#put some inside and watch them turn into an invasive species

[singingcicadas]

There's actual oceans on Cybertron. Rodion is a port.

[bilehwit]

Bilehwit - Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, the language of the Bretons after the invasion of Norsemen.

Bilehwit means pure, sincere, honest - absolutely a word to describe a sweet lamb.

Isn't it?

Read More for AU details - This AU is under construction, and will be added to in further posts!

Bilehwit was born on an exceptionally cold spring day, to the dismay of their parents.

'At a time like this, in a place this awful?' This was the only thought the new parents had time to think, before it was time to run once more.

Years would pass, resentment and stolen seconds of fleeting happiness would be grappled with, and one would die to heretics before Bilehwit turned sixteen. Only a few months later, the other died to illness.

This was still long before the execution Bilehwit was suspecting would be theirs at the hands of the bishops. Lambs became more rare, almost mystical to see, glances of wool that disappeared into throngs of shrieking worshippers, eager to please their own Bishop.

Bilehwit learned to hide, to find comfort in cold grass stew, and to ponder the meaning of their name. They certainly didn't feel pure, not covered in muck and cowering in bushes from their end. They didn't feel sincere, thanking people from under their hood as they took goods from hands covered in blood. They didn't feel honest, pointing down an alley at another hooded figure to throw people off of their own trail.

This story ends how you think it will, as you know it has to.

Bilehwit was caught.

It wasn't some chase from an epic, it wasn't some brilliant moment that escaped them just too fast. They had crouched in the dirt, watching a tiny beetle wander in the muck, and a follower of Shamura had pressed a blade to their throat and coldly informed them that they were the last.

The Bishops were not just ones to kill the last lamb - they wanted a spectacle. They wanted to show their power was not easily usurped by mere species. They not once spoke to Bilehwit - instead, speaking to followers in special garb, giving instructions in booming, thunderous voices.

Lambs spoke the common language of the land, but Bilehwit only knew the language of the Lambs fluently. Their common was limited to asking for berries and the usual pleasantries. They were not informed of the next processes as they were tossed around.

Cleaned up by attendants in white, then fed foods covered in strange spices, even dressed in a new robe in silver, Bilehwit had no idea as to what was happening. They were inspected all over, invasive hands pressing and searching until someone made a declaration and pleased voices rebounded.

Once done, they were thrown in a silver coloured cage, and placed on a large wagon. Touring through the domains, they started in Leshy's forests of Darkwood. The verdant greenery towered above, and worshippers of the Chaos Bishop whispered and giggled as they passed.

The procession grew as the wagon toured next through Hekets domain, Anura, mushrooms crushed under the ever turning wheels. A phrase kept being repeated in mocking tones, but Bilehwit kept their head high.

Kallarmar's domain, Waterdeep, was their favourite to be put through - all the followers were covered in gold and jewels, beautiful men and women danced along the route, and the water cast dancing lights around them. The followers oooh'd and aaah'd at Bilehwit - they seemed pleased at their mock finery, and children chambered up parents to catch sight of 'The Last Lamb'.

Finally, they went to The Silk Cradle. Bilehwit felt sick to their stomach - bones cracked constantly under the wheels, the followers of Shamura stared silently or clicked their mandibles, and the cobwebs draped like veils over the cage to the point one of the attendants of the parade had had to brush them away with a sleeve over their hand to allow the spectators to see the Lamb.

Finally, they entered a secluded fortress made of stone brick. Inside was filled with trees that towered above even the bishops, and the comforts briefly afforded to Bilehwit were stripped from them as they were thrown into a cell for their final night. The silver gown was taken, and their meal that night consisted of beetroot stew. Bilehwit entertained the idea of staining their wool with it, but their captors had other ideas that didn't spill a drop.

Bilwhwit was lead out the next day in late afternoon after their last supper - a meal made of a piece of each Bishop's domain.

Leshy's had bitter grass and a holly leaf. Bilehwit had swallowed them with a scrunched face. They were pretty sure Leshy had forgotten and had grabbed leaves off the first bushes He saw.

Heket's had a large mushroom, stuffed with some kind of cheese, dusted with a hot red powder. Bilehwit ate that one slowly, pondering the conflicting tastes - Famine certainly knew how to cook.

Kallamar had sent some sort of raw tentacle from a Squid. It had squirmed when dipped in the sauce, and Bilehwit had been frozen in place, staring at it, before closing their eyes and forcing it into their mouth, chewing and pretending it wasn't still twitching. It had scraped down their throat. As much as they liked the domain, this was not for them.

Shamura's dish was some form of roasted scorpion - a dollop of soured cream on top. It tasted like chicken. Legs crunched as Bilehwit ate something more familiar - bugs had been eaten by them before, and this was not different to them.

Finally, a strange fruit was placed in front of them, by a nervous attendant. It was hard and smooth, and the same golden hue as their pupils and hooves. Another attendant sliced it expertly, until it fell in quaters with firm, pale flesh. Bilehwit stared at it, and stared back at the attendant, who wiped the blade of the clear juice.

Bilehwit ate, and found this fruit was the most delicious of all.

They were given a greyed robe, and trussed in heavy chains, and then lead out into the pavilion.

They walked the path.

They bent their head.

They tasted tart fruit on their tongue.

You know what happened next.

[redrobin-detective]

love language

“Ben,” the voice said softly, “wake up.” It was familiar in a way Ben couldn’t put his finger on. 

“No, mom,” Ben groaned, “five more minutes.”

“Not Mother,” the voice said with an amused huff. “Been longer than five minutes, worried now,” it continued on awkwardly. Ben frowned, confused by the situation. He opened his eyes and sat up to assess what was going on. At least that was what he tried to do.

“Woah,” he gasped as he found he couldn’t move much at all. He didn’t really have sensation or form, there was nothing around him to see and no eyes he could use to see anything with. Ben felt like his brain was spread thin, like cream cheese on a bagel, making every thought feel strange and disconnected. “Where am I?”

“Safe,” the voice soothed and Ben couldn’t help but believe. “Always safe with me. We’re away from attack now, recover here for Grandpa Max or Cousin Gwen to find us.”

“Us?” Ben fumbled as he added up the words in his head. “Wait, you’re the Omnitrix, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” the voice - which now that he was listening Ben recognized as his own just a slightly different pitch and intonation - said happily. “And you are Master, Ben Tennyson.” 

“So wait, am I inside the watch?” Ben asked. That would explain his lack of a body, his whole brain was just floating around inside the alien device. It was weird and a bit scary, no wonder Ghostfreak didn’t like it. “Are you in my body?”

“Sorry,” the Omnitrix said almost apologetically, “was necessary. You were unconscious, your life threatened. Had to access your nervous system to get you to safety. Switch back now?”

“No wait, not yet, I wanna talk some more,” Ben pleaded. “Could you always do this? I feel Azmuth would have shadowbanned me ages ago if he knew he could.”

“This was an emergency, we will always do what is necessary to save the Master’s life.” the Omnitrix responded, it’s words coming more naturally now that it was getting used to it. Ben could practically feel the device flicking through his knowledge language and vocabulary to better communicate. It should feel invasive and yet somehow wasn’t. “And Creator does not get an opinion on the Master.”

“Harsh,” Ben responded back, “what do you got against Azmuth? He did make you, helps fix you when I mess up even though he doesn’t have to.”

“Creator tried to separate us,” the Omnitrix bit back harshly. “He lied to Master, drugged you and attempted to remove me from your person. It did not ask either of us, simply decided a child could not handle the responsibility.”

“Woah,” Ben had gone to Galvan Prime many times, fallen asleep quite often. How many times had Azmuth tried to take the device from him?

“Only once,” the Omnitrix chimed in as if reading his thoughts which, oh, it probably was. Weird. “We shocked him to unconsciousness, to prevent him from trying again. We will not be separated.” 

“Protective, aren’t you?” Ben chuckled awkwardly. It was one thing to know Azmuth wanted to remove the watch, it was another to realize the watch wouldn’t let that happen.

“You are the Master,” it said fondly, “We love you, more than anything in the omniverse. We would watch it all burn if it meant keeping you safe.”

“What?” Ben asked flustered. His parents said they loved him constantly, same with Grandpa and Gwen. But this felt different. “Why? Like seriously, why me? I’m 16 years old and I’m just as much a mess as I was at 10.”

“We...” it paused as if thinking. There was a vague feeling of moving and Ben wondered what the watch was doing in his body. “We can’t explain, Master was just right.” 

“Many wanted to claim us,” the Omnitrix continued. “For many Earth years, we were pulled across the universe, searching for the perfect host. Creator grew tired of the debates, the lies, the deaths that followed and eventually abandoned us. It told us to choose wisely who could use our power. Kings and warriors and scientists demanded it and still we did not relent. None were worthy until you.”

“Seriously?” Ben questioned, “I was like a C student with unmanaged ADHD and about 4 complexes stuffed in a trench coat. Plus we met on accident, Xylene was trying to send you to Grandpa.”

“We like Grandpa Max,” the watch hummed, “but he is too much of solider. Sometimes he even forgets your his family. When the pod opened and we scanned you, we only found your curiosity and wonder. You were the first being to look upon us without ulterior motives. It was, nice.”

“I get that,” Ben mumbled to himself, more than used to everyone in his life expecting something or other from him. 

“We, too, were curious about you. Creator did not add human DNA in our storage. He only cared for relevant species at the time, Earth and it’s people were as alien to us as we were to you.”

“Is that why you latched on?” Ben asked again. 

“Partially, we knew were under attack and needed some manner of escape. It wasn’t going to be forever but we found we liked you; your bravery, your creativity, your love... it inspired us. You went from Host to Master and we bonded more permanently.”

“Huh,” Ben said thoughtfully. “I never really realized you were alive, that you chose me.” He chuckled sadly, “I turned out to be kind of a disappointment, huh?” 

“No,” the watch responded forcefully, enough to startle Ben out of his dark thoughts. “We love you, all of you. All your successes and failures, flaws and strengths, we love them all. We are one in the same, bonded in entirety. We will spend the rest of your days together and when your natural death comes, we will die too. There will be no Master after Ben.”

“So even when I’m just messing around...” Ben asked, changing topics from that heavy comment.

“You taught us how to play and we learned,” The Omnitrix teased. “You ask for Humongosaur too much though, we can have our own fun.”

“Oh so you’re the reason I always get the wrong alien,” Ben laughed. “You’re gonna get me killed one day!”

“Never,” the Omnitrix said warmly but with a steely protectiveness in there. “We will always protect you.”

“Hmm, I guess so,” Ben hummed. “What’s going out in the real world?”

“The battle is over as far as we can see. No sign of Cousin Gwen, Friend Kevin or Partner Rook. Grandpa Max was still in the satellite orbiting the planet last we heard. Do you wish to return now that the danger has passed?”

“Nah, not yet,” Ben sighed, enjoying a few minutes without someone needing him. “I know my body is in safe hands. Tell me more about some of the bozos who tried to wear you.”

“Aurius the Magnificent was one of the more annoying,” the Omnitrix said in the tone Ben used when he was feeling petty. “Just put me on and demanded that I chose him. He did it in front of his whole court and was so frustrated when I would not attach. His concubines laughed at him.”

“Oh man, how embarrassing,” Ben cackled. He let go of his worries, of his responsibilities, of everything and just basked in the familiar tones and the omnipresent love around him. 

[melancholydreadfuldream]

find me gone

Fandom: Doctor Who

Summary: The Doctor has gone missing for twenty years. You tried to find him in order to free mankind from the Time Lords.

  Warning: OOC, dark doctor, plot holes as usual, etc.

   It has been twenty years since the Doctor went missing. It has been twenty years since mankind is enslaved by the survivors of Gallifrey, a bunch of jackass Time Lord, whom according to the Doctor, was one of the founding father family of Gallifrey, the Bloodworth. 

  They are dangerous, insane and cruel. They invaded Earth in disguise of distress call from their crash-landing Tardis. UNIT and Torchwood calling the Doctor for help to figure it out and ended up leading the Doctor into a trap.

  The Bloodworth hated the Doctor for his part in destroying their home planet. The Doctor was giddy having not being the only Time Lord left in the universe and that happiness was short-lived when he found out who the survivors are. He was not above, to grovel for their forgiveness and explained his reasoning for destroying Gallifrey. 

  It has become apparent they won't see reason and hell-bent on revenge against the Doctor. The destruction of Gallifrey happened so long ago and the Doctor has come to term with it but to the Bloodworth, what happened to Gallifrey still fresh within their memories. 

 The Tardis they used to escape when opened are filled with amber, a sort of protective shield to contain or isolate time distortion. Apparently, their Tardis got damaged during escape and they use amber to contain it but something goes wrong and the Bloodworth ended up caught within the amber too. 

  The Doctor was able to figure out how to freed the occupants of the Tardis from the amber. The Bloodworth were preserved within the amber as exactly as they were, not aging, however, the amber damaged most of their brains and they have to regenerate in order to survive. The Doctor tried to aid them, saving their life. And yet, it wasn't enough. When they regained themselves, the first thing they do is turn against the Doctor.

  Knowing about Earth being like the Doctor's second home, the Bloodworth wanted to take over Earth for their own purpose. Although these past twenty years, the Time Lord did improve Earth's technology and 'protected' Earth from invasion by any other alien species. There were, of course, resistance against the Bloodworth at the beginning but it was futile. Like the Doctor warned, they were vicious and not above using threat, torture and kill to squash down the resistance.

  UNIT and Torchwood were destroyed like it was nothing. One of the Bloodworth was a mad scientist and was able to create some sort of machine which turned most of mankind docile enough to accept them and sort of mind-controlled the world's armies into their personal soldiers.

  Jack Harkness, the Doctor's former companion, was able to escape the hunt. Most of the Doctor's former companions are hunted as they were deemed too dangerous and to be converted with the machine to ensure their loyalty are no longer with the Doctor. Those who refused gets executed or worst become the subject of cruel experiments by the mad scientist.

  You were the Eleventh Doctor's current companion after the Ponds. You were properly scared at the reality falling apart before you. The Doctor is the Earth's defender. Who would have thought that he would be the reason for the mankind's downfall? He brought the Time Lord's most vicious wrath down on Earth.

  It was a complete chaos at the times and you got separated from the Doctor but you were rescued by Jack. You never saw the Doctor again.

  You sighed as you pulled your smartphone and play the last voicemail from the Doctor.

  "I'm sorry to have to leave you, (name). I need you to be brave. You have to lay low, don't get on their bad sides. Don't fight them. Relents with all their demands, renounce me as your enemy to please them. I have to go away for a while. I have hidden the Tardis somewhere the Time Lords can't reach. They must not get their hands on my Tardis. They can't track me, (name), I can't get to the Tardis to use chameleon arch. I'm taking the same play as them. Remember, don't fight them. When it is safe to do so, I have instructed my Tardis to locate you and you will find some instruction and hints of where to find me. When you do, you will need some help to free me. But for now, you have to forget these voicemail. Jack will get you a memory worm for it. Stick with him if you can. And, (name), I know you are scared. Be brave. I know you can do this. I have faith in you."

  And it has been twenty years. Clearly, the Doctor put his faith in the wrong companion. You have no idea how to do this. When the Tardis finally came for you and you get your memory back of the voicemail and finding the instruction left behind by the Doctor, you frantically trying to figure it all out. You have lived in bliss full ignorance after the memory worm while Jack is off somewhere you have no idea. The Bloodworth clearly thought you are no longer a friend of the Doctor considering you being docile with their assimilation on Earth.

  You were able to find your way into the resistance, or what was left of it. Jack has disappeared sometimes years ago. He used to be the leader of the resistance. He was able to undo some of the brain-washing of the people he need help from. You met a Clara Oswald, a genius in her own right, and together you tried to figure out the Doctor's location. It took years when you finally able to piece the Doctor's location.

  The Doctor has put himself within the amber in order to avoid detection from the other Time Lords. You glanced at the Doctor's form within the amber as the scientists within the resistance worked on the amber based on what you remembered of how the Doctor freed the Bloodworth which honestly you don't know much. The Doctor's technology babbles always goes over your head. 

  Luckily, you and Clara were able to recruit more scientists, well, technically you both kidnapped them, undo their brainwashing and have them help you figure out how to get the Doctor out of the amber.

  It was such a huge relief when they were able to freed the Doctor from the amber. The Doctor was disoriented and confused. The bright side, he did recognize you and he happily hugged you.

  "Oh, you are exactly as I remembered you to be. I missed you, (name)." He hugged you, spun you around and hugged you some more. "I always knew you could do it."

  You grimaced. "I miss you too, Doctor, but I'm sorry I took years to find you."

  "That's okay. You are only human. I still knew you could do it. Well, eventually."

  You glared at the Doctor between annoyance and fondness.

  Clara watched you two with amusement before she introduced herself. "I'm Clara Oswald. I have heard so much about you, Doctor."

  The Doctor beamed at her and much to your dismay, those two started to flirt with each other. 

  You pulled the Doctor away from his awkward flirting and asked him to focus. You and Clara then filled him in about the past twenty years. 

  The Doctor nodded and started to work on a technology to improve the resistance's defense. But he suddenly groaned in pain as he fell down to the floor. 

  You dashed forward to try to aid him. "Doctor..."

  "Oh no...I have a brain damage..." The Doctor moaned, nose bleeding.

  You gasped as you recalled that the Bloodworth themselves have to regenerate after they got out of the amber. The Doctor has explained in passing what regeneration is to the Time Lord. "Do you have to regenerate?" You asked fearfully. You just got him back and now he has to change himself. You really didn't want him to change yet.

  The Doctor glanced at you in sorrow, noticing your reluctant. "I have to. My brain is no longer good enough. I will need to be at my best if we are to free the Earth from them." He said. 

  "I wish we have more time..." You whispered as tears filled your eyes.

  The Doctor smiled wistfully. "I will still be me. I will still be the Doctor, just a bit different. I will still need you." he said as he caress your cheek, wiping your tears with his thumb. "Will you still stay by my side after this?" He asked, pleading you with his sad eyes.

  You nodded. 

  He beamed happily at your answer as his face and hands started to glow in regeneration energy. He asked you to give him space for the regeneration to take place.

  You stared at him, wanting to memorize this version of the Doctor.

  He smiled at you. "Be brave." He said. 

  You have no idea if he said that for you or for himself.

  Then he exploded.

  An old man with impressive angry eyebrows glanced at back you.

  You blinked at him in daze. "Doctor?"

  "Who are you?" He asked you.

  You stared at him in disbelief. "It's me, (name)." But he already not listening to you as he started to ramble really fast at himself.

  "I need to do something. What was it?" The Doctor muttered to himself. Then he has some 'aha' moment, pulled his sonic screwdriver and somehow summon the Tardis.

  Clara finally spoke up. "He just regenerated. The Time Lord probably has some sort technology to detect that energy, we need to leave here immediately."

  The Doctor look impressed with her. "You, funny nose, with me, in the box." He said.

  Clara touched her nose, not sure to be offended or not. But she shrugged and followed him inside the Tardis.

  You followed them inside the Tardis. The Doctor was already on the console, pushing some buttons. Clara is admiring the inside of the Tardis.

  "Wait, what about the others?" You asked.

  "What about them?" The Doctor asked nonchalantly.

  You and Clara exchanged glances in confusion.

  "We should evacuate them inside here."

  "No. I don't trust them. And we don't have time. The Time Lords are already coming." The Doctor said firmly.

  "But they risked their lives for you!!" You yelled at him.

  "And I'm thankful but I still don't trust them." The Doctor replied, snapping his fingers to close down the door.

  You and Clara about to protest some more but both were knocked around as the Tardis launched into the time vortex.

  "Where are we going?" Clara asked the Doctor.

  You didn't listen as you stared at the Doctor. You couldn't believe he had left those people behind. You wondered if this Doctor still have some brain damage from the amber. Where is his compassion?

  The Doctor seemed to get along well with Clara, sharing his plan with her, trying to impress her and practically ignoring you.

  To be honest, the new Doctor's indifference frightened you, reminded you that he is a Time Lord too. The way he acted just now, he is just like the Bloodworth. However, for some reason, Clara is hanging onto his every words. You wondered if he put a spell on her or something.

  The Doctor has changed into a new outfit, something a kin to Victorian suit which compliment his appearance. He look like a gentleman if not for his cold demeanor. Yet for some reason, he directed his cold demeanor to you. 

  He is not touchy-feely to Clara either but he treated her better than he did you.

  He was the one who ask you to stay with him so why is he being such a jerk to you?

  Before you could confront him about it, loud alarm sounded within the Tardis as the Doctor cussed saying that the other Time Lords has found them.

  The Doctor was able to evade the attack from the other Time Lord's Tardis. He was somehow able to maneuver his Tardis into cornering the other Tardis into a nearby black hole which ate and ripped the said Tardis. But the Doctor rescued the occupant inside, transporting him into his Tardis and immediately incapacitate him as soon as he appeared inside.

  The Time Lord, Finn, he claimed, glared at the Doctor menacingly.

  The Doctor stared him down, not impressed.

  True to his villain model, Finn even has a villain monologue about how the others are coming, that the Doctor can't win, etc, etc.

  The Doctor hushed him much to his annoyance as he shot down every words he has next. "I only want to know one thing from you." He said. "What did you do to (name)?"

  "What?" Clara blurted out, confused.

  "Who?" Finn asked, also confused.

  You blinked at the Doctor, wondering if the Doctor's brain does not regenerate as it should with the body. "Doctor, I am right here." 

  The Doctor ignored you in favor of staring at Finn.

  Finn glanced at you and then at the Doctor. 

  "Doctor!" You yelled at him. "You are scaring me!"

  The Doctor faltered just a bit before firmly stared at Finn. "Well?" He raised his impressive eyebrows at him.

  Finn snorted. "Am I supposed to know who (name) is?" He said in bored tone.

  "You should, considering she is the only reason I rescued you. Would you prefer I send you back to your Tardis?" The Doctor said in cold calmness.

  Finn frowned. "You would kill a fellow Time Lord for a mere human?"

  The Doctor only shrugged.

  "Doctor!! Look at me!" You yelled.

  "No!" The Doctor suddenly yelled back, surprising you and Clara. He finally turned to look at you. "You are not...." He is losing his composure. 

  He turned away from you, unable to look at you anymore. "It took me a while to realize. Mind still scrambled from being inside the amber. It has been twenty years." He said. He turned at you again, suddenly grabbed your arms. "It has been twenty years, (name)."

  You were properly scared at his reaction. Tears filled your eyes. You wondered if the new Doctor is angry at you for failing him for twenty years. "Doctor, I'm so..."

  "So, why do you look exactly the same?" The Doctor continued.

  You froze at that.

  Clara's eyes widened in alarm as she stared at you, bewildered.

  You glanced at the Doctor in daze before turning to your reflection reflected on the monitor at the console. Your mouth dropped open. How did you just now noticed it?

  "I forgot, you see, human lifespan, it's not long...and you aged with times...but, you, (name), you look exactly the same as you were twenty years ago." The Doctor said. 

  Finn glanced at you curiously. "I see, you are one of Frejya's pet project." He said.

