#over this trial we’ll find out exactly what he did to the timeline

[gleeksfreaksandwannabes]

Alright, we’re back, and I am so ready for these next few chapters!

Steve’s on trial, and of course I had to bring in some familiar faces to help his case!

I really hope you guys are enjoying this story, because it is literally taking over my life and I’m so excited to share it with you <3

[all-my-love-for-harry]

A dad, but make it official.

summary: All Harry has to do is sign the papers. 

word count: 3.8k

a/n: sooo, a lot of you have been asking me about harry adopting artemis and them moving in with harry, and i’m sorry for not answering!! but here it is, sorry to keep you waiting! btw, i’ll start putting the dates in each blurb so none of you get confused with the timeline!!

you can find more of my shy little boy here

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August, 2019.

To many people in the outside, it seemed like Harry and Y/N haven’t been together for much, but to anyone who actually knows the couple and gets to see how they are with each other, it seemed like they’ve been dating for years.

Harry knew Y/N was the love of his life, and he also knew there were two things that he wanted more than anything in this world: put a ring on her finger and give his last name to her son.

There wasn’t a protocol on what to do first when it comes to take big decisions with your partner, and they weren’t a normal couple either. But what Harry was sure of, was his endless, unconditional love for the both of them.

The actual conversation of Harry becoming Artemis father legally didn’t come up for a long time between the couple. Harry’s heart ached to know what Y/N thought about them being an official family, but by any means he wanted to make her uncomfortable.

So he kept the thoughts to himself for some time, focusing on being happy with what they had right now and knowing they were in for the long run and it would be just matter of time until his wishes would finally come true.

It was a rainy day in London, a storm was supposed to happen at any time now. Y/N’s car was at the shop and Harry promised her to pick her up at UCL so they could go for Artemis afterwards.

They were hoping to get there before the rain started but still had umbrellas and a raincoat for Artemis, just in case. The sky was gray and the wind was extremely strong, so Harry drove carefully.

“Will the two of us get down?” Harry asked once he parked the car, looking through the window how different parents would get out of their own vehicles and ran to the doors of the school.

“Yeah, but let’s hurry”

The couple went out of the car and held hands while hurrying inside. Artemis’ classroom was just down the hall, and by the time they reached it, it was almost empty.

Artemis was sitting on one of the chairs coloring a book, but as soon as he looked up and saw Harry and his mum enter the room, he put the book away and ran towards them.

“You’re here!” He exclaimed, happily hugging Y/N’s legs and then Harry’s.

“Was everything okay today?” Y/N asked while Harry took Artemis to grab his things.

“He was a total sweetheart, as always” The teacher smiled. “If the storm gets worse, class might be cancelled. We’ll be sending an email”

They thanked the teacher and walked out of the classroom. Harry scooped the little boy in his arms and Y/N carried his backpack. It was already starting to rain so they hurried inside of the car.

“Where are we going now?”

“Harry’s house, honey. Is that okay?” Artemis nodded excitedly, kicking his legs back and forth.

“Harry, can you put your song?” Harry chuckled, knowing exactly which song Artemis was requesting.

“I can’t believe he likes this song” The curly haired man sitting on the driver’s seat laughed as the first notes of the song from his old band started playing in the car.

“They say that we’re not good together, and it’s never gonna work out!” Artemis screamed the lyrics of the song he had listened to so many times Y/N has already lost the count.

“I mean, who even showed this to him?” Harry was dying from embarrassment but was also enjoying himself.

“Perhaps I might be responsible for that” Y/N said, smiling innocently.

They had no choice but to join him and sing along too. These were the kind of moment where Harry felt at his happiest, two of his favorite people with him, doing something so mundane like riding a car but at the same time it felt so special and dear to him.

Harry’s house was a little further away from Artemis’ school, so the ride was longer. But they had fun during it.

“So, what do you want for lunch?”

“Nuggets!” Artemis threw his little arms over his head, actually thinking Y/N would allow chicken nuggets.

“What?! We need real food in our tummies!” Harry exclaimed while laughing.

They ended up eating pasta and Harry might have or might have not slipped some chicken nuggets under the table while Artemis was helping Harry cook.

After eating all three together, Artemis asked for permission to play with the toys he kept in Harry’s house, so Y/N and Harry were left alone in the living room.

“Hope you’re in the mood for red wine” Harry sat down beside his girlfriend, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “Think he’ll be there for long?”

“He does like the toys you bought him, so he might be there for a while”

Harry leaned towards her, capturing her lips in a kiss. He put his opened palm on the side of her head, deepening the kiss. Y/N pulled away to breath, but she planted little pecks all the way through Harry’s jawline until she reached his lips again.

“I love you so much, baby” Harry whispered, inches away from her face.

“Mhm, I love you more” She cooed, smiling at him. Y/N gave him one more peck before pulling away and sighing.

“Is everything alright?” He asked, putting one piece of hair behind her ear. “What’s on your mind, uh?”

“It’s… I don’t know, we don’t have to talk about that”

“Talk about what, darling?”

They adjusted on their seats so they could be facing each other.

“Just… don’t freak out” she told him. “I’ve been thinking a lot, and… well, you make me, us, very happy. And I really do want this to be… you know, a permanent thing” she started rambling, Harry’s face started to form a goofy smile. “How would you feel about adopting?” She asked abruptly.

“Well, it depends. Adopting a new baby or… my little fella over there?” He pointed down the hall. “Because I’m pretty fine with either, love”

“How are you so calm about this?” She frowned.

“Because I want this too, Y/N. You two make me very happy and I do see us as a permanent thing. I’m glad we’re both on that page, you know?” He took her hand. “I’m also glad we’re talking about this. There’s nothing more I want than give Artemis the Styles last name, legally. But adoption can take a little while so I’m happy we’re discussing this now”

Y/N smiled big at him, looking directly at his gorgeous green eyes. “So, you only want to give my son your last name?”

“I mean, I guess we can sort something out for you” Harry rolled his eyes playfully. Y/N opened her mouth, pretending to be offended, making him let out a big belly laugh.  

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For the next few weeks Y/N and Harry met with an adoption attorney to start looking for the process. They were told it shouldn’t take longer than six months, and that the fact that Artemis’ other parent was absent and did not have any paternal rights, it would be easier to get through the process.

“There’s something else” the attorney said. “You must live with the child for at least six months before we can make any moves, it’s the law”

Harry nodded, sinking in the information the man in front of them was giving. “If there’s more questions, feel free to give me a call”

They shook hands and Harry walked him out of the house. “Well, that went good, innit?”

“Yeah... I mean, at least we know how the process works now” Y/N sighed, whipping the sweat from the palms of her hands. She kind of had an idea of that the process was, and somehow she wasn’t scared of the adoption part but the whole living together wasn’t something they’ve really discussed.

“At least now we have the perspective for the future” Harry gave her a big smile. His mind started to imagine their future together, as a family, and he couldn’t be more excited for it.

*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･:

October, 2019.

Harry’s been really nervous lately. The trial against the man who’s been stalking him had him on his nerves. He’s been asking Y/N to stay in his house because he was scared the man would go there while Harry wasn’t with them.

It was safe to say he was scared. And so was Y/N. She knows exactly who’s he talking about as she herself has had an encounter with the homeless guy. Recently.

Three days ago she was out in a morning run before going to work, she had a late class to give and Artemis was already at school so she wanted to take advantage of the free time.

When she was running back to her house to get a shower and drive to work, she noticed someone standing in front of the house. Y/N slowed down, trying to get a better look of the person who was there.

He was just looking at the house, staring. She gasped when the man turned, giving her a clear look to his face. It was the same man who’s been tormenting Harry for quite some time.

She knew Harry was taking that man to court, but she didn’t understand why he was in her house and how did he get her address.

Was he following her?

Too scared to come any closer, Y/N got her phone out of her pocket and called Harry.

“Are you sure it’s him?” he asked in the other end of the line. It sounded like he was looking for something around his house.

“Yeah, he turned and I saw his face” She mumbled, her gaze still focused on that man.

“I’ll be there in five”

He hung up and Y/N waited for him to get there. It didn’t take Harry long to get there, as he was driving real fast. He was mad, furious even. But he was also terrified.

One thing was tormenting him, but his family? The people he loves and cares about?

When he saw Y/N standing a few houses away from her own, Harry almost jumped out of his car. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He scanned her body up and down, trying to make sure she was in one piece. “Where is Artemis?”

“He’s at school, I went for a run. Can… can we go?” Y/N was practically shaking and Harry almost had to carry her inside of his car. They drove off and Y/N was finally able to breathe. “What did he want?”

“I don’t know, love. Was he there when you left for your run?”

“No, I didn’t see him”

“I’m gonna handle this, okay?” He put a hand on her knee. “He’s not gonna hurt you or Artemis” He promised. There was something about his voice and his hand on her knee that soothed her.

She only felt safe again when they were back inside Harry’s house, all the doors locked. Y/N had to call the school and say she was sick, and to be honest she kind of felt like she was.

“I can’t believe it, Harry. Did he follow me? Or you?”

“Probably me” He sighed. “God, I just want it to be over. I don’t understand why he would do that two weeks before the trial”

“Well, it was fucking terrifying. What a bloody creep” Y/N wrapped her arms around herself.

“I’ll take care of it, okay?” He leaned to kiss her forehead. “Everything’s gonna be fine”

She nodded and watched how he disappeared from the living room, probably to call his lawyer. Y/N started thinking about the next steps she should take. Perhaps it was time to look for another house, one with more security or in a gated community. But, could she afford that? Yeah, her salary was nice and she was able to provide for her and Artemis just fine, but she wondered how buying a house would affect her economy right now.

Harry returned to the living room with a glass of water for his girlfriend, sitting next to her on the couch. To Harry, she seemed a lot more relaxed than when he left. It was hard for him too, his mind was going places and thinking things he’d rather not to.

“I know it might be a dumb question, but how are you?”

“I’m a little bit freaked out, but I’m fine” She gave him a half smile.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. You don’t deserve this”

“Hey, don’t be sorry. It is not your fault someone thought they had the right to harass you, or that it was okay to stalk you” She took his hands in hers, looking directly at her eyes.

“Move in with me, both of you” He said, tightening the grip in her hands.

“Harry…” she whispered.

“Just, hear me out. I’ve been thinking about it since we had that meeting with the attorney, and… I’m ready whenever you are, okay?” he paused. “But I have to admit it would give me a lot of peace if you two were here full time. I hate to think something could happen to any of you while I’m not there” Harry sighed. “Please, just think about it. Promise me you’ll at least consider it”

Harry was looking at her with big puppy eyes. It was already impossible to say no to him on a daily basis but when he pulled out that look��� He could get whatever he desired and he knew it.

“I’d think about it. It’d be a big change and I’d be more comfortable if I talked with Artemis first. His opinion is important too”

“Absolutely. Thank you, baby” Harry pulled her in a hug, kissing the top of her head.

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Turns out, Artemis was more than okay with the idea of living full time with Harry. When Y/N talked to him, he started jumping around his room, saying how he couldn’t wait to see Harry again.

She must admit it took a huge weight out of her shoulders knowing Artemis agreed. The man never came back to their house, but Harry insisted on them moving as soon as possible.

“Jesus, mate. How many toys do you have?” Harry asked, playfully groaning while carrying one of the boxes that were filled with Artemis’ toys.

“Harry, will there be enough space for my toys at your house?” Artemis was watching Harry carry the boxes, he was sitting on top of other box.

“Of course, monkey. I know you already have a room there, but if you want to choose another one, we can decorate it as you please”

“Can it have a cool wallpaper?”

“What would you like?” Harry chuckled.

“Clouds!” Artemis has been obsessed with Toy Story lately, and he wanted his room to be exactly like Andy’s.

“If clouds is what you want, clouds is what you’ll get”

Y/N decided to not take any furniture with them, as Harry’s was plenty enough. She had decided to rent the house to one of her friends that was looking to move.

Harry of course didn’t let Y/N carry anything relatively heavy, so he did all the lifting. The moving truck that they rented along with the people they hired were out of the house, putting everything inside of the car.

“These are the last boxes. We left Artemis’ room for last”

“God, I never noticed how much stuff he had until I started packing it” Y/N laughed.

It only took them another hour to get everything out of Y/N house. She felt nostalgic after the last box was out of the house. She knew she made the right choice, and couldn’t be more excited for this new chapter, but this house held so many memories.

Y/N’s moms bought this house for her and for Artemis. He was only one when they walked through the door for the first time, back when it was only the two of them and no one else.

But now it wasn’t just Artemis and Y/N anymore. And that was more than okay.

*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･:

January 30th, 2020.

It was Harry’s birthday week. He was supposed to play this concert in Miami and Y/N had the biggest surprise planned for him.

Y/N made sure they were there to see him play, and to bring onstage his birthday cake. There was something else she wanted to give him, but that surprise was something she’d keep to herself until they were alone.

“The weather doesn’t seem to get better” Harry said, looking through the window of the hotel room they were staying at.

“Do you think the weather will get better before the concert?” Y/N was knelt down in front of Artemis, tying up his sneakers.

“I hope so” He sighed.

“You still joining Lizzo for her number tonight?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fun. Will you two watch me?” Harry walked towards the bed and sat next to Artemis.

“Who’s Lizzo, daddy?”

“A very nice person. Would you like to meet her, bud?”

Artemis nodded shyly. They headed downstairs to eat lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. Harry was in the middle of helping Artemis clean his face with a napkin when some girls approached them.

Y/N sent a kind smile their way as they asked for a picture. Harry being Harry, agreed.

“Is that Artemis?” One of them asked. “Hi, Y/N” They both smiled.

“Hi, girls” She smiled back.

“This is Artemis. Say hi, baby”

The little boy mumbled a little ‘hi’, looking down his plate. Harry got up from his chair and Y/N took the pictures for the girls. They were actually very nice and Harry was very pleased with the way they treated his loves.

Ever since he started dating Y/N, Harry took special attention to the way fans treated her and Artemis. Most of them were polite as they’d never really do anything to upset Harry, but there were still the ones that would get a little pushy. Especially with Artemis.

Usually he tried to understand. Artemis was an extremely adorable child, and people liked to compliment cute children, right? But his baby didn’t like to be touched by strangers. Harry was pretty sure Artemis would riot if someone tried to pinch his cheek.

“They were nice, weren’t there?” Y/N asked once the two girls walked away and they went back to their lunches.

“Yeah, they were very kind”

Rest of the lunch went smoothly and then Harry had sound check at the venue. Artemis wanted to go to the pool so Y/N and he stayed behind. Some other fans approached them when they went by the pool and talked for a little.

After a little while they had to back to their room to get ready to go to Lizzo’s concert at 9pm. It was a little past Artemis’ bedtime, but this was a special occasion.

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January 31th, 2020.

The weather wasn’t getting any better, and Harry was nervous the concert would get cancelled. He really wanted to start his birthday celebration on stage, singing in a room full of lovely people.

But it really did seem like the universe didn’t want that.

Later that afternoon they got a call from the fire department saying that under any circumstances they show would be played tonight as it wasn’t safe with the storm coming in the way.

Harry felt really bad about it. He didn’t want to disappoint anyone but even if he’d want to (and he really wanted to), there was no way he could play the concert.

“I know it’s not what you wanted, but it was not safe, honey” Y/N sat behind Harry, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Artemis was with Mitch and Sarah at their dressing room. They were waiting for their car to pick them up from the venue. “You’ll still have a great birthday, H. I promise”

“I just don’t want to make them upset” He mumbled.

“They’re not. You can’t control the weather, Harry. This is not your fault” She moved to look at him. He looked very sad, he was really looking forward to this show.

The car arrived shortly after and they were back at the hotel safely. Harry still looked upset so he didn’t talk much in the ride back. Artemis was already sleepy, so as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out.

After brushing their teeth and doing their nightly routine, they were ready for bed. Harry was sighing and pouting like a baby, and Y/N felt really bad for him.

“Okay, I was going to wait until tomorrow for your actual birthday but you clearly need a cheer up” Y/N got out of bed and walked to her suitcase.

Harry looked at her confusedly but got out of bed as well. “What are you talking about?”

“So, I know we haven’t talked about this in a while, but I received a call from the attorney the other day”

“And…?”

“He told me he had the papers ready if we still wanted them” She had the papers hid behind her back so she slowly put them in front of him. “He said all you had to do was sign and you’ll be officially a dad” She flashed him a little smile. “It’s okay if you’re not… ready yet or have changed your mind. You can sign them whenever you want… or not. Your choice”

Harry looked up at him, his emerald eyes were full of tears ready to come out. He was truly speechless. It had slipped through his mind, being honest. It truly did catch him by surprise but he couldn’t stop the butterflies on his tummy.

It hit him. All he had to do was sign. And his boy, would be his. Officially, Legally his.

He nodded furiously, breathing a smile. “Do you have a pen?”

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taglist!!

@myfavfanficsever @odetostep @la-cey @cock-a-doodely-doo @awkwardbullfrog @mellamolayla @moorgannn @bagtan-serendipity @awesomebooklover17 @finelineribs @sunnybusiness @beanholland @sweetenerstyle @cronias13 @vhsharry @maisley @seasidecrowbar @stylesfics-xx @autumnpauley20 @fineline-hs1

[msiconoclast]

Again - Chapter 3

Pairing: Jaebeom x Reader

Genre: romance, angst, smut, slow-burn

Summary: Im Jaebeom was the single most significant part of your college experience. A chance encounter brings you together again many years later when you’ve both settled into your careers (Jaebeom is a music producer and Y/N is a journalist). As you take a walk down memory lane, you reflect on your understanding of love and its many trials. Some loves are meant to make you grow, and some are meant to help you heal. And some are destined to be both.

Word Count: 3.4k

Rating: 18+ (this chapter only)

A/N:  This could be The sex scene of this whole story.  I haven’t decided.  Hopefully it serves its purpose.  Guess we’ll see.  And.....oh yeah, this story is not going to have a linear timeline.  

Story Index:

Prologue    Chapter 1   Chapter 2

It started with a trace of fingers up the legs.  Or maybe it was a whisper behind your ears.  But here you were, pinned down by his strong frame on top of you, writhing as JB nibbled away at your neck.  The air was thick and damp inside the cave.  Even with the small fire crackling red hot just six feet away, goosebumps still ran up and down your spine.  Your cheeks, however, were flushed.  You think his fingers would probably incinerate if he touched your face right now.  Time was hazy inside this little seaside cavern and you don’t know how long it’s been since you ducked in to hide from the relentless storm outside.  Cuddling for body heat had quickly escalated to lips smashed together and hands wandering to explore each other.  As fingers sought to capture and memorize every single curve and turn of your bodies, it felt as though you had been here, in this hideaway, kissing since the dawn of time.

His lips broke away from your neck and started moving lower across your chest, your stomach, leaving behind a trail that electrified your skin.  They were heading towards the part of your body that had tensed and contorted itself into a bundle of nerves. The epicenter of desires.  You bit your lips and sank your fingers into his hair, not sure whether you wanted him to speed up or slow down.  Just as you prepared yourself for the next wave of pleasure though, everything stopped. 

Confused, you tried to crane your neck and find his eyes.  But you were surprised by gentle taps on your thighs as his hands then led them to open up wide in front of his face.  His lips reattached to your body at your knees and the journey now moved north along the longitude of your thighs.  It was slow, and agonizing as he administered every lick and tickle, clearly intending to subjugate you to his whims utterly and completely.  You arched your back every time his tongue made contact with your skin.  It felt as though he had a map of your most sensitive spots and with a clinical focus, he attempted to mark off every one of those spots on your legs.  And every time he found one, he got a whimper out of you as a reward.  You tried to rub your legs together for some friction but was punished by a bite instead.  If it weren’t for the fact that your hands were clamped down by his, you’d probably be digging your nails deep into his arms.    

When his mouth finally made contact with your soaked panties, he pulled away again.  And the next thing you felt was a draft of cool air up the insides of your thighs towards your core. 

“Oh.” was all you could stutter and swallow. 

JB wasn’t known for his patience but he did have a thing for control.  You were always exactly where he wanted you to be, locked into his grasp but an arm’s length away both physically and emotionally even when he brought you to the highest of highs.  The same intensity with which he gave you pleasure, you wanted to find that in his eyes.  Though his sight was always trained on you, watching your every reaction, it was as if his gaze was always behind an impenetrable glass shield.  All you ever saw were your own desperate desires reflected back at you.  

You felt completely exposed to him, not just physically, but as if he could see through your skin and touch every raw nerve.  While you could not deny the pleasure he granted, it frightened you to be exposed like this, each thought and emotion under someone else’s scrutiny and him the master of your sanity and satisfaction.  You didn’t understand this fear.  You never did, but it was as much a part of you as your need for intensity and frenzy.  You liked to think that the mix of the two led to defiance, but to someone from a distance it probably looked a little more like recklessness.  Regardless, control was not something you would hand over to JB on a silver platter.  

So you managed to untangle one of his hands from your legs and led it to your mouth.  A lick of the fingertips and your sweet warm mouth gently enclosed his finger.  Before he knew it, he’s pumping two fingers in and out of your mouth while your tongue caressed the pads of his enclosed fingers.  You clearly took him by surprise as he tried to stifle the low grunt that escaped his throat.  For a minute, he was fixated on the sight of his fingers disappearing in and out of your mouth and appeared to be in a trance.  You used the moment to push him down on his back so that you end up sitting straddled on top of him.  Your fingers brush across his taut abs before making a quick exit of his belt.  And as you tug his pants down, you could see that he was hard.  Oh, he was very hard.  

