#rivers just has aura. Maybe it’s cause I like rivers I grew up in a state that has a lot of rivers and no lakes.

[visenyaism]

rank the 7 different bastard last names of westeros

9. Waters. It sounds kind of gross and icky. The Crownlands isn’t even really known for its waters? They have the blackwater bay but that’s important because it’s in the capital. We need to do better.

8. Sand. I just really hate this one it sounds wack. think even Sands would work better

7. Stone. I just don’t really feel like it works. It’s too obviously a noun. 

6. Hill. I feel perfectly neutral about this one. It’s just a normal last name not really any unique character. kind of like the Westerlands being devoid of personality more than any of the other kingdoms.

5. Flowers. Powerful homoeroticism really enjoyed it. If you are born out of wedlock in the reach, you just get assigned the world most fairy princess last name ever and I think that’s beautiful. I’m very grateful that George wrote gay characters in before a dance with dragons so the first one was not Satin Flowers that would be like a reverse glaad award. 

4. Pyke. I like it. However it does not make much sense for if you are born on an Iron Island that is NOT Pyke. Salt would probably work better than Pyke, but Pyke is way more tough.

3. Snow. My great grandma’s maiden name was Snow and I wake up every morning seething with jealousy that I didn’t end up with that cause I think it’s cool. I don’t know why this works so much better than Sand for me despite being the same idea.

2. Storm. Many people have the gut instinct to rank this one first because it really comes out swinging with the most power. However for me it just really overshoot being cool and ends up firmly in like warrior cat territory. 

1. Rivers. Extremely powerful aura while still being normal-passing. I hear its voice in the morning hour it calls me

[jean-does-not-have-a-horseface]

Jean with their almost full term wife just being extremely uncomfortable, they cry a lot and are just ready for the baby to be out?

Here I go... this has been in my inbox for an embarrassing amount of time but I had this plot in mind for two years and I was waiting for this moment to be animated to be able to write and post this... Listen while you read → the sound of silence by Simon and Garfunkel

Pairing: Jean/ Reader

Tags: hurt/comfort (yes my ✨favorite✨), Jean being a sweetheart

Warnings: pregnancy, grief, mentions of labor and childbirth, crying, Post Sasha's death

The Sound of Silence

The dull, gray shade that was plastered all over the sky was accompanied by an excessive stride of frozen air that was blowing on your hair, sending stray strands of (e/c) flying all over your eyes. A few droplets fell faintly in random places over you and on the freshly trimmed grass that was swaying under your feet. There was a vast variety of tombstones that surrounds you, sternly and calculated lined up tombs extend to a tragic horizon, where your eyes couldn't seem to find an end to. A few leaves were being blown around over them, as well as fresh flower petals, ones you could recognise as you had seen numerous people leave bouquets to their deceased loved ones for all the time you'd stayed here.

Inevitably, the gravestone you were resting your back on was frozen, making your whole body shiver as you lean on it, but you chose not to pay any attention to it; you simply buried your chin between your knees and closed your eyes before letting out a sigh escape you. Your stomach tightened as your chest hitched and you instinctively brought a hand to rub over your swollen tummy. You inspected the bum by running your hand around it, rubbing on a few places near your inverted belly button, pressing slightly over the top as you felt the probing piece of flesh flick in the palm of your hand underneath your dress.

When you felt a kick, a single leg movement push against the insides of your stomach, though, you took away your hand, slamming it onto the ground as you tried to grip onto the moist soil right next to you. It was kind of a peculiar feeling and even now, nine months in you were still fully uncomfortable with it. Being pregnant wasn't something you've enjoyed; rather was more like a hazard to your very health and was reason you were relieved of your soldier duties. And you secretly cursed Jean and yourself a bit for allowing this to happen.

Who on their right mind would enjoy swollen feet and back pains, who would enjoy the crazy mood swings and the fatigue that causes you to be unable of even taking a stroll around the town? Who would ever want to feel suffoccated by how big their pregnancy belly had turned? Not you. Definitely not you, but according to your mother they were supposed to be something you'd enjoy later on.

Now, you weren't so sure.

And you were so overdue yet you weren't even sure you could even take care of your child in the mental state you were in.

Sighing hard after taking a deep inhale you dug your frail fingernails into the soil, feeling the ominous tears that the angry skies were begining to pour. Your eyes lingered on the shapeless coulds, focusing onto the dull, stripped light that could barely peak from underneath them. You felt the faint river of a tear run down your cheek at the sight and the skies responded right back at you with a loud thunderclap. It almost felt as if the skies were mourning Sasha just like you. Maybe, if you tried to convince yourself, you'd believe that it was your childhood friend that cried with you due to your departure.

Feeling your body go stiff and your face go numb from the fresh needles of the cold air that was blowing on you your scrunched your nose upwards, hoping for the action to stimulate even the tiniest blood flow to the numb tip. It didn't, and the tingling sensation of a sneeze madxhed it's way to your blood vessels, scratching methodically at all the right pressure points to force it's release. Finally and with a loud blow you felt your chest go in shock as you sneezed, your whole body joltimg up on your very spot.

Still you sniffled the little drops of moisture with the inside of your elbow, you couldn't find it in you to move or get up, you couldn't even try to find an ounce of physical strength inside your body. Sashas tombstone provided some strong comfort for you though, acting as your only comforter against the cold.

"This can't be any good for you."

A soft, large and so very warm hand came to rest upon your shoulder; delicate fingers gave you a squeeze as a bulky thumb rubbed a few circles to the end of your collarbone. You didn't even have time turn your head to see who it was, frankly because you knew.

His scent, his warmth, his touch, his whole aura practially screamed his name.

"Jean?"

"It's going to rain really hard you know." He said, planting a kiss to your temple. "wanna go back?"

"No." You sniffled dangerously.

"Okay then, I-" Jean paused before squating to your level "I guess were staying here for a bit."

"Thank you."

The soft ruffle that you felt on your hair was Jeans reply and it tousled your hair slightly, allowing the shy blond to catch a tiny sniff of your sweet scent to which he sncrunched his nose slightly and proceeded to place a kiss at the top of your hair line. Then, once again, he placed another kiss on your temple.

Fidgeting with your hand while trying to undig it out of the soil, you closed your eyes at the feeling, expecting the tiniest bits of adoration to enter your body through that kiss. Jean rested his head on your shoulder from his squatting position and you smiled a tiny bit and only in the blink of an eye, exhaling a cold huff of air to his face. A sharp pain in your chest was starting to spread, pushing back away over everything else that lay inside your body, strangling the insides of your throat.

"I miss her already."

You felt your breath chock you from the insides of your throat dangerously; a tight, looking knot was finally making its binds tighter and even more evident to the depths of your stomach as it spread to your throat.

"Me too"

"And God she was more that me excited for our baby."

As you shut your eyes, in frail attempt to mute the memories of Sasha that were coming back to your vision, a single tear rolled from the corner of your eye. With a shaking hand you managed to grip onto the side of Jean's coat; the chachi makò cotton coat rubbed against your thum as if protesting for the dirt that was being wiped on it, yet Jean didn't seem to care.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here for so long when you're dysphoric about pregnancy."

"Its-its fine" You sniffled, a hitched sigh escaping the depths of your throat.

"Mmm baby, it's not, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't bring Sasha back with me too she'd talk to me everyday about betting on how we're going to have twins."

As another thunderclap roared in the background, Jean found it fitting to move his aching legs and shift his position to the ground. As he took a turn, he placed another kiss just next to your eye while he took your hand in between his. With a soft thud he came to rest his body next to yours and you made a slight move to allow him a little more space before his back finally came to rest to the small tomb right behind you. A hand came to wrap around your shoulders lovingly silently begging you to push your head down to your lover's shoulder to which you eagerly complied.

"I kinda think she was right, I'm too huge, I can't even breathe properly these days." Another tiny peck was placed to the top of your head as you spoke. "To be honest," You sniffled "whatever it is I want it to be out."

"I know."

"And I don't want to accept that Sasha died, I grew up with her Jean."

"I know baby." He said and placed a new kiss to your head.

"And for the love of any fucking intelligent titan I'm so swollen and I'm angry and all that could make me happy right now would be you Connie and Sasha teasing me about it."

Jean felt your back pulp on him like a jolting lighting has just fell from the sky. He heard the hard sniffle of your nose and heard the painful sob that was stuck to the back of your throat as your sentence came to an end. This, with a burning desire to let his own heart go loose came the feeling of his own eyes stinging, his own chest jolting, his fingertips gripping onto the side of your head as if they were hanging onto you for dear life.

"All I get though is this stupid tomb!" You cried and threw a clenched first backwards towards the tomb, hitting it with all your potential might as you chocked on your next words. "This stupid fucking reminder that my best friend is dead."

It was so dearly painful. Your heart hammered in your chest in protest to your refusal to deny Sasha's death, your stomach churned in a coiling fire and the big swelling bumb under your right hand rioted against your mourning. But you failed to give a care. Your best friend in the whole world was dead.

You could still remember when you decided to join the military together, you still remembered your very first friends, you still remembered how she and Connie were the ones to help you and Jean get together. You remembered the way you'd play when you were kids and how you'd spend days sewing clothes just to play like you were paying a visit to Sina in your most elegant attire. You remembered watching her fall in love with food and with whom you had thought could be the man of her life.

You remembered every single miniscule moment of your life spent with Sasha and it crushed you.

Nevertheless when Jean's long fingers came to sway over the roots of your hair and his nose nuzzled to the top of your hairline, his lips rubbing onto your soft hair, ready to press another kiss at any given time, your face softned, taking away the chocked sob you were about to let out with it. You brought your hand to your face, pulling your sleeve to cover it up and put it to your nose to wipe the runny goo off of it.

"I know, shh" The ashy blond rubbed his chin to the side of your scalp, giving you the tiniest bit of affection from it before bringing his nose back to your head to rub it on the spot again.

Then, the way that you sighed was almost silent.

Save for the whiny hiccup that escaped you.

"Please don't cry so much, I'm going to panic."

A tiny laughter inevitably escaped you. You remembered that phrase very well. When you had caught Jean crying after Marco's memorial he had came running into your arms, sobbing like a madman and you had wispered the same words while rubbing your palms soothingly over his back. That was the same night that you decided to follow him into joining the scouts, the first night of an endless personal misery.

"It's just-" You cried "I just can't, we've lost so many people and it hurts Jean. I should have been there."

"Shh no, don't think like that."

Jean was holding back tears for you. It was evident in the way that he was shaking and jolting his head from time to time. His palm was flexed in a fist, tightly resting over your shoulder as it gripped a fold in your cloack. You only breathed harder at the realisation, feeling your chest sink in a tremendous amount of pain that left you hollow. You felt another kick coming from the inside of your stomach to which you shut your eyes to, too afraid to see the outline of a hand or a foot appear under the thin linen clothe of your dress. And just like before, another heart wrenching sob escaped you.

"I didn't want to say goodbye." Jean said quietly, his voice coming as a breath that barely brushed your ear. "You didn't even get to say goodbye and that's bad of me to say, but I didnt want to see what I saw. I didn't want to say goodbye. I don't want you to suffer. I don't want to suffer either."

"Jean.."

The sniffling of your nostrils wasn't nowhere near coming to an halt, thus the back of your sleeve was the ideal solution to your distress; had you had any more little power in your body you would reach for the handkerchief in your shoulder bad. But that couldn't be the case. Not until you could feel your feet.

"(Y/n), baby... I'm sorry. I promise I won't let anything happen to you and our baby. Even if it means I have to sacrifice my life for you to be safe."

A gasp came out of your mouth quicker than you had anticipated. The hiccup that escaped you was accompanied by another burning hot tear that run down your eye, your whole spine giving in to the wave of fear that shook you, resulting in your head jolting in shock. Your hand shot to his, gripping it with force to bring it over your stomach, your fingers clinging onto his while pressing hard in between his knuckles.

"Don't say that shit, you're not dying Jean, get that thought out of your idiotic head," You inhaled through hitches "I'm going to die a pitiful death if you leave me."

"Please don't do that." Jean clenched his teeth.

"Then don't die too you idiot."

Another rush of a few raindrops started pouring, this time even more quickly that before. The grass under your feet swayed, each spiky peak bending and bouncing as the weight of the rain hit the ground. Big blotches of water were now forming on your attire, waiting your skin as they came to connect with each other, darkening the brown color of the linen skirt you were wearing. Jean wrapped his hand tighter around you, rubbing his cheek to the top of your head again with mellow force, as if trying to assure you it would be okay for you to stay there for only just a moment more.

And you begged to listen to his silent proposition.

Letting his hand rest loosely over your swollen stomach, you took a deep breath, allowing your self to flex your toes inside your shoes. Your indstep steamed as the little strap squished you so hard that you tried your best to convince yourself you weren't going to deal with a blood clot. You hated that you had come to despise your favorite pair of shoes. All you ever wished for was that then would just fit you like normal. Still, even to that thought, the little being inside you took half a leaping turn, giving another kick to the top of your stomach.

Had Sasha been here she would have told you something to help you get your mind off of it. She would have teased Jean for not being able to keep it in his pants and you would have laughed, feeling the tentuon easing off.

Still, the kick, that most women would have found one of joy, only turned your insides like clothes swept by a tide.

"I want to throw up." You announced, half looking at Jean

"Because of the kick? Or the thought of it?"

"Maybe-maybe both."

It was then that another kiss was planted in your forehead. The raw sound of lips smacking filled the air against the drenching water of the rain, giving a little antsy essence to the gesture. Jean rubbed his closed mouth against your skin with his eyes closed in his best effort to help you calm down.

"Now now," He whispered "It wouldn't be the best thing to throw up in the cemetery, would it?"

With closed eyes, you pouted and shook your head twice in response.

"Okay then, I have a proposal for you."

"What?"

"Want to go visit Marco's grave? And then get you somewhere warm? And changed?"

Your pout intensified amd you fixated your gaze at the ground with furrowed brows. The nauseating feeling in your stomach was coiling begging to obertske you, but there was something so warm about Jean's sweet tone that fought it violently, so much that you could even feel your face loosen up as you melted under his touch.

"Yes, I'd like that."

"Okay then."

You shivered slightly as Jean took his arm off of you and dug it to the ground, giving himself a little prompt as he bend his knees closer to his body before stretching them to get up. Next, he leaned towards you, extending a long arm to your side, his thick, enormous palm stretching as it signaled you to place yours in it. Lifting a hand to his direction faintly you manages to place your palm into his and soon you managed to feel his fingers tighten a grip over your knuckles.

Still though, you couldn't find it in you to get up.

You stared at Jean with brows that screamed in apology, lifted skin littered with regretful lines. You had been feeling heavy lately. Everyone knew that, everyone who laid eyes on you questioned hoe you even managed to walk normally. But today you had struggled to get out of bed so much that you had even considered asking to be carried to Sasha's grave, knowing full well that you were too heavy for this to be a reality.

"You can do it."

"Give me a second, I can feel my lower stomach pulsating."

Jean eyed you with concern, his thumb quick to rub a circle over the knuckle of your pointer finger. You only gave him a mixed look next, squeezimg him just a little as you started pulling his hand. You had to get up. You couldn't stay in the rain until someone picked you up bridal style. Thus, you gave a little push. Just a teeny, tiny push to prompt yourself up and meet Jean halfway.

"Oh, oh crap."

In that moment you couldn't even think of a worse mistake that you had made in your nineteen years of life.

"What?"

You didn't want to believe it. No. It couldn't be happening now.

"Uhm, my water just broke."

"WHAT?"

"There's fluid leaking down my thigh and I'm pretty sure I didn't just pee myself. I wouldn't do that in a graveyard."

In between Jean's petrified expression and the trembling pain in your core, you somehow found yourself be eerily non panicked about the happening. As much as you wanted to scream from the pain, as much as you felt like your feet where going to give out, you were nowhere near turning pale yellow like Jean.

"Was this supposed to happen so suddenly?" Jean breathed heavily.

"Well" You cursed under your breath as you clutched over your stomach "I have been overdue for some days now and, ah fuck this is painful-"

"I'm really, really freaking out right now. What. Do. We. Do?"

"Calm down, let's go to Marco's grave."

"What? No!? Your waters literally broke. They broke, oh my god I'm going to be an actual father." Jean let out a chocked scream while running his other hand through his hair and gripping despairately on the roots.

"Jean, okay I migh-" A sharp pain went through your core "I still have a lot of time until my contraction is big enough for the baby to come out."

"This can't be safe."

"I'm telling you!"

Jean took a deep breath. His chest rose and fell, his shaking fingers steadied just a tiny bit, his trembling feet suddenly felt just a little more steady. This wasn't a time to panic, of course, he knew that far. The look you were giving him, even though it was pained, screamed that he could trust you; despite either of you having absolutely no idea about childbirth, he knew that having an anxiety attack this early into labor would only cause a worse experience for you.

Plus, he was the one who suggested they you'd visit Marco, and he wasn't about to say no to you at your current situation. With a hand bend over his hip, he prompted your own to snail through it for support. At least if you were going to do this, he'd basically walk you there. Pressing his lips together, Jean gave you an longing look, letting a deepnsigh escape the depths of his chest.

Eagerly you nodded at him, linking your arm with his. You softly dug your button lip under your upper flesh, trying your best not to bite into it as another rush of pain washed through you. Having contractions this frequent only meant that you had to rush and you knew that better than anyone else, but there was this little voice in the back of your brain that begged you to not take this moment away from Jean. With a final little stroke at Sasha's tomb and a tear running down your wet, stinging eyes before you matched away and to the direction of Marco's grave, you let yourself think you could hear her say a tiny good luck to you.

"Okay, let's go see Marco alright?" Jean said with a hint of glimmer in his eyes "For five minutes."

"Okay and then I'm going to go and have your child."

"Quite literally."

Taglist: @sasageyowrites @ackermans-freedom-inc @melancholicmonologue @ladyofpandemonium @levisbrat25 @callmepromise @hawkssnugget @berrijam @thethyri @nobody-knows-anymore @lzrers

[sassooda]

Worlds Away JJK AU / Chapter 39 - Run

w/c - 7,590

**Warnings- This chapter is very violent.**

               The waiter returns with replacement drinks and sets them down accordingly. He doesn’t stay long this time but he once again intensely stares at them all. Toji postures himself and rolls his shoulders back while unabashedly glaring him down. He’s sure the waiter can tell but his brown eyed gaze is now of Elska as he leaves. Toji grumbles, “He’s begging for an ass whooping doll, would you be upset if I delivered?”. She giggles out, “You are not allowed to hit him!”, and bumps him with her shoulder playfully.

               Naoya cracks up from Toji’s words and adds, “I’ve felt your punch, you’ll fucking kill the guy!”. His deep laughter carries through the patio causing the young parents of the three kids to look over awkwardly and smile. Naoya nods and waves to offer the universal gesture that he wasn’t intending to be that loud. He looks over to Toji and Elska with a grin while lifting his glass into the air, “I just want to say that I’m grateful to be here with you two today.”. He brings his eyes to Toji, “I’ve always looked up to you and hoped that I could be that cool when I grew up…,” he chuckles with slight embarrassment, “…and I know things with all of us are, unique but I appreciate you having the room in your heart for me, it means a lot...”. Toji’s face experienced a quick wash of gentleness that Naoya was happy he saw, returning it without being shy. The Zenin now looks at Elska, “And you my princess…”, he sighs at her sweet eyes, “Thank you for showing me what it means to be cared for by a woman. Come what may, I will always be rich in all things with you by my side.”. He watches Elska sip her wine with watery eyes as he drinks his Mojito until the opportunity to kiss her arises. After he hums to the feeling of perfection, he pulls back and chuckles, “It’s so peaceful without Gojo around, isn’t it?”, he admits as Toji cackles and leans forward while setting his drink on the table.

Elska sips her wine and puts the glass down before wrapping her arms into both of theirs. “Thank you so much for bringing me out here today!”, she feels it’s impossible to address both of them at the same time so she scoots back, “You two bring so much happiness into my life, Sati too…”. She squeezes their arms, “I can’t imagine what life would be like without you.”. Her eyes now take to the kids as the youngest is waving at them in the awkward manner that a toddler would. “We’ve made a friend!”, she laughs as she waves back. ‘Could I be a mother? A good one?’, she asks herself as she watches Naoya interacting with the child, wearing a goofy face. ‘He would be a good father…I know he would.’, the idea creeps into her heart as she heavily considers giving him what he wants. Naoya leans back and says, “They’re reeeeally cute actually. It doesn’t help my baby fever whatsoever.”. Elska inhales sharply after a stark possibility blares into her brain, “I could already be pregnant and not even know it...”, her words sounded dreadful but only because she wouldn’t have the first fucking clue as to who the child would belong to. She didn’t want to say anything out loud but Toji was hot on her trail of thought.

“Any one of us could be the father!”, Toji’s eyes widen as he’s not even considered what a quandary that could turn out to be. He looks over at Naoya who’s left eye is twitching and feels defensive, “Boy don’t make that face, I never pull out.”. As soon as the words left his lips, he can feel the heated aura from Elska, “Doll, I have no idea why I just said that...”, but is relieved to find he’s not in the doghouse after she says, “I’m going to pretend that didn’t happen!” with a squinted expression.

“You dirty old bastard!”, Naoya does not like the idea of anyone else knocking her up. “You’re not supposed…she’s a princess!”, and looks at Elska with a furrowed brow. She seems pretty uncomfortable and he assumes it’s because of his reaction so he feels bad. He huffs, “Well I don’t either!”. Elska can be heard humming like she’s thinking of a punishment but his mind takes to the night of him, Gojo and Elska. He recalls something he feels is important and darts his eyes to Toji with a devious grin, “But Gojo does.”.

“Naoya…I’m about to take your drink away again!”, she buries her face into her hands as she tries to not feel grossed out by herself. Naoya pulls her hands away and turns her in his direction, “Baby! Like I said before…we’re unique!”, and brings his drink within his guard. She feels his lips against her own and somehow the simple action instantly comforts her. ‘We’re all degenerates…’. She leans back into her seat after they break away and looks up to the sky. Thinking of a great comeback she smirks and flippantly says, “Maybe Choso’s the daddy.”. She laughs when Naoya gasps with anxiety but is surprised by how Toji saw right through her.

“Baby? Are you messing with me right now?”, he knows she’s laughing but is honestly afraid of that thought after the lack of clarification with what happened between her and the being. “Tell me you’re just kidding!”, he leans up and pokes at her sides until she admits that it was just a bad joke. Once he’s satisfied and reassured, he sits back again and threatens, “That deserves a spanking...”, and bites his lip as he envisions it. He looks to Toji, “How were you able to be so calm?!”, but pouts when Toji shrugs and says, “I just know better.”, and Naoya now feels silly for getting worked up. “That’s two spankings now since my pride is hurt as well!”. He giggles with her as she doesn’t seem to protest against the idea. ‘Just you wait, Elska!’, he’s now planning to give them to her tonight.

The waiter approaches them again, still eyeing Toji. “Ugh…not again…”, Toji feels the man staring at him and wants to avoid having to directly deal with him but the brown eyed fellow walks over to Toji’s side. He gives Elska and Naoya a loathing look as he warns of his tolerance being low. The waiter says, “I’ll explain the menu since you’re unfamiliar with the language.”, but his tone was different. Toji abruptly states, “I’ll take anything chicken.”, and starts to feel aggressive as the waiter remains. The man leans down and places a hand on Toji’s shoulder and the moment it makes contact, Toji feels a surge of pain shoot through his arm and bellows out an inhuman screech. Naoya stands up immediately and asks what’s wrong but Toji’s unable to respond.