  The Doctor snapped his attention back to Finn. "Frejya?" He paled. "What did she do to my companion?"

  Finn smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

  "I really do want to know." The Doctor said flatly.

  "What am I?" You asked the Doctor. "Doctor, what happened to me? Why am I...?"

  Clara rushed toward you when she saw you in such distress, rubbing your back.

  "You are a clone of (name) (last name)." The Doctor said. "You probably have all her memories too except the few they erased. They have been using you to track me."

  "Quite boring too, waiting for you to resurface again, Doctor. We knew you would come back for her, for the people of Earth. Your so called companion mostly are from Earth after all. I'm guessing (name) here is your last companion before you went into hiding." Finn said, finally understanding.

  Clara look horrified. "But that meant the Time Lords knew about the resistance..."

  Finn scoffed. "Of course we know. You lot are hardly a threat. We could squash you anytime we want. We even let you 'rescue' those scientists etc." He said, looking bored. "We want to know what you lot are up to. We know you would eventually led us to him." He glanced at the Doctor.

  The Doctor glared at Finn. "What happened to the real (name) (last name)?"

  The other Time Lord. "Oh, you know Frejya, Doctor, she always did damaged her toys a bit too fast and then throw them away like garbage." He said cruelly.

  The Doctor didn't speak for a while. He turned back to console, pushing some buttons. He glanced at Finn. "You better pray that is not the case." 

  Finn winced. "W-what did you do? Doctor, you can't..." He pleaded when he realized what the Doctor is up to. "You can't...send me back again...I will die..."

  You and Clara glanced at him in alarm before turning to look at the Doctor.

  "Doctor, what did you do?" Clara asked.

  "Doctor..." Before you can do anything, the Doctor pushes a button and Finn disappeared with a scream. You flinched. "Doctor, what did you do?" You asked, horrified.

  The Doctor ignored you, plotting a course somewhere.

  "Doctor, stop ignoring me! Look at me!" You pleaded.

  The Doctor glanced at you firmly but you noticed the pain in his eyes.

  "Doctor, did you ki-"

  "I send him to his death, yes. We have no time for more chit chat. The Time Lords know now that I am back." The Doctor said, stopping any words you have next. "I just declared a war with them when I send Finn to his death."

  "Where are we going?" Clara asked.

  "I have to make a preparation before the next play date with the Time Lords." He said coldly as he pulled a lever.

  He marched toward you, grabbed your arms firmly and glared at you with such cold fury. "I will come back for the rest of you."

  You blinked in confusion. The Doctor is talking to you but it is also like he is talking to someone in you.

  "I will descent hell upon you lot. I'm done playing nice. If I have to, I will make sure I will be the last Time Lord standing again."

  The Doctor touched a pulse on your neck and you fainted in his arms. The last thing you heard is Clara yelling for you.

  7777

  The monitor was shut down offline on its own.

  Frejya gasped in dismay, pushing some button to get the monitor back online but it was futile. She screamed in frustration. She turned to the other occupants in the room. "He killed Finn." She growled in fury.

  A young woman sighed in dismay. "I told Finn to wait. He was always so reckless."

  A man in suit stepped forward, pushing one hand on his pocket. He was calm as he glanced at the monitor, recalling the Doctor's declaration of war. He smirked. "Let him come. We need him anyway. Secure the Timeless Child at all cost."

     A/N: If you watch Fringe, you will recognized I borrowed the 'amber' from that TV series though the purpose probably all wrong? Anyway I'm just bullshitting my way with this too. Wish I'm a better writer who can make epic storyline but I'm just ordinary.  I suppose I'm done with this particular story. I am no good at making conflict for stories. The Doctor will most probably calling out his inner oncoming storm to the front to deal with the other Time Lords. Will the other Time Lords succeed in recapturing the Timeless Child? I guess nobody know because I don't know either. I suppose once again the version of the reader get the short straw again and be the reason of the Doctor turned dark. 

[anothers-trash-my-treasure]

Stoners

Stoner Snaf <3 So this one's kinda weird, I based it around the Watch Me from fictober so if you haven't already read that, I suggest reading it first! It's also set in a post COVID world because I need something to look forward to. Disclaimer; I wrote this while very high last night and didn't really edit it so it's probably a mess.

Pairing: Merriell Shelton / Female Reader

Warnings: 18+, unprotected sex (don't do this), recreational drug use, if you squint there's some kinky undertones but nothing too crazy.

Word Count: 4.4K (i haven't written something this long is forever omf)

Tags: @edteche2 @xmxisxforxmaybe @diasimar @txmel @gloriousdarkangelsworld @paradoxicaltornado @404-not-found-xix

Enjoy and happy 4:20

~

Ever since the pandemic, you hadn’t been able to do crowds. Not like you used to anyways. It killed you a little bit because all the things you missed doing so much involved crowds; concerts, clubbing, festivals, travelling. Getting back into the swing of things took time. The feeling of being surrounded by people you don’t know set every one of your nerves on fire in the worst way. It felt so...

Uncomfortable.

This is probably why you didn’t last more than a half-hour at some seedy dive bar your friends had dragged you out to for the night. They begged you to go out with them, if even only for a drink or two. It had been so long since the whole group had a proper outing, it was nice to have the gang out for a night. Until some dickhead grabbed your ass and whispered some unwanted filth in your ear, his breath hot and unpleasant on your skin. After that, you were quick to grab your bag and say goodbye to your friends. You knew they were disappointed, but you could still feel the strangers breathe on your skin like it had been singed.

You welcomed the cool air of the night, feeling it immediately cool your skin. You hadn’t realized how warm it was inside but now that you were out in the open, you felt better. The burning on your neck had settled, more of an afterthought now. Your brain still felt overwhelmed, and you knew exactly how to remedy that.

Sitting down at one of the picnic table benches nearby, you began to sift through your bag when a voice rang out through the quiet streets.

“Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,”

You’d know that slow drawl anywhere, you’d go so far as to say it near haunted your dreams.

“Merriell Shelton,” you beam up at him as he walks closer to you, nodding at his friends to continue without him, “I haven’t seen you since-”

“That last party.” He nods, smiling at you in the way where you’re not quite sure if he’s flirting with you or if he’s just that naturally gorgeous, “when I taught ya’ how to smoke.”

An excited smile bubbles onto your face and you shake your head at him, “Oh, you’d be so proud of me. I’ve grown so much since then.”

You resume digging through your bag to find your various forms of weed paraphernalia you carry with you. The pandemic had not been kind to you, and some days it felt like the only thing keeping your head above water was your bedtime joint. It wasn’t something you were terribly proud of, but it helped your anxiety and that was good enough for you lately.

He barks out a laugh at your response and you can’t help the pride the swells up inside of you knowing that you made him laugh like that. He comes to sit on the bench, placing himself close enough that it wasn’t weird, but far away enough so that he wasn’t directly in your space.

“What, you some kinda stoner or something now?” he asks as you layout your joints and pipes. He whistles, a mix between being impressed and mocking, when you pull out your vape too, “Damn, you got a bong in there too?”

Now it’s your turn to laugh, “No, that stays at home.” you say with a wink, “So, how have you been?” you ask, starting to put everything but your joints back in your bag.

He blows out through his lips and laughs a little, running a hand through his hair, “Been better lately, that’s all that matters, I s’pose.” He watched, something like a weird form of pride in his eyes as you pull out a joint and light it carefully. You certainly can’t complain, you forgot how great it felt to have his eyes on you.

You hum knowingly, “That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway,” you hold the joint up hesitantly.

“I don’t usually share my joints anymore, but if you’ve got your shots...” you shrug, your sentence tapering off. It’s a weird world you live in now, no one quite knows what’s socially acceptable anymore.

He smirks at you, amused, taking the joint from your fingers, “I’ve got my shots alright,”

His eyes don’t leave yours as he brings it up to his lips and takes his hit. He’s not even doing anything out of the ordinary, but he looks like he’s up to no good in every way. It’s like he’s just taking you in as if comparing you to the girl he met years ago.

“You changed,” he comments on an exhale, passing it back.

You nod, laughing softly, “Turns out I get really impulsive when I’m alone,”

He scoffs, “tell me about it,” and then he’s shrugging off his hoodie to reveal a handful of new tattoos covering his skin, “Buddy of mine is an artist,”

You gasp, ‘ooo’ing at some of the more complex pieces. Without thinking your hand darts out to let your fingers drag against his forearm, following the linework of the ink. His muscle twitches beneath your fingers involuntarily and you’re reminded of how long you’ve gone without intimate touches like this. You wonder if it’s the same for him. Did he long to be touched so innocently like this too?

“They’re wonderful,” you say, pulling your hand away, still admiring from a distance.

“Yea, I like ‘em.” He shrugs, nodding at you to take the last pulls from the joint, it’s your weed after all, “You get any?”

You shook your head, “No, surprisingly enough every time I finally convinced myself to book an appointment, shops got shut down again.” You said, only kind of bitterly.

He laughs and you scowl at him, “Aw, baby, don’t be like that,” he laughs, swatting at you half-heartedly, “Look, I betcha I can get you a discount at my buddy’s shop.”

You eye him suspiciously, “I can’t tell if you’re kidding.”

He puts a hand to his chest with a lazy smirk, “On god,”

You bite your lip to suppress a smile, shaking your head lightly, “Okay fine but that just means you’ll get to see a whole lot more of me,”

His smirk turns darker, into something more playfully suggestive, “I have no problem with that,”

A silence fills the space between you as you both take each other in. You had really only hung out with him that one night and nothing had really happened. You just sat and talked really. You talked for a while. You talked so long you didn’t realize the party had ended until your friend came to get you. You exchanged numbers and then just a few weeks after, you were instructed to start isolating. You’d kept up a steady social media friendship since then, but you had missed actually talking to him. He wasn’t much of a texter. The silence only lasts a moment, but it feels thick with tension.

“You look good by the way,” he comments, leaning ever so slightly closer to you, “I meant to say that earlier but then you made me strip for ya-”

“Whoawhoawhoa!!” you sputter through a laugh, “I did not make you do anything, you did that yourself.”

He shakes his head at you, “Nah, that doesn’t sound like me.”

You're giggling at this point, “You’re ridiculous.”

He beams at you, clearly pleased with himself for the moment. It settles for a second as he looks at you, eyes softening a bit before he glances down, nudging your knee with his a bit, “I missed you,” He cringes a bit, “I know it’s weird to say but, I did.”

Your nodding before you can even think to play it even a little bit cool, “No, I get it,” you assure him, smiling softly, “I missed you too, actually.”

He hums, smiling a rare soft smile at you before changing the subject, clearly wanting to shift the attention away from his moment of vulnerability, “So why aren’t you inside?” he asks.

“Oh,” you glance back at the bar behind you, having forgotten it was even there, “I was heading out, I wasn’t really in the mood for dive bars tonight.”

He nods, “The crowds right?” you nod and he’s talking again before you can ask him how he knows that, “I get it, sometimes being so close to that many people again makes me wanna crawl out my skin.” he chuckles.

You nod, a weight lifting off your shoulders to know you’re not alone, “Exactly, it’s not something I’ve gotten used to yet.”

“Well, can I walk you home?” he offers with a smile, “I’m in no rush to head in there,”

You smile and nod, “I’d like that,”

~

Somehow he had ended up on your couch. You weren’t entirely sure when walking you home had turned to him being on your couch, but you certainly weren’t complaining. You were both pleasantly high, talking anything from movie theories to possible dystopian futures and alien invasions.

“Look, I’m jus’ sayin’ that if I was an alien, I wouldn’t wanna fuck a human, are you kidding?” he reasons, eyes squinted as if he’s offended and your laughing so hard you have tears in your eyes, “Nah, I’m goin’ for a much cooler species.”

He watches you as you fight back giggles at his ridiculousness, a lazy, grin settled on his face. He reaches for his jacket that’s slung across the arm of the couch, reaching into his pocket to pull out his own stash and you gasp, mocking offence.

“You had your own weed all this time and you’ve been smoking mine?”

He rolls his eyes, settling the joint between his lips and lighting it. He inhales slowly, watching the tip as it sparks to life, eyes flicking back to you as he exhales, “I was gonna share,”

He holds out the joint for you, however as soon as you go to steal it he holds it back, just out of your reach, “what’s the magic word?”

“Oh my god, are you kidding?” you ask through a laugh, straining forward further in an effort to reach it but you’re hindered from the way you’re sitting. You make grabby hands at it instead.

“Ya want it or not?” he asks, eyebrows raised expectantly. There’s a tension between the two of you, still mostly playful but turning ever the more thick as the moments pass by.

You huff, getting comfy again in your spot, keeping your hand stretched out lazily, “Please,”

As soon as the word leaves your lips you can see his eyes get darker, that infuriating smirk only stretching across his face and you’re so mad that that’s all it takes for the playfulness between you to shatter into pure sexual tension.

Without a word he hands you the joint, enjoying the way you quickly bring it into your mouth for a deep drag to calm your rising nerves. It’s infuriating, how good he looks like this. All calm and relaxed on your couch in the low living room light, curls messy and looking at you through hooded eyelids. You want him. Just his eyes on you like this has a warmth pooling in the pit of your stomach.

You try to play it cool though, taking another slow drag and enjoying the way the smoke rises up around you. His eyes zero in on your lips, watching with a peaked interest as they wrap around the filter, watching the way the smoke escapes them. Neither of you say a word for a while. Just sitting in a comfortable quiet, a forgotten Spotify playlist playing in the background as you pass the joint back and forth.

He didn’t make his move until the final few hits of it. He shifts to sit straighter on your couch, a little more proper. What left his mouth was anything but.

“C’mere,” he says lowly, cocking his head to the side and gesturing to his lap, “gotta nice seat for ya,”

You don’t hesitate to comply, your high erasing any ideas of playing hard to get. You maneuver yourself as gracefully as you can, swinging a leg over his and settling there, straddling him comfortably with his hands on your hips. Once you're settled he raises the joint to his lips, taking in the last drag, eyes glimmering in the low light of the room. He holds it for a second, one hand moves upwards to cup the back of your neck and pulls you in closer.

Your lips are so close, the tension crackling between you like electricity. He tilts his head ever so slightly, lips parting to exhale the smoke into your mouth. You inhale on impulse and your mind goes blank as your lips brush ever so slightly together. You knew people said shotgun kisses were hot, but you had never truly believed them until now.

You know you should pull away to exhale, but you can still feel his lips brushing against yours and your mind is dizzy from the weed and from him and you can’t take it anymore. You close the distance the rest of the way, kissing him slowly through your exhale, smoke slipping through your lips as he returns the motion.

You kiss him like that for a while, enjoying his hands on your waist and the feeling of his chest beneath your hands. You were quickly realizing that Merriell was his own kind of drug. You’d only had a little taste of him and yet you found yourself craving more. His fingers flex against your body and you can’t help to low noise that slips out of your throat. It only spurs him on, emitting a growling sound of his own as he tugs you closer, dragging you against his growing erection. Your hand slides into his hair in response, feeling like you’re so high on weed and him that you might just fly away.

“Is this okay?” he asks against your lips, letting his forehead press against yours while he waits for your response.

You hum your affirmative, nodding your head quickly while diving back into for another kiss, this one much more ravenous than the last. God, you felt like you were starving for him. You couldn’t get enough at the way his tongue slid against yours, the feeling of his hands gliding up and down your body. They continue down the curve on your spine, settling once they reach the globes of your ass.

“You don’t know how many times I thought ‘bout this,” he mumbles, pulling away to stare at you teasingly through hooded eyelids. His accent, already a slow drawl, comes out much thicker when he’s high like this. It washes over you like honey. He smirks at you and before you can begin to wonder what he’s up to he brings one of his hands down in a sound smack against your right ass cheek.

You gasp at the feeling, dulled by the layer of your jeans but rippling throughout your sensitive skin nonetheless. You laugh lowly against his cheek, “likewise,”

He bites his lip on a grin, capturing your lips in a single, filthy kiss as if he knows exactly what it’ll do to you. Your hands wander up under his t-shirt, nails digging in sightly, just as a preview, returning the favour.

Like a switch, he’s on you a little more urgently and things begin to move faster. His hands tug on your shirt impatiently and you obediently part to take it off, shucking your bra off as well, and feeling pleased when he follows your lead. Your hands explore each other's bodies, every inch of new skin. It’s not long before he switches positions, standing up and dropping you back on the couch so that this time you’re laying on it properly. Without wasting a moment, you wiggle your jeans off, tossing them somewhere over the coffee table and taking in the way his eyes darken further at the sight of you.

He crawls his hips between your legs, capturing your lips in a messy kiss before starting to trail them down your body. Your high has your skin feeling so sensitive, every soft brush of his lips feeling like a shock of electricity through your body. He spends time on your breasts, marking and kneading them with his hands, enjoying how responsive you are beneath his ministrations. Though he doesn’t spend long there, clearly more interested in another prize.

He settles, this time his shoulders keeping your legs spread. He presses a soft kiss to your inner thigh, lets his fingers dust over your panty-covered pussy. Your muscles twitch at the feeling, and you feel your cunt clench around nothing. He looks good there, tattoos cover his skin and you long to be able to leave something that permanent on him. Fuck, you want him so bad.

He grins at you, knowing exactly how impatient you must be feeling. And that bastard uses it to his advantage. Sucking marks into your thigh just to watch your squirm. Eventually, he pulls your panties to the side, letting his fingers slide through your folds. He whistles lowly between his teeth.

“Mmm, baby, you this wet for me already?”

The whimper that leaves your lips is pitiful, your hips twitching in an attempt to get the pressure where you need it. He chuckles under his breath, eyes darting between your heat and your face, “Look at you,” he near coos, letting his thumb trace circles around your clit, watching as your mouth drops on a silent moan, “You want it so bad, don’t cha? Sweet thing...”

“Are you gonna be an asshole like this all night?” you ask, breathless but trying to redeem some of your dignity through what little wit you have left.

He laughs, sinking a finger into your heat just to watch the pleasure ripple across your face, “Don’t pretend like you don’t love it.”

And he’s right of course. You do love it, love the way he comments on how wet you are for him, almost mocking. Love the way he’s taking his time to find the most sensitive parts of your body and using them to his advantage. You let out a breathy moan as his finger brushes your G-spot.

The sound must do something to him because within a second he's attaching his mouth to your pussy with a growl, not even bothering to remove your panties before doing so. The heat of his tongue on your clit as his finger works that sweet spot inside of you turns your breathy moan into one much louder.

He’s good with his mouth because of course, he is. Within moments you feel like you're right on edge. And the smug bastard knows it too if the amused glint in his eyes is anything to go by. Your one hand twists in his curls, encouraging his movements while your other works at your nipple.

“God,” you whine, tugging at his hair as you feel heat wind up your spine. You swear you’ve never felt this good. It only takes another flick of his tongue against your click before your orgasm rips through you, thighs attempting to squeeze around his head, stopped by his free hand holding your one leg open so he can work you through it. Your body twitches in its aftershocks, mewling pathetically when the simulation starts to ride that edge between pain and pleasure.

“It’s just Merriell, actually,” he supplies when he pulls away with a smirk.

“I fucking hate you,” you breathe out, pulling him up your body so you can kiss him again, despite your words. He laughs, moaning softly against your lips when your hand finds the bulge in his jeans.

He kisses you for a while, letting you paw at him for a bit before he pulls away to work them off his body. There’s no real rush, the high allowing you to take it slow and enjoy the moment as opposed to the frenzied fucking drinking tends to lead you to.

You whine and he laughs at you, low and cocky as he leans down for another wet kiss, “You hurtin’ that bad for it, baby?”

You beam up at him from your place on the couch, feeling comfy and sexy with the way his eyes trail across your skin, leaving a tingling feeling in their wake. You shrug, watching with interest as he rids himself of his briefs, admiring his cock as he awaits your response.

“It’s been a while,” You say, distracted as you anticipate the stretch required for your body to accommodate him, ‘I’m excited, sue me.”

His hands use your hips to drag you closer to him, lifting one leg onto his shoulder while letting the other wrap around his body. He leans down to kiss you and you only have half a second to wonder the last time your legs were stretched like this before the feeling of his cock at your entrance steals the breath from your lungs.

Your mouth drops open, a moan caught in your throat as he slowly sinks into you. Your eyes roll back, shamelessly enjoying the stretch as he sinks, inch by slow, pleasurable inch. He continues the slowness, but you’re not sure he’s doing so on purpose.

When your eyes focus again you see the definition of bliss on his face as he thrusts slowly in and out of you, moaning lowly in his throat.

“Fuck,” he says, drawing the word out through gritted teeth, “that’s it, takin’ me so good.”

His thrusts begin to pick up, still fucking you slowly but with more force behind them. Each sharp movement of his hips as the tip of his cock dragging sweetly against the deepest parts of you, and it feels so fucking good. In the moment, it’s intense. He’s folded over you, holding your leg against your chest so he can suck and bite at your neck as he fucks you. You can’t help the filthy moans you let loose in his ear, one hand fisted in his hair while the other digs your nails into the smooth skin of his back.

“Merriell,” you gasp, feeling distinctly insane with the pleasure you're feeling. Your head drops back onto the couch, body jolting with each thrust of his hips. It’s good, god, it’s so good. But the need that burns through your veins makes you impatient, “Let me ride you.”

The words are out of your mouth before you can stop them, but it’s a suggestion he is clearly open to acting upon. He quickly pulls out, sitting back in his original position and pulling you on top of him.

“Be my gu-” he doesn’t finish his sentence, instead tapering off into a moan as you waste no time in sinking down on to him again, “Christ,”

You waste no time. Quickly stabling yourself with your hands on his shoulder and maneuvering yourself up and down on his cock. Now it’s your turn to watch him. Watch him as his eyes roll back and his hands grip your hips with a vice-like grip. That smirk never strays from his face though, clearly enjoying himself.

“You look so pretty like this,” he talks, bringing a hand down on your ass again, loving the way it spurs you on, “talk to me baby, tell me how it feels.”

You moan, loud and borderline pornographic, “You feel so good,” you breathe, biting harshly down on his lip, savouring the growl that vibrates through the both of you, “Oh, fuck, Merriell, you feel so good,” You emphasize your words with a particularly good roll of your hips.

You can tell he’s getting close by the way his hips start to snap upwards to meet yours and the way his brows furrow in concentration, “Fuck, baby girl,” he groans, unaware at the way the nickname makes you melt, “tell me you’re getting close. I wanna feel you cum around my cock.”

You nod immediately, pulling on his hair so you can capture his lips harshly, letting him bite your lip and pull your hips frantically against his own, “yes,” you whimper, “yes, yes, fuck imgonnacum,” you rush out, feeling like every touch he’d ever laid on you compiling into this one moment. It’s completely overwhelming and for a moment, you blackout.

When you come to he's kissing at your neck, hands massaging and pull at your ass, helping you ride of the aftershocks of your orgasm. His sounds have turns high and desperate against your neck, hands gripping at your skin so hard you think you’ll have bruises tomorrow. He needs you to keep going. Give him something.