The tip of his cock twitched as you carefully traced its veins.  You moved directly on top of his bulge and started to grind your hips into him.  Circular and back and forth, you varied the friction and pressure so that you could bring him back down from the edge every time his jaw gritted a bit too tight.  Eyes closed, JB was a sight to behold. Skin covered with a bright sheen and hair tousled from sweat, you’ve never seen him so compliant in this position before.  In fact, you couldn’t remember any other time that he’s allowed you to be on top.  You knew he was enjoying himself by the way he thrusted up his hips to meet yours and the loud hisses, the almost-grunts, that he let out.  But you wanted more.  You wanted to crack through that veneer of calm and cool and see what was really underneath it.  What was he hiding from you?  Was he also in free fall every time your bodies touched?  And did he also pray that you would be there to cushion the fall at the end?  So many questions yet no answers were ever found in his beautiful fucking face.  Well, you just had to force the confession out of him then.

Taking his fingers out of your mouth, you suddenly leaned down and pushed him into a deep kiss.  This gave you the opportunity to place his hands above his head and, using the silk scarf that was tying your hair up, restrain his hands to the camping packs nearby.    

“What are you doing?”  He finally caught on to what was happening and turned his face sideways.

Something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. 

But you remained silent and continued to undress him.  Once he was completely naked beneath you, you decided to take a moment to simply take in the glorious view.  You always felt that women’s bodies were more pleasant to look at, with the natural harmony of its curves and smoothness of its skin.  But you now realized that the male form, this particular male form, with its dramatic cliffs and implied strength, held a power that was perhaps even more mesmerizing.  

You backed yourself off so that you could wrap your fingers around his cock.  Giving it a tight squeeze, you then began pumping it at a languid pace.  He seemed to relax thinking that he knew where this was going.  Only if.  At the same time, you moved your other hand to your own clit and started touching yourself to the same pace that you were stroking him.  As the arousal spread from your core, your grip tightened bit by bit until your rhythm became almost totally erratic.  Though his face revealed no clues, his hands dug into the blanket by his sides.  He threw his head back in pleasure and his breathing got shallower.  You were starting to feel light-headed and ready to give in to the delirium that was overtaking your body.

It was a loud groan from JB that brought you back from the edge.

Wait a minute, this wasn’t the plan.  

It took all of the willpower you had left to push yourself off of him.  As extra precautions, you backed up a good distance away entirely.  For a minute, you just sat panting and trying to gather your wits.  JB tried to tug his wrists free from their restraints.  Good thing you had been a girl scout in your youth and had actually learned how to tie a proper knot.  Never know when these things come in handy.  Finding his predicament to be more than a little temporary, it finally dawned upon him that you were the one in charge now.  

“Let’s pick up where you left off, hmm?”

Stretching yourself out, you opened your legs as wide as possible to give him a good view of you dripping wet core as your fingers encircled your clit at a feverish pace.

“Like what you see?  You like to watch me right?”  You asked in between heavy breaths. 

For a good show, you slowly rolled your body up and down to exaggerate all of your curves.  You did always have a flair for the dramatic.  Then you dipped two fingers into your core and used your other hand to tease your nipples.  The new sensations pushed you to the edge and you couldn’t help but let out a breathy whine.  That whine then turned into loud moans.  You wanted to make sure he knew just how much pleasure you were giving yourself.  Somehow, you managed to lock eyes with him all at the same time and to your great satisfaction, you finally saw his eyes flinch and his jaw lock shut.

“Looks like I can get myself off without you just as well.”

That must have stung because it finally sparked something in his eyes.  You weren’t sure if it was anger or lust but it looked like brilliant fireworks either way.  It’s no fun if a girl can’t play with a little fire once in a while.  

“Stop it!  No, come here.”  

“What did you say?  Sorry, I’m a little busy here.”

He let out a sigh and his chest sank in resignation.  You were ready for his retort but he took a long pause instead.  Something seemed to shift in the air and a heaviness creeped up on the mood in the cave.

“I know you don’t need me.”  He finally spoke in a soft voice.  “There was this candle that you really liked.  The one that smelled like a fig tree.  We got it from that little apothecary with the birdcages down in Japantown, remember?  It was the only thing I could find after you packed up and left.  You were...so thorough.”  He closed his eyes and seemed lost in thought.  “I kept going back to that place to buy that same candle over the years.  When I couldn’t sleep, I’d light the candle and sit in the dark…...the apartment would smell like you.  The place closed down two years ago.  I showed up one day and it was just gone.  Nobody knew if they’d moved or where the owner went.  And I never found that candle again anywhere else.”

Eyebrow quirked up.  This was not what you expected.  With your legs brought back together, you curled up, put your head on your knees and stared at him.

“There were nights when I woke up in the dark…...and thought you were still there.  It’s like I could hear you humming in the bathroom.”

You didn’t realize you were holding your breath until he stopped speaking.  The silence sat between the two of you like an unwelcome guest.  

You had painted this epic battle of will with JB in your head.  Him surrendering at the first skirmish was not something you had prepared for.  But wasn’t this exactly what you wanted?  Didn’t you want him to finally put his feelings on the table and show his cards?   

It dawned on you in that moment that you had long lost sight of what you were fighting for.  This push-and-pull with JB was all you could remember now.  Winning was all you could remember now.    

In silence, you moved back to his wrists and quickly undid the constraints.  You felt tired all of a sudden, like someone had popped you like a balloon and let all the air out of you.  All you could do was lay yourself down on the blanket and curl up into a fetal position.  You wanted sleep to wash over you and put you out of this state of confusion you were in.

As you drifted in and out of sleep, you felt JB’s body envelop you as he curled up behind you and pulled you into his chest.  You could feel him pull your hair back and kiss your cheek and ear.  You relaxed into the warmth of his body and exhaled as he planted tiny kisses on your shoulder and elbow.  There was something intimate in the way he deliberately avoided any gesture that was remotely sexual.  Something tender in the way he softly hummed some unknown tune while he stroked your hair.   And when he finally threaded his fingers with yours, you felt safe again for the first time in a very long time.  

“I missed you.”  

There it was.  Three little words that you never thought you’d hear him say.  You wanted to pinch yourself to see if you were dreaming.

Instead, you pinched him on the side.  Hard.

“Ow! Hey, what was that for!”

You rubbed where you had pinched him.  Then you pinched him on the other side.  A little less hard this time.

“Say it again.”

“I missed you.”  

“Say it again.  I want to hear you say it again.  Don’t stop until I tell you to.”

Upon hearing this, he nuzzled himself into your neck and whispered those three words repeatedly until you finally turned around and shut him up with a kiss.  

You’d kissed JB countless times before.  Knew the outline of his lips by heart and nibbled them in your sleep. But you always had to chase those kisses.  This time though, it was as if he was discovering how to kiss you for the very first time and he threw his whole body, his entire being into it.  Soon he was on top of you and crushing your lips with full force.  You felt as if you were going to suffocate and your lungs would explode.  But you didn’t want him to ever stop.  As his tongue parted your lips and entwined with yours, you find yourself moaning into the kiss.

“Let me make you feel good, hmm?  Remember how good it used to feel?”

You kissed him back as tacit consent.  With that, he moved his mouth down to your nipple and as he teased it with his tongue, his hand sought out your clit.

“So wet already…so wet for me.”

That was all the encouragement he needed to insert not one, but two fingers into you.  With his thicker knuckles, the stretch was incredible.  When his finger found that familiar spot inside of you, you both hissed and tensed up with anticipation.  You felt like you were losing your mind and all you wanted was for him to be inside and fill you up.  But he was clearly in no hurry.  It was like he was determined to go all day and all night.  He kept one finger curled at the spot while the other one pushed in and out of you.  And when he added his thumb back at your clit doing circles, you finally broke down.  A tsunami of pleasure swallowed you and threw you up and down like a broken boat.  It felt like forever before the waters finally calmed down.

“Mmm…...you did so good baby.  So hot.”  He inserted his index finger into this mouth and licked it clean.  “So sweet.  Are you ready to cum again?”

He said it so casually as if he was asking if you wanted a second serving of ice cream.  Meanwhile, you felt like you were still floating in outer space.  

“You don’t have to do anything.  Just rest.”

As he said this, he got behind you and cuddled up to you once again.  You were both drenched in sweat at this point but you didn’t mind one bit.  After he made sure that you were comfortable leaning into him, he pulled your hips towards him and proceeded to attack your clit again.  This time he took it slow and as he massaged your clit, he pushed himself into you so that you could feel his hard cock against your ass.  You whimpered and bit your lips as you felt overwhelmed and overstimulated.  Seeing this, he alternately cooed at you and nibbled at your ear.

“Sshh……..just a little bit more.  Open up for me babe.  Let me take you home.”

And with that, he started to push his cock into you.  Even though you were still slippery from your last orgasm, you couldn’t take more than an inch of him at a time.  You both grunted as he pushed ever so slowly into you until he was finally fully sheathed within you.

“Stay still.  Please.  Just for a minute.”  You muttered in a high pitched voice.

He felt so incredibly full inside of you that you felt goosebumps up and down your arms even though you were burning up in heat.  With his body wrapped around you and your bodies connected fully, you had never felt so close to JB before.  Your bodies had finally merged and became one, and as you rested your head back, you could feel his heartbeat syncing up to yours.

So this is what it’s like to feel whole.

“Babe, I have to move.”   

And with that, he began to thrust long strokes into you.  With every stroke, he winded you up tighter and tighter. Though his breathing fastened, his lips never left your ear or your neck, somehow planting the most tender and delicate kisses over your skin.  Your bodies moved to the same rhythm.  As he pushed into you, you pushed back so that you could feel him deeper, closer, and fuller.  Sensing that you were inching towards the edge again, he moved one hand back on your clit and started attacking it at full force.  At the same time, he buried his head in your neck and started pounding into you at a ferocious speed.  You wanted to scream from the intensity and the pleasure, but you found yourself unable to get a single sound out of your throat.  And it was in this silent cry you both found your climax and came with hands joined together and bodies melting into each other.

“I love you.”

Three little words again.  But these three words startled you.   If you weren’t tired to the bone, you’d turn around and pull his face up for close inspection.  But as it were, all you could do was reach back for him with your arm.

That is, until all you could feel was the blanket where he laid just a moment ago.

Off at the end of your feet, the crackling fire all of a sudden seemed to burn ten times bigger and hotter.  Before you could even react, a spark jumped out from the fire and landed at the edge of the blanket you were lying on.  The flame flew towards you with full intent.  You wanted to get up and run but found yourself completely immobile and anchored to the ground.  In that moment, you did the only thing you could do.

You screamed.

.

Then you opened your eyes.  

.

.

And it was Wednesday morning.  

Your heart felt like it was going to burst out of your chest and you were still out of breath. 

You’d just had a wet dream about JB after seeing him for the first time in seven years.  

Fuck.

And it was only just Wednesday.

.

.

.

Previous

[yuvon-writes-letters]

Yu, Jake,

I am glad you talked it out! I think both of you needed it. And I understand the need to recharge, I hope you feel better when this letter reaches you, Yuvon :)

It's still evening and I think I am done with preparing everything for tomorrow. I cooked. Chinese. Once again. I mean, I needed to use the food before I go, right? And Max will be happy tomorrow. (Please imagine I sighed here. Because I did.) I really don't know what to think. I'd rather be with J

No new messages from the Crow-Crew.

Now to Jessy, you're probably right. I don't even know if she'll answer again, I just hope she would've contacted us before her and the others just handed over their Jakes whereabouts.

If I could I would hit

And you are right, their whole timeline is pretty messed up...And the MWAF still out there (since I cannot imagine any Jake to be him)

Maybe you're also right, I shouldn't worry that much about TSB. I guess. Yeah. I am very sure Goldie did everything they could.

[For this one sentence the writing becomes more clean than Lis' normal writing] Like they always did...

[The writing's normal again, but a few pink stains are on the paper]

Sorry, I suddenly got a bit dizzy. Spilled my tea. Probably a bit exhaustion?

Yeah, Jake, you got things right. Somehow a Jessy comtacted us. I guess this could happen because she read Matts letters? Somehow? But I think that could be a reason we got the letter. She probably threw all of them in a mailbox together. (Since she said she wrote some everyone who sent Matt letters I think?)

You're also right about the fact that this Jake got framed... Are you Is everything Is the thought DAMN. Why is writing so difficult

I actually DO concur with you, Jake. It honestly makes much sense to me. Like, when I was enjoying my maladaptive daydreaming as a child (totally not still doing it) I liked to create my own worlds. Manipulate them while daydreaming.

We don't know much about different entities, but it just makes sense to me. And I don't know why I brought this up or where I wanted to go with this. I hope it was somehow understandable.

Jake also has some more things to say. I am not allowed to read, Yuvon can if she wants to. But it mainly is for you, Jake.

And one more thing before that...Is he in danger? Because I know Jake is working on something new. Just tell me he is not in danger.

Lis🐾🔥

[Again the screenshot of a message is glued to the back of the letter]

Before I start, thank you again for your help, Jake. I was able to work much faster with the knowledge you gave me.

But I have to ask you one thing. Liska gave me the possibility to read all letters until the letter where we could talk the first time without her reading. Did something happen? Or did anyone write something that disturbed her?

She doesn't show me the letter anymore, just telling me some information, saying it wasn't important. She changed topic when I want to ask her. What happened that she does not want to tell me?

If you are so nice Yuvon, if you read, I would like you to stop here. It's something that I don't want to tell you when Jake isn't ready :)

About your diagnose, was it ADHD? If you do not want to tell that's fine.

As for me, since you gave me the chance to get to know this about you. It was never diagnosed, but after my life I am pretty certain it doesn't need to.

I have had social anxiety since early childhood. That's the reason I am an complete introvert.

My mother never wanted to get me diagnosed, though.

I thought detail for detail wouldn't be that bad, and I understand what you mean. We're all similar but different. As well as Liska, Rai and Yuvon.

~ Jake

Lis,

We definitely needed to talk, yeah. I think Jake might have already said it, but thanks for pushing us into it. That misunderstanding could've snowballed into something bigger if we hadn't talked about it. It's sort of hard for me to parse that he could be concerned about me, because that's MY role in my head. I'm the one who's supposed to worry.

I'm trying to be better about that.

While it would've been nice if she'd contacted us before her Jake was imprisoned, it wouldn't have made sense in context. You don't get affairs in order before you work on getting the murderer imprisoned. Priorities. Besides, Matt apparently never even opened these letters, so we wouldn't exactly be first on the list of contacts to inform of his passing.

Lis, I have a bit of an odd request. Do you know about word association? It's basically, I give you a word and you write down anything that comes to mind when you think of it. It could be words with similar meanings, words related to memories that are connected to that word, if it's an object or related to an object a description of the object, etc etc. You don't have to think hard about it, it's probably better if you don't think about it too much actually. I'd like you to try it. Your word is "yellow".

I don't know how you're sending your letters, but I need to send them in here, and there's no mailbox or anything. I just put them in an envelope or am handed an envelope by Jake, throw them in the air, and say "send".

Yes, I learned this through trial and error. Yes, the first edition of the "send" command had a lot more cursing.

What's this about agreeing with Jake?

Jake just told me. Definitely seems like it, yeah. What I saw in the north room also supports that theory. I don't think it changes much for us, though. Whether we're being made into entertainment or not, we've still got to find a way out of our circumstances. If it means we have to break Fate to do it, fine. We'll find a way.

Mmm, probably not too much more danger than usual? All Jakes are in some danger at all times, so it's hard for me to judge. But I haven't really been reading the inter-Jake correspondences, so I don't know for sure.

Anyhow, that's all from me for now. Talk to you later, Lis :)

—Yuvon

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

That version of Jessica handed over my alternate self's whereabouts? That is... disturbing. I will endeavor to show more caution in what I reveal to Jessica in the future in this world, though admittedly her releasing my current location is not a great concern.

I suppose anyone can write to Yuvon, then, if they know of her existence. Is there a return address on these envelopes when they are sent? Yuvon and I assumed the method of returning letters was a little more mystical than mundane, given the method of sending, but it seems we leapt to conclusions.

I second Yuvon's suggestion of word association. As Yuvon said, do not think too hard about it. Simply write anything and everything that comes to mind. There is no right or wrong answers, so do not feel pressured, nor linger overly long on each association once it is written.

Yuvon seems very confident in her ability to "break fate". She was muttering something about rebirth and change while writing her section of the letter, as well. I am not entirely sure what she means by that, but if she has some sort of plan, far be it from me to stand in her way, so long as she does not put herself in danger.

I do not think it is precisely my place to tell you one way or another whether your Jake is in danger, but I assure you that your Jake is nowhere remotely near going the way of TSB. You do not need to worry on that count.

As always, it was a pleasure to speak to you, Lis. Or write to you, I suppose. If you would please stop reading here, I am about to address your Jake's message :)

You are welcome. That bug frustrated me for an embarrassingly long time; that is why I recalled it in such detail. Saving you the trouble was the least I could do.

There are two possibilities I can see as to why Lis may not be showing you the letters.

First: From what I understand, an alternate Jessica contacted Yuvon. Her version of the Detective, a man named Matt whom she was romantically involved with, was murdered, and that version of Jake was framed and possibly incarcerated. Yuvon did not share the letter with me out of respect to Jessica; Liska may feel similarly.

Second: I introduced a theory that the entities may be more involved with all versions of the Detectives than we previously believed. Tragedy so far seems to be particularly attracted to even the Detectives with no ties to the supernatural. Lis may not wish to share that information with you for one reason or another.

Unfortunately, other than that, I can think of nothing as of yet, but I will read back over recent letters later to ensure I have not missed anything.

That was a good guess, but the diagnosis was not ADHD.

Thank you for telling me. I suppose social anxiety would be another possible reason for our "flaw". Detail for detail sounds quite fair :)

Before I sign off, you should know that Lis is expressing concern over your safety. I informed her you would not go the way of TSB, so please do not make me a liar.

Good luck,

Jake

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

[tomsandal]

The one where Tom went "can I just make stuff up?" and didn't wait for an answer

a/n: incredibly terrible title brought to you by you yes you who couldn't give me better one heart

characters: červená kapota, tom sandál

warnings: teensy weensy cosmic horror/death depiction at the start (because i am a moron and a fool and forgot what genre im writing), alcohol mention

words: 1,8k

To truly start at the story’s beginning, we’ll need to go many pages back in history books.

It was millennia ago, when something very strange took place and changed the world from how it was known.

It so happened that, for some mysterious reason, a meteorite crashed down on earth and landed in a crater in some frankly unnoteworthy forest.

This incident did not go without notice of course, and not too long after it had fallen were there already parties of plenty that were eager to find out what strangeness took place the night before. Many ventured into the forest, allured by the mystery or driven by their responsibility to protect their village, but not a single one of those brave souls has ever made the journey back. And so the number of volunteers and explorers thinned over time, for the prospect of being lost to those woods without a seeming trace was enough to ward off even the bravest of the brave.

However all those who did go, did not disappear in an equal way.

Some of those who ventured started to feel effects of a mysterious force soon after the start of their journey. Those ones met their end lying down on the forest floor, feverish and plagued by visions indescribable. No man’s willpower to follow common sense and go back home could win over the pull of the compelling presence.

But some of them pulled through. The strongest and greatest of them all did get to see what their end goal was this whole time.

There in the clearing lay the mystery. Patches of brilliant blue were shining among the dark stone, twinkling not unlike the stars that hung above them.

And standing there, in this crushing magical presence, humans did what humans tend to do and moved to touch the shiny stone.

It was no easy feat, bracing against the sheer force of the meteorite this close to the source of all this madness, but some of them managed to do so.

Finally, with their goal at their literal fingertips, they laid their hands at the glittering surface. And their hands melted right off.

The lucky ones died from the immediate shock from the pain. The rest bled out among the grass, suffocating in the stone’s heavy aura.

And some of them leaned even closer... for the call had won over.

For some time has the stone been left undisturbed, lying unmoved while its surroundings changed as the years went by. No wise enough soul dared to enter the haunted forest. And so the years passed in hundreds and the celestial body had started to merge with the surrounding environment. Many years has it been since then, when it was finally fully covered and sunken deep into the ground and its power dimmed to a hum.

If you were to walk by that place at that moment, you wouldn't think there to be anything out of the ordinary. And so didn't the people that had settled there.

Who might know why they chose this secluded woodland place for their settlement but they did and surprisingly prospered without any casualties.

The stone's powers have dulled over the centuries but they were still there nonetheless, even if only in a shadow of its former self, and the construction and disturbance of the ground was bound to wake it up.

And so the energy started seeping out, warping the unaware residence in the process. With each generation grew the changes more profound, until the place was almost unrecognizable. Plants grew wild and high, displaying colours very uncommon to vegetation anywhere, the roaming animals wouldn't be recognized even by the highest of scholars, trees grew twisted with leaves of gold and humans were born with features never seen before. Their hair was bright and shining in arrays of blues, purples and greens, just like the lights in the sky that could be seen from time to time. But since no negative effect seemed to take place, this magical village of star-touched people lived in-

“Star-touched...really.”

“Yes and no interruptions please.”

-lived in peace. But time was not kind to them.

The year was 1610, the witchcraft craze was at its peak and it didn’t take long until the hunt was brought to them as well. Their clearly otherworldly appearance couldn't be excused and many fell on the trials, under the hands of men driven by fear and hatred. The rest left their homeland, which ended promptly burned to the ground. From then on, they lived as hermits far, far from the human eye.

They lay in hiding for long, until their time has finally come, when people started walking among themselves with wild bright coloured hair and-

“wait, wait what about the magical wolves”

“That is tied to my own personal upbringing and no, was not in fact universal for everyone, stop messing up the timeline”

“oh I am messing up the timeline and not you making something different every ti-”

“As i was saying-” “and when do the glow squids come in” “My glow squid ancestry is clearly the reason for my eyes not the hair ”

“yes, of course, the eyes that are obviously not coloured contacts”

“Keep that tone to yourself and shush.”

