one. He doesn’t have to win, though--he just has to survive. 

Meanwhile,  whatever Dalinar is doing, it’s making Nergaoul thrash and writhe, and the Fused are running. And then it implodes, and the Everstom grows still. 

AND GUESS WHO FUCKING ISN’T DEAD: 

A scraping sound came from nearby, and then a violet light flickered in the darkness. A shadow stumbled to its feet, dark purple light pulsing alive in its chest cavity, which was empty save for that gemstone.  Amaram’s glowing red eyes illuminated a distorted face: his jaw had broken as he’d fallen, and gemstones had pushed out of the sides of his face at awkward angles, making the jaw hang limp from his mouth, drool leaking out the side. He stumbled toward Kaladin, gemstone heart pulsing with light. A Shardblade formed in his hand. The one that had killed Kaladin’s friends so long ago. 

AND HE’S ABOUT TO STRIKE AMARAM DOWN, AND KALADIN SAYS “BRIDGE FOUR.”  AND AN ARROW SLAMS INTO AMARAM FROM BEHIND. 

AND ANOTHER SHOOTS HIM RIGHT THROUGH THE GEMHEART, AND ROCK IS GLOWING ON THE RUBBLE, WITH AMARAM’S SHARDBOW. 

Sometimes, Kaladin doesn’t have to save everyone. Sometimes, it’s time for them to save Kaladin. 

Dalinar is crying as he cradles the gemstone containing Nergaoul. It’s over. It’s over. 

[404botnotfound]

Towerfall [1]

SERIES: Destiny WORD COUNT: 3,210 SHIP: Quinn/Cayde (ment.) CHARACTERS: quinn leonis (AU), glyph, roland, ghost, cayde-6, lord shaxx

1 - Roland

Something is very wrong, and it has nothing to do with the storm clouds surrounding his ship as he flies through the upper Himalayas.

Ghost, too, can feel it, nervous energy thick enough to be felt by Roland as his companion tries to hail someone for the fourth time. “Repeat, Tower Approach, this is–this is City Hawk seven-two-three. Anyone home…?”

A full two minutes tick by with nothing but radio silence.

“No response. On any channels. Not even–not even the emergency frequencies.”

“You can’t tell what’s causing the interference?” Roland asks, grip tightening on the ship controls.

Ghost drifts down to hide within his hood. “No.”

Tower communications don’t just go silent. Even when he isn’t frequenting City limits Ghost has been able to pick up scattered encrypted transmissions and otherwise–whether it’s a transmission Ghost is able to crack or not, with how large the City is and how active the Vanguard keeps guardian forces, the lines are always annoyingly chatty.

A silent Vanguard isn’t a good sign.

Maybe he can’t give less of a shit about the actual people there, but if he had learned anything from his past, it’s that more often than not, things go far beyond what he or anyone actually cares about. The world is bigger than one person, and selfishness is ugly.

“You remember how–how I always tell you that you fly too fast?” Ghost says after a tense pause. “Forget I ever said it. Fly fast.”

He doesn’t need to be told twice.

Roland guns the throttle and pushes the engines into redline, diving into the stormy clouds surrounding the City airspace with experienced confidence and narrowing his eyes at the visuals that pop in to overlay the shrouded viewport. More static; no simulated visuals whatsoever.

The sensors aren’t picking up anything, not even the ground below. What the fuck is going on?

He goes stiff when the useless static drops away from the viewport and his ship exits the dark, stormy clouds–that he realizes aren’t just stormy. The thunder that had been rattling the hull of his ship isn’t just thunder. The lightning that had been illuminating the interior and flashing through the clouds isn’t just lightning.

Missiles streak through the stormy sky into the City streets and towering skyscrapers below. Debris crashes down the sides of the walls as ballistics and alien fire tear into them. Around them are the massive warships and frigates of the Cabal, and swarming in between are the smaller carrier and assault craft. A strange, claw-like device is settled against the surface of the Traveler.

The City is under attack.

“How did we not hear a rally?” Roland demands as he veers his ship into a sharp turn towards the Vanguard tower, teeth gritting when its crumbling structure roaring with pockets of flame enters his vision.

Ghost is panicked, flashing out of sight in fear. ‘I don’t–I don’t know! All the channels are silent!’

He starts to snap something else, but a thresher drops from the billowing clouds of smoke above and a volley of rockets rip through the air towards him. Another quick-reflex maneuver dodges most of them, but Roland jerks in his seat when at least one of them manages to tear into the ship’s frame.

‘That hit the fuselage! We n-need to land!’

Damnit, he had spent a fortune of glimmer modifying this ship. Jumpships just aren’t made for combat; next time he’s investing in a Reef fleet fighter.

Swearing aloud, he veers around the thresher back towards the ruined Tower, aiming for the open plaza situated in front of the Vanguard hall.

The ship’s engines sputter once and his stomach leaps up into his chest as it abruptly drops. No time or engine power to regain that altitude, so he steers instead for the fiery, open guts of the lower levels of the Tower, somehow still miraculously clinging to the main structure.

Silence descends upon the interior of the ship like a vacuum had sucked the air out.

Engines dead.

“Transmat now!” he barks, ship viewport dropping below the destroyed section he’d been aiming for.

Space flickers apart around him, and in a flash of particles and light Ghost drops him unsteadily onto a crumbling chunk of flooring that shakes and threatens to give way under his sudden weight. His arms fly out to steady himself, and with a hurried pulse of light he hops forward onto a more stable chunk of solid ground.

The platform he’d landed on crunches and breaks off, the noise of it crashing down drowned out a handful of seconds later as his ship slams into the wall at an angle and rips exterior panels off, exposing the levels and decks within on its violent path to the ground with gut-wrenching screeches of metal on metal.

He doesn’t bother hoping no one is within those sections. The Cabal are tearing through the City, and people are without a doubt already dead.