The small, dare you say whimpery, “Oh baby, please,” has you moving quickly, almost as desperate to make him finish as he is to finish.

In the blink of an eye, you’ve lifted yourself off of him and onto your knees in front of him, quickly enveloping his entire length into the warmth of your mouth.

“Oh fuck, baby,” He moans urgently, both hands coming to tangle in your hair as you work your mouth over his cock, eyes trained on his face, “Fuck, I can’t-”

You hum, encouraging and within seconds you feel him reach his climax. His head thrown back, hips twitch upwards into the welcoming heat of your mouth, a low long moan pulled from his throat. He lets you bring him down, continuing to suck and lick softly at his spent cock, eyes lazily following your every movement.

When he finally pulls you up off the floor it’s to kiss you, lazy and heated. You collapse basically on top of him as you kiss, unbothered by the smallness of the couch and the cold air that bites at your cooling skin. He makes a noise in his throat when you pull away, watching in amusement as his eyes barely open to look at you.

“‘M so fuckin’ high.”

It pulls a laugh from you, bubbling up from your chest. He smiles, bright, relaxed and dazzling, “Hope you weren’t plannin’ on kickin’ me out because ‘m not movin’ for a while,”.

You rest your head on his chest, letting yourself sink into the moment with him, your own high coming back to you as you bask in the post-sex haze.

“You're still gonna get me discounted tattoos though right?"

[thomotomo]

“Oh shit”

Pairing: Zach Dempsey x Trans Male Reader

Summary: You get caught by your crush in your binder in the changing room.

Words: 2.3k

You walked inside the changing room, having waited for everyone to leave it. Luckily for you after PE class you had a hour hole where you didn’t had class allowing you to wait until you were sure that everyone had left the room until you could change in peace.

You walked inside and went straight to your locker, the faster you did it, the faster you could go do something else. You took off your clothes and reached for the one you usually wore. You heard a bang echoing through the room along with footsteps going quickly.

You tried to put your shirt above your naked torso but the stress along your internal prayer for that person not being Bryce had made you end up in a tangled mess with nearly nothing covered, especially not the one you wanted to hide. The person stopped in front of you and you barely kept a sigh of relief when you noticed it was only Zach, your crush. Great.

You then remembered that you still didn’t put your shirt on and you turned your back to him to change quickly, face burning with shame. He had hidden his face in his hands, it was

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t knew there was s-someone else!”, he spoke up first and you could feel that he was at least as ashamed as you were.

“I-It’s nothing.”

“No no! I’m really sorry. Erm I-I just forgot something in my locker..”

He quickly went over his locker as you finished to put all your clothes on.

“Are you decent?”, he asked, still not facing you and you were glad he respected your boundaries.

“It’s… It’s okay. Erm thanks for not… looking.”

“O-Of course! It’s normal! It’s your privacy after all!”

You smiled at him shyly before remembering that you could do anything and you were craving a hot chocolate from Monet’s. You opened your mouth just as he did and you looked at each other and smiled awkwardly .

“Maybe we should go outside first?”

He agreed and you left the room, Zach right behind you. You walked in the corridor and went outside the building in silence, which was quite awkward in your opinion. You stopped once you were far enough from the school building.

“I didn’t knew you were hum…” he stopped himself when you dead panned at him and he flushed a bright red.

“I- No I didn’t mean like that because of course you don’t want anyone to know about it but… Okay I’m going to shut up.”

“Yeah.”

Both of you stood there awkwardly and you were shuffling your feet but as it seemed he wasn’t about to say something more.  You took a step backward and smiled at him.

“I’ve gotta go… See you later.”

“See you later!”

You left him there and went to Monet, ordered a hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows on the top. You sat at a table hidden in a corner as you thought about the strange interaction you just had with Zach. You really hoped he wouldn’t say anything about it because if he did you were in deep shit.

At least he had seemed a bit flustered and pretty with what he saw so maybe it was a good sign? You really didn’t knew but hoped nothing wrong was going to happen following that.

You decided to bury these bad thoughts by drinking and listening to music allowing yourself to relax a bit before your last period. You sat here, comforted by the coffee’s atmosphere, really this was your favourite place in the whole town. Your phone rang, indicating that it was time for you to leave for class.

You took your backpack, leaving a small tip for the waitress and went back to the school meeting up with Alex at your locker. Both of you discussed heartily about the last exams you had to take in that class which was AP Biology. You sat inside the classroom next to each other, hoping that you won’t get a bad grade. You tried to ignore the feeling of someone watching you as you were pretty sure it was Zach. You never hated more the fact that he was in your class than right now.

The teacher walked inside and you shut up as she started talking about the exams you passed few weeks back. She pulled them out and went to distribute them around the class. You grinned at Alex as you see your mark, it was above what you had hoped for: 96!

He looked a bit disappointed as he got “only” 78 but you offered to help him to work on the points he might not have fully understood. Right after that the teacher decided you had to do an assignment in duo. You waited until he told more, hoping that maybe you could do it with Alex but sadly she was going to partner you with someone. You listened as Ms. Honecker paired people together and sadly/luckily for you, you ended up with Zach. From one side you were happy because you knew he was working well on the other side you knew it was going to be awkward.

You heard that Alex was paired up with Monty you smirked at him and watched Alex turn a bright shade of red until he swatted you on the arm.

“Shut up. You’re no better!”

“Firstly, I didn’t say anything and second, that’s true. But I’m not the red one!”

“You were thinking so loud it’s practically the same! Of course, you teased me first!”

“Now please go with your partners! This work has to be returned to me for the first week of next month! Good luck everyone.”

You took your backpack and went to meet Zach where he was seated and you nodded at him feeling a bit awkward (just as you predicted, congrats you can now open a fortune teller salon!). You sat next to him and took out your textbook.

“Do you want to come to my house after class? We could start writing a bit more about the subject.”

“Yeah good idea… So… What do you want to start the searches on?”

Both of you worked for the two hours, searching through the textbook interesting info about genes and evolution, sometimes discussing about what particular species you wanted to concentrate on to talk about their evolution and genes that had been kept or not through their evolution.

It was quite interesting and Zach seemed really into Biology and you liked that he was as much a fan of this subject as you were. You were clearly going to have fun for this assignment with him. The two hours went quickly and you packed up your things.

“I…Have to go to my locker and talk to Alex. Do you mind if we meet each other in say… 10 minutes?”

“Good for me!”

You left the classroom, meeting with Alex in the corridor. He grinned smugly at you and you sticked out your tongue at him.

“So? You seemed quite cosy with Zach back there huh?”

“Shut the fuck up Alex! You seemed quite at ease yourself if you want to know!”

“Mmh yeah. And fuck his arms are huge if you want to know!”, he recalled, licking his lips.

“Nope! I don’t want to know more! Especially if you want to describe me some kind of fantasies about him!”, he laughed at you as you reached the lockers.

“I won’t be able to walk with you. Zach and I are going to work on the project.”

“Yeah sure thing “work” I know what kind of work you want to do!”, he did quotation marks with his hands as your face was feeling quite hot at the thoughts of it. You swatted his arm with your hand.

“You’re not better! So, I’m going to go, see you tomorrow Alex and you better tell me that you got that dick instead of harassing me.”

He flipped you off as you walked away to meet Zach. He was scrolling on his phone and straighten out when he noticed you walking toward him.

“You good?”

“Yep we can go!”

He grinned at you and oh my god that was such a beautiful smile. You stood there stunned for a few seconds before following him to his car. You went in and he drove you to his house in a comfortable silence.

When you reached his house, you were quite in awe, it was quite big and pretty fancy (at least on the outside but you were betting that inside it looked quite as beautiful). You walked inside and woaw the inside looked fancy as fuck too, more in a modern way but you were sure that this sofa costed as much as you manga collection. There was a girl seated on said sofa and Zach ruffled her hair.

“This is May, my little sister! May this is Y/N he’s my partner for an assignment.”

“’Sup! So, you’re Y/N? Nice to meet you!”

“Likewise.”, you smiled at her, wondering if Zach talked about you seeing as she seemed to “recognize” you.

You followed Zach to his room and both of you sat on the ground and took out your things. He put on some music in the background and both of you started working on the evolution of the whale and you had fun debating on what interesting part to chose to speak about and more generally discussing about biology.

At a moment you were quite close from each other as you showed him something on your phone. You felt your face burning, trying to ignore this proximity as he read the article on your phone. You had worked for an hour when you decided to take a break from the work.

As Zach was to the bathroom you sent a message to your dad, telling him you won’t be back before 7pm because you were working with Zach. You closed your phone as he walked back in the room with cookies.

“I took some cookies if you want to eat.”

“That’s awesome thanks Zach!”

You took one and ate it as you looked at the room. It was big and a lot of basketball and baseball stars, a classic jock room in your opinion. You felt Zach’s curious gaze on your face and you looked up at him.

“You want to ask something right?”

“Ah! Erm yes… I mean only if that doesn’t bother you…”

“It depends if it’s invasive or not.”, you shrugged, trying to play it cool.

“I was wondering… Does anyone else know?”

“Apart from Alex and my parents nope. I mean that’s kinda the point?”, the question seemed a bit weird because that was obviously the point for nobody to know about that except people with whom you felt wouldn’t do anything to you because of this. But you “let it slide” because it was probably the first time he was faced with this situation.

“Yes… Sorry I… I’m curious but yeah I should shut up.”

You laughed quietly and went back to your cookie you noticed on a shelve the Attack on Titan manga. You quickly finished to eat the cookie and pointed at the shelve, deciding it would be a good way to change the conversation and make it less awkward.

“You like manga?”

“Ah yes! My mom bought me the 1st tome for me to try and at first I was sceptic but I really enjoyed it! Did you read it?”

“Obviously! It’s like in my top 10 favourite manga!”

You grinned as you found another common interest apparently. You discussed about manga for a good ten minutes before you continued to work on the assignment. You had found maybe like 2 pages of sources when the time came for you to go back home. You started to gather your things and Zach did the same, putting everything on his computer.

You took your backpack and Zach accompanied you downstairs and to the front of his house.

“Hey, I can bring you back to your house if you want?”

“Oh, that would be awesome, really thanks a lot.”

He nodded and took his car keys and you sat next to him in the passenger seat, giving him your address so he could drive you. The ride was spent in discussing contrary to the earlier ride.

Once you arrived in front of your house you took your backpack and got out of the car, Zach doing the same. You looked at him curiously as he fiddled with his car keys.

“So… Y’know I wanted to say that erm… I don’t mind who are…”

“Zach what the fuck does this-“, you frowned at him, clearly he was acting weird and this sentence’s formulation was definitely a bit offensive. You weren’t being yourself for people to mind it.”

“I-I’m sorry. Shit I didn’t mean it like that! What I meant is like… I- fuck that.”

“Wha-?”

He took your face between his hands and kissed you. Your eyes widened comically, you didn’t knew he arbored those kind of feelings toward you. After a few seconds he freed you and was visibly blushing, just like you were feeling your face burning.

“I didn’t knew how to say that so… I really like you and-”

“Me too!”, you blurted and put your hand in front of your mouth as you saw him laugh gently at you.

“I’m really sorry if I hurt you earlier… I really didn’t want to say things like that…”

“I understand.. But be careful next time…”

“Yep I’ll do my searches to avoid any mishaps ever again! Can… I have your number maybe?”

“Of course!”

You took out your phone and exchanged numbers, you were biting your lower lips, happy with the ending of the day. His phone vibrated with what seemed with a message of his mother and he looked sadly at you.

“I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“See you tomorrow Zach;”

You smiled at him and he took you once again by surprise by giving you a peck on the lips before getting back in his car, leaving you here with a giddy smile and a fast-paced beating heart.

________________

A/N: Thanks for reading it! I hope you enjoyed my fic don’t hesitate to like and reblog!  And if you want to support my writing please think about leaving me a tip on my Kofi

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

May I have a scenario/imagine, whichever makes more sense, of Trey, Rook, and Crewel trying to tame some sort of wild, magical invasive species of Poison Ivy that has taken over the greenhouse?

Crewel gives me perpetually disappointed wine aunt father vibes. This piece also lowkey turned out to be Trey x Rook, but you didn’t read that from me.

This imagine’s longer than my usual 1k word self-imposed limit, since it goes out to a friend of mine that’s been supporting me through final projects and exams. I’m not sure if they’d want me tagging them so publicly, but they know who they are.

Imagine this...

To Professor Crewel’s chagrin, members of the Science Club had never had strong academic intent. In actuality, the club was a thinly veiled excuse to bake cakes (just to find the perfect ratio of leaveners and sweeteners!) and to stalk watch students in their natural habitats (nothing wrong with an impromptu observational study, right?). Instead of test tubes and beakers, the lab benches were littered with cake pans and photographs of unsuspecting Savanaclaw students.

“I do wish you two would take this club more seriously,” Crewel would often gripe, fingers massaging his temples. “Science is not a play thing, it is a powerful tool with which we can use to redefine and reshape the world around us.”

Such were the woes of an instructor--but today, he had no time to lament.

Crewel’s jaw tightened as he gazed upon a sprawling mess--the shattered glass panes of the Botanical Garden, with massive stalks of ivy reaching for the skies. Casualties lined the ground--plants and flowers drained dry of their life, all withered and decayed. The ivy writhed in glee.

(He shouldn’t have been surprised that the headmaster summoned him and the Science Club to resolve the issue instead of hiring a real exterminator.)

“How unseemly,” Crewel noted, clicking his tongue. “Running amok and ruining so many of the specimens we’ve carefully cultivated... This shall not go unpunished.”

He glanced over his shoulder.

“Clover.”

“Yes.” Trey stepped forward, his magical pen ready.

“Hunt.”

“Oui.” Rook followed suit, smoothly drawing forth his own pen.

“The time has come to prove your mettle,” Crewel announced, rapping his pointer against his palm. His onyx eyes seethed with a quiet, controlled rage. “Show this overgrown weed what the Science Club is truly capable of.”

At his command, the boys nodded and tore off toward the Botanical Garden.

Crewel held his ground. The corners of his mouth curled into a condescending smirk as he addressed the poison ivy. “Come here.”

An arm of ivy flew at him, so fast that it was but a blur.

An alive, but livid, blur.

“Heel!”

A column of fire erupted from Crewel’s pointer. His attack slammed against the plant, settings its leaves awash in embers. The rogue plant let out a sky-splitting roar.

The battle had just begun.

Trey ducked under an arc of burning ivy and threw open the door to the Botanical Garden. Tucking his limbs in, he barreled through right as more ivy snaked in to seal off the entrance once more.

He could feel the heat upon his back, the earth quaking under his feet, and Rook close behind him--yet he willed himself to keep his eyes glued ahead, even as he launched across the threshold and into a terrifying new realm.

The inside of the greenhouse now glistened with ivy--covering the glass panes, slowly strangling what few plants remained. The Botanical Garden had always been warm before, but it was unusually so today. Sweltering, and almost so humid that the floors and walls seem to eerily pulsate with life.

“Keep your wits about you, and don’t look back, boys,” Crewel had instructed them. “Just get in there, and cut it off at its source--at the heart.”

Trey’s eyes darted this way and that. Green, green, green. It all looked the same to him. Where in the world was the point of origin?

“Got any ideas?!” He glanced over his shoulder at his partner--and his protective goggles nearly went askew.

Rook had dropped to one knee, pressing a gloved hand against the floor--now a carpet of vines. “Hoooh! What a fascinating specimen!” he marveled. “Such destructive power, and yet it also sports this emerald sheen... Très manifique!”

“H-Hey... No offense, but I don’t think now’s the time to stop and sniff the roses. Or, well. I guess it would be ivy in this case.”

“Non, non! There is always time for beauty--even in dire situations!” Rook insisted, his hands continuing to grope around. His eyes suddenly creased, and his smile turned sly. “Ah, te voilà.”

“Even if you say that, that’s not going to help us fix this...!!”

“Calm yourself, Chevalier des Roses,” Rook advised with an airy laugh. He cupped a hand to his ear and beamed. “Listen closely! Surely even your own heart beckons you to still your worries.”

“Heart?” Trey straightened, adamant as he folded his arms. “Sorry, but I just don’t believe in stuff like that. Come on, Rook. We need to focus--Crewel-sensei’s trusting us with this task.”

He cast a concerned glance at the doorway, ensnared in vines. They’d have to blast their way through later--but if they stayed in this space for too long, they, too, would soon be drained of all their life force. “We can’t just mess around!”

“Ah--but you must put your faith in me as well, Chevalier des Roses!” Rook insisted, pointing to the patch of floor that he had been not-too-subtly groping earlier. “I implore you to lend me your strength!”

“You want me to attack the gr--?!” Trey froze mid-sentence. He had become vaguely aware of a gentle sensation creeping around his ankles.

In an instant, he was yanked into the air, dangling upside down like a useless rag doll. Blood rushed to his head, and his surroundings spun.

“Chevalier des Roses!!”

“I’m fine!! I-I’m fine!” Trey called--though he clearly wasn’t. “I can just--” He waved his magical pen, the air growing tense as a small ball of fire collected at his command.

“Non!” Rook warned, startling his classmate. “There is nothing to cushion your descent, mon amie! You will surely break a leg--and certainly not in the theatrical sense!”

He’s right. Trey’s fire extinguished itself, replaced by a chill crawling down his spine.

“A little help then?!”

Rook’s eyes widened. “You would give me your trust?”

“Not exactly like I have any other choice.” Trey would shrug, but it was a rather difficult motion to pull off while suspended midair--and far more troublesome, his veins ran cold. It was a sure sign of the ivy sapping his energy.

“Have no fear! Today, it shall be my turn to be the chevalier.” The hunter grinned from ear to ear, magical pen in hand.

“Please, Rook! Any day now--before I become plant food!” Trey’s voice was hoarse--from exasperation, or from the magical ivy, he wasn’t quite sure. Perhaps both.

“Just for today, I shall be your Chevalier D’amour.”

And with a confident wink, Rook plunged the ivy-covered floor into a sea of flames.

The accursed plant wailed as it shriveled to ash upon a backdrop of billowing smoke. Embers flickered and danced in the afternoon, the Botanical Garden set ablaze. Crewel took a step back, grimacing at the growing fire.

A figure emerged from the greenhouse, carrying another. The professor squinted into the smoke, pinpointing the familiar outline of his Science Club members--Rook, cradling a pale-looking Trey in his strong arms.

“Puppies.” Crewel pinched his temples.

“C’est chose faite--it is now done.” The brim of Rook’s hat eclipsed his eyes, making the typically cheery hunter appear dark to match his tone. Then he lifted his head, basking in the sunshine, and that somber moment was over. “All is well and good again, as it should be!”

“I... I thought I was going to die,” Trey groaned. “... And Rook, I appreciate you catching my fall, but you didn’t need to carry me out like you’re an action hero in a movie or something.”

“Are you able to still stand after an attack from that heinous plant?”

“Yeah. Just put me down.”

“Oui.”

Trey stood on shaky legs--and instinctively leaned on Rook’s shoulder.

“Well, boys. You’ve exterminated the ivy--as well as just about every other plant in the Botanical Garden. How exactly do you intend to atone for this?!” Crewel snapped, whipping his pointer at his students. “I believe my instructions were quite clear--destroy only the heart of the ivy.”

“The fault lies with me, Monsieur,” Rook declared, dipping into a bow. “We dallied for longer than was necessary, and in a moment of panic, I unleashed my magic.”

“Always one with a flair for the dramatic. Unfortunately, that will not serve you well in detention, Hunt.”

“Wait. Crewel-sensei, that’s not the whole story,” Trey interrupted. “Rook got me out of a pinch--and he deserves credit for that. He’s also the one that found out where the ivy’s heart was--buried in the floor itself. I didn’t realize until it was too late.”

The professor’s lips pursed into a straight line. “Clover, are you confessing to your own negligence?”

“I am.” He nodded firmly. “I’m the one that deserves the detention.”

“Trey-kun is not responsible!” Rook protested. “He is the one that attempted to set us on the right path. I refused to heed his advice, which led to events escalating.”

“I didn’t listen to Rook when he tried to tell me about what I needed to do.”

“I should have phrased it more concisely.”

“You--”

“Trey-kun--”

“Enough. It is clear to me that both of you contributed to this chaos.” Crewel sighed. “... Hunt, take Clover to the infirmary. I will put out the fire myself.

“... Are you letting us go?”

“Of course not. Once you’ve recovered, Clover... you boys will be restoring plants in the Botanical Garden for the remainder of the semester as punishment.”

“Ahhh, I should’ve known. Riddle’s not gonna like this at all.”

“Chin up, Chevalier des Roses! At the very least, we shall have each other’s company!” Rook laughs, smacking Trey on the back and sending his peer nearly doubling over.

Crewel sighed once more--he was disappointed, but not surprised.

His Science Club puppies still had a long way to go.

[vegalocity]

I have to ask for another Jasmintea because I love your writing so Kisses 15 and 28 and Touches 24, please. Preferably in Sandy’s perspective but you can do Tang’s if you want

Affection meme

15. Soothing kisses

28. Neck Kisses

24. Whispering in their ear, lips touching the skin

I don’t think we done any Jasminetea stuff where Tang is Just Some Guy, so i’m gonna do that here because it’s my favorite theory (like everyone else has some deep connections to the classic Pilgrims, Tang is just Some Guy, it’s hilarious)

@tigerseye46

--

He knew the way trauma worked, that sometimes, even long after you’ve processed and moved on, it can still hit you again. It’s one of the things he’d learned rather quickly after starting therapy. His therapist had wanted him to understand that first and foremost so he could better handle these moments as they came and not begin to think that he may be ‘getting worse’ or something along the same lines.

Thankfully he was always content with being the odd duck in his little family, new and old members alike knew that he preferred solitude. While he enjoyed company and would be as pleasant as possible, while he’d do anything for his family, he just preferred the quiet. Which meant that when those sort of relapses happened and a trigger made its way straight into his panic response he was alone.

Well… not ALONE alone granted at least Mo and the other cats were always there, but alone-ish.

There was no point in bothering the others with it. The kids would just be worried, He’d rather Pigsy not find out, Eldest brother…. Likely already knew, he’d poked into his brother’s web history when they were at Flower Fruit Mountain he’d spotted ‘Do I have PTSD?’ in his search history, so it couldn’t have been hard for him to put two and two together.

But Tang…

He really didn’t want Tang to know.

It wasn’t exactly a hope that had any real chance at turning out in his favor, especially since through some minor miracle Tang had somehow gotten it into his head that he was actually someone worth desiring, and now they were… a thing… then surely it would be coming out sooner or later.

He’d just more realistically hoped that it would be on his own terms.

Not like this.

Not with him sealing himself in the water tight shower stall on his boat, letting the water run with the drain plugged until he was totally submerged because the water in the harbor was too dirty too slimy, too full of pollution and invasive mollusk species, it wasn’t the way water was supposed to be, but the only way he could feel okay right now was if he let his gills open up and breathe so he had to make do.