///

It was a pleasant summer night, the air was crisp and the streets were quiet. And there, in a certain bar, sat two peculiar people.

Kapota sighed and let her friend-but not friend-associate from work-but not wanting to kill each other right now-buddy ramble on as she took a sip from her glass. She had ordered something called the Hanky Panky Cocktail Supreme and deemed it as decent enough, if a bit overpriced for a glorified gin and fernet.

Still, she would rather be holding a pint of good old fashioned beer, but finding a place around these parts with a half decent beer is near impossible. She will not be drinking that dishwater no thank you.

Good thing that she’s a skilled fancy drinker. A life skill which she picked up from her business bar outings, such as now, which maybe wasn't actually the most objective of examples since most of those were with Tom.

Not that the aforementioned was any help in the drink picking department, that maniac of a man just sashays to the bar and orders a literal colour and when no further explanation is given the bemused barkeep has to pick themselves from their array of colourful drinks.

Seems that they picked well today, because the current “pink” already sat empty before Tom.

She continued to mull over this and that, all the while enjoying the bar’s comfortable atmosphere, when something caught her attention.

“wait wait roll that back”

“Why, could it be that you weren’t paying attention?”

“Yes I was, but what were you saying about pointed ears?”

“Oh, just that the star-touched had pointy ears alongside the wild hair.”

“well, please do pray tell me Sandál dearest how could it be that your ears are rounded”

“As I said, a long time ago in the times most desperate, riddled with fear, pain and terror, food was scarce and from the terrible hunger they gnawed on their ears until they were completely rounded and from then on this feature was lost to them.”

“ok see now i know you're just making fun of me because thats just from that dumb movie you like”

“should have been listening.

Honestly why do i even bother, I am so generously sharing the long lost history of my kind and yet this audience is so ungrateful”

“noo i like your lore, don’t worry it's much more entertaining than ‘I went to the aisle 12 in Kaufland and picked the gaudiest shade of purple they had’”

Tom just grumbled to that and moved to take a demonstrative swig of his drink, but then he realized he didn't have any left anymore so he instead picked up the little paper umbrella and pointed it accusatively at Kapota.

“Never, have I been more disrespected, as I am right now.” He complained, while accentuating every word with a swish of the tiny umbrella.

“It's nothing personal pal, but you can’t exactly expect people to believe you with a name like yours.”

“Oh that's rich coming from you!”

“I'll let you know that the Kapota name is very ancient and regal, thank you very much. Passed down only by the generations of the clan McKap”

“Absolutely not.”

“It’s true look it up”

“Not happening, if i did that you would just laugh at me that i fell for it.”

“Well in that case I guess you’ll never know”

“oh shut up!”

“you shut up!”

…

It was a pleasant summer night, the air was crisp and the streets were quiet. And there, in a certain bar, bickered two peculiar people.

///

All in all Tom would consider this a successful night. He left the bar on his own two feet, had all his belongings still with him, including both of his important trademark sandals still on, and head somewhat clear.

About ten minutes back, they had been politely ushered out of the bar, because it was apparently closing. The shiny sign with the numbers 24 and 7 would beg to differ but sure.

Yeah, ‘always open’ my arse, people can't even trust bars these days.

He wasn’t really upset though, couldn’t blame the poor bloke either, because anyone who had to listen to their nonsense for the past -who knows how long- had all the right to kick them out. It didn’t matter anyway, tonight really was quite nice.

So now they were just lounging together on the sidewalk, enjoying the chilly air.

A lone car sped by somewhere in the distance.

Tom gently thunked his head on the wall behind him and let out a content sigh, next to him Kapota finally broke the silence.

“So...who’s the designated driver, hahh”

A good question indeed, since neither of them even closely qualify to anything akin to sober. Not that it would have changed much, given the fact that Tom does not in fact have a driving licence anyway. His most beloved, bless their heart, is incredibly awesome and does have one of those and drives him around in times of need. This would seem like a time of need and it wouldn't even be the first time Kap would hitch a ride with them, but this hour, other than time of need, is also time commonly known as ‘very late’.

“I guess I can try to give Tobi a call, but I dunno it's pretty late...”

“Nah, let ‘em sleep”

“So whats the battle plan Kaptn’? ”

“Where's the uhhh friggin closest bus stop.”

“Few damn blocks away at least that's for sure”

“Awesome... lets go its field trip time”

And so they went onto the grand adventure of getting safely home.

Some would deem it highly unwise to blunder around dark alleyways in the middle of the night, but honestly, unfortunate are those street rats who shall foolheartedly decide to pick those two fools as their next victims.

[thorne93]

Inside the Criminal Mind (Part 31)

Prompt: You’re married to Dr. Spencer Reid of the BAU, and are a distinguished doctor yourself on the team. You’re sent down to Miami, Florida for teaching and as a side request from the FBI, to investigate a string of missing persons. When you think you’ve figured out who the unsub is, your life becomes more complicated than you ever could’ve imagined.

Word Count: 3515

Warnings: (throughout the fic –>) death, blood, gore, killings, language, disturbing mental notions, mentions of rapes/murder/etc (You know, Dexter and Criminal Minds related business)

Notes: Thank you so much to @arrow-guy​​​​​​, @carryonmyswansong​​​​​​, and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​​​ - without each of you, I couldn’t have finished, written, or properly navigated this story. Each of you helped me fish out details that were incredibly important to me. Beta’d by @carryonmyswansong​​​​​​ and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​���​​​​… Aesthetic by @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​​​

This is a crossover of Criminal Minds x Dexter. First time writing Dexter.

Also, the timeline is after Season 1 of Dexter, but during season 14-ish of Criminal minds into Season 15. Enjoy!!!

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

“You’re back kinda late,” Spencer noted as he read a book, sitting in the hotel chair next to the small desk they provided. 

“Yeah, uh, Dexter got stabbed at a bowling alley,” you explained. 

“Is he alright?” he asked, closing his book and looking at you, trying to find signs of distress. 

You mindlessly tossed your purse and keys onto the table. “Yeah, no he’s fine. Sorry, should’ve led with that. Uh, but he was stabbed by his mother’s murderer. Apparently, a few weeks ago, on the horrible advice of his NA sponsor, he went to find him in Naples and confront him. I guess things got heated, they had a fight, and somehow he found out who Dexter was and followed him. He came up behind Dexter. I had to warn him, and help fight him off. He got in his truck and got away though.”

“Sounds like an intense night. Are you okay?”

You nodded as Spencer stood up to come rub your arms and check on you. 

“I’m fine, yeah.”

“Is everything alright? You seem a bit distant.”

“Well, I have something I want to ask you and I’m worried how you’ll take it.” 

“No secrets, remember? Just ask me. I’m sure I’ll be fine,” he assured with a sweet smile. A smile you’d nearly forgotten about. You hadn’t seen it in so long. 

You took a deep breath, your eyes casting to the ugly hotel carpeting. “Okay, Dexter and I think it would be a good idea if you came along with us to kill his mother’s murderer.” You let out the breath you’d been holding. 

Spencer’s hands let go of your arms. Your eyes flashed up to see what his facial reaction was. It was morphed into a deep frown.

Okay, yeah, you knew that was coming. 

“What?” he asked, clearly put off. “Y/N, that’s the most insane idea i’ve ever heard. I don’t want to be any more a part of this than I am, than I have to be. You want to drag me along to watch this? And since when are you going back to killing again?”

“I’m not. I just want to be there to help Dexter. It’s mainly for moral support, nothing else.”

“Funny choice of words,” he said balefully as he began walking around the room, his hands going to his hair, disheveling it even further. 

“Don’t start right now. Look, I wasn’t thrilled either, but Dexter made a point. We think maybe you have this horrible imagery built up in your head about what we do, what he does. Some kind of villainous nightmare. Subjectively, yes, he does kill and he kills gruesomely. But objectively, this time we thought you could have some perspective. You nearly killed Cat because she had your mother hostage. This man brutally murdered his mother in front of him and his brother as little kids. Tell me you can’t find some iota of sympathy in you. I’m not saying you’ll enjoy this or want to do it, but maybe if you just watched us, watched his process, you’d see he wasn't some unhinged unsub.” You let out a breath, starting to feel frustrated. You didn’t know why you had to spell this out for him and it was getting old. Either he understood, or he didn’t.

He sighed, clenching his fist as he turned his head to the side, not looking at you. “Alright, you’re right. I said I’d support you in this, and I haven’t given you the full chance to show me what you two have done. I just assumed the worst, and because I love you, I forgave your actions. But you’re right, if I’m going to keep helping you two, Ineed to know exactly what it is you two do.” 

“Really? You’ll do this?” 

“I’m not excited about it, but if I’m going to fully understand where your mind was at and what you two did together, I need to see it. I think it will be beneficial either way. It might bring us closer together, it might help me see it from your view.” 

You nodded. “Good. I think it will help. He wants to do it in the morning because it’ll take all day to get to him in Naples, abduct him, and kill, and dispose of him.”

“Wow, that’s soon. What about work? All 3 of us can’t just disappear for a day.”

You bit your lip. “Shit, I forgot. Well, we just need to wait for a break in the case that could get us all some time off. As soon as things slow down one day, and they give us a break, we’ll go.”

He nodded in response and the next day, you told Dex your tentative schedule. He agreed that all three of you needed to be present, and in order to not raise further suspicion, you’d have to wait on Rossi to deem you all had worked too much, and for there to be a point for your team to just wait.

Doakes was eventually brought in but he barely stayed two minutes before he rushed out. You frowned, wondering why he was so upset, but kept back to your case work.

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

Much to your surprise, the BAU team started to look into officers past, but thankfully not into Dexter. In fact, they set their sights on Doakes, so all effort went into locating him. That was mainly on Garcia and Luke. Once Rossi and Matthews had declared him suspect number one, known only to your team, not the Miami PD, the case became hands off. It was a waiting game to see where Daokes would show up. All the profiling in the world couldn’t help with seeing where he might be going, but Rossi declared that the team should take a break while you all wait for some kind of news about his whereabouts. This was it, it was the chance you needed. Albeit noon, it provided enough time to get to Naples, stalk him, and do the rest. 

You and Spencer went to Dexter’s lab immediately and told him you needed to go. The three of you drove to his apartment where it was like deja vu. 

“Okay, so here’s how I operate,” Dexter explained, pulling out his trunk and duffel bags. “I’ve got all my kill tools in here, including the sedative, plastic wrap, and duct tape. Tonight, all we need is duct tape, plastic, scalpel, slides, dropper, and I’ll need to stop to pick up a chainsaw.” 

You glanced to Spencer to see how he was holding up. He had a bit of a sick look on his face. 

“Is the chainsaw really necessary?” he asked. 

“I typically try to use whatever my victims do. Unless it’s poison or suffocation. In this case, I think it’s highly fitting.”

“Y/N’s said that you usually kill them quickly, so they don’t feel pain. She said you do this with a large knife, like a hunting knife. Are we not using one tonight?” 

“Normally, yes, I stab them in the heart so it lowers the amount of spray and they have a rather quick death, but tonight, Jiminez deserves to feel everything.” 

“So this is the most personal kill you’ll do?” 

“Probably,” he responded with a bit of a shrug. “Alright. I hope you don’t love those clothes because there will be blood on them. I need to pack my apron, mask, and other protective gear. Y/N, you want your clothes?” 

“You let him keep your clothes?” Spencer asked, an undercurrent of hurt in his tone. 

“We thought it would be safer. He could wash them with his, and you’d never see them…” you quietly responded, feeling as if you were on trial.

With that, you told Dexter you wanted your clothes. You quickly changed into your old kill outfit, feeling an odd sensation being in them with Spencer around. Dexter offered Spencer some old clothes but he declined, rudely. 

Then the two of you set off in Dexter’s van. He stopped and picked up the chainsaw. Spencer said nothing to you while you two waited in the car. You were trying to gauge his thoughts and feelings, but he was giving almost nothing to go on. It made you feel anxious. You were somewhat terrified he’d leave this experience hating you, fearing you, seeing you as nothing more than a sick unsub. It could backfire and instead of bringing you closer together, it put you further apart. 

Dexter drove all the way to Naples, explaining how he was going to stalk Jimenez. Spencer didn’t have many questions, seeing as it was his job to know how unsubs thought, worked, calculated. He didn’t compliment or condescend him. 

Still, you were on edge about his reaction to all of this. 

Dexter drove up to the bar where Jiminez worked, and you all followed him, watching, waiting. You were sure Dexter was feeling the same thing you were - rush of adrenaline, all your senses sharpened, the ever vigilant eyes. 

Eventually, the stalking led you three to a run down cabin in the Everglades. It was extremely remote. After sitting with the engine killed for a long time and being sure Jiminez wouldn’t come out, Dexter turned to you two. 

“You remember this part, right?’ 

You nodded, in student mode once more. “Of course. We’re going to lure him out and sedate him.” 

“Wrong. You’re going to,” Dexter told you firmly. “Get in my bag, get the sedative.” 

Quickly, deftly, you did as you were told. You got the syringe out, opened the door quietly, and slipped out. You pulled the cap off and tossed it back in the car. Just as you were about to walk by Dexter’s driver window, he stopped you. 

“Wait, come here,” he quietly ordered. You walked back over and Dexter put his hand on yours. 

Red flags went off in Spencer’s mind. The simple touch seemed to make all those old feelings resurface. He always knew there was something further than just a friendship between you two. 

“Hold it like this, remember?” he instructed, wrapping your fingers in a particular way. “Keep the needle out, away from you. Go check, make sure he’s alone, create something to lure him out, and then attack from behind.” 

The small correction suddenly set Spencer at ease. Dexter was, in fact, just teaching you something. There was nothing remotely romantic about it at all. Some of the nerves he had built up, melted way.

“I know,” you reminded evenly, confidence in your tone, but not arrogance. You knew Dexter had done this dozens of times. But he also needed to remember he trained you extensively. 

You walked quickly and low to the ground as you went to a window and peeked in. You saw Jiminez and no one else. After a second, you snuck back over to the truck and turned on the radio, before going to hide against the wall again.

Your heart was racing, your hand was shaking slightly until you took a deep breath. 

Jiminez came out, you ran up behind him, injected the serum, and he passed out cold. You looked back at the van and held a thumbs up. Dexter jumped out of the van and Spencer following. 

Spencer’s instructions were clear: don’t get in the way.

You and Dexter had a system now and half the reason for this trip was to show him how you two worked together. You two grabbed all of the supplies from the back hatch. Spencer followed you and Dexter as you moved quickly in the cabin. Every inch was covered in plastic. You two moved around each other as if you were long time dance partners, every move choreographed, every move done with precision. 

Spencer stood and watched, objectively, trying not to let it sink in that you two were really about to kill someone. 

Next, you and Dexter carried Jiminez into the room, finished off the plastic, and got him strapped to the table after disrobing him. Not a word was spoken the entire time and Spencer couldn’t help but notice. Dexter didn’t have to tell you what was next, he didn’t have to instruct you on a single thing. This was as methodical as it could get. 

You got Dexter’s slides ready, along with his scalpel and dropper. Dexter busied himself with his clothing, getting all the gear in place. You and Spencer put on your face shields, to protect from blood spatter. 

“Y/N, do you have your knife?” Dexter asked. 

“Yes.”

“Go ahead and show me where you’d stop blood flow,” he evenly requested. 

It was becoming increasingly clear to Spencer as he watched you two that everything had a purpose, everything was clinical. There was no malice in it. It was only calculating. The entire time you three had been together today, there wasn’t any jokes, any goofing off. When you and Dexter interacted, it was educational. 

You put the knife over his chest, the tip barely cutting through the plastic. 

Dexter again, offered his hand, without warning, and wrapped his fingers around yours from the opposite side of the table. 

“Almost, just a hair up towards the chin and towards the left just a little,” he calmly explained. 

“Right,” you agreed, then pulled your blade away. 

“Wait, you’re not killing him?” Spencer asked. 

“No, this is Dexter’s kill. In light of who this man is, Dexter has elected to kill him the exact same way his mother was… with no mercy.”

As you finished your sentence, Jiminez began stirring. Dexter made his way to the head of the table. 

“Here we are again,” he said, picking up the surgical blade and slicing along his victim’s cheek. 

“What-- what the fuck?!” Jiminez gasped out. 

“I know. I keep asking myself that same question.” He absorbed the blood, and squirted it onto the readied slides provided by  you. 

“Let me out of here!” 

“But.. I’m finding it’s best to accept things you can’t change. Now is where I have a chat with you, so you know exactly why you’re here. I think you have a pretty good idea, and I certainly know why you’re here, but I have some company tonight that I’d like you to tell.”

He glanced at you and Spencer. Jiminez did the same. 

“Let me go. I got cocaine. You can have all of it.”

“It’s funny you should say that. I am off the wagon. But that was never my drug.”

“I’ll fucking kill you!” he cried out angrily. 

“Hey,” you quietly commanded, hovering over Jiminez. “My friend told you to talk. Years ago. You committed a heinous crime in a shipping container, a young woman, two boys. I want you to admit it.” 

“Fuck you!” Jiminez spat. 

You slapped Jiminez hard, but swift. “Cut the sht. You’re strapped to our table, huh? You’re not getting out of this. The least you can do is maybe clear your conscience before you meet your maker. So confess. What was it you did all those years ago to a young mother in front of her kids?”

Jiminez stared at you, he looked like he was about to spit at you or shout more obscenities so you warned him. 

“If you spit at me, or say anything other than what happened, I’ll make you wish you never opened your mouth. Are we clear?” 

He nodded once. 

“Fucking hell! Fine! I cut her up. I chopped her to pieces. I killed that bitch because she was fucking a cop! Not my fault her fucking kids were there! It had to be done!” he cried out. “It wasn’t personal! It was business!”

“It was personal for him,” you said, pointing to Dexter. “You killed a young mother in front of two innocent little boys. They grew up to be killers, just like you. You took their lives away. All for some blow? I hope you rot.” You looked up to Dexter, giving him a nod to signal you were done. Then you took a step back next to Spencer. 

Spencer glanced between you and Jiminez. Finally, it was clear to him. This man had no redeeming qualities. Cat adams was a walk int he park compared to him. He finally truly understood what this whole thing was about, how you two worked. 

“I’m going to kill you tonight, Mr. Jiminez for what you did to my mother, and because well, this is what I do best.” 

At that, Dexter picked up the chainsaw at his feet, started it, and began cutting. You’d seen this before, but not on a live victim. Spencer hadn’t been exposed to this, making you still very unsure where his mind was at. 

The goriness was done, the body was cut, ready to be transported into a bag and then moved. Dexter began going through his wallet. 

“Is this usually part of the routine?” Spencer asked. 

“No, but I’m curious,” Dexter passively said. He dug into the wallet and found a note that had the address of the bowling alley and the time he went. “What the hell?” he mused.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” you asked, making your way over to him to read what was in his hand. “What--”

“I only went with you, but I also told my sponsor where I went that night. Lila. Fuck!” he cried out. 

“Lila? I told you to get away from her,” you reminded angrily. 

“I’ve been trying to. But this means that she called Jiminez and told him where I was going to be.” 

“But why?” 

He threw his head back in thought. “She probably wanted us to be close. The night I met Jiminez, we got into a fight. I was upset, broken, she and I shared a hotel room. Nothing happened except us talking all the way into the morning. I bet she thought if he attacked me again, I’d go running to her.” 

“That’s why you and Rita have been on and off lately, isn't it? She found out about you and Lila.” 

“That, and some other things.” 

You shook your head. “Dex...” Disappointment laced your tone. “I told you that chick was bad news.”

“I know, I fucked up, but--” 

His phone rang and he held up a finger before he answered it. It was Rita, she asked if he had used her key to the house. He told her to get out of the house and call the cops. He hung up the phone and quickly explained he needed to leave because he thought Lila might be at Rita's house. 

“I can drop you two off at your hotel, but I really need to go,” he said. 

“No, we’re going with you to Rita’s. If Lila is there, we need to help you.”

“Are you just going to leave this guy here?” Spencer asked, gesturing to the body, sounding alarmed. 

“Well I can’t take him with me. Use some of those IQ points, Agent Reid.” 

“It’s Dr. Reid,” he spat back, his face eerily calm so you quickly stepped between them. 

“Okay, calm down. Dexter, let’s just go back to the city. Jiminez isn’t the type to share a cabin full of cocaine with anyone.”

“Can you dispose of him?” he asked.

“With what? We don’t have your boat.” 

“Shit, you’re right. Okay. We’ll just have to deal with him later. I need to go to Rita’s.” 

With that, the three of you took what you needed and loaded into the van quickly. Dexter nearly broke the speed limit the whole way. You changed into your old clothes and stuffed the bloody ones in a bag and kept them in the van for Dexter to deal with. Spencer took off the cardigan he wore over, leaving him in a normal shirt. 

The three of you walked up to Rita’s place. She apologized for bothering you before asking why you two were there. 

“We were out for drinks,” you quickly lied easily. “Good to see you again Rita, just wish it were better circumstances.” 

With that, Dexter spoke to the police while you tried to console Rita. When he was done, he said he was going to see Lila. 

“Let me come. You don't need to face this psycho on your own.” 

“No, Y/N, I really do,” he responded, walking quickly. He turned and put his hands on your shoulders. “Thank you, for coming ot make sure Rita and the kids are alright both of you--” he shot a look to Spencer “--but I need to face her on my own. If i show up with you, it’ll just add fuel to the fire of this jealous inferno she has. I can handle it. I’ll drop you at your hotel and then I’m going to her place. I’ll be fine.” 