Ghost drops his pulse rifle into his hands, and Roland sets in motion, navigating the teetering ledge of what had once been a systems hub on the inside of the Tower.

“Vanguard personnel, this–this is guardian ident eight-two-eight-three-C, requesting–we’re within the Tower and heading inside,” Ghost calls out, trying and failing to keep his voice even on the ground channel. “Requesting orders!”

Nothing but more static, the occasional explosion or gunfire garbled by the chaotic frequencies breaking through.

Ghost’s voice is little more than a fearful whine. “Anyone?”

Roland runs toward a hole in the wall leading further inside, the makeshift door framed by fire. His mouth opens to tell Ghost to save his energy, and the words are halted when a legionnaire rushes through the opening at him. He backpedals before the alien’s heated arm blade can cut him in two.

A three-round burst from his pulse rifle pops the legionnaire’s head from its massive shoulders with a hiss of organofluid, and the one that runs in after its ally suffers the same fate.

‘This doesn’t...it doesn’t make any sense–the Cabal conquer systems by blowing up entire planets of oppositional civilizations, not invading them.’

Roland steps around the Cabal bodies and moves into the Tower. “Unless they want something.”

Conquering is the typical play for the Cabal, but if they want something, they dig in and fight for it with everything they’ve got. The exclusion zone on Mars just outside of Freehold, the Vex gate leading to the Black Garden, the Dust Palace–hell, even the Dantalion Exodus on the Dreadnaught.

The Cabal are frighteningly ruthless in general, but if they want something–really want something–they become utterly terrifying.

For the first time since they entered the solar system, they’re laying siege to the City after years of not giving a single damn about it. These Cabal are here for something.

The only answer can be the Traveler, especially when he remembers that strange device he’d noticed settled onto its inert shell.

“This is Commander Zavala to all channels,” the voice of the awoken Vanguard commander finally crackles in over ground comms, and he slows to a halt to listen. “Vanguard Tower personnel: report to evac points immediately. Guardians: rendezvous in the Plaza. Our City will not fall.”

Ever optimistic and noble.

And stupid.

Still, what else are guardians good for other than throwing themselves against the enemy like lemmings, abusing their immortality to fight impossible odds? Humorlessly, he thinks, ‘sir, yes, sir’ as he continues onward.

Weaving through hallways and debris and sparking, shredded power lines falling from ceilings at just shy of a breakneck pace, he rounds a corner and spots a Tower civilian at the end of a hall. He’s facing away, hands held up as though trying to fend something off.

A terrified cry leaves his mouth as Roland’s increases his speed.

He doesn’t make it in time, a legionnaire lumbering into sight and impaling the worker on an arm-mounted blade, spattering blood and worse on the tiled floor as the body is tossed aside.

The Cabal catches sight of him, roars in challenge–and Roland answers by firing a volley of bullets into its head. An arc grenade that splits into tracking clusters follows, homing in on the two others that run into sight after.

Not waiting for the dust to clear, he moves on. The civilian he’d failed to save barely even crosses his mind.

‘This shouldn’t be–this shouldn’t be happening. The wall has defenses. How–how could so many get past?’ Their current predicament should be enough to keep Ghost from wasting time on questions like that, but Roland keeps his mouth shut.

Ghost’s never been the same since Carran fell to Valen’s brutality, and he’s gotten used to his overly nervous nature.

Ahead of them an automated door hangs ajar, one half still attempting to shut but caught on something stuck in the runner. As Roland approaches it, something–someone–slams into the thin edge of the door and forces it wide open.

Ghost blips in surprise. “Cayde!”

Head shaking off the daze of the blow and glowing blue eyes blinking, Cayde-6 looks at them with a pleasantly surprised expression. He’s cheery as though he isn’t in the middle of fighting off an enemy invasion in the heart of the City’s command and a group of well-armed legionnaires aren’t approaching from his other side. “Hey, you two! Gimme a sec.”

The air pulses heavy with a discharge of light; Roland watches as the Hunter Vanguard’s body lights with solar energy and the gun in his hand glows a fiery orange.

Booming shots of the Golden Gun vaporize three of the approaching group, leaving two more–who let out short-lived howls as an ear-ringing fweem of linear fusion rifle rounds strike them in the back and turn them to ash.

From the flashes of void fire, a helmetless blonde woman jogs up, spinning around and checking for more enemies. The dark gray jacket she wears looks like the robes of a warlock, but everything else about her speaks of something other.

She looks familiar, and his brow furrows when she turns around to face Cayde–sparing him a single glance. Is it her he’s seen frequenting the war room with Cayde and Ikora?

“Nice shootin’, sunshine. I could’a handled it,” Cayde quips, the familiarity more or less confirming his question.

One of her shoulders lifts in a half shrug. “Can’t let you have all the fun.”

Of all the times for the Hunter Vanguard’s moronic, Sky-damned devil-may-care attitude...and she’s not helping. “Can someone explain to me what the fuck is going on?”

The two of them glance at him; she lifts an eyebrow at him, and Cayde looks like he had forgotten he was even there. Attention-deficit, annoyingly cheery piece of exo shit. How he became a leader is beyond Roland.

Cayde’s the one that answers, much to Roland’s chagrin. “We got blindsided. Satellites went dark. Next thing we know–boom. Missiles to the face. Zavala’s pissed. Ikora’s pissed. I’m pissed–wait, maybe I’m the only one that’s pissed. No, no, Ikora’s definitely pissed–”

“So, what’s the plan?” Roland’s fingers twitch on the grip of his pulse rifle impatiently.

“The plan,” Cayde says, spinning his hand cannon by the trigger around his finger and lifting it to the ceiling, “is me having a date with whoever’s behind this. It’ll be a short date.”

“Cayde, you can’t just…” Ghost starts.

‘Can’t’ isn’t a word in the exo’s vocabulary, Roland knows, and Cayde reinforces that knowledge by brushing the concern off and backing away. “Talk later, kick butt now. Zavala’s doing the hero act in the Plaza. You guys meet up with him, I gotta go shoot a probably very big space rhino in the ugly face.”