It wasn’t ideal. When he had these specific bouts he’d much rather just take the day, sail out until land was just a speck on the horizon and the ocean water felt much more right, but he didn’t have the option today, he really didn’t want to cancel the date he and Tang were going to go on tonight, and that coupled with the fact that he’d long since given everyone standing ‘always welcome aboard’ invites, that meant that anytime within at least fifteen minutes of the assumed meeting time, Tang was going to just show up, and he needed to be ready.

So this and then whatever yoga he could fit in the time between him calming down and the assumed date time would likely help him stabilize enough that he could handle tonight, at worst he might not stay for a cup of tea when he brought Tang home like the gentleman he wanted to be (and both Tang AND Pigsy would playfully mock him about being) and he could then take tomorrow for himself and do his usual plan.

He knew better than to get frustrated, days like this were just part of the process, he should be glad His bad days didn’t usually try to bring out the rage that had (for the most part) become quiet.

Then there was a tapping on the glass, disturbing the water and making an echoey ‘thunk thunk’ that startled him from his meditation. He flailed and the water sloshed and swirled around him with his motions, as he turned in the direction of the threatthreatthreatthreat the noise.

Tang was peering in on the other side, eyes wide and curious.

“Did I come at a bad time?” his voice was distorted and muffled between the glass and the water but Sandy heard him all the same, his heart a panicked flutter in his chest when did Tang even get there? Why was he here so early? Or- or was he on time? Did he lose track of time? He couldn’t lose track of time like that! Not when he still wasn’t better, not when being outside the water made his skin too dry and his hair too stiff and his gills close up and notsafenotsafenotsafenotsafe-

He wasn’t ready yet. He wasn’t ready yet! He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out he wasn’t better yet.

It seemed Tang quickly began to pick up on what was going on, much to Sandy’s equal relief and embarrassment, curious eyes turning sad for a moment, before the thoughtful gears began to turn. He nodded to himself and held up a hand.

-Before standing and calmly leaving him to his devices.

The part of him that was still screeching and refusing to calm insisted that it was better this way, but he still couldn’t help but miss the company, however brief it was.

Tang was always a bit… energetic… in comparison to Pigsy or himself (even back when they were young! (when Pigsy and Tang were young at least)) a bit of a thrillseeker even if he didn’t overtly appear as such. But he was glad that he at least had the good sense to just leave Sandy to his devices, perhaps fixing himself some tea and settling down with a book, allowing Sandy the time he needed before he was ready, honestly Tang was just such a great guy already it did quite a bit to settle his mind to be assured that he was going to be patient with him when it came to this, should it happen again (he hoped not for a long time, but his hands weren’t anywhere near done shaking yet so these ‘unsafe’ moods might start making themselves more frequent again.

And then Tang burst back into the room, shed of his outer layers and clad only in his undershirt and boxers and a stepladder, determined grin looking far too cute for the pieces Sandy was quickly putting together. It didn’t take much for his head to go above water so he could speak, he technically just hand to arrange himself so he was sitting on his knees instead of rear and straighten his back, and Tang had the look in his eye that implied this was probably going to be an ‘academic debate’ he’d lose--Several argument points and a fair few more rebuttals already on the tip of his partner’s tongue as he set the stepladder at the base of the shower and started attempting to heave himself over the edge of the shower walls--so he did so to both be able to speak and to better make a bit of room.

“Studies! Have! Shown! -huff huff- that! Acts! Of-!” A yelp cut Tang off as his grip nearly slipped and sent him backward, Sandy jolted, about to stand up to help but Tang regained his footing and held out a hand to wave him off as he finally was half tilted on the top of the glass shower wall, resting for a moment before trying to heave the rest of his body over the edge. “Where was I? Right, acts of solidarity are better for recovery in the long run than simply allowing the person who needs it to stew on their own.” And then with one final scrabble against the glass Tang braced himself and dropped.

And would have completely bashed his head against the showerhead if Sandy didn’t reach out and properly lower him onto the tile.

Instantly he watched his partner freeze up, stiffen and hands suddenly clamp around his chest as the temperature of the water hit him at once.

“Wow that’s cold!”

Sandy hummed and prepared to help him back out but Tang took a breath and dunked his head and shoulders underwater briefly to be properly soaked before resurfacing, pushing his hair back in a way that had no business being so pretty while Sandy was still in the middle of freaking out. “Much better.”

“Can you talk right now?” Quite the question. Talking while his gills were open was always a bit of a hit or miss situation. Sometimes it just made his voice sound a bit garbled, but if he had just surfaced from the water-

He held out a hand infront of his mouth and tested, and sure enough nothing but the faintest huff came out. So he just shook his head in the negative and smiled to try and relay a quick apology.

Tang hummed. “Yes or no questions then.” He was too good. He’d clearly researched this whole thing long ago and had been preparing what to do when the time came ever since, not coming out and saying so, but being prepared when the opportunity arose.

In a strange way it sort of reminded him of something Master would do… He really needed to get back in contact with Sanzang actually, But what would he say to him? Would master even recognize him after everything that had changed? Would he be upset that he’d tracked down Middle Brother’s reincarnation and hadn’t immediately gone to tell him? Or keeping the fact that Eldest Brother was starting to participate in the world around them again and hadn’t immediately gone to him and told him he was right in anticipating Sun Wukong’s eventual return? Would he just be upset with him for how long it had been since they’d spoken? They used to all be so close would the gap that would have formed be so wide and massive that they may as well be strangers again-

“Can I touch you?” Tang broke through his quickly spiraling thoughts calmly. Sandy peered down into the water again and saw him wringing his hands nervously.

He nodded.

“Just push me off if it gets uncomfortable.” Tang paused for a moment. “Not too hard though, Pigsy might say i have a hard head but I don’t know if it would handle collision with tile”

Sandy was able to get a quick laugh out of that, though it came out as silent as anything else with his throat and lungs full of water.

He opened his arms and Tang slotted comfortably inside. It was a bit awkward, since he had to make sure his partner could keep his head above water, but it was manageable, quickly Tang braced himself on Sandy’s shoulders and began to press gentle kisses to what exposed skin was above water.

And it was a bit embarrassing how quickly it was calming the raging storm in his mind. Just… the presence of another warm body against his but still cool and protected by the water around him, it made a shiver crawl up his spine but… in a pleasant way.

Tang pressed himself a little further against Sandy’s chest, mouth resting on the space between his cheek and ear. “I’ll shut up now.”

He wished he knew how that little insecurity got its way into Tang’s head. The man was one of the most confident people he knew, (save Big Brother, but nobody could shake the confidence of Sun Wukong.) and he would show unshakeable he was under cruel words every time they were aimed at him, hell, his primary method of rapport with Pigsy was the both of them bullying eachother relentlessly (in their own words too!) but for some reason once they got romantically involved Tang kept making self-deprecating jokes about being ‘annoying’ and ‘talking too much’ and Sandy’s heart ached when he couldn’t help but wonder how many relationships Tang had been in that crumbled from his supposed ‘annoying’ nature.

Tang took then to take a gasping breath and plunged beneath the water. Sandy was worried for a moment, but then it seemed like Tang knew exactly what he was doing, quickly pushing aside the floating beard hair and wriggling his face in to get near his neck, and for a moment Sandy froze. His gills were still gently pushing and pulling the water through his system and even though he knew Tang would never (intentionally) hurt him his body stiffened as his face (Mouth, teeth, he knows how painful it is to have air blown into your gills he hates it he hates it what’s Tang gonna do he has him at his mercy now) came near such a sensitive part of his body.

Tang placed a gentle kiss on his neck, right over the topmost gill and pulled back out, taking a gasping breath upon surfacing.

“You know, today might just be a good day for one of those low energy ‘Stay in’ dates, wouldn’t you agree?” He was so good.

Too good for him.

But still Sandy nodded and Tang smiled at him in that handsome broad way again before taking another breath and plunging back down.

--

send me stuff!

[bastsoldtrollblog]

Raz didn’t feel certain about raising a dragon hatchling, but the only alternative was selling the egg. And he didn’t go through the trouble of slaying a true dragon just for financial recompense.

True dragons were mysterious beasts. Unlike their pseudo counterparts, true dragons were massively magical, and highly intelligent- Certainly, equal or greater than any troll, mage or not.

He only knew about them through hearsay. Some claimed they could shapeshift, and thus weren’t as rare as most believed. Others felt they were the true Alternian race, but had long since died out, whittled down by the more numerous and rapidly multiplying invasive species of troll.

Raz wasn’t fond of those conspiracy theory-esque rumors; There was nothing to back them up, not even remotely.

He first sought whatever information he could on true dragons. It was difficult, first having to avoid alerting Cerres or other members of the Forest Circle- They’d certainly be furious at him for needlessly slaying a true dragon- Then having to sift through mountains of information on pseudo dragons mislabeled as true ones. 

Pseudo dragons were smaller, lighter, weaker, and as intelligent as any other beast. They were confined by the limitations of physics. Too big, and they would crush themselves with their own weight. They were poor fliers, only capable of gliding, and their flames reached a few hundred degrees at most, as opposed to the several thousand degree heat that burned Raz’s arm through a magical shield.

He learned of a few fellow mage’s attempts to hatch true dragon’s eggs. The results varied. In one case it seemed the mother, left alive, found her hatchling and nearly killed the mage who’d taken her egg. In another, the hatchling ran away within a few perigees. Another still seemed successful even after several sweeps, but the author’s journal ended suspiciously abruptly. Of course their untimely end could have easily been unrelated to the hatchling, but being slain by the hatchling after raising it to adulthood wasn’t a possibility he could just ignore.

It was risky. The intelligence of a true dragon couldn’t be compared to that of a troll, because they acted both lke a beast, and like a troll. They could be unpredictable, prone to acting on instinct, while also capable of acting out of emotion, capable of seeking revenge.

Ultimately, it was a risk he was going to take.

Whether the reason was some lingering remorse or just because he was too stubborn to sell the damn thing, it didn’t matter. He was going to raise this hatchling.

The second thing to do was actually hatch it. Returning to the nest site, he determined that the rocks the egg had been buried in had been subjected to intense heat, but not enough to melt them. It was likely they were superheated and left to incubate the egg within.

After conducting a few tests he determined the exact temperature range that the egg should be subjected to, and returned hive to build an incubation setup.

Four carved, enchanted stones, taken from the nesting site for good measure. Three to make a base, and a fourth to sit atop the egg and provide more even heat distribution. Trying to rebuild the nest stone-for-stone would be clumsy and inelegant, and he didn’t expect the requirements for hatching to be so incredibly specific considering true dragon’s world-wide distribution.

Raz had already determined that the foetus was fully developed. Hopefully it didn’t have some other requirements to hatch besides heat.

He set up spells to monitor it closely, waiting for any signs of movement, and then went to handle the mother’s corpse.

He’d teleported it to the catacombs beneath his tower. Despite the time his research and preparation took, the corpse was still in pristine condition, both due to it’s natural preservative abilities and his own meddling. Not even a fly was allowed to land on it.

Raz decided to keep every scrap he could, for now. The outer scales, the hide, the claws, the teeth, the bones, were all carefully cleaned and sorted and put away in a chest in the tower. Only the skull remained in the catacombs.

Then, the blood, bodily fluids, fat and oils, all separated and put into barrels. Same with the flesh and innards, either jarred or barrelled depending on the size, and kept in the catacombs. Dragons rotted slowly, even in pieces, but he still took great care to preserve everything as perfectly as possible. They wouldn’t be of any use to him if they went sour.

It took some nervous weeks, but the egg finally hatched. Raz was out when it began- Teaching as Akirah- And it took him some time to dodge Cerres’ questions as to why he had to rush off so suddenly. By the time he got back hive, it was all but hatched, the egg having fallen off it’s pedestal and barely hanging on, punctured with jagged holes as the hatchling inside kicked and fought it’s way free.

Raz debated on whether or not he should help it, and decided to leave it until the last few moments when it was licking away the remaining yolk and removing the last scraps of shell.

He was correct in assuming it would take the same color as the mother. It was more vibrant, he thought, and it had black spines and horns. Something from the father or another forebear, perhaps.

Raz wondered if it might attack him immediately when he approached. Instead it just stopped what it was doing, and watched. It silently let him remove the bits of shell and clean it’s scales, simply watching.

After cleaning it, it continued to watch, as if waiting. Raz had no idea what to do here, so he decided to go with his gut.

“You hungry?”

He held out a hand towards it’s muzzle, and it sniffed him before turning it’s head away. It began to walk, a little unsteadily, shuffling over to the stairs.

He wondered if that were a yes, and followed it.

It hopped up the stairs, one by one. When it slipped down a few with a surprised chirrup, he hastily caught it, making sure it didn’t fall any further. It seemed utterly neutral to his touch.

It reached the floor above, it’s gait already more steady. Raz wondered where it was going, and then realized with horror that it was making a beeline for the chest in which he had stored it’s mother’s hide.

That suspicion was confirmed as it began to claw at the chest, scrabbling with tiny claws.

Raz swallowed the sensation of dread in his throat and went over to open the chest, unlocking it with a magical key. 

The hatchling immediately crawled into the chest, placing it’s feet on the rolled-up hide, the satchels of giant scales, the pile of claws and box of fangs.

It looked at these, nosed at the hide, and then looked at Raz. Waiting.

“[...Well, your mother’s dead. What do you want?]”

Raz opted to speak ancient Latin, since that was what it’s mother had spoken.

The dragon tilted it’s head slightly.

“[An explanation? An apology? If I brought her back, she wouldn’t be the same. It would be my attempt to raise you through her body.]”

Raz stepped forward to put a hand on the chest lid, and look down at the hatchling and the chest contents.

“[Do you understand?]”

“[I understand.]”

Raz narrowed his eyes at the dragon’s response. He wondered for a moment, how he could even determine how the dragon knew how to speak…

...Well, he could just ask, couldn’t he?

“[How can you speak? You just hatched.]”

“[Mother taught me.]”

“[In your egg?]”

“[Yes. She spoke to me.]”

Raz nodded, slowly.

“[How long did she speak with you?]”

“[A long time, I think.]” The dragon replied.

Raz sat down next to the chest. He figured this was going to be a long conversation.

“[Why did you kill Mother?]” The hatchling asked.

He winced. So it was aware of that, too. “[I don’t know.]”

The hatchling lowered it’s gaze, apparently unsure of how to take that.

“[Why did you hatch me?]” It continued.

“[Remorse, I guess. Plus your venom is quite useful.]”

“[Venom?]”

“[The stuff in your mouth that makes your fire.]”

The dragon remained silent. Raz opted to continue.

“[I’m quite old. Older than your mother was, I think. So I can teach you some useful things if you stick around.]”

“[Will you make me stay?]”

“[Hmm. No. I don’t want you to kill me.]”

“[You would deserve it.]”

“[Yeah, but I still don’t want to die.]” Said Raz evenly.

“[Neither did Mother.]”

“[I happened to be stronger than her. She knew that. She could have fled.]”

“[It was not her fault for choosing to try to save me.]”

Raz glanced downwards, and then nodded. “[It wasn’t, no. In the end I still killed her. I’m just trying to justify it.]” 

He rubbed his neck, and leaned back. He wondered if the hatchling were going to try to bite him, his throat was within range.

“[I will stay, and you will teach me things.]” Said the hatchling.

“[I don’t expect you to forgive me.]”

“[I will not.]”

“[Then we’ve come to an understanding. Did she give you a name?]”

“[No.]”

“[Can I give you one?]”

“[Yes.]”

“[You heard the one I picked already, didn’t you? Lykófos. How do you feel about it?]”

“[What does it mean?]”

“[‘Twilight’. It’s ancient Greek. I’ll teach you that, too. It’s older than Latin.]”

“[Thank you, then.]”

“[Call me Raz.]”

“[What does it mean?]”

“[Nothing, unfortunately.]”

“[Is it also ancient Greek?]”

“[...No, it- It has no meaning.]”

“[Ohh.]”

[asphyxiatedredherring]

Life is constantly putting up new obstacles for you to tackle, so how can you honor our Earth every day?

I'm here to help with that by sharing a list of 15 ways to honor Earth and be closer to nature whether you be in quarantine, an urban area, winter, or whatever situation you may find yourself in.

❁ Summer Jar ❁

I'm going to start off this list with a personal tradition, a summer jar or flower jar. What I do is I collect flowers (mostly just petals) and dry them right before summer starts transitioning out into autumn. I put all of these now dried petals and flowers into a small jar (with a lid). Now you are left with a jar full of color and life to get you through the winter. When spring comes around and flowers are blooming once again I spread them in my yard and leave the jar open until the end of summer.

❁ Your Alter ❁

An alter is a great way to honor the Earth. You can have something to symbolize each element, flowers you've collected, crystals, and so much more. I like to keep something that symbolizes the area I'm from, for me it's a fossil my dad found at his work. So much of witchcraft and paganism is nature based so adding in extra Earth elements isn't hard, Google for more Earthy alter ideas!

❁ Nature Walks ❁

Not everyone lives in an area around the woods or forest but that doesn't mean you can't take nature walks. If you live in an urban area go to a park, it's still nature even if it is outlined in tall office buildings. Even walking down the street notice dandelions in cracks of the sidewalk or birds hopping by, make sure the thank the Earth for making room for you to live. While in a social distancing situation that has sprung up these past few months you can still take a nature walk as long as you are not too close to people. Don't forget that just because you are socially distancing doesn't mean you can't be friendly, wave to neighbors as you pass just don't get too close. If you have access to a car go on a drive down the back rounds, it's a family favorite at my house.

❁ Meditation ❁

Meditating is something everyone can do! Grounding exercises are great, you can envision roots extending from your body into the Earth below you. I personally like to envision myself walking through the woods or in a creek when I need to clear my mind.

❁ Gardening ❁

A garden one of the best ways to connect with nature. There is so much symbolism you can put in your garden too, like specific flowers or color schemes for deities. You can grow herbs for your craft and cooking, fruits, veggies, or even just flowers. Gardens don't have to be very big, you could even go to a community garden. Gardening can also bring you closer to family if you fo it together or it can be a way to get some alone time. Gardening can also be a way to give back to Earth and the people around you, I'm sure your neighbors would love to be gifted from fresh produce!

❁ House Plants ❁

If you can't have a garden house plants are a great alternative. Plus, they won't be affected by weather outside. Some plants like spider plants are really good air purifiers, other plants like aloe have magick and medical uses. If you are worried about pets like your super cute cat you can try and find places the animal doesn't go like a bathroom. Don't forget to make sure a plant isn't toxic to pets before you buy it, just in case. House plants are a wonderful way to bring a little bit of Earth inside with you. Bonus points if you name your plants or talk to them.

❁ Crafts ❁

Making crafts with natural materials is so much fun! Going out to collect the supplies is half the fun. Crafting can be done so many different ways and in so many different mediums. Whether you like photography, drawing, painting, pottery, wood carving, metal working, or what ever else may float your goat the element of Earth can easily be added in. The internet if filled with countless crafts you can try to honor Earth if you want guidance or have artist block!

❁ Decor ❁

Decorating your room (or other space) with the earth element even works if you are broom closeted! You can spruce up your life and be more spiritual. You can decorate your place with earthy crafts, environmentally friendly products, crystals, a plant, a wooden sign, framed pictures, etc. Anything with those #EarthVibes!

❁ Clothes and Beauty ❁

What better way to honor Earth than use cruelty free products. You can check labels to see if your beauty and other self care products are not tested on animals, vegan, organic, contain micro plastics, and other things harmful to the environment. As for clothing I find it great to go to thrift stores for "new clothes" as well as donating my old clothes that either don't fit or I don't wear anymore. It can be great to support local stores rather than big name brands like American Eagle and it is way less expensive. Your clothes, jewelry, and makeup can even have an Earth theme to them. Brown and green tones are super earthy along with some rusty oranges. It doesn't need to be floral to be earthy!

❁ Food ❁

I am personally not a vegetarian or vegan but I am conscious of what I eat. I grow some of my own vegetables and I have a strawberry patch (witch is great for making jam). I try to eat organic or locally sources foods. If you live in a rural area try to get to know your local farmers. When you take food from the Earth you should always give back.

❁ Feathered Friends ❁

A family fun activity to get to know your Earth better is to go out and try to find some bird nests. Never get too close or disturb the nests or birds in any way, keep a respectful distance. It can be fun to keep an eye out and watch as the little babies grow. You could even go the extra mile and build (or buy if you aren't crafty) a bird box.

❁ Open the Windows ❁

Opening the windows is always wonderful. Houses and apartments can get stuffy so why not let Mother Nature give you fresh air. Opening windows gives opportunity to look and listen to the sounds of the Earth. Nothing is better than a breeze blowing through an open window.

❁ Cleanse Thyself ❁

I don't mean to break out the sage, I'm talking about a good old bath. Cleansing baths are great, you can add herbs, oils, scents, have candles, meditate, the whole shebang. But, if you are like me you only have a stand up shower then you can still have a good cleansing. Just envision all of the negative energies flowing down the drain. You can also save water (and money for new witchy supplies) by turning the water off while washing your hair, etc.

❁ Get Educated ❁

Learning about the natural history and features of your area can be really important. I love to study the geology of the mountains I'm from. You can learn about native flora and fauna and even what to do about invasive species. Education is a powerful weapon and and a tool of creation. The best way to get an understanding of the earth element is to learn about it. You can watch documentaries, read books, (credible) online articles, you can even talk to local people about the world around you. Part of learning about the earth could even be researching relevant deities.

❁ The 3 R's❁

Reduce, reuse, recycle: words we hear all the time but probably don't put enough thought into. Part of taking care of the earth is to keep it clean and not use to many of it's resources. This is such a broad category, you can reuse old containers to keep your witchy supplies in, cut back on the use of plastic and one use items, and recycle your trash so it can be made into new items. You can check out your local recycling place it there isn't a truck that picks it up on your street. There are so many ways to reduce your carbon footprint and reuse old products that seem usless. Check out upcycling, there are tons of trendy things you can do!

This is a repost of a post I made on the Pagan & Witch Amino a while ago

[iliumheightnights]

We Have A Jedi [5] | Peter Parker x M!Stark Reader

Fandom: Marvel and Star wars

Pairing: Tony Stark x Son!Reader, Peter Parker x M!Stark Reader

Summary: Janai takes (M/N) to finally meet someone. However they are interrupted by a troublesome invasion.

A/N: The Avengers FINALLY arrive! I loved writing this one a lot.

Read from the beginning

(M/N) watched out the cockpit window as the ship travelled through hyperspace. He was lost in thought, it had been months since his visions started and they’ve repeated countless times. When he spoke to master yoda about it, he was told to be wary of what they meant. Well that was a big help, not. He understood Yoda was wise and he respected the grandmaster tremendously, however he wished he could get a straightforward answer sometimes. He was brought out of his thoughts by his mother’s voice. “We’re here.” The stretched view of space became compact as the ship exited hyperspace. A green planet in front of them. “What planet is this? You never told me where we were going.” He could sense Janai’s tension. “That’s because this is a secret trip. You mustn't tell anyone we came here. This is Terra.” He looked back at the green and blue planet, it reminded him of Alderaan. Hopefully the people weren’t stuck up like the nobles there. “I’ve never been to Terra before.” She didn’t say anything to (M/N) as she brought the ship closer to the planet.