And so he did. He drove you to your hotel where you hugged him quickly, called him an idiot for not listening to you sooner, to which he smiled and agreed, then he left to face his psycho sponsor.

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

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[moonguilt]

please give me more kl headcanons.😔

OKAY people this got WAY out of hand and i wrote 7 pages of an entire au plotline so uh. sorry everybody but it’s gonna be split into at least a couple different postswe’ll call this CHAPTER 1: (chapter 2 can be found HERE)I roleplay on MMORPGs so you’re gonna have to deal with my self indulgent online roleplaying AU. There will be klance but I have to SET THE STAGE first so bear with me. basically this is just multiplayer online video game roleplaying garbage. on that note, enjoy.

hunk and pidge were the first ones to discover the video game “Voltron.” they dicked around on it just to test out the game controls and perhaps get coding ideas for a game they are trying to create, but they ended up kinda enjoying it. the gameplay has its issues but is overall pretty fluid.

hunk plays a rogue. he has to turn the game volume down sometimes because of the gross gorey noises the game makes when he stabs people. he probably would have rerolled as a different class just to escape the gruesome sound effects, but he really likes being able to enter stealth. he says it makes him feel “safe”

pidge plays a mage. hunk is under the impression that it’s because she wants to play a class with high intelligence points, and pidge doesn’t correct him. but really she just likes the idea of turning her enemies into frogs

shiro is hanging out with matt one day and ends up watching pidge play. he wants to be Hip and Cool so he decides to create a trial account and see if he likes it. turns out, he’s TERRIBLE at the actual gameplay (his computer reflexes are Bad and he keeps dying to basic mechanics on literally every boss fight. matt downloads the game and creates a priest out of pity just to help keep shiro alive while he levels)

“this is demeaning for everyone involved”

“you’re the one who has died seven times now to haxus. literally all you have to do is not stand in the fire. you’re a FULLY ARMORED PALADIN TANK how are you dying so quic—wait a minute. shiro. shiro why are you still wearing your level 1 starting gear.”

however, he finds out that the server they’re playing on has a roleplaying community! he figures he doesnt need swift reflexes to roleplay, so he starts dipping his toe into RP and discovers he really likes it. he enjoys writing stories about his heroic character, and enjoys combining those stories with the stories of other people he meets in the game. it’s like collaborative fantasy fiction writing, and it quickly becomes a passion of his

pidge and matt tease him endlessly for it. hunk is an angel and is very supportive of shiro’s new hobby. he is the only one who will listen to shiro gush about his character. unfortunately when shiro designed the character, he did not have a good grasp on roleplay, so the character is goofy looking and has an overly dramatic backstory involving dragons and a lost royal bloodline. hunk kindly chooses not to comment on it, and instead helps him develop new ideas and plots for his character’s adventures

eventually shiro manages to convince hunk to give RP a try. hunk is very careful and does a lot of research on the Voltron universe lore. he reads all the fanmade wiki pages, roleplaying guides on the game forums, etc., until he feels confident he can create a good character. he does (and eventually goes on to be a popular community figure who hosts huge server events and is friends with literally everyone, but that is several months down the line), and he and shiro begin their roleplaying adventures together

hunk gets Really Into It. fast. like faster than shiro. and he takes it SERIOUSLY; he is a total lore nerd & WILL tell you (in a very gentle, caring tone) if your character’s story/actions do not comply with the game’s established lore

“your character’s outfit is so cool! btw tho, I noticed you mentioned your character was born in the castle of lions—just wanted to let you know, it was actually only rediscovered and unlocked about 10 years ago in the game’s timeline, so it wouldn’t really make work for your character to be born there, since they’re 27 D: but if you want I can help you come up with a different birthplace :)”

keith, lance, and allura had thus far managed to resist the voltron bug. they just aren’t into mmorpg stuff, they insist. single-player games, sure, but open-world multi-player? sounds weird

lance falls first. Hunk hits him with the puppy dog eyes and its all over for him

he creates the most ridiculously beautiful character he can

“i dont care about whether my guy is a freaking dps or not, hunk, i need him to have an ass like a kardashian. WHERE IS THE BUTT SLIDER HUNK. i have a NICE ASS and i want it IMMORTALIZED IN PIXEL FORM”

he does, in fact, end up picking dps. hunk shows him the archer class and he lights up like a christmas tree

“i know you always wanted to bone legolas, so”

“i wanted to BE legolas, not BONE him, HUNK”

“sure lance”

allura falls next. her and lance’s weekly “self-care spa sessions” turn into lance rambling about all the wacky stuff he and hunk and shiro got up to that week, and she eventually cracks under the pressure because she Hates when there’s a new fad and she doesn’t understand it

“and then this guy came up to us and started roleplaying with us in ALL LOWER CASE and shiro and i wanted to d i e but hunk was all ‘nooo he’s just a newbie in need of some pointers’ and then spent the next TWENTY FREAKING MINUTES giving this guy tips and tricks about grammar and punctuation–”

within 2 days she has gotten almost halfway through leveling her new druid healer because she is Determined damn it

coran, allura’s uncle, also begins playing shortly thereafter. allura never says why exactly, but it does seem to be a direct result of her influence somehow. he plays a gunslinger class because he’s “always wanted to be a ‘rooting & tooting cowboy,’ as you call it!”

for whatever reason, he is Very Good at the game, like freakishly skilled. everyone is kind of afraid to question it so they just accept it and move on

he and pidge are really the only ones who are focusing on the actual game content anymore, so they start doing high-level raids together and then begin to gain something of a reputation as a terrifying duo in player-versus-player combat.

keith is resilient. he is a notoriously stubborn boy and no amount of puppy dog eyes from hunk or persuasive lectures from shiro will convince him to step outside his comfort zone

but lance, well. lance knows exactly how to get keith to do what he wants

“i bet you just know my character’s way cooler than yours would be”

“?? no. i literally dont care about your character or anybody else's”

“huh. guess i will just always be better at video games than you”

“are you seriously still trying to hold your killbot phantasm score over my head. you got lucky”

“i am the peerless king of video games–”

“are you listening to yourself. do you actually hear the words coming from your mouth.”

“–undefeated because you are too much of a coward–”

“fuck OFF send me the fucking download link you loudmouth”

keith takes. forever. to design his character.

lance is leaning over the back of keith’s chair, giving outrageous suggestions (and blatant lies) that keith pointedly ignores

“keith. keith if you give him neon orange hair it boosts your speed, did you know that?”

“choosing big ears gives you greater perception stats keith”

“keith listen to me, you gain the ability to breathe underwater if you choose a broken nose—OW, what the hell–”

keith takes SO LONG that eventually lance has to leave for dance lessons and when he gets back keith is only JUST finishing up

turns out he took so long because he wanted to use every resource available in the game to make the character look like a carbon copy of himself. the end result would have been impressive if it wasn’t so eerily accurate

“you’re seriously naming him keith kogane.”

“it’s my name!”

“keith it’s a ROLEPLAYING game. you’re supposed to play a ROLE”

“and my role is keith kogane.”

“that doesnt even fit the naming conventions for the humans in this game! hunk would be having a FIT right now if he was here”

“good thing he’s not”

keith selects the warrior class because, as lance repeatedly and petulantly insists, he is a “boring basic bitch fuckboy”

“im the fuckboy?? thats rich coming from a guy who plays an archer because he has a big fat crush on orlando bloom in a blond wig”

“HUNK is spreading LIES okay I do NOT have a cru–”

“i dont know what you see in him. he’s literally just a white lotor”

“you TAKE THAT BACK”

to be continued :)

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

THAT MAP

i didn’t die

also spoilers. like. major spoilers. im serious.

dont click that read more unless you’re totally okay with spoilers cause i talk about some endgame stuff too <3

CELESTICA ERIDIA

THAT ERIDIAN RIFT HUHHHHHHH ITS RIGHT NEXT TO PANDORA

WE’RE ENTERING THE FLORPUS

IT LOOKS LIKE THERE’S A WAY TO TRIANGULATE/OPEN THE WORMHOLE OR SOMETHING???

alright LOOK

each planet (Eden-6, Promethea, Pandora) they’re all circled and when their lines cross it leads to SOMETHING

and looking at the grid that’s obviously what looks to be a wormhole

so we’ve also got the lines

“elpis - not what it seems. is elpis a lens? or a conduit. or both?”

A CONDUIT/LENS?? FOR W H A T??

ARE WE BEAMING SOMETHING OUT OF PANDORA? BECAUSE IF THESE TEMPLES ARE ALL SIMILAR PYRAMID-LIKE STRUCTURES TO THE ONE ON ATHENAS THEN THAT WOULD MAKE SENSE

this is DEFINITELY on pandora (you see elpis up there) so it’s possible something is going to hit elpis and it’s going to beam to this vault-thing and open up a gateway to the Eridian Rift??? OR

we open this Vault and it beams something up to elpis and elpis helps open up part of the Eridian rift

i’d guess we’d need all 3 (?) active to open it?? Eden-6, Pandora, and Promethea

so something SEEMS to be getting beamed either from elpis to pandora or from pandora to elpis

but im going to get elpis to pandora given the way it’s being thrown out? like it hits elpis straight on and then defracts over pandora like a prism

im guessing it’s such a broad spread bc it’s trying to hit the vault-temple-thing we see above (still... not quite convinced those are vaults like we’ve been seeing them in the past games (with lots of big loot inside). again something like teleporters makes way more sense to me)

they also bring this up, that athenas and promethea have a draw to one another, which makes sense since part of the promethean vault key is on Athenas

“Although Athenas is not in the Promethean System, there is a strong pull detectable through use of [eridian resonator (customized) which I have discovered here (seen in purple)]” i have no idea if any of the bracketed stuff is right“

more importantly it looks like one piece of Promethea’s asteroid belt is ‘highlighted’ which i imagine is that giant space laser

which ngl surprises me because

this doesn’t really look eridian to me at all. like, okay, the laser part IS purple but... the actual tech doesn’t look Eridian at all. it looks VERY human. maybe maliwan/atlas discovered it and changed it somehow? that’s pretty much the only reason i can give. like they made it so it would only hit a certain area (concentrated) instead of the entire planet (like we see Elpis doing)

also if we look at Eden-6

eden-6 seems to be 1 of 6 (or more) planets surrounding the gas giant (?) named Eden (which is such a cool fucking detail). or maybe that’s just a solar system named eden. either way. AWESOME.

my question is:

is Eden going to act similarly to Elpis? to the Asteroid Belt of Promethea?? because if that’s the case OH MAN MORE GIANT SPACE LASERS. maybe this is why ships keep on crashing to Eden-6. We know the planet is basically a ship graveyard, maybe there’s some Eridian interference that’s causing this to happen???

Also, when they say “Vaults lead to other Vaults” do y’all think this is tied into in any way the “Vault of Vaults” or whatever “It” is???

because THE VAULT OF VAULTS??? APPARENTLY WE WERE NAUGHTY AS FUCK FOR OPENING IT (the overseer says so when you accept the quest for the proving grounds)

AND THE MASTERS (whoever the FUCK they are!) ARE NOT HAPPY BOYS

ALSO “UNIVERSE DESTROYING POWER” AS CLAIMED ON THE WEBSITE

UHHH IM GONNA GUESS THAT RIFT IS ABOUT TO KILL EVERYONE AND/OR LET OUT A BIG OL SPACE DEMON COUGH THE DESTROYER COUGH

ALSO WE PROBABLY ARE CONFIRMED THERE ARE TEMPLES ON EACH OF THE PLANETS WITH THAT DIAMOND SHAPE

THEY MATCH UP WITH THE SYMBOL WE’VE SEEN EVERYWHERE

(also we now can guess this takes place after Athenas..?)

‘Vault... Key?’ i mean... think about it. we know the symbol for Vault is the circle with the arch. but this is different. this is diamond with, yes, with a vault shape in it. but... there’s obviously more to it than just the vault symbol

plus tannis is using it on pedestals dedicated to Vault Keys so i mean. you know.

and if this IS the symbol for Vault Key than oh man oh me oh my

that would mean opening up the ‘mini vaults’ on Pandora/Promethea/Eden-6 would lead to that big Eridian rift opening, whatever it is

which could explain this line: “the Vaults lead to other Vaults” “Smart, Leda!”

looks like Typhon met someone who writes in blue. who’s name is Leda.

calling it now typhon totally banged a Siren named Leda and had 2 twin kids (it runs in the family) the twins take after their parents: one red, one blue. possibly inherit the Cloth Map and learn about the purpose of the Vaults through it. i got nothing on the cage thing but tbh i wouldn’t be surprised if Typhon or Leda ended up going crazy at some point and/or having kids inside of a Vault for some ungodly reason. spewing random shit about ‘bandits this, bandits that’ to keep them from leaving. maybe they knew their adventures were going to (eventually) lead to the destruction of the universe so they wanted to keep their kids safe without having to admit they’ve doomed everyone outside this has no proof at all, im just spitballing lol i mean look at these love-sick FOOLS lmao

look they both left messages (that i can’t read) with hearts at the end of them

“Genius! [gibberish i can’t make out] <3″ “you know it! <3″

we don’t know what the Vaults really are for, huh Tyreen?? NOW WE DO. NOW. WE DO.

“ERIDIAN GLYPHS ARE CYHPERS!” (sic???)

“by overlaying various found glyphs patterns emerge which are then...” ASDFGSHJ i CANT READ THIS “What is the machine?” “We’ll figure it out together!” MACHINE????????

i NEED it

“Mapping in progress: the key-glyph [something] is an Eridian cypher hiding coordinates to some kind of cyber (????) structure” this perhaps???

also the proving grounds. let’s talk about those. we know they’re eridian, we know there’s 6 of them, we know there’s 1 at least on both Athenas and Eden-6.

we know those Eridian Ruins/Cyphers lead to the proving grounds. we know this much. so is it definitely confirmed the proving grounds hold a higher place in the story than they’re saying? i mean let me pull up my other draft talking about these in-depth and copy paste because there’s only 36 minutes until the NEXT endgame content stream

“Later in the campaign, you may be worthy of taking part in the Proving Grounds: themed gauntlets watched over by a Guardian known as the Overseer who wishes to test your mettle on behalf of the mysterious ‘Masters’.”

so it sounds like at least one is going to take place during the main campaign of the game.

as for uhh who the Masters are... I don’t know. I imagine they’re Eridian in some way/shape/form. to be honest, considering the Overseer is a Guardian (confirmed), I imagine these ‘Masters’ are just literally Eridians. some sort of council, perhaps. i mean “the masters will determine who is at fault” for “naughty humans opened the vault of vaults”. so i imagine they’re like a council.

Let’s start listing stuff we know about the Proving Grounds:

1. you get them by translating (we apparently get a translator later on in the story) Eridian texts (ciphers) left behind, which tell us where (?) these proving grounds are. why we’re not just using tannis... i dunno. something better not have happened to Tannis, gearbox

We’ve seen these texts in the Eden-6 gameplay, so it looks like maybe we won’t need the eridian doritos stabby thing to break any crystals. damn youuu

“Ohhh good. Nonsense.”

i make jokes with my friend that soon i’ll be able to read Eridian given how much i stare at these tablets. it’s only a matter of time...

2. there’s apparently 6 of them, and at least 1 on each planet. We’ve seen the Athenas (Survival) and Eden-6 (Instinct) versions, which does make me wonder if there’s any tie between 6 of these trials and the 6 Sirens...

Also, given there’s supposedly 6 trials and only 5 planets (as the community has gotten devs to tell us), it makes me wonder a) if there’s actually 6 planets or b) why there’s only 1 planet with 2 per planet. i guess if that’s the eridian homeworld then it’d make sense if they have 2.

(Also Varnell did originally say 7 trials at first, but he gets a pass because he was live on stage and i would’ve made that mistake too knowing my dumb brain lol)

3. Apparently during the narrative of the game, at some point, we will unlock at least 1 trial.

“[proving grounds are] encased in the narrative of the game. a combat challenge the Eridians have left for the player to kinda prove themselves worthy for... things i won’t completely spoil right now, but uhhh prove themselves worthy to the ancient, lost, Eridians.”

so... YEAH. big news, gamers.

does this take place at the end of the game? its possible. its likely considering this is considered endgame content. it might not. it could be both, like sort of a repeatable thing. im not really certain. 

What I am certain about tho, is that this takes place after a huge story event.

So, maybe the BL3 story ends on a cliffhanger. Tbh i would upset if that happened, but THAT SAID, if the game does end on such a huge cliffhanger that this is AWFUL and the end of the universe is coming, I don’t think we’d be getting 4 story DLCs that completely ignore this problem.

The devs had said the entire story will be contained within bl3 (no splitting it up between dlcs), and it seems the games like to keep the timeline intact in the real world, so if imminent death is on its way, we can’t exactly wait 5 years irl and in-universe for borderlands 4.

So, if this is a cliffhanger ending, I don’t think whatever happens is... that big of a deal. Sort of the level of finding the Vault Map at the end of BL2. It’s big news! but it’s not going to end the universe. The story marches on. We figure out the new goalposts of this universe and keep doing stuff outside it.

Now that we know that, let’s take note of what the Overseer says at the start and end of this mission:

“Vault Hunter... I thought you might show up sooner or later. So naughty your species, so curious. The Vault of Vaults has been opened and it has been released. Prove your worth and I will reveal why the Masters made me wait for you”.

“Naughty humans opened the Vault of Vaults, but the Masters will determine who is at fault. Until next time, Warrior.”

so that’s some pretty fucking loaded dialogue, isn’t it?

im vvvvvvvvvv curious about who this ‘it’ character is... something the Eridians didn’t want out- well, that’s bad, because we (or the twins, or maliwan, or both I guess) just let it free. and the fact the Overseer won’t even reference the thing by name... that’s probably bad. If this is an actual entity, then that is mostly why I believe this particular Proving Ground takes place during the main story.

that said, ‘it’ could literally be anything. Knowledge, hope, whatever. the potion you brew to become a Siren. you know. anything. She called whatever was released ‘it’ and it doesn’t seem like we’re in a RUSH or anything. Just hanging out doing proving grounds. and apparently this is because we’ve been naughty humans. not evil, just naughty. like she’s giving us (or the cult) a slap on the wrist.

The Overseer doesn’t seem too affected by us opening the Vault of Vaults herself. The Masters apparently are trying to determine ‘who’s at fault here’, like it isn’t exactly clear. was it the humans for opening it? was it the eridians for making them openable?

it would be interesting if this isn’t even talking about something that happens in game, but instead like... she’s referencing Typhon and Leda. the Vault of Vaults had been opened (by Typhon and Leda) and IT has been released... whatever it is... maybe the reason Typhon and Leda locked their kids in a vault? ... i mean if we’re going by the eridium/slag causes psychos, then maybe that? we definitely find eridium on planets other than pandora...

also speaking of stuff taking place during the game, lets remember what was discussed in that interview: “[proving grounds are] encased in the narrative of the game... a combat challenge the Eridians have left for the player to kinda prove themselves worthy for... things i won’t completely spoil right now, but uhhh prove themselves worthy to the ancient, lost, Eridians.”

worthy of what, exactly?

I’m still of the belief that it’s for the title of Vault Guardian (and, yes, by proxy, i want to say Siren, but y’all won’t take me too seriously if i keep advocating for this crack theory lol... implying you took me seriously in the first place 🤡) because of the Guardian Rank

the fact we’re killing Fallen Guardians means, technically, a position HAS opened up... plus I don’t think the Watcher would have come in contact with Lilith if she didn’t think the Eridians needed us

that said, if this isn’t for just becoming Vault Guardians, then... idk. If this is strictly endgame stuff, i don’t even know what we’re trying to prove our worth for.

I guess worthy of not being thrown into alien prison is probably a good one. magic space prison is probably hard to get out of. like, ‘200 years an opening’ hard to get out of. and ur roommate is the destroyer 😨

i mean... maybe worthy of entering the Eridian Rift? i mean... it’s possible this rift leads to the eridian homeworld... there would have to be one HELL of huge Vault Monster to keep people from getting through :o

anyway, we’ve got 20 minutes until the new endgame content, i’ll be sure to add onto here if we learn anything new and/or i think of anything else. im vibrating over this shit, it’s awesome. i LOVE this map. might have to pick one up on ebay or smth.

[bookshelfpassageway]

Hello yes I would like the full rundown on It's A Wonderful Life a la Eugene Riverworth (I once helped my DM spec out alignment-reversed versions of our entire party, alt universe characters are near and dear to my heart)

ALRIGHT SO IT'S CATASTROPHIC AMOUNTS OF CONTEXT TIME

Sorry I took so long, I've just spent most of my week trying not to turn into a puddle of goo. I accidentally listened to Mr Blue Sky today, however, and the last verse sucker-punched me into finishing this.

...At some point, I'm going to take my google doc of garbage notes with no filter and turn them into a coherent campaign recap to hand out to people. But for now, here's this definitely-more-than-a-snippet-snippet.

Alright so, to start with, we have an NPC friend named Rothwin. He's a goth wood-elf wizard with a deep, deep set guilt complex about how many people he's known that have died. His mother, due to a dragon attack, and he recently discovered, his little sister, due to the mafia said dragon runs. His twin brother was recently thralled by Mind Flayers, and we've been trying to track him down. He also had a particular bond (I don't have all the details, but he gave him an enchanted knife and a letter) with our halfling assassin, Tasher, who was disintegrated back at lv 8 by a possessed Eugene. He let the possession happen on purpose, to try to get the upper hand in a fight with our warlock's patron, but the thing he gave himself over to was not at all inclined to give Eugene's body back. This chain of events also led to the kidnapping of Rothwin's brother. There's a reason we call him the "trashwizard".