Like himself, the blonde is surprised by Cayde’s order. “I’m going with you, Cayde.”

“Nah, you’re gonna back up Big Blue along with this hunter. The civilians he’s defending are the priority.” He starts to back away from the door, moving towards a jagged hole from the collapsed ceiling in the corner of the room.

Roland bristles. “I don’t need–”

“Vanguard’s orders! Shoot the bad guys, and I’ll see you on the flip side.” Without waiting for a response or more protests, he hops up through the hole in the ceiling and vanishes from sight.

Both he and the blonde stare at the hole and then look at each other warily.

“Guess we’re a team, now,” she says at a length. “I’m Quinn.”

“I don’t care.” He veers around her.

A snort reaches his back. If that alone isn’t enough to irritate him, her bootsteps following as he breaks into an urgent jog definitely are; he doesn’t play well with others. “Nice to meet you too, asshole,” she says.

His expression twists in distaste.

Thankfully, she says nothing else as he leads them onward through the Tower, hallways in various states of collapse and destruction. Considering she’s a friend of the Vanguard, it’s odd that she chooses to follow him rather than take the lead; her association implies some kind of leadership, but she seems content to follow.

It leaves him free to ignore her, though, so he won’t complain.

He rounds a corner and comes to a rapid halt when the business end of a shotgun is shoved into his face. Human-made, Vanguard design. After realizing, Roland steps back and lets the Redjack frame from Shaxx’s personal team register his FOF tag.

“Guardian.” The Redjack’s optics shift to Quinn as she approaches, and the shotgun lowers. “Guardian. Proceed ahead.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Roland replies, flatly.

He and Quinn step around the pair of frames guarding the hallway and move up a short flight of stairs into another hall, pausing at the sight of almost two dozen civilians and Tower workers huddled inside. More frames stand guard around them.

A mother sits against a wall a handful of feet away, cradling a toddler to her chest with terrified tears in her eyes.

Quinn walks past him, and Roland uses the motion as an excuse to tear his eyes away and force down the black tightness that had formed in his chest. Familiarity mixed with grim acceptance. Farther down the hall near a set of sealed doors is the recognizable, hulking figure of the Crucible’s handler.

Lord Shaxx, in his trademark, imposing white and orange armor and one-horned helmet, stands as Quinn approaches him at a brisk pace. There’s a sword glowing with fiery light strapped to his back, and a simple dark brown mark brushes the backs of his legs much like Quinn’s tailed coat does her own.

She’s barely tall enough for the top of her head to reach the titan’s shoulders. It’d be funny if they didn’t have more important things to worry about.

“Ah, the little lioness,” he says, accented voice warm and relieved. Apparently, she’s good at making friends. He’s not envious of the fact. “I’m glad to see you made it unscathed. Where’s your paramour?”

His lips curl in a sneer at the casual question; does no one in this fucking Tower have any sense of staying focused while a damn invasion is happening all around them? Roland stops next to her with a pointed stomp of his boot. “We need to get through.”

That flat surface of Shaxx’s helmet turns to sight on him, but he says nothing and Quinn ignores him outright. “Cayde sent us to rendezvous with Zavala. He went off to find out who’s behind this, I think.”

Roland blinks at the response, surprise wiping away the angry bristling he’d begun to feel at being ignored as he puts the question and answer together. Is she saying–

“Of course he did. Reckless.” Shaxx shakes his head.

“Will you let us through already?” Roland impatiently demands, discarding the connection because he will not fucking fall to their level of inept distraction.

Quinn shoots him a nasty look; like she had just a moment ago to him, he ignores her.

“Answer the call, guardians,” Shaxx replies, aggravatingly unconcerned with Roland’s vitriol. “Follow the path through here, it will lead you through the hangar to the Plaza. I’ll take care of these people. Give the Cabal the war they so desire.”

They both watch as he pries the door open with brute force alone, holding it ajar without the barest hint of strain. With how tightly it looked shut and the stressed whir of straining mechanisms, they must have sabotaged the door to prevent entry by unwanted guests.

He’s reminded, not for the first time, why everyone and their mother is afraid of an angry Shaxx.

“Be careful,” Quinn says to the titan, slipping through the gap in the door easily.

Shaxx nods once at her. “You need it more than I, but I will.”

Roland gets no such well wishes as he struggles slightly more than he had to bypass the door. He honestly doesn’t give a shit, but he wonders about the parting statement; why would she need to worry more than any other guardian, given the circumstances?

From here she takes the lead, moving with a lithe agility (the tailcoat outfit says warlock, the agility says hunter, what is she?) through the corridors and rear workings of the Tower until they reach the exterior deck and catwalk heading down to the side of the Tower the hangar juts out of.

A klaxon blares over the P.A. system, barely decipherable over the roar of Cabal war engines and what few guardian jumpships remain in the air racing by. “Evacuation order Seven Seven is in effect. This is not a drill. All civilians report to the designated evacuation areas immediately.”

Provided those evacuation areas aren’t completely demolished by this point already–and provided more people are even left.

He dodges around a puddle of blood seeping out from underneath collapsed rubble as well as the arm sticking out limply from within the pile, deciding that if anyone’s still around to evacuate, they’ve already reached the landing zones. He’s seen this before, and Rolad hates that he had allowed himself to hope he never would again.

The platform under their feet rumbles as they approach the catwalk leading down to the hangar, the deafening thrum of massive engines filling the air. Both of them stop and watch as a red-hulled, flattened ship, large enough to stretch across a quarter of the miles-long distance between one wall Tower to the next, flies overhead.

“Look at the size of that thing,” another ghost, presumably hers, speaks up with an awed voice over the team comm he hadn’t even noticed had opened up, “it must be their command ship.”