As the ship broke the atmosphere (M/N) saw a large city. It reminded him of Coronet on Corellia. However he noticed there were no ships entering or leaving, where’s the spaceport? Janai continued to pilot the ship into the nearby forest. Setting down the ship she activated the cloaking device so no one would stumble upon it by accident. “Here put these on.” She handed (M/N) some new clothes, they were still armor but more casual for a city setting. Janai got up and went to put on her own disguise. (M/N) opened the door of the ship and walked down the ramp. He had a strange feeling in his gut, it was like the planet was calling out to him. “Everything alright?” He turned and watched Janai walk down the ramp.

“I feel...strange. This whole planet seems familiar to me.” He turned back to the forest and looked past the trees to the city beyond. “It should, You were born here.” (M/N) felt his breath hitch. Born here? “What?” Janai paused. She let out a sigh before looking at him. “I’ve brought you here to finally meet your father. That’s why no one can know.” (M/N) turned back to the city, was his father here?

“You’re father is a man named Anthony Stark. He’s the head of a major company or at least he was the last time I was here. I’ll tell you more about him on our way. Follow Padawan.” she walked past him towards the city. Maybe this would have been the time. It was difficult for him to speak at first. “I...I know how I said I wasn’t ready to try being a family when we first started being together. And the truth is I’m still not sure if I’m completely ready, but...maybe we can try it?” He could see how she smiled a little at that. “Come on, we have a long day.”

They continued through the forest,heading towards the city. Doing so she started telling him about his father. “Your father and I met a long time ago, I was on a mission from the council to go into deep cover here on the planet to see if the empire was planning anything. My investigation turned up negative on the empire, But I found your father.” She had a large, bright smile that (M/N) rarely saw anymore. When she was truly happy.  “We were practically opposites in every way shape and form. We never got married or had a strong relationship-relationship, but we did have a strong connection. We loved each other. You know what the jedi think of attachment, I was very much still in that thinking. Then came you, and our lives changed forever. I decided to stay here, I informed the council that I had a strong connection with the force and felt that something was calling me here and they allowed me to stay. Life was going to be different, Until you started using the force. I knew that by keeping you here, someone else would come along and find you. Perhaps the sith would have, I couldn’t allow that.” She paused in her steps, turned and looked at him. “My first goal was and always will be to protect you and keep you safe. We may both be jedi, but you are my son.”

(M/N) wasn’t sure how to take that. As a jedi he should have told her to put duty before him. But as her son, he was glad that she cared for him so much. “So how did he take it?” She hesitated then sighed. “I...I never told your father. I just told him that I was taking you away and that it was to protect you and him. We haven’t seen each other since.” He only nodded. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say to that. They continued on their way in silence. (M/N) was trying to process everything she told him, while it looked like she was just facing the ghosts of the past. 

They eventually made it to the city. It was large and crowded, it felt almost like being back on coruscant but on a much smaller scale. Looking around he only saw humans. “Why are there only humans? I would have thought to have seen a couple of other species.” Janai smirked at him. “Terra or Earth as they call it, is what the republic calls an underdeveloped world. The technology of the planet has not reached extensive space flight or high technology. On this planet you will only see humans and not a single decent comlink.” (M/N) had heard of worlds like this before, but no one was really allowed to go to them. “So where are we headed?” She pointed towards a large tower. “See that tower? The one that says Stark. That’s where we’ll find your father.” Then her face dropped. “At least I think so.” (M/N) turned to look at her. “Well I suppose we better pick up the pa-”

Before he had a chance to keep talking a bright blue beam erupts from the top of the tower and into the sky. The beam opened a hole in the sky and several small ships started to fly out of it.

He returned to look at his mom who looked worried. “Master?” Janai’s face of worry was quickly replaced with her commanding face.. “Chitauri. Everyone get inside! Hurry!” People start panicking as the Chitauri start to fire on the city. Civilians rushing in and out of buildings. (M/N) ignited his lightsaber and started deflecting blaster bolts back onto the enemy. “(M/N) we need to head to the tower! That’s where the beam began!” He nodded. “Understood!”

The two started making their way through the burning streets. Fighting chitauri where they could and protecting civilians when needed. (M/N) wasn’t exactly sure how they were going to stop this without an army. He heard stories where Jedi have been able to stop entire fights with the force, he hoped that’s true.

(M/N) found himself running towards a group of people fighting chitauri. A man with a bow, a woman with two blasters, and a man in one bright red,white and blue suit and it looked like he was throwing a shield? Honestly not the strangest thing he’s seen on a battlefield. Rushing towards them, he jumped on top of a destroyed vehicle and jumped down on top of a chitauri about to strike the man in blue. The man turned and looked at (M/N) with a raised eyebrow. “You’re welcome. Eyes up we have more incoming!”

“Who are you?” The man yelled.

“Names later!”

Using the force, (M/N) grabbed one of the floating platforms the chitauri were riding and pushed it into another. Janai soon caught up, the two now fighting alongside the other three people. Blaster fire rang out all around them, the screams of civilians all around. (M/N) been on many battlefields, but never saw anything like this. These people didn’t have the same technology to put up a good defense, this was just a massacre. The portal roared once again causing everyone to look up.

“Oh no.”

“Leviathans.”

The fighting seemed to drag on forever. They kept defending the spot as long as they could. Janai and (M/N) needed to get to the tower but they couldn’t reach it yet. Eventually the fighting died down a little and the sound of a motor reached his ear. Turning he saw a man arrive on a bike. Suddenly a leviathan bursted through buildings chasing what looked to be a droid. “Doctor Banner this might be a good time to get angry.” The man in blue said to the new arrival, replied back.  “That’s my secret captain...I’m always angry.” (M/N) could practically feel the anger coming from the man, it was strong with him. Suddenly the man’s skin started to turn green as his body grew. It was like he was a whole new being. The flying person flew close enough for the leviathan to hit the ground and start making its way towards us.“It’s still coming in fast, (M/N) help me slow it down!” He and Janai pushed both their hands out, using the force to slow the beast down. “It’s still coming in hot!” The now hulking man roared before running a head a bit then slammed his fist into the leviathan, stopping it. “Incredible.”

The flying man landed down on the ground.  “Alright good work team-” He stopped his talk when he spoted Janai. She looked at him like she was trying to figure out who he was. Was that him? Suddenly the sound of Chitauri roaring pulled them all back into the moment. They were surrounded. Looking up, more chitauri reinforcements arrived...and more leviathans.

“Call it cap.” (M/N) looked at the man, only just realizing his color palette. Gold and red, just like his vision. “Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.” Suddenly everyone was in action, the captain tried to give them orders. “You two stay here and help defend this position.” Janai wasn’t having it. “We can help you a lot more if we can get to that portal and close it!” Seeing this won’t go anywhere (M/N) thought back to his training. “Master! I remember from my training at the temple archives. The Chitauri all live off of their mother ship, if we can take it down we can stop all of this!” This seemed to get the captains attention. “How can we do that?” Janai and (M/N) smiled at each other before looking at the captain. “With our ship. (M/N) I’ll get the ship and take out the mothership. You get to that tower and get to the beam, make sure it stays open long enough for me to get back then close it. Understand.” He nodded. “Yes master.” Janai started her way back to the ship. “May the force be with you (M/N) Stark!” He noticed that the captain had looked at him in a strange way, he didn’t question it. He had to get to that tower, his mother was counting on him.

The way to the tower was littered with enemy’s and rubble. It wasn’t anything new to (M/N) but it felt strange with the knowledge he didn’t have the backup of the republic with him. He really did feel like he was alone on an alien world fighting for his life. Maybe it should feel wrong that he had become used to the sound of explosions and blaster fire, but after being on the frontline for so long it just felt normal to him. Just because it felt normal didn’t mean he liked it, he hated seeing the bodies of the fallen on the streets, the innocents caught in the crossfire. This wasn’t even part of the war, there was no imperial threat here. This was what life in the galaxy had been reduced to, endless war.

When he arrived at the tower, he looked up the tall structure. The beam was practically at the very top. He could take the lift’s up but it would take too much time, time the people of the city and his master didn’t have. He heard the sound of familiar engines get closer, he watched as the ship he and Janai arrived in flew up and towards the portal. He had to get to the beam fast. He noticed a group of Chitauri on their flying platforms getting closer, seeing his opportunity he used the force to run up the side of the building and launched himself onto one of the ships. He quickly knocked off the Chitauri and fired on the other two destroying them, before flying to the top of the tower.

As he reached the top of the tower, he jumped off the platform and landed on the deck of the building. He saw the portal and was ready to go for it, however he was stopped by a voice. “I can’t let you do that.” (M/N) turned and saw a man dressed in green and had a staff that glowed blue. This planet just keeps getting stranger. “And why shouldn’t I? He once again ignited his lightsaber and moved into a defensive stance. “A Jedi? I thought the republic didn’t deal with this world?”  So this guy knew about the jedi and republic, maybe there was more to it. “The jedi don’t limit themselves to the republic. We help those in need in the galaxy.” The man only smirked. “Even those in the Empire? I don’t think that’s true.”  “So are you part of the Empire?” He laughed at that. “No, at least not YOUR Empire. That’s why I’m doing this.” He swiped his arms around signaling the destruction. “Out of the destruction I shall build my empire and the people of this world will bow to me.” (M/N) changed his stance to an offensive one. “I won’t let that happen.” Before the man could retort (M/N) launched himself at the man, his blade hitting the man’s staff. The two began to duel each other, the city still under attack around them. (M/N) wasn’t about to let this planet fall to a madman like him. He used the force to push the man back, causing the man to fall into a pillar, knocking him out. “Wow...for someone building an empire you really suck at fighting.” He turned back to the beacon, he needed to be ready to turn that off. Suddenly, he felt the cold again. “Well...if it isn’t my apprentice.”

The Chiss Sith stood beside the man (M/N) had knocked out. “I didn’t expect to see you here. I guess destiny wants us together.” (M/N) wasn’t about to let this man get the upper hand. He rushed the sith aiming to end it quickly. “Oh this again.” The sith lifted his hands and shot out lightning. (M/N) wasn’t quick enough to block and was shocked by the impact of the lightning. “You’re weak. I can sense your anger, it’s stronger than before. You need discipline, training. Join me and all of this.” He nodded to the city. “Can be yours.” (M/N) wasn’t paying attention as Janai’s voice cut through his comlink. “(M/N) I almost have the mothership down, get ready to close the portal once I get back.” He couldn’t fail her, not now. He quickly pulled the other man’s staff to him, the sith jumping out of the way. “I will never join you. I’m a jedi, like my mother before me.” The sith scowled. “So be it.” The sith launched at him and (M/N) was quick to block the attack. The staff in his hand felt weird. It was much like a lightsaber, yet it felt...even more powerful. “I’ll be taking that staff from you.” (M/N) pushed back on the saber. “Not on my watch.” He kicked his opponent back and swung the staff cutting the sith’s arm. The man let out a cry of pain before once again slamming his saber on the staff again. Eventually the sith got the upperhand and knocked the staff out of (M/N)’s hands. “Die!” As the red blades came towards him, he lifted his hands together and called on the force. The saber reached his hands, yet no impact came. He was blocking the lightsaber with his hands. He focused moved one of his hands and called his lightsaber back to him. Once his blade returned he slashed at the sith, who jumped back. “Enough.” The chiss pulled his arms back before pushing them out, sending (M/N) over the side of the building.

He felt the air rushing past him and he fell. The top of the tower getting farther and farther from reach. He failed. The city was still on fire around him, his mother was counting on him and he failed. No. Not yet. He reached out for his saber which was just out of reach pulling it to him. He’d find a way back up, he needed to. It was like the force knew, suddenly he felt arms around him as he was being pushed back up. He looked to see he was being flown back up by the man in the red and gold suit from earlier. “Hang on kid I got you.” Just like how he felt connected to the planet, he also felt the connection with this man. He couldn’t think of that right now, he needed to get back. “I need to get back up there. Can you help me out?” The man looked at him. “You honestly shouldn’t be anywhere near here kid. I should take you somewhere safe.” (M/N) glared at him. “I’ve been on the frontline of countless battles, safety isn’t a concern of mine. GET ME UP THERE!” He couldn’t see the man’s expression in the suit but he felt the concern and conflict in him. “Fine.”

The sith walked over to the staff. He looked at the stone that sat within it. “Finally.” As he reached for it, he was interrupted as (M/N) reappeared with an unknown man. Not wanting to waste time, (M/N) pushed off the man, igniting his saber and attacked the sith. The two once again engaged in battle. This time the man in the suit also helped (M/N) fight the sith. Realizing he was outnumbered he decided to cut his losses. Using the force the chiss grabbed the man in the suit, throwing him at (M/N) knocking the two down. He quickly grabbed the stone from the staff. “Well this has been fun, but I must be off.” He started to walk towards the beacon. (M/N) barely had enough strength to stand. He felt a rush through the force, he watched as the Chitauri around the city all began to shut down, she had done it. “(M/N)! I’m almost through!” He watched as the ship once again passed through the portal. The sith stopped in his tracks taking in the scene, now was his chance. With the force (M/N) pulled the stone out of the sith’s hands. “I told you. NOT.ON.MY.WATCH!” The sith smirked. “The anger glows in you. Not to worry I don’t need that yet. I have this.” He grabbed the cube that was in the beacon. “You’ll be my apprentice eventually.” Suddenly the cube glowed and the sith and the cube disappeared. The portal above the city disappeared without its source. The battle was over. However he couldn’t get the sith out of his head, the battle was over yet the sith escaped with the cube. What was it anyways?

“That could have gone a lot better.” He turned to look at the man in the suit. He was still on the ground but was trying to get up. (M/N) moved over to the man. “Here let me help. Thanks for getting me back up here.” He got the man into a sitting position, while he kneeled down. The man’s mask slid open revealing his face. “No problem kid, you did a good job there. Guess you’re a fighter huh?” He smirked at the man. “Yeah, have been for the last two years.” The man looked at him with a smirk. “What's your name kid?” (M/N) realized he hadn’t gotten a chance to introduce himself to anyone. “Oh sorry. (M/N). (M/N) Stark.” He lifted his hand out for the man to shake. The man looked at him with a shocked face. It also seemed like he had tears in his eyes. “(M/N)? Huh look at you. You’re so big.” (M/N) looked at the man in confusion. “Excuse me?” The man laughed and shook his head. “My name is Tony. Tony Stark, I’m your dad.”

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Want to join the fam? 13th Doctor x child reader

*Author’s note*

Hey gang well here we are again with yet another Doctor who request. To the anon who requested this I THANK YOU FOR YOUR INCREDIBLE PATIENCE. Now I made some slight changes to the reader’s characteristics so I hope that’s okay. Now again most of these updates that I’ll be doing will mostly be Doctor who based (from the endless amounts of DW requests I’ve had on my phone since last year, again anons I thank you for your patience and I am getting through them) but some Marvel ones will come out as well. So just sit back and enjoy these requests ;)

Warnings: Child neglect, malnourishment, human captivity, some angst and fluff.

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things​

@waddles03​

@psychosupernatural​

@ixchel-9275​

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels​

@platawnic​

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I’ve been in this prison for—what feels like forever.  In fact I think it has been forever.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve been the possession of a man known as The Collector due to me being the last of the Timelords.  At first I didn’t know myself what I was, all I knew was that every now and then right at the point of death from malnourishment, my body grew warm and my appearance would change.

When the Collector first saw my change firsthand, he moved me from one cell to another where I had nothing but needles shoved into my arms and every now and then he not only took my blood but there was also this glowing gold light that would also go up into a canister and once it got full after a month of draining, he’d take it away and replace it with a new one.

On and on this went on and I began to think that this was to be my life for the rest of my days. I couldn’t die because all I would do was regenerate into a different person.  I was beginning to think that I would never get out of this horrible place, that the Collector would continue to misuse and neglect me.

That was until…….she came into my life.

I was trying to sleep in my 4x4 cell (it is not comfortable let me just tell you that) when I heard a knock at the solid glass of my prison.  There I saw the Collector standing there, his eyes full of obsession as usual.  His mouth gaped in awe as he said.

“Today is the day my little one.” Oh yeah that’s right.  I’m dying today.  The Collector has even gone far as to make a schedule for when I’m to be expecting to regenerate.  My current 12 year old body had been put through countless hours of testing, blood draining, neglect, and aura extraction.  And now the time has come for me to regenerate once again.

“I can’t believe it’s been your 9th change and you’ve given me more money and immortality than I could ever hope for.” Oh yeah I forgot to mention this one little detail.

Sometimes when the Collector is in his greatest moods, when the Tourist season arrives, hell have his greatest displays out for the public for all the gawk, point and take pictures of.  I was displayed when I was in the process of my 3rd change so everyone got to see me transform from a small 4 year old white child, to an 11yr. old brown skinned girl.

Now that it was time for me to regenerate once more and it was the day tourists from around the galaxy, and across space and time for them to come see his fantastic collection of mistreated, abandoned and unwanted things.

“Now then remember to make this your grandest metamorphosis yet. And also try not to burn any of the clients. Always bad for business if someone gets hurt.” I didn’t respond to him.  I never respond to him, no matter what torture he does whenever he tries to make me answer, I don’t give him the satisfaction of being broken before him.

He can continue to drain me dry but he’ll never break me.

*3rd Person POV*

Meanwhile just in the outskirts of the Collector’s shop, the familiar wheeze of the TARDIS soon echoed out.  The TARDIS went from a faint image to a full solid picture.

“And here we are gang. As promised, welcome to the Bermuda Tri—” soon stepping out of the TARDIS was the Doctor herself, and her little fam, Yaz, Ryan and Graham.

“Uhh Doc, this isn’t what I pictured the Bermuda Triangle to look like.” Graham said.

“What? Ahhh no you stubborn ol girl you do this again!? Every. Time I want to go somewhere I tell you to go, you do a 180!” She snapped as she slapped the side of the TARDIS.

“So……where exactly are we?” asked Ryan as he stepped out along with Yaz.

“It kinda looks like a combination of London and Los Angeles.” Yaz said.

“Honestly I’m not quite so sure myself of where we are. Stay close everybody. Never know what could be lurking around here.” The Doctor said to them.

“Should we—have a look around?” asked Graham skeptically.

“I mean it’s the only way, right Doctor?” Ryan said to the Doctor.

“Well normally I would say no when I don’t know of a certain location but the TARDIS always has a habit of sending me where I’m needed. Alright listen up gang,” she turned to her three human companions and explained to them in a firm tone. “We’re gonna have a little look around. But again I have no idea who or what lives here. So there is to be no going off on your own, no touching anything, don’t even speak to anyone. You are to stay where I can keep an eye on you. Is that understood?”

“Yes Doctor.” The three of them answered.  The Doctor nodded and soon the three of them walked on ahead.

They walk up a hill till they finally arrive at the borders of the city.  All around so many different species of creatures and people across space and time were gathered around just going about their day.

“It—looks like an ordinary in London. People going about their day, nothing really out of the ordinary.” Graham said.

“I wouldn’t go that far yet Graham. Let’s go, blend in well with the crowd. There’s—something doesn’t feel right for some reason.” The Doctor said.  As they walked they soon heard a few voices say.

“Have you heard about the Collector’s new showcase?” a young woman with albino skin and purple eyes said.

“I go there every year. I’m told he’s got her on display once again.” Said a mechanical green woman.

“Wait you don’t mean…..”

“Yes. It could be another transformation.”

“Then let’s go.” The two women raced on.  Yaz leaned towards the Doctor and whispered.

“Did you catch any of that?”

“I don’t know who exactly they’re talking about, but that’s our best clue as to why the TARDIS might’ve brought us here. Cause out here in the streets there’s clearly no danger. No fights, no war, not even an invasion.”

“Couldn’t hurt to take a look inside and follow those girls.” Ryan said.  So they secretly followed the two women.

Soon the two women turned into a crowd as hundreds upon hundreds of people walked right towards a tower-like building.  As our gang of time travelers went inside, they found that this tower was almost like a warehouse.  It’s darkened hallways lit only by the hollowed lanterns above.  As they continued walking, they noticed that it soon began to remind them of some kind of art show.

“Hang on, I know that thing.” The Doctor said as she suddenly stopped.

“Know what?” asked Graham.

“Over there.” She pointed to a very large cube like cell with an intricate design on each side. It was a circle with what looked like a maze-like pattern decorated along the inside of it.

“What is it?” asked Ryan.

“My old prison in a past life.” The Doctor answered grimly.  Yaz and Ryan walked up to it and they saw on the plaque the words.

PANDORICA BOX.

Ryan and Yaz looked at each other and Ryan shrugged.

“And that, I recognize that weapon over there.” She and Graham walked to it and Graham asked her.

“Is—is that what I think it is Doc?”

“Yes Graham. A cyberman head.”

“So…..what is this like some sort of art gallery of everything you know?”

“Possibly. But none of this is Timelord technology. However this place does seem to have almost everything I’ve encountered in my many lives.”

‘Ladies and gentlemen. Creatures and species far and in between. Please make your way to the back room for a show like no other. For the first time in decades, the changeling child has returned.’ The voice of a women came on the intercoms from above.

“The changeling child?” Ryan repeated confused.

“So changelings actually exist?” asked Yaz.

“After all we’ve seen, I wouldn’t be surprised.” Graham shrugged.

“I’m not so sure about that guys. C’mon. Stay close and keep to the back.” Soon everyone started heading towards the back room where a giant arena-like stadium stood. At the very center, the Doctor and her friends saw a young girl laying there at the center of the stadium in a clear box like cage.

“Oh my god.” Yaz gasped as she covered her mouth in horror.

“That poor girl is she—she’s completely malnourished. She’s practically skin and bones.” Graham said.

“Doctor. Who would do something like this?” Ryan sneered softly.  The Doctor looked closer and that’s when she saw the glowing hands on the young girl.  That familiar orange, yellowish glow.

“Oh my……”

“What is it Doc?” Graham asked.  But before she could say a word, an elderly man with spiked white hair and wearing a leather attire with a fur coat with multiple colorations came right to the cage and he said to the audience.

“Greetings my dearly beloved guests. As you have ventured into the far outreaches of space and time to see all of my beloved collections. I am proud to announce and reveal to you all for the first time in a very long time, my most prized possession. The changeling child.”

“Calling a child their possession. Boy I’d like to give that crazy git a punch across the face.” Graham hissed lowly.

“Easy Graham. Just watch.”

“Watch what exactly? Doctor what’s going on?”

“Just want to prepare you guys for what you’ll see one day with me.” Soon the young girl began to glow brighter and brighter till her whole face and hands were starting to glow like the sun.

Then with a burst of Timelord energy, a powerful fiery blast exploded from her and the crowd was just in awe of what they were witnessing.  The Doctor shook her head and muttered.

“She can’t be contained when a regeneration happens. It can cause significant damage to the next body.”

“What’s happening Doctor? Is she going to explode?” asked Ryan worriedly.