Anyway, Rothwin. Rothwin is the hero child that wants to fix everything. Guilt complex from here to the moon. He's also a slightly higher level wizard than us, a lv 14 party, and he's recently spent a LOT of time scribing studiously in his spellbook. Because Eugene is a nosy little man, he actually got a glimpse at the spell he was working on: Wish.

So, the night after Rothwin's brother is captured, we hang around and try to comfort him. He seems oddly alright, and tells us that he thinks things will be looking up, soon.

When we awake, the world is different, none of us know any of the others, we remember nothing of the world before, and Rothwin has erased the dragon that tore his family apart, over 200 years ago. In the process, the circumstances did not arise where Tasher died.

The original Eugene left home at 17 to seek his fortune, and, finding that to be a very hard task, gradually lowered his standards over the course of a decade until he became the glitzy mountebank in the pointy hat we all know and love.

This new Eugene never had that chance to be a con man. If he did swindle, it would have only been a brief stint of the minor, hunger-induced infractions of the very beginning of his career. He had a pretty similar childhood and departure. Instead, he was recruited by this universe's much more prosperous version of the Mage's Guild (run by Rothwin's mother), an agent of whom saw some element of talent in him. So for the past ten years, he's made his name as an Illusionist of mild note, a full wizard rather than a rogue multiclass, and slowly moving up the Guild's ranks. He'd just been promoted, even. He's Neutral-Good-aligned, as opposed to the original True Neutral, and though his base traits remain the same (including: sociable, vain, ambitious, indulgent, a bit foolish), they're dialed up to different degrees. This Eugene is a genuinely sweet person, in a slightly fussy and oblivious kind of way, and actually allows himself to get attached to people. Which happens easily, and strongly. He hasn't had any need to shut that part of himself down. He has a Simulacrum named Snowy, and understands what birds are (running joke in the campaign, his familiar is exactly one pint of screech owl and summoning medium-sized birds has never been successful).

Eugene's youngest sister, in the original timeline, was a warlock of the Raven Queen. She quickly began having visions of the way fate was originally supposed to play out, and together they were able to research what might have happened and start to contact the old partymembers. Everyone arrived, and started getting flashbacks of the events of the campaign. We fought some old enemies who were defeated in the original world, including the devil that set off so much catastrophe, and a mad wizard who here had managed to imprison the guy who can fix this.

We managed to short out this wizard's magical abilities with a Counterspell, triggering the source of his stolen power to take over his body to see what the hell was going on. The Whispered One, known more commonly (though not in this campaign. His name is a pricey secret after all) as Vecna. We met him once in the original timeline too, he's how Rothwin found out his sister was dead, and was responsible for the warlockifying of an artificer. (it was almost the original Eugene, but the depressed cat got in there first, also, selfishly, a warlock multiclass would have screwed over his spell slot situation too much)

Between people starting to get flashbacks (flashsidewayses?), logical deductions, and a free trial of information from the Whispered One, we realize IC what's happened and what we'd be going back to, and how to set things back to exactly square one.

Everyone gets... Maybe a little too into the RP at this point. There's a lot of philosophy and metaphysics. There's also a lot of upset when we realize who doesn't survive the original course of fate. We try to figure out if it's possible to put it back the same but just a little different, and realize that someone is here with the power to do so, but the Whispered One is not going to budge unless we give him a secret as payment. Changing fate to save a life (possibly more), would likely require a more costly secret than average. Also, we as players aren't just going to shortchange VECNA. We like being alive (Sure we will piss off the Raven Queen, but that's fine, we'll burn that bridge when we get to it). Also dramatic gestures are more narratively satisfying. Eugene's mental state is a fascinating concoction of self-loathing, existential dread, cunning bastard, hero wannabe, "hey I've known this party longer than anyone except my family and former business partner" + "I will admit I care about people". Some solutions are proposed, the Dragonborn Paladin has a book from her backstory, the Assassin has god secrets...

And Eugene, filled with guilt and distaste for tragedy and fondness for Tasher and a complicated infatuation towards Rothwin and all the trappings of a moral person, realizing for absolute certainty that all that he's become, worked for, and hoped for in this life, MUST be overwritten by someone he can't stand, and knows won't be able to stand him... Suggests that what is more secret than a life that could have been, and never could have been, lived? His own existence could not only amount to something, but actually be preserved in some capacity in the Whispered One's library.

This is immediately, though with some surprise, accepted by the Whispered One. "In all my years and years, I've never had a whole person a secret before..." A portal into a dark room with pinpoints of green light inside opens, and all he has to do is step through, and Rothwin will be given the power to re-cast Wish to bend the world back to the way it was-... While having fixed that which can be fixed. There's a bit of devolving back into Philosophy here, people trying to stop him or suggest simpler secrets, but knowing this might lead anywhere except causing more stress and the risk of him chickening out, Eugene steps through the portal.

Cassie, who had been watching him intently since the deal was proposed, gives the world's smallest "...wait" at the exact moment it's too late. Rothwin is given a green glowing rune, and casts Wish again.

The party wakes up right where they left off before all this happened, with no memory of what transpired. Eugene seems no worse for wear, and has gone back to accidentally persecuting the local introverts. Tasher washes up on the beach where we scattered his ashes, remembering only the other world and feeling a compulsion to seek out the place where we might be going next, and the devil we fought... Is present on the material plane again, somewhere.

So yeah. The man can’t go one timeline without yeeting himself headfirst into shady eldritch nonsense in a bid to find a Third Option. But this time having fixed the problems he created by all the previous times he’s done it. RIP good!Eugene, you were too pure to exist without the universe breaking. This is absolutely going to come back to bite me in the ass and I have no idea how my DM will have it do so.

[mobius-prime]

176. Sonic the Hedgehog #108

Oh… please, come on, man… not this…

Robotnik x 2 = Trouble!

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

So, did you think that perhaps for once in the history of comic books, that we'd actually seen a major villain die for good? Well, apparently not so! Eggman has detected the strange reality fluctuations caused by Knuckles several days ago, and gleefully demonstrates to the newly-roboticized Snively that one such fluctuation can be localized directly within their lab. What - or who - might this fluctuation affect, you ask?

Just outside of Knothole, the Freedom Fighters are relaxing and playing a nice game of hide and seek, when Tails, who is "it," runs smack into Robotnik, looking battered and scared. They're all, of course, incredibly shocked at his reappearance, and skeptical when he claims that Eggman brought him back, but is even worse than he ever was. He ran for his life, wishing now to seek shelter in Knothole. The Freedom Fighters reluctantly bring him to the king and queen, who get him a checkup by Dr. Quack to ensure he's not merely a robotic duplicate, and then, despite his literal war crimes, just… allow him to stay in the village. With all the people he tortured and terrorized barely more than a year ago. Seriously, not even a trial for his crimes? Nothing?

Robotnik seems to have settled right in, despite Sonic's obvious exasperation, and as the crew flies him to Robotropolis he eagerly speaks about perhaps becoming allies after all this is over, while they mostly ignore him in favor of playing cards. They infiltrate the city and fight a cursory number of shadow-bot guards, and Robotnik leads them to a room with a suspiciously-shaped "computer," inviting them to stand on a platform in the center of it and have Nicole take some readings while he accesses the mainframe. Of course, this is when he shows his true colors, and traps them in an energy field that harnesses the power of Eggman's "matter fluctuator" while the two alternate-universe villains giggle with each other, ecstatic that their plan to erase their enemies seems to be working.

The Freedom Fighters reveal that they knew Robotnik was trying to trick them all along, and only played along so that he would lead them straight to the device that brought him back so they could destroy it. He's baffled by this since he's already been brought, and as he and Eggman begin to fistfight over the failure of their plot the Freedom Fighters leave, satisfied that their job is done. Their true intentions become clear very quickly, as due to Robotnik's manner of return, his molecules were very unstable, and in the middle of the fight he vanishes back into oblivion, causing Eggman to punch Snively accidentally and then become furious at his loss once again.

This story basically ended up going nowhere, as Robotnik really, truly is gone for good this time, but I suspect it was mostly written as a lead-in to the two character files we'll be perusing today - one on the original Robotnik, and the other on Eggman, AKA Robo-Robotnik. We'll be skipping the explanations of their life stories, as we already know all of it - no new information is provided - and instead we'll look at the technical details. First of all are their height and weight. These details are identical for both entities, as they come from near-identical backgrounds in their respective zones. Their height is 189 cm or 6'2", which is only one inch taller than their game counterpart. However, their weight is where we run into a bit of a problem. Given all the tasteless jokes made especially in the early days of the comic about how fat and humongous and gargantuan Robotnik is, how heavy exactly would you imagine he is? I bet you didn't guess 61.7 kg or 135.8 lbs. That is not just an absurdly low weight for a being of his stature, that is my own weight. I'm pretty sure this is just a big oversight on the part of the writer, because there's no way in hell an obese six-foot-tall man shares his weight with an average-height, average-build girl in her early 20s. For Eggman, however, though I'm sure he shared his body type with Robotnik when he existed within his own zone, those stats are likely to be a bit different now due to his being a robot in a new body and all.

As far as their ages, this is where they differ significantly. They shared their early history in their respective zones, so both were born on the same birthday of September 10. However, the original Robotnik died at age 45, almost 46, when the Ultimate Annihilator went off. I include "almost 46" because the character file actually gives an exact date of death, June 13, meaning we now know to the day exactly when Endgame occurred. Endgame played out over the course of three days, so that whole shebang started on June 11, which was also the day Sally supposedly died before the truth was revealed. Please keep this date in mind, it will become important in a few issues. Eggman's reality, on the other hand, diverged a few years before Endgame, resulting in his own roboticization at the age of 43. At this point, his physical age likely "froze" since he was no longer bound by the aging process of flesh and blood, while his mental age continued to progress. His zone's timeline has already surpassed that of Mobius Prime, as in that zone Sonic and Sally were married with children, so mentally he'd more likely be somewhere in his late fifties or early sixties. Makes sense to me, though original Robotnik was certainly a little younger than I had imagined him to be.

"…A Girl Named Hope!"

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Sally has received a letter from Hope Kintobor, who was taken along to Station Square with the rest of the refugees, and decides to bring it to her parents to read it out to them. Hope proves herself to be a very well-spoken young girl in the letter, writing about how when she and her people first landed on the outskirts of Robotropolis and she saw Sonic, she thought he looked scary, as she'd never seen a Mobian before. However, over the course of living in the city, she began to mistrust her uncle after seeing more evidence of his roboticization of Mobians, and eventually realized that the Mobians were better than she had been led to believe after witnessing them rescue both their roboticized brethren and the rest of the Overlanders.

She describes how most of her life in space, ever since she was two years old, was spent in cryosleep, learning about the history of their home planet, including the details of the Great War between her people and the Mobians. They only ended up returning because their ship's power supply began to fail, but now, she no longer feels at home amongst her people, with the loss of her stepfather and grandmother.

This is honestly a very sweet story, and I'm glad we'll be seeing more of Hope. She was definitely the most interesting character among the Overlanders, and she's obviously a very observant and intelligent girl.

Reunification (Part 3)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: J&A Ray

Lara-Le is not at all happy about Knuckles' decision to join up with the Legion, even scolding him for what his father will likely think when he finds out. Knuckles becomes defensive and asks her why they can't just hear him out first, and she replies that she thinks he's too much of a threat to her children.

Wow, Lara-Le, you and Wynmacher have been pretty busy then, huh? That's a pretty big gap between your kids' ages there - Knuckles is gonna be seventeen by the time that baby is born, assuming that Mobian echidnas have a similar gestational period to humans. While he and his mother continue to discuss matters, Dimitri goes before the council to argue his case for reuniting echidna society. Most of the members present have obvious misgivings, but one Mitre agrees that society should come back together instead of fighting, though he expresses some disapproval of Dimitri's methods through such extensive cybernetics. While they continue to argue things out, Lara-Su waits outside Lara-Le's apartment, waiting for Knuckles to come out so she can spy on him and ensure he's not killed. He exits, and she follows him to the council chambers, witnessing him talk briefly with Lien-Da on the steps outside the building. She recognizes Lien-Da as "the one person Mom absolutely refuses to talk about." The two go inside, and Knuckles steps forward to express his reluctant support for Dimitri, commanding the respect of those present since they know he's fought with Dimitri many times before. Interestingly, the current echidna government is referred to as "the theocracy" in contrast to Dimitri's "technocracy" - elements of an echidna religion have been hinted at here and there, such as Lara-Le praying in the Aurorium, and the councilor all the way back when Dimitri first "died" quoting from what sounded like some kind of bible, but I think this is the first indication we've ever had that the current government is literally a theocracy, running according to a religious tradition instead of an intellectual one. This puts an interesting - and even more worrying - spin on the whole "banning technology" thing, as real life has shown time and again that religious fundamentalism almost always leads to hypocrisy and needlessly-restricted personal freedoms, which honestly fits exactly with everything that we've seen over the echidnas' history so far. But anyway, while Knuckles says his piece about trying to work together and resolve differences, Lara-Su tries to badger her way into the council chambers, only to be stopped by a guard.

What a cliffhanger! I'm sure there's no way she's interpreting the situation wrong due to not seeing everything that's happened up to this point, right? Right?

[racefortheironthrone]

Thoughts on House of X #6

The penultimate issue!

While You Slept, the World Changed:

Before I get into the content, let me say that I think Hickman et al. really brought it with their two final issues, which are some of the best of the miniseries. 

Showing Hickman’s love of circular storytelling, we flash back to the speech from the very first page of House of X #1, where Xavier announced the formation of Krakoa. The always-frustrating timeline is cleared up a little: Xavier’s speech happened a month ago, although we know from that same issue that work had been going on on Krakoa for “months” before the announcement - more evidence that the schedule was important.

Despite this all of this preparation, Xavier takes a moment before the speech to ask Moira and Magneto to join him for this “leap of faith,” which requires “total commitment.” (Which is interesting, given Namor’s questioning of same.) Moira agrees quickly, but then hangs back and watches, as is her wont (as we’ll see in Powers of X #6). 

By contrast, Magneto makes a significant shift from his earlier pledge of unrelenting accountability to burying the hatchet completely (I love how “all the anger at the other’s relentless ideology and unyielding persistence” so perfectly describes both men) and promises his complete support (and possibly more, depending on how you interpret the hand-on-hand-on-shoulder panel) going forward. That’s a big moment for the two of them.

And then we get Xavier’s speech in full, which I’m going to do my best to annotate. 

“Humans of the planet Earth...I am the mutant Charles Xavier and I bring you a message of hope. ”

The first thing I’ll note is that we’re already seeing a rather significant change in Xavier’s behavior: for decades, Charles Xavier refused to come out of the closet as a mutant even when asked directly, and only did so in New X-Men when possessed by Cassandra Nova. Here, he’s straightforwardly describing himself as “the mutant Charles Xavier,” putting his group identity before even his name.

Secondly, there’s an interesting tinge of classic sci-fi in the way that Xavier addresses “humans of the planet Earth” - it’s very reminiscent of The Day The Earth Stood Still - and I wonder whether part of this has to do with the so far largely unspoken Krakoan ambition of beating humanity to the Moon, to Mars, and the stars themselves.

“In the coming days, you will learn of several far-reaching pharmaceutical breakthroughs that have been discovered by mutant scientists. These drugs extend human life, heal disease of the mind, and will prevent - or cure - most common maladies. Influenza, Alzheimer’s, ALS, many cancers...gone. Overnight. These drugs will make life on this planet...better. Remarkably so.”

First, this is very much of a part of Hickman’s technocratic futurism from his F.F run, which I have to imagine often leads to a bit of frustration with the editorial mandate not to use super-science to make the world unrecognizable.

At the same time, I’m all the more convinced that the point of this proffer (in addition to buying U.N votes and diplomatic recognition) isn’t to mess with human biology - I think the drugs actually do what’s advertized, rather than mind-controlling people or activating the X-gene - but rather (according to what we learn in Powers of X #6) to dull the drive to achieve post-humanity, solving humanity’s problems but leaving the source out of their hands. This is a theme that featured quite heavily in the finale to Hickman’s Transhuman.

“All this...we have made for you. In the past they would have been a gift. Something freely given by me -- to you -- because I believed it would create harmony between our two peoples. That was my dream -- harmony -- but you have taught me a harsh lesson: that dream was a lie. You see, all I ever wanted was peace between humans and mutants. All I ever wanted was to love you and for you to love us.”

Here’s a great example of how comics can use text and imagery in different ways. Visually, what this page shows us is different levels of humanity: ordinary people in a hospital room, who see Xavier’s speech as a message of hope, the promise of deliverance from disease; a board room full of businessmen who probably see either opportunity or competition, depending on their market position; and a situation room of national security types who represent human power structures that have always viewed mutants as a threat.

At the same time, I think the text is an answer, if not a rebuke, to those fans who’ve been decrying Charles Xavier as acting “out of character” or spinning conspiracy theories about how it’s actually the Maker or the like. This is clearly the same Charles Xavier, who has come to change his mind about his vision of society, because he’s seen how humans have responded over again. (I think it also gets at one of the problems of grounding the X-Men in a “dream” of harmonious co-existence when genre conventions prevent that dream from ever coming to fruition. Especially given how the serial nature of comics leads to repetitions of “anti-mutant hysteria,” it’s not surprising how much of the fandom have shifted to a “Magneto Was Right” perspective.)

“We wanted to save you -- and we did, many times -- but in return, all you did was stand by while evil men killed our children. Over 16 million of them. So there will be no gift...for you have not earned it. We will -- however -- let you pay for it. In return for two things, we will provide you with the means to have a better life. One without pain or suffering and full of hope -- and it will cost you so little.”

Here, instead of constrasts, the text and images are working in concert, with the art giving pointed examples of whom Xavier is referring to - pointing to the Avengers as “stand[ing] by while evil men killed our children” (given that the Avengers tend to specialize in threats to the planet, but have had a decidely mixed record when it comes to threats to mutants specifically, to say nothing of the fallout from the Scarlet Witch’s actions), or the Fantastic Four as having “not earned” his “gifts,” given that the FF haven’t exactly been at the forefront of applying scientific advancement to specifically mutant concerns. Similarly, Doctor Strange was willing to brave the dangers of hell to bring the city of Las Vegas back from the dead, but didn’t do the same for the victims of Genosha.

At the same time, it becomes clear that what Xavier is getting at isn’t just direct complicity in anti-mutant violence, but the broader systemic problems of human apathy towards anti-mutant violence. (Although, to be fair, he’s bringing this up as, essentially, emotional blackmail to justify his economic policies and his political demands.)

On a different topic, it’s interesting that Xavier is offering something of a utopia for humanity - “a better life...without pain or suffering and full of hope” - but may instead be planning to put humanity inside a walled garden where they will be cared for but kept out of mutant-kind’s way.

“First, you must accept the island of Krakoa as the nation-state of all mutants on this planet. We will happily go through the same process as any newly formed nation with the U.N, but there is an expectation that our sovereignty will be recognized. Second, all mutants -- by birth -- can claim Krakoan citizenship. And with that citizenship, we expect a period of amnesty. So that those who have been singled out as criminals -- or punished and imprisoned by humans -- can overcome man’s bias against mutants.”

So here we get Xavier’s main political ask: international recognition of Krakoan sovereignty, mutant citizenship, and amnesty for mutants in prison.

It’s clear from his tone, however, that Krakoa is going through the “same process as any newly formed nation” mostly as a formality, with “an expectation that our sovereignty will be recognized” - both because humanity needs what Xavier is offering and the unspoken fact of mutant power.

One thing that caught my eye is that the citizenship/amnesty isn’t just a one-for-one copy of Israel’s law of return; given the heavy focus on human judicial system’s “bias against mutants,” it also borrows heavily from the 1966 platform of the Black Panther Party, which called for “freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails,” because they had been denied a trial by jury of their peers.

“From this day forward, mutants will be judged by mutant law, not man’s. These are our simple demands, and they are not negotiable. In return for making our lives better, we will do the same for you. And if you find yourselves asking, who are these mutants to think they can dictate terms to us? We are the future. An evolutionary inevitability. The Earth’s true inheritors. You closed your eyes last night believing this world would be yours forever. That was your dream. And like mine...it was a lie. Here is a new truth: while you slept, the world changed.”

Here’s where we get a firm statement of mutant-kind’s manifest destiny, although how accurate a description of “evolutionary inevitability” it might be is up for debate, given what we learn about Moira’s Sixth Life in the next issue. No wonder that Magneto is eating it up, but Moira seems more ambivalent.

One important thing to note: as the art demonstrates, ORCHIS is very much in operation when Xavier makes his announcement. Rather than being a response to a more militant and separatist Krakoa, their motivations are much more driven by eugenic fears of demographic replacement, which is way less defensible. 

Quiet Council of Krakoa Infographic:

In the wake of Powers of X #6, we now have to ask ourselves whether the (un-elected, possibly temporary) Quiet Council is, if not a Potemkin government (this would be a bit much, given what they get up to in this issue), but perhaps not the only locus of authority on Krakoa.

In addition to continuing the naturalistic themes of Krakoa, I wonder whether the Autumn/Winter/Spring/Summer designations suggest a kind of rotating chair system for a council in which all are supposedly equal...but who is primus inter pares? Xavier is acting as speaker, setting out the agenda and moving the action along, but he’s not the only voice in the room - a sign that he is sharing power to a significant extent.

So let’s talk about the membership of the Quiet Council:

Autumn: here we have the three ideological leaders whose ideas have led to the formation of Krakoa (although Apocalypse’s contributions are less public), and potentially Moira’s exes (although we never learn whether Moira was romantically involved with Magneto in her Eighth Life). 