Roland stares at it as it drifts slowly towards the center of the City–towards the Traveler, its gargantuan form partially obscured with billowing smoke from the fires and explosions below and held within the grasp of that claw-like device he saw before. Some kind of shimmering field has begun to stretch between those prongs, rippling over the Traveler’s surface.

He hasn’t felt this kind of discomforting fear in a long time, and Roland has to wonder if there’s anything they can do to stop this.

He doubts it.

[kaiyeti]

Idea for my own story.

Detective: Hello. I'm detective Origace. I understand you had a rough night so I'll try to make this quick. Your name Sally Galiran, correct? *The Detective said as he entered the room, taking a seat at the table cross from the the young woman staring down it the cup of coffee she held in her hand.*

Sally: ... Yes.

Detective: And how is your head and leg? *Origace asked, eyeing the bandages wrapped her forehead while her other hand subconsciously rubs her leg.* From the report it seems you suffered from a gash from a piece of glass on your head with no major head trauma and chemical burns around your leg. And supposedly after the medics cleaned and bandaged your wounds you refused to go to the hospital and asked to come straight to the station.

Sally: ... Yes. But is wasn't a piece of glass. *Sally said, her voice almost a whisper.*

Detective: *The detective raises his eyebrow.* Yes. You mentioned that to the officer who took your statement after they arrived. Though, considering in the reports, when the officers found you, you were laying in breaking glass from a broken window this you yourself claimed to be thrown through. Are you sure you didn't receive the gash from the glass?

Sally: It wasn't glass. *Sally said firmly while setting her cup of coffee on the table rather roughly.* The cut I got was from the same thing that burned my leg.

Detective: Right, the burns your leg. *The detective mutter turning a page of the report to photos of the crime scene.* According to this, there were no chemical what so ever within the building that caused the burn on your leg. However, initial lab reports state that other burns on cloths and wood showing that its a chemical that only reacts to organic material.

Sally: *At the mention of this Sally's face changed slightly for a fraction of a second before returning to the tired blank expression with the exception of her eyes. Her eyes held a sense of fear as flashes of her memory of a beastly figure, people she knew running and screaming, blood, a blue-ish black devil, and lastly blue-ish silver eye staring into her soul.* You don't have to tell me. I know first hand.

Detective: Which bring me to ask. How exactly did you receive those burn in the way you did? The burn on you leg goes all the way around, as if something was wrapped around you to grab you. Plus, from what I saw myself at the scene and what is in the report, the place looked like a battlefield. The damages to stone pillars, the walls, ceiling, and floors look as though there was a combination of explosions or high impact along with clear cuts through concrete and metal that look like claw marks by something big.

Sally: I told the police what caused the burns. And the damage to that burning. And to... *Sally said before going silent.*

Detective: Your friend that you claimed a monster with a large mouth fill with acid covered tentacles, massive claws, and glowing eye soaks that you claim killed and ate them. *The detective read from the report in his hand, slapping the file onto the table.* I think you can see why we are having a hard time taking what you said because of this statement. Since, our city is powered and guarded by the Gaiaus prevents any of those types of demons. Not to mention there is no evidence of anyone else being there with you.

Sally: But I know what I saw and I wasn't alone. *Sally said as she looked up from her feet for the first time since entering the room.* It was one of them. That monster was-

Detective: Why didn't you go to the hospital? *Origace interrupted, folding his hands together while leaning against the table.* You clearly need medical attention and if what you think you saw was really their than you know you are poisoned.

Sally: Ah... *Sally blinked and averted her gaze.* I didn't feel very safe going to the hospital.

Detective: Safe? Safe from what? *Origace asked when suddenly another officer opens the door.*

Police officer: Excuse me, Detective Origace. You have a nest connection from Detective Platnite. She says it's important.

Detective: Alright. I'll be right there. *He told the officer as he stands up and walks out but not before turning back to Sally.* I'll be right. When I do, I would like the full truth.

Sally: ... *Sally only looks down in response as the door closed. During this time as the detective and the officer moved down the hall, they were unaware of someone coming from the other of the hallway and entered the interrogation room. As the door open, Sally's eyes glanced up towards it only to widen in horror. She immediately shot up from her seat, backing away from the man wearing a dark blue coat and black hunter hat as he closed the door.* I-I-I didn't say word about you. I swear. *The man looked at Sally, his blue ringed silver eye seemingly to look into her soul.* Please... I know who you are. What you are. Please... *Sally pleadedas her wall hit the wall and watched the man's hand turn into claws and blades.* W-W-W-Wait please! I swear I am not like them! I just want to-

???: I'm sorry, Sally. *The man said taking a step forwards, the lights in the room flickering revealing his eye and claws seemingly dimly glowing in the dark.*

~~~

Origace: What? What did you just say? *The detective mutter in shock as look at the holographic screen in front of him.*

Platnite: I'm saying that this skinned mangled body that we found this morning at the wall has been identified with bioreiki as a college student named Sally Galiran. *The woman detective informed her partner showing pictured of the dead body that was partially reconstructed compared to a picture of Sally.* Meaning that woman you're holding isn't Sally Galiran.

Origace: Shit! *he cursed pulling off the collar like communicator from his neck and rushed out the door while shouting to another officer.* Get a combat team down to interrogation room three ten right now! *The detective then ran as fast as he could through the halls, leaping down a flight of stair while drawing his gun and made his when to the interrogation room. Once there, he instantly realized the door slightly open.* Damn it! *He mutter and kicked open the door, which to his surprise fell to the ground. Confused but unfazed He moved int with his gun at the ready only to be meant with a site he did not expect. A site of a room thrown into ruin covered with blood and deep claw marks with a torn apart decaying monster that most of it body leaning against the wall, its head twisted upside down with half of Sally's face draped over it. It was this that caused the detective to lower his gun and cover his mouth.* My god... What... What happened here?