“No Ryan, just keep watching.” A cry was soon heard and the next thing everyone saw was that the young 12 year old white girl now transformed herself into a young 7 year old brown skinned child.  Her once blonde hair was now pure black and cut into pixie style haircut.

“Wait did she just—” Yaz started off.

“Fam. I’d like to introduce you all to a Timelord child.” The Doctor said in a stoic manner.

“Wait but—I thought you and the Master were the last of your people?” Ryan said.

“So did I. But that there was a regeneration. Known only to the Timelords themselves. No other creature or species in the Universe can do a transformation like that.”

“And it seems that freak’s using her as a main attraction for his Collection around the world.” Graham hissed angrily.

“Well what do we do? I mean we can’t just leave her here. Maybe this is what the TARDIS wants us to do.” Yaz said.

“But how can we rescue her? I mean we don’t even know the layout of this place.” Ryan said.

“Leave that to me. For now I want you guys to play out the roles of interested travelers. If any security goes snooping around, just play them off in any way you can. Trust me gang, right now that little girl down there could use someone whose been through this. And believe me I’ve been through it many, many, many times.”

“Alright Doc. But just know should you need us, we’re just a shout away.” Graham said.  She nodded to them and as the crowd began to leave the stadium, Ryan, Yaz and Graham joined the crowd while the Doctor stayed behind in the shadows and watched as some of the Collector’s helpers moved the child out of her display case and moved her back down to her proper cell.

*My POV*

After being put back in my cell I finally got the chance to look at my new form.  My once white skin was now brown and my hands were smaller. I must’ve de-aged again.  I felt around my face and it was now more rounder than it was previously.  My hair was also shorter, way shorter actually.  So short that I couldn’t even see what color it was.  But I had fingers, lots of fingers, 2 legs, two feet, eyes, nose, mouth, ears.  New body, new rules.

“Magnificent. This is almost like your 4th form but—lighter skin. And your hair, don’t really like it that short but it is what it is.” The Collector said as he pressed his hands up against my glass cage. “After I count the profits for today, we’ll proceed with the Timelord aura drain.” With a flick of his animal skin cape, he turned and left the room.

I lowered my head exhaustedly and let out a deep breath and soon saw the familiar glowing fog coming out of my mouth.  Then out of nowhere, my cage began to unlock itself but the Collector was nowhere in sight. As the glass walls lowered back down, I sat up in shock and looked around fearfully only to see a woman with short blonde hair wearing a greyish-blue trench coat.

She also wore a dark blue shirt with multiple colored stripes around the front, the color yellow was the main color that really struck out cause it was just piled up on both top and bottom of the other colors.  She also wore what looked like suspenders and brown boots.

But what really caught my attention were her eyes.  Her deep brown eyes.  Unlike the Collector whose eyes were always filled with crazed obsession, this woman’s eyes were filled with kindness, curiosity, and—astonishment.

“It’s alright. I’m not here to hurt you.”

“How can I—trust you?” wow new voice.  It was lighter—almost like the sound of a bell.

“I know this must seem strange to you. Having a stranger open up your prison but tell me this. If I wanted to hurt you, don’t you think I would’ve done it by now?” she asked me. I pondered the thought and realized she was right.

The Collector’s workers who would transfer me from my cell to my display case, they always took a shot using their electro-whips on me just for the sport of it.

“Who are you?” I asked her.

“Well believe it or not. I’m just like you. A Gallifreyian Timelord.”  I looked at her shocked.

She was a Timelord as well? But—the Collector said that I was the last of my kind.  When he found me as a baby, he told me that I was the only sole survivor.

“You’re lying.”

“Actually I’m not. How do I know I’m not lying you might be thinking? Well I can tell you that seven months ago, I was a white haired Scotsman.”

“Prove it.” I asked her. “That you’re a Timelord. How do I know you’re not lying?” she looked around before finding a stethoscope from a nearby stand.  She grabbed it and came up to me and placed the earpieces in my ears.

“Have a listen.” She placed the metal part against her chest and soon enough I heard the 4 heartbeats of the Timelord.  I looked up at her and she looked right at me with those soft eyes of hers and she said, “Well, what’s your verdict?”

“But—it’s impossible. I thought I was……I thought I was the only one.”

“So did I.” she said solemnly.  Her eyes now appeared to have a hint of sadness to them.  “What’s your name?” she asked me.

“I—I was never given one.” I said sadly as I looked down.  I heard her hum softly and that’s when she said.

“Well we can’t just call you nothing. Hmm let me think……I’m not good with coming up with names but I’ll give it a go.” She said before she began muttering to herself as she paced around me.  I looked at her intrigued and she would look right at me before getting right up into my face.

It was a little awkward having this strange woman get right up in my face but it didn’t make me feel intimidated (not like how the Collector makes me feel whenever he gets up in my face).

“Ah-ha! I think I came up with the perfect name!” she exclaimed happily.  I tilted my head. “Lyra!” I looked at her in disgust. “What? Oh c’mon that’s a brilliant name. You’d be named after a constellation. And Lyra is a Greek name Lyre, a Greek instrument. And a marvelous one at that.”

“I’m sorry it’s just that with……this current form I don’t know if Lyra is a good name for me.”

“Yeah I suppose so. Most beings usually pick a name that fits their look. Well like I told you I’m not really good at coming up with names. I don’t think I ever was.”

“I…..” I started off before trailing off.

“What? What is it?”

“It’s nothing I….I can’t say it.”

“Course you can. Hey you listen to me now love, you can say whatever you want. I’m not like that—monster whose treated you like his possession. So if you’ve got something to say, you can tell me.”

“I—I once did come up with a name during my 3rd transformation. But I don’t know if it’s any good.” She looked at me with encouragement telling me through her eyes that I could freely speak it out. “(Y/n).”

“(Y/n). Hmm……I like it. Yeah it suits you. Alright, (Y/n) I’m the Doctor and I’m busting you out of here.”

“Busting me out?”

“Yeah. You know setting you free, freeing you from your cage, all those other freedom metaphors and sayings. Bottom line is, is that you’re coming with me and my friends.”

“But—the Collector. He’ll know that I’ve escaped. He won’t let me leave.”

“That’s why I’ve got a plan. Now c’mon let’s at least get you out of this storage room and into some real light.” She extended her hand to me and I looked at it conflicted. “I promise (Y/n), as long as you’re with me. I won’t let him or anyone else harm you. I can help you, but you have to trust me first.”

I looked up at her warm brown eyes once more and they gave me a fluttery feeling in my stomach.  Was—was this what it feels like when someone’s kind to you? Finally I lifted my hand and I placed my hand in hers.

“Brilliant. Now can you stand and walk? I know that regeneration still takes time to cook but we kinda are on the clock.”

“I think so.”

“Okay, let’s get you off this thing and then we run.” She picked me up and set me down on the floor before taking my hand again and we took off.

We came to the main door which the Collector always kept lock and only he or his workers knew the combination.

“It’s no use, we’ll never get out of this room. He has it locked 24/7.”

“Good thing I’ve always got this.” She then pulled out a long silver or iron like thing with a crystal point at the end.  She pressed a button and aimed it right at the door’s control panels and a loud hum came out of it as the crystal point became a bright yellow color.

Soon enough I heard the locks being unlocked and the doors opened up.

“There that’s better.” She tossed her magic stick in the air before catching it back into her hand and putting it away into her coat. “Now come on, we’ll rendezvous with the others in the main lobby.” As we left the room I asked her.

“What was that thing?”

“What was what?”

“That thing you used to open the door?”

“Oh right! That was my sonic screwdriver. A handy device of my own invention. It can basically be used for anything. Bio readings, translation analysis, but most of all it can unlock any door. The one thing it isn’t used for is for killing. Because killing is senseless and fighting never solves anything. I hate weapons of any kind especially guns.” Her voice started to trail off into anger which made me a little scared seeing this bubbly, whacky woman now become an ice cold queen. “Sorry. I—tend to get a little dark whenever it comes to hate for violence. Now c’mon let’s keep moving.”

After going up several more levels and her using her sonic screwdriver to get the doors unlocked, we finally arrived at the main level.

“Alright, now my friends are in the lobby like I’ve said. So it’s just a straight forwards to—hang on.” She suddenly said urgently.  She stopped and looked around. “Something isn’t right. There were hundreds of people here just now and now it’s—it’s completely empty.”

“The shop isn’t closed cause it’s still light out. So—where is everyone?” suddenly the alarm sounded off and every entrance, window and door, were sealed off.  The red light of the alarm was the only source of light we had for awhile before it went completely dark.

“You thought I’d let you escape that easily?” then a bright light shined down just a few feet in front of us and there stood The Collector.  Behind him were three people, two men and one a girl around the Doctor’s age.

All three of them were not only being held by the Collector’s guards but from their feet to their hips were trapped in the crystal prison that I was familiar with. In some of his collections, the Collector loves to showcase his ‘prizes’ in crystal form with specially designed rings that encases whatever he wants in a crystal prison.

Trapping them alive.

“We’re sorry Doc. They caught us just before we could meet up.” Said the elderly white man.

“Let them go.” the Doctor stated firmly.

“Or what? See I’ve got basically almost everything across Time and Space but pure humans—well imagine the attractions they’ll bring us.”

“We’re not your property you crazy old bastard!” the young black man spoke up.  Which resulted in him being shocked by the Collector’s guards and the crystal formation went higher up his body from his hips now to his ribs.  He groaned in agony after his shock treatment and the Collector said to him in that low voice of his.

“On the contrary. All those that trespass on my home are my property. No payment in, you serve as a part of my Collection.” He turned back towards us and he continued, “Who would’ve thought that I would get the chance to not have one Timelord, but two. Such a rarity indeed.”

“Yeah bet you didn’t think this was going to happen when you woke up this morning.” The Doctor said sarcastically.  The Collector chuckled softly and that’s when I noticed the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver in her back pocket.  I looked around to make sure that no one was looking at me and I quickly took her sonic and stalked away towards one of the cells.

This was the only option I could think of that could give us enough time to get all of us out of here.  And finally put an end to the Collector once and for all so that no one else could be captured and experimented on again.  I arrived at cell 722 and pointed the screwdriver at the keypad which soon activated.

“This is madness. But you’re our only hope.” I walked inside and went right to work.

*3rd Person POV*

The Collector stared at the Doctor with obsessed eyes and he said to her.

“Who would’ve thought that there were two Timelords left in the entire galaxy. If only you were a male, then once my female one would take a mature form, I could’ve had you both make more Gallifreyian children.”

“Believe it or not I was a man. Actually many times before I’ve been a man.” The Doctor said.

“Interesting. So you can choose which gender you want to be.”

“I don’t really have control over my regenerations. They just happen and I stick with the form I get.”

“Pity. But no matter, you will soon join the child and you both will become my ultimate supply source and tourist attraction. While your friends become one of the many other displays I will showcase in my museum.”

“That won’t happen.”

“You’re so confident about that?”

“Yeah. See, I’ve been in rougher scrapes than this. Now this here, sure it’s a bit of a pickle but it’s way low on the amount of danger I’ve been in on a regular basis.” The Collector stroked his chin as he continued to stare at the Doctor with interest.

“So you’ve been everywhere and seen everything?”

“More than you can imagine pal. Now unless you’d like to be overloaded with the knowledge I’ve got, which trust me you don’t want to know, I suggest you free my friends, let me take the girl, and allow us to walk out of here quietly without another word.” The Collector chuckled icily and lowly and he said.

“And allow you to take my immortality away from me? Do you have any idea how powerful the essences of your kind is?”

“And that’s what makes people like you sick to my stomach. What you’ve been doing to that poor girl is inhumane! No one should ever be put through the hell you put her through! Extracting her Gallifreyian aura, draining her blood. Yeah I’ve seen the needle injections on her arms.”

“What you see as inhumane. I see as an opportunity. The essence of a timelord can give the bearer an immortal life. Even at the point of death, you can just regenerate yourself and start off fresh again. And now that I have too, I’ll forever be immortalized as the famed Collector of the last two Timelords!”

Suddenly the alarm began blaring out loudly.  Everyone looked around in confusion, the Collector had both confusion and anger.

“What is going on?” it was then they heard screaming from down the hall as some more of the Collector’s worker’s were fleeing for their lives.

“Sir! Sir! Prisoner 722 has been reactivated! It’s going on a rampage!” one of the workers said before it was suddenly shot at and he fell to the ground dead.

“No.” The Doctor softly enunciated. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Why did you have it here!? What makes you think you could contain such a monster!?” she sneered.

“Doctor what’s going on? What are you talking about?” then they heard it.  That haunting raspy, mechanical voice proclaiming.

‘WE ARE THE DALEKS! WE WILL REIGN SUPREME AND YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!!’ Soon coming down the hallway was the Doctor’s most feared and hatred rival, a Dalek.

It was an older generation Dalek but it still had it’s program to search and destroy everything that isn’t Dalek based.

‘SURRENDER NOW OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!!’ the Dalek proceeded to fire all over any everyone and everything.  While the Dalek was literally destroying everything in sight and bodies kept dropping like flies, over by Graham, Ryan and Yaz, they suddenly felt themselves getting free of their crystal prisons.

They looked down and there stood (Y/n) holding their three rings.  She slammed them on the ground and stepped on them.

“C’mon let’s go!” she whispered as the four of them raced over to the Doctor.  They dodged and nearly got blasted by the explosions of the Dalek’s gun.  Once they came up to the Doctor she turned to (Y/n) and said.

“Were you responsible for this?”

“I didn’t have a choice. This was the one thing they never went to. All of them were too afraid to go near it when it reactivated itself years ago.”

‘IDENDITY DETECTED. THE DOCTOR IS HERE!! THE DOCTOR IS THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!’ The Dalek suddenly screamed out.

“RUN!!!” The Doctor cried out as we ran out of the lobby and towards the side exit (that had no just been created thanks to our Dalek).  

*My POV*

We quickly raced out but I was suddenly grabbed and I was pinned against the Collector’s chest.

“You’re not going anywhere! If I die then you’re coming with me!” I squirmed and tried to free myself from the Collector’s grip when suddenly he was shot in the head and he dropped down to the ground.  The Dalek rolled up to me and it’s scope-like eye stared right at me.

‘TIMELORD ENERGY DETECTED! TIMELORD ENERGY DETECTED! EXTERMINATE!’ I quickly jumped out of the way and just barely managed to escape the death beam.

“(Y/N)!! RUN!! GET AWAY FROM IT!!!” As quick as I could I raced out of the building.

It wasn’t easy to escape the Dalek cause it kept coming right after us firing shot after shot, explosions coming up around us.  Finally we came up into a blue box that said POLICE BOX written on top.

“In here quick! The forcefield’s up now, but it won’t last for long!” the Doctor cried out.  One by one we each piled into the TARDIS before she shut the doors.  As we all ran inside my first reaction was that it was bigger on the inside.  Could this be more of my people’s technology or is this some kind of magic?

The Doctor quickly flipped a few of the controls and soon a wheezing sound came from the center of this room and a large light shined from the center console that stood in the middle of the controls.

“There. Daleks alone can’t navigate through space and time without a ship. We’re safe. Are you all alright fam?”

“I’m good.” Said the woman.

“I’m thankful that I won’t end up as a display case.” Said the elderly man.

“He’ll survive. And I’m okay too Doctor.” The young man said.  The Doctor sighed with relief and pressed her hand up against her chest over her two hearts.  She then turned to me and asked me as she knelt down in front of me.

“Are you alright (Y/n)?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry about that—thing. It was the only thing I could think of as a distraction that I knew they would be too afraid to fight back against.” I looked down sadly but she lifted my chin up and she said as she stroked the back of my head, burying her fingers into my short hair.

“The most important thing is that you’re okay. And that you’re free now.”

Free.  I—I couldn’t believe it. For the first time in my life, I was finally free of the Collector, I would no longer be his lab rat or neglected ever again.  He was dead and he couldn’t hurt me or anyone else again.

“But I must ask you one important question first?” she said in a serious manner.  I tilted my head to the side in confusion and said.

“What?”

“How do you feel about going to Barcelona with me and the fam?” I looked around and these three people who had no idea who I was, all nodded with warm smiles on their faces. I turned to the Doctor and immediately hugged her.

There was soft laughter all around as she hugged me back.  I nuzzled into her shoulder and I whispered to her.

“Thank you, thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me. Now then, let me introduce you to the gang.” The Doctor then took me over to the three people and introduced me to Ryan, Yaz, and Graham. And she introduced them to me as the second to last Timelord from Gallifrey.

From then on, I stayed with the Doctor and her friends.  We traveled throughout the entire galaxy and back and forth through time. Eventually there came a time when I went from calling her Doctor to mum.  She was my savior, my protector, my mother.  And I will always be grateful to the day when she and her friends came to save me.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “The Wrath of Conn.”

Lol, I couldn’t resist. Anyway this is for the multitude of you Conn groupies who wanted a little something form his perspective. Well cue a couple pages of him sort of being an asshole. But also it is totally plot relevant so there is that. 

Hope you all enjoy. This was actually kind of difficult to write, and I had to re-write it at least once :) 

The ship was a strange place now, months had gone by without his presence, and without his connection to their thoughts, and in that time, things had changed. Conn wasn’t entirely sure he appreciated it, but only because that meant he had to re-gather all the information he had originally collected on his human crew members to begin with.

It had been a difficult few months, the most difficult the ship had ever experienced. Conn wasn’t exactly displeased at that fact considering that it was the collective fear and horror from the Cannibal incident that had finally broken him out of his Coma, but he was also displeased to find that things had changed somewhat. Conn didn’t lie change, especially the change that he saw within the Commander. The only person aboard the ship that he could actually communicate with mind to mind.

Well actually scratch that, there were a few others he could speak with, but currently the weighed about fifteen pounds and had language ability so rudimentary it was like trying to talk with the dog. 

Regardless, the last few months  had absolutely ruined what tentative trust the two of them had garnered. 

After returning to the ship, and after putting the Commander into a sort of psychological coma to deal with shock, a HAZMAT team from earth had been called to deal with the issue. Ensuing autopsies had proven that the crew had, in fact, been eating each other despite their being plenty of food left in storage. The remaining survivor, who the commander had been forced to kill in self defense was one Captain Everett Malaney Ex UNSC officer and current freelance ship contractor for both tourist and colonist divisions. By all right he had been an upstanding decision. 

His autopsy had shown that advanced scurvy including kidney failure was the main reason for his monstrous appearance, bruised skin, thinning hair, infected gums and so on. As for the behavior of the crew, it could only be put down to some sort of exaggerated mass hysteria when people realized they would likely die alone in space billions of miles from home in the blackness of space.

Commander Vir had been….. Ok at that point,  but the subsequent venture into a border-world prison had shattered his already cracked composure.

Conn was the only one who had been able to experience the fall from the man’s own perspective. Watching inside his head as he careened into a psychological spiral that had eventually brought them to the earth for treatment. 

Generally conn would have said that he totally didn’t care about anyone’s mental status, and he still would say the same upon being prompted, but this was something that needed to be taken care of and it needed to be done quickly. It wasn’t his fault he was the only one who would truly be able to handle it.

So there he floated in the darkness of early morning, down the hall and towards the mess hall, a ghost town in the early morning devoid of both the sleeping crew-members and the skeleton crew who were off working at their perspective jobs.

He could sense five minds on approach to the room. Three rudimentary and childish minds, and one completely alien guided primarily by smell and hearing. She was the one to  sense his first, with that powerful nose of hers. She didn’t like his smell, it was a burning and caustic thing that made her uneasy, and generally caused her to sneeze.

The next to notice were the spiderlings underdeveloped noses that were already almost as good as the dogs. They were strange creatures to be sure and Conn wasn’t sure how he thought about them.

Tendrils billowing at his back he floated into the room. 

With a whine of agitation, the dog lifted her head from where she had been grooming one of the spiderlings cradled between her two forward paws. Her tongue was still out from where she had been dragging it down the monstrosity’s back. Finally recognizing that he wasn’t going to leave she went back to her grooming. The soft scritch scritch scritch sound of her tongue on fur echoing around the room. She hadn’t originally known how to feel about the spiderlings, but they did smell oddly like Adam, and they looked enough like puppies that she could almost ignore the fact that they had extra legs.

He floated a bit closer to where the commander was sitting alone at one of the tables pen in hand making soft scratching noises as it moved across the paper.

Clinging to his back, like some sort of grotesque backpack, was another one of those little monstrosities. This one’s name was Glados, and Conn was almost sure that she was entirely a creation of anger and hatred aggressively protective of the commander even more so now that they considered his current psychological state.

Conn was only halfway across the room when the scratching of the pen slowed.

Adam paused, and Conn listened as a chill went up the man's spine. He could feel something watching him. And Conn marveled at that fact not entirely sure how the human could know that he was here when he had made no noise. Glados turned her head and hissed at him, but Conn flicked at her with his mind making her shrink back with a whimper.

Setting down his pencil, Adam turned slowly in his seat.

His expression registered absolutely no shock upon seeing Conn floating towards him. On the surface, he looked older as if he had aged ten years in the past month. He was slightly disheveled too hair mussed over his head, skin pale, with dark circles under his eyes. Everything about him seemed washed out.

“Conn.”  The man said, his voice echoing about the room. It was soft, flat, and uncharacteristic of him.

Conn paused glancing through the man’s mind to get a good look at the paper. His vision wasn’t so good in the dark confines of the ship. Generally his species spent much of its time in the direct light of stars, so much of his world was seen through other people’s heads. He saw the sketchy line drawing of a zombie head with hesitant crosshatched marks of shading.

:”Still haven't bothered to tell your therapist about that?” Conn projected into his mind.

He felt a sudden flash of anger in the man before it faded away dimmed as soon as it had come. That fact made Conn displeased.

He didn’t like the man without some sort of passion, and if he couldn't get happiness he would have settled for anger.

Not that he cared of course.

“No…. I haven’t.”

“Why not?”

“You should already know the answer to that.” The commander said turning back to his drawing, “Go on, I know you’ve already looked.”

Of course Conn had taken a look. 

“Why do you insist on getting over this yourself when someone payers her a truckload of cash to help. It seems stupid and prideful.”

“Keep going.” The man prompted.

“Well consider now that I am here you no longer have privacy, so there is no reason to try and hide it anymore.”

There was a deep sigh, and the man tilted back his head. Inside Conn could hear his inner monologue urging his anger down. Conn couldn’t understand what kind of privacy invasion this was, in fact he should have seen this coming, but he still didn't want to explain himself to the strange creature and it’s freaky black eyes.

“Why do you want me to explain myself when you can just read my mind anyway. Why do you need to hear it from me.”

“I don’t need to hear anything, you need to hear it.”

The man paused setting down his pencil and turning again to look at Conn, one of his eyebrows was raised and the expression he had taken on was almost one of a disapproving father, which was a strange expression on a man that spends most of his time in the mental headspace of a 12 year old.

“Why do you care.” 

Con kicked his feet a little causing himself to float upwards towards the ceiling, “ I don’t care accept for your constant inner pity party is putting me off my relaxation time. I did just wake up from a coma after all, and the last thing I want is to have to deal with your dysfunctional thoughts invading my snooping. You see it is very difficult to dig up juicy secrets on the rest of the crew when your ‘oh woe is me’ attitude keeps breaking into my concentration.”