Winter: is “where we parked all of the problem mutants” other than Magneto. Mostly, this seems to be on the basis of both necessity and “better inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.” One question I have is whether Exodus, as someone who used to basically worship Magneto, is a vote that Magneto can count on, since clearly he and Sinister aren’t on the same page, and Mystique is very much on her own.

Spring: here is Emma’s quid-pro-quo, and a recognition that the economic and foreign policy might of the Hellfire Corporation has to be represented within the governing structure of Krakoa. Given the structure (down to the very seating), I have to think that Xavier and Magneto had always planned for the third vote that Emma demanded. It’s also quite notable in later deliberations how limited Sebastian Shaw’s influence is on the Council. 

Summer: as we might expect, given who’s extending the invitations, Xavier gives three seats to “my children,” which gives Xavier at least four votes that he can count on - although Ororo, Jean, and Kurt clearly have their own minds and priorities. As the Krakoan national project continues, counting votes will only become more important.

Speaking of which, we can’t forget about Krakoa and Cypher. While not formally one of the twelve, they are nonetheless a powerful influence who have a voice if not a vote on the Council. And ultimately Krakoa’s voice is quite loud, because the whole enterprise cannot happen without its consent.

The Great Captains:

So here we see the division of civilian and military government, with the “great captains..assum[ing] the responsibility of defending the state” during “times of conflict or war.” 

The more curious question to me is what counts as a “state-related excursion” - it would seem to cover X-Men missions like the one at Sol’s Forge and at the ORCHIS facility in X-Men #1, but does it mean that Kate Pryde wouldn’t be in charge of her own vessel if Bishop steps on board? Does it cover X-Force clandestine operations, or would plausible deniability be important? Who does X-Force report to?

Cyclops as first among equals makes sense, although it does raise a question of what happens when you have two other captains in the field.

So Bishop makes sense as a head of whatever the name of the agency in charge of resurrection-related investigations is (possibly X-Factor), but I was surprised to see him show up in Marauders #1.

I wonder what Magik’s role as a Captain is supposed to be, especially since it seems she’ll be heading off to space in New Mutants. Down the line, I’m going to guess she’ll be involved in Krakoa’s version of Inferno, but what’s her intended role supposed to be?

Finally, what’s Gorgon’s role as Captain supposed to be.

The First Laws of Our Nation

Before I get into the content of this section, I want to talk about the beautiful panelling here that starts wide, shrinks down to the nine panel grid as the political debate intensifies, and then opens up again once the decision is made. 

Similarly, I like the use of the two key symbols: the X of the chairs and the sigil on the ground (secular authority), Krakoa’s face looming over them all like a heart tree (spiritual authority)

Given what we learn in Powers of X #6 about why various council members was chosen, describing three of the four seasons as “family, friends, and allies” is highly ironic.

Sabertooth is removed from watery confinement - which, if Krkaoa can just hold people in water bubbles for an extended period, why isn’t that the punishment used late? - and Kurt sets an appropriately Biblical tone by noting that “our first bit of business is the oldest kind on this planet...judgement.” (Appropriately for Kurt’s themes, the judgement in question also centers on how to punish the first murder in this new land, and ends with exile.) Also, for those of you keeping track of how much Krakoan justice accords with human conceptions of justice, I will point out that Sabertooth comes out of the bubble threatening his judges/jury, which is never a good look for a defendant.

So let’s talk about the trial:

One of the things that jump out to me immediately is that it’s interesting seeing Magneto in the role of an idealist - “this is the establishment of a nation...and I would have it be one of laws.” - whereas Xavier’s acting as the pragmatist, acknowledging that “I cannot say everyone here best represents the ideals of what any society should be based on,” but that they have to do the best with what they’ve got. Ultimately, I think this is a tension at the heart of all national projects.

Meanwhile, we get precisely three speakers in before conflict erupts: Sinister is a camp shit-stirrer who (publicly, anyway) really only partakes in the meeting to poke at Xavier and Exodus. Meanwhile, showing how little bloc voting there will be in the “problem mutant” camp, Exodus goes right for direct threats, prompting Sinister to propose criminalizing “mutant-on-mutant violence” (again, the political resonances here are obvious), not because he believes murder is wrong but because he’s enjoying trolling Exodus.

Showing how much Krakoan technology and the...unique worldviews of the Council members are going to produce new forms of political philosophy, Aopcalypse opposes Sinister’s motion, because he doesn’t think it should be “a crime to kill someone who cannot be killed,” since killing mutants is now a non-lethal way of testing them for social Darwinian worthiness. 

This clearly does not track with Storm’s morality, and in a rare moment in HOXPOX where we get to see Jean Grey operating as a forceful political presence, she uses Storm’s interjection to pivot to an appeal to “the highest of ideals” (perhaps aiming her words at Magneto as well as her fellow X-Men) that it should be the “highest crime...killing someone who cannot come back.” (This is more in line with her more recent appearances in X-Men: Red.) Thus, the Second Law of Krakoa is established...without actually taking a vote. It seems that the Council operates on the basis that any proposal not actively objected to becomes law, which I imagine the political scientists out there have some thoughts on.

Before the law passes, Mystique raises the question of self-defense against human aggression (which fits her first X-appearance nicely). Showing how much his earlier views have shifted now that he’s operating in the context of a mutant nation-state, Magneto distinguishes between “murder” and killing “done in defense of a nation,” and while that question is formally tabled, it does suggest an exception for formal armed conflict at least in the founder’s intent.

Supporting my theory that he’s going to be the de-facto Chairman or Speaker, Xavier not only drives the agenda (although he’s not alone in this, Magneto is definitely acting in this capacity), but also makes sure to “call the question,” deciding when proposals become law as long as no one objects.

Another point wrt to the justness of this process: well before he’s found guilty, let alone sentence is passed, Sabertooth threatens murder and cannibalism against his judges...which isn’t a persuasive defense against murder charges (even if he’s just threatening the murder of mutants...which isn’t legal AFAWK, just not as illegal as the murder of humans.)

A nice bit of character work, and another rare rmoment where we see Jean’s power in action, Emma and Jean collaborate to silence Sabertooth’s ranting. 

With the Second Law established, and Sabertooth’s trial technically in abeyance, the Council moves on to “any new business.”

As we might expect from a neoliberal robber baron, Sebastian Shaw calls for “property rights, wealth, currency,” to be legislated for next.

In an interesting turn of events, Doug Ramsey interjects that “Krakoa is alive. Not a place, or a biome -- a person.” Krakoan (real) property rights will have to have a decidedly non-capitalist orientation, because as we see further in Marauders #1, in addition to not having rights in the land, you have to ask for Krakoa’s consent in order to build grow a house.

In a development I didn’t see coming, Storm takes the position that  that mutants can still own property, but “it has to be...out there...in the world. No one has said we have to run from it.” This is somewhat more capitalist than I might expect from Storm, but it does make sense that someone with her particular entanglements in the wider world would take a less isolationist position. This raises an interesting question: if mutants own property in a sovereign nation, and they decide to plant Habitat flowers on their property, does that make that property now part of Krakoa?

Doug’s position gets supported by Exodus (in a characteristically religious tone), and Xavier once again calls the question, creating the Third Law of Krakoa. For those of us keeping track of the colonial theme, it is interesting that this largely European-led nation state has taken a legal position on land ownership that’s much more associated with indigenous peoples. 

Befitting her role as the true power in the Hellfire Trading Company, Emma Frost tables the discussion of economic legislation, due in no small part to it impinging on Krakoan diplomacy and international economic policy.

With a decidely mocking air aimed at her son, Mystique shifts the agenda from the secular to the sacred. After a moment’s thought, Kurt who fires back with the original “manifest destiny” out of Genesis (the first creation), and we get the First Law: “make more mutants.” In addition to continuing the very horny feel of the issue, this law raises a set of interesting questions about Krakoan attitudes with regard to the right to choose, access to family planning services, and sexuality - although as Hickman has pointed out, the implications of an egg-based system for (re)growing people point in completely different directions. Why assume Krakoa will follow human social mores in any area?

With the fundamental laws established, the Quiet Council can now decide how to apply them to Sabertooth:

In an example of how subtly powerful agenda-setting can be, Xavier makes the question of voting guilty or not guilty a question of “making an example...that no one is above mutant law” or “giving you one last chance.” Fitting his somewhat collectivist bent in Powers of X #1, he frames this question not in terms of the civil rights of “Mr. Creed,” but in terms of how the decision “benefits our new society.”

While it doesn’t quite settle the post facto question, Magneto argues that Sabertooth’s killing of the Damage Control guards violatted the “strict instructions” he was given when Magneto dispatched him on the mission, making it not merely a question of the First Law but also of obedience to the chain of command. Apocalypse, who knows something about managing an aggressive workforce, agrees.

Sinister and Exodus, for once, are on the same page, and while Mystique ultimately goes along with the emerging majority, her body posture and dialogue suggests a degree of internal conflict - after all, she was the one leading the mission, so some responsibility falls on her shoulders.

Turning to the X-Men side of the room: as befits his spiritual role, Kurt feels shame for not turning the other cheek, Jean takes a moment but is more assured, and of course Storm has no problem with a bit of divine judgement.

Continuing the trend of divisions among the Hellfire Club, Emma is all about getting rid of Sabertooth, while Sebastian goes along with the emerging consensus because he doesn’t care. 

And once again proving that a defendant representing themselves is always a bad idea, before all the votes are in (and we don’t know whether Krakoan juries require a unanimous verdict) or the sentence is given out, Sabertooth threatens familicide of the Quiet Council. Not exactly a strong argument for leniency, since Sabertooth hasn’t exactly been pleading innocence at any point. 

Finally, Doug asks Krakoa to bring the hammer down, and Sabertooth is dragged down to hell put into an oubliette. As Xavier explains, “we cannot send you back into the world” (because Sabertooth is a serial killer who can’t restrain himself, and Krakoa just promised the world it would hold mutants accountable for their actions), they won’t jail him because “we tolerate no prisons here” (this seems a technicality), they won’t kill him, because seemingly the “resurection protocols” are non-optional (which is interesting, given what we learn about Destiny in the next issue), and so they “exile him.”  

One interesting question: given the resources available to them, why is it necessary to leave him “aware but unable to act on it” rather than have him be unconscious during stasis? My guess is that Xavier wants to motivate Sabertooth to “redeem” himself down the line. 

And then finally, we get Xavier’s concluding statement, where I think Hickman’s views on nation-states (“it’s distasteful, I know, this business of running a nation”), the proper attitudes one should have about holding and exercising political power (”I pray we never get used to it...never grow cold from it...never learn to love it”), and even parenthood come through.

Just Look At What We’ve Made:

But in the meantime, the council emerges to what almost everyone has analogized to the Return of the Jedi celebration: not only do we see bonfires and fireworks and a riot of color everywhere, but we see mutants flying around, using their powers, for the first time really feeling that they can live as mutants without fear for their lives.

As the Quiet Council walk down the steps, we see some of the reasons why and the consequences: the Five party as one, but near them we see the formerly dead raising a glass with the living. And echoing Magneto’s earlier statements about how Krakoa will change the way mutants see their own powers, we see Siryn and Dazzler combining their powers for the purposes of culture rather than warfare or high tech.

Xavier’s final message is that the Quiet Council will work like hell to ensure that the next generation of mutants “sleep in soft fields of lush green, staring at the stars and dreaming of a future where they hold those stars in their hands.” Once again, a sign that Krakoa’s manifest destiny lies in space, a common theme of Hickman’s from his FF run. As this happens, we see three of the O5 goofing around (I’m surprised how many people didn’t notice that Bobby had frozen Warren’s drink while he wasn’t looking), and Exodus leading storytime with the children as Sinister watches in the background.

But that’s not what people are really here for - as nice as it is to see Broo and Synch and Skin and Pixie, what people really care about is the Jean/Logan/Scott panel. As the now infamous architectural diagram in X-Men #1 makes very clear, this is not a case of a mere open marriage: the most famous romantic triangle in X-Men history is now a throuple, founded on the principle of beer and tummy rubs. 

Almost as exciting for much of the fandom is the next page, where Jean goes to make peace with Emma while Scott hangs out with Alex. One of the big questions going on is what Emma’s role is in the polycule, since she doesn’t seem to be living at the Summer House. My guess is that Emma is “part of it” (to quote David S. Pumpkins), but may only be with Scott, and definitely would refuse point-blank to share communal living quarters with Logan. We will have to wait for more evidence to be sure.

And so we end with Xavier and Magneto looking out over the celebration, taking a moment to feel (rightly?) proud of “what we have made.” And yet, all is not well, because Apocalypse, the third ideological force who (through Moira) helped to create Krakoa, broods on what he lost when Krakoa was born.

Krakoa Infographic:

With Krakoa now extant as a nation-state, we get one more infographic...that shows us that there is a Krakoa Atlantic to go along with Krakoa Pacific. This points to an important truth about this new polity - it would be a mistake to see Krakoa as an island nation like Genosha or Utopia, because the nation of Krakoa exists wherever the physical entity of Krakoa exists. It’s in the Pacific and the Atlantic, it’s on the moon, it’s on Mars, it’s everywhere a Krakoan flower has been planted. Which makes it a post-geographic power.

So what’s on Krakoa Atlantic?

The Pointe is one of Xavier’s Cerebro back-up locations, so that an attack on Krakoa Pacific won’t destroy the database. 

Danger Island is the X-Men’s new and expanded training facility.

Transit allows for instant transportation between Pacific and Atlantic to allow the X-Men to respond to a threat to either island or cradle, and possibly a final keep to fall back to if everything else is lost.

And finally we get one last map of Krakoa (All), and there’s a lot we don’t know about these locations:

The House of X and the House of M are Xavier and Magneto’s residences, and the location of one of the Cerebro “cradles.”

The Arbor Magna is the big tree where the Resurrection system is located in/on.

The Arena we don’t know anything about, but from the name it suggests that it’s a combat-oriented location, either for training or for entertainment purposes. 

The Akademos Habitat is almost certainly Krakoa’s educational facility that Jean mentions back in House of X #1, but the fact that it’s a Habitat is interesting, because a Krakoan Habitat is a ”self-sutained environment” of its own that is “part of the interconnected consciousness of Krakoa,” and I had thought that having a Habitat on Krakoa itself, as opposed to one out on the moon or Mars would be redundant. My guess is that this is meant to provide an additional layer of safety to the next generation of mutants.

We saw Transit back in House of X #1, this Transit location is the Grand Central Station for Greater Krakoa, linking all gateway locations together. Yet another sign that, for Krakoa, their nation has a different conception of distance. 

The Oracle is, I would guess, probably one of the Krakoan Systems, most likely either Sage’s or Beast’s part of the system.

I don’t know what the Grove is supposed to be, but given its proximity to the Akademos Habitat, I think it’s supposed to be a living space, possibly just for the young and possibly not. 

The Cradle, it turns out, is just a cradle.

The Resevoir could be that lagoon we saw back in House of X #1, which would make sense if the Wild Hunt is a nature preserve, because animals love to congregate at watering holes.

The Carousel’s name suggests it’s an entertainment facility. 

We know what Bar Sinister is from its last appearance; it turns out that Sinister recreated his little island Edwardian eugenics nightclub on Krakoa. Interesting that it’s locsated so close to Transit; maybe Sinister wants to be able to make a quick getaway.

Speaking of the fruits of faustian bargains, it turns out that the quid-pro-quo for becoming the economic engine of a nation is that the Hellfire Trading Company gets a whole Hellfire Bay to itself as its headquarters. 

Red Keep is almost certainly Kate Pryde’s new pad, which is conveniently ocean-ajacent for our newest mutant pirate privateer queen.

Blackstone is Sebastian Shaw’s Gilded Age “gentleman’s” club.

The White Palace is naturally Emma’s boudoir, complete with buzzsaws and spikes. 

The unnamed location 18 is clearly Moira’s No-Space.

[bamby0304]

Apple of my Eye- Ch.12

Series Masterlist

Summary: When Sam and Dean were pulled back into their world, you were left behind. Stuck in the hustle bustle of Hollywood life, you have no choice but to play along, leaving almost all of your old life behind. Seven years later, when a rip in time and space opens up, you are finally able to go home… but you don’t go alone.

Warnings: Explicit language. Angst. But, like, for some reason it’s actually mostly fluff, which is gross.

Bamby

Following Dakota and Dean through the halls, walking beside Sam, you smiled happily at your daughter and her father. Your gaze focused on their hands, his large one engulfing her tiny one. There was just something about it, about them… it made your heartache in a good way.

Coming around the corner, you entered the war room and came to a stop.

Standing in the library, Jack beamed at the four of you as he gestured to the creation behind him. “Do you like it?”

The chairs to the back tables had been arranged in a way so that the blankets draped over them created a tent. Underneath were thicker blankets and pillows, all laid out to make the space more comfortable and inviting.

“We made a blanket fort!” Dakota exclaimed, tugging Dean closer. “Look!”

Dean chuckled lightly, grabbing and lifting her onto his hip as he strode over to the fort. “You did this all by yourself?”

“Jack helped,” she explained. “He was the one that moved the chairs. I wanted to throw the blankets over the table, but he made it better.”

Sam moved over to stand by his brother’s side. “It’s very cool.”

“Really? You like it?” Dakota had this excited but nervous energy about her. If the brothers liked it that would make her day, but if they didn’t it would break her heart.

“Really.” Sam nodded at her.

Keeping Dakota on his hip, Dean crouched down to get a better look. “You think we’ll all hit in there?”

“Maybe not you and Sammy. You’re both really big.”

“Yeah, we are.” Dean looked to her. “But maybe we can grab more blankets and Sam can lay out here? Pretend he’s looking up at the stars? Like he’s camping.”

“Ooh! That sounds fun. I’ve never been camping.”

Dean looked a little surprised as he stood again and turned to you. “She’s never been camping?”

“We lived in Vancouver for most of the year, and Texas in Winter… plus I was a single mother slash actress. It wasn’t exactly easy to do things we can do here,” you note.

He gave it a thought before shrugging. “Well, you’re here now, so we’re gonna go camping.”

“You hate camping,” Sam countered.

“Not with the right people.” Dean’s eyes settled on your daughter again. “And we’ve got the right people here.”

Dakota squealed. “We’re going camping?”

“Not now, sweetie.” You stepped up into the library. “Not in the fort and not outside. Not tonight. It’s too late for that.”

Her face turned down into a pout. “But Dean said-”

Cutting her off, Dean gave her a little nudge. “Listen to your mum, kiddo.”

Sighing, she nodded, giving in.

You couldn’t help but bend a little. “Okay, I tell you what. Tomorrow night we’ll all camp in here, if the brothers want to, and after we get everything done. Okay?”

“Yes!” Dakota wriggled out of Dean’s grip and landed on the ground before throwing her arms around your legs. “Thank you Mum!”

Smiling down at her, running your fingers through her hair, you looked up to the three waiting men. “Sound good?”

“Sounds perfect.” Sam gave you that small sweet smile of his.

“I’ve never been camping, either. And I’ve never slept in a blanket fort.” Jack gave one of his quick and happy nods. “It should be fun.”

“Then it’s settled.” Dean clapped his hands together before scooping in to grab Dakota once more. She giggled as he adjusted his hold and flipped her so she was hanging upside down. “Bed time now, fun tomorrow.”

“Yay!”

Laughing and shaking your head, you watched as Dean started to leave the library, carrying your daughter just like that the whole time.

“You comin’, Mum?” Dakota called through her fit of giggles.

With a quick goodnight to Sam and Jack, you hurried along to catch up. When you eventually found Dean and Dakota again, they were almost at her bedroom.

Dean was fixing his hold on her, setting her back on his hip as she rambled on. Not one word fell on deaf ears. He listened to everything, and he took it all in like it was the most important news he’d ever heard.

She had him wrapped around his finger already.

As he took her into her room, you leaned against her door frame and watched. You wanted to see how this would play out.

“Okay, so, story or no story?” he asked as he stood her on her bed.

She stood there, bouncing a little as he grabbed her pyjamas. “Story.” She gave a short nod. “It’ll help me fall asleep, and then tomorrow will come faster, and then we can camp in the library.”

He chuckled, handing her the set of clothes he’d pulled out of the drawer. “Okay, story it is.” While she started to get dressed, he turned to grab a book. “And what are we reading tonight?”

Never would you have guessed that Dean would be like this. You knew he was paternal, you knew he raised Sam, you knew he loved kids, but you didn’t think he’d be the kind to sit awkwardly beside your daughter in bed, and read to her until she drifted off. Apparently he was that kind of guy, though, because most nights he was home that was exactly what he did.

Once Dakota was dressed and the book had been picked, she settled into bed and he plopped down right next to her. Angling the book so she could see the pages, he started to read.

He didn’t hold back on the enthusiasm. Every character had a different accent, he made the sounds, and looked down at Dakota with fear or excitement when it was warranted.

You stood there and watched the entire time, smiling at the two of them. When Dakota leaned her head against Dean’s arm, her eyes starting to drift, you noticed the way his words faltered a little. He didn’t make it to the end of the book before she was fast asleep, but he kept going, He always finished the book, every night.

Closing the book, he carefully slid off the bed and crept away. Placing the book back on the shelf carefully, he tiptoed over to the door and began to close it, leaving it a jar ever so slightly. When he was certain she was still asleep and wouldn’t wake, he let out the breath he’d been holding.

“I could never take that away from the two of you,” you whispered, nodding to the door. He looked to you, a little confused. “She’s never had a dad, Dean. It’s always been her and me. You’ve always been about family. Having kids wa- no, it probably still is one of those wants you don’t openly admit to.”

His eyes dropped to the ground, giving you the indication you needed in order to know you were right.