~~~

*Meanwhile outside, the silver blue eyed man walked down a side walk blocks away from the police stations as police cars and ships passed by. He continued to walk for two blocks before stopping at a cross walk.*

???: So I take it you got the other one, Kai? *A short dark purple haired woman with pinkish highlights asked as she stepped next to the man looking up at him.*

Kai: Yeah Zo. I got them. Sorry to keep you waiting. *He said, taking his hat off his bandanna covered head and his coat dissolved upwards like flames and edged water.*

Zozu: Don't worry about it. I have to admit. It was pretty brilliant idea to hide from us in a police station while in the poor girl's skin. Though its a shame we couldn't find her alive and save her. Zo sighed with disappointment.* But at least we'll be able to tell Sally's parents we got her killers.

Kai: Yeah. *He mutter glancing down at Zozu's sad expression before patting his partner's head.* We can't win them all completely Zo. Just be glad you figured out went they were meeting and we manage to stop anyone else from being killed.

Zozu: Yeah I guess.

Kai: Come on. I'll taking you to the restaurant you been wanting to go to since we got here.

Zozu: Huh?... Hehe, Thanks, Kai. For trying to cheer me up. *Zozu smiled at her partner as the light changed and they began to cross the street.*

Kai: My Pleasure... Actually thinking about it, What did you do with those other college kids when I went after what was left of them?

Zozu: Oh I just dumped them at a bar. Which reminds me. *Zozu the kicked Kai in the leg.* That is for making me carry fourteen drugged college student out of an abandon build. One of whom barfed on my new coat.

Kai: Sorry.

Zozu: You should be.

Kai:...

Zozu:...

Kai:... Foot hurting yet?

Zozu: I hate you sometime. *Zozu grumbled with a limp.*

[rickiewrites]

The Dream Before the Nightmare CH 2

Dr. Stein was sprawled out on the floor lying in a pool of his own vomit his eyes were like glossy milk colored marbles, fixated on the bottle that rested under his open palm leaking out the small bit of poisonous wine left inside. "My goodness" Jonathan muttered as he stood in the doorway holding a handkerchief over his mouth and nose to block out the stench looking on with pity; while he wasn't fond of Stein in the least, he would never wish such a fate on him. He walked into the room, signaling for Sarah to follow him "I swear I didn't mean for this to happen" he held his hand up to stop her from panicking again. "I know, right now we need to focus on cleaning all this up and figuring out what to do with the body" he instructed her to grab a rag and water while he picked up the body.

Jonathan lied Stein down on his bed stepping away and wiping his hands afterward in an attempt to relieve himself of the cold, clammy feeling that lingered on him, Sarah cleaned up the vomit unable to shake the image of Stein's dead eyes fixated on the bottle of wine she poisoned with a look of betrayal. "Sarah," Jonathan snapped her from her thoughts, "listen, I have a plan on how we will cover this up." He tossed the handkerchief away in a nearby wastebasket lighting a match from his pocket and dropping it in watching the fabric burn. "We make his demise look like an accident and get rid of this clinic all together," he explained, leaving the room with Sarah following at his heels "an accident?" she questioned. With a nod, he walked into 's lab examining his tools, "the old man enjoyed experimenting, so it would only make sense for an experiment to go awry and end his life." He paused to look back at Sarah, noticing her nervously scratching at her arm, digging her teeth into her bottom lip, causing it to turn red.

He couldn't fault her for being so shaken and frightened from the whole ordeal when she had found her father dead only hours ago. "I know this is hard for you, and I understand this isn't the most pleasant topic to discuss. However, we have to cover up your father's death if you what any chance at a life, Sarah." The nervous scratching seemed to slow down when she began to process his words, and her lip was released from the torture her teeth caused.

Jonathan had a point, there was no way to explain this to the authorities without it resulting in a rope wrapped around her neck or her head on a chopping block. The only option she had left was to make this all look like an unfortunate accident that he caused; after all, he was able to live a long life before his passing, and she felt she deserved the same. "You know how to use all this stuff don't you?" she nodded in response; "yes, even though my father disliked it I did watch his work closely, and I've read all his books so I suppose I could do it." Jonathan smiled, clapping his hands together "wonderful! Tonight we can rig the laboratory to explode and burn away Dr. Stein's body so no one will be the wiser."

While Sarah packed up her things, Jonathan moved Stein's body into the laboratory, placing him in his seat then putting a test tube in his hand "sorry old boy. While I liked you as much as a fish likes air you didn't deserve to go out this way...but we don't always get what we deserve." He patted the dead man's back in pity following Sarah's written instructions he grabbed vials from the shelf turning on the burner and beginning the mixture, once he finished it he positioned Stein's hand above it his body leaning precariously against the desk. With time gravity would cause the body to fall forward, resulting in an explosion.

"I've done it, Sarah, hurry up and let's go" he called leaving through the back way of the house to avoid being seen Sarah rushing out after him carrying a large trunk. Shortly after the made their way back to his house, a massive explosion was heard that caused the ground to shake for a moment as a cloud of smoke rose up from the old clinic. "Don't look back, just keep moving forward" he instructed not bothering to look back at her keeping a calm composure to avoid upsetting her any more than she already was by this whole ordeal. When they arrived at his home, he ushered her in offering her a seat at his dining table before walking into the kitchen to fix a pot of tea to calm their nerves.

"Jonathan"

"Yes?" he replied, setting down a cup of Jasmine tea in front of her.

"The other night you said something and I wanted to know what you meant exactly. You know when you, asked me to run away with you," she muttered the last part looking down at the tea in her cup.

"Ah! Well the night before I had this marvelous dream that scared me.

right out of bed."

"You consider that marvelous?"

"Of course. It was like every show I ever imagined come to life! "

He sat down beside her "that dream made me realize that my life will never be fulfilled until I make my dreams a reality" he dropped sugar cube after cube into his tea. "And it was you coming to my door that gave me the sign I was looking for," he explained, she gave him a confused look tilting her head "a sign?" He nodded, taking a sip from his cup before answering "we are going to leave this place and start a circus," he grinned, noticing her confused look and answering her question before she asked it. "Why a circus? Because the audience there is open to new things, new experiences! I can create my own stage and share my genius with millions! The only problem is I don't have the means to fund a circus," he grumbled. "Then how are you going to pay for a circus?" Sarah asked he shrugged plopping more sugar cubes into his tea trying to think; suddenly, his wall clock chimed to show the time seven o'clock, and it hit him.

"That's it...That's it!"

"I'm sorry?"

"I know how to get the money? Quick, change clothes, and come to work.

With me."

He ushered her into his bedroom, allowing her to use it while he changed into his uniform. Once she was dressed, he guided her to the gambling house holding onto her hand so she wouldn't get lost, "what is this place" she asked clutching his hand. The place was crowded that night due to a party Ogar was throwing to celebrate the new addition to the building, she held her hand over her mouth to filter the air that was heavy with the stench of alcohol and tobacco smoke so she could breathe. "This is Ogar's gambling house, I work here during the night" he explained, leading her into the grand hall where most of the guests were gathering because it was there he would find Ogar.

At the center of the room, they spotted Ogar leaning over a craps table surrounded by young women who giggled and caressed him as he tossed the dice when the dealer called his win the crowd would then break into a loud cheer congratulating him. It wasn't long before Ogar spotted them moving through the crowd causing him to smile and with a small whistle plus a gesture of his hand he called them over.

"Well if it isn't the king of pumpkins! Showing up early for a change I see, with a fine little doll standing beside him as well. Win a bet outside these halls there, Jack?" his voice boomed, giving Jonathan another hearty slap on his back with a laugh. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get to your table, but don't expect any overtime pay" he ordered shooing him away as he picked up the dice.

"Actually," Jonathan spoke up catching his attention "I am here to tender my resignation." Ogar snickered for a moment before bursting into full out laughter informing his entourage to laugh with him; "ha! You all hear that? Penniless Jack here wants to walk out. You'll be begging on the corner in a day's' time." Jonathan gave a small smile fixing his vest as he spoke calmly and nonchalantly "see I thought of that and I found an interesting proposition for my pension. How about a wager?"

Ogar's eyebrow quirked up with a light chuckle "a wager? You and me? What's the best?"

Jonathan thought for a moment on what he could offer him before speaking up "half of your wealth should I win. Should I lose, I will work here for free for the rest of my life." Ogar shook his head, clicking his tongue "oh Jack… Jack, Jack, Jack…You aren't worth that much," he replied, looking past him at Sarah standing behind him gently clutching his sleeve and walked over to her. "Now your lady friend here?" he walked behind Jonathan to get a better look circling as he examined her"she's worth much more." He rubbed his chin nodding with a grin of approval at her appearance"yes, put her in something to show off those tasty legs of hers and she'd really bring in the crowd. If you put her on the table, you have yourself a wager."

"I'm not using a woman as a gambling piece" he spat angered by the mere suggestion, "Jonathan" Sarah interrupted; she released his sleeve and turned to meet Ogar's gaze. "So if I agree to work here for the rest of my life as well you will agree to his offer?" Ogar nodded, "fine." Jonathan looked at her in shock, and she merely held her hand up to stop his protest "I believe you can do this, I'm willing to stake my life on it" Ogar chuckled "a bad choice pretty lady."

They sat across from each other at one of the tables, dice, and cups set in front of them. Ogar smiled

"The game is Perudo. You know the rules?"

"I do," Jonathan replied.

The two placed the dice in their cups, setting them down then they checked their dice.

"You go ahead first," Ogar said.

"As you wish. Two fours."

Ogar grinned, "I say three fours."

"Four fours."

Ogar paused shuffling in his seat, but after a moment, he grinned, "I call."

Jonathan clenched his teeth when the dice were revealed there was only three fours worry began to settle in as one of his dice was taken away.

"Only four left, Jack. Only a matter of time before you and your foolish little doll become mine. This is my hall, boy, and I play for keeps," he chuckled. " It wasn't smart to wager with a true gambling man."

"The game has only begun, Ogar."

They set their dice once more Jonathan calling out "Three ones."

"Starting at the bottom this time, eh? How appropriate." Ogar hummed, stroking his chin as if in thought. "A real man will take the chance and start at say fives. Yes, in fact, I will. I will say, fives."

The room gasped, such a bid in Perudo was dangerous, yet Ogar did not seem phased at all.

"Well? I'm waiting, boy."

The hairs on the back of his neck started to rise as cold sweat formed on his brow, he shook his head to rid himself of his fears. 'No,' he thought, 'this had to be a bluff to show off his power.'

"I call."

Ogar laughed, "calling my bluff, is it? What a shame." they revealed their dice, to show precisely five fives on the table. Jonathan felt his heartbeat quicken, and his stomach dropped as he stared at his three remaining dice.

"Now you're down to three. It's a shame, you just don't have what it takes. A real man needs the stones to win in life, though I'll give you credit for calling. He sucked his teeth pouted, giving Jonathan a fake look of concern "you look awful, boy. Someone get the king of the pumpkin patch here some water."

Jonathan accepted the cup, his hand shaking from anxiety that when he brought the cup to his lips, it slipped from his hand. In a panic, he ducked down to pick it up, and he paused a sudden realization dawned on him, he knew what he had to do.

"Going to spend the whole game on your knees, boy? Get up and let's finish this game," Ogar called.

Jonathan stood up with a calm and composed expression, "you're right, Ogar. Just one more thing before we continue? I just don't feel lady luck smiling upon me today. I, one of your own dealers. Such a dark time." he stood, placing the back of his hand on his forehead with a light chuckle swaying as he scooped up his dice in his hand. "What is gambling without the brilliant smile of luck herself? To think when I bet my very life to face such ill fate," he continued moving to Sarah. "I could use a different lady to bring luck to me tonight. Miss Stein, if you would gently blow on my dice?" he asked, bowing his head as he brought the dice to her lips.

"Oh, ok. If you wish Jonathan," Sarah blew on the dice, and he thanked her gently taking her hand and kissing it before pirouetting back to his seat.

"I feel a new wind in this hall tonight, Ogar" he throughout his arms then brought the dice in to hold them close to his heart. "Blessings upon my dice! I believe this is where I will turn things around, sir."

Ogar laughed "all that just for a hope of some extra luck? Reach all you want, you're only delaying the inevitable. "

When the roll came in, Jonathan smiled and called out "one-two."

"One three."

"Darn seat, I am a bit cramped," he commented, shifting in his seat until Ogar's growled in annoyance "get on with it, man!".

" Two threes."

"Three threes."

" Four threes."

Ogar bellowed "three dice left and that's your choice? I appreciate the show of stones boy, but I call."

When the dice were revealed, Ogar's eyes nearly popped out of his head as Jonathan showed he had rolled three threes himself, Ogar showing one three; it was exact. Ogar stomped his foot the corner of his mouth twitching as one of his dice was taken.

As the game continued, it seems like Jonathan was having a windfall of luck, and Ogar was starting to get nervous. Towards the end they both had only one die left, he was losing at his own game, and he didn't like it. The pompous and loudmouth gambler was gone, and in his, a nervous wreck stuck in a loop tapping his foot on the ground then wiping the sweat from his face the lush tailored suit went from neat to disheveled with hints of sweat stains starting to appear causing Jonathan to smile.

"Looks like the final gambit is it? Yes, definitely. I wonder what you have Jack" Ogar commented before shuffled in his seat with a broad grin.

"Yes. Two sixes." His entourage stared in disbelief, such a coincidence seemed insane. Two dice left and both Six? Jonathan smiled brightly.

"A true gambit of the gambler, Ogar. However, I'm afraid lady luck turned her smile upon me this game. I call."

Ogar's grin faded when they revealed their dice "what!?" Jonathan's die was five.

"That is my win, Ogar. It was a beautiful game, but I will be collecting my earnings now."

Everyone was shocked, and the room was dead silence Ogar's face went beet red in a rage he stood up and stormed out of the hall. Sarah breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He did it, he had won what they needed to start his dream.

He kissed the promissory note from Ogar laughing as they walked out of the gambling, Sarah following close beside him with a smile.

"That was incredible luck, it was so close. I admit I was worried."

"Oh, it was no luck, Miss Stein," Jonathan replied, tossing a pair of familiar-looking dice in the air.

"Jonathan, are those?"

"The beloved lady luck dice you blew on Miss Stein. You see it wasn't truly luck, I simply cheated the cheater."

"Cheater? Mr. Bernard was cheating?"

"You see, I noticed after I spilled the water. Ogar has this trio of orphan troublemakers he has to do his dirty work often, especially with cheating people. There were peepholes in the floor, and it seems they had special lenses that could see our dice through the bottom of the table. They then used tapping under the floorboards to tell him the quantity and value of my dice and his together so he wouldn't go over and be able to call on me. These dice here are special, you see? " he held out his hand, showing her the dice.

"Normally on the opposite side of six is one, but while working one of the craps tables, I discovered these peculiar dice. See, on the other side is not one, but three, and so on. See the orphans learned how to read the dice, but it threw off their readings when they see the bottoms of these dice, and thus I threw them off. As for finding out what Ogar had, well that's where my long legs come in handy. He couldn't tell, but I had my foot on his floorboard they tapped on so I could tell the totals and knew he would never go over just in case I ever called. My antics of having you blow on my dice for luck was merely a misdirection to hide me swapping the dice. Truly Ogar lost at his own game, the game of playing dirty."

"And now we go and start our new lives on the open road, I hope this world is ready for a good scare."

[planarchaosproject]

Planar Chaos: One Shots

For Science!

Upon arriving on Segovia, Odom was intensely aware of the fact that he had been shrunk down to about one one-hundredth his normal size. He felt squeezed, almost like he would burst at the seams. It wasn't a feeling he particularly liked, but at the same time the creatures on this plane were unique in their smallness. The largest of leviathans was, compared to the fauna of other planes, the size of an elephant.

He had a small break scheduled during his research so he could take part in the most famous of Segovian customs, a visit to the Hippodrome. They watched all sorts of spectacles from gladiators to chariot races. Odom had front row seats and a perfect view of all the beasts that would be present in the arena.

Soon, however, his attention was fixed on one of the combatants. A bald man in blue and yellow robes that fought using only his fists and magic was steadily advancing in the tournament being held that day. Odom grew curious about this man. A warrior this powerful couldn't just be trained. He had to have been born with some innate abilities present in his genetic makeup. He wanted, no, needed, a biological sample from the combatant.

"Excuse me," Odom called out after the tournament was over and the combatants were free to mingle with the rest of the crowd for the remainder of the day. The bald man glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow, pointing to himself.

"Yes, sir, I'm speaking to you."

The warrior strode over and stood in front of Odom. "What do you want, an autograph?"

"Of sorts," Odom said, smiling.

"Of sorts?"

"Well, I'll get to that later. I wanted to compliment you on your performance in that tournament. I've never seen a warrior with such skill. Where did you study? Who did you train under?"

"My masters live very far away."

"What are they masters of? Magic? Combat? You engage in both with a tenacity and grace I haven't found in anyone else in this world."

"You must have studied a lot then."

"Oh no. Only the last few days. But I know something unique when I see it. I'm sort of unique myself." He gestured to the mismatched half of his face. "So, about that autograph, may I take a sample of your skin for study? Some blood as well?"

"My... what?" The bald man took a step back.

"Sorry. I should have introduced myself first. I'm Odom." Odom extended his hand. "I'm something of a wandering scientist, specializing in the biological sciences."

"Brock," the warrior said, giving Odom a very quick handshake. He examined his palm until he was satisfied with its appearance.

"I was thinking, you have to have been born with some of those abilities because nobody gets this good from training. I didn't get as good as I am from training, of course that was mostly an experiment that went horribly wrong and turned out okay in the end."

"And what exactly do you want to do with my skin?" Brock crossed his arms.

Odom scratched his head. Brock took a second glance at the scientist's hair. It seemed to be a different shade. "Well," Odom began, "I mostly collect samples of biomass and mutate them in order to create new and interesting creatures."

"Abominations, you mean."

"You sound like my study buddy," Odom laughed. "She thinks they're abominations too, but at the same time she can't deny that studying created life gives her a new insight into natural life."

Brock let out a sigh. This scientist, mage, whatever he was, had no sense of order or balance. His creations could become massive threats to the world around him, but Brock hadn't seen anything out of place on Segovia since he arrived. "I suppose I'll have to come back to your lab?"

"Oh, no," Odom said. "My lab is much too far for anyone here to travel to. I'd imagine it's about as far away as your masters." He rolled up one of his sleeves and winked. Brock was shocked to see that one of Odom's arms was made of wood and wrapped in vines.

"That's not an illusion, is it?" Brock reached out a hand and touched the bark, finding it rough and cool to the touch.

"Nope. The experiment that went wrong resulted in a spectacular explosion that ripped apart most of my torso and tore off this part of my face." He gestured to the mismatched half. "I was put back together by an incredibly chaotic magical force I can't quite explain."

"What are you?"

"I think you'll find my answer in this question: What are you?" Odom chuckled.

"That said, I think I at least need to check it out." Brock extended his hand. "I'd like you to take me there."

They planeswalked. Brock found himself standing on a landing in a spacious apartment in one of Ravnica's residential districts. He followed the staircase down to what he assumed had once been a living room but was now a laboratory/incubation chamber. Inside a tub being heated by a series of steam tubes was a bubbling pile of biomass.

"It's nowhere near ready yet," Odom said when he saw Brock inspecting the tub. "I haven't figured out what I want to do with it yet."

"Seems harmless enough," Brock said.

"Yeah. The last thing the Simic guild made that was actually dangerous on a large scale was Experiment One. I had a small part in that, mostly worked on the tentacles." Odom wiggled his fingers.

A low rumbling came from the next room. Brock's eyes widened as a large, bark covered nose poked through the doorway.

"Oops," Odom looked sheepish. "Feeding time. Very well. Back home with you." The creature beyond the doorway was unsummoned from whatever plane it came from.

"What... was that?" Brock asked. Blood was slowly returning to his face.

"That was Maelstrom Wanderer, or as I sometimes call him, Broseidon. My Broster Strudel. The Bro-est of Bros. He's the best."

"What exactly is Maelstrom Wanderer?"

"That explosion I mentioned was in an Izzet artifice lab. I woke up in the Maelstrom of Alara to that giant elemental puppy dog looking at me and thought I was dead. So I did what anyone who believed they were already dead would do. I climbed on his back and together we wandered around for a few years just being bros."

A new voice that was shockingly familiar to Brock called out, "Honey? I'm back!"

Ashleigh descended the stairs carrying an armful of jars. She was continuing to talk to Odom, unaware that Brock was there. "You know, I was wondering, have you ever thought about being parents?"

"Ashleigh, that's just silly. You know planeswalkers can't have kids. If they could it would have happened by now."

"I know. I was thinking about that ball of biomass, though. We could create something truly fantastic together."

"You'd make something that would destroy the world," Brock said bitterly. He'd already adopted a fighting stance, much to Odom's confusion.

"You!" Ashleigh snarled, almost dropping her jars. Brock noted she'd traded her impractical dress for robes similar to Odom's but in blue and red instead of blue and green.

"Whoa whoa whoa." Odom stepped between them. "Ash, give me those jars. You know the rules. No fighting in the lab. We have too many delicate experiments going on in here. Take it upstairs or outside."

"I won't make the same mistake as last time," Brock growled. He watched every motion of Ashleigh handing off the jars to Odom. "I will rid the multiverse of your stain."

"I'd rather you not," Odom said, arranging the jars on a shelf. "She's kind of sort of my girlfriend."

"Kind of sort of?" Brock was both confused and incredulous.

"Well what he means is we hang out sometimes," Ashleigh said. "Sometimes we do what he wants to do. Sometimes we do what I want to do. It's a very balanced relationship."

"Except I keep almost dying, Ash." Odom turned around and crossed his arms. "I swear you're nothing but bad luck."

"She probably does it on purpose." Brock narrowed his eyes and looked over at Odom. "Odom you're a fool if you let her live any longer. She's a threat to the multiverse."

"So are the eldrazi and I don't see you trying to destroy them. Right, Ash?" Odom looked over to the space where Ashleigh once was. "Ash?"

"Dammit!" Brock slammed his fist onto a nearby table. "Why don't you see? Why don't you care?"

Odom shrugged. "I just know how to deal with her. She may want to destroy the world, but if I can dangle enough shiny things in front of her or get her wrapped up in one of my projects she forgets about it for a while."

"But she's pure evil."

"There's no such thing," Odom thoughtfully stroked the bubbling biomass. "She just thinks differently than you do."

"Destroying the world is evil."

"See, you see this nebulous concept you call evil. I see a curiosity about the building blocks of the world and how they fit together. You'll never know unless you tear it apart." A flash of insight flickered in Odom's eyes.

"Ojutai preserve me..." Brock sighed. "I'll be keeping an eye on both of you."

Odom was left alone with his biomass and a whirlwind of thoughts. He didn't know if Brock's ideas about evil and good were right. He didn't know what category Ashleigh fit into. He did know one thing, though. He needed some samples from a two headed dragon.