Another little spark of anger, this time a little stronger.

yes , that was good, better to have to moving out and being destructive that way than moving in. However, the human locked down his troughs with an angry twist of his lips, “Will it get you out of my head.”

“Alright.”

“What do I need to do.”

“Nothing really. I am going to say something to you and you are going to respond, that’s it.”

The human hesitated his chin lowered a bit, but eventually he sat back arms crossed, “Ok seems easy enough.”

“Bitch”

The human frowned, “Hold on.”

“Bitch.”

“Hey,” Another flash of anger, “What the hell kind of statement is that.”

“Whiny pathetic bitch.”

The human stood, “Hold on, I said I would play your game, and then you just come at me with insults.” That little spark was growing inside his chest heating up nice and warm. Conn could almost feel it as if it was his own. He liked the sensation. Human emotions were so fun to feel, so fun to play with. They gave him physical sensations he was physically incapable of having.

“Whiny- pathetic - bitch.” he repeated 

“You know what Conn screw you and the horse you rode in on because I have no idea where you are getting this.”

“Really. Someone once told me that actions speak louder than words and here you are moaning to your therapist about how hard your life is, and how hard it is to sleep and how hard everything is wa wa…. Wa.”

The human thrust a finger at him, “You shut your trash mouth. I am not going to be shamed for getting myself help. What I had to go through was rough, and I wasn’t ready for it. I could sit in the corner and cry about it, but here I am getting help holding myself together, so you can just shut up.”

“Doesn’t seem to be working.” “What the hell is that supposed to mean.”

Conn held out his hands to either side, “Look around Commander. Here you are sitting alone in the dark at three in the morning drawing pictures of cannibal zombies. I mean honestly you have gone and lost it. If you really wanted to get better you would probably tell her that you keep seeing him when you look in the mirror.”

“Fuck you Conn. I needed time, I STILL need time, and I will TAKE all of the TIME I NEED.”

If he could have cracked his knuckles he would have. This was fun, “No you can’t. You have a job to do, and by acting like this you are letting the entire crew down.

“Id let the crew down more if I took over not being ready.”

“Then why aren’t you ready?”

The human stepped forward right up in his face. The spark had lit into a flame fanned. The anger was billowing outwards, “I think I deserve to feel like shit for a little while. I watched a man die.”

“You mean the man you killed.” Conn went on smuggly 

The human was even closer to him now, chest to chest, “I DID-NOT-KILL-HIM. I survived. That man may have deserved what he got and maybe he didn’t, but no one died and made me GOD so it's not my place to decide.”

“You didn’t help him though, did you.”

“No, I didn’t, but why was it MY job to help him. Me against an entire prison. The guards weren't going to stop them, they hated that guy just as much as the rest of us, and while we are on the subject. YES I wanted him dead, any normal person would. I’m not a saint, I’m not perfect and yes I have those sort of thoughts. In fact, I got what was coming to me; my punishment was the beating I got. Anyone who blames me for any of that can go right to hell.” The flame was roaring nice and warm now. It was anger, and it was making both of them feel light. Blood ran through their hands and into their heads. 

It felt sort of nice to be mad.

“Oh please, if you really believed that, you wouldn't feel so guilty.”

The human snarled. The dogs and the spiderlings on the floor had retreated under a table, but Glados hissed along with him. “You think I feel guilty because of HIM, no. I feel guilty because I didn’t live up to my own standards. If I really am who I thought I was, I would have helped him no matter what, but I didn't and that's why I am frustrated. I am not the man I thought I was, and that PISSES ME OFF.”

Conn floated a little closer two dark eyes looking into one green one, “You know who you remind me of?”

“Oh please tell me more, I am DYING to know.”

Conn paused allowing the tension to build, “Mr. Everett.”

The room had gone very silent. Glados stopped growling, and her little ears went back, “Take…. That…. Back.” The human hissed in a horse whisper.

“Make… me.” Conn whispered back 

He watched from the Commander’s peripheral vision as Glados crawled across the floor and under the table. He was getting into dangerous territory, but that was no matter. He would manage just fine, “Come on, just look at his career, mirrors your own now wouldn't it. I can just imagine it, the ship goes dark and poor little Adam Vir loses his mind and starts eating the crew.”

A vein was pulsing just above the man’s good eye, “I would not.”

“I wonder what the Drev taste like. I mean Sunny is small enough, you could probably catch her and chop her up into bite sized pieces if you really wanted to.” 

‘I said SHUT UP.” “Why should I!”

The man lifted his hands as if he was going to choke Conn, but held back balling them into fists, “I would never do that, and I don’t give a damn what you say. I would keep my cool, and we would find a way out because that is what we always do.”

Conn shrugged intentionally and quite completely blowing him off as if it was nothing.

“You know it’s just sad. You trying to justify yourself.”

“What do you want from me Conn. Why are you her. Does messing with people get you off or something. Is this some kind of sadistic pleasure for you?” 

There was silence in the room for a long moment. 

Waffles whined below the table, and the spiderlings chirped nervously along with her.

“No Commander.” His voice lost it’s edge, he let it slip take on a more distant quality inside the man’s head.

“These thoughts aren’t mine…..” The human looked on in confusion, the flame in his chest pausing.

“They’re yours.” The flame was snuffed blown into smoke which rose into confusion on his face. He took a step back.

“What are you talking about?”

“None of those words were mine. I stole them all from your own head. All of the insults all of the illogical assumptions.” He grinned, “they made you mad, didn’t they because they didn’t make sense.”

The man just stood there mouth agape jaw working furiously though no sound came out

“You argued pretty heavily with me didn’t you. Thought I was being some sort of asshole….” Laughter, not that he could make the sound, but inside the man’s head he could sound like anything, “I’m not the asshole, Commander...you are. Calling yourself names, doubting yourself. Personally my opinion is that if you are allowed to do it, than I am. I mean if it’s inside your own head than you must believe it.”

“But I don’t.” the man whispered 

“Than what do you believe commander?” He waited there, knowing the answer but watching as the human struggled to find it inside his own cluttered head. Parts of his subconscious doing its best to hide the truth, but then he snagged it. Just a tendril, but it was enough.

He sighed deflating, “I want to feel normal again, I want to get back to work. I wanted someone to be angry at me, someone to yell at me like I won't shatter. I want them to tell me that I am NOT doing as well as I could. I want people to expect MORE from me not less because less means that they believe in me less. Even if I can’t reach it, I want people to honestly believe that I can because maybe if someone believe it, it’s true.”

“You feel like people have been making excuses for you.”

He threw his hands in the air, “Exactly. They’ve been going so easy, they've been so nice, but that's not what I want… It’s not what I need. I know it sounds stupid, but I want someone to come in here and tell me to my face that I need to do better because they'd be right. All the doctors and all my friends they think they are being supportive, and they are, but that’s not what I need. I need expectations.” 

Conn crossed his arms, “Fine, do better. Get off your ass and get back to work.”

He sighed, “it’s different coming from you.”

“Why?”

“Because You know exactly what I want, but you're probably don’t mean it. I don’t need platitudes Conn.”

More laughter. He liked the sound it was fun, and it was a great way to mock people, “Platitudes. Do you honestly think I care about your feelings enough to give you platitudes. I am being honest. I think you’re being a selfish asshole sitting here all alone in the dark coloring when you have a job to do. Do better.” The man was glaring at him again. That little spark in his chest had come back easier than it had before, Conn reveled in the feeling of his anger.

“What do you want Commander, right now what do you feel right now.”

“Probably the desire to strangle you.” Conn didn’t even bother flinching.

“You don’t really want that.”

He sighed in annoyance, “Fine, I don’t want that…. I….” Conn waved a hand trying to prompt him on. Conn could feel it, a sort of buildup of emotion inside the man. Physically it felt like a cap on a shaken up bottle filling his entire body up till just under his head, like he was trying to keep his face out of the water in order to avoid drowning.

“You now what, honestly I’M PISSED OFF. IT’S NOT FAIR DAMN IT. If I could just…..”

“Come on….” Conn coaxed.

“If I could just, clear it all out then maybe I’d feel better, but I have to act all civilized because of my rank. I have to be in control.

Conn waved a hand dismissively and motioned around the room, “Well go on, no one is stopping you.”

“Not on the ship.” The man hissed in return.

“It’s your ship isn’t it. Look around, Commander what is the worst you could do, break a couple of chairs bust the coffee machine , nothing you couldn’t pay for.”

“What if the crew sees. 

“Screw them.” Conn said, “everyone will be better off if you get a little destructive now versus not doing it and being a lot more destructive later.”

THe man held his eyes for a very long moment, “It won’t be pretty.”

“I’m inside your head, I have seen plenty of things that aren't pretty.” 

There was silence for a few seconds before.

“You should probably step back.”

This time Conn did as directed floating back and high watching as the man turned on the spot. His head was bowed, his hands curled into claws at his side. He watched from the sky as one dog and three spiderlings slunk across the room and hid under the salad bar.

He allowed himself to feel the buildup as the man’s hands began to shake uncontrollably, his breathing grew heavy, blood rushed into his face and neck, and then, the cap burst from the bottle….

WIth a scream of anger, almost inhuman the man lashed out with his prosthetic leg kicking the table. The power was enough to snap some of the bolts holding it in place and it hit the floor on it’s side with a crash. Chairs went flying along with creative curses Conn would have to save for later. Silverware crashed onto the ground. Lights hung from exposed wires. Metal screeched as it was dented. Paper was rent and scattered about the floor like confetti. 

Minutes passed by followed a reign of destruction so impressive Conn admitted he actually underestimated what was going to happen. 

The commander  stood at the center of the room surrounded by carnage. His hands were bleeding. He tilted his head back towards the ceiling screamed again and fell to his knees breathing hard. There he went quiet and Conn could feel as the last bit drained from him, dripping onto the floor and dissipating away.

The red faded from his neck and face, and with an exhausted sigh he flopped onto his back one bloody hand resting on his stomach, the other resting on the floor as he stared at the ceiling. Conn floated over, adjusting the gravity field so he sunk to the floor, and lay down as well. Their heads were side by side, though their feet were going in opposite directions.

They lay like that for a minute.

After a few moments, There was a soft shuffling on the floor as waffles slunk from under the salad bar crouched close to the ground, her tail sweeping fast and slow to the ground her ears back.

She scooted closer to the commander, whimpering and yawning with agitation.

The commander patted her ears as he stared up at the ceiling, and she lay against him in the crook of his arm. 

Noise down in the hallway, along with the sound of rushing feet and a group of humans charged onto the deck carrying an assorted array of weaponry. They paused in the doorway to the mess hall from two doorways looking both worried and confused spotting the commander lying amidst the carnage.

“Commander wha-”

The man held up a finger, “SHHH…. Shhhhh.” 

The humans went quiet looking between each other with confused expressions. Dr. katie poked her head around the door frame and glanced around the room, then with tentative steps she walked quietly into the room and towards where the commander lay. She didn’t say anything but paused, then shrugged and slowly lowered herself to the ground, adjusting herself till she was flat on her back staring up at the ceiling. The other humans looked between each other in surprised confusion, but one of the marines shrugged walked forward and lay down on one of Conn’s other sides resting his hands atop his stomach in silent contemplation.

Following their baser social instincts, the other humans followed until, one by one, he was surrounded by an array of human bodies all staring up at the sky in deep contemplation. Conn reached out to them feeling their solidarity to their commander, and then connected the two together allowing the Commander to hear them for one brief moment.

There was silence and then, inside his head.

“Thank you, Conn.”

“don’t mention it.”

...

“Conn.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t EVER try that on anyone else.... ever again.” 

“You have my word, Commander.” 

 Whatever..... its not like he cared.

[msrosey]

Ok- What if Shadow was Good and Amy was anti. Would Amy be the one who makes first moves or is it still Shadow?

This spawned far too much world building, i apologize in advance 

- set during the Dark Arms invasion, with the usual anti-Amy behavior where she hates Sonic and has her trusty warhammer. Twisting her a little bit so she’s not as childish, but still as messed up. Reminder that anti-Amy goes as Rosy the Rascal!  

- there’s no official anti-Shadow, so let’s just say the canon divergence here was that Maria /didn’t/ die via GUN raid and instead lived a longer life that was ultimately cut short by her condition. Shadow then never gains his gloom and doom persona and instead is more of a caretaker to her, albeit one with a MAJOR guilt complex for his creation not being able to cure her, and went in suspended animation until the Black Comet returns. 

Now onto the show!

.

AO3, for those that prefer! 

.

 Of all the things Rosy thought would end the world, alien invasion had been worrying low on her list. Inter-dimensional police force with the proper permits to take them all in? Pfft, sure. That freak echnida deciding the best way to destroy the emeralds was to blow up the planet? Wouldn’t have bet money on it, but why not? Even the idea of one of Robotnik’s helper bots going postal was more likely then, well—this. 

From the flying headquarters, Rosy could see the plumes of smoke rising from patches of scorched city. Flying dark specters zoomed over the land below, all light cast in a bloody sheen from the planetary sized comet hanging in the sky. 

She pressed closer to the glass, smiling at the view. Red always was her favorite—

“Amy,” a voice snapped behind her, haughty and suffocatingly uptight. Like the little twerp it belonged to. Rosy rolled her eyes. Still, she turned and gave the fox her signature crooked smile.

“Tails,” Rosy crooned, leaning against her green war hammer. “I was just stopping to smell the sulphur flowers. Something up?"

The fox looked annoyed, but Rosy knew that was typical for the stuck-up brat. “You may address me as Miles. Have you been paying attention to the meeting at all?"

Rosy batted her lashes, fixing her gaze on him and ignoring the crowd of people around the conference room. “Of course, Tails. Alien invasion. Comet’s gonna destroy the planet. Yada-yada-yada, I’m not good enough to fix it myself!” At the last part she mimicked talking with her hand in the fox’s signature serious tone. 

Miles narrowed his eyes, but didn’t rise to the bait. Boring. “Yes, this endeavor will require all of our strengths in order to succeed. And you’re aware of your part in the mission?”

A tingle ran down her back at the reminder, putting every single spine on edge. Rosy's grin turned manic. “Yep! I’m gonna hurt Sonic! Mangle him, bash him, crush him up, up, up!”

“Quite,” Miles said, raising a brow. “Your portion is critical, since as long as Sonic is guarding the remaining Beryl for Black Death on Demon Island, our plan stands little chance of succeeding.”

Thoughts of brutally maiming the hedgehog of her nightmares spun around Rosy's head, making her feel flushed. The planet’s destruction was one thing, and a thing she didn’t care much about, but Sonic— Well, the end of the world just wouldn’t feel right if he wasn’t absolutely bloody destroyed. She would have just tried on her own, as she always did, but these Black Arms were quite the heavy customers...and who was she do decline an offer from Miles Prowler to step aboard his exclusive gunship? 

He gathered an interesting group as well. Her gaze trailed over to the museum curator, Rogue, whose poofy purple dress was splattered in the green blood of the aliens. Probably had a fun run in with them when they were going for the last stash of emeralds in the Central Museum. Besides her was Knuckles, whose drive to destroy all the emeralds would have made him a genuine threat…if he wasn’t such a total wimp. Vanilla though, Rose knew she’d have to keep an eye on. As if to prove it, the leather clad rabbit was already looking at her, permanent sneer fixed on her scarred face. 

Ugh, assassins. Always so eager to intimidate. Rose rolled her eyes as Miles. The rabbit had eyes on her for a while, which would account for why Rosy had been so on edge since setting foot on the ship…unless, of course her internal tracking was picking up—

From beside her, someone cleared his throat. 

“Um, excuse me, Sir Prowler?” Doctor Kintobor was already wringing his hands, voice trembling. “I understand that the Black Arms need to be defeated, but maybe we can just…move them to another planet? I do so hate causing any harm to a sentient…um, sentient species. They do deserve to live too...”

Miles looked about to cause harm, but also like he severely doubted that the doctor was sentient. “Their lives are not worth more than our own. And this Black Comet of theirs threatens that. Or do you have a better plan, Doctor, hmm? Maybe ask them nicely to commit genocide in the next solar system?”

Doctor Kintobor flushed at the laughter that filled the room. “Oh, um, I suppose.”

“Besides, we have it on good intel that the Dark Arms have planned this invasion for some time. They will not be easily dissuaded and we only have one real source on their behavior,” Miles continued, casting a dark eye around the room, “And on that note…” His eyes landed on hers. Rosy tensed. “Vanilla, restrain her."

Rosy barely had enough time to call out cowards before the floppy eared assassin tackled her down, breaking her connection with her hammer. Metal clasps rose from the floor and locked her in place, leaving her to thrash. Beryl enforced metal, cause he was a wimp. Stupid Tails and his stupid inventions! 

“Apologies for the rough treatment, but we all know you can handle it,” Miles continued, posture immaculate. “And we couldn’t take the risk of you attacking our next guest.”

Touching her. People were touching her! Rosy struggled against the rabbit holding her down, baring full fangs at the room. 

“Um, maybe we should be, a little nicer…?” Rosy heard Dr. Kintober say weakly. “We do need her to take out Sonic and help defeat the Black Arms.”

“Correction,” Miles said cooly, “We need her and our guest to do that. And she already has a proven violent predisposition towards those of his species. You can see how we'd rather not take the risk, Doctor.”

Species...

Rosy’s head swam as the pieces began to connect themselves. She knew she’d felt something, she knew, knew, knew, one of them was on this ship. A— 

The doors of the gunship conference room opened and a familiar silhouette filled the doorway. 

“Sonic!” Rosy roared, bucking the assassin off her with one sharp movement. Her hammer flew across the room and slammed into her chains, breaking them into so many fine pieces. Emeralds, Beryl, whatever you called them, always were weak against some solid willpower. Rosy launched herself over the table and towards the figure, weapon in hand. Her mind raced with thoughts of the extra special smash she’d been saving up for him.

Just as Rosy got close enough to really savor the impending violence, a bright purple light filled the air. And when it disappeared, so did the rest of the room.

She blinked her eyes, rubbing hard as she found herself…atop the gunship? Tail’s stupid Anticyclone. Wind buffeted her sideways and Rosy dig her hammer into the steel hull to keep balance. How did—

“Sorry to alarm you, but a fight inside would have crashed the gunship,” someone said behind her. Rosy spun, launching out with her hammer. The hedgehog - because it was a hedgehog, her instincts were always right - only moved, speeding away on…hover boots?

“Aw, did you get some new toys, Sonic?” Rosy cooed, crouching low to keep from sliding off the ship. Stupid Tails was starting evasive maneuvers. How cute. “You know how I love breaking your new toys.”

“I am not Sonic—“

“But you’re a hedgehog!”

She rushed forward at the next tilt of the ship, this time managing to surprise him enough to get close. Then another purple light and he was gone. Rosy pouted, turning to look around the surface of the ship. “No fun, disappearing all the time. Don’t you want to play?"

Something dark zipped by her, knocking her hammer from her hands. Rosy watched it sail over the edge of the gunship, disappearing in the grey smoke fumes below. “Hey!”

The blur came to a stop a few feet away, his form more clear. A black and red hedgehog, although with spines a little too raised to be her Sonic’s, even with another of his color switches. Rosy glared. “That wasn’t nice! I just wanted to hurt you!” 

The hedgehog looked at her with odd eyes, tilting his head. “Why?”

Rosy made a face. “Why, what?”

“Why do you want to hurt me? Is it because I resemble this Sonic of yours?” His voice was even, betraying none of his emotions. It put Rosy on edge. No one was that calm without a plan. He continued, “What has this Sonic done to inspire such vengeance? To drive you to violence? Is he worth it?”

“Worth…” Rosy wasn’t sure whether to laugh or attack him for those words. So she did both. “Who cares about worth!"

The dark hedgehog only dodged her punches, keeping that same face of unruffled intent. “So you attack for the sake of it? For…fun?”

Now he sounded like that wuss echnida. Pacifist was just another word for coward. Rosy snarled. “Stop running away! I hate it when you run away. Stand and fight me, already!”

“No,” he said simply, ducking another attack. “Because I’m not your enemy. Why is Sonic?” 

Why was—why was—Sonic? Now Rosy did laugh, this time pausing her assault to do so. Why was Sonic her enemy? Why? In this horrible dimension where everything went wrong, someone actually had the nerve to ask why? An odd empty feeling filled her gut. 

Why was a stupid question to ask about enemies. How was always the more enlightening. Memories began to trickle in, images of a burning forest and screaming hoglets. Memories she’d long ago forced herself to forget. Her fists clenched. The answer ripped itself from her throat—

“Because he’s Sonic!”

This time her attack took him by surprise, and he only barely managed to slide out of the way on his stupid cheat hover boots. Her fist left a distinct imprint on the hull of the ship and Rosy could faintly hear Miles cursing a blue streak from the pilot deck. Whoopsie, another toy smacked around by an uncaring hedgehog. 

She thought he’d be used to it by now.

The memories roused by the thought only fueled her rage. Not her normal simmer, no, this time it was tinged with that ugly empty desperation from so long ago. Rosy flew at the hedgehog again, screaming. “Because he never takes anything seriously!”

Another kick, this time sloppy enough that he had more than enough time to move out of the way. Rosy slipped in the empty space where he'd just been, falling a sharp ways down the hull until she managed to launch herself back up. The lack of contact with him was beginning to grate, remind her of the times when…

“Because he’d ruin everything and just keep running from it!” It was getting darker, her steps harder to place. Meanwhile the other hedgehog looked as if he could do this all day with his stupid cheating hover boots and weird emerald powers. He didn’t even look as if he’d broke a sweat. 

Just like—

Amy-Rosy-Rosy cried out as swung again, “Because he ruined everything and wouldn’t even take me seriously!”

That caused something to bloom on the other hedgehog’s face, but Rosy was past the niceties of taunting. And that had been quite enough stalling. She feinted for his legs - stupid, stupid hedgehog legs - and just as he leapt out of the way, she grinned. He caught it, frowning in response, just in time for her hammer to soar from the clouds below and catch him.

In the gut.

Rosy grinned. Always nice to get a little cheap shots in. That always managed to humble a hedgehog. He fell back, sliding against the entirety of the ship’s top hull. Her hammer still with him, only to return to her open hand. She smiled at the sight of him laid low. “Aw, was that too good an answer for you?”

He groaned. Rosy giggled a little, flush with pride. From here she could almost pretend it was Sonic, finally stopped. What a thought. She leaned against her hammer, still smiling. “Let me give you some advice, new hedgehog. People are basically awful and are always going to find a reason to hurt others. You might as well stop giving them chances."

The gunship swerved again, but Rosy moved with it, making an odd little dance towards the hedgehog. He was already rising, but that was fine. That just meant she could smash him some more. She readied her warhammer as she got close, humming a senseless tune, “And pop goes your—“

The world went sideways. Rosy had enough time to catch the brief sight of long ears flapping - how did all of them know how to fly with no wings! Cheats! - just as she was kicked off the edge of the gunship. She dug in her hammer on the side, metal screeching, but there wasn’t enough side left. Vanilla’s stern face looked down at her as she fell.