“I spent seven years in that other world Dean, and I was pretty much all by myself. The people around me were strangers, they didn’t understand me. I had to learn how to survive, and I had to survive for her. So there was always a plan A, B, C… I had as many options as I needed. That’s what I’m doing here.”

Sighing, he looked up to meet your gaze again. “I get that, but… I know things always go bad for us. Everyone either leaves or gets hurt, and I don’t want either of those things. Not for her. Not for you.”

You tried to hide your shock, but his words throw you for a loop. Dean had made it clear that he wanted Dakota to stay, that he would do anything for her… but there hadn’t been much said in regards to you.

Oblivious to your surprise, he went on, “I’m gonna be honest, things aren’t great right now, and they’re not gonna get better for a while. I don’t want to scare you away, but I don’t want to lie to you.”

“I remember the life, Dean. I was a hunter long before you and I even met. None of that is easy to forget.”

“Things have gotten worse, Y/N.”

“Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but while I was gone… Cas released a bunch of black goo bastards, you went to purgatory, Sam hit a dog, you found the Bunker, and Sam went through a set of trails to close the gates of Hell.”

“How’d you-”

“I talked to Cas and Jack. Apparently your timeline doesn’t quite match up with the show I worked on, but it was still pretty close.” You shrugged. “In your timeline Abaddon got away and you had to use Crowley, and then everything went to shit. In the timeline I knew, you tried to cure Abaddon but it didn’t turn her human, just weakened her enough to kill her, and then you realised Sam would die if he actually finished the trial so you stopped.”

“So I didn’t become a demon?”

“Nope.”

“But we didn’t close Hell?”

“Nope.”

“Did Crowley get addicted to human blood?”

“Actually, Kevin turned him into a human as payback, and then Gadreel killed him.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, I’m still getting used to the differences…” your eyes dropped to the floor, “like Bobby being gone.”

It might’ve been a show, but working on Supernatural had been the only way you could really stay connected to your old life. To come back and find out everything you’d experienced- fake or not- was all fake, just added to the shock of everything.

You couldn’t just slid back into your life like you thought you could- though you never assumed it would be easy. No, instead you had to learn what happened to the real Sam and Dean, and figure out a way to adjust to how extreme their lives had become.

While you were aware of the fact things just got more and more difficult and weird, you hadn’t lived it. The brothers weren’t fighting a new monster every week anymore, they were saving the world over and over.

He watched you in amazement. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“So have you.”

“No, I mean… I always had Sam. You were alone.”

“I had Dakota,” you countered.

“It’s not the same,” he argued, shaking his head. “You had to raise her, protect her, provide for her. No one had your back. No one could pick up the slack if you couldn’t. Sammy and me, we’ve been through Hell and back over and over, but we always had each other to lean on when we needed. We had Cas, and Crowley, and other friends. Now we’ve got Jack. But it was always just you and her.”

You shrugged. “What else was I supposed to do? I was living the life of a stranger, surrounded by familiar faces that belonged to people I didn’t know. I tried letting them in… I tried letting Jensen in because I needed you, but he wasn’t you and that broke my heart. I tried letting Jared in, but wasn’t Sam. And trying to make new friends when you’ve got a crazy schedule like I did, and a kid? Forget about it.”

Stepping closer, he looked down at you with guilt and pity. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” you assured me.

“We left you there.”

“Again, not your fault.”

He wasn’t letting it go, though. “We left you there for seven years. You were alone. You were pregnant. I left you and our daughter in a strange world, for seven years.”

“To be fair… she was only around for a little over six years,” you countered, trying to lighten the mood… it didn’t work.

Moving a little closer, he looked deep into your eyes. “This isn’t a joke, Y/N. My own daughter doesn’t know who I am, and you had to pretend to be someone else for years, all because I couldn’t find a way to bring you home.”

Home… fuck that word alone hit you hard. Your throat felt tight with emotion, your heart swelling at his sincerity. Dean Winchester, the hardened brother who shoots first and shared chick-flick-moments never, was standing in front of you with so much guilt in his eyes he was practically drowning.

Leaning up, you pressed your lips to his in a gentle kiss.

Frozen on the spot from shock, he stared down at you as you pulled back and looked up at him with wide frightened doe eyes. You hadn’t intended to kiss him, but the deed was done and now you were waiting for the backlash.

Before you knew what was happening, both has hands cradled your face as he leaned in to crash his lips against yours.

The kiss was deep and all consuming. It stole your breath and your heart. You melted against Dean, shedding layers of your wall until part of your old self began to show. A self that had once been completely infatuated with the man now holding you to him like he was scared you might disappear again.

Eventually you both needed to breath, and so the kiss was broken. Dean didn’t let you go, though, and you didn’t mind. Feeling the warmth of his hands, the roughness… it was grounding, There was no arguing the realness of the moment as long as you could feel him.

“I’ll do whatever it take to keep you both here, and to keep you both safe.”

“I know. I trust you.”

Bamby

[unfortunate-stranger-losers]

Six Baudelaires AU, Part Three {AO3} {Masterlist} {Part One} {Part Two}

Chapter Twenty-Seven → in which Nick finally spills

Justice Strauss ushered the Baudelaires to the elevator as fast as she could, asking them to keep their heads low. As they got in, she said, “Now, Frank just contacted me- I believe it was him, as he had Count Olaf in custody. He’ll be brought to trial, and everything will be alright.” 

“It won’t be.” Lilac said, as Violet clenched her hand tight. “We killed someone.” 

“Oh, Baudelaires,” Justice Strauss said, “It was an accident, and we’ll show that. You can trust the law, children.” 

Nick looked the least convinced out of any of the children, which was saying something, as they all looked as skeptical as they could. 

When the elevator stopped, Justice Strauss escorted them to a room, where she said, “Now, Frank or Ernest arranged this for you. He’ll arrive in the morning to take you to trial.” 

“In the morning?” Violet said. 

“Yes, due to Dewey’s… well, the trial’s been rushed a bit.”  

“Our trial or Olaf’s?” Klaus asked. 

Justice Strauss didn’t answer. “I’m afraid I have to ask you to stay in this room. They’re an adjoining bathroom, if you need it, and a book on law if you want to read. I’ll have Frank or Ernest deliver tea in the morning.” 

“So we’re being kept here?” Violet asked. 

“It’s for your safety.” Justice Strauss said hesitantly. “Please go inside, Baudelaires.” 

Slowly, the children stepped inside, and Solitude let Babbitt out onto the floor when the door swung shut. They heard a click, and Klaus said, “She locked us in.” 

“Maybe we deserve to be locked in.” Violet shuddered. 

“Accident.” Sunny said. 

“Our fault.” Solitude said. 

Nick shook more, and he went to go sit on one of the beds- there were only two provided, but he didn’t look like he’d be getting much sleep. He looked like he was about to break down again. Klaus sat beside Lilac on the other bed, while Sunny and Soli curled up on the floor, hugging each other. 

Violet moved over to Nick, sitting beside him. “You still have your markers?” she asked quietly. 

He nodded, pulling out the pack. He pulled back his sleeve, and then started to write instead of draw. 

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. 

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. 

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. 

Violet didn’t say anything, she just sat beside him for a while and put a comforting hand on his knee. 

“What are we going to do?” Lilac shivered. 

“We’ll figure something out.” Klaus put his head on her shoulder. “There’s always something. And maybe justice will finally prevail.” 

“Or maybe we’ll all die.” Solitude said. 

“We’ll be okay.” Violet said, as Nick drew another Sorry. “So long as we’re together.” 

“Diviso?” Sunny asked, which meant, “What if they try to split us up?” 

They all looked to each other, and then Lilac said, “Then we kill them all and run. Nobody is going to break our family apart.” 

“Never again.” Violet agreed, putting a hand on Nick’s knee. 

“I’m not leaving any of you.” Nick shut his eyes. 

“Never.” Klaus agreed. 

“Never.” Solitude said. 

“Never.” Sunny said. 

Lilac shut her eyes. “I promise. I will protect you. Even if I have to set this world on fire.” 

“And we feel the same for you.” Violet said. 

Nick took a deep breath, and then said, “We always will, Lilac. Please remember that.” And then he put his marker away and said, “Li?” 

“Yes?” 

He shut his eyes. “We need to talk. Alone.” 

Lilac shut her eyes, too, steadying herself. Then she said, “Okay. Klaus, get started on that law book, maybe there’s something that will help us. Violet, you and Nick take the beds, the girls can take the chair, I’ll take the floor.” 

“You take the bed. Carpet looks nice anyway.” Violet said, glancing cautiously at Nick. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell all of us?” 

He nodded. “Just Lilac. And no eavesdropping, please.” 

They nodded; while, as siblings, eavesdropping on each other was something they used to do often, they understood that this was a conversation to be taken in confidence. 

Nick stood up, and Lilac said, “We’ll go to the bathroom and close the door. It might be small-” 

“I’ll be okay.” Nick said, shaking slightly. 

Lilac took his hand and led him to the adjoining room, and she closed the door. Nick stepped away from her and met her eyes, and then stared at her in silence for about a minute, struggling to find words.

Lilac took a deep breath, pushing her hair back. “It’s okay, Nick. You can say whatever you need to say.” 

Then Nick started to cry, and he whispered, “I’m sorry.” 

“What? No! No, you don’t have to be sorry for anything.” 

“I should have told you.” Nick put his hand on his mother’s necklace, blinking away tears. “But I could never… could never find the time. Find the right… and I should have told you, but I…” 

“Nick, it’s okay-” 

“You needed to know first.” Nick backed up as Lilac tried to grab his hand. “It’s your decision who else has to know, so… but there was so little time we could talk alone, and when… when there was, I just… couldn’t say…” 

“Nick?” Lilac was starting to get worried. “What are you talking about?” 

He took a deep breath. “You know I… learned a- a lot of things while I was… captured. And… they were true.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lilac blinked at him. “What does this have to do with me-” 

“The taxi driver.” Nick said. 

“What about him?” 

Nick took a deep breath. “I know who he was.” 

“Oh?” Lilac stiffened. “Why? Did he hurt you?” 

“No. I… He…” Nick took a deep breath. “His name was Lemony Snicket.” 

Lilac cracked a smile. “Oh my God, his name’s what?” 

“Lilac.” 

“Who names a kid Lemony?” 

“Lilac!” 

“Sorry, sorry, just… is he Kit and Jacques’s brother?” 

Nick hesitated. “Yes.” 

“Okay.” She still didn’t get it. “What does that have to do with us?” 

Nick stared at the ground. He didn’t know how to say it, he couldn’t say it. Please, Lilac, please just don’t feel different. You’re not. You’re our big sister.

“Nick?” 

He finally looked up at her, tears in his eyes, and met her gaze. 

“He’s your Dad.” 

Lilac was silent for what felt like hours, but was likely only a few seconds. Then she laughed. “Nick? What are you talking about?” 

“He… he’s your biological Dad.” 

Lilac shook her head, not processing. “The hell are you talking about? That wasn’t Dad. We’d’ve recognized him.” 

“Because he’s not Bertrand Baudelaire, he’s Lemony Snicket.” Nick said, and his voice broke. “He dated Mom, Lilac. They were engaged before she married Dad.” 

Slowly, it started to dawn on her what he was saying. “What?” 

“I should’ve told you… I should’ve told you that was your Dad before you decided to leave… you- we could’ve gone with him, and I’m sorry-” 

“No.” Lilac shook her head. “No, Nick, this isn’t funny.” 

“I know it’s not!” 

“They were lying. Whoever told you-” 

“Dickhead told me, yeah, but the Quagmires confirmed. We checked the timeline, Li, and the information they found on Snicket, and-” 

“No. No, you’re wrong.” Lilac stepped back, shaking her head, her hair flying, as Nick’s tears got more and more frequent. 

“Lilac! He was engaged to Mom just a couple months before she and Dad got married-” 

“No!” 

“Do the math, Lilac! How soon after their wedding were you born?” 

Lilac shut her eyes. She had done the math, of course she had. “So Mom and Dad messed around before they got married. People do it! It doesn’t mean-” 

“They broke off their engagement almost exactly nine months before you were born, Li.” 

“No.” she shook her head. “Mom would’ve told me- this isn’t real.” 

“We checked the dates, Li!” 

“No! They wouldn’t have- Mom and Dad wouldn’t- they would’ve told me-” 

“You look like him, Li! Did you notice he has the same eyes as you?” 

“No!” 

“Lemony Snicket has been on the run and faking his death since he broke up with Mom, and he just showed up and- and I should’ve-” 

“Stop it!” Lilac shouted, throwing her hands over her ears, as if blocking out his words would make them not true. “Nick, stop it! This isn’t funny!” 

“I’m not joking, I would never joke about this!” Nick was full-on sobbing now. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you and- and you didn’t get the chance to meet your Dad-” 

“He is not my Dad! Bertrand Baudelaire is my father and he always was!” 

Nick shut his eyes. “Yes. Yes, you’re right. He’s your Dad. But you’re half-Snicket, Li, that’s-” 

“No! No! No! No!” 

“Lilac, please-” 

“No! I’m your sister! I AM!” 

Nick froze and then the tears increased. “Of course you are! You’re our sister, you’ll always-” 

“You’re telling me I’m- I’m only half family!” 

“You are our sister!” Nick ran forwards, grabbing her hands, ignoring when she tried to yank them away. “You are our big sister! You always will be! It doesn’t matter what- but you need to know-” 

“He’s not my Dad! You’re my brother!” 

“I am! I am-” 

“I’m your sister! I’m a Baudelaire! I’m not his daughter! I’m a- I”m-” Lilac finally burst, and she collapsed to the floor, sobbing. Nick threw himself down, hugging her as she wept and shook and screamed and refused to believe a single thing he told her. 

“I’m sorry.” he said. “I’m sorry. But you had to know.” 

“I’m not… I’m your sister!” 

“You are.” He wrapped himself more around her. “You always have been, you always will be, and nothing will change that.” 

“Why…” she shut her eyes, and then she cried, “Why would you tell me?” 

Nick held back more tears. “It was better you heard it from me than somebody else.” 

“Please… it’s not funny…” 

“I know.” 

They heard a soft knock on the door, and then Violet’s muffled voice. “Are… are you okay? We heard shouting.” 

Lilac’s eyes widened in panic, and she looked to Nick. He met her gaze, and then said, “You don’t have to tell her. It’s your choice who knows.” 

Lilac shook again, and then she called, “We’re fine. Be right out.” 

“Promise?” 

She held back another sob. “Promise.” 

As soon as she was sure Violet was gone, Lilac turned back to Nick and started to cry again. She put a cold hand on his cheek, just staring at her little brother for a moment, and then she hugged him tight again. 

“I’m sorry.” he said again, and they said nothing more. 

They left the bathroom when Lilac stopped crying, and Nick laid down on the second bed and refuse to get up. Lilac wordlessly accepted Violet’s request to take the first, but she barely slept. Violet and Klaus both passed out on the carpet, with Klaus still pressed against a book, and Solitude and Sunny fell asleep on a chair, with Babbitt snoring on the armrest. 

Around one in the morning, Lilac sat up and said, “You’re not asleep, are you?” 

Nick rolled over and shook his head. After a moment, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?” 

Lilac bit her lip and shook her head. 

“Okay.” 

They were silent, and then Lilac said, her voice low, “I’m your sister.” 

“Yes.” 

“I’m a Baudelaire.” 

“Yes. Nothing will change that. Ever.” 

They fell into silence again, and then Lilac rolled back over in her bed, curled up, and tried to sleep. 

When morning finally came, they heard a knock on the door, and Lilac got up to answer it, still shaking and not quite sure what was going on anymore. 

As her siblings got up, she opened the door and blinked at either Frank or Ernest. Her heart sank in her chest, and she said, “Hello.” 

“I’ve brought you supplies.” he said blankly. He handed her first a small case, and then a tray of tea. “There are blindfolds in that case.” 

“Blindfolds?” Lilac asked, as the others moved over curiously. 

“Everyone wears blindfolds at a High Court Trial, except the judges, of course. Haven’t you heard the expression ‘Justice is blind’?” 

“Yes,” Klaus said, “But that just means justice should be fair and unprejudiced.” 

“The verdict of the High Court was to take the expression literally, so everyone except the judges must cover their eyes before the trial can begin.” 

“Scalia.” Sunny said, meaning, “It doesn’t seem like the literal interpretation makes any sense.” 

“I also brought tea.” Frank or Ernest said. “I’m sorry there’s no sugar.” 

Violet hung her head. “We are, too.” 

“Not really.” Nick admitted, though he was staring at the ground. 

“I’ll give you time to change, and then escort you to trial.” the manager said. 

He turned to go, and then Solitude said, “We’re sorry.” 

He paused, and then turned, watching them curiously. They all looked over at him, all showing him, with their eyes, that they felt the same. 

He left, and Lilac slowly put the suitcase onto the bed, flipping it open. Inside were six blindfolds, and underneath, six neatly folded outfits. 

“There’s a note.” Violet said. She took the paper and read, “I hope these fit. I know you’ve grown since I’ve seen you last. -Justice Strauss.” 

“It looks just like my favorite dress.” Lilac said numbly, picking up the one meant for her, covered in black lace. 

“They’re beautiful.” Violet picked up her purple dress, and then picked up the outfits to hand to Soli and Sunny. 

Nick picked up his outfit; it looked just like the one he’d just lost, Justice Strauss must have realized that it was his favorite. He felt it, and then said, “It’s not the same. It doesn’t feel like home.” 

Klaus bit his lip as he picked up his suit. “Nothing will.” 

They looked to each other, and then Lilac reached forwards and grabbed Violet and Klaus’s hands. She opened her mouth to say something, but her words died before they emerged. 

Violet smiled and squeezed her palm. “We’ll be okay. Justice will prevail.” she said. 

“And if it doesn’t…” Solitude said, as she and Sunny each hugged one of Lilac’s legs, “We’ll do what you said. We’ll stay together.” 

“Together.” Nick grabbed Klaus’s hand, and looked to Lilac. 

Lilac stared at them all, tears at the edge of her eyes. 

“Together.”

[anneapocalypse]

Chorus Rewatch: Season 13: The Temples & Dr. Grey

Crossposted from dreamwidth. Back in the spring, I did a full rewatch of the Chorus Trilogy with the purpose of studying its worldbuilding more closely. This series of posts is from that rewatch.

There are going to be several posts for this season, because we get a ton of worldbuilding clues in 13, and there is just so much to unpack. So I wanted to start with the thing that pushed me to do a full rewatch in the first place (aside from wanting to take my shiny new blu-rays for a spin): a line of dialogue I caught while listening in on the RT TV stream a couple weeks ago. I’d never picked up this one line, buried in a block of very fast talking by Dr. Grey, and it had me wondering what else I might have missed.

To investigate the alien temple Charon’s been studying, yes dear, you told me on the radio. Not surprising, really; emerged from the ground shortly after UNSC pulled out, never did anything sadly but that doesn’t mean that they won’t! Thankfully, I spent time brushing up on their history in between college internships.

I’m posting this whole because the rest is going to be important later, but first let’s look at the biggest “Wait, WHAT?” buried in the middle.

“[the temples] emerged from the ground shortly after UNSC pulled out”

WOW. OKAY.

Let’s unpack this.

So, Chorus was chosen for colonization due to its high concentration of alien artifacts, but at the time of colonization, the temples were under the ground. The UNSC later abandoned Chorus (which I assume means they withdrew funding and material support for the colonization mission), leaving the colonists to fend for themselves. It was only after the UNSC withdrew that the towers rose out of the ground and into the sky.

So, I have one big question here.

WHY?

And I mean that in a Doylist sense sense as well as a Watsonian.

This phenomenon is never mentioned again by any other character, yet we have no reason to doubt Dr. Grey’s word on this; she is demonstrably the resident expert, so I think we have to take it as canon. But what a weird curveball of a piece of a canon. So the whole time the UNSC were trying to extract useful artifacts from Chorus, the towers were… underground. Presumably they were detectable, the colonist just couldn’t do anything with them. And then after the UNSC pulled out, the towers emerged from the ground.

What an Event that must have been.

Again, the big question is why. What triggered this event? Unfortunately, we’ll probably never have a canon answer to that, so it’s anyone’s guess. One possibility is that the towers were activated simply by the planet’s population reaching a critical mass, which happened to occur only after the UNSC withdrew support. Another possibility is that with UNSC oversight gone, the colonists disregarded safety protocols and became more aggressive in their excavation efforts and managed to trigger something. Personally, I’d lean toward the latter as it’s more interesting, but your mileage may vary.

Anyway, we don’t know exactly when the UNSC pulled out of Chorus, only that it happened before the beginning of the war. But that line about Dr. Grey studying the towers’ history is important also. Back in season 12, Dr. Grey comments on her experience with alien archeology:

Sarge: Plasma?

Grey: Alien energy source. I've seen it countless times in archaeological digs.

Simmons: Wait, I thought you were a surgeon?

Grey: I have an IQ of 240. A prodigy can only cut people open so many times before she needs to find a hobby!

So alien technology is Dr. Grey’s hobby, kind of a special interest of hers, and she appears to be quite knowledgeable about it. Dr. Grey is also a doctor, specifically a surgeon, and she doesn’t say anything about not finishing medical school so we can assume she did. I’m going to say she probably got her doctorate before the civil war consumed the whole planet, because by the time we meet Chorus, whole cities are abandoned and institutions of higher education probably haven’t survived the war. And even if she breezed through medical school (she is, as she reminds us, a genius), it takes some time to get that degree. She also told us back in 12 that during grad school she volunteered at a remote research facility designed to study wildlife. Emily certainly kept herself busy during her education.

Even if we want to say Dr. Grey completed her medical degree in half the usual time, we’re still looking at 4-5 years of study and that before the war got so bad that institutions broke down. She was in college when she studied the history of the temples on her own time. Their history. In order for a thing to have history, it has to have been around for a while, so I’d say that the temples must have emerged from the ground at least a few years before Emily was “brushing up on their history.”