               Naoya looks at the waiter, “What the fuck did you do? WHO ARE YOU?!”, and then back at Toji who has doubled over, heaving in pain as his presence darkens. “Baby, get up…GET UP NOW!”, He grabs Elska and moves her away while glaring at the waiter who arrogantly standing by the giant. The man laughs wildly and says, “This is for Master Kokoro…”. The waiter goes to lower his hand back onto his shoulder but Toji snatches it, crushes his wrist and cries out as his wings start to form. “Oh fuck…”. The Zenin man yells to the other tables, “GET OUT OF HERE NOW!”. Naoya steps back with Elska tightly in his grasp and worries about everyone around them. All of the people sitting outside have now tuned in and are watching in horror as the skin of Toji’s back stretches to form the bones and feathers…but they do not move.

               “TOJI DON’T!”, Elska breaks away from Naoya to run to her beloved but before she can reach him, Toji yanks the waiter down by the wrist and proceeds to send energy at the man’s torso, hollowing him out completely. The body remains standing for what seemed like forever as Elska views the beautiful river through him until he collapses. Screams erupt chaotically as terrified people try to flee but Elska’s only focus was on Toji, who seems to be falling progressively deeper into this dark energized way. “TOJI!”, she cries out to him again but feels Naoya securing her. The children can be heard squealing in tears at the top of their lungs as their parents struggle to function well enough to gather the kids. “Why…This is…?! Naoya!”, she’s already crying as he takes hold of her. The clamor of fear booming around them was almost too much all together but it abruptly silences as a warm liquid sprays her and Naoya. In what seemed like slow motion, the entire family and table was crushed into the pavement, leaving nothing but a compressed pile of bones and flesh where their beautiful faces used to be. She can’t move. She can’t avert her eyes. She can only watch in absolute horror.

               “Oh my God…”, Naoya is also left otherwise speechless and mortified as the high chairs can still be made out due to their green color, amongst the mounds of human tissue. He calls out to Elska who is back in his arms but she’s unresponsive and hysterical. Toji flies past them and Naoya screams when he watches his cousin shred through a businessman before turning to one of the middle-aged women, tearing her arms off simultaneously. The woman screams but soon falls into shock and seizes on the ground. “TOJI!!”, Naoya finds himself crying too, shaking while Toji uses his strength to literally rip through the innocent humans. “Holy fuck…he’s going to kill them all!”, his cries are muffled as he dips his face into Elska’s hair, not knowing how to react. He needs to stop his cousin but understanding that this is an attack, he doesn’t want to leave Elska alone. “Baby… What do I do?!”, he sobs with her. The others that were outside with them are unable to open the door to the building for some reason and he perceives another of the businessmen try to make a break for the water. Naoya screams again as he helplessly watches Toji tackle him and tear the man’s neck from his shoulders. Toji now turns around eerily and targets him while the remaining survivors cower and mentally decompose.  With wide eyes, Naoya picks Elska up and activates his projection technique. He feels so heavy when he engages it and can’t understand why Toji is getting closer as he exerts his full force into the speed. ‘It’s not working!’, the weight of the dread hindering his usual decisiveness brings him to a new low as he surmounts the worse of outcomes. He holds Elska tighter and says through his cries, “Baby, you have to run. I need you to run.”. He’s not sure if he’s going to make it out of this but knows it will be worth it as long as she escapes. His heart breaks while he lowers her down fearing that this will be the last time they’ll see each other. He shouts with urgency as tears stream down his face, “RUN ELSKA!”.

She’s aware that she’s being placed back on her feet but feels so cold without Naoya’s body heat. “The children…”, she’s still in shock. Upon looking around she notices the other bodies, at least 2 overlapping each other near the door leading inside. She stands there, dazed and numb until the restaurant and all neighboring buildings explode. The powerful shock wave sends her flying towards the water as she feels a blunt object hit her side accompanied by internal cracking. Moments pass as she lies there incoherent as multiple smaller explosions erupt from the establishments around them. Her ears are ringing loudly. She tries to push herself off of the ground but her equilibrium is shot so she falls over to her right side. Her eyes are struggling to focus but when they do, she sees that the object that likely cracked her ribs is some poor man’s mangled leg. She can’t make out her own voice but she cries for Naoya and shuts her eyes to the fear that him and Toji were caught in the blast. Her own bloodcurdling sounds now make way to her ears, finding she doesn’t recognize her own voice. Only when she can feel her body being jostled around do her eyes unfasten.

Naoya was thrown into a table near the edge of the patio. He feels the burns lacing up his body as he stumbles over to Elska. She’s covered in cuts from the glass and can tell she’s not breathing normally but is alive. ‘BABY!”, he scoops her up into his arms but they fall backward since he’s yet to fully regain his senses. He sits up and tries again while looking around and witnesses the gore and destruction. His breath is hitched in his throat as he sees the dismembered pieces of people all around them, some bits floating in the water nearby. He’s crying again as he struggles to his feet with her, “Baby, we have to run!”, is all he can say as his eyes finally spot the wings. “TOJI!”, he wails as he sees the charred feathers, it looking like he suffered burns as well. He finally is able to stand up and releases more tears when he sees Toji stirring. “Thank fucking God…”. He checks around for other survivors but is unable to make out anything amongst the body parts and debris. To his left a table is crushed right before his eyes, leaving a depression into the concrete. ‘Getou’. His eyes widen when he hears Toji release another wild call. “Baby…”, he shakes Elska, trying to get her to respond. “BABY YOU HAVE TO SNAP OUT OF IT!”, and panics as Toji growls and picks up speed towards them. “SHIT!”, he places Elska back down, straining from his melted skin and whispers in tears, “I love you Elska, forever.”, before charging the best he could towards Toji.

She heard him. His voice itself guided her out of her own mind and back to the disaster that’s before them. She fully comes to when she sees Naoya and Toji exchanging energy. Upon trying to stand, she sways but doesn’t fall and has yet to realize all of her wounds as the adrenaline kicks in. She screams feverishly at the two men to stop but is forced to watch them struggle against each other, Toji having the upper hand as he seems to have lost his usual reservation. “NAOYA!”. The scene around her is completely disturbing as the heat from the flaming buildings add to the smell of over-cooked flesh. She starts running towards Naoya and Toji but an unfamiliar voice calls out to her so she turns around to see where it came from.

               “Elska Oda!”, Genghis hollers out as Getou and the other Titers now manifest into view. Genghis is especially thrilled by the scene and claps his hands together in praise to Toji’s handiwork. “He has surpassed my expectations greatly!”, He nudges Getou joyously as his pupil studies Elska. He as well takes in how bloodied Elska is and wishes that she wouldn’t have been harmed in the process.

               When she sees Getou, Elska completely snaps. “YOU FUCKING DID THIS?!”, and forms her metal wings instantly. “I am going to fucking tear you APAAAART!”, she growls before trying to charge him blindly. She’s consumed with rage as she thinks about the children, the unsuspecting innocents and Toji and Naoya. “FUCKING COWARD!”, she screams at him and is almost taken back by how remorseful his expression is.

               Lidia was hoping this would happen. “Winged bitch.”, she mutters while drawing her arm back, aiming her spear. ‘I knew she wasn’t right for Master Suguru…’. She notices Toji become aware of her actions and gets freaked out, so she hurls the weapon towards Elska before he can get any closer. Naoya can be seen trying to run towards Elska. To her dismay, she hears Getou scream for her to stop but it had already left her hands. She turns to him, “She’s trying to kill you Master Suguru!”, and feels her heart stop as he finally looks at her but with absolute abhorrence and wrath. She watches Getou try to stop the spear with gravity but he’s unable to.

               Elska was so furious that she didn’t even think about how utterly moronic attacking head on would be. The spear is heading straight for her, leaving no time to react as she simply failed to notice it because of her focus on Getou. Knowing that she’s about to be impaled only fuels her more though as she can’t let this opportunity go to waste. Right before what she assumed were possibly her last moments, she briefly closes her eyes and tries to remember all the good she’s experienced up until this point. The laughs and love she’s received and shared with Satoru, Toji, Naoya and everyone else flood her as she’s so desperate to live but is willing to throw it all away for their safety. ‘I have to kill him.’. The end never comes but her soul leaves her body along with all of her sensibilities.

               Naoya staggers in front of her. He was able to use his projection at least this time but the look on her face shatters his heart as he follows her eyes down to see the spear’s large tip sticking out of his sternum. “B…Bab…y…”, he feels the world spinning around him as he falls, no longer having the ability to remain on his feet. He hears Elska shriek and feels her warmth but he can’t focus his eyes or make them stay open. “Bab…y…” is all he can manage to articulate. ‘I made it...’, soothes his mind as blood pours from his smiling mouth.

               Toji dashes past them towards the Titers and manages to kill one upon contact. Elska heard the short-lived cries but finds solace in it as she attempts to catch Naoya. They both fall to the ground and the spear tip punctures her hip. She frantically tries to lay him on his side in a specific manner and sobs as she brushes the hair away from his eyes. Using her wings, she slices open her wrist and holds Naoya’s mouth open to force her blood into him but her arm is shaking so violently that it’s causing her essence to get all over his face and neck. “FUCK! NAOYA!”, she yells through her tears as she’s desperate to save him. “My prince…please…you can’t…”, she heaves in shuddering breaths, “You can’t leave me!”. She attempts to take a deep breath but there’s no calming down, he’s barely taking the blood even when some lands into his mouth. “Naoya…please…no…”. She’s met with a choice but before she can decide for herself the ancestral guide within barrels through her.

               “TURN HIM.”

               She absolves all of her previous restraint on the matter and doesn’t hesitate. After repositioning and somewhat side straddling Naoya, she turns around to see all of the Titers fending off Toji except two. Getou and a shorter but older man are both watching her but with different expressions. Getou looks mystified, probably not understanding because he thinks Naoya is already dead. The other man, next to him, appears to be brimming with anticipation. She says nothing to them as she places her left hand over Naoya’s heart, becoming submerged with relief as it still beats, albeit faintly but then it stops. She screams his name while her world disintegrates.

“SAVE HIM!”.

When she feels the surge of ancient energy course in her veins, she leans down into her prince’s neck and whispers, “I love you Naoya. Please…stay here with me.”. She licks the targeted area and pierces him immediately afterwards.

               Toji is taken out of his hypnotic ferocity when he feels Elska’s energy shift. His eyes come clear as he’s surrounded by five Titers. “ELSKA!” He can’t see her initially and panics as his recent actions immobilize his mind. ‘I…killed…I did that?’. Through his own eyes he saw everything but was unable to stop. The complete devastation that was caused by the explosion rocks him again and his frustration with everything happening reaches its peak. He releases a wave of energy that sends all of the Titer’s flying backwards with superficial injuries but can finally can see her. He drops to his knees when he takes in the spear that’s lodged through Naoya and strains into a cry that has no sound. He now understands what Elska is doing and although he’s always hated the idea, he’s not ready to say goodbye to his younger cousin so he finds himself hoping with every cell he’s made from that she’s successful. He hurriedly crawls over to them, becoming more distressed as the details of Naoya’s condition are more apparent. Violet energy travels over Naoya’s body and he jolts like she’s shocking his heart but is otherwise completely still and pale aside from his burns. He hears her moan as she drinks and sees the tears running down her face. Her presence darkens immediately and he holds his breath as he waits worriedly to gauge her. When Elska lifts her head from Naoya’s neck, Toji finds himself overcome with a foreign emotion. Her eyes glow bright purple still but the green dashes are clearly visible and for the first time ever, Toji’s welcoming this. He darts his eyes down to Naoya and notices he’s breathing, “Boy don’t scare me like that ever again…”, and bends down to wrap his arms around Naoya’s head as he was frightened that Naoya wouldn’t have been sustainable in that state. He goes to pick Naoya up but Elska stops him and says in the lowly voice, “He’s safer on the ground, as are you, my beloved.”. Her expression doesn’t feign any emotion but she grips the handle of the spear hanging out of his back and splinters it with ease but holds onto it. With wild eyes she looks down at Naoya, brushing the hair from his face and seethes, “If this doesn’t work, I will enslave and destroy this entire world.”. She now calmly stands up and turns around to head in the direction of the Titers. “My beloved, protect him.”.

               Genghis just fell in love. As the true Elska walks towards them he finds himself in complete awe to her presence and mannerisms. “Even covered in blood…”, he sighs and notes how lucky Suguru is. He leans over to his pupil who has become shaken by her switch, “I think we just witnessed Zenin’s rebirth!”. Getou turns to him with an angry face and asks, “How the fuck is any of this good?!”. Suguru wears the expression of a man who has been betrayed but Genghis brushes it off and chalks it up to shock. Seeing that Suguru was not mentally up to the task right now, Genghis smirks and raises his hands high in the air as he takes two steps towards Elska, gesturing that he would like to engage in conversation. In a composed and submissive tone, he tells her, “Miss Oda, there’s something I must do for you.”.

               Getou finds himself disgusted by how the plan was enacted. When he engaged his gravity to crush the tables, he didn’t realize there were children present. It reminds him of Kechi all over again and his rage slowly becomes directed towards his mentor. He’s unnerved by how happy Genghis is and finally puts more weight into the idea that something is wrong with him. Watching Elska approach them with the frayed spear handle, he feels the absolute urge to defend her as he no longer knows what to expect but understands this whole situation has only fueled her hatred for him. ‘She thinks this was my idea…’, he glares over at Lidia and desires to smash her into the concrete beneath them as her actions were severely out of line. Elska’s desperation over Naoya wrecked his cold demeanor as the sheer sounds of her breaking in front of him were not as sweet as he once imagined. He doesn’t know why he’s feeling these things but he comprehends that somewhere along the way, he stopped hating her and begins to question if he ever really did to begin with.

               Elska stops out of curiosity. It makes no difference to her but she’s intrigued by the Titer Man’s lack of fear. “Proceed.”, is all she says. She becomes more entertained by him when he grabs the red headed girl who threw the spear and brings her back to where he was standing. He announces, “My name is Temujin Genghis, I lead the Titer clan and I am hoping we can be friends. This is Lidia…”, Elska smirks with approval as Genghis jerks her head around by her curly long locks, “…When she attacked you, that was of her own accord. I have never carried any intentions of causing you harm, I admire you deeply.”. Elska can’t help but acknowledge that every word said seems to be truthful although she’s still not moved. She walks up coolly as Lidia struggles, trying to explain her side of the story. Elska sends her glowing red eyes at Genghis who pleasurably shivers into a smile before she turns her attention to the girl and wrenches her grip around her face. In the same lowly and demanding tone she says, “You…you misjudged your situation and threw that spear into my prince.”. Elska notices that the words sting Getou but he seems unphased by the girl being in peril. ‘I see.’. Elska brings her hand into the Lidia’s hair, yanks her head to the side and exposes her fangs. Getou’s eyes shoot open and she keeps her glowing gaze on him and she bites down into the girl’s neck, causing Lidia to moan loudly from the sensation.

Getou can’t take his eyes from Elska as she drinks. He’s so perplexed by Lidia’s reaction as she continues to moan and whimper and wonders why that would be happening. ‘Does it feel good?’, he asks internally but his question is answered as he recalls how territorial Naoya was about her feeding. His lips part as the realization hits him fully and he whispers, “The missing piece of the puzzle…”. Elska flashes him an evil smirk after lifting her head back up as if to help sanction his uncertainties. Suguru is feeling like she’s making a show out of biting Lidia for him alone and is severely confused by her actions.

Lidia has no idea what that was but as the sensation fades, she’s still gasping whimpers. She feels Genghis tug on her hair again and can feel that he’s forming an erection as its pressed against her from his hold. Through her eyelashes she sees Elska glaring into her with superiority but is now noticing that her neck is still bleeding. ‘What…was that?’, she wishes she could see Suguru but instead her eyes take to Toji. His bore holes into her as he bears his fangs maliciously from afar.

Elska wipes her mouth, bringing her concentration back on Lidia and continues, “It’s such a shame…all of this natural beauty is wasted on such a stupid woman.”. Elska was able to decipher the girl with ease and if she could feel anything, it would be pity for the distressed damsel.  Elska speaks to Getou while lifting the spear handle up, “This woman is in love with you and she threw the spear to be rid of her biggest obstacle.”. She grabs Lidia’s face again and smiles maniacally, “Me.”. When she tightens her grip, she hears Genghis’s heart start to race and thinks of how strange of a human he is for being so turned on. Looking back to Lidia she says, “Your entire life has been pointless but today you gave me my prince. I would thank you if you were worth it…”. Elska now watches the horror blanket Lidia’s expression as she brings her arm back. “…But you’re not.”, and aggressively flails her wings and laughs as the girl flinches and wails with regret. “Since you don’t use them well…”, she steps aside so Naoya can be in the girl’s view, “…I don’t see why you should be burdened with these anymore.”. She quickly jabs the jagged handle into both of Lidia’s eyes with precision. She closes her own and inhales satisfyingly as the screams erupt through the air and opens them to smile at the leaking vitreous fluid running down Lidia’s reddened face as she panics to being brutally blinded. Elska thinks about Naoya again and finds that was not enough so she takes the handle and violently shoves it downwards into Lidia’s throat, penetrating it through the back of her neck. The woman still lives but is clearly distraught by the mutilation and struggles to breathe. Elska hisses, “Stupid woman.”, but then takes a few steps back while scowling at the pathetic redhead.

               Toji stands up now, ‘Master…’. He can’t believe what he just saw but is enthralled by the revenge. He knows this isn’t his Elska but is reassured that her in this form was extremely beneficial. He wonders though, ‘Why is she toying with them?’. He looks down at his cousin with heartache until he notices, ‘He stopped bleeding!’, but is still worried as he hasn’t figured out how they’re going to remove the giant spear. Naoya starts violently seizing so he cries out, “ELSKA!”, and looks to her, being completely confused by the smile along her lips. He remains by Naoya’s side, trying to steady him because of the spear. Tears well in his eyes as Naoya flops next to him but he hears Elska’s voice in his mind, “Don’t fret my beloved, that means it’s working...”. His head snaps up in amazement as her eyes meet his. He thinks, ‘Did I just imagine that?’, but jumps when he hears her again, “No you did not. We are able to communicate like this.”. Instantly, he’s brought back to the day he fed from his cousin and how he swore he could sense and hear her screams, becoming marveled. He listens to Lidia’s gurgled broken shrieks of terror but finds they don’t bother him one bit. Naoya settles back into the ground which causes Elska to whip her head in his direction with a hint of disbelief on her face. Toji becomes startled again as he looks back down to Naoya but he hears her, “His transformation is rather rapid…”. Regaining his hope after being fed this knowledge, he unintentionally lets out a grateful sob. He looks to Elska and thinks, ‘Tell me when.’. Toji knew from the moment he saw the green dashes that she was going to hopelessly decimate them. This Elska holds such immense power and was completely ruthless, being the exact and only reason he happy to see her switch.

               Genghis is smitten by this version of Elska and is enthusiastic about demonstrating this fact to her. He pushes Lidia to the ground, lodging the handle deeper through her flesh and places a foot on her back before saying, “Miss Oda, I would be more than pleased if you would accept this act as a token of Master Suguru’s and my own affection.”. He leans down to grab Lidia’s red curls again while she struggles in absolute fear and pins her underneath his left foot. She screams, “Master Suguru!”, or it at least sounded like that could be it but Genghis takes his right leg from ground and bends his knee, balancing on her spine while pulling back on her head. He sighs breathlessly when Elska grins to the obvious pain Lidia is experiencing and although he would like to relish this moment, he kicks his right leg out. He can feel the trauma to her cervical vertebrae vibrate through her bones the moment she finally silences. He takes notice to how the handle was launched back out her mouth as it now lays, bloodied in front of them. ‘Godddd it feels so good to finally be able to do that…’, he speaks internally as he releases her hair, allowing her head and body to bounce off of the ground and straightens his posture.

               Getou stands in complete disbelief, ‘That’s what he meant by Lidia’s purpose?!’. He’s not upset by her death but he finds himself in complete incredulity from listening to how his mentor behaves around this Elska. He thinks about how spearing Naoya was the wrong route to take now as he can sense the darkness and hostility still seeping from her. Suguru can tell how strong she is by her presence and finally understands why Genghis has been so adamant about her cooperation. ‘Would I be able to overpower her?’, he’s convinced that he isn’t capable and wonders how his mentor can seem so calm in this situation. ‘Does he want her for himself?’, Suguru doesn’t actually believe that but wonders where this strange fascination for her came from. He looks back over to Elska who stands stoically as her smile fades back to that resting ominous expression. He feels like he’s supposed to say something when she looks at him. The cold chill that runs down his back compels him to bow to her, “Elska, I apologize for hurting you in the past.”, but finds that somewhere in him, he actually meant it. He slowly brings his body back upright and feels his tension skyrocket as she near him.

Elska stands before Getou and raises her hand to his face. He flinches which causes her to grin and can see the look of uncertainty in Genghis’s expression. She quickly snatches Suguru’s hair and pulls him down to his knees, being enticed by his lack of resistance. He remains studying her but she can see his apprehension and enjoys causing him such muddle. She now grabs both sides of face and lowers hers down to hover over it. Toji’s presence can be felt magnetizing but thinks to him “I need more energy.”, but he doesn’t respond. She quietly speaks in her lowly tone to Suguru, “You would be suitable if you had you own thoughts…”, and gently kisses the scar on his cheek. He gasps with bewilderment as she thinks to give herself a little more time in this form. She whispers seductively, “I’m going to provide evidence for your suspicions…”, and sinks her fangs into him.

Suguru is stunned immediately as he feels the bliss circulate through him. It takes him a moment to realize that he’s moaning deeply and has even since placed his hands on Elska, holding her as she draws from him. His moans turn into whimpers as he clings to her waist and thigh all while not understanding how this feeling could be possible. He shuts his eyes as he feels his body give and fall to the side but she drops down with him in order to not break their connection. Titers start rushing towards him aggressively but hears Genghis say, “Do not interfere!”, with full authority. What his ears pick up now cause his eyes to roll back as Elska moans into his neck. He feels her presence surge back up but it lowers a little each time until she swallows. He now finds that the hand not supporting his weight is now wrapped in her hair and loosens his grip so that can be gentle. When she’s done, she closes his wounds and whines lowly, “You need more time but you could be worthy.”. Their eyes meet and she continues in a much colder tone, “Be weary of how you approach me in the future…and don’t you dare come after my lovers again.”, as he can see she’s lethally serious.

Genghis helps Suguru to his feet, trying to provide the balance for them both after Elska walks back to Toji. He struggles to steady his swaying pupil and can’t believe that she actually bit him right then and there. Getou is still heavily breathing with wide eyes that are fixated on her. He whispers, “That was incredible…”, and finds that Getou’s expression is now that of someone who longs for the other. He calls out sheepishly, “Th-Thank you for not harming him.”, and shifts their stance as Getou seems to be finding composure.

               Elska is so amused by these two. She has a much better understanding of Getou now that she experienced his taste. “Delicious.”, she states as she licks her fangs. Toji huffs out of spite and glares at her but she quickly whispers, “The hybrid isn’t here so that was necessary…”, noting that he doesn’t seem ok with is still. With all eyes on them, she turns to Toji and slowly pulls his head down towards her, giving the soft command, “Kiss me, my beloved.”. Toji’s eyes glow and his wings flutter even with the indecision plaguing his features. When their lips meet, she moans wholeheartedly as she found her turned’s touch to be completely intoxicating. His hesitancy remains although he’s kissing her back but she’s satisfied enough that he obeyed. She feels a weak signal from Naoya, and it steals her attention. He’s not gotten any worse but his energy is already changing. An emotion creeps into her dark heart and it aches as she remembers the actual love she harbors for her prince and Toji both. “I’m going to tend to you two right now.”, she whispers to Toji and nips his bottom lip. Elska knows for a fact that the Titers have more up their sleeve and wishes to draw a curtain on this charade for the sake of her lovers. She locks her lips to Toji’s once more, addicted to the way he feels. After their extended meeting, Elska turns her head to observe the two men’s reaction and laughs when they’re exactly what she predicted. Genghis watches with an endearing envy as Getou’s eyes express heartache. She looks over at the other Titers that are grouped together, on edge. “They will suffice.”. They’re all cowering to her but remain in a defensive stance, one of the men bears beautiful grey eyes but they’re trained on to Lidia’s body. She smirks and kisses Toji again but this time places her right hand flat against her chest and holds it there as her red lightning surrounds them. While experiencing Toji’s tongue, she extends her arm in the direction of the huddled Titers, bends her fingers and unleashes it. The red light travels so fast that three of the four Titers are unable to evade it, their bodies torn through by the energy while being crystalized at the same time. Genghis gasps in confusion as he seemed to think things were going his way. Blood pumps out of Elska’s wings into a pattern of symbols that surrounds her and Toji and then the markings glow. Toji ‘s eyes respond along with hers as his widen, remembering that same blood design around her in the park. She thinks to him, ‘I take life from death.’, and smiles to his wide-eyed nod. What’s left of the Titers bodies breaks down into a red powder, swirls into a vortex in the air and then travels gracefully over to Toji and Elska. The Titer dust blankets around their wounds and fuses with the exposed tissue, healing them both. She waves her hand to direct the remnants and sends it towards Naoya. As the glass shards push out of her body, she watches Toji’s burns become nonexistent and hums with gratification. Naoya’s presence increases as he’s rapidly healed, his burns disappearing as well. His wavelengths tell her he’s still in pain, even when unconscious but she knows it due to his body now rejecting the spear. “That should do it.”. She nudges her beloved to show him and listens to him exhale relief. “He’s taking to the change extremely well.”, she says to Toji confidently, hiding her bafflement of the rate in which the DNA synthesis is working. Her being in true form was surely going to speed up the process but he shouldn’t have such an intense aura already. She runs her hand down Toji’s chest while still studying Naoya, “He is going to be strong.”, and contemplates on his perfection, “Just like you.”.

               Genghis retracts his smile as soon as he realizes his fellow clansmen are no more and that things are not going as planned. ‘WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT?!’. He turns to Getou who’s mirroring his wide eyes but doesn’t know how handle this right away. Not once in any of the futures he seen has this happened. He was aware of the possibility of alteration but this goes far beyond anything he prepared for. “Something’s wrong.”, he panics, “We won’t be able to take her.”, is all he can say as he thinks of what to do next. Sain appears by them as he was the one Titer that escaped her lightning and Genghis sighs being overjoyed that he at least survived.

               Getou is so astonished by what he witnessed and says, “We need to run.”. He’s still figuring out his new emotions but doesn’t mistake for a second that she won’t kill them too. He thinks of all of the times her importance has been reiterated to him and it finally makes sense. Suguru fails to see how he would be able to control her though and also now understands why Genghis has been pushing him to face his feelings about her. Now he has. The convergence of puzzle pieces lock together to form the bigger picture but he fears that he’s even further away from their goal of her affections as he gathers they’ve royally pissed her off with their actions. His mentor doesn’t seem as eager to flee and Suguru’s had about enough of his twisted games. He grabs Genghis in a panic, “WE NEED TO RUN!”.

               Genghis understands Getou’s reaction but turns to Sain, “I have the most daunting task for you but if you can achieve it, the rewards will be endless…”, and passes him a syringe filled with sedative. This will shift all of their plans but he knows there’s really not another choice left at this point. He may even be foolish for attempting this. He brings stern eyes to Getou and whispers, “We need leverage first.”.

               Elska watches the third Titer disappear into thin air and becomes aggravated by their inability to take her seriously. Her collected demeanor fades momentarily when she senses him behind them, near Naoya. She bears her fangs and roars as she launches herself towards the man while he bends down over him. She salivates at the idea of ripping his throat out but before she can reach him, he disappears again. She ends up having to use her wings to slow her speed so she can lean over Naoya to make sure he’s not been harmed further. The emotions that usually flow through her begin to resurface as she becomes weary for his safety while searching his body, noticing the spear has almost worked its way out. She sighs gratefully, “My prince…” and feels the love for him melt away at her ability to maintain her form so she steps away, ‘There’s still more to do first.’. She hears Genghis yell, “We will be in contact!”, but quickly snaps her head when she hears Toji struggling. Getou can be heard screaming, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”, and before she knew it, she was racing against time trying to reach her beloved that has fallen limp in the third Titer’s hold with a needle sticking out of his arm. She howls in anguish when her finger tips grasp at nothing, revealing the stark fact that she was too late. They took Toji with them. She doesn’t even breathe as her failure boils through. Looking up to the sky she cries out the demonic like sound while her energy releases a tremoring wave that further devastates the structures that remain around her. When the wave travels into the restaurant, it fans in oxygen, further feeding the flames and she can’t help but think the heat has nothing on rage inside of her. She continues to send out wave after wave until the building begins to crumble and she remembers that she still has Naoya who is defenseless. “My beloved…”, she whimpers under her breath as her presence begins to fade knowing that her time in this state is up, feeling heavy. She walks over to where Naoya lays and drops to her knees beside him. Tears fall from her face as she takes his hand and asks, “What do I do?”. Feeling hopeless and exhausted, she lays down next to him and curls up near his chest while his unconscious body faces her. “I lost Toji…”. After a few minutes of sobbing into Naoya she feels her awareness fading and clings to him desperately. She hears her name being screamed following by her body being lifted off of the ground and against someone’s warmth. The last thing she sees before completely passing out is Satoru’s teary eyes.

               “ELSKA!”, his voice is distant as her limbs relax, not having any strength left.

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tagging: @angelofthorr

[dragynkeep]

Top 5 worst male characters and Top 5 worst female characters in RWBY, and brief reasons why?

This is the type of ask that’s gonna get me shit but I have known no hubris in my life so let’s go. These won’t be in the case of being intentionally bad, I’m doing more on personal taste and the quality of their writing. 

Worst Male Characters

1. Adam Taurus

Obviously, Adam is at the top of the list for me. His storyline was butchered from a story of racism and vigilantism to a story about domestic abuse, his brand was cheap shock value with very little substance, he stopped being threatening after the Fall of Beacon and instead became a whiny little bitch, and his voice acting is just bad.

He sounds like he’s gonna call me a slur on Xbox Live.

2. Jacques Schnee

Yeah, the abusive rich man who runs slave mines is bad, but that’s not the main reason he’s on this list. I could accept a character like that if the writers made him good, but they didn’t. Jacques wasn’t intimidating at all. He wasn’t smart at all. The man who conned his father in law and wife into giving him complete control of the most powerful company in Remnant is not the same man we get in the actual show.

He’s whiny, cowardly, and a useless villain who’s entire downfall was treated like a poorly made joke, and now only serves as comic relief in the Jailbirds scenes in V8. 

3. Hazel Rainart

Same issues with Jacques and Adam, but less egregious. Hazel was actually a pretty interesting villain in his earlier volumes, and even after his blunder at the Batlle of Haven, he went back to being kinda good in V6 with his protective behaviour towards Emerald. And then V8 came around and I grew to hate how stupid his reasons for joining Salem were, and the fact that he just beat the shit outta Oscar while whining about his dead sister.

Bro, Idgaf about someone I never met while you’re maiming a 15 year old boy because you wanna be mad at the guy in his head. 

4. Qrow Branwen

It’s the same case with Hazel. I actually liked Qrow up until V6, and even then I cared enough to try and see where his alcoholism arc went since it’s a serious issue that affects not only my family, but my people. I started to dislike him after he punched Oscar and kept being horrible to the boy, all without apologising in the end, but v7 and 8 made me really hate him. 

I don’t care for his edgy attitude, and I don’t care that he got his self-help book boyfriend murdered by a crackhead. Add onto CRWBY butchering a serious topic about alcoholism with him, and he’s just sank right down writing sense.

5. Ghira Belladonna

I never liked Ghira. I think the others are higher than him on this list just on the virtue that I liked them, or the idea of them, and the writing just pulled them down so much.

But I never had that problem with Ghira, so the disappointment doesn’t sting as bad. He’s just an unnecessary character that cheapens Blake since she’s now a princess, a useless father who somehow couldn’t get his own 12 year old daughter back even thought she didn’t even bother to change her own name, and then featured live on a tournament channel that the whole world saw. He was a useless leader, his ideology was stupid and almost got him and others killed, and he was so ungrateful towards Adam for saving his stupid furry ass that I completely sided with Sienna calling him the fuck out.

At least he’s not on my screen anymore, but I know that won’t last forever and I gotta look at his dumb face again.

Worst Female Characters

1. Cinder Fall

God, she is the worst villain and character in this show. She’s so flat, her stans are annoying as fuck, her voice leaves a lot to be desired, and the fact that there’s hardly anything to her for seven years makes it even worse now that we finally got a backstory for her, and it’s one we ALL GUESSED.

Who would’ve thought she’d be a Cinderella who killed her abusive family, I am shooketh. 

2. Blake Belladonna

Blake was my favourite girl in RWBY and I’m mad at CRWBY for what they’ve done to her.

It says a lot that a girl still affected by the abuse and trauma of fighting in a terrorist organisation has more personality and backbone than one who’s supposedly broken free of her traumatic past and moved forward. Blake now is spineless, flat, boring ass cardboard cutout of what she once was, who would rather let her human friends defend her from racists than call them out herself like she did to Weiss in Volume 1. 

She’s spoiled, priviledged, annoying, and Arryn has such a flat voice on top of being a gross ass person that I get annoyed every time she speaks. She’s no longer an oppressed minority fighting for the rights of her people, she’s a princess who would rather go to a club with people she didn’t even like than a rally against the man who caused so much suffering to her people. Even her talk with Nora about not letting yourself be taken over by who you’re with romantically is hypocritical, since that’s exactly what’s happened to her since she’s been paired up with Yang.

She couldn’t even have the spotlight of fighting her own VILLAIN, Yang was the one who broke Adam’s Aura and had the big triumphant moment of throwing his sword in the river while she was too busy fucking rock climbing. 

3. Yang Xiao Long

Yang was my second favourite girl in RWBY and I’m mad at CRWBY for what they’ve done to her.

Yang wasn’t super developed in the earlier volumes. Honestly, I didn’t think much until her talk with Blake about Raven in Burning The Candle, and her dismemberment leading her towards depression and PTSD. Come Volume 4, I was alright with the portrayal of her recovery. I don’t think they gave enough time between her trying on the arm and then being good enough to leave, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t bad. 

What was bad was everything after. Yang became a hypocritical, moody bitch who would drag everyone for their bad decisions while ignoring her own. Her PTSD, something VERY personal to me, was ruined and up and vanished by V7 since she’s now killed the man who gave her the disorder so obviously it’s cured! She is always on Ozpin’s case for the birds shit, and then keeping secrets, but then goes and does the exact same thing while giving little resistance to others doing it because they’re family.

Even her argument with Ruby in V8 was tame as fuck. She blamed Ruby for things not going well while ignoring that it was her own dumbass decisions that contributed to it. Ruby didn’t tell Yang to go and spill the beans to Robyn, her stupid cat girlfriend did that, and Yang went along with it while being unrepentant later on when Ironwood was RIGHTFULLY pissed about it.

Add onto v8 then having her worry about how BLAKE thought about her, rather than RUBY, and I just hate her. This ain’t Yang, I want Yang back. 

4. Nora Valkyrie

Nora is just a flat character. Her voice is annoyingly high pitched and screechy, her jokes aren’t funny, and all the things I loved that she got in v4 was later dropped entirely. She had such good moments in V4 that actually made me appreciate her more, and then she just became another hypocrite in v7 who wanted to yell at Ironwood while refusing to look at her own flaws.

On top of her kissing Ren when he was clearly not in the mood to talk, and it made me hate her. It’s not a cute ship moment, it’s a creepy disrespect of someone’s personal space. If it was the other way around, no one would think it was cute.

5. Robyn Hill

Similar to Ghira’s reasons, I never liked Robyn, so she’s low down on the list compared to the others since at one point I loved the others (Minus Cinder but she’s just so bad that she’s #1).

Robyn isn’t a good freedom fighter. She runs in without thinking about things and then proceeds to deny any responsibility of her actions. She won’t accept that maybe her agreeing with the same serial killer that nearly killed her and Fiona, on top of succeeding in murdering some of her supporters and Forest, and starting a fight with Clover in an enclosed space wasn’t a good idea. 

Add onto the fact that she’s really just incompetent. She steals supplies from Ironwood to fix the wall and help Mantle, but after time we see that nothing has been done. 

Christina Vee is wasted on her honestly.

[k-writer1998]

Who Said Love Was Easy (13-)

     There are many different kinds of people who come and go from your life. Some will stay constant and sturdy like a river, growing alongside you, others will come like a whirlwind who wreaks havoc and leaves just as quickly, then there is everything in between. In this twisted maze of connections, that is where our story begins. A steadfast boy, a girl with a past, a little bit of alcohol, mistakes, and some love. Where can you go wrong with that?

angsty fluff

w.c: 1k

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

      The silence that passed between us was deafening and it was the only answer I needed. To solidify the fact, Jeongin couldn’t even look at me. I matter in his life… as a friend. If this was any normal crush that would be fine but maybe it was the fact that he has learned most if not all of my secrets or I got close enough to see the real him, it’s not enough. I can’t stop wanting more and a small part of me, the little bit of selfishness, doesn’t want to settle for less but I value both myself and him far too much to do that to either of us. The only problem is, cutting him out was not an option either. I would basically just be running away and in that kind of condition if we run into each other afterwards I’ll just be hit by this hurricane of feelings once again. It still hurts but it’s nothing I didn’t expect and I was already at peace with that. I can’t fault him for his feelings so it’s time to fill my role once again, not only for him but for the me of the future who would be eaten by regret if I burned the bridge after all we’ve been through. After putting on the best smile I could muster I called out to him.

“Jeongin. Look at me.”

“Y/n I-” I shook my head, cutting him off.

“I just got a bit emotional but it’s fine. It’s not something I didn’t already know from the beginning. Let me rephrase what I just said. I can’t be friends with you like we were before, for my own sake there needs to be a bit more distance.”

      His face was riddled with guilt and although I hated seeing him like that there was nothing I could do to soothe the situation without putting me at a disadvantage I would have to pay for in the long run. Now it was his turn to smile at me, a dim one compared to his usual one but how could either party smile fully in this situation?

“I meant what I told Changbin, where we stand is up to you. I mean as long as we can see each other from time to time that would be nice.”

“I think I’m able to do that much,” I chuckled lightly. 

‘You are one of the few people I trust and I’d hate to lose that… so thank you. That means I’m forgiven right?”

“I blame that refreshing aura of yours Jaehyung-oppa always talks about but yes… and you’re just as important to me even without the feelings since you’ve already seen my quirky family situation,” I tried to joke.

“I’ll happily play fill-in best friend if Changbin isn’t able to make it when you have to face them.”

“Don’t worry I’ve faced them on my own plenty of times before.”

      At this his face soured similar to how Jaehyung’s does when I say I have to see them. I mean I get he seemed to squirm a bit at the mention of them but it only made sense since he practically has the full picture after the argument anyways.

“But still… you shouldn’t go alone,” he paused to drop his gaze before mumbling out, “I’m sorry, I asked Jaehyung-hyung to tell me about the last birthday incident.”

“No need to apologize, it was bound to come out sooner or later. Just don’t nag me, I have one person per ear and that’s enough.”

      Didn’t think he would get the story from Jaehyung but it is what it is, he probably told Jeongin cause he’s the only other person who knows about my family. At this point there was no need to hide anything anymore. All my cards are shown. He was about to reply but was cut off by the buzzing of his phone and in that instant it was like a switch flipped.

“Shoot I just ran out!”

“Let me handle it. Phone.”

“Huh?”

“Just hand it over.”

      Hesitantly he handed me his phone and I answered the message for him saying that something urgent came up. Luckily his supervisor was the manager I ran into earlier so he happily accepted it saying to enjoy our “date”... at least it’s nice to know I had at least one person on my side. Was this a smart move? Probably not, but just one more time I’ll indulge myself because it won’t be like this anymore. I handed him back his phone and gave him a brighter smile, it may not have reached my eyes but I was trying.

“You got approved leave so c’mon let’s catch up.”

      Walking the shops, talking, messing around, laughing, joking; falling into a familiar normal. Neither of us wanted to acknowledge the bittersweetness of the moment because that also meant we had to acknowledge that this would be the last. The last to pretend that things were simply monochromatic, that this would be easy and that being like this didn’t shatter a little piece of me because words that are so simple to say, I would never get to hear them from the one person I wanted to…  

      Being able to end on a sweet note is probably more than most people can ask for from a one-sided crush. Changbin is going to call me a fool again and he’s right because I am too nice. I still choose to walk the tightrope rather than stay safely in my bubble but how can I when he’s tried so hard… Albeit it was for more than just me but there was an effort put forth for my sake so how could I turn him away? That’s why I can at least try this acquaintance type friendship for him, my final gift. Carrying the memory of that last hang out, days turned to weeks which grew to months and finally after a few years the aching in my chest faded out. The gaze that once burned my soul now barely warmed my skin and the smile that was my everything gives little bubbles of happiness like any other smile. A man who was a whirlwind in my life became a person like a gentle breeze that comes and goes.

[jcqlnyng]

Constellations | Kurapika

Fandom: Hunter x Hunter 

Pairing: Kurapika/Reader

Word Count: 6587

Summary: You are a member of the Phantom Troupe cursed with the grief of losing your close friend Paku. You vow to avenge Paku, but your pursuit for her murder’s blood causes your life to change forever. 

Warnings: Fight scenes, somewhat explicit language

A/n: This was originally a fic written for my friend who absolutely adores Kurapika. I ended up being proud of what I wrote and I wanted to post it here. Enjoy!

“Do you trust me?”

Pakunoda’s face was stoic as ever as she raised her pistol to you. A sad smile spread over her face as she pulled the trigger. 

Six bullets and Paku was gone. Memories began to flood your brain like a river. Flashes of red eyes, chains, and blond hair fill your mind. You feel Paku’s powerful memories fill your entire body, rushing through your veins like molten gold.

You run to her, tears beginning to sting your eyes as you fell to the ground, reaching for her lifeless head and holding it close. Sobbing into Paku’s hair, you hear the silent shuffling of the other Troupe members walk towards her body. Shizuku hesitantly presses two fingers to Pakunoda’s neck hoping to feel a pulse. 

“She’s dead” Shizuku confirms in a solemn voice. 

As Phinks begins to recount Paku’s last memories to the Troupe, you stay frozen to the ground, unable to let go of your dead friend. Your memories of Paku cloud your vision. She was your first friend on the Phantom Troupe when you joined one year ago. Paku was always there for you, when Franklin would ignore you, when Phinks would push you around, when Feitan would make fun of you, and even when Hisoka would make passes at you. You breathed her in, hugging her body tight hoping that maybe, if you held her close enough, cried enough, told her you miss her enough, that she would come back to life. If you could, you would have taken that chain for her. 

Her intoxicating scent fills your brain, the same expensive perfume she always wore burned its way into your mind; the imprint of an unspoken promise that you will never forget Pakunoda. 

“I will avenge Paku. Whoever did this to her will never touch my friends again” you whisper quickly, eyes burning with hatred. His blond hair. His red eyes. His chains. He was going to regret ever touching Paku. 

Feitan clears his voice to speak. He shakes his black hair out of his eyes. 

“There’s no point in waiting. We have to capture the chain user. He already killed Uvo and Paku. The Spider must not lose more legs…”

An uneasy shift falls over the Phantom Troupe. Ever since Chrollo gave every member a prophecy, those whose prophecies promised death were hesitant to take on any tasks.

“…Whoever captures the chain user will get ten million of my personal Jenny”

At the sound of the prize money, the eyes of the Troupe members began to light up.

“Fucking thieves” you grumble under your breath as you gently place down Paku’s head and begin to leave for the entrance. 

“Where would you be going y/n?” Hisoka sneered in your direction. 

His disgusting yellow eyes pierced yours as if he was peering into your soul. Since you have joined the Troupe, Hisoka never liked you. He was the coldest out of all the members but also the most power-hungry. With Chrollo missing and Paku and Uvo dead, nobody in the Troupe knew why he was still around.

“I’m going to get that prize money” you replied coldly, sheathing your dagger and turning away. 

There was no point in expressing your friendship with Paku to Hisoka. He was just a heartless, power-hungry, freak.

As you stepped out of the Troupe base in YorkNew, you were hit by the cold wind waking you up to what happened.

Paku’s scent fills your brain again as you sank to the ground, tears filling your eyes again. You were going to avenge Paku if it was the last thing you ever do. 

~~~

It has been three days since Paku’s death and you have yet to take a break from searching for the chain user. With Paku’s memory bomb, you now knew what he looked like and that he worked with the Nostrade family. It would be impossible for you not to find him. 

Today was the final day of the auction and the Nostrade family was expected to attend the final auction. This could be your last opportunity to find the chain user. 

You would catch the chain user if it was the last thing you did.

As you walk through the outskirts of YorkNew you begin to feel uneasy in the dark, empty streets. You were completely concealed with Zetsu, nobody could find you, but you still felt as if you were being watched. 

Picking up your pace, you begin to jog towards the city, the lights of midtown YorkNew drawing nearer with every step. The streets were completely silent with only the sound of your steps filling your ears. However, with every step, you feel your stalker grow closer, burning a hole with their eyes into your back. With a hand on the hilt of your dagger, you quickly spin around, hoping to catch your stalker dead in their path, but there was nobody behind you. Listening for footsteps, you scan the alleys around you. 

“Could it be the chain user?” You thought to yourself.

Your hand tightens around your dagger, not fully unsheathing it yet. Whoever was following you was well concealed, however, they must be immensely strong if they could sense you despite you using Zetsu.

Suddenly from behind you, you begin to hear a low growl and footsteps approaching you. You turn your head back as you realize who your stalker is.

A Shadow Beast.

“A Phantom Troupe member I see,” the Beast growled at you. “Strange to see one alone,” he said, licking his lips revealing his razor-sharp teeth. 

“Who are you,” you reply, calmly turning around and slanting your eyes towards the strange man. 

“Ah, what a shame you don’t know me. I’m Rabid Dog. I was sent by the Ten Dons to kill Phantom Troupe members.”

Never letting go of your dagger, you sense his bloodlust envelop the two of you. 

“Attacking me would be futile. I have fought people stronger than you,” you say in a low voice, hoping he leaves you alone. 

Rabid Dog had the strongest Nen of any Shadow Beast member you have ever met. The past three days have drained all your energy and it could take all your energy to fight Rabid Dog. 

Rabid Dog laughed maniacally as he entered a fighting stance.

“Not if I kill you first,” he says as his eyes began to glow red, lunging towards you. 

Shocked by how fast he was, you were too slow to counter him, allowing him to land a hit on your face. You stagger backward, feeling your cheek grow hot and your metallic blood pool in your mouth. Never taking your eyes off Rabid Dog, you unsheathed your gold dagger, and almost as fast as the speed of light, you dart behind him, stabbing your dagger into his side. 

Realizing what happened, Rabid Dog grabs your wrist jolting your body forward from behind him. He licked his teeth before biting down on your shoulder. With his claws, he slashed your legs, leaving bloody gashes on your thighs and calves. As you stumbled backward, you felt your world spin, your head growing light as blood rushed out of your shoulder and legs. You slanted your eyes towards him as you pressed a button on the bottom of your dagger’s hilt. In one mechanic motion, the blade of your dagger extended, turning it into a sword.  

Your aura erupted into a flame around you, shades of red, orange, and yellow flicking around your body. As you turned your head towards him, your eyes began to glow golden, the same golden hue of your sword. In your left hand, a fire grew from your palm in the same colors as your aura. Your power taunted Rabid Dog to approach you, inviting him to his death. 

Rabid Dog stepped back examining the ground before you as he watched your Nen engulf him and you. Never having seen someone as powerful as you, Rabid Dog was unsure of what to do, any move he made was certain death. 

In one final attempt, Rabid Dog lunged full speed at you, hoping to land a fatal hit. Before he could touch you, you bright your sword down on him in one fell swoop, stabbing him through the back and out his other side. With all your power, you emitted your final attack on Rabid Dog, incinerating him in one final show of light, leaving him dead on the empty street. 

Delirious from using all your power, your aura shrinks back into you. Pulling your bloodied sword out of Rabid Dog’s back and retracting it back into a dagger, you begin to break into a run, running away from the dead body in the street. Your shoulder and legs, still bleeding from Rabid Dog’s potentially fatal bite, grow heavy, your mind grows dizzy. Your legs were on autopilot, one moving right after the other, but they began to fail slowly as well. You could only run a couple of blocks before falling to the ground, your eyes blurring the city around you. The last thing you heard was your dagger falling to the ground in a loud clang. 

~~~

You wake up to a sharp pain from your right shoulder and legs. Opening your eyes, you had no idea where you were. Your wounds were bandaged, but you could still see maroon stains seeping through the bandage. You winced as you propped yourself up on the mattress, shifting your weight onto your left shoulder. 

“Where the hell am I…” you wonder to yourself. This was nowhere you have ever been before.

As your eyes adjusted to the darkness, you glanced around to attempt and piece together where you were. It looked as if you were in a large circus tent. From the corner of your eye, you could see abandoned arcade machines and what used to be a concession stand with a big, plastic clown head on a sign that read “Snacks.”

This was the stuff of nightmares. You knew you had to get out of this strange place. 

You picked yourself up off the mattress and reached for your dagger, but when your hand met your scabbard, it was empty. You jolted upwards, eyes full of panic; that dagger was your only weapon. Without it, you would be forced to fight with only your Nen. You reached under the mattress hoping that your dagger fell underneath, but all you could feel was the cold linoleum the mattress laid on. 

“Looking for this?” 

You spin around, searching for who spoke. From the darkness, you see a blond-haired man with piercing red eyes approaching you. 

It was the chain user. 

His blond hair was swept messily and his eyes were crazed as if he hadn’t slept in days. He wore a fitted black suit with the tie slightly unraveled around his neck. His left hand was tucked into his pocket and in his right hand held his dagger and his chains. He twirled your dagger in his hand nonchalantly, never looking away from you. 

With every step he took towards you, your heart beat faster, unsure of what he would do next. You began to move back, backing up towards the wall. 

“Who are you” you muster with your strongest voice. “What is your name?”

You were backed against a wall; there was no escaping the chain user. The chain user put an arm next to your side, trapping you from leaving. 

“Kurapika. I am the last of the Kurta clan. Your Troupe killed my family.”

Kurapika’s eyes bore into your soul; his red eyes flickered with bloodlust as he contemplated what he was going to do with you. You had no way to escape him. 

“What clan? I’ve never heard of the Kurta.” The Troupe did not commonly discuss missions they did in the past. There have done far too much evil in the world. “I only joined the Troupe a year ago.”

Kurapika slanted his eyes towards you, his body leaning closer down to yours, only an inch separating you. 

“Don’t lie to me,” he breathed down your neck.

His words sent a shiver through your spine. Kurapika held so much power and you were scared of what he could do to you. You knew what he was capable of, after what he did to Paku…

“I swear I’m not lying. I only joined the Troupe a year ago. I joined to earn money for my family back home. I only just met the full Troupe this August for the auction.” Your words shakily fell out of your mouth. If you lied to Kurapika, he could easily kill you.

Kurapika’s eyes softened as he examined you. He knew you were telling the truth. He stepped back, the redness in his eyes disappearing. In one swift motion, he held your dagger up to you. You winced, thinking he was going to stab you, but his eyes beckoned for you to take your dagger back. Trembling, you reached up to grab your dagger. You quickly sheathed your dagger and looked back up to Kurapika. His blond hair covering his face made it impossible for you to read his expression. There was no way to know what he was thinking. 

“Why did you bring me here? What is this place?”

Kurapika let out a sigh, “I didn’t find or bring you here. Hisoka did.”

You stepped back. Hisoka? You barely talked to him. Was he friends with Kurapika? Your mind was racing with questions to ask.

Kurapika continued, “Hisoka and I have been working together. He tells me where members of the Troupe are and I help him separate Chrollo from the rest of the Troupe so he can fight him; however, that has been impossible since Chrollo lost his Nen and disappeared.”

“That still doesn’t explain where I am or why I’m here or even why I have these stupid bandages,” you shot back at him. 

He raised an eyebrow, taken aback by your sudden tone. 

Nonchalantly he replied, “We are in the abandoned amusement park in YorkNew. I requested for Hisoka to bring you here after he found you in the street; however he never explained to me that you were a new member…” Kurapika thought before continuing, “And to answer your question, I bandaged your shoulder. I thought I was going to be fighting you and I prefer to have my opponents fighting me with all their power.” 

Kurapika turned to walk away, putting both of his hands into his pockets. “I suppose since you did not participate in the massacre of my clan, I will not kill you, but you must stay here. I can’t have you telling other Spiders about me.”

All this information made you confused. Kurapika was not a murderer and you still had no idea as to why the Troupe murdered his clan. 

With the courage you had left in you, you mustered a small reply back to Kurapika. “Thank you. I am sorry about your clan.”

Looking behind his shoulder, he said calmly, “Don’t apologize. You didn’t kill them.”

Then he was off. Kurapika closed the door to the amusement arcade and you were alone. 

~~~

You don’t know how many hours it has been since you spoke to Kurapika. After he told you what happened your mind became dizzy again, forcing you to lie back down on the mattress shivering from the cold and lightheaded from your injury. You woke up to the opening of the abandoned arcade door. Kurapika stepped in confidently with two plates of food in his hand. Embarrassed he had to see you in such a weak state, you hurried to sit up, but as you propped yourself up, you placed all your weight on your injured shoulder. Seeing your wince from your injury, Kurapika hurried over and knelt to you, placing the food next to him. 

“You shouldn’t be so careless. Your shoulder seems to have been infected with a poison of some sort. Whoever bit you must have had venom in their fangs,” Kurapika said hurriedly as he supported your back, allowing you to rest your right shoulder. 

That explained the excruciating pain from your shoulder. Any other bite wouldn’t have been so tolling on you. 

“Do you know when my shoulder will be healed?” You asked as you shifted your body, allowing Kurapika to sit next to you on the mattress. 

“It would normally take a month to fully heal, but I have been trained to deal with injuries of all kinds, so I could probably fix you up in two weeks or so. I already cleaned up your other wounds, so those will probably heal in a week or so. The gashes on your legs might take longer, however,” Kurapika replied handing you the food he made. 

Seemingly as if he could read your confused mind, Kurapika said “Traditional Kurta bao. The recipe has been passed down through my family.”

You nodded quickly before taking a bite, impressed by his cooking skills. 

“Did you make this?” you said with a mouth full of food. 

“Well since I am the only one left of the Kurta, yes y/n,” Kurapika chuckled lightly.

You felt your face grow hot with embarrassment. Of course, he made the food. Who else could have? To hide your face, you stuffed your mouth with more food, hoping you wouldn’t say anything else equally as embarrassing. 

“You were out for an entire day you know?” Kurapika said casually. 

You felt yourself choke on your food. A whole day? You had completely missed the auction. Well… that wasn’t exactly necessary anymore since you had found Kurapika, but you felt uncomfortable with the fact of betraying him to the Troupe. 

But Paku…

“Quite annoying for me since I had to lift your body to change out your bandages,” Kurapika continued. “I’m sure your shoulder feels much better though, I used some of my Nen on it hoping to extract the venom—“

“Did you kill Paku?”

Your words surprised him. You felt Kurapika tense up next to you. He hadn’t expected you to have known Pakunoda.

“Yes, but I only did it because she killed my family. I used Judgement Chain on her, placing a curse on her that would kill her instantly if she used her Nen.”

Judgment Chain… You remembered that from Paku’s memories. 

“Who did she kill?” You asked hesitantly, hoping Kurapika wouldn’t grow hostile. 

To your surprise, Kurapika replied casually, “nobody in my immediate family but she killed a couple of my relatives, my uncles, aunts, and cousins to be specific.”

You never thought of Paku as a killer, but you didn’t expect anything less from one of the founding members of the Phantom Troupe. 

“I’m supposed to kill you, you know,” you said quickly, hoping Kurapika wouldn’t hear. 

Kurapika looked at you, “Yes I am aware, Hisoka told me about the ten million Jenny prize to capture me. But I would assume since you questioned about Paku, you were more interested in revenge rather than money.”

You were shocked at how well Kurapika could read you. It was almost as if he knew you without knowing you for more than two days. 

Kurapika let out a sigh. “Well. Are you going to kill me?”

His question shocked your entire body. You hadn’t thought about this after he told you about what Paku did to his family. You only feel anger towards him because he killed your friend, but your friend murdered his family. If it were your family that Paku murdered, you would want to kill her as well. 

“I don’t think you,” you replied slowly, thinking about the words that left your lips. “I don’t think there is a point to do so. She killed your family. It would be irrational for you not to want to avenge your clan.”

Shocked at your sensibility, Kurapika’s eyes widened at you. You felt his eyes stare at you, unsure of what he would say next. Kurapika did not expect to be this civil with a Spider. 

“Could you more about your clan?”

Kurapika quickly shifted his eyes away from you and looked down at his plate. Sighing softly, he set his plate down and looked towards the arcade tent ceiling with a nostalgic look sprawled across his face. You watched Kurapika as the memories of his past flooded back into his mind in a wave of longing and bittersweetness. Finally, Kurapika took a deep breath. 

“Alright y/n—“

~~~

After two weeks, you grew amicable with Kurapika. Instead of the stone-cold murderer of Paku you originally thought he was, he was instead a kind, intelligent, and caring person. Every morning he would wake you up with food he made and change your bandages. He would carefully unwrap each bandage and clean the wounds with a tonic. At every wince of your shoulder, he would place a hand on the small of your back, whispering words to calm your body as he continued to work at your injuries. You still felt flustered allowing him to tend to you in this way, but you secretly enjoyed how attentive he was to you, how closely he paid attention to your wounds, and the way his Nen would work its way through your shoulder, slowly taking out the poison drop by drop. 

You suspected he secretly enjoyed taking care of you as well.

Every morning, as he cleaned your wounds and you would eat, you would make casual conversation with him. You would ask him about his job with the Nostrades and he would ask you about your family at home. Although he was initially hesitant to share information about his job as he didn’t want to put the Nostrades in danger, he slowly began to open up to you after realizing you were of no threat to him. You quickly opened up to Kurapika as you already knew he was not interested in hurting you to using you to bait the Troupe

Kurapika would often have to do work for the Nostrades in the morning and afternoon, but he would always return to you. While he was gone, you were allowed to explore the amusement park, but your injuries usually made it difficult to be active without growing tired quickly. Sometimes when Kurapika would return later, he would return with food from his day out or with tea he made for you. You could talk for hours with him about the smallest things and you would always stay up late with him before he would pull away to sleep and prepare for the next day. By the end of the second week, you couldn’t help but grow a fondness towards Kurapika. 

You think he might be growing quite fond of you as well. 

One evening when Kurapika arrived back exceptionally late, he walked into the arcade holding a large thermos of tea. 

“Do you have cups to go with that?” You laughed lightly at him. 

Smiling softly, he reached his hand down towards you, inviting you to stand up. Your leg wounds have stopped bleeding and walking around has been much easier with Kurapika’s constant care. You grab his hand, standing up whilst supporting your weight by linking your arm with his. Without saying a word, he guided you to the door, holding it open for you as you stepped outside. It was a clear night with a spattering of stars against the dark indigo of the sky. Kurapika, still linked to your arm led you to the exit of the amusement park and towards a path to a hill behind the park. With a hand on your back, he patiently helped you up the hill, chuckling lightly when you would get frustrated with your legs. 

Finally, at the top of the hill, you saw a small blanket with a basket on top of it, keeping the blanket from drifting away. A breeze engulfed you as you lowered yourself onto the blanket, leaving you shivering. Noticing how cold you were, Kurapika reached behind the basket for a rolled-up blanket and draped it over both of your shoulders, warming both of you. 

“This seems like an impractical place to drink tea,” you joked quietly, smiling towards him.

“Sometimes the impractical is the most exciting,” he replied in an equally as soft voice. 

As the night grew colder, Kurapika pulled you in closer, letting you rest your head on his shoulder as he rested his head on top of yours. Kurapika pointed out the constellations to you as you drank your tea quietly whilst eating the bao he prepared. 

“What’s that constellation?” You interrupted, pointing towards the brightest star in front of you. 

“You’re going to have to be more specific than that,” Kurapika laughed softly, looking into your eyes. 

“You know the one, the one that looks like an upside-down stick figure.”

Glancing upwards, Kurapika squinted towards the direction you pointed at. A soft smile spread across his face as he recognized the stars. 

“That one is Andromeda, the chained maiden, she was supposed to be a sacrifice to save her mother and family, but the hero Perseus saved her and wed her…” Kurapika said dreamily.

You were drawing circles on Kurapika’s leg with your finger as you listened. The night was completely silent except for the occasional car horn from YorkNew. As Kurapika told the myth of Andromeda and her lover Perseus, you watched the city lights, shining just as bright as the stars above. 

“Andromeda and Perseus later founded the kingdom of Mycenae and after her death, Athena immortalized their love in the stars,” Kurapika finished, taking a sip from the thermos. 

You nestled your head deeper into the crook of Kurapika’s neck, acknowledging that he finished the myth. 

Noticing your gaze towards the city, “I love you so concentrated, your face turns so serious” Kurapika joked, shifting the blanket more to your side. 

Your heart tripped over those three words, forgetting the words that followed. Your heart rate increased, unsure of how to reply to Kurapika. Those three words left you utterly speechless. Your brain scrambled and isolated those three words from the rest of his sentence. Those three words left you defenseless. 

Kurapika noticing your sudden stiffness to his words, looked down at you, hoping to read your emotions from your face. Feeling his eyes on you, you looked up at him, catching his eyes. His normally dark grey eyes were light and soft, filled with a dreamlike look in them. You were an inch, maybe less, from his face. You could feel him breathing and he could sense your racing heartbeat. His eyes peered into yours, trying to figure out what you were going to do next, you did the same. Time seemed to slow down as your heads drew closer. 

“Sorry,” you said quickly as your turned your head down, a flush spreading across your face. 

Kurapika turned his face down too, confused at what, or what didn’t happen. To break the silence, Kurapika cleared his throat. 

“Well, we should probably go back now. It’s getting late,” Kurapika said in a low voice, masking any emotion. 

You nodded at him, picking up the blanket he let slip down his shoulders. As you placed the folded-up blankets and empty plates back into the picnic blanket, Kurapika reached down to help you stand up. With your arm around his, you walked back with him to the abandoned amusement park in silence.

“Fuck. What did I do?” You thought to yourself as he helped you down the hill, holding the picnic basket for you. 

You cursed yourself for being injured, this was embarrassing for you. You wished you weren’t so awkward around Kurapika. You wished you could stop messing up around him. 

As you reached the bottom of the hill with your hand still around Kurapika’s arm, you couldn’t but feel dejected about what you were too scared to do on the hill. You have been suppressing your feelings for him for a week. You could sense that he felt the same way, but neither of you wanted to act first. When Kurapika turned the corner to the entrance, he suddenly grew stiff. Confused, you looked up to see two dark figures in front of the park entrance. Your grip on Kurapika tightened as his brow furrowed and he took his hand out of his pocket in preparation to use his chains. 

“Are you lost,” Kurapika yelled from where he and you stood. 

From the distance you were standing, you could hear two low maniacal laughs erupt from the people standing in your way. Kurapika pointed his chains at the intruders. 

“I suggest you leave before you regret your decisions,” Kurapika warned, his aura growing around him. 

The taller figure stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak. “We aren’t here for you, we are here for y/n,” he said, pointing towards you. “I am Worm and this is Porcupine. Y/n here killed our partner Rabid Dog and it would be foolish for us to let that go unpunished.”

Porcupine and Worm sharpened their glare towards you and you immediately start to feel your aura grow in anticipation for a fight. 

“We will not leave until y/n is dead, so I suggest you stand aside as to not get dragged into the fight,” Porcupine said, directing his words towards Kurapika. 

Kurapika stayed firm and his eyes began to grow dark, ready to fight the two Shadow Beasts before him. Seeing as Kurapika would not move, Porcupine and Worm glanced towards each other and nodded. 

“Suit yourself,” Worm said just as he dove headfirst into the ground.

“Y/n run.” Kurapika directed. “Your legs will carry you far enough.”

Your eyes filled with panic, you could not let Kurapika fight on his own. Despite him being extremely powerful, you could not let Kurapika be outnumbered. You ignored him and continued to look at the ground in front of you, looking for any sign of Worm. 

“I will not let you fight them alone. I will be fine,” you mustered in your strongest voice.

Suddenly, Worm erupted from the ground, landing a punch on Kurapika’s jaw, sending him backward. 

Worm let out a disgusting laugh, “You should have left when you had the chance.”

Worm dove down into the ground again, but this time, burrowed out behind Kurapika, landing a hit to the back of his neck. If Kurapika were any normal human, this would have been a fatal shot, but Kurapika was not a normal human. Worm’s hit only enraged Kurapika more. Focusing towards Worm and activating his Nen, Kurapika’s chains extended from his hand, entangling Worm. Unsure of what to do next, Worm wiggled in the chain, extending his arms to attack Kurapika from afar. Kurapika blocked Worm’s hits while tightening his chain, choking Worm. While Kurapika was distracted with Worm, Porcupine shot his quills towards Kurapika, piercing Kurapika’s left arm. 

Unsure of what to do, you begin to run towards Porcupine, grabbing your dagger and activating it into a sword. Before Porcupine could notice, you cut off all his hair, leaving Porcupine with only a short stubble of hair. 

“What a foolish move. You should know that as a manipulator, I can always grow my hair back,” Porcupine said slowly.

You stepped back as Porcupine’s aura began to cover himself and in a dramatic show of power, Porcupine’s quills grew back harder and sharper. You lunged again at Porcupine, hoping to land a hit on Porcupine’s stomach, but right as your sword was about to pierce his skin, he shifted his quills to cover his stomach, acting as a shield to protect himself from your attacks. Porcupine, watching Worm struggle to escape from chain jail, shot his hair once more towards Kurapika, landing more on Kurapika’s back. Blood from the puncture wounds began to dot the sleeves and back of Kurapika’s clothing. Still focusing on his Nen, Kurapika continued to restrict Worm from leaving the chains, squeezing Worm slowly to death. 

Impulsively, you run towards Kurapika and Worm with your sword up, weaving through the quills with your speed. Worm, distracted by Kurapika, did not notice you sneak up behind him and stab your sword through Worm’s head, leaving him dead. Kurapika, impressed by your speed turned his attention towards Porcupine, sending his chains to wrap around Porcupine; however after Kurapika’s chains engulfed Porcupine, the pieces of Worm’s body began to move. 

“Worms can move even after they are severed into pieces,” Kurapika breathes under his breath, frustrated with the fight. 

Bloodied and bruised from Porcupine’s quills, Kurapika was limited in what he could do, he was forced to fight defensively. 

You feel the severed pieces of Worm begin to crawl up your leg as you stood in place, trying to figure out what to do next. Despite being chained, Porcupine continued to shoot his spines towards you and Kurapika. You dodged the quills, easily but Kurapika was receiving the brunt of the fight. In what seemed like hours, you watched as Kurapika’s aura grow smaller as Kurapika was losing blood from Porcupine’s quills. In a moment of desperation, you activate your Nen to form a fire around your body, lighting up your sword and body. With a flame in your hand, you directed the beams to incinerate the pieces of Worm on the ground and your leg. Being covered by Nen, your body was fireproof, but Worm’s fragile, Nen-less body was unable to defend itself. You watched as the pieces of Worm began to shrivel up and dissipate into ashes, floating off into the air. Your hands grew hot with the flames beginning to form in both palms. You dropped your sword, not needing to use it to fight anymore. 

“Run,” you whisper under your breath to Kurapika as you directed your attention to Porcupine. If he got caught in your flames, he would burn to death as well. 

Noticing the fires beginning to form at the corner of your eyes, he extended his chain, allowing him to run away whilst still constricting Porcupine from moving. You walked slowly towards Porcupine, his eyes full of fear of what you could do. You put your hands together, combining the two flares in your palms. Porcupine began to shoot his quills towards you, but before the quills could come into contact with your skin, the fire surrounding your body burned them, turning the quills into the same ash you turned Worm into. The same ash you will turn Porcupine into. 

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” you say in a low voice as you neared Porcupine, the Nen around your body growing bigger, eyes bright gold glowing in the night. “We warned you to turn back before you would regret it.”

Once the final word left your mouth, you emitted the fires from your hands in one beam towards Porcupine. The flames burned through Porcupine’s quills like a fire through a sheet of paper. Porcupine’s skin was incinerated into dark charcoal, and soon his body began to dissolve into ashes and dust flowing away into the night sky, leaving nothing but a pile of chains as a reminder of the body that used to stand there. 

~~~

It had been three days since the fight outside the amusement park and although you left relatively unscathed, Kurapika had puncture wounds all over his body, causing him to lose a lot of blood. You spent the next couple of days nursing him back to full health, paying just as much attention to him as he did to you when you were hurt. You started to think your entire relationship was built upon saving the other person from dying from injuries. 

After your fight, your shoulder healed at a much faster rate, possibly from the fire burning all the poison away. While you tended at Kurapika you began to notice another power you had from your Nen. Healing. A juxtaposition to your destructive fire powers. You suspect you might have learned your healing powers from Kurapika when he used to use it to heal you. When healing, your flames materialized into a soft warmth over Kurapika’s body, lightly burning off any bacteria or dirt that accumulated on the puncture wounds, allowing the wounds to heal faster. Kurapika was impressed with your growing power, never looking away from you when you used your Nen on him. By the night of the second day, Kurapika was well enough to stand on his feet and walk thanks to your Nen and care. 

~~~

“Watch your step,” you laughed at Kurapika, watching him stumble over the unpaved path. 

Grumbling under his breath, not liking to be helpless, he asked, “where are you taking me anyways.”

You grinned softly towards him, shaking your head “no” as to remind him that it was a secret. Nodding lightly in slight annoyance, Kurapika continued walking up the dimly lit path. When the two of you reached the top of the path, Kurapika turned towards you, recognizing the location. 

“It’s the hill you took me to,” you whispered, trying to hide your blushing face. 

You felt Kurapika’s arms wrap around your side as he drew you closer. You walked with him holding your waist to the blanket you set down and food you prepared for him. Letting him go, you let him sit down and grab the second blanket from inside the blanket, enveloping around the two of you. Opening up the basket, further, Kurapika’s eyes lit up, seeing what you prepared for him. 

“How did you learn to make these?” He said, holding up the Kurta bao you spent all day trying to perfect. 

“It took a lot of trial and error, but I mostly just guessed and based on how you made yours,” you beamed back at him, hoping he enjoys the food you made. 

Kurapika took a bite, pleasantly surprised with how it tasted.

“Well obviously you have a long way to you,” he joked, smiling towards you, “but for the most part, it’s very good. Good job.”

At his words, you nestled yourself closer to his body, watching him finish the last of the food. 

“The sky is quite clear isn’t it?” You ask him, breaking the silence. 

“Yes it is, you can almost see all the stars again,” he says, looking up and pointing to a couple of constellations. 

As he began talking about the Greeks and their myths in the stars, your eyes began to grow heavy, heart content, and safe with the man next to you. You must’ve fallen asleep at some point as you woke up to Kurapika running his hands down your side reassuringly. Embarrassed by your fatigue, you looked back up at Kurapika, reading the expression on his face as he looked intently towards the YorkNew lights. 

“What are you thinking about?” You ask, hoping to understand the man before you.

Without a warning, he leans downs towards you and lands a soft kiss on your mouth, filling you with warmth and melting your insides. 

“That,” he said, pulling away slightly. 

Embarrassed yet again, you started to flush, trying to stop your stupid grin from covering your entire face. 

Watching the redness spread across your face and laughing softly, he leaned down again, molding his lips into yours in a gentle embrace. He snaked his arms around your body, holding you tighter. With the glow of YorkNew illuminating your faces, you felt completely, and perfectly, and incandescently happy. 

[genuflectx]

4th Dimensional Being/OC - CH3

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 

Full Length: 19,543 Chapter Length:  2,218

Main Themes: Other dimensions, tentacles, confinement, nsfw Other Warnings: politics,  "godly" behaviors, vomit, feeling of loss of autonomy, comparison to a toy

(all images in aesthetic board are labeled for reuse with modification or are mine)

The next chapter gets nasty...

The 4DB Chapter 3: The Virus

They were all chattering like cicadas, a loud distant drone in the back of her head. Chris missed her phone. She missed Vincent. She even missed Mildred's occasional snarky comment. Instead she was here, the beginnings of a headache blooming, listening to the test subjects debate the pros and cons of their situation. Chris absently and quietly picked at her food.

John was grumpy. He complained that he shouldn't even be here. “Whatever this thing is it's keeping me from my job,” but he secretly thought that perhaps he'd be revered for his 'sacrifice,' assuming he was allowed to even talk about it after it ended.

“What do you do again?” Asked Cole at Chris’s side smartly.

John became red in the face but kept his composure. “Very funny.”

Aaron, nearly slumped over the cold metal table, shrugged and snorted. “Why's a ~mystical being~ need any of us anywho? A security guard, an energy-guy, a mayor, a fucking clerk for God's sake,” he gestured towards Chris.

“Well I know why he'd want me!” Boasted Nathan. “Must of saw me on the field and thought wow, I need him in my soon-to-be-cult!” His laugh was so loud. John sneered when he elbowed him.

The conversation just felt so shallow. Chris should have opted to sit with her roommate Morgan, but she had looked out of it ever since she'd first spoken with Gabriel the day before.

“So uh, what did it say to you guys?” Cole changed the subject suddenly.

Chris looked up, glancing around. Some of the men looked rather uncomfortable.

“Fucker wanted me to describe war to him,” Nathan answered quickly, his expression confused but vaguely amused. “Apparently they've had no wars. Not one. I think he's a liar, what a load of shit.”

John shrugged, leaning back a bit. “I was asked about my job. It was very tame.”

“Hey Chris, what did it ask you?” Cole nudged her from her thoughts.

The security guard chuckled. “How to send a letter?”

She ignored him. God, some of these guys were obnoxious. “It asked me about our government and how it treated me,” she shrugged, looking back at her food.

“I wonder what the eggheads will do with those recordings,” Nathan interjected. “Not like they can hear the bastard. It'll just be a bunch of government losers ranting about their jobs. Oh, and then me having to explain every damn World War like I was a school teacher. Whatever that thing is... it knows nothing about us.”

At least Chris could agree with that.

The experiments continued. The scientists began to fill out; the building became more abuzz with life than it had at the start. Suddenly the subjects felt surrounded. There was always some straight-laced woman or expressionless man beside them. Tailor, Sparrow, Rock, Dove, they all came with some codename. And, even in the reports of which the subjects could not access, Chris and her comrades were coded as well. Like they were trying to hide who they were, what they were doing, to keep their discoveries a secret from the rest of the world.

Regardless, a week had gone by and the only thing they'd discovered was that the 4DB was communicating directly inside of the subjects' heads. They tried to figure out a way to at least record the brain readings of the subjects' during sessions, and indeed found ample evidence that the auditory system was being stimulated. It was telepathy. Unfortunately they were having difficulty figuring out how to translate the brain's signals into actual words. They would have to stick with word of mouth.

“Have you learned anything about us?” Chris asked, walking around the pink square casually.

“Much. You are each individuals, like us. However, you are perhaps more individually inclined than I estimated,” they admitted curiously.

“I hope that helps you re-consider exterminating us. Cause... ya know, I sorta wanna live.”

Gabriel paused. “All things want to live. Even a virus wants to live.”

She scrunched her brows, angry. “We are not a virus, Gabriel. Grow up.”

“...No, I suppose you are not.” Gabriel went quiet for a while.

Chris calmed a bit and finished her circle. She leaned against the wall. “I wish I could go back home. I miss my friends. The people here- they're... I don't know. Not my sort. I'm tired.”

That was almost enough to make Gabriel feel some guilt, but if they had not plucked Chris from her home they'd have plucked someone else. “I do see the way you look.”

She rose a brow, confused. “Huh? What's that supposed to mean?”

“The way you look. When they speak.”

For a moment she was beside herself, believing they were saying some sort of gibberish. But then it clicked. Her brows shot up and her head went light. “You watch us when we're not in the chamber?”

“Of course I do. I am not confined to one spot,” they shook their heads.

She paled. Then she reddened. “Nooo no no, do you...” her voice got quiet. “...see us when we... pee? And shower?”

Apparently that was funny because they laughed strangely. “Yes. Now I see you are embarrassed. Do not be embarrassed, for I can see any part of you at any time if I wished. I can see all your organs. Like now, your heart has sped up.”

Chris placed her hand to her heart as if she could hide it. It was sort of cute. “Y-yeah? Well can you see I'm going to vomit?”

They looked to the right, down the vague rivers of time. “Maybe. A long, long time from now.”

She sighed, sort of sick. “Well Gabriel, nice knowin' ya. I'm out for the day.” Chris absconded from the chamber five minutes early. The scientists were not pleased.

As days ticked on Chris could see how the results of these studies were wearing away at the morale of the scientists. Some were exhausted, some were disappointed, some were scared and angry. They grew impatient with the 4DB. It still only spoke to them to issue commands. Then, one day, when a particularly irritable scientist got cocky, the 4DB actually laughed and shoved them. Right in front of their colleagues. None of the subjects saw it, but of course they heard about it through the grape vine.

The scientists wanted to stop sending the subjects into the chamber to test the limits of the 4DBs relationship with the lab. However, too many feared some retaliation so such a test never came to fruition. Instead, they spitefully released one lesser subject's contracts and then started increasing the amount of time the remaining subjects would spend with the scientists. Gale began to meet with Chris once a day, though in a much more comfortable room than the one they'd first conversed in.

“How have you settled in?” Gale asked, leaning comfortably in her chair and crossing her long legs. “A week and a half far from home... you must miss your friends.”

At this point she was almost too nervous to voice her true feelings. “Yeah, it feels more like a month,” she answered instead, uncomfortable.

Gale nodded and drummed her fingers on the table between them, observing Chris. She changed the subject masterfully. “You know, your recordings are the most interesting.”

That made Chris perk up, a bit of adrenaline pushing into her veins. “What do you mean?”

The other smirked, entertained. “You're the only subject so far who sounds almost friendly with the 4DB. And don't think we didn't notice you named it, too.”

Chris didn't want to admit that hearing that made her feeling sort of... special. “I didn't know you listened to the recordings,” her cheeks tinted.

“Of course! And transcribe as well,” Gale explained. “You call it Gabriel. Like before it made its presence known to us, like Gabriel's Children. The other subjects... well. Gabriel seems to get something from them that we just don't.”

Chris glanced down at her hand fidgeting in her lap, embarrassed.

“But wow, does it talk to you. Maybe it's your time in retail. You just have a way with small talk,” she began to laugh. “So Chris, I have a proposal for you.”

She lifted her eyes. “Um... y-yeah?”

Gale leaned forward, face friendly and tone pleasant, but Chris could feel the strange aura emanating from her piercing eyes. “Get closer to it. Make it friendly. It obviously favors you and we need that. We are more then well aware- based off your recordings and reports- that the fate of the world, no, maybe the whole solar system, depends on Gabriel's opinion-”

“Well there are more than one 4DB,” you interrupted.

She looked only slightly aggravated at the interruption, then continued. “-And Gabriel's opinion might just fall on its opinion of you. Try to get it to talk to us more naturally. Not just commands. It's not working with us like we'd like. And in return? You'll get cell phone access again,” she winked. “Have some time to chat with those friends you miss so much.”

Chris agreed. That wouldn't be so hard. All she had to do was keep doing what she was doing. The world would learn more, she would get her cell phone back, and maybe with some luck Gabriel wouldn't vote to destroy the Earth.

But then, during the next session in the chamber with the pink square, she found a tense heaviness in the air like standing underwater.

“I heard your conversation,” Gabriel said immediately, emotionless.

Shocked and anxious, Chris tried to play it off as nothing. “That was just... it was just-”

Gabriel cut her off. “Quiet. You miss your human friends.”

She was uncertain if she was allowed to reply or not, stunned. Instead she just nodded stiffly and crossed her arms.

“And if I comply by being more 'cooperative' with your knowledge keepers they will allow you to speak with these friends,” they went on. After a pause they added: “I am indifferent to your plight.”

When Gabriel said nothing else Chris took it as her cue to respond. She was quiet, as if trying not to be picked up by the small microphone clipped to her shirt. “I... nothing would change. All we have to do is talk. Just like before. That's all they really want.”

“We shall see,” Gabriel said plainly.

The problem was that their plan began to work, despite Gabriel being aware of it. Though they didn't necessarily speak directly to the scientists they did grow warmer to Chris. Chris had a way about her that just made Gabriel so... interested in her. She didn't make cutting remarks (as if that would have hurt anyways), she didn't refuse to answer their questions, and she didn't make light of the atrocities of her country. She just talked. Like speaking with Gabriel was the most natural thing in the world. They didn't quite mind the nick-name anymore either, if they were honest. They hated that they were warm with Chris.

Gale was 'happy' the two of them were still getting along. Chris didn't tell her Gabriel knew about the plan, but they obviously suspected it. Everyday the scientist looked a little more intense. Gale continued to drill it into Chris's head to get Gabriel speaking with the scientists. Was it more cooperative today? No. How about now? No. Gale held back her irritation. At the end of each daily session she was led to her room feeling uncomfortable and alone. Chris still hadn't gotten her cell phone back. Her friends probably thought she was dead.

“Has it really been three weeks since this whole thing started?” Chris sighed, sitting on the cold floor. She fiddled with the rim of her shirt's neck, knowing full well that would cause sound disturbance in the recording. She'd get a mouthful about that.

Gabriel, who was sitting comfortably beyond the barrier, twirled their tentacles around one another absently. “For you.”

Chris nodded. She was quiet a moment. “Then how long is three weeks in your dimension?”

“For you it is sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, twenty-four hours to a day, seven days to a week. For me it is... time functions differently,” they tried to explain. “I've only met you a few 'days' ago.”

That was hard for her to wrap her head around. “And are you really learning by doing this? Keeping us here in a box? Just talking?”

“Yes,” they replied simply.

They really were. They not only listened to word-of-mouth, they saw into the deep wrinkles of the subjects' brains, saw their bodily chemistry rise and fall. They watched for reactions to key words, how the subjects interacted with one another and their human 'captors.'

Chris shrugged, pursing her lips. She didn't seem to believe them. “Ooookay. Ya know this could go a lot faster if you also spoke to the scientists.” Of course they both knew what Chris was trying to do.

“So eager to hear your judgment.”

She shrugged again, somehow feeling rather fond of Gabriel in that moment. “Nah... just to hear my friends' voices again.”

Soon, Gabriel automatically thought, surprising themself.

Chapters 4, 5, and the epilogue will remain Patron-only content! However, eventually the full story will be edited more and added to Gumroad as an e-book as well. So if you’d like to get to the nsfw or read the rest, check out NSFWGenuflect on Patreon or wait for the Gumroad release :}

[nicocoooo]

Obey Me: Part 9: A Ferocious Battle

Disclaimer: I haven't written in a while so I'm terribly sorry if these turn out horribly written or short.

—

Knock, knock.

The gentle knocks suddenly become more aggressive as each second passes by. The anonymous figure spoke up sharply, screaming almost, "OPEN UP BITCHES!" For someone who just happened to go for a small 'visit', they sure are rude. Their raised voice immediately turned into shouting, "GIVE ME MY CHILD, YOU SHITS!"

The voice appeared to be feminine. She muttered 'fuck it' under her breath and blasted the door open, walking in as if she owned the place. Obviously, someone in the castle heard the loud blast and rushed out of their room to see it. Kauffee.

Kauffee scrambled to the main hall and stopped in his tracks once he saw the witch, standing in front of them like it's so sweet. "Wh-Who the fuck?!" He exclaimed. Ah, great. A witch, here in the House of Lamentation. Could it get any worse? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

The witch walked in and glared at the human, "Kauffee! Oh, how you've grown!" She said with a sweet smile. There's something off about her. She gives off such a rotten aura that it nearly triggers your gag reflexes.

Kauffee was very uncomfortable but he kept a strained smile to be polite, "Oh, hiiii bitch... how you doin', girl? Uhm, so yeah, did you really need to break in? Also, it's Allyson for you, thanks girllll." The tension between the two only added to the dense atmosphere. He had no clue what the witch was talking about. He wasn't terrified, just weirded out.

The witch was sick and tired of having to deal with this troublesome human and snapped at him, "Oh, shut the fuck up and get your brother. Your brother and sister AND you are leaving with ME."

Kauffee made a face towards her, "Yeaahhh, I don't think so," he was somewhat bored by all of this. He was unamused by the witch's attempts to try and take everything away from his father, Daniel. This was so boring, extremely boring. So boring he might fall asleep.

The witch raised a fist, making a desperate attempt to assert her dominance, "Young man, you BETTER grab your older brother and little sister, RIGHT NOW."

Leviathan yawned as he walked into the main hall, "I thought Kauffee only had one sibling..." he said with a pinch of doubt in his tone.

Kauffee shrugged, "I thought so too but I don't even listen to her anymore, she's kinda crazy. Yeah, anyway, I'm not getting him and what sister you talkin' 'bout, girl?"

The witch grew annoyed by Kauffee's artificial ignorance and began screaming... again, "THE SISTER YOUR DAD JUST HAD IS MINE!"

Daniel raised a skeptical brow, "I ain't had no baby, what the fuck?"

Kauffee rolled his eyes and sighed, "Yeah, she's crazy. I really should have stayed upstairs, this isn't worth any of my time."

The witch screamed, "I KNOW YOU HAVE A GIRL SOMEWHERE!"

Daniel yelled in return, "BITCH, NO!"

The witch's lips curled into a irritated frown as she spoke with cold, condescending words, "Then you're pregnant with one because my spells never lie. THAT WOULD BE MY CHILD THEN!" What? What was she on about? Just like Kauffee stated, she's probably insane.

Kauffee had his nonexistent popcorn in his lap, chewing away at his fictional popcorn. Now, things were getting interesting. However, this is only a mere appetizer. Things were just getting started. He knew this heated argument was going to escalate into something even more powerful than just a simple disagreement.

Daniel was still baffled over what he was currently hearing but he decides to move past it, "How in the fuck... MAMMON, I HAVE SOME NEWS!"

Though, Mammon was still in his private, little thinking bubble, he replied, "Huh?" Shortly after, he zones back in after his brain takes a moment to register his surroundings, "What?"

Daniel awkwardly gestured towards his stomach, "Congratulations, my stalker ex used a spell, you got me pregnant, and now this lunatic thinks its belongs to her," he said with a irritated groan.

Mammon had too much to think about and comprehend, his brain still hasn't finished loading so he doesn't understand at all what's happening.

Kauffee nodded, clasping his hands together, "Oh, so I DO have a sister now, that makes much more sense," he was happy for the endearing couple, completely ignoring the fact that there was still a furious witch in the House of Lamentation.

All of a sudden, Daniel became tired and sighed. He muttered, "I hate labor..."

The witch smirked and grabbed Daniel's stomach, "So, it's mine! You don't want it, so its mine!" She seemed way too confident over this wild claim she made.

Daniel slapped her. Hard. He glared at her, "Touch me again and your uterus won't be the only thing I cut out. I'll gut you like a fish," he growled.

Mammon's instincts kicked in, causing him to fully have a grasp on the entire situation. He slipped in between Daniel and the witch (who is also a bitch), grabbing her by the neck, "Touch him again, I DARE you."

Kauffee conveniently pulled a knife out of his stockings, prepared to defend himself. He wasn't messing around. He was ready.

Leviathan blinked, "Was that the thing that kept poking me?"

Daniel glared, crossing his arms, "Fucking bitch."

The witch coughed, managing to sputter out a full sentence, "It's my baby! Sure, we haven't dated in months, but I KNOW IT'S MY BABY!"

Daniel scoffed, "You're infertile and I've had my period 4 times after I left you."

Kauffee shrugged, "I'm not running around here without a knife, and yeah, it was, Levi. How does crazy does she have to be?"

"Let's see how long I have to choke you for until you can't talk such smack anymore," he growled, deepening the pressure of his fingers against her neck. Before he even realized it, he was in his demon form, with small sparks of fire shooting out of his eyes.

The witch glared and coughed, then blasted Mammon with a fire spell. She smiles as she watches Mammon struggling to keep her in submission. She was confident she was going to win, without a doubt. Then, she will get her baby!

Mammon was almost burned to a crisp. He groaned, but, he could not care less. The audacity of this witch made his blood boil. He was filled with rage. He was like a wild tiger, forcefully pinning her to the wall. He was being so rough with his pinning that the wall nearly crumbled. He didn't want to kill her, he was avoiding pushing her into the brink of death. All he wanted was to weaken her. He suffocated her as hard he could.

The witch coughed and grunted, raising a hand. A circle appeared before Mammon was forcibly pushed away by a great wind. She continued to keep her hand in the air as she collapsed on the ground. She burst out in maniacal laughter, "Holy cage!" She shouted while lights emerged from the floor, trapping Mammon in a cage, made of pure holy light. "Filthy creature... you don't get to touch me.. I am stronger than you'll ever be..."

Daniel ran forward and placed his hands on the bars. He flinches and immediately pulled away. The bars seemed to have burned his palms. He yelled out in pain, "Fuck!" He glared at the woman, then stopped at a certain spot on the ground. He dragged his heel against the ground, making a perfect, magical circle of light. He incoherently whispered to himself and summoned a large, Golem creature with red eyes. He was made from his exact environment. The creature unleashed a loud roar which shook the ground.

The witch raised a hand and blasted the large, fearsome Golem with fire. She watches as the flames consume the monster as it ran forward at Danny. She laughed, holding the ashes that belong to the Golem before making her hands collide, mashing them together. She giggles manically as lightning rose from her finger tips, "I am too strong and disciplined, Daniel. You have NEVER taken any other class other than basic meditation. All of your spells are just the basics CHILDREN learn!"

In the midst of panic, Mammon grasped the bars of the cage he was concealed in. That was a rather stupid move to make. Of course, he immediately flinched and let out an agonizing groan. The only thing he could do was helplessly watch the fight. He was terrified. He was worried about his human. What if he gets hurt? He felt so.. so.. stupid! He was incapable of doing anything to save his beloved!

Daniel glared and sighed as he bitch slapped a fireball that was headed towards him, his hand left spotless, "Let him go..." He was so fed up with her bullshit. He wanted to end this, once and for all.

The witch flinches in surprise, her eyes widened. She brushes off her astonishment and forces her hand forward, casting another bolt of lightning upon Danny.

Danny, once again, being the badass father he was, smacked the flash of lightning out of his way. In less than a second, the bolt of lightning fell to the ground and suddenly became a beautiful pile of golden roses... or rather, roses made precisely out of gold.

Danny took a step forward, continuing to glare at the poor excuse of a witch. The witch stepped back and tried to blast him again. But, instead, her blast was... deflected? Wait, her own spell transformed into something else before her very eyes. A river of man eating pirannhas? Hm, no, try a soothing stream that only contained of koi. Oh, another blast of lightning? How about a shimmer bouquet of flowers made out of gold? Fire? An adorable yet gorgeous, orange bird. A skeleton wielding a sword made out of a magical, spiteful energy? What about a simple, marble statue with golden streaks?

The witch only glared while panting and panting. She was clearly running out of magic. Daniel, however, has an infinite amount of energy. It's time to end this for good.

Mammon doesn't even know what he was doing anymore. He had nothing else to do except spectate the fight... and maybe punch the bars. Yes, that's what this moron was doing. He was punching the bars.

As Daniel continued to glare at the weakened witch, the bars began to fizzle and grew weaker and weaker by the minute. Ah, so that's what he was doing. He was running the witch's energy dry so that she wouldn't be able to keep up with him anymore. She would be too weak, thus, weakening the power of the cage.

Mammon's lips curled into a devilish smirk. He kept on going and going, punching the bars with all his might. He could sense the bars slowly cracking with each solid punch.

The cage shattered like glass as Daniel blasted the witch. This chaos was finally about to end permanently.

Mammon has already reached his breaking point. He pushed himself into the air and let himself fall forward, flying towards the witch at an unbelievable speed. His speed wasn't any different to the bullet of a gun. He gathered up the right amount of speed and then... gave her one good punch to the face — it caused her stiffened body to fall to the floor with a thud.

Mammon stood in front of the fallen witch's body with a malevolent smile on his face. He seemed so powerful. Well, that's not much of a surprise. After all, he IS the Great Mammon. His eyes, which were once a gradient pool of blue and yellow, was now filled with a burning rage that stood inside him.

. . .

It was over...

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: The Gathering Storm ch 32

In which ghosts have funerals and Nynaeve plays detective.

Chapter 32: Rivers of Shadow

That’s a lovely chapter title. And interesting, if a little ominous, combined with the snake-and-wheel icon that’s basically shorthand for ‘this chapter has implications for the entire story and world’.

And we’re with Nynaeve. Standing on top of a wall. Not you, too, Nynaeve!

I’m not going to quote the whole thing but the opening description is very atmospheric and lovely.

She can still feel a storm in the north, only it’s not really a storm, it’s a metaphor, and when the wind starts blowing it’s also a metaphor, and actually it’s another point of parallel between her and Mat. Her weather-sense is quite a lot like his dice. Both basically just say ‘PLOT COMETH AHEAD’.

There would never again be a place for her in the Two Rivers. She knew this, though it hurt her. She was Aes Sedai now; it had become who she was, more important to her now than being Wisdom had once been.

That’s quite an admission from Nynaeve, Queen of Denial, Self-Deception and Malkier.

It’s also a nice continuation of her thoughts from way back in TFoH, when she and Elayne were on the wagon away from Tanchico and Nynaeve had a moment to think about what she wanted and who she was becoming. How this started out as her wanting to protect the people from her village, but then shifted more into a desire to learn how to Heal, and set her on the path towards becoming Aes Sedai – something she once utterly denied ever wanting to be, but has been becoming ever since.

And it’s one thing for Egwene to leave the Two Rivers behind; she wanted a bigger world, and while she’s occasionally expressed some nostalgia, she came of age elsewhere. The Two Rivers was a childhood home, but she is no longer a child, and her life has taken her beyond that village.

Nynaeve, though, came into adulthood in the Two Rivers. She was Wisdom; it was her place in the world, her identity, not just her childhood. And when she left, so much of that was taken from her, and so much of her journey since then has been about re-establishing who she is, both to herself and to those around her. She is no longer the Wisdom, but along the way she has gained wisdom.

And now, she’s almost finished with that journey. They all are. The time for character development is past; it’s time to take their places, as who they have become, for an ending.

That simple life – once all she had been able to imagine – would now seem dull and unfulfilling.

How far she has come, to be able to acknowledge that and admit it to herself without fighting it. She knows herself, now. She’s faced so many of her fears and insecurities – has actually faced one of her worst fears twice: once in her Accepted test and then again at World’s End – broken her block, become and embraced being Aes Sedai, and in the process she’s learned to accept and be herself. She’s still Nynaeve, so she’d still probably want to box your ears if you said that to her, but she can be so much more honest with herself now. She can see and understand things like this, even if it runs counter to who she once thought she was meant to be.

Have I mentioned that I love Nynaeve’s character arc?

The nearby fields were barren. Ploughed, seeded, yet still barren. Light! Why didn’t crops grow anymore? Where would they find food this winter?

I don’t know, maybe ask some Aiel to come sing to them? They might not mind a break from kidnapping rulers. Loial would probably join in.

So they’re up here to look at…ghosts?

Like a wisp of the ocean fog, a tiny patch of glowing light was blowing across the ground. It grew, bulging like a tiny storm cloud, glowing with a pearly light not unlike that of the clouds above. It resolved into the shape of a man, walking. Then that luminescent fog sprouted more figures. Within moments, an entire glowing procession strode across the ground, moving at a mournful pace. […] They were composed of a strange, otherworldly light. Several figures in the group – which was now about two hundred strong – were carrying a large object. Some kind of palanquin? Or…no. It was a coffin. Was this a funeral procession from long ago, then? What had happened to these people, and why had they been drawn back to the world of the living?

This is lovely. I didn’t mean to quote so much of it, but it’s just a very cool image. Soft and light and a little bit eerie and a little bit mournful but also strangely beautiful. Then again, Sanderson has practice at writing ghosts among mist…

I suppose it’s fitting that a ghostly funeral procession turned up the day after Rand did. The Pattern’s fraying, and right now he carries a feeling of darkness and death…and yet, this doesn’t seem dark in the same way. Sad, perhaps. Wistful. But it puts me in mind of the whole no beginnings or endings notion. This has been, and perhaps soon will be again, and the Wheel turns.

A guy turning to charcoal, on the other hand, is just fucking creepy.

But also kind of cool.

Mostly creepy, though.

“You’ve heard that he is proclaiming that the Last Battle will begin soon.” Nynaeve felt a stab of worry for Lan, then anger towards Rand. He still thought that if he could stage his assault at the same time as Lan’s attack on Tarwin’s Gap, he could confuse his enemies. Lan’s attack could very well be the beginning of the Last Battle.

Which seems very fitting, to me. Maybe it’s because Malkier feels almost like a prelude to Tarmon Gai’don, if you zoom out a little. Or maybe because of the parallels between Lan and Rand, and the way Lan feels like a…version of Rand on a smaller scale and different timeline. Tied to Malkier as Rand is tied to the land as a whole, an embodiment almost of a nation or world. Fated, or believing himself fated, to give his life to that cause.

And it would be fitting, too, for Lan’s personal war in the Blight to finally come to fulfilment not as a waste, not as a distraction from his and Moiraine’s and the world’s greater cause, but as the true beginning of its culmination. As if Lan has been held back until now, held back by other duties and other bonds but always looking northwards, until it becomes time for those things to intersect and so he is released.

Also it would be a fitting nod to part of Aragorn’s role in Return of the King, so there’s that.

“Yes,” Cadsuane said, musingly, “he is probably right.” Why did she keep that hood up? Rand obviously wasn’t around.

Because it adds to her aura of wisdom and mystery, obviously. She’s almost three hundred years old; she can do it for the aesthetic if she wants to.

The other Aes Sedai resumed their conversation, Merise and Corele taking further opportunity to voice their displeasure with Rand in their separate ways – one dour, the other congenial.

It made Nynaeve want to defend him.

Ah, Nynaeve. That’s just like her – she can chew out her people until the cows (sheep?) come home, but if someone else so much as looks at them crosswise, she will be boxing ears before you can say ‘hypocrite’. I love her.

And honestly, that’s not even a particularly unusual trait, as much as it’s fun to laugh about in Nynaeve. Anyone here have siblings? Yeah.

Nynaeve started to leave, and as she did so she noticed that Cadsuane was watching her. Nynaeve hesitated, turning toward the cloaked woman. Cadsuane’s face was barely visible by torchlight, but Nynaeve caught a grimace in the shadows, as if Cadsuane were displeased with Merise’s and Corele’s complaints. Nynaeve and Cadsuane stared at each other for a moment; then Cadsuane nodded curtly. The aged Aes Sedai turned and began to walk away, right in the middle of one of Merise’s tirades about Rand.

One of the subtle things I’ve enjoyed is watching the relationship between these two change, especially Cadsuane’s growing respect for Nynaeve. In Winter’s Heart, she thinks she will not acknowledge Nynaeve as Aes Sedai until Nynaeve has been tested and has held the Oath Rod. Then, in Crossroads of Twilight, we get this: The child would need to flash her Great Serpent ring under people’s noses to be taken for Aes Sedai, which she was, if just technically. It’s a small shift, but definitely a shift. And now this – a nod of seeming respect, of agreement, even, as if between equals or allies. It’s just one of those on-the-sidelines relationship shifts that can be fun to see in subtle snippets like these.

That nod of Cadsuane’s couldn’t possibly have been given out of respect. Cadsuane was far too self-righteous and arrogant for that.

Well, she’d hardly be the first Aes Sedai you’ve judged that way, Nynaeve. Moiraine?

What to do about Rand, then? He didn’t want Nynaeve’s help – or anyone’s help – but that was nothing new.

It’s hard, when there’s so much else at stake. Because it’s not just about him – it’s about the entire world.

And ‘I don’t want anyone’s help’ is fine when it’s, say, your maths homework. Or a struggle between friends that people keep meddling with. Or when work sucks and you’re tired and your flat’s a mess and you just want to not have to deal with any of it for a bit. But there’s a point where it stops being a thing people actually need to listen to – where help becomes necessary whether you want it or not – and I’m pretty sure that point is somewhere slightly before ‘I carry a nuke in my pocket just in case’.

Now, it’s also true that a lot of the people ostensibly trying to help Rand are actually just trying to push him in one direction or another, and are not in fact helping at all.

And there are others who are trying to help, but are going about it in a way that is absolutely not going to work.

And there are some who are perhaps trying to help him, but are mostly trying to help keep the world from breaking apart around him. That’s where it gets a bit…tricky.

But as threatening and as intimidating as Lan could be, he’d sooner chop off his own hand than raise it to harm her.

Too soon, Nynaeve. Too soon.

Rand. Once, she’d thought him as gentle as Lan.

Once, he was gentle. But then…*waves at entirety of series up to this point* thathappened.

That Rand was gone. Nynaeve saw again the moment when he had exiled Cadsuane. She’d believed that he wouldkill Cadsuane if he saw her face again, and thinking of the moment still gave her shivers. Surely it had been her imagination, but the room had seemed to darkendistinctly at that moment, as if a cloud had passed over the sun.

Yeah um…not just your imagination, sorry.

And this is where Nynaeve sees more than perhaps most of the people around Rand, including some of the other Aes Sedai. Cadsuane sees it as well, but the others, I think, don’t realise quite how significantly he’s changed. Nynaeve, though…she knew him when he was gentle. And she knew him when he was becoming the Dragon Reborn, Healed him when he said he wasn’t sure how human the Dragon Reborn could afford to be, stood by his side and protected him when she could, however she could. She can see that something has changed, that the boy she knew is…hopefully not gone forever but certainly on a very extended, forced holiday.

Still, she won’t turn away from him. Nynaeve doesn’t give up on people like that. And anything can be healed.

But first, a coughing child. I suppose it’s the sort of thing Rand might once have paid attention to – refugees and starving children – as he did in Tear with the two steamwagon boys for whom Min foresaw tragedy. Now, though, he can’t take the time or the energy to care. And so it falls to Nynaeve.

I suppose it’s a way to show her in a role that’s not actually unlike Wisdom. Just for the world in general and with greater power and knowledge. But that doesn’t mean she’s left this behind: her care for those who need help or Healing, her sense of responsibility for those who find themselves in her care or purview. And also her low tolerance for bullshit, as evidenced by her dealings with this kid’s father.

“He should live, if you do as I say. […] If the fever starts again, bring him to me at the Dragon’s palace.”

“Yes, my Lady,” the woman said as the husband knelt, taking the boy and smiling. 

Nynaeve picked up her lantern and rose.

“Lady,” the woman said. “Thank you.”

Nynaeve turned back. “You should have brought him to me days ago. I don’t care what foolish superstitions people are spreading, the Aes Sedai are not your enemies. If you know any who are sick, encourage them to visit us.”

She’s still blunt and a bit abrasive, of course, but even so I think she’s just done more for the reputation of and sentiment towards Aes Sedai with one Healing than any of the others have in the city thus far.

Because, while she has become Aes Sedai, Nynaeve isn’t one to hold herself aloof and apart from the world, not when there are people who need her help or healing. She can’t help everyone – like Rand, she can’t solve everyone’s problems – but when she can, she’ll always try. She doesn’t ignore the refugees as not worth her time; she just tells them to bring their sick to her. Because they’re suffering, and she can help, so she will. She’s practical that way. Practical and caring – it was one of her early conflicts with Moiraine, that Moiraine could look away when people were suffering, in the name of a greater cause.

Both kinds of people are needed, and this helps highlight Nynaeve’s own strengths. She knows Tarmon Gai’don is coming, and is certainly focused on that, but she doesn’t let that stop her from taking the time to help a random child who needs it, because that’s who she is. She’s still Wisdom in many ways, just of more than Emond’s Field, and it doesn’t much matter to her if the people who need her help are refugees or royalty.

But I think it definitely surprises the family, to see an Aes Sedai so…human, I suppose. Human, and straightforward, and helping them while asking nothing in return except that they not keep anyone else who needs help away.

How did one handle a creature like the Dragon Reborn?

Ask Min. Or Elayne. Or Aviendha.

Look, it was just lying there…

Nynaeve knew that the old Rand was there, within him somewhere.

Oddly enough, she seems to be one of the every few to actually…see that. To remember that he’s human.

He had simply been beaten and kicked so many times that he’d gone into hiding, letting this harsher version rule.

He’s human, and he’s hurting, and he’s been hurting so much for so long. It’s amazing, in a way, that so few are able to understand that, seeing instead a monster or a legend or a weapon or an obstacle, but rarely seeing the broken, bleeding boy. Amazing, and yet at the same time not surprising at all. That’s how this works. And he’s done too good a job of pushing that humanity away – though it becomes a vicious cycle at some point; how long can you retain humanity when no one expects it of you?

It’s one of the most important things about Nynaeve, especially in terms of her role in Rand’s story: she doesn’t stop seeing that. She can see what he has become, can see what he’s done to himself, but she can also still see the boy from her village. And that’s no small thing. He needs that now as much as – perhaps more than – he ever has; he needs those anchor points, those people who know him and love him and see him, otherwise how could he find his way back even if he decided he wanted to? This at least gives him the choice. To know he is loved, to know he is seen, to know that he is still human in the eyes of those who know him.

As much as it galled her to admit it, bullying him was just not going to work. But how was she to get him to do what he should, since he was too bullheaded to respond to ordinary prodding?

Ah, Nynaeve. Bless her. *shakes head fondly*

It’s a good realisation, but I also like it because even her thinking here shows clearly that she’s seeing him like just another problem from her village, rather than as some cosmic gamepiece she needs to position and control. Yes, she’s trying to get him to ‘do what he should’, but it’s the sort of tone she might have used in thinking about how to get young Matrim Cauthon to milk his father’s cows when he’s supposed to.

So in that sense she’s not really…treating him any differently, just because he’s the Dragon Reborn and could incinerate her where she stands. And there’s great value in that – it’s honest, it’s straightforward, and it’s very much Nynaeve. This is just how she shows her love.

There was one person who hadmanaged to work with Rand while at the same time teaching and training him. It hadn’t been Cadsuane, nor had it been any of the Aes Sedai who tried to capture him, trick him or bully him. It had been Moiraine.

So much growth from Nynaeve, to be able to understand and acknowledge this.

Her grudge against or hatred for Moiraine is another thing I’ve enjoyed watching the progress of over time because it does what so many hate-at-first-sight reflexive yet largely irrational hatreds and grudges do in reality: it fades, gradually and often subtly, until it’s just not there anymore but you can’t put a finger on when exactly it vanished, or why. It just takes lesser and lesser importance in the face of other things, other points of focus.

Of course, her apparent death, and Nynaeve’s shame at her own response to it, certainly helped – I think that ‘death’ shifted the perception of her in the eyes of quite a lot of characters and even readers towards the more positive. Because memory turns to legend, and things are altered in that changing. It does set her up well for an eleventh-hour return.

But a lot of it is just that Nynaeve hated Moiraine because Moiraine represented the changes she resented – leaving Emond’s Field, the boys and Egwene changing and sometimes suffering, Nynaeve losing her sense of place and purpose and authority – more than because of Moiraine herself. And so as she’s grown – as she’s accepted some of those changes, and found a place in this larger world for herself, and learned to embrace her own power, and understood the necessity or inevitability of some of what has happened, and focused on her true passion for healing – that sharp hatred faded to wariness and then to something more like a stubborn and even petty attempt at holding on to that grudge, and eventually even that faded to…respect. Understanding, perhaps.

Well, Nynaeve wasn’t about to act the same way for Rand al’Thor, no matter how many fancy titles he had.

I’m not sure that method would work now, anyway. It worked for Moiraine because she understood what he needed and would accept and respond to at the time. When he was being pushed and chased and tormented into a power he feared, when he was fighting to prove his claim to a destiny he didn’t want, when he was unsure and afraid and trying desperately to mask it, fighting for control and authority and so, so afraid of being outplayed, taken, used by those who knew this game he was only beginning to understand but was thrown in the middle of.

That was a mindset in which he could accept some guidance and advice because on some level he could admit he very much needed it, so long as he could be sure it was free of manipulation – the thing he so greatly feared, because at the time he was far more susceptible to it, new as he was to the game and to power, and with barely even the Aiel at his back.

Now…subservience, obedience, obequieousness are commonplace to him. Aes Sedai have sworn fealty to him. He doesn’t fear manipulation as he once did, because the scales of power have shifted so drastically, and doesn’t acknowledge his need for advice the way he once might have. So it will have to be a different approach.

Perhaps Nynaeve is well-suited to that; perhaps meeting his eyes and letting the fact that he is the Dragon Reborn and could kill her on a whim just…pass her by, seeing him and treating him instead as human, is in itself a form of surrendering in order to control. Not fighting against what he is, yet also not being cowed by it; just letting it exist, and accepting it, and focusing on him instead of on that.

Maybe I’m forcing the metaphor too far. But it’s a nice metaphor, so…*shoves*

Or maybe the solution is just appearing to die in a way almost perfectly designed to fuck with the guy’s head, and then reappearing dramatically at an opportune moment.

She needed to show him that they were working for the same goals. She didn’t want to tell him what to do; she just wanted him to stop acting like a fool. And, beyond that, she just wanted him to be safe.

It’s that last part that makes her so different from the others she disdains as petty manipulators. The simple fact that she cares about him.

She’d also like him to be a leader that people respected, not one that people feared. He seemed incapable of seeing that the path he was on was that of a tyrant.

No, Nynaeve, he sees it. He just can’t bring himself to care. After all, what does a tyrant’s rule matter if it is destined to be short-lived?

(A somewhat related but largely tangential question: does anyone know if there’s any etymological link between ‘tyrant’ and Tyr, Norse god of justice/law/war who sacrificed his hand to bind a wolf? It feels like there shouldbe, though I can’t find anything that says so, but as I’m neither linguist nor Norse mythology/language/history expert, I’m really not qualified to answer.)

Anyway, Nynaeve, like Cadsuane, has a plan. Lots of mysterious plans showing up here recently. Knowing Sanderson, they’re likely to collide around the 85% mark somewhere.

Though I don’t know how much of the pacing he’s directly responsible for and how much of it would be contingent on whatever was already outlined, so who knows?

Nynaeve’s lantern cast strange shadows on the grass as its light shone through the trees trained and trimmed in the shapes of fanciful animals. The shadows moved in concert with her lantern, the phantom shapes lengthening and merging with the greater blackness of the night around her. Like rivers of shadow.

Subtle as a hammer. But it works, because it’s not meant to be subtle at this point. It’s meant to be a drumbeat that says Tarmon Gai’don, that doesn’t let you forget for a moment where we’re heading, because it’s close, now. It’s close, and it’s everywhere, and it’s inescapable.

There’s also a bit of a circling back to the opening of the chapter here, in the image of phantom shapes moving with her lantern – with the light – but merging with the darkness around as well…and a glowing funeral procession of the dead, a haunting yet beautiful reminder that the world is coming apart at the seams, as Light and Shadow take to the field.

The whitewashed walls were as immaculate here as they were in other sections of the mansion, but they were unornamented.

Not unlike— actually, no. I am not going to sit here and write a paragraph on the symbolism of undecorated walls. I am not. You can’t make me. I have dignity.

Turns out Nynaeve doesn’t need grey hair or an Aes Sedai face to get people to do as she tells them when she has her mind set on something. Especially when it relates in any way to helping or protecting her people. Which includes just about anyone she says it does.

Do they not know she’s Aes Sedai? Or is she ‘my Lady’ because she’s married to a king? Or is the hat she made fun of on that random worker actually a fedora?

Rand had determined that his hunt for the Domani king had hit a wall with the death of the messenger.

But you know how to deal with walls, Rand! Just climb on top of them and then fall off.

Nynaeve wasn’t so certain. There were others involved, and a few well-placed questions might be very illuminating.

Ah, so that’s the plan. Find out some information that will be useful to Rand – that he definitely wants – as a sort of…not peace offering exactly, but indication that she’s on his side and willing to help.

I’m not sure that’s really the secret to getting him to listen, but I suppose it can’t hurt.

…that’s probably a stupid thing to say, given, you know, everything about this book so far.

When in doubt, ask the housekeeper. And she’s seen the messenger, who definitely sounds beautiful enough to have come from Graendal. Probably the one we saw, briefly.

“Had one of the most beautiful faces I rightly think I’ve ever seen on a man.”

Unless of course he’s Galad.

“He was sent for questioning,” Nynaeve said shortly. “I have little time for foolishness, Loral. I am not here looking for evidence against your mistress, and I don’t really care what your loyalties are. There are much larger issues at stake. Answer my question.”

But what a different sort of not-caring it is than Rand’s. She’s direct and to the point, and not particularly delicate about it, and anything that isn’t relevant is not her concern because there are bigger issues…but it’s not an all-consuming attitude; it’s just pragmatism. It’s not nice, and she’s definitely using her power and position to intimidate and to get people to do what she wants, but she also has very clear, definite limits. And a clear, definite purpose. And also the capacity to feel emotion, which is probably a plus.

Excellent, looks like we’re in for some good old midnight skulduggery. Elayne would be so proud.

So would Cadsuane, probably, at how Nynaeve is handling this. But I’ll try not to let Nynaeve hear me say that.

True, Rand might grow angry at her for appropriating soldiers and stirring up trouble.

But Nynaeve is one of the very few people left who doesn’t fear his anger. She does a little, on something of an instinctive level where if he looks at her with the full force of his I-have-stared-into-the-True-Power-and-the-True-Power-stared-back act she’ll recoil, but it doesn’t…take. It doesn’t last. It’s not enough to make her turn away, or run. It’s unnerving, but there’s too much caring and concern and sheer stubbornness to her where he’s concerned for fear to truly take root.

Moiraine said something to this effect once, that he would need people around him who could face or quell his rages, who could, in essence, continue to look him in the eyes. She was talking to Egwene, but Nynaeve has taken on that role in many ways.

And I think it’s important that she’s there as someone who doesn’t love him the same way Min and Aviendha and Elayne do. It’s a different kind of love, a different kind of bond, and therefore a different kind of…anchor, or reminder.

Such a lovely evening stroll, through the rotting fish gut district to the prison.

She wished she had news from the White Tower.

Yeah, huh, it’s been a hot second since she’s actually heard anything from…anyone, really. It seems like Egwene could pay her a dream-visit, but I suppose Egwene has quite a lot of other things demanding her immediate focus, last we saw she was bleeding and about to be imprisoned, and I think she might not want to bring her problems to Nynaeve’s attention because she knows there’s nothing Nynaeve can do about it right now. There’s too much else that needs to be done, and all she can do is focus on her part of it, on doing what she can to heal the Tower.

Still, a brief message would be…far too much communication to expect, in this series.

Ha, a prison disguised as a chandlery. A place of walls and dark and cold, disguised as a place that sells candles for illumination. Cute.

Sanderson, we need to have a talk about your obsession with hawk-faced men. It’s gotten out of control. An intervention is required.

The writing here also feels much more Sanderson than some of the other parts have, but I don’t actually mind it as much because the shape of the characters and ideas feel mostly how they should. Maybe Nynaeve’s a little more direct in some of her thoughts, but it still feels like her, so it bothers me less that the phrasing is off. Sanderson said in his introduction that he wasn’t going to try to perfectly imitate Jordan’s style, and he hasn’t, and I can live with that because it’s certainly preferable to the alternative. It’s noticeable, but that’s okay. It’s only when the actual content – characterisation, particularly – feels wrong that it becomes frustrating.

But any good secret operation would have a working front.

Always another secret, right, Sanderson?

See, that’s the sort of line that definitely doesn’t feel like Jordan, but…oh well. It’s fine. It does the job. And this doesn’t feel like a scene where note-perfect prose is important, the way, say, The Last That Could Be Done was. And that, Sanderson got right. So I’ll take it.

(I may be less sanguine next time a Mat chapter rolls around, but again that’s because the changes start to actually interfere with the character and the story.)

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Pacing-wise, I suppose it’s about time this particular storyline was punctuated by a random fistfight. Not that I’m complaining about the fact that it’s been mostly talking and thinking since Chapter 22, because it’s deliciously painful talking and thinking, but sometimes you’ve just got to break some noses I guess.

“Which one do you think I should ungag,” she asked casually, “and which one should I kill?”

Okay she can be pretty terrifying when she wants to be. This almost reminds me of…Semirhage, actually, in that scene where she had Cabriana and her Warder held suspended in flows of Air much like Nynaeve has these two not-chandlers. I mean, that’s just about the only similarity, but it’s what came to mind.

Of course, she’s not going to kill either of them. They just don’t know that.

Which makes this interesting to compare to Rand; as a reader it’s incredibly obvious that there is a difference, because we can see their thoughts. But just as it seems many outside observers don’t fully realise just how far Rand has gone, it’s possible they also wouldn’t see as much of a difference between his threats and Nynaeve’s, here. So much is dependent on perception, and on what you know and don’t know.

But there is a difference, whether or not it’s clearly visible to an outside observer, and in this series that’s important. It’s important that Nynaeve does not intend to kill, here, and almost certainly would not even if it would make this task easier. It’s important that she’s doing this for a clear purpose, and for a cause she cares about. It’s important that she can feel.

Private jailers like these riled her anger.

Guess we know where she stands on the privatisation of prisons, then…

“I will do whatever you say! Please, don’t fill my stomach with insects! I haven’t done anything wrong, I promise you, I—”

She stuffed the gag of Air back in.

But you’re missing the best part, which is where you pause and then take the gag back out and he’s still talking, so it’s like pressing ‘mute’ off and on. Come on, if we’re doing a midnight prison raid there are tropes that must be observed!

[The other] looked sick, but he had probably already guessed that she’d want the dungeon. It was unlikely that an Aes Sedai would burst into the shop after midnight because she’d been sold a bad candle.

I mean, I wouldn’t put money on it. We’ve been taught well: Aes Sedai do the things they do for their own reasons.

A youth sat on the floor in front of him, and Nynaeve’s globe of light illuminated his face, a frightened Domani one with uncharacteristically light hair and hands spotted with burns.

“Now, that’s a chandler’s apprentice,” Triben said

Is he now? I feel like he wouldn’t be mentioned if he weren’t relevant – and I especially feel like he wouldn’t be mentioned in such a disarming, ‘nothing to see here’ way. I’ve read murder mysteries and whodunits. I know what I’m about.

She raised her globe of light and surveyed the cellar. The walls were stone, which made her feel much less nervous about the weight of the building above.

If you’d spent any time in the Tower recently, you might feel differently…

Or if you’ve spent any time with a mad Asha’man in the basement of a palace…

‘Hawk-faced’ count this chapter: 3. Sanderson. Please.

“Keys?” she asked.

Okay now I want a story about a wilder thief in one of the bigger cities whose main ‘trick’ is picking locks with weaves of Air.

And hello there, Lady Chadmar. Not enjoying your stay here, I see.

Nynaeve inhaled sharply at seeing how the woman was being treated. How could Rand allow this?

Because he dismissed her, and put her out of his mind completely. Because he can’t afford to care about her anymore, so she is none of his concern. Because nothing matters anymore, beside the Last Battle. If she lives, she lifes. If she dies, well, he’s already damned; what’s one more name?

Again, Semirhage was treated better. But that’s because Rand still cared, then.

“Now,” she said to the three, “I am going to ask some questions. You are going to answer. I’m not certain what I’m going to do with you yet, so realise it’s best to be veryhonest with me.”

Cadsuane really would be proud. She’s sticking to the truth here, but still conveying a…well, it’s more of a figs-and-mice kind of threat than anything else, really. And it’s certainly effective.

Nynaeve sighed. “Look,” she said to him. “I am Aes Sedai, and am bound by my word. If you tell me what I want to know, I will see that you are not suspected in the death. The Dragon doesn’t care about you three, otherwise you wouldn’t still be here”

But she also gives them this. She doesn’t sit there speculating on whether or not she could simply will their hearts to stop beating. She threatens them, yes. She’s harsh. But she also offers…fairness, amnesty, pardon. It’s a question of lines in the sand again, I suppose, in determining the relative morality of this compared to Rand, but it still seems to me there’s a very marked difference. One is bound, still, by her word and her station and her general sense of what is and is not acceptable. The other…isn’t. It’s a question of limits.

The interesting part, again, is in the difference or similarity of perception by those who don’t have the privileged access we do into Rand’s and Nynaeve’s heads. Do these jailers feel any less threatened by Nynaeve than they would by Rand? She seems to be more human, offering them a chance to leave with their names clear, and reassurances that she will hold to her word, but she’s also Aes Sedai, appearing at midnight. Would they see the darkness around Rand? Would they react differently? To what extent does it matter whether or not the person threatening you has limits, if you don’t know where those limits are?

It’s part of the whole thing that I find so interesting about outsider POV – a chance to see how these characters are perceived by someone who can’t see their thoughts, and therefore a glimpse at them from a different angle, which can sometimes reveal surprising things. And then its close cousin, the view of outsiders from within a known character’s mind, but in such a way as to make you wonder what exactly it is they’re seeing. To see that character in a different way even while you’re in their head, through the reactions of those around them.

It’s something Jordan was particularly good at, and it’s being done rather well in these recent chapters as well, with the change in Rand’s mindset, and the way it’s so clear in his POV but not necessarily to all of those around him. And here, to see complete outsiders react to Nynaeve in such a way that makes it clear they see her very differently than those of us who have been in her head since the first book.

Anyway, it’s something I always find intriguing. Perception is such a fun thing to play with, and you can do so much with it when you have these lovely long character arcs.

“If we talk, we go free?” the fat man said, eyeing her. “Your word?”

Nynaeve glanced about the tiny room with a dissatisfied eye. They had left Lady Chadmar in the dark, and the door was packed with cloth to muffle screams. The cell would be dark, stuffy and cramped. Men wo would work a place like this barely deserved life, let alone freedom.

But there was a much larger sickness to deal with. “Yes,” Nynaeve said, the word bitter in her mouth.

Because there are things she will not do. And things she needs more; things that matter more.

And I do think there’s a difference in how they see her to how they would see Rand, because they’re willing to ask for that promise, for her word, and to take her up on it.

So the jailer is holding firm to the story that the messenger just dropped dead one day. Some aspect of Compulsion, perhaps?

“The man remained for months in your possession, presumably healthy all that time. Then, the daybefore he is to be brought before the Dragon Reborn, he suddenly dies?”

Nynaeve, too, has read her murder mysteries.

“I don’t know how he did it, Lady. Burn me, but I don’t! It’s like some…force had ahold of his tongue. It was like he couldn’t talk. Even if he wanted to.”

Yeah there was definitely some element of Compulsion involved, at least in keeping the messenger from talking. I wonder what happens when you put a Forsaken’s Compulsion against a dark ta’veren’s pull?

I’m kind of surprised that, for all Nynaeve’s experience with Compulsion at Moghedien’s hands, she doesn’t seem to pick up on this.

But she can’t seem to get much else out of any of them, and like so many ideas that seem excellent around or just after midnight, this one is starting to lose its shine a little.

Aha!

As soon as Nynaeve began the Delving, Nynaeve froze. She had expected to find Milisair’s body taxed by exhaustion. She had expected to find disease, perhaps hunger.

She had not expected to find poison.

A slow poison administered in several doses through food. And who makes the food?

Any guesses?

Yes indeed, it’s the ‘chandler’s apprentice’. Well done, Nynaeve, you’ve solved the case!

Next (TGS ch 33) Previous (TGS ch 31)

[pennywises-baby-brat]

Ghost Riders In The Sky. (nothing gold can stay pt2)

Once Erelin had told Roman everything he needed to know about the process of going into Theo’s head they started. With Roman’s help Erelin sat Theo up and had Roman sit next to him. “Just remember to keep him busy.” Roman nodded and took a deep breath. Erelin flicked her claws out and quickly inserted them into Roman and Theo’s neck, sending them into Theo’s mind.

Erelin was in the Dread Doctors’ lab, she could hear the clicks and whirls of their frequency. But they weren’t there. It was just Theo and her. She was in the clothes they had buried her in. He was talking to someone.

“You’re positive you can bring her back?” Theo looked up at someone in the corner. “I can’t but they can. You just need to bring me the masks.” Theo kissed her forehead before whispering that he would make it right. Then he disappeared out the lab door. The Nazi Lion was sat there staring at me. “Poor little fox.” He shook his head before leaving.

Roman was in a morgue. He saw a girl, who looked like they had pulled her from a swamp, laid on the table. “My sister.” Theo came out of the dark, looking at the girl. “The one you killed?” Theo glared but he nodded to confirm it. “They told me she wanted me to have it. Told me how to kill her in a way that would allow them to take it.” The scene changed. Suddenly they were on a bridge watching his sister beg for help in a river.

“I let her freeze to death. Once she was dead they came and ripped her heart out. I was taken to their lab and they gave it to me. Not long after they made me a chimera.” The scene changed again and they were in the lab from the tunnels. “They brought Erelin two months later. She was the same age as me and so scared. I did everything I could to comfort her.” The scene played. Showing a young Erelin cowering in a corner and Theo sitting next to her, his arm around her. He was whispering comforting words.

Roman growled. He didn’t know her then but he still felt drawn to her, felt the need to protect her. “We grew up in the lab, raised by the doctors. She was my everything. My family, my friend, the love of my life.” The scene fast forward through the years they spent together. Roman could see how close they once were. Erelin had protected him countless times when they were trained. She had taken his pain. Her touch was soft and gentle, the same way it was with Roman. There was love in her eyes.

Then the scene paused and Erelin was surrounded by her aura. The day Roman saw it he was mesmerized, she looked powerful and strong. He had fallen more in love with her. “Then everything changed.” Theo walked over to the paused image of Erelin, looking at her with longing and loss. “She found out what I did. She was disgusted with me.” Theo looked hurt. “She pulled away, she told me to stay away from her. Not long after she broke free of the doctors and left.”

Roman was shown that day. Watched as Erelin used her power to break free. Saw her pause at the door to look back at Theo. He looked hurt and betrayed. “I’m sorry Theo, but you’re not who you said you were.” She ran and left him with the doctors. It was that day he turned cold. He became the monster he was.

Roman was shown everything they went through after he met the pack, the lies and the turn. The damage he caused. Everything up to the day she left to Hemlock. All from Theo’s point of view. The longing he had for the girl he once called his friend. The hatred towards everyone close to her. Saw how Theo turned his pain into sassy remarks and jabbing comments.

He watched as Theo was tortured in hell. Finding satisfaction in watching Theo get his heart ripped out repeatedly. At least for the first couple of times. Enjoyed the fear and pain he saw in Theo’s eyes. His screams making him smirk. But around the hundredth time he started to see why Theo feared the sword. He felt a pang of regret at actually wanting to send him back. Knowing what his hell was, feeling the fear he had. Not even Roman was that heartless.  

Then they were in Hemlock and he saw everything change in the way he looked at Erelin. The love he once had was directed at Liam. He felt Theo’s need to protect the beta, the fear he had of going back to hell, the need to prove to the pack he could be trusted. Roman could feel the change from dark to light in Theo. It was much like his own. He had been so dark and lost before Erelin, he was empty. But she gave him purpose, she was his light in the dark. And Liam was everything to Theo. He loved the beta.

He still loved Erelin but now it was a different love. He loved her like pack, like family. He still hated her for leaving him in the lab, for turning on him. He wanted her to feel that pain, so he never showed her the friendship he had others.

When he found out the doctors were successful in implanting the embryo in her, and that they had a daughter, he thought he could hurt Erelin by taking Joey. He wanted her to know what it was like to lose someone so close like that but Roman stood in his way. The more he tried the more he realized Erelin had more than just Joey. She had a man that loved her and would die for her. She had another daughter that she would protect with her life. Theo couldn’t hurt her so he left with Argent.

Then he got the call. She was dead. He came back immediately, stayed at Liam’s side, away from Roman. He was afraid what he would do to Roman. He hated him. He had let her get hurt, he let this happen. He would kill Roman. He had planned to, till he saw that he was tortured by her death. Ending it would be too kind.

But he wasn’t the only one tortured by Erelin’s death. Their daughter was, her pack, Roman’s daughter felt the loss, and Theo. Theo hated her for leaving him but he despised her more for dying. He did the only thing he could think of. He would make it right. He would fix this. Give her a chance to raise her children, maybe even have more. He would even leave Roman alone, but he needed her alive. Needed a chance to fix what they had, the friendship they had once upon a time.

Roman was taken aback by this. He figured Theo did this for himself, or to hurt him and Erelin. He never expected that he had done it for Roman and his girls. “I’m an asshole, Roman. But even I can see that she loved you. See what you meant to each other. She deserved to live her life, to raise her children. So I went to him.” Theo showed him walking into the lab. Eyes red rimmed from tears. He looked just as broken as Roman had felt.

“Douglas!” Theo roared. He knew the Löwenmench would be here, he would have to be.  “Chimera.” He stepped out of the corner to look at Theo, smelling the air as he scented the creatures Theo was mixed with. “You want the wild hunt! You need a rider. I have someone who can bring them here, capture one. They’ve done it before.” Theo told him about Erelin, told him he needed to bring her back. The Löwenmench promised he could. Sent Theo to get her body. Theo knew a few ghouls who could dig her up without disturbing her.

Douglas used Theo to bring back the doctors. They brought back Erelin, made her stronger. To Deaton and Noshiko she was just Tenko, but Theo knew the truth. She was immortal. She couldn't be killed.  No matter what anyone did, Erelin would live longer than her thousand years.

Roman didn’t know what to say. How he should feel about it. “I thought he could bring her back and then we could kill him together. The doctors are dead but he’s still out there and he’s stronger than I thought.” Theo showed him the battle he had missed when he took Erelin to Deaton. Derek took out one doctor. Liam and Theo fought together to take out another. Roman was impressed with how they moved. Two bodies working off one brain. Isaac and Perrish took out the last but when it came to Douglas. They had lost. He injured Liam and Theo badly. Derek and Isaac barely got out them out of there.

“I know Erelin is in here with you. She’s trying to get information.” Everything changed and suddenly Erelin was next to Roman and Theo turned to them both. “I should have let you rest in peace, but you’re the only family I have. I know you hate me, with good reason. And I have no right to Joey. but I couldn’t let you die, even if it means I go back to hell. Roman can even be the one to send me.” Theo took a deep breath before looking at Erelin.

“He plans to use Parrish to open the riff, but he needs Corey to bring them into our plain of existence. Corey can exist in both worlds. He already has Parrish and everything else he needs. HE just needs Corey. You’re first on the list Erelin. The wild hunt will look for you and Stiles. You will be taken, you’re the only one that can stop him.”

Erelin brought them out of Theo’s head. They knew the plan, and Erelin knew what would happen. “We need to protect Corey.” Erelin moved away from Theo, missing the look Roman gave him. “Douglas is gonna go after him to bring the Wild Hunt. We need to keep him safe. Douglas already has Parrish.” 

@yesitsgodfrey

[greybat]

Lamentation (Julian x MC)

Alternative Title: I Bet Nadia Hates When They Visit Together Word Count: 2,321 words (I...I have no excuse. It just kept going.)

After being cleared of all charges, Julian decides to try to open up his own practice. However, Nadia denies him and Julian comes back to the shop, frustrated and angry. Xixa talks him through it... and then some. Sort of. (There’s making out and references to past sex, but no full-on smut.)

The bell on the front door jingled lightly, a tinny warning of the approaching storm, and briefly sunlight fell into the shop. Outside sounds of a bustling city briefly flitted indoors. Xixa looked up from where her spot at the counter, where she was reading a tome on divination. Julian stormed in, face contorted into a scowl and his black coat flying out behind him, like an aura of malevolence. Vaguely, Xixa wondered how many poor souls the doctor terrified on the way home.

Xixa didn’t get a chance to even ask him what was wrong, before he began extolling his troubles. As Julian paced the length of the small shop, anger and frustration bubbled the words out of his mouth, “I can’t believe her! Saying I’m not qualified to tend to the ill and injured. Insinuating I have to go back to school!”

“Who?” Xixa asked as she sought a makeshift bookmark – she settled on a piece of scratch paper with sigil designs – and closed her book.

“The Countess,” growled Julian, guttural with annoyance. He paced back, crossing in front of Xixa and nearly making it to the front door, again. His boots made hollow thumping sounds with each stomp. As he spoke, his arms gesticulated in broad gestures, careful to not knock over merchandise. “She told me I can’t open a new practice. Said my techniques are outdated with today’s medicine.”

He turned on his heel, pacing back again. “Granted, I was wanted for murder for a year and some months, but that’s been cleared up. And my memories were altered, but I am perfectly capable of tending to the ill and injured! Just ask the patrons at the Rowdy Raven! Why can’t she see I’m just trying to regain a life lost? Or am I still beyond forgiveness in out dear Countess’s eyes?”

He paused, realizing Xixa had been utterly silent. Had she gone back to her book? Fear crept along his synapses as he turned to look at her, finding Xixa’s undivided attention on him. A tension Julian didn’t even realize he harbored eased. No, of course. Xixa wasn’t Asra. But… she hadn’t said a word.

“Do you have more to say?” Xixa asked.

A wave of foolishness crashed over Julian. Of course, Nadia wouldn’t allow him to open his own clinic. Xixa would remind him he was hot off the gallows, relinquished of a legal death sentence, but not of social backlash. Nadia, and others of particular sway, still harbored concerns and distrust of him. It wasn’t even certain if he’d get any patients. Xixa would say just that and go back to her book. Already feeling like a scolded child, Julian hunched his shoulders and muttered, “No...”

“I’m sorry,” Xixa sighed, getting up from her seat and coming around the counter to stand in front of Julian. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t interrupt. Plus, you’re adorable when agitated.”

Julian shot Xixa a wide-eyed look, a flush crawling over his face. A mingled sensation of delight – at her compliment – and annoyance settled in his chest. Was she going to totally dismiss his feelings? That was worse than being chided!

It didn’t help that Xixa gave him that wry smile of hers, a sister smile to the one that she gave him when she worked him up in – ahem – other ways. The heat of his rage blended with a sharper, sleeker, heat. A heat that caused tingles to creep across his lower abdomen. He wanted to retain his anger, though, and he couldn’t do that looking at his lover. Tearing his gaze away, Julian glanced toward a shelf of incense.

Xixa couldn’t help her grin widening. She never grew tired of his bashful, gaze-averting expressions. Julian Devorak – the towering one-eyed plague doctor, still branded with the murder’s mark, who could charm his way through any bar in Vesuvia – had a bashful streak Xixa loved to stoke.

She pressed her hands to his upper arms, enjoying the feel of his jacket under her skin. Her hands skimmed down to the edge of his gloves, letting the rough fabric press into her skin. Still, he didn’t look at her.

Was he was angry she said that? Did he think she was brushing off his feelings? A little bubble of guilt rose up in Xixa’s mind, feeling as if she had mishandled the doctor. Though, Nadia wasn’t beyond spite, she did try to have good reason for her decisions.

“Julian, I know being a doctor is important to you. You’re caring and want to help people. However, I see Nadia’s point.” Julian’s gaze snapped to her face, grey eye wide and ablaze with betrayal. He opened his mouth to protest, but Xixa held a finger to his lips. “I see her point, but I don’t agree. You’re smart, you can learn new techniques easily. Being a doctor has never been a stagnant occupation. Plus, the basics of medicine probably haven’t changed over the last couple years.”

The tension in Julian’s shoulders eased a little, knowing Xixa hadn’t abandoned him. Yet, a small glimmer of dissatisfaction still tugged at his heart. She was giving weight to the Countess’s opinion on this. His shoulders slouched and his lips twisted into a petulant pout behind Xixa’s finger. Again, he averted his gaze.

When her answer didn’t seem to brighten Julian’s mood, Xixa nearly sighed. It wasn’t exactly what he wanted to hear, but he was an adult and couldn’t be completely catered to. Still, she didn’t want him to mope. Determined, she continued as her hand dropped from his lips, “Or try something new? Singing, perhaps?”

“Oh, yes, I can see myself now, belting out an aria at the Rowdy Raven,” he rolled his eye. Though plenty at his haunt had heard him, he doubted he’d get too far into a whole set of songs before a beer bottle came hurtling at his face. “I’m sure they’d love it.”

“How about you work here, then?” Xixa motioned around the shop, as if illustrating her point. She smiled broadly, holding up her fingers and wiggling them, “I can teach you the Arcanaaa.”

“Asra would love that.” Julian’s eyebrows tilted down as a sneering smile parted his lips, imagining his ex-lover’s reaction to him learning tarot. It might be worth it, just for that.

Dropping her hands, Xixa tilted her head and sighed with a shrug, “Theater?”

Indignity plastered over his face as he straightened and pressed his hand to his chest. “Are you implying I’m overdramatic?”

Oh, she wished to have a mirror at that moment. Instead, Xixa hummed and smiled, wrapping one arm around the back of his neck, fiddling with the coils of his hair. Her eyes focused on his lips, sending a heat searing down Julian’s spine. The warmth intensified as she brushed her fingers against his lips. “One of my fondest memories involves you standing atop an aqueduct, lamenting people becoming immune to a plague and then proceeding to toss your doctor’s mask into a roiling red river below.”

She caught the doctor’s gaze, just as he bristled, “I was not lamenting!”

The way he put an emphasis on ‘lamenting’ made Xixa chuckle, “What were you doing, then, Julian?”

“Bemoaning life’s fickleness.” Even as he said it, he could hear the melodrama of it all. He coughed and glanced away.

A soft laugh fell from Xixa’s lips as she shook her head. “Well, whatever you want to call it, it was oddly endearing.”

A sudden thrill shot through Julian at those words. The delight seared him deep, with a pleasant heat. It was slightly embarrassing how much such things meant to him, now. However, to know, even when he felt at a supreme low – and, maybe, being a little dramatic – Xixa still found him charming… well, it sent a glow through his nerves.

Xixa grinned, watching the contemplative look of happiness cross Julian’s face. Now, that was better.

While he basked in the compliment, Xixa’s fingers toying with the curls at the back of his head gave a gentle tug. The sudden pull on his hair sent a shiver down his back, dragging him out of his thoughts. She pulled harder, eliciting a throaty whimper from his lips and coaxing his head back. He closed his eye, relishing in the slight pain and how, oh-so-slowly, carnal heat built up in his loins.  

With his neck exposed, Xixa leaned forward, lips against his throat, his quickening pulse a tattoo on her tongue. His hands drifted to her sides, fingers digging into her hips, as she nipped along his neck. Wherever her lips landed, a jolt of sparks shot through his nerves. Another light moan hissed from Julian’s lips, the faded flush renewing across his face, making his ears tingle. His breathing became ragged and balmy It felt like the blush infused into his blood, heating his whole body with prickling sensations.

Xixa’s other hand slid down the front of his coat, undoing buttons with practiced precision. With just enough buttons undone, she slid her hand beneath the first layer of clothes and maneuvered passed his shirt. As soon as her fingertips met his skin, a light gasp left his lips. Xixa grinned against his neck - her own body warm with delight at the doctor’s sounds and little twitches of pleasure - and trailed her nails up his side, digging into him.

Julian’s gasped melted into a groan. He pulled Xixa closer, her body flush against his as he arched into her, grasping her hips tightly. His thoughts were a flurry of heat and hormones and excitement. Julian’s whole body throbbed with pleasure. He was impatient to be free of his clothes. Especially his damned tight pants.

Then Xixa pulled away.

Julian whimpered at the sudden loss of heat and attention. A chill settled over his skin, though a molten heat still roiled in him. Cracking his eye open, he quickly found her padding across the room, retrieving a traveling cloak. Disappointment and confusion dotted his thoughts as he followed after her.

“Xixa?”

“We can finish after I have a talk with Nadia.” She flashed him a teasing smile, her own cheeks flushed. There was a glint in her eyes that told Julian she planned to end their make-out session with him aching for more.

His lips twisted into a frown, still fighting with hormones from the kiss. Another part of him did want Xixa to go speak to the Countess on his behalf, but the pressure inside him wanted Xixa, as well. A war between hormones and practicality waged in his thoughts.

“You can come with me,” Xixa suggested as she swung the cloak over her shoulders.

A sudden, wolfish grin passed over his lips. “And find an empty guest room after we meet with the Countess?”

Xixa laughed, “Are you that eager to emotionally scar your sister, again?”

“Pasha knows we have sex, Xixa,” he replied, matter-of-factly.

“Obviously,” Xixa sighed, a smile still on her lips as she clasped her cloak at her neck. Her tone continued with it’s teasing lilt, “But I don’t think she wants the visual, again, Ilya.”

Julian stopped buttoning up his own coat, his eye snapping to Xixa. Something shifted in the atmosphere. She paused, suddenly awkward of her movements. Slowly, she brought her gaze to his face. “Um, Julian?”

He was quiet for a breath. So quiet, they could hear the outside world creeping into their little shop through the closed door. Then, almost breathless, Julian murmured, “Say that again.”

Xixa tilted her head to the side, her brows lowering in concentration as she replayed her last words. Her eyes widened and her hand fluttered by her mouth, “Oh. Ilya?”

“That’s the first time you’ve used it.” He almost seemed to afraid to breathe. As if the moment was fragile or skittish and could disappear at any moment.

“Well, I just, I was mimicking Portia. She’s the only one who really calls you that. I mean, Asra has called you it before, too, but I never knew if I should.” Xixa stammered, face reddening as her fingers and eyes focused on the clasp of her cloak. She suddenly felt like the air in her lungs wasn’t enough. Was this cloak always so heavy? “I don’t know, it seemed really… really intimate.”

When she peeked up at Julian, he seemed at a loss. His eye wide, his mouth moving to form words, clamping shut, and then trying again. Finally, he shook his head, a broad smile overtaking his features. His shoulders shook with laughter as he brought a hand to his forehead, partially hiding his face.

“Am I hearing this right?” Julian asked, biting down his mirth. The thought that Xixa was too self-conscious about this somehow delighted him. He stroked his gloved hand down to his mouth, hiding his smile, pinning Xixa with an amused look. “The woman who has done countless tawdry and illicit things to me – things that would make polite company faint – doesn’t think she’s familiar enough to use Ilya?”

Said like that, Xixa felt extremely silly. A tingle of embarrassment fluttered through her, mingled with  the same old delight of seeing Julian in the throes of amusement. However, she couldn’t let him get away with that. Narrowing her eyes and stepping forward, with a tight smile on her lips, Xixa leaned up on her tip toes.

“You watch your tongue, Julian ‘Ilya’ Devorak,” Xixa replied, with mock annoyance, “Or I’ll show you real lamentation.”

Julian obligingly bent toward her, raising his eyebrows. “Oh?”

“Yeah, we won’t finish our pleasantries from earlier,” purred Xixa against his grin. A look of crestfallen horror crossed his face. She planted a swift peck on his lips before ducking out of the front door, heading toward the familiar path toward the palace. A few seconds later, the sound of the door being locked and Julian’s boots against the dirt rushed after her.

[memoirsofratasum]

Aeromage Sanna: Returning to the Temple of Kormir

Why does it always seem that the return trip is always faster than the initial journey? We still needed to get out of the Desolation and return to the temple of Kormir with our shipment of djinn scrolls, but instead of endless stretches of sulfur rivers, our skimmers brought us to the Chantry of Shadows in what seemed like a blink of the eye.

The news of the way north hadn’t changed much, it was what was going on in Vabbi that the Order was mostly concerned about. The majority of forged and awakened forces were converging on Kodash Bazaar and the Order predicted it was only a matter of time before they clashed. But in the meantime the way north to the Bone Wall was being patrolled by a skeleton crew (I still don’t know if that was a pun or not) of awakened and also the normal wildlife. Basically if we wanted to get out, now was the time.

Sahil lead us back the way we had came, through the Sulfur Quarry and Acrid Springs until we finally made it to the clean waters of the Spillway. Even with the skimmer’s clean air aura it was nice to be able to breath normally again. We made it through the hidden gap in the Bone Wall and returned to the Riverlands. I was kinda sad to have to drop the skimmer back off at their ranch, but we had only borrowed them for the journey, they weren’t ours to keep. But we did have our new jackals the djinn had given us. At first glance they could be mistaken for basic sand elementals but just a few minutes of interaction show that jackals are so much more. The influence of Abbadon has been scrubbed clean by the care and patience of the djinn and jackals are now intelligent and loyal creatures. Now I wonder which is more dog-like, the jackal or the raptor.

Tarnn and I were able to really stretch the legs of our jackals as we raced across the sands of the riverlands, though the blinking is going to take some practice to really hone. Sahil also recovered his raptor from the skimmer stables and opted to join us back to the temple. His family is of course in the Crystal Oasis, Khalida being at the temple and their parents in Seeker’s Village just outside of Amnoon, and he was thinking of taking some time to visit his loved ones.

While we were resting at the camps in the shadow of Augury Rock, Sahil asked me if I was going to be studying weavering in earnest. I certainly want too, I’ve just been constantly on my toes since coming to the Crystal Desert, but I will never pass up an opportunity to learn more about the elements. And I will finally be able to put the sword skills I’ve been learning over the past few years to some good use. Tarnn surprised me by adding that he was thinking of talking to Kahlida about scourge magic. He wasn’t giving up his firebrand studies but apparently what happened at the Lair of the Forgotten had struck a chord with him. I never thought Tarnn would be interested in necromancy but we had also never considered that school of magic to have protective properties. How exciting! And he’s no stranger to brand new magic, he’s picked up a few tricks back when I was dabbling in mesmerism after all. I know he can do it.

It was while the three of us were talking that we felt it, and by we I mean the entire camp. Every single one of us, even that cub Flint, stopped what we were doing and looked to the southeast in silence. The horizon beyond the brand, likely Vabbi, was lit up with electrical storms and the feeling of magic around us grew heavy. It was like when we had seen Balthazar only on a much more immense scale. Did the forged and awakened meet head on like the Order of Shadows predicted? I wouldn’t think they would cause something like this but I can’t imagine what else it would be.

I have no idea how long the camp watched the storm on the horizon, it felt both long and short by the time the skies cleared and the magic subsided. The feeling was like an eclipse that had just finished. The camp was a murmur of confusion and Sahil pulled Tarnn and myself aside, whispering that we should get to the temple as soon as possible. I don’t know what he knew, he is on speaking terms with the Order of Shadows after all, but I can’t argue the need to be safe behind stone as opposed to flimsy tents. So we mounted up and headed north before anyone asked us new comers any questions. I just hope those seeking ascension will be safe, at least Augury Rock could provide some form of shelter if needed.  

Zephyr’s Trace was just how we had left it, though the villagers and visiting Tyrians were in more of a tizzy than usual. They all had felt it too but we didn’t slow down enough to talk to them until we saw the temple in the cliffs. The priests and Priory magisters came out to greet us, the former to inquire on the journey and the latter to unload their newly acquired scrolls. We were questioned about the magical energy, apparently they had not known about the storms on the horizon. But the temple had news for us, apparently that energy had something to do with the commander. Of course, it seems like if anything odd happens you can find the commander at the heart of it. Apparently they are expected in Amnoon by airship soon but the Priory is already taking all kinds of readings. I’m sure it’s very interesting but after two back-to-back courier assignments I just wanted a nap.

I woke up hours later feeling mostly refreshed. Khalida told me that Sahil had left for Seeker’s Village while I was sleeping. She seemed a little grim and asked if her brother had said or did anything odd lately. I told her about the rush to get to the temple, but that was really about it. It’s not like I know him all that well. She seemed a little grim but deflected my questions, changing the subject to saying that Tarnn had spoken with her. She is willing to take him on as a student and won’t force him to abandon his firebrand studies. I’m glad for it, honestly this firebrand discipline is pretty perfect for Tarnn but its lesson plan is geared towards humans, not asura, so no wonder he’s been getting bored easily. Khalida will be able to adapt to an asura’s quick mind without having to worry about other students getting left behind.

I found Tarnn outside making introductions between his wolf Valor and his new jackal. They seem to be getting along but I have a feeling poor Valor doesn’t quite understand why this wolf-thing doesn’t smell normal. My raven Stratus is adapting to the jackal thing by pretending it’s not there, I’m sure he’ll come around eventually. Since I was awake, Tarnn and I decided to practice some more with the jackals, leaping and blinking in the cliffs above the temple. It felt really nice to do something fun and relaxing for a change. We threw some name ideas around. Tarnn likes Arkose for his and I’m thinking Silica for mine. Or maybe Caeli? Cirrus? I’ll have to think about it.

We made it up to the top of the cliff above the temple and the view was incredible. You could see the entire Crystal Oasis all the way to the glittering sea. Tarnn had heard that the commander had returned to Amnoon and there was a party there for them. The whole Priory team was talking about it apparently, about the commander and the death of Balthazar and everything. I’m sure there is a huge story that we missed while running back and forth across the Crystal Desert, but I’m mostly glad to be back and maybe I’ll be able to return to caring for the refugees like I was originally assigned.

But then it happened.

The electrical storms we had seen on the horizon were suddenly above us and a great shadow with huge wings was in the air, flying south. As it passed the magic grew so thick you could almost taste it and you could see branded crystals erupting in its wake. That was Kralkatorrik, it had to be. Tarnn and I turned our jackals back towards the temple, ready to accept any direction the Priory sent us in.

It seems there would be no rest for us yet.

[rwby-fan-theories]

sun and neptune will fight adam taurus together and kill him with possibly yangs help

sun wukong is themed/inspired by sun wukong from journey of the west and an antagonist in story who sun wukong fought is  the bull demon king while neptunes inspiration/theme is the roman god of the seas but he  will also reference/represent zhu bajie

on neptune vasilas His last name “Vasilias” is a derivative for king in Greek, giving him an obvious connection to the God of the Seas. However, it also gives him a connection to a Journey to the West character, too. King Neptune was a famous World War 2 US Navy mascot, a pig that managed to raise millions for the war effort and was buried with full military honours when it died. The Monkey King’s pig-themed companion, Zhu Bajie, shared Neptune’s habit of hitting on every woman he met. He was also formerly Tiānpéng Yuánshuài, the Heavenly Naval commander( commander-in-chief of 80,000 Heavenly Navy Soldiers.)    who was cursed to become Zhu Bajie for his inappropriate feelings for a moon goddess.

Bull Demon King (牛魔王) is a demon king based in Sky Scraping Cave (摩雲洞) on Accumulated Thunder Mountain (積雷山). In the early chapters of the novel, he becomes sworn brothers with Sun Wukong and five other demon kings. He is ranked the most senior of the seven, and styles himself “Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven” (平天大聖). He marries Princess Iron Fan and has a son, Red Boy, with her. He appears again in a later chapter when the protagonists arrive at the Flaming Mountains along their journey. Sun Wukong disguises himself as Bull Demon King to deceive Princess Iron Fan and takes away her Banana Leaf Fan. The real Bull Demon King visits Princess Iron Fan, who then realises she has been tricked. Bull Demon King disguises himself as Zhu Bajie to trick Sun Wukong and retrieves the fan. In the ensuing fight against Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie, Bull Demon King reveals his true form, a giant white bull, and attempts to charge towards his opponents. Nezha shows up, captures Bull Demon King, and brings him to Heaven to let the Jade Emperor decide his fate.”

(maybe yang will help in the defeat of adam since nezzha was known for going on aa fit of anger before a certain event  and yang has shown that she had a temper  and nezha “His mother then secretly built a temple for Nezha and this temple later flourished. This temple became very well known and grew vastly because Nezha granted miracle cures to the sick and the crippled. However, Li Jing soon found out about this temple and burnt it down because he was still angry at Nezha and felt that he had already caused too much trouble for their family.Li Jing burning the temple caused Nezha to desire his father’s death. Thus, enmity between father and son grew. Nezha was later brought back to life by his teacher, Taiyi Zhenren, who used lotus roots to construct a human body for his soul and gave him two new weapons: the Wind Fire Wheels (風火輪) and the Fire-tipped Spear (火尖槍). With the reincarnation of Nezha by his master, Li Jing and Nezha fought many battles. However, Li Jing soon realized that his mortal body was no match for Nezha and so he ran for his life. On the run, he met his second son, Muzha, who fought and was defeated by Nezha. At this, Li Jing tried to commit suicide but was saved by Wenshu Guangfa Tianzun, who also contained Nezha. In the end, Nezha was forced to submit to his father by another deity, Randeng Daoren.Nezha is often depicted as a youth, instead of an adult. He is often shown flying in the sky riding on the Wind Fire Wheels (風火輪), has the Universe Ring (乾坤圈) around his body (sometimes in his left hand), the Red Armillary Sash (浑天绫) around his shoulders and a Fire-tipped Spear (火尖槍) in his right hand. Sometimes, he is shown in his “three heads and six arms” form (三頭六臂). “

Nezha’s colors are green, yellow/gold highlights, and pink/purple

and yang has purple eyes  and her color motif is yellow

and nezha ended up going on a fit of rage against his father so he hd been known for his anger and yang had a temper where she caused a good amount of property damage and is associated with fire  and nezha took bull demon king to face judgement at jade emperors  (gods) hands  by capturing him so either ren could take adam to prison to face judgement  or yang would assist in the fight as a 3 v 1 . or yang  wouldnt appear in the fight but adam will still die at sun or neptunes hands to cause him to face gods judgement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Journey_to_the_West_characters#Bull_Demon_King.2C_Princess_Iron_Fan_and_associates

I think this fight between sun wukong and zhu bajie will be referenced with sun and neptune vs. adam taurus (who is a bull faunus his last name taurus means bull and when he activates his power his masks visors glow red  ( nad it would fit for adams semblence to  represent the bull demon kings true form since when the bull demon king activates his true form he glows)and adam has some of the  aspects in common with what we would imagine a demon king to be like a powerful, dangerous, maniacal, cruel, coldhearted, manipulative, individual with a plethora of individuals on his command   so it would fit for him to be placed in the role of bull demon king (antagonist) and would fight sun and neptune and after their fight adam will be defeated and captured or defeated and killed by them in the fight where after adam after his aura is broken trys to make an attack on someone lets say someone who is unconscious and they  act resulting in his death

and it would be fitting since adam had hurt blake (suns love interest , the girl he likes plus sun already had a a distaste for the white fang and adam is a high ranking member of the white fang who also hurt blake 

suns thoughts on the whites fang : “Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks, if you ask me!“

so adam will be taken down by a faunus who hates the white fang and his human best friend ( we could see neptunes semblance  and if he hasnt activated his semblance yet he will before or during the fight  coming into contact with sea water

https://rwby-fan-theories.tumblr.com/post/151482055779/neptuines-semblance-is-activated-when-he-comes#notes

neptunes inspiration is the roman god of the sea so it would be fitting for his powers to activate when he comes into contact and ttouches or submerged in sea water like how nora whose inspiration is thor gains power through electricity. and its possible neptune never been near the ocean/sea and was afraid of touching it due to the aquatic grimm annd will end up falling into sea water which he activates his semblance  which is versatile

edit: (

https://rwby-fan-theories.tumblr.com/post/151984046729/more-on-neptunes-semblance-being-activated-when-he#notes

while neptunes inspiration is  roman god neptune he also references zhu bajie son wukongs  companion

on neptune vasilas His last name “Vasilias” is a derivative for king in Greek, giving him an obvious connection to the God of the Seas. However, it also gives him a connection to a Journey to the West character, too. King Neptune was a famous World War 2 US Navy mascot, a pig that managed to raise millions for the war effort and was buried with full military honours when it died. The Monkey King’s pig-themed companion, Zhu Bajie, shared Neptune’s habit of hitting on every woman he met. He was also formerly Tiānpéng Yuánshuài, the Heavenly Naval commander( commander-in-chief of 80,000 Heavenly Navy Soldiers.)    who was cursed to become Zhu Bajie for his inappropriate feelings for a moon goddess.

zhu bajie once commanded the heavenly rivers and in the journey of the west son wukong couldnt fight in the water while zhu bajie could for he was at ease at deep waters

Sun Wukong’s abilities . Though he is by far the stronger than, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing arehe is  still more effective water combatants than he is

so this could be referenced with neptunes semblance activating when he falls in sea water when its the form of a big body of it) (and he could possibly be inspired for it after seeing blake being worried about adam taking out everyone she loves and could decide to go after adam in order to quench her fears

and given how it was revealed that blakes dad was the leader of the white fang and cheiftain of menagerie blakes technically a princess

https://rwby-fan-theories.tumblr.com/post/154337758428/upcoming-sun-vs-adam-fight

“ Bull Demon King”. Like Adam, BDK is an extremely powerful opponent who often defeats those in his way with one big blow, is obviously based off a bull; and is often depicted as having a black, red, and white color scheme. If Adam was solely based of “The Beast” from fairy tales, it would make more sense for him to be depicted as a boar or lion-faunus as those are the types of animals “The Beast” was traditionally depicted as resembling, not a bull. Maybe it and Adam’s color scheme are a hint that Journey to the West played an influence on him? 

some people might say that yang has to help in order to get closure  by beating adam but what if she doesnt get involved in th e fight and say adam dies without yang ever being able to face him again anda get closure through their so she will have to get closure through a different method and deal with it without ( not saying it will happen just something I thought of)

@pyrrhashes 

[go-truck-yourself]

The Final Goodbye

The battle ended seemingly hours after it had began, the remaining students panting as they held their wounds, staring at the sight before them. Takehiro stood, hand almost inside Menes' chest, the fallen prophets blood coating the acolytes arm. Takehiro had broke Menes' charm during the fight, mostly due to Ayates urging, and had managed to wrestle the maniacal mans blade from his hand.

Menes chuckled madly, as Takehiros eyes widened. Deep down, he'd wanted to save Menes. To pull him from this mire of madness he'd steeped himself into. He still believed there was hope, that Menes had just been being controlled, manipulated. Even now, He looked into Menes' eyes, blinking and worried. Those yellow orbs simply stared into his as Menes laughed. Takehiro opened his mouth, prepared to stammer out an apology, assure Menes that he was going to live-

"Ta...Ke...Hi...Ro..." Menes began to speak, his voice still laced with the honey that had eased Takehiros nerves so many times. "If anything, I'm glad it was you."

His voice sounded...tired, reserved. Maybe he'd expected this, or maybe he just accepted that death was coming.

"N-no! Menes, you c-cant die! You're..Y-you're going to face t-trial! For t-trapping us he-here! And th-then you can ge-ge-get help! Y-you aren't w-w-well!"

Takehiro had seen both sides of Mene's madness, assisting him through the twisted 'game', as he called it. Ayate had helped keep him from being fully in the madness that Menes preached, likely saving his life. He'd finally broken down and confessed everything to his love when Menes had ordered his death, wanting to solidify Ayate's allegiance.

It was Ayates plan to take the hemlock poison in the first place, after all.

Takehiro bit back the irony at revealing Menes' treachery through a Shakespeare play. Hamlet would have been more ironic, but still...

He'd seen Menes in a new light from that point, after Ayate explained his plan. He'd always been confident, kind, caring. It couldn't have all been an act, right? The kind, caring soul that had given Karin the confidence she needed to be herself, that had helped Hots deal with her issues of self worth, even bringing Arzexith out of their shell.

Arzexith...

Takehiro didn't want to spare a glance back at the cloaked figure. They'd gotten close to Menes, Takehiro knew about it. Arzexith thought it had been love, and maybe it was, they'd taken Menes' revelation of betrayal the hardest.

All of that, the warm voice that lulled Takehiro to sleep, the gentle hand who liked cinnamon and honey in his tea, who enjoyed honey mustard...

It couldn't have all been a ruse? An act?

"I-It's gonna be okay M-Menes!" Takehiro tried again, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He believed that there was good in Menes, somewhere. There had to be.

The man simply laughed, madly.

"Indeed, it will be, Takehiro. For my message, my words are now inside all of you, for eternity." He coughed, a trail of blood leaving from his mouth as he spoke. The light in his eyes was dull, but still sparkled with that insanity. "I die, so that my cause may live. I had hoped my path would continue but-"

"You aren't going to die!"

Takehiro was surprised at the shout, he hadn't realized he was going to speak.

"You're going to fucking pay for what you did! For the people you killed!"

Ayate, storming forward, holding Takehiro around the waist, protectively. Takehiro leant into the embrace unconsciously, tired from the prolonged fight.

"For what you tried to make Takehiro do!"

Menes simply laughed, his silver voice groaning as he struggled to breathe.

"No, young Ayate. I don't believe I will."

He continued to laugh, as Ayate seethed. Takehiro spoke again, shakily.

"M-Menes...It's going t-to be...alright! W-we're going t-to get you the help you need! To he-help you s-see-"

"See what I did wrong? That my lord isn't real?" Menes cut Takehiro off, coughing up more blood. The ghostly forms of Menes' personas began to appear behind him as he spoke, his coughing worsening with almost every word.

"You would not be the first, to attempt to cloud my vision from the true path...I was destined to walk."

A skeletal figure, clad in tattered black cloth in tarnished golden jewelry. A leather tome in its right hand, flicking through the ancient pages with a yellow hand of ghostly yellow, staring at the remaining students with a single piercing yellow eye. Vecna, The Arch-Lich.

"I was born...To serve my king. Taken from those who had the honor of being my flesh and blood-"

A large man, muscular, clad in an armored skirt of Grecian origin. A jagged shoulder-pad adorned his right shoulder, with a similar gauntlet down his arm. He held a sickly looking spear, covered in points, looking to cause as much damage as possible. A horned helmet, with bloody red plume sat atop his head, glowing yellow eyes shining out from within. Deimos, God of Terror.

"And taught by the finest elders-" He coughed again, his voice shifting in pitch with every word, his pearly teeth staining pink with blood. "In the glorious words of my lord."

A hauntingly beautiful woman with deep black skin, adorned in robes made of gold and spiderwebs, a cruel smirk on her face. An eight headed whip loosely dangled at her side in a loose grip, an ancient staff in her other hand. Eight legs, tipped with cruel looking barbs extended from her back, idly twitching in the air. Lolth, The Spider Queen.

"The path I walk, is one I was destined to walk. Every step, every hardship i've faced has been for my King."

A twisting black mass of tentacles and sludge, surrounding a vaguely humanoid shape. Masks of tortured looking faces covered every inch of the inky fluid, bands of the same sickly yellow pulsing through it all. Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos.

"I have not lived- not lived for me."

The familiar shape of a Melampus appeared, a veil over his face as usual. The healing, soothing aura normally produced by the persona was strangely absent, though that was likely for the best. The loose robes fluttered, as he held his hands out in a welcoming motion. Melampus, Soothsayer of Pylos.

"All I have...All I am...is simply for my lord."

Menes coughed again, the light fading fast in his eyes.

Takehiro was crying now, finally getting a glimpse into Menes' thoughts. He knew that Menes was steeped, but he hadn't fully known the depths of his...friends insanity. For a brief moment, he saw the humanity in Menes Ultharian. A person who was only taught that the words of his lord were correct, and had them beaten into him.

For a brief moment, Takehiro saw himself.

The thoughts were bitter. Could Menes had been saved had he found someone earlier in his life? Not been born the moment he was? Could he have been rescued from the cold loneliness, instead of escaping into the depths of his insanity?

The air grew cold, the five persona turning behind them as a larger figure appeared.

A woman, clad in a simple robe seemingly made of the night sky, flowing around her body as she shimmered into existence, moving towards Menes. The other persona followed suit, approaching.

Takehiro gasped, and backed away, Ayate pulling him away, the knife coming loose of Menes' chest, still firmly in Takehiros grasp.

The woman continued to form as she approached, her hair a rich purple, dotted with ornaments of gold, pulsing with runes. Her eyes were a solid gold, staring at Menes' laughing body.

One by one, the Persona touched Menes, disappearing into a sickly yellow mist as they did so, the yellow spray being absorbed into the giant womans form. Finally, she laid a hand on Menes head, caressing him almost lovingly, before pulling. A sickly yellow mist left Menes mouth, eyes, from seemingly every pore of his body as he coughed up blood, vomiting onto the stone below him.

Moments later, Menes dropped like a puppet with his strings cut, the woman disappearing as she absorbed the mist, fading as she walked away into the void.

Takehiro rushed forward, dropping the crystalline dagger and choking back a sob. Menes' breathing was shallow as Takehiro rolled him over, blood covering the leather armor, staining the intricate designs.

"All...Hail...the King...In...Yellow..." Menes gasped, his voice sounding so...weak. Quiet. Takehiro had never thought Menes could sound like this. Tears flowed from his mismatched eyes as he tried to speak.

"M-menes..."

He reached a hand out, not sure what he was trying to attempt. Menes chuckled again, closing his eyes, a faint smile on his face. He slowly, painfully, brought a bloodstained hand up to hold Takehiros, staining the boys hands further with blood and pushing something into his palm.

"G...ood...bye...Tak..e..hir...o"

His voice was faint, and then-

His chest ceased to rise and fall. Menes Ultharian had died, and was looked over by the one who struck the final blow.

Takehiros tears were flowing like a river as he looked at his hands. Menes' charm lay in his grip, the holy symbol to his cult shining through the blood that covered it.

"Goodbye...Menes."