No fun, Rosy thought, I didn’t even get to break Sonic first.

Her ears popped at the pressure of air around her and Rosy felt her gaze track over to the giant comet in the sky, still glowing. What a lovely color. At least her last sight would be —

Red.

Red eyes staring right at her, an odd look in them that Rosy hadn’t seen for longer than she could remember. The hedgehog was just above her, so close she could see the sweat flying from his brow His spines were being blown astray and his hover boots were struggling to boost him forward but still, his face was determined. He had her hammer in one hand and the other hand, outstretched...towards her.

Rosy only stared. 

There was no—no reason—saving her? Her? No one had ever—

His fangs were bared in strain as he stretched his arm further. 

Just as they broke the cloud cover and the gunship was almost just a dot in the sky, Rosy found herself doing something she hadn’t done since she was a hoglet and watched her entire family burn because of a mad boy’s boredom. 

She reached out for help. 

His face seemed to turn more determined at that, lunging forward with another roar of flames from his hover boots. Hand trembling, her gloves barely brushed his before—

A bright purple light filled everything she could see and Rosy blinked to find herself back on the gunship, this time in the conference room. The near abandoned conference room. She watched Dr. Kintober duck behind a chair with a squeak. Normally she’d punish such overt wimpiness, but instead Rosy just stared at the hand still holding hers. 

“Here,” he offered, holding out her hammer, “Sorry I had to borrow your weapon, a jump like that required more chaos energy than I had.”

Rosy blinked as she accepted it. Giving her hammer back? The one she’d just used to crack several of his ribs. The question was on her lips before she even realized, “Why?” 

He seemed to realize her question was not quite about the hammer, judging by the light in his eyes. Rosy wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen that before, a gaze so…soft. Calm. As if it carried an infinite patience capable only of someone who truly—cared? 

An odd thrum set itself up in Rosy’s chest, like the beating of an organ that had long ago turned hard.  

“Because,” he said, “I made a promise a long time ago to give everyone a chance. And it looked like you needed one.”

Rosy opened her mouth to say something, not exactly sure what, only for the conference room door to slide open. More than several guns pointed out from the doorway. “Step away from Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy Rose! If you do not comply, we will be forced to shoot!”

The dark hedgehog in question scowled at this, turning towards the doorway. “I told you I had this handled! There’s no need for anyone to get hurt.”

“You got hurt,” Rosy pointed out. A strange feeling accompanied the words, an unfamiliar clench in her gut.

The hedgehog - Shadow? - didn’t even look away from the nozzles of the gun, still firmly planting himself between them and her as he answered, “I’m a living weapon. It doesn’t matter.”

Rosy furrowed her brow, something about his words hitting her weirdly. She didn’t…like them? She also didn’t like the guns, but somehow the fact that they were pointing at him was…bad? 

Well, only one way to fix that.

Huffing, Rosy shoved past him, moving to the front of the conference room. The guns followed her only to pause when she did, sitting herself into the chair originally marked for her. There was a short silence.

“Well? Don’t we got an alien invasion to stop?” Rosy called out, crossing her arms. She pouted at the clear sounds of disbelief from beyond the doorway, only stopped by Shadow clearing his throat. 

“Yes, there’s new intel we need to review. It’s rather time sensitive,” he said, folding his arms and managing to look like he'd hadn't just returned from an impromptu skydive. Rosy touched her own spines in a rush of insecurity, flattening the ones that stuck out the most. How did his already go back to normal? 

Rogue was the first to come out, tripping oddly over the first step. Rosy paused from her grooming to snort. Knuckles probably pushed her, the wuss. He got his comeuppance by being the next shoved through the doorway, courtesy of Miles. Who was still brandishing his gun. She raised a hand and wiggled her fingers at him. He sneered. Lovely kid.

Dr. Kintober slowly rose from under the desk, still shaking. He looked between her and Shadow quickly, something calculating in his gaze. Rosy shot him a sickly smile that sent him ducking back behind his chair to hide. Nice to see she still had it. 

As everyone began to filter in, with the obvious lack of Vanilla who likely knew better than to show her face so soon, Rosy slumped back in her seat and resolved to watch the proceedings. All were sending her strange looks she ignored, except for one. 

Shadow’s face was cast in an odd sheen from the sky outside and Rosy found herself holding her breath when his eyes passed over hers. The light made his eyes glow stronger, that same rare softness staring back at her. He gave her a small smile as the seconds stretched on and Rosy turned away sharply, blood pumping fast. 

Miles continued with his plan and Rosy ignored the odd suspicious glance at her, mind too busy picking apart the swarm of thoughts raging in her head. Red was always the color of destruction, of violence and rage and —

So why was the red of his eyes soothing?

[robin-the-enby]

Confusing feelings p.2

Pairing: Abe Sapien x OC

Summary: The Kelpie is brought to BPRD, but doesn't want to talk. Abe is called to get information through skin to skin contact, but he has other plans.

Warnings: talk about pollution (idk if that counts), injury, claustrophobia

A/N: So, I decided to make a second part to this, because it feels like I've read all Abe fanfics on this platform and this beautiful man deserves more love. This is very probably the last part, mainly because I haven't decided if I just want to put my OC in the plot of the Hellboy movies or if this is an AU. And when I decide, I'm going to write it on Wattpad, because I have this blog for oneshots only, I feel like making series here would just be messy. Ok, thanx for reading the rant no one asked for ^^

Gifs are in no way mine

* * * * *

The cell was cold and dry. It didn't have any windows to look out from, so it must have been underground. There was a door, but it was locked, she already tried.

The Kelpie was confused. She didn't know where she was and neither did she know what everything around her was. The air felt different, so she couldn't be home. She wasn't covered in the black goo anymore, but her back was aching dully as she sat on the cold, hard floor. However, it was better then when she was moving. When she wasn't still as a statue, pain shot from her back into the rest of her body.

She tried to take in her surroundings. That didn't take a lot of time though. There were gray walls, gray ceiling, gray floor and the door.

Next she focused on herself. She remembered a great pain as she carried the girl into the lake. Unfortunately she wasn't able to see her back. She looked down. Around her chest was a white cloth and another piece of fabric was covering her intimate parts.

Panic shot through her like a bullet. She closed her eyes and took in a shaky breath. She couldn't concentrate on anything but how tight the fabric suddenly felt on her body. It brought up flashbacks, shards of memories burried deep in her mind. She felt tied up, the fabric becoming tighter and tighter every second and she couldn't breathe.

Although her eyesight was blurry with tears, she noticed the door opening and people rushing in her cell, coming closer and closer, trying to talk to her and touching her. But she couldn't make out anything but gibberish.

Abe was acting out of character ever since they came back from the mission in Scotland and agents were starting to notice. The first to notice his strange behaviour were his closest friends, Hellboy and Liz.

He couldn't concentrate for more than thirty seconds, his thoughts trailling off somewhere where no one could follow. Something was on his mind and nobody was able to find the thing, which seemed to trouble him so much.

But Hellboy was getting fed up. He wasn't angry at Abe, the only thing he felt for his friend right now was worry, but he has been worrying so much for so long he became angry at whatever it was that plagued Abe's mind so much.

But he had enough. Red decided he was going to keep an eye on Abe today, telling him It's a 'guys only' day today as an excuse. Well, it was practically the truth, he did want to spend time with Abe, Liz has been busy anyway. Manning called for her, saying he needs her, for what Red didn't know, nobody bothered to tell him. So yes, he really wanted to spend time with Blue, but he also wanted to try and get him to talk. He just didn't tell him that.

It has been pretty boring so far. They have been cooped up in the library all day and most of the time Abe was quiet. Red tried to keep the conversation with him going, but after a while of talking he realized Abe had spaced out. He was just about to snap at him, but was interrupted by his own girlfriend walking through the door.

"You wouldn't believe what happened!" she exclaimed as the door slammed shut behind her. Both men in the room looked at her in expectation. "So, Manning called for me, saying he needs help." she started explaining. "Help with what?" asked Red. "The Kelpie woke up." she explained. At the mention of the beasts name, Abe's head shot up. She had his undivided attention. "Really? You saw her? Where are they keeping her?" question upon question, he fired them at his friend without hesitation. "Why do you want to know?" asked Hellboy.

Truth was, nobody saw her after that mission. The agents that were asigned over her kept her somewhere, and nobody bothered to tell the trio where. Again.

"Manning said he needs her for experimantation." Abe said, his voice sounding wary and uncertain "I didn't like how he said it. I just want to make sure she's not being harmed."

And it was true. No creature, however evil it may be, deserves to be tortured. If it needs to be killed, its death should be as quick as possible. It wasn't the only reason he wanted to find her. He didn't know why, but he just couldn't get her out of his head. He couldn't get the image of her burned body, covered in the goo from the water, laying helplessly in the reeds, out of his head. When he slept, he could hear her small noises of pain and he wondered what her regular voice would sound like. He needed to talk to her. It was exciting to meet another water creature, even for a little while. He could ask her so many questions and maybe, just maybe the higher ups could let her live.

"Well and he told me she's freaking out. And because I'm a woman who is not regular like others, I might be able to calm her down. So I went there, but nothing worked. She's just shaking and crying and it's like she's lost in her own world." Liz ended her story.

Abe's heart squeezed in his chest "Do you think they harmed her?" he asked. "Why do you care? I don't get what's all the fuss for. It harmed Liz, It's dangerous, I'd just kill it before it attacks someone else." Red shrugged.

If Abe could frown, he definitely would "It's valuable to us right now. We don't know much about her species. We need her to calm down, so we can get information and then..." he realized he can't finish the sentence. He felt oddly sad at the thought of her, the only other water creature, being gone. Strange how one can get so attached to someone without even meeting them properly. Abe was confused.

As Abe was lost in his thoughts again, Liz and Red were chatting, until an agent came into the library. "Abe Sapien?" he called. When the said man didn't react immediately, Red nudged him and then he perked up. "Yes? Can I help you?" he asked. The agent nodded "Manning needs you. Follow me, please." he said and was already on his way out of the room.

Abe scrambled out to follow him and caught up with him. He achieved this at the elevator. The agent was faster than he seemed.

No one said a word throughout the whole ride. Abe watched as they went lower and lower, deeper and deeper underground.

The elevator stopped when they hit the lowest floor in the entire building. Abe has never been here, but there wasn't much to look at. They walked through a long, gray hallway, the only things around them being the lights above their heads. At the end of the hallway was a door. In front of it stood distressed looking Manning with a few other agents. They looked at the newcomers as soon as they heard them.

"Abe! Glad you're finally here." Manning sighed. Abe and the fast agent stopped at the door. "The thing inside is stressed and we can't find the reason why. I assume agent Liz already told you how her investigation went." Abe nodded his head. "Great. Your job is to go in there and get some information out of her by...you know, holding her hand or something." Pretty invasive, but alright. Abe thought. "Don't worry, there are hidden cameras, we'll be monitoring your encounter the whole time, so don't worry about anything happening to you." all of them then stepped aside and cleared out a way to the door.

The room was dim. Abe wondered if there were any lights he could turn on, but when he heard the quickened breathing, sniffles and strangled cries, he decided it wouldn't be a wise idea.

The Kelpie sat crouched down in the center of the cell, shaking in place. He aproached her slowly, but it seemed like she didn't even notice him coming in the room. Touching someone to feel their emotions was a pretty invasive method for Abe, so he tried to talk to her first.

But it was no use. She didn't even look at him. She probably didn't even know about him. Does she even remember me? Abe thought. There was no other way. He took one of her hands that was holding her knees to her chest and closed his eyes.

Nets. Panic. People everywhere. Chaos. She wanted to live. They were trying to catch her. She didn't do anything and yet here they were. They poisoned the water. Killed all the fish. She has been starving. They did it. It couldn't be anyone else. And now they were trying to kill her too. She thrashed, bit, screamed, anything to get her out of the tight ropes and nets. Anything to keep her alive.

He let go of her hand. "She's feeling claustrophobic. I need bigger clothes. Hellboy's Tshirt perhaps. And a medic please." he said to the dim room, he knew they were listening.

Watching her shake and quietly cry was painful for him, so he was glad when the medic came, Tshirt in hand.

They switched the lights on. Now he could see her. Her skin was pale, nearly white, her eyes and hair a deep dark blue that one could drown in.

Together they changed the Kelpie's clothes and put on the big Tshirt. They also took off her bandages and covered the wound in a way which allowed them not use bandadge that would wrap around her whole torso. It was harder than Abe thought, but they managed.

The medic then excused himself and left Abe alone with the Kelpie. Not like he minded much. After maybe a minute, her mind registered the change and she felt she could finally breathe properly again.

She lifted her head from her knees and looked around warily. She saw someone familiar. Why yes, he was there at the lake, the one who found me after I crawled into the reeds. She was scared of him and what would he do, but she was also injured and knew she can't run away from him here. She didn't even try.

So she just looked at him and said "Thank you." It must have been him who helped her breathe again. She looked down on herself. There was fabric covering her, it covered more skin than before, but she barely felt it. It felt rather nice, she realized.

"You are welcome." he replied with a smile "My name is Abe Sapien. You are in BPRD." She looked at him confused. "Bureau for paranormal research and defense." She didn't look much wiser. "Why is everything gray here?" she asked quietly. "I don't know. They were probably too lazy to paint this...room." he didn't want to say cell, even though he kind of knew that she knew. "They?" she asked. "The other agents." "Are they like you?" "No, they are humans." Her eyes widened. "Do not fret! I know how humans harmed you, but nobody will lay a finger on you here. I'll make sure of that." he tried to reassure her. It seemed to work, because she visibly relaxed her posture.

"Can I have some water please?" she asked very politely. He nodded his head and dissapeared through the door.

He came back with a glass of water. He sat down in front of her "I have a deal for you. I give you this water and then I can ask some questions. Alright?" "Can I ask some too?" she asked. "If you reply to my questions, I don't have a problem with it." and he gave her the glass.

Instead of drinking from it, she dipped her finger in it and splashed the droplets on her gills and hair, which dampened immediately.

"Alright. How were you born? Who are your parents?" She seemed surprised to hear this question. She thought for a while. "I think I was a human. But that was long ago, I don't remember my family." she looked at the ground. She was afraid she didn't answer correctly and now she won't be allowed to ask a question of her own.

But he didn't seem angry at all. "And how did you become a Kelpie?" She thought, again. He noticed when she did that, her eyes became distant, so hard was she trying to answer correctly and truly. It was sweet.

"I died. In the lake. And then...I woke up...like this." she looked at her hands "I don't really understand it."

"Can I ask now?" He nodded "Go ahead." She took a deep breath "What is going to happen to me?"

That was a tricky question. He didn't know. "We don't know for now." She just nodded her head obediently.

"Alright, next question. Did you attack the men because of revenge?" Her eyes teared up at the question. "I didn't want to hurt anyone, really." she sniffled "But they poisoned the water with the black poison and killed all the fish. I was hungry, starving, angry, desperate. I-I..." she couldn't finish.

"I'm sorry I am causing you so much discomfort, but only two more questions." she nodded her head again. "Why didn't you eat the hearts and livers?" For the first time she didn't hesitate to reply "It's in their honour, I think. The heart contains the soul and I didn't want to trap it inside of me. I just wanted to eat. The liver cleans the heart, so it keeps the soul clean. I think all Kelpies feel like this." she shrugged. "How do you know all this?" She shrugged again "I don't. I just feel it." He nodded his head "Alright, one more. Why did you attack our friend?" "The girl?" she shyly asked, he nodded. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I just...I panicked. You seemed to recognize what I am and I got scared. But she was already on me and she couldn't get off. I acted on instinct. I'm truly sorry."

He wanted to comfort her, he truly did. But he wasn't sure if he should. She killed two people, but her voice was like music to his ears, she was so polite and...He was so, so utterly confused.

"Do you want a name?" he asked her. It seemed like an appropriate thing to do. Her eyes brightened at that. "Yes please. Very much." she shyly admitted. He smiled at her. "How about Lynn? It's a name from The Brittish islands, where you came from."

Pale blue dusted her cheeks, it seemed like she blushed "It's beautiful." He smiled again "Alright Lynn. I'll see what I can do for you."

As he was walking out of her cell he made a decision. One that cleared all the confusion.

It didn't matter what his friends thought. What the higher ups would order. He was going to protect her.

[pumpkinperson]

Take My Hand

A Citadel DLC rewrite, where Garrus’ tango is something a little bit more soft.

wanna read it on ao3 instead?

wanna listen to the song described in the fic?

“Garrus, what’s this?”

He stepped through the archway, his clawed boots clicking against the marbled floor of the ballroom, and turned back to look at her. The nervousness he felt crept through his stomach and into his hands, his talons subconsciously picking at the fabric of his glove. He had practiced this so many times, the lines, the steps, the cues, there was no reason for him to be nervous but even so, he couldn't shake the feeling he was going to do something wrong. He needed it to be perfect, because if there was one person who deserved perfect, it was Shepard.

“It’s for you.”

He watched her eyes grow wide, surprise and disbelief melting into wonder and awe as she stepped into the threshold. He watched her gaze linger from the towering walls lined with pillars and golden accents to the crystal chandeliers bathing the empty room in warm, soft light. He watched her still, as she pulled her eyes away from the beautiful sight and returned his own lingering gaze, and he knew there could never be anything as beautiful as she was right then.

As he had planned, gentle music flooded the acoustics of the ballroom. A quiet, slow waltz graced every corner and reverberated back to them, surrounding them with the instrumental. Garrus held a hand out to her and titled his head, a silent question overcoming the music around them.

Will you dance with me?

She smiled, a silent answer, and he almost lost his breath when she did. No matter how many times he made her smile or laugh, it never ceased to amaze him. He did that. She was smiling, she was laughing, she was happy because of him.

She took his hand and walked towards him, her dress barely floating above the marble. The cloth shifted and rippled against the curve of her waist, pulling away from her legs as she took another step closer to him and rested her hand on his shoulder.

“You know I’m not a very good dancer, right?” she said, her smile drifting into a smirk and her eyes glinting in the warm glow of the light above.

“That’s alright.” I’ve practiced enough for the both of us.

He carefully placed a hand on her waist, and took the first step. Holding her close dimmed his nerves, although they still settled in the deepest part of his mind and his mandibles shifted in response.

Garrus could feel the muscles in her waist move underneath the satin fabric, as she followed him around the first few steps. It was a simple box step, he took a step forward, she took a step back, he led and she followed, a dynamic unfamiliar to them.

The song played, piano and violin reaching every part of the ballroom, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. As they danced across the marbled floor she became less and less self-conscious; her brow wasn’t furrowed in concentration as it once had been, and the worry faded from her lips as well as her eyes. At first, she had been looking at their feet, trying to map out the steps and the route they were taking, but now she moved as confidently as she did in the warzone. The dynamic had shifted, it was no longer leader and follower, now they were equals. The muscles in her hand moving in unison with his - she knew his next step just like she did when they were in combat.

They had danced the length of the ballroom and Garrus spun her, their hands raised above her head, and she laughed, a sound so carefree and genuine it made his breath hitch, a sound he hadn’t heard in a very, very long time. He watched her, his mandibles flared in a smile, glowing in her happiness.

He committed this moment to memory. The way she twirled and her satin dress caught the warm light of the chandeliers, her eyes shining with happiness that flushed her cheeks and turned her lips. Her hair loose and free and rising above her shoulders, then cascading back down. Her muscles rippling underneath her dress, promising strength and control when she was the most relaxed he had seen her since the invasion. 

She was everything to him, and he knew he was everything to her when she came back to his arms with so much love in her eyes it almost made him forget the next step in the dance.

I’m so damn lucky.

They could’ve danced forever. They could’ve stayed in the ballroom they had all to themselves and just danced, a home found in each other’s embrace. But as much as Garrus wanted to, there was one thing he wanted to do even more. The nerves that had all but disappeared came back, fluttering in his stomach and his heart thrummed in his ears.

The song was coming to an end, and on the final notes he spun her once more, then twice, before letting her go. She laughed again, so bright and clear, and took the momentum to twirl around the ballroom, closing her eyes and spreading her arms.

He knew her answer. He knew what she would say. Even still, his heart raced even faster as she turned back towards him.

“Thank you, Garr--”

He was kneeling, his hands wrapped around a small box.

She froze, her smile giving way to a look of shock, her lips slightly parted.

“There’s - ah - there’s a lot of movies and books about how to do this in human culture. Some of them have ‘will you marry me?’”

She was still frozen to her spot, rooted to the ground a few feet away.

“Others have ‘will you take my hand in marriage?’ I guess that one's a, um, a more traditional way to ask, if I understand it right. Things get lost in translation, so I might be--”

Garrus interrupted himself. He was going off-script, the lines he had practiced lost to him in the wake of actually being there with her. It felt like he was diving head first into a black hole and prayed to the spirits he would come out okay on the other side.

He looked down at his hands and his mandibles stuttered, the nervousness showing and shaking his subvocals. “Turians don’t have a big culture on things like this - these kinds of things are arranged, usually, and if a turian claims an outside species as their partner, they adapt to their customs, so--”

He felt her hand on his chin, a touch so soft and gentle it barely registered on his plates. He looked up and she was kneeling in front of him, her eyes shimmering. With the lightest pull, she guided him to his feet and stepped closer to him until there was barely a breath between them. Her hand moved from his chin and caressed his scarred mandible, a warm smile dancing on her lips.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I'll marry you.”

Garrus’ mandibles flared, his eyes wide, almost sure he imagined the words she just said. Then he laughed. He laughed freely and wrapped his arms around her waist, picking her up and spun her around, burying his face in the soft hollow of her neck. She laughed with him, and the sound rang throughout the empty room and he wondered how he could ever doubt her answer.

It was the happiest he had ever been. She did this.

The box was still in his other hand and he gently set her on the ground, holding it out to her. He opened it with a talon, looking down at it. “I saw that they had rings...”

She glanced down at the box in his hand, then back up at him.

“But I also know you’re going to lose it within the first few minutes of combat,” he said. “So... I improvised.”

He pulled out the jewelry inside. It was a necklace, made from the strongest metal he could commission during wartime, with a flattened sapphire-studded ring hanging at the base. It wasn’t conventional, but were they ever?

Her eyes searched his, and he realized why they were shimmering when she blinked. She pulled back the hair from her neck and Garrus put the necklace on her, taking more time than he would’ve thought, his talons getting in the way, but it was okay. There was no rush, not right now.

He wrapped one arm around her waist, and entangled his hand in her hair, pulling her close to him. 

The music started again, the gentle piano and violin filling the ballroom with its sound once more and everything was okay. There was no nervousness, no fear, no thoughts of the days to come.

She laid her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest. They didn’t dance this time, instead they swayed to the music, holding each other. No steps to follow, no practice beforehand, no wishing for it to be perfect because it already was. It was a small moment of unbreakable happiness in a universe filled with everything but.

They didn’t have to say anything else. They already knew.

I love you.

I love you, too.