Putting all that together, it’s a rough estimate but I’d say the Event of the temples’ emergence has to have been, at minimum, maybe twelve years ago.

But that's not our only clue.

A couple of Fed soldiers remark on having visited the temples as tourist attractions when they were kids. If they’re around 18 years old, that’s probably at bare minimum, six years ago; potentially more like 8-12 years. And by that time, the Event has slipped into the realm of History, and the towers have gone from potential threats to scientific curiosities to tourist traps. I would note that no one except Dr. Grey, who spent time studying the temples’ history, even mentions the Event of their emergence. To the young soldiers of the Federal Army and the New Republic, they’ve just always been there. That, to me, pushes the Event back even further; 20 years begins to sound like a more reasonable minimum than 10.

There’s one more clue I want to pull in here, also involving Dr. Grey. When Carolina’s team goes out to the coordinates shown to them at the Temple of Arms, they find themselves at the jungle temple with the mysterious portal that will test them to find a true warrior. (Temple of Trials, seriously why didn’t they canonically call it the Temple of Trials? It’s a perfect name!)

At this temple, Grey remarks, “The government spent ample time studying these relics and we’ve only been here a few hours!” When Tucker asks if they made any progress, Grey replies, “Actually they got fed up and abandoned all of their work!” On cue, the camera cuts to some crates bearing a note that says: “Will return in:” with a handwritten “FUCK YOU!”

Originally, I had assumed this was the UNSC, based on all the other dialogue we get about the UNSC abandoning Chorus. But in light of Dr. Grey’s remarks about the temples emerging after the UNSC’s withdrawal, this now presents a problem. If this temple was hidden underground during the UNSC’s colonization of Chorus, how could they have been inside the temple studying it? I mean, you could probably make up something about the UNSC excavating around the buried structure and getting inside it, but I’d say the simplest explanation is that Dr. Grey is referring not the UNSC but to the government of Chorus.

(The other explanation is that, well, Miles made a mistake and contradicted his own lore, but uh. We’re trying to get a watsonian reading here, so we’ll ignore that one for now.)

So, here’s a quick sequence of events:

UNSC surveys Chorus and discovers evidence of alien artifacts.

UNSC colonizes Chorus.

UNSC withdraws from Chorus, leaving colonists to fend for themselves.

Alien temples emerge from the ground and into the sky.

The Chorus government studies the temples but makes no progress in activating them further.

Emily Grey studies the history of the temples in between college internships.

Chorus descends into civil war.

Malcolm Hargrove hires Locus and Felix to perpetuate the civil war.

The New Republic hires Felix, paying him in nonfunctional alien weapons excavated from the ground.

The Federal Army hires Locus.

Vanessa Kimball is promoted to an officer rank.

Vanessa Kimball succeeds to the position of General.

The Hand of Merope crashes on Chorus with the Reds and Blues aboard.

These are, obviously, not the only events we know about, nor the only timeline clues we have, but this is about all I can say for certain in terms of what happens in what order. If I put in just about anything else, I’d have to take something out, for lack of clarity as to order. For example, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that Donald Doyle succeeded to the position of General after Locus was hired by the Federal Army, but I can’t say for sure whether he became General before or after Kimball did. I would guess after, but I don’t have specific canon to back that up other than the fact that Doyle just… seems less experienced.

But the upshot of what we’re looking at her is that it has been quite a few years since the UNSC pulled out and the temples emerged from the ground. I would say at least 20 years is reasonable, honestly. Enough time for Emily Grey’s life and the world of Chorus as a whole to drastically change several times over, and enough time for the temples themselves to become mundane curiosities in the public view.

[dcarevu]

Batman TAS: The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne

“Sunshine. Clean air. I hate it.”

Episode: 37 Robin: Yes Writers: Judith Reeves-Stevens (teleplay), Garfield Reeves-Stevens (Teleplay), and David Wise (Story) Director: Frank Paur Animator: Akom Airdate: October 29, 1992 Grade: B

Whoa! Wait a minute! Didn’t we just talk about the episode Eternal Youth? And wasn’t that episode #29? Now we’re going to jump all the way up to #37? Did I miss something?

That was supposed to be an imitation of you. Not in a condescending way. Because yeah, we did jump ahead! Oh, don’t worry, we will be taking a look at every episode between Eternal Youth and Strange Secret, but we’ll be doing so in a “split timeline” fashion (term ripped from StephenVlogs/Zelda). I have been really behind with the posts for a while now because of the work I had in college. And I’ll keep getting further behind unless I do something. So today, we have jumped up to where I actually am with the episodes. This way I am caught up, and then I can go back and review the episodes I have missed when I have the spare time to do so. It’s as simple as that. And if you’re someone who would prefer not to read ahead, feel free to wait for me to catch up in the past timeline.

In the present timeline, we’re looking at Dr. Hugo Strange’s debut, as well as the first time we have seen some of Batman’s major villains work together. This episode is important, because it sets up possibilities for the future (ex Almost Got ‘im and Trial), but aside from that, it ends up being pretty inconsequential, and simply a fun episode with some laughs along the way. When we see the title and the title card, though, it is hard not to expect more. Char figured that this would be a deep episode about Batman’s past, and while we do go back in time a little bit through Bruce Wayne’s mind, it’s nothing that we haven’t seen before, and it’s incredibly short. Also, I don’t exactly know who that is on the title card. It looks like it is one of Strange’s men, but it’s also entirely possible that it is Bruce. It has virtually nothing to do with the episode, honestly, and because of that, it’s not one of my favorite title cards. Maybe this episode was much different in an earlier draft, and they had to water it down for kids. That wouldn’t shock me, this episode is a lot more cartoony than most. The main plot features a mind-reading device that leads its victims through personal, repressed memories, and then displays these thoughts as video onto a screen that Strange gets to look at. It also records the thoughts onto tape. Look, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief when it comes to invisibility (See No Evil), or even when it comes to transforming people into trees. This is a little silly. And this is following a pretty tense scene at the beginning, where a Gotham judge is desperately trying to buy one of these tapes back, which shows that she was the one who caused a major fire long ago as a child, and has kept it a secret ever since. She doesn’t have enough money to pay for the tape, so Strange’s goons don’t give it to her, and they tell her that she now owes even more (they also have a duplicate tape as backup, seen later. Evil bastards). She’s so desperate to get the tape, that when Batman swoops in to settle things, the tape happens to find its way onto a dangerous-looking metal beam, suspended above the water, and she crawls out to grab it (nearly falling). It may not be animated that well, but it makes for some good set-up. From here on, though, the episode receives a big tone shift.

After Dr. Hugo Strange reads Bruce’s mind, he discovers that Bruce is Batman. This is a major thing, no one so far in the show, villainous at least, has figured out who Batman is. Shouldn’t this be a super dramatic moment? But it’s really not. I question why Bruce didn’t simply look backwards to see what was showing on the screen or why he was so trusting to begin with, but even more so, I question how Strange deduced that Bruce is Batman through the footage shown. Yeah, we see the bat-signal and Batman’s glove, but this could be a simple metaphor or a desire to be Batman. It proves nothing, to me. But in the show’s logic, we must accept that this is enough to count, and now, armed with Bruce’s secret, Strange attempts to auction the tape to Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face. We get to see all four of these goobery characters interacting, and it is truly great. It’s what makes the episode so watchable. They have such strong personalities, and not once do they ever feel out of character. Even Penguin is a blast, only making one bird pun that I remember. And this bird pun is one that anyone would be likely to make, so it didn’t feel overly gimmicky. This is how to do Penguin right! As he sips his tea in the airplane as they are about to throw Strange out of it, I immediately realized that Batman in my Basement would not taint the character for me. Penguin, we have hope. Don’t screw it up. Two-Face being there wasn’t played seriously either, and this might bother some, but I was fine with it. It is sad to see Harvey stooping at such a low, but he’s a gangster now. It’s just how it is. Not every day for him is going to be that first episode with him all over again, y’know? And with him getting roasted by the Joker the way he did, I am totally open to having such a depressing character in such a casual episode. “Get out of my face, Clown.” “Which one?” Ouch, he walked right into that one.

The one major gripe that I actually have is the ending. I know I haven’t talked about it yet, but it has the same problem that I have with The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy where it is completely unbelievable. You’re telling me that not only does Bruce happen to have a perfect costume of himself that Dick can fit into, but also that Dick can do a 100% perfect Bruce Wayne impression? Get outta town! And then we got that exposition at the end, showing how Dick was able to appear so tall in Bruce’s clothes. I probably would have questioned it otherwise, but that could have been done more elegantly. Just show Dick stepping out of the stilts. We don’t need the “stilted” dialogue explaining it. I really don’t like when the show takes this route of Batman, or someone else, being disguised as someone else, because it always follows damn-near Scooby Doo-logic. Costumes aren’t that perfect. I just don’t buy it. It seems very “kidified", and like the writers simply had no idea how Batman would weasel out of this situation. If Loren Lester can actually do an impression of Kevin Conroy that well, I will eat my coffee cup.

I want this as a poster.

I’m sorry, but her hairline looks like it should belong to some middle-aged dude trying to be hip from the 70′s.

Seeing Batman walk along the top of the bridge was cool. Stealthy Batman is just as great to watch as brutal Batman.

But sometimes he’s both!

Sorry, but that judge was a lot thicker than that. Don’t skimp out.

Gordon chatting with Batman while appearing to be deep in thought, simply peering into the water was a nice touch. 

Gordon witnesses Batman disappearing for once. It would be funny if from this point on, he thought that Batman always escaped via plane.

The large tombstones are cool, but this scene lacked the fluidity it required to be interesting. 

The big reveal that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Ummm... Okay. 

Looks kinda like Keaton Batman. 

This face was really creepy. But apparently she started the fire on accident. Doesn’t really come across with a crazed look like that.

The animation didn’t destroy the episode or anything, but some of these characters have seen better days.

Like, I mean, it’s passable, but I’m not feeling the grotesqueness associated with Two-Face.

This was a rough shot. I’ve noticed that episodes tend to have trouble with shots featuring the Joker’s closed mouth. 

Yikes. Look at. the henchman’s facial structure. What happened, dude? 

I like the Joker’s popcorn-eating as Batman’s identity is about to be revealed. 

And Hugo Strange rubbing his hands together with greed was delightfully silly. I also wonder how the rogues obtained so much money. I bet most of it is Penguin’s. Joker probably contributed the cents.

Got a nice screenshot of Penguin shooting the tape. 

Nice badge.

Compare this to a similar scene in the Batman Beyond pilot. One has a much easier time climbing on a plane, given the suit.

Oh, Penguin. Thinking he’s so damn sophisticated as they drag a screaming man into the sky and threaten to toss him out the door. See, that would be absolutely barbaric, but the tea.

What a dreadful shot. Also, Strange’s voice actor (Ray Buktenica) knocks it out of the park with his pleas. 

Once Gordon and Strange are gone, we see “Bruce” get a bit more of a smug expression that we don’t often see. This is actually Dick, and the change in expression I will praise. Still doesn’t excuse the overall scenario, though!

Char’s grade: A Next time: Heart of Steel (Part 1)

Full episode list here!

[hellostarlight20]

Tau Theta 2/

From wikipedia: In ancient times, tau was used as a symbol for life or resurrection, whereas the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, theta, was considered the symbol of death.

Part of We Are Never Alone, but can be read as a stand alone 50th rewrite. (Established Ten/Rose relationship)

Rose thought she was meeting her daughter’s new girlfriend when she blinked and ended up on Karn right as the Eighth Doctor was about to drink from the chalice the Sisterhood of Karn offered him.

Time is in flux, people are trying to change the Doctor’s timeline, and Rose refuses to allow any of that. Even if she has to fight all her Doctors to stop it.

Awesome pict below by @fadewithfury for the equally awesome @aeonish, both of whom agreed to let me use it for this story. A million thanks to Mrs. Bertucci for the beta!

AO3 and TSP (If they’re every working again that is!) and Part 1 on Tumblr

2.

Rose ignored the tingle of awareness, the draw to this rather sexy Doctor, and focused. She really needed to, after all—the man before her wasn’t supposed to regenerate from a Pythian concoction. She knew exactly when he regenerated and from what, and it wasn’t some forced nasty-smelling brew.

“Regenerate into whom? Why force a regeneration?”

The Doctor shrugged, that negligent roll of his shoulders her first Doctor was so very good at. It was his ‘I know but am not telling’ look. He glanced over his shoulder, but no one entered the room. Why not? Did they leave him to regenerate alone? Did they not wish to witness their own work?

Fury surged through Rose. Anger for leaving him to regenerate alone, for forcing this on him for whatever unknown reason. And at him, her precious Doctor, for going along with it when he questioned every other damn thing in the universe.

Ice settled in her veins with such surety it rocked Rose where she stood. 

“They’re manipulating timelines. They want to force a regeneration on you—and believe me when I say we’re having words about this, Mister I question the universe except when it comes to me. This makes no sense. If they gave you that drink.” Rose jerked her chin at the chalice, eyes on his. “Then why not witness their handiwork? Why not see you’ve actually regenerated?”

“I said I’d drink it. Don’t need a witness for that.” But his smooth voice sounded harsh now, angry and sad and defeated. Already defeated.

“But what if you didn’t?” Rose looked around. “There’s another exit, why do they think you wouldn’t leave?”

 She motioned to the small door on the opposite end of the room, barely noticeable. If there was one thing she learned in her years of traveling with the Doctor, it was to locate each and every exit within moments of entering a room.

 Saved time on escaping later.

 “And why do they want you to drink it anyway?”

 “I’m already dead.” The blunt words startled her. “Died crashing into the planet. They just staved off regeneration until they got their way.” The bitter words hung between them, angry and heavy and all that loathing directed at himself.

 “But they didn’t,” Rose whispered. “I know they didn’t because you never said anything about this.”

 “Oh?” Once more his gaze flicked to her ring. Rose’s hand automatically rested on her pendant, hidden beneath her thin jumper. She quickly dropped her hand, but those keen eyes already saw her movement. “Talk a lot about the War, do I?”

 “You…don’t seem surprised I’m from the future,” she ventured. Rose pressed her fingers into her thigh instead, to stop from reaching for him. “Or that I know if you’d talk about this.”

 “I’ve seen stranger things.” The Doctor nodded to her ring, her pendant. He tapped his temple.

 “Hmm, yes,” she murmured in agreement. Then, frustrated asked, “But I still don’t understand why. Why do they want you to regenerate? Why do they want…oh. A warrior. They want a warrior. Not the Doctor.”

 He flinched. Though she didn’t see timelines like her family, Rose knew. She’d traveled with the Doctor a good long while, she knew paths, choices, options. The divergence lay before her. Was this a circular paradox? Or some other paradox? Or was the Sisterhood manipulating timelines. But why? For what purpose?

 “The Doctor doesn’t fight. He makes things better.” He snorted and again the bitterness lay heavy in the action. “Or I try to. Not sure what ‘better’ I can make things anymore.” He ran a hand down his face. “Or if I ever did.”

 “But you don’t need to fight to make things better.” Rose stepped forward, slowly so as not to startle him though he didn’t look skittish. Only resigned. She raised her left hand and took his, naked, left hand and held tight. “You were there, you saw everything.”

 Suddenly angry, the Doctor demanded, “Who are you?”

 “You know,” she whispered.

 She licked her lips again and slowly, brick by brick, lowered her mental defenses. When she reached for his mind, the Doctor didn’t seem surprised, though he did jerk as if she slapped him. Despite the dank darkness of the cave and the desolation coming off the Doctor, the instant their minds connected bright warmth flowed over her. Silver-blue light she instantly recognized. Embraced.

 “My Doctor,” Rose said, voice low. “I do know what happens because you told me.” She grasped both of his hands in hers. Lifting them to her arms, she held them over her marriage tattoos, currently hidden by her jumper.

 It didn’t matter her jumper covered them from the rest of the world. The instant he closed his hands around her biceps, he jerked as if an electrical shock jolted through him.

 The Doctor opened and closed his mouth a couple times, then shook his head. Rose wanted to run her fingers through his hair, not the long curls she’d seen in photos or TARDIS video, but the shorter and just as lovely curls he now wore. She wanted to kiss him, taste this Doctor, feel his body against hers.

 Never let it be said she hadn’t meant her vows about loving him no matter the body.

 “It has to end,” he snapped the dropped his hands as if she burned him. Maybe she had. “If I don’t end it, the entirety of creation will die.”

 Rose slowly shook her head and once more reached out to take his hand. Though she did her best to keep their future conversations about the Time War firmly behind her telepathic walls, she did let loose a hint of future happiness.

 “That’s true.” She watched his eyes widen. “But who do you want to be when you do that? A warrior? Or the Doctor?”

 “Who are you?” His voice, harsh and rough choked with emotion. He didn’t let his own mental shields crumble, but there was a part of him that reached for her. He also, she was pleased to note, did not release her hand.

 “You know,” she said in a clear voice.

 “That’s impossible,” he said instead of agreeing with her statement.

 Rose grinned and tilted her head to the side. “Not impossible, just a bit unlikely.”

 The Doctor snorted. His hand tightened around hers and for a moment Rose wanted to tell him everything. She swallowed it all back and carefully rebuilt her shields.

 If he regenerated now, would she still meet her first Doctor? If he drank that retched potion, would Rose find her family on Laracopa? Or would they—her Doctor, her children, the universe she knew—be wiped from existence? And what of her? What happened to her?

 “If you do it, if you drink that horrid thing, we’ll never meet.” She shook her head. “Life is complicated,” Rose amended. “But I’m sure you know that better than anyone. We, this you, and I, were never supposed to meet.” She tilted her head and raised her had to finger the soiled and torn cravat around his throat. “But I have to say, I love the scarf.”

 He snorted. “A remnant of a different part of my life, I’m afraid.” He paused and eyed her.

 “Nope!” Rose grinned at his unspoken question. “Not gonna happen. I know better than that.”

 She stroked the scarf, dirty and torn, but still so him, then trailed her fingers up his cheek to brush his curls off his forehead.

 “Oh, yes.” She nodded, one long nod, and didn’t bother to hide her smile. “Definitely sexy.” Rose tilted her head and let her tongue tease the corner of her mouth.

 She was not disappointed when the Doctor’s gaze narrowed in on it. Arousal buzzed through her blood, but Rose—admirably—refrained from doing anything more than cupping his cheek.

 “If you’re meant to be dead,” she said slowly, “and if the Sisterhood stopped you from regenerating, when does that wear off?”

 “Eh?” He shook his head, captured her hand to his cheek and closed his eyes. As if starved for physical affection. He held her hand for only for a moment, then dropped his hand but didn’t straighten from her touch. “No idea. Didn’t give it much thought.”

 And she heard the sorrow, the deadness in his tone. Her heart broke for him and suddenly Rose remembered being a nineteen-year-old running to the Doctor and his TARDIS, running into a life with a broken, devastated man.

 “Why would they stave off regeneration?” Rose wondered. Jaw clenched she tried not to give into the pain. It bloomed behind her eyes, even though they touched. Much as she loved her family, she really wanted them silent at the moment. “Because they’re after something else. What?”

 “What else do I have to give? I’ve helped where I could, running supplies between stations, conveying Dalek movements to Romana. Now I’ve agreed to fight…” but the Doctor trialed off, too. “If I give up a regeneration, I’m shortening my life.”

 “But if you’re already dead—”

 He closed his eyes, presumably doing an internal check on his body. The Doctor slammed his hand on the stone table in frustration. Rose didn’t drop her hand from his cheek and sent all the love and comfort she had through that physical connection.

 “I can’t tell.” She felt his gratefulness at her touch, but his voice remained hard and angry. “My body feels like nothing.”

 “How can they stave off regeneration?” Rose demanded. She pressed the heel of her other hand to her eye but it did little to alleviate the pain.

 The Doctor brushed his fingertips over her temples, and the pounding lessened. She had a feeling the pain was from being so far from her family—being out of time. More, it was the pain of one Doctor shouting for her in panic with another standing right before her.

 Or maybe not, same mind, yeah? Rose had no idea. But it hurt like hell.

 “How is that even possible?” Rose wondered.

 He shrugged. “It’s Karn. Who the hell knows?”

 “You’re not dead.”

 “No, I’m not. I think you’re right.” He sighed and scrubbed his hands down his face. When he did that, he looked so much like both incarnations of the Doctor Rose loved, it twisted something inside her. “But why bother? Why use me like that?”

 “Why change your timeline?”

 His head shot up. “It’s not my timeline they’re changing or not only my timeline.”

 “It’s mine, too.” Rose swallowed. Damn it, she knew timelines were at stake. They always were. Cold, terrified for herself and her family, Rose pushed her fear to the side and did her best to concentrate on not letting that timeline happen. “If you regenerate now, what does that do to the rest of your regenerations? What does that do to your life? What does that do to…us?”

 “Shortens it.” His lips twisted at the thought. “Each of my regenerations lives a short enough time as is. I’m afraid I’m not very cautious with my own life. But if I run out of regenerations before I get everything finished…”

 “It doesn’t matter. Even if you didn’t, if they’re trying to change your life. Me, our family our…children.” The Doctor started at that, but Rose ignored him, mind racing. “All of it. If they change that—but why would they want to?”

 “There is a balance to the universe.” The new voice startled Rose and she swung around. “You’ve upset the balance.”

 Rose snorted. She didn’t know who the woman was, with her wild greying hair and tattered robes, or why she thought balance was so important, but she didn’t care.

 “No one threatens my family,” she snapped.

 “The wolf is at the door.” The woman spat the words like a curse